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AFI FEST Announces 2014 Dates

AFI FEST

The 28th edition of AFI FEST will take place November 6 through 13, 2014, in Hollywood, California. The film festival is the only one of its stature that is free to the public, and is the only festival in North America with a market partner, the AFM (American Film Market).

Submissions are now open and filmmakers are invited to submit narrative, documentary, experimental, animated and short films

Filmmakers are invited to submit at AFI.com/AFIFEST.

This year AFI FEST will have two deadlines – early and final submission dates for both short films (under 30 minutes) and feature films.
June 27 – the early submission deadline for both features and shorts;
August 8 – the final submission deadline for both features and shorts. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category of the annual Academy Awards^®.

The 2013 festival opened with the North American Premiere of SAVING MR. BANKS, closed with INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and featured the World Premieres of LONE SURVIVOR and OUT OF THE FURNACE. Tributes to David O. Russell and Bruce Dern, and conversations on the craft of directing, with Steve McQueen, and acting, with Annette Bening, rounded out the programming. Guests at the festival included George Clooney, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Steve Coogan, Idris Elba, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Oscar Isaac, Spize Jonze, Errol Morris, Alexander Payne, Zoe Saldana, Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Mark Wahlberg, Forest Whitaker and Kristen Wiig.

image: via Facebook
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Check out the New TRAILER for PROXY Starring Joe Swanberg

Horror + Scifi

IFC Midnight has released the official trailer for Zack Parker’s PROXY , schedule to open theatrically at The IFC Center in NYC and on VOD April 18th, 2014, with nationwide rollout to follow.

Esther (Alexia Rasmussen) feels alone in this world. When she is viciously attacked by a hooded assailant, it almost seems to be a blessing in disguise when Esther finds consolation in a support group, especially from the kindly Melanie (Alexa Havins). The two women strike up a close friendship and Esther’s life of sadness and solitude is opened up to understanding and even acceptance. However, their bond gets increasingly dangerous as they can no longer tell what’s real and what’s in their heads.

Anchored by a trio of strong female performances from Havins, Rasmussen, and Kristina Klebe as a dangerous jilted girlfriend, Proxy also features a standout performance from mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Drinking Buddies) as Melanie’s husband.

From writer/director Zack Parker — whose credits include the perceptual thriller Scalene — the pulse-pounding Proxy delves into dark, unnerving territory as it constantly elicits the unexpected and forces you to question all that you’ve seen.

http://youtu.be/arRhnf213E0
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Nashville Film Festival Unveils Narrative and New Directors Competition Film Selections incl. World Premiere of UNDISCOVERED GYRL Starring Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen

Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm)

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) announced the film line-up for the Narrative and New Director Competitions, taking place April 17 – 26, 2014. NaFF has expanded to 10 days and two locations, with competition films, red carpet events, and opening and closing night parties at Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 and free films nightly at the Nissan Multicultural Village at Walk of Fame Park, downtown Nashville.

Films include the World Premiere of UNDISCOVERED GYRL directed by Allison Burnett, and starring Britt Robertson, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. UNDISCOVERED GYRL follows the life of Katie Kampenfelt, a beautiful, imaginative teen who, after graduating from high school, decides to take a year off before college. Almost immediately Katie’s life begins to veer off course. Through the prism of a blog she writes, the audience is given a rare, voyeuristic glimpse into the imagination, sexual yearnings, and haunted psyche of a soul in progress.

Narrative Competition
The Animal Project | Director: Ingrid Vininger. Canada. 90 minutes.
Starring: Hannah Cheesman, Kate Corbett, Noah Davis, Aaron Poole, Jessica Greco, Joey Klein.
As a thirty something acting teacher attempts to push a group of eager young performers out of their comfort zones, he struggles with his own ability to live an authentic and fulfilling life with his teenage son. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Buzzard | Director: Joel Potrykus. USA. 97 minutes.
Starring: Joel Potrykus, Joshua Burge, Jason Roth, Lisa Mueller, Alan Longstreet, Michael Saunders.
Paranoia forces small-time scam artist Marty to flee his hometown and hide out in a dangerous Detroit. With nothing but a pocket full of bogus checks, his Power Glove, and a bad temper, the horror metal slacker lashes out. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Club Sandwich | Director: Fernando Eimbcke. Mexico. 82 minutes.
Starring: Lucio Giménez Cacho, María Renée Prudencio, Danae Reynaud.
While vacationing at a beachside resort, a single mother faces inevitable separation anxiety when her 15-year-old son — who is also her best friend — discovers magical chemistry with a girl his own age. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Enemy Within | Director: Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. Greece. 107 minutes.
Starring: Manolis Mavromatakis, Maria Zorba, Yiorgos Gallos, Antonis Karistinos, Thanasis Papageorgiou.
Kostas Stasinos, 48, the owner of a garden supply store, lives an ordinary life with his wife Rania, his 17-year-old son Andreas, a high school senior, and his 14-year-old daughter Luisa. When his house is ransacked by a gang of hoodlums, his family’s peace and happiness are destroyed, introducing violence into their everyday lives in the shape of an old rifle. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

The House That Jack Built | Director: Henry Barrial. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: E.J. Bonilla, Melissa Fumero, Leo Minaya, Flor De Liz Perez, Saundra Santiago
Jack Maldonado is an ambitious young Latino man who fueled by misguided nostalgia, buys a small apartment building in the Bronx and moves his boisterous family into the apartments to live rent-free. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Identical | Director: Dustin Marcellino. USA. 88 minutes.
Starring: Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano
The Identical is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. WORLD PREMIERE

