Two Sentence Reviews of the Movies I Saw at Silverdocs

Taking part in Silverdocs for the first time was a lot of fun. It's very well-curated and well-run, and totally lacking the pretensions and silliness of some other festivals.

As is the tradition here, I’m serving up two-sentence reviews of the movies I saw at the festival. No duds among them.

‘Kicking It’ is the most involving and inspiring sports documentary I’ve seen since ‘Hoop Dreams,’ bringing viewers to the annual Homeless Football World Cup tournament. But the on-camera presence of Colin Farrell at the beginning and end felt unnecessary, giving those parts of the film the preachy tone of an ABC After School Special.

It’s tough to imagine a better travel companion than Werner Herzog for an end-of-history visit to Antarctica, where he meets the motley crew of scientists and technicians who populate the continent. But I found myself wishing that Herzog had spent the entire winter there, rather than flitting from outpost to outpost during the sunny summertime, so that he’d have had a better shot at capturing the place’s desolation and brutal weather – and ideally, more drama - in 'Encounters at the End of the World.'

Lightning and Thunder, a husband-and-wife musical act who mainly cover Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline, are true entertainers – always striving for the bigger gig, the more adulatory audience. 'Song Sung Blue' takes you into their applause-hungry (and threadbare) home, but ultimately, I wanted to know a little more about what was going on with Michael Sardina, the elusive Lightning, especially as he seems to edge into some sort of alcohol- or drug-induced stupor in his later years.

Planning to Make a Niche Documentary? Read This

Great piece in Variety from Anne Thompson on new ways of marketing and distributing niche documentaries. She focuses mainly on two sports docs, 'In the Crease' and 'Kicking It.' From the piece:

In March 2005, Matt Gannon and Michael Sarner, former acquisition and marketing execs at Fox Searchlight and United Artists, respectively, put their passion for ice hockey into financing and shooting their first film, "In the Crease." The digital video doc is an underdog story of the California Wave Bantam AAA travel hockey team's two-year quest to win a national championship.

"We set out to do 'Spellbound' for sports fans," says Gannon. Figuring that their movie would have more of a shot with some star power, the filmmakers also interviewed such hockey all-stars as Brendan Shanahan and Joe Thornton.

After raising finishing funds, the filmmakers completed the pic and opted not to take the Sundance festival route.

"We knew early on we'd have a hard time getting the studios to release it theatrically," says Sarner. "We didn't want to miss the holiday season. Our bread-and-butter was DVD sales."

Windowing experiment... Direct to DVD... 'Toy Stories' in 3-D

- The documentary 'Kicking It,' about a World Cup soccer tournament where all the players are homeless, screened at Sundance this year. It was just picked up by Liberation Entertainment and Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix's DVD distribution arm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They're going to try to rearrange the traditional release windows: theatrical first, then simultaneous release on TV, DVD, and Internet streaming on Netflix's Web site.

From the press release:

Under today’s announcement, Liberation will be handling North American and Central American theatrical, DVD and ancillary rights to the film. Breaking with traditional release windows, the ESPN television premiere will follow theatrical release, and the film will be provided by REE to Netflix subscribers to rent on DVD or watch instantly on a PC, day-and-date with the ESPN premiere, when DVD sales via Liberation will begin. REE will also promote the ESPN telecast of KICKING IT to Netflix subscribers via their iconic mailers.

- Even if you're not buying direct-to-DVD movies, someone is, according to the NY Times. The headline of this story says it all: 'Direct-to-DVD Releases Shed Their Loser Label.' Focus is on the 'American Pie' series, 'Garfield,' 'Get Smart,' and 'Scorpion King.'

- Disney/Pixar is planning 3-D releases of 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' for 2009 and 2010, according to Variety.