• 63 films from Hawaii and around the world at 2011 Big Island Film Festival

    Hawaii stars including celebrity honorees Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), and Kristina Anapau (Black Swan) will help celebrate independent narrative filmmaking at the 6th Annual Big Island Film Festival (BIFF) running May 11-15, 2011 event at The Fairmont Orchid, Hawai‘i and The Shops at Mauna Lani.

    BIFF 2011 will showcase 63 independent narrative films from 7 countries, 10 of them filmed in Hawaii, including:
    -All Collected Things, looking back at a love story. Michael Tanji producer, director, writer.
    -Layover, on the Shore, a contemporary Honolulu filmmaker’s edgy story, A Christopher Makoto Yogi Film, Producers William Kwok, Yu Gu.
    -Mute, a deaf high school junior wants to try out for football, by Jeremy Johnson Films.
    -The Green Tie Affair, a puppet musical about identity and wardrobe

    And these, from Big Island filmmakers:
    -Hawaii’s Undersea Ohana, Hawaiian proverbs put to music, includes a segment filmed on Ni‘ihau, by Fasano Underwater Productions, Charles Fasano.
    -Alison’s Adventures: Snaked, a surf adventure to Morocco, Alison Tea Productions.
    -Sproot, Produced and directed by Loring Robbins, is a whimsical animation about telekinetic power and personal strength
    -The Pick-Up Artist, two people meet in a bar, but are they who they seem to be?  Beckwood Entertainment, producer/director/writer: Rockwood.
    -Waterfall, loss and grief, embraced by nature. Keyland Productions, Braide Keyland producer, director and writer.

    From Maui, Get a Job written and directed by Brian Kohne, is an outrageous comedy with an all-star lineup of top Hawaii entertainers including Willie K, Eric Gilliom, Augie T, Jake Shimabukuro, Carolyn Omine, Slam Poet Kealoha, Ernie Cruz, Jr., Amy Hanaiali‘i, Mick Fleetwood, Pat Simmons, Charles Ka‘upu, Willie Nelson, and Henry Kapono (who headlines BIFF’s “Best of the Fest” concert May 15).

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  • 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival Kicks Off.. runs through Sunday, May 8

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    [caption id="attachment_1296" align="alignnone" width="560"](L-R) Neetu Singh Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor on the red carpet.[/caption]

    The 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday night, May 4, with the Opening Night celebration which featured the U.S. Premiere of the Delhi-set comedy “Do Dooni Chaar,” Disney’s first live-action Hindi film. The star-studded red carpet premiere, held at Manhattan’s prestigious Paris Theater, was attended by special guests Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh Kapoor along with writer/director Habib Faisal. Also attending the premiere were Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Aditya Bhattacharya, Ajay Naidu, Samrat Chakrabarti, Meetu Chilana, Rehana Mirza, Pulitzer Prize winner Siddhartha Mukherjee, Sarita Choudhury, Ami Sheth, Poorna Jagannathan, and many other actors and filmmakers whose films will play at NYIFF through Closing Night on Sunday, May 8.

    Following the screening of “Do Dooni Chaar” was a discussion with Faisal and the Kapoors moderated by festival director Aseem Chhabra which reportedly had the audience laughing throughout.

    The 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival runs from Wednesday, May 4 to Sunday, May 8 with 25 feature films including 15 World and U.S. Premieres, industry panels, photo exhibits, afterparties, and more.

    FRI May 6 | CENTERPIECE | Iti Mrinalini, directed by Aparna Sen

    SUN May 8 | CLOSING NIGHT | Nauka Dubi, directed by Rituparno Ghosh

    [caption id="attachment_1297" align="alignnone" width="560"](L-R) Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, director Habib Faisal, and NYIFF director Aseem Chhabra at the post-screening Q&A.[/caption]

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  • 37th Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) to cancel Al Pacino event

    The 37th Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) will cancel the rare Al Pacino appearance, Pacino: One Night Only, the website seattle.broadwayworld.com reports. The cancellation is due to this week’s announcement that Pacino has been nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Actor for his critically acclaimed performance on Broadway in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. Due to the conflict with the Tony Award Ceremony STG and Al Pacino announce a cancellation of his appearance at The Paramount Theatre on June 11. “I hope to make it back to Seattle,” said Pacino. “it’s a city I’ve always enjoyed.”

    The festival will offer refunds to individuals that purchased tickets for the events.

    The 37th Seattle International Film Festival, a 25 day event will run from May 19 through June 12, and feature 441 films (257 features, 184 shorts) – including 96 feature and short premieres and a Festival record 74 countries represented – with screenings at venues throughout Seattle, Renton, Everett and Kirkland.

    Al Pacino is still scheduled to receive the Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2011 Award, a prize of the Venice International Film Festival created in collaboration with Jaeger-Le Coultre, and dedicated to an artist who has left an original mark on contemporary cinema. This year, the award will celebrate Al Pacino and his achievements as a filmmaker. The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, September 4th at the 2011 Venice International Film Festival.

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  • 5Point Film Festival Winners for 2011; The Wolf and The Medallion wins Best of Festival

    [caption id="attachment_1292" align="alignnone" width="500"]The Wolf and the Medallion[/caption]

    The Wolf and The Medallion by Jeremy Collins won the top award, Best of Festival, at the 5Point Film Festival which ran April 28 – May 1, 2011 in Carbondale, Colorado.

    The Wolf and The Medallion which had its world premiere at the festival is described as a thrilling experimental art performance by artist and climber, Jeremy Collins, the filmmaker who brought you last year’s beloved Border Country. Scored to live music, this multifaceted piece will take over your senses—most importantly, your sense of wonder. The Wolf and the Medallion is rooted in Collins’ personal climbing adventure to the border of China and Mongolia, where rumors of a virgin canyon of granite revealed a cultural and vertical experience like no other. From the summit of his first peak, Collins writes a letter to his son back home, a letter that guides the film along its peaks and valleys. An encompassing journey of fatherhood, brotherhood and adventure, The Wolf and the Medallion is a captivating and original tale.

    The 2011 5Point Film Festival awards:

    BEST OF FESTIVAL
    The Wolf and The Medallion by Jeremy Collins

    SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE
    Cold by Anson Fogel and Cory Richards

    Finalists:
    Skateistan
    Fly or Die
    Swiss Machine

    MOST INSPIRING STORY
    Chasing Water by Peter McBride

    Finalists:
    Salt
    Scrapertown
    The Wolf and the Medallion

    BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
    Dark Side of the Lens by Mickey Smith

    Finalists:
    Life Cycles
    Towers of Ennedi
    Wildwater

    JURY SPECIAL SELECTION
    Scrapertown by Drea Cooper and Zack Canepari

    Finalists:
    Salt
    Skateistan
    Eastern Rises

    PEOPLE’S CHOICE
    Eastern Rises

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  • 2011 Staten Island Film Festival Announces Free Admission and Nominees

    [caption id="attachment_1127" align="alignnone"]Nominee for Best Picture, ‘White Irish Drinkers’[/caption]

    The 2011 Staten Island Film Festival continues to make big announcements as the days get closer to the festival run scheduled for June 8 – 12, 2011 reports silive.com.

    For the first time, the festival will feature free admission at the door for screenings. Most of the screening will be shown at the St. George Theatre and at the Music and Veterans Halls at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. The Children’s Film Series will be screened at the Staten Island Zoo.

    The festival also announced its nominees:

    The nominees for Best Picture are: “Stalemate,” “Desert Rain,” “Night Club,” “White Irish Drinkers” and “The Secret Friend.”

    Best Staten Island Local Film contenders are: “The Few,” “Broken Road,” “Eyes on Him,” “Collateral Package,” “Coming of Age, “Vincent Medugno Magnetic,” “Staten Island Wrestler,” “Green Apples and Wannabes” and “Road Less Traveled.”

    Best Director contenders are: “Crossroads” by Salvatore Petrosino, “Night Club” by Sam Borowski, “The Retreat” by Chelsea Marino, “Gus” by Joe Pomarico, “Caught” by Elizabeth Page and “Rita” by Antonio Piazza.

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  • 54th San Francisco International Film Festival Award Winners; ‘Crime After Crime’ wins top documentary award

    [caption id="attachment_781" align="alignnone"]Crime After Crime[/caption]

    Yoav Potash’s documentary film, ‘Crime After Crime’, won the top Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival. The documentary film on the legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, a woman imprisoned for over a quarter century due to her connection to the murder of the man who abused her, received a $25,000 cash prize.

    The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival ran April 21 – May 5, 2011 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, New People and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley.

    Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners

    Investigative Documentary Feature: 

    Crime After Crime, Yoav Potash (USA 2011)

    · Winner receives $25,000 cash prize

    Documentary Feature: 

    Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)

    · Winner receives $20,000 cash prize

    Bay Area Documentary Feature: 

    Better This World, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway (USA 2011)

    · Winner receives $15,000 cash prize and $2000 laboratory services from EFILM Digital Laboratories.



    New Directors Award: 

    The Journals of Musan, Park Jung-bum (South Korea 2010)

    · Winner receives $15,000 cash prize



    FIPRESCI Prize: 

    The Salesman, Sébastien Pilote (Canada 2011)



    Golden Gate Award Short Film Winners

    Narrative Short: Blokes, Marialy Rivas (Chile 2010)

    · Winner receives $5,000 cash prize

    Documentary Short: Into the Middle of Nowhere, Anna Frances Ewert (Scotland, England 2010)

    · Winner receives $5,000 cash prize

    Animated Short: The External World, David O’Reilly (Ireland 2010)

    · Winner receives $2,000 cash prize and Maya animation software provided by Auto Desk

    Bay Area Short, First Prize: Tourist Trap, Skye Thorstenson (USA 2010)

    · Winner receives $2,000 cash prize

    Bay Area Short, Second Prize: Young Dracula, Alfred Seccombe (USA 2010)

    · Winner receives $1,500 cash prize

    New Visions: Lost Lake, Zackary Drucker (USA 2010)

    · Winner receives $1,500 cash prize and 1,000 feet of Kodak film stock

    Work for Kids and Families: Specky Four Eyes, Jean-Claude Rozec (France 2010)

    · Winner receives $1,500 cash prize

    Youth Work: Z-Man, Nat Talbot (USA 2010)

    · Winner receives $1,500 cash prize

    Youth Work Honorable Mention: The Snowman Kelly Wilson, Neil Wrischnik (USA 2010)

    Youth Work Honorable Mention: The Math Test, Sam Rubin (USA 2010)

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  • REVIEW: Octubre is an enjoyable film, careful and deliberate

    Octubre is a lauded new Peruvian film that was recently at New Directors/New Films and has been at multiple other international festivals; it is the first feature of a team of brothers—writers/directors Daniel and Diego Vega Vidal. It’s a film of few words, so to speak, simple, with not too much fuss made. The film begins with Clemente (Bruno Odar), a moneylender who’s trusted and known in Lima as the pawnbroker’s son. He lives alone, visits prostitutes often, and leads a quiet, austere life. That life is disrupted when he finds a baby in a basket has been left in his home. We learn that it’s the baby of a hooker and that he is presumably the father. While he searches for the mother, he hires Sofia (Gabriela Velasquez), his lonely and kind-hearted neighbor, to look after the baby. Thrown into the mix is Don Fico (Carlos Gasols), an old man getting by on the street s of Lima and trying to save his money (he uses Clemente as his bank). A makeshift and unusual family is created in Clemente’s house, but he seems quite unaware of it, unfamiliar as he is with real human connection, beyond cold business interactions.

    Framing the narrative is the Procession of the Lord of Miracles, a religious tradition that takes place in Lima through the month of October. Faith and religion are represented strongly—Sofia marches in the Procession and calls the baby Milagritos (little miracle), and the Virgin Mary is on a significant piece of money paid to Clemente. But the filmmakers treat religion as a fact of life and an important tradition in Peru, a realistic aspect of the society, rather than making a specific statement about it. The film has great humour, subtle and natural comedic moments that enrich the somber environment, as well as a strong attention to sex and desire, also portrayed in a simple and matter-of-fact way.

    There is a certain economy about this film; nothing is shown unnecessarily, every shot has a reason. But that reason may not have anything to do with the plot, nor is every shot rigidly structured, some of the best seem to have been captured almost accidentally. This style of film making creates a great nuance that enriches the characters—the well-framed and bare cinematography often reveals something about the characters and lends itself to the overall feeling of the film. The audience is often not shown things they may expect to see, rather we hear something off-screen, or deduce what has just happened without actually seeing it. Again, the filmmakers do not waste time with unnecessary images, only images that have relevance to the overall statements of the film.

    Do not expect too much from this film in terms of action or even plot, it is focused on character and place more than story. Nor do we get a particularly satisfying ending, it’s rather abrupt. But if one takes it as it is, Octubre is an enjoyable film, careful and deliberate, a small yet poignant portrayal of people coming together, moving beyond basic survival towards a greater hope, perhaps with some help from little miracles.

    Opens May 6th in NYC

    In Spanish with English subtitles

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  • Showtime to release MIxed Martial Arts documentary ‘Fightville’

    Showtime Networks Inc. has acquired their latest documentary, FIGHTVILLE, for release in the US. The premium network closed a deal on the film, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, shortly after its rousing world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX last month.

    FIGHTVILLE chronicles the story of a minor league Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion run by Gil “The Thrill” Guillory in Lafayette, Louisiana—a place where, for many, fighting is as much ritual as it is sport. In FIGHTVILLE, life is a contest, and the area around Lafayette, which includes a neighborhood that is the namesake of the film, has no shortage of up-and-coming fighters willing to fight their way out of the dusty rodeo arenas of Louisiana to the big lights of Las Vegas. Many of them train with veteran UFC fighter “Crazy” Tim Credeur at his Gladiators Academy, where he seeks to “build better men,” while developing champion fighters.

    One of those fighters, Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier, quickly became the focus of the film after a series of dramatic victories.  His story forms the backbone of the film.  “The first time we saw Dustin fight, we were immediately taken with him,” states co-director Michael Tucker.  “You could tell that the kid was going places.”  “More than just fighting, FIGHTVILLE is about what it takes to be the best at anything,” adds Tucker. “We hope that FIGHTVILLE will introduce a wider audience to the beauty and passion of MMA while elevating the mainstream perception of the sport.”

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  • Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee, Berlin Film Fest Winner to be released in the US

    7th Art Releasing will release Britta Wauer’s In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee in the US, reports The Hollwyood Reporter. In Heaven, Underground: The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Panorama Audience Award; and is currently at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto.

    North of Berlin’s noisy city centre, tucked away in a residential area and surrounded by a jungle of trees and lush foliage, lies the peaceful and secluded 130-year-old Weißensee Jewish Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. One hundred acres hold 115,000 graves and a meticulous archive record. The cemetery has never been closed, and was one of the few institutions to remain in Jewish hands under the Nazi regime. Award-winning director Britta Wauer’s charming portrait creates a serene experience navigating the cemetery, and follows a delightful array of characters from around the world: mourners, tourists, a young family residing at the cemetery, a third-generation gravedigger and an ornithologist studying rare birds of prey. Winner of an audience award at the Berlinale, In Heaven Underground is an enchanting journey into history that celebrates life and the immortality of memories. [ Hot Docs ]

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  • Jack Osbourne does NOT like Variety review of dad’s new film “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne”

    Jack Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne’s son, reportedly slammed Variety writer John Anderson over Anderson’s review of the documentary film “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.”

    Anderson described the film as “…rather affectionate and candid portrait of a singer/TV personality whose continuing respiration is regarded as a marvel of human achievement. Fans will respond enthusiastically; nonfans will grow restless as Osbourne’s late-inning sobriety is dwelt upon at length. Theatrical play seems a long shot, but VOD’s a no-brainer. “

    Not sure what part of the review ticked off Jack Osbourne, but blabbermouth.net reported that he took to Twitter and tweeted, “Dear Variety magazine, your review of my film is absolute bollocks. Your journalist obviously had his head up his arse the entire time.”

    Directed by Mike Fleiss and Mike Piscitelli,  “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne”, a feature-length documentary that pulls the curtain open on the man known as the Prince of Darkness premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

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  • Sony Pictures Classics to Release 2011 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear Winner “Nader and Simin, a Separation” in the US

    Sony Pictures Classics acquired Asghar Farhadi’s NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION for release in the US.  The film won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

    Farhadi was awarded Best Director for his previous film, ABOUT ELLY at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival.

    Set in Contemporary Iran, NADER AND SIMIN, A SEPARATION is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage.  Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin goes back to her parents’, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader…

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  • RIP: Yvette Vickers; B-Movie Actress and Playboy Playmate

    Yvette Vickers, an actress best known as the femme fatale in two late 1950s cult horror films, “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” was found dead Wednesday at her Benedict Canyon home. She was 82.

    The body’s mummified state suggests that she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.

    Read more in the LA Times

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