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The Big Screen: May 2010

By Tom White


The summer is almost here, and with it, a healthy diet of docs to counterbalance the high-fructose smorgasbord of blockbusters. Among the higher profile films include Thomas Balmès' Babies, which, as we reported, has considerable marketing muscle behind it. Casino Jack and the United States of Money, the latest from the ever-prolific Alex Gibney, should shock and awe theater-goers about who really runs Washington and where the filthy lucre really goes. Also out this month: Laura Poitras' The Oath, about two men-a taxi driver in Yemen who was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, and his brother-in-law, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay-as they reflect on their respective fates in a post-9/11 world. Two festival hits, Michael Paul Stephenson's Best Worst Movie and Marshall Curry's Racing Dreams also highlight the May releases. Finally, the Tribeca Film Institute's distribution initiative, Tribeca Film, gets under way on the heels of the Tribeca Film Festival, with The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia and Climate of Change, both screening at Tribeca Cinemas.

 

 

Opening:                    May 5
Venue:                        Tribeca Cinemas/New York City
Film:                           The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
Dir.:                            Julien Nitzberg                     
Prod.:                         Storm Taylor
Distributor:                Tribeca Film
http://www.tribecafilm.com/tribecafilm/Wild_and_Wonderful_Whites_of_West_Virginia.html

 

Shoot-outs, robberies, gas huffing, drug dealing, pill popping, murders, and tap dancing--what do these all have in common? These are just a few of the parts of being a member of the Wild and Wonderful White Family. The legendary family is as known for their wild, excessive criminal ways as they are for their famous mountain dancing members, including Jesco White, the star of director Julien Nitzberg' s cult classic documentary Dancing Outlaw. Exploring both the comic and tragic sides of life on the other side of the law, this stylish, fast-paced family portrait exposes the powerful forces of corruption, poverty, and West Virginia's environmentally and culturally devastating coal-mining culture that helped shape the White family, a dying breed of outlaws preserving a dying form of dance.

 

Opening:                    May 7
Film:                           Babies
Dir.:                            Thomas Balmès                    
Prods.:                        Alain Chabat, Amandine Billot, Christine Rouxel
Distributor:                  Focus Features
http://www.filminfocus.co /focusfeatures/film/babies/

 

The adventure of a lifetime begins...

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Thomas Balmès, from an original idea by producer Alain Chabat, Babies simultaneously follows four babies around the world, from birth to first steps. The children are, respectively, in order of on-screen introduction: Ponijao, who lives with her family near Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, who resides with his family in Mongolia, near Bayanchandmani; Mari, who lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie, who resides with her family in the United States, in San Francisco.

Re-defining the nonfiction art form, Babies joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.

 

Opening:                    May 7
Film:                           Casino Jack and the United States of Money
Dir./Prod./Wtr.:           Alex Gibney              
Distributor:                 Magnolia Pictures
http://www.participantmedia.com/social_action/casino_jack/campaign.php
http://www.takepart.com/casinojack

 

Alex Gibney, who brought us the Academy Award-winning Taxi to the Dark Side and the Academy Award-nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, now focuses his attention on the story of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. From Indian casinos and Chinese sweatshops to Russian spies and a mob-style killing in Miami, Casino Jack and the United States of Money is at once a colorful tale of international intrigue and a story of the corrupting role that money plays in our political process. By following ongoing criminal investigations--including the indictments of federal officials, staffers and congressmen--and inquiries into the day-to-day business of favor-trading in our nation's capitol, the film shines a light on the way that politicians' desperate need to get elected-- and the millions of dollars it costs-- may be undermining the basic principles of American democracy.

 

Opening:                    May 7
Venue:                       Anthology Film Archive/New York City
Film:                           DDR/DDR
Dir./Prod./Wtr.:           Amie Siegel               
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/search/film/?id=9826

DDR/DDR, the latest feature by Amie Siegel, is a multi-layered and disarmingly beautiful essay on the German Democratic Republic and its dissolution, which left many of its former citizens adrift in their newfound freedom. Featured at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the film weaves together mundane Stasi surveillance footage, interviews with psychoanalysts, East German "Indian hobbyists" and lolling shots of derelict state radio stations into an extended and self-conscious assemblage to meditate on history, memory and the shared technologies of state control and art.

Opening:                    May 7
Venue:                        Quad Cinema/New York City
Film:                           Floored
Dir.:                            James Allen Smith                
http://flooredthemovie.com/community/

 

A world that's more riot than profession, the trading floors of Chicago are a place where gambling your family's mortgage is all in a day's work. Now, when markets are unhinged, Floored offers a unique window to this lesser-known world of finance. Traders may not have degrees, but they've got guts, and penchant for excess. But like many aspects of our economy, technology is changing their business, and these eccentric pit denizens aren't the type to take kindly to new tricks.

Computerized trading may take the emotion out of the job, but it may also take these old-timers out; they are dinosaurs in a young man's game.

At a time when millions have lost fortunes in the fickle stock market and fear abounds about the faltering financial system, Floored is a gripping, honest look behind the curtain of the trading floor that few have ever seen.

 

Opening:                    May 7
Film:                           The Lottery
Dir.:                            Madeleine Sackler                
http://thelotteryfilm.com/

 

In a country where 58 percent of African-American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future.

Directed by Madeleine Sackler and shot by award-winning cinematographer Wolfgang Held, The Lottery uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the education reform movement. Interviews with politicians and educators explain not only the crisis in public education, but also why it is fixable. A call to action to avert a catastrophe in the education of American children, The Lottery makes the case that any child can succeed.

 

Opening:                    May 7
Venue:                        IFC Center/New York City
Film:                           The Oath
Dir.:                            Laura Poitras
Distributor:                 Zeitgeist Films                       
http://www.theoathmovie.com/

 

The Oath tells the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals. Filmed in Yemen and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Oath is a family drama about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a journey that would lead to Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay Prison, and the US Supreme Court. The film begins as Salim Hamdan is set to face war crime charges at Guantanamo, and Abu Jandal is a free man and drives a taxi in Yemen.

We enter the story in a taxicab in Yemen. Here we meet Abu Jandal, the film's central protagonist, as he transports passengers through the chaotic streets of Yemen's capital city, Sana'a. Salim Hamdan is the film's "ghost" protagonist. He was arrested in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 and taken to Guantanamo. His seven-year captivity at Guantanamo is narrated through his prison letters.

 

Opening:                    May 12
Venue:                        Film Forum/New York City
Film:                           Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Dir./Prod./Wtr.:           Jessica Oreck
Distributor:                 Argot Pictures                      
http://beetlequeen.com/

 

Working backwards through history, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo explores the mystery of the development of Japan's love affair with bugs. Using insects like an anthropologist's toolkit, the film uncovers Japanese philosophies that will shift Westerners' perspectives on nature, beauty, life, and even the seemingly mundane realities of their day-to-day routines.

 

Opening:                    May 12
Venue:                        Tribeca Cinemas/New York City
Film:                           Climate of Change
Dir.:                            Brian Hill                  
Prod.:                         Katie Bailiff
Distributor:                 Tribeca Film
http://www.tribecafilm.com/tribecafilm/Climate_of_Change.html

 

Driving Climate of Change is the beautiful narration written by British poet Simon Armitage and mellifluously voiced by Tilda Swinton. "We are the renters of this world, not its masters," reminds Pooshkar, a precocious 13-year-old member of a youth environmental defense group in India. He and his fellow voraciously energetic students actively rally against the use of plastics. In Africa, a renaissance man teaches citizens to harness solar power to cook food. In Papua New Guinea, villagers practice sustainable logging to save their rainforests. A woman in London uses her PR savvy to start a successful environmental communications firm. Self-described "hillbillies" in Appalachia battle the big business behind strip mining. In this rich and inspiring documentary, director Brian Hill takes us around the world to find the ordinary people taking action in the fight to save our environment. Hill and his cinematographers create a real sense of ambiance in each of the countries and communities they visit. Conversations with West Virginians are punctuated by footage of mountaintops surrounding their homes being dynamited; Papua New Guineans talk among the giant trees being decimated by commercial logging. A visit to the Global Seed Vault built in the Norwegian permafrost in Svalbard, Norway is particularly ethereal.

 

Opening:                    May 14
Venue:                        Village East Cinema/New York City
Film:                           Best Worst Movie
Dir./Prod:                    Michael Paul Stephenson                
Prods.:                        Lindsey Rowles Stephenson, Brad Klopman
Distributor:                  Area 23A
http://bestworstmovie.com/

 

Best Worst Movie is the acclaimed feature-length documentary that takes us on an off-beat journey into the undisputed worst movie in cinematic history: Troll 2.

In 1989, when an Italian filmmaker and unwitting Utah actors shot the ultra-low budget horror film, Troll 2, they had no idea that 20 years later they would be celebrated worldwide for their legendary ineptitude.

Two decades later, the film's now-grown-up child star (Michael Paul Stephenson) unravels the improbable, heartfelt story of the Alabama dentist-turned-cult movie icon and the Italian filmmaker who come to terms with this genuine, internationally revered cinematic failure. Best Worst Movie is story of one of cinema's greatest tragedies... or triumph's -Troll 2. The result is a hilarious and tender off-beat journey and a genuine homage to lovers of bad movies and the people that create them.

 

Opening:                    May 21
Venue:                        Cinema Village/New York City
Film:                           After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United
Dir.:                            Christopher Browne                        
Prod./Co-Dir.:             Alec Browne             
http://www.afterthecup.com/

                       

There are over 1.4 million Arabs who are citizens of Israel, facing the challenge of living in a Jewish state while maintaining their Arabic heritage. In Israel, soccer is king, and Bnei Sakhnin has become the first team from an Arab town to win the prestigious Israeli Cup--and represent Israel in European competition. Fielding Arab, Jewish and foreign-born players, owned by an Arab, and coached by a Jew, Bnei Sakhnin's success has begun to represent a symbol of coexistence, a potential bridge between Arabs and Jews in Israel. But as Bnei Sakhnin begins its first season after their unexpected win, they know it may well be their first and last in the limelight. As the ideals born in the heady days and weeks following their cup win collide with the realities of a long season competing against the more talented and better funded teams, Bnei Sakhnin must fight to survive in Israel's premier league. These challenges, and the weight of impossible expectations that have come with their sudden success, threaten to crush the team and all of the hope and goodwill that its historic victory inspired. After the Cup tells the story of a soccer team that couldn't create a new Middle East, but showed the world what one could look like.

 

Opening:                     May 21
Film:                           Racing Dreams
Dir./Prod.:                  Marshall Curry                                
Prod.:                         Bristol Baughan
Distributor:                Hanover House                     
http://www.racingdreamsfilm.com/

 

Racing Dreams is the award-winning coming-of-age story about three kids who dream of one day racing in NASCAR.

Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry takes us into the lives of Annabeth (11 years old), Josh (12), and Brandon (13) as they compete for the championship in the World Karting Association's National Series, widely considered the Little League for professional racing.

Clocking speeds of up to 70 mph, these young drivers race their way through the year-long National Series that spawned many of NASCAR's top drivers. And at the same time, they navigate the treacherous road between childhood and young adulthood.

In intimate moments of young love and family struggle, this exciting and often humorous story has been fondly described as "part Catcher in the Rye, part Talledega Nights."

 

Opening:                     May 28
Venue:                        Cinema Village/New York City
Film:                           Picasso & Braque Go to the Movies
Dir.:                            Arne Glimcher                                  
Prods.:                        Martin Scorsese, Robert Greenhut
Distributor:                 Arthouse Films                     
http://www.arthousefilmsonline.com/2009/02/picasso-braque.html

 

Produced by Martin Scorsese and Robert Greenhut and directed by Arne Glimcher, Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies is a cinematic tour through the effects of the technological revolution, specifically the invention of aviation, the creation of cinema and their interdependent influence on artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. With narration by Scorsese, and interviews with art scholars and artists including Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel and Eric Fischl, the film looks at the collision between film and art at the turn of the 20th Century and helps us to realize cinema's continuing influence on the art of our time.