Film Festivals

LA Jewish Film Festival to Feature THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT to Commemorate Assassination of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evans

The LA Jewish Film Festival, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with the screening of THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE? The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will run June 1 – 6, 2013.

THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE? discusses Paul Saltzman’s experience as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1965 and his return in 2007 to find the KKK member who had assaulted him. Is reconciliation possible? His assailant was Byron de la Beckwith Jr., whose father, Byron de la Beckwith Sr., murdered NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers

http://youtu.be/85z_pYawYJM
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Mark Cousins, Director of Documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” at Cannes Film Festival

Mark Cousins, director of documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” – official selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Classics – in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge.

“A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” is described by the festival as a personal and poetic essay by Mark Cousins which explores what cinema tells us about childhood, and what childhood tells us about cinema, by reference to movies from all around the world. The
is also described as the world’s first movie about kids in global cinema … as seen through 53 great films from 25 countries.
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Oscar winning Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci at 2013 Cannes Film Festival

Bernardo Bertolucci, the 9-time Oscar winning Italian director and screenwriter of “The Last Emperor”, whose movies include “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), and “The Dreamers” (2003) in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival. During the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Bertolucci was awarded the “Palme d’Honneur” for his life’s work in film.

The director is in Cannes to present his movie, “The Last Emperor”, which is in the 66th Festival de Cannes Classics Selection. Mr. Bertolucci met with the press in the Cannes Movie Stars Lounge for afternoon TV and print interviews.
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Eighteen Projects by African Filmmakers Selected for Durban FilmMart at 34th Durban International Film Festival

Eighteen film projects by African filmmakers have been selected for the finance forum of the Durban FilmMart (DFM) which takes place from July 19 to 22 during the 34th Durban International Film Festival held July 18 to 28 in Durban South Africa.

The Durban FilmMart (DFM) is a co-production and finance market and is a joint program of the Durban Film Office (DFO) and the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). DFM provides filmmakers from across Africa a valued opportunity to pitch projects to financiers, distributors, sales agents and potential co-producers, and participate in meetings, project presentations and a series of master classes and workshops on latest industry trends.

Selected Documentaries

Blindness (South Africa): Directed by Sarah Ping Nie Jones and produced by Jean Meeran
Behind the Falls (South Africa): Directed by Rowan Pybus and produced by Sydelle Willow Smith
Miners Shot Down (South Africa): Directed/Produced by Rehad Desai, produced/written and co-directd by Anita Khanna and produced by Brian Tilley
Not Just a Stripper (South Africa): Directed and produced by Izette Mostert
GTI – Paradise in Hell (Rwanda): Directed and produced by Yves Montand
Searching for Janitou (Algeria): Directed by Mohamed el Amine Hattou and produced by Anusha Nandakumar and co-produced by Claire Mazeau-Karoum
Unearthed (South Africa): Directed and produced by Jolynn Minnaar
We Want Development (Kenya): Directed by Phillipa Ndisi-Hermann and produced by Atieno Odenyo

Selected Fiction Projects

Andani and the Mechanic (South Africa): Directed and produced by Sara Blecher
Black Sunshine (Ghana): Directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu and co-produced by Julio Chavezmontes and Angele Diabang
Five Fingers for Marseilles (South Africa): Directed and produced by Michael Matthews and written and produced by Sean Drummond
Free the Town (Kenya): Directed by Nikyatu Jusu and produced by Vincho Nchogu
Life More or Less (Nigeria): Directed by Julius Morno and produced by Kinsley Madueke
Njangi- Fifty Fifty (Cameroon): Directed and produced by Victor Viyuoh
Sea Monster (South Africa): Directed by Anthony Silverston and co-produced by Stuart Forrest and Mike Buckland
Solidarity (Zambia): Directed by Rungano Nyoni and produced by Juliette Grandmont
The Bill (South Africa): Directed by Nosipho Dumisa and produced by Travis Taute
Whiplash (South Africa): Directed by Meg Rickards and produced by Jacky Lourens

The 4th edition of the Durban FilmMart takes place from July 19-22 2013, during the 34th edition of the DIFF (18-28 July 2012).

