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Short Films Featuring Sophia Loren, Zach Braff, on Star Studded Opening Night Lineup for HollyShort’s 10th Anniversary

HollyShorts Film Festival

Trouble & the Shadowy Deathblow

HollyShorts, is unveiling details of the what it describes as its most star-studded opening night in the festival’s history, for its upcoming 10th anniversary edition which takes place on Thursday August 14 at the TCL Chinese Theater. HollyShorts opening night will feature filmmakers and talent from the most popular TV series and Feature films.

Stephanie Laing, Producer for some of the most popular shows including Veep, Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, will premiere her short film Trouble & the Shadowy Deathblow. On hand for her big night will be the cast which includes: Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Andy Buckley (Bridesmaids), Jean Villepique (I Love You Man),Tim Baltz (Drunk History), and Frankie Faison (Banshee). Also supporting Laing’s premiere will be friends and colleagues Danny McBride, and Chris Addison (In The Loop) and other cast members from Veep and Eastbound & Down.

http://youtu.be/QAxQamkm0P8

HollyShorts is also premiering on opening night The Visitant, a short film horror by Nick Peterson produced by Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and co-produced Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville). Directed by Nick Peterson, The Visitant stars Amy Smart (Crank) and Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth).

The Human Voice

HollyShorts opening night will also feature Edoardo Ponti, son of legendary actress Sophia Loren, who will be presenting his short film The Human Voice starring Sophia Loren. The Human Voice, which made a splash at this years’ Cannes Film Festival, is a gripping adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s one-woman play.

Director Renny Maslow will be on hand presenting his short film Effed co-written by and starring Ethan Sandler (The Bourne Supremacy) and Adrian Wenner (Whitney). Effed! also stars Zach Braff, Ted Levine, Talia Tabin and Brian Gattas.

Director David Martin Porras will present his acclaimed short film Inside The Box, which stars Wilson Bethel (Heart of Dixie) and Regina King. The film is Executive Produced by Pau Brunet.

These new additions to the HollyShorts opening night will join the previously announced: Alumni brothers Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) who are receiving the HollyShorts Visionary Award. The fest will premiere Luke Wilson’s Award-winning short film Satellite Beach, which follows the unique journey of the Endeavor space shuttle as it travels through the streets of LA and the final move of the Atlantis space shuttle to the Kennedy Space Center. The King of Indie Animation Bill Plympton will receive the HollyShorts Animation Indie Icon Award on opening night and premiere his short film Footprints and he will show a clip from his new animated feature film Cheatin’ which is being released theatrical in Los Angeles that weekend. The Russo’s will be showing a 10-minute exhilarating clip from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

“In just a few year’s I’ve seen HollyShorts explode to become one of the biggest and best showcases of short form content in the world and I’m delighted to have the 10th anniversary celebration kick off with such a star-studded and fun lineup of movies,” said Managing Director Nicole Castro. “It’s going to be an epic 10 days of HollyShorts. We have filmmakers coming from all continents, and over 400 movies being presented, a festival record, we can’t wait!”

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Cheryl Boone Isaacs Re-Elected Academy President

Awards

Cheryl Boone Isaacs

Cheryl Boone Isaacs was re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (August 5) by the organization’s Board of Governors.

In addition, Jeffrey Kurland was elected first vice president, Leonard Engelman and John Bailey were elected to vice president posts, Dick Cook was elected treasurer, and Bill Kroyer was elected secretary.

Boone Isaacs is beginning her second term as president and her 22nd year as a governor representing the Public Relations Branch. Last year Kurland served as vice president. Both Engelman and Cook were re-elected to their posts. These will be the first officer stints for Bailey and Kroyer.

Boone Isaacs currently heads CBI Enterprises, Inc., where she has consulted on marketing efforts on such films as “The Call,” “The Artist,” “The King’s Speech,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Tupac: Resurrection.”Boone Isaacs previously served as president of theatrical marketing for New Line Cinema, where she oversaw numerous box office successes, including “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and “Rush Hour.” Prior to joining New Line in 1997, she was executive vice president of worldwide publicity for Paramount Pictures, where she orchestrated publicity campaigns for the Best Picture winners “Forrest Gump” and “Braveheart.” This year, she was inducted into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Hall of Fame, and received the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Horizon Award and the 2014 Trailblazer award from Essence magazine.

Academy board members may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms, while officers serve one-year terms, with a maximum of four consecutive years in any one office.

Press Release via AMPAS

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Malian Film “Timbuktu” Leads Award Winners of South Africa’s 2014 Durban International Film Festival

Durban International Film Festival

The Durban International Film Festival announced its award-winners at the closing ceremony of the festival’s 35th edition At the awards ceremony, the festival’s highest accolade of Best Feature Film went to Malian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako’s masterful Timbuktu, from a selection of competition films that the international jury described as having dealt with “individuals coping with ideological, social and political pressures whilst trying to find their own identity and humanity in a world increasingly under distress.”

The jury commended Sissako’s film for being “an impressively well-made film that makes us aware, in an extraordinarily human and gentle way, of the fight for dignity and freedom of individuals against oppression and violence. Beautifully crafted and showing mature accomplishment on all levels the film illustrates the absurdity of war and ideological dogmatism and offers humor, gentility and humaneness as a possible solution to the madness that seems to engulf so many regions in the world and on our continent. It embraces cinema as a weapon of love against violence and intolerance.”

The International Jury consisted of: Rémi Bonhomme, who heads Critics Week at Cannes Film Festival; Diarah N’Daw-Spech, the co-founder and co-director of the African Diaspora Film Festival in New York; Andrew Worsdale, writer, director and previous winner of Best South African Feature film at DIFF; and actress and activist Paulina Malefane, known for her role of Carmen in both the stage and film productions of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, and co-founder of the Isango Ensemble.

The award for Best South African Feature Film, went to Jenna Bass’ exciting first feature Love the One You Love. The local jury stated that they chose the film “for its stylistic and narrative freshness”, calling it “a playful, quirky and idiosyncratic debut made with curiosity, warmth, heart and sensitivity.” Bass was also honoured with the prize for Best Direction in a South African Feature Film, with the jury describing the young director as “inquisitive, innovative and with a unique voice and luminous cinematic sensibility, who shows us a contemporary universe which is as imaginative as it is true”.

The accolade for Best Documentary went to Mahdi Fleifel’s A World Not Ours. According to the jury, “This intimate, affecting and often humorous debut feature is a portrait of three generations of exile in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, a Palestinian pocket of hemmed-in buildings and stifled hopes. Fleifel may have set out to tell a small domestic story about the loved ones he has left behind but the result is a powerful tale of the human cost of a political nightmare, the end of which seems very far away.”

Best South African Documentary was awarded to Rehad Desai’s Miners Shot Down. The film was also awarded the Amnesty International (Durban) Human Rights Award. The film was chosen “for its profoundly moving portrayal of the Marikana miners’ massacre. The human rights abuses so vividly portrayed include the right to life, the right to justice, the right to protection by the police, the right to know, the right to peaceful protest and the right to human dignity.”

The full list of awards is as follows:

Best Feature Film: TIMBUKTU by Abderrahmane Sissako

Best First Feature Film: SALVATION ARMY by Abdellah Taia

Best Direction: Noaz Deshe for WHITE SHADOW

Best Screenplay: LOVE IS STRANGE written by Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias

Best Cinematography: Sofian el Fani – TIMBUKTU

Best Actor: Ibrahim Ahmed – TIMBUKTU & Tony Kgoroge – cold harbour

Best Actress: Chi Mhende – LOVE THE ONE YOU LOVE

Durban International Film Festival Award for Artistic Bravery: Petter Brunner – MY BLIND HEART

Best SA Documentary: MINERS SHOT DOWN by Rehad Desai
Special Mention: NELSON MANDELA: THE MYTH AND ME by Khalo Matabane

Best Direction in a South African dDcumentary: I, AFRIKANER by Annalet Steenkamp
Special Mention: FATHERLAND by Tarryn Crossman

Best Documentary: A WORLD NOT OURS by Mahdi Fleifel

Best Short Film: OUT OF PLACE by Ozan Mermer

Best South African Short Film: KEYS, MONEY, PHONE by Roger Young

Photo caption: Jenna Bass left receives her award for SA Film at the 35th Durban International Film Festival. From left Peter Machen (DIFF Manager), and jury members Neil Coppen, Katrina Hedren, Darryl Els.
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Foreign Films Win Top Awards at 2014 Stony Brook Film Festival

Stony Brook Film Festival

U. S. Premieres of foreign films took the top awards at the 19th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival. U.S. premiere of French film Paper Souls (Les âmes de papier) directed by Vincent Lannoo took the Jury Award for Best Feature, and U.S. Premiere of Dutch film Kenau directed by Maarten Treurniet won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature

Stony Brook’s ten-day festival screened films each evening at Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University. Opening night was sold out, with over 900 in the audience for Ralph Macchio’s short film, Across Grace Alley, followed by the U.S. Premiere of the German film Back on Track from Beta Cinema. Alan Inkles, founder and director of the Festival, greeted European and American filmmakers at the awards night, following the New York Premiere of Erik Poppe’s 1,000 Times Good Night starring Juliette Binoche.

The winners were:

2014 Jury Award-Best Feature
PAPER SOULS (LES ÂMES DE PAPIER)

U.S. Premiere from France/ Luxembourg/Belgium. Directed by Vincent Lannoo. Written by François Uzan.
With Stéphane Guillon, Julie Gayet, Jonathan Zaccai, Pierre Richard.
An Artémis Productions, Samsa Film and Liaison Cinémtographique Production. From Films Distribution.
In French with subtitles.

In this quirky comedy from France, a funeral speech writer, a mother and her son, a man who may be a ghost, and a neighbor, all come together in a charming story of loss and love. The writer gets a new lease on life when he meets a widow who commissions him to write a piece about the father of her eight-year-old son.

2014 Audience Choice-Best Feature
KENAU

U.S. Premiere from the Netherlands. Directed by Maarten Treurniet. Written by Marnie Blok, Darin van Holst Pellekaan.
With Monic Hendrickx, Lisa Smit, Barry Atsma, Sallie Harmsen, Eva Bartels.
A Fu Works Film. From Eye International.
In Dutch with subtitles.

A big-screen adventure based on the story of a woman folk hero who led the defense of the Dutch city of Haarlem in 1573.

2014 Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking
MAÏNA

Canada – Directed by Michel Poulette. Written by Pierre Billon.
With Roseanne Supernault, Graham Greene, Ipelie Ootoova.
In Innu/Inuit/English with subtitles.

Michel Poulette’s career is a long list of success stories with all of Quebec and Canada’s major broadcast networks. The TV programs and features he has worked on have consistently been among the highest rated. He also works for American networks Showtime and Lifetime.This award is for his direction in Maina, introducing the fascinating civilizations of the Innu and Inuit tribes living in North America six hundred years ago.

2014 Festival Outstanding Performance
MY SWEET PEPPER LAND

N.Y. Premiere from Iraq/France/Germany.
Directed by Hiner Saleem. Written by Hiner Saleem and Antoine Lacomblez.
In Kurdish/Arabic/Turkish with subtitles.

As Govend, the teacher in My Sweet Pepper Land, Golshifteh Farahani’s performance wins special recognition. Farahani won a Best Actress award at the age of 14 for her lead in Dariush Mehrjui’s The Pear Tree and is an accomplished musician. She was the first Iranian star to act in a major Hollywood production, Body of Lies, by Ridley Scott in 2008. She is fluent in French and English and now lives in Paris.

2014 Jury Award-Best Short
SEQUESTERED

USA – A film by Lucas Spaulding

A funny and original short in which two would-be bank robbers run into trouble when each takes exception to the other’s mask.

2014 Audience Award-Best Short
LITTLE AFRICA

USA – A film by Curtis Adair Jr.

A race riot that devastated a black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 is the setting for this powerful short in which a biracial cop passing as white pleads with his black mother not to get involved in the protests. Produced by Curtis Adair Jr. while a film student at Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts, Tallahassee.

2014 Special Jury Recognition
INTO THE SILENT SEA

USA – A film by Andrej Landin

A lone cosmonaut adrift connects with a radio operator in Italy. Produced by Andrej Landin while a film student at Chapman University in California. Gravity and Into the Silent Sea screened at the Telluride Film Festival at the same time Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity premiered.

Photo caption: Caption L to R: At the 2014 Stony Brook Film Festival Awards Reception: John Anderson, film critic and M.C.; François Uzan, screenwriter representing Paper Souls; Eva Bartels, actress representing Kenau; Michel Poulette, director, Maïna; Curtis Adair Jr., filmmaker, Little Africa;Alan Inkles, founder/director of the Stony Brook Film Festival.
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Florian Habicht’s Concert Documentary “PULP: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets” to get a Preview Screening at NY’s Rooftop Film Summer Fest

Rooftop Films Summer Series

Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets

Florian Habicht’s concert documentary film Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets which will be released by Oscilloscope Laboratories this November, will get a special preview screening at Rooftop Films Summer Series on Thursday, August 7th. Florian Habicht and PULP’s charismatic frontman Jarvis Cocker will be on hand for a Q&A session.

PULP: A FILM ABOUT LIFE, DEATH & SUPERMARKETS (Florian Habicht | Berlin | 90 min.)

Florian Habicht (Love Story) returns to the roof with a lovingly crafted portrait of Pulp, the sexy/nerdy Sheffield rock group that struggled through the 80’s, soared to superstardom in the mid 90’s and then reunited in 2012 for a celebratory final tour. Habicht follows lead singer Jarvis Cocker, an eccentric and cheeky Everyman, as he and his band prepare for their ultimate performance in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans in their native city. The resulting film, like Jarvis’ lyrics, overflows with bittersweet memories, unexpected moments, and the understanding that life and death can be made immensely more bearable with the indulgence of tiny fantasies.

Pulp is most famous for their mega hit “Common People,” an exuberant anthem sung in the voice of a working class kid recounting a night of erotic accomplishment with a slumming heiress. The song is ingeniously constructed and exuberantly performed, and it immediately grabs your ear and makes you want to sing along and dance and fuck. But “Common People” is sung in the past tense, and the implication is that the morning after none of this worked out for the best and that the narrator—like most of the rest of us—will return to a world of work and struggle and disappointment. Most of the city of Sheffield lives their lives within that disappointing morning after, but as they talk to Habicht about Cocker, one gets the sense that they relish having had the chance to live vicariously through their native son, almost as if each of the decadent gestures of his wildest years were in some way performed on their behalf.

Habicht builds upon his previous work by continuing to mine the comic and emotional possibilities of the candid on-the-street interview. The true stars of this film are not the band mates, but rather the people of Sheffield, and Cocker wisely allows Habicht to shift the spotlight away from the stage and onto the faces of the struggling dreamers in the crowd. It is their observations that carry the film, and the most powerful performance in the film does not occur on stage, but rather in a small local cafe where a room-full of aging residents sing a devastatingly poignant cover of Help The Aged. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And Supermarkets is at once a raucous concert film, a celebratory portrait of a place and time, and a bittersweet farewell to a town that shaped—and was shaped by—a band of dreamers with dirty minds and open, fragile hearts.
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Judy Irving’s Documentary “PELICAN DREAMS” Sets US Release Dates

Documentary

PELICAN DREAMS, a documentary film by Judy Irving, the director of “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” will open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and at the Angelika Film Center in New York, and at the Royal, Playhouse 7, and Town Center in Los Angeles on November 7. A national release will follow.

Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving (with her first film since the widely acclaimed and loved “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges of these ancient birds, sometimes referred to as the flying dinosaurs.

The film is about wildness, and asks the following questions: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? PELICAN DREAMS, stars “Gigi” (for Golden Gate) and Morro (a backyard pelican with an injured wing).
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2014 Milwaukee Film Festival to Highlight Mexican Cinema

Milwaukee Film Festival

The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gatos)

The 6th Annual Milwaukee Film Festival which runs September 25 to October 9, 2014 at the Landmark Oriental Theatre, Landmark Downer Theatre, Fox-Bay Cinema Grill and Times Cinema, announced Mexico as the spotlight country for its fourth annual Passport program. Featuring a selection of eight films set in Mexico (with seven of the eight made by Mexican filmmakers), Passport: Mexico includes an eclectic mix of award-winning films ranging from comedies and hard hitting dramas to revealing documentaries and poignant coming-of-age tales.

In tandem with Passport: Mexico is a keynote address from Professor Frederick Aldama of The Ohio State University. Aldama is the author of nineteen books on Latin American popular culture and cinema and is a preeminent scholar of contemporary Mexican cinema. His most recent book, the highly acclaimed Mex-Ciné (2013), offers a multidisciplinary exploration of Mexican national cinema, its historical contexts and the transnational production-consumption models of the Mexican film industry. Details on the date, time and location of the keynote address are forthcoming.

2014 MILWAUKEE FILM FESTIVAL

PASSPORT: MEXICO

This year we turn our focus to the landscape and culture of modern Mexico. To highlight Mexico’s growing success both in Hollywood and major international film festivals, this program will feature the best cinema of one of our closest neighbors.

The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gatos)
(Mexico, France / 2013 / Director: Claudia Sainte-Luce)

http://youtu.be/ujD9FAcy7YU

A celebration of family in all of its messy beauty, The Amazing Catfish is a gorgeously shot, female-driven dramedy. Claudia, 22 and completely alone, meets Martha, terminally ill and mother of four. A chance placement of adjoining hospital beds binds these two women together, with Claudia growing as she becomes caretaker for Martha and her tightly knit brood. This story about finding family in the least likely of places is filled with a generosity of spirit and meaningful exploration of love and loss buoyed by emotionally precise performances from its leads.

Club Sandwich
(Mexico / 2013 / Director: Fernando Eimbcke)

http://youtu.be/1PCzjhT5DIE

Single mother Paloma and her 15-year-old son, Hector, are spending a lazy vacation taking advantage of their destination’s special off-season pricing. But the arrival of Jazmin at this resort heralds the awakening of Hector’s nascent sexuality, thus beginning one of the most silent courtships in cinema history. Director Fernando Eimbcke (Lake Tahoe, MFF 2009) lets this deadpan comedy play out with tender restraint and comic minimalism, realizing this is a coming-of-age story for both a young boy in the throes of puberty as well as his overly possessive mother and embracing all of the awkwardness true teen romances and mother/son relationships entail.

Heli
(Mexico / 2013 / Director: Amat Escalante)

http://youtu.be/qfcNTCn9k5g

Heli is a brutal, ceaselessly escalating story of one family’s efforts to escape Mexico’s drug-related violence. Heli ekes out a hardscrabble existence at a car factory and lives with his wife, child, sister, and father in a modest home. When his sister’s police cadet boyfriend makes the life-altering decision to stash stolen drugs in their home, it precipitates a descent into hellish violence that threatens to consume them all. Racking up multiple awards (including Best Director at the 2013 Cannes festival), Heli is an unforgettable journey whose wanton violence and cruelty are certainly not for the squeamish among us. Warning: This film contains extreme violence.

Last Call (Tercera llamada)
(Mexico / 2013 / Director: Francisco Franco Alba)

http://youtu.be/w_fTLl6DYVs

Opening night fast approaches for a Mexican theater company’s production of Camus’ existential epic Caligula, but behind the curtains chaos is unfolding—a director on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her drug-addled failed actress assistant, and a male stripper turned stagehand are just a few of the colorful characters that comprise the comedic ensemble of Last Call. This stage door farce (which pulled off a clean sweep of the Guadalajara Film Festival) allows for multiple stars to shine while also granting moments of genuine pathos amid its comic revelry as actors leave, sets are scrapped and a bona fide stage disaster appears imminent.

Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border (Purgatorio: Viaje al Corazón de la Frontera)

Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border (Purgatorio: Viaje al Corazón de la Frontera)
(USA, Mexico / 2013 / Director: Rodrigo Reyes)

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/73270818

A haunting sketch of the scorched-earth beauty that surrounds both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Purgatorio chronicles the untold thousands who attempt to make their way across the border every year despite the dark realities that lay ahead of them. Winner of the Best Documentary award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, this portrait of an anthropologically arbitrary dividing line is full of stark images of haunting beauty and fascinating characters (coroners, police, border crossers) on both sides that aim to detonate any preconceived notions about life on either side of the massive steel fence that separates us.

Que Caramba es la Vida

Que Caramba es la Vida
(Germany / 2014 / Director: Doris Dörrie)

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/85734992

Historically speaking, mariachi music is a tradition steeped in machismo and male posturing, not exactly the easiest business for women to break into. But for a hard-nosed few who are able to wade through the sexism and exclusionary tactics of their peers, life as a female mariachi is attainable. Following the stories of powerful women who have to balance traditional expectations of female roles such as motherhood alongside their powerful folk music performances (set against the backdrop of the Dia de los Muertos celebration), we see how these women have broken into this predominantly male field and used their struggles as fuel for success.

We Are the Nobles (Nosotros los Nobles)
(Mexico / 2013 / Director: Gaz Alazraki)

http://youtu.be/ynA5nXZyZxU

The 1% is made to live like the 99% in this uproarious farce, the biggest box office success in Mexican history. As self-made millionaire German looks back on his life, he realizes the luxury and comfort he has swaddled his three children in have turned them into monsters of privilege. This calls for drastic measures: staging his company’s bankruptcy and convincing his none-too-bright progeny that they are all fugitives from the law. He moves the children into a dilapidated home in a working-class area and leads them to do something for the first time in their lives—work. Catch this riotous comedy now before the inevitable American remake!

Workers

Workers
(Mexico, Germany / 2013 / Director: Jose Luis Valle)

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/75869321

On his final day of work after three decades of employment, Rafael learns he won’t be earning a pension due to his tenuous immigrant status. Lidia has spent those 30 years as a maid for a wealthy woman who funnels all of her affection toward her dog, Princess, even bequeathing the diminutive pooch everything after her passing, leaving Lidia the ward of a dog millionaire. Tackling class inequality with a deadpan sensibility reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch, director Jose Luis Valle captures the irony and absurdity of the characters’ respective situations without ever losing sight of the prideful humanity at his film’s core.

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Keynote Speaker + First 3 Films Unveiled for 2014 NY Film Festival Convergence

New York Film Festival

The Last Hijack

USC’s Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture, has been selected to make the Keynote Address for the 2014 NYFF Convergence, which takes place September 27-28, 2014. In addition, the festival announced the initial three selections for NYFF Convergence.

The first three selections announced for NYFF Convergence include the North American Premiere of the interactive presentation of Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting’s The Last Hijack, which combines documentary footage, animation, and an online transmedia experience to explore contemporary piracy from the point of view of a Somali man contemplating one final hijacking attempt; and a 30th Anniversary screening (of a restored 16mm print) of Diego Echeverria’s 1984 documentary Living Los Sures about the challenges and struggles of living in Brooklyn’s Los Sures neighborhood at that time. Nearly lost, the restored, reframed, and remixed documentary is now part of a multi-platform participatory media project of Brooklyn-based UnionDocs. For the third selection, NYFF Convergence will play host to a creator-guided tour of Futurestates, the compelling ITVS series that imagines the impact of technology on humanity in the not-so-distant future.

.NYFF Convergence Programmer Matt Bolish said, “The exciting thing about this form of storytelling is that it’s constantly evolving, changing, morphing, and being remixed. These three projects represent some of the most compelling immersive material we’ve seen to date.”

Focusing on the intersection of technology and storytelling, NYFF Convergence offers audiences and creators the unique opportunity to experience a curated selection of some of the most exciting immersive storytelling projects being produced today. Jenkins, who is the Provost’s Professor of Communication Journalism and Cinematic Arts at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, will focus his address (“A Brief History of Transmedia Worlds”) on world-building in the contemporary entertainment landscape, as it applies to film, as well as exploring the worlds of games, online content, books, etc.

Previewing the address, Jenkins said, “Today’s films, television series, games, comics, novels, and even documentaries and journalism rely heavily on the concepts of world-building and world-mapping. In this talk, I will provide a conceptual map for understanding what we mean by ‘worlds,’ what roles they are playing in the production and consumption of popular media, how thinking in terms of worlds involves a shift from more traditional focuses on character and narrative, and why this concept has gained such traction in an era of networked communication and transmedia entertainment.”

FILM AND PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

Los Sures
Diego Echeverria, USA, 1984, 16mm, 66m
Diego Echeverria’s Los Sures skillfully represents the challenges of its time: drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single-parent homes, and inadequate local resources in Brooklyn’s Los Sures neighborhood. Yet Echeverria’s portrait also celebrates the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community, showing the strength of their culture, their creativity, and their determination to overcome a desperate situation. Nearly lost, this 16mm film has been restored, reframed, and remixed by Southside based UnionDocs just in time for the 30th anniversary of its premiere at the New York Film Festival.
Saturday, July 27

Living Los Sures (Interactive Presentation)
Produced by UnionDocs, 2014
Using Escheverria’s 1984 documentary Los Sures as a starting point, Southside-based UnionDocs has created Living Los Sures, a massive mixed-media project that defies easy categorization. Composed over the course of four years and pulling on the talents of over 30 different artists, Living Los Sures paints a picture of a neighborhood from street level, an ever-evolving mosaic of people and places captured through film, audio, and now an online participatory experience. With the premiere of two new elements—Eighty-Nine Steps, a continuation of the story of one of the original characters from Los Sures, and Shot by Shot—that invite people to share their personal stories inspired by the shots and locations of the original film, the UnionDocs team will take audiences through the process of building this unique documentary storyworld.
Saturday, July 27

The Last Hijack
Tommy Pallotta & Femke Wolting, Netherlands, 2014, DCP, 83m
Mohamed is your average middle-aged man trying to make ends meet in his homeland: the failed state of Somalia. One of the country’s most experienced pirates, he is faced with constant pressure—from his fiancée, family, and friends—to get out of his dangerous profession. Far from the romantic figures of movies and literature, piracy is coming under increasing scrutiny from global forces and communities within Somalia. Sensing the end of an era, Mohamed must decide if he should risk everything and do one last hijack. As he wrestles with these very real problems, a dramatic tail of survival unfolds. How did Mohamed come to live this brutal and dangerous existence and is it possible to walk away? The Last Hijack is both a feature-length film, combining documentary footage and animation, and an online transmedia experience, allowing viewers a unique and original way to explore the story of Somali piracy from different perspectives.
Sunday, September 28

North American Premiere
The Last Hijack (Interactive Presentation)
Tommy Pallotta & Femke Wolting
Join directors Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting as they explore the immersive online components of The Last Hijack. The creators will offer a bird’s-eye view of the online elements of their documentary that investigates modern-day piracy. Using data visualizations, animation, live footage, and audio, the online experiences paint a picture not of perpetrators of crimes and their victims but of real people whose actions have an effect on the world around them.
Sunday, September 28

Futurestates (Interactive Presentation)
Produced by ITVS, USA, 2014, 90m
What will America look like in 10, 15, even 20 years? Futurestates, the revolutionary series produced by ITVS, has been proposing answers to those questions since 2010. For its fifth and final season, Futurestates is presented as an immersive online video experience featuring short films that imagine robots with feelings, what education looks like in a wired world, and the future of prisons and our penal system. The central question at the heart of Futurestates is how technologies we may take for granted have a profound effect on our capacity to feel, create, live… and be human.
Sunday, September 28
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Luke Wilson’s Award-winning short film Satellite Beach to Open 2014 HollyShorts

HollyShorts Film Festival

The 10th Anniversary edition of the HollyShorts Film Festival will open with the premiere of Luke Wilson’s Award-winning short film Satellite Beach, which follows the unique journey of the Endeavor space shuttle as it travels through the streets of LA and the final move of the Atlantis space shuttle to the Kennedy Space Center. In addition, fest alumni brothers Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) will be honored with the HollyShorts Visionary Award on opening night. The festival and Film Conference take place August 14-23 at the TCL Chinese Theater and Roosevelt Hotel.

The Russo Brothers, who are confirmed to direct the third installment of Captain America for Marvel, which will hit theaters May 2016, originally made their mark as indie filmmakers and later went on to direct and produce shows like Arrested Development and Community. Cap tain America: The Winter Soldier had a $95 million debut earlier this year and has earned $712 million worldwide. The film will be released via Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD onSeptember 9, 2014. Through the years they’ve helped inspire young filmmakers at HollyShorts by participating in a number of panel discussions and workshops.

Satellite Beach was written and directed by Luke Wilson and his brother Andrew Wilson. The film was shot during Endeavor’s actual move through the streets of Los Angeles. The film was produced by Steve Eckleman, Christopher Mallick, and co-produced by Peter Mergus, Christy Taylor Barnes and Larry Chavana. The film has won a number of Awards including Santa Barbara International Film Festival- The Bruce Corwin Award for Best Live Action Short Film Under 30 Minutes, High Desert International Film Festival- Winner for Best Actor- Luke Wilson, Winner for Best Screenplay, Winner for Best Live Drama, Knoxville Film and Music Festival- Best Short Film.

Commented HollyShorts founders and directors Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol: “We are proud to present the Joe and Anthony Russo with the 2014 HollyShorts Visionary Award on opening night, we’ve seen their meteoric ascent through the years and what’s special about them is how they always look to inspire the next generation of filmmakers and that’s what our festival is all about. We are equally thrilled to showcase Luke Wilson’s incredible short film Satellite Beach, which has been making headlines across the country at some of the best festivals.”
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“House of Cards” Rachel Brosnahan and “Fringe” David Call to Lead Cast of Upcoming Independent Film “AMERICANA”

News

Rachel Brosnahan

Director Zachary Shedd and Flies Collective announced that David Call (Tiny Furniture, Fringe) and Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards, Manhattan) are among the cast members set for their upcoming feature film Americana. The third project from Flies Collective, Americana follows the critically acclaimed Hide Your Smiling Faces, written and directed by Daniel Patrick Carbone and the award-winning A Little Closer, written and directed by Matthew Petock. Production is set to commence in San Francisco later this year.

Americana is an indie take on the great San Francisco thrillers of the 1970s. David Call stars as Avery Wells, a recovering alcoholic trying to prove himself again as a film editor. When his movie star sister (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed outside a party, Avery must find her murderer while dealing with his addiction.

David Call was first seen on screen in The Notorious Bettie Page and has since landed recurring roles in popular prime time television series including CW’s Gossip Girl and NBC’s Smash. Call is also well known for his leading roles in acclaimed independent films includingNortheast and Two Gates of Sleep, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and supporting roles in Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture andGabriel, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Rachel Brosnahan is well known for her memorable performance as ex call girl Rachel Posner in Netflix’s acclaimed series House of Cards,and currently stars in WGN America’s new series Manhattan. Other recent film and television credits include recurring roles in NBC’s The Blacklist and ABC’s Black Box, as well as roles in Beautiful Creatures, Orange is the New Black, Grey’s Anatomy and an appearance in HBO’s upcoming mini-series Olive Kitteridge.

“David and Rachel are exceptionally talented actors who are perfectly poised to assume these roles and we could not be more thrilled to have them lead the cast of Americana,” commented writer and director Zachary Shedd.

The recently launched Kickstarter campaign for Americana is seeking $25,000 as the final stage of fundraising to help support production costs. Supporters of high-quality, independent cinema can donate to the campaign at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/95453553/americana
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The first Doc’n Roll Festival Featuring Music Docs to take place in London September 25 – 28

Doc’n Roll Festival

The first ever Doc’n Roll Festival featuring international music documentaries and a rare retrospective of one of the greatest music doc filmmakers will take place September 25 to 28 at Hackney Picturehouse in London, England. With more than a dozen documentaries showing over four days, the line-up will include premieres, Q&As and special live events.

For the inaugural 4-day festival, the retrospective strand will focus on the work of British director Julien Temple, with docs including Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten and LONDON The Modern Babylon plus a Q&A session with Temple following a screening of Oil City Confidential which will include an exclusive opportunity to see a teaser from his upcoming doc about Wilko Johnson.

Oil City Confidential (2009) tells the story of Dr. Feelgood, a four-piece band who emerged from Cavney Island in the 1970s to conquer Europe and top the UK charts. With contributions from members of The Clash, Blondie and The Sex Pistols plus collaborators Jools Holland and Alison Moyet. In Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007), Temple draws on his close friendship and shared punk history to celebrate the life and legacy of Joe Strummer, before, during and after The Clash. In LONDON The Modern Babylon (2012), Temple draws on a century of music and film archive to tell the story of London’s epic journey through 100 years of cultural upheaval and reinvention. Among the line-up of familiar faces are David Bowie, Ray Davies, Bishi, Mick Jagger, Malcolm McLaren as well as the ordinary people of London from all walks of life. The extraordinary soundtrack spans 100 years of London music including iconic tracks from the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Small Faces, Lily Allen, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Kinks, Madness, Bob Marley through to Tommy Trinder, Max Bygraves, Vera Lynn, Lonnie Donnegan, Murray Johnson and Robert Burns, plus many more.

Also included in the Doc’n Roll line-up is the London Premiere of the American doc directed by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlet about the first black punk band (or arguably the first ever punk band). A Band Called Death (2012) looks at the three teenage brothers who dared to be different during the 1970s Motown and Disco era. Whilst their music may have been ahead of their time, three decades later Death’s music was rediscovered by a new audience and the band finally received the recognition they deserved.

Looking for Johnny (2014), a documentary on the life of the late New York Dolls and Heartbreakers guitarist Johnny Thunders, will also be included in this year’s program. Director Danny Garcia talked to the fifty people who were closest to the rocker about his music which inspired punk and glam-metal and his hard lifestyle which lead to his untimely demise at 38.

Main festival screenings will take place at Hackney Picturehouse.

Full program to be announced early September.
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Birdman Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton to Open 71st Venice Film Festival | TRAILER

Venice International Film Festival

Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful), starring Michael Keaton, has been selected as the opening film of the 71st Venice Film Festival (August 27th – September 6th 2014). Along with Michael Keaton the film also stars Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts.

The world premiere of Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance will be screened in competition on August 27th in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido, following the opening ceremony hosted by Luisa Ranieri.

The film is a black comedy that tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) – famous for portraying an iconic superhero – as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself.

The screenplay is written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Armando Bo. The producers are Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan and James W. Skotchdopole. The credits also include Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Tree of Life, Children of Men), production designer Kevin Thompson (The Bourne Legacy, Michael Clayton) and music composed by Antonio Sanchez.

In 2000, Alejandro G. Iñárritu made his breakthrough with Amores Perros which received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film and won the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2003 Iñárritu directed his next feature film 21 Grams starring Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts. The film participated in the 60th Venice Film Festival where Penn won the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor, and both Watts and Del Toro received Oscar nominations for their performances. In 2006, Iñárritu directed Babel, the last film of his trilogy starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal and introducing new actors such as Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi and several non-actors around the world.

For Babel, he was awarded the prize for best director at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Director and won the Oscar for best original soundtrack. It also received seven Golden Globes nominations and won the prize for Best Motion Picture – Drama. In 2007 Iñárritu was a member of the International Jury of the 64th Venice Film Festival’s Competition. In 2010 he presented Biutiful in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Javier Bardem won the prize for Best Actor (tied with Elio Germano for La Nostra Vita). The film received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film, and Bardem was nominated for best actor as well.

Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance will release in North America on October 17th and in international territories at the beginning of 2015.

http://youtu.be/xIxMMv_LD5Q
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