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Yellow Veil Pictures Launches at Fantasia International Film Festival with German Horror Film LUZ

[caption id="attachment_30850" align="aligncenter" width="1300"] Luz[/caption] Yellow Veil Pictures, Inc. a new worldwide film sales company focusing exclusively on arthouse genre cinema launches out of the Frontières Co-Production Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival with the German horror film Luz. Yellow Veil Pictures is formed by Hugues Barbier, Ithaca Fantastik Founder and Festival Manager and Acquisitions for Raven Banner, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival founder and former Theatrical Manager of FilmRise, Justin Timms, and the former Festivals and Non-Theatrical Assistant Director of Visit Films, Joe Yanick, Co-Director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – NYC. In addition to Barbier, Timms, and Yanick, the team has brought on Fantasia International Film Festival’s International publicist Kaila Sarah Hier to handle the company’s press and publicity. Acquired after its world premiere at the Berlinale 2018, Luz has been celebrated internationally at festivals such as BAFICI, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and Fantaspoa (Best Actress winner – Luana Velis). It will make its North American premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Camera Lucida competitive section on July 20th. “From the first image, hell even the first sound, in Luz, it’s not only Tilman’s incredible talent but also his understanding of horror cinema is cemented. We just fell in love with the movie, and we knew we had to have it. It’s frankly one of the most impressive debuts I’ve ever seen. We couldn’t have found another film to better demonstrate our mission statement,” said Joe Yanick. Wrapping post-production, Josh Lobo’s directorial debut A Man in the Dark also joins Yellow Veil’s slate. Starring AJ Bowen (You’re Next), Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil), Chris Sullivan (Stranger Things), Scott Poythress (The Signal), and Susan Burke (Southbound), the Christmas-set psychological horror focuses on man’s descent into paranoia, after he traps what he believes to be the devil in his basement. Yellow Veil Pictures will also extend its company reach towards projects in development and have struck a deal with Man Underground (New Flesh Award Winner – Fantasia Film Festival 2016) filmmaking team Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine to package and secure financing for their sophomoric effort, Desert Witch. The script follows a punk singer, who, after being exiled from her community, is thrust into a small town conflict between religious extremists and an alleged coven of witches her estranged mother once belonged. The film will take place in a small desert community in the American West, and is slated for a 2019 production schedule. With a focus on the sustainability of the festival circuit, Yellow Veil Pictures offers their hand to titles needing festival strategy consultation and bookings. As part of this effort, they’ve penned a deal with Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment for the exclusive festival/non-theatrical rights on Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher, The Ranger, out of SXSW’s Midnights program “We seek to challenge the limits for commercial viability of arthouse genre and foreign language films for a redefined distribution landscape. These films were often lost in the festival circuit in years past, despite a noticeable growing interest from a more adventurous audience looking for new, exciting films with greater representation” Hugues Barbier added.
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10 Indie Films Win Spring 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grants

[caption id="attachment_30788" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] (l to r.) Director Boots Riley and Steven Yeun on the set of SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release.[/caption] Ten indie narrative films will receive a total of $250,000 in funding in the latest round of SFFILM Rainin Grants, to support the next stage of their creative process, from screenwriting to post-production. SFFILM Rainin Grants provided by SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, are awarded twice annually to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have significant economic and/or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community or meaningfully explore pressing social issues. Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2018 round of SFFILM Rainin Grants; the deadline to apply is August 29. For more information visit sffilm.org/makers. SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM Rainin Grant program has awarded over $5 million to more than 100 projects since its inception, including Boots Riley’s indie phenomenon Sorry to Bother You, which hit theaters nationwide this month; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year; Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which screened at Sundance and Cannes in 2015; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at SXSW 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture). The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Noah Cowan, SFFILM Executive Director; Lauren Kushner, SFFILM Senior Manager of Artist Development; Kimberly Parker, film producer; Jennifer Rainin, CEO of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Jenny Slattery, SFFILM Associate Director of Foundations and Artist Development; Shelby Stone, President of Production at Freedom Road Productions; and Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development. The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support these ten extraordinarily talented filmmaking teams, five of whom are filmmakers based here in the Bay Area. Each of these filmmakers is creating a rich and singular world while wrestling with essential social justice issues. We look forward to being allies and supporters to these artists as they bring this expansive range of visions to life.”
SPRING 2018 SFFILM RAININ GRANT WINNERS
Cops and Robbers Jinho “Piper” Ferreira, writer; Jason Michael Berman, producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Frustrated with the lack of impact of his artistic efforts and haunted by the police killing of Oscar Grant, John “Jay” Punch decides to pay his own way through the police academy in an attempt to create change from the inside. He finds out very quickly that he’s in for the fight of his life, and the thing most likely to be changed is him. The Huntress Suzanne Andrews Correa, writer/director (screenwriting) – $25,000 In Ciudad Juarez, a city where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished, an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice. I’m No Longer Here Fernando Frias, writer/director; Gerardo Gatica, Gerry Kim, and Alberto Muffelmann, producers (post-production) – $40,000 After a misunderstanding with members of a local cartel, 17-year-old Ulises Samperio is forced to migrate to the US, leaving behind what defines him most: his gang and the dance parties that he loves so much. He tries to adapt to American life, but quickly realizes that he would rather return home than confront the alienation he faces in New York. Mafak Bassam Jarbawi, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe and Yasmine Qaddumi, producers (post-production) – $30,000 After 15 years of imprisonment, Ziad struggles to adjust to modern Palestinian life as the hero everyone hails him to be. Unable to distinguish reality from hallucination, he unravels and drives himself back to where it all began. Santosh Sandhya Suri, writer/director; Diarmid Scrimshaw and Anna Duffield, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 In the rural hinterlands of Northern India, a young woman police officer is drawn into a sex crime investigation steeped in prejudice and corruption. Her journey to confront the killer challenges both who she is and who she wants to become. Sealskin Woman Tani Ikeda, director/co-writer; A-lan Holt, co-writer (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young girl goes to live with her grandparents in Japan after her mother dies. There she discovers that the people who are supposed to protect her can’t, and she must rely on her own magic to save herself. Shit & Champagne D’Arcy Drollinger, writer/director, Michelle Moretta and Brian Benson, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 Shit & Champagne is a high-octane, high-camp, slapstick send-up of the iconic exploitation films of the 1970s. The film is a tribute to female empowerment flavored with borscht belt comedy, with an original funk score, fabulous vintage-inspired fashion, and cross-gender casting. Strange Fruit Elizabeth Oyebode, writer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Thirty years after slavery’s end, a pugnacious Black newswoman, embarks on a life-threatening investigation into the Black lives that America contends do not matter. Sutro Forest Travis Matthews, writer/director; Mollye Asher, João Federici and George Rush, producers (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young homeless woman prepares to leave San Francisco for a new opportunity, but when her brother goes missing, she loses herself on a mysterious journey that puts her in mortal danger. Todos los Cuerpos Pequeños (All Small Bodies) Jennifer Reeder, writer/director; Laura Heberton, writer/producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 In a not-too-distant dystopian future, in the wake of a climate-change-related disaster, two nearly wild mixed-race girls with special powers named Z and Bub fight to survive along the desert ruins of the former US/Mexico border wall.
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5 Projects Selected for Sundance Institute ‘s 2018 Documentary Edit and Story Lab

Christopher McNabb, Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan work on “Whose Streets?” at the 2016 Documentary Editing Lab. © 2016 Sundance Institute | Photo by Jonathan Hickerson.

Five projects will convene at the Sundance Resort in Utah for the Sundance Institute flagship Documentary Edit and Story Lab on July 6.

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RIP: Claude Lanzmann Director of Holocaust Documentary SHOAH Dead at 92

French film-maker and journalist Claude Lanzmann, best known for directing the Holocaust documentary Shoah, died today in Paris, he was 92. His first documentary Pourquoi Israel? (Why Israel?) was released in 1973, and he began filming Shoah, a year later in 1974, conducting a series of filmed interview with death camp survivors all over the world. Lanzmann was reportedly attacked while attempting a covert interview, and was hospitalized for a month. Over nine hours long and 11 years in the making, Shoah presents Lanzmann’s interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators during visits to German Holocaust sites across Poland, including extermination camps. Released in Paris in April 1985, Shoah won critical acclaim and many prestigous awards, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film in 1985, a special citation at the 1985 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, and the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary in 1986. That year it also won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film and Best Documentary at the International Documentary Association. Lanzmann has released four feature-length films based on unused material shot for Shoah. A Visitor from the Living (fr) (1997) about a Red Cross representative, Maurice Rossel, who in 1944 wrote a favourable report about the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001) about Yehuda Lerner, who participated in an uprising against the camp guards and managed to escape. The Karski Report (fr) (2010) about Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski’s visit to Franklin Roosevelt in 1943. The Last of the Unjust (2013) about Benjamin Murmelstein, a controversial Jewish rabbi in the Theresienstadt ghetto during World War II. Previously unseen Shoah outtakes have also been featured in Adam Benzine’s HBO documentary Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah (2015), which examines Lanzmann’s life during 1973–1985, the years he spent making Shoah. Lanzmann’s final film, Napalm, which premiered at Cannes in 2017, drew on his earlier visits to North Korea as a young journalist, in which he revealed his brief affair with a North Korean nurse. Claude Lanzmann received a Honorary Golden Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, and was made Grand Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor on July 14, 2011. Update: Berlinale issued a statement French director and author Claude Lanzmann has passed away. “Claude Lanzmann was one of the great documentarists. With his depictions of inhumanity and violence, of anti-Semitism and its consequences, he created a new kind of cinematic and ethical exploration. We mourn the loss of an important personality of the political-intellectual life of our time,” says Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah (1985) made cinematic history as an unparalleled masterpiece of commemorative culture. The nine-and-a-halfhour documentary on the genocide of European Jews was screened in the Berlinale Forum in 1986 and received numerous international awards. Born in Paris in 1925 to Jewish parents, Claude Lanzmann fought in the Résistance, studied philosophy in France and Germany, and held a lectureship at the then newly founded Freie Universität Berlin in 1948/49. His exploration of the Shoah, anti-Semitism and political struggles for freedom infuse both his cinematic and journalistic work. His first film was made in 1972, the documentary Pourquoi Israël (Israel, Why; France 1973), in which he illustrates the necessity of Israel’s founding from the Jewish perspective. In the film Tsahal, which screened in the 1995 Berlinale Forum, he focuses on women and men who serve in the Israeli Army. Sobibor, 14 octobre 1943, 16 heures (France 2001), about the 1943 revolt in the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland, was also screened in the Berlinale Forum, in 2002. In 2013, the Berlinale honoured him with an Homage and awarded the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIV7SYk9mWk
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Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick to Receive Sam Spiegel Intl Film Lab 1st Force-of-Nature Filmmaking Award

[caption id="attachment_30614" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Dieter Kosslick[/caption] The Sam Spiegel International Film Lab (Son of Saul, The Kindergarten Teacher, Red Cow) will present the first Force-of-Nature Filmmaking Award to longtime Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick. The Sam Spiegel International Film Lab in Jerusalem is a program to promote filmmakers’ projects launched by the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in 2011. The new Force-of-Nature Filmmaking Award is conceived to honor extraordinary personalities committed to the development of world cinema. Dieter Kosslick will be presented with the Force-of-Nature Filmmaking Award in Jerusalem on July 6, 2018. “A particular concern of mine has always been the national and international promotion and funding of talent and up-and-coming filmmakers. I’m exceedingly pleased to receive this award,” said Dieter Kosslick.
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Filmmaker and Graphic Designer Kyle Cooper to be Honored at Locarno Film Festival

Filmmaker and graphic designer Kyle Cooper will receive the Vision Award Ticinomoda, dedicated to those who have used their talents to create new perspectives in the world of cinema at the upcoming 71st Locarno Festival. Kyle Cooper will be a guest in Piazza Grande on Sunday August 5, and the tribute will be accompanied by a screening of the film Se7en. Born in 1962 in Salem, Massachusetts, Kyle Cooper is one of the most original and innovative film title designers in world cinema. Known to the mainstream public for the opening sequence he created for the film Se7en (1995), directed by David Fincher, Cooper has given fresh impetus to the art of movie titling. Over the three decades of his career to date he has directed and produced over 350 titles sequences, working with some of the highest profile filmmakers in global cinema. After studying graphic design at the Yale School of Art and under the guidance of noted U.S. designer Paul Rand, he named and co-founded one of Hollywood’s most successful creative agencies: Imaginary Forces. His career as director and graphic designer took off with the title sequence for Se7en (1995), a milestone which the New York Times Magazine hailed as “one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”. Cooper experimented with kinetic typography, reprising the work of Saul Bass and attuning lettering and other elements to each single movie, as with the hieroglyphs of The Mummy (1999) or the cobweb typography of the first Spider-Man movie (2002). He came up with an astonishing range of techniques to capture viewers’ attention during the opening minutes, immersing them in the atmosphere of the film from the very outset. The range of films and genres on which he worked was equally broad: Braveheart (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Across the Universe (2007), The New World (2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Final Destination 5 (2011), Black Mass (2015), Argo (2012), Mission Impossible (1996), Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), Mother! (2017). He also worked for television, with The Walking Dead (2010), American Horror Story (2011), Scream Queens (2015), Limitless (2015), Feud (2017), and lastly for video games, in such as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), Scarface: The World Is Yours (2006), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) and Death Stranding (upcoming). He worked also on brand designing brands such as SU2C and Marvel logo animation. In 2003 he left Imaginary Forces and set up the creative agency Prologue Films. In 2008 he was a finalist at the National Design Awards. He has earned five nominations for the Emmy Awards. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he also holds the title of Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London. Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival: “Kyle Cooper is an artist who has single-handedly changed the visual impact of contemporary cinema. His hundreds of creations have been gateways to iconic movies loved by millions of viewers. His title sequences combine experimentation and graphic research, CGI (computer-generated imagery) and details borrowed from often invisible microcosms, breaking down the barriers between auteur and mainstream, crafting and industry. The award is both a mark of our recognition of the significance of his work and an invitation to reassess the role and value of these short films within films.” Kyle Cooper will receive the Vision Award Ticinomoda in Piazza Grande on the evening of August 5. On the following day, Monday August 6, he will hold a master class. The tribute will also be accompanied by screenings of a selection of films reflecting his career. In recent years the Locarno Festival has given the Vision Award, introduced in 2013, to Douglas Trumbull (2013), Garrett Brown (2014), Walter Murch (2015), Howard Shore (2016) and José Luis Alcaine (2017). The 71st Locarno Festival will take place from August 1 to 11, 2018. https://vimeo.com/9400332
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CRYSTAL SWAN is Belarus Entry in Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | Trailer

In a series of first, Darya Zhuk’s debut feature “Crystal Swan” about a young female DJ in Belarus who hope to emigrate to the U.S, which world premieres at the 2018 Karlovy Vary Film Festival has been selected as Belarus’ submission for the Oscars’ foreign-language film category for the 91st Academy Awards reports Variety. This is the first country to publicly announce their selection for the 91st Academy Awards race, and it is the first time Belarus has entered a film in the Oscars competition for 22 years.
In post-Soviet Belarus, unemployed raver Velya dreams of emigrating to the U.S. After purchasing blank letterhead and forging proof of employment to win a much-coveted visa, her dream appears within reach… Until Velya realizes the American consulate plans to call the fake phone number on her application to confirm her employment. Velya’s only solution is to endure a week in a small factory town to convince the authorities of her supposed job. She locates the cramped Soviet apartment on the other end of the line, overrun by a family preparing for the wedding of their son. The imperious mother refuses to lie for her, but Velya negotiates a solution: she can answer the phone during business hours as if she works at the factory. But Velya’s presence soon upends both the family’s and the town’s order, with potentially disastrous consequences for all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eav__UGDdQ
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Meet SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’s Writer and Director Boots Riley [Video]

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU written and directed by Boots Riley opens in select theaters on Friday, July 6th and everywhere July 13th. The film features an all star cast including Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer, Terry Crews, Steven Yeun, Omari Hardwick, Jermaine Fowler, and Danny Glover. What is the film about? In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH3xA4mYcY Now get to know SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’S writer and director Boots Riley before the film debuts in theaters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hesissxRP8
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3 Filmmaking Teams Win Inaugural $10,000 SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowships
[caption id="attachment_30369" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Isabel Castro, Ted Passon, and Yoni Brook[/caption] Three filmmaking teams -Isabel Castro, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and Ted Passon and Yoni Brook – have been awarded the inaugural SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowships. Fellowships are awarded to filmmakers working in the early stages of developing compelling, story-driven documentary features. The inaugural fellowships will run July through December of this year. Also, in keeping with SFFILM’s broader commitment to the Bay Area’s documentary filmmaking community, SFFILM’s popular Doc Talks series of nonfiction filmmaking workshops will continue at the organization’s FilmHouse residency space through a renewed grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first of its kind in the United States, the SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowship supports documentary filmmakers working in the early development stage by providing financial support, mentorship, and continued artistic and industry guidance through the completion of their films. This fellowship seeks to provide direct assistance at the point in the filmmaking process when finding funding is critical, yet few funding opportunities from traditional granting programs exist. By providing support before the fundraising process even begins, this opportunity will facilitate the creation of strong grant proposals and fundraising trailers that will allow these projects to evolve through development and into production. “Each of these fellows has taken on a strikingly different project,” said SFFILM Director of Artist Development, Caroline von Kühn. “This inaugural group of fellows brings us an intimate, acutely relevant story about a family, a closely observed exploration of a political institution, and a hybrid film about a novelist’s inner landscape and acts of resistance. What ties them together is a clarity of vision and a deep curiosity. We are excited to provide early support to these compassionate, ambitious storytellers as they undertake their investigations and bring their visions to life.”
2018 SFFILM CATAPULT DOCUMENTARY FELLOWSHIPS
Isabel Castro: Mixed Status Isabel Castro is an award-winning Mexican American documentary director, producer, and cinematographer. In addition to winning a 2015 GLAAD Award for her directorial debut Crossing Over, she worked on two seasons of the Emmy-award winning series VICE on HBO and helped launch VICE News Tonight on HBO as a producer covering civil rights and policy. Her work there was nominated for a News Emmy in 2017. She is currently freelancing as a video journalist for the New York Times and producing an interview series about immigration for the Marshall Project. About Mixed Status: The mother? Undocumented. The father? Deported. The children? One citizen, two Dreamers. Against the backdrop of shifting border immigration policy, the Arvizus, a mixed-status family in El Paso, Texas, navigate love, work, and the desire for a better life. Ted Passon and Yoni Brook: Philly District Attorney (working title) Ted Passon is an award-winning filmmaker and video artist. He is a 2016 Sundance Lab Creative Summit Fellow. He is also a recipient of the Pew Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship Grant and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant. Passon has exhibited his award-winning short films in festivals and galleries around the US and abroad including exhibitions by the Whitney Museum, French Institute Alliance Francais, and the TBA Festival. Passon was a 2016 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Yoni Brook is an Independent Spirit Award-nominated cinematographer and producer. He co-shot and produced the feature Menashe which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by A24. His cinematography credits include Valley of Saints, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award and Alfred P. Sloan Award. As a documentary director, his films have premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (Best Documentary Short), True/False Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). About Philly District Attorney: A band of activists, led by defense attorney Larry Krasner, takes the reins of the agency at the center of mass incarceration: the district attorney’s office. Embedded behind closed doors, the filmmakers capture an unprecedented criminal justice experiment as it unfolds and asks if real reform is possible. Malika Zouhali-Worrall: Untitled Dystopia Film Malika Zouhali-Worrall is an Emmy award-winning director and editor. Her first film, Call me Kuchu, a collaboration with Katherine Fairfax Wright, screened at more than 200 film festivals, and received 20 awards, including the Berlinale’s Teddy Award. Her second film, Thank You for Playing, a collaboration with David Osit and an ITVS/POV co-production, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on POV. Zouhali-Worrall is a Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellow and an alum of the Film Independent Documentary Lab, Tribeca All Access, the Garrett Scott Documentary Development grant, and Firelight Producers Lab. In 2012, Filmmaker magazine named Malika one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film About Untitled Dystopia Film: Caught in a modern-day dystopia, a novelist uses fiction to examine the very real brutality and absurdity of authoritarian rule. The selected SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellows will receive:
- A $10,000 cash grant
- Time spent developing their project at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s artist community space. Residency at FilmHouse includes access to its robust series of presentations and workshops with leading industry professionals, peer reviews, and networking opportunities Strategic consultation from SFFILM and Catapult Film Fund staff, as well as documentary mentors, guiding them artistically and with industry support to successfully enter fundraising and production
- In addition to funding resources and consultation services from SFFILM and Catapult, fellows will be included in a robust mentorship program as part of the FilmHouse resident community and a select group of additional documentary advisors. Integrated into SFFILM’s mentor- and peer-oriented support structures, SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellows will have access to an established network of directors, producers, editors, managers, and legal consultants to help navigate their looming funding and producing concerns.
The fellowship selection process seeks out documentary features with an emphasis on powerful stories, compelling storytelling, a broad spectrum of issues and perspectives. The program is open to documentary makers across the US in the development phase of their projects. The application period for the next round of SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowships opens January 2019. The program is open to documentary makers across the US in the development phase of their projects.
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Rose McGowan: We need to have a conversation about suicide. Blame is not that conversation.

Rose McGowan today released a very important timely message, in the wake of the recent suicides, including that of Anthony Bourdain, who was in a relationship with her close pal Asia Argento. If you are considering suicide, please find information below. Sitting across from me is the remarkable human and brave survivor, Asia Argento, who has been through more than most could stand, and yet stand she does. She stood up to her monster rapist and now she has to stand up to yet another monster, suicide. The suicide of her beloved lover and ally, Anthony Bourdain. I write these truths because I have been asked to. I know so many around the world thought of Anthony Bourdain as a friend and when a friend dies, it hurts. Many of these people who lost their ‘friend’ are wanting to lash out and blame. You must not sink to that level. Suicide is a horrible choice, but it is that person’s choice. When Anthony met Asia, it was instant chemistry. They laughed, they loved and he was her rock during the hardships of this last year. Anthony was open with his demons, he even wrote a book about them. In the beginning of their relationship, Anthony told a mutual friend, “He’s never met anyone who wanted to die more than him.” And through a lot of this last year, Asia did want the pain to stop. But here’s the thing, over their time together, thankfully, she did the work to get help, so she could stay alive and live another day for her and her children. Anthony’s depression didn’t let him, he put down his armor, and that was very much his choice. His decision, not hers. His depression won. Anthony and Asia had a free relationship, they loved without borders of traditional relationships, and they established the parameters of their relationship early on. Asia is a free bird, and so was Anthony. Was. Such a terrible word to write. I’ve heard from many that the past two years they were together were some of his happiest and that should give us all solace. Anthony was 61, the same age my father was when he died. My father also suffered from intermittent deep depression, and like Anthony, was part of a “pull up your bootstraps and march on” generation. The a “strong man doesn’t ask for help” generation. I know before Anthony died he reached out for help, and yet he did not take the doctor’s advice. And that has led us here, to this tragedy, to this loss, to this world of hurt. Do NOT do the sexist thing and burn a woman on the pyre of misplaced blame. Anthony’s internal war was his war, but now she’s been left on the battlefield to take the bullets. It is in no way fair or acceptable to blame her or anyone else, not even Anthony. We are asking you to be better, to look deeper, to read and learn about mental illness, suicide and depression before you make it worse for survivors by judging that which we do not understand, that which can never fully be understood. Sometimes we are stuck in the unknowable, and that is where we are now, a massive wave of darkness that threatens to swallow everyone in its wake. As I watch Asia do her job on set today, I see a pillar of strength who continues to work to put food on her children’s table. I see Elizabeth Taylor carrying on filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof despite her love, her husband, dying in a plane crash. I see all of us who have carried on. Please join me in sending healing energy to Anthony on his journey, and to all who’ve been left behind to journey on without him. There is no one to blame but the stigma of loneliness, the stigma of asking for help, the stigma of mental illness, the stigma of being famous and hurting. We must do more and be better. Anthony, our friend, would want it that way. To the media and to the random commenter, Anthony would never have wanted Asia to be hurt, I’d like to think he would want us to have the collective conversation that needs to be had about depression. Blame is NOT a conversation, it is the shutting down of our collective growth. Which is where we are now. We have a choice as humans, shrink to our smaller, uglier selves, or be better and grow as only true Phoenixes can. I urge you to be that Phoenix. With great sadness and even greater hope, I remain, Rose McGowan cc: Asia Argento If you are considering suicide, reach out. We need you here. You matter. You exist. You count. There is help a phone call away, reach out. Suicide Prevention Hotlines: Argentina: +5402234930430 Australia: 131114 Austria: 017133374 Belgium: 106 Bosnia & Herzegovina: 080 05 03 05 Botswana: 3911270 Brazil: 212339191 Canada: 5147234000 (Montreal); 18662773553 (outside Montreal) Croatia: 014833888 Denmark: +4570201201 Egypt: 7621602 Finland: 010 195 202 France: 0145394000 Germany: 08001810771 Holland: 09000767 Hong Kong: +852 2382 0000 Hungary: 116123 India: 8888817666 Ireland: +4408457909090 Israel: 1201 or 972-889-1333 from abroad Italy: 800860022 Japan: +810352869090 Mexico: 5255102550 New Zealand: 045861048 Norway: +4781533300 Pakistan: 15 / 115 (Emergency) Philippines: 028969191 Poland: 5270000 Russia: 0078202577577 Spain: 914590050 South Africa: 0514445691 Sweden: 46317112400 Switzerland: 143 United Kingdom: 08457909090 USA: 18002738255 For a USA Crisis Text Line, please text CONNECT to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, anytime, about any type of crisis.
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RIP: First ‘Bond Girl’ Eunice Gayson Dies at 90

Eunice Gayson, the very first ‘Bond girl’ who played Sylvia Trench in Dr. No and From Russia With Love died on Friday, June 8. She was 90. The news was tweeted by the official James Bond account. https://twitter.com/007/status/1005441780995837952 https://twitter.com/EuniceGayson/status/1005404262480990208 Originally, Eunice Gayson was to be cast as Miss Moneypenny, but that part went to Lois Maxwell instead. She was the first official Bond girl. Gayson also played a major role in the Hammer horror film The Revenge of Frankenstein.
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12 Canadian Creatives Selected for TIFF Writers’ Studio 2018/19

Today TIFF announced the 12 selected participants in this year’s TIFF Writers’ Studio. The lineup features six women and six men, highlighting Canada’s best-emerging writers and underscoring TIFF’s commitment to gender parity across the breadth of its talent-development programs. The women in this year’s intake will be supported in part by the organization’s trailblazing Share Her Journey campaign, which champions women both in front of and behind the camera. The 2018–19 TIFF Writers’ Studio participants are: Danilo Baracho, Yung Chang, Martin Edralin, Sarah Goodman, Carinne Leduc, Jennifer Liao, Frieda Luk, Kaveh Nabatian, Celeste Parr, Kazik Radwanski, Lina Rodriguez, and Jorge Thielen-Armand. Launched in 2012, the Industry programme provides a space for mid-career screenwriters to consolidate their skills, exchange ideas, and discuss their challenges in a collaborative and artistic environment. This year’s candidates will develop their chosen screenplay with expert support from international script consultants. “We’re delighted to welcome this exceptionally talented group to TIFF Writers’ Studio,” said Kathleen Drumm, TIFF Industry Director. “Now in its sixth cycle, the program has proved successful in preparing Canada’s best and brightest talent for the global film industry. Candidates will be inspired to take their careers to the next level by developing their creative processes in a series of candid sessions with distinguished local and international writing mentors.” TIFF Studio has helped cultivate exciting new cinematic voices. Notable alumni include filmmakers Pat Mills (Don’t Talk to Irene); Molly McGlynn (Mary Goes Round); Joyce Wong (Wexford Plaza); and Ashley McKenzie (Werewolf). Following their involvement in TIFF Studio, these filmmakers have gone on to success. Pat Mills was named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2018. His film Don’t Talk to Irene won the Comedy Vanguard Jury and Audience Awards at the Austin Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution in the US by Gravitas Ventures. Molly McGlynn won top prizes at the Annapolis Film Festival and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for Mary Goes Round in 2018. Joyce Wong won the Jury Award at the Austin Asian American Film Festival in 2017, the Jury Award for best screenplay at the Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival, and the award for the best narrative feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The same year, Ashley McKenzie’s Werewolf won Best Canadian Film at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. In 2016 she won Best First Film by a Canadian Director and was nominated for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. TIFF Writers’ Studio will run on a monthly basis from June 15 through January 2019 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The sessions will focus on script development, pitching, and creating memorable characters. Participants will receive an Industry Pass for the Toronto International Film Festival in September and for Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival in January. TIFF Writers’ Studio is produced by TIFF International Programmer Jane Schoettle and supported by Share Her Journey.
TIFF Writers’ Studio 2018 Biographies:
Danilo Baracho Danilo Baracho is a Brazilian-Canadian filmmaker who studied audiovisual communication at the University of Salamanca in Spain. He has written and directed five short films, which have been screened at over 100 film festivals around the world. He is an alumnus of TIFF Talent Lab and the Reykjavik Talent Lab. Yung Chang Yung Chang is the writer and director of Up the Yangtze (07), China Heavyweight (12), and The Fruit Hunters (13). He is completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, and in production for a feature documentary about Robert Fisk. Chang’s films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, TIFF, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Hong Kong and have screened theatrically in cinemas around the world. Martin Edralin Martin Edralin is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose films have screened at TIFF, Sundance, VIFF, and Festival du nouveau cinéma. His film credits include Hole (14), which won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short; Emma (16), which was selected for the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival; and Building History: The Story of Benjamin Brown (16), which was nominated for a Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Edralin is an alumnus of the Locarno Film Festival Filmmakers’ Academy and the Reykjavik Talent Lab. Sarah Goodman Sarah Goodman is an award-winning director, producer, and writer whose works have played at TIFF, IDFA, and Hot Docs. Her credits include Army of One (03), When We Were Boys (09), Hidden Driveway (11), and Porch Stories (14). She is an alumna of the TIFF Talent Lab and the Berlinale Talent Campus and a member of Film Fatales. Her next feature, Lake 239, is currently in development, and she is a consulting producer on a scripted series that is also in development. Carinne Leduc Carinne Leduc is an award-winning French-Canadian actor, writer, and director. She co-wrote and starred in her first feature film, 3 Saisons (08), which was nominated for three Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. Leduc has directed a number of short films, music videos, and commercials and has two features in development. Jennifer Liao Jennifer Liao is a director, writer, and producer. Her credits include the social-media storytelling project Crushing It! A Social Media Love Story (10), the feature film Sex After Kids (13), episodes of the crime drama Blood and Water (15–), and End of Days, Inc. (15), which was supported by Telefilm Canada. She was also a creative consultant on the TV adaptation of the Ava Lee novels. Frieda Luk Frieda Luk is a director and screenwriter. Her credits include Delicacy (12), which screened at Telluride and Tribeca, and American Sisyphus (12) and The Encounter (14), both of which premiered at TIFF. In 2011 she was nominated for a New York Women in Film and Television award, and in 2013 she received a scholarship to study in France that was supported by the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation. She has an MFA in directing from Columbia University and is an alumna of TIFF’s 2016 Talent Lab. Kaveh Nabatian Kaveh Nabatian is an Iranian-Canadian director and writer. He has spent the last decade directing and shooting fiction films, music videos, television series, and documentaries all over the world, including Montreal, Nunavut, Haiti, Mexico, and South Africa. Recent projects include a feature-length documentary about Leonard Cohen, commissioned by the CBC, and collaborations with Arcade Fire, Leif Vollebekk, Kahlil Joseph, and Half Moon Run. Celeste Parr Celeste Parr made her television debut writing for CBC’s This Life (16), for which she was nominated for a 2017 WGC Award for Best Writing for a Television Drama. In 2017, the pilot for her original drama series The Brac was selected for the TV writing program from the ATX Television Festival and The Black List. Parr is currently developing a television show and several features. Kazik Radwanski Kazik Radwanski studied film at Ryerson University and co-founded the production company MDFF in 2008. His films have screened at Berlin, Locarno, TIFF, Venice, NYFF, and the BFI London Film Festival. His credits include Tower (12); How Heavy This Hammer (15), which was nominated for Best Canadian Film of the Year by the Toronto Film Critics Association; and Scaffold (17). Lina Rodriguez Lina Rodriguez is a Colombian-Canadian filmmaker. Her short films have played the Images Festival and NYFF, and her film and video installations and performances have been exhibited in festivals such as Nuit Blanche. Her first feature, Señoritas (13), premiered at the Cartagena Film Festival. Her second feature, Mañana a esta hora (16), premiered at Locarno, was released in six cities in Colombia, and opened theatrically in New York City and Toronto. Jorge Thielen-Armand Jorge Thielen-Armand is a director and producer. His debut feature film, La Soledad (16), premiered at Venice and screened at over 50 festivals, including the Durban International Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay. His documentary Flor de la Mar (15) received the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. In 2015, he founded La Faena Films with Rodrigo Michelangeli. Image: 1st row (left to right): Danilo Baracho, Yung Chang, Sarah Goodman, Martin Edralin 2nd row (left to right): Carinne Leduc, Jennifer Liao, Kaveh Nabatian, Frieda Luk 3rd row (left to right): Celeste Parr, Kazik Radwanski, Jorge Thielen-Armand, Lina Rodriguez
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TIFF Writers’ Studio 2018 Biographies: