OVID.tv, the curated streaming destination for documentaries and art-house films, has announced its June streaming lineup! This month’s slate includes Carlos Reygadas’ Venice Golden Lion Nominee Our Time, six films by Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor, the exclusive streaming premiere of Dieudo Hamadi’s Downstream to Kinshasha, and three films by OVID’s new content partner Sentient Art Film.
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Highlights include:
June 4: Six films by acclaimed Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor, the first woman ever to win the Leopard for Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival. Includes her first feature Thursday Till Sunday (Winner, Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival), as well as Mar, Video Game, The Mountain, The Island, and Below.
June 10: Two films by Aaron Katz, Dance Party, USA, which The New York Times calls “a remarkably delicate construction” and Quiet City, nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at Film Independent’s Spirit Awards.
June 11: OVID presents the Exclusive and Streaming Premieres of three films from their new content partner Sentient Art Film including Maya Newell’s doc In My Blood It Runs, Roddy Bogawa’s doc Some Divine Wind, and in time for Pride month, Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli’s feature So Pretty about queer and trans youth in New York City.
June 16: OVID Exclusives and Streaming Premieres of two films by Dieudo Hamadi — Downstream to Kinshasa, the first film from the DRC to be an official selection at Cannes Film Festival, and the first Academy Awards submission by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The documentary captures the long journey of the victims of the war between Uganda and Rwanda who seek justice, dignity, and compassion. The short doc Ladies in Waiting, co-directed with Divita Wa Lusala, exposes the conditions of a run-down maternity hospital in Congo and the women who give birth there that want to leave.
June 17: The internationally acclaimed filmmaker Carlos Reygadas’ Our Time.
Details on all films coming to OVID in June are below:
Friday, June 4
Thursday Till Sunday
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative, 2012
Starring Santi Ahumada, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini
Chile
A family takes a short vacation, while the daughter of the family gradually discovers that her parents could be separating.
Mar
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative, 2014
Starring Nicolás Ibieta, Vanina Montes, Lisandro Rodríguez, Andrea Strenitz
Chile
Martin (33) goes on vacation to the beach with his girlfriend. Everything seems normal, until his mother arrives. Lightning strikes and soon they need to make a car disappear.
Video Game
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative Short, 2009
Starring Cristián Mora, Queralt Albinyana, Oriol Ruiz
Chile
León plays a tennis match while a farewell takes place behind him.
The Mountain
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative Short, 2008
Chile
Jose and Manuel are climbing the Montserrat mountain. They have not seen each other in some years, and they are in Spain for a funeral. It is a narrow, winding, uneven path up the mountain that makes communication difficult, until they reach an appropriate place to rest.
The Island
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative Short, 2013
Starring Rosa García Huidobro, Francisca Castillo, Gabriela Aguilera
Chile
A family gathers at their summer house on an island. Waiting for the last member to join them, they wander around absorbed by the overwhelming nature, unaware of the devastating news awaiting them.
Below
Directed by Dominga Sotomayor; KimStim, Narrative Short, 2008
Starring Andrés Aliaga, Giovanni Carella, Francisca Castillo
Chile
Jaime, who’s been away from the city by his own free will, invites his family to watch an eclipse at his house in the mountains. The tensions in the group are apparent, but they slowly vanish, reaching the most transparent moment among the eclipse’s darkness.
Wednesday, June 9
If the Dancer Dances
Directed by Maia Wechsler; Visit Films, Documentary, 2018
US
Follows one of New York City’s top modern dance companies as they struggle to reconstruct an iconic work by the legendary Merce Cunningham, revealing what it takes to keep a dance – and a legacy – alive.
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan
Directed by Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger; Kino Lorber, Documentary, 2017
US
An intimate portrait of prima ballerina Wendy Whelan as she prepares to leave New York City Ballet after a record-setting three decades with the company.
Thursday, June 10
Dance Party, USA
Directed by Aaron Katz; Visit Films, Narrative, 2006
US
Jessica and Gus are two aimless teenagers who make a tenuous, fleeting connection when Gus confides in Jessica about his dark past.
