Film Festivals

Theatrical Premieres abound this year at American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund (AMDOCS); Films Redefine the Art of Storytelling

When it opens in Palm Springs, California, on March 27th, 2014, the American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund will begin a five five day schedule of over 120 documentary films from around the world. That schedule includes a record number of theatrical premieres – fifteen World Premieres, twenty-five North American Premieres and twenty US premieres.

“We are fortunate to have secured a large number of documentaries that will be premiering at our festival this year,” says Ted Grouya, Festival Director and Founder. “We have always been proud of the fact that we were on the cutting edge of screening new documentaries, but this year exceeds all expectations.”

The documentary genre of filmmaking, powered by a whole new generation of filmmakers, continues to grow in popularity. “These story-driven films are becoming the new keepers of culture,” Grouya said. “They have really redefined the tradition of storytelling, and, in many ways, documentary filmmakers have become the storytellers of the new millennium. Documentaries today are preserving culture, exposing corruption, and capturing events – but they are also capturing daily life – the stories of all our lives.”

“Take 57º NORTH, one of this year’s World Premiere documentaries from the United Kingdom,” Grouya continued. “It provides a poignant insight into the traditional lifestyle of John Jo MacDonald, a 67-year-old fisherman from The Outer Hebrides, whose entire way of life is under threat from environmental issues outside of his control. Another film, ALUMBRONES, uses artists to tell the story of the impact Cubans felt when the Soviet Union collapsed, and Cuba lost 90 percent of its trade overnight. RACING HEARTS, a World Premiere short film from the United States, follows the inspiring journey of three heart transplant recipients as they attempt to finish the La Jolla Half Marathon, an arduous race with a daunting hill climb. These films are lasting records of what it was for these people to live their lives, and the things we can learn from them to help us see the bigger picture that exists beyond ourselves. The bonus is that we will be among the first audiences to see them.”

The American Documentary Film Festival opens on Thursday, March 27th and continues through Monday, March 31st. It is presented in conjunction with The Palm Springs Cultural Center.

images: (top left to right) 57º NORTH, ALUMBRONES, RACING HEARTS

via press release
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Los Angeles Film Festival Unveils 20th Anniversary Commemorative Poster

The Los Angeles Film Festival unveiled the Festival’s 20th Anniversary commemorative poster, designed by iconic American artist Ed Ruscha, based on his 1962 painting “Large Trademark With Eight Spotlights.” The Festival opens Wednesday, June 11, and runs through Thursday, June 19 2014. It will include world premieres of American and international features, documentaries and short subject films as well as conversations, master classes, Music in Film Nights at the GRAMMY Museum, Hollywood studio premieres, and other signature events.

“I’m pleased to have designed the poster in support of the 20th LA Film Festival and Film Independent, and I hope the image reaches as many people as possible,” said Ruscha. Ruscha’s work is collected by museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Musee National Jeu de Paume, The Getty Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

“We’re honored that Ed Ruscha created the artwork for the 20th anniversary poster,” said Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent. “Ruscha’s body of work represents the creative spirit of Los Angeles that is embodied in the Festival.”
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VIDEO | Watch Trailer for Rapper Nas Documentary TIME IS ILLMATIC

Check out the short trailer for TIME IS ILLMATIC, the documentary on rapper Nas, set to World Premiere as the opening night film of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The film follows the trajectory of Nas’ 1994 landmark debut album, Illmatic– widely considered one of the most important and revolutionary albums in hip-hop. TIME IS ILLMATIC, is directed by multimedia artist, One9, written by Erik Parker, and produced by One9, Parker, and Anthony Saleh.

http://youtu.be/A3e7AwBuqmA
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Official Poster Unveiled for the 2014 Florida Documentary Film Festival

DocMiami International Film Festival unveiled the official poster for the Florida Documentary Film Festival, a new series designed to bring the film festival experience to various cities throughout the Sunshine State. The Florida Documentary Film Festival takes place September 12 to 13th, 2014, at the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Designed by artist David Caines of the U.K., the poster was revealed by DocMiami Director, Monica Rosales and Sugar Sand Park Special Event Coordinator Stacee Lanz.

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Formula 1 Documentary “1″ to Screen at 2014 Sedona International Film Festival | VIDEO

The Formula 1 documentary “1,″ directed by Paul Crowder and narrated by Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender, will have a special screening on opening day of the 20th Anniversary Sedona International Film Festival on Saturday, February. 22, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. Set in the golden era of Grand Prix racing, “1″ tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives at every race during Formula 1′s deadliest period. These are the men (Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Stewart, et. al.) who stood up and changed the sport forever.

“1″ is described as a must-see for all film-lovers and for anyone with an interest in all things automotive. Unprecedented access to F1 archival footage by the filmmakers provides a human reality aspect to this truly “life and death” time in racing history.

The screening of “1″ will act as the official announcement of Reels and Wheels: An Automobile Film Experience, scheduled to launch next year at the 2015 Sedona International Film Festival. This experience beginning February 19, 2015, will include all things automobile, including a pavilion with famous movie cars, automobile-themed films, professional drivers and celebrities, and interactive, hands-on displays.

http://youtu.be/ZHlK2HCh12U

via sedona.biz
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2014 New York City Independent Film Festival Announces Prizes for Super Short Film Category

The 5th Annual New York City Independent Film Festival announces prizes for this year’s Super Short Film Category.

From October 15th to 19th, this year’s festival is the place to be. During the event, filmmakers have the opportunity to meet several movie professionals and exchange experiences. In addition to screening the best indie films, the festival hosts parties, ceremonies and panel discussions with filmmakers, actors, directors, producers, musicians and crew members. The most important ceremony is the Best of Festival Awards that recognizes the best in 9 categories: director, actress, actor, script, narrative feature, music video, short film, documentary and super short film. A board of movie professionals selects the winners. Also a Mark of Distinction Award is offered to the audience’s choice. We also have the first of the prizes we will be offering this year at the festival.

In the Super Short Film category the festival is offering three prizes:
First Place wins a copy of Sony Vegas Pro Suite – Retail 899.00
Second Place wins a copy of Sony Vegas Pro – Retail 599.00
Third Place wins a copy of Sony Vegas Pro Edit – Retail 399.00

http://www.nycindieff.com

This year, plans are to show well over 100 films. The 5th New York City Independent Film Festival will continue to uphold the tradition of promoting new and emerging voices in film, spoken word, music, and art. Dennis Cieri, Executive Director and Founder, says, “The festival is excited to announce the first set of prizes for this year’s festival. The Sony Vegas Pro software is a professional well-balanced set of software for an indie filmmaker. More prizes are coming and the festival will be announcing more prizes soon.”

The festival takes place in the Producers Club, located in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district. It makes a wonderful home for the international cinematic tradition of the festival, with its spacious theaters, intimate lounge, urban décor and artistic history.

Submissions
Visit the website, http://www.nycindieff.com, to learn more about the festival as well as information about submissions and past years selected films. Join the festival on Twitter @NYCIndieFF, and Facebook at facebook.com/nycindieff.
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5th Annual New York City Independent Film Festival
What: Selection of over 100 independent movies spanning feature, documentary, short, super short, music videos and art videos.
When: October 15-19, 2014
Where: 358 West 44th Street New York, NY
Learn more at http://www.nycindieff.com or (917) 608-4784.

via press release

The Eighth Annual Beaufort International Film Festival concluded on February 15th with the winners being announced in 9 categories and the presentation of the first ever Behind the Scenes Award.

Complete Lineup for 43rd New Directors/New Films; Ana Lily Amirpour’s A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is the Opening Night Film

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

The complete lineup was unveiled for the 43rd edition of New Directors/New Films taking place March 19 to March 30, 2014 in New York City and presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art. This year’s festival will screen 27 international feature films and 13 short films. The opening night feature is Ana Lily Amirpour’s A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, a Persian, black-and-white, noirish thriller that recently bowed at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and is based on a graphic novel written by Amirpour about a young female vampire who stalks the streets of a fictional lonely Iranian ghost town. The closing night feature, 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH, by visual artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, also had its premiere at Sundance, where it won directing and editing awards in the World Cinema Documentary category. The film follows a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musical and cultural icon Nick Cave as he is writing his 2013 album “Push the Sky Away.”

A WORLD NOT OURS, URANIUM DRIVE-IN Lead Winners of 2014 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

A WORLD NOT OURS

The winners of the 2014 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival’s Feature, Big Sky, Short and Mini-Doc categories were announced before an energized and packed house last night at the Top Hat Lounge in downtown Missoula. The Best Feature award went to A WORLD NOT OURS, described as an intimate and funny portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. “Through his unique sensibility and keenly perceptive eye, filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel gives us a fascinating glimpse into the world of the Palestinian refugee camp where he grew up,” read the judges’ statement. “In so doing, he creates a remarkable cinematic journey that is both highly personal and strikingly universal.”

The Big Sky Award was earned by URANIUM DRIVE-IN, described as the gripping story of a once-booming Colorado mining town as it grapples with the prospect of a return to the mining industry that offers a conflicting mix of economic prosperity and environmental and health challenges. The film was directed by Susan Beraza. “We chose URANIUM DRIVE-IN for the Big Sky Award because of its balanced and raw look at the realities of mining,” said the jury. “The filmmakers took great care with the subject and the characters and the result is a powerful story about life in the west.” URANIUM DRIVE-IN also took home a cash prize of $1000 sponsored by the Montana Film Office.

The Best Short award winner was THE RECORD BREAKER, described as the funny and surprisingly heartfelt tale of Ashrita Furman, the man with the most Guinness World Records of all time. The film’s director is Brian McGinn. “THE RECORD BREAKER is witty, fast-paced and accomplished, with an engaging character who has found his own personal quirky passion in life,” said the judges. “Underneath the fun, the film grapples with deeper, even profound issues such as the nature of obsession and changing relationships between parents and child.”

And finally, the winner of the Best Mini-Doc award went to EUGENE, directed by Jordan Olshanksy and Jason Stanfield. The 13-minute film, shot over the course of several months, tracks the last days of a homeless man living in the outskirts of San Francisco. The judges’ statement was not available as of press time.

The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival’s status as a qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Short and Mini-Doc categories means that THE RECORD BREAKER and EUGENE are now eligible for consideration for next year’s Oscars.

In addition to the category winners, judges were given the option of presenting an Artistic Vision award in each category. In each case, the jury found a film so deserving. They are: TRUCKER AND THE FOX (Feature), directed by Arash Lahooti; TRANSMORMON (Big Sky), directed by Torben Bernhard; PRISON TERMINAL (Short), directed by Edgar Barens; and ADRIFT (Mini-Doc), directed by Frederik Depickere.

The award screenings will cap a busy final weekend of the nine-day festival. In addition to Friday evening’s full slate of films, screenings will be held in all four festival venues throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, including a slate of “Movies You Missed” made up of some of the most popular films screened during the previous week. Film schedule and information can be found at bigskyfilmfest.org.

TIME IS ILLMATIC, Documentary on Rapper Nas to Open 2014 Tribeca Film Festival

The world premiere of the documentary TIME IS ILLMATIC, will open the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film follows the trajectory of Nas’ 1994 landmark debut album, Illmatic– widely considered one of the most important and revolutionary albums in hip-hop. The premiere, taking place on Wednesday, April 16, will be followed by a special musical performance where Nas will perform the groundbreaking album from front to back. TIME IS ILLMATIC, is directed by multimedia artist, One9, written by Erik Parker, and produced by One9, Parker, and Anthony Saleh. The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, will run through April 27th.

