Menashe[/caption]
The 25th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival, produced by the Northwest Film Center and co-presented with the Institute for Judaic Studies, will feature 18 films that celebrate the diversity of Jewish history, culture, identity, and filmmaking. The festival will take place June 11 to 25, 2017 at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon.
Complete Film listings:
June 11 – Sunday 7 p.m.
MENASHE
Directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein
United States/Israel, 2017
Deep in the heart of New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe—a kind, hapless grocery store clerk—struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven, following his wife Leah’s death. Tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. When his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before Leah’s memorial, he has a chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood, and restore respect among his doubters. Weinstein’s film is a poignant and funny parable about the tension between best intentions and the effort to uphold them. In Yiddish with English subtitles. (82 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83UoZcdX__Y
June 11 – Monday 7 p.m.
THE SETTLERS
Directed by Shimon Dotan
France/Germany/Israel, 2016
The Settlers traces the history of Israeli settlements in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. While government leaders and the Israeli public initially saw the military victory as an opportunity for a negotiated peace, many religious conservatives saw it as a calling from God to redeem the Biblical land of Israel. Through the voices of the pioneers of the movement and a diverse range of modern-day settlers—religious and secular, radical and idealist—Dotan weaves a comprehensive, provocative, and often troubling exploration of the controversial communities that continue to influence the sociopolitical destinies of Israel and Palestine. Nominated for the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary. In Hebrew, Arabic, and English with English subtitles. (107 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2LRxXeBr0
June 14 – Wednesday 7 p.m.
THE WOMEN’S BALCONY
Directed by Emil Ben Shimon
Israel, 2016
Emil Ben Shimon’s feature debut is a comical feminist narrative about finding the right path to happiness and the subjectivity of righteousness. When the women’s balcony of the synagogue collapses in the middle of a bar mitzvah, nobody assumes that the cause was anything more than bad architecture— that is, until Rabbi David announces that it was actually a message from God. The charismatic young rabbi warns that the men of the Sephardic congregation haven’t done enough to ensure the modesty of their women, creating a rift between the community’s men and women that puts faith, friendships, and traditions to the test. Hebrew with English subtitles. (96 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfMlI97DHbo
June 15 – Thursday 7 p.m.
1945
Directed by Ferenc Török
Hungary, 2016
When two Orthodox Jews arrive at the train station of a small, rural community in 1945, the villagers must face the consequences of “ill-gotten gains” from the Second World War. Fears that the men may be heirs of the village’s deported Jews and that more survivors will come pose a threat to the property and possessions they have claimed as their own. Based on the acclaimed short story “Homecoming” by Gábor T. Szánt. (91 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbeYA8A03Sw
June 17 – Saturday 6:30 p.m.
PAST LIFE
Directed by Avi Nesher
Israel/Poland, 2016
Nesher’s (The Matchmaker, The Wonders) moving film confronts a trauma and burden of history that is still part of the Israeli present and deeply rooted in the collective subconscious. In ’70s Jerusalem, two daughters of Holocaust survivors investigate a taboo topic: their difficult father’s experiences in Poland during World War II. As they undertake a trans-European journey to try to unravel the mystery that has shadowed their whole lives, they confront tragic questions and the realization that freedom from the past requires painful sacrifices, as does the struggle to discover one’s own unique voice. (109 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Yv95dAGOo
June 17 – Saturday 9 p.m.
IN BETWEEN
Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud
Israel/France, 2016
Maysaloun Hamoud’s striking feature debut chronicles the lives of three Palestinian-Israeli women sharing an apartment in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv. Modern-minded lawyer Layla, activist Salma, and more conservative Nour find themselves in a complicated balancing act between tradition and modernity, citizenship and culture, fealty and freedom as they navigate men, family, drugs, work, school, and their futures. Living in a country that considers them not Israeli enough and not Palestinian enough, they face choices between contemporary and traditional values. Adult audiences. Best Film Prize, San Sebastian Film Festival. (102 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPiVZj8Mm7o
June 17 – Saturday 4 p.m.
June 18 – Sunday 8 p.m.
FANNY’S JOURNEY
Directed by Lola Doillon
France/Belgium, 2016
Based on an autobiographical novel by Fanny Ben-Ami, Fanny’s Journey tells the story of a heroic young girl in World War II France. Following the arrest of their father in Paris, Fanny and her younger sisters are sent to a boarding school in France’s neutral zone. They are whisked away to another institution, where Jewish children come under the care of the tough but tender Madame Forman. As danger advances yet again, the students’ fate is entrusted to 13-year-old Fanny, who fearlessly treks through the countryside with the children on a perilous mission to reach the Swiss border with only wits and solidarity to guide her. All ages. (94 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBa2SXXSXvo
June 18 – Sunday 4:30 p.m.
BODY AND SOUL: AN AMERICAN BRIDGE
Directed by Robert Philipson
United States, 2016
The story of Body and Soul, one of the most recorded songs in the Great American Songbook and a jazz standard, illustrates the complex musical interplay between Jewish and African American cultures. Written by Jewish songwriter Johnny Green and introduced on Broadway by Jewish torch singer Libby Holman in 1930, it was first recorded as a jazz piece by Louis Armstrong. Philipson examines the song’s timelessness, its role at the heart of both black and Jewish music, and cultural links both complementary and contentious. Interviews with experts and historians combine with rare archival footage and diverse performances to celebrate an ageless classic. (60 mins., DCP)
screens with
STRANGE FRUIT
Directed by Joel Katz
United States, 2002
While many people assume Strange Fruit was written by Billie Holiday, it actually began as a poem by a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx, who later set it to music. Disturbed by a photograph of a lynching, Abel Meeropol wrote the stark verse and brooding melody about the horror of lynching under the pseudonym Lewis Allan in 1938. It was brought to the attention of the manager of a popular Greenwich Village nightclub, who introduced Billy Holiday to the writer. Meeropol, who also wrote such classics as Frank Sinatra’s The House I Live In, later adopted the sons of “atom bomb spies” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after their 1953 execution. (56 mins., Blu-Ray)
June 19 – Monday 7 p.m.
MOOS
Directed by Job Gosschalk
Netherlands, 2016
Set in a tight-knit Jewish community in Amsterdam, Moos is an endearing comedy about following your far-fetched dreams. 20-something Moos takes care of her dad and hangs around the family fabric store singing tunes to her steam iron. Her dream is to be an actress, but going for it seems to be on the back burner until her childhood friend, home from a stint in the Israeli army, reminds her of her past full of passion and ambition. Love, laughter, friendship, and complications take center stage in a film about finding out what’s important and finding your voice. (91 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GwlwUTLik
June 20 – Tuesday 7 p.m.
BIG SONIA
Directed by Leah Warshawski
United States, 2016
Big Sonia explores what it means to be a survivor and how this affects families and generations. One of the few remaining survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski, the filmmaker’s grandmother, has shared her inspirational story for years. The colorful 91-year-old “diva,” known for wearing leopard print and high heels, has spent decades running her late husband’s tailoring business, the last shop in a dying mall in Kansas City. When she is evicted, Sonia must face another of life’s challenges: her fear of retirement. Winner of numerous audience awards at film festivals throughout the country, Sonia’s inspiring story reveals that it’s up to you to choose your future. (93 mins., Blu-Ray)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZOySpVL8_E
June 21 – Wednesday 7 p.m.
A GRAIN OF TRUTH
Directed by Borys Lankosz
Poland, 2015
Once the star of the Warsaw prosecutor’s office, Teodor Szacki, has retired to a small town to start a new life after his divorce. But he is called upon to help solve a grisly local case: a woman, a prominent social activist, has been brutally murdered outside a synagogue, and a knife used for kosher slaughter of animals is found nearby. More violent murders provoke a wave of anti-Semitism, and Szacki must not only solve the crimes, but also face public hysteria and the simmering history of Polish-Jewish relations. Based on the best-selling novel by Polish author Zygmunt Miłoszewsk, Lankosz’s tense detective thriller explores contemporary xenophobia and the power of centuries of superstition. (110 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBnMrHrGsQ
June 22 – Thursday 7 p.m.
NATASHA
Directed by David Bezmozgis
Canada, 2016
Sixteen-year-old slacker Mark is the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in the suburbs of Toronto. When his uncle enters into an arranged marriage with a woman from Moscow, she arrives with her troubled 14-year old daughter, Natasha. A secret and forbidden romance begins between the two of them that has bizarre and tragic consequences for everyone involved. Natasha is adapted from Bezmozgis’s collection of short stories, “Natasha and Other Stories,” which was named a New York Times Notable Book and has been translated into 15 languages. (97 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYSXVX_Xxts
June 24 – Saturday 4 p.m.
June 26 – Monday 7 p.m.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
United States, 1942
Like Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Lubitsch’s film was widely criticized upon release for trying to find laughs in Hitler’s assault on civilization and, in this case, the desperate and tragic situation in Poland. But on its 75th anniversary, it remains a black-humored classic and one of the most profound comedies ever made. Jack Benny and Carole Lombard star in this story about a Polish theater company mixed up in espionage in Gestapo-ruled Warsaw. A send-up of Nazi mystique and manners, it also endures as a prime example of the famed “Lubitsch touch”—witty, stylish, and broadly satiric. (99 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W_B10VbYjI
June 24 – Saturday 6:30 p.m.
HARMONIA
Directed by Ori Sivan
Israel, 2016
A contemporary adaptation of the biblical tale of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, Harmonia presents a poignant metaphor for the contemporary challenges facing Israel’s sibling religions. Sarah, a harpist in the Jerusalem Philharmonic Orchestra, is married to Abraham, its charismatic conductor, and they have no children. When Hagar, a young Arab horn player, joins the orchestra, a unique friendship evolves between the two women. Hagar, feeling Sarah’s pain from not having children, offers to have a baby for Sarah. Ismail, born to Hagar and Abraham, is a wild and gifted pianist whom Sarah raises as her own. But when Ismail discovers the true identity of his mother, his world—and that of those around him—falls apart. (98 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABwGpET-RdM
June 24 – Saturday 8:45 p.m.
BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS AND HILLS
Directed by Eran Kolirin
Israel, 2016
Nominated for six Israeli Academy awards, including Best Picture, this film by writer-director Eran Kolirin (The Band’s Visit) weaves several narratives into a moving portrait of a family and a society at a crossroads. Facing a difficult transition after 27 years of military service, Lieutenant-Colonel David Greenbaum takes a dispiriting job as a salesman, while the rest of his increasingly alienated family struggle with their own issues. His wife, a high school teacher, begins an affair; his activist teenage daughter forms a troubling bond with Arab neighbors; and his son observes the simmering tensions from afar. As David’s household unravels, blind frustration leads to an impulsive act, triggering a cascade of events that corrupt everyone’s innocence. “Like an Israeli American Beauty… a poignant and political family drama.”—The Hollywood Reporter. (92 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJxlkZfjmvk
June 25 – Sunday 7 p.m.
MOON IN THE 12TH HOUSE
Directed by Dorit Hakim
Israel, 2016
Sisters Mira and Lenny, separated at youth by traumatic circumstances, are young women when they meet again. The older and wilder Mira, who works in a hip Tel Aviv nightclub, unexpectedly returns to their childhood home, where the dutiful Lenny has stayed to care for their father. This reunion leads them on an emotional journey of healing and reconciliation. Commanding performances and hypnotic cinematography elevate this moving meditation on family ties and lost youth. Opening Night, New York Jewish Film Festival. (109 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eKc_Nb9FIM
June 25 – Sunday 4:30 p.m.
AIDA’S SECRETS
Directed by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz
Israel/United States/Germany, 2016
In this sweeping international story that begins in World War II and concludes in an emotional family reunion seven decades later, layers of family history and untold secrets surface. Izak Szewelewicz was born inside the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp in 1945 and put up for adoption in Israel. Secret details of his birth mother, an unknown brother in Canada, and his father’s true identity slowly emerge in a heartfelt story that raises poignant questions of identity, resilience, compassion, and the plight of displaced persons. Closure comes when brothers Izak and Shep meet in Canada and travel to Quebec to meet Aida, their mysterious elderly mother. Winner of the Audience Award at 2016 Docaviv International Film Festival. (90 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdb_Tp47hIMFilm Festivals
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MENASHE, THE SETTLERS Among 18 Films on Lineup for 25th Portland Jewish Film Festival | Trailers
[caption id="attachment_20067" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Menashe[/caption]
The 25th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival, produced by the Northwest Film Center and co-presented with the Institute for Judaic Studies, will feature 18 films that celebrate the diversity of Jewish history, culture, identity, and filmmaking. The festival will take place June 11 to 25, 2017 at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon.
Complete Film listings:
June 11 – Sunday 7 p.m.
MENASHE
Directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein
United States/Israel, 2017
Deep in the heart of New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe—a kind, hapless grocery store clerk—struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven, following his wife Leah’s death. Tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. When his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before Leah’s memorial, he has a chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood, and restore respect among his doubters. Weinstein’s film is a poignant and funny parable about the tension between best intentions and the effort to uphold them. In Yiddish with English subtitles. (82 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83UoZcdX__Y
June 11 – Monday 7 p.m.
THE SETTLERS
Directed by Shimon Dotan
France/Germany/Israel, 2016
The Settlers traces the history of Israeli settlements in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. While government leaders and the Israeli public initially saw the military victory as an opportunity for a negotiated peace, many religious conservatives saw it as a calling from God to redeem the Biblical land of Israel. Through the voices of the pioneers of the movement and a diverse range of modern-day settlers—religious and secular, radical and idealist—Dotan weaves a comprehensive, provocative, and often troubling exploration of the controversial communities that continue to influence the sociopolitical destinies of Israel and Palestine. Nominated for the Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary. In Hebrew, Arabic, and English with English subtitles. (107 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2LRxXeBr0
June 14 – Wednesday 7 p.m.
THE WOMEN’S BALCONY
Directed by Emil Ben Shimon
Israel, 2016
Emil Ben Shimon’s feature debut is a comical feminist narrative about finding the right path to happiness and the subjectivity of righteousness. When the women’s balcony of the synagogue collapses in the middle of a bar mitzvah, nobody assumes that the cause was anything more than bad architecture— that is, until Rabbi David announces that it was actually a message from God. The charismatic young rabbi warns that the men of the Sephardic congregation haven’t done enough to ensure the modesty of their women, creating a rift between the community’s men and women that puts faith, friendships, and traditions to the test. Hebrew with English subtitles. (96 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfMlI97DHbo
June 15 – Thursday 7 p.m.
1945
Directed by Ferenc Török
Hungary, 2016
When two Orthodox Jews arrive at the train station of a small, rural community in 1945, the villagers must face the consequences of “ill-gotten gains” from the Second World War. Fears that the men may be heirs of the village’s deported Jews and that more survivors will come pose a threat to the property and possessions they have claimed as their own. Based on the acclaimed short story “Homecoming” by Gábor T. Szánt. (91 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbeYA8A03Sw
June 17 – Saturday 6:30 p.m.
PAST LIFE
Directed by Avi Nesher
Israel/Poland, 2016
Nesher’s (The Matchmaker, The Wonders) moving film confronts a trauma and burden of history that is still part of the Israeli present and deeply rooted in the collective subconscious. In ’70s Jerusalem, two daughters of Holocaust survivors investigate a taboo topic: their difficult father’s experiences in Poland during World War II. As they undertake a trans-European journey to try to unravel the mystery that has shadowed their whole lives, they confront tragic questions and the realization that freedom from the past requires painful sacrifices, as does the struggle to discover one’s own unique voice. (109 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Yv95dAGOo
June 17 – Saturday 9 p.m.
IN BETWEEN
Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud
Israel/France, 2016
Maysaloun Hamoud’s striking feature debut chronicles the lives of three Palestinian-Israeli women sharing an apartment in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv. Modern-minded lawyer Layla, activist Salma, and more conservative Nour find themselves in a complicated balancing act between tradition and modernity, citizenship and culture, fealty and freedom as they navigate men, family, drugs, work, school, and their futures. Living in a country that considers them not Israeli enough and not Palestinian enough, they face choices between contemporary and traditional values. Adult audiences. Best Film Prize, San Sebastian Film Festival. (102 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPiVZj8Mm7o
June 17 – Saturday 4 p.m.
June 18 – Sunday 8 p.m.
FANNY’S JOURNEY
Directed by Lola Doillon
France/Belgium, 2016
Based on an autobiographical novel by Fanny Ben-Ami, Fanny’s Journey tells the story of a heroic young girl in World War II France. Following the arrest of their father in Paris, Fanny and her younger sisters are sent to a boarding school in France’s neutral zone. They are whisked away to another institution, where Jewish children come under the care of the tough but tender Madame Forman. As danger advances yet again, the students’ fate is entrusted to 13-year-old Fanny, who fearlessly treks through the countryside with the children on a perilous mission to reach the Swiss border with only wits and solidarity to guide her. All ages. (94 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBa2SXXSXvo
June 18 – Sunday 4:30 p.m.
BODY AND SOUL: AN AMERICAN BRIDGE
Directed by Robert Philipson
United States, 2016
The story of Body and Soul, one of the most recorded songs in the Great American Songbook and a jazz standard, illustrates the complex musical interplay between Jewish and African American cultures. Written by Jewish songwriter Johnny Green and introduced on Broadway by Jewish torch singer Libby Holman in 1930, it was first recorded as a jazz piece by Louis Armstrong. Philipson examines the song’s timelessness, its role at the heart of both black and Jewish music, and cultural links both complementary and contentious. Interviews with experts and historians combine with rare archival footage and diverse performances to celebrate an ageless classic. (60 mins., DCP)
screens with
STRANGE FRUIT
Directed by Joel Katz
United States, 2002
While many people assume Strange Fruit was written by Billie Holiday, it actually began as a poem by a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx, who later set it to music. Disturbed by a photograph of a lynching, Abel Meeropol wrote the stark verse and brooding melody about the horror of lynching under the pseudonym Lewis Allan in 1938. It was brought to the attention of the manager of a popular Greenwich Village nightclub, who introduced Billy Holiday to the writer. Meeropol, who also wrote such classics as Frank Sinatra’s The House I Live In, later adopted the sons of “atom bomb spies” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after their 1953 execution. (56 mins., Blu-Ray)
June 19 – Monday 7 p.m.
MOOS
Directed by Job Gosschalk
Netherlands, 2016
Set in a tight-knit Jewish community in Amsterdam, Moos is an endearing comedy about following your far-fetched dreams. 20-something Moos takes care of her dad and hangs around the family fabric store singing tunes to her steam iron. Her dream is to be an actress, but going for it seems to be on the back burner until her childhood friend, home from a stint in the Israeli army, reminds her of her past full of passion and ambition. Love, laughter, friendship, and complications take center stage in a film about finding out what’s important and finding your voice. (91 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GwlwUTLik
June 20 – Tuesday 7 p.m.
BIG SONIA
Directed by Leah Warshawski
United States, 2016
Big Sonia explores what it means to be a survivor and how this affects families and generations. One of the few remaining survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski, the filmmaker’s grandmother, has shared her inspirational story for years. The colorful 91-year-old “diva,” known for wearing leopard print and high heels, has spent decades running her late husband’s tailoring business, the last shop in a dying mall in Kansas City. When she is evicted, Sonia must face another of life’s challenges: her fear of retirement. Winner of numerous audience awards at film festivals throughout the country, Sonia’s inspiring story reveals that it’s up to you to choose your future. (93 mins., Blu-Ray)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZOySpVL8_E
June 21 – Wednesday 7 p.m.
A GRAIN OF TRUTH
Directed by Borys Lankosz
Poland, 2015
Once the star of the Warsaw prosecutor’s office, Teodor Szacki, has retired to a small town to start a new life after his divorce. But he is called upon to help solve a grisly local case: a woman, a prominent social activist, has been brutally murdered outside a synagogue, and a knife used for kosher slaughter of animals is found nearby. More violent murders provoke a wave of anti-Semitism, and Szacki must not only solve the crimes, but also face public hysteria and the simmering history of Polish-Jewish relations. Based on the best-selling novel by Polish author Zygmunt Miłoszewsk, Lankosz’s tense detective thriller explores contemporary xenophobia and the power of centuries of superstition. (110 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBnMrHrGsQ
June 22 – Thursday 7 p.m.
NATASHA
Directed by David Bezmozgis
Canada, 2016
Sixteen-year-old slacker Mark is the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in the suburbs of Toronto. When his uncle enters into an arranged marriage with a woman from Moscow, she arrives with her troubled 14-year old daughter, Natasha. A secret and forbidden romance begins between the two of them that has bizarre and tragic consequences for everyone involved. Natasha is adapted from Bezmozgis’s collection of short stories, “Natasha and Other Stories,” which was named a New York Times Notable Book and has been translated into 15 languages. (97 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYSXVX_Xxts
June 24 – Saturday 4 p.m.
June 26 – Monday 7 p.m.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
United States, 1942
Like Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Lubitsch’s film was widely criticized upon release for trying to find laughs in Hitler’s assault on civilization and, in this case, the desperate and tragic situation in Poland. But on its 75th anniversary, it remains a black-humored classic and one of the most profound comedies ever made. Jack Benny and Carole Lombard star in this story about a Polish theater company mixed up in espionage in Gestapo-ruled Warsaw. A send-up of Nazi mystique and manners, it also endures as a prime example of the famed “Lubitsch touch”—witty, stylish, and broadly satiric. (99 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W_B10VbYjI
June 24 – Saturday 6:30 p.m.
HARMONIA
Directed by Ori Sivan
Israel, 2016
A contemporary adaptation of the biblical tale of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, Harmonia presents a poignant metaphor for the contemporary challenges facing Israel’s sibling religions. Sarah, a harpist in the Jerusalem Philharmonic Orchestra, is married to Abraham, its charismatic conductor, and they have no children. When Hagar, a young Arab horn player, joins the orchestra, a unique friendship evolves between the two women. Hagar, feeling Sarah’s pain from not having children, offers to have a baby for Sarah. Ismail, born to Hagar and Abraham, is a wild and gifted pianist whom Sarah raises as her own. But when Ismail discovers the true identity of his mother, his world—and that of those around him—falls apart. (98 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABwGpET-RdM
June 24 – Saturday 8:45 p.m.
BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS AND HILLS
Directed by Eran Kolirin
Israel, 2016
Nominated for six Israeli Academy awards, including Best Picture, this film by writer-director Eran Kolirin (The Band’s Visit) weaves several narratives into a moving portrait of a family and a society at a crossroads. Facing a difficult transition after 27 years of military service, Lieutenant-Colonel David Greenbaum takes a dispiriting job as a salesman, while the rest of his increasingly alienated family struggle with their own issues. His wife, a high school teacher, begins an affair; his activist teenage daughter forms a troubling bond with Arab neighbors; and his son observes the simmering tensions from afar. As David’s household unravels, blind frustration leads to an impulsive act, triggering a cascade of events that corrupt everyone’s innocence. “Like an Israeli American Beauty… a poignant and political family drama.”—The Hollywood Reporter. (92 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJxlkZfjmvk
June 25 – Sunday 7 p.m.
MOON IN THE 12TH HOUSE
Directed by Dorit Hakim
Israel, 2016
Sisters Mira and Lenny, separated at youth by traumatic circumstances, are young women when they meet again. The older and wilder Mira, who works in a hip Tel Aviv nightclub, unexpectedly returns to their childhood home, where the dutiful Lenny has stayed to care for their father. This reunion leads them on an emotional journey of healing and reconciliation. Commanding performances and hypnotic cinematography elevate this moving meditation on family ties and lost youth. Opening Night, New York Jewish Film Festival. (109 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eKc_Nb9FIM
June 25 – Sunday 4:30 p.m.
AIDA’S SECRETS
Directed by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz
Israel/United States/Germany, 2016
In this sweeping international story that begins in World War II and concludes in an emotional family reunion seven decades later, layers of family history and untold secrets surface. Izak Szewelewicz was born inside the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp in 1945 and put up for adoption in Israel. Secret details of his birth mother, an unknown brother in Canada, and his father’s true identity slowly emerge in a heartfelt story that raises poignant questions of identity, resilience, compassion, and the plight of displaced persons. Closure comes when brothers Izak and Shep meet in Canada and travel to Quebec to meet Aida, their mysterious elderly mother. Winner of the Audience Award at 2016 Docaviv International Film Festival. (90 mins., DCP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdb_Tp47hIM
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Catherine Eaton’s THE SOUNDING to East Coast Premiere at Brooklyn Film Festival | Trailer
[caption id="attachment_22477" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Catherine Eaton in The Sounding[/caption]
The Sounding, an award winning film by filmmaker Catherine Eaton, will East Coast premiere at the upcoming 2017 Brooklyn Film Festival.
The film – winner of AZIFF’s Festival Grand Prize, two Best Feature Awards at Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and Palm Beach International Film Festival, and a New American Visions Audience Choice Award – follows Liv, who after years of silence, begins to weave a language out of Shakespeare’s words as she fights for her voice and her freedom.
The Sounding, written and directed by Catherine Eaton, also stars Catherine Eaton along with Teddy Sears, Erin Darke, Harris Yulin, Frankie Faison, Lucy Owen, Danny Burstein, and David Furr.
