Doc Star of the Month: Sarah Rose Huckman, ‘Changing the Game’

Michael Barnett’s Changing the Game, now streaming on Hulu, is a deep dive into the lives of three teenage athletes — Mack Beggs, Andraya Yearwood and Sarah Rose Huckman — each fighting to make their marks in their chosen sports — wrestling, track and skiing, respectively — while also having to fight for the right to compete on teams comprised of peers who share their gender identity. It’s a battle that would seem laughably nonsensical if it wasn’t so heartbreaking. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Kafkaesque vilification of Texas State Champion Beggs by the parents of female wrestlers, furious that his natural talent and uncompromising work ethic, enhanced by shots of testosterone, place him at an "unfair advantage" in girls wrestling. And Beggs probably couldn’t agree more — he’s been trying desperately to compete on the boys’ team for years. It’s only the big, overreaching government hand of the Lone Star State that’s stubbornly stood in his way. Indeed, one of the more remarkable revelations in Changing the Game is how transphobia is less a grassroots left vs. right issue than a kids vs. adults problem. All three protagonists hail from loving families in both red and blue states (Beggs resides with Trump-supporting grandparents who are also fierce advocates for their grandson) and have a close-knit community of supportive friends, schoolmates and partners. Unlike in the bad old "don’t ask don’t tell" days before the legalization of gay marriage, the only bullying these teens seem to encounter is from the so-called adults outside the classroom (and of course on Fox News). So to find out how exactly Gen Z is "changing the game" — and by extension queer rights — Documentary checked in with the politico of the film, New Hampshire’s Sarah Rose Huckman. Huckman bravely stood up to her own state’s bizarrely coercive policy that demanded trans athletes undergo gender-reassignment surgery (knowing fully well that such surgery is not even an option for kids) before playing on teams aligned with their gender identity. And she won. Which is why Documentary is especially pleased that this passionate skier, activist and policymaker agreed to add June Doc Star of the (Pride) Month to her impressive CV.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

Sociopolitical Documentaries at CPH:DOX 2021: Is This What Democracy Looks Like?

If CPH:DOX is any indication (and it usually is), 2021 seems set to see a transformation in sociopolitical nonfiction cinema. Rather than, say, merely probe the psychological motives behind intriguing bad apples, a slew of films are now choosing to use their characters as conduits — as a means to explore the systems enabling said individuals, and to instead hold our collective actions and inactions accountable. As Ed Snowden notes in Sonia Kennebeck’s United States vs Reality Winner (which screened in the "Justice" section), "There are going to be people, in every time and every place, who see something wrong and go, 'That’s my problem.'" The Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival continues on its own mission to showcase artistry as solution.

To read all about it visit Documentary magazine.

“Resisting the Power of the White Gaze”: CJ Hunt on his Tribeca-Premiering Confederate Monuments Doc, The Neutral Ground

CJ Hunt is a NYC-based comedian and filmmaker, and currently a field producer on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. But back in 2015 Hunt was still a resident of New Orleans, having spent nearly a decade teaching in its school (and after-school) system, assisting in its public defender’s office — and yes, pursuing his passion for comedy at night. So when Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced he’d be asking the city council to remove four monuments to the losing side in the Civil War, the stand-up/educator immediately thought to call his good friend (producer Darcy McKinnon, a “25 New Face” of 2020), pick up a camera, and record the subsequent government hearings. Not for posterity, per se, but for laughs. What was originally intended to be a 5-10 minute comedy short pitting racist shenanigans against anti-racist logic (and perhaps even coming up with a compromise – how about if we just take down the general and leave his horse?) turned into a years-long odyssey into the dark heart of Lost Cause mythology. Which culminated in The Neutral Ground, a feature about the “absurd hold the confederacy still has in America,” according to the filmmaker (who aspires to “fall somewhere between Marlon Riggs and Sacha Baron Cohen”). An absurdity so funny it hurts. Or as Hunt himself has wondered, “Does watching a Black senator proclaim “America is not a racist country” make you laugh or cry?” So to learn all about this strange trip through revisionist history Filmmaker reached out to the African American and Filipino American director the week before the film’s Tribeca debut as part of the fest’s Juneteenth Programming (to be followed by a run at AFI Docs before opening POV’s 34th season on PBS July 5th).