TIME IS ILLMATIC traces Nas’s influences and the insurmountable odds he faced in creating the greatest work of music from hip-hop’s second golden era. The film tracks the musical legacy of the Jones family — handed down to Nas from his jazz musician father, Olu Dara, the support of his Queensbridge neighborhood crew, and the loyalty of his younger brother Jabari “Jungle” Fret. Twenty years after its release, Illmatic is widely recognized as a hip-hop benchmark that encapsulates the sociopolitical outlook, enduring spirit, and collective angst of a generation of young men searching for their voice in America. Time Is Illmatic is supported by The Ford Foundation’s Just Films and Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access program.

“I want to thank the Tribeca Film Festival for supporting the film with the incredible platform they’ve built over the years,” said Nas. “It’s an honor to premiere this film in my hometown. I also want to thank One9 and Erik Parker for their persistence and hard work. Those guys and I come from the same place and era, which gives the doc an authenticity that is important to me. We wanted this film to represent the real, from the storyline all the way down to the directors and producers.”

“Like the Festival itself, Time is Illmatic and the groundbreaking body of work it recognizes has roots grounded in New York City, but represents and reaches communities far beyond,” said Jane Rosenthal, CEO and Co-founder of Tribeca Film Festival. “The film spotlights a musical journey with community and family at its core and we look forward to celebrating this pivotal moment in hip hop history as we open our 13th edition.”

“Throughout the journey, we see the metamorphosis of Nas as a young street poet, full of a rich musical legacy, transforming the pain and isolation of growing up in Queensbridge Houses into raw, honest lyrics, illuminating a spirit that inspired generations from the past, present, and the future. Experiencing the stories, passion, and energy of a modern day alchemist shaping lyrical dust to diamonds was truly an honor and we are extremely proud to premiere the film at Tribeca,” said One9. “I want to thank Nas, Jungle, Olu Dara, The Jones family, the Tribeca Film Institute, and Ford Foundation for allowing Erik Parker and me to create an authentic and unfiltered documentary film.”

Hip Hop luminary and multi-platinum artist, Nas, released his debut album Illmatic in 1994, and he has gone on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide. The legendary Queens rapper, son of jazz musician Olu Dara, is widely recognized as a visionary and lauded for a seminal body of work that spans a two-decade career. He has released nine solo albums and three compilations, and will release Illmatic XX, a special 20th anniversary edition of the landmark debut, on April 15 by SONY Legacy.

THE LAST ONE, a New Documentary about the AIDS Memorial Quilt to Screen at 2014 American Documentary Film Festival

The 2014 American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund will screen THE LAST ONE – a look at the AIDS quilt and those who wove the panels. In the eighties and nineties, as AIDS ravaged the United States gay community, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born out of a public battle for treatment and understanding. THE LAST ONE is a feature-length documentary tracing its history as an international art project and the role it continues to play as a response to a disease that still imperils vulnerable communities around the world.

Through the intensely personal stories of its founders, volunteers, and panel-makers, THE LAST ONE examines how stigma and discrimination exacerbated and still fuel a disease that has already claimed the lives of 30 million people and currently infects 65 million men, women and children around the globe–including 50,000 new infections a year in the US alone. Longtime LGBT Activist and Founder of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, Cleve Jones, will attend the screening of THE LAST ONE, along with the film’s director, Nadine Licostie.

The American Documentary Film Festival opens on Thursday, March 27th and continues through Monday, March 31st, 2014.

John McKay’s NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING to Open 2014 Cleveland International Film Festival

NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING directed by John McKay has been announced as the Opening Night film of the 38th Cleveland International Film Festival, kicking off the festival on on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. This “gentle, stylish, and quirky romantic comedy” stars Karen Gillan, Stanley Weber, Amy Manson, Iain De Caestecker, Kate Dickie, Freya Mavor, Gary Lewis, and Henry Ian Cusick. The 38th Cleveland International Film Festival takes place March 19 to March 30, 2014.

NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING tells the story of struggling publisher Thomas Duval (Stanley Weber) who discovers his only successful author, Jane Lockhart (Karen Gillan), has writer’s block; and it is up to him to unblock her or he is finished. With her newfound success, she’s become too happy and she can’t write when she’s happy. The only trouble is, the worse he makes her feel, the more he realizes he is in love with her.

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