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2017 AFI DOCS Documentary Film Festival

(The following coverage of the 2017 AFI DOCS Film Festival appeared online at Film Festival Today.)

2017 marks the fifteenth year of this distinguished documentary film festival. What began in 2003 as “AFI Silverdocs” transitioned to “AFI DOCS” in 2013 when the main hub relocated from Silver Spring, Maryland to Washington D.C.

American Film Institute (AFI) President and CEO, Bob Gazzele, opened the festival at the dynamic Newseum located mere blocks from Congress and The White House, and began by mentioning that this year marks AFI's 50^th anniversary since its inception in June 1967. He proceeded to show the audience a photo of the first Board of Trustees meeting which included such notables as Gregory Peck (the founding chairman), Sidney Poitier (founding vice-chairman), Jack Valente, “a new young independent filmmaker” Francis Ford Coppola and founding director George Stevens, Jr. Of Stevens, Gazzele called him, “a visionary who imagined an organization that would insure that the motion picture sits proudly alongside the other arts in America.” Adding that the goal of the festival is “to bring together the nation's leaders with the nation's leading artists.”

The screening venues remained constant from last year: The DC venues in the Penn Quarter district comprised multiple theaters in The E Street Landmark as well as The Newseum, while the sole Silver Spring location returned to The AFI Silver Theater complex.

This years compilation totaled 112 films (up from 94 films in 2016) from 28 countries. Of those, 59 were features (13 more than last year) which comprised six U.S. premieres, five East Coast premieres, three world premieres, three north American premieres and one international premiere. The opening and closing night galas both featured sports themed documentaries. The opening night film, Icarus, focused mainly on the uncovering of the recent Russian Olympic doping scandal, and was purchased at this year's Sundance Film Festival by Netflix for a record $5 million. The closing night film entitled Year of The Scab, focused on the 1987 NFL players strike and the temporary replacements hired by the NFL owners and is part of the ESPN excellent“30 For 30” series. Both films will be released later this year.

The impressive features line-up included: Dina, the Grand Jury Prize for documentary winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival; City of Ghosts, the latest from Academy Award nominated Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land); The Force, which won Peter Nicks the Best Director prize at Sundance; La Chana, winner of the Audience Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival; The Work, which won the top documentary prize at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival.

The annual Guggenheim symposium, which each year recognizes a master documentary filmmaker and commemorates their work, honored Academy Award winning director Laura Poitras (2014s Citizen Four-see Christopher Reed's excellent interview below). A varied array of festival activities there were offered were an Impact Lab (a two-day program “designed for filmmakers with issue-driven films who aim to create broader social and political change through the power of story and film”), AFI DOCS forums (“a variety of networking and professional development events for filmmakers, industry professionals and those with a passion for nonfiction storytelling”), and for all AFI DOCS passholders, a VR Showcase which offered the latest and best in virtual reality with the screening of selected VR documentaries. Also, a special program featured a discussion entitled “Look To The Right” between the Pulitzer-prize winning Washington Post critic, Ann Hornaday and filmmaker Michael Pack on the topic of conservative documentaries.

Finally, this was my 15^th consecutive year attending this superlative festival and it continues to offer an incredible variety of thought-provoking and entertaining cinema and activities. My sole regret is what seems like an eventual total shift away from the Silver Spring location. When D.C. venues were introduced in 2013, I was informed that the organizers would try to have at least one screening of each program at the AFI Silver Theater. Unfortunately, for those not wishing to travel the seven or so miles to D.C., the film choices appear to be dwindling for Silver Spring. Last year there were only nine films that did not play at The Silver. This year there were a whopping twenty-two films playing only in D.C. - a disturbing trend for those folks not desiring to venture to Penn Quarter but wishing to only attend screenings at the birthplace of AFI DOCS.

NOTE: The Audience Award for Best Feature went to “Step” directed by Amanda Lipitz about the Baltimore step dance team from the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women who aspire to win the city's dance competition and become the only women in their families to attend college. The Audience Award for Best Short went to “Fish Story” directed by Charlie Lyne that takes place in 1980 Wales and is about a mysterious gathering between an unlikely group of people who have one thing in common . (Neither film was screened by this reviewer.)

MY TOP 5 AT THE 2017 AFI DOCS

(1) New Chefs On The Block (**** out of 4 - 96 minutes)

I don't know what it is about restaurant/chef/food related docs, as most that have encompassed this genre that I've screened over the years have, for the most part, been first-rate. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012), The Search For General Tso (2015), Super Size Me (2004), Kings of Pastry (2010) are just a few of those titles that come to mind. You can now add this gem by local D.C. director and American University film grad Dustin Harrison-Atlas. He spent nearly three years filming and one year in post-production to create this absolutely delightful non-fiction narrative. Two Washington chefs attempt to realize their dreams of creating an eatery literally from the ground up, and then try to survive in the highly competitive service industry (D.C. was actually named Restaurant City of the Year in 2016 by Bon Appetite magazine). Frank Linn wanted to move from pizza truck to a brick and mortar establishment called, appropriately, “Frankly . . . Pizza” located in Kensington, Maryland located about 10 miles outside of D.C. On the opposite end of the spectrum, chef Aaron Silverman had his eyes on opening a high end eatery aptly named “Rose's Luxury” in Baracks Row. The trials and tribulations each faced involving funding, renovations, and intense approaches to make their venture a success, takes many twists and turns during the film's 96 minute running time. Interviewed throughout are notable chefs, critics, family members and employees. The end result is a documentary that is captivating and entertaining as hell and was my favorite feature screened at the festival. Quoting the director, “It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you hungry”. Winner of the Cinequest Audience Documentary Feature Award in San Diego earlier this year, New Chefs On The Block has signed on with the sales team of Preferred Content which sold Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Chef's Table; so, hopefully it will be picked up for distribution in the not to distant future.

(l to r) Film subject restaurateur Mike Isabella; Washington Post food critic Tim Carman; Producer Adrian Muys; Rose's Luxury chef Drew Adams; Frank's wife and film subject Kate Diamond; Restaurateur Frank Linn; Q&A moderator and Washington Post Food and Dining editor, Joe Yonan

(2) The Farthest (**** out of 4 - 122 minutes)

In the summer of 1977, NASA launched the first ever spacecrafts to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune: the outer planets of our solar system. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, moving at 10 miles per second, have now been traveling over 10 and 12 billion miles, respectively, since their launch and, for all we know, are still going strong. The Farthest is not your typical cut and dry science doc that informs but makes little or no effort to entertain. On the contrary, Irish director Emer Reynolds has crafted a stunning work that is sure to delight and amuse even the most ardent non-science geek in the audience. Despite the two hour running time, the film never bores as Reynolds covers the nuts and bolts of the mission in a way that is above the elementary but below the technically complex. Included are the requisite talking heads including those scientists and engineers directly involved with the project as well as the late astronomer/educator/author Carl Sagan, who was instrumental in coaxing NASA not to make a mid-course decision that would have potentially altered the achievements and goal of the project. But what is most engrossing, and a topic that the director repeatedly returns to, is Sagan's golden record that was placed on the spacecrafts to be discovered and hopefully analyzed by any alien beings that might happen upon our Voyagers. The making of this record (that contains Earth images, greetings in multiple languages, and 27 musical selections ranging from Bach to Chuck Berry) could fill a documentary of its own. Interesting is the backstory on what musical selections were to be etched, and the tidbit that The Beatles were asked but declined to be incorporated. (During the Q&A, Reynolds revealed that the decision was regrettably made by their record company and not the by the musicians.) The doc includes wonderful archival footage as well as fascinating CGI imagery. The actual photos taken by the spacecrafts, especially of those showing the approaches to each of the planets, are nothing short of awe inspiring. In addition, the soundtrack is as magnificent as the visuals with composer Ray Harman's beautiful score interspersed with classical selections. The director takes the viewer through all the ups and downs of the mission, and when related on-screen by those directly involved, I couldn't help but feel the spectrum of their raw emotions conveyed as they recounted their stories. In the end, these spacecrafts, that contain less computing power than our smartphones, could outlive our planet and travel for billions of years well pass our Heliosphere and long after their lithium batteries are extinguished. Only the golden record and its messages will live on as the sole lasting proof of humankind's existence. Winner of the Audience Award at the Dublin International Film Festival, the film appeared on PBS this summer

(l to r) Director Emer Reynolds; Smithsonian National

Air & Space Museum Curator of Planetary Science

and Exploration, Mathew Shindell; Mission scientists

Heidi Hammel and Tom Krimigis

(3) Atomic Homefront (**** out of 4 - 96 minutes)

The World premiere of the latest by Academy Award nominated director Rebecca Cammisa (2009 documentary Which Way Home and 2012 documentary short, God is the Bigger Elvis) is yet another disturbing example of government negligence and corporate avarice at the expense of the health and welfare of innocent victims. There is certainly no more fitting location to first present this film to the world than Washington D.C. - which serves to emphasize one reason why the organizers have centered this festival in the capital of our country. Cammisa spent several years investigating the effects of a nuclear landfill on two communities about ten miles outside downtown St. Louis. After that city was selected in the 1930's to process uranium to create atomic bombs for The Manhattan Project, about 25 years later, the resulting nuclear waste was move to northern St. Louis county and dumped in a landfill. The immediate surrounding community (roughly a mile around the landfill) was directly affected while a second community about four miles away along the Coldwater Creek Flood plain is similarly contaminated and is causing cancer and premature deaths for many of its residents. Most of these folks were clueless about the dangers until a strange stink arose caused by an underground landfill fire (known as a Subsurface Smoldering Event) that started seven years ago and is menacingly creeping toward the uranium, thorium, and radium. If reached, the radioactivity would spread into the atmosphere directly affecting some 3 million people (at the Q&A it was revealed the fire is currently a mere 600 feet away from the waste material!). And despite being on EPA's Superfund site list since 1990 (sites that are polluted locations requiring long-term response to clean up hazardous material contamination), virtually nothing has been done to quell the impending danger. As a result, the citizenry organized Just Moms STL and enlisted the help of Lois Gibbs, the Love Canal activist who raised awareness of the dioxin poisoning in the 1970s. Cammisa documents their travels to D.C. to confront the lawmakers only to be rebuffed time and time again. In the final minutes it is revealed that the EPA absurdly allows environments to be poisoned – as long as the levels meet a minimum requirement. The director uses multiple imagery and interviews to a poignant effect and includes an effective score by Robert Miller as well as top-notch cinematography by Kirsten Johnson, Thomas Newcomb, and Claudia Raschke-Robinson. Atomic Homefront delivers a powerful punch to the gut with even more outrageous information too numerous to detail in this limited space. The stunning documentary is HBO produced and will appear on the network after a limited theatrical run.

(l to r) Director Rebecca Cammisa; Healthcare reporter

at Governing Magazine, moderator Mattie Quinn;

film subjects and residents of the contaminated

communities outside St. Louis

(4) A Gray State (**** out of 4 - 93 minutes)

David Crowley's pre-production poster for his unfinished film

What begins as just another making-of doc, slowly morphs into something entirely different - and troubling. The film opens in 2010 with ex-Iraq/Afghanistan vet David Crowley working feverishly to make his independent film dream a reality. The fiction narrative, seeming aimed at the alt-right and entitled Gray State, describes a not-too-distant dystopian future where the government totally represses the rights of its citizens. Crowley raised enough cash to produce an extremely professional two minute trailer that was seen over 2 ½ million times on YouTube that resulted in him being considered a messenger of the movement. In the midst of filming and trying to raise enough to complete it, the project came to an abrupt and tragic end when the filmmaker, wife, and 5-year-old daughter were found shot to death in their Minnesota home on Christmas day in 2014. “Allah Akbar” was written on a wall in blood. (A friend compares the scenario to Sid and Nancy.) Was this merely a case of murder/suicide as a result of Crowley's slow decent into depression, paranoia and madness, possibly accelerated by an unexpected call to overseas duty for a second tour? Or were they murdered by a fringe Libertarian sect or by a government conspiracy? Director Erik Nelson uses a plethora of material to attempt to unravel the mystery. Thirteen thousand stills, twenty-three terabytes of computer data, multiple diary entries, hours of David's personal home videos, and interviews (including a three hour self interview) were all thoroughly researched by the director in an effort to get at the truth of the tragedy. (At the Q&A, Nelson said the police didn't go through the evidence like he did.) Nelson produced three films by the great Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Encounters at the End of the World, and Into the Abyss) and Herzog returns the favor here as one of the executive producers whose influence cannot be ignored. A powerful film that will stay with you long the lights come up, the A&E/Netflix produced documentary will have a limited theatrical run before being available on Netflix sometime next year.

David Crowley laying out the plot-lines for his unfinished film

(5) Brimstone & Glory (*** ½ out of 4 - 67 minutes)

A 67 minute film about fireworks hardly seems enticing. Although the narrative in Brimstone and Glory is sparse, the backstory, images and soundtrack kept me totally engrossed. First-time director Viktor Jakovleski introduces us to a festival that is certainly not world renown. In fact, the director mentioned during the Q&A that his crew from Mexico City, and only an hour away, wasn't even aware of it and became emotional on the last day of shooting and thanked him for introducing it to them) . Tultepec is a small town in south-central Mexico known for its manufacturing of fireworks for some 150 years (they produce over 80% of all the fireworks in Mexico). Although Jakovleski introduces a couple of characters, it is the annual early March week-long Pyrotechnic Festival that is the focal point of the film. As it turns out the event is as much spiritual as it is spectacle. We discover that fireworks have a religious connotation for Mexicans and that the festival is dedicated to the saint of fireworks-makers – the 6^th century Portuguese-born Catholic saint John of God. The two main filmic segments involved a giant castle infused with a multitude of fireworks (that prematurely catches fire during a rainstorm during its construction), and a harrowing version of Spain's "running with the bulls” where participants try to outrun mechanical bulls while avoiding exploding pyrotechnics attached to the sculptures. Jakovleski spent portions of three years filming and utilizes incredible cinematography by Tobias von den Borne. The DP captured the fireworks at 1500 frames per second on a high-speed camera. The result are displays unlike any pyrotechnics one usually sees on film. In all, seven cameras were used to capture the intensity including two drones and go-pros. Of special note is the stunning score by Dan Romer and producer/editor Benh Zeitland (who composed the music for and directed Beasts of the Southern Wild). Viktor's decision to make a visual tribute permeated with a wonderful score, instead of a movie full of talking heads, was a brilliant move and made the experience that more wondrous. This little gem will take your breath away and I predict that you will not view fireworks the same way again. During the Q&A, Viktor referred to the massive explosion at a fireworks market in this town in December 2016 where scores of people perished. The filming had ended about a year before and the correct decision was made to omit mentioning this tragedy because, as the director stated, he wanted to only share his perspective and experience. Oscilloscope has bought the distribution rights and a fall theatrical release is planned. Try and see it on the big screen with an equally large sound system.

(l to r) Director Viktor Jakovleski and moderator,

AFI DOCS screener Joe Warminsky

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Mosquito (*** 1/2 out of 4) - The International premiere of this beautifully photographed but frightening exposé on mosquitos and the global threat they pose is a Discovery Impact film which premiered on the Discovery world-wide beginning July 6.

Trophy (*** 1/2 out of 4) – A dark look into big game hunting in Africa and its causation on looming wild animal extinction. The CNN-produced film was shown theatrically in the U.S. in September and will be on CNN early next year.

Year of The Scab (*** 1/2 out of 4) – Yet another in the excellent ESPN “30 for 30” series was three years in the making and is the third entry by producer/director John Dorsey. The focus is on the three-week 1987 NFL players union strike and the effect it had on the strikers, their replacements, and their fans. The main focus is on the Washington Redskins whose two victories in this period became a significant factor in their quest to reach the Super Bowl that year. The documentary premiered on the ESPN network on September 12.

Saving Brinton (*** 1/2 out of 4) – The world premiere of this fascinating portrait of Utah collector Michael Zahs whose eccentric obsession led to the eventual restoration of turn-of-the-century cinema reels belonging to William Franklin Brinton and which first launched movies to the world. The film is scheduled for a spring 2018 release.

UPCOMING: Coverage of the 3rd annual Investigative Film Festival-Double Exposure being held in Washington DC from October 19-22.

2016 AFI DOCS Documentary Film Festival

Fourteen years and counting as the prestigious AFI Docs keeps merrily rolling along. What began in 2003 as AFI Silverdocs based solely at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring Maryland outside of DC, continued its expanse into the nation's capitol for the fourth consecutive year.

As the President and CEO of the American Film Institute Bob Gazzale pointed out in this year's program, the decision to expand into DC was made, “to bring together leading storytellers with world leaders – filmmakers with policymakers – those wishing to effect change with those who have the power to do so.” To that end, I am certain that bringing the festival into the political heart and soul of our country is one of the best ways to effectuate change by presenting the various issues expounded by the documentarians.

The always fluid D.C. venue locales changed once again from those in 2015. Gone were screenings at the National Archives, National Portrait Gallery and the Naval Heritage Center - all replaced with an extra auditorium utilized in the Landmark complex.

The festival presented 94 films from 30 countries and included three world premieres, seven North American premieres, three U.S. premieres, twelve East Coast premieres and one international premiere. Most notable were the outstanding opening and closing night films: Alex Gibney's “Zero Days” and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's “Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You”, respectively - both scheduled for theatrical release in July. (Each made my Top Five list and are reviewed below.)

Included in the impressive programming: an ESPN produced baseball biopic on Darryl Strawberry and Dwight “Doc” Gooden by Hollywood directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfigli entitled “”Doc & Darryl”; the first film by Ben Lear (Norman's son) - a hard-hitting juvenile justice doc entitled “They Call Us Monsters”; “Sonita” about a teenage Afghan refugee and aspiring rap artist living in Iran – which won this years Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best World Cinema Documentary.

And the annual Guggenheim Symposium honored one of cinema's most iconic filmmaker: the great Werner Herzog. The discussion, led admirably by director Ramin Bahrani (“Chop Shop”), lasted over 90 minutes, which, thankfully, extended past its allotted time as the affable director shared entertaining anecdotes and experiences spanning his nearly 65 years of distinguished fiction and nonfiction movie-making. At one point, the prolific filmmaker mentioned that he was currently completing three films that were already “in the can”. Sprinkled throughout the interview were several clips from his abundant catalog. The evening concluded with a screening of his excellent “Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World” which is due to be released theatrically in August.

Finally, despite the overall excellence of this years festival, two significant changes had many of the patrons grumbling. For the first-time since 2003, only two of the three AFI Silver Theaters were utilized. This absence of programming in the largest Silver venue meant fewer film choices and ticket availability for the paying public. I heard many folks lamenting whether this portended a total move to DC in the future - leaving a wonderful venue where the festival was born and consistently flourished, and whose location was a total convenience for the Silver Spring locales and those not wanting to venture inside the Beltway. Also, for the first-time, no screenings of the Audience Awards or Best Of Festival films were shown at the AFI Silver on the day after the festival concluded - leaving an empty void for those not able to attend a screening during the five days. Here's hoping the AFI Silver will continue to be a viable festival location and that additional presentations return post-festival.

NOTE: The Audience Award for Best Feature went to “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise”, which was directed by U.S. directors Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack. The Audience Award for Best Short went to “Snails” directed by Grzegorz Szczepaniak (Poland) which told of two friends whose dreams of becoming millionaires lead them to snail farming. (Neither film was screened by this reviewer).

MY TOP 5 AT THE 2016 AFI DOCS

(1-Tie) Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (**** out of 4 - 91 minutes)

Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady were nominated for an Academy Award in 2006 for Jesus Camp. Their latest has an excellent chance to make the Academy’s short list as well. Their documentary on the life of the television icon, whose ground-breaking comedy series in the 70's (including All in the Family, Good Times and The Jeffersons) were landmarks in the industry, is nothing short of superb. The creator, writer and producer at one point had six shows in the Nielsen top 10 rating. His All in the Family (1971-1979), which started it all, was so influential in the American consciousness that it's lead character's chair has been placed in the Smithsonian Institute. Using a somewhat unconventional approach, the directors utilize a child actor (Keaton Nigel Cooke) to recreate Lear's “child's-eye view” as an analogy throughout the biopic- a device that is quite effective as the images jump back and forth covering his life and career. Lear, who is now approaching 94 years of age, as a youth growing up in Connecticut, was strongly influenced by his environment consisting of a detached mom and a bigoted father (an inspiration for All in The Family's “Archie Bunker”?). He eventually was raised, beginning at age nine, by uncles and grandparents and later abandoned education for the military. Ewing and Grady cover Lear's early Hollywood years including his start with early TV variety show writing credits that lead to screen-writing (The Night They Raided Minsky's and an Oscar nominated script for Divorce American Style) and directing (Cold Turkey). When his partner, Bud Yorkin, viewed the British Comedy series Till Death Us Do Part about a married working-class conservative and his clashes with a son-in-law, Lear had an inspiration. The revelation became the landmark CBS show that raised this country's social consciousness by satirizing issues never before addressed on a weekly basis on television. Ewing and Grady included some classic comedic bits from Lear's series, but also unearthed a fascinating interview with Good Times lead Ester Rolle who was continuously bothered by Lear's portrayal of J.J., played by Jimmy Walker, yearning for “comedy without buffoonery”. Other clashes are revealed indicating that not all were beds of roses behind-the-scenes. Also covered were Lear's two marriages (he left television after he and his first wife separated), his geriatric turn at fatherhood and his founding of the political left-wing People For the American Way in response to the Moral Majority movement of the 1980s. Of particular note is the professional editing work of J.D. Marlow & Enit Sidi along with a well rendered jazz score by Kris Bowers. The film, which Lear stated during the symposium that he was given no artistic control, had its North American premiere at the festival and was given a limited theatrical release on July 8. It will eventually be presented on PBS' American Masters series sometime this fall. Not to be missed.

(1-Tie) How To Build A Time Machine (**** out of 4 - 82 minutes)

Rob Niosi viewed George Pal's 1960 adaption of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine as a youth and from that experience his fascination with time travel led to an obsession on building a full-scale replica of the time machine prop used in the classic sci-fi film. Trying to recapture the nostalgia of his viewing experience, Niosi, a stop motion animator on Pee Wee's Playhouse, spent over nine years and thousands of dollars on his compulsion to complete his project at his wooded upper-state New York home. (When asked during the Q&A how much he spent, he sheepishly declined to reveal the actual cost.) Ron Mallett, a PhD physicist at the University of Connecticut, also took in the film as a child with his dad and brother. When his beloved father passed away unexpectedly when Ron was 10 years old, devastated by his passing, Ron began a life-long quest to calculate the feasibility of time-travel in order to reunite with his father and warn him of his impending heart attack-and also to tell him how much he loved him. Cheel juxtaposes each story beautifully. You'll observe the overly meticulous Niosi and the extreme, at times comical, measures he takes to recreate, in the minutest detail, the symbol of time travel embedded in a memory from his youth. The director was obviously influenced by the great documentarian, Erroll Morris. He effectively utilizes Morris' Interrotron (a variation of a teleprompter) to interview Mallett as he relates his educational journey exploring the possibility of time travel using Einsteins' theories and the science of black holes. Most interesting are the questions that time-travel raises such as the grandfather paradox, as well as social and ethical issues of traveling to the past or future and making changes. The movie also confirms the notion of the power of cinema and how it can shape the life journeys of its audience. Would Mallett have ever devoted his life to physics and a determination to prove the possibility of time-travel if he didn't attend that screening early in his youth? Director Jay Cheel shot his film over nearly five years and includes a wonderful soundtrack by composers Ohad Benchetrit & Justin Small. Cheel whimsically develops both of the story lines in such an entertaining and informative way that the documentary will have you emotionally involved in each character's quest. Coming in at a crisp 82 minutes, I actually wished the film lasted much longer.

(2) Following Seas (*** 1/2 out of 4 – 94 minutes)

Following Seas is both an adventure story and a love story on many levels. Nancy's first love was life on the high seas. Bob Griffith gave up his successful veterinarian practice after a heart attack to devote his life to sailing. When he pulled into a Hawaiian harbor in 1960, Nancy first fell in love with his 53-foot cutter, and then ultimately with Bob. Over the course of their relationship they embarked on 13 major voyages including circumnavigating the world three times. And their shared love of exploring the world on the open seas is well documented with over 28 hours of Bolex 16mm film footage and a multitude of 35mm slides. With a wonderfully fluid narration provided by Nancy in her 70s, and skillful editing by co-director Araby Williams, their perilous voyages without radio, radar, and modern navigational aides, will have you in total awe. Their circumnavigation of the Antarctic (a first) in a small boat encompasses a good portion of the film. This exploit took them 111 days and earned them an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. Included is a spectacular segment when their boat, the Awahnee, crashed on a nearly deserted Pacific Island of Vahanga where, with the help of a couple of Tahitian prisoners, it took them nearly two months to rebuild. Also included was an incident involving Nancy falling overboard without a life preserver in shark infested waters. Directors Tyler J. Kelley and Araby Williams complemented the amazing visuals with recent footage and the use of a terrific soundtrack provided by All Them Witches, Woodsplitter, Teho Teardo, Luke Tromiczak and Christopher Lancaster. The doc serves as a fitting tribute for two of this country's finest sailors. As Nancy lamented, the English honor outstanding sailors with knighthood while the French bestow ribbons of honor. Unfortunately, America largely ignores them. This film provides a long overdue acknowledgment of two of the most courageous adventurers that you will not easily forget.

(3) Obit (*** 1/2 out of 4 – 93 minutes)

Who would have thought that a documentary about obituaries would be interesting, or, for that matter, fun. However, director Vanessa Gould accomplishes both in spades. Gould became interested in the subject when she was contacted by a member of the NY Times obit staff for information on the late French sculptor Eric Joisel, her friend and the subject of her 2008 Peabody Award winning documentary Between the Folds. Making a doc involves hard work and a lot of luck. Once filming begins, a film's success or failure often depends on being in the right place at the right time. Here, success was achieved at the time director Vanessa Gould was given full access to the New York Times obituary staff writers which consists of obit editor William McDonald as well as past and present writers Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, William Grimes, Douglas Martin and Paul Vitello. It turns out there are only a few editorial obit writers in the world. Of course the demise of celebrities, politicians, or anyone who made news in their life would be worthy candidates. However, as McDonald pointed out, “We look for people who changed the way we live.” And about 70 percent of obituaries cover the lives of folks no one has ever heard of. The director offers many examples including the inventor of the Slinky, the pilot of the Enola Gay, an exotic dancer with ties to Jack Ruby and the last surviving plaintiff from Brown v Board of Education. Besides including interviews and archival material, most of the film covers the anatomy of a single day. When Goald arrives for filming, Bruce is in the process of constructing an obit for William P. Wilson. His subsequent research, done over the course of several hours reveals that he was the first television consultant whose decision in 1960 to apply makeup to a youthful John F. Kennedy before his milestone debate with Richard Nixon could have possibly led to JFK's election. Also, time is given to ad exec Dick Rich who was responsible for several landmark commercials in the 60s including Alka-Seltzer and Benson & Hedges. But it is the time the filmmaker spends with Jeff Roth, the quirky eccentric sole caretaker of “the morgue” (which consists of thousands of file drawers containing old photographs, weathered clippings, and advance obits) that elicits the most joy. The overseer of the newspaper's history was so memorable that the audience clapped when his visage appeared over the closing credits. In the end, you'll realize that Obit is more about the celebration of life than the morbidity of its subject matter.

(4) Tower (*** 1/2 out of 4 – 96 minutes)

The country has become somewhat numb to the seemingly constant barrage of mass shootings whether at a mall, workplace, campus, etc. Long before the words “active shooter”, “SWAT teams” or “grief counseling” were a usual part of the vernacular, there was the shooting 50 years ago by Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin. That day, the 27-year-old Whitman mounted the campus clock tower and, after 96 minutes, the shooter lay dead but not before randomly murdering 16 and wounding 32 innocent victims. Director Keith Maitland spent 10 years creating an extraordinary document. Its genius is in the film's presentation and the techniques he used to convey the horror of that day. Using brilliant rotoscoped animation by Minnow Mountain (think Richard Linklater's 2001Waking Life), actors using scripted words over the action, archival footage and live action, Maitland creates a disturbing emotional suspenseful experience one will not soon forget. Shifting back and forth from these narrative styles, and concentrating almost totally on the memory of the surviving victims instead of the shooter's motive(s), Maitland recreates in the first hour a minute-by-minute account of the events on that fateful August day from their viewpoint. And the constant barrage of gunfire heard over the soundtrack creates an unnerving milieu that, despite the animation, will ultimately have viewers feeling as if they were there. As in all of these situations, several examples of individual heroism are illustrated as well as one “survivor remorse” and one of cowardice. The stories are riveting and beautifully rendered throughout. The compelling standout is the first person shot. Claire Wilson was pregnant and forced to lay on cement in the hot sun next to her deceased boyfriend for an hour while onlookers, including news cameras, looked on. Her heartbreaking story and how she survived is nothing short of amazing. The last half hour is less stirring as it concentrates on the present day appearance of the actual survivors portrayed earlier, relating the aftermath up to the present and the inclusion of reunions. The film also ties in more recent mass shootings as it tries to put in historical perspective this event which quite possibly started mass shootings on college campuses. And most disturbing, depending on one's point of view, is the final pronouncement that, coincidentally, on the 50^th anniversary, Texas law will permit open-carry of firearms on the Texas campuses, which is vehemently opposed by the shooting victims. Tower, a PBS Independent Len production, will have a limited theatrical release beginning October 12.

(5) Zero Days (*** 1/2 out of 4 – 114 minutes)

The latest from prolific Academy Award winner Alex Gibney is perhaps one of his most chilling. Computer hacking, as with mass murder (see above), is becoming an almost daily frightening reality of our modern times. However, this activity is not confined to individuals or groups of individuals intent on stealing information as governments are using the capability to conduct cyberwarfare. After a brief history, Gibney concentrates on the 2008 joint action of the U.S. and Israel (although neither will confirm it) to introduce a computer malware into the Iranian nuclear facility computers at Natanz intent on destroying centrifuges in order to shut down their nuclear capability and growth. What follows was its initial discovery of the “worm” (self-replicating malware meant to spread from computer to computer) which was named “Stuxnet” based on 2 syllables uncovered in the code. How it was uncovered by antivirus experts Eric Chien and Liam O’Murchu of the cyber-security company Symantec Research Labs, is one of the more fascinating aspects of the doc. The unfortunate consequence was that the initial damage was merely temporary as Iran's nuclear program came back stronger than ever. Worse yet, the worm opened a Pandora's Box by ultimately spreading around the globe. After we are presented with a long series of on-camera denials of the covert operation from a multitude of government officials (at one point Gibney frustratingly proclaims “This is really beginning to piss me off!”), the director begins presenting testimony from a number of anonymous whistle-blowers. To protect their identity he combines their information into a script and utilizes an actress (Joanne Tucker) to read it showing her onscreen by using an eerie digital filter effect. What clearly comes into horrifying focus is that cyberwarfare is now readily available to all the powers. Each has the capability of controlling nuclear power plants, disabling power grids, and creating total chaos to such a degree that the end result would make the damage done by an atom bomb seem like a pipe bomb in comparison. Gibney deploys effective graphics throughout to illustrate the technicalities involved as well as employing a terrific soundtrack. Zero days (the term refers to the time between a computer's vulnerability is discovered and the first cyber attack) is part investigative journalism, part spy thriller and part science fiction, and will have you hoping that its implications will be addressed by the candidates in the upcoming election instead of our government's continued secrecy and silence. The film, which had its North American premiere at AFI Docs, opened in limited released on July 8.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World-The East Coast premiere of Werner Herzog's frightening essay on the increasing technology and its past, present and future affect on humankind.
The Islands And The Whales-The East Coast premiere about the people from the North Sea's remote Faroe Islands and how their centuries-old subsistence for food from native birds and whales is being threaten by changes in their environment, mercury in the whales and anti-whaling activists.

OPENING NIGHT SNAPSHOTS