For the period ending February 21, 2020 ... New DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD selections added to the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report's database

 

DVD New Additions

 

Acorn Media

02/18/20 — Released Good Karma Hostipal: Series 3 (2 disc set)

Adult Source Media

02/18/20 — Released Whore to the Core 2

Alpha Video (MOD)

02/11/20 — Released Adventures of Sir Lancelot, Volume 7, Clutch Cargo, Volume 11, Emperor Jones, Fortress of the Dead/Kong Island,I Led 3 Lives, Volume 4, Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia: House on Haunted Hill, Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia: Teenagers from Outer Space, Rarest Comedies of Edgar Kennedy, Volume 1 (4 short films: Gasaloons, Morning Judge, A Trailer Tragedy, It Happened All Night), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Sherlock Jr. (silent-1924), Silent Railway Classics (2 silent films: The Arizona Express (1924), Blood and Steel (1925)) and Treasure of Jamaica Reef/Piranha

Artsploitation Films

02/18/20 — Released We: Uncut Director's Cut (Dutch)

Bayview Entertainment

04/07/20 — Sets All Babes Want to Kill Me, Ambition, Apocalyptic: The Tsunami War, Arc, Art Ache, Asylum Seekers, August (Farsi), Cinema Holdup (Spanish) and Some Girls Wander

04/14/20 — Sets Best People, Bizarre: A Circus Story, Black Fly, Blood Into Wine, Bodkin Ras, Border Blues, Born to Hate (Hindi), Bullets, Blood and a Fistful of Cash, Gregorian Chant: Back to Your Actual House and Prophet

Caveman Training (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Kettlebell Complexes Made Simple

Championship Productions

02/18/20 — Released 2019 Major League Hitting Clinic: Modern Strategies for Hitter Development (2 disc set) and Speed of the Stick: Building High Performing Relays

Film Detective

03/31/20 — Sets Fist of Fear, Touch of Death

Free Your Mind Studio (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Bachelor, Deal and Where is the Kinobalagan Gone

Freestyle Digital (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Blazing Cannons

Get Digital World (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Sacred Vision

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Out of the Box, Sunday Girl and Truth About Marriage

Icarus Films

04/14/20 — Sets Heimat is a Space in Time (German)

Kino Lorber

02/18/20 — Released Accident, Criminal (aka: The Concrete Jungle), Day of the Dolphin and Je t'aime Moi non Plus (French)

MVD Entertainment Group

04/24/20 — Sets Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story

Meridian Releasing Group (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Submission

Movie Detective (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Colours of Iris (Greek), Diary of a Telephone Operator (Italian), Dias de Odio (Spanish), Le Joueur d'Echecs (French), Le Passage du Rhin (French) and Mariage (French)

Oscilloscope Laboratories

04/28/20 — Sets When Lambs Become Lions (Swahili) (ARR of 158 days; box office: $9,337)

PCN Productions (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released PA Books: The Life & Loves of Thaddeus Stevens, PCN Tours: Coolspring Power Museum and Pennsylvania Country Roads: The Dennis Farm

Paramount Home Media

04/14/20 — Sets Criminal Minds: The Final Season (3 disc set)

04/21/20 — Sets Looking for Alaska (3 disc set)

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released C*4 Wrestling: Underground, Volume 5 - Ottawa, ON, Epic Wrestling Entertainment: Rise of the Monster - Jeffersonville, IN, H2O Wrestling: Undiscovered Underground - Williamstown, NJ and IWA Mid-South: Heartbreak and February Fury - Jeffersonville, IN

