Indie Memphis Film Festival added more films to its 2022 slate including this year’s Centerpiece Presentation, Elegance Bratton’s The Inspection, fresh from its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film stars Jeremy Pope in a breakout performance as a gay black Marine who has been cast out by his mother (Gabrielle Union). This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, and will run from October 19th through 24th.
Cannes Film Festival added more films to the lineup for the 75th edition of the festival, taking place May 17 to May 28.
WEINER[/caption]
Rooftop Films announced the Opening Weekend lineup and the first batch of feature film programming for the 20th Annual Summer Series.
The 2016 Rooftop Films Summer Series opens on Wednesday, May 18th with a special sneak preview screening of 2016 Sundance U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize Winner Weiner on the rooftops of Industry City.
The official opening night will follow on Friday, May 20th, with “This is What We Mean By Short Films,” a collection of some of the most innovative, new shorts from around the world.
The 2016 Rooftop Films Summer Series continues through August, with screenings of some of the best independent films of the past year in a variety of exciting and engaging outdoor locations across all five boroughs.
This year’s slate includes phenomenal works of non-fiction such as Jerzy Sladokowski’s thoughtful and intimate IDFA winner Don Juan, Roger Ross Williams’ critically acclaimed Life, Animated; Kirsten Johnson’s form-challenging and deeply poetic Cameraperson; Jesse Moss’ Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham doc, The Bandit, David Farrier’s stranger than fiction film, Tickled, Joe Berlinger’s Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, and many more.
The 20th Summer Series also includes exceptional fiction films, such as Elizabeth Wood’s self-reflective and provocative White Girl; Bernardo Britto’s timely surveillance culture satire, Jacqueline, Argentine; Taika Waititi’s off-kilter comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Matthew Brown’s understated and intimate teen drama In the Treetops; among others.
In addition to feature and short film programming, this year’s series will include a number of unique events and partnerships, including: the return of the Rooftop Films Storm King Art Center Cinema Ramble featuring multiple film installations, and specialty programming with International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), The Sundance Film Institute, and SXSW Film.
Rooftop Films 20th Annual Summer Series Opening Weekend
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Industry City, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Weiner
(Elyse Steinberg & Josh Kriegman | USA | 100’)
Sexts, lies, and Carlos Danger: watch the wildest political meltdown in recent history.
Presented in Partnership with: Sundance Selects
Friday, May 20, 2016
The Bushwick Generator, Bushwick, Brooklyn
This is What We Mean by Short Films
Celebrate our 20th anniversary with short films chock-full of the stuff of summer: dancing, swimming, and hanging with old friends.
THE FILMS: Stations (Roddy Hyduk); The Position (Black Eye Symphony pt. 1) (Steve Collins); METUBE 2 — August Sings Carmina Burana (Daniel Moshel); Avant Garde (Black Eye Symphony pt. 3) (Steve Collins); Temporary Color (John Wilson); Thunder P. (Black Eye Symphony pt. 4) (Steve Collins); The Hanging (Geoffrey Feinberg); Mining Poems or Odes (Callum Rice); AN ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE (Ja’Tovia Gary); Bad at Dancing (Joanna Arnow); Dr. Meertz (Black Eye Symphony pt. 4) (Steve Collins).
Feature Documentaries (more films, dates and venues to be announced soon)
The Bandit
(Jesse Moss | USA | 82′)
Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham recount the strange, wild making of Smokey and the Bandit.
Presented in Partnership with: CMT
Cameraperson
(Kirsten Johnson | USA | 102′)
Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson’s deeply poetic memoir, culled from footage shot for other films.
Presented in Partnership with: The Film Collaborative
Danny Brown Concert Documentary (Title TBA)
(Andrew Cohn | USA)
An intimate, behind-the-scenes adventure with Detroit-rapper Danny Brown during a hometown show.
Presented in partnership with: House of Vans
Don Juan
(Jerzy Sladkowski | Sweden/Finland | 92′)
A 4-sided love triangle, complete with autism & neuroses in the Russian city Nizhny Novgorod
Presented in Partnership with: IDFA and Swedish Film Institute
Goodnight Brooklyn – The Story of Death by Audio
(Matthew Conboy | USA | 82′)
The origins, influence and ultimate closure of one of Brooklyn’s best DIY music venues.
In Pursuit of Silence
(Patrick Shen | USA | 81’)
A contemplative meditation that explores our relationship with silence, sound, and the impact of noise on our lives. The film will be presented as a special silent screening, with the audience listening to the film on headphones.
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Life, Animated[/caption]
Life, Animated
(Roger Ross Williams | USA | 91′)
A young man with autism discovers a way to make sense of world via classic Disney animated films.
Presented in Partnership with: The Orchard, in theaters July 8
Los Punks: We Are All We Have
(Angela Boatwright | USA | 79′)
All thrash, noise, and pits; meet the fans and bands of the thriving backyard punk scene in LA.
Presented in partnership with: House of Vans
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The Music of Strangers: Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble[/caption]
The Music of Strangers: Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
(Morgan Neville | USA | 96′)
The extraordinary story of the renowned international musical collective which was created by famed cellist, Yo-Yo Ma.
Presented in Partnership with The Orchard, in theaters June 10
Tickled
(David Farrier & Dylan Reeve | New Zealand | 92′)
The shadowy world of competitive tickling is exposed in this stranger than fiction tale.
Presented in Partnership with: Magnolia Pictures
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
(Joe Berlinger | USA | 115′)
Go behind the scenes of renowned life and business strategist Tony Robbins in a revelatory cinema verite by renowned director Joe Berlinger.
Presented in Partnership with: Netflix
Fiction Feature Films
Donald Cried
(Kris Avedisian | USA | 85′)
Stranded in his hometown, a favor from Peter’s old friend becomes a long van ride into the past.
The Fits
(Anna Rose Holmer | USA | 72′)
A tomboy’s desire for a dance team’s acceptance warps when its members fall prey to mysterious spasms.
Presented in Partnership with: Oscilloscope Laboratories, in theaters June 3rd
Hunt For the Wilder People
(Taika Waititi | New Zealand | 101′)
Raised on hip-hop and foster care, a defiant city kid starts new in the New Zealand countryside.
Presented in Partnership with: The Orchard, in theaters June 24
Hunter Gatherer
(Josh Locy | USA | 85′)
A darkly comic tale of unlikely friendship with an indelible central performance by Andre Royo.
In the Treetops
(Matthew Brown | USA | 78′)
Driving all night, packed in a car, 5 high school friends avoid their final destination: home.
Jacqueline, Argentine
(Bernardo Britto | USA | 87′)
A playfully mysterious whistle-blower comedy from Film Fund Grantee Bernardo Britto.
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White Girl[/caption]
White Girl
(Elizabeth Wood | USA | 88′)
A NYC college girl goes to wild extremes to get back her drug dealer boyfriend.
Presented in Partnership with: FilmRise and Netflix, in theaters this September
Jerzy Sladkowski’s Don Juan won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary and Ukrainian Sheriffs by Roman Bondarchuk won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary at the 28th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA award ceremony.
The prize for the best Dutch documentary went to Ester Gould for A Strange Love Affair with Ego. The festival’s opening film A Family Affair by Tom Fassaert was awarded the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary.
A total of 16 prizes were awarded and three of the winners: Ukrainian Sheriffs, Roundabout in My Head and Sonita were made with financial support from the IDFA Bertha Fund.
Jerzy Sladkowski won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for Don Juan (Sweden/Finland). The film is a portrait of 22-year old Oleg, and his mother Marina’s attempts to cure him of his lethargy.
From the jury’s report: “This tender, bittersweet tragicomedy about role-playing within both therapeutic theatre games and family dramas, and the interplay between them, is both subtle and aggressive, speaking volumes about the definitions of normality, abnormality and the dynamics of power and love.”
Furthermore, the jury awarded the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary to Ukrainian Sheriffs (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany) by Roman Bondarchuk. The documentary, which was made with support from the IDFA Bertha Fund and was a 2014 IDFAcademy Summer School project, is a tragicomic portrait of two sheriffs in a remote Ukrainian village where, alongside all manner of commonplace situations, political developments also threaten to disturb the peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qoEzqw5Mk
The IDFA Award for First Appearance was awarded to Salome Machaidze, Tamuna Karumidze and David Meskhi for When the Earth Seems to Be Light (Georgia/Germany).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQix_-g0fI
The Special Jury Award for First Appearance – in memory of Peter Wintonick – went to Hassen Ferhani’s Roundabout in My Head (Algeria/France/Lebanon/Qatar).
Roundabout in My Head was financially supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund.
Andreas Koefoed won the IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary for At Home in the World (Denmark).
Samir Mehanovic won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Mid-Length Documentary for The Fog of Srebrenica (Scotland/Bosnia and Herzegovina).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCHdvD7zD4A
The IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling was presented to Jan Rothuizen and Sara Kolster for Drawing Room (the Netherlands).
Ant Hampton received the IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award for Someone Else (Belgium).
The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary was awarded to A Strange Love Affair with Ego made by Ester Gould.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDeqrlVLLrE
Tom Fassaert received the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary for A Family Affair.
The ARRI IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary went to My Aleppo (USA) by Melissa Langer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lXDzur4Ts
The Mute’s House (Israel) by Tamar Kay won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Student Documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01CtMn48dgE
This year, the IDFA Award for Best Children’s Documentary was awarded for the first time and went to Ninnoc by Niki Padidar (the Netherlands).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hn3GFvFWsM
The jury decided to also award an honorable mention to Victor Kossakovsky’s Varicella (Norway/Denmark/Sweden/Russia).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOeKWKC2w5o
IDFA DOC U Award for the youth jury’s favorite film was awarded to Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (Iran). Sonita was made thanks to a financial contribution from the IDFA Bertha Fund.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B47MbpPuz7A
The Oxfam Global Justice Award went to Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina for Walls (Spain).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl_kUNh9TpI
Finally, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary was awarded to Motley’s Law by Nicole Nielsen Horanyi (Denmark). Motley’s Law was an IDFA Forum project in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_hfsq5gL-o
IDFA continues until Sunday November 29, 2015, when the winners of the BankGiro Loterij IDFA Audience Award and the IDFA Music Audience Award, for the music documentary will be announced.
15 films will compete in the feature-length documentary competition of the upcoming 28th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which takes place in Amsterdam from November 18 to 29, 2015. The 28th IDFA opens on 18 November with A Family Affair by Dutch director Tom Fassaert. In A Family Affair, Fassaert explores the delicate history of his own family, which is marked by conflict. This personal journey takes him through four generations, and becomes complicated when his grandmother makes an unexpected confession. A Family Affair competes in both IDFA’s feature-length documentary and Dutch documentary competitions.
Bolshoi Babylon by Nick Read (Russia / UK)
A revealing look behind the scenes of the world-famous Russian Bolshoi Theatre, where a constant struggle between ambition, love of art and nepotism is played out.
Carolina’s World by Mariana Viñoles (Uruguay)
An affectionate portrait of 20-year-old Caro, who has Down’s syndrome. Sitting at her mother’s kitchen table, she talks openly about her life.
Clear Years by Frédéric Guillaume (Belgium)
An intimate, candid account of a man watching through his camera lens as his family falls apart.
Don Juan by Jerzy Sladkowski (Sweden / Finland)
A funny, painful portrait of 22-year-old Oleg, whose mother Marina is trying to free him from his lethargic state.
A Family Affair by Tom Fassaert (the Netherlands)
Hoping to gain insight into his family history, Tom Fassaert heads to South Africa to visit his grandmother Marianne. But Marianne has something else in mind.
Natural Disorder by Christian Sønderby Jepsen (Denmark)
Jacob, who has cerebral palsy, will never lead a normal life. But who defines what is normal? In a play, he defends his right to exist as an abnormal person.
Next Stop: Utopia by Apostolos Karakasis (Greece / Germany / France)
Greek workers take over their abandoned workplace. Their movement becomes a beacon of solidarity – but how long can they keep going?
Patient by Jorge Caballero (Colombia)
While Nubia fights and fears for the life of her terminally ill daughter, we are given a bewildering insight into the absurd bureaucracy of the health system in Colombia.
The Road by Zanbo Zhang (China)
The construction of a gigantic motorway in China brings three parties into opposition with one another: the local population, the construction company and the labourers.
Snow Monkey by George Gittoes (Australia)
A collage of joy and brutality in Afghanistan. Local gang members take acting roles in a Pashtun film directed by an open-minded Australian.
Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (Iran / Germany)
Illegally living in Tehran, 18-year old Afghani refugee Sonita dreams of being a rapper in this exciting document of her search for her own life path through life.
A Strange Love Affair with Ego by Ester Gould (the Netherlands)
Her admiration for the self-assurance of her sister Rowan prompts the filmmaker to explore our narcissistic society – with shocking results.
Thru You Princess by Ido Haar (Israel)
A virtual musical encounter between a cappella singer Princess Shaw from New Orleans and Israeli composer-producer Kutiman leads to an internet hit.
Thy Father’s Chair by Antonio Tibaldi and Alex Lora (Italy / USA)
Ageing Orthodox Jewish twins Abraham and Shraga have to look on as a clean-up team gets to grips with their polluted home in Brooklyn.
Ukrainian Sheriffs by Roman Bondarchuk (Ukraine / Latvia / Germany)
Tragi-comic portrait of a pair of sheriffs in a remote Ukrainian village where – alongside various simmering situations – political developments are also a threat to order.