The Rape of Recy Taylor[/caption]
Seven exclusive, first-run documentaries including The Rape of Recy Taylor, a film that exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story, have been acquired by Starz. The Rape of Recy Taylor will premiere on STARZ in July 2018.
Recently mentioned as “a name I know and I think you should know, too” by Oprah Winfrey during her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 75th Golden Globes on January 7, 2018, Mrs. Recy Taylor was abducted and gang raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944. An epic story of black women who spoke up when danger was greatest, it was their noble efforts to take back their bodies that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and movements that followed.
Pecking Order
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7 Documentaries incl. “The Rape of Recy Taylor” Acquired by Starz
[caption id="attachment_26582" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] The Rape of Recy Taylor[/caption]
Seven exclusive, first-run documentaries including The Rape of Recy Taylor, a film that exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story, have been acquired by Starz. The Rape of Recy Taylor will premiere on STARZ in July 2018.
Recently mentioned as “a name I know and I think you should know, too” by Oprah Winfrey during her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 75th Golden Globes on January 7, 2018, Mrs. Recy Taylor was abducted and gang raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944. An epic story of black women who spoke up when danger was greatest, it was their noble efforts to take back their bodies that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and movements that followed.
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Melbourne International Film Festival Unveils 2017 Lineup, Closes with Paul Williams’ GURRUMUL ELCHO DREAMING
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GURRUMUL ELCHO DREAMING[/caption]
The 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) unveiled its full program line-up of more than 358 films representing 68 countries, including 251 features, 88 shorts, 17 Virtual Reality experiences, 12 MIFF Talks events, 31 world premieres and 135 Australian premieres. It all happens over 18 days, spanning 13 venues across Melbourne, from August 3 to 20, 2017.
“What a pleasure it is to launch this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival,” said Artistic Director Michelle Carey. “This year’s program offers audiences an amazing opportunity to explore new worlds through film – from our Pioneering Women and Sally Potter retrospectives to the return of our Virtual Reality program as well as a particularly strong line-up of special events, we can’t wait to open the doors to MIFF 2017.”
The festival will kick off with the Opening Night Gala screening of Greg McLean’s MIFF Premiere Fund-supported JUNGLE, and will wind up with the world premiere Closing Night screening of Paul Williams’ GURRUMUL ELCHO DREAMING. A profound exploration of the life and music of revered Australian artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, the film uses the tools of the artist’s music – chord, melody, song – and the sounds of the land to craft an audio-first cinematic experience, offering a rare insight into a reclusive master.
Joining the MIFF guest line-up are Australia’s Melissa George, starring in the MIFF Premiere Fund-supported THE BUTTERFLY TREE; Italian director Luca Guadagnino with his acclaimed new film CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, a sensuous story of first love and the end of adolescence; and newcomer Jennifer Brea making her way to MIFF with UNREST, a feature documentary capturing her darkest moments as she is derailed by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Further international guests include Peter Mackie Burns, the debut feature director of DAPHNE, a refreshing portrait of contemporary womanhood; Francis Lee, with his depiction of British rural life in GOD’S OWN COUNTRY; Slavko Martinov, the force behind the entertaining flockumentary PECKING ORDER; Gabe Klinger on behalf of PORTO, a film presented in Super 8, 16mm and breathtaking 35mm; director Sami Saif and cinematographer Anders Löfstedt with their music documentary THE ALLINS; Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong, winner of the Top Prize at the 2016 Thai National Film Association Awards for her feature BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK; and Annie Goldson, director of KIM DOTCOM: CAUGHT IN THE WEB, a documentary about the court case surrounding the internet’s most wanted criminal. MIFF guests also include Daniel Borgman, director of LOVING PIA, a winsome tale blurring documentary and fiction; and Florian Habicht, director of SPOOKERS, a film focusing on a former psychiatric hospital that is now a haunted attraction.
Following last year’s success, VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) returns to MIFF in 2017. Leading the charge is the world premiere of Lucas Taylor’s INSIDE MANUS, taking the audience behind the razor wire to meet the asylum seekers on the Manus Island detention centre. Other VR world premieres include Lester Francois’ RONE, a distinctive portrait of the Melbourne street artist; Khoa Do and Piers Mussared’s THE EXTRACTION, a work imagining a perilous journey through the post apocalypse; and Christopher Bailey’s ACROSS, set in a world where two beings live in opposite cliffs – where one side is a paradise and the other a wasteland.
The VR program continues with Jeff Goldblum making a cameo appearance in MIYUBI, a feature length film about a family’s relationship with its Japanese toy robot, from co-directors Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël; George Gittoes expands upon his MIFF 2015 feature Snow Monkey, taking audiences on a VR tour to Afghanistan in the world premiere of FUN FAIR JALALABAD; and Ben Smith’s THE HUNT FOR THE YIDAKI, the companion piece to the MIFF 2017 Premiere Fund-supported feature WESTWIND: DJALU’S LEGACY, will also receive its world premiere. Meanwhile UNREST VR, a film about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – made by Amaury La Burthe and other key collaborators on Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness (MIFF 2016) – screens as an expansion piece to Jennifer Brea’s feature documentary, also showing at MIFF 2017.
In addition to UNREST, MIFF’s much-loved DOCUMENTARIES program delivers an array of gripping real-life character studies. Catch WINNIE, Pascale Lamche’s Sundance Directing Award-winning portrait of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, variously viewed as the wife of South Africa’s most revered leader, the mother and/or enemy of her nation and a revolutionary force in her own right; Andres Veiel’s BEUYS: ART AS A WEAPON, an extensive look at the felt-clad, hat-wearing German performance artist Joseph Beuys; and DINA, the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner from Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini that offers a heartfelt and heart-melting portrait of love in all its strangeness and wonder.
The Documentaries program also takes audiences behind the closed doors of wildly diverse environments. In the remarkable debut film THE WORK, America’s most hardened criminals share their demons with the everyday public during the world’s most intense group therapy session in Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous’ SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winner; Jean-Stéphane Bron’s THE PARIS OPERA is a film candidly charting the day-to-day drama during a season of upheaval for the revered company; and ROLLER DREAMS finds Australian director Kate Hickey tracking down the original stars of the Venice Beach 80s roller dancing movement to build a funky portrait of the rise and fall of the craze.
MIFF’s toe-tapping MUSIC ON FILM program dances to its own beat with THE ALLINS where award-winning Danish documentarian Sami Saif turn his lens on the most outrageous musician to ever live – GG Allin – revealing the man behind the maniac behind the music; and in Kyoko Miyake’s TOKYO IDOLS, teenage girl pop stars grapple with finding fame and the creeping fixation of their male fan bases in an eye-opening look at Japanese idol culture.
Musical influencers take centre stage in the Sundance Special Jury Prize-winning RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD, where Catherine Bainbridge sets out to reinstate Native American trailblazers to their rightful place in the pop music pantheon; and Lucy Walker, director of the MIFF 2013 Best Documentary Audience Award-winner The Crash Reel, returns with BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB: ADIOS, a touching farewell to the beloved son cubano musicians as they complete their final tour.
A stellar line-up of homegrown talent will be showcased in AUSTRALIAN FILMS. Marking the halfway point of the festival will be the CENTREPIECE GALA world premiere screening of THREE SUMMERS, the first Australian film from comedian Ben Elton. Romantic leads Robert Sheehan and Rebecca Breeds are joined by a glittering ensemble featuring Michael Caton, Magda Szubanski, Deborah Mailman, Jacqueline McKenzie and John Waters for an of-the-moment, multi-story comedy set over three years at a fictional folk-music festival.
Continuing the Australian Films showcase, David Wenham makes his feature directorial debut with a Before Sunrise-style romance set to the distinctive sounds of Megan Washington with ELLIPSIS, starring Emily Barclay and Benedict Samuel; MIFF offers an exclusive preview of the second series of GLITCH, a Matchbox Pictures production commissioned by ABC TV and co-produced by Netflix, set in a fictional Victorian town where deceased former residents have crawled out of their graves in the local cemetery; and in a special screening presented by the National Film and Sound Archive’s digital restoration program – NFSA RESTORES, MIFF will also present the classic rip-roaring homegrown action flick, SHAME, where an award-winning Deborra-Lee Furness – also a guest of MIFF 2017 – turns the tables on a country town’s entrenched male violence.
Celebrating its 10th birthday in 2017, the MIFF PREMIERE FUND stages six world premieres (each with its director in attendance) comprising: Greg McLean’s MIFF Opening Night Film JUNGLE, starring Daniel Radcliffe; Luke Shanahan’s uniquely stylish psychological thriller RABBIT, featuring The Great Gatsby’s Adelaide Clemens playing identical twins linked by more than just DNA; MIFF guests Melissa George and Ed Oxenbould starring alongside Ewen Leslie and Sophie Lowe in Priscilla Cameron’s THE BUTTERFLY TREE, a coming-of-age tale of love and loss tinged with magical realism; Eddie Martin’s HAVE YOU SEEN THE LISTERS?, an intimate account of the cost of success of Australia’s most renowned street artist, Anthony Lister (also a guest of the festival); Naina Sen’s THE SONG KEEPERS, telling the incredible story of a hidden musical legacy of ancient Aboriginal languages and German baroque songs that are being preserved by the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (who will also attend the festival); and Ben Strunin’s WESTWIND: DJALU’s LEGACY, portraying the quest of Yolngu elder Djalu Gurruwiwi (who will attend the festival) to preserve his songlines with a little help from global pop star Gotye.
Marking the MIFF Premiere Fund’s 10-year milestone, the festival will also screen three retrospective highlights from the Fund’s early years: the 2009 MIFF Opening Night film BALIBO, written and directed by Robert Connolly and starring Oscar Isaac, Anthony LaPaglia and MIFF Ambassador Gyton Grantley; Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s BASTARDY, a poetic and impressionistic portrait of the life of indigenous arts personality Jack Charles; and Ana Kokkinos’ all-star ensemble BLESSED, which features Frances O’Connor in an AFI Award-winning performance.
PIONEERING WOMEN, a program of 80s and early 90s Australian films directed by women, will pay tribute to some of the country’s finest cinematic trailblazers, including director Ann Turner with the world premiere of her digitally restored horror meets coming-of-age drama CELIA; Gillian Armstrong with a digital restoration screening of STARSTRUCK, the iconic and colourful musical comedy about two Sydney teenagers who try to break into the music biz to save the family pub (which also features an appearance by MIFF Ambassador Geoffrey Rush). Both films are proudly presented by the National Film and Sound Archive’s restoration program – NFSA RESTORES. Don’t miss this opportunity to revisit other classics such as BEDEVIL (directed by Tracey Moffatt), THE BIG STEAL (directed by Nadia Tass) and FLOATING LIFE (directed by Clara Law), with guest Q&As and a Conversation panel in store among other events.
MIFF’s ever popular NIGHT SHIFT program returns with innovative horror and genre films including A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN, in which French provocateur Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire (Johnny Mad Dog, MIFF 2008) returns to the brutal underworlds of masculine violence, in an adaptation of Billy Moore’s memoir of his time in Bangkok’s notorious Klong Prem prison; MY FRIEND DAHMER, Marc Meyers’ disturbing vision of America’s most notorious serial killer during his adolescence, featuring a breathtaking performance by Disney star Ross Lynch; and BLOODLANDS, a brutal mix of family blood feud and supernatural horror marking the first ever co-production between Australia and Albania, directed by Steven Kastrissios (The Horseman, MIFF 2008).
For the first time in its history MIFF will also present a SCI-FI program, showcasing a selection of the genre’s best films including IKARIE XB-1, Jindřich Polák’s little-known pioneering masterpiece that influenced everything from Star Trek to 2001: A Space Odyssey… and beyond; INVENTION FOR DESTRUCTION, from inventive animator Karel Zeman, the first steampunk film, bringing the stories and visuals of Jules Verne to life; LE DERNIER COMBAT, a work taking audiences back to where it all began for renowned sci-fi director Luc Besson, with his striking 1983 film starring Jean Reno in his feature debut; and STRANGE DAYS, featuring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis, Kathryn Bigelow’s 20-year-old, James Cameron-scripted, VR tech-noir. And for the night owls, running all night at the Astor Theatre is MIFF’s inaugural SCI-FI MARATHON, presenting a collection of the genre’s most venerated, controversial and enduring or under-appreciated fan favourites. For full details visit miff.com.au/marathon.
The TRUE CRIME program returns in 2017 with some of the most intriguing and sinister stories of our time. Oscar-nominated documentarian David France (How to Survive a Plague, MIFF 2012) delivers a piercing survey of the origins of transgender activism and a search for justice in THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARTHA P JOHNSON; Erik Nelson’s A GRAY STATE is a riveting murder mystery, political thriller and unparalleled psychological profile about rising alt-right filmmaker and Iraq veteran David Crowley and his family; and Pete Nicks’ THE FORCE is an award-winning look at the day-to-day operations of the Oakland Police Department as it grapples with endemic corruption, sexism and racial violence.
ANIMAL DOCUMENTARIES, a new program strand for 2017, puts the spotlight on some of the world’s most intriguing creatures. TROPHY sees Shaul Schwarz (Narco Cultura, MIFF 2013) and Christina Clusiau take on a charged debate in a controversial film that will upend everything audiences thought they knew about animal conservation; PECKING ORDER, the year’s best feel-good flockumentary from Slavko Martinov, introduces us to people taking the world of chicken fancying as seriously as life and death; and A RIVER BELOW, Mark Grieco’s provocative and murky morality tale about a TV conservationist’s battle to save the Amazon’s disappearing pink river dolphin, will leave audiences shocked and awed.
MIFF’s HEADLINERS program will bring audiences the most-buzzed about films from the festival circuit. Highlights include Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning THE SQUARE, a film marking the director as modern cinema’s most savage and inventive satirist; Claire Denis’ Cannes Director’s Fortnight award-winning romantic comedy LET THE SUNSHINE IN, starring Juliette Binoche; Geremy Jasper’s fabulous Sundance triumph PATTI CAKE$, featuring Australian acting discovery Danielle Macdonald in the role of a New Jersey battler and aspiring rapper; SONG TO SONG, a love story from Terrence Malick set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene, featuring Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman; and THE PARTY, Sally Potter’s caustic comic satire of a broken England, with a stellar ensemble headed by Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson and Timothy Spall.
Showcasing MIFF’s admiration for the inimitable British director, this year the festival also proudly presents a SALLY POTTER RETROSPECTIVE. Screening the complete oeuvre of Potter’s feature films, along with a selection of her early shorts from 1969 to 1986, the retrospective includes: THE TANGO LESSON, where Potter plays opposite Argentine tango performer Pablo Verón for a seductive dance of reality and fiction; ORLANDO, the director’s stunning second film featuring a triumphant lead performance by Tilda Swinton as the androgynous titular character living across four centuries; THE GOLD DIGGERS, Potter’s seminal work that came to influence and define feminist cinema of the 1980s; and GINGER AND ROSA, starring Alice Englert and Elle Fanning as two friends threatened by a belief-shattering betrayal.
The festival’s INTERNATIONAL program is packed with innovative cinema from countries near and afar. MIFF Patron Geoffrey Rush shines as Alberto Giacometti in Stanley Tucci’s FINAL PORTRAIT, a snapshot of several weeks the artist spent trying to paint author James Lord; Fatih Akin (Head-On, MIFF 2004) delivers the morally charged thriller IN THE FADE, featuring Diane Kruger in the performance that won her Best Actress at Cannes; and from Aisling Walsh comes MAUDIE, starring Oscar nominees Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke exploring the sensitive but rousing true tale of Maud Lewis, one of Canada’s most inspiring folk artists.
Some 14 of Australia and New Zealand’s hottest emerging directors will have their short films premiere in the festival’s ACCELERATOR program and also participate in Accelerator Lab, MIFF’s prestigious development workshop assisting directors to transition to feature filmmaking. They are W.A.M (Bill) Bleakley; Nina Buxton; Kate Lefoe; Frank Magree; Zoe McIntosh; Victoria McIntyre; Greta Nash; Tin Pang; Simon Portus; Nikki Richardson; Rachel Ross; John Sheedy; Nick Waterman; and Dave Whitehead.
The MIFF SHORTS program will screen local and international films spanning animation, documentary, experimental works and more, with highlights including the riveting INDONESIAN SHORTS, a program screening works from some of Australia’s closest neighbours, and Cannes Short Film Palme d’Or winner A GENTLE NIGHT, from MIFF Accelerator alumnus Qiu Yang, while other Accelerator alumni directors returning with new short films are Alice Englert, Audrey Lam, Nora Niasari, Julietta Boscolo, Billie Pleffer, Dylan River and Alena Lodkina.
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Melbourne International Film Festival Reveals First Glance Selection, PATTI CAKE$, STEP, POP AYE and More
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Patti Cake$[/caption]
For its 66th edition, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) has revealed its First Glance selection of 30 films that will screen at this year’s festival from August 3 to 20, 2017, including the Australian premiere of Jane Campion’s much anticipated new television series Top of the Lake: China Girl.
Artistic Director Michelle Carey says, “We’re hoping that this sneak peek of the 2017 program gives you a taste of what’s to come. The calibre of films on offer this year is very impressive, from Australian stalwart Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake: China Girl to breakout hit Patti Cake$, MIFF brings you the story of the world through curated and unforgettable screen experiences.”
Straight from a standing ovation in Cannes, this special Australian premiere of the entire second season, directed by Jane Campion and MIFF Accelerator alumnus Ariel Kleiman from a script by Campion and Gerard Lee (My Mistress, MIFF 14), will show all six episodes in three concurrent two-hour sessions – a unique opportunity to see the series before its television premiere on BBC First on Foxtel. Top of the Lake: China Girl (Australia) is a crime mystery story that finds Detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) recently returned to Sydney and trying to rebuild her life. When the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin discovers ‘China Girl’ didn’t die alone. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Ewen Leslie (The Daughter) and Accelerator alumnus Alice Englert (The Boyfriend Game, MIFF 16).
Also hotting up the screen will be Australian premieres Golden Exits (USA), the latest film from Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Phillip MIFF 14; Queen of Earth, MIFF 15), an unnerving ensemble drama shot on 16mm that boasts a star-studded cast led by Emily Browning, Chloë Sevigny, Jason Schwartzman with Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz and a moody score by Keegan De Witt; and The Lost City of Z (USA), James Gray’s (The Immigrant MIFF 14) sumptuous and poignant Amazon adventure based on real life explorer Percy Fawcett’s quest to find the fabled city of El Dorado, starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson and featuring lush 35mm cinematography by Darius Khondji.
Leading Australian director Kriv Stenders (The Principal, MIFF 15; Red Dog MIFF 11) returns to MIFF with two productions: The Go-Betweens – Right Here (Australia), a documentary charting the four-decade long story of beloved indie rock band The Go-Betweens, in their own words and with never-before-seen archival footage; and Australia Day (Australia), an excoriating, illuminating take on our country’s most fraught debate, set over a pulse-racing 12 hours on 26 January with a powerhouse ensemble cast including Bryan Brown, Matthew Le Nevez, Sean Keenan, Shari Sebbens and Jenny Wu (who also features in Top of the Lake: China Girl).
Local comedies include Ali’s Wedding, based on the real-life experience of lead actor Osamah Sami’s ill-fated arranged marriage the absurd and poignant tale about family in multicultural Australia stars Don Hany with direction by Jeffrey Walker (Jack Irish: Bad Debts, MIFF 12), and That’s Not Me (Australia). Ali’s Wedding is a fast-paced comedy of very Muslim manners that shines with wit, humanity and crowd-pleasing charisma; while That’s Not Me is Gregory Erdstein’s (Two Devils, MIFF 14) charming feature debut about a young woman and aspiring actor who takes advantage of her identical twin sister’s success and fame, featuring an impressive performance by writer/star Alice Foulcher in dual roles.
In Mountain (Australia), Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, MIFF 15) returns to the mountains that so captivate her in a unique cinematic and musical collaboration. Working with high-altitude cinematographer Renan Ozturk, bestselling author Robert Macfarlane (Mountains of the Mind) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Richard Tognetti, Peedom has created a breathtaking cine-sonic journey through awe-inspiring vistas narrated by Willem Dafoe.
One of Australia’s most innovative filmmakers and MIFF regular Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail MIFF 11; Ruin, MIFF 13) captures two legends – free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor and modern dance artist Min Tanaka – in an intimate performance piece like no other in The Silent Eye (Australia). Shot over three days in 2016 at Taylor’s New York home, the film captures these two masters riffing, offering the audience a glimpse of the creative process at its most sublime.
Master international filmmakers bring their works to the big screen at MIFF with Terrence Malick’s Song to Song (USA), a beautifully lensed love story set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene, with a luminous cast including Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett; and Sally Potter’s (Ginger and Rosa, MIFF 12) caustic comic satire of a broken, post-Brexit England, The Party (UK), offering a masterclass of acting from a stellar ensemble headed by Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson and Timothy Spall, and filmed entirely in stunning black and white.
The director of A Bigger Splash, Luca Guadagnino, presents his most accomplished film yet: a passionate Italian summer romance headed by Armie Hammer and star on the rise Timothée Chalamet. Adapted from André Acimen’s novel with a script co-written by James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name (Italy) is a sensuous story of first love and the end of adolescence.
Turning galvanizing portraits of marginalized women into his own niche, Sebastián Lelio (Gloria, MIFF 13) returns with another beguiling character study, delivering a nuanced and moving account of a vital fight for love, acceptance, and respect that won both Best Screenplay and Best LGBT Film at Berlin. But A Fantastic Woman (Chile) belongs to its determined, defiant titular character and the stunning performance by transgender actress Daniela Vega, making one of the most memorable and formidable movie debuts in recent history.
Peter Mackie Burns’ nuanced debut feature Daphne (UK) is a character study about a dissatisfied young woman in present-day London – featuring a superb performance from Emily Beecham in title role – that balances complex comedy and disarming drama and offers a refreshing portrait of contemporary womanhood.
Music video director Geremy Jasper’s fabulous feature debut Patti Cake$ (USA), about an aspiring rapper, is a triumphant tale of how music can give a nobody a voice, which wowed critics and audiences alike at Sundance and Cannes. But the film belongs to Australian acting discovery Danielle McDonald, who was dubbed the breakout star of Sundance for her sensational performance as the New Jersey battler and hailed as the “Next Big Thing” by The Hollywood Reporter.
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Pop Aye – Kirsten Tan[/caption]
Another acclaimed feature debut is Kirsten Tan’s Pop Aye (Thailand), the warm and ever-so-strange tale of a Bangkok architect, his elephant and 300 miles of mid-life crisis, which won the Special Jury Award for Screenwriting at Sundance and the Big Screen Award at Rotterdam.
God’s Own Country (UK) was also a favorite at Berlin (Teddy Jury Award winner) and Sundance, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Best Director Award and comparisons to Brokeback Mountain. Francis Lee’s emotionally rich feature debut captures the quiet yearning of forbidden romance with heated sex scenes and a documentary-like depiction of British rural life that subverts the familiar path taken by queer love stories.
The makers of Spring (MIFF 15) return with The Endless (USA), an engrossing high-concept horror centred on two brothers following their escape from a cult. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead write, direct and star in a film of creeping dead that is part horror, part science fiction, which skirts the supernatural and keeps the audience guessing until the very end.
With over 62,000 oil paintings and a cast including Chris O’Dowd and Saoirse Ronan, Oscar-winning filmmaker Hugh Welchman (Peter and the Wolf) and Polish painter Dorota Kobiela bring the story of Vincent Van Gogh’s last days to the screen in the world’s first feature-length painted animation, Loving Vincent (UK). Inspired by Van Gogh’s own words – “we cannot speak other than by our paintings” – and using an army of painters from across Europe, every single frame of the film is an oil painting (12 per second) and the result is a truly astonishing visual feast that demands to be seen on the biggest of screens.
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A still from STEP by Amanda Lipitz,.[/caption]
Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Inspirational Filmmaking, STEP (USA) charts the senior year of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women step-dance team as they chase dual dreams – to be state champions and to be the first in their families to go to college – against the backdrop of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Fun and empowering, the film optimistically explores community, sisterhood and the realities of being black and female in contemporary America.
Another timely examination of race relations in America is Haitian auteur Raoul Peck’s (Fatal Assistance, MIFF 13) Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro (USA): a stirring portrait of the writer, civil rights activist and queer icon James Baldwin and his lifelong fight against racial and sexual injustice, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.
Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heinemann’s (Cartel Land, MIFF 15) new film focuses on the anonymous activists of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently in the heartland of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate. City of Ghosts (USA) is an urgent, deeply personal real-world thriller about the world’s most crucial fight against misinformation.
In 2012, Iraq veteran David Crowley posted a YouTube trailer for his planned libertarian opus, Gray State, warning of America’s looming Second Civil War. Three years on, the rising alt-right filmmaker, his Muslim wife and their daughter were found slaughtered, “Allahu Akbar” smeared on the walls in blood. A conspiracy or something even more horrific? Executive produced by Werner Herzog, Erik Nelson’s A Gray State (USA) is a riveting murder mystery, a political thriller and an unparalleled psychological profile of a mind descending into paranoia.
Jumping over to New Zealand, the program will feature Pecking Order (New Zealand), which follows the members of the 148-year-old Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club as they prepare for the National Show. Their president has brought them championship glory over the years, but is now facing off against the next generation of poultry fanciers who seem determined to knock down this award-winning cock of the walk. This entertaining flockumentary uncovers a cutthroat world of passion, obsession, power struggles, and competition. It’s like a Kiwi Best in Show, only real … and with chooks!
Also from NZ, MIFF regular and Accelerator alumnus Florian Habicht (Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets MIFF 14; Love Story MIFF 12) welcomes you to Spookers (NZ), a former psychiatric hospital outside Auckland, where visitors gather to be petrified by killer clowns and zombies at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest ‘scream park’. Habicht reveals the personalities beneath the costumes, wigs and greasepaint with characteristic affection and humor in this funny, compelling documentary.
And the MIFF shorts program will deliver a string of highlights and award winners from the festival circuit including A Gentle Night (China), the Short Film Palme d’Or winner from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival by MIFF Accelerator alumnus Qiu Yang (The World, MIFF 14; Under the Sun, MIFF 2015); Small Town (Portugal), the dark, mysterious and beautiful coming-of-age story that took out the Golden Bear for Best Short at the 2017 Berlinale; DeKalb Elementary (USA), a tense drama, by filmmaker Reed Van Dyk (Nasty HardcoreXXX Amateur Couple, MIFF 14) based on the real 911-call during an incident at a school in Atlanta, Georgia that was the winner of the International Competition Grand Prix prize at the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival; and The Hedonists (Hong Kong), the new comedy from 2013 festival guest Jia Zhang-ke (A Touch of Sin, MIFF 13) about a trio of unemployed laborers who find work in the most unlikely of places – a bizarre theme park.
