Recommended Documentaries

Recommended Docs

  • Public

This is a topic where you can say which documentary has really impressed you, and why people should see it. Can be a recent one or an all-time favourite. Can't be your own though, sorry...

Praise the work of others, not your own. If you want to beat the drum for your own documentary, please don't do it here. Professionals have their own Shameless Self-Promotion topic.

We also have a Documentary Films topic for our Professionals where the debate is private and possibly more controversial. This topic here is for recommendations to the documentary-interested public.

Rustin Thompson

Taming the Garden–what does a filmmaker owe their audience?

Taming the Garden
Director/ Salomé Jashi
Watched on MUBI
Rating 2.5/5

What does a filmmaker owe their audience? Do they owe them the answers to the basic questions, the who-what-why-where-how? No, of course not. They don’t really “owe” their audience anything, but if a filmmaker makes a film they want seen, rather than a film that is a pure expression of personal art that does not seek viewers (but one that viewers may stumble upon in an art gallery), there needs to be some attempt at providing the basics of engagement, if for no other reason than to prevent the viewer from constantly checking their phone or a printed brochure during the film’s running time in order to read the director statement or the critical review that might provide clues to what is happening on screen.

Taming the Garden, the frustratingly vague and exceedingly over-praised offering from filmmaker Salomé Jashi, READ THE REST...

Marga Varea

11th Annual Civil Rights Conference in New Orleans - A Crime on the Bayou screening

We have been working on a creative distribution campaign for A CRIME ON THE BAYOU by Nancy Buirski for the past few months, and our tour is culminating this June 18th at the 11th Annual Civil Rights Conference in New Orleans where we will be celebrating our 20th screening. If you happen to be in New Orleans, we strongly recommend you come watch this doc at the Ashe Power House. We will have subjects Gary Duncan and Lolis Elie speaking after the screening. Here is the link: https://civilrightsconference.com/schedule

Doug Block

Brian Newman recording

In this past Friday’s F2F I had the chance to chat with Brian about a wide-ranging number of topics touching mainly on new models of distribution and exhibition.

Alejandro Valdes Rochin

Los Angeles premiere of "Underdog"

I wanted to share news of the Los Angeles premiere of “Underdog”, a fantastic documentary that was programmed by Slamdance and the Camden International Film Festival. “Underdog” tells the curiously optimistic tale of Doug Butler—a hardscrabble Vermont dairy farmer who risks losing the only home he's ever known to chase his dreams of dog mushing in Alaska. An intimate vérité piece, the film puts a bright twist on the kinds of family farm tragedies that have marked American rural life.

I was part of the programming team at Slamdance and I'm happy this doc is getting out into the world after its online premiere during the pandemic.

Los Angeles premiere at Laemmle’s Royal on Aug 10th at 7:30 pm

Playing at Laemmle's Monica Film Center from Aug 11th

For more info got to

https://www.laemmle.com/film/underdog

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Matt Smith Matt Smith (Fri 4 Aug 2023)

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