• Frameline – San Francisco LGBT Film Festival Set For June 20 -30, Fest to Open With CONCUSSION and Close With G.B.F.

    Frameline37: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival will take place this year from June 20 – 30, 2013. Frameline37 will open with director Stacie Passon’s CONCUSSION, described as “a sexy and daring breakthrough drama about a wealthy lesbian housewife whose straight-laced lifestyle takes a drastic and rebellious turn following a head injury.” Frameline37 will present this year’s Frameline Award to Jamie Babbit, along with the Bay Area premiere of Babbit’s latest film, BREAKING THE GIRLS, and a special retrospective screening of her 1999 cult classic romantic comedy, BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER. The Centerpiece Documentary film will be VALENTINE ROAD, a compelling exposé of the 2008 California hate crime that resulted in the school shooting death of 15-year-old Lawrence King. The Centerpiece Narrative film will be a Polish film titled IN THE NAME OF, a visually striking examination of repression and taboo, and winner of the prestigious Teddy Award at Berlinale 2013. The Closing Night film for Frameline37 will be director Darren Stein’s G.B.F., a timely feel-good comedy about a recently outed gay teen navigating tokenization and high school social structures. G.B.F. stars Michael J. Willett and includes hilarious, memorable appearances from Megan Mullally, and Natasha Lyonne. The Festival will also present a selection of five films finished with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund. The recipients of the Frameline Completion Fund that will be premiering at Frameline37 are: BIG JOY: THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BROUGHTON, VALENCIA, THE HAPPY SAD, THE BATTLE OF AMFAR, and THE INFAMOUS T. Frameline37 will also feature a variety of special screenings and programs. This year’s Festival will shine a spotlight on Asian Queer Cinema, highlighting works from emerging and established filmmakers from countries such as China, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea. Other highly anticipated screenings at Frameline37 include Travis Mathews and James Franco’s INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR., a film within a film that re-imagines the lost 40 minutes of CRUISING while exploring the politics of portraying gay sex in cinema; Christie Herring’s documentary THE CAMPAIGN, chronicling California’s Proposition 8 during the 2008 election and the historical battle for marriage equality; and Jeffrey Schwarz’s I AM DIVINE, a documentary about Divine, the legendary drag performer and star of numerous John Waters films. Music takes center stage in Neil Drumming’s BIG WORDS as three members of a New York hip-hop group from the ’90s unwittingly reunite on the eve of President Obama’s election in 2008. Queer alternative-music icon Antony Hegarty (of and Antony and the Johnsons) is joined by 13 beguiling transsexual and gender variant women on stage and behind the scenes in TURNING, a revealing documentary directed by pioneering video artist Charles Atlas.

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  • Premiere of LETTERS TO JACKIE to Open 2013 AFI DOCS

    AFI Docs will open its 2013 edition with the theatrical premiere of LETTERS TO JACKIE written and directed by Oscar®-winning filmmaker Bill Couturié. The film features letters from the public written to Mrs. Kennedy in the dark shadow of the President’s assassination fifty years ago. The letters are read by 20 of today’s top actors including Bérénice Bejo, Demián Bichir, Jessica Chastain, Chris Cooper, Viola Davis, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst, Anne Hathaway, Allison Janney, John Krasinski, Melissa Leo, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mark Ruffalo, Octavia Spencer, Hailee Steinfeld, Channing Tatum, Betty White and Michelle Williams. TLC will premiere LETTERS TO JACKIE as a special television event in November 2013.

    Also having its world premiere is DOCUMENTED, written and directed by Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and founder of Define American and co-directed by Ann Lupo. The film explores immigration in America through the lens of Vargas’ personal story as one of the country’s most prominent undocumented immigrants who himself is documenting America’s growing undocumented immigrant movement. 

     AFI Docs presented by Audi (formerly Silverdocs) returns for its 11th edition June 19-23, 2013.

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  • “HERBLOCK: THE BLACK & THE WHITE” to Have DC Premiere at AFI DOCS Gala

    AFI DOCS announced today its gala presentation of the Washington, DC premiere of HERBLOCK: THE BLACK & THE WHITE written and directed by Michael Stevens.  The film, traces the career and influence of the most influential political cartoonist of the 20th century and the people who became his subjects during his 55 years at the Washington Post.  His work spanned thirteen presidents, contributed to the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy and President Richard Nixon and garnered three Pulitzer Prizes and the Medal of Freedom. 

    In the film, Ben Bradlee, Tom Brokaw, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Jules Feiffer, Ted Koppel, Eugene Robinson, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Gwen Ifill, Rick Hertzberg, Victor Navasky and Richard Cohen give first-hand accounts of Block’s life and work.  Jon Stewart and Lewis Black explore the place of political satire in American life. 

    AFI DOCS presented by Audi (formerly Silverdocs) returns for its 11th edition June 19-23, 2013. 

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  • Gay Erotic Thriller STRANGER BY THE LAKE from Cannes Film Festival to Get US Release

    Alain Guiraudie’s erotic gay thriller “STRANGER BY THE LAKE (L’INCONNU DU LAC),” which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard section will be released in the US by Strand Releasing.

    Written and directed by Guiraudie, STRANGER BY THE LAKE is set against the backdrop of a cruising spot for men, and centers on Franck (Pierre de Ladonchamps), who finds himself drawn to Michel (Christophe Paou), who may be a killer.

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  • Godfrey Reggio’s VISITORS to World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_3927" align="alignnone" width="550"]Toronto Symphony Orchestra[/caption]

    Godfrey Reggio’s VISITORS, with an original score by Philip Glass and presented by Steven Soderbergh, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September in ‘stunning’ 4K digital projection with live accompaniment by Members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Michael Riesman.

    VISITORS is described by the festival as the fourth feature length collaboration between Godfrey Reggio (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi) and famed composer Philip Glass, together with filmmaker Jon Kane. The filmmakers advance their previous work by incorporating body language as non-spoken narrative to join with image and music. Footage of nonverbal human portraits and communication reveals a constant stream of unconscious emotions, barely noticed by most people. Visitors reveals humanity’s trancelike relationship with technology, which, when commandeered by extreme emotional states, produces massive effects far beyond the human species. The protagonist, a wise gorilla, sagely witnesses the antics of Homo sapiens. The film is visceral, offering the audience an experience beyond information about the moment in which we live.

    The 2013 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5 to 15.

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  • Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli in “LA GRANDE BELLAZZA” at Cannes Film Festival

    Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli, stars of “LA GRANDE BELLAZZA,” directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and the only Italian film in competition at the 2013 Festival de Cannes. The cast which also includes Sabrina Ferilli, Isabella Ferrari as well as Roberto Herlitzka, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Anna Della Rosa and Giusy Merli, Kravos, visited the lounge of Cannes Movie Star at 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

    LA GRANDE BELLAZZA is described by the festival as “Aristocratic ladies, social climbers, politicians, high-flying criminals, journalists, actors, decadent nobles, prelates, artists and intellectuals – whether authentic or presumed – form the tissue of these flaky relationships, all engulfed in a desperate Babylon which plays out in the antique palaces, immense villas and most beautiful terraces in the city? They are all there, and they are not seen in a good light? Jep Gambardella, 65, indolent and disenchanted, his eyes permanently imbued with gin and tonic, watches this parade of hollow, doomed, powerful yet depressed humanity. A moral lifelessness enough to make one’s head spin? And in the background, Rome in summer. Splendid and indifferent, like a dead diva?”

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  • Napster documentary ‘DOWNLOADED’ Sets Theatrical Release Dates

    “DOWNLOADED,” Alex Winter’s documentary about the rise and fall of Napster, will open in New York City on June 21 and Los Angeles on June 28, and will then expand to Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Martha’s Vineyard, San Francisco and Seattle, among other cities.

    The film examines the music-business revolution caused by Napster, which allowed users to share music without paying royalties. Rather than embracing the new technology and trying to monetize it (as Apple did with its iTunes Store), the record industry sued Napster and tried to drive the company out of business – but by the time Shawn Fanning’s and Sean Parker’s company folded, the damage had been done to the traditional business model.

    Fanning and Parker are among those interviewed for “Downloaded”; Winter also talked to Henry Rollins, the Beastie Boys’ Mike D., Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, record executives Seymour Stein, Don Ienner and Chris Blackwell, and Napster critics that include the Recording Industry Association of America’s former CEO, Hilary Rosen.

    “DOWNLOADED” which premiered at SXSW and also screened at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival,  is part of VH1’s rockDocs series, which has also included “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” “The U.S. Vs. John Lennon” and “Marley.” The film will air on the cable channel in 2014.

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  • “MIELE” Director Valeria Golino and Lead Actress Jasmine Trinca at Cannes Film Festival

    “MIELE”, director Valeria Golino and lead actress Jasmine Trinca in the Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at  the 66th Cannes Film Festival. “MIELE” is an official selection in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

    MIELE is described as the story of Irene a 30 years old girl who helps suffering people.Terminal patients who want to make shorter the struggle with death, people whose suffering injure the dignity of an human being. One day a 70 years old man in good health, who simply thinks to have lived enough, asks her to help him. The meeting will put to the test Irene’s convictions. It will open a stringent debate between the two. Their relation becomes more and more full of implications and emotional ambiguities.

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  • Documentary “HEY BARTENDER” from SXSW Kicks Off Theatrical Run on June 7 in NYC

    Douglas Tirola’s documentary HEY BARTENDER, which had it’s world premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, will begin it’s theatrical run on June 7, 2013 in New York City at the Village East Cinema.   

    Directed by Douglas Tirola (An Omar Broadway Film, All In – The Poker Movie) and featuring a number of the world’s renowned bartenders and cocktail drinkers, HEY BARTENDER is a love story to the cocktail and the people who make them. The film gives insider access to the most exclusive bars in New York, chronicling the story of the comeback of the cocktail and the rebirth of the bartender. The film also features commentary from some of New York City’s best cocktail hosts including Graydon Carter, Danny Meyer, Amy Sacco, and Frank Pelligrini of Raos, among others.  

    On June 7th the film will be released at the Village East Cinema in New York City and on June 14th the film will spread into ten more markets including Sundance Select in Los Angeles, the Denver Film Center, and the Gaslamp Theater in San Diego.  The film will continue to open in various markets across the country throughout the summer and early fall, including the Roxie in San Francisco on June 28th and The O-Cinema in Miami on July 12th.   

    http://youtu.be/ZLHdqCXe-OM

     

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  • LA Jewish Film Festival to Feature THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT to Commemorate Assassination of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evans

    The LA Jewish Film Festival, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers with the screening of THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE?  The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival will run June 1 – 6, 2013.

    THE LAST WHITE KNIGHT: IS RECONCILIATION POSSIBLE? discusses Paul Saltzman’s experience as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1965 and his return in 2007 to find the KKK member who had assaulted him.  Is reconciliation possible? His assailant was Byron de la Beckwith Jr., whose father, Byron de la Beckwith Sr., murdered NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers

    http://youtu.be/85z_pYawYJM

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  • Mark Cousins, Director of Documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” at Cannes Film Festival

    Mark Cousins, director of documentary, “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM”  – official selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Classics – in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge.

    “A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM” is described by the festival as a personal and poetic essay by Mark Cousins which explores what cinema tells us about childhood, and what childhood tells us about cinema, by reference to movies from all around the world. The
    is also described as the world’s first movie about kids in global cinema … as seen through 53 great films from 25 countries. 

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  • Oscar winning Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci at 2013 Cannes Film Festival

    Bernardo Bertolucci, the 9-time Oscar winning Italian director and screenwriter of “The Last Emperor”, whose movies include “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “The Sheltering Sky” (1990), and “The Dreamers” (2003) in The Cannes Movie Stars Lounge at the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival. During the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Bertolucci was awarded the “Palme d’Honneur” for his life’s work in film.

    The director is in Cannes to present his movie, “The Last Emperor”, which is in the 66th Festival de Cannes Classics Selection. Mr. Bertolucci met with the press in the Cannes Movie Stars Lounge for afternoon TV and print interviews. 

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