Category: Documentary

By Joe Bendel. It has been called the Federal government’s most successful program ever. It is also maybe the most aesthetically pleasing. Frankly, the Federal Duck Stamp does not have much competition on either score, but it still deserves all due credit. For nature artists, the annual stamp art contest represents the brass ring as well. Brian Golden Davis follows several participating artists in Million Dollar Duck, which screens at the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival.

Every waterfowl hunter has been required to buy a Duck Stamp for their license since 1934. Ninety-eight cents out of every dollar go to fund wetland preservation. Rather than resent the cost, hunters have embraced the conservation goal and the classical, Audubon-style art. The Feds do not actually cut the winners a million dollar check. In fact, there is no prize money involved, but the winning artist retains all licensing rights to their paintings, which can be considerable.

Winning the contest helped establish artist Adam Grimm early in his career, but now that he is married with three young children, he could really use another Duck Stamp boost. Yet, he and fellow artist Tim Taylor still work collaboratively to scout and photograph ducks in the early development stage. Like many wildlife artists, their friendship was forged during their time spent at the annual contest. Frankly, it can be a harsh process, incorporating elements not unlike the withering early rounds of American Idol. Yet, there is something to be said for making it so public and above-board.

Davis introduces us to several other contest regulars, including the Hautman Brothers, whose collective wins earn them comparison to the New York Yankees. There is also a decent blood feud running between the likable Taylor and the hipster-provocateur Rob McBroom. You can always recognize his submission. It will be the one with the glitter. Along the way, we also meet artist Dee Dee Murry and her blind painting dachshund Hallie (who sadly passed away before the film’s premiere), so MDD definitely covers its feel-good animal bases.

Believe it or not, the Duck Stamp competition, as documented by Davis, is enormously tense and shockingly cinematic. By the same token, seeing the artists’ passion for nature and the extended community they have built around the contest will give the audience all kinds of good vibes. There was a brief throwaway line about the Duck Stamp contest in the original Fargo film but Davis and screenwriter Martin J. Smith (partially adapting his book The Wild Duck Chase) give it the full treatment it deserves.

In recent years, the war on hunters has cut into Duck Stamp sales, ironically hurting their waterfowl prey, so it is worth noting you do not have to be a hunter to buy a Duck Stamp. They are available to any and all collectors. Million Dollar Duck could drive some business their way. It is highly informative, but also rather warm and fuzzy. Recommended conservationists and those who appreciate a handsome duck portrait, Million Dollar Duck screens again tomorrow (1/26), as part of this year’s Slamdance.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 25th, 2016 at 6:00am.

By Joe Bendel. The Moscow State Central Cinema Museum was not just a vitally important Russian cultural institution. It was also the canary in the coal mine. During late Perestroika and the early Yeltsin years, the Museum’s cinematheque became a catalyst for open debate and the free exchange of ideas. Those days ended with Putin’s rise to power. Evicted from their stately building, the Museum’s legendary director Naum Kleiman valiantly held the Museum’s staff and programming together until he was pushed out by the cultural ministry. Kleiman takes stock of his losing battles and the grim outlook for Russian civil society in Tatiana Brandrup’s Cinema: a Public Affair, which screens during the 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Kleiman really gets to the nub of the issue in the film’s opening seconds, arguing Russia has always lacked social institutions strong enough to counterbalance the perennially domineering state. In its own small way, the Moscow Film Museum was instituted to address this imbalance. Initially, Kleiman only reluctantly accepted the directorship, hoping to return soon to his position with the Sergei Eisenstein archive.

You can’t get much more Soviet than “Eysen,” as they call him, but for Kleiman and several museum staffers, the notoriously banned Ivan the Terrible Part 2 is his true touchstone film. Frankly, it is a minor miracle Putin’s flunkies have not renewed Stalin’s prohibition. After all, they have forbidden the public exhibition of films with cursing.

Clearly, nobody understands the erosion of Russian freedoms of thought and expression as keenly as Kleiman, yet he remains a reasonably happy warrior. His enthusiasm for cinema remains infectious and undiminished. For obvious reasons, he is the focal point of Brandrup’s documentary, but he never gets dull. He often relates to films under discussion on multiple levels, simultaneously. The precise details of how the Museum was dispossessed remain murky, apparently as the parties involved intended. However, Brandrup and the Museum partisans openly identify one particularly duplicitous figure, besides Putin. That would be Nikita Mikhalkov, the chairman of the directors’ union.

Somehow Public Affair manages to be rapturously heady when addressing the transformational virtues of cinema and bracingly candid (if not downright depressing) when illuminating the state of Russian personal liberties (or the lack thereof). Arguably, Kleiman is lucky to be alive. If you doubt it, just ask Boris Nemtsov or Anna Politkovskaya. By turns charming, compelling, and deeply galling, Cinema: a Public Affair is the can’t-miss high point of this year’s NYJFF. Very highly recommended, it screens this coming Tuesday night (1/19) and Wednesday afternoon (1/20), at the Walter Reade Theater.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 15th, 2016 at 8:52am.

By Joe Bendel. The Process Church of the Final Judgement has been repeatedly linked to Charles Manson and his followers, but it seems this was rather unfair to the cult. However, they truly started out as a Scientology schism group, making them plenty scary enough. Yet, the former members do not remember it that way. The so-called church was just a part of the 1960s. The cult’s rise and fall are chronicled in Neil Edwards’ bizarre documentary Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

Everyone basically acknowledges the Process Church was essentially, strictly speaking, more or less a cult, but as cult’s go, it was relatively harmless. They may have fleeced some silly rich members, but they were nothing like Jim Jones’ socialist Peoples Temple or Charles Manson’s evil flower children. They argue they were wrongly demonized as Satanists due their strange Trinity of Jehovah, Satan, and Lucifer, sometimes expanded into a quartet including Jesus. According to the former Processeans, it was really all about the ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation of Heaven and the fallen angels. Satan and Lucifer were also somehow separate and distinct, but there is really no point in getting hung up on that.

Of course, the Processeans played their roles to the hilt, parading through London’s fashionable Mayfair district in black capes. Charismatic former Scientologist (and official Suppressive Person) Robert De Grimston was the cult’s front man, but former members consider his wife Mary Ann to have been the real brains of the operation. It seems she was the one who decided they had to relocate to Mexico, where adventures ensued.

Obviously, the former members remain uber-defensive when it comes to Manson. Maybe he picked up parts of their doctrine or maybe not, but they were certainly inviting extreme personality types. All of Edwards’ interview subjects clearly think the lack of a mass grave with the Process Church’s name on it vindicates them on all counts and by the standards of the 1960s counter-culture they are probably right, but they are still weird.

How weird were they? Weird enough to attract the attention of John Waters, who duly sits for interview segments. Even if you are incredulous about all facets of the Process Church, their story is absolutely train-wreck fascinating. Edwards tells it well, teasing out many wonderfully strange details and conveying a sense of their milieu through era-evocative animated sequences.

This is one doc that is never dull. Even if the Process Church truly was as benign as cotton candy, their story is all kinds of creepy. Edwards talks to most of the people who were there, giving us a full flavor of their ideology and times. Highly watchable and debatable, Sympathy for the Devil is one of the most provocative docs of the last two or three years. Highly recommended for the innately skeptical and individualistic, it screens this Friday (1/15) at the Cinema Village, as part of this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:37pm.

By Joe Bendel. Bossa Nova originally started as a spontaneous synthesis of West Coast Jazz, Samba, Romantic Era classical music, and influential Brazilian songwriters, like Ary Barroso. However, American jazz artists adopted Bossa Nova rhythms, re-importing the music back into jazz. For a while in the 1960s, everyone released a Bossa Nova album. Some were legit, some were legit-ish. Two of the first generation Bossa Nova artists take viewers back to where it all began in Paulo Thiago’s This is Bossa Nova, which opens this Friday in New York.

When it comes to Bossa Nova, Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal are the real deal. Essentially, they found each other and a group of like-minded musicians when they were all exploring “modern” sounds and less maudlin, more contemporary lyrics. A slightly older staff arranger named Antonio Carlo “Tom” Jobim took them under his wing, helping polish some of their compositions and writing scores of his own standards with them in mind.

