DOK LEIPZIG 2020: NAKED TRUTHS – INTIMACY IN DOCUMENTARY FILM

If there’s one panel that really catalyzed my mind this virtual festival year it was DOK Leipzig’s “Naked Truths – Intimacy in Documentary Film” discussion. Expertly led by moderators Djamila Grandits (who seemed to be posing questions straight from my head) and Carolin Weidner, both members of the fest’s selections committee, the participants ranged from sex-on-film veterans to those who defined intimacy in completely clothed terms. There was longtime producer and Berlinale programmer Jürgen Brüning, founder of Pornfilmfestival Berlin, and his co-organizer and curator at the fest, Paulita Pappel, who is also the cofounder of Lustery. And Pia Hellenthal, director of 2019’s exquisite Searching Eva (which Brüning had selected to premiere at last year’s Berlinale). And rounding out the lineup was Julia Palmieri Mattison, whose short Play Me, I’m Yours was playing DOK Leipzig.

To read Part 2 of my panel coverage visit Hammer to Nail.

Deeyah Khan conquers hate with a camera

INTERVIEW: Modern Times Review speaks with Deeyah Khan on choosing subjects, gaining access, and sitting down with those dedicated to making the world a more hateful place. BAFTA-nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Deeyah Khan, who was also the inaugural UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Artistic Freedom and Creativity, can now add the 2020 Fritt Ord Foundation Prize to her mantle. The Norwegian-Pakistani filmmaker was recently honored «for her intrepid, methodical and innovative documentary films on extremism.» Indeed. Beginning with 2012’s Banaz: A Love Story, which detailed the life and untimely death of a British-Kurdish woman murdered by her own family in a senseless «honor» killing, and on through 2015’s Jihad: A Story of the Others and 2017’s White Right: Meeting The Enemy – which involved Khan embedding with those on diverse sides of the extremist divide – the UK-based activist-artist has proved to be an uncompromising talent with one heck of a fearless gaze. And most recently, Khan has trained that gaze across the pond with not one but two films out this year, America’s War on Abortion and Muslim in Trump’s America. How she’s found time to tackle these explosive topics while also running Fuuse, the media and arts company she founded in order to put «women, people from minorities, and third-culture kids» in control of their own narratives, is a question that’s lately been front and center in the Modern Times Review mind, which is why we’re grateful Khan took a breather from her busy schedule to fill us in on choosing subjects, gaining access, and sitting down with those dedicated to making the world a more hateful place.

To read my intrepid interview visit Modern Times Review.

Underrepresented participants of war: This Rain Will Never Stop

CONFLICT: Fleeing one war and entering into another, the grief and uncertainty of one Syrian family beg the question: what drives a person to serve a country that doesn’t always appreciate the sacrifice? One of the unintended upsides of the far too many global conflicts of recent years has been the fueling of on-the-ground local filmmakers passionate to tell their country’s stories from their own insider’s POV. And one of the talents (specifically a 2019 Berlinale Talents) taking the lead in her native Ukraine is Alina Gorlova. Gorlova’s prior film No Obvious Signs, about a battle-scarred female vet of the ongoing war against Russian separatists on the border, blew my mind at Docudays UA 2018 (and won Gorlova and her protagonist top honors at the human rights fest). And now Gorlova has continued to prove she’ll likely be a cinematic force for years to come with This Rain Will Never Stop, world premiering at the hybrid IDFA 2020.

To read all about it visit Modern Times Review.

Doc Star of the Month: Joy Buolamwini, 'Coded Bias'

Safe to say that Joy Buolamwini, civil rights star of both the tech world and of Shalini Kantayya’s Coded Bias, a globetrotting investigation into how the building blocks of AI (built, of course, almost exclusively by straight white men) have basically charted a course for systemically embedding universal inequality into our everyday lives, never set out to be either. The MIT Media Lab researcher just wanted to create a feel-good “aspire mirror” (which she eventually did) and was having trouble getting the facial-recognition software to see her face. This sent Buolamwini, a Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow (and onetime competitive pole vaulter!), on an innocent search for answers — which ended in the darkest of realizations. Literally. Turns out that the supposedly “neutral” algorithms behind the software rendered her Blackness (and femaleness) invisible. Which is why Documentary is grateful that the busy Buolamwini, who was born in Canada and grew up in Mississippi, took time away from her online freedom-fighting to be our November Doc Star of the Month. 

