Three fine documentaries that I saw at Sundance this past January were released on Friday.
“For Sama” has some of the most hard-to-watch footage you will see in any movie this year. A war-torn Syria is immaculately shot by Waad al-Kateab’s phone camera as she explores the intimate and epic journey of her experiences living inside a war zone. Shot through the course of five years, which starts off with the Arab spring uprising of Aleppo, al-Kateab’s Syria remains a magical place for her — so much so that, despite death knocking at her door every day, with hundreds of bombs being dropped by the Russians and Assad regime, she manages to get married and gives birth to Sama, all while the conflict around her intensifies. This movie is for Sama, a memoir of the tumultuous journey of her birth and childhood as the country was being shaken to its core.
“Mike Wallace is Here” has Wallace, the fearsome "60 Minutes" newsman and news veteran of over 50 years, tackled through a narrative that is driven by immeasurably exciting archival footage. As an investigative reporter, Wallace went head-to-head with the world's most influential figures — the doc decides to interrogate the interrogator, tracking Mike's storied career and personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today's precarious tipping point. Did Wallace influence today’s media landscape of combative and thoroughly in-your-face interview-making and talking-head news cycles? You betcha. Despite the film being 100% driven by old interview footage, director Avi Belkin knows footage of Wallace grilling some of the most important names of the 20th and 21st century is more than enough to hold viewers’ attention. Credit must also go to editor Billy McMillin, who assembles it all together in a compulsively watchable way.
“Honeyland” has a woman fully indebted by the beekeeping traditions in the mountains of Macedonia. It’s a cinema verite-styled wonder of non-fiction filmmaking, courtesy of director Tamara Kotevska. Her camera follows Hatidze Muratova, the aging Macedonian female beekeeper taking care of her elderly, bed-stricken mother in a location that doesn’t seem remotely close to any sort of societal grid. They literally are living in “Honeyland.” Competition arises when a neighboring family tries to get into the honey business, the tensions sourcing from that rivalry represents the thick of the drama. With the nomadic beekeepers invading her land and threatening her livelihood, drama also occurs in the tiny shack in which Hatidze and her mother live in. The claustrophobic nature of their daily rituals is incredibly sad to behold. Barely able to see or even hear, Hatidze’s mother wishes her daughter could find a nice man to settle down with, but chances are it will never happen and, if it does, she will likely be gone by then. A doc about the last female beehunter in Europe is not supposed to be this hypnotic and artful, but it is. The birds-eye-view approach by Kotesvska is nothing short of fascinating but encompasses a melancholic feel for the viewer, these are people that don’t have the luxury of privilege bestowed on most Americans today.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.