STRIKE A POSE[/caption]
Following the world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama section) STRIKE A POSE, a documentary about Madonna’s TRUTH OR DARE dancers, heads to Tribeca Film Festival for its North American premiere.
In 1990, seven young male dancers – six gay, one straight – joined Madonna on her most controversial tour. On stage and in the iconic film Truth or Dare they showed the world how to express yourself. Now, 25 years later, they reveal the truth about life during and after the tour. Strike a Pose is a dramatic documentary about overcoming shame and finding the courage to be who you are.
Wild, talented and barely twenty, the dancers set out on the trip of a lifetime. Their journey was captured in TRUTH OR DARE, one of the highest-grossing documentaries ever. As a self-proclaimed mother to her dancers Madonna used the film to take a stand on gay rights, freedom of expression and the fight against AIDS. Madonna’s flamboyant dancers became icons of sexual freedom.
Although they were pivotal to Madonna’s message, the dancers weren’t living it. In fact, Gabriel wasn’t proud of being gay at all. After failing to persuade Madonna to cut out the kissing scene that would ‘out’ him to his family and friends, he filed a lawsuit against her. And Gabriel wasn’t the only one: Carlton – big, bold and the only dancer who was trusted to lift up the pop icon – was HIV-positive and almost collapsed under the secret that he was carrying on tour. A third dancer is still hiding an important part of himself and now finally wants to open up. For the first time they tell us how hard it has been to live the liberated life they were promoting on stage.Film Festivals
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STRIKE A POSE, A Doc About Madonna’s TRUTH OR DARE Dancers to Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_11928" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] STRIKE A POSE[/caption]
Following the world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama section) STRIKE A POSE, a documentary about Madonna’s TRUTH OR DARE dancers, heads to Tribeca Film Festival for its North American premiere.
In 1990, seven young male dancers – six gay, one straight – joined Madonna on her most controversial tour. On stage and in the iconic film Truth or Dare they showed the world how to express yourself. Now, 25 years later, they reveal the truth about life during and after the tour. Strike a Pose is a dramatic documentary about overcoming shame and finding the courage to be who you are.
Wild, talented and barely twenty, the dancers set out on the trip of a lifetime. Their journey was captured in TRUTH OR DARE, one of the highest-grossing documentaries ever. As a self-proclaimed mother to her dancers Madonna used the film to take a stand on gay rights, freedom of expression and the fight against AIDS. Madonna’s flamboyant dancers became icons of sexual freedom.
Although they were pivotal to Madonna’s message, the dancers weren’t living it. In fact, Gabriel wasn’t proud of being gay at all. After failing to persuade Madonna to cut out the kissing scene that would ‘out’ him to his family and friends, he filed a lawsuit against her. And Gabriel wasn’t the only one: Carlton – big, bold and the only dancer who was trusted to lift up the pop icon – was HIV-positive and almost collapsed under the secret that he was carrying on tour. A third dancer is still hiding an important part of himself and now finally wants to open up. For the first time they tell us how hard it has been to live the liberated life they were promoting on stage.
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2016 Tribeca Film Festival announces Spotlight, Midnight, Special Screenings, Centerpiece, Work in Progress Films
[caption id="attachment_11922" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Elvis & Nixon,[/caption]
The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival also announced the feature films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Screening sections. Also announced was the Centerpiece film and Works In Progress screenings.
The 15th edition of TFF will take place from April 13 to April 24, 2016, in New York City.
The Spotlight section features 36 films, consisting of 18 narratives and 18 documentaries. 25 films in the selection will have their world premiere at the Festival. The opening night Spotlight film is the world premiere of Bill Purple’s drama The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea starring Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Biel, and Maisie Williams.
The Midnight section will open with the World Premiere of the highly anticipated horror anthology, Holidays, from some of today’s most visionary genre filmmakers. Midnight is comprised of six world premieres. The section features the best in genre cinema, encompassing a diverse range of thriller, horror, comedy, and action films.
The Centerpiece film for this year’s Festival is the world premiere of the historical comedy Elvis & Nixon, directed by Liza Johnson and starring Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon.
The complete film selections for the Spotlight, Midnight, Centerpiece, and Special Screenings sections are as follows:
CENTERPIECE
Elvis & Nixon, directed by Liza Johnson, written by Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, and Cary Elwes. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. In 1970, a few days before Christmas, Elvis Presley showed up on the White House lawn seeking to be deputized into the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by the President himself. Elvis & Nixon, starring Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey respectively, imagines the comical details of this outlandish historical encounter. Featuring supporting performances from Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Knoxville, Colin Hanks, Evan Peters, and Sky Ferreira. An Amazon Studios/Bleecker Street release.
SPOTLIGHT
This year’s Spotlight is a family affair, with many films examining families large and small, natural and adopted, stable and struggling. The family of an elderly man, seeking an assisted suicide, rally around him in Youth in Oregon, while the once tight-knit families of Little Boxes and Family Fang try to recapture their intimacy after unexpected change. Fathers and sons clash in Phenom and Wolves, while the mothers and daughters of All We Had and The Meddler lean on each other when everything else seems to be falling apart. One family is threatened by the New York City legal system in Custody, while a new family is forged between lost souls in section opener The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Having once formed their own makeshift family on the road, the dancers of Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour reunite for Strike a Pose and point to another theme of the section that emerges strongly in the documentary selections: the power of the arts and the journey of the artist. Whether it’s visual artists like Banksy and Chris Burden or the dancers of Reset and Strike a Pose; the comedians of The Last Laugh and Pistol Shrimps or the Asian-American rappers fighting for respect in Bad Rap; many films in this year’s selection highlight the versatile power of the arts to affect individuals and culture itself in myriad ways, perhaps none more strongly than Midsummer in Newtown, a resonant testament to the power of art to heal a community after tragedy.
Opening Film
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, directed by Bill Purple, written by Robbie Pickering & Bill Purple. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Henry (Jason Sudeikis) and Penny (Jessica Biel) are a New Orleans couple very much in love, until tragedy strikes and Henry is forced to rebuild. Quite literally, it turns out. After he befriends a tough street teen (Maisie Williams), he helps her construct the raft she’ll use to sail across the Atlantic in search of her long lost father. With Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Biel, Maisie Williams, Orlando Jones, Mary Steenburgen, and Paul Reiser.
All We Had, directed by Katie Holmes, written by Josh Boone & Jill Killington. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Ruthie continually makes the best of her mother Rita’s hard luck. When their attempt at settling in a new town hits a stumbling block, even Ruthie struggles to keep it together. Based on Annie Weatherwax’s 2014 novel, Katie Holmes’s feature directorial debut is an enriching coming-of-age drama about a resilient mother and daughter who find strength in each other. With Stefania Owen, Katie Holmes, Luke Wilson, Richard Kind, Mark Consuelos, Judy Greer, and Eve Lindley.
Bad Rap, directed and written by Salima Koroma. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Bad Rap follows the lives and careers of four Asian-American rappers trying to break into a world that often treats them as outsiders. Sharing dynamic live performance footage and revealing interviews, these artists will make the most skeptical critics into believers. With humor and insight, the film paints a portrait of artistic passion in the face of an unsung struggle. With Jonathan “Dumbfoundead” Park, Nora “Awkwafina” Lum, David “Rekstizzy” Lee, and Richard “Lyricks” Lee.
The Banksy Job, directed and written by Ian Roderick Gray and Dylan Harvey. (U.K.) – World Premiere, Documentary. Simultaneously hilarious, wild, and bizarre The Banksy Job further illuminates the crazy world of street art and the peculiar relationships between the artists—in particular, Banksy and the artist known as AK47. An art world, mystery caper, The Banksy Job adds another whacky layer to the Banksy story that can’t be missed.
Burden, directed by Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Illustrated with performance, private videos, and recollections from those who knew him, this detailed and innovative documentary looks at the life of the always provocative artist Chris Burden, whose work consistently challenged ideas about the limits and nature of modern art, from his notorious performances in the 1970s to his later assemblages, installations, kinetic and static sculptures, and scientific models.
Check It, directed by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Fed up with being abused and harassed on the brutal inner-city streets of Washington D.C., a group of gay and trans teens form a gang to fight back. This raw and intimate portrait follows four Check It members as they struggle to find a way out of gang life through an unlikely avenue: fashion.
Command and Control, directed by Robert Kenner, written by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. A high-stakes documentary thriller, Command and Control—based on Eric Schlosser’s 2013 book of the same name—explores the “human error” that led to an explosion at the Titan II nuclear site just outside Little Rock, Arkansas towards the end of the Cold War, and probes how mutually assured destruction might actually mean self-annihilation.
Courted (L’Hermine), directed and written by Christian Vincent. (France) – North American Premiere, Narrative. When a feared judge of the French court, Xavier Racine (Fabrice Luchini), encounters a French-Danish juror, Ditte Lorensen-Coteret (Sidse Babett Knudsen), at a murder trial, their shared past is slowly uncovered. Understated and engaging, director Christian Vincent (Four Stars, Haute Cuisine) lets two narratives unfold, playing with notions of how we present ourselves and how we wish to be perceived. In French with subtitles.
Custody, directed and written by James Lapine. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Legal and intimate family dynamics dovetail in Custody. Starring Viola Davis as an embattled family court judge with a fraught marriage of her own; Hayden Panettiere as a recent law-school grad flung into a custody case; and Catalina Sandino Moreno as the single mother at the center of the case who risks losing her two children over an ill-timed argument. With Tony Shalhoub, Raul Esparza, Dan Fogler, and Ellen Burstyn.
Don’t Think Twice, directed by Mike Birbiglia. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative. Mike Birbiglia’s true-to-life second feature is set in the world of New York improv comedy, where the members of a tight-knit troupe are thrown into disarray when one of their ranks lands a coveted spot on a top TV show. Produced by Ira Glass and co-starring Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard and Mike Birbiglia.
Team Foxcatcher, directed by Jon Greenhalgh. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Jon Greenhalgh’s Team Foxcatcher chronicles the paranoid, downward spiral of millionaire John E. DuPont that led to the tragic murder of olympic wrestler David Schultz. Never-before-seen home videos shot during Schultz’s time at Foxcatcher Farms shed light on the disturbing events and serve as a poignant memoir to the legacy of the champion wrestler, husband, and father. A Netflix release.
Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray, directed by Jenny Carchman. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. The self-help industry is worth $11 billion dollars a year; it captivates those seeking happiness, release from suffering, and those longing for a path and a leader to follow. James Arthur Ray, for many, was that sort of leader. But when a sweat lodge ceremony goes horribly wrong, we learn from Ray and some of his followers that their spiritual path was fraught with danger and perhaps even greater suffering.
The Family Fang, directed by Jason Bateman, written by David Lindsay-Abaire. (USA) – US Premiere, Narrative. Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman are Annie and Baxter Fang, children of celebrated performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett). When the elder Fangs go missing under mysterious circumstances, the siblings are forced to unpack long-dormant and unresolved issues from their unorthodox childhoods as they search for their parents, in Bateman’s caustically funny and deeply felt sophomore feature. With Jason Butler Harner and Kathryn Hahn. A Starz release.
A Hologram for the King, directed and written by Tom Tykwer. (USA, Germany) – World Premiere, Narrative. In Tom Tykwer’s wryly comic adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel, Tom Hanks stars as a struggling American businessman who travels to Saudi Arabia to sell a new technology to the King, only to be challenged by endless Middle Eastern bureaucracy, a perpetually absent monarch, and a suspicious growth on his back. With Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ben Whishaw, and Tom Skerritt. A Roadside Attractions release.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople, directed and written by Taika Waititi. (New Zealand) – New York Premiere, Narrative. A spunky orphan and his gruff guardian are forced to flee after a series of misunderstandings send them both into the wilderness as mismatched fugitives. Starring Sam Neill and featuring a hysterically funny performance from newcomer Julian Dennison, director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, and the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok) has crafted a truly touching adventure-comedy. An Orchard release.
A Kind of Murder, directed by Andy Goddard, written by Susan Boyd. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. The Blunderer, written by Carol author Patricia Highsmith, gets a classic film noir treatment in A Kind of Murder, a ’60s-set Hitchcockian thriller that explores how we judge culpability in the death of another. Starring Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, and Vincent Kartheiser.
The Last Laugh, directed by Ferne Pearlstein, written by Robert Edwards and Ferne Pearlstein. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. When is comedy not funny? Some would argue, when it’s about the Holocaust. Through interviews and performances featuring people on either side of the issue—including Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, Louis C.K., Joan Rivers, Chris Rock, and Abe Foxman—as well as a portrait of a resilient survivor, The Last Laugh offers an intelligent and hilarious survey of what is and is not off-limits in comedy, from the Holocaust and beyond.
Lavender, directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly, written by Ed Gass-Donnelly and Colin Frizzel. (Canada) – World Premiere, Narrative. Abbie Cornish, Dermot Mulroney, and Justin Long star in this hallucinatory thriller about Jane, a photographer who suffers severe memory loss following a horrific car accident. Putting her life at risk, as well as those of her husband and daughter, she must piece together and confront the traumatic past that is haunting her.
Life, Animated, directed by Roger Ross Williams, written by Roger Ross Williams and David Teague. (USA) – New York Premiere, Documentary. Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams tells the remarkable story of an autistic young man, unable to speak for much of his childhood, who regained his ability to communicate through a life-long commitment to Disney animated movies. Life, Animated is a moving illustration of the power of love and understanding to fix those things in life that appear irreparable. An Orchard release.
Little Boxes, directed by Rob Meyer, written by Annie J Howell. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. It’s the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act ‘more black,’ he fumbles to meet expectations as rifts are exposed in his tight-knit family, his parents also striving to adjust. This poignant comedy about understanding identity is the second feature from TFF alumnus Rob Meyer. Executive Produced by Cary Fukunaga. With Melanie Lynskey, Nelsan Ellis, Armani Jackson, Oona Laurence, Janeane Garofalo, and Christine Taylor.
Magnus, directed by Benjamin Ree, written by Linn-Jeanethe Kyed and Benjamin Ree. (Norway) – World Premiere, Documentary. Carlsen is known as the ‘Mozart of Chess’ because, unlike many chess grandmasters, he possesses innate ability, an unbelievable memory, and unrivaled creativity. Memorized moves and calculated probability can only carry a chess player so far; Magnus exploits this weakness in his opponents on his way to becoming the World Chess Champion. In English, Norwegian with subtitles.
The Meddler, directed and written by Lorene Scafaria. (USA) – US Premiere, Narrative. Susan Sarandon delivers a magnetic performance as the doting, mother supreme Marnie Minervini, who crosses coasts to drop into the life of her screenwriter daughter Lori (Rose Byrne). Loosely autobiographical, Lorene Scafaria’s heartfelt comedy offers a wryly scripted defense of a woman struggling to cope with familial loss. Co-starring J.K. Simmons, Cecily Strong, Jerrod Carmichael, and Jason Ritter. A Sony Pictures Classic release.
