#untitled amazing jonathan documentary

[sweetsmellosuccess]

True/False 2019: Day 3

Number of Films: 4 Best Movie of the Day: Midnight Traveler

Midnight Traveler: The immigration debate gets framed and reframed as one’s ideology dictates, but the purest argument is made directly in the trenches with the unfortunate families forced to abide by a nation’s policies, as they seek, if not a better life, at least a safer one. Hassan and Fatima Fazili, married Afghani filmmakers, shot their film using only their phones as the two of them and their two young daughters were forced to flee their native country after the Taliban put a death notice on Hassan‘s head. Starting from Tajikistan, the family eventually make their way through Iran and Turkey, arriving in Bulgaria, which lasts as long as the race riots spurred by virulent anti-immigrant sentiment threatens their camp, from there they have to flee to Serbia, through a harrowing forest, with the possibility of being caught and sent to a detention camp, or far worse, separated and lost from each other. Eventually, they make it to a Serbian camp, with its walls topped with coils of razor wire, resembling a prison stockyard, where they wait endlessly awaiting exportation to Hungary, and, they hope, the EU. Through the three years of this ordeal, Hassan and Fatima face their troubles with shockingly good humor -- Fatima, more prone to emotional ups and downs than her husband, still has a way of calling herself out when she gets too worked up -- as their daughters grow older, becoming depressingly well-indoctrinated in the ways of the eternal vagabond. What goes unsaid is still blatantly obvious to the rest of us, or certainly should be: Where we’re born and raised is a haphazard confluence of luck, money, and randomness, and should not be accepted as proof of any sort of superiority. If you can watch the ordeal this family goes through and not instantly reflect how but for the grace of God go we, you might want to start over and reenroll in your coursework as a human being on this planet.

Treasure Island: Nostalgia is a funny, if supremely powerful, thing: We associate it forever with things from our youth, presumably during the carefree summer idylls, when we were young and carefree and could enjoy our lack of burdens with staggering devotion. But for people whose youth was actually spent in difficult, damning circumstances, there’s nothing to reflect warmly upon. Guillaume Brac‘s film, roughly covering the summer season at a Parisian area water park (described by the film’s producer as a vacation spot for the French people who can’t afford to travel), is steeped in the kind of warm glow of youth and promise that speaks to so many prosperous masses, but the director doesn’t neglect to point out for many of the more recent French immigrants, enjoying their own local holiday, that’s not really an option. For these people, this is their nostalgia for the future.

American Factory: A film purportedly about cultural differences when Fuyao, a large Chinese automotive glass corporation, invests a bundle of money in opening a shuttered former GM plant in Dayton, OH, actually offers a more striking difference than two countries attempting to work together. In the minds of the Chinese workers who have been brought the U.S. for a two-year stint to help establish the working culture, Americans are “lazy” and “not dedicated” enough to their work to be truly productive. Desperate for the work, in an area long depressed since the GM plant closed, the Americans suffer what they consider substandard working conditions (and lower pay) just to be able to keep the work they do have. It is when a team of Americans travel to China, however, that we begin to learn what is considered the Chinese ways of production: Workers have one or two days off a month, and many of them only see their families a handful of times a year. What has been accepted practice in China, something the Chinese workers actually take pride in, is anathema to Americans, especially ones who had the opportunity to work through a union. Naturally, when talk of unionizing comes to the plant, the Chinese are virulently opposed to it, and fight back every way they can think of – up to and including a constant stream of anti-union propaganda, and, naturally, firing those employees most enthusiastic about the prospect. Steven Bognar and Julie Reichert claim that their film doesn’t paint a clear villain, and while that’s true, in terms of the two countries, the clear oppressor here is management, whose corporate ethos mandates that an employee’s entire life be sacrificed for the good of the company’s bottom line. The fact that the corporate culture has brainwashed its workers successfully in one country to think that anything less than total sacrifice is sheer laziness, should not translate here.

Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary: An interesting doc from Ben Berman, in which his subject, the famous comedian and magician from the ‘80s and ‘90s known as the Amazing Jonathan, ends up playing a mysteriously passive-aggressive game with him, disrupting the shoot and bringing chaos to the director, trying to make his first ever feature. Given a year to live by doctors back in 2012, as the film begins, in 2017, Jonathan, who was forced to retire shortly after his diagnoses, is contemplating a brief comeback tour in order to close out his career on his terms. Berman naturally takes this to be a viable subject for his film, and diligently goes about the business of amassing the necessary footage and candid interviews in order to make it work. But Jonathan, a known trickster and practical joke maker, has substantially different ideas of how he wants this to work, throwing obstacle after obstacle in the filmmaker’s way, and all but taunting him in the process. Facing this kind of antagonism from his subject, Berman is forced to make himself and his reactions more and more of the story. As the long-suffering deadpan straight man to Jonathan’s provocations, Berman has a crackerjack comic timing, which only adds to the film’s building comic punch lines. When, at last, Berman confronts his antagonist in the last act, the film takes a decidedly different turn, revealing much more about the director’s own motivations in shooting the film in the first place.

Tomorrow: A pair of films to close out this year’s extra-frigid edition, The Commons, to begin with; and to close out the festival with their closing film, Amazing Grace.  

Photo from Midnight Traveler

Leaving the warmer confines of Philadelphia for the frigid climbs of the midwest this March weekend, I am down in Columbia, MO, home of the 16-year-old True/False Film Festival, a collection of (mostly) documentary films, entertaining buskers, and outrageously dressed Queue queens.

[harrisonstories]

NEW FILM PROJECT: Announcing an exciting new collaboration between The Beatles and the acclaimed Academy Award winning director Sir Peter Jackson

London – January 30, 2019 - Apple Corps Ltd. and WingNut Films Ltd. are proud to announce an exciting new collaboration between The Beatles and the acclaimed Academy Award winning director Sir Peter Jackson. The new film will be based around 55 hours of never-released footage of The Beatles in the studio, shot between January 2nd and January 31st, 1969. These studio sessions produced The Beatles’ Grammy Award winning album Let It Be, with its Academy Award winning title song. The album was eventually released 18 months later in May 1970, several months after the band had broken up.

The filming was originally intended for a planned TV special, but organically turned into something completely different, climaxing with The Beatles’ legendary performance on the roof of Apple's Savile Row London office — which took place exactly 50 years ago today.

Peter Jackson said, "The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about - it’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together.”

Although The Beatles were filmed extensively during the 1960s - in concerts, interviews and movies - this is the only footage of any note that documents them at work in the studio.

The Let It Be album and movie, having been released in the months following The Beatles’ breakup, have often been viewed in the context of the struggle the band was going through at that time.

“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” continues Jackson, “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama - but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating - it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate”.  

"I’m thrilled and honoured to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage - making the movie will be a sheer joy.”

Jackson will be working with his They Shall Not Grow Old partners, Producer Clare Olssen and Editor Jabez Olssen. The footage will be restored by Park Road Post of Wellington, New Zealand, to a pristine standard, using techniques developed for the WW1 documentary film which has been nominated for a BAFTA for best documentary.

The untitled film is currently in production and the release date will be announced in due course. This film is being made with the full co-operation of Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon, and Olivia Harrison.

The Executive Producers are Ken Kamins for WingNut Films and Jeff Jones and Jonathan Clyde for Apple Corps.

Following the release of this new film, a restored version of the original Let It Be movie directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg will also be made available

[letterboxd]

Docs.

“I was very intrigued with this idea of the chest-burster scene.” The origins of Alien, and other Sundance 2019 documentaries.

Park City, Utah: Sundance has long had a reputation as the pre-eminent launching pad for cinematic documentaries, and that was especially true last year when a bunch of Sundance 2018 premieres went on to do extremely well at the box office. Titles such as RBG, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Three Identical Strangers have made a significant theatrical and critical impact in 2018 (not to mention an impact on our Year in Review).

Sundance 2019 had no shortage of buzzed-about docs on offer, with the highest profile one being Dan Reed’s Leaving Neverland, about the long-term sexual abuse two men claim they suffered as children at the hands of pop star Michael Jackson.

Although it only screened once, it was unquestionably the most talked-about film of the festival, and by all accounts an extremely harrowing watch. HBO will air the film in early March. (Letterboxd member David Ehrlich’s in-depth review is worth a read.)

Other documentary titles that garnered buzz at this year’s Sundance Film Festival include The Great Hack, covering the Cambridge Analytica Facebook scandal, Alex Gibney’s The Inventor: Out for Blood In Silicon Valley, about controversial blood-testing start-up Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes, and Where’s My Roy Cohn?, a look at the life of the infamous New York lawyer best known these days for mentoring a youthful Donald Trump.

