• Sundance Award Winning Doc CARTEL LAND Set for 2015 Release

    Matthew Heineman’s CARTEL LAND 

    Matthew Heineman’s CARTEL LAND, which world premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where Heineman won the Directing Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography in U.S. Documentary Competition, is set for release later this year by The Orchard.

    With unprecedented access, CARTEL LAND is a harrowing look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels.

    Filmmaker Matthew Heineman embeds himself in the heart of darkness as Nailer, El Doctor, and the cartel each vie to bring their own brand of justice to a society where institutions have failed. CARTEL LAND is a chilling meditation on the breakdown of order and the blurry line between good and evil.

    In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as “El Doctor,” leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona’s Altar Valley – a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley – Tim “Nailer” Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border.

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  • Atlanta Film Festival Announces Competition Feature Lineup

    ,

    God Bless the Child God Bless the Child

    The 39th annual Atlanta Film Festival taking place March 20-29, 2015, announced the competitive lineups in the narrative and documentary feature categories.

    “This year’s feature competition includes a wide variety of innovative works that truly challenge our perception of traditional film forms,” said ATLFF Director of Programming Kristy Breneman.

    Three of these films, all of which are narratives, were announced in December: “Breathe (Respire)” directed by Mélanie Laurent, “Next Year (L’annee Prochaine)” directed by Vania Leturcq and “The Sisterhood of Night” directed by Caryn Waechter. Seven of the competition films are directed by women.

    ATLFF will host the world premieres of both “Rosehill” (directed by Brigitta Wagner) and “Somewhere in the Middle” (directed by Lanre Olabisi). “Rosehill” is Wagner’s feature debut and stars Josephine Decker and Kate Chamuris. “Somewhere in the Middle,” starring Cassandra Freeman, Charles Miller and Louisa Ward, marks a return to ATLFF for Olabisi. His last feature, “August the First,” played the 2007 Festival. Olabisi is among the winners of the 2009 ATLFF Screenplay Competition.

    Two films, Peter Blackburn’s “Eight” and Marcelo Galvão’s “Farewell (A Despedida),” will have their North American premieres at ATLFF. “Next Year (L’annee Prochaine)” played at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, but will make its American debut in Atlanta.

    Narrative Feature Competition:

    Breathe (Respire)

    directed by Mélanie Laurent
    France, 2014, French, 91 minutes

    Seventeen-year-old Charlie is bright and beautiful, but not without insecurity. When new girl Sarah arrives, Charlie is captured by her charisma and the two strike up a deep friendship. For a time, it seems as though each is what the other has been waiting for. When Sarah tires of Charlie and begins making new friends, their relationship takes a turn for the worse.

    Starring: Joséphine Japy, Lou de Laâge, Isabelle Carré, Claire Keim
    #Narrative #International

    Eight

    directed by Peter Blackburn
    Australia, 2014, English, 82 minutes

    Sarah Prentice had a life, once. She had a husband, and a daughter. She had holidays. Now she has a routine. She has eight. Bound in a repetitive cycle of OCD, trapped in her house by agoraphobia, the smallest of every day tasks are a monumental effort. As she battles to break her vices, will a knock on the door unhinge her progress?

    Starring: Libby Munro, Jane Elizabeth Barry
    #Narrative #International #NorthAmericanPremiere

    Farewell (A Despedida)

    directed by Marcelo Galvão
    Brazil, 2014, Portuguese, 90 minutes

    Based on true facts, “Farewell” tells the story of Admiral, a 92-year-old man, who decides that the time has come to say goodbye to all that is most important in his life and spends one last night with Fatima, his lover who is 55 years younger than him. His life has been showing clear signs that it is coming to an end, which makes the experience dense, deep and urgent.

    Starring: Nelson Xavier, Juliana Paes, Amélia Bittencourt, Tereza Piffer
    #Narrative #International #NorthAmericanPremiere

    Funny Bunny

    directed by Alison Bagnall
    USA, 2015, English, 86 minutes

    Gene spends his days canvassing about childhood obesity. One day he canvasses Titty, an emotionally-arrested 19-year-old who has successfully sued his own father to win back a large inheritance and gotten himself disowned in the process. Gene discovers that Titty has an ongoing online relationship with the beautiful but reclusive Ginger, who is an animal activist. Gene convinces Titty to make a pilgrimage to meet Ginger where the two men form a close bond despite both of them being drawn to the enigmatic Ginger, who is in need of rescue.

    Starring: Kentucker Audley, Olly Alexander, Joslyn Jensen, Josephine Decker
    #Narrative

    God Bless the Child

    directed by Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
    USA, 2015, English, 92 minutes

    Five siblings, left on their own, spend a summer’s day full of fantasy and chaos.

    Starring: Harper Graham, Elias Graham, Arri Graham, Ezra Graham, Jonah Graham
    #Narrative

    Krisha

    directed by Trey Edward Shults
    USA, 2015, English, 82 minutes

    After years of absence, Krisha reunites with her family for a holiday gathering. She sees it as an opportunity to fix her past mistakes, cook the family turkey, and prove to her loved ones that she has changed for the better. Only, Krisha’s delirium takes her family on a dizzying holiday that no one will forget.

    Starring: Krisha Fairchild, Robyn Fairchild, Bill Wise, Trey Edward Shults, Chris Doubek, Olivia Grace Applegate, Alex Dobrenko, Bryan Casserly, Chase Joliet, Atheena Frizzell, Augustine Frizzell, Rose Nelson, Victoria Fairchild, Billie Fairchild
    #Narrative

    Montedoro

    directed by Antonello Faretta
    Italy, 2015, Italian/English, 88 minutes

    A rich middle aged American woman unexpectedly discovers her true origin after her parents have died. Deeply moved, in the midst of an identity crisis, she decides to travel, hoping to find the natural mother she has never known. She therefore goes to a small and remote place in the south of Italy, Montedoro. She finds an apocalyptic scene when she gets there: the village, resting on a majestic hill, is completely abandoned and nobody seems to live there anymore.

    Starring: Pia Marie Mann, Mario Duca, Luciana Paolicelli, Joe Capalbo, Anna Di Dio, Caterina Pontrandolfo, Domenico Brancale
    #Narrative #International #WorldPremiere

    Next Year (L’année Prochaine)

    directed by Vania Leturcq
    France/Belgium, 2014, French, 105 minutes

    Clotilde and Aude are eighteen and have always been best friends. Their relationship is strong and interdependent, as teenage friendships can be. They are finishing school and have to decide what to do the following year, after their baccalaureate. Clotilde decides to leave their small, provincial village and go to Paris, dragging Aude along with her. But the two friends will experience this departure differently, ultimately splitting up.

    Starring: Constance Rousseau, Jenna Thiam, Julien Boisselier, Kévin Azaïs
    #Narrative #International #USPremiere

    Rosehill

    directed by Brigitta Wagner
    USA, 2015, English, 78 minutes

    Old friends Alice and Katriona haven’t seen each other since Alice got a job as a sex researcher in rural Indiana. When New York actress Katriona pays a sudden visit, Alice thinks her small-town boredom has come to an end. Little does she know that Katriona is harboring something. The two women set out on a local journey that leads them, unexpectedly, back to themselves. Rocks, women, motion, metamorphosis, and erotica. Part road trip, part meditation, part improvised fiction, part documentary, “Rosehill” is a film about crisis and eternal change, the darkness and resilience of the human spirit.

    Starring: Josephine Decker, Kate Chamuris, Ken Farrell, John Machesky, Jacob Emery
    #Narrative #WorldPremiere

    The Sisterhood of Night

    directed by Caryn Waechter
    USA, 2014, English, 102 minutes

    The story begins when Emily Parris exposes a secret society of teenage girls who have slipped out of the world of social media, into a mysterious world deep in the woods. Emily’s allegations of sexually deviant activities throw the town of Kingston into hysteria and the national media spotlight. As the accused uphold a vow of silence, Emily’s blog takes an unexpected turn when girls across the country emerge with personal stories of sexual abuse. Why are the Sisterhood girls willing to risk so much for a ritualistic gathering in the woods? From the story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Millhauser, “The Sisterhood of Night” chronicles a provocative alternative to adolescent loneliness, revealing the tragedy and humor of teenage years changed forever by the Internet age.

    Starring: Georgie Henley, Kara Hayward, Willa Cuthrell, Olivia De Jonge, Kal Penn, Laura Fraser
    #Narrative

    Somewhere in the Middle

    directed by Lanre Olabisi
    USA, 2015, English, 89 minutes

    Sofia’s life is a mess. Bad relationships. Dwindling job prospects. But a chance encounter at a bookstore convinces her that she’s met the love of her life in Kofi — a handsome, but immature office manager. Kofi, however, has other things on his mind. Namely, his crumbling marriage to his demanding wife, Billie, who is herself struggling with a newfound attraction for her female co-worker, Alex. In an instant, events that seem true suddenly turn upside down. As secrets and lies surface, each layer of the love quadrangle is slowly peeled away, leaving everyone to cope with the ripple effects of love, obsession, sexuality and ultimately self-discovery. “Somewhere in the Middle” was born out of a year long improvisational process wherein the actors and director mutually crafted a time-fragmented, ensemble drama. Structured like a jigsaw puzzle, no character fully grasps their current dilemma as three interwoven stories are retold from varying viewpoints.

