Screening today and Saturday at the festival with Shelter in Place is Nick Broomfield’s new film A Time Comes - The Story of the Kingsnorth Six

In this nineteen minute short Nick Broomfield goes back to look at a group of Greenpeace activists who decided to climb the chimney of Kingsnorth power station in protest of government plans for the first new coal-fired power station in Britain for three decades. The protest made national news and the activists were arrested. The resulting court case gained support from the world’s leading scientists and their subsequent acquittal was historic and changed government policy.

Nick Broomfield has not hidden the fact that his arm had to be twisted to get involved in a project like this, which is far removed from his usual work. However, once convinced, he committed fully and pulled together an incredible team all of whom worked free of charge. The subject matter and format are not the only change of form as the film uses an almost Richard Avedon-esque interview style and the release was made online and remains available to watch in full. You can find the film embedded at the end of this post.

The music was provided by Nick Laird-Clowes and features vocal and guitar contributions from David Gilmour, of which has also been made free to download here.

The final freebie is a 30 minute interview with Nick Broomfield talking about the making of ‘A Time Comes’ which can be downloaded here.

The Documentary Blog’s Sheffield Doc/Fest coverage comes to us thanks to our new UK correspondent Charlotte Cook.

On paper P-Star Rising raises certain expectations. It is a story about a 9 year old rapper and you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a standard performance driven music documentary. What actually happens is that all your expectations are turned on their head and you are presented with one of the most intimate insights into poor, struggling America seen on screen.

Director Gabriel Noble shows the highs and lows of success through the innocent eyes of Priscilla “P-Star” Diaz. She’s supported and led by her father Jesse, who for the last four years has desperately tried to find a way to make a success of his daughter’s talent while also raising Priscilla and her sister alone in their cramped one bedroom apartment. The element of risk and potential for failure give the film added suspense, as you can’t help but root for this family to succeed. Any initial judgments that this is a child being exploited are quickly squashed as P-Star’s character progressively bursts through. Even though the pressure of the family’s future evidently weighs firmly on her shoulders, she is truly happy face first in the spot light.

As Father and daughter attempt to navigate their way through the music industry, they also work to maintain their relationship. Their positioning within both worlds constantly changes as Priscilla struggles with attempts to control her own career while also remaining her Daddy’s little girl. Meanwhile, Jesse finds it hard allowing other people to have control over the choices made for his daughter while bringing her up in the best way he can. Parallel to this is the subtle presence of the two girl’s issues with their crack-addicted mother with whom Priscilla’s sister is desperate to find. The family are often forced to swap conventional roles and are constantly making sacrifices for each other. Add into the mix P-Star’s unbelievable talent and infectious personality and you’re left with a very complex but entirely entertaining underdog story.

www.pstarrising.com

 The Documentary Blog’s Sheffield Doc/Fest coverage comes to us thanks to our new UK correspondent Charlotte Cook.

Presumed Guilty is the new film from Geoffrey Smith who made last year’s outstanding documentary, The English Surgeon. This time around he’s sharing the director credit with lawyer Roberto Hernández who shot the majority of the footage.

Geoffrey’s role in this film was to shape and construct a feature documentary from over forty hours of courtroom footage provided by the legal team of Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete who had felt compelled to document a court case they were fighting in Mexico. The Mexico judicial system works on the basis that someone is guilty until proven innocent and so their prisons are crammed full of people who “might” be guilty. Whilst dipping in and out of incredible access within the prisons, the film centres around the case of José “Toño” Rodriguez, who has been falsely accused of murder and is facing a twenty year jail term.

Luckily the lawyers aren’t strangers to filmmaking having gained success with their previous short documentary The Tunnel, which provoked the release of an innocent man from prison, and so had the foresight to film the court case using a multiple camera setup. This, combined with Geoffrey’s skill at storytelling, creates a tense Law and Order style courtroom drama. As the case progresses the characters within the courthouse and the farcical nature of Mexico’s justice system are so extreme at times it gives the film a shocking level of the blackest comedy and the rollercoaster nature of the outcome of the case is so startling that were it a scripted drama, you wouldn’t believe it.

Presumed Guilty goes far beyond being a snap shot of the flaws of Mexico’s system or even a simple case of injustice but is a film that draws on the conventional structure of a courtroom drama to highlight a story that is so infuriating and emotional that you want to believe it’s not true.

For more information, visit the film’s official website at www.presumedguiltythemovie.com.

Just a quick reminder that the documentary By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama will premiere tonight on HBO at 9 pm EST. I’m not too sure what to expect in terms of quality but the film is produced by Edward Norton so I guess that gives it some kind of credibility, right?

It’s not often that a Frederick Wiseman film hits theatres, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear that his latest feature, La Danse, will be opening nationally in November! This is great news for those of us who missed the premiere screenings in Toronto and Venice. Also, a trailer has hit the net and looks to be both beautifully shot and curiously engaging. Even though my interest in ballet is practically non-existent, I trust in Wiseman to give me an accessible glimpse into what looks to be an extremely stressful creative environment that looks to be the perfect setting for some serious drama! Here’s the official synopsis from the press release:

Documentary master Frederick Wiseman’s 38th film in a career that has spanned more than 40 years, turns his attention to one of the world’s greatest ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet. The camera roams the vast Palais Garnier, an opulent 19th-century building: from its crystal chandelier-laden corridors to its labyrinthine underground chambers, from its light-filled rehearsal studios to its luxurious theater replete with 2,200 scarlet velvet seats and Marc Chagall ceiling. LA DANSE devotes most of its time to watching impossibly beautiful young men and women — among them Nicolas Le Riche, Marie-Agnès Gillot, and Agnès Letestu — rehearsing and/or performing seven ballets, including: Genus by Wayne McGregor, Paquita by Pierre Lacotte, The Nutcracker by Rudolf Nureyev, Medea by Angelin Preljocaj, The House of Bernarda Alba by Mats Ek, Romeo and Juliet by Sasha Waltz and Orpheus and Eurydyce by Pina Bausch. For balletomanes and the curious alike, LA DANSE serves up a scrumptious meal of delectable moments, one more glorious than the next, made even more precious by their ephemeral nature.

LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET will have a 2-week engagement November 4-17 at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (W. of 6th Av.) with screenings daily at 1:15, 5:30 and 8:30, followed by a national roll out. Until then, you can head over to Zipporah Films to purchase some of Wiseman’s previous films.

Thank goodness Noah Hutton’s ‘Crude Independence’ was about people and not oil. Sure oil might be a timely catalyst for the economic and social upheaval experienced by a small town after the discovery of 200 BILLION gallons of oil under their land, but the hot button issue certainly doesn’t bog down the human drama with facts and figures.

As the picturesque landscape of Stanley, North Dakota slowly succumbs to the numerous oil wells, a community is forced to deal with some newfound riches — for those lucky enough to own their property’s mineral rights — and hordes of outsider oil drillers filling up their hotels and bars. The on screen culture clash immediately reminds me of Farmingville, Flag Wars and the Maysles’ Christo films. Aesthetically, Hutton seems to be tapping into Peter Berg’s Friday Night Lights, fetishizing the wide, working class landscapes and complimenting the dusky photography with a whispy score — written by Hutton — exhibiting shades of Explosions in the Sky. It’s like a Texas version of North Dakota!! I really enjoyed hearing the different perspectives expressed by the community as the town hotels and bars fill up with oil rig workers. As the dynamics between the two groups clash, you get a real sense that the small town could actually be facing a total cultural upheaval as oil wells start outnumbering grain silo’s.

Overall, Crude Independence was a surprisingly intimate look at a small aspect of the oil industry that’s usually buried under the bigger, more sensational issues. It was refreshing to see the midwest step in for the middle east on this one.

The one documentary that Jay and I actually managed to catch at the Toronto Film Festival this year was Chris Smith’s Collapse. Admittedly, the only thing we knew about it going in were Smith’s past credits, which included American Movie and The Yes Men… and that was good enough for us. What we ended up getting was a totally different animal from any of his previous documentaries, however, and yet it was still a film that many people were calling the best doc at TIFF this year.

Collapse centers around the theories and ideas of a man named Michael Ruppert, a former member of the LAPD turned investigative journalist. He essentially outlines the various ways in which the world’s total economic collapse is not only possible but inevitable, but just when you think this is going to be An Inconvenient Truth all over again, you learn that Ruppert may not be the most reliable narrator. He’s been called a conspiracy theorist and a nutjob by many. Either way, the film is shot in a simple yet slick Errol Morris-influenced style, and Ruppert proves to be a great talker and an intriguing character. It’s a movie that will give you plenty to mull over… although if even part of what Ruppert has to say is true, we’re all screwed. (It’s interesting to note that even on the Apple trailer page, Collapse is classified under both the “Documentary” and “Horror” genres.) Collapse hits select theatres on November 6th; check out the trailer below and see what you think.

With the recent success of such docs as Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Heavy Metal in Baghdad and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, it seems that heavy metal is a pretty popular topic in the world of non-fiction right now. In Sam Dunn’s Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, one of the most fascinating (and creepy) segments was the stuff involving the Norwegian Black Metal bands, who were also featured in a short doc that was included on the DVD release of the film. Well, if you wanted to know more about this disturbing and violent subculture of musicians who supposedly burn churches and commit murder in the name of their music, you probably should check out Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell’s feature-length film Until The Light Takes Us.

The filmmakers supposedly moved to Norway and lived with the various band members for several years in order to gain their trust and try to make sense of it all. Although I’m not very familiar with most of these names, key interview subjects include Gylve Fenris Nagell of Darkthrone and convicted murderer Varg Vikernes of Mayhem. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the music (which I’m not), this looks looks like some pretty compelling and scary stuff indeed. Until The Light Takes Us hits select theatres on Nov. 20th. For an updated list of theatres and screenings, stay tuned to the official website. A new trailer for the film just recently debuted on Apple; check it out embedded below.

Regardless of whether or not you’re a big sports fan, you’ve got to be impressed with the number of noteworthy filmmakers that ESPN has managed to assemble for their upcoming documentary series entitled 30 for 30. In celebration of their 30th anniversary, starting tonight they will begin airing 30 hour-long films covering the past 3 decades in sports from such acclaimed directors as Albert Maysles, Alex Gibney, John Singleton, Frank Marshall, Barry Levinson, Barbara Kopple and Spike Lee. Heck, even Ice Cube and Steve Nash are directing their own films.

Tonight’s installment is called King’s Ransom, and it’s directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, Hancock). The movie examines Wayne Gretzky’s trade to the Los Angeles Kings and how it sent shockwaves through Canada and the NHL. Check out a trailer for the 30 for 30 series below, along with a list of the first 8 films scheduled to air. For more info, visit the official ESPN 30 for 30 website.

Tues. Oct. 6th: King’s Ransom by Peter Berg
Tues. Oct. 13th: The Band That Wouldn’t Die by Barry Levinson
Tues. Oct. 20th: Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? by Mike Tollin
Tues. Oct. 27th: Muhammad and Larry by Albert Maysles
Tues. Nov. 3rd: Without Bias by Kirk Fraser
Tues. Nov. 10th: The Legend of Jimmy The Greek by Fritz Mitchell
Sat. Dec. 12th: The U by Billy Corben
Sun. Mar. 14th: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks by Dan Klores