There were three other documentaries making waves at Sundance that Letterboxd had the chance to see. Read on for details.

A young Harvey Weinstein in Ursula Macfarlane’s ‘Untouchable’.

Untouchable After Leaving Neverland, this was the title that generated the most discussion around Park City. Ursula Macfarlane’s film examines the sexual misconduct charges surrounding disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein via gut-wrenching, first-hand testimony from some of his accusers.

It also chronicles Weinstein’s rise to power in the movie business, and his long tradition of wielding power and access to control the way media reported about him. Following the screening, Macfarlane acknowledged that the story being told in her film isn’t finished yet, with Weinstein yet to stand trial.

“We had to make a decision,” she explained. “Because you could carry on filming this story for God knows how long it’s gonna take until there’s some kind of conclusion. But we wanted to make our film evergreen in a way. So we did make a decision quite early on that we would begin with the arrest and we would end with the arrest. It almost became a kind of mythological, epic story.”

“It remains to be seen, of course, as to whether the legal system itself is capable of prosecuting someone like Harvey Weinstein,” added producer Simon Chinn. “Our hope is, through watching [Untouchable] you’ll get a clearer understanding of the nature of abuse in this industry and why the legal system is insufficient in dealing with it, perhaps. But equally, hopefully, you will understand how plausible the women who are accusing him are. For me, the film shows irrefutably that these women are to be believed. Let’s be clear about that.”

‘Untouchable’ on the red carpet, from left: producer Simon Chinn, director Ursula Macfarlane, actor Rosanna Arquette, and producers Poppy Dixon and Jonathan Chinn.

One of Weinstein’s accusers, actor Rosanna Arquette, appears in the movie and was present at the screening.

“A lot of women are not in this [film] because they were too afraid to speak,” said Arquette after the screening. “And I’ve heard from all of ’em, pretty much, during this process. Today. Everybody’s triggered. I’m here for all of them. I stand in solidarity for them, representing them. Just by telling your story, you help another person tell their story, so it’s a chain reaction across the world. So for that, we all very blessed to be a part of that because it’s helping people heal, slowly but surely.”

The Amazing Johnathan is the subject of Ben Berman’s untitled documentary.

Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary The Amazing Johnathan is a successful Las Vegas-based magician/comedian with a slightly sadistic edge to his act—his most famous gag involves appearing to slice a knife into his own arm.

Before watching, we weren’t sure that this would be the most inspired topic for a documentary, but the film was not at all what we were expecting. This is one of those documentaries that eventually becomes more about its own making than the ostensible subject matter.

Not that The Amazing Johnathan isn’t worthy of a doc—he’s a plenty interesting guy in a unique situation and the film gets a lot of value out of examining him. But the film has more to say about the nature of documentary filmmaking itself, as director Ben Berman becomes more and more central to proceedings.

There are secrets revealed throughout the film that might make you question its veracity. We won’t spill them here, but following the screening, Berman stood up to attest to its truthfulness.

“It’s absolutely real shit that happened,” he swore. “The biggest theme of the movie is trying to determine what’s truth versus what’s illusion, right? So to have that experience continue into you guys watching it is very exciting.”

The film’s comedic sensibility betrays Berman’s previous involvement in oddball comedy shows like Eagleheart, Lady Dynamite and various Tim and Eric projects.

The Amazing Johnathan himself was also present, and an audience member asked him about his current relationship with Berman, considering that it gets pretty strained in the film. “I don’t know what our relationship’s like,” he replied. “It was only towards the very end that I hated him. He definitely made up for it, what a genius ending.”

A sketch of the notorious chest-burster scene from ‘Alien’.

Memory: The Origins of Alien Screening as part of the festival’s genre-leaning Midnight section, this documentary about Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien is the latest work from film nerd extraordinaire Alexandre O. Philippe, the Swiss director behind such documentaries as 78/52 (2017), which was entirely about the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and The People vs. George Lucas (2010), which examined Star Wars fan discontent.

Philippe’s latest film is a deep scholarly dive into the cultural forces that lead to Alien’s creation. He factors in Greek and Egyptian mythology, underground comic books, sci-fi B-movies and the art of Francis Bacon.

