Ruth Bader Ginsburg biographical drama On the Basis of Sex, directed by Mimi Leder will be presented with the third annual SF Honors award from SFFILM, along with a public screening event Saturday, November 10, 6:30 pm at the Castro Theatre. Lead actors Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer and screenwriter (and nephew of Ruth Bader Ginsburg) Daniel Stiepleman will attend in person and participate in a special pre-screening award presentation followed by an in-depth post-screening conversation about their work.
“Nothing could represent Bay Area values better than the remarkable early career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how she and her husband collaborated to remove gender bias from the laws of our country,” said SFFILM’s Executive Director Noah Cowan. “Mimi Leder has told this story beautifully with a magnificent lift from two of our finest young actors, Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer, and we are proud to name it this year’s SF Honors recipient. This award, a major event in the San Francisco cultural season, would not be possible without the support of Todd Traina and Diane B. Wilsey, significant long-time supporters of the cultural infrastructure of the Bay Area and of SFFILM.”
On the Basis of Sex tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the US Court of Appeals and overturn a century of gender discrimination. The feature will premiere later this year, in line with Justice Ginsburg’s 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4
Now in its third edition, SF Honors adds a Bay Area voice to the end-of-year awards conversation with an annual award and tribute designed to bring particular attention to innovation and audacity in current cinema, featuring a screening and onstage conversation with the creators and cast of one of the best films of the year.
The inaugural SF Honors award was presented in 2016 to Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, with a public screening event and onstage conversation featuring writer/director Damien Chazelle, stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and composer Justin Hurwitz at the Castro Theatre. In 2017, SFFILM honored Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, with Wright, lead actor (and eventual Academy Award winner) Gary Oldman, co-star Ben Mendelsohn, writer/producer Anthony McCarten, and supervising sound editor Craig Berkey taking the stage to discuss their critical and popular hit film. SF Honors is made possible by a $1 million, ten-year gift from SFFILM’s Board Vice President Todd Traina and philanthropist Diane B. Wilsey.-
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Drama ON THE BASIS OF SEX to Receive SF Honors Award
Ruth Bader Ginsburg biographical drama On the Basis of Sex, directed by Mimi Leder will be presented with the third annual SF Honors award from SFFILM, along with a public screening event Saturday, November 10, 6:30 pm at the Castro Theatre. Lead actors Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer and screenwriter (and nephew of Ruth Bader Ginsburg) Daniel Stiepleman will attend in person and participate in a special pre-screening award presentation followed by an in-depth post-screening conversation about their work.
“Nothing could represent Bay Area values better than the remarkable early career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and how she and her husband collaborated to remove gender bias from the laws of our country,” said SFFILM’s Executive Director Noah Cowan. “Mimi Leder has told this story beautifully with a magnificent lift from two of our finest young actors, Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer, and we are proud to name it this year’s SF Honors recipient. This award, a major event in the San Francisco cultural season, would not be possible without the support of Todd Traina and Diane B. Wilsey, significant long-time supporters of the cultural infrastructure of the Bay Area and of SFFILM.”
On the Basis of Sex tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the US Court of Appeals and overturn a century of gender discrimination. The feature will premiere later this year, in line with Justice Ginsburg’s 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4
Now in its third edition, SF Honors adds a Bay Area voice to the end-of-year awards conversation with an annual award and tribute designed to bring particular attention to innovation and audacity in current cinema, featuring a screening and onstage conversation with the creators and cast of one of the best films of the year.
The inaugural SF Honors award was presented in 2016 to Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, with a public screening event and onstage conversation featuring writer/director Damien Chazelle, stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and composer Justin Hurwitz at the Castro Theatre. In 2017, SFFILM honored Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, with Wright, lead actor (and eventual Academy Award winner) Gary Oldman, co-star Ben Mendelsohn, writer/producer Anthony McCarten, and supervising sound editor Craig Berkey taking the stage to discuss their critical and popular hit film. SF Honors is made possible by a $1 million, ten-year gift from SFFILM’s Board Vice President Todd Traina and philanthropist Diane B. Wilsey.
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DOCNYC 2018: Syrian Women Find Strength Through Theater in WE ARE NOT PRINCESSES [Trailer]
With intimate footage and stunning animation, We Are Not Princesses follows how a theater workshop group of Syrian refugee women, living in a Beirut refugee camp, find laughter and purpose behind the scenes, as they come together to perform the ancient Greek play, Antigone. This film focuses on the strong, resilient, and often hilarious Syrian women who are moving forward in spite of the ever-worsening situation back home. We Are Not Princesses directed by Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam will World Premiere at DOC NYC on November 14, 2018.
In 2014, the Open Art Foundation put together a theater workshop with Syrian women refugees in Beirut to create a space for community and to provide tools to help the women process their trauma as a result of the ongoing conflict in Syria.
We Are Not Princesses focuses on the strong, resilient, and often hilarious Syrian women who are moving forward in spite of the ever-worsening situation back home. With intimate footage and stunning animation, the film follows how this group of women find laughter and purpose behind the scenes, as they come together to perform the ancient Greek play, Antigone.
Whether they are gossiping at a seaside café or engaging in long-forgotten pleasures at a night-time fairground, these poignant scenes are where intense discussion and transformation take place. Smoking cigarettes and wearing makeup become acts of rebellion against societal and patriarchal authority. And never far from the surface are the horrifying backstories which brought the women to Beirut.
Mona tells of the death of her child; Fedwa hyperventilates as she attempts to rehearse the story of her son whom she was unable to bury; Heba remembers her starving brother’s last wish for noodles and yogurt.
These stories provide context for the Syrian war, and also establish the women’s point of access into the story of Antigone, a story through which the women begin the work of processing their personal and national traumas.
We Are Not Princesses focuses strong Syrian women picking up the pieces of their broken society and moving forward.
WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING AT DOC NYC
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 7:45 PM – Cinepolis Chelsea
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THE HATE U GIVE, UNITED SKATES Win Audience Awards at 54th Chicago International Film Festival
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THE HATE U GIVE[/caption]
George Tillman, Jr.’s powerful and moving The Hate U Give has been voted winner of the Audience Award for Best English-language feature at this year’s 54th Chicago International Film Festival. Amandla Stenberg stars as Starr Carter, a young woman who is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.
Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Becoming Astrid, a biopic about Astrid Lindgren (author of the Pippi Longstocking books), takes home the best foreign-language feature Audience Award. Variety called the film “a gorgeous piece of heritage filmmaking,” and it played to packed houses at ChiFilmFest!
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UNITED SKATES[/caption]
Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s United Skates, a rousing tribute to roller skating’s pivotal role in the African American community, wins the Documentary Audience Award honor. Facing discriminatory policies and rink closures, committed skaters from around the country—including Chicago’s own Buddy Love—fight to preserve a space for people to come together and express themselves in sliding, bouncing, snapping glory.
The Audience Award for Best Short Film goes to Darius Clark Monroe’s Black 14, a reflection on power and control in 1960’s America that uses archival footage to tell the story of a racial protest at the University of Wyoming.
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A71 Entertainment to Release Punk Rock Slasher THE RANGER on DVD
Following the film’s Toronto premier at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, the genre festival favorite punk rock slasher THE RANGER has been acquired by A71 Entertainment for a release in Canada on Bluray and DVD in early January 2019.
In the spirit of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and CLASS OF 1984, THE RANGER follows a group of young punks who are forced to flee the city to lay low, only to run into a park ranger who shares a mysterious past with one of their own. The film has been lauded for its standout performances from Chloë Levine (THE TRANSFIGURATION, THE OA) as the pink-haired punk with a secret, and Jeremy Holm (HOUSE OF CARDS, MR. ROBOT) as the maniacal ranger, ready to get his hands bloody in defense of the woods. Granit Lahu (THE SINNER), Jeremy Pope, Bubba Weiler (PUZZLE), Amanda Grace Benitez (SCHOOL OF ROCK), Jeté Laurence (PET SEMATARY) and horror icon Larry Fessenden (HABIT, WE ARE STILL HERE) round out the cast.
THE RANGER marks the directorial debut of Jenn Wexler, a past Shudder Labs master and producer of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winner, MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND. A co-production of Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment, THE RANGER was written by Wexler and Giaco Furino, and produced by Andrew van den Houten (BREAKING & EXITING, THE WOMAN), Larry Fessenden (MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL), Ashleigh Snead (THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND), Heather Buckley and Wexler (LIKE ME, DARLING),
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have A71 distribute THE RANGER on home video in Canada,” says Wexler. “The film was born in Montreal’s Frontieres Co-Production Market so it means so much to us that horror fans in Canada will be able to add the film to their collections.”
