Icarus Films announced two new DVD releases this past week
that will be reaching retailers on Mar. 14.
So let us get right to it!
First up is documentary filmmaker Mac Dara Ó’Curraidhín’s A
Boatload of Wild Irishmen, a look at the life and times of the first
documentary filmmaker, Robert J. Flaherty.
Someone had to the be first to take a motion picture camera
and document everyday life and that distinction goes to Robert J. Falherty and
his groundbreaking 1922 silent film, Nanook of the North, which was followed
by the 1926 release of Moana.
His career in film continued until his death in 1951 and
along the way he was nominated for an Oscar in 1949 in the category of Best
Writing, Motion Picture Story for Louisiana Story. A Boatload of Wild Irishmen chronicles
his life, his relationship with his wife, Frances, and Ó’Curraidhín includes
interviews with Inuit and Samoan descendants of the subjects of his first two
film triumphs, Nanook of the North and Moana.
Also heading to DVD on Mar. 14 is the double-disc debut of To
Tell the Truth: Two films by Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor.
This release is actually a two-part examination of the
growth and influence of documentary filmmaking. The first segment is titled “Working for
Change” and it covers the period from 1929 to 1941 (from the time that Robert
J. Falherty got the ball rolling in the 1920s, through The Depression and the
beginnings of World War II.
The second segment is titled “The Strategy of Truth” and it
explores the use of documentary filmmaking as a propaganda tool during World
War II.
Bonus features include three featurettes — “Alec Baldwin on
the Importance of Documentaries,” “Agnes Varda on the Making of Documentaries”
and “Film Historian Kevin Brownlow on Leni Riefenstah” — and two short film
examples from filmmaker John Huston, “Let There be Light” and “Anatomy of a
Jeep.”
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