This Week In Documentary
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - March 8-14, 2024
While lucky documentary fans make it to Austin, Texas, this weekend for the start of the SXSW Film Festival, the rest of us have a lot to watch at home or in nearby theaters if we live in certain cities. As it turns out, one of our highlighted titles in this edition of This Week in Documentary screened at SXSW last year while another was part of the 2022 festival. Meanwhile, highly anticipated documentaries that premiered and were honored at this year’s Sundance Film Festival continue to make their way to the rest of us earlier than usual.
A reminder that the release calendar portion of This Week in Documentary is for paid subscribers only. Please consider upgrading to take advantage of this valuable guide for fans of nonfiction film and television. Among the notable releases not highlighted but likely of interest to many of you are new documentaries by Nick Broomfield and Alex Gibney, home video releases for Star Wars fans, plus the return of a popular travel series and an interesting-looking new docuseries on the criminal justice system.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (2024)
Whether you watched the previous, Emmy-nominated Turning Point series on Netflix or not, this follow-up to 9/11 and the War on Terror is essential viewing for history enthusiasts. Again directed by Brian Knappenberger, Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War looks further back in time for a much longer chronicle of world events with a focus on America’s involvement in various threads of the greater global political narrative of the second half of the 20th century.
The Bomb and the Cold War is a documentary that also concerns the present, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s potential interest in further world domination serving as the inspiration for this extensive history lesson. Knappenberger continues to prove his talent for tracing intricate connections between events and other causes and effects as well as mixing rudimentary and advanced facts and analysis to offer something accessible to all audiences.
Featuring tons of interviewees over its nine episodes, The Bomb and the Cold War touches on several aspects of the conflict between East and West, from the real reason the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, through the fall of the Soviet Union and beyond, ultimately examining its effects and residues around the globe today, 35 years after the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The series looks at everything from the rise of international espionage and the meddling of the CIA to McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist, and of course, the nuclear arms race. Also, “Dr. Strangelove was a documentary”? The final third, though, concentrates on the reign of Putin and why learning this history lesson is necessary.
Check out Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War in its entirety when it begins streaming on Netflix on Tuesday, March 12.
Other Documentary Highlights
The Dynasty: New England Patriots (2024) Episodes 7 & 8
Yes, I’m still recommending this series, which drops its seventh and eighth episodes on Apple TV+ on March 8. The first of these two installments, titled “Under Pressure,” deals with the Deflategate scandal, and I continue to be impressed with how the documentary doesn’t go easy on the New England Patriots, especially Bill Belichick. The other new episode of The Dynasty: New England Patriots is called “Score to Settle,” and if any of my friends here in Atlanta are watching, they’re not going to be happy since it highlights the Patriots’ shocking comeback and defeat of the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Frida (2024)
Not to be confused with the 2002 biopic of the same name portraying the same artist, Frida is a new documentary about painter Frida Kahlo. The film, helmed by editor Carla Gutierrez (RBG, Julia) in her directorial debut, chronicles the life of Kahlo through archival footage and voiceover performance of her words from her diary. Frida also animates Kahlo’s paintings, bringing them to life in a way that emphasizes their autobiographical elements amid their fantastical beauty. Coming off its premiere at Sundance, where it won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award, the Amazon Original arrives exclusively on Prime Video on Thursday, March 14.
Iris (2014)
The penultimate film directed by Albert Maysles, Iris celebrates its 10th anniversary this fall. The reason for highlighting the documentary this early is that its subject, Iris Apfel, just died on March 1 at the age of 102. The feature profiles the then-93-year-old fashion icon best known for her interior design work for the White House, and she was one of the most memorable documentary characters of the past decade. You can currently find Iris streaming for free on Kanopy and Plex.
One Hand Don’t Clap (1988)
While I would not dissuade anyone from going to see Space: The Longest Goodbye or High & Low - John Galliano on the big screen this week, my one definite recommendation among the new documentary theatrical releases is One Hand Don’t Clap. Originally released in the U.S. in 1991, the film celebrates calypso music while focusing primarily on the genre’s “grand master,” Lord Kitchener, at a time when soca was taking over as a more popular but arguably less substantial offshoot. Read my review of One Hand Don’t Clap, a documentary that will have you moving in your seat as you enjoy the vibrant music performances in the film. The newly restored 4K re-release of the doc opens at BAM in Brooklyn, New York, on March 8.
Oscar Nominees 2024
With the 96th Academy Awards happening on Sunday, March 10, I want to share the latest availability of all 11 of this year’s documentary nominees. First, the contenders for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film:
20 Days in Mariupol is free on PBS.org via Frontline
Bobi Wine: The People’s President is on Disney+
The Eternal Memory is on Paramount+
Four Daughters is on Netflix
To Kill a Tiger begins streaming on Netflix on March 10.
Now the nominees for the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film:
The ABCs of Book Banning is on Paramount+
The Barber of Little Rock is free on YouTube via The New Yorker
Island in Between is free on YouTube via the New York Times’ Op-Docs
The Last Repair Shop is on Disney+
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó is on Disney+ and Hulu
And American Symphony, which has a nomination in the Best Original Song category for “It Never Went Away” by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson, is streaming on Netflix.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023), Escaping Twin Flames (2023), Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) & More
More honors to highlight this week include the winners of the ACE Eddie Awards presented by the American Cinema Editors. Still: A Michael J. Fox (streaming on Apple TV+) won the prize for Best Edited Documentary (Theatrical), which went to Michael Harte. For Best Edited Documentary (Non-Theatrical), Martin Biehn, Kevin Hibbard, Inbal B. Lessner, Troy Takaki, and Mimi Wilcox collectively won for the Netflix true crime limited series Escaping Twin Flames, with specific recognition going to the final episode, “Up in Flames.”
The ongoing Showtime documentary series Couples Therapy (streaming via Paramount+) won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Non-Scripted Series for “Episode 310,” which was cut by Delaney Lynch, Helen Kearns, and Katrina Taylor. The blockbuster hit concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (arriving on Disney+ on March 14) won the award for Best Edited Variety Talk/Sketch Show or Special Event, with credit going to Dom Whitworth, Guy Harding, Hamish Lyons, Rupa Rathod, Ben Wainwright-Pearce, and Reg Wrench.
The Motion Picture Sound Editors held their Golden Reel Awards, with three documentaries being honored at the event. Pianoforte (on VOD) won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Editing — Documentary, the Our Planet II episode “Chapter 3: The Next Generation” (streaming on Netflix) won for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing — Non-Theatrical Documentary, and 32 Sounds, which isn’t yet streaming anywhere, won for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing — Feature Documentary.
Winners were also announced this week for the ASC Awards, presented by the American Society of Cinematographers. Curren Sheldon received the Documentary Award for his work on King Coal, which is sadly not streaming anywhere at this time.
Documentary Release Calendar 3/8/24 - 3/14/24
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