Quiet City
Directed by Aaron Katz; Visit Films, Narrative, 2007
US
Lost in New York City, Jamie crosses paths with a stranger late at night on an empty subway platform. An unlikely bond forms between them.
*Nominated for the John Cassavetes Award, Film Independent’s Spirit Awards
Bend Film Festival (Winner, Best Director & Best Cinematography)
Friday, June 11
In My Blood It Runs OVID Exclusive, Streaming Premiere
Directed by Maya Newell, Sentient Art Film, Documentary, 2020
Australia
An intimate and compassionate observational documentary from the perspective of a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy in Alice Springs, Australia, struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.
So Pretty OVID Exclusive, Streaming Premiere
Directed by Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli, Sentient Art Film, Narrative, 2020
US
Four queer and trans youth in New York City struggle to maintain their proto-utopian community against the outside world as their lives curiously merge with the 1980s German novel So Schön by Ronald M. Schernikau.
Some Divine Wind OVID Exclusive, Streaming Premiere
Directed by Roddy Bogawa, Sentient Art Film, Documentary, 1991
US
A young man learns his father bombed his Japanese mother’s village during World War II and kept it a secret from her.
Tuesday, June 15
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat; Kino Lorber, Documentary, 2011
US
An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements.
Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later turned into a galvanizing cinematic experience by co-directors Guy Davidi and Burnat.
The Idol
Directed by Hany Abu-Assad; Kino Lorber, Narrative, 2016
Starring Qais Attaallah, Heba Attaallah, Ahmad Qassim
Palestine
Acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad directs this biopic about Mohammad Assaf, the Gazan wedding singer who became a worldwide sensation after winning the live-singing competition Arab Idol in 2013.
Wednesday, June 16
Downstream to Kinshasa OVID Exclusive, Streaming Premiere
Directed by Dieudo Hamadi, Icarus Films, Documentary, 2020
Congo
Over six bloody days in June 2000, the Congolese city of Kisangani was the scene of deadly violence between the Ugandan and Rwandan armies. Since then, victims of the Six-Day War have fought for recognition and compensation. Now, they decide to take matters into their own hands.
In the first Congolese film to be an official selection at Cannes Film Festival, and his country’s national submission to the Academy Awards, acclaimed director Dieudo Hamadi (Mama Colonel, National Diploma, Ladies in Waiting) captures their long journey to voice their claims, seeking justice at last.
Ladies in Waiting OVID Exclusive, Streaming Premiere
Directed by Dieudo Hamadi & Divita Wa Lusala, Icarus Films, Short Documentary, 2009
Congo
In a run-down maternity hospital, a ward of women who recently had their babies wait to be allowed to leave. The problem? They cannot pay their hospital fees. A long-suffering manager must negotiate collateral with them so that they will return and pay in full: a celebration dress, a pair of earrings, a suitcase. The film eloquently exposes both the squalid hospital system and the endemic poverty of Congo without, thankfully, pointing fingers, leaving that instead to the viewer.
Thursday, June 17
Our Time
Directed by Carlos Reygadas, Visit Films, Narrative, 2016
Features Carlos Reygadas, Natalia López, Phil Burgers
Mexico
A family lives in the Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. Esther is in charge of running the ranch, while her husband Juan, a world-renowned poet, raises and selects the beasts. Although in an open marriage, their relationship begins to crumble when Esther falls in love with an American horsebreaker and Juan is unable to control his jealousy.
*Nominated for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.
Romantico
Directed by Mark Becker; Kino Lorber, Documentary, 2016
Featuring Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez
US, Mexico
Examines the plight of Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez who, along with his friend Arturo, ekes out a living as a mariachi musician in San Francisco. When Carmelo returns to his native Mexico, he finds it much harder to earn enough money to support his family, and he ponders chancing another illegal crossing into California.
Friday, June 18
A Family Submerged
Directed by Maria Alche, Visit Films, Narrative, 2018
Starring Mercedes Moran (La Cienaga, Neruda), Esteban Bigliardi (The Summit, Jauja), Marcelo Subiotto (Incident Light), Laila Maltz (Bluebeard)
Argentina/Brazil/Germany/Norway
Deep in the summer heat of Buenos Aires, Marcela is faced with the task of purging the apartment of her recently deceased sister, all while being drawn into an illicit affair with a younger man.
