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New York Film Festival · 2016

New York Film Festival 2016

Spotlight On Documentary

Programme

15 films · 4 reviews

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Abacus: Small Enough To Jail

Review preview for Abacus: Small Enough To Jail

Despite his besst intentions, James never really fully achieves the cinematic element that would lift this above being a well-illustrated encyclopaedia article.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Chronicle of the legal battle between the Manhattan DA’s Office and Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown, the only bank that was actually prosecuted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Steve James; Stars: Neil Barofsky, Ti-Hua Chang, Jiayang Fan, Roman Fuzaylov, Polly Greenberg, Linda Hall, Don Lee, David Lindorff, Kevin Puvalowski, Chanterelle Sung, Heather Sung, Hwei Lin Sung, Jill Sung, Thomas Sung, Vera Sung)

Full review

Bright Lights

Valentine to the mother and daughter act.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens; Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, Todd Fisher, Griffin Dunne)

The Cinema Travellers

Review preview for The Cinema Travellers

Though it focuses on one company, this film encapsulates a struggle faced by travelling cinemas across India and in other parts of the world.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A documentary about travelling cinemas in India.

(Country: India; Year: 2016; Director: Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya)

Full review

Dawson City: Frozen Time

A history in still and moving images charting the transformation of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in fishing camp at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Bill Morrison)

Hissen Habré, A Chadian Tragedy (Hissein Habré, une tragédie tchadienne)

Documentary about the victims of the Hissein Habré regime in Chad.

(Country: Chad, Senegal, France; Year: 2016; Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)

I Am Not Your Negro

Review preview for I Am Not Your Negro

The full use of what film can do is eye-opening - the juxtapositions jolt awareness of what is important and remains necessary.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Essay film based on James Baldwin's writing about the story of race in modern America.

(Country: US, France, Belgium, Switzerland; Year: 2016; Director: Raoul Peck; Writer: James Baldwin)

Full review See: Interview with Gay Talese about James Baldwin and I Am Not Your Negro , Gay Talese in conversation on James Baldwin and I Am Not Your Negro , Article about the 89th Academy Awards Oscar Best Documentary Feature Film nominees

I Called Him Morgan

Documentary about jazz musician Lee Morgan and his partner Helen More.

(Country: US, Sweden; Year: 2016; Director: Kasper Collin; Writer: Kasper Collin)

Karl Marx City

A jounrey through the former East Germany considering filmmaker Epperlein's father.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2016; Director: Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker)

Patria O Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland Or Death

Portrait of Cuba - a country on the verge of change.

(Year: 2016; Director: Olatz López Garmendia)

Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan

Documentary about the US ballerina.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Linda Saffire, Adam Schlesinger)

The Settlers

Review preview for The Settlers

All in all, this is a troubling but well-presented and thorough examination of the settler conundrum facing Israel today.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
A comprehensive examination of the settlement movement in the West Bank.

(Country: France, Canada, Israel, Germany; Year: 2016; Director: Shimon Dotan; Writer: Oron Adar, Shimon Dotan)

Full review See: Shimon Dotan in conversation about documentary The Settlers

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

Documentary about the life and work of the photographer.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Errol Morris; Stars: Elsa Dorfman)

Two Trains Runnin'

Two North-to-South quests of the “Freedom Summer” of 1964 - one to take part in the Civil Rights movement, the other to find Blues legends Skip James and Son House.

(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Samuel D Pollard; Writer: Benjamin Hedin; Stars: Common, Gary Clark Jr., Buddy Guy, Tom Martin, Lucinda Williams, Dick Waterman, Taylor Branch, Amanda Petrusich, Ed Denson, Greg Tate, Robert Moses, Peter Guralnick, Phil Spiro, Peniel E. Joseph, Dave Dennis)

Uncle Howard

Howard Brookner's first film, Burroughs: The Movie, captured the cultural revolution of downtown New York City in the early '80s. Twenty-five years after his promising career was cut short by AIDS, his nephew sets out to discover Howard's never-before-seen films to create a cinematic elegy about his childhood idol.

(Country: UK, US, France, Germany, Czech Republic; Year: 2016; Director: Aaron Brookner; Writer: Aaron Brookner; Stars: Madonna, Jim Jarmusch, Andy Warhol, Sara Driver, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Howard Brookner, John Giorno, James Grauerholz, Patti Smith)

Whose Country?

A documentary about the disappointment felt by many Egyptians following the revolution on 2011, featuring candid interviews with members of the security service.

(Country: Egypt, US, France; Year: 2016; Director: Mohamed Siam)