Kino Lorber has unveiled some of the details of their September 2022 Blu-Ray and DVD releases from their Kino Lorber, Kino Classics, Milestone Cinematheque, Cohen Media Group, Greenwich Entertainment, Good Deed Entertainment, Virgil Films and Raro Video imprints. Get all the details on this incredibly packed lineup below:
Street Date: 8/30/22
Synopsis: In the world of Major League Baseball no one has created a mythology like Nolan Ryan. Told from the point of view of the hitters who faced him and the teammates who revered him, FACING NOLAN is the definitive documentary of a Texas legend.
Bonus Features: Q&A with Nolan Ryan, Tom House and Pitching Ninja / SXSW Q&A / Clips / Trailer
UNITY TEMPLE: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MODERN MASTERPIECE
Street Date: 8/30/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: In UNITY TEMPLE: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MODERN MASTERPIECE, filmmaker Lauren Levine follows the challenging $25 million restoration of Wright’s first public commission and the painstaking efforts to bring the 100-year-old building back to its original beauty. Now part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, The 20th Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Unity Temple was wildly experimental for its time and in the words of Wright himself, it “makes an entirely new architecture — and is the first expression of it.” Unity Temple is widely considered a Wright masterwork and a vastly influential forebear of the modern architecture movement. Five years in the making, Levine’s film weaves interviews and Wright’s own philosophy with detailed footage of the restoration process. With narration by Oscar and Emmy award-winning actor Brad Pitt, a Wright acolyte himself, the film creates a passionate multi-perspective statement not only for the beauty of the building but the ways that architecture continually alters the world within and around it.
Bonus Features: Discussion Panel / Trailer/ Alternate Trailer / Photo Gallery
Street Date: 9/13/22
Synopsis: Costa Brava, Lebanon captures the joys and frustrations of a close-knit family with an intimacy that feels startlingly natural, and sets them against a sharply drawn backdrop of environmental crisis. In the not-so-distant future, the free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in an idyllic mountain home. Without warning, the government starts to build a garbage landfill right outside their fence, intruding on their domestic utopia and bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so does tension in the household, revealing a long-simmering division between those family members who wish to defend or abandon the mountain oasis they have built. Mounia Akl’s stunning feature debut premiered at Venice and won major prizes at the Toronto and BFI London Film Festivals. Her unique gift with actors is evident in the sensitively realized performances she elicits from her cast, which includes award-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) and celebrated actor Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit, Walid).
Bonus Features: Mounia Akl Featurette | Behind-the-Scenes Footage | Deleted Scenes | Q&A | Theatrical trailer
I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING
Street Date: 9/13/22
Synopsis: This charming, whimsical story about a waifish daydreamer with artistic aspirations is structured around a video-recorded confession. In Patricia Rozema’s fanciful character study, aspiring photographer Polly (comedian Sheila McCarthy) lands a job at a Toronto art gallery run by Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon), who is also a painter. Polly is impressed with Gabrielle’s paintings, but as Polly gets to know her lover Mary (Ann-Marie MacDonald) and becomes entangled in their lives, she realizes Gabrielle isn’t exactly who she appears to be. The gauche absent-minded temp with spiky orange hair and the polished, bourgeois curator with a gift for gab are like night and day, yet a strong connection builds between these two women through their shared love of art, and their genuine curiosity and appetite for love. Winner of the Prix de la Jeunesse at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.
Bonus Features: New Audio Commentary by director Patricia Rozema | Rozema’s short films Passion: A Letter in 16mm (1985); Desperanto, part of the 1991 anthology film Montréal Vu Par…; The Shape I Think (1995) – written and performed by Rozema, part of the 1996 anthology film Symposium: Ladder of Love directed by Nik Sheehan | Introduction by director Patricia Rozema (courtesy of Metrograph) | Q&A with Patricia Rozema moderated by Laurie Anderson (courtesy of Metrograph) | Video essay by Daniel Kremer | Trailer
Street Date: 9/13/22
Synopsis: Pet shop owners by day and swingers by night, Italian couple Hermes and Betta are, in most ways, regular people. In this honest, sex-positive look at the swinger lifestyle, director and cinematographer Mauro Russo Rouge is invited into their lives with no moment off-limits, crafting a portrait of a relationship that gives equal weight to the mundane yet strangely fascinating logistics of organizing sex parties as it does to the act itself. Shot in a rich visual style that is deeply sensual without ever feeling vulgar or exploitative, the film is “more emotionally than sexually voyeuristic” (Screen Daily), an intimate exploration of the deep love and complex challenges one polyamorous couple shares. Bloom Up premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival and has a suggested rating of R / 18+.
Bonus Features: Trailer
Street Date: 9/20/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: The Automat recounts the lost history of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, which served affordable food to millions of New Yorkers and Philadelphians for more than a century. Founded by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart in 1888, it revolutionized the nation’s restaurant scene with technology that captured the public’s imagination like nothing else— the customer put nickels into slots and little windows opened to reveal the customer’s pick, be it a slice of pie, macaroni and cheese, or a Salisbury steak. The chain welcomed those who had been ignored, including immigrants, the working class, Blacks, and women, all of whom were often not welcome in restaurants. Featuring interviews with Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell and Elliott Gould, The Automat illustrates how the company both served the public with great food and at the same time treated its employees with fairness and integrity.
Bonus Features: New audio introduction by Mel Brooks | Extended interview with Mel Brooks | Audio commentary by director Lisa Hurwitz | Theatrical trailer
Street Date: 9/20/22
Synopsis: On a remote island along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, 17-year-old Julija spends her days diving for eel with her domineering father Ante and watching other teens party on a nearby yacht. Julija bristles at Ante’s heavy handed cruelty and resents her mother Nela’s passivity. She longs for independence but is unsure how to achieve it, until the arrival of the rich and mysterious Javier seems to offer a way out. Javier is considering buying Ante’s land to build a resort, which would allow the family to escape their island isolation for the city. Once Ante’s employer and Nela’s lover, Javier flirts shamelessly with Nela and Julija, setting off a subtle battle of hypermasculine one-upmanship that pushes Ante to humiliate and control Julija even more. Flattered by Javier’s praise and stories of traveling the world, Julija sees him as the solution to all her problems. But does his affection portend freedom, or something more sinister? Winner of the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, lensed by award-winning cinematographer Hélène Louvart (The Lost Daughter, Never Rarely Sometimes Always), and Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese, Murina features a ferocious, star-making central performance by Gracija Filipovic and the most sumptuous images of the Mediterranean since The Big Blue. Equal parts fiery feminist outcry and stirring coming-of-age drama, the film announces director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic as a major new talent in world cinema.
Bonus Features: Introduction by director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (courtesy of Metrograph) | Q&A with director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (courtesy of Metrograph) | Theatrical trailer
THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST
Street Date: 9/27/22
Synopsis: The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007) is one of writer-director Paul Auster’s (New York Trilogy, Smoke, 4 3 2 1) most beguiling works, an enchanting exploration of the mysteries of creation, presented here in a new 4K restoration overseen by Auster. After working for three years on a novel, Martin Frost (David Thewlis, Naked) borrows a friend’s empty country house for a long-needed rest. No sooner does he arrive, however, than an idea for a story comes to him. When he wakes the next morning, eager to begin his new tale, he is shocked to discover a young woman sleeping next to him in bed—the effervescent Claire (Irène Jacob, Three Colors: Red). Claire claims to be the homeowner’s niece, but it soon becomes clear that she is bound up with the story Martin is writing: is she a muse, a ghost, or a figment of his imagination? The Inner Life of Martin Frost is a philosophical mystery which functions as a testament to the perils and pleasures of storytelling. Kino Lorber is also proud to include the two-part interview Running Off to the Circus: Paul Auster on Film. In Part 1 Auster passionately discusses the formative movies that made him a cinephile, while Part 2 is a fascinating look at his career as a filmmaker, from Smoke to The Inner Life of Martin Frost and beyond.
Bonus Features: Running Off to the Circus: Paul Auster on Film (98 minutes) | Making-of Featurette | Booklet interview with Paul Auster | Theatrical trailer
Street Date: 9/13/22
Synopsis: Alternately distressing, instructive, contestable, and fascinating, Juliet Bashore’s quasi-documentary plunge into the 1980s porn industry takes an unsparing look at issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation via the story of two women—the naive newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon Mitchell — caught in a toxic romance.
By turns mesmerizing and unsettling, Kamikaze Hearts is both a fascinating record of pre-gentrification San Francisco’s X-rated underground and an intense, searing love story. The film offers a disturbing glimpse of the modification of bodies, feelings, and lives. New restoration!
Bonus Features: Documentary on the making of the film and its enduring legacy, featuring actors Sharon Mitchell and Howie Gordon, author and critic Susie Bright, sexologist Annie Sprinkle, artist Beth Stephens, and director Juliet Bashore | Audio commentary by director Juliet Bashore, actors Sharon Mitchell, Jon Martin and Howie Gordon, and performance artist Shelly Mars | Crash (1990), a short film by Juliet Bashore | Original trailer | 2022 Re-release trailer
Street Date: 9/27/22
Synopsis: This four-disc set showcase more than fourteen hours of rarely-seen silent films about feminist protest, slapstick rebellion, and suggestive gender play. These women organize labor strikes, bake (and weaponize) inedible desserts, explode out of chimneys, electrocute the police force, and assume a range of identities that gleefully dismantle traditional gender norms and sexual constraints. The films span a variety of genres including slapstick comedy, genteel farce, the trick film, cowboy melodrama, and adventure thriller. Cinema’s First Nasty Women includes 99 European and American silent films, produced from 1898 to 1926, sourced from thirteen international film archives and libraries, with all-new musical scores, video introductions, commentary tracks, and a lavishly illustrated booklet. Curated by Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, and produced for video by Bret Wood, Cinema’s First Nasty Women is a partnership of Kino Lorber, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Women Film Pioneers Project, Eye Filmmuseum, FIC-Silente, and Carleton University.
Bonus Features: “What Is a Nasty Woman?” – Video introduction to the collection, featuring series curators Laura Horak, Maggie Hennefeld, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, and music supervisor Dana Reason | Eleven short documentaries focused on specific films and performers, including interviews with Liza Black, Thirza Cuthand, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Dana Reason, Arigon Starr, Susan Stryker, and Kyla Wazana Tompkins | 120-page booklet with essays, interviews, photos, and detailed film notes (print copies only available in the Blu-ray Deluxe First Edition; DVD and subsequent Blu-ray editions will feature a QR code for the full booklet contents online) | Audio commentaries for select films by: Jennifer Bean (University of Washington), Liza Black, Enrique Moreno Ceballos (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Liz Clarke (Brock University), Bryony Dixon (British Film Institute), Jane Gaines (Columbia University), Rosa María Licea Garibay (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Joanna Hearne (University of Oklahoma), Maggie Hennefeld (University of Minnesota), Laura Horak (Carleton University), Pamela Hutchinson (Silent London), Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Eye Filmmuseum), Mariann Lewinsky (Cineteca di Bologna), Katharina Loew (University of Massachusetts Boston), Cecilia Ramírez Morales (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Ana Belén Recoder (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Lluvia Soto Rodríguez (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Aurore Spiers, Shelley Stamp (University of California, Santa Cruz), Alejandra Calleja Toxqui (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Kristen Anderson Wagner (University of Southern California), Laetitia Vigneron (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), and Yiman Wang (University of California, Santa Cruz)
SOUTH: ERNEST SHACKLETON AND THE ENDURANCE EXPEDITION
Street Date: 9/20/22
Synopsis: South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919) is the original documentary of the greatest epic in the history of exploration, produced by Shackleton and Frank Hurley. When Shackleton set sail on the Endurance on August 8, 1914, he planned a brave attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica via the South Pole. But within a day’s travel, the Endurance was trapped in unusually heavy pack ice. What followed is one of the most spectacular adventure stories ever—an unbelievable tale of courage and survival. The crew drifted on ice floes for months before landing on the completely deserted Elephant Island. With no chance for rescue, Ernest Shackleton and five of his men made a 850-mile journey in an open boat with only a sextant to guide them across the roughest seas in the world. Made newly relevant with the 2022 discovery of the Endurance at the bottom of the Weddell Sea – this Milestone Films release of South is newly restored in 2K by the BFI National Archive with the original tints and toning and a new orchestral score by Neil Brand performed by Covent Garden Sinfonia, making this Blu-ray release one to cherish.
