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Montclair Film Festival Reveals 2014 Films; Special Guests Include Kevin Smith, Julie Taymor, Stephen Colbert, Michael Moore

Montclair Film Festival

1 Way Up The Story of Peckham BMX

The Montclair Film Festival (MFF) announced the lineup for its 2014 edition. The festival opens on April 28 with Chef, the new comedy directed by and starring Jon Favreau with a supporting cast that includes John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson, being released nationwide in May. MFF’s popular live conversation series presents eclectic guests including Kevin Smith, Michael Moore and Julie Taymor paired with Stephen Colbert.

The festival hosts six world premiere films including 1 Way Up: The Story of Peckham BMX, presented in 3D, from the executive producers behind the Oscar-winning Inocente. The lineup also has two U.S. premiere documentaries: I Am Big Bird: The Carroll Spinney Story about the 80-year-old puppeteer on Sesame Street; and Advanced Style based on the eponymous New York City photography blog focusing on fashionable older women. In addition, 56 feature length films will make their NJ premieres.

Representing MFF’s strong interest in comedy, the festival Centerpiece on May 2 is Fort Tilden, an award-winning satire of young Brooklynites, followed by a Q&A with directors Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, plus stars Bridey Elliott and Clare McNulty. Closing Night on May 4 features Wild Canaries, a comic mystery starring Montclair-raised Sophia Takal, who will attend.

Expanding its commitment to black cinema, MFF partners with the Blackhouse Foundation to host the annual “House Party” on May 2 and showcases a full day of conversations onMay 3 with distinguished filmmakers including director Nelson George, producer Lisa Cortes, editors Sam Pollard and Lewis Erskine.

“We strive to create a festival that reflects the diversity and wide-ranging interests of our community,” said Artistic Director Thom Powers. “We have a depth of local talent in northern New Jersey, combined with visitors from New York City that make for a festival with big influence beyond this small town.”

Other highlights of this year’s festival include:

Drama section: 14 narrative films celebrated on the festival circuit, 12 of them NJ premieres. Titles include the Sundance Audience Award winner for World Cinema, Difret, set in Ethiopia, with producer Mehret Mandefro attending; and Roman Polanski’s latest Venus in Fur.

Documentary section: 13 nonfiction films spanning global topics including two US premieres (noted above). Among the 11 NJ premieres are Dinosaur 13, about the legal battle over Tyrannosaurus Rex bones, with director Todd Douglas Miller and film subject Peter Larson in person; and Ivory Tower, analyzing controversies in American higher education, followed by a conversation with director Andrew Rossi and New York Times columnist David Carr.

Comedy section: 10 comedy films including the world premiere documentary I Am Road Comic directed by stand-up comedian Jordan Brady who will attend. Eight NJ premieres include Intramural, a send-up of sports films, with actor Beck Bennett (Saturday Night Live) attending.

Black cinema: In keeping with Montclair’s African-American heritage, MFF takes a special interest in black stories and filmmakers throughout all sections of the festival. Directors in attendance include Thomas Allen Harris (Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People) and Michèle Stephenson (American Promise), in addition to the special guests for the Blackhouse Foundation conversations on May 3 (listed above).

New Jersey Spotlight: This section triples in size from six feature length films in 2013 to 18 this year. Five world premieres include the comedy Jammed, produced out of Teaneck, NJ, about a couple attending a jam band festival in the woods, andGirl, Adopted by Maplewood, NJ filmmakers, following an Ethiopian orphan girl for five years after she’s adopted by an American family. MFF will screen a work-in-progress version of Althea, a documentary about tennis great Althea Gibson who lived in Essex County, NJ with director Rex Miller attending. Additionally, three programs of short films with NJ connections appear in this section.

Family section: Three presentations including a 75th anniversary screening of The Wizard of Oz, with attendees encouraged to dress as their favorite characters. This section also screens the winners of MFF’s Kidz Shortz film contest featuring short films by young directors in grades 4-12.

Themed sections: MFF has three sidebar sections. Unique to this year is a section called “Focus on Civil Rights” featuring four documentaries that deal with the legacy of the civil rights movement including the NJ premiere of Freedom Summer, timed to the 50th anniversary of the push to register black Mississippi voters in 1964. Two other sidebars return from last year: “Movie Love” features two NJ premiere documentaries, The Dog and What is Cinema? that intersect with film history; plus a retrospective screening of Network, followed by a conversation with Dave Itzkoff, author of the book Mad as Hell, moderated by Stephen Colbert. “Music on Film”contains four films including the NJ premiere of No Cameras Allowed, a documentary about sneaking into music festivals by James Marcus Haney who will attend. Oscar®-winning (and NJ-based) filmmaker Alex Gibney will be in person to present his latest, Finding Fela, about the Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti.

Free Panels: Five free panels are open to the public. Two take place at in the pop-up storefront named the Audible Lounge: “Filming in New Jersey” on April 29 explores how NJ struggles to compete with other states that have higher tax incentives for film and TV; “The New Golden Age of TV” on April 30 looks at the rise of quality television dramas. Three free panels take place at the Montclair Public Library onMay 3, including “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Film School” with filmmaker and teacher Chuck Workman leading the conversation.
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New York African Film Festival Returns May 7-13; Nollywood dark comedy Confusion Na Wa to Open Festival

New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)

Confusion Na Wa

Under the banner theme “Revolution and Liberation in the Digital Age,” the 21st New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) will take place May 7-13, 2014. The initial leg of the festival includes eleven features and eight short films from various African nations and the Diaspora, and continues throughout May at the Cinema at the Maysles Documentary Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinématek.