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

“His Materials and His Letters Were Just Sitting in Boxes in the Basement of Her House”: R.J. Cutler on Belushi at DOC NYC

From the mid to late 70s John Belushi was a multimedia meteor, seemingly destined to be an inescapable part of the zeitgeist for years to come. The outsized and ubiquitous talent — original cast member on late night TV’s SNL, scene-stealing star of the big screen (National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers), and hit record maker (again with The Blues Brothers) — was so inescapable that when in 1982, at the age of only 33 and the peak of his career, his life crashed to a drug-fueled end at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont, the shock to the world was seismic. So how does a documentary filmmaker even begin to wrap his arms around such a larger-than-life character? If you’re veteran director-producer R.J. Cutler (The War Room, A Perfect Candidate, The September Issue) you go intimate and small. Rather than dissect the legend “Belushi,” Cutler deftly zooms in on John, the boy from Wheaton, Illinois who grew up in his Albanian father’s diner (the inspiration for the SNL classic “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger!” sketch) and married his high school sweetheart. And in addition to showcasing archival footage and delightful TV and movie clips, Cutler treats us to a trove of personal letters and audiotapes, and the insightful reminisces of close friends and colleagues (everyone from Dan Akroyd and Ivan Reitman, to Penny Marshall and Carrie Fisher). What emerges is a portrait as unexpected and artistic as the man himself — a brilliant mind without an “off” button, but with a heart of gold. The Emmy Award-winning Cutler was gracious enough to take time away from editing his latest (Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry) to give Filmmaker the scoop on Belushi, which opened this year’s (home of The Second City) Chicago International Film Festival, and is currently playing in Not Ready For Prime Time Players territory at the virtual DOC NYC.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“There is No Film Safe from Some Version of Exploitation…”: Mo Scarpelli on her DOC NYC Feature El Father Plays Himself

Mo Scarpelli’s El Father Plays Himself, which premiered at Visions du Réel, is now at DOC NYC and will next be hitting IDFA, is one complicated multilayered journey, both logistically and emotionally. It began when Scarpelli (Anbessa, Frame by Frame) decided to train her documentary lens on a narrative feature in the making — specifically her partner Jorge Thielen Armand’s La Fortaleza (which premiered at Rotterdam). La Fortaleza in turn is based on the hard-hitting, hard-drinking life of Jorge Roque Thielen, the director’s father, who stars as himself in his own story. That “el father” remains as wild and unpredictable as the Venezuelan Amazon in which both films take place only adds to the production (and ethical) complications. Filmmaker managed to catch up with the globetrotting, Italian-American director-cinematographer the week of her meta film’s DOC NYC debut.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“They Live and Breathe Video, So We Just Completely Fit in with the Fixtures”: Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir on her DOC NYC-debuting The Vasulka Effect

As a New Yorker who has long prided my ability to namecheck most of the experimental art pioneers of the 1960s, I’m embarrassed to say I’d never heard of Steina and Woody Vasulka before watching Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir’s The Vasulka Effect. Sure, I knew of The Kitchen, the legendary performance space the couple founded in 1971. And of course I was familiar with the work of the sound and visual visionaries that the Soho (now West Chelsea) institution provided a platform for — from Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson to Nam June Paik and Bill Viola. I’d just never connected a classically-trained Icelandic violinist and a Czech with a background in engineering — refugees from the Soviet takeover of Czechoslovakia — to the birth of it all. Fortunately, The Vasulka Effect, virtually premiering at DOC NYC (November 11-19), remedied this knowledge gap for me. The film not only showcases a wealth of archival materials, including Woody’s video of Jimi Hendrix performing at Fillmore East and footage of their raucous parties with the Factory family, but also dives into their later creations. (Woody passed away in December 2019, and Steina has since turned to interactive installations. She’s also been a force behind The Vasulka Chamber in Iceland and The Vasulka Archive in the Czech Republic, founded in 2014 and 2016, respectively.) The result is an exhaustive portrait of two fearless boundary-busters forever obsessed with melding abstract imagination with concrete technology. And, in their retirement in Santa Fe, with the grind of meeting financial obligations and securing their rightful place in art history. Filmmaker managed to catch up with the film’s Icelandic director, who likewise hadn’t heard of her iconic countrywoman until arriving on the West Coast to study, a week before the doc’s US debut.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

Five WTF Must-Sees at the 2020 DOC NYC Festival

If there’s one thing we can all agree on in these polarized times it’s that 2020 will inevitably go down in history as one WTF year. And since I generally tend to adore batshit insane films — and especially batshit insane cinematic nonfiction — I was pleased to discover a wealth of WTF treasure buried inside this year’s (a bit overwhelming at 108 features and 92 shorts!) virtual DOC NYC lineup, which begins today. So in honor of this global topsy-turvy moment, here’s just a handful of my favorite gems that, humbly and with little fanfare, screwed with my mind in all sorts of exciting and unanticipated ways.

