Brimstone & Glory[/caption]
Three films – Viktor Jakovleski’s Brimstone & Glory, Matthew Heineman’s City of Ghosts and Yance Ford’s Strong Island – lead the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations with 4 apiece. Five films received three nominations: Yuri Ancarani’s The Challenge, Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral, Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places, Brett Morgen’s Jane and Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest.
City of Ghosts, Faces Places, Quest and Strong Island are joined in the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category by Frederick Weisman’s Ex Libris: The New York Public Library and Feras Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo. Kitty Green (Casting Jon Benet) joins the aforementioned Yuri Ancarani, Yance Ford, Matthew Heineman, Agnés Varda and JR, and Frederick Wiseman as a nominee in the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category.
With his nomination, Frederick Wiseman becomes the first filmmaker in Cinema Eye history to be nominated three times for Outstanding Direction, having been previously nominated for La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet and In Jackson Heights. He also received Cinema Eye’s 2012 Legacy Award for his 1967 classic Titicut Follies. Agnès Varda won the Outstanding Direction Award in 2010 for The Beaches of Agnés.
Outstanding Direction nominees Kitty Green and Yuri Ancarani were both previously nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Short, Green in 2016 for The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul and Ancarani was nominated twice for Il Capo (2012) and Da Vinci (2014).
Chasing Coral received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Cinematography for director Jeff Orlowski, an Honor he won in 2013 for Chasing Ice. Stefan Nadelman, nominated for his Graphic Design work on the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip, won the same award in 2016 for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Ten films were nominated for the annual Audience Choice Prize, which includes many of the year’s most popular and talked about nonfiction films, notably Brett Morgen’s Jane, Ceyda Torun’s Kedi, Amanda Lipitz’ Step, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? and Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary’s The Work. The winner in this category is voted on by the general public.
This year’s Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking category includes a number of notable filmmakers, among them a previous Cinema Eye winner and a nominee. Fisher Stevens, a winner for Outstanding Production and Feature for The Cove (2010), is nominated this year with his co-director Alexis Bloom for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie FIsher and Debbie Reynolds (HBO). Ryan White, who was nominated for Production in 2015 for The Case Against 8, is up this year for his Netflix series The Keepers. Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay received her first Cinema Eye nomination for her Netflix film 13th, while veteran filmmaker Kristi Jacobson gets her first nod for the HBO feature doc Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison.
This year’s winners will be announced at the 2018 Honors Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 11, 2018 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The ceremony will be hosted, for the third consecutive year, by award-winning nonfiction filmmaker Steve James (The Interrupters, Life Itself, Hoop Dreams), who is a Cinema Eye nominee this year for his latest film, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.
The Challenge
Miles of barren desert provide the backdrop for this surreal compilation of images: private jets, race cars, exquisite birds, and even a pet cheetah descend on the Qatar dunes to take part in a remote falconry tournament.
Directed by Yuri Ancarani
Genre(s) Documentary Film
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BRIMSTONE AND GLORY , CITY OF GHOSTS and STRONG ISLAND Lead Cinema Eye Honors Nominations
[caption id="attachment_24386" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Brimstone & Glory[/caption]
Three films – Viktor Jakovleski’s Brimstone & Glory, Matthew Heineman’s City of Ghosts and Yance Ford’s Strong Island – lead the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations with 4 apiece. Five films received three nominations: Yuri Ancarani’s The Challenge, Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral, Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places, Brett Morgen’s Jane and Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest.
City of Ghosts, Faces Places, Quest and Strong Island are joined in the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category by Frederick Weisman’s Ex Libris: The New York Public Library and Feras Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo. Kitty Green (Casting Jon Benet) joins the aforementioned Yuri Ancarani, Yance Ford, Matthew Heineman, Agnés Varda and JR, and Frederick Wiseman as a nominee in the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category.
With his nomination, Frederick Wiseman becomes the first filmmaker in Cinema Eye history to be nominated three times for Outstanding Direction, having been previously nominated for La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet and In Jackson Heights. He also received Cinema Eye’s 2012 Legacy Award for his 1967 classic Titicut Follies. Agnès Varda won the Outstanding Direction Award in 2010 for The Beaches of Agnés.
Outstanding Direction nominees Kitty Green and Yuri Ancarani were both previously nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Short, Green in 2016 for The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul and Ancarani was nominated twice for Il Capo (2012) and Da Vinci (2014).
Chasing Coral received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Cinematography for director Jeff Orlowski, an Honor he won in 2013 for Chasing Ice. Stefan Nadelman, nominated for his Graphic Design work on the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip, won the same award in 2016 for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Ten films were nominated for the annual Audience Choice Prize, which includes many of the year’s most popular and talked about nonfiction films, notably Brett Morgen’s Jane, Ceyda Torun’s Kedi, Amanda Lipitz’ Step, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? and Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary’s The Work. The winner in this category is voted on by the general public.
This year’s Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking category includes a number of notable filmmakers, among them a previous Cinema Eye winner and a nominee. Fisher Stevens, a winner for Outstanding Production and Feature for The Cove (2010), is nominated this year with his co-director Alexis Bloom for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie FIsher and Debbie Reynolds (HBO). Ryan White, who was nominated for Production in 2015 for The Case Against 8, is up this year for his Netflix series The Keepers. Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay received her first Cinema Eye nomination for her Netflix film 13th, while veteran filmmaker Kristi Jacobson gets her first nod for the HBO feature doc Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison.
This year’s winners will be announced at the 2018 Honors Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 11, 2018 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The ceremony will be hosted, for the third consecutive year, by award-winning nonfiction filmmaker Steve James (The Interrupters, Life Itself, Hoop Dreams), who is a Cinema Eye nominee this year for his latest film, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.
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30th Virginia Film Festival Reveals Lineup, Opens with DOWNSIZING + Spotlights Race and Charlottesville
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Downsizing[/caption]
The Virginia Film Festival will celebrate its 30th year from November 9 to 12, 2017, with a stellar lineup of more than 150 films and an outstanding array of special guests.
VFF Director and UVA Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa announced the first wave of programming and special guests for the 2017 Festival. “We are incredibly excited to share this first announcement regarding our 2017 program,” Kielbasa said, “which we believe captures the things that set us apart, and that contribute to our rising profile on the national and international festival scene. Once again, our audiences will be able to choose from a program of extraordinary depth and breadth, including some of the hottest titles on the current festival circuit, fascinating documentaries that address and comment on the most important topics of our time, the latest work from some of the newest and most exciting voices on the filmmaking scene, and the best of filmmaking from around the world and right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The 2017 Virginia Film Festival will open with Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, a science fiction flavored dramedy about a group of people exploring the possibility of dramatically reducing their footprints on the world through miniaturization. The film stars Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, and Hong Chau in a breakout role that is already garnering her significant Oscar buzz.
The Centerpiece Film will be Hostiles directed by Scott Cooper. In 1892, Army Captain Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) is ordered to escort an ailing long-time prisoner, Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), and his family across hostile territory back to his Cheyenne homeland to die in this gritty and powerful new Western from director Scott Cooper (Black Mass) that also stars Rosamund Pike, Ben Foster and Jesse Plemons.
William H. Macy comes to the Virginia Film Festival for the first time to present his new film Krystal. The film, which Macy directed and stars in, is about a young man who, despite having never had a drink in his life, joins Alcoholics Anonymous in an attempt to woo the woman of his dreams, an ex-stripper who is dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction, played by Rosario Dawson.
The tragic events surrounding the domestic terrorist incidents in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12 captivated the world and with that in mind, the Virginia Film Festival reached out to a variety of local filmmakers and encouraged them to create a documentary that captures the harrowing events that happened in Charlottesville, as seen by local filmmakers and residents. The result is Charlottesville: Our Streets, which is directed by Brian Wimer and written by Jackson Landers.
This year the Virginia Film Festival is partnering with James Madison’s Montpelier for Race in America – a special series of films and discussions inspired by and built around Montpelier’s acclaimed Mere Distinction of Colour exhibition and its ongoing commitment to exploring its own legacy of slavery, including the recreation of slave dwellings on its historic property. This year’s special guests will include the previously-announced Spike Lee, who will be on hand in Charlottesville as part of “Race in America,” to present his Oscar-nominated documentary 4 Little Girls, about one of America’s most despicable hate crimes – the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama that took the lives of four African American girls, Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, and Cynthia Wesley. He will also present I Can’t Breathe, a short video piece that combines footage of the chokehold death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York City Police Department with footage of the similar death of the Radio Raheem character in Lee’s iconic 1989 film Do The Right Thing. In addition to 4 Little Girls, the films in the series will include:
Race In America
An Outrage – This documentary by Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren about lynching in the American South was filmed on location at lynching sites in six states, and is bolstered by the memories and perspectives of descendants, community activists, and scholars, creating a hub for action to remember and reflect upon a long-hidden past. Birth of a Movement – This powerful story is based on William Monroe Trotter, the nearly-forgotten editor of a Black Boston newspaper and his 1915 campaign to ban D.W. Griffith’s deeply divisive Birth of a Nation – highlighting the early stages of still-raging battles over media representation, freedom of speech, and the influence of Hollywood. The Confession Tapes – The VFF will present an episode from Netflix’s true crime documentary series called “8th and H” about a notorious 1984 murder case in Washington, D.C. in which a group of eight teens were unjustly convicted, and remain in prison to this day largely due to a connection to a “gang” that never actually existed. Hidden Figures – Noted author and UVA alumna Margot Lee Shetterly will be at the Festival to present the widely-acclaimed 2016 film based on her celebrated book about the three brilliant African-American women at NASA — Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) — who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit. O.J.: Made in America – Ezra Edelman’s Emmy and Academy Award-winning five-part documentarychronicles the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation. Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities – Co-directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson and Marco Williams, this film examines the impact Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have had on American history, culture, and national identity.Spotlight Screenings
The Ballad of Lefty Brown – Director Jared Moshe’s American Western tells the story of Lefty Brown (Bill Pullman), a 65-year-old cowboy who, after a lifetime of riding in the shadows of Western legend Eddie Johnson (Peter Fonda), is forced by tragedy to emerge from the shadows and face the harsh realities of frontier justice. Breath – Set on the coast of Australia in the mid 1970’s, Simon Baker’s (The Mentalist) directorial debut tells the story of two teenage boys who forge a friendship with an older, elusive pro surfer who introduces them to the thrill of riding the waves and living in the moment. Call Me by Your Name – Based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman, Luca Guadagnino’s transcendent coming-of-age film follows two young men who fall for each other in northern Italy during the early 1980s. With a screenplay by the legendary James Ivory, the film features a masterful turn by actor Armie Hammer. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool – Annette Bening and Jamie Bell star in Paul McGuigan’s adaptation of the memoir by British actor Peter Turner about his romance with the legendary and famously eccentric Hollywood star Gloria Grahame during the last years of her life. The Leisure Seeker – Embracing the iconic Americana of road trips and campgrounds, a runaway couple (played by Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren) goes on an unforgettable trip in the faithful old RV they call the Leisure Seeker. Permanent – Based on the writer, director, and UVA alumna Colette Burson’s own experience while attending E.B. Stanley Middle School in Virginia, Permanent is a coming-of-age story featuring Rainn Wilson and Patricia Arquette about an idiosyncratic family set in 1983 that involves hairstyles, social awkwardness, and poorly made toupees.Documentaries
