• Documentary Filmmaker Barbara Kopple to be honored at 2012 San Francisco International Film Festival

    The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 – May 3) will present the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award to veteran documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple.

    Kopple will be presented with the POV award Sunday, April 22, 3:30 pm at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, preceding the screening of her masterful landmark documentary Harlan County, USA (USA 1976).

    “Barbara Kopple is a pioneering documentarian who brings the highest level of craft to her work whether she is pursuing stories that focus on workers rights and social justice or on great entertainers and athletes,” said Rachel Rosen, San Francisco Film Society director of programming. “We’re delighted to be able to honor her.”

    In a career spanning 40 years, Kopple has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to documenting life as it happens, made evident throughout her career by her obvious courage. From her historic debut documentary feature about a Kentucky coal miners’ strike, Harlan County, USA, to her most recent film on the controversy over the right to bear arms, 2011’s Gun Fight, Kopple has brought a boldly objective approach to the thorniest social issues of our time.

    Kopple’s two Oscar wins for the documentary features Harlan County, USA and American Dream (USA 1990, SFIFF 1991), about the Hormel Foods meatpacker strike in Minnesota, are signature achievements. While some of her trademark techniques can be traced back to her early work in cinema vérité filmmaking with the Maysles Brothers, what distinguishes her career as a whole is its breadth of vision, subject matter and style. Kopple’s fascination with the American story has led her to tackle subjects as varied as Mike Tyson’s disgrace (1993’s Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson), Woody Allen’s musical career (1997’s Wild Man Blues), the clash between urban and suburban life (2005’s fiction feature Havoc), the Dixie Chicks’ run-in with the George W. Bush campaign (2006’s Shut Up & Sing) and the fate of a baseball icon (her contribution to ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, The House of Steinbrenner).

    Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award each year honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work is outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking, crafting documentaries, short films, television, animated, experimental or multiplatform work.

    Previous winners of the Persistence of Vision Award include multidisciplinary artist Matthew Barney (2011), animator Don Hertzfeldt (2010), documentarians Lourdes Portillo (2009), Errol Morris (2008) and Heddy Honigmann (2007), cinematic iconoclast Guy Maddin (2006), documentarians Adam Curtis (2005) and Jon Else (2004), experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill (2003), Latin American cinema pioneer Fernando Birri (2002), avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (2001), animator Faith Hubley (2000), documentarians Johan van der Keuken (1999) and Robert Frank (1998) and animator Jan Svankmajer (1997).

    via press release

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  • Grabbers from 2012 Sundance Film Festival is headed to theaters later this year

    Another film from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival is headed to theaters. IFC Midnight will release director later this year, Jon Wright’s comedy GRABBERS, starring Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Lalor Roddy, David Pearse, and Bronagh Gallagher.



    In GRABBERS, something sinister has come to the shores of Erin Island, unbeknownst to the quaint population of this sleepy fishing village restingsomewhere off the coast of Ireland. First, some fishermen go missing. Then there is the rash of whale carcasses found washed up on the beach. When themurders start, it’s up to two mismatched cops— the charming but somewhat work-shy Ciaran O’Shea and his new by-the-book partner from the mainland, Lisa Nolan—to protect the islanders from the giant, bloodsucking, tentacled aliens that are out to get them. Their only weapon, they discover, is booze. If they want to survive the creatures’ onslaught, everyone will have to get very, very drunk.

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  • 2012 Atlanta Film Festival Line-Up Plus L!fe Happens to Open and The Cabin in the Woods to Close Festival

    Opening Night Film – L!fe Happens

    The Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) announced its 2012 lineup of narrative and documentary features and short films for this year’s festival, March 23-April 1 in Atlanta, GA. 

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  • Gianni Di Gregorio’s Film The Salt of Life Will Charm Your Winter Blues Away

     

    By Francesca McCaffery

    “The Salt of Life” is a charming film by Italian actor and filmmaker Gianni Di Gregorio, who plays an aging man trying to come to grips with the fact that he feels like a “discarded engine on the side of the road.” Treated like with condescension by his wife, dealing with a petulant and spoiled daughter, and with an aging mother who treats him like a servant. Gianni (also the character Di Gregorio plays in the film), recently retired, soon begins to watch his older compatriots embark on affairs with younger women, and conspires to do the very same.