Raised on a remote island off the coast of Maine by her grandfather Lionel, Liv has never spoken. When Lionel (Harris Yulin) discovers he’s dying, he calls the son of his best friend and a neurologist, Michael (Teddy Sears), to the island and asks him to protect Liv’s independence. That night, as Lionel is reading to Liv, his voice fails him. Liv picks up the book of Shakespeare and begins: first reading, then weaving a language from Shakespeare’s words. Michael discovers her speaking and commits her to a psychiatric hospital. Incensed, Lionel’s attorney (Frankie Faison) blocks Michael from treating Liv. She becomes a full-blown rebel in the hospital; her increasing violence threatens to keep her locked up for life. Michael gains illegal entry, and in a final showdown, he wields Shakespeare’s language on her terms. At a tipping point for otherness in our current climate,The Sounding champions it.
https://vimeo.com/205987166
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
BROOKLYN FILM FESTIVAL – EAST COAST PREMIERE
Sunday, June 4th – 4:00pm*
Windmill Studio (300 Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222)
Friday, June 9th – 7:30pm*
Wythe hotel (80 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249)
*(Q&A w/Dir. Catherine Eaton & Cast & Crew following both screenings)
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87 Films on Lineup for 8th New Media Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_22472" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Non-Transferable[/caption]
The 8th New Media Film Festival will take place June 6, 7, 8, 2017 at The Landmark Theater, in Los Angeles, California and features 29 World Premieres, 11 US Premieres and 21 L.A. Premieres. There will be (87) new media films and content from 34 countries and outer space will be shown.
World Premiere and features movies on the lineup include:
Non-Transferable (Wed, June 7th)
Director: Brendan Bradley
Cast Members:
Ashley Clements (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Poe Party)
Shanna Malcolm (HeyYoShanna, Bob Thunder)
Katie Wee (Return Of the Mac, 2 Broke Girls)
Matthew Scott Montgomery (So Random!, Jane The Virgin)
Amin Joseph (Baywatch, Call Me King)
Sara Fletcher (Frankenstein MD, Days of our Lives)
Daniel Vincent Gordh (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Hollywood Acting Studio)
Joey Richter (Starkid, I Ship It)
Shira Lazar (What’s Trending)
A feature full-length film with Q&A.
Flatline (Thurs, June 8th)
Director: Jon Schnitzer
Experience the other side. The only place in the world to experience Flatline is at New Media Film Festival June 8th during festival hours in the main hall of The Landmark. Free with Festival Badge and any Thursday screening ticket. This VR film was pitched and funded at New Media Film Festival 2016. Julian McCrea of Portal Experiences was a speaker on our Tech Panel. Not in competition.
You Are Nothing (Tues, June 6th)
Directors: Mike Stivala, Mark Travis
A web series disguised as a self-help video tutorial – or perhaps, a parody of one – that uses the crumbing life of Mitch Repter as a teaching tool for a bizarre philosophy of life.
Love Song to the Earth ~ Special Presentation Video (during awards ceremony Thurs, June 8th)
Featuring Paul McCartney, Sean Paul, Colbie Callait, Natasha Bedingfield, Q’orianka Kilcher and others. Directed by Trey Fanjoy, Produced by Jeffy Cope. All proceeds from the Love Song project benefit Friends of the Earth and the United Nations Foundation. Premiered with Ban Ki-mon in Paris at UNFCCC COP 21.
Riley the Web Series (Wed, June 7th)
Director: Jeffrey Scott Basham
Riley is an original comedy series about a former teen pop star. Now in her thirties, she’s struggling to overcome a publicly humiliating downfall and subsequent nervous breakdown. But, it’s the power of friendship and the quirky characters she meets along the way that just might get her through…
Emmy® Award Winner Joe Hernandez-Kolski as Gavin and filmmakers are scheduled to attend.
SGCH – Morgan’s Story (Tues, June 6th)
Director: Stefan Wernik
This film features the true story of Morgan, who with the help of SGCH rose above a troubled upbringing.
Natasha BeaumontI Inception | All Saints | Little Fish is scheduled to attend.
Say Hello (Wed, June 7th)
Director: Brooke Elliott
Say Hello is a comedic reunion of two childhood acquaintances whose lives become entangled.
Sidetracked (Tues, June 6th)
Director: E.D. Brown
Follows the tribulations of a group of thirty something, whose lives are not going to plan.
Adrienne Wilkinson Yes Raze | Star Trek: Renegades| Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is scheduled to attend.
Dream Big: Engineering Our World (Tues, June 6th)
Director: Greg MacGillivray
Dream Big: Engineering Our World is narrated by Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges, and is a first film of its kind for IMAX® and giant screen theatres that will transform how we think about engineering.
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THE SQUARE Wins Palme d’Or at 70th Cannes Film Festival, Sofia Coppola, Joaquin Phoenix, Diane Kruger Win Awards
The Square by Ruben Östlund The Square by Ruben Östlund is the winner of the Palme d’Or at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
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Iranian Film LERD (A MAN OF INTEGRITY) Wins Un Certain Regard Prize at 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
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(Lerd) A Man Of Integrity[/caption]
A Man Of Integrity (LERD) by Mohammad Rasoul of Iran, is the winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Un Certain Regard 2017 presented in competition 18 films hailing from 22 different countries. 6 of the works were first films. The Opening film was Barbara by Mathieu Amalric.
Under the presidency of Uma Thurman (actress – United States), the Jury was comprised of Mohamed Diab (director – Egypt), Reda Kateb (actor – France), Joachim Lafosse (director – Belgium) and Karel Och (artistic director of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival – Czech Republic).
The Jury commented “We feel enormous gratitude to have had the honor of serving on the Jury for this historic 70th anniversary of the Festival de Cannes. We are proud to present an esthetically diverse and beautiful awards list for Un Certain Regard.“
“UN CERTAIN REGARD” PRIZE
LERD (A MAN OF INTEGRITY)
by Mohammad Rasoulof
Reza (35), having distanced himself from the ur- ban quagmire, leads a simple life along with his wife and sole son, somewhere in a remote village in Northern Iran. He spends his days working in his gold fish farm. Nearby, a private company with close links to the government and local authori- ties, has taken control of nearly every aspect of the regional life. Its shareholders, accumulating wealth, power and economic rents, have been pushing local farmers and small owners to dilap- idate their belongings, farms and estates, to the benefit of the Company’s influential net- work and its monopoly. It is under their pressure that many villagers have them- selves become local rings of the larger network of corruption.
PRIZE FOR BEST ACTRESS
JASMINE TRINCA for FORTUNATA by Sergio Castellitto
Fortunata has a difficult life, a daughter of eight and a failed marriage behind her. She works as a hairdresser in people’s houses, leaving from the outskirts to cross the city, going to the homes of the well-off to do women’s hair. Fortunata fights every day with determination to achieve her dream: opening her own salon and challenging fate, in an attempt at emancipating herself and gaining her independence and the right to some happiness. She knows that to achieve her dreams she has to be firm: she has thought of everything, she is ready for anything, but she had not considered the variable of love, the one subversive force capable of sweeping aside every certainty. Also because, perhaps for the first time, someone looks at her as the woman she is and truly loves her.
PRIZE FOR THE BEST POETIC NARRATIVE
BARBARA de Mathieu Amalric
An actress, Brigitte, is playing Barbara in a film that soon begins shooting.
Brigitte works on her character, her voice, the songs and scores, the imitation of her gestures, her knitting, the lines to learn. Things
move along. The character grows inside her. Invades her, even…
Yves, the director, is also working – via encounters, archival footage, the music. He seems inhabited and inspired by her…
But by whom? The actress or Barbara?
PRIZE FOR BEST DIRECTION
Taylor Sheridan for WIND RIVER
WIND RIVER is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving the mysterious death. Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, WIND RIVER also stars Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille, and James Jordan.
JURY PRIZE
LAS HIJAS DE ABRIL (APRIL’S DAUGHTER) by Michel Franco
Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives in Puerto Vallarta with Clara, her half-sister.
Valeria has not wanted her long-absent mother, April, to find out about her pregnancy, but due to the economic strain and the overwhelming responsibility of having a baby in the house, Clara decides to call their mother.
April arrives, willing to help her daughters, but soon it will be clear why Valeria had kept her away.
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Cannes Film Festival Announces Winners of 2017 Cinéfondation Prizes
Paul Is Here directed by Valentina Maurel of INSAS, Belgium is the First Prize winner of the 2017 Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury headed by Cristian Mungiu and including Clotilde Hesme, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Barry Jenkins and Eric Khoo, awarded the 2017 Cinéfondation Prizes during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre, followed by the screening of the winning films.
The Cinéfondation Selection consisted of 16 student films, chosen out of 2,600 entries coming from 626 film schools around the world.
First Prize
Paul Is Here (PAUL EST LÀ)
directed by Valentina Maurel
INSAS, Belgium
Second Prize
Animal (HEYVAN)
directed by Bahram & Bahman Ark
Iranian National School of Cinema, Iran
Third Prize
Two Youths Died (DEUX ÉGARÉS SONT MORTS)
directed by Tommaso Usberti
La Fémis, France
The Cinéfondation allocates a €15,000 grant for the First Prize, €11,250 for the Second and €7,500 for the Third. The winner of the First Prize is also guaranteed the presentation of his/her first feature film at the Festival de Cannes.
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MICKEY REECE’S ALIEN Tackles Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s Marriage at deadCenter Film Festival
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Mickey Reece’s Alien[/caption]
Mickey Reece’s Alien is a part comedy/drama/fantasy feature film that delves into divine existentialism and conveys a unique reimagining of the later years of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s tumultuous marriage.
Mickey Reece’s Alien will be showcased on Friday, June 9 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 10 at 6:00 p.m. at the 17th annual deadCenter Film Festival. The film will screen at the Harkins Theatre in Bricktown.
The black-and-white film was written and directed by Mickey Reece and produced by Mickey Reece, Cate Jones, Ron Sutor, James Paulsgrove, Beth Alonso, John Scamehorn, Joe Cappa and Jacob Ryan Snovel in association with Freestyle Creative. “Mickey Reece’s Alien” presents a talented cast, starring Jacob Ryan Snovel (Elvis) and Cate Jones (Priscilla), and featuring Alex Sanchez, John Selvidge and Michaelene Stephenson.
Surrounding discussion of existentialism, Reece capitalized on the idea that Elvis was not of this world and rarely understood, yielding the name “Alien.”
The indie fiction film started as a passion project on Seed&Spark, a crowdfunding website specifically for filmmakers. Reece said he was inspired by John Carpenter’s “Elvis,” Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood,” Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising” and Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”
“When I view the finished product of any movie I’ve made, I know exactly what past film, whether it be an important one or piece of garbage, influenced a particular choice. I think for any cinema buff it is important to see those influences still making it onto the screen in some fashion today,” Reece said.
“It’s an Elvis film that digs into Elvis but it’s also fantastical and hilarious,” Snovel said. “There’s no mistake in the movie. There’s an artistic integrity to the film; it wasn’t just ‘Let’s make an Elvis movie.'”
The deadCenter Film Festival runs June 8 to 11, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWR2Dk0iur0
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Award Winning Comedy FUTURE ’38 to NY Premiere at Art of Brooklyn Film Festival
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FUTURE ’38[/caption]
FUTURE ’38, which won the Audience Award at this year’s 2017 Slamdance, will have its New York premiere on June 8 at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival.
FUTURE ’38 from director/writer Jamie Greenberg, is a technicolor valentine to the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s, with a sci-fi twist. It’s a time-travel adventure which presents the exotic future-world of 2018 A.D., as imagined by the film-makers of 1938! Starring Betty Gilpin, Nick Westrate, Robert John Burke, Ethan Phillips and Sean Young.
ART OF BROOKLYN SCREENING INFORMATION:
NY PREMIERE – Thursday, June 8, 9:00pm – St. Francis College, Brooklyn
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LA Film Festival to Host Gala Screening of David F. Sandberg’s ANNABELLE: CREATION
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Annabelle: Creation[/caption]
The LA Film Festival will host the Gala Screening of Annabelle: Creation, directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson with Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto.
Award-winning film company Focus Features will commemorate its 15th anniversary at the LA Film Festival with five movies including revival programming and a newly added advance screening of Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, with the director in-person for a Q&A.
Additional Festival Special Screenings and Events include a conversation with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, Portlandia: A Look Back and A Look Forward; a conversation with the stars of IFC’s Baroness Von Sketch Show moderated by Lea DeLaria; a day-long screening of every episode of Documentary Now!; and the LA Premiere of Karam Gill’s documentary G-Funk, featuring a post-screening performance with Warren G and special guests.
The festival also unveiled the panels for Diversity Speaks and the Global Media Makers.
“This year’s program is beautifully rich and varied,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “From Sofia Coppola’s new film The Beguiled, to our expanded Diversity Speaks program, to the legendary Warren G performing after Karam Gill’s G-Funk and Festival Alumnus David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation, we can’t wait to share it all with Los Angeles.”
Gala Screening
Annabelle: Creation, dir. David F. Sandberg, Advance Screening Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home. They soon become the target of the doll maker’s possessed creation, Annabelle. Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in theaters on August 11.Free Event: Global Media Makers Screening & Panel
Thursday, June 15, ArcLight Culver City Global Media Makers is an innovative cultural exchange program that fosters supportive ongoing relationships between leading U.S. and international filmmaking talent. Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim, dir. Sherif El Bendary, Egypt, LA Premiere Ali believes his late girlfriend’s soul has been reincarnated in a goat. Ali, his goat and his friend Ibrahim embark on a journey of friendship and self-discovery across Egypt to reverse the curse. Post screening panel with producer and Global Media Makers’ Fellow Hossam Elouan, and other filmmakers participating in the program, who will explore filmmaking in the region and discuss the importance of telling stories from an inside perspective. Global Media Makers is supported through a partnership between Film Independent and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.Free Event: Diversity Speaks Panels
Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18, Kirk Douglas Theatre Addressing topical issues relating to diversity and inclusiveness both on and off the screen, Diversity Speaks’ focus is to expand the definition of diversity and act as a call to action for the entertainment industry. Cis in a Trans World: Transgender Visibility: Members of the trans creative community will discuss on-screen cis appropriation in depictions of trans stories, panelists include Candis Cayne (The Magicians), Mari Walker (Swim) and Rachel Crowl (And Then There Was Eve). Whitewashing: Asian and Asian-American Representation in Film/TV: Leonardo Nam (Westworld), Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King), Kelvin Yu (Master of None), Ally Maki (Wrecked), Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man blog), Bruce Thierry Cheung (Don’t Come Back from the Moon) and Gloria Fan (VP of Current Programming, FOX) will discuss packaging of Asian cultural properties. The Other: Documenting Marginalized Stories: Panelists Sydney Freeland (Deidra & Laney Rob a Train), Valerie Red-Horse Mohl (Mankiller), Amy York Rubin (Boxed In), Xan Aranda (Room 104) and Marvin Lemus (Gente-fied) will shine a light on how these filmmakers and storytellers work within, and around, the current systems to be seen and heard. Reclaiming Gay for Pay: What It Means to be ‘Out’ in Hollywood: Panelists Lena Waithe (Master of None, Twenties), Keiynan Lonsdale (The Flash), Noah Galvin (The Real O’Neals) and Guy Branum (Talk Show the Game Show) question why it remains difficult to come out in Hollywood and the future of storytelling for the LGBTQ+ creative community. The panel will be moderated by Marc Malkin of E!. State of Emergency: 25 Years After the LA Riots. Panelists Sacha Jenkins (Burn Motherfucker, Burn!), Grace Lee (K-TOWN ‘92), Daniel Lindsay (LA ’92) and T.J. Martin (LA ’92) look back on the LA Riots and the continued impact they have on the city at large and the narratives it produces and inspires.Additional Festival Screenings & Events
Premieres – added titles: World premieres of fiction and documentary films featuring noteworthy talent. Story of a Girl, dir. Kyra Sedgwick, USA, World Premiere You Get Me, dir. Brent Bonacorso, USA, World Premiere Focus 15 Founded 15 years ago this spring, Focus Features will celebrate its anniversary at the LA Film Festival with revival showings from its library of iconic movies and with screenings of highly anticipated new Focus movies, including the Festival’s Opening Night Film The Book of Henry, directed by Colin Trevorrow, screening on Wednesday, June 14, and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. The Beguiled, dir. Sofia Coppola, USA, Special Advance Screening Thursday, June 15, LACMA The story unfolds during the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school. Its sheltered young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events. Focus Features will release The Beguiled in theatres on June 23. Q&A with Sofia Coppola to follow screening of The Beguiled. A screening of Lost in Translation will follow the screening of The Beguiled. Lost in Translation, dir. Sofia Coppola, USA, 2003 Thursday, June 15, LACMA Shot entirely on location in Japan, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is a valentine to the nature of close friendships and to the city of Tokyo. Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Wes Anderson, USA, 2012 Saturday, June 17, ArcLight Culver City Set on an island off the coast of New England in summer 1965, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. The Kids Are Alright, dir. Lisa Cholodenko, USA, 2010 Wednesday, June 21, ArcLight Culver City Nic and Jules are married with two teenage children. An unexpected new chapter begins for them as family ties are defined, re-defined, and then re-re defined. Portlandia: A Look Back and A Look Forward Thursday, June 15, Kirk Douglas Theatre For the past seven seasons, Portlandia’s observational humor has been one step ahead of the cultural conversation. As the series gears up for its eighth and final installment, we hear from multi-hyphenates Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein about the show’s celebrated history and what’s next in advance of the final season. Baroness Von Sketch Show Friday, June 16, Kirk Douglas Theatre Hailing from north of the border, these Baronesses of the Baroness Von Sketch Show are producing the best comedy you’ve never seen….until now! Catch a sneak peek before the show premieres on IFC. Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black) will moderate a conversation with the stars Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen. Free Event: Documentary Now! Sunday, June 18, ArcLight Culver City Catch every episode back-to-back of IFC’s Documentary Now! on the big screen. Starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, the series pays homage to some of the world’s best-known documentaries. G-Funk dir. Karam Gill, USA, LA Premiere Friday, June 16, The Theatre at Ace Hotel This “G-Funkumentary” tells the story of three friends from Long Beach, Warren G, Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg, and their collaboration in creating one of the most essential styles of West Coast hip hop. The screening will be followed by a performance featuring Warren G and special guests. Free Event: Burn Motherfucker, Burn!, dir. Sacha Jenkins, USA Monday, June 19, ArcLight Santa Monica On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles exploded when four police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. But a fire beneath the feet of Angelenos had been melting flesh for years. BURN! chronicles the root causes of disenfranchisement in LA while also examining the role law enforcement has played throughout.
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Laura Poitras Named AFI DOCS 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium Honoree
AFI DOCS will pay tribute to Laura Poitras — the groundbreaking director of RISK (2016) and the Academy Award®-winning Edward Snowden portrait CITIZENFOUR (2014) — as the festival’s 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
Each year, the AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honors a master of the nonfiction art form. Taking place at the Newseum on June 16, the Symposium will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her acclaimed works. Poitras’ latest film RISK, a six-year project following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was released by Neon on May 5 and will air on Showtime this summer. Poitras’ impressive documentary catalog also includes THE OATH (2010), MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY (2006) and FLAG WARS (2003).
