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Roger Ebert, arguably the most popular film critic of all times, died today in Chicago. He was 70.

Ebert was originally diagnosed with thyroid and salivary cancer cancer in 2002, but earlier this week, he disclosed that he will be taking a “leave of presence” due to a recurrence of cancer.

In 1975 Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, and in 2005 he became the first critic to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ebert is more well known for his pairing with fellow critic Gene Siskel, on their syndicated show, Siskel & Ebert, who with their trademark Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down rating system could make or break a movie. Siskel died of a brain tumor in 1999 at 53.  

After Siskel’s death, the show was renamed “Roger Ebert & the Movies” with a rotating cast of co-hosts. In September 2000 Richard Roeper, became the permanent co-host and the show was renamed “Ebert & Roeper.” Mr. Ebert eventually left the show in 2006 because of his illness, and Mr. Roeper left in 2008.

Since 1999 he had been host of Ebertfest, a film festival in Champaign, Ill. It is sometimes called Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival.

Ebert is survived by his wife Chaz Hammelsmith.

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 [caption id="attachment_3398" align="alignnone" width="550"]Fay Kanin (r) with Academy President Sid Ganis. [/caption]

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Fay Kanin, died Wednesday. She was 95.

Kanin wrote screenplays for 1958 Clark Gable-Doris Day comedy “Teacher’s Pet”, for which she received an Oscar nomination, and the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor romantic drama “Rhapsody”.

Kanin served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983, and was its second female president after actress Bette Davis. Kanin also was a longtime chairperson of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress and served on the board of the American Film Institute.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a statement,  “The Academy is deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved former president and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Fay Kanin.  She was committed to the Academy’s preservation work and instrumental in expanding our public programming. A tireless mentor and inspiration to countless filmmakers, Fay’s passion for film continues to inspire us daily. Our prayers and condolences go out to her loved ones.”

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[caption id="attachment_3241" align="alignnone" width="550"]The Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film in Generation 14plus, the team of Aphrodite’s Farm: producer Anzak Tindall, director Adam Strange at Berlin Festival[/caption]

Award-winning director Adam Strange was attacked and killed yesterday by what is believed to be a great white shark while swimming at popular Muriwai Beach north of Auckland, New Zealand. Strange was 46 years old.

“All of a sudden, we saw the shark fin and next minute, boom, attack him and then blood every where on the water,” said witness Pio Mose.  “He was still alive, he put his head up, we called him to swim over [to] the rock to where we were. He raised his hand up, and then while he was rising his hand up we saw another attack pull him in the water.”

Armed police immediately responded in a helicopter and an inflatable surf lifesaving boat, firing into the ocean to drive the sharks off so lifeguards could recover his body. 

The family later released a statement saying: “The family are grieving the loss of a glorious and great father, husband and friend.”

Strange won a Crystal Bear with his first short film Aphrodite’s Farm at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009.

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Sad new news to report today. Former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch, star of the documentary, aptly titled Koch, opening today, died Friday morning at age 88.

According to the NY Times, Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said the former mayor died at 2 a.m. from congestive heart failure. Mr. Koch who had experienced coronary and other medical problems since leaving office in 1989, was recently forced to miss the premiere of his documentary Koch.  Koch which opens today is a brilliant autobiographical documentary film of Mayor Koch that will now serve as a fitting obituary to his life.

The documentary opens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Angelika Film Center in New York on February 1. 

Read the review

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[caption id="attachment_2602" align="alignnone" width="550"]Jenni Rivera in Filly Brown[/caption]

Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera died Dec. 9 in a plane crash in Northern Mexico. She was 43.

The small jet carrying Ms. Rivera and six other passengers crashed about 3:30 a.m. in the mountainous terrain outside Monterrey, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There were no survivors

Rivera was also an actress, appearing in the indie film “Filly Brown,” which was shown at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, as the incarcerated mother of Filly Brown, a raw, young Los Angeles hip-hop artist.

In statements on the film’s Facebook page, the filmmakers said

“We wish to offer our most sincere condolences to the family, friends and millions of fans of Jenni Rivera. All who had experienced her powerful, heart-wrenching singing and acting performaces can find solace in the manner in which Jenni triumphed over her own personal adversity. For all of us in the Filly Brown family, including all of you fans, we are blessed to have shared, all too briefly, in yet another facet of this incredible artist. Usted siempre estará en nuestros corazónes.”

“The Filly Brown family is devastated by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague Jenni Rivera today. She was a uniquely talented woman and an inspiration to millions, especially those of us who were lucky enough to work with her. Though she’ll be remembered as a iconic singer, she was also a fantastic actress whose full range of talents the world was just beginning to discover.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to her children and family.”

Filly Brown is set for a April 2013 release date.

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Film director Tony Scott jumped to his death Sunday from the the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, California; a suicide note was found inside his black Toyota Prius. Scott, 68, younger brother of mega film producer Ridley Scott, was married to his third and current wife, actress Donna Scott and the couple have twin boys.

Scott, known for his trademark red baseball cap, directed Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” and “Days of Thunder,” Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop II,” Will Smith and Gene Hackman in “Enemy of the State,” and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in “The Taking of Pelham 123.”

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French director, Claude Miller, whose films won many awards, including the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the French version of the Oscar, the César, died on April 4 in Paris. He was 70.

Miller wrote and directed, “The Little Thief” about a troubled family and its offspring, other films include “Class Trip,” “A Secret,” “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” and “Alias Betty.”

His last film, “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” which was just selected as the closing film for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is the story of a restless woman who tries to poison her husband, then is punished by him with solitary confinement in her own home.

Source: NYTIMES

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French director, Claude Miller, whose films won many awards, including the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the French version of the Oscar, the César, died on April 4 in Paris. He was 70.

