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Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Announces 2014 Film Lineup; Fest to Close with JADOO

Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

JADOO

The 12th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), taking place April 8 to13, 2014, at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, announced its 2014 lineup of narrative and documentary features and short films for this year’s festival. JADOO, a delightful and delicious exploration of family bonds amidst two feuding brothers’ restaurants in England, will screen as the festival’s Closing Night Gala. JADOO is written and directed by IFFLA alum Amit Gupta, and first premiered at the 2013 Berlinale. It features a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Kulvinder Ghir, Amara Karan, Harish Patel, Tom Mison, and Madhur Jaffrey.

As previously announced, IFFLA will open with Jeffrey D. Brown’s SOLD, produced by Jane Charles and executive produced by Emma Thompson.

Program highlights include the North American premiere of Anurag Kashyap’s latest,UGLY, an intense, masterfully directed psychological thriller that premiered in the 2013 Director’s Fortnight section of Cannes; LIAR’S DICE, the remarkable directorial debut of South Indian actress Geetu Mohandas that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Anup Singh’s latest feature QISSA: THE TALE OF A LONELY GHOST, starring Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire), winner of NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Dioraphte Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; the Audience Award winner at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival HANK AND ASHA, an exploratory, romantic look at two people bonding in the digital age by newcomer James E. Duff; Nagraj Manjule’s FANDRY, a highly praised debut feature for its multilayered emotion and realism on the subject of caste discrimination; BRAHMIN BULLS starring Roshan Seth (Gandhi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Mississippi Masala) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Beauty and the Beast, Heroes) as an estranged father and son unexpectedly brought together to confront the family’s past; and SIDDHARTH, a nuanced look at a family whose son goes missing, by lauded Canadian director and IFFLA alum Richie Mehta (Amal).

The festival’s feature documentary competition includes an eclectic mix of films from established and upcoming filmmakers that consider India’s unique traditions and dynamic future. The films include: the world premiere of THE AUCTION HOUSE, an intimate and funny look at two brothers trying to keep their anachronistic family business going in the digital age; festival favorite POWERLESS, which depicts intense struggles over electricity in a mid-size Indian city; FAITH CONNECTIONS, IFFLA alum Pan Nalin’s beautiful and rare look at the Kumbh Mela; and the National Award-winning SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE, about an arduous, mountainous trek through an animal drive in the Kashmiri winter.

The popular Bollywood by Night series returns this year with BOMBAY TALKIES and MONSOON SHOOTOUT. Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, BOMBAY TALKIES is a quartet of short films that celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema. The omnibus film features work by four of India’s most exciting contemporary directors: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Anurag Kashyap, as well as a stellar cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, and Katrina Kaif. MONSOON SHOUTOUT is a thrilling debut by IFFLA alum writer/director Amit Kumar about how a split-second decision made by a rookie police officer has rippling effects in his life and the lives of those around him.

The shorts competition showcases a diverse selection of 15 films that include narrative, documentary, experimental, and animated works. Highlights of this year’s program include Academy Award® shortlisted KUSH; Sundance award winner LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.; and the world premiere of acclaimed director Umesh Kulkarni’s THE FLY.

OPENING NIGHT GALA

SOLD
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2014/97min
Director: Jeffrey D. Brown
Producer: Jane Charles
Executive Producer: Emma Thompson
Screenwriters: Joseph Kwong, Jeffrey D. Brown
Composer: John McDowell, Sammy Chand, Salim & Sulaiman Merchant
Cast: Susmita Mukherjee, Seema Biswas, Tillotama Shome, Niyar Saikia, Priyanka Bose, Ankur Vikal, Parambrata Chatterjee, Gillian Anderson, David Arquette

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Jeffrey D. Brown adapts Patricia McCormick’s novel Sold – a National Book Award finalist – into a vivid, harrowing and inspiring story of a young girl’s resilience in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

CLOSING NIGHT

JADOO
Los Angeles Premiere
UK/2013/84 mins
Director: Amit Gupta
Producers: Amanda Faber, Isabelle Georgeaux, Richard Holmes, Nikki Parrott
Screenwriter: Amit Gupta
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Cast: Kulvinder Ghir, Amara Karan, Harish Patel, Tom Mison, Madhur Jaffrey

Set in Leicester, England, Amit Gupta’s culinary comedy charts the chaos that ensues when young Shalini gets engaged to her longtime boyfriend Mark. The fact that Mark is not Indian is the least of Shalini’s concerns. Her father Raja and uncle Jagi have been at war for years. After a legendary falling out that caused them to close their family restaurant, each man opened his own establishment – directly across the street from one another! Shalini’s dream wedding would see both men put aside their differences and prepare the feast together, but resentment runs deep and neither man can hear mention of the other’s name without a spike in blood pressure. Both the prospect of disappointing their beloved Shalini and the threat of a new, hip restaurant opening in the area force Raja and Jagi to work together – but for how long? In this uproariously funny and heartfelt exploration of family bonds, shared history and gastronomic perfection, Gupta’s cast is endlessly appealing. Plus, there’s enough mouth-watering Indian food on display to have your stomach growling before the credits roll.

FEATURE FILMS

BEFORE MY EYES (ANKHON DEKHI)
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/107min
Director: Rajat KapoorProducer: Manish Mundra
Screenwriter: Rajat Kapoor
Cast: Sanjay Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa, Rajat Kapoor, Taranjeet, Maya Sarao

Celebrated writer, director, and actor Rajat Kapoor (Midnight’s Children, Monsoon Wedding, Mixed Doubles, Mithya) paints an offbeat yet thought-provoking portrait of domestic life in modern day Delhi when an incident prompts head of the family Bauji to reject anything he himself has not experienced, much to the exasperation of his extended family but to the delight of his newfound philosopher disciples. Balancing the comical and the existential, both Bauji and the film ask the basic question, ‘Can you know truth without true experience?’

BRAHMIN BULLS
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/96min/2013
Director: Mahesh Pailoor
Producer: Yoshinobu Tsuji
Screenwriters: Anu Pradhan, Mahesh Pailoor
Cast: Sendhil Ramamurthy, Roshan Seth, Mary Steenburgen, Justin Bartha, Cassidy Freeman, Monica Raymund, Michael Lerner

Mahesh Pailoor’s tender, funny, and touching debut tells the story of estranged father and son Ashok and Sid, who reunite at Sid’s Los Angeles home when Ashok arrives unexpectedly. Each man is keeping secrets from one another, and when the truth is revealed, parent and child must work even harder to close the rift between them.

FANDRY
North American Premiere
India/2013/103min
Director: Nagraj Manjule
Producers: Vivek Kajaria, Nilesh Navalakha
Screenwriter: Nagraj Manjule
Cast: Kishor Kadam, Chhaya Kadam, Somnath Awghade, Suraj Pawar, Rajshree Kharat, Sakshi Vyavhare, Aishvarya Shinde, Nagraj Manjule

Marathi poet Nagraj Manjule’s impressive debut feature tells the story of Jabya, a Dalit boy, and his family’s struggle against daily prejudice in their Maharashtra village. Jabya’s carefree childhood desires and antics are soon stifled by his family’s “untouchable” status, and the film’s gradual transformation into an insightful and damning look at caste discrimination builds from a murmur to a defiant roar. Refusing to reduce his Dalit characters to victims – most explicitly at the film’s explosive conclusion – Manjule’s socially reflective film has received critical acclaim in India.

HANK AND ASHA
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2013/73min
Director: James E. Duff
Producers: James E. Duff, Julia Morrison
Screenwriters: James E. Duff, Julia Morrison
Cast: Mahira Kakkar, Andrew Pastides

James E. Duff’s feature directorial debut, the Audience Award winner at the 2013 Slamdance Film Festival, is an endearing tale of a long-distance connection in the digital age. Hank and Asha, two aspiring filmmakers separated by an ocean, connect with one another through video messages and quickly find themselves heading towards romance. That is, until Asha reveals some surprising news. Duff has created a captivating ode to the new possibilities open to us now that the world’s gotten smaller.

LIAR’S DICE
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/104min
Director: Geetu Mohandas
Producers: Alan McAlex, Ajay G. Rai
Screenwriter: Geetu Mohandas
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta

Established actress Geetu Mohandas steps behind the lens for her bracing directorial debut. A woman named Kamala and her daughter journey from their remote Himalayan village to Delhi in search of Kamala’s missing husband. They find a guide in an unfriendly wanderer whose interest may lie more in his personal gain than in any help he can offer them. Beautifully shot by Rajeev Ravi (Gangs of Wasseypur), Mohandas’ film evokes a hazardous world where answers may never be clear and a helping hand always comes at a price.

PHORING
North American Premiere
India/2013/128min
Director: Indranil Roychowdhury
Producers: Anasua Roychowdury, Sugata Bal
Screenwriters: Indranil Roychowdhury, Sugata Sinha
Cast: Akash Adhikary, Sohini Sarkar, Sourav Basak, Ritwick Charaborty, Shankar Debnath, Senjuti Roymukherjee

Indranil Roychowdhury’s stunning feature debut is an evocative, unpredictable tale of confused adolescence in a struggling North Bengal town. Phoring, an imaginative adolescent boy, and his beautiful new teacher Doel form a close friendship that soon arouses doubt and suspicion when Doel’s presence in the town is revealed to have less-than-noble origins. Roychowdhury accomplishes a tricky feat with his first film by luring us with the promise of an inspirational teacher-student story before ultimately delivering a much more complex and truthful account of the joys and pains of growing up.

QISSA: THE TALE OF A LONELY GHOST (2013)
Los Angeles Premiere
Germany-India-Netherlands/2013/109min
Director: Anup Singh
Producers: Bero Beyer, Johannes Rexin, Bettina Brokemper, Thierry Lenouvel
Screenwriter: Anup Singh, Madhuja Mukherjee
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal

Set in 1940s Punjab, Anup Singh’s latest feature QISSA details the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistan Partition through the experiences of one Sikh family, headed by Umber (Irrfan Khan). Following the family’s forceful displacement from their village, Umber’s desire for a male heir is stronger than ever. When his wife gives birth to their fourth daughter, Kanwar, Umber makes the fateful decision to raise her as a boy. This tragic choice ends up dividing the family in violent ways, and provokes a series of increasingly unsettling situations for Kanwar as she grows up. While in a sense a ghost story, the source of pain and suffering is all too real.

