In China’s popular live-streaming showrooms, three millennials – a karaoke singer, a migrant worker and a rags-to-riches comedian – seek fame, fortune and human connection, ultimately finding the same promises and perils online as in their real lives.
Directed by Hao Wu
Genre(s) Documentary Film
The 2022 Hamptons International Festival (HIFF) unveiled the full slate of films including the Closing Night presentation of the New York premiere of SR., directed by Chris Smith, and the Centerpiece screening of Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. The 30th edition of the festival will feature a lineup of films that are 54% female-directed and represent 34 countries from around the world.
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable[/caption]
The Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) presented their 2018 Jury awards with The Best Made In Hawaii Feature Award going to BETHANY HAMILTON: UNSTOPPABLE directed by Aaron Lieber. The jurors also awarded a second place award to MOANANUIĀKEA: ONE OCEAN, ONE CANOE, ONE PEOPLE, directed by Na’alehu Anthony.
The Made In Hawaii competition film awards category was launched in 2017 to spotlight the flourishing local independent film scene on the Hawaiian Islands. The Jurors shared their thoughts on the winning films: “This year’s Made in Hawaii nominees showcase a beautifully diverse range of stories, that all share a common theme: the transformative impact of community and family. BETHANY HAMILTON: UNSTOPPABLE quickly showed us that what we thought we knew, was just the beginning of the story. Emotional and inspiring, this film did what all great docs do – it captured defining moments you can’t believe were captured on film with twists and turns that defied expectations. This amazing story of a deeply relatable underdog was also complemented with epic cinematography and a final shot that has to be seen to be believed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dworl7UXMRU
“This year’s second place awardee, MOANANUIĀKEA: ONE OCEAN, ONE CANOE, ONE PEOPLE. honors a movie that captures a movement decades, and arguably centuries, in the making. Hokule’a isn’t just a canoe. It’s a compass that reconnects us to our past and points the way to a better future. Over the past 40 years it has not only sparked a Hawaiian renaissance, it has now, incredibly, connected cultures and communities from every point around the globe, a symbolic lei that encircles the world.”
The Best Made In Hawaii Short Film Award winner is MAUKA TO MAKAI, directed by Jonah Okono and Alika Maikau, with the Second Prize in the Made in Hawaii Shorts program going to Erin Lau’s THE MOON AND THE NIGHT.
All films in Shorts programs #1 – 4, plus PACIFIC SHOWCASE SHORTS and MADE IN HAWAII shorts programs are eligible for the overall HIFF BEST SHORT FILM award which was won by MAY 14th, directed by Boo Eunjoo. The jury also announced a Special Jury Mention, for Andre Hoermann and Anna Samo’s OBON; recognizing its striking animated retelling of one survivor’s account of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb attack.
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People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
HIFF also debuted the inaugural Ka’ū Ka Hōkū Filmmaker Award, presented to an emerging filmmaker who has completed their first or second feature film which went to PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE, directed by Hao Wu.
The 2018 Halekulani Career Achievement Award was presented to actress Moon So-ri. Dubbed the “Meryl Streep” of South Korea, Moon is one of the most acclaimed Asian actresses of her generation. Moon recently directed the feature-length omnibus THE RUNNING ACTRESS.
The Halekulani Maverick Award was given to an international cinema artist who has a unique and eclectic career trajectory, contributing to international cinema and the filmed arts in an innovative way. This year, HIFF presented the award to American actress, writer, and rapper Awkwafina. Awkwafina, whose given name is Nora Lum, brings an impressive range of talent peppered with her signature flair, and has become a major breakout talent this year with her co-starring roles in Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians.
HIFF also presented the Halekulani Maverick Award to actor-turned-director Takumi Saito. As an actor, Saito is known for his breakout role in the wildly popular Japanese TV drama “Hirugao”. His feature film directorial debut, Blank 13, quietly evokes the enigma of discovering the private life of a loved one, whether dead or alive; and the elasticity of familial bonds.
The Hawaii International Film Festival’s PIC Trailblazer Award was presented to a cinema artist of Pacific Islander heritage who broadens the scope of Pacific Islander stories onto the world stage, producing award winning work in independent and global cinema, becoming a trendsetter in their field and a cultural ambassador that shines a spotlight on Pacific islander culture in mainstream media.
The 2018 HIFF Pacific Islanders in Communications Trailblazer Award was given to Heperi “Hepi” Mita. Mita’s career began in 2007, working in online journalism for the pulitzer prize winning Las Vegas Sun newspaper. He returned to his home country of Aotearoa / New Zealand in 2011, following the death of his mother — indigenous filmmaking pioneer Merata Mita (UTU). His directorial debut, Merata: How Mum Decolonised The Screen, world premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival this past summer. HIFF will present the Hawaii premiere of this film at Spring Showcase 2019.
The NETPAC Award is presented annually at international film festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam, Pusan, Singapore, Taiwan, Yamagata, Amiens and Hawaii. HIFF is the only film festival in North America given permission to present the NETPAC award. This year’s NETPAC Award winner is STILL HUMAN by Oliver Siu Kuen Chan.
From the Jury: “The award for best narrative feature for an emerging filmmaker from the Asia Pacific region goes to STILL HUMAN by Oliver Siu Kuen Chan for its humane way of exploring racial and social class, the treatment of the disabled and the aged, and portraying the intersection of hopelessness and dreams.”
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World[/caption]
From renowned film veterans including Eugene Jarecki (The King) to first-time filmmakers Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green (The Providers), Denali Tiller (Tre Maison Dasan) and Ciara Lacey (Out of State), the award-winning PBS series Independent Lens Winter and Spring 2019 lineup of documentary films takes viewers on a cross-country journey through modern America.
“This season of Independent Lens is a road trip across America, visiting people and places rarely explored on film,” said Lois Vossen, Independent Lens executive producer. “From a family fighting to preserve their way of life in rural North Dakota to a high school wrestling team in Alabama, from an Arizona prison to a health clinic in northern New Mexico, this season’s filmmakers expand our perspectives and shed light on communities large and small, offering an insightful and timely cinematic state of the union.”