    Starring: Cassandra Freeman, Charles Miller, Louisa Ward, Marisol Miranda, Aristotle Stamat, D. Rubin Green
    #Narrative #WorldPremiere

    Documentary Feature Competition

    Frame by Frame

    directed by Alexandria Bombach, Mo Scarpelli
    USA/Afghanistan, 2015, English/Dari, 85 minutes

    In 1996, the Taliban banned photography in Afghanistan. Taking a photo was considered a crime. When the US invaded after 9/11, Afghans saw the Taliban regime topple, the media blackout disappear, and a promising media industry emerge. Now, in a country facing abject uncertainty and ongoing war, Afghanistan’s young press struggles to be a free press. “Frame by Frame” is a feature-length documentary that follows four Afghan photojournalists navigating a young and dangerous media landscape. Through cinema verité, powerful photojournalism, and never-before-seen archival footage shot in secret during the Taliban, the film reveals a struggle in overcoming the odds to capture the truth.

    #Documentary #International

    Madina’s Dream

    directed by Andrew Berends
    USA/Sudan, 2015, Sudanese Arabic, 80 minutes

    An unflinching and poetic glimpse into a forgotten war, “Madina’s Dream” tells the story of rebels and refugees fighting to survive in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. After decades of civil war, South Sudan achieved its independence from Sudan in 2011. But inside Sudan, the conflict continues. Sudan’s government employs aerial bombings and starvation warfare against the inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to refugee camps in South Sudan or remain trapped in the war zone. Eleven-year-old Madina and countless others dream of a brighter future for the Nuban people.

    #Documentary #International

    Masculinity/Femininity

    directed by Russell Sheaffer
    USA, 2014,English, 88 minutes

    “Masculinity/Femininity” is an experimental interrogation of normative notions of gender, sexuality and performance. Prominent filmmakers, film theorists, gender theorists, and artists are each asked to perform a piece that deals with issues surrounding gender identity and construction. Shot primarily on Super 8, the film merges academic and cinematic critique—aiming to be more of a document of gender de-construction rather than a documentary about gender construction.

    #Documentary #PinkPeach

    A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake

    directed by Michael Lessac
    South Africa, 2014, English, 99 minutes

    A diverse group of South African actors tours the war-torn regions of Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia to share their country’s experiment with reconciliation. As they ignite a dialogue among people with raw memories of atrocity, the actors find they must once again confront their homeland’s violent past, and question their own capacity for healing and forgiveness. Featuring never-before-heard original music by jazz legend Hugh Masekela.

    #Documentary #International

    Stray Dog

    directed by Debra Granik
    USA, 2014, English, 98 minutes

    Harley-Davidson, leather, tattooed biceps: Ron “Stray Dog” Hall looks like an authentic tough guy. A Vietnam veteran, he runs a trailer park in rural Missouri with his wife, Alicia, who recently emigrated from Mexico. Gradually, a layered image comes into focus of a man struggling to come to terms with his combat experience. When Alicia’s teenage sons arrive, the film reveals a tender portrait of an America outside the mainstream. “Stray Dog” is a powerful look at the veteran experience, a surprising love story, and a fresh exploration of what it takes to survive in the hardscrabble heartland.

    #Documentary

    Sweet Micky for President

    directed by Ben Patterson
    Haiti/USA/Canada, 2015, English, 89 minutes

    Can one man change a country? Pras Michel believed he could. “Sweet Micky for President” tells the story of Pras, founder of the Grammy award winning hip-hop group The Fugees, as he sets out to change the destiny of his home country of Haiti. With no experience, no money and no support, Pras mobilizes a presidential campaign for Michel Martelly better known as the controversial diaper wearing pop-star Sweet Micky. As a first time political candidate, Martelly aims to use his skills as an artist to affect revolutionary change in a country whose people have been disenfranchised for over 200 years. Despite all odds, Martelly wins the presidency instilling a renewed sense of hope for Haiti’s future.

