Theatrical Releases

Every Friday we update you all with the week's theatrical documentary releases. Now, this is not a perfect process as our beloved genre prefers the rolling/limited release schedule instead of a big nationwide or international-wide release. So apologies if a film isn't out in your area or if you are a filmmaker and we missed the boat on announcing your documentary's big day (if that is the case, please let us know and we'll correct the mistake).

Now, with that introduction out of the way, here's this weekend's releases with their current rating on the amazing website Rottentomatoes.com:


Prodigal Sons - (75% rating) Marc has had a rough life. Adopted as an infant, he was held back in preschool (putting him in the same grade as his younger brother), failed to graduate high school, and suffered a head injury at twenty-one. His entire worldview was that he was cheated by life. Then he discovered he is the grandson of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. 

Unlike Marc, his sister Kim’s life always seemed to be easy. She was the first child born to her attractive parents, into an extended family of tall Montana farmers. She was high school class president and valedictorian, voted most likely to succeed. She was also captain of the football team — you see, Kim used to be Marc’s younger brother. Twenty years later Marc and Kim return home to their small Montana hometown, forcing them to face challenges no one could imagine (Rottentomatoes.com)

The Art of the Steal – (80% rating) In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes created The Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Pennsylvania, five miles outside of Philadelphia. He formed this remarkable collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art to serve as an educational institution. When Dr. Barnes died he left control of his collection to Lincoln University, a small African-American college. His will contained strict instructions, stating the Foundation shall always be an educational institution, and the paintings may never be removed. Such strict limitations made the collection safe from commercial exploitation. But was it really safe? 

More than fifty years later, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court to take the art - recently valued at more than $25 billion - and bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way is a group of former students who are trying to block the move. Will the students succeed, or will a man's will be broken and one of America's greatest cultural monuments be destroyed? (Rottentomatoes.com)

45365 – (no rating provided) 45365 captures small town American life in striking cinema verité style that peels away the layers of Sidney, Ohio -- population 20,000 -- to reveal a deeper shared experience. Middle America turns out to be much more complicated than a Norman Rockwell painting would have us believe. Filmmakers Turner and Bill Ross deliver slices of life in gorgeous HD photography building the unique faces, places, and events into a powerful mosaic of humanity. (Rottentomatoes.com)