“For Alien to become an A-movie in 1979, it doesn’t make sense,” Philippe said following the screening. “This is not a time when people were ready for it. And what becomes really interesting is this idea of, when a movie becomes that successful, at a time when the environment is not quite ready for it, what does it mean? It means, in a way, that there were certain images and certain ideas, and that we as a collective unconscious, and I truly believe this, that we summoned this film, we collectively put it on the screen.”

Philippe’s film champions the contributions of screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, who is often overlooked in favor of Scott and HR Giger, the Swiss artist behind the film’s iconic creature design. O’Bannon’s first attempt at the screenplay that would eventually become Alien was named ‘Memory’, hence the documentary’s title.

From left: Alexandre O. Philippe, Ridley Scott, HR Giger, Dan O’Bannon.

“To me, this film really is about the triptych of O’Bannon, Giger and Scott, and the symbiosis between those three people. It’s essentially an essay about those three extraordinary people meeting.”

The film was originally just going to be about the film’s most notorious scene before Philippe expanded his scope: “I was very intrigued with this idea of the chest-burster scene and, especially after 78/52, of making another film about another scene that had an impact on us as a culture. It seemed like a natural fit. But we did an early sizzle [reel], and it didn’t feel right.”

The resulting documentary is strong argument for the value of a film that does nothing but critically examine another film.

“What I really hope is that this film will make people look at Alien and consider it in a different light and maybe wanna go and dig deeper into it. Great movies, you can go over and over and over again and you will never ever get to the bottom, you will always see something new.”

Hulu has acquired ‘The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary’. ‘Untouchable’ and ‘Memory: The Origins of Alien’ have yet to announce distribution deals. Reporting by West Coast editor Dominic Corry.

[documentarynews]

The “Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary” trailer is filled with meth, magic, and mayhem

One of the most intriguing films to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival features one of recent history’s most intriguing performers: The Amazing Johnathan.

Like the man himself, the first trailer for “The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary” is pretty wild: After receiving a deadly diagnosis and being given a year to live, the rebellious and irreverent magician embarks on his final tour with filmmaker Ben Berman in tow.

What ensues is, apparently, an anarchic tour filled with magic, meth, and mayhem. And three years after receiving his diagnosis, the Amazing Jonathan is still alive.

Is he actually sick? What’s really real? Maybe the greatest trick the Amazing Johnathan ever pulled was this documentary,

“The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary” arrives on Hulu and in select theaters on August 16.

Read the story at The A.V. Club

[bandcloud]

Bandcloud - DDR - 20-08-2017

Eric Holm – Andøya (Subtext)

The closing track from this magnificent album was the perfect start to this show. Scratching noise and hints of dank squawk, it makes for a great intro.

Handpicked Tyrant – Into the Clouds (Unreleased) This is a track I made. An old track that's very dear to me features blissful moments of ambience yet is essentially a shuffling hip-hop groove. So, I took those elements and fashioned this strange beast from them.

Beast Nest – Tired AF // Pluto (Ratskin Records)   This is wonderfully expansive and life-affirming, a section of true wonder in the middle of an excellently strange release. Also, I'm always tired af.

Leama – Melodica (Ambient Version) (Platipus) My major entry point to ambient or chillout music was a series of compilations under the Euphoria banner. The series was also my entry point to club and DJ culture but that's another matter. Their Chilled editions, mixed by Red Jerry, utterly confused and fascinated me. My expectations of what I would find on that first compilation were so far away from what they featured I was dumbfounded. This track featured on Deep & Chilled Euphoria, as well as appearing on the Beginner's Guide To Platipus. It's airy and blissful, yet these elements are undermined by a repeated arpeggiated melody and the reverbed vocals stating "a journey".

Ideoforms – Bjorklund Drones (SoundCloud)   This is a track from Daniel Jones, who made those amazing slowed-down edits of the various Windows startup sounds. This is an old algorithmic drone composition. It's strange in that the description makes it sound so clinical, yet the music itself is beautiful, I would almost say heartfelt. But I guess I can't.

Nadia Khan – Milky Sweat (Where To Now?) This tape on Where To Now? has some of my favourite pieces of music of recent years. Nadia has been quiet since, unfortunately. Hoping for more music from her soon!

