A Tuba to Cuba[/caption]
The documentary A Tuba to Cuba which follows New Orleans’ famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they retrace their musical roots to the shores of Cuba will be the Closing Night film of the 29th New Orleans Film Festival. The film underscores the festival’s programmatic focus on films from and about the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora, particularly those that speak to the historical and cultural ties between New Orleans and the Caribbean.
This year the feature competition lineup includes ten narrative feature films, eight documentary feature films, and eight feature films made in Louisiana. The 2018 Festival which will take place from October 17th through October 25th boasts the most diverse line-up in the festival’s history – with 60% of films by female directors and 54% by directors of color, and 80% from either a female director or director of color.
The New Orleans Film Society will warm up for the 29th New Orleans Film Festival with a special preview of the feature film BLAZE, directed by Ethan Hawke, on Tuesday, August 29th at the Orpheum Theater!
BLAZE is a biopic of Texas outlaw music’s unsung legend Blaze Foley, written by Ethan Hawke and Blaze Foley’s former sweetheart, Sybil Rosen. Rosen will attend the screening at the Orpheum Theater for a Q&A session on the 29th. Hawke approached Rosen about the project after reading her own telling of Foley’s story in the book “Living in the Woods in a Tree.” The lead role of Foley is played by newcomer Ben Dickey (a musician by trade), and fans of Netflix’s Arrested Development will spot Alia Shawkat as the female lead (Sybil Rosen). Rosen plays her own mother in the film. Blaze was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and opened at Sundance Film Festival 2018.
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Music Documentary A TUBA TO CUBA to Close 2018 New Orleans Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_31491" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] A Tuba to Cuba[/caption]
The documentary A Tuba to Cuba which follows New Orleans’ famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they retrace their musical roots to the shores of Cuba will be the Closing Night film of the 29th New Orleans Film Festival. The film underscores the festival’s programmatic focus on films from and about the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora, particularly those that speak to the historical and cultural ties between New Orleans and the Caribbean.
This year the feature competition lineup includes ten narrative feature films, eight documentary feature films, and eight feature films made in Louisiana. The 2018 Festival which will take place from October 17th through October 25th boasts the most diverse line-up in the festival’s history – with 60% of films by female directors and 54% by directors of color, and 80% from either a female director or director of color.
The New Orleans Film Society will warm up for the 29th New Orleans Film Festival with a special preview of the feature film BLAZE, directed by Ethan Hawke, on Tuesday, August 29th at the Orpheum Theater!
BLAZE is a biopic of Texas outlaw music’s unsung legend Blaze Foley, written by Ethan Hawke and Blaze Foley’s former sweetheart, Sybil Rosen. Rosen will attend the screening at the Orpheum Theater for a Q&A session on the 29th. Hawke approached Rosen about the project after reading her own telling of Foley’s story in the book “Living in the Woods in a Tree.” The lead role of Foley is played by newcomer Ben Dickey (a musician by trade), and fans of Netflix’s Arrested Development will spot Alia Shawkat as the female lead (Sybil Rosen). Rosen plays her own mother in the film. Blaze was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and opened at Sundance Film Festival 2018.
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Ryuichi Sakamoto to Receive Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at Busan International Film Festival
Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Last Emperor (1986), will receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival. The Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award is granted to a notable figure or organization with outstanding achievements in improving and developing the Asian Film industry and facilitating cultural development.
Debuting in 1978 with YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra), Ryuichi Sakamoto pioneered electronic music and electro hop. Ryuichi has continuously expanded his musical boundaries from classical music into rock and opera. He also entered the world of film music with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) by director Nagisa Oshima. Ryuichi was the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Last Emperor (1986), and accordingly won the Golden Globe Awards and the British Academy Film Awards for The Sheltering Sky (1990) and Little Buddha (1993) to become and remain the master of film music. Ryuichi has constantly composed film music such as The Fortress (2017) and My TYRANO: Together, Forever (2019) followed by his triumphant musical return after a diagnosis of throat cancer in 2014 – The Revenant (2015), which was nominated for the Golden Globe Awards and Grammy Awards. The score will further establish his prominence in contemporary film music.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, celebrating his 40th anniversary of music involvement, is deeply admired and loved by the public as an artist who remains a prominent musician in the history of world cinema and contributes his voice to various social issues and causes. In response to his sheer amount of time, effort, and passion, the 23rd Busan International Film Festival announces Ryuichi Sakamoto as the winner of the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award in recognition of his music and life.
The opening ceremony of the 23rd Busan International Film Festival at the BIFF Theater of Busan Cinema Center on October 4 will host Ryuichi Sakamoto’s opening performance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his musical debut.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi as a musician, artist, producer, as well as a progressive anti-war, peace, and environmental activist had initially stepped into the world of film music by playing Oshima Nagisa’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence in 1983. He was in charge of composing the film’s musical score and won the British Academy Film Awards. He gained extensive reputation as a film score composer on the strength of winning majority of awards such as the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Grammy Awards as the first Asian in 1987 thanks to The Last Emperor (1986) by director Bernardo Bertolucci and receiving the second Golden Globe Awards for The Sheltering Sky (1990). Going through a year of medical treatment after the announcement of throat cancer in 2014, Ryuichi Sakamoto returned to the composer’s chair with The Revenant (2015) by Alejandro González Iñárritu and maintained musical reign by being selected for the Golden Globe Awards and the Grammy Awards Nominee. Ryuichi Sakamoto has been recently presenting beautiful music through more than 40 films including Fortress (2017) by director Hwang Dong-hyuk and animated cartoon My TYRANO: Together, Forever (2019) that resonates with the film and fascinates all with its delicate melody with a long-lasting message.
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WATCH Chance the Rapper in Horror Film SLICE Trailer
Chance the Rapper makes his big-screen debut in the horror film Slice, the story of a ghost, a werewolf, and a pretty shitty pizza place. The film from director Austin Vesely, co-stars Zazie Beets, Paul Scheer, Rae Gray, and Joe Keery.
In a spooky small town, when a slew of pizza delivery boys are slain on the job, two daring survivors (Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz and Chance the Rapper in a wild film debut) set out to catch the culprits behind the cryptic crime spree. Slice is Director Austin Vesely’s first feature film after helming music videos for Chance’s “Sunday Candy” and “Angels.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5LUKX97bNA
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Danny DeVito to Receive Award at San Sebastian Film Festival
Danny DeVito will be presented with a Donostia Award at the 66th San Sebastian Festival on Saturday September 22, and the following day, he will present his latest film Smallfoot at the Festival.
The award recognises a career of almost five decades related to acting in theatre, film and television, telling stories as an actor, producer and director. The Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner is known for his roles in television series Taxi and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and movies such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, Romancing The Stone, Twins, Ruthless People, and Tin Men.
