New Nonfiction DVDs

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

Beauty Is Embarrassing: The Wayne White Story (Not Rated) For more than 30 years, Wayne White has made an indelible mark on the creative world. As a designer, painter, puppeteer, sculptor and musician, White created images and ideas that are an integral yet sometimes subconscious part of the pop-culture lexicon. Part biography, part live performance, Beauty Is Embarrassing tells the irreverent and inspiring story of this one-of-a-kind visual artist and raconteur. The film traces White s career from an underground cartoonist in New York s East Village to his big break as a designer, puppeteer and voice-over actor on Pee-wee s Playhouse (for which he won three Emmys®), as well as his work animating music videos for The Smashing Pumpkins (“Tonight, Tonight”) and Peter Gabriel (“Big Time”).

Bully (Rated PG-13) From Sundance Award-winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, comes a beautifully cinematic, character-driven documentary following five kids and families over the course of a school year. Offering insight into different facets of America’s bullying crisis, the stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter, who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus. With an intimate and often shocking glimpse into homes, classrooms, cafeterias and principals’ offices, this is a powerful and inspiring film that every educator, parent and teenager should see.

Searching for Sugar Man (Rated PG-13) Searching for Sugar Man tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez the greatest `70s rock icon who never was. After being discovered in a Detroit bar Rodriguez’s sound struck 2 renowned producers and they signed a recording deal. But when the album bombed the singer disappeared into obscurity. A bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and over the next two decades he became a phenomenon. The film follows the story of two South African fans who set out to find out what really happened to their hero.

Side by Side: Can Film Survive Our Digital Future? (Not Rated) Join Keanu Reeves on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking in Side by Side. Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters such as James Cameron (Avatar), David Fincher (The Social Network), David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), Steven Soderbergh (The Oceans Trilogy), and many more.

Untamed Americas (Not Rated) Outside our concrete jungles, beyond the strip malls and just minutes from our own backyard is another world that is thriving, fighting and surviving. Brawny mountains, burning deserts, tangled forests and curvaceous coasts. A grizzly bear takedown of helpless elk calves in Yellowstone. Big horn sheep going head-to-head in battle. Giant Humboldt squid cannibalizing their kin. Mountain lion cubs hunting solo for the first time. The landscapes and wildlife of the Americas are savage, shrewd and stunning. These are the great outdoors, our wildest frontiers – our Untamed Americas. National Geographic`s four-hour mini-series, Untamed Americas, explores some of the greatest wildlife spectacles and against-the-odds fights for survival in the continents` mountains, deserts, coasts and forests.

Plot synopses from Amazon.