Midsummer in Newtown, directed by Lloyd Kramer. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Midsummer in Newtown is a testament to the transformative force of artistic expression to pierce through the shadow cast down by trauma. From auditions to opening night, we witness the children of Sandy Hook Elementary find their voice, build their self-confidence, and ultimately shine in a rock-pop version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
Mr. Church, directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Susan McMartin. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. When a dying mother hires a talented cook (Eddie Murphy) to help take care of her young daughter, a lifelong friendship blooms. A tender coming-of-age family drama directed by the Oscar-nominated, Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy). With Britt Robertson, Xavier Samuel, Natascha McElhone, Lucy Fry
My Blind Brother, directed and written by Sophie Goodhart. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative. In Sophie Goodhart’s utterly original romantic comedy, Robbie (Adam Scott) is a champion blind athlete and local sports hero whose brother Bill (Nick Kroll) is always overlooked, even though he runs every marathon by his side. When both fall for the same lady (Jenny Slate), Bill must decide if he will put himself second again, or finally stand up to his blind brother. With Zoe Kazan, Charlie Hewson, Maryann Nagel, and Greg Violand.
My Scientology Movie, directed by John Dower, written by John Dower and Louis Theroux. (U.K.) – International Premiere, Documentary. BBC journalist Louis Theroux joins forces with director John Dower to explore the elusive Church of Scientology. With the help of a former high-ranking Scientologist, Theroux sets out to understand the furtive goings-on of the Church, armed with his irreverent humor and biting irony.
National Bird, directed by Sonia Kennebeck. (USA) – International Premiere, Documentary. Sonia Kennebeck takes on the controversial tactic of drone warfare, and demands accountability through the personal accounts—recollections, traumas, and responses—of three American military veterans whose lives have been shaken by the roles they played in this controversial method of attack. Executive produced by Wim Wenders and Errol Morris. In Dari, English with subtitles.
The Phenom, directed and written by Noah Buschel. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. When major-league rookie pitcher Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) chokes on the mound, he’s sidelined to the minor leagues and prescribed sessions with an unorthodox sports psychologist (Paul Giamatti). In the process, long-dormant conflicts with his overbearing father (Ethan Hawke) are brought to light. The Phenom is a captivating psychological study of an individual caught up in the expectations of the big-league sports machine.
Pistol Shrimps, directed and written by Brent Hodge. (USA, Canada) – World Premiere, Documentary. Sometimes girls just wanna have fun… and ball. Brent Hodge (A Brony Tale, TFF 2014) and Morgan Spurlock (Mansome, TFF 2012) introduce us to an eclectic group of women who play in an LA recreational basketball league, focusing on the Pistol Shrimps, a rag-tag group of actresses (including Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation), comedians, musicians, and mothers who brought nationwide attention to the league that could.
Reset (Relève), directed and written by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai. (France) – International Premiere, Documentary. Stunningly gorgeous and delicate in both subject and treatment, Reset depicts renowned choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied (also known for choreographing the dance sequences in Black Swan) as he attempts to rejuvenate the Paris Opera Ballet in his new position as director. With appearances by composer Nico Muhly, Opera alumna Aurélie Dupont, and designer Iris van Herpen, Reset is a delightfully aesthetic affair. In French with subtitles.
Shadow World, directed by Johan Grimonprez. (USA, Belgium, Denmark) – World Premiere, Documentary. In this eye-popping montage of archival and news footage and interviews, Johan Grimonprez exposes the shadow world of the global arms trade, where corruption, lies, and greed drive covert relationships between politicians, industry executives, military and intelligence officials, and arms dealers. Their aim: to perpetuate war in order to generate more profit, no matter what the human cost. In Arabic, English, Spanish with subtitles.
Strike a Pose, directed and written by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan. (Netherlands) – North American Premiere, Documentary. To the fans, they were the unforgettably talented men who supported the career of one of the world’s most beloved and controversial music artists: Madonna. Behind the scenes they were an impressionable group of young dancers whose lives were forever changed by her influence. Strike a Pose reunites the men 25 years later, providing the chance to learn about the emotional truth behind the glamorous facade.
Vincent N Roxxy, directed and written by Gary Michael Schultz. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Vincent (Emile Hirsch) is a small town loner, and Roxxy (Zoë Kravitz) a rebellious punk rocker. When they find themselves on the run from the same dangerous criminals, their feelings for one another deepen, despite their dangerous circumstances. Soon, the star-crossed lovers discover violence is never far behind them, in Gary Michael Schultz’s alternately romantic and brutal drama. With Emory Cohen, Zoey Deutch, Jason Mitchell, Scott Mescudi.
Win!, directed and written by Justin Webster. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. With inside access to the players, decision makers, and supporters who were central to the formation of New York City Football Club and its historic inaugural season, Win! offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to build a Major League Soccer team from the ground up, in the country’s most competitive sports market. In English, Spanish with subtitles.
Wolves, directed and written by Bart Freundlich. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Anthony Keller (Taylor John Smith), star of his NYC high school basketball team, is riding his way to Cornell on a sports scholarship. He can only maintain his popular jock facade for so long, as his troubled father Lee (Michael Shannon) has a gambling addiction that threatens to derail his dreams both on and off the court. Bart Freundlich’s powerfully directed drama co-stars Carla Gugino.
Youth In Oregon, directed by Joel David Moore, written by Andrew Eisen. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Frank Langella, Billy Crudup, Christina Applegate, Mary Kay Place, and Josh Lucas star in this dramedy about an ailing man travelling to Oregon to be legally euthanized. Langella is superb, capturing the frustration, resolution, and desperation that swirl around so profound a decision. Actor-turned-director Joel David Moore creates a powerful affirmation on the search that finds value in the life you have.
MIDNIGHT
Always a thrill for the late night crowd, Tribeca Film Festival’s Midnight section features the best in horror, comedy, action, and camp.
Opening Film
Holidays, directed by Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer, Nicholas McCarthy, Gary Shore, Sarah Adina Smith, Anthony Scott Burns, Kevin Smith, Scott Stewart, and Adam Egypt Mortimer, written by Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer, Nicholas McCarthy, Gary Shore, Sarah Adina Smith, Anthony Scott Burns, Kevin Smith, and Scott Stewart. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Get in the holiday spirit with this horror anthology from some of today’s most visionary genre auteurs. From a very unholy Easter Bunny to a particularly macabre Valentine’s Day gift, Holidays is a full calendar year of festive stories, bringing out the most twisted and subversive sides of each seasonal celebration. With Seth Green, Clare Grant, Ruth Bradley, Sophie Traub, Jocelin Donahue, Harley, Morenstein, Lorenza Izzo, and Andrew Bowen.
In the Virtual Arcade, the Festival is exhibiting Holidays: Christmas VR, which is tied to Christmas, a part of the Holidays anthology feature.
Fear, Inc., directed by Vincent Masciale, written by Luke Barnett. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. In this referential horror-comedy thriller, horror junkie Joe Foster gets to live out his ultimate scary movie fantasy courtesy of Fear Inc., a company that specializes in giving you the fright of your life. But as lines blur between what is and is not part of the game, Joe’s dream comes true begins to look more like a nightmare. With Lucas Neff, Caitlin Stasey, Chris Marquette, Stephanie Drake, Mark Moses, and Abigail Breslin.
Here Alone, directed by Rod Blackhurst, written by David Ebeltoft. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. A virus has ravaged human civilization, leaving two groups of survivors: those who have managed to avoid infection, and those driven to madness, violence, and an insatiable bloodlust. Living deep in the woods, Ann, Chris, and Olivia are forced to fend off the infected while foraging for supplies. But when a supply expedition goes terribly awry, one among their number must make a terrible choice. With Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adam David Thompson, and Shane West.
King Cobra, directed and written by Justin Kelly. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. This ripped-from-the-headlines drama covers the early rise of gay porn headliner Sean Paul Lockhart (Garrett Clayton), aka Brent Corrigan, before his falling out with the producer (Christian Slater) who made him famous. When Sean decides he’d be better off a free agent, a cash-strapped pair of rival producers (James Franco and Keegan Allen) aim to cash in by any means possible. With Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald
Rebirth, directed and written by Karl Mueller. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Adam Goldberg, Pat Healy, Harry Hamlin and Nicky Whelan star as members of a mysterious self-help group (possibly a cult). Fran Kranz plays their newest recruit. Rebirth simultaneously satirizes the buddy comedy and embraces the thriller format, resulting in a film that is at one moment hilarious and at the next, deeply disturbing. A Netflix release
Tiger Raid, directed by Simon Dixon, written by Simon Dixon, Mick Donnellan, Gareth Coulam Evans. (U.K.) – World Premiere, Narrative. Two mercenaries in Iraq speed through the dead of night, on their way to execute a covert mission. But as they near their objective, past misdeeds come violently to the surface, in this action-packed two-hander. With Sofia Boutella, Brian Gleeson, Damien Molony
Special Event
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I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead[/caption]
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, directed by Justin Krook. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. From producers Matthew Weaver, Matt Colon, Happy Walters and David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, TFF 2011) is an energetic, heart-pumping documentary about one of the most eminent DJs working today: Steve Aoki. In the lead-up to Aoki’s biggest show of his career, the doc examines the driving force behind his passion: Rocky Aoki, daredevil showman, Benihana founder, and Steve’s absent father.
Following the film, there will be a conversation and performance with Steve Aoki at The Beacon Theatre.
Special Screenings
Don’t Look Down, directed by Daniel Gordon. (U.K.) – World Premiere, Documentary. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, daredevil entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson made an audacious attempt to cross the Atlantic and Pacific in the world’s largest hot air balloon. Don’t Look Down is a personal revelation; a dramatic tale of survival and drive. Branson recounts his experience with uncanny vividity, and reveals how baiting death forever changed him.
Everybody Knows…Elizabeth Murray, directed by Kristi Zea. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. This tribute to the dynamic artist Elizabeth Murray, an intrinsic figure in New York’s contemporary art landscape from the 1970s until the early 2000s, highlights her struggle to balance personal and family ambition with artistic drive in a male-dominated art world. It also addresses her later battle with cancer, at the peak of her career.
Screening in partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art where the film will screen.
The Man Who Knew Infinity, directed by Matthew Brown, written by Matthew Brown and Robert Kanigel. (U.K.) – New York Premiere, Narrative. In 1913, a self-taught mathematics prodigy Ramanujan (Dev Patel) traveled from his home in India to Trinity College in Cambridge to study with the esteemed professor GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons). Hardy fights for Ramanujan to be recognized as the two struggle with prejudice, illness, and culture on the road to perfecting the theorems that changed the course of history of math. In English, Tamil with subtitles. An IFC Films release.
Following the screening there will be an in depth conversation with Dev Patel and the film’s creators. Presented in association with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation/Tribeca Film Institute partnership, this Special Screening Event is co-sponsored by Bira 91.
Geezer, directed and written by Lee Kirk. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Perry (Billie Joe Armstrong) is a happily married father of two living a comfortable but sedate life in the suburbs. On the occasion of his 40th birthday, he seeks to revisit his former life as the lead singer in a popular punk band though his middle-aged reality quickly (and hilariously) clashes with the indulgences of his youth. With Fred Armisen, Selma Blair, Judy Greer and Chris Messina.
With a special live performance from Billie Joe Armstrong following the film.
Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back, directed and written by Maura Axelrod. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. An art world upstart, provocative and elusive artist Maurizio Cattelan made his career on playful and subversive works that send up the artistic establishment, until a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011 finally solidified his place in the contemporary art canon. Axelrod’s equally playful profile leaves no stone unturned in trying to figure out: who is Maurizio Cattelan? In English, Italian with subtitles.
Screening in partnership with the Guggenheim Museum where the film will screen.
Pelé: Birth of a Legend, directed and written by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. From the slums of Brazil to center stage at the world’s biggest sporting event, Pelé’s rise to become the youngest-ever World Cup winner, at the age of 17, was nothing short of a miracle. Full of laughs, life lessons, and heart, this inspiring biopic is perfect for introducing a new generation to the greatest soccer player of all time. With Vincent D’Onofrio, Rodrigo Santoro, Diego Boneta, Seu Jorge, Colm Meaney. An IFC Films release.
Followed by a conversation with Pelé.
SHOT! the Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock, directed by Barnaby Clay. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Legendary music photographer Mick Rock is best known for his iconic photographs of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Queen, and countless others. In a documentary as rock-n-roll as its subject, Mick Rock guides us through his psychedelic, shambolic first-hand experiences as the visual record-keeper of these myths and legends.
With a special live music tribute following the screening.
The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals, directed by Benedikt Erlingsson. (U.K., Iceland) – North American Premiere, Documentary. Benedikt Erlingsson brings us a world of imagination with a compendium of wonderful unseen archival footage of circus performers, cabaret acts, and fairground attractions. The films are set to a haunting electronic score composed by members of Sigur Rós in collaboration with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson.
Screening in partnership with MoMA PS1 where the film will screen inside the VW Dome.
Work In Progress
Ghostheads, directed and written by Brendan Mertens. (Canada, USA) – Work-In-Progress, Documentary. Join us for a special sneak preview screening of Brendan Mertens’ documentary exploring the many faces of Ghostbusters fandom and celebrating 30 years of one of cinema’s most iconic franchises. Featuring interviews with Dan Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman, Sigourney Weaver, and Paul Feig.
Untitled Bill Nye Documentary, directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg. (USA) – Work-In-Progress, Documentary. When it raised over $800,000 on Kickstarter, The Untitled Bill Nye Documentary broke the fundraising site’s records and instantly became one of the most anticipated upcoming documentaries. Join the filmmakers and the titular Science Guy as they preview exclusive scenes from their upcoming doc and discuss their process, collaboration, and fundraising strategy.
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Orlando Magic Documentary This Magic Moment Opens Lineup for Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
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This Magic Moment,[/caption]
The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival announced the feature film lineup for the 10th annual Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.
The tenth annual Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival will open on April 14 with a Gala screening and world premiere of the documentary This Magic Moment chronicling the 1990s Orlando Magic dynasty headlined by superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway. Seven feature films will screen as part of the Festival, the premiere outlet to showcase independent films that focus on sports and competition. The film will premiere on ESPN that night with live simulcast from the Tribeca red carpet, with special guests including Shaquille O’Neal.
Jeff and Michael Zimbalest return to the Tribeca Film Festival with the World Premiere of their inspiring biopic Pele: Birth of a Legend, about Pele’s rise from the slums of Brazil to become the youngest ever World Cup winner at the age of 17 (Pele will be in attendance). Other films explore a new soccer franchise in New York, a famous chess player, a Native American girls highschool lacrosse team, and an LA recreational basketball league, made up of actresses, comedians, musicians, and mothers.
Gala:
This Magic Moment, co-directed by Erin Leyden and Gentry Kirby. (USA) – World Premiere. Documentary. In the mid-1990s, Orlando was the epicenter of excitement in the NBA. The young franchise, led by mega-stars Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, beat Michael Jordan and the mighty Bulls en route to the 1995 NBA Finals. They lost to the Rockets that year but it was clear this team from Orlando was a dynasty in the making. But the Magic’s moment on top was never fully realized – a classic “what-could-have-been” story, where success came fast and big and then ‘poof’, the magic was gone.
Feature films:
El Clásico, directed by Halkawt Mustafa, written by Anders Fagerholt and Halkawt Mustafa. (Norway, Iraqi Kurdistan Region) – North American Premiere
Keepers of the Game, directed by Judd Ehrlich. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary
Magnus, directed by Benjamin Ree, written by Linn-Jeanethe Kyed and Benjamin Ree. (Norway) – World Premiere, Documentary.
My Blind Brother, directed and written by Sophie Goodhart. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative.
Pelé: Birth of a Legend, directed and written by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative.
Pistol Shrimps, directed and written by Brent Hodge. (USA, Canada) – World Premiere, Documentary.
Win!, directed and written by Justin Webster. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary.
All of this year’s Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival films will screen throughout the day as ‘Sports Saturday’ on Saturday, April 23 at Regal Battery Park Stadium 11. The films will also screen throughout the Festival, prior to this date.
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Eye in the Sky Starring Helen Mirren Kicks Off Lineup for Gasparilla International Film Festival
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Eye in the Sky[/caption]
The 2016 Gasparilla International Film Festival today unveiled the 10th year Anniversary edition film lineup.
Opening the festival is Eye in the Sky directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren; and closing night film is Everybody Wants Some directed by Richard Linklater.
OPENING NIGHT FILM (NARRATIVE):
Eye in the Sky (UK): Complications arise when a lieutenant general and a colonel order a drone missile strike to take out a group of terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya. Cast: Alan Rickman, Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul. Director Gavin Hood scheduled to attend.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM (NARRATIVE):
Everybody Wants Some (USA): A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood. Director & Screenwriter Richard Linklater
NARRATIVE FEATURES:
Precious Cargo (World Premiere): After a botched heist, Eddie, a murderous crime boss, hunts down the seductive thief Karen, who failed him. In order to win back Eddie’s trust, Karen recruits her ex-lover and premier thief Jack. Starring Bruce Willis, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Claire Forlani. Directed by Max Adams.
Ma Ma (SPAIN. USA Premiere): A woman recently diagnosed with cancer forms an unexpected bond with a soccer scout (Luis Tosar) whose wife has been gravely injured in a car accident. Cast: Academy Award winner Penélope Cruz. Directed by Julio Medem.
Love and Friendship (FRA/NETHERLANDS. Florida Premiere): In the 18th century, the seductive and manipulative Lady Susan uses devious tactics to win the heart of the eligible Reginald De Courcy. Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny. Directed by Chloe Sevigny.
The Daughter (AUS. Florida Premiere): In an unnamed, present-day logging town that has seen better times, Henry Neilson, a well-to-do mill owner, announces to his employees that the economy has forced him to close. Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Miranda Otto, Odessa Young and Sam Neill. Directed by Simon Stone.
The Debt (USA. Florida Premiere): A hedge fund honcho puts through the deal of a lifetime: the redemption of a billion-dollar debt owed by the Peruvian government to its citizens. The quick buck soon turns into a nightmare. Cast: Stephen Dorff, Alberto Ammann, Carlos Bardem, and David Strathairn. Directed by: Barney Elliott.
The Adderall Diaries (USA. Florida Premiere): Thriller based on a “true-crime memoir” book of the same name by Stephen Elliott, based on the Hans Reiser murder case. Cast: James Franco, Ed Harris and Amber Heard. Written and directed by Pamela Romanowsky.
One More Time (USA. Florida Premiere): Beautiful aspiring rock star Jude is stuck in a rut—relegated to recording commercial jingles and lost in a series of one night stands. Cast: Amber Heard, Kelli Garner and Christopher Walker. Director Robert Edwards scheduled to attend.
A Beautiful Now (USA. Florida Premiere): As a beautiful dancer balances reality and fantasy, she asks her friends to help her figure out the passions and relationships that have shaped her identity. Cast: Abigail Spencer, Cheyenne Jackson, Collette Wolfe. Directed by Daniela Amavia.
Puerto Ricans in Paris (USA. Florida Premiere): Two Puerto Rican NYPD detectives head to Paris to track down a stolen handbag. Cast: Luiz Guzman, Rosie Perez, Rosario Dawson. Directed by Ian Edelman.
DOCUMENTARIES:
Hano! A Century in the Bleachers (Florida Premiere): Meet Arnold Hano, 93, legendary sportswriter and social activist. Baseball fan, war veteran and storyteller emeritus: few have lived and chronicled the American experience as extensively. Director Jon Leonoudakis scheduled to attend.
SMART (Florida Premiere): Groundbreaking feature-length documentary about a group of highly trained, adrenaline-fueled professionals who risk life and limb to rescue animals. They’re Los Angeles’ Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team! Director Justin Zimmerman scheduled to attend.
Hair I Go Again (World Premiere): Facing a mid-life crossroads, two longtime friends risk everything as they set out to fulfill their dreams of achieving rock & roll stardom. Director Steve McClure scheduled to attend.
No Greater Love (Florida Premiere): U.S. Army Chaplain Justin Roberts goes on missions with the legendary NO SLACK battalion in Afghanistan in 2010-2011 armed with only a camera. Director Justin Roberts scheduled to attend.
CUBAN SIDEBAR: Films focusing on Cuba
Craving Cuba (World Premiere): A Cuban-American woman seeks to understand her true identity. Directed by Zuzy Martin Lynch and Rick Lynch.
The Forbidden Shore (World Premiere): The amazing diversity of contemporary Cuban music is gorgeously explored in Ron Chapman’s third documentary feature. Chapman captures the full gamut of what’s happening now in Cuba, both the most exciting artists and the distinct musical scenes they move in. Director Ron Chapman scheduled to attend.
Havana Motor Club (Florida Premiere): Reforms have offered opportunity in Cuba, but the children of the Revolution are unsure of the best route forward. For a half-dozen drag racers, this means last-minute changes to their beloved American muscle cars as they prepare for the first sanctioned race in Cuba since 1960. Director Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt scheduled to attend.
FLORIDA FOCUS: World premiere of independent films made in Florida
Waiting on Mary: A struggling actor, traumatized by a brutal divorce, assumes the personality of a colonial character he played at a failed amusement park as a way of retreating from his pain. Directed by Corey Horton.
Bear With Us: A modern farce about a guy who attempts to propose to his girlfriend in the most romantic way possible, but his plan falls apart when a ravenous bear stumbles on their charming cabin in the woods. Directed by William J. Stribling.
Dooder And the Lighthouse: Dooder Parker is eighty-six and full of life. When the historic lighthouse in his hometown becomes doomed to fall into the Gulf, his recounting of local history evolves into a reflection on his love for his wife. Stories intertwine to paint a portrait of a vanishing way of life. Directed by Clayton and Lisa Long.
In addition to feature length films, GIFF will present over 70 short films. Short film blocks include:
“LOL”: Comedic short films
“Films on a Mission”: Short films focusing on a specific cause
“Thrill Ride”: Thriller, action, and horror short films
“Love is In the Air”: Romantic short films
“ Films in Motion”: Short films related to music
“Save the Drama”: Drama short films
“Films 101”: College made short films
“High School Film Showcase”: GIFF’s high school filmmaking competition Sponsored by Suncoast Credit Union
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Complete Lineup Revealed for 2016 ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival | TRAILERS
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A BLIND HERO: THE LOVE OF OTTO WEIDT, Kai Christensen[/caption]
The official line-up is revealed for the 2016 ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival taking place in a record number of venues across New York from March 10 to 16,2016.
The festival will include its largest slate of films featuring U.S. and New York premieres of acclaimed movies from around the world. The festival will kick off with a special Opening Night Gala with the New York premiere of the light-hearted, award-winning film Margarita with a Straw. The film is based on a true story of a young Indian woman with Cerebral Palsy who moves to NY to attend NYU and is exposed to a new world. This edgy yet joyful film captures the spirit of ReelAbilities as an accessible story that presents people with disabilities in an engaging and fresh manner.
Started by JCC Manhattan in 2007, ReelAbilities is the largest festival in the country dedicated to presenting award-winning films made by and about people with different disabilities – physical, developmental and psychological.
The full film lineup for JCC Manhattan’s 8th Annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is as follows:
FEATURES
2E: TWICE EXCEPTIONAL
Dir. Thomas Ropelewsky (54 min, USA, Documentary)
An honest, up-close look at what it’s like to be – or to be the parent or teacher of — a gifted young person coming to terms with a learning difference. This documentary follows the personal journeys of a group of high school students who have been identified as “twice exceptional” – gifted or highly gifted individuals with learning disabilities or differences. Featuring thought-provoking interviews with students, parents, teachers, psychologists and therapists, 2e: Twice Exceptional is essential viewing for anyone interested in understanding where our next generation of “outliers” — geniuses, mavericks, and dreamers — may come from.
Short blurb: An honest, up-close look at a group of high school students identified as “twice exceptional”—highly gifted individuals with learning disabilities or differences. 2E indicates where our next generation of “outliers”—geniuses, mavericks, and dreamers—may come from and what it’s like to be their parent or teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFenn8BFExM
A BLIND HERO: THE LOVE OF OTTO WEIDT
Dir. Kai Christensen (89 min, Germany, Narrative)
The heroic story of unsung hero Otto Weidt, who saved dozens of Jews from the Nazi death camps. Owner of a Berlin brush and broom factory, Otto Weidt uses his skills to outwit the Nazis and protect his staff, most of whom are Jewish and blind. When his secretary is deported to Auschwitz, Weidt, nearly blind himself, embarks on a journey to free her. A gripping true story of a courageous man, A Blind Hero relies almost exclusively on eyewitness accounts and the memories of those whom Weidt saved.
Short blurb: The story of the heroic Otto Weidt, who saved dozens of Jews from the Nazi death camps. Weidt, a broom factory owner, cunningly outwits the Nazis to protect his staff, most of whom are Jewish and blind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQ2uZNhV10
DO YOU DREAM IN COLOR?
Dir. Abigail Fuller & Sarah Ivy (76 min, USA, Documentary)
The poignant coming of age story of Connor, Nick, Sarah and Carina, who navigate the growing pains of high school, but, unlike most teens, they face another challenge – they are blind. Do You Dream in Color? captures their journeys as they strive to achieve their goals: to be a sponsored skateboarder, to travel the world, to become a rock star and to be the first in one’s family to graduate high school. Through their personal stories we learn of the experience of being blind and how these fearless teenagers navigate through it.
Short blurb: Four teens who are blind navigate high school and strive to achieve their goals: to be a sponsored skateboarder, to travel the world, to become a rock star, and to be the first in one’s family to graduate high school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEpw9AEbHYI
ENTER THE FAUN
Dir. Tamar Rogoff & Daisy Wright (67 min, USA, Documentary)
The unlikely collaboration between a veteran choreographer and a young actor with cerebral palsy delivers astonishing proof that each and every body is capable of miraculous transformation. As Tamar Rogoff trains Gregg Mozgala to dance in her performance, they discover that her lack of formal medical training and his fears and physical limitations are the impetus for her choreography and their unprecedented discoveries. Enter The Faun is the story of a joyous, obsessed journey towards opening night. It challenges the boundaries of medicine and art, as well as the limitations associated with disability.
Short blurb: As a veteran choreographer trains a young actor with cerebral palsy to dance in her performance, they discover that her lack of formal medical training and his fears and physical limitations provide the impetus for unprecedented transformation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4CjqnyY3k
GABE
Dir. Luke Terrell (72 min, USA, Documentary)
Gabe Weil is a 27 year old born with the most severe form of muscular dystrophy. For his entire life, Gabe had been told he would be lucky to live past 25. But recently, he learned he was misdiagnosed, and may live well into his 50’s. Although this news was overwhelmingly positive, it presented a surprising obstacle. Gabe did not have any long-term goals. He was forced to rethink his life from scratch. This radical shift in consciousness propelled him to set new goals, continue facing reality, and manifest more dreams.
Short Blurb: Gabe was born with muscular dystrophy. For his entire life, he was told he would be lucky to live past 25. Upon learning he was misdiagnosed and could live well into his 50s, Gabe is forced to rethink his life from scratch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0DZ8cFC9UM
HAPPY 40TH
Dir. Madoka Raine (100 min, USA, Narrative)
This beautifully acted ensemble film features four women coming together to celebrate the birthday of a friend, who has remained a recluse ever since a car accident with her husband left her in a wheelchair . Over the course of the weekend, much wine is consumed, intimacies are shared, and an unthinkable betrayal forces the group of friends and lovers to re-evaluate long-held beliefs and assumptions. Happy 40th pokes and prods at fragile relationships to reveal uncomfortable truths about the secrets we keep from each other and from ourselves.
Short blurb: Four women celebrate a friend’s birthday for the first time since a car accident left her in a wheelchair. Over the course of a weekend, intimacies are shared and an unthinkable betrayal forces the group of friends and lovers to re-evaluate long-held assumptions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqr25l7O52Y
IN HARMONY
Dir. Denis Dercourt (90 min., France, Narrative)
Marc is an equestrian stuntman. After a serious accident which traumatically injures him, he loses all hope of ever getting back on a horse. Florence works for an insurance company and is in charge of Marc’s case. Although they have nothing in common, Marc and Florence’s brief interaction will impact them in more ways than they can imagine. In Harmony is a poignant and inspiring story about the passion of a man for his horse, and his nearly impossible return to happiness after a dramatic fall. Set in the breathtaking landscape of Brittany and featuring impeccable acting throughout, the film is a vibrant life lesson.
Short blurb: After a serious riding accident, Marc loses all hope of ever getting back on a horse. Florence, who works for an insurance company, is placed in charge of his case. Their brief interaction will impact them in more ways than they can imagine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUGTwhKZBRQ
MARGARITA, WITH A STRAW
Dir. Shonali Bose & Nilesh Maniyar (97 min, India, Narrative)
A funky, stereotype-busting coming-of-age tale about a Punjabi teenage girl with cerebral palsy, based on a true story. Laila, an aspiring writer and secret rebel in a wheelchair, is accepted to New York University and leaves India for Manhattan. After a chance encounter with a fiery female activist, Laila starts to grow emotionally and explore this new world and its liberal sexualities. Tackling subject matter rarely explored with lightheartedness, this TIFF award-winning drama is a beautiful, bold and brave portrait of love, identity and sexuality. Margarita, With a Straw is joyous cinema bound to win your heart.
Short blurb: A funky, joyous, coming-of-age tale. Laila, a Punjabi girl with cerebral palsy, is an aspiring writer who leaves India for a coveted spot at New York University, where she is exposed to and explores a new world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od7_rZSU9S8
PATRICK’S DAY
Dir. Terry McMahon (98 min, Ireland, Narrative)
Patrick is a warm young man living with schizophrenia. Medication and his mother’s fierce protection means he is no threat to himself or anyone else — until St. Patrick’s Day, when he meets Karen, a suicidal flight attendant who has no idea the intimacy she shares with Patrick might reintroduce her to life. This audacious love story provocatively explores issues ranging from the right to intimacy to the question of when parental love becomes a destructive force.
Short blurb: An audacious and provocative love story. Patrick is a warm young man living with schizophrenia. His mother’s fierce protection means he is no threat to himself or anyone else — until St. Patrick’s Day, when he falls in love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS43DO_z2is
STILTS AND SPOKES
Dir. Jack Winch (91 min, USA, Documentary)
A heart-felt, entertaining and comedic documentary. After Jay Cramer falls off a rock boulder climbing and breaks his neck, he rebounds from injury – which has left him quadriplegic — to win the Los Angeles Funniest Comic competition. While in rehab, he meets a world class double above-the-knee amputee sprinter, Katy Sullivan, and falls head over heels for her. Both fall in love and go on to inspire millions.
