Leon Lee’s “Letter From Masanjia” is the unbelievable true story of an American woman who found an SOS note from a Chinese political prisoner in a box of Halloween decorations. The film has been hailed by audiences and critics alike as one of the best documentaries of 2018, and took home Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival. A devastating tale of human rights violations in current day China with corporate giants across the globe receiving prisoner labor efforts for Halloween decorations, asking no questions in a price for pennies on the dollar. This is the tale of one political prisoners desperate plea to alert the world to horrors most of society sweeps under the carpet.
Parade Deck Films will open “Letter From Masanjia” theatrically in New York and Los Angeles beginning on September 14th, 2018 and will expand into additional markets in the following weeks. Later this year Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, will bring the film to audiences across North America on VOD/Digital platforms on December 4th.
Written and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker and Peabody Award winner, Leon Lee, this astonishing & riveting documentary follows the true story of an Oregon woman who finds a desperate SOS letter penned by a political prisoner in her Halloween decorations and the nail-biting chain of events that it sparks when she takes the letter public, exposing appalling flagrant human rights violations – that leads to sweeping labor reform in China. The impact of what those two unlikely heroes have accomplished is even more profound in today’s rapidly boiling over political climate, not just in China but around the rest of the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRavgm-KPYTerry P.
VIMOOZ is for lovers of independent films + foreign film + documentary + film festivals. We love championing the little films.
-
Leon Lee’s LETTER FROM MASANJIA Sets September 14th Release Date [Trailer]
Leon Lee’s “Letter From Masanjia” is the unbelievable true story of an American woman who found an SOS note from a Chinese political prisoner in a box of Halloween decorations. The film has been hailed by audiences and critics alike as one of the best documentaries of 2018, and took home Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the 2018 Asian American International Film Festival. A devastating tale of human rights violations in current day China with corporate giants across the globe receiving prisoner labor efforts for Halloween decorations, asking no questions in a price for pennies on the dollar. This is the tale of one political prisoners desperate plea to alert the world to horrors most of society sweeps under the carpet.
Parade Deck Films will open “Letter From Masanjia” theatrically in New York and Los Angeles beginning on September 14th, 2018 and will expand into additional markets in the following weeks. Later this year Gravitas Ventures, a Red Arrow Studios company, will bring the film to audiences across North America on VOD/Digital platforms on December 4th.
Written and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker and Peabody Award winner, Leon Lee, this astonishing & riveting documentary follows the true story of an Oregon woman who finds a desperate SOS letter penned by a political prisoner in her Halloween decorations and the nail-biting chain of events that it sparks when she takes the letter public, exposing appalling flagrant human rights violations – that leads to sweeping labor reform in China. The impact of what those two unlikely heroes have accomplished is even more profound in today’s rapidly boiling over political climate, not just in China but around the rest of the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRavgm-KPY
-
Watch Mind-Bending Body Horror Film AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS Trailer + Poster
Dark Sky Films released the official Poster and Trailer for the horror film Await Further Instructions from British director Johnny Kevorkian and co-starring David Bradley of Game Of Thrones, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter fame. Await Further Instructions will open in theaters and on VOD October 5th .
It’s Christmas Day and the Milgram family wake to find a mysterious black substance surrounding their house. Something monumental is clearly happening right outside their door, but what exactly – an industrial accident, a terrorist attack, nuclear war? Descending into terrified arguments, they turn on the television, desperate for any information. On screen a message glows ominously: ‘Stay Indoors and Await Further Instructions’. As the television exerts an ever more sinister grip, their paranoia escalates into bloody carnage.
A powder keg of throat-grabbing intensity and mind-bending body horror, Await Further Instructions is an unmissable tour-de-force from rising star filmmaker Johnny Kevorkian and the BAFTA-nominated producer of God’s Own Country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cExGHt350NE
-
METEORITES and BREEZE Complete New Directors Lineup of 2018 San Sebastian Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_31603" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
QING FENG DE WEI DAO / BREEZE[/caption]
The French film, Les Météorites / Meteorites and the Chinese film, Qing Feng De Wei Dao / Breeze, complete the New Directors selection at the 66th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival.
A graduate from La Fémis, Romain Laguna (Montpellier, France) has directed the short films À trois sur Marianne (2012), Run (2013), Bye Bye mélancolie (2014) and J’mange froid (2015). His first feature film, Les météorites / Meteorites, focusses on a 16 year-old girl who is spending the summer in a town in the South of France and works in a theme park.
Kun Yang, from a small city in the South-West of China’s Yunnan province, studied film directing at the Beijing Film Academy. Qing Feng De Wei Dao / Breeze, his first feature film, revolves around a man’s homecoming journey from Yunnan to the town of his birth.
These two productions join the New Directors selection, which also includes the following titles: Oreina (The Deer, Koldo Almandoz), La camarista (The Chambermaid, Lila Avilés), Apuntes para una película de atracos (Notes for a Heist Film, Elías León Siminiani), Serdtse Mira / Core of the World (Nataliia Meshchaninova), Ama Doren / Hold my hand (Ismet Sijarina), Un om la locul lui / A Decent Man (Hadrian Marcu), Para la guerra (To War, Francisco Marise), Boku wa Iesu-sama ga kirai / Jesus (Hiroshi Okuyama), Julia y el zorro (Julia and the Fox, Ines María Barrionuevo), Der läufer / Midnight Runner (Hannes Baumgartner), Neon Heart (Laurits Flensted-Jensen), The Third Wife (Ash Mayfair) and Viaje al cuarto de una madre (Journey to a Mother’s Room, Celia Rico Clavellino).
This section, forming part of the Festival’s commitment to upcoming film talents, is a platform that lends visibility to their films. The last three winners of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award have been released in Spain: Le nouveau / The New Kid (2015), Park (2016) and Le semeur / The Sower (2017).
LES MÉTÉORITES / METEORITES
ROMAIN LAGUNA (FRANCE)
Nina, a 16-year-old girl, dreams of adventure. Meanwhile, she spends the summer between her village in the south of France and the theme park where she works. Just before meeting Morad, a teenage boy from an Algerian family living in the nearby council houses, Nina sees a meteorite falling from the sky which it seems only she can see… like an omen.
QING FENG DE WEI DAO / BREEZE
KUN YANG (CHINA)
Having left Yunnan, his native city, Yu Zhao moved to Beijing, where he has lived for more than thirty years. Since his retirement, his only occupation has been helping his son in the house and looking after his grandson. When Yu Zhao returns to Yunnan with the intention of starting a new life, he finds that things, his relatives, friends and loves of the past are no longer the way he remembered them. Everything has become colder and more routine. The people he knew now have their own lives and the dream of a new love disappears too. Gradually Yu Zhao realises that Yunnan is no longer his true home, and he decides to return to Beijing.
-
Five Documentary Film Projects Win 2018 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Awards Totaling $125,000
[caption id="attachment_31597" align="aligncenter" width="960"]
In Real Life – Liza Mandelup[/caption]
SFFILM on Friday announced the five winners of the 2018 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund awards totaling $125,000, which support feature-length documentaries in post-production. Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s The Gut (working title), Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, Liza Mandelup’s In Real Life, Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler, and Jessica Kingdon’s Untitled PRC Project, were each awarded funding that will help push each project towards completion.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has a track record for championing important films that in recent years, left a mark on the festival circuit and beyond. Previous winners include RaMell Ross’ Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival; Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award, before being released theatrically by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; among many others.
Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed more than $750,000 to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2018 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to support from Jennifer Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.
2018 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS
The Gut (working title) – Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, director/producer; Jim Sabataso and Asma Bseiso, producers; Jen Bradwell and Youssif Salah, editors – $25,000 Filmed over two years in a small New England community that is struggling to emerge from the opioid epidemic and finds itself caught up in a battle over Syrian refugee resettlement, The Gut closely follows the lives of several intersecting but very different characters to explore what changes — and what doesn’t — when white, rural Americans see themselves in “the other.” Honeyland – Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, co-directors; Atanas Georgiev, producer/editor – $25,000 The last female bee hunter in Europe struggles to save the bees and restore the natural balance when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood. Honeyland is an exploration of an observational Indigenous visual narrative that deeply impacts our behavior towards natural resources and the human condition. In Real Life – Liza Mandelup, director; Lauren Cioffi and Bert Hamelinck, producers; Alex O’Flinn, editor – $25,000 This intimate contemplation on modern youth follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester as he flirts with the world of social media fame. Driven by a wide-eyed desire for stardom, Austyn cultivates a singularly positive online persona that’s at odds with growing up in small-town Tennessee. Midnight Traveler – Hassan Fazili, director; Su Kim, producer; Emelie Mahdavian, producer/editor – $25,000 Midnight Traveler follows a family of Afghan filmmakers on the run from the Taliban. Told from refugee/director Hassan Fazili’s unique first-person perspective, this story provides unprecedented access to the complex refugee experience as it encounters the West. Untitled PRC Project – Jessica Kingdon, director; Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell, producers – $25,000 Untitled PRC Project examines megatrends of today’s China through an impressionistic collage of the new “Chinese Dream.” This observational film reveals paradoxes born from prosperity of the newest world power through the flow of production, consumption, and waste.
-
ALMOST FORTY, I HATE NEW YORK Among Made in Spain Showcase at 2018 San Sebastian International Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_31594" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Sophia Lamar in I Hate New York[/caption]
Made in Spain, the showcase of the Spanish films at the 2018 San Sebastian International Film Festival will spotlight eleven productions, including films by directors Daniel Calparsoro, Isabel Coixet, Álex de la Iglesia, Ramón Salazar and David Trueba. The Festival will also serve as the framework for presentation of the documentary Querido Fotogramas, directed by the Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Oksman.
Among the first works are Mi querida cofradía, by Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz (Ronda, Málaga, 1988), winner at the Malaga Festival of both the Silver Biznaga for Best Supporting Actress (Carmen Flores) and the Audience Award; and I Hate New York, by the journalist and filmmaker Gustavo Sánchez (Úbeda, Jaén, 1978), produced by the Bayona brothers.
Also part of the selection are Diana Toucedo (Pontevedra, 1982) who, having worked on sixteen feature films as an editor and having directed the non-fiction feature En todas as mans, debuted in feature films with Trinta lumes / Thirty Souls, premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale; and Les distàncies (Distances) by Elena Trapé (Barcelona, 1976), recipient of the Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film and of the Silver Biznagas for Best Director and Best Actress (Alexandra Jiménez) in Malaga. Trapé’s first film, Blog, was selected for Zabaltegi-New Directors eight years ago at the Festival, landing a special mention from the RTVE-Otra Mirada Award.
Having worked on eight feature films as an editor, works which have coexisted with her involvement in the film pedagogy project Cinema en curs – which has its corresponding event in San Sebastian through Tabakalera and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (Zinema (h)abian) – Meritxell Colell (Barcelona, 1983) has now directed her first feature film, Con el viento / Amb el vent. Having been selected as a project by the Cinéfondation, the work premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale. Colell will participate with her second feature film project, Dúo, in the Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum.
Among the films by long-standing directors are El aviso (The Warning), the latest work from Daniel Calparsoro (Barcelona, 1968), whose films have been presented in Cannes, Berlin and Venice, as well as at the Festival; The Bookshop, by Isabel Coixet (Barcelona, 1960), winner this year of the Goyas for Best Film, Director and Adapted Screenplay; Perfectos desconocidos (Perfect Strangers), latest proposal from the filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia (Bilbao, 1965), a frequent participant in San Sebastian Festival’s Official Selection with several films including La comunidad (Common Wealth, Silver Shell for Carmen Maura), Las brujas de Zugarramurdi (Witching & Bitching) and Mi gran noche (My Big Night); La enfermedad del domingo (Sunday’s Illness) by Ramón Salazar (Málaga, 1973), participant in the Panorama section of the Berlinale; and Casi 40 (Almost 40) by David Trueba (Madrid, 1969), the sequel of his first work, La buena vida (The Good Life), winner of the Jury Special Prize in Malaga. Trueba’s previous feature, Vivir con los ojos cerrados (Living is Easy with Eyes Closed), competed in San Sebastian’s Official Selection and won six Goya awards, including Best Film.
CASI 40 (ALMOST FORTY)
DAVID TRUEBA (SPAIN)
Lucía was a successful singer until separation of the duo that had made her a sensation and earned her fame drove her to a somewhat marginal position in the industry. Now she lives a more stable life, married and with two children, retired from the world of show business. But the plans of an old boyfriend from the days of her youth to make a small concert tour of several Spanish cities give her the excuse to get back onto the road. About to turn 40, the two will have to bear the intimate price of giving up on their life ideals.
CON EL VIENTO – AMB EL VENT (FACING THE WIND)
MERITXELL COLELL (SPAIN – ARGENTINA – FRANCE)
Mónica, a 47 year-old dancer, receives a phone call from Spain: her father is seriously ill. Twenty years down the line, she must return to the remote Burgos town of her birth. By the time she gets there, her father is dead. Her mother, to whom she has hardly spoken in all these years, asks her for help to sell the family house. Winter arrives. The perpetual silence, the extreme cold, and having to deal with her family will be harsh trials for Mónica, who will take refuge in the place she knows best: dancing. The film combines dance, documentary and independent film to construct a singular tale of family ties and relations in a universe of women.
EL AVISO (THE WARNING)
DANIEL CALPARSORO (SPAIN)
We are in 2008. Young Jon is a mathematical whiz kid obsessed with numerical reasoning. He’s a genius whose schizophrenia has deprived him of a promising scientific career, so that he has to make do with a job in a photocopying shop. One night like many others, on leaving work, Jon and his best friend, David, head for a petrol station to buy drinks for a dinner with Andrea, a childhood friend of both and the girlfriend David is about to propose to. David goes into the shop while Jon waits for him in the car. Just then there is a robbery and David is hit by a bullet that leaves him in an irreversible coma. From then on Jon will stop taking his medication and, crippled by guilt, start looking for meaning in his friend’s murder. He investigates past robberies until finally finding a common mathematical pattern to them. Continuing with this logic, he comes to the conclusion that Nico, a 10 year-old boy, will be murdered in the same place.
I HATE NEW YORK
GUSTAVO SÁNCHEZ (SPAIN)
New York, 2007-2017. Over a decade, and filming only with a home video camera and no script, the director delves into the private world of Amanda Lepore, Chloe Dzubilo, Sophia Lamar and T De Long; four artists and transgender activists from the city’s underground scene. Little by little, their testimonies reveal fragments of a past –sometimes dramatic, always fascinating and simply extraordinary– that formed their identities and transformed their lives. Their words, fears and hopes take the audience from an outsider’s point of view to being emotionally invested in their destiny.
LA ENFERMEDAD DEL DOMINGO (SUNDAY’S ILLNESS)
RAMÓN SALAZAR (SPAIN)
Driven by her husband’s diplomatic career, Anabel dedicates her life to philanthropy. Her selfless devotion to helping others has increased her popularity, and she is the go-to person in her exclusive circle when it comes to obtaining donations for humanitarian organisations. It is precisely at one of these charity dinners that she runs back into her past on recognising one of the waitresses providing the catering service as being her daughter Chiara, the girl she had abandoned at the age of eight and whom she hasn’t seen for thirty-five years. It’s no chance she’s there; Chiara has been looking for her. Mother and daughter embark on a journey into the past, alone, with a hard road before them in the attempt to recover thirty-five years in barely ten days. Or that’s what Anabel believes. The thing is that this journey has a hidden purpose for Chiara. And when Anabel discovers it she will have to make the most difficult decision of her life, after which she will never be the same again.
LES DISTÀNCIES (DISTANCES)
ELENA TRAPÉ (SPAIN)
Olivia, Eloy, Guille and Anna travel to Berlin to surprise their friend Comas with a visit for his 35th birthday. He doesn’t give them the welcome they expected and during the weekend their contradictions grow and their friendship is put to the test. Together they will discover that time and distance can change everything.
MI QUERIDA COFRADÍA (HOPELESSLY DEVOUT)
MARTA DÍAZ DE LOPE DÍAZ (SPAIN)
Carmen, a middle-aged woman from Malaga, Catholic and apostolic, is about to see her lifelong dream come true: to be president of her brotherhood. It will be the first time that a woman will have achieved such an honour. But finally her fellow members decide to choose her biggest rival, a man named Ignacio. Everything becomes even more complicated for Carmen on the day of the Easter procession, when she is involved in a situation she can only get out of with the help of the women around her.
PERFECTOS DESCONOCIDOS (PERFECT STRANGERS)
ÁLEX DE LA IGLESIA (SPAIN)
Four couples meet for dinner on the night of a lunar eclipse. A night of friendship and laughs, until suddenly the idea emerges: Why not do something different? What would happen if we left the mobile phones on the table within reach of everybody? Entire lives shared by everyone as they happen… An innocent game or a dangerous suggestion? Will the group of friends be able to withstand such a degree of sincerity, even if it is only for a time?
QUERIDO FOTOGRAMAS
SERGIO OKSMAN (SPAIN)
The 70th anniversary of the Fotogramas magazine comes in the shape of a sentimental voyage through the history of Spanish cinema thanks to a mosaic of voices represented by people who make films, those who write them and those who consume them. The documentary pays tribute to the readers of Fotogramas helped by the leading figures of Spanish cinema, who will read to the camera the most representative letters received at its offices in the history of the magazine.
THE BOOKSHOP
ISABEL COIXET (SPAIN – UK)
In the late ‘50s, Florence Green decides to make one of her greatest dreams come true: to leave London and open a small bookshop on the British coast. But to her surprise, the decision will trigger all sorts of reactions among the locals.
TRINTA LUMES / THIRTY SOULS
DIANA TOUCEDO (SPAIN)
Alba is 12 years old and eager to discover the unknown, mysterious and fascinating side of death. With her best friend Samuel they enter abandoned houses, wander around rundown villages and make their way into the mountains with their hidden parallel world. A voyage starting from innocence to discover the mystery of the struggle between life and death.
-
Boy Erased, Shoplifters, Can You Ever Forgive Me? Among First Wave of Films for 2018 Austin Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_31589" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Melissa McCarthy in the film CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? Photo by Mary Cybulski. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved[/caption]
Austin Film Festival revealed the first wave of films in their 25th-anniversary program, taking place October 25 to November 1. Included in this first announcement is Boy Erased, written and directed by Joel Edgerton and based on Garrard Conley’s memoir about a gay teenager forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program. The film stars Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman. AFF will also host the regional premiere of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, directed by Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) and starring Melissa McCarthy as real-life controversial celebrity biographer Lee Israel.
Also playing AFF this year is Little Woods, Nia DaCosta’s directorial debut starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James as estranged sisters in a North Dakota fracking boomtown and The Long Dumb Road, Hannah Fidell’s new road trip comedy starring Tony Revolori and Jason Mantzoukas. This year’s Cannes Palme D’or winner Shoplifters, directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, will also join the fest’s slate.
AFF will host a variety of World Premieres, including horror/thriller The Black String, which stars Frankie Muniz as a lonely store clerk who is plagued by illness and nightmarish visions and believes he is the target of a sinister plot. Other world premieres so far announced include family cult drama Fishbowl, faith-grappling drama Speaking in Tongues, and high school football documentary Fathers of Football, directed by Austin local Bradley Beesley.
As part of its continuing retrospective series, AFF will host a screening of Roger Corman’s 1957 cult classic Rock All Night, presented by Robert Rodriguez and Corman himself, already announced as AFF’s Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking honoree this year.
2018 Austin Film Festival FIRST WAVE
The Black String World Premiere Writers: Brian Hanson, Richard Handley Director: Brian Hanson Starring: Frankie Muniz, Cullen Douglas, Chelsea Edmundson After a lonely convenience store clerk goes on a blind date with a mysterious woman, his world begins to unravel in horrifying fashion. Plagued by illness and nightmarish visions, the clerk desperately searches the suburbs for this mysterious woman. His friends and family believe he’s losing his mind, but he believes he’s the target of a sinister occult plot. Boy Erased Writer/Director: Joel Edgerton Starring: Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Writers: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty Director: Marielle Heller Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Julie Ann Emery In CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling celebrity biographer (and cat lover) who made her living in the 1970’s and 80’s profiling the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee found herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace, she turned her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant). Fathers of Football World Premiere Director: Bradley Beesley Fathers of Football follows the triumphs and struggles of life in a small Oklahoma town, where high school football is not only the brightest stage, but also the best ticket out. Fishbowl World Premiere Writers: Stephen Kinigopoulos, Piero Iberti Directors: Stephen Kinigopoulos, Alexa Kinigopoulos Starring: Rick Kain, Belle Shickle, Emily Peachey, Caroline Coleman In a small town filled with secrets, a struggling family prepares for the Rapture. Little Woods Writer/Director: Nia DaCosta Starring: Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Lance Reddick A modern Western that tells the story of two sisters, Ollie and Deb, who are driven to work outside the law to better their lives. The Long Dumb Road Writers: Hannah Fidell, Carson Mell Director: Hannah Fidell Starring: Tony Revolori, Jason Mantzoukas, Taissa Farmiga, Ron Livingston, College-bound teenager Nat offers itinerant 30-something mechanic Richard a ride during a stop-over in small-town Texas Rock All Night (1957) presented by Roger Corman and Robert Rodriguez Writer: Charles B. Griffith Director: Roger Corman Cloud Nine, the local teen hangout, has been taken over by a pair of escaped killers, who hold the local teens hostage. The bartender realizes it’s up to him to save the kids. Shoplifters Writer/Director: Hirokazu Koreeda Starring: Lily Franky, Ando Sakura, Matsuoka Mayu After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them Speaking in Tongues World Premiere Writers: Nathan Deming, Lawrie Doran Director: Nathan Deming A lonely college student grieving the loss of his mother finds purpose at a local mega church’s summer internship evangelizing the ‘lost.’ As the summer continues, his new faith is put to the test.
-
Watch Ramaa Mosley’s Gripping PTSD Thriller LOST CHILD Trailer + Poster
Lost Child by Ramaa Mosley stars Hunger Games and True Detective alum Leven Rambin and follows an army veteran, Fern, who returns home in order to look for her brother, only to discover an abandoned boy lurking in the woods behind her childhood home. After taking in the boy, she searches for clues to his identity, and discovers the local folklore about a malevolent, life-draining spirit that comes in the form of a child. The film opens in theaters on September 14, 2018.
Ramaa Mosley is a Director/Writer who made her first film at the age of 16 years old winning the prestigious United Nation’s Global 500 Award. Over the past twenty years, Mosley has directed feature films and hundreds of of award winning commercials building a career directing action and genuine human stories. Mosley directed her debut feature film, based on the original comic book she co-wrote, titled The Brass Teapot starring Juno Temple which premiered at TIFF and was distributed by Magnolia pictures in 2013. It was nominated for the International Critics’ Award (FIPRESCI) and a Saturn Award.
Lost Child is written/directed by Ramaa Mosley (The Brass Teapot) along with producer/writer Tim Macy.
Mosley was recently named as part of NBC’s inaugural class for its new “Female Forward” directors initiative which will provide female directors a pipeline into scripted television. She has been paired with the hit show “Blindspot”.
-
PHANTON THREAD Voted FIPRESCI 2018 Grand Prix for Best Film of the Year [Trailer]
[caption id="attachment_25911" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Phantom Thread[/caption]
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread starring Daniel Day-Lewis has been voted Best Film of 2018 by the members of FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. The vote was decided by 473 critics from all over the world, who chose this production from among all of the films premiered after 1 July 2017. The other three finalists were Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri by Martin McDonagh (City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award 2017), Zimna wojna / Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski, Best Director Award in Cannes, and Zama, by Lucrecia Martel.
This is the third time that Paul Thomas Anderson will have received the award in San Sebastian. In 2008 he received the accolade for his film There Will Be Blood and in 2000, for Magnolia. The North American filmmaker has received the Golden Bear in Berlin for Magnolia, the Best Director Award in Cannes for Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and the Silver Bear for Best Director and two Academy Awards with There Will Be Blood.
Since its creation in 1999, the Fipresci Grand Prix has gone to highly-acclaimed filmmakers including Pedro Almodóvar, Michael Haneke, Cristian Mungiu, Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Linklater, Roman Polanski, George Miller, Maren Ade and Aki Kaurismäki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNsiQMeSvMk
PHANTOM THREAD
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON (USA)
Renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock is at the centre of British fashion. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, until he comes across the young Alma, who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love. With his latest film, Paul Thomas Anderson paints an illuminating portrait both of an artist on a creative journey, and the women who keep his world running.
-
NY Film Festival Announces Special Events + Premiere of Barry Jenkins’s IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
[caption id="attachment_31277" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
If Beale Street Could Talk[/caption]
The Special Events section for the 56th New York Film will feature the U.S. premiere of If Beale Street Could Talk will at the world famous Apollo Theater, the first time that the festival will present a screening at the historic theater. The film was largely shot in New York City, including many Harlem locations. In celebration of the vibrant community and their support of the film, Annapurna, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Apollo Theater will work together to present a host of outreach programs. Local students as well as Harlem residents will be among the first audiences invited to see the James Baldwin adaptation, in the neighborhood that is home to its characters. The film will also screen on the Lincoln Center campus during the festival.
Writer-director Barry Jenkins said, “It’s been an honor working with the estate to bring this piece of James Baldwin’s legacy to the screen. From the birthplace of Baldwin to the streets and homes within which we made this film, the honor is doubly felt in the NYFF’s generous offer to widen its borders for our U.S. premiere: up on 125th Street, in the community Jimmy forever knew as HOME.”
The Festival will screen Orson Welles’s long-awaited The Other Side of the Wind, finally completed by his collaborators this year, which follows the last night in the life of a legendary Hollywood filmmaker as he completes his final film. Wind will screen alongside Morgan Neville’s in-depth documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, which uncovers the fascinating story behind Welles’s last completed film, 50 years in the making.
Rex Ingram’s World War I epic The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), the breakout film for iconic silent actor Rudolph Valentino, will screen on a beautiful 35mm print from Martin Scorsese’s collection, accompanied by the North American premiere of a new live score written and performed by a five-piece orchestra led by Matthew Nolan.
The sixth annual Film Comment Presents selections are Ali Abbasi’s genre-friendly fantasy-drama Border, which won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award, and The Wild Pear Tree, an intimate portrait of a promising but adrift young literary graduate from Turkish Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, NYFF49). In previous years, Film Comment has championed films such as Sergei Loznitsa’s A Gentle Creature, Terence Davies’s A Quiet Passion, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, and László Nemes’s Son of Saul. The magazine will also host three live events: a roundtable discussion with a trio of NYFF filmmakers about their experiences as movie lovers and creators, a dialogue on representation in cinema, and a critical wrap report of the festival’s highs and lows. All three will also be recorded for the weekly Film Comment Podcast.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Dir. Rex Ingram, USA, 1921, 132m, 35mm
Rex Ingram’s adaptation of the famous novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez gave us one of cinema’s greatest antiwar films and catapulted actor Rudolph Valentino into history as one of the first screen idols. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a devastating epic centered around a divided Argentine family fighting on opposite sides during World War I. Famously remembered for the cool, sensual, and powerful tango sequence lead by Valentino, the film endures for Ingram’s meticulous attention to mise en scène—beautiful and macabre compositions alike—and the nuanced performances from a cast including Alice Terry and Josef Swickard. The Film Society is pleased to present the North American premiere of a live score written and performed by Matthew Nolan (electric guitar/electronics), Seán Mac Erlaine (reeds/electronics/vocal), Adrian Crowley (Mellotron/vocal), Kevin Murphy (cello/vocal), and Barry Adamson (bass guitar/percussion/synths/vocal). The score was commissioned by and premiered at the St. Patrick’s Festival Dublin in March 2018. Supported by Culture Ireland. Special 35mm print courtesy of Martin Scorsese from the M.S. Collection at the George Eastman Museum. The Other Side of the Wind Dir. Orson Welles, USA, 2018, 122m Cinema lovers around the world have been waiting to see this legendary movie for more than 40 years. Orson Welles started shooting in 1970 with a precarious funding scheme, an ever-mutating script, and the lead role of Jake Hannaford, an old-guard macho Hollywood director at the end of his tether, yet to be cast. When he died fifteen years later, the film was not only unfinished but in legal limbo. Almost 50 years after Welles started shooting, The Other Side of the Wind has finally been completed by Welles’s collaborators. The film features a collection of actors as eclectic as the cast of Touch of Evil, including John Huston as Hannaford, Peter Bogdanovich, Oja Kodar, Edmund O’Brien, Susan Strasberg, Lilli Palmer, Paul Stewart, Mercedes McCambridge, Cameron Mitchell, Paul Mazursky, Henry Jaglom, Claude Chabrol, and, in a movie-stealing performance as Hannaford’s right-hand man, Welles’s old collaborator Norman Foster. A Netflix release. They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead Dir. Morgan Neville, USA, 2018, 98m The story of the making of The Other Side of the Wind is as engrossing and rich in character and incident, and perhaps even more epic in scale, than the film itself. Morgan Neville’s documentary complements and deepens the experience of Welles’s film by placing it within the context of his life and career, setting the scene and the particular mood of Hollywood in the early 1970s, and chronicling every last creative, legal, financial, and behavioral twist and turn on the circuitous road from the first set-up to the first official screening almost 50 years later. The title, of course, comes from none other than Welles himself. A Netflix release. FILM COMMENT AT NYFF
Film Comment Presents:
Border Dir. Ali Abbasi, Sweden/Denmark, 2018, 108m Scandinavian mythology makes for a visceral fantastical drama on the mystery of identity in this adaptation of a story by Let the Right One In writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. Ali Abbasi’s twisty Cannes award-winner (Un Certain Regard, 2018) centers on a customs inspector, Tina, who possesses the ability to sniff out contraband and moral corruption. Her findings lead her into a criminal investigation, but the heart of Border lies with Tina, who tires of her deadbeat roommate and experiences a full-bodied awakening like little else seen on screen. Grounding it all is Eva Melander’s outstanding, minutely sensitive performance, the true north for Abbasi’s genre-driven momentum. A NEON release. The Wild Pear Tree Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey, 2018, 188m The gorgeous backdrop of rolling country and idyllic farmland are cold comfort to the frustrated hero of The Wild Pear Tree. Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) captures the wrenching struggles of a bright literary graduate, Sinan (Aydın Doğu Demirko), who is trying to take flight in a world he can’t entirely accept. Ceylan revives a deeply humanist cinema of ideas in tracking Sinan’s path through the more urgent questions of youth, romance, religious orthodoxy, and shaking off the burdens of your family—without ennobling the all-too-human Sinan. Often shooting in unbroken takes, Ceylan compellingly “renders the frustrations of this young man as so much misplaced passion” (Kent Jones, Film Comment). A Cinema Guild release.Film Comment Live:
The Cinema of Experience At this year’s NYFF, filmmakers are rising to the challenge of representing diverse experiences at a pivotal time in our nation’s history. Our guests will discuss how cinematic technique is used to reflect such experiences and what is different about the latest generation of storytelling. Filmmakers Chat For the third year, Film Comment gives you the rare chance to see some of today’s most important filmmakers in dialogue with each other. A selection of directors whose films are screening at this edition of NYFF will talk together in a discussion moderated by Film Comment editor-in-chief Nicolas Rapold. Festival Wrap In what is becoming an annual tradition, Film Comment contributing critics and editors gather for the festival’s last weekend and talk about the films they’ve seen, discussing—or arguing about—the selections in the lineup, from Main Slate and beyond.
-
49 Feature Films Eligible for European Film Awards 2018
BORG/McENROE 49 films have been named by the European Film Academy for this year’s EFA Feature Film Selection,
-
SingularDTV Sets Release Date for Alex Winter’s Documentary TRUST MACHINE: THE STORY OF BLOCKCHAIN [Trailer]
Blockchain entertainment studio SingularDTV is releasing its first feature-length documentary, Alex Winter’s Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain in New York on October 26, and Los Angeles on November 16.
Always one step ahead in signaling technology’s seismic shifts, Alex Winter has built up a body of work that documents how innovation changes the way people live their daily lives. DOWNLOADED (2013, SXSW) explored the downloading revolution and how Napster and file-sharing took on the music industry, leaving musicians wondering about royalty payments and copyrights. DEEP WEB (2015, San Francisco International Film Festival, Sheffield International Documentary Festival) revealed a new kind of internet: decentralized, encrypted and dangerous; with particular focus on the FBI capture of the Tor hidden service Silk Road, and the judicial aftermath.
In his newest documentary Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain, Alex Winter drills down on blockchain, the decentralized technology that supports cryptocurrencies. Why are banks terrified while UNICEF Ventures embraces it to help refugee children? Winter follows tech innovators striking a raw nerve as banks and network pundits rush to condemn volatile cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. British hacktivist Lauri Love fights extradition—his computer skills perceived a threat to the US government. Through the film, Winter reveals that the proponents of the blockchain—a verified digital ledger—are already using the technology to change the world; fighting income inequality, the refugee crisis and world hunger. Narrated by Rosario Dawson.
Alex Winter on his inspiration for Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain:“The idea of a verifiable ledger is a problem that’s been in search of a solution for a really long time. I got into this working on DOWNLOADED (2013). When I was making my film DEEP WEB (2015), funnily enough, I still had very little interest in bitcoin. Then the world got really confusing with blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and decentralization.
Bitcoin matters, but blockchain is really where the changes are going to come. There are huge changes happening in human culture right now. Never has something like this happened before, ever. And it is fascinating to me. That’s why I really wanted to make this documentary.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMlqIoUVnLo
-
Watch Trailer + Poster for Salsa Music/Dance Drama SHINE Set in New York’s Spanish Harlem
The new trailer and poster is here for the salsa music/dance drama Shine set in New York’s Spanish Harlem, directed by Anthony Nardolillo, and starring Jorge Burgos, Gilbert Saldivar, Kimberli Flores, Jadi Collado, Musetta Vander, with Alysia Reiner, and David Zayas. The film will be released in theaters on October 5, 2018.
Two Puerto Rican brothers, Ralphi Matas (Jorge Burgos) and Junior (Gilbert Saldivar), from New York’s Spanish Harlem and the street’s best Salsa dancers, are separated after a tragedy only to reunite years later on opposing sides of gentrification.
After 7 years of absence from New York City, Ralphi is back to develop commercial real estate in his old neighborhood. However, upon his return, Ralphi encounters his estranged brother, Junior, who followedin his father’s footsteps, Ramon Matas (David Zayas), and is now an elite salsa dancer and an unwavering activist AGAINST gentrification in the neighborhood.
While having to face his past in order to succeed in the present, Ralphi must confront his boss Linda (Alysia Reiner) who is aggressively pursuing the lucrative development deal that brought him back to the city he was born, and thus is driving the wedge even further between him and his brother.
On the other side, when Josie (Kimberli Flores), the new owner of their father’s dance studio, reveals she is behind on the mortgage payments. Junior rallies the local dance community to raise funds against all odds to save the dance studio, DESPITE the gentrification efforts of his brother.
While the brothers have chosen opposite paths thus far, they are brought back together when Tio Julio (Nelson Gonzales) reminds them of the power of family and the importance of their community.