The Ranger came out swinging at 2018 SXSW Film Festival, where it world-premiered in the Midnighters section. The film was selected as opening night feature of this year’s FrightFest UK and has been an official selection at festivals around the world, including Fantasia International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival and Toronto After Dark, among many others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0BG3-fxzA
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25 Animated Feature Films Submitted for 2018 Oscar Competition
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Tito and the Birds / Tito e os Pássaros[/caption]
Twenty-five features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 91st Academy Awards®. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Sixteen or more films must qualify for the maximum of five nominees to be voted.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
The 91st Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Ana y Bruno”
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch”
“Early Man”
“Fireworks”
“Have a Nice Day”
“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation”
“Incredibles 2”
“Isle of Dogs”
“The Laws of the Universe – Part I”
“Liz and the Blue Bird”
“Lu over the Wall”
“MFKZ”
“Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms”
“Mirai”
“The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl”
“On Happiness Road”
“Ralph Breaks the Internet”
“Ruben Brandt, Collector”
“Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero”
“Sherlock Gnomes”
“Smallfoot”
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
“Tall Tales”
“Teen Titans Go! To the Movies”
“Tito and the Birds”
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Glenn Close to Receive Maltin Modern Master Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival
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Glenn Close in The Wife[/caption]
Glenn Close, most recently gracing the silver screen in Sony Pictures Classics’ The Wife. will receive the prestigious Maltin Modern Master Award at the 34th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
“Glenn Close is one of the great actresses of our time. Versatility is her hallmark, and there is clearly nothing she can’t do. She became a star with her first feature film, The World According to Garp, and has gone on to play everyone from Cruella de Vil to aging silent-film star Norma Desmond in the stage musical of Sunset Blvd. I can’t wait to spend an evening with her onstage at the Arlington Theater,” states Maltin.
Directed by Berlin Silver Bear-winner Björn Runge, The Wife is adapted by Jane Anderson from the Meg Wolitzer novel of the same name. After nearly forty years of marriage, JOAN and JOE CASTLEMAN (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements: Where Joe is brash, Joan is shy. Where Joe is casual, Joan is elegant. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as Great American Novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm, and diplomacy into the private role of Great Man’s Wife, keeping the household running smoothly, the adult children in close contact, and Joe’s pills dispensed on schedule. At times, a RESTLESS discontentment can be glimpsed beneath Joan’s smoothly decorous surface, but her natural dignity and keen sense of humor carry her through the rough spots. The Wife debuted in theaters this summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81IM0loH7o
The Modern Master Award was established in 1995 and is the highest accolade presented by SBIFF. Created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry, it was re-named the Maltin Modern Master Award in 2015 in honor of long-time SBIFF moderator and renowned film critic Leonard Maltin. Past recipients include Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Bruce Dern, Ben Affleck, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, George Clooney and Peter Jackson.
The 34th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Wednesday, January 30th through Saturday, February 9th.
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Specials Program of 60th Nordische Filmtage Lübeck to Feature Provocative Cinema + Ingmar Bergman Retrospective
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Bergman – a Year in a Life[/caption]
Provocative cinema, historical film epics, and an homage to Swedish master director Ingmar Bergman are the hallmarks of the Specials section of the 60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck, which runs from October 30 to November 4. In honor of the centenary of Bergman’s birth, the festival, which showed the maestro’s classic “Sawdust and Tinsel” at the very first NFL in 1956, will this year screen two relatively unknown Bergman gems – “From the Life of the Marionettes” (GER/SWE 1980), and “The Touch” (SWE/US 1970), in some cases newly digitized. In addition, the documentaries “Bergman – a Year in a Life” (SWE/NOR 2018), “Ingmar Bergman” (SWE 1971), and “The Memory of Ingmar Bergman” (FIN 2018) use personal remembrances, or special times in the director’s life, to take a look back at his life and work. Another film takes a very different approach to Bergman’s oeuvre. “Bergman revisited” (SWE 2018) is a compilation of short films – some irreverent, some experimental, some classic – by six Swedish filmmakers that completely reinterpret motifs from Bergman’s life and art.
The Specials section also has a showcase for another world-renowned Swede. Pernille Fischer Christensen’s film “Becoming Astrid” is a complex portrait of beloved children’s and young adult author Astrid Lindgren, with Alba August giving an outstanding performance in the title role. The film focusses on the author’s early writing years, which were formative in her later life and work. The Specials section is also screening “Border”(SWE/DEN 2018), directed by Ali Abbasi, which won the main prize in the “Un Certain Regard” section at Cannes, and Sweden’s submission for the 2018 Oscar “U – July 22” (NOR 2018), Erik Poppe’s controversion treatment of the massacre at a Norwegian youth camp.
Two period dramas from Denmark will take audiences back to the past: Bille August’s “A Fortunate Man” (DEN 2018), an adaptation of the eponymous Danish book classic, and the German-Danish co-production “In Love and War” (DEN/GER/CZE 2018), which was the first production to benefit from the new German-Danish Coproduction Development Initiative. The Specials section is rounded out with the newest film adaptation of a Jussi Adler Olsen book – “The Purity of Vengeance” (DEN/GER 2018), directed by Christoffer Boe, was shot partially in Hamburg. It’s another thrilling case for Detective Carl Mørck and his Department Q team.
60th Nordische Filmtage Lübeck Specials
A Fortunate Man / Lykke-Per / Per im Glück Dänemark / Österreich / 2018 / 167 Min. Director(s): Bille August Bille August’s brilliant film adaptation of the classic Danish novel “A Fortunate Man” features young star Esben Smed Jensen in the title role. Becoming Astrid / Unga Astrid / Astrid Schweden / Dänemark / Deutschland / 2017 / 123 Min. Director(s): Pernille Fischer Christensen It’s the kind of life you’d expect to find in an Astrid Lindgren story – her life story, in fact. This biopic covers her early years and first stabs at writing. Bergman – A Year in a Life / Bergman – ett år, ett liv / Bergman – ein Jahr, ein Leben Schweden / Norwegen / 2018 / 116 Min. Director(s): Jane Magnusson Based on the fateful year of 1957, documentary film maker Jane Magnusson unfurls master director Ingmar Bergman’s fascinating work and life. Bergman Revisited / Bergman Revisited / Bergman Revisited Schweden / 2018 / 84 Min. Director(s): Pernilla August, Tomas Alfredson, Jane Magnusson, Linus Tunström, Lisa Aschan, Patrik Eklund Six contemporary short films that present surprising new interpretations of Ingmar Bergman’s life and work – some lyrical, some surreal, some uproariously funny. Border / Gräns / Border Schweden / Dänemark / 2018 / 101 Min. Director(s): Ali Abbasi Sweden’s entry for the 2019 Foreign Language Oscar. Customs officer Tina has a unique sense of human emotions – until she has an encounter that changes her life. From the Life of the Marionettes / Ur Marionetternas Liv / Aus dem Leben der Marionetten Deutschland / Österreich / 1980 / 104 Min. Director(s): Ingmar Bergman A galvanizing trip into the evil within humanity, filmed by Ingmar Bergman with Robert Atzorn and Gaby Dohm for German television in 1980. In Love and War / I krig og kærlighed / In Love and War Dänemark / Deutschland / Tschechien / 2018 / 135 Min. Director(s): Kasper Torsting An injured soldier returns from the frontline and becomes a deserter for the sake of love. Epic tale about the fragility of emotions in World War One. Ingmar Bergman / Ingmar Bergman / Ingmar Bergman Schweden / 1971 / 55 Min. Director(s): Stig Björkman This fascinating and restored Ingmar Bergman portrait was shot during the American coproduction of “The Touch” in 1971. The Memory of Ingmar Bergman / Minnet av Ingmar Bergman / Erinnerung an Ingmar Bergman Finnland / 2018 / 57 Min. Director(s): Jörn Donner Producer and documentary filmmaker Jörn Donner takes a highly personal look back at his friend Ingmar Bergman. The film includes rare archive material. The Purity of Vengeance / Journal 64 / Verachtung Dänemark / Deutschland / 2018 / 119 Min. Director(s): Christoffer Boe Chief inspector Carl Mørck is back. “The Purity of Vengeance” is the thrilling film adaptation of the bestseller by acclaimed Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. The Touch / Beröringen / Die Berührung Schweden / USA / 1970 / 115 Min. Director(s): Ingmar Bergman Ingmar Bergman’s restored love story from 1971 with Elliot Gould, Max von Sydow and Bibi Anderson hadn’t seen a public screening for over 40 years. U – July 22 / Utøya 22. juli / Utøya 22. Juli Norwegen / 2018 / 95 Min. Director(s): Erik Poppe Controversial drama about an 18-year-old girl during the July 22, 2011 mass murder on the Norwegian island of Utøya. The film was shot in real time in one take.
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Film Society of Lincoln Center to Honor Chinese Documentarian Wang Bing with Tribute Screening
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Wang Bing[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center will honor Chinese documentarian Wang Bing with a three-film tribute titled Wang Bing: The Weight of Experience, November 16 to 18.
An intrepid chronicler of the human tribulations underlying modern China’s social and economic transformation, Wang Bing makes films that are epic in duration yet precise in scope. Forging intimate bonds with his subjects, he captures the plights of individuals and communities in factory towns and rural villages, and demands that we behold the political complexity and moral weight of their struggles.
FSLC will present the New York premiere of Wang’s latest, the eight-hour opus Dead Souls; a rare screening of his debut masterpiece, the three-part West of the Tracks (2002); and the first U.S. showing of the single-shot 15 Hours (2017), screening free in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater. Wang will appear in person to discuss these films and his singular art.
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen digitally at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.) unless otherwise noted.
15 Hours
Wang Bing, Hong Kong, 2017, 900m
Mandarin with English subtitles
This documentary installation consists of a single, 15-hour take shot in a garment factory in China and captures the daily labor of its 300,000 migrant workers and the functioning of its 18,000 production units. Rigorous and hypnotic, 15 Hours marks Wang’s most radical meditation on the contemporary meaning of work and the state of labor conditions in present-day China. (Free Amphitheater screening)
Dead Souls
Wang Bing, France/Switzerland, 2018, 495m
Mandarin with English subtitles
Wang Bing’s latest is a monumental work of testimony, largely comprised of interviews with survivors of the Jiabiangou and Mingshui re-education camps of the late 1950s, which were set up in the Gobi Desert to imprison alleged reactionaries and anti-Communists a decade after China’s revolution in 1949. In making Dead Souls, Wang interviewed over 100 survivors from almost all of China’s provinces, recording traumatic memories, melancholic recollections and sober reflections on political repression in the country prior to the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. As with all of Wang’s work, Dead Souls is both an engrossing epic and a profound moral act in and of itself. A Grasshopper Film and Icarus release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnB-4IP50Bk
West of the Tracks, Part 1: Rust
Wang Bing, China, 2003, 224m
Mandarin with English subtitles
The first part of Wang’s debut film—a nine-hour epic about the decline of an industrial Tiexi district in the city of Shenyang—follows a small group of workers employed in three state-owned factories. Wang captures the workers’ plight, caught between backbreaking labor in substandard conditions and periods of simmering anxiety as they idly wait for a shortage in raw materials to subside. West of the Tracks offers one of the most affecting and thorough looks at the effects of deindustrialization and the advent of the free market on China’s economy, and its first section is a powerful snapshot of the radically changing nature of work in the 21st century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_z4BTaTRko
West of the Tracks, Part 2: Remnants
Wang Bing, China, 2003, 178m
Mandarin with English subtitles
The second part of West of the Tracks is devoted to the proletarian families of the state-owned housing block known as Rainbow Row, particularly their teenage children. Wang sensitively chronicles these families’ efforts to cope with the rapidly changing circumstances of their lives, from the shifting role of work within their everyday existence to their all-but-certain displacement in the face of factory closures throughout Tiexi. A rich, humanist portrait of the quotidian repercussions of fluctuations in the global economy, West of the Tracks’ second section is a captivating immersion in the daily lives of society’s most vulnerable elements and a stark reminder of all that is lost to the violent churning of capitalism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxRJPphDEd4
West of the Tracks, Part 3: Rails
Wang Bing, China, 2003, 132m
Mandarin with English subtitles
Narrowing its focus, the final part of West of the Tracks follows a coal-scavenger father and his son, who make a living collecting raw parts from the local railyards and selling them to Tiexi’s dwindling factories. Like that of the factory workers, their future has also been rendered anxiously uncertain by the deindustrialization of 21st-century capitalism, and Wang captures their resilience and resourcefulness amid a decaying local economy and the omnipresent threat of eviction from their home. As with its two preceding parts, the conclusion of West of the Tracks is a critical, intensely moving chronicle of survival in an age when the very concept of work is in crisis.