Lyra and Menescal frequently visit the campuses, flats, and concert halls where the music was incubated, often carrying their guitars (and a tune along with them) troubadour-style. It is a much more active, entertaining way to take a trip down memory lane. Of course, all the greats, like Jobim, João Gilberto, and Oscar Castro-Neves were just as great as we always thought, but Lyra and Menescal also make a case for less prominent artists, including influential predecessors, such as Johnny Alf (the legendary Hotel Plaza jazz pianist) and Sinatra-esque bandleader Dick Farney.

There are a wealth of archival performances collected in TIBN, including Jobim performing and discussing “One Note Samba” with Gerry Mulligan (on clarinet), as well as a bounty of original renditions from Menescal, Lyra, his daughter Kay Lyra, Leny Andrade, Wanda Sá, João Donato, and the late great Alf. It is worth noting his piano trio is unusual well mic’d and mixed—you can actually hear the bass. Kay and Carlos Lyra also sound quite lovely on “Voce E Eu,” but this probably wasn’t their first time working together.

There are some cool associations that come to light throughout TIBN, like the influence Barney Kessel’s sessions with Julie London had on Carlos Lyra. Thiago also devotes sections to vocalist Nara Leão, Vinicius de Moraes (whose play was adapted as Black Orpheus), and journalist-lyricist Ronaldo Bôscoli, whom he dubs the “Muse,” “Poet,” and “Theorist” of Bossa Nova.

This is a terrific film that gives viewers many complete performances and a considerable insight into the music we hear. Lyra and Menescal are perfect hosts. They exude laidback charm and have all the credibility in the world. Cinematographer Guy Gonçalves makes it all look pleasantly bright and inviting. It is really the perfect film for a warm summer’s night on the beach or a winter in New York City. Absolutely charming and gently infectious, This is Bossa Nova is indeed highly recommended when it opens this Friday (1/1) in New York at the Cinema Village.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on December 31st, 2015 at 7:37pm.

By Joe Bendel. Frankly, the Scorpions were almost as skeptical as everyone else when they announced their “farewell” tour. Of course, with each extension, the question looked increasingly moot. Nevertheless, the tour finally ended, but Katja von Garnier was there to document their relentless string of stadium concerts in Scorpions: Forever and a Day, which is now available on DVD from MVD.

The Scorpions were the original road warriors, so all the current members are unsure how they will keep themselves once they retire from active touring. Right from the start, they granted themselves a loophole for special one-off gigs. They just wanted to avoid looking ridiculous by staying too long at the Headbangers’ Ball. After all, the band has recently joined the Rolling Stones in the exclusive ranks of rock band still active after their fiftieth anniversary.

Von Garnier also chronicles the creation story, growing pains, and international success of the band. Founding guitarist Rudolf Schenker has been the only constant since they formed in 1965, but for many fans, the Scorpions’ history really starts four years later when lead vocalist Klaus Meine joined. Even if you are not a metalhead, the two veteran band-members are surprisingly interesting and engaging to meet on screen. For instance, despite the decades of touring (and everything that implies) Meine remains happily married to his longtime wife (although the doc rather implies there is more to the story than they care to share).

In contrast, Schenker is sort of the bad genius guru of the band. He had the vision to drag the Scorpions to Russia in 1988 when the Communist government was still giving rock music the bureaucratic stink eye. They lost money on that initial show, but when they came back one year later, they found the seeds they had sown had sprouted a large popular following during the Glasnost thaw. Their Russian experiences inspired “Winds of Change,” which became the power ballad anthem of Glasnost and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (recorded by a German band, singing English lyrics, the band duly notes). Mikhail Gorbachev does not appear in many rock docs, but he turns up here (and he’s still a fan).

You have to give any band credit when they hit the fifty year mark, no matter how many personnel changes they have had. Although following the tour is repetitive by its nature, von Garnier does her best to exploit drama when it arises. Will Meine get voice back in time for the concert at Paris’s Bercy Arena? No spoilers here.

In any event, Forever is a solidly entertaining, highly accessible rock documentary. For perspective, it is on par with The Other One: the Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir and considerably superior to Janis: Little Girl Blue. Highly recommended for Scorpions fans and worth checking if you are somewhat intrigued or baffled by the band’s longevity, Scorpions: Forever and a Day is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from MVD.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on December 18th, 2015 at 1:48pm.