VIMooZ

OUR DAY WILL COME set for Release in the US on October 22nd | TRAILER

Foreign Language Films, VIMOOZ

OUR DAY WILL COME (“Notre jour viendra”), Romain Gavras’ debut feature starring Vincent Cassel and Olivier Barthélémy, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, will be released in the US on October 22nd, 2013 by Oscilloscope Laboratories.

In OUR DAY WILL COME, two outcast redheads – a bullied teen and a psychologist – embark on a journey to Ireland, where they believe the color of their hair will be embraced. What begins as a quest for freedom gradually descends into a rampage of violence and destruction. With an assured filmmaking style previously displayed in his music videos (“No Church in the Wild” – Jay Z & Kanye West; “Bad Girls” – M.I.A., to name just a few), OUR DAY WILL COME marks the emergence of a major new auteur.

http://youtu.be/ejUqIUZ9nmo
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LINSANITY Documentary Slam Dunks in Theaters on October 4th | TRAILER

Documentary

LINSANITY, the documentary film about the rise of Asian American basketball player Jeremy Lin, will have its Florida premiere screening on Thursday, October 3rd, and in theaters the following day October 4th 2013. Directed by Evan Jackson Leong, the film premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

LINSANITY traces Lin’s life from his childhood in Palo Alto, California to his rise to prominence in 2012 with the New York Knicks in the NBA. It shows him overcoming discouragement and racism and achieving success through his faith and desire.

Jeremy Lin came from a humble background to make an unbelievable run in the NBA. State high school champion, all-Ivy League at Harvard, undrafted by the NBA and unwanted there: his story started long before he landed on Broadway.

http://youtu.be/q14ooGPJZBs
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Hamptons International Film Festival Awards Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize to “DECODING ANNIE PARKER”; Announces 2013 Competition Lineup

Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF)

Helen Hunt in DECODING ANNIE PARKER

The 21st Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) will take place this year from October 10th to 14th, 2013, and announced its lineup of signature programs which includes “A Conversation With…” Helena Bonham Carter and Bruce Dern, The Alfred P. Sloan film prize awarded to DECODING ANNIE PARKER, the Conflict & Resolution Award winner PLOT FOR PEACE, and the Golden Starfish competition line-up.

Below is the complete list of films.

FILMS OF CONFLICT & RESOLUTION

ANA ARABIA (Israel/France)
US Premiere
Director: Amos Gitai
Beautifully and masterfully shot in one 81-minute take, ANA ARABIA follows Yael, a young journalist, as she meets a family of Jews and Arabs in a forgotten shanty enclave on the “border” between Jaffa and Bat Yam in Israel. Originally sent to interview Yussuf, the Muslim widower of a Jewish woman, Yael becomes engrossed in the man’s personal stories and the endangered, fragile balance of their physical space, orchard included. Renowned filmmaker Amos Gitai captures lyrical moments of connection and revelation while depicting a sublime metaphor of coexistence.

GOD LOVES UGANDA (USA)
Director: Roger Ross Williams
Through vérité interviews and hidden camera footage, GOD LOVES UGANDA takes viewers inside the evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with both creating schools and hospitals, and promoting dangerous religious bigotry. The film, deftly directed by Academy Award® winning documentarian Roger Ross Williams (MUSIC BY PRUDENCE), follows evangelical leaders in America and Uganda along with politicians and missionaries as they attempt the task of eliminating “sexual sin” and converting Ugandans to fundamentalist Christianity. Shocking, horrifying, touching, and enlightening, the film raises complex issues about religion, sexuality, and their uneasy intersection.

PLOT FOR PEACE (South Africa)
North American Premiere
Director: Carlos Agullo
A true story of intrigue, PLOT FOR PEACE traces the behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuverings to release Nelson Mandela from jail in South Africa in the 1980s. For the first time, heads of state, generals, diplomats, master spies and anti-apartheid fighters reveal how Africa’s front line states helped end apartheid. One man stood at the center of the whirlwind, a mysterious French businessman dubbed “Monsieur Jacques.” Jean-Ives Oliver, a native of Algeria, gained the trust of the leaders and diplomats in the region as well as abroad, and Director Carlos Agullo gives us exclusive insight to this fascinating, determined and enigmatic man.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (Palestine/Lebanon)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Eliane Raheb
Eliane Raheb’s directorial debut is an incisive look at the psychological aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War. Assaad Shaftari was a high-ranking intelligence officer for an extreme right Christian faction during the war, and Maryam Saiidi is a mother still relentlessly seeking answers as to why her son, a student and Communist Party member, disappeared. Not only does Raheb bring their stories together, she instigates meetings between the two. We witness a soldier’s attempts at atonement and a mother’s rage, and learn that even after 30 years, Lebanon is a country not completely healed from its past.

THE SQUARE (Egypt/USA)
Director: Jehane Noujaim
“As long as there’s a camera, the revolution will continue,” says one of the young subjects of THE SQUARE. It does continue, and two years of struggle (right until the summer of 2013) are shown through the eyes of a group of protesters from all walks of society that first came together in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The documentary follows these unlikely companions as they face violence, religious oppression, the assumptions of their elders, and the gap between their expectations and the reality of trying to change the country they will inherit.

Below is the complete list of narrative, documentary and short films in competition for the Golden Starfish awards.

GOLDEN STARFISH AWARD: NARRATIVE

2 AUTUMNS, 3 WINTERS (France)
US Premiere
Director: Sébastien Betbeder
Cast: Vincent Macaigne, Maud Wyler
Arman has just turned 33. He longs for change. Maybe he’ll eat healthier? No, he decides to go jogging and, as he turns a corner, he bumps into the beautiful Amélie. The first meeting is a shock; the second will be like a stab in the heart. Benjamin is Arman’s best friend. Unlucky in life, his fortune is destined to change. Over the course of two autumns and three winters, the lives of the three intermingle and are filled with meetings, accidents, love stories, and memories in this stylish, original French romantic comedy.

BLUE RUIN (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson
A classic American revenge story, BLUE RUIN follows a mysterious outsider whose quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family. Writer/director/D.P. Jeremy Saulnier, lauded for his work as cinematographer on provocative recent indies like PUTTY HILL and SEPTIEN, unspools his second directorial effort with stark economy and unnerving potency, crafting a guttural neo-noir that packs a mean, lean punch.

MISTER JOHN (Ireland/Singapore/UK)
North American Premiere
Director: Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
Cast: Aidan Gillen, Zoe Tay, Michael Thomas, Claire Keelan
John was, in many ways, an enigma to his brother Gerry (Aiden Gillen). After John’s sudden and somewhat mysterious death, Gerry travels to Singapore to settle his brother’s shady business affairs and check on the man’s family. It’s also a convenient reason for Gerry to escape in the wake of his crumbling marriage. From its onset, MISTER JOHN dashes our dramatic expectations and––in the sure-footed hands of filmmakers Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy and Gillen’s brilliant performance––remains consistently surprising as both a character study and a meditation on identity.

MOTHER, I LOVE YOU (Latvia)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Janis Nords
Cast: Kristofers Konovalovs, Vita V?rpi?a, Mat?ss Liv??ns, Indra Bri?e
Twelve-year old Raimonds lives with his single mom and does what he can to make her proud, like playing the saxophone in the school band. But his mischievous side lands him in trouble at school. He decides to hide a school note from his mom––and the lies escalate from there. He runs away from home with the help of his friend Peteris, who gives him the keys to an unoccupied apartment, an act that has unforeseen consequences. Janis Nords’ second film is a soulful story of friendship and truth set against the cool hues and the nightlights of Riga and featuring a 400 BLOWS-esque performance by newcomer Kristofers Konovalovs.

THE SELFISH GIANT (UK)
US Premiere
Director: Clio Barnard
Cast: Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder, Rebecca Manley, Siobhan Finneran
The arresting sophomore feature from Clio Barnard (THE ARBOR),THE SELFISH GIANT is a contemporary fable about 13-year old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighborhood, the two boys meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrapdealer––the Selfish Giant. Arbor emulates Kitten, keen to impress him and make some money. However, Kitten favors Swifty, leaving Arbor feeling hurt and excluded and driving a wedge between the boys. Barnard imbues her remarkable film with an unparalleled poetic touch and a keen perspective on adolescent yearning.

GOLDEN STARFISH AWARD: DOCUMENTARY

BEFORE THE REVOLUTION (Israel)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Dan Shadur
For a certain group of Israelis in the 1960s and ’70s, Tehran, Iran was a utopia. Enjoying close relations with Shah’s regime, their paradise was built on construction contracts, weapons sales, and oil. Then the Iranian Revolution arrived. In what begins as a nostalgic quest to understand his family’s glory days, Dan Shadur’s tale becomes a thrilling documentary filled with rare home footage and interviews, revealing a new perspective on the 1979 overthrow. BEFORE THE REVOLUTION reminds us that memory can be deceptive and, in a world of constantly shifting political dynamics, often manipulated.

BEHIND THE REDWOOD CURTAIN (Belgium)
International Premiere
Director: Liesbeth De Ceulaer
Imbued with a mesmerizing, dreamlike quality, Liesbeth De Ceulaer’s confident first feature takes us to the majestic Redwood Forest and introduces us to people who have strong personal connections to this once isolated region of California. Through seamless vignettes and stunningly saturated cinematography, we meet activists, scientists, loggers, tree dwellers, and Native Americans who share their compelling stories and their bond to these impressive ancient woods, which are now being threatened by excessive logging. De Ceulaer’s bold documentary transports us to this unique and fabled land.

CHIMERAS (Finland/Sweden/China)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Mika Mattila
Cast: Liu Gang, Wang Guangyi
At the height of his career as one of China’s most successful contemporary artists, Wang Guangyi is settling into middle age with increasing ambivalence, a frontline witness to his scene’s contradictory commercial impulses. Meanwhile, Liu Gang is a supremely promising new face on the scene, plucked from art school and thrown into the high gloss world of corporate-sponsored gallery openings and fawning from largely Western curators. In CHIMERAS, Finnish director Mika Mattila weaves the lives of these two men in subtle yet enthralling blend of cinéma vérité, art biography, and prescient cultural analysis.

CODE BLACK (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Ryan McGarry
“C-Booth,” the trauma bay at the Los Angeles County Hospital, was the toughest and best training facility for ER doctors in the country. In 2008, the County Hospital moved from its historic structure to a modern facility, catapulting the medical staff into an institutional identity crisis. CODE BLACK follows a group of young doctors as they grapple with the divide between their idealistic expectations and the realities of a heavily bureaucratic system. Director Ryan McGarry––a full-time resident doctor at County while making this film––poses the question: can they change the system?

DESERT RUNNERS (USA)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Jennifer Steinman
Any single race in the 4Desert Ultramarathon Series is a life-threatening challenge. DESERT RUNNERS is a thrilling documentary about ordinary people who endure the 150 mile ultra-marathons through the world’s four most treacherous deserts in one year: the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Gobi Desert in China, the Sahara in Egypt, and Antarctica. Filled with physical and emotional highs and low, the film goes beyond the terrain to reveal their personal obstacles and determination. This captivating story combines stunning scenery with an intimate view into the complex way human beings deal with heartbreak and triumph.

GOLDEN STARFISH AWARD: SHORT FILM

THE RUNAWAY (France)
New York Premiere
Director: Jean-Bernard Marlin

THE HORSE AND THE NIGHTINGALE (Netherlands)
International Premiere
Director: Nazli Elif Durlu

KUSH (India/USA)
North American Premiere
Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani

GYPSY (Portugal)
North American Premiere
Director: David Bonneville

WHALE VALLEY (Denmark/Iceland)
US Premiere
Director: Gudmundur A. Gudmundsson
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Rome Film Festival Announces First Four Films in 2013 Competition

Rome Film Festival

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB by Jean-Marc Vallée, with Matthew McConaughey

The Rome Film Festival taking place November 8-17, 2013, announced the first four English-language films in the Competition line up, which are ANOTHER ME written and directed by Isabel Coixet, with Sophie Turner, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Claire Forlani, Gregg Sulkin, Rhys Ifans, Geraldine Chaplin; DALLAS BUYERS CLUB by Jean-Marc Vallée, with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto; HER written and directed by Spike Jonze, with Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson; and OUT OF THE FURNACE written and directed by Scott Cooper, starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, Willem Dafoe.

ANOTHER ME
Written and directed by Isabel Coixet
With Sophie Turner, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Claire Forlani, Gregg Sulkin, Rhys Ifans, Geraldine Chaplin, Leonor Watling
U.K. Spain, 2013, 86’
A psychological thriller about a teenage girl, Fay (Sophie Turner), whose once seemingly perfect life slowly begins to unravel when she suspects that she’s being stalked by a mysterious “double”, who is out to steal not just her identity, but her life.

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
With Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto
U.S., 2013, 117’
In 1985, the devil-may-care existence of Ron, an electrician and rodeo cowboy from Texas, is suddenly blindsided by an unexpected event; he is diagnosed as H.I.V.-positive and given thirty days to live. Despite what everyone says, Woodroof refuses to accept this “death sentence” and begins his struggle for survival. He soon discovers that there are no approved treatments in the United States, and so decides to cross the border into Mexico where he learns about alternative medical treatments, and begins to smuggle the new medications into the United States. Ron challenges the American scientific community and even his doctor Eva Saks (Jennifer Garner). An outsider to the gay community, the hero finds an unlikely ally in Rayon (Jared Leto), an H.I.V.-positive transsexual who shares Ron’s lust for life and entrepreneurial spirit. Seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines, together they establish a “Buyers Club,” where AIDS patients pay monthly dues for access to the newly acquired supplies. Ron fights for dignity, for his new friends, and for the acceptance of their rights.

HER
Written and directed by Spike Jonze
With Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson
U.S., 2013, 120’
Set in Los Angeles, in the near future, Her follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet “Samantha,” a bright, female voice (Scarlett Johansson) who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow, in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other.

OUT OF THE FURNACE

Directed by Scott Cooper, written by Brad Ingelsby and Scott Cooper
With Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, Willem Dafoe
U.S. U.K., 2013, 116’
Russell Baze (Christian Bale) has a rough life: he works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill by day, and cares for his terminally ill father by night. When Russell’s brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so – with nothing left to lose – Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother.

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Kevin Cooper’s “THE PAINTER” NYC Premiere at UrbanWorld Film Festival | TRAILER

Urbanworld Film Festival

The anti-violence short film “THE PAINTER,” premiered at the UrbanWorld Film Festival. Written and directed by Kevin Cooper, and starring Ron Caldwell, THE PAINTER tackles the tough subject of how violence is robbing the innocence of our youth. Cooper partnered with non-profit organizations UCAN and Youth Guidance, to include children from high risk areas in the filmmaking process. “It was inspiring working with these children…a film about the violence with the help of victims,” says Cooper.

In THE PAINTER, a boy, barely 12-years-old, lives in a world where violence surrounds him. His sole means of survival is to escape the violence outside by creating art. He is alone – abandoned for as long as he can remember. He begins this day like every other: quietly sipping a cup of coffee in his run-down kitchen, walls covered with newspaper clippings that chronicle the epidemic death toll in the inner city. Amid wailing sirens and a squawking police scanner, he sits uncomfortably…cleaning a paintbrush. An interviewer’s voice, unsure of what he is witnessing, asks the boy to explain his existence…his art. Though the police instruct the boy to “return to work”, the interviewer holds them off until finally the boy agrees to show us his art. Step inside the line…his art – a world at war. Are you ready?

http://youtu.be/h3vkH84Kazw
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THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE is Closing Night Film of 2013 Hollywood Black Film Festival | TRAILER

Hollywood Black Film Festival

Mister (Ethan Brooks) and Pete (Skylan Dizon) take to the streets in order to survive a summer in Brooklyn without parental supervision in THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE

THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE, has been selected as the 2013 closing night film of the Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) which runs October 2 to October 6, 2013. Directed by George Tillman, Jr. THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE stars Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Jennifer Hudson, Golden Globe and EMMY Award winner Jeffrey Wright, Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Anthony Mackie. The film also features new music by Grammy Award-winning multiplatinum recording artist Alicia Keys, who is also a producer. THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE will be released in select theaters on October 11, 2013

THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER & PETE is a beautifully observed and tremendously moving film about salvation through friendship and the way transformation sometimes can happen just by holding on long enough. During a sweltering summer in New York City, 13-year-old Mister’s (Skylan Brooks) hard-living mother (Jennifer Hudson) is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete (Ethan Dizon) alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Faced with more than any child can be expected to bear, the resourceful Mister nevertheless feels he is an unstoppable force against seemingly unmovable obstacles. But what really keeps the pair in the survival game is much more Mister’s vulnerability than his larger-than-life attitude.

http://youtu.be/hBv_GFCik2Y
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Urbanworld Announces 2013 Festival Winners; “THE VOLUNTEER” “THE NEW BLACK” “FULL CIRCLE” Win Top Awards

Urbanworld Film Festival

Stacy Spikes (Urbanworld founder), Tai Beauchamp, Marvin Scott (HBO), Allison Bonner Shillingford, Solvan “Slick” Naim, Robert Kolodny, Yoruba Richen, Darius Clark Monroe, Greg Rhem (HBO), and Gbenga Akinnagbe

THE VOLUNTEER directed by Vicky Wight, THE NEW BLACK directed by Yoruba Richen, and FULL CIRCLE directed by Solvan “Slick” Naim won the big awards at the 17th annual Urbanworld Film Festival held over the weekend – September 18 to 22 in Manhattan, New York City. Urbanworld, which screened 60 films this year describes itself at the largest internationally competitive festival dedicated to the exhibition of independent cinema by and about people of color.

The 17th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival winners are:

Best Narrative Feature – Presented by Fox Audience Strategy – $5,000 Cash Prize

THE VOLUNTEER
Directed by Vicky Wight

After dramatically leaving her successful but soul-crushing career, forty-something Leigh finds herself wondering if there’s more to life, to love, to everything. Overwhelmed by apathy and a vague sense of guilt, she decides to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. There, she begins an unexpected and electric affair with a homeless man, Ethan. Leigh attempts to hide Ethan from her long-time boyfriend, her family, and her new coworkers. However, after a series of troubling encounters, she realizes Ethan’s charm may be masking a troubled past.

Honorable Mention:
Sable Fable – Directed by Stephen Jackson

Best Documentary Feature

THE NEW BLACK
Directed by Yoruba Richen

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

Honorable Mention:
Brother’s Hypnotic – Directed by Reuben Atlas

Best Narrative Short – Presented by HBO – $5,000 Cash Prize

“CRESCENDO”
Directed by Alonso Alvarez

Honorable Mention:
Baghdad Messi – Directed by Sahim Omar Kalifa

Best Screenplay – Presented by BET Networks – $5,000 Cash Prize

“YEAR OF OUR LORD”
Written by Darius Clark Monroe

Best Teleplay – Presented by BET Networks – $5,000 Cash Prize

“MEL & MISSY”
Written by Allison Bonner Shillingford

Audience Award – Feature

FULL CIRCLE
Directed by Solvan “Slick” Naim

A young pizza delivery boy, Anthoni, faces a life-changing crisis when his curiosity pulls him away from his delivery order into an adjacent apartment’s open door. He cannot resist temptation when he stumbles across a large sum of money in the aftermath of what seems to be a drug deal gone bad. After taking the money, his life is thrown into turmoil as everyone he knows and cares about is put in jeopardy. His focus turns to revenge when his close friend is killed. Anthoni goes on a comically charged journey for vengeance as outlandish characters banter throughout in this musically infused, urban set comedy-action-drama. Anthoni is set on avenging the death of his close friend even if it means going up against the neighborhood’s most notorious thug.

Audience Award – Short

“FLY ON OUT”
Directed by Robert Kolodny

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International Uranium Film Festival Goes on The Road to … Munich

International Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro

TAILINGS directed by Sam Price-Waldman

Last May, the International Uranium Film Festival took place at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro. And now for the first time, from September 26 to September 29, 2013, the festival is going to visit Munich, capital of Bavaria, Germany. The Uranium Film Festival is described as the world’s only festival devoted to the entire nuclear fuel chain: from uranium mining to nuclear waste, from Hiroshima to Fukushima and Fallujah!

A total of 44 films from 14 countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Estonia, India, Italy, Israel, Iran, Japan, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and the USA – documentary, fiction, experimental and animated films, new comedies and science fiction – have been selected for the festival’s debut in Munich.
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2013 African Diaspora International Film Festival to Preview Films at Queens, NY Black Spectrum Theatre

African Diaspora International Film Festival

JOSEPHINE BAKER, A BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN’S WORLD

The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) and 43 year old historic Queens, New York based Black Spectrum Theatre are partnering for an early start of the 21st Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival with screenings to be held at Black Spectrum starting in October 2013 until the end of the festival on December 15.

Filmmakers and films include Maia Wechsler, director of MELVIN & JANE, AN AMERICAN STORY which revisits a 40-year-old American hijacking that led two former Black Panther Party members to relocate permanently to Europe, and New York based independent filmmaker Patrice Johnson who will present her two feature films NY’S DIRTY LAUNDRY, a comedy-drama set in the weeks after 9/11, when racial paradigms are shifted and hidden prejudices are revealed in heated and often hilarious exchange between the members of two immigrant families and HILL AND GULLY an urban Cinderella love story set during 2008, the historic election year of Barack Obama.

AFRICAN DIASPORA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
@ BLACK SPECTRUM

JOSEPHINE BAKER, A BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN’S WORLD
A tender, revealing documentary about one of the most famous and popular performing artists of the 20th century. Her legendary banana belt dance created theatre history; her song “J’ai deux amours” became a classic, and her hymn. The film focuses on her life and work from a perspective that analyses images of Black people in popular culture. It portrays the artist in the mirror of European colonial clichés and presents her as a resistance fighter, an ambulance driver during WWII, and an outspoken activist against racial discrimination involved in the worldwide Black Consciousness movement of the 20th century.
Annette von Wangenheim, Germany, 2006, 45min, documentary in English/French/German with English subtitles.

MELVIN & JANE, AN AMERICAN STORY
Melvin and Jean McNair hijacked a plane from Detroit to Algeria in 1972 with their two babies on board, they called it an act of political resistance. The hijacking was also an act of desperation committed by two people in their early twenties who saw no other way to escape what they felt was the constant state of racial oppression in America. Living in Paris forty years after the hijacking and unable to return to the U.S., Melvin and Jean are still coming to terms with their crime and its lifelong consequences.
Maia Wechsler, USA/France, 2012, 59mins, documentary in English and French with English subtitles.

NY’S DIRTY LAUNDRY
In the weeks after 9/11, racial paradigms are shifted and hidden prejudices are revealed in this heated and often hilarious exchange between the members of two immigrant families (one Afro-Caribbean and the other Arab-Muslim) who clash in a crowded Brooklyn Laundromat and in an airless NYC taxicab. With mistrust already heightened, quarters are exchanged for political conversation as these “new” New Yorkers debate what it now means to be an American.
Patrice Johnson, USA, 2007, 117 min, comedy-drama in English

HILL AND GULLY
Hill and Gully is an urban Cinderella story, set during 2008, the historic election year of Barack Obama. With palpable ‘Change’ in the air, love pursues an unhappy single mother, and her dysfunctional family who become transformed through the efforts of a psychiatrist who challenges them to speak their secret wishes and to take a chance on opening their hearts to their deepest dreams.
Directed by Patrice Johnson Chevannes, 2011, 113 min, USA, Drama, English.

ALUKU LIBA, MAROON AGAIN
Loeti has spent years away from his village in French Guiana, working in extreme conditions. When the army cracks down on illegal gold mining in the Amazon forest, he is forced to flee and must use the skills he learned as a child to survive in the forest. His only hope is to find his way home to his people and reclaim his Maroon past and culture.
Directed by Nicolas Jolliet, 2009, 90 min, Canada/French Guiana/Suriname, Documentary/Drama

CARIBBEAN HISTORY PROGRAM

CATCH A FIRE
Catch a Fire tells the story of Deacon Paul Bogle, often described as a 19th century Malcom X. 30 years after the end of slavery in Jamaica, the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 provoked outrage in Victorian Britain shaping race and land attitudes. The story is constructed using extensive interviews with Paul Bogle’s grand son as well as archive material.
Menelik Shabazz, UK/Jamaica/ 1995, 30min, docu-drama

GRENADA: COLONIALISM AND CONFLICT
A chronicle of the philosophical and sometimes bloody struggles Grenadians have waged against colonialism and its long-lasting psychological influences. Grenadian leaders fought against colonialism in different ways. Julian Fedon freed 100 slaves to fight the British. Eric Gairy led the poor people in a massive strike and obtained many improvements for them. Maurice Bishop led a successful coup against Eric Gairy in 1979, promising education and societal reform. History tells the tale, however, that even as Grenadian leaders have struck blows at colonialism, they have at times employed the tools of oppression taught to them by their colonial masters.
Valerie Scoon, Grenada/USA, 2012, 45min, documentary in English

RETURN TO GOREE
A musical road movie, Return to Gorée follows Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour’s historical journey tracing the trail left by slaves and the jazz music they created. Youssou N’Dour is performing the last concert in Gorée, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and its victims.
Directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, 2006, 108 min, Senegal/Switzerland/Luxembourg, Documentary, English with French and English subtitles.

THE PIROGUE
In Moussa Toure’s powerful epic fiction film, Baye Laye is the captain of a fishing pirogue. When he is offered to lead one of the many pirogues that head towards Europe via the Canary Island, he reluctantly accepts the job. Leading a group of 30 men and a woman who don’t all speak the same language, some of whom have never seen the sea, Baye Laye will confront many perils in order to reach the distant coasts of Europe.
Directed by Moussa Toure, 2012, 87 min, Senegal/France/Germany, Drama, French and Wolof with English subtitle
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European Film Academy to Honor Catherine Deneuve

Awards

Catherine Deneuve will be honored with the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD by the European Film Academy for “her outstanding body of work.” Catherine Deneuve will be an honorary guest at the 26th European Film Awards Ceremony on December 7th, 2013, in Berlin.

Catherine Deneuve has starred in over 100 films, among them DANCER IN THE DARK by Lars von Trier, 8 FEMMES (earning her a Silver Bear in Berlin and a European Film Award) and POTICHE by François Ozon, UN CONTE DE NOËL by Arnaud Desplechin and PALAIS ROYAL by Valérie Lemercier. She can currently be seen in Emmanuelle Bercot’s ELLE S’EN VA (On my Way) and is now shooting TROIS COEURS by Benoît Jacquot.
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Australia’s Greek Film Festival Sets 2013 Dates; Early Films Include “THE DAUGHTER” “JOY” “MARJORAM”

Greek Film Festival

Thanos Anastopoulos‘s THE DAUGHTER

The 20th Delphi Bank Greek Film Festival will showcase the best of contemporary Greek cinema for Australian audiences from November 6 to November 24, 2013 at Palace Chauvel Cinema in Sydney and November 7 to November 24, 2013 at Palace Cinema Como in Melbourne. It also tours nationally – from October 31 – November 3 in Brisbane, and November 14 to November 17 in Adelaide.

Early program announcements include Thanos Anastopoulos‘s THE DAUGHTER, which premiered earlier in the year at the 2013 Berlinale and recently featured at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival where Athens was showcased in the City to City program strand. Following the coming-of-age of both a young girl and a country amidst change, it’s a contemporary thriller which explores the moral and financial bankruptcies at the core of one family’s crisis.

In the startling narrative, JOY, director Ilias Yannakakis recounts the story of a middle-aged woman, Joy (played with inexhaustible nuance by Amalia Moutoussi), accused of kidnapping a newborn baby from a maternity ward. What begins as the perfect utopia for new mother and child eventually turns into a bitter tragedy. Shot in striking black and white, with minimal dialogue, Yannakakis allows Joy’s mindset to unfold before the eyes of the viewer, resulting in an intricate and poignant psychological drama.

A.C.A.B. ALL CATS ARE BRILLIANT directed by Constantina Voulgaris, daughter of legendary Greek director Pantelis Voulgaris (With Heart and Soul, GFF ’10 and Brides, GFF ’06) is a more buoyant tale that centres on the relationship between artist/activist Electra (Maria Georgiadou) and the young Petros, who forces her to tackle big questions about how to lead a revolutionary life and still find love and happiness amongst the turbulence of the city.

The GFF will also screen MARJORAM by acclaimed director Olga Malea (First Time Godfather, GFF ’09, Honey and the Pig, GFF ’06). The first thriller-drama from a filmmaker celebrated by Greek audiences for her comedies, Marjoram shines a revealing, psychological light into the dark corners of a mother-daughter relationship.
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SHORT TERM 12, Director Destin Cretton Newest Film Among 14 Projects Selected as Finalists for San Francisco Film Society / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant

Industry

Destin Cretton

14 narrative feature films finalists have been selected for the latest round of the (San Francisco Film Society) SFFS/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant. SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to film projects that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community.

Recent SFFS / KRF Filmmaking 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 and is currently in theaters nationwide; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature FRUITVALE STATION, which won the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013, has had a wildly successful two-month theatrical run 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, earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and became an indie box office smash.

FINALISTS

DOCTOR
Musa Syeed, director/producer/writer; Nicholas Bruckman, coproducer — 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 — 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 — 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.

G.E.Z.I.
Aslihan Unaldi, writer/director — postproduction
This political and psychological drama is a fictionalized account of the dramatic night when a peaceful demonstration in Istanbul’s Gezi Park turned into a major national uprising. The story follows three main characters: a strong, liberal woman, her idealistic boyfriend and her apolitical ex-lover. As intricate layers of past secrets are revealed, deeper insight is gained into their characters and situation, which is closely intertwined with the political events accelerating around them.

HELLION
Kat Candler, writer/director; Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers — 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.

KICKS
Justin Tipping, writer/director; Joshua Astrachan, David Kaplan and Adele Romanski, producers — preproduction
Fifteen-year-old Brandon, from a rough part of Richmond, California, has always been picked on. He has survived by running away from trouble all his life. But after getting jumped over a new pair of kicks, Brandon recruits his two best friends to join him on a mission to get his shoes back. The odyssey they embark on is at once the night of their lives and a gamble with life-and-death stakes.

LITTLE ACCIDENTS
Sara Colangelo writer/director; Jason Michael Berman, Anne Carey, Thomas B. Fore and Summer Shelton, producers — 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 — 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 LAND
Joshua Tate, writer/director/producer; Andrew Richey, producer — 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.”

MA
Destin Cretton, writer/director — screenwriting
After being a mom for 30 years, Jan is forced to deal with the fact that her youngest son has finally left the nest. On a road-trip down the Oregon Coast, she begins to learn what it means to live life after motherhood.

MANOS SUCIAS
Josef Wladyka, writer/director; Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes, producers — 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.

START AT THE END
Jonah Markowitz, writer/director — packaging
Start at The End is a character-driven drama that explores the similarities between the family we are born into and the one that we create. The story begins with a tragic accident that results in a gay couple becoming caretakers of their teenaged niece and nephew. As grief catapults all four onto seemingly individual paths of despair and discovery, the inherent bond of family contains these journeys into one that is shared.

TERRIBLE LOVE
Christopher Thomas, writer/director; Luke Helmer, producer — postproduction
When her wounded husband returns home from Iraq with violent PTSD, a devoted wife must choose between her daughter’s safety and the preservation of her marriage.

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