Perc & Passarella – Fast Forward (Passarella)   A lengthy piece that featured on a brilliant album of Lynchian horror. After allowing the next song float alongside it I slowed it down to bring in the thick noise of BFTT.

Jasmina Olsson – Jasmina's Song (Short Mix by Second Break) (Stray Recordings)   This is a very short version of a beautiful track, a solitary melody that seems to fit perfectly with the track above.

BFTT – iOSMIDI4_Orbit (Unreleased) Out to BFTT, who's about to appear on a Cong Burn tape.

Lancashire Folklore Tapes Vol.IV – Memories of Hurstwood (Lancashire Folklore Tapes)   This short excerpt has haunted me for more than two years. I believe this section is from a side by t/e/u/ that's called 'to​ ​rescue​ ​things​ ​beyond​ ​recall​-​soon​-​when​ ​the​ ​reaper​-​time​-​has​ ​garnered​ ​all​-​the​ ​ears​ ​that​ ​hear​ ​now​-​and​ ​the​ ​feet​ ​that​ ​stand​-​yet​ ​in​ ​​the fields​ ​where​ ​once​ ​in​ ​fold​ ​and​ ​hall​-​echoed​ ​the​ ​voices​ ​of​ ​our​ ​fathers'​ ​band’.

Circuit Rider – What Others Are Saying (J&C Tapes)   This is from one of the first tapes I ever bought, back in 2013 I believe. Just before I started Bandcloud and really got into ambient tape life. Soaring beauty undermined by a sinister bed.

Wiley – From The Outside (Actress's Generation 4 Constellation Mix) Perhaps this was a step too far. This strange remix takes Wiley's introspection and tears it apart.

Declan Synott – Soft Container (Bandcamp)  A palate cleanser of strange noise that paves over the abrasive harshness provided by Actress. A delicate release of sounds from Irish producer Declan Synott.

Endless Melancholy – Still (Bandcamp)   A fitting title and artist name, this is a slow piece of scorched ambience, elegant in its execution.

Black Thread – Pyre (Amplified Gravel) This artist's music often appears on Cascading Fragments, but somehow this release has disappeared from the web. It's frayed and distorted, heartbreaking in its evocation of imagined nostalgia.

In Media Res – Aurum Vitae (Exo Tapes Inc.) Beautiful choral work reverbed to bits.

Moving Still – Placid Saturn (SoundCloud)   More scorched sounds over a blissful bed of ambient wash, this is a great piece from a brilliant Irish artist.

M Geddes Gengras – Passage (Leaving Records)  This album is incredible, I remember the first time I listened was when I was hungover and it seemed to go on forever. I was lost and confused, wondering how to escape the music.

Sam Mullany – Smell The New World Coming (Blue Tapes & X-Ray Records)  Really dark stuff, this feels like stretched noise and what could be a trumpet announcing coming dread – the new world of the title.

Percival Pembroke – Darklands IV (Herhalen)  This is very Boards of Canada, almost like ‘Kid For Today’ stretched to pieces and cast out to sea.

Shaahin Saba Dipole – Remembrance (Flaming Pines)  The compilation this comes from is an excellent collection of experimental noise and ambient from Iran. This track felt quiet and strange at home but you could really feel the pulse of the beat in the studio.

Minced Oath – Ferric Appetite (Countersunk)   Another Irish artist, this is an ambient project from Sunken Foal. A minced oath is when you say something like "fudge it" or "sugar" instead of.... well you know. The album is excellent, it really was hard to pick which track to play.

Sealadder – Interlaken (Power Moves Library)  I love the conflation of soft, drifting tones and harsh buzz electricity here. It's from a limited-run tape by Toronto's Cheryl Fraser.

Moopish – Death Throes (SoundCloud)   A wonderful SoundCloud find, it reminds me of something between Silent Hill and Wagon Christ's ‘Glass World’. Shout out to Al Shadow Dancer and his incredible ambient mixes, which were truly inspirational for me. 

Nothing Natural – Skin2Skin (Bandcamp) Ilana from Wisconsin released this supremely dark and unnerving track recently. It could be sweet but there's something quite sinister about it. She's a wonderful voice on everything from politics to the history of clubland, and her music is excellent.

Park and Tamirisa – Untitled (A) (Private Chronology)   I came across this almost by accident. The pair have some incredible work together, including a brilliant live recording, but this tape is a gorgeous piece of work.

李松 - Nib (Zoomin' Night) Taken from a compilation bringing together experimental non-music disproving the album's title, this is an amazing track that's almost nauseating in its construction. I'm not sure if it's the panning or the frequencies but it's just loopy. See here for more on the artist.

Pan American – The Terrace (Geographic North)  There's something so beautifully open-ended about the title of this track. The terrace. I imagine it to extend from a balcony in a kind of Hollywood home (see Mulholland Drive), looking out over the hills at icy climes. I know that doesn't make sense.

Christine Webster - A Bird Meme (Hylé Tapes)  This one comes from the excellent self​-​identified non​-​male artists making experimental electronic music on Hylé Tapes. It's quiet and beautiful and it's got meme in the title.

Calico Jak – I Felt A Funeral (Bandcamp)  A sparse and haunting track, this comes from a collection of soundtrack pieces by Irish artist Eoin Mac Ionmhain, aka Calico jack.

Emily Berregaard – Yucca (enmossed)   Up there as one of the tracks of the year, this slow burner is a thing of beauty.

Jake Muir – Indian Pipe (Bandcamp) A kind of outtake from when he was making his album for Further, this is a nice wistful number. Check out his superb Acclimation if you get the chance.

Elodie Lauten – Relate (Wilde Calm) I played another track from this retrospective work a few months ago, I'll probably play all the rest too eventually. It's a gorgeous modular jaunt.

John Atkinson – Falls (Bandcamp)   This was inspired by a trip to Snoqualmie Falls outside Seattle, Washington, site of the iconic "Great Northern Hotel" on Twin Peaks.

Beauty Parlour – Cylch (Unreleased) This is part of the soundtrack to a documentary about extreme Welsh nationalism.

Baltra – Where Do We Go From Here (RVNG Intl) This lengthy piece comes from a release for RVNG called Peaceful Protest. It came about when Moogfest asked artists to soundtrack a meditation space, and was further inspired by the opposition to the House Bill 2, which hoped to prevent transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice. The release featured six sides of music, including some long, freeform pieces of ambient movement, opening with this amazing lilting piece. All proceeds from the release go to the LGBTQ Center of Durham. This piece in particular is such a delight, a change from the lofi house associated with its creator.

rkss – Watched (Seagrave) This is a short piece that shimmers beautifully as we reach the end of the show.

Boards of Canada – Corsair (Warp) The grandmasters of not-quite-ambient-but-not-dance-music-either here, from their scariest album, Geogaddi. Tomorrow's Harvest is chilling in a scorched earth/nuclear winter kinda way, but this one is darker, creepier, hotter, weirder. ‘Corsair’ is the moment of light that follows the utterly terrifying 'You Could Feel The Sky', but it's just ambivalent enough that it's hard to tell whether it's a reprieve or an elegy.

Matt Nida – The Same Way That Bricks Don’t (Unreleased) A slow burner that wouldn’t be out of place in a Nolan film, it’s got a dark edge.

Jonathan Scherk – Quench (ft Broshuda) (Videogamemusic) This artist also features on Peaceful Protest! Here he collaborates with the ever-frivolous yet eminently talented Broshuda for a playful gem of a track that's coming soon on videogamemusic, on what will be one of their last tapes.

[wavemstudios]

‘Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary’ Review: The Documentarian’s Dilemma Is a Hoot | Sundance 2019 http://dlvr.it/QxY9cg http://dlvr.it/QxY9cg

[jcmatsundance]

Business of Sundance

I have found myself deeply intrigued with how the business of acquisition at film festivals, specifically Sundance, works. Some deals I have heard of were Amazon buying the Report, Hulu buying the Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary, and Amazon buying Brittany Runs a Marathon. I think Amazon’s acquisitions is especially interesting. It’s interesting because Amazon is trying to become a major player in theatrical releases, but also almost immediately has their releases on the online Prime platform. I think it is also interesting that Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil & Vile has not been picked up yet. Industry professionals that I have met in the past week also found this shocking because it was one of the films with the most hype. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been in a bidding war and that’s why there has not been any news yet. The argument of it being potentially released on Netflix is problematic for me. I think it has too much potential at the box office to really takeover to be just available released on the streaming platform. #jcmatsundance2019 #mackenzierutledge

[picturelockshow]

Sundance 2019: "The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary" Review

The Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary is the story of two desperate men; one is trying to leave a legacy and the other is trying to create a legacy through his art. Its an extremely meta film that’s also self-aware and downright hilarious. Writer/director Benjamin Berman takes us on what eventually becomes a personal journey of how far one would go to leave a mark in the world.