Image: From top left clockwise

Julius Morno (Life More or Less – Nigeria); Victor Viyuoh (Njangi- Fifty Fifty – Cameroon); Rehad Desai (Miners Shot Down – South Africa); Izette Mostert (Not Just a Stripper – South Africa); Phillipa Ndisi-Hermann (We Want Development – Kenya); Nikkia Moulterie
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Mountainfilm Reveals Full 35th Film Line Up incl “URANIUM DRIVE-IN,” “MAIDENTRIP”

[caption id="attachment_3895" align="alignnone" width="550"]Uranium Drive-In[/caption]

The 35th Mountainfilm in Telluride festival will run Memorial Day Weekend, May 24 to May 27, 2013 in Telluride, Colorado OA and according to Festival Director David Holbrooke, “This is one of the strongest years for documentaries that we’ve ever seen.” “From films we scouted at the earlier festivals in the year — Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca — to our own submissions, there just seemed to be an unusual number of really fine films for consideration.”

The films range from shorts of just a few minutes to feature-length films, and they cover a spectrum of topics that ranges from adventure and action sports to pressing environmental and social issues.

Highlighted films include:

The Crash Reel – Directed by Lucy Walker whose past Mountainfilm screenings include Waste Land and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, the film profiles professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce, one of the very few competitors to ever stand above Shaun White on a podium, and his recovery from a traumatic brain injury suffered in half-pipe training. With Walker and Pearce, in person.

Maidentrip – Directed by Jillian Schlesinger and winner of the SXSW Audience Choice award, the film portrays teenage sailor Laura Dekker and her record-setting solo trip around the world.

Manhunt – Directed by Greg Barker, Manhunt traces with meticulous detail the two-decade hunt for Osama bin Laden. With Barker and a CIA analyst and a CIA operative, in person.

Dirty Wars – Directed by Richard Rowley who followed investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, author of international bestseller Blackwater, to shed light on America’s murky covert wars in Afghanistan, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia and beyond. With NY Times and International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen, in person.

Rising From Ashes – Directed by T. G. Johnstone and produced and narrated by Forest Whitaker. Rwandan genocide survivors struggle to realize their dream of forming a national cycling team.

God Loves Uganda – Directed by Roger Ross Williams whose Academy Award-winning short Music by Prudence and star Prudence Mathena, so moved Mountainfilm audiences in 2010, this film focuses on American Christians who go to Uganda to proselytize while also bringing an anti-gay message. With Williams, in person.

Life According to Sam – Directed by Sean and Andrea Nix Fine, this film tells the story of Sam Berns who suffers from progeria, an extremely rare and fatal disease, and of the courageous fight by his parents to save his life. With the Fines, in person, and Berns, by skype.

Keeper of the Mountains – Directed by Allison Otto, this short documentary profiles Elizabeth Hawley who has tracked, recorded and archived every Himalayan expedition of the past half-century. With Otto, in person.

Uranium Drive-In – Directed by Suzan Beraza, whose film Bag It galvanized Mountainfilm audiences in 2010 and won that year’s Audience Choice award, this is a world premiere about a controversial uranium processing facility planned just upwind of Telluride. With Beraza, in person.

Film info via Mountainfilm in Telluride
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11th African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago Releases 2013 Lineup; Opening Night Film “AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE”

[caption id="attachment_3890" align="alignnone" width="550"]African Independence[/caption]

The Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago (ADIFF- Chicago) will celebrate its 11th anniversary in Chicago from June 13 to June 20, 2013. The festival will kick off with the Chicago Premiere of Opening Night Film African Independence, written, directed and produced by scholar, filmmaker and PBS History Detectives host, Professor Tukufu Zuberi.

African Independence retraces the history of the independence movement throughout Africa using archival footage as well as interviews with such personalities as President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Hon. SamiaYaaba Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah- Ghana’s first President,President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa and many others.

ADIFF-Chicago will also screen the Chicago Premiere of award winning film from Senegal The Pirogue by Moussa Toure, an official selection in the Un Certain Regard section of 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This powerful drama in which a group of 30 men and a woman sail to Europe in a pirogue, facing the sea and the possibility of never reaching their destination in exchange for the myth of a better life in Europe.

Chicago based Malagasy filmmaker/actor/producer Haminiaina Ratovoarivony will present the Chicago premiere of his fiction film Legends of Madagascar , a road movie set in Madagascar that offers a fresh, young and contemporary perspective on his country. The festival will also screen the Chicago premiere of Haitian film Maestro Issa Saieh by France Voltaire, a musical documentary that traces Maestro Issa’s contributions to the music scene in Haiti between 1942 and 1959.

[caption id="attachment_3891" align="alignnone" width="550"]Hill and Gully[/caption]

Other films to be presented in the festival include Hill and Gully (pictured above) by New York based independent filmmaker Patrice Johnson Chevannes, an urban Cinderella story set during 2008, the historic election year of Barack Obama; award-winning French/Algerian documentary Here We Drown Algerians by Yasmina Adi about the vicious attack by French police on a peaceful march in Paris by Algerians supporting the independence of their country on October 17, 1961; Senegal/Switzerland/Luxembourg musical documentary Return to Gorée by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud which follows Senegalese musician and current Culture Minister of Senegal, Youssou N’Dour, as he recruits musicians to prepare for a concert on the Gorée Island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to honor its victims.

Also in the program are award-winning drama from Malawi Seasons of a Life by C. Shemu Joyah, a moving story about women who fights back using the Malawi legal system; award-winning short Swiss drama Objection VI by Rolando Colla about the life and death of an asylum seeker in Switzerland; the fascinating docu-drama set in French Guiana Aluku Liba, Maroon Again by Nicolas Jolliet which follows a young maroon who leaves the mines to return to his roots and traditional lifestyle; the African drama newly released on DVD Borders by Mostefa Djadjam which is a companion piece to The Pirogue as both films focus on African immigrants travelling towards Europe looking for a better life; a multicultural, multigenerational vision and presentation of the Shakespeare play Tango McBeth by Philadelphia based independent filmmaker Nadine M. Patterson; the race film from Venezuela Mestizo by Mario Handler which follows the struggles of an emotionally tortured young man son of a white rich property owner and of a poor fisher woman; and the beautiful drama from Mozambique Nelio’s Story by Solveig Nordlund about the life and dreams of a young child soldier who escapes the war and becomes a healer.

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Indie Romantic Comedy, NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING to Close Edinburgh International Film Festival

The indie romantic comedy, NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING starring Karen Gillan and Stanley Weber, has been selected as the Closing Night film of the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).

NOT ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING is directed by John McKay (Crush, We’ll Take Manhattan), and also stars Amy Manson, Iain de Caestecker, Kate Dickie, Freya Mavor, Gary Lewis and Henry Ian Cusick.

When struggling, maverick publisher Tomas Duval discovers his only successful author Jane Lockhart is blocked he knows he has to unblock her or he’s finished – with her newfound success, she’s become too damn 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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BREATHE IN Starring Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan to Open Edinburgh International Film Festival

Award-winning director-writer Drake Doremus’ new film, BREATHE IN, starring Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan, will be the Opening Night film at the 67th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).

BREATHE IN director Drake Doremus, winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for LIKE CRAZY, said: “I’m very excited that BREATHE IN has been selected to play the Edinburgh International Film Festival and to be given the opening night slot is overwhelming. I now look forward to visiting Edinburgh and celebrating not just the event but the Festival’s recognition of a film I am incredibly proud of.”

As summer turns to fall, music teacher Keith Reynolds (Guy Pearce) privately reminisces about his days as a starving artist in the city. While his wife, Megan (Amy Ryan), and daughter, Lauren (Mackenzie Davis), look forward to Lauren’s final year of high school, Keith clings to those evenings he’s called on to sub as a cellist with a prestigious Manhattan symphony. Megan decides the family should host a foreign exchange student. Sophie (Felicity Jones), a British high school senior, settles in comfortably, but soon challenges the family dynamics. She reinvigorates the impulsiveness of Keith’s personality which ultimately pushes their seemingly perfect family into unfamiliar territory.
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“Toussaint Louverture” to Open 2013 The People’s Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_3880" align="alignnone" width="550"]Toussaint Louverture[/caption]

The second annual People’s Film Festival (TPFF) runs May 30 –June 2, 2013 in Harlem, New York at The Magic Johnson Theater, and kicks off with the feature film “Toussaint Louverture” a two-part epic film directed by Philippe Niang, depicting the life of the Haitian leader. Louverture (Jimmy Jean-Louis) led the first successful slave revolt in world history, defeating Napoleon Bonaparte and winning independence from France.

Other films on the lineup include the North American premiere of “25,000 Miles,” a film about Swiss endurance athlete Serge Roetheli’s thirst for adventure and desire to raise money and awareness for children suffering across the globe propelled him to run a distance equal to the earth’s circumference; and “Bullets over Brownsville,” described as a cautionary tale that chronicles the lives of four Brooklyn housing project residents caught in an absurd web of violence.”

See the film lineup
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Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Announces 2014 Dates

After another year of of drawing record attendance and selling out a record 46 events , the annual four-day Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will definitely be back for 2014. The 17th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is confirmed for April 3-6, 2014.

The 2013 festival screened 96 films, including 10 World Premieres, 9 North American and 2 US Premieres. In other good news, in February, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences notified Full Frame that it had been chosen as an Academy Award® qualifying festival in the Documentary Short Subject category. Full Frame is also a qualifying event for the Producer Guild of America Awards.
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Hollywood producer Hunt Lowry to Receive 2013 Oklahoma Film ICON Award at deadCenter Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_3876" align="alignnone" width="640"]deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma[/caption]

Hollywood producer and Oklahoma City native Hunt Lowry will receive the 2013 Oklahoma Film ICON Award at at 2013 deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma. This year’s festival is June 5 to 9, and features a lineup of 115 comedies, dramas, hard-hitting documentaries and short films from Oklahoma and around the world

The Oklahoma Film ICON Award is given annually to an outstanding Oklahoman whose success in the film industry brings honor to the state and helps increase the profile of the local film industry. This is the second year for the award. Last year’s recipients were Oscar-winning producer Gray Frederickson and actor James Marsden from Stillwater.

Lowry, a Casady grad, is best known for producing the Oscar-winning epic “The Last of the Mohicans” and the legal thriller “A Time to Kill,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson. He started his career on classic comedies like “Airplane!” and “Top Secret” before shifting gears to bring the intense family drama “Surviving” home to be filmed in Oklahoma City. He captured the teen market with his Gaylord Films “A Walk to Remember,” “What a Girl Wants,” “A Cinderella Story,” and the “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.” During the past decade, Lowry has produced successful comedies like the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie,” and “Thou Shalt Laugh.” Independent film lovers hail the cult classic “Donnie Darko” as Lowry’s masterpiece.
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Documentary “THE ACT OF KILLING” Wins Top Jury and Audience Awards at International Madrid Documentary Festival

[caption id="attachment_3873" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Act of Killing[/caption]

The Act of Killing, by Joshua Oppenheimer, Chistine Cynn and Anonymous won the top prizes, the Jury First Prize and the Audience Award at the just wrapped Documeta Madrid – International Madrid Documentary Festival. The jury commented,“We award the first prize to a film that raised considerable controversy and succeeded at making us feel extremely uncomfortable through a unique construction of fantasy and horror that elicits a brutal reality that remains in impunity.” The filmmakers received a trophy and 10,000 € Euro.

Complete list of official awards:

OFFICIAL SELECTION – FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY FILMS

FIRST PRIZE OF THE JURY,
The Act of Killing,  by Joshua Oppenheimer, Chistine Cynn & Anonymous.

SECOND PRIZE OF THE JURY,

[caption id="attachment_3874" align="alignnone" width="550"]Metamorphosen[/caption]
Metamorphosen, by Sebastian Mez.

SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY,
Vergiss mein nicht (Forget me not), by David Sievking

SPECIAL MENTION OF THE JURY
Terra de Ninguém (No man’s land),by Salomé Lamas

AUDIENCE AWARD TO THE BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY FILM,
The Act of Killing,  by Joshua Oppenheimer, Chistine Cynn & Anonimous.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – SHORT LENGTH DOCUMENTARY FILM

FIRST PRIZE OF THE JURY,
Gwizdek (The Whistle), by Grzegorz Zariczny.

SECOND PRIZE OF THE JURY,
La strada di Raffael  (Raffael’s way),by Alessandro Falco

SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY,
Madera (Wood), by Daniel Kvitko

AUDIENCE AWARD TO THE BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM,
Geluiden voor Mazin (Sounds for Mazin), by Ingrid Kamerling

NON OFFICIAL AWARDS

CANAL + award to the best Spanish Documentary
Pepe el Andaluz, by Alejandro Alvarado & Concha Barquero.

FREAK Special Award
Geluiden voor Mazin (Sounds for Mazin), by Ingrid Kamerling

MASTER IPECC Special Award to the Best Short Documentary Film
A Conserveira, by David Battle.

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