OVID’s February Lineup: Black History Month, a first Uyghur feature, Iran’s WORLD WAR III & more!

This February OVID presents 22 new films and 16 exclusives.

We’ll exclusively premiere the singular Nikah, a subtle political drama about a young Uyghur woman at a crossroads. Other exclusives include a “staggering portrait” (Trouw) of Russian historian and activist Yuri Dmitriev in The Dmitriev Affair, and Venice Film Festival prize winner World War III, a dark satire of the Iranian film industry.

For Black History Month, OVID will stream docs, dramas, and comedies centering African American and post-colonial narratives, among them Roberta, a doc on legendary soul singer and back-to-back Grammy Award winner Roberta Flack, and Alain Kassanda’s Cinéma du Réel Grand Prize-winning doc Coconut Head Generation, alongside Rosine Mbakam’s first fiction feature and NY Times Critic’s Pick Mambar Pierrette. 

For Valentine’s Day, we’ll present an animated series of shorts Teat Beat of Sex by Signe Baumane (after last month’s success of My Love Affair with Marriage). Another special for V-day is Chris & Don: A Love Story, about “Cabaret” writer Christopher Isherwood and his “age gap” relationship with artist Don Bachardy. 

Full details on February’s complete lineup are below.

Image above from Bastien Ehouzan & Mukaddas Mijit's NIKAH, premiering on OVID on February 20th.

Tuesday, February 4

Francine
Directed by Melanie Shatzky & Brian M. Cassidy
With Melissa Leo
Film Sales Company | Feature | USA | 2012

Back by popular demand! Academy Award winner Melissa Leo delivers a devastating performance as a lonely ex-convict who surrounds herself with a growing number of pets.

Festivals: Berlin Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival

“A minimalist, image-based character study that is almost impossibly fragile and yet emotionally robust, Francine is a legitimate discovery… Made on a shoestring, this first narrative feature from husband-and-wife filmmaking team Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky is raw, intimate and observed with penetrating acuity.”  —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“A small but striking independent feature… Instead of mocking its protagonist’s eccentricities, the film makes achingly palpable the depth of her connection to her animal friends.” —Dennis Lim, The New York Times

Wednesday, February 5

The Birth of Saké
Directed by Erik Shrai
Film Sales Company | Documentary | Japan | 2015

An immersive portrait of life at the 144-year-old Yoshida Brewery, a producer of world-class saké. With changing times ahead and new regime led by the 6th generation heir, this is a rarified look at the personal and professional intensity needed to create a revered product and the artisans behind it. 

“A richly immersive documentary… Steeped in the rhythms of sake production at one of the few Nipponese breweries that still rely on human hands rather than machines, Erik Shirai’s directing debut favors process and routine over personal drama — a fitting enough strategy for a trade whose workers must effectively sacrifice all sense of self in order to create their world-class spirits.” —Justin Chang, Variety

** World Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, February 7

Roberta
Directed by Antonino D’Ambrosio
With Clint Eastwood, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Sean Lennon
Film Sales Company | Documentary | USA | 2022

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Antonino D’Ambrosio (Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited and Frank Serpico, among others), this is the long overdue documentary about the legendary Roberta Flack. World-renowned for “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly,” she became the first person in history to win two back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Record, yet there is so much more to her story and her impact. Among those who know Flack and have been inspired by her work attest to her powerful influence on our world.

“Captivating… Showcases Flack’s ability to bring insight into people’s lives and loves, as well as culture and politics.” —Greg Archer, Movieweb

OVID EXCLUSIVE

How They Got Over
Directed by Robert Clem
First Run Features | Documentary | USA | 2021

Tells the story of how Black gospel quartet music became a primary source of what would be known as rock and roll, and in the process helped to break down racial walls in mid-twentieth century America. Beginning in the 1920s, Black singers across the country took to the highways as the new technology of radio and records made it possible to reach a wider audience. Some of the greatest names in quartet music are interviewed, giving vivid accounts of their performances and the ushering in of a musical revolution that changed the world forever.

“Smile-Inducing! With a trove of archival performance footage and the wisdom to let those images breathe, the film leans into the maxim about showing not telling.” —Lisa Kennedy, The New York Times

“If you love music and want to know about the origins of rock and roll, you must see this film!” —Terre Roche, The Roche Sisters

Tuesday, February 11

Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché
Directed by Celeste Bell & Paul Sng
Narrated by Ruth Negga
With Neneh Cherry, Thurston Moore, Kathleen Hanna, Vivienne Westwood, Bruno Wizard
Utopia | Documentary | UK | 2021

Poly Styrene was the first woman of color in the UK to front a popular punk band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain with rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements. But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint. Celeste became the unwitting guardian of her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons.

