The biographical documentary is a genre that lends itself to a reliable storytelling formula. First, we look back on the origins of the subject; we are introduced to some of the key figures that helped them along the way; we are shown the beginning of their career all the way to the end, and are then left to contemplate their legacy.
Due to the predictability of this format, these documentaries can often come off as by-the-numbers, taking us on a telegraphed emotional journey intended as a crowdpleaser. But every once in a while, there’s a subject who is so unique that their story elevates the formula. Allee Willis is one such subject, with a life story that’s energetic, colorful and invigorating to witness. Director Alexis Manya Spraic crafts a documentary that strives to be just as fascinating as its subject.
The World According to Allee Willis, which premiered at SXSW earlier this month,...
Due to the predictability of this format, these documentaries can often come off as by-the-numbers, taking us on a telegraphed emotional journey intended as a crowdpleaser. But every once in a while, there’s a subject who is so unique that their story elevates the formula. Allee Willis is one such subject, with a life story that’s energetic, colorful and invigorating to witness. Director Alexis Manya Spraic crafts a documentary that strives to be just as fascinating as its subject.
The World According to Allee Willis, which premiered at SXSW earlier this month,...
- 3/25/2024
- by Jourdain Searles
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
March fest announces multiple competition sections.
SXSW announced on Wednesday that Netflix series 3 Body Problem from Game Of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss is the festival’s opening night TV premiere, while Universal’s action comedy The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is the centrepiece screening.
Top brass at the Austin, Texas, festival (March 8-16) also unveiled feature and short competitions and Midnighters and Global sections, as well as select titles from other categories and Xr Experience for the 31st edition.
Headliners selections include world premieres of Pamela Adlon’s Babes starring Ilana Glazer,...
SXSW announced on Wednesday that Netflix series 3 Body Problem from Game Of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss is the festival’s opening night TV premiere, while Universal’s action comedy The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is the centrepiece screening.
Top brass at the Austin, Texas, festival (March 8-16) also unveiled feature and short competitions and Midnighters and Global sections, as well as select titles from other categories and Xr Experience for the 31st edition.
Headliners selections include world premieres of Pamela Adlon’s Babes starring Ilana Glazer,...
- 1/10/2024
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Here is an exclusive clip for Built To Fail: A Streetwear Story, the documentary that premieres Saturday night at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Directed by Bobby Kim, Alexis Spraic and Scott Weintrob, the documentary follows Kim, the co-founder of the street fashion brand The Hundreds, as he tracks back to the players at the atom-splitting moment when the subculture of La's surfing and skateboarding scene birthed a hip fashion style that became a billion dollar global…...
- 6/15/2017
- Deadline
This year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, better known as Laff if you’re fun, has unveiled its full slate of 2017 offerings, including new offerings from Vincent Grashaw, Leena Pendharkar, Hong Sangsoo, Lea Thompson and many more. The slate includes 48 feature films, 51 short films, 15 high school short films and 10 short episodic works representing 32 countries. The festival’s five competitions feature 37 World Premieres, 2 International Premieres and 9 North American Premieres. Across the competition categories, 42% of the films are directed by women and 40% are directed by people of color.
“Our competitions reflect who Film Independent is as an organization,” said La Film Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. “Within each section you’ll find discovery, diversity, and promising talent both in front of and behind the camera.” Programming Director Roya Rastegar added, “The films curated for the 2017 competition reflect the changing political climate’s impact on emerging independent filmmakers, who are compelled to tell stories about the power of conviction,...
“Our competitions reflect who Film Independent is as an organization,” said La Film Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. “Within each section you’ll find discovery, diversity, and promising talent both in front of and behind the camera.” Programming Director Roya Rastegar added, “The films curated for the 2017 competition reflect the changing political climate’s impact on emerging independent filmmakers, who are compelled to tell stories about the power of conviction,...
- 5/9/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The days are getting longer and the nights are getting warmer, which means that we're edging ever closer to this year's La Film Festival. Taking place June 14th–22nd, the La Film Festival's 2017 competition lineup has been unveiled, and of particular interest for genre fans is the Nightfall section, which includes Colin Minihan's It Stains the Sands Red, Julius Ramsay's Midnighters, and Amanda Evans' Serpent.
Press Release: Los Angeles (May 9, 2017)— Today the La Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, unveiled the official U.S. Fiction, Documentary, World Fiction, La Muse and Nightfall sections. The 2017 La Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of feature films, shorts and episodic series, along with programs such as Coffee Talks and Future Filmmakers Showcase. The La Film Festival takes place June 14 – June 22, 2017 headquartered at ArcLight Cinemas Culver City, with additional screenings at ArcLight Hollywood,...
Press Release: Los Angeles (May 9, 2017)— Today the La Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, unveiled the official U.S. Fiction, Documentary, World Fiction, La Muse and Nightfall sections. The 2017 La Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of feature films, shorts and episodic series, along with programs such as Coffee Talks and Future Filmmakers Showcase. The La Film Festival takes place June 14 – June 22, 2017 headquartered at ArcLight Cinemas Culver City, with additional screenings at ArcLight Hollywood,...
- 5/9/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Los Angeles Film Festival
This seems to be the season for documentaries that chronicle mind-boggling true romances.
Audiences recently gaped at "Crazy Love", the story of the 50-year-long relationship of a couple that stayed together even after the man deliberately blinded the woman he loved. And now "Cat Dancers" zeroes in on a bizarre menage a trois that ended in tragedy. This HBO docu will stir up conversation when it airs on the cable network, but it also has a shot to generate healthy boxoffice business in theaters.
Ron and Joy Holiday met in 1954 and eventually married. They began as ballet dancers, but when their dance careers dried up, they started an act performing with exotic animals, primarily such large cats as tigers and leopards.
In one of the film's fascinating footnotes, we learn that it was William Holden who helped launch their second careers by offering them a baby leopard as pet. The Holidays' act thrived, and in 1988 they decided to expand by bringing into the show a handsome young circus performer, Chuck Lizza. Before long Chuck, a couple of decades their junior, became the lover of both Ron and Joy, and so their lives were even more intimately intertwined. But in 1998, Chuck was killed by a white tiger in their menagerie. Soon after that, a despondent Joy also was killed by the same tiger, under circumstances that have never been fully explained.
Much of the film is told by Ron, who still is going strong and training young performers. There also is a good deal of home movie footage, along with TV news broadcasts showing the trio at various points in their lives.
The film provokes a great many questions. Like Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man", "Cat Dancers" asks us to ponder what drives people to spend their lives in close proximity to dangerous animals. This was not simply a job for Ron and Joy but a consuming passion. There are, of course, many animal lovers, but they generally stick to more domesticated pets. As well trained as jungle beasts may be, they are never entirely predictable, so the people who work with them knowingly assume a huge risk.
Another question that the film stirs concerns the dynamic of the romantic relationships. Because Ron is the only person around to describe this three-way love affair, we wonder if we are getting the whole story. Would Chuck or Joy offer a different perspective? We have no reason to doubt Ron's veracity, but we do miss hearing from the other two parties to the triangle.
Given the sensational nature of the subject, the film was bound to be riveting. But it happens also to be skillfully executed by director Harris Fishman and his editor, Alexis Spraic, who does wonders weaving together the preexisting footage and brand new material. Another asset is the haunting musical score by String Theory and Peter Salett. This story of various forms of crazy -- or at least unconventional -- love might leave us with more questions than answers, but it tantalizes long after the lights come on.
CAT DANCERS
HBO Documentary Films in association with Cactus Three and Submarine
Credits:
Director: Harris Fishman
Producers: Amanda Micheli, Harris Fishman
Executive producers: Josh Braun, Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens, Silas Weir Mitchell
Co-executive producers: Chris Keenan, Michael Cash
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Music: String Theory, Peter Salett
Co-producers: Alexis Spraic, Christina Ferreira, Scott Kaplan
Editor: Alexis Spraic
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This seems to be the season for documentaries that chronicle mind-boggling true romances.
Audiences recently gaped at "Crazy Love", the story of the 50-year-long relationship of a couple that stayed together even after the man deliberately blinded the woman he loved. And now "Cat Dancers" zeroes in on a bizarre menage a trois that ended in tragedy. This HBO docu will stir up conversation when it airs on the cable network, but it also has a shot to generate healthy boxoffice business in theaters.
Ron and Joy Holiday met in 1954 and eventually married. They began as ballet dancers, but when their dance careers dried up, they started an act performing with exotic animals, primarily such large cats as tigers and leopards.
In one of the film's fascinating footnotes, we learn that it was William Holden who helped launch their second careers by offering them a baby leopard as pet. The Holidays' act thrived, and in 1988 they decided to expand by bringing into the show a handsome young circus performer, Chuck Lizza. Before long Chuck, a couple of decades their junior, became the lover of both Ron and Joy, and so their lives were even more intimately intertwined. But in 1998, Chuck was killed by a white tiger in their menagerie. Soon after that, a despondent Joy also was killed by the same tiger, under circumstances that have never been fully explained.
Much of the film is told by Ron, who still is going strong and training young performers. There also is a good deal of home movie footage, along with TV news broadcasts showing the trio at various points in their lives.
The film provokes a great many questions. Like Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man", "Cat Dancers" asks us to ponder what drives people to spend their lives in close proximity to dangerous animals. This was not simply a job for Ron and Joy but a consuming passion. There are, of course, many animal lovers, but they generally stick to more domesticated pets. As well trained as jungle beasts may be, they are never entirely predictable, so the people who work with them knowingly assume a huge risk.
Another question that the film stirs concerns the dynamic of the romantic relationships. Because Ron is the only person around to describe this three-way love affair, we wonder if we are getting the whole story. Would Chuck or Joy offer a different perspective? We have no reason to doubt Ron's veracity, but we do miss hearing from the other two parties to the triangle.
Given the sensational nature of the subject, the film was bound to be riveting. But it happens also to be skillfully executed by director Harris Fishman and his editor, Alexis Spraic, who does wonders weaving together the preexisting footage and brand new material. Another asset is the haunting musical score by String Theory and Peter Salett. This story of various forms of crazy -- or at least unconventional -- love might leave us with more questions than answers, but it tantalizes long after the lights come on.
CAT DANCERS
HBO Documentary Films in association with Cactus Three and Submarine
Credits:
Director: Harris Fishman
Producers: Amanda Micheli, Harris Fishman
Executive producers: Josh Braun, Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens, Silas Weir Mitchell
Co-executive producers: Chris Keenan, Michael Cash
Director of photography: Amanda Micheli
Music: String Theory, Peter Salett
Co-producers: Alexis Spraic, Christina Ferreira, Scott Kaplan
Editor: Alexis Spraic
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 6/29/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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