New Films Including Documentaries on Detroit and its People, Philosopher Simone Weil, the Park Slope Food Coop,
Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia, and More!
This has been a very exciting week with the launch of the new and improved OVID! If you want to support their work, the best thing you can do, apart from subscribing, is recommend OVID to your friends!
As for new releases, there are a lot of them. First off, be sure to check-out STREET FIGHTING MEN, which was just featured in the New York Times! The review celebrates the film and calls it an accurate portrayal of the experience of living in Detroit day in and day out.
The work itself borrows from the visual language and philosophy of neorealism, and features a beautiful score by Detroit-based musician Shigeto, to create a visually compelling journey into the forgotten neighborhoods of Detroit; a place that embodies the greatest challenges we still face as a country.
They also have new films on the muralist Edythe Boone and the philosopher Simone Weil, and the architect and designer Eileen Gray. And, we’re celebrating the Park Slope Food Coop with a charming portrait of the iconic market and its members, and one of the most iconic structures ever conceived: Gaudi’s cathedral, La Sagrada Familia.
And, from master animator Kihachiro Kawamoto’s, they have THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, the tour de force adventure tale of a young noble girl in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince in a ravishing film of beauty and mysticism.
More details on their latest 15 releases below:
Food Coop
Directed by Tom Boothe; Bullfrog Films, Documentary
FOOD COOP takes us deep into the belly of the Park Slope Food Coop, one of America’s oldest cooperative food supermarkets, with a healthy dose of insight and wit.
Nestled deep in New York City, which, for many, exemplifies both the glory and the horrors of the capitalist spirit, you can find this highly prosperous institution, just as American and certainly more efficient than Wall Street, but whose objective is entirely non-profit. Working against everything that defines ‘The American Way of Life,’ the basic principles of the Park Slope Food Coop are simple: each of its 16,000 members work 2.75 hours per month to earn the right to buy the best food in New York at incredibly low prices. This Brooklyn coop founded in 1973 is probably the best implemented socialist experience in the United States.
An Encounter with Simone Weil
Directed by Julia Haslett; Passion River, Documentary
“The filmmaker’s journey to understand the controversial French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943) reveals a brave young woman willing to die for her convictions.”
A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone
Directed by Mo Morris; Passion River, Documentary
Muralist Edythe Boone uses buildings as canvasses to raise awareness about the ongoing and necessary struggles for racial justice and gender equality.
Circle of Poison
Directed by Evan Mascagni & Shannon Post; Passion River, Documentary
A global look at communities impacted by the export of toxic pesticides made in America and how they are fighting back.
Codebreaker
Directed by Clare Beavan & Nic Stacey; Passion River, Documentary
The highs and lows of Alan Turing’s life, tracking his extraordinary accomplishments, his government persecution through to his tragic death in 1954.
Grounded
Directed by Sean Patrick Crowell; Passion River, Documentary
“Grounded” is the high flying adventure of Pittsburgh marijuana smuggling brothers Terry and Jimmy Dougherty.
Natural Life
Directed by Tirtza Even; Passion River, Documentary
“Natural Life” tells the stories of 5 youths who received the most severe sentence available for convicted adults – a sentence of life without parole (natural life).
Street Fighting Men
Directed by Andrew James; First Run Features, Documentary
In a rapidly changing America where mass inequality and dwindling opportunity have devastated the black working class, three men fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations.
The Book of the Dead
Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto; KimStim, Animation
As Buddhism is being introduced to Japan from China, Iratsume, a woman of noble descent becomes obsessed with this mysteriously new religion. One night in a rapturous trance, Iratsume sees a luminous vision that she believes to be the Buddha, compelling her to leave home and journey to a sacred temple. There she sees Otsu, a young Prince who was executed 50 years earlier. While Iratsume mistakes the prince’s spirit the very incarnation of the great Buddha, the ghost mistakes Iratsume for the last woman he eyed at the moment of death. As a act of great devotion, Iratsume decides to make a giant shroud for the prince to heal his soul and the Prince begins to haunt the young woman and those around her. The pair embark on a impassioned battle of wills, one longing for the material world, the other striving for the spiritual.
Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation
Directed by Stefan Haupt; First Run Features, Documentary
One of the most iconic structures ever conceived, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia is an astonishing architectural project first imagined by Antoni Gaudi in the late 19th century. Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation celebrates Gaudi’s vision while exploring the continuing work of the thousands of artisans and laborers as they strive to complete the colossal basilica.
Gray Matters: Architect & Designer Eileen Gray
Directed by Marco Orsini; First Run Features, Documentary
The documentary Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture.
Great Expectations
Directed by Jesper Wachtmeister; Documentary
Great Expectations provides an astonishing journey through innovative, futuristic, utopian and sometimes bizarre architecture projects-including concrete illusions of grandeur and Lego-like modular apartments to an Instant City Airship and round, grass-covered subterranean dwellings-from the beginning of the 20th century to today.
Kochuu
Directed by Jesper Wachtmeister; Documentary
KOCHUU is a visually stunning film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition, and its impact on the Nordic building tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future and traditional concepts, nature and concrete, gardens and high-tech spaces, the film explains how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions.
Microtopia
Directed by Jesper Wachtmeister; Documentary
Microtopia explores how architects, artists and ordinary problem-solvers are pushing the limits to find answers to their dreams of portability, flexibility and creating independence from “the grid”. Modern nomads, homeless people, people in stress, people in need of privacy or seclusion. Microtopia shares the personal reasons behind the dwellings, and shows how they actually work. On the sidewalk, on rooftops, in industrial landscapes and in nature the film reveals how these abodes meet the dreams set up by their creators. Microtopia deals with a contemporary urgent ideas that are addressed, and solved, in a very surprising way.