Hey folks, Harry here... year after year - every year - the universally praised documentaries that the world gives two shakes about are continually ignored. It has now become assured that if audiences and critics agree that a documentary is great... that documentary will be snubbed at the Oscars. We already know that this year, it is impossible to conceive that BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE or STANDING IN THE SHADOW OF MOTOWN would get nominated, but what about STEVIE? Made by the filmmaker behind HOOP DREAMS - you may remember Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert's fervent support for that outstanding documentary go completely ignored by Academy Members... Well looks like he has a new documentary - looks like it is pretty darn great - which means you won't hear its name come Oscar time... Here's the low down...
Hey,
Scoop next, Movie review following
Not a long time reader so I don't know if you're into Oscar hype/conterversy or Documentaries but this year's going to be interesting. Not only do we have "Standing in the shadow of Motown" and "Bowling for Columbine" ready to be snubbed by the Academy but the maker of "Hoop Dreams" has a new film to be released in Feb. that ran in LA a week to qualify for the race. As you may or may not remember Hoop Dreams came out years ago only to be ignored by of the Oscars creating a big uproar and proving the "voting committees" are full of it. Anyway Steve James has a new one and the Distributor (Lion's Gate) is doing an Oscar push. The film is definitely nomination worthy so we'll have to see if the Academy changed the error of it's ways. It's playing at Sundance so send your boy M to check it out if you want the heads up.
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"Stevie" Directed by Steve James
I worked as an intern at the production company (Kartemquin) when they were finishing this one up so I got to see this last summer. It's by Steve James comaker of 1994's "Hoop Dreams." I don't know how you guys feel about documentaries but for most folks "Hoop Dreams" was a breath of fresh air. One of those few movies were you could honestly feel touched at the end. Well, Steve James just finished another years-in-the-making film called Stevie. It's about his experience reconnecting to a guy, Stevie (yeah, Steve and Stevie, sounds confusing but it isn't) who he served as a "big brother" to Stevie when he was a troubled kid. Steve James visits Stevie years later to find out that Stevie's life has gone to hell (jail, etc...) at which point the film turns on the filmmaker and how he deals with the guilt of not doing more to help someone who needed him years ago. That summery doesn't do the film any justice but believe me this really is one of the most human and soulful pi! eces of moving picture made in a really long time. This movie is the anti-pretentious and really is worth watching if you want something real and honest.
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-D. Brown
