Jacques Selosse employees in “Vas-y Coupe!” (Photo courtesy of By the By Productions)
“Vas-y Coupe!”
Directed by Laura Naylor
French with subtitles
World premiere at DOC NYC in New York City on November 9, 2019.
UPDATE: “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe!)” is the new title of the movie.
If you’ve ever wondered about some of the people behind the making of French champagne, you’ll get a look in “Vas-y Coupe!,” a candid but slow-paced peek into the crucial harvesting process. “Vas-y Coupe!” translates to “Go ahead, cut!” in English. This movie focuses on Jacques Selosse, a family-run vineyard in France’s Champagne region and what happens during harvest season. The documentary was inspired by director Laura Naylor’s real-life experiences harvesting grapes at the vineyard in 2016, about a year after she first discovered the vineyard through a sommelier friend.
Founded in the 1950s, Jacques Selosse is located in the small village of Avize, and much of the culture in the movie feels like a 1950s time warp. The roles of the men and women are, for the most part, sharply segregated by gender. Although there are a few harvesters who are female (and they’re briefly spotted on camera), the male harvesters and their male supervisors get most of the focus in this documentary. The women in the film are primarily shown in the kitchen and fulfilling the roles of cooks, food servers and maids. The women are preoccupied with preparing meals and trying on beauty products, while the men do the dirty work of picking and distilling the grapes. Even with the Selosse family that owns the vineyard, the men in the family are the ones who get to taste and evaluate the company’s product made from the harvested grapes.
In addition to the gender lines that are clearly defined, there are also class lines that are almost never crossed. The laborers know their place as servants, and there’s sometimes tension with the vineyard owners/supervisors over wage issues. The rough-and-tumble nature of this working-class crew sometimes leads to them clashing with each other, as minor squabbles are captured on camera. But if you’re looking for shocking, dramatic moments, you won’t find them here in this mostly quiet film. To its credit, what’s shown in this movie doesn’t look staged, like a reality show.
But to its detriment, the movie suffers from editing that shows too much repetition of mundane tasks. It’s not necessary for viewers to keep seeing similar scenes of the women in the kitchen discussing the meals they’re preparing, followed by scenes of the women serving the meals to the laborers gathered in the dining room area. In order for a documentary like this to stand out, there has to be at least one big, riveting personality to keep viewers interested, but the people in this movie are just too average to make this a compelling story. And unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down in so much “slice of life” footage that the end result is a documentary that is duller than it should be.
UPDATE: First Run Features has renamed the movie “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe)” and will release the movie on digital and VOD on October 8, 2020.
The 10th annual DOC NYC—which took place in New York City from November 6 to November 15, 2018—has continued its status as an outstanding international festival for documentary visual media, with more than 300 films at the festival. Almost all of the DOC NYC screenings and other events took place at the SVA Theatre, IFC Center and Cinépolis Chelsea. DOC NYC also has panel discussions about filmmaking, offering a wealth of opportunities to share knowledge, discover new talent and network with professionals. This year’s DOC NYC was dedicated to D.A. Pennebaker, the iconic documentarian (best known for “Don’t Look Back”), who died on August 1, 2019, at the age of 94.
AWARD WINNERS
Wang Tiancheng in “City Dream”
DOC NYC 2019 also had competitions, with all voted for by juries, except for the Audience Award and the Kanopy DOC NYC U Award. The winners were:
Viewfinders Competition (for films with a distinct directorial vision): “City Dream,” director Weijun Chen’s look at a feisty street vendor Wang Tiancheng’s battle to not be displaced by the Urban Management Bureau in Wuhan, China.
Special mention: “Love Child,” director Eva Mulvad’s portrait of an Iranian man who flees Iran with his mistress and their son because of Iran’s death-penalty laws against adultery.
Metropolis Competition (for films with New York City stories): “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back,” director John Carluccio’s profile of Tony-nominated entertainer Maurice Hines, the older brother of Gregory Hines.
Shorts Competition: “Bob of the Park,” director Jake Sumner’s profile of Robert “Birding Bob” DiCandido, who’s described in the DOC NYC materials as the “archvillain of New York City bird watchers.”
Special mentions: “A Childhood on Fire,” directed by Jason Hanasik; “Yves & Variation,” directed by Lydia Cornett
Audience Award: “I Am Not Alone,” director Garin Hovannisian’s profile of former Armenian political prisoner Nikol Pashinyan, who becomes a Member of Parliament and leads a peaceful protest against injustice.
DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award: “After Sherman,” directed by Jon-Sesrie Goff
Kanopy DOC NYC U Award (for student directors): “Kostya,” directed by Oxana Inipko (School of Visual Arts)
In addition, category awards were given to DOC NYC’s Short List films, which are considered frontrunners to be nominated for Oscars and other major film awards.
Short List: Features
“The Edge of Democracy” (Photo by Orlando Brito)
Directing Award: “The Edge of Democracy,” directed by Petra Costa
Producing Award: “American Factory,” produced by Steven Bognar, Julie Parker Benello, Jeff Reichert and Julia Reichert
Editing Award: “Apollo 11,” edited by Todd Douglas Miller
Cinematography Award: “The Elephant Queen,” cinematography by Mark Deeble
Special Recognition for Courage in Filmmaking: “For Sama,” director Waad al-Kateab
Short List: Shorts:
Directing Award: “Stay Close,” directed by Luther Clement and Shuhan Fan
The 2019 DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute (which has non-competitive categories), an invitation-only event presented on November 7, honored Martin Scorsese and Michael Apted, each with the Lifetime Achievement Award; “American Factory” directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart with the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence; and New York Women in Film & Television executive director Cynthia Lopez with the Leading Light Award.
Other celebrities who attended DOC NYC included Robbie Robertson, J.K, Simmons, Ron Howard, Katie Couric, Andre Leon Talley, Michael Moore, Kate Nash, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Olivia Harrison.
“To Be of Service” (Photo courtesy of First Run Features)
“To Be of Service”
Opening In Theaters in New York on November 1 and in LA on November 8, 2019
Featuring Original Song by Grammy Award-winning artist Jon Bon Jovi
Featuring Military Veterans and Their Service Dogs: Greg Kolodziejczyk and Valor, Sylvia Bowersox and Timothy, Tom Moody and Mako, Brandon Lewis and Booth, Phil Bauer and Champ, Walter Parker and Jackson
Directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Josh Aronson (“Sound and Fury”)
Documentary explores the remarkable life changes resulting from the
introduction of trained service dogs into the lives of military veterans
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Many veterans’ experience of returning home is wrought with depression and a wrenching disconnect from the world they once knew. Family, old friends and jobs seem foreign and the newly returned men and women struggle to function and return to a normal civilian life. Often the meds and therapy provided by the VA hasn’t helped these veterans imprisoned by the wounds of trauma, and they suffer trying to handle even the most mundane of daily tasks. Then, for the lucky ones who are
paired with a service dog, the unconditional love and support offered by these highly trained canines become the bedrock for them to re-engage with the outside world and to learn to feel again. In addition to providing constant companionship, these dogs help veterans navigate their fears. They help them sleep without night terrors, they support them as they face their daily challenges, and, over time, they restore their ability to feel safe, to be independent, to trust and to love again.
In “To Be Of Service” we cross the country to meet veterans just before they are paired with their service dog and learn how profoundly difficult their lives have been. We follow as they are paired with their dog and will re-visit these new battle buddies over the months to see how this deeply bonded friendship brings a return to independence and love for these men and women who have been so traumatized by war.
Since Vietnam the VA has worked to develop treatment programs for veterans suffering from PTSD, including therapy and medications, but, as yet, there is no universally effective protocol. The VA launched a pilot program evaluating the benefits of service dogs for PTSD, which has taken many years to complete, but their conclusions have still not been announced and as yet the VA will not sanction service dogs as a treatment for PTSD and no funding will be forthcoming for dogs.
Celebrating its 10th edition in 2019, the annual DOC NYC, which takes place in New York City, is one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, with a slate of more than 300 films from a diverse array of topics. In 2019, DOC NYC takes place from November 6 to November 15, and continues the festival’s tradition of offering an outstanding variety of feature films and short films, with several of the movies focusing on under-represented people and marginalized communities. Most of the festival’s events take place at the IFC Center, SVA Theatre and Cinépolis Chelsea. This year’s DOC NYC is dedicated to documentarian D.A. Pennebaker (“Don’t Look Back,” “The War Room”), who died on August 1, 2019, at the age of 94.
DOC NYC, which was co-founded by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, has also had an excellent track record when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Long before the 5050×2020 pledge to have gender parity for directors at film festivals, DOC NYC was ahead of its time by having a larger percentage of films from female directors than most other film festivals. Many other international film festivals are starting to catch up and make more of an effort to include movies from female directors. Beyond the gender parity issue, this year’s DOC NYC is a true definition of a “world-class” festival, since there are numerous ethnicities and cultures from around the world represented in the films at the festival. DOC NYC also offers panel discussions and filmmaker showcases through its DOC NYC PRO programming. Most of the discussions are geared to sharing behind-the-scenes knowledge about filmmaking.
Celebrities expected to attend the event include “Ask Dr. Ruth” star Ruth Westheimer; Lydia Lunch, L7 lead singer Donita Sparks and Sonic Youth lead singer Thurston Moore for “Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over”; “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back” star Maurice Hines; and “The Longest Wave” star Robby Naish. The directors of almost all of the films at DOC NYC will be at the festival’s screenings for introductions and post-screening Q&As.
The annual Visionaries Tribute, which takes place this year on November 7, will honor Martin Scorsese and Michael Apted, each with the Lifetime Achievement Award; “American Factory” directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart with the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence; and New York Women in Film & Television executive director Cynthia Lopez with the Leading Light Award.
There are many films at DOC NYC that have premiered elsewhere, and some films that have already been released in theaters. DOC NYC’s Short List collection spotlights films that could be Oscar contenders. Every year so far, DOC NYC’s Short List has had a movie that has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Films on DOC NYC’s Short List this year are “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Apollo 11,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm” (which was DOC NYC’s opening-night film in 2018), “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Elephant Queen,” “For Sama,” “The Great Hack,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker,” “Knock Down the House” and “One Child Nation.”
New this year is DOC NYC’s Winner’s Circle collection, which spotlights movies that have won awards at other film festivals, but might be underrated or overlooked for Oscar nominations. Winner’s Circle documentaries this year are “Advocate,” “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” “The Fourth Kingdom: The Kingdom of Classics,” “Hope Frozen,” “Midnight Family,” “Midnight Traveler” and “Sea of Shadows.”
Even though most of the movies at DOC NYC have had their world premieres elsewhere, DOC NYC has several world premieres of its own. Here are the feature films that will have their world premieres at DOC NYC. A complete schedule can be found here.
In this autobiographical film, director Cara Jones examines her upbringing in the controversial Unification Church of the Reverend Sun Myong Koon, also known as the Moonies. The main thing that most people know about the Moonies is that they are a Korean-based organization that arranges marriages for its members, and they have massive group weddings where the brides and grooms often don’t know each other very well before they get married. World premiere: November 9 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
This is an intimate portrait of jazz bassist Buster Williams, who has worked with legends such as John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughn, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson and Herbie Hancock. World premiere: November 12 at IFC Center.
