LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!, a film by Gayle Kirschenbaum[/caption]
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!, by Gayle Kirschenbaum, and a hit at film festivals around the world and winner of numerous awards, will be released in the U.S. by Kirschenbaum Productions.
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! will open in New York at the Village East and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica and Town Center 5 in Encino on April 8. Other cities will follow.
What trauma could make a child certain that she was born into the wrong family? What wounds are inflicted when the home that’s supposed to be a haven isolates her as an outsider; when her mother’s words are rarely nurturing but instead, ruthlessly shaming, demeaning and critical? What will it take for the adult that child becomes to forgive such a past? Is forgiveness even possible?
This is the dilemma that Emmy® award-winning filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum faces in her relentlessly honest and bitingly funny documentary, LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! Her film is about the transformation of a highly charged mother/daughter relationship from Mommie Dearest to Dear Mom, from hatred to love. The documentary is the expanded version of the funny, award-winning festival favorite film, MY NOSE, in which we follow her mother’s relentless campaign to get Gayle to have a nose job.
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! is comprised primarily of decades-worth of intimate family home movies and videos—from 8 mm film coverage of Gayle’s outwardly “Leave it to Beaver-esque” childhood in an upwardly-mobile Long Island suburb, to personal family celebrations, fights, and even tragedies right up to the present—it’s the story of one determined woman’s quest to reconcile with and understand her past, which means forgiving her proud, narcissistic and formidable elderly mother, Mildred.
With raw courage and equal parts humor and pathos, Gayle invites the audience to take this epic journey along with her. Gayle is determined to unlock the key to her family’s pain and crack open her mother’s brittle shell. When Mildred grudgingly agrees to participate in the process, the two of them (with the help of a therapist) uncover shocking family secrets and long-buried suffering that throw their family history into sharp relief, and begin to shift the dynamics of their complex relationship.
The specter of loss haunts the film almost as strongly as the pain of criticism: Mildred’s still a powerhouse well into her ninth decade, but Gayle knows her mother won’t be around forever. Can she learn to understand, love and forgive her mother—before it’s too late?
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! may be about one mother-daughter relationship, but its insights and lessons are universal. In order to move forward into the future, we all have to forgive what happened in our pasts. Gayle Kirschenbaum brings her unique brand of fearless honesty and laugh-aloud humor to a film that took decades to shoot, about a relationship that took a lifetime to mend.
https://vimeo.com/119594942Films
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“LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!” A Film About Mother/Daughter Relationship & Forgiveness Opens April 8 | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11882" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!, a film by Gayle Kirschenbaum[/caption]
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!, by Gayle Kirschenbaum, and a hit at film festivals around the world and winner of numerous awards, will be released in the U.S. by Kirschenbaum Productions.
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! will open in New York at the Village East and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica and Town Center 5 in Encino on April 8. Other cities will follow.
What trauma could make a child certain that she was born into the wrong family? What wounds are inflicted when the home that’s supposed to be a haven isolates her as an outsider; when her mother’s words are rarely nurturing but instead, ruthlessly shaming, demeaning and critical? What will it take for the adult that child becomes to forgive such a past? Is forgiveness even possible?
This is the dilemma that Emmy® award-winning filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum faces in her relentlessly honest and bitingly funny documentary, LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! Her film is about the transformation of a highly charged mother/daughter relationship from Mommie Dearest to Dear Mom, from hatred to love. The documentary is the expanded version of the funny, award-winning festival favorite film, MY NOSE, in which we follow her mother’s relentless campaign to get Gayle to have a nose job.
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! is comprised primarily of decades-worth of intimate family home movies and videos—from 8 mm film coverage of Gayle’s outwardly “Leave it to Beaver-esque” childhood in an upwardly-mobile Long Island suburb, to personal family celebrations, fights, and even tragedies right up to the present—it’s the story of one determined woman’s quest to reconcile with and understand her past, which means forgiving her proud, narcissistic and formidable elderly mother, Mildred.
With raw courage and equal parts humor and pathos, Gayle invites the audience to take this epic journey along with her. Gayle is determined to unlock the key to her family’s pain and crack open her mother’s brittle shell. When Mildred grudgingly agrees to participate in the process, the two of them (with the help of a therapist) uncover shocking family secrets and long-buried suffering that throw their family history into sharp relief, and begin to shift the dynamics of their complex relationship.
The specter of loss haunts the film almost as strongly as the pain of criticism: Mildred’s still a powerhouse well into her ninth decade, but Gayle knows her mother won’t be around forever. Can she learn to understand, love and forgive her mother—before it’s too late?
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER! may be about one mother-daughter relationship, but its insights and lessons are universal. In order to move forward into the future, we all have to forgive what happened in our pasts. Gayle Kirschenbaum brings her unique brand of fearless honesty and laugh-aloud humor to a film that took decades to shoot, about a relationship that took a lifetime to mend.
https://vimeo.com/119594942
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Max Landis’ Directorial Debut ME HIM HER to Open on March 11th | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11878" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
ME HIM HER[/caption]
ME HIM HER, written and directed by Max Landis, and starring Luke Bracey, Dustin Milligan, Emily Meade, will be released in New York, Los Angeles, and on VOD platforms, on March 11th by FilmBuff.
The directorial debut of Max Landis, who had previously penned the screenplays for Chronicle and American Ultra, ME HIM HER is a madcap romantic comedy about Brendan (Point Break’s Luke Bracey), a heartthrob television star who enlists Cory (90210’s Dustin Milligan), his shiftless slacker best friend to fly out to LA and help him keep his newly-realized homosexuality a secret from Hollywood. Upon arrival in LA, Cory has a drunken one-night stand with Gabbi (The Leftovers’ Emily Meade) and is mostly too busy trying to see her again to help Brendan – despite the fact that Gabbi is a lesbian. With a rowdy cast rounded out by Alia Shakwat, Geena Davis, and Haley Joel Osment, ME HIM HER is a bizarrely endearing high-energy sendup of modern love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGRAYRs2964
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Award-Winning Film RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS, to Open in U.S. on May 6th
[caption id="attachment_11865" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993[/caption]
20 years after his assassination, Yitzhak Rabin himself tells his dramatic life story in RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS, a film by Erez Laufer, that is set for release in the U.S. by Menemsha Films.
Winner – Best Documentary at the Haifa International Film Festival 2015, RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS will open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York and Laemmle Royal and Town Center 5 in Los Angeles, as well as in South Florida, on May 6th. A national release will follow.
RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS is an “autobiography” of sorts, the story is told entirely in Rabin’s own voice. Through a combination of rare archival footage, home movies and private letters, his personal and professional dramas unfold before the viewer’s eyes – from his childhood as the son of a labor leader before the founding of the State of Israel, through a change of viewpoint that turned him from a farmer into an army man who stood at some of the most critical junctures in Israeli history. Through a brilliant diplomatic career as Israeli Ambassador to the United States and his entry into the Israeli political arena, and through his later years during which he served as Prime Minister, opposition leader, Minister of Defense and Prime Minister once more, in which he made moves that enraged a large portion of the public, until the horrific moment when his political career and life were suddenly brought to an end.
RABIN IN HIS OWN WORDS brings the man – flesh and blood – back to life, if only momentarily. The film relays the personal and political life of the man and the myth – as he lived it. Like any good protagonist, his narrative is well rounded: sacrifice, heroism, hubris, humor and heartache. Yitzhak Rabin was a complex, contradictory character: honest, innocent and timid while forceful, determined and resilient; a loyal friend who spent much of his time in solitude; blessed with a sense of resolve paralleled only by the doubt that shadowed it; calm and collected like a dormant volcano bound to erupt one day; courteous and contained, he was a gentleman with the fiery temperament of a red-head.
The film combines rare archives that, since they were originally broadcasted 40 years ago, have not been seen or heard, a private 8 mm mostly shot by Rabin, a super 8 mm of Rabin in color in 1948 shot by American couple visiting Israel, and private letters to his sister his father and to his wife Leah.
The director Erez Laufer is the co-Editor of two Oscar nominees for Best Documentary: Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker’s The War Room (1993) and Laura Poitras’ My Country My Country (2006) His own film Mike Brant, Laisse-moi t’aimer won the 2002 Israeli Academy Award for Best Documentary, and had its international premiere at the Directors Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2003.
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Watch TRAILER for “Creepy, Weird” Turkish Horror Film BASKINO
IFC Midnight has released the trailer for the “creepy, weird” Turkish horror film BASKINO, directed by Can Evrenol.
BASKIN opens on VOD and in NY at The IFC Center on March 25th, and in LA at Arena Cinema on April 1st.
A five-man unit of cops on night patrol get more than they bargain for when they arrive at a creepy backwater town in the middle of nowhere after a call comes over the radio for backup. Entering a derelict building, the seasoned tough guys and their rookie junior, who’s still haunted by a traumatic childhood dream, do the one thing you should never do in this kind of movie: they split up. They soon realize they’ve stumbled into a monstrous charnel house and descend into an ever-more nightmarish netherworld where grotesque, mind-wrenching horrors await them at every turn. This is one Baskin (that’s “police raid” to you non-Turkish speakers) that isn’t going to end well. But wait! Things aren’t what they seem in this truly disturbing, outrageously gory, and increasingly surreal film whose unpredictable narrative pulls the carpet from under your feet and keeps you guessing right up to the final moment. A wildly original whatsit that reconfirms Turkey as the breakout national cinema of the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9SfWmXQY3o
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HOCKNEY, A Documentary about David Hockney’s Life & Art Sets U.S. Release Date | TRAILER
HOCKNEY, a documentary film by Randall Wright (Lucian Freud: A Painted Life), will be released in the U.S. by Film Movement.
After screening at Outfest, London, Vancouver, Palm Springs film festivals among others, the film will open at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and at Metrograph in New York, and at Laemmle Royal, Playhouse 7 and Noho 7 in Los Angeles on April 22, 2016. A national release will follow.
HOCKNEY is the definitive exploration of one of the most significant artists of his generation. For the first time, David Hockney has given access to his personal archive of photographs and film, resulting in an unparalleled visual diary of his life. The film chronicles Hockney’s vast career, from his early life in working-class Bradford, where his love for pictures was developed through his admiration for cinema, to his relocation to Hollywood where his life long struggle to escape labels (‘queer’, ‘working class’, ‘figurative artist’) was fully realized.
David Hockney offers theories about art, the universe, and everything: “I’m interested in ways of looking and trying to think of it in simple ways. If you can communicate that, of course people will respond; after all, everybody does look.“ But as HOCKNEY reveals, it’s the hidden self-interrogation that gives his famously optimistic pictures their unexpected edge and attack. The documentary traces the artist’s journey to live the American or Californian dream, yet paradoxically reveals that he never broke ties with the childhood that formed him. Did Yorkshire awkwardness in his blood give him the willpower to survive relationship problems, and later the AIDS plague that killed the majority of his friends? Acclaimed filmmaker Randall Wright offers a unique view of this unconventional artist who is now reaching new peaks of popularity worldwide, and, at 78, is as charismatic as ever, working in the studio seven days a week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUsjBK3q58k
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Dance Documentary MR. GAGA to Premiere at 2016 SXSW Film Festival | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11828" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
MR. GAGA, Tomer Heymann[/caption]
MR. GAGA, the latest feature documentary from acclaimed director Tomer Heymann, will have its North American Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Friday, March 11, 2016.
Heymann’s prior film Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? was recently honored with the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, the same award he won in 2006 for Paper Dolls.
MR. GAGA is an intimate exploration of the life and work of famed choreographer Ohad Naharin, the elusive artistic genius who created the popular Gaga dance movement. Eight years in the making, the film utilizes intimate rehearsal footage, extensive unseen archive material and stunning, large-scale dance sequences to reveal the fascinating life story of one of modern dance’s iconic pioneers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6gd8xpFMsM
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Israeli Film VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT to be Released in the U.S. | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11824" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT[/caption]
VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT, directed by Ada Ushpiz will be released in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films.
Official selection at Jerusalem and Munich film festivals, as well as at IDFA, and winner – Best Documentary – at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, VITA ACTIVA will open at Film Forum in NYC on April 6 and at the Laemmle Monica Film Center in LA on April 29. A national release will follow.
The German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt caused an uproar in the 1960s by coining the subversive concept of the “Banality of Evil” when referring to the trial of Adolph Eichmann, which she covered for the New Yorker magazine. Her private life was no less controversial thanks to her early love affair with the renowned German philosopher and Nazi supporter Martin Heidegger. This thought provoking and spirited documentary, with its abundance of archival materials, offers an intimate portrait of the whole of Arendt’s life, traveling to places where she lived, worked, loved, and was betrayed, as she wrote about the open wounds of modern times. Through her books, which are still widely read and the recent release of Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic HANNAH ARENDT (also a Zeitgeist Films release) there is renewed interest in Arendt throughout the world, especially among young people who find her insights into the nature of evil, totalitarianism, ideologies, and the perils faced by refugees, more relevant than ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J6YWRTrnf4
Filmmaker Ada Ushpiz is a renowned Israeli film producer and director. She has a B.A. in philosophy and M.A. in history from Tel Aviv University and a significant journalistic experience in political-social writing for the prestigious Ha’aretz newspaper. She directed a number of remarkable documentaries in recent years – Detained(2001), Bloody Engagement (2004), Desert Brides (2008) and Good Garbage (2012) – which have been awarded numerous awards in Israel and around the world.
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Political Documentary THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD Sets March 18 Release Date | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11820" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD, by JEN SENKO[/caption]
THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD, directed by JEN SENKO (The Vanishing City), and an Official Selection of the Traverse City Film Festival 2015, and Cinequest Film Festival 2016, will opening theatrically in New York (Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall) on Friday, March 18.
As filmmaker, Jen Senko, tries to understand the transformation of her father from a non political, life-long Democrat to an angry, Right-Wing fanatic, she uncovers the forces behind the media that changed him completely: a plan by Roger Ailes under Nixon for a media takeover by the GOP, The Powell Memo urging business leaders to influence institutions of public opinion, especially the universities, the media and the courts, and under Reagan, the dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine.
As her journey continues, we discover that her father is part of a much broader demographic, and that the story is one that affects us all.
Through interviews with media luminaries, cognitive linguists, grassroots activist groups such as: Noam Chomsky, Steve Rendall, Jeff Cohen, Eric Boehlert, George Lakoff, STOP RUSH, HearYourselfThink, Claire Conner and others, “Brainwashing” unravels the plan to shift the country to the Right over the last 30 years, largely through media manipulation. The result has lead to fewer voices, less diversity of opinion, massive intentional misinformation and greater division of our country.
This documentary will shine a light on how it happened (and is still happening) and lead to questions about who owns the airwaves, what rights we have as listeners/watchers and what responsibility does our government have to keep the airwaves truly fair, accurate and accountable to the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh3TeTxgNVo
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Sundance Film Fest Documentary HOLY HELL Sets May 20th Release Date
[caption id="attachment_11817" align="aligncenter" width="1088"]
Holy Hell[/caption]
The documentary, Holy Hell, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the U.S. by FilmRise. Holy Hell will be released theatrically on May 20, 2016.
The film is an inside look at a secretive, spiritual cult formed in 1980s West Hollywood. Director Will Allen joined the group just after graduating from film school and as he became more deeply involved, he began filming his experiences as the group’s unofficial videographer. It wasn’t until after Allen left the cult that he understood the film he’d been making for over twenty years. Working with producers Alexandra Johnes and ex-cult member Tracey Harnish, Allen decided to use his footage to take others on his journey. Holy Hell is executive produced by Michael C. Donaldson, Cheryl Sanders, Julian Goldstein and Academy Award®-winner Jared Leto, who describes the film as “relentless, haunting and unforgettable.”
“Following its headline-making run at Sundance, we are elated to be bringing this gripping film to audiences come spring,” said Danny Fisher, CEO of FilmRise. “Ultimately this is a remarkable film about the human condition, and I am confident that audiences will be engrossed by this captivating story, told by those who lived it.”
“I am so happy that FilmRise will be releasing Holy Hell in theaters for communities to experience together,” said filmmaker Will Allen. “This story is very personal but also universal, because it could have happened to anyone. And seeing how broadly it resonated at Sundance makes me excited to share it with the rest of the world.”
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Thunder Road Wins Best Short Film at Sundance Film Festival
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival announced the winners of the jury prizes in short filmmaking, with the Short Film Grand Jury Prize going to Thunder Road by director and screenwriter Jim Cummings.
This year’s Short Film jurors are: star and co-creator of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, Keegan-Michael Key; development executive at Amazon Studios, Gina Kwon; and chief film critic for MTV, Amy Nicholson.
2016 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards:
The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to: Thunder Road / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jim Cummings) — Officer Arnaud loved his mom.
The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to: The Procedure / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Calvin Lee Reeder) — A man is captured and forced to endure a strange experiment.
The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to: Maman(s) / France (Director and screenwriter: Maïmouna Doucouré ) — Life is disrupted for eight-year-old Aida when her father returns with a young Senegalese woman, Rama, whom he introduces as his second wife. Sensitive to her mother’s distress, Aida decides to get rid of the new visitor.
The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to: Bacon & God’s Wrath / Canada (Director: Sol Friedman) — A 90-year-old Jewish woman reflects on her life experiences as she prepares to try bacon for the first time.
The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to: Edmond / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Nina Gantz) — Edmond’s impulse to love and be close to others is strong—maybe too strong. As he stands by a lake contemplating his options, he reflects on his defining moments in search of the origin of his desires.
A Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance was presented to: Grace Glowicki for her performance in Her Friend Adam.
A Short Film Special Jury Award for Best Direction was presented to: Peacock / Czech Republic (Director: Ondřej Hudeček, Screenwriters: Jan Smutny, Ondřej Hudeček) — A twisted queer romance set in picturesque 19th-century Bohemia tells the true story of the birth of one of the nation’s most influential writers, with suspense, laughter, violence, hope, nudity, sex, and a happy ending—mostly a happy ending.
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Spike Lee Documentary MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL to Debut on Showtime
The Spike Lee documentary, MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL, will make it’s television premiere on SHOWTIME on Friday, February 5th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary film which will World Premiere at the upcoming 2016 Sundance Film Festival, focuses on a rarely examined chapter of Jackson’s career as he evolves from the lead singer of Jackson 5 to a solo artist recording what will become his breakthrough, seminal 1979 pop record, Off The Wall.
Audiences will travel with the global superstar as he strikes a new path with CBS Records, first with his brothers as The Jacksons and then stepping out on his own to create his own music with his own team. This illuminating portrait traces how an earnest, passionate, hard-working young man becomes the “King of Pop.”
MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL contains a wealth of footage, including material from Michael’s personal archive, and in his own words. The documentary also includes interviews with prominent entertainment and sports stars including Lee Daniels, The Weeknd, Pharrell Williams, Kobe Bryant, Misty Copeland, Mark Ronson, John Legend, Questlove, L.A. Reid, and more, as well as his parents Katherine and Joe Jackson, and his brothers Jackie and Marlon Jackson. Off The Wall created a whole new category in pop music. Written by Michael Jackson, the first single from Off The Wall, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” earned Jackson his first Grammy(R) and was his first single to hit No. 1 in the U.S. and internationally as a solo artist. The album was an enormous commercial success; as of 2014 it is certified eight times platinum in the United States and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Off The Wall not only “invented pop music as we know it,” wrote Rolling Stone, it transcended music and entertainment altogether, becoming an important moment in African-American history.
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Duplass Brothers’ Animated Series ANIMALS to Debut on HBO | TRAILER
ANIMALS, the independently produced and animated series, which made its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival will debut exclusively on HBO Friday, February 5th @ 11:30PM ET/PT. ANIMALS features the Voices of Rob Corddry, Mark Duplass, Nick Kroll, Jason Mantzoukas, Molly Shannon.
Created by Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano and produced by Duplass Brothers Television, ANIMALS. focuses on the downtrodden creatures native to Earth’s least-habitable environment: New York City. Whether it’s lovelorn rats, gender-questioning pigeons or aging bedbugs in the midst of a midlife crisis, the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity and existential woes of non-human urbanites prove startlingly similar to our own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN5hzUo5ccY