As threatened, here are some additional films. These mostly come from
distributors that were not part of my first survey.
From http://www.kimstim.com/ we have "TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG";
https://www.kimstim.com/film/too-late-to-die-young/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8726098/?ref_=nv_sr_1 which Alice and I saw in
Toronto. It's a slice of life film, but we really enjoyed. I wrote about it
on Facebook. They also have a couple of interesting documentaries in
"GENESIS 2.0" https://www.kimstim.com/film/genesis-2-0/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6862536/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 and "IMPULSO";
https://www.kimstim.com/film/impulso/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9049072/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_7 ;
From http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/ we have a series of documentaries:
"MOYNIHAN" about Daniel Patrick Moynihand which opens on October 3rd
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/moynihan.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8426610/?ref_=nv_sr_2 , "CUBAN FOOD STORIES";
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/cubanfoodstories.html ;(The FRF website
describes the film as "In Theaters," but it is not clear exactly when it was
released) "TVTV" http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/tvtv.html which I couldn't
locate on IMDb, but that may change after it's released on October 19th.
Finally there is "LOST VILLAGE"
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/lostvillage.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6096340/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_5 "INVISIBLE HANDS";
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/invisiblehands.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6980550/?ref_=nv_sr_1 which is about pervasive
child labor usage and the products of child labor in the global marketplace.
This opens on November 23rd. All of these documentaries have interesting
stories and some of them address pretty intense issues. The two that looked
the most fun were "CUBAN FOOD STORIES" and "TVTV." FRF also has a narrative
film coming out on December 14th that is supposed to be a romantic comedy.
It's called "SECOND TIME AROUND" about falling in love and following one's
dreams even as an older person.
http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/secondtimearound.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4941354/?ref_=nv_sr_2 ;
http://gravitasventures.com/ has a pretty broad eclectic selection of films
most of which I really didn't know anything about. There's horror, comedy,
drama, and a documentary or two. Most of the films seem to be available for
streaming through one or more services. Most that I looked at were available
through iTunes although there were potential links to others. One had a
rental price of $7.99 and another was marked at $12.99. A documentary that
was the first film to come up when opening the site was "ALT-RIGHT: AGE OF
RAGE" which is certainly topical, but seemed very intense.
http://gravitasventures.com/altright/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7980006/?ref_=nv_sr_1 I haven't added this
title or any others from this distributor to our list, but that is certainly
open for discussion.
https://milestonefilms.com/ is a very interesting distributor. They seem
mostly geared to the DVD market-though they do provide prints for public
exhibition-bringing unique narrative and documentary films back to some
prominence. It looks like a video library that various college academic
departments and professors would be using for research and teaching. Each of
the DVDs seem to have a handful of special features. It seems like their
catalog might be a little too esoteric for our film series, but there may be
something that will catch your eye.
http://www.magnoliapictures.com/ I had shared the link for this distributor
in last week's e-mail. They have quite a few films some of which have
already played at Railroad Square Cinema. There's a couple that we saw last
year in Toronto that are noteworthy. One is a documentary "CHINA HUSTLE" and
the other is an Icelandic drama called "UNDER THE TREE." I was quite
impressed with "CHINA HUSTLE" and was surprised it didn't make a bigger
splash, but then maybe not because there certainly are powerful forces that
wouldn't want that story to get too much attention. "UNDER THE TREE" was-I
believe-Iceland's submission last year for Best Foreign-language Oscar. It
is an angsty comedy about the escalation of bad feelings between neighbors
with a pretty shocking ending. Magnolia has released "LOVE, GILDA" about
Gilda Radnor and will also be releasing the documentary on Roger Ailes
"DIVIDE AND CONQUER" as well as Hirokazu Koreeda's Palme d'Or-winner and
Japan's submission for the Best Foreign-language film Oscar "SHOPLIFTERS"
later in the year. These latter two films are probably likely to end up in
Railroad Square Cinema's schedule. At this point, I will put "LOVE, GILDA"
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5424228/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and "CHINA HUSTLE";
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7215388/?ref_=nv_sr_1 on our possibilities list
even though both can be rented from streaming services. You may find
something else of interest here.
Music Box Films https://www.musicboxfilms.com/ is another distributor that
we have used before. They have a World War II film "THE CAPTAIN" that just
barely squeaks under our time window at 118 minutes.
https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/the-captain/ It basically tells the
story of how an oppressed German enlisted man turns into an oppressor as
Nazi Germany is in the process of collapse.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6763252/?ref_=nv_sr_1 It looks quite intense,
but has solid critical support and has collected several prizes and awards.
They have some interesting films-World War I French home front, the writer
of Pippi Longstockings, and an investigation of a possible miracle, and a
modern-day depiction of a Fascist state-on their roster, but most of them
exceed our two hour window. The only one that doesn't is "TRANSIT" which
showed at Toronto this year. It isn't scheduled to be released until April.
I suspect they might not want to let us show it without a fairly significant
fee. Anyway, something to think about.
I mentioned this in the notes I sent out. The year-round program of the
Toronto International Film Festival has a big celebration program planned
for the 100th birthday of Ingmar Bergman:
https://www.tiff.net/calendar.html?series=ingmar-bergman
<https://www.tiff.net/calendar.html?series=ingmar-bergman&list> &list
Clearly we could not hope to duplicate this and it probably would be a
mistake to even try. However, their program is pretty exhaustive on the
films he made and they have some really special events with people who
worked with him. Anything we came up with would probably involve us
selecting one of his films to show from the fairly extensive collection that
Janus Films has available: http://www.janusfilms.com/film-sets/3 ;
This is probably enough for the time being. Obviously we can discuss whether
there are films we should add to or eliminate from our list from these
distributors.
Joel
