• ‘NEBRASKA’ ‘FOREIGN LETTERS’ Among Winning Films at 2013 Gold Coast International Film Festival

    FOREIGN LETTERSFOREIGN LETTERS

    NEBRASKA, and FOREIGN LETTERS were voted winners of Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature; and COMEDY WARRIORS, and THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS were voted winners of Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2013 Gold Coast International Film Festival which took place October 21 to 27, 2013 in Long Island, New York.

    2013 Award-Winning Films

    Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature:

    NEBRASKA

    nebraska directed by Alexander Payne

    In Alexander Payne’s new sharply observed comedy-drama, Woody (Bruce Dern, winner of Cannes best actor prize and our first GCIFF Artist of Distinction recipient) is a broke, bitter, recovering alcoholic who barely speaks to his shrewish wife (June Squibb, in a scene stealing performeance) or grown sons. After falling under the delusion that he’s won a mail-order sweepstakes, he embarks on a cross-country journey to claim the dough with his youngest son David (Will Forte) playing Sancho to his Don Quixote, and making discoveries about his father he never could expect. Alexander Payne (The Descendants, About Schmidt, Sideways, Election) is back on Middle American turf to chronicle Dern’s, grumpy, often confused Woody who has knuckled down to a life of quiet desperation, but he just may open up a little more to his son. Backed with a terrific supporting cast (Stacy Keach, Bob Odenkirk and Squibb), Nebraska is both tough, tender and gently humorous in looking at one family’s life in the America’s heartland.

    FOREIGN LETTERS

    foreign letters

    Ellie, a 12-year-old immigrant girl from Israel, is lonely and homesick in her new Connecticut surroundings. Between learning English and American social customs (“You can say ‘Jewish,’ but not ‘Jew’”), her only solace is corresponding with her best friend back in home. But life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. Trust slowly builds as the two teach each other about life in America. Ellie and Thuy become inseparable, but they eventually hurt and betray each other. Ellie must give up her most prized possession in order to save their friendship. Based on the filmmaker’s own experience, Foreign Letters is a story about prejudice, poverty, shame, and the power of friendship to heal us. Director Ela Their creates a touching yet unsentimental portrait of the bond between two friends in this film that features the music of iconic Israeli musician Chava Alberstein, who was the director’s favorite musician when her family immigrated to the US in 1982.

    Audience Award for Best Documentary:

    COMEDY WARRIORS

    Comedy Warriors

    Five severely wounded Iraq/Afghanistan veterans are given the opportunity to explore their experiences through the healing power of humor as they work with professional comedy writers, and A-List comedians: Zach Galifianakis, Lewis Black, Bob Saget, and B.J. Novak, who help them write and perform their own personal stand-up comedy routines, culminating in one big night performing at LA’s top comedy clubs.

    THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS

    The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers

    Based on the best selling bok by Ambassador Yehuda Avner.  In The Prime Ministers, the audience gets a highly personal insider’s view of some of the most important events in 20th century history.  Told from the point of view of those who witnessed history first-hand, this film shares intimate moments from the offices of Israel’s Prime Ministers and the thoughts of the men and women who have shaped modern Israel.  The film includes never-before-told stories about Golda Mier, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres. Weaving a rich and highly intimate tapestry of history, this is a film about the hearts and minds of people at the center of the modern world. 

    Audience Award for Best Short Film:
    PLURALITY

    Jury Award for Best Short Film:
    NOAH

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  • 2014 Miami International Film Festival to World Premiere Documentary Shorts Based on The Arts Initiative Project

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    Miami International Film Festival

    Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) will world premiere 11 short films documenting a project by a group of nationally and internationally renowned artists commissioned by The Arts Initiative and curated by Primary Projects, at the Festival’s 31st edition taking place March 7 to16, 2014.

    Each of the 11 films will individually document work created for The Arts Initiative project by artists Daniel Arsham, Bhakti Baxter, Jim Drain, Friendswithyou, Cody Hudson, Alvaro Ilizarbe, Andrew Nigon, Kenton Parker, Bert Rodriguez, Jen Stark and Austyn Weiner. The films, also commissioned by The Arts Initiative, are produced by Grela Orihuela and directed by Bill Bilowit of Miami’s Wet Heat Project.   Bilowit’s feature-length documentary about Bert Rodriguez, Making Sh*t Up, world premiered at MIFF’s 28th edition in 2011.

    “Bill Bilowit not only documents the artistic process, he also captures the emotional essence an artist finds in their work,” said MIFF executive director Jaie Laplante. “We are thrilled to be able to share Bill’s new valentines to some of the top artists of our day, as he brings his own artist’s eye to the combined vision of Arthur Weiner and Books IIII Bischof.”

    “Each of the artists in this project have in their own way touched Miami,” said The Arts Initiative founder Arthur Weiner.  “I am honored and humbled to see these documentaries debut at Miami International Film Festival.  It’s an elegant way to celebrate both the work and the fraternity formed by this group while creating their brilliant pieces over the summer at Fashion Outlets of Chicago.”

    The 11 contemporary artists were chosen to enrich and enliven Fashion Outlets of Chicago, a newly-opened, $250 million, multi-level luxury outlet mall. The ambitious project was curated by Miami-based collective Primary Projects, founded by Books IIII Bischof, Typoe and Cristina Gonzalez, on behalf ofThe Arts Initiative, a newly formed collective dedicated to placing highly interactive visual art in public venues, founded by AWE Talisman chairman Arthur Weiner.

    Since the beginning of June, filmmakers Bilowit and Orihuela have been in production on the documentary series, capturing each of the site-specific, large-scale installations. The caliber of artists is unusual for a retail center, and Wet Heat Project became involved as the developers of the windy city’s Fashion Outlets sought to fuse fashion and art in a new and innovative way – “artist-driven ideas actively integrated into the architectural framework and viewing space.”

    The 11 documentary shorts will world premiere at MIFF’s 31st edition (March 7-16, 2014) and be programmed to individually precede the documentary feature films competing in MIFF’s Knight Documentary Competition program.  

    The complete line-up of the 31st Miami International Film Festival will be announced in late January 2014.

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  • “Dog Day Afternoon” Documentary Sets Summer 2014 Release Date | TRAILER

    THE DOG documentary

    THE DOG, directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival is set to be released in Summer 2014 by Drafthouse Films and Cinedigm.  THE DOG is described as a documentary portrait of the late John Wojtowicz, whose attempted robbery of a Brooklyn bank to finance his male lover’s sex-reassignment surgery was the real-life inspiration for the classic Al Pacino film “Dog Day Afternoon”.

    THE DOG is a feature-length documentary about John Wojtowicz, the real-life bank robber behind the film Dog Day Afternoon. In August 1972, John robbed a bank in Brooklyn to pay for the sex-change operation of his lover, Ernie. Things didn’t go as planned, and as John and his collaborator Sal Naturile tried to leave the bank with the loot, they found themselves surrounded by the New York City Police Department, the FBI, and hundreds of spectators. What was supposed to last only a few minutes became a 14-hour standoff, involving 9 hostages and unfolding live on television. The story would later reach an even broader audience through Al Pacino’s unforgettable performance in Sidney Lumet’s classic 1975 film.

    The documentary, THE DOG, is John Wojtowicz’s own account of what happened that day, of his relationship with his lover, Ernest Aron — and so much more. This is John Wojtowicz, an unforgettable, larger-than-life character, telling his life story in his own words. Through John’s personal photographs and letters, as well as incredible archival footage of the actual bank robbery and the day’s aftermath, the film reveals an outrageous, unapologetic, hilarious and perplexing man who chose to live his life by his own rules, for better or for worse.

    Reality and fiction, celebrity and infamy, memoir and myth — the lines get blurred as John Wojtowicz entertains us, offends us, and enthralls us by sharing the tales of his unusual life.

    http://youtu.be/9hFg-_SESpo

    via 

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  • Watch TRAILER for Indie Horror Film ALICE D

    Alice D is an independent film written and directed by Jessica Sonneborn

    ALICE D, the indie horror film written and directed by Jessica Sonneborn released the official trailer.  Who is Alice D? In the early 1900’s the Davenport House was a famous and successful brothel, until a young prostitute named Alice died there. After her death, the brothel became haunted by young Alice’s ghost, and was eventually abandoned.

    One hundred years later, the old structure is renovated into a beautiful mansion. It is still rumored to inhabit the ghost of Alice, but that doesn’t stop the new owner; the young and arrogant heir to the Davenport fortune, from throwing a wild party during his first night at the house.

    ALICE D stars Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th), Al Snow (WWE wrestler), Juan Riedinger (Jennifer’s Body), Eliza Swenson (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz), Chanel Ryan (Bad Kids Go to Hell), Michael Reed (Exhumed), Sarah Nicklin (The Disco Exorcist), Julianne Tura (Bloody Bloody Bible Camp), Megan Hensley (The Crazies), Aaron Massey (On a Dark Stormy Night), Barry Ratcliffe (Army Wives), Deborah Venegas ( Bloody Bloody Bible Camp), Nick Apostolides (The Witching Hour) and Kaylee Signore (The House Across the Street).

    http://youtu.be/cXgcL4tn5ng

    via
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  • Watch TRAILER for Action Packed Horror Film RUN LIKE HELL

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     Run Like Hell Horror Film

    Check out the awesome trailer for the horror film RUN LIKE HELL, the first film from director James Thomas of Two Guys and a Film. The film centers on Luke, Maggie, Dan, and Sam, two young married couples in the middle of a cross-­country road trip, when they are sidetracked in the desert town of Spaulding. Their car is stolen, prompting them to be taken in by local residents Harold and Nancy. What starts as a place to rest their heads and regroup turns into a fight for their lives, utilizing any and all attempts to Run Like Hell.

    “Run Like Hell is an action-packed horror film that will make you question taking that next road trip. The film shows the gritty side of humanity and has an eerie realism to it that makes you wonder if this type of thing actually happens. An interesting point we make in the film is that horrifying things don’t only happen at night or when no one is looking. They can be happening all around us, at any moment. Sometimes people we would call normal can even do them. And that is what makes them frightening.” – James Thomas, director

    http://youtu.be/n1OCK2ADARA

    via DreadCentral
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  • Watch TRAILER for Pakistani Street Children Documentary THESE BIRDS WALK

    These Birds Walk directed by Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq

    THESE BIRDS WALK directed by Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, documents the struggles of street children in Karachi, Pak­istan, and the samaritans looking out for them. The film which had its world premiere at the 2013 True/False Film Festival and an Official Selection at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and hot DOCS Canadian international documentary film festival, opened at the Village East Cinema in New York City on Friday November 1, 2013, with other cities to follow.

    In Karachi, Pak­istan, a run­away boy’s life hangs on one crit­i­cal ques­tion: where is home? The streets, an orphan­age, or with the fam­ily he fled in the first place? Simul­ta­ne­ously heart-wrenching and life-affirming, THESE BIRDS WALK doc­u­ments the strug­gles of these way­ward street chil­dren and the samar­i­tans look­ing out for them in this ethe­real and inspi­ra­tional story of resilience.

    Now playing – Village East Cinema, New York, NY 
    11/08/2013 – Hippodrome, Gainesville, FL 
    11/08/2013 – Roxy, Missoula, MT 
    11/29/2013 – Laemmle Music Hall Los Angeles, CA

     http://youtu.be/UaLSrOvHo_Q

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  • New Indie Films, Documentaries in Theaters This Weekend Friday November 1, 2013

     New Indie Films, Documentaries in Theaters This Weekend Friday November 1, 2013

    After last weekend being relatively quiet, we have a lot of new indie releases in theaters this weekend.  Some of them have earned extremely noteworthy buzz on the way to cinemas, and others… well others might just be “limited releases”.  Regardless, there’s plenty to see in theaters if you’re up for an indie movie this weekend.

    ABOUT TIME

    ABOUT TIME

    Richard Curtis’ Love Actually remains one of the more popular romantic comedies of the early 2000s, and Curtis return to the genre with About Time has an added twist: time travel. Domhnall Gleeson stars as a time traveler who uses his skill to do what probably most men would do: convince Rachel McAdams to become his girlfriend. It has played at several festivals and has received solid, if not overwhelmingly positive, reviews.  All in all, it sounds like if you enjoyed Love Actually that you’ll enjoy this one, too.

    DIANA

    DIANA

    It’s been suggested that the main reason why Diana, a biopic of Princess Diana starring Naomi Watts, is opening in limited release because it has gotten completely horrid reviews from critics.  Watts seems to be the only element of the film that gets any sort of praise. Everything else has been dismissed by nearly every critic, so see at your own risk.

    THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

    THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

    Though it started making the festival rounds in late 2012, promotion for Belgium director’s Felix Van Groeningen really kicked into high gear when Tribeca Film picked up the U.S. distribution rights after playing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and winning Best Actress for Veerle Baetens and Best Screenplay.  The film is about two musicians who have a daughter together despite a lack of chemistry and how their relationship changes once their child becomes ill.

    MAN OF TAI CHI

    MAN OF TAI CHI

    It’s not surprising that the first film Keanu Reeves is in a genre that he knows quite well: martial arts. Tiger Hu Chen stars as a promising young martial artist whose skills put him in a lucrative position in the world of underground fight clubs. Chen served as a stuntman for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the two Matrix sequels, so he and Reeves certainly make a formidable pair.  Critics have said the film is a strong tribute to old-fashioned kung fu movies.

    MR. NOBODY

    MR. NOBODY

    Mr. Nobody premiered to some acclaim at the 2009 Venice Film Festival and a week later at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, but it had some trouble finding its way to U.S. cinemas even though its already been released around the world and on the internet.  Nonetheless, Magnolia is finally releasing Belgium director Jaco Van Dormael’s film in U.S. theaters. The film focuses on a choice a young boy (played as an adult by Jared Leto) who has to make between staying with his father or mother and the possibilities that result from either decision.

    MUSICWOOD (Documentary)

    MUSICWOOD

    Opening at New York’s Quad Cinemas this weekend and also available on iTunes, Musicwood is a documentary about the particular wood used in the finest American acoustic guitars and how the lumbering of those specific trees for other industries threatens to take that material away from guitar makers in the near future. It’s a combination of music, environmental, and investigative documentary and is a must-see (that I really enjoyed) for anyone who is a guitar enthusiast.

    LAST LOVE

    LAST LOVE

    The always-charming Michael Caine stars as an elderly and retired American professor who has a connection with a young Parisian woman (Clémence Poésy) in a sort-of-but-not-quite version of Lost in Translation and Venus.  Critics haven’t been particularly impressed, mostly suggesting it’s been done before.  But if you’re a fan of either of those films or of Caine’s, I’m sure there’s something you’d enjoy from it.

    CASTING BY (Documentary)

    CASTING BY

    While it might be easy to assume casting decisions are made by directors and producers based on budget, that neglects the ever-important role of the casting director.  Casting By takes a look at this important, and often unsung, role, featuring interview clips of 57 actors, directors, producers, and, of course, casting directors (culled from over 240 interviews). Many actors owe their thanks — or in some cases anger — to casting directors who served as “talent scouts” for future stars. It has received excellent reviews from those inside and outside the industry, and is definitely worth a look if you’re interested in how the casts of a film is put together.

    Other notable weekend indie, foreign & documentary releases:

    IMMIGRANT

    BIG SUR

    THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY (Documentary)

    SAL

    UNDERDOGS

    RUNNING FROM CRAZY (Documentary)

    A PERFECT MAN

    ANGELS SING

    MIKEYBOY

    DOONBY

    SWEET DREAMS (Documentary)

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  • Nine Film Projects Winners of Fall 2013 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants

    Past SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant Winners: Short Term 12, Fruitvale Station, Beasts of the Southern WildPast SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant Winners: Short Term 12, Fruitvale Station, Beasts of the Southern Wild

    Nine films have been selected to receive Fall 2013 funding in the latest round of San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) / Kenneth Rainin Foundation (KRF) Filmmaking Grants. The SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers for narrative feature films that will have significant economic or professional impact on the San Francisco Bay Area filmmaking community. Previous grant winners include SHORT TERM 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature FRUITVALE STATION, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013 and is an Oscar hopeful in multiple categories; and BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

    SFFS / KRF FILMMAKING GRANT WINNERS
    DOCTOR — Musa Syeed, director/producer/writer; Nicholas Bruckman, coproducer
    $35,000 for screenwriting
    Salim, a disgraced young doctor from India, will do anything to rebuild his former life. But when he starts practicing medicine illegally in New York, he’s drawn into a medical underworld where he risks losing everything.

    ESCAPE FROM MORGANTOWN — Peter Nicks, writer/director
    $25,000 for screenwriting
    A young addict arrives at a federal prison camp with a plan to turn his life around, but is drawn into the intoxicating world of a crew of seasoned inmates.

    THE FIXER– Ian Olds, writer/director; Caroline von Kuhn, producer
    $25,000 for packaging
    An Afghan journalist is exiled from his war-torn country to a small bohemian community in Northern California. When he attempts to turn his menial job on the local police blotter into “Afghan-style” coverage of local crime he gets drawn into the backwoods of this small town — a shadow Northern California where sex is casual, true friendship is hard to come by, and an unfamiliar form of violence burbles up all around him.

    HELLION — Kat Candler, writer/director; Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers
    $70,000 for postproduction
    When his delinquent behavior forces his little brother to be taken away, a motocross-obsessed teenager and his emotionally absent father must take responsibility for their destructive behavior to bring him home.

    LITTLE ACCIDENTS — Sara Colangelo writer/director; Jason Michael Berman, Anne Carey, Thomas B. Fore and Summer Shelton, producers
    $50,000 for postproduction
    In a small American coal town, the disappearance of a boy draws a young miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive and a local 14-year-old together in a web of secrets.

    LOS VALIENTES / THE BRAVE ONES — Aurora Guerrero, writer/director; Chad Burris, producer
    $25,000 for packaging
    Felix Lopez is gay, undocumented and living in San Francisco until his family obligations move him across the country to a small Pennsylvania mining town to join his undocumented sister. Once there, alienated by local and family politics, Felix finds unexpected solace in the company of one person: his sister’s husband.

    LOVE IS STRANGE — Ira Sachs, writer/director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen, producers
    $70,000 for postproduction
    A multi-generational story of love and marriage, Love is Strange depicts the delicate nature of any two people trying to build a long life together, and the possibility of love to grow deeper, and richer, with time.

    LOVE LAND– Joshua Tate, writer/director/producer; Andrew Richey, producer
    $35,000 for postproduction
    Love Land follows Ivy, a young woman with a severe traumatic brain injury, as she faces her refusal to be identified as a person with an intellectual disability. When she is placed in an institution for being a danger to herself and others, Ivy will stop at nothing to prove to the world — and to herself — that she is “normal” enough to transcend the label of “special.”

    MANOS SUCIAS — Josef Wladyka, writer/director; Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes, producers
    $90,000 for postproduction
    A desperate fisherman and a naive young man embark on a dangerous journey trafficking drugs up the Pacific coast of Colombia. Hidden beneath the waves, they tow a narco-torpedo filled with millions of dollars worth of cocaine. Together they must brave the war-torn region while navigating the growing tension between them.

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  • Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival Sets 2014 Dates

    Raquel Welch, Icon Award honoree Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival Raquel Welch, Icon Award honoree Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival

    The Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival (TVIFF) has set the dates of September 17 to 21, 2014 for the next edition taking place in Temecula, California.  According to festival director Jo Moulton, “The Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival has remained a true advocate and accessible home for independent film and music artists for 17 years. We built a genuine networking hub for them to mingle, network, party and do business.” Moulton adds, “What is so exciting is that even prior to issuing a formal call for entries, primarily through social media, we have already received entries from Belgium, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Germany, France, Iran, Italy, the UK and of course, the U.S. Filmmakers and music artists appreciate our open approach of not catering to one particular genre. If your film tells a good story and your music tugs at the heart of your and our audience, we invite you to submit.”

    The film component of the festival is open to U.S. and foreign films in five categories: Narrative features, shorts, documentaries, animation and student films. To be eligible, a film entry must have been completed in 2012, 2013 or 2014. The music component welcomes entries from all genres of music, from rock to pop, folk to jazz to reggae. Unlike previous years, winners will be awarded cash prizes at 2014 Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival.

    image via Facebook

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  • Film Review: MUSICWOOD

    musicwood documentary film

    What makes a Gibson or Martin acoustic guitar a better instrument (and thus more expensive) than a no-name guitar that you could buy for $50?  It’s the wood.  Premium acoustic guitars are made from four types of wood that come from across the world.  For three of the best U.S. guitar makers – Gibson, Martin, and Taylor – the soundboard (i.e., the “top” or front of the guitar) is made from a type of Sitka Spruce from Alaska’ Tongass National Forest via a Native American-owned logging corporation, Sealaska. Until several years ago, as far as the owners of these guitars companies were concerned they would continue to get their spruce from the Tongass National Forest for as long as guitars would be made.

    That is, until Greenpeace alerted these three companies to a troubling fact: The hundreds of years old trees that they use for their guitars are being lumbered by Sealaska by clear-cutting the land that they own, which means cutting down every single tree in a given area.  This leaves huge swaths of areas filled with nothing but mud and stumps.  Worse, Sealaska is lumbering at such a rapid rate that the trees that the guitar industry counts on will be virtually decimated in just a few decades.  Even though the guitar industry uses only a tiny fraction of the trees that are cut down – less than 200 a year (the rest are mainly shipped to Asia for pulping and construction), Greenpeace representatives hope that the American guitar makers can help them appeal to Sealaska to become Forest Stewardship Council certified, meaning that their methods are environmentally sustainable.

    MUSICWOOD, which is named after the coalition Greenpeace forms with the guitar makers, takes a look at these complex issues that is just as much about the economy as it is about the environment.  Based on stereotype alone (especially if you’re old enough to remember those “Keep America Beautiful” ads with a crying Iron Eyes Cody), one would probably assume Greenpace and Native Americans would be on the same “side” on environmental issues.  However, for the Sealaska Corporation there is no equitable industry in the area, so the entire livelihood of the area depends on logging.  The corporation is concerned that if it scales back its logging it could be economically devastating for an area that already suffers from economic problems. The guitar companies sit as a kind of middle ground, obviously wanting to still use the wood but concerned that over-lumbering will destroy the supply for future generations of musicians. Cut in between are clips of musicians that talk about their connection to their instruments and play a bit, including an absolutely jaw-dropping performance by a guitarist named Kaki King.

    This isn’t a documentary that wraps up everything with a bow because these complex factors are further complicated by other environmental and legal issues.  But it certainly does its job of bringing to light an issue that every guitar player should be concerned about.  It’s a well-made documentary from first time feature-length documentary director Maxine Trump that weighs the views of all the sides fairly, at least for the most part (you’d expect it to be hard to have sympathy for loggers who are destroying an entire ecosystem at an alarming rate, but their economic concerns and historical treatment makes their point of view understandable).  At only 80 minutes there is plenty of room to expand with new developments should they happen, and those that feel the documentary is nonetheless too open-ended could find out more on the website provided at the end.

    From a technical standpoint, Musicwood would play just as well on television than a movie theater, and perhaps it might be even better on television because the video quality is at points fuzzy.  Actually that’s the biggest shame regarding the documentary because some of the nature shots of the Alaskan wilderness would look even more stunning in HD quality.  When so much of the documentary’s message relies on the beauty of the area, it’s important to make sure that beauty is portrayed as best as possible. But that doesn’t prevent the message from being heard.

    Rating: 4 out of 5 : See it …… It’s Very Good

    MUSICWOOD opens in NYC on November 1, 2013, at the Quad Cinema. The film will also have limited screenings in markets around the country including Seattle and Chicago (dates/times available here:http://musicwoodthefilm.com/screenings/)

    http://youtu.be/RzgN7M6m5Yc

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  • 8th Rome Film Festival Selects International Competition Jury

    2013 ROME FILM FESTIVAL | FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DEL FILM DI ROMA

    The 8th Rome Film Festival taking place November 8 to 17, 2013, has announced the names of the members who will complete the Competition Jury, that will confer the prizes to films in Competition. Jury President James Gray will be joined by Argentinean director Verónica Chen, Italian director, scriptwriter, and producer Luca Guadagnino; Russian actor and producer Aleksei Guskov, French director, scriptwriter, and actress Noémie Lvovsky; Iranian director Amir Naderi, and Chinese director Zhang Yuan. The Jury will confer the feature films in Competition the Golden Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Film, the Best Director Award, the Special Jury Prize, the Best Actor Award, the Best Actress Award, the Award for Emerging Actor or Actress, the Award for Best Technical Contribution, and the Award for Best Screenplay.

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  • Actress Patricia Clarkson, Director Park Chan-wook Among Jury for 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival

    Actress (USA) Patricia ClarksonActress (USA) Patricia Clarkson

    Director, writer & producer (Turkey & Germany) Faith Akin, actress (USA) Patricia Clarkson, actress (France) Marion Cotillard, director, writer & producer (Mexico) Amat Escalante, actress (Iran) Golshifteh Farahani, director, writer & producer (India) Anurag Kashyap, director, writer & producer (Morocco) Narjiss Nejjar, director, writer & producer (South Korea) Park Chan-wook and director & writer (Italy) Paolo Sorrentino have been selected for the Feature Film Jury for the 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival to be held from November 29 to December 7, 2013. The Feature Film Jury will be presided over by director Martin Scorsese.

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