• 10 Films To Take Top Honors at 2011 Artivist Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_1514" align="alignnone" width="550"]Artivist Spirit Feature Award Winner – Love Hate Love – Don Hardy, Dana Nachman, directors[/caption]

    The 2011 Artivist Film Festival announced its 2011 film awards in five categories: Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Environmental Preservation, Animal Advocacy and Artivist Spirit. The awards will be presented to the filmmakers at the Closing Night Awards Program of the 2011 Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, August 18-20.

    In a first-of-its-kind program for film festivals, all ten films will be showcased in a series of preview screenings in six U.S. cities, July 8-10: Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, Sedona (AZ.) and Washington D.C. The screenings will precede the films debut at the festival in Los Angeles, to be held at the historic Egyptian Theater in the heart of Hollywood.

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    Artivist Film Festival 2011 Films Awards

    Human Rights

    Feature: “Because They Were Beautiful” (Indonesia, Netherlands) – Frank van Osch, director

    Short:  “Umoja: No Men Allowed” (Kenya, Australia) – Elizabeth Tadic, director


    Children’s Advocacy

    Feature: “Surfing Soweto” (South Africa) – Sara Blecher, director

    Short:  “Grace” (Philippines, Switzerland) – Meagan Kelly, director

    Environmental Preservation

    Feature: “Spoil” (Canada, U.S.) – Trip Jennings, director

    Short:  “The Leaves Keep Falling” (Vietnam, USA) – Julie Winokur, director

    Animal Advocacy

    Feature: “Green” (Indonesia, France) – Patrick Rouxel, director

    Short:“Saving Pelican 895” (USA) – Irene Taylor Brodsky, director

    Artivist Spirit

    Feature: “Love Hate Love” (USA) – Don Hardy, Dana Nachman, directors

    Short:  “Crooked Beauty” (USA) – Ken Paul Rosenthal, director

    2011 Award-Winning Film Synopses:

    Because They Were Beautiful – Filmmaker Frank van Osch, photographer Jan Banning (World Press Photo Award 2004) and journalist Hilde Janssen, traveled throughout Indonesia to search for former “comfort women”: young women who were abducted and forced to serve as sex slaves to the Japanese Armed Forces during World War II. Many comfort women had already passed away, and the ones still alive are now all in their 80s. Still considered a taboo subject in many parts of Asia, the comfort women in “Because They Were Beautiful” depict for us a little-known but important page of history, bravely describing the systematic

    Crooked Beauty – This poetic yet powerful film chronicles artist-activist Jacks McNamara’s transformative journey from childhood abuse to psych-ward patient to pioneering mental-health advocate. It is an intimate portrait, interwoven with poignant testimonials, of McNamara’s intense personal quest to live with courage and dignity, as well as a powerful critique of standard psychiatric treatments.

    Grace – The lives of scavengers in the Philippines are revealed through the story of a courageous young girl. Thirteen-year-old Mary-Grace Rapatan has lived on top of a notorious garbage dump in the Philippines her entire life, picking through mountains of trash to feed her family while persevering to get an education. The film shows the determination and potential of this young teenager despite the challenges she faces.

    Green: Her name is Green, and she is alone in a world that now doesn’t belong to her. Green is a female orangutan, a victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. The recipient of over 20 international film festival awards, including the United Nations’ International Forest Film Festival “Best of the Festival” award, “Green” is an emotional, heart-wrenching journey of Green’s final days in her beloved Indonesian rainforest. The film is a visual ride, presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.

    Love Hate Love – Executive Producer Sean Penn presents this story of the victims of terrorism and how they must rebuild their lives. It’s been eight years since Liz Alderman’s son Peter was murdered by terrorists. Every day since then, Liz is faced with the same two options–succumbing to the depths of despair or finding a way to survive. Esther Hyman knows about this choice as well: Her sister was killed when the bus she was riding to work was blown up. And Ben Tullipan now lives minus his two legs and his hearing because of the one-ton bomb that went off just a few yards away. Their lives, shattered by terrorists, are now on a new path, and they’re taking thousands of people along for the ride. “Love Hate Love” follows these survivors as they search for honor, meaning and a new future.

    Saving Pelican 895 – Nearly 9,000 birds were found in the oily waters of the Gulf Coast in the wake of the 2010 BP oil spill. One of them was a young pelican coated by oil near his nest in Louisiana. This is the story of the 895th bird to be rescued and rehabilitated by a dedicated team of wildlife experts and every day people, many of whom travel the world responding to oil disaster.

    Spoil – Three world-renowned photographers build relationships with indigenous Gitga’at guides throughout a ten-day photo expedition in their search for the rare, elusive spirit bear. Their mission is to create images of this rare bear and the ecosystem that it relies on, before a proposed oil pipeline from the Alberta tar sands threatens to spoil it. The spirit bear, globally rarer than the panda, lives only on the north coast of British Columbia, and the film gives a visually stunning and inspiring display of the interconnectedness of this coastal ecosystem, which has existed in symbiosis with the indigenous communities there for thousands of years.

    Surfing Soweto – “Dogtown And the Z Boys” meets “Rebel Without A Cause” on the streets of Soweto, South Africa. Over the course of the last three years, Cinga Productions followed and documented the lives of three of the most notorious train surfers in Soweto: Bitch Nigga, Lefa and Mzembe. We see them on the top of trains hurtling through Soweto, venture into the heroin dens of Hilbrow, and go into jails with names like Sun City – all in the hope of understanding their frustrations and documenting the lives of the new generation of youth in Soweto. This is the story of a forgotten generation, born after the demise of apartheid but too early to reap the benefits of freedom.

    The Leaves Keep Falling – During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed some 12 million gallons of Agent Orange herbicide on Vietnam. This defoliant was used to immediately destroy crops, clear vegetation, and remove the dense forest that provided food and cover for Viet Cong forces. Forty years later, the dioxin from Agent Orange is still wreaking havoc on three generations of Vietnamese civilians. The film is an intimate portrait of two Vietnamese families whose children, among the millions, must live with the devastating consequences of the pesticide.

    Umoja: No Men Allowed – Set in Kenya, an unlikely battle of the sexes erupts in tribal Samburu land. This is the amusing and life-changing story of a group of tribal Samburu women in Northern Kenya who reclaim their lives, turning age-old patriarchy on its head, when they set up a women’s only community. Cast out by their husbands after being raped by British soldiers, the women have bonded together to establish the village of Umoja, but their prosperity incurs the wrath of men, including their tribal leaders, leading to a gender war.

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  • Award-Winning documentary film Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football to open exclusively at select AMC Theatres

    The award-winning documentary film, Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football, has a release date; the film about high school football and Arab-Americans living in post 9-11 America will open exclusively at select AMC Theatres in 11 cities on Sept. 9, 2011.

    The 11 cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Dearborn, Mich., Dallas, Houston, Orange County, Calif., Los Angeles, New York, N.Y., Brunswick, N.J., San Jose, Calif., San Francisco, and in the Greater Washington D.C. region, including Gaithersburg, Md., and Alexandria, Va.

    The film received the Special Grand Jury Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize at the DEADCenter Film Festival, the Audience and Founders Award at the 2011 Politics on Film Festival, the Best Documentary Award at the Detroit-Windsor Film Festival and was named Champion of the World Cup Film Awards.

    ‘Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football’ is a feature length documentary film that follows four talented high school football players from Dearborn Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown.

    The film begins on September 11, 2009 and concludes at the end of Ramadan ten days later. The story is set against the backdrop of the stunningly beautiful Fordson High School, a public high school built by Henry Ford in 1922, which was once all white, but now boasts a 98% Arab population. As our team readies itself to play its affluent, cross town rival, we unearth the adversity faced by a community that is desperately holding onto its Islamic faith while struggling to gain acceptance in post 9-11 America.

    ‘Fordson’ documents not only the players’ outer struggle to overcome the hunger and thirst of fasting as they prepare for the big game, but also their inner struggle to reconcile their Arab heritage with their American birthright. It is an inspirational story of an immigrant community’s resilience, that attempts to answer the question, ‘Who is an American?’

    Through the eyes of the team, their coaches, and their fans, we get an unprecedented glimpse inside the lives of a community that is home to the largest concentration of Arabs in any city outside of the Middle East, and their determination to hold on to the American Dream.

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  • 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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