This film gives a rare inside look at Ganden, which is considered the most influential monastery in Tibetan Buddhism. Ganden is where the Dalai Lama got his start. World Premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Howard Bloom was a high-powered entertainment publicist whose clients included Michael Jackson, Prince, Joan Jett, John Mellencamp, Billy Idol and Aerosmith. But when chronic fatigue syndrome left him housebound for 15 years, he reinvented himself as an author and philosopher. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
The current politically divided climate has led to an increase of documentaries exploring the impact of extreme hate groups. This documentary looks at Life After Hate, an organization of people who used to be neo-Nazis and white-supremacist skinheads, who are now trying to heal the wounds they caused in their communities and beyond. World premiere: November 13 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
For nearly 30 years, director Terry Gilliam tried to get a movie made based on the novel “Don Quixote,” but he experienced the kind of bad luck and setbacks that you might see in a movie. This documentary shows how the difficult journey was for Gilliam to make “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” which was finally released in 2019. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The rising cost of college education in the U.S. has increased a problem that is rarely talked about in the news media: Students often have to choose between paying for their tuition and paying for adequate, regular meals. World premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
This unusual documentary tells the story of Brian Belovitch, who lived as a male in his childhood and teen years, transitioned into a woman (and aspiring entertainer in New York City) in his 20s, and then decided to go back to living as a man. World premiere: November 7 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Suzanne Heintz is an artist with an eccentric schtick: She takes photographs of herself with mannequins (a man and a girl), and the pictures are supposed to look like family portraits. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Koshien is Japan’s national championship for high school baseball, and it’s considered the premiere recruiting resource for Japan’s baseball players who want to go pro. This film examines how competitive Koshien can be and why it’s a sporting event in Japan that’s almost the equivalent of the World Series in the United States. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The mysterious artist Clyfford Still was one of the leaders of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement, which included Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Still avoided the media spotlight, but this documentary examines the man behind the mystique. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Award-winning documentarian Joe Berlinger is known mostly for covering true crime (the West Memphis Three cases and serial killer Ted Bundy), but in “The Longest Wave” he turns to the sport of surfing to profile world-champion windsurfer Robby Naish. World premiere: November 13 at SVA Theatre.
“Los Últimos Frikis” translates in English to “The Ultimate Freaks.” The movie tells the story of Cuban heavy-metal band Zeus and the group’s struggles to survive for 30 years, starting with the Fidel Castro regime. The documentary focuses mainly on Zeus’ 25th anniversary tour in the Communist country, where heavy metal has been branded as the music of radicals. World premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
Avant-garde singer Lydia Lunch was a pioneer in the No Wave movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This film explains why she became an underrated influence in the ’90s riot girl movement and how she’s made an impact on today’s generation of feminist rock singers. World premiere: November 9 at IFC Center.
Mai Khoi used to be an uncontroversial pop star in her native Vietnam. But then she became an outspoken activist, formed a left-wing band called the Dissidents, and became the target of the Vietnamese government. World premiere: November 13 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
This movie offers a rare look at Martin Margiela, the celebrated fashion designer who left the industry at the height of his fame in 2008, and then became a recluse who refused to be interviewed or photographed. Viewers get unprecedented access to Margiela and his thoughts on his legacy since he retired from the spotlight. World premiere: November 8 at SVA Theatre.
Tony-nominated entertainer Maurice Hines gets candid about his life, including his sometimes rocky relationship with his more famous younger brother, Gregory Hines. This film also addresses how being an openly gay black man impacted Maurice’s career. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
This is a movie that will no doubt push emotional buttons and spark debate over the rights that women should have when it comes to family planning and pregnancy. “Personhood” looks at what happened when Wisconsin resident Tammy Loertscher is jailed while pregnant because of how she wanted to handle the pregnancy. World premiere: November 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Steve Talt, a native New Yorker, was the bodyguard to Sarah Pahlavi, the wife of the former Shah of Iran. Talt is still employed by Pahlavi, and he has taken it upon himself to find her stolen art collection, even if he has to hire shady people to help him do it. World premiere: November 14 at IFC Center.
Andy Señor co-directed this autobiographical film about his journey of bringing the Tony-winning musical “Rent” to Cuba, the homeland of his parents, with just 12 weeks to prepare. He also faces the challenges of Cuba’s restrictions on entertainment, especially since “Rent” tackles subjects that are taboo in much of Cuban culture, such as homosexuality and AIDS. World premiere: November 8 at SVA Theatre.
The River City Drum Corps in Louisville, Kentucky, has been an artistic outlet for African American youth for 30 years. Nardie White, the leader of the drum corps, is approaching retirement and must find a successor. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Donald Rugoff (who died in 1989 at the age of 62) was one of the underrated influencers of the independent film movement. The heir to the New York City-based arthouse theater chain Rugoff Theatres, he founded the independent film distribution company Cinema 5, which operated in the 1960s and 1970s, and helped boost the early careers of filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Costa-Gravas and Nicolas Roeg. World premiere: November 7 at IFC Center.
For more than 60 years, James Stevenson (who died in 2017 at the age of 87) was a cartoonist at The New Yorker and then The New York Times, as well as a prolific children’s author. This film tells his story. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
As Americans debate over how much the U.S. government is responsible for fixing people’s problems, this documentary takes a look at how U.S. residents are affected by opioid addiction, poverty and incarceration. World Premiere: November 13 at SVA Theatre.
Not to be confused with the 2009 Mike Tyson documentary “Tyson” (directed by James Toback), this new “Tyson” documentary (directed by David Michaels) is also about Mike Tyson, but it’s an updated look at the former boxing champ’s life. World premiere: November 9 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The public education system is facing a crisis in many areas of the U.S., and this movie is a profile of the alternative school Natural Creativity Center, which has been operating for about 30 years in Pennsylvania. The unorthodox teachings of the school include students being allowed to direct their own learning. World premiere: November 11 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
“Vas-y Coupe!” translates to “Go ahead, cut!” in English. This movie takes a look at a family-run vineyard in France’s Champagne region and what happens during harvest season. World premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
There’s an ongoing battle in the U.S. over what the federal minimum wage should be for restaurant workers who receive tips. On one side is the National Restaurant Association, which wants to keep the minimum wage as low as possible. (The federal minimum wage for an hourly salary will rise from $11.10 to $12, as of January 1, 2020.) On the other side is Restaurant Opportunities Center United, which is fighting for a higher minimum wage. World premiere: November 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
World premiere at the New York Film Festival in New York City on September 29, 2019.
Roy Cohn will go down infamy as the attorney who helped spearhead U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s political witch hunt of suspected Communists in the 1950s, and Cohn later became a “fixer” for shady clients and powerful criminals, including the Mafia. Cohn (who died of AIDS in 1986, the same year he was disbarred) is the subject of two documentary films in two years, but each documentary is very different from each other.
Sony Pictures Classics’ “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” (released in U.S. cinemas in 2019) from director Matt Tyrnauer takes a more traditional approach of a Cohn biography that’s told in chronological order. HBO’s “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” (which is set to premiere on HBO in 2020) tells a more personal, non-linear story, because director Ivy Meeropol’s paternal grandparents were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whose McCarthy-era persecution led to the Rosenbergs being executed for espionage in 1953.
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” gets its title from the “Bully Coward Victim” description on Cohn’s AIDS quilt panel that was part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed in front of Washington, D.C.’s National Mall in 1987. The quilt panel for Cohn was anonymously made. “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” opens with home video that was made 25 years after Cohn’s death. The video shows Ivy Meeropol interviewing her father Michael Meeropol about the Rosenberg case. He says that the family is united in the statement that this tragedy will never happen again.
After Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair, their two orphaned sons Michael and Robert were adopted by writer/teacher/activist Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne. Because the Rosenberg/Meeropol family history is so intertwined with Cohn’s history, the documentary is partially a biography of the Rosenberg/Meeropol family, because it reveals the devastating and long-lasting effects of the execution. In that regard, “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” is almost like a spinoff to Ivy Meeropol’s 2004 documentary “Heir to an Execution,” which explored the Rosenberg case from the family perspective.
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” jumps around in timeline and includes a lot of archival footage and new interviews. The documentary also features Michael and Robert Meeropol’s activism and ongoing fight to prove that their parents were not guilty of the crimes which led to the Rosenbergs’ execution. Although the editing for “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” isn’t as neatly structured as “Where’s My Roy Cohn?,” Ivy Meeropol’s documentary has better interviews and packs more of an emotional punch.
For example, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” has some exclusive interviews that are definitely outdated, including interviews with Roger Stone (a Cohn ally and conservative Republican strategist who’s had a fall from grace, due to various criminal charges) and gossip columnist Liz Smith, who died in 2016. “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” interviews an almost entirely different set of people, including Cohn’s former driver Peter Allen, attorney/Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, journalist Taki Theodoracopulos, director/actor David Lloyd Marcus and writer Tony Kushner, whose “Angels in America” about the 1980s AIDS crisis became an award-winning Broadway play and HBO miniseries.
Nathan Lane, who won a Tony Award for portraying Cohn in the 2018 Broadway revival of “Angels in America,” describes Cohn as “nerdy and creepy by lovely” on talk shows, but Lane says that Cohn was very different in private. Gossip columnist Cindy Adams (best known for her work in the New York Post) admits she did favors for Cohn “because he was my friend. It was loyalty.”
Author/journalist Peter Manso, who interviewed Cohn for Playboy magazine in 1981, calls Cohn a “lawless madman.” Meanwhile, attorney John Klotz has this to say about Cohn: “He was not just a lawyer for the Mob, he was an active participant.”
Cohn was a longtime mentor to Donald Trump, who later shunned Cohn after Cohn was federally investigated for corruption and was eventually disbarred in 1986. John LeBoutillier, a Republican former U.S. Congressman for New York, says that in 1983, when Trump and Cohn were still close, LeBoutillier was pressured by Cohn to write a letter of recommendation for Maryanne Trump Barry (Donald Trump’s eldest sister) to become a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. She received the nomination from then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan and was later confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate.
Early in his career, Cohn had his own Senate hearing that was much more notorious. During the televised Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, Cohn was accused of pressuring the U.S. Army to give preferential treatment to Cohn’s Army buddy G. David Schine, who was rumored to be Cohn’s secret lover. The hearings are part of TV history because it’s the first time that the word “homosexual” was said on U.S. television.
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” and “Where’s My Roy Cohn?’ both include descriptions of Cohn (who was never married and had no children) as an eccentric and closeted gay man. However, “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” takes a deeper dive into Cohn’s double life by going into more details about his semi-openly gay lifestyle in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Cohn kept his law practice based in his hometown of New York City, where he worked out of his multimillion-dollar townhouse. In public, he had the image of a high-powered, conservative Republican who had attractive women as his dates for society events. However, Cohn had another life in Provincetown (a popular getaway city for gay men), where he had another home. It was an open secret in Provincetown that he was gay and had a preference for much-younger men and cocaine-fueled parties.
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” has interviews with Provincetown locals who were in contact with Cohn. (“Where’s My Roy Cohn?” doesn’t interview these Provincetown sources.) One of them is former hustler Ryan Landry, who says he was hired by Cohn in the 1970s to have sex with Cohn’s younger lover while Cohn watched. Landry says he spent time with Cohn on multiple occasions and was surprised to find out that he and Cohn had similar taste in music.
Anne Packard, an artist who was Cohn’s next-door neighbor in Provincetown, says: “I never saw him alone, except when he was swimming.” The documentary includes several archival photos of Cohn spending time with several “boy toys” in his company. (It’s clear that Cohn and his male friends liked to go on boats.) Openly gay filmmaker John Waters, who remembers seeing Cohn in Provincetown, says in the documentary: “I was appalled that he was here [in Provincetown].”
