Special Interest

Filmmaker Errol Morris (Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line) takes an unflinching look at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal while meditating on the frightening side effects of the War on Terror in a thought-provoking documentary from Participant Productions (An Inconvenient Truth). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In August of 1972, John Wojtowicz entered a Chase bank in Brooklyn with another, younger man, a near stranger he'd met in a bar, Sal Naturile. The two tried to rob the bank, but things went awry, and a 14-hour standoff with the police ensued. Over the course of this ordeal, Wojtowicz made it known that he was robbing the bank to get money for his male lover's sex change operation. The story caught the attention of screenwriter Frank Pierson, who pitched it to director Sidney Lumet with Al Pacino playing the lead. The Hollywood version, of course, turned out to be Dog Day Afternoon, the classic 1970s crime film. But what happened to the real Wojtowicz? Dutch filmmaker Walter Stokman explores the events depicted in the film, and their long-term effects on the people involved, in his documentary, Based on a True Story. Stokman visits the crime scene. The bank is no longer there, but Wojtowicz lives nearby. Stokman interviews former bank employees (one of whom wrote and recorded a song about her experience), cops, and FBI agents, along with Wojtowicz's ex-wife, Carmen Bifulco, Pierson, and Lumet. He pieces together a portrait of Wojtowicz and his sad love affair with transsexual Liz Eden. But he has trouble getting Wojtowicz himself on film. In phone recordings, the ex-con makes escalating demands for money and control of the documentary, and threatens Stokman with both withdrawal of his participation and physical harm. At one point, Wojtowicz tells the filmmaker, "The documentary is not yours. The documentary is mine." Based on a True Story was shown at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Self-reflexivity aside, it would be virtually impossible to pinpoint a more intimate documentary mode than a biographical portrait shot by one's closest sibling, and that axiom undergirds Barbara Leibovitz's penetrating look at her older sister: Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens. Camera-in-hand, the elder Leibovitz not only taught Americans how to look at celebrity - single-handedly sculpting the public perceptions of such notables as Mick Jagger, Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Moore, Patti Smith, Hillary Rodham Clinton and dozens of others - but burned into the mass-consciousness indelible views of the Sarajevo and Rwanda massacres. Annie Leibovitz's photographs are iconic and everpresent, but the woman who shot them commands greater elusiveness. Traversing this longstanding barrier with the subject's permission, Barbara visits Annie at the family's rural homestead, amid the latter's strenuous work on a new photographic collection, and begins to reveal, on-camera, the many layers of her sister's personality and world view. The filmmaker is abetted throughout by celebrities who appear, sharing candid insights into the famous photographer and telling recollections of their on-set interactions with her. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 42.3% of African American women have never been married. Armed with this alarming statistic, documentary filmmaker Andrea Wiley takes a sobering look at the efforts of successful and single Africa-American women in finding a mate who will truly love and respect them. Practical advice on remaining optimistic while facing an uncertain future, contending with their ticking biological clocks, wrestling with feelings of loneliness, and dealing with men who care only about conquest combine with illuminating revelations from such noted personalities as Sherri Shepherd, Bishop Kenneth C. Ullmer, and Michelle McKinney Hammond. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Originally conceived as an instructional video on how to conduct pitch meetings, American Cannibal: The Road to Reality gradually evolved into something far darker. Documentary filmmakers Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro follow aspiring TV writers Gil S. Ripley and Dave Roberts as their failed Comedy Central pilot leads them to try their hand at reality TV. They start out pitching a show about N.Y.C. firefighter trainees at Randall's Island, but eventually decide that they have to push the envelope and come up with something that has more of an edge. They wind up at the office of Kevin Blatt, best known for marketing the Paris Hilton sex tapes, and pitching a show called "Virgin Territory," in which several male contestants, all virgins, compete for the opportunity to lose their virginity to a porn star. Blatt responds positively, but upon reflection, he prefers an idea that Ripley mentioned in passing, pretty much as a joke, for a show called "American Cannibal," wherein contestants would be put on a remote island and deprived of food to the point of starvation, presumably to see which of them would be willing to resort to cannibalism. Ripley and Roberts have qualms about it, but it's Blatt's money, so they begin developing the show, with disastrous results. Grebin and Nigro intercut this narrative with interviews with reality show veterans like Dr. Richard Levak, Jon Murray, and The Daily Show's Lizz Winstead, who discuss the phenomenon of reality TV. The filmmakers appear to be blurring the line between reality and fiction, and rumors have circulated as to the authenticity of their story. American Cannibal: The Road to Reality had its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, in the NY, NY Documentary Competition. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide