Resuming after a summer break, DocHouse continue to bring factual features to cinemas across London with a special preview at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios this Thursday September 6 of We Went To War. Michael Grigsby’s follow-up to his groundbreaking Granada Television programme I Was A Solider revisits the three rural Texan men depicted in the 1970 original, finding out how life has treated them since their combat experiences in Vietnam. Grigsby and co-director Rebekah Tolley will be in conversation afterwards.
Assembled by Trisha Ziff, next Thursday’s selection at the Kensal Rise Lexi is an intriguing piece about memory and identity. The Mexican Suitcase relates the true story of 4500 photo negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War, found in the titular suitcase in Mexico City five years ago.
There’s a potentially provocative post-screening discussion in store at the Prince Charles Cinema on Tuesday September 18, when Fredrik Gertten presents his multinational malfeasance exposé Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (sic): a cautionary tale for budding investigative filmmakers, to be released theatrically later that week (stay tuned for a full tQ article). The Swede is set to be joined by Sven Hughes, a strategic communications advisor to various international businesses, who also appears in the doc.
Saturday September 22 sees DocHouse host a day of events at Rich Mix under the banner Resistencia: Focus On Latin America. The programme includes visions panoramic and intimate from Colombia, Cuba and Mexico (among them a short about migration helmed by humanitarian heartthrob Gael García Bernal), interspersed by the opportunity to sample complimentary Chilean wine. It will be rounded off in the evening by DJ Cal Jader (Movimientos) and VJ Pora (LAB), who promise "a unique musical-visual journey with a selection of underground Latin beats for the dancefloor from Cumbia and Salsa to Hip Hop, Reggae and Brazilian beats, set to a bold series of projections featuring Latin America’s vibrant social movements and videos from some of the continent’s most conscious artists."
This month’s schedule concludes at Riverside Studios on Wednesday September 26 with a double bill headed by Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Alison Klayman’s excellent profile of the Chinese artist-activist will be twinned with Ling Lee’s forty-minute Beijing generation gap study Miles Apart. Watch a trailer for the latter below, and check the DocHouse website for more information.
Miles Apart | Official Trailer from Ling Lee on Vimeo.