It’s also mentioned that Cohn would frequently hire his younger lovers to work for him at his law firm, usually as his assistant. One such employee/lover was Peter Fraser, who the documentary says was used as a “cut out” for money laundering. The documentary includes some never-before-seen paperwork that showed how Cohn would put questionable expenses in his law firm’s accounting reports. Money laundering and other corruption charges would eventually lead to Cohn’s downfall.
Toward the end of his life, when it was obvious that Cohn was in failing health, he continued to publicly deny that he had AIDS. The documentary points out that one of the most despised aspects of Cohn was his damaging hypocrisy. He was a gay man, but throughout his career, he actively worked with politicians and other people in power to prevent LGBTQ people from having equal rights. And even though he always publicly denied that he had AIDS, Cohn used his privileged position to secretly get preferential medical treatment when the government needed volunteers for possible AIDS vaccines.
Cohn had a reputation as a tyrant who liked to put fear into his enemies, but the documentary exposes that Cohn wasn’t as fearless as he portrayed himself to be. Cohn’s very public feud with Richard Dupont (a former client of Cohn’s) got so ugly that Dupont ended up in New York State Supreme Court in 1981, for various charges, including harassment and burglary against Cohn. “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” has never-before-heard voice messages of Cohn begging Dupont to stop “tormenting” him.
In the documentary, Dershowitz says that Cohn admitted to him that he “framed guilty people” and that the Rosenbergs were framed. “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” isn’t the vindictive vendetta that people might assume it is. The documentary doesn’t portray Cohn as innocent of his crimes, but it definitely reveals him to be a self-hating bully who took out his hatred on other people. Cohn destroyed countless lives in the process, but he was also his own worst enemy.
UPDATE: HBO will premiere “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” on June 18, 2020.
“Cunningham 3D” (Photo courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center)
The following is a press release from Film at Lincoln Center:
Film at Lincoln Center announces the complete lineup for the Spotlight on Documentary section of the 57th New York Film Festival (September 27–October 13). This year’s series of dispatches from the front lines of nonfiction cinema features incisive portraits of iconic figures, intimate reports from inside the American prison system, New York stories both personal and political, and much more.
Selections include three documentaries spotlighting larger-than-life subjects, including legendary dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham in Alla Kovgan’s visceral and immersive documentary Cunningham 3D; Bully. Coward. Victim, in which director Ivy Meeropol unflinchingly examines the life and death of conservative power broker Roy Cohn, who began his career prosecuting her own grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg; and Ric Burns’s Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, which offers a glimpse into the private life of Sacks in a moving tribute to the endlessly curious writer and neurologist. The lineup also features family stories from returning filmmaker Nick Broomfield, crafting his most personal film to date with My Father and Me, a portrait of his relationship with his factory worker-turned-photographer father Maurice Broomfield; Nicholas Ma, whose short documentary Suite No. 1, Prelude captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father, the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma; and Michael Apted, showcasing a different kind of family in 63 Up, the ninth entry in the long-running film series that returns to the lives of its thirteen subjects as they come to terms with illness, death, Brexit, and more.
Two films in Spotlight on Documentary go inside the American prison system, depicting human stories with intimacy, candor, and humor. In College Behind Bars, veteran documentarian Lynn Novick has crafted a four-part chronicle of several ambitious incarcerated students in New York state correctional facilities, witnessing their debates and discussions of philosophy, science, and Shakespeare as they navigate the daily cruelties of prison life. On the opposite coast, director Tim Robbins captures an extraordinary acting workshop for inmates inside the Calipatria State maximum-security facility in 45 Seconds of Laughter, culminating in a performance inspired by the Commedia dell’arte tradition.
Additional highlights of the lineup include the New York stories of Free Time, which features meticulously restored 16mm black-and-white footage of city life shot by Walter Hess and director Manfred Kirchheimer between 1958 and 1960, and D.W. Young’s The Booksellers, a lively tour of New York’s book world past and present with insights from Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Gay Talese, and a community of dedicated book dealers. Other standout titles are Tania Cypriano’s Born to Be, a film of astonishing access that goes behind the scenes at Mount Sinai Hospital to capture the emotional and physical processes of transgender patients in the midst of surgical transition; Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread, which finds the director also acting as producer, cinematographer, and editor in his portrait of a community of Syrian refugees living in a Lebanese tent camp; and two films that offer new insights into historic political events: Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia, which tells the little known story of the Italian Embassy’s efforts to save and relocate citizens targeted by the fascist regime of Augusto Pinochet after a U.S.-backed military coup, and Sergei Loznitsa’s found-footage documentary State Funeral, which features previously unseen archival images from the days following the death of Joseph Stalin.
Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FLC Director of Programming, and Florence Almozini, FLC Associate Director of Programming.
HBO® is the presenting sponsor of Spotlight on Documentary.
As previously announced, the NYFF57 Opening Selection is Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story is Centerpiece Selection, and Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn is the Closing Selection. The complete lineup for the Main Slate, Projections, and Convergence can be found here.
NYFF Retrospectives, Revivals, Special Events, Talks, and Shorts sections, as well as filmmaker conversations and panels, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Spotlight on Documentary tickets are $30 for General Public and $25 for Members & Students. Some exceptions may apply.
Tickets for the 57th New York Film Festival will go on sale to the general public on September 8. Festival and VIP passes are on sale through Friday, August 23rd and offer one of the earliest opportunities to purchase tickets and secure seats at some of the festival’s biggest events, including Opening and Closing Night.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
45 Seconds of Laughter Dir. Tim Robbins, USA, 95m U.S. Premiere
A selected group of inmates at the Calipatria State maximum-security facility have convened for a highly unlikely workshop. In prison they normally segregate themselves by gang or by race, but here they are all mixed together, sitting in a circle. Over the course of several recurring meetings, the men, many of whom have been incarcerated for serious crimes, will take part in a series of acting exercises that enhance bonding and emotional connection, each session closing with the participants bursting into 45 seconds of unbridled, cleansing laughter. The entire endeavor—part of The Prison Project, a remarkable program conducted by the L.A. theater troupe The Actors’ Gang that has proven to cut down recidivism rates—will climax in a final performance inspired by the Commedia dell’arte tradition. In his contemplative, pared down, and wildly engaging documentary, Dead Man Walking director Tim Robbins—who also appears in the film, taking part in the workshop—captures these extraordinary sessions, and introduces us to the individuals fearlessly investigating their own performative natures and the masculine social roles they play.
63 Up Dir. Michael Apted, UK, 138m U.S. Premiere
Those of us who have devotedly followed Michael Apted’s one-of-a-kind British film series for the past several decades anticipate with great warmth—and more than a little poignant anxiety—returning every seven years to the lives of Tony; Nicholas; Suzy; Symon and Paul; Jackie, Sue, and Lynn; Andrew and John; Neil and Peter; and Bruce. Charting their growth has constituted one of the most rewarding documentary projects of all time, an ongoing inquiry into economic determination and the elusive search for happiness. In the rich, searching, and entertaining latest installment, they are more introspective than ever at age 63, coming to terms with death and illness, the disappointments of a fractured England, and uneasy prospects for their children and grandchildren’s futures. But they also remain, to a person, witty, optimistic, and delightful company.
Bitter Bread Dir. Abbas Fahdel, Lebanon/Iraq/France, 87m World Premiere
Among the countless Syrian citizens who have fled their country, about one-and-a-half-million have relocated to neighboring Lebanon. In this patient, heart-rending portrait, Iraqi-born filmmaker Abbas Fahdel, director of the epic Homeland (Iraq Year Zero), settles in with a community of refugees living in a tent camp in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, most of them children. Hopeful to earn a meager wage as they work under the supervision of a Lebanese shawish, who owns the plot of land they’re essentially renting, the adults try to keep their families together amidst flooding and destructive seasonal weather, all the while listening to the radio for news from back home. Fahdel burrows in with his subjects in close quarters, alighting on the various human dramas that occur throughout the camp, including the frustrations of a young man waiting to bring in his fiancée from back home. Most importantly, Fahdel, working as director, producer, cinematographer, and editor, simply lets these desperate yet resilient people—so often treated as statistics—speak for themselves.
The Booksellers Dir. D.W. Young, USA, 99m World Premiere
What once seemed like an esoteric world now seems essential to our culture: the community of rare book dealers and collectors who, in their love of the delicacy and tactility of books, are helping to keep the printed word alive. D.W. Young’s elegant and entertaining documentary, executive produced by Parker Posey, is a lively tour of New York’s book world, past and present, from the Park Avenue Armory’s annual Antiquarian Book Fair, where original editions can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars; to the Strand and Argosy book stores, still standing against all odds; to the beautifully crammed apartments of collectors and buyers. The film features a litany of special guests, including Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Gay Talese, and a community of dedicated book dealers who strongly believe in the wonder of the object and the everlasting importance of what’s inside.
Born to Be Dir. Tania Cypriano, USA, 92m World Premiere
Soon after New York state passed a 2015 law that health insurance should cover transgender-related care and services, director Tania Cypriano and producer Michelle Hayashi began bringing their cameras behind the scenes at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where this remarkable documentary captures the emotional and physical journey of surgical transitioning. Lending equal narrative weight to the experiences of the center’s groundbreaking surgeon Dr. Jess Ting and those of his diverse group of patients, Born to Be perfectly balances compassionate personal storytelling and fly-on-the-wall vérité. It’s a film of astonishing access—most importantly into the lives, joys, and fears of the people at its center.
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn Dir. Ivy Meeropol, USA, 94m World Premiere
This thorough and mesmerizing documentary takes an appropriately unflinching look at the life and death of Roy Cohn, the closeted, conservative American lawyer whose first job out of law school was prosecuting filmmaker Ivy Meeropol’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Moving from the fifties—when he was also chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy—to the crooked deals and shady power brokering of the eighties that led Cohn to becoming the right-hand man and mentor of Donald J. Trump, this film is not merely a depiction of a brutal, ideologically diseased man—it’s an interrogatory work in search of the true character behind an icon of the political right in a deeply troubled America. Featuring interviews with such figures as Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Tony Kushner, Nathan Lane, John Waters, and a trove of fascinating, recently unearthed archive video and audio material. An HBO Documentary Films release.
College Behind Bars Dir. Lynn Novick, USA, 222m World Premiere
Out of the more than 50,000 men and 2500 women incarcerated in New York State, only a tiny fraction have access to higher education. The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) enrolls incarcerated men and women earning Associate and Bachelor’s degrees; it’s a program with wide-ranging benefits, including lower rates of recidivism, and it challenges our prioritization of punishment over education. Veteran filmmaker Lynn Novick, whose producing and directing credits include epochal miniseries Baseball, Jazz, Prohibition, and The Vietnam War, in collaboration with longtime producer Sarah Botstein, have created an intimate documentary event: a four-part chronicle filmed in correctional facilities in Napanoch and Bedford Hills. The film follows a handful of ambitious and inspiring incarcerated students—most of them serving time for serious crimes—as they debate and discuss American history and mathematics, philosophy and science, Moby Dick and King Lear, DuBois and Arendt, and simultaneously navigate the difficulties and cruelties of prison life and attempt to come to terms with their pasts. A PBS release.