image via Twitter
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CANNIBAL CLUB, FAMILY and CAM Win Top Awards at 2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
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Perry Blackshear, Best Director winner for THE RUSALKA – 2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Awards[/caption]
Following what is considered the biggest year yet, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival announced the 2018 award winners, with the top awards going to Cannibal Club, winner of the Best Film – Horror Feature, and Family, winner of the Best Film – Head Trip. CAM was voted the winner of the Audience Award.
“Watching our festival grow in ways we never could have imagined is such an exciting experience. Enormous thank you to the entire staff and volunteers, you are a dream-team and congratulations to our award winners. We’ll be back again next year bigger and better than ever before!” says festival director Justin Timms.
Horror Features:
Best Feature: Cannibal Club Best Director: Cannibal Club – Guto Parente Best Actor: Possum – Sean Harris Best Actress: Knife + Heart – Vanessa Paradis Best Cinematography: Possum – Kit Fraser Best Editing: Antrum – UNKNOWN (David and Mike to accept the award on the original filmmakers behalf) Best Score: Boo! – Jon Natchez Best Sound Design: Luz – Jonas Lux Special Jury Award: Possum – supporting actor Alun ArmstrongHead Trip:
Best Feature: Family Best Director: The Rusalka – Perry Blackshear Best Actor: The Rusalka – Evan Dumouchel Best Actress: CAM – Madeline Brewer Best Cinematography: Holiday – Nadim Carlsen Best Editing: The Rusalka – Perry Blackshear Best Sound Design: Starfish – Multiple Special Jury Award: Production Design and Set Decorator on CAMAudience Award:
Audience Award: CAMShorts:
Best Short Film: Acid Best Director: Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre – Ilja Rautsi Best Actor: Acid – Sofian Khammes Best Actress: The Sermon – Molly Casey Best Cinematography: Hair Wolf – Charlotte Hornsby Best Editing: Milk – Catherine Villeminot & Santiago Menghini Best Effects: Special Day – Ayush Jain Best Score: Le otto dita della morte – Frank Rideau & Orgasmo Sonore Best Sound Design: The Girl in the Snow – Luca Brügger & Dario Voirol Best Locations: Voyager Special Jury Award: Welcome to Bushwick
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BUCKJUMPING Documentary on Dance Culture in New Orleans Premiered at New Orleans Film Festival [Trailer]
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Barbara Lacen-Keller, Lily Keber and Mayor Latoya Cantrell at World Premiere of Buckumping at the New Orleans Film Festival. Photo credit: Sydney Walker[/caption]
The City of New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell was in the audience on Sunday, October 21st at the Orpheum Theater to attend the 29th New Orleans Film Festival for the World Premiere of “Buckjumping“, a documentary about New Orleans dance culture and traditions, directed by Lily Keber.
The Orpheum was packed with 900 people in the audience and the film was well received with often claps and laughter in the auditorium. There was a second line after the screening which took hundreds of people from the Orpheum Theater to the after party at Ace Hotel.
Buckjumping is a feature-length documentary about dance traditions in New Orleans, observing both their contemporary expression and abiding significance. The film follows six communities as they demonstrate ownership of the streets of New Orleans, commemorate their dead, forge community and find spiritual transcendence.
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LIFE WITHOUT BASKETBALL, Documentary on Hijab-Wearing Basketball Player to Premiere at DOC NYC [Trailer]
Life Without Basketball is an intimate and revealing look at the life and career of Bliqis Abdul-Qaadir, a 5’2 pioneering, powerhouse basketball player from Springfield Massachusetts, who broke records and barriers on her way to becoming the first Division I basketball player to play wearing a hijab. When a controversial FIBA (International Basketball Federation) uniform rule ends her chances of playing professionally, she must reexamine her faith and identity as a Muslim-American.
Life Without Basketball documentary, presented by Pixela Pictura and directed by Tim O’Donnell and Jon Mercer, will have its World Premiere at DOC NYC, America’s Largest Documentary Festival, on Saturday, Nov 10, 2018.
Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir’s story began in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball. Bilqis excelled as an honor student and on the basketball court from an early age. In January 2009, while a senior at New Leadership Charter School, she shattered the Massachusetts state scoring record (male or female) that was previously held by female hoops legend Rebecca Lobo, averaging over 40 points a game, and finishing with 3,070 career points.
Following her record-breaking high school career, Bilqis received a scholarship to play for the University of Memphis. She appeared in Sports Illustrated and on ESPN, was named the 2008-09 Gatorade Massachusetts Basketball Player of the Year, and was invited to the White House for a Ramadan dinner with President Barack Obama. In 2011, Bilqis was awarded the United States Basketball Writers Association “Most Courageous” award at the NCAA Women’s Final Four for being recognized as the first Muslim-American woman to play covered in NCAA history. After completing her final year of NCAA eligibility at Indiana State University, Bilqis began preparing to play internationally. When her agent discovered a little-known FIBA uniform rule which prohibited players from wearing religious head coverings, such as hijabs, turbans, and yarmulkes on the court, her professional career was abruptly halted. Unwilling to stray from her religious beliefs, Bilqis prepared for the toughest challenge of her life.
Life Without Basketball is an essential American story about hope and courage, and an exploration of identity and consequence. The film examines the personal impact of Bilqis’s encounter with this career ending rule and the complex world of being Muslim in America, where family tradition and popular perception are often at odds. Through persistent advocacy and dedication to youth empowerment, Bilqis’s story engages viewers in a new conversation about social and political dynamics at home and abroad.
Co-director Tim O’Donnell says “As a former Springfield (MA) high school art teacher and wrestling coach, I first heard about Bilqis’s story from a former student who played basketball with her. I was struck by the discriminatory nature of the FIBA rule, I teamed up with co-director Jon Mercer and we started filming right away, as Bilqis began her fight for the right to play. What originally was thought of as short production quickly turned into four years as the filmmakers were fully welcomed into Bilqis’s family and their private lives. Life Without Basketball continues Pixela Pictura’s mission of working within marginalized communities to share stories of overcoming personal challenge or conflict…”
Life Without Basketball will have its World Premiere at DOC NYC, America’s Largest Documentary Festival on the following date/times:
Saturday, November 10th at 5pm. Cinepolis Cinema
Life Without Basketball won best pitch at the 2015 DOC NYC, and materials were adapted into FIBA Allow Hijab, a short documentary co-created with Jon Mercer and distributed through CNN Films and UNINTERRUPTED. His Boston based company Pixela Pictura is currently in post-production on Finding My Dad’s Memories, a personal documentary filmed during his father’s recovery from a traumatic brain injury. His past work includes The Last Time I Heard True Silence and For The Love of Dogs. Tim was a former high school art teacher and wrestling coach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OavrXZs9YgM
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GREEN BOOK and BIGGEST LITTLE FARM Win Audience Awards at Middleburg Film Festival
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Green Book[/caption]
After screening 29 films from 17 countries, Middleburg Film Festival announced today the 2018 Audience Award winners for Best Narrative Film and Best Documentary Film, concluding the annual four-day festival. This year’s narrative award went to GREEN BOOK, directed by Peter Farrelly. The award for best documentary went to BIGGEST LITTLE FARM, directed by John Chester.
In GREEN BOOK, Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. They must rely on “The Green Book” to guide them to the few establishments that were then safe for African-Americans. Confronted with racism, danger – as well as unexpected humanity and humor – they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.
The inspiring documentary BIGGEST LITTLE FARM follows the director and his wife as they attempt to develop a sustainable farm by reawakening the ecosystem on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.
“We want to congratulate our Audience Award winners GREEN BOOK and BIGGEST LITTLE FARM,” said Middleburg Film Festival Executive Director Susan Koch. “This year’s slate included fantastic films from all over the world that not only entertained and engaged our audiences, but also contributed to our understanding of the world and one another. It was especially fitting to close the festival with GREEN BOOK, a film that speaks to our common humanity.”
“We’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s festival,” said Middleburg Film Festival Founder Sheila C. Johnson. “From our filmmakers to our sponsors to our filmgoers, it was wonderful to witness the overwhelming enthusiasm for the films, conversations, and other special events. Here in the stunning setting of Middleburg, Virginia, the entire festival was abuzz with lively and thoughtful conversations generated by these terrific films.”