2 Best Releases From Greenwich Entertainment Studio

Our first dispatch from the festival highlights an important milestone in women's sports history, and two tales of queer resilience. Ahh, the Toronto International Film Festival -- while we've got boots on the ground up in the chilly climes of Canada, those of us who can't swing the travel expenses are here, tackling the lesser-known releases that don't get the attention they deserve among the splashy awards campaigns and A-list stars. (Of course, there being an active strike makes that far easier, with these smaller works in even greater need of appraisal.) Opening the Docs program at TIFF for opening night was Copa 71, an intriguing if straight-across-the-pitch documentary about the first Women's World Cup -- but not the official one endorsed by FIFA in 1991, as professional women's footballers are shocked to learn in the opening minutes. The real one, it turns out, was in 1971, organized in Mexico City at their enormous Azteca Stadium. More than 100,000 attendees filled the stands, as teams from France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and more competed for the first-ever women's football tournament -- one of the biggest crowds such a tourney has ever seen. And it's been lost to history, until now. Continue Reading →

Matt Yoka's documentary snaps a picture of a city -- and a family -- in transition. (This review is part of our coverage of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.) (Editor's note: as one of the film's major subjects, Zoey Tur, is a transgender woman whom we see both before and after her transition, we will defer to Zoey's stated preference in the film to refer to pre-transition Zoey as "Bob" (he/him).) The '80s and '90s were a tough time for LA -- Rodney King, the LA riots, wildfires, the OJ Simpson trial. Southern California seemed at once the beating cultural heart of the country and a walled-in prison slowly crumbling on itself. But of course, it was catnip for a news media that increasingly favored "if it bleeds, it leads" content and the increasingly blurred lines between journalism and paparazzo. LA was also the home of helicopter news dispatches; since the city was so spread out, reporters relied on choppers to get to a fire, shooting, or crash quickly and grab heart-stopping footage they could sell to outlets. Continue Reading →