    #Documentary #International

    Tomorrow We Disappear

    directed by Jim Goldblum, Adam M. Weber
    India/USA, 2014, Hindi/English, 85 minutes

    When their home is sold to real-estate developers, the magicians, acrobats, and puppeteers of Delhi’s Kathputli Colony must find a way to unite—or splinter apart forever.

    #Documentary #International

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  • Sun Valley Film Fest to Honor Clint Eastwood, Unveils Lineup

    Sun Valley Film Festival

    The Sun Valley Film Festival unveiled its film lineup and will honor Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood with its inaugural Lifetime Vision Award at the 4th annual Festival, March 4-March 8, 2015.

    The SVFF Lifetime Vision Award pays tribute to an individual who has provided the keen insight, influence and initiative to fulfill a creative vision. In addition to the special presentation to Mr. Eastwood, the 2015 Sun Valley Film Festival has added a 5th day of signature programming including Coffee Talks with Bruce Dern and Bill Paxton.  More than 60-curated films will screen followed by filmmakers Q&A sessions. 

    The following is a featured selection of the 2015 SVFF films. The film slate can be viewed here.  

    NARRATIVE

    The Barber * SPECIAL SNEAK PEEK SCREENING
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Basel Owies
    Writer: Max Enscoe
    Producer: Travis Knox
    Cast: Scott Glenn, Chris Coy, Stephen Tobolowsky, Kristen Hager
    The life of a small town’s beloved barber is turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious stranger. Eugene Van Wingerdt has been a pillar of this community for years but no one in this small town knows that he may be hiding a deadly secret. John LaRue has been hunting for a serial killer who, thanks to a lack of evidence, was released from custody only to disappear. Convinced that Van Wingerdt is the guy, LaRue has arrived in his small town not to expose him instead he wants to learn how to kill. Only the best can teach him how to get away with it.
    U.S.A./92 min

    Cut Bank
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Matt Shakman
    Writer: Roberto Patino
    Producers: Mickey Barold, Dan Cohen, Mark Manuel, Ted O’Neal, Laura Rister, Edward Zwick
    Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Bruce Dern, Billy Bob Thornton, John Malkovich, Oliver Platt
    Dwayne McLaren (Liam Hemsworth) dreams about escaping small town life in Cut Bank, Montana, “the coldest spot in the nation,” with his vivacious girlfriend Cassandra (Teresa Palmer). When Dwayne witnesses an awful crime, he tries to leverage a bad situation into a scheme to get rich quickly but he finds that fate and an unruly accomplice are working against him. Thrust into the middle of a police investigation spearheaded by the local sheriff (John Malkovich), everything goes from bad to worse in this all-American thriller. Directed by Matt Shakman and also starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Dern, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Oliver Platt.
    U.S.A./93 min

    Felix and Meira
    Director: Maxime Giroux
    Writers: Maxime Giroux, Alexandre Laferrière
    Producers: Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant
    Cast: Martin Dubreuil, Hadas Yaron, Luzer Twersky
    Félix and Meira is a calling card for its young director, Maxime Giroux; a story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different realities mere blocks away from one another. Each lost in their everyday lives, Meira(Hadas Yaron), a Hasidic Jewish wife and mother and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a Secular loner mourning the recent death of his estranged father, unexpectedly meet in a local bakery in Montreal’s Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. As Felix opens Meira’s eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: remain in the life that she knows or give it all up to be with Félix. Giroux’s film is a poignant and touching tale of self-discovery set against the backdrops of Montreal, Brooklyn, and Venice, Italy.
    Canada/105 min
    French/English/Yiddish

    Imperial Dreams
    Director: Malik Vitthal
    Writers: Malik Vitthal, Ismet Prcic
    Producers: Katherine Fairfax Wright, Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling
    Cast: John Boyega, Glenn Plummer, De’aundre Bonds
    A 21-year-old reformed gangster’s devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.  Once back, Bambi must choose between honoring his commitment to his young son, and yielding to temptation with the local gang’s promises of easy seed money to jump-start their enterprise.  As he grapples to build a future, Bambi begins a dangerous dance with the gangster life he has been so committed to escaping.
    U.S.A./87 min

    IS THIS THE REAL WORLD
    Writer/Director: Martin McKenna
    Producer: Deborah Barlow
    Cast: Sean Keenan, Susie Porter, Greg Stone, Charlotte Best
    With an eye for beautiful details in the everyday, this stunning film is an intimate and profoundly moving vision of family, teen love, rebellion, and the consequences of being afraid to grow up. Living in a coastal town in Australia, 17-year-old Mark is a smart kid from a chaotic family. He has thrown away a scholarship to a private school and found himself at the local public high school, where he butts heads with an overbearing principal. At home, Mark is dealing with a jail-bound brother, a sickly grandmother, and an alcoholic mother. When Mark finds his first real love, he sees an opportunity to escape all the competing forces in his life. Told through the fragmented and heightened senses of a boy on the cusp of manhood, this is a dreamy story about what it means to be alone and how valuable it is to feel connected.
    Australia/91 min.

    It’s Us  **Work in Progress screening**
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Writer/Director: Colin Thompson
    Producers: Colin Thompson, Jon Dishotsky
    Cast: Colin Thompson, Eliza Coupe, Jay Hayden, Andrew Friedman, Annabelle Gurwitch
    A volatile young couple moves from Los Angeles to Vermont to try and save their marriage. Both work in the entertainment world; he a talent agent, she in costume design, and have decided to point the finger at the city and business in which they work instead of looking in the marital mirror.  Vermont provides some respite, but at the end of the day, wherever they choose to live, they are who they are. 


    This is a movie about love and marriage and the dark spaces that can be born in between.
    U.S.A./100 min

    National Geographic Channel’s Killing Jesus  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Cast: Haaz Sleiman, Stephen Moyer, Rufus Sewell, Emmanuelle Chriqui, John Rhys-Davies, Eoin Macken, and Kelsey Grammer
    It’s a story nearly the whole world knows, with more than 2.2 billion people around the globe following the teachings and principles of Jesus of Nazareth. But the intimate historical details of his life and the political collusions that led to his brutal demise bring new context to the familiar story. Produced by Scott Free Productions and based on the New York Times best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Jesus dives deep inside the historical story of a man whose message and preachings led to his persecution and execution by a group of conspirators who saw him as a threat to their power.
    Morocco, U.S.A./135 min

    Land of Leopold  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Akis Konstantakopoulos
    Writers: Christopher Pinkalla, Drake Shannon
    Producers: Matthew Helderman, Joe Aliberti
    Cast: Ray Wise, Christopher Pinkalla, Drake Shannon, Scottie Thompson
    Leopold Rawlins is a troubled drifter suffering from a bad past and worse present. Living in and out of prison and out on the streets, Leopold winds up being deemed insane by the state and sent to the Milton Way House. Searching for redemption, Leopold uncovers new unlikely friends and an adventure that tests his limits.
    U.S.A./81 min

    THE MIDNIGHT SWIM
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Writer/Director: Sarah Adina Smith
    Producers: Mary Pat Bentel, Jonako Donley
    Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Jennifer Lafleur, Aleksa Palladino, Ross Partridge, Beth Grant
    Spirit Lake is unusually deep. No diver has ever managed to find the bottom, though many have tried. When Dr. Amelia Brooks disappears during a deep-water dive, her three daughters travel home to settle her affairs. They find themselves unable to let go of their mother and become drawn into the mysteries of the lake.
    U.S.A./88 min.

    Slow West
    Writer/Director: John Maclean
    Producers: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Conor McCaughan, Rachel Gardner
    Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Caren Pistorius, Rory McCann
    Set at the end of the 19th Century, SLOW WEST follows the story of sixteen-year-old Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as he journeys across the American Frontier in search of the woman he loves and accompanied by a mysterious traveller named Silas (Michael Fassbender).
    U.K., New Zealand/84 min.

    SOLD
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Jeffrey Brown
    Writers: Joseph Kwong, Jeffrey Brown
    Producer: Jane Charles
    Executive Producer: Emma Thompson
    Cast: Gillian Anderson, David Arquette, Seema Biswas, Susmita Mukherjee, Niyar Saikia
    SOLD is a narrative, feature film adaptation of the globally acclaimed novel by Patricia McCormick.
    Based on true stories, SOLD, is the story of Lakshmi, a thirteen year old, trafficked from a pastoral, rural village in Nepal to a gritty brothel/prison in Kolkata, India.
    Through one extraordinary girl’s journey, SOLD illustrates the brutality of child trafficking, which affects millions of children globally every year. 
    SOLD is a call to action, and a testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit. 
    India/95 min.

    Up The River  *WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Writer/Director: Ben Greenblatt
    Producers: Nick Shore, Brendan McHugh
    Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Will Brill, Adam David Thompson, Nathalie Love
    On a weