Octavio Is Dead![/caption]
The 10th DTLA Film Festival, taking place October 17 to 21, announced today the 11 documentary and 17 narrative feature-length movies in the 2018 line-up, under the of women’s empowerment, a nod to the #metoo and #timesup movements. In keeping with the theme, 18 of the 27 (65%) of the new feature films screening at the festival are by women directors.
In separate ceremonies, Rosanna Arquette and Malcolm McDowell are to be honored with the festival’s Independent Film Pioneer Award for their body of work in independent cinema. Arquette appears in two films in competition at the festival. She stars in Amanda Sthers’ “Holy Lands” as a matriarch attempting to hold her family together even as she must confront her own mortality. The film, co-starring James Caan, Tom Hollander and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, will screen as the festival Centerpiece presentation. Arquette also co-stars in Sook-Yin Lee’s “Octavio Is Dead!” a contemporary ghost story. In a career spanning four decades, Arquette has appeared in many signature roles, including “Desperately Seeking Susan” (1985), for which she earned a Best Actress Golden Globe Nomination, “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “After Hours” (1985) and “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000). Over the past year, she has become a public face of the #metoo movement.
McDowell stars in the festival’s Los Angeles premiere screening of director Kayla Tabish’s “Culture of Fear,”a dystopian suspense thriller. Forever known for his iconic starring role as Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange” (1971), he would go onto star in “O Lucky Man” (1973), based on his concept and the script that he co-wrote, Paul Schrader’s “Cat People” (1982), “The Caller” (1987) “Gangster No. 1” (2000), Robert Altman’s “The Company (2003), “The Employer” (2013) and literally dozens of other independent and studios releases spanning six decades.
In the festival’s tradition of presenting an archival movie to conclude the festival, this year’s Closing Night Film will be a special 20th anniversary screening of director Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”(1998) with appearances by the cast and crew.
In “A Tuba To Cuba” filmmaker T.G. Herrington profiles a cultural institution, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans, as they journey to Cuba in search of musical camaraderie and historical root. In “Underdogs,”first-time director Téo Frank also is in search of musical origins but with the focus on hip-hop, as he travels from his native Paris to New York. Hip hop plays another leading role in Sam Bathrick’s “16 Bars,”the third documentary in the festival’s music series. The film follows three inmates as they collaborate with Grammy -Award-winning artist Speech of Arrested Development, discovering painful elements of their past in the process.
Three inmates are also the subject of Tamara Perkins’ inspirational documentary “Life After Life”as they set out to prove their success on the other side. The theme of overcoming challenges permeates two films about veterans. In “Surviving Home,” co-directors Jillian Moul and Matthew Moul document the lives of four generations of warriors after returning from war. In Anita Sugimura Holsapple’s “Battlefield Home – Breaking The Silence,”a Vietnam era military child exposes the unflinching impact of war on family dynamics.
A battle of another kind is the subject of filmmakers Tricia Russo’s and Craig E. Shapiro’s “Love Always, Mom,”an inspirational documentary about a stage-4 cancer survivor’s journey to build a family after diagnosis. Family is also the focus of Ensar Altay “Guardian of the Angels,”a documentary profile of a widower who continues to find his wife’s love in his care of their child with special needs. In co-directors Liza Meak’s and Kathryn Basiji’s documentary “The Edge of Success,”it’s youth who take matters into their own hands when their high school is plagued by suicide clusters.
Social justice is manifested in myriad ways in fiction and nonfiction films screening at the festival. In Sally Colón-Petree’s documentary “Women Like Us,”three American women are inspired by the powerful women they encounter in Kenya, who against all odds are successfully confronting a host of social injustices from female genital mutilation to child prostitution. In “Give Us This Day”co-directors Michael Zimbalist and Jeff Zimbalist track a year in East St. Louis, the city with the highest homicide rate in the United States. Told from the perspectives of both police officers and residents, a community plagued by gun violence experiences complex challenges, heartbreak and hope.
Also screening at the festival are two dramas that tackle social injustice. In Laura Somers’ “Rich Kids,”economic class divide is the backdrop as a group of teens from a low-income community break into a mansion to enjoy the good life if only for a day. Class divides also figures into the theme of Collin Schiffli’s dramatic feature “All Creatures Here Below,”about a destitute couple struggling to find refuge for themselves and a stolen infant.”
The impact of crime is explored in Wes Miller’s “River Runs Red,”about a hardened detective (John Cusack) and a grieving father (George Lopez) who take the law into their own hands when police violence spirals out of control. Taye Diggs co-stars. Jay Francisco Lopez’s “Love, Cecy”is based on a true crime story of a promising high school student whose brutal murder was chronicled by the media nationwide. In Richard Levien’s “Collisions,”a 12-year-old must turn detective when she returns home with her younger brother to find their house ransacked and their immigrant mother missing.
Searching for a lost loved one is also the theme of Ilana Rein’s suspenseful “Perception,” the story of a successful businessman who comes to believe that a small-time psychic has the power to reconnect with his dead wife. Psychological thrills freefall in Angela Matemotja’s “Elevate,” a set of intertwining stories about people trapped in elevators who must face their greatest fears. In Amanda Kramer’s “Paris Window,” adult siblings Julian and Sunny are caught in a trap of their own making as they maneuver hallucinatory paranoia and sinister conspiracies in their otherwise lovely pied-à-terre.
Comedy and drama blur in several films screening at the festival. Director Sean McGinly uses a light touch to explore profound questions about life, love, friendship and family in “Silver Lake.”Wendy McColm’s “Birds Without Feathers”also navigates the shoals of human connections in her black comedy about six broken individuals on their quest for love. Nancy Goodman’s rom-com “Surprise Me”is a seemingly light-hearted story of an event planner but with a darker undercurrent about eating disorders. Jean Lee throws cautionto the wind in her absurdist comedy “Original Sin,”which follows the consequences to the marriage of a respectable couple when an enfant terrible artist pays a visit.
Lines blur as well in Joy Shannon’s genre-bending “My Dead Selfie,”a ghostly horror story that tackles head-on issues of racism and racial identity in America. In Anne-Sophie’s “Ballet Blanc,” the innocence of childhood reveals itself as a bloody terror in a unsuspecting small town.OCTAVIO IS DEAD
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28 Feature Films to LA Premiere at 2018 DTLA Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_31965" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Octavio Is Dead![/caption]
The 10th DTLA Film Festival, taking place October 17 to 21, announced today the 11 documentary and 17 narrative feature-length movies in the 2018 line-up, under the of women’s empowerment, a nod to the #metoo and #timesup movements. In keeping with the theme, 18 of the 27 (65%) of the new feature films screening at the festival are by women directors.
In separate ceremonies, Rosanna Arquette and Malcolm McDowell are to be honored with the festival’s Independent Film Pioneer Award for their body of work in independent cinema. Arquette appears in two films in competition at the festival. She stars in Amanda Sthers’ “Holy Lands” as a matriarch attempting to hold her family together even as she must confront her own mortality. The film, co-starring James Caan, Tom Hollander and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, will screen as the festival Centerpiece presentation. Arquette also co-stars in Sook-Yin Lee’s “Octavio Is Dead!” a contemporary ghost story. In a career spanning four decades, Arquette has appeared in many signature roles, including “Desperately Seeking Susan” (1985), for which she earned a Best Actress Golden Globe Nomination, “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “After Hours” (1985) and “The Whole Nine Yards” (2000). Over the past year, she has become a public face of the #metoo movement.
McDowell stars in the festival’s Los Angeles premiere screening of director Kayla Tabish’s “Culture of Fear,”a dystopian suspense thriller. Forever known for his iconic starring role as Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange” (1971), he would go onto star in “O Lucky Man” (1973), based on his concept and the script that he co-wrote, Paul Schrader’s “Cat People” (1982), “The Caller” (1987) “Gangster No. 1” (2000), Robert Altman’s “The Company (2003), “The Employer” (2013) and literally dozens of other independent and studios releases spanning six decades.
In the festival’s tradition of presenting an archival movie to conclude the festival, this year’s Closing Night Film will be a special 20th anniversary screening of director Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”(1998) with appearances by the cast and crew.
In “A Tuba To Cuba” filmmaker T.G. Herrington profiles a cultural institution, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans, as they journey to Cuba in search of musical camaraderie and historical root. In “Underdogs,”first-time director Téo Frank also is in search of musical origins but with the focus on hip-hop, as he travels from his native Paris to New York. Hip hop plays another leading role in Sam Bathrick’s “16 Bars,”the third documentary in the festival’s music series. The film follows three inmates as they collaborate with Grammy -Award-winning artist Speech of Arrested Development, discovering painful elements of their past in the process.
Three inmates are also the subject of Tamara Perkins’ inspirational documentary “Life After Life”as they set out to prove their success on the other side. The theme of overcoming challenges permeates two films about veterans. In “Surviving Home,” co-directors Jillian Moul and Matthew Moul document the lives of four generations of warriors after returning from war. In Anita Sugimura Holsapple’s “Battlefield Home – Breaking The Silence,”a Vietnam era military child exposes the unflinching impact of war on family dynamics.
A battle of another kind is the subject of filmmakers Tricia Russo’s and Craig E. Shapiro’s “Love Always, Mom,”an inspirational documentary about a stage-4 cancer survivor’s journey to build a family after diagnosis. Family is also the focus of Ensar Altay “Guardian of the Angels,”a documentary profile of a widower who continues to find his wife’s love in his care of their child with special needs. In co-directors Liza Meak’s and Kathryn Basiji’s documentary “The Edge of Success,”it’s youth who take matters into their own hands when their high school is plagued by suicide clusters.
Social justice is manifested in myriad ways in fiction and nonfiction films screening at the festival. In Sally Colón-Petree’s documentary “Women Like Us,”three American women are inspired by the powerful women they encounter in Kenya, who against all odds are successfully confronting a host of social injustices from female genital mutilation to child prostitution. In “Give Us This Day”co-directors Michael Zimbalist and Jeff Zimbalist track a year in East St. Louis, the city with the highest homicide rate in the United States. Told from the perspectives of both police officers and residents, a community plagued by gun violence experiences complex challenges, heartbreak and hope.
Also screening at the festival are two dramas that tackle social injustice. In Laura Somers’ “Rich Kids,”economic class divide is the backdrop as a group of teens from a low-income community break into a mansion to enjoy the good life if only for a day. Class divides also figures into the theme of Collin Schiffli’s dramatic feature “All Creatures Here Below,”about a destitute couple struggling to find refuge for themselves and a stolen infant.”
The impact of crime is explored in Wes Miller’s “River Runs Red,”about a hardened detective (John Cusack) and a grieving father (George Lopez) who take the law into their own hands when police violence spirals out of control. Taye Diggs co-stars. Jay Francisco Lopez’s “Love, Cecy”is based on a true crime story of a promising high school student whose brutal murder was chronicled by the media nationwide. In Richard Levien’s “Collisions,”a 12-year-old must turn detective when she returns home with her younger brother to find their house ransacked and their immigrant mother missing.
Searching for a lost loved one is also the theme of Ilana Rein’s suspenseful “Perception,” the story of a successful businessman who comes to believe that a small-time psychic has the power to reconnect with his dead wife. Psychological thrills freefall in Angela Matemotja’s “Elevate,” a set of intertwining stories about people trapped in elevators who must face their greatest fears. In Amanda Kramer’s “Paris Window,” adult siblings Julian and Sunny are caught in a trap of their own making as they maneuver hallucinatory paranoia and sinister conspiracies in their otherwise lovely pied-à-terre.
Comedy and drama blur in several films screening at the festival. Director Sean McGinly uses a light touch to explore profound questions about life, love, friendship and family in “Silver Lake.”Wendy McColm’s “Birds Without Feathers”also navigates the shoals of human connections in her black comedy about six broken individuals on their quest for love. Nancy Goodman’s rom-com “Surprise Me”is a seemingly light-hearted story of an event planner but with a darker undercurrent about eating disorders. Jean Lee throws cautionto the wind in her absurdist comedy “Original Sin,”which follows the consequences to the marriage of a respectable couple when an enfant terrible artist pays a visit.
Lines blur as well in Joy Shannon’s genre-bending “My Dead Selfie,”a ghostly horror story that tackles head-on issues of racism and racial identity in America. In Anne-Sophie’s “Ballet Blanc,” the innocence of childhood reveals itself as a bloody terror in a unsuspecting small town.
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2017 Whistler Film Festival Reveals First 15 Films, PRODIGALS, NOBODY FAMOUS and More
[caption id="attachment_24091" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle[/caption]
The 2017 Whistler Film Festival (WFF) taking place from November 29th to December 3rd, today offered a sneak peek including the first 15 confirmed films, plus industry and event programming highlights.
WFF’s Director of Programming Paul Gratton had this to say about the 2017 lineup confirmed to date: “The Whistler Film Festival is a must-attend event for film fans, emerging filmmakers and anyone who cares about quality cinema. We continue to pursue our own unique festival niche by offering an impressive selection of films, featuring Oscar hopefuls and emerging talent, with a particular focus on female directors. Our Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key trends and opportunities facing the industry, and our Signature Series events will shine the spotlight on some of the top filmmakers of the day. While our final programming is far from complete, we will continue to build on the momentum established over our last few years, and are confident that this will be our best year ever. This year, we are particularly gratified to note the large number of alumni returning to Whistler with their new films.
Toplining this year’s Canadian titles are the following World Premiere selections, some of which are eligible for WFF’s coveted Borsos Competition for Best Canadian Feature, featuring a $15,000 cash prize sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada, British Columbia
PRODIGALS: After the success of After-Party at WFF 2013, BC director Michelle Ouellet returns with a searing drama about a man who revisits his home town for a trial, where an ex-girlfriend and a checkered past await him, with David Alpay and Sara Canning (I PUT A HIT ON YOU, 2014).
THE MOMENT: Whistler is the perfect location to World Premiere BC filmmaker Darcy Turenne’s exhaustive and definitive history of dirt bike mountain racing that features breathtaking archival footage and stunt biking.
SOMEONE ELSE’S WEDDING: Following 2013’s THREE NIGHT STAND, director Pat Kiely offers up another hilarious comedy about a family gathering for an unusual wedding in Montreal, featuring Kathleen Turner, Jessica Paré, Jacob Tierney, Wallace Shawn, Frances Fisher, Kevin Zegers and Luke Kirby.
THE OTHER SIDE OF PORCUPINE LAKE: Director Julian Papas captures the unique camaraderie and DIY craziness on the set of Ingrid Veninger’s PORCUPINE LAKE.
8 MINUTES AHEAD: Director Ben Hoskyn’s first feature film shot in Vancouver and Hong Kong is about two brothers who have never met, but who fight over their late father’s business inheritance, even though they live in entirely different socioeconomic worlds and two very different cities.
NOBODY FAMOUS: A scathing black comedy from director Sarah Rotella about the jealousies and competitiveness of aspiring actors, as one gets a great role while spending a friendly weekend at the cottage with other wannabes.
Canadian Premieres include:
THE LEARS: Award winning filmmaker Carl Bessai met producer Irwin Olian from NeoClassics Films during the Whistler Film Festival in 2016 and the result is this well acted drama about a dysfunctional family gathering around their aging, cantankerous architect dad (Bruce Dern) hoping to score some inheritance points as he is about to retire. Also featuring Sean Astin and Anthony Michael Hall.
SANTA STOLE OUR DOG: A MERRY DOGGONE CHRISTMAS: Peterborough-born Bryan Michael Stoller is another master of the DIY school of filmmaking. Bryan moved to Hollywood many years ago, wrote the best-selling book “Filmmaking for Dummies”, and makes his own charming indie films, the last three of which have also starred his own pet dog. This one features Ed Asner as Santa, Eric Roberts and internet sensation Yvette Rachelle, who also serves as co-producer on the project.
PAINLESS: Canadian actor Joey Klein gives a remarkable performance as a man who is incapable of feeling any pain, but spends his life seeking a scientific cure for his ailment. Directed by Jordan Horowitz.
Other programming highlights confirmed for this year include:
PORCUPINE LAKE: After the success of THE ANIMAL PROJECT in 2013 and the Borsos cinematography win for HE HATED PIGEONS in 2015, Ingrid Veninger returns to present her latest feature, a charming study of that special inexplicable best girlfriends forever bond that consumes many young women at the onset of puberty.
THE PRODIGAL DAD: Vancouver based filmmaker Robert Wenzek’s first feature is a delightful character comedy about a young woman’s dad who shows up on her doorstep uninvited and becomes a hit with her friends, much to her embarrassment. A sort of Canadian Toni Erdmann. With Michelle Harrison and Mackenzie Gray.
CARDINALS: Sheila McCarthy gives one of her finest screen performances as a self-described recovering alcoholic stalked by the son of a man she killed in a car accident. Directed by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley, with Katie Boland and Noah Reid.
MOBILE HOMES: Imogen Poots, Callum Turner and Callum Keith Rennie star in this dark drama about a directionless young mother, saddled with an eight year old son and a shiftless druggie boyfriend. A French co production directed by Vladimir de Fontenay. Poots is outstanding in the lead role.
OCTAVIO IS DEAD: Sarah Gadon in a role that will surprise her fans, as she slowly discovers the secrets of her late father’s life, including his sexual predilections, which began to fascinate her. The latest gender bending provocation from director Sook-Yin Lee, with Rosanna Arquette.
BECOMING BURLESQUE: A shy Muslim woman takes a great risk when she joins a local burlesque repertory company of extraordinary women on the burlesque stage. Featuring many real-life burlesque dancers and many exotic routines. Directed by Jackie English, with Shiva Negar and Pastel Supernova.
TULIPANI: LOVE, HONOUR AND A BICYCLE: A beautiful story about a romantic Dutch man who cycles to Italy and plants a field of tulips in the sweltering heat of Puglia. Co-produced by Don Carmody, directed by award winning Mike Van Diem and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Ksenia Solo.
The full film lineup will be released on November 1.