Dekalb Elementary[/caption]
The 2017 DTLA Film Festival will screen more than 60 short films from filmmakers around the world in 10 distinctly different programs. Local area filmmakers will be showcased in “Only In DTLA,” exclusive to films shot in downtown Los Angeles, as well as a UCLA v. USC student film face-off. Student films from around the world will have their own dedicated program.
Other shorts programs include “Wonder Women,” which highlights female filmmakers directing leading actresses, “This Modern World,” contemporary narrative international dramas and “What the Doc Ordered,” its documentary short counterpart, “LOL WTF,” an absurdist amalgamation of some of the festival circuit’s most riotous short comedies, and finally “Unusual Objects,” boundary-pushing short cinema that is experimental in form and unique in its execution.
Among the short films of particular note are Reed Van Dyk’s harrowing SXSW-prizewinner Dekalb Elementary, inspired by a real-life 911 call placed during a school shooting, French-filmmaker Jonathan Vinel’s Berlinale-feted Martin Cries, which boldly takes gameplay graphics directly from Grand Theft Auto and mutates them into a masculine, melancholy tone-poem, and finally Janizca Bravo’s surreal black-and-white comedic mind-bender Man Rots from the Head, starring Michael Cera.
“I’m always looking for something singular, something immediate, something that from within the film you can feel the violent heartbeat of an artist needing so fervently to express something. Shorts are often a surprising, invigorating form; their so-called ‘rulebooks’ are more amorphous and mysterious than their feature-length sibling. Some projects can only work as a short form, and when all the pieces synthesize, the result can be a brutal, swift gut-punch.” said Robert John Torres, senior curator for short films.
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DTLA Film Festival Announces 2017 Short Film Lineup
[caption id="attachment_24691" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Dekalb Elementary[/caption]
The 2017 DTLA Film Festival will screen more than 60 short films from filmmakers around the world in 10 distinctly different programs. Local area filmmakers will be showcased in “Only In DTLA,” exclusive to films shot in downtown Los Angeles, as well as a UCLA v. USC student film face-off. Student films from around the world will have their own dedicated program.
Other shorts programs include “Wonder Women,” which highlights female filmmakers directing leading actresses, “This Modern World,” contemporary narrative international dramas and “What the Doc Ordered,” its documentary short counterpart, “LOL WTF,” an absurdist amalgamation of some of the festival circuit’s most riotous short comedies, and finally “Unusual Objects,” boundary-pushing short cinema that is experimental in form and unique in its execution.
Among the short films of particular note are Reed Van Dyk’s harrowing SXSW-prizewinner Dekalb Elementary, inspired by a real-life 911 call placed during a school shooting, French-filmmaker Jonathan Vinel’s Berlinale-feted Martin Cries, which boldly takes gameplay graphics directly from Grand Theft Auto and mutates them into a masculine, melancholy tone-poem, and finally Janizca Bravo’s surreal black-and-white comedic mind-bender Man Rots from the Head, starring Michael Cera.
“I’m always looking for something singular, something immediate, something that from within the film you can feel the violent heartbeat of an artist needing so fervently to express something. Shorts are often a surprising, invigorating form; their so-called ‘rulebooks’ are more amorphous and mysterious than their feature-length sibling. Some projects can only work as a short form, and when all the pieces synthesize, the result can be a brutal, swift gut-punch.” said Robert John Torres, senior curator for short films.
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10 Asian Films Nominated for Busan International Film Festival 1st Kim Jiseok Award
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Ash l LI Xiaofeng[/caption]
The 22nd Busan International Film Festival has selected 10 official candidates for Kim Ji-seok Award. The Busan International Film Festival newly established the ‘Kim Ji-seok Award’ to honor the late Kim Ji-seok who passed away earlier this year after devoting his life’s career to discovering young Asian directors and supporting the growth of Asian cinema.
Unlike the New Currents section introducing the first or second film of up-and-coming Asian directors, Kim Jiseok Award nominees are selected from films produced by active and skilled Asian directors. Among 10 world premiere films in A Window on Asian Cinema, the section for new films of Asian directors and most-talked films, 2 finalists will be chosen through the jury’s examination and awarded 10,000 USD each.
Kim Jiseok Award is to remember Kim Ji-seok, one of the founding members of the Busan International Film Festival and one of its first Program Directors who dedicated himself to fostering new Asian films and encouraging up-and-coming Asian directors for over 20 years, as well as a leading individual who worked hard to establish the festival identity as the hub of Asian cinema. To preserve the meaning of the Award, Kim Jiseok Award Jury consists of Asian film professionals who maintained close relationship with the late program director and contributed to the globalization of Asian cinema. Film critics Tony Rayns, Darcy Paquet and a representative Indonesian filmmaker Garin Nugroho will serve as first jurors for the Kim Jiseok Award at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival.
The 22nd Busan International Film Festival will be held from October 12, 2017 to October 21, 2017.
2017 Kim Jiseok Award Nominees (Title in Alphabetical order)
Ash l LI Xiaofeng
A medical student, a steelworker, and two murders. Two men reemerge a decade after a young police investigator fails to solve the case, one a success and one saddled with miseries. Unable to leave the past behind, the group of men head towards redemption—or damnation.
The Bold, The Corrupt And The Beautiful l YANG Ya-Che
An ambitious businesswoman who is trying to play the government and industry off each other for personal gain finds herself in trouble after an ingenious plan backfires, leading to murder, and becomes a deadly catalyst that could destroy the life and family she set out to protect.
