Robert Adanto’s The Rising Tide, which recently screened at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, examines China’s economic and cultural metamorphoses through the work of some of the Middle Kingdom’s most talented video artists and photographers, including the internationally recognized Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Wang Qingsong, Chen Qiulin, O Zhang, Yang Yong and Birdhead. The film is narrated by Rosalind Chao and Gordon Chang. The film will screen at The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, Saturday, May 2nd at 2:30pm, in conjunction with the Museum’s landmark exhibition Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection.
The Rising Tide is an incredibly timely examination of China’s growing prominence in international culture. In a climate of globalization and rapid urbanization, Chinese Contemporary Art has emerged as arguably the most vital and imaginative cultural force in the world today. “The rest of us better make an effort to grasp what their work is about, or get out of the way,” says Mark Lynch, host of WICN’s Inquiry, ” [The Rising Tide is] an ‘eye-opener’ in every sense of the word, if you are an artist, curator or art teacher be sure to catch this film.” “Adanto’s surprisingly grim film highlights both the vitality and urgency of China’s burgeoning new culture while allowing its subjects to speak of the darker and more painful aspects of change,” says Gerry Mak in the on-line publication Flavorpill.
The Rising Tide was shot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the summer of 2006 and completed in February of 2008. It was part of the United Kingdom’s China Now! festival, as part of Constant Stream: China 08 at the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre in London, where it screened with a film by acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke. Mr. Adanto’s film has also screened at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, The Worcester Art Museum, and The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami. Additionally, Mr. Adanto’s film was featured in conjunction with Shanghai Kaleidoscope, an exhibition curated by Christopher Phillips of The International Center of Photography in NY at The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and at The Bates College Museum of Art, The Kansas City Institute of the Arts, and the Pacific Asia Museum. Additionally, The Rising Tide was screened at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow and was an Official Selection at this year’s Cape Winelands Film Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. In June of 2009, the film will screen in conjunction with The China Project: The Contemporary Chinese Collection at The Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.
The Peabody Essex is one of the nation’s major museums for Asian art, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Indian art, along with the finest collection of Asian Export art extant, and nineteenth-century Asian photography. It presents the earliest collections of Native American and Oceanic art in the nation-all collections of exceptional standing. The historic houses and gardens, and American decorative art, and maritime art collections provide an unrivaled spectrum of New England’s heritage over 300 years. Visit : www.pem.org/ [via]
The Edmonton International Film Festival is presenting a theatrical screening of the best TV commercials from around the world. And if the lure of wall-to-wall, 30-second, propagandist films isn’t enough – a portion of every ticket sold goes to help support the 23rd Edmonton International Film Festival (September 25 to October 3, 2009).
Direct from the 2008 Clio Awards in Miami, Florida, the World’s Hottest Commercials is 90-minutes of the Bronze, Silver and Gold television award winners.
Founded in 1959 to celebrate creative excellence in advertising, Clio is the largest and most celebrated festival of its kind. Fifty years later, Clio continues to honor international advertising excellence and receives over 17,000 entries from more than 65 countries annually. The Clio statue, designed and manufactured by R.W. Owens of Chicago – the same company that produces the Oscars and Emmys – is coveted by advertising creatives and clients alike.
Kerrie Long, General Manager of EIFF, proudly explains that “Edmonton is the only city in North America to screen the Clio Award-winning ads as a feature-length entertainment package for general audiences. We are proud to be working again with the Clio Awards team by offering Edmontonians a small taste of the art of commercial filmmaking”.
“I also felt a genuine kinship with the Clio Awards”, continues Ms. Long. “Their goal is to acknowledge greatness, instruct students of the craft, and celebrate what is, in my opinion, one of the most influential art forms in modern culture. And that’s really what the Edmonton International Film Festival is about as well.”
