Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 17 and to Netflix this Sunday, June 19:CIVIL

Director:Nadia Hallgren

World Premiere:Tribeca 2022

Select Festivals:American Black

About:An intimate yet expansive profile of Ben Crump, the lawyer dubbed “Black America’s attorney general.”

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, June 18:BEBA

Director:Rebeca Huntt

World Premiere:Toronto 2021

Select Festivals:Berlin, CPH:DOX, Docaviv, Miami, Tribeca, Provincetown, Minneapolis-St Paul

About:A raw, poetic self-portrait in which a young, NYC-born Afro-Latina filmmaker stares down historical, societal, and generational trauma.

Coming to Film Movement Plus today, Friday, June 17:SELFIE

Director:Agostino Ferrente

World Premiere:Berlin 2019

Select Festivals:Sheffield, Cinéma du Réel, BAFICI, Thessaloniki Doc, Reykjavik, Goteborg, Taiwan Doc

About:Two 16-year-olds film themselves with a cell phone to tell the story of their friendship, the tragedy of Davide, and their lives in the rough Traiano district of Naples.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, June 17:BITTERBRUSH

Director:Emelie Mahdavian

World Premiere:Telluride 2021

Select Festivals:Visions du Réel, San Francisco, Sydney

About:Two women set up camp at a tiny cabin and begin their season of work, to feed their dreams: to own their own livestock, to have true independence, and to start a family. 

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, June 17:STAY PRAYED UP

Director:DL Anderson, Matt Durning

World Premiere:Telluride 2021

Select Festivals:DOC NYC, Virginia

About:The gospel trio The Branchettes prepare to record their live album in the modest congregation of their youth, in this passionate yet humble portrait of an artist. 

Coming to theatres and virtual cinemas this Friday, June 17:THE BOOK KEEPERS

Director:Phil Wall

World Premiere:Austin 2020

Select Festivals:Napa Valley, Savannah, Chagrin Doc, DocUtah

About:A father and son crisscross the country to fulfill a dying wish, ensure a legacy, and find solace after tragic personal loss.

Coming to ESPN and ESPN+’s 30 for 30 series today, Wednesday, June 15:DREAM ON

Director:Kristen Lappas

World Premiere:ESPN (June 2022)

About:A look back at the 1996 USA Women’s Basketball Dream Team and the 14-month odyssey that would forever change the landscape of women’s athletics.

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Wednesday, June 15:FIRE OF LOVE

Director:Sara Dosa

World Premiere:Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, True/False, SXSW, New Directors/New Films, Docaviv, Visions du Reel, Docville, Sydney, Seattle, San Francisco, Cleveland, Ashland, RiverRun, Sun Valley, Provincetown

About:This story of the doomed love triangle between intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft and the volcanoes they captured in their explosive archival footage.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, June 14:PUTIN’S WITNESSES

Director:Vitaly ManskyWorld Premiere:Karlovy Vary 2018

Select Festivals:Toronto, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Camden, BFI London, Vancouver, Zurich, Gent, Leeds, Stockholm, Vilnius, Porto/Post/Doc, Docs Against Gravity, Seattle

About:An examination of the early life of Vladimir Putin and the political machine that brought him to power.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14:BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD

Director:Brent Wilson

World Premiere:Tribeca 2021

About:The Beach Boys’ lead songwriter takes a drive around Los Angeles with Rolling Stone editor and longtime friend Jason Fine in this nonlinear cinematic memoir, as vivid and multifaceted as his music.

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14:END OF THE LINE

Director:Emmett Adler

World Premiere:DOC NYC 2021

About:A heartfelt and scrupulous look into NYC’s massive, troubled subway system, this film poses the question: what happens when that life line of the city goes flat?

Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 10:THE STORY WON’T DIE

Director:David Henry Gerson

World Premiere:Hot Docs 2021

Select Festivals:AFI Docs, Watch Docs, Poland’s American Fest, Woods Hole

About:A portrait of a young generation of Syrian artists who use their work to process their ongoing trauma and to express themselves as they never could under the repressive regime that forced them into exile.

New to VOD this week:THE SNOW CALLS

Director:Marjan Khosravi

World Premiere:IDFA 2020

Select Festivals:DMZ Docs, Big Sky Doc

About:After bearing three daughters, Mina has one more chance: her next child has to be a boy, or her husband will marry another woman.

Coming to Ovid.tv today, Friday, June 10:THE IMAGE YOU MISSED

Director:Donal Foreman

World Premiere:Rotterdam 2018

Select Festivals:CPH:DOX, RIDM, Cinema du Reel, Dokufest, Edinburgh, Dublin, Galway, Guth Gafa, BAFICI, Art of the Real, Indielisboa, Guanajuato, Melbourne, Vancouver, DocsMX

About:An Irish filmmaker grapples with the legacy of his estranged father, the late American documentarian Arthur MacCaig, through MacCaig’s decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Coming to Discovery+ today, Thursday, June 9:DR. DELIRIUM & THE EDGEWOOD EXPERIMENTS

Executive Producers:Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Craig H Shepherd, Nick Brigden

World Premiere:Discovery+ (June 2022)

About:An investigation into classified human subject research conducted on thousands of soldiers at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland from 1955 to 1975 by the United States Army Chemical Corps, experiments meant to evaluate the impact of potent, mind-altering chemical warfare agents on military personnel as an alternative to traditional combat.

New to VOD this week:MISSION: JOY – FINDING HAPPINESS IN TROUBLED TIMES

Director:Louie Psihoyos

Co-Director:Peggy Callahan

World Premiere:Tribeca 2021

Select Festivals:Thessaloniki Doc, Docs Against Gravity, Cleveland, Boulder, Mill Valley, Palm Springs, Mountainfilm

About:An exploration of the friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Coming to Ovid.tv tomorrow, Friday, June 10:THE PATRIOT GAME

Director:Arthur MacCaig

World Premiere:Cannes 1979

Select Festivals:Rotterdam, Cinema du Reel, Festival dei Popoli

About:An essay film examining the conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1978, covering the height of the Troubles.

Coming to Netflix today, Wednesday, June 8:KEEP SWEET: PRAY AND OBEY

Director:Rachel Dretzin

Co-Director:Grace McNally

World Premiere:Netflix (June 2022)

About:A docuseries examining the rise and fall of Warren Jeffs in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

New to VOD this week:BEING BEBE

Director:Emily Branham

World Premiere:Tribeca 2021

Select Festivals:Provincetown, NewFest, Outfest, BFI Flare, Tallgrass, Sound Unseen, Image+Nation, Heartland

About:In 2009, Bebe Zahara Benet was crowned the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but the franchise hadn’t yet achieved notoriety, so without an infrastructure to support her next steps, Bebe is confronted with the fickleness of fame.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 7:BALONEY

Director:Joshua Guerci

World Premiere:Frameline 2021

Select Festivals:Outfest, LGBT fests in Tel Aviv, Palm Springs, Boston, Seattle,

About: The titillating and charming story behind San Francisco’s first and only all-male gay revue.

Coming to theatres and VOD today, Friday, June 3:WE ARE THE THOUSAND

Director:Anita Rivaroli

World Premiere:SXSW 2020 (unscreened)

Select Festivals:IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne, Docs Against Gravity, Thessaloniki Doc

About:An uplifting, inspiring, and emotional music documentary about a seemingly impossible plan to record a song by the Foo Fighters with a thousand musicians.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Friday, June 3:JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS

Director:Tracie Holder, Karen Thorsen

World Premiere:Tribeca 2012

Select Festivals:AFI Docs, Rio, Brisbane, Ashland, San Francisco Jewish, Havana

About:A portrait of the founder of The Public Theater, who believed in the democratization of theatre for all, spearheading free performances of Shakespeare in the Park and producing groundbreaking plays in his legendary NYC venue.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films this Friday, June 3:THE JANES

Director:Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes

World Premiere:Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:San Francisco, Cleveland, Athena, Minneapolis-St Paul

About:The story of “Jane,” a group of women in Chicago who built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, and illegal abortions before Roe v Wade.

New to DVD this week:THE RELUCTANT RADICAL

Director:Lindsey Grayzel

World Premiere:Big Sky Doc 2018

Select Festivals:Guth Gafa, Salem, Ashland, Princeton Environmental, Thin Line, Planet in Focus, Wild & Scenic

About:An activist combats climate change by facing off against the fossil fuel industry, ultimately breaking the law to make a stand for future generations.

Coming to Starz tomorrow, Wednesday, June 1:WORKHORSE QUEEN

Director:Angela Washko

World Premiere:Slamdance 2021

Select Festivals:Calgary Underground, San Francisco Doc, DocEdge, Florida, Milwaukee, LGBT fests in Austin, Tel Aviv, Vancouver

About:After being cast on RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE, 47-year old suburban telemarketer Ed Popil leaves his job to pursue a full-time entertainment industry career as his drag queen alter ego, 1960s era housewife Mrs Kasha Davis. 

Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 31:THE WOBBLIES

Director:Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer

World Premiere:New York Film Festival 1979

About:The story of radical labor union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), better known as the Wobblies, which championed the formation of “one big union” for all unskilled laborers, regardless of their race and gender.

Coming to CNN tonight, Monday, May 30:JULIA

Director:Julie Cohen, Betsy West

World Premiere:Telluride 2021

Select Festivals:Toronto, DOC NYC, Hamptons, Chicago, AFI Fest, Mill Valley, Philadelphia, Woodstock, Heartland

Notable Recognition:The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.

About:A portrait of the trailblazing, exuberant chef who filled TV screens for decades. 

Coming to Disney+ today, Friday, May 27:WE FEED PEOPLE

Director:Ron Howard

World Premiere:SXSW 2022

About:The story of renowned chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen’s evolution over a 12 year period.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 27:FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK

Director:Bobbi Jo Hart

World Premiere:Hot Docs 2021

Select Festivals:DOC NYC, DOXA, Inside Out, Frameline, Outfest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific, Santa Barbara, Athena, Cleveland, In-Edit, Hawaii, Doc’n Roll, Woodstock, Florida

About:Ferocious female rockers Fanny, who shattered glass ceilings in the ’70s, collecting fans like David Bowie before being buried in retro record bins, reunite fifty years later with a new record deal and a chance to rewrite history.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Friday, May 27:ROMANTIC ROAD

Director:Oliver McGarvey

World Premiere:Edmonton 2017

Select Festivals:DocPoint Tallinn, DocPoint Helsinki

About:A long-married British couple take a six-month trip, driving their old 1936 Rolls Royce through rural India.

Coming to OVID tomorrow, Friday, May 27:STEALING RODIN

Director:Cristóbal Valenzuela

World Premiere:SANFIC 2017

Select Festivals:BAFICI, Thessaloniki Doc, It’s All True, Guadalajara

About:An investigation into the 2005 disappearance of a sculpture in Chile.

Coming to Hulu tomorrow, Thursday, May 26:LOOK AT ME: XXXTENTACION

Director:Sabaah Folayan

World Premiere:SXSW 2022

Select Festivals:CPH:DOX, Atlanta

About:An exploration of how Jahseh Onfroy tapped raw talent, a gift for connecting with disaffected youth, and a mastery of social media to fashion himself into SoundCloud rapper XXXTentacion – one of the most streamed artists on the planet.

New to VOD this week:BEAUTIFUL THINGS

Director:Giorgio Ferrero, Federico Biasin

World Premiere:Venice 2017

Select Festivals:CPH:DOX, Taipei, SF DocFest, Edinburgh, Sydney, Hot Docs, New Horizons, RIDM, True/False, Dokufest, DMZ Docs, In-Edit, Melbourne, Dok Leipzig, Docville

About:Four men from around the world present a meditation about the means of production of material goods and consumerism in our society.

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America ReFramed series tomorrow, Thursday, May 26:CHINATOWN RISING

Director:Harry Chuck, Josh Chuck

World Premiere:CAAMFest 2019

Select Festivals:Disorient, Guam, Asian/Asian American fests in Philadelphia, Boston and San Diego

About:This deeply personal chronicle weaves together never-before-seen archival footage and photographs of a San Francisco neighborhood in transition.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 24:SINCE I BEEN DOWN

Director:Gilda Sheppard

World Premiere:Cleveland 2020

Select Festivals:DOC NYC, Big Sky, Freep, Sebastopol Doc, Portland, Thin Line, Montreal Black

About:Despite serving life without parole, a man works to improve others’ lives. 

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, May 24:¡VIVA MAESTRO!