Cunningham 3D Dir. Alla Kovgan, Germany/France/USA, 93m U.S. Premiere
One of the most visionary choreographers of the 20th century, Merce Cunningham could also be counted among its great modern artists, part of a coterie of important experimenters across media that included Robert Rauschenberg, Brian Eno, Jasper Johns, and his long-term romantic partner John Cage. This painstakingly constructed new documentary both charts his artistic evolution over the course of three decades and immerses the viewer in the precise rhythms and dynamic movements of his choreography through a 3D process that allows us to step inside the dance. Director Alla Kovgan has created a visceral experience that both reimagines and pays tribute to Cunningham’s groundbreaking technique. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Free Time Dir. Manfred Kirchheimer, USA, 61m World Premiere
Manny Kirchheimer is one of the great masters of the American city symphony, as is clear from films like Stations of the Elevated (1981) and Dream of a City, which showed at last year’s NYFF. In his latest work, the 88-year-old Kirchheimer has meticulously restored and constructed 16mm black-and-white footage that he and Walter Hess shot in New York between 1958 and 1960. This lustrous evocation of a different rhythm of life captures the in-between moments—kids playing stickball, window washers, folks reading newspapers on their stoops—and the architectural beauty of urban spaces, set to the stirring sounds of Ravel, Bach, Eisler, and Count Basie. The breathtaking footage was shot in several distinct New York neighborhoods, including Washington Heights, the Upper West Side, and Hell’s Kitchen, and features impressionistic stops throughout the city, making time for an auto junkyard in Inwood, a cemetery in Queens, and the elegant buildings of the financial district.
Preceded by Suite No. 1, Prelude Dir. Nicholas Ma, USA, 15m
Nicholas Ma—producer of the winning Mister Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?—has made a short, loving portrait of his legendary father, Yo-Yo Ma. Avoiding idolatry, the film uses its casual intimacy to focus on the nuances of craft and the drive for perfection, detailing the world-renowned cellist’s endeavor, at age 61, to record Bach’s Cello Suites for the third and, he says, last time. Filmed in the splendid Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts.
My Father and Me Dir. Nick Broomfield, UK, 97m North American Premiere
For decades among the foremost names in documentary, Nick Broomfield (Tales of the Grim Sleeper, NYFF52) has often implicated himself in the filmmaking process, with honesty and candor. Yet never has he made a movie more distinctly personal than this complex and moving film about his relationship with his humanist-pacifist father, Maurice Broomfield, a factory worker turned photographer of vivid, often lustrous images of industrial post-WWII England. These images inspired Nick’s own filmmaking career, but also spoke to a difference in outlook between Maurice and Nick, whose less romantic, more left-wing political identity stemmed from his Jewish mother’s side. My Father and Me is both memoir and tribute, and in its intimate story of one family takes an expansive, philosophical look at the twentieth century itself.
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life Dir. Ric Burns, USA, 110m U.S. Premiere
In the early seventies, the world was watching as Chile democratically elected Socialist leader Salvador Allende. His political ideals and aspirations—among them providing education for all children and distributing land to the nation’s workers—terrified the country’s right-wing, as well as the U.S., who helped orchestrate a military coup that replaced him with dictator Augusto Pinochet. This tragic history has been well documented, but Italian director Nanni Moretti (Caro Diario, Ecce Bombo) adds an angle many viewers may not know about: the efforts of the Italian Embassy to save and relocate citizens targeted by the fascist regime. Told through the testimonies of those who were there, Santiago, Italia is a chilling depiction of living under junta rule and an ultimately inspiring expression of hope amidst dire circumstances.
State Funeral Dir. Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands/Lithuania, 132m U.S. Premiere
As proven in his recent documentaries Maidan, The Event, and The Trial, versatile Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has become one of the contemporary masters of the found-footage documentary, using the form to study the nature of the Soviet regime and uncover its darkest legacies for contemporary and future generations. In State Funeral, he has uncovered a wealth of astonishing, mostly unseen archival footage of the “Great Farewell” in the days following the death of Joseph Stalin in March 1953: the teeming mass of mourners clogging Moscow’s Red Square, the speech announcing the hasty appointment of Malenkov, and finally Stalin’s burial in Lenin’s Tomb. While speeches about the Soviet Union’s unyielding fortitude and unity in the face of tragedy blare endlessly on speakers, and the pomp and ostentation grows increasingly surreal, the brilliantly edited and sound-designed State Funeral becomes an ever-relevant meditation on not just the horrors but also the absurdity of totalitarianism and the cult of personality.
TIFF Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente today announced the second set of selections in the Gala and Special Presentations programmes screening this September at the 44th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival.
“We’re thrilled to announce this second wave of Galas and Special Presentations, which I believe are some of the most compelling in the lineup,” said Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF. “Audiences will be delighted by the artistry present in this year’s splashiest sections.”
“Our TIFF programmers have given us a lot to look forward to this year,” said Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF. “These final films add even more emotional resonance and gravitas to this year’s already stellar lineup.”
These films round out the Gala and Special Presentations programmes for a total of 20 and 55 films, respectively.
GALAS
The Aeronauts
Directed by Tom Harper | United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere
The Burnt Orange Heresy
Directed by Giuseppe Capotondi | USA/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
American Son
Directed by Kenny Leon | USA
World Premiere
Deerskin (Le Daim)
Directed by Quentin Dupieux | France
International Premiere
Dirt Music
Directed by Gregor Jordan | United Kingdom/Australia
World Premiere
The Elder One (Moothon)
Directed by Geetu Mohandas | India
World Premiere
Guns Akimbo
Directed by Jason Lei Howden | Germany/New Zealand
World Premiere
Human Capital
Directed by Marc Meyers | USA
World Premiere
Jungleland
Directed by Max Winkler | USA
World Premiere
Lucy in the Sky
Directed by Noah Hawley | USA
World Premiere
Lyrebird
Directed by Dan Friedkin | USA
International Premiere
Mosul
Directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan | USA
North American Premiere
Seberg
Directed by Benedict Andrews | USA/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Sibyl
Directed by Justine Triet | France/Belgium
North American Premiere
SYNCHRONIC
Directed by Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson | USA
World Premiere
The Truth (La vérité)
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda | France/Japan
North American Premiere
Wasp Network
Directed by Olivier Assayas | France, Brazil, Spain, Belgium
North American Premiere
Waves
Directed by Trey Edward Shults | USA
International Premiere
Albert Shin’s Clifton Hill was previously announced as part of the Special Presentations programme.
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/galas and tiff.net/specialpresentations.
MASTERS
The Toronto International Film Festival® has revealed the 11 films that will comprise the 2019 Masters programme, with Brad Deane assuming the role of Lead Programmer. Deane continues in his role as Director of TIFF Cinematheque and as a member of the Festival’s Platform Selection Committee.
Featuring films set in Asia, Europe, North America, and Central America, the Masters lineup has titles that run the gamut, from dramatic true stories to dark comedies, from a black-and-white narrative to a documentary film, with a healthy dose of introspection and socio-political commentary throughout. The slate will bring two World Premieres to Toronto.
“One of the most exciting things about leading the vision for this programme so far has been the opportunity to explore what defines a Master and the role that these directors play in pushing the future of cinema forward,” said Deane. “I made it a priority to bring filmmakers into the fold that haven’t previously screened in this programme so their films can play alongside some of the more established names. By looking at the films in the programme, it’s apparent that mastering the form is only the jumping-off point for unique and powerful storytelling, and I am looking forward to the discussions that will emerge among Toronto audiences about what makes a master.”
In Devil Between the Legs, Arturo Ripstein directs a script written by his wife, Paz Alicia Garciadiego, about a warring old couple and their maid, who eventually takes matters into her own hands. Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson will come back to the Festival with About Endlessness, a series of vignettes documenting our lack of awareness.
American-Canadian Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin will premiere her latest documentary, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger, about the long struggle of Indigenous activists to ensure equitable access to government-funded services for First Nations children. British legend Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You presents a bittersweet tale of the gig economy in modern-day England.
Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor is a biographical drama about Tommaso Buscetta, a mafia informant whose testimony led to the largest prosecution of the Sicilian Mafia in Italian history. To the Ends of the Earth, the latest from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, tells the story of an introverted travel-show host on assignment in Uzbekistan.
There are five first-timers in Masters this year. A Hidden Life, a portrait of Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious Austrian who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II, will mark American director Terrence Malick’s first time attending the Festival in this category. Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But… chronicles the aftermath of a 13-year-old student’s disappearance and his mysterious reappearance. Zombi Child, from France’s Bertrand Bonello, spans 55 years, jumping between 1962 Haiti and present-day Paris and dealing with the repercussions of colonialism. In The Whistlers, from Romanian New Wave director Corneliu Porumboiu, a corrupt cop travels to the Spanish island of La Gomera, home to a secret whistling language. And Elia Suleiman stars in his latest film, It Must Be Heaven, a dark comedy centred on a man who leaves Palestine only to find that his problems follow him everywhere he goes.
Films screening as part of the Masters programme include:
A Hidden Life
Directed by Terrence Malick | USA/Germany
Canadian Premiere
About Endlessness
Directed by Roy Andersson | Sweden/Germany/Norway
North American Premiere
Devil Between the Legs (El Diablo entre las Piernas)
Directed by Arturo Ripstein | Mexico/Spain
World Premiere
I Was at Home, But… (Ich war zuhause, aber…)
Directed by Angela Schanelec | Germany/Serbia
North American Premiere
It Must Be Heaven
Directed by Elia Suleiman | France/Qatar/Germany/Canada/Palestine/Turkey
North American Premiere
Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger
Directed by Alanis Obomsawin | Canada
World Premiere
Sorry We Missed You
Directed by Ken Loach | United Kingdom/France/Belgium
North American Premiere
To the Ends of the Earth (Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari)
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Japan/Uzbekistan/Qatar
North American Premiere
The Traitor
Directed by Marco Bellocchio | Italy
North American Premiere
The Whistlers
Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu | Romania/France/Germany
North American Premiere
Zombi Child
Directed by Bertrand Bonello | France
North American Premiere
Alanis Obomsawin’s Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger was previously announced.
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/masters
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sru6plmWc3o
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival® unveiled today the lineup for its 2019 Contemporary World Cinema (CWC) programme. The rich slate of titles from 48 countries features a wide range of thought-provoking stories that delve into cultural issues and social struggles in poetic and captivating ways. Introducing 21 works directed and co-directed by women, this year’s edition of CWC focuses on fractured families, self-exploration, female-driven narratives, and the consequences of social and political crises.
“Contemporary World Cinema is a place where different cultures meet,” said Kiva Reardon, International Programmer and new Lead Programmer for the section. “The vision for the programme is to help expand the cinematic canon and push the definition of what has previously been deemed as fundamental. This is a selection of essential, urgent cinema. It has been a pleasure to work with my fellow programmers in this new role to offer bold stories and invigorating films that ask our audiences to reflect on their position in the world.”
“Contemporary World Cinema is the heartbeat of the Festival,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF Artistic Director and Co-Head. “This is where audiences feel the pulse of what’s happening now all around the world in screen storytelling. It takes a strong curatorial vision to shape that vast variety of films. I’m glad we have Kiva Reardon on the job as CWC Lead Programmer.”
With contributions from Cameron Bailey, Brad Deane, Giovanna Fulvi, Steve Gravestock, Dorota Lech, Michael Lerman, Michèle Maheux, Diana Sanchez, and Ravi Srinivasan, Reardon has decided to emphasize the importance of showing the current state of the world through the lens of international, deeply talented filmmakers who help guide us through the reality of our social and political environments.
The African continent is represented in the lineup by eight films beaming with creativity. Opening the programme is Atiq Rahimi’s third feature, Our Lady of the Nile, which follows a group of Rwandan girls in a Catholic boarding school. The bewitching work, which boasts hypnotic cinematography, foreshadows the country’s 1994 genocide. The programme also serves as a platform for acclaimed regional projects such as Jenna Bass’ South African road movie Flatland, Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s Knuckle City, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Terminal Sud, and Amjad Abu Alala’s mystical You Will Die at Twenty.
Winner of the Grand Prix in Cannes, Mati Diop’s exploration of migration, Atlantics, leads a bold wave of films exploring pressing global issues: Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante presents an examination of his country’s political wounds with La Llorona, in which civil war victims haunt their torturer’s life; Laos’ first and only female director to ever present a film at TIFF, Mattie Do, couples family loss and time-travelling in The Long Walk; and Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu offers a daring allegory on toxic masculinity in a remote Indian village. Other award-winning films included in the slate are Synonyms, the Golden Bear–winning film from Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, and the recipients of the 2019 Cannes Jury Prize: French director Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables and the Brazilan film Bacurau, co-directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles.
This year’s CWC slate is also rich in contributions from internationally renowned actors — both in front of and behind the camera — with Mexican actor Gael García Bernal’s second film as director, Chicuarotes; Austrian performer Karl Markovics’s third feature, Nobadi; Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn’s Instinct; and an extraordinary performance from Iranian icon Golshifteh Farahani in Manele Labidi’s Arab Blues. Produced by US powerhouse Jada Pinkett Smith, Minhal Baig’s Hala is a coming-of-age story about an American Muslim teenager trying to balance her relationship with her strict parents and her own desires. The film is inspired by Baig’s own life and brings to the screen a fresh look at the teen experience.
Other highlights in the programme study the complexity of family dynamics, such as Taiwanese Chung Mong-Hong’s lyrical A Sun, which focuses on a fractured father–son relationship. Balloon, directed by Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, tells the conflicting struggles of a family dealing with China’s one-child policy. And Yaron Zilberman returns to TIFF with the World Premiere of Incitement, the first-ever fiction film to depict the cataclysmic assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Spotlighting the struggles and triumphs of women in societies around the world are: Maryam Touzani’s domestic epic Adam; Hikari’s 37 Seconds, which follows a young manga artist who uses her craft as a tool of self-discovery; and Sharipa Urazbayeva’s Mariam, the story of a strong Kazakhstani mother and her drive to help her family survive. Films centring on working-class women include internationally acclaimed Bengali director Rubaiyat Hossain’s Made in Bangladesh, which follows a factory worker fighting for dignity in the world of fast fashion; The County, from Cannes prize–winning Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson; and Edward Burns’ intriguing family portrait Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies.
Films screening as part of the Contemporary World Cinema programme include:
37 Seconds
Directed by Hikari | Japan/USA
Canadian Premiere
Adam
Directed by Maryam Touzani | Morocco/France/Belgium
North American Premiere
Arab Blues (Un Divan à Tunis)
Directed by Manele Labidi | France
North American Premiere
Atlantics
Directed by Mati Diop | France/Senegal/Belgium
North American Premiere
Atlantis
Directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych | Ukraine
North American Premiere
Bacurau Kleber
Directed by Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles | Brazil
North American Premiere
Balloon (Qi Qiu)
Directed by Pema Tseden | China
North American Premiere
The Barefoot Emperor
Directed by Jessica Woodworth, Peter Brosens | Belgium/Netherlands/Croatia/Bulgaria
World Premiere
Beanpole (Dylda)
Directed by Kantemir Balagov | Russia
North American Premiere
Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies
Directed by Edward Burns | USA
World Premiere
Blow the Man Down
Directed by Danielle Krudy, Bridget Savage Cole | USA
International Premiere
Bombay Rose
Directed by Gitanjali Rao | India/United Kingdom/Qatar
North American Premiere
Chicuarotes
Directed by Gael García Bernal | Mexico
North American Premiere
The Climb
Directed by Michael Angelo Covino | USA
Canadian Premiere
Corpus Christi (Boze Cialo)
Directed by Jan Komasa | Poland/France
North American Premiere
The County (Héraðið)
Directed by Grímur Hákonarson | Iceland/Denmark/Germany/France
International Premiere
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Koirat eivät käytä housuja)
Directed by J-P Valkeapää | Finland/Latvia
North American Premiere
The Father (Bashtata)
Directed by Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva | Bulgaria/Greece/Italy
North American Premiere
Flatland
Directed by Jenna Bass | South Africa/Luxembourg/Germany
North American Premiere
A Girl Missing (Yokogao)
Directed by Koji Fukada | Japan/France
North American Premiere
Hala
Directed by Minhal Baig | USA
Canadian Premiere
Henry Glassie: Field Work
Directed by Pat Collins | Ireland
World Premiere
Incitement
Directed by Yaron Zilberman | Israel
World Premiere
Instinct
Directed by Halina Reijn | Netherlands
North American Premiere
The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão (A Vida Invisível de Eurídice Gusmão)
Directed by Karim Aïnouz | Brazil/Germany
North American Premiere
Jallikattu Lijo
Directed by Jose Pellissery | India
World Premiere
Knuckle City
Directed by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka | South Africa
International Premiere
La Llorona
Directed by Jayro Bustamante | Guatemala/France
North American Premiere
Les Misérables
Directed by Ladj Ly | France
North American Premiere
The Long Walk (Bor Mi Vanh Chark)
Directed by Mattie Do | Laos/Spain/Singapore
North American Premiere
Made in Bangladesh
Directed by Rubaiyat Hossain | France/Bangladesh/Denmark/Portugal
World Premiere
Mariam
Directed by Sharipa Urazbayeva | Kazakhstan
North American Premiere
Maria’s Paradise (Marian paratiisi)
Directed by Zaida Bergroth | Finland/Estonia
World Premiere
Nobadi
Directed by Karl Markovics | Austria
World Premiere
*Contemporary World Cinema Opening Film*
Our Lady of the Nile (Notre-Dame du Nil)
Directed by Atiq Rahimi | France/Belgium/Rwanda
World Premiere
The Perfect Candidate
Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour | Saudi Arabia/Germany
North American Premiere
Red Fields (Mami)
Directed by Keren Yedaya | Israel/Luxembourg/Germany
International Premiere
Resin (Harpiks)
Directed by Daniel Joseph Borgman | Denmark
World Premiere
So Long, My Son (Di Jiu Tian Chang)
Directed by Wang Xiaoshuai | China
North American Premiere
Spider (Araña)
Directed by Andrés Wood | Chile
International Premiere
A Sun (Yang Guang Pu Zhao)
Directed by Chung Mong-Hong | Taiwan
World Premiere
Synonyms (Synonymes)
Directed by Nadav Lapid | France/Israel/Germany
North American Premiere
Terminal Sud (South Terminal)
Directed by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche | France
North American Premiere
Three Summers (Três Verões)
Directed by Sandra Kogut | Brazil/France
World Premiere
Verdict Raymund
Directed by Ribay Gutierrez | Philippines/France
Canadian Premiere
A White, White Day (Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur)
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason | Iceland/Denmark/Sweden
North American Premiere
The Wild Goose Lake (Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui)
Directed by Diao Yinan | China/France
North American Premiere
You Will Die at Twenty
Directed by Amjad Abu Alala | Sudan/France/Egypt/Germany/Norway/Qatar
North American Premiere
Previously announced Canadian features screening at the Festival as part of the Contemporary World Cinema programme include: And the Birds Rained Down, Antigone, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Castle in the Ground, The Last Porno Show, Tammy’s Always Dying, and White Lie.
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/cwc
WAVELENGTHS
The Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths programme revealed today the lineup for its 19th edition, consisting of international shorts and features by established and emerging talents. With a total of 37 titles, this year’s selection is a testament to political fortitude and artistic experimentation, seen across a captivating mix of genres and perspectives.
The selection comprises four programmes of experimental short films, two curated pairings, and 10 features, each contributing to a dynamic survey of some of today’s most exciting moving-image work. Wavelengths is curated and overseen by Andréa Picard, with contributions from members of TIFF’s international programming team — namely Brad Deane, Giovanna Fulvi, Dorota Lech, and Kiva Reardon — and programming associate Jesse Cumming.
“As we approach the 20th anniversary of Wavelengths, one can discern an important shift in formal language and experimentation, and an even wider range of artistic expression, which reflects — in some cases seriously, and others surprisingly playfully — a refusal to be contained, confined, or even labelled,” said Picard. “As the world runs further amok, it is comforting and inspiring to see filmmakers and artists continue to make work that is personal, committed, generous, aesthetically alert, and rigorous. The films in this year’s programme perfectly exemplify the essential role art plays in resistance and resilience, but also in our capacity for imagination.”
Wavelengths is pleased to host a number of alumni to present some of their most provocative and accomplished work to date, including Catalan artist-filmmaker Albert Serra with Liberté, his award-winning tale of 18th-century decadence and desire; Portuguese auteur Pedro Costa with Vitalina Varela, a continuation of his pathos-laden tales of life in Lisbon’s margins; Sergei Loznitsa with State Funeral, in which he repurposes footage shot in 1953, in the days following the death of Joseph Stalin, into a trenchant reflection on cults of personality; and Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers, who return to TIFF with Krabi, 2562, a collaborative work on memory, landscape, and social awareness.
Resistance and tenacity — both political and personal — are the theme of several Wavelengths selections, including two highlights from the burgeoning “Galician New Wave”: Oliver Laxe’s quietly monumental Fire Will Come, the follow-up to his Festival selection Mimosas (TIFF 2016), and Eloy Enciso’s Endless Night, set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, with its script drawn from letters and other texts of the era. A different strength is exhibited in Hassen Ferhani’s understated documentary 143 Sahara Street, which presents the world in a microcosm as seen through a portrait of octogenarian Malika, who lives and works alone in her roadside diner in the Sahara Desert.
Wavelengths 2019 also welcomes many newcomers to the programme, with a number of works that reflect on the state of contemporary geopolitics through a mix of styles that range from non-fiction to the speculative. Highlights from contemporary Brazil include The Fever by director Maya Da-Rin, an Indigenous-led tale of a father who must navigate his daughter’s imminent departure for medical school; Affonso Uchôa’s forceful yet elegant documentary experiment Seven Years in May (which screens with Gabino Rodríguez and Nicolás Pereda’s previously announced My Skin, Luminous); and the short film The Bite by artist Pedro Neves Marques, a science fiction–tinged story about a queer love triangle struggling to survive an encroaching mosquito epidemic in the rainforest.
This year’s shorts programmes feature formally impressive and surprising work by a number of leading international talents, including World Premieres by Zachary Epcar, Luke Fowler, Gastón Solnicki, Mike Gibisser, and Tomonari Nishikawa, as well as the North American Premieres of Turner Prize–winning artist Charlotte Prodger’s entry in this year’s Venice Biennale, SaF05, and Marwa Arsanios’s Who’s Afraid of Ideology? Part 2, which premiered at the Sharjah Biennial. As ever, the programme is rounded out by a number of restorations and rediscoveries, including Edward Owens’s Remembrance: A Portrait Study (1967), a touching and playful tribute to the artist’s mother, and 2minutes40seconds (1975), an experimental documentary by Korean filmmaker Han Ok-hee, founding member of the feminist film collective Kaidu Club.
Wavelengths’ complete 2019 lineup is as follows:
Wavelengths’ complete 2019 lineup is as follows:
SHORT FILM PROGRAMMES
Wavelengths 1: WLS19
Austrian Pavilion
Directed by Philipp Fleischmann | Austria
World Premiere
SaF05
Directed by Charlotte Prodger | United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Slow Volumes
Directed by Mike Gibisser | USA
World Premiere
The Bite (A Mordida)
Directed by Pedro Neves Marques | Portugal/Brazil
World Premiere
Wavelengths 2: Sun Rave
2008
Directed by Blake Williams | Canada
World Premiere
Amusement Ride
Directed by Tomonari Nishikawa | Japan
World Premiere
Black Sun (Sol Negro)
Directed by Maureen Fazendeiro | Portugal/France
International Premiere
A Topography of Memory
Directed by Burak Çevik | Turkey/Canada
North American Premiere
Sun Rave (Lafhat Shams)
Directed by Roy Samaha | Lebanon
North American Premiere
(tourism studies)
Directed by Joshua Gen Solondz
USA | Canadian Premiere
Wavelengths 3: Look Around
2minutes40seconds
Directed by Han Ok-hee | South Korea
International Premiere
Hrvoji, Look at You From the Tower
Directed by Ryan Ferko | Canada/Serbia/Croatia/Slovenia
World Premiere
Circumplector
Directed by Gastón Solnicki | Argentina
World Premiere
Cézanne
Directed by Luke Fowler | United Kingdom/France
World Premiere
Second Generation
Directed by Miryam Charles | Canada
North American Premiere
Transcript (Lín Mó)
Directed by Erica Sheu | USA/Taiwan
Canadian Premiere
Who’s Afraid of Ideology? Part 2
Directed by Marwa Arsanios | Lebanon/Kurdistan/Syria
North American Premiere
Wavelengths 4: Lives of Performers
Billy
Directed by Zachary Epcar | USA
World Premiere
Remembrance: A Portrait Study
Directed by Edward Owens | USA
Festival Premiere
Vever (for Barbara)
Directed by Deborah Stratman | Guatemala/USA
Canadian Premiere
Book of Hours
Directed by Annie MacDonell | Canada
World Premiere
We Still Have to Close Our Eyes
Directed by John Torres | Philippines
North American Premiere
This Action Lies (Cest Action Gist)
Directed by James N. Kienitz Wilkins | USA/Switzerland
North American Premiere
PAIRINGS
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another
Directed by Jessica Sarah Rinland | United Kingdom/Argentina/Spain
North American Premiere
preceded by
Heavy Metal Detox
Directed by Josef Dabernig | Austria
World Premiere
Seven Years in May (Sete Anos em Maio)
Directed by Affonso Uchôa | Brazil/Argentina
North American Premiere
and
My Skin, Luminous (Mi Piel, Luminosa)
Directed by Gabino Rodríguez, Nicolás Pereda | Mexico/Canada
North American Premiere
FEATURES
143 Sahara Street (143 rue du désert)
Directed by Hassen Ferhani | Algeria
North American Premiere
Endless Night (Longa noite)
Directed by Eloy Enciso | Spain
North American Premiere
The Fever (A Febre)
Directed by Maya Da-Rin | Brazil/France/Germany
North American Premiere
Fire Will Come (O que arde)
Directed by Oliver Laxe | Spain/France/Luxembourg
North American Premiere
Heimat is a Space in Time (Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit)
Directed by Thomas Heise | Germany/Austria
North American Premiere
Krabi, 2562
Directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers | Thailand/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Liberté
Directed by Albert Serra | France/Spain/Portugal/Germany
North American Premiere
State Funeral
Directed by Sergei Loznitsa | Netherlands/Lithuania
North American Premiere
Un Film Dramatique
Directed by Éric Baudelaire | France
North American Premiere
Vitalina Varela
Directed by Pedro Costa | Portugal
North American Premiere
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/wavelengths
DISCOVERY
At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival®, the revamped Discovery programme features a robust lineup of 37 films from emerging filmmakers representing 35 countries, including 33 World Premieres and four films making international debuts.
“This year’s Discovery builds on our track record of identifying major new filmmakers early,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF’s Co-Head and Artistic Director. “This is where you want to look for the next decades’ masters, and it’s great to see longtime TIFF programming associate Dorota Lech shaping the section as Discovery’s Lead Programmer.”
“I’m thrilled to be curating the Discovery programme, a showcase of films that — regardless of form — expand, embolden, or even challenge notions of storytelling beyond what is established or expected,” said Lech. “TIFF has long held a space for first- and second-time directors, acting as a springboard for launching the international careers of cinematic giants such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Maren Ade, Christopher Nolan, Alfonso Cuarón, Lav Diaz, Kim Seung-woo, Barry Jenkins, Jean-Marc Vallée, Dee Rees, and Jafar Panahi. Expect the programme to push cinematic boundaries, pointing us in unexpected directions. As in previous years, it is a place to find work that could be poetic, bold, or challenging, but that is always passionate.”
Discovery continues to celebrate and reflect TIFF’s unwavering commitment to championing women’s directorial voices, with 54% of its selection directed by women. This year’s programme opens with Chiara Malta’s Simple Women, in which a director serendipitously meets Elina Löwensohn, an actor she idolized in her youth, prompting her to question her filmmaking process. Malta was inspired by her own encounter with Löwensohn in this tender, playful, and multi-layered fiction debut. Women’s journeys are also explored as central themes in Antoneta Kastrati’s ZANA, Filippo Meneghetti’s Two of Us, Hinde Boujemaa’s Noura’s Dream, Hisham Saqr’s Certified Mail, Ina Weisse’s The Audition, Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s Disco, Kim Seung-woo’s Bring Me Home, Klaudia Reynicke’s Love Me Tender, Mahnaz Mohammadi’s Son-Mother, María Paz González’s Lina from Lima, Maria Sødahl’s Hope, Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever, and Tamar Shavgulidze’s Comets.
Discovery is curated and overseen by Lech, with contributions from members of TIFF’s international programming team, namely Cameron Bailey, Giovanna Fulvi, Steve Gravestock, Michael Lerman, Michèle Maheux, Kiva Reardon, Diana Sanchez, and Ravi Srinivasan.
Films screening as part of the Discovery programme include:
1982
Directed by Oualid Mouaness | United States/Lebanon/Norway/Qatar
World Premiere
AFRICA
Directed by Oren Gerner | Israel
World Premiere
The Antenna (Bina)
Directed by Orçun Behram | Turkey
World Premiere
The Audition (Das Vorspiel)
Directed by Ina Weisse | Germany/France
World Premiere
August (Agosto)
Directed by Armando Capó | Cuba/Costa Rica/France
World Premiere
Black Conflux
Directed by Nicole Dorsey | Canada
World Premiere
Bring Me Home (Na-reul cha-ja-jwo)
Directed by Kim Seung-woo | South Korea
World Premiere
A Bump Along The Way
Directed by Shelly Love | United Kingdom
International Premiere
Calm With Horses
Directed by Nick Rowland | United Kingdom/Ireland
World Premiere
Certified Mail (Bi Elm El Wossul)
Directed by Hisham Saqr | Egypt
World Premiere
Comets
Directed by Tamar Shavgulidze | Georgia
World Premiere
Disco
Directed by Jorunn Myklebust Syversen | Norway
World Premiere
Easy Land
Directed by Sanja Zivkovic | Canada
World Premiere
Entwined
Directed by Minos Nikolakakis | Greece
World Premiere
The Giant
Directed by David Raboy | USA
World Premiere
The Good Intentions (Las Buenas Intenciones)
Directed by Ana García Blaya | Argentina
World Premiere
Hearts and Bones
Directed by Ben Lawrence | Australia
International Premiere
Hope (Håp)
Directed by Maria Sødahl | Norway/Sweden
World Premiere
Kuessipan
Directed by Myriam Verreault | Canada
World Premiere
Lina from Lima
Directed by María Paz González | Chile/Argentina/Peru
World Premiere
The Lost Okoroshi
Directed by Abba Makama | Nigeria
World Premiere
Love Me Tender
Directed by Klaudia Reynicke | Switzerland
International Premiere
Murmur
Directed by Heather Young | Canada
World Premiere
My Life as a Comedian (En komikers uppväxt)
Directed by Rojda Sekersöz | Sweden/Belgium
World Premiere
Noura’s Dream
Directed by Hinde Boujemaa | Tunisia/Belgium/France
World Premiere
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson
Directed by Ali LeRoi | USA
World Premiere
Pompei
Directed by Anna Falguères, John Shank | Belgium/Canada/France
World Premiere
Raf
Directed by Harry Cepka | Canada/USA
World Premiere
The Rest of Us
Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee | Canada
World Premiere
Sea Fever
Directed by Neasa Hardiman | Ireland/Sweden/Belgium/United Kingdom
World Premiere
*Discovery Opening Film*
Directed by Simple Women
Chiara Malta | Italy/Romania
World Premiere
Sole
Directed by Carlo Sironi | Italy/Poland
International Premiere
Son-Mother (Pesar-Madar)
Directed by Mahnaz Mohammadi | Iran/Czech Republic
World Premiere
Stories From The Chestnut Woods (Zgodbe iz kostanjevih gozdov)
Directed by Gregor Božič | Slovenia/Italy
World Premiere
Sweetness in the Belly
Directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari | Ireland/Canada
World Premiere
Two of Us (Deux)
Directed by Filippo Meneghetti | France/Luxembourg/Belgium
World Premiere
ZANA
Directed by Antoneta Kastrati | Albania/Kosovo
World Premiere
Previously announced Discovery films include Nicole Dorsey’s Black Conflux, Sanja Zivkovic’s Easy Land, Myriam Verreault’s Kuessipan, Heather Young’s Murmur, Harry Cepka’s Raf, and Aisling Chin-Yee’s The Rest of Us.
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/discovery
TIFF DOCS
The Toronto International Film Festival® documentary programme reveals its lineup of 25 non-fiction works, including 18 World Premieres with representation from 18 countries. The films cover many high-profile figures, both famous and infamous — including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos — and a broad range of themes, including artistic achievement, the power of journalism, immigration, global politics, and resistance against corrupt leaders. Three films use sports as a framework to look at environmentalism, capitalism, and racism. “This year’s programme captures characters you’ll never forget: lovers, fighters, dancers, athletes, despots, rebels, hustlers, and heroes,” said Thom Powers, serving his 14th year as TIFF Docs programmer this Festival. “We’ll be talking about these films for a long time to come.”
The section will open with the World Premiere of The Cave from Oscar-nominated director Feras Fayyad, about an underground hospital led by a female doctor in war-torn Syria. Other World Premieres from renowned directors include Alan Berliner’s Letter to the Editor, a personal reflection on photojournalism; Barbara Kopple’s Desert One, chronicling a perilous mission to rescue hostages in Iran; Thomas Balmès’ Sing Me A Song, following a young monk in Bhutan who forms a long-distance relationship via his smartphone; And We Go Green, about racers in the Formula E competition for electric cars, directed by Fisher Stevens and Malcolm Venville and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio; and Eva Orner’s Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, about the controversial yoga teacher who had multiple lawsuits filed against him for sexual misconduct.
First-time documentarians present films on prominent figures: Bryce Dallas Howard’s Dads explores fatherhood with leading comedians and her own father, Ron Howard; Alla Kovgan’s Cunningham, shot in 3D, captures the artistry of dancer Merce Cunningham; and Ebs Burnough, who previously served in the Obama administration, makes his debut with The Capote Tapes, a biography of American writer Truman Capote.