Check out the World’s Hottest Commercials – a fundraiser for the Edmonton International Film Festival. Screenings run from May 14 to 17 at 7pm ONLY in Metro Cinema. Tickets for all four (4) screenings are $15 at the door. Advance tickets are available exclusively at TIX on the Square: www.tixonthesquare.ca. Metro Cinema is located at Zeidler Hall in the Citadel Theatre (9828 – 101 A Avenue).
The World’s Hottest Commercials is 90 minutes long – Rated: TBD. For more information contact: alistairk@playitbyearproductions.com
One of Lima’s street performers entertains at an intersection.
The Northwest Film Center presents: OBLIVION “Honigmann’s tapestry-in-motion gives a complicated, never-deafening voice to the oppressed while cherishing the importance of even the tiniest action, be it the proper preparation of the national drink (Pisco Sour) or a magic-hour cartwheel through a crosswalk.”-Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
MAY 8, 9 FRI 7 & 8:30 PM, SAT 4:30, 6:30 & 8:30 PM NETHERLANDS 2008 DIRECTOR: HEDDY HONIGMANN Honigmann (FOREVER, METAL AND MELANCHOLY, O AMOUR NATURAL) is one of the world’s most skilled and empathetic filmmakers, and her extraordinary talent is apparent again in her fascinating portrait of Lima, Peru’s capital city. Revealing its startling contrasts of wealth and poverty, she explores how many of its poorest citizens have survived decades of corruption, economic crisis and injustice. OBLIVION provides intimate and moving portraits of street musicians, waiters, vendors, shoeshine boys, and the gymnasts and jugglers (some mere children) who perform at traffic stops. The film also visits with small business owners, from a leather-goods repairman and presidential sash manufacturer to a frog-juice vendor, and contrasts their work environments with the reality of their homes in the slums of the city’s surrounding hillsides. As Honigmann introduces us to the everyday reality of Lima, she celebrates a people who, albeit politically powerless, have resisted being consigned to oblivion. (93 mins.)
Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park Ave. Admission Prices: $8.00 General, $7.00 Members, Students, Seniors
The premiere screening of a new documentary film “Cemetery Stories: A Rebel Missionary in South Africa,” directed by Cherif Keita and edited by Dominic Fucci, will be held on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:15 p.m. in Olin Hall, room 149, Carleton College. The screening is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
“Cemetery Stories” follows the footsteps of two families, the Wilcoxes white American missionaries from Northfield, and the Dubes, Zulus from Inanda (South Africa). Their friendship in the late 19th century, is an important yet little-known landmark in the struggle for Black liberation and democracy in South Africa. Along the way, Keita discovers lost pieces of both family histories, reconnecting them after ninety years. “The film tells how a man from Northfield helped change the world, was forgotten, and the rediscovered,” says Keita.
Keita spent eight years traveling back and forth between the U.S. and South Africa, uncovering the connection between the two families. During this time he kept asking himself why he, a West African Muslim and professor of Francophone literature, was the one passionately piecing together the lost story of two Protestant missionaries in the distant land of South Africa. The answer came to him the day he discovers he has been “chosen” for this surprising quest by two “unappeased” souls in Northfield, the American town where he resides.
A native of Mali, Keita is a professor of French and chair of French and Francophone studies at Carleton. He is the author of several books and articles on both social and literary issues in contemporary Africa. His documentary film “Oberlin-Inanda: The Life and Times of John L. Dube,” about the life of the first President of the African National Congress of South Africa and his education in the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century, received high honors at the 2005 FESPACO (Festival panafricain du cinema et de la television de Ouagadougou), the largest African film festival.
This very special event is a co-sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Carleton Film Society, and the Northfield Historical Society. Olin Hall is located off First and Nevada Streets in Northfield. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-5779. [via]
Hot Docs will screen a retrospective celebrating the distinguished career of Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. One of Canada’s most uncompromising documentary filmmakers, Obomsawin’s collected works offer an insightful and unflinching perspective on the social realities facing Canada’s First Nations communities. Since making CHRISTMAS AT MOOSE FACTORY in 1967, Obomsawin has directed 35 films, including the award-winning KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE (1993), a feature-length film documenting the 78-day standoff between the Mohawk of Kanehsatake and the Canadian Armed Forces in 1990, and the aftermath of the 1990 Mohawk uprisings in Kanehsatake and Oka. Her film RICHARD CARDINAL: CRY FROM A DIARY OF A METIS CHILD (1986) helped to change government policy regarding First Nations child welfare. In her recent film WABAN-AKI: PEOPLE FROM WHERE THE SUN RISES (2006), she returns to her own Abenaki community to focus on the complex and sensitive issue of Native status, examining who is granted status, how it is decided and the implications involved. Obomsawin is an Officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of the International Documentary Association’s Pioneer Award. Hot Docs is pleased to announce that Alanis Obomsawin will be in attendance at this year’s Festival. For more information on Alanis, her career and achievements, please visit www.nfb.ca/alanisobomsawin.
Films and screening times:
Incident at Restigouche D: Alanis Obomsawin / min / Canada / English
Justice and sovereignty are cross-examined after a small Mi’kmaq community is targeted in an outrageous governmental attack. Those responsible for the orders are challenged in one of the most powerful interviews ever filmed.
Playing at the Isabel Bader Theatre at 93 Charles Street West.
Friday, May 1
4:30pm
For more information on Incident at Restigouche, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/incident_at_restigouche
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 119 min / Canada / English
One of the most important Canadian films ever made, Kanehsatake provides a powerful perspective on the 1990 “Oka Crisis”, which was sparked when developers tried to build a golf course over Mohawk burial grounds.
Playing at the ROM Theatre, 100 Queens Park Crescent
Sunday, May 10
2:00pm
For more information on Kanehsatake, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance
Rocks at Whiskey Trench
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 105 min / Canada / English
As Mohawk women, elders and children were evacuated from the rising threat of violence during the “Oka Crisis”, they were viciously attacked by a violent, racist mob. Years later, the shock and pain still linger.
Playing at the ROM Theatre, 100 Queens Park Crescent
Saturday, May 2
4:15pm
For more information on and screening times for Rocks at Whiskey Trench, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/rocks_at_whiskey_trench
Is the Crown at War with Us?
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 96 min / Canada / English
In this raw and immediate look at the David-and-Goliath battle over Mi’kmaq fishing rights in New Brunswick, the conflict’s complex roots emerge with passion and clarity.
Playing at the ROM Theatre, 100 Queens Park Crescent
Saturday May 9
4:45pm
For more information on and screening times for Is the Crown at War with Us?, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/is_the_crown_at_war_with_us
Waban-aki: People From Where The Sun Rises
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 104 min / Canada / English
Returning to her home community of Odanak, Quebec, Obomsawin weaves together a fascinating history of rich traditions and past struggles with a candid discussion on the challenges to contemporary First Nations identity and status – love and marriage.
The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street
Sunday, May 3
1:00pm
For more information on and screening times for Waban-aki, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/waban-aki_people_from_where_the_sun_rises
Professor Norman Cornett – “Since when do we divorce the right answer from an honest answer?”
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 80 min / Canada / English
Brilliant and controversial, Dr. Norman Cornett is probably the best professor you never had. His sudden termination after 15 years raises fascinating questions about the nature of pedagogy, morality and the high price of freedom of thought.
Playing at The Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
Friday, May 8
9:30pm
For more information on and screening times for Professor Norman Cornett, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/professor_norman_cornett
In addition to the above feature films, the following shorts will also be screened:
Richard Cardinal: Cry From a Diary of a Metis Child
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 29 min / Canada / English
Richard Cardinal, a young Metis boy, lived in 28 different foster homes, shelters, and lock-ups from the ages of 4 to 17, when he tragically hung himself. A stunning indictment of systemic racism and neglect, this film helped change child welfare policy in Alberta.
