Overthrown by a coup and now taking refuge in the Indian
high commission in Male, it has been a tumultuous few years for the first
democratically elected leader of the Maldives – The Island President, Mohamed
Nasheed.
Jon Shenk’s The Island President profiles Nasheed’s coming
to power as a president struggling to make the world wake up to the dangers
threatening his nation - the literal survival of his country and everyone in it
is his sole concern.
Better this World is now available to own on DVD, and to watch online via Dogwoof TV.
Boyhood friends from Midland, Texas are arrested on terrorism charges
at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Better This World follows
the journey of David McKay (22) and Bradley Crowder (23) from political
neophytes to accused domestic terrorists with a particular focus on the
relationship they develop with a radical activist mentor in the six
months leading up to the convention. A dramatic story of idealism,
loyalty, crime and betrayal, BETTER THIS WORLD goes to the heart of the
War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in
post-9/11 America.
Dogwoof's most recent documentary film success, Bill Cunningham New York, comes to DVD today.
Available exclusively from the Dogwoof shop this week, and in all good
retailers from the 9th April, this is a must-see film for fashionistas
and photography fans:
The “Bill” in question is 80+ New York Times photographer Bill
Cunningham. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist has
been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high
society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On
the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures (Anna
Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Brooke Astor, David Rockefeller—who all appear in
the film out of their love for Bill), downtown eccentrics and everyone
in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any
catwalk as an expression of time, place and individual flair. In turn,
Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny and often poignant
portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and
unassuming grace.
Extras included on the DVD release include the film's trailer and 22
minutes of deleted scenes for those who just can't get enough Bill
Alma Harel's Bombay Beach is out on DVD from Dogwoof today - order your copy here. With a soundtrack by Beirut & Bob Dylan, the film won the Best Documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival, opened to glowing reviews in the UK and was named BBC Film 2012's film of the week on release:
The rusting relic of a failed 1950s development scheme, the Salton Sea
is a barren California landscape often seen as a symbol of the failed
American Dream. First-time director Alma Har’el visits this poetically
fruitful terrain and finds there a motley cast, including a bipolar
seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an
octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of manhood
in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea's land of thwarted
opportunity. True to her roots as a photographer, video artist, and
music video director, Alma Har’el crafts an adamantly atypical and
artistically innovative film. Bombay Beach is a dreamlike poem that sets
these personal stories to a stylized melding of observational
documentary and choreographed dance, to music specially composed for the
film by Zach Condon of the band Beirut, and songs by Bob Dylan. The
result is a moving and madly inventive documentary experience - an
evocative, symbolic portrait of rural America and its inhabitants.
The DVD comes packed with a bunch of extras - including deleted scenes,
find out what happened to Ceejay, The Parrish Family and Red after the
film in 'Where are they now?' featurettes, and listen to commentaries by
director Alma Har'el, editor Joe Lindquist and choreographer Paula
Present. Also included on the disc are the films trailer and the Bieirut
music video to Elephant Gun.
Spring is coming so its time to give your DVD collection a Spring Clean - here are all of our March releases, available to pre-order now:
An African Election - 5th
March. The 2008 presidential elections in Ghana, West Africa, serve as a
backdrop for this feature documentary that looks behind-the-scenes at
the complex, political machinery of a third world democracy struggling
to legitimize itself to its first world contemporaries. At stake in this
race are the fates of two political parties that will do almost
anything to win
Dreams of a
Life - 12th March. Nobody noticed when
Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London
in 2003. Her body wasn’t discovered for three years, surrounded by
Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with the TV still on. ho was she? And how could this happen to someone in our day and age- the
so-called age of communication? For her film Dreams of a Life,
filmmaker Carol Morley set out to find out.
Bombay Beach - 19th March. Bombay Beach is an adamantly atypical and
artistically innovative film—a dreamlike poem that sets the personal
stories of these distinctive yet familiar characters to a stylized
amalgam of observational documentary and choreographed dance, with music
by Beirut and Bob Dylan, all cast against the atmospheric scenery of
the titular ghost town.
A Useful Life, Dogwoof's love story between man and cinema, is now available for you to own on DVD - order your copy today.
Jorge (45) lives with his parents and has been working at a Film Archive for 25 years. He is a film programmer, he makes technical support, and he conducts the film news show at a radio station in Montevideo. Without any other job experience than working at the Film Archive, Jorge loses his position. A Useful Life explores the way Jorge changes his way of living in order to adapt to the new world that appears to him. After all, maybe ‘movies’ will help him survive.
As Mark Kermode notes in his DVD review from this week's Observer, projectionists in the UK are dwindling so don't forget to read our blog on the end of the cinema projectionist here.
If you are still not sure whether A Useful Life is up your alley then have a gander through some of these great reviews
Dogwoof's documentary film on the modelling industry is now out on DVD
and iTunes - read Mark Kermode's review of Girl Model in The Observer here. Order your copy today here
Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and
the U.S. within the modelling industry. The story is told through the
eyes of a scout and a 13 year-old model. Despite a lack of obvious
similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry
connects these distant regions. GIRL MODEL follows two protagonists
involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who
scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the
Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a thirteen year-old
plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the center of
Tokyo with promises of a profitable career. After Ashley’s initial
discovery of Nadya, the two rarely meet again, but their stories are
inextricably bound. As Nadya’s optimism about rescuing her family from
their financial difficulties grows, her dreams contrast against Ashley’s
more jaded outlook about the industry’s corrosive influence.
Find out more about Girl Model and the issues by visiting the films website, liking it on Facebook or following the film on Twitter
This February we’ve got a real treat in
store for film fans with a quartet of sensational releases, included a trio of
tremendous docs and a paean to the Cinema from South America.
6thFebruary: Tabloid - A true life tale from the master Errol Morris
featuring gunpoint abduction, manacled Mormons,
oddball accomplices, bondage modelling, magic underwear and dreams of celestial
unions. This notorious affair is barking mad.
13th
February: Sound it Out - Over the last five years an independent record shop
has closed in the UK every three days. Sound It Out is the very last surviving
vinyl record shop inTeesside,North East England and this is the story of its
survival and the people that make it so unique.
20th
February: Girl Model - Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between
Siberia, Japan, and the U.S. within the modelling industry. The story is told
through the eyes of a scout and a 13 year-old model.
27th
February: A Useful Life - Jorge (Jorge Jellinek) still lives with his parents
at the age of 45. He has been the film programmer and technical support at the
cinémathèque for 25 years. He also has a news show at a Montevideo radio
station where he conducts interviews and talks about movies with filmmakers.
Jorge’s life is consumed by movies.
Nobody noticed when Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping
mall in North London in 2003. Her body wasn’t discovered for three
years, surrounded by Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with
the TV still on.
Who was she? And how could this happen to someone in our day and age-
the so-called age of communication? For her film Dreams of a Life,
filmmaker Carol Morley set out to find out.
Dogwoof's documentary film on the modelling industry is now out on DVD
and iTunes - read Mark Kermode's review of Girl Model in The Observer 