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

Whose Pride? (or the tyranny of heteronormativity)

Corporate-sponsored lip service. Calls for the kink community to go back in the closet for the sake of a family-friendly Pride. And now the so-called “liberal” media (i.e., The Washington Post and The New York Times) siding with the GOAL (Gay Officers Action League) cops who want to be allowed to march in uniform in NYC’s annual commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising, a civil rights event triggered by – you guessed it – police brutality. It’s enough Orwellian drama to make me want to turn in my queer card.

To read the rest of my critique of the latest ludicrous debate visit Global Comment.

“An Overt Anti-Patriarchal, Anti-Assimilationist Gesture Within the Framework of ‘Queer Refusal'”: Angelo Madsen Minax on His Tribeca-premiering North By Current

One of the most thrillingly radical aspects of Angelo Madsen Minax’s astonishing North By Current, which premiered at the Berlinale and now makes its North American debut at Tribeca, is the film’s centering of absence, of its maker’s firm belief in the idea that “a viewer is not entitled to every piece of information.” Minax began shooting North By Current upon his return home to rural Michigan after the death of his niece, a toddler whose passing put Minax’s emotionally fragile sister and her formerly incarcerated husband in the crosshairs of Children’s Protective Services (which in turn led to law enforcement investigating CPS). The life-shattering event also set the stage for another confrontation of sorts, between Minax himself and his Mormon parents who felt themselves still grieving the “loss” of their own child — a girl named Angela who’d transitioned to this stranger with a camera filming in their living room. And yet North By Current staunchly refuses to be about any of this. Instead Minax focuses on the bigger universal picture – love and the change of seasons that we all share. Ultimately, his steadfast withholding of answers allows us to discover deeper ones within ourselves. So to find out how he did (and did not) do it, Filmmaker reached out to the multidisciplinary artist just prior to the doc’s North American premiere (in TFF’s Viewpoints section).

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“...the Convergence of Many Different Narratives Clashing All at Once”: Dan Chen on his Tribeca-Debuting High School and College Admissions Doc, Accepted

Filmmaker Dan Chen planned to make an inspiring doc about a group of high-achieving students attending a most unconventional school in rural Louisiana, one that had a 100 percent college acceptance rate and sent its BIPOC kids to the likes of Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Well, so much for best laid plans. Unfortunately, right in the midst of production, the Ivy League dreams of Alicia, Adia, Isaac and Cathy, along with the rest of their classmates who were already under immense pressure from the unrelenting boot camp tactics of the school’s founder Mike Landry, morphed into a slow-motion nightmare. Even more surprising, the cause of the disruption came from another elite bastion, the New York Times, which broke the story of TM Landry Prep School’s less-than-kosher tactics for prying open the door to the ivory tower. But instead of calling it quits Chen did something equally unexpected – dug in deeper. While continuing to follow the TM Landry seniors in the aftermath of the scandal, he simultaneously turned his lens to the higher education system itself, one that’s long allowed/expected wealthy white folks to buy and bribe their way into the Ivies. He also dug into his own role in buying into a flawed narrative. Which in turn forced the director to reexamine both his initial footage and his very own assumptions. Fortunately for Filmmaker, the Tribeca alum found time to fill us in on the exceptional teens he spent time with, as well as the rigging of a rigged system, the week before the world premiere of Accepted in TFF’s Viewpoints section. The film is currently available on Tribeca’s virtual platform.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“I’m Drawn to Spaces Where the Paradoxes of Everyday Life are Made Apparent”: Jessica Kingdon on her Tribeca-Premiering Ascension

