Film: Sundance Previewed, the FBI vs. MLK, Preserving Porn

New year, new president, new movies. This week, we're swinging back into full gear. We've got an inte

Jan 22, 2021 • View in browser

New year, new president, new movies. This week, we’re swinging back into full gear. We’ve got an interview with the director of a new documentary about the FBI’s war on Martin Luther King Jr., a preview of this year’s Sundance lineup, a look at pornography in the historical record, and more. Enjoy!– Dan Schindel, Associate Editor for Documentary

MLK, Sundance, and More

From "MLK/FBI"

I talked to Sam Pollard, director of MLK/FBI (read our review), about the film and how he dug up the rich archival materials to make it. Learn about how he got James Comey for an interview, and surveillance as an ersatz form of historical preservation.Justine Smith explores the recent mass purge of videos from Pornhub, how difficult it is to treat pornography seriously as part of the cultural record, and how anti-porn legislation and activism often hurt sex workers instead of helping them.I reviewed the Hungarian Oscar contender Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, in whicha woman is thrown into turmoil when the man she loves apparently doesn’t recognize her.The 2021 Sundance Film Festival kicks off next week. It’s happening online this year, so people all over the country will have a chance to catch its program. Ela Bittencourt has the scoop on what to see.

SPONSORED Anthology Film Archives Presents: Avant-Garde Films by Polish Women Artists of the 1970s Stream the program January 13–26 for a rental fee of $8, with discounts available.

What to Stream

From "A Song About Love"

Metrograph and Alfreda’s Cinema have teamed up to present Protect Black Women, a program of short films by and about Black women, through January 25. Dessane Lopez Cassell has all the details. The Museum of the Moving Image is hosting a retrospective of films by Lynne Sachs through January 30. Read about how to see her work, including her latest documentary, Film About a Father Who.To mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan, MTV Documentary Films is making 76 Days available for free on January 23. For each stream, MTV will donate $5 to the local arthouse theater of the viewer’s choice. Check out the list of participating theaters.Watch the latest Field of Vision short, Church and the Fourth Estate, which examines the frightening problem of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts:

Church and the Fourth Estate

Until we can see you in the theater again, stay safe!

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