The Feels[/caption]
The 2017 NewFest, New York LGBT Film Festival wrapped earlier this week, and for the first time ever, the festival awarded prizes adjudicated by a jury. The Feels, directed by Jenée LaMarque won the Jury Award for Best US Narrative, and The City of the Future by directors Cláudio Marques and Marília Hughes Guerreiro, won the Jury Award for Best International Narrative. The Jury Award for Best Documentary was given to Alabama Bound, directed by Lara Embry and Carolyn Sherer.
“This is first time in over 5 years that NewFest has had a jury,” says Programming and Operations Manager Nick McCarthy. “We were delighted to host a collection of esteemed and exciting colleagues that encompass the fields of filmmaking, criticism, marketing/distribution, activism, and programming to experience the varied voices of our 2017 filmmakers.”
The audience voted Hot To Trot, winner of Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to A Date For Mad Mary.
Films
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2017 NewFest Awards – THE FEELS and THE CITY OF THE FUTURE Win First Ever Jury Awards
[caption id="attachment_25319" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] The Feels[/caption]
The 2017 NewFest, New York LGBT Film Festival wrapped earlier this week, and for the first time ever, the festival awarded prizes adjudicated by a jury. The Feels, directed by Jenée LaMarque won the Jury Award for Best US Narrative, and The City of the Future by directors Cláudio Marques and Marília Hughes Guerreiro, won the Jury Award for Best International Narrative. The Jury Award for Best Documentary was given to Alabama Bound, directed by Lara Embry and Carolyn Sherer.
“This is first time in over 5 years that NewFest has had a jury,” says Programming and Operations Manager Nick McCarthy. “We were delighted to host a collection of esteemed and exciting colleagues that encompass the fields of filmmaking, criticism, marketing/distribution, activism, and programming to experience the varied voices of our 2017 filmmakers.”
The audience voted Hot To Trot, winner of Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to A Date For Mad Mary.
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170 Documentary Feature Films Submitted for 90th Academy Awards
[caption id="attachment_25315" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Gaga: Five Foot Two[/caption]
One hundred seventy features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 90th Academy Awards. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December.
Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.
The 90th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Aida’s Secrets
Al Di Qua
All the Rage
All These Sleepless Nights
AlphaGo
The American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
And the Winner Isn’t
Angels Within
Architects of Denial
Arthur Miller: Writer
Atomic Homefront
The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography
Bang! The Bert Berns Story
Bending the Arc
Big Sonia
Bill Nye: Science Guy
Birthright: A War Story
Bobbi Jene
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Born in China
Born to Lead: The Sal Aunese Story
Boston
Brimstone & Glory
Bronx Gothic
Burden
California Typewriter
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story
Casting JonBenet
Chasing Coral
Chasing Trane
Chavela
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
City of Ghosts
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives
Cries from Syria
Cruel & Unusual
Cuba and the Cameraman
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Dealt
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Destination Unknown
Dina
Dolores
Dream Big: Engineering Our World
A Dying King: The Shah of Iran
Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends)
Earth: One Amazing Day
11/8/16
Elian
Embargo
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars
Escapes
Everybody Knows… Elizabeth Murray
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library
Extraordinary Ordinary People
Faces Places
The Farthest
The Final Year
Finding Oscar
500 Years
Food Evolution
For Ahkeem
The Force
The Freedom to Marry
From the Ashes
Gaga: Five Foot Two
A German Life
Get Me Roger Stone
Gilbert
God Knows Where I Am
Good Fortune
A Gray State
Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
Hearing Is Believing
Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS
Human Flow
I Am Another You
I Am Evidence
I Am Jane Doe
I Called Him Morgan
Icarus
If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast
The Incomparable Rose Hartman
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Intent to Destroy
Jane
Jeremiah Tower The Last Magnificent
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower
Karl Marx City
Kedi
Keep Quiet
Kiki
LA 92
The Last Dalai Lama?
The Last Laugh
Last Men in Aleppo
Legion of Brothers
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982 – 1992
Let’s Play Two
Letters from Baghdad
Long Strange Trip
Look & See
Machines
Man in Red Bandana
Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance
Motherland
Mully
My Scientology Movie
Naples ’44
Neary’s – The Dream at the End of the Rainbow
Night School
No Greater Love
No Stone Unturned
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press
Nowhere to Hide
Obit
Oklahoma City
One of Us
The Paris Opera
The Pathological Optimist
Prosperity
The Pulitzer at 100
Quest
Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
The Rape of Recy Taylor
The Reagan Show
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan
Risk
A River Below
Rocky Ros Muc
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Santoalla
School Life
Score: A Film Music Documentary
Served Like a Girl
The Settlers
78/52
Shadowman
Shot! The Psycho Spiritual Mantra of Rock
Sidemen: Long Road to Glory
The Skyjacker’s Tale
Sled Dogs
Soufra
Spettacolo
Step
Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-Trafficking
Strong Island
Surviving Peace
Swim Team
Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton
Take My Nose… Please!
They Call Us Monsters
32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide
This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous
Tickling Giants
Trophy
Twenty Two
Unrest
Vince Giordano – There’s a Future in the Past
Voyeur
Wait for Your Laugh
Wasted! The Story of Food Waste
Water & Power: A California Heist
Whitney. Can I Be Me
Whose Streets?
The Work
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VIDEO: Watch Dee Ree’s MUDBOUND Trailer Starring Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige
The official trailer is finally here for Dee Rees’ Mudbound, set in the rural American South during World War II. Mudbound, based on the international bestselling novel by Hillary Jordan, is the timeless and timely story of two families – one black, one white – bound together by the farmland of the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow era of the 1940s.
A powerful ensemble cast including Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan portray the richly nuanced relationships between the McAllans and the Jacksons.
Rees commands a team of top craftspeople including a remarkable roster of female department heads – including cinematographer Rachel Morrison, editor Mako Kamitsuna, composer Tamar-kali, Oscar(R) nominee sound engineer Pud Cusack and makeup department head Angie Wells – to bring the past into the present and shine a light on a chapter of American history rarely seen on screen before.
Mudbound will be on Netflix and in select theaters on Friday, November 17.
Set in the rural American South during World War II, Dee Rees’ Mudbound is an epic story of two families pitted against one another by a ruthless social hierarchy, yet bound together by the shared farmland of the Mississippi Delta.
Mudbound follows the McAllan family, newly transplanted from the quiet civility of Memphis and unprepared for the harsh demands of farming. Despite the grandiose dreams of Henry (Jason Clarke), his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) struggles to keep the faith in her husband’s losing venture. Meanwhile, Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige) – sharecroppers who have worked the land for generations – struggle bravely to build a small dream of their own despite the rigidly enforced social barriers they face.
The war upends both families’ plans as their returning loved ones, Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), forge a fast but uneasy friendship that challenges the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South in which they live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xucHiOAa8Rs
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Anthony Onah’s Indie Thriller THE PRICE Opens in Theaters on November 10th | Trailer
Anthony Onah’s debut thriller The Price which world premiered at SXSW, will open in theaters on November 10th, 2017 in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas and more. The high stakes thriller stars fast rising actors Aml Ameen (star of Idris Elba’s upcoming directorial debut YARDIE, “Sense8”, MAZE RUNNER, THE BUTLER) and Lucy Griffiths (“Preacher”, “True Blood”).
The Price follows a young Nigerian-American as he navigates complications in family, love, and business while secrets threaten to destroy him. The film explores a young person juggling various identities – professional at work, traditional at home, alpha-male with his co-workers, sensitive within his relationship – and the crippling pressures these expectations can bring.
Seyi (Ameen), a bright young Nigerian-American working on Wall Street, must navigate complicated family expectations, a turbulent romantic relationship, and a system of cultural complexities caused by class and race. With a dying father, a burgeoning romance with a white girlfriend (Griffiths), and dangerous new business opportunities, Seyi’s life is in a delicate balance. When his ambition drives Seyi to morally dubious waters, secrets threaten to erupt and shatter his world. Seyi must confront himself and decisions he has made, facing the crimes of the past in a desperate attempt to salvage the present.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KwFu4LWVBU
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VIDEO: Watch Election Day Film “11/8/16” Trailer, Opens in Theaters on November 3rd
Check out the new trailer for the Election Day Film 11/8/16, Jeff Deutchman’s second installment in his election film series. The film opens in theaters and on iTunes on November 3, 2017.
On the morning of Election Day 2016, Americans of all stripes woke up and went about living their radically different lives. These were the hours leading up to Donald Trump’s unexpected, earth-shaking victory, but, of course, no one knew that yet.
What did that day look like?
With 11/8/16, producer/creator Jeff Deutchman’s second installment in his election film series, viewers are afforded a uniquely cinematic look at the chaotic glory of American democracy from sea to shining sea. Featuring footage captured by a carefully curated group of some of America’s finest documentary filmmakers, 11/8/16 follows sixteen subjects spanning the country’s geographic, socioeconomic and political divides through the course of that history-altering day. 11/8/16 was an election unlike any other. 11/8/16 brings us back to that day with the immediacy of great nonfiction filmmaking, and shows the vibrant directness how life happens as history is being made.
The film is directed by Duane Andersen, Yung Chang, Garth Donovan Vikram Gandhi, Raul Gasteazoro, Andrew Beck Grace, Jamie Goncalves, Alma Har’el, Daniel Junge, Alison Klayman, Ciara Lacy, Martha Shane, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Bassam Tariq, Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce, Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker; and curated and produced by Jeff Deutchman
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THE PIRATES OF SOMALIA Starring Barkhad Abdi, Melanie Griffith and Al Pacino, Gets A Release Date
Bryan Buckley’s The Parents of Somalia (previously known as Dabka), an audience favorite from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, will be released nationwide on Friday, December 8th, 2017, via Echo Bridge Releasing. The Parents of Somalia stars Evan Peters, Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Melanie Griffith, and Al Pacino.
Based on the New York Times Bestseller’ The Parents of Somalia by journalist Jay Bahadur, Bryan Buckley brings us a tale of empowerment and the potential we have as individuals. Suspenseful as it is inspiring, The Parents of Somalia tells an insider’s story of what led up to the “Captain Phillips” hostage saga exploding at sea.
The story follows rookie journalist Jay Bahadur (Evan Peters), who after having a chance encounter with an experienced war correspondent (Al Pacino), uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer (Barkhad Abdi), Jay attempts to embed himself with the local Somali pirates, getting in way over his head in the process.
“I am so pleased to be partnering with Echo Bridge, who share the same level of commitment to this film that we do” said director Bryan Buckley. “This is an important and powerful story that demonstrates the courage of those journalists who have risked their lives to tell us the truth. It’s a piece of work that needs to be shared with all audiences; therefore, we could not be more thrilled to have found the right partner to provide this film with the proper platform.”
This is Buckley’s second feature film, following the 2015 Sundance Film Festival premiere of The Bronze which was released by Sony Pictures Classics in the beginning of 2016.
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The Orchard Will Release Award-Winning Documentary TAKE MY NOSE… PLEASE!
The Orchard will release the award-winning documentary film “TAKE MY NOSE… PLEASE!” in the United States and Canada on all digital and on-demand platforms beginning on January 9, 2018, director Kron’s 90th birthday. The film is currently finishing its Oscar® qualifying theatrical run in theaters in Los Angeles and New York.
The acclaimed film, directed by the 89-year-old, first-time filmmaker Joan Kron (former contributing editor at large of Allure Magazine for 25 years and former fashion reporter of the Wall Street Journal), looks at the pressure on women to be attractive through the lens of comedy, and features well-known funny women including Jackie Hoffman, Judy Gold, Julie Halston, Lisa Lampanelli, Giulia Rozzi and a who’s-who of female comedy icons.
“I am excited to be working with The Orchard to bring this film to a larger audience,” said director Kron. “We learned in festivals and in our theatrical screenings how the picture resonates with women–and men–by opening up for discussion a topic often spoken about in whispers. After years as a print journalist, it is thrilling for me to see how a film can affect audiences viscerally. Not only is “TAKE MY NOSE… PLEASE!” entertaining – even hilarious – it is visual truth serum, giving viewers permission to talk about their own experiences with age or appearance discrimination and their attitudes, pro and con, toward cosmetic surgery.”
“Some people are surprised,” Kron adds, “that at this late age, I could learn to work in another medium, but I tell them, if I could start writing at age 41, I can become a director in my 80’s.”
Prior to its theatrical run, “TAKE MY NOSE… PLEASE!” was a selection of many film festivals around the country including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, and San Francisco DocFest among others. The film won the Audience Award at the Miami Film Festival and at the Berkshire International Film Festival.
“TAKE MY NOSE… PLEASE!” follows two comedians as they deliberate about going under the knife. Emily Askin, an up-and coming improv performer, has always wanted her nose refined. Emmy-nominated Jackie Hoffman, a seasoned headliner on Broadway and TV, considers herself ugly and regrets not having the nose job offered in her teens. And maybe she’d like a face-lift, as well. As we follow their surprisingly emotional stories, we meet others who have taken the leap – or held out. Putting it all in perspective are surgeons, sociologists, and cultural critics. And for comic relief and the profundity only comedians can supply, there are some high-profile cameos.
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VIDEO: Watch Michelle Morgan’s Indie Comedy IT HAPPENED IN LA Trailer, Opens in Theaters on November 3rd
The Orchard dropped the new trailer and poster for Michelle Morgan’s indie comedy It Happened In L.A. which premiered earlier this as an Official Selection of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film starring also starring Michelle Morgan, along with Jorma Taccone, Dree Hemingway and Kentucker Audley will open in New York on November 3rd and in LA on November 10th. It Happened In L.A. will also be available digitally on November 14th.
Annette (Michelle Morgan) and Elliot (Jorma Taccone) are a mostly happy, moderately neurotic L.A. couple. Maybe Annette doesn’t enjoy game nights or taco stands as much as Elliot does, but no relationship is perfect, right? Rather than embracing their differences, Annette can only compare their relationship to their happy couple friends. This cannot be endorsed by Annette’s beautiful but romantically troubled best friend, Baker (Dree Hemingway), who is very well-versed on the bleakness of the L.A. dating scene. Taking its cues from classic mid-20th Century comedies with a stylish and contemporary spin, IT HAPPENED IN L.A. is an irreverent tale of life and the search for elusive love in the 21st Century.
It Happened In L.A. Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP5Yq4KGYLg
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Watch Bill Pullman in Western Homage THE BALLAD OF LEFTY BROWN Trailer
The official poster and trailer dropped for the Western homage The Ballad of Lefty Brown, directed by Jared Moshé, and starring Bill Pullman, Kathy Baker, Jim Caviezel, Joe Anderson, Diego Josef, Tommy Flanagan and Peter Fonda. The film opens in theaters on December 15th.
When cowboy Lefty Brown (Bill Pullman) witnesses the murder of his longtime partner – the newly-elected Senator Edward Johnson (Peter Fonda) – he strikes out to find the killers and avenge his friend’s gruesome death. Tracking the outlaws across the vast and desolate Montana plains, Lefty recruits a young gunslinger, Jeremiah (Diego Josef), and an old friend, a hard-drinking U.S. Marshall (Tommy Flanagan), to help deliver the men to justice.
After a gunfight with the outlaws leaves Jeremiah wounded, Lefty returns home with the names of Johnson’s killers only to find that he is being accused of his friend’s murder. With the tables turned, and with his friend in the governor’s mansion (Jim Caviezel) refusing to help, Lefty must evade the law and prove his innocence by exposing the powerful men ultimately responsible for Johnson’s death. A thrilling and action-packed Western, The Ballad of Lefty Brown is a story about loyalty, friendship, and the relentless pursuit of justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv2khM97ylU
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30th IDFA to Open with World Premiere of Egyptian Documentary AMAL
The 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will open on November 15 with the world première of Amal by Egyptian director Mohamed Siam. This coming-of-age documentary follows an Egyptian teenager during the revolution and its long resonating aftermath until today.
Panning through 6 years, we see how Amal searches for her identity in a country in transition. Amal is fierce and undaunted. But, as a young woman among men, she has to fight to survive and to find her own place in the streets and in all other areas of life. Amal has been selected for the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary and the focus program Shifting Perspectives: The Arab World.
Artistic director (interim) Barbara Visser: “In its choice of Amal as its opening film, IDFA has been able to combine almost everything it considers important: cinematic depiction of reality, an intimate story, and showcasing work by up-and-coming film talent from all over the world.” Siam (1982) is a fiction and documentary filmmaker from Egypt whose first work Whose Country? (2016) was amongst others selected for the New York Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. He has previously won the Robert Bosch Film Prize, Durban FilmMart Afridocs Prize and Thessaloniki Award. For Amal, he took on the roles of writer, director, cinematographer and producer.
This film was made with support from the IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF) and attracted finance at the IDFA Forum. This year, 57 projects have been selected from 23 countries, for IDFA Forum Selection 2017, including new projects by Victor Kossakovsky, Nino Kirtadze, Jian Fan and Maite Alberdi.
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NAILA AND THE UPRISING, Story of the Role Women Played in First Intifada, Premieres at DOC NYC
Naila And The Uprising
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Julia Bacha (Budrus, My Neighbourhood), Naila And The Uprising tells the remarkable story of Naila Ayesh, who played a key role in the First Intifada, the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history.
Naila And The Uprising will World Premiere at the eighth annual DOC NYC festival on Sunday, November 12 at the SVA Theatre, 209 East 23rd Street.
When the uprising broke out in the late 1980s, Naila was living in Gaza. Faced with a choice between love, family and freedom, she embraced all three, joining a clandestine network of Palestinian women in a movement that forced the world and Israel to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time. The film focuses on the power of women’s leadership in building a united front in the struggle for self-determination, equality and freedom in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It inventively combines animation with archival footage to explore this hidden history.
Naila And The Uprising premieres in the month leading up to the 30th anniversary of the start of the First Intifada on December 9, 1987 and, following its DOC NYC screening, will launch internationally at IDFA in Amsterdam.
Julia Bacha said the film was a long-anticipated Just Vision production: “The First Intifada is an iconic moment in Palestinian history, when women took the helm of leadership positions at the grassroots and guided a civil resistance effort that was highly strategic, effective and creative and, in many ways, is an example of what civil resistance can achieve in the face of overwhelming repression. It’s a story that the media at the time missed—a trend that continues today as communities organize across the region for equality, freedom and justice—and we’re thrilled to finally bring it to light.”
As part of a newly announced deal with Fork Films and THIRTEEN/WNET, Naila And The Uprising will be included in the four-part Women, War & Peace II series, which is slated to have its exclusive US broadcast premiere on PBS in 2018, as well as broad international distribution. This is the second installment of the Women War & Peace series, which highlights how women in contemporary conflict zones risk their lives and lift their communities in pursuit of freedom and justice. The first installment of the series in 2011—which included groundbreaking films like Pray the Devil Back to Hell—exceeded the expectations of PBS and the series producers.
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Carolyn Jones’ Inspirational Documentary DEFINING HOPE Opens in Theaters in November | Trailer
The new documentary feature film Defining Hope from director Carolyn Jones follows eight patients with life-threatening illness, and the nurses who guide them to make critical choices along the way as they face death, embrace hope, and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living.
Defining Hope will have a national theatrical release starting with a theatrical premiere in New York on Wednesday night, November 1. That same day, the film will be released and screened in over 100 movie theaters in all 50 states nationwide.
The film will also have a week-long theatrical run in New York City. Any additional markets will be announced later.
Ahead of the theatrical release, Defining Hope will have its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 17 and 18 and will screen at the Carmel Film Festival in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California on Saturday, October 21.
Defining Hope is a documentary that weaves the stories of patients with life-threatening illness, and the nurses who guide them as they make choices about how they want to live, how much medical technology they can accept, what they hope for and how that hope evolves. It is about optimism and helps us define what ‘quality of life’ really means.
The film focuses on palliative care, end of life issues, and hospice care. It offers a hopeful message about bringing power back to the patient and helping people understand that they have choices when deciding on care when confronting life threatening illness.
Defining Hope explores what makes life worth living and what to do for ourselves and our loved ones as we get closer to the end of life. Through the stories of patients, families, nurses, and healthcare professionals, the conversation around quality end-of-life care is brought to the forefront.
Defining Hope follows these three patients, and others, as they face death, embrace hope, and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living:
Diane is a nurse caring for end-stage cancer patients who is confronted with her own complex diagnosis.
23-year-old Alena undergoes a risky brain surgery that has the potential to damage her short-term memory.
95-year-old Berthold lives with his elderly wife who struggles to honor his wish of dying peacefully at home.