Act
and Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials
(2015/MVD Visual DVD)/#artoffline
(2015/IndiePix DVD)/Quest:
Portrait Of An American Family
(2017/First Run DVD)/Mabel,
Mabel, Tiger Trainer
(2018/Cinema Libre DVD)/Shadowman
(2017/Film Movement DVD)
Picture:
B-/B/C/C+/B Sound: B-/B/B/C+/B Extras: C-/C-/D/C/C+
Documentaries: B/C/B+/B-/B
Here's
the latest set of documentaries for you to know about...
Act
and Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trials
(2015) is
an interesting documentary sheds some light on the Pussy Riot Trials
and the strong themes of the Russian protests. The work here
continues to look at members of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot
and their three female musicians Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda
Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, so often shown in the
media, political and otherwise.
The
three girls are very talented and opinionated, and created quite a
stir in Russia in 2011 with public protests in Russia and against
Vladimir Putin, whose had violence used on them and probably will
again. The film is directed by Yevgeni Mitta.
Special
Features are minimal and include...
Slideshow
Trailer
Hard
hitting and relevant, this political doc should satisfy those with
interest.
While
everyone has their own interpretation of art and what it is, this
documentary, #artoffline
(2015) directed by Manuel Correa, explores the waging battles between
contemporary art and information technology. While the film has some
interesting ideas and explores them, it doesn't quite feel its
statement has been made as clear as it aims. His biggest issue is
that museums incorporate too much technology now as opposed to the
way things were years prior. So does that take away from the art and
is technology itself art?
The
only extra is a Trailer.
The
film is a bit brief at 60 minutes and will appeal most likely to art
aficionados more than others.
Filmmakers
& cameramen follow the Rainey family and neighborhood for nearly
a decade during the Obama Presidency. Raising a family in North
Philadelphia, it's a tough neighborhood with high crime and mortality
rates. While they struggle to create a safe home for their children,
they come to terms that life doesn't always goes what they want in
Jonathan Olshefski's Quest:
Portrait Of An American Family
(2017).
Quest
takes a look into the American Dream in the ghetto neighborhoods and
of African Americans still living in the 'hood'. Not everyone who
lives in the ghetto are into drugs, guns and violence, but they STILL
must live there trying to find jobs, fight cancer, raise a family,
and keeping their kids safe. To the Rainey family and their
neighbors, everyday is about survival they must worry about on top of
feeling safe in America. Stepping outside each day to them it is no
new news if they hear someone they knew got shot or died each day
...to them this is their norm.
This
documentary gives a little insight to the lower class African
American neighborhoods and what they had to grow up with. It shows
that they are like everyone else, dreaming, working for a future, but
they are stuck in a world with a lot more things to worry about,
crime in the neighborhood and growing up afraid if they will make it
or not. However, the point of the film isn't about getting out of
the hood or if they manage to lead a successful life, but this how
some people survive everyday ...and these are only the lucky ones
that we hear about.
There
are sadly no extras.
Leslie
Zemeckis' Mabel,
Mabel, Tiger Trainer
(2018) is the latest documentary by the lady with the familiar last
name (yes, she is Mrs. Robert Zemeckis) and this time, it is a look
at the ups and downs of the life of Mabel Stark, who came from an
awful childhood and ugly circumstances to become one of the few tiger
tamers, trainers and human performers with them back in the day when
it was considered entertainment and not the animal abuse &
captivity is is now seen as. So how in a 'man's world' this
happened.
Well,
some of it is because she hit it off with them all of the sudden,
plus a series of circumstances that led her to said opportunity, but
it is also because she was so isolated by the ugly past she had to
deal with. This is a full life biography of the woman and to
Zemeckis' credit, she once again digs deep to find out about what
happened, interviews a bunch of people and finds as many stills, film
and video clips as possible and it is remarkable the results in
total.
Miss
Stark definitely dealt with more ugliness than needed and that she
survived alone is amazing, let alone what her calling became. It is
very sad at times, the footage can be depressing at times and some of
this might be too graphic for some viewers, but it is worth a look
and gives us a rare look into the darkness of living in the time
period covered. Zemeckis (Bound
By Flesh,
Beyond
The Burly Q)
is building an interesting series of such works and we'll see what
she picks next to take on.
Extras
include three Behind The Scenes clips and a fourth Behind The Scenes
featurette with Zemeckis herself.
And
finally we have Shadowman
(2017),
directed by Oren Jacoby (Constantine's
Sword),
is an interesting biopic/documentary about accomplished artist named
Richard Hambleton that was a popular figure in the art scene in
Manhattan, New York in the 1980s.
Richard's
journey is chronicled here using archival footage and a modern day
retrospective interview that takes us on a true life rags to riches
to rags again story. Wanting to paint realism and inspired by real
life violence, Hamilton's work reminds me a little bit of Banksy (to
whom also has a great documentary about his art career). However,
Richard's work is very unique, as is the filmmaking in this doc,
which paints the portrait of an obscure (but characteristically
flawed) modern artist.
What
began as a career in public art that was shrouded in mystery and
shadowy silhouettes, Richard soon became a worldwide recognized
artist. In the 1980s, these shadow figures became a hot art piece
for collectors and soon articles about him in Life Magazine and
others started to materialize.
In
a time when the art market, drug culture, and Wall Street were all
bigger than ever, the film talks about street artists and the popular
of contemporary art in the 1980s. As Richard tries to change it up
and try different things with his art, he soon finds that not
everything becomes a success and spirals into a world of sex and drug
addiction. Despite living in poverty in often tragic circumstances,
Richard continues to create beautiful pieces of art thanks to friends
that he makes along the way.
Special
Features...
30
minutes of bonus material
Trailers
for other Film Movement releases
A
nice documentary that artists will definitely be interested in
seeing.
All
five DVDs
have anamorphically enhanced presentations and their combinations of
stills from various sources, rough digital video and analog
video (including from videotape)
can show flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage.
Presented
in standard definition with an anamorphically
enhanced
1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and optional English subtitles, the
Riot
film features a standard lossy Russian Dolby
Digital 2.0
Stereo audio track. Nothing too remarkable in terms of presentation,
the doc could of course look better on Blu-ray but not terrible here.
#artoffline
is presented on standard definition DVD and an anamorphically
enhanced
1.78 X 1 widescreen aspect ratio with a lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo track, both of which are fine for a documentary such as this
but nothing breathtaking.
Also
presented in standard definition with an anamorphically
enhanced
1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1
surround mix on the disc as well, the Shadowman
presentation is up to par with the format. The film is shot and
edited nicely and would have course be improved upon in HD with a
lack of detail in some paintings and art pieces that would be more
intensive on Blu-ray. There's a few recognizable songs on the
soundtrack including the infamous 'Psycho Killer' by the Talking
Heads.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Quest
can be really rough, but that can be expected under the
circumstances, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is surprisingly
much better, so that helps save it when watching it.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Mabel
also has some rough footage, but this is because of age (note the
staircasing, digititis and the like in some shots) including
kinescopes, so you know it will be 'diverse' to watch. As for sound,
we get both lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo mixes, but the 5.1 has a slight edge.
Also
presented in standard definition with an anamorphically
enhanced
1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1
surround mix on the disc as well, the Shadowman
presentation is up to par with the format. The film is shot and
edited nicely and would have course be improved upon in HD with a
lack of detail in some paintings and art pieces that would be more
intensive on Blu-ray. There's a few recognizable songs on the
soundtrack including the infamous 'Psycho Killer' by the Talking
Heads.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Mabel),
Ricky Chiang (Quest)
and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