Playing at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
Friday, May 1
4:30pm
For more information on and screening times for Richard Cardinal, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/richard_cardinal_cry_from_a_diary_of_a_metis_child
Christmas at Moose Factory
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 13 min / Canada / English
For her first film, Alanis Obomsawin let the Cree children of Moose Factory tell their own stories – a radical act at a time when Aboriginal people were spoken for.
Playing at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
Friday, May 8
9:30pm
For more information on and screening times for Christmas at Moose Factory, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/christmas_at_moose_factory
History of Manawan Part Two
D: Alanis Obomsawin / 13 min / Canada / English
Rarely seen, this fascinating historical vignette of an Atikamekw community in Quebec was one of Obomsawin’s groundbreaking first works. An early multimedia piece made for education, it exemplifies the deep listening that would define her philosophical and aesthetic method.
Playing at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
Sunday May 3
1:00pm
For more information on and screening times for History of Manawan, visit:
http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/history_of_manawan_part_two
Ticket Info: Prices are $12 for screenings before 11 p.m., and $5 after 11 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.hotdocs.ca <http://www.hotdocs.ca/> , by phone 416-637-5150, or in person at The Documentary Box Office, Hazelton Lanes – Lower Level, 55 Avenue Road.
Box Office Hours:
March 16 – April 29
Monday to Friday: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
April 30 – May 10
Monday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Photo credit: Jeff Bear, 2007 Storytellers in Motion. All rights reserved
The April installment of the HollyShorts Monthly Screening series takes place tomorrow night at the Echo Park Film Center. The audience will select one of the shorts from the evening to play at the 5th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival (August 6-9, 2009).
HollyShorts Monthly Screening:
When: Saturday, April 11, 2009 @ 8pm – 11pm
Where: Echo Park Film Center Address: Echo Park Film Center
1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd) Los Angeles, CA 90026
What: Sreening short films, followed by Q& A.
Tickets are $10 at the door
RSVP at: staff@hollyshorts.com
This month’s films include the following:
THIS SOLACE ETERNAL
Directed by Jennie Na (filminfo@thissolaceeternal.com)
Evan, a reticent young man, and his two best friends must search through their forgotten memories in order to find their place of solace in the afterlife.
REFLECTIONS
Directed by Barry Caldwell (barrycaldwell@hotmail.com)
When Carol looks into a mirror — any mirror — she sees images that horrify and repulse her. She’s not a Medium, she’s not a Ghost Whisperer, she’s a frightened young woman on the edge of madness. Will the handsome stranger who offers to help turn out to be her salvation, or her final vision of terror?
LOOKING UP DRESSES
Directed by Jared Ingram (jaredingram@yahoo.com)
After getting dumped for being “too nice,” Jade Williams has until the end of a church service to convince his girlfriend he’s actually a wild man.
THE SMALL SOMEWHERE
Directed by Nikolas Smith (nikhitbytrain@hotmail.com)
A modern day retelling of Don Quixote finds the titular character embodied by Richard Crane, a night-shift security guard at an orange packing plant.
SINGULARITY
Directed by Sean Stone (scstone5@aol.com)
In the near future, a deadly plague leads to the creation of a police-state as the government installs surveillance systems to prevent the virus’ spread.
THE DARKEST WHITE
Directed by Ashkin Heydarypour (ashkin@mac.com)
In a world full of false prophets, how can we ever tell the real one? Bittersweet, the fight of the martyr, who’s cause is never her own, Who’s visions cannot foretell her own ending…or quiet digestion into the world of myth. HOLLYSHORTS TO APPEAR AS GUESTS ON NEW LA TALK RADIO SHOW
HollyShorts organizers will then be on Writer/Director David Branin his fiance and actress, Karen Worden’s new radio show on LA Talk Radio (http://www.latalkradio.com) this Sunday am recapping Saturday night’s big screening, the evening’s winner as well as the upcoming fest.