    This is a sweet, adorable little movie, and a perfect anecdote for those mid-Winter blues. Di Gregorio (most recently of the 2010 hit “Mid-August Lunch”) is a terrific performer, and everyone in the film plays this light comedy to perfect and enlivening pitch. Watching Gianni tear his hair out, as well as soon his old black book (bearing up very few phone numbers) looking for the woman who will save him, one feels the poignancy that certain longings can never quite be satisfied.

    Especially the great and endless desire to once be young once again.

    Please go and see this delightful film at the IFC Center in NYC this weekend and next week, and soon at the Laemmle’s Theaters in Los Angeles.

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  • “Last Days Here” A Strange Little Documentary About Doing or Dying For Rock-n-Roll

    by Francesca McCaffery

    The new documentary “Last Days Here” (opening today March 2nd at the IFC Center in NYC) directed by Don Argott and Demian Fenton, had so much crazy subtext going on, it could be a few tiny little films in itself: The film focuses on “underground heavy metal legend” Bobby Liebling, the singer- songwriter-guitarist for the ‘70s metal band Pentagram. According to some rabid fans, Pentagram was the best metal band from that era, actually helping to form and create what soon became known as “heavy metal” music.

    We are first introduced to adorable, bespectacled fan-boy and record collector extraordinaire Sean “Pellet” Pelletier, who enthusiastically tells us that a discovery of an old, vinyl Pentagram album wildly and permanently changed his life. From that point on, it would seem, Pellet has made it his mission to befriend, help, cajole and coax the nearly impossible Bobby, a very active user of crack-cocaine, to mend his ways and get the damn band back together. (As apparently do a great many thousands of other fans across the country.) Pellet’s genuine love for Bobby, as well as his almost obsessive dedication to Bobby’s music as his mission, is the true heart and soul of the film.

    The different strains and levels of the story are what I found to be truly fascinating, apart from the much talked-about train wreck which is seeing Bobby (at times) disintegrate in front of the camera: Here we have a heroine and crack user living in the basement of his parent’s house, a place from which the far-older-than-he looks -fifty-four year old Bobby rarely ventures. His parents astoundingly know and enable his drug problem, sweet souls that they are, apparently terrified of what would happen if he was left on his own, and deal with is bouts of appealingly schizophrenic ravings.

    Which, for me, got a bit strange. For a few moments, I found the film faltering, exploitative, and very, very hard-to-watch…(Although the editing in clever and the overall production value is quite good for the obvious low-budget, watching someone rant while on crack makes one feel confused about how to feel, to say the very least.) But then, things started to emerge and simmer.

    The incredible part of the Liebling family history I found to be this: We are soon shown that Bobby’s father was an security advisor under both the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Flashback photos from the mid-sixties make Liebling, Sr. out to look like an earnest, uber-serious CIA agent. Bobby’s father was once the very picture of Sixties conservatism. Then to top off having a whacked-out metalhead for a son living in the “sub-basement,” his wife, (Bobby’s natural mother) blames their father-son “rivalry” as the very cause of Bobby’s drug problem. What is even more disturbing is how readily the lovely and elderly Liebling Sr. agrees with her. There is then inherent in the film the incredible commentary about one generation producing what is probably its worst nightmare; the story is only unique in the way both parents seem to really adore and genuinely respect their itinerant son.

    There are the poignant reminiscences of former Pentagram bandmates, who tell of not once but two times Bobby blew the biggest chance they had to make it big. (Once members of KISS came to their home to see them perform in the 70s, only to be shooed away by an irate landlord; the second time a famous rock-n-roll producer actually working with them stormed out on their demo recording because of Bobby’s unbearable histrionics, never to return again.)

    And in the midst of all of this the super-positive and patient Pellet, trying desperately to conjure together a compilation record deal and national tour. Bobby also inexplicably manages to fall in love with an uncommonly beautiful and bright young woman named Halley, who seems just as inexplicably to be in love with him…Whoa. A story of a group of enablers? Rock-n-roll lifestyle commentary? How sixties conservatism nearly ruined the world? Or just a sweet and sharp little film about what happens when your favorite unknown band is so damn great, you want the whole world to know it?

    The rest of the film is an ardent, enjoyable rollercoaster ride, making us question the cost of not simply seeking out fame and fortune, but what happens when you are arguable once just this close to it, and it breezily passes you by?

    There is a fine line between sanity and greatness in rock-n-roll, and I suppose that Bobby Liebling is living proof. I could have used more of the band’s music throughout, but the two filmmakers have some very obvious talent and chops. If nothing else, in the case of both Bobby and his true-blue buddy Pellet, the film is a gigantic testament to how music you truly love can really change your damn life.

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  • Sony Pictures Classics to Release High Profile Documentary WEST OF MEMPHIS from Sundance Film Festival

    Sony Pictures Classics have acquired worldwide rights to Academy Award®nominated filmmaker Amy Berg’s (DELIVER US FROM EVIL) high profile documentary WEST OF MEMPHIS, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. 

    WEST OF MEMPHIS is a powerful documentary that chronicles the new investigation surrounding the “West Memphis Three,” which ultimately broke the case open and led to the freedom of three innocent men: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. Beginning with a searing examination of the fatally flawed police investigation into the 1993 murders of three, eight year old boys in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, the film goes on to reveal personal insight into Echols’ fight to save his own life; how he survived eighteen years on death row and eventually freed himself from the hatred and ignorance of those who had tried to destroy him.  The film asks the question that still haunts Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley to this day – what value do we, as a society place on the truth?

    “In 2009 Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Lorri Davis approached me to make a film which documented the defense’s battle to overturn the guilty verdicts in the case of the West Memphis Three. After spending more than two years on the ground filming in Arkansas, the blatant injustice of the case was very apparent; my hope is that WEST OF MEMPHIS will lead to full exoneration for Damien, Jason and Jessie. In addition, I hope the film will serve as a platform for a broader discussion about the failures of our criminal justice system nationwide. I’m very excited for this powerful story to be making its way to theaters and know that having Sony Pictures Classics as our partner is the surest way to catapult our film to the widest possible audience,” says Director Amy Berg.

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  • 2012 Florida Film Festival Announces Narrative and Documentary Feature Films and Selects Renee as Opening Night Film

    [caption id="attachment_1580" align="alignnone" width="550"]RENEE[/caption]

    The 2012 Florida Film Festival, announced that a record-breaking 167 films were selected to screen at the festival, with 144 having their Florida premiere (or higher) at the Festival. This year’s Festival runs April 13-22, 2012 and is located in Central Florida.

    The Narrative and Documentary Feature Film selections for the 2012 Florida Film Festival American Independent Competition were announced.

    Among them, DeLand based director Sylvia Caminer unveils her documentary on pop star Rick Springfield. The Zellner brothers, whose bizarrely funny films are regulars at the Festival, bring something quite unexpected and different. FSU graduate Ken Adachi makes his feature film debut. Among recognizable faces on screen this year are Penelope Ann Miller (The Artist), Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under), Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire), Robin Tunney (TV’s The Mentalist), Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs), and newcomers including EJ Bonilla and Veronica Diaz-Carranza. 

    The opening night selection was also announced today.  The prestigious pole position belongs to RENEE, which will have its East Coast premiere at the 2012 Florida Film Festival.  Based on the life of Renee Yohe, the film tells the story of a 19-year-old who received national and international attention when her courageous story was posted on MySpace. The film deals with the cycle of self-injury which plagues many teenagers and young adults worldwide.  Her experience was the inspiration for the “To Write Love on Her Arms” movement. The Orlando-based production skillfully blends gritty reality with rich fantasy as the film powerfully visualizes this young girl who grew up loving fairy tales but lived through a considerably darker truth.  Kat Dennings (TV’s 2 Broke Girls, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist) is a knockout as Renee, and Chad Michael Murray (TV’s One Tree Hill), Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria), and Corbin Bleu (High School Musical) lend superb support along with a great music score and appearances by Rachael Yamagata and Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. It is directed by Nathan Frankowski.  Deeply rooted in its own community with people on both sides of the camera whose investment is both personal and passionate, RENEE is a vivid reminder of how the independent film can generate incredible power out of its own reality and bring a story so effectively to life using the support mechanisms available around it.

    AMERICAN INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE FEATURES COMPETITION

    THE BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST / USA (Director:  Ryan O’Nan)A failing singer-songwriter (Ryan O’Nan) decides to hit the road with a self-appointed music revolutionary and rediscovers his love for life and music. This inspired musical comedy also stars Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire) and features pitch-perfect cameos by Wilmer Valderrama (TV’s That 70’s Show), Jason Ritter (TV’s Parenthood), Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), and Melissa Leo (The Fighter).

    DEAD DAD / USA (Director: Ken J. Adachi) WORLD PREMIEREIn the highly accomplished feature debut of FSU graduate Ken Adachi (Picture Day, FFF 2010), three estranged siblings reunite for their Dad’s funeral and end up leaving with way more than they bargained for: his remains. 

    DOG YEARS / USA (Directors: Warren Sroka and Brent Willis) WORLD PREMIEREAn emotionally withdrawn Japanese-American is working in Japan and struggling with the unwanted  arrival of his needy American half-brother. Skillfully shot and boasting terrific performances, the film is at once haiku poetry and psychological monograph. 

    DREAMWORLD / USA (Director: Ryan Darst) EAST COAST PREMIEREIn this refreshing romantic comedy, an animator finds himself on an adventure of self-discovery. A talented cast led by Whit Hertford and Mary Kate Wiles gives the script just the right balance of dreaminess and weight. 

    KID-THING / USA (Director: David Zellner) EAST COAST PREMIEREThe Florida Film Festival has been home to many of the Zellner Brothers’ uniquely bizarre short films and screened their acclaimed feature Goliath in 2008. KID-THING is a haunting fable that will surprise even their most die-hard fans. A troubled ten-year-old girl (Sydney Aguirre) with a part-time demolition derby driver and goat farmer father (Nathan Zellner) hears the distress call of a woman coming from an abandoned well and takes matters into her own immature hands. 

    MAGIC VALLEY / USA (Director: Jaffe Zinn) SOUTHEAST PREMIEREA high school student in the small town of Buhl, Idaho, returns home early one brisk October morning bearing the burden of a terrible secret.  Meanwhile, members of the community go about their day completely unaware of how their lives are about to be changed forever.  A strong and powerful cast of actors (led by veteran Scott Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs) reveals this haunting story.

    MAMITAS / USA (Director: Nicholas Ozeki) FLORIDA PREMIEREA coming-of-age romance rooted in Los Angeles Mexican-American community, MAMITAS introduces two wonderful young actors, EJ Bonilla and Veronica Diaz-Carranza, and first-time feature filmmaker and Independent Spirit Award nominee Nicholas Ozeki. 

    AN ORDINARY FAMILY / USA (Director: Mike Akel) SOUTHEAST PREMIEREA funny, bittersweet family reunion at a lake cabin centers around two brothers in conflict.  Director Mike Akel (Chalk, FFF 2006 Special Jury Award winner) has created a world where love, faith, and reason are brought together with such gentleness that it still seems possible to believe that America is a nation of tolerance and forgiveness.

    SEE GIRL RUN / USA (Director: Nate Meyer) FLORIDA PREMIERENate Meyer (FFF 2007 Special Jury Award winner, Pretty in the Face) returns to the Florida Film Festival with a different style of love story starring Robin Tunney (TV’s The Mentalist, The Craft), Josh Hamilton (The Bourne Identity), and Adam Scott (TV’s Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers.) 

    THINK OF ME / USA (Director: Bryan Wizemann) SOUTHEAST PREMIERETHINK OF ME tells the gripping story of Angela (Lauren Ambrose, HBO’s Six Feet Under and Best Actress Independent Spirit Award nominee), a jobless single mother doing her best not to fall apart. This disturbing drama, co-starring Dylan Baker (Happiness) and Penelope Ann Miller (The Artist), raises important questions about the claims of parenthood, privilege, and the complicated and powerful ethics of familial love.

    AMERICAN INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY FEATURES COMPETITION

    AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART / USA (Director: Sylvia Caminer) WORLD PREMIERELocal filmmaker Sylvia Caminer explores the life, fame, and fans of pop idol Rick Springfield. The film reveals a behind-the-scenes portrait of hard-working Springfield and his devoted, obsessive fans.

    BERT STERN: ORIGINAL MADMAN / USA (Director: Shannah Laumeister) EAST COAST PREMIEREPhotographer Bert Stern revolutionized the world of advertising, changed the taste of America during the post-war boom years, and convinced Marilyn Monroe to reveal her deepest heart during what turned out to be her last photo session. 

    BURY THE HATCHET / USA (Director: Aaron C. Walker) SOUTHEAST PREMIEREBURY THE HATCHET takes the audience behind the scenes and through the vast history of the Mardi Gras “Indians” and their great Chiefs and shares the culture as well as the extraordinary music that underscores this captivating and hidden corner of New Orleans.

    GIRL MODEL / USA (Directors: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin) FLORIDA PREMIEREDirected by the filmmaking team that brought us Mardi Gras: Made in China (FFF 2005 Grand Jury Award for Best Doc Feature), Kamp Katrina (FFF 2007), and Intimidad (FFF 2008), GIRL MODEL takes the viewer deep into the underbelly of the international modeling industry by following the paths of both model and scout.  

    GIVE UP TOMORROW / USA (Director: Michael Collins) SOUTHEAST PREMIEREPaco Larrañaga’s arrest and trial were a media circus reflecting schisms of race, class, and political power in a Philippine legal system marred by corruption. GIVE UP TOMORROW is the gripping result of over a decade of filming, on three continents and four countries, a Kafkaesque trial and conviction where justice was abandoned.

    JOBRIATH A.D. / USA (Director: Kieran Turner) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIEREIn the 1970’s music scene, the vastly talented Jobriath, nabbed one of the richest deals in rock history and openly proclaimed his homosexuality by declaring himself “The True Fairy of Rock & Roll.”  Now, nearly 40 years after his solo debut the bizarre, tragic, and nearly forgotten mystery that was Jobriath is ready for its close-up. 

    KUMARE USA / (Director: Vikram Gandhi) SOUTHEAST PREMIERETo make a point about blind faith, filmmaker Vikram Gandhi grew out his hair, adopted a kooky accent, and presented himself as Kumare, a perpetually grinning guru recently arrived from India.  Setting up shop in Phoenix with a pair of lithe yoga babes, Kumare recruits a cadre of followers. KUMARE starts as an indictment of religious beliefs but ends up a weirdly sincere ode to the true power of faith.  

    NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT / USA (Director: Sabrina Lee and Shasta Grenier) FLORIDA PREMIERE Retired Marine Colonel Eric Hastings knows first hand about the reality of war and the disconnection soldiers feel when they return home from battle. Beautifully shot and featuring music by Sean Eden (ex-Luna), this moving and powerful look at the human cost of war is the work of Sabrina Lee (Where You From, FFF 2009) and Emmy winner Shasta Grenier.  

    SALAAM DUNK / USA (Director: David Fine) SOUTHEAST PREMIERENightly news coverage of Iraq typically offers a monolithic vision of violence, fanaticism, and repression. SALAAM DUNK reveals a different reality—intelligent young women developing leadership skills as well as tolerance for diverse religious and ethnic groups via the most American of pursuits, basketball. 

    THE SHEIK & I / USA (Director: Caveh Zahedi) EAST COAST PREMIERECinematic provocateur Caveh Zahedi (I Am a Sex Addict) is commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial to make a film on the theme “art as a subversive act.” Similarly hilarious yet far more disturbing than the mega-hit Borat, THE SHEIK & I is a breathtaking display of filmmaking chutzpah.

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  • The Five-Year Engagement Starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel to Open 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

    The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) today announced that The Five-Year Engagement will open the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Director/writer/producer Nicholas Stoller and writer/star Jason Segel of Forgetting Sarah Marshall reteam for the irreverent comedy, which also stars Emily Blunt, Rhys Ifans, Chris Pratt and Alison Brie. The premiere will take place on Wednesday, April 18, and the Festival will run through April 29.

    Beginning where most romantic comedies end, The Five-Year Engagement looks at what happens when an engaged couple, Segel and Blunt, keeps getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle. The film, also produced by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Rodney Rothman (Get Him to the Greek), was written by Segel and Stoller.  It opens on April 27.

    The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival will announce its feature film lineup on March 6 and 8, 2012.

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  • 1st inaugural Montclair Film Festival Official Poster

    The Montclair Film Festival has chosen Chris Gash’s submission as the winner of the poster contest for the 2012 Festival. Chris is a Visiting Specialist at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

    The 1st inaugural Montclair Film Festival is scheduled for May 1 thru 6, 2012 in Montclair, New Jersey.

     

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  • Chris Kennedy is New Programmer of TIFF Free Screen

    Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, announced the appointment of Chris Kennedy as the new programmer for The Free Screen, TIFF Cinematheque’s renowned ongoing free series that features independent and avant-garde works.

    “Chris has long been a champion of Canadian and international experimental film and video,” said Cowan. “His commitment and experience within the local and international experimental film and video community as well as his active participation in artist-run culture in the city make him a great asset to our Programming team. We are thrilled to have him on board.”

    Kennedy is an accomplished programmer, curator and filmmaker with over a decade of experience programming experimental film and video. He was part of the programming committee for Toronto’s Pleasure Dome for six years, where he was instrumental in programming the Jack Smith retrospective and topical programs on Culture Jamming and the Second Gulf War. As Programmer for the Images Festival, he played a key role in organizing the Canadian Spotlights of Vincent Grenier and Robert Lee, introducing local audiences to Renzo Martens and Egyptian video art, and bringing in live performances such as Aki Onda and the show-stopping mash-up, Hop-Fu! He has also been guest curator for the New Nothing Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque, as well as a Board member for the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Kennedy’s films have shown in many national and international film festivals including Media City, the Berlin International Film Festival and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

    “This is a crucial time for experimental media in general as the definitions and formats continue to be challenged,” said Kennedy. “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to build on The Free Screen’s reputation of bringing experimental work to a curious and engaged audience, and plan to keep on exploring its connections with global cinema and contemporary art during this exciting time.”

    Since its inception, The Free Screen has showcased work by established and emerging artists engaged in fields ranging from avant-garde film and animation to visual arts, essay films and video art, often with leading artists in attendance to discuss their work. The series has been overseen by some of the country’s most important programmers, including its founder Susan Oxtoby, Toronto-based filmmaker and programmer Chris Gehman, and Andréa Picard, Wavelengths curator and curatorial head for the Visions programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.

    Kennedy’s first season as The Free Screen programmer will launch on March 21 with a salute to Jan Peacock. One of Canada’s most important video artists and one of the winners of this year’s Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, Peacock has influenced and guided successive generations of artists in their explorations of the video medium. Jan Peacock: Using Clouds for Words is a survey of her oeuvre that includes gems such as her early video, California Freeze-Out (1980), made while a graduate student at UC San Diego and included in the influential California Video show curated by Kathy Rae Huffman for the 1980 Paris Biennial; Wallace & Theresa (1985), in which she memorializes her friend Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, an artist and writer whose life was cut brutally short; and (Bliss) (Dread) The Road Rises to Meet You (1987), a key piece made during the maelstrom of the AIDS epidemic. The screening will be preceded by a looped version of her most recent work, touch 1.0 (2012). Peacock will be in attendance to introduce the film and for a Q&A session after the screening. 

    On April 11, The Free Screen, in co-presentation with the Images Festival, will feature the Toronto premiere of American collage-artist and filmmaker Lewis Klahr’s The Pettifogger (2011). A narcotic mixture of noir-driven intrigue and brooding, contemplative passages driven by strong mood music and found dialogue from radio potboilers, Klahr’s longest piece to date is an elliptical narrative of a year in the life of an American gambler and con man (the “petty fugger” of the title), circa 1963. The filmmaker will be in attendance to introduce the film and to do a Q&A session after the screening.

    Tickets to The Free Screen are free and are available as of 10 a.m. on the day of the screening in person only at the TIFF Bell Lightbox box office.

    via press release

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  • 2012 Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children in Utah Film Lineup

    [caption id="attachment_2506" align="alignnone" width="550"]AURELIE LAFLAMME’S DIARY[/caption]

    The 2nd annual Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children in Utah announced this year’s line up includes 11 feature films and 14 short films films from 7 countries, in 5 languages.  Many films will be screened in their original languages, with a reader narrating the subtitles for younger audience members. In addition to the 18 film presentations, the festival includes four film related workshops presented by Spy Hop Productions. Screenings and workshops will be held March 23-25 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Spy Hop Productions and The City Library.

    Opening and Closing Night films will be announced within the coming weeks.


    2012 Tumbleweeds Film Festival Film Program:

    AMAZING ANIMATIONS!Recommended for children 6+
    Don’t miss this international collection of colorful, clever and creative animated short films. From four sisters trying to pass the time on a long trip, to a pigeon that sabotages a secret mission, to a dog that finds a new best friend – its own tail! – this wonderful set of films features a variety of stories in a range of animations styles.  Fun and inventive, these animations are sure to entertain and delight audiences of all ages!

    AURELIE LAFLAMME’S DIARY // LE JOURNAL D’AURÉLIE LAFLAMME
    Director: Christian Laurence (Canada, 2010 – 108 min)
    Screens in French with English subtitles – Recommended for children ages 12+
    Feeling out of place the world, Aurélie Laflamme wonders if she might be an alien in this funny and touching look at a girl navigating the path to adolescence.


    BACALAR
    Director: Patricia Arriaga-Jordán//Mexico, 2011 – 96 min
    Screens in Spanish with English subtitles – Recommended for children 9+
    With a little help from some mystical animal spirits, best friends Santiago and Mariana attempt to rescue endangered wolf cubs from ruthless animal smugglers in this exciting Mexican action-adventure.


    A CAT IN PARIS // UN VIE DE CHAT
    Directors: Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol (France/Belgium, 2011 – 70 min)
    Screens in French with English subtitles – Recommended for children 8+
    Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film, this stunning hand drawn and richly colored animation, with a jazzy soundtrack, is a charming, action-packed adventure set in the moonlit rooftops of Paris.


    CIRCUS DREAMS
    Director: Signe Taylor (USA, 2011 – 80 min)
    Recommended for children 8+
    Join charismatic young jugglers, acrobats and clowns as they spend the summer performing with Circus Smirkus, the only travelling youth circus in the United States.


    FRIENDS FOREVER // MULLEWAPP
    Directors: Toney Loeser and Theresa Strozyk (Germany, 2010 – 77 min)
    Recommended for children 4+
    When Cloud the Lamb is kidnapped, it is Johnny the Mouse, Charlie the Rooster and Percy the Pig to the rescue in this delightful animated adventure about the importance of friendship.


    THE LETTER FOR THE KING // DE BRIEF VOOR DE KONING
    Director: Pieter Verhoeff (The Netherlands, 2008 – 100 min)
    Screens in Dutch with English subtitles – Recommended for children 8+
    Travel back to medieval times for an exciting adventure about a teenaged squire who must evade his enemies and deliver a letter that carries the fate of an entire kingdom.


    LOUDER THAN A BOMB
    Directors: Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel (USA, 2010 – 99 min)
    Recommended for children 13+
    Exhilarating and inspiring, this documentary follow the fortunes of four diverse groups of high school students as they prepare for, and compete in one of the country’s leading youth poetry slam.


    THE MAGICIANS // HET GHEIM
    Director: Joram Lürsen (The Netherlands, 2010 – 94 min)
    Screens in Dutch with English subtitles – Recommend for children 7+
    Aspiring magician Ben learns not everything is as it seems when he must solve the mysterious disappearance of his best friend Sylvie in this charmingly entertaining family film.


    MOONBEAM BEAR AND HIS FRIENDS // DER MONDBAER
    Directors: Thomas Bodenstein and Mike Maurus (Germany, 2008 – 69 min)
    Recommended for children 4+
    When Mr. Moon falls from the night sky, it’s up to Moonbeam Bear and his friends to return him back home in this delightful and enchanting animation ideal for younger viewers.


    TIGER TEAM
    Director: Peter Gersina (Germany, 2010 – 90 min)
    Screens in German with English subtitles –  Recommended for children 8+
    Join the Tiger-Team, Bigi, Luk and Patrick, on a dynamic action filled adventure in China as they race to be the first to unlock an age-old palace of riches hidden deep inside a mountain.

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  • Iraqi director Oday Rasheed to be San Francisco Film Society 2012 Spring Artist in Residence

    The San Francisco Film Society announced that Iraqi director Oday Rasheed will be in San Francisco for the Film Society’s third Artist in Residence program, April 2 – 16. Rasheed’s schedule will include programs in each of the Film Society’s core areas — education, exhibition and filmmaker services — including visits to Bay Area high school and college classrooms, a screening of his feature Qarantina and networking events with the local film community. Rasheed’s residency is funded by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

    “We are thrilled to have this opportunity to bring one of the few working Iraqi filmmakers to San Francisco for our next residency,” said Joanne Parsont, SFFS director of education. “Oday Rasheed’s films and personal experience will undoubtedly provide a unique perspective and learning experience for hundreds of local students, filmmakers and filmgoers. We also look forward to fully engaging him with the Bay Area filmmaking community during his two-week stay with us. We are grateful to our community partner, Global Film Initiative, for connecting us with Rasheed and to the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for providing the funding that has allowed us to continue this enriching program for the second year in a row.”

    Oday Rasheed was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1973. He founded the production company Enlil Film and Arts and cofounded the Iraqi Independent Film Centre, an educational center in Baghdad for young filmmakers. His first feature film, Underexposure, received the Best Film Award at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2005, the Golden Hawk Award at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam in 2005 and the Best Script Award at the Oran International Arab Film Festival in 2007.

    Rasheed’s melancholic, beautifully shot sophomore feature Qarantina (Iraq/Germany 2010) plays Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm at San Francisco Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street). The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director and a special guest moderator.

    A broken family under patriarch Salih lives uneasily within the gated courtyard of a dilapidated house in Baghdad. Meriam, Salih’s daughter, has fallen silent, refusing to tell her father what’s wrong. Salih’s young second wife, Kerima, and his preteen son, Muhanad, provide Meriam with some protection from her father. Meanwhile, with the family hard up for money, Muhanad must work in the street shining shoes and, more ominously, the entire household must cohabitate with a sullen and imperious boarder, a man who works as a hired killer and has taken Kerima as his mistress. In Qarantina Rasheed gorgeously captures today’s Baghdad, a moody and colorful place in the grip of a brooding listlessness. This stunned atmosphere is furthered by the performances of the formidable cast, who suggest unexpected sources of resilience in the wake of catastrophe. Written by Oday Rasheed. Photographed by Osama Rasheed. With Asaad Abdul Majeed, Alaa Najem, Hattam Auda. In Arabic with subtitles. 90 min. Distributed by Global Film Initiative.

    Visiting artists are selected based on their filmmaking experience, compelling body of work and desire to share their knowledge with emerging filmmakers and film students. Under the auspices of the Film Society’s Education department, Rasheed is scheduled to visit several middle school, high school and college classes during his residency. In collaboration with Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s filmmaker services program, Rasheed will also have the opportunity to meet and network with Bay Area filmmakers.

    Prior Artists in Residence have been Federico Veiroj of Uruguay and Ido Haar of Israel.

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