Visit Your Local PBS Station PBS Home PBS Home Programs A-Z TV Schedules Support PBS Shop PBS Search PBS
DOCUMENTARIES WITH A POINT OF VIEW

Doc Soup: Looking Forward to the Oscars

February 1, 2008 3:31 PM, by Tom

Every Friday, journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the state of the documentary world in his column, Tom Roston's Doc Soup..

Tom RostonNow that Sundance is over, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary:

No End In Sight
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Operation Homecoming: Writing The Wartime Experience
Richard E. Robbins

Sicko
Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara

Taxi To The Dark Side
Alex Gibney and Eva Orner

War/Dance
Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

What a great list! I might be in the minority, but I'll start the chant: Three cheers for the Academy! Hip, hip, hooray! You've heard me griping about the underappreciated War/Dance and Operation Homecoming, so I feel this is much-needed vindication for both films... but only if people get to see them, right? I suppose it'll be helpful to market the DVDs, but I'd love to see these two back in theaters soon. So are there any plans for theatrical re-releases? Sadly, director Richard Robbins informs me that there is no such future for Homecoming. The film never landed a proper theatrical distributor and the movie is already out on DVD — so I'll shill for the home team and say you should buy it at the PBS website. And hopefully, this'll mean that Robbins gets some more clout to get his next film before a wider audience.

Read more after the jump....

As for War/Dance, distributor ThinkFilm is bumping up their platform release of that wonderful movie. They're actually re-releasing the film in New York City and LA this weekend. And they've added some cities as a result of the nod: Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City and Santa Fe will all get a chance to catch the film in theaters thanks to the wisdom of the Academy voters. The DVD comes out on April 15.

And onto other Oscar matters... It's interesting to peruse the credits of the Documentary Shorts nominees:

Freeheld
Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth

La Corona (The Crown)
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega

Salim Baba
Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello

Sari's Mother
James Longley

There's Cyntha Wade, who's been making docs for more than ten years. I haven't seen any of her films, but I feel like I should have; Amanda Micheli was the cinematographer on Thin, the searing story about eating disorders directed by Lauren Greenfield; Francisco Bello was an editorial assistant on Fahrenheit 9/11; and James Longley directed the great Iraq in Fragments. A strong group, I'd say. I thought I'd try to provide links in case you're interested in seeing these shorts, and I came up with two: here's Freeheld, there's and for Sari's Mother.

And if you know how to track down the other two films, please drop a line in the soup.

Tags: Academy Award, DVD, PBS, Tom Roston's Doc Soup, awards

Posted by Tom on February 1, 2008 3:31 PM | PermaLink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks ()

Comments

Post a Comment


Are you aware of our Comment Policy?

Are you having trouble posting comments to the P.O.V. Blog?

*Your email address is for internal purposes only and will not be published, shared or sold to other entities.

Email this Post


 @ 

 @ 





Recent Comments

  • I thought it was a good film. Pushkin seems to be a flawed individual as we all are. After reading... More »
    Natasha | August 18, 2008

  • In a nutshell (pun intended), the guy is the picture you see when you search for the meanings of wor... More »
    meleon | August 18, 2008

  • I think our pro-Byelorusian friends are missing the point here... Pushkin is not being honoured as s... More »
    Richard Pearson | August 18, 2008

  • Well, the honchos down Washington - not mention the nation’s retailers - are hoping you’ll quick... More »
    abdulla | August 18, 2008

  • Great Blog....This is a good blog the writer makes several great points....I enjoyed to be here beca... More »
    Flower Girl | August 18, 2008