The High School Sports Network (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released 2020 AHSAA 1A Boys Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Spring Garden vs Jacksonville Christian, 2020 AHSAA 1A Boys Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Decatur Heritage vs Pickens County, 2020 AHSAA 1A Boys Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Lanett vs Cornerstone, 2020 AHSAA 1A Boys Basketball Southwest Regional Finals Autaugaville vs Francis Marion, 2020 AHSAA 1A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Spring Garden vs Talladega County Central, 2020 AHSAA 1A Girls Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Phillips vs Mars Hills Bible, 2020 AHSAA 1A Girls Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Elba vs Westminster Oak Mountain, 2020 AHSAA 1A Girls Basketball Southwest Regional Finals Linden vs St. Lukes Episcopal, 2020 AHSAA 2A Boys Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Sacred Heart Catholic vs Lafayette, 2020 AHSAA 2A Boys Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Vincent vs Red Bay, 2020 AHSAA 2A Boys Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Barbour County vs Geneva County, 2020 AHSAA 2A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Sand Rock vs Collinsville, 2020 AHSAA 2A Girls Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Cold Springs vs Hatton, 2020 AHSAA 2A Girls Basketball Southeast Regional Finals G.W. Long vs Geneva County, 2020 AHSAA 5A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Boaz vs Center Point, 2020 AHSAA 5A Girls Basketball Northwest Regional Finals West Point vs Madison Academy, 2020 AHSAA 5A Girls Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Sylacauga vs Charles Henderson, 2020 AHSAA 6A Boys Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Pinson Valley vs Huffman, 2020 AHSAA 6A Boys Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Hartselle vs Bessemer City, 2020 AHSAA 6A Boys Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Sidney Lanier vs Eufaula, 2020 AHSAA 6A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Fort Payne vs Hazel Green, 2020 AHSAA 6A Girls Basketball Northwest Regional Finals G.W. Carver vs McAdory, 2020 AHSAA 6A Girls Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Opelika vs Dothan, 2020 AHSAA 7A Boys Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Sparkman vs Oak Mountain, 2020 AHSAA 7A Boys Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Spain Park vs Mountain Brook, 2020 AHSAA 7A Boys Basketball Southeast Regional Finals R.E. Lee vs Jeff Davis, 2020 AHSAA 7A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Finals Gadsen City vs Hoover, 2020 AHSAA 7A Girls Basketball Northwest Regional Finals Vestavia Hills vs Spain Park, 2020 AHSAA 7A Girls Basketball Southeast Regional Finals Auburn vs Central-Phenix City, 2020 AHSAA 7A Girls Basketball Southwest Regional Finals Foley vs McGill-Toolen Catholic, 2020 AIA 3A Girls Soccer Semifinals #1 ALA-Gilbert vs Gilbert Christian, 2020 AIA 3A Girls Soccer Semifinals #2 Sahuarita vs Trivium Prep, 2020 MPA Class A North Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Skowhegan vs Medomak, 2020 MPA Class A North Boys Basketball Qrts #2 Lawrence vs Cony, 2020 MPA Class A North Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Brewer vs Messalonskee, 2020 MPA Class A North Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Mt. Blue vs Hampden, 2020 MPA Class A South Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Marshwood vs Falmouth, 2020 MPA Class A South Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Greely vs Leavitt, 2020 MPA Class A South Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Biddeford vs York, 2020 MPA Class A South Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Falmouth vs Kennebunk, 2020 MPA Class A South Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Brunswick vs Gray-NG, 2020 MPA Class A South Girls Basketball Qrts #4 Mt. Ararat vs Greely, 2020 MPA Class B North Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Old Town vs Hermon, 2020 MPA Class B North Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Mount Desert vs Caribou, 2020 MPA Class B North Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Houlton vs Old Town, 2020 MPA Class B North Girls Basketball Qrts #4 John Bapst vs Hermon, 2020 MPA Class B South Girls Basketball Qrts #1 Lisbon vs Wells, 2020 MPA Class B South Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Maranacook vs Oak Hill, 2020 MPA Class B South Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Yarmouth vs Mtn. Valley, 2020 MPA Class B South Girls Basketball Qrts #4 Cape Elizabeth vs Freeport, 2020 MPA Class C North Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Fort Fairfield vs George Stevens, 2020 MPA Class C North Boys Basketball Qrts #2 Stearns vs Central Aroostook, 2020 MPA Class C North Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Mattanawcook vs Fort Kent, 2020 MPA Class C North Girls Basketball Qrts #1 Central Aroostook vs Fort Fairfield, 2020 MPA Class C North Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Narraguagus vs Dexter, 2020 MPA Class C North Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Penobscot Valley vs Calais, 2020 MPA Class C North Girls Basketball Qrts #4 Central vs Stearns, 2020 MPA Class C South Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Mt. Abram vs Boothbay, 2020 MPA Class C South Boys Basketball Qrts #2 Traip vs Waynflete, 2020 MPA Class C South Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Richmond vs North Yarmouth, 2020 MPA Class C South Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Monmouth vs Winthrop, 2020 MPA Class C South Girls Basketball Qrts #1 Traip vs North Yarmouth, 2020 MPA Class C South Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Sacopee vs Boothbay, 2020 MPA Class C South Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Old Orchard Beach vs Richmond, 2020 MPA Class C South Girls Basketball Qrts #4 Carrabec vs Winthrop, 2020 MPA Class D North Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Easton vs Van Buren, 2020 MPA Class D North Boys Basketball Qrts #2 Deer Isle-Ston vs Schenck, 2020 MPA Class D North Boys Basketball Qrts #3 South Aroostook vs Machias, 2020 MPA Class D North Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Greater Houlton Christian vs Jonesport-Beals, 2020 MPA Class D North Girls Basketball Qrts #1 Washburn vs Katahdin, 2020 MPA Class D North Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Schenck vs Deer Isle-Ston, 2020 MPA Class D North Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Wisdom vs Shead, 2020 MPA Class D North Girls Basketball Qrts #4 Ashland vs South Aroostook, 2020 MPA Class D South Boys Basketball Qrts #1 Pine Tree vs Greenville, 2020 MPA Class D South Boys Basketball Qrts #2 VInalhaven vs Rangeley, 2020 MPA Class D South Boys Basketball Qrts #3 Valley vs Temple, 2020 MPA Class D South Boys Basketball Qrts #4 Seacoast vs Forest Hills, 2020 MPA Class D South Girls Basketball Qrts #1 Forest Hills vs Valley, 2020 MPA Class D South Girls Basketball Qrts #2 Vinalhaven vs Rangeley, 2020 MPA Class D South Girls Basketball Qrts #3 Temple vs Seacoast, 2020 MPA Class D South Girls Basketball Qrts #4 North Haven vs Greenville, 2020 MPA Girls Ice Hockey Championship Cape Elizabeth/Wyneflete/Southport vs Lewiston, 2020 OSAA Cheerleading State Championships, 2020 SCHSL 2A Wrestling Duals Championship Finals North Central vs Bamberg-Ehrhardt, 2020 SCHSL 3A Wrestling Duals Championship Finals Indian Land vs Gilbert, 2020 SCHSL 4A Wrestling Duals Championship Finals Eastside vs Hartsville and 2020 SCHSL 5A Wrestling Duals Championship Finals Hillcrest vs White Knoll

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

02/18/20 — Released Disturbing the Peace

03/24/20 — Sets 1917 (ARR of 88 days; box office: $145,760,369)

04/21/20 — Sets Gentlemen (ARR of 88 days; box office: $31,702,651)

VIZ Media

02/18/20 — Released Hunter X Hunter Set 7 (4 disc set)

Vision Films (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art

Vision Video

02/11/20 — Released Will Faith Do Us Part? An Inside Look at Interchurch Marriage

02/18/20 — Released Catholic Heroes of Faith: The Story of Saint Patrick, Divine Plan and St. Patrick: Pilgrimage to Peace

Blu-ray New Additions

 

Acorn Media

02/18/20 — Released Good Karma Hostipal: Series 3 (2 disc set)

Aniplex of America

02/18/20 — Released Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2 disc set)

Artsploitation Films

02/18/20 — Released We: Uncut Director's Cut (Dutch)

Caveman Training (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Kettlebell Complexes Made Simple

Cri-One (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Gummy

Dark Force Entertainment

04/28/20 — Sets Backlot Murders

Film Detective

03/31/20 — Sets Fist of Fear, Touch of Death

Freestyle Digital (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Blazing Cannons

Funimation

02/18/20 — Released Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World (2 disc set), Radiant, Season 1, Part 2 (2 Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy), Royal Tutor (2 disc set) and Star Blazers Space Battleship Yatmato 2199: The Complete Series (4 disc set)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Out of the Box, Sunday Girl and Truth About Marriage

Kino Lorber

02/18/20 — Released Accident, Criminal (aka: The Concrete Jungle), Day of the Dolphin, Je t'aime Moi non Plus (French), Light at the Edge of the World, Man Who was Sherlock Holmes (German) and Münchhausen (German)

Meridian Releasing Group (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released Submission

Mill Creek Entertainment

05/19/20 — Sets Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series (6 film set: Calling Dr. Death, Weird Woman, Dead Man's Eyes, The Frozen Ghost, Strange Confession, Pillow of Death) (2 disc set)

Oscilloscope Laboratories

04/28/20 — Sets When Lambs Become Lions (Swahili)

PCN Productions (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released PA Books: The Life & Loves of Thaddeus Stevens, PCN Tours: Coolspring Power Museum and Pennsylvania Country Roads: The Dennis Farm

SRS Cinema

02/18/20 — Released Necrologies (French)

Scorpion Releasing

02/18/20 — Released Beyond Therapy

Sentai FilmWorks

02/18/20 — Released Real Girl: Complete Collection (4 disc set) and Space Brothers #0: The Movie

Shout! Factory

02/18/20 — Released Another Day of Life (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack), Gerry, Rasputin: The Mad Monk and X: The Unknown

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

02/18/20 — Released C*4 Wrestling: Underground, Volume 5 - Ottawa, ON

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

02/18/20 — Released Disturbing the Peace

03/24/20 — Sets 1917 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

04/21/20 — Sets Gentlemen (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

VIZ Media

02/18/20 — Released Hunter X Hunter Set 7 (4 disc set)

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.

03/31/20 — Sets Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent. (MOD)

03/10/20 — Sets Beau Brummell

03/17/20 — Sets Stalking Moon and Tom & Jerry: Golden Collection, Volume 1 (2 disc set)

03/24/20 — Sets Dodsworth

Well Go U.S.A.

02/18/20 — Released Warriors of the Nation (Mandarin)

4K Ultra HD New Additions

 

Paramount Home Media

05/05/20 — Sets Braveheart: 25th Anniversary Edition (4K Ultra HD/2 Blu-ray Combo Pack) and Gladiator: 20th Anniversary Edition (4K Ultra HD/2 Blu-ray Combo Pack)

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

03/24/20 — Sets 1917 (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

04/21/20 — Sets Gentlemen (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.

03/31/20 — Sets Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy), Star Wars: A New Hope (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack), Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (4K Ultra HD/2 Blu-ray Combo Pack)

Paramount Home Media's Criminal Minds: The Final Season On DVD On Apr. 14 • Looking For Alaska On DVD On Apr. 21

It was a very busy announcement week for Paramount Home Media … a series goodbye, a mini-series arrival and two new 4K Ultra HD releases, and more.

After 15 seasons and 324 episodes, Criminal Minds: The Final Season will be ready on DVD (a three-disc set) on Apr. 14 … this brings this venerable FBI crime-solving series to a close.  

All ten episodes are featured here, including the double-episode conclusion featuring a showdown with serial killer Everett Lynch, aka: “The Chameleon” (Michael Mosley), who was introduced during the previous season and came close to killing Rossi (Joe Mantegna).   Will agent Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) finally find love … one that isn’t crazy?   Apr. 14 brings the answers to fans.

Also on Apr. 14, Paramount Home Media will be releasing a complete series box set collection of Criminal Minds.

The following week, Apr. 21, Paramount Home Media will be bringing to market the eight-episode mini-series adaptation of writer John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

Following the success of the film adaptations of his Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars novels, there was renewed interest in bringing his first novel, Looking for Alaska, to the screen as well.   It had been in “turn-around” since first published in 2005 and there were constant issues relating to turning the story of Green’s semi-biographical experiences at the Indian Springs Boarding School in Birmingham, Alabama, into a coherent two-hour screenplay.   

The solution was finally arrived by producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (they have collaborated on such series Gossip Girl, The O.C. … among others) who turned Looking for Alaska into an eight-episode mini-series.

