Rockaway[/caption]
The Long Beach International Film Festival (LBIFF) in Long Beach, NY, announced its diverse lineup of feature-length documentaries, feature-length narrative films, and short films screening from August 1 to August 4, 2018.
“This festival began seven years ago with the screening of 12 films, and we’ve more than quadrupled in size over the last few years, gaining international interest and exposure. It’s an honor to be a part of this annual event that brings smiles and laughs to the thousands of attendees and their families who travel from near and far to view the talent involved in the festival,” said LBIFF Founder Craig Weintraub.
Four days of industry celebrations and sophisticated culinary events will be held on Long Beach, New York’s pristine, popular beachfront at the glamorous Allegria Hotel. Daily film screenings, including Opening Night and Closing Night, will be hosted at the newly renovated Regal Lynbrook 13 & RPX.
“With Lynbrook’s deep roots in Hollywood’s film history,” Lynbrook Mayor Alan Beach said, “it is only appropriate that Lynbrook host the Film Festival at its new state of the art Movie Theatre. We wish theatre patrons for this year’s Festival a warm welcome, as they shop and dine in Lynbrook,” the Mayor added.
Terry P.
VIMOOZ is for lovers of independent films + foreign film + documentary + film festivals. We love championing the little films.
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Long Beach International Film Festival in NY Announces 2018 Lineup, Closes with ROCKAWAY
[caption id="attachment_24999" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Rockaway[/caption]
The Long Beach International Film Festival (LBIFF) in Long Beach, NY, announced its diverse lineup of feature-length documentaries, feature-length narrative films, and short films screening from August 1 to August 4, 2018.
“This festival began seven years ago with the screening of 12 films, and we’ve more than quadrupled in size over the last few years, gaining international interest and exposure. It’s an honor to be a part of this annual event that brings smiles and laughs to the thousands of attendees and their families who travel from near and far to view the talent involved in the festival,” said LBIFF Founder Craig Weintraub.
Four days of industry celebrations and sophisticated culinary events will be held on Long Beach, New York’s pristine, popular beachfront at the glamorous Allegria Hotel. Daily film screenings, including Opening Night and Closing Night, will be hosted at the newly renovated Regal Lynbrook 13 & RPX.
“With Lynbrook’s deep roots in Hollywood’s film history,” Lynbrook Mayor Alan Beach said, “it is only appropriate that Lynbrook host the Film Festival at its new state of the art Movie Theatre. We wish theatre patrons for this year’s Festival a warm welcome, as they shop and dine in Lynbrook,” the Mayor added.
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I AM NOT A WITCH, Rungano Nyoni’s Provocative Film on Witchcraft in Zambia to Open on September 7 [Trailer]
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I AM NOT A WITCH[/caption]
I Am Not a Witch, the debut award-winning feature film from Zambian-born Welsh director Rungano Nyoni is described as a striking satire about witchcraft in contemporary Zambia. The film will open on September 7th at Quad Cinema and BAMCinematek in New York City with additional markets to follow.
Nominated for a 2018 Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film and a Golden Camera Award at Cannes, I Am Not a Witch, from the Zambian-born Welsh director Rungano Nyoni is a striking satire about witchcraft in contemporary Zambia. When eight-year-old Shula turns up alone and unannounced in a rural village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to a full-blown witch trial, where she is found guilty and sentenced to life on a state-run witch camp. There, she is tethered to a long white ribbon and told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. As the days pass, Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision – whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom.
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Rungano Nyoni[/caption]
At times moving, often funny and occasionally surreal, I Am Not a Witch offers spellbinding storytelling with flashes of anarchic humor, showcasing Nyoni as the birth of a significant new screen voice. Festival audiences and juries also agreed, bestowing more than 20 nominations on I Am Not a Witch, including the AFI Fest Audience Award and a nod for “Best British Independent Film”. It has also captured nine awards from “Best Film” at the 2017 Adelaide Film Festival and “Best Directorial Debut” at the Stockholm Film Festival to “Best Director”, “Breakthrough Producer” (Emily Morgan) at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards and Nyoni’s BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_0NUA0aEpg
SELECT THEATRICAL DATES
9/7: Quad Cinema & BAMcinematek – NYC 9/7-9: Portland Museum of Art – ME 9/14: Laemmle Glendale – Los Angeles 9/14: Northwest Film Forum – Seattle WA 9/14: The Texas Theater – Dallas TX 9/16: Alamo Drafthouse – Yonkers NY 9/21:The Parkway – Baltimore MD 9/21: The Roxie – San Francisco CA 9/21: The Lyric Cinema – Fort Collins CO 9/28: SIE Film Center – Denver CO 9/28: The Hippodrome – Gainesville FL 10/12: Living Room Theater – Portland OR 10/12: State Theater – Modesto CA 10/19: Living Room Theater – Boca Raton FL
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Watch New Trailer for Thai prison Boxing Film A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN Starring Joe Cole
A24 today released the brand new trailer and poster for Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s A Prayer Before Dawn based on a remarkable true story and set in a real Thai prison. A Prayer Before Dawn starring Joe Cole is available now exclusively on DIRECTV, and will be open in theaters on August 10.
A Prayer Before Dawn is the remarkable true story of Billy Moore, a young English boxer incarcerated in two of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. He is quickly thrown into a terrifying world of drugs and gang violence, but when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, he realizes this might be his chance to get out. Billy embarks on a relentless, action-packed journey from one savage fight to the next, stopping at nothing to do whatever he must to preserve his life and regain his freedom. Shot in a an actual Thai prison with a cast of primarily real inmates, A Prayer Before Dawn is a visceral, thrilling journey through an unforgettable hell on earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oywjMHMXids
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Venice Intl. Film Critics’ Week Unveils 2018 Poster Honoring Stefano Tamburini
The Venice International Film Critics’ Week dedicates the poster of its 33rd edition to the unforgettable and stunning creative genius of Stefano Tamburini. Graphic designer and narrator through images, Tamburini greatly experimented with different techniques and visual languages, both in comics and in editorial and advertising graphic design, until he prematurely passed away in 1986. In his brief but intense career, Tamburini marked the history of Italian and international graphic design. The image chosen to represent the 2018 edition of the Venice Film Critics’ Week was created as an editorial illustration and first appeared in issue 11 of Frigidaire magazine. It shows one of the main techniques used by Tamburini, who ransacked fashion magazines and recreated its images through collages of colored cardboards, with an eye on Matisse’s papier découpé and on the advertising illustrations by futurist artist Fortunato Depero. By choosing Tamburini, the Venice Film Critics’ Week goes back to the future, paying homage to an innovative and avant-garde artist who almost forty decades ago re-invented the world of images with a series of extraordinary, ground-breaking “debut artworks”, that still today, carry an astonishing strength of rupture and freshness.
The General Delegate of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week, Giona A. Nazzaro, explained: “Stefano Tamburini embodies the most lively and creative energy of 1977.’You need muscle to do graphic design,’ he used to say. His work announced a clear break with the past. Politics, fashion, music, comics, and graphic design: nothing will ever be the same after the Tamburini tsunami. On Italian graphic design and comics, he had the same devastating impact as the Sex Pistols did on music: a feverish laboratory, pulsing with life, energy and future. Creator of the controversial anti-hero Ranxerox and author of unprecedented musical cut-ups, he is a rallying call for all the creative insurgencies that signposted ‘77. By paying homage to Tamburini, the Venice Critics’ Week consciously aspires to bridge the gap between yesterday’s creative urges and the best energies of today’s finest cinema. A rite of passage. Because the future is not yet written. And the future of cinema even less so.”
Stefano Tamburini (1955 – 1986) – After his debut in 1974 in the underground magazine Combinazioni, Tamburini starts to collaborate as a graphic designer and illustrator for Stampa Alternativa, a counter-information agency based in Rome. Three years later, he actively participates in the actions and struggle of the ‘77 Movement, depicting its mood in the pages of Cannibale, a magazine he created together with Massimo Mattioli, Filippo Scozzari, Andrea Pazienza and Tanino Liberatore. With Liberatore they soon strengthen a fruitful artistic collaboration that will bring to life Ranxerox, the comic book character that will make him famous. In 1980, with Vincenzo Spagna and Filippo Scozzari he founds the monthly comic magazine Frigidaire, which becomes a true space for his graphic experimentation: from collages with coloured cardboard and leftover printing material found in the typography room, to the use of nail polish on fashion photographs, from distorted photocopies to the manipulation of Polaroids. For Frigidaire he also creates comics with non-conventional techniques: painting on fashion photographs or using distorted photocopies combined with Copy Art technique. Furthermore, Tamburini signs a column under the pseudonym Red Vinyle, with which he incarnates an arrogant and ruthless music critic. In those same years, he starts writing lyrics, put to music by Maurizio Marsico, with whom he creates musical and artistic performances in hip places. While Ranxerox’s popularity grows, expanding his presence in the most important international comic books, Tamburini undertakes new creative paths in advertising and fashion. In 1986, at the peak of his success, he passed away. He is only 33 years old.
The Venice International Film Critics’ Week is the independent and parallel section organized by the National Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) during the 75th Venice International Film Festival (29th August – 8th September 2018).
CREDITS: © 1981-2018 Alessandra and Enrico Tamburini
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Immersive Storytelling Program and More New Programming Added to 2018 LA Film Festival
The LA Film Festival, which is moving to the fall this year, will include an immersive storytelling program curated by Jacqueline Lyanga, Guest Director, VR and Immersive Storytelling, in partnership with Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television; We the People, a two-day summit committed to advancing inclusion within the entertainment industry; a partnership with the International Documentary Association’s biannual conference, Getting Real ’18; and a benefit dinner celebrating 25 years of Project Involve, honoring Effie T. Brown, Jon M. Chu, Cherien Dabis and Charles D. King. The upcoming 24th edition of the Festival, under the leadership of Festival Director Jennifer Cochis, will take place September 20 to 28, 2018.
“The evolution of the LA Film Festival continues!” said Jennifer Cochis, Festival Director. “The new partnerships formed with kindred and beloved organizations like LMU’s School of Film and Television and the International Documentary Association are radical, connecting creators in brand new ways. Jacqueline Lyanga will helm the LA Film Festival’s first foray into immersive storytelling as Guest Director, VR and Immersive Storytelling. She is a talented and distinguished tastemaker in our global festival community. The pieces and experiences she will curate are not just of the moment; these are the storytellers of the future. The Festival is also expanding our inclusion summit, We the People, to allow us to continue to be leaders within the broader industry dialogue as we continue to work towards solutions for parity across Hollywood.”
Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent added, “Project Involve has worked to make this industry more inclusive for a quarter of a century. We are taking this moment to celebrate the work of Project Involve alumni like, Effie T. Brown, Jon M. Chu and Cherien Dabis, as well as industry leaders like Charles D. King. These are the people who are bringing the change, and we’re so happy to honor them at the Festival this year, and to help raise funds to support the program into the future.”
This year marks the launch of an immersive storytelling section of the Festival, in partnership with LMU’s School of Film and Television, Jacqueline Lyanga (former Director, AFI FEST) will curate this section of the Festival as Guest Director, VR and Immersive Storytelling. This section will showcase exemplary, daring new work in a variety of new media platforms including VR, AI and AR. This two-day experience will be free to the public and take place September 22-23, at the new LMU Playa Vista Campus, located in the heart of Silicon Beach, the hub for innovative technology and digital entertainment.
Continuing to advance the inclusion conversation, the Festival is launching We the People, a two-day summit that is a participatory, solution-oriented call to action. Over the course of two days at the Writers Guild Theatre, September 22 and 23, We the People will feature free panel discussions and keynote conversations addressing issues of representation and inclusion in the industry. Panelists include Tre’vell Anderson (LA Times), Russell Boast (president, CSA), Kate Hagan (The Black List), Teresa Huang (SEAL Team), Our Lady J (Pose), Franklin Leonard (The Black List), Nic Novicki (Founder Easterseals Disability Film Challenge), Natasha Rottweil (Insecure), Krista Suh (Co-Founder, Pussyhat movement), Steven James Tingus (board member, RespectAbility), Gail Williamson (talent agent, KMR & Associates) and more to be announced. The conversations will range from the state of the entertainment industry’s inclusion efforts both on screen and behind the camera, in addition to how women, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ+, Native Americans, people with disabilities and people of color are represented.
On the evening of Saturday, September 22, a benefit dinner will be held to celebrate 25 years of Project Involve, the organization’s mentorship initiative for underrepresented voices in the industry. The benefit dinner will honor Project Involve Fellows Effie T. Brown (Real Women Have Curves, Dear White People), Jon M. Chu (GI Joe: Retaliation, Crazy Rich Asians), Cherien Dabis (Amreeka, Empire) and MACRO’s Founder & CEO Charles D. King (Mudbound, Fences) at the home of Catharine and Jeffrey Soros. The event is chaired by long-time program supporter Chaz Ebert. For more information on tickets and tables, contact Jennifer Murby at jmurby@filmindependent.org.
The Festival is also adding a partnership with the International Documentary Association to expand Film Independent and the Festival’s support of the documentary community. The Festival is introducing a Documentary Pass and centering its documentary programming at ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood to make it easily accessible to attendees of the IDA’s conference, Getting Real. Festival Doc Pass holders will receive a discount to Getting Real and vice versa. Film Independent is also launching a documentary track of its Fast Track film financing market, also in partnership with the IDA.
In addition to the traditional Opening and Closing Night Films available to pass holders, the Festival is also programming public screenings that LA audiences can attend on those nights. On September 20, the Festival will feature a night of Project Involve shorts and on September 28, a special Closing Night Documentary will screen. Festival passes go on sale to Film Independent Members on July 24 and to the general public on July 31 at lafilmfestival.com. The Competition Lineup will be announced on July 31.
The 2018 Festival team is comprised of Jennifer Cochis, Festival Director; Rachel Bleemer, Director of Operations; Shawn Davis, Director of Events; Drea Clark, Senior Programmer, Head Programmer, US Fiction; Jenn Wilson, Senior Programmer, Head Programmer, Documentary; Heidi Honeycutt, Head Programmer, Nightfall; Ana Souza, Head Programmer, World Fiction; Landon Zakheim, Head of Shorts; Hasan Foster, Senior Manager, Inclusion and Discourse; Rebecca Green, Programmer, Retrospectives; Aisha Lomax, Programmer, Podcasts and Music Videos; and Spade Robinson, Programmer, Television and Web Content.
Venues for the 2018 Festival include the ArcLight Cinemas in Culver City, Hollywood and Santa Monica, as well as the new LMU Playa Vista Campus (opening this fall), the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and the Writers Guild Theater.
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Watch New Trailer + Poster for Stylized Thriller ELIZABETH HARVEST Starring Carla Gugino
Stylized sci-fi thriller. Gothic love story. Existential mystery. The new trailer and poster dropped today for Elizabeth Harvest starring Carla Gugino, a science fiction thriller told from a young woman’s point of view. The film written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez is described as a modern-day riff on the French folktale of Bluebeard (in which a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives is confronted by a new wife trying to avoid the fate of her predecessors). IFC Films will release Elizabeth Harvest in theatres on Friday, August 10 in New York at IFC Center, and in Los Angeles at Arena CineLounge Sunset; and also On Demand.
Newlywed Elizabeth (Abbey Lee) arrives with her brilliant scientist husband Henry (Ciaran Hinds) to his magnificent estate, where he wows her with lavish dinners and a dazzling tour of the property. The house staff, Claire (Carla Gugino) and Oliver (Matthew Beard), treats her deferentially but she can’t shake the feeling something is off. Henry explains that everything in his world now belongs to her, all is for her to play in — all except for a locked-off room he forbids her from entering. When he goes away for business Elizabeth decides to investigate and finds she may not be who she thinks she is at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrPaMJWF1tg
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Watch Trailer for DEVIL’S COVE ‘Indie take on Thelma & Louise”
In Devil’s Cove, his award-winning feature directorial debut, opening August 3 in L.A theaters, director Erik Lundmark serves up a roguishly electrifying indie take on Thelma & Louise that pits an interracial lesbian couple, fresh from a killing, against a dark highway.
New girl in town Toni (Christelle Baguidy) is unhappy in her marriage to the vehement Rick. Not surprisingly, her eye catches that of another- Jackie (Chloe Traicos in an award-nominated performance), a woman who recently escaped a jail sentence involving the death of her child.
When Rick (Cameron Barnes) gets wind of the passionate relationship his wife is having with Jackie, he erupts into a fiery rage. In an act of self-defence, Toni and Jackie end Rick’s life. To stay out of jail, the duo hit the road – one with many twists and turns in it.
Made for just $10,000 by Leomark Studios, the truly independent “Devil’s Cove” premiered at the New York City International Film Festival where it was nominated for two Best Actress awards (for Chloe Traicos) and Best Original Screenplay. Director Erik Lundmark also won a Global Accolade at the Global Accolade Awards.