The doc starts out as a portrait of comedian/magician John Edward Szeles who goes by the stage name The Amazing Johnathan. Stock footage shows his zany comedic style of performing magic and illusions and rising to the top of his industry. In 2014, Szeles is hit with devastating news that he only has a year to live, but three years later he’s still alive. Enter Benjamin Berman who reaches out to him to document his life and is granted access. Szeles decides that he wants to do a farewell tour as The Amazing Johnathan. Things run smoothly, until suddenly Berman and his team are made aware that another film crew will be shooting the same event to document The Amazing Johnathan. Things continue to spiral out of control from there as Berman learns there are even more documentary crews covering the person he’s dedicated so much time and effort towards.

The film merges into somewhat of a hunt to solve a mystery as Berman worries about the outcome of his documentary and whether he should continue. It doesn’t help that Szeles is extremely apathetic about it all. As Ben dives deeper into trying to salvage his documentary, he also begins to unravel; he takes questionable steps to make sure that it is created and even questions the truth of the ultimate prankster’s death sentence. 

The editing in the film is remarkable and your hat has to be tipped to editor Scott Evans. From the opening scene in the documentary you can tell that you’ll be on a self-aware joyride. Nothing is off-limits for sewing the film together to tell its story. From the typography to the sound affects to the quick hit jingles and cuts, this is a story being told from all angles. In fact, this approach in levity to tell the story is what makes the ability to handle this complex story easier.

There are plenty of twists and turns in the movie, but it’s death that looms in the background of both Szeles and Berman’s mind that informs their decisions subconsciously and eventually makes its way into the documentary. The Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary is transparent, original and personal in its attempt at making it to the big screen. Berman’s ability to adapt and use his resources create a once in a lifetime moment in a documentary that, otherwise, may not have been made. 

Rating: B+

[narcbrain]

Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary Review: The Documentarian’s Dilemma

Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary Review: The Documentarian’s Dilemma

I am usually not a fan when documentary filmmakers turn the cameras on themselves. It feels self-indulgent and narcissistic while laboring under the guise of presenting a more honest and truthful picture when the obvious truth is that every documentary has a point of view. Objectivity in art is impossible, and every storyteller makes choices. While a documentary filmmaker is ethically…

[sweetsmellosuccess]

True/False 2019: Day 2

Number of Films: 3 Best Movie of the Day: Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Dark Suns: Forewarned that Julien Elie’s far-reaching screed on the state of Mexico’s hopelessly corrupted and completely ruined societal system of justice was a “dark film” (by the director himself before the screening), I was still unprepared for just how deep the film cuts, dredging the systemic failure of the government to adequately protect its citizens. It begins as an examination of the scores of missing women that have plagued Mexico’s cities since the early ‘90s (rumors allude to the idea that some of the more notorious gang cartels require the killing of a woman as an initiation rite), but Elie hardly stops there. Working his way methodically across the country in six thoroughly dismal chapters, the director moves from missing women, to the anguished mothers (and, in some cases, fathers) left to their own devices by a thoroughly corrupted police institution largely connected to the cartels themselves. We watch in mounting horror as the parents form coalitions dedicated not to capturing the killers and putting them to justice – a thought that sadly seems beyond the possibility of happening, under the circumstances – but simply to locate and dig up the remains of their murdered children so they can at least put their blanched bones to rest. Things get to the point where the best we can hope is one woman’s child won’t be found in a mass burial after the other victims were clearly tortured. Hoping for help from the military is worse yet: Many of the soldiers assigned to the most crime-infested cities quickly become worse than the original drug traffickers, kidnapping women and installing them into their own system of brothels. To his credit, Elie doesn’t attempt to soften the ending, offering up any kind of hold out for hope. It’s bleak to its core. Just the same, it’s clear the love he has for his native country, giving the film to feel more like a eulogy than a screed.

Cold Case Hammarskjöld: Belgian journalist/filmmaker Mads Brügger, known for his gonzo journalism stunts – his last film, The Ambassador, saw him impersonate a high-ranking diplomat in order to prove how easy it was to infiltrate Africa’s precious gem trade with absolutely no credentials but plenty of cash – takes on what starts as a murder mystery that goes nowhere, before stumbling into something potentially world-shattering in his circuitous pursuit of the mysterious death of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld back in 1961. Hammarskjöld’s plane crashed suddenly en route to his meeting with Congo leaders, attempting to broker a ceasefire in their civil war. A proponent of African independence, speculation has always had it that he was assassinated by various political forces – and the massive consortium of mining companies – who stood to lose money and power in the region if he had gotten his way. Brügger starts with some of the tendrils in this story, but quickly runs into a series of roadblocks. Forlorn and in danger of running aground on his project, along with a dedicated and thorough private investigator, he instead moves the film in a slightly different direction, and ends up meeting with an operative of a former clandestine mercenary organization, who has absolutely stunning information on what he claims happened not just with Hammarskjöld, but for the continent as a whole. Through it all, Brügger, self-consciously tweaking the story by injecting himself into the narrative and his efforts to spice things up, runs a fine line between his brand of humorous self-reflection, and the absolute horror he has potentially found along the way. It’s a peculiar film, to be certain (slightly reminiscent of a previous T/F film, Tickled), but duly loaded.

Midnight in Paris: After two long and deeply depressing films, Roni Moore and James Blagden’s 75-minute, lighthearted film, about the week leading up to prom night for a group of Flint, Michigan seniors in 2012, was a very welcome change of pace. Watching the kids in giddy anticipation of what many feel is their night to shine, worrying about the details of their outfits, making plans for their ride, promising their parents they won’t do anything stupid (while rolling their eyes), the teens become surprisingly well-rounded characters given their limited screen time. Refreshing as well, to see a group of predominantly African American kids from a much maligned city that has already been the subject of numerous more sobering documentaries, allowed to just be kids, enjoying their time on this Earth, and manifesting their own self-possession. There’s little controversy involved (about the most strident the film gets is when one of the young women accuses her date of being incredibly cheap, a charge he seems to happily accept), and the bubbly excitement of the seniors powers the film along amusingly. The only time things slow down, in fact, is when, at one of the afterparties in a hotel room, one of the kids’ dads shows up with his girlfriend, who won’t stop holding forth about the significance of it all. Still, it’s merely a blip in what is otherwise a sweet, encouraging ride. X`

Tomorrow: A full slate of intriguing sounding docs, including Midnight Traveler, American Factory, and Untitled Amazing Jonathan Documentary.

Photo from Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Leaving the warmer confines of Philadelphia for the frigid climbs of the midwest this March weekend, I am down in Columbia, MO, home of the 16-year-old True/False Film Festival, a collection of (mostly) documentary films, entertaining buskers, and outrageously dressed Q queens.

[documentarynews]

“Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary” is a riveting, twisted examination of non-fiction filmmaking

The unbelievable strangeness inherent in truth has made for some incredibly destabilizing documentaries about the blurred lines of fact and fiction.

Films like “Dear Zachary,” “Catfish,” “Exit Through The Gift Shop,”’ and “The Imposter” all blow themselves up in the middle featuring twists so disarming, so surprising that they make one question the very reality and existence of what you’ve been watching.

So prepare to be fooled, thrilled, and surprised with a new classic of this upending subgenre with “Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” a doc that uses the integral subject of magic and artifice to create a riveting meta-story about the illusory nature of truth, trust, and the self-examining questioning of what you thought to be real.

Directed by Ben Berman, who has worked on some crazy shows as an editor and director like “Tim and Eric,”and the gonzo “Lady Dynamite,” his film is wild too, a discombobulating rabbit hole within rabbit holes, but likely in a way he never ever imagined.

It’s the story of magician Amazing Johnathan (real name John Szeles). Johnathan has been given a devastating diagnosis; he has a terminal heart condition and is going to die.

But as Berman goes out to follow Jonathan on a comeback tour, nothing is quite what it seems, and soon the director finds himself at the center of his own documentary, unintentionally having to Michael Moore himself into the story.

Hulu recently acquired “Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary” at the Sundance Film Festival. A premiere date has not been announced.

Source: The Playlist

https://theplaylist.net/untitled-amazing-johnathan-documentary-review-20190208/