This Week In Documentary
Theatrical & Streaming Releases - New & Recommended - May 10-16, 2024
Welcome to another Week in Documentary! This Sunday, we celebrate our mothers, and it’s also a good time to get together with that person who gave you life and/or raised you and watch documentaries! In addition to our highlights below, I’d like to start by suggesting some docs about or showcasing moms. Of course, I have to give a shout-out to Big Edie Beale in Grey Gardens (now streaming on Max, The Criterion Channel, and TCM) and The Beales of Grey Gardens (Max and The Criterion Channel), which will always be the best movies to watch on Mother’s Day.
Other essentials spotlighting mothers or motherhood include Nina Davenport’s First Comes Love (on VOD), Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (Max and The Criterion Channel) and No Home Movie (Kanopy and Ovid), Ramona S. Dias’s Motherland (Peacock, Tubi, and Kanopy), Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom’s Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (Max), and Joyce Chopra and Richard Leacock’s Happy Mother’s Day (The Criterion Channel). There’s also Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, which is sadly not currently streaming anywhere, and Max Lugavere and Chris Newhard's Little Empty Boxes, which is now in theaters.
This week we also recognize the birthdate of documentary filmmaker Emile de Antonio, who was born on May 14, 1919. For the occasion, we recommend watching his Oscar-nominated Vietnam War film In the Year of the Pig (Kanopy), his JFK assassination doc Rush to Judgment (Apple TV), the comedic Nixon doc Millhouse (Apple TV), his classic Painters Painting (Apple TV and Amazon), and his Weather Underground film Underground (Kanopy). Unfortunately, his others, including Point of Order, are not available to watch anywhere.
Several movies are also celebrating milestones in their lives this week, as these documentaries mark significant anniversaries: Margot Benacerraf’s Araya (currently on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy) turns 65 on Monday, May 13; Peter Davis’s Vietnam War film Hearts and Minds (Max and The Criterion Channel) turns 50 on Thursday, May 16; Chantal Akerman’s South (Kanopy and Ovid) turns 25 on Wednesday, May 15; and Patricio Guzmán’s Salvador Allende (Ovid) turns 20 on Monday, May 13. All of those were from Cannes premieres. Also worth acknowledging is Frederick Wiseman’s High School (Kanopy), which was released 55 years ago, on May 14, 1969, and Dsiga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (which we reviewed this week), as it had its U.S. release 95 years ago, on May 12, 1929.
Nonfics Pick Of The Week: Power (2024)
The latest from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Yance Ford (Strong Island) is a rather intimate look at the history of policing in America and why the system is so broken today. Power chronicles the roots of the police in this country, as founded in slave patrols and union-busting forces, and traces its continued militarization as well as its influence on the military. Part archival-based essay film, the feature also includes narration by Ford, expert commentary from various interviewees, and a ride along with one cop in Minneapolis. It’s a rich but fairly uncomplicated examination, and while it could be said that it overstates some of its points, it’s never disengaging.
Power is a documentary that only Ford could have made, as it feels more personal than objectively historical, but that doesn’t take away from how squarely informative the film is. There are many things I love about Power, from its choices and use of archival material to the rules it breaks and gets away with in terms of its structure. With the former, there are none of the common, generic, over-used clips, even in the Vietnam War footage, and even when featuring familiar bits from recent events, such as George Floyd’s murder, Ford finds original ways to present them. With the latter, the film is successful despite including elements that wouldn’t seem to fit.
One element that I expected to stick out too much entails newly shot sequences with the Minneapolis police inspector. But it ultimately completes the documentary. Without it, Power would feel timeless yet would not necessarily feel specifically of this moment in time as well. With these scenes, though, the film doesn’t date itself either because it’s kind of universal and lasting material, for better and worse. So there is a sense that Power could have been made at any time in the history of policing, even in the future, despite that contemporary material, yet it’s not lost in time either. It’s important right now, but it’s also (sadly) not going to ever feel dated. I’ll surely continue to recommend this documentary for years to come.
Power opens in theaters in limited release on Friday, May 10, and debuts on Netflix on Friday, May 17.
Other Documentary Highlights
Amy (2015)
There’s a new Amy Winehouse biopic in theaters starting today, and we have an easy Doc Option alternative for the occasion. Back to Black, which stars Marisa Abela as Winehouse, has been receiving terrible reviews, leaving fans of the singer and documentaries alike wondering why bother. Winehouse’s father may not like Asif Kapadia’s Oscar-winning 2015 film, Amy, but it’s an exceptional piece of work. The archival documentary does have its issues, namely that it had to employ a lot of footage captured by paparazzi — the very people who tormented Winehouse to death — but it crafts something new and beautiful out of that shit.
Amy is currently streaming on Hulu, Max, and Kanopy.
Bronx Zoo ‘90: Crime, Chaos And Baseball (2024)
Earlier this year, we got a remarkable docuseries about a football dynasty (The Dynasty: New England Patriots), and now it’s time for one about a baseball dynasty but focused on their rock bottom before the rise. Directed by Hollywood moviemaker D.J. Caruso (xXx: Return of Xander Cage), Bronx Zoo ‘90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball is a three-part documentary about the 1990 Yankees. The series chronicles the team’s worst season since 1913 and highlights how in addition to their awful record, they faced scandals involving George Steinbrenner and Mel Hall and suffered Andy Hawkins’s infamous no-hitter loss to the White Sox.
As a Yankees fan, I was really looking forward to Bronx Zoo ‘90: Chaos and Baseball and was terribly disappointed with the series overall. This could have been a 90-minute feature if that, as there aren’t a whole lot of points to make about that losing season. The narrative is all over the place and doesn’t go much further than what is mentioned from the very start: Mel Hall had a 15-year-old girlfriend; George Steinbrenner had issues with Dave Winfield and paid a bookie to dig up dirt on the outfielder; and the players and managers performed sloppily. Some of these things, while awful, aren’t as relevant to whatever the thesis of the documentary is, and timelines are thrown out the window enough that it’s difficult to trust any sort of chronology about what’s meant to be a specific moment in the team’s history.
Bronx Zoo ‘90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball debuts on Peacock on Thursday, May 16.
Gasoline Rainbow (2023)
With each new film by Bill and Turner Ross (Tchoupitoulas, Western), they seem to get further away from a certain documentary classification — Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets was their most up for debate among doc purists until now. This hybrid feature is still enough of a work of nonfiction to highlight it in this newsletter. Gasoline Rainbow cast a group of recent high school grads and threw them in a van together for a road trip to the coast. I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks gorgeous, and its reviews make it sound like one of the best films of the year. It’s a rarity that I’d recommend sight unseen.
Gasoline Rainbow opens in theaters on Friday, May 10.
The Jinx - Part Two Episode 4
With the fourth episode of the second outing of The Jinx, Andrew Jarecki continues to show the surprisingly arduous uphill journey that it took to convict Robert Durst of murder. Despite him confessing in the first part of this docuseries! The trial continues to be filled with luck and loss plus several risks on both sides of the courtroom. This was the last episode of The Jinx - Part Two provided to critics, so it’s anyone’s guess what surprises if any might be in store for the final two installments.
The Jinx - Part Two Episode 4, “The Unluckiest Man in the World,” debuts on HBO and Max on Sunday, May 12.
Louisiana Story (1948)
Like the Ross brothers, Robert Flaherty teetered the line between fiction and nonfiction, and like Gasoline Rainbow, Flaherty’s final film, Louisiana Story, has been argued for and against classification as a documentary. Sure, the Cajun family on screen is made of locals who were not related and only cast to play as such, but that’s not any different than the characters in Nanook of the North. This docufiction is also a bridge from one generation of documentary filmmakers to another as it employed Richard Leacock as a cameraman. In our list of Leacock essentials, we wrote: “The attention to detail, both on the towering rig and among the creatures of the swamp, lends a quiet majesty to the humble explorations of the boy protagonist and his pet raccoon.” It also features one of our favorite perfect shots from documentaries.
Louisiana Story airs on TCM on Tuesday, May 14, and likely will be available to stream on the TCM app afterward.
Queen Rock Montreal (2024)
One of this year’s top-grossing documentaries is a concert film capturing a performance from 1981 that was previously released in different formats in 1983 (then titled We Will Rock You) and 2007. Featuring the rock band Queen as they perform their biggest hits in the titular Canadian city, this new version of Queen Rock Montreal was exclusive to IMAX screens in theaters a few months ago, and now it’s arriving on Blu-ray and streaming, the latter offering the option to watch in full-frame or widescreen versions.
Queen Rock Montreal will be available on Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray on Friday, May 10, and will begin streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday, May 15.
2024 Peabody Award Winners
Winners of the 2024 Peabody Awards were revealed this week, with several films and shows in fiction and nonfiction being recognized ahead of the June 9 ceremony. Among the documentary winners, HBO/Max titles led the pack with All That Breathes (Max), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Max and Hulu), and The Stroll (Max). PBS also did well with the recent Oscar recipient 20 Days in Mariupol (PBS.org) and the POV title While We Watched (PBS Passport) joining those three docs plus Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Disney+)
Arts winners include the documentaries Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (Kanopy) and Judy Blume Forever (Prime Video) while the “micro-documentary” The Hidden History of Racism in New York City was honored in the Interactive & Immersive category, which also included the Ukrainian art focused VR short doc You Destroy. We Create (YouTube). Winners in the News category include the feature documentary Against All Enemies (VOD) and the Frontline episode Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court (PBS.org). Another Frontline episode, America and the Taliban (PBS.org) won in the Public Service category.
Documentary Release Calendar 5/10/24 - 5/16/24
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