New Nonfiction DVD Arrivals

Here’s a sampling of what’s new in DVD. Click an image for availability.

Company (Not Rated) Set firmly in, and often about, New York, Company follows five married, once married, or soon to be married couples and their mutual friend, Robert, a 35 year old bachelor who has been unable to connect in a long-term relationship. The relationships are presented in a series of vignettes, primarily through Bobby’s eyes, so that we see the less than ideal aspects of commitment. However, it is obvious to the audience that the committed are happy. Eventually, Bobby learns that while relationships aren’t perfect, they are a necessary part of “Being Alive.”

Dinostasia (Not Rated) One of our favorite natural history subjects, the good old dinosaur, gets a makeover and then some in this fantastically ambitious and groundbreaking documentary. Based on cutting-edge paleontology and the latest fossil records, DINOTASIA presents a series of vignettes about dinosaurs – both familiar faces and some we have only found out about in the past ten years. The film uses CGI to bring the stories to life, but draws on animation’s birth in silent film and early Disney to create proper, traditional visual storytelling. Werner Herzog narrates. Reviews praised its educational content for “offering viewers a taste of life on a prehistoric planet.” -Variety

The Island President (Not Rated) A film about one man’s mission to save his nation and perhaps the planet The Island President,  is a riveting, uplifting story that is impossible to take your eye off of. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives is confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced – the survival of his country and everyone in it. Nasheed, who brought democracy to the Maldives after decades of despotic rule, now faces an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives and make them uninhabitable. A classic David and Goliath tale, The Island President captures Nasheed’s battle to stop global warming – and save his country.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (Not Rated) The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an unprecedented cinematic event, an epic journey through the history of world cinema that is a treat for movie lovers around the globe. Guided by film historian Mark Cousins, this bold 15-part love letter to the movies begins with the invention of motion pictures at the end of the 19th century and concludes with the multi-billion dollar globalized digital industry of the 21st. The Story of Film: An Odyssey heralds a unique approach to the evolution of film art by focusing on the artistic vision and innovations of filmmaking pioneers. Cousins’ distinctive approach also yields a personal and idiosyncratic rewriting of film history. Filmed at key locations in film history on every continent, from Thomas Edison’s New Jersey laboratory, to Hitchcock’s London; from post-war Rome to the thriving industry of modern day Mumbai–this landmark documentary is filled with glorious clips from some of the greatest movies ever made and features interviews with legendary filmmakers and actors including Stanley Donen, Kyoko Kagawa, Gus van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Abbas Kiarostami, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Towne, Jane Campion and Claudia Cardinale.

They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain (Not Rated) Shot clandestinely over a 2-year period, this film provides a rare look at the second-most isolated country on the planet, lifting the curtain to expose everyday life in a country that has been held in the iron grip of a brutal military regime for 48 years. Culled from over 120 hours of striking images, the film is an impressionistic journey.  Interviews and interactions with more than 100 people throughout Burma, including an interview with the recently released Aung San Suu Kyi, are interwoven with spectacular footage of this little-seen nation and its people

Plot synopses from Amazon.