Joe Carman has a face made for the movies, but it’s not a pretty one. With an unkempt beard and tired eyes, he looks like he’s trapped in the headlights of a world that won’t cut him a break. The 40-year-old Seattle figure at the center of “The Cage Fighter” is a broken man defeated by every aspect of his life. Still, he does what he can to bury his troubles with macho swagger whenever he steps into the ring, engaging in the competitive mixed martial arts fighting that his family has urged him to quit. Carman’s persistence is at once inspiring and tragic, a bloodied metaphor for battling forward against impossible odds.
The feature-length debut of director Jeff Unay, “The Cage Fighter” hails from a tradition of intimate cinema verité that encompasses so many details from the lives of its subject that it may as well be a scripted drama.
The feature-length debut of director Jeff Unay, “The Cage Fighter” hails from a tradition of intimate cinema verité that encompasses so many details from the lives of its subject that it may as well be a scripted drama.
- 4/9/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Each year, the Sundance Film Festival rolls out an enviable lineup of jury members — billed as “experts in film, art, culture and science” — to dole out awards to the feature-length works shown at the festival. In total, 28 prizes (and sometimes more!) will be announced at a ceremony on January 28 (as ever, Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24). The festival has now announced this year’s various jury members, including actors, filmmakers, producers, writers and other luminaries (and, yes, plenty of Sundance alums pop up amongst their ranks).
Additionally, the festival has also announced that actress, comedian, correspondent and podcast host Jessica Williams will host the annual awards. Jones seems poised to have a very busy Sundance indeed, as she also toplines James Strouse’s premiere “The Incredible Jessica James,” which will close out the festival the night before.
The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements,...
Additionally, the festival has also announced that actress, comedian, correspondent and podcast host Jessica Williams will host the annual awards. Jones seems poised to have a very busy Sundance indeed, as she also toplines James Strouse’s premiere “The Incredible Jessica James,” which will close out the festival the night before.
The awards, which recognize standout artistic and story elements,...
- 1/11/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
There is no other place where fact and fiction become more indistinguishable from one another than at the cinema. What you see isn’t always what you get: a manufactured image might feel genuine, while an image that feels inauthentic might be the real thing. The finest stories can often be found somewhere in the middle. As Pablo Picasso once said, “Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
Kate Plays Christine, the latest film from Actress and Fake It So Real director Robert Greene, caught a great deal of attention at Sundance — we gave it the highest grade at the festival — and is now in limited release. It’s a documentary that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards) as she prepares for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who committed suicide via handgun on live television in 1974, and the...
Kate Plays Christine, the latest film from Actress and Fake It So Real director Robert Greene, caught a great deal of attention at Sundance — we gave it the highest grade at the festival — and is now in limited release. It’s a documentary that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards) as she prepares for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who committed suicide via handgun on live television in 1974, and the...
- 8/31/2016
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
El Santo, the greatest luchador who ever lived, was buried wearing the silver mask that had become his signature. Pedro Aguayo Ramirez, known in the ring as Hijo del Perro Aguayo, died from a cervical fracture that he sustained from a flying kick from one of his fiercest opponents. Fabian El Gitano committed suicide (most sources believe) after losing a match and being unmasked in front of his biggest fans. Mexican wrestling may not be “real,” but it sure as shit isn’t fake.
Lucha libre (which translates to “free wrestling,” but operates like a less corporatized, more cultured and similarly colorful version of the WWE) is a matter of life and death, silly and serious in equal measure. Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz’s “Lucha Mexico” may not explore the sport’s performative middle distance with the same intellectual rigor that Robert Greene’s “Fake It So Real” applied to American independent wrestling,...
Lucha libre (which translates to “free wrestling,” but operates like a less corporatized, more cultured and similarly colorful version of the WWE) is a matter of life and death, silly and serious in equal measure. Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz’s “Lucha Mexico” may not explore the sport’s performative middle distance with the same intellectual rigor that Robert Greene’s “Fake It So Real” applied to American independent wrestling,...
- 7/14/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Just in time for a post-Christmas read, here’s a conversation with Charles Poekel, the writer/director of Christmas, Again, a wonderful little movie about a lonely Christmas tree salesman, played by Kentucker Audley.
Poekel’s been working in the industry for years, moving from documentary to narrative fiction in his directorial debut. We talk about that transition, owning a Christmas tree stand and making Christmas lights look like tiny Christmas trees. Check out the conversation below.
So you still have that tree stand where you filmed the movie?
Yeah, yeah. I think this is the last year I’m going to do it. I’m doing it still just kind of — well, I enjoy it. I kind of fell in love with it. But also for promotional tie-ins with the movie and that kind of stuff. So a lot of my customers are excited about the movie so that...
Poekel’s been working in the industry for years, moving from documentary to narrative fiction in his directorial debut. We talk about that transition, owning a Christmas tree stand and making Christmas lights look like tiny Christmas trees. Check out the conversation below.
So you still have that tree stand where you filmed the movie?
Yeah, yeah. I think this is the last year I’m going to do it. I’m doing it still just kind of — well, I enjoy it. I kind of fell in love with it. But also for promotional tie-ins with the movie and that kind of stuff. So a lot of my customers are excited about the movie so that...
- 12/28/2015
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Is Sundance big enough for two Christines? It certainly would be a ballsy festival move and a trip as a cinephile to see, compare and admire two filmmakers’ perspectives and unique prisms on Miss Chubbuck. After Kati with an I (2010), Fake It So Real (2012) and Actress (2014), Robert Greene continues to tweak how we come to relate with the nonfiction form. Presented at the Sheffield Doc/Fest last April, Tribeca Film Institute and Cph:forum, Kate Plays Christine is likely going to see indie actress Kate Lyn Sheil morph into something special.
Gist: This film follows actor Kate Lyn Sheil preparing to play the role of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida television host who committed suicide on air in 1974.
Production Co./Producers: Susan Bedusa and Douglas Tirola (Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon).
Prediction: U.S Documentary section.
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic). Tbd (international)
More 2016 Sundance...
Gist: This film follows actor Kate Lyn Sheil preparing to play the role of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida television host who committed suicide on air in 1974.
Production Co./Producers: Susan Bedusa and Douglas Tirola (Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon).
Prediction: U.S Documentary section.
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic). Tbd (international)
More 2016 Sundance...
- 11/24/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Sean Price Williams shot parts of the Actress with Robert Greene, and the two were clearly of the same mind about the sovereignty of their subject. A pretty teen, Kati is easy to sexualize, and despite a narrative turn that reveals she is sexually active, this is one girl not getting played for her prurient appeal. Comparing Kati to Greene’s next film, a doc about amateur wrestlers in the South called Fake It So Real, you’ll naturally think Greene flew from the most delicately feminine subject to the most flagrantly masculine one.>> -Sara Vizcarrondo.
- 11/16/2014
- Keyframe
Sean Price Williams shot parts of the Actress with Robert Greene, and the two were clearly of the same mind about the sovereignty of their subject. A pretty teen, Kati is easy to sexualize, and despite a narrative turn that reveals she is sexually active, this is one girl not getting played for her prurient appeal. Comparing Kati to Greene’s next film, a doc about amateur wrestlers in the South called Fake It So Real, you’ll naturally think Greene flew from the most delicately feminine subject to the most flagrantly masculine one.>> -Sara Vizcarrondo.
- 11/16/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
He tackled the weather in 2009 ("Owning the Weather"), pro-wrestling in 2012 ("Fake It So Real"), and this year documentarian Robert Greene has taken on another tempestuous, albeit much more intimate, subject with "Actress." It's the portrait of Brandy Burre, playing herself, as an actress who voluntarily placed her career on the back burner in favor of playing some of life's hardest parts: a mother raising children and a partner trying her best to maintain a happy home life. She's a familiar face to the perceptive viewer with a great memory, for Burre's most prestigious role was Theresa D'Agostino, the politically savvy campaign manager in HBO’s “The Wire.” After her biggest gig, however, Burre took a hiatus and decided to concentrate on family. Greene takes an avant-garde approach in detailing her attempt at getting back into acting now that her two children have grown out of diapers. It’s an expertly...
- 11/10/2014
- by Nikola Grozdanovic
- The Playlist
This weekend is shaping up to mirror early fall, when specialty distributors packed theaters with new titles. Many of those disappeared quickly, and this weekend could be similar as companies usher in about a dozen limited-release theatrical newcomers. Focus Features’ The Theory Of Everything, however, has amassed a good amount of attention. Directed by Oscar winner James Marsh (Man On Wire), the Stephen Hawking biopic is opening two months after its Toronto debut. Two notable nonfiction titles also join the fray this weekend: Cinema Guild’s Actress, from director Robert Greene, and Zipporah Films’ National Gallery by nonfiction maverick Frederick Wiseman. Both deserve attention as the awards-race heats up. Two years after the theatrical bow of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President is the focus of Amplify’s The Better Angels — though it focuses a very different phase of his life. Distrib Films is opening Italian political...
- 11/7/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
Having recently been picked up for theatrical distribution by The Cinema Guild, director Robert Greene’s latest documentary digs deep into the idea of life as performance, which he tested initially with his prior films Fake It So Real and Kati with an I. Actress in turn is a singular portrait of Brandy Burre, an actress whose claim to fame is her portrayal of Theresa D’Agostino from The Wire, yet her rising star actually pushed her away from the limelight and into the role of wife and mother. Greene’s film sees her bored with her adopted roles and anxious to re-enter show business with a new, fresh perspective, but as it turns out the challenges are not just professional.
Actress premiered earlier this year at the True/False Film Festival and has subsequently made the rounds at all the major non-fiction fests since, including Hot Docs, where I...
Actress premiered earlier this year at the True/False Film Festival and has subsequently made the rounds at all the major non-fiction fests since, including Hot Docs, where I...
- 11/6/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The 2014 Art of the Real series, running from April 11th through the 26th at New York's Film Society Lincoln Center, could not have possibly asked for a more appropriate film with which to kick off its exploratory ruminations on documentary filmmaking. Raya Martin and Mark Peranson’s La última película is, among several things, a meta-commentary on its own layered being, a jocular doomsday journey through the collapsed scaffolding of the medium itself. Largely riffing on Dennis Hopper’s 1971 acid anti-Western The Last Movie (as well as its behind-the-scenes companion piece, The American Dreamer), Martin and Peranson employ varying film formats—everything from Super 8mm to HD digital—to weave a postmodern quilt that’s forever ripping at the seams. It’s a purposely paradoxical work, caustic and vulnerable, playful and grave, a flickering montage of photographs and an upside-down tracking shot—and, in its mingling of artifice and raw materials,...
- 4/10/2014
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
"Brandy Burre is Actress," reads the opening credit of Robert Greene’s aptly titled documentary "Actress," setting the stage for a movie wholly consumed by that single, hypnotizing presence. A once-promising thespian who abandoned a role on HBO’s “The Wire” to start a family in upstate New York, Burre invites a tantalizing mixture of fascination and pity. Less nonfiction portrait than a poetic framing of domestic frustrations, "Actress" is about a lot more than flailing show business aspirations. On the surface, Burre's hardships aren't unique; it's swiftly established that she abandoned her profession to take care of her children. But Greene -- whose lyrical focus on alienated lives included "Fake It So Real" (amateur wrestlers) and "Kati With an I" (a Southern teen faces the onset of adulthood) -- makes it clear that Burre faces a perilous identity crisis. First seen with her back to the camera and facing a sea of dirty dishes,...
- 2/27/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Actress Brandy Burre captivated audiences as campaign fixer Theresa D'Agostino in seasons three and four of HBO's "The Wire." The upcoming film "Actress," directed by Robert Greene, whose 2012 "Fake It So Real" was named one of the best documentaries of 2012 by Roger Ebert, explores Burre's hiatus from acting for motherhood and her current efforts to revitalize her career. Greene, who describes "Actress" as a "nonfiction/melodrama hybrid," initially wanted to explore the role performance could have in a documentary film. "I thought it would be an interesting experiment to make a documentary about a person that, as an actor, couldn’t help but perform when the camera was on her," he explained. Burre, who is Greene's real life next-door neighbor, happened to be the ideal subject. "Actress" will have its world premiere at the True/False Festival starting Feb. 27 and will close the Art of the Real series at Lincoln Center in April.
- 2/5/2014
- by Eric Eidelstein
- Indiewire
Recently, I was on a panel at the Little Rock Film Festival titled “Cinematic Nonfiction: Not Your Parents’ Documentary Film.” As our moderator Robert Greene, the director of Fake It So Real, and I waxed rhapsodic over the state of nonfiction filmmaking in Denmark, I realized that my own doc philosophy has evolved over the years – as I’ve noticed more and more that Americans lag behind much of the world when it comes to quality doc-making. While a lot of nonfiction aficionados like to chalk up this disparity to generous government subsidies in Europe, the problem actually lies much …...
- 6/11/2013
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Sundance and Tribeca festivals showcase a stunning crop of films, focusing on Afghanistan, killer whales and more
It may count as the least likely of cinematic comebacks since Mickey Rourke bleached his hair and started self-tanning for The Wrestler. A new wave of documentaries are ensuring a return to cinema screens of something long thought lost to our era of spandex-wearing superheroes and CGI fireballs: reality.
Marvelling at "the explosion – and creative flowering – of this most commercially unsexy of genres" at the Tribeca film festival last week, New York magazine's David Edelstein wrote:
In this age of digital video – in which there are cheap cameras, editing software and funding to be had … the cool kids are making docs. The form is not just good for you these days. It's incredibly sexy.
At Sundance this year at least four titles – Pussy Riot, The Summit, Stardom and Blackfish – sold for more than $1m.
It may count as the least likely of cinematic comebacks since Mickey Rourke bleached his hair and started self-tanning for The Wrestler. A new wave of documentaries are ensuring a return to cinema screens of something long thought lost to our era of spandex-wearing superheroes and CGI fireballs: reality.
Marvelling at "the explosion – and creative flowering – of this most commercially unsexy of genres" at the Tribeca film festival last week, New York magazine's David Edelstein wrote:
In this age of digital video – in which there are cheap cameras, editing software and funding to be had … the cool kids are making docs. The form is not just good for you these days. It's incredibly sexy.
At Sundance this year at least four titles – Pussy Riot, The Summit, Stardom and Blackfish – sold for more than $1m.
- 4/23/2013
- by Tom Shone
- The Guardian - Film News
Here is a collection of a dozen of the best documentaries I saw in 2012. It's not a "best of the year" list. Just some good memories of these films.
I will not burden you again with another complaint about lists. More than ever, I despise them because they shift focus away from a film and toward a list. When I recently caught up with "Django Unchained," for example, I gave it four stars. The comments section was overrun with readers asking if that meant it was now on my Top Ten list. One reader insisted on knowing which title it replaced. Although the piece was some 2,000 words long, another reader insisted he still wanted to see "my official review."
All I can do with any film is tell you that I've seen it, and what I thought about it. If it sounds interesting to you, it might be worth seeking out.
I will not burden you again with another complaint about lists. More than ever, I despise them because they shift focus away from a film and toward a list. When I recently caught up with "Django Unchained," for example, I gave it four stars. The comments section was overrun with readers asking if that meant it was now on my Top Ten list. One reader insisted on knowing which title it replaced. Although the piece was some 2,000 words long, another reader insisted he still wanted to see "my official review."
All I can do with any film is tell you that I've seen it, and what I thought about it. If it sounds interesting to you, it might be worth seeking out.
- 1/15/2013
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Big-time professional wrestling has long been a lucrative business, but for the men of Lincolnton, North Carolina’s Millenium Wrestling Federation, the social cohesion and outlet for their imagination the sport provides is their primary compensation. As chronicled in director Robert Greene’s fantastic new documentary Fake It So Real, wrestling has never seemed as intense and physically costly. Yet Greene is not interested in mining the sport for tales of snake-bitten men reaching for a glory that will never come; this isn’t a doc version of The Wrestler. Woebegone men are few and far between in this world, despite the fact that Lincolnton seemingly doesn’t provide much in terms of career prospects. A sense of community and mutually-appreciated craft pervades the scene.
Fake It So Real is Greene’s second festival hit in as many years. His debut film Kati with an I was nominated for the...
Fake It So Real is Greene’s second festival hit in as many years. His debut film Kati with an I was nominated for the...
- 1/13/2012
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“People say jazz is the great American art form. Jazz is dead. I think wrestling is the great American art form." - Pitt Plenty are not willing to accept the many elements that make up professional wrestling: from the fraudulent fighting to the, well, straight-up existence of storylines, the sport has become an easy target for condescension and quick dismissal. However, a few fuddy duddies can't stop its mass legion of fans. People of all ages come together to support their favorite heroes and slander the obnoxious antagonists, setting aside reality and diving headfirst into a world full of wild personalities where soapy rivalries are a dime-a-dozen. Robert Greene’s feature-doc “Fake It So Real” turns away from the WWE’s slick stars/action-leads-in-the-making in favor of the small, independent Mwf (Millenium Wrestling Federation) located in North Carolina. Using a mostly verite approach, the director follows a number of wrestlers in the.
- 1/13/2012
- The Playlist
In Robert Greene's "Fake It So Real," the documentarian follows a close-knit group of amateur wrestlers in North Carolina who engage in a series of wild physical competitions under the guise of flamboyant and often highly amusing alter egos. While stylistically quite different from Greene's previous effort, the understated "Kati With an I," his new project similarly focuses on alienated people struggling to reconcile their fantasies with reality. Watch an exclusive clip below. "Fake It So Real" opens Friday at New York's reRun Gastropub Theater ahead of a DVD release from Factory 25. ...
- 1/10/2012
- Indiewire
Director Robert Greene opens his documentary Fake It So Real with a small-time indie pro wrestler known as Chris Solar declaring strongly that he’s no “faggot.” Children too young to even comprehend the concept of sexual orientation chant “Solar is gay!” during his matches. It’s all part of the act, you see; Solar is a effete heel who uses dangling scarves, feather boas, rainbow-colored clothing, and blatant cheating to stir up the handful of marks who’ve paid five bucks to boo him. The “possibly gay” villain may be an old wrestling archetype, but Solar’s promo is uncomfortably harsh. Millennium Wrestling Federation (Mwf, based in Lincolnton, North Carolina) declares itself a “family...
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- 8/24/2011
- by Movies.com
- Movies.com
Robert Greene's new vérité wrestling film, "Fake It So Real," kind of has a catchphrase, which is fascinating because I can't recall the last documentary I saw that has one. Unfortunately, this phrase is possibly alienating to homosexuals. It's complicated because the offense stems from the world being observed, and to an extent it's probably intended as a kind of innocent self-satire to begin with, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Not the film, which is simply a window through which we witness the unsurprisingly homophobic indie pro wrestling scene in North Carolina, at least not at first.…...
- 7/25/2011
- Spout
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Fake It So Real Trailer Jay Cheel from Film Junk [1] is a voracious consumer of documentaries, as such he makes a great resource for anything...
- 7/22/2011
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
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