• “AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA” “A COMMON MAN” Win Top Awards at 2013 Madrid International Film Festival

    AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA

    AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA won the big prize at the 2013 Madrid International Film Festival, the Best Film of the Festival along with the award for Best Foreign Language Feature. Other winners include A COMMON MAN which won the awards for Best Feature Film, Best Director for Chandran Rutnam, and Best Lead Actor for Sir Ben Kingsley,

    AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA is described as “Following the underhanded murder of Pancho Villa on the outskirts of Parral, Chihuahua, on July 20, 1923, the whole city mourned his death. The wake for the revolutionary hero was held in downtown Parral, at the Hidalgo Hotel, owned by Pancho Villa, by his closest collaborators and all sorts of admirers. Standing out among the mourners were the four women with whom Cillas was having intimate relationships at the time of his death, which made for an awkward confrontation. In a conversation with the past, Luz Corral, his first wife, recognized as such by both the Mexican and US governments, offers a review of Pancho Villa’s affairs of the heart- the high spirited general marries 18 times- and military and philosophical adventures, and goes into his unusual passion and hunger for life and justice in an intimate and human portrait of the Centaur of the North. As expected, the tension between the women grows and intensifies, with the personal interests of each of them coming to the fore, culmination in a dramatic surprise ending of communion in memory of Francisco Villa.”

    A COMMON MANA COMMON MAN

    A COMMON MAN is a psychological thriller film starring Oscar Award winner Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross and directed by veteran film maker Chandran Rutnam. Set in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a mysterious man (Kingsley) has planted 5 bombs in the politically-scarred city that are set to explode unless four major terrorists are immediately released from prison. When he calls in his demands to the Deputy Inspector General of the Colombo Police Department (Cross), it sets in motion an ideological and deadly confrontation between the truth and duty.

    The complete list of winners of 2013 Madrid International Film Festival

    Best Film of the Festival
    AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA
    Lourdes Deschamps
    Jorge Rubio Salazar
    Juan Andres Bueno
    Luz Maria Deschamps

    Best Director
    A COMMON MAN
    Chandran Rutnam

    Best Director of a Short Film
    SOUTHERN DYSCOMFORT
    Patrick McEveety

    Best Director of a Foreign Film
    COUNTING HAPPINESS
    Venetia Evripiotou

    Best Lead Actor
    A COMMON MAN
    Sir Ben Kingsley

    Best Lead Actress
    SONIA’S STORY
    Alba Grigatti

    Best Supporting Actor
    ETERNITY
    Ralph Johnson

    Best Supporting Actress
    BOLERO
    Lucy Rayner

    Jury Award
    THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
    Michelle Mower

    Best Feature Film
    A COMMON MAN
    Paul Mason
    Manohan Nanayakkara
    Radha Krishnan

    Best Foreign Language Feature
    AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA
    Lourdes Deschampes
    Jorge Rubio Salazar
    Juan Andres Bueno
    Luz Maria Deschamps

    Best Original Screenplay of a Feature Film
    BETSY & LEONARD
    Luke Foster

    Best Unproduced Script Based on a Drama
    ARBAA HADARIM
    Tamar Komem

    Best Unproduced Script Based on a Novel
    SICILIAN SECRETS
    David Healey

    New Star Scriptwriting Award
    HOPES NOCTURNAL & THE ABYSS OF PAIN
    David Sabbath

    Best Unproduced Script Based on a Historical Drama
    SCOTCH VERDICT
    Suzanna Stroh

    Best Unproduced Short Script
    DATING ALFIE
    Paul Ellington

    Best Short Film
    HEADS UP
    Alex Merkin
    Robert Krakovski
    Ben Carlin

    Best Editing of a Short Film
    DATE IN TIME
    Norman Hussey

    Best Original Screenplay of a Short Film
    HIDE & SEEK
    Cecilia Rossiter

    Best Foreign Language Short
    PAIN STAKING
    Adolfo Martinez Perez

    Best Special Effects
    THE SWALLOW TAILED PAPER
    Francesca Mercandelli
    Paolo Luiselli

    Best Producer
    SURKHAAB
    Vivek Kumar
    Barkha Madan

    Best Soundtrack
    IMBOLC
    Jenny McCaffrey

    Best Directing of a Feature Documentary
    PROJECT CENSORED: THE MOVIE
    Christopher Oscar
    Doug Hecker

    Best Directing of a Short Documentary
    FROM QUEENS TO CAIRO
    Sherif Sadek

    Best Feature Documentary
    COWBOY CHRISTMAS
    H.D. Motyl

    Best Editing of a Feature Documentary
    RISING ABOVE THE BLUES: THE STORY OF JIMMY SCOTT
    Yoon-ha Chang
    Raif Kemper