An all-female factory floor that manufactures made-to-order sex dolls (which seems every bit as titillating as crafting car parts). A workshop featuring a social media entrepreneur who rhapsodizes about the “fan economy.” (Why be a regular boss when you can be a “star boss”?) An instructor in a class on business etiquette quizzing the Stepford Wives-creepy assemblage on how many teeth should be displayed when smiling at a client. (The correct answer? The “upper eight teeth.”) A dinner conversation in which the wealthy discuss the pros and cons of vacationing in Xinjiang. These are just a few of the unnerving glimpses inside today’s China captured through beautifully composed shots and a hauntingly discordant sound design in Ascension, the latest from Jessica Kingdon (a “25 New Face”of 2017). Equally unnerving, however, is that Kingdon’s doc likewise manages to be a disturbing reflection of the West as well, as the capitalist and consumerist values we’ve enthusiastically exported over decades have transformed the very countries we were hoping to influence – albeit not in the intended democratic post-Cold War way. Which seems to be precisely what Kingdon is intending to show. Though the filmmaker has created a portrait of China’s gaping class divide — “ascending” its rungs of capitalism from low-wage worker, to middle-class dreamer, to the disconnected bubble of the elite — she is also exposing a dangerously unsustainable system. One that feels not faraway at all, but far too close to home. So to learn all about “Chinese Dream” aspiration (and its dire repercussions), Filmmaker reached out to the Chinese-American director/producer just prior to the film’s world premiere in the Documentary Competition at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The film is currently streaming on Tribeca’s virtual festival platform.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Can Jupiter Use his Powers and Wisdom to… Rectify Racial Injustice and Inequality?”: Ram Devineni and Yusef Komunyakaa on their Tribeca-Premiering AR Comic Book Jupiter Invincible

Jupiter Invincible, the latest augmented reality comic book from Ram Devineni and his NY-based Rattapallax media house, marks a bit of a departure for the doc filmmaker and technologist. Best known in the AR world for his comic book series Priya’s Shakti — starring India’s first female superhero and rape survivor (and UN Women-designated “gender equality champion”) — Devineni now travels both back to these shores and back in time, all the way to pre-Civil War Maryland. And he brings along an impressive trio of collaborators. Our superhero of this tale, the titular Jupiter, is the invention of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. And though Jupiter might be an enslaved teenager he’s also immortal — and able to join forces with the more mortal superhero Harriet Tubman on her Underground Railroad mission to freedom. Together with illustrator Ashley A. Woods (who’s worked on Tomb Raider, Niobe and the Ladycastle series) and editor Eric Battle (who’s drawn for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics), Devineni and Komunyakaa have created a futuristic history lesson able to leap from festival exhibitions, to a staged reading, to (with any luck) a classroom near you in a single bound. Filmmaker was fortunate enough to catch up with half of the creative super team, Devineni and Komunyakaa, just prior to the comic book’s TFF launch on June 9th.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

What to See (Virtually and Virtually for Free) at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

After canceling last year’s festival Full Frame is back in virtual form this June (2-6) for its 24th edition. And because the Durham-based fest is probably as famous for its Southern hospitality and intimate atmosphere (that naturally leads to a wealth of networking opportunities) as it is for its stellar cinematic selections, I had to wonder if capturing the fest’s spirit online would even be remotely (no pun intended) possible. But then I realized “intimacy” also implies exclusivity. And Full Frame has always been on a parallel mission to expand access to documentary filmmaking and its tools to all. To that end, this year’s Full Frame will feature not only 21 features and 15 shorts (19 available to US-based viewers only, unfortunately) but also quite a number of free online events. All the panels and filmmaker Q&As (with 30-plus teams) can be accessed simply by registering for a free Q&A Pass. Likewise gratis is "The Creative Power of BIPOC Editors," the official launch of the BIPOC Documentary Editors Database. On June 3rd veteran editors such as Sam Pollard, Jean Tsien and Lillian Benson will be speaking on this crucial effort to upend a doc industry paradigm that has resulted in, according to one recent study, their 87%-white profession. (WTF?) As for those stellar selections, a handful of films stand out simply because, after being overloaded with so many festivals and so little time over the past few months (plea to doc fest directors: Can you please coordinate your dates next year?), these five not only cut through the nonfiction noise but have continued to stay with me, right through the multi-fest pileup.

To read all my recommendations visit Filmmaker magazine.