The 35th edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival returns to the Bay Area July 23 to August 9, 2015, and will kick off with director Jonathan John Goldschmidt’s DOUGH (pictured above), a British dramedy about an old elderly Jewish baker (Jonathan Pryce) struggling to keep his business afloat until his young Muslim apprentice (Jerome Holder) accidentally drops cannabis in the dough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSsw_PETLI
The 2015 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival closes with Erez Miller’s EAST JERUSALEM, WEST JERUSALEM, about Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza who sets out to realize his dream of cooperation and dialog between Israelis and Palestinians through music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rODvYehQiXk
The Centerpiece Narrative is MY SHORTEST LOVE AFFAIR, written and directed by Karin Albou, which follows Louisa (Karin Albou)and Charles (Patrick Mimoun), former lovers who, now middle-aged, have crossed paths at an arts festival in Paris. After a night together Louisa winds up pregnant. Together the two try to make their relationship work again.
Following its world premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, THE ARMOR OF LIGHT will screen as the festival’s Centerpiece Documentary. Directed by Abigail Disney, the film follows the journey of Reverend Rob Schenck, a Jewish born evangelical minister who finds the courage to preach about the toll of gun violence in America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V8Oc8J8maQ
In keeping with tradition, to highlight the programming in Berkeley, VERY SEMI-SERIOUS has been selected as the Berkeley Big Night film . Winner of the San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Documentary, VERY SEMI-SERIOUS (former Bay Area filmmaker Leah Wolchock) is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the single panel. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at The New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled—and occasionally pissed off—all of us for decades.
The festival will open in Palo Alto with Yari and Cary Wolinsky’s RAISE THE ROOF, a look at professor Rick Brown who works with his wife Laura to rebuild a series of now vanished synagogues as they track the labor and love that illuminate these glorious pieces of history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPUwxxidhHM
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT will screen for Bay Area audiences following its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival as the Oakland Opening Night film. PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT offers a rare look into Guggenheim’s world: blending the abstract, the colorful, the surreal and the salacious, to portray a life that was as complex and unpredictable as the artwork Peggy revered and the artists she pushed forward.
On Friday, July 31 at the Castro Theater, the SF Jewish Film Festival will present a day of social justice films, : Take Action: Repairing the World One Film at a Time. The five-film lineup embodies the Jewish value of tikkun olam – which suggests humanity’s shared responsibility to heal, repair and transform the world. This event will screen films in collaboration with local organizations to inspire action on the issues presented in the films: Judith Helfand’s BLUE VINYL (2002); Aviva Kempner’s ROSENWALD; Berkeley based filmmaker Rick Goldsmith’s MIND/GAMES: THE UNQUIET JOURNEY OF CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW; Melissa Donovan’s ZEMENE and Dara Bratt’s THE SINGING ABORTIONIST.
PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF JERRY ROSS BARRISH, Directed by William Farley and produced by SFJFF co-founder former SFJFF Director, Janis Plotkin, has been selected for the Local Spotlight. PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF JERRY ROSS BARRISH, follows San Francisco’s best known bail bondsman through his journey of breaking the hardworking Jewish family mold he grew up in, to diving head first into the world of art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlfVO1hbj_k
Other new documentaries by local filmmakers working with Jewish themes, include ED & PAULINE and LOVE & TAXES. ED & PAULINE is a film about cinephiles in love…or not. Christian Bruno’s film tells how film critic Pauline Kael and Ed Landberg transformed a small storefront theater in Berkeley into a church for movie lovers. LOVE & TAXES stars Bay Area icon Josh Kornbluth in a semi-autobiographical comedy about his struggles to make ends meet as he begins a relationship during the “Haiku Tunnel” time in his life. The film is directed by his brother Jacob Kornbluth.
In the Next Wave Spotlight, Kevin Kerslake looks at Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM, a man with deep passions and aggressive demons, in AS I AM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DJ AM. An official selection of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, AS I AM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DJ AM is an insider’s look into the life of the late, great mash-up pioneer. His incredibly complex personal life was lived under the specter of drug addiction.
