News

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Blood Father (Jean-François Richet)

If this be the movie jail that Mel Gibson is destined to die in, it could be a whole lot worse. Blood Father, directed by Jean-François Richet (Mesrine, Assault on Precinct 13), works remarkably well as a grindhouse throwback, sporting a screenplay (from Peter Craig and Andrea Berloff, based on Craig’s novel) that’s better than it has any right to be.

She heartbreakingly depicted the demons wrestled by a troubled singer/songwriter in Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt (2005), explored the line that divides in the festive backdrop of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama with The Order of Myths (2008) and regionally doesn’t ventured too far, positing viewers in eye of the “after” storm with the massively, messy debacle that is the Bp oil spill.

The Great Invisible sees Margaret Brown weave together various points of view in the first comprehensive study of what occurred in the months and years following the toxic April 2010 date. With each new film, Brown continues to explore her Southern roots and her own style of poetic filmmaking. I sat down with Brown at the Cinetic Media offices in Manhattan to discuss what makes her third docu feature not only a national story but a personal one and what the aftermath...

RADiUS’ Tom Quinn and Jason Janego have traded in suit & tie garb for some wetsuit gear as they’ve landed the rights to Margaret Brown’s SXSW Grand Jury Award-winning docu. On our radar for several years now, The Great Invisible will be released theatrically this year. Peg this as a awards contender at the Cinema Eye Honors & Oscars.

Gist: On April 20, 2010, communities throughout the Gulf Coast of the United States were devastated by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, a state-of-the-art, offshore oilrig operated by Bp in the Gulf of Mexico. The blast killed 11 of 126 rig crewmembers and injured many more, setting off a fireball that was seen 35 miles away. After burning for two days, the Deepwater Horizon sank, causing the largest offshore oil spill in American history. The spill flowed unabated for almost three months, dumping hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean,...

The Great Invisible

Director: Margaret Brown

Producer: Jason Orans

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

We’ve been hyping the talents of Margaret Brown the moment she introduced Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt and her follow up sophomore film The Order of Myths to docuphiles. In the oven for a little while now, we’re thinking The Great Invisible might play as a socially conscious Jennifer Baichwal type doc film where the discourse is found in what is being said, but more importantly what is being spoken in a visual sense.

Gist: Margaret Brown’s new documentary is an investigation into the personal stories behind the tragic 2010 Bp Oil Spill. The film uncovers how government and corporate interests respond in the wake of an environmental crisis, and the way this affects a region and culture so rooted in nature.

Release Date: SXSW selected the film for their Documentary Comp section.

We jumped the gun with our predictions list in 2012 including The Great Invisible among our hopefuls – but forgive the pun, we hope that Margaret Brown shores up in ’14. Brown turned heads in 2004 with Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, and that alone pretty much wowed all festival programmers including the Sundance folk, who made sure she received red carpet in a tent status for 2008′s The Order of Myths. A filmmaker with Alabama in her blood, we can imagine that the subject came to the filmmaker and not the other way around. After receiving funding/support/coin from Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Cinereach and the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund (2011). Everything indicates that the better part of the year she was deep in post-production for what should be an affecting, visually sturdy portrait.

Gist: Margaret Brown’s new documentary is an investigation into the personal...

The juror panel at the Tribeca Film Festival is going to look like the red carpet at a major Hollywood premiere.

Several celebrities, including Jessica Alba, Whoopi Goldberg, Aaron Eckhart and Brooke Shields, were asked to serve on the six competitive festival categories. They will announce the winning films, filmmakers and actors in their respective categories at the Tff Awards Night Party, which will be held on April 29. The 2010 Tribeca Festival runs from April 21 to May 2 in New York City.

“This year’s jury features the same impressive range and depth as our films playing in competition. They are distinctive and accomplished storytellers, artists and entrepreneurs from the worlds of film, theater, culture, fashion, television and new media – all of whom share a passion for film, a thirst for discovery and a spirit of independence,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Here’s a list of all...

The Tribeca Film Festival announced Tuesday morning the 35 jurors for its six competition categories.

Filmmakers, actors, screenwriters, journalists and media figures such as Aaron Eckhart, Jessica Alba, Cheryl Hines, America Ferrera, Alicia Keys, Zach Braff, Hope Davis, Gary Ross, Whoopi Goldberg and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey will participate on the juries.

"This year's jury features the same impressive range and depth as our films playing in competition," fest co-founder Jane Rosenthal said. "They are distinctive and accomplished storytellers, artists and entrepreneurs from the worlds of film, theater, culture, fashion, television and new media -- all of whom share a passion for film, a thirst for discovery and a spirit of independence."

Winners in the world narrative, world documentary, New York narrative, New York documentary, narrative short and documentary and student short film categories will be announced at the awards night party April 29. Together, the six juries will award $130,000 in cash and prizes,...