Short blurb: After falling off a boulder while climbing and breaking his neck, Jay Cramer rebounds from injury to win the Los Angeles Funniest Comic competition. While in rehab, he meets and falls in love with Katy Sullivan, a world-class double above-the-knee amputee sprinter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLGy8BjrtY
THAT WHICH IS POSSIBLE
Dir. Michael Gitlin (84 min, USA, Documentary)
A community of painters, sculptors, musicians and writers make work at the Living Museum, an art-space on the grounds of a large state-run psychiatric facility in Queens. Shot over the course of two years and structured across the arc of a day, the film observes with an intimate lens and unspools like a musical, both bracing and tender. It explores the liberation and healing that creativity can offer those drawn together by shared struggle. It points to a more humane and holistic approach to mental illness, and to the joy of transforming society itself.
Short blurb: A community of painters, sculptors, musicians, and writers create works at the Living Museum, an art space on the grounds of a large state-run psychiatric facility in Queens. That Which Is Possible explores creativity as a more humane and holistic approach to mental illness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW7vr9MLlcA
TRUE SMILE
Dir. Juan Rayos (82 min, Spain, Documentary)
An astonishing journey seen through the eyes of 26-year-old Sergio Aznárez Rosado, who was born both blind and autistic who lives a life packed with adventure. Over the course of 30 days, Sergio embarks on a 1,300-kilometer tandem bike ride with his brother, Juan Manuel, who pilots the bicycle. Together, they traverse desert and high mountains, starting in Cuenca in central Spain and finishing in one of the most remote villages in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. This documentary immerses us in Sergio’s seemingly unreachable world, helping us to perceive the world through his eyes.
Short blurb: An astonishing journey of two brothers—Sergio, who is blind and has autism, and his brother, Juan—who embark on a 1,300-kilometer tandem bike ride from Spain to Morocco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AINsuaM7gHU
THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS
Dir. Maximon Monihan (109 min, USA, Narrative)
A radically different vision of filmmaking. This silent film follows Olga, a teenager with hearing impairment who is lured from Central America to New York City under the false promise of attending a Christian sign language school. Once she arrives, Olga finds herself a slave to an international criminal syndicate. Forced to sell “I am deaf” trinkets on the subway, Olga is trapped inside a nightmare that will not end – and we, the audience, are trapped with her. Based on a true story, The Voice of the Voiceless shatters our ideas about film, storytelling, and sound.
Short blurb: Olga, along with others from Mexico and Guatemala, is brought to New York under the false promise of being offered a scholarship at a sign language school. Upon arrival, they discover they are being held hostage by a cartel, and are forced to sell paper towels on the New York City Subway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leAPsqibj4o
SHORT FILMS:
A GRAND PURSUIT
Dir. Will Strathmann
2015, 23 min, USA, Documentary
Vasu Sojitra is the first leg amputee to attempt climbing the Grand Teton mountains without using a prosthetic leg.
BIRTHDAY
Dir. Chris King
2015, 16 min, USA, Narrative
A severely wounded Marine returns home to his wife after months of surgery and rehabilitation.
BUMBLEBEES
Dir. Jenna Kanell
2015, 4 min, USA, Narrative
Despite being told as a child he would never walk or speak, Vance accomplished the impossible. But now he has a new challenge: dating.
CHIMES FOR TYLER
Dir. Stephen Panaggio
2014, 8 min, USA, Documentary
A boy with autism can distinguish wind chimes by sound.
GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
Dir. Diego Robles
2012, 12 min, USA, Narrative
A blind veteran changes his outlook on life after meeting a young girl.
GOOD BEER
Dir. Tony Borden
2015, 7 min, USA, Narrative
Shannon and David meet online and go on a revealing first date.
I DON’T CARE
Dir. Caroline Giammetta
2014, 14 min, UK, Narrative
A mother-to-be faces the possibility of having a child with Down syndrome.
JESSE
Dir. Adam Goldhammer
2013, 14 min, Canada, Narrative
After her parents are killed, 22-year-old Kelly is the sole caregiver for her older brother Jesse who has autism.
LITTLE HERO
Dir. Marcus A. McDougald & Jennifer Medvin
2015, 10 min, USA, Documentary
A 6-year-old boy with autism is seen through his twin sister’s eyes.
MACROPOLIS
Dir. Joel Simon
2012, 7 min, UK, Narrative
Two toys made at a factory are thrown out, and together attempt to be put on a store shelf.
MARINA’S OCEAN
Dir. Cássio Pereira dos Santos
2014, 16 min, Brazil, Narrative
A teen with Down syndrome visits the sea for the first time.
THE MOBILE STRIPPER
Dir. Shirlyn Wong
2014, 14 min, USA, Narrative
What begins as a ride to the gas station by a man with Parkinson’s develops into an unforeseen adventure.
PERFECT
Dir. Karim Ayari
2013, 12 min, USA, Narrative
Julius meets with his psychologist after what he considered to be a disastrous first date due to his involuntary tics.
SOLILOQUY
Dir. Heidi Latsky
2015, 14 min, USA, Documentary
An illuminating and moving close-up of a diverse group of performers of Heidi Latsky Dance.
STILL RUNNING
Dir. Wayne de Lange & Sven Harding
2014, 5 min, USA, Documentary
Following a cycling accident which left him paralysed, Pieter du Preez becomes the first ever C6 quadriplegic to complete an Iron Man triathlon.
STRINGS
Dir. Pedro Solís García
2013, 11 min, Spain, Narrative
María’s routine at school is altered by the arrival of a child who soon becomes her best friend.
SUPER SOUNDS
Dir. Stephen de Villiers
2014, 12 min, USA, Documentary
A serendipitous encounter between a young girl and a boy with superhero aspirations.
TAKE ME
Dir. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette & André Turpin
2014, 10 min, Canada, Narrative
A nurse confronts his principles when he’s asked to aid two patients in assisted sex.
THE TALES OF THE GOLDEN SAND
Dir. Fred & Samuel Guillaume
2015, 23 min, France, Narrative
The mythical tale of the sweet town of Merryville, where an unexpected intruder disrupts the daily calm.
WELCOME TO THE LAST BOOKSTORE
Dir. Chad Howitt
2015, 11 min, USA, Documentary
A day in the life of a bookstore owner—a father, husband, small business owner, and paraplegic—showing the store’s magnetic appeal to the community.
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Under the Shadow Kicks Off Lineup for 2016 New Directors / New Films
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Under the Shadow[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have announced the complete lineup for the 2016 New Directors / New Films (ND/NF), taking place March 16 to 27 in New York City.
Opening the festival is Babak Anvari’s debut feature Under the Shadow, about a mother and daughter haunted by a sinister, largely unseen presence during the Iran-Iraq War. Brimming with a mounting sense of dread until its ominous finish, this expertly crafted, politically charged thriller was a breakout hit at Sundance..
The Closing Night selection is Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, a remarkable chronicle of the cinematographer-turned-director’s life through her collaborations with documentary icons Laura Poitras, Michael Moore, and others. A self-described memoir, Johnson’s first solo directorial effort examines the delicate, complex relationship between filmmaker and subject and is one of nine festival features and four shorts directed by women.
This year’s slate includes a number of films that have won major awards on the festival circuit, including Josh Kriegman and Elyse Sternberg’s Sundance Grand Jury Prizewinner Weiner; Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour, for which the main cast shared Locarno’s Best Actress award; Avishai Sivan’s Tikkun and Pascale Breton’s Suite Armoricaine, winners of the Locarno Special Jury and critics’ prizes, respectively; and Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues, which took home both the Golden Horse Award for Best New Director and Locarno’s honors for Emerging Artist and Best First Feature.
Among the feature debuts are Zhang Hanyi’s Life After Life, executive-produced by Chinese master Jia Zhangke; Anita Rocha da Silveira’s psychosexual coming-of-age story Kill Me Please; Tamer El Said’s Cairo-set film within a film In the Last Days of the City; and Ted Fendt’s Short Stay, the only film in the festival to screen on 35mm.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Opening Night
Under the Shadow
Babak Anvari, UK/Jordan/Qatar, 2016, 84m
Farsi with English subtitles
It’s eight years into the Iran-Iraq War, but the troubles of wife and mother in Tehran have only just begun. Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is thwarted in her attempts to return to medical school because of past political activities. And as Iraqi bombs close in, her husband is sent off to serve in the military, neighbors begin to flee, and she is left alone with her young daughter, Dorsa, who refuses to be separated from her favorite doll. At first, Dorsa’s tantrums seem to simply be the complaints of a cranky child. But soon she’s in conversation with an invisible woman—no imaginary friend, this one—and the cracks in the walls and ceilings of their apartment could just be the result of something more than air raids. And what is that she sees down the hall, from the corner of her eye? Though Shideh is a woman of science, she begins to suspect that a malevolent spirit, a djinn, is stalking them. A political horror story that rises up from the rubble of war, Babak Anvari’s feature debut boasts a terrific performance by Rashidi as a woman with more than one war going on in her home and in her head, who must save her daughter from dangers both physical and supernatural.
Closing Night
Cameraperson
Kirsten Johnson, USA, 2015, 102m
How much of one’s self can be captured in the images shot of and for others? Kirsten Johnson may be a first-time (solo) feature-film director, but her work as a director of photography and camera operator has helped earn her documentary collaborators (Laura Poitras, Michael Moore, Kirby Dick, Barbara Kopple) nearly every accolade and award possible. Recontextualizing the stunning images inside, around, and beyond the works she has shot, Johnson constructs a visceral and vibrant self-portrait of an artist who has traveled the globe, venturing into landscapes and lives that bear the scars of trauma both active and historic. Rigorous yet nimble in its ability to move from heartache to humor, Cameraperson provides an essential lens on the things that make us human.
The Apostate / El apóstata
Federico Veiroj, Spain/France/Uruguay, 2015, 80m
Spanish with English subtitles
With wry humor and deep conviction, Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Veiroj (A Useful Life, ND/NF 2010) observes a young Spaniard’s maddening efforts to abandon the Catholic Church. Petitioning the local bishop in Madrid to hand over his baptismal records, the philosophy student is soon confronted with a stubborn bureaucracy and comically agonized tests of his fidelity and patience. Scenes of pithy theological discussion (performed by the film’s excellent ensemble cast) are interspersed with oneiric flights of imagination, cohering to produce a work that is by turns seriously philosophical and irreverently funny. While Veiroj’s tone may be more gently ironic than that of Luis Buñuel (his spiritual forebear), The Apostate nonetheless traces in bracing fashion the competing forces of conformity and rebellion, spiritual yearning and carnal desire, at war within us all.
Screening with:
Concerning the Bodyguard
Kasra Farahani, USA, 2015, 10m
This stylish adaptation of Donald Barthelme’s story, narrated by Salman Rushdie, takes on the power structures of a dictatorship with brio.
Behemoth / Beixi moshuo
Zhao Liang, China/France, 2015, 91m
Mandarin with English subtitles
Political documentarian Zhao Liang draws inspiration from The Divine Comedy for this simultaneously intoxicating and terrifying glimpse at the ravages wrought upon Inner Mongolia by its coal and iron industries. A poetic voiceover speaks of the insatiability of desire on top of stunning images of landscapes (and their decimation), machines (and their spectacular functions), and people (and the toll of their labor). Interspersed are sublime tableaux of a prone nude body—asleep? just born? dead?—posed against a refracted horizon. A wholly absorbing guided tour of exploding hillsides, dank mine shafts, cacophonous factories, and vacant cities, Behemoth builds upon Zhao’s previous exposés (2009’s Petition, 2007’s Crime and Punishment) by combining his muckraking streak with a painterly vision of a social and ecological nightmare otherwise unfolding out of sight, out of mind. Winner of the environmental Green Drop Award at the Venice Film Festival. North American Premiere
Demon
Marcin Wrona, Poland/Israel, 2015, 94m
English, Polish, and Yiddish with English subtitles
Newly arrived from England to marry his fiancée Zaneta, Peter has been given a gift of her family’s ramshackle country house in rural Poland. It’s a total fixer-upper, and while inspecting the premises on the eve of the wedding, he falls into a pile of human remains. The ceremony proceeds, but strange things begin to happen… During the wild reception, Peter begins to come undone, and a dybbuk, that iconic ancient figure from Jewish folklore, takes a toehold in this present-day celebration—for a very particular reason, as it turns out. The final work by Marcin Wrona, who died just as Demon was set to premiere in Poland, is an eerie, richly atmospheric film—part absurdist comedy, part love story—that scares, amuses, and charms in equal measure. Winner of Best Horror Feature at Fantastic Fest. An Orchard release.
Donald Cried
Kris Avedisian, USA, 2016, 85m
Trust me, you can’t go home again. Kris Avedisian’s unhinged first feature is a brilliant twist on the family-reunion melodrama and the classic buddy comedy. Returning after 20 years to Warwick, Rhode Island, for his grandmother’s funeral, Peter Latang (Jesse Wakeman), now a slick city financier, has to endure a blast from the past and relive some very cringeworthy moments when hanging out with his former high-school bestie, the obnoxious Donald Treebeck (Avedisian). By turns depressing and funny while subtly shifting our sympathies thanks to sharp dialogue and extremely well-written characters, Donald Cried can perhaps best be summed up as The Color Wheel meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Eldorado XXI
Salomé Lamas, Portugal/France, 2016, 125m
Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara with English subtitles
Salomé Lamas’s Eldorado XXI immerses the viewer in the breathtaking views and extreme conditions of La Rinconada in the Peruvian Andes, the highest-elevation permanent human settlement in the world. Here, some 17,000 feet above sea level, miners face misery and lawlessness in the hopes of striking gold, chewing coca leaves to stave off exhaustion. They toil for weeks without pay under the inhumane lottery system known as cachorreo, gambling on an eventual fortune if they can survive the despoiled landscape long enough. Life in this remotest outpost of civilization seems to unfold in the grip of an illusion, and the film itself frequently resembles a hallucination, not least in an extended tour-de-force shot that reveals an endless stream of miners trekking up and down the mountain as we hear radio reports and stories of their daily lives. Full of unforgettable images and sounds, Eldorado XXI is a transporting, fundamentally mysterious experience that renews the possibilities of the ethnographic film. North American Premiere
Evolution / Évolution
Lucile Hadžihalilović, France, 2015, 81m
French with English subtitles
On a remote island, populated solely by women and young boys, 10-year-old Nicolas plays with other children, but not in a carefree manner. And while the women may have maternal instincts, something is awry: they gather on the beach at night for a strange ritual that Nicolas struggles to understand, and the boys are taken to a hospital regularly for mysterious treatments. And water is everywhere. This is the stuff nightmares are made of, and Nicolas appears to be living out one of his own. In the follow-up to her directorial debut, Innocence, Lucile Hadžihalilović continues her exploration of growing up—where we’re going and what we’re leaving behind. As Nicolas discovers more, feelings of fear, melancholy, and also eroticism bubble to the surface. Hadžihalilović has created a dark fantasy that we are invited to explore and make our own discoveries, however macabre they may be. An Alchemy release.