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail – From award-winning director Steve James comes this incredible saga of the Chinese immigrant Sung family, owners of the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The Challenge – Desert landscapes dotted with private jets, pet cheetahs, and souped-up Ferraris provide the backdrop of Italian visual artist Yuri Ancarani’s documentary about the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs with a passion for amateur falconry. Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies – Amanda Ladd Jones presents the untold story of her father, Alan Ladd, Jr., the former 20th Century Fox Chairman who greenlit Star Wars, Blade Runner, Alien, and many more of the biggest films in movie history. Featuring interviews with Mel Brooks, Ben Affleck, Richard Donner, Ron Howard, Ridley Scott, and numerous others. The Road Movie – Dimitri Kalashnikov’s inventive documentary literally puts viewers in the driver’s seat by offering a windshield-eye view of life in Russia made up entirely of dashcam videos posted on YouTube. Serenade For Haiti – Following Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, Father David Cesar works tirelessly to continue Sainte Trinité Music School’s more than 60-year legacy of bringing classical music to thousands of Haitians in this testament to resilience, hope, and the power of music. Director Owsley Brown will lead a discussion of his film. Word is Bond – Director Sacha Jenkins will be on hand to present his acclaimed documentary that tells the never-before-told story about the writers and journalists that created and shaped the language for hip-hop culture.Health and Wellbeing Documentaries
Ask the Sexpert – Director Vishali Sinha presents a story of popular 93-year-old Mumbai sex-ed columnist Dr. Watsa, whose brand of non-moralistic advice and humor has emboldened many to write in questions against the backdrop of a comprehensive sex education ban in schools that has been adopted by approximately one third of India’s states. Bending the Arc – An extraordinary team of doctors and activists work to save lives in a rural Haitian village. Through interviews and on-the-ground footage shot in the midst of a deadly epidemic, directors Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos are immersed in the thirty-year struggle of these fiercely dedicated people as they fight ancient diseases. My Kid is Not Crazy – Revealing the nightmare of a medical system heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, this documentary unpacks the fierce disagreement that occurs among families in addressing youth mental illness. Treated with antipsychotic medication, behavioral therapy, and even hospitalization, years of misdiagnosis leave these children with irrecoverable consequences for the rest of their lives. Requiem for a Running Back – When she gets the shocking news that her former NFL star father Lewis Carpenter has been diagnosed postmortem as the 18th confirmed case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), documentarian Rebecca Carpenter embarks on a three-year odyssey across America to explore the unfolding controversy surrounding the degenerative brain disease, which is caused by repeated blunt force trauma to the brain. Starfish – Writer Tom Ray’s picture perfect life falls apart in a single moment when he succumbs to a devastating illness and loses his hands, lower legs, and part of his face after contracting sepsis. This true and moving story chronicles the efforts of Tom and his wife Nicola to keep their family together against impossibly long odds. Twinning Reaction – Told from the perspective of identical twins and triplets who were secretly split up in infancy and studied by psychoanalysts for decades, the documentary examines the traumatic, long-term effects of the separations – and continuing deception – on the twins and their adoptive families. What Lies Upstream – Cullen Hoback travels to West Virginia after an MCHM chemical spill poisoned the water supply of 300,000 Americans. When a similar crisis emerges in Flint, Michigan, he follows the guidance of whistleblowers to discover corruption at the highest levels of federal regulatory agencies.Spotlight on Virginia Filmmaking
Afrikana Film Festival – The VFF is proud to partner with the Richmond-based Afrikana Film Festival for a special program of films dedicated to showcasing cinematic works of people of color from around the world, with a special focus on the global Black narrative. Best of Film at Mason and Best of VCUarts – As the official film festival of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the VFF will salute some of Virginia’s finest young filmmakers from both George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University in a special program that captures and celebrates the diversity of cinematic storytelling found at these institutions. Double Dummy – Producer and bridge enthusiast John McAllister offers an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the competitive world of bridge, and the incredible relationships forged by the game around the world. The Ruination of Lovell Coleman – This short documentary from Ross McDermott tells the story of a Charlottesville-based 93-year-old fiddle player. Combining footage of his performances with animation and interviews about his unique musical career, the film puts special focus on his many years of service playing at local nursing homes. Scenes with Ivan – Local filmmakers Doug and Judy Bari chronicle their son Ivan’s life from his birth in 1985 to the present. They spent two years sifting through hundreds of hours of footage they had shot, but never before looked at before. In the process, they discovered forgotten moments of what makes a life, and how things come full circle.International Films
A Fantastic Woman (Chile) – Director Sebastián Lelio’s devastating portrait of grief about a young transgender waitress who faces scorn and discrimination after the sudden death of her older boyfriend. Happy End (Austria) – The latest from noted Austrian director and two-time Palme D’Or-winner Michael Haneke highlights the cultural blindness and savage indifference of a bourgeois European family in Calais consumed by its own “struggles” as the the migrant crisis rages all around them. Loveless (Russia) – A couple in the midst of a vicious divorce must come together to lead the search for their missing son in this eerie thriller from Andre Zviagintsev (Leviathan) that highlights a single harrowing story as well as the corruption and moral desolation of modern-day Russia. November (Estonia) – A mixture of magic, black humor, and romantic love, November is the story of pagan villagers raging against bitter winter, werewolves, the plague, and evil spirits. Song of Granite (Ireland) – This life story of renowned traditional Irish folk singer Joe Heaney from director Pat Collins combines documentary footage of the singer with masterful performances and gorgeous cinematography that highlights the gorgeous Irish countryside to tell a story that celebrates cultural diversity. Summer 1993 (Spain) – Director Carla Simon’s feature debut is a poignant look at a six-year-old girl who has to leave all she knows behind following her mother’s death as she moves to the countryside and struggles to adjust to a new life with her uncle and his family. Tom of Finland (Finland) – Director Dome Karukoski brings to life the story of Touko Laaksonen, a decorated WWII officer who returns home after serving his country only to find that country rife with homophobic persecution. He finds refuge in liberating and inhibition-free art that makes him one of the most celebrated and influential figures in 20th Century gay culture. White Sun (Nepal) – This gripping portrait of post-civil war Nepal during the fragile deadlocked peace process follows an anti-regime partisan who confronts physical, social, and political obstacles related to his father’s funeral. His search for solutions takes him to neighboring mountain villages and results in encounters with police and rebel guerrillas. Woodpeckers (Dominican Republic) – Julián finds love and a purpose to living in the last place he imagined: Najayo prison in the Dominican Republic. Through sign languages from one prison to another, he encounters Yanelly, separated by 150 meters and dozens of guards, and has to win her love while keeping it a secret.Emerging Artist Series
With support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, the VFF will continue its focus on highlighting and sharing some of the most talented new voices on the filmmaking scene today. In addition to Confession Tapes, Double Dummy, and The Ruination of Lovell Coleman, the series will include producer Han West’s Oh Lucy!, a charming character study following an emotionally unfulfilled woman as she tentatively emerges from her shell, and director Kevin Elliott’s first feature Magnum Opus, a timely conspiracy thriller centered around a principled Desert Storm vet turned reclusive artist.LGBTQIA+ Focus
The Lavender Scare – The first documentary to tell the little-known story of “the longest witch hunt in American history”- an unrelenting federal campaign launched by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 to identify and fire all employees suspected of being homosexual because they were deemed to be a threat to national security. Rebels on Pointe – Award-winning filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart presents the first-ever behind-the-scenes look at Les Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the all-male drag ballet company founded 40 years after the Stonewall riots. Other LGBTQIA+ films include Call Me by Your Name, A Fantastic Woman (Chile), and Tom of Finland(Finland).Jewish and Israeli Series
1945 – In August 1945, a rural town in Hungary is preparing for the wedding of the town clerk’s son when two Orthodox Jewish men arrive at the railway station with mysterious wooden boxes. In Between – Three Palestinian women attempt to balance faith and tradition with their modern lives while living in the heart of Tel Aviv. Shelter – When Naomi Rimon, a Mossad agent, is sent on a mission to protect Mona, a Lebanese collaborator, the two women find themselves in a compromised safehouse in Hamburg. In this suspense-laden psychological thriller, beliefs are questioned and devastating decisions are forced. Surviving Skokie – An intensely personal documentary that explores the effects of a late 1970’s threatened neo-Nazi march in Skokie, IL on its large Holocaust survivor population, following producer Eli Adler on a moving trip with his father to his ancestral home in Poland. The Miller Center This year the Virginia Film Festival is again partnering with The Miller Center, a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history, and strives to apply the lessons of history and civil discourse to the nation’s most pressing contemporary governance challenges. The series will include a 30th anniversary screening of Broadcast News, the 1987 romantic comedy that took a clear-eyed, satirical look at the concept of “fake news” long before the phrase was vaulted into the American lexicon in the 2016 election. The screening will be followed by a conversation with legendary news reporter and anchor Jim Lehrer and longtime CBS News correspondent and now UVA Media Studies professor Wyatt Andrews about the concepts of truth and veracity in our rapidly-changing news landscape. This year’s Miller Center series will also feature a screening of an episode from The Vietnam War, the highly-acclaimed 18-part PBS documentary series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. The VFF is proud to welcome Lynn Novick to the Festival for a special post-screening discussion with Marc Selverstone, associate professor and chair of the Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program. Homeland This year the Virginia Film Office added another impressive title to its growing resume when Showtime announced that its award-winning series Homeland would film its upcoming seventh season in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Film Festival will screen an episode of the show from its sixth season, followed by a conversation with its director, Lesli Linka Glatter. Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership The VFF and the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership are launching a new partnership this year with a special screening of the 1972 Michael Ritchie film The Candidate, starring Robert Redford. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion that will include political consultant and longtime CNN contributor Paul Begala, who returns to the VFF after his 2016 post-screening discussion of the D.A. Pennebaker classic documentary The War Room. The VFF and the Library of Congress Celebrate the National Film Registry This year the Virginia FIlm Festival continues its unique partnership with the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia, presenting a series of films that celebrate the National Film Registry and the Campus’ dedication to film preservation. This year’s lineup will include the Mike Nichols 1967 coming-of-age classic The Graduate, Hal Ashby’s 1971 romantic black comedy Harold & Maude, and Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 silent film The Immigrant. Silent Films The VFF will revisit its longstanding tradition of presenting silent films with live musical accompaniment with a pair of programs featuring the music of Matthew Marshall and the Reel Music Trio. A special 100th Anniversary screening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant, which features Chaplin in one of his most famous roles – as an immigrant who endures a challenging voyage only to face even more trouble when he gets to America, a story all-too-relevant in today’s world. This program will also feature two more of Chaplin’s most beloved two-reelers Easy Street and The Adventurer, also celebrating their 100th Anniversary. Additionally, the Festival will present a rare treat with a late-night Paramount Theater screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film The Lodger, about a Jack The Ripper style killing spree in London, with a chilling original score performed by Marshall. Ben Mankiewicz Longtime Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz returns to the VFF, where he will host discussions around a number of screenings including The Candidate, The Graduate, The Immigrant, The Lodger, and more. The Rookie with John Lee Hancock The VFF will present a 15th anniversary screening of The Rookie, the inspirational true story starring Dennis Quaid as a high school baseball coach whose career and life takes an improbable turn when he promises his team that if they make the playoffs, he will attend a Major League tryout. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the film’s director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Snow White and the Huntsman) and screenwriter Mike Rich (Finding Forrester, Secretariat). Shot-by-Shot Workshop For this 30th anniversary year, the Festival is reviving its Shot-by-Shot Workshop, one of its most cherished traditions. Created and presented for many years by the late Roger Ebert, the yearly Shot-by-Shot Workshop offers movie lovers a rare chance to enjoy live commentary on classic films by leading film experts. This year’s presentation will be Harold and Maude, presented by Nick Dawson, biographer of the film’s legendary director Hal Ashby. Honoring Our Veterans As the nation marks Veterans Day weekend, the VFF will pay tribute to those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for our nation with a series of military-themed presentations. In addition to The Vietnam War, this series will include Last Flag Flying, Richard Linklater’s latest film, which stars Steve Carrell, Laurence Fishburne, and Bryan Cranston as a trio of Vietnam vets who reunite to bury one of their sons, who was killed in action in Iraq. The friends accompany the young man’s casket on a trip through coastal New Hampshire, reminiscing about and coming to terms with the shared memories of a war that continues to shape their lives. The Festival will also present American Veteran, a new documentary from director Julie Cohen about Army Sergeant Nick Mendes, who was paralyzed from the neck down by a massive IED in Afghanistan in 2011, when he was only 21 years old. The film follows Mendes from the earliest days of his recovery as he learns to eat and breathe on his own to his life today with wife Mandy, whom he met when she worked as one of his caregivers. The film shows a nuanced portrait of a quadriplegic soldier’s sometimes harrowing, sometimes romantic, and often surprisingly funny life.
