Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
The Shape of Water along with Hitman’s Bodyguard lead the nominations for the 19th annual Golden Trailer Awards competition that has emerged as the most recognized event devoted to the artistry of film marketers and companies that create movie trailers, commercials and posters worldwide.
GTA 19 will take place on Thursday, May 31st at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles hosted by comedienne and actress Michelle Buteau (“The Tick,” “Broad City,” “Key & Peele”).
Norica P.
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THE SHAPE OF WATER Leads Nominations for 19th Golden Trailer Awards
[caption id="attachment_25167" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption]
The Shape of Water along with Hitman’s Bodyguard lead the nominations for the 19th annual Golden Trailer Awards competition that has emerged as the most recognized event devoted to the artistry of film marketers and companies that create movie trailers, commercials and posters worldwide.
GTA 19 will take place on Thursday, May 31st at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles hosted by comedienne and actress Michelle Buteau (“The Tick,” “Broad City,” “Key & Peele”).
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4 Films Selected for Seattle International Film Festival’s 2018 New Works-in-Progress Forum
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The Dive[/caption]
The Seattle International Film Festival announced the 2018 filmmakers chosen for their New Works-in-Progress Forum. Four feature projects, two documentaries and two narratives from three countries, were confirmed for inclusion.
“SIFF 2018 is focused on meeting filmmakers and audiences where they are, and the New Works-in-Progress Forum does exactly that – curating audiences to meet filmmakers, and having that relationship help to create the art” said SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett.
Now in its second year, the New Works-in-Progress Forum was designed by SIFF as an initiative to nurture emerging voices in world cinema. Unique in its inclusion of the audience in the forum, the event brings all partners in cinema together in concert.
Included in the 2018 New Works-in-Progress Forum are Bijon Imtiaz and Arifur Rahman’s Paradise (Bangladesh, Documentary); Sarah Brennan Kolb, Good Ol Girl (USA, Documentary); Yona Rozenkier, The Dive (Israel, Narrative) and Limor Shmila, Hanging (Israel, Narrative).
“The 2018 edition of the New Works-in-Progress Forum at SIFF shines the spotlight on four unique visual storytellers whose projects reflect today’s global zeitgeist from four extremely different perspectives, and exemplify the Forum’s directive to bring audience and filmmaker together at critical moments in the creative journey,” said the New Works-in-Progress Forum Curator Kathleen McInnis. “From Bangladesh, Israel, and the US, each film team is looking to the famed SIFF cinephiles to discover if their stories speak to a global audience.”
Industry Mentors are specifically chosen from across industry disciplines. 2018 Documentary Industry Mentors include Publicist David Magdael, Film Journalist Amy Nicholson (Variety, MTV, “Film Week”), and Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival Senior International Programmer Myrocia Watamaniuk.
Narrative Industry Mentors include IFC Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Productions Arianna Bocco, Anonymous Content Manager Luke Rivett, and Filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet (10,000 KM; Anchor and Hope).
The inaugural SIFF New Works-in-Progress Forum Projects from 2017 are now award-winning films having successfully premiered at major festivals around the world. Each film will screen as part of the official program at SIFF 2018.
The 2017 WIP Projects: Retablo from Director Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio premiered at Berlinale 2018 in Generations14+, winning the L’Oreal Teddy Newcomer Award and Special Jury Mention; A Good Week for Democracy from Director Cecilia Björk premiered at 2018 Göteborg International Film Festival and CPH:DOX where it was nominated for a Nordic: Dox Award; The Silk and the Flame from Director Jordan Schiele premiered at Berlinale 2018 in Panorama, and Julia Blue from Director Roxy Toporowych premiered at 2018 Cleveland International Film Festival.
2018 Seattle International Film Festival New Works-in-Progress Forum Projects
Bijon Imtiaz, Paradise Bijon Imtiaz world premiered his award-winning narrative feature film debut, Kingdom of Clay Subjects at SIFF 2016. Whilst researching for his second narrative feature, Imtiaz sensed a connection between the unfolding Rohingya crisis, his Bangladesh homeland and the religious extremism and growing tension between Hindus and Muslims. He immediately started to explore the individual and intimate stories in front of him for a feature-length documentary, Paradise. “The SIFF audiences understood every nuance when Kingdom of Clay Subjects premiered, “ said Imtiaz. “I was blown away by how educated their love of cinema is; it was so inspiring. We are looking for collaborators for the marathon that is documentary filmmaking, and I hope we find them among the WIP audience and mentors. We want to know if it connects on an emotional level and there is no better place to find that out than with SIFF audiences.” Arifur Rahman, Paradise First Bangladeshi Asian Film Academy Producing Fellow Arifur Rahman’s debut produced feature film Kingdom of Clay Subjects has World Premiered at 42nd Seattle International Film Festival, won the Best Film Award at 7th Chicago South Asian Film Festival and played as part of Competition at Cinequest Film Fest, Silk Road International Film Festival along with many other festivals around the world. The film has released theatrically in Bangladesh, North America, And Australia. His second produced feature film Live from Dhaka has had its World Premiere at Singapore International Film Festival, the film winning Best Director and Actor award in the process. It has also played at International Film Festival of Rotterdam, and currently having its festival journey, and has recently been picked up by French Sales company Stray Dogs. He has produced documentary shows in collaboration with BBC, Scottish Documentary Institute, Bangladesh Documentary Council, and NHK TV. His documentaries have played at the prestigious Sheffield Doc/Fest and International Human Rights Liberation Film Festival. Arifur’s documentary Beyond the Waves won the Colors of Asia competition at Tokyo Docs.Paradise
Filmmaker Bijon Imtiaz travels to a small island off the coast of Bangladesh to explore the ethics of displacement in a landscape where religion is race and personhood is defined by the ownership of land. Telling three unique stories, Imtiaz studies the consequences and causes of forced displacement, oppression and religion in our contemporary world. A middle-aged barber — the last and only Hindu on an island of Muslims, a 16-year-old Muslim Rohingya girl facing violent ethnic cleansing, and a 12-year-old boy immersed in religious doctrine frame an emotional microcosm of modern Bangladesh as well as our current global society.
Sarah Brennan Kolb, Good Ol Girl
A New York commercial producer by day, Sarah Brennan Kolb returned to her native Texas for a working hiatus as a ranch hand on a cow-calf operation. It was there she begin to explore the “modern” West – one in which the “male cowboy mythology” was quickly disappearing and being replaced by a new gritty, honest and some would say subversive, female story. The jarring transitions between generations as the men disappeared and the women stayed standing in this hyper-masculine and desolate place inspired Kolb to dig deeper into the crushing weight of legacy and tradition.
“Rural Texas is as much a character as these three women who are redefining the patriarchal power dynamic, not by choice but by necessity,” said Kolb. “This fiery, bloody, dirty and yes, violent part of the female story is rooted in the natural world in Texas. Telling this story now, I hope, puts a face to the survivors and lays rest the vanishing patriarchal bogeyman.”
Good Ol Girl
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Good Ol Girl[/caption]
Not all of the women of the mythological West slip easily into the princess fantasy of Pocahontas or the unnamed martyr “Pioneer Woman” labels so often prescribed them. In Filmmaker Sarah Brennan Kolb’s genre busting documentary, three women of the “New West” reshape the Western Canon with their stories. Crosscutting cinéma vérité techniques with archival material from 1930‘s and ‘40’s B-movie Westerns as well as academic commentary from famed-author Joyce Gibson Roach, Kolb questions “Who has the authority to claim the (often) oppressive traditions when only those who have been oppressed are left to carry them on?”
Yona Rozenkier, The Dive
Filmmaker Yona Rozenkier brings extraordinary authority to his debut narrative feature film, The Dive. As the son of a Christian kibbutz volunteer from Switzerland and a French Holocaust survivor, Rozenkier worked as a farmer on his kibbutz until he was 27, before starting film school.
Awaiting recruitment into the Second Lebanon War, three of the Rozenkier brothers spent one last memorable weekend on their quiet kibbutz, celebrating their lives before going off to yet another war. It was this weekend that would inspire Yona Rozenkier to make his first film and two of his brothers would be recruited once again, this time to each play a version of himself on screen along with Yona in a story about brothers, love and the constant, daily training for war.
“We have a lot of “sacred cows” in Israel,” said Rozenkier. “We may believe we are pacifists, but when we are called up for the next war and the next war and the next, we grab our guns and go. Our people become a tool in the hands of our leadership in Israel, the same way our masculinity can become toxic because of the military. I believe sometimes you have to put family before country, but that is a radical concept for some here. And I wonder if my uniquely Israeli experience translates outside of Israel?”
The Dive
Two brothers struggle between love and duty as their little brother tries to prepare for his first military call to duty. Middle brother Yoav, an ex-officer who has retreated back to his kibbutz, mentally exhausted under the weight of PTSD, is at odds with his still-serving older brother, Itay, who is the reincarnation of their late father and evokes a strong sense of duty and obligation to country. When war breaks out, as it inevitably does in Israel, and little brother Avishay reveals he is conflicted about being called up, the two older brothers deep disconnect explodes: Yoav wants Avishay to understand he can refuse to go, but Itay insists Avishay needs to “man-up” and do what’s right. Almost immediately, Avishay becomes the battlefield on which Yoav and Italy fight out their own emotional war. As Yoav tries desperately to save his brothers, he faces the harsh reality where violence becomes his only option to ending violence, but will he become that which he decries? Limor Shmila, Hanging One of Israel’s leading casting directors (Sand Storm, Elite Zexer; Big Bad Wolves, Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado; Esau, Pavel Lungin), Limor Shmila debuted her first feature film as director, Montana, at the Toronto Int’l Film Festival (TIFF) 2017 to rave reviews. Her second feature, Hanging, is a dramatic continuation of Shmila’s cinematic exploration of identity, intimacy, and the power dynamic. “I’m really curious as to how people internationally will react to this couple as parents, as well as how they will emotionally connect and if it speaks to them as couples themselves.” said Shmila. “I’m always searching for stories that speak to the relationships in which we bind ourselves – in my very religious upbringing, there was always a conflict between the man and the woman. I saw that men always wanted to put women under them; be powerful over them. It’s why it was so important to me that this is Tamara’s story, that she is on top.”Hanging
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Hanging[/caption]
Tamara is a successful young power broker and a brand new mother to her daughter, Dana. Living an all-consuming lifestyle, Tamara has nearly forgotten she is also a wife, and by definition a lover, to Uri, a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force. When Uri forces the issue and tries to re-conquer his wife, Tamara’s instinctual release of physical force excites them both. Soon they are have turned their extra room into their “game room” and slap by slap build a safe space for sexual escapism that both excites and releases their inner demons. But Tamara has other demands on her body, trying to hold onto breastfeeding Dana as long as possible while also putting in impossible hours at work. The pressure is overwhelming and quickly Tamara’s tenuous façade begins shattering with grave repercussions.
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2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival to Showcase 15 Films – 12 Directed by Women, Opens with ON HER SHOULDERS
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Nadia Murad and Murad Ismael appear in On Her Shoulders by Alexandria Bombach.[/caption]
This year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival will showcase 15 timely and provocative documentary and narrative works, screening June 14 to 21, 2018 in New York City. In a year when women collectively raised their voices against discrimination and abuse, Human Rights Watch will present films offering incisive perspectives and critical insights on human rights issues impacting people around the world. Twelve of the 15 films are directed or co-directed by women.
Now in its 29th edition, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center. All screenings will be followed by in-depth Q&A sessions with filmmakers, film subjects, Human Rights Watch researchers, and special guests.
“This year’s festival focuses on strong women who take great risks to push back against powerful forces within their respective societies. And, at a time when the use of personal data by institutions is front-page news, this year’s program explores governmental and corporate regulation of information, and how, by burying the truth and creating their own narratives, these gatekeepers are uniquely positioned to abuse their power and control the populace. ”
“In a year when women have spoken out against abuse, harassment and oppression, the festival highlights the outstanding work of women filmmakers telling epic stories of women fighting injustice with resilience and courage.” said John Biaggi, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival creative director. “The festival will also probe the headline-breaking questions of corporate and government control of information at a time when the use of personal data has outrun the limits of the law and ethics.”
The Opening Night documentary On Her Shoulders introduces Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi survivor of atrocities by ISIS who makes it her life’s mission to fight for justice and freedom for her people.
Two documentaries highlight women’s rights in Afghanistan. A Thousand Girls Like Me follows a young mother seeking justice from a legal system designed to criminalize sexual abuse survivors like her. Facing the Dragon (winner of the festival’s Nestor Almendros Award) profiles two intrepid Afghan women — a member of parliament and a journalist — who risk the safety of their families to bring change and accountability to their country.
Naila and the Uprising features courageous Palestinian women activists who played a pivotal role in the First Intifada, and in Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, five resilient women find creative ways to defend their fellow citizens, their families, and their own lives amid the national crisis that has enveloped their country.
In the profoundly moving and poetic Angkar, a filmmaker traces her father’s journey home to Cambodia to seek out his Khmer Rouge persecutors while confronting his country’s collective amnesia regarding their horrifying past. In The Silence of Others, survivors of the Franco dictatorship’s crimes against humanity refuse to relent in their pursuit of justice, despite Spain’s “pact of forgetting,” which has denied Franco’s victims legal recourse. The Cleaners reveals a murky world of digital “cleaning,” in which giant social media companies employ workers to delete Internet content deemed inappropriate, raising essential questions over Internet control and the life-threatening impact of erasing entire resistance movements from the world’s gaze.
As always, the festival features critical human rights issues in the U.S., this year with three timely films. Charm City moves between community members, police and local officials during a period of heightened violence in Baltimore, exposing layers of disconnect and distrust that need to be addressed to move their city forward. TransMilitary focuses on the largest employer of transgender people in the country – the U.S. military – and the efforts of four brave people as they come forward to demand much-needed change. The Closing Night film, The Unafraid, introduces three high school students in Georgia, banned by the state from attending top state universities due to their unauthorized immigration status, and their passionate fight to pursue their dreams of higher education.
2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Film Lineup
Opening Night Film and Reception* On Her Shoulders Alexandria Bombach, 2018, 94 min., Arabic, English, Kurdish Nadia Murad is a 23-year-old lifeline to the Yezidi community. A survivor of the 2014 atrocities against the Yezidi in northern Iraq, Nadia escaped sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and witnessed the murder of those closest to her. With the love of her people propelling her forward, Nadia is determined to turn her pain into international action. She now shoulders immense burdens as a key public figure whose supporters are pushing her further into the spotlight – from testifying at the United Nations Security Council and having endless meetings with government officials to giving soul-baring media interviews and emotionally draining speeches. On Her Shoulders tells the story of a multi-layered and selfless activist who once dreamed of opening a beauty salon in her village as she becomes an essential voice in the fight to bring ISIS to justice and save her people from extinction. New York Premiere “This moving film highlights the journey for justice, and how elusive it has been and continues to be for Yezidis, despite the world acknowledging their suffering.” – Rothna Begum, Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch US Documentary Directing Award, Sundance Film Festival 2018. Opening in theaters this October from Oscilloscope Laboratories. Closing Night Film The Unafraid Anayansi Prado and Heather Courtney, 2018, 85 min., English, Spanish “We have years of activism under our belts. Now we just fight harder, we fight smarter, and we fight as one.” – Alejandro, film subject, The Unafraid High School seniors Alejandro, Silvia and Aldo, like most of their friends, are eager to go to college and pursue their education. However, their home state of Georgia not only bans them from attending the top five public universities, but also deems them ineligible for in-state tuition at public colleges due to their immigration status as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. In response, these three ambitious and dream-filled students divert their passions toward the fight for education in the undocumented community. As President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric against immigrants gains momentum, and with the three students under constant threat of losing their DACA status and being deported, The Unafraid follows these inspirational members of the generation of “undocumented, unapologetic and unafraid” young people who are determined to overcome and dismantle oppressive policies and mindsets. New York Premiere A Thousand Girls Like Me Sahra Mani, 2018, 76 min., Farsi “Every woman in this country has a hundred owners. Fathers, brothers, uncles, neighbors: They all believe they have the right to speak on our behalf and make decisions for us. That’s why our stories are never heard, but buried with us.” – Sahra Mani, director, A Thousand Girls Like Me When Khatera, a 23-year-old Afghan woman, forces her father to stand trial after a lifetime of sexual abuse, she risks her family, freedom and personal safety to expose a judicial system that incriminates the very women who seek protection. In a country where the systematic abuse of girls is rarely discussed, Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani presents an awe-inspiring story of one woman’s battle against cultural, familial and legal pressures as she embarks on a mission to set a positive example for her daughter and other girls like her. U.S. Premiere Angkar Neary Adeline Hay, 2018, 71 min., French, Khmer “We called it the Angkar, ‘The Organization’ in Khmer. The nebulous wielder of power. Something shapeless, without a head, without a face. Angkar made the rules. Angkar had eyes everywhere.” – Khonsaly Hay, film subject, Angkar Khonsaly Hay returns to his lush, serene village in Cambodia after over 40 years living in France and comes face-to-face with his former Khmer Rouge persecutors. Pol Pot’s regime of extreme violence and torture between 1975-1979 turned neighbor against neighbor and resulted in the deaths of nearly 2 million people. Decades later, survivors find themselves living next door to the very people responsible for their suffering. In this beautifully personal and artfully crafted testimony of survival, Khonsaly travels the country, confronting his past and seeking what remains of the family and friends he was forced to leave behind. Directed by Khonsaly’s daughter, Neary Adeline Hay, this deeply immersive film juxtaposes past and present to tenderly reveal unreconciled traumas haunting Cambodians today. New York Premiere Anote’s Ark Matthieu Rytz, 2018, 77 min., English, Kiribati “I want to emphasize that climate change is not a political issue. It’s not entirely an economic issue. It’s an issue of survival. Maybe today for countries like mine. But in the future, for the planet as a whole.” – Anote Tong, film subject, Anote’s Ark What if your country was swallowed by the sea? The idyllic Pacific nation of Kiribati will be submerged within decades due to climate change. As President Anote Tong passionately embarks upon a race against time to save his people and 4,000 years of Kiribati culture, islanders are already feeling the pressure to relocate. Sermary, a young mother of six, must decide whether to use a sought-after lottery visa and leave her children behind to build a future for her family overseas. Set against the backdrop of international climate negotiations and the fight to recognize climate displacement as an urgent human rights issue, Anote’s Ark presents personal stories that serve as cautionary tales for the entire world. New York Premiere Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2018 Charm City Marilyn Ness, 2018, 106 min., English During three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore, Maryland, award-winning filmmaker Marilyn Ness takes viewers beyond the headlines and into the lives of community members, police and government officials as they attempt to reclaim the future of their city. A young City Councilman, Brandon Scott, calls for diverting funds from policing to programs that build opportunities and combat poverty. A Senior community leader, “Mr. C,” and his colleague Alex Long spend their days in the streets working with youth to provide a positive environment and safety. Charm City speaks to a nationwide crisis, where the grit and compassion of citizens offer humanity as a way forward. “This film is extremely well made. It asks, rather than answers, questions, and doesn’t tell the viewer how to think.” – John Raphling, Senior Researcher, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch The Cleaners Hans Block and Moritz Riesewiek, 2018, 88 min., English, Tagalog “The companies have more and more power … They take advantage of our desire for ease, our resistance to effort, our resistance to challenge, and I think, over time, if we’re not already there, it will interfere with our ability to have critical thinking.” – David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, film subject, The Cleaners Who controls what you see on the internet? Welcome to a hidden industry of digital cleaning where content determined as inappropriate is deleted from the internet. This fascinating documentary follows five “cleaners” in the Philippines whom social media giants, including Facebook and Twitter, hire to undertake the highly sensitive work of viewing and removing millions of images and videos from online platforms every day. Exposing the extreme and often life-threatening impact of censorship capable of disappearing entire conversations, perspectives and events from world view, The Cleaners expertly reveals the impact on critics of the U.S. president, activists in Turkey and the Rohingya in Myanmar from Silicon Valley’s control over free speech. New York Premiere Please be advised this film contains material that may be disturbing to some viewers. Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2018 The Distant Barking of Dogs Simon Lereng Wilmont, 2017, 90 min., Ukrainian This film is fully subtitled and ASL interpretation will be provided for the Q&A. “We have days of silence. But they are so deadly – even worse than explosions. It’s the lull before the storm.” – Grandmother Alexandra, film subject, The Distant Barking of Dogs The life of a 10-year-old child includes a healthy dose of curiosity and adventure. But the days of Oleg, who lives in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine – just minutes from where Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces are at war – are often interrupted by echoes of anti-aircraft fire and missile strikes. Oleg and his cousin Yarik are young boys whose play fights and restlessness often lead them toward dangerous discoveries. But, as this touching and intimate film evolves, it bears witness to the unique pressures that come with living adjacent to a war zone, and the gradual erosion of innocence under intense psychological burdens. As the world shakes around Oleg and Yarik, the beauty of childhood friendship becomes ever more important for survival. New York Premiere First Appearance Award, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2017 Facing the Dragon Sedika Mojadidi, 2018, 80 min., Dari “We have a responsibility to speak on behalf of every woman, from the remote mountains of Pamir to Nuristan. Advocating for women’s rights should not be a political game.” – Dr. Nilofar Ibrahimi, film subject, Facing the Dragon As the U.S. withdraws forces and aid from Afghanistan, the Taliban are regaining their hold and the stability of the country’s fragile democracy is unclear. Afghan-American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi joins two awe-inspiring women on the front lines: Nilofar, a successful doctor-turned-member of parliament, driven in her mission to secure peace and well-being for women; and Shakila, a top investigative journalist committed to exposing the truth about what is happening in her troubled country. Under increasing threats of violence, these two women are soon forced to choose between their sense of duty and love for Afghanistan, and the safety of their families. New York Premiere Winner of the 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Nestor Almendros award for courage in filmmaking. Naila and the Uprising Julia Bacha, 2017, 76 min., Arabic, English, Hebrew, French “We can’t be free as women unless we’re in a free country. And even if we are free of the occupation, we can’t know freedom as long as we are subjugated in our own society.” – Sama Aweidah, film subject, Naila and the Uprising When an uprising breaks out in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1987, a young woman in Gaza must make a choice between love and family and freedom. Naila and the Uprising chronicles the remarkable real-life journey of Naila Ayesh, a key figure in the First Intifada, which forced the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination. Using evocative animation, intimate interviews, and exclusive archival footage, this film tells the story the mainstream media missed: of a courageous women’s movement at the head of Palestinians’ struggle for freedom, bringing out of anonymity the bold women activists whose contributions and sacrifices changed history, but whose stories have remained untold until now. The Silence of Others Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, 2018, 96 min., Spanish A 1977 amnesty law in Spain known as “the pact of forgetting” prohibits legal action related to the oppression, torture and murder of an estimated 100,000 people during Franco’s 40-year dictatorship. But for much of the population – including the survivor who passes his torturer’s home every day on the way to market, the children of forcibly disappeared parents found buried in mass graves, and parents still searching for their children seized at birth and handed to Franco’s allies – there is no peace in silence. Taking strength and inspiration from justice-seekers in Chile and Guatemala, the characters in The Silence of Others fight an urgent battle to get recognition and admissions of guilt against state-imposed amnesia. From award-winning directors and Executive Producer Pedro Almodovar comes a powerful film about a country still divided four decades into democracy. New York Premiere “The film shows why victims need justice, even decades after the crimes, and why forgetting simply isn’t an option.” – Param-Preet Singh, Associate Director, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary and Peace Film Prize winner, Berlin International Film Festival 2018 TransMilitary Gabriel Silverman and Co-director Fiona Dawson, 2018, 92 min., English “It is our time now to step forward and say, ‘OK, it’s not about what gender I am, it’s about if I can get the job done. And we for years have shown that, so why not acknowledge us?’” – Laila Villanueva, film subject, TransMilitary The military is the largest employer of transgender people in the United States. Amid rapidly changing policies that technically bans them from serving, 15,500 troops identify as transgender. TransMilitary documents four brave men and women who risk their families’ livelihoods by coming out to the Pentagon’s top brass in the hope of attaining the equal right to serve. With a new commander-in-chief at the helm, they must traverse a series of successes and defeats, as their careers hang in the balance. New York Premiere Audience Award for Documentary, South by Southwest Film Festival 2018 Voices of the Sea Kim Hopkins, 2018, 99 min., Spanish “‘For the humble, by the humble.’ … That was the goal. But the humble don’t have access to anything that other people have. It will improve for those on top. And for us down here it will be the same or worse.” – Mariela Mora Quintana, film subject, Voices of the Sea In this tiny, remote Cuban fishing village, Mariela, a mother of four young children, longs for a better life. The families in her village are utterly dependent on the day’s catch, which changes with the tide. The shops are empty, school is repeatedly shut down due to a lack of resources, and basic transportation is non-existent. With the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba in flux, Mariela, like many Cubans, is afraid that her only chance to escape to the U.S. will soon close. Her husband, Pita, loves his community, cherishes his friendships, and is loyal to his craft as a fisherman. The tension between husband and wife — one desperate to leave, the other content to stay — increases after her brother and neighbors flee the country, risking their lives to chase the American Dream. New York Premiere What Will People Say? Iram Haq, 2017, 106 min., Norwegian, Urdu Sixteen-year-old Nisha lives a double life. At home with her conservative Pakistani family, she is the perfect, compliant daughter. But when out with her friends, she is a typical Norwegian teenager – partying and exploring relationships. When her father discovers her deception, Nisha’s two worlds brutally collide. Trapped between countries and perceptions of honor, Nisha is forced to find her own way in life. This gripping and powerfully acted drama from Norwegian-Pakistani filmmaker Iram Haq untangles the complex relationship between a father and daughter and presents an empathetic perspective on family, community and culture. New York Premiere “This film powerfully highlights some of the abuses Pakistani women and girls face, which include forced marriage, barriers to education, and violence, including in the name of family ‘honor,’ which all too frequently goes unpunished.” – Heather Barr, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival 2017 Women of the Venezuelan Chaos Margarita Cadenas, 2017, 83 min., Spanish This film is fully subtitled and ASL interpretation will be provided for the Q&A Embodying strength and stoicism, five Venezuelan women from diverse backgrounds each draw a portrait of their country as it suffers under the worst crisis in its history amid extreme food and medicine shortages, a broken justice system, and widespread fear. The women share what life is really like for them and their families while the government repeatedly denies the country’s difficulties. Featuring stunning visuals and creative soundscapes, Women of the Venezuelan Chaos presents a uniquely beautiful country and people, who remain resilient and resourceful despite the immense challenges they face. New York Premiere “This is one of the best films I have seen on Venezuela. It is extraordinary, very accurate, very balanced, moving, powerful. It delves into all the issues Human Rights Watch covers in Venezuela: the humanitarian crisis, lack of medicines and food, exile, police abuses, lack of justice, impunity, abuse of power, violence.” – José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch
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Felicity Jones, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Patrick Stewart, Freddie Highmore Cast in Animated Family Adventure DRAGON RIDER
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Felicity Jones[/caption]
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Maze Runner, Love Actually), Patrick Stewart (Logan, Star Trek) and Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, “The Good Doctor”) will join Tomer Eshed’s Dragon Rider alongside Meera Syal (Doctor Strange), Sanjeev Bhaskar (Absolutely Anything) and Nonso Anozie (Cinderella). Based on Cornelia Funke’s bestselling novel of the same name, the animated family adventure will be produced by Constantin Film’s Martin Moszkowicz and Oliver Berben together with the co-producers Cyborn and RiseFX along with the team of Lumatic. Timeless Films is handling worldwide sales.
Written by Johnny Smith (Gnomeo & Juliet), Dragon Rider trails an unlikely trio of heroes – young silver dragon Firedrake (Brodie-Sangster), Sorrel (Jones) the mountain brownie and a boy called Ben (Highmore) – as they embark on an epic adventure and battle against a vicious, dragon-killing machine called Nettlebrand (Stewart) to find the ‘Rim of Heaven’.
“Felicity, Thomas, Patrick, Freddie, Meera, Sanjeev and Nonso, are extraordinary actors whose unique voices will bring to life our wonderful animated characters. Director Tomer Eshed is creating an amazing visual world full of dragons and magical creatures and we’re delighted to be re-uniting with Constantin Film, a production and distribution powerhouse to deliver another hit animated, family film to buyers” said Timeless Films Chairman and CEO, Ralph Kamp.
Constantin Film CEO Martin Moszkowicz commented: “I am thrilled to see so many great artists joining Tomer Eshed and his creative team for the next outstanding animated family film event from Constantin Film.”
Timeless Films has already sealed a raft of deals worldwide on Dragon Rider and is continuing sales heading into Cannes. The film is due to be delivered Fall 2019.
Jones received a best actress Oscar® nomination for her work in The Theory of Everything and starred as Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and in Inferno opposite Tom Hanks. She most recently wrapped production on Mimi Leder’s On The Basis of Sex. She stars next in The Aeronauts for Amazon Studios and is attached to Universal’s upcoming Swan Lake adaptation.
Brodie-Sangster is best known for his role as Sam in Love Actually and his lead roles in hit films Nanny McPhee, The Maze Runner series, “Godless” US TV Series (Netflix) and “Game of Thrones” US Drama Series (HBO). He has previously leant his voice to “Thunderbirds Are Go” alongside Rosamund Pike and as Ferb Fletcher in Disney’s “Phineas and Ferb”.
Stewart is best known for his roles as Professor Xavier in the X-Men films and Captain Picard in seven seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. He has previously leant his voice in TBS’ “American Dad!”.
Highmore received a best actor Golden Globe nomination for his work in ABC’s “The Good Doctor” and has starred in Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and “Bates Motel”.
Syal received a BAFTA® nomination for her work in “The Kumars at No. 42” and has appeared in countless film and television projects including Paddington 2, “Riviera”, “Doctor Strange” and “Doctor Who”. She most recently wrapped production on Disney’s Patrick.
Bhaskar received a BAFTA® nomination, A Peabody and Two International EMMYs for “The Kumars At No 42”, a series he created, wrote and starred in and has appeared in Paddington 2, Arthur Christmas and Absolutely Anything opposite Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale.
Anozie has appeared in Liam Neeson starrer The Grey, Cinderella and Conan the Barbarian and is currently in production on Disney’s long-awaited Artemis Fowl opposite Judi Dench.
Timeless Films most recently distributed Monster Family and Rock Dog from Academy Award® winning writer/director Ash Brannon. Previous titles have included Dennis Gansel’s Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, which Warner Brothers released in Germany over the Easter Weekend.
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TORMENTS OF LOVE Win Top Prizes at 21st Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
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Tourments d’amour / Torments of Love[/caption]
The 21st Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (CLAIFF21) concluded on Sunday, May 6th with announcements of the winners, presented by festival director Jean Anne Lauer. The evening’s ceremony was followed by a screening of the closing night film Kayak to Klemtu (Canada), with writer and director Zoe Hopkins in attendance.
“This year’s closing night celebrated 21 years of Cine Las Americas in the company of many returning fans and supporters, as well as with attendees who were joining us for the first time – which is everything any festival team hopes for” stated Lauer. “We opened the festival with a life-affirming journey from South America to Europe, and ended it with a kayak adventure along the west coast of Canada, and throughout the week we enjoyed hearing audience responses to those films and every one they viewed in between.”
21st CINE LAS AMERICAS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
Narrative Feature Competition (for a 1st or 2nd Feature)
Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature TOURMENTS D’AMOUR (TORMENTS OF LOVE) Dir. Caroline Jules, France/Guadeloupe/French West Indies Statement from the Jury: “Caroline Jules’ poetic use of camera evokes all your senses, and in an instant makes you feel the lingering pain of your inner child. It explores the complexity of father-child relationships and invites the audience to be empathetic with those who struggle with connecting with their family. It shows the pain and reality of unresolved family problems.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-IGj1K2xXE Audience Award for Narrative Feature TOURMENTS D’AMOUR (TORMENTS OF LOVE) Dir. Caroline Jules, France/Guadeloupe/French West Indies InkTip Award As part of the narrative feature prize package, Caroline Jules, director of TOURMENTS D’AMOUR (TORMENTS OF LOVE) will be offered an InkTip Script Listing. InkTip Script Listings provide writers/filmmakers with the opportunity to get their scripts read by InkTip’s extensive network of producers, reps, managers, agents, and other qualified industry professionals.Documentary Feature Competition
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature NADA QUEDA SINO NUESTRA TERNURA (NOTHING IS LEFT BUT OUR TENDERNESS) Dir. Sébastien Jallade, Peru Statement from the Jury: “NADA QUEDA SINO NUESTRA TERNURA (NOTHING IS LEFT BUT OUR TENDERNESS) opens the doors to the lives of families who suffer the horrors of war and who sing songs of forgetting. Just as we see a bridge being built out of clay, director Sébastien Jallade crafts the story so that we walk next to the souls of these people. Through gorgeous composition of shots the viewer experiences the literal and lyrical bridge as a catharsis, opening our eyes to the global issue of displacement.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMmnSxEf9Os Audience Award for Documentary Feature MY BOLIVIA, REMEMBERING WHAT I NEVER KNEW Dir. Rick Tejada-Flores, USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz3zbk9nw8QNarrative Short Film Competition
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short LA HORA DE LA MERIENDA (TEATIME) Dir. Alba González de Molina, SpainDocumentary Short Competition
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short SIGO ACÁ (I’M STILL HERE) Dir. Tana Gilbert, ChileHecho en Tejas Competition
Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) Award HAKLA (STAMMER) Dir. Tania Romero, USA Statement from the Jury: “The films of the Hecho en Tejas Showcase were absolutely brilliant, beautiful and left me wanting to see more. It was incredibly difficult to select only one winner but I am happy to announce that HAKLA (STAMMER) ultimately won my heart. I enjoyed the relationships between Ish, his father and late mother, Ish’s determination to pursue and continue dancing through heartbreak, and most especially the salsa-bollywood fusion dance that I felt was so unique and super cool. It looked like it was a fun film to make. Congratulations!” Hecho en Tejas Audience Award A STRIKE AND AN UPRISING (IN TEXAS) Dir. Anne Lewis, USAMusic Video Competition
Audience Award for Best Music Video NO REGRESO Dir. Hugo Rubiano, USA/ColombiaEmergencia Youth Film Competition
Audience Award for Best Youth Film FIND A WAY Dirs. Akil Carrillo, Ellie Aronica BAYCAT, San Francisco, CA, USA
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17 Italian Films on Lineup for 18th Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, Opens with SICILIAN GHOST
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Sicilian Ghost Story[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà announced the complete lineup of contemporary Italian films for the 18th edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, May 31 to June 6, 2018.
The Opening Night selection is Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s second feature, Sicilian Ghost Story, a transfixing blend of realism and mythology based on the true events of a missing young boy, which won the David di Donatello award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This year’s edition showcases 16 additional titles, including the premiere of Boys Cry, a gritty gangster genre debut by the D’Innocenzo brothers; Roberto De Paolis’s feature debut about youthful self-discovery, Pure Hearts; Sergio Castellitto’s emotionally raw Fortunata, featuring legendary Rainer Werner Fassbinder leading lady Hanna Schygulla and Jasmine Trinca, who won the Un Certain Regard Best Actress prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival; and three works by returning Open Roads filmmakers: Marco Tullio Giordana’s Nome di donna, Ferzan Ozpetek’s Naples in Veils, and Vincenzo Marra’s Equilibrium.
Open Roads will also present Rainbow: A Private Affair, the latest and final film by legendary filmmakers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Vittorio sadly passed away this April at age 88), paired with a special screening of their classic Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner, The Night of the Shooting Stars; as well as the new digital restoration of iconoclast Marco Ferrari’s The Ape Woman, screening with Anselma Dell’Olio’s new documentary about the provocateur, Marco Ferreri: Dangerous but Necessary.
All screenings take place at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street) in New York City.
2018Open Roads: New Italian Cinema
Opening Night Sicilian Ghost Story Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza, Italy, 2017, 120m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere Winner of the David di Donatello award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s spellbinding follow-up to their acclaimed 2013 drama Salvo is by turns fantastic and ripped-from-the-headlines. One day after school, 12-year-old Luna (Julia Jedlikowska) follows her classmate crush Giuseppe (Gaetano Fernandez) into a possibly enchanted forest—and, just like that, he vanishes. Was he kidnapped by the Mafia, for whom his father used to work as an assassin before he turned informant? Grassadonia and Piazza’s film, based on true events, renders Luna’s quest for the truth as a transfixing blend of realism and mythology. The Ape Woman / La donna scimmia Marco Ferreri, Italy/France, 1964, 100m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere “One of Marco Ferreri’s earliest and most beloved films, The Ape Woman is inspired by the true story of 19th-century carnival performer Julia Pastrana. Annie Girardot gives a signature performance as “Marie the Ape Woman,” an ex-nun whose body is completely covered in black hair. She is discovered at a convent by sleazy entrepreneur Focaccia (Ugo Tognazzi), who marries her and swiftly gets her on the freak show circuit to cash in on her distinctive appearance. A freewheeling satire both hilarious and grotesque, The Ape Woman is distinguished by the irreverent wit and anarchic energy of Ferreri’s greatest work. New digital restoration! Beautiful Things Giorgio Ferrero & Federico Biasin, Italy/Switzerland/USA, 2017, 94m North American Premiere This wildly ambitious documentary follows four men who work in isolation at remote scientific and industrial sites around the world. Like monks, they carry out their daily tasks in silence and solitude, creating products soon to enter the capitalist cycle of production, consumption, and destruction. A ravishingly beautiful audiovisual experience, Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin’s debut feature is a transfixing work about the origins of consumer society imbued with a musical sense of rhythm (Ferrero is also a composer and sound editor) and a wealth of aesthetic ideas about the way we live now. Boys Cry / La terra dell’abbastanza Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo, Italy, 2018, 96m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere The D’Innocenzo brothers reinvigorate the gangster genre with their gritty, surprising debut feature, set on the outskirts of Rome. Best friends and aspiring restaurateurs Manolo (Andrea Carpenzano) and Mirko (Matteo Olivetti) kill a pedestrian in a car accident, kicking off a series of events that enmesh them with the local crime syndicate and push their mutual allegiance to the breaking point. Smart, stylish, and muscular, this critical hit at the 2018 Berlinale announces the D’Innocenzos as formidable and film-savvy new voices in Italian cinema. Crater / Il cratere Silvia Luzi & Luca Bellino, Italy, 2017, 93m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere Documentarians Luzi and Bellino’s fiction debut stars Rosario and Sharon Caroccia (playing versions of themselves) as a carnival worker and his ostensibly unambitious daughter. He dreams she’ll hit it big as a pop singer, but when Sharon loses interest in pursuing this potentially lucrative profession, tensions build between the two. Luzi and Bellino summon their nonfiction filmmaking background to lend naturalism and spontaneity to this tale of helicopter-parenting that consciously recalls Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima. Crater is a moving parable about the gulf that exists between our desires and those of the people closest to us. Diva! Francesco Patierno, Italy, 2017, 75m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere Valentina Cortese starred in films by such masters as Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and François Truffaut (she was nominated for an Oscar for her turn as an over-the-hill, hard-drinking thespian in the latter’s Day for Night). In this inventive work of cinematic biography, eight actresses play Cortese at various stages of her career, amidst a kaleidoscopic wealth of film clips and archival footage. In a work that is by turns glamorous, celebratory, and soberly confessional, “Cortese” often addresses the viewer directly, yielding a direct and engaging portrait of an actress whose offscreen complexity often exceeded the roles she memorably incarnated. Equilibrium / L’equilibrio Vincenzo Marra, Italy, 2017, 90m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere The director of Vento di terra returns to Open Roads with this realist parable about faith and crime in Campania. After Roman priest Don Giuseppe (Mimmo Borrelli) begins developing an attraction to an employee of the refugee center where he works, he requests a transfer, settling just north of Naples. There, he finds himself in conflict with the Camorra when he tries to intervene in the local industrial-waste crisis, their nefarious tactics putting the priest’s spiritual resolve to the test. Working with a mix of professionals and non-actors, Marra renders a scrappy, moving drama about the antagonism between religious belief and the modern world. Look Up / Guarda in alto Fulvio Risuleo, Italy/France, 2017, 90m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere While taking a cigarette break on a rooftop in Rome, a young baker (Giacomo Ferrara) notices a curious fowl plummeting from the sky. He crosses from one rooftop to the next to get a closer look, and what he discovers is the beginning of a journey down an urban rabbit hole of incredible situations and bizarre characters (including one played by a delightfully off-kilter Lou Castel). Documentary filmmaker Fulvio Risuleo’s fiction debut is an odd bird indeed, an unpredictable and imaginative twist on the road movie that evokes Alice in Wonderland and recalls the early work of Michel Gondry. Fortunata Sergio Castellitto, Italy, 2017, 103m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere Jasmine Trinca plays the ironically named Fortunata, a young mother and hairdresser living in Rome whose ambitions are constantly thwarted by inept, needy friends and family baggage. Awaiting a divorce from her soon-to-be-ex-husband and dealing with the resultant issues her 8-year-old daughter has developed, Fortunata begins taking her daughter to a handsome child therapist (Stefano Accorsi), with whom she has immediate chemistry. Also featuring legendary German actress Hanna Schygulla, Fortunata is an emotionally raw melodrama anchored by Trinca’s powerhouse performance, which earned her the Best Actress prize in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Marco Ferreri: Dangerous but Necessary / La lucida follia di Marco Ferreri Anselma Dell’Olio, Italy, 2017, 77m Italian and French with English subtitles North American Premiere Marco Ferreri: Dangerous but Necessary is a complex, multilayered portrait that seeks to give an underappreciated iconoclast his due. Directed by journalist-critic (and former Ferreri collaborator) Anselma Dell’Olio, the film draws upon interviews with such performers as Isabelle Huppert, Roberto Benigni, Hanna Schygulla, and Ornella Muti, as well as cinematic luminaries like Philippe Sarde and Dante Ferretti, to make the case for Ferreri as a figure who belongs on the same historical wavelength as such artistic revolutionaries as Godard, Fassbinder, and Buñuel. This fast-paced documentary’s enthusiasm for its legendarily provocative subject is positively infectious. Nome di donna Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy, 2018, 90m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere A woman courageously tries to break the silence in a culture of complicity surrounding sexual harassment in this all-too-timely film from Open Roads veteran Marco Tullio Giordana. Nina (Cristiana Capotondi) is a single mother who takes a job at a home for the elderly in Lombardy, where the inappropriate verbal treatment of her new manager (Bebo Storti) turns into outright assault. Nina’s quest to seek justice brings her face to face with the cultural and institutional mechanisms that allowed for the harassment in the first place. Ultimately, Nina is one of the most multidimensional and inspiring protagonists in recent Italian cinema. Naples in Veils / Napoli velata Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy, 2017, 113m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere In this moody, baroque thriller from Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek, Giovanna Mezzogiorno stars as Adriana, a medical examiner who meets cute with younger man Andrea (Alessandro Borghi) during a party at her eccentric aunt’s garish apartment. They hit it off immediately, though their romance is curtailed when Andrea later stands her up. While inspecting a corpse at work, Adriana notices a distinctive tattoo that reminds her of Andrea’s—at least as she remembers it. So begins a gripping metaphysical murder mystery, in which Naples becomes a shadowy, mysterious labyrinth of desire and memory. The Night of the Shooting Stars / La Notte di San Lorenzo Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, Italy, 1982, 35mm, 105m Italian with English subtitles The Taviani brothers’ crowning achievement and winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize, The Night of the Shooting Stars remains one of world cinema’s great war films. The story of a group of Italians in Tuscany fleeing the Nazis, who intend to bomb their small town before it can be liberated by the Americans, this is an enthralling chronicle of everyday people refusing to sit back and wait for history to redeem them, instead seeking their own salvation. This tonally eclectic, humanistic masterwork affectingly melds comedy, tragedy, and melodrama to convey the resilience of the Italian people during the war’s darkest hours. The Place Paolo Genovese, Italy, 2017, 105m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere An enigmatic, nameless man (Valerio Mastandrea) sits in the corner of a bar, receiving visitor after visitor. They tell him of their profoundest wishes and desires, and he assures them they can have exactly what they want . . . but there will be a price, and the extreme deeds they must perform will lead them to question who they are and to what lengths they will go. An elegant reworking of the American television series The Booth at the End, this gripping, minimalist moral thriller boasts an all-star cast that includes Alba Rohrwacher, Silvio Muccino, and Rocco Papaleo. Pure Hearts / Cuori puri Roberto De Paolis, Italy, 2017, 114m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere An impeccably acted drama about youthful self-discovery, De Paolis’s feature debut is a fresh take on the “opposites attract” tale, set on the outskirts of Rome. Seventeen-year-old Agnese (Barbora Bobulova) plans to take a vow of chastity to appease her intensely devout mother, but then she encounters 25-year-old parking lot attendant Stefano (Simone Liberati) while shoplifting a cell phone. Stefano represents for Agnese an alternative way of being in the world beyond the strictures of the church, from which she feels increasingly alienated. Partly improvised and deftly filmed by DP Claudio Cofrancesco, Pure Hearts marks an auspicious debut for De Paolis. Rainbow: A Private Affair / Una questione privata Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, Italy, 2017, 85m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere Few filmmakers have better embodied Italian cinema over the past 50 years than the Taviani brothers. Their latest and final film together (Vittorio died in April) is an elegant tale of young love caught in the whirlwind of war, loosely adapted from a book by Beppe Fenoglio. Set near Turin in 1944, Rainbow follows student Milton (Luca Marinelli) and his friend Giorgio (Lorenzo Richelmy), who both love the same woman (Valentina Belle). Their friendship is put to the ultimate test against a backdrop of violent struggle after the two men are swept up in the anti-fascist movement. A sensitive, atmospheric film about the connection between the personal and the global, this is an essential capstone to the Tavianis’ vital oeuvre. Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World / Amori che non sanno stare al mondo Francesca Comencini, Italy, 2017, 92m Italian with English subtitles New York Premiere Francesca Comencini adapts her own novel for this intelligent, intensely felt romantic comedy. Academics Claudia (Lucia Mascino) and Flavio (Thomas Trabacchi) have been a couple for seven years, but their physically and intellectually passionate relationship seems to have reached an impasse, and neither of them understands why. As a result, Claudia begins a process of reflection and self-exploration to come to terms with Flavio’s love in light of her own insecurities and neuroses. This funny, charming movie reveals the inner work we must do in order to move on with our lives.
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‘ANGELS WEAR WHITE’, ‘MINDING THE GAP’ Among Winners of 2018 RiverRun International Film Festival
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ANGELS WEAR WHITE[/caption]
RiverRun International Film Festival announced the Audience and Jury Awards for the 2018 Festival, which ran April 19 to 29 and presented 165 films.
“We had more than 2,000 submissions for our 2018 Festival and we had many difficult choices to make in completing the program. The juries were very impressed with our competition films and agreed it was difficult to make their final decisions,” said Rob Davis, RiverRun Executive Director.
NARRATIVE FEATURES COMPETITION
Best Narrative Feature Award : ANGELS WEAR WHITE / China (Director: Vivian Qu) Jury statement: “In giving the narrative feature award to ANGELS WEAR WHITE we were enthralled by the thematic resonance and poignancy of the film as well as the brutality of the subject matter. Shot against a backdrop of natural beauty it drove a remarkable narrative that straddled the line between hope and devastation.” The Peter Brunette Award for Best Director – Narrative Feature was presented to: Vivian Qu, ANGELS WEAR WHITE / China Best Actor / Thomas Gioria / CUSTODY Best Actress / Meijun Zhou / ANGELS WEAR WHITE Jury Statement: “Additionally, in giving out the acting awards we were particularly impressed with the magnetic performances of young actors who brought a harsh reality to the plight of their characters.” Best Screenplay / Laurent Cantet & Robin Campillo / THE WORKSHOP RiverRun’s 2018 Narrative Features jurors included: Amman Abbasi, Benjamin Crossley-Marra, Neil Soffer and Lauren Vilchik. Previous winners of RiverRun’s Best Narrative Feature Jury Award include: After Love (2017), The Fits (2016), Memories on Stone (2015), Ida (2014), In the House (2013), Found Memories (2012), Bal (2011), Katalin Varga (2010), Three Monkeys (2009), The Edge of Heaven (2008), For the Living and the Dead (2007), A Wonderful Night in Split (2006), and Innocent Voices (2005).DOCUMENTARY FEATURES COMPETITION
Best Documentary Feature: MINDING THE GAP / USA (Director: Bing Liu) Jury Statement: “For the Best Documentary prize, told with deep dedication and investment – both in terms of time and of heart – Bing Liu’s MINDING THE GAP is an astonishingly accomplished film that explores race, class, and masculinity, transcending cliches for a deeply honest and moving coming-of-age portrait of three young men.” Best Director / Mila Turajlic / THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING Jury Statement: “Mira Turajlic deftly mines the political for the personal in this complex double-portrait of her mother, Sribijanka—a university professor and activist—and the war-torn Serbia she has fought to call home. It’s a stunning directorial balancing act: too complicated to be a mere fawning portrait, it nevertheless gives life to Sribijanka’s fiery ideas with depth, rigor, and love.” Best Editing / Kieran Gosney & Dino Jonsäter / TIME TRIAL Jury Statement: “With precise and commanding technique, the editors take us on a ride into the middle of a sporting event most of us never watch or even understand… and into the experience of a rider on the ride of his life.” Best Cinematography / Julian Schwanitz / DONKEYOTE Jury Statement: “Lush, grounded, and patient. These words best describe the cinematography of Julian Schwanitz in DONKEYOTE. His gorgeous renderings of Southern Spain, his crisp capturing of sound, and the intimacy in which he portrays the film’s two main characters – Manolo, and his donkey, Gorrión, provide a tenderness and poetry that help this film soar.” RiverRun’s 2018 Documentary Features Competition jurors included: K. Austin Collins, Tom Haneke, Sierra Pettengill and Stan Wright. Previous winners of RiverRun’s Best Documentary Feature Jury Award include: Quest (2017), Salero (2016), The Chinese Mayor (2015), The Case Against 8 (2014), I Am Breathing (2013), The Boy Who Was a King (2012), Armadillo (2011), Last Train Home (2010), Unmistaken Child (2009), Up the Yangtze (2008), Manufactured Landscapes (2007), Taimagura Grandma (2006) and Parallel Lines (2005).SHORTS COMPETITION
Best Documentary Short : XAVIER CORBERO: PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST IN WINTER / Spain / Director: Nathalie Biancheri Jury Statement: “The film is so funny, its central character so outrageous, that it’s easy to miss the meticulousness of the filmmaker’s work – the slowly circular camera movements that perfectly match the rounded forms of Corbero’s architecture and sculpture. It’s what a short film should be: an immersion into character without an extraneous moment.” Special Jury Prize: WHILE I YET LIVE / USA / Director: Maris Curran Jury Statement: “A group of women so unpretentious that they might not think to describe themselves as artists yet who unarguably are. We are grateful for a film that has perfectly captured this precious American artistic movement before it vanishes.” Best Student Documentary Short: THE SANDMAN / USA / Director: Lauren Knapp / Stanford University Jury Statement: “No film can do justice to an issue as fraught as the death penalty. This short film adds an unexpected and valuable contrarian voice.” RiverRun’s 2018 Documentary Shorts jurors included: Laura Coxson, Peter Gilbert, Thomas Lennon and Xiao Xiao. Best Narrative Short : GARAGE AT NIGHT / Canada / Director: Daniel Daigle Jury Statement: “With innovative uses of the cut, off-camera action, silence, and truly alive performances, our selection for Best Narrative Short tells the story of a brotherhood without ever leaving one room. Never making a false choice, we believe this film exemplifies what’s possible in the form, and we’re delighted to present the award to GARAGE AT NIGHT, directed by Daniel Daigle.” Special Jury Prize: WELCOME HOME / Norway / Director: Armita Keyani Jury Statement: “We chose to give an honorable mention to a charming and refreshing comedy about an Iranian couple who take an unconventional route to making friends in their new Scandinavian neighborhood. With super charismatic performances from leads Ashkan Ghorbani and Elnaz Asghari, we can see this short as the first chapter of a series about these two funny lovebirds. Our Special Jury Mention goes to WELCOME HOME by Armita Keyani.” Best Animated Short : SOG / Germany / Director: Jonatan Schwenk Jury Statement: “We give the Best Animated Short Award to SOG for its nuanced exploration of the conflicts that arise between neighboring groups, and its innovative blending of techniques.” Special Jury Prize: WEEKENDS / USA / Director: Trevor Jimenez Jury Statement: “As Honorable Mention, we would like to acknowledge WEEKENDS for its elegant storytelling, beautiful production design, and its ability to portray the subject of divorce from a child’s perspective in a non-judgemental way.” Special Jury Prize: Carlotta’s Face / Germany / Directors: Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld Jury Statement: “As Honorable Mention, we would like to acknowledge CARLOTTA’S FACE for its poetic use of animation to help visualize the condition of face blindness and showcase it as an artistic tool to overcome adversity.” RiverRun’s 2018 Animated Shorts jurors included: Lizzi Akana, Joel Frenzer and Andy Kennedy.AUDIENCE AWARDS
Overall Audience Award: IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE / USA / Director: Gregg Jamback Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton Narrative Feature Audience Award: BYE BYE GERMANY / Germany / Luxembourg / Belgium / Director: Sam Garbarski Documentary Feature Audience Award: SILAS / Canada / South Africa / Kenya / Directors: Hawa Essuman and Anjali Nayar Altered States Audience Award: SAINTS REST / USA / Director: Noga AshkenaziPITCHFEST
In an effort to further promote the development of new filmmaking talent, RiverRun partnered with universities around the state to present the fifth annual PitchFest competition. Pre-selected student filmmakers from The Documentary Film Program at Wake Forest University, Elon University, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington pitched their documentary shorts projects to a panel of industry experts, received advice on how to proceed, and vied for prizes and industry recognition. The Piedmont Federal Savings Bank First Place winner received a $500 prize and the Runner Up received a $250 prize to assist in the production and completion of their films. Piedmont Federal Savings Bank First Place: NO SANCTUARY / UNCSA / Directors: Moriah Hall & Nathan Knox Second Place: DEAD IN THE WATER / UNC – Wilmington / Director: Lizzie Bankowsk RiverRun PitchFest 2018 jurors included: Celia Weston, Brett Ingram and Nick Price.
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Provincetown International Film Festival Announces 2018 Lineup, Closes with MAPPLETHORPE
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MAPPLETHORPE[/caption]
The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) announced their complete lineup of narrative, documentary and short films for the 20th anniversary edition. The festival will kick off with the New England premiere of WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, starring Molly Shannon. Written and directed by Madeleine Olnek, the film is a dramatic comedy about the secret life of Emily Dickinson. Ondi Timoner’s MAPPLETHORPE, starring Matt Smith, has been selected as the Closing Night film.
Additionally, acclaimed director Sean Baker will receive the “Filmmaker on the Edge” Award in conversation with John Waters, and actress Chloë Grace Moretz will be on hand to receive the festival’s Next Wave Award; Moretz’s latest film, THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, is a Spotlight selection.
Said Artistic Director Lisa Viola, “For our 20th anniversary festival, we are absolutely thrilled to present a lineup featuring new work by a group of extraordinarily talented filmmakers, and we are especially proud that all five of our Spotlight films are directed by women!”
The Provincetown International Film Festival runs June 13 to 17, 2018 in Provincetown, MA.
2018 Provincetown International Film Festival Lineup
OPENING NIGHT
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY – directed by Madeleine Olnek (Wednesday, June 13)CLOSING NIGHT
MAPPLETHORPE – directed by Ondi Timoner (Sunday, June 17)SPOTLIGHT SELECTIONS
THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST – directed by Desiree Akhavan (Thursday, June 14) AND BREATHE NORMALLY – directed by Ísold Ugadóttir (Friday, June 15) LEAVE NO TRACE – directed by Debra Granik (Saturday, June 16)SPECIAL SCREENINGS/EVENTS
JOHN WATERS PRESENTS: I, OLGA – directed by Petr Kazda, Tomás Weinreb MODERN LOVE LIVE, presented by WBUR and The New York Times at the Provincetown Film Festival (Friday, June 15) FEMALE TROUBLE – directed by John Waters MIDNIGHT COWBOY – directed by John Schlesinger TANGERINE – directed by Sean BakerNARRATIVE FEATURES
1985 – directed by Yen Tan BLINDSPOTTING– directed by Carlos López Estrada THE CAKEMAKER – directed by Ofir Raul Graizer THE CHILDREN ACT – directed by Richard Eyre DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT – directed by Gus Van Sant EIGHTH GRADE – directed by Bo Burnham THE GUILTY – directed by Gustav Möller HEARTS BEAT LOUD– directed by Brett Haley A KID LIKE JAKE – directed by Silas Howard LEMONADE – directed by Ioana Uricaru LOVELING – directed by Gustavo Pizzi MADELINE’S MADELINE – directed by Josephine Decker MARIO – directed by Marcel Gisler NIGHT COMES ON – directed by Jordana Spiro PUZZLE – directed by Marc Turtletaub WE THE ANIMALS – directed by Jeremiah ZagarDOCUMENTARY FEATURES
CHEF FLYNN – directed by Cameron Yates DAWNLAND – directed by Adam Mazo, Ben Pender-Cudlip EVERY ACT OF LIFE – directed by Jeff Kaufman A FINE LINE – directed by Joanna James GENERATION WEALTH – directed by Lauren Greenfield THE GOSPEL OF EUREKA – directed by Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri JOHN McENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION – directed by Julien Faraut LIFE IN THE DOGHOUSE – directed by Ron Davis McQUEEN – directed by Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING – directed by Nathaniel Kahn ROBIN WILLIAMS: COME INSIDE MY MIND – directed by Marina Zenovich SCIENCE FAIR – directed by Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD – directed by Matt Tyrnauer THE SENTENCE – directed by Rudy Valdez STUDIO 54 – directed by Matt Tyrnauer THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS – directed by Tim Wardle TIME FOR ILHAN – directed by Norah Shapiro WESTWOOD: PUNK, ICON, ACTIVIST – directed by Lorna Tucker WYETH – directed by Glenn HolstenSHORTS
AFTER PROM – directed by Nona Schamus BABS – directed by Celine Held & Logan George BECAUSE YOU’RE HERE – directed by Mike Syers BRAINWORM BILLY – directed by Emily Hubley THE DARE PROJECT – directed by Adam Salky, written by David Brind EDWARD HOPPER & MARSHALL’S HOUSE – directed by Bob Burnett FEVAH – directed by Randall Dottin GIRL FRIEND – directed by Chloe Sarbib HEATHER HAS FOUR MOMS – directed by Jeanette L. Buck JUDITH LOVES MARTHA – directed by Anna Gaskell KEEPER – directed by Marnie Crawford Samuelson & Shane Hofeldt KHOL (OPEN) – directed by Faroukh Virani LANDLINE – directed by Matt Houghton THE LAYOVER – directed by Joe Stankus LONESOME WILLCOX – directed by Ryan Maxey & Zack Wright MARGUERITE – directed by Maria Gracia Turgeon MAUDE – directed by Anna Margaret Hollyman MEN DON’T WHISPER – directed by Jordan Firstman MOTHER MOTHER – directed by Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck NEGATIVE SPACE – directed by Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter NEUTRAL – directed by Nathan Barnatt PAID FOR BY – EPISODE 2 – DIANE BUSCH’S WOMEN’S ISSUE AD – directed by Dawn Smith SET ME AS A SEAL UPON THINE HEART – directed by Omer Tobi SHE IS JUICED: SLICE ONE – JO HAY – directed by Lois Norman SLEEPOVER – directed by Jimi Vall Peterson SUPER 8 DAZE – directed by Rob Hampton & John Morgan WOULD YOU LOOK AT HER – directed by Goran Stolevski WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE 2: THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS –directed by Don Herzfeldt WREN BOYS – directed by Harry Lighton
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2018 Fantasia International Film Festival Launches First Wave of Films
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The Fantasia International Film Festival, celebrating its 22nd Anniversary in Montreal this summer, from July 12 to August 1, 2018, revealed the first wave of film titles, along with several special events. In addition to the festival, Frontières International Co-Production Market and Industry Rendez-Vous Weekend will be held July 19 to 22, 2018.
The festival’s full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced in early July. In the meantime, Fantasia.
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF BLEACH HIGHLIGHTS A TRIO OF BLOCKBUSTER MASTERPIECES BY PROLIFIC DIRECTOR SHINSUKE SATO
The most anticipated Japanese film of 2018 will have its International Premiere at Fantasia 2018 and completely blow everyone’s minds! Adapted from one of the world’s most popular mangas, BLEACH is directed by Shinsuke Sato (GANTZ, LIBRARY WARS) and masterfully portrays the epic fight between Shinigamis (Soul Reapers) and monstrous lost souls called Hollows. BLEACH fans will shed tears of joy as they see teenager Ichigo Kurosaki (AS THE GODS WILL’s Sota Fukushi) slice his giant sword through superbly designed Hollows, while the uninitiated will be amazed by this action-packed fantasy loaded with young rising stars and state-of-the-art special effects. BLEACH has everything one hopes for in a summer blockbuster… and much more! Another crowd-pleasing powerhouse directed by Shinsuke Sato, INUYASHIKI, will set Fantasia 2018 on fire at its Canadian Premiere. The film reunites Sato with the universe of mangaka Hiroya Oku, creator of GANTZ, in a live-action adaptation that perfectly balances fast-paced action, humour, and bloody thrills! Winner of the Golden Raven at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, INUYASHIKI opposes a lovable bullied old man (comedian Noritake Kinashi) and a cold murderous student (RUROUNI KENSHIN’s Takeru Satoh), both turned into powerful cyborgs after a strange explosion. It’s a glorious, fun ride with far more depth than it seems. Lastly, to cap the festival’s celebration of Shinsuke Sato, Fantasia will be showcasing a special screening of the filmmaker’s celebrated 2015 instant-classic of the zombie sub-genre I AM A HERO, widely regarded as one of the best horror films in recent years. Acclaimed everywhere it was shown, the film won numerous awards, notably at SXSW, Sitges and Brussels, and it will soon be ravaging Montreal in its long-time-coming Quebec Premiere!FIVE FORCES OF FEAR COME TOGETHER FOR A TERRIFYING DOSE OF NIGHTMARE CINEMA
As part of Fantasia’s Opening Night events, the festival will unveil the World Premiere of Cinelou Films’ hotly-anticipated anthology NIGHTMARE CINEMA, featuring segments by Joe Dante (GREMLINS), Mick Garris (THE STAND), Alejandro Brugués (JUAN OF THE DEAD), Ryûhei Kitamura (VERSUS), and David Slade (30 DAYS OF NIGHT) with a cast that includes Mickey Rourke, Richard Chamberlain, Adam Godley, Belinda Balaski, Elizabeth Reaser, and Annabeth Gish. It’s always cause for celebration when the acclaimed “Masters of Horror” brew new creations, and seeing their energies distilled into a single feature film will all but make the universe explode.LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR JOE DANTE!
Fantasia will be presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to adored US genre legend Joe Dante, a man whose inspired filmography has touched generations of cinephiles. From PIRANHA, THE HOWLING, and the universally-beloved GREMLINS films to INNERSPACE, EXPLORERS, and his bold television work, Dante’s works are electric with witty personality and brim with innovative storytelling and a big-hearted affection for all things film. As Fantasia will be World Premiering his latest work with NIGHTMARE CINEMA, there couldn’t be a better time to honour the great man. Previous recipients of Fantasia’s Lifetime Achievement Award include Guillermo del Toro, Takashi Miike, Ken Russell, Tobe Hooper, Jean Rollin, Andrzej Zulawski, Mamoru Oshii, John Landis, José Mojica Marins, Larry Cohen, and Ray Harryhausen.THE INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE OF UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB
In 2014, Fantasia World Premiered the cutting-edge independent horror breakout UNFRIENDED under its original title, CYBERNATURAL, to significant acclaim, leading to the film’s acquisition by Blumhouse and Universal. Now, four years later, the festival will showcase the International Premiere of UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB, a wholly unique – and deeply unsettling – standalone sequel that launched at SXSW this past March, as a special event screening on Friday, July 13th. UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB was written and directed by Stephen Susco and stars Colin Woodell, Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Stephanie Nogueras, Andrew Lees, Savira Windyani, and Connor Del Rio.BE THE WORLD’S FIRST TO GAZE UPON THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW
Andy Mitton, co-writer and co-director of WE GO ON and YELLOWBRICKROAD, goes solo this time as he continues his streak of staggeringly effective, character-driven supernatural horror. Stunningly scripted and performed, THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW (World Premiere) is a gripping paranormal chiller about a divorced father taking his 12-year-old son to rural Vermont to help him with a fixer-upper farmhouse – a farmhouse whose previous owner, however deceased she may be, has never left the premises. Produced by Richard W. King and starring Alex Draper, Arija Bareikis, Greg Naughton, and Charlie Tacker.THE RIVETING WORLD PREMIERE OF CAM WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY
Key among this year’s most exciting discoveries is Isa Mazzei and Danny Goldhaber’s CAM (World Premiere), a surrealistic thriller set in the world of webcam erotica in which an ambitious young camgirl (“The Handmaid Tale”’s Madeline Brewer) discovers that she’s inexplicably been replaced on her site with an exact replica of herself – a replica that knows personal things only she could know, and is considerably less guarded about privacy. The control that she has over her life, and the people in it, begins to break away. CAM is both an extraordinary genre vision and a milestone – the rare film about sex work written by a former sex worker. CAM brilliantly captures the anxieties and identity struggles of this unfairly judged field of work, with an approach that borders on the Lynchian. Produced by Blumhouse Pictures, Gunpowder & Sky, and Divide/Conquer, CAM also stars Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid, and Samantha Robinson.SIDES AND MOLECULES WILL SPLIT AT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF MEGA TIME SQUAD
Bursting with comic invention and absurdist scenarios, MEGA TIME SQUAD (World Premiere) is New Zealand writer/director Tim van Dammen’s oddball sophomore feature, a wildly entertaining sci-fi tale about a two-bit criminal stumbling upon an ancient time-travel device. Ridiculous happenings ensue. Starring Anton Tenet and a slew of familiar faces from the Kiwi genre scene, including WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS’ Jonny Brugh and DEATHGASM’s Milo Cawthorne!UDINE WINNER LAST CHILD INTRODUCES A BRILLIANT NEW FILMMAKER WHO WILL LEAVE HIS MARK ON KOREAN CINEMA
After Sung-cheol and Mi-sook lose their teenage boy, who drowns saving fellow student Ki-hyun, their lives collapse. When Sung-cheol takes Ki-hyun under his wing, things improve rapidly, but truth always rises to the surface, causing the dynamic between the trio of scorched souls to change drastically. Selected at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, LAST CHILD, which will have its Canadian Premiere at Fantasia, is probably the most powerful and poignant first feature film to come out of Korea since Lee Su-jin’s HAN GONG-JU. Thanks to beautiful performances by Choi Moo-seong (I SAW THE DEVIL), Kim Yeo-jin (PEPPERMINT CANDY) and Seong Yu-bin (ALONG WITH THE GODS), writer/director Shin Dong-seok’s masterpiece recently secured the coveted White Mulberry Award for Best Debut Film at the Udine Far East Film Festival.HOUSES ARE AS HAUNTED AS YOU MAKE THEM: THE WORLD PREMIERE OF OUR HOUSE
Fantasia will be channeling the World Premiere of the Canadian paranormal chiller OUR HOUSE, a tight, engrossing remake of the clever 2010 indie GHOST FROM THE MACHINE (itself having world premiered at Fantasia under its original title PHASMA EX MACHINA), directed by Anthony Scott Burns (HOLIDAYS) with a screenplay by Nathan Parker (MOON) and starring Thomas Mann, Nicola Peltz and Percy Hynes White.THE WORLD PREMIERE OF INDONESIA’S ASTONISHING WESTERN BUFFALO BOYS IS THE FIRST REVEAL OF FANTASIA 2018’S ACTION! SECTION
Genre producer Mike Wiluan (HEADSHOT, BEYOND SKYLINE, MACABRE) leaps into the director’s chair for this searing, screaming action epic set during the Dutch occupation of Indonesia. When all seems lost in a small town overrun by colonialist violence, two revenge-seeking brothers arrive, meting out bloody justice that leaps effortlessly between brutal Western gunslinging and stylized Eastern swordplay. Starring a gorgeous cast featuring HEADSHOT’s Sunny Pang and THE RAID 2’s Alex Abbad, BUFFALO BOYS (World Premiere) is a virtual who’s who of Indonesia’s finest action and stunt talent that will knock your skull through the back of the cinema.CAMERA LUCIDA UNVEILS UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, LUZ, MADELINE’S MADELINE, AND HANAGATAMI!
Fantasia’s CAMERA LUCIDA section, dedicated to experimental, boundary-pushing and auteur-driven works of genre cinema, is back for its ninth consecutive year, and proud to unveil its first four titles. Join the festival for a Special Screening of UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, David Robert Mitchell’s much-anticipated follow-up to IT FOLLOWS! Fresh off the Croisette, Mitchell’s latest is, much like his previous take on horror, a playful exercise in genre-bending; an L.A.-set, sun-soaked noir-comedy – starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough – in the venerable tradition of THE LONG GOODBYE, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, and INHERENT VICE. Under the paving stones… the lake! Hot off its World Premiere at the 68th Berlinale, Fantasia welcomes Tilman Singer’s tectonic LUZ (North American Premiere). A first feature heralding a bold new talent in genre, LUZ recalls the best of ’70s arthouse and Euro-horror (Zulawski, Fulci, and even Fassbinder come to mind), without ever giving way to pastiche or citation. Instead, LUZ is a mise-en-scène tour-de-force; an experimental subversion of the familiar possession narrative by way of avant-garde theatre – even shot in scope on gorgeous 16mm! The section will also welcome back filmmaker-extraordinaire Josephine Decker (THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY; Fantasia 2014), with her latest, deeply personal masterwork, MADELINE’S MADELINE (Canadian Premiere). An essential film about the search for one’s identity, the problematics of appropriation, cultural or otherwise, and the treacherous process of creating art from lived experience, Decker’s latest is an intensely gripping work, set in and around New York’s experimental theater scene, and unfolds in the mode of an edge-of-your-seat psychodrama. Much like her previous work, MADELINE’S MADELINE further blurs the boundaries between introspective arthouse and genre mechanics. Finally, the section is pleased to celebrate the great Nobuhiko Obayashi with the screening of his latest film, HANAGATAMI (Quebec Premiere). Diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer at the time of production (from which the filmmaker has since miraculously recovered), Obayashi has gone back to his first feature script, and directed a new film in the style, and with the vitality, of his beloved 1977 cult film HOUSE (HAUSU) – in what amounts here to an exaltedly stylized epic; a boldly experimental paean to youth, memory, and the resistance of the human spirit; and a dreamy narrative blending fantasy, horror, and melodrama at the brink of World War II. As of 2017, all titles selected in the Camera Lucida section are eligible for the Camera Lucida-AQCC prize, awarded by the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma (Québec’s Critics Association), member of FIPRESCI.THE EVOLUTION OF ANIME CONTINUES IN FANTASIA’S AXIS SECTION
Japanese animation remains a key ingredient of Fantasia’s recipe, and the year’s most notable works again grace the programming of the festival’s Axis section. The first three films announced in the 2018 Axis lineup reflect the strength and variety of the anime genre at this time. Screenwriter Mari Okada (THE ANTHEM OF THE HEART) makes her directorial debut with the breathtaking MAQUIA: WHEN THE PROMISED FLOWER BLOOMS (Canadian Premiere). Okada’s gifts as a storyteller fortify this medieval fantasy escapade, adding rare emotional heft to the dazzling visuals, further enhanced by legendary composer Kenji Kawai (GHOST IN THE SHELL). Celebrated producer Genki Kawamura (THE BOY AND THE BEAST, YOUR NAME) has breathed life into yet another essential work of the current anime renaissance. Adapting a cult ’90s TV series by Shunji Iwai, FIREWORKS (Canadian Premiere) is a keenly rendered drama of adolescent romance with a fantastical, what-if twist. Following up his 2013 debut BURNING BUDDHA MAN, ultra-outré Japanese creator Ujicha returns to Fantasia with the equally bizarre and marvelous VIOLENCE VOYAGER (Canadian Premiere) – a very, very unusual amusement-park experience. Ujicha is the world’s leading (and probably only) practitioner of “gekimation,” in which hand-painted cardboard are manipulated and filmed live.RENEGADE FRENCH ANIMATORS BOBBYPILLS BREAK HEARTS, MINDS, AND BONES WITH CRISIS JUNG
Bobbypills is a renegade French animation studio whose web series fuse the flavours of Japanese anime and the Euro-American underground. Following their gloriously sleazy debut series VERMIN, Bobbypills will soon unleash Baptiste Gaubert and Jérémie Hoarau’s CRISIS JUNG (International Premiere), a tale of broken hearts, bent minds and bashed-out brains in a ravaged, savaged, sexed-up futureworld. Fantasia’s international premiere of CRISIS JUNG, in its entirety and in lustrous 4K, will mark a very rare opportunity to see this mobile-bound maelstrom of mayhem towering on the big screen.ADDITIONAL FIRST WAVE TITLES:
ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE UK – Dir: John McPhail A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven – at Christmas – forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash, and sing their way to survival, facing hellish snowmen, an undead Santa, and bloodthirsty elves in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. Official Selection: Fantastic Fest 2017. Winner: Midnight X-Treme Best Feature, Sitges 2017. Canadian Premiere. THE DARK Austria / Canada – Dir: Justin P. Lange An undead teenage girl befriends a blind boy that she meets in a forest she haunts and hunts in. Both have been victims of unimaginable abuse, and each finds solace in the other. There may be a chance of light at the end of their tunnel, but it will come with a body count. Official Selection: Tribeca Film Festival 2018, Fantaspoa 2018. Canadian Premiere. THE FIELD GUIDE TO EVIL Various – Dirs: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala, Peter Strickland, Ashim Ahluwalia, Agnieszka Smoczynska, Katrin Gebbe, Can Evrenol, Calvin Reeder, Yannis Veslemes They are known as myths, lore, and folktales. Created to give logic to mankind’s darkest fears, these stories laid the foundation for what we now know as the horror genre. This anthology film overflows with striking visions from Austria, Greece, India, Norway, Poland, Turkey, the UK, and the USA, each directed by their country’s leading genre auteurs. Official Selection: SXSW 2018.Canadian Premiere. KNUCKLEBALL Canada – Dir: Michael Peterson TURBO KID stars Munro Chambers and Michael Ironside headline this dead serious surprise from the director of LLOYD THE CONQUEROR. KNUCKLEBALL reminds you that there’s nothing quite like chilly Canadian landscapes filled with deadly intentions to bring a chill up your spine. Official Selection: Cinequest 2018, Calgary Underground Film Festival 2018. Quebec Premiere. THE OUTLAWS South Korea – Kang Yun-sung Anyone who saw TRAIN TO BUSAN remembers the huge, zombie-punching badass who stole the show – and now, Don Lee is back to kick more ass in this gritty action thriller! When a Korean-Chinese gang war lead by the cruel Jang Chen (POONGSAN’s Yoon Kye-sang) starts tearing his district apart, Detective Ma Seok-do must calm things down and protect his community – by redecorating rooms with gangsters faces! Extremely funny and entertaining, THE OUTLAWS is the ultimate gift for all 1990’s Stallone film fans! Official Selection, Dubai International Film Festival, Macao International Film Festival. Quebec Premiere. PARALLEL Canada/USA – Dir. Isaac Ezban From BRON Studios division The Realm comes the English language debut of award-winning Mexican science-fiction wunderkind Isaac Ezban (The Incident, The Similars), Parallel is a fantasy work without – well, let’s avoid the obvious title-derived pun! A clever sci-fi film that smashes through the multiverse, starring Aml Ameen, Martin Wallström, Georgia King, Mark O´Brien, and Kathleen Quinlan, featuring stunning visuals from cinematographer Karim Hussain… This year, get ready for a movie that is out of this universe! Official Selection: Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2018. North American Premiere. PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH USA/UK – Dirs: Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund Thomas Lennon, Udo Kier, Barbara Crampton, Nelson Franklin, and Charlene Yi star in this utterly crazy reimagining of Charles Band classic’s franchise about homicidal puppets created by a Nazi occultist. Filled with crazed gore, THE LITTLEST REICH is scripted with heaps of wit and cruelty by none other than