Since Nonfics is still a new and fairly small site, we aren’t able to review every documentary and nonfiction film released in the U.S. That’s why Docs In Theaters is here to provide at least a guide to all the new releases, without critical thoughts. However, when available, we will link to our own review of the film or a review at our sister site, Film School Rejects.
American Promise
Directed by Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson
Executive produced by Dan Cogan (The Queen of Versailles)
Official Synopsis: A documentary 13 years in the making, American Promise provides a rare look into the lives of two middle class Black families as they navigate the ups and downs of parenting and educating their sons. Our goal is to empower boys, their parents and educators and help close the black male achievement gap.
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Winner of the Best Documentary award at the 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Nonfics Rating: **** [review]
Now Playing in New York City. Opens in Los Angeles next week.
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check in theaters page on the film’s website.
Birth of the Living Dead
Directed and edited by Rob Kuhns (editor of 2013 Oscar-nominated short Redemption)
Produced by Esther Cassidy (American Dream) and horror filmmaker Larry Fessenden
Featuring George A. Romero, Larry Fessenden, Elvis Mitchell, Gale Anne Hurd
Official Synopsis: In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed Night of the Living Dead, a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day. Birth of the Living Dead shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers — policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner — to shoot a revolutionary guerrilla style film that went on to become a cinematic landmark, offering a profound insight into how our society worked in a singular time in American history. [First Run Features]
Winner of the Gold Strands Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature at the 2012 Tallgrass International Film Festival
Winner of the Audience Award for Documentary Feature — Historical/Informational at the 2013 Woods Hole Film Festival
Nonfics Rating: n/a
Now Playing in Hollywood, Greensboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, Phoenix and Norfolk (10/19 only).
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check playdates page on the First Run Features website.
Blood Brother
Directed, edited, produced and co-written by Steve Hoover
Official Synopsis: Blood Brother is a documentary about the unmistakable power of love, as celebrated in the story of one man’s decision to move to India and restart his life among the children living at an HIV orphanage. Unlike others who simply passed through their lives, Rocky stayed, dedicating himself to their health and well-being. Despite formidable challenges, his playful spirit and determination in the face of despair proves to be an invaluable resource. Director Steve Hoover ventured to India to chronicle Rocky’s newfound life in this beautifully crafted and personal film. [Tugg]
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
Winner of the Best Documentary award at the 2013 Milan International Film Festival
Winner of the Best Feature Documentary award at the 2013 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Winner of the Audience Award for International Selection at the 2013 Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
Winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Atlanta Film Festival
2nd Place for the Audience Award at the 2013 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
Nonfics Rating: ** [review]
Now Playing in New York City and film festivals around the U.S.
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check showtimes page on the First Run Features website.
Enzo Avitabile: Music Life
Directed and produced by Jonathan Demme (Stop Making Sense; Neil Young Journeys)
Executive produced by Shane Bissett (Neil Young Journeys) and Angelo Russo Russelli
Features Enzo Avitabile, Eliades Ochoa, Naseer Shamma, Daby Touré and Trilok Gurtu.
Official Synopsis: Enzo Avitabile, renowned Neapolitan saxophonist and singer/songwriter, is here filmed by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, a longtime admirer of Avitabile’s music. This work represents an incredible opportunity as one of the world’s great directors tells us not just about the music of a singular artist in its fusion of Neapolitan, world music (and especially Arab with performances by Naseer Shamma and Palestinian singer Amal Murkus) and jazz but also of a city, Naples, with all of its treasures and contradictions, as Enzo creates amazing new music with collaborators from all over the world, including Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Naseer Shamma, Daby Touré and Trilok Gurtu. Music and a movie you will never forget! [Shadow Distribution]
Nonfics Rating: ** [review]
Now Playing in New York City. Opens in Los Angeles next week.
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check the film’s website.
The Human Scale
Directed, produced and written by Andreas Dalsgaard (Afghan Muscles)
Produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen (The Act of Killing)
Featuring Jan Gehl
Official Synopsis: 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account.
Winner of the Child and Family Award for Long Film at the 2014 Aljazeera Int. Documentary Film Festival
Winner of the Green Cross Award at the 2013 Planete + Doc Film Festival, Warsaw
Winer of the Best Feature Documentary award at the 2013 Kinookus Food Film Festival, Croatia
Nonfics Rating: **** [review]
Now Playing in New York City. Opens in Los Angeles and Santa Fe on November 1st.
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check the screenings and awards page on the film’s website.
Mondays With William
Directed by Steve Beebe
Official Synopsis: The story of William Laga, a homeless, schizophrenic artist who is lifted to celebrity status by gallery owner Marcelle Danan. Can Marcelle’s love for William gather acclaim for his artwork or will William’s sickness drive him back into obscurity?
Nonfics Rating: n/a
Now Playing at the Quad in New York City and at the Laemmle Music Hall 3 in Los Angeles.
The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers
Directed, produced and co-written by Richard Trank (Oscar winner for The Long Way Home)
Produced and co-written by Rabbi Marvin Hier (Oscar winner for Genocide and The Long Way Home)
Featuring the voices of Sandra Bullock, Michael Douglas, Christoph Waltz and Leonard Nimoy
Official Synopsis: Based on the best-selling book by Ambassador Yehuda Avner, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers takes the audience inside the offices of Israel’s Prime Ministers through the eyes of an insider, Yehuda Avner, who served as a chief aide, English language note-taker and speechwriter to Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. The first of two parts, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers focuses on Ambassador Avner’s years working with Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir and then US Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin and reveals new details about the Six-Day War, the development of Israel’s close strategic relationship with the United States, the fight against terrorism, the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath.
Nonfics Rating: n/a
Now Playing at the Quad in New York City.
For details on current and upcoming theatrical openings, check the now playing page on the film’s website.
Seduced and Abandoned
Directed and written by James Toback (Tyson)
Produced by Alec Baldwin (Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me) and Michael Mailer (The End of America)
Featuring Alec Baldwin, James Toback, Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, James Caan, Bérénice Bejo and Diane Kruger
Official Synopsis: For ten days in May 2012, director James Toback and actor Alec Baldwin worked their way through the Cannes Film Festival in an attempt to secure financing for a proposed film project, a political-erotic Middle Eastern adventure inspired by Bernardo Bertolucci’s classic Last Tango in Paris. As they dashed around — hopeful against all odds — Toback filmed the hilarious and revealing proceedings, from pitches to billionaires, studio moguls, producers and international sales financiers, to intimate encounters with major movie stars and iconic directors whose passion for movies proves it’s still possible to transcend the madness. [HBO]
Nonfics Rating: n/a
Now Playing in New York City
Premieres on HBO on October 28th
Other New Films Based on True Stories Now in Theaters: The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave, Kill Your Darlings