It is 2005, and Miles Halter (Charlie Plummer — Lean on Pete, All the Money in the World) arrives at Culver Creek Academy as a fish out of water.   His roommate is “The Colonel,” Chip Martin (Denny Love — Slasher Party), and Miles quickly learns that there is a pecking order at the school, which pits The Colonel and his friends against the “Weekend Warriors.”

Also at the school is Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth — The Assistant, Prey), whom Miles will become enamored with as she becomes central to his experiences at Culver Creek.    Others at the school include Takumi (Jay Lee), another friend of The Colonel, and “The Eagle,” Mr. Starnes (Timothy Simons), the school’s headmaster.   

Bonus features included with the DVD releases of Looking for Alaska include 18 deleted scenes and a video session with novelist John Green.  

Not done yet … Paramount Home Media has two new 4K Ultra HD/2 Blu-ray Combo Pack presentations — both are Steelbooks and include Digital Copy — ready for release on May 5.

These are, Gladiator: 20th Anniversary Edition and Braveheart: 25th Anniversary Edition ... and they come packed with bonus goodies (hence the two Blu-ray companion disc).

Mill Creek Entertainment To Release Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series On Blu-ray On May 19

Mill Creek Entertainment goes to the vaults on May 19 for the double-disc, six-film Blu-ray collection titled Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series.

Throughout the 1930s there were the pulp fiction mystery novels from the publishing company of Simon and Shuster.   So popular was the series that NBC launched a weekly radio program in 1941, which migrated over to CBS once World War II began and stayed there until 1950 … and then continued on at ABC radio stations for two more years.   

A couple of years later, 39 episodes were produced for a full season of Inner Sanctum on NBC television during the 1954 broadcast season.

Universal Pictures took notice of the publishing and radio success and approached Simon and Schuster about a film series based on the concept of the Inner Sanctum series.   The result were six films being produced by the studio between 1943 and 1945, all starring “The Wolf Man” himself, Lon Chaney, Jr. in various roles.   

Mill Creek Entertainment has all six of the films in the series ready for mystery and horror fans to enjoy for the first time on Blu-ray on May 19.

The series launched at Christmas in 1943 with director Reginald LeBorg’s Calling Dr. Death, with Chaney as a psychiatrist who has lost his memory.   But to make matters worse, his two-timing wife, Maria (Ramsay Ames — Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Mummy's Ghost, Philo Vance Returns, etc.) has been brutally murdered.   

Did he do it?   Or was it his wife’s lover, Robert (David Bruce — Flying Tigers, The Mad Ghoul)?   Or, perhaps it was Robert’s wife (played by Fay Helm — Captive Wild Woman, Son of Lassie)?   To find out, Chaney has his beautiful assistant, Stella (Patricia Morison — The Fallen Sparrow, The Song of Bernadette, Dressed to Kill), hypnotize him to get at the truth.   

No cheating … you have to watch Calling Dr. Death on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment on May 19 to find out the identity of the killer!!

That is just the first entry in the series.   There are five more “pulp” thrillers.  These are: Weird Woman, released in March of 1944, Chaney falls in love with a mysterious “island orphan” played by Anne Gwynne (House of Frankenstein, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome), but a jealous woman (Evelyn Ankers — Captive Wild Woman, The Frozen Ghost) does her best to destroy their marriage (best not to mess the supernatural); Dead Man’s Eyes had its theatrical launch in November of 1944 and features Chaney as an artist who is blinded, there is a chance to see again, there’s a murder, another murder and Chaney is the chief suspect; The Frozen Ghost (Chaney as a famed mentalist … Evelyn Ankers returns), Strange Confession (a head in a suitcase has a tale of greed to tell) and Pillow of Death (Chaney cheats on his wife, when she is found dead he becomes the main suspect) all followed in 1945 and that concluded Universal’s deal with Simon and Shuster.

Documentary Filmmaker Jon Kasbe's When Lambs Become Lions On DVD And Blu-ray From Oscilloscope Laboratories On Apr. 28

Documentary filmmaker Jon Kasbe (Nascent) walks a difficult path in his award-winning film, When Lambs Become Lions.   How to do you tell a story about a man who is considered by many as being vile; despicable?   

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced this past week that both DVD and Blu-ray editions of his heartbreaking elephant poaching story, which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival in the spring of 2018 and then spent a year-and-a-half on the road pulling in awards and critical raves, will be available on Apr. 28. 

The film did have an ever-so-brief arthouse run late last year, which yields an ARR of 158 days.  

As if things weren’t bad enough in Kenya, with a famine-inducing locust plague currently in progress and Somali “land pirates,” like Al-Shabaab, invading the lucrative tourist areas in search of kidnap victims, and worse, martyrs, you have ivory poachers such as “X” (his shameful name is not mentioned).   With ivory a lucrative cash business on the black-market (especially the cash-rich China market), “X” makes a nice living … what he does makes him vile; despicable.

We are also introduced to his “cousin,” Asan, a former elephant poacher who has become a park ranger.   He has the best line in the film, “Better to kill the poacher and save the elephant” … we don’t actually see any poachers being hustled off into the bush to be dealt with.   However, you get the feeling that a few have “gone missing.”

In any case, Asan suddenly finds a return to his past sins very inviting since the government of Kenya hasn’t paid him in months.   He is starving.   The film was shot in 2017, so if it was bad then, we honestly can’t imagine how bad things are for the people of Kenya and the poor elephants (and other wild creatures) in early 2020.  No tourists, no money … only death and despair.

Filmmaker Jon Kasbe is able to get both sides of the story (which is, dangerous in and of itself) and mercifully we are not witness to any human or elephant slaughters.   Instead, When Lambs Become Lions is a gut-wrenching wakeup call to the West, but in an all too real heart-breaking way, the call is likely to be unanswered, even with films such as this … but there is always hope.

When Lambs Become Lions is presented in Swahili with optional English subtitles.

Bonus features include a video session with filmmaker Jon Kasbe and footage of from the Zurich Film Festival.

Icarus Films Will Release On DVD Documentary Filmmaker Thomas Heise's Heimat is a Space in Time On Apr. 14

They say there is no English-language equivalent for the German expression, “Heimat,” or perhaps better-stated, German “experience” of Heimat.   It is at once home — to some, “The Fatherland” — and culture … and all that goes with it; the zeitgeist of all-things German.

It is important to understand that with the news from Icarus Films this past week that documentary filmmaker Thomas Heise’s latest award-winning film, Heimat is a Space in Time, will be making it domestic DVD debut on Apr. 14.

Born in East Berlin during the Cold War, Heise learned his craft while serving as an assistant director at East Germany’s DEFA Film Studios during the 1970s … all of his early works were eventually banned by the East German government.   With reunification of German in 1990, Heise was now free to make films about Germany and the German experience.

By 1993 his films were gaining recognition — the German Film Critics Association awarded him Best Documentary for Stau: Jetzt Geht’s Los (translates more or less as Traffic Jam – Now It Starts) — and he has been making films ever since.

His latest, Heimat is a Space in Time, opened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February of last year and then proceeded to work the festival circuit through 2019, arriving at the New York Film Festival in October.  These screenings are all very prestigious and certainly generate both media reviews and a fair share of awards, but unless you happen to be able to catch one of these festival showcase exhibitions you are out of luck in seeing his work ... and others like it.

Fortunately, Icarus Films comes to the rescue each month with DVD releases that brings films to the domestic home entertainment packaged media marketplace from all around the world.

In Heise’s Heimat is a Space in Time, he tracks four generations of his family, going back 100 years to World War I.   The rise of Nazi Germany, the death camps, World War II, a divided Germany and arriving at the present.   It is a powerful, near epic presentation … which reminds us that forgetting the past, can doom future generations to repeat the same mistakes.   

Indeed, there is one point in the film, where Heise simply reads letters aloud from German Jews, while the names of Concentration Camp victims scroll on the screen.   The written letters, move from concern to desperation … to a sad resolve of a fate that awaits, while all the while the names of the murdered continue.

Heimat is a Space in Time is presented in German with English subtitles.

Included with the DVD are a booklet with an essay and a Q&A with Thomas Heise.