• Great Date Movie! Delhi Belly-opening today

    “Delhi Belly” is the hilarious, raunchy and new Bollywood Movie from director Abhinay Deo, starring international dream guy Imran Khan, along with Vir Das and Kunaal Roy Kapur playing his hapless yet sweet roommates.

    In an almost old Hollywood twist of mistaken identity, and strange, missing bag of something mysterious (Drugs? Money? What?), “Delhi Belly” is really so much fun, like a sweeter, more Eastern version of a deft Judd Apatow film. This is also Bollywood-lite, low on the dance numbers and empty calories, and a great Western intro to the genre. Go, go, go! You and your Saturday night date will adore it. It has something for the girls and the guys, although it does get a bit audibly raunchy (the title is international slang for food poisoning.) Enjoy!

    Tashi, Arup and Nitin – flatmates, buddies and partners in crime. Tashi is to get married in a month but still doesn’t know if his fiancé is THE ONE! Arup can’t make up his mind who he wants to kill first – his girlfriend who has just dumped him or his stupid, annoying boss whose idea of creativity is sketching a smiling banana! And Nitin is about to discover that eating delicious tandoori chicken off a street vendor is going to give him the worst case of Delhi Belly he’s ever known! Three regular blokes, living the regular life EXCEPT for one small detail – they are on the hit list of one of the world’s deadliest crime syndicates. Will they be able to get away before the ‘s#!t hits the roof’ and it comes crashing down?

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  • Azazel Jacobs’ New Film “Terri” Will Win Your Heart

    “Terri,” the new film by Azazel Jacobs (“Momma’s Man”) starring John C. Reilly and newcomer Jacob Wysocki, is a wholly new and refreshing coming-of-age film.

    Wysocki plays the lead character Terri Thompson in “Terri” ( a pretty astonishing star turn), an overweight high school student who is abandoned by his parents to his mentally flagging Uncle James (Creed Bratton of “The Office,” doing a complete and memorable 180 from anything we’ve seen him in) in a small, wooded Midwestern town. Like a blown-out breeze of a kid, Terry shlumps into class wearing only his pajamas, and can barely muster up the effort to care about the itinerant teasing and badgering gently yet deftly inflicted upon him by his classmates. The weight on his shoulders seems undefined yet pretty dense. Wysocki’s performance defines the film as a new type of teen movie- a mainstream film with actual teenagers in it- not at one extreme of the adorable, sassy extreme, or the wicked-slash-drug-doing-slash classic indie film-versionized other. Wysocki’s “fat kid” portrayal here is neither jolly or wisecracking nor self-loathing and hell-bent on destruction. He appears to be, quite simply, tired and bored- like most teenagers historically represent themselves. He is deadpan funny and gracefully enlightening in this exacting, momentous performance.

    Jacobs has a keen way of filling us in on the details without telling us much- which is, quite happily for the audience, how one’s high school experience probably was for most of us. It works so very well here, his way of letting the film breathe, and just as we are getting a feeling of the movie’s off-kilter atmosphere, in strides John C. Reilly.

    Who doesn’t love him, first of all? He can do no wrong, it seems, and casting Reilly, as Vice Principal “Mr. Fitzgerald,” was the perfect complement to a cast of characters that is rounded out only by their own sense of feeling terribly lost. Mr. Fitzgerald is someone who wants to make a difference, and does this by befriending and trying to become a defacto mentor to all of the misfits in the school. Soon, Fitzgerald is inviting Terri into his office for malted milk balls and guy talk. What happens may sound predictable, but in the hands of Reilly and Wysocki, something truly beautiful develops: A real friendship, with genuine give and take, and the realization that everyone, always, is forever growing up.

    Bridger Zadina plays Chad- truly one of the sweetest, funniest and most oddball high school outcasts in recent cinematic history, and Olivia Crocicchia plays Heather, the object of first systematic lust, then derision, by the entire high school student body. Heather first comes across as every high school girl termed “slut” always does- oddly powerful and simultaneously powerless. The scene in the shed will leave many recalling how an innocent night can turn somehow oddly dangerous right after one hits puberty, and the turn the film takes is quickly brought back to life, just as soon as the characters sober up themselves. The film seems to have the steady heart of an actual life rhythm, and really is one of those films that leaves you guessing – is it Jacobs, the actors, the writing, or all three that pumps the life blood through it? Novelist Patrick DeWitt (author of “Ablutions” and “My Brothers Sisters”) turned in an amazing freshman effort here, and Jacobs himself told me that they were in constant communication as DeWitt turned in first pages. It all works perfectly well.

    Not formally perfect, stylized or over-produced in the least, Terri is a movie to watch, enjoy and revel in. We will hopefully be seeing much more of Azazel Jacobs work in the future. Go and see this film this weekend. Vimooz highly recommends it…

    Review by Francesca McCaffery

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  • Paladin takes “The Whale,” narrated by Ryan Reynolds

    THE WHALE, a new documentary about a lonely young killer whale who causes upheaval in a small town and amazement around the world when he tries to make friends with humans, will be released theatrically by Paladin, it was announced by company president, Mark Urman.

    THE WHALE was directed by noted journalist Michael Parfit and veteran producer-cinematographer Suzanne Chisholm, who encountered the young orca whale, nicknamed Luna, at the height of his celebrity and spent several years chronicling his adventures both in print and on film.

    Ryan Reynolds, who hails from the very region in Western Canada where the story unfolds, narrates the film and served as executive producer, along with Scarlett Johansson and Eric Desatnik. THE WHALE will play its first commercial engagements in late summer and expand in the fall.

    Set on the rugged western coast of Vancouver Island, THE WHALE describes what happens when Luna, a baby orca, gets separated from his family and unexpectedly starts making contact with people along a scenic fjord called Nootka Sound. Because orcas are highly social creatures who spend their lives traveling with their pods, Luna attempts to find a surrogate family among the area residents, much to their delight. But as word spreads about Luna, people become torn between their love for the lonely young whale and fears that human contact might harm him.

    Luna’s saga is seen through the eyes of the colorful characters who live and work along the Sound and who fall in love with the whale — including a cook on an old freighter, a fisheries officer conflicted by what he thinks Luna needs and what he is told to do, a grandmother who is arrested for petting Luna, and a Native American elder whose tribe believes Luna is the reincarnation of a chief.

    The film also describes how Parfit and Chisholm themselves, who first went to Nootka Sound on assignment for Smithsonian, grow so concerned about Luna’s fate that they get involved in trying to help him, crossing the traditional line between journalist and subject and becoming characters in the very story they are telling. Their efforts to find ways to safely give Luna the attention he seems so determined to get are a major part of the film’s climax.

    “THE WHALE is a wondrous experience,” said Urman. “It speaks volumes about our complex and ever-changing relationship with nature.  Michael and Suzanne have told this story so effectively that, while it has all the power of truth, it also has all the emotion and beauty of a perfect fable.”

    “We’re thrilled to be releasing THE WHALE with Paladin,” said producer Chisholm. “The team’s experience and success is extraordinary, and we could not have found a better place for this movie.” Parfit adds: “Working with people like Ryan Reynolds on the narration, and Mark Urman and his team on distribution has been a great example of how collaborative film is. The fact that all of them love Luna as much as we do is wonderful.”

    Parfit, an award-winning writer, director, and cinematographer, has authored four books, scripted two Imax films and has written many major articles for National Geographic  and Smithsonian magazines. A heavily illustrated feature, written by Parfit, about the couple’s adventures with Luna and how they brought the story to the big screen, appears in Smithsonian’s double summer issue, currently on stands. The article is also on the Smithsonian website, here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Luna-A-Whale-to-Watch.html#.

    Please visit THE WHALE on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thewhalemovie.

    THE WHALE deal caps a particularly busy season for Paladin, following the highly successful release of Tom Shadyac’s “I Am,” which has grossed over $1.5 million, making it the highest grossing non-studio, non-3D documentary release of the year.  The company launches the award-winning “Love Etc.” on July 1st and recently announced the fall release of Tiffany Shlain’s Sundance favorite, “Connected.”  Also opening this summer for the company is Marcus Dean Fuller’s “One Fall,” and coming in autumn is Margaret Whitton’s romantic comedy, “A Bird of the Air.”

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  • Azazel Jacobs Talks About Directing His New Film “Terri” – Opening Today

     

    Hello! Azazel, you’re in town (in NYC) for the BAM Festival?Yeah! It feels really nice. It’s the best way to kind of kind of home. You know, I live in Los Angeles now- so, to come home to New York, where my folks and friends are, where I was raised, and to have a film that’s being well received, it’s been really important to me. And it’s summer here!

    Everyone is so curious about how you cast Jacob Wysocki (who plays Terri in the film), and how you found him. Was that pretty instantaneous?

    No. We were lucky enough to be able to hire Nicole Arbusto and Joy Dickson before we had any real money for the film. We knew it was going to be a really long search to find the right Terri. So, one of the very things we did was hire the casting directors to start them on our search. I saw SO many talented kids, really, some very, very strong possibilities- for different Terris, different Chads, different Heathers (all lead characters in “Terri.”) But Jacob just brought in a kind of confidence that I thought would be very hard for a director to manifest. I kept calling him back in to read with this Heather, or that Chad, and it became really clear that he was the one.

    He is pretty amazing in the film. Sort of a star turn, similar in a way to what “Rushmore” did for Jason Schwartzman.

    And can you imagine going up against John (John C. Reilly, star of “Terri”) in your first film? I mean, John was the most experienced person on the set, you know- crew included! And then here’s this kid on his first movie, on his day- sitting in a room with John. And I’m watching him, and watching them push each other, in different ways…

    Was Jacob a child actor?

    No! He was a side character in the TV series “Huge,” and this was actually I think his very first audition for a film.

    You originally planned to co-write this with the screenwriter Patrick DeWitt, who is also novelist?

    I planned on co-writing it, but I ended up writing up so much less, I took my name off the credit. He came to me with these pages about a long, eternal monologue of this kid who wears pajamas, and comes to school every day in his pajamas-all these different issues. So, the idea was that we’d turn it, together, into a screenplay. So, he’d send me the first few pages every other day or so, and I was adding series of commas! I was doing nothing! So, I just let him go, and he came up with the script. It was great. (Patrick’s novels include “Ablutions” and “The Brothers Sisters.”)

    Tell us about Creed Bratton, who plays Uncle James in “Terri.”

    Total surprise! He was somebody that I was just so excited to meet, and to just be able to audition! When I saw he was coming in to read for Uncle James, you know, I’m a huge fan of “The Office,” so I was so thrilled. But I didn’t think he’d be our Uncle James right away. But he transformed himself during that audition. This was one of the best auditions I’ve ever seen. It became really clear.

    Azazel, you have quite an interesting background. I know that your father is a pretty famous experimental filmmaker…

    Famous among four people! (laughs.) That’s what he used to say to me and my sister growing up. We’d say: “You seem like people know who you are,” and he’s like,” I’m famous among four people.”

    Was he a pretty profound influence on you growing up, as far as your artistic choices and leanings?

    Yeah, I grew up extremely, extremely wealthy- obviously not money-wise, but just in terms of what my parents have offered me. In terms of telling me that what I thought about things was important, that what you make is important, and it can be. That art itself can be very important.

    That’s pretty lucky…

    I know. It is lucky. It’s a good weight to have. It doesn’t allow me to come up with easy excuses to doing things I don’t believe in, you know? I mean, I’ve obviously had to make a living, and sometimes work on things that I don’t care for as much as my own stuff. But when it comes to my own work, it’s a nice pressure to have.

    That’s fantastic. As a little aside, I read that you were obsessed of Joe Strummer of the Clash?

    I was, and I am! If there’s any way I can steer this conversation to talking about Strummer, I’m all for it.

    Okay, I have an idea. The film is about, in a way, bullying in different forms. I heard you were a bit of a “punk rock bully” in high school. Is that true?

    (Laughs.) You know, well, I was one of those bullies that would hide behind other people, not start trouble or anything. But that really was my way into Terri. Because I know if Terri had gone to my school, I would have been one of those kids who would have just kind of seen him as something to make fun of. It sucks. I was a fucking idiot! But I feel for them (the bullies) as well. During those trying teenage years, you can’t control what’s going on, both internally or externally. It’s not an excuse, but it’s a reality.

    The one scene with Heather and Chad near the end is incredible. It reminds me of something strange that may actually happen to someone in high school, rather than what we normally see on film. Did that come from any direct experience?

    Absolutely! I mean, I felt like if there was anything that I could offer in making a coming-of-age movie, it would be a different depiction than what I’ve seen of those long, (high school era) nights depicted on film. I knew the movie as a whole, but I also know that when we get to that scene- that scene is something different. I thought, if everything that preceded it led me to this place (in the film), than there’s something really valuable here going on here.

    That’s also quite a delicate scene. How was that handled?

    Yeah, I was scared sick about that scene! Because it’s one of those scenes that you do not want to mess up. It’s so impossible to get the most skilled actors to depict being under the influence in any kind of honest way. And then to have these kids, who have all different varying degrees of experience. Bridger Zadina (who plays Chad in “Terri”) had to Google “being drunk” to even play it! He’d never drunk anything before! They were definitely all really stretching- these characters weren’t them at all. But we saved that scene for last. And it kind of gave us the ability to have built up a trust between all of us- with me as director, and each other as actors to director. The producers really gave us enough time. They gave us enough time to go into that shed, and to not emerge until we had that scene.

    Congratulations again on the film. It’s really wonderful.

    Thanks! Wait, did we figure out to get the Clash in?

    Go ahead!

    I’ll tell you this. I went to see him (Joe Strummer of the Clash) when I was nine. I slept overnight to see them in ’82. And it comes in waves (the obsession) . Now that the film is being released, and I need all the strength, and all the courage cause I went this film to go out and do well…. I’ve just been listening non, non-stop to the Clash! It’s been a great comfort.

    You can rest pretty easy, I think! Thank you so much, Azazel. it was a real pleasure.

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  • New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender film festival to run July 21-28

    [caption id="attachment_1501" align="alignnone" width="550"]Opening night film – ‘We Were Here’[/caption]

    Coming on the heels of Gay Pride weekend is the announcement that NewFest, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender film festival is coming to locations across New York city, July 21-28. The festival will open and close at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and will be headquartered throughout the week at Chelsea’s SVA Theater and Cinema Village. Special satellite screenings will be held at The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side, and Harlem Stage.

    Prior to the screening of NewFest’s opening night film, “We Were Here,” NewFest will honor legendary film producer Christine Vachon with the first annual NewFest Visionary Award. Vachon was instrumental in the movement B. Ruby Rich called New Queer Cinema, producing Todd Haynes’ classic “Poison” (now celebrating its 20th anniversary), Tom Kalin’s “Swoon,” and the lesbian classic “Go Fish” from NewFest board member Rose Troche. Vachon’s illustrious credits include “Velvet Goldmine,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Party Monster,” “Camp,” “A Dirty Shame,” and this year’s upcoming “Dirty Girl” by Abe Sylvia, which will screen at this year’s festival. Christine Vachon will also participate in a conversation at the Film Society’s new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on Friday, June 22nd.

    “We could not be more honored that Christine Vachon will be accepting our Visionary Award on opening night with our new partner, the Film Society Lincoln of Center” said NewFest Executive Director Lesli Klainberg. “Her body of work is not only awe inspiring, but makes her one of the most influential producers of independent film in our country.”

    The complete festival lineup includes Sundance Audience Award winner “Circumstance,” and Sundance alums “Shut Up, Little Man!,” “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same,” and “A Few Days of Respite.”

    On Sunday, July 24th, it’s all about the lights and the glamour of…Broadway! NewFest will screen Dori Berinstein’s “Carol Channing: Larger than Life,” a hilarious and excessively sweet documentary about the stage legend. Also on Sunday, Broadway stars Cheyenne Jackson (“Glee,” “30 Rock”) and Jason Butler Harner star in Steven Williford’s drama “The Green.” The Broadway block ends with the world premiere of Elisabeth Sperling & Trish Dalton’s “One Night Stand,” which follows various participants in last year’s 24 hour musical competition. The film features Cheyenne Jackson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”), chanteuse Nellie McKay, Richard Kind (“Spin City,” “A Serious Man”), Rachel Dratch (“SNL”), Mandy Gonzalez (“Wicked,” “In the Heights”), and Tracie Thoms (“Rent”).

    Monday night (July 25th), drag ball musical “Leave It on the Floor” will come to Harlem Stage. Screening Tuesday (July 26th) at the Museum of the Moving Image is “3” from Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”), a story of a high-profile modern love triangle. Also on Tuesday are two documentaries: Jonathan Lee’s “Paul Goodman Changed My Life” and Tomer Heymann’s “The Queen Has No Crown” at the JCC of Manhattan.

    Wednesday night (July 27th) at BAM, NewFest will screen festival favorites “Old Cats” from Sebastian Silva & Pedro Peirano (Golden Globe-nominated “The Maid”) and “Hit So Hard,” the story of Hole drummer Patty Schemel, from P. David Ebersole.

    The festival will host a special screening of James Belzer’s fashion week documentary “The Tents,” which features interviews with Tommy Hilfiger, Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, Hal Rubenstein, Nina Garcia, Phillip Bloch, Robert Verdi, Carson Kressley, Betsey Johnson, and more.

    Other notable talent that will be seen in films throughout the festival include Christine Baranski (“What’s the Name of the Dame?”), Margaret Cho (“Cho Dependent”), Ash Christian (“Mangus!”), Jennifer Coolidge (“Mangus!”), Brent Corrigan (“Judas Kiss”), Cheryl Dunye (“HOOTERS!”), Leslie Jordan (“Mangus!”), Bruce La Bruce (“The Advocate for Fagdom”), Hedda Lettuce (“What’s the Name of the Dame?”), Heather Matarazzo (“Mangus!”), Chloe Sevigny (“All Flowers in Time” short), Joe Swanberg (“Blackmail Boys”), Kathleen Turner (“The Perfect Family”), and Varla Jean (“Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads”).

    “It has been an incredible year for LGBT film. NewFest audiences will see a wide variety of exciting, diverse, entertaining, and often challenging films in this year’s festival. I am elated to have such a solid lineup to show off the talent in LGBT storytelling and filmmaking and to help usher us into our new homes at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Museum of Moving Image, and Cinema Village,” commented NewFest Director of Programming Bryce J. Renninger.

    The festival’s previously announced gala screenings: opening night documentary “We Were Here” from David Weissman; SXSW favorite “Weekend” from Andrew Haigh, screening as a centerpiece; Chely Wright’s documentary about coming out in country music “Wish Me Away,” another centerpiece; and Rashaad Ernesto Green’s closing night film “Gun Hill Road.”

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  • Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso is Guest Director for 2011 Telluride Film Festival

    Telluride Film Festival announced that Caetano Veloso will be the Guest Director of this year’s festival which will run September 2-5, 2011.

    Caetano Veloso began his professional music career in 1965 in Sao Paulo and has made more than 30 studio albums to date.  But with over 100 film and television credits, Veloso is no stranger to the big and small screen.

    In 2002, Veloso received worldwide recognition for his performance of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” (“Cucurrucucu Dove”) in Pedro Almodóvar’s Academy Award-winning film, Talk to Her.

    Past Guest Directors include Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Zizek.

    In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Veloso’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup will be kept secret and unveiled on Opening Day, September 2, 2011.

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  • Russian Film ‘Silent Souls’ to open Sept. 16 in NYC; Releases Controversial Picture

    Silent Souls, a film by Russian director, Aleksei Fedorchenko, and an offficial Selection at 2010 New York, Toronto and Venice film festivals, will open at Angelika Film Center in New York on Friday, September 16, and at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles at the end of September. Other cities will follow.



    When Miron’s beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his best friend Aist to help him say goodbye to her according to the rituals of the Merja culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero, a picturesque region in West-Central Russia.  Although the Merja people assimilated into Russians in the 17th century, their myths and traditions live on in their descendants’ modern life.

    The two men set out on a road trip thousands of miles across the boundless land, with them, two small birds in a cage.  Along the way, as is custom for the Merjans, Miron shares intimate memories of his conjugal life.  But as they reach the banks of the sacred lake where they will forever part with the body, he realizes he wasn’t the only one in love with Tanya…

     

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  • 2011 Frozen Film Festival to feature films on beat-boxing, porn, global warming, animation, and more..

    [caption id="attachment_1494" align="alignnone" width="550"]Frozen Film Festival at Roxie in San Francisco[/caption]

    The 5th Frozen Film Festival returns for its annual two day run – July 8th-9th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, California showcasing 50 new films.  Films include:

    Beatbox – The Fifth Element Of Hip Hop, examines the art form of “beatbox” and how it’s aided the expansion of hip hop music.

    The Bellman Equation, a search to solve the mysterious equation of mathematician Richard Bellman.

    Color Me Obsessed, the first documentary on the influential ’80s indie-rock band, The Replacements.

    Shaped (Surf Film), a documentary film about Southern California surfing that pays tribute to the men and women of the surf world during the 1960s, who while working in the trenches were creating and un-knowingly shaping the future of surfing as we know it today.

    Last Fast Ride, a documentary film about the infamous bay-area punk rock performer Marian Anderson. Marian died all too young, and this is her story.

    Plus film collections of:

    The Best Comedic Shorts of 2011
    The Best Short Documentaries of 2011
    The Best Dramatic Shorts of 2011
    The Best Animated Shorts 2011

    The Frozen Film Festival which takes its name from the distinct chill of the San Francisco summer is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating avenues for independent filmmakers and artists to display new, cutting edge work.

     

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  • The 32nd Durban International Film Festival Full Program Announced

    [caption id="attachment_1469" align="alignnone" width="560"]Otelo Burning[/caption]

    The 32nd Durban International Film Festival kicks off on July 21st with the World Premiere of the South African film Otelo Burning, directed by Sara Blecher.  Set during the last days of apartheid, the Durban-shot film tells the story of a group of South African township youngsters who discover surfing as an empowering escape from the political violence of the times. There is drama, romance, rivalry, and tragedy in this convincing fulfillment of local filmmaking potential.

    The festival, which runs July 21st to 31st will feature a lineup of international films including the South African premiere of Oliver Hermanus’s Skoonheid from this year’s Cannes film festival.  DIFF will also present the World Premieres of Charlie Vundla’s noir film How To Steal 2 Million, John Barker’s thrilling heist flick 31 Million Reasons, Faith Isiakpere’s crime drama The Algiers Murders, Eldorado by new talents Shaldon Ferris and Lorreal Ferris, the hilarious comedy Taka Takata by Damir Radonic, and The Dream by Zuko Nodada. Making their African Premieres are Mukunda Michael Dewil’s psychological thriller Retribution and Paula van der Oest’s moving film about Ingrid Jonker, Black Butterflies.

    DIFF 2011 includes the African Premiere of Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Other highlights include Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris, which will close the festival, Bela Tarr’s The Turin Horse, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena, Jose Padilha’s Elite Squad 2 – The Enemy Within, Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage, Michel Ocelot’s Tales Of The Night, SJ Clarkson’s Toast, Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

    African cinema will also be well-represented by Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s  Viva Riva!, Nigerian director Andrew Donsunmu’s visually beautiful Restless City, Justin Chadwick’s uplifting Kenya-set film The First Grader, and Ebrahim El Batout’s Hawi which first appeared in Durban as a project at the inaugural Durban FilmMart in 2010.

    DIFF will focus on two national cinemas this year: India and Canada. Six films from Indian filmmaker vet Satyajit Ray will be presented, alongside new works by talented new Indian filmmakers. Leena Manimekelai will present the World Premiere of her film The Dead Sea and other Indian films include Onir’s I Am, Sanjoy Nag’s Memories In March, Kaushik Mukherjee’s Bengali hip hop film Asshole, and Aamir Bashir’s Autumn.

    For Canadian cinema, DIFF will present Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated Incendies, the gritty drama Jo For Jonathan, Ed Gass-Donnelly’s Small Town Murder Songs, Xavier Dolan’s ravishing Heartbeats, and the quirky Familiar Ground by Stephane Lafleur. Canadian documentaries include Barry Steven’s Prosecutor, a fascinating look at the International Criminal Court, and Shannon Walsh’s St. Henri, The 26th Of August.

    Germany is also well-represented at DIFF 2011 with Tom Tykwer’s Three, Pia Marais’ At Ellen’s Age, Ulrich Kohler’s Sleeping Sickness and the stunning documentary El Bulli – Cooking In Progress by Gereon Wetzel.

    Local stories in the powerful documentary line-up include World Premieres such as Ryley Grunewald’s The Dawn of a New Day where healing is shown as being more than skin deep, Mickey Dube’s Sobukwe, A Great Soul about one of this country’s most influential, but unsung, heroes, the Keith Jones/Deon Maas music revolution collaboration Punk In Africa, and the Dara Kell/Chris Nizza collaboration Dear Mandela about innovative leadership emerging in informal settlements. Not to be missed, DIFF will present the African premiere of Mama Africa, the inspirational film about Miriam Makeba.

    Environmental films are included in this year’s Eco-Lens focus. There is heated Irish village resistance to Shell in The Pipe; Blood in the Mobile shows how frightening mining conditions in the DRC produce material for our cellphones; and, fresh from Cannes, The Big Fix exposes corruption and cover-ups surrounding the Mexican Gulf oil spill. Countdown to Zero (by Lucy Walker whose Waste Land won big awards in 2010) is about nuclear weapons and challenges to disarmament, while Into Eternity covers nuclear waste storage. Eco-Pirate- the Story of Paul Watson is about this legendary defender of our oceans and its creatures (Paul Watson will attend the festival).

    Also on the lineup is the documentary, Sing Your Song, which follows the story of Harry Belafonte from his music and film career to his involvement in civil rights and anti-apartheid movements. A special highlight will be Leonard Retel-Helmrich’s tracking of an Indonesian family in Position Among the Stars which won top awards at both Sundance and IDFA.

    Look out also for King Naki, a beautiful story of struggle and achievement set around horse-racing in the rural Transkei, the Cape Town film The Imam and I , and the Durban-shot Street Kids United.

    The global financial meltdown is the focus of the 2011 Academy Award winning Inside Job, while John Pilger’s biting The War You Don’t See is a timely investigation into the media’s role in war. Other documentaries cover Bollywood, Robert Mugabe, the Black Power movement in America, organic agriculture, paraplegic musicians in Kinshasa, and West Indian cricket. Packages of short documentaries and short films are also on offer.

    Opening with an outdoor screening on the beachfront on 24th July, DIFF will host the Wavescapes Surf Film Festival for the 7th consecutive year – a six-day blast of red-hot wave action, surf stories and groundbreaking cinematography.

    DIFF will also continue to continue to feature the industry workshops for filmmakers and industry professionals, local and international, including Talent Campus Durban and Durban FilmMart.

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  • False Evacuation at LA Film Festival’s Closing Night Screening of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”- Starring Katie Holmes

    Guests at the LA Film Festival’s Closing Night Screening of co-writer/producer’s Guillermo del Toro’s new thriller “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce, were scared by more than just the film itself: Festival-goers actually had to actually leave the screening briefly (during a pivotal point on the horror film!) after wailing alarms and a recording told them that it was an “emergency,” and they had to evacuate immediately.

    Del Toro was overheard to have been much more riled about the film’s R rating, although the film was, by all accounts, pretty scary. (A young girl is tortured by scary creatures in a scary house. Jeez!) Apparently, it was not Holmes’ acting, but rather, simply a glitch in poor Regal LA Live’s Theatre’s alarm system which drove the guests quickly into the theatre lobby.

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  • Dabangg (Fearless) is big winner at 12th International India Film Academy

    [caption id="attachment_678" align="alignnone" width="550"]Dabangg (Fearless)[/caption]

    Dabangg (Fearless) was the big winner at the 12th International India Film Academy (IIFA) awards ceremony held in Toronto, Canada on Saturday night.

    The Hollywood Reported, reported that Dabangg won for best film and took home three of the four major music awards: best male playback singer for Rahat Ali Fateh Khan for the song “Tere mast mast do nain,” best music director shared by Sajid Wajid and Lalit Pandit, and the best female playback singer trophy went to Mamta Sharma for the song “Munni badnam hui.” Also for Dabangg, the best screenplay trophy went to Abhinav Kashyap and Dilip Shukla, while Sonakshi Sinha earned the female debut award for her star-turn in the hit Bollywood film.

    The list of the winners of the 2011 IIFA Awards:

    Best Film
    Dabangg

    Best Direction
    Karan Johar (My Name Is Khan)

    Leading Role Male
    Shahrukh Khan (My Name Is Khan)

    Leading Role Female
    Anushka Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat)

    Supporting Role Male
    Arjun Rampal (Raajneeti)

    Supporting Role Female
    Prachi Desai (Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai)

    Comic Role
    Riteish Deshmukh (Housefull)

    Negative Role
    Sonu Sood (Dabangg)

    Debut Male
    Ranveer Singh

    Debut Female
    Sonakshi Sinah (Dabangg)

    Best Story
    Shibani Bhatija (My Name Is Khan)

    Screenplay
    Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg)

    Dialogue
    Vishal Bhardwaj (Ishqiya)

    Music Direction
    Sajid – Wajid & Lalit Pandit (Dabangg)

    Lyrics
    Niranjan Iyengar (My Name Is Khan – Sajdaa)

    Playback Singer Male
    Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (Dabangg – Tere Mast Mast Do Nain)

    Playback Singer Female
    Mamta Sharma (Dabangg – Munni Badnam)

    Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema
    Irrfan Khan

    Lifetime Achievement Award
    Asha Bhonsle

    Outstanding Contribution to Indian cinema
    Dharmendra (50 years in cinema)

    Outstanding Achievement in Indian cinema
    Sharmila Tagore

    Best On-Screen Jodi
    Anuksha Sharma and Ranveer Singh (Band Baaja Baaraat)

    Special ‘Green’ Award
    Priyanka Chopra

    Best Editing
    Namrata Rao
    Band Baaja Baaraat

    Best Sound Recording
    Pritam Das
    Love Sex aur Dhokha

    Best Sound Re-recording
    Leslie Fernandes
    Dabangg

    Best Special Effects
    V. Srinivas Mohan
    Robot

    Best Art Direction
    Sabu Cyril
    Robot

    Best Cinematography
    Sudeep Chatterjee
    Guzaarish

    Best Dialogue
    Vishal Bharadwaj
    Ishqiya

    Best Costume
    Niharika Khan
    Band Baaja Baaraat

    Best Make-up
    Banu
    Robot

    Best Screenplay
    Abhinav Kashyap, Dileep Shukla
    Dabangg

    Best Choreography
    Farah Khan
    Dabangg

    Best Action
    Master Vijayan
    Dabangg

    Best Story
    Shibani Bhattija
    My Name Is Khan

    Best Background Score
    Shankar Ehsaan Loy
    My Name Is Khan

    Best Music
    Sajid – Wajid
    Dabangg

    Best Lyrics
    Niranjan Iyengar
    My Name Is Khan

    Best Playback Singer (Male)
    Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
    Dabangg

    Best Playback Singer (Female)
    Mamta Sharma
    Dabangg

    Debutant Star Award (Male)
    Ranveer Singh
    Band Baaja Baaraat

    Debutant Star Award (Female)
    Sonakshi Sinha
    Dabangg

    Best Performance in a Comic Role
    Ritesh Deshmukh
    House Full

    Best Performance in a Negative Role
    Sonu Sood
    Dabangg

    Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Female)
    Prachi Desai |
    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai

    Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Male)
    Arjun Rampal
    Raajneeti

    Lifetime Achievement Award
    Dharmendra

    [via india-spicy]

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  • Silverdocs Announces 2011 Award Winners; Sterling Award for Best US Feature goes to OUR SCHOOL

    [caption id="attachment_1488" align="alignnone" width="550"]OUR SCHOOL directed by Mona Nicoara and Miruna Coco-Cozma[/caption]

    AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival announced its distinguished award winners, culminating the weeklong festival activities that included the screening of 108 films representing 52 countries, a free outdoor screening, live performances and a five-day professional documentary conference.  The Festival hosted 27,000 attendees, including more than 1,500 filmmakers, film and television executives and media professionals celebrating the art and business of documentary filmmaking.

    This year’s Sterling Award for Best US Feature goes to OUR SCHOOL directed by Mona Nicoara and Miruna Coco-Cozma.  Shot over the course of four years, the film follows the attempt to integrate isolated rural Roma (or gypsy) children into the mainstream school system of Romania.  Focusing on seven-year-old Alin, 12-year-old Beni and 16-year-old Dana, this fascinating film takes an unflinching look at the challenges of a longstanding tradition of prejudice.  The prize is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award.



    The Sterling US Feature Jury noted: “The cinematic quality of this film, the filmmaker’s vision and power of the story’s core issue impressed the jury, revealing an intimate depiction of a marginalized and underrepresented community, whose voice is seldom heard.  The filmmaker brings to light a timely human rights issue with compassion and intimacy.”

    A Special Jury Mention went to THE BULLY PROJECT, directed by Lee Hirsch, which tackles the timely topic of bullying in this sensitive examination of an urgent crisis in American society.  The film follows five children and their families over the course of one school year as their lives are affected in different ways by bullying.

    The Jury noted: “Set in the heartland of America, this film takes a sensitive and volatile issue and brings it to light in a no-holds barred style that is visually stunning and deeply compelling.  This tortuous experience of youth is shared by many, but is bravely revealed in this film through characters who confront their experience and work to reclaim their dignity.  The filmmaker’s access shows the enormous trust established with his subjects. The result is a film that doesn’t reduce people to their worst experience, but rather elevates them to a level of marginalized heroes and sheros we should all aspire to emulate.”

    A Special Jury Mention also went to WHEN THE DRUM IS BEATING directed by Whitney Dow. The film reveals Haiti’s complex history and the resilience of its people in the stories of Septentrional, the country’s most celebrated band, whose unique beats and rhythms continue to thrill its people after six decades.

    The jury noted: “An ambitious, multi-dimensional articulation of the identity of a country seen through layers of history, inter-generational, political and natural disasters set against a lyrical and poetic narrative backdrop.  The synergy of place is the motif in this beautifully crafted ode to a people.  Both historical and contemporary, this film offers a lens to history through cultural expression, which affords a glimpse at the past, present and future of a complex and fascinating place and its people.”

    This year’s Sterling Award for Best World Feature went to FAMILY INSTINCT directed by Andris Gauja.  A unique chronicle of family gone awry, this film is an unsparing exploration of a Latvian household built on the incestuous relationship between Zanda and her imprisoned brother Valdis, whose pending homecoming creates tremendous frisson.  The prize is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award.

    The Sterling Award World Jury noted:  “A slice-of-f#@ked-up-life portrait, the director of this film clearly had fly-on-the-wall access to his subjects, but some scenes, shot from multiple angles, are so formally composed as to seem staged.  That’s not a bad thing: For all the desperation and depravity of the story, the filmmaker rescues a narrative of deep sadness and yearning that’s as touching as the circumstances are shocking.”

    A Special Jury Mention went to POSITION AMONG THE STARS directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich.  The film is the conclusion of his in-depth three-part portrait of Indonesia as seen through the eyes of one family living in the slums of Jakarta.  The Shamuddin family’s anxieties, hopes, and frequent, often hilarious fights culminate in a poignant mosaic of Indonesian life today.

    The Jury noted: “A special jury prize for persistence of vision for the third film in a trilogy that explores a multi-generational family at the cusp of societal upheaval.  It is the culmination of a filmmaker’s aesthetic, thematic and philosophical mission.  This is a film that exemplifies a sustained and consistently maturing vision.”

    The Sterling Award for Best Short Film was given to GUANAPE SUR, directed by János Richter.  The film explores a barren island off the coast of Peru that is the breeding ground for thousands of sea birds, its sole inhabitants.  Once every eleventh year, hundreds of men make their way to the island to harvest the birds’ dried excrement, which is then used as valuable fertilizer.  The prize is accompanied by a $2,500 cash award.

    The Sterling Award Short Jury noted: “We were won over by the stark beauty of the images, which take us into a world of extreme hardship.  The formal restraint of the filmmaking coupled with complex sound design create a poetic yet unflinching meditation on human beings’ constraint by their environment.”

    An Honorable Mention?went to STILL HERE, directed by Alex Camilleri.  In the film, Randy Baron has been living with HIV for over two decades.  In that time, he watched as AIDS ravaged his partner and many friends whose lives were lost to a diagnosis that was considered a death sentence in the 1980s.  The film documents his efforts to carry on and dedicate his life to education and activism.

    The Jury noted: “A powerful portrayal of loss and grief, this film is a testament to one man’s resilience. Visually rich and capturing raw emotions, it stays with you long after watching.”

    The Sterling Award winners were chosen by an eminent Festival jury, including:

    Sterling US Feature Jury: Claire Aguilar, Programming VP, Independent Television Service (ITVS); Chico Colvard, Filmmaker (FAMILY AFFAIR); Shannon Kelley, Head of Public Programs for the UCLA Film and Television Archive. 

    Sterling World Feature Jury: Sean Farnel, former Programming Director, Hot Docs; Eugene Hernandez, Director of Digital Strategy, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Karina Longworth, Editor, LA Weekly.

    Sterling Short Film Jury: Sadie Tillery, Programming Director, Full Frame; Eva Weber, Filmmaker (STEEL HOMES); José Rodriquez, Program Associate, Tribeca Film Institute.

    “We are thrilled to celebrate the best that documentary cinema has to offer and to congratulate all of our award winners.  We thank our Jurors who brought their passion and commitment to the challenging process of selecting winners amongst so many great films,” said Sky Sitney, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival Director.

    Other Awards include:

    The Cinematic Vision Award went to LIFE IN A DAY directed by Kevin MacDonald.  The film explores what happens when a team of renowned producers put out a call for people professional filmmakers and non-professionals alike to document what is going on in their lives, whether its epic or benign, on July 24, 2010.  The mesmerizing film is culled from more than 4,500 hours of videos submitted from 192 countries.  The prize comes with $4,000 in-kind services from the Alpha Cine Labs in Seattle.

    The WGA Documentary Screenplay Award went to THE LOVING STORY written by Nancy Buirski and Susie Ruth Powell.  Mildred and Richard Loving never imagined that their unassuming love story would be the basis of a watershed anti-miscegenation civil rights case.  But in 1967, when this soft-spoken interracial couple are exiled from Virginia—the only home they have ever known—for the mere crime of falling in love and getting married, they feel they have no choice but to fight back.  The Prize is accompanied by a $1,000 cash award, and a five-year membership in the WGAE Nonfiction Writers Caucus.

    The inaugural Whole Foods Market and Silverdocs Grant for Works in Progress go to two filmmakers: Margaret Brown for THE GREAT INVISIBLE exploring the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its impact on her hometown of Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico.  The film looks at the global oil economy through the lens of characters that work in the oil and fishing industries on the Gulf Coast.

    The second grant goes to Ian Cheney for BLUESPACE, which explores the degradation and renewal of urban waterways.  With more than half the world’s population now crammed into cities, the way we use water – as a place to grow food, as a method of transportation, as a source of renewable energy – will plunge viewers into the midst of the struggle to rethink this most overlooked resource.  The prize is accompanied by a $25,000 cash grant to each filmmaker for a total of $50,000.

    The Tribeca Film Institute and Silverdocs Transmedia Lab Pitch award goes to Amir Bar-lev for THE TILLMAN STORY INTERACTIVE EDITION, to develop a cross-platform interactive project that will allow audiences to actively participate in the acclaimed 2010 documentary THE TILLMAN STORY while viewing it; a navigable platform through which audiences can view outtakes, investigate documents, interact with others, and keep up-to-date on the latest developments in the Tillman controversy.  The prize is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award.

    The Audience Award winners will be announced on Monday, June 27, 2011.

    [ via press release – Silverdocs]

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