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New York Film Festival · 2017

New York Film Festival 2017

Spotlight on Documentary

Programme

20 films · 8 reviews

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Arthur Miller: Writer

Review preview for Arthur Miller: Writer

We get family background and find out why fathers are always mythological figures.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A documentary exploring the life and work of Arthur Miller.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Rebecca Miller; Stars: Arthur Miller, Tony Kushner, Mike Nichols, Joan Copeland, Robert A Miller, Kermit Miller, Fran Miller, Jane Doyle)

Full review See: Rebecca Miller‬ in conversation on Arthur Miller: Writer

Boom For Real The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat)

Review preview for Boom For Real The Late Teenage Years Of Jean-Michel Basquiat

A life like this is never tidy and neither is Driver's documentary.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A documentary exploring the pre-fame years of the celebrated American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and how New York City shaped his vision.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Sara Driver)

Full review See: Sara Driver and Alexis Adler with Ed Bahlman in conversation on Jean-Michel Basquiat

Cielo

Review preview for Cielo

McAlpine is so eager that we experience the same sense of joy that she is that she over-editorialises, offering voice-over observations that are more distracting than deep.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A documentary about the sky above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, and those who live under it.

(Country: Canada, Chile; Year: 2017; Director: Alison McAlpine)

Full review

C'est Presque Au Bout Du Monde

A documentary observing the work of a soprano.

(Country: France; Year: 2015; Director: Mathieu Amalric; Stars: Barbara Hannigan)

Showing as part of Three Music Films

Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?

A documentary murder mystery about the filmmaker's family, set in lower Alabama.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Travis Wilkerson)

El Mar La Mar

The Sonoran Desert between Mexico and the USA: 16mm footage of vegetation, weather phenomena, animals, people and the traces they leave behind merge with a polyphonic soundtrack to create a panoramic study of a highly politicised landscape.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Joshua Bonnetta, JP Sniadecki)

Filmworker

Review preview for Filmworker

Few voices are missing from this incredibly thorough piece of work.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary about the working relationship between actor Leon Vitali and Stanley Kubrick.

(Year: 2017; Director: Tony Zierra)

Full review See: Whit Stillman in conversation on his Stanley Kubrick, Barcelona, The Last Days Of Disco, Eyes Wide Shut, and Barry Lyndon connection , Leon Vitali in conversation on Filmworker, Stanley Kubrick's love of animals, photography, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining twins , Leon Vitali in conversation on Filmworker

Hall Of Mirrors

Edward Jay Epstein, author and foremost authority on the Kennedy assassination, sheds new light on the Edward Snowden case after a three year investigation that takes him around the world.

(Country: US, Bahamas. Hong Kong, Japan, Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic; Writer: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic; Stars: Edward J Epstein)

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold

Review preview for Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold

It is always wonderful when a film about a writer you admire produces sentences - be it in dialogue, commentary or excerpts you overlooked or forgot from the published texts - that are so poignant in the here and now and feel brand new.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
A documentary portrait of the filmmaker's aunt.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Griffin Dunne; Stars: Joan Didion, Hilton Als, David Hare, Amy Robinson, Anna Wintour, Calvin Trillin, Vanessa Redgrave, Harrison Ford)

Full review

Music Is Music

A documentary capturing soprano Barbara Hannigan at work.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Mathieu Amalric; Stars: Barbara Hannigan)

Showing as part of Three Music Films

No Stone Unturned

Investigation of a pub massacre in 1994, when six men were gunned down and five wounded while watching a World Cup soccer match in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland.

(Country: Northern Ireland, US; Year: 2017; Director: Alex Gibney)

Piazza Vittorio

A vivid mosaic/portrait of Rome’s biggest public square, Piazza Vittorio, featuring talks with African musicians and restaurant workers, Chinese barkeeps and relocated eastern Europeans, homeless men and women, artists, actors, and many others.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2017; Director: Abel Ferrara)

The Rape Of Recy Taylor

Review preview for The Rape Of Recy Taylor

A film of vital importance.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A documentary about the rape of a black Alabama woman by six white men in 1944, and its consequences.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Nancy Buirski; Writer: Nancy Buirski; Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Jack Kyser, Tommy Bernardi, Robert Corbitt, Alma Daniels, Crystal Feimster, Tom Gibbs, Esther Cooper Jackson, James Johnson II, Danielle L. McGuire, Chris Money, John L. Payne, Recy Taylor)

Full review

Sea Sorrow

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Vanessa Redgrave)

Speak Up

A documentary following students as they prepare for the Eloquentia competition, which determines the best orator in the class at the University of Saint-Denis in Paris.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Stéphane de Freitas)

A Skin So Soft (Ta peau si lisse)

Review preview for A Skin So Soft

By simply observing the men as they move around, the film avoids over-interpretation, working hard to leave space for each person watching to find their own narrative as to why each man might have chosen this sport.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Documentary about bodybuilders.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Stars: Jean-François Bouchard, Cédric Doyon, Benoit Lapierre, Maxim Lemire, Alexis Légaré, Ronald Yang)

Full review See: Denis Côté interview about Vic + Flo Saw A Bear

The Venerable W (Le vénérable W.)

Portrait of Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of an anti-Muslim movement.

(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Barbet Schroeder; Writer: Barbet Schroeder; Stars: U. Zanitar, Kyaw Zayar Htun, U. Kaylar Sa, Matthew Smith, Abdul Rasheed, Carlos Sardiña-Galache, U. Galonni, Bulle Ogier, Barbet Schroeder, Ashin Wirathu)

Voyeur

A documentary chronicling the relationship between veteran New York journalist Gay Talese and the enigmatic subject of his controversial book The Voyeur’s Motel, Gerald Foos, who bought a motel in Colorado in the 1960s, and furnished the rooms with louvered vents that allowed him to spy on his guests.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Myles Kane, Josh Koury)

Zorn (Zorn (2010-2017))

A documenntaty portrait of of John Zorn, the wildly prolific and protean composer/performer/bandleader/record label founder/club owner of New York.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Mathieu Amalric; Stars: John Zorn)

Showing as part of Three Music Films