Little Brother | Director: Seric Aprymov. Kazakhstan. 97 minutes.
Starring: Alisher Aprymov, Almat Galym.
A small remote village, lost in the mountains and having little but nothing of a connection with an outer civilized world. We face the monotony of life that devours the living in the souls of people. The protagonist is a nine-year-old kid Yerken who resembles an ill nestling forced to live without any support and help whatsoever. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Love Me | Directors: Maryna Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er. Turkey | Ukraine. 90 minutes.
Starring: Ushan Çakir, Viktoria Spesivtseva, Güven Kiraç, Olena Stefanska, Mehmet Bahadir Er.
Sprinkled with hilarious notes of cultural clashes and an endearing display of the kindness of strangers, this idiosyncratic “comedy drama” will warm hearts in the most unexpected way. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Maryan | Director: Ganapathy Bharat. India | Namibia. 150 minutes.
Starring: Dhanush, Parvathi Menon, Salim Kumar, Appukutty, Jagan.
Maryan is the journey of a fisherman from South of India and his fight for survival. This film is a gritty adventure drama about the undying human will to survive and the power of love. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Noble | Director: Stephen Bradley. Vietnam | United Kingdom. 101 minutes.
Starring: Brendan Coyle, Deirdre O’Kane, Liam Cunningham, Mark Huberman, Nhu Quynh Nguyen.
NOBLE is the true story of a funny, feisty and courageous woman called Christina Noble who overcomes the difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon in 1989, fourteen years after the end of the war. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Peace After Marriage | Director: Ghazi Albuliwi. USA. 86 minutes.
Starring: Ghazi Albuliwi, Assaf Cohen, Einat Tubi, Hany Kamal, Hiam Abbass, Omer Barnea.
Desperate for companionship, a lonely, young Palestinian-American man agrees to marry an Israeli woman in need of a Green Card, forcing them to re-examine their respective cultural and familial traditions. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Something Necessary | Director: Judy Kibinge. Germany | Kenya. 85 minutes.
Starring: Kipng’eno Kirui Duncan, Hilda Jepkoech, Carolyne Chebiwott Kibet, Anne Kimani.
A woman struggling to rebuild her life after the civil unrest that swept Kenya after the 2007 elections claiming the life of her husband, the health of her son and leaving her home on an isolated farm in the Kenyan countryside in ruins, she now has nothing but her resolve to rebuild her life left. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Test | Director: Chris Mason Johnson. USA. 89 minutes.
Starring: Kevin Clarke, Kristoffer Cusick. Chris Mason Johnson. Scott Marlowe. Matthew Risch.
San Francisco, 1985. Two opposites attract at a modern dance company. Together, their courage and resilience are tested as they navigate a world full of risks and promise, against the backdrop of a disease no one seems to know anything about. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely | Director: Josephine Decker. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman, Matt Orme.
There are places you go, where the things you do will matter to a lot of people. Then there are places you will go, where the things you will do matter only to a very few. But to those few, they will matter – a lot. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Undiscovered Gyrl | Director: Allison Burnett. USA. 100 minutes.
Starring: Britt Robertson, Robert Patrick, Christian Slater, Justin Long, Martin Sheen, Kimberly Williams-Paisley.
Undiscovered Gyrl follows the life of Katie Kampenfelt, a beautiful, imaginative teen who, after graduating from high school, decides to take a year off before college. Almost immediately Katie’s life begins to veer off course. Through the prism of a blog she writes, the audience is given a rare, voyeuristic glimpse into the imagination, sexual yearnings, and haunted psyche of a soul in progress. WORLD PREMIERE

New Directors Competition

1982| Director: Tommy Oliver. USA. 80 minutes.
Starring: Wayne Brady, Hill Harper, Sharon Leal, Ruby Dee, Bokeem Woodbine, Troi Zee, La La Anthony.
From the earliest days of the crack cocaine epidemic that plagued America comes this story of Tim, a devoted husband and proud father trying to protect his ten-year-old daughter from the ravages of his mother’s addiction. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

9 Full Moons | Director: Tomer Almagor. USA. 103 minutes.
Starring: Amy Seimetz, Bret Roberts, Donal Logue, Dale Dickey, Harry Dean Stanton, James Duval.
A wildly enigmatic, hard-partying young woman compensates for her loneliness with different men, until she falls for Lev, a solitary musician with a radically different personality. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

As It Is in Heaven | Director: Joshua Overbay. USA. 86 minutes.
Starring: Sylvia Boykin, Todd Bagley, Meredith Cave, Chris Nelson, Kassandra Botts, Abi Van Andel.
After the death of the Prophet, a young man is called upon to lead his small religious sect as they anxiously await the end of the world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Before I Disappear | Director: Shawn Christensen. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Shawn Christensen, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, Ron Perlman, Richard Schiff, Fatima Ptacek
At the lowest point in his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to take care of his eleven-year-old neice for a few hours. Based on the Academy Award-winning short film Curfew. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Chasing Ghosts | Director: Josh Shreve. USA. 93 minutes.
Starring: Toby Nichols, Frances Conroy, Robyn Lively, W. Earl Brown, Tim Meadows.
Lucas, an eleven-year-old boy mourning his brother’s death, seeks answers by filming funerals. When his camera captures something unexpected and extraordinary, he and his family are thrust into the spotlight and he forms an unlikely friendship with an author who survived a near-death experience. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Congratulations! | Director: Mike Brune. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: John Curran, Rhoda Griffis, Robert Longstreet, Jack McGee, Adam Fristoe.
Veteran Detective Dan Skok of the Missing Persons Bureau lands the case of his career – a six-year old boy who disappears inside his own house. What should be a traditional investigation becomes an absurd and comic exploration of a man who’s profession is a perpetual search. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Drunktown’s Finest | Director: Sydney Freeland. USA. 95 minutes.
Starring: Jeremiah Bitsui, Carmen Moore, Morningstar Angeline, Kiowa Gordon, Shauna Baker.
Three young Native Americans – an adopted Christian girl, a rebellious soon-to-be father, and a transsexual model wannabe – strive to escape the hardships of the reservation and find a place for themselves in an evolving world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Forty Years from Yesterday | Director: Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. USA. 76 minutes.
Starring: Bruce Graham, Matt Valdez, Suzette Graham, Rebekah Mott.
Bruce awakens one morning to find that his loving wife of forty years has unexpectedly passed away. What follows is an intimate portrait of the process that follows: how to deal with the body, the legalities; how to manage one’s relationship with God; how to move on. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Grace | Director: Heath Jones. USA. 95 minutes.
Starring: Annika Marks, Sharon Lawrence, Michele Feren, Erin Beute, Brian Patrick Clarke.
After a weekend of binge drinking in a small Florida town, Gracie ends up in the county jail with two options; six months in prison or ninety Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in ninety days. She chooses the meetings and embarks on a new life path and begins to put the pieces of her shattered life back together. WORLD PREMIERE

I Believe in Unicorns | Director: Leah Meyerhoff. USA. 80 minutes.
Starring: Natalia Dyer, Pater Vack, Julia Garner, Amy Seimetz, Toni Meyerhoff.
An imaginative teenage girl who is the sole caretaker of her disabled mother escapes into a fantasy world as her first relationship with an older boy begins to turn violent. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

Medeas | Director: Andrea Pallaoro. Italy, Mexico, USA. 97 minutes.
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Brían F. O’Byrne, Mary Mouser, Ian Nelson.
Ennis, a stern and hard-working dairy farmer, struggles to maintain control of his life and his family, while his wife, Christina, retreats inward, slowly disconnecting from him and their five children in this intimate portrait of a rural family’s struggles in a harsh and shifting landscape. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

OJ: The Musical | Director: Jeff Rosenberg. USA. 90 minutes.
Starring: Jordan Kenneth Kamp, Malcolm Barret, Larisa Oleynik, Owiso Odera, Bianca DeGroat, Sarah Hagan.
Eugene Olivier is an eccentric theater artist who leaves New York to take on Los Angeles. With his two best friends from high school, he begins his quest to stage the next great American musical – a retelling of the OJ Simpson story, adapted from Shakespeare’s Othello. TENNESSEE PREMIERE

The Resurrection of a Bastard | Director: Guido van Driel. Netherlands. 89 minutes.
Starring: Yorick van Wabeningen, Goua Robert Grovogui, Juda Goslinga, Jeroen Willems.
Three men – an old Frisian farmer bent on revenge, a gangster who has just barely survived “liquidation,” and an illegal immigrant with an uncertain future – all meet under an ancient oak tree, beyond the last town. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Trap Street | Director: Vivian Qu. China. 93 minutes.
Starring: Yulai Lu, Wenchao He, Young Hou, Ziaofei Zhao.
Li Qiuming works for a digital mapping company surveying the streets of the quickly changing city. To make ends meet, he moonlights by installing surveillance cameras. One day, he has a brief encounter with a woman who disappears down an unmappable street and becomes infatuated with her. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

White Shadow | Director: Noaz Deshe. Tanzania / Germany. 117 minutes.
Starring: Hamisi Bazili, Salum Abdallah, Riziki Ally, James Gayo.
Alias is a young albino boy growing up in the Central African bush. His condition makes him the subject of taunting; but he faces an even graver danger: witch doctors and many people of the region believe the body parts of albinos have mystical powers. To save him from a ghastly fate, his mother sends him to Dar es Salaam to live with his uncle, where he faces a new sort of danger. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE

Image: Lee Ann Womack arrives for the Southeast Premiere of Noble Things at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival. Picture, from left, are Sallie Mayne, NaFF executive director, Womack, Stacy Widelitz, Naff board president, and Brian Owens, NaFF artistic director.
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Nashville Film Festival Announces Special Presentation, Opening Day and World Vanguard Films incl. World Premiere of THE IDENTICAL Starring Ashley Judd, Seth Green

Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm)

THE IDENTICAL directed by Dustin Marcellino

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) announced the Special Presentations line-up for the 45th annual Festival, taking place April 17 to 26th 2014. Films on opening day include the World Premiere of THE IDENTICAL directed by Dustin Marcellino and starring Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Crew, Brian Geraghty. THE IDENTICAL is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. Other films include the Tennessee Premiere of CHASING GHOSTS directed by Josh Shreve, and THE CASE AGAINST 8 directed by Ben Cotner and Ryan White.

Brian Owens, NaFF’s Artistic Director, programmed Opening Day with Nashville in mind. These are films made in or near the city, by a Tennessee filmmaker, or by a filmmaker well-loved by the NaFF festival audience.

Opening Day Selections:

The Identical | Director: Dustin Marcellino. USA. 88 minutes.
Starring: Blake Rayne, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano, Amanda Crew, Brian Geraghty
The Identical is the story of a young couple, who give birth to identical twin boys in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to care for both, the couple gives one son to be raised and adopted by an evangelist minister and his wife. The film tells the story of the separated twins, Drexel Hemsley and Ryan Wade, and the very different lives they lead–different except for a shared passion for music. WORLD PREMIERE.

Chasing Ghosts | Director: Josh Shreve. USA. 93 minutes.
Starring: Toby Nichols, Frances Conroy, Robyn Lively, W. Earl Brown, Tim Meadows.
Lucas, an eleven-year-old boy mourning his brother’s death, seeks answers by filming funerals. When his camera captures something unexpected and extraordinary, he and his family are thrust into the spotlight and he forms an unlikely friendship with an author who survived a near-death experience. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

The Case Against 8 | Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White. USA. 112 minutes.
Shot over five years, this behind-the-scenes look at the case against California’s Proposition 8, follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

TN Shorts 1 & 2 – A selection of Tennessee Shorts, to be announced in a later release

Special Presentations

American Commune | Directors: Rena Mundo Croshere, Nadine Mundo. USA. 90 minutes.
Raised on The Farm by a Jewish mother form Beverly Hills and a Puerto Rican father from the Bronx, filmmakers and sisters Rena and Nadine Mundo return to the rural Tennessee commune for the first time since leaving in 1985. Ready to face their past after years of hiding their unique upbringing, they chart the rise and fall of America’s largest utopian experiment. TENNESEE PREMIERE.

Dom Hemingway | Director: Richard Shepard. United Kingdom. 93 minutes.
Starring: Jude Law, Emilia Clarke, Kerry Condon, Richard E. Grant, Demian Bichir.
After spending 12 years in prison for keeping his mouth shut, notorious safe-cracker Dom Hemingway is back on the streets of London looking to collect what he’s owed. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Fox Searchlight Release.

Field of Lost Shoes | Director: Sean McNamara. USA. 94 minutes.
Starring: Luke Benward, Lauren Holly, Nolan Gould, Max Lloyd-Jones, Jason Isaacs, David Arquette, Keith David, Gale Harold, Zach Roerig, Tom Skerritt.
Based on a true story of the American Civil War, culminating at the Battle of New Market, May 1864, a group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley. Leaving behind their youth, these cadets must decide what they are fighting for. WORLD PREMIERE.

Happy Christmas | Director: Joe Swanberg. USA. 78 minutes.
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Lena Dunham, Melanie Lynskey, Joe Swanberg, Mark Webber.
Irresponsible 20-something Jenny arrives in Chicago to live with her older brother Jeff, a young film-maker living a happy existence with his novelist wife Kelly and their two-year-old son. Jenny’s arrival shakes up their quiet domesticity as she and her friend Carson instigate an evolution in Kelly’s life and career. SOUTHEAST PREMIERE. A Magnolia Pictures Release.

Ida | Director: Pawel Pawilkowski. Poland. 80 minutes.
Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Trela, Adam Szyszkowski.
18-year old Anna, a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative, her Aunt Wanda – a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of a repressed past. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Music Box Films Release.

Locke | Director: Steven Knight. United Kingdom. 85 minutes.
Starring: Tom Hardy.
Ivan Locke has worked diligently to craft the life he has envisioned, dedicating himself to the job that he loves and the family he adores. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An A24 Release.

Lucky Them | Director: Megan Griffiths. USA. 97 minutes. CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION.
Starring: Toni Collette, Ryan Eggold, Thomas Haden Church, Ahna O’Reilly, Oliver Platt, Amy Seimetz
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers in this charming dramedy set against the vibrant Seattle indie music scene. SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE.An IFC Films Release.

Obvious Child | Director: Gillian Robespierre. USA. 83 minutes.
Starring: Jenny Slate, Gaby Hoffmann, Jake Lacy, David Cross, Richard Kind.
For aspiring comedian Donna Stern, everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job, and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An A24 Release.

Words and Pictures | Director: Fred Schepisi. USA. 111 minutes.
Starring: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Amy Brenneman, Bruce Davison, Keegan Connor Tracy.
Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche headline this playfully comedic drama about an English teacher who challenges the school’s art teacher to a battle of wits. Jack Marcus is annoyed by his students’ obsessions with good grades over actual learning. Once a thriving novelist, Jack hasn’t published in years and has a tendency to drink his frustrations away. Dina Delsanto is an abstract painter who, like Jack, once was celebrated for her art. Her arthritis has made the act of painting too painful. With teacher reviews impending, Jack decides to inspire the English students by declaring “war” on pictures, believing that the written word gives more meaning to life. Dina accepts Jack’s challenge and the battle begins. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

World Vanguard

The Amazing Catfish | Director: Claudia Sainte-Luce. Mexico. 89 minutes.
Starring: Lisa Owen, Ximena Ayala, Sonia Franco, Wendy Guillen.
Lonely young twenty-something Claudia, meets ailing matriarch Martha in a hospital room after Claudia is admitted with appendicitis. The women bond over a shared bag of potato chips. Martha has four kids from three different fathers. Claudia has been alone all her life. When Martha spots Claudia walking home after her surgery, she offers her a ride in her over-crowded Beetle – and their lives will never be the same. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

Butter on the Latch | Director: Josephine Baker. USA. 63 minutes.
Starring: Isolde Chae-Lawrence, Stephan Goldbach, Charlie Hewson, Sarah Small.
Sarah reunites with her old friend Isolde at a Balkan folk song and dance camp in the woods outside Mendocino, California. They sing a song she learned years before about dragons who entwine themselves in women’s hair, carrying them off through the forest, burning it as they go. When Sarah pursues fellow camper Steph, her nights of secrets and singing with Isolde come to an abrupt end. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

The Enemy Within | Director: Yorgos Tsemperopoulos. Greece. 107 minutes.
Starring: Manolis Mavromatakis, Maria Zorba, Ilias Moulas, Thanasis Papageorgiou.
Kostas is a progressive ideologist living a good life with his wife, son and daughter and running a successful flower shop despite the turmoil of the Greek economy. When their home is invaded by a gang of thieves, the violence shatters his family’s peace. Morally demolished, Kostas struggles to get his family back to normal. US PREMIERE.

Long Way Home | Director: Gergory Hadden. Sweden / USA. 87 minutes.
Starring: Elizabeth Cook, Viktor Åkerblom, Jason Alexander, Phil “The Mangler” Kaufman, Rhondi Reed.
When Nashville star Molly Rhodes meets Swedish music producer Vincent Deuce, their plan is to create a new genre from scratch – Super-Country. Their new single, “This Is Not Your Country,” becomes a hit, but Molly isn’t convinced that this blend of country and Swedish House music is the best direction for her career. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

Manakamana | Director: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez. Nepal / USA. 117 minutes.
Documentary.
From the makers of Leviathan, comes this sensorial documentary that takes us on a cable-car ride up and down the vast landscapes of Nepal’s Trisuli valley, where the world-famous Manakamana Temple attracts Buddhist pilgrims from around the world. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. A Cinema Guild Release.

Metro Manila | Director: Sean Ellis. United Kingdom / Philippines. 115 minutes.
Starring: Jake Macapagal, Althea Vega, John Arcilla.
Seeking a brighter future in megacity Manila, Oscar and his family flee their life in the rice fields of the northern Philippines. But the capital’s intensity quickly overwhelms them, and they fall prey to the rampant manipulations of the locals. Oscar catches a break when he’s offered steady work for an armored truck company. Soon, the reality of his job’s danger sets in and Oscar must confront the perils he faces in his new life. TENNESSEE PREMIERE. An Oscilloscope Release.

A Story of Children and Film | Director: Mark Cousins. United Kingdom / France. 101 minutes.
Documentary.
Following up his epic documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Mark Cousins presents a globe-spanning rumination on the way the lives of children are presented in cinema, surveying such classics as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The 400 Blows, Fanny and Alexander, Los Olvidados, andThe White Balloon. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear | Director: Denis Côté. Canada. 95 minutes.
Starring: Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin.
Victoria and Florence are two ex-cons trying to make a new life for themselves in the backwoods of northern Quebec. Seeking peace and quiet, the couple slowly begin to feel under siege as Vic’s parole officer keeps unexpectedly popping up and a strange neighborhood woman turns out to be a menacing presence from Flo’s past. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.A Kimstim release.

When the World’s On Fire | Director: James Clauer. USA. 70 minutes.
Starring: James Cooke, Joshua Elrod, Leo Kling, Travis Nicholson.
Javier, a Guatamalan immigrant, finds himself homeless and living on the fringes of society in a hardscrabble Southern city. With his loyal dog as his companion, Javier encounters a revolving cast of charcaters, each more colorful than the last – rugged souls trying to break free from their suffocating predicaments and hoping to catch some glimmer of their American Dream. TENNESSEE PREMIERE.
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BEFORE I DISAPPEAR, VESSEL Lead Audience Award Winners of 2014 SXSW Film Festival

SXSW | South by Southwest Film Festival

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival Audience Award-winners today from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Visions, Midnighters, Episodic, SXGlobal, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. BEFORE I DISAPPEAR directed by Shawn Christensen was awarded to the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, and VESSEL directed by Diana Whitten was voted the winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. In the Spotlight section, DAMNATION directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and CESAR CHAVEZ directed by Diego Luna won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film.

BEFORE I DISAPPEAR directed by Shawn Christensen and winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature is based on the 2013 Academy Award® winning short film “Curfew.” At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his eleven-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours.

In VESSEL, directed by Diana Whitten, and winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts sails a ship around the world, providing abortions at sea for women with no legal alternative. Her idea begins as flawed spectacle, faced with governmental, religious, and military blockade. But with each roadblock comes a more refined mission, until Rebecca realizes she can use new technologies to bypass law – and train women to give themselves abortions using WHO-researched protocols with pills. From there we witness her create an underground network of emboldened, informed activists who trust women to handle abortion themselves. “Vessel” is Rebecca’s story: one of a woman who hears and answers a calling, and transforms a wildly improbable idea into a global movement.

DAMNATION directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel and winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film, explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the Monkey Wrench Gang. When obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. “DamNation”’s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move us through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

Directed by Diego Luna, CESAR CHÁVEZ winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film, chronicles the birth of a modern American movement led by famed civil rights leader and labor organizer, Cesar Chavez. Torn between his duties as a husband and father and his commitment to bringing dignity and justice to others, Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice in his struggle for the rights of farm workers. His triumphant journey is a remarkable testament to the power of one individual’s ability to change the system.

The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2014 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers’ FORT TILDEN for Narrative Feature, and Margaret Brown’s THE GREAT INVISIBLE for Documentary Feature.

2014 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: BEFORE I DISAPPEAR
Director: Shawn Christensen

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: VESSEL
Director: Diana Whitten

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: DAMNATION
Directors: Ben Knight & Travis Rummel

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: CESAR CHAVEZ
Director: Diego Luna

VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: YAKONA
Directors: Anlo Sepulveda & Paul Collins

MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: EXISTS
Director: Eduardo Sánchez

EPISODIC
Audience Award Winner: SILICON VALLEY
Director: Mike Judge

SXGLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: THE SPECIAL NEED
Director: Carlo Zoratti

FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: THE CASE AGAINST 8
Director: Ben Cotner & Ryan White

SXSW Film Design Awards

EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: BIG SIGNIFICANT THINGS
Designer: Corey Holmes

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: TRUE DETECTIVE
Designer: Patrick Clair for Elastic

Image: (top l. to r.) BEFORE I DISAPPEAR directed by Shawn Christensen, VESSEL directed by Diana Whitten, DAMNATION directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel , CESAR CHAVEZ directed by Diego Luna
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TEENAGE: Matt Wolf’s Documentary Brings the History of Growing Up to Life

Film Reviews

TEENAGE, the new documentary film written and directed by Matt Wolf (Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell) is based on the book Teenager, by Jon Savage, and uses both found footage and lush, fake Super 8 recreations to illustrate how adolescents came into being, as both a social and actualized concept, in the early-to-mid twentieth century.

Opening in 1904, when children of very young ages were used as literal slave laborers during as the capitalist tidal wave of the Industrial Revolution slammed American shores. (72 hours per week!) Wolf has gotten his hands his hands on some truly amazing footage, but Savage’s thesis is a global one- and we learn how the world’s children literally, WWI and, more broadly and concretely, after WWII, began to get their artistic, creative, expressionistic, intellectual and Dionysian groove on as they blossom into teenagers. It is obvious that free time, the ability to lead healthier, longer lives, and standardized education was the catalyst for this new-found freedom, as young teens began to individuate from their parents and families-forming their own tribes, flocks and groups for the very first time. From Flappers to the “Freak Parties” of London, and later, post-war, as teenagers really began to question their place in the world, after the great tragedies they witnessed as children in WW II.

Wolf has made a truly enjoyable, visually delightful and informative film- casting actors as the real-life teens- whose diary-like entries guide us through the various narrative jumps from country-to-country, time-period to time-period. The approach is novel, and again, the film is very carefully wrought and informative: It’s a great start to Wolf’s emerging and engaging style, though, and it will be exciting to see which subject he tackles next. Actors such as Jena Malone and Ben Whipshaw participate, and Jason Schwartzman is an Executive Producer.

Opens March 14th in select cities.

http://youtu.be/n8bNqD9YhkM

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The Naked Emotions are more Raw than the Rampant Sex Scenes in Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac-Vol 1

Film Reviews

By Francesca McCaffery With his latest film NYMPHOMANIAC, bad boy and cinematic provocateur Lars von Trier has found a way to communicate through film that is rarely felt, even in literature : Whether you agree with what is being portrayed onscreen, or not, you still have the feeling of being spoken to in the most profound of ways- both cerebrally and viscerally- the sheer ride that only the most dazzling, life-changing novel can offer. NYMPHOMANIAC, VOL 1, is one of two films, (Vol 2 being released in the US in April ) both released in their uncut, European versions. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe, who meets lonely bachelor Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) only after he finds her lying, curled up, bloody and beaten, in his courtyard as he goes out to get his daily cup of coffee and rugalach. As Seligman begins to tend to her, much like a kindly Grandma (hot tea, fresh PJs, warm bed) , Joe starts recounting her tales as a sexually voracious young woman, as Seligman patiently listens. Offering both counsel and repartee to her increasingly more self-loathsome stories. In flashback we see the young Joe (waifish newcomer Stacy Martin), colt-like and doe-eyed, just how much power she has over men, “simply by smiling at them.” (It doesn’t hurt, either, that she looks like she just wandered straight out of a Marc Jacobs ad.) Time flips around, and we observe Joe as a little girl- as she learns to masturbate on a wet bathroom floor, hang on ropes “endlessly” in gym, and become fascinated with the way her own body operates, and, as Joe bluntly says, “my cunt.” Her father (Cristian Slater- a fine, simple performance) is a kind doctor who teaches her about the history about the lovely ash trees in the forest on their daily walks, and her mother, a dirty blonde domestic ice queen (Connie Nielsen), is a “cold bitch.” Aside from seeing that her Mother is unsatisfied and distracted by domesticity, it is hard to deduce from Joe’s upbringing that her extreme sexual behavior is the “result” of anything.-except for a truly lousy first time, which she herself orchestrated completely. As Joe hits adolescence, forms an actual “club” of like-minded, self-worshiping teen girls who throw away the concept of love and monogamy (they are allowed to have sex with any individual man only once) like sexy anarchists, and proceed to sleep around with whomever they wish, whenever they want. Joe is always firmly in control of her choices, as are her friends, even after her best friend is the first to go down, fervently whispering to her that the “secret ingredient to sex is love!” (Yes, this phrase is uttered several times throughout the film.) Joe picks her men, randomly decides who to continue seeing as it becomes increasingly harder for her to juggle her myriad stable lovers (fat, tall, leonine, lovely, tender, old, young, ugly, married, single, gorgeous-she has no obvious type or preference.) She is having sex to have sex, and we see Joe is screwing a lot. The action goes back and forth, present to past, and Seligman, kind and non-judging of Joe’s extreme behavior, likens the way Joe and her friend start out their “hunt” of men to fuck on a first train ride outing wearing there “Come Fuck Me” clothes like carefully baiting the lure in fly-fishing. As Joe grows older, and is forced to get a boring job (medical school was too rough for her overly-sensitive self, she tells us in voice-over) she meets and finds herself falling in love with Jerome (Shia La Boeuf) who has also appeared in the beginning of the film (I won’t spoil it for you.) As she chastises herself for feeling this way, sentimental and woozy with actual desire, her number of lovers increases, until, like saying banana over and over and over again, the act seems, even to the viewer, to distinctly and abruptly lose all of its meaning and purpose. As an audience, we are almost bored with the way the sex depicted, which is a fantastic achievement of the director’s. It has been said that von Trier cast actual porn stars to perform the actual live sex scenes in these films, and then digitized the actor’s “heads” onto their bodies, accordingly. As this wasn’t stated in the official press notes, I cannot say for certain, but this, along with the rest of the brilliant, peek-a-boo press campaign, only serves to elevate the pain underneath the action.. As we watch, and cannot be sure who is actually really doing what, the actors themselves become as desexualized as the acts portrayed themselves. We can begin to really focus upon the story…Or…is there one, after all? Did Joe simply make a choice, a careless selection, not to care, destroying hearts, families and feelings along the way as she tears through the lives of her often unnamed lovers? Uma Thurman is simply devastating as “Mrs. H,” a wife of one of Joe’s “lovers” (only known as “H”) who has left his family after Joe, desperate to shake him off, tells him that she can’t be with him unless she all of him. The plan backfires completely as Mr. H returns, suitcase in hand, and Mrs. H, creeps up to Joe’s “bohemian” flat towing her three tiny young boys, beautifully beginning to unravel in the span of five minutes. (Seriously- Thurman is so good in this film.) As Joe begins to realize the devastating internal results of her seemingly unconscious actions, and we are left with a scintillating preview of Volume 2 as the credits role, one is left pondering many questions, barely remembering the actual sex acts and displays of promiscuity. It is almost as if, like the sex acts depicted themselves, von Trier is also asking us to look at our own personal “stories,” and the great, often unnecessary weight we put on them. This director is not a light-hearted guy. Films like Breaking the Waves and Antichrist deal with a world that will dole out random, tragic events like a farmer throwing seeds onto an endless, muddy field. His most recent film, the stunningly gorgeous MELANCHOLIA, (which he made after a bout of severe depression) was far more considered, asking us to question our own personal fate in terms of the majesty and self-containment of the entire universe. As Seligman far too easily and almost primly repackages Joe’s recountings as merely accounts of severe “addiction,” von Trier is not asking us to consider why the need to be so distracted so intently is quietly eating away at our society and culture; he is asking us to consider the ‘addict,’ if you will, and why their own story is any different from choosing to live a life more guided by compassion, kindness and self-esteem. “We are all waiting for permission to die, anyway,” Joe informs Seligman. She has the last and final say, and everyone is going down with her ship-everyone who chooses to be on board, that is. The director is no moralist, here, though: He has made a film about a woman who has elevated her own sickness to a sole and profound Identity, and asks us to question what we live by, how we define ourselves, and where we stand. By the way, Gainsbourg, as you probably can imagine, is simply wonderful , and we hear in her lilting, tarnished voice a woman so purely hating and so desperately hating herself, but looking for no redemption, no resolution, and no forgiveness, either, whatsoever. Sensationalism aside, please forget the actual hysteria and promise of “unheralded,” explicit sex scenes in the film itself, and go for the way it makes you feel, think and analyze your own place in the world. This film makes you work , and von Trier perhaps has almost had to resort to utilizing depictions of graphic sex as the gateway drug to shock us right back into our heads and hearts. Maybe he is saving his moral judgment for us-the audience-as viewers…That we, much like Joe, need to be tricked into seeing and feeling and interpreting something, anything, intimate and profound without being completely and utterly scared.
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2014 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Reveals Additional Programming; THE BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL is the Free Closing Night Film

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

THE BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL by Chapman Way and Maclain Way

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced additional programming for the 2014 festival: 4 Center Frame programs, 5 Free Screenings, this year’s Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant recipients, and the Southern Documentary Fund: In-the-Works program. THE BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL by Chapman Way and Maclain Way will screen as the Free Closing Night Film on Sunday, April 6.

Four films previously announced in the Invited Program will exhibit as Center Frame screenings in the Fletcher Hall of the Carolina Theatre: “Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq” by Nancy Buirski, “The Case Against 8” by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, “E-Team” by Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman, and “Ivory Tower” by Andrew Rossi.

Filmmakers and subjects from the films will participate in extended conversations after the Center Frame screenings. Special guests include legendary classical dancer Jacques d’Amboise of “Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq;” Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, two of the plaintiffs featured in “The Case Against 8;” and Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch, who appears in “E-Team.”

The 2014 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, now in its eighth year, has been awarded to James Demo for “The Peacemaker” and RaMell Ross for “Hale County.” Grant organizers will join the filmmakers in presenting short excerpts from their works-in-progress prior to the World Premiere screening of “In Country” by 2013 recipients Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara. The grant is awarded in honor of filmmaker Garrett Scott, who made a distinctive mark in the documentary genre during his brief career. It recognizes first-time filmmakers who, like Scott, bring a unique vision to the content and style of their documentary films.

The Southern Documentary Fund is screening in-the-works excerpts from “Old South” by Danielle Beverly and “Trapped” by Dawn Porter. The screenings will be followed by a moderated conversation with the filmmakers. SDF: In-the-Works provides Southern filmmakers the opportunity to receive feedback from a dedicated assembly of their peers and serious documentary enthusiasts.

In addition to the Closing Night Film, Full Frame 2014 will feature 4 Free Screenings. The festival will continue its tradition of showing free films Friday and Saturday nights. Two fan favorites from last year’s festival will each screen twice, once indoors at the Full Frame Theater in the Power Plant at American Tobacco and once outdoors at Durham Central Park: Ryan White’s “Good Ol’ Freda” and Patrick Creadon’s “If You Build It.” Food Truck Roundups will precede the Durham Central Park showings on Friday and Saturday nights. All Free Screenings at the festival are presented by PNC.

The complete schedule of events, along with film descriptions, can be viewed online at www.fullframefest.org.

2014 Center Frame Screenings at Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall

CENTER FRAME – Friday, April 4 at 4:40pm
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq (Director: Nancy Buirski)
Tanaquil Le Clercq inspired choreographers unlike any ballerina before her, but in 1956, at the height of her fame, she was stricken with polio. A mesmerizing film of love, loss, and surprising grace.

CENTER FRAME – Friday, April 4 at 7:40pm
E-Team (Directors: Katy Chevigny, Ross Kauffman)
Four fearless activists from Human Rights Watch’s Emergency Team take us to the frontlines of Syria and Libya as they investigate and document war crimes.

CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 5 at 4:40pm
Ivory Tower (Director: Andrew Rossi)
Is a college degree worth the price? This sweeping examination of higher education questions the value of college in an era of rising tuition costs and staggering student debt.

CENTER FRAME – Saturday, April 5 at 7:40pm
The Case Against 8 (Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White)
This behind-the-scenes film, shot over five years, follows the unlikely team who fought to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

2014 Free Screenings Presented by PNC

FREE CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Sunday, April 8 at 8:00pm – Carolina Theatre’s Fletcher Hall (Ticket Required)
The Battered Bastards of Baseball (Directors: Chapman Way, Maclain Way)
A celebratory portrait of the Portland Mavericks, who joined the minor leagues in 1973 as the lone single-A team without a major-league affiliation.

FREE SCREENINGS
Friday, April 4 at 6:30pm – Full Frame Theater (Ticket Required)
Saturday, April 5 at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
If You Build It (Director: Patrick Creadon)
Innovative teachers, striving students, and a radical curriculum in Bertie County, N.C., are chronicled over the course of one transformative year.

FREE SCREENINGS
Friday, April 5 at 8:30pm – Durham Central Park
Saturday, April 6 at 6:30pm – Full Frame Theater (Ticket Required)
Good Ol’ Freda (Director: Ryan White)
Liverpudlian teenager Freda Kelly was the Beatles secretary and tells “one of the last true stories of the Beatles you’ll ever hear.”

2014 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant
Saturday, April 5 at 4:10pm – Cinema 4

The Peacemaker (Director: James Demo)
The Peacemaker follows Padraig O’Malley into conflict zones as he works a peacemaking model based on his recovery from addiction.

Hale Country (Director: RaMell Ross)
Immersive moments and ambling montages investigate the lives of two young Black men on the cusp of adulthood in the historic South.

SDF: In-the-Works
Sunday, April 6 at 2:30pm – Durham Arts Council

Old South (Director: Danielle Beverly)
Two Southern communities steeped in history—one black, one white—collide as they strive to keep their respective legacies alive in a changing America.

Trapped (Director: Dawn Porter)
Dr. Willie Parker is one of the only physicians willing to provide abortion care at clinics in Alabama and Mississippi. But when new state laws effectively ban him from practice, these clinics must fight to stay open.

The 17th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 3-6, 2014, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. The NEW DOCS, Invited, Tribute, and Thematic Program lineups were previously announced.
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Calgary Underground Film Festival Announces 2014 Festival Lineup; Opens with Canadian Premiere of FRANK

Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF)

FRANK

The Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) announced the 2014 festival line up today. CUFF will bring 31 feature films from all over world to Calgary from April 7-13 at Globe Cinema. The festival opens on April 7, 2014 with the Canadian premiere of FRANK. In the film, an amateur musician,Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) who finds himself mixed up with some seriously strange bandmates, led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank (Michael Fassbender). Based on the memoir by Jon Ronson (THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS) and his experiences playing with ultimate outsider musician Chris Sievey.

Some highlights in the 2014 festival lineup include:

OPENING GALA – FRANK (Ireland/UK, 2014, 95 Min, Canadian premiere) April 7, 2014
An amateur musician,Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) who finds himself mixed up with some seriously strange bandmates, led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank (Michael Fassbender). Based on the memoir by Jon Ronson (THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS) and his experiences playing with ultimate outsider musician Chris Sievey.

THE RAID 2 (Indonesia, 2013, 148 min, Canadian premiere) April 9, 2014
Only a short time after the first raid, Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.

WETLANDS (Germany, 2013, 109 min, Canadian premiere) April 10, 2014
Helen (Carla Juri) is wild, brash and uncompromising, and a huge pain for her divorced parents. Based on author Charlotte Roche’s 2008 controversial and mega bestselling cult novel, WETLANDS pushes the boundaries of eroticism with an unabashedly sexual and intimate portrait of one young woman’s loves, longings and penetrating fantasies.

THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL (USA, 2014, 90 min) Tuesday April 8, 2014
A one-of-a-kind event showcasing videos found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout North America. Curators Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show with David Letterman) take audiences on a guided tour of their latest and greatest VHS finds, providing live commentary and where-are-they-now updates on the people in these videotaped obscurities.

AS PLACES BURN (USA, 2013, 121 min) Thursday April 10, 2014
Hard touring, thrash metal supergroup Lamb of God are a force to be reckoned with. Vocalist Randy Blythe credits the band with saving his life, and after the group wraps up a global tour, he finds himself fighting for it. Charged with the death of a fan at one of the group’s shows, Blythe finds himself facing a lengthy sentence in a Czech prison. What started as a band portrait quickly becomes a nail-biting legal thriller.

ASPHALT WATCHES (Canada, 2013, 94 MIN) Friday April 11, 2014
This autobiographical psychedelic animated road movie-and TIFF award winner. Visual artists Seth Scriver and Shayne Ehman spent seven years turning their real-life adventures hitchhiking along the Trans-Canada Highway into this hilarious, grotesque, and utterly original adult animated feature.
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2014 Tribeca Film Festival Announces Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival Lineup; World Premiere of Michael Rapaport’s NY Knicks Documentary WHEN THE GARDEN WAS EDEN to Kick Off Program

Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), today announced the lineup for the eighth annual Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. The Sports Festival was founded to broaden the audience for independent film through stories about sports and competition. The program includes feature and short films, an outdoor screening, special conversations, and an ESPN Films 30 for 30 program on soccer. The 2014 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival will run during the 13th edition of TFF, taking place April 16 – April 27 at locations around New York City.

The world premiere of the 30 for 30 documentary WHEN THE GARDEN WAS EDEN will serve as the gala premiere of the program on Thursday, April 17. In the film, Rapaport focuses on the glory days of the Knicks championship teams of the early 70’s and their larger impact through a series of interviews with storied figures such as Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley and Phil Jackson.

“The best sports stories have the mythology, complexity and stakes that extend beyond extraordinary athleticism, making for great films. These stories have fueled the huge success of the Tribeca/ESPN sports film festival by bringing sports fans and moviegoers together over the last eight years,” said Genna Terranova, Tribeca Film Festival Director of Programming. “Rappaport’s When the Garden was Eden is a perfect example of a winning start to this year’s inspiring slate.”

“When The Garden Was Eden gives us an inside look at the captivating era when the New York Knicks were in their prime,” said ESPN Films Director of Development Libby Geist. “Premiering the film at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival in the heart of New York City, with Michael Rapaport directing, couldn’t be more perfect.”

Says Rapaport, “As a native New Yorker and lifelong Knicks fan it was an honor to explore the Championship New York Knick teams. Those players have been a part of my vocabulary since I was a child…Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe and Willis Reed are ICONs of New York city and it’s been a privilege to be a part of re-telling the Knicks story. I also have at times been in awe and tears with the 30 for 30 series and being a filmmaker who has gotten a chance to tell a story for such a great body of films is a great honor…I could not be more excited for our film to premiere right in the center of New York City at the Tribeca Film Festival.”

Since its inception, the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival has become the premier showcase for independent films about sports and competition. The titles that will screen as part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival includes not only the film on the championship Knicks of the early 70’s but also documentaries that explore stories of a champion’s quest to regain a title that was unjustly stripped from him; the worst soccer team in the world’s drive to succeed; an underdog flag football team that riffs on classic sports movies with a cartoonish comedic sensibility; the creation of a revolutionary, independent professional baseball team; the premier American cyclist’s attempts to overcome his top competitor; how some of the all-time greatest fighters used boxing to pull themselves out of poverty; a soccer superstar at the peak of his powers on the world stage; and Chile’s controversial qualification for the 1974 World Cup.

All of this year’s Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival films will screen at Tribeca Cinemas on Saturday, April 26. The films will also screen prior to April 26, throughout the Festival.

In addition to the film series, the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival will present Sports Day as part of the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair on Saturday, April 26. Sports Day offers fans an opportunity to engage in a variety of free, sports-related games and activities. In addition, some of New York’s most popular athletes, mascots and sports personalities will make guest appearances throughout the day. Sports Day is free and open to the public and will take place on North Moore Street, between Greenwich and West Streets, in Manhattan.

The following films are featured in the 2014 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.

TRIBECA/ESPN SPORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Gala

When the Garden was Eden, directed by Michael Rapaport. (USA) – World Premiere. Actor Michael Rapaport delivers an unabashed love note to the Knicks with this fast-moving tribute to the team’s glory days. Featuring interviews with Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson and others connected to the team’s championship years, When the Garden was Eden is a snapshot of a colorful and volatile era in New York history and a testament to the breathless energy that defines the city and its sporting heroes.

The following Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival titles have been announced in their respective sections as part of the 2014 TFF film program:

Intramural, directed by Andrew Disney, written by Bradley Jackson. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. There comes a time in every fifth-year senior’s life where they must either accept the impending ‘real world’ of jobs, marriage, and payment plans or shirk that responsibility in favor of playing the most glorious intramural football game your school probably doesn’t really care to see. In this full throttle and hilarious send-up of inspirational sports movies, director Andrew Disney harnesses every cliché and overused trope to tell the greatest (and only) intramural sports movie of all time. Featuring an ensemble cast including Kate McKinnon, Jay Pharoah, Jake Lacy, Beck Bennett, and Nikki Reed.

Maravilla, directed and written by Juan Pablo Cadaveira. (Argentina) – International Premiere. A true underdog story, Maravilla follows Argentinian boxer Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez, as he sets out to reclaim the title of Middleweight champion that was unfairly snatched from him in 2011 by Julio Chavez, Jr. Focusing on the rise of Martinez from penniless amateur to world champion and sporting celebrity, director Juan Pablo Cadaveira offers a fascinating glimpse into today’s boxing landscape, revealing the politics of the sporting profession that often places entertainment value over the sport itself. In English and Spanish with subtitles

Slaying the Badger, directed and written by John Dower. (UK) – World Premiere. Before Lance Armstrong, there was Greg LeMond, who was the first and only American to officially win the Tour de France. In this engrossing documentary, LeMond looks back at the pivotal 1986 Tour, and his increasingly vicious rivalry with friend, teammate, and mentor Bernard Hinault. The reigning Tour champion and brutal competitor known as “The Badger,” Hinault ‘promised’ to help LeMond to his first victory in return for LeMond supporting him in the previous year. But in a sport that purports to reward teamwork, it’s really every man for himself.

Tribeca Talks: After the Movie and Conversations

Tribeca Talks: After the Movie

Champs, directed by Bert Marcus. (USA) – World Premiere. This insightful and provocative documentary charts the lives of some of America’s heaviest hitters—including Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins—as they seek to break out of poverty via one of the few outlets available. Bert Marcus skillfully weaves their personal histories and gripping footage from their biggest bouts to explore the meaning of the American dream in a society increasingly fragmented between rich and poor.

After the movie: Stay for a conversation with former boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, and boxing promoter Lou DiBella, about life, rivalry, and conflict both inside and out of the ring.

Special Conversation

Shooting and Scoring

A conversation about the particular art in creating authentic sports stories – from non-fiction material to heart stopping hits that satisfy hardcore fans while also connecting with broader audiences. Featuring director Peter Berg, best known for his hit TV series and film Friday Night Lights and for the recent sports doc series State of Play which illuminates the intersection of sports and sports culture with wider society in 2014 America.

Tribeca Drive-In

Next Goal Wins will screen as part of the Tribeca Drive-In series on April 19. The full Tribeca Drive-In schedule will be announced in the coming days.
Special Screening

30 for 30: Soccer Stories

Followed by a special conversation with filmmakers Ezra Edelman, Daniel Battsek and ESPN about the films and the upcoming World Cup

The Opposition, directed by Ezra Edelman and Jeffrey Plunkett (USA/Chile) – World Premiere. In the wake of the 1973 military coup in Chile, American-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet transformed Santiago’s National Stadium into a concentration camp where political opponents were tortured and assassinated. Only two months later, that same stadium was scheduled to host a decisive World Cup qualifier between Chile and the Soviet Union. Despite protests, FIFA’s own investigation, and the Soviets’ eventual boycott, the Chilean team still played the game as planned, qualifying for the 1974 World Cup on a goal scored against no one.

Maradona ’86 (TBC), directed by Sam Blair, Executive Produced by John Battsek (USA) – World Premiere. In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Armando Maradona redefined what is possible for one man to accomplish on the soccer field. Already a figure of notoriety, but with one failed World Cup behind him, Argentinian Maradona took possession of the international stage in Mexico, the spotlight rarely drifting from him as he wrote an indelible history with his feet and, of course, with a “hand from God.” Maradona ’86 is a fascinating, evocative, and operatic portrait, revealing Maradona’s inner complexity and contradictions while basking in the joy and passion of his performance on the pitch, as he wrote his name into soccer history forever.

Short Film

True Gladiators, directed by Kevin Donovan (USA) – World Premiere. Follows the career of three former American Gladiators and how they deal with the demands of the show, the injuries, and their personal lives.

Jim Kalafat was a tough kid from a small town in Montana who dreamed of playing for the NFL. His prodigious skills as a linebacker led him all the way to the Los Angeles Rams, where he met fellow teammate Dan Clark. After suffering career-ending injuries, the two best friends used their athleticism, broad smiles and gift for gab to become the muscular, ass-kicking, heartthrob stars “Laser” and “Nitro” on the hit ‘90s television show American Gladiators. Joined by Mr. America 1989, Steve Henneberry, a.k.a. “Tower”, the three battle-scarred gladiators reveal what went on behind the scenes of one of the most popular syndicated “sports” shows in history.

image: Caption: From left to right: Jerry Lucas, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Phil Jackson & Bill Bradley celebrate after winning the 1973 NBA Title in five games against the Los Angeles Lakers Credit and Copyright: Please make sure for every use of the photos there is a copyright (© George Kalinsky) as well as a credit saying “From the Lens of George Kalinsky”
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Philadelphia Film Festival to Present PFF Spring Showcase, April 11 to 17

Philadelphia Film Festival

Philadelphia Film Society Theater at the Roxy

The Philadelphia Film Society will produce the Philadelphia Film Festival (PFF): Spring Showcase, a 7-day film event scheduled to take place from Friday, April 11 to Thursday, April 17, exclusively at the PFS Theater at the Roxy. According to the PFS, the Spring Showcase offers a preview of the kind of diverse programming that audiences can expect from the annual Philadelphia Film Festival, October 16 – 26, 2014. A small collection of exciting new films including summer releases and other hits from the festival circuit, it is a great sampler of the kinds of films that will be presented in the line-up this fall.

“I’m thrilled to add this exciting new event to the PFS 2014 calendar, allowing us to spotlight some of our favorite upcoming films from the Spring and Summer while also showcasing the newly renovated PFS Theater at the Roxy,” said Andrew Greenblatt, Executive Director. “With the event scheduled to take place principally at the PFS Theater at the Roxy, I certainly recommend getting tickets early, as I hope and expect a full sell-out.”

“We’re extremely thrilled with this exciting selection of films. We hope to have built a fun weekend as a great mid-year reminder of the big cinematic things to come, ” said Michael Lerman, Artistic Director and head of the PFS programming team.

The full list and schedule of films will be announced later this month, with priority tickets available for Philadelphia Film Society members.

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San Francisco International Film Festival to Honor Richard Linklater with Founder’s Directing Award

San Francisco International Film Festival

Richard Linklater

Filmmaker Richard Linklater will be the recipient of the 2014 Founder’s Directing Award at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24 – May 8), honoring the quintessentially American director’s expansive body of work and celebrating the upcoming release BOYHOOD, his groundbreaking new film. The award will be presented to Linklater at Film Society Awards Night, Thursday May 1.

Linklater will also be publicly honored at An Evening with Richard Linklater at the Castro Theatre, Friday May 2, 7:00 pm. An onstage interview and a selection of clips from his notable directing career will be followed by a screening of BOYHOOD. Filming over the course of 12 years, Linklater and his cast depict a young man’s journey from a 6-year-old boy to 18-year-old college freshman. The resulting film “has no precedent” according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy. “Never has the long arc of the journey from childhood to college been portrayed as cohesively and convincingly as Richard Linklater has done.”

“Richard Linklater is one of our country’s great creative minds,” said San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Noah Cowan. “His curiosity about cinema’s endless possibilities and his landmark collaborations with many of the world’s most interesting actors mark him as a profound and important force in our medium. It is our great honor to welcome him here to accept the 2014 Founder’s Directing Award.”

BOYHOOD directed by Richard Linklater

One of the most profound and prolific American independent filmmakers of the last 20 years, Richard Linklater first burst onto the scene with his scrappy time capsule of Austin weirdness, Slacker (SFIFF, 1991). Since then Linklater’s work has graced international film festival lineups, helped launch the careers of a number of prominent movie stars (Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey) and garnered multiple Oscar nominations. BOYHOOD is his 18th feature film.

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