Doc Corner: 'Tina' on HBO

By Glenn Dunks

Tina Turner does not like to talk about herself and her life with abusive ex-husband and artistic collaborator Ike Turner. She notes this in Tina, a new HBO documentary about her life. But she is aware that public interest in it, which is why she has to keep on telling us all about it. This is show business after all, and if she doesn’t, somebody else will. First it was People magazine. Then it was Kurt Loder’s I, Tina. That was followed by a film adaptation, What’s Love Got to Do With It?

One would have hoped that that film would have been the end of it for Turner, her story of abuse and late career triumph captured on film to great acclaim and with an Oscar-worthy performance by Angela Bassett. Nearly 30 years later, however, Tina is back as the subject of T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s documentary. Whatever the directors’ reasons for doing so, I am unsure. But for Turner herself at least, she has decided to take this opportunity to bid farewell to her fans and to (hopefully) put her story to bed.

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Where are the docs in the technical categories?

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Almost two weeks after the Oscar nominations and one snub still stings: Welcome to Chechnya in Visual Effects. After making it in the shortlist, hopes were high that its life-saving use of facial replacements could catapult it to Oscar history as the first documentary to be nominated in this category, one largely dominated by Hollywood blockbusters (which were mostly missing last year) Only a year like 2020 could have brought a documentary film close to this category and it still did not happen. 

This begs the question: why are documentaries routinely ignored in categories outside of Documentary Feature? 

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Doc Corner: 'A Glitch in the Matrix'

Doc Corner, by Glenn Dunks, is back after its brief hiatus.

Rodney Ascher makes extremely goofy documentaries. I am sure that he comes at them with all the seriousness that their dark and sinister tones would suggest, but that doesn’t stop them from ending up as, well, extremely goofy movies. There was Room 237 about interpretations of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. There was also The Nightmare, about sleep paralysis. Both goofy.

That doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining. In fact, that’s often their most commendable aspect. Lord knows, it certainly cannot be said that Ascher lacks imagination behind the camera and has an ability to gravitate towards subjects that demand more than a basic documentary toolkit to pull together...

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SXSW: The possibilities of documentary portraiture

by Cláudio Alves

Before saying goodbye to SXSW 2021, I'd like to shine a light on some of the documentaries presented at this online edition of the festival. As it happens, many of the most interesting films I saw from the selection were docs, specifically the sort of non-fiction cinema that functions as a portrait of the individual. At the very least, the sort that presents itself as such. From idiosyncratic political profiles to feats of music journalism, from straight biography to epistemological investigations, the filmmakers of SXSW showcased the possibilities of documentary portraiture…

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Showbiz History: Cinderella, Paris is Burning, and George MacKay

7 random things that happened on this day, March 13th, in history...

Olivia's first Oscar

1947 The 19th Academy Awards are held honoring the best films of 1946. The Best Years of Our Lives triumphs and remains one of the greatest decisions the Academy ever made in Best Picture. Meanwhile Fredric March picks up his second Best Actor Oscar (for the same film) and Olivia de Havilland picks up the first of her two Best Actress Oscars (for To Each His Own). "On the Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe" from the Judy Garland musical The Harvey Girls wins Best Song... 

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