The Carousel Never Stops Turning l Ismail BASBETH
About a man who never forgets his late wife, newlyweds at a zoo, three girls who travel across the countryside, a prostitute who contemplates her escape, a woman who seeks her mother’s murderer, two farmers who protest against the eviction done by the government, and about a car that witnesses everything.
Goodbye Kathmandu l Nabin SUBBA
Nepal’s brutal civil war wages on during the winter of 2004, three separate characters look for success, identity and love in Kathmandu during a historic upheaval. Amar returns from the US to start a business. Mangal is torn between tradition and rock music, while Robin is pressured to join the Gurkhas.
In the Shadows l Dipesh JAIN
Is Khuddoos trapped within old Delhi’s city walls, in his own mind, or both? That’s the central question in this psychological thriller, in which a lonely man obsesses over the people he watches on hidden cameras, and a boy he fears is in danger.
Malila: The Farewell Flower l Anucha BOONYAWATANA
Former lovers Shane and Pich navigate a break-up, a wife, child, death, and a terminal illness to reunite, separate and reunite in one final transcendent time. Malila is a film about healing, acceptance, guilt, forgiveness, and the ability to understand life’s uncertainties.
The Scythian Lamb l YOSHIDA Daihachi
A government-sponsored program brings six strangers to Uobuka, a small town by the sea. Tsukisue is the pleasant and efficient city official who is in charge of the program. A body is discovered after Tsukisue learns the shocking truth.
Silent Mist l ZHANG Miaoyan
Danger lurks in the fog that hovers over the winding paths of a canal town in modern-day Southern China. Mysterious incidents occur after an old man arrives. At night a rapist seeks his prey while in daylight a wealthy businessman threatens humble shopkeepers.
Smaller and Smaller Circles l Raya MARTIN
When a dead boy from a poor community is found on a trash heap, nobody cares to notice. Forensic specialist Father Gus Saenz investigates as more pre-teen bodies turn up in a Manilla dump site. Based on an award-winning Filipino novel.
Wilderness l KISHI Yoshiyuki
Shinjuku in 2021 is the wilderness, where Shinji, an abandoned child, and Clipper, from an abusive home, hone their boxing skills as a way to find their identities. Opposites except for their shared loneliness, the two ultimately make a connection in the ring.
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First Films Revealed for 2017 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, SAMI BLOOD, PINSKY and More
Sami Blood directed by Amanda Kernell (courtesy IFFR) The 2017 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival revealed the first announced films selected to to screen at the festival this October and will be followed with a full line-up of short films, educational events and parties at the hottest venues in downtown Santa Fe. John Sayles and Maggie Renzi will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
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TASTE OF CEMENT, QUEST Among 2017 Camden International Film Festival Award Winners
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Quest[/caption]
On Sunday, September 17, the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) hosted their annual Awards Ceremony, with the Audience Award going to Jonathan Olshefski’s QUEST.Overall the festival presented four awards for documentary features and one for a documentary short, in addition to its Points North Pitch Award.
The 2017 class of Points North Fellows includes James Sorrels and Joshua Louis Simon’s AREA 2, Eva Weber’s GHOST WIVES, Claire Sanford and Adam Pajot-Gendron’s HWANGSA, Jessica Earnshaw and Holly Meehl’s JACINTA, Hassan Fazili and Emelie Mahdavian’s MIDNIGHT TRAVELER, and Todd Chandler’s UNTITLED SAFER SCHOOLS PROJECT.
Each of these projects in development received a $1,000 cash grant from the Points North Institute. This year’s Points North Pitch Award, which included in-kind post-production services from Boston-based Modulus Studios, went to MIDNIGHT TRAVELER. During the pitch, the project was offered an additional $10,000 by the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms.
Last year, CIFF became an Academy-qualifying festival for short films, making the winner of the Camden Cartel Award for Best Short eligible to enter the Documentary Short Subject competition for the Academy. The award went to Ben Knight’s THE LAST HONEY HUNTER, with Special Jury mention going to Adam and Zack Khalil’s THE VIOLENCE OF A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT SECRETS.
For the third year, CIFF collaborated with long-time partner, Documentary Educational Resources, to present the John Marshall Award for Contemporary Ethnographic Media, awarded this year to Tala Hadid’s HOUSE IN THE FIELDS.
Jurors Iyabo Boyd (Producer), Brett Story (Filmmaker), and James N. Kienitz Wilkins (Filmmaker) awarded the 2017 Cinematic Vision Award to Martin Dicicco’s ALL THAT PASSES BY THROUGH A WINDOW THAT DOESN’T OPEN, with Special Jury Mention going to Drew Xanthopolous’s THE SENSITIVES.
The Jury stated that DiCicco’s film “stood out as an inherently political yet free-flowing and contemplative film with moments of humor and melancholia that used a classic metaphor for cinema to explore how the past is embedded, if not stuck, in the present moment. This film is unique for its autonomy in both content and technical execution — a portrait of laborers who must trust that their life work will mean something someday, and a filmmaker who spent years on an intense and often lonely journey as combined director, producer and cinematographer.”
This year’s jury of Molly O’Brien (Fork Films), Robb Moss (Filmmaker), and Jose Rodriguez (Tribeca Film Institute) awarded the 2017 Harrell Award for Best Documentary Feature to Ziad Kalthoum’s TASTE OF CEMENT, with Special Jury Mention going to Gustavo Salmerón’s LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE. The Jury stated the winning film was chosen “For its masterful use of visual metaphor, breathtaking sound design and poetic restraint in telling the chaotic story of war and its exiles.”
The 14th edition of the Camden International Film Festival will take place September 13 to 16, 2018. Submissions will open in January 2018.
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Tommy Swerdlow’s A THOUSAND JUNKIES To Open DTLA Film Festival + Feature Films Lineup
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A Thousand Junkies[/caption]
The 9th annual DTLA Film Festival will kick off on Thursday, September 21st with the Los Angeles premiere of A Thousand Junkies, the feature film directorial debut from multi-hyphenate Tommy Swerdlow (Cool Runnings, Little Giants, and Snow Dogs), who directed and co-wrote the film and co-stars with Blake Heron and TJ Bowen, who shares a writing credit. In A Thousand Junkies features three junkies named for the actors playing them, crisscross Los Angeles in search of relief, considering increasingly reckless options in the pursuit of a score, and coming across all sorts of odd characters along the way. The film will be released theatrically by The Orchard later this year.
The Festival, taking place September 21 to 30 at L.A. LIVE, announced its feature films including all documentary and narrative feature-length films in competition. In keeping with this year’s theme – “Movies. Not walls” – the festival will host the first Enemy Nations Film Series. This series will present films from the countries labeled by immigration initiatives and Presidential tweets as homes to enemies of the state.
From The Orchard is The Work by directors Jairus Mcleary and Gethin Aldous, a powerful documentary set inside a single room in Folsom State Prison (California), which follows three level-four convicts as they participate in a four-day, innovative group therapy retreat. Rounding out the trio from The Orchard is Super Dark Times, Kevin Phillips’ harrowing, meticulously observed look at teenage age lives.
Continuing with the dark side, Most Beautiful Island explores the unforgettable and decidedly sinister day in the life of a young woman immigrant struggling to leave behind a mysterious past as she copies with life New York City. Ana Asensio directs and stars in this psychological thriller, which nabbed this year’s SXSW Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and will be released later this year by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
In Kasra Farahani’s Tilt, Joe is a filmmaker making a definitive documentary about the dark side of America’s post WW2 “golden age.” However, he soon finds himself falling down the rabbit hole of self-doubt and paranoia. In a similar vein Erik Nelson with A Gray State has created a chilling portrait of real-life alt right personality David Crowley as he struggles to complete his opus film project.
Adults struggling with children in their lives is at the heart of several of this year’s narrative features. In Adam Cushman’s Restraint a young married woman’s mental health begins to deteriorate as she attempts to adapt to life in suburbia with her controlling husband and his 9-year-old daughter. In Zach Brown’s Hard Surfaces (formerly Moleskin Diary) life in the fast lane for an artist-photographer suddenly grinds to a halt when he unexpectedly is left in sole custory of his 9-year-old niece.
In Jorge Xolalpa, Jr.’s Blue Line Station a high school couple have a child of their own on its way as they struggle with the best solution for an unwanted pregnancy. In Christopher J. Hansen’s Blur Circle, to be released later this year by Indie Rights, a mother desperately wants to find her missing child, even it means accepting help from a man with a shrouded past.
On the lighter side of relationships, in Jade Jenise Dixon’s Dog Park, also an Indie Rights upcoming release, it’s a canine to the rescue as a group of twenty-somethings struggle with the dating game. In Michael Ferrell’s Laura Gets A Cat, an unemployed writer considers what to do with her unexciting boyfriend while jumping into an affair with a performance artist, all fuel for your vivid imaginary life.
Striking a similar tone but in the context of a documentary, The Dating Project by Jonathan Cipiti confronts the eye-opening statistics that today in America fully half of all adults are single – a far higher percentage than with past generations. Five college-age single Millennials confront their own lack of success in finding a mate in this eye-opening look at dating in the age of social media.
The havoc wreaked by social media is reflected in two of the festival’s rom coms. In director David Tyson Lam’s Viral Beauty our protagonist simply wanted a date. She got a million subscribers, instead. Sloan Copeland’s Life Hack is a humorous but cautionary about privacy and cyber threats in the digital age. The take away? Cover your webcam.
On the other hand Gigi Gorgeous is one girl who ain’t complainin’ about the power of the world wide web. In This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous the life and history of the eponymous Internet superstar is explored in a poignant and inspiring documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA).
Could video games be a contributing factor to Millennials’ singleness? Who cares! In Jeremy Snead’s multi-episodic documentary Unlocked: The World Of Games Revealed everybody involved in all levels of video gaming from creators to players certainly seems to be having a helluva good time. Ditto, all those involved in that other counter culture revolving around music audio cassette tapes. In Zachary Taylor, Georg Petzold and Seth Smoot’s Cassette: A Documentary Mix Tape rabid mix tapes fans, including the likes of Henry Rollins, share what makes this once forgotten and now beloved blast-from-the-past so very au courant.
Yes, nostalgia for the music of the Eighties is part of the appeal of mix tapes. This same nostalgia is captured in Ellen Goldfarb’s Dare To Be Different, a look back at WLIR, the pioneering Long Island, N.Y. radio station that helped to pave the way for new wave and punk, and launch the careers of everyone from Blondie to Joan Jett. (Oh, did we mention Prince, U2 and Madonna were also heard first in the U.S. on the WLIR airwaves?)
The past meets the future in the “lost” 1938 screwball comedy set in the future of 2018 in Jamie Greenberg’s Future ’38. Confused? All will be revealed in this highly original satire that wowed the crowds at Slamdance earlier this year. Gabriel Cruz Rivas and Rodrigo Guardiola’s gaze is firmly fixed in the present in his documentary Zoe: Panoramas, an introspective look inside one of Latin America’s biggest rock bands.
The festival’s signature curated film series this year is entitled Enemy Nations, which refers to how whole nations of people suddenly became identified by the highest levels of the U.S. government as anti-American. The series presents a selection from each of these seven countries in an opportunity for you, the audience, to decide for yourself if the enemy is from beyond the borders, or within.
The series includes Shiva Sanjari’s Here The Seats Are Vacant, a stunning portrayal of Iran’s first female director, who herself became an enemy of her nation with the rise of the Islamic Revolution. Also part of the series is Avo Kaprealian’s Houses Without Doors, a documentary shot surreptitiously by director with a small camera from the balcony of his home on the Syrian front line. The camera records the dramatic changes in his neighborhood and his own family. Five short films, which will be announced later, are part of the series as well.
Forbidden Cuba is the first American feature film shot after the thawing of diplomatic relations between the island nation and the U.S. Art Jones’ picture is a cautionary tale about an American businessman who travels to Cuba to retrieve an executive gone rogue, only to have his own eyes opened to the beauty and vibrant culture of the country.
In Sea Gypsies: The Far Side Of The World filmmaker Nico Edwards sets off for his own adventure as part of a motley crew of amateurs and seasoned sailors attempting the nearly impossible and certainly risky goal of traversing the ocean between New Zealand and Patagonia by way of Antarctica in a sailboat – in the dead of winter. Yes, in the Digital Age real-life adventure is yours for the taking IF you’re willing to pursue it.
Water is also the subject of two more documentary films screening at the festival. In John Hopkins’ Bluefin, fresh from its U.S. premiere at Santa Barbara Film Festival earlier this year, the plight of a magnificent oceanic creature, which unfortunately is best known as a mainstay of sushi, is explored from different perspectives. It’s fresh water and the plight of humans in developing countries who lack it that is explored in Brian Wood’s A World Without Water. This special screening and event will be co-hosted by Los Angeles-based PH8, a NGO with international outreach.
Rounding out the festival’s feature film line-up are two documentaries about the impact of encroaching civilization on precious forest land and its wildlife. Mónica Alvarez Franco’s Cloud Forest – which boasts stunning cinematography – documents the people of a small community in Mexico who are the guardians of one of the ecosystems most at risk in country. Tony Lee’s The Cat That Changed America is about a bona fide Hollywood star. P22 is the most famous lion in America, a cougar who lives in Griffith Park, and this is his amazing story.
A final note about a late entry to the festival. VAXXED: From Cover-up to Controversy was a feature-length documentary invited to make its world premiere at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival when the screening was abruptly cancelled — the only film ever pulled from the festival’s line-up. Soon after, Robert DeNiro in his guise as Tribeca’s co-founder went on national television to proclaim he regretted his festival’s decision and urged the viewing public to go see the film, which by then had entered theatrical release. The man at the center of that film, medical researcher and author Andrew Wakefield, is also the focus of The Pathological Optimist, a biopic about the former medical doctor whose discovery of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism profoundly changed his life and challenged medical orthodoxy that all vaccines were safe for all children. In her film, which is making its Los Angeles theatrical premiere during DTLA Film Festival, director Miranda Bailey weaves a delicate portrait of a man who is both revered and vilified by millions, a full-access look at the man at the center of one of the biggest medical and media controversies of our times.
“One of the missions of our nonprofit film festival is to reflect the rich ethnic-cultural diversity and creative free spirit of DTLA and its surrounding environs. We believe our audiences will agree that this year’s line-up wholeheartedly embraces that mandate,” said Greg Ptacek, festival director.
The complete list of announced feature film presentations at the 9th DTLA Film Festival follows
2017 DTLA Film Festival | Feature Films
BLUE LINE STATION Director: Jorge Xolalpa Jr. Country: USA, Running Time: 80″ A high school couple embarks on an unusual journey to planned parenthood, in order to find the best solution to an unwanted pregnancy. BLUEFIN Director: John Hopkins Country: USA, Running Time: 53″ In the stunning documentary Bluefin, director John Hopkins crafts a tale of epic stakes set in the “tuna capital of the world.” Filmed in North Lake, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the film explores the baffling mystery of why the normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans. BLUR CIRCLE Director: Christopher J. Hansen Country: USA, Running Time: 92″ Jill Temple is a single mother still grieving the loss of her young son after he disappeared two years ago. Unable to face the possibility that she has lost him forever, she pursues every lead and meets Burton Rose, a man with a shrouded past. CASSETTE A DOCUMENTARY MIX TAPE Director: Zachary Taylor, Georg Petzold and Seth Smoot Country: USA, Running Time: 92″ Cassette inventor Lou Ottens digs through his past to figure out why the audiotape won’t die. Rock veterans like Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore, and Ian MacKaye join a legion of young bands releasing music on tape to push Lou along on his journey to remember. THE CAT THAT CHANGED AMERICA Director: Tony Lee Country: USA, Running Time: 75″ P22 is the most famous cat in America, a mountain lion who lives in Griffith Park in the middle of LA. This is his amazing story. CLOUD FOREST Director: Mónica Alvarez Franco Country: MEXICO, Running Time: 90″ The people of a small community in Veracruz are the guardians of one of the ecosystems facing the most risk in the country: the cloud forest. They are trying to redesign their own culture: needs, food, education and relationship with other people and with nature, searching for a simpler and sustainable life. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT Director: Ellen Goldfarb Country: USA, Running Time: 93″ A wonderfully nostalgic look back at WLIR 92.7, the Long Island-based radio station on the cutting edge of music throughout the 1980s. Going rogue, the station defied the record industry and played global imports before their release by literally picking up the singles at the airport,rushing back to the studio and spinning them live. THE DATING PROJECT Director: Jonathan Cipiti Country: USA, Running Time: 70″ 50% of America is single. The way people seek and find love has radically changed. The trends of hanging out, hooking up, texting and social media have created a dating deficit. Dating is now…outdated. Follow 5 single people, ages 18 to 40, as they navigate this new landscape. DOG PARK Director: Jade Jenise Dixon Country: USA, Running Time: 91″ The romantic tribulations of a group of Toronto twenty-somethings whose relationships with their dogs are more stable and long-lasting than their romances with people. FORBIDDEN CUBA Director: Art Jones Country: USA, Running Time: 81″ The first American feature made in Cuba since the revolution of 1959. Part ‘Local Hero’ and ‘Hearts of Darkness,’ it’s a cautionary tale about capitalism and the state of the American soul. STORY: An American businessman travels to Cuba to retrieve an executive gone rogue, and finds his eyes opened to the beauty and vibrant culture of Cuba, challenging his corporate directives, his identity and everything he has known. FUTURE ’38 Director: Jamie Greenberg Country: USA, Running Time: 75″ A 1938 screwball comedy set in the far future year of 2018. A GRAY STATE Director: Erik Nelson Country: USA, Running Time: 93″ In 2010, David Crowley worked on a film about a future in which the government crushes civil liberties. When Crowley and his wife and child are found dead in 2014, conspiracy theorists speculate that they have been assassinated by the government. HARD SURFACES Director: Zach Brown Country: USA, Running Time: 89″ Adrian is a self-made man, despite the tragedy of his parents dying when he was a child. He is a famous photographer who has earned a following for his provocative style. Life appears to perfect until his sister Samantha suddenly dies, leaving him as the sole guardian of her 9-year-old daughter Maddy, whom he has never even met. Even while he clings to his life in the fast lane, he realizes everything must change if Maddy is to avoid the same pain he suffered as a child. HERE THE SEATS ARE VACANT Director: Shiva Sanjari Country: IRAN, Running Time: 81″ This is the story of a relentless spirit that refuses to be broken. The Iranian filmmaker known simply as Shahrzad in 1977 became the first female director in Iran after a successful career as a singer-dancer-actress. Two years later the Iran Revolution roared across the nation, and it has no room for a self-made woman like Shahrzad. The government never let her work again. Worse, she was imprisoned where she became mentally unraveled, eventually ending up in a mental institution. Today, she is 72 years old and dealing with a life in a small village in Iran. Oh, but her memories are wholly intact. This poignant documentary includes fantastic archival film footage of Shahrzad at the height other career. HOUSES WITHOUT DOORS Director: Avo Kaprealian Country: SYRIA, Running Time: 90″ The film portrays the changes in the life of an Armenian family on Aleppo’s frontline in Al Midan, an area that brought shelter to the persecuted Armenians 100 years ago and today to many displaced Syrians. From the balcony of his home, the director films with a small camera the changes in his neighbourhood and his own family, interweaving his images with extracts from classical films to illustrate the parallels between the Armenian genocide and Syrians’ reality today. LAURA GETS A CAT Director: Michael Ferrell Country: USA, Running Time: 83″ An unemployed writer in New York City, tries to juggle an unexciting boyfriend, an affair with a performance artist, and a vivid imaginary life. LIFE HACK Director: Sloan Copeland Country: USA, Running Time: 90″ A humorous, cautionary tale about cyber threats in the digital age. Cover your webcam. MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND Director: Ana Asensio Country: USA, Running Time: 80″ Luciana is a young immigrant woman is struggling to make ends meet in New York while striving to escape her past. As her day unfolds, she is whisked, physically and emotionally, through a series of troublesome, unforeseeable extremes. Before her day is done, she inadvertently finds herself a central participant in a cruel game. Lives are placed at risk, while psyches are twisted and broken for the perverse entertainment of a privileged few. THE PATHOLOGICAL OPTIMIST Director: Miranda Bailey Country: USA, Running Time: 106″ In the center of the recent Tribeca Film Festival scandal surrounding his film, VAXXED: From Cover-up to Controversy stands Andrew Wakefield, discredited and stripped of his medical license for his infamous study suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine, bowel disease, and autism. The Pathological Optimist takes us into the inner sanctum of Wakefield and his family from 2011- 2016 as he fights for his day in court in a little-known defamation case against the British Medical Journal. Wakefield attempts to clear his name as the media-appointed Father of the Anti-vaccine movement. Director Miranda Bailey weaves a delicate portrait of a man who is THE PATHOLOGICAL OPTIMIST utilizing a never-before-seen, full access look at the man at the center of one of the biggest medical and media controversies of our times. RESTRAINT Director: Adam Cushman Country: USA, Running Time: 95″ Angela Burroughs has been submerging her violent impulses for years. After moving to the suburbs with her controlling new husband and his 9-year-old daughter, Angela starts to unravel. She becomes obsessed with a short story called The Yellow Wallpaper and begins to see parallels between her own life and the life within the story. As her husband Jeff remains oblivious to her emerging demons, Angela plunges deeper and deeper into her own dark reality. SEA GYPSIES: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD Director: Nico Edwards Country: USA, Running Time: 77″ The story of a small group of modern seafaring gypsies, following them as they strike out across the largest expanse of uninhabited geography on earth, in search of adventure, awe and whatever else lies at the far side of the world. SUPER DARK TIMES Director: Kevin Phillips Country: USA, Running Time: 100″ A harrowing but meticulously observed look at teenage lives in the era prior to the Columbine High School massacre. THIS IS EVERYTHIG: GIGI GORGEOUS Director: Barbara Kopple Country: USA, Running Time: 91″ Are there limits to your love for your family? One family’s acceptance is tested when a champion diver, destined for the Olympics, announces they’re transitioning from male to female and invites their YouTube followers along for every moment. It’s a story about unconditional love and finding the courage to be yourself. A THOUSAND JUNKIES Director: Tommy Swerdlow Country: USA, Running Time: 75″ Things grow more and more desperate, and ridiculous, as three heroin addicts drive all over Los Angeles in search of what they need. TILT Director: Kasra Farahani Country: USA, Running Time: 99″ Joe is working on a political documentary about America’s “Golden Age,” with the support of his wife Joanne. However, he begins to descend into paranoia and roams the streets at night in this haunting psychological thriller. UNLOCKED: THE WORLD OF GAMES REVEALED Director: Jeremy Snead Country: USA, Running Time: 90″ Video games have gone from an obscure science experiment in the early 1960’s to the biggest entertainment medium on the planet. Unlocked is a groundbreaking documentary from director Jeremy Snead that provides firsthand stories by industry icons, celebrities, consumers, and field experts on the culture, technology, history and future of the video game industry. VIRAL BEAUTY Director: David Tyson Lam Country: USA, Running Time: 90″ She wanted a date. She got a million subscribers instead. THE WORK Directors: Jairus Mcleary and Gethin Aldous Country: USA, Running Time: 89″ Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, three men from the outside participate in a four-day group-therapy retreat with a group of incarcerated men for a real look at the challenges of rehabilitation. A WORLD WITHOUT WATER Director: Brian Woods Country: USA, Running Time: 80″ Every day 3900 children die as a result of insufficient or unclean water supplies. ‘A World Without Water’ tells of the personal tragedies behind the mounting privatization of water supplies. ZOE: PANORAMAS Director: Gabriel Cruz Rivas and Rodrigo Guardiola Country: MEXICO, Running Time: 89″ A unique and introspective look inside one of Latin America’s biggest rock bands: Zoé. The film takes you on a contemplative and audiovisual journey through one of the bands decisive years.
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Official Poster of 12th Rome Film Fest Features the Timeless Grace and Elegance of Audrey Hepburn
The timeless grace and elegance of one of the most beloved actresses of all time, Audrey Hepburn, are featured in the official poster of the 12th Rome Film Fest.
The picture taken by photographer David Seymour portrays the actress during the shooting of Funny Face (1957). The Rome Film Fest thus pays tribute to the film directed by Academy Honorary Award winner Stanley Donen, which in 2017 will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of its release in theaters, and to the musical, a genre that will be a recurring motif throughout the festival. In fact, all the films selected for the program of the “Films of Our Lives” section will be musicals and before every screening of the upcoming Rome Film Fest, viewers will enjoy clips from the most famous and unforgettable musicals.
“Few actresses communicate the idea of grace and sophistication like Audrey Hepburn – explained Antonio Monda – I believe she perfectly embodies the identity of the fest we are trying to build, especially in this image filled with joy and elegance”.
Credits: Audrey Hepburn TM -Trademark, © 2012 and Likeness – Property of Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti, ALL RIGHT RESERVED” © David Seymour/Magnum/Contrasto
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MY PURE LAND is Britain’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
British-Pakistani director Sarmad Masud’s Urdu language debut film My Pure Land has been selected as Britain’s submission for the best foreign language film category at the 2018 Oscars.
The film stars Suhaee Abro, Eman Malik, Syed Tanveer-Hussain, Razia Malik, Atif Akhtar Bhatti, Tayyab Azfal and Ahsen Murad.
My Pure Land world premiered at this year’s 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival is based on a remarkable true story, told in partial flashbacks, about how a mother and her two daughters try to protect their remote Pakistan home, picking up machine guns to fight off a virtual army of armed men.
MY PURE LAND is a film based on a true story. A young woman called Nazo and her mother and sister are called to defend their home after a bitter family feud leads to her father’s incarceration. In their isolated farmhouse in Pakistan, the women find themselves surrounded by armed men hired by their Uncle Mehrban to take back the land. When Nazo’s resistance leaves two of the men dead, an enraged Mehrban calls in a local ragtag militia – two hundred armed bandits. But even with only a handful of bullets left, Nazo refuses to give in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdY8bKCVIC0
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SAAWAN is Pakistan’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Saawan directed by Farhan Alam has been selected by Pakistan as the country’s selection in the ‘Foreign Language Film Award’ category at the 90th Academy Awards.
Saawan written and produced by Mashood Qadri, is based on a true story of a disabled child who lives in a valley in the mountains of Balochistan. He is rejected by his father, intimidated by society, harassed by friends and left alone due to his disability. Strengthened by memories and dreams of the love of his mother, he begins a perilous journey back to his family in the main city. The film features Saleem Mairaj, Syed Karam Abbas, Arif Bahalim, Najiba Faiz and Imran Aslam in the lead roles. The other cast includes Tipu Sharif, Hafeez Ali, Sehrish Qadri, Sohail Malik, Shahid Niazmi, Muhammad Abbas, Danial Yunus, Mehek Zulfiqar and Syed Muhammad Ali. The film won ‘Best Foreign Language Feature Film’ award at the 2017 Madrid International Film Festival and the Best Film and Best Soundtrack Award earlier this month at the 2017 Salento International Film Festival in Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyVzwJeOzY
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2017 Toronto International Film Festival Awards: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Wins Top Award
The Toronto International Film Festival announced its award winners and the Grolsch People’s Choice Award went to Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The second runner-up is Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The first runner-up is Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya.
The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Joseph Kahn’s Bodied. The second runner-up is Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99. The first runner-up is James Franco’s The Disaster Artist.
The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places. The second runner-up is Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! The first runner-up is Long Time Running directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier.
IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Marc-Antoine Lemire’s Pre-Drink. The jury remarked the film “is a monumental yet intimate portrayal of a woman in transition. Lead by the towering performances of the film’s two actors, both of who are worthy of receiving their own awards. The jury were especially taken by the leading actress who gives one of the best performances we saw in the Short Cuts programs. The 2017 Short Cuts jury honors Pre-Drink for Best Canadian short film.”IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM
The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Short Film goes to Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s The Burden (Min Börda). The jury remarked, “Whimsical but tragic, imaginative and just plain weird, this is exactly what one can expect from a Scandinavian musical with fish in bath robes singing out their existentialist crisis. This is a film that stands out in this program and any film program it will ever be part of.” The award offers a $10,000 cash prize made possible by IWC Schaffhausen. The jury gave honourable mentions to Matthew Rankin’s The Tesla World Light (Tesla: Lumière Mondiale) and Qiu Yang’s Xiao Cheng Er Yue (A Gentle Night).CITY OF TORONTO AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
The City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film goes to Wayne Wapeemukwa’s Luk’ Luk’l. The jury remarked, “The award goes to a striking debut film that disrupts borders – of form and content and suggests new cinematic territories.This beautifully realized film offers a unique Canadian perspective, made with real compassion, insight and remarkable characters from Vancouver’s East Side.” This award carries a cash prize of $15,000, made possible by the City of Toronto. The jury gave honourable mention to Sadaf Foroughi’s Ava.CANADA GOOSE AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
The Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to Robin Aubert’s Les Affamés. The jury remarked, “This year the Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to a hybrid art-house film that proved to be something of a revelation. Wonderfully scripted and perfectly cast, this film managed the rare feat of featuring genuinely interesting and well-rounded characters; surprising dramatic and comedic moments with well thought-out multi-generational female roles (who were totally badass, I might add) while also dealing with poignant and contemporary issues, set against a striking rural backdrop and hundreds of ‘ravenous’ zombies.” The jury gave honorable mention to Simon Lavoie’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes).THE PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZES)
Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for the Discovery program is awarded to Sadaf Foroughi for Ava. Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations is awarded to Manuel Martín Cuenca for The Motive (El Autor).NETPAC AWARD
As selected by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema for the sixth consecutive year, the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere goes to Huang Hsin-Yao’s The Great Buddha+. The jury remarked, “The NETPAC Jury awards The Great Buddha+ for depicting the interface between the haves and have-nots, with black humor and style, innovating with noir in representing the social reality of Taiwan today.”TORONTO PLATFORM PRIZE PRESENTED BY AIR FRANCE
This is the third year for Platform, the Festival’s juried program that champions directors’ cinema from around the world. The Festival welcomed an international jury comprised of award-winning filmmakers Chen Kaige, Małgorzata Szumowska, and Wim Wenders who unanimously awarded the Toronto Platform Prize, presented by Air France, to Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country. “This is a spiritual epic taking place in 1929 in Australia’s Northern Territory,” said the jury in a statement. “It is a great saga of human fate, and its themes of race and struggle for survival are handled in such a simple, rich, unpretentious and touching way, that it became for us a deeply emotional metaphor for our common fight for dignity. Speaking about their deliberations, the jury added: “We saw 12 films from all over the world that took us into very different universes of the soul and to extremely different places on our planet. We were thankful to be able to see these films and we very much appreciated that actually exactly half of them were made by women. TIFF is leading the way, we feel.” “As we only had one award to give, we had to be quite radical. We also limited ourselves to only one special mention, even if other films might have imposed themselves for best acting, writing or directing.” Awarding a special mention to Clio Barnard’s Dark River, the jury said: “This film, deeply rooted in the Yorkshire countryside, convinced us, as its characters and actors, its photography, its story and its sense of place were all so much ONE, so utterly believable and controlled, that we were totally taken by it.”GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS
This year marked the 40th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favorite Festival film for the Grolsch People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Grolsch. The second runner-up is Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The first runner-up is Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya. The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Joseph Kahn’s Bodied. The second runner-up is Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99. The first runner-up is James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places. The second runner-up is Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! The first runner-up is Long Time Running directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier.
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for Documentary NUDE, Chronicling Fashion Photographer David Bellemere
The documentary “Nude” explores perceptions of nudity in art by chronicling the creative process of fashion photographer David Bellemere.
In anticipation of the October 29th, 2017 premiere of the film, Starz released the official trailer and key art for the new original documentary “NUDE” from Director and Producer Anthony B. Sacco and Producer Josh Shader which follows treats! magazine founder Steve Shaw and photographer David Bellemere’s NU Muses project.
“NUDE” – a feature-length documentary – explores perceptions of nudity in art by chronicling the creative process of fashion photographer David Bellemere. Commissioned by NU Muses founder Steve Shaw to shoot a fine art calendar of nude photographs to debut at Art Basel in Miami, Bellemere’s unique methods and visual style are examined. The film also looks at the creative and business aspirations of Shaw, plus how social media shapes the lives of today’s young models.
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for Heartbreaking Documentary KINGDOM OF US Premiering at London Film Festival
Here is the trailer for the documentary Kingdom of Us set to premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 7th ahead of its global launch on Netflix on October 13th.
How does a family deal with memories of a traumatic event? It’s a question sensitively examined in this moving documentary. In her quietly watchful debut, Lucy Cohen impresses with a delicate, powerfully effective exploration of grief, identity and family bonds. For over three years, Cohen filmed a mother and her seven children – whose father’s suicide left them financially ruined. Incorporating family archive footage and capturing the surrounding West Midlands landscape, Kingdom of Us records the siblings’ emotional recovery, piecing together their broken past and contemplating fears and aspirations for their future. Cohen’s film highlights youthful power and resilience, as the family travel the rocky road towards hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc8_spETMBY
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Woodstock Film Festival Unveils 2017 Film Lineup, will Open with East Coast Premiere of STUCK
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Stuck[/caption]
The 18th Woodstock Film Festival, will open with the East Coast premiere of Stuck, a musical narrative about a group of six strangers trapped together on a stalled New York City subway car. The characters confront their assumptions of one another under the scrutinizing eye of a mysterious homeless man played by Giancarlo Esposito. This kickoff event will begin at 7PM October 11 at the Woodstock Playhouse.
The Festival will present an outstanding lineup of films to be shown in Woodstock, Rhinebeck, Rosendale, Saugerties, and Kingston.
“This year’s lineup is one that challenges our creative and intellectual boundaries and brings important social issues into focus, both locally and globally” said Woodstock Film Festival’s co-founder and executive director Meira Blaustein. “In today’s political climate it is particularly important to celebrate our differences and find our commonalities. This year’s participating filmmakers have gone above and beyond in capturing diverse moments of humanity that personify fierce independence.”
NARRATIVE FEATURES
The Bachelors, directed by Kurt Voelker The Ballad of Lefty Brown, directed by Jared Moshe Beauty Mark, directed by Harris Doran Becks, directed by Dan Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh Cold November, directed by Karl Jacob Crash Pad, directed by Kevin Tent Don’t Come Back From the Moon, directed by Bruce Thierry Cheung Girl in Flight, directed by Sandra Vannucchi Holden On, directed by Tamlin Hall Infinity Baby, directed by Bob Byington Last Flag Flying, directed by Richard Linklater The Light of the Moon, directed by Jessica M. Thompson A Real Vermeer, directed by Rudolf van den Berg Revengeance, directed by Bill Plympton and Jim Lujan The Song of Sway Lake, directed by Ari Gold The Sounding, directed by Catherine Eaton The Square, directed by Ruben Östlund The Strange Ones, directed by Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein Stuck, directed by Michael Berry Submission, directed by Richard Levine They, directed by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh Time Trap, directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster The Traveller, directed by Hadi Ghandour Us And Them, directed by Joe Martin Waterboys, directed by Robert Jan Westdijk What Children Do, directed by Dean PetersonDOCUMENTARY FEATURES
32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide, directed by Hope Litoff 40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie,directed by Lee Aronsohn Against All Odds – The Fight for a Black Middle Class with Bob Herbert, directed by Bob Herbert Arthur Miller: Writer, directed by Rebecca Miller Bean, directed by Emilie Bunnell Becoming Who I was, directed by Moon Chang-Yong and Jeon Jin Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, directed by Alexandra Dean The Chocolate Case, directed by Benthe Forrer The Cycle (America Divided), directed by Solly Granatstein, Lucian Read and Richard Rowley Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution, directed by Jamie Redford Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, directed by Griffin Dunne La Chana, directed by Lucija Stojevic The Last Pig, directed by Allison Argo Mary Janes: The Women of Weed, directed by Windy Borman My Name is Pedro, directed by Lillian LaSalle Nat Bates for Mayor, directed by Bradley Berman and Eric Weiss The Organizer, directed by Nick Taylor The Rape of Recy Taylor, directed by Nancy Buirski Roll With Me, directed by Lisa France Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, directed by Sam Pollard Shingal, Where Are You?, directed by Angelos Rallis Supermensch, directed by Mike Myers, Beth Aala A Symphony of Hope, directed by Brian Weidling Thank You For Coming, directed by Sara Lamm This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, directed by Barbara Kopple To A More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor, directed by Donna Zaccaro To the Edge of the Sky, directed by Jedd Wider and Todd Wider