Honey Bee is a dramatic thriller that shines light on marginalized young girls lured into human trafficking rings. The film directed by award-winning documentarian-turned-narrative filmmaker Rama Rau (“League of Exotique Dancers,” “No Place to Hide,” “The Market”) and starring Julia Sarah Stone (“Allure,” “Wet Bum,” “Weirdos,” “The Killing”) in the title role of “Honey Bee,” for which she won a Leo Award, will be released on all major VOD platforms starting November 10 via Syndicado.
Women Texas Film Festival (WTxFF) announced the official selections for the fifth year of the critically-acclaimed Dallas-based film festival. The festival focuses solely on visionary female filmmakers and features LGBTQIA+ stories, provocative documentaries, and Texas-based female filmmakers throughout its lineup. Pivoting to an all-virtual presentation, Olivia Peace’s teenage comedy Tahara will open the festival, and Lisa Donato’s Gossamer Folds is the Closing Night Selection for WTxFF, August 13-16.
The 23rd Annual Urbanworld Film Festival will present a slate of 78 official selections and 7 spotlight selections in Manhattan, September 18 to 22, 2019 at AMC Empire 25 on 234 West 42nd Street.
Birds Without Feathers[/caption]
The Whistler Film Festival will present an unprecedented number of female focused films, talent, events, and awards throughout its 2018 programs. The Festival will screen 21 feature films and 18 short films directed or co-directed by women or non-binary individuals, which makes up 46% of this year’s film programming, the highest percentage for the festival to date. WFF will also have 41 Canadian females out of 80 (51%) participating in 11 different talent programs, including 16 directors, 5 producers, 3 screenwriters, 8 filmmakers, 1 actor, and 7 musicians in bands in the Music Showcase.
“The Whistler Film Festival’s female focused initiatives are aligned with several industry wide mandates, and we are committed to promoting the shared goal of breaking the celluloid ceiling, increasing the number of women in the director’s chair, addressing the imbalance of industry diversity behind the camera, and supporting the collaborative efforts to bring more female written and directed narratives to screen, and more females on screen to reflect society,” says Shauna Hardy Mishaw, WFF Executive Director. “With strong representation both in front of and behind the camera in our films, and talent programs this year, Whistler is maintaining a timely leadership role for women in the industry, when the need is not only apparent, the collective is calling for it.“
(l-r) Grace Molony stars as Dorothy Stafford, Margot Robbie stars as Queen Elizabeth I and Georgia Burnell as Kate Carey in MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, a Focus Features release.[/caption]
Festival goers attending the 18th annual Whistler Film Festival (WFF), taking place from November 28 to December 2, can look forward to 85 fresh films including 50 features and 35 shorts representing 12 countries. WFF is set to open this year with Josie Rourke’s MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, starring two of last year’s Oscar nominated best actresses, Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie. Rourke’s breathtakingly beautiful directorial debut explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart (Ronan), and her struggle to reclaim her rightful throne as Queen of Scotland, then under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I (Robbie).
Closing the festival is the Canadian Premiere of groundbreaking surf documentary MOMENTUM GENERATION. Directed by Academy Award-shortlisted and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmakers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, the documentary follows the biggest names in surfing, including Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb and the late Todd Chesser. Executive produced by Sundance founder Robert Redford with stunning archival footage from the godfather of surf films Taylor Steele, MOMENTUM GENERATION gives audiences an inside look at the lives of these teenagers as they rose to super stardom as the first competitive surfers.
WFF will screen six award season contenders including hosting the Canadian premieres of ON THE BASIS OF SEX, Mimi Leder’s topical biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg played by Felicity Jones, and Robert Budreau’s STOCKHOLM with Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace. The festival will also feature Western Canadian Premieres of AT ETERNITY’S GATE, director Julian Schnabel’s take on the life on Vincent Van Gogh played by Willem Dafoe; IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, the first film from director Barry Jenkins since winning the Academy Award for Best Picture with MOONLIGHT; Alfonso Cuarón’s masterful ROMA, which – for the first time ever at WFF – will be shown in 4k projection and 7.2 sound; and FAMILY FIRST (CHIEN DE GARDE) directed by Sophie Dupuis, Canada’s entry in this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar category.
Other highlights include the World Premiere of Borsos Jury member Bruce McDonald’s CLAIRE’S HAT, an unprecedented filmic mea culpa about the making of the 2001 fiasco PICTURE CLAIRE. This funny, insightful and brilliantly reconstructed exploration documents what went wrong during the shooting of McDonald’s biggest budget movie to date. Direct from its premiere at Telluride, Brigitte Berman’s HUGH HEFNER’S AFTER DARK: SPEAKING OUT IN AMERICA, features a treasure trove of archival footage with everyone from Lenny Bruce to Moms Mabley.
Programming strands include American Indies, Canadian Vanguard, Contenders, Doc Bloc, First Features, From Overseas, From The Vault, Mountain Culture, ShortWork, and World Premieres.
WFF boasts that four of its five films in its American Indies strand will grace Canadian screens for the first time in Whistler. Titles include Wendy McColm’s funny and bittersweet BIRDS WITHOUT FEATHERS; Adisa’s horrifying look at sex trafficking in SKIN IN THE GAME; Alex Harvey’s brilliant WALDEN: LIFE IN THE WOODS with Oscar nominee Demián Bichir; and Emma Forrest’s moving UNTOGETHER, with Jamie Dornan (50 SHADES OF GREY), Jemima Kirke, Lola Kirke, Ben Mendelsohn and Jennifer Grey. Finally, Sebastián Silva’s TYREL features Michael Cera in a story about a lone black man on otherwise all-white weekend of drunken bro debauchery on a birthday trip to a cabin in the Catskills.
This year, 18 Canadian films will compete for Canada’s second largest festival prize in the 15th annual Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature. Borsos titles feature seven World Premieres including Jon Silverberg’s haunting WOODLAND (shot in BC); Métis director Shane Belcourt’s mission to Mars comedy RED ROVER starring Cara Gee; Jesse Zigelstein’s restaurant owner drama for foodies NOSE TO TAIL, Carolyn Combs’ ode to multiculturalism in Vancouver BELLA CIAO!; Natty Zavitz’s moving forbidden romance drama ACQUAINTED; Maja Zdanowski’s ambitious multi-character drama IN GOD I TRUST; Zack Bernbaum’s hilariously deadpan road movie about two Toronto Jews on a trek into Poland THE DANCING DOGS OF DOMBROVA; and Rama Rau’s HONEY BEE, which features another unforgettable performance by Julia Sarah Stone (WFF 2017 Star to Watch Alumni) as an underage truckstop hooker.
Western Canadian premieres in the Borsos Competition include Deanne Foley’s poignant exploration of mental illness and maternal yearnings, AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS; Kristina Wagenbauer’s moving story of mother/daughter conflict SASHINKA; Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ A COLONY (UNE COLONIE), a memorable small-town coming of age story; Roz Owen’s study of a disenfranchised First Nations woman TROUBLE IN THE GARDEN featuring Cara Gee; Renée Beaulieu’s shockingly honest THE NATURALLY WANTON PLEASURE OF SKIN (LES SALOPES); Darlene Naponse’s FALLS AROUND HER featuring a career-best performance by Tantoo Cardinal; Lenin M. Sivam’s ROOBHA, a moving and empathetic look at transgender romance within the Canadian Tamil community; Sébastien Pilote’s award-winning coming of age story THE FIREFLIES ARE GONE; Sophie Dupuis’ first feature FAMILY FIRST (CHIEN DE GARDE), Canada’s entry in this year’s Foreign language Oscar category; and the Canadian Premiere of Robert Budreau’s STOCKHOLM with Ethan Hawke and Noomi Rapace.
In addition to the Canadian Premiere of the definitive surfing documentary MOMENTUM GENERATION which will close the festival, this year’s Mountain Culture films include premieres of Whistler-based directors Brian Hockenstein and Tamo Campos’ THE RADICALS which follows a group of snowboarders and surfers who drift from the mountains and oceans into the world of activism; Patagonia’s stunning winter film TREELINE which explores the diverse forests of British Columbia, Nevada, and Japan, directed by Vancouver-based Jordan Manley; and winner of the Best Documentary award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, FREE SOLO, directed by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold’s preparations to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock – the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park – without a rope.
This year’s Doc Bloc competition features a refreshingly diverse line-up. Two BC-based productions will grace our screens, including NEVER BE DONE: THE RICHARD GLEN LETT STORY directed by Roy Tighe about a self-sabotaging Vancouver based stand-up comic, and the World Premiere of FUCK YOU ALL: THE UWE BOLL STORY directed by Sean Patrick Shaul. Canadian premieres include Brian Bellinkoff’s PSYCHONAUTICS: A COMIC’S EXPLORATION OF PSYCHEDELICS with comedian Shane Mauss, and Brigitte Berman’s HUGH HEFNER’S AFTER DARK: SPEAKING OUT IN AMERICA. In addition, WFF will screen the World Premiere of Jaren Hayman’s eye-opening exploration of Canada’s largest black community in THIS IS NORTH PRESTON. Western Canadian premieres include THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, Tom Donahue’s timely reminder of gender inequality in the film and television industries being shown as part of WFF’s Women on Top Series, and our British Columbia premiere selection includes Laura Marie Wayne’s LOVE, SCOTT, about the lasting impact of a horrific incident of homophobic violence, produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Other films of note in this year’s lineup include the family-friendly first feature from the Northwest Territories’ Jennifer Walden, ELIJAH AND THE ROCK CREATURE; musical Christmas zombie movie ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE that simply must be seen to be believed; Gillian McKercher’s realistic look at working in the Alberta oil sands CIRCLE OF STEEL; Collin Friesen’s hilarious comedy about burying a deceased father’s ashes featuring a stand-out performance from Bruce Greenwood, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS; and Eva Husson’s rousing film detailing a Kurdish all-female battalion, GIRLS OF THE SUN. Borsos award winner Maxime Giroux (FELIX AND MEIRA 2014) returns with his newest THE GREAT DARKENED DAYS, and Gary Burns honors the festival with his Mountain Culture entry MAN RUNNING, about a doctor running a marathon in the Rockies.
Momentum Generation[/caption]
MOMENTUM GENERATION (United States) Dir. Jeff & Michael Zimbalist
A COLONY ACQUAINTED AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS BELLA CIAO! THE DANCING DOGS OF DOMBROVA FALLS AROUND HER FAMILY FIRST THE FIREFLIES ARE GONE HONEY BEE IN GOD I TRUST THE NATURALLY WANTON PLEASURE OF SKIN NOSE TO TAIL RED ROVER ROOBHA TROUBLE IN THE GARDEN SASHINKA STOCKHOLM WOODLAND
Momentum Generation[/caption]
MOMENTUM GENERATION, the latest documentary from Award-winning filmmakers Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, will have its Canadian premiere as the Closing Night film of Whistler Film Festival. The documentary follows the biggest names in surfing, including Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb and the late Todd Chesser. Executive produced by Sundance founder Robert Redford with stunning archival footage from the godfather of surf films Taylor Steele, MOMENTUM GENERATION gives audiences an inside look at the lives of these teenagers as they rose to super stardom as the first competitive surfers.
WFF’s Director of Programming Paul Gratton had this to say about the current 2018 lineup: “The increasing importance of the Whistler Film Festival as a launchpad for world-calibre Canadian features is evidenced by the significant number of World Premieres that have already been secured for this year’s festival.”
In addition to the previously announced World Premiere of FUCK YOU ALL, THE UWE BOLL STORY, WFF added nine Canadian films premiering at Whistler this year. Seven of the films are eligible for the five awards in WFF’s coveted Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature *, which includes the second largest festival prize in the country featuring a $15,000 cash prize presented by the Directors Guild of Canada, British Columbia and $15,000 post production prize presented by Encore Vancouver.
BELLA CIAO! * (2018, Canada (BC), World Premiere)
Carmen Aguirre and Tony Nardi star in a remarkable story directed by Carolyn Combs of friends, lovers, seekers and thieves. Set at the intersection of the Latin American, First Nations and Italian communities in Vancouver, Bella Ciao! captures the struggle towards solidarity within Canada’s immigrant urban mix. A tribute to the mosaic of diversity and the different generations of distinct cultures that help define Vancouver and by extension, all of Canada today.
IN GOD I TRUST * (2018, Canada (BC), World Premiere)
John Cassini, Marc Senior and Melissa Roxburgh star in this multi-character drama from Vancouver based filmmaker Maja Zdanowski. A distressed young black man, a reckless white nationalist, and a pair of traveling vacationers intertwine in three tales of redemption, violence and faith during a random encounter in Northern Idaho.
INTO INVISIBLE LIGHT * (2018, Canada (MB), World Premiere)
Director Shalegh Carter delivers a powerful story of grief, longing, and one woman’s path to healing through the realisation of her long-buried desire to write. A widow rekindles a past relationship with a writer/professor. Conceived under the sway of both love and art INTO INVISIBLE LIGHT is a story of forgiveness, second chances and the revitalizing power of self-expression.
HONEY BEE * (2018, Canada (ON), World Premiere)
2017 WFF Star to Watch Julia Sarah Stone astounds as an underage truck stop hooker under the sway of a manipulative pimp, sent by authorities to a tough love placement location, a working farm run by a no-nonsense character played by Martha Plimpton. Director Rama Rau continues to explore female sexuality, as she did with her previous documentary look at burlesque queens, THE LEAGUE OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS.
NEVER BE DONE: THE RICHARD GLEN LETT STORY (2018, Canada (BC), World Premiere)
This raw and immersive documentary tells the story of how controversial Vancouver stand-up comedian Richard Lett sabotaged his own promising career, lost everything and lived to tell the tale. Director Roy Tighe’s commitment to presenting Lett’s highest and lowest moments over the past nine years ultimately presents a message of personal redemption, and shines a poignant light on the intensely private struggle of addiction.
NOSE TO TAIL * (2018, Canada (ON), World Premiere)
Aaron Abrams plays a talented but abrasive chef who is struggling to keep his high end restaurant afloat. Over the course of one event-filled day, he must deal with an angry lover, a would-be investor (Ennis Esmer) and unhappy staff, not to mention the realization that his establishment is no longer as trendy as when it first opened. Directed by Jesse Zigelstein, this a character study that will have foodies salivating.
NORTH PRESTON’S FINEST (2018, Canada (ON), World Premiere)
Director Jaren Hayman provides us with an intimate glimpse into the country’s largest black community, painted in recent years as one of Canada’s most established human trafficking hubs. With poignant interviews and stories from residents of all kinds, from pimps and their victims to politicians and the citizens they serve, NORTH PRESTON’S FINEST explores one community’s struggle against crime, economic adversity and systemic racism, and their ardent desire to change the narrative.
RED ROVER * (2018, Canada (ON), World Premiere)
Métis director Shane Belcourt directs a wistful story about a socially awkward geologist who is encouraged to apply for a one-way manned mission to Mars by an extroverted musician he meets in the park. Rising star Cara Gee shines as a muse with her own issues who inspires our unhappy would-be space traveler, who longs for a new beginning.
WOODLAND * (2018, Canada (BC), World Premiere)
Directed by Vancouver based Jon Silverberg, this is about a man’s personal journey that touches on the land, the mythical and the spiritual. Set in 1989, out-of-work photojournalist Jake (Richard Harmon) who struggles with addiction and a troubled past, takes a job as watchman of a wilderness lodge on the remote Haida Gwaii island in the Pacific Northwest. Under the watchful eye of veteran handyman Sparky, Jake sets up a darkroom to develop the photos he shoots, which reveal strange apparitions that he soon discovers are prophecies of his and Sparky’s disturbing future.