“Poitras has the extraordinary instinct and ability to put her camera in the heart of history as it unfolds, regardless of the risk,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director, AFI DOCS. “Using her keen eye, Poitras reveals worlds just beyond what we can see. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable career and dedication to the documentary form.”
Poitras’ first feature-length documentary, FLAG WARS, was nominated for an Emmy® and won a Peabody Award, cementing her stature as a top-notch documentarian from the outset. Next, she was nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award® for MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, the first installment in her post-9/11 trilogy. In 2015, Poitras won the Academy Award® for CITIZENFOUR. That same year, Poitras co-founded Field of Vision, an entity that commissions and creates original short-form nonfiction films about global events.
Poitras joins a renowned list of Guggenheim Symposium honorees: Charles Guggenheim (2003), Barbara Kopple (2004), Martin Scorsese (2006), Jonathan Demme (2007), Spike Lee (2008), Albert Maysles (2009), Frederick Wiseman (2010), Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker (2011), Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (2012), Errol Morris (2013), Alex Gibney (2014), Stanley Nelson (2015) and Werner Herzog (2016).
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ON A KNIFE EDGE Coming of Age and Activism Doc on American Indian Young Man to World Premiere at SF DocFest
On A Knife Edge, from director Jeremy Williams, a documentary film five years in the making, follows Guy Dull Knife and his son, George, as George comes of age on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. The film will world premiere June 10 and June 15 at the 16th annual San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.
“On a Knife Edge” is a father-son story about Guy and George Dull Knife that unfolds over the course of George’s coming-of-age journey. Under his father’s guidance, George becomes an activist and organizer, and begins identifying with the role of traditional Lakota warrior, which he views as his family legacy. He commits himself to the fight for social justice, but struggles with adapting the old ways and his father’s expectations to the modern-day realities of growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Told largely through George’s eyes, the film offers a privileged glimpse into the youngest generation of the American Indian Movement, as well as George’s own evolving notions of Native identity, manhood, and duty.
His story is interwoven with animated sequences that depict five generations of family history, narrated by his father and based on paintings he has created to explore the continuum of their fight through the generations.
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First Round of Films Announced for 2017 Damn These Heels Film Festival
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Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall[/caption]
The 2017 Damn These Heels Film Festival taking place July 14 to 16, 2017 in Utah at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, revealed the first round of films selected for the festival. The festival features independent, documentary, and foreign films from around the world that explore LGBTQ issues, ideas, and art.
The Festival will open with Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall by director Katherine Fairfax Wright. The film follows Todrick Hall as he launches his most ambitious project yet: the full-scale original musical, Straight Outta Oz.
Patrick Hubley, Director of Programming for the Utah Film Center said, “Through Damn These Heels screenings and events we hope to continue to foster the spirit of inclusion, unity, and tenacity in the Utah community. These films from all over the world show that now more than ever we need to celebrate our shared humanity no matter our race or sexual orientation. These stories need to be told and we cannot wait to kick off our 14th year with such a thought-provoking program.”
The first round of films selected to screen in the 2017 Damn These Heels Festival are:
Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall / USA (Director: Katherine Fairfax Wright)
Todrick Hall launches his most ambitious project yet: the full-scale original musical, Straight Outta Oz. From a small town in Texas to big-time show business, comes an inspiring documentary of grit, perseverance and the redemptive power of art. We watch him struggle to write songs about growing up gay and black in small-town Texas, his difficult relationship with his mom, and the harsh realities of trying to make it in show business. With limited time and budget the odds are against him, but Todrick’s passion and his team of talented performers overcome all obstacles to bring this story to the world. Utah Premiere
Official Selection: 2017 SXSW Film Festival, 2017 Outfest
*Opening Night Film
**Director Katherine Fairfax Wright will attend the festival for a guided discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d7geWHf1x8
Free Cece / USA (Director: Jacqueline Gares) – CeCe McDonald survived a brutal attack, only to be incarcerated for defending her life. After an international movement to free her, CeCe emerged as a leader to interrogate the prison industrial complex and inspire women to fight back when attacked. Utah Premiere
Cast: CeCe McDonald, Laverne Cox
Audience Award Winner: Feature Documentary – 2016 Blackstar Film Festival
I Dream In Another Language / Mexico/Netherlands (Director: Ernesto Contreras) – A young linguist travels to the jungle of Mexico to research a language on the verge of disappearing. Once there, he discoverers its last two speakers clashed 50 years ago, and have refused to speak to each other since. Attempting to reunite them, the researcher discovers a secret past—and a forbidden gay love story.
Cast: Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, Eligio Meléndez, Manuel Poncelis, Fátima Molina, Juan Pablo De Santiago, Hoze Meléndez
Winner: Audience Award World Cinema (Dramatic) – 2017 Sundance Film Festival
Political Animals / USA (Director: John Markowitz, Tracy Wares) – A rousing documentary charting the unstoppable force of four lesbian legislators in California who’ve been fighting for LGBT rights and recognition for decades. Utah Premiere
Cast: Carole Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe
Winner: Audience Award – 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival, Provincetown International Film Festival and 8 other awards.
Pushing Dead / USA (Director: Tom E. Brown) – When a struggling writer, HIV-positive for 20+ years, accidentally deposits a $100 birthday check, he is dropped from his health plan for earning too much. In this new era of sort-of universal care, can he take on a helpless bureaucracy or come up with $3000 a month to buy his meds on his own? Utah Premiere
Cast: James Roday, Robin Weigert, Danny Glover, Khandi Alexander, Tom Riley
Winner: Audience Award – Frameline 40; 2016 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; 2017 Ashland Independent Film Festival; 2016 Fresno Reel Pride Film Festival
Signature Move / USA (Director: Jennifer Reeder ) – A hilarious and heartfelt look at modern families and the complexities of love in its many forms. Utah Premiere
Cast: Fawzia Mirza, Shabana Azmi, Sari Sanchez, Audrey Francis, Charin Alvarez
Official Selection: 2017 SXSW Film Festival
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin / USA (Director: Jennifer M. Kroot) – Celebrates one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels inspired millions to reclaim their lives.
Utah Premiere
Audience Award Winner: Documentary Spotlight – 2017 SXSW Film Festival; Jury Award: Best Documentary – 2017 OUTSHINE Film Festival