Doc Corner: From the Chiffon Jungle to the Great Outdoors at DOC NYC

Last week we looked at a group of films among the mammoth collection of titles playing Doc NYC. The festival continues and so we're looking at a few more films, taking a sort of cinematic road trip from the big city, down the highway to the Rocky Mountains and then back again.

The “chiffon jungle” is what the subject of Otis Mass’ debut film, The Incomparable Rose Hartman, a fashion and pop culture photographer whose images are as iconic as they are striking, labels her home of New York City. A place where fashion is as integral to daily life as breath is to life. Feel to free disagree, but as the first person to understand the appeal of the decadent backstage of celebrity life and master it into something truly artful, Hartman soon built a reputation that put her subjects at ease and made her none synonymous with New York’s cultural scene in a more extravagant way than the likes of Bill Cunningham. Whether she was photographing the models backstage and on the runways of  Donna Karen, Caroline Herrera or Halston, or capturing the more candid, celebratory side of celebrities like Jerry Hall, Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Liza Minnelli and Cher at Studio 54, her work is justifiably as iconic as it is extraordinary...

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Doc Corner: Slenderman, David Lynch and More at Doc NYC

By Glenn Dunks

Doc NYC begins this week in (where else?) New York City. This year's festival, running from November 10th to November 17th, features 110 feature titles (now on sale), 44% of which are from women directors proving that #52FilmsByWomen is perfectly achievable if you're a fan of non-fiction.

After the jump notes on four new titles including a horror movie ready documentary and a look at David Lynch's creativity offscreen...

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IDA Cites the usual suspects as "Best Documentary"...

Though yours truly (Nathaniel) owns and operates this site, I am not really part of its growing documentary beat (thanks Glenn!). But as a known stickler for rules (without rules, games and competitions and awards ceremonies are useless, truly) I plead to the cosmos "Won't anyone join me in being enormously troubled that documentary associations see no trouble in nominated O.J. Simpson: Made in America in both TV and Feature categories?" Shouldn't these organizations have rules on such things. Shouldn't they have executive committees for situations in which rules are challenged or unclear.

The IDA Feature Nominees -- all but "I Am Not Your Negro" are also nominated in the BFCA's feature category

And if there is truly no distinction between TV and Film anymore (something we're willing to entertain even if we don't like it) than shouldn't we have an abrupt end to their separation in category/awards forms? In the past week or two we've had three announcements that effect or reflect the oncoming Oscar race for Best Documentary Film. In all three (BFCA Doc nominees, AMPAS long list, and now IDA) O.J. Simpson: Made in America is included among the features but in two of the three -- the two with TV awards --its parent series is nominated for television prizes. O.J. Simpson Made in America is part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, if we understand correctly (do we?). Can anyone explain or justify what is happening? The full list of IDA nominations is after the jump...

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Now Streaming (Netflix): A Slim Selection But Jude (!) and Gillian (!!)

Netflix, which initially looked like the 21st Century Blockbuster is well on its way to being the new HBO, so they're cutting back severely on movies now. But there's still a few titles of interest each month. Here are streaming options as of November. We'll randomly freeze frame a handful of titles and share the results. Okay? Okay!

Shop till you drop, girls

Alfie (2004)
The Year Jude Law Was in Every Movie. Also, arguably, the peak of his gorgeousity.

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Doc Corner: Revisiting 'The Loving Story'

For this weeks edition of Doc Corner we are celebrating the release of Jeff Nichols' Loving by looking back at the documentary that was quite clearly a heavy inspiration on it.

That Richard and Mildred Loving often got overlooked for their unwilling but necessary part in the civil rights movement is hardly surprising when you watch The Loving Story, Nancy Buiski’s sober and low-key documentary from 2011. The pair, quiet and dignified, do not make for the sort of protagonists that make traditional narratives – a comment that has come up throughout the festival release of Jeff Nichols’ feature adaptation. Theirs is a story of quiet suffering; their victory an almost anticlimactic ‘duh’ moment that it’s easy to see why it has taken so long to get films made about them.

But it is that very reserved nature that makes their story equally compelling. Mildred, especially, is a woman whose soft-spoken nature so often goes unseen by storytellers throughout moments of great historical upheaval. Buiski’s film doesn’t try to pad it out with flash and narrative diversions. Instead it lets the humanity of its story and the relevance of its themes permeate across wisely assembled talking heads (including the couple’s only surviving child, Peggy) and a treasure trove of fascinating archival footage, newsreels, and family photographs that makes up the bulk of the film’s short yet resourceful runtime.

The entire story of the Loving v Virginia case holds relevance today in the face of race and same-sex marriage. Their story is one of barbaric cruelty where they were subjected to being woken up in the middle of night with flashlights in their faces, their relationship opened up to the inspection and scrutiny of hate-filled bigots in positions of power.

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