Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.
One of the smartest documentaries I’ve seen in years, The Viewing Booth is a visual and intellectual experiment that slowly but inevitably asks an important question: do we really see the same thing?
Herb Alpert Is… (USA, 113 min.) Dir. John Scheinfeld Baby Boomer nostalgia turns the dial up to 11 in Herb Alpert Is… This celebratory portrait of the famed trumpeter sits comfortably with the seemingly endless cavalcade of music docs about the greatest hits from the 1960s and ’70s. Director John Scheinfeld deserves ample credit for delivering a thorough overview of Alpert’s career. The film assembles a who’s who of music icons and Alpert’s peers to pay tribute to a man who outsold the Beatles in 1966 and reinvented himself in unexpected ways. Whether one knows every Alpert song by heart, or only
Shadow of Dumont (Canada, 88 min.) Dir. Trevor Cameron The challenge of connecting personal history and collective history can be tricky. Director Trevor Cameron offers a feature documentary about his great-great uncle, Gabriel Dumont, a Métis leader in the 1885 uprising. Cameron says that he knows little about his ancestor and that Canadians more broadly know even less. When it comes to Métis culture, the history books are scant, so Cameron embarks on a road trip from Toronto to the prairies to learn more about Gabriel Dumont and, in turn, his family legacy and himself. What ensues is a comedic journey
The Unseen (Iran, 62 min.) Dir. Behzad Nalbandi In Iran, people refer to the homeless as “cardboard sleepers.” Knowing this name evokes a disquieting sense of melancholia, as we gaze out a car window at the urban landscapes of Iran’s capital, Tehran, reconstructed entirely out of cardboard in The Unseen, which received the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Film. The city’s native artist and documentary filmmaker, Behzad Nalbandi, spent years fabricating the handmade set of his film entirely out of cardboard, glue, and ripped papers—or Kaghaz-Pareh Ha, the film’s title in Farsi. Driving past a bright billboard proclaiming that more
Les heures heureuses (Our Lucky Hours) (France/Belgium/Switzerland, 77 min.) Dir. Martine Deyres Les heures heureuses is a time capsule that uses recently uncovered home videos to provide a stark if repetitive look over decades at the Saint-Alban hospital in the Lozère region of France. South of Paris, north of Marseille, the mountainous and secluded area has been like an island of seclusion for generations. It’s separated from cosmopolitan areas with residents living the bucolic life expected from such an environment. In the rolling hills and pastures, an asylum was built to house the mentally ill, and by the 1930s, it had
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (USA, 90 min.) Dir. Thom Zimny Bruce Springsteen shows no signs of slowing down at the age of 71. His new film Letter to You, which debuts alongside his album of the same name on October 23, proves the Boss as prolific and powerful as ever. Only one year after his film and album Western Stars, Letter to You shows a true icon who embodies the spirit of rock ’n’ roll and makes the most of a rich life, pursuing his passion well into the golden years. Letter to You follows a formula comparable to Western Stars as it features a complete
Army of Lovers in the Holy Land (Israel, 65 min.) Dir. Asaf Galay In 1993, I wandered into a Tel Aviv record store and was immediately drawn to an album cover festooned with four flamboyant characters. They were dressed in what appeared to be S&M-themed funereal garb while a giant Star of David flag loomed in the background. The 12” single included various versions of the song ‘Israelism,’ including mixes cheekily named “Kibbutznikblitzkrieg” and “Goldcalfhorahhorror.” For decades, I knew nothing specific about this band or its impact, yet thanks to Asaf Galay’s brief but compelling film, Army of Lovers in the Holy Land,
Totally Under Control (USA, 124 min.) Dir. Alex Gibney, Suzanne Hillinger and Ophelia Harutyunyan Totally Under Control ends with a title card informing viewers that American President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 one day after the film’s completion. It’s the closest that an Alex Gibney film has come to delivering a happy ending. However, if this poetic justice is new information to anyone watching the documentary, they were likely born after October 2, 2020, or living in a cave for the past year. If, however, one spent January to September 2020 in hibernation and emerged like a yawning bear eager to
Makongo (Central African Republic/Italy/Argentina, 72 min.) Dir. Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino Traditional grub feeds a community’s future in Makongo. This quietly effective observational film by Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino explores two men’s desire to provide children with the access to education that they enjoyed. Ngaïbino follows the efforts of Albert and André, who are among the few members of their Pygmy village to have received formal educations. They recognize that the world is changing and that the children should enjoy proper schooling as well to ensure the survival of the community. Resources, however, are scarce, so Albert and André devise a fundraiser based
Ecstasy (Êxtase) (Brazil/USA, 72 min.) Dir. Moara Passoni Director Moara Passoni conjures a tango between pleasure and pain in Ecstasy. As the film’s title suggests, one emotion overrides the other among the sensations felt by the protagonist. Ecstasy is a hypnotic and elliptical portrait of Clara, a young dancer with an eating disorder. She struggles with ideas of body image and starves herself into an idealised form of perfection. Although her malady overwhelms her body and reduces the physical strength that a dancer requires, it ensures a ballerina’s fine lines in her mind’s eye. Ecstasy burrows deep inside a young woman’s mind with an elusive