Miller wrote and directed, “The Little Thief” about a troubled family and its offspring, other films include “Class Trip,” “A Secret,” “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” and “Alias Betty.”

His last film, “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” which was just selected as the closing film for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is the story of a restless woman who tries to poison her husband, then is punished by him with solitary confinement in her own home.

Source: NYTIMES

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[caption id="attachment_2695" align="alignnone" width="550"]Director Jamaa Fanaka (via LA Tiimes)[/caption]

Jamaa Fanaka, director of 1979 independent film”Penitentiary” and who later made headlines with his legal battles with the Directors Guild of America alleging widespread discrimination against women and ethnic minorities in the film and television industry, has died, reports the Los Angeles Times. He was 69.

Fanaka was reportedly found dead in his apartment in South Los Angeles on Sunday with the cause of death likely from complications of diabetes.

Fanaka was still enrolled in the UCLA film school when he wrote, produced and directed his first three feature films, financed with competitive academic grants and funds from his parents: “Welcome Home, Brother Charles” (1975), “Emma Mae” (1976) and “Penitentiary,” which was both a critical and box-office success.

Fanaka went on to write, produce and direct two “Penitentiary” sequels, in 1982 and 1987. His sixth and final film was “Street Wars,” a low-budget 1992 action-drama set in South L.A.

More recently, Fanaka was the outspoken founder of the Directors Guild of America’s African American Steering Committee.

In 1999, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s decision to dismiss Fanaka’s race-discrimination lawsuit suit against the Directors Guild in which he claimed it was part of a “conspiracy” to keep women and minorities out of the industry.

And in 2002, the 9th Circuit upheld a district court decision to dismiss Fanaka’s race discrimination lawsuit filed against the major film studios and networks.

source: LA Times

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Mohamed Nasheed featured in the documentary ‘The Island President’ has been ousted from his post as president of the Maldives.

Nasheed says he expects to be jailed after being ousted from his post earlier in the week in what he said was a coup at gunpoint.

The Vice president Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik was installed as president.

Protests against Mr Nasheed’s government started after he ordered the military to arrest the criminal court chief justice.

The Maldives officially Republic of Maldives also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 700 kilometres (430 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south-west of India.

The Island President tells the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced–the literal survival of his country and everyone in it.

After leading a twenty-year pro-democracy movement against the brutal regime of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, surviving repeated imprisonments and torture, Nasheed becomes president at 41, only to encounter a far more implacable adversary than a dictator–the ocean. Considered the lowest lying country in the world, a rise of a mere three meters in sea level would inundate the 1200 islands of the Maldives, rendering the country practically unlivable. Unless dramatic changes are made by the larger countries of the world, the Maldives, like a modern Atlantis, will disappear under the waves.

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, a time when he influences the direction of international events in a way that few leaders have ever done, even in countries many times the size of the Maldives. Nasheed’s story culminates in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where we get a rare insider’s look at the political deal-making that goes on at such a top-level global assembly. Nasheed is unusually candid about revealing his strategies–leveraging the Maldives’ underdog position, harnessing the power of media, and overcoming deadlocks through an appeal to unity with other developing nations. When all hope fades for any kind of written accord to be signed, Nasheed makes a stirring speech which salvages an agreement. While Copenhagen is judged by many as a failure, it marked the first time in history that China, India, and the United States agreed to reduce carbon emissions.

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[caption id="attachment_2389" align="alignnone" width="393"]From left: Mike deGruy, Andrew Wight and James Cameron. Photo: Brook Rushton | National Geographic[/caption]

Two filmmakers, Mike deGruy, a biologist and conservationist, and Andrew Wight, a pilot and underwater cave diver, working with filmmaker James Cameron and National Geographic on a documentary film, were killed in a helicopter crash in Australia on Saturday.

Andrew Wight, 52, was the documentary-producing partner of James Cameron and the two recently co-produced Andrew’s first feature film, Sanctum 3D.

Mike deGruy, 60, spent 30 years producing and directing documentary films about the ocean and was the director of undersea photography for Cameron’s Last Mysteries of the Titanic.

Reacting to the deaths, Cameron said, “Mike and Andrew were like family to me. They were my deep-sea brothers, and both were true explorers who did extraordinary things and went places no human being has been. They died doing exactly what they loved most, heading out to sea on a new and personally challenging expedition, having fun in the way they defined it for themselves, which was hardship and toil to achieve something never done before. They were passionate storytellers who lived by the explorer’s code of humor, empathy, optimism, and courage. Their deaths are a tremendous loss for the world of underwater exploration, conservation, and filmmaking.”

Cameron added, “Andrew was kind and loyal, full of life and a sense of fun, and above all, a careful planner who stressed safety to everyone on his team every single day. It is cruelly ironic that he died flying a helicopter, which was second nature to him, like driving a car would be to most people.”

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[caption id="attachment_2385" align="alignnone"]Actor Ben Gazzara was awarded the Donostia prize for lifetime achievement at the 2005 San Sebastian Film Festival in San Sebastian.[/caption]

Actor Ben Gazzara, known for his strong performances on film, television and on Broadway including his role in “The Big Lebowski,” died Friday in Manhattan, New York at the age of 81.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his lawyer, Jay Julien, said.

Gazzara made his movie debut in 1957 in Calder Willingham’s “The Strange One,” and followed that film with “Anatomy of a Murder”

In addition to the “The Big Lebowski,”other films included Spike Lee’s “Summer of Sam” in 1999, where he played a mobster. He also spent time acting in movies in Italy, where he appeared in Marco Ferreri’s 1981 adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s “Tales of Ordinary Madness”; “Il Camorrista” (1986), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore; and Stefano Mignucci’s “Bandits” (1995).

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