Not one, but two new theatrical documentaries are on their way to the physical media market place — as both Blu-ray and DVD product offerings — from Oscilloscope Laboratories with a street date of Sept. 17.
Up first is award-winning documentary filmmaker Dan Partland’s God & Country, a controversial look at “Christian Nationalism.”
What a subject and what a powerhouse combination to take it on. Partland is a two-time Emmy Awards winner (American High, Intervention) and his co-producer is none other than Rob Reiner … they certainly know the medium and can tell a powerful, if very political story.
Based on the work of Katherine Stewart’s 2019 book, “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” Partland conducts extensive interviews to make his points.
The film had private screenings initially before opening officially at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February of this year. A brief theatrical run followed … for the record, the ARR is 214 days and domestic box office receipts were $108,385.
The other theatrically-release documentary heading home as both DVD and Blu-ray purchasing options from Oscilloscope Laboratories on Sept. 17 is documentary filmmaker L. Frances Henderson’s This Much We Know, a provocative look at a possible connection between Las Vegas, Nevada’s exceptionally high suicide rate and its post-war history of nuclear testing.
Henderson was grieving over the loss of a friend to suicide and decided that a quick trip to Las Vegas would be good for some relief. Once there, she was confronted by the horrific suicide of 16-year-old Levi Presley who had jumped to his death from the world-famous Stratosphere … that “dot” connected her to writer John D’Agata’s book, “About a Mountain,” a “dot” that looks at the area’s history of nuclear waste storage … which, as it turns out, was in the news during Henderson’s visit. It seems that the United States government has just named Yucca Mountain as a site for nuclear storage (not without a great deal of controversy).
Whether there is a relationship, that’s hard to say, but This Much We Know does get one to thinking!!
