This Week In Documentary
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - May 3-9, 2024
Welcome to the first full week of May! I’d recommend some documentaries to watch for Cinco de Mayo, but the only things that make sense are Rick Bayless shows about Mexican food and margaritas. Anyway, you’ll probably be out having Mexican food and margaritas instead of watching docs. As for May the 4th (Be With You), I once compiled a list of Star Wars documentaries. They include The Beginning: Making ‘Episode 1’, which is directed by since-Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Shenk and is available to watch free on the official Star Wars YouTube page. I also suggest you check out The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson’s favorite documentaries.
Other days worth celebrating this week include May 3, which is the birthday of film historian and documentarian Mark Cousins. You can currently watch his docuseries The Story of Film and its sequel as a complete package via Ovid. His docuseries Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema and his feature documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles are both streaming on The Criterion Channel. Speaking of Orson Welles, his birth date is May 6, so be sure to check out his documentary F for Fake on The Criterion Channel or Max and watch the films They’ll Fund Me When I’m Dead (on Netflix), It’s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (Kanopy), and Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles (Tubi and Kanopy) in remembrance of the famous director.
On May 8, filmmaker Michel Gondry celebrates his birthday, so we recommend watching his documentaries Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (on Kanopy and Pluto TV) and The Thorn in the Heart (Kanopy and Ovid). Also on May 3, we remember the birthday of soul singer James Brown, who has appeared in many great documentaries, including the classic When We Were Kings (Max, The Criterion Channel, and Paramount+). He’s also the subject of Alex Gibney’s Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (Prime Video). Still on the subject of anniversaries, this week we recognize the 60th anniversary of the franchise-spawning Seven Up! (BritBox), the 50th anniversary of Les Blank’s A Poem is a Naked Person (The Criterion Channel), and the 20th anniversary of the cultural phenom Super Size Me (Prime Video, Tubi, Peacock, Kanopy, Pluto TV, and Freevee).
Now we present this week’s highlights of new, notable, and currently relevant documentaries followed by our daily listings of theatrical, home video, and streaming releases (the latter for paid subscribers only). Also, read to the end for previews of what’s coming soon.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Black Twitter: A People’s History
If you know about Black Twitter, then you know about Black Twitter. But Hulu’s Black Twitter: A People’s History isn’t so much an explanation or showcase as it is an exploration of Black Twitter’s significance. Joining the best documentaries about the internet, the three-part docuseries follows a web of influence and causation to argue that Black users on (the social media site formerly known as) Twitter have been a leading force in cultural movements and the zeitgeist. Of course, as is acknowledged, that’s been true in many aspects of life with the internet merely being the latest.
Immediately, understandably, Black Twitter itself was skeptical about the need for this documentary. Is it mostly for white people? Is it exploitative? Well, I’m white, but I don’t think the answer to the first question is yes. As for the second concern, this is a for-profit piece of media that features a lot of free media whose producers surely weren’t compensated. Still, it recognizes several important voices in Black Twitter and spotlights them in testimonials and scenes of broader discourse. The rest of the interviewees are Black journalists, authors, academics, and other relevant experts who provide valuable historical context and insight for audiences of any race.
Black Twitter is based on a two-part Wired story by Jason Parham, who also serves as a producer and interviewee, but a lot has happened since its publication in 2021. Most notably, Twitter was bought by Elon Musk in the fall of 2022, resulting in a lot of changes to the platform including many potentially adversely impacting the reach and power of Black Twitter. The docuseries, which is directed by Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny, saw this development occur during production and addresses it but might not have a full understanding of its effects just yet.
Furthermore, current events like what’s happening with the college campus pro-Palestine protests show that hasty histories like this docuseries are never going to be complete and up to date enough. (Also, if only Penny had kept working on this documentary long enough to capture the Black Twitter reactions to the Hulu documentary Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told, he could have added a hilarious meta quality to it.) Still, it offers a level of comprehension that anticipates and speaks to the continued agency, authority, and art of Black voices in this kind of online space.
Black Twitter: A People’s History begins streaming on Hulu in full on Thursday, May 9.
Other Documentary Highlights
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (2023)
If there’s one thing I gathered about Anita Pallenberg from this documentary it’s that to know her was to love her. Unfortunately, to watch Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg isn’t to get to know her. It’s a film about her rather than of her. It’s her story but it’s not her being. We hear from friends and family, including longtime partner Keith Richards and their children, and we see some silent clips of Pallenberg, but all of it is at arms reach for the audience.
Even Pallenberg’s own words, written for an unpublished memoir and read in voiceover by actress Scarlett Johansson, feel at a distance. We recognizably hear Johansson, not Pallenberg. Ultimately, it’s just another add-on to the Rolling Stones documentary canon, yet even less resonant than the other disappointing 2023 entry, The Stones and Brian Jones. Surely there had to be some archival footage of Pallenberg that has her voice, personality, and essence on display where we’re not just getting it secondhand, but that necessary sense of her is missing from Catching Fire.
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is in theaters and on VOD starting Friday, May 3.
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
I would make Harlan County U.S.A. my pick of the week, as it is one of my picks for the best documentaries of all time (and it has one of the best opening scenes in documentaries), but the film is not new to streaming (it’s been on Max and The Criterion Channel) nor is it otherwise having a significant release this week. But it is airing on TCM on Sunday, May 5, and it’s sure to be streaming on the TCM app afterward. The first of Barbara Kopple’s two Oscar-winning documentaries following workers’ strikes, Harlan County U.S.A. is raw and rustic with a refined point of view. It’s easy to feel nostalgia while watching, not for the time and place it’s set in but for the type of filmmaking (and film stock used) on display. If more documentaries were this exceptional, there would be more classic documentaries on TCM.
Hollywood Con Queen (2024)
Premiering on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, May 8, the latest from Chris Smith (American Movie, Tiger King) combines his usual mix of unique characters and wild narratives. Hollywood Con Queen is a three-part true-crime docuseries that chronicles the story of a man who impersonated powerful women in the entertainment business to scam hundreds of creatives out of money and more.
The first episode of this show is incredibly intriguing, but I found it less compelling as it went on and the mystery of the scheme and then the motives of the titular figure became more confusing. The final moment of the series does put everything into perspective, and maybe that invites a second viewing, but its inconclusiveness is also anticlimactic.
The Jinx - Part Two Episode 3
Another episode of The Jinx - Part Two arrives on HBO and Max on Sunday, May 5, and I continue to be engulfed in this series. The third installment (or ninth if you’re counting this a continuation rather than a sequel) is titled “Saving My Tears Until It's Official,” and its focus is on the disappearance of Kathie Durst and what involvement Susan Berman allegedly had in covering for her murder. What is most interesting in this episode, though, is the cross-examinations and how both sides of the case have wins and losses with the testimonies of their own and the other lawyers’ witnesses. Durst’s lawyers seem nefarious but they’re also clearly good at their jobs.
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Finally returning to streaming, now with a 4K restoration courtesy of A24, Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense hits Max on Friday, May 3. If you missed its theatrical re-release, during which the film was unavailable in any other form, it’s also now available to rent on your favorite VOD platform following a limited time of only being for sale to own digitally. Topping our list of the best concert films of all time, Stop Making Sense is a “deceptively simple” documentary that captures a live performance by Talking Heads (compiled from four different shows in Los Angeles) and iconically features singer David Byrne wearing a hilariously oversized suit. From that list: “Stop Making Sense shows what a concert film can truly be when it is trimmed of the excess and grandeur found in most — all that is needed is an assured vision, great music, and affecting artists who love what they play.”
Documentary Release Calendar 5/3/24 - 5/9/24
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