Director:Ted Braun

World Premiere:US theatrical release (April 2022)

About:A portrait of world-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel as he responds to the unexpected and daunting obstacles of social unrest in his homeland of Venezuela with powerful music-making and an innovative and triumphant concert that celebrates the power of art to renew and unite.

Coming to MUBI today, Monday, May 23:MARINER OF THE MOUNTAINS

Director:Karim Aïnouz

World Premiere:Cannes 2021

Select Festivals:IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sao Paulo, Karlovy Vary, Busan, Hamburg, Vienna

About:In January 2019, the filmmaker decides to take a boat, cross the Mediterranean, and embark on his first journey to Algeria, his father’s homeland.

Coming to PBS’s American Experience tomorrow, Tuesday, May 24:PLAGUE AT THE GOLDEN GATE

Director:Li-Shin Yu

World Premiere:American Experience broadcast (May 2022)

About:In San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900, a deadly outbreak of bubonic plague, and the hunt to identify its source, leads to an all-too-familiar spate of violent anti-Asian sentiment.

Coming to NYC’s Pure Nonfiction tomorrow, Tuesday, May 24:BITTERBRUSH

Director:Emelie Mahdavian

World Premiere:Telluride 2021

Select Festivals:Visions du Réel, San Francisco, Sydney

About:Two women set up camp at a tiny cabin and begin their season of work, to feed their dreams: to own their own livestock, to have true independence, and to start a family. 

Coming to NYC’s Metrograph today, Friday, May 20:THE FRENCH

Director:William Klein

World Premiere:Perspectives du Cinéma Français 1982

About:An unprecedented all-access, behind-the-scenes look at the 1981 French Open.

Coming to Film Movement Plus today, Friday, May 20:OUR TIMES

Director:Rakshan Bani-Etemad

World Premiere:Locarno 2002

Select Festivals:Thessaloniki Doc, Tribeca, Gent

About:Focused on the Iranian elections of 2002, a group of women run for office, including one who attempts a heroic but unsuccessful run for the presidency.

New to DVD this week:FLOOD IN THE DESERT

Director:Rob Rapley

World Premiere:American Experience broadcast (May 2022)

About:The story of the 1928 St Francis Dam disaster, which cost human lives, property damage, and jeopardized plans to transform the West.

New to DVD this week:OF ANIMALS AND MEN

Director:Lukasz Czajka

World Premiere:Krakow 2019

Select Festivals:Docudays UA, Guangzhou Doc, Miami Jewish

About:The story of the Żabiński family, the long-standing keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, where, during WWII, they were able to shelter hundreds of people, mainly Jews, from the Nazis.

New to DVD this week:KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME

Director:Robert B Weide, Don Argott

World Premiere:DOC NYC 2021

About:Decades in the making, this biography of Kurt Vonnegut covers his years as a struggling writer to his eventual superstardom. 

New to DVD this week:UPPERCASE PRINT

Director:Radu Jude

World Premiere:Berlin 2020

Select Festivals:Thessaloniki, Indielisboa, Molodist Kyiv, Hamburg, Moscow, Taipei

About:A hybrid exploring life in Ceaușescu’s surveillance state through the story of a teenager who began drawing protest slogans in public spaces in 1981.

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America ReFramed series tomorrow, Thursday, May 19:GEOGRAPHIES OF KINSHIP

Director:Deann Borshay Liem

World Premiere:CAAMFest 2019

Select Festivals:Asian/Asian American fests in Austin, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles

About:The complex personal histories of four adult adoptees born in South Korea are interwoven with the rise of the country’s global adoption program.

Coming to Netflix today, Wednesday, May 18:CYBER HELL: EXPOSING AN INTERNET HORROR

Director:Cho Jin-seong

World Premiere:Netflix (May 2022)

About:Anonymous and exploitative, a network of online chat rooms ran rampant with sex crimes, prompting a tenacious hunt by Korean investigators to take down its operators.

Coming to NYC’s Pure Nonfiction tomorrow, Wednesday, May 18, and to theatres and VOD this Friday, May 20:HOLD YOUR FIRE

Director:Stefan Forbes

World Premiere:Toronto 2021

Select Festivals:DOC NYC, Palm Springs

About:Captives, cops, and robbers in New York City’s longest hostage siege reflect in this suspenseful and enlightening take on an event long misunderstood.