Alice
Directed by Josephine Mackerras, Visit Films, Narrative, 2019
Starring Emilie Piponnier, Martin Swabey, Chloe Boreham, Christophe Favre
Australia/France
After discovering that her husband’s addiction to escorts has left their family penniless, Alice finds herself drawn into the world of high-end prostitution as a means of caring for herself and her child.
Tuesday, June 22
The Bomb
Directed by Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, Eric Schlosser, Visit Films, Documentary, 2016
US
An exploration of the immense power of nuclear weapons, the perverse appeal they have, and the profound death wish at the very heart of them.
Wednesday, June 23
Another Country
Directed by Molly Reynolds (Twelve Canoes), Visit Films, Documentary, 2015
Narrated by David Gulpilil (Walkabout, Crocodile Dundee, Charlie’s Country)
Australia
The great Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil tells the tale about when his people’s way of life was interrupted by ours.
Summer Pasture
Directed by Lynn True & Nelson Walker III, Visit Films, Documentary, 2010
Tibet/US
Chronicles one summer with a young family amidst a period of great uncertainty. Locho, his wife Yama, and their infant daughter, nicknamed Jiatomah (“pale chubby girl”), spend the summer months in eastern Tibet’s Zachukha grasslands, an area known as Wu-Zui or “5-Most,” – the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote county in Sichuan Province, China.
The story of a family at a crossroads, Summer Pasture takes place at a critical time in Locho and Yama’s lives, as they question their future as nomads. As their pastoral traditions confront rapid modernization, Locho and Yama must reconcile the challenges that threaten to drastically reshape their existence.
Friday, June 25
History of Fear
Directed by Benjamin Naishtat, Visit Films, Narrative, 2014
Starring Jonathan Da Rosa Tatiana Gimenez Mirella Pascual Claudia Cantero Francisco Lumerman
Argentina/France/Germany/Qatar/Uruguay
When a heatwave grips the suburbs, blackouts, and waves of pollution push the social order to the brink of collapse, forcing each inhabitant to confront his own motives, instincts, and fears.
Queen of Fear
Directed by Valeria Bertuccelli, Fabiana Tiscornia, Visit Films, Narrative, 2018
Starring Valeria Bertuccelli (XXY, A Boyfriend for My Wife), Dario Grandinetti (Wild Tales, Talk to Her), Diego Velazquez, Sary Lopez, Gabriel Goity
Argentina
In a constant state of anxiety, a celebrated actress obsessively distracts herself from preparing for her career-defining one-woman show.
Complete list of films premiering on OVID this month (in alphabetical order):
5 Broken Cameras, Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat (2011)
A Family Submerged, Maria Alche (2018)
Alice, Josephine Mackerras (2019)
Another Country, Molly Reynolds (2015)
Below, Dominga Sotomayor (2008)
Dance Party, USA, Aaron Katz (2006)
Downstream to Kinshasa, Dieudo Hamadi (2020)
History of Fear, Benjamin Naishtat (2014)
If the Dancer Dances, Maia Wechsler (2018)
In My Blood it Runs, Maya Newell (2020)
Ladies in Waiting, Dieudo Hamadi & Divita Wa Lusala (2009)
Mar, Dominga Sotomayor (2014)
Our Time, Carlos Reygadas (2016)
Queen of Fear, Valeria Bertuccelli, Fabiana Tiscornia (2018)
Quiet City, Aaron Katz (2007)
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan, Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger (2017)
Romantico, Mark Becker (2016)
So Pretty, Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli (2020)
Some Divine Wind, Roddy Bogawa (1991)
Summer Pasture, Lynn True & Nelson Walker III (2010)
The Bomb, Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, Eric Schlosser (2016)
The Idol, Hany Abu-Assad (2016)
The Island, Dominga Sotomayor (2013)
The Mountain, Dominga Sotomayor (2008)
Thursday Till Sunday, Dominga Sotomayor (2012)
Video Game, Dominga Sotomayor (2009)
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