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THE CHALLENGE, Documentary on Qatari Sheikhs as Amateur Falconers Sets US Release Date | Trailer
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The Challenge[/caption]
The Challenge, Yuri Ancarani’s acclaimed documentary focused on a group of super-wealthy, Qatari sheikhs who moonlight as amateur falconers, will be released in the US by Kino Lorber. The film is scheduled for an exclusive New York engagement at September 8, 2017, before expanding nationwide during the fall. A VOD and home media release is scheduled for 2018.
A rigorous and beautifully photographed look at the rituals that define these men’s lives (driving a Ferrari with a pet cheetah being one of them), The Challenge offers a rare window into a group of ultra-privileged men who spare no expense in the pursuit of their own idiosyncratic wishes.
The Challenge premiered last August at the Locarno Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award at the festival’s Cineasti del Presente section. In 2017, the film played at True/False, SXSW and New Directors/New Films in New York – and it is now having its Canadian premiere at HotDocs.
“Yuri Ancarani is the type of visionary and ambitious filmmaker that we love to introduce to American audiences,” wrote Richard Lorber in a prepared statement. “And his feature debut The Challenge is an unforgettable cinematic experience that’s going to both charm and astound audiences everywhere.”
“We are excited to work with Kino Lorber on the North American release of The Challenge,” wrote Manuela Buono. “We always admired the company that distributed Fire at Sea and Le Quattro Volte in the US, and we think that Yuri Ancarani’s visionary work fits perfectly in this line-up.”
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Rooftop Films Announces 2017 Summer Series Lineup, BAND AID, THE BAD BATCH and More
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Adam Pally, Fred Armisen and Zoe Lister-Jones appear in Band Aid by Zoe Lister-Jones[/caption]
The Rooftop Films 2017 Summer Series will take place May 19th to August 19th, featuring more than 45 outdoor screenings in more than 10 venues. The series will kick off on Friday, May 19th, with “This is What We Mean by Short Films,” a collection of some of the most innovative, new short films of the past year. The screening will take place on the roof of The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
The following night, Saturday, May 20th Rooftop will present a sneak preview screening of Zoe Lister-Jones’ 2017 Sundance indie hit, Band Aid, free and outdoors at House of Vans in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Starring Lister-Jones, Adam Pally (“The Mindy Project”), and Fred Armisen (“Portlandia”), Band Aid tells the story of a couple attempting to piece their marriage back together by turning their fights into indie rock lyrics. Band Aid opens in theaters June 2nd, courtesy of IFC Films.
Lister-Jones’ film is but one of many of this year’s best independent comedies playing at Rooftop this summer. In addition Rooftop films will present a sneak preview screening of Michael Showalter’s acclaimed new comedy, The Big Sick, starring and co-written by Kumail Nanjiani, prior to its June 23rd theatrical release by Lionsgate and Amazon Studios. Additional high-profile comedies include Rough Night, Lucia Aniello’s bachelorette-party-gone-wrong comedy starring Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz; Writer, director, and star Noël Wells’ Austin-based feature film debut Mr. Roosevelt; Jessica Williams’ big screen breakout role in Jim Strouse’s The Incredible Jessica James; and Dave McCary’s magical feature film, Brigsby Bear.
The 2017 Summer Series also brings with it the triumphant return of Rooftop Films Alumni and Filmmakers’ Fund Grantees. The festival, in partnership with NEON, welcomes back Rooftop Films Piper-Heidsieck Feature Film Grant winner, Ana Lily Amirpour, for a night of complete dystopian debauchery with an exclusive screening of her new film, The Bad Batch, at the House of Vans in Greenpoint. Also returning is Joshua Z Weinstein with his Brooklyn-based, Rooftop/Brigade Festival Publicity Grant winning Menashe and Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliffe with The Strange Ones, an enigmatic and lush story, adapted into a feature film with the help of the Rooftop Films Eastern Effects Equipment Grant.
Rooftop will also present special screenings of some of the most exciting documentaries of the year, including the US premiere of Vanessa Stockley’s fascinating Grey Gardens-in-Manhattan tale, The Genius and the Opera Singer; the NY premiere of Jeff Unay’s much-lauded MMA doc, The Cage Fighter; The US premiere of Maple J. Razsa and Milton Guillén’s The Maribor Uprising: A Live Participatory Film; Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous’ powerful SXSW-winning The Work; the gorgeous and sensitive Sundance-winning Dina; and the most entertaining found footage film of the year, Dmitry Kalashnikov’s Russian dash-cam doc, The Road Movie.
It wouldn’t be Rooftop Films without cutting-edge evenings of short films. 2017 programming features the return of Summer Series staples, including the romantic short films of “Love is Short,” the innovative animation of “Dark Toons,” the uncanny short films of “Trapped,” the best of this year’s “New York Nonfiction,” and “The New American Paradise,” an evening of WTF short stories from outside the liberal bubble.
ROOFTOP FILMS 2017 SUMMER SERIES OPENING WEEKEND
Friday, May 19, 2017 This is What We Mean by Short Films On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn Rooftop turns 21 this year. We’re legal, but not playing it safe. On opening night, we’re celebrating with our favorite stories from moral grey zones and uncharted territories: a mushroom of colorful balloons kills two before escaping to Canada, an unnatural presence enters tickle fight, a subversive dance number takes down the patriarchy, and a Russian circus meltdown is played in reverse. Saturday, May 20, 2017 Band Aid (Zoe Lister-Jones) Outdoors at House of Vans. 25 Franklin St. Brooklyn Band Aid, the refreshingly raw, real, and hilarious feature debut from Zoe Lister-Jones, is the story of a couple, Anna (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Ben (Adam Pally), who can’t stop fighting. Advised by their therapist to try and work through their grief unconventionally, they are reminded of their shared love of music. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, they decide to turn all their fights into song, and with the help of their neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen), they start a band. A story of love, loss, and rock and roll, Band Aid is a witty and perceptive view of modern love, with some seriously catchy pop hooks to boot. An IFC Films release.FEATURE FILMS
The Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour) The Bad Batch follows Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) after she’s left in a Texas wasteland fenced off from civilization. While trying to navigate the unforgiving landscape, Arlen is captured by a savage band of cannibals led by the mysterious Miami Man (Jason Momoa). With her life on the line, she makes her way to The Dream (Keanu Reeves). As she adjusts to life in ‘the bad batch’ Arlen discovers that being good or bad mostly depends on who’s standing next to you. Winner of the Rooftop Films Piper-Heidsieck Feature Film Grant. A NEON release. Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman) Frankie, an aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn, is having a miserable summer. With his father dying and his mother wanting him to find a girlfriend, Frankie escapes the bleakness of his home life by causing trouble with his delinquent friends and flirting with older men online. When his chatting and webcamming intensify, he finally starts hooking up with guys at a nearby cruising beach while simultaneously entering into a cautious relationship with a young woman. As Frankie struggles to reconcile his competing desires, his decisions leave him hurtling toward irreparable consequences. A NEON release. The Big Sick (Michael Showalter) Based on the real-life courtship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of war between his family and his heart. The Big Sick is directed by Michael Showalter (Hello My Name Is Doris) and produced by Judd Apatow (Trainwreck, This Is 40) and Barry Mendel (Trainwreck, The Royal Tenenbaums). A Lionsgate and Amazon Studios release. Friday, June 30, 2017 Brigsby Bear (Dave McCary) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan After 25 years of secluded existence with his protective parents in their isolated, off-the-grid home, James (Kyle Mooney) is tossed out into a new life in relatively daunting Cedar Hills, Utah. As his world upends, the most shocking revelation to James is that he’s the only person who has ever watched his favorite television program, Brigsby Bear Adventures. Struggling to adjust to the show’s abrupt end, he begins to see Brigsby’s lessons as his only way to make sense of a big, scary new world, and James decides to make a movie to end Brigsby’s story—and re-begin his own. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Friday, June 23, 2017 The Cage Fighter (Jeff Unay) On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn A blue-collar family man breaks the promise he’d made years ago to never fight again. Now 40 years old, with a wife and four children who need him, Joe Carman risks everything—his marriage, his family, his financial security— to go back into the fighting cage and come to terms with his past. After party presented by Visit Seattle. California Dreams (Mike Ott) From acclaimed director Mike Ott (Lake Los Angeles, Actor Martinez) comes the new comedy documentary feature California Dreams, presenting five unique individuals in pursuit of a big life change. Through auditions set up in small towns across Southern California, the film shows genuine characters with big Hollywood aspirations who, for various reasons, have never had the opportunity to pursue their dreams. With subjects including celebrity impersonators, aspiring writers, and a former nurse, this bitingly funny film reveals the strange and entrancing hypnotic grip that Hollywood has, in some way or form, on everyone. Wednesday, August 2, 2017 The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani) Outdoors at Socrates Sculpture Park. 32-01 Vernon Blvd. Queens. If you have it, spend it: Italian artist Yuri Ancarani’s visually striking documentary enters the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs who moonlight as amateur falconers, with no expenses spared along the way. The Challenge follows these men through the rituals that define their lives: perilously racing blacked-out SUVs up and down sand dunes; sharing communal meals; taking their Ferraris out for a spin with their pet cheetahs riding shotgun; and much more. Ancarani’s film is a sly meditation on the collective pursuit of idiosyncratic desires. A Kino Lorber Release. Dayveon (Amman Abbasi) In the wake of his older brother’s death, 13-year-old Dayveon spends the sweltering summer days roaming his rural Arkansas town. When he falls in with a local gang, he becomes drawn to the camaraderie and violence of their world. A FilmRise release. Dina (Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) Dina, an outspoken and eccentric 49-year-old in suburban Philadelphia, invites her fiancé Scott, a Walmart door greeter, to move in with her. Having grown up neurologically diverse in a world blind to the value of their experience, the two are head-over-heels for one another, but shacking up poses a new challenge. Scott freezes when it comes to physical intimacy, and Dina, a Kardashians fanatic, wants nothing more than to share with Scott all she’s learned about sensual desire from books, TV shows, and her previous marriage. Her increasingly creative forays to draw Scott close keep hitting roadblocks—exposing anxieties, insecurities, and communication snafus while they strive to reconcile their conflicting approaches to romance and intimacy. An Orchard release. Saturday, May 27, 2017 The Genius and the Opera Singer (Vanessa Stockley) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan A 92-year-old former opera singer and her volatile daughter have inhabited a rent-controlled Manhattan penthouse for the last fifty-five years – along with their obese chihuahua, Angelina Jolie. An unsettling portrait of a mother-daughter relationship, The Genius and the Opera Singer explores their intense emotional states and the knotted riddle of their past. US Premiere. Tuesday, July 25, 2017 The Incredible Jessica James (Jim Strouse) On the roof of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn Jessica Williams (“The Daily Show”) stars as a young, aspiring playwright in New York City who is struggling to get over a recent breakup. She is forced to go on a date with the recently divorced Boone, played by Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) and the unlikely duo discover how to make it through the tough times in a social media obsessed post-relationship universe. Lakeith Stanfield (FX’s “Atlanta”, Straight Outta Compton) and Noël Wells (Netflix’s “Master of None”) co-star. The film was written and directed by Jim Strouse and produced by Michael B. Clark and Alex Turtletaub of Beachside. Jessica Williams and Kerri Hundley serve as executive producers. A Netflix release. L.A. Times (Michelle Morgan) Annette (Michelle Morgan) and Elliot (Jorma Taccone) are a mostly-happy, moderately-neurotic LA couple. Maybe Annette doesn’t enjoy game nights or taco stands as much as Elliot does, but no relationship is perfect, right? Rather than embracing their differences, Annette can only compare their relationship to their happy couple friends. This cannot be endorsed by Annette’s beautiful but romantically troubled best friend, Baker (Dree Hemingway), who is very well-versed on the bleakness of the LA dating scene. Taking its cues from classic mid-20th Century comedies with a stylish and contemporary spin, L.A. Times is an irreverent tale of life and the search for elusive love in the 21st Century. Friday, June 16, 2017 The Maribor Uprisings: A Live Participatory Documentary (Maple J. Rasza, Milton Guillén) Outdoors at Metrotech Commons. 5 Metrotech Center. Brooklyn In the once prosperous industrial city of Maribor, Slovenia, anger over political corruption became unruly revolt. In The Maribor Uprisings–part film, part conversation and part interactive experiment–you are invited to participate in the protests. Drawing on the dramatic frontline footage from a video activist collective embedded within the uprisings, you begin in Maribor as crowds surround and ransack City Hall under a hailstorm of tear gas canisters. As a group, you must choose which cameras you will follow and therefore how the events will unfold. Like those who joined the actual uprisings, you will decide between joining non-violent protests or following rowdy crowds towards City Hall and greater conflict. These events stand as an example for any number of ideological stand-offs today. What sparks outrage? How are participants swept up in—and changed by—confrontations with police? Could something like this happen in your city? What would you do? US Premiere. Menashe (Joshua Z Weinstein) Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted by the boy’s strict, married uncle, but Menashe’s Rabbi decides to grant him one week to spend with Rieven prior to Lea’s memorial. Their time together creates an emotional moment of father/son bonding as well as offers Menashe a final chance to prove to his skeptical community that he can be a capable parent. Winner of the Rooftop Films Brigade Festival Publicity Grant. An A24 release. Tuesday, August 8, 2017 Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators (Ema Ryan Yamazaki) On the roof of the JCC in Manhattan. 334 Amsterdam Ave. Manhattan Featuring a narrow escape from the Nazis on makeshift bicycles, Monkey Business explores the extraordinary lives of Hans and Margret Rey, the authors of the beloved Curious George children’s books. New York Premiere. An Orchard release. Saturday, June 17, 2017 Mr. Roosevelt (Noël Wells) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan Emily Martin (Noël Wells) is a struggling 20-something who moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy after graduating college in Austin, Texas. When a loved one falls sick, she returns to Austin and runs into her ex-boyfriend, as well as his amazing and intimidating new girlfriend. Low on funds and stuck in Texas for the weekend, Emily stays with the two of them in her old, but miraculously remodeled house. She quickly finds her way into the circle of a local female badass who shows Emily a good time and tries to keep her from spinning out as she goes toe-to-toe with the new girlfriend, all the ways her ex has changed, and ultimately, her own choices and guilt about leaving the past behind. Quest (Jonathan Olshefski) Filmed with vérité intimacy for close to a decade, Quest is a portrait of a family in North Philadelphia. Christopher “Quest” Rainey, along with his wife Christine’a (aka “Ma Quest”), open the door to their home music studio, which serves as a creative sanctuary from the strife that grips their neighborhood. Over the years, the family evolves as everyday life brings a mix of joy and unexpected crisis. Set against the backdrop of a country now in turmoil, the film is a tender depiction of an American family whose journey is a profound testament to love, healing and hope. Friday, June 2, 2017 Rat Film (Theo Anthony) On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Rat Film is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them–to explore the history of Baltimore. “There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it’s always been a people problem.” A Cinema Guild release. The Road Movie (Dmitrii Kalashnikov) A fascinating mosaic of asphalt adventures, landscape photography, and some of the craziest shit you’ve ever seen, Kalashnikov’s THE ROAD MOVIE is a stunning compilation of video footage shot exclusively via dashboard cameras in Russian automobiles. The dash-cam phenomenon permeates Russian roads thoroughly, capturing a vivid range of spectacles through the windshield, including a comet crashing down to Earth, an epic forest fire, and no shortage of angry motorists taking road rage to wholly new and unexpected levels. All the while, accompanied by bemused commentary from unseen and often stoic drivers and passengers. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release. Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Rough Night (Lucia Aniello) On the roof of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn In Rough Night, an edgy R-rated comedy, five best friends from college (played by Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) reunite 10 years later for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami. Their hard partying takes a hilariously dark turn when they accidentally kill a male stripper. Amidst the craziness of trying to cover it up, they’re ultimately brought closer together when it matters most. A Columbia Pictures release. The Strange Ones (Lauren Wolkstein, Christopher Radcliff) Mysterious events surround two travelers, seemingly brothers, as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets. Winner of the Rooftop Films Eastern Effects Equipment Grant. Friday, July 7, 2017 Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the National Guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. A Magnolia Pictures release. The Work (Jairus McLeary, Gethin Aldous) Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. An Orchard release.SHORT FILM PROGRAMS
Thursday, July 27, 2017 Animation Block Party In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn Experience the year’s best animated short films at the incomparable Animation Block Party! Saturday, June 3, 2017 Dark Toons: Animated Short Films On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan These toons are chocked full of furry animals and imaginative creatures but they are not for Sunday morning. The twisted and perverse landscapes of our annual Dark Toons program provide a unique backdrop for stories of life askew. From a true story of forced labor at communist-era prison that kept megastores in the West fully-stocked to a beautifully-animated and probably-alcoholic badger which has a run-in with the law and a woman who can’t stop growing fingers, these tales remind us that animation is the ideal medium to glimpse the darker side of life. Tuesday, May 30, 2017 Love is Short: Romantic Short Films On the roofs of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” Neruda wrote it, but these protagonists live it. In this program of short films, animated birds, sultry nights-in, and dismembered zombie heads are all members of love’s seductive cult. Come relish in these stories of the beautifully imagined and harshly-real consequences of love’s choices. Thursday, May 25, 2017 The New American Paradise: Short Films Outdoors at Metrotech Commons. 5 Metrotech Center. Brooklyn Pop your New York bubble on a journey to the more peculiar corners of the modern U.S of A. In the land of drive-in churches, carnival boardwalks, border walls, and get-rich-quick schemes, any one of us could end up on the downside of the American dream: another desperado with a mask melted onto our face, searching for a nugget at the bottom of a dirty tin can. Friday, June 9, 2017 New York Nonfiction On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan You see them every day. They’re on the train with you. They’re in your bodega. They’re your neighbors. But after this program of short films, we guarantee you’ll see them in a new light. Ours is a city full of record-holding record holders, spousal adoptions, trash havens, civil rights pioneers, lapsed goth kids, sexting teens, rambles full of leathermen, and unending change; and we like it that way… for the most part. Saturday, August 20, 2017 Rooftop Shots In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn CLOSING NIGHT! It’s hard to say goodbye. These short films will ease the pain. After-party presented by Visit Seattle. Seattle Shorts Presented by Visit Seattle Sundance Short Films Highlights from Sundance 2017 include these wild, weird and wonderful short films. Saturday, July 10, 2017 Trapped: Uncanny Short Films In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn Join us for a program of stories most unusual: the meeting of a spaceman and a cave man; an encounter with an alien phenomenon via public access television; and the imagined experiences of the forgotten subject of a famous photograph. These amusing and disquieting short films offer mix-tape portraits, analytic tragicomedies of infinite human desire and potentially-killer workplace procedurals. Experience startling cinematic spectacles you won’t soon forget.
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Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Announces New Docs and Invited Program Lineups
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The 2017 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, revealed its NEW DOCS lineup of 48 films – 27 features and 21 shorts; and the Invited Program lineup featuring 23 films – 22 features and 1 short— screening out of competition.
“We are proud to present 71 new titles at the festival this year,” said Full Frame artistic director Sadie Tillery. “These selections represent a wide breadth of current work, and illuminate the many forms that documentary film can take. Festival attendees are in for an extraordinary experience that is fitting of our 20th anniversary.”
The 20th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 6 to 9, 2017, in Durham, North Carolina.
NEW DOCS
116 Cameras (Director: Davina Pardo) Surrounded by a twinkling constellation of cameras, Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss records her stories for an interactive hologram project, preserving her experience for future generations. World Premiere All Skate, Everybody Skate (Director: Nicole Triche) Tucked away in picturesque Topsail Island, N.C., Miss Doris’s roller skating rink pops with energy as she leads her customers in games and skates, as she’s done for over 50 years. Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer (Directors: David Barba, James Pellerito) Praised for the sublime way he partners ballerinas, Marcelo Gomes is the center of this intimate film that takes us inside his world to chart a luminous 20-year career with American Ballet Theater. Asiyeh (Director: Leila Merat) An intelligent, no-nonsense bonesetter in northern Iran has been healing the people in her community for as long as anyone can remember. US Premiere Balloonfest (Director: Nathan Truesdell) In 1986, the United Way of Cleveland sets out to break a world record, releasing over a million balloons in the air, but the event has unexpected consequences when the lift off doesn’t go as planned. The Botanist (ботаник) (Directors: Maude Plante-Husaruk, Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis) This breathtaking short follows Raimberdi as he ingeniously constructs a hydroelectric generator to better survive in the mountains of Tajikstan. City of Ghosts (Director: Matthew Heineman) Captivating in its immediacy, City of Ghosts follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,” a group of anonymous Syrian activists who band together to document the Islamic State’s crimes after the city is taken by ISIS. Depth Two (Dubina Dva) (Director: Ognjen Glavonić) This suspenseful illumination of long-buried war crimes, which began in 1999 with NATO bombings in Serbia, is told in a harrowing combination of narrated testimonies and present-day images of the sites in suburban Belgrade where the crimes took place. Donkeyote (Director: Chico Pereira) The grandest adventure of all is afoot for a Spanish septuagenarian and his mischievous dog and stalwart donkey, if only they can survive chronic arthritis, impertinent travel agents, and just one more bridge. Dysphoria: Inside the Mind of a Holocaust Survivor (Director: Joseph Edward) This poetic and visually arresting exploration of one man’s memories takes an inventive and sensory approach, immersing the viewer in his experiences. World Premiere The Earth Did Not Speak (La Tierra No Habló) (Director: Javier Briones) Survivors of the 1982 government-sponsored massacre in Rio Negro, Guatemala, share their stories as the camera quietly pans across seemingly tranquil places that once were home. Far Western (Director: James Payne) Fueled by music and personal charisma, Charlie Nagatani embodies Japan’s obsession with American country and western music. North American Premiere The Force (Director: Peter Nicks) A riveting, on-the-ground look at the Oakland Police Department during a period of intense scrutiny and reform, as a new sergeant aims to correct protocol in the wake of charges of misconduct and abuse. Funne – Sea Dreaming Girls (Le ragazze che sognavano il mare) (Director: Katia Bernardi) A whimsical tale of a group of elderly women in a small Italian village who get creative while trying to raise funds for a trip to the sea, which many of them have never seen. North American Premiere The Great Theater (Wielki Teatr) (Director: Sławomir Batyra) A meandering camera takes a graceful, evocative journey through the spaces and operations of Warsaw’s Grand Theatre as it presents the opera Madama Butterfly. Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (Director: Frank Stiefel) Animated drawings and extraordinary shots of Mindy Alper’s sculptures create a lovely portrait of the artist as she unabashedly examines her experiences with a mental disorder (that prevented her from speaking) while discussing art, love, and life. I’M OKAY (Director: Pia Lenz) Adult themes unfold through the perspective of young protagonists in this beautifully photographed feature that captures the experiences of two refugee families struggling to rebuild their lives in Germany. North American Premiere Island Soldier (Director: Nathan Fitch) Through the intimate stories of two soldiers, this film explores the high cost of opportunity. In the Federated States of Micronesia—an “associated state” of the U.S.—a high proportion of residents serve in the American military, with few resources to support their lives after duty ends. World Premiere The Kodachrome Elegies (Director: Jay Rosenblatt) A short and lyrical ode to Kodachrome film stock that reflects on family, loss, and the end of an era. Last Men in Aleppo (Director: Feras Fayyad) Urgent and harrowing, this film follows the White Helmets’ unrelenting efforts to save fellow Syrians. When air strikes devastate homes, they descend on the wreckage to rescue buried men, women, and children, refusing to leave their people or their city behind. The Last Pig (Director: Allison Argo) This lyrical film follows an introspective farmer as his beliefs undergo a dramatic shift, from believing that there are more humane ways to slaughter animals to questioning the premise of his life’s work. US Premiere Life in Riva (Tra ponente e levante) (Director: Lorenzo Giordano) An aging resident imparts the history of his seaside Italian town. His recollections, and a trove of impeccably photographed artifacts, reveal the evolutions of one place over time. North American Premiere Luis & I (Directors: Roger Gómez, Dani Resines) The wife of a human cannonball describes their life in the circus and the ways their love has endured decades of this itinerant lifestyle. Mommy’s Land (Director: Garret Atlakson) As the Cambodian government demolishes homes, and arrest counts and brutal police violence increase, elder resident “Mommy” and other neighborhood women prove to be peaceful, and vivacious, resisters. World Premiere My Father’s Film (Director: Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz) A daughter crafts a portrait of her father through the spaces he occupied, a meditation shaped by the tools he left behind. World Premiere One October (Director: Rachel Shuman) Filmed in the final weeks of the 2008 presidential campaigns, this city symphony follows a radio reporter as he takes to the streets to invite fellow New Yorkers to share their thoughts and opinions in a time of great uncertainty. World Premiere The Original Richard McMahan (Director: Olympia Stone) A visionary artist painstakingly recreates the masterpieces of others, producing thousands of intricate miniature replicas of works made across centuries, from Van Gogh’s The Starry Night to King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Plastic China (Director: Jiu-liang Wang) At a recycling center in the Chinese countryside, two families survive between seas of plastic bottles and wrappers shipped from the U.S. and other countries; processing this waste has become their burden, and yet for their children, they dream of a better life. QUEST (Director: Jonathan Olshefski) This thoughtful and incisive observation of the Rainey family over the course of ten years seamlessly captures pivotal life experiences as well as issues of poverty, politics, and gun violence in a North Philadelphia neighborhood. The Rain Will Follow (Director: Eugene Richards) From his chair in a retirement home, 90-year-old Melvin Wisdahl shares poignant recollections of wartime and strife in this deeply personal account set aglow by beautiful images of North Dakotan farmland. Samuel in the Clouds (Director: Pieter Van Eecke) Samuel Mendoza continues the family tradition of operating the ski lift in a Bolivian Andes resort, while a melting glacier below threatens everyone’s way of life. Shivani (Director: Jamie Dobie) In this unique tale of grief and healing, three-year-old Dolly Shivani, believed by her parents to be the reincarnation of their dead son, trains as an Olympic archer. World Premiere Slowerblack (Director: Jessica Edwards) A hand-poke tattoo artist in Brooklyn reflects on her unique style and approach to inking. World Premiere Socotra, the Island of Djinns (Socotra, la Isla de lod Genios) (Director: Jordi Esteva) In this extraordinary black-and-white account, a group of camel herders travel inland on the island of Socotra to avoid the rainy season while sharing nighttime tales of supernatural djinns. US Premiere Still Tomorrow (摇摇晃晃的人间) (Director: Jian Fan) In rural China, a determined, courageous woman balances her fame as an eloquent and frank poet with societal expectations around disability, independence, and family obligation. Storyboard P, a stranger in Sweden (Director: Matthew D’Arcy) In this mesmerizing vignette, a dynamic Brooklyn street dancer travels to Sweden to teach and perform—a journey that tests his devotion to the art form. Strong Island (Director: Yance Ford) Director Yance Ford rigorously unpacks the events surrounding the death of his brother, who was shot in 1992. Profoundly cinematic and deeply personal, their family story is a powerful examination of race in America. The Submarine (Director: Wenceslao Scyzoryk) A 95-year-old cinematographer returns to his lab each day to perfect his invention—a machine that repairs celluloid damage. The Swirl (El Remolino) (Director: Laura Herrero Garvin) As the largely abandoned town of El Remolino in Chiapas, Mexico, struggles to yield viable crops and keep its school open, two siblings remain to battle the rainy season and their painful childhood. They Took Them Alive (Director: Emily K. Pederson) In 2014, 43 students disappeared from a bus traveling in Iguala, Mexico. Their families seek answers as the official investigation comes to a troubling and suspicious halt. World Premiere Through the Repellent Fence (Director: Sam Wainwright Douglas) The artist collective Postcommodity examines lines, origins, and the people to whom land really belongs with a two-mile-long installation of inflatable spheres high above the U.S.–Mexico border. Timberline (Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon) This short documents a West Virginia town caught between transitional pressures: an abandoned naval base is up for auction, and the NSA occupies a station just down the road. What will become of the locals for whom this place is home? World Premiere Tribal Justice (Director: Anne Makepeace) Two dynamic Native American women—chief judges for the state’s largest tribes—draw on tradition and village wisdom to help defendants rebuild their lives, encouraging healing over jail time and punishment. Two Worlds (Dwa Swiaty) (Director: Maciej Adamek) In this expressive study of family relationships, a daughter helps her two deaf parents navigate the world—as she has since she was three—and balances life between school, home, and self. Waiting for Hassana (Director: Ifunanya Maduka) Jessica, an escapee, recollects a friendship shattered by the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram. Winter’s Watch (Director: Brian Bolster) The longtime winter caretaker of the Oceanic Hotel off the coast of New England welcomes months of solitude, relishing the opportunity for introspection and productivity. Zaatari Djinn (Director: Catherine van Campen) This incandescent portrait documents four children in a refugee camp who are transformed by the light of imagination and possibility despite numerous hardships. North American Premiere Zuzana: Music Is Life (Directors: Peter Getzels, Harriet Getzels) The life story of eminent Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickowva transcends the personal in a deeply affecting look at the redemptive power of art throughout the Czech Republic’s turbulent 20th century. World PremiereINVITED PROGRAM
500 Years (Director: Pamela Yates) A sweeping examination of resistance movements in Guatemala, including the recent uprising, and a chronicle of the country’s first trial for war crimes committed against the Mayan people. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (Director: Steve James) In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the only U.S. bank accused of mortgage fraud was the family-owned Abacus Federal Savings in Manhattan’s Chinatown. This stunning film chronicles the Sungs’ legal battle as they fight to defend their business and their family name. Austerlitz (Director: Sergei Loznitsa) In vivid black and white, tourists and guides visit concentration camps. In observing their interactions, Austerlitz provides a powerful meditation on the (often imperfect) ways human beings connect, remember, and reflect. Bronx Gothic (Director: Andrew Rossi) With a blend of performance footage and penetrating discussions about her purpose and process, this film follows Okwui Okpokwasili as she tours her powerful one-woman play around the country. World Premiere Buzz One Four (Director: Matt McCormick) In 1964, a B-52 long-range bomber crashed on a Maryland mountainside with two thermonuclear bombs on board. This suspenseful account, crafted by the pilot’s grandson, skillfully weaves archival footage with personal recollections. The Challenge (Director: Yuri Ancarani) Miles of barren desert provide the backdrop for this surreal compilation of images: private jets, race cars, exquisite birds, and even a pet cheetah descend on the Qatar dunes to take part in a remote falconry tournament. Dina (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) At once tender and triumphant, humorous and hard, Dina introduces a woman in love as she navigates complex expectations in the days leading up to her impending nuptials. EXPRMNTL (Director: Brecht Debackere) This lively overview of the legendary EXPRMNTL film festivals held in Belgium from 1949 to 1974 interweaves archival footage with the recollections of the makers who defined experimental cinema. US Premiere The Good Postman (Director: Tonislav Hristov) An inspired citizen decides to run for mayor on a daring platform: that embracing the arrival of refugees may be the key to revitalizing his Bulgarian village. The Grown Ups (Director: Maite Alberdi) Adult students with Down Syndrome question their unknown futures. After attending the same school for decades, is there anything left to be discovered in this place, and what opportunities exist in the outside world? In Loco Parentis (Directors: Neasa Ní Chianáin, David Rane) For more than 40 years, John and Amanda Leyden have taught elementary-age children at a remote Irish boarding school. Filmed over the course of a year, the teachers bring wonder to their classrooms and roll with the joys and challenges that the changing seasons bring their young pupils. An Insignificant Man (Directors: Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla) With unimaginable access, this film follows the turbulent campaign of Arvind Kejriwal, a businessman turned politician who formed India’s Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party) in 2012, as he runs for his country’s top office. Life – Instruction Manual (Leben – Gebrauchsanelitung) (Directors: Joerg Adolph, Ralf Buecheler) Featuring short excerpts from a wide range of classes, from childbirth to end-of-life care, this film reflects on the myriad ways that we depend on learning, particularly from others. North American Premiere Long Strange Trip (Director: Amir Bar-Lev) Personal interviews, performances, and never-before-seen footage create a multifaceted portrait of the Grateful Dead. They were more than a band. They were a movement. May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (Directors: Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio) Personal, rich, and from the soul, this film follows the equally soulful Avett Brothers as they record a new album, reflect on the creative process, and navigate strong ties while managing lives spent on the road. Project X (Directors: Laura Poitras, Henrik Moltke) Rami Malek and Michelle Williams understatedly narrate guidelines from a top-secret NSA handbook, as the viewer travels from stark and isolated spots in the National Business Park to a windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. Purple Dreams (Director: Joanne Hock) This film follows six students at the Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, N.C., who thrive as performers in the first-ever high school musical production of The Color Purple while grappling with difficult and stressful issues in their own lives. World Premiere STEP (Director: Amanda Lipitz) This inspiring film follows three members of the Lethal Ladies step-dance team at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women. With the support of their intrepid coach and an uncompromising counselor, they are determined to attend college. TAKE EVERY WAVE: The Life of Laird Hamilton (Director: Rory Kennedy) In sparkling cinematography and intimate interviews, this epic look at the surfing legend’s life in and out of the waves is also a no-holds-barred illustration of one man’s dedication to continually reigniting his passion. Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (Director: Stanley Nelson) A monumental, essential, and compelling survey of the history and cultural significance of HBCUs in America. This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (Director: Barbara Kopple) Gregory Lazzarato to Gregory Gorgeous to Gigi Gorgeous—family members and millions of followers support the makeup and beauty YouTube star before, during, and after her transition. Trophy (Director: Shaul Schwarz, Co-Director: Christina Clusiau) This revelatory and exquisitely photographed investigation into conservation practices and big game hunting invites nuanced scrutiny and debate. Whose Streets? (Director: Sabaah Folayan, Co-Director: Damon Davis) This unflinching story of the Ferguson uprising is told by the activists who were there, chronicling the birth of a new generation of resisters in America.
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20 Feature Films to Compete for Golden Gate Awards at 2017 San Francisco International Film Festival
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A film still from In Loco Parentis by Neasa Ní Chianáin and David Rane[/caption]
10 narrative feature films and 10 documentary feature films will compete for the Golden Gate Awards (GGAs), and nearly $40,000 in total prizes at this year’s 2017 San Francisco International Film Festival taking place April 5 to 19.
“The SF Film Society has been a champion of emerging and international filmmakers since its first edition 60 years ago,“ said Rachel Rosen, SF Film Society Director of Programming. “We continue to believe that festivals are in a unique position to advocate for films from a variety of cultures and viewpoints, often in languages other than our own. The Golden Gate Awards provide an opportunity to bring additional exposure and awareness to these artists and their work.”
The GGA New Directors Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000, the GGA McBaine Documentary Feature winner will receive $10,000 and the GGA McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature winner will receive $5,000.
2017 GGA NEW DIRECTORS (NARRATIVE FEATURE) COMPETITION
Duet, Navid Danesh, Iran (North American Premiere) After a Tehran musician instigates an encounter with his college girlfriend in an attempt to address the poor end their relationship suffered, their lives and the equilibrium of their spouses are thrown into existential crisis. Navid Danesh’s resonant and moving depiction of the impact the past has on the present lives of its protagonists is both culturally specific and universal in its reach. Everything Else, Natalia Almada, Mexico/USA/France Academy Award-nominee Adriana Barraza (Babel) gives a masterfully controlled performance as Doña Flor, a solitary bureaucrat whose lifelong service in a government office has left her markedly unsympathetic towards her clients. Shot with an attentive and deeply empathetic lens, documentarian Natalia Almada’s narrative debut is a starkly intimate portrait of a woman at odds with her life who may still have a chance to escape her isolation. God’s Own Country, Francis Lee, UK Filmed on the Yorkshire hillside where he grew up, Francis Lee’s debut feature tells the rich and sexy story of John Saxby, a hard-drinking lad who keeps his emotions in check until an irrepressible Romanian immigrant comes to help out on the family farm and upends the young man’s life. Full of gloriously captured details about the care and breeding of animals, God’s Own Country is one of the year’s most moving romantic dramas. Godless, Ralitza Petrova, Bulgaria/Denmark/France In post-Communist era Bulgaria, where the shadow of oppression drives selfish behavior and hidden economies, outwardly impassive Gana works as a home care nurse—a job which provides ample opportunity to supplement her income with stolen ID cards to maintain the morphine habit she shares with her boyfriend. When Gana’s actions threaten the one glimmer of hope in her fatalistic world, will she break the cycle of corruption or spiral deeper? Godless is a bold first feature from Ralitza Petrova. Heaven Sent, Wissam Charaf, France/Lebanon Absurdly funny sequences punctuate this stylized comedy drama from Lebanon. Omar is a heavyset bodyguard who gets the assignment of his dreams, protecting a gorgeous TV personality, though matters are complicated when his brother Omar, a former militiaman presumed dead, magically reappears. Charaf’s surprising and inventive debut reflects on a country rife with absurdities and still reeling from its fraught history. The House of Tomorrow, Peter Livolsi, USA (World Premiere) When a sheltered teen named Sebastian meets an aspiring punk rocker and falls for the boy’s older sister, the stage is set for a cheerful and energetic comedy that tackles matters of friendship, young love, and musical dreams with equal aplomb. Ellen Burstyn is once again wondrous as Sebastian’s grandmother who is devoted to the life and scientific work of Buckminster Fuller. The Human Surge, Eduardo Williams, Argentina/Brazil/Portugal Eduardo Williams has steadily made a name for himself with a series of indelible shorts featuring young protagonists adrift in strange environments. In his debut feature, a prizewinner at Locarno, he takes the premise further, crafting a dreamlike three-part drama where youths from Argentina, Mozambique, and the Philippines are connected by invisible, electronic, or even subterranean means. Consistently inventive, The Human Surge burrows into three continents and finds surprising associations. Life After Life, Zhang Hanyi, China As the inexorable progress of industrialization in China makes its way into the lives of village residents Mingchun and his son Leilei, a surprise haunting by Leilei’s dead mother, who has an impassioned plea for her husband, points to a time when more attention was paid to the earth and its bounty. Produced by Jia Zhang Ke, this evocative and poetic debut depicts a rapidly disappearing way of life with a gorgeous visual sensibility and a subtly wry humor. Park, Sofia Exarchou, Greece/Poland The formerly grand stadiums and swimming pools of the 2004 Athens Olympics have become modern-day Greek ruins, a place for disaffected kids who’ve come of age since the Games to run wild. First-time director Exarchou, working mostly with non-professional actors, develops a compellingly anarchic style where the threat of violence and socio-economic troubles are omnipresent and the young characters act out their frustrations through boisterous, sometimes dangerous, horseplay. The Wedding Ring, Rahmatou Keïta, Niger/Burkina Faso/France (US Premiere) The Wedding Ring is a rare achievement, a wondrously complex dramatic feature directed by an African woman that explores female desires and empowerment in a traditional Muslim society. Rahmatou Keïta tells the story of Tiyaa who returns to Niger with lingering romantic feelings for the handsome man she left behind in France while grappling with family members who wish to arrange her marriage.2017 GOLDEN GATE AWARDS MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Brimstone & Glory, Viktor Jakovleski, USA Burning Man has nothing on Tultepec’s charging toritos and exploding castillos. Mexico’s weeklong National Pyrotechnic Festival is sheer unbridled madness. Scars that tourists take away from fireworks-exploding bulls and towering infernos are earned with pleasure, apparently, as this dynamic documentary keeps explanation to a minimum while maximizing the experiential through GoPro camera POVs and gorgeous abstractions. Filmmaker Viktor Jakovleski has created a visually rapturous, immersive, sensory experience of this extraordinary event, capturing the danger and mayhem in all its glory. The Cage Fighter, Jeff Unay, USA (World Premiere) With the emotional force and power of a Bruce Springsteen song, Jeff Unay’s cinema vérité portrait of Joe Carman packs an emotional wallop. A family man who has promised not to return to competitive mixed martial arts fighting, the dangerous sport that gives him the most complete sense of purpose he’s been able to find, Joe risks everything for one more chance in the ring. The Challenge, Yuri Ancarani, France/Italy Italian artist Yuri Ancarani melds his luminous cinematic vision with the ancient sport of Arab falconry in The Challenge, an evocative and visually dazzling portrait of a celebrated hunting competition set in the coastal deserts of Qatar. Modern technology, such as GPS, augments a practice dating to antiquity as participants track their prized raptors across the austere plains, reconnecting with desert custom in the shadow of a falcon’s wing. The Cinema Travellers, Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya, India A moving homage to the bygone era of celluloid, The Cinema Travellers exquisitely captures the splendor of the moving image through India’s traveling movie caravans. Shot over five years, this intimate documentary takes the viewer on a cinematic journey joining the undaunted technicians, the projectionists who create movie magic, and the boisterous, overflowing crowd that await at each stop. Donkeyote, Chico Pereira, Spain/Germany/UK A Spanish man’s quest to defy barriers and borders in search of the American West by planning a journey on the Trail of Tears with his donkey by his side is its own quixotic trail of laughter and tears. The understanding between man and animal has rarely been so intimately conveyed as it is in Chico Pereira’s winning tale, a stunningly photographed film that hovers between documentary and fiction, one inspired and performed by a real-life character with outsized dreams. The Force, Peter Nicks, USA For the powerful second film in his trilogy concerning the relationship between public institutions and the communities they serve, Peter Nicks (The Waiting Room) takes a powerful, immersive look at the Oakland Police Department. Filming from 2014-2016 with astonishing access, Nicks captures a particularly turbulent time in Bay Area law enforcement history. Intended as a catalyst for conversation and change, Nicks’ empathetic and observational style avoids easy generalizations and upends expectations, resulting in a rich, thought provoking real-time conversation about social justice and the mutual responsibilities of police officers and those they serve and protect. Half-Life in Fukushima, Mark Olexa, Francesca Scalisi, Switzerland/France Five years after the devastating 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, elderly farmer Naoto Matsumura struggles to restore his life in the radioactive red zone, wandering through an empty dystopian nightmare of concrete ruins; abandoned, weed-filled facilities; contamination cleanup crews; and the haunting fragments of a city swept away by tsunami. With minimal commentary and a graceful and sympathetic eye, Half-Life in Fukushima underlines the danger inherent in nuclear power in its depiction of Fukushima’s sinister remnants and Matsumura’s lonely last stand. In Loco Parentis, Neasa Ní Chianáin, David Rane, Ireland/Spain Irish filmmaker Neasa Nî Chianáin and David Rane present a charming and deeply intimate portrait of a year at Headfort boarding school in picturesque Kells, Ireland. Following devoted and wryly funny educators John and Amanda Leyden as they battle through another season of Latin, Shakespeare, and kids playing “Wild Thing,” In Loco Parentis shows how the level of attention and concern the teachers have for their students lead to remarkable transformations in everyone’s lives. Muhi – Generally Temporary, Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander, Tamir Elterman, Israel/Germany (World Premiere) Muhi, a cherubic Palestinian toddler with a life-threatening immune disorder, was transported to an Israeli hospital as a baby for emergency treatment. He and his devoted grandfather have lived there ever since, stuck in a bizarre no man’s land, with their extended family living on the other side of a fiercely guarded checkpoint. Their unique and moving story takes place within the crucible of the relentless Israeli-Palestinian conflict that impacts everyone in its orbit. Serenade for Haiti, Owlsley Brown, USA “Music is our refuge,” says a student at the Sainte Trinité Music School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Shot over a seven-year period both before and after Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, this vibrant tribute to the students and teachers of Sainte Trinité testifies to the role that art can play in creating community and sustaining hope under the most difficult of circumstances.
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Complete Lineup Announced for New Directors/New Films, Opens with PATTI CAKE$
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Patti Cake$[/caption]
The complete lineup of 29 features and nine short films has been announced for the 46th annual New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), taking place March 15 to 26, 2917. The festival, dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, is organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
The opening, centerpiece, and closing night selections showcase three exciting new voices in American independent cinema: Geremy Jasper’s Patti Cake$, a breakout hit of Sundance, is opening night; Eliza Hittman’s portrait of a Brooklyn teenager’s sexual awakening, Beach Rats, is the centerpiece selection; and Dustin Guy Defa closes the festival with Person to Person, a day-in-the-life snapshot of a group of eccentric New York characters.
