Reviews - Page 82

Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.

RIDM Review: ‘Belonging’

Belonging (Turkey/Canada/France, 72 min.) Dir. Burak Çevik A true crime story and a love story, Belonging keeps its main characters offscreen until well into the film at which point we see them played by actors. At the beginning of the doc, director Burak Çevik reveals how a woman named Pelin and her lover Onur drifted into a bizarre plot to murder her mother. A melancholic sense of not just doom, but absurdity hangs over the film. The murder could have been in a James M. Cain story, but the motives for it are vague. The couple doesn’t act out of driving passion

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RIDM Review: ‘Overseas’

Overseas (Belgium, France 90 minutes) Dir. Sung-A Yoon Recalling Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Overseas opens on a four minute fixed take of a domestic servant at work. In Korean filmmaker Sung’s understated exposé doc, we watch a young Filipina meticulously cleaning a toilet and the floor around it in a school set up to train such workers. Long takes, static camera, and fine detail constitute Sung’s visual approach throughout her observational movie that gradually reveals disturbing and then infuriating facts about OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). At first the young woman at the toilet seems serene. But as she scrubs, wipes, and brushes, working away at

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RIDM Review: ‘Jongué, A Nomad’s Journey’

Jongué, A Nomad’s Journey (Jongué, Carnet Nomade) (Canada, 81 min.) Dir. Carlos Ferrand “I wished to make a film like a pop-up book,” said director Carlos Ferrand of his eighth feature film, Jongué, A Nomad’s Journey (Jongué, Carnet Nomade). If this was Ferrand’s objective, he has succeeded, and then some. His film examining the life and work of Serge Jongué uses scrapbook-like imagery to represent the many layers of the prolific writer-photographer. There is a playful, cut-and-pasted visual variety to the doc that reflects the multifaceted nature of Jongué and his work without undermining the serious struggles at the heart of it all.

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RIDM Review: ‘Le fond de l’air’

Le fond de l’air (White Noise) (Canada, 78 min.) Dir: Simon Beaulieu The beginning of_Le fond de l’air_ is meant to be painful to watch. Bombarded by rapid-fire flashing lights, snippets of random scenes from human history, and aggressive music, director Simon Beaulieu bookends his experimental documentary with the first of a series of rather blunt metaphors. Information overload forces the viewer to look away, which mimics a common reaction to the climate crisis. Aside from these distinct moments at the beginning and end and some thermal camera footage, the bulk of the film consists of meandering GoPro footage. Beaulieu and

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DOC NYC Review: ‘Bloodroot’

Bloodroot (USA, 93 min) Dir. Douglas Tirola You have to be of a certain age to remember when being part of a vegetarian restaurant and feminist bookshop run by a collective was a very radical thing to do. Douglas Tirola’s warm new documentary Bloodroot brings back those times with a dual portrait of two remarkable women, Selma Miriam and Noel Furie. Both were raised in the conservative Fifties and encountered the first Feminist wave in the Sixties through such writers as Betty Friedan and Germain Greer while still being enmeshed in the old-style American Dream. Selma and Noel—you get to know them

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DOC NYC Review: ‘Brooklyn Inshallah’

Brooklyn Inshallah (USA, 83 min) Dir. Ahmed Mansour Sometimes truth can seem stranger than fiction. How’s this for an elevator pitch for a drama? “We’re going to focus on a Lutheran minister in Brooklyn, who wants to represent the Arab community in Bay Ridge by running for office in the New York city council. See, the thing is the minister is from Palestine, where he was brutally tortured by Israeli authorities for nearly two months, but he’s dealt with it and believes in American democracy. We follow this guy, Khader El-Yateem, in the weeks leading up to the primaries.” Luckily,

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DOC NYC Review: ‘Buster Williams Bass to Infinity’

Buster Williams Bass to Infinity (USA, 90 minutes) Dir. Adam Kahan It’s often struck me that Francois Truffaut only made one mistake in adapting David Goodis’ noir thriller Down There into his brilliantly tragi-comedy Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le pianiste). He should have changed the doomed pianist Charlie into a bassist because they’re the true existential players in jazz, the ones who actually hold the bands together and are never acknowledged for their genius. Buster Williams says as much in Adam Kahan’s innovative and perceptive film about him. As we discover, it’s typical that Williams sees the funny side in having the

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DOC NYC Review: ‘The Longest Wave’

The Longest Wave (USA, 94 min) Dir. Joe Berlinger In the world of surfing, Robby Naish is a living legend. At the age of 13, back in 1976, Naish won the inaugural Windsurfing World Championship, which could have been a mixed blessing for someone so young. As a kid, did he ever wonder, how do you top that? As The Longest Wave, Joe Berlinger’s new film, quickly establishes, it’s clear that Naish hasn’t stopped being a champ since then. He’s garnered 24 titles and innovated and mastered kitesurfing and stand-up paddle boarding and created a company that employs other surfers and sells product—sails,

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‘My Father the Spy’: A Family Saga of Cold War Espionage

My Father the Spy (Latvia/Germany/Czech Republic/Estonia, 82 min.) Dir. Gints Grube, Jaak Kilmi Don’t even dare blink. My Father the Spy is a wild-but-true tale full of twists, turns, and unexpected revelations. The information comes quickly and doesn’t let up as Ieva Lešinska recounts growing up with a double life. Her story will startle audiences and surprise them as it takes them on a rapid-fire adventure of international intrigue and espionage. This film by Gints Grube and Jaak Kilmi invites Lešinska to revisit her past in new interviews and sequences that place her in contact with the secrets and lies of her

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‘They Call Us Warriors’: The Soccer Stars of Venezuela

They Call Us Warriors (Nos chamam guerreiras) (Venezuela, 83 min.) Dir. Edwin Corona Ramos, David Alonso, Jennifer Socorro Post-script title cards sometimes cheapen the story that precedes then. They can be mawkish, on the nose, or simply redundant calls to action that underestimate the audience’s intelligence. The Call Us Warriors, however, features a quick little figure before the credits role. The card simply states that enrollment in girls’ soccer rose 97% in Venezuela after the women’s under-17 national team kicked ass in the 2016 South American Under-17 Women’s Football Championship and 2016 World Cup. This statistic adds a layer of gravity to

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