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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World[/caption]
The 13th Boulder International Film Festival (
BIFF) announced its program, which includes 58 films from around the world and three Sundance Film Festival award-winning films. This year, the festival will screen four films nominated for a 2017 Oscar. The Festival takes place from March 2-5, 2017.
“We are so excited about this year’s program,” said Robin Beeck, Festival Executive Director. “This is a stellar lineup with award-winning films from the world’s greatest directors and from fresh, new filmmakers just hitting the scene. We’re thrilled to be able to present a feast of the best films today.”
The festival kicks off on Thursday, March 2nd with an Opening Night Red Carpet Gala and screening of
Their Finest, a rousing romantic comedy about a female screenwriter during World War II. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Clatlin and Bill Nighy.
Fresh from winning the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary at Sundance 2017, the closing night film,
Chasing Coral follows a team of divers, photographers and scientists on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why coral reefs are vanishing around the world. Directed by Jeff Orlowski.
New this year is the VR Pavilion displaying Virtual Reality, an entirely new film language.
Film highlights include Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back and Dean.
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Jimi Hendrix was proud of his Cherokee grandmother, and Mohawk guitarist Robbie Robertson (The Band) remembers being told in the ‘50s when he started out in rock ‘n’ roll: “Be proud you’re an Indian, but don’t tell anybody.” Rumble is about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a missing chapter. Winner at Sundance 2017. Directed by Catherine Bainbridge.
Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back
Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan has become a superstar in the art world, with a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. His sculptures—for example, an oversized Pinocchio floating face down in a pool—sell for millions of dollars. In this funny, mind-bending and visually beautiful film, Boulder director Maura Axelrod tries to find the “real” Cattelan, a task that is complicated by the fact that the artist is elusive, to say the least.
Dean
Writer/director/comedian Demetri Martin stars alongside Academy Award winner Kevin Kline in this comedic and heartfelt tale about a father and son coming to terms with love, loss and everything in between. Both father and son set out on their own paths, as unexpected circumstances and potential new love interests threaten to thwart all plans. A CBS Films release. Directed and written by Demetri Martin
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The Sarasota Film Festival unveiled its 2017 artwork created by Tyler Mathis, a Motion Design student at Ringling College of Art and Design.
This is the second consecutive year the Sarasota Film Festival and the Ringling College of Art and Design have partnered together to develop the concept and design to help market and brand the upcoming festival. This is the first time three different posters will be used to market the festival, each one donning the slogan in a multidimensional- play on words, “See and Be Seen”, “Sea and Be Seen” and “See and be Scene”.
The three images selected will be featured on SFF banners throughout Main Street in Sarasota starting February 15th. They will also be seen on all major festival materials such as mailings, play bills, and sponsorship ads.
“This year’s artwork not only represents the festival but the entire community of Sarasota,” said Mark Famiglio, President of the Sarasota Film Festival. “The slogan this year “See and Be Scene” invites our audience to attend the festival and participate in our community. Collaborating with the Ringling College of Art and Design has proven once again that a community can create beautiful work by working together.”
“We greatly value our relationship with Sarasota Film Festival, as it presents incredible opportunities for our students—both through our Collaboratory and our rising Film program,” says Dr. Larry R. Thompson, President of Ringling College of Art and Design. “We view the SFF as a vital partner in further developing our creative region as a hub for emerging and established filmmakers, and we celebrate the opportunity for our students at Ringling to create artwork that supports our shared initiatives—always keeping creativity right at the center.”
Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars, a new documentary featuring legendary 18-time Grammy(R) winner Eric Clapton, will be released theatrically in the U.S. this Fall followed by a television premiere on Showtime in 2018.
Showtime Documentary Films will release the new documentary ERIC CLAPTON: A LIFE IN 12 BARS, an unflinching and deeply personal journey into the life of the legendary musician. The documentary will screen at domestic and international film festivals later this year, followed by a theatrical run in the U.S. and Canada, before airing nationally on SHOWTIME in 2018. The film will be directed by Oscar(R)-winner Lili Fini Zanuck (Rush, Driving Miss Daisy), with John Battsek (One Day In September, Searching for Sugar Man) producing for Passion Pictures. BAFTA winner Chris King (Amy, Senna) will serve as editor.
Told through his own words and songs, ERIC CLAPTON: A LIFE IN 12 BARS is a moving and surprising film about one of the great artists of the modern era – an 18-time Grammy Award winner, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the only artist ever to be inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Spanning more than half a century of legendary popular musical innovation, the film will contextualize Eric Clapton’s role in contemporary music and cultural history. No other artist has continually intersected across a broad stratum of musical genres with so many other great musicians – many of whom have inspired and informed his body of work. The documentary features extensive interviews with Clapton himself, along with his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and heroes – including late music icons B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison.
Stretching from his traumatic childhood living in a “house of secrets,” through his long and difficult struggle with drugs and alcohol and the tragic loss of his son in a devastating accident, Clapton always found an inner strength and healing in music. The insatiable search to grow his artistic voice surprised fans as he constantly quit successful bands, from the groundbreaking Yardbirds to 60’s super-group Cream. His isolated pursuit of his craft – and fear of selling out – served as a catalyst for his evolution as an artist.
“Clapton’s music is the foundation of our film – his commitment to the Blues, its traditions and originators is absolute from his earliest days,” says director Lili Fini Zanuck. “His personal life conveys the emotional spine of the film – his damaged emotional psyche threads throughout his life, informing his art, and causing many abrupt and surprising shifts along the way. The film traces all the key junctures: his prodigious talent, obsessive impatience, perfectionism and musical ‘mission.’ Mining inner strength and spiritual resolve, he somehow maintains sobriety, finding healing in music. He reflects on his newfound domestic happiness and a magical, meteoric journey which has secured his place in the rock pantheon. Despite the fact that his path is strewn with tragedies, addiction and loss, he never fails to regain his bearings and continue to serve what he holds dearest: his music.”
“We have unique access to Clapton’s extensive personal archive of classic performance clips, on- and off-stage footage, iconic photos, concert posters, handwritten letters, drawings and personal diary entries – elements with the power to transport audiences to each era, from obsessive student, to peer, to transcendent figure in musical history and one of the greatest guitarists of all time,” said Battsek.
A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica)[/caption]
Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Lelio’s trans drama A Fantastic Woman (“Una Mujer Fantástica”) has been 
THE PIANO[/caption]
The Hamptons International Film Festival (
AGAINST THE LAW[/caption]
The world premiere of AGAINST THE LAW, a powerful and timely factual new British drama, directed by Fergus O’Brien and starring Daniel Mays, will open the 31st edition of BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. The cast also features Mark Gatiss, Richard Gadd and Charlie Creed-Miles.
2017 sees the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which decriminalized homosexual acts in England and Wales between adult males, in private. While it would take several decades before homosexuals would reach anything like full equality in this country, this legislation marks the beginning of this journey.
AGAINST THE LAW is a timely and sensitive biopic based on Peter Wildeblood’s bestseller which tells the story of his affair with a handsome serviceman he met in Piccadilly and the devastating consequences of their relationship. Wildeblood had been a celebrated and wellconnected journalist on the Daily Express, with a range of acquaintances that included Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. He is played by Daniel Mays, in a beautifully nuanced performance that charts his journey from Fleet Street via public vilification to his imprisonment under the same legislation that sent Oscar Wilde to Reading Gaol. Mark Gatiss gives a chilling performance as a prison doctor charged with administering therapeutic measures to homosexuals acquiescing to the idea that they can be ‘changed’.
The importance of Peter Wildeblood’s case (jointly brought against him, Lord Montagu and Michael Pitt-Rivers) is that it brought the debate about homosexuality into the public domain. It led the way to the creation of the Wolfenden Committee on sexual law reform that eventually resulted in the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which changed the lives of thousands of gay men with its partial decriminalization of homosexual acts. This film offers a profoundly moving portrait of what it meant to be gay in the 1950s, underlining the importance of understanding our recent history
Director Fergus O’Brien said: “Making this film for the BBC not only allowed us to tell a powerful and important story in the evolution of LGBT rights in this country but also to capture for posterity the voices of some of the men who lived through these dark days in gay history. Their story, and the story of Peter Wildeblood, are timely reminders of the difficult journey it took to arrive at the rights enjoyed by gay people today and why it’s so important that we safeguard them. I’m delighted and honored that the film will be the Opening Night of 
In celebration of Black History Month, MOONLIGHT is partnering with My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a mentoring program started by President Obama’s Administration for young men of color
to empower them with the resources and support to achieve their full potential regardless of circumstance.
The screenings kicked off earlier this week in Los Angeles with My Brother’s Keeper and attended by dozens of young men from several local high schools. After the film, Mike Muse of My Brother’s Keeper moderated a talk-back session with the students and MOONLIGHT’s Oscar-Nominated stars Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, writer/director Barry Jenkins, and writer Tarell Alvin McCraney. A screening and talk back with high schoolers in New York is also set for next week.
MOONLIGHT chronicles the life of Chiron, a boy growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Lauded by critics and audiences alike, the film is nominated for eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Naomie Harris). To date, MOONLIGHT has won the Golden Globe® for Best Picture – Drama and was nominated for an additional five Golden Globes®, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali). The film is also nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards, and additionally is the this year’s recipient of the Spirits’ Robert Altman Award, which honors an outstanding ensemble cast in a motion picture. MOONLIGHT has been named the Best Picture of 2016 by the Gotham Awards, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The National Society of Film Critics, and The New York Times, among many others.
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The horror film IT COMES AT NIGHT, starring Joel Edgerton has released its terrifying first trailer and poster. A24 will release IT COMES AT NIGHT, Trey Edward Shults’ follow-up to the critically acclaimed 
Check out the trailer for the French erotic thriller SEX DOLLS starring César Award winner Hafsia Herzi. The film, written and directed by Sylvie Verheyde, and co-starring Ash Stymest, Karole Rocher, Paul Hamy, opens in theaters – in New York at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood – on VOD Friday February 10th.
A high-priced call girl navigates the shadowy world of London’s sex trade underground in this provocative, erotic thriller. Virginie (César Award winner Hafsia Herzi) goes about her work as a prostitute with a cool detachment, trading sex with wealthy businessmen for money, but never getting emotionally involved. That all changes when she meets Rupert (Ash Stymest), an enigmatic stranger with unclear intentions. Risking everything, Virginie plunges into a dangerous affair that tears her between a ruthless madame who forbids romantic attachments and a dark, sexy man who could be her savior or her downfall.
DISGRACED – Former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss. | Credit: M. Andrew Barrera[/caption]
The documentary DISGRACED, which recounts the shocking murder of Baylor University men’s basketball star Patrick Dennehy as well as an attempted cover-up of NCAA rule violations, will world premiere at the 2017 
Michael Almereyda[/caption]
The San Francisco Film Society has selected Michael Almereyda as the inaugural recipient of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship, which will support the development of the screenplay for his upcoming narrative feature project about Nikola Tesla. The Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of their support of programs that cultivate and champion films that explore scientific or technological themes and characters. Under the auspices of its Artist Development program, the SF Film Society will award fellowships to filmmakers developing screenplays that tell stories related to science or technology.
The Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship will be awarded twice annually, and include a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, the Film Society’s suite of production offices for local and visiting independent filmmakers. Fellows will gain free office space alongside access to weekly consulting services and professional development opportunities. The Film Society will connect each fellow to a science advisor with expertise in the scientific or technological subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities. In addition to the residency and grant, the Film Society’s Artist Development team will offer industry introductions to producers and casting, financing, and creative advisors — investing in fellows from early script development stages through to release. Additional filmmaker support programs include the SF Film Society / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant, the Documentary Film Fund and full-year FilmHouse residencies.
“I’m grateful for the ongoing support and encouragement of the San Francisco Film Society and the Sloan Foundation,” said Almereyda. “I’m looking forward to spending time in San Francisco, meeting with advisors in the area and having access to the city’s rich cultural resources.”
Michael Almereyda dropped out of college to pursue filmmaking, and wrote his first screenplay about Nikola Tesla, the very subject he returns to now. His films have alternated between fiction and documentary, and (with very few exceptions) have been self-generated, independent productions. Almereyda has received numerous awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship for film/video in 2005, and a Creative Capital Grant for filmmaking in 2014. He has participated in five residencies at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, most recently in 2015. Almereyda’s writing on film has appeared in the New York Times, Film Comment, Artforum, and booklets for the Criterion Collection. His film credits include Hamlet (2000), William Eggleston in the Real World (2005), Paradise (2009), Experimenter (2015), and Marjorie Prime, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Sloan Feature Prize.
Tesla tracks the struggles and achievements of Nikola Tesla — one of the most brilliant and innovative scientific minds of his time — from his arrival in the US in 1884 to his solitary death in a New York hotel room in 1943. The story chronicles Tesla’s earliest patents and prototypes, his manufacturing partnership with George Westinghouse, and the fierce “Battle of the Currents” that brought Tesla’s ideas for alternating current head to head with the direct current system favored by Thomas Edison. Celebratory exhibitions at the 1893 World’s Fair lead to a coveted commission to design the titanic power station harnessing the force of Niagara Falls. Yet even at the peak of his fame and success, Tesla sets out to explore more radical ideas — the first applications of radio and radio-controlled machines, and the transmission of energy without wires. The film will highlight the glorious possibilities brought forth by technological advances while also admitting their limits, measured against the abiding mysteries of human feelings and desires.
Applications are now being accepted for the next round of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship. The early deadline for applications is April 18; the final deadline is April 25. Visit 
John Hurt in An Englishman in New York by Richard Laxton[/caption]
The