BONE TOMAHAWK and BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 director S. Craig Zahler! Official Selection: Overlook Film Festival 2018, Fantaspoa 2018. Canadian Premiere. THE RANGER USA – Dir: Jenn Wexler The directorial debut of MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND producer Jenn Wexler (and a project born out of Frontieres, Fantasia’s co-production market), THE RANGER offers a modern take on survivalist horror that both celebrates and subverts slasher tropes – with equal parts humor, glitter, and gore – and a punk soundtrack to literally die for. Official Selection: SXSW 2018, Chattanooga Film Festival 2018, Fantaspoa 2018. Canadian Premiere. ROKUROKU: THE PROMISE OF THE WITCH Japan – Dir: Yudai Yamaguchi Those peculiar spirits of Japanese folklore, the yokai, are back on the big screen, but this time, with a creepy horrific twist! ROKUROKU is a delightful omnibus of episodic spook-outs from two luminaries of Japanese genre film, Yudai Yamaguchi (CROMARTIE HIGH) and Keita Amemiya (ZEIRAM). Official Selection: Busan International Film Festival 2017. Canadian Premiere. SATAN’S SLAVES Indonesia / South Korea – Dir. Joko Anwar A record-breaking box-office hit upon release, Joko Anwar’s affectionate remake of 1980’s PENGABDI SETAN is one of horror cinema’s recent triumphs: an atmospheric, expertly-shot roller-coaster ride of a haunted house film, inspired as much by Indonesian folklore as by retro genre classics. Official Selection: Rotterdam Film Festival 2018. Winner: Feature Jury Prize, Overlook Film Festival 2018. Canadian Premiere. SKATE KITCHEN USA – Dir. Crystal Moselle Documentary filmmaker Crystal Moselle’s fiction film debut following THE WOLFPACK is a superb girl-power anthem; a film beaming with raw authenticity, and mostly shot with non-actors. An empowering and uplifting counter-culture film described by some as a streetwise alternative to GIRLS, it follows a young woman’s drastic life changes when she meets the New York skate crew Skate Kitchen. Official Selection: Sundance 2018, Inside Out 2018. Quebec Premiere. TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID Mexico – Dir: Issa López A dark fairytale about a gang of children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug war, TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID is the winner of 23 awards (and counting!) on the international festival circuit, and ranks among the great genre works of our time. Guillermo del Toro was so enraptured by it that he’s signed up to produce a film with its gifted director. Official Selection: Fantastic Fest 2017, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2018. Quebec Premiere. TREMBLE ALL YOU WANT Japan – Dir. Akiko Ohku The tale of quirky, 24-year-old Yoshiku’s ten-year crush on “Ishi” (her first), suddenly interrupted by “Ni” (second) provides the set-up for one of the most charming, psychologically resonant, and genuinely subversive romantic comedies in recent memory, based on Risa Wataya’s acclaimed 2010 novel. Winner: Audience Award, Tokyo International Film Festival 2017. Quebec Premiere. WILDERNESS: Part 1 and Part 2 Japan – Dir: Yoshiyuki Kishi In a near-future where Japanese society has collapsed and terrorist attacks frequently hit Tokyo, two drastically different men – cocky and aggressive Shinji and stuttering, shy Kenji – will try to find their place in this world through boxing. Widely considered one of the best Japanese films of 2017, WILDERNESS is a sensitive drama, beautifully depicting male friendship as a visceral sports drama in the tradition of RAGING BULL or CRYING FIST. Giving masterful performances, GINTAMA’s Masaki Suda was named Best Lead Actor at the Japan Academy Prizes and Yang Ik-june, who grabbed two awards at Fantasia 2009 for BREATHLESS, won Best Supporting Actor at the Asian Film Awards. Official Selection, Busan International Film Festival 2017. Canadian Premiere.
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SERVED LIKE A GIRL Chronicling Female Veterans Competing for Ms. Veteran America to Premiere on PBS on Memorial Day [Trailer]
Served Like a Girl, directed by Lysa Heslov, is a powerful and poignant look at a group of diverse female veterans as they transition from active duty to civilian life after serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Struggling with PTSD, homelessness, broken families, serious illness, physical injuries, and military sexual abuse, these inspiring women find ways to adapt to the challenges they face through participation in the “Ms. Veteran America” competition. Guided by event founder and veteran Major Jas Boothe, the women work hard to prepare for the competition, and, in the process, recover parts of their identities they had lost on the battlefield. Filled with humor and heart in equal measures, Served Like a Girl premieres on Independent Lens on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2018, 10:00-11:30 PM ET on PBS.
Wounded U.S. female service personnel often return home to a stark reality; many face debilitating emotional, social and economic challenges. The Ms. Veteran America competition was established in 2012 to encourage women veterans to recognize and support their sisters as they return to civilian life. More than a vehicle for shared recovery, the competition’s main mission is to raise funds and awareness for America’s 55,000 homeless women veterans, a goal that resonates strongly with the women profiled in the film.
Served Like a Girl features:
Sergeant Nichole Alred served six years in the Army as a mechanic, including one tour in Kuwait and two in Iraq. Nichole joined the Army as a single mother in an effort to give her son a better life. Nichole and her mother share a special relationship; her mother was her biggest supporter during both her time in the military and in the Ms. Veteran America competition. Nichole lives in Alabama with her husband.
Major Jas Boothe is a Chicago native, disabled veteran, cancer survivor, and international speaker who served 17 years in the Army. She founded Final Salute in 2010 and the Ms. Veteran America competition in 2012, which have collectively raised over $2 million and assisted over 3600 women veterans and children in over 30 states and territories. In honor of her leadership and positive impact on the community, Boothe has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey, Toyota, People Magazine, CNN Heroes, and the Department of Defense. She lives in Northern Virginia.
Lieutenant Commander Rachel Engler is second-generation Navy on both her mother and father’s side. A former NFL cheerleader and a registered nurse, she received her officer’s commission straight out of college and deployed to Afghanistan. In 2011, she was diagnosed with a chronic neuromuscular illness called Myasthenia Gravis, a condition that still affects her life today, but which hasn’t slowed her volunteer work on behalf of her fellow veterans. She lives in Arlington, Virginia.
Master-at-Arms First Class Hope Garcia served ten years in the Navy before being placed on the Permanent Disability Retired list. She struggles with PTSD and the trauma resulting from military sexual assault. But Hope continues to work for a better life for herself and her sons. At the time of filming Hope was working her way through school while attempting to build a career as a pin-up model. Through participating in the Ms. Veteran America competition, Hope was reunited with her mother and the two were able to start rebuilding their relationship. She lives in Los Angeles.
Master Sergeant Denyse Gordon comes from a family with a long and proud history of military and civic service. Her maternal grandfather served during WWII, her stepfather was a Vietnam- era veteran and served in the U.S. Navy, her sister is a U.S. Army Reserve Captain who is a veteran of both the Gulf War and Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom, her mother retired as an Executive Officer with the New York City Police Department Traffic Division, and Denyse, who is also an Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom combat veteran, is a 22-and-a-half-year U.S. Air Force Reserves Master Sergeant, having served 12 years on active duty. In 2012, she was crowned the first Ms. Veteran America and continues with the competition as its director. She lives in Northern Virginia.
Specialist Marissa Strock lost both lower legs in 2005, when an IED detonated beneath her Army Humvee outside Baghdad. Three of the five people on board were killed, and Marissa spent weeks in a medically induced coma. After competing in Ms. Veteran America 2013 and taking home three trophies, including one for significant military achievement, this self-proclaimed “glamputee” has served as the event’s master of ceremonies in subsequent years. She has an impressive collection of fabulous shoes and refuses to let the loss of her legs slow her down. She lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Sergeant Andrea Waterbury enlisted in the Army two days after 9/11 and was deployed in Iraq for two years starting in 2003. A dynamic, small-town woman and divorced mother of four, she works as the Cavalier Cadet Corp instructor at Chillicothe High School in Ohio and continues to serve proudly in the Army Reserves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRDXIXm1HA
Image: Denyse Gordon, Joanne Makay, Hope Garcia, Rachel Engler, Jas Boothe, Nichole Alred and Andrea Waterbury – INDEPENDENT LENS “Served Like a Girl”
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7 Bold, Visionary Writers Selected for Film Independent’s 20th Screenwriting Lab
Seven screenwriters have been selected for Film Independent’s 20th annual Screenwriting Lab, an intensive four-week workshop designed to facilitate each writer’s unique voice through the development of a single feature screenplay. Eighty-five percent of this year’s participants are from communities underrepresented in film and over half the participants are women.
Fellows will workshop their projects over the course of the Lab under the guidance of Creative Advisors Rodrigo García (Nine Lives, HBO’s In Treatment), Pamela Ribon (Moana, Wreck-It Ralph 2) and Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia). Additional guest speakers and advisors include Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Script Consultant Ruth Atkinson, Jelani Johnson of CAA and Virgil Williams (Mudbound).
“We are extremely proud that Film Independent’s 20th Screenwriting Lab is made up of seven bold, visionary writers whose diverse perspectives represent our continued commitment to fostering inclusion in the film industry. We look forward to nurturing their projects in the Lab and their careers as artists in the long term,” said Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development at Film Independent.
For the seventh year, Film Independent will present the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television Screenwriting Fellowship. This year’s Fellowship is being awarded to Margaret Hedderman who will receive a $10,000 grant to support the development of her script, The Code of the West, through the Screenwriting Lab.
Past Screenwriting Lab projects include Spirit Award Winner Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night, which premiered in competition at Sundance and won the Grand Jury prize at Outfest; Chloé Zhao’s Spirit Award nominated Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which premiered in competition at Sundance and in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; and Robbie Pickering’s SXSW winner Natural Selection.
The 2018 Screenwriting Lab participants and their projects are:
Title: At Risk
Writer: Jenny Halper
Logline: A ten-year-old budding scientist becomes obsessed with a turtle he believes has been alive since the time of the dinosaurs as his sister’s AIDS diagnosis turns his family into pariahs in their small New England town. Based on Alice Hoffman’s novel.
Title: Bury Me on Gold Mountain
Writer/Director: Li Lu
Logline: In 1872, a young Chinese woman fights to survive after being sold to an unknown man in a remote Idaho gold mining town.
Title: Hombrecito
Writer/Director: Miguel Nuñez
Logline: A romantic little fella leads a peasant revolt against the abuses of a foreign cotton company. On his odyssey to defend their right to the land, Hombrecito has kung-fu fights, is stalked by a ghost, and ends up as a misfit cowboy.
Title: Juveniles
Writer/Director: Joshua James Richards
Logline: Teenage love and rebellion in a juvenile correctional facility.
Title: SOAD
Writer/Director: Ayten Amin
Logline: 12-year old Rabad lives in Zaqazig, a small conservative town in Egypt. After her older sister, Soad falls down an online rabbit hole with tragic consequences, Rabad embarks on a journey looking for answers.
Title: The Code of the West
Writer: Margaret Hedderman
Logline: A directionless musician takes her young son on a road trip to find his father – whom he imagines is a John Wayne-esque figure. They find him on a New Mexico ranch that’s under threat from energy development. The boy tries to save the day.
Title: Zenith
Writer/Director: Ellie Foumbi
Logline: An adopted Black Mennonite leaves the rural White community she was raised in and travels to an inner-city neighborhood to find her biological mother. In the process, she discovers what it means to be Black.
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21st American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes Film Festival to Feature 27 Short Films
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Dirty Bomb[/caption]
The 2018 lineup for the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase will feature an impressive program features 27 short documentary and narrative films by up-and-coming filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world, all of which will screen at The American Pavilion during the Cannes Film Festival.
The showcase encompasses five sections, including: Student Short Films, Student Documentaries, Emerging Filmmaker Short Films, Emerging Filmmaker Documentaries, and Emerging Filmmaker LGBTQ Showcase films.
In a second year partnership with KCETLink Media Group, a leading national independent nonprofit public broadcast and digital network, three of the films from the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase will be featured in the FINE CUT broadcast television series, which will begin airing in the fall on KCET independent public television in Southern California.
A flagship program for Los Angeles’ KCET public television since the late ‘90s, the Fine Cut festival was founded by actor Jack Larson, best known for his portrayal of photographer/reporter Jimmy Olsen in the 1952-1958 television series “Adventures of Superman,” on the idea that public television was an excellent platform for providing critical visibility to student and emerging filmmakers.
The films in this year’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase focus on themes as diverse as the sexual violence, Alzheimer’s, bullying, holocaust, father/daughter stories, falling for Mr. Wrong, women entrepreneurs, online dating, coming to terms with sexual orientation, the impact of social media, werewolves and zombies to name a few. A variety of stars are featured, including: Jamie McShane, Marlyne Barrett, Elizabeth Guest, Mary Kate Wiles, Maya Kazan,Charlotte Ritchie, Ed White, Shawn Ryan, Candi Milo, Scott Cooper Ryan, Bernard White, Meera Syal, Doug Tompos, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Petersen, Ido Samuel, James Babson, J. Michael Trautmann, Shani Atias, Leif Gantvoort, Bart McCarthy, Ioanna Meli, and more.
Female directors are once again well represented in The Showcase, with more than half of the films directed by women.
Student filmmakers hail from schools across the United States, including: School of Visual Arts, Santa Monica College, Chapman University Dodge College of Media Arts, USC, Yale School of Drama, Florida State University, UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Brooklyn Film College, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Art Center College of Design, AFI Directing Workshop for Women, and The Young Actors’ Theatre Camp.
“This year’s showcase promotes a wide selection of themes, cultural diversity amongst the films and filmmakers and I’m excited that again this year, more than half of the finalist films are directed by women,” said Monika Skerbelis, Programming Director.
STUDENT DOCUMENTARY
HALE 2017, 20:24 min., USA, Documentary, UC Berkeley School of Journalism Producer/Writer/Director: Brad Bailey Cast: Hale Zukas, Judith Heuman, Zona Roberts Born with cerebral palsy, Hale Zukas is the grandfather of disability movement, started in Berkeley, California. Every morning, he still wakes up for the fight to live independently with dignity, strength, and courage. PEACEKEEPER 2017, 13 min., USA, Florida State University, Documentary Producers/Directors: Nicholas Markart, Tyler Knutt Cast: Judith LeBlanc, Lewis Grassrope, Ray Taken Alive, William Brown Otter, Margaret Landin Native Americans from Standing Rock speak out on the pipeline, the repetition of history, and their roles as water-protectors in a struggle for modern sovereignty. BUILD RAMPS NOT WALLS 2018, 13:20 min., Documentary/Sports, USA/Mexico, Brooklyn Film College Director: Brian Adamkiewicz Producer: Rebecca Frances Scotti Cast: Emilio Fernandez, Nathaniel Rabinor Shown through the eyes of an 8-year-old American-Mexican boy, Build Ramps Not Wallsdocuments a bi-national skate community in Mexico seeking a positive response to the negative rhetoric between Mexico and the USA after the 2016 presidential elections. JESSICA CLARK RACING 2017, 4:57 min., USA, Documentary, Art Center College of Design Producer/Writer/Director: Ellen Houlihan Cast: Jessica Clark Jessica Clark, a 21-year-old race car driver from Ventura, California dreams of racing in NASCAR one day. As a confident and driven woman in a male-dominated career field, she is an empowering example of a woman defying the odds and resisting any challenge she encounters on and off the track.STUDENT SHORT FILMS
THE RISEN 2018, 7:43 min., USA, Drama/Thriller, The Young Actors’ Theatre Camp Director: John Ainsworth Co-Directors: Monica Jeon, Olivia Ingram, Sarah Whalen Writers: Sarah Elizabeth Whalen, Brad Griffith Producers: John Ainsworth, Shawn Ryan, Valerie Dohrer Cast: Marguerite Williamson, Reed Wylie-Chaney, Jolie Orban Without warning or any explanation, all kids on earth have woken up to an overtaken planet. The kids retreat to live in the forest until they receive a signal that the threat has receded… but has it truly? Can the kids get along with each other long enough to survive the destruction of earth? A CHRISTMAS DINNER 2017, 5:41 min., USA, Comedy, University Nevada Las Vegas Writer/Director: Tyler Yarbro Producer: Melissa Del Rosario Cast: David Kurtz, Spiro Siavelis, Kevin Fitzpatrick A family’s nutcracker Christmas dinner is interrupted when the narrator unveils their darkest secrets. BROADSIDE 2017, 3:25 min., USA, Animation, School of Visual Arts Writer/Director: Jodi Chamberlain Producer: Jimmy Calhoun Cast: Lisa O’Hara She just wants to enjoy a snack, but when this salty old sailor is attacked by a beast many times larger than her boat, she must think and act fast in this spaghetti-western sci-fi monster movie about wit, grit, and cunning. NIGHT CALL 2017, 17:39 min., USA, Drama/Action, Chapman University Dodge College of Film & Media Arts Writer/Director: Amanda Renee Knox Producers: Phabillia Afflack-Borja, Miriam Anwari Cast: Marlyne Barrett, Rachael Holmes, Delaney Williams, Matthieu Jean-Pierre When on a routine patrol, a Black female cop living in and patrolling Inglewood gets called to a disturbance she is forced to make an unprecedented life altering decision. GLORIA TALKS FUNNY 2017, 18:27 min., USA, Comedy/Dramedy, Chapman University Dodge College of Film & Media Arts Writer/Director: Kendall Goldberg Producer: Michael Stanziale Cast: Candi Milo, Ryan Stiffelman, Shawn Ryan, Jon Heder, Jeremy Shada When struggling voice actress, Gloria, discovers her agent failed to tell her that her claim-to-fame cartoon is being remade, she sets her sights on reprising her role as the famous BioBoy.DOCUMENTARY
ZEBRAFISH: PRACTICALLY PEOPLE, TRANSFORMING THE STUDY OF DISEASE 2018, 9:54 min., USA, Documentary Producer/Director: Jennifer Manner Writer: Dr. Wendy Leonard Healthcare spending is out of control. What if we could get better biomedical data, spend pennies on the dollar, and get results in a fraction of the time? Zebrafish, a proven but under-recognized and underutilized biomedical research model, can do that. Zebrafish are human avatars. GUNS FOUND HERE 2018, 10:05 min., USA, Documentary Director: David Freid Producer: Mor Albalak An American paper trail. When there’s a gun crime in America, there’s only one place to go to trace the gun back to its owner: Martinsburg, West Virginia. That’s where the ATF’s National Tracing Center handles roughly 8,000 active traces per dayEMERGING SHORT FILMS
ALL THE MARBLES 2017, 17 min., USA, Family, Drama, Fantasy Director: Michael Swingler Producers/Writers: Michael Swingler, Carl Petersen Cast: Carl Petersen, Christopher Franciosa, Cole Sand, Helen Sadler, Micah Fitzgerald A little boy challenges a villainous bully to a game of marbles in a bizarre and fantastical world where marbles are as precious as gold. G[R]O[W]ING UP 2017, 9:55 min., USA, Romance Producer/Writer/Director: Annabelle K. Frost Line Producer: Cherryl Siena Espinoza Cast: Mary Kate Wiles, Billy Beck, Scott Cooper Ryan, Larry Clarke, Fran Bennett, Terri Ivens, Evan Arnold A naive elevator operator becomes smitten when she meets a winsome new tenant in the spring. She falls deep in love over the summer only to hit troubled times in the fall. Frozen by her predicament, she withdraws through the winter. Will she find love before spring returns? DIRTY BOMB 2017, 14:59 min., USA, Drama/Action/History Writer/Director: Valerie McCaffrey Producers: Brian Kelly Jones, Jennifer Tung, Stefan Simon Cast: Ido Samuel, J. Michael Trautmann, Dallas Hart, Hunter Doohan, James Babson, Clayton Haymes, Stefan Simon, Robert Arce, Connor Linnerooth, Matt Otstot, Windy Hamilton, Tara Soojian Signing his own death wish, a concentration camp prisoner sabotages the construction of the V-2 bomb against the Nazis, while American soldiers struggle to advance against the Germans during “The Battle of the Bulge”, Hitler’s last chance for winning the war. THE FIRST OF MANY 2017, 12:39 min., USA, Drama Producers/Directors: Pamela Guest, Elizabeth Guest Writer: Pamela Guest Cast: Elizabeth Guest, Lawrence Michael Levine, Kristen Slaysman In 1971 a young actress goes on her first audition with surprising, life-changing results. MAN OF THE HOUR 2018, 17:51 min., United Kingdom, Drama/Mystery/Comedy Directors: Linda Ludwig & James Curle Writer: Tom Palmer Producers: Tom Palmer, Linda Ludwig, James Curle Cast: Charlotte Ritchie, Ed White, Oliver Chris, Richard Durden, Tom Palmer, Harriet Green, Tom Stourton, Natasia Demetriou Gemma receives a mysterious invitation to the birthday party of an enigmatic millionaire, Jeremy. She must pass herself off as Jeremy’s old friend and mingle with his glittering guests. But Gemma cannot help but wonder who Jeremy is and why he has tasked her with such a peculiar job – there’s something more to him than meets the eye. SCARLETT-ANGELINA 2017, 9:55 min, Family/Drama, USA Director: Lorette Bayle Writer: Jacqueline K. Ogburn Producers: Nicolas Emiliani, Stephanie Nilles, Lorette Bayle Cast: Madison Calderon, Leif Gantvoort, Anthony Jensen, Rachael Markarian, Thomas Ashworth Scarlett-Angelina is a little girl who knows how to take care of herself, much to the dismay of the small-time crook who kidnaps her. TZEVA ADOM: COLOR RED 2017, 20:25 min., USA/Israel, Drama Director: Michael Horwitz Writer: C. Ashleigh Caldwell Producers: Todd Felderstein, C. Ashleigh Caldwell Cast: Shani Atias, Jack Pitchon, Jonathan Arkin, Danny Boushebel, Kenzie Caplan, Sima Galanti A female Israeli soldier forms an unlikely connection with a Palestinian boy over social media. GOOD MORNING 2017, 12:26 min., USA, Drama/Horror Writer/Director: Elaine Mongeon Producer: Julie M. Anderson Cast: Maya Kazan, Jamie McShane A young woman and her father adapt to terrifying challenges they never expected.LGBTQ FILMS
LADY EVA 2017, 10:45 min., USA/Tonga, Documentary/LGBTQ Directors: Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson Producer: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu A brave young transgender woman sets off on a journey to become her true self in the conservative Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga – with a little inspiration from Tina Turner along the way. COMING OF AGE 2018, 7:26 min., USA, Drama/Romance/LGBTQ Writer/Director: Doug Tompos Producers: Risa Bramon Garcia, Steve Braun, Doug Tompos Cast: Doug Tompos, Adrian Gonzalez In the afterglow of sex, a generation gap opens between two men as they struggle to define trust in the age of open marriage and NSA hookups. CANDACE 2017, 9 min., USA, Comedy/Drama/LGBTQ, Yale School of Drama Director: Emma Weinstein Writer: Emma Weinstein, Stella Baker Producers: Emma Weinstein, Alix Masters, Michael Breslin, Stella Baker Cast: Stella Baker, Moses Ingram Through race, sexuality and dolphin suicide, this 9-minute short looks at the erotic and messy intimacy of childhood best friends trying to figure out how to say goodbye. PRETTY 2018, 9:30 min., USA, Drama/LGBTQ, Young Actors’ Theatre Camp Director: Jim Fall Writer: Jeremy Pitzer Producers: John Ainsworth, Shawn Ryan, Valerie Dohrer Cast: Jeremy Pitzer, Ava Vukic, Sean McCrystal, Riley Blum, Karen Moore, Matt McCoy, Shawn Ryan, Brad Griffith Sam strives to be accepted but worries he will be rejected for being himself. He loves pretty gowns, fancy makeup and sneaking into the local drag show. He soon realizes the only thing holding him back is himself. LIFE IN COLOR 2018, 21 min., USA, Drama/LGBTQ, Santa Monica College Director: Bishal Dutta Writers: Bishal Dutta, Matt McClelland Producer: Olivia Shapiro Executive Producer: Scott Carper Cast: Bart McCarthy, Ioanna Meli, Sean McBride An aging, closeted gay man with Alzheimer’s struggles against his strong-willed daughter to hold on to the memory of the long lost love of his life. EMPIRE ON MAIN STREET 2018, 24 min., USA, Documentary/LGBTQ Director: Jessica Congdon Producer: Eric Holland Cast: Crista Luedtke A tireless entrepreneur jump-starts the transformation of a neglected vacation town, until her ambition pushes her to the brink. THE HOMESTAY 2017, 11:45, USA, Comedy/LGBTQ Writer/Director: Priyanka Mattoo Producers: Priyanka Mattoo, Ursula Camack, Meghan Malloy Cast: Meera Syal, Bernard White, Max Jenkins, Ravi Patel, Sujata Day, Gabe Delahaye A sheltered Indian couple visits their son in the U.S. for the first time and bungles their apartment rental, ending up in close quarters with their hosts, a gay couple and their dog. HAIRCUT: THE MUSICAL! 2017, 6:25 min., USA, Comedy/Musical/LGBTQ, University Southern California Writer/Director: Jason Phillips Producer: Adrian Vega Albela Osorio Cast: Matthew Manhard, Finley Polynice, John Skoubis, Kate Enggren Before Brian Mills leaves for his first year at Princeton University, he must come to terms with his sexual orientation and be honest with himself after some guidance from his trusted barber.