To read all about them visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Women of Blumhouse: Shaping Genre Storytelling at the Iconic House of Horror” at the 2020 SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Appropriately presented the day before Halloween, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s “Women of Blumhouse: Shaping Genre Storytelling at the Iconic House of Horror” provided an intriguing peek inside the multifaceted production house from a female POV. Moderated by Variety’s Deputy Awards and Features Editor Jenelle Riley, the three executives Zooming in included Blumhouse Television’s head of physical production, Lisa Niedenthal; Blumhouse Productions’ executive vice president of development for feature films, Bea Sequeira; and Blumhouse Productions’ head of casting, Terri Taylor.

To learn how these ladies are leading the way to a more inclusive scary movie future read my coverage at Filmmaker magazine.

Unmasking MAGA Hispanic Man

As a liberal American who has never lived in a state where my presidential vote counted (thanks to our white, male, landowning founders having created a little system of disenfranchisement called the Electoral College), it’s long been hard for me to fathom why so many slices of the US electorate eagerly organize against themselves. There’s the Log Cabin Republicans, serving queer conservative interests (while sidestepping their party’s ingrained homo-and-trans-phobia) since 1977; and Black folks who subscribe to the jurisprudence of the only Black man on the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, a far-right, anti-affirmative action zealot. (Whose philosophy, I might mention, is shockingly rooted in Black nationalism. But that’s a puzzle for another column – or rather book. Check out Corey Robin’s The Enigma of Clarence Thomas.) That said, ever since Trump descended his faux golden escalator onto the political scene, ranting incoherently about “Mexican rapists,” a new demographic head-scratcher emerged: the MAGA Hispanic (and specifically MAGA Hispanic Man). Which, of course, has sent the mainstream media into a frenzy for the past four years – especially in these days and weeks before US President-elect Biden’s victory (wow, it felt good to type that!) – trying to find and then figure out who the nearly 30 percent of Hispanic voters claiming to support Donald J. Trump really are.

And to read the rest of my op-ed on who he really is visit Global Comment.

DOK Leipzig 2020: Naked Truths – Intimacy in Documentary Film

DOK LEIPZIG: DOK Leipzig provided the informative panel discussion Naked Truths - Intimacy in Documentary Film. Safe to say that in all my years covering nonfiction fests around the globe, Naked Truths – Intimacy in Documentary Film is a panel title I’d never seen listed in any program. Until now. Presented at this year’s hybrid DOK Leipzig, this thrillingly enlightening (virtual) talk posed a lightning rod question rarely wrestled with: Namely, what is the place of sexually explicit imagery in the nonfiction, non-porn world? (And since we’re getting all philosophical, what is, in fact, intimacy itself?)

To hear all about the philosophical discussion visit Modern Times Review.

Wonder Women: Producers Zoom In at the 2020 SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Moderated by Megan Lombardo, a professor in the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Film & Television department, this year’s Wonder Women: Producers panel was an all-Zoom affair. And taking to the computer screen were six diverse (albeit all white) women with a variety of career stories to tell. There was Jayme Lemons, whose Dawn Porter-directed doc The Way I See It had played the virtual fest earlier in the day, and who runs Jaywalker Pictures (with another wonder woman Laura Dern). Also Julie Christeas, founder and CEO of Tandem Pictures, who most recently produced Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear; and Libby Geist, Vice President and Executive Producer, ESPN Films and Original Content (and one of the forces behind Jason Hehir’s epic Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls series The Last Dance). Geist was also behind Bao Nguyen’s Bruce Lee doc Be Water, from British producer Julia Nottingham, who likewise participated on the panel. As did Nottingham’s countrywoman Alison Owen, perhaps the most veteran of the producers, and whose long list of credits includes everything from 1998’s Cate Blanchett vehicle Elizabeth to last year’s coming-of-age-in-the-90s comedy How to Build a Girl. And rounding out the lineup was Cate Blanchett’s American business partner Coco Francini, their Dirty Films having most recently produced Mrs. America for FX Networks.

To read all of my coverage visit Filmmaker magazine.

Wonder Women: Below the Line at the 2020 SCAD Savannah Film Festival

While laudable causes to achieve gender parity in the film industry have been all the rage for a number of years (remember the mad rush of fests signing on to – and then publicizing their signing on to – the 5050×2020 pledge?), too often the result seems to be simply seating a woman in the director’s chair and forgetting about the rest of the table. Which is why the SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s Wonder Women: Below the Line panel (which, like everything else these days, took place via Zoom at the all-digital fest) struck me as so important. How could aspiring craftswomen see themselves pursuing crucial, behind-the-scenes roles in the industry if they rarely ever saw (or heard) from the women already succeeding in those roles?

To find out read my coverage at Filmmaker magazine.