A well-known face to the public for roles including the charismatic Penguin in Batman, or Schwarzenegger’s twin brother, he has led a versatile career during which he has worked under the orders of directors like Milos Forman, Brian de Palma, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola and Todd Solondz.
He has also directed – and starred in – hugely emblematic films including The War of the Roses (1989), Hoffa (1992), Death to Smoochy (2002), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Curmudgeons (2016), Duplex (2003), The Ratings Game (1984),and The World’s Greatest Lover (1977) as well as producing films by Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and the self-same Forman. He produced, directed and acted for Matilda (1996), Hoffa (1992) and Curmudgeons (2016).
A principal of Jersey Film’s 2nd Avenue, successor company of Jersey Films which produced Erin Brockovich (2000) which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Pulp Fiction (1994), Out of Sight (1998), Freedom Writers (2007), Garden State (2004), Along Came Polly (2004), Living Out Loud (1998) and others. DeVito served as a producer and co-starred in Get Shorty (1995) Man on the Moon (1999), Be Cool (2005), Even Money (2006) and Drowning Mona (2000).
One of his first roles in the seventh art was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). He earned fame for his part in the TV series Taxi (1978-1983), he was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy every year the show was on and took home one of each. Featured in the cast of films such as the Oscar-winning Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks, 1983), Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984) or Ruthless People (1986), he directed his first film for the big screen, the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated Throw Momma from the Train (1987).
Next, he helmed and starred in The War of the Roses (1989) and Hoffa (1992), both selected for the Berlin Festival’s official competition, and Matilda (1996) based on the book by Roald Dahl. His career as a filmmaker coexisted with his parts in films like Wise Guys (Brian de Palma, 1986), Tin Men (Barry Levinson, 1987), Twins (Ivan Reitman, 1988), Other People’s Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992), The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola), L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997), The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999), Big Fish (2003), again with Tim Burton, or, more recently, The Comedian (Taylor Hackford, 2016) and Weiner-Dog (Todd Solondz, 2016). Next year he will premiere the eagerly-awaited version of Dumbo, in which he will once again embody a circus director, as he did in Big Fish; it will be his third collaboration with Burton.
Since the 90s, he has also been involved as a producer for films including Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994), Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1995), Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997), Man on the Moon (Milos Forman, 1999), Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), Oscar nominee for Best Film, Garden State (Zach Braff, 2004) and Freedom Writers (Richard LaGravenese, 2007).
DeVito has also put his voice to animated films including Space Jam (1996), Hercules (1997), The Lorax (2012) and his new film he will bring to San Sebastian for the first time, Smallfoot, to be screened in the Velodrome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r9GPgvN8As
Image: Actor Danny DeVito on the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California. / Gage Skidmore
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2018 HollyShorts Film Festival Awards – Guy Nattiv’s SKIN Wins Best Short Film
Skin Directed by Guy Nattiv took the top prize for Best Short Film at the 14th edition of the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival Awards Ceremony last night hosted by Gabrielle Loren. Grand Jury Prize went to Souls of Totality Directed by Richard Raymond. Best Director went to Randall Christopher for The Driver Is Red. Best Short Shot on Film went to Trapeze USA by Mark Anthony Green. The Panavision Future Filmmaker Award went to Daniel Drummond for A Foreman. The HollyShorts 2018 Screenplay Competition Winner Presented by Seattle Film Summit went to Best Seller by Nora Kirkpatrick.
The 15th Anniversary of HollyShorts will take place on August 8-17, 2019 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters. The festival begins taking early bird submissions for next year’s festival on September 23, 2018.
HollyShorts Awards 2018 Full Winners List
Best Action Mascarpone Jonas Riemer Best Animation The Driver Is Red Randall Christopher Best Cinematographer The Other End Of The Earth Aaron Grasso Best Comedy Must Kill Karl Joe Kicak Best Coming Of Age Melody Bernard Kordieh Best Diversity Diwa Aina Dumlao, Bru Muller Best Documentary Hula Girl Amy Hill, Chris Riess Best Drama Phone Duty Lenar Kamalov Best Editing The Sermon Paco Sweetman Best Female Director Magic ’85 Annika Kurnick Best Horror Bite Size Horror Andrew Laurich, Anthony Melton, Ben Franklin, Chris Leone, Jack Bishop, Jerome Sable, John Ross, Justin Nijm, Michael Thelin, Rob Savage, Toby Meakins Best International Matria Alvaro Gago Diaz Best LGBT Pop Rox Nate Trinrud Best Music Video Sea Thor Brenne Best Narrative A Drowning Man Mahdi Fleifel Best Period Piece Cypher Lawrence Le Lam Best Produced Deer Boy Paweł Kosuń, Agnieszka Janowska Best Romance Fill Your Heart With French Fries Tamar Glezerman Best Sci-Fi Paleonaut Eric McEver Best Screenplay 1. Best Seller – Nora Kirkpatrick 2. Melville – Jeremy Storey 3. Conviction – Nino Mancuso Best Student Falling Ewen Wright Best Thriller Baghead Alberto Corredor Best TV Pickup Jeremiah Kipp Best VFX UI Soon We Will All Be One Johannes Mücke, Patrick Sturm Best VR A Yosemite Welcome… Kevin Pontuti Best Web Series Little Italy, LA Adriano Valentini Honorable Mention Magic Alps Andrea Brusa, Marco Scotu Kodak Honorable Mention Always Remember Me Nell Teare Best Panavision Future Filmmaker Award A Foreman Daniel Drummond Best Director The Driver Is Red Randall Christopher Best Grand Jury Souls Of Totality Richard Raymond Best Short Film Prize Skin Guy Nattiv
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2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces First Films – Opens with KNIFE + HEART
[caption id="attachment_31470" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
KNIFE + HEART[/caption]
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival returns October 11th to 18th in venues across Brooklyn, New York, and announced the first wave of horror films along with the brand new HEAD TRIP block spotlighting films that push the boundaries and expectations of the horror genre.
Yann Gonzalez’s ravishing, Cannes selected slasher KNIFE + HEART opens and Perry Blackshear’s latest concludes the festival week with his haunting and intimate sophomore feature THE RUSALKA as part of the new Head Trip program.
Knife + Heart (NY Premiere)
France, Mexico, Switzerland | 2018 | 100 Min | Dir. Yann Gonzalez
Known for productions like ANAL FURY and HOMOCIDAL, successful gay porn producer Anne (Renowned French actress and model Vanessa Paradis) takes her skin flicks as seriously as the most greatness-minded auteur would his or her own prestige dramas. But Anne isn’t the only one who’s infatuated with her company’s films—one by one, and in an exceedingly brutal fashion, someone is butchering Anne’s actors. As she tracks down the killer, Anne begins recreating the murders as part of an elaborate new project, all while losing track of what’s real, who’s dead, and who’s next on the chopping block.
Shot on 35mm and featuring a killer retro score from M83, Yann Gonzalez’s KNIFE + HEART is an ultra-stylish and blood-soaked ode to ’70s-era De Palma, Argento, and Friedkin. The kills are impeccably staged and gruesome, the performances are campy and spot-on, and the whodunit twists are relentless. Take note, slasher and giallo fans: This will be your new obsession.
The Rusalka (North American Premiere)
USA | 2018 | 80 Min | Dir. Perry Blackshear
Looking for some peace and quiet, Tom rents out a small and isolated lakehouse, one marked by a local legend of a woman who, after drowning, haunts the surrounding woods and drowns anyone she encounters. That myth particularly intrigues Tom’s new neighbor, Al, who’s mourning the recent death of his boyfriend. Starting off rather friendly, Tom and Al’s rapport slowly changes as the former befriends a mysterious woman named Nina, for whom Al can’t shake his negative suspicions.
Back in 2015, Perry Blackshear turned heads with his creepy lo-fi breakout THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE; for his follow-up, the NY-based filmmaker reunites the same cast and tells a story that’s different in scope and tone yet just as subtly powerful. Equal parts supernatural romance and intimate tragedy, THE RUSALKA flips the conventions of star-crossed soul-mates fiction into a lyrical and genre-infused look at the darker side of love.
Writer/Director Perry Blackshear and Lead Actress Margaret Ying Drake in attendance.
This years decadent and deadly poster is designed by New York-based creative duo Kelsey and Rémy Bennett (aka The Bennett Sisters). About the design, the sisters say, “The photo stories we created for the poster design are an ode to the 1970s golden age of horror, inspired particularly by the 1973 Brian De Palma New York set psycho sexually voyerurist exploitation film Sisters, which starred the recently deceased actress Margot Kidder, an icon of 70s slasher genre.”
2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival First wave of Films, Events, and Frights
ANTRUM: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (World Premiere) USA | 2018 | 95 Min | Dir. Michael Laicini & David Amito There’s a reason why you haven’t seen ANTRUM: because you’d be dead. This occult-heavy horror film shot back in the ’70s focuses on a pair of young siblings who head into the woods to grieve over a dead pet and unwittingly discover a literal Hell on Earth. The film has achieved notoriety due to it’s troubled lifespan: A theater in Budapest screened it in 1988 and burned to the ground; several film festival programmers attempted to play it before mysteriously dying; and a violent and blood-drenched San Francisco riot followed a mid-’90s revival effort. Believed to be cursed, ANTRUM has since been untouched—until now. Bookending the original 35mm ANTRUM print with an all-new documentary about the film’s legend, filmmakers Michael Laicini and David Amito have packaged a truly singular viewing experience, one part catnip for film historians and a much bigger part experientially demonic cinema. Directors Michael Laicini & David Amito in attendance. BOO! (World Premiere) USA | 2018 | 91 Min | Dir. Luke Jaden Married with two kids, James and Elyse are struggling to keep it together. Along with the couple’s own rifts, their daughter, Morgan, is hiding her own suicidal thoughts, while younger son Caleb channels his suppressed emotions through troublingly macabre artwork. One night, their true test arrives: a strange Halloween game left on their doorstep that, legend has it, leaves a curse on those who choose not to play. Unfortunately, that’s the choice this family makes—and evil spirits of all kinds are ready to make them pay. Back in 2015, Detroit-raised teenage filmmaker Luke Jaden made waves with the proficiently made and brutal short KING RIPPLE, starring a then-unknown Lakeith Stanfield. Three years later, with BOO!, the now-22-year-old filmmaker has delivered on that potential, crafting a supernatural chiller that’s big in scope yet intimate in character. Leading up to a whopper of a spook-show climax, Jaden’s debut feature is the real deal. Director Luke Jaden in attendance. THE CANNIBAL CLUB (North American Premiere) Brazil | 2018 | 81 Minutes | Dir. Guto Parente Life is a dream for Octavio and Gilda. Residing on Brazil scenic waterfront coast, the rich-as-all-hell couple spends their non-work hours sipping fancy drinks, basking in the sun, and eating the finest of meats. The only problem? That’s human meat, pulled from the bodies of young, financially strapped victims that Gilda lures into their home. They’re part of a secret society of wealthy flesh-eaters, all of whom answer to a charismatic yet dangerous leader. And when Gilda starts getting cold feet about eating, well, cooked limbs, she and Octavio’s marriage, as well as their lives, are put in jeopardy. The goriest satire of 2018 so far, Brazilian up-and-comer Guto Parente’s THE CANNIBAL CLUB is the best kind of, pun intended, food for thought, a razor-sharp indictment of classism that’s also raucous and viscera-laden. Politically charged and gruesomely shocking, it’s proof that horror remains the best channel through which to bomb the hierarchical system. Field Guide To Evil (NY Premiere) Various Countries | 2018 | 117 Min | Dir. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Peter Strickland, Agnieszka Smoczynska, Katrin Gebbe, Can Evrenol, Calvin Reeder, Ashim Ahluwalia, Yannis Veslemes No matter where you’re from, two things are universal: fear and death. To exemplify that in the most horror-minded way possible, the minds behind the ABCS OF DEATH films have assembled THE FIELD GUIDE TO EVIL, an anthology of eight shorts that explore nightmare-geared legends specific to the filmmaker’s own native country. The sights include an Austrian ghoul known as the Trud (via GOODNIGHT MOMMY directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala), a Polish heart-eating ritual (THE LURE’s Agnieszka Smoczynska), a Turkish djinn (BASKIN helmer Can Evrenol), and backwoods American mongoloids (THE RAMBLER’s Calvin Reeder). Keeping its culture-fueled mission at the forefront, THE FIELD GUIDE TO EVIL separates itself from the recent wave of horror omnibuses through its uniquely measured vibe. There are scares, for sure, but its segments thrive more on Gothic unease and patient folk-tale creepiness than any supercharged shocks. The result is one of the most ambitious, diverse, and altogether fascinating horror anthologies you’ll ever see. House of Sweat and Tears (East Coast Premiere) Spain | 2018 | 104 Min. | Dir. Sonia Escolano An older woman known only as “She” leads a religious cult using violent methods of control and forcing painful punishments unto her followers in order to prove their devotion. When a mysterious man arrives claiming to be the messiah, the followers are offered another way of life beyond the path of pain. A deadly struggle for power ensues as all hell breaks loose. Claustrophobic dread drips through the narrow halls and dim candlelit rooms of the HOUSE OF SWEAT AND TEARS while moments of brutal intensity are captured by cinematographer Pepe de la Rosa’s unforgiving close up frames. Director Sonia Escolano’s atmospheric horror show sneaks up on you and leaves you gripping your chest by its shocking conclusion. Luz (NY Premiere) Germany | 2018 | 70 Min. | Dir. Tilman Singer On an otherwise nondescript night, taxi driver Luz walks into a police station, claiming that she’s been assaulted. Nearby in a bar, a mysterious woman named Nora is working her magic on Dr. Rossini, recounting how her lover recently jumped out of a taxi. As both situations transpire, the connections between Luz and Nora set the stage for a demonic night from hell for those unfortunate souls who’ve encountered the two women on this particular evening. Mind-blowingly enough, Tilman Singer’s LUZ was made as a student thesis film and is the most audacious and flat-out impressive horror debut in years, a disorienting descent into madness that’s shot on 16mm and genuinely feels like an unearthed ‘70s movie somehow rediscovered and unleashed onto the genre scene. Think Lucio Fulci if he’d moved to Germany and totally lost his already deranged mind and you’ll just be scratching the surface of Singer’s incredibly assured breakthrough gem. Piercing (NY Premiere) USA | 2018 | 80 Min | Dir. Nicolas Pesce The stress of parenthood is seemingly too much for Reed (Christopher Abbott), who, as a soul-cleansing ritual, meticulously plans the perfect murder. But as his plan unfolds, he realizes that meticulous planning has nothing to do with execution as Reed’s cat-and-mouse game quickly becomes a visually arresting, strange, S&M-infused battle between he and a mysterious call girl named Jackie (Mia Wasikowska). Based on Ryū Murakami’s novel, Nicolas Pesce’s sophomore film (the follow-up to his 2016 black-and-white shocker THE EYES OF MY MOTHER) is a remarkably unusual experience, infused with colorful visuals and an intoxicating score. An Argento/De Palma homage hidden behind the facade of a dark comedy about stabbing, PIERCING cements Pesce as one of the boldest and brightest new directors in the genre. Tower. A Bright Day. (East Coast Premiere) Poland | 2018 | 106 Min. | Dir. Jagoda Szelc To celebrate her daughter’s Holy Communion, Mula invites her estranged and mentally unstable pagan sister Kaja to stay with her family. She condemns Kaja from being alone with the child and insists she must never find out the truth that Kaja is her actual birth mother. Tensions instantly flare among the family while an ominous sense of danger surrounds the home leaving Mula to wonder if her paranoia is unfounded or has she invited a terrible evil into her home. In her feature debut, Polish writer-director Jagoda Szelc crafts a spell-binding mystery with two commanding central performances by Anna Krotosca and Malgorzata Szczerbowska (Mula and Kaja, respectively). Their back and forth battle over the daughter crackles with urgency and dire desperation. Completely unpredictable and powerfully transfixing, TOWER. A BRIGHT DAY. is one of the more exciting genre discoveries in recent memory. WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS (NY Premiere) USA | 2018 | 91 Min | Dir. Andre Gower For a whole generation of genre fans, Fred Dekker’s 1987 horror-comedy THE MONSTER SQUAD is their very own THE GOONIES, a formative and beloved masterpiece of adolescence and Universal-Monster-inspired mayhem. THE MONSTER SQUAD’s 30-plus-year relevance isn’t just the benefactor of tireless nostalgia—it’s a genuinely great movie, treating its scares with an effective seriousness and treating its pre-teen hero characters without figurative kid gloves. Because of that, Dekker’s classic remains a fixture at repertory theaters and continues to both influence today’s filmmakers and be discovered by modern-day youngsters. Directed by MONSTER SQUAD star Andre Gower, WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS is the ultimate love letter to that late-’80s horror staple, collecting testimonials from lovers both famous and not and Gower’s old SQUAD collaborators. But it’s more than just fan service. As the best documentaries always do, WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS peels beneath its subject’s top layers and mines profound insights into something deeper: why horror is such a universal passion, especially for those who are young at heart.Head Trip Program
Cam USA | 2018 | 94 Min | Dir. Daniel Goldhaber After introducing shocking acts of self-mutilation to her performances, webcam girl Alice flies up the charts of FreeGirlsLive.com just like she’s always wanted. Before she can enjoy her newfound success, her account is stolen by someone who looks exactly like her and performs in an identical room yet is nowhere to be found. Inspired by writer Isa Mazzei’s experiences as a cam girl, CAM pulls back the veil on an industry that’s mystery is predicated on the separation between fantasy and reality, proving ripe cinematic ground for exploring obsession and paranoia. A modern erotic thriller with a fire lead performance from Madeline Brewer, Daniel Goldhaber’s feature debut details in disturbing fashion just how obsessed we may be with our online lives. Family (North American Premiere) Israel | 2017 | 100 Min | Dir. Veronica Kedar In their dilapidated living room, Lily positions herself between her motionless family members on the sofa as her camera snaps a picture. Arriving at her therapist’s home at night, she is disappointed to find that the only person home is her cold and insensitive daughter yet has no choice but to confide in her, instead. Lily is desperate to explain why she killed her family. Israeli triple threat talent Veronica Kedar writes, directs and stars in this intimate look into a scarily dysfunctional family. Using non-linear structure and even some musical genre elements, Lily’s traumatic past is parsed through creating a framework mimicking that of a truly screwed up therapy session, adding layer upon layer to an intricate and tragic character study of a murderess. Holiday (NY Premiere) Denmark | 2018 | 93 Min | Dir. Isabella Eklöf HOLIDAY explores the relationship between Sascha, a beautiful young woman and Michael, a successful drug lord as they’re on holiday with their friends in Turkey’s gorgeous Turquoise Coast. Upon first glance, the group appears to be having a fun and glamorous time in an idyllic seaside setting, until the true horrific nature of Michael is revealed. Swedish writer-director Isabella Eklöf’s unnerving debut was considered one of the darkest films at Sundance, as it examines the difficult topic of how some women stay with and protect their abusers.80’s Slash-A-Thon & New York Book Launch for Ad Nauseam, by celebrated horror journalist Michael Gingold
Featuring a 35th anniversary screening of cult-classic SLEEPAWAY CAMP Presented by Maker’s Mark The Burning USA | 1981 | 91 Minutes | Dir. Tony Maylam The rare slasher movie that features a “final boy,” this exceedingly mean-spirited and nihilistic knockout has everything you need from a stalk-and-kill body count movie. There’s an overnight kids’ camp in the woods, a young Holly Hunter and an even younger Jason Alexander, and what’s arguably the gnarliest sequence in slasher history: a ferocious and brutal multi-victim slaughter set on a raft and powered by bloody sheers. The Funhouse USA | 1981 | 96 Min | Dir. Tobe Hooper In between THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and POLTERGEIST, the iconic Tobe Hooper made this sorely underrated gem. Set largely within a seedy carnival, Hooper’s addition to the ’80s slasher canon has inventive circus-influenced murder scenes, sure, but its coolest contribution to the slice-and-dice sub-genre is its killer, a deformed madman who sports a Frankenstein’s monster mask and, when that mask is off, is basically a human tarantula with luscious blonde locks. My Bloody Valentine Canada | 1981 | 90 Min | Dir. George Mihalka In terms of slashers taking place around holidays, MY BLOODY VALENTINE comes second to only HALLOWEEN. The best Canadian slasher of all time, it’s a masterful blend of small-town whodunit paranoia and cavernous underground terror, with a crazed miner and his trusty pickaxe shredding through numerous victims after a local Valentine’s Day