Ai Weiwei's "Vivos" - Pretty to look at but too detached

New contributor Ren Jender reporting from Sundance...

 

In 2014, Mexican police attacked students from a rural teachers' college, Ayotzinapa (known as a hotbed of leftist activism) in Iguala, Guerrero. They killed six of the students but injured many more and abducted another 43, who have never been found. In his new documentary Vivos, artist Ai WeiWei (Human Flow) focuses on the families left behind (and in limbo) When the families speak about the disappearance of their sons, siblings and partners, Ai captures the lyricism of their stories. One father memorably states:

That night, it rained and rained and rained."

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Doc Corner: The 2019 Oscar Nominees!

By Glenn Dunks (returning from a writing break, I hope y'all missed me)

Following last year’s surprising line-up for Best Documentary Feature that ignored multiple major box office hits and favoured critical and festival hits, I asked how much the Academy’s changing dynamics had affected the nominations in this category that was often considered a musty piece of furniture. It was undeniable that a significant shift had been made and I am thankful to say that it wasn’t a fluke. The 2019 nominations for documentary have yet again marked the branch as one on its own course through the greater Oscar season narrative. A narrative that is otherwise marked by predictability, a distinct lack of adventurousness, and even outright laziness.

This year’s nominees took us from the bombs and missiles of a warzone of Syria (two times! The Cave and For Sama) to the silent beekeeping traditions of North Macedonia (Honeyland), through the muddy democratic waters of Brazil (The Edge of Democracy) and the blue collar working yards of America's midwest (American Factory). They represent American and international filmmaking at their finest made by newcomers and veterans alike...

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Year in Review: 50 Biggest Documentary Hits

Our year in review party begins. A different list each day. Here's Glenn Dunks...

The documentary box office of 2018 was always going to be hard to beat - impossible, even. Last year we had five documentaries reach totals greater than $10mil. This year, unfortunately, we had none, although one of those five, Peter Jackson's colorized war doc They Shall Not Grow Old made the bulk of its money in the new year so there's that, as did Oscar winner Free Solo.

 Nevertheless, the realm of non-fiction more or less thrived in cinemas across America. Where indie flicks with big names faultered, sputtered and got chewed up by the markets divergance towards streaming, documentaries continued to post solid numbers for their boutique distributors. The clear winner for 2019 was Apollo 11, which capitalized on the 50th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon as well as being marketed as an event movie in IMAX. It missed an Oscar nomination, but as last year's snubs for Won't You Be My Neighbour and Three Identical Strangers suggest, box office doesn't always make that a done deal.

Still, we are here to talk box office so let's look at the list. 

TOP 50 GROSSING DOCUMENTARIES FOR 2019
Domestic Box Office Totals Only - Figures as of March 12th, 2020
RANK | TITLE | (DISTRIBUTOR, RELEASE DATE) | DOMESTIC GROSS

01 Apollo 11 (Neon, March 1st) $9.0  [REVIEW] 

02 Penguins (Disney, April 17th) $7.6...

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International Documentary Association winners announce

By Glenn Dunks

The International Documentary Association announced their winners this past weekend with the Syrian-UK For Sama taking the top prize among a field of ten nominees. IDA aren’t the best gauge of where the winds are going to blow for the Academy Awards – the last three years alone, the Best Feature prize has gone to Minding the Gap (Oscar nominated), O.J.: Made in America (Oscar winner) and Dina (not nominated). So, make of these results what you will.

Nevertheless, this win when combined with its recent BIFA win for Best British Independent Film and a swag of other nominations does position it nicely for a slot on the short list and inching closer to a nomination (although I am less a fan of it than most).

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Doc Corner: 'At the Heart of Gold' prizes the voice of survivors above all else

By Glenn Dunks

It has become somewhat unkind to describe a documentary as old fashioned or traditional. It seems to be that talking heads intercutting a single, linear story is somehow considered by some to be stodgy and boring. If you watch enough of them, you see recreations and animations and all sorts of gimmicky tricks to, I suppose, dazzle the viewer into thinking they are watching something that is more ‘cinematic’ than it is (whatever such a term may mean to you). They don’t always work, and in those time that they do in fact not work it can often harm a film, distracting from what could have been a, yes, simple, but usually better film. You could call it old fashioned or traditional.

Thanks heavens then that director Erin Lee Carr didn’t try any of that nonsense in the HBO documentary At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastic Scandal.

Even its title is so meat and potatoes that those who expect works of non-fiction to have evolved beyond the classical form will probably zone out just hearing the name. But Carr’s movie is one of such harrowing despair that anything other than clear, direct, unfussy filmmaking would have been all wrong.

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