The Fits
Anna Rose Holmer, USA, 2015, 72m
The transition from girlhood to young womanhood is one that’s nearly invisible in cinema. Enter Anna Rose Holmer, whose complex and absorbing narrative feature debut elegantly depicts a captivating 11-year-old’s journey of discovery. Toni (played by the majestically named Royalty Hightower) is a budding boxer drawn to a group of dancers training at the same rec center in Cincinnati. She begins aligning herself with one of the two troupes, the Lionesses, becoming immersed in their world, which Holmer conveys with a hypnotic sense of rhythm and a rare gift for rendering physicality—evident most of all when a mysterious, convulsive condition begins to afflict a number of girls. Set entirely within the intimate confines of a few familiar settings (public school, the gym), and pulsating with bodies in motion, The Fits encourages us to recall the confused magic of entering the second decade of life. An Oscilloscope release.
Happy Hour
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan, 2015, 317m
Japanese with English subtitles
Four thirtysomething female friends in the misty seaside city of Kobe navigate the unsteady currents of their work, domestic, and romantic lives. They speak solace in one another’s company, but a sudden revelation creates a rift, and rouses each woman to take stock. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s wise, precisely observed, compulsively watchable drama of friendship and midlife awakening runs over five hours, yet the leisurely duration is not an indulgence but a careful strategy—to show what other films leave out, to create a space for everyday moments that is nonetheless charged with possibility, and to yield an emotional density rarely available to a feature-length movie. Developed through workshops with a cast of mostly newcomers (the extraordinary lead quartet shared the Best Actress award at the Locarno Film Festival), and filled with absorbing sequences that flow almost in real time, Happy Hour has a novelistic depth and texture. But it’s also the kind of immersive, intensely moving experience that remains unique to cinema.
In the Last Days of the City / Akher Ayam El Madina
Tamer El Said, Egypt/Germany/Great Britain/United Arab Emirates, 2016, 118m
Arabic with English subtitles
This film within a film is a haunting yet lyric chronicle of recent years in the Arab world, where revolutions seemed to spark hope for change and yield further instability in one stroke. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, The Square) plays the protagonist of Tamer El Said’s ambitious feature debut, a filmmaker in Cairo attempting to capture the zeitgeist of his city as the world changes around him—from personal love and loss to the fall of the Mubarak regime. Throughout, friends send footage and stories from Berlin, Baghdad, and Beirut, creating a powerful, multilayered meditation on togetherness, the tactile hold of cities, and the meaning of homeland. Shot in 2008 and completed this year, the film explores the weight of cinematic images as record and storytelling in an ongoing time of change. North American Premiere
I Promise You Anarchy / Te prometo anarquía
Julio Hernández Cordón, Mexico/Germany, 2015, 100m
Spanish with English subtitles
Miguel (Diego Calva) and Johnny (Eduardo Eliseo Martinez) are in deep. Badass skater-bros, crazy-in-love blood hustlers, they’re flowing inevitably toward a sea swimming with narco-sharks. This is Mexico City today, and for two boys from different worlds but the same house—Johnny is the son of Miguel’s family maid—there is no future. On the days they do have at their disposal, they will live as hard as they can, even if it means total destruction for everyone around them. A harrowing vision of the 21st century replete with garishly lit sex scenes, inebriated slow motion, and an exhilarating, eclectic pop soundtrack, and winner of numerous prizes at festivals in Latin America, Julio Hernández Cordón’s film is exploding with beats, sweat, and pain—an ecstatic and anguished portrait of youth teetering on the brink of nihilism. U.S. Premiere
Kaili Blues / Lu bian ye can
Bi Gan, China, 2015, 113m
Mandarin with English subtitles
A multiple prizewinner at the Locarno Film Festival and one of the most audacious and innovative debuts of recent years, Bi Gan’s endlessly surprising shape-shifter comes to assume the uncanny quality of a waking dream as it poetically and mysteriously interweaves the past, present, and future. Chen Sheng, a country doctor in the Guizhou province who has served time in prison, is concerned for the well-being of his nephew, Weiwei, whom he believes his thug brother Crazy Face intends to sell. Weiwei soon vanishes, and Chen sets out to find him, embarking on a mystical quest that takes him to the riverside city of Kaili and the town of Dang Mai. Through a remarkable arsenal of stylistic techniques, the film develops into a one-of-a-kind road movie, at once magical and materialist, traversing both space and time. U.S. Premiere
Kill Me Please / Mate-me por favor
Anita Rocha da Silveira, Brazil/Argentina, 2015, 101m
Portuguese with English subtitles
Anita Rocha da Silveira’s vibrantly morbid debut feature is a coming-of-age story in which passive aggression on the handball court, jealousy among friends, and teenage angst unfold in the foreground of a slasher flick. In Rio de Janeiro’s Barra da Tijuca—a newly formed upper-middle-class neighborhood of car-lined thoroughfares, gigantic malls, and monolithic white condos—a clique of teenage girls become fearfully captivated by a string of gruesome murders. The most fascinated is Bia (Valentina Herszage), whose own sexual discoveries evolve alongside the mounting deaths in this skewed world of wild colors and transformative desires. With nods to Brian De Palma’s Carrie, Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People, and the atmospheres of David Lynch, Rocha da Silveira’s contribution to the genre is nonetheless entirely her own.
Life After Life / Zhi fan ye mao
Zhang Hanyi, China, 2016, 80m
Mandarin with English subtitles
Zhang Hanyi’s exquisitely restrained ghost story combines the gentle supernaturalism of Apichatpong Weerasethakul with the clear-eyed social realism of Jia Zhangke (one of the film’s executive producers). A young boy, Leilei, becomes possessed by his late mother, Xiuying, whose spirit has wandered the Shanxi Province’s disintegrating cave homes for years. With the help of Leilei’s father (who receives his late wife’s return with matter-of-fact equanimity), they set out to move a tree from her family’s courtyard before she departs again. In ethereal, beautifully composed sequences of a barren rural-industrial village on the edge of collapse, itself a kind of purgatorial space, Zhang captures the spectral gap between life and oblivion. North American Premiere
Lost and Beautiful / Bella e perduta
Pietro Marcello, Italy/France, 2015, 87m
Italian with English subtitles
Pietro Marcello continues his intrepid work along the borderline of fiction and documentary with this beautiful and beguiling film, by turns neorealist and fabulist, worthy of Pasolini in its matter-of-fact lyricism and political conviction. Shot on expired 16mm film stock and freely incorporating archival footage and folkloric tropes, it begins as a portrait of the shepherd Tommaso, a local hero in the Campania region of southern Italy, who volunteered to look after the abandoned Bourbon palace of Carditello despite the state’s apathy and threats from the Mafia. Tommaso suffers a fatal heart attack in the course of shooting, and Marcello’s bold and generous response is to grant his subject’s dying wish: for a Pulcinella straight out of the commedia dell’arte to appear on the scene and rescue a buffalo calf from the palace. With Lost and Beautiful, a documentary that soars into the realm of myth, Marcello has crafted a uniquely multifaceted and enormously moving work of political cine-poetry. Winner of two awards at the Locarno Film Festival. U.S. Premiere
Mountain / Ha’har
Yaelle Kayam, Denmark/Israel, 2015, 83m
Hebrew with English subtitles
Atop Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, Zvia, a Jewish Orthodox woman, lives surrounded by an ancient cemetery with her four children and husband, a Yeshiva teacher who pays scant attention to her. Yaelle Kayam’s feature debut moves beyond the symbolic landscape of a woman’s isolation to offer a subtle and finely paced entryway into the character’s surprising inner life. On a nighttime walk through the tombstones, Zvia encounters a group of prostitutes and their handlers and gradually becomes an unlikely bystander to their after-hours activities, trading home-cooked meals for companionship—an usual sort, perhaps, but one that upends her existence as a mother and wife. Shani Klein’s arresting lead performance challenges clichés of female subjectivity in the filmmaker’s own society, culminating in Zvia’s dramatic attempt to bring change to her life; throughout, keenly observed frames, by turn luminous and moody, asserts the heroine’s volition with intention and finesse.
Nakom
T.W. Pittman & Kelly Daniela Norris, Ghana/USA, 2016, 90m
Kusaal with English subtitles
When his father dies suddenly, medical-student Iddrisu (Jacob Ayanaba) leaves the good life in the city and returns home to Nakom, a remote farming village. He’s now the head of the family, and he finds he must repay a debt that could destroy them all. Over the course of a growing season, Iddrisu confronts both the tragedy and the beauty of village life and must choose between a future for himself in the city or one for his family and the entire village. Filming in the village of Nakom in northern Ghana, directors T.W. Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris capture in exquisite detail the lives of people steeped in rural tradition but who yearn to be a part of a new world. Along with writer Isaac Adakudugu and a nonprofessional cast—many of whom are revelations—they have created in Nakom an intimate yet universal story about the search for independence while feeling the pull of tradition. North American Premiere
Neon Bull / Boi neon
Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands, 2015, 101m
Portuguese with English subtitles
A rodeo movie unlike any other, Gabriel Mascaro’s Venice and Toronto prize-winning follow-up to his 2014 fiction debut August Winds tracks handsome cowboy Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) as he travels around to work at vaquejada rodeos, a Brazilian variation on the sport in which two men on horseback attempt to bring a bull down by its tail. Iremar dreams of becoming a fashion designer, creating flamboyant outfits for his co-worker, single mother Galega (Maeve Jinkings). Along with Galega’s daughter Cacá and a bullpen worker named Zé, these complex characters, drawn with tremendous compassion and not an ounce of condescension, make up an unorthodox family, on the move across the northeast Brazilian countryside. Sensitive to matters of gender and class, and culminating in one of the most audacious and memorable sex scenes in recent memory, Neon Bull is a quietly affirming exploration of desire and labor, a humane and sensual study of bodies at work and at play. A Kino Lorber release.
Peter and the Farm
Tony Stone, USA, 2016, 92m
Peter Dunning is a rugged individualist in the extreme, a hard-drinking loner and former artist who has burned bridges with his wives and children and whose only company, even on harsh winter nights, are the sheep, cows, and pigs he tends on his Vermont farm. Peter is also one of the most complicated, sympathetic documentary subjects to come along in some time, a product of the 1960s counterculture whose poetic idealism has since soured. For all his candor, he slips into drunken self-destructive habits, cursing the splendors of a pastoral landscape that he has spent decades nurturing. Imbued with an aching tenderness, Tony Stone’s documentary is both haunting and heartbreaking, a mosaic of its singular subject’s transitory memories and reflections—however funny, tragic, or angry they may be.
Remainder
Omer Fast, UK/Germany, 2015, 97m
The feature debut by celebrated video artist Omer Fast is a striking, stylish adaptation of English novelist Tom McCarthy’s landmark 2005 novel. Set in London, the narrative kicks off when the anonymous protagonist (Tom Sturridge) is struck by a large object plummeting from the sky. When he comes to, he has no recollection of what happened, and a reparations settlement nets him millions of pounds. The man channels these resources toward creating preposterously ambitious reconstructions of his own dim memories, in the process raising a host of questions about the relationship between reality and simulation, the minute details essential to our perception of places and events, and the limits of artistic monomania. Fast, who has explored similar themes in his own work, adapts McCarthy’s idea-packed novel with lucidity and wit, and Sturridge is mesmerizing as an existential hero searching the void for a trace of meaning. North American Premiere
Short Stay
Ted Fendt, USA, 2016, 35mm, 61m
Multi-hyphenate Ted Fendt delivers on the promise of his acclaimed short films without sacrificing an ounce of his singular charm and rigor. Shooting on 16mm (blown up to 35mm), the writer-director-editor here focuses on Mike (Mike MacCherone), an ambitionless resident of Haddonfield, New Jersey, who finds himself subletting a friend’s room in Philadelphia and (ineptly) covering his shifts at a by-donation walking-tour company. Mike floats, as if in a trance, from one low-key comic folly to another, each one a strange and subtle moral tale. Fendt’s economy of expression, expert handling of his nonprofessional cast, and incomparable nose for the tragicomic dimension of the everyday distinguishes Short Stay as a truly anomalous work in contemporary American cinema: a film made entirely on its maker’s terms. North American Premiere
Suite Armoricaine
Pascale Breton, France, 2015, 148m
French with English subtitles
In her first feature since her distinctive 2004 debut, Illumination, Pascale Breton returns to her native region of Brittany for this rapturous ensemble film about the persistence of the past in the present. Françoise (Valérie Dréville), an accomplished art historian, leaves Paris to teach at her alma mater in Rennes. Most of her former schoolmates never left town, it turns out, and are curiously eyeing her return. Meanwhile, Ion (Kaou Langoët), a sensitive geography student, falls in love with the blind Lydie (Manon Evenat), and clashes with his estranged, now-homeless mother, Moon (Elina Löwensohn), one of Françoise’s closest friends from the old punk-rock days… As these idiosyncratic, richly drawn characters intersect, their points of view overlap and the tricks of time and memory become apparent. Bursting with ideas and emotion, Suite Armoricaine is a work of symphonic scope and grand themes (love and death, art and beauty, language and music) that finds deep wells of meaning in the smallest and most surprising details and gestures. North American Premiere
Thithi
Raam Reddy, India/USA, 2015, 120m
Hindi with English subtitles
Raam Reddy’s bold, vibrant first feature is closer to Émile Zola than it is to Bollywood. Filmed in India’s southern Karnataka state with all nonprofessional actors, the sprawling narrative follows three generations of sons following the death of the family’s patriarch, their 101-year-old grandfather known as “Century Gowda.” The men’s respective vices—ranging from greed to womanizing to cut-and-dry escapism—bring deliciously comedic misadventures to their village in the days leading up to the thithi, a funeral celebration traditionally held 11 days after a death. This incisive portrait of a community in a time of radical change (while some are looking after their sheep, others are lost in their cell phones) yields exemplary humanist comedy. Winner of two awards at the Locarno Film Festival, the film equally affirms the advent of a new realism within Indian cinema, as well as an engaging new voice in contemporary world cinema.
Tikkun
Avishai Sivan, Israel, 2015, 120m
Hebrew and Yiddish with English subtitles
In Avishai Sivan’s intense and provocative Tikkun, a prizewinner at the Jerusalem and Locarno Film Festivals, an ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva student experiences a crisis of faith—and visions of earthly delights—when his father brings him back from the brink of death. Was the young man’s improbable survival a violation of God’s will, or was it “tikkun,” a way toward enlightenment and redemption? Sivan imbues the narrative with an indeterminate, hypnotic blend of black comedy and alienated modernism, effecting a singularly uncanny atmosphere. Nonprofessional actor Aharon Traitel, himself a former Hasidic Jew, gives a nuanced, knowing performance as the anguished prodigy, and the black-and-white chiaroscuro photography casts the devoutly private, regimented Hasidic community of old Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim in a morally shaded light. A Kino Lorber release.
The Wakhan Front / Ni le ciel ni la terre
Clément Cogitore, France/Belgium, 2015, 100m
French and Persian with English subtitles
The ingenious conceit of The Wakhan Front, a critical success at Cannes, is to transform the Afghan battlefield—dust and boredom and jolts of explosive violence—into the backdrop for a metaphysical thriller. Jérémie Renier stars as a French army commander who begins to lose the loyalty of his company, as well as his sanity, when soldiers start mysteriously disappearing one by one. Rarely is the madness of war conveyed on screen with such simmering tension and existential fear. Rarely, too, is the ignorance and mistrust between cultures—are the shepherd villagers innocent civilians or Taliban spies?—limned with such poetic insight. U.S. Premiere
Weiner
Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg, USA, 2016, 100m
Truly compelling vérité filmmaking requires several key factors to coalesce: intimate access, cinematographic acumen, genuine inquisitiveness, and fascinating subjects. Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg brilliantly meld these elements to create one of the most engaging and entertaining works of nonfiction film in recent years. A truly 21st-century hybrid of classic documentary techniques and reality-based dramatic storytelling, Weiner follows the mayoral election bid of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner in 2013, an attempted comeback that, as we all know now, was doomed to failure. By turns Shakespearean in its tragedy (it’s clear that Weiner and his inner circle have real political talent) and Christopher Guest-ian in its comedic portrayal of what devolves into a Waiting for Guffman–esque campaign, this is the perfect political film for our time. A Sundance Selects release.
SHORTS PROGRAMS
Shorts Program One
Under the Sun / Ri Guang Zhi Xia
Yang Qiu, China, 2015, 19m
Chinese with English subtitles
An incident of random nature entangles two families and brings their plights into sharp focus.
Dirt
Darius Clark Monroe, USA, 2014, 7m
With an unsettling lyricism all his own, Darius Clark Monroe traces an evocative and elliptical portrait of a dirty deed.
Totem
Marte Vold, Norway, 2015, 20m
Norwegian with English subtitles
In seemingly idyllic Oslo, a couple demonstrates the discontents of intimacy with wit and biting honesty. U.S. Premiere
Reluctantly Queer
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/USA, 2016, 8m
In a letter home to his beloved mother, a young Ghanaian man attempts to unpack his queerness in light of her love. North American Premiere
Isabella Morra
Isabel Pagliai, France, 2015, 22m
French with English subtitles
The courtyards of a housing project become a de facto stage on which unsupervised children perform, spreading rumors and shouting insults in an imitation of adulthood. North American Premiere
Shorts Program Two
The Digger
Ali Cherri, Lebanon/France/UAE, 2015, 24m
Arabic and Pashto with English subtitles
With ritualistic serenity, a lone caretaker maintains ancient graves in the Sharjah Desert long after the bodies are gone. North American Premiere
We All Love the Seashore / Tout le Monde Aime le Bord de la Mer
Keina Espiñeira, Spain, 2016, 16m
French and Pulaar with English subtitles
A poetic distillation of the liminal space of refugees and migrants, developed collaboratively through encounters on the African coast of the Mediterranean. North American Premiere
Of a Few Days
Timothy Fryett, USA, 2016, 14m
On the South Side of Chicago, final touches on one’s journey on Earth are meticulously made in a decades-old community funeral home. North American Premiere
The Park / Le Park
Randa Maroufi, France, 2015, 14m
French and Arabic with English subtitles
A series of tableaux vivants mesmerizingly locate the intersection of public space, inner lives, and social media within an abandoned Casablanca amusement park. U.S. Premiere
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Tribeca Film Festival to open with Fashion Documentary THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY
[caption id="attachment_11869" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
The First Monday in May[/caption]
The world premiere of Magnolia Pictures’ The First Monday in May will open the 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
Directed by Emmy Award nominated filmmaker Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside The New York Times) the intimate documentary looks at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most attended Costume Institute exhibition in history, “China: Through the Looking Glass.” The film follows curator Andrew Bolton, now Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, in an exploration of the tension between fashion and art. The Tribeca Film Festival runs April 13 to April 24. Opening night is sponsored by Farfetch with special thanks to Thakoon.
“The First Monday in May illuminates the debate between fine art, fashion, pop culture and captures the creativity, passion and visionaries behind the exhibition and gala – Andrew Bolton and Anna Wintour,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder, Tribeca Film Festival, and Executive Chair, Tribeca Enterprises. “It is an honor to pay tribute to a fellow New York cultural institution on our opening night.”
“It’s an honor to premiere this film downtown with the Tribeca Film Festival for their fifteenth Festival, and I am truly thrilled to partner again with Magnolia Pictures,” said director Andrew Rossi. “The First Monday in May celebrates creativity in art and fashion and is deeply rooted in the creative world of New York, so to launch at a Festival that came into life in order to support that culture is very meaningful. We’re so excited to have the team at Magnolia behind the film, bringing it to audiences all across the country.”
The First Monday in May follows the creation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “China: Through the Looking Glass,” exhibition, an exploration of Chinese-inspired Western fashions by Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton. With unprecedented access, filmmaker Andrew Rossi captures the collision of high fashion and celebrity at the Met Gala, one of the biggest global fashion events co-chaired every year by Condé Nast Artistic Director and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. Featuring a cast of renowned artists in many fields (including filmmaker Wong Kar Wai and fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier and John Galliano), the movie dives into the debate about whether fashion should be viewed as art.
Produced by Fabiola Beracasa Beckman, Sylvana Ward Durrett, and Dawn Ostroff, in association with Relativity Media, Conde Nast Entertainment, Mediaweaver Entertainment and Sarah Arison Productions, The First Monday in May will be released in theaters on April 15. The film features Wong Kar Wai, film director and Artistic Director of “China: Through the Looking Glass”; Baz Luhrmann, film director and creative consultant for the Met Gala; Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley; Harold Koda, Former Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute; Thomas Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Maxwell K. Hearn, Douglas Dillon Chairman of the Department of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and fashion designers Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, and Ricardo Tisci; as well as cameos from some of the leading names in fashion and entertainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFCVG85X_s
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LAST OF THE ELEPHANT MEN Among Winners of 2016 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
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LAST OF THE ELEPHANT MEN, directed by Daniel Ferguson and Arnaud Bouquet[/caption]
Before a boisterous crowd packed into The Loft in downtown Missoula last week, the juries of the 2016 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival revealed their selections in the festivals four competition categories.
Winners include LAST OF THE ELEPHANT MEN, directed by Daniel Ferguson and Arnaud Bouquet, FOLLOWING KINA, directed by Sonia Goldenberg, HUNTING IN WARTIME, directed by Samantha Farinella and ZONE BLANCHE, directed by Gaëlle Cintré.
Feature Competition films over 40 minutes in length
Winner: LAST OF THE ELEPHANT MEN, directed by Daniel Ferguson and Arnaud Bouquet – For centuries, the Bunong indigenous people of Eastern Cambodia lived with elephants, depending on them for every aspect of life. Now with the forest around them threatened by logging and mining companies, both the Bunong and the elephant face a desperate struggle to survive.
Jury Statement: We were struck by the film’s sensitive exploration of the mythic relationship between elephants and people among the Bunong people of Cambodia. The film is beautifully and patiently shot. By capturing the interdependency between the Bunong and their elephants, it turns these amazing animals into characters in their own right.
Artistic Vision Award, Feature: FOLLOWING KINA, directed by Sonia Goldenberg – When Kina Malpartida won her title as the first Peruvian World Boxing Champion, the country was struck by a female boxing fever. Inspired by her, two young women fight against all odds to sustain a dream and become the next champion. Without any official support, they are driven by passion and perseverance to succeed in a totally male-dominated sport.
Jury Statement: We were highly impressed with the manner in which the film takes viewers into the real world of womens boxing in Peru, culminating in the insightful depiction of the rural and urban backdrops to two women, Alicia and Anita, both of whom hope to follow in the footsteps of Kina Malpardita.
Big Sky Award – Presented to one film that artistically honors the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West.
Winner: HUNTING IN WARTIME, directed by Samantha Farinella – Profiles of Tlingit veterans from Hoonah, Alaska who saw combat during the Vietnam War. The veterans talk about surviving trauma, relating to Vietnamese civilians, readjusting to civilian life, and serving a government that systematically oppresses native people. Their stories give an important human face to the combat soldier and show the lasting affects of war on individuals, families and communities.
Short Competition films between 15 and 40 minutes in length
Winner: DAGUAVA DELTA, directed by Rainer Komers – Far from the centre of the Latvian city of Riga, the suburbs Bolderāja and Daugavgriva are a kind of social island or biotope – a blend of apartment and detached family houses, backyards, shipyards, docks, yacht club, sea academy, historic fortress and barracks. Here, where the Daugava River flows into the Bay of Riga, anglers crowd the sunny mole during the spawning season of sprat, while veterans in the local pub are in memorial of their fallen fathers on Victory Day.
Artistic Vision Award, Short Competition: ZONE BLANCHE, directed by Gaëlle Cintré – Four women who are electro-hypersensitive -a rare condition where people find themselves acutely intolerant to electromagnetic fields, including cell phone signals and WiFi- are driven deep into the Alps in search for remote shelters. Because of their extreme condition, their way of life, between a primitive existence and post-apocalyptic science-fiction, has never been photographed. Until now.
Jury Statement: Working within the constraints of being unable to record with any electronic digital media, Zone Blanche creates a rich portrait of women who must live outside of society because of their sensitivity to electromagnetic fields. Utilizing the poetic language of avant-garde cinema, the film draws on the documentary impulse to give the audience access to the experiences of people who don’t have the option to tell their stories in contemporary digital media.
Mini-Doc Competition films 15 minutes and under
Winner: MINING, POEMS, OR ODES, directed by Callum Rice – Robert, an ex-shipyard welder from Scotland, reflects on how his life experiences have influenced his new found compulsion to write. His retrospective poetry revels a man who is trying to achieve a state of contentment through words and philosophy.
Artistic Vision Award. Mini-Doc Competition: A CEREBRAL GAME, directed by Reid Davenport – A filmmaker with cerebral palsy ponders his changing identity through the lens of baseball.
Jury Statement: The jury is pleased to present an Artistic Vision Award to A Cerebral Game, a film we feel especially demonstrates the core virtues of perseverance and passion that are essential to the art of filmmaking itself, and perhaps especially to the documentary genre. It’s quite an accomplishment to make a great documentary of any length – but this filmmaker has emerged against all odds. In this case, the filmmaker narrates his own story while creating a visual landscape that is at once disorienting and nostalgic – and the result is so raw and compelling it’s impossible to turn away. We open on shaky ground and come to discover, thanks to this director’s honesty and fearlessness, that we are watching the results of his inability to hold the camera steady – and that that ability is not what makes great filmmaking. He has the talent and fortitude to move forward and work on his dream and the resulting film is truly moving and inspiring.
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2016 Tribeca Film Festival Unveils Films in US Narrative, International Narrative, and Documentary Competition
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Jodie Whittaker as Anna in the film ADULT LIFE SKILLS.[/caption]
The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), taking place April 13 to 24, announced the US Narrative, International Narrative, and Documentary Competition feature film selections, as well as Viewpoints.
One third of the Festival’s feature films are directed by women — the highest percentage in the Festival’s history. Twelve female directors and screenwriters are eligible to receive the fourth annual Nora Ephron Prize, which recognizes women who embody the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer.
The Festival earlier announced that on April 14, the world premiere of Contemporary Color directed by Bill Ross and Turner Ross will open the World Documentary competition. The world premiere of Kicks, directed by Justin Tipping, will open the US Narrative competition. The world premiere of Madly, directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan, will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.
The films selected for the US Narrative Competition, International Narrative Competition, World Documentary Competition, and Viewpoints are:
US Narrative Competition
Opening Film
Kicks, directed by Justin Tipping, written by Justin Tipping and Josh Beirne-Golden. (USA) – World Premiere. When his hard-earned kicks get snatched by a local hood, fifteen-year old Brandon and his two best friends go on an ill-advised mission across the Bay Area to retrieve the stolen sneakers. Featuring a soundtrack packed with hip-hop classics, Justin Tipping’s debut feature is an urban coming-of-age tale told with grit, humor, and surprising lyricism. With Jahking Guillory, Mahershala Ali, Kofi Siriboe, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Christopher Meyer. A Focus World release.
Always Shine, directed by Sophia Takal, written by Lawrence Michael Levine. (USA) – World Premiere. This twisty psychological drama about obsession, fame, and femininity follows two friends, both actresses (Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald), on a trip to Big Sur, to reconnect with one another. Once alone, the women’s suppressed jealousies and deep-seated resentments begin to rise, causing them to lose their grasp on not only the true nature of their relationship, but also their identities. With Lawrence Michael Levine, Alex Koch, Jane Adams
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Lola Kirke as Joey and Breeda Wool as Rayna in AWOL.[/caption]
AWOL, directed by Deb Shoval, written by Deb Shoval and Karolina Waclawiak. (USA) – World Premiere. Joey (Lola Kirke) is a young woman in search of direction in her small town. A visit to an army recruiting office appears to provide a path, but when she meets and falls in love with Rayna (Breeda Wool) that path diverges in ways that neither woman anticipates. Building on the award-winning short of the same name, director Deb Shoval crafts a clear-eyed love story, and an impressive feature film debut.
Dean, directed and written by Demetri Martin. (USA) – World Premiere. In comedian Demetri Martin’s funny and heartfelt directorial debut, Martin plays an illustrator who falls hard for an LA woman (Gillian Jacobs) while trying to prevent his father (Kevin Kline) from selling the family home in the wake of his mother’s death. With Rory Scovel, Ginger Gonzaga, Reid Scott, Mary Steenburgen, Christine Woods, Beck Bennett, Briga Heelan
Dreamland, directed by Robert Schwartzman, written by Benjamin Font and Robert Schwartzman. (USA) – World Premiere. Robert Schwartzman makes his directorial debut with this comedy about the cost of reaching your dreams. Part-time pianist Monty Fagan (Johnny Simmons) begins a May-December romance that upends his home life. A set of perfectly cast co-stars push or manipulate Monty along the way: Amy Landecker, Frankie Shaw, Alan Ruck, Beverly D’Angelo, along with Robert’s older brother Jason Schwartzman, and their mother Talia Shire.
The Fixer, directed by Ian Olds, written by Paul Felten and Ian Olds. (USA) – World Premiere. After an exiled Afghan journalist (Dominic Rains) arrives in a small town in Northern California, he lands a menial job as a crime reporter for the local newspaper. Restless in his new position, he teams up with an eccentric local (James Franco) to investigate the town’s peculiar subculture only to find things quickly taking a dangerous turn. With Melissa Leo, Rachel Brosnahan, Tim Kniffin, Thomas Jay Ryan
Folk Hero & Funny Guy, directed and written by Jeff Grace. (USA) – World Premiere. Alex Karpovsky and Wyatt Russell co-headline as two artistically inclined childhood friends, a comedian and a folk-rocker respectively, who set out on a tour together in hopes of regaining their “mojo” and finding love in the process. Jeff Grace’s debut film offers a fresh perspective on male friendship and a music infused spin on the classic road-trip buddy comedy. With Meredith Hagner, Michael Ian Black, Hannah Simone, Heather Morris, Melanie Lynskey, David Cross
Live Cargo, directed by Logan Sandler, written by Logan Sandler and Thymaya Payne. (USA, Bahamas) – World Premiere. Nadine (Dree Hemingway) and Lewis (Keith Stanfield) move to a small Bahamian island hoping to restore their relationship in the wake of a tragedy, only to find the picturesque island torn in two: on one side a dangerous human trafficker and on the other an aging patriarch, struggling to maintain order. With Leonard Earl Howze, Sam Dillon, Robert Wisdom
The Ticket, directed by Ido Fluk, written by Ido Fluk and Sharon Mashishi. (USA) – World Premiere. When a blind man inexplicably regains his vision, he becomes possessed by a drive for a better life—a nicer home, a higher paying job—leaving little room for the people who were part of his old life. Dan Stevens, Malin Åkerman, Oliver Platt, and Kerry Bishé star in this haunting parable of desire, perception, and ambition.
Women Who Kill, directed and written by Ingrid Jungermann. (USA) – World Premiere. Morgan and Jean work well together as true crime podcasters because they didn’t work well, at all, as a couple. When Morgan strikes up a new relationship with the mysterious Simone, their shared interest turns into suspicion, paranoia, and fear. Ingrid Jungermann’s whip smart feature debut is an adept and wry comedy on modern romance’s hollow results, set in an LGBTQ Brooklyn. With Ingrid Jungermann, Ann Carr, Sheila Vand, Shannon O’Neill, Annette O’Toole, Grace Rex
International Narrative Competition
Opening Film
Madly, directed and written by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan. (Argentina, Australia, USA, India, Japan, UK) – World Premiere. Madly is an international anthology of short films exploring love in all its permutations. Directed by some of the most vibrant filmmakers working today, the six stories in Madly portray contemporary love in all its glorious, sad, ecstatic, empowering, and erotic manifestations. With Radhika Apte, Satyadeep Misra, Adarsh Gourav, Kathryn Beck, Lex Santos, Mariko Tsutsui, Yuki Sakurai, Ami Tomite, Justina Bustos, Pablo Seijo, Tamsin Topolski. In English, Hindi, Japanese, Spanish with subtitles.
El Clásico, directed by Halkawt Mustafa, written by Anders Fagerholt and Halkawt Mustafa. (Norway, Iraqi Kurdistan Region) – North American Premiere. Alan and Gona are in love, but Gona’s father won’t approve their union because Alan is a little person. So, Alan hits the road with his brother, traveling from their small Iraqi village to the Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid. The plan: meet Cristiano Ronaldo, and earn the blessing of Gona’s father. El Clásico is a distinctly cinematic road movie, brimming with warmth and humor. With Wrya Ahmed, Dana Ahmed, Rozhin Sharifi, Kamaran Raoof, Nyan Aziz. In Arabic, Kurdish with subtitles.
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Ana Cecilia Stieglitz as Pasajera Angelina in Icaros: A Vision.[/caption]
Icaros: A Vision, directed by Leonor Caraballo and Matteo Norzi, written by Leonor Caraballo, Matteo Norzi, and Abou Farman. (Peru, USA) – World Premiere. An American woman in search of a miracle embarks on an adventure in the Peruvian Amazon. At a healing center, she finds hope in the form of an ancient psychedelic plant known as ayahuasca. With her perception forever altered, she bonds with a young indigenous shaman who is treating a group of psychonauts seeking transcendence, companionship, and the secrets of life and death. With Ana Cecilia Stieglitz, Arturo Izquierdo, Filippo Timi. In English, Spanish with subtitles.
Junction 48, directed by Udi Aloni, written by Oren Moverman and Tamer Nafar. (Israel, Germany, USA) – International Premiere. Set against a backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Junction 48 charts the musical ambitions of Kareem, an aspiring rapper from the town of Lod. A heartbreaking portrayal of the intersection of personal and political tragedies, Junction 48 questions to what extent music can be dissociated from politics. With Tamer Nafar, Samar Qupty, Salwa Nakkara, Ayed Fadel, Sameh “SAZ” Zakout, Saeed Dassuki. In Arabic, Hebrew with subtitles.
Mother (Ema), directed by Kadri Kousaar, written by Leana Jalukse and Al Wallcat. (Estonia) – International Premiere. This darkly comic, crime mystery set in small-town Estonia centers on Elsa, the full time caretaker of her comatose son, Lauri, and the locals, who are abuzz with rumors about who shot Lauri and why. But in this tight-knit town, where everyone seems to know everyone and everything except for what’s right under their nose, the world’s clumsiest crime may go unsolved. With Tiina Mälberg, Jaan Pehk, Andres Tabun, Andres Noormets, Rea Lest, Jaak Prints, Siim Maaten In Estonian with subtitles.
Parents (Forældre), directed and written by Christian Tafdrup. (Denmark) – World Premiere. Told with deadpan Nordic humor and a touch of surrealism, Parents follows Kjelde and Vibeke, two empty-nesters who find themselves unable to let go of the past. Stripped of their identity without their son, who recently moved away to college, they attempt to reclaim their youthful vigor by moving back into the old apartment where they first fell in love. They soon realize that everything that once defined them might no longer exist. With Søren Malling, Bodil Jørgensen, Elliott Crosset Hove, Miri-Ann Beuschel, Anton Honik In Danish with subtitles.
Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti), directed by Paolo Genovese, written by Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paolo Genovese, Paola Mammini, and Rolando Ravello. (Italy) – International Premiere. Paolo Genovese’s new film brings us a bitter ensemble with an all-star cast that poses the question: How well do we really know those close to us? During a dinner party, three couples and a bachelor decide to play a dangerous game with their cell phones. Brilliantly executed and scripted, Perfect Strangers reveals the true nature of how we connect to each other. With Marco Giallini, Kasia Smutniak, Valerio Mastandrea, Anna Foglietta, Edoardo Leo, Alba Rohrwacher, Giuseppe Battiston In Italian with subtitles.
The Tenth Man (El Rey Del Once), directed and written by Daniel Burman. (Argentina) – North American Premiere. Ariel is summoned to Buenos Aires by his distant father, who runs a Jewish aid foundation in El Once, the bustling Jewish neighborhood where he spent his youth. Writer-director Daniel Burman (All In) returns to Tribeca with this tender exploration of community, and the intricacies of the father-son relationship. With Alan Sabbagh, Julieta Zylberberg, Usher, Elvira Onetto, Adrian Stoppelman, Elisa Carricajo. In Spanish with subtitles.
World Documentary Competition
Opening Film
Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross and Turner Ross. (USA) – World Premiere. In the summer of 2015, legendary musician David Byrne staged an unprecedented event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to celebrate the art of color guard—synchronized dance involving flags, rifles, and sabers—by pairing regional color guard teams with performers, including St. Vincent, Nelly Furtado, and Ad-Rock. More than a concert film, Contemporary Color is a cinematic interpretation of a one-of-a-kind live event, courtesy of visionary filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross.
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DUSTY and DELIA at the Redhook, Brooklyn waterfront from the last scene of the documentary film ALL THIS PANIC.[/caption]
All This Panic, directed by Jenny Gage. (USA) – World Premiere. What is it like to come of age in New York City? First-time director Jenny Gage follows vivacious sisters, Ginger and Dusty, and their high school friends over the course of their crucial teen years. In this sensitive and cinematic documentary, Gage captures all the urgency, drama, and bittersweetness of girlhood as her subjects grapple with love, friendship, and what their futures hold.
Betting on Zero, directed and written by Ted Braun. (USA) – World Premiere. Allegations of corporate criminality and high-stakes Wall Street vendettas swirl throughout this riveting financial docu-thriller. Controversial hedge fund titan Bill Ackman is on a crusade to expose global nutritional giant Herbalife as the largest pyramid scheme in history while Herbalife execs claim Ackman is a market manipulator out to bankrupt them and make a killing off his billion dollar short.
BUGS, directed and written by Andreas Johnsen. (Denmark) – World Premiere. Head Chef Ben Reade and Lead Researcher Josh Evans from Nordic Food Lab are on a mission to investigate the next big trend in food: edible insects. Filmmaker Andreas Johnsen follows the duo on a globe-trotting tour as they put their own haute-cuisine spin on local insect delicacies (bee larva ceviche, anyone?) in the pursuit of food diversity and deliciousness.
Do Not Resist, directed by Craig Atkinson. (USA) – World Premiere. In Do Not Resist, director Craig Atkinson, through keen and thoughtful observances, presents a startling and powerful exploration into the rapid militarization of police forces in the United States. Filmed over two years, in 11 states, Do Not Resist reveals a rare and surprising look into the increasingly disturbing realities of American police culture.
The Happy Film: a GRAPHIC Design Experiment, directed by Stefan Sagmeister, Ben Nabors, and Hillman Curtis. (USA) – World Premiere. Designer Stefan Sagmeister takes us on a personal journey to find out what causes happiness. Experimenting with three different approaches—meditation, therapy, and drugs—Sagmeister embarks on an entertaining and introspective quest, accented with a whimsical panoply of graphics, charts, and proverbs. The Happy Film may not make you happier, but it will surely move you to reexamine your own pursuit of happiness.
Keep Quiet, directed by Joseph Martin and Sam Blair. (U.K., Hungary) – World Premiere. Passionate in his anti-Semitic beliefs, Csanád Szegedi was the rising star of Hungary’s far-right party until he discovers his family’s secret—his maternal grandparents were Jewish. The revelation prompts an improbable but seemingly heartfelt conversion from anti-Semite to Orthodox Jew. This captivating and confrontational film explores the complex and contradictory character of Szegedi, prompting deep questions about Szegedi’s supposed epiphany. In English, Hungarian with subtitles.
LoveTrue, directed by Alma Har’el. (USA) – World Premiere. Alma Har’el, director and cinematographer of the 2011 TFF Best Documentary Feature Bombay Beach, returns with LoveTrue, a genre-bending documentary, demystifying the fantasy of true love. From an Alaskan strip club, a Hawaiian island, and the streets of NYC—revelatory stories emerge about a deeper definition of love. Set to a hypnotizing score by Flying Lotus and executive produced by Shia LaBeouf.
Memories of a Penitent Heart, directed by Cecilia Aldarondo. (USA, Puerto Rico) – World Premiere. Like many gay men in the 1980s, Miguel moved from Puerto Rico to New York City; he found a career in theater and a rewarding relationship. Yet, on his deathbed he grappled to reconcile his homosexuality with his Catholic upbringing. Now, decades after his death, his niece Cecilia locates Miguel’s estranged lover to understand the truth, and in the process opens up long-dormant family secrets. In English, Spanish with subtitles.
The Return, directed by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway, written by Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway, and Greg O’Toole. (USA) – World Premiere. How does one reintegrate into society after making peace with a life sentence? California’s controversial and notoriously harsh three-strikes law was repealed in 2012, consequently releasing large numbers of convicts back into society. The Return presents an unbiased observation of the many issues with re-entry through the varied experiences of recently freed lifers.
Tickling Giants, directed and written by Sara Taksler. (USA) – World Premiere. Charting Bassem Youssef’s rise as Egypt’s foremost on-screen satirist, Tickling Giants offers a rousing celebration of free speech and a showcase for the power of satire to speak for the people against a repressive government. Where this story differs from the familiar success of Youssef’s idol, Jon Stewart: Bassem’s jokes come with serious, dangerous, and at times revolutionary consequences. In Arabic, English with subtitles.
Untouchable, directed by David Feige. (USA) – World Premiere. When a powerful Florida lobbyist discovered his daughter was sexually abused, he launched a crusade to pass some of the strictest sex offender laws in the country. Today, 800,000 people are listed in the sex offender registry, yet the cycles of abuse continue. David Feige’s enlightening documentary argues for a new understanding of how we think about and legislate sexual abuse.
Viewpoints
Opening Film
Nerdland, directed by Chris Prynoski, written by Andy Kevin Walker. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Nerdland is an R-rated cartoon comedy about celebrity, excess, and two showbiz nobodies, John (Paul Rudd) and Elliott (Patton Oswalt), with a plan to become famous—or even infamous—by the end of the night. Featuring an army of comedy cameos including Hannibal Buress, Laraine Newman, Mike Judge, Kate Micucci & Riki Lindhome, and Molly Shannon.
Abortion: Stories Women Tell, directed by Tracy Droz Tragos. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. In 1973, the US Supreme court decision Roe v. Wade gave every woman the right to have an abortion. In 2016, abortion remains one of the most divisive issues in America, especially in Missouri. Award-winning director and Missouri native Tracy Droz Tragos sheds new light on the contentious issue by focusing on the women and their stories, rather than the debate. An HBO Documentary Film.
Actor Martinez, directed and written by Nathan Silver and Mike Ott. (USA) – North American Premiere, Narrative. Arthur Martinez is a computer repairman and aspiring actor who commissions indie directors Mike Ott and Nathan Silver to film his life. In the directors’ first collaboration, we see them follow Arthur as he goes to work, drives around, and auditions for a love interest (Lindsay Burdge), leading them to question the meaning of the project, and ultimately that of identity and stardom.
Adult Life Skills, directed and written by Rachel Tunnard. (U.K.) – World Premiere, Narrative. Anna (Jodie Whittaker) is stuck: she’s approaching 30, living in her mother’s shed, and spending her time making movies with her thumbs. Her mom wants her to move out; she just wants to be left alone. Adult Life Skills is an off-beat comedy about a woman who’s lost, finding herself. With Jodie Whittaker, Brett Goldstein, Lorraine Ashbourne, Alice Lowe, Edward Hogg, Eileen Davies, Rachael Deering, Ozzy Myers
After Spring, directed by Ellen Martinez and Steph Ching. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Close to 80,000 Syrian refugees live in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan. After Spring immerses us in the rhythms of the camp, the role of the aid workers, and the daily lives of two families as they contemplate an uncertain future. Executive produced by Jon Stewart, this is a fascinating journey through the camp’s physical and human landscapes. In Arabic, English, Korean with subtitles.
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As I Open My Eyes (À peine j’ouvre les yeux), directed by Leyla Bouzid[/caption]
As I Open My Eyes (À peine j’ouvre les yeux), directed by Leyla Bouzid, written by Leyla Bouzid and Marie-Sophie Chambon. (France, Tunisia, Belgium, United Arab Emirates) – US Premiere, Narrative. As I Open My Eyes depicts the clash between culture and family as seen through the eyes of a young Tunisian woman balancing the traditional expectations of her family with her creative life as the singer in a politically charged rock band. Director Leyla Bouzid’s musical feature debut offers a nuanced portrait of the individual implications of the incipient Arab Spring. With Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali, Montassar Ayari, Aymen Omrani, Lassaad Jamoussi, Deena Abdelwahed, Youssef Soltana, Marwen Soltana. In Arabic with subtitles. Presented in association with Venice Days.
Between Us, directed and written by Rafael Palacio Illingworth. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Longtime couple Henry (Ben Feldman) and Dianne (Olivia Thirlby) are afraid that if they finally tie the knot it would mean the end of their days as free-spirited urbanites. But a whirlwind night apart involving temptations from a duo of strangers (Analeigh Tipton and Adam Goldberg) will either make them realize why they are together in the first place or finally drive them apart forever. With Scott Haze, Peter Bogdanovich, Lesley Ann Warren
Califórnia, directed by Marina Person, written by Marina Person, Mariana Veríssimo, and Francisco Guarnieri. (Brazil) – North American Premiere, Narrative. Nostalgic, sweet, and at moments poignantly funny, Califórnia is a coming-of-age tale about a high school student, Estela, growing up in São Paulo in the 1980s. Estela is doing all she can to get to California to visit her glamorous and cultured uncle. While focused on keeping her grades up, her life is complicated by romance, sex, and social pressures. With Clara Gallo, Caio Blat, and Caio Horowicz. In Portuguese with subtitles.
The Charro of Toluquilla (El Charro De Toluquilla), directed and written by Jose Villalobos Romero. (Mexico) – International Premiere, Documentary. Jaime García appears to be the quintessentially machismo mariachi singer, yet beneath his magnetic confidence lies a man struggling to maintain a relationship with his estranged family while living as an HIV-positive man. In Jose Villalobos Romero’s remarkable cinematic debut, he utilizes vivid tableaus and stylized perspective to paint a beautifully unique and emotional portrait of a man divided. With Analia Garcia Hernandez, Rocio Hernandez, La Paloma, Andrea Dominguez, Ventura Garcia. In Spanish with subtitles.
Children of the Mountain, directed and written by Priscilla Anany. (USA, Ghana) – World Premiere, Narrative. When a young woman gives birth to a deformed and sickly child, she becomes the victim of cruelty and superstition in her Ghanaian community. Discarded by her lover, she is convinced she suffers from a ‘dirty womb,’ and embarks on a journey to heal her son and create a future for them both. With Rukiyat Masud, Grace Omaboe, Akofa Edjeani, Adjetey Annang, Agbeko Mortty (Bex), Dzifa Glikpo, Mynna Otoo. In Twi with subtitles.
Detour, directed and written by Christopher Smith. (U.K.) – World Premiere, Narrative. After his mother ends up in a coma under suspicious circumstances, a law student (Tye Sheridan) decides to drown his sorrows at a seedy bar. The next morning, he wakes up to the realization that he may have hired a hitman (Emory Cohen) and his girlfriend (Bel Powley) to take out the suspected perpetrator (Stephen Moyer) of his mother’s life-threatening accident. With Theo James
Equals, directed by Drake Doremus, written by Nathan Parker. (USA) – US Premiere, Narrative. Set in a sleek and stylish future world, Drake Doremus’ sci-fi romance envisions an understated dystopia, where all human emotion is seen as a disease that must be treated and cured. Against this backdrop, coworkers Nia (Kristen Stewart) and Silas (Nicholas Hoult) begin to feel dangerous stirrings for one another. An A24 release
14 Minutes from Earth, directed and written by Jerry Kolber, Adam “Tex” Davis, Trey Nelson, and Erich Sturm. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. On October 24th, 2014, a secret three-year mission by a small crew of engineers came to fruition deep in the desert of New Mexico. There, a human being (Alan Eustace ) was launched higher than ever before without the aid of a spacecraft—shattering all records. This film documents the mission and its greater implications for the scientific community and stratospheric exploration.
haveababy, directed by Amanda Micheli. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Amanda Micheli’s haveababy opens with a YouTube-based competition for a free round of in vitro fertilization, courtesy of a Las Vegas fertility clinic. Through this controversial contest, Micheli explores the complexities of America’s burgeoning fertility industry and paints an intimate portrait of the many resilient couples determined to have a baby against all odds.
High-Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley, written by Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley. (U.K.) – New York Premiere, Narrative. Based on J.G. Ballard’s novel of the same name, High-Rise stars Tom Hiddleston as Dr. Robert Lang, a newcomer to a recently constructed complex in which the residents are stratified by social class. But when the power goes out, the tenuous hierarchy rapidly descends into chaos. Luke Evans, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, and Elisabeth Moss co-star. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Houston, We Have a Problem!, directed by Žiga Virc, written by Žiga Virc and Boštjan Virc. (Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Qatar) – World Premiere. The space race and NASA’s moon landing are as much part of our national identity as they are fodder for conspiracy theories. Houston, We Have a Problem! adds new material to the discussion on both fronts, as filmmaker Žiga Virc investigates the myth of a secret multi-billion-dollar deal involving America’s purchase of Yugoslavia’s space program in the early 1960s. In Croatian, English, Serbian, Slovene with subtitles.
The Human Thing (La Cosa Humana), directed by Gerardo Chijona, written by Francisco García and Gerardo Chijona. (Cuba) – International Premiere, Narrative. Gerardo Chijona’s (Ticket to Paradise) newest film opens with a thief breaking into the home of a famous writer, and unknowingly stealing what turns out to be the only manuscript of his upcoming story. In desperate need of money, he submits it to a contest, which will see him competing with the very writer he robbed. With Héctor Medina, Enrique Molina, Carlos Enrique Almirante, Vladimir Cruz, Miriel Cejas, Amarilis Núñez, Osvaldo Doimeadiós, Mario Guerra, Alejandro Rivera. In Spanish with subtitles. Presented in association with the Havana Film Festival New York.
Keepers of the Game, directed by Judd Ehrlich. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Lacrosse is a sacred game for Native Americans, traditionally reserved for men. When a women’s varsity team forms in upstate New York, they aim to be the first Native women’s team to take the championship title away from their rivals Massena High. But when their funding is slashed, and the indigenous community is torn, they find more than just the championship is on the line.
The Loner, directed and written by Daniel Grove. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Daniel Grove’s neon-soaked feature debut follows reformed mobster Behrouz, who is haunted by memories of being a child soldier in Iran in the 1980s. As he pursues the American Dream in Los Angeles Behrouz finds it increasingly difficult to stay away from the seedy underbelly of the city. Grove’s neo-noir is a smart, action-packed, and colorful thriller with an electrifying score. With Reza Sixo Safai, Helena Mattsson, Parviz Sayyad, Julian Sands, Laura Harring, Dominic Rains. In English, Farsi, Russian with subtitles.
Night School, directed and written by Andrew Cohn. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Indianapolis has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country. For adult learners Greg, Melissa, and Shynika, a high school diploma could be a life-changing achievement. Andrew Cohn’s absorbing documentary observes their individual pursuits, fraught with the challenges of daily life and also the broader systemic roadblocks faced by many low income Americans, including wages and working conditions.
Obit, directed by Vanessa Gould. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Within the storied walls of The New York Times, a team of writers is entrusted with reflecting upon the luminaries, icons, and world leaders of our day. Vanessa Gould’s fascinating documentary introduces us to those responsible for crafting the unequaled obituaries of the NYT. As we’re taken through their painstaking process we learn about the pressures accompanying a career spent shaping the story of a life.
Poor Boy, directed by Robert Scott Wildes, written by Robert Scott Wildes and Logan Antill. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Romeo and Samson Griggs, two reckless, misfit brothers living on the outskirts of town, survive by hustling, gambling, and thieving. In an attempt to leave their lot behind for good, they design their most complex and financially rewarding long con yet. With Lou Taylor Pucci, Michael Shannon, Justin Chatwin, and Amanda Crew.
The Ride, directed and written by Stéphanie Gillard. (France) – World Premiere, Documentary. The Ride takes us along the annual 300-mile trek through the South Dakota Badlands. There, young men and women of the Lakota Sioux ride horseback and reflect upon the history of their ancestors. This intimate, stunningly photographed account captures the thoughts and emotions of the young riders and the adults who guide them along their journey.
SOLITARY, directed by Kristi Jacobson. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. With unprecedented access, director Kristi Jacobson offers a deeply moving portrait of life inside solitary confinement within a supermax prison. Filmed over the course of one year, this riveting film tells the story of the complex personalities that dwell on either side of a cell door while raising provocative questions about the nature of crime and punishment in America today. An HBO Documentary Film.
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, directed by Deborah S. Esquenazi. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. In 1994, four women were tried and convicted of a heinous assault on two young girls in a court case that was infused with homophobic prejudice and the Satanic Panic sweeping the nation at that time. Southwest of Salem is a fascinating true crime story that puts the trial of the San Antonio Four in context of their ongoing search for exoneration.
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9 Films by Local Filmmakers Selected for 2016 Ashland Independent Film Festival’s Locals Category
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The Giantess[/caption]
Nine films by local filmmakers are Official Selections in the 2016 Ashland Independent Film Festival’s Locals category.
The nine films chosen are all shorts or short documentaries created by filmmakers who live in the Siskiyou region.
Two films by Medford director Ray Nomoto Robison (Dear Future Self and The Settling) were accepted. Robison is not a newcomer to the film festival. His film Model Rules screened at the 2009 film festival, and his three-minute short, Four Daughters screened in 2012. This will be the second time in the film festival for Cyle Ziebarth of Medford. Ziebarth’s animated short Climb of Competence, was accepted this year. His film Pizza Deliverance was screened in 2012.
The list of selected directors also includes:
Jacob Dalton, of Medford, for Loose Ends.
Philip Kumsar, of Jacksonville; Jameson Collins, Lauren Dahl, and Violet Crabtreee, all of Arcata, CA., for The Giantess, an adaptation of a comic by Crabtree.
Dade Barlow of Jacksonville, for Female to Male: Transgender.
Cat Gould of Ashland, for Bernardina.
Amirah David of Ashland, for As I Am.
Libby Edson of Ashland, for YoMIND/ASH (Ashland High School) Yoga Program.
“Our team of programmers was particularly impressed with these nine films, but the choice was tough, with a record number of submissions and so many strong entries to the festival this year,” said Richard Herskowitz, director of programming. “We hope that our local audiences will recognize the talented filmmakers among them and come out to cheer them on.”
Kumsar, who submitted The Giantess, noted that the film was a project of passion: “We are beyond thrilled to be involved in a film festival.”
Every year the Ashland Independent Film Festival presents local films for free to the public in the Locals Only program, but tickets are required. Deadline for submission is December and entry is free for residents of eligible counties within the Siskiyou region: Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath in Oregon; Siskiyou and Del Norte in California.
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WEINER Doc Among First 10 Films Announced for Dallas International Film Festival
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WEINER, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg[/caption]
The first ten official selections have been revealed for the 2016 Dallas International Film Festival.
The list of titles are led by the Centerpiece Gala selection of Chris Kelly’s OTHER PEOPLE and include two world premieres (Johnathan Brownlee’s THREE DAYS IN AUGUST and William Kaufman’s DAYLIGHT’S END), and a U.S. premiere (Asiel Norton’s ORION). DIFF has also announced a special event concert and screening of the family classic E.T. – THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, celebrating the career of legendary film composer John Williams.
As in past years, DIFF will treat Dallas audiences to their first opportunities to see some of the top films out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as a chance to catch the films they possibly missed in Austin at SXSW. Joining OTHER PEOPLE, additional films out of Sundance include: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s SONITA, the winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards, about a teen Afghani rapper facing the possibility she may be sold into marriage; Natalie Portman’s take on Amos Oz’s autobiographical tale, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS; Werner Herzog’s exploration on how we are faring in the digital landscape and online world – LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD; and WEINER, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s documentary on embattled former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s campaign to be mayor of New York.
The ten official selections include:
A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
Director: Natalie Portman
Country: Israel/USA, Running Time: 98min
Based on Amos Oz’s international best-seller, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS is the story of Oz’s youth at the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. The film details young Amos’ relationship with his mother and his birth as a writer, looking at what happens when the stories we tell, become the stories we live.
DAYLIGHT’S END – WORLD PREMIERE
Director: William Kaufman
Country: USA, Running Time: 105min
Shot in Dallas and points ranging from East Texas to the West Texas town of Rio (pop. 3) along the famed Route 66, the film is a hard driving action-horror-thriller starring Johnny Strong, Lance Henriksen and Louis Mandylor. It focuses on a rogue drifter who’s on a vengeful hunt, years after a mysterious plague has devastated the planet and turned most of humanity into blood-hungry creatures. When he stumbles across a desperate band of survivors in an abandoned police station, the drifter reluctantly puts his own thirst for blood on hold and agrees to help them defend themselves, only to realize that his mission of revenge and theirs may in fact coincide.
JOHNNIE TO’S OFFICE
Director: Johnnie To
Country: Hong Kong, Running Time: 120min
Adapted by actress Sylvia Chang from her hit stage play “Design For Living”, the film is a musical set in a corporate high-rise immediately before and after the 2008 financial collapse. The story centers around two assistants starting new jobs at a financial firm. One naively enters the world of high finance with noble intentions, while the other harbors a secret. Chow Yun-fat, Eason Chan and Tang Wei star alongside Chang.
LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD
Director: Werner Herzog
Country: USA, Running Time: 98min
In LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD, the Oscar-nominated Herzog chronicles the virtual world from its origins to its outermost reaches, exploring the digital landscape with the same curiosity and imagination he previously trained on earthly destinations as disparate as the Amazon, the Sahara, the South Pole and the Australian outback. Working with NetScout, a world leader in real time service assurance and cybersecurity, Herzog leads viewers on a journey through a series of provocative conversations that reveal the ways in which the online world has transformed how virtually everything in the real world works – from business to education, space travel to healthcare, and the very heart of how we conduct our personal relationships.
ORION – U.S. PREMIERE
Director: Asiel Norton
Country: USA, Running Time: 110min
In a future dark age, after civilization has collapsed, there are rumors and prophecies of a savior to come. A hunter fights to save a maiden from a cannibal shaman and searches for the world’s last city. The film stars David Arquette and Lily Cole
OTHER PEOPLE – CENTERPIECE GALA SELECTION
Director: Chris Kelly
Country: USA, Running Time: 97min
A struggling New York City comedy writer, fresh from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and younger sisters, David feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother worsens, he tries to convince everyone (including himself) he’s “doing okay.” The film stars Molly Shannon and Jesse Plemons.
SONITA
Director: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
Country: Germany/Iran/Switzerland, Running Time: 91min
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, SONITA tells the inspiring story of Sonita Alizadeh, an 18-year-old Afghan refugee in Iran, who thinks of Michael Jackson and Rihanna as her spiritual parents and dreams of becoming a big-name rapper. For the time being, her only fans are the other teenage girls in a Tehran shelter. And her family has a very different future planned for her: as a bride she’s worth $9,000. Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami poignantly shifts from observer to participant altering expectations, as Sonita’s story unfolds in an intimate and joyful portrait.
THREE DAYS IN AUGUST – WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Johnathan Brownlee
Country: USA, Running Time: 96min
Starring Barry Bostwick, Meg Foster, and Mariette Hartley, the film is about an Irish American artist who is forced to confront her past when both sets of parents come together over a weekend for her to paint a family portrait.
TOWER
Director: Keith Maitland
Country: USA, Running Time: 96min
On August 1st, 1966, a sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes. When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included 16 dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation in a dynamic, never-before-seen way, TOWER reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.
WEINER
Directors: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg
Country: USA, Running Time: 96min
With unrestricted access to Anthony Weiner’s New York City mayoral campaign, this film reveals the human story behind the scenes of a high-profile political scandal as it unfolds, and offers an unfiltered look at how much today’s politics is driven by an appetite for spectacle.
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Dance Documentary MR. GAGA to Premiere at 2016 SXSW Film Festival | TRAILER
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MR. GAGA, Tomer Heymann[/caption]
MR. GAGA, the latest feature documentary from acclaimed director Tomer Heymann, will have its North American Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Friday, March 11, 2016.
Heymann’s prior film Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? was recently honored with the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, the same award he won in 2006 for Paper Dolls.
MR. GAGA is an intimate exploration of the life and work of famed choreographer Ohad Naharin, the elusive artistic genius who created the popular Gaga dance movement. Eight years in the making, the film utilizes intimate rehearsal footage, extensive unseen archive material and stunning, large-scale dance sequences to reveal the fascinating life story of one of modern dance’s iconic pioneers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6gd8xpFMsM