dance gets reinstated. Tough love, indeed. Sleepaway Camp (35th Anniversary Screening) USA | 1983 | 84 Min | Dir. Robert Hiltzik If you’ve never seen SLEEPAWAY CAMP before, you’re in for something special. To be more specific, we mean one of the most shocking endings in not only horror movie history, but cinema in general. Up until this classic slasher’s humdinger finale, it also happens to be an excellent and delightfully twisted murder mystery about a summer camp where kids are meeting the bad ends of knives, beehives, and hot curling irons. Michael Gingold’s Ad Nauseam NY Book Launch Ad Nauseam: Newsprint Nightmares from the 1980s, a 1984 Publishing title presented by Toronto-based horror periodical Rue Morgue and edited by former Rue Morgue editor-in-chief Dave Alexander, will highlight a golden age of horror movie ads. The 248-page, full-color, hardbound book features more than 450 rare, vintage ads culled from Gingold’s personal archive. Growing up in the ’80s, the future Fangoria writer and editor would carefully cut out ads he saw in local newspapers, leaving him with a collection tracing horror movie history via both blockbusters and obscurities. Tying into our ‘80s Slash-A-Thon, our programmer-at-large, Michael Gingold will introduce each of the four marathon films with a special slideshow presentation of the upcoming book. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies teams up with BHFF once again to bring you an event you’ll be dying to tune in for – Big Scares on the Small Screen: A Brief History of the Made for TV Horror Film! The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies presents Big Scares on the Small Screen: A Brief History of the Made for TV Horror Film With instructor Amanda Reyes Although rarely held in high regard by critics, the made for television horror film remains an intriguing artifact of network programming. Any subgenre was up for grabs, and the output was disparate, vast, and surprisingly subversive, often producing a collective memory (or trauma, depending) shared by millions of viewers. Join us for a retrospective on the golden age of the telefilm and beyond. This event will be hosted by Amanda Reyes, editor and co-author of Are You in the House Alone? A TV Movie Compendium: 1964-1999. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is an international educational community that offers classes in horror film history and theory in London, New York and Los Angeles, as well as hosting special events worldwide.Jury
2018 FEATURES JURY
David Ninh (Director of Publicity, Kino Lorber) Elinor Lewy (Co-Director, Final Girls Berlin Film Festival) Jason Zinoman (Journalist, NY Times, Author, SHOCK VALUE)2018 HEAD TRIP FEATURES JURY
Caryn Coleman (Director of Programming/Special Projects, Nitehawk Cinema) Rebecca Pahle (Journalist, Film Journal International) Jasper Basch (President, Cartilage Films)2018 SHORTS JURY
Jenn Wexler (Director, Producer, Glass Eye Pix) Kyle Greenberg (Theatrical Marketing Manager, Gunpowder & Sky) Loren Hammonds (Senior Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival)
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2018 Hamptons International Film Festival Announces First Films – THE LAST RACE, THE HAPPY PRINCE, DEAD PIGS
The Hamptons International Film Festival this week unveiled the first wave of films for the upcoming 26th edition of the Festival. The festival lineup will include films from two female alumni of the annual HIFF Screenwriters Lab – Ísold Uggadóttir’s AND BREATHE NORMALLY (2015 Lab), about the blossoming relationship of two women in Iceland—one an airport worker, the other a detained refugee—will have its New York Premiere in the Conflict & Resolution section. Cathy Yan’s DEAD PIGS (2016 Lab), about the interwoven lives of five individuals in Shanghai, will screen in World Cinema Narrative. Yan was also the first recipient of support from the Melissa Mathison Fund, established in 2016, which strives to foster the continued development of female writers in the industry.
Additional films announced include the U.S. Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s ALL GOOD, starring Aenne Schwarz, a nuanced and powerful look at the destructive instinct to refuse to define yourself as the victim, in the Narrative Competition section. Rupert Everett’s THE HAPPY PRINCE, starring Everett, Colin Firth and Emily Watson. This biopic about the final years of renowned author Oscar Wilde’s life will screen in the Spotlight section, and Everett is also set to attend the festival.
In the World Cinema Narrative section, the festival will screen the U.S. Premiere of CAPERNAUM, a jury prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival directed by Nadine Labaki, about a 12-year-old boy in Beirut who launches a lawsuit against his negligent parents. Ali Abbasi’s BORDER, starring Eva Melander and Eero Milonoff, about a person’s struggle to realize her place in the world, will play in the Narrative Competition section.
The Views from Long Island section will feature the East Coast Premiere of Michael Dweck’s documentary THE LAST RACE, about a Long Island stock car race track trying to maintain the tradition and history of the sport. The Air, Land and Sea section will feature the U.S. Premiere of Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade’s (HIFF 2012 Alumni) documentary GRIT, chronicling the work of a young social and environmental activist in Indonesia after her village was buried by a toxic mudflow as a result of oil drilling.
ALL GOOD (ALLES IST GUT)
U.S. Premiere
Director: Eva Trobisch
When an encounter with her new boss’ brother-in-law ends in an un-consented sexual encounter, Janne’s (Aenne Schwarz) immediate response is to portray the night’s events with the same rationale she has lived much of her adult life by: “If you don’t see any problems, you don’t have any.” But Janne’s silence soon creates a deafening rift between her partner, family, and co-workers that threatens to destroy the personal and professional relationships she’s worked so hard to maintain. Mesmerizingly led by Schwarz’s lead performance, debut filmmaker Eva Trobisch has crafted a nuanced and powerful look at the destructive instinct to refuse to define yourself as the victim.
AND BREATHE NORMALLY
New York Premiere
Director: Ísold Uggadóttir
The disparate paths of a struggling Icelandic single mother and an asylum-seeking Guinea-Bissauan woman interweave in Ísold Uggadóttir’s (Screenwriters Lab 2015) award-winning first feature. Though they are initially divided by political and cultural discord, the two women gradually form an unlikely bond outside of the pre-ordained paths expected from their sociopolitical realities. Akin to the social-realist work of Ken Loach and the Dardennes Brothers, AND BREATHE NORMALLY is a sharply observed and unsentimental exploration of the migration crisis, and confirms Uggadóttir’s status as a rising star of Icelandic cinema.
BORDER (GRÄNS)
East Coast Premiere
Director: Ali Abbasi
Tina (Eva Melander), a reclusive customs officer whose enlarged face and pronounced overbite make her immediately stand out, has a unique skill: her sense of smell allows her to identify contraband coming through the border. One day, a mysterious man sets off her senses and places her on a strange path that will lead her to discover the origin of her gifts. Based on Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novella, director Ali Abbasi has crafted a consistently surprising genre hybrid. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes, BORDER straddles the line between romance, fantasy, and horror in its examination of one person’s struggle to realize her place in the world.
CAPERNAUM
U.S. Premiere
Director: Nadine Labaki
Scraping by on the chaotic streets of Beirut, 12-year-old Zain (Zain al Rafeea) is one of many children born into an uncertain future in the city’s slum. Living a deeply troubled life on the streets and branded the sole caretaker of an abandoned toddler, Zain makes the desperate move of suing his negligent parents for giving him life and trapping him in a hostile world. Utilizing a cast of non-professional actors (including two revelatory performances from its child leads), Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s Cannes Jury Prize-winner is a stirring slice of social-realist protest cinema, driven equally by righteous anger and enduring empathy, and sure to be one of the most talked about films of the year.
DEAD PIGS
Director: Cathy Yan
Against the backdrop of urban development, gentrification—and thousands of discarded pigs mysteriously floating down the Yangtze river—a brassy salon owner, lonely busboy, trust-fund princess, expat architect, and bumbling farmer find their lives unexpectedly converging in Cathy Yan’s sprawling directorial debut. Yan, a participant in the 2016 HIFF Screenwriters Lab and the recipient of the inaugural Melissa Mathison Fund, effortlessly weaves together the individual narratives of five Shanghai residents in her biting satire. Based on true events, DEAD PIGS is a wicked and whimsical examination of contemporary China’s ongoing clash between traditionalism and modernization.
GRIT
U.S. Premiere
Directors: Sasha Friedlander, Cynthia Wade
In 2006, international drilling company Lapindo carelessly unleashed an unstoppable toxic mudflow into East Java—burying dozens of nearby villages and displacing tens of thousands of Indonesians in the process. Documentarians Sasha Friedlander and Cynthia Wade (2008 Academy Award® winner for FREEHELD) focus the tragedy around 16-year-old survivor Dian, a survivor who is routinely ignored by her government despite the unforgiving sludge continuing to engulf her home for over a decade. Chronicling the teenager’s transformation from a young girl into an outspoken advocate for her community, GRIT is a stirring and timely showcase of the urgent need for political activism, the duty to hold those in power accountable, and the perseverance of the human spirit amidst social and environmental strife.
THE HAPPY PRINCE
Director: Rupert Everett
In the final three years of his life (1897-1900), Oscar Wilde finds himself adrift. Coming off the heels of his trial for indecency and subsequent imprisonment, Wilde lives out his last days in exile, moving among a small group of enduring friends (Colin Firth, Edwin Thomas) under assumed names, and torn between whether to go back to his ex-lover (Colin Morgan) or estranged wife (Emily Watson). Written, directed by, and starring Rupert Everett as the ailing Wilde, THE HAPPY PRINCE is at once a moving evocation of the literary genius’ final act and a stirring paean to the brilliant wit that endured to his last moments.
THE LAST RACE
East Coast Premiere
Director: Michael Dweck
Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing, but today, only one racetrack remains: Riverhead Raceway. Established in 1949 on an initially rural part of Long Island, the land has seen its value skyrocket in the subsequent years. Now worth over $10 million, the octogenarian track owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty struggle to keep the bulldozers at bay. In his debut feature, acclaimed visual artist Michael Dweck explores the issues of class divide and corporate interest that have impacted both the racing industry and region as a whole in this beautiful, visceral, mesmerizing ode to a dying American tradition.
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Mike Leigh’s PETERLOO to UK Premiere at BFI London Film Festival [Trailer]
Mike Leigh’s Peterloo will premiere in UK at 62nd BFI London Film Festival, live from HOME in Manchester, on Wednesday October 17 – the first time the BFI London Film Festival has premiered a film outside of the capital.
Peterloo tells the story of the Peterloo massacre, which took place 199 years ago today, on August 16, 1819, and stars Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Neil Bell, Philip Jackson, Vincent Franklin, Karl Johnson and Tim McInnerny.
Written and directed by Mike Leigh, Peterloo is an epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. The massacre saw British government forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to demand political reform and protest against rising levels of poverty. Many protestors were killed and hundreds more injured, sparking a nationwide outcry but also further government suppression. The Peterloo Massacre was a defining moment in British democracy.
Peterloo reunites Mike Leigh with his regular team of Oscar® and BAFTA winners and nominees, including Dick Pope (cinematography), Suzie Davies (production design), Jacqueline Durran (costumes), Christine Blundell (hair and make-up), Jon Gregory (editing) and Gary Yershon (music). Georgina Lowe produces for Thin Man Films, with Gail Egan serving as executive producer.
Mike Leigh, Director of Peterloo says: “It’s always an honor to be included in the glorious London Film Festival, but how inspired and generous of the Festival to screen Peterloo in Manchester, where it all happened! I’m truly delighted!”
eOne will release Peterloo in cinemas across the UK on November 2nd, 2018.
The 62nd BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday October 10 to Sunday October 21 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj5h1kKjVYc
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THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal to Open 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival [Trailer]
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The Kindergarten Teacher[/caption]
The 26th Hamptons International Film Festival will open with writer/director Sara Colangelo’s The Kindergarten Teacher on Thursday, October 4, at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
The film stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Rosa Salazar, and Gael García Bernal, telling the story of a kindergarten teacher who seeks to cultivate the poetic talents of one of her students with questionable methods.
In 2013, Sara Colangelo attended the HIFF Screenwriters Lab, and she returned to HIFF in 2014 with her debut feature, Little Accidents. The Kindergarten Teacher is her second feature film.
The Kindergarten Teacher
Opening Night Film
East Coast Premiere
Writer/Director: Sara Colangelo
Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a kindergarten teacher in Staten Island who yearns to live a life of art and intellectualism. She takes an evening poetry class but, despite her best efforts, her work is mediocre. When she overhears Jimmy (Parker Sevak), one of her five-year-old students, reciting an original poem in her classroom, she is floored. Convinced he is the equivalent of a young Mozart, she becomes obsessed with the child and embarks on a dangerous journey to nurture his talent. As Lisa continues down this increasingly desperate path, she seems ready to throw away everything to chase an impossible dream.
A tense psychological thriller, The Kindergarten Teacher stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar with Michael Chernus and Gael Garcia Bernal. Sara Colangelo wrote and directed. Talia Kleinhendler, Osnat Handelsman-Keren, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Celine Rattray, and Trudie Styler produced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n1NP6w5lXs
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BEAUTIFUL BOY, IN FABRIC, A FAITHFUL MAN to Compete for Golden Shell at San Sebastian Film Festival
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Beautiful Boy[/caption]
L’homme fidèle / A Faithful Man (Louis Garrel), Baby (Liu Jie), Alpha, the Right to Kill (Brillante Mendoza), In Fabric (Peter Strickland), Beautiful Boy (Felix Van Groeningen) and Blind Spot (Tuva Novotny) will compete for the Golden Shell at the 66th San Sebastian Film Festival. These six films join the latest works from Icíar Bollaín, Claire Denis, Simon Jaquemet, Kim Jee-woon, Naomi Kawase, Isaki Lacuesta, Benjamín Naishtat, Valeria Sarmiento, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Markus Schleinzer, Juan Vera and Carlos Vermut in the running for the Festival’s official awards.
The French actor and director Louis Garrel (Paris, 1983) will present his second feature as a moviemaker after Les deux amis / Two friends (2015), selected for the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes. Garrel, who has worked as an actor with Bertolucci, Bonello, Hazanavicius and Honoré, stars in L’homme fidèle alongside Laetitia Casta and Lily-Rose Depp.
Liu Jie (Tianjin, China, 1968), winner of the Orizzonti Award in Venice for his first film, Mabei shang de fating / Courthouse on Horseback, addresses in Bao bei er / Baby the tale of an 19 year-old girl determined to save a sick girl in the context of the birth control imposed by the Chinese Government.
After competing in Cannes, Berlin and Venice, Brillante Mendoza (San Fernando, Philippines, 1960) will do so for the first time in San Sebastian with Alpha: The Right to Kill, set against the backdrop of the Philippine Government’s crackdown on drugs. Last year, Mendoza’s production Pailalim / Underground, Daniel Palacio’s debut, competed in New Directors.
The Swedish actress Tuva Novotny (Stockholm, 1979), who recently starred in Annihilation (2018) and Borg / McEnroe (Pearls 2017), makes her directorial debut with Blind Spot, looking at the blind spots of the mind through the relationship between a mother and daughter.
Peter Strickland (Reading, UK, 1973) has become a cult author with only three movies: Katalin Varga (2009), which competed in Berlin and was recognised with the European Discovery of the Year award, Berberian Sound Studio (2012), a competitor in Locarno, and The Duke of Burgundy (2014). His fourth feature film, In Fabric, follows the trail of a cursed dress.
Beautiful Boy is the first film shot in English by Felix Van Groeningen (Ghent, Belgium, 1977), who presented De helaasheid der dingen / The Misfortunates (2009) at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs and Alabama Monroe (2013) in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, where he won the Audience Award. The film was also nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Beautiful Boy, based on the true story of a father’s struggle to rescue his son from drugs, stars Steve Carell and Timothée Chamalet and is produced by the winners of the Academy Award for Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave (Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner).
Now, a month before the Festival, we have already announced the eighteen competing films, as well as those to participate out of competition (Gigantes) or as special screenings (Tiempo después and Dantza). The closing film will be announced in the coming weeks.
ALPHA, THE RIGHT TO KILL
BRILLANTE MENDOZA (PHILIPPINES)
Cast: Allen Dizon, Elijah Filamor, Baron Geisler
Set against the background of the government’s crackdown on illegal drugs, the SWAT-led police force launches an operation to arrest Abel, a major methamphetamine distributor, with PO3 Moises Espino and his informant Elijah providing the intelligence. A violent battle breaks out in the slums between the SWAT and Abel’s gang. Abel flees the scene with his bag full of money and methamphetamines. The SWAT kills him, but before the investigators arrive at the crime scene, Espino makes off Abel’s bag.
BAO BEI ER / BABY
LIU JIE (CHINA)
Cast: Yang Mi, Guo Jingfei, Lee Hong-Chi, Wang Yanjun, Zhu Shaojun, Yan Surong
Born 19 years ago in Nanjing with the VACTERL syndrome, Jiang Meng was abandoned by her parents. With the help of her foster mother and Director Wang, today Jiang works in a hospital as cleaner. One day, Jiang encounters a man coming into the hospital with a newborn baby. She learns that the baby is a girl who also has the VACTERL syndrome, and that the father has decided not to care for her.
BEAUTIFUL BOY
FELIX VAN GROENINGEN (USA)
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Steve Carell, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan
Based on the bestselling pair of memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, Felix van Groeningen’s film chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.
BLIND SPOT
TUVA NOVOTNY (NORWAY)
Cast: Pia Tjelta, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Oddgeir Thune, Per Frisch, Marianne Krogh
Blind Spot centres on a mother as she struggles to understand her teenage daughter’s crisis, when tragedy strikes the whole family.
IN FABRIC
PETER STRICKLAND (UK)
Cast: Gwendoline Christie, Hayley Squires, Marianne Jean-Baptiste
In Fabric is set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences.
L’HOMME FIDÈLE / A FAITHFUL MAN
LOUIS GARREL (FRANCE)
Cast: Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Lily-Rose Depp
Marianne leaves Abel for Paul, his best friend and the father of her unborn child. Eight years later, Paul dies. Abel and Marianne get back together, arousing feelings of jealousy in both Marianne’s son, Joseph, and Paul’s sister, Eva, who has secretly loved Abel since childhood.
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Magical Touching Documentary 306 HOLLYWOOD Sets September Release Date [Video]
306 Hollywood is described as a touching and formally audacious film, directed by sister-brother artists and filmmakers Elan and Jonathan Bogarín which was the opening night film of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section (and the first documentary ever to be selected for the program). 306 Hollywood will open in New York on Friday, September 28 at the Quad Cinema with a national rollout to follow.
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306 Hollywood by Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín[/caption]
When Elan and Jonathan lose their beloved grandmother, Annette, they face a profound question: When a loved one dies, what do we do with the things they leave behind? Turning documentary on its head, the Bogaríns embark on a magical-realist journey to discover who their grandmother really was, transforming her cluttered New Jersey home of 71 years into a visually exquisite ruin where tchotchkes become artifacts, and the siblings become archaeologists. With help from physicists, curators and archivists—and the added inspiration of a decade of interviews with the vivacious octogenarian herself—they excavate the extraordinary universe contained in Annette’s home. 306 Hollywood playfully transforms the dusty fragments of an unassuming life into an epic metaphor for the nature of time, memory and history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-biFuX4td4
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New York Film Festival Reveals 2018 Convergence Program Lineup of Virtual Reality and Immersive Cinema
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Rone[/caption]
The seventh edition of the highly anticipated Convergence program returns to the 56th New York Film Festival delving into innovative modes of storytelling via interactive experiences, featuring Virtual Reality, Immersive Cinema, AI, and more.
Over the course of NYFF’s final weekend, audiences can experience wide-ranging selections of Virtual Reality and Immersive Cinema with several World Premieres including: What Goes Up/Must Come Down, a combination of VR and video installation that takes viewers through the gorgeous Instagram sensation of the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival and the environmental destruction the lanterns cause once tourists leave; Blue Bird, an immersive animated VR film that feels like a painting come to life; and Hope Against the Haze, a journey into the citizen-led effort to rid the once pristine beaches of Mumbai of the trash that overwhelms them. Additionally, Convergence will present the U.S. premiere of Cycles, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ first ever VR short, a brilliant meditation on what makes a house a home.
Convergence includes virtual cinema works, a program of VR documentaries, and a special “Arcade,” giving participants the opportunity to experience several VR stories from multiple creators in the same space. In addition, there will be a live Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab, where participants can engage with an AI system through conversation and see how the AI uses their conversations to create its own “human” story. Other highlights include Battle Scar, an animated VR experience featuring Rosario Dawson, which brings to life the Lower East Side’s ’70s punk culture; Fire Escape, an interactive thriller set on a Brooklyn fire escape that leads to an adventure filled with deceit and murder; and the documentary My Africa, a journey into the daily life of a young Samburu woman, narrated by Academy Award-winner Lupita Nyong’o.
VIRTUAL CINEMA PROGRAM
Fire Escape Virtual Reality/Google DayDream Dir. Navid Khonsari, USA, 2018, 45m It’s impossible not to think of Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window during the opening moments of this sleekly rendered, interactive thriller. Cast in the role of an urban voyeur, our nightly sojourns onto a Brooklyn fire escape give us a front row seat to the dramas unfolding in the apartment across the street. The familiar—and safe—distance between audience and action is shattered when your “in-game” phone chirps; soon, we are not just watching events, but are thrust into a world of deceit and murder via text, chat, and immersive audio. This cutting-edge adventure from inkStories (Hero and 1979 Revolution), shown for the first time in its entirety, blurs the lines between game, film, and episodic storytelling, all while creating something entirely new. What Goes Up/Must Come Down Virtual Reality & Video Installation Dir. Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, USA, 2018, 10m World Premiere Each year as the celebration for the Lunar New Year winds down, tourists converge on a village just outside of Taipei to launch thousands of lanterns into the night sky. They represent the hopes of their owners, and as they soar into the darkness they make for one hell of an Instagram post. But what happens when dawn breaks, the tourists leave, and those thousands of wishes fall out of the sky? Ingeniously weaving virtual reality and conventional 2D filmmaking, Jongsma and O’Neill fuse two discrete documentaries about the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival into a singular whole, and suggest that our dreams may have staggering, real-world consequences.VIRTUAL REALITY DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
The Drummer Virtual Reality – Documentary Dir. Ana Kler, USA, 2017, 3m An intimate portrait of Jesus, a street musician who performs every day in Manhattan’s Union Square. Hope Against the Haze Virtual Reality – Documentary Dir. Tiffany Hill, India, 2018, 12m World Premiere Mumbai is on the verge of crisis: thousands of pounds of trash are poured onto the city’s once vital beaches every day. This piece helps you join the citizen-led effort committed to reclaiming a paradise in the heart of the city by removing 12 million pounds of garbage. My Africa Virtual Reality – Documentary Dir. David Allen, USA/UK, 2018, 10m Academy Award–winning actress Lupita Nyong’o narrates the story of a young Samburu woman, Naltwasha Leripe, who takes audiences through her daily routine, from caring for livestock to saving a baby elephant from poachers.ARCADE PIECES
Awake: Episode I Virtual Reality – Narrative Dir. Martin Taylor, Australia, 2018, 20m The mysteries of time, obsession, and the self are examined in this cinematic virtual reality experience. Harry is a prisoner, not only of his own home but also of his obsession with a recurring dream of his lost love, Rose. Audiences step into the character’s dream world, shaping the story as it unfolds around him. Participants’ actions will reveal layers of story, artifacts of the past, and vital clues necessary to save Harry, as well as reveal the hidden potential of humanity. Thought-provoking and entertaining, Awake: Episode I combines an engaging narrative with cutting-edge technology, showing the power of this immersive form of storytelling. Battle Scar Virtual Reality – Narrative Dir. Marin Allais and Nico Casavecchia, USA/France, 2018 Any mention of the New York music scene of the late 1970s conjures images of the Ramones and Talking Heads, crowded clubs like CBGB, and neighborhoods such as the Bowery and the East Village. When the fates of wide-eyed lyricist to-be Lupe (voiced by Rosario Dawson) and budding frontwoman Debbie collide, the two women form a friendship that leads them through the unique crucible of the Lower East Side’s punk subculture. A coming-of-age tale of two artists, this animated, episodic piece plays with point of view and perspective to filter New York’s past through today’s technology. Blue Bird Virtual Reality – Narrative Dir. Armando Brown, Miranda Conway, Seth Greenwood, Vinod Krishnan, Allie Perdomo, Parnaz Rad, Belen Saenz de Viteri, Nicole Tylor, Chuzhong Xie, USA, 2017, 3m World Premiere A bluebird struggles to escape the caverns of a withered heart and find its way through the history of a scarred life in this expressive animated piece. Cycles Virtual Reality – Narrative Dir. Jeff Gipson, USA, 2018, 3m U.S. Premiere Churchill said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” There’s a profound difference between a house and a home: the first is a structure made up of four walls, a roof, and a floor; the second is much more than a place. This experimental VR short from Walt Disney Animation Studios centers on this distinction. Inspired by director Jeff Gipson’s childhood recollections of spending time with his grandparents, this is a bittersweet meditation on memory, emotion, family, and all that goes into making a home. Rone Virtual Reality – Documentary Dir. Lester Francois, Australia, 2017, 15m In the early 2000s, muralist Rone became a driving force within Melbourne’s street art scene. His distinctive large-scale portraits of female faces comment on both gentrification and the masculinity that dominated his artistic circle. His pieces can be found inside decaying buildings and on crumbling walls from New York to Tokyo, as well as in the National Gallery of Australia. Lester Francois’s vivid 360-degree film plunges viewers into Rone’s process and philosophy. Where Thoughts Go Dir. Lucas Rizzotto, USA, 2018 Virtual Reality – Experimental Documentary, 24m In our hyper-connected world, technologies that should bring people together often seem to push them further apart; meaningful interactions feel scant, and emotions can be liabilities. Where Thoughts Go seeks to change that. Viewers take part in an ever-evolving social experience that is intimate in scale but vast in scope. While guided through a series of questions, players are invited to explore the thoughts, dreams, and memories of previous visitors to this poignant digital landscape, and in so doing, reflect on their own lives.SPECIAL EVENT
Frankenstein AI: A Monster Made by Many Live Prototyping Experience Presented by Lance Weiler, Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab, 120m It was an innocuous challenge, issued by Lord Byron 200 years ago, that sparked Mary Shelley’s imagination to bring Frankenstein to life. Join Columbia University School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab as they bring this spark to NYFF Convergence with a special lab session mixing story, play, design, and AI. Working with lab facilitators, participants will prototype an immersive dinner party, where guests will interact with a custom-made “Frankenstein” AI through voice and text. The AI will engage in conversation, surfacing audience fears and hopes through personal stories. Those same fears and hopes will become the “body parts” that the AI will use to craft its own ghost story, questioning the act of creation and reminding us all what it means to be human.