Results tagged “Documentary”

Pizza wasn't invented in New Haven. It was perfected there. That's the tagline to MVD Entertainment Group's Pizza, A Love Story, now available September 29 on DVD. While die-hard fans of their local pizzerias may initially object to New Haven's claims to the very best of all American pizzas, by the end of the film director, writer, and cinematographer Gorman Bechard has made a pretty good case for the famous Connecticut tomato pies. Helping Bechard tell his story are lots of faithful local patrons as well as celebrity pizza fans such as Lyle Lovett, Henry Winkler, Michael Bolton, and Connecticut

The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke. - Hilma af Klint Hilma af Klint is (finally) having a moment. The Guggenheim Museum in New York featured her abstract work, some paintings exhibited for the first time, in 2018. The brilliant, reclusive artist, who had been unknown by many throughout her life and through art history, is now being heralded as the first Western abstract artist. Art history, like

Press release: Eagle Rock Entertainment proudly presents the first in-depth film biography of iconic musician Ronnie Wood with the release of Somebody Up There Likes Me. An official selection at both the Tribeca Film Festival 2020 and the BFI London Film Festival 2019, the film (by acclaimed director Mike Figgis) will be available in North America as a Virtual Cinema release starting September 18 at www.ronniewoodmovie.com, running through October. This will be followed by a DVD, Blu-ray and deluxe hardback book release on October 9. Pre-orders are available now. Those who purchase a ticket ($11) will also be treated to

Documentaries, more than any other category of film, successfully (or sometimes unsuccessfully) captures reality at its most uncomfortable means. Whatever the topic is, such as interesting, controversial, and often timely topics on all sides of humanity, you're obviously going to be exposed to different points-of-view, especially in terms of debate. And speaking of debate, the neverending theme of gender politics (whether sexual or otherwise) is always going to come up, at some point. This is the case with Chris Hededus and D.A. Pennebaker's brisk 1979 documentary Town Bloody Hall, which captured for a moment in time, the sometimes toxic elements

The facet of documentary filmmaking that excites me most is the aftermath of the release. Documentaries affect the real world and real people; wider the subject matter, wider the impact. On this premise, I'm certain that Coup 53 will have a profound impact on an entire generation of Iran, offering a bit of closure to some, and furthers the existing material pertaining to the Iranian coup d'état, while also instigating a sense of treachery they’ve been subjected to 67 years ago. More importantly, the film factually addresses the major role of the USA and Britain in operation Ajax, whose involvement

With the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 remake dropping in a couple weeks (September 4, 2020 to be exact), what better time to review how we got to where we are? Director Ludvig Gür gives us a look at the evolution of skateboarding culture, the rise (and fall) of the game franchise, and how the two have informed one another over the last 30 years. The movie opens by looking at the rises and falls of skateboarding's popularity from the '70s through the '90s. It got its start with an emphasis on verticality, but as skate parks started

I've been lucky enough to have done a bit of traveling in my life. I've lived in France, Belgium, and China. I've seen most of Western Europe, a good chunk of Eastern Europe, and bits and pieces of Asia. Wherever I go, I take a camera with me. I'm not a professional, nor an expert photographer but I enjoy the process and sometimes the result. I try to take lots of photos of different things. I hit the big landmarks of course. I have lots of photos of the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, Big Ben, etc., but

The greatest achievement of any great documentary is that it can actually change lives. Indirectly, they can inspire and instigate a conversation about a particular subject matter, thereby holding the potential to alter viewer perceptions. In a direct sense, the best of the documentaries empower the humans whose story they are capturing on camera and give a voice to them. The Paradise Lost documentary trilogy by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky and the Peter Jackson-produced West of Memphis cumulatively played a vital role in cleansing the public image of three wrongfully convicted teenagers in 1993’s triple homicide case. The aforementioned

Australian director Liam Firmager spent four years working on Suzi Q, the definitive documentary of Detroit-born rock star Suzi Quatro, who rocketed to fame in the UK and Europe in the 1970s. His modus operandi draws heavily on Quatro’s sometimes difficult relationship with her sisters, as well as her music and indefatigable spirit. Even after over 50 years as a rock star and musical icon, it took almost a lifetime for Quarto to acquire perspective and peace about her relationship with her parents and siblings. Through original and vintage interviews, film clips, and a slew of newspaper and magazine clippings,

Disclosure is a look at the way the trans community is represented in the media told through the voices of artists such as Laverne Cox, M.J. Rodriguez, Chaz Bono, Alexandra Billings, and Jamie Clayton. As the doc has them express the trials they’ve faced in their careers in the entertainment industry, it also forces cis artists to take a hard look in the mirror and rethink the way they portray the trans experience. It explores the history of trans representation from the days of silent cinema to the present where a series like Pose has become a TV sensation. Even

In Spanish, Mirador means "lookout." The word has multiple connotations. Alertness, observation, prediction, or a person assigned to keep an eye on his surroundings. The last of the aforementioned undertones befit the documentary’s subject matter, that encircles three friends and the solidarity among them. The irony, though, is all of them are visually-impaired, meaning they can’t keep an eye on each other literally, but their support is persistently up for grabs, figuratively. The locale is a secluded and sylvan rural part of Uruguay, where the film’s prime subject, Pablo Zelis, leads a simple and tranquil life. He records and listens

Calling all bibliophiles - The Booksellers is a documentary that you won't want to miss. And like a good book, you won't want it to end. Director D. W. Young (A Hole in a Fence) takes viewers on a colorful behind-the-scenes tour of New York's collectors and dealers of rare books. A dedicated and passionate community, rare booksellers come from varied ethnic and financial backgrounds, but they all seem to share an enthusiasm for books and book lovers. The film highlights dedicated collectors and collections of a wide range of subject matter, from singular items like a Gutenberg bible or

Leon Gast's When We Were Kings documents the "Rumble in the Jungle," the legendary boxing match between undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman against former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. The bout took place in Zaire, Africa (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) on October 30, 1974, and became the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time with an estimated one billion viewers worldwide. Gast spent two decades editing the film. Promoter Don King was involved in setting up the championship match as well as Zaire 74, a three-day music festival that featured James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, and a

Benjamin Ree’s The Painter and The Thief is a musing, contemplative portraiture of juxtaposing individuals, that captures the gentle deliquesce of dissimilitude between them. The Norwegian documentary finds its fons et origo in the pilfering of Barbora Kysilkova’s - the eponymous painter - paintings, and swiftly molds into a vignette of her relationship with Karl-Bertil Nordland, the thief. The film is neither about unearthing the whereabouts of the stolen painting, nor about finding the burglars involved in the subject. It pivots around the idea of empathizing with the adversary, trying to learn and apprehend the latter and his/her inducement, thereby

In Search of Dracula, originally released in 1975, and directed by Calvin Floyd (Terror of Frankenstein, The Sleep of Death), has been remastered in 2K by Kino Lorber. A feature-length exploration of the infamous count and the history of the vampire, the documentary features archival footage, artwork, location photography (principally of Transylvania), as well as film clips from popular vampire films. Narrated by actor Christopher Lee, the film is both informative and entertaining. Before he was Saruman, Christopher Lee starred ten times as Dracula, starting in 1958 with Horror of Dracula (widely considered one of the best Dracula films), and

When Martin Scorsese is the focal point of conversations between cinephiles, it is highly likely that the master’s gangster-films - which made him the filmmaking brand he is - permeate the circumference of the discussion. Agreed, Scorsese’s vision added a layer to the aforementioned genre, and his films have become the calibration standards to evaluate contemporary films falling under the gangster’s umbrella. Scorsese gained prominence among film enthusiasts, like myself, for his insanely popular mob dramas. Ranging from his Boxcar Bertha to his latest The Irishman, his films carried an ethnographic sense through the characters, their accents, their ideologies, and

When Karen and Barry Mason opened up Circus of Books, an LA gay-porn shop, at first, it was a simple business venture for them. A way for them to get by. However, their willingness to open up a place where gay men were free to explore their pleasures became a form of allyship. After 35-plus years, they still saw Circus of Books as a successful venture, yet the documentary named after said shop shows how it became a place of community. Directed by Karen and Barry’s daughter Rachel, who makes her documentary debut, Circus of Books features interviews of the

At the center of Rachel Mason & Kathryn Robson's Circus of Books is the bookstore run by the former's parents, which predominantly houses gay pornography. Barry & Karen Mason ran the store - that established itself as the heart of the gay universe, in the neighborhood - for 30 years. "It's a long time to do anything", says Karen, as she sits on a couch with Barry in their living room. She wears a red top, she is an aggressive woman; he wears a Hawaiian shirt, he is full of joy with a consistent smile. The film lets us into

Even before learning that the film was based on Robbie Robertson's memoir Testimony, his name separate from “The Band” in the title and the fact that three of its members are dead (Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Richard Manuel) suggested this documentary was going to be not so much their story but his. Yet even with that narrow focus, anything that shines a spotlight on The Band and their music is well worth giving one's attention because as Springsteen says, “there is no band that emphasizes coming together and becoming greater than the sum of their parts than The Band...[which

The West Memphis Three: An ID Murder Mystery is a fly-on-the-wall documentary primarily chronicling the court trial of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in Robin Hood Hills, that shook America in the year 1993. This isn't the first piece of cinematic documentation based on the tragedy. Well, two tragedies to say. One in the woods, where three young boys were brutally murdered. The second one in the court, where three teenagers were wrongfully convicted. Over the years, there have been three films preceding this three-episode series. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations,