“Doc5 Middleburg” will premiere 5 highly-anticipated documentaries at the Middleburg Community Center, September 22 - 26, 2020
CHICAGO, IL -- Today, CMP announced its inaugural Doc5 Film Festival will take place at the Middleburg Community Center (200 W. Washington St., Middleburg, Virginia 20117) from Tuesday, September 22 through Saturday, September 26, 2020.
Doc5 is the traveling “little sister” to CMP’s flagship Doc10 Film Festival, which launched in Chicago in 2015 and has continued its reign as the tastemaking festival in the Midwest, with dozens of titles earning Oscar nominations and trophies. CMP’s mission with its festival series is to celebrate independent documentary filmmaking and the filmmakers who tell those stories. Doc5 Film Festival is more intimate, bringing these incredible films on the large screen so film lovers in smaller communities and locales can watch them in a festival experience.
"We’re so proud of the success of our Doc10 Film Festival and we want to share the experience across the country,” said CMP’s Co-Founder and Board Chair, Steve Cohen. “We're really excited to launch Doc5 with a slate of film premieres especially curated for the film-lover community of Middleburg, Virginia
Doc5 opens on Tuesday, September 22 with OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES, which follows famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi on his quest to bring the sumptuous art and decadence of Versailles to life in cake form at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Director Laura Gabbert’s film credits include feature length No Impact Man and the popular Netflix series Ugly Delicious. OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES perfectly captures the heights of human achievement and the frailty of decadence, adding taste as one more sense with which to experience the Met.
The festival closes on Saturday, September 26 with DEAR MR. BRODY, a story about how a 21-year-old hippie heir to a margarine fortune announced to the world that he would be giving away his $25-million inheritance to anyone in need. Set in 1970, Michael Brody, Jr. and his wife Renee were soon flung into a psychedelic spiral of events and overwhelmed by the crush of personal letters responding to their extraordinary offer. Fifty years later, an enormous cache of these letters are discovered--unopened. In this riveting follow-up to his acclaimed Tower, award-winning director Keith Maitland reveals the incredible story of Michael Brody, Jr. and the countless struggling Americans who sought his help.
The full slate of films featured at Doc5 include:
9/22: OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES (Dir. Laura Gabbert, U.S.)
9/23: THE SIT-IN: HARRY BELAFONTE HOSTS THE TONIGHT SHOW (Dir. Yoruba Richen, U.S.)
9/24: TIME (Dir. Garrett Bradley, U.S.)
9/25: WHIRLYBIRD (Dir. Matt Yoka, U.S.)
9/26: DEAR MR. BRODY (Dir. Keith Maitland, U.S.)
CMP’s Chicago-based Doc10 Film Festival is known for its ancillary programming, including special talk backs with filmmakers and subjects, so audiences can expect some surprises during Doc5 Middleburg.
All screenings will be held outdoors to a capacity of 75 guests who will find it very easy to maintain a safe social distance in the venue’s large amphitheater. In case weather conditions force an indoor event, the festival will be moved indoors to a 50-person capacity ballroom that will still easily adhere to social distancing guidelines. Attendees will each receive swag bags with hand sanitizer, masks, and bug spray at the entrance.
Doc5, presented by CMP, runs September 22 - 26 at the Middleburg Community Center, 200 W. Washington St., Middleburg, VA 20117. Admission to each film is $25, or guests can purchase a pass for all 5 films for $100. These will be available online at doc5filmfest.org, and guests can also purchase tickets onsite at the venue’s concessions.
ABOUT THE FILMS (in alphabetical order by title)
DEAR MR. BRODY
Dir. Keith Maitland
U.S., 96 min.
In January 1970, hippie-millionaire Michael Brody Jr., the 21-year-old heir to a margarine fortune, announced to the world that he would personally usher in a new era of peace and love by giving away his $25-million inheritance to anyone in need. In a frenzied few weeks, Brody and his young wife Renee ignited a psychedelic spiral of events. Instant celebrities, the Brodys were mobbed by the public, scrutinized by the press, and overwhelmed by the crush of personal letters responding to this extraordinary offer. Fifty years later, an enormous cache of these letters are discovered--unopened. In this riveting follow-up to his acclaimed Tower, award-winning director Keith Maitland reveals the incredible story of Michael Brody Jr.--and countless struggling Americans who sought his help--to create a deeply moving meditation on desire, need, philanthropy and love.
THE SIT-IN: HARRY BELAFONTE HOSTS THE TONIGHT SHOW
Dir. Yoruba Richen
U.S., 77 min.
In early 1968, racial tensions were inflaming the nation and a divisive election was underway. America was exploding politically and culturally, much like today. The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show chronicles a remarkable moment during February 1968, when for one week, singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belefonte took over the desk as guest of host of Johnny Carson’s iconic “Tonight Show.” It was the first time an African-American hosted a late night television show for an entire week. For this one week, Belafonte featured a stunning combination of guests, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Lena Horne, Paul Newman, Wilt Chamberlain, Aretha Franklin, and Bill Cosby. And the week was almost lost to history. The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show tells this story through contemporary interviews with Belafonte, Whoopi Goldberg, Questlove and many others. The interviews with Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy are among their last television appearances before both were assassinated. The Sit-In also unearths unknown audio and photos of this week and illuminates how the week changed television culture, opening it up to people of color, and fusing art and politics in a singular way.
TIME
Dir. Garrett Bradley
U.S., 81 min.
Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, abolitionist and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early 90s in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpse of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separation of the country’s prison-industrial complex. Amazon Studios acquired Bradley’s documentary, Time for a record-breaking $5 million after it won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival.
OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES
Dir. Laura Gabbert
U.S., 75 min.
Via London, Versailles, and Instagram, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles follows famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi on his quest to bring the sumptuous art and decadence of Versailles to life in cake form at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He assembles a team—a veritable who’s who of the dessert world, including Dominique Ansel and Dinara Kasko—to help bring his vision to life. The pastry chefs create a true feast of Versailles complete with a cocktail whirlpool and posh jello shots, architectural mousse cakes, chocolate sculptures, swan pastries, and an edible garden. Ottolenghi acts as our guide throughout, disassembling pastries to give us the history of ingredients that we now take for granted, like sugar and chocolate. Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles perfectly captures the heights of human achievement and the frailty of decadence, adding taste as one more sense with which to experience the Met.
WHIRLYBIRD
Dir. Matt Yoka
U.S., 103 min.
A head-spinning tale of sensationalist news and personal transformation, Whirlybird chronicles the extraordinary story of intrepid Los Angeles helicopter reporter Bob Tur and his wife Marika Gerrard. In the 1990s, the husband-and-wife journalist team captured from above the mayhem of the city, from the 1992 L.A. riots to the infamous O.J. Simpson highway chase—all the while battling their own abusive relationship. But now Bob, a transgender woman named Zoey Tur, reflects on her toxic masculinity and testosterone-fueled rise with a piercing sense of regret. “Unflinching and often exhilarating” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “compelling [and] sensitive” (TheWrap), Whirlybird is a real-life Nightcrawler for the #TimesUp era, deftly combining a searing look at exploitation TV with a “complicated, engaging, one-of-a-kind, portrait of a deeply flawed human” (Indiewire) and their own self-reckoning.