Black Lives Matter is a documentary on the tens-of-thousands of miners working and living in abysmal conditions across South Africa. The film has been selected to screen at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, and has been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Category.
The film that screened last year at the Durban International Film Festival puts the Canadian based mining firm Ivanhoe in the spotlight, taking the Marikana Massacre as its starting point, but digging deep into the history of the mining sector as well as the political backstory that led up to the tragedy.
Director Joseph Oesi, a South African filmmaker and TV journalist, was moved to produce the film after witnessing the devastating events of August 16th 2012 play out on TV screens across South Africa and the world. He explains his motivation for making the film, “South Africa has certainly set a course, fueled by a betrayal to the original course set by the original struggle heroes and to the Freedom Charter. Mining, at the heart of the country’s economy, has underpinned the course in the interest of big business. In essence the struggles, sufferings from Colonialism and Apartheid still persist in modern day South Africa to the disappointment of the vast majority.”
Black Lives Matter, powerfully demonstrates that even since this defining moment, nothing has changed for most miners, and mining communities across South Africa. Oesi explains the message of the film further, ““Black Lives Matter explores how the mineral wealth, rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa, has been sold to capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite and at the expense of the country. It also shows how traditional communities have been divided by this process. The corruption at all levels of society impacts not only on the moral fabric of our society, but also on the working class poor.”
In South Africa, 22 years ago, the African National Congress came to power. This, many believed, would signify an end to racism and oppression, and our people would prosper. But today inequality and economic disempowerment are still rife. The corruption and power grabbing at all levels of society impacts not only on the moral fabric of our society but, more importantly, on the working class poor.
The massacre of 34 striking mineworkers at a mine called Marikana brought these issues into sharp focus. Now, in an area called Mokopane in South Africa’s Limpopo province, tensions between the community and the mining companies, and communities and their traditional leaders, seem set to explode, with equally dire consequences. Black Lives Matter explores how the mineral wealth, rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa, has been sold to capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite and at the expense of the country – and how traditional communities have been divided in this process.
This film takes us on a journey through three rural communities – the Mogales, the Kekanas, and the Mapelas. What they have in common is that the richest platinum bearing reef in the world runs underneath their land – and that international mining companies have made dubious deals with traditional leaders whose very legitimacy is questioned by the communities they supposedly serve.
https://vimeo.com/168244259Films
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BLACK LIVES MATTER Documentary Tackles South African Miners Working Conditions | Trailer
Black Lives Matter is a documentary on the tens-of-thousands of miners working and living in abysmal conditions across South Africa. The film has been selected to screen at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, and has been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Category.
The film that screened last year at the Durban International Film Festival puts the Canadian based mining firm Ivanhoe in the spotlight, taking the Marikana Massacre as its starting point, but digging deep into the history of the mining sector as well as the political backstory that led up to the tragedy.
Director Joseph Oesi, a South African filmmaker and TV journalist, was moved to produce the film after witnessing the devastating events of August 16th 2012 play out on TV screens across South Africa and the world. He explains his motivation for making the film, “South Africa has certainly set a course, fueled by a betrayal to the original course set by the original struggle heroes and to the Freedom Charter. Mining, at the heart of the country’s economy, has underpinned the course in the interest of big business. In essence the struggles, sufferings from Colonialism and Apartheid still persist in modern day South Africa to the disappointment of the vast majority.”
Black Lives Matter, powerfully demonstrates that even since this defining moment, nothing has changed for most miners, and mining communities across South Africa. Oesi explains the message of the film further, ““Black Lives Matter explores how the mineral wealth, rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa, has been sold to capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite and at the expense of the country. It also shows how traditional communities have been divided by this process. The corruption at all levels of society impacts not only on the moral fabric of our society, but also on the working class poor.”
In South Africa, 22 years ago, the African National Congress came to power. This, many believed, would signify an end to racism and oppression, and our people would prosper. But today inequality and economic disempowerment are still rife. The corruption and power grabbing at all levels of society impacts not only on the moral fabric of our society but, more importantly, on the working class poor.
The massacre of 34 striking mineworkers at a mine called Marikana brought these issues into sharp focus. Now, in an area called Mokopane in South Africa’s Limpopo province, tensions between the community and the mining companies, and communities and their traditional leaders, seem set to explode, with equally dire consequences. Black Lives Matter explores how the mineral wealth, rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa, has been sold to capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite and at the expense of the country – and how traditional communities have been divided in this process.
This film takes us on a journey through three rural communities – the Mogales, the Kekanas, and the Mapelas. What they have in common is that the richest platinum bearing reef in the world runs underneath their land – and that international mining companies have made dubious deals with traditional leaders whose very legitimacy is questioned by the communities they supposedly serve.
https://vimeo.com/168244259
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SUMMER 1993 is Spain’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Summer 1993 (Estiu 1993), the debut feature film of director Carla Simon, has been selected by the Spanish film academy to represent Spain in the best foreign-language film category at the 90th Academy Awards.
The story is inspired by the director Carla Simon’s own experiences as a child. Summer 1993 premiered at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival where it won Best First Feature Award.
In the summer 1993, following the death of her parents, six years old Frida moves from Barcelona to the Catalan province to live with her aunt and uncle, who are now her new legal guardians. The country life is a challenge for Frida – time passes differently in her new home and the nature that surrounds her is mysterious and estranging. She now has a little sister for whom she has to take care of and has to deal with new feelings, such as jealousy. Often, Frida is naively convinced that running away would be the best solution to her problems. Yet, the family does what it can to achieve a fragile new balance and bring normality to their life. Occasional family outings to a local fiesta or a swimming pool, cooking or listening to jazz in the garden bring them moments of happiness. Slowly, Frida realizes that she is there to stay and has to adapt to the new environment. Before the season is over, she has to cope with her emotions and her parents have to learn to love her as their own daughter.
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Rafi Pitts’ Immigration Drama SOY NERO Opens in Theaters on September 29 | Trailer
Director Rafi Pitts makes his English-language debut with Soy Nero, a timely drama about U.S. immigration policy and war in the Middle East. The film will open in theaters on September 29.
Soy Nero features a cast of rising stars including Johnny Ortiz (McFarland, USA, American Crime), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 20th Century Women) and Aml Ameen (The Maze Running, star of Idris Elba’s upcoming directorial debut Yardie) along with veteran actors Rory Cochrane (Hostiles, Argo) and Michael Harney (Orange is the New Black).
After several failed attempts to cross the border without papers, Mexican teenager Nero (Ortiz) finally succeeds in making it back to Los Angeles. He begins to realize the difficulty of leading a regular life as an illegal immigrant so he decides to enlist in the US Army as a “Green Card Soldier”, a short cut to citizenship. Now halfway around the world, Nero guards an Iraqi border for the US Army keeping out those who pose a threat to American interests abroad.
Soy Nero is the first film to take on the story of foreign-born soldiers in the Unite States. The US has provided a path to citizenship through the military since the Vietnam War. The program works, however, some 3,000 foreign-born soldiers have been deported.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB0lgADrBb8
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Watch Benedict Cumberbatch in Electrifying First Trailer for THE CURRENT WAR
The Weinstein Company has released the first trailer for The Current War, in which Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) risk everything in a pitched battle to decide who will light America and usher in the new century. The film directed by Alfonso Gomez‐Rejon will open in theaters on November 24, 2017.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, The Current War is the epic story of the cutthroat competition between the greatest inventors of the industrial age over whose electrical system would power the new century. Backed by J.P. Morgan, Edison dazzles the world by lighting Manhattan. But Westinghouse, aided by Nikola Tesla, has seen fatal flaws in Edison’s direct current design. Igniting a war of currents, Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on risky and dangerous alternating current. Directed by Alfonso Gomez‐Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and written by playwright Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of our Parents), The Current War also stars Katherine Waterston, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tuppence Middleton.
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Showtime Releases ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS Trailer + Poster, Doc to Debut at Toronto Fest
Ahead of its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, Showtime has released the trailer and poster for Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, directed by Oscar-winner Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush, Driving Miss Daisy).
Following the festival, the film will make its world television debut exclusively on Showtime on Saturday, February 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Also making its debut at TIFF this weekend is the new Showtime Documentary Film Love Means Zero, which presents an in-depth look at famed tennis coach Nick Bollettieri and will premiere on Showtime in 2018.
Told through his own words and songs, Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars is a moving and surprising film about one of the great artists of the modern era – a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and the only artist ever inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Spanning more than half a century of legendary popular musical innovation, the film contextualizes Eric Clapton’s role in contemporary music and cultural history. This rare and deeply intimate film reflects on Clapton’s traumatic childhood, his long and difficult struggle with drugs and alcohol, the tragic loss of his son and how he always found his inner strength and healing in music.
The documentary features extensive interviews with Clapton himself, along with his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and heroes – including late music icons B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison. Incorporating exclusive access to Clapton’s extensive personal archive, audiences will see the sheer raw talent and ambition that was blighted by personal tragedy, sacrifice and addiction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAvDFmE9i4
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THE FIXER is Romania’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Adrian Sitaru’s The Fixer / Fixeur has been selected by Romania to represent the country in the best foreign-language film category at the 90th Academy Awards.
The film starring Tudor Aaron Istodor, Mehdi Nebbou, Nicolas Wanczycki, Diana Spatarescu, Adrian Titieni, world premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
In The Fixer, Romanian-born Radu Patru (Tudor Istodor) is a trainee at a prestigious French news network. Serving as a translator and general problem solver, or “fixer,” for the headlining journalists during his trial period, he’s looking to make his big break. He sees his opportunity when two underage Romanian prostitutes are repatriated from France, creating an international scandal. Taking advantage of his language skills and local connections, Radu is prepared to do whatever it takes to interview one of the young girls. But as he ventures into tricky moral ground, he must stop to ask himself if, as an aspiring journalist, he can live with the consequences of his actions, and if, as a father, he’s setting a good example for his son.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTMWK6YsWY8
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AMERIKA SQUARE is Greece’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Amerika Square (Plateia Amerikis) directed by Yannis Sakaridis is Greece’s submission for the Best Foreign-language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The film premiered last year at the Busan International Film Festival, and has won numerous awards including the FIPRESCI Prize at Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and Best Feature at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.
Filmmaker Yannis Sakaridis presents a clever satirical view of the Greek migrant crisis by exploring both xenophobic and sympathetic sentiments of Greeks towards foreigners escaping the war and hardships that engulfed their native lands. Told from three different points of view, the story follow through to an upbeat, yet realistic and plausible ending.
Nakos is an unemployed inhabitant of the small neighborhood of Amerika Square who grows increasingly disgruntled at the influx of Middle Eastern migrants coming to Athens. Much of Nakos’ frustration stems from his inability to do anything about the new demographics of his neighborhood, a situation he spends most of his time brooding over instead of undertaking measures to address the much bigger problem at hand – his dead-end life. The pathetic Nakos has few close allies – his parents with whom he lives and childhood friend Billy, the selfless tattoo artist next door in whom Nakos confides his hatred of immigrants. What Nakos does not confide in Billy is a sinister plan to eliminate some of the migrants utilizing a desperate measure that accomplishes a chain reaction only resulting in the loss of Nakos’ few remaining friends. Billy, a lost soul himself who has wittingly and unwittingly impacted countless other lost souls through his line of work, seizes upon an opportunity to help two migrants escape from Athens; one of which a beautiful African singer with whom he falls in love and sees that she escapes to France at great cost to himself; the other a weary Syrian doctor escaping the war in Aleppo and trying desperately to reunite with his 9 year old daughter who has been smuggled to Germany ahead of him.
In the end, sympathy and selflessness resonate more brightly than intolerance and Nakos finds his anti-migrant attitude to have cost him his only allies and the shreds of pride and dignity that had been clutching all along.
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Fairy Tale Drama NOVEMBER is Estonia’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
November directed by Rainer Sarnet has been submitted by Estonia to represent the country in the best foreign-language film category at the 90th Academy Awards. Shot in black and white, the film is an adaptation of the novel “Rehepapp” by Andrus Kivirähk.
“The director’s perseverance is admirable, as is his courage in presenting this witty and weird, but also romantic and mysterious movie to the audience. It’s a pleasure to observe the role of nuanced camerawork in creating a magical universe, supported by ingenious art direction,” reads the official explanation of the selection committee. “It is also commendable that the filmmakers have chosen to cast interesting types who have had no previous acting experience.”
The selection committee praised the film’s tasteful score, that adds to the overall mystique of the film and helps to create a faceted and telling impression of a quirky nation from the North, trying to make its way through life in a bizarre connection with nature and parallel worlds; to escape the swamp of stagnant folklore to find a way to the sun, poetry and love.
November starring Rea Lest and Jörgen Liik, is an adult fairy-tale with a story taking place in a pagan Estonian village, where greedy and callous villagers are taking on the Plague, the Devil, and various demonic entities. A young peasant girl Liina is hopelessly in love with Hans, who has only eyes for the pretty young lady of the manor. Liina’s life is further complicated by her father demanding a fixed marriage to a foul-mouthed older man Endel.
November internationally premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the best cinematographer award for Mart Taniel. It was also selected to be shown in the official selection of the Karlovy Vary IFF and has been shown at numerous other festivals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6nXObRVhRc
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Award Winning ON BODY AND SOUL is Hungary’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről) directed by Ildiko Enyedi has been selected by the Hungarian Oscar Selection Committee to represent the country in the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film premiered at the 2017 Berlinale earlier this year, where the int’l jury headed by Paul Verhoeven awarded it the prestigious Golden Bear. On Body and Soul won the FIPRESCI Prize, the Ecumenical Jury Prize, the Berliner Morgenpost’s Reader Jury Prize in Berlin as well, and the Sydney Film Festival competition in June. Ildikó Enyedi became the first woman director to win in the 10-year history of the Sydney Film Festival competition for “courageous, audacious and cutting-edge” cinema.
Endre (Géza Morcsányi) and Maria (Alexandra Borbély) work at a slaughterhouse. He is the financial director, she the new quality inspector. By day, their urban workplace houses scenes of animals being slaughtered — and Enyedi does not shy away from the carnage. By night, they dream of the same pastoral scene in which deer rub against each other in the snow. Endre is mild-mannered, while the OCD-afflicted Maria is nervous and introverted. In everyday life, these two can’t quite connect, then a company psychiatrist realizes that they see identical images during sleep. Should these subconsciously kindred coworkers commingle in their waking hours? Or are they better off resigning themselves to being lovers only in dreams?
On Body and Soul will have its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6mv_rN6bU
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Supernatural Thriller THELMA is Norway’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Thelma directed by Joachim Trier has been selected as Norway’s entry for the foreign-language category at the 2018 Oscars.
The Norwegian Oscar committee chose Trier’s fourth feature, which will have its international premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (September 7 to 17) followed by New York Film Festival (September 15 to October 28), from a shortlist of candidates, which also included Norwegian directors Izer Aliu’s Hunting Flies (Fluefangeren) and Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s The Tree Feller (Hoggeren).
The film which opened last month’s Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund and received the Norwegian Film Critics Prize, will open in the US on November 10th.
Starring Eili Harboe, Thelma portrays Thelma, a young student in Oslo. When she is drawn to another woman, she is overwhelmed by emotions she does not dare acknowledge – and frightening and inexplicable powers are forcing themselves into the open.
“Thelma confirms that Trier is a unique and style-safe film artist of a broad and international format,” explained the Norwegian Oscar committee – “based on his special and character-exploring universe, the film has become an all-embraced, ambitious and personal drama about a young woman’s awakening and detachment.
“Thelma is a film that touches the viewer on several levels, both emotionally and intellectually – it is visually striking, modern in its expression, at the same time with clear references to film classics. With this film Trier, Vogt and their regular group of assistants have delivered a story that will reach a wide audience, and which we strongly believe in as our Oscar candidate,” added chairman of the Oscar committee, managing director Sindre Guldvog, of the Norwegian Film Institute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4lHlIMNNbY
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Muslim Drama LAYLA M. is The Netherlands’ Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Layla M. directed by Mijke de Jong, has been selected as the official entry from The Netherlands for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The film tells the controversial and searingly honest story of a young female Islamist. Layla, a Dutch-Moroccan teenager, is radicalized by her adopted country’s anti-Muslim measures. She marries a devout young jihadist and together they leave Amsterdam to join an Islamist cell in the Middle East – only to discover that her new community has its own restrictions, prejudices and dangers.
Layla M. starring Nora el Koussour (Laila), Ilias Addab (Abdel), Yasemin Cetinkaya (Oum Osama), Hassan Akkouch (Zine), Husam Khadad (Sheikh Abdullah Al Sabin), Ayisha Siddiqi (Mereyem) Bilal Wahib (Younes) Bobbie Koek (Hana) Mohammed Azaay (Father) and Esma Abouzahra (Mother), world premiered in the Platform competition of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
Layla M. (18) is a young Muslim born in Holland.
Their Moroccan parents had already emigrated to Amsterdam before their birth, and there lay Layla and her brother Younes liberal large.
Layla is an intelligent, funny and stubborn girl with a strong sense of justice. Through the daily confrontation with prejudices against Muslims and Islam, Layla feels increasingly less affable and incomprehensible. Her parents do not try to attract attention and do not help her. Whether on the road, in school, or in politics; the reservations about headscarf-wearing women and men with raucous beards are almost omnipresent in Layla’s world, against the background of various Islamic terror attacks.
Their faith gives Layla a hold and is only strengthened by her displeasure and her longing for affiliation. It is slowly, but surely, joining a group of radical Muslims to create a world in which Islam is tolerated and accepted; and can be lived freely.
Layla is increasingly in conflict with her environment, her family, and even her best friend, Mereyem. Her father, a parade example of an “assimilated alien,” tries to keep his children in check, but Layla refuses to live as he does: as a guest in his own country.
The radical group becomes their new family. Including Abdel, a charismatic believing Muslim, who impressed Layla with his strong speeches.
As Layla’s relationship with her family grows, she feels that your only option is to go away from home. True to her belief, Layla decides to marry Abdel.
After her wedding, Layla goes to the Middle East with Abdel.
Layla meets a world that nourishes their ideas and needs, but ultimately puts them before a seemingly impossible choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGsns05lI0
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Kino Lorber to Release FILMWORKER and HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD from Telluride 2017
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Filmworker[/caption]
Tony Zierra’s Filmworker and Rüdiger Suchsland’s Hitler’s Hollywood, two documentaries that had their North American premieres at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for release in the North America in 2018.
Zierra’s homage to Kubrick’s right-hand man had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and will also show at the upcoming New York Film Festival, while Suchsland’s follow-up to his 2014 film From Caligari to Hitler will premiere at New York’s Film Forum next April.
Filmworker is focused on the work and life of Leon Vitali, the actor who played Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and subsequently abandoned his acting career to become Kubrick’s dedicated assistant. For more than two decades, Leon played a crucial role behind-the-scenes, helping Kubrick make and maintain his legendary body of work. The complex, interdependent relationship between Vitali and Kubrick was founded on devotion, sacrifice and the grueling, joyful reality of the creative process. Tony Zierra directed, shot and edited the film and Elizabeth Yoffe produced.
Rüdiger Suchsland’s Hitler’s Hollywood captures an entirely different dimension of filmmaking by focusing on the most controversial period of German film history – and examining titles produced during the Third Reich, from blatant propaganda to seemingly ‘harmless’ entertainment. About 1000 feature films were made in Germany in the years between 1933-45, but only a few were created as overtly Nazi propaganda films. Suchland’s incisive analysis shows how even the most innocent entertainment carries with it a subversive ideological – and in this case Nazi – message.