Bonus Features: Audio commentary by film historian Luke McKernan (2002) | Audio recordings of Ernest Shackleton | Departure of Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition from Lyttelton, New Zealand (1908, 8 minutes) | Antarctic Expedition: Sir George Newnes’ Farewell to Officers and Crew (1 minute) | Shackleton: South Georgia Birds (1920, 13 minutes) | Shackleton’s Boat Journey (1999, 31 minutes, Produced by Harding Dunnett and John Bardell for the James Caird Society) | Southward on the Quest (1922 excerpt, 8 minutes)
Street Date: 9/6/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: Bernard-Henri Lévy is one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals, and Cohen Media Group is proud to present this two-disc collection of his politically charged documentary filmmaking work, leading off with The Will to See (2022), an unflinching look at the most urgent humanitarian crises around the globe, ranging from Afghanistan to Ukraine. The Oath of Tobruk (2012) tracks six months of Lévy ‘s behind-the-scenes work in war-torn Libya. In Peshmerga (2016), Lévy travelled to the front lines of ISIS, seeking first-hand understanding of the ongoing conflict. Picking up where Peshmerga left off, The Battle of Mosul (2017) is a riveting cinematic dispatch from Mosul as it attempts to free itself from the grip of the Islamic State.
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/6/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: A deep dive into the life of Stewart Brand, a legendary pioneer of LSD, cyberspace, futurism, and modern environmentalism. Brand created the revolutionary do-it-yourself publication The Whole Earth Catalog, which Steve Jobs famously called “Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google existed.”
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/13/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: It is not widely known that a handful of prisoners in the Nazi death camps managed somehow to take clandestine photographs of the hell that was being hidden from the world. Director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs.
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/27/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: In the halls of California’s Capitol, 4,000 teenagers run a fully functioning government complete with legislators, party bosses, and elections. Over four months, three candidates emerge in the race for the 72nd Youth Governor. With their peers watching their every word, these young candidates put together the unique mix of ambition, confidence, shamelessness, and pure motivation it takes to win.
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/13/22
Synopsis: In near-future Phnom Penh, a teenage boy teams up with a street-smart girl from his neighborhood to untangle the mystery of his past-life dreams. What begins as a hunt for a Buddhist treasure soon leads to greater discoveries that will either end in digital enlightenment or a total loss of identity.
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/27/22 (DVD Only)
Synopsis: Jackie Stiles is the greatest basketball player you’ve never heard of. This is the story of a 5’8” girl from a small Kansas town, population 600, who became a basketball legend in the Midwest. Against all odds, Jackie became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, a record she held for 16 years. This feat was accomplished through hard work and unwavering determination. Her coaches and teammates agree that Jackie’s work ethic will probably never be matched.
Bonus Features: Trailers
Street Date: 9/27/22
Synopsis: A small town in Northern Italy lives in terror of a local gang who specialize in the kidnapping of wealthy young men. The gang operates with impunity as parents often pay ransoms immediately, which has lead Police Commissioner Jovine (Lee J. Cobb, 12 Angry Men) to resign in frustration. His incoming replacement Cardone (Enrico Maria Salerno) insists the gangsters must be resisted, declaring he will never give into their demands at any cost. Despite striking back at the gang in several operations, Cardone’s methods are continually challenged as indiscriminately violent by District Attorney Aloisi (Jean Sorel, The Day of the Jackal). Undeterred, further major arrests seem to only prove Cardone correct. But as Cardone continues to brush up against the town’s ruling web of corruption, he risks losing his family, and himself, to his war on crime. When his own son is kidnapped by the gang, Cardone must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice for his principals.
Bonus Features: Tough-Guy Film Expert Mike Malloy on Lee J. Cobb (17 minutes)
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.