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Florianópolis Dream (Sueño Florianópolis)[/caption]
Twelve films produced, directed or set in Latin America will compete for the Horizontes Award at the 2018 San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Las herederas (Marcelo Martinessi), opening film of the section, Familia sumergida (Immersed Family, María Alché), La noche de 12 años (A Twelve-Year-Night, Álvaro Brechner), Figuras (Figures, Eugenio Canevari), Cómprame un revólver (Buy Me a Gun, Julio Hernández Cordón), Enigma (Ignacio Juricic Merillán), Sueño Florianópolis (Ana Katz), Ferrugem / Rust (Aly Muritiba), Nuestro tiempo (Our Time, Carlos Reygadas), Marilyn (Martín Rodríguez Redondo), Los silencios (Beatriz Seigner) and El motoarrebatador (The Snatch Thief, Agustín Toscano) make up the Horizontes Latinos selection at the 66th edition of the San Sebastian Festival.
Films in Horizontes Latinos at 66th San Sebastian Festival
LAS HEREDERAS
MARCELO MARTINESSI (PARAGUAY – GERMANY – BRAZIL – URUGUAY – NORWAY – FRANCE )
Cast: Ana Brun, Margarita Irún, Ana Ivanova, Nilda Gonzalez, María Martins, Alicia Guerra, Yverá Zayas
OPENING NIGHT FILM
For more than 30 years, Chela and Martina have lived together, like the daughters of families in a well-placed social position: they had inherited enough money to live comfortably with no need to work. But now, when both are over 60, the money has run out. When Martina is sent to prison for being unable to pay her debts, Chela starts providing older women from well-off families with a taxi service which helps her to get by. That’s how she meets Josefina, a glamorous woman 20 years younger than herself, with whom she immediately hits it off. The connection changes the relationship Chela has with herself and with those around her, triggering an internal revolution.
CÓMPRAME UN REVÓLVER (BUY ME A GUN )
JULIO HERNÁNDEZ CORDÓN (MEXICO)
Cast: Matilde Hernández Guinea, Rogelio Sosa
Mexico, sometime in a near future… Women are disappearing and a girl called Huck wears a mask to hide her gender. She helps her dad, a tormented addict, to take care of an abandoned baseball camp where the narcos gather to play. The father tries to protect her as he can. With the help of her friends, a group of lost boys who have the power of camouflaging themselves in the windy desert, Huck has to fight to overcome her reality and to defeat the local capo.
EL MOTOARREBATADOR (THE SNATCH THIEF)
AGUSTÍN TOSCANO (ARGENTINA – URUGUAY – FRANCE)
Cast: Sergio Prina, Liliana Juárez, León Zelarrayán, Daniel Elías, Camila Plaate, Pilar Benítez Vibart, Mirella Pascual
IV Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum
In the Argentinian city of Tucumán, Miguel is making a living as a “motochorro”, a thief who snatches people’s belongings from his motorbike. When he steals the purse of Elena, an old woman, he ends up hurting her badly. After the brutal incident, Miguel is plagued by guilt and unable to forget about his victim. In an attempt to make things right, he conceals his true identity from the old woman and starts to take care of the injured and unsuspecting Elena. The closer he gets to her the more he becomes entangled in his own lies. Afraid of telling Elena the truth, Miguel continues to be haunted by his past and is unable to find true redemption.
ENIGMA
IGNACIO JURICIC MERILLÁN (CHILE)
Cast: Roxana Campos, Rodrigo Pérez, Paula Zúñiga, Claudia Cabezas
Films in Progress 33
Nancy receives the offer from a TV programme on unsolved mysteries to participate in the episode telling the story of her daughter, a young lesbian beaten to death, a crime for which no-one has been declared guilty eight years after it was committed. Nancy confronts her family and each one’s version of the events, as she decides whether or not to participate in the space and learn more about the person her daughter was.
FAMILIA SUMERGIDA (IMMERSED FAMILY)
MARIA ALCHÉ (ARGENTINA – BRAZIL – GERMANY – NORWAY)
Cast: Mercedes Morán, Esteban Bigliardi, Marcelo Subiotto, Ia Arteta, Laila Maltz, Federico Sack
Films in Progress 32
It’s summertime in an empty and heated Buenos Aires. Marcela’s world is shaken as her sister passes away, and it becomes estranged and unfamiliar. While still grieving, she will have to deal with clearing out her sister’s apartment. Willing to help out, Nacho, a young friend of her daughter’s, bursts in. His presence gives way to shared road trips and adventures. During these confusing days, people and conversations from another time will get intertwined, leading her to some self-questioning, as the imminence of everyday life pushes in.
FERRUGEM / RUST
ALY MURITIBA (BRAZIL)
Cast: Tifanny Dopke, Giovanni Di Lorenzi, Pedro Inoue, Enrique Diaz, Clarissa Kiste, Dudah Azevedo
Films in Progress 32
Tati is a 16-year-old girl, joyful and lively, who likes to share her happiest moments on social networks. She eagerly looks forward to a weekend trip with her school friends. She knows this may be a good opportunity to get to know Renet better, her mysterious classmate. Renet belongs to a family where things are not openly spoken, merely suggested, and most often in silence. The current unspoken matter between father and son is the departure of Renet’s mother, who left David, her ex-husband, caring alone for the boy. David is a teacher at the same school where Tati and Renet study. The hot topic at school is a video shared among the students in which the girl appears in a compromising situation.
FIGURAS (FIGURES)
EUGENIO CANEVARI (SPAIN – ARGENTINA)
Cast: Stella Maris Santo, Francisco Dominguez, Valeria Ballerini
Stella, an argentinian immigrant living in Spain, suffers from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and needs constant attention. Paco, her longtime partner, helps her to move, eat, and communicate. Valeria, Stella’s daughter, visits them sporadically and, anguished by the visible deterioration of her mother, finds a manner of escape by going out to parties. While they wait for an answer about an opportunity for subsidized housing, they attempt to cope with the situation through humor and love. A real family performing in a real story.
LA NOCHE DE 12 AÑOS (A TWELVE-YEAR-NIGHT)
ÁLVARO BRECHNER (SPAIN – ARGENTINA – FRANCE – URUGUAY)
Cast: Antonio de la Torre, Chino Darín, Alfonso Tort
IV Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum
September 1973. Uruguay is under the control of military dictatorship. The Tupamaros guerrilla movement has been crushed and out of action for a year. Its members imprisoned and tortured. One autumn night, three Tupamaros prisoners are taken from their prison cells in a secret military operation that will last for twelve years. From then on they will be hauled around different camps all over the country, subject to a macabre experiment; a new kind of torture aiming to break the limits of their mental resistance. The military order is clear: “since we couldn’t kill them, we’re going to drive them insane”. For more than a decade, the prisoners will be kept in isolation in tiny cells where they spend most of their time with hoods on, tied up, deprived of their basic needs, with hardly any food, and seeing how their senses are reduced to a minimum. With their bodies and minds pushed beyond the limits, La noche de 12 años (A Twelve-year Night) tells us how they managed to survive.
LOS SILENCIOS
BEATRIZ SEIGNER (BRAZIL – FRANCE – COLOMBIA)
Cast: Marleyda Soto, Enrique Diaz, Maria Paula Tabares Peña, Adolfo Savilvino
Films in Progress 33
Nuria, Fabio and their mother Amparo arrive in a small island in the middle of Amazonia, at the border of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. They ran away from the Colombian armed conflict in which their father disappeared. One day, he reappears in their new house. The family is haunted by this strange secret and discovers the island is peopled with ghosts.
MARILYN
MARTÍN RODRÍGUEZ REDONDO (ARGENTINA – CHILE)
Cast: Walter Rodríguez, Catalina Saavedra, Germán de Silva, Ignacio Giménez, Germán Baudino, Andrew Bargsted, Rodolfo García Werner, Josefina Paredes
III Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum Films in Progress 31
Marcos, a 17 year-old farmhand, discovers his sexuality in a hostile atmosphere. Nicknamed “Marilyn” by the other village teenagers, he becomes an object of desire and discrimination. Marcos feels increasingly more penned in.
NUESTRO TIEMPO (OUR TIME)
CARLOS REYGADAS (MEXICO – FRANCE – ALEMANIA – DENMARK – SWEDEN)
Cast: Carlos Reygadas, Natalia López, Eleazar Reygadas, Rut Reygadas, Phil Burgers
A family lives in the Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. Esther is in charge of running the ranch, while her husband Juan, a world-renowned poet, raises and selects the beasts. When Esther becomes infatuated with a horse trainer, named Phil, the couple struggles to stride through the emotional crisis.
SUEÑO FLORIANÓPOLIS (FLORIANÓPOLIS DREAM)
ANA KATZ (ARGENTINA – BRAZIL – FRANCE)
Cast: Mercedes Morán, Gustavo Garzón, Marco Ricca, Andréa Beltrão
Couple Pedro and Lucrecia travel to Brazil with their teenage children. They have recently decided to separate, but to spend the holidays together as planned all the same. Marco, the Brazilian renting their summer house to the family, and Larissa, his ex-girlfriend, befriend Pedro and Lucrecia. On the beaches, among the waves, karaoke and water excursions, overlapping romances emerge together with an attraction that will rub off on the children on all sides. Parents and siblings have fun as they test the “Brazilian happiness”. While endless samba awakens the tourists from their lethargy, they separate to indulge in the passion and exploration, in the mirror, of more liberal and unexpected versions of themselves.
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The Chicago International Film Festival selected Chicago’s own Michael Zhang as the winner of 2018’s poster design competition. Zhang’s design will be the signature look of the Festival, held October 10 to 21, 2018.
Zhang won a truly global contest, which in the past three years has featured winners from Scotland, Taiwan and the Netherlands. His design was chosen from more than 200 submissions spanning 30 countries. The poster depicts the façade of a vintage movie theater, presenting the exciting thrill of a neon-lit marquee and a classic art deco design. This year’s event tagline, “Everybody Loves Movies,” runs across the marquee alongside the Festival’s beloved “eyes” logo. Zhang, a Chicago resident, also incorporated the City of Chicago’s time-honored four-star flag design into the poster.
“This competition is meant to gather diverse perspectives on what the Festival is and what it means to people,” Cinema/Chicago Founder and CEO Michael Kutza said. “Michael’s design captures the glamour and allure of a visit to a classic movie house while also being very contemporary, and we loved his personal connection to the art, Chicago and the Film Festival itself.”
“I’m honored and so excited to see it in print at the Festival. I’ve been attending the Festival for a few years now, so this really means a lot to me,” Zhang said. “No matter what theater you go to, the excitement of marquee lights are a part of every movie-goer’s experience. For me, the lights were always a sign that I was about to leave the real world behind and get lost in a story on screen. When designing this poster, I wanted to evoke a similar sense of wonder and nostalgia.”
As the winner of the competition, Michael will receive a $2,500 USD prize and his design will be utilized in marketing materials throughout the city, including on the cover of the Festival guide, posters and merchandise.
Zhang is a graphic designer and illustrator living in Chicago. He volunteered at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival in 2017 and studied graphic design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently freelancing and available for design or illustration work. You can find more of his work by following him on Instagram
The Fragile House (Hai shang cheng shi)[/caption]
Youth v. Gov[/caption]
SFFILM awarded its inaugural SFFILM Environmental Fellowship along with the $25,000 cash prize to filmmaker Christi Cooper and her documentary Youth v. Gov. Cooper will also receive a year of mentorship and services to support the development, production, and impact campaign for the film.
The SFFILM Environmental Fellowship in partnership with Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions is geared towards mid-career filmmakers with a feature documentary project in development or early production that focuses on pressing environmental or conservation issues. Cooper is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer with a passion for transforming complex issues into compelling storytelling. Youth v. Gov will chronicle a landmark lawsuit brought by 21 youths who are suing the U.S. government and fossil fuel industry for creating a climate emergency and endangering their futures.
Youth v. Gov was selected from a field of 70+ submissions by a committee of film and environmental experts from SFFILM, Vulcan Productions, Sierra Magazine, EarthX and the Redford Center.
“Talented filmmakers are telling powerful stories about climate change and the environment, and we are proud to be able to help bring this particular story to life via this new partnership with SFFILM,” said Carole Tomko, general manager and creative director of Vulcan Productions. “We support Christi’s incredibly timely film and recognize the importance of providing filmmakers financial and creative support.”
“We’re thrilled to partner with Vulcan to add to our commitment to the crucial early development stage of this documentary and elevate emerging voices tackling such significant issues of the environment and conservation,” added Caroline von Kühn, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM. “Through this process, it was really quite encouraging to see how many talented filmmakers are out there tackling these critical issues, but we are especially excited to support Christi and this timely, inspiring story of the next generation fighting for the future of our climate.”
“We are incredibly honored for this needed support to continue documenting this important story,” said Cooper. “We are once again at a point in history where youth are rising up and demanding change, from gun reform to social justice. These youth plaintiffs are on the frontlines of the climate crisis in our highest courts of law, holding their government accountable to protect their rights and inspiring other youth to take action. This story also has the power to change our discourse on climate change in a time of intense partisan divide, and to reframe it as a paramount responsibility of our government to protect our future.”
The SFFILM Environmental Fellowship supports a documentary filmmaker over the course of six months who is creating a powerful story about conservation and the environment. In addition to the $25,000 grant, the fellow will travel to San Francisco and Seattle to participate in filmmaking and environmental workshops and to cultivate connections within the entertainment industry. The program consists of three key components: a residency at SFFILM’s FilmHouse for artistic support and mentorship; guidance from a dedicated environmental advisor; and development of a community outreach campaign and educational plan. The fellowship will run from June to December 2018.
An Emmy-award winning cinematographer, Christi Cooper grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where she was fortunate to be surrounded by people that nurtured and helped her develop a strong connection to nature and the outdoors. She obtained an M.S. in Microbiology from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Regensburg, Germany. After significant time in basic research and teaching at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, she made the decision to pursue her dream of an MFA in Science and Nature Filmmaking at Montana State University. In addition to communicating sometimes very complex issues through storytelling and visual narrative, her primary goals are to combine her research skills and in-depth knowledge of science with her desire to create compelling narratives focused on raising awareness about socio-political issues. In what little “free” time she has, she enjoys being a mother and a partner, growing her own food, and relishing in the incredible beauty and lifestyle of Montana.
In 2015, 21 young plaintiffs, ages 8 to 19, filed suit against the U.S. government asserting a willful violation of their constitutional rights. Youth v. Gov follows this turbulent legal battle as the government and fossil fuel industry take extraordinary measures to get the case dismissed. The case will go to trial on October 29, 2018 in Eugene, Oregon.
The Ambassador’s Wife[/caption]
36 short films will make up the International portion of the Short Cuts program at this year’s 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
The lineup of provocative, exciting shorts includes 14 World Premieres and works from 32 countries, in 19 different languages, with a strong array of new voices. Of the 36 films in the selection, 18 were directed or co-directed by women.
Highlights among the selection of live-action narrative films include Reed Van Dyk’s Interior, a bold follow-up to his recent Academy Award–nominated DeKalb Elementary ; A.V. Rockwell’s vivid and vital drama Feathers; Héctor Silva Núñez’s exceptional exploration of identity in The Foreign Body; and Charles Williams’ All These Creatures, an emotionally wrenching drama that won the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes.
The 2018 program also includes such fascinating short documentaries as Theresa Traore Dahlberg’s The Ambassador’s Wife, an elegant study of a woman who represents the complexities of class, women’s roles, and post-colonialism, and Jayisha Patel’s Circle, a haunting documentary that tells the horrifying story of a young woman caught in a cycle of abuse.
Amazing animations are also prominent at this year’s Festival. Standouts include: Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’ This Magnificent Cake! , a wildly ambitious and original stop-motion marvel that uses stories set in the Belgian Congo in the 19th century to reveal the absurdity and horror of European colonialism in Africa; Anca Damian’s free-flowing yet astoundingly intricate The Call; and Donato Sansone’s Bavure, a bravura display of eye-popping, mind-bending, and body-morphing ingenuity.
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9[/caption]
The World Premiere of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 , a radical and humorous look at the United States under Donald Trump, will open the Toronto International Film Festival 2018 documentary program. The Festival will screen 27 feature-length non-fiction films, representing 19 countries in the 2018 documentary program.
Other World Premieres include Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks’ Quincy, profiling musical icon Quincy Jones; Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble’s The Elephant Queen, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, tracing the epic journey of an elephant herd; Billy Corben’s Screwball, a true-crime comedy on doping in Major League Baseball; and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s The Truth About Killer Robots, investigating the lethal consequences of automation.
One-third of this year’s doc features are directed or co-directed by female filmmakers including TIFF Docs closing film, Margarethe von Trotta’s Searching for Ingmar Bergman, which offers a multi-faceted look at the Swedish auteur’s life 100 years after his birth. Women creators, trailblazers, and the #MeToo movement are also examined within the lineup: Naziha Arebi’s Freedom Fields, about a Libyan women’s football team; Alex Holmes’ Maiden recounts the story of the first all-women sailing crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race), skippered by Tracy Edwards; and Tom Volf’s Maria by Callas, narrated by Joyce DiDonato, profiles one of the major icons of the 20th century. More highlights include Alexis Bloom’s Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, covering the Fox News creator who was ousted for allegations of sexual harassment; and Tom Donahue’s This Changes Everything, an examination of gender dynamics in Hollywood, executive produced by Geena Davis. Mark Cousins’ Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema , narrated by Tilda Swinton, explores international cinema through the lens of women directors.
Global politics and leaders of modern society are put under the microscope with films such as Werner Herzog and André Singer’s Meeting Gorbachev, on the former Soviet leader; Vitaly Mansky’s Putin’s Witnesses, focusing on Russia’s president; and Errol Morris’ American Dharma , looking at controversial Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Grand adventures are at the heart of several docs in the selection. E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Free Solo captures Alex Honnold’s unprecedented climb of El Capitan without safety ropes; Andrey Paounov’s Walking on Water documents the artist Christo’s project The Floating Piers; John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm chronicles an eight-year struggle to run a family farm; and Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron’s Ghost Fleet captures a nail-biting rescue of fishermen enslaved at sea.
After directing last year’s Festival opener Borg vs McEnroe, Janus Metz teams with Sine Plambech for the World Premiere of Heartbound, a longitudinal study 10 years in the making about the trend of Thai women marrying Danish men. And several documentaries represent eclectic perspectives told from around the world, including: Rithy Panh’s Graves Without a Name, on the legacy of Cambodia’s genocide; Jawad Rhalib’s When Arabs Danced, on Muslim performers pushing boundaries; James Longley’s Angels Are Made Of Light, about a group of Afghan children and their teachers; and Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana , about a small town in America’s Midwest.
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018.
The Predator[/caption]
The Toronto International Film Festival this morning announced its explosive lineup of films in the 2018 Midnight Madness program that will screen every evening at 11:59pm.
“This year’s Midnight Madness slate promises another idiosyncratic confluence of established and emerging genre filmmakers,” said Peter Kuplowsky, Midnight Madness Programmer. “To complement some of the buzziest provocations on the festival circuit, I have sought to curate an eccentric array of World Premieres that demonstrate the dexterity of genre cinema as a canvas for both sublime satisfaction and stunning subversion. That includes the section’s two much-anticipated sequels, The Predator and Halloween, each of which boldly and brilliantly builds upon its mythic iconography to thrilling and surprising effect.”
Kuplowsky continues to put his fearless stamp on the program, starting with the opening film: the World Premiere of Shane Black’s The Predator, the director’s reinvention of the iconic film series. The lineup will also feature the highly anticipated World Premiere of Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis. The program closes with the North American Premiere of 
Jamie-Lynn Sigler[/caption]
Jamie-Lynn Sigler (“THE SOPRANOS,” “ENTOURAGE”) will star alongside Deanna Russo (“BEING HUMAN,” “KNIGHT RIDER”) in the upcoming horror film “HUNTING SEASON,” from Look At Me Films. Bruce Davison, Sean Maher and Paula Garces have also joined the cast for the third film from genre director Megan Freels Johnston (“THE ICE CREAM TRUCK,” “REBOUND”).
Russo is set to play near-desperately single Piper opposite Jamie-Lynn (“THE SOPRANOS,” “ENTOURAGE”), who will play her roommate Abby, a street-smart social worker. Frequent Joss Whedon collaborator Sean Maher (“FIREFLY,” “MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING”) will play Piper’s dashing new boyfriend, James. When their romantic weekend together goes awry, Abby (Sigler) must track her to his family’s hunting lodge before it’s too late. The real danger in this film isn’t being chased in the woods by a psycho in a mask—it’s the 1%.
Bruce Davison (“X-MEN,” “INSIDIOUS”) is set to play James’ father, a wealthy hunter whose desires have gone beyond “big game” and Paula Garces (“HAROLD AND KUMAR”) also joins the cast alongside frequent Johnston collaborator Hilary Barraford (“GO FOR SISTERS,” “UNITED STATES OF TARA”), who also serves as executive producer.
Johnston’s previous film THE ICE CREAM TRUCK, a horror comedy about a bored housewife, was released last year to critical acclaim. HUNTING SEASON will continue Johnston’s series of films that explore the unique fears that women face in today’s society—a departure from typical indie horror fare, which often looks only at the part (or parts) rather than the whole woman. HUNTING SEASON is set to shoot this fall.
Zion Clark appears in ZION by Floyd Russ | photo by Gregory Wilson[/caption]
Netflix released the trailer for the Zion, a gripping portrait of Zion Clark, a young wrestler born without legs who grew up in foster care. The documentary short, premiered earlier this year at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and launches globally on Netflix on August 10.
Zion is a gripping portrait of Zion Clark, a young wrestler born without legs who grew up in foster care. Clark began wrestling in second grade against his able-bodied peers. The physical challenge became a therapeutic outlet and gave him a sense of family. Moving from foster home to foster home, wrestling became the only constant thing in his childhood. The Netflix original documentary short is directed by Floyd Russ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWo0MN_tY1E
Gravitas Ventures has released the trailer for the indie siblings rivalry comedy Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks by Josh Crockett. The film opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on August 17th, and On-Demand on September 4th.
Estranged brother and sister, Marcus and Michelle Brinks (Scott Rodgers and Kristin Slaysman) reunite after the sudden death of their parents, a saintly pair of doctors-without-borders they barely knew and never liked. The homecoming goes haywire when the siblings choose to revel in dysfunction rather than face the grief of losing a family they thought they didn’t need.