Chloe Traicos, Christelle Baguidy, Cameron Barnes, Westworld’s Michael Keyes and Sammy Anderson co-star in Devil’s Cove, opening in theaters August 3.
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Racially-Charged Drama THE BEST OF ENEMIES Starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell to be Released by STXfilms
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Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell[/caption]
The Best of Enemies, the timely drama from first-time director Robin Bissell starring Academy Award® nominee Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) and Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) has been acquired by STXfilms for release in the US. Bissell also wrote the screenplay which was inspired by the true events chronicled in The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South, by Osha Gray Davidson. The film also stars BAFTA TV Award-nominee Babou Ceesay (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Anne Heche (John Q), Wes Bentley (American Beauty), Bruce McGill (Lincoln), Tony Award-winner John Gallagher Jr. (Short Term 12) and Nick Searcy (The Shape of Water) lead the supporting cast.
Producers include Danny Strong, Fred Bernstein, Matt Berenson, Bissell, Dominique Telson, and Material Pictures’ Tobey Maguire and Matthew Plouffe. Rick Jackson and Jeremiah Samuels are executive producers.
Based on a true story, The Best of Enemies centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater (Henson), an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis (Rockwell), a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
“Robin Bissell crafted a beautiful look at this unlikely friendship that arose from one of the most unsettling times in our country’s history, with Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, and the entire cast delivering riveting performances,” said Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms. “STXfilms is proud to come on board for this important and entertaining film that will resonate and evoke dialogue about the timeless humanity that is at the heart of this powerful story.”
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Apocalyptic Thriller WHAT STILL REMAINS Starring Colin O’Donoghue Sets August Release Date [Trailer]
The end is near! Strike the Sun Entertainment has released the poster and trailer for the apocalyptic thriller What Still Remains written and directed by Josh Mendoza. What Still Remains stars Lulu Antariksa (T@gged), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time), Mimi Rogers (The X-Files), Dohn Norwood (Hell on Wheels), and Jeff Kober (The Walking Dead); and will open in cinemas on August 10th and on VOD nationwide on August 14th, 2018.
Twenty-five years after a viral outbreak decimated the population, the remaining survivors still fear that deadly illness and the feral “Changed” it has created. Against this post-apocalyptic backdrop, a young woman loses her family and struggles to survive on her own in the wilderness. When a lonely traveler offers her a place in his community, she must decide if the promise of a better life is worth the risk of trusting him. But as she ventures out into a world she’s never known, she discovers there are far more dangers than the legends of savage beasts from her childhood. Numerous factions of humanity still endure and she will learn people can become their own kind of monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLFYxOZ1igg
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Yellow Veil Pictures Launches at Fantasia International Film Festival with German Horror Film LUZ
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Luz[/caption]
Yellow Veil Pictures, Inc. a new worldwide film sales company focusing exclusively on arthouse genre cinema launches out of the Frontières Co-Production Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival with the German horror film Luz.
Yellow Veil Pictures is formed by Hugues Barbier, Ithaca Fantastik Founder and Festival Manager and Acquisitions for Raven Banner, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival founder and former Theatrical Manager of FilmRise, Justin Timms, and the former Festivals and Non-Theatrical Assistant Director of Visit Films, Joe Yanick, Co-Director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – NYC. In addition to Barbier, Timms, and Yanick, the team has brought on Fantasia International Film Festival’s International publicist Kaila Sarah Hier to handle the company’s press and publicity.
Acquired after its world premiere at the Berlinale 2018, Luz has been celebrated internationally at festivals such as BAFICI, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and Fantaspoa (Best Actress winner – Luana Velis). It will make its North American premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Camera Lucida competitive section on July 20th.
“From the first image, hell even the first sound, in Luz, it’s not only Tilman’s incredible talent but also his understanding of horror cinema is cemented. We just fell in love with the movie, and we knew we had to have it. It’s frankly one of the most impressive debuts I’ve ever seen. We couldn’t have found another film to better demonstrate our mission statement,” said Joe Yanick.
Wrapping post-production, Josh Lobo’s directorial debut A Man in the Dark also joins Yellow Veil’s slate. Starring AJ Bowen (You’re Next), Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil), Chris Sullivan (Stranger Things), Scott Poythress (The Signal), and Susan Burke (Southbound), the Christmas-set psychological horror focuses on man’s descent into paranoia, after he traps what he believes to be the devil in his basement.
Yellow Veil Pictures will also extend its company reach towards projects in development and have struck a deal with Man Underground (New Flesh Award Winner – Fantasia Film Festival 2016) filmmaking team Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine to package and secure financing for their sophomoric effort, Desert Witch. The script follows a punk singer, who, after being exiled from her community, is thrust into a small town conflict between religious extremists and an alleged coven of witches her estranged mother once belonged. The film will take place in a small desert community in the American West, and is slated for a 2019 production schedule.
With a focus on the sustainability of the festival circuit, Yellow Veil Pictures offers their hand to titles needing festival strategy consultation and bookings. As part of this effort, they’ve penned a deal with Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment for the exclusive festival/non-theatrical rights on Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher, The Ranger, out of SXSW’s Midnights program
“We seek to challenge the limits for commercial viability of arthouse genre and foreign language films for a redefined distribution landscape. These films were often lost in the festival circuit in years past, despite a noticeable growing interest from a more adventurous audience looking for new, exciting films with greater representation” Hugues Barbier added.
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Jonathan Berman’s Documentary CALLING ALL EARTHLINGS Explores One of the First UFO Cults [Trailer]
Calling All Earthlings, a documentary by Jonathan Berman, explores one of the first UFO cults, led by George Van Tassel, a one-time Howard Hughes confidante. Van Tassel combines alien technology with Tesla science to build a rejuvenation machine and mid-century dome called The Integratron. Van Tassel claimed to have combined extraterrestrial guidance with the work of inventor/physicist Nikola Tesla and other alternative scientists, to build an electromagnetic time machine he dubbed “The Integratron.” Was he deluded? Or could the dome actually break through the boundaries of space, time, and energy? FBI agents try to halt the growing army of outliers who gather in the desert to create a threatening reality on the edge of the midcentury American Dream. An empathetic enquiry into an archetypical countercultural movement, the story is told by relatives, neighbors, skeptics, believers, scientists, healers, artists, and historians, including Dr. Kevin Starr, the preeminent historian of California; Eric Burdon, musician and area resident, and futurists JJ and Desiree Hurtak.
Jonathan Berman’s documentaries explore third places, those beyond home or work. Previous work includes The Shvitz (The Steambath) and Commune.
Calling All Earthlings will open in New York at Maysles Cinema on August 1 and available on VOD on August 28.
Calling All Earthlings is the true story of Howard Hughes, the Postwar avant-garde, and a mad genius named George who took off from the California desert in a flying saucer.
In 1947, George Van Tassel, a Hughes employee and confidante, suddenly quits working for his mentor and ditches the straight life, moving deep into the Mojave Desert where he and his family sleep under a rock. He leaves behind a tattered Los Angeles in the grips of postwar paranoia, opting for the quietude of the Joshua Tree area. It is during an August 1953 full moon that Van Tassel has an encounter with extraterrestrials, who give him the information to build a rejuvenation machine he dubs “The Integratron.”
Van Tassel believes he has been chosen by these extraterrestrial visitors, led by Solganda (who “speaks” to him with a voice not unlike that of actor Ronald Coleman) to build a massive experimental dome that will open a hole in time and space. The groovy iconoclast and charismatic leader’s received blueprints from Solganda are soon combined with the work of Nikolai Tesla and other alternative scientists.
Long before the ‘X-Files,’ and the internet, it was the threat of nuclear bombs and stifling social conformity that drew artists, inventors, eccentrics and postwar seekers to the desert to experiment with alternate lifestyles and futures. They join other do-it-yourself inhabitants of the “jack-rabbit shacks,” the five acres that the government gave to citizens through the Small Tract Act of 1938.
Van Tassel, a pilot and self-taught inventor, becomes a local, and lands as one of the first gurus of alien contact culture. Using ‘outsider science” and rugged charm, Van Tassel pursues his dream of combining science and spirit to create a new utopia. The Integratron would not only solve the issue of aging and the attendant loss of seasoned wisdom but would also act as a source of unlimited power for the planet
In the 1950’s, George Van Tassel devises the Interplanetary Spacecraft Conventions as a way to fund the dome and bring attention to his transformative and rabidly anti-militaristic stance. Is he crazy or could The Integratron really work?
Rich Los Angeles playboys help fund the work (seeking rejuvenation, of course) and they fly into his airfield nearby, including his old boss, one Mr. Howard Robard Hughes. Beyond any vanities, Hughes’ concern for contamination bonds him to the anti-nuclear Van Tassel and he adds money to the project.
With his can-do neighbors, including an early disciple of Yogananda, Van Tassel actually builds his dome and prepares to turn it on. People flock to the desert to join in what quickly becomes an alien-guided, peace-loving, revolutionary movement. Questionable science, secret agents, and an army of eccentrics collide on the edge of the American Dream to try to further – or halt – this new reality.
It looks promising but there is a hiccup: the Integratron stands on the border of one of the largest military bases in the world, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, commonly known as Twentynine Palms. It is balanced by its other neighbor, an enigmatic boulder, Giant Rock, that was once revered by American Indians and has had its own embattled history.
Meanwhile, the dome’s workings are mysterious – some of the electro-magnetic processes actually bear merit, however they must be “phased” by the Venusians, as one subject suggests: “otherwise Southern California could be blown off the map.” Nearing completion, Van Tassel’s tale and the Integratron meets an unexpected, twisted end.
The magical ‘workings’ of the dome emerge in an unexpected way: for some participants in the film it is a simple opportunity for friendship and mentorship, for another it’s a global plan to colonize space, for others it’s a site-specific zone for art and culture. ‘Calling All Earthlings’ tells the story through their eyes –the current and past residents of the Joshua Tree area — including singer Eric Burdon, medicine woman Valerie Brightheart, Ernest Siva, historian and elder of the Morongo Indians, L.A. Free Press publisher Art Kunkin, and the current “Stewards of the Dome, the Karl sisters, who now own the property. Rounding out the story are esteemed California historian Dr. Kevin Starr, skeptical astronomer Bob Berman, and legendary “Stargate” participant Dr. J.J. Hurtak.
Featuring a celestial score by Knitting Factory stalwart Elliott Sharp, desert ambient wizard Clive Wright, and other co-conspirators including the legendary Harmonia and Queens of the Stone Age’s Dave Catching, the project is an enigmatic look at the boundary-breaking culture of Joshua Tree and its eccentric residents, still waiting for their spaceship.
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Dominican Film Festival in NYC Announces 2018 Lineup, Opens with Premiere of MY GIRLFRIEND’S GHOST
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El fantasma de mi novia (My Girlfriend’s Ghost)[/caption]
The 7th Dominican Film Festival in New York City (DFFNYC) today announced its official program with a roster of 70 films in a celebration of Dominican filmmaking outside of the Dominican Republic. The festival runs July 24 to 29 under the slogan “Cinema Unites Us!” (El Cine Nos Une) boasting a wide range of genres, and paying homage to the classics.
DFFNYC starts on Tuesday, July 24, 7:30pm, with a red-carpet event and opening ceremony featuring the U.S. premiere of the romantic comedy El fantasma de mi novia (My Girlfriend’s Ghost) by Francis ‘El Indio’ Disla followed by a Q&A with the film’s stars, Carmen Villalobos and Susana Dosamantes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaCFQVcevyY
DFFNYC will screen in six venues across Manhattan with the AMC Empire 25 as its main venue, and will host more than 60 actors and filmmakers to participate in Q&As and panel discussions. The festival offers a platform for both new and established members of the Dominican film industry to promote their works to the public.
“The festival seeks to give film lovers the most emblematic showcase of the stories that are made in the Dominican Republic today,” said Armando Guareño, DFFNYC’s Founder and Executive Director. “We’ve gathered the most representative film experts and personalities from our island and its diaspora under a single roof.”
The festival line-up includes a tribute to much-admired actors Hector Anibal (Cómplices, Reinbou, El Hombre que Cuida), Kiki Melendez (Cattle Call, Hot Tamales Live, Journey of a Female Comic) and Celines Toribio (Colao, Maria Montez, Las 7 Muertes). Organizers will also pay homage to late director Fernando Baez (Flor de Azucar) and include a presentation of the Dominican classic Pasaje de Ida. DFFNYS will host more than 40 World, U.S., and N.Y. premieres, as well as award-winning features, documentaries, animations and shorts from festivals around the world.