Doc Corner: Denmark's Oscar Submission 'Flee' + 'We Are Russia' at DOC NYC

By Glenn Dunks

DOC NYC continues. The festival runs for in-person screenings from November 10–18 and then will carry over online until November 28. I have a Twitter thread covering what I am watching, but today we're looking at a big Oscar contender alongside a smaller, but no less worthy doc from the same part of the world.

I find it can often take a minute to get used to animated documentaries. I find the hand-crafted nature of the medium to be a bit of a barrier to the telling of these true-to-life stories. A barrier that my brain initially can’t quite comprehend when I am so used to the traditional elements—not too unlike adjusting to 3D or VR, maybe.

It’s true that animation has become more and more common in documentary, particularly as a means of representing moments of history that couldn’t have been captured on film. I sometimes wish they wouldn’t bother as the quality can often vary wildly. But like other documentaries made from a majority of animation (Keith Maitland’s Tower and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir come to mind), the much buzzed Flee quickly surpasses those up-front mental blocks. Here, the vivid, colourful animation brings out an even deeper well of emotion from émigré Amin Nawabi’s story in the same way blue eyes can bring out the colour of an item of clothing.

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"Sonnet 129" via Ralph Fiennes

It's 129 days until the Oscars. Please enjoy this interpretation of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 129" by Ralph Fiennes, released back in 2002 six years after Ralph Fiennes second Oscar nomination and seven years before his directorial debut, Coriolanus, which was also Shakespearean.

Remember when Fiennes directed Vanessa Redgrave in an Oscar worthy turn?

Ralph Fiennes hasn't been Oscar nominated for 25 years and that is dumb given his filmography since then.

Reassessing Benedict Cumberbatch

by Cláudio Alves

One must admit when they were wrong. For the past decade, I've come to dismiss Benedict Cumberbatch as a limited and repetitive actor with very few exciting works. Someone who'd received undue acclaim, rising to fame in such meteoric fashion that it boggles the mind. In other words, I wasn't a fan of his take on Sherlock Holmes and quickly grew tired of his shtick as he graduated from TV stardom to a prestige movie juggernaut. Some performances made me rethink my distaste throughout the years, like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Parade's End, and, to a lesser extent, War Horse. But, of course, even a stopped watch is right twice a day, or so I told myself.

Well, it's 2021, and Benedict Cumberbatch is both on his way to an Oscar nomination and into my cinephile's heart. He gives three of the year's best performances in a slew of fascinating pictures that range from loony portraiture to a study in venomous masculinity…

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Through Her Lens: 2019 (The 92nd Oscars)

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano moving backwards through time looking at female-helmed films. Here's the full introduction if you missed it.

The biggest story of the 2019 awards season was Parasite breaking the language barrier and becoming the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Another story also gained prominence during that season: despite the considerable number of films directed by women that had awards buzz, none of them were nominated in the Best Director category yet again.

This was disappointing since the eligible films coming from all continents displayed the diversity of the work that women directors produced that year. Out of the 344 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2019 (92nd Academy Awards), 78 of them (or 22.7%) were directed/co-directed by women...

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Gotham Nominees: Natalie Morales in "Language Lessons"

by Nick Taylor

Every year or two at the Gotham Awards, there’s a nominee in the Breakthrough Performance category whose storied career in film or television generates a few raised eyebrows. Yes, the category is clearly meant to honor film breakthroughs, and this shouldn’t automatically be any more suspect or praiseworthy than a familiar face being recognized for reaching a new apex in their careers. Nevertheless, it’s always a bit odd when a performer who’s already highly prolific in a different medium gets slotted here. Kathryn Hahn, Michael B. Jordan, Mary J. Blige - it makes sense, but there’s also a wildly celebrated career being 'broken through' for the sake of movie stardom.

Natalie Morales, a regular supporting player on film and television for the past decade, has gotten those notices this year. Morales has been recognized for her starring role in Language Lessons, which she also directed and co-wrote with her producer/co-star Mark Duplass...

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