The Best Yet-to-be-Distributed Docs 2019

Bouncing around the doc fest circuit this past year, I saw more nonfiction films than could possibly be considered mentally advisable, from sneak-out-of-the-theater duds to unheralded gems I couldn’t wait to rave about. And counterintuitively, it’s those in the latter category, the vast majority international cinematic nonfiction, that always leave me most frustrated. While I can talk (and write) about those films, I can’t bring them to a US theater (or streaming service) near you.

What I can do is compile a list of the few films that managed to stick in my brain all the way through to the end of the year, the ones that I’m most humbly hoping will make it to our shores nationwide in 2020. From the mind-bendingly bizarre to the utterly sublime, all of the following (capsule takes I’ve previously penned for Filmmaker and other outlets) made me reflect on “life itself,” as Roger Ebert would have it, in invigoratingly new and unexpected ways.

To read all about my top picks visit Filmmaker magazine.

’Tis the Season: some docu-series suggestions for holiday binging

With the frantic holiday season in full swing – not to mention a US presidential impeachment, a countdown to Brexit, and the end of liberal democracy as we know it (or so sayeth Twitter) – the final month of 2019 is shaping up to be more information-overloading than jolly ho-ho. Fortunately, we’re also in the midst of a golden age when it comes to well-crafted, brain-engaging (yet distractingly addictive) docu-series, many of which happen to be in the popular true-crime genre. And a slew of streaming services are competing to snap up these easy-to-market gems.

So whether it’s Netflix or HBO, or even SundanceTV you’re looking to bury your head in, here are five suggestions (most excerpted from reviews I’ve previously written for Global Comment and other outlets) for turn off the news and curl up on the couch viewing.

To read my recommendations visit Global Comment.

Doc Star of the Month: Victor Rios, 'The Pushouts’

Dr. Victor Rios, the lead character of Katie Galloway and co-director Dawn Valadez's The Pushouts, is the first professor to be featured as "Doc Star of the Month." An Associate Dean of Social Science and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Rios is also the author of five books (titles include Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys; Project GRIT: Generating Resilience to Inspire Transformation; and Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth), not to mention a popular TED Talk. (1.3 million views and counting!)

But this isn't the first time Rios has been the subject of a documentary. Oddly enough, he first appeared on public television 25 years ago, in the Frontline documentary School Colors. Back then Rios wasn’t the sought-after educator portrayed in The Pushouts, a quietly sensitive mentor leading a summer program at YO! Watts, a youth center in South Central LA for 16-24-year-olds who've been "pushed out" of the system and are neither working nor in school. No. Back then Rios was a gang member who, by the age of 15, had three felony convictions to his name and no plans to ever graduate from high school. (A stereotypical bio that the earlier film unfairly played up, according to Rios — and caused him to initially tell Galloway he’d no interest in working with PBS ever again.) 

Fortunately for Documentary, Rios kindly found time in his busy schedule to fill us in on a variety of topics near and dear to his heart — from the "survivor’s guilt" of the formerly impoverished to finally finding vindication onscreen.

The Pushouts premieres December 20 on PBS' VOCES, Latino Public Broadcasting’s arts and culture series.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.