The new indepedent film POLLYWOGS premiered just recently at the still running 2013 LA Film Festival where it was described as offering an equally amusing and insightful look at directionless thirty-somethings lurching towards adulthood. The film is directed by first-time feature director Karl Jacob (who also wrote the screenplay, produced and starred) and T. Arthur Cottam. In the film Dylan–who’s played by Karl Jacob–retreats to Minnesota for a family reunion featuring firearms, heavy metal and unwelcome questions. Amongst the throng of relatives, he discovers Sarah, the childhood crush he hasn’t seen since her family decamped to a religious compound. Could she prove to be the perpetually heartbroken Dylan’s salvation or will their emotional scars fail to align?
Durban International Film Festival Announces 2013 Film Lineup incl Focus on African Films, American Indies and Films About Sexual Identity
Closing Night Film – Free Angela
From July 18 to 28, 2013, Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in South Africa, will feature over 250 screenings, including 72 feature films, 48 documentaries and 45 short films. As part of its African Focus this year’s festival will open with ‘ground-breaking African-noir work’ Of Good Report by filmmaker-on-the-rise Jahmil XT Qubeka. Telling the story of a serial killer obsessed with beautiful young girls, the film expands the language of African cinema. The festival’s closing film acknowledges Angela Davis, an important figure in the African diaspora, with the film Free Angela – and all political prisoners, directed by Shola Lynch.
THE ACT OF KILLING and PARTICLE FEVER Among Award Winners at 2013 Sheffield Doc/Fest
THE ACT OF KILLING directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
THE ACT OF KILLING directed by Joshua Oppenheimer won the Special Jury Award, and shared the 2013 Audience Award for Best Feature with PARTICLE FEVER directed by Mark Levinson at the 2013 Sheffield Doc/Fest. In the documentary THE ACT OF KILLING, produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the unrepentant former members of Indonesian death squads are challenged to re-enact some of their many murders in the style of the American movies they love. PARTICLE FEVER follows six brilliant scientists during the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, marking the start-up of the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet, pushing the edge of human innovation.
The Complete 2013 SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST AWARD WINNERS RECAP
RIP: Actor James Gandolfini Suffers Heart Attack, Dead at 51
Actor James Gandolfini, best known for playing New Jersey mob boss Tony Sopranos on the HBO series “The Sopranos,” died of a heart attack earlier today in Italy. He was 51. Gandolfini was reportedly scheduled to appear in conversation with director Gabriele Muccino at the 59th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily.
Interview with Tamar Halpern and Chris Quilty, Documentary LLYN FOULKES ONE MAN BAND to Premiere at LA Film Festival
LLYN FOULKES ONE MAN BAND, a feature documentary about artist and one-man-band musician Llyn Foulkes, will have its World Premiere at the 2013 LA Film Festival on Thursday, June 20. Directed and produced by first-time documentary filmmakers, Tamar Halpern and Chris Quilty, the documentary chronicles 7 years of Llyn Foulkes’s life from ages 70 to 77. During the seven years chronicled in the film, artist and musician Llyn Foulkes creates, destroys, and recreates a pair of large-scale, three-dimensional paintings, one that costs him his marriage, while trying to keep afloat in the fickle art market.
Molly Green and James Leffler Talk About Their New Indie Romantic Comedy “FOREV” at LA Film Festival
The new indie romantic comedy “FOREV” co-written and co-directed by Molly Green and James Leffler is already receiving earning critics praises after the world premiere on Saturday night at the 2013 LA Film Festival. The film is described as a romantic comedy about impulsive marriages. In the film, Pete and Sophie are somewhere on the edge of the desert when he works up the nerve to propose. The hitch being: Their whirlwind road trip from L.A. to Phoenix is the closest these neighbors have ever come to going on a date. Nevertheless, fueled by their respective fears of intimacy and low-grade self-loathing, they run with the idea, much to the annoyance of Pete’s sister Jess, who’s along for the latter half of the ride.
Nine Documentary Films Win Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund Grant Awards
Beth Murphy’s WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS
The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) and Gucci announced the nine documentary film projects selected as the 2013 recipients of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund grant awards, totalling $150,000 to be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute. The Fund provides production and finishing finances, year-round support and guidance to domestic and international documentary filmmakers with feature-length films highlighting and humanizing critical issues of social significance from around the world.
Dance Documentary “DANCING IN JAFFA” to be Released in the U.S.
Sundance Selects will release in the U.S., Hilla Medalia’s dance documentary “DANCING IN JAFFA,” which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Sundance Selects did not announce a release date, but a Fall 2013 date is expected.
Interview with Director Aaron Douglas Johnston on His New Indie Film “MY SISTER’S QUINCEANERA”
The independent film “MY SISTER’S QUINCEANERA” about a Latino family in Iowa, is playing at the LA Film Festival where it had its North American premiere on Saturday night. Starring Silas Garcia, Samantha Rae Garcia, Becky Garcia, Tanner McCulley, Nicole Streat, Elizabeth Agapito and Josefina Garcia, MY SISTER’S QUINCEANERA follows teenage Silas who is considered the man of the house, but he wears that responsibility lightly, searching for more from his life than the small town mischief he gets into with his best friend., The film is written, produced and directed by Aaron Douglas Johnston who is also from the Midwest but now resides in Netherlands. We got the chance to catch up with Aaron Douglas Johnston at the LA Film Festival to find out more about his new film.
Documentary “MISS YOU CAN DO IT” To Premiere on HBO on June 24th
MISS YOU CAN DO IT directed by award-winning documentary director Ron Davis will premeire on HBO on June 24th. MISS YOU CAN DO IT chronicles Abbey Curran, Miss Iowa USA 2008 and the first woman with a disability to compete at the Miss USA Pageant, and eight girls with various physical and intellectual disabilities as the girls participate in Abbey’s Miss You Can Do It Pageant. Abbey founded the annual Miss You Can Do It Pageant in 2004 and girls and their families travel from all around the country to participate in this one night where their inner beauty and abilities reign.
USTA calls fault against VENUS AND SERENA Documentary
The filmmakers of a documentary about Venus and Serena Williams face a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Tennis Association. In the lawsuit filed Friday, the USTA claims copyright infringement after the filmmakers of VENUS AND SERENA allegedly used unlicensed video footage from the U.S. Open without permission.
ONLY GOD FORGIVES Starring Ryan Gosling Wins Sydney Film Prize at Sydney Film Festival
ONLY GOD FORGIVES
ONLY GOD FORGIVES, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn won the Sydney Film Festival‘s prestigious Sydney Film Prize. Starring Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm, ONLY GOD FORGIVES is described as a brutal and stylish story of betrayal, rage and redemption set in the Thai underworld. This is the second time Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has won the Sydney Prize, previously winning it in 2009 with the British prison thriller Bronson.