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South by Southwest · 2023

South by Southwest 2023

Documentary Spotlight

Programme

18 films · 4 reviews

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The Arc Of Oblivion

Review preview for The Arc Of Oblivion

“I don’t really know why I'm building it,” he says – which is, one imagines, what it might feel like to respond to a divine command.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Set against the backdrop of the filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in a field in Maine, the film heads far afield - to salt mines in the Alps, fjords in the Arctic, and ancient libraries in the Sahara - to illuminate the strange world of archives, record keeping, and memory.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Ian Cheney)

Full review

Art For Everybody

Thomas Kinkade, the most successful artist of his time, was beloved and despised for his paintings of cosy cottages. He rose to fame in the Nineties, marketing himself to evangelicals, and against the art establishment. Yet beneath his pristine image were demons that would drive him to alcoholism, scandal, and death from an overdose in 2012. Then his dark paintings emerged.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Miranda Yousef)

Being Mary Tyler Moore

An intimate mosaic of Mary Tyler Moore's 60 year career in show business.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: James Adolphus; Stars: Mary Tyler Moore, James L Brooks, Rob Reiner, Treva Silverman, Beverly Sanders, S Robert Levine, MD, John Tinker, Ronda Rich Tinker, Ed Asner, Jim Burrows, Bill Persky)

Black Barbie: A Documentary

The story behind the first Black Barbie.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Lagueria Davis; Writer: Lagueria Davis; Stars: Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, Stacey McBride-Irby, Ashley Blaine-Featherson Jenkins, Gabourey Sidibe, Julissa Calderon)

Citizen Sleuth

An examination of the ethics of the true crime genre and how the power of narrative can affect truth and communities.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Chris Kasick; Stars: Emily Nestor)

Confessions Of A Good Samaritan

The filmmaker's decision to give one of her kidneys to a stranger turns into a personal quest to understand the nature of altruism.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Penny Lane)

A Disturbance In The Force

Review preview for A Disturbance In The Force

The special itself may exert a certain fascination but this documentary reveals that there was much more going on behind the scenes.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
The story behind the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, which was watched by 13 million people but never re-aired and is considered one of the worst shows to ever air on TV.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Jeremy Coon, Steve Kozak; Stars: Seth Green, Kevin Smith, Paul Scheer, Taran Killam, Bonnie Burton, Weird Al Yankovic, Bruce Vilanch, Gilbert Gottfried, Donny Osmond, Miki Herman)

Full review

Great Photo, Lovely Life

A photojournalist returns home to Pennsylvania to investigate the sexual abuse crimes committed by her grandfather. Her family’s archive unravels a world of secrets through interviews, photographs and home movies.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Amanda Mustard, Rachel Beth Anderson; Writer: Amanda Mustard, Rachel Beth Anderson, Tyler H Walk, Josef Beeby; Stars: Amanda Mustard)

The Herricanes

The Houston Herricanes were a part of the first women's full tackle football league in the 1970s. Despite adversity and hardship, they fielded a team purely for the love of the game.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Olivia Kuan; Stars: Jen Welter, Collette V Smith, Annise Parker, Dan Pastorini, Phoebe Schecter, Linda Carpenter, Vivan Acosta)

The Lady Bird Diaries

An all-archival documentary film about Lady Bird Johnson, one of the most influential and least understood US First Ladies.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Dawn Porter)

Last Stop Larrimah

Review preview for Last Stop Larrimah

Arson, sabotage and intimidatory tactics involving kangaroo penises all get their moments, and although the film is crammed full of incidents and ‘accidents’, one can’t help but feel that the filmmaker has only seen the tip of the iceberg.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
It was December 16th, 2017 in the remote Australian Outback town of Larrimah when Paddy Moriarty and his dog Kellie left the local pub and vanished, never to be seen again. As the investigation unfolds, a portrait is painted of this curious town and its 11 eccentric residents, but what ultimately matters is everything that happened before that fateful day.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Thomas Tancred)

Full review

The New Americans: Gaming A Revolution

A wild meme-driven ride to meet the founders of Reddit and WallStreetBets, crypto fanatics, bored housewives, and TikTok-ers turned millionaire traders, in order to investigate the never-before-made connection between the Gamestop squeeze and the Jan 6th Insurrection.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ondi Timoner; Writer: Ondi Timoner; Stars: Jaime Rogozinski , Jordan Belfort, Anthony Scaramucci, Raoul Pal, Joby Weeks, Joel Perez, Blayne Macauley, Mitchell Hennessy, Taylor Price, ProTheDoge)

Periodical

The marvel and mystery of the menstrual cycle, from the first period to the last.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Lina Lyte Plioplyte; Stars: Anusha Singh, Madeleine Morales, Gloria Steinem, Naomi Watts, Anna Konkle, Dr Tosha Rogers, Jennifer Conti, Randi Epstein, Krystyna Hutchinson, Corinne Fisher)

Satan Wants You

Review preview for Satan Wants You

A film which is forensic in its approach yet also finds room for fascinating explorations of character.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
The story of how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s was ignited by Michelle Remembers, a lurid memoir by psychiatrist Larry Pazder and his patient Michelle Smith.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Sean Horlor, Steve J Adams; Writer: Sean Horlor, Steve J Adams; Stars: Sarah Marshall, Debbie Nathan, Elizabeth Loftus, Ken Lanning, Blanche Barton, Charles Ennis, Jeffrey S Victor)

Full review See: Interview with Steve J Adams and Sean Horlor about Satan Wants You

This World Is Not My Own

For most of her life, Nellie Mae Rowe made art in obscurity in her home outside of Atlanta. Six years before her death, a wealthy gallerist introduced her work to the art world. In sets which reimagine Nellie’s home, actress Uzo Aduba, embodies an animated 3D character based on Nellie’s likeness. Her recorded dialogue, movements, and song make Nellie come to life.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Petter Ringbom, Marquise Stillwell; Writer: Ruchi Mital, Petter Ringbom; Stars: Uzo Aduba, Amy Warren)

Who I Am Not

Born with typically male and female attributes within one single body, a beauty queen and a male-presenting activist break the intersex taboo through a personal and intimate exploration of truth, faith, and belonging.

(Country: Romania, Canada, Germany, South Africa, US; Year: 2023; Director: Tunde Skovran; Writer: Tunde Skovran, Andrei Zincã)

Wild Life

The story of conservationist Kris Tompkins and an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin; Stars: Kristine Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway, Jimmy Chin, Claudio Alvarado, Michelle Bachelet , Dago Guzman, Edgar Boyles, Timmy O'Neill, Yvon Chouinard, Susie Tompkins Buell)

You Can Call Me Bill

A documentary portrait of William Shatner.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Alexandre O Philippe; Writer: Alexandre O Philippe; Stars: William Shatner)