EVA HESSE[/caption]
EVA HESSE, a documentary film by Marcie Begleiter, about the art and life of Eva Hesse will be released in the U.S. in April by Zeitgeist Films.
EVA HESSE will open at Film Forum in New York on April 27, and at Laemmle Monica Film Center on May 13. Many other cities will follow.
As the wild ride of the 1960’s came to a close, Eva Hesse was cresting the wave of a swiftly rising career. One of the few women recognized as central to the New York art scene, she had over 20 group shows scheduled for 1970 in addition to being chosen for a cover article in ArtForum Magazine. Her work was finally receiving both the critical and commercial attention it deserved.
EVA HESSE deepens the understanding of this extraordinary artist, not only in terms of her ground-breaking work, but also the life that provided the fertile soil for her achievements. With dozens of new interviews, high quality footage of Hesse’s artwork and a wealth of newly discoverd archival imagery, the documentary not only traces Eva’s path but engages in a lively investigation into the creative community of 1960’s New York and Germany.
Born in Hamburg in 1936 to a German-Jewish family, the artist’s fierce work ethic may have developed from a complex psychology that was formed, in part, as a Jew born in Nazi Germany. Having escaped the fate of her extended family, Eva and her older sister Helen were sent out on one of the last Kindertransports (trains that carried Jewish children to safety) and was eventually reunited with their parents in Holland. They made their way to New York in 1940 but her family struggled to make a new home. The remaining years of Hesse’s youth were difficult, and through dealing with these challenges she discovered herself as an artist early in life. The passion and serious attention she gave to her work led her first to Yale and then to playing a central part in the New York art scene of the sixties. Hesse’s cohort, major artists such as Dan Graham, Richard Serra, Nancy Holt, Carl Andre, Robert and Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Eva’s husband Tom Doyle and her friend, writer Lucy Lippard, speak candidly and with great passion about the 60’s, Eva’s work and her life.
When Eva Hesse died in May 1970, at 34 years of age from a brain tumor, the life of one of that decade’s most passionate and brilliant artists was tragically cut short. As Jonathon Keats wrote in Art and Antiques Magazine “Yet the end of her life proved to be only the beginning of her career.” Her work is now held by many important museum collections including the Whitney, MoMA, the Hirschhorn, the Pompidou in Paris and London’s Tate Modern and Cologne’s Ludwig Museum.
2016 is proving to be a banner year for Eva Hesse; in addition to the film’s domestic and international release, “Diaries” a book of her journal entries will be published in May by Yale University Press. Also, the artist’s work is included in many landmark exhibitions this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aov6R8qmf10
Films
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EVA HESSE Documentary Sets Release Date | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_12003" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] EVA HESSE[/caption]
EVA HESSE, a documentary film by Marcie Begleiter, about the art and life of Eva Hesse will be released in the U.S. in April by Zeitgeist Films.
EVA HESSE will open at Film Forum in New York on April 27, and at Laemmle Monica Film Center on May 13. Many other cities will follow.
As the wild ride of the 1960’s came to a close, Eva Hesse was cresting the wave of a swiftly rising career. One of the few women recognized as central to the New York art scene, she had over 20 group shows scheduled for 1970 in addition to being chosen for a cover article in ArtForum Magazine. Her work was finally receiving both the critical and commercial attention it deserved.
EVA HESSE deepens the understanding of this extraordinary artist, not only in terms of her ground-breaking work, but also the life that provided the fertile soil for her achievements. With dozens of new interviews, high quality footage of Hesse’s artwork and a wealth of newly discoverd archival imagery, the documentary not only traces Eva’s path but engages in a lively investigation into the creative community of 1960’s New York and Germany.
Born in Hamburg in 1936 to a German-Jewish family, the artist’s fierce work ethic may have developed from a complex psychology that was formed, in part, as a Jew born in Nazi Germany. Having escaped the fate of her extended family, Eva and her older sister Helen were sent out on one of the last Kindertransports (trains that carried Jewish children to safety) and was eventually reunited with their parents in Holland. They made their way to New York in 1940 but her family struggled to make a new home. The remaining years of Hesse’s youth were difficult, and through dealing with these challenges she discovered herself as an artist early in life. The passion and serious attention she gave to her work led her first to Yale and then to playing a central part in the New York art scene of the sixties. Hesse’s cohort, major artists such as Dan Graham, Richard Serra, Nancy Holt, Carl Andre, Robert and Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Eva’s husband Tom Doyle and her friend, writer Lucy Lippard, speak candidly and with great passion about the 60’s, Eva’s work and her life.
When Eva Hesse died in May 1970, at 34 years of age from a brain tumor, the life of one of that decade’s most passionate and brilliant artists was tragically cut short. As Jonathon Keats wrote in Art and Antiques Magazine “Yet the end of her life proved to be only the beginning of her career.” Her work is now held by many important museum collections including the Whitney, MoMA, the Hirschhorn, the Pompidou in Paris and London’s Tate Modern and Cologne’s Ludwig Museum.
2016 is proving to be a banner year for Eva Hesse; in addition to the film’s domestic and international release, “Diaries” a book of her journal entries will be published in May by Yale University Press. Also, the artist’s work is included in many landmark exhibitions this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aov6R8qmf10
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Award-Winning Bulgarian Film VIKTORIA Sets U.S. Release Date | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11975" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
VIKTORIA[/caption]
The Bulgarian film VIKTORIA, directed by Maya Vitkova will be released in the U.S. by Big World Pictures.
Official Selection at Sundance, Rotterdam, AFI Fest and a number of other prestigious film festivals, and winner of numerous awards, VIKTORIA will open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York on April 29, with a national release to follow.
Maya Vitkova’s stunning debut feature VIKTORIA, follows three generations of women in the final years of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the early years of the transition to democracy. The film focuses on reluctant mother Boryana and her daughter, Viktoria, who in one of the film’s surreal, magical touches is born without an umbilical cord. Though unwanted by her mother, Viktoria is named the country’s Baby of the Decade, and is showered with gifts and attention until the disintegration of the East Bloc. Despite throwing their worlds off balance, the resulting political changes also allow for the possibility of reconciliation.
Maya Vitkova wrote, produced and directed VIKTORIA, making it both personal and universal, and demonstrating a precocious command of all elements of the filmmaking process. Especially impressive is the film’s visual sensibility and its command of a range of shifting tones, from absurdist humor to political allegory to deeply moving familial drama. VIKTORIA was coproduced by Cristi Puiu’s Mandragora.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BcZe6neFQA
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Les Cowboys Featuring John C. Reilly to Open June 24th
[caption id="attachment_11957" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
LES COWBOYS[/caption]
LES COWBOYS directed by Thomas Bidegain, and starring Finnegan Oldfield, featuring John C. Reilly will be released theatrically on June 24th, opening in NY at Lincoln Plaza.
The debut feature from celebrated French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (DHEEPAN, RUST AND BONE, A PROPHET), LES COWBOYS is a haunting tale of a young woman’s disappearance—and a father’s all-consuming quest to bring her back to safety.
Set amidst a sub-culture of Western enthusiasts in rural France, Alain (François Damiens) attends a cowboy fair with his wife (Agathe Dronne) and children—sixteen-year-old daughter, Kelly (Iliana Zabeth), and young son, Kid (Finnegan Oldfield). When Kelly disappears amidst the chaos of the festivities, Alain’s initial fear quickly turns to anger and disbelief as it becomes increasingly clear that his daughter has willingly abandoned her life to begin anew as a Muslim with her boyfriend. Convinced that she was coerced, Alain devotes what’s left of his broken existence to finding her, eventually bestowing the responsibility of the search onto his son.
A fresh take on John Ford’s classic, THE SEARCHERS, the sixteen-year pursuit takes the two men across personal and international borders, becoming bigger than they could have ever imagined. Lensed by veteran cinematographer Arnaud Potier (5 TO 7, BREATHE, STOCKHOLM, PENNSYLVANIA), LES COWBOYS transports the classic iconography of the Western genre to striking contemporary landscapes—from the hillsides of France to the deserts of Pakistan.
A long-time collaborator of filmmaker Jaques Audiard, Bidegain has established himself as one of France’s most talented and prolific screenwriters, penning the scripts for Audiard’s aforementioned RUST AND BONE, A PROPHET, and DHEEPAN. Bidegain also wrote Bertrand Bonello’s SAINT LAURENT, which went on to be the French Foreign Language Oscar submission for 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPdGgmXTZjo
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WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT: THE STORY OF LATIN BOOGALOO Sets Release Date of March 15 | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11932" align="aligncenter" width="1280"]
WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT[/caption]
Award-winning documentary WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT will be released on iTunes and VOD nationwide on March 15.
Directed by Mathew Ramirez Warren, WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT tells the story of Latin boogaloo, a colorful expression of 1960s Latino soul, straight from the streets of New York City. From its origins to its recent resurgence, it’s the story of a sound that redefined a generation and was too funky to keep down.
WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT explores this fascinating, though often overlooked, bridge in Latin music history, showcasing the musical style that was born in the barrios of NYC and would eventually spawn a generation of chart-topping music artists and a global music movement that is once again alive and well today.
In the 1960s, a generation of musicians from East Harlem, the South Bronx and parts of Brooklyn fused Afro-Cuban music with R&B, jazz, funk and rock to create Latin boogaloo. It was a period of revolution and social awakening and young Latinos in search of their identity adopted Latin boogaloo as their soundtrack.
Much of this music was released by Alegre, Cotique and Fania Records during the 1960s and 70s. But as salsa, a more traditional style of Latin music, grew in popularity by the 1970s, some say the Latin boogaloo was killed off, not by the fans, but by cultural and industry politics.
By the 2000s, after decades of obscurity, the artists who made Latin boogaloo popular finally began to get the recognition they deserved, with the help of DJs and new bands such as DJ Turmix, The Boogaloo Assassins and Ray Lugo & the Boogaloo Destroyers, that pay tribute to the genre.
The cast of musicians and their personal stories told in We Like it Like Thatare as vibrant and enduring as the unforgettable rhythms they created. Some of the notable artists include Joe Bataan, a former gang leader who spent several years in prison before starting a band and becoming known as the “King of Latin Soul” and continues to be one of the most popular and active Latin boogaloo luminaries working today; Ricardo Ray, a Juilliard trained piano player who along with his singer, Bobby Cruz, recorded the first known Latin boogaloo “Lookie, Lookie” and went on to enjoy international fame in Latin music; Johnny Colon, the influential multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader who was a key player in the boogaloo scene and behind the first major latin boogaloo hit, “Boogaloo Blues,” a controversial song at the time for its chorus “LSD’s got a hold on me;” Jimmy Sabater, the late singer and percussionist for the Joe Cuba Sextet who helped write “Bang Bang,” the first boogaloo song to break through as a national hit; Pete Rodriguez, the bandleader whose group created “I Like it Like That,” the biggest Latin boogaloo hit of the 1960s and a repeat chart topper when it was covered in the 1990s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c–UlUha8nY
Additionally on March 11, “We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo Volume One” original motion picture soundtrack will be released digitally on Fania Records, featuring 14 classic latin boogaloo tracks from legendary music icons featured in the film such as Pete Rodriguez (“I Like It Like That”), Joe Bataan (“Ordinary Guy,” “Subway Joe”), Richie Ray (“Lookie Lookie”), Ray Barretto (“New York Soul”), Eddie Palmieri (“Azucar”), LeBron Brothers (“Summertime Blues”) and more.
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WATCH Video Clips from Black & White Indie Drama I FALL DOWN
[caption id="attachment_11904" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
I Fall Down[/caption]
The ultra low-budget indie feature film I Fall Down is now available on iTunes in North America and Ireland.
The Prairie Gothic drama was shot over two and a half years around Edmonton, Alberta. Writer/Director Christopher White harkens back to the tragic silent monster movies from cinema’s golden age, like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
“In those films, the ‘monsters’ are nothing more than mistreated, unloved freaks,” he explains. “It’s not just the imagery that I borrowed, its their humanity and the audience’s empathy for these outcasts”. He credits the black-and-white reversal film for defining the tone and mood of the picture. “There’s a grit to the image, it pops, fizzles and it isn’t perfect. You get changing shades of grey which mirror the characters’ conflicts and relationships.”
Starring Emma Houghton and Tom Antoni, I Fall Down tells the story of Annessa (Houghton), a lonely teenage girl with a troubled past, hoping to leave her life behind. After a failed suicide attempt she meets Charlie (Antoni), a disfigured, child-like man who lives alone in a woodland shack. Although their mutual loneliness draws them together, their lives begin spiralling out of control when confronted by an intolerant world and Charlie’s own violent, primal nature.
The film debuted at the 2015 Macabre Faire Film Festival (Hauppauge, NY) followed by the inaugural Censured in Canada Film Festival (Toronto, ON). Critics have hailed it as a “modern Gothic story” and “an adult fairy tale”, praising Houghton for her captivating performance. She earned a Best Actress nomination at the 2014 Rosie Awards Gala alongside five other nominations for the picture, including Best Cinematography (David Baron) and Best Dramatic Production.
https://youtu.be/wYdUpJ2yjTg
https://youtu.be/kGmKl0XvXok
https://youtu.be/ZgNbWZFLjsg
https://youtu.be/ulnMS7ZCTno
https://youtu.be/PXd7sDEDIFE
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Monty Python Terry Jones’ Doc BOOM BUST BOOM About 2008 Economic Crash Opens March 11 | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11892" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
BOOM BUST BOOM[/caption]
Monty Python Terry Jones’ new feature documentary BOOM BUST BOOM investigates the worldwide economic crash of 2008, and how we can avoid another global collapse in the future.
BOOM BUST BOOM will open theatrically on March 11 in New York (Village East Cinema), followed by release on iTunes and On Demand on March 15.
Analyzing the direct link between the unstable financial system and our reliance on mainstream economics, the film puts a spotlight on the mistakes of the past some politicians and central bankers would like us to forget. A mix of live action, animation, puppetry and song, the film charts the ancient cycle of boom and bust and offers the world a solution.
BOOM BUST BOOM features high profile advocates for change such as John Cusack, journalists Paul Mason and John Cassidy plus leading experts including the Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, and Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman, Robert Shiller and Paul Krugman.
The documentary is a result of a meeting between writer, director, historian and Python Jones and economics professor and entrepreneur Theo Kocken, BOOM BUST BOOM is co-written by Jones and Kocken and co-directed by Jones with son Bill Jones and Ben Timlett, AKA Bill & Ben Productions.
Inspired by the film, students from Rethinking Economics (who also appear in BOOM BUST BOOM) announce a brand new current affairs and education website, launching in late March. Economy will be a rich mix of new and diverse content with a global perspective from comedy pieces and live event video to vox-pops, innovative social content, explainers, commentary plus art & illustration. With support from BOOM BUST BOOM executive producers Cardano Education, Economy is on a mission to change the way we think about economics and make it more relevant to people’s lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtnZDNXCKM
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MAGNET to Release Sundance Shocker Film THE EYES OF MY MOTHER
[caption id="attachment_11889" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
THE EYES OF MY MOTHER[/caption]
THE EYES OF MY MOTHER, the “hauntingly beautiful and shockingly original” debut from filmmaker Nicolas Pesce, has been acquired by Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, for release.
The film fuses classic horror ingredients with gothic black-and-white imagery and was called the “discovery of this year’s Sundance” by Indiewire’s Eric Kohn. It also features a breakout performance from newcomer Kika Magalhaes. Magnet is planning a 2016 theatrical release.
In the film Magalhaes plays Francisca, a young woman who has been unfazed by death from an early age. Francisca’ mother, a former surgeon, imbued her with a thorough understanding of the human anatomy. When tragedy shatters the family’s idyllic life in the countryside, Francisca’s deep trauma gradually awakens some unique curiosities. As she grows up, her desire to connect with the world around her takes a distinctly dark form.
The film was rapturously received by critics at Sundance. “It contains some of the most memorable, almost poetic visual compositions in a very long time” wrote Roger Ebert.com critic, Brian Tallerico. Variety was equally enthusiastic, calling the film “a Sundance standout” and “an impressive, highly original horror fable” while Vulture dubbed it “a slick, simmering nightmare.” Eric Kohn added that “Francisca is a movie monster for the ages.”
“Nicolas Pesce has crafted an auspicious and unforgettable debut that immediately establishes him as one of the most exciting genre filmmakers to watch today,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “This is the kind of film Magnet was started for.”
“I’m very excited for the film to have found a home with Magnet,” said Nicolas Pesce. “They’re responsible for releasing so many of the movies that inspired me, so to be included in this family is incredible. The life they’ve given to both foreign and domestic genre films is unparalleled, so for THE EYES OF MY MOTHER to be released through them is a dream come true.”
THE EYES OF MY MOTHER was produced by Jacob Wasserman, Schuyler Weiss, and Max Born and executive produced by Borderline Films’ Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin and Josh Mond under their new Borderline Presents label. Filmmaker Nicolas Pesce recently signed with United Talent Agency and Washington Square Films, while lead actress Kika Magalhaes was snatched up by Anonymous Content.
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Powerful Doc THEY WILL HAVE TO KILL US FIRST: MALIAN MUSIC IN EXILE Gets U.S. Release Date | TRAILER
[caption id="attachment_11886" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile[/caption]
Timed to Music Freedom Day 2016, BBC Worldwide North America will release Johanna Schwartz’s “timely and powerful” feature documentary They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile.
They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile will open theatrically on March 4 in New York (Village East Cinema) and April 1 in Los Angeles (Laemmle Santa Monica Theater) with additional markets to follow.
Music is the beating heart of Malian culture, but when Islamic jihadists took control of northern Mali in 2012, they enforced one of the harshest interpretations of sharia law by banning all forms of music. Radio stations were destroyed, instruments burned, and Mali’s musicians faced torture, even death.
Overnight, the country’s revered musicians were forced into hiding or exile, where most remain — even now. But rather than laying down their instruments, these courageous artists fought back, standing up for their freedoms and using music as a weapon against the ongoing violence that has ravaged their homeland.
They Will Have To Kill Us First is director Schwartz’s debut feature, and follows Songhoy Blues andmusicians Kharia Arby, Fadimata “Disco” Walet Oumar,and Moussa Sidi as they each deal with the unfathomable situation in different ways. Telling the story of the uprising of Touareg separatists, revealing footage of the jihadists, and capturing life at refugee camps where both money and hope are scarce, Schwartz and her indefatigable, mainly female, crew chart the perilous journeys to war-ravaged cities, as some of Mali’s most talented musicians set up and perform at the first public concert in Timbuktu since the music ban.
Co-written by Schwartz and Andy Morgan, renowned journalist and former manager of Grammy® Award winning band Tinariwen, They Will Have To Kill Us First is produced by Sarah Mosses of Together Films and executive produced by Andre Singer (The Act of Killing) alongside Stephen Hendel, Victoria Steventon, OKAY Africa and Knitting Factory Entertainment.
They Will Have To Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile, features an original score by Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and a commissioned soundtrack featuring Songhoy Blues, Kharia Arby, Fadimata “Disco” Walet Oumar, Moussa Sidi and many more to be released on March 4 timed to the film’s release and Music Freedom Day 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TX7ybW6nAQ
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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