The everyday lives of refugees and migrants are brought to centre stage in Eva Mulvad’s Love Child, following a couple at risk of execution for their love affair; Ready for War, directed by Andrew Renzi and executive produced by Drake, Future, and David Ayer, which tells the story of immigrants who served in the US military only to be deported; Hind Meddeb’s Paris Stalingrad which follows migrants from Africa and Afghanistan living on the streets in the city of lights; and My English Cousin, Karim Sayad’s portrait of the director’s real-life Algerian cousin who discovers the challenges of returning home. Russian politics and the rise of capitalism are examined in Gabe Polsky’s Red Penguins, recounting a comic tale of American hustlers bringing NHL-style hockey to Moscow, and Alex Gibney’s Citizen K, profiling the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who turned against Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Rounding out the section are stories from around the globe, including Garin Hovannisian’s I Am Not Alone, about a peaceful resistance movement in Armenia; and Mark Cousins’ Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, a recently completed 14-hour exploration of female directors around the world. The first four hours of Women Make Film, which was executive produced by Tilda Swinton, were previewed at last year’s Festival. Alexander Nanau’s Collective follows crusading Romanian journalists who uncover a scandal; Daniel Gordon’s The Australian Dream, executive produced by Ben Simmons, tells the story of football legend Adam Goodes, who battled racism in the AFL; and Lina Al Abed’s Ibrahim: A Fate to Define centres on the mysterious disappearance of a Palestinian secret agent. Also featured are Patricio Guzmán’s The Cordillera of Dreams, completing the director’s trilogy about the Chilean landscape, and Lauren Greenfield’s The Kingmaker, a profile of Imelda Marcos.
Last year’s TIFF Docs lineup showcased Free Solo, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2018 Festival also presented a strong market for distribution deals for titles such as The Biggest Little Farm, The Elephant Queen, and Maiden.
Films screening as part of the TIFF Docs programme include:
And We Go Green
Directed by Fisher Stevens, Malcolm Venville | USA
World Premiere
The Australian Dream
Directed by Daniel Gordon | Australia/United Kingdom
International Premiere
Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator
Directed by Eva Orner | USA
World Premiere
The Capote Tapes
Directed by Ebs Burnough | United Kingdom
World Premiere
TIFF Docs Opening Film*
The Cave
Directed by Feras Fayyad | Syria/Denmark/Germany/USA/Qatar
World Premiere
Citizen K
Directed by Alex Gibney | USA/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Collective (Colectiv)
Directed by Alexander Nanau | Romania/Luxembourg
North American Premiere
Coppers
Directed by Alan Zweig | Canada
World Premiere
The Cordillera of Dreams (La Cordillera de los Sueños)
Directed by Patricio Guzmán | France/Chile
North American Premiere
Cunningham
Directed by Alla Kovgan | Germany/France/USA
World Premiere
Dads
Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard | USA
World Premiere
Desert One
Directed by Barbara Kopple | USA
World Premiere
I Am Not Alone
Directed by Garin Hovannisian | Armenia/USA
World Premiere
Ibrahim: A Fate to Define
Directed by Lina Al Abed | Lebanon/Palestine/Denmark/Qatar/Slovenia
North American Premiere
The Kingmaker
Directed by Lauren Greenfield | USA/Denmark
Canadian Premiere
Letter to the Editor
Directed by Alan Berliner | USA
World Premiere
Love Child
Directed by Eva Mulvad | Denmark
World Premiere
My English Cousin
Directed by Karim Sayad | Switzerland/Qatar
World Premiere
Paris Stalingrad
Directed by Hind Meddeb | France
International Premiere
Ready for War
Directed by Andrew Renzi | USA
World Premiere
Red Penguins
Directed by Gabe Polsky | USA/Russia
World Premiere
Sing Me A Song
Directed by Thomas Balmès | France/Germany/Switzerland
World Premiere
There’s Something in the Water
Directed by Ellen Page, Ian Daniel | Canada
World Premiere
This Is Not a Movie
Directed by Yung Chang | Canada/Germany
World Premiere
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema
Directed by Mark Cousins | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Previously announced TIFF Docs films include Alan Zweig’s Coppers, Ellen Page and Ian Daniel’s There’s Something in the Water, and Yung Chang’s This Is Not a Movie.
For film synopses, cast lists, images, and more information, see tiff.net/docs.
Festival tickets go on sale September 2 at 10am (TIFF Member pre-sale August 31, 10am–4pm). Buy tickets online at tiff.net, by phone at 416.599.2033 or 1.888.258.8433, or in person at a box office. See box office locations and hours at tiff.net/tickets.
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About TIFF
TIFF is a not-for-profit cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $189 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.
The Toronto International Film Festival is generously supported by Lead Sponsor Bell, Major Sponsors RBC, L’Oréal Paris and Visa, and Major Supporters the Government of Ontario, Telefilm Canada, and the City of Toronto.
Kathy Griffin in “Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story” (Photo by Tanne Willow)
In the United States, women make up 51 percent of the population and at least half of all moviegoers. With that in mind, the feminist organization Women in the World and the independent arthouse cineplex IFC Center in New York City have teamed up for the inaugural 51Fest, a film festival aimed at promoting movies about women. All of the selected projects have at least one female producer or a female director. The event takes place July 18 to July 21, 2019. All of the screenings will be held at IFC Center, except for “Kathy Griffin: Hell of a Story,” which will take place at the SVA Theatre. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director(s) and/or stars from the movie.
Most of the movies in the first 51Fest lineup have already had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival or South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, but there are a few offerings that will have their world premieres at 51Fest: The first episode of the Netflix limited series “Unbelieable,” a drama starring Toni Collette, Merritt Wever and Kaitlyn Dever, as well as the Netflix comedy film “Otherhood,” starring Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette and Felicity Huffman.
Here is the lineup of programming for the inaugural 51Fest:
Opening Night
“Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story”
Thursday, July 18, 7:30 p.m. at SVA Theatre
Controversial comedian Kathy Griffin self-financed this documentary, which chronicles her comeback tour after being blackballed from most of the entertainment industry on the 2017 fallout from posing for a photo holding a fake, bloody head of Donald Trump. “Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story” got mostly positive reviews after its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It’s scheduled to be released nationwide by Fathom Events for a one-night-only screening on July 31, 2019.
106 minutes. Directed by Troy Miller. A Brainstorm Media release in partnership with Fathom.
Post-screening conversation with Kathy Griffin and Tina Brown.
Special Event
Women in the World Spotlight: Supermajority
Friday, July 19, 7 p.m. at IFC Center
Cecile Richards
Ai-jen Poo
Women in the World co-founder Tina Brown (who also founded The Daily Beast) will have a conversation with former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and Ai-jen Poo, the co-founders (along with Alicia Garza) of Supermajority, an activist organization aimed at empowering women. According to a description on the 51Fest website, “the conversation will be introduced by filmmaker Yoruba Richen with an exclusive clip of the forthcoming documentary ‘And She Could Be Next,’ about a movement of women of color claiming political power.”
Yoruba Richen
Screenings
(In alphabetical order)
“After the Wedding”
Saturday, July 20, 8:30 p.m. at IFC Center
Isabel (played by Michelle Williams) has dedicated her life to working with the children in an orphanage in Calcutta. Theresa (played by Julianne Moore) is the multimillionaire head of a media company who lives with her artist husband (played by Billy Crudup) and their twin boys in New York. When word comes to Isabel of a mysterious and generous grant for the financially struggling orphanage, she must travel to New York to meet the benefactor—Theresa—in person. After premiering at Sundance, “After the Wedding” (a remake of the 2006 Danish film directed by Susanne Bier) makes its New York premiere at 51Fest. The movie is set for release in select U.S. theaters on August 9, 2019.
110 minutes. Directed by Bart Freundlich. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Post-screening conversation with producer and star Julianne Moore and Tina Brown.
“Brittany Runs a Marathon”
Saturday, July 20, 2:45 p.m. at IFC Center
Winner of the Audience Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, this comedy was inspired by real events. The irresistible cast, led by Jillian Bell, lends heart and soul to this inspirational story of a party girl who finally finds real friends — and dignity — by taking control of her future, one city block at a time. At 27, her hard-partying ways, chronic underemployment and toxic relationships are catching up with her, but when she stops by a new doctor’s office to try to score some Adderall, she gets slapped with a prescription she never wanted: Get healthy. Too broke for a gym and too proud to ask for help, Brit is at a loss, until her seemingly together neighbor Catherine pushes her to lace up her Converse sneakers and run one sweaty block. The next day, she runs two. And soon, after finishing her first mile, she sets an almost unthinkable goal: running in the New York City Marathon. After its New York premiere at 51Fest, “Brittany Runs a Marathon” will be released in select U.S. theaters on August 23, 2019.
103 minutes. Directed by Paul Downs Colaizzo. An Amazon Studios release.
Post-screening conversation with real-life subject Brittany O’Neill and Ophira Eisenberg, host of NPR’s “Tell Me Another”
“For Sama”
Sunday, July 21, 12 p.m. at IFC Center
After winning awards at the SXSW Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, the documentary “For Sama” makes its New York debut at 51Fest. “For Sama” is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice–whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much. The film is the first feature documentary by Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts. “For Sama” will be released in select U.S. theaters on July 26, 2019, before premiering on the PBS show “Frontline.”
95 minutes. Directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts. A PBS Distribution/Frontline release.
After the screening, filmmakers Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts and subject Dr. Hamza al-Kateab will be interviewed by Anne Barnard, who led coverage of the war in Syria for the New York Times from 2012 to 2018, as Beirut bureau chief.
“A Girl From Mogadishu”
Sunday, July 21, 5:15 p.m. at IFC Center
Aja Naomi King in “A Girl From Mogadishu”
“A Girl From Mogadishu” is a drama is real-life-inspired story about the horrors of female genital mutilation (FGM), based on the testimony of an Irish-Somali campaigner (played by Aja Naomi King). The film opens with a harrowing escape, as 17-year-old Ifrah Ahmed flees war-torn Somalia, evading smugglers and traffickers to seek asylum in Ireland. When she returns to Somalia to confront her family about being an unwilling victim of FGM, she also is determined to save other young girls at risk of FGM. “A Girl From Mogadishu” has its North American premiere at 51Fest.
112 minutes. Directed by Mary McGuckian.
Post-screening discussion with writer-director Mary McGuckian, actor Barkhad Abdi, and real-life subject Ifrah Ahmed, moderated by journalist Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani of Verizon Media
“Official Secrets”
Saturday, July 20, 5:30 p.m. at IFC Center
She risked everything to stop an unjust war. Her government called her a traitor. Based on world-shaking true events, “Official Secrets” tells the gripping story of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), a British intelligence specialist whose job involves routine handling of classified information. One day in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, Gun receives a memo from the NSA with a shocking directive: the United States is enlisting Britain’s help in collecting compromising information on United Nations Security Council members in order to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq. Unable to stand by and watch the world be rushed into an illegal war, Gun makes the gut-wrenching decision to defy her government and leak the memo to the press. So begins an explosive chain of events that will ignite an international firestorm, expose a vast political conspiracy, and put Gun and her family directly in harm’s way. After its New York premiere at 51fest, “Official Secrets” will be released in select U.S. theaters on August 30, 2019.
112 minutes. Directed by Gavin Hood. An IFC Films release.
Post-screening conversation with real-life subject Katharine Gun, moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and HuffPost editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen.
“Otherhood”
Sunday, July 21, 2:30 p.m. at IFC Center
51Fest is having a sneak preview of the comedy film “Otherhood.” Feeling marginalized and forgotten, longtime friends Carol (played Angela Bassett), Gillian (played by Patricia Arquette) and Helen (played Felicity Huffman) decide to drive to New York to reconnect with their adult sons, and in the process they realize their sons are not the only ones whose lives need to change. A journey to relate becomes a journey of rediscovery that forces these women to redefine their relationships with their children, friends, spouses and most importantly, themselves. Netflix will premiere “Otherhood” on August 2, 2019.
