OVID.tv, the new streaming service for documentaries and art-house films, has announced that this week twenty-three (23) films will be joining its growing collection, bringing its library to 500 titles, most unavailable on any other platform.
On Friday, June 28, OVID released the last two films in its Pride month program of 20 LGBTQ films, along with three prize-winning documentaries on war, and peace.
On Friday, July 12, OVID begins to resurface landmark independent works from the 1960s and 1970s including two films by Robert Kramer, “one of the greatest radical filmmakers of the ’60s and ’70s, [who] mixed fiction with documentary, paying scrupulous attention to the ways in which the personal began to dominate the political.” (Melissa Anderson, The Village Voice), and a collection of three short documentaries made between 1977 and 1980 that are companion pieces to, and by the directors of, the 1978 feature film Northern Lights.
On Friday, July 19th comes a collection of six films by the great, iconoclastic Japanese documentarian Kazuhiro Soda who has been called “One of the discipline’s most interesting, and freest, artists.” (Robert Koehler, Film Comment).
And OVID is extremely proud to announce that on Friday, July 26th, we will begin a collaboration with Kartemquin Films, by releasing eight of their documentary films, and one timely seven-part documentary series, THE NEW AMERICANS. Kartemquin’s films have received four Academy Award® nominations, and won six Emmys® and three Peabody Awards, among several more major prizes, and we look forward to releasing more of their films in the months ahead.
OVID.tv is currently available on Apple TV, Apple iPad, Apple iPhone, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Android devices. After a free introductory 7-day trial, customers in the U.S. and soon in Canada (fall 2019) are able to access OVID for $6.99 per month, or $69.99 annually.
Sir! No Sir!
Directed by David Zeiger; Bullfrog Films, Documentary
In this documentary, celebrities such as Jane Fonda join their voices with veterans and soldiers to recount the largely suppressed antiwar movement that occurred within the United States military over the course of the Vietnam War.
“Because it’s bolstered by proud memories of Vietnam vets who turned against the war, Sir! No Sir! rings with an exultant, even elated tone”—Variety
|
|
|
Do You Remember Vietnam?
Directed by David I. Munro; Bullfrog Films, Documentary
In 1978, three years after the fall of Saigon, John Pilger went back to Vietnam to find out what had happened under the new regime.
“The sheer expertise and dedication shown in its making demand the highest praise… A monument to the documentary art.”—Variety
|
|
|
The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It
Directed by Judith Ehrlich & Rick Tejada-Flores; Bullfrog Films, Documentary
During World War II, 42,000 conscientious objectors refuse to fight but serve with distinction in other noncombat duties.
“Fascinating… It is a story of personal courage, idealism, and nonconformity.”—The Objector
|
|
|
108 (Cuchillo de Palo)
Directed by Renate Costa Perdomo; Icarus Films, Documentary
The filmmaker investigates her uncle Rodolfo’s death. Witnesses and clues gently reveal Rodolfo’s true identity as a persecuted gay man living under the right-wing dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner.
“The style is simple but the emotions highly sophisticated… Patiently photographed by Carlos Vasquez, 108 peels back layers of delusion and dishonesty.”—The New York Times
|
|
|
Alive!
Directed by Vincent Boujon; Icarus Films, Documentary
Five HIV-positive gay men spend a week preparing for their first solo parachute jump. The camaraderie inspired by the rigorous training and team-building exercises encourage the men to share their feelings about being seropositive: their reactions to finding out, their thoughts about ongoing treatments, and the ways they negotiate relationships with men who are not positive.
|
|
|
Ice
Directed by Robert Kramer; Icarus Films, Narrative
An innovative independent thriller, shot in New York City, Ice centers on a revolutionary group plotting to attack a fascistic political regime, using a fictitious war with Mexico as an allegory for the conflict in Vietnam.
“Riveting!”—The New York Times
|
|
|
Milestones
Directed by Robert Kramer & John Douglas; Icarus Films, Documentary
A lilting, free-associative masterpiece that follows dozens of characters — including hippies, farmers, immigrants, Native Americans, and political activists — as they try to reconcile their ideals with the realities of American life.
“A monument of committed American cinema.”—Sight & Sound
|
|
|
Prairie Trilogy
Directed by John Hanson & Rob Nilson; Metrograph, Documentary
A collection of three short documentaries made between 1977 and 1980 that are companion pieces to the dirctors’ 1978 feature “Northern Lights,” a fictionalized tale of the real North Dakota labor union called the Nonpartisan League, which formed about a half a decade before America’s involvement in World War I.
|
|
|
Campaign
Directed by Kazuhiro Soda; KimStim, Documentary
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda follows and documents classmate Kazuhiko Yamauchi’s run for city council in Japan.
“Fascinating”—The New York Times
|
|
|
Campaign 2
Directed by Kazuhiro Soda; KimStim, Documentary
Following the Fukushima disaster, Yama-san runs for the Kawasaki City Council on an anti-nuclear campaign.
“The film and Soda’s work maintains a universality which goes beyond this specific Japanese milieu.” —Hollywood Reporter
|
|
|
Mental
Directed by Kazuhiro Soda; KimStim, Documentary
The complex world of a Japanese mental health clinic.
“As Soda so eloquently shows, the mentally ill aren’t marginal “others,” but like people we see around us every day at work and at home. Even in the mirror.” — Japan Times
|
|
|
