Directed and produced by award-winning documentarian Susan Lacy, Jane Fonda in Five Acts is an intimate look at Oscar(R)-winner Jane Fonda singular journey, drawing on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she’s done it all in the public eye. Jane Fonda in Five Acts debuts Monday, September 24 (8:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Jane Fonda has been vilified as Hanoi Jane, lusted after as Barbarella and heralded as a beacon of the women’s movement. This film goes to the heart of who she really is, a blend of deep vulnerability, magnetism, naiveté and bravery, revealing a life transformed over time.
The documentary draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. She explores the pain of her mother’s suicide, her father’s emotional unavailability, 30 years of an eating disorder and three marriages to highly visible, yet diametrically opposed, men. Jane Fonda in Five Acts also includes interviews with family and friends, as well as rare home movies and verité footage of the 80-year-old Fonda’s busy life today at, as she puts it, “the beginning of my last act.”
Where “girls” of her generation were raised to be passive and compliant, Fonda has always seemed like very much “her own woman.” But her memories reveal the extent to which she was defined and controlled by the desires, ambitions, and fortunes of the powerful men in her life, and how much her own secret insecurities, unresolved anxieties and impulsive actions often prevented her from being the person she aspired to be.
Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, producer Paula Weinstein and former spouses Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, among others, the first four acts of Fonda’s life are named after the four men who shared – and hugely influenced – her personal and professional ambitions. The fifth act is named after Fonda herself, as she finally confronts her demons, reconnects with her family and resumes a successful career as both an actress and an activist, entirely on her own terms.
Fonda recalls growing up “in the shadow of a national monument” in the form of her father, Henry. One of the most beloved actors of his time, the elder Fonda was a distant father in private, neglecting his family and having an affair while her mother descended into mental anguish that led to tragedy.
Fonda’s name and good looks brought her modeling gigs and a chance to study acting with Lee Strasberg, but “it never felt real,” she recalls. She impulsively went to France to experience the cinematic revolution of the French New Wave, and married director Roger Vadim, agreeing to live a “heady and hedonistic” life and reluctantly allowing herself to become a sex object with films like “Barbarella.”
Fonda’s proximity to leftist politics in Paris inspired an awakening about America’s role in Vietnam. Despite being a new mother, she threw herself into anti-war activism, eventually earning the nickname “Hanoi Jane” and a place in the crosshairs of the Nixon administration, and meeting her second husband, activist and organizer Tom Hayden.
“I’m proud of most of what I did,” Fonda recalls of the period when she became a divisive political figure, “but very sorry for some of what I did.” While her acting career soared in films like “Klute” and “Coming Home,” she lived a deliberately stripped-down life with Hayden and their son, Troy Garity (who recalls the family arriving at the Oscars in a station wagon), funneling just as much energy into Hayden’s career and ambitions as her own. She produced an exercise video to raise money for their political work, only to see “Jane Fonda’s Workout” become the best-selling home video to date.
With a newfound sense of purpose, Fonda began to confront her chronic discontent, leaving Hayden, going “cold turkey” on a lifelong eating disorder, learning more about her mother’s life and death and fostering an emotionally creative reunion with her father on the film “On Golden Pond.” Buoyed by the affection of third husband, billionaire mogul Ted Turner, she went into semi-retirement, until she recognized that she still had more to contribute and finally struck out on her own.
Today, still challenging herself creatively and still active politically, Jane Fonda continues to demonstrate that there is no limit to the possibilities in a life full of self-determination, honesty and hard work.
Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of the celebrated WNET series “American Masters,” which is shown on PBS nationwide. She has won countless awards, and has produced and directed a broad library of acclaimed films exploring the lives of America’s most enduring cultural icons. Her previous HBO documentary, “Spielberg,” debuted on the network in Oct. 2017 and was recently nominated for an Emmy(R) in the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.-
JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS, The Story of the Cultural Icon, Debuts September 24 on HBO
Directed and produced by award-winning documentarian Susan Lacy, Jane Fonda in Five Acts is an intimate look at Oscar(R)-winner Jane Fonda singular journey, drawing on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she’s done it all in the public eye. Jane Fonda in Five Acts debuts Monday, September 24 (8:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Jane Fonda has been vilified as Hanoi Jane, lusted after as Barbarella and heralded as a beacon of the women’s movement. This film goes to the heart of who she really is, a blend of deep vulnerability, magnetism, naiveté and bravery, revealing a life transformed over time.
The documentary draws on 21 hours of interviews with Fonda, who speaks candidly about her life and her missteps. She explores the pain of her mother’s suicide, her father’s emotional unavailability, 30 years of an eating disorder and three marriages to highly visible, yet diametrically opposed, men. Jane Fonda in Five Acts also includes interviews with family and friends, as well as rare home movies and verité footage of the 80-year-old Fonda’s busy life today at, as she puts it, “the beginning of my last act.”
Where “girls” of her generation were raised to be passive and compliant, Fonda has always seemed like very much “her own woman.” But her memories reveal the extent to which she was defined and controlled by the desires, ambitions, and fortunes of the powerful men in her life, and how much her own secret insecurities, unresolved anxieties and impulsive actions often prevented her from being the person she aspired to be.
Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, producer Paula Weinstein and former spouses Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, among others, the first four acts of Fonda’s life are named after the four men who shared – and hugely influenced – her personal and professional ambitions. The fifth act is named after Fonda herself, as she finally confronts her demons, reconnects with her family and resumes a successful career as both an actress and an activist, entirely on her own terms.
Fonda recalls growing up “in the shadow of a national monument” in the form of her father, Henry. One of the most beloved actors of his time, the elder Fonda was a distant father in private, neglecting his family and having an affair while her mother descended into mental anguish that led to tragedy.
Fonda’s name and good looks brought her modeling gigs and a chance to study acting with Lee Strasberg, but “it never felt real,” she recalls. She impulsively went to France to experience the cinematic revolution of the French New Wave, and married director Roger Vadim, agreeing to live a “heady and hedonistic” life and reluctantly allowing herself to become a sex object with films like “Barbarella.”
Fonda’s proximity to leftist politics in Paris inspired an awakening about America’s role in Vietnam. Despite being a new mother, she threw herself into anti-war activism, eventually earning the nickname “Hanoi Jane” and a place in the crosshairs of the Nixon administration, and meeting her second husband, activist and organizer Tom Hayden.
“I’m proud of most of what I did,” Fonda recalls of the period when she became a divisive political figure, “but very sorry for some of what I did.” While her acting career soared in films like “Klute” and “Coming Home,” she lived a deliberately stripped-down life with Hayden and their son, Troy Garity (who recalls the family arriving at the Oscars in a station wagon), funneling just as much energy into Hayden’s career and ambitions as her own. She produced an exercise video to raise money for their political work, only to see “Jane Fonda’s Workout” become the best-selling home video to date.
With a newfound sense of purpose, Fonda began to confront her chronic discontent, leaving Hayden, going “cold turkey” on a lifelong eating disorder, learning more about her mother’s life and death and fostering an emotionally creative reunion with her father on the film “On Golden Pond.” Buoyed by the affection of third husband, billionaire mogul Ted Turner, she went into semi-retirement, until she recognized that she still had more to contribute and finally struck out on her own.
Today, still challenging herself creatively and still active politically, Jane Fonda continues to demonstrate that there is no limit to the possibilities in a life full of self-determination, honesty and hard work.
Susan Lacy is the creator and former executive producer of the celebrated WNET series “American Masters,” which is shown on PBS nationwide. She has won countless awards, and has produced and directed a broad library of acclaimed films exploring the lives of America’s most enduring cultural icons. Her previous HBO documentary, “Spielberg,” debuted on the network in Oct. 2017 and was recently nominated for an Emmy(R) in the category of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
-
Steve McQueen-Great Escape Doc “THE COOLEST GUY MOVIE EVER” Sets Digital Release Date [Trailer]
From filmmaker and film historian Chris Espenan comes The Coolest Guy Movie Ever — a fascinating forensic documentary about the making of the classic World War II adventure film The Great Escape — to DVD and digital HD from Virgil Films on August 21, 2018, after a special screening earlier this year at Marché du film in Cannes.
Before Evans, Hemsworth, and Downey Jr. there was McQueen, Garner, and Bronson. These men represented what it meant to be tough guys in the 1960s, and they had the acting chops to play the toughest characters around – including the real life airmen who pulled off one of the most improbable escapes in war history.
The filming locations of the enormously popular World War II adventure The Great Escape have become enshrined over the years by film buffs and historians alike, forever changing the landscape of the small German towns that once played host to these Hollywood heavyweights. Now for the first time, Filmmaker Chris Espenan set out to visit all of the locations in Germany where the 1963 film was made, while compiling facts, behind-the-scenes stories, and inside information on how the film was produced.
From visiting Geisel Gastag Studios in Munich to the Bavarian town of Füssen, Espenan assembled a unique team of cameramen, historians, film buffs, and local experts who painstakingly found the exact spots where actors Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum, and others toiled in the summer of 1962.
Uncovering treasures such as footage from a German television news shoot — which included a rare interview on the set with Steve McQueen — to getting first person interviews from the locals who were there during filming, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever is a true labor of love, fashioned by filmmakers who exult The Great Escape as one of the most memorable World War II movies ever made, featuring one of the greatest casts ever assembled, and for many, indeed, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever.
“The Great Escape is my favorite film of all time,” said Producer Steve Rubin. “It is the first film I started researching for my book ‘Combat Films 1945-2010’, the subject of my 1993 documentary Return to The Great Escape, and the reason I was nominated for Best Classic Commentary in 2004 for The Great Escape: Special Edition. When filmmaker Chris Espenan came to me with the idea for The Coolest Guy Movie Ever, I literally dropped everything to help him.”
Executive Producer and Virgil Films CEO Joe Amodei echoed Rubin’s sentiments when he said “As a young boy exploring the big wide world of motion pictures for the first time The Great Escape excited me, thrilled me and cemented a love for movies that has stayed with me forever. This is the film that started it all.”
-
Mischa Barton Stars in Horror Film THE BASEMENT in Theaters this September [Trailer]
Mischa Barton (“The OC”, The Sixth Sense) stars in The Basement, a unique new horror film from Brian M.Conley and Nathan Ives. The film cast also includes Jackson Davis, Cayleb Long, Tracie Thoms, Bailey Anne Borders and Sarah Nicklin.
Craig is abducted and wakes up in a basement. His captor, Bill, is a twisted serial killer who wishes to reenact his own capture, with Craig playing the part of Bill and Bill playing everyone else. As Bill tortures Craig, he cycles through a number of personas, all while Craig tries desperately to find a way into Bill’s pathology in order to save himself.
The Basement gets a theatrical and digital release on September 15 from Uncork’d Entertainment.
-
Eugene Jarecki’s Road-Trip Documentary THE KING on Elvis Presley as Metaphor for America in Theaters Now [Trailer]
Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes The King’s 1963 Rolls-Royce on a musical road trip across America in the new documentary The King. From Memphis to New York, Las Vegas, and beyond, the journey traces the rise and fall of Elvis as a metaphor for the country he left behind. In this groundbreaking film, Jarecki paints a visionary portrait of the state of the American dream and a penetrating look at how the hell we got here. A diverse cast of Americans, both famous and not, join the journey, including Alec Baldwin, Rosanne Cash, Chuck D, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, Van Jones, Mike Myers, and Dan Rather, among many others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csXtdjsqYLM
A cross-country road trip in Elvis’ Presley’s 1963 Rolls-Royce, The King is far more than a musical biopic; it’s a penetrating portrait of America at a critical time in the nation’s history and an unflinching investigation into the state of theAmerican dream.
Emmy, Peabody, and Two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, The House I Live In) helms this odyssey, retro-fitting Elvis’ Rolls to serve as a vehicle –both literal and figurative –for the journey.
“I set out in Elvis’ car,” says Jarecki, “because he’s the poster child of what we’re taught to think of as the American dream, right? The poor country boy who rises like a rocket and ends up a king. But from there, it gets more complicated, for Elvis and America. For Elvis’ dream ended in a tragedy of lost authenticity, addiction, and self-destruction. And, at this point, I don’t think I need to tell anyone what a tangled mess America has become. But how did this happen? And is there, in the demise of Elvis, a cautionary tale for his country? For the world?”
To investigate these questions, The King traces Elvis’ rise and fall from the Deep South to New York, Las Vegas, and countless points between. Alongside this, the film examines America in parallel, from her auspicious founding to her own struggles with excess power up to the acute challenges of today. This was always Jarecki’s intent, but he could never have anticipated the election of Donald Trump, which happened in mid-production and sent a shock wave through the filmmaking process.
“From the start,” Jarecki explains, “Elvis was a metaphor for the best and worst of America. This was never going to be a puff piece but a cautionary allegory:power and money compromised Elvis’ life and authenticity and did the same to the democratic health of his country. As I went along, the American dream itself came into question. What had it ever been? For whom was it true? For whom not? Suddenly, when a billionaire oligarch was elevated to high office, the story became a warning siren of national, and even global, concern.”
“There’s a conversation going on in the United States that’s much broader and much deeper than what you might imagine from reading news reports,” adds Executive Producer Steven Soderbergh. “A large portion of the country feels that we are at some kind of inflection point, but is unsure what it means, where it’s going, what should be done about it. I think for anybody with just a passing interest in culture, generally speaking,The King is a very detailed, high-resolution snapshot of this conversation that’s evolving in the United States right now.”
Over thousands of miles, a wide spectrum of Americans –famous and not –join the journey, including ALEC BALDWIN, EMMYLOU HARRIS, CHUCK D, MIKE MYERS, M WARD, VAN JONES, and ETHAN HAWKE, among others. “Poetically, we wanted the film’s cast of characters to reflect the rich tapestry of the American family, expressing themselves in words and, at times, in song inside Elvis’ Rolls.The King is both an Elvis film and a film about the American experience, so we chose people who could speak to either of these in a deep and authentic way.”
Weaving the sights and sounds of Elvis’ own music and films with soaring live performances from artists as varied as Nashville phenom Emi Sunshine, Mississippi bluesman Leo Bud Welch, New York City rapper Immortal Technique, and the gospel stylings of Memphis Stax Music Academy, The King opens doors toward a deeper more complex discourse on America’s identity and path forward.
“I was drawn to the project because the basic premise of the film is so clean—America has reached its ‘Fat Elvis’ years,” adds co-writer CHRISTOPHER ST. JOHN. “Yet the possibilities for making it are so endless. You can start anywhere. There’s no corner of the country that hasn’t been touched in some way by Elvis, and there’s no person who doesn’t have a strong opinion on the current state of the nation. Ultimately, it’s a metaphor that empowers people to speak eloquently about their concerns for the country.”
“It has a wonderful kaleidoscopic quality that I think is not only unique to Eugene, but also, I think unique to the country,” says STEVEN SODERBERGH. “I don’t know of any other country would allow for the level of exploration that the United States provides just strictly because of its geography. So the idea of Eugene taking Elvis’ Rolls-Royce and driving through the country to talk to people, that’s a very specifically American movie idea. And I think would only work in America.”
“From our first conversation about the film and from his previous work, I knew Eugene was never going to make a standard Elvis biopic or clumsy polemic. But this film is brilliant and essential,” says Executive Producer ROSANNE CASH. “The imagery and interviews so perfectly dovetail that it’s like an epic poem, a narrative ballad, a piece of music that makes us deeply contemplate the state of America. I am thrilled so show it to the world for the conversations it will inspire.”
From countless of his subjects, Jarecki heard the same sentiment –that the American Dream was a thing of the past, something for which people felt an overriding nostalgia.While this resonated with him, he began over time to question his premise. Strangely, his vision became more hopeful as he finished the film.
“After Trump’s inauguration, I guess for a moment I thought that the country had indeed perhaps died on the toilet, choked by our addiction to power, money, and excess. But in the months since, I’ve seen a significant resurgence in public engagement. The body politic is, to some degree, rejecting the transplant of an oligarchic, predatory capitalist into the Oval Office. This is heartening and made me think that maybe all is not lost. It also made me think that perhaps my premise was a bit naïve. The idea that we –and Elvis –were young once and beautiful but then lost our way is dangerously idealistic. It might be more accurate to say that America and Elvis were always imperfect–works-in-progress, full of greatness and shortcomings. While Elvis was ultimately by consumed his, we seem to be very much at work on ours, and there is clearly much work left to wake up tomorrow and do.”
NOW PLAYING IN DOZENS OF MOVIE THEATERS NATIONWIDE
Coming Soon 8/26/2018 Montgomery AL Capri Theater
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Scottsdale AZ Harkins Theatres
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Sedona AZ Mary D. Fisher Theater
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Santa Barbara Ca Riviera Theatre
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Claremont CA Laemmles Claremont 5
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Pasadena CA Laemmles Playhouse 7
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Irvine CA Edwards Westpark 8
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Laguna Niguel CA Rancho Niguel 7
Now Playing 7/20/2018 San Diego CA Ken Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 San Francisco CA Opera Plaza Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Palm Springs CA Palm Desert 10
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Santa Rosa CA Summerfield
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Long Beach CA Art Theater
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Modesto CA State Theater
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Encinitas CA La Paloma Theater
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Arcara CA Miniplex Theater
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Denver CO Landmark Mayan
Coming Soon 8/1/2018 Boulder CO Dairy Center for the Arts
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Hartford CT Real Art Ways
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 St. Augustine FL Corazon Cinema Cafe
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Miami FL Bill Cosford Cinema
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Boca Raton FL Living Room Theatres
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Delray FL Movie of Delray
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Miami FL Miami Beach Cinematheque
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Lake Worth FL Movies of Lake Worth
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Lake Worth FL Lake Worth Playhouse
Coming Soon 9/28/2018 Tallahassee FL Tallahassee Film Society
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Atlanta GA Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
Coming Soon 8/2/2018 Tybee Island GA Tybee Post Theater
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Chicago IL Music Box Theatre
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Normal IL Art Theater
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Chicago IL AMC River East 21
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Barrington IL AMC South Barrington 30
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Wilmette IL Wilmette Theater
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Indianapolis IN Landmark Keystone
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Olathe KS AMC Studio 30
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Louisville KY AMC Stonybrook 20
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Baton Rouge LA Manship Theater
Now Playing 7/22/2018 Beverly MA Cabot Street Cinema
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 West Newton MA West Newton Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Baltimore MD The Charles
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Old Greenbelt MD Old Greenbelt Theatre
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Bucksport ME Alamo Theatre
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Portland ME The Nickelodeon
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Grand Rapids MI Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Traverse City MI State Theatre
Now Playing 7/22/2018 Three Rivers MI Riveria Theater
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Ann Arbor MI Michigan Theater
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Kansas City MO Tivoli Manor Square
Now Playing 7/20/2018 St. Louis MO Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Winston-Salem NC Aperture
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Asheville NC Grail Moviehouse
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Charlotte NC Regal Theatre
Coming Soon 8/26/2018 Cary NC The Cary Theater
Coming Soon 8/11/2018 Portsmouth NH The Music Hall
Coming Soon 7/28/2018 Atlantic City NJ Hard Rock Casino
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Albquerque NM UA High Ridge 8
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Santa Fe NM Center for Contemporary Arts
Now Playing 7/22/2018 Taos NM Taos Center for Art
Coming Soon 7/30/2018 Albuquerque NM Guild Cinema
Now Playing 6/22/2018 New York NY IFC Center
Now Playing 7/19/2018 Hudson NY Time & Space LTD
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Albany NY Spectrum 8
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Pelham NY Pelham Picture House
Coming Soon 8/10/2018 Schenectady NY Proctors
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Columbus OH Gateway Film Center
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Cleveland OH Cedar Lee Theatre
Coming Soon 8/27/2018 Dayton OH Neon Movies
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Tulsa OK Circle Cinema
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Toronto ON Bloor Hot Docs
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Portland OR Living Room Theaters – Portland
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Ashland OR Varsity Theatre 5
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Eugene OR Broadway Metro
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Salem OR Salem Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Pittsburgh PA Regent Square Theatre
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Charleston SC Terrace Theater
Now Playing 7/13/2018 Memphis TN Malco Studio on the Square
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Knoxville TN Regal Downtown West Cinema 8
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Austin TX Arbor at Great Oaks
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Dallas TX Angelika Film Center- Dallas
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Plano TX Angelika Film Center Plano
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Katy TX Alamo Drafthouse – LaCenterra
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Lubbock TX Alamo Drafthouse – Lubbock
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 El Paso TX Alamo Drafthouse – Montecillo
Coming Soon 7/27/2018 Harrisonburg VA Court Square Theater
Coming Soon 8/1/2018 Norfolk VA Naro Expanded Cinema
Coming Soon 8/3/2018 Charlottesville VA Violet Crown Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Burlington VT Roxy
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Winthrop WA The Barnyard Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Vancouver WA Kiggins Theatre
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Bellingham WA Pickford Film Center
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Olympia WA Capitol Cinema
Now Playing 7/20/2018 Port Orchard WA Dragonfly Cinema
Coming Soon 8/17/2018 Camas WA Liberty Theatre
Coming Soon 8/21/2018 Tacoma WA Grand Theater
Coming Soon 8/24/2018 Milwaukee WI Oriental Theater
-
SXSW Award-Winning Documentary PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE Opens in Theaters on November 30 [Trailer]
[caption id="attachment_28168" align="aligncenter" width="1180"]
People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
People’s Republic of Desire, the winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW, is the untold story of China’s live-streaming economy, and the search for fame, fortune and human connection in a virtual world. The documentary directed by technology executive-turned-filmmaker Hao Wu, will be released in theaters on November 30.
In an increasingly digital universe where live streamers earn as much as $200,000 a month, can virtual relationships replace real-life human connection? People’s Republic of Desire tells the stories of two such online stars who have risen from isolation to fame and fortune on NASDAQ-listed YY, China’s largest live streaming platform.
Live-streaming showrooms have become virtual gathering places for hundreds of millions – from the super rich who lavish these online stars with digital gifts, to poor migrant workers who exhaust meager savings idolizing them. All of these characters are brought together in a series of bizarre online talent competitions, where they discover that happiness in their virtual world may be as elusive as in the real one.
-
Gold Coast International Film Festival to Honor Actor Robert Wagner
Actor Robert Wagner has been named the recipient of the Gold Coast International Film Festival’s second annual Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award. Presentation of the Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award will be on October 24, 2018.
Born on February 10, 1930, in Detroit, Michigan, Robert Wagner has amassed an impressive list of feature and television films, along with three hit television series over a career that has spanned nearly seven decades. He made his film debut in 1950 in The Happy Years, and soon after was put under contract with 20th Century Fox. At Fox, his first film was in 1951 in a supporting role in Halls of Montezuma, a World War II movie starring Richard Widmark. Cast by Darryl F. Zanuck as a crippled soldier in the 1952 film With a Song in My Heart, Mr. Wagner’s performance brought immediate public reaction to the studio. The rest, as it is said, is history.
Film legend Spencer Tracy saw Mr. Wagner in Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef and requested him in the role of his son in Broken Lance. Impressed with his acting skills, Tracy cast him as his brother in The Mountain. Among Robert Wagner’s numerous film credits includes Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, The Pink Panther, The Curse of the Pink Panther, Midway, The Towering Inferno, Banning, Harper, Prince Valiant, The True Story of Jesse James, and All the Fine Young Cannibals. He re-created his role of Number Two, the villainous henchman to Dr. Evil, the archenemy of Mike Myers’ title character in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
As a television star, Mr. Wagner has starred in three long-running hit series, It Takes a Thief, with Fred Astaire, Switch, with Eddie Albert and Sharon Gless and Hart to Hart, with Stefanie Powers. He was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Alexander Mundy in It Takes a Thief. He also starred with Jaclyn Smith in the top-rated miniseries Windmills of the Gods, based on Sidney Sheldon’s best-selling novel; with Angie Dickinson in the miniseries Pearl with Audrey Hepburn in Love among Thieves; with Lesley Anne Down in Indiscreet and in North and South III with Joanne Woodward in A Kiss Before Dying; and with Elizabeth Taylor in There Must Be a Pony, which he also executive-produced. He also appeared in the memorable Seinfeld episode, “The Yada, Yada, Yada,” as Dr. Abbot.
Longtime close friend, Larry King, who also serves on the nominating committee for the Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award said of the nomination, “Robert Wagner is most deserving of this award.”
Named for the man who has represented some of Hollywood’s finest stars, the Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award pays tribute to film legends who may not have been appropriately honored during their lifetimes, and whose legacy is in danger of becoming forgotten by newer generations of filmgoers.
Burton Moss, for whom the award is named, represented Hollywood legends over an illustrious career that has spanned several decades. Moss’s client roster has included Bette Davis, Sidney Poitier, Robert Vaughn, Tom Cruise, Mia Farrow, Juliet Mills, Hugh O’Brian, Cliff Robertson, Tippi Hedren, William Shatner, Dyan Cannon, Carroll O’ Connor, Martin Landau, Sally Kellerman, Dina Merrill, Connie Stevens, Tom Bosley, Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Dorothy McGuire, Charles Bickford, Victor Jory, Sally Kellerman, Carrie Snodgress, Larry King, Elizabeth Montgomery, Constance Towers, Ruth Roman, Cyd Charisse, June Allyson, Jack Valenti, and Hollywood’s “Love Goddess,” Rita Hayworth, who posthumously received the inaugural Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award in October 2017.
The Burton Moss Hollywood Golden Era Award, itself an original work of art, was created by renowned sculptor Edwina Sandys, who is a granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill. The first award was accepted by Hayworth’s daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, at the presentation made at a private reception held at the New York City home of Ms. Sandys.
“American culture owes a debt of gratitude to The Pioneers of the film and television industry for creating out of whole cloth a form of entertainment that is accessible to the ordinary individual and that has had the potential to educate and transform the thinking of millions of people,” said Ms. Gil. “The producers, directors, actors and technicians who dreamed, worked, invented, reinvented, and developed what we know today as Hollywood were the greats of this industry, upon whose shoulders today’s stars stand. Robert Wagner has the long view of this pond, having served in film and television as a leading man and talented actor. He worked alongside the greatest in his profession because he was one of them. It is our honor to recognize him with this award.”
-
Coming Soon: Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sasha Lane Star in Supernatural Thriller DANIEL ISN’T REAL
Principal photography has begun in New York City on the film Daniel Isn’t Real, the second feature from writer/director Adam Egypt Mortimer (Some Kind of Hate).
Patrick Schwarzenegger (“The Long Road Home”, Midnight Sun) and Miles Robbins (Blockers, David Gordon Green’s Halloween) star alongside Sasha Lane (American Honey, Hearts Beat Loud), and Hannah Marks (“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”).
In Daniel Isn’t Real, troubled college freshman Luke (Robbins) suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel (Schwarzenegger) to help him cope. Charismatic and full of manic energy, Daniel helps Luke to achieve his dreams, before pushing him to the very edge of sanity and into a desperate struggle for control of his mind — and his soul.
The film is based on the novel In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw who co-wrote the script with Mortimer.
Elijah Wood, Co-Founder and Partner of SpectreVision / Company X said, “Daniel Isn’t Real is a stylized, sexy, and emotionally nuanced supernatural thriller. A terrifying look into the things that everyone hides beneath the surface. We’re very excited to begin our partnership with ACE Pictures on such a visionary project.”
“ACE Pictures Entertainment is tremendously excited to fund Daniel Isn’t Real, our first film collaboration with SpectreVision / Company X. After considering literally over a hundred film projects, the story and concept of this film is exceptionally unique and extraordinarily imaginative. Our great collaborator, the dynamic team of SpectreVision, as well as the visionary style of director Adam Egypt Mortimer prompted us to come on board immediately. We are thrilled to begin our long-term partnership”, said Johnny Chang, Managing Director, ACE Pictures Entertainment.
Coming off the heels of their successful premiere of MANDY at Cannes and Sundance, Daniel Isn’t Real will be produced by SpectreVision’s Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Lisa Whalen, and Elijah Wood. Timur Bekbosunov, Johnny Chang, Emma Lee and Peter Wong will executive produce for ACE Pictures; Stacy Jorgensen will executive produce for SpectreVision.
-
Indie Memphis Announces 2018 Black Creators Forum, Alex Huggins Wins Residency
Indie Memphis Film Festival continues it commitment to supporting black filmmakers, present and future, with the new Black Creators Forum, running November 1st and 2nd at the Hattiloo Theatre. The Black Creators Forum will run before and parallel with the opening of the Indie Memphis Film Festival (November 1st – 5th, 2018), and is a two-day symposium of workshops and invited speakers led by notable black filmmakers and critics with a wide interdisciplinary range, including fine art, music, and online content. The goal is to explore ways black filmmaking can find creativity and sustainability from other mediums, and to ease the barrier of entry for black artists who would like to work in film.
The event will be programmed by Indie Memphis Senior Programmer Miriam Bale and produced by Jason Farmer, Indie Memphis board member and owner of Black Lens Productions. “With the rich cultural, arts and musical legacy of Memphis as the backdrop, creating vibrant stories in our own tenor and tone on film is a natural, organic progression,” said Farmer, ”The Black Creators Forum in conjunction with the Indie Memphis Film Festival was created to give voice and vision to empower artists who can meet a growing demand for new media.”
The two-day event of closed door discussions will conclude with a public pitch event on November 2nd, 2018. A dozen filmmakers will pitch projects, including finalists of the inaugural Indie Memphis Black Filmmaker Residency in Screenwriting program, as well as the winner of the Residency, Alex Huggins. Huggins will receive a $7500 unrestricted cash grant and a two month residency in Memphis to work on his feature film screenplay, Mason Dixon.
“There was an incredible range of subjects and tones among the finalists’ projects—from a coming-of-age period piece about pop culture just before Beyoncé to a perverse comedy adventure, best described as if John Waters were a queer woman. Ultimately the selection committee went with Alex Huggins and his strong vision as a writer-director,” said Bale. “But we want to see all these projects made. Our intention is that the Forum and its pitch event will bring these new talents to the attention of producers, funders, and future collaborators.”
The Residency finalists were decided by Indie Memphis staff and a board member from 106 applications, and the winner was decided by an independent selection committee of black film professionals.
2018 Recipient
Alex Huggins
Bio: Alex Huggins is a filmmaker and screenwriter from Salt Lake City, Utah. After a stint studying Architecture at Parsons School of Design in New York, and a brief period back home working in production through the Utah Film Commission, he returned to New York to act as an apprentice to Josh and Benny Safdie at their burgeoning studio Elara Pictures. Growing up in an immigrant household –raised by his Haitian mother and the youngest of three – Huggins recalls watching films from an early age, utilizing them to bridge the contrasting realities impressed upon him by his Caribbean influenced home life and the American West. In his work, Huggins exercises these contrasting realities via subversive themes in an effort to cast reconfigured historical context on a contemporary landscape. Huggins is currently working on his next film – a short entitled “Pennies” following a group of vampires in Harlem – while also writing collaboratively on multiple projects. Project, Mason Dixon: The film tells the story of Vanessa Pierre, a 20-year-old Haitian American, who becomes entangled in a convoluted historical mystery following the return of her estranged father to her mother’s home.2018 Finalists
Jon-Carlos Evans
Bio: Jon-Carlos Evans is a Berlin-based filmmaker, audiovisual artist and writer. A native of St. Louis, MO, he holds a B.A. in Film Production from Webster University-St. Louis and a MFA in Media Arts Production from the City College of New York. Under his musical alias Klaas von Karlos, Evans is also the founder of experimental-electronic collective ReVerse Bullets and creative director of the GLITCH performance series/music label. As Klaas von Karlos, he is a member of music projects BIINDS, Naked Sweatshop, and Divan Rouge. His previous works include the short films “Antithesis,” “Goodbye Brooklyn,” “Julya,” and “Salvation (Without You).” He is a recipient of the Eastman Kodak Student Grant (2006), the Aloha Accolade Award (2010, Honolulu International Festival), and the Silver Palm Award (2010, Mexico International Film Festival). His recently completed feature, All Tomorrow’s Children, continues to play in festivals after winning the Bronze Remi Award at Worldfest Houston and Best Narrative Film at the 2017 CUNY Film Festival. Project, The Lost Gods of Memphis: The Lost Gods of Memphis is a free jazz-noir, dark fairytale about a hidden society of Egyptian gods and goddesses based along the Mississippi River in the 21st century. When the sacred bull disappears, a group of four elderly, eccentric gods turned jazz musicians are enlisted to restore order.Natalie Frazier
Bio: Natalie Frazier is the director and writer of Cheetah & The Deathgoers. She is a proud Chicagoan, filmmaker and writer. She’s worked as a production assistant on MTV’s “Sweet Viscous” and “Catfish,” and “Brujos,” a web series. She graduated with a degree in Radio, Television and Film from Northwestern University in 2016. Project, Mr. Interlocutor: After years of attempting to entertain a world that just can’t seem to peg them, G, a scorned burlesque dancer, embarks on a different kind of tour — a farcical killing spree.Jeri Hilt
Bio: Jeri Hilt is a mixed media artist and filmmaker native to Louisiana. Her art reflects cosmologies, aesthetics, and cannons of thought from communities of color as she has experienced them this lifetime. Though much of her work has been regionally specific in space and time to southern Louisiana and the state’s coastal Wetlands; her art is created with intent to be both resonate and reflective of contemporary Black/Indigenous communities throughout the African Diaspora. Project, Five Million Marielles: After the assassination of Marielle Franco in 2018, Black and Indigenous Women in Brazil and throughout the African Diaspora create a campaign to “produce” five million Marielles by vowing to name their next immediate child-regardless of sex/gender-Marielle. Discreetly, they also vow to raise them according to her principles and humanistic philosophy-with the ultimate goal of changing the world completely in one generation.Amanda Layne Miller
Bio: Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Amanda Layne Miller is a writer, director, and part-time editor in Los Angeles, creating new worlds and complex characters in fantasy/sci-fi and coming-of-age narratives. She is passionate about inclusive representation in film, television, and digital media. She loves using dramatic and comedic elements to portray real life in bizarre ways, and is excited by the new opportunities and stories being told on television and new media services. Miller’s ultimate goal is to create content that reflects her personal worldview as a Black woman from the American South. In doing so, she also hopes to expand the range of identities represented on-screen and behind the scenes. She is currently a developing writer on an American/Chinese co-production, while serving as a Creative Assistant and writer at indie comic company Stranger Comics. She has previously interned for HBO West Coast Production in LA, MACRO in Hollywood, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment in LA, and HBO Creative Services in New York City. Project, Black Cherry: In 1985 Memphis, black and white communities bump heads and turn to chaos when head cheerleader Cherry Grace receives an invitation to Cotillion–the first black girl in the tradition’s long history.Ama Quao
Bio: Ama Quao is a first-generation African-American, screenwriter based in New York by way of Tennessee. A 2012 graduate of Brown University, she has interned and worked at A24, Billions on Showtime and Sweetbitter on Starz. A 2017 MADE IN NEW YORK Fellowship Semi-Finalist and recipient of the 2017 Jesse Thompkins III Emerging Storyteller Award, her comedic writing seeks to expand the representation of women of color in film and TV. Project, 1999: When Zeus, a first-generation African-American loses a pound of weed, the same day his type-A sister, Zola, wins two tickets to a Britney Spears concert, they realize they must work together if they want to make it to the concert alive.Final Selection Committee for Indie Memphis Black Filmmaker Residency in Screenwriting
Monica Cooper
Monica Cooper was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and reared in Pittsburgh. She studied Theater Arts at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, NC. While working as an actress and voice over artist in the Carolinas, she was frustrated at not being able to find good talent representation, so opened her own successful model and talent agency. After a move to Hollywood, she worked as Casting Assistant on films such as Posse (1993, Mario Van Peebles) and Friday (1995, F. Gary Gray). She has worked as Casting Director on films like Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso (1998). Currently Cooper is President of Make it Happen Entertainment, which develops film television and new media projects in the U.S. and internationally. Cooper is also the founder of the In-Focus Film Society, developing educational programs such as a recent series of panels and discussions on diversity at the Cannes Film Festival.Rooney Elmi
Rooney Elmi is the creator and managing editor of SVLLY(wood), a biannual print and digital movie magazine geared toward radical cinephilia. As the former director of development of Ohio Film Group, she handled acquisitions and marketing for the state-of-the-art post production studio and currently programs short films and documentaries for international cinema spaces and online platforms.Rob Williams
Rob Williams is a veteran Creative Executive and Producer who has worked with most major studios including Paramount, DreamWorks, and Disney/ABC, developing and shepherding many an award-winning projects through the production process. He is currently Senior Vice President of Theatrical Motion Pictures at JuVee Productions is an award-winning, artist-driven production company from Viola Davis and Julius Tennon. Prior to that he was a consultant to the CEO of Cape Town Film Studios in South Africa and instrumental in securing US Congressional support for a sustainable value chain consisting of training, production, distribution and complimentary media services linked between South Africa and the United States. During his tenure at Amblin, Williams worked as a Screenplay Editor on Amistad, Ants, and Deep Impact. Williams was also intimately involved in the development and production of the Michael Mann directed motion picture Ali. During his tenure, he worked closely with Oscar-winning Producer Graham King (Argo, The Town, The Departed) and Mann in developing several high-profile projects including Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, and the upcoming highly anticipated Ferrari to be directed by Mann. Image(pictured from top-left): Alex Huggins, Jon-Carlos Evans, Natalie Frazier, Jeri Hilt, Amanda Layne Miller, and Ama Quao.
-
Award-Winning Puppy Documentary PICK OF THE LITTER Opens in Theaters on August 31 [Trailer]
This has got to be among the cutest and sweetest documentaries ever. Pick of the Litter directed by Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, follows a litter of puppies from the moment they’re born and begin their quest to become guide dogs for the blind. The film World Premiered earlier this year at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to become an audience pleaser winning Audience Awards at multiple film festivals. Sundance Selects will release Pick of the Litter in theaters on August 31, 2018.
Cameras follow these pups through an intense two-year odyssey as they train to become dogs whose ultimate responsibility is to protect their blind partners from harm. Along the way, these remarkable animals rely on a community of dedicated individuals who train them to do amazing, life-changing things in the service of their human. The stakes are high and not every dog can make the cut. Only the best of the best. The pick of the litter.
-
See Official Poster for MADELINE’S MADELINE Starring Molly Parker, Miranda July, Helena Howard
The official poster is finally here for Madeline’s Madeline from writer/director Josephine Decker and starring Molly Parker, Miranda July, and Helena Howard. Oscilloscope Laboratories will release Madeline’s Madeline in theaters in New York on August 10th and Los Angeles on August 17th.
Madeline (newcomer Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_ezPTjSSPw
-
Rhode Island International Film Festival Celebrates 22nd Season with Over 290 Films
[caption id="attachment_31064" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY[/caption]
Over a six-day run, from August 7 to 12, 2018, the 22nd Annual Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival will screen 293 films that include 84 World/United States Premieres from 48 countries.
The festival will host the premieres of local films such as Pat Heywood and Jamil McGinnis’ “Fall River,” Clayton Vila’s “Back to Life: The Torin Yater-Wallace Story,” URI Film Professor, Reshad Kulenovic’s “Blood & Moonlight,” Selene Means’ “The Time Is Already,” Ali Migliore’s “After Her,” Denali Tiller’s “Tre Maison Dason,” Gene Pina’s “Warrior,” Tim Gray’s “Survivors of Malmedy: December 1944” and many, many more.
Starting on Tuesday, August 7th, a special year long “Celebration of Women in Film and Arts” will be launched (#WomenInTheArts). To celebrate this achievement, the Festival is dedicated this year’s event to Dr. Winifred E. Brownell, a groundbreaking educator and Dean Emerita of the Arts and Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. Her visionary work propelled the University to become a leading hub for film media studies and nurtured the Festival during its infancy, spurring it to become the internationally acclaimed event that it is today. The Festival is also establishing a $2,000 annual scholarship in her name that pays recognition to her career championing the arts and humanities at the University of Rhode Island and a leading female voice in higher education.
RIIFF is one of 10 Festivals in the world that is an Academy Award qualifier in the Live Action, Animation and Documentary Short categories and a qualifier with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
AWARDS
GILBERT STUART ARTISTIC VISION (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT) AWARD will be presented to Joseph M. Alves, an American film production designer. He designed the three mechanical sharks for the movie Jaws (1975). Alves also designed three features for Steven Spielberg, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and won the BAFTA for Best Art Direction for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The RIIFF SCREENPLAY COMPETITION AWARD will be presented to Barry Brennessel from Silver Spring, MD whose screenplay is entitled “ANH SANG.” The 2018 PRODUCER’S CIRCLE AWARDS are presented annually to members of the community who have actively worked to support and promote the mission of the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. This year’s recipients include: Michael Braca, photographer; Judge Frank Caprio, Municipal Judge and television personality; Dr. J. Scott Oberacker, RIIFF Educational Outreach Director; and Niko Stamatakos, business sponsor/supporterOPENING NIGHT LINEUP
TIGHT SPOT | Directed by: Kevin Haefelin | 4 min. Switzerland, USA, 2018 Shining the shoes of a walk-in customer, a shiner discovers his client’s dark secret. ZION | Directed By: Floyd Russ | 11 min. USA, 2017 Zion is a short documentary about the life of Zion Clark, a young wrestler who was born without legs and grew up in foster care. CAROLINE | Directed By: Celine Held and Logan George | 12 min. USA, 2018 When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day. FALL RIVER | Directed by: Pat Heywood and Jamil McGinnis | 7 min. USA, 2018 Through the intimate reflections of one extraordinary woman, Fall River tells the story of a family’s tragedy, the once-thriving city they inhabited, and how hope can blossom in unexpected places. In the search for closeness, for comfort, for history — what does it mean to be from somewhere? THE COLLAR | Directed by: Viktoria Runtsova | 23 min. Russian Federation, 2017 A modest young woman buys the new collar for her clothing. But the collar starts to rule her life leading to an important decision. MARGUERITE | Directed by: Marianne Farley | 19 min. Canada, 2017 An aging woman and her nurse develop a friendship that inspires her to unearth unacknowledged longing and thus help her make peace with her past. GEOFF | Directed by: Michael Rouse and Will Kenning | 20 min. United Kingdom, 2017 Bridging Fear with Love and Peanuts. TYRANNOSAURUS FUNK | Directed by: Sandra Boynton | 4 min. United States, 2017 A confident T. Rex singing about the particular joys of being king of the dinosaurs. FERN | Directed by: Johnny Kelly | 6 min. United Kingdom, 2017 A woman loses her husband, and finds a houseplant. ONE SMALL STEP | Directed by: Bobby Pontillas | 8 min. USA/China | 2018 Luna, a young Chinese American girl, dreams of becoming an astronaut. Supported by her humble father, Luna endeavors to make her dreams come true.WORKSHOPS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
A number of events that RIIFF will hold during the week are targeted toward helping novice and professional filmmakers improve and refine their skills. One of the most popular events is the annual RHODE ISLAND FILM FORUM, to be held on Thursday, August 9, at the Biltmore Hotel Ballroom in collaboration with the RI Film & Television Office, the University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media, Johnson and Wales University, Providence College, and Roger Williams University. This year’s special guest is director and production designer, Joe Alves (IMDB). Alves will receive the 2018 Gilbert Stuart Visionary Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. Joseph Alves is an American film production designer best known for his work on the third of the Jaws films, and for directing Jaws 3-D. Alves designed three features for Steven Spielberg, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and won the BAFTA for Best Art Direction for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Alves worked on Jaws 2 in the capacity of both production designer and as second unit director, and he was visual consultant on Carpenter’s Starman. The SCRIPTBIZ SCREENPLAY PITCH SEMINAR returns on Friday, August 10 for its 19th edition, showcasing this year’s Grand Prize Screenplay Competition winner “ANH SANG.” Barry Brennessel from Silver Spring, MD. The SCRIPTBIZ workshop is a great place for aspiring screenwriters looking to make an impact with their work by receiving constructive critique and advice from people with experience in the field. The director of the program, Andrew Lund, Esq. filmmaker and entertainment lawyer, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Integrated Media Arts MFA Program in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College of the City University of New York. The extensive list of panelists will include writer Chris Sparling, actor/director, Tribeca Film Festival Program Director, Sharon Badal; writer/director, Alfred Catalfo; and British actor/director, Freddie Fox. This year the Festival will re-launch its popular Morning “Coffee Talks” entitled “THE CREATIVE PROCESS IN 60 MINUTES: Journeys in Filmmaking” with leading directors, actors, writers, composers and members of the industry at the Hotel Providence. Audience members, and, up-and-coming filmmakers attending the Festival would have the opportunity to learn about the development and evolution of the films screened at the Festival, the process and journey filmmakers have taken to make it in the industry and the growing importance of the international box office. Additionally, on Thursday, August 9th at 8:00 p.m. Flickers’ acclaimed television series “doubleFEATURE,” will provide highlights of this year’s Festival and feature Dr. Winifred E. Brownell, for whom the Festival is dedicated this year. In a compelling interview with Steven Feinberg, audiences will learn how one person can make a difference. Now in its second year, the series is produced by Flickers in partnership with RI PBS and the Rhode Island Films and Television Office.FILM HIGHLIGHTS
THE ETRUSCAN SMILE Directed by: Mihal Brezis | 107 min. Switzerland, 2018 Starring acclaimed British actor Brian Cox as Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman who reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY Directed by: Miranda Bailey | 113 min. USA, 2018 A seventeen year-old boy blackmails his father after discovering he has a secret family. Starring two-time Emmy award-winner Anna Gunn, and Emmy award-winner Jim Gaffigan. FAKE TATTOOS | Directed by: Pascal Plante | 87 min. Canada, 2017 Theo spends his 18th birthday alone, getting drunk at a brutal punk rock show. There, he meets Mag, a marginal teenager who invites him to spend the night at her place. A love story unfolds between them, but Theo has to move to a small town at the end of the summer, far away from a painful past. MAXIMILIAN (English Version) | Directed by: Nicolas Greinacher | 76 min. France, Switzerland, 2016 With an IQ of 149+, 13-year old Maximilian Janisch is Switzerland’s most famous highly gifted child. After passing the final secondary-school examinations in Mathematics at just 9 years old, Maximilian has jumped forward 3 grades and is now attending Mathematical courses at University level. The film follows Maximilian and his parents through their high-energy daily life and reflects on what it means to be a child prodigy. Maximilian Janisch will be in attendance. TRE MAISON DASON Directed by: Denali Tiller | 90 min. USA 2017 A story of boyhood marked by the criminal justice system and what it means to become a man in America, TRE MAISON DASAN explores parental incarceration through the eyes of three boys. eHero | Directed by: Joseph Procopio | 85 min. Canada, 2018 An up-and-coming video gamer faces his greatest challenge yet as he and his team must overcome a fiery gaming superstar, as well as their own battling egos, to win the ultimate video game championship. Featuring Sean Astin. THE MAESTRO Directed by: Adam Cushman | 94 min. USA, 2017 After the Second World War, budding film composer Jerry Herst moves to Hollywood to study with infamous master teacher Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Starring Xander Berkeley. ANJELICA HUSTON ON JAMES JOYCE: A SHOUT IN THE STREET | Directed by: Kieron Walsh | 59 min. Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, USA, United Kingdom, 2018 Anjelica Huston played the lead female role in the movie adaptation by her father, John Huston, of James Joyce’s famous short story, ‘The Dead’. It was the last of the classic movies that the legendary director made, and is regarded as the finest adaptation of Joyce’s work ever produced. In this film, Anjelica uses her background – as a child in Ireland and as an acclaimed actor – to tell the extraordinary story of the life and work of the celebrated, (and, at times, infamous) Irish novelist. She tells of his impoverished childhood in Dublin; of the chaotic years when he struggled to establish himself as a writer of originality and distinction; of the world wide celebrity that followed the appearance of his great novel, ‘Ulysses’; of his epic struggles against censorship and ill health: and of his final desperate flight from the Nazi occupation of France which threatened the life of his only grandchild. As Anjelica relates Joyce’s personal and creative history, other distinguished writers – such as David Simon, John Banville, Jeffrey Eugenides and Edna O’Brien – help to explain why his influence has been so extensive and so profound. REINVENTING POWER: AMERICA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY BOOM Directed by: Tony Valentino | 49 min. USA, 2018 Takes us across the country to hear directly from the people making our clean energy future achievable. These individuals are working to rebuild what’s broken, rethink what’s possible, and revitalize communities. Highlighted among others is the Block Island Wind Farm. SECRET INGREDIENTS Directed by: Amy S. Hart, Jeffrey M. Smith| 80 min. USA | 2018 | 1 hr 20 min Compelling stories of people who regain their health and transform their lives after identifying the ‘secret ingredients’ in their food, and making a bold commitment to avoid them. BACK ROADS Directed by: Alex Pettyfer | 80 min. USA, 2018 A young man cares for his sisters after their mother is imprisoned for murdering their abusive father. When he strikes up an affair with a married woman, long-dormant family secrets bubble to the surface in this noir thriller. Featuring actor/director Alex Pettyfer. INTELLIGENT LIVES Directed by: Dan Habib | 70 min. USA, 2018 Three pioneering young adults with intellectual disabilities — Micah, Naieer, and Naomie — challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce. Featuring noted actor, Chris Cooper. AMERICAN RELAPSE * | Directed by: Pat Adam McGee Linkenhelt | 105 min. USA, 2018 AMERICAN RELAPSE is a feature documentary about the ripped-from-the-headlines heroin epidemic and the corrupt underground rehab industry that has sprung up around it in Southern Florida. This, on-the-ground documentary follows the day-to-day struggle of recovering addicts Allie and Frankie attempting to place addicts in treatment, but can they stay clean themselves? ON KILLER ROBOTS Directed by: Lorraine Nicholson | 15 min. USA, 2018 On July 7th 2016, US Law Enforcement used robotic technology to confront and kill a suspect for the first time. Through the mouths of its fictional characters, ‘On Killer Robots’ explores the morality behind this historic step towards automation. HERO Directed by: Freddie Fox | 18 min. United Kingdom, 2018 An isolated young boy and a decaying old film star are brought together by their shared love of the silver screen – and for a brief moment its magic seeps into their lives. With Charles Dance, James Norton and Jessica Brown Findlay. On Saturday, August 11th at 12:15, Metcalf Auditorium, RISD Museum, the Festival presents a powerful, thought-provoking and inspiring program entitled: THE POWER OF FILM: Can a Film Change the World? This special showcase centers on films that show how very brave people confront the challenges we all face in just living our lives. Discover how these challenges can push all boundaries. Learn how the power of our shared humanity – the daily struggles and fights we all have – can ultimately lead to a new and more empowering future. The focal point of the event is a presentation of the documentary film: the feature “The Push” and the documentary short, “A Racing Heart.” THE PUSH is a documentary film that focuses on Grant Korgan, an adventure athlete and former nanoscientist who became the first spinal-cord injured athlete in history to ski the final degree of latitude to the bottom of the world ~ to Antarctica’s geographic South Pole. Just five months after marrying the love of his life, Shawna, Grant Korgan went out with his three friends one morning for a day of fun and filming on snowmobiles. After much consideration, he attempted a jump that he had always wanted to take on his snowmobile. Grant’s snowmobile crashed down hard, and Grant broke his back. Despite his prognosis, that he would never walk again, both he and Shawna focused on the goal of 120% recovery. Shawna, a health and wellness expert, took his recovery head-on and with the same drive and tenacity as Grant. While working on his rehabilitation, Grant was offered an opportunity to join an expedition heading to the South Pole. If he completed the 100 miles using his arms to pull himself on a sit-ski, he would become the first spinal cord injured athlete to reach the South Pole. Grant and two guides headed off to South America. On the ice, they struggled with minus 50 degree conditions, failing solar panels, hypothermia, frost bite, and mental challenges. On January 17, 2012, Grant reached the bottom of our world on the 100th anniversary when Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition arrived at the earth’s most remote spot. When Grant returned home, the thrill of his achievement turned to reflection about his reality. He had to face his paralysis and realize that going forward he would still have to overcome his inability to use his legs unassisted. But Grant made a profound, inspiring decision, to choose positivity. He focuses on what he is able to do and finds pleasure and comfort in kayaking, downhill skiing, diving, and waterskiing as an adaptive athlete. On August 2015, Korgan broke the record for the human powered circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe by over two hours, finishing the 72-mile paddle in just 14 hours and 15 minutes. Andrew Dickhout’s “A RACING HEART” introduces us to John Dickhout, a recent heart transplant survivor, who attempts to cross the final goal off of his bucket list as a documentary crew follows him on a weekly basis. His goal; to run a 10k in under 60 minutes, and show the progress he has made in the 2 years since his life was saved. While training, John regales us with stories about his near death experiences, and his desire to prove himself after a stranger and their family’s choice to donate helped to give his life new meaning. Featuring triumph against all odds, what you experience at this screening might just change your life! Interactive networking events will be held nightly during the span of the six-day festival including our CITY PARTY PUB CRAWL, starting at The Rosendale, 55 Union Street, and ending at EGO, 73 Richmond Street, downtown Providence. Last year’s event drew over 2,000 participants, making the week of the Festival an unparalleled Celebration of Film, Arts and Culture.
-
HOTEL MUMBAI Starring Armie Hammer, Dev Patel to Open 2018 Adelaide Film Festival
The internationally anticipated film Hotel Mumbai is set for an Australian Premiere at the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival Film Festival Opening Night Gala on Wednesday October 10, after its World Premiere as a TIFF special presentation in September at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
Directed by Anthony Maras and starring Armie Hammer, Dev Patel, Nazanin Bonaidi, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, with Anupam Kher, and Jason Isaacs, Hotel Mumbai tells the astonishing story of those trapped in the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in the 2008 attacks.
Director Anthony Maras comments, “I am forever grateful for the unwavering support the Adelaide Film Festival has offered our project since day one. The SAFC and ADL Film Fest’s backing of Hotel Mumbai enabled my home town of Adelaide to play a crucial role in the making of this truly international production, and allowed us to work again with so many amazing South Australian cast and crew. It could not be more fitting to premiere the film at AFF, and so soon after the World Premiere at the Toronto international Film Festival.”
HOTEL MUMBAI
26 November 2008. A wave of devastating terror attacks throughout Mumbai catapult the bustling Indian metropolis into chaos. In the heart of the city’s tourist district, Jihadist terrorists lay siege to the iconic Taj Palace Hotel, whose guests and staff become trapped in a heroic, days-long fight for survival.