SIDDHARTH
Los Angeles Premiere
Canada-India/2013/96min
Director: Richie Mehta
Producers: David Miller, Steven N. Bray
Screenwriter: Richie Mehta
Cast: Rajesh Tailang, Tannishtha Chatterjee

A celebrated IFFLA alum, Canadian director Richie Mehta returns to the festival with a heartbreaking story of parents Mahendra and Suman, whose son goes missing after being sent to work 200 miles north of Delhi. Carried by powerful yet restrained performances from Rajesh Tailang and Tannishtha Chatterjee as the parents, Mehta and cast capture the dignity of those facing the unthinkable. Mehta’s chance encounter with a man searching for his lost son alerted him to the underreported plight of the families of 44,000 children estimated missing in India every year.

UGLY
North American Premiere
India/2013/128mins/DCP
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Writer: Anurag Kashyap
Producers: Vikas Bahl, Madhu Mantena, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vivek Rangachari,
Arun Rangachari
Cast: Rahul Bhatt, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Anshika Shrivastava

When ten-year-old Kali disappears from her father Rahul’s car on the busy streets of Mumbai, the events that follow quickly spiral out of control and plunge into a morass of corruption and violence. Rahul and Kali’s mother, Shalini, are divorced. Shalini is now married to Shoumik, the local police chief. When Shoumik learns that his stepdaughter is missing, he and Rahul clash in a breathless race to find the girl. With intricate plotting and vivid characterizations, IFFLA alum Anurag Kashyap fashions a story that’s sure to keep the heart racing.

WRITERS (SULEMANI KEEDA)
North American Premiere
India/2013/90min
Director: Amit V Masurkar
Writer: Amit V Masurkar
Producer: Datta Dave
Cast: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev and Karan Mirchandani

Writing partners Dulal and Mainak dream of shaking up Bollywood in director Amit Masurkar’s slacker comedy. The two young men take a job from the wealthy, oddball son of a famous B-movie producer, but soon fear they’re on the path to selling out. Masurkar’s film captures the creative spirit of Andheri West, a Mumbai suburb where writers, directors, and actors come from all over India with the dream of working in the film industry, and is a sweet taste of things to come from the new “hindie” cinema.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

THE AUCTION HOUSE: A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS
World Premiere
UK/2014/85min
Director: Ed Owles
Producers: Ed Owles, Giovanna Stopponi

The auction houses of Kolkata used to be where the rich and famous found the right high-end objects to decorate their homes. Today, the family-owned Russell Exchange is the last, and oldest, one to remain in India. Director Ed Owles follows two brothers, with the older brother moving back to Kolkata from London with hopes of using his Western business acumen to bring the Exchange into the 21st century. However, in a country radically transformed by technology and a rising youth culture, it may already be too late.

FAITH CONNECTIONS
Los Angeles Premiere
France-India/2013/115min/DCP
Director: Pan Nalin
Producers: Raphaël Berdugo, Gaurav Dhingra, Pan Nalin, Virginie Lacombe

Every three years, Hindus gather at one of four rotating sites for Kumbh Mela, a religious celebration of faith and devotion marked by bathing in the sacred waters of the Ganges. With 100 million people at the 2013 Kumbh Mela, the pilgrimage is said to be the largest gathering on the planet. IFFLA alum Pan Nalin crafts a moving and unique view of the mass gathering and presents unique stories of how individuals came to be there to share in the belief of the divine.

POWERLESS (KATIYABAAZ)
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/82min
Director: Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar
Producers: Fahad Mustafa, Deepti Kakkar, Judy Tam, Leopold Koegler
Screenwriter: Fahad Mustafa

In Kanpur, a city of three million that has seen better days, one of the only ways for many residents to get electricity is to steal it. Co-directors Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar focus their attention on the likes of pirate engineers like Loha Singh and first female CEO at the local power authority Ritu Maheshwari. Coupled with beautiful photography of the intricately tied together powerlines of the city and a pulsating original score, they present a unique documentary about current-day India and its future battles over limited resources.

SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/50min
Director/Producer/Screenwriter/Cinematographer/Editor: Raja Shabir Khan
Composer: Bilal Iran

Nomadic herder Gafoor has to lead his large flock of goats, sheep, cows and horses across Jammu all the way to Kashmir so they can graze. Director Raja Shabir Khan presents lives few have ever seen, let alone lived, with simple beauty and real terror in a film that has won major National Awards in India. A cinematic wonder that must be seen to truly understand, SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE is a testament of the power of film to transport us to other lands and experiences.

BOLLYWOOD BY NIGHT

BOMBAY TALKIES
North American Premiere
India/117min/2013
Directors: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Producers: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Guneet Monga
Screenwriters: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan , Rani Mukerji, Katrina Kaif, Randeep Hooda, Saqib Saleem, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

BOMBAY TALKIES

A quartet of short films directed by four of India’s most exciting contemporary filmmakers celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema in this omnibus film. Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap crafts a tale of ordinary people whose love of movies profoundly alters the course of their lives. Each story beautifully captures how lovers of cinema can’t help but carry that fascination into their day-to-day life. Haven’t we all wished, at one time or another, that our lives were more like a film?

MONSOON SHOOTOUT
Los Angeles Premiere
India-UK-Netherlands/2013/88min
Director: Amit Kumar
Producers: Trevor Ingman, Guneet Monga, Martijn De Grunt
Screenwriter: Amit Kumar
Cast: Vijay Varma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Geetanjali Thapa

A split-second decision made by a rookie police officer propels writer/director Amit Kumar’s debut feature, which fascinatingly splinters into three separate, equally pulse-pounding scenarios. In a secluded alley drenched in the pouring rain, principled cop Adi aims his gun at Shiva, a vicious gangster on the run. What Adi decides to do next will reverberate throughout his personal and professional life in ways he could never imagine. Kumar thus explores the ripple effect our choices have, and how we unknowingly alter the lives of those around us.

SHORTS

AARTI
Shorts Program 2
WORLD PREMIERE
USA/2013/4min
Director: David Walter Lech
Producer: Terrie Samundra

A hypnotic look into the nightly “ceremony of light” ritual in a Hindu temple in Sheikhupur, Punjab.

ALCHEMY
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/5min
Directors: Pranay Patwardhan, Shivangi Ranawat, Janmeet Singh
Producer: Pritesh Varia

A bold and vibrant song to the intricate fabric of modern day India, a kaleidoscope of voices, colors and traditions.

BHIWANI JUNCTION
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
USA/2013/18min
Director: Abhi Singh
Producer: Abhi Singh

A poignant documentary portrait of Himanshu, a 12-year old boxer, whose formidable commitment to the sport makes his lofty dreams to become an Olympic champion appear well within reach.

BLACK ROCK (KAATAL)
Shorts Program 1
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/22min
Director: Vikrant Pawar
Producer: Film and Television Institute of India

Two young lovers spend one last afternoon together. A beautiful meditation on the ephemeral nature of young love that has won three of India’s National Film Awards.

THE FLY (MAKHI)
Shorts Program 2
World Premiere
India/2013/31min
Director: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni
Producer: Film and Television Institute of India

Employed as a Fly Killer in an upscale restaurant, Pipal must ensure a fly-free environment by smacking dead the flies that buzz over the patrons’ heads. When a nearby drainage is closed and the source of the fly infestation eradicated, Pipal must find a way to produce enough live flies to save his job, in this delightfully absurdist commentary on urban India’s emerging work culture.

BELOVED (HUMSAFAR)
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/6min
Directors/Writers: Swapnil Awate, Laura Erbacher
Producer: DSK Supinfocom

A sweeping single shot takes us on the breathtaking animated journey of two lovers and their eternal pursuit of harmony.

JAYA
Shorts Program 2
USA/2013/19min
Director: Puja Maewal
Producer: Puja Maewal

Young Jaya is able to survive the gruesome gang life in the unforgiving streets of Mumbai by posing as a boy. When she meets a wealthy businessman who looks like he could be the father who abandoned her, she sets out to reclaim her identity, in this engrossing drama that was shortlisted for a Student Academy Award®.

KUSH
Shorts Program 1
India/2013/25min
Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani
Producer: Shubhashish Bhutiani

A bus full of schoolchildren boisterously makes its way back from a field trip when the news of Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards breaks. As violence quickly erupts across the country, Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, must find a way to escape the unquenchable fury of retribution, in this gripping drama that was shortlisted for an Academy Award®.

LITTLE GYPSY (KACHHO GADULO)
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2012/6min
Directors: Saptesh Chaubal, Pranay Patwardhan, Shivangi Ranawat
Producer: D.S.K. Supinfocom

Inspired by the folk traditions of various parts of India, this stunning animated film sweeps us into a mythical journey that celebrates the power of play and imagination.

LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.
Shorts Program 2
Los Angeles Premiere
Russian Federation/2013/12min
Director: Sandhya Daisy Sundaram
Producers: Tanya Petrik, Guillaume Protsenko

An intimate ode to the wondrous force of love, as it takes new shapes and forms through the endless Russian winters. LOVE. LOVE.LOVE. won the Short Film Special Jury Award for Non-Fiction at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

OUTPOST
Shorts Program 1
U.S. Premiere
India-USA/2013/17min
Director: Shiva Shankar Bajpai
Producer: Aditi Anand

In the barren desert of the India-Pakistan border, two lone army guards on the opposite sides of the line yearn for booze, mosquito repellent and some human contact, in this humorous glimpse into the absurdity of rigid immaterial divides.

PRESENCE
Shorts Program 2
U.S. Premiere
India/2012/17min
Directors: Ekta Mittal, Yashaswini Raghunandan
Producers: Ekta Mittal, Yashaswini Raghunandan

Long days and nights spent within the bellies of the rising structural beasts that rapidly transform the city of Bangalore bring on visions of ghosts that speak of the construction workers’ memories, longings and fears, in this haunting meditation on the migrant experience.

SKIN DEEP
Screens with WRITERS
U.S. Premiere
India/2013/20min
Director: Hardik Mehta
Producers: Devang Bhavsar, Niraj Kothari

Sanjay and Sushma plan to elope to escape a looming arranged marriage. They are in love and their future together shines bright and perfect and filled with possibility–that is, as long as an extra piece of skin that complicates their sex life gets fixed in what should be a routine medical procedure. But Mumbai’s electricity gods have other plans in store for them.

SMALL YELLOW FIELD (TAU SERU)
Shorts Program 1
Los Angeles Premiere
Australia-India/2013/8min
Director: Rodd Rathjen
Producer: Rodd Rathjen

In the remote vastness of the Himalayas, a young nomad’s curiosity lies beyond the horizon. This stunningly photographed film made its world premiere at Cannes Critics’ Week.

THE PUPPET (TAMAASH)
Screens with SHEPHERDS OF PARADISE
Los Angeles Premiere
India/2013/32min
Directors: Devanshu Singh, Satyanshu Singh
Producers: Datta Dave, Chaitanya Hegde, Omar Nissar Paul, Devanshu Singh, Satyanshu Singh

A mysterious puppet offers young Anzar the chance to escape his father’s relentless punishments over his poor school grades by granting him the power to inflict misfortune on his nemesis, his brilliant classmate, Sadat. However, his newfound peace is short-lived as Sadat falls severely ill and Anzar comes to realize that the puppet’s powers are spiraling out of his control.
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FADING GIGOLO and THE MOUNTAIN Win Lexus Audience Awards at 31st Miami International Film Festival

Miami Film Festival

Fading Gigolo

Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) announced the popular Lexus Audience Award presented to two films for Best Documentary and Best Feature. The winners were Fading Gigolo directed by John Turturro (USA), which won Best Feature, and The Mountain (La montaña) directed by Tabaré Blanchard (Dominican Republic), which won Best Documentary.

Fading Gigolo stars Woody Allen, who is a late-blooming pimp to John Turturro’s middle-aged junior florist-turned hustler in a hilarious NY comedy, where legendary screen sirens Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara turn up as eager clients, and Vanessa Paradis plays an orthodox Jewish widow in need of human touch. The film was part of an evening which presented John Tuturro with the Career Achievement Tribute & Award.

The Mountain

The Mountain is a documentary about a trio of Dominicans who contend with the harsh, freezing climate of Katmandu and made history by crowning Mount Everest with a Dominican flag in 2011, inspiring three young surfers to conquer Pico Duarte, Hispaniola’s highest mountain.

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A Wolf at the Door Wins Grand Prize at 31st Miami International Film Festival

Miami Film Festival

A WOLF AT THE DOOR (O LOBO ATRÁS DA PORTA)

Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) which celebrated its 31st anniversary edition March 7 to 16, 2014, culminated in its annual Awards Night Ceremony, with A WOLF AT THE DOOR (O LOBO ATRÁS DA PORTA) walking away with the Knight Grand Jury Prize and the Grand Jury Best Director for the director Fernando Coimbra. A WOLF AT THE DOOR is the complicated, edge-of-your-seat, fact-based story of the disappearance of a young girl in suburban Rio.

2014 MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS

KNIGHT COMPETITION:

Knight Grand Jury Prize: A Wolf at the Door (O lobo atrás da porta), directed by Fernando Coimbra (Brazil)

Grand Jury Best Performance: Nora Navas of We All Want What’s Best For Her (Tots volem el millor per a ella), directed by Mar Coll (Spain)

Grand Jury Best Director: Fernando Coimbra of A Wolf at the Door (O lobo atrás da porta)(Brazil)

JORDAN ALEXANDER RESSLER SCREENWRITING AWARD:

Mateo, written by Maria Gamboa and Adriana Arjona (Colombia/France)

KNIGHT DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION:
The jury selected two films to tie as winners in this category for the Knight Grand Jury Prize.

Finding Vivian Maier, directed by Charlie Siskel and John Maloof (USA)

The Overnighters, directed by Jesse Moss (USA)

LEXUS IBERO-AMERICAN OPERA PRIMA COMPETITION:

Mateo, directed by Maria Gamboa (Colombia/France)

Honorable Mention: We are Mari Pepa (Somos Mari Pepa), directed by Samuel Kishi Leopo (Mexico)

PAPI SHORTS COMPETITION PRESENTED BY MACY’S Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film:

“A Big Deal” (特殊交易), directed by Yoyo Yao (China)

Honorable Mention: “Skin”, directed by Cédric Prévost (France)

MIAMI ENCUENTROS presented by Moviecity:

Aurora, produced by Florencia Larrea, directed by Rodrigo Sepulveda (Chile)

SIGNIS AWARD:

The International Jury of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, formed by: Gustavo Andújar, president, and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki and Juan José Rodríguez, members, give their SIGNIS Award to Belle directed by Amma Asante for its multi-layered depiction of the challenges to the value of human life and dignity wherever a profit-driven system makes commodification of persons acceptable. Masterly crafted, the film lifts up a variety of issues of conscience which still confront us today.

MIAMI FUTURE CINEMA CRITICS AWARD:

To Kill A Man (Matar a un hombre), directed by Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile/France)

LEXUS AUDIENCE AWARDS were announced at the Pyrat Gold: The Awards Night Rum Party hosted at the Historic Freedom Tower following the Awards Night screening of Rob the Mob.

Lexus Audience Award for Best Documentary:

The Mountain (La montaña), directed by Tabaré Blanchard (Dominican Republic)

Lexus Audience Award for Best Feature:

Fading Gigolo, directed by John Turturro (USA)

The above award-winning films joined the REEL Music Video Art Competition winner presented by MTV Latin American and Tr3s announced earlier in the week at the Festival:

REEL MUSIC VIDEO ART COMPETITION PRESENTED BY MTV Latin America and Tr3s:

“Around the Lake” (“Autour Du Lac”), directed by Noémie Marsily & Carl Roosens (Belgium). The music video was performed by Carl et les hommes-boîtes. The winner will receive an opportunity to be placed on MTV Latin America and Tr3s websites.
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VIDEO Trailer for Short Film SCRATCH Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The trailer popped up on-line for the Irish short film SCRATCH scheduled to premiere at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival taking place April 16th to 27th, 2014 in New York City. Co-written and directed by Phillip Kelly and co-written and produced by Liam Ryan, SCRATCH tells the story of Eoin (Conor Drum), who is working the night shift at a quiet petrol station. His night is disturbed initially by scratch card addict Ger (Stephen Jones), and then a masked robber who sends their night into a direction they could never have guessed.

http://youtu.be/s854YPQdVrE
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Film Independent Announces Filmmakers for the 2014 Documentary Lab

Industry

Projects developed in past Documentary Labs include Andrew Droz Palermo & Tracy Droz Tragos’ RICH HILL which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival,

Film Independent announced its filmmakers for the 2014 Documentary Lab, a seven week intensive program designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary. This year’s Lab Fellows are Esteban Arguello & Xuan Jiang, Jamie Sisley & Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Suzanne Joe Kai, Robyn Symon, Nick Spark, Andrew James, Jonathan Matthews, and Jen Heck. Designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary films, the Documentary Lab has two primary focuses: (1) providing creative feedback and story notes to the selected filmmakers; and (2) helping filmmakers strategize the completion, distribution, and marketing of their film.

Projects developed in past Documentary Labs include Andrew Droz Palermo & Tracy Droz Tragos’ Rich Hill which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, PJ Raval’s Before You Know It; Hilla Medalia’s Dancing in Jaffa; Nicholas Wrathall’s Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia; Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali Worrall’s Call Me Kuchu; Laura Nix and Julia Meltzer’s The Light In Her Eyes; and Nicole Karsin’s We Women Warriors, among others.

“We are delighted to kick off the fourth year of our Documentary Lab with such an talented group of filmmakers and esteemed mentors,” says Kelly Thomas, Producer in Residence and Interim Director of Artist Development.

Documentary filmmakers Doug Blush (Editor, Twenty Feet from Stardom), Laura Gabbert (No Impact Man), Caroline Libresco (Sunset Story), Linda Goldstein-Knowlton (Somewhere Between), Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol) and Chris Shellen (Marwencol) are this year’s Documentary Lab Mentors. Guest Speakers include Peter Broderick (Marketing and Distribution), Michael Donaldson (Legal Issues for Documentarians), Andrew Droz Palermo (Rich Hill) and Tracy Droz Tragos (Rich Hill) as well as Susan Littenberg (And Everything Is Going Fine).

The documentaries this year’s Fellows are making are:

Title: Jiàoliàn [Coach]
Director/Producer: Esteban Arguello
Producer: Xuan Jiang
Logline: Jiàoliàn is the story of 27 year-old Norman DeSilva, an American who overnight becomes the head coach for the Foshan Longlions, a unique basketball team comprised of Americans, Syrian and Chinese players. Together, DeSilva rallies his team to overcome their challenges in order to win a spot in the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs.

Title: Farewell, Ferris Wheel
Director/Producer: Jamie Sisley
Co-Director: Miguel Martinez
Producer: Mayuran Tiruchelvam, Gerry Kim
Editor: Eugene Yi
Logline: Farewell, Ferris Wheel explores the dual morality of the H-2B seasonal migrant work visa through the lens of the American Carnival and a Mexican town that provides one third of the labor that staffs the carnivals.

Title: Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres
Director/Producer: Suzanne Joe Kai
Logline: When one man’s passion for rock and roll coincides with a cultural revolution, the truth is set free. Like a Rolling Stone is the story of legendary journalist, Ben Fong-Torres, an original editor-writer at Rolling Stone magazine, who brought an honest literary voice to the revolutionary force of music that continues to influence our society to this day.

Title: My Uncle Gloria
Director/Producer: Robyn Symon
Logline: At age 66, Bernard “Butch” Rosichan, a Jewish, balding pot-bellied and homophobic owner of an auto wrecking business undergoes a risky sex change operation. Rosichan is reborn as “Gloria Stein” and attempts to reunite with her dysfunctional family while also becoming a leading advocate for transgender rights.

Title: Rightfooted
Director/Producer: Nick Spark
Cinematographer: Bill Megalos
Editor: Susan Metzger
Logline: Rightfooted chronicles Jessica Cox’s struggle to overcome enormous physical and emotional obstacles to become the world’s first armless pilot and her transformation into an activist for the handicapped in America and abroad.

Title: Street Fighting Man
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Andrew James
Producer: Sara Archambault, Katie Tibaldi
Editor: Jason Tippet
Composer: Zachary Saginaw/Shigeto
Co-producers: Jamila Wignot and Torben Bernhard
Logline: In a new America where the promise of education, safety and shelter are in jeopardy, three Detroit men fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations.

Title: Surviving Cliffside
Director/Producer: Jonathan Matthews
Producer: Richard Bever
Logline: A West Virginia family faces illness, addiction, and gun violence, while their daughter makes a run for Little Miss West Virginia.

Title: We’re With the Band
Director/Producer/Co-Editor/Co-Cinematographer: Jen Heck
Producer: Maria De La O
Cinematographer: Martina Radwan
Editor: Ben Frazer
Logline: Using a band as a cover story, a group of unlikely rebels with dubious musical skills traverse forbidden borders and become entangled in each other’s lives in Israel and Palestine.
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Finalists Unveiled for Philippines’ 2014 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition

Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival

The Cinemalaya Foundation announced the finalists for the New Breed Full Length Feature category and the Directors Showcase for the 2014 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition.

The themes and subject matter of the 2014 Cinemalaya finalists are diverse. Stories include the disappearance of a young girl believed to have been eaten by a crocodile in the marshlands of Agusan del Norte, a friendship among soldiers fighting the Japanese in World War II, and a T’boli epic. The films cover a range of genres, from coming of age stories, romance, epic, comedy and action.

Cinemalaya is an all-digital film festival and competition that aims to discover, encourage and honor cinematic works of Filipino filmmakers. In addition to New Breed category, which is the main competition category, and the Directors Showcase, Cinemalaya has a Short Film competition and other sections for exhibition films. Cinemalaya is a project of the Cinemalaya Foundation and Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This year, Cinemalaya will be held on August 1-10 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Greenbelt 3, TriNoma and Alabang Town Center.

The ten finalists for the New Breed Full Length Feature category are:

#Y by Gino Santos
1st ko si 3rd by Real S. Florido
Bwaya by Francis X.E. Pasion
Dagitab (Sparks) by Giancarlo Lauro C. Abrahan V
Dayang Asu by Bor Ocampo
K’na, The Dreamweaver by Ida Anita Del Mundo
Mariquina by Milo Sogueco
Ronda by Nick Olanka
Separados by GB Sampedro
Sundalong Kanin by Denise O’Hara/Janice O’Hara

For the Directors Showcase, the finalists are:

Asintado by Louie Ignacio
Hari ng Tondo by Carlos Siguion-Reyna/Bibeth Orteza
Hustisya by Joel Lamangan
The Janitor by Michael Tuviera
Kasal by Joselito Altarejos
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VIDEO Check out the Trailer for the Award Winning Egyptian Film FACTORY GIRL

Foreign Language Films

Check out the trailer for Mohamed Khan’s FACTORY GIRL which premiered last year at the 2013 Dubai International Film Festival, winning two awards, the Muhr Arab Feature Best Actress Award, for Yasmine Raess, and the FEPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Best Arab Feature award. Factory Girl was written by the director’s wife Wessam Soliman, The film tells the story of one year in the life of Hiyam (played by Yasmine Raees), a young woman working in a clothing factory who falls in love with her supervisor.

Hiyam, a young factory worker, lives in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood, along with her co-workers. She is clearly under the spell of Salah, the factory’s new supervisor, who has expressed his admiration for her. She believes love can transcend the class differences between them. However, when a pregnancy test is discovered in the factory premises, her immediate family and close friends accuse her of sinning. Hiyam decides not to defend herself and pays an enormous price in a society that fails to accept independent women. FACTORY GIRL examines the changes that take place in her life over the four seasons of the year. From falling in love to facing heartbreak, her life comes around a full circle by the end of the year. DIFF

http://youtu.be/yC5XwpFQoLM
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2014 Tribeca Film Festival Announces Lineup of Conversations, Participants Include Kevin Spacey, Ron Howard, Michael Douglas, Lee Daniels, Alec Baldwin, Aaron Sorkin, and more

Tribeca Film Festival

The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), announced its lineup for the 2014 Tribeca Talks® and Tribeca Innovation Week’s Future of Film series. The Festival will feature conversations with some of the most prolific and creative directors, producers, writers, actors and industry professionals in film including Academy Award® winners Kevin Spacey, Ron Howard, Michael Douglas, Aaron Sorkin, Thelma Schoonmaker, and Skip Lievsay; Academy Award®-nominated director Lee Daniels and writer Terence Winter; Emmy®-Award-winners Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin, and David Simon; as well as Congressman Barney Frank, and legendary boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. The Tribeca Talks panels and events will run during the 13th edition of TFF, taking place April 16 – April 27 at locations around New York City.

TFF also unveiled four new documentaries world premiering at the Festival —NOW – In the Wings on a World Stage, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank, and Champs, as well as Food Chains, Supermensch, and the tenth anniversary screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. They will each screen as part of the Tribeca Talks: After the Movie series giving audiences the opportunity to watch a film followed by a related conversation.

This year’s series also consists of the “Tribeca Talks: Directors Series,” where an acclaimed director participates in an intimate one-on-one conversation; “Tribeca Talks: Industry” conversations focusing on the technical production of film; and “Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper, hosted by Barnes & Noble” which explores topics related to screenwriting.

Taking place during Tribeca Innovation Week is a four-day Future of Film series programmed around the theme The Story’s Edge. Future of Film discussions offer engaging, cross-disciplinary conversations about the collision of storytelling with dominant and emerging trends in our culture, with figures from the arenas of art, politics, science and technology, and filmmaking.

“With these talks we want to expand the conversation about filmmaking and storytelling. Whether it’s a deeper look at the artistic process or timely social issues, hearing from the leading voices in film, media and beyond, can facilitate new perceptions and further our understanding of the current state of making and enjoying entertainment,” said Genna Terranova, Director of Programming.

“Tribeca Talks: Directors Series,” will include intimate conversations with:

Academy Award®-winning director Ron Howard discusses his career as a filmmaker, writer and producer, which already spans over fifty years.
Academy Award®-nominated director Lee Daniels divulges on his seminal career which includes such critical hits as Precious and Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

“Tribeca Talks: After the Movie” will include:

The world premiere of NOW – In the Wings on a World Stage, follows the versatile and acclaimed Bridge Project Theatre, the first trans-atlantic company of actors and artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre, Kevin Spacey as he reunites with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for a behind the scenes look at the creation of their breathtaking production of Shakespeare’s Richard III; followed by a conversation with Kevin Spacey, director Jeremy Whelehan and members of the Richard III company about the vocation of acting, the future of theater and this spectacular theatrical journey.

The world premiere of The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin, an examination of the creation of Bitcoin and its impact on the future of international currency; followed by a conversation with director Nicholas Mross, film subject Dan Mross, and Charles Shrem who will give their perspective on the most up to the minute details about the mysterious and ever-changing world of Bitcoin.

The world premiere of Champs, an exploration of how some of the most legendary fighters used boxing as a way to pull themselves out of poverty; followed by a conservation with boxing greats Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, boxing promoter and Lou DiBella about life, rivalry and conflict both inside and out of the ring.

The world premiere of Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank, a candid examination of openly gay Congressman Barney Frank’s 40 years in elected office and how his own homosexuality impacted his campaigns for social justice; followed by a conversation with subject Barney Frank and actor Alec Baldwin about the politics of Washington, Barney’s life and career and what he plans to do in his retirement.

The world premiere of Silenced, the stories of two whistleblowers and their supporters who survived the government’s efforts suppress their claims; followed by a conversation with director James Spione and film subjects Jesselyn Radack and Thomas Drake and Pulitzer Prize-winner Barton Gellman who will discuss the role, importance and ethics of whistleblowing in America.

The North American premiere of Food Chains, a hard hitting look at the state of labor within the agriculture sector in the US and the immoral practices that affect the lives of countless thousands of farm workers; followed by a discussion with executive producer Eva Longoria, the film’s director, Sanjay Rawal, Eric Schlosser and Kerry Kennedy on what you can do to be a part of the food justice revolution.

The U.S. premiere of Supermensch, Mike Myers directorial debut that explores the dynamic and astounding career of consummate Hollywood insider Shep Gordon; followed by a conversation with film subject Shep Gordon,Michael Douglas for some inside Hollywood baseball stories.

For the annual Sloan retrospective salute, a tenth anniversary screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman; followed by a discussion on the making-of and contemporary relevance of the film including advances in our ability to manipulate the pathways of memory since the film debuted.

Shooting and scoring, a conversation about the particular art in creating authentic sports stories with Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg.

In celebration of the upcoming World Cup, 30 for 30: Soccer Stories will screen two films, The Opposition and Maradona ’86; followed by a conversation with filmmakers Ezra Edelman, Daniel Battsek and ESPN about the films and the upcoming competition.

“Future of Film: The Story’s Edge” taking place as part of Tribeca Innovation Week will feature:

A conversation with writer and producer Aaron Sorkin and former Chief Presidential Speech Writer Jon Favreau about what it means to be moral in 2014 and what is valued as heroic in on screen, in fiction and in life.

Your Brain on Story features futurist Jason Silva on why and how people are hardwired for stories and cinema, followed by “Psychos We Love,” an exploration into what it is that audiences love about on screen psychos, and how they compare to real life psychopaths with actor Bryan Cranston, show runner/writer Terence Winter and neuroscientist James Fallon; moderated by Nightline co-anchor Cynthia McFadden.

All The News That’s Fit to Shoot, Print…or Tweet, explores the crossover between documentary filmmaking, news media and social action with Upworthy Co-Founder Eli Pariser, CEO and Co-Founder of Vice Shane Smith, and Executive Director of Witness Yvette Alberdingk Thijm; moderated by filmmaker and journalist Perri Peltz.

Stories by Numbers, a discussion about the ways that big data mining can influence future innovation in film, art and journalism with screenwriter and show runner Beau Willimon, writer David Simon, and a special guest from ESPN/FiveThirtyEight.com; moderated by the host of NPR’s The Takeaway John Hockenberry.

“Tribeca Talks: Industry” are free events and will feature:

Dolby Institute: The Art of Sound Design & Music, a conversation with film industry professionals about the evolution of sound in film and how sound can be used to enhance storytelling. Panelists include Academy Award®-winning sound mixer Skip Lievsay (Gravity) and Susan Jacobs (Silver Linings Playbook).

The Cutting Room: An Insight to the Edit Suite, a discussion about new editing techniques and firsthand accounts about what it really takes to make the final cut. Academy Award®-winning editor and longtime Martin Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker will discuss her incredible career.

Shooting the Film: An Exploration of Cinematography, a conversation about the art of cinematography including how to capture beautiful and iconic imagery on screen.

Panelists include cinematographers Nick Bentgen (Ballet 422,) Frank G. DeMarco (All is Lost,) and Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.)

“Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper hosted by Barnes & Noble” are free events and will include:

The Repercussions of Truth, a discussion exploring the degrees of truth-telling and authenticity in storytelling and editing. Panelists include directors John Dower, Tyler Meason, Justin Weinstein, Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman. Moderated by Variety’s Gordon Cox.

Adaptation & Creation a conversation with filmmakers who reflect on how to stay true to an original or adapted text. Panelists include director/writer Stephen Belber, director/writer Amy Berg, director Megan Griffiths (Lucky Them), director/writer Aaron Katez (Land Ho!), and director Adam Rapp (Loitering with Intent). Moderated by Screen International’s Mark Adams.

Calling the Shots, a personal examination of how film scripts can enhance, thwart or reflect social cultural change. Panelists include director/writer Ira Sachs, director Orlando von Einseidel and director Marshall Curry.

Special Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Conversations

The full schedule for the 2014 Tribeca Talks series follows:

“Tribeca Talks: Directors Series”

Lee Daniels
Acclaimed filmmaker Lee Daniels divulges on his seminal career which includes such critical hits as Precious and Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
DATE: Friday, April 18
TIME: 3:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Ron Howard with Brian Williams
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ron Howard discusses his career as a filmmaker, writer and producer, which already spans over fifty years.
DATE: Saturday, April 26
TIME: 3:00 PM
LOCATION: BMCC

“Tribeca Talks: After the Movie”

Champs
Directed and written by Bert Marcus. (USA) – World Premiere. From inner-city housing projects to the biggest stages in boxing, this insightful and provocative documentary charts the lives of some of America’s heaviest hitters, including Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins, as they seek to break out of poverty via one of the few outlets available. Director Bert Marcus skillfully weaves their personal histories and gripping footage from their biggest bouts to explore the meaning of the American dream in a society increasingly fragmented between rich and poor.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation with former boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, boxing promoter Lou DiBella about life, rivalry and conflict both inside and out of the ring.

DATE: Saturday, April 19
TIME: 3:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Silenced
Silenced, directed by James Spione. (USA) – World Premiere. Only 11 Americans have ever been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917; eight of them since President Obama took office. Oscar-nominated documentarian James Spione returns to TFF with the incredible personal journeys of two members of that octet, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou, along with accountability advocate, Jesselyn Radack, who helped bring their cases to light. With resonance in the post-Snowden era, Silenced catalogs the lengths to which the government has gone to keep its most damning secrets, in an impassioned and thought-provoking defense of whistleblowers everywhere.

After the movie: Stay for a conversation with director James Spione, Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake and Barton Gellman about the role, importance and ethics of whistleblowing in America in 2014.

DATE: Saturday, April 19
TIME: 5:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

NOW – In the Wings on a World Stage
Directed by Jeremy Whelehan. (USA) – World Premiere. In 2012, the talented actors that make up one of the oldest companies in the world, the Old Vic Theater company, and the group’s multi-talented artistic director, Kevin Spacey stage Shakespeare’s epic tragedy Richard III on a whirlwind tour across the world. Whelehan goes behind the scenes with the inspiring Tony Award® winning cast, Spacey, and the play’s director Sam Mendes, to celebrate the craft of theater, the actors who bring it to brilliant life, and to deepen our understanding of theater through this ambitious international staging.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation with Kevin Spacey, director Jeremy Whelehan and members of the Richard III company about the vocation of acting and the future of theater and this spectacular theatrical journey.

DATE: Monday, April 21
TIME: 6:00 PM
LOCATION: BMCC

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
Directed by Nicholas Mross. (USA) – World Premiere. What is Bitcoin? The digital currency, created by anonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, is heralded by some as the future of the global economy, even as it is increasingly stigmatized by volatility and implicated in online drug trafficking and money laundering. Nicholas Mross’ illuminating documentary digs deep into the origins and meteoric rise of Bitcoin through the stories of those intrepid innovators at the forefront of this developing technology.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation with director Nicholas Mross, the film’s protagonist Dan Mross, and Charles Shrem for the most up to the minute details about the mysterious and rapidly changing world of Bitcoin.

DATE: Wednesday, April 23
TIME: 5:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman. (USA) – An all-star ensemble cast shines in this comical and poignant look at breakups, breakdowns and breakthroughs and the role of memory in human relationships. Joel (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has had their tumultuous relationship erased from her mind. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), to get the same treatment. But as his memories of Clementine begin to fade, Joel suddenly realizes how much he still loves her. Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood co-star in the Academy Award winner for best original screenplay.Sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation on the making-of and contemporary relevance of the film, including advances in our ability to manipulate the pathways of memory since the film debuted with producer Anthony Bregman,Daniella Schiller, Professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience/Mount Sinai, and others, moderated by Science Friday® host Ira Flatlow.

DATE: Saturday, April 26
TIME: 3:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

Food Chains
Directed by Sanjay Rawal. (USA) – North American Premiere. Executive produced by Eva Longoria, this hard hitting documentary gives pause for thought with every plate of food we eat by exposing the rampant abuse and injustice embedded in America’s agriculture and food production industries. The film sheds light on the wage theft, physical abuse and outright slavery that constitutes everyday life for thousands of America’s (mostly Latino) farm workers, and gives voice to those fighting to change these practices and bring justice to the table.

After the Movie: Join Executive Producer Eva Longoria, director, Sanjay Rawal, Kerry Kennedy, Eric Schlosser and a representative from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to learn more about behind the scenes in America’s food chain and what you can do to be part of the food justice revolution.

DATE: Saturday, April 26
TIME: 2:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Supermensch
Directed by Mike Myers. (USA) – U.S. Premiere. In his directorial debut, Mike Myers brings a comic touch to documenting the astounding career of consummate Hollywood insider Shep Gordon. Making playful use of archival footage, new interviews, and his own close relationship with the legendary talent manager, Myers reveals a man who has embraced his dualities: a hard-driving dealmaker who wants everyone to be happy and a rock ‘n’ roll hedonist who yearns for a family. Against a backdrop of debauchery, he’s a man on a spiritual quest. These contradictions make him a fascinating documentary subject.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation with Shep Gordon, Michael Douglas for some inside baseball Hollywood stories.

DATE: Saturday, April 26
TIME: 5:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank
Directed by Michael Chandler and Sheila Canavan. (USA) – World Premiere.

Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank is a rare and intimate peek into the life of Barney Frank, the quick-witted, cantankerous, and first openly gay Congressman in the United States. On the verge of his retirement, Frank reflects on his 40 years in office and the role his own homosexuality played in his campaigns for social justice. A flawless example of when the personal meets the political, with incredible “bare all” access, this documentary reveals Frank as one of the most sharp-tongued, entertaining, and lionhearted politicians of our time.

After the Movie: Stay for a conversation with Barney Frank and Alec Baldwin about the politics of Washington, Barney’s life and career and what he plans to do in his retirement.

DATE: Sunday, April 27
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Future of Film: The Story’s Edge – part of Tribeca Innovation Week

A Conversation with Aaron Sorkin
Writer and producer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Newsroom, The Social Network) in conversation with former Chief Presidential Speech Writer Jon Favreau about what it means to be moral in 2014, what we value as heroic in life and in fiction, and how film and television have documented our transition from an analogue to a digital world.

DATE: Monday, April 21
TIME: 6:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

Your Brain on Story
Part one: “Jason Silva: Technologies of Immersion”

Your Brain on Story features futurist Jason Silva on why and how people are hardwired for stories and cinema.

Part two: “Psychos We Love,”
A candid conversation about the ‘habits’ of successful psychopaths. Sounds crazy? Not really. Turns out, it’s not only screen psychos that we love. Many of the people we admire, and even elect as our leaders, share traits with psychopathic killers. Find out more as actor Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) and Terence Winter (“The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire”) discuss the connection between horror and humor and what makes a great screen villain with a neuroscientist,James Fallon, who not only studies the brains of serial killers, but has one himself. Moderated by Cynthia McFadden (ABC News, Nightline Co Anchor)

DATE: Tuesday, April 22
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

All The News That’s Fit to Shoot, Print…or Tweet
Many say the birth of cable news, the 24-hour news cycle and then the internet have caused the demise of journalism. On the flip side, our thirst for news and information has only become more intense in recent years. Citizen journalists, bloggers, and hybrids of journalism with everything from films to video games and viral videos are stepping up to answer the call. So who now sets the bar for journalistic ethics and in who’s voices (or cute cat videos) should we place our trust? Join Upworthy Co-Founder Eli Pariser, CEO and Co-Founder of Vice Shane Smith, and Executive Director of Witness Yvette Alberdingk Thijm. Moderated by filmmaker and journalist Perri Peltz.

DATE: Wednesday, April 23
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

Stories by Numbers
Almost everything we do creates a digital trail containing information about who we are, where we go, how we spend our time and money, and what we watch. Media and entertainment entities are increasingly able to use this information to tell rich data-driven stories or to decide what content to acquire or produce. But does betting on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ bode well or ill for future innovation in film, art and journalism? True believers and tech skeptics square off. Join show runner/writer Beau Willimon (“House of Cards”), writer David Simon (“The Wire”), Thompson on Hollywood’s Anne Thompson, and a special guest from ESPN/FiveThirtyEight.com. Moderated by host of NPR’s The Takeaway John Hockenberry.

DATE: Thursday April 24th
TIME: 2.30pm
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

“Tribeca Talks: Industry” (Free event: Reserve tickets in advance at tribecafilm.com)

Dolby Institute: The Art of Sound Design & Music
Ever since the creation of the talkie, sound in film has been evolving. The Dolby Institute brings together top sound designers to discuss what it really takes to create the sound of a film, and the army it takes just to hear a pin drop. Panelists will explore scenes from their work and divulge the strategy behind using sound as a storytelling tool. Panelists include Academy Award® winning sound mixer Skip Lievsay (Gravity) and music supervisor Susan Jacobs (Silver Linings Playbook).

DATE: Friday, April 18
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

The Cutting Room: An Insight to the Edit Suite
It’s said that a movie is made three times: once through a script, once on set, and finally in the edit room. Join us to hear tales from the cutting room floor from longtime Martin Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker as she discusses her incredible career.

DATE: Saturday, April 19
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

Shooting the Film: An Exploration of Cinematography
Cinematographers are responsible for some of the most breathtaking and memorable images on screen. Join us to hear cinematographers discuss their careers so far in the world of capturing images to tell a story, as well as describing how they shot some of their most famous scenes. Panelists All is Lost cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco Ballet 422 cinematographer Nick Bentgen and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind cinematographer Ellen Kuras.

DATE: Monday, April 21
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

The Growth of Short Content
Filmmakers with a thirst for storytelling are saturating our digital media landscape with short content, changing the way we seek and consume media. Hear some of the creators discuss the challenges faced in creating snappy, attention grabbing and informative content, and how to garner an audience outside of a theater. Panelists include director, producer Morgan Spurlock and ESPN’s Dan Silver.

DATE: Saturday, April 26
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2

“Tribeca Talks: Pen to Paper” (Free)
Hosted by Barnes & Noble

The Repercussions of Truth
Storytelling involves the decision of how much truth to tell. The editing process incites the omission of information or facts. When focusing on true stories, filmmakers are still only able to tell us part of the story. How do they determine what their truth will be, and how much does the repercussion of truth factor into this decision?

Panelists include directors John Dower (Slaying the Badger), Tyler Measom (An Honest Liar), Justin Weinstein (An Honest Liar), directors Sam Cullman & Jennifer Grausman (Art and Craft). Moderated by Gordon Cox, Variety.

DATE: Friday, April 18
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: Barnes & Noble 33 E 17th Street at Union Square

Adaptation & Creation

From stage plays and books to original or adapted screenplays, filmmakers are constantly adapting and creating stories for the screen. Join us for an exploration into the experience of filming work created from different content, and how true you should stay to the original text when shooting an adaptation or script you didn’t write.

Panelists include director/writer Stephen Belber (Match), director/writer Amy Berg (West of Memphis), director/writer Megan Griffiths (Lucky Them), director/writer Aaron Katez (Land Ho!), and director Adam Rapp (Loitering with Intent). Moderated by Mark Adams, Screen International.

DATE: Saturday, April 19
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: Barnes & Noble 33 E 17th Street at Union Square

Calling the Shots
Both documentary and narrative films constantly explore moving for social change in a variety of ways, either directly or indirectly. Whether it’s about human rights, the environmental or personal change, these films are at the forefront of today’s cinema and have a new and unique opportunity to affect change in society.

Panelists include director/writer Ira Sachs (Love is Strange), director Orlando von Einseidel (Virunga) and director Marshall Curry (Point and Shoot).

DATE: Sunday, April 20
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: Barnes & Noble 33 E 17th Street at Union Square

Special “Tribeca Talks” Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Conversations

Shooting and scoring
A conversation about the particular art in creating authentic sports stories – from non-fiction material to heart stopping hits that satisfy hardcore fans while also connecting with broader audiences. Featuring director, Peter Berg best known for his hit TV series and film, Friday Night Lights and for the recent sports doc series, State of Play which illuminates the intersection of sports and sports culture with wider society in 2014 America.

DATE: Friday, April 25
TIME: 8:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 1

30 for 30: Soccer Stories

The Opposition
Directed by Ezra Edelman and Jeffrey Plunkett (USA/Chile) – World Premiere. In the wake of the 1973 military coup in Chile, American-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet transformed Santiago’s National Stadium into a concentration camp where political opponents were tortured and assassinated. Only months later, that same stadium was scheduled to host a decisive World Cup qualifier between Chile and the Soviet Union. Despite protests, FIFA’s own investigation, and the Soviets’ eventual boycott, the Chilean team still played the game as planned, qualifying for the 1974 World Cup on a goal scored against no one.

Maradona ’86
Directed by Sam Blair, Executive Produced by John Battsek (USA) – World Premiere. In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Armando Maradona redefined what is possible for one man to accomplish on the soccer field. Already a figure of notoriety, but with one failed World Cup behind him, Argentinian Maradona took possession of the international stage in Mexico, the spotlight rarely drifting from him as he wrote an indelible history with his feet and, of course, with a “hand from God.” Delivered with passion and intelligence, Maradona ‘86 is a fascinating, evocative, and operatic portrait, revealing Maradona’s inner complexity and contradictions while basking in the joy and passion of his performance on the pitch, as he wrote his name on soccer history forever.

After the Movie: filmmakers Ezra Edelman, Daniel Battsek and ESPN speak about the films and the upcoming World Cup

DATE: Sunday, April 20
TIME: 2:30 PM
LOCATION: SVA Theater 2
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AFI FEST Announces 2014 Dates

AFI FEST

The 28th edition of AFI FEST will take place November 6 through 13, 2014, in Hollywood, California. The film festival is the only one of its stature that is free to the public, and is the only festival in North America with a market partner, the AFM (American Film Market).

Submissions are now open and filmmakers are invited to submit narrative, documentary, experimental, animated and short films

Filmmakers are invited to submit at AFI.com/AFIFEST.

This year AFI FEST will have two deadlines – early and final submission dates for both short films (under 30 minutes) and feature films.
June 27 – the early submission deadline for both features and shorts;
August 8 – the final submission deadline for both features and shorts. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category of the annual Academy Awards^®.

The 2013 festival opened with the North American Premiere of SAVING MR. BANKS, closed with INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and featured the World Premieres of LONE SURVIVOR and OUT OF THE FURNACE. Tributes to David O. Russell and Bruce Dern, and conversations on the craft of directing, with Steve McQueen, and acting, with Annette Bening, rounded out the programming. Guests at the festival included George Clooney, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Steve Coogan, Idris Elba, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Oscar Isaac, Spize Jonze, Errol Morris, Alexander Payne, Zoe Saldana, Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Mark Wahlberg, Forest Whitaker and Kristen Wiig.

image: via Facebook
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Check out the New TRAILER for PROXY Starring Joe Swanberg

Horror + Scifi

IFC Midnight has released the official trailer for Zack Parker’s PROXY , schedule to open theatrically at The IFC Center in NYC and on VOD April 18th, 2014, with nationwide rollout to follow.

Esther (Alexia Rasmussen) feels alone in this world. When she is viciously attacked by a hooded assailant, it almost seems to be a blessing in disguise when Esther finds consolation in a support group, especially from the kindly Melanie (Alexa Havins). The two women strike up a close friendship and Esther’s life of sadness and solitude is opened up to understanding and even acceptance. However, their bond gets increasingly dangerous as they can no longer tell what’s real and what’s in their heads.

Anchored by a trio of strong female performances from Havins, Rasmussen, and Kristina Klebe as a dangerous jilted girlfriend, Proxy also features a standout performance from mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Drinking Buddies) as Melanie’s husband.

From writer/director Zack Parker — whose credits include the perceptual thriller Scalene — the pulse-pounding Proxy delves into dark, unnerving territory as it constantly elicits the unexpected and forces you to question all that you’ve seen.

http://youtu.be/arRhnf213E0
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Nashville Film Festival Unveils Narrative and New Directors Competition Film Selections incl. World Premiere of UNDISCOVERED GYRL Starring Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen

Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm)

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) announced the film line-up for the Narrative and New Director Competitions, taking place April 17 – 26, 2014. NaFF has expanded to 10 days and two locations, with competition films, red carpet events, and opening and closing night parties at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 and free films nightly at the Nissan Multicultural Village at Walk of Fame Park, downtown Nashville.

Films include the World Premiere of UNDISCOVERED GYRL directed by Allison Burnett, and starring Britt Robertson, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. UNDISCOVERED GYRL follows the life of Katie Kampenfelt, a beautiful, imaginative teen who, after graduating from high school, decides to take a year off before college. Almost immediately Katie’s life begins to veer off course. Through the prism of a blog she writes, the audience is given a rare, voyeuristic glimpse into the imagination, sexual yearnings, and haunted psyche of a soul in progress.

Narrative Competition
The Animal Project | Director: Ingrid Vininger. Canada. 90 minutes.
Starring: Hannah Cheesman, Kate Corbett, Noah Davis, Aaron Poole, Jessica Greco, Joey Klein.
As a thirty something acting teacher attempts to push a group of eager young performers out of their comfort zones, he struggles with his own ability to live an authentic and fulfilling life with his teenage son. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Buzzard | Director: Joel Potrykus. USA. 97 minutes.
Starring: Joel Potrykus, Joshua Burge, Jason Roth, Lisa Mueller, Alan Longstreet, Michael Saunders.
Paranoia forces small-time scam artist Marty to flee his hometown and hide out in a dangerous Detroit. With nothing but a pocket full of bogus checks, his Power Glove, and a bad temper, the horror metal slacker lashes out. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Club Sandwich | Director: Fernando Eimbcke. Mexico. 82 minutes.
Starring: Lucio Giménez Cacho, María Renée Prudencio, Danae Reynaud.
While vacationing at a beachside resort, a single mother faces inevitable separation anxiety when her 15-year-old son — who is also her best friend — discovers magical chemistry with a girl his own age. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Enemy Within | Director: Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. Greece. 107 minutes.
Starring: Manolis Mavromatakis, Maria Zorba, Yiorgos Gallos, Antonis Karistinos, Thanasis Papageorgiou.
Kostas Stasinos, 48, the owner of a garden supply store, lives an ordinary life with his wife Rania, his 17-year-old son Andreas, a high school senior, and his 14-year-old daughter Luisa. When his house is ransacked by a gang of hoodlums, his family’s peace and happiness are destroyed, introducing violence into their everyday lives in the shape of an old rifle. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

The House That Jack Built | Director: Henry Barrial. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: E.J. Bonilla, Melissa Fumero, Leo Minaya, Flor De Liz Perez, Saundra Santiago
Jack Maldonado is an ambitious young Latino man who fueled by misguided nostalgia, buys a small apartment building in the Bronx and moves his boisterous family into the apartments to live rent-free. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Identical | Director: Dustin Marcellino. USA. 88 minutes.
Starring: Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano
The Identical is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. WORLD PREMIERE

Little Brother | Director: Seric Aprymov. Kazakhstan. 97 minutes.
Starring: Alisher Aprymov, Almat Galym.
A small remote village, lost in the mountains and having little but nothing of a connection with an outer civilized world. We face the monotony of life that devours the living in the souls of people. The protagonist is a nine-year-old kid Yerken who resembles an ill nestling forced to live without any support and help whatsoever. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Love Me | Directors: Maryna Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er. Turkey | Ukraine. 90 minutes.
Starring: Ushan Çakir, Viktoria Spesivtseva, Güven Kiraç, Olena Stefanska, Mehmet Bahadir Er.
Sprinkled with hilarious notes of cultural clashes and an endearing display of the kindness of strangers, this idiosyncratic “comedy drama” will warm hearts in the most unexpected way. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Maryan | Director: Ganapathy Bharat. India | Namibia. 150 minutes.
Starring: Dhanush, Parvathi Menon, Salim Kumar, Appukutty, Jagan.
Maryan is the journey of a fisherman from South of India and his fight for survival. This film is a gritty adventure drama about the undying human will to survive and the power of love. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Noble | Director: Stephen Bradley. Vietnam | United Kingdom. 101 minutes.
Starring: Brendan Coyle, Deirdre O’Kane, Liam Cunningham, Mark Huberman, Nhu Quynh Nguyen.
NOBLE is the true story of a funny, feisty and courageous woman called Christina Noble who overcomes the difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon in 1989, fourteen years after the end of the war. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Peace After Marriage | Director: Ghazi Albuliwi. USA. 86 minutes.
Starring: Ghazi Albuliwi, Assaf Cohen, Einat Tubi, Hany Kamal, Hiam Abbass, Omer Barnea.
Desperate for companionship, a lonely, young Palestinian-American man agrees to marry an Israeli woman in need of a Green Card, forcing them to re-examine their respective cultural and familial traditions. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Something Necessary | Director: Judy Kibinge. Germany | Kenya. 85 minutes.
Starring: Kipng’eno Kirui Duncan, Hilda Jepkoech, Carolyne Chebiwott Kibet, Anne Kimani.
A woman struggling to rebuild her life after the civil unrest that swept Kenya after the 2007 elections claiming the life of her husband, the health of her son and leaving her home on an isolated farm in the Kenyan countryside in ruins, she now has nothing but her resolve to rebuild her life left. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Test | Director: Chris Mason Johnson. USA. 89 minutes.
Starring: Kevin Clarke, Kristoffer Cusick. Chris Mason Johnson. Scott Marlowe. Matthew Risch.
San Francisco, 1985. Two opposites attract at a modern dance company. Together, their courage and resilience are tested as they navigate a world full of risks and promise, against the backdrop of a disease no one seems to know anything about. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely | Director: Josephine Decker. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman, Matt Orme.
There are places you go, where the things you do will matter to a lot of people. Then there are places you will go, where the things you will do matter only to a very few. But to those few, they will matter – a lot. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Undiscovered Gyrl | Director: Allison Burnett. USA. 100 minutes.
Starring: Britt Robertson, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Kimberly Williams-Paisley.
Undiscovered Gyrl follows the life of Katie Kampenfelt, a beautiful, imaginative teen who, after graduating from high school, decides to take a year off before college. Almost immediately Katie’s life begins to veer off course. Through the prism of a blog she writes, the audience is given a rare, voyeuristic glimpse into the imagination, sexual yearnings, and haunted psyche of a soul in progress. WORLD PREMIERE

New Directors Competition

1982| Director: Tommy Oliver. USA. 80 minutes.
Starring: Wayne Brady, Hill Harper, Sharon Leal, Ruby Dee, Bokeem Woodbine, Troi Zee, La La Anthony.
From the earliest days of the crack cocaine epidemic that plagued America comes this story of Tim, a devoted husband and proud father trying to protect his ten-year-old daughter from the ravages of his mother’s addiction. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

9 Full Moons | Director: Tomer Almagor. USA. 103 minutes.
Starring: Amy Seimetz, Bret Roberts, Donal Logue, Dale Dickey, Harry Dean Stanton, James Duval.
A wildly enigmatic, hard-partying young woman compensates for her loneliness with different men, until she falls for Lev, a solitary musician with a radically different personality. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

As It Is in Heaven | Director: Joshua Overbay. USA. 86 minutes.
Starring: Sylvia Boykin, Todd Bagley, Meredith Cave, Chris Nelson, Kassandra Botts, Abi Van Andel.
After the death of the Prophet, a young man is called upon to lead his small religious sect as they anxiously await the end of the world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Before I Disappear | Director: Shawn Christensen. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Shawn Christensen, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, Ron Perlman, Richard Schiff, Fatima Ptacek
At the lowest point in his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to take care of his eleven-year-old neice for a few hours. Based on the Academy Award-winning short film Curfew. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Chasing Ghosts | Director: Josh Shreve. USA. 93 minutes.
Starring: Toby Nichols, Frances Conroy, Robyn Lively, W. Earl Brown, Tim Meadows.
Lucas, an eleven-year-old boy mourning his brother’s death, seeks answers by filming funerals. When his camera captures something unexpected and extraordinary, he and his family are thrust into the spotlight and he forms an unlikely friendship with an author who survived a near-death experience. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Congratulations! | Director: Mike Brune. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: John Curran, Rhoda Griffis, Robert Longstreet, Jack McGee, Adam Fristoe.
Veteran Detective Dan Skok of the Missing Persons Bureau lands the case of his career – a six-year old boy who disappears inside his own house. What should be a traditional investigation becomes an absurd and comic exploration of a man who’s profession is a perpetual search. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Drunktown’s Finest | Director: Sydney Freeland. USA. 95 minutes.
Starring: Jeremiah Bitsui, Carmen Moore, Morningstar Angeline, Kiowa Gordon, Shauna Baker.
Three young Native Americans – an adopted Christian girl, a rebellious soon-to-be father, and a transsexual model wannabe – strive to escape the hardships of the reservation and find a place for themselves in an evolving world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Forty Years from Yesterday | Director: Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. USA. 76 minutes.
Starring: Bruce Graham, Matt Valdez, Suzette Graham, Rebekah Mott.
Bruce awakens one morning to find that his loving wife of forty years has unexpectedly passed away. What follows is an intimate portrait of the process that follows: how to deal with the body, the legalities; how to manage one’s relationship with God; how to move on. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Grace | Director: Heath Jones. USA. 95 minutes.
Starring: Annika Marks, Sharon Lawrence, Michele Feren, Erin Beute, Brian Patrick Clarke.
After a weekend of binge drinking in a small Florida town, Gracie ends up in the county jail with two options; six months in prison or ninety Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in ninety days. She chooses the meetings and embarks on a new life path and begins to put the pieces of her shattered life back together. WORLD PREMIERE

I Believe in Unicorns | Director: Leah Meyerhoff. USA. 80 minutes.
Starring: Natalia Dyer, Pater Vack, Julia Garner, Amy Seimetz, Toni Meyerhoff.
An imaginative teenage girl who is the sole caretaker of her disabled mother escapes into a fantasy world as her first relationship with an older boy begins to turn violent. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Medeas | Director: Andrea Pallaoro. Italy, Mexico, USA. 97 minutes.
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Brían F. O’Byrne, Mary Mouser, Ian Nelson.
Ennis, a stern and hard-working dairy farmer, struggles to maintain control of his life and his family, while his wife, Christina, retreats inward, slowly disconnecting from him and their five children in this intimate portrait of a rural family’s struggles in a harsh and shifting landscape. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

OJ: The Musical | Director: Jeff Rosenberg. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: Jordan Kenneth Kamp, Malcolm Barret, Larisa Oleynik, Owiso Odera, Bianca DeGroat, Sarah Hagan.
Eugene Olivier is an eccentric theater artist who leaves New York to take on Los Angeles. With his two best friends from high school, he begins his quest to stage the next great American musical – a retelling of the OJ Simpson story, adapted from Shakespeare’s Othello. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Resurrection of a Bastard | Director: Guido van Driel. Netherlands. 89 minutes.
Starring: Yorick van Wabeningen, Goua Robert Grovogui, Juda Goslinga, Jeroen Willems.
Three men – an old Frisian farmer bent on revenge, a gangster who has just barely survived “liquidation,” and an illegal immigrant with an uncertain future – all meet under an ancient oak tree, beyond the last town. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Trap Street | Director: Vivian Qu. China. 93 minutes.
Starring: Yulai Lu, Wenchao He, Young Hou, Ziaofei Zhao.
Li Qiuming works for a digital mapping company surveying the streets of the quickly changing city. To make ends meet, he moonlights by installing surveillance cameras. One day, he has a brief encounter with a woman who disappears down an unmappable street and becomes infatuated with her. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

White Shadow | Director: Noaz Deshe. Tanzania / Germany. 117 minutes.
Starring: Hamisi Bazili, Salum Abdallah, Riziki Ally, James Gayo.
Alias is a young albino boy growing up in the Central African bush. His condition makes him the subject of taunting; but he faces an even graver danger: witch doctors and many people of the region believe the body parts of albinos have mystical powers. To save him from a ghastly fate, his mother sends him to Dar es Salaam to live with his uncle, where he faces a new sort of danger. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Image: Lee Ann Womack arrives for the Southeast Premiere of Noble Things at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival. Picture, from left, are Sallie Mayne, NaFF executive director, Womack, Stacy Widelitz, Naff board president, and Brian Owens, NaFF artistic director.
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Nashville Film Festival Announces Special Presentation, Opening Day and World Vanguard Films incl. World Premiere of THE IDENTICAL Starring Ashley Judd, Seth Green

Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm)

THE IDENTICAL directed by Dustin Marcellino

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) announced the Special Presentations line-up for the 45th annual Festival, taking place April 17 to 26th 2014. Films on opening day include the World Premiere of THE IDENTICAL directed by Dustin Marcellino and starring Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Crew, Brian Geraghty. THE IDENTICAL is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. Other films include the Tennessee Premiere of CHASING GHOSTS directed by Josh Shreve, and THE CASE AGAINST 8 directed by Ben Cotner and Ryan White.

Brian Owens, NaFF’s Artistic Director, programmed Opening Day with Nashville in mind. These are films made in or near the city, by a Tennessee filmmaker, or by a filmmaker well-loved by the NaFF festival audience.

Opening Day Selections:

The Identical | Director: Dustin Marcellino. USA. 88 minutes.
Starring: Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Crew, Brian Geraghty
The Identical is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. WORLD PREMIERE.

Chasing Ghosts | Director: Josh Shreve. USA. 93 minutes.
Starring: Toby Nichols, Frances Conroy, Robyn Lively, W. Earl Brown, Tim Meadows.
Lucas, an eleven-year-old boy mourning his brother’s death, seeks answers by filming funerals. When his camera captures something unexpected and extraordinary, he and his family are thrust into the spotlight and he forms an unlikely friendship with an author who survived a near-death experience. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

The Case Against 8 | Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White. USA. 112 minutes.
Shot over five years, this behind-the-scenes look at the case against California’s Proposition 8, follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

TN Shorts 1 & 2 – A selection of Tennessee Shorts, to be announced in a later release

Special Presentations

American Commune | Directors: Rena Mundo Croshere, Nadine Mundo. USA. 90 minutes.
Raised on The Farm by a Jewish mother form Beverly Hills and a Puerto Rican father from the Bronx, filmmakers and sisters Rena and Nadine Mundo return to the rural Tennessee commune for the first time since leaving in 1985. Ready to face their past after years of hiding their unique upbringing, they chart the rise and fall of America’s largest utopian experiment. TENNESEE PREMIERE.

Dom Hemingway | Director: Richard Shepard. United Kingdom. 93 minutes.
Starring: Jude Law, Emilia Clarke, Kerry Condon, Richard E. Grant, Demian Bichir.
After spending 12 years in prison for keeping his mouth shut, notorious safe-cracker Dom Hemingway is back on the streets of London looking to collect what he’s owed. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Fox Searchlight Release.

Field of Lost Shoes | Director: Sean McNamara. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Luke Benward, Lauren Holly, Nolan Gould, Max Lloyd-Jones, Jason Isaacs, David Arquette, Keith David, Gale Harold, Zach Roerig, Tom Skerritt.
Based on a true story of the American Civil War, culminating at the Battle of New Market, May 1864, a group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley. Leaving behind their youth, these cadets must decide what they are fighting for. WORLD PREMIERE.

Happy Christmas | Director: Joe Swanberg. USA. 78 minutes.
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Lena Dunham, Melanie Lynskey, Joe Swanberg, Mark Webber.
Irresponsible 20-something Jenny arrives in Chicago to live with her older brother Jeff, a young film-maker living a happy existence with his novelist wife Kelly and their two-year-old son. Jenny’s arrival shakes up their quiet domesticity as she and her friend Carson instigate an evolution in Kelly’s life and career. SOUTHEAST PREMIERE. A Magnolia Pictures Release.

Ida | Director: Pawel Pawilkowski. Poland. 80 minutes.
Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela, Adam Szyszkowski.
18-year old Anna, a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative, her Aunt Wanda – a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of a repressed past. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Music Box Films Release.

Locke | Director: Steven Knight. United Kingdom. 85 minutes.
Starring: Tom Hardy.
Ivan Locke has worked diligently to craft the life he has envisioned, dedicating himself to the job that he loves and the family he adores. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An A24 Release.

Lucky Them | Director: Megan Griffiths. USA. 97 minutes. CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION.
Starring: Toni Collette, Ryan Eggold, Thomas Haden Church, Ahna O’Reilly, Oliver Platt, Amy Seimetz
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers in this charming dramedy set against the vibrant Seattle indie music scene. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE.An IFC Films Release.

Obvious Child | Director: Gillian Robespierre. USA. 83 minutes.
Starring: Jenny Slate, Gaby Hoffmann, Jake Lacy, David Cross, Richard Kind.
For aspiring comedian Donna Stern, everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job, and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An A24 Release.

Words and Pictures | Director: Fred Schepisi. USA. 111 minutes.
Starring: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Amy Brenneman, Bruce Davison, Keegan Connor Tracy.
Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche headline this playfully comedic drama about an English teacher who challenges the school’s art teacher to a battle of wits. Jack Marcus is annoyed by his students’ obsessions with good grades over actual learning. Once a thriving novelist, Jack hasn’t published in years and has a tendency to drink his frustrations away. Dina Delsanto is an abstract painter who, like Jack, once was celebrated for her art. Her arthritis has made the act of painting too painful. With teacher reviews impending, Jack decides to inspire the English students by declaring “war” on pictures, believing that the written word gives more meaning to life. Dina accepts Jack’s challenge and the battle begins. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

World Vanguard

The Amazing Catfish | Director: Claudia Sainte-Luce. Mexico. 89 minutes.
Starring: Lisa Owen, Ximena Ayala, Sonia Franco, Wendy Guillen.
Lonely young twenty-something Claudia, meets ailing matriarch Martha in a hospital room after Claudia is admitted with appendicitis. The women bond over a shared bag of potato chips. Martha has four kids from three different fathers. Claudia has been alone all her life. When Martha spots Claudia walking home after her surgery, she offers her a ride in her over-crowded Beetle – and their lives will never be the same. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

Butter on the Latch | Director: Josephine Baker. USA. 63 minutes.
Starring: Isolde Chae-Lawrence, Stephan Goldbach, Charlie Hewson, Sarah Small.
Sarah reunites with her old friend Isolde at a Balkan folk song and dance camp in the woods outside Mendocino, California. They sing a song she learned years before about dragons who entwine themselves in women’s hair, carrying them off through the forest, burning it as they go. When Sarah pursues fellow camper Steph, her nights of secrets and singing with Isolde come to an abrupt end. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

The Enemy Within | Director: Yorgos Tsemperopoulos. Greece. 107 minutes.
Starring: Manolis Mavromatakis, Maria Zorba, Ilias Moulas, Thanasis Papageorgiou.
Kostas is a progressive ideologist living a good life with his wife, son and daughter and running a successful flower shop despite the turmoil of the Greek economy. When their home is invaded by a gang of thieves, the violence shatters his family’s peace. Morally demolished, Kostas struggles to get his family back to normal. US PREMIERE.

Long Way Home | Director: Gergory Hadden. Sweden / USA. 87 minutes.
Starring: Elizabeth Cook, Viktor Åkerblom, Jason Alexander, Phil “The Mangler” Kaufman, Rhondi Reed.
When Nashville star Molly Rhodes meets Swedish music producer Vincent Deuce, their plan is to create a new genre from scratch – Super-Country. Their new single, “This Is Not Your Country,” becomes a hit, but Molly isn’t convinced that this blend of country and Swedish House music is the best direction for her career. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Manakamana | Director: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez. Nepal / USA. 117 minutes.
Documentary.
From the makers of Leviathan, comes this sensorial documentary that takes us on a cable-car ride up and down the vast landscapes of Nepal’s Trisuli valley, where the world-famous Manakamana Temple attracts Buddhist pilgrims from around the world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Cinema Guild Release.

Metro Manila | Director: Sean Ellis. United Kingdom / Philippines. 115 minutes.
Starring: Jake Macapagal, Althea Vega, John Arcilla.
Seeking a brighter future in megacity Manila, Oscar and his family flee their life in the rice fields of the northern Philippines. But the capital’s intensity quickly overwhelms them, and they fall prey to the rampant manipulations of the locals. Oscar catches a break when he’s offered steady work for an armored truck company. Soon, the reality of his job’s danger sets in and Oscar must confront the perils he faces in his new life. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An Oscilloscope Release.

A Story of Children and Film | Director: Mark Cousins. United Kingdom / France. 101 minutes.
Documentary.
Following up his epic documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Mark Cousins presents a globe-spanning rumination on the way the lives of children are presented in cinema, surveying such classics as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The 400 Blows, Fanny and Alexander, Los Olvidados, andThe White Balloon. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear | Director: Denis Côté. Canada. 95 minutes.
Starring: Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin.
Victoria and Florence are two ex-cons trying to make a new life for themselves in the backwoods of northern Quebec. Seeking peace and quiet, the couple slowly begin to feel under siege as Vic’s parole officer keeps unexpectedly popping up and a strange neighborhood woman turns out to be a menacing presence from Flo’s past. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.A Kimstim release.

When the World’s On Fire | Director: James Clauer. USA. 70 minutes.
Starring: James Cooke, Joshua Elrod, Leo Kling, Travis Nicholson.
Javier, a Guatamalan immigrant, finds himself homeless and living on the fringes of society in a hardscrabble Southern city. With his loyal dog as his companion, Javier encounters a revolving cast of charcaters, each more colorful than the last – rugged souls trying to break free from their suffocating predicaments and hoping to catch some glimmer of their American Dream. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.
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