Friends of the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is announce the selection of Breakfast With Scotas its March Film Series Film. BREAKFAST WITH SCOT will screen on Wednesday, April 22nd, at the Muvico Centro Ybor Theatres in Tampa, Florida.
Eric (Tom Cavanagh) lives for all things hockey. Now in his thirties, he’s managed to turn his stint as an ex- Toronto Maple Leaf into a full-time gig as commentator for sports TV. He’s living the dream! He and his partner Sam (Ben Shenkman), a lawyer, live discreetly on a tree-lined street in Toronto.
All their tranquility is disrupted when they receive news that Sam’s brother Billy’s ex-girlfriend has died, leaving custody of her son Scot (Noah Bernett) to Billy. But adventure-seeking Billy is somewhere in South America, and that leaves Scot without a guardian. Much to Eric’s disapproval, Sam agrees to take Scot in. Enter Scot, budding queen of an 11 year old, who is Eric’s mirror opposite. Dressed in vibrant colors, his mother’s charm bracelet and with a penchant for musicals and Christmas carols, he’s not quite the ‘boy’ they expected.
Their household is thrown into confusion as Eric and Sam try to deal with the realities and expectations of their flamboyant charge and realize that he is much more ‘gay’ than they are. Each deals with his own issues while observing the behavior of a kid being joyously and unashamedly himself.
BREAKFAST WITH SCOT will screen Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, 7:30pm at the Muvico Centro Ybor Theatres in Tampa, FL. Tickets for the screening are $9.00 for adults and $7.00 for students, and may be purchased in advance for will-call pickup or at our web site, www.cliptampabay.com.
For additional information visit www.cliptampabay.com or call the Friends of the Festival offices at 813-879-4220 or 727-848-0735.
Holocaust survivor Israel Arbeiter is interviewed in ”The Holocaust: Memory and Legacy.” (Marc theriault)
The Sharon Adult Center will screen the new one-hour documentary ”The Holocaust: Memory and and Legacy,” at 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, at the community center, 219 Massapoag Ave.
The film is directed by local filmmaker Susie Davidson from her book, ”I Refused to Die,” about Boston-area Holocaust survivors.
A panel discussion will follow with Davidson and co-producer and Sharon resident Mark Thierault.
Tickets are $5, and are recommended to guarantee seating. They can be obtained at the community center.
The Northwest Film Center presents: THE FINAL INCH April 15
APRIL 15 WED 7 PM-VISITING ARTIST THE FINAL INCH US 2008 DIRECTOR: IRENE TAYLOR BRODSKY
Join Portland documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky (HEAR AND NOW) for a screening of her beautiful and informative new film, one of this year’s nominees for the Academy Award for Short Documentary. Nearly 50 years after a vaccine for polio was developed in the United States, the polio virus still finds refuge in some of the world’s most vulnerable places. In India and Afghanistan’s impoverished neighborhoods, THE FINAL INCH follows the massive-and yet highly personalized-mission to eradicate polio from the planet. The film challenges our most basic assumptions about disease, poverty and our own health as a human right.
Brodsky will introduce and talk about her film.
Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum: 1219 SW Park Ave.
Admission Prices: $8.00 General, $7.00 Members, Students, Seniors
The national organization Invisible Children will present their newest documentary, “The Rescue” at 6 p.m. Sat., April 18 at Gateway Church, 29646 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills.
The film tells the real-life story of the plight of thousands of children in northern Uganda and The Democratic Republic of Congo.
The youngsters, some as young as 6 years old, have been abducted, tortured, drugged, raped, brainwashed and forced to serve as soldiers or sex slaves in a rebel army. Thousands of adults and children have fled to poorlyequipped refugee camps.
Three men from San Diego traveled to Uganda expecting to film local scenery but instead shot this story about the children.
The film is 35 minutes long and is suited for ages 14 through adults. Child care for younger children will be provided. Representatives of Invisible Children will answer questions.
Admission is free. Refreshments will be on sale starting at 5:30 p.m.
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