Additional Next Wave Films include HOT SUGAR’S COLD WORLD, WHEN I LIVE MY LIFE OVER NEXT AGAIN and DANNY SAY’S. With cameos by Jim Jarmusch and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, HOT SUGAR’S COLD WORLD is a fly on-the-wall look into the life of Nick Koenig (Hot Sugar) as he creates one-of-a-kind music made entirely out of sounds from the world around him. An aging crooner played by Christopher Walken and his daughter played by Amber Heard star in WHEN I LIVE MY LIFE OVER NEXT AGAIN. A look at the life of Danny Fields, the little known Jewish godfather of punk rock is explored in DANNY SAY’S.
Films about Art include PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF GERRY JERRY ROSS BARRISH, PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT and THE ART DEALER.
PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF GERRY JERRY ROSS BARRISH follows San Francisco’s best known bail bondsman through his journey of breaking the hardworking Jewish family mold he grew up in, to diving head first into the world of art. Produced by SFJFF Founder Janis Plotkin and directed by William Farley.
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT offers a rare look into Guggenheim’s world: blending the abstract, the colorful, the surreal and the salacious, to portray a life that was as complex and unpredictable as the artwork Peggy revered and the artists she pushed forward. The film will screen for Bay Area audiences following its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
THE ART DEALER is from renowned French director François Margolin (The Flight of the Red Balloon) and follows a Jewish woman who embarks on a journey to recover family paintings stolen by the Nazis. During her investigation, she discovers some family secrets are best kept hidden.
In honor of the 70th Anniversary of the End of the Holocaust WWII, SFJFF will present the following films:
Ordered in April 1945 by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FACTUAL SURVEY is an official documentary about German atrocities and the concentration camps compiled with footage shot by combat and newsreel cameramen accompanying troops as they liberated occupied Europe. It was to be the film screened in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich – shown to German prisoners of war wherever they were held but it was never shown. Alfred Hitchcock consulted on the editing of the film.
A highly stunning, visual and emotional devastating film IN SILENCE celebrates the musicians whose lives were lost in the Holocaust. The film premiered at the 2014 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Hundreds of survivors from the German concentration camps arrive to the harbor of Malmö, Sweden. While they take their first steps in freedom Swedish news photographers film them. EVERY FACE HAS A NAME follows these survivors 70 years later as they watch this archive footage for the very first time and as they discover themselves, they re-experience the emotions from this special day.
An official selection of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, A NAZI LEGACY: WHAT OUR FATHER’S DID is the story of two sons of high-ranking Nazi officials who must come to terms with their fathers’ pasts, with different results in each son.
Before broadcasting on HBO, CLAUDE LANZMANN: SPECTRES OF THE SHOAH will be shown for festival audiences. The film is a documentary portrait of the French iconoclast, Claude Lanzmann, and the making of his masterpiece Shoah.
Immigration in Israel is addressed in MANPOWER, MUSSA and RED LEAVES. In MANPOWER, immigration police officer Meir, returns from a tour to Buchenwald concentration camp, a prize for decorated policemen, to a brutal deportation of African labor immigrants. An official selection of Hot Docs 2015, MUSSA follows a 12 year old boy who has refused to speak since his parents came to Israel from Ethiopia. In Bazi Gete’s RED LEAVES, an Ethiopian immigrant sets out on a journey through his children’s homes after losing his wife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyRkVcdNQb0
LGBT films include THOSE PEOPLE, PROBATION and DANNY SAYS. On Manhattan’s gilded Upper East Side, a young painter, Charlie, finds the man of his dreams in an older pianist from across the globe. If only Charlie weren’t secretly in love with his own manipulative best friend, Sebastian, who is embroiled in a financial scandal. In the wake of Sebastian’s notoriety, their tight knit group of friends must confront the new realities of adulthood in THOSE PEOPLE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRw8jV_0aI
In PROBATION TIME the fragile bonds that make up a family are severely tested when our hero is faced with an intense break up and a sister who is fighting “demons”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukGjdU6Kdz8
Since 1966, Danny Fields has played a pivotal role in music and “culture” of the late 20th century: working for the Doors, Cream, Lou Reed, Nico, Judy Collins and managing groundbreaking artists like the Stooges, the MC5 and the Ramones. An official selection of SXSW 2015, DANNY SAYS follows Fields from Phi Beta Kappa whiz-kid, to Harvard Law School dropout, to the Warhol Silver Factory, to Director of Publicity at Elektra Records, to “punk pioneer” and beyond.
Other highlights include THE GO GO-GO BOYS: THE INSIDE STORY OF CANNON FILMS (dir. Hila Madalia), an official selection of 2014 Cannes Film Festival, about Menahem Golen and Yoram Globus, who in pursuit of the American Dream turned the Hollywood structure upside down. THE MUSES OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER (dir. Asaf Galay) is about the famous Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize winner who wrote with a ‘harem’ of dozens of translators behind him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JngnAk0pKNc-
British Dramedy “DOUGH” to Open 2015 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival | TRAILERS
The 35th edition of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival returns to the Bay Area July 23 to August 9, 2015, and will kick off with director Jonathan John Goldschmidt’s DOUGH (pictured above), a British dramedy about an old elderly Jewish baker (Jonathan Pryce) struggling to keep his business afloat until his young Muslim apprentice (Jerome Holder) accidentally drops cannabis in the dough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSsw_PETLI
The 2015 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival closes with Erez Miller’s EAST JERUSALEM, WEST JERUSALEM, about Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza who sets out to realize his dream of cooperation and dialog between Israelis and Palestinians through music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rODvYehQiXk
The Centerpiece Narrative is MY SHORTEST LOVE AFFAIR, written and directed by Karin Albou, which follows Louisa (Karin Albou)and Charles (Patrick Mimoun), former lovers who, now middle-aged, have crossed paths at an arts festival in Paris. After a night together Louisa winds up pregnant. Together the two try to make their relationship work again.
Following its world premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, THE ARMOR OF LIGHT will screen as the festival’s Centerpiece Documentary. Directed by Abigail Disney, the film follows the journey of Reverend Rob Schenck, a Jewish born evangelical minister who finds the courage to preach about the toll of gun violence in America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V8Oc8J8maQ
In keeping with tradition, to highlight the programming in Berkeley, VERY SEMI-SERIOUS has been selected as the Berkeley Big Night film . Winner of the San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Documentary, VERY SEMI-SERIOUS (former Bay Area filmmaker Leah Wolchock) is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the single panel. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at The New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled—and occasionally pissed off—all of us for decades.
The festival will open in Palo Alto with Yari and Cary Wolinsky’s RAISE THE ROOF, a look at professor Rick Brown who works with his wife Laura to rebuild a series of now vanished synagogues as they track the labor and love that illuminate these glorious pieces of history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPUwxxidhHM
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT will screen for Bay Area audiences following its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival as the Oakland Opening Night film. PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT offers a rare look into Guggenheim’s world: blending the abstract, the colorful, the surreal and the salacious, to portray a life that was as complex and unpredictable as the artwork Peggy revered and the artists she pushed forward.
On Friday, July 31 at the Castro Theater, the SF Jewish Film Festival will present a day of social justice films, : Take Action: Repairing the World One Film at a Time. The five-film lineup embodies the Jewish value of tikkun olam – which suggests humanity’s shared responsibility to heal, repair and transform the world. This event will screen films in collaboration with local organizations to inspire action on the issues presented in the films: Judith Helfand’s BLUE VINYL (2002); Aviva Kempner’s ROSENWALD; Berkeley based filmmaker Rick Goldsmith’s MIND/GAMES: THE UNQUIET JOURNEY OF CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW; Melissa Donovan’s ZEMENE and Dara Bratt’s THE SINGING ABORTIONIST.
PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF JERRY ROSS BARRISH, Directed by William Farley and produced by SFJFF co-founder former SFJFF Director, Janis Plotkin, has been selected for the Local Spotlight. PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF JERRY ROSS BARRISH, follows San Francisco’s best known bail bondsman through his journey of breaking the hardworking Jewish family mold he grew up in, to diving head first into the world of art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlfVO1hbj_k
Other new documentaries by local filmmakers working with Jewish themes, include ED & PAULINE and LOVE & TAXES. ED & PAULINE is a film about cinephiles in love…or not. Christian Bruno’s film tells how film critic Pauline Kael and Ed Landberg transformed a small storefront theater in Berkeley into a church for movie lovers. LOVE & TAXES stars Bay Area icon Josh Kornbluth in a semi-autobiographical comedy about his struggles to make ends meet as he begins a relationship during the “Haiku Tunnel” time in his life. The film is directed by his brother Jacob Kornbluth.
In the Next Wave Spotlight, Kevin Kerslake looks at Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM, a man with deep passions and aggressive demons, in AS I AM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DJ AM. An official selection of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, AS I AM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DJ AM is an insider’s look into the life of the late, great mash-up pioneer. His incredibly complex personal life was lived under the specter of drug addiction.
Additional Next Wave Films include HOT SUGAR’S COLD WORLD, WHEN I LIVE MY LIFE OVER NEXT AGAIN and DANNY SAY’S. With cameos by Jim Jarmusch and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, HOT SUGAR’S COLD WORLD is a fly on-the-wall look into the life of Nick Koenig (Hot Sugar) as he creates one-of-a-kind music made entirely out of sounds from the world around him. An aging crooner played by Christopher Walken and his daughter played by Amber Heard star in WHEN I LIVE MY LIFE OVER NEXT AGAIN. A look at the life of Danny Fields, the little known Jewish godfather of punk rock is explored in DANNY SAY’S.
Films about Art include PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF GERRY JERRY ROSS BARRISH, PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT and THE ART DEALER.
PLASTIC MAN: THE ARTFUL LIFE OF GERRY JERRY ROSS BARRISH follows San Francisco’s best known bail bondsman through his journey of breaking the hardworking Jewish family mold he grew up in, to diving head first into the world of art. Produced by SFJFF Founder Janis Plotkin and directed by William Farley.
PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT offers a rare look into Guggenheim’s world: blending the abstract, the colorful, the surreal and the salacious, to portray a life that was as complex and unpredictable as the artwork Peggy revered and the artists she pushed forward. The film will screen for Bay Area audiences following its World Premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
THE ART DEALER is from renowned French director François Margolin (The Flight of the Red Balloon) and follows a Jewish woman who embarks on a journey to recover family paintings stolen by the Nazis. During her investigation, she discovers some family secrets are best kept hidden.
In honor of the 70th Anniversary of the End of the Holocaust WWII, SFJFF will present the following films:
Ordered in April 1945 by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FACTUAL SURVEY is an official documentary about German atrocities and the concentration camps compiled with footage shot by combat and newsreel cameramen accompanying troops as they liberated occupied Europe. It was to be the film screened in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich – shown to German prisoners of war wherever they were held but it was never shown. Alfred Hitchcock consulted on the editing of the film.
A highly stunning, visual and emotional devastating film IN SILENCE celebrates the musicians whose lives were lost in the Holocaust. The film premiered at the 2014 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Hundreds of survivors from the German concentration camps arrive to the harbor of Malmö, Sweden. While they take their first steps in freedom Swedish news photographers film them. EVERY FACE HAS A NAME follows these survivors 70 years later as they watch this archive footage for the very first time and as they discover themselves, they re-experience the emotions from this special day.
An official selection of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, A NAZI LEGACY: WHAT OUR FATHER’S DID is the story of two sons of high-ranking Nazi officials who must come to terms with their fathers’ pasts, with different results in each son.
Before broadcasting on HBO, CLAUDE LANZMANN: SPECTRES OF THE SHOAH will be shown for festival audiences. The film is a documentary portrait of the French iconoclast, Claude Lanzmann, and the making of his masterpiece Shoah.
Immigration in Israel is addressed in MANPOWER, MUSSA and RED LEAVES. In MANPOWER, immigration police officer Meir, returns from a tour to Buchenwald concentration camp, a prize for decorated policemen, to a brutal deportation of African labor immigrants. An official selection of Hot Docs 2015, MUSSA follows a 12 year old boy who has refused to speak since his parents came to Israel from Ethiopia. In Bazi Gete’s RED LEAVES, an Ethiopian immigrant sets out on a journey through his children’s homes after losing his wife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyRkVcdNQb0
LGBT films include THOSE PEOPLE, PROBATION and DANNY SAYS. On Manhattan’s gilded Upper East Side, a young painter, Charlie, finds the man of his dreams in an older pianist from across the globe. If only Charlie weren’t secretly in love with his own manipulative best friend, Sebastian, who is embroiled in a financial scandal. In the wake of Sebastian’s notoriety, their tight knit group of friends must confront the new realities of adulthood in THOSE PEOPLE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRw8jV_0aI
In PROBATION TIME the fragile bonds that make up a family are severely tested when our hero is faced with an intense break up and a sister who is fighting “demons”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukGjdU6Kdz8
Since 1966, Danny Fields has played a pivotal role in music and “culture” of the late 20th century: working for the Doors, Cream, Lou Reed, Nico, Judy Collins and managing groundbreaking artists like the Stooges, the MC5 and the Ramones. An official selection of SXSW 2015, DANNY SAYS follows Fields from Phi Beta Kappa whiz-kid, to Harvard Law School dropout, to the Warhol Silver Factory, to Director of Publicity at Elektra Records, to “punk pioneer” and beyond.
Other highlights include THE GO GO-GO BOYS: THE INSIDE STORY OF CANNON FILMS (dir. Hila Madalia), an official selection of 2014 Cannes Film Festival, about Menahem Golen and Yoram Globus, who in pursuit of the American Dream turned the Hollywood structure upside down. THE MUSES OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER (dir. Asaf Galay) is about the famous Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize winner who wrote with a ‘harem’ of dozens of translators behind him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JngnAk0pKNc
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THE CONGRESSMAN Starring Treat Williams to Screen at 2015 Maine International Film Festival
The Congressman starring Treat Williams (Hair, Prince of the City) as Maine Congressman Charlie Winship, who’s having a bad day, will screen as a work in progress in the “centerpiece” slot of the 2015 Maine International Film Festival.
After being caught on video failing to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance, Maine Congressman Charlie Winship knocks out another House member, confronts his angry ex-wife, and faces denunciation by the media for attacking one of the most cherished patriotic symbols in America. As his life spirals out of control, Charlie embarks on a journey to the remote Maine island whose eccentric inhabitants are in the middle of a shooting war in defense of their fishing grounds.
The film was written and co-directed by Robert Mrazek, a five term New York congressman who now lives at least half the year on Monhegan himself. “Monhegan was a transformational experience both for me and my family. We usually went up there to stay in December and January when Congress was not in session. Our children went to the island school,” says Mrazek.
The screenplay of The Congressman was partly inspired by Mrazek’s admiration for the people of Monhegan and their fight to save their way of life by going to the state capitol and lobbying successfully to have their common law fishing grounds certified as their own after experiencing a “lobster war” that led to the sinking of boats and the cutting of trap lines. “I was profoundly affected by the fundamental difference between the cultures of Washington and this remote island, where people pulled together regardless of personal differences, and where self-reliance was the watchword of everyday living. It changed my children for the better. It changed me too,” says Mrazek.
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SXSW Award Winning Comedy FORT TILDEN Sets Release Date of August 14 | TRAILER
FORT TILDEN, the debut feature film of directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, and starring Bridey Elliott and Clare McNulty, will open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on August 14. FORT TILDEN, a comedy about two friends, Allie and Harper and their needlessly difficult journey to the beach, was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2014 South By Southwest Film Festival.
Amidst quarter-life crises, Allie struggles to prepare for the Peace Corps, while Harper awaits checks from her father to fund her artistic dreams. But the two friends quickly shun responsibilities for the day when a pair of good-looking guys invite them along for a carefree Fort Tilden afternoon. As the two young women board their bikes and embark on a lengthy journey to the beach, they quickly realize that, akin to their confusing, transitioning lives, they neither know where they’re going nor how they plan to get there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac47LnsiCM4
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A BRAVE HEART: THE LIZZIE VELASQUEZ STORY Sets Release Date of September 25 | TRAILER
The documentary A BRAVE HEART: THE LIZZIE VELASQUEZ STORY which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival where it won the Audience Award, will be released on Friday, September 25th via Cinedigm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFG-bfgSHuY
A BRAVE HEART: THE LIZZIE VELASQUEZ STORY follows the inspiring journey of 26-year-old, 63-pound Lizzie from cyberbullying victim to anti-bullying activist. Born with a rare syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Velasquez was first bullied as a child in school for looking different. As a teenager, she was bullied even more prominently online when she discovered a YouTube video labeling her “The World’s Ugliest Woman.” The film chronicles unheard stories and details of Lizzie’s physical and emotional journey up to her multi-million viewed TEDxAustinWomen talk and follows her evolution as motivational speaker and activist as she lobbies Congress for the first federal anti-bullying bill; the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA). The film features private moments with Lizzie’s family including her parents, Rita and Lupe, and siblings Chris and Marina Velasquez. Also appearing in the doc are Anti-bullying advocate and Founder of the Megan Meier Foundation, Tina Meier, anti-bullying expert Dr. Bob Faris and Congresswomen Linda Sanchez, author of SSIA. “This movie shines a light on my personal journey, but we have always felt that this truly is EVERYONE’S story. We’ve heard from so many people from all over the world who have been bullied in their own ways and we want to offer hope and show what’s possible when you get on other side of bullying,” said Lizzie Velasquez. “I’ve been so touched by everyone who has shared their stories with us and we wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to see the movie could do so. My hope is that we can then all come together to inspire change, take the high road and create a more positive environment,” said director / producer Sara Hirsh Bordo. Bordo produced the inaugural TEDxAustinWomen event, under her Women Rising banner, where Velasquez’s “How Do You Define Yourself?” talk was given. TEDxAusitnWomen ultimately became the #1 TEDWomen event of 2013 and Velasquez’s talk has been viewed over 10 million times combined with both English and Spanish versions. Bordo and Women Rising then went on to produce “A BRAVE HEART: THE LIZZIE VELASQUEZ STORY,” which Bordo also directed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0L00A4rD60
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Magnolia Pictures to Release DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON | TRAILER
Douglas Tirola’s Sundance and Tribeca hit DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON, has been acquired by Magnolia Pictures for release in the US. DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON is an inside look at the rise and fall of the legendary humor magazine that launched dozens of careers and broke as many taboos.
From the 1970s thru the 1990s, there was no hipper, more outrageous comedy in print than The National Lampoon, the groundbreaking humor magazine that pushed the limits of taste and acceptability. Parodying everything from politics, religion, entertainment and the whole of American lifestyle, the Lampoon eventually went on to branch into successful radio shows, record albums, live stage revues and movies, including Animal House and National Lampoon’s Vacation. The publication launched the careers of many who would become mainstays in American humor, in TV, film and elsewhere.
“We’re so proud of the film Doug made – it immerses you in a world that is so rich with creative genius it is stunning but the dramatic story of the magazine’s founders is deeply emotional too,” said Molly Thompson, Senior Vice President, Feature Films, A+E Studios.
Eamonn Bowles, President of Magnolia Pictures, said “With DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD, Doug Tirola establishes himself as one of our most thoughtful and entertaining documentarians, giving us a fresh, inventive look at an outrageous American institution.”
Douglas Tirola said, “It’s an honor to be distributed by Magnolia Pictures which has released some of the great documentaries of the past decade. They have a smart vision for our film with an understanding of how we used the documentary form to tell a broad narrative story. They also bring a sense of humor to the process which is a perfect fit for a movie called, DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azwS8VMVwf4
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Santa Barbara International Film Festival Selects 11 New French Films for 2015 Wave Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) announced today the official lineup for their third annual “Wave Film Festival”.
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EVEREST Starring Jake Gyllenhaal to Open 72nd Venice Film Festival | TRAILER
Everest, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, has been selected as the opening film, out of Competition, of the 72nd Venice Film Festival taking place September 2nd to 12th 2015.
The world premiere of Everest will be screened on September 2 in the Sala Grande theatre (Palazzo del Cinema) at the Lido. Inspired by the incredible events surrounding an attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.
Everest is a Working Title Films production starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson and Jake Gyllenhaal, produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Baltasar Kormákur, Nicky Kentish Barnes, Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson. Universal Pictures and Walden Media’s presentation of Everest—in association with Cross Creek Pictures—is adapted for the screen by William Nicholson (Gladiator) and Oscar® winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire).
The film was shot on location in Nepal on the foothills of Everest, the Italian Alps and at Cinecittà Studios in Rome and Pinewood Studios in the U.K. Universal will distribute Everest worldwide, and it will be released in the U.S. exclusively on IMAX 3D and premium-large format 3D screens on September 18th. It will be released wide in the U.S.—including standard 2D and 3D—on September 25th. Italy releases the film on September 24th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQVpPiOji0
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QUEEN OF EARTH Starring Elisabeth Moss Sets Release Date of August 26th
IFC Films will release QUEEN OF EARTH, directed by Alex Ross Perry and starring Elisabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston, on August 26th in New York with a national rollout to follow.
Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) has entered a particularly dark period in her life: her father, a famous artist whose affairs she managed, has recently died, and on the heels of his death she’s dumped by her boyfriend James (Kentucker Audley). Looking to recuperate, Catherine heads out to her best friend Virginia’s (Katherine Waterston) lake house for some much needed relaxation. However, once Catherine arrives relaxation proves impossible to find, as she is overcome with memories of time spent at the same house with James the year before. As Catherine reaches out to Virginia with attempts at connection, Virginia begins spending increasing amounts of time with a local love interest, Rich (Patrick Fugit), and fissures in the relationship between the two women begin to appear, sending Catherine into a downward spiral of delusion and madness. A bracing, eerie look at the deep bonds of friendship and the horrific effects of such bonds being frayed, Queen of Earth is a thrilling examination of a deeply complex relationship between two miserable women.
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BABAI is Big Winner with 3 New German Cinema Award 2015 at Munich Film Festival
Visar Morinas debut film “Babai” (Father) won three New German Cinema Award 2015 at Filmfest München (Munich Film Festival). Visar Morina received the Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for his debut. In addition, its two main characters Astrit Kabashi and Val Maloku were jointly awarded the Award New German Cinema Theater.
“Babai” explores the story of Nori (Val Maloku) and his father Gezim (Astrit Kabashi) both street cigarette vendor in Kosovo of nineties, during Milosevic regime, where the father wants to find a way to illegally migrate to Germany and his son does everything he can so he could be with his father. Caught between the wish to live together and the need to deal with the harsh reality, the father-son relationship comes to a point where nothing between them is as it used to be.
The New German Cinema Award for Best Production went to Steve Hudson, Sonja Ewers for Happy Hour. The warm-hearted comedy by Franz Müller revolves around a man freshly abandoned by his wife in his forties, who travels with two buddies to Ireland to celebrate being a man.
The winners Award New German Cinema 2015
Award New German Cinema director (30,000 euros)
Visar Morina for Babai
The jury: “No lies No Poznan Not a moment of self-indulgence Not a false note, the film brings tears in her eyes – Wuttränen, tears of impotence and grief – and brings the audience but then full of hope and…. much greater force and especially responsibility back to life. responsibility for our lives. Life. The life that we lead people. Together. Babai is a masterpiece of a young master, before we bow deeply. ”
“Babai” is a production of NiKo film in co-production with Produksioni Krusha, Skopje Film Studio and Eaux Vives Productions. Director / Screenwriter: Visar Morina.
Award New German Cinema screenplay (10,000 euros)
Visar Morina for Babai
The jury: “If all the fears are finally silenced before failure, the fear of not enough to be laughed Excluded and to be alone when all the wrong sometime no longer applies, then sometimes stirs a quiet voice for drinks and….. . Although shy Merciless, with no sugar -.. but full of truth and love Babai is written from the first to the last sentence in this voice Banned, agitated and overwhelmed, we have listened to her. ”
Award New German Cinema Theater (10,000 euros)
Val Maloku, Astrit Kabashi for Babai
The jury: “In the film Babai have us Val Maloku as son and Astrit Kabashi when his father in her first film roles absolutely convinced and touches like the son like a little adult faced his father so that he has left and betrayed him because. he fled without him to Germany, just took off, will be unforgettable. The father in turn is always opposite in conflict with his natural desire for a new chance at life and his feelings the son who forces him to assume responsibility and his role as to meet father. The two are in their interaction as natural and sincere, as if they had the story actually experienced. We understand by it what people happen to us, if not met our desire for a normal, independent life without further ado and we have to fight. Val Maloku and Astrit Kabashi have touched us and shaken by their game at heart. ”
Award New German Cinema Production (20,000 euros)
Steve Hudson, Sonja Ewers for Happy Hour
The jury: “A film that the jury completely carried away and really convinced on all its artisanal levels A warm-hearted constellation of narrow Ü40 friends in their common self-discovery Strip to Ireland Wild Irish countryside, their songs and drink, but above all the.. heart-warming, of course gripping Irish Women loosen and lead them out of their cramped thinking and living patterns. These worldly-wise and the very fact witty comedy captivates A through by a great writer, brisk timing, famous wit, charm and a wonderful camera. and by successful low marketing budget production, with a high potential with its grandiose performers to meet like-minded couples at the box office. ”
“Happy Hour” is a production the gringo films GmbH in co-production with film Boutique – Katharina Jacob & Markéta Polednová GbR and Ripple World Pictures. Director / Screenwriter: Franz Müller.
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23 Movies on Lineup for 2015 Wavescape Surf Film Festival at Durban International Film Festival
The 2015 Wavescape Surf Film Festival has announced a record lineup of 23 movies over a week at the 36th Durban International Film Festival, which takes place from July 16 to 26.
Every conceivable film technique and technology is represented in an extraordinary selection of films, according to Spike from Wavescape, co-director of the Wavescape festival. “We have some excellent documentaries, including the hair-raising story of the Signal Hill Speed Run (pictured above) in California that started downhill skateboard racing.”
Wavescape 2015 boasts 12 short films and 11 medium or feature length movies that reflect a unique diversity. A unique trilogy of poetic shorts form a beautiful rendition of surfing in the UK: Sea Fever – and Irish film set to a John Masefield poem and gritty black and white footage; Edges of Sanity – a uniquely powerful piece narrated by Charles Dance who plays Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones; and Chasing Rumors – moving from the clamor of a football match at Newcastle United to the nearby Tyne River where storm waves pound grimy shores.
Included are films from the most remote wildernesses of Alaska (Arctic Swell) (pictured above) and the Arctic Circle (The Cradle of Storms). But from these frozen wastelands and frigid waves we sweep to the translucent tropical waters and reefs of Indonesia in the Mentawai Drone Movie, a short shot entirely by aerial drone.
“Don’t miss the languidly beautiful pace of Bella Vita that takes us to Tuscany as an Italian surfer and activist retraces his ancient roots, or the hard-hitting feminist film Flux: Redefining Women’s Surfing that ask serious questions of the surf industry.”
“One of my favorite shorts is Narcose, an artistically rendered account of world apnea free diving champion Guillaume Néry’s hallucinations caused by ‘raptures of the deep’ during one of his dives,” says Spike.
There are films about skateboarding in the urban precincts of Cape Town, and keeping within themes of sustainability, two South African shorts about wooden surfboard craftsman. From the epic surfing and slo-mo definition of world class surfing inAttractive Distractions, we move to Always on the Road, a beautifully shot film that traces the old surf routes of Europe along the Basque countryside, as well as France and Portugal.
There are obligatory soul surfing movies (I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night, Missing, Rail to Rail and Se7en Signs) to a heady mix of high action surfing that can be found in Missing, Attractive Distractions, Strange Rumblings in Shangri La andPipeline and Kelly Slater.
And with any selection of surf films, there is the whacky wildcard: Expencive Porno Movie (sic) (pictured above) spoofs the “surf porn” genre, of endless shots of waves and wave-riding, with a cheesy 1960’s Austin Powers theme. The widest collection yet hails from locations such as Namibia, Cape Town, Hawaii, California, Indonesia, Portugal, Spain, Alaska, Patagonia, and Australia.
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2015 Durban International Film Festival Lineup, Strong Focus on South African Films
The 36th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) taking place from 16 to 26 July, the city unveiled a lineup that includes 74 feature films, 50 documentaries, 74 short films and 23 surf films. The festival also offers an extensive workshop and seminar program in which industry experts from around the world share their knowledge and skills.
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“CURIOUS WORLDS” “CROCODILE GENNADLY ” Win 2015 SF Documentary Festival
CURIOUS WORLDS: The Art and Imagination of David Deck directed by Olympia Stone is the winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature at 2015 SF Documentary Festival (SF DocFest). CROCODILE GENNADLY (pictured above) directed by Steve Hoover is the winner of Jury Prize for Best Feature.
In ‘CURIOUS WORLDS: The Art and Imagination of David Deck’ the curtain is pulled back on one of America’s (and San Francisco’s) most accomplished and original — yet least-known working artists — David Beck. A master sculptor, carver, painter and miniature architect, Beck works in a fantastical genre all his own, creating intricate worlds, alive with playful and incisive observations of the world we know. With wit and charm Curious Worlds captures the artist at work in his studio, reflecting on his process in an intimate portrait illuminating what it takes to create a masterwork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1a8AOWPxwU
In ‘CROCODILE GENNADLY’ Ex-Soviet soldier turned self-proclaimed savior and pastor, “Crocodile Gennadiy,” doesn’t feel he needs permission to do good deeds. So he has taken up the fight against child homelessness in Ukraine by kidnapping drug addicted street kids and bringing them to his DIY rehab center for forced treatment. His ongoing efforts and unabashedly tough love approach to his country’s problems has made him a folk hero for some, and a lawless vigilante to others. It’s a beautifully cinematic film that is a testament to the good in all of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fTBwDUAgnU
Other winners include LAST DAY OF FREEDOM for Audience Award for Best Short, and THE MAN BEHIND 55000 DRESSES winning Jury Prize for Best Short.