    Best Short Foreign Documentary
    MEMOIRS OF A SCATTERBRAIN
    Jan Thijssen

    Best Editing of a Feature Film
    ETERNITY
    Nick Swinglehurst
    Alex Galvin

    Talented New Director
    REVOLVE
    Bryan Becker
    Brandon Miradi

    Best Cinematography
    FAT CAT
    Evgeny Sinelnikov

    Best Short Documentary
    DELTA 180: CHANGING LIVES IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
    Anne Rayner

    Best Music
    DISSENT
    Enrico Ascoli
    Luigi Esposito

    Best Makeup and Hair
    ISN’T THIS LOVE?
    Ioanna Sourmeli-Terzopoulou

    Best Costume
    THOSE CITY GIRLS
    Suchismits Dasgupta

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  • 29 Documentary Films to Receive Grants from Sundance Institute

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    29 feature-length documentary films have been selected to receive more than $550,000 in grants from the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). Grantees were selected from 772 submissions from 88 countries and include filmmakers working in Chile, Libya, Cuba, Cambodia and Pakistan as well as a broad range of experience, from first-time feature documentary filmmakers to Academy Award nominee Arthur Dong and veteran filmmaker Ed Pincus working with Lucia Small.

    DEVELOPMENT

    Chicago Boys (Chile) 
    Director: Carola Fuentes
    The film tells how a group of Milton Friedman’s disciples – backed by a military dictatorship in the ‘70s – managed to turn Chile into the first and most extreme model of neoliberalism in the world.

    Children
    Director: Maite Alberdi
    Chilean support for people with Down Syndrome ends at 25, but life expectancy is now in the 50s. A group of friends are facing a stage they were never prepared for, because no one ever expected them to grow up or get old.

    Concerning Violence (Sweden) 
    Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
    From the depths of the Swedish film archive comes newly discovered, powerful footage of the most daring moments in Third World liberation movements. Accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, the new film will offer timeless reflections on violence and liberation.        

    Eddie Adams: SAIGON ’68 (U.S.A.)
    Director: Douglas Sloan
    The most influential photograph to come out of the Vietnam War transformed the lives of both photographer Eddie Adams and General Loan, who summarily executed the prisoner. The film explores the surprising backstory and launches a broader inquiry into our perception and understanding of the visual image.

    Flickering Time Bomb (New Zealand) 
    Director: Pietra Brettkelly
    Three men align in a passionate campaign to save Afghanistan’s rapidly deteriorating Film Archive, in a country whose culture and history are once again under threat of an uncertain future.

    Freedom Fields (Libya)           
    Director: Naziha Arebi
    At the new dawn of a nation once cut off from the world, a dynamic group of women from fractured sides of the revolution come together with one hunger in common, to empower the women of Libya through sport. Their dream: to form the first national Libyan women’s football team.

    Hotel Nueva Isla (Cuba/Spain) 
    Directors: Irene Gutierrez and Javier Labrador
    Jorge lives with his four neighbors in the formerly luxurious Hotel Nueva Isla in Old Havana. Now in ruins, it is a shelter for people living on the fringes of society. Evacuation becomes imminent, but Jorge resists abandoning the building.

    School of Last Resort (U.S.A.) 
    Directors: Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine
    Three students at an experimental school for criminal youth struggle to fulfill their hopes in one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

    Simple Justice (U.S.A.) 
    Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
    After 435 days in prison, a Chinese immigrant in Indianapolis is free on bail. Can her attorney clear the charges of murder and attempted feticide, or will she go to jail for her crime – attempting suicide while pregnant?

    The Storm Makers (Cambodia / France) 
    Director: Guillaume Suon
    Filmmaker Guillaume Suon turns his cinematic lens on globalization and contemporary Cambodia.

    Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Deborah S. Esquenazi
    Four Chicana lesbians languish in Texas prisons, found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls ages 7 and 9. Now, advocates and attorneys believe that a spurned suitor’s revenge, homophobia and ‘junk science’ were key factors in their conviction. The film also explores the tedious process of exonerating innocents in Texas.

    Untitled Colorado Documentary (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Eric Juhola
    The film follows a landmark case in Colorado, where a 6-year-old male-to-female transgender girl is banned from using the girls’ bathroom at her elementary school.

    PRODUCTION / POST-PRODUCTION

    Barring Race (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Noel Schwerin
    At an infamous prison in California, inmates and staff confront a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and a novel anti-violence program order, revealing America’s locked down racial order, and the hidden risks of transformative change.

    Chameleon
    Director: Ryan Mullins
    Chameleon is a chronicle of the extraordinary escapades of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a deep-cover investigative journalist in Ghana.           

    Elephant in the Room (Working Title) (U.S.A.) 
    Directors: Lucia Small and Ed Pincus
    Two filmmakers of different generations turn the camera on each other to explore friendship, legacy and living with terminal illness. A film that spans the years of their friendship,Elephant in the Room (working title) offers a raw, personal glimpse into a creative partnership and the delicate process of capturing life’s precious moments.

    The Hand that Feeds (U.S.A.) 
    Directors: Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick
    Twelve undocumented immigrant workers take on a well-known New York City restaurant chain owned by powerful investors. This David-and-Goliath story explores what it takes for ordinary people to stand up for their dignity, and win.

    The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor (U.S.A.)
    Director: Arthur Dong
    The periods before, during, and after the Khmer Rouge’s tyrannical rule over Cambodia are seen through the eyes of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who escaped to America and recreated his experiences in The Killing Fields, winning an Oscar® for his first film. He became the de facto worldwide ambassador for truth and justice in his homeland, only to be gunned down in Chinatown Los Angeles – a case still muddled with transnational conspiracy theories.

    Marmato (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Mark Grieco
    If Colombia is the new El Dorado of the global gold rush then Marmato, a mining town with over 500 years of history, is the new frontier. In its mountain there are $20 billion in gold, but its 8,000 inhabitants are at risk of being displaced by an open-pit mining project planned by a Canadian mining company.

    Midway (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Chris Jordan
    Both elegy and warning, Midway explores the interconnectedness of species, with the albatross on Midway as a mirror of our humanity.

    The Overnighters (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Jesse Moss
    Moths to a flame, broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor risks everything to help them.

    Private Violence (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Cynthia Hill
    Have you ever wondered, “Why doesn’t she leave?” Private Violence follows domestic violence advocate Kit Gruelle as she accompanies women on the pathway from victim to survivor.

    Radical Love (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Hillevi Loven
    Cole, a transgender Christian teen in rural North Carolina, searches for love and a spiritual community to call home.

    Street Fighting Man (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Andrew James
    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.

    Untitled Project (Faroe Islands/UK) 
    Director: Mike Day
    The pilot whale hunters of the Nordic Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but when a local doctor makes a grim discovery about the effects of marine pollution, environmental changes threaten to end the controversial tradition and change the community forever.

    DISCRETIONARY

    The Dream of Shahrazad (South Africa) 
    Director: Francois Verster
    Weaving together music, politics and storytelling, this film explores recent Middle East events through the metaphor of The 1001 Nights.

    Out in The Night (formerly The Fire Next Time) (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Blair Doroshwalther
    A lifetime demanding self-defense. One night they fought back.

    AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

    25 To Life (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Mike Brown
    William “Reds” Brawner kept his HIV status a secret for over twenty years. Now Will seeks redemption from his nebulous and promiscuous past as he builds his own family. Audience Engagement support will be applied to the films’ outreach goals: to help decrease unsafe practices among the target population, reveal complexity in adult relationships, and dispel fear and misunderstandings surrounding the epidemic.

    A Fierce Green Fire (U.S.A.) 
    Director: Mark Kitchell
    Narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep, this exploration of the environmental movement looks at fifty years of global activism and the battle for a living planet. The Audience Engagement award supports work with environmental groups large and small as they mobilize and build grassroots campaigns.

    Girl Model (U.S.A.) 
    Directors: Ashley Sabin and David Redmon
    Girl Model follows a 13-year-old Siberian girl and the American scout who discovers her through the complex, global human supply chain of the unregulated and often murky world of the international modeling industry. The Audience Engagement award supports a girl-fueled campaign to encourage the Department of Labor to extend child labor protections to under age models.

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  • WATCH 3 Official Clips from Fruitvale Station

    fruitvale-station 2

    The award winning indie drama FRUITVALE STATION opens in theaters on Friday July 12, 2013 and the film is receiving lots of early buzz. The film is the true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother, whose birthday falls on New Year’s Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend, who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to T, their beautiful 4 year old daughter. He starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easy. He crosses paths with friends, family, and strangers, each exchange showing us that there is much more to Oscar than meets the eye. But it would be his final encounter of the day, with police officers at the Fruitvale Bart station that would shake the Bay Area to its very core, and cause the entire nation to be witnesses to the story of Oscar Grant.Watch 4 clips from the film, read the review, read about the film, and let us know what you think.

    Tough Love

    http://youtu.be/_ygRv78C1hY

    I’m Scared

    http://youtu.be/_y2vevmt9Xk

    Don’t Make Me Go Through This Alone

    http://youtu.be/n1bv_c-O2lQ

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  • REVIEW: Fruitvale Station

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    FRUITVALE STATION is based on one of those horrific, real-life stories of when a police officer makes a heinous, unjustifiable decision.

    The film opens with amateur footage shot on a cell phone of the actual frantic, fatal moments in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009 recreated in Frutivale Station’s harrowing climax. The recreation begins a little over twenty-four hours before, with Oscar (Michael B. Jordan), a twenty-two year old small-time dope dealer and ex-con, arguing with Sopina (Melanie Diaz), his girlfriend and the mother of his four year-old child, Tatiana (the adorable Ariana Neal) about Oscar recently cheating on her. The movie then follows Oscar throughout the rest of his New Year’s Eve – which also happens to be his mother’s birthday – as he tries to follow through on his resolution to give up dealing dope and get his job back at the supermarket, which he was recently fired from for constantly being late. However, it’s New Year’s Eve and Sopina wants to go out to San Francisco to party. Though Oscar’s mother (the wonderful Octavia Spencer) begs him to take the train to avoid driving drunk, it turns out to be the wrong decision when Oscar is confronted by someone from his past and is later detained by the police in a frightening, chaotic scene.

    The final thirty minutes of Fruitvale Station are alternately scary and heartbreaking, but the preceding fifty minutes does just about everything it can to make sure the audience sees Oscar as a sympathetic character. For example, the film illustrates that:
    – Oscar is nice to strangers, as shown by him helping a pretty young girl he meets in the supermarket learn how to fry fish by calling his darling grandma.
    – Oscar is kind to animals, as evidenced by the care he shows to a stray dog.
    – Oscar is caring father, as evidenced by him constantly playing with his daughter.
    – Oscar is a nice guy, as evidenced by the perpetual smile on his face.
    – Oscar is committed to his family, as evidenced by his demeanor at his mother’s birthday dinner.
    – Oscar is committed to turning his life around, as evidenced by his very first words in the film and his actions throughout the film. He also drinks nothing more than a swig out of a bottle on New Year’s Eve.

    This includes scenes and situations that only the real-life Oscar would have been witness to, and thus their authenticity is questionable. The real-life Oscar may have been all of these things and more, but first time feature writer/director Ryan Cooglar risks making “movie Oscar” sympathetic to the point that it is over the top. Movie Oscar is an overwhelmingly charming individual, and though he has some moments of aggression and cowardice, there is little to dislike about him. Had movie Oscar lived the film shows no doubt that he would’ve become a model citizen on the straight and narrow, though it’s impossible to know how Oscar’s life would have gone. Of course, it’s still impossible not to feel sympathy for his character during the film’s climax.

    Octavia Spencer in Fruitvale Station

    Though those parts of the film might seem manipulative, there are parts that are chillingly authentic. Octavia Spencer’s performance as Oscar’s mother brings the film to another level. The interaction between her and Michael B. Jordan shows that Jordan has a bright future. Melanie Diaz also demonstrates her character’s pain effectively (but apropos of nothing, Sophina has the biggest hoop earrings I have ever seen in my life). Since the case revolved around cell phone footage, it’s also really clever that the importance of cell phones in our lives these days is demonstrated by superimposing Oscar’s text messaging on the screen. Lastly, Cooglar is wise to give the police officers some sympathy by making the most aggressive, scariest one (Kevin Durand) later the most calming.

    As a whole, the film is a powerful look at the last hours in the life of a young man trying to transcend his environment. However, Cooglar would have served the true story better by not being so obviously cinematically manipulative with the material (the horrific circumstances alone make Oscar sympathetic). As his first film this is forgivable, but it’s a lesson he will need to learn to grow as a director.

    Fim Review Rating 3 out of  5 : See it … It’s Good

    http://youtu.be/CxUG-FjefDk

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  • Indie Comedy AWFUL NICE to Get a Spring 2014 Release Date

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    Todd Sklar’s comedy AWFUL NICE, which had its world premiere at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival is expected to get a Spring 2014 release by Screen Media.

    The film, AWFUL NICE, centers on estranged brothers Jim (James Pumphrey) and Dave (Alex Rennie) who are forced to travel to Branson together to renovate and flip the lake house they’ve inherited from their just-deceased father. A series of hilarious mishaps and costly misadventures follow as they attempt to restore the dilapidated house and rebuild their strained relationship.

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  • Documentary ZIPPER Gets A Release Date

    zipper

    ZIPPER a documentary about “greed, politics, land use and public policy’ and the battle over the Coney Island amusement district in New York City will be in theaters this Summer. The film will open at the IFC Center in New York City on August 9th, 2013.

    Directed by Amy Nicholson, ZIPPER is described as a story about greed, politics and the land grab of the century, – chronicling the battle over an American cultural icon. On a small rented lot in the heart of Coney Island’s gritty amusement district, Eddie Miranda proudly operates a 38-year-old carnival contraption called the Zipper. When an opportunistic real estate mogul sets his sights on the property, Eddie and his ride – along with many of Coney Island’s eclectic small businesses – are forced to leave. 

    Behind the scenes, a high-stakes power struggle brews between the developer and the City of New York. Both see the redevelopment of Coney Island’s waterfront real estate as a lucrative opportunity. They lock horns when the City denounces the developer’s glitzy vision of condos and shopping, and ironically, hatches its own grand scheme to transform the area with the promise of housing and retail. The resulting standoff is a scary ride that leaves the future of the world-famous amusement park up in the air.
     
    Can a reinvented Coney Island remain the “People’s Playground?” Will the zeal to capitalize on Coney Island as a brand ultimately sanitize its unfettered spirit? Be it an affront to history or simply the path of progress, ZIPPER examines the high cost of economic development. In an increasingly corporate landscape where authenticity is often sacrificed in the interest of economic growth, the Zipper may be just the beginning of what is lost.
     
    http://youtu.be/nwqg_QAQUJs
     
    image via facebook

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  • THE ROMEOWS (Retired Old Men Eating Out Wednesdays) Documentary Gets A Release Date

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     THE ROMEOWS (Retired Old Men Eating Out Wednesdays), a feature documentary directed by Kevin Raman and Robert Sarnoff about a “Band of Brooklyn Buddies” who break bread, and each other’s chops, every Wednesday evening, will open in theaters on July 19, 2013. 

    What is the THE ROMEOWS?

    Older people are using little blue pills, hooking up on Match.com, running marathons, flying planes and safely ditching them in the Hudson. Pull up a chair at this movable feast, break bread with this Brooklyn Band of Buddies who know each other for more than half a century as they break each other’s chops. Their generational perspective connects with “No Country for Old Men” and “Gran Torino” while repelling notions of “Grumpy Old Men” and “Bucket List”.

    “When We Get Together We Get Younger” is the theme song playing in the background, highlighting the fun, affection and intensity of this weathered, vibrant group continuing to continue their affirmation of life on Wednesday evenings.

    No avatars, cyborgs, no Facebook, nothing virtual about this half century friendship. It’s the real deal.

    http://youtu.be/7NF0eaqVHOI

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  • 2013 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival Announces Finalist Films

    cinemalaya

    The popular Philippine indie festival Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival will be held on July 26 to August 4, 2013. 15 full length finalists/ filmmakers (10 new breed and 5 directors showcase) and 10 short films have been selected to be featured at the festival. The films in the New Breed Full Length Category will compete for the coveted Balanghai Award. Awards are also given in the Short Feature Category and the Directors Showcase.

    The ten finalists in the NEW BREED CATEGORY are:

    BABAGWA (Spider)
    By Jason Paul Laxamana
    An Internet scammer falls in love with a wealthy old maid while trying to swindle her using a fake Facebook profile.

    DEBOSYON
    By Alvin B. Yapan
    Mando, a Bikolano devotee of Ina, Virgin of Peñafrancia, Patroness of Bikolandia, injures himself in the middle of the forest at the foot of the Mayon Volcano. He will be nursed back to health by a mysterious woman, Salome, living there. They will fall in love with each other. But when Mando invites her to come with him to the plains, Salome refuses, saying a curse prohibits her from leaving the forest. Salome holds a secret that will devastate Mando’s love for her. Mando relies on his devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia to lift the curse, making him realize just how inextricably linked are the virtues of love and faith.

    INSTANT MOMMY
    By Leo Abaya
    In order to solve a personal predicament, Bechayda, a wardrobe assistant in TV commercials, pretends to be pregnant.

    The film is one summer’s journey with her as she reaches the fateful decision amidst a highly visualized world where the video screen not only reigns supreme but is also the frame within which a usually unsuspecting public accesses the content of image-makers.

    NUWEBE
    By Joseph Israel M. Laban
    Inspired by the actual story of one of the youngest mothers in Philippine history, NUWEBE follows the story of Krista who at the tender age of 9 got pregnant from the sexual abuse perpetrated by her own father. Her story is complex. Krista refuses to see herself as a victim. With an almost documentary style, NUWEBE follows Krista’s story as she demonstrates a level of resilience uncommon to her age. Her mother on the other hand is torn between her love for her child and her love for her husband.

    PUROK 7
    By Carlo Obispo
    A countryside dramedy (drama-comedy) that follows the story of 14-year-old Diana and her younger brother who live by themselves after their mother went abroad and their father lived with another woman.

    QUICK CHANGE
    By Eduardo Roy Jr.
    Life of Dorina a middle-aged transsexual looking for his niche amidst the complexities of the world he is in. This is a story of suffering, acceptance and hope.

    REKORDER
    By Mikhail Red
    REKORDER tells the story of a former 1980’s film cameraman who now currently works as a movie pirate operating in present day Manila. He routinely smuggles a digital camcorder into movie theaters in order to illegally record films. One night he records something else… And the footage goes viral.

    THE DIPLOMAT HOTEL
    By Christopher Ad Castillo
    Victoria Lansang is a popular news reporter who has been requested to mediate a hostage crisis. And in front of a national television audience, something horribly goes wrong and people are killed while Victoria suffers a mental breakdown.

    A year later, she’s eager to get back into the game but the only assignment she can get is to do a documentary on the last night of The Diplomat Hotel in Baguio City, a crumbling and abandoned building infamously known for its bloody past and its hauntings and has carved a place in Philippine ghost lore.

    Looking for redemption, she arrives there with her crew and they start filming. But as they get deeper into the night, the place starts to exert its will on them and they find out exactly what monstrous evil awaits at The Diplomat Hotel.

    By daybreak, their lives will never be the same again.

    TRANSIT
    By Hannah Espia
    TRANSIT begins and ends in an airport during a father and son’s transit flight from Tel Aviv to Manila. It tells the story of Moises, a Filipino single-dad working as a caregiver in Herzliya, Israel, who comes home to his son Joshua’s 4th birthday. It was on that day that Moises, together with their Filipino neighbors, Janet and her daughter Yael, find out that the Israeli government is going to deport children of foreign workers. Afraid of the new law, Moises and Janet decide to hide their children from the immigration police by making them stay inside the house.

    DAVID F.
    By Manny Palo
    Black is scientifically the absence of color, but not all who see it are color-blind, figuratively.

    David F. weaves three stories that take a look at the lineage of African Americans in the Philippines – from American soldiers in the Fil-Am war to the Amboys in the former Clark Airfield, and how we Pinoys take to them.

    It begins with the Philippine-American war in the early 1900’s when two Filipinos want to get the reward money for capturing David Fagan, the African-American soldier who deserted the U.S. army to join the Filipino revolutionaries against the new colonizers. Another thread of the film takes a look at the life of a Filipina during the Japanese occupation before the return of General Douglas MacArthur in 1944 who gives birth to a baby that turns out to be black-skinned.

    And then in contemporary times, a black gay impersonator in a comedy bar, whose father is an African American soldier based in Clark Air Base in Angeles City, tries to find his father who abandoned them.

    In the course of history, the “F” in “David F.” may spell different levels of discrimination. But would we also admit that we Filipinos are bigots ourselves?

    The ten finalists in the DIRECTORS SHOWCASE CATEGORY are:

    AMOR y MUERTE
    By Ces Evangelista
    AMOR y MUERTE is an erotic 16th Century period drama; an examination of the initial encounter between the Indios (natives) and their colonizers (Spaniards) and their conflicting views on love, passion, religion and sexuality.

    EXTRA
    By Jeffrey Jeturian
    EXTRA (A Bit Player) is a socio-realist drama-comedy film, which follows a seemingly usual day in the life of LOIDA MALABANAN (Vilma Santos) as she embarks on yet another shooting day of a soap opera as an extra. As the shoot goes on, we get a glimpse of the truth in the ruling system of the production as well as the exploitation on the marginalized laborers like her.

    PORNO
    By Adolfo B. Alix Jr.
    Three souls, one explicit illusion. To find the ultimate joy in their empty lives. A safe haven, where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment; and the soul is the ultimate arbiter of the truth.

    SANA DATI
    By Jerrold Tarog
    Andrea Gonzaga has accepted her fate by agreeing to marry a man she does not love. But a few hours before her wedding, someone arrives to remind her of the true love she once had and lost. SANA DATI is a love story about bittersweet compromises and real- life decisions. It is the third part of Jerrold Tarog’s Camera Trilogy after CONFESSIONAL and MANGATYANAN.

    THE LIARS
    By Gil M. Portes
    The Liars is the story of a journalist (Eloisa) whose expose’ of the truth results in life-changing consequences to a baseball team of poor boys. Inspired by a true story.

    The ten finalists in the SHORT FILM CATEGORY are:

    BAKAW by Ron Segismundo
    Bakaw is a day in the life of a child who steals at the Navotas fishport.

    KATAPUSANG LABOK by Aiess Athina E. Alonso
    Katapusang Labok depicts the struggles of fishermen who must deal with environmental abuse and the effects of coral harvesting on their livelihood.

    MISSING by Zig Madamba Dulay
    Missing tackles the subject of forced disappearances.

    ONANG by Jann Eric S. Tiglao
    Onang is the classic tale of a young probinsyana who seeks her fortune in the big city.

    PARA KAY AMA by Relyn A. Tan
    Para kay Ama is about a young Chinese-Filipino girl who discovers she has a half-brother when she meets him on the last day of her father’s wake. <p”>PUKPOK by Joaquin Adrian M. Pantaleon
    Pukpok is one adolescent’s transition to manhood as he hurdles a case characterized by excessive blood, superstition and a man with failing eyesight.

    SA WAKAS by Ma. Veronica Santiago
    Sa Wakas is a reflection on the bond of a father and daughter tested by cultural, political and religious hypocrisy.

    TAYA by Philip Adrian Bontayam
    Taya is about a 12-year-old boy who learns to play the game of life with a new set of friends. The film highlights how traditional Filipino games reflect the realities and disparities of our society.

    THE HOUSEBAND’S WIFE by Paulo P. O’Hara
    The Houseband’s Wife is an essay about a typical OFW family, with the OFW wife as breadwinner and the husband left in the Philippines to care for the children. Technology and the internet bridges the physical distance but shatters domestic harmony when the wife, on a Skype video call, sees a bra, not hers, hanging in the marital closet.

    TUTOB by Kissza Mari V. Campano
    Tutob begins when recent bombings in the region put authorities on alert. A mysterious, strange-looking native Maranao man dressed up in Muslim attire shows up. He is tasked to fetch a package from his boss’ contact. From a rural area in the mountains, he rides his motorcycle to the city to get the package. On his way back, he is stopped at an army checkpoint. Speaking Maranao, he says he doesn’t know what’s in the package, but the Visayan-speaking soldiers don’t understand him and insist on opening it.

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  • Documentary LEWD & LASCIVIOUS World Premiere to Sold Out Audience at 2013 Frameline

    Lewd & Lascivious

    The documentary LEWD & LASCIVIOUS had its sold out World Premiere at the 2013 FRAMELINE LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco. LEWD & LASCIVIOUS directed by Dr. Jallen Rix documents police harassment and public abuse on New Year’s Day 1965 of a gay and lesbian Mardi Gras Costume Ball attendees and how it changed the Gay civil rights landscape in San Francisco.

    According to the filmmakers, long before the rainbow flag, gay pride parades and even before “Stonewall” there was an incident in 1965 San Francisco that very few people know about. This critical event spotlighted in the film was actually what helped turned the tide on police brutality and gay bashing in the City By The Bay.

    The filmmakers are seeking major distribution of the documentary so they can bring this timely piece about the LGBT struggle for equality, to the broadest audience possible. “Hopefully soon, we will be picked up by one of the giants like HBO, LOGOS, or BRAVO,” added Director Dr. Rix.

    But first, the filmmakers are running a Kickstarter campaign to complete the production of the film. “Our friends and families have supported us in substantial ways up to this point,” said Director Rix. “We are confident with the exposure of Kickstarter and the ability it gives us to reach multitudes of people who understand how important our history is and what part this story played in the freedoms we enjoy today, we will raise the remainder of the funds we need by our deadline on July 23rd.”

    Lewd & Lascivious plan is to be in as many festivals as possible and to share the story with as many people as possible.

    http://youtu.be/ISmuXFsKSEM

    via press release

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  • Documentary “AMERICAN MOVIE” and Horror Film “COVEN” to Kick Off First Ever NEXT WEEKEND Film Festival in LA

    AMERICAN MOVIEAMERICAN MOVIE

    The first-ever NEXT WEEKEND film festival (an extension of the popular NEXT <=> section at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah) will be held August 8-11, 2013 at venues throughout Los Angeles. The festival will kick off with an outdoor screening of Chris Smith’s cult documentary AMERICAN MOVIE and Mark Borchardt’s horror film COVEN on August 8.

    AMERICAN MOVIE (Director: Chris Smith) — Inspired by such films as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead, Mark Borchardt has been making movies since he was a teenager. He has all the passion and drive it takes; but what he sorely lacks is money. In a questionable business move, he decides to finish and peddle his short film, Coven, in order to finance his dream picture, Northwestern. (Documentary – 107 minutes)

    American Movie premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. It was named by the New York Times as one of “The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.”

    COVEN (Director and screenwriter: Mark Borchardt) — In COVEN – the short film whose production is chronicled inAmerican Movie – an alcohol/drug abuser re-examines his life until he nearly dies from an overdose. Then a friend convinces him to join a self-help group which turns out to be demonic. (36 minutes)

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  • Why Are There No Sequels to Indie Films? Why?

    Before MidnightBefore Midnight

    Audiences who have seen BEFORE MIDNIGHT in theaters have experienced a film that is extraordinary for two reasons: first, it’s a fantastic movie (after seeing it myself in April, I couldn’t agree more with TIME magazine critic Mary F. Pols, who said, “If I were only allowed to see one movie this year, I’d want it to be Before Midnight. If I were only allowed two trips to a theater this year, I’d see it twice”). Second, it’s an ultra-rare example of an independent film sequel – and even rarer, it is the second sequel of a film made with the creative team intact.

    A sequel to an independent film is rarer than one might think in an industry that is obsessed with creating franchises of sequels and spinoffs. Often indie filmmakers have little desire to revisit stories they have already committed to film and instead wish to move on to new material. In many cases that simply could be because a sequel is financially impossible. Very few independent films – even ones that win dozens of awards – end up making enough at the box office to cover their budgets, let alone enough money to make a follow-up. But it has happened – unfortunately, in most cases the sequel hasn’t continued the original filmmaker’s vision. In fact, in these cases the original filmmakers often aren’t even involved.

    blair-witch-project

    Independent horror films are the main target for sequels when the indie original makes a hit. After all, indie horror films often cost very little, which can lead to huge box office profits. For example, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT remains the most profitable independent film of all time, so a sequel was fast-tracked by the original’s distributor Artisan Films and was released less than eighteen months after the original. The original filmmakers received executive producer credit for the sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, but otherwise had little to do with the bigger-budget sequel (Blair Witch was made for $40,000, Book of Shadow’s budget ballooned to $15 million – still cheap by studio standards of course). While the sequel was profitable, it made a fraction of what the blockbuster original did in theaters and actually derailed what could have been a successful found footage franchise like the later Saw series, an indie original that spawned six sequels.

    Sequels to indie hits being taken out of the original filmmaker’s hands is not uncommon – S. Darko, the 2009 sequel to the 2001 indie cult favorite Donnie Darko, had no involvement from original writer/director Richard Kelly. Similarly, because of rights issues (it was issued without a copyright notice), George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead not only received multiple sequels made by Romero over the last forty-five years but has also had multiple remakes, a second continuity of more humorous “Living Dead” films, and many unofficial sequels, mostly of declining quality (though there are a few gems among them). Of course, this attempt to capitalize on successful independently produced original films isn’t limited to horror films – rumors persist that various studios have been trying to make official and unofficial sequels to the highest grossing independent film of all time, The Passion of the Christ!

    Other directors who started as indie filmmakers have simply remade their films once they received more financial support from studios, like Robert Rodriguez (who essentially remade his $7000 wonder El Mariachi as Desperado) and Sam Raimi (who recapped the entirety of The Evil Dead in the first few minutes of the sequel, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn). Along the same lines, Kevin Smith made Mallrats, a bigger-budget one-day earlier prequel to his indie debut Clerks, but he went back to indie territory to make the next film in the loosely-connected sequence, Chasing Amy (he later did a sequel to Clerks and is planning another sequel). In other words, many indie directors find it difficult to move beyond their initial visions. However, even if the director is interested there are other factors can prevent an indie sequel. John Waters considered making a sequel to his controversial but financially successful Pink Flamingos but star Divine refused to participate.

    Of course, one of the wonderful things about independent film is that it is a wellspring of originality. Most who prefer indie films to Hollywood blockbusters do so in order to avoid the endless cycle of franchise movies and remakes from the big studios. So while some indie sequel gems are out there like Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s Before series (also Delpy’s own 2 Days in New York, which follows her 2 Days in Paris), the whole point of independent film is to discover new voices and vision in film. We should probably be thankful that we’re not seeing four or five sequels to Eraserhead or Slacker, right?

     

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  • New York Times’s Op-Docs is Looking For Documentary Filmmakers

    New York Times

    Op-Docs, the New York Times’s editorial department’s forum for short opinionated documentaries is looking for opinionated documentary shorts (running 3 to 10 minutes), Documentary filmmakers in the United States are invited to apply for a new pitch opportunity at this year’s Camden International Film Festival (CIFF): The pitch will take place as part of the Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Documentary Forum running from September 26 – 29, 2013.

    Six finalists will be selected to present their projects on stage in Camden, Maine, before a panel of judges from The New York Times (including the commissioning editor for opinion video, Jason Spingarn-Koff; Op-Docs coordinating producer Kathleen Lingo and series researcher Lindsay Crouse) and veteran Op-Docs filmmakers. This will be the first live video pitch event in North America for The New York Times. The event builds on the success of a recent Op-Docs pitch competition in England, at Sheffield Doc/Fest, which attracted more than 120 submissions.

    Op-Docs is The New York Times’s editorial department’s forum for short opinionated documentaries, produced with wide creative latitude and a range of artistic styles, covering current affairs, contemporary life and historical subjects. Contributors range from Oscar winners (Errol Morris, Alex Gibney, Roger Ross Williams, Jessica Yu) to emerging filmmakers and artists. View the films at NYTimes.com/OpDocs.

    The filmmaker with the winning pitch will have an opportunity to produce an Op-Doc video for The New York Times with a budget of $2,000 (USD). Subject to The New York Times’s approval, the documentary will premiere on NYTimes.com.

    The deadline for entries is Friday, August 9, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. For more information and a link to the online application see Camden International Film Festival’s Points North Documentary Forum.

    image via New York Times

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