With a gracious nod to Nollywood, the world’s second-largest film industry, and to the 100th centenary of Nigeria, the festival Opening Night presentation will be Confusion Na Wa, the dark comedy by Kenneth Gyang. Winner of Best Picture at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards, the film stars OC Ukeje and Gold Ikponmwosa as two grifters whose decision to blackmail a straying husband (played by Ramsey Nouah) sets in motion a chain of events leading to a shocking conclusion.

NYAFF audiences will get a sneak peek before the May 16 theatrical release of the critically acclaimed film Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the internationally best-selling novel of the same name by National Book Critics Circle Award–winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Directed by Biyi Bandele, the Centerpiece selection stars Thandie Newton and Anika Noni Rose as glamorous twins navigating life, love, and the turbulence of the Biafra (Nigerian Civil) war in 1960s Nigeria. The Monterey Media release also includes a powerful performance by recent Oscar-nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor.

A crop of films take up this year’s theme of revolution and liberation. In the documentary Mugabe: Villain or Hero?, director Roy Agyemang gets unprecedented access to the Zimbabwean leader and his entourage and lays bare the fight between African leaders and the West for African minerals and land. Ibrahim El Batout’s narrative feature Winter of Discontent takes viewers inside the Tahrir Square protests that were so central to the Arab Spring. And Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s timely experimental short Kuhani features a conflicted priest, just as Uganda’s Anti-Homosexual Act is grabbing headlines.

As a part of this, women’s rights and issues are again in the spotlight. In her documentary Bastards, director Deborah Perkin follows a single mother, beaten and raped at 14 and discarded as she fights in Moroccan court to legitimize her sham marriage, thus ensuring a future for the daughter born out of her nightmare. In Cameronian director Victor Viyouh’s drama Ninah’s Dowry, the title character flees an abusive marriage only to be pursued by her husband to retrieve either his property (her) or the dowry he paid. The short Beleh, by Eka Christa Assam, turns gender roles on their head as a bullying husband gets a taste of his own medicine. The wounded central characters in the narrative films Of Good Report by Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Grigris by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun are allegorical to the societal shifts and legacy of post-independent Africa.

On the lighter side, the festival will also present comedies, including Confusion Na Wa and It’s Us (Ni Si Si), as well as the U.S. premiere of the short Soko Sonko (The Market King). The Tunisian short Wooden Hands, also a U.S. premiere, delights as a willful five year-old’s act of rebellion takes on a life of its own. Additionally, writer Marguerite Abouet and illustrator Clément Oubrerie have brought their popular cartoon to life as directors of the animated feature Aya of Yop City, which follows the adventures of a 19-year-old and her girlfriends in Ivory Coast.

The Closing Night film on Tuesday, May 13, will be Sarraounia, Med Hondo’s sweeping epic based on historical accounts of Queen Sarraounia. Feared for her bravery and expertise in the occult arts, the fierce warrior leads the Azans of Niger into battle against French colonialists and enslavement at the turn of the century. The historical drama took first prize at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in 1987.

Films and Descriptions for New York African Film Festival

Opening Night Film
Confusion Na Wa
Kenneth Gyang, Nigeria, 2013, 105m
English and Pidgin with English subtitles
Set in a Nigerian city, Confusion Na Wa is a dark comedy about a group of strangers whose fates become intertwined over the course of 24 hours. At the heart of everything is a phone found by opportunists Charles and Chichi, who, having read through its contents, decide to blackmail the owner Emeka, an arrogant lawyer who is cheating on his wife. Little do they realize that their misdemeanors have set in motion a chain of events that will lead to their own downfall. Meanwhile Bello, a civil servant who naïvely thinks hard work is its own reward is pushed to the edge of reason by his wife and his boss. And businessman Babajide lets his piety get the better of him. Eventually mayhem will connect them all. With a script by Tom Rowlands-Rees, director Kenneth Gyang takes a nonlinear approach to storytelling in this Nollywood prizewinner (Confusion Na Wa was named Best Film at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards).

Centerpiece Film
Half of a Yellow Sun
Biyi Bandele, Nigeria/UK, 2013, 113m
With epic grandeur, Half of a Yellow Sun tell the story of a generation living through the tumult of Nigeria’s independence and the ensuing Nigerian-Biafran War through the thorny romantic journeys of two sisters. Olanna (Thandie Newton) is married to Odenigbo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a revolutionary who fathers a child with another woman. Her twin sister Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) is in love with a British writer (Joseph Mawle) who has come to Nigeria to teach. Playwright Biyi Bandele makes his film directorial debut with this adaptation of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Orange Prize–winning novel.Half of a Yellow Sun may take place 50 years ago, but Bandale has fashioned it as an emotionally gripping example of contemporary Nigerian cinema, and honors the ongoing strength of that country’s women in the process.

Closing Night Film
Sarraounia
Med Hondo, Burkina Faso/Mauritania/France, 1986, 120m
Dioula, French, and Fula with English subtitles
We are thrilled to have Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo, an important figure in postcolonial African cinema, with us to present his 1986 film Sarraouina. Based on historical accounts of Queen Sarraounia, who leads the Azans into battle against the French colonialists at the turn of the century, Hondo’s sweeping epic rivals any that American cinema has produced. A brilliant strategist and forceful leader, Sarraounia is a young warrior queen, whose mastery of the ancient “magic” skills of martial arts and pharmacology is first put to the test when she defends her people from attack by a neighboring tribe, which earns respect from the men she guides into battle and deep loyalty from her people. But her real trial comes when the French army marches south to widen its colonial grip on the African continent. Hondo contrasts the strong alliances that emerge among African communities with the self-seeking and purposelessness of the Europeans and provides much-needed African historical perspective. Sarraounia is not only an engrossing tale of a remarkable woman’s bravery but also a captivating study of revolution against enslavement and the struggle for peace and freedom.

Aya of Yop City
Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie, Ivory Coast/France, 2013, 85m
French with English subtitles
Abouet and Oubrerie bring their popular comic-book series that tracks the adventures of a young woman in a working-class town to cinematic life in a beautifully drawn account of West Africa in the 1970s. Nineteen-year-old aspiring doctor Aya spends most of her time at home in the Abidjan suburb of Yopougon (nicknamed Yop City) studying and dealing with her family so she doesn’t have time to take part in the exploits of her gal pals Bintou and Adjoua, both of whom want it all—to marry up as well as start their own business. Things go awry, though, when one of them gets pregnant. Oubrerie’s vivid drawings capture the spirit of a community growing past colonialism along with the rest of the country, and a spectacular soundtrack of period funk, rock, disco, and Afrojazz sets it all in motion. A delight for the eyes and the ears.

Bastards
Deborah Perkin, Morocco/UK, 2013, 93m
Arabic with English subtitles
In Morocco, as in all Muslim countries, sex outside marriage is illegal. Single mothers are despised, but what is the fate of their children? They are outcasts, condemned to a life of discrimination. Bastards tells this story from a mother’s point of view. At 14, Rabha El Haimer was an illiterate child bride, beaten, raped, and then rejected. Ten years later, she is a single mother, fighting to legalize her forced marriage, to register her daughter, and to make the father accept his child so that she can secure a future for her “illegitimate” daughter. With unprecedented access to the Moroccan justice system, filmmaker Deborah Perkin follows Rabha’s fight from the Casablanca slums—confronting her mother and asking why she married her off so young—to the high courts where the child’s father makes absurd claims and Rabha suffers verbal abuse from her father-in-law. Perkin may be the first Westerner to film in Moroccan family courts, where she captures real-life drama, played out in the first Muslim country in the world to recognize that single mothers and illegitimate children have rights.

Screening with
Beleh
Eka Christa Assam, Cameroon, 2013, 30m
Pidgin with English subtitles
Pregnant Joffi has a bullying husband who takes her, and pretty much everything else, for granted. His attitude is challenged when he awakes one morning to find a very different world from the one he fell asleep to the night before. A quirky, poignant, and pertinent look at gender roles.

Grigris
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad/France, 2013, 101m
French and Arabic with English subtitles
Despite a bum leg, 25-year-old Grigris has hopes of becoming a professional dancer, using his killer moves on the dance floor of his local club to secure some extra cash. His dreams are tested when his stepfather falls critically ill and he’s forced to risk his future by smuggling oil to pay the hospital bills. When he falls for Mimi, a beautiful but damaged prostitute, they attempt to start a new life together. But as bad decisions begin to catch up with them, they are forced to run for their lives. Their pasts, however, are never far behind… Professional dancer Souleymane Deme is remarkable as a man who can’t get a break, and veteran director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, whose visually striking films have won awards at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, creates an elegant character study.

It’s Us (Ni Si Si)
Nick Reding, Kenya, 2013, 88m
Swahili with English subtitles
Picture a typical Kenyan community: a harmonious muddle of tribes, intermarriages, and extended families; people living and working together all their days who don’t care which tribe their neighbor belongs to. What starts out as comic ribbing and good-natured banter between friends takes a more serious turn when politically motivated rumors arise and a sudden mistrust takes hold. With mistrust comes a sense of threat, and with threats, fear escalates, and in a matter of days, the bonds and alliances—the foundation of the community—are severed, just as they were in Kenya in 2008. Can a once-peaceful community learn from the mistakes of the past and be given another chance? Written and directed by Nick Reding, It’s Us was produced by the NGO-sponsored Arts for Education (S.A.F.E.) prior to Kenya’s elections to promote identity, peace, and unity by showing people confronting turmoil and violence. Can film change hearts and minds? Nick Reding and S.A.F.E. are making sure that happens.

Mugabe: Villain or Hero?
Roy Agyemang, UK/Zimbabwe, 2012, 116m
To most in the West, the title question of Roy Agyemang’s provocative documentary hardly needs to be asked. Accused of inept leadership and human-rights abuses, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since its independence from Great Britain in 1980 and was sworn in for a new five-year term just last summer, is also known for being the first African leader to seize white-controlled farms and redistribute them to the local population. British-born of Ghanaian parents, Agyemang set out to gain a fresh perspective on Mugabe by exploring the reality behind the headlines. And what was supposed to be a three-month project became a three-year all-access journey with Mugabe and his inner circle that reveals a charismatic, complicated man ruling a country at the intersection of international economics and post-colonial fallout. This personal film also raises wider serious issues about the relationship between African leaders and the West in the fight for the continent’s minerals and land.

New African Shorts
TRT: 110m

Baudouin Mouanda: Congolese Dreams
Philippe Cordey, Congo, 2012, 25m
Lingala, French, and German with English subtitles
For his latest project, The Dream, photographer Baudouin Mouanda explores beauty in unlikely places by asking women to pose in the same white wedding dress in different locations, from rubbish dumps to crowded trains.

Aissa’s Story
Iquo B. Essien, Nigeria/USA, 2013, 15m
French and English with English subtitles
An African immigrant housekeeper and single mother must decide whether to move on with her life or fight when the case against her assaulter is dismissed.

Kwaku Ananse
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/Mexico/USA, 2013, 26m
Outsider Nyan attends her estranged father’s funeral. Overwhelmed at the procession, she searches for him in the spirit world. Kwaku Ananse draws upon the rich mythology of Ghana and combines semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African stories who appears as both spider and man.

Soko Sonko (The Market King)
Ekwa Msangi-Omari, Kenya/USA, 2014, 22m
Kiswahili and Sheng with English subtitles
When her mom gets sick, Kibibi’s dad takes her to the market to get her hair braided before school. A fish out of water, this well-intentioned dad goes on a roller coaster of a journey where no man has gone before… because only women have been there!

Afronauts
Frances Bodomo, Ghana/USA, 2014, 15m
On July 16, 1969, America prepares to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of miles away, the Zambia Space Academy hopes to beat America to the moon. Inspired by true events.

Kuhani
Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Uganda, 2013, 7m
An experimental short inspired by Ugandan Catholic priest Father Anthony Musaala’s open letter titled “The Failure of Celibate Chastity Among Diocesan Priests.” Father Musaala is one of many Ugandans who has been persecuted as a result of the country’s recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Ninah’s Dowry
Victor Viyouh, Cameron, 2012, 95m
English, Pidgin and Babanki with English subtitles
Ninah is a mother of three stuck in an abusive relationship with no hope of change. Her family lives off her meager earnings from farm work while her husband, Memfi, drinks away his equally meager earnings as a shepherd. When she learns that her father is seriously ill and her husband refuses to let her go to him, Ninah realizes that she cannot take the abuse anymore and runs away. Memfi pursues her: he will recover the dowry he paid or take home the woman he owns—by any means necessary. This action sets off an incredible series of events with a whirlwind of suspense, thrills, and adventure that traverses the Cameroon landscape. Writer-director Victor Viyouh has crafted a powerful story with nuanced and complex characters, and Mbufung Seikeh, as Ninah, makes a screen debut that is nothing short of astonishing.

Of Good Report
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, South Africa, 2013, 109m
English and Xhosa with English subtitles
Schoolteacher Parker Sithole (Mothusi Magano) arrives in a rural village with no local connections. Though his unassuming disposition and a glowing recommendation from his previous employer inspires trust and sympathy, he promptly begins a torrid affair with one of his new pupils, 16-year-old Nolitha (Petronella Tshuma). Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s second feature delves into the type of impoverished black community that the government has ignored, making it that despair is part of the working poor’s daily life, and a man “of good report” can get away with anything. Shot in stark black and white, the film is a tribute to classic film noir while at the same time takes us out of that genre with bold artistic and political strokes (the film was banned, but quickly unbanned, by South African authorities).

Winter of Discontent (El sheita elli fat)
Ibrahim El Batout, Egypt, 2012, 96m
Arabic with English subtitles
Set against the momentous backdrop of the whirlwind protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that began on January 25th, 2011, director Ibrahim El Batout takes us on a raw and starkly moving journey into the lives of revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries alike. Amr is an opposition activist whose face is etched with pain and sorrow; Farah is a journalist who is feeling the pressure of working for the state’s television news channel; and Adel is a security officer who tortures detainees by day and has dinner with his wife in the comfort of their home by night. Their lives will collide in this hard-hitting political thriller that lays bare the police state of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt and offers a glimpse of the systematic torture and harassment that targeted any internal dissidence. One of the most dramatically satisfying cinematic accounts to date dealing with Egypt’s turbulent developments.

Screening with
Wooden Hands
Kaouther Ben Hania, Tunisia, 2013, 23m
Arabic with English subtitles
As the holidays end, 5-year-old Amira entertains herself before going back to Koran school. Attaching her hand to a chair with superglue looks like fun…
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Anurag Kashyap’s UGLY to Open, Aparna Sen’s GOYNAR BAKSHO to Close New York Indian Film Festival

New York Indian Film Festival

UGLY

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) celebrating its 14th year will kick off with the Opening Night Gala film: Anurag Kashyap’s UGLY, described as a sensational tale of corruption, indifference, and systemic violence that begins when a 10-year-old daughter of an aspiring actor disappears. The festival will run May 5 to 10, 2014 in New York City.

We are thrilled to be opening this year’s New York Indian Film Festival with Anurag Kashyap new film UGLY,” said festival director Aseem Chhabra. “Anurag has been in the forefront of India’s growing indie film movement, always pushing the boundaries and inspiring the new generation of filmmakers. Personally I am a big fan of his films.”

GOYNAR BAKSHO

In addition, actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen will close the festival with her latest work, GOYNAR BAKSHO. Sen began her career as an actress in Satyajit Ray’s 1961 masterpiece THREE DAUGHTERS (released as TWO DAUGHTERS in the US.)

In her latest work Sen provides a refreshing and vibrant take on acclaimed Bengali novelist Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s famous tale of three generations of women and their changing position in society, as seen in relation to an inherited box of jewels. The film features the talents of her daughter, Konkona Sen Sharma, who rose to fame in another Aparna Sen film, MR. AND MRS. IYER.

Actress and first time director Geethu Mohandas with showcase her film LIAR’S DICE as this year’s Centerpiece. LIAR’S DICE was in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at Sundance this January, and has been hailed by Variety as “an assured feature debut” and “quietly effective.” The film follows Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, whoembark on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband. It stars India’s leading indie film actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was recently seen as the eager office worker in Ritesh Batra’s THE LUNCHBOX.

OPENING NIGHT GALA

UGLY
New York Premiere
India/2014/128 minutes|
Director: Anurag Kashyap|
Cast: Rahul Bhatt, Abir Goswami, Sandesh Jhadev, Siddhant Kapoor
Logline: A terrible tale of corruption, indifference, and systemic violence starts when 10-year-old daughter of an aspiring actor disappears.

CENTERPIECE

LIAR’S DICE
|New York Premiere
India/2014/1O4 minutes
Director: Geethu Mohandas
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta
Logline: The film follows Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband.

CLOSING NIGHT

GOYNAR BAKSHO
India/2013/141 minutes
Director: Aparna Sen
Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Moushumi Chatterjee, Saswata Chaterjee, Paran Banerjee
Logline: Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s famous tale of 3 generations of women & their changing position in society, seen in relation to a box of jewels, handed down from one generation to the next.

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Gia Coppola’s ‘Palo Alto’ – Feature Adaptation of James Franco’s Collection of Short Stories is Centerpiece Presentation for 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival

Gia Coppola’s feature debut – the teen-centered drama Palo Alto, starring Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer and James Franco has been selected as Centerpiece presentation of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24–May 8). Palo Alto is adapted from Franco’s book Palo Alto Stories. The Festival’s Centerpiece is designed to showcase talented young directors with their latest film. Writer-director Gia Coppola is expected to attend the screening.

“

We couldn’t ask for a better fit for the Festival’s Centerpiece selection,” said San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan. “A skilled adaptation of the writings of one of our most interesting contemporary artists, a locally-set story, and the feature debut of the newest member of one of this country’s most remarkable and prolific film families. This is going to be quite a night!”

Good girl April (Emma Roberts) grapples with her attraction to her soccer coach Mr. B (James Franco), stoner artist Teddy (Jack Kilmer) finds trouble under the influence of his defiant best bud Fred (Nat Wolff) and promiscuous Emily (Zoe Levin) pins her fragile sense of self on her many sexual encounters. With this adaptation of Franco’s book of short stories, fifth-generation filmmaker Gia Coppola makes an assured feature debut mining the field of troubled adolescence that both her grandfather Francis and aunt Sofia explored before her. Coppola makes the genre wholly her own with an original take on aimless youth that captures not just the sex, drugs and alcohol, but also the angst and alienation.

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‘Begin Again’, ‘Calvary’ and ‘The One I Love’ Added to 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival

Begin Again

John Carney’s Begin Again (USA 2013), John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary (Ireland/UK 2014) and Charlie McDowell’s The One I Love (USA 2014) have been added to the film schedule for the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24–May 8).

When failed record executive Dan (Mark Ruffalo) meets tentative but talented singer-songwriter Greta (Keira Knightley) in a Manhattan nightclub, he dedicates himself to making her a star in a bid for career and personal redemption. He is in a bad place in his life, his career and marriage in shambles, and so is she, her heart broken by her rock star ex-boyfriend Dave (Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine). While the talented Greta lacks ambition, Dan, desperate for one more hit record and validation in the eyes of his estranged wife (Catherine Keener) and daughter (Hailee Steinfeld), has enough drive for the both of them. Ruffalo’s committed performance as the not always likable, but ultimately sympathetic, impresario rediscovering his passion and reclaiming his soul is what makes this tale of redemption soar as writer/director John Carney (SFIFF 2007) scores another winner in his return to the romantic musical. Begin Again plays Wednesday May 7, 6:00 pm at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. The Weinstein Company will open the film in Bay Area theaters in July.

Calvary

The words coming from the other side of the confessional are chilling: after first relating the rape he suffered in childhood at the hands of a priest, the anonymous voice promises Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson) that in a week’s time he is going to murder him. Not because the pastor had a hand in his or anyone else’s molestation, but because assassinating a good priest will make more of a statement. With that arresting opening begins Calvary, Gleeson’s second collaboration with writer/director John Michael McDonagh after The Guard (2011). This darkly comedic drama frames trenchant observations of the Catholic Church’s history dealing with abuse allegations in Ireland within a daft mystery/passion play with Father Lavelle reluctantly thrust into the role of the martyr marked to die for the sins of others. Calvary plays Thursday May 8, 6:00 pm at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Fox Searchlight Pictures will open the film in theaters this coming August.

The One I Love

The One I Love follows longtime couple Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) in their attempt to mend their rocky relationship. While the two are still in love, in the past few years a mean streak has started to color all of their interactions and squabbling has replaced sex. Dedicated to salvaging what was once a healthy and loving relationship, the pair start seeing a therapist (Ted Danson) who suggests that they spend a weekend at an idyllic country property with a 100% success rate at mending ailing relationships. Ethan and Sophie eagerly sign up, and the house is even more gorgeous than the marriage counselor described—rolling greenery, a swimming pool, even a small cottage behind the main house. Almost immediately, the two are more affectionate, flirty and fun than they’ve been in years. Something must be wrong here. The One I Love plays Tuesday May 6, 9:15 pm at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Radius – TWC will open the film in theaters this summer.

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SNOWPIERCER Starring Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer to Open 20th Anniversary, 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival

Los Angeles Film Festival

The Los Angeles Film Festival announced the North American Premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer as the opening night film of the 2014 festival, which runs June 11 to June 19, 2014. The film’s release is set for June 27th from RADiUS-TWC.

“Snowpiercer is a wild ride and a spectacular way to open the 20th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Film Festival which is dedicated to the visionary spirit of L.A. that inspires artists around the world,” said Stephanie Allain, Festival Director.

“I’m thrilled to have Bong Joon-ho’s amazing Snowpiercer to kick off the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival,” said David Ansen, Artistic Director for the Festival. “As fans of The Host and Mother know, Bong takes popular genres to a visionary new level. Here he puts us on a speeding train in a frozen post-apocalyptic future — in the company of Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell and John Hurt — and treats us to a wild, funny and darkly provocative ride. You’ve never seen anything quite like it!”

According to RADiUS co-presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego: “We are thrilled Snowpiercer has been selected for the Los Angeles Film Festival’s coveted opening night slot. David and his team always curate a terrific slate and we look forward to kicking things off with Bong’s sci-fi masterpiece.”
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Palm Beach International Film Festival to Kickoff this Week with BELLE and Closes with Jason Priestley’s CAS & DYLAN

Palm Beach International Film Festival

Belle, directed by Amma Asante

The Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) announced its film line-up for the 19th edition, taking place April 3 to 10, 2014. Opening Night kicks off with Belle, directed by Amma Asante. The film, which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Emily Watson, Tom Felton, Sam Reid and Tom Wilkinson, is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield and his wife, Belle’s lineage affords her certain privileges, yet the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Left to wonder if she will ever find love, Belle falls for an idealistic young vicar’s son bent on change who, with her help, shapes Lord Mansfield’s role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England.

Cas & Dylan, directed by Jason Priestley

The fest will close with Cas & Dylan, directed by Jason Priestley, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Tatiana Maslany and Jayne Eastwood. A Canadian comedy/drama, Cas & Dylan is about what happens when a dying doctor, who plans to check out on his own terms, takes a reluctant detour when he inadvertently winds up on the lam with an ‘anything-but-normal’ 22-year old girl. Director Jason Priestley will attend.

PBIFFwill present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Emmy and Tony award-winning actor Robert Morse, who appears in Rick McKay’s film, Broadway: BEYOND the Golden Age at this year’s festival.

The festival will also honor director Rick McKay with the Visionary Award, celebrating his on-going achievement of documenting and preserving the history of the Broadway stage with stories told directly from the legends who were there, while illustrating their tales not only with amazing, rare archival performance footage but also through their home movies and photos as well. McKay returns to Palm Beach after premiering his award-winning documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, which won at PBIFF ten years ago, and this year will have a very special early sneak preview of his new film Broadway: BEYOND the Golden Age, due to be released in the Fall of 2014, followed by an audience Q&A and Award presentation.

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Jon Favreau’s latest film CHEF selected to Open 2014 Montclair Film Festival

Montclair Film Festival

Chef from Jon Favreau has been selected as the opening night film of the Montclair Film Festival which runs April 28 to May 4, 2014 in Montclair, New Jersey. Chef, which had its World Premiere last month at the SXSW Film Festival, also screens as part of the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival in New York City later this month. Favreau wrote, directed and stars in the comedy film that also features Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo,Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Favreau plays Carl, a chef who loses his job and decides to launch a food truck business, while attempting to reunite his estranged family.

Other reported highlights include for this year include the return of Michael Moore for a discussion on documentaries, a talk by Kevin Smith, two conversations with Stephen Colbert and a screening of “The Wizard of Oz” on the final morning of the festival.

The complete lineup of films is now available on the festival’s website.

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Check out the Official Poster and Trailer for ‘The Hornet’s Nest’

Documentary

Check out the official poster and trailer for the Afghanistan war documentary, The Hornet’s Nest, directed by Christian Tureaud and David Salzberg, and scheduled to be released nationally in theaters on May 23rd, 2014. Armed only with their cameras, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning conflict Journalist Mike Boettcher, and his son, Carlos, provide unprecedented access into the longest war in U.S. history. Mike and Carlos Boettcher are the only reporters devoted to full time coverage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. They began their embed with U.S. forces in August 2008.

The film is described as the story of an elite group of U.S. troops sent on a dangerous mission deep inside one of Afghanistan’s most hostile valleys, told through the narrative of Journalist Mike Boettcher, and his son, Carlos attempting to reconnect under unimaginable circumstances, who are assigned to cover the conflict for one of the United States’ major broadcast networks.

The Hornet’s Nest is a groundbreaking and immersive feature film, using unprecedented real footage to tell the story of an elite group of U.S. troops sent on a dangerous mission deep inside one of Afghanistan’s most hostile valleys.

The film culminates with what was planned as a single day strike turning into nine intense days of harrowing combat against an invisible, hostile enemy in the country’s complex terrain where no foreign troops have ever dared to go before. Two embedded journalists, a father and son, bravely followed the troops through the fiercest and most blood-soaked battlegrounds of the conflict. What resulted is an intensely raw feature film experience that will give audiences a deeply emotional and authentic view of the heroism at the center of this gripping story.

http://youtu.be/qBt-GTfgLh4
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THE CONTEST, REGRET!, WINDSTORM Nominated for European Film Academy Young Audience Award 2014

Awards

Three films, THE CONTEST, directed by Martin Miehe-Renard, REGRET, directed by Dave Schram, and WINDSTORM, directed by Katja von Garnier, have been nominated for the EFA (European Film Academy) Young Audience Award 2014. On Young Audience Film Day on 4 May, the three nominated films will be screened to a audiences of 12 – 14 year-olds in 17 cities across Europe. And it is the young audience that will act as a jury and vote for the winner right after the screenings.

THE CONTEST

DIRECTED BY: Martin Miehe-Renard
WRITTEN BY: Martin Miehe-Renard, Gitte Løkkegaard & Hans Hansen
PRODUCED BY: Henrik Møller-Sørensen & Marcella Dichmann
90 min, Denmark

REGRET

DIRECTED BY: Dave Schram
WRITTEN BY: Maria Peters & Dick van den Heuvel
PRODUCED BY: Dave Schram, Maria Peters & Hans Pos
95 min, The Netherlands

WINDSTORM

DIRECTED BY: Katja von Garnier
WRITTEN BY: Kristina Magdalena Henn & Lea Schmidbauer
PRODUCED BY: Ewa Karlström & Andreas Ulmke-Smeaton
103 min, Germany

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First Time Fest is BACK in NYC April 3-7

First Time Fest (FTF)

Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Julie Taymor will be the FIRST TIME FEST’S 2014 John Huston Award For Achievement In Cinema recipient, announced FTF Co-Founders Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward. Ms. Taymor will also be represented in the Fest’s ‘First Exposure’ Retrospective Program where she will attend to present and discuss with the audience her first feature film, Titus.

Presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the art of cinema, and whose presence in our community has offered leadership and inspiration to other cinema artists, the John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema is named in honor of one of America’s greatest filmmakers.

Julie Taymor is one of the most adventurous directors working today, known for her visionary work on stage and screen. She is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and won two Tony Awards – including Best Director – for The Lion King,which is the highest grossing Broadway show of all time.Her most recent stage triumph was the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Theater for a New Audience. Taymor is also an accomplished director of opera, with productions including an astounding realization of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (broadcast on PBS) in Matsumoto, Japan; The Magic Flute for the Metropolitan Opera and The Flying Dutchman andElliot Goldenthal’s Grendel for the LA Opera. Taymor made an astonishing debut as a film director with her adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus (screening on Friday at FTF), starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, and has directed three other films: Frida – the story of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina (which earned six Oscar nominations and won two); Across the Universe, a phantasmagorical musical featuring the music of the Beatles that was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture; and The Tempest – her second reinvention of Shakespeare – starring Helen Mirren as Prospera. With her boundless imagination and originality, she is the ideal recipient of our John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema.

Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward also are pleased to announce two additional participants in the Fest’s ‘First Exposure’ Retrospective Program Presenting Debut Films By Now Prominent Directors. Tom McCarthy will be attending FTF with his first film, The Station Agent (also expected to attend are some of his great cast including Michele Williams, Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, and Bobby Cannavale); and Lake Bell will be on hand to discuss with the audience her first directorial effort In A World(she starred as well and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance for her script).

FIRST TIME FEST is a unique film festival celebrating first-time feature filmmakers. Aimed at discovering and providing exposure for the next generation of great filmmakers from around the world, FTF is a five-day event with a competition section showcasing new and exciting debut films, and a series of screenings and discussions with now-prominent filmmakers presenting their first films and then mentoring the first-timers.

The Second Time Around for FIRST TIME FEST is set for April 3 – 7, 2014, and it will be based at NeueHouse (110 East 25th St.). NeueHouse will be the location for panels, workshops, selected film presentations, parties and the filmmaker lounge. Most screenings, including all the competition films, will take place at the AMC Loews Village 7 (11th St. & Third Ave.)

Martin Scorsese, who presented Darren Aronofsky with the first John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema last year, stated, “This venture is very very important to encourage young filmmakers.”

FTF will present ten Competition Films, which will be judged by a panel of industry luminaries and the FTF audience. All of the films in competition at FTF are the very first feature of the writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer or composer of each film. All competition screenings will be followed by “Hot-Seat” discussions between the jury and filmmakers, and all audience members will vote on the films as well. Together, the jury and audience will ultimately select the Grand Prize winner, which is offered theatrical distribution and international sales representation from the renowned American film distributor, Cinema Libre Studio. And with FTF’s new relationship with Scandinavian Locations – the consortium of Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Danish film commissioners – the winning filmmaker will also receive a trip to Norway and Sweden to spend a week at a writer’s cottage in Northern Sweden to work on their next project. Scandinavian Locations will also be hosting our Filmmaker Kick-Off event on April 2 at NeueHouse.

Tom McCarthy and Lake Bell join FIRSTTIMEFEST’s retrospective series, First Exposure which showcases the auspicious and ambitious debuts by artists who went on to become major filmmakers, with personal appearances by the filmmakers. Also appearing this year: our Opening Night director Jennie Livingston presenting Paris is Burning,Albert Maysles (Salesman), Julie Taymor (Titus), Michael Moore (Roger & Me), Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass), Cinematographer Frederick Elmes (Eraserhead), James Toback (Fingers), and Peter Bogdanovich (Targets).

FTF’s Stand Alone series will feature incredible conversations with Peter Bogdanovich, and Michael Moore.

Between films, we will be hosting an array of Industry Panels with notable producers, financiers, agents, composers, critics and other members of the entertainment industry. Panels at FTF are intimate gatherings between attendees and special guests where questions are encouraged and discussion is lively. Among the panels are “What’s Up, Doc;” “Help Me Help You;” “Show Me the Money;” “We Need a Bigger Boat – producing Independent Cinema;” “The Critical Eye;” “From Rock to Score” presented by the Grammys; and “Sell Baby Sell.”

A special panel, Women in Entertainment and Media, sponsored by the by the Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management Group, will include Brooke Shields, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Carol Alt.

Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward are the co-founders of FIRSTTIMEFEST . As an accomplished philanthropist, actor, and social entrepreneur, as well as the daughter of singer Tony Bennett, Johanna Bennett has immersed herself within the entertainment and artistic community her entire life. Mandy Ward has worked in the film industry for the past decade in varied capacities, namely as a film producer of several projects. Mitch Levine, CEO of The Film Festival Group, is producing the festival. Through his company, Mitch offers consulting services and expertise to film festivals, film commissions, distribution companies and filmmakers around the world, and was formerly the CEO and Executive Director of the renowned Palm Springs International Film Festival. The Festival’s Director of Programming is David Schwartz, the Chief Curator of Museum of the Moving Image.

Among FIRSTTIMEFEST’s wonderful sponsors and supporters are: NeueHouse, Scandinavian Locations and the Village Voice.

For Tickets, Passes, Program, Schedule and Additional Festival Information – Visit The Festival Website at http://www.firsttimefest.com
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Review of Great New Doc: “Finding Vivian Maier”

Film Reviews

by Francesca McCaffery

John Maloof and his brother were raised working at outdoor flea markets and swap meets with their father…From a very early age, John Maloof could spot a deal. When working on a book about the history of Chicago, he attended an Auction at a small auctioneer’s store, sitting quietly in the back, and bidded a mere $780 for a box containing over 25,000 negatives shot by an unknown, female photographer. A savvy veteran of these auctions, and now a real estate agent and local historian, he was looking for photos and negatives of old-time Chicago, he was hoping to get a little lucky. He ended up purchasing, for even less money, tens of thousands of more negs and rolls of film, as well as most of her rmaining personal possessions from storage, from another buyer. All of these images had been taken by a woman named Vivian Maier.

As his life and work on the Chicago book took over, Maloof ended up simply stashing away the old boxes in a closet for a long while. Dusting them off one day, hunting again for some random, still images of Chicago, he began to discover some of the most insightful, gorgeous and timely images of street photography he had ever seen. Entranced by the glorious, black and white stills, and in possession of a sophisticated artistic instinct and taste, he then set about to find out, exactly, just who this Vivian Maeir woman really was.

Through meticulous research of the items and letters of hers that he had also purchased, he began the tremendous process of discovery: Maloof first started his search online, finding absolutely nothing. Being a self-proclaimed “obsessive kind of person,” Maloof tracked down a family that knew Maier well- who had in fact, had employed her. As their nanny.

During this same period, Maloof also begun further scanning several of the thousands of negatives he had (there were much, much fewer printed images of paper- and those were mostly damaged) and started sending them to art historians and museums, to see if he could somehow arrange a show, or gallery representation or opening.

He was, much to his great disappointment, systematically turned down by the art world. Maloof then set upon his newfound mission to bring Maier’s incredible photographs to the world on his own. Through actual live interviews with Maier’s now fully grown “charges,” we learn that the adults who employed her did not realize she was a serious photographer, but the children certainly did: They were dragged around to “bad” sections of town, docks, poor areas, were Maier somehow had the quiet charisma to elicit the most beguiling self-portraits from total and complete strangers. (The close-up portraits are especially, staggeringly impressive and moving.)

Maeir also lived and worked as a nanny in New York City, and this is where her photography comes into a thrilling, full, mature bloom: There are images of ecstatic children, bums, glorious street scenes of all stripe, decaying urban landscapes and building fronts, tired businessmen, well-dressed dames, cops: All injected with incredible, dry bits of humor, gorgeous composition and highly intuitive, natural lighting. There is also her incredible ability to capture the explicit poignancy and miracle of the moment- the true gift of any street photographer.

Naturally, as more of Maier’s now grown “children” are candidly interviewed by Maloof (and his co-director and co-writer, Charlie Siskel) we realize there was a sad, haunting darkness in her a nature, and an obvious trauma from her past, that had prevented her from fully connecting with her art, and with other people, in general. As she aged, she also grew increasingly eccentric, and some of the charge’s tales turn increasingly disturbing. (Interestingly, though, it was three former young boys she cared for, who as grown men, took it upon themselves to rent her an apartment , supporting her after she retired.)

The interviews do make up the bulk of the film, as it always amazing to us to pick apart what composes the interior life of someone life- the ultimate in coulda-woulda- shoulda scenarios…But there is just enough of her work shown, in essence, to whet your appetite for more investigation into the actual images and her work, itself.

I have heard much controversy over Maloof appropriating these images and reaping the financial benefit…(Well before this film’s notoriety, he had made her a “star” already on the internet and print media with his incredible discovery) But honestly- I have to completely disagree: This “mission’ of John Maloof’s, may, in fact, eventually leave him a very wealthy man, (Maier’s prints are on sale and being collected by celebrities and collectors world-wide) but the extraordinary richness of Vivian Maier’s work, one can safely say, would not be known to us without his dedication and obsessive nature. Vivian Maier’s work is probably on par with that of Diane Arbus and Robert Frank. Hopefully, she will be soon accepted by the art establishment just as she is by the mainstream media. This is a wonderful, inspiring film, especially if your inner-artist is dying to make a splash on the canvas, screen or page. One is left with the feeling that a person truly owes it to the world to show it what you’ve got- and that’s no mean feat for a small, wonderful film like this. Go see it- it opens March 28th in selected cities.

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