“This restless film is hardly content to present a portrait of an icon, instead insisting, with compassion and clear eyes, that icons are all too human too.” —Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, February 12

Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting
Directed by Aviva Kempner & Ben West
First Run Features | Documentary | USA | 2022

A comprehensive look at the movement to eradicate the words, images, and gestures that many Native Americans and their allies find harmful, demeaning, and offensive. The film examines mascoting issues through archival footage and interviews with those involved in the fight. It shows how teams such as Kansas City’s football team and Atlanta’s baseball team have refused to consider a change and brings new attention and urgency to the issue. 

“A brilliant, powerful, provocative and evocative exploration and deconstruction of the depiction of North America’s Indigenous people in popular culture.” —Ed Rampell, CounterPunch

“Pulsatingly argued, wide-ranging, and occasionally seething… A lot of hope in the movie stems from the belief that successive generations will get louder and louder.” —Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, February 13

Rocks in My Pockets
Directed by Signe Baumane
The Marriage Project | Feature | USA | 2014

A funny film about depression. The film is based on true events involving five women of Signe Baumane’s family, including herself, and their battles with depression and suicide. It raises questions of how much family genetics determine who we are and if it is possible to outsmart one’s own DNA. The film is packed with visual metaphors, surreal images and a twisted sense of humor.

“Sharp, surprising and funny…told with remorseless psychological intelligence, wicked irony and an acerbic sense of humor.” —Nicholas Rapold, The New York Times

“Boasting a narrative of extraordinary complexity and density, stuffed with irony, humor and tales-within-tales…a fascinating and very personal look at mental illness.” —Alissa Simon, Variety

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, February 14

Chris & Don: A Love Story
Directed by Tina Mascara & Guido Santi 
Film Sales Company | Documentary | USA | 2007

Paints a portrait of the turbulent 50-year love affair between seminal novelist, screenwriter and “Cabaret” author Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy, who was over 30 years Isherwood’s junior and 16 years old at the time they met.

** Premiered: Telluride Film Festival 

“One of the most positive, affecting portrayals of queer romance in recent memory.” —Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine

“Primed as we are by a culture rich in both homophobia and dirty old men, we can be forgiven for anticipating a sordid cautionary tale. It’s a shock—a happy shock—when Chris & Don recounts a love that approaches the transcendental.” —David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Teat Beat of Sex 
Directed by Signe Baumane
The Marriage Project | Series of shorts | 15 episodes | USA | 2008

Unabashed takes on sexuality from a woman’s point of view.

“As intelligent and funny as it is graphic. Each of the 15 short films takes a subject (like masturbation or pubic hair) and in under two minutes, delivers a punchy, creatively animated and personally philosophical take on the subject.” —Sophie Monks Kaufman, Little White Lies

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, February 18

How to Tell You’re a Douchebag
Directed by Tahir Jetter
With Charles Brice, DeWanda Wise, William Jackson Harper
Film Sales Company | Feature | USA | 2016

Sexy, smart, and incredibly funny, How To Tell You’re A Douchebag chronicles Brooklyn based relationship blogger Ray Livingston, whose blog “Occasionally Dating Black Women” has made him more infamous than famous, as he meets his match in up-and-coming writer Rochelle Marseille.

“A winning rom-com for an audience that’s been underserved by the genre.” —David Ehrlich, Indiewire

“With dazzling dark brown faces, witty dialogue and plenty of laugh-out-loud- moments, How to Tell You’re a Douchebag speaks directly to millennials, whilst simultaneously calling us out on our bullshit.” —Aramide A Tinubu, Shadow and Act

** Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival

I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)
Directed by Kelley Kali & Angelique Molina
With Kelley Kali, Wesley Moss, Dominique Molina
Film Sales Company | Feature | USA | 2021

A recently widowed woman barely makes ends meet by braiding hair and making deliveries on roller skates. Having convinced her daughter they are ‘camping out’ in a tent for fun, she manages to save enough money for a downpayment on a new apartment. When a client is unable to pay her, what follows is a manic and frayed day until the final reckoning. 

** Official Narrative Competition: SXSW 2021 

“Kali and Molina’s sun-kissed naturalism and light touch make them a promising new voice in American cinema.” —Phil Hoad, The Guardian

“One of the most nerve-wracking, high-stakes dramas since Uncut Gems… It has the energy and verve of a quirky indie but is weighted with real-world problems that are relatable and speak to a greater socio-economic crisis.” —Soham Gadre, Film Inquiry

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, February 19

The Dmitriev Affair
Directed by Jessica Gorter
Icarus Films | Documentary | The Netherlands | 2024

Deep inside the Russian forests, against the wishes of the authorities, Yuri Dmitriev searches for mass graves from the era of Stalin’s terror that claimed the lives of almost 700,000 Soviet citizens, until one day he is arrested under suspicious circumstances. In Russia, Dmitriev is discredited as someone collaborating with the West. A prescient examination of the growing despotism of the Russian legal system and the methods used to silence those who challenge official state narratives. This is the third film by filmmaker Jessica Gorter on OVID.

“Earnest, impressive documentary… shows how Putin’s repression grows.” —de Volkskrant 

“Shocking, moving and impressive. A monument to the honest loner in Putin’s chaotic dictatorship where indictment, suspicion, abuse of power and terror call the shots.” —Laura Starink, Window to Russia

** DOC NYC 2023

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Inside Russia: Traitors and Heroes
Directed by Paul Mitchell & Anastasia Popova
EPF/Docuseek | Documentary | Russia | 2023

Filmed by two Russian filmmakers despite huge risks, a new documentary explores the impact that Russia’s war in Ukraine has on individuals in Russia. It’s been dangerous for ordinary Russians to speak up against Vladimir Putin’s regime for years. New censorship laws, introduced since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have made it tougher than ever. While almost all of Russia’s independent media outlets close when new censorship laws are introduced, the film follows one small independent YouTube channel, capturing views of ordinary Russians on freedom of speech as to whether peace between Russia and Ukraine is possible.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, February 20

Nikah
Directed by Bastien Ehouzan & Mukaddas Mijit
Icarus Films/dGenerate Films | Feature | France | 2024

Subtle and carefully observed, this powerful mid-length feature captures the uncertainty of a young woman at a personal crossroads. It is 2017 in the Uyghur Region. Dilber, a young single woman, watches her younger sister Rena marry, while facing pressure to get married as well. Meanwhile, Uyghurs are arrested every day, without civilians knowing why. One day Dilber is offered an escape hatch: to marry remotely with a Uyghur man living in Paris. 

“Extraordinary… astonishing in its restraint, in the way it remains true to a ground level view of what it looked and felt like to be on the verge of internment… a portrait of the impossible becoming reality.” —The China Project

“Reveals a society that is silently falling apart in this intense, delicate and sometimes funny film.” —Liberation

“Quietly commands attention with its portrait of a culture under siege… Leaves an indelible impression.” —The Asian Cut

OVID EXCLUSIVE – SVOD PREMIERE

Friday, February 21

Coconut Head Generation
Directed by Alain Kassanda
Icarus Films | Documentary | France | 2023

At Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university, a student association hosts a documentary screening and discussion group. In a country where dissent is frequently punished, this Thursday Film Series becomes a space for conversation and impassioned debate. When nationwide protests against police brutality break out, students find themselves on the front lines of resistance — and the issues that occupy them take on a new urgency. “Coconut head generation” is a term used by older generations to denigrate young Nigerians as brainless. As this film makes abundantly clear, they are anything but.

“A dialectical work, it enmeshes its audience with engaged young people, undercutting the titular insult which is often thrown their way.” —Hyperallergic

“Bound to inspire contemporaries across the world to think a little differently about Nigeria and the state of the world they currently find themselves in.” —Movablefest

** Grand Prize, Cinéma du Réel 2023
** New Directors/New Films 2023

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Mambar Pierrette
Directed by Rosine Mbakam 
With Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat, Marguerite Mbakop, Duval Franklin Nwodu Chinedu
Icarus Films | Feature | Belgium | 2023

Her feature narrative debut, Rosine Mbakam turns her documentarian’s eye to the eponymous Pierrette, a gifted seamstress who works to support her young children and mother. The city of Douala, Cameroon is getting ready for the start of the school year. A long line of customers come to Pierrette to prepare their clothes for upcoming social events and ceremonies. More than a seamstress, she is the confidant of her customers and community. But when it starts pouring and the rain threatens to flood her workshop – one of many misfortunes – Pierrette will have to struggle to stay afloat. 

“An original filmmaker of exquisite sensibility; one of the foremost filmmakers of creative nonfiction working right now.”  —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Critic’s Pick! Hits a remarkable balance.” —Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times

“As in Mbakam’s bravura nonfiction, the simplicity and directness of Mambar Pierrette belie a penetrating emotional and political vision.” —Devika Girish, Film Comment

Tuesday, February 25

Welcome to Nuclear Land
Directed by Esther Hoffenberg
Icarus Films | Documentary | France | 2009

With almost 70% of its electricity generation coming from nuclear power, France ranks as the most “nuclearized” country in the world. Setting out to understand the ramifications of this dependency, Esther Hoffenberg traveled to Normandy, the epicenter of France’s nuclear power generation and the site of the La Hague plant. Through a series of interviews with local residents, politicians, industrial representatives, and environmental activists, Welcome to Nuclear Land explores France’s ambivalent relationship to nuclear power. While the Le Hague mayor dismisses environmental concerns, unscripted conversations with local residents and regulators reveal anxieties just underneath the surface.

“With detailed and skillfully put together touches, this documentary paints a remarkable portrait of Normandy and smartly questions the management of nuclear waste.” —Télérama

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Women Against the Bomb   
Directed by Sonia Gonzalez
Andana Films | Documentary | France | 2021

The inspirational story of the first all-female peace camp of Greenham Common, told from the inside by the women who were there. The protest camp began in England in 1981 to block the installation of nuclear weapons on European soil, marking the dawn of a global ecofeminist movement.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, February 26

The Champagne Safari  
Directed by George Ungar
First Run Features | Documentary | Canada | 1995

What was a reputed Nazi collaborator doing reconnoitering the Canadian Northwest in 1934? In that year, mogul Charles Bedaux embarked on an ill-fated journey across the Canadian Rockies. His upper-crust caravan, called “The Champagne Safari,” was abandoned and film footage of the journey was lost. Decades later, director George Ungar discovers the film and tracks the wealthy industrialist’s life, exploring how his worker-management system left its imprint on the modern world. He also examines Bedaux’s Nazi ties, which led to his undoing.

“Riveting…a truly amazing story of grand illusions and Byzantine treachery.” —Chicago Tribune

“An inspired and fascinating documentary about a near-forgotten man. As intriguing as ‘Citizen Kane’.” —Los Angeles Times

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, February 27

World War III
Directed by Houman Seyedi
With Mohsen Tanabandeh, Mahsa Hejazi
Deaf Crocodile / MVD | Feature | Iran | 2023

The official Iranian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2023 Academy Awards, and the Winner of the Orizzonti Awards for Best Film and Actor at the Venice Film Festival 2022, director Houman Seyedi’s savage, mysterious thriller/drama is one of the darkest, most enigmatic portraits of class inequality, desperation and murder since Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite.

“A journey embodied in an absorbing and extraordinary central performance by Mohsen Tanabandeh as the film’s downtrodden hero.” —Jonathan Holland, Screen Daily 

“Both sharply conceived and agonizingly performed… presents a hot blast of social issue semantics defined by a direct conduit with a criminal underbelly often downplayed significantly in modern Iranian cinema.” —Nicholas Bell, IONCINEMA

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, February 28

Touristic Intents
Directed by Mat Rappaport
First Run Features | Documentary | USA, Germany, Netherlands | 2022

Can a building be guilty? Centered on the never-completed Nazi resort of Prora, on Germany’s Baltic Sea, built on a mammoth scale beginning in 1936 to house 20,000 vacationing working-class Germans, the Nazis left the site unfinished and the massive edifice is now being redeveloped. In an era when the role of national monuments has become a defining issue, the resort stands as a reminder of how buildings become vehicles for political ideology.

** Best Feature Documentary! Massachusetts Independent Film Festival 2022

“The film’s gradual revelation of the building’s psycho-political past (and present) is a real-life examination of the horror genre’s most popular premise: the haunted house.” —Anu Thapa, Film Theorist, Virginia Tech

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Zerograd 
Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov
With Leonid Filatov, Oleg Basilashvili, Vladimir Menshov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev
Deaf Crocodile / MVD | Feature | Russia | 1988

Part Kafka, part Agatha Christie and part Monty Python, director Karen Shakhnazarov’s surreal satire of Communism Zerograd (Zero City) follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin’s predicament. With music by the great Eduard Artemyev (Solaris and Stalker).

“A deliciously cheerful satire about the legacy of Stalin, personal identity and the political importance of rock-and-roll.” —Caryn James, The New York Times

“Works on many levels. It’s successful as a conventional story about mistaken identity. Its absurdism is total and never breaks the spell of believability. Its parable about the state of modern Soviet perestroika is incisive and witty. Its conclusions about the redemptive powers of rock’n’roll are universal.” —Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

Complete list of films premiering on OVID this month (in alphabetical order):

Chris & Don: A Love Story, Tina Mascara & Guido Santi (2007)
Coconut Head Generation, Alain Kassanda (2023) 
Francine, Melanie Shatzky & Brian M. Cassidy (2012)
How They Got Over, Robert Clem (2021) 
How to Tell You’re a Douchebag, Tahir Jetter (2016)
I’m Fine (Thank you for Asking), Kelley Kali & Angelique Molina (2021)
Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting, Aviva Kempner & Ben West (2022)
Inside Russia: Traitors and Heroes, Paul Mitchell & Anastasia Popova (2023)
Mambar Pierrette, Rosine Mbakam (2023) 
Nikah, Bastien Ehouzan & Mukaddas Mijit (2024) 
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, Celeste Bell & Paul Sng (2021) 
Roberta, Antonino D’Ambrosio (2022) 
Rocks In My Pockets, Signe Baumane (2014)
Teat Beat of Sex, Signe Baumane (2008) 
The Birth of Saké, Erik S