People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
People’s Republic of Desire by Hao Wu (Monday, February 25)
In China, a generation of young people has come of age on social media, where virtual relationships are replacing real-life connections. Both the wealthy and the poor gather in online showrooms, finding entertainment and a way to feel connected. Although these groups never cross paths in real life, in the digital universe they band together to worship idols who earn as much as $130,000 a month singing karaoke or hosting interactive talk shows.
Tre Maison Dasan by Denali Tiller (Monday, April 1)
An estimated one in 14 American children has a parent in prison. Tre Maison Dasan tells the story of three of these children – Tre, Maison and Dasan – each from the small state of Rhode Island. An emotional exploration of relationships tested by separation and the challenges of growing up with a parent behind bars, the film gives voice to the youngest victims of America’s epidemic of incarceration.
The Providers by Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green (Monday, April 8)
Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, The Providers follows three “country doctors” in northern New Mexico at clinics that offer care to all who walk through the doors, regardless of ability to pay. With personal struggles that at times reflect those of their patients, the journeys of the providers unfold as they work to reach Americans who would otherwise be left without healthcare.
Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by David Sutherland an Independent Lens, Frontline and VOCES co-presentation (Monday, April 15)
From acclaimed director David Sutherland (Kind-Hearted Woman, Country Boys, The Farmer’s Wife) comes this unique look at the immigration issue. The film follows the efforts of Elizabeth Perez, a decorated United States Marine veteran, to reunite her family after the deportation of her husband, an undocumented worker from Mexico. Her struggle begins to challenge her assumptions about justice and fairness in the nation she fought for.
Charm City by Marilyn Ness (Monday, April 22)
Filmed during three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore, Charm City delivers a powerfully candid portrait of those on the frontlines. With grit, fury and compassion, a group of police, citizens, community leaders and government officials grapple with the consequences of violence and try to reclaim their city’s future.
Out of State by Ciara Lacy (Monday, May 6)
Shipped thousands of miles away from Hawaii to a private prison in the Arizona desert, two native Hawaiians, David and Hale, discover their indigenous traditions from a fellow inmate serving a life sentence. When they finish their terms and return to Hawaii, eager to prove to themselves and their families that the experience has changed them forever, they struggle with the hurdles of life as formerly incarcerated men, asking the question: can you really go home again?
Harvest Season by Bernardo Ruiz (Monday, May 13)
California’s Napa Valley is one of the premier wine growing regions in the world, celebrated as an idyllic and luxurious destination. Yet, many of the vineyard workers and the small producers with roots in the fields are rarely credited for the valley’s famed bounty. Filmed over the course of one agricultural year, Harvest Season takes an “other side of the valley” approach, giving a unique view of the dramatic process that goes into making some of the world’s most celebrated wines.
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Wrestle[/caption]
Wrestle by Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer (Monday, May 20)
As they fight their way towards the state championship, four high school wrestlers from Alabama face injustices and challenges on and off the mat. Together with their coach, they grapple with obstacles that jeopardize their success and, despite the odds, pursue their goals with humor and courage.
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind[/caption]
One hundred sixty-six features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 91st Academy Awards®. Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. This year, for the first time, films that have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival or have been submitted in the Foreign Language Film category as their country’s official selection, are also eligible in the category. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 17.
Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
The 91st Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Above and Beyond: NASA’S Journey to Tomorrow”
“Active Measures”
“Amazing Grace”
“American Chaos”
“Andy Irons: Kissed by God”
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Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco[/caption]
“Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco”
“Avicii: True Stories”
“Bali: Beats of Paradise”
“Bathtubs over Broadway”
“Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché”
“Believer”
“Better Angels”
“Bill Coors: The Will to Live”
“Bisbee ’17”
“The Bleeding Edge”
“Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat”
“Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine”
“Call Her Ganda”
“Charm City”
“Chef Flynn”
“The China Hustle”
“Christian Audigier The Vif”
“The Cleaners”
“Communion”
“Crime + Punishment”
“Dark Money”
“Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders”
“The Dawn Wall”
“The Distant Barking of Dogs”
“Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes”
“Drug$”
“Eating Animals”
“Eldorado”
“Fahrenheit 11/9”
“Fail State”
“Family in Transition”
“Far from the Tree”
“Filmworker”
“The First Patient”
“Foreign Land”
“40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie”
“Free Solo”
“Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable”
“Generation Wealth”
“Ghost Hunting”
“Ghosthunter”
“The Gilligan Manifesto”
“The Gospel According to André”
“Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami”
“Graves without a Name”
“The Great Buster: A Celebration”
“Hal”
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Half the Picture”
“The Heart of Nuba”
“Hillbilly”
“The Homeless Chorus Speaks”
“Hondros”
“Howard”
“In Search of Greatness”
“In the Land of Pomegranates”
“Inventing Tomorrow”
“Invisible Hands”
“Itzhak”
“Jane Fonda in Five Acts”
“John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection”
“The Judge”
“Kangaroo: A Love Hate Story”
“Killer Bees”
“The King”
“King in the Wilderness”
“Kusama – Infinity”
“The Last Race”
“Leaning into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy”
“Letter from Masanjia”
“Licu, a Romanian Story”
“Living in the Future’s Past”
“Liyana”
“Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle”
“Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story”
“Love, Cecil”
“Love, Gilda”
“Love Is Tolerance – Tolerance Is Love – Make Tolerance Great Again!”
“Making The Five Heartbeats”
“Maria by Callas”
“Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.”
“McQueen”
“Minding the Gap”
“Monrovia, Indiana”
“The Most Unknown”
“New Moon”
“93Queen”
“Nossa Chape”
“Of Fathers and Sons”
“Of Love & Law”
“On Her Shoulders”
“Opera about Poland”
“The Opera House”
“The Oslo Diaries”
“The Other Side of Everything”
“The Panama Papers”
“Path of Blood”
“People’s Republic of Desire”
“Philosopher King – Lee Teng-hui’s Dialogue”
“Pick of the Litter”
“Piripkura”
“Police Killing”
“Pope Francis – A Man of His Word”
“The Price of Everything”
“The Price of Free”
“Qiu (Inmates)”
“Quincy”
“RBG”
“The Rachel Divide”
“The Raft”
“Recovery Boys”
“Restoring Tomorrow”
“Reversing Roe”
“The Road Movie”
“Robin Williams: Come inside My Mind”
“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”
“Samouni Road”
“Saving Brinton”
“Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland”
“Science Fair”
“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood”
“Searching for Ingmar Bergman”
“Seeing Allred”
“The Sentence”
“Shirkers”
“Shot in the Dark”
“The Silence of Others”
“Sisters of the Wilderness”
“A Son of Man”
“Songwriter”
“Stan”
“Studio 54”
“Summer in the Forest”
“Tea with the Dames”
“That Summer”
“That Way Madness Lies…”
“They Fight”
“They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead”
“This Is Congo”
“This Is Home: A Refugee Story”
“Three Identical Strangers”
“To Be Continued”
“Transformer”
“Travel Ban”
“The Trial”
“Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace”
“Trust Machine”
“Under the Wire”
“United Skates”
“Unknown Distance”
“Up Down and Sideways”
“The Waldheim Waltz”
“We Could Be Heroes”
“Weed the People”
“What Haunts Us”
“What Lies Upstream”
“Whitney”
“Wonderful Losers: A Different World”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
“Yellow Is Forbidden”
“Yellowing”
Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End[/caption]
CUFF.Docs, Calgary’s Documentary Film Festival presented by the Calgary Underground Film Festival has released its lineup of 13 groundbreaking feature documentaries, covering everything from medical cannabis to slam poetry and swamp rats.
The five-day festival, running November 28 to December 2 at Globe Cinema, will open on Wednesday, November 28 with MR FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END, about the political cartoonist known for his subversive and often controversial art. Director Pablo Bryant and documentary subject Dwayne Booth (Mr Fish himself) will be in attendance and are available for media interviews prior to the screening.
On the final day of the festival, the local film WOLVES UNLEASHED: AGAINST ALL ODDS from director and world-renowned wolf trainer Andrew Simpson will play with Simpson in attendance. Simpson has worked with wolves on Alberta productions including THE REVENANT, GAME OF THRONES, WYNONNA EARP, and this film documents his time in China raising and training wild Mongolian wolves for a Chinese blockbuster. Andrew Simpson is available for media interviews prior to the screening.
“At CUFF.Docs we always we look for a mix of festival favorites and award-winning films,” said Festival Director and Lead Programmer Brenda Lieberman. “This is a collection of documentaries that will entertain or educate regardless of whether you’ve heard of the story or subject before.”
Other guests coming to CUFF.Docs are: Nikhil Melnechuk, slam poet and producer of DON’T BE NICE about a team of young New York City slam poets competing for the National Championship, and Scott Christopherson, director of THE INSUFFERABLE GROO, which tells the story of prolific and eccentric filmmaker Stephen Groo as he tries to recruit Jack Black for his latest project.
Documentary highlights include a new film about the Sri Lanka pop star and political activist M.I.A (MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.), the Sundance award-winning skateboarding film MINDING THE GAP, RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE: an environmental study of nutria – giant swamp rats in Louisiana – from CUFF alumni Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer and Quinn Costello, and WEED THE PEOPLE, a timely look at the medical benefits of cannabis.
CARMINE STREET GUITARS (a day-in-the-life story of the acclaimed guitar shop), HAL (a bio about the acclaimed 1970s Hollywood director Hal Ashby), PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE (a look at the Chinese online streaming platform YY) THE CLEANERS (an expose about the hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning) and THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING (an exploration of the systemic sexism in Hollywood) round out the 13 film lineup.
Shadow, Zhang Yimou[/caption]
The 38th edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) will present 187 films from over 35 countries, from November 8 through November 18, 2018. The festival will open with highly anticipated new film from Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers; Hero; Curse of the Golden Flower), Shadow, which stars Chao Deng (The Mermaid; Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame), Li Sun (Fearless; Empresses in the Palace), and Ryan Zheng (The Great Wall; Back in Time), is based storied the “Three Kingdoms” Chinese legend. Shadow had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where audiences were wowed by Zhang’s masterful direction of this unique action-epic.
HIFF’s Closing Night Presentation will be the world premiere of Moananuiākea: One Ocean. One People. One Canoe, directed by Na’alehu Anthony. This documentary looks at the latest worldwide voyage of Hōkūleʻa, four decades after its maiden voyage sparked the Hawaiian Renaissance and continues to inspire a new generation of navigators and voyagers to gather their courage and sail beyond the horizon of the Pacific.
This year’s Centerpiece Presentation is Green Book, which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival; where it won the coveted TIFF 2018 People’s Choice Award, an early barometer of being an Oscars favorite. The drama, follows Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Oscar winner Mahershala Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that are safe for African Americans. Green Book won the coveted Audience Award at the recent Toronto Film Festival. Produced by Jim Burke (The Descendants, HIFF 2012), who will be in attendance at HIFF, and directed by Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary), Green Book infuses heartfelt drama in an unlikely friendship that stood the test of time.
HIFF audiences will critically acclaimed titles in the Awards Buzz section; which presents high profile films straight from major festivals like Cannes, Venice, Toronto and more. These must-see films are major players in the awards season, including: the Mexican drama Roma, directed Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity); If Beale Street Could Talk, directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight); Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s (A Separation) Spain-set thriller Everybody Knows starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; and Natalie Portman’s new film Vox Lux, directed by Brady Corbet.
This year HIFF presents a special spotlight on world renowned auteur Wong Kar-wai with the Filmmaker in Focus series. HIFF is proud to present In The Mood For Love (2000), Happy Together (1997), and Chungking Express (1994). A special extended Q&A with Director Wong Kar Wai will follow the screening of Chungking Express.
In Special Presentations, HIFF will present the West Coast premiere of Wake, a comedy/drama directed by Cyrus Mirakhor. Wake follows a widowed mortician, struggling with agoraphobia, who receives a birthday gift from her mother and daughter as a joke. The gift, a life-size male doll named Pedro, goes from funny to fantastical, complicating her ties with her family and friends. Wake stars James Denton (TV Series Good Witch), Caroline Lagerfelt (TV Series The Blacklist), and features the acting debut of Filipino-American stand-up comedian, Jo Koy. The popular comedian will attend the screening, and join director Mirakhor for the post-screening Q&A.
The always popular Sound x Vision category offers must-see films for music fans and cinephiles. HIFF will host the North American premiere of The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, directed by Macoto Tezuka. This fascinating musical narrative, made in 1985, begins when Macoto Tezuka (son of the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka) met musician and TV personality Haruo Chicada who had made a soundtrack to a movie which didn’t actually exist: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers. With Chicada as producer, Tezuka then adapted this “fake soundtrack” into the real movie story of “The Stardust Brothers”. Tezuka assembled a cast of some of Japan’s most famous musicians of the time, including such greats as Kiyohiko Ozaki, ISSAY, Sunplaza Nakano and Hiroshi Takano, alongside many famous names in Manga such as Monkey Punch (Lupin the 3rd), Shinji Nagashima (Hanaichi Monme), Yosuke Takahashi (Mugen Shinsi) and even many upcoming film directors of the time such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata) and Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirishima Thing). The resulting film The Legend of the Stardust Brothers is the exact definition of a cult film. Despite the huge array of talent on board with a large budget, the film is totally unknown even to this day in both Japan and worldwide. More than 30 years since its release, The Stardust Brothers will finally make itself known worldwide with a new master and a brand new Director’s Cut.
For the first time, the festival will present the HIFF VR Lounge; bringing together a selection of exciting contemporary Virtual Reality projects from around the world to SALT At Our Kakaako. Free and open to the public November 10th through 12th, the HIFF VR Lounge will feature virtual reality technologies bring us closer to the action than ever before, face-to-face with some of the most vital issues and stories in the world today. Audiences can visit the lounge and experience: Age Of Sail (Dir.: John Kahrs), Chasing Coral: The VR Experience (Dir.: Jeff Orlowski), Finding Haka (Dir.: James Hedley) and Songbird (Dir.: Lucy Greenwell).
Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists[/caption]
DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, returns for its ninth edition with 135 feature-length documentaries among over 300 films and events overall. The festival takes place November 8 to 15 at in New York at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Chelsea’s SVA Theatre and Cinepolis Chelsea.
Special Events include Closing Night Film, the world premiere of HBO’s Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, about the beloved New York City journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy; and the festival’s Centerpiece presentation, the world premiere of Original Cast Album: Co-op, an episode in the upcoming season of IFC’s Documentary Now! series inspired by D.A. Pennebaker’s Original Cast Album: Company, followed by a conversation with creators Seth Meyers and Rhys Thomas, director Alex Buono, writer and star John Mulaney, and star Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton). The NYC premiere of John Chester’s Telluride and Toronto hit The Biggest Little Farm will open the festival.
World premieres at the festival include Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order, following The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead on a “Vagical Mystery Tour” to fight for reproductive rights; New Homeland, the newest film from two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple, following refugee boys to a summer camp; Cracked Up, a revealing portrait of Saturday Night Live alumnus Darrell Hammond; Olympia, on Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis; Buzz, about Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger; Afterward, a candid exploration of complex tensions between Germans, Jews and Palestinians; Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy, on the legendary Juilliard drama teacher who trained Meryl Streep and Viola Davis among countless other talents; Beyond the Bolex, a personal history of the iconic camera; and The Show’s the Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock, which reveals an untold chapter of rock history.
Among this year’s U.S. premieres are Screwball, a hilarious exposé of Alex Rodriguez’s doping scandal; The Insufferable Groo, on a prolific low-budget filmmaker who recruits Jack Black for his latest opus; Evelyn, Oscar-winner Orlando von Einsiedel’s reckoning with a family tragedy; Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, the fascinating tale about the popularization of Jamaican music worldwide; Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground, on an influential but little-recognized member of the 1960s film and art world; and The Artist & the Pervert, on the controversial relationship between a world renowned composer and a sex educator.
The festival is curated in 21 sections that include five new strands:
Series Showcase, offering world premieres of new episodic programs, including Showtime’s Enemies: The President, Justice & the FBI, exploring the contentious relationship between U.S. presidents and the FBI; and SundanceTV’s Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre.
Photography on Film, which includes the world premiere of Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein, on the seven-decade career of the NYC photographer.
Portraits, which presents the world premieres of The Great Mother, a profile of a woman serving as the legal guardian for 2,000 children of undocumented immigrants; and Welcome to the Beyond, the surprising story of a fashion model and a cult.
In the System, offering an inside look at institutions, including sexism in the restaurant world in The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution; and the financial industry on the cusp of the economic recession in Inside Lehman Brothers.
True Love, which presents the world premiere of Dennis and Lois, about a punk rock-loving older couple; and the U.S. premiere of China Love, which explores China’s $80 billion pre-wedding photo industry.
In the festival’s two feature competition sections, nine films appear under the Viewfinders section for distinct directorial visions. They include the world premieres of Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, a radical reframing of natural disasters and their link to poverty; Out of Omaha, a coming-of-age story executive produced by musician J. Cole; The Smartest Kids in the World, an exploration of the shortcomings of the U.S. education system; and The Kleptocrats, an investigation of the Malaysian financial scandal that helped finance The Wolf of Wall Street.
In the Metropolis competition section, seven films are dedicated to stories set in New York City. They include the world premieres of Jay Myself, about acclaimed photographer Jay Maisel; Decade of Fire, on the notorious series of fires that devastated the Bronx in the 1970s; See Know Evil, about a young photographer who left an indelible mark on fashion in the 1990s; and The Candidates, which follows an elaborate mock U.S. presidential election at a Queens high school.
Other returning sections include high-profile Special Events; national and global takes inAmerican Perspectives and International Perspectives; and thematic sections Centerstage (on performance), Jock Docs (on sports), Science Nonfiction (on science and technology), Wild Life (on animals), Modern Family (on unconventional families), Behind the Scenes (on filmmaking), Fight the Power (on activism), Sonic Cinema (on music) and Docs Redux (revisiting classic nonfiction). Short-form content (92 films in total) is represented by the festival’s Shorts Competition and DOC NYC U (showcasing student work), selected by Programmer Opal H. Bennett.
These sections join the Short List: Features titles, highlighting 15 of the year’s award contender documentary features; Short List: Shorts, an inaugural list of 12 of the year’s leading nonfiction shorts; and the eight-day DOC NYC PRO conference, doubled in size from 2017, focusing on panels and masterclasses.
DOC NYC will welcome over 500 filmmakers and special guests in attendance for Q&As after most screenings and for DOC NYC PRO panels. Among the notable guests expected to appear in person are Jakob Dylan for Echo in the Canyon, Darrell Hammond for Cracked Up, Jeffrey Wright for We Are Not Done Yet, Sandra Lee for RX: Early Detection, J.Cole for Out of Omaha, Christo for Walking on Water, Alex Sharp for Creating a Character, Lizz Winstead for Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order and more to be announced in the coming weeks.
For this year’s Short List section of awards season frontrunners, filmmakers presenting their work in person at the festival include Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks (Quincy), Wim Wenders (Pope Francis: A Man of His Word), Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 11/9), Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo), Betsy West and Julie Cohen (RBG), Rudy Valdez (The Sentence), Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (Reversing Roe), Susan Lacy (Jane Fonda in Five Acts), Bing Liu (Minding the Gap), Tim Wardle (Three Identical Strangers), Sandi Tan (Shirkers), Alexandria Bombach (On Her Shoulders), RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening) and Stephen Maing (Crime + Punishment). Filmmakers will also take part in the Short List Day of panel conversations on Nov. 9 at DOC NYC PRO.
Notable documentarians will also be honored at the Visionaries Tribute Awards event on Nov. 8: Wim Wenders and Orlando Bagwell will receiveLifetime Achievement Awards while Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin will receive the Robert and Anne Drew Award for observational filmmaking. Tabitha Jackson, director of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute, will receive theLeading Light Award for distinguished service to documentary in a role outside filmmaking.
The following is a breakdown of programming by section:
Watergate[/caption]
Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival & Symposium, a project of 100Reporters, launches its fourth edition with world, U.S. and Washington premieres of fifteen new, investigative films that speak to our times in a newly urgent language, bridging investigative reporting and visual storytelling. This year’s themes: Demystifying. Exposing. Equalizing. Verifying.
Double Exposure opens with WATERGATE, in which celebrated director Charles Ferguson (INSIDE JOB) recreates the epochal White House scandal for a new generation, using interviews with key players, previously-classified documents and Richard Nixon’s own secret recordings as the spine for Oval Office dialogues with chilling resonance today.
The festival’s closing film, DIVIDE AND CONQUER, tracks the rise and fall of kingmaker Roger Ailes, the driving force behind Fox News, who lost it all following accusations of sexual harassment at the top.
GHOST FLEET investigates the hidden population of modern-day slaves who underpin industrial fishing, held captive at sea for years at a time.
THE PANAMA PAPERS details the unprecedented coordination of over 300 journalists who reveal the biggest global corruption scandal in history.
Our 2018 films explore the psychic cost of community-wide surveillance, uncovered through journalistic sleuthing and the Freedom of Information Act; wrongful criminal confessions; sexual assault and social media; the underside of savior complexes and much more. The films deliver illuminating stories from war-torn Afghanistan to middle America, from a middle-class apartment in Budapest to the Oval Office. Check the full lineup at dxfest.com.
“This year’s slate demonstrates the increasing relevance of film to the most pressing stories of our day,” said Double Exposure founder and co-director, Diana Jean Schemo. “Our Opening Night film revisits a scandal with searing relevance in 2018. And our Closing Night film on Roger Ailes and Fox News brings the story of an era that began with Watergate to our present time of social media, sexual reckoning and rampant truth-bending.”
“This is an extraordinary moment for investigative filmmaking. We are finding more and more filmmakers integrating journalistic practice into their storytelling, and more journalists moving into the visual realm,” said Double Exposure co-creator and co-director, Sky Sitney. “Each film on our slate not only tells an urgent story in itself, but shapes that story through a riveting, new visual language that stands at a crossroads between these two distinct practices.”
HISTORY’s definitive original documentary, WATERGATE, chronicles one of the biggest criminal conspiracies in modern American politics and features a roster of some of the most important media, legal and political figures from the scandal, including Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, John Dean, Jill Wine-Banks, Richard Ben-Veniste, and many others. Wednesday, Oct. 10, 7pm, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Post screening discussion with director Charles Ferguson and special guests to be announced.
Following Opening Night, all screenings take place at the Naval Heritage Center, and are followed by conversations with the director, film subjects, and others.
STOLEN DAUGHTERS: KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM revisits a shocking story that made global headlines. In 2014, 276 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped from a school in Chibok, Northern Nigeria, and hidden in the vast Sambisa forest for three years by Boko Haram, a violent Islamic insurgent movement. Granted exclusive access to the 82 girls who were freed last year and taken to a secret government safe house in the capital of Abuja, the film explores how the young women might adapt back to life after having experienced such trauma, and how the Nigerian government is navigating, and at times commandeering, their reentry into society. Thursday, Oct. 11, 6pm. Naval Heritage Center.
ROLL RED ROLL goes behind the headlines of a notorious high school sexual assault case to witness the social media-fueled “boys will be boys” culture that let it happen, and defended them when it did. Thursday, Oct. 11, 8:30pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Nancy Schwartzman, film subjects Alexandria Goddard and Rachel Dissell, and others to be announced.
In UNPROTECTED, an acclaimed American charity said it was saving some of the world’s most vulnerable girls from sexual exploitation. Then the girls were raped, and that was only the beginning. Friday, Oct. 12, 4pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Nadia Sussman, and others to be announced.
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The Feeling of Being Watched[/caption]
For THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED, filmmaker Assia Boundaoui follows the trail of her neighbors’ suspicion that their community just outside Chicago has been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Boundaoui uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her Muslim community was indeed the subject of one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11, code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” Friday, Oct. 12, 6pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Assia Boundaoui, and others to be announced.
GHOST FLEET follows a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fishermen who feed the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Bangkok-based Patima Tungpuchayakul, a Thai abolitionist, has committed her life to helping these “lost” men return home. Facing illness, death threats, corruption, and complacency, Patima’s fearless determination for justice inspires her nation and the world. Friday, Oct. 12, 8:30pm Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Shannon Service, producer Jon Bowermaster, and others to be announced.
THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER ROBOTS is an eerie, eye-opening work of science-nonfiction, that charts incidents in which robots have caused the deaths of humans in an automated Volkswagen factory, in a self-driving Tesla vehicle and from a bomb-carrying droid used by Dallas police. Though they are typically treated as freak anomalies, each case raises questions of accountability, legality and morality. Exploring the provocative views of engineers, journalists, and philosophers, and drawing on archival footage, the film goes beyond sensational deaths to examine more subtle ways that robots pose a threat to society. Saturday, Oct. 13, 10am, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Maxim Pozdorovkin.
THE UNAFRAID (dirs. Anayansi Prado & Heather Courtney) follows the personal lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending their top state universities and disqualifies them from receiving in-state tuition at any other public college. Shot in an observational style over a period of four years, this film takes an intimate look at the lives of Alejandro, Silvia and Aldo as they navigate activism, pursuing their right to education, and fighting for the rights of their families and communities. Saturday, Oct. 13, 12:30pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Heather Courtney, film subjects and others to be announced.
FALSE CONFESSIONS. Each year innumerable American suspects confess to crimes they did not commit, and experts say that trained interrogators can get anybody to confess to anything.
The film follows indefatigable defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, who is determined to put an end to interrogation techniques that all too often pressure innocent people into false confessions. As we weave through four of Fisher-Byrialsen’s cases, all involving false confessions, the film examines the psychological aspect of how people end up confessing to crimes they have not committed and the consequences of these confessions – for those accused, for their families and for society at large. Saturday, Oct. 13, 3pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Katrine Philp, subject Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, and others to be announced.
In making OF FATHERS AND SONS, Syrian-born filmmaker Talal Derki travels to his homeland in Syria, where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses primarily on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems content to follow the path of jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, OF FATHERS AND SONS is a work of unparalleled access that captures the chilling moment when childhood dies and jihadism is born. Saturday, Oct. 13, 5:30pm, Naval Heritage Center.
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Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes[/caption]
In DIVIDE AND CONQUER Alexis Bloom sheds light on the current moment in American political life by following the arc of Roger Ailes: long-time Republican Svengali and controversial founder of Fox News. By coaching an unrivaled stable of politicians over the course of fifty years, Ailes heavily influenced Republican politics, steering the conservative movement from Nixon to the Tea Party to Trump. Under his tutelage, anger and fear became the coin of the realm, both on the ballot and on national television. This is a story of serial cruelty, both on the public stage and in private life. Like a true Shakespearean figure, ambition and desire were Ailes’ undoing. He was finally toppled when victims of his sexual harassment stepped forward. The accounts of these women—raw and infuriating—are the axis around which Ailes’ story inexorably turns. Saturday, Oct. 13, 8:30pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Alexis Bloom, and others to be announced.
For A WOMAN CAPTURED, director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter follows the life of a European woman who has been held by a Budapest family as a domestic slave for 10 years. She is one of over 45 million victims of modern day slavery today. Drawing courage from the filmmaker’s presence and the camera as witness, the woman captured attempts to escape the unbearable oppression and become a free person. Sunday, Oct. 14, 11am, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter.
[caption id="attachment_28168" align="aligncenter" width="1180"] People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE dives deep into world of young stars of live streaming in China, where the shift to a virtual life in place of flesh-and-blood relationships has gone far. The stars build followings among the rich and poor, with the rich lavishing online personalities with gifts worth millions of dollars, and the poor cheering the wealthy patrons on and rooting for their idols. The scene culminates with a once-a-year competition, a cross between the Hunger Games and Black Mirror, in which the winner is the one whose patrons buy the most votes. Sunday, Oct. 14, 1:45pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Hao Wu.
Filmed over three years, ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT follows students and teachers at a school in an old neighborhood of Kabul that is slowly rebuilding from past conflicts. Interweaving the modern history of Afghanistan with present-day portraits, director James Longley offers an intimate and nuanced vision of a society living in the shadow of war. Sunday, Oct. 14, 4:30pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with filmmaker James Longley.
In THE PANAMA PAPERS, Alex Winter delivers a powerful, illuminating film that paints a complete picture of the biggest global corruption scandal in history. The “Panama Papers” leak involved the unprecedented coordination of hundreds of journalists from 107 media organizations in more than 80 countries, who broke the story in 2015. The papers included over 11.5 million documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for nearly 214,500 offshore accounts. Winter includes interviews with whistleblowers and key journalists on the investigation, to tell the story of the massive data breach which uncovered murky political and financial corruption, bribes, election rigging and even murder. Sunday, Oct. 14, 7:30pm, Naval Heritage Center. Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Alex Winter, and others to be announced. People’s Republic of Desire[/caption]
People’s Republic of Desire, the winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW, is the untold story of China’s live-streaming economy, and the search for fame, fortune and human connection in a virtual world. The documentary directed by technology executive-turned-filmmaker Hao Wu, will be released in theaters on November 30.
In an increasingly digital universe where live streamers earn as much as $200,000 a month, can virtual relationships replace real-life human connection? People’s Republic of Desire tells the stories of two such online stars who have risen from isolation to fame and fortune on NASDAQ-listed YY, China’s largest live streaming platform.
Live-streaming showrooms have become virtual gathering places for hundreds of millions – from the super rich who lavish these online stars with digital gifts, to poor migrant workers who exhaust meager savings idolizing them. All of these characters are brought together in a series of bizarre online talent competitions, where they discover that happiness in their virtual world may be as elusive as in the real one.
Just a Breath Away (Dans la brume)[/caption]
The Fantasia International Film Festival, celebrating its 22nd Anniversary in Montreal this summer, from July 12 to August 1, revealed a selected Second Wave of titles and events. Its Frontières International Co-Production Market will be held July 19 to 22.
The festival’s 22nd edition will open with the North American Premiere of DANS LA BRUME (“Just a Breath Away”), a large-scale genre co-production between France and Canada, directed by celebrated Quebec filmmaker Daniel Roby (LOUIS CYR, WHITE SKIN), starring Romain Duris (MOOD INDIGO), Olga Kurylenko (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), and Fantine Harduin (HAPPY END). Paris is hit by an earthquake, then filled with a mysterious toxic gas that seems to come from below ground. A family attempts to survive the massive catastrophe, but first… they will have to face the fog.
John Cho stars in the LAAPFF Audience Award Winning film SEARCHING – directed by Aneesh Chaganty. Photo Courtesy of Screen Gems[/caption]
Fantasia will be showcasing the Canadian Premiere of Aneesh Chaganty’s Sundance smash SEARCHING, produced by Timur Bekmambetov (working with Sev Ohanian, Natalie Qasabian, and Adam Sidman) in his innovative “screenlife” storytelling approach that brilliantly captures the way we engage online. After David Kim (John Cho)’s sixteen-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.
BuyBust[/caption]
Five years after the impressive ON THE JOB, director Erik Matti returns to Fantasia with the Canadian Premiere of BUYBUST, one of the most action-packed movies ever to come out of the Philippines. Here he writes, produces, and directs a truly one-of-a-kind actioner about a rookie female cop who finds herself in hot water with an anti-narcotics squad. Starring Filipino superstar Anne Curtis, over 1200 extras, and featuring an unbelievable 300 stuntmen and women, BUYBUST is packed with spectacular gunplay, nonstop hand-to-hand combat, and a nearly-uncountable number of people being stabbed in the face.
As of 2017, all titles selected in the Action! Section are eligible for Fantasia’s Best Action Film Award, awarded by a jury composed of Quebec director Alain Desrochers (BON COP BAD COP 2), actor/stuntman Alain Moussi (KICKBOXER: VENGEANCE), and filmmaking duo Sebastien Landry and Laurence Morais-Lagace (GAME OF DEATH).
EIGHTH GRADE[/caption]
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) today announced the winners of the 2018 Golden Space Needle Audience and Competition Awards. Eighth Grade received the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film and a Best Actress Award for Elise Fisher. Won’t You Be My Neighbor won Best Documentary and Grand Jury prizes went to The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, Dead Pigs, Rust, Inventing Tomorrow, and Thunder Road.
Artistic Director Beth Barrett said, “Executive Director Sarah Wilke and I were thrilled to present Ethan Hawke with the Festival’s Outstanding Achievement Award in Cinema before a screening of Blaze, his latest directing effort, as well as welcoming Melanie Lynskey back to the Festival for a special screening of Seattle based local film, Sadie. We also had an incredible lineup of local films, and our documentary film selection continues to be among the best in the country. Back for the second year was SIFF’s New Works-in-Progress Forum, where we screened two narrative and two documentary features in the midst of their creative process to the Seattle audience of industry and festival attendees, as well as continuing our exploration of the intersections between cinema and Virtual Reality at our first Pop-up event, SIFF VR Zone at Pacific Place.”
Wildlife[/caption]
The first films of the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) were revealed today along with big announcement that the 67th edition will open with the Australian premiere gala screening of Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife – starring Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Australia’s Ed Oxenbould. The First Glance selection of 32 films demonstrating MIFF’s expansive reach was also uncovered.
Based on the 1990 Richard Ford novel of the same name, Dano’s debut directorial outing (co-written by Zoe Kazan, seen alongside Dano at MIFF’s 2012 Ruby Sparks) tells a tender and empathetic story about a teen dealing with his family falling apart in 1960s Montana.
A hit at Sundance and Cannes, Wildlife is a bittersweet and elegant debut that represents a major coming-of-age – both off screen and on – for Oxenbould, an actor who broke out in MIFF 2014’s Paper Planes and last year’s MIFF Premiere Fund-supported The Butterfly Tree. Buoyed by exquisite cinematography from Diego Garcia (Neon Bull, MIFF 2016; Cemetery of Splendour, MIFF 2015) the film’s fine-tuned attention to period detail underscores its exceptional performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gSi0Qvki3o
“We are thrilled to announce Wildlife for this year’s Opening Night Gala. Paul Dano’s debut as a director provides a glimpse into a successful shift in his career from on screen to off, and the cast including Australia’s very own Ed Oxenbould (a special name here at MIFF) is an impressive way to kick off proceedings,” said MIFF’s Artistic Director Michelle Carrey.
“This in addition to the sneak peek of the rest of the program is an exciting time. Finally we can start talking about the most important thing…the films!”
This year’s MIFF program will feature more than 500+ screenings, including:
Ethan Hawke features with both on and off-screen contributions: he portrays a troubled priest experiencing a ‘crisis of faith’ in cinematic legend Paul Schrader’s latest feast of brooding menace, First Reformed; in Blaze, Hawke directs a daringly unconventional biopic of an unsung country music legend, featuring newcomer Benjamin Dickey in the title role (which won him a Sundance acting award) and Alia Shawkat.
Chloë Grace Moretz turns in a career-best performance in Desiree Akhavan’s sophomore feature The Miseducation of Cameron Post, winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic); Cannes 2017 best actor winner Joaquin Phoenix features in Lynne Ramsay’s vengeance feature You Were Never Really Here, playing a war vet and ex-FBI agent whose new job includes rescuing children from paedophile rings; meanwhile, Bodied is the result of an unlikely pairing between Grammy-winning director Joseph Kahn and rapper turned producer Eminem who present their satirical story about an accidental battle-rap star.
In a variety of filmmaking firsts, acclaimed TV director Michael Pearce makes his feature debut in the sly, unsettling Beast – an impressive British crime drama love story wrapped in an intriguing psychosexual thriller; veteran slow-cinema auteur Tsai Ming-liang makes his debut foray into virtual reality with The Deserted, a 55-minute experience with a wordless, near-feature length tale of ghosts, grief and fish; and a little closer to home, Nash Edgerton’s TV series directorial debut Mr Inbetween brings The Magician’s charismatic killer-for-hire Ray Shoesmith back to our screens. MIFF will screen all six episodes before its television premiere on Foxtel’s Showcase channel.
The 2018 program delves deep into three iconic names spanning fashion, sport and Hollywood, starting with McQueen, a flamboyant portrait of one of the world’s most revered designers, Alexander McQueen – a man who once said “My shows are about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It’s for the excitement and the goosebumps. I want heart attacks. I want ambulances.” This biographical documentary by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui represents nothing less.
Julien Faraut’s John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection serves up a fascinating combination of instructional clips and exquisite 16mm footage of tennis bad boy John McEnroe at the height of his career at the 1984 French Open; and looking into the life of another legend, Tommy Avallone’s Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man follows the trail of the star’s alleged appearances musing on the interconnection of pop culture and ordinary life.
An Elephant Sitting Still takes us on a four-hour journey as Hu Bo paints a compelling, empathetic portrait of contemporary China in this FIPRESCI Prize-winning debut; and winner of SXSW’s Grand Jury Prize for documentary, People’s Republic of Desire is Hao Wu’s unsettling and fascinating look into the online world of live-streaming, social media and virtual relationships.
Turning impending loss into a poignant, poetic dreamscape, The Seen and Unseen is the second feature from Indonesia’s Kamila Andini and winner of best youth film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards; Tigers Are Not Afraid is a stunning contemporary fairytale that does for Mexico’s drug war what Guillermo del Toro did for the Spanish Civil War. Praised by Stephen King, the film saw Issa López become the first woman to win Fantastic Fest’s Best Horror Director award.
Denmark’s Gustav Möller makes his directorial debut with the Sundance and Rotterdam award-winning The Guilty, an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller told entirely in real time.
The UK’s Daniel Kokotajlo makes a devastating debut with Apostasy, a daring study of an all-female Jehovah’s Witness family riven by religious conflict starring Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey and Happy Valley); Babis Makridis proves he is coming into his own as a star with a second feature, Pity. A follow up to L (MIFF 2012), the quintessentially bleak and absurdist Greek New Wave comedy from the co-writer of The Lobster and Dogtooth was co-written with Yorgos Lanthimos’ key collaborator Efthymis Filippou (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, MIFF 2017).
Irreverent Iranian director Mani Haghighi (A Dragon Arrives! MIFF 2016) presents his latest meta-comedy magic, Pig – a riotous Iranian film industry satire about a serial killer; and Vivian Qu continues to interrogate crime, corruption and control in modern-day China in Angels Wear White, which won her the Best Director award at the Golden Horse Film Festival.
Based on Anna Seghers’ WWll novel of the same name, Transit is the slow-burn thriller from revered auteur Christian Petzold – a discomfiting fable of trans-European displacement that channels both Hitchcock and Casablanca; and one of contemporary cinema’s most esteemed directors Lucrecia Martel makes her long-awaited return with the historical fiction Zama, centred on an 18th-century Spanish magistrate marooned in a far-flung South American outpost where he’s losing touch with civilization and sanity.
Spaghetti Western, ’70s Euro-pulp and delirious psychedelia collide in Let the Corpses Tan – a glorious homage to cinema’s seedier retro fringes from genre connoisseurs Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; audiences will step back in time to the French fashion scene with legendary fashion photographer William Klein’s award-winning black and white mockumentary that is now a groovy cult classic, Who are you, Polly Maggoo? and nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, The Insult is the multi-award winning new work from Lebanese visionary Ziad Doueiri (The Attack, MIFF 2012).
Delving into the complex emotions of passionate pop-music appreciation, emerging local director Jessica Leski presents I Used to be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story – an empathetic documentary exploring why we hold pop music so dear to our hearts.
The NSFA-restored The Cheaters offers viewers a rare big-screen treat of a pioneering silent-era classic. A major landmark of Australian cinema, this is not just one of our earliest feature films – it’s one of the first by women filmmakers, the McDonagh sisters. The remaining fragments of the sisters’ popular first feature Those Who Love will screen alongside.
An exhilarating debut feature from Australian director Jason Raftopoulos, the Venice-premiering West of Sunshine stars Pawno’s Damian Hill alongside his real-life step-son Ty Perham and Offspring’s Kat Stewart (Sucker, MIFF 2015). Shot in Melbourne, it explores fatherhood, trauma and second chances.
Director Jeremy Sim’s (Last Cab to Darwin, Beneath Hill 60) Wayne is a must-see for moto-GP fans. Here, Sims explores a defining piece of Australian sporting history that saw Wayne Gardner conquer the world of motorcycle racing and return home a hero; while Island of the Hungry Ghosts takes audiences on a unique and moving cinematic journey through the intersection of Christmas Island’s migrating land crabs, lost souls caught in limbo and political detainees.
Sundance award-winner, Stephen Loveridge digs deep into the life of his good friend Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasm in MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A, demonstrating her pull-no-punches personality and focus on political activism, and how this caused her career to suffer; and rounding up the First Glance lineup, directors Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown dive wholeheartedly into the African-American roller rink scene, circling around racial profiling, the roots of rap and communities in crisis with Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner, United Skates.