Brillo Box (3 Cents Off), tracks the remarkable journey of an Iconic Andy Warhol sculpture from one family’s living room through the global art market.
In 1969, Lisanne Skyler’s parents bought an Andy Warhol “Brillo Box (3 Cents Off)” sculpture for $1,000. An exact replica of a shipping carton for Brillo soap pads, Warhol’s Brillo Boxes were at first dismissed by the art world. But 40 years later, with Warhol’s reputation as a contemporary-art visionary long secured, the same piece sold for more than $3 million at a record-breaking Christie’s auction.
Blending a humorous family narrative with Pop Art history, and debuting the week of Warhol’s 89th birthday, Brillo Box (3 Cents OFF) follows this iconic work as it makes its way from a New York family’s living room to the contemporary global art market, exploring the ephemeral nature of art and value, and the decisions that shape a family’s history. An official selection of the 54th New York Film Festival, the documentary debuts Monday, August 7 (10:00-10:40 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
In 1964, Andy Warhol shocked the art world by making hundreds of replicas of supermarket shipping cartons and presenting them as art. His most notorious were the Brillo Boxes, which he created by silk-screening the original Brillo packaging art, designed by abstract impressionist James Harvey, onto wooden boxes that were the exact same sizes as the supermarket originals. It is believed Warhol made 93 large white boxes and 17 smaller yellow ones.
Originally selling for $200, a yellow Brillo Box emblazoned with a “3 Cents OFF” burst was purchased for $1,000 from the OK Harris Gallery in New York in 1969 by Martin and Rita Skyler. Looking to add value to his acquisition, Martin Skyler persuaded gallery owner Ivan Karp to get Warhol to sign the bottom of the piece, which was not Warhol’s customary practice at the time.
Parents of an infant daughter, Lisanne, the Skylers spent two years with the Brillo Box, which Martin placed inside Plexiglas to prevent damage. Looking for fresh art to augment their collection, he decided to trade the Brillo Box for a drawing by abstract artist Peter Young in 1971. Forty years after the Skylers sold their Brillo Box, Lisanne Skyler, now a filmmaker, learned it was going to be auctioned in New York at Christie’s. She filmed the auction, and, combining that footage with archival video, reenactments and interviews with her parents and contemporary art world figures, began to reconstruct her family’s Brillo Box history.
After Warhol’s death in 1987, interest in his work started to build; starting in 1995, prices for his art doubled annually for more than a decade. In 1988, London advertising magnate Charles Saatchi bought the Skylers’ Brillo Box for $35,200; five years later, the piece was sold to a private collector for $43,700 and returned to New York. Two years later, in a soft art market, Robert Shapazian, one of the world’s foremost collectors of modern art and the founding director of the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, bought the piece for the same price, and kept it until his death in 2010.
When the Brillo Box went on sale again that year, Christie’s estimated it would fetch between $600,000 to $800,000, its value enhanced by the condition and provenance, including Warhol’s signature and the ownership of Saatchi and Shapazian. Following an international bidding war, however, the Skylers’ Brillo Box sold to a private collector for $2,650,000. The addition of a $400,500 buyer’s premium brought the final price tag to a staggering $3,050,500. While Martin maintains a stoic front about the loss of such a treasure, a more regretful Rita recalls the personal memories it evokes.
In addition to interviews with Martin and Rita Skyler, BRILLO BOX (3 Cents OFF) includes insights from several high-profile names in the contemporary art world, including: Laura Paulson, chairman, Americas at Christie’s; Jessica Todd Smith, the Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art and Manager of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; art critic and historian Irving Sandler; Eric Shiner, former director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; writer, curator and dealer Kenny Schachter; artist Nancy Mozur; artist and teacher Phung Huynh; Daniel Wolf, producer of “Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film”; John Armaly, president and CEO of Armaly Brands, owner of the Brillo brand; and Peter Young, the artist whose work replaced the Brillo Box in the Skyler home.
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Machines, the debut documentary film from director Rahul Jain, and winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival will be released in the U.S. beginning Wednesday, August 9, at New York’s Film Forum. The film is set to expand nationwide in September, 2017.
Returning to his childhood home of Sachin in India’s Gujarat state, Rahul Jain documents a striking visual paradox: intensely sensual images of colorful fabrics produced in a Dickensian factory in which men and children work tirelessly for a pittance, some barefoot. They are some of the 45 million workers that support the $40 billion Indian textile and garment industries.
Punctuating stunning Steadicam shots, where Mr. Jain’s camera takes viewers into dark, damp and sometimes fiery working spaces, are sparse and sharp testimonials from the workers describing their own experiences – as well as their failed efforts at improving working conditions. One man asks rhetorically: “But what is poverty anyway? Poverty is harassment, Sir.”
Uniquely combining ravishing visuals with social advocacy, Machines weaves a moving portrait of people toiling amid pulsating machines, bubbling vats of dye, and colorful, billowing cascades of textiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkV-eeXrlUg
The Last Miracle (L’ultimo miracolo) by Enrico Pau[/caption]
Nine short films by Italian directors, who have not yet directed a feature film, will have their world premiere at the 2nd SIC@SIC (Short Italian Cinema @ Settimana Internazionale della Critica).
The short films program is part of the 32nd Venice International Film Critics’ Week, an independent and parallel section organized by the National Union of Italian Film Critics’ (SNCCI) during the 74th Venice International Film Festival (August 30 – September 9, 2017).
After premiering in Venice, the short films presented at SIC@SIC will be promoted at an international level by the Department for International Promotion of Contemporary Cinema of the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà through a series of initiatives and festivals, such as, the Mostra de Cinema Italià de Barcelona (Short Films Competition section) programmed in Spain in December 2017. Furthermore, the short films will be made available for industry professionals through the online platforms Festival Scope Pro and Italian Short Film Video Library – a tool for the promotion of Italian short films realized by the Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio (Italian Short Film Center) in collaboration with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà. Last but not least, at the end of November 2017 they will attend the TSFM – Torino Short Film Market, organized by the Italian Short Film Center.
After screening at the first edition of SIC@SIC, the seven short films selected in 2016 have been traveling the world. In less than nine months, they have already attended almost fifty festivals and cinematic events, including, Film Festival Rotterdam, DocLisboa, BFI Flare, London LGBT Film Festival, Lima Independeiente – Festival Internacional de Cine, Lovers Film Festival – Torino LGBTQI Visions and Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema di Pesaro. Some of the directors of the “class” of 2016 are now working on their first feature film.
The Sundance award-winning film 
Jennifer Brea is an active Harvard PhD student about to marry the love of her life when suddenly her body starts failing her. Hoping to shed light on her strange symptoms, Jennifer grabs a camera and films the darkest moments unfolding before her eyes as she is derailed by M.E. (commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), a mysterious illness some still believe is “all in your head.”
In this story of love and loss, newlyweds Jennifer and Omar search for answers as they face unexpected obstacles with great heart. Often confined by her illness to the private space of her bed, Jen is moved to connect with others around the globe. Utilizing Skype, she unlocks a forgotten community with intimate portraits of four other families suffering similarly.
Jennifer Brea’s wonderfully honest portrayal asks us to rethink the stigma around an illness that affects millions of people. Unrest is a vulnerable and eloquent personal documentary that is sure to hit closer to home than many could imagine.
Félicité[/caption]
13 film projects including Berlin Film Festival award winning 
A24 has released the first poster and teaser trailer for James Franco’s 
HBO has released a new trailer for the documentary DIANA, OUR MOTHER: HER LIFE AND LEGACY. The documentary debuts on Monday, July 24 (10:00-11:10 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO. to celebrate the life and work of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the 20th year since her tragic death.
DIANA, OUR MOTHER features interviews with HRH The Duke of Cambridge and HRH Prince Harry, both of whom talk openly about their mother and pay tribute to the many ways her influence has shaped their lives. The film offers a fresh and revealing insight into Princess Diana through the personal and intimate reflections of her two sons and her friends and family, many of whom have never spoken publicly before, to bring together a unique portrait of an iconic person who touched the lives of millions.
The 65-minute film includes never-before-seen photographs of Diana, taken from an album that she had assembled. The brothers look through the private family album and recall some of the most joyful and touching moments from their childhood.
Studying a photo of The Princess holding him while pregnant with Prince Harry, Prince William says, “Believe it or not, you and I are both in this photograph, you’re in the tummy!”
Prince Harry says, “This is the first time that the two of us have ever spoken about her as a mother.”
Prince William says, “She was very informal and really enjoyed the laughter and the fun.”
Prince William and Prince Harry share some of their earliest memories of their mother, recall the final conversation they had with her before her tragic death in August 1997, and discuss their feelings in the aftermath of losing her. Prince William explains how he keeps her memory alive for his own children.
The documentary also celebrates the achievements of Diana’s work and her sons’ determination to continue the campaigns that were closest to her heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9AFcZgGCNw
Kristen Bell today premiered the music video for “Tell Me How Long” from Netflix original documentary 
Before MLK and Malcom X, there was Thurgood Marshall. Check out the brand new OFFICIAL POSTER for MARSHALL, starring Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, Sterling K. Brown, and James Cromwell. MARSHALL hits theaters October 13th.
Long before he sat on the United States Supreme Court or claimed victory in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that desegregated schools, Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) was a young rabble-rousing attorney for the NAACP. The new motion picture, MARSHALL, is the true story of his greatest challenge in those early days – a fight he fought alongside attorney Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a young lawyer with no experience in criminal law: the case of black chauffeur Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), accused by his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), of sexual assault and attempted murder.