Post-screening discussion with director Cindy Chupack and producers Cathy Schulman and Jason Michael Berman.
100 minutes. Directed by Cindy Chupack. A Netflix release.
“Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”
Saturday, July 20, 12 p.m. at IFC Center
This documentary about the late columnist/writer Molly Ivins got rave reviews after its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and the movie has its New York premiere at 51Fest. At 6 feet tall, the politically outspoken Ivins was a force to be reckoned with in expressing her liberal viewpoints. The film also includes her battles with alcoholism and breast cancer, the latter of which took her life in 2007. Featuring interviews with Ivins’ friends and former colleagues, “Raise Hell” gives an in-depth look at her life and her lasting legacy. Magnolia Pictures will release “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins” in Texas on August 30, 2019, and in New York City and Los Angeles on September 6, 2019.
93 minutes. Directed by Janice Engel. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Post-screening conversation with director Janice Engel along with friends and admirers of Molly Ivins.
“Unbelievable”
Friday, July 19, 8:30 p.m. at IFC Center
When teenager Marie Adler (played Kaitlyn Dever) files a police report claiming an intruder sexually assaulted her in her home, several people begin to doubt her story. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, detectives Grace Rasmussen and Karen Duvall (played Toni Collette and Merritt Wever) are investigating a case that is similar to what Marie has reported. The limited drama series “Unbelievable,” whose first episode will have its world premiere at 51Fest, is inspired by the real events in The Marshall Project and ProPublica Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape,” written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, and the “This American Life” radio episode “Anatomy of Doubt.” Netflix will premiere “Unbelievable” on September 13, 2019.
60 min. Episode directed by Lisa Cholodenko. A Netflix release.
Post-screening conversation with showrunner and executive producer Susannah Grant, executive producer Sarah Timberman, executive producer and episode director Lisa Cholodenko, and actors Kaitlyn Dever, Danielle Macdonald and Merritt Wever.
“Untouchable”
Sunday, July 21st, 8:15 p.m. at IFC Center
This documentary chronicles the downfall of former entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein because of sexual abuse allegations. Although stories about Weinstein being a sexual predator had been circulating in the industry for decades, he wasn’t fully exposed until 2017, when the New York Times and the New Yorker published articles that had several famous women (including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino) telling their stories of being sexually harassed by Weinstein. The articles are considered the catalyst for the #MeToo movement. This documentary, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, includes interviews with Weinstein accusers Rosanna Arquette, Hope D’Amore, Paz de la Huerta, Erika Rosenbaum, and others. After its New York premiere at 51Fest, “Untouchable” will premiere on Hulu on September 2, 2019.
98 minutes. Directed by Ursula Macfarlane. A Hulu release.
Post-screening conversation with director Ursula Macfarlane and subjects Hope D’Amore and Erika Rosenbaum.
Most of the recent movies about artificial intelligence (A.I.) play on fears that A.I. technology will replace jobs previously done by humans and/or will take over the world in sinister ways. The documentary “I Am Human” takes a more optimistic view by examining how the links between the human brain and A.I. technology can be used to improve health sciences by helping solve human medical problems. If you have absolutely no interest in science or A.I. technology, then you’ll probably find a great deal of this movie incredibly dull since it relies heavily on talking heads explaining complex issues and trying to make them more understandable in layman’s terms. However, the case studies presented in “I Am Human” make the documentary worth watching for anyone who’s curious about the future of medical science.
There are three people profiled in the documentary’s case studies. Bill Kochevar is a tetraplegic who receives treatment at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. Anne Shabason is a Parkinson’s disease patient in Bolton, Canada. Stephen Shrubnall is a blind man who’s hoping to have a limited fraction of his eyesight restored. All three patients undergo risky, experimental brain surgeries, which are chronicled in the film.
These case studies are part of the clinical trials known as BrainGate2 Neural Interface System, which began in 2009 and is owned by Braingate Co. BrainGate2 is the successor of BrainGate, a brain-implant system that was built and previously owned by Cyberkinetics.
Among the experts interviewed in “I Am Human” are Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist from Stanford University; sci-fi author Amez Naam; Dr. Andres Lozano, a neurosurgeon at the University of Toronto; Dr. Robert Deveny, an opthamologist a Toronto Western Hospital; Dr. Nita Faranhay, professor of law and philosophy at Duke University; and Bryan Johnson, a neurotech entrepreneur.
Kochevar’s, Shabason’s and Shrubnall’s respective surgeries involve getting sensors implanted in brains, with the sensors being able to affect an external objects. These surgeries are very expensive and recommended only to people who have severe diseases. The goal is for technology to advance to the point where brain implants can be done without surgery. Another goal is to have brain interfacing by just putting on a headset, which could be possible in the future. It would vastly improve communications and decrease language barriers. Scientists and neurotech entrepreneurs are planning to introduce the first high-resolution, wearable brain interface by the year 2021.
Kochevar’s surgery was meant to have his brain control some of his machine-enabled movements through A.I. technology. As a result, his abilities to reach and grasp greatly improved. Shabon’s brain implant is connected to a pacemaker in her chest, and her anxiety greatly decreased after the surgery. Shrubnall’s surgery involved a band sown around his eye to stimulate the retina. He then had to wear special glasses, which submit electrodes to the brain, which resulted in his vision being partially restored, by him being able to see shadows. The best parts of the documentary are to see the elated reactions to the surgery results.
Of course, any new technology comes with concerns of it being used for unlawful purposes. One of the biggest issues, which is addressed in the documentary, is the idea that A.I. technology that involves brain implants will lead to “brain hacking.” But as neurotech entrepreneur Johnson says in the documentary, the rewards outweigh the risks: “Nothing is more important than addressing a broken brain.”
There’s an ongoing debate on how transgender people should be treated in situations where people are segregated by gender. Sports will continue to be one of the hot-button areas where transgender people are fighting for their rights. Unlike using a public restroom, categorizing a person’s gender in sports can affect their future, especially when money is involved (and it usually is). “Changing the Game” is a documentary that explores these issues, as the movie follows three American teenage transgender athletes who are navigating their way through a system where they are often mistreated and misunderstood.
At the time this documentary was filmed, all three of the athletes were in high school. Mack Beggs, who gets the most screen time, is a transgender male wrestler in Texas who’s forced to compete against girls. Beggs, who has been a state champion, also stars in the documentary short film “Mack Wrestles,” which is making the rounds at film festivals, including Tribeca. Sarah Huckman is a transgender female Nordic skier in New Hampshire. Sarah (who is Asian) is adopted, and her parents, Jen and Tom Huckman, are completely supportive of her. Andraya Yearwood is an African American transgender female track runner in Connecticut, one of the states that allows public schools to categorize students according to whatever gender the student identifies as. Laws vary from state to state in this issue.
Mack’s situation is complicated because he is taking male hormones yet competing against girls. The documentary includes commentary from parents who think Mack has an unfair advantage against the girls he competes against. Mack essentially agrees, because he wants to compete against other males. Meanwhile, Mack’s coach doesn’t seem to care about Mack’s gender, as long as he’s winning. The coach says, “I would never turn my back on an athlete,” but all the controversy over Mack makes you wonder if the coach would stand by Mack so strongly if Mack was losing most of his matches.
Mack is living with his grandparents Nancy and Roy, who have adopted him. His grandmother says, “I’m a hardcore Republican, but I don’t have a problem stepping on any toes for transgender kids.” Mack has a girlfriend who’s also very supportive of him, but he admits that he has bouts of depression and a past suicide attempt by taking sleeping pills. The documentary mentions that 40 percent of transgender athletes attempt suicide. Mack is also under a lot of pressure because he needs an athletic scholarship to get into the college of his choice, but he knows that the odds are stacked against him because he’s a transgender athlete.
Meanwhile, the documentary shows how Sarah has become a political activist for transgender athletes. Her advocacy had an effect on the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association’s policies for transgender students, according to Guy Donnelly, principal of Kingswood Regional High School, where Sarah was a student. Advocates for transgender athletes believe that transgender people should be accepted as transgender in all aspects of their lives—in other words, sports should not be an exception.
For track runner Andraya, the biggest supporter in her family is her single mother, Ngozi Nnaji, who says she’s so protective of her daughter that she almost feels like a bodyguard. Of all three trans athletes profiled in the movie, Andraya endures the most heckling from angry parents at the games. The documentary mentions a sobering statistic that African American transgender female students are five times more likely to be murdered than their peers.
Mack gets quite a bit of heckling too. He mentions that most of the verbal abuse and bullying he gets are from adults, not from other kids. It’s taken a toll on his mental health, and his girlfriend says that Mack has had a couple of emotional breakdowns, but he doesn’t like to talk about how much pressure he’s under. Mack says, “My relationship with testosterone is complicated. I wish I didn’t have to inject it.”
The most common argument that people have against trans athletes is that trans athletes have an “unfair advantage.” This argument seems to be used the most when parents think someone with a masculine physique is competing against females. When prize money and scholarships are at stake, it’s no wonder that the conflicts over this issue can get heated. Sarah admits that she often holds herself back in competitions and deliberately does not perform at her best because she doesn’t want to be a target for this type of “unfair advantage” accusation.
Andraya says she wouldn’t be on her track team if she didn’t have the support from the other people on the team. She gets some more encouragement when another African American transgender female named Terry Miller joins the team. In one of the movie’s most touching moments, Terry says that she was inspired to join the team because of Andraya. They naturally become very close friends.
Still, they have to endure angry outbursts from parents who don’t want them on the team, even if Andraya and Terry can help the team win in group competitions. During a track meet, a furious mother tells the camera that athletes like Andraya and Terry don’t have to deal with menstruation, so they have an unfair advantage. The menstruation argument is actually an insult to all females, because it wrongly assumes that females who are menstruating are physically less capable of winning an athletic competition against females who aren’t menstruating.
“Changing the Game” is a straightforward documentary that doesn’t use gimmicks or fancy camera techniques. The film is unapologetically rooting for these transgender athletes, but the filmmakers could have done a little bit more well-rounded reporting by interviewing more people involved in the schools’ athletic systems, such as more coaches, referees, recruiters and leaders of athletic departments.
Another area where the movie definitely need improving was in expanding its reporting on what is being done on both sides to address the legal issues in the key states where transgender laws are the most hotly debated. Showing Sarah Huckman’s activism in New Hampshire (a liberal state) doesn’t seem like enough to cover the lawmaking issues that should be addressed in this documentary. In addition, although high school athletes are the focus of this film, most of these athletes have plans to continue in the sport after high school, and they will probably be facing the same issues in college or wherever they plan to continue participating in the sport. Only Mack’s post-high-school plans were given enough screen time in this film.
Despite some of these flaws in the documentary, “Changing the Game” does a good job of humanizing an issue that many people want to dismiss as not relevant to their lives. The rights that transgender people are fighting for are civil rights that speak to us as human beings and how we treat each other. The rights aren’t asking for special treatment but to be treated with the same respect, dignity and legal access that cisgender people get for gender identity.
UPDATE: Hulu will premiere “Changing the Game” on June 1, 2021. According to a Hulu press release, “Changing the Game” will debut on Hulu “as a director’s cut with new footage and a new original song called ‘Chasing Dreams’ by Gozé featuring Old Man Saxon and singer/songwriter/trans activist Shea Diamond.”