This year’s lineup boasts eight North American premieres, eight U.S. premieres, and two world premieres, with features and shorts from 32 countries across five continents. A number of films have won major awards on the festival circuit, including Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Sexy Durga, winner of Rotterdam’s Tiger Award; Ala Eddine Slim’s accomplished debut The Last of Us, awarded Venice’s Lion of the Future; Dalei Zhang’s Golden Horse best feature winner The Summer Is Gone; as well as Locarno prizewinners The Future Perfect, The Last Family, and The Challenge, which took home honors for best first-time filmmaker, best actor, and the special jury prize, respectively.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films are digitally projected unless otherwise noted.
Opening Night
Patti Cake$
Geremy Jasper, USA, 2017, 108m
New York Premiere
Make way for the year’s breakout star: newcomer Danielle Macdonald is Patti Cake$, aka Killa P, a burly and brash aspiring rapper with big plans to get out of Jersey. Patti lives with her mother (Bridget Everett), a former singer who drinks away her daughter’s wages, and ill grandmother (an epic Cathy Moriarty); meanwhile Patti is assisted in realizing her dreams by her hip-hop partner and BFF Hareesh (Siddharth Dhananjay) and their mysterious new collaborator Basterd (Mamoudou Athie). This raucous and fresh tale from first-time writer-director Geremy Jasper—a musician and former music video director from Hillsdale, NJ—follows Patti from gas station rap battles to her shifts at the lonely karaoke bar, while empathetically portraying the aspirations and frustrations of three generations of women. With homegrown swagger and contagious energy, Patti Cake$ announces Jasper and Macdonald as major talents. A Fox Searchlight release.
Centerpiece
Beach Rats
Eliza Hittman, USA, 2017, 95m
New York Premiere
Eliza Hittman follows up her acclaimed debut It Felt Like Love with this sensitive chronicle of sexual becoming. Frankie (a breakout Harris Dickinson), a bored teenager living in South Brooklyn, regularly haunts the Coney Island boardwalk with his boys—trying to score weed, flirting with girls, killing time. But he spends his late nights dipping his toes into the world of online cruising, connecting with older men and exploring the desires he harbors but doesn’t yet fully understand. Sensuously lensed on 16mm by cinematographer Hélène Louvart, Beach Rats presents a colorful and textured world roiling with secret appetites and youthful self-discovery. A Neon release.
Closing Night
Person to Person
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2017, 84m
New York Premiere
This understated yet ambitious sophomore feature by one of American independent cinema’s most exciting young voices follows a day in the lives of a motley crew of New Yorkers. A rookie crime reporter (Abbi Jacobson of Broad City) tags along with her eccentric boss (Michael Cera), pursuing the scoop on a suicide that may have been a murder, leading her to cross paths with a stoic clockmaker (Philip Baker Hall); meanwhile, a precocious teen (Tavi Gevinson) explores her sexuality while playing hooky, and an obsessive record collector (Bene Coopersmith) receives a too-good-to-be-true tip on a rare Charlie Parker LP while his depressed friend (George Sample III) seeks redemption after humiliating his cheating girlfriend. With Person to Person (exquisitely shot in 16mm by rising-star DP Ashley Connor), Defa matches the sophistication of his acclaimed shorts and delights in the freedoms afforded by a bigger canvas.
4 Days in France / Jours de France
Jérôme Reybaud, France, 2017, 141m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
An erotic road movie like no other, Jérôme Reybaud’s fiction feature debut begins in the dark, as Pierre (Pascal Cervo) uses his smartphone to snap photos of his lover’s sleeping body. Then, as if in a trance, he hits the road without any clear destination, drawn this way or that only by the connections he forges with strangers on a hookup app. Soon, his lover will set out in hot pursuit of Pierre across four long days and nights, crossing paths with a succession of curious characters. In the sophisticated angle he takes on the state of modern Eros, Reybaud evokes the work of Stranger by the Lake director Alain Guiraudie, imbuing the proceedings with mystery, humor, and a restrained yet pronounced sensuality.
Albüm
Mehmet Can Mertoglu, Turkey/France/Romania, 2016, 105m
Turkish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In this shrewd and visually accomplished social satire from Turkish filmmaker Mehmet Can Mertoglu, a taxman named Bahar (Şebnem Bozoklu) and his history teacher wife, Cüneyt (Murat Kiliç), adopt a child, only to find they feel no emotional connection to the kid. Further complicating their own situation, the self-involved couple initiates an elaborate ruse, with the assistance of contemporary social media, to alter the facts about how they came to have a family. Stunningly photographed on 35mm by Marius Panduru (DP of Romanian New Wave cornerstone Police, Adjective), Mertoglu’s debut feature uses biting black humor to lampoon present-day Turkish society, capturing in equal measure the absurdity of reality and the reality of the absurd.
Arábia
João Dumans & Affonso Uchoa, Brazil, 2017, 97m
Portuguese with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Arábia begins by observing the day-to-day of Andre, a teenager who lives in an industrial area in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. After a local factory worker, Cristiano, has an accident on the job, he leaves behind a handwritten journal, which the boy proceeds to read with relish. The film shifts into road-movie mode to recount the story of Cristiano, an ex-con and eternal optimist who journeys across Brazil in search of work, enduring no shortage of economic hardship but gaining an equal amount of self-knowledge. Invigorating and ever surprising, Arábia is a humanist work of remarkable poise and maturity.
Autumn, Autumn / Chuncheon, chuncheon
Jang Woo-jin, South Korea, 2017, 78m
Korean with English subtitles
North American Premiere
With a surprising structure that recalls the work of both Hong Sang-soo and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, this delicate sophomore feature by Jang Woo-jin is a tale of human connection and searching for one’s place in the world. It begins simply enough, with a young man sitting next to an older couple on a train from Seoul to the city of Chuncheon. From there, we follow the man as he copes with the anxiety of trying to find a job, and then the couple, who, as it turns out, don’t know each other as well as it seems. With funny and moving scenes that play out in understated yet bravura long takes, Autumn, Autumn is as attuned to the passage of time and fluctuations of light as it is to everyday human drama.
Screens with
Léthé
Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2016, France/Georgia, 15m
Georgian with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
A lonely horseman wanders past the river of forgetfulness and through a rural Georgian village where both children and adults explore life’s more instinctual pleasures.
Boundaries / Pays
Chloé Robichaud, Canada, 2016, 100m
English and French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Chloé Robichaud’s sophomore feature centers on three women trying to square their political careers with complicated personal lives. Besco, a fictitious island country off the eastern coast of Canada, possesses vast natural resources that foreign companies would love to tap into, which occasions negotiations between Besco’s president (Macha Grenon) and Canadian government reps (including Natalie Dummar as a junior aide from the Ottawa delegation), mediated by a bilingual American (Emily Van Camp). As these three suffer through endless condescensions and mansplanations, they must also contend with an array of outside threats, from lobbyists, terrorists—and their own families. The performances are impeccable, and Robichaud stylishly renders the often absurd mundanity of her heroines’ political ordeal.
By the Time It Gets Dark / Dao Khanong
Anocha Suwichakornpong, France/Netherlands/Qatar/Thailand, 2016, 105m Thai with English subtitles U.S. Premiere In the beguiling, mysterious second feature by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong, the story of a young film director researching a project about the 1976 massacre of Thai student activists at Thamassat University is just the beginning of a shape-shifting work of fictions within fictions, featuring characters with multiple identities. Drifting across a dizzyingly wide expanse of space and time, By the Time It Gets Dark offers a series of narratives concerning love, longing, the power of cinema, and the vestiges of the past within the present. Asking quietly profound questions about the nature of memory—personal, political, and cinematic—this self-reflexive yet deeply felt film keeps regenerating and unfolding in surprising ways. A KimStim release. The Challenge Yuri Ancarani, Italy/France/Switzerland, 2016, 69m Arabic with English subtitles New York Premiere If you have it, spend it: Italian artist Yuri Ancarani’s visually striking documentary enters the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs who moonlight as amateur falconers, with no expenses spared along the way. The Challenge follows these men through the rituals that define their lives: perilously racing blacked-out SUVs up and down sand dunes; sharing communal meals; taking their Ferraris out for a spin with their pet cheetahs riding shotgun; and much more. Ancarani’s film is a sly meditation on the collective pursuit of idiosyncratic desires. Diamond Island Davy Chou, Cambodia/France/Germany/Qatar/ Thailand, 2016, 101m Khmer with English subtitles U.S. Premiere In this stylish coming-of-age story, an 18-year-old from the Cambodian provinces arrives at Diamond Island luxury housing development outside Phnom Penh to work a construction job transporting scrap between building sites. He makes friends and courts a local girl, but things grow ever more complicated when his long-estranged brother resurfaces. Making his feature-length fiction debut, Chou (whose documentary Golden Slumbers explored the vanished past of Cambodian cinema) creates an intoxicating blend of naturalism and dreamy stylization, rendering the ecstasies and agonies of late youth with remarkable attention to detail. The Dreamed Path / Der traumhafte weg Angela Schanelec, Germany, 2016, 86m English and German with English subtitles New York Premiere The Dreamed Path traces a precise picture of a world in which chance, emotion, and dreams determine the trajectory of our lives. In 1984 in Greece, a young German couple, Kenneth and Theres, find their romantic relationship tested after his mother suffers an accident. Thirty years later in Berlin, middle-aged actress Ariane splits with her husband David, an anthropologist. Soon, these two couples’ paths cross in unexpected ways, short-circuiting narrative conventions of cause and effect as well as common conceptions of the self. Angela Schanelec, part of the loose collective of innovative German filmmakers that came to be known as the Berlin School, puts her signature formal control to enigmatic and subtly emotional ends in a film of mesmerizing shots and indelible gestures. The Future Perfect / El Futuro perfecto Nele Wohlatz, Argentina, 2016, 65m Spanish and Mandarin with English subtitles New York Premiere Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival, Wohlatz’s assured debut is a playful, exceptionally idea-rich work of fiction with documentary fragments. Seventeen-year-old Xiaobin arrives in Argentina from China unable to speak Spanish. Employed at a Chinese grocery store, she saves up enough money to pay for language classes, and enters into a secret romance with a young Indian man, Vijay. As she begins to grasp the Spanish language’s conditional tense, she imagines a constellation of possible futures. Screens with Three Sentences About Argentina / Tres oraciones sobre la Argentina Nele Wohlatz, Argentina, 2016, 5m Spanish and Mandarin with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Nele Wohlatz transposes archival footage of Argentinian skiers into prompts for language exercises in this short made as part of an omnibus feature for the Buenos Aires Film Museum. The Giant / Jätten Johannes Nyholm, Sweden/Denmark, 2016, 86m Swedish with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Rikard lives to play petanque (a kind of lawn-bowling played with hollow steel balls). But his severe physical deformity, coupled with autism, makes communication with the world beyond a very small group of family, friends, and petanque teammates nearly impossible. As Rikard’s team gears up for a prestigious tournament, his fantasies—some involving his mother, who lives in squalor with her pet parrot, and some imagining himself as a giant stomping across a kitschy, romanticist landscape—transport him beyond the confines of the long-term care facility where he lives. Nyholm’s debut feature is a true original: a provocative, grittily realist sports movie, suffused with compassion and humor. Happiness Academy / Bonheur Academie Kaori Kinoshita & Alain Della Negra, France, 2016, 75m French with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Uncannily melding fiction and documentary, Happiness Academy transports us to a hotel retreat for the real-life Raelian Church, a religious sect devoted to the transmission of knowledge inherited from mankind’s extraterrestrial ancestors. As the new candidates for “awakening” (two of whom are played by actress Laure Calamy and musician Arnaud Fleurent-Didier) spend time together at meals, out by the pool, at bonfires, and participating in new age-y group exercises, an unexpected humanism emerges amid the absurd spirituality. Humorous and moving, direct and enigmatic, this singular film meditates on the peculiar ways in which people strive to give their lives meaning. Happy Times Will Come Soon / I Tempi felici verranno presto Alessandro Comodin, Italy/France, 2016, 102m Italian with English subtitles North American Premiere Two young fugitives out in the wild, a series of talking heads recounting a local legend about a wolf on the prowl, a loose dramatization of that same myth… With a narrative that enigmatically leaps from one hypnotic passage to another, Alessandro Comodin’s sophomore feature, set deep in the northern Italian woods and drawing on local folklore, is the work of a true original. This beautiful and haunting meditation on the relationships between imagination, desire, and violence is a dreamlike fable with the weight of documentary reality. Lady Macbeth William Oldroyd, UK, 2016, 89m New York Premiere The debut feature by accomplished theater director William Oldroyd relocates Nikolai Leskov’s play Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District to Victorian England. Florence Pugh is forceful and complex as Lady Katherine, who enters into an arranged marriage with the domineering, repressed Alexander (Paul Hilton), and must contend with her husband’s even more unpleasant mine-owner father (Christopher Fairbank). In this constrictive new milieu, she finds carnal release with one of her husband’s servants (Cosmo Jarvis), but there are profound consequences to her infidelity. Boasting deft performances by an outstanding ensemble cast, Lady Macbeth is a rousing parable about the price of freedom. A Roadside Attractions release. The Last Family / Ostatnia rodzina Jan P. Matuszynski, Poland, 2016, 124m Polish with English subtitles New York Premiere This sort-of biopic of Polish surrealist artist Zdzisław Beksiński, renowned for his stark, unsettling, postapocalyptic paintings, focuses as much on the rest of the funny and reclusive Beksiński family: his religious wife Zofia, a perennially steadying presence; and his son Tomasz, a DJ/translator always on the verge of spiraling out of control. Jan P. Matuszynski’s fiction feature debut renders Beksiński’s home life as a vivid and affecting succession of near-death experiences and psychodramatic blowouts, and shows the brilliant artworks that emerged from all the sturm und drang. The Last of Us / Akher Wahed Fina Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia/Qatar/UAE/Lebanon, 2016, 95m North American Premiere Two men silently traverse a vast, flat landscape; they get in the back of a smuggler’s truck, and soon after they’re attacked by men with guns; one of them escapes to sea, perhaps headed to Europe. He soon then finds himself in an endless forest, where a kind of spiritual journey unfolds. In Ala Eddine Slim’s mysterious, entrancing, dialogue-free film, the political significance of the unnamed protagonist’s journey is given a metaphysical twist. Urgent and evocative, The Last of Us speaks powerfully about both contemporary migration and the ancient struggle between man and nature. Menashe Joshua Z. Weinstein, USA, 2017, 79m Yiddish with English subtitles New York Premiere Something like Woody Allen meets neorealism in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows its titular hapless protagonist through a host of existential, spiritual, and familial crises. In the wake of his wife’s recent death, Menashe must care for his ten-year-old son—despite the fact that he knows bupkis about parenting—at the same time that he finds himself straying from the rigid norms of his Hasidic community. His friends and family insist that he remarry as soon as possible, but since he can’t get over his deceased wife or make enough money to feed his son, an uncle attempts to intervene. Joshua Z. Weinstein’s fiction feature debut is a poignant and funny parable about the tension between our best intentions and our efforts to make good on them. An A24 release. My Happy Family / Chemi bednieri ojakhi Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross, Georgia/France, 2017, 120m Georgian with English subtitles New York Premiere The second feature by Ekvtimishvili and Gross subtly and sensitively follows a middle-aged woman as she aims to leave her husband and escape from the multi-generational living situation she shares with her aging parents, the aforementioned husband, her son, her daughter, and her daughter’s cheating live-in boyfriend. Lacking both personal space and free time, she breaks out on her own, building a new life for herself piece by piece while contemplating the family structure she has left behind. My Happy Family is a funny, perceptive, and sociologically rich work about the myriad roles we play in life and the obligations we endlessly strive to fulfill. Pendular Julia Murat, Brazil/Argentina/France, 2017, 108m Portuguese with English subtitles North American Premiere A male sculptor and a female dancer live and work together in their big, barren loft, a mere strip of orange tape serving as the boundary between his atelier and her studio. Here, the stage is set for a low-key psychosexual drama centered around the couple’s erotic, artistic, and everyday rituals. This absorbingly intimate third feature by Julia Murat (her second, Found Memories, was a ND/NF 2012 selection) is a moving portrait of a couple caught between rivalry and the desire to build a future with each other. Quest Jonathan Olshefski, USA, 2017, 105m New York Premiere Jonathan Olshefski’s documentary chronicle of an African-American family living in Philadelphia is a powerful and uplifting group portrait rooted in today’s political realities. Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, the film follows the Raineys: patriarch Christopher, who juggles various jobs to support his family and his recording studio; matriarch Christine’a, who works at a homeless shelter; Christine’a’s son William, who is undergoing cancer treatment while caring for his own son, Isaiah; and PJ, Christopher and Christine’a’s teenage daughter. A patient, absorbing vérité epic, Quest covers eight years filled with obstacles, trials, and tribulations. Sexy Durga Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, India, 2017, 85m Malayalam with English subtitles North American Premiere Sasidharan’s third feature, main competition winner at this year’s International Rotterdam Film Festival, is a wildly tense nocturnal thriller with a razor-sharp political message. Late one night, Kabeer and Durga, a young couple on the run, are picked up by two strange men in a minivan who offer them a lift to a nearby train station. However, these men reveal themselves to be anything but benevolent, and so begins a long, claustrophobic drive that feels like Funny Games meets The Exterminating Angel. Sasidharan renders this bad trip with precision and an economy of style. Strong Island Yance Ford, USA/Denmark, 2017, 107m New York Premiere A haunting investigation into the murder of a young black man in 1992, Yance Ford’s Strong Island is achingly personal—the victim, 24-year-old William Ford Jr., was the filmmaker’s brother. Ford powerfully renders the specter of his brother’s death and its devastating effect on his family, and uses the tools of cinema to carefully examine the injustice perpetrated when the suspected killer, a 19-year-old white man, was not indicted by a white judge and an all-white jury. As a work of memoir and true crime, Strong Island tells one of the most remarkable stories in recent documentary; as a political artwork, its resonance is profound. The Summer Is Gone / Ba yue Dalei Zhang, China, 2016, 106m Mandarin with English subtitles New York Premiere Dalei Zhang’s atmospheric debut feature is a portrait of a family in Inner Mongolia in the early 1990s that doubles as a snapshot of a pivotal moment in recent Chinese history. As the country settles into its new market economy, 12-year-old Xiaolei stretches out his final summer before beginning middle school, while his father contends with the possibility of losing his job as a filmmaker for a state-run studio, and his mother, a teacher, worries about her son’s grades and future. Beautifully shot in shimmering black-and-white, The Summer Is Gone is intimate and far-reaching, creating ripples of uncertainty from the microcosm of one family’s everyday life. White Sun / Seto Surya Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal/USA/Qatar/Netherlands, 2016, 89m Nepali with English subtitles New York Premiere The second feature by Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar sensitively explores the damage done to the fabric of Nepalese society by the decade-long civil war between the Maoists and Nepal’s monarchical government. On the occasion of his father’s funeral, Chandra returns to the village he left years earlier to join the Maoists, and finds himself united with the daughter he never met and revisiting uneasy relations with family members and neighbors. Past traumas return and cause tensions to boil over. Finding the political within the everyday, White Sun uses one village’s complex tribulations to speak to an entire national history. A KimStim release. The Wound John Trengove, South Africa/Germany/Netherlands/ France, 2017, 88m Xhosa with English subtitles New York Premiere In a mountainous corner of the Eastern Cape of South Africa, an age-old Xhosa ritual introducing adolescent boys to manhood continues to this day. This is the backdrop for this stark and stirring first feature by John Trengove, in which Xolani, a quiet and sensitive factory worker (played by musician Nakhane Touré), guides one of the boys, Kwanda, an urban transplant sent against his will from Johannesburg to be toughened up, through this rite of passage. In an environment where machismo rules, Kwanda negotiates his own identity while discovering the secret of Xolani’s sexuality. Brimming with fear and violence, The Wound is an exploration of tradition and masculinity. A Kino Lorber release. Wùlu Daouda Coulibaly, France/Mali/Senegal, 2016, 95m Bambara and French with English subtitles New York Premiere A gangster picture with political resonance, Wùlu tracks the rise to power of Ladji, a 20-year-old van driver in Mali who takes to crime so that his older sister can quit a life of prostitution. He calls in a favor from a drug-dealer friend and soon finds himself deeply involved in a complex and illicit enterprise; as he discovers his knack for his new profession and his lifestyle ostensibly improves, the stakes grow higher and deadlier by the day. Set during the lead-up to 2012’s Malian Civil War, Wùlu is more than an exciting and superbly made thriller—it offers a powerful glimpse at the complexities of a particular historical moment. SHORTS PROGRAMS
Shorts Program 1: Events in a Cloud Chamber Ashim Alhuwalia, India, 2016, 20m New York Premiere Filmed on Super 8mm and 16mm, this documentary traces a collaboration between director Ashim Alhuwalia and Akbar Padamsee, a pioneer of modern Indian painting, to recreate Padamsee’s 1969 film, lost for decades and now regarded as potentially the birth of experimental cinema in India. Old Luxurious Flat Located in an Ultra-central, Desirable Neighborhood / Apartament interbelic, în zona superbă, ultra-centrală Sebastian Mihăilescu, Romania, 2016, 19m Romanian with English subtitles U.S. Premiere A young man spends the night alone in his apartment plagued by jealousy and anxieties as his wife goes out with an old high school friend in an attempt to sell the family car. Spiral Jetty Ricky D’Ambrose, USA, 2017, 15m World Premiere A young archivist is hired to whitewash a late psychotherapist’s legacy in this exquisitely crafted story, imbued with an arch, conspiratorial air and told at a perfectionist’s pace. Manodopera Loukianos Moshonas, France/Greece, 2016, 28m Greek and Albanian with English subtitles North American Premiere Oscillating between labor and leisure, a young man alternates helping an Albanian workhand renovate an Athens apartment and joining in ponderous conversations with his friends on the roof. Nyo Wveta Nafta Ico Costa, Portugal/Mozambique, 2017, 21m Portuguese, Gitonga, and Shitsua with English subtitles U.S. Premiere Ico Costa casually observes the rhythms of daily life in Mozambique in this freeform film shot on 16mm. Shorts Program 2: As Without So Within Manuela De Laborde, Mexico/USA/UK, 2016, 35mm, 25m New York Premiere This experimental meditation on the detailed surfaces of objects confronts representation in theater and cinema and forces the viewer to confront hierarchies of viewership. The Blue Devils / Los diablos azules Charlotte Bayer-Broc, France, 2017, 48m Spanish with English subtitles World Premiere More than 3,000 miners of Chile’s La Pampa were shot down by the national army during a demonstration in Iquique, a massacre told in Luis Advis’s 1969 cantata Santa María de Iquique. In The Blue Devils, Charlotte Bayer-Broc wanders through one of the ghost mining towns—a remote outpost in the Atacama Desert—interpreting Advis’s lament across eerily abandoned landscapes and industrial vistas. Bayer-Broc upends cinematic convention in a beguiling adaptation that is entirely her own; this medium-length musical is at once personal and political, reverent and burlesque.
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Santa Barbara International Film Festival Lineup, Fest to Open With US Premiere of THE LITTLE PRINCE
