Film Festivals

Gotham Screen International Film Festival Moves To A New Home for 2011

This year’s Annual Gotham Screen International Film Festival (GSIFF) moves to a new home — NY’s QUAD Cinema. GSIFF. This year’s festival showcases more than 10 ‘cutting-edge’ features, documentaries and three programs of short films from independent, first- or second-time directors as well as international releases making their East Coast or US debut. This year’s Festival is highlighted by the World Premiere of Henry Miller’s OCCUPANT; the World Premiere of Dana Packard’s, 40 WEST, starring Wayne Newton; and the East Coast premiere of the Indian film SHUTTLECOCK BOYS directed by Hemant Gaba.

Gotham Screen International Film Festival Opens October 13-23, 2011 at NY’s QUAD Cinema on 34th Street.

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International Film Festival Rotterdam appoints Bianca Taal as programmer for 2012 edition

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has appointed Bianca Taal as programmer for its upcoming edition. Bianca will oversee the 2012 selection of feature length films from Greece, Turkey, Israel, Iran and the Arab world. She is also a member of the CineMart Selection Committee.

After finishing her Film and Television Studies at the University of Utrecht, Bianca Taal started working with the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2001 as a staff member of the Hubert Bals Fund and the CineMart. From 2005 – 2007 Bianca was co-Head of the CineMart. Consecutively Bianca has been director of the Hubert Bals Fund from 2007 – 2009.

From 2009 – November 2011, Bianca worked as Head of Programmes at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam. Bianca was an advisor on the Committee Feature Fiction Film of the Dutch Film Fund from 2006 – 2010. Furthermore she is a member of the CineMart selection committee as well as the commission moving images of the Rotterdam Culture Council and she is a board member of the Holland Animation Festival in Utrecht.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) offers a quality selection of independent, innovative and experimental cinema, video and media art. During twelve festival days, hundreds of filmmakers and other artists present their work to a large audience (2011: 340,000 admissions) and 3,000 film professionals. The 41st edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from Wednesday January 25 up to and including Sunday February 5, 2012.

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Reeling 2011: The Chicago Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Releases the Film Lineup

[caption id="attachment_1710" align="alignnone" width="550"]Opening Night , The Wise Kids [/caption]

Reeling 2011: The 30th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival, running November 3-12, kicks off its 10-day festival with the Opening Night Gala presentation of The Wise Kids by Chicago-based filmmaker Stephen Cone, to be held at the Music Box Theatre on Thursday, November 3. The Wise Kids is a coming-of-age drama set in the South, featuring a “brilliant cast of young actors” (Variety). The film has garnered Best Feature awards at Outfest and Newfest (the Los Angeles and New York gay film festivals).

Reeling closes on Saturday, November 12, at the Portage Theater with dual closing night selections: Lorene Machado’s Margaret Cho performance film, Cho Dependent(6:00 pm) and Casper Andreas’ satire on “making it” in Hollywood, Going Down in La-La Land (9:30 pm).

Documentaries take center stage this year with three centerpiece films. On Saturday, November 5, Reeling presents Wish Me Away, about country music sensation Chely Wright’s struggle and fears around publicly coming out. The film has already won best documentary awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Frameline (San Francisco’s gay film festival). Fresh from its New York Film Festival world premiere, Vito is about activist and author of The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo. The film screens on Monday, November 7 (on the anniversary of Russo’s death from AIDS). Sundance documentary We Were Here is a moving look back at the onset of the HIV epidemic 30 years ago at its epicenter, San Francisco, screening on Sunday, November 6.

The full festival line-up

FEATURE FILMS IN REELING30:

(A)Sexual
Angela Tucker (USA)
Never in the mood? This groundbreaking documentary explores the topic of “asexuality.”

August
Eldar Rapaport (USA)
After a painful break-up and many years of estrangement, former lovers re-unite over a cup of coffee and find themselves swept away, once again.

Bashment
Rikki Beadle-Blair (UK)
When a gay white boy from the English countryside tries to break into London’s underground hip-hop scene, he is met by homophobia so brutal it nearly destroys his life.

Bite Marks
Mark Bessenger (USA)
After a redneck truck-driver picks up a hitchhiking gay couple, the journey turns into a night of terror when they discover the shipment of coffins they’re hauling are far from empty.

Blackmail Boys
Bernard & Richard Shumanski (USA)
What begins as a sweet and sexually explicit love story set in Chicago becomes a tale of extortion and moral hypocrisy when lovers Aaron and Sam hatch a scheme to blackmail a prominent religious figure and anti-gay activist (played by local “Mumblecore” director Joe Swanberg).

Break My Fall
Kanchi Wichmann (UK)
In East London’s gay community, friends, lovers, and bandmates are plunged into an emotional meltdown at an illegal rave.

Buffering
Christian Martin (UK)
Credit cards maxed out, mortgage unpaid, and on the verge of financial ruin, Aaron secretly films his erotic encounters with lover Seb and peddles the videos online.

Bumblefuck, USA
Aaron Douglas Johnston (USA/Netherlands)
After the suicide of her gay friend, Alexa travels to his small Iowa hometown to make a documentary about what it must have been like to grow up gay in “Bumblefuck, USA.” When she meets an out lesbian artist to whom she is attracted, her preconceptions about the town and about herself are both changed.

Cho Dependent
Lorene Machado (USA)
Margaret Cho performs her brash and uncensored new comedy act, with her barbed commentary targeted at topics like Lady Gaga, her stint on Dancing with the Stars, and her culture shock at moving to the South for her Lifetime TV series, Drop Dead Diva.

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
Madeleine Olnek (USA)
Olnek’s hilarious take on low budget sci-fi 1950’s B-movie kitsch (think tin foil hats and cardboard spaceships) follows three shiny-headed space aliens who descend on New York City to discover whether love can survive the trials and tribulations of intergalactic travel.

Community Action Center
A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns (USA)
This experimental video combines provocative performance pieces – both “real” and fantastical – that explore the aesthetics of eroticism and illuminate how sexuality and the complexities of gendered bodies are inherently political.

Dirty Drawings…With Happy Endings
Bruno Irizarry (USA)
This documentary tracks the journey of a group of gay male artists in NYC who are blurring the line between art and pornography as they struggle to create a commercial market for their sexually-explicit artwork.

Eating Out: The Open Weekend?
Q. Allan Brocka (USA)
The “Eating Out” franchise returns with this Palm Springs resort romp, where boyfriends Zack and Benji decide to have an open relationship for a weekend of fun. Of course, once the relationship is declared open, complications rush in.

A Few Days of Respite
Amor Hakkar (France)
Facing imprisonment or death because of their homosexuality, Iranian lovers Mohsen and Hassan flee their home country bound for Paris, traveling separately to avoid suspicion. Passing through a small town in France, Mohsen is befriended by an older French woman who tries to help him, but unintentionally drives a wedge between the two lovers.

Gigola
Laure Charpentier (France)
Set in 1960’s Paris, Gigola is a sought-after female gigolo whose debonair butch style and cool attitude cause the femmes to swoon and wealthy cougars to shower her with gifts. Based on director Charpentier’s previously censored 1972 novel Gigola.

Going Down in La-La Land
Casper Andreas (USA)
Prolific director Casper Andreas has given us plenty of gay romantic comedies and even a gay musical. Here, he shows us his dark side with a satire on “making it” in Hollywood, shining a harsh light on washed-up starlets, closeted celebrities, down-and-out directors, and the seamy underworld of gay porn. With surprising appearances by comics Judy Tenuta and Bruce Vilanch – neither playing their roles for laughs.

The Green
Steven Williford (USA)
Michael and his partner Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson, 30 Rock) leave New York City with hopes of leading a simple harmonious life on the Connecticut shoreline. When a male student accuses Michael of “inappropriate behavior,” his job, relationship, and freedom are all in jeopardy.

Hannah and the Hasbian
Gordon Napier (Australia)
Hannah gives up her former hetero life for a blissful union with charismatic lesbian Breigh, only to have Breigh wake up one day and decide that she’s no longer a lesbian. Hilarity ensues as Hannah plots to win back her woman.

Heart Breaks Open
Billie Rain (USA)
A queer activist and poet in Seattle, Jesus’ world implodes when he discovers that he is HIV positive after having unprotected sex when cheating on his long-time partner.

Hit So Hard
P. David Ebersole (USA)
A raw, pull-no-punches documentary of the hell-and-back life of Patty Schemel, the hard-hitting drummer of Courtney Love’s seminal rock band “Hole” during its peak years.

Hollywood to Dollywood
John Lavin (USA)
On the fumes of a dream, twin brothers write a screenplay with a role for Dolly Parton, and set out in an RV from Hollywood, CA to Dollywood, TN to deliver the script personally to their idol.

I Am
Sonali Gulati (USA/India)
In a country where, until recently, being gay was a criminal offense, a young Indian filmmaker travels across India to meet the parents of other gay and lesbian South Asians, wishing she had been able to come out to her own mother before her death.

Into the Lion’s Den
Dan Lantz (USA)
Three best friends on a cross-country road trip celebrate their last night on the road at a secluded backwoods bar. As closing time draws near, a night of unspeakable horror is about to begin.

Jitters (Órói)
Baldwin Zophoníasson (Iceland)
Nominated for an EDDA Award (Iceland’s Oscars), Jitters has been compared favorably to the popular British teen drama Skins as it tells the story of a sixteen year-old whose life takes a surprising turn when he’s kissed by another boy.

Judas Kiss
J.T. Tepnapa (USA)
In this science fiction drama, a phantasmal blip in time gives failed filmmaker Zach Wells (Charlie David, Mulligans) a chance to change his destiny.

Kink Crusaders
Michael Skiff (USA)
This sexy, smart, and surprisingly upbeat doc traces the history of the world’s oldest fetish/kink competition – the International Mr. Leather contest, held in Chicago each year.

Leave it on The Floor
Sheldon Larry (USA)
A gay youth thrown out of his home rediscovers the meaning of family after stumbling upon the LA ball scene in this “stand up and shout” musical drama, featuring music by Kim Burse (Beyonce’s music director) and choreography by Frank Gastson, Jr. (Beyonce’s dance master).

Longhorns
David Lewis (USA)
The 1980s come roaring back in this risqué and sexy comedy involving a group of Texas frat-boys, a remote cabin in the Hill Country, and lots of beers, that will give “ride ’em cowboy” a whole new meaning!

Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti)
Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy)
In order to escape an unwanted future in the family pasta factory, Tommaso plans to come out to his conservative Italian family, but his brother comes out first, beating him to the punch, in this endearing ensemble drama with an eccentric cast of characters.

The Night Watch
Richard Laxton (UK)
Following up the acclaimed BBC productions of two other Sarah Waters’ novels, Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, comes her World War II drama about four interconnected Londoners trying to rebuild their shattered lives after the war.

The Love Patient
Michael Simon (USA)
When brash ad exec Paul realizes he has lost his ex-boyfriend for good, he concocts an outrageous scheme to win him back: he stages his own cancer diagnosis.

The LuLu Sessions
S. Casper Wong (USA)
The LuLu Sessions is a cinematic love letter by filmmaker S. Casper Wong to her lifelong best friend and love LuLu Nutter, a celebrated cancer researcher who has been diagnosed with end-stage breast cancer.

Mangus!
Ash Christian (USA)
All Mangus has ever wanted was to play Jesus Christ in his high school’s production of Jesus Christ Spectacular, but just when he thinks he will step into Jesus’ sandals, a freak accident threatens to crush his dreams. This dark comedy stars Jennifer Coolidge, Heather Matarazzo, and Leslie Jordan.

Mary Marie
Alexandra Roxo (USA)
In this otherworldly tale, two sisters return to their childhood home after their mother’s death to enjoy one last summer there together and find the boundaries of sisterly affection are becoming blurred.

Morgan
Michael Akers (USA)
After a bicycling accident, Morgan has a tough time accepting life as a paraplegic, but his zest for life is reignited when he meets someone new on the basketball court.

My Last Round (Mi Último Round)
Julio Jorquera (Argentina/Chile)
In this quiet but affecting drama, Octavio, a boxer living in a small town in Chile, must give up his sport or risk death. He moves to the city to start a new life with his male lover, but when their relationship becomes rocky Octavio is driven back to the macho world he knows best and considers stepping into the ring for one last fight.

Our Lips Are Sealed
John Gallino (USA)
Two gutsy gay college students vie for a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest continuous kiss, a feat that culminates in a media sensation, and is hailed as “the kiss heard around the world.”

Pariah
Dee Rees (USA)
In the Sundance hit Pariah, African-American teenager Alike revels in her identity as a butch lesbian while clubbing in Manhattan, but must return to the feminine obedient girl her family expects when she returns home to Brooklyn.

Photos of Angie
Alan Dominquez (USA)
This haunting documentary tells the story of Angie Zapata, a transgender teen from Greeley, Colorado, who was brutally killed in 2008.

Private Romeo
Alan Brown (USA)
After eight cadets are left behind at an isolated military high school, the greatest romantic drama ever written seeps off the page and permeates their lives.

Romeos
Sabine Bernardi (Germany)
Lukas is a pre-op transman who pretends a mistake has been made when he is assigned to the girl’s dormitory for his compulsory term of civil service. As if his life needed any more complications, he falls head over heels for, Fabio, the über-masculine leader of the gay pack.

Rosa Morena
Carlos Augusto de Oliveira (Denmark/Brazil)
Unable to adopt a child in his own country, a gay man from Denmark agrees to buy the unborn child of Maria, an alcoholic single mother living in the slums of Brazil.

Round Trip (Viaje Redondo)
Gerardo Tort (Mexico)
Winner of Best Mexican Film and Best Actress prizes at the Guadalajara Film Festival, Round Trip is a road movie about two women from different social classes thrown together by chance when they find themselves stranded in the desert after their car breaks down.

This Is What Love in Action Looks Like
Morgan Jon Fox (USA)
When Zach comes out to his fundamentalist parents and is sent to a Christian camp that pledges to turn gay teens straight, he has no idea that the blog entries he makes about his experience will inspire protests outside the organization’s gates. Filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox not only documents the unfolding of Zach’s situation, he also participates in the protest.

Three Veils
Rolla Selbak (USA)
A sensitive and powerfully told drama about three young Middle Eastern women living in
the US whose lives intertwine as they each defy tradition.

Tomboy
Celine Sciamma (France)
When her family moves to a new town, a ten year-old tomboy gets the chance to pass herself off as a boy to her new friends and develops a crush on a neighborhood girl. As the end of summer approaches, reality begins to set in.

Trigger
Bruce McDonald (Canada)
Two ex-bandmates (and probable ex-lovers?) reunite for a tribute concert in honor of women in rock, an occasion that opens old wounds and exhumes buried emotions. Deadwood’s Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright (battling terminal cancer during the making of the film) give poignant performances that earned them both best actress nominations for the Genie Award (Canada’s Oscar equivalent).

Vamperifica
Bruce Ornstein (USA)
A flamboyant would-be actor discovers that he is the reincarnation of a 200 year-old vampire king in this action-musical-horror-comedy.

Vito
Jeffrey Schwarz (USA)
A loving tribute to author, cinephile, and activist Vito Russo, who, in addition to his involvement with ACT UP, GAA, and GLAAD, brought attention to Hollywood’s portrayal of gays and lesbians on screen through his landmark book The Celluloid Closet.

We Have to Stop Now, 2
Robyn Dettman, Cathy DeBuono & Jill Bennett (USA)
When a quirky lesbian therapist couple writes a best-selling self-help book on marriage, despite their own troubled union, they must fake it for a documentary film crew chronicling their every move.

We Were Here
David Weissman & Bill Weber (USA)
We Were Here revisits the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic, told through the reminiscences of five individuals in San Francisco whose lives were forever changed when their beloved city went from a hotbed of sexual freedom to the epicenter of the gay plague.

The Wise Kids
Stephen Cone (USA)
As they make decisions about college, three friends from a small religious town must come to terms with the prospect of separations – physical, emotional and spiritual.

Wish Me Away
Bobbie Birleffi & Beverly Kopf (USA)
An intimate and moving documentary about the difficult journey of country music star Chely Wright, as she finds the strength to come out to friends, family, and the public.

SHORTS PROGRAMS

Seventy-eight short films are combined in several comedy, drama, and documentary programs, including: Funny Boner; Funny Lingus; International Men’s Shorts; International Women’s Shorts; In His Eyes; It Takes All Kinds; It’s Not Me, It’s You; Names, Planes & James…Dean; Rainbow People; Scared Stiff; T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness; and Sex, Guns, and Luche Libre. Additional shorts will be screened with the featurettes Community Action Center, Our Lips Are Sealed, Dirty Drawings…With Happy Endings, and Photos of Angie.

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Steve McQueen Sexually Charged New Film ‘Shame” to close 2011 Leeds International Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_1700" align="alignnone" width="550"]Shame by Steve McQueen[/caption]

The 25th Leeds International Film Festival runs November 3 – November 20, 2011, today announced that Steve MQueen’s Shame will screen at the Closing Gala on Friday 18th November, and also released it full Official Selection program.

Directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender, Shame follows Brendan (Fassbender) who plans his life around relentless sexual encounters until a visit from his wayward sister forces him to reassess his priorities. The festival will kick off with the Opening Gala screening of BAFTA and Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold’s bold new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Other films in the Official Selection for the Golden Owl Competition include titles that have won major international awards such as The River Used to be a Man which screens fresh from director Jan Zabeil’s winning of the Kutxa-New Directors Award at San Sebastian Film Festival, and Nana, awarded the Locarno 2011 Opera Prima for Best First Film. The lineup also includes new international films such as dreamlike Irish murder story The Other Side of Sleep, Australian aboriginal docudrama Toomelah, and the latest gem from the Romanian new wave, Best Intentions.

Out of competition, preview screenings of new cinema from around the world include Take Shelter, a domestic drama/supernatural thriller blend starring Michael Shannon in his second collaboration with director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories), and Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse, recently announced as Hungary’s Oscar nomination for this year, and winner of both the Jury Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI prize at this year’s Berlinale. Tarr’s epic Sátántangó will also screen in its full 450 minute form in the Film Festival’s retrospective selection. Two of Rotterdam’s 2011 Tiger Award winners Finisterrae and Journals of Musan will also screen as part of the Official Selection.

The full program of the 25th Leeds International Film Festival including the complete Official Selection program, genre cinema strand Fanomenon, documentary strand Cinema Versa, experimental cinema section Cherry Kino, and short film competition program Short Film City, is available in full at leedsfilm.com.

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Director Oliver Stone, Larry Flynt And Sissy Spacek headed to 2011 Virginia Film Festival

Opening Night Film – The Descendants starring George Clooney

The Virginia Film Festival is returning for its 24th year from November 3-6, 2011, with a lineup of more than 100 films and a long list of special guests set to bring some serious star power to Charlottesville.

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Tucson Film & Music Festival Kicks off Today

[caption id="attachment_1696" align="alignnone" width="550"]Better Than Something: Jay Reatard[/caption]

The 7th Tucson Film & Music Festival (TFMF) opens up today October 6 and runs through Monday, October 10, 2011.

The Southwest Premiere of Better Than Something: Jay Reatard is the opening event. Directed by Alex Hammond & Ian Markiewicz, the film is described as Tirelessly devoting his entire life to music, Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr, better known as Jay Reatard, has become a garage rock icon, having created a massive discography spread out over dozens of singles, EPs, and full-length albums. A relentless live performer, Jay toured the world with dozens of bands including The Pixies, Spoon, Beck and many more. A devoted – and oftentimes notorious – fixture in his hometown of Memphis, Jay celebrated and continued the city’s long-standing history of American music. In BETTER THAN SOMETHING, filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz present an intimate portrait, captured just months before Jay’s untimely passing, which brings us incredibly close to Jay and his complicated punk-rock world.

The festival’s 2011 film lineup include a list of documentary films including Bloodied But Unbowed,Kumaré, Barbershop Punk, Color Me Obsessed: A film about The Replacements, Blood, Sweat + Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century and The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi. Narrative features include the Southwest Premiere of the indie comedy Pleasant People and the Arizona Premiere of Take Me Home directed by and starring Sam Jaeger of NBC’s Parenthood. Short films, music videos and live music performances are also part of the exciting program slate.

The Centerpiece Film event is the Southwest Premiere of Bloodied But Unbowed. Directed by Susanne Tabata, BLOODIED BUT UNBOWED is the first in-depth chronicle of Vancouver’s original and groundbreaking punk scene. Told by key participants who helped create this unique musical era, the documentary captures the raw essence of the kids who lived through it (and some who didn’t) and the rise and fall of an epic era. Performances by D.O.A., The Subhumans, Pointed Sticks, The Modernettes, Young Canadians and more, as well as interviews with Henry Rollins, Joe Keithley, Ron Reyes, Randy Rampage, Zippy Pinhead and other icons of punk, offer a rare glimpse at a music scene that inspired decades of rock and hard living. Not to be missed.

Closing night film event is the Arizona Premiere of Vikram Gandhi’s Kumaré. Into a society of people searching for something real to cling to, filmmaker Vikram Gandhi spawned KUMARÉ. Portraying an enlightened guru from the East, Gandhi (as Kumaré) builds a following of loyal disciples in the West. As the social experiment continues, he begins to forge profound, and real, spiritual connections with people from all walks of life. At the same time, in the absurdity of living as an entirely different person, Gandhi is forced to confront difficult questions about his own identity. A fascinating and insightful look at belief and spirituality, Kumaré’s ultimate teaching of finding your true self, becomes a revelation for both the filmmaker and his unwitting followers.

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55th BFI London Film Festival Release Shortlist for 2011 Festival Awards

[caption id="attachment_1694" align="alignnone" width="550"]WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, Lynne Ramsay[/caption]

The 55th BFI London Film Festival announced the shortlists and juries for the 2011 Festival Awards, which will take place at LSO St Luke’s on 26 October.

At this year’s ceremony, the BFI will bestow its highest honor, the BFI Fellowship, on Canadian filmmaker David Cronenber and British actor Ralph Fiennes.

This shortlist for Best Film Award is:

360, Fernando Meirelles, UK/Austria/France/Brazil
THE ARTIST, Michel Hazanavicius, France
THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Terence Davies, UK
THE DESCENDANTS, Alexander Payne, USA
FAUST, Aleksandr Sukurov, Russia
THE KID WITH A BIKE, Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium/France/Italy
SHAME, Steve McQueen, UK
TRISHNA, Michael Winterbottom, UK
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, Lynne Ramsay, UK/USA

The shortlist for Best British Newcomer is:

Nick Murphy, Director, THE AWAKENING
Tinge Krishnan, Director, JUNKHEARTS
Candese Reid, Actress, JUNKHEARTS
Nirpal Bhogal, Writer/director, SKET
Aimee Kelly, Actress, SKET
Tom Cullen, Actor, WEEKEND
Chris New, Actor, WEEKEND
D.R. Hood, Writer/Director, WRECKERS

The previously announced Sutherland shortlist is:

CORPO CELESTE, Alice Rohrwacher, Italy/Switzerland/France
ETERNITY, Sivaroj Kongsakul, Thailand
HERE, Braden King, USA
THE HOUSE, Zuzana Liová, Czech Republic
LAS ACACIAS, Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina/Spain
LAST WINTER, John Shank, Belgium/France
MICHAEL, Markus Schleinzer, Austria
MOURNING, Morteza Farshbaf, Iran
SHE MONKEYS, Lisa Aschan, Sweden
SNOWTOWN, Justin Kurzel, Australia
THE SUN-BEATEN PATH, Sonthar Gyal, China
WITHOUT, Mark Jackson, USA

The Grierson Award for Best Documentary shortlist is:

BERNADETTE: NOTES ON A POLITICAL JOURNEY, Lelia Doolan, Ireland
BETTER THIS WORLD, Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, USA
THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975, Goran Hugo Olsson, Sweden/USA
DRAGONSLAYER, Tristan Patterson
DREAMS OF A LIFE, Carol Moley, UK/Ireland
INTO THE ABYSS: A TALE OF DEATH, A TALE OF LIFE, Werner Herzog
LAST DAYS HERE, Don Argott & Demian Fenton, USA
WHORES’ GLORY, Michael Glawogger, Austria/Germany

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The Deep Blue Sea to close the 2011 BFI London Film Festival

The 55th BFI London Film Festival will close on Thursday 27 October with the UK premiere of Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea.

Set in post-war Britain, this deeply moving story is an adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play. Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out of her marriage to move in with young ex-RAF pilot, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

Festival Artistic Director Sandra Hebron comments:

“It’s a great pleasure to be able to close the festival with this exquisite new feature from one of our most cherished directors. Terence Davies is a filmmaker who the BFI has supported from the very beginnings of his career, and in Terence Rattigan’s centenary year, this beautifully directed and acted film is the perfect closing night film.”

Director Terence Davies adds:

“As a British filmmaker, to get into the BFI London Film Festival at all is bliss – to get a Closing Night film is sheer heaven! The festival is now, rightly, seen as one of the major European and World Film Festivals; championing not only British but World cinema.”

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Fernando Meirelles’s 360 to open the 2011 BFI London Film Festival

The 55th BFI London Film Festival will open on Wednesday 12 October with the European premiere of 360.

Directed by Fernando Meirelles and with an original screenplay by acclaimed writer Peter Morgan,the film stars Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

360 is a modern and stylish kaleidoscope of interconnected love and relationships linking characters from different cities and countries in a vivid, suspenseful and moving tale of contemporary romantic life. Starting in Vienna, the film weaves through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver and Phoenix into a single, mesmerising narrative.

Festival Artistic Director Sandra Hebron said:

“I’m delighted that 360 will be our opening night film, and very pleased to welcome back Fernando Meirelles and Peter Morgan to the festival. With its impeccable film making credentials and intriguing premise, 360 combines masterful visual story telling with a modern and moving narrative, helped by strong performances from a terrific ensemble cast.”

Linking stories of chance, temptation and unexpected friendship while travelling through Vienna, Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio de Janeiro, Denver and Phoenix (and back again), 360 takes us around the world, surveying the breadth of human experience at every stop.

A lonely English businessman (Jude Law) is blackmailed by a colleague who discovers his plans to meet a prostitute while travelling abroad. A married woman (Rachel Weisz, also appearing in The Deep Blue Sea and the Gala presentation of Page Eight) tries to break things off with her younger paramour. A Brazilian student (Maria Flor) decides to leave her London-based boyfriend and return to Rio. A recovering alcoholic (Anthony Hopkins) flies to Phoenix on the off chance that a new Jane Doe might turn out to be his long-missing daughter. A paroled sex offender (Ben Foster) stuck in a Denver airport has his hard-won composure tested when a beautiful stranger unexpectedly propositions him. These are but a handful of the narrative threads woven into 360’s alternately seductive and unnerving roundelay. How they slide against one another constitutes a large part of the film’s mesmerizing allure. [TIFF]

Director Fernando Meirelles added:

“The BFI London Film Festival is one of the best festivals in the world due to its selection of films and the number of theatres the films are shown in. I am very honoured 360, an intimate film that talks about our options in life, has been chosen to open the festival this year, and I want to thank Sandra Hebron for extending this prestigious invitation to me for a second time, following The Constant Gardener, which opened the festival in 2005.”
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Inaugural Palo Alto International Film Festival Winners

[caption id="attachment_1685" align="alignnone" width="550"]Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom, right, during filming of her documentary Miss Representation.[/caption]

The Palo Alto International Film Festival (PAIFF) wrapped up after its inagural four day run, September 29 thru October 2, 2011, with the presentation of the Sallie Gardner awards, including the presentation of the Audience Award to Jennifer Siebel Newson’s documentary “Miss Representation.”

The inaugural awards gala featured the presentations of the following awards:

Christie Audience Award was presented to Jennifer Siebel Newsom for her documentary “Miss Representation.”

Muybridge Award for the Advancement of Art and Technology was presented to visual effects artist John Knoll.

Innovation in Film Award was presented to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s X-ray Laser team and accepted by Uwe Bergmann Deputy Director of the LCLS.

Palo Alto middle school students Charlie and Henry Badger received the Local Student Short Audience Award for their film “127 Minutes.”

The PAIFF and Dolby Excellence in 3D Award was presented to Takashi Miike for “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.”

“Two Cars, One Night” by filmmaker Taika Waititi was the recipient of the Live Action Short Award.

The Animated Short Award was presented to “Something Left, Something Taken,” by Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata.

PAIFF/Talenthouse Short Film Contest Award. In Spring 2011, PAIFF and Talenthouse announced an international Short Film Contest to celebrate the digital age of cinema, an age in which anyone can tell his or her story visually because of great strides made in technology. Cedric Vella’s “YouTube My Facebook,” was selected from over 170 entries. Talenthouse Vice President of Marketing Frederik Hermann presented the award.

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2nd DOC NYC Runs November 2 thru 10 Opens With Premiere of Werner Herzog Into the Abyss

[caption id="attachment_1683" align="alignnone" width="550"]Into the Abyss by director Werner Herzog[/caption]

New York’s documentary film festival, DOC NYC, returns for its second year to Greenwich Village, running from November 2-10, 2011. The festival will showcase 107 events, including screenings of 52 feature-length films and 40 shorts as well as 15 doc-related panel discussions. All events will take place at IFC Center, New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and NYU’s Kimmel Center.

Among the highlights:

GALAS – Opening Night (Nov. 2) will feature the New York premiere of Into the Abyss presented by director Werner Herzog in person at NYU’s Skirball Center. Critics have hailed this true crime story as “extraordinary” (New York Times) and “undeniably profound” (Variety), and the festival is especially pleased to welcome back the master filmmaker after presenting his box office hit Cave of Forgotten Dreams last year. The Centerpiece Gala(Nov. 4), introduced by Russell Simmons, will be the US premiere of Lemon, directed by Laura Brownson and Beth Levison, chronicling the theatrical comeback of Tony Award-winner Lemon Andersen. The Spotlight Gala (Nov. 8) selection is The Island President, directed by Jon Shenk, a look at the Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and his campaign to save his country from environmental destruction. The film recently won the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

COMPETITION SECTIONS – The Viewfinders Competition showcases 10 films notable for their distinct directorial vision. The selection ranges widely, including the comedic Kumaré, about a fake guru; and the investigative Scenes From A Crime, a look into a questionable murder conviction in upstate New York. The Metropolis Competition features 7 films rooted in New York City. Included are the world premieres of I Want My Name Back, about hip-hop pioneers The Sugarhill Gang battling music industry corruption; and This Space Available, based on the writings of Marc Gobé (Emotional Branding), about the commercialization of public space. The two juried competitions each offer a prize of a 35mm blow-up and Digital Cinema Package courtesy of Post Works New York.

SPECIAL EVENTS – Five stand-out events include Charlotte Rampling in person to present Charlotte Rampling: The Look, a journey through the actress’s remarkable career; An Evening With Elliott Erwitt, featuring the great Magnum photographer on hand to discuss his lesser-known forays into doc filmmaking; A Force of Nature, Barbara Kopple’s profile of journalist and philanthropist Ellen Ratner; Werner Herzog’s reworking of Dmitry Vasyukov’s Happy People: A Year in the Taiga; and director Sarah McCarthy present for The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical, a unique Indo-twist on The Sound of Music.

NEW SECTIONS – The festival introduces five new sections this year:

Icons – Six films profiling iconic figures: Joe Frazier: When the Smoke Clears (featuring an in-person appearance by the boxing great); Eames: The Architect and the Painter; A Good Man, about choreographer Bill T. Jones;With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story; God’s Fiddler: Jascha Heifetz; and Beyond Iconic, a portrait of Magnum photographer Dennis Stock.

American Perspectives – Six films with diverse views on the national scene: Jonathan Demme profiling a proud resident of New Orleans in I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad and the Beautiful; Nelson George exploring a cultural renaissance in Brooklyn Boheme; a Harvard lesbian basketball star in No Look Pass; a rising star of Ultimate Fighting in Fightville; women in prison raising children in Mothers of Bedford; and a controversy over sex abuse in Baltimore’s Jewish community in Standing Silent.

International Perspectives – Four globe-spanning films take us to Ireland (Ballymun Lullaby); Germany (Jealous of the Birds); Ukraine (My Father Evgeni); and Mexico (Perdida).

Shorts – Six programs of shorts grouped under the themes of “NYC Uncovered”; “The Power of Images”; “For Love or Money”; “DOC NYU @ DOC NYC” (featuring student work from New York University); “Latin American Visions”; and “Views on Japan” featuring a new work from Academy Award nominee Lucy Walker, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.

Short-List – Four films that stand to be contenders in the coming awards season, presented by their directors or other special guests: Buck; The Interrupters; Page One: Inside the New York Times; and Project Nim.

KALEIDOSCOPE FAMILY DOCS – Three films that will delight all ages: First Position, about a student ballet competition; Empty Hand: Real Life Karate Kids, about youths excelling at martial arts; and a 3D double feature from National Geographic, Sea Monsters 3D: A Prehistoric Adventure, playing with Flying Monsters 3D.

MIDNIGHT ROCK DOCS – Four films for the late night crowd: Better Than Something: Jay Reatard, a portrait of the garage rock icon; Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story, about the lead singer of Morphine; Inni, which looks at the first ten years of beloved Icelandic band Sigur Rós; and the rarely seen gem from 1989, Depeche Mode 101, directed by David Dawkins, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker.

PANELS – Four days of discussion, comprising fifteen panels, bring experienced filmmakers and industry players to share their insights under the themes of “State of the Industry”; “State of the Indie Doc”; “State of the Art”; and more.

TRIBUTE TO RICHARD LEACOCK – In honor of the cinéma vérité pioneer, who died on March 23, 2011, the festival will showcase his contributions to classics such as Primary and Crisis as well as rare gems such as Chiefs and Happy Mother’s Day, introduced by noted filmmakers and Leacock family members.
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2011 Milwaukee Film Festival Award Winners

[caption id="attachment_1677" align="alignnone" width="550"]Bibliotheque Pascal[/caption]

The 3rd Annual Milwaukee Film Festival came to a close on Sunday, October 2nd, and handed out its awards to the top films. The Danish film Nothing’s All Bad took the top prize for fiction films and the documentary Somewhere Between by Linda Goldstein Knowlton took the top prize for documentary films.

And the winners are:

The Cream City Cinema award for local filmmaking was given to the short film “Don’t Go,” by Michael Hawkins-Burgos. Disco music propels this nonstop adventure, as a black cat chases a pink-bellied, one-eyed animated bunny around an apartment.

The jury prize for documentary was awarded to “Somewhere Between,” by Linda Goldstein Knowlton. Welcomed into American families during the era of China’s one-child policy, four Asian girls grow up with “Sesame Street,” hip-hop and Twitto er at their fingertips. As transracial adoptees, they’ve integrated their parents’ ethnicities into their identities, but connecting with their own can be a struggle, especially amid the shock and drama of adolescence. Sharing a common need to make sense of their roots, the teens track down their birth parents, reach out to the orphanages where they once lived and move audiences to tears as they tackle tough questions about race, gender and self-acceptance.

The jury prize for fiction was awarded to “Nothing’s All Bad,” by Mikkel Munch-Fals. Sex—or lack thereof—can make people do funny things. For the characters in this stylish Danish drama, desire and loneliness breed quirky adventures and unexpected outcomes. Longing for connection in her increasingly isolated world, a retiree has a one-night stand, then wrestles with the aftermath. A beautiful cancer patient copes with losing a breast, wondering how she’ll ever feel normal again. Young and gorgeous but low on cash, Jonas discovers how sex equals currency as his dad explores its power to shock and awe. A visually striking debut from Mikkel Munch-Fals, this film shines by weaving together these four stories with strong threads of humor and pathos.

The prize for cinematography was awarded to “Bibliotheque Pascal,” byAndras Nagy. Pinnochio doesn’t contain S&M scenes, except at Bibliothèque Pascal, a brothel where wealthy clients act out brutal fantasies with literature’s most famous characters. Mona, a beautiful Hungarian puppeteer, gets swept into the maelstrom of sex and violence, leaving her little girl in safekeeping at a relative’s house. Before long, the child-welfare agency seizes the child, demanding answers. Mona shares her story, which grows more colorful by the minute as magical fantasies collide with harsh realities. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Szabolcs Hajdu (White Palms), this bold and dazzling vision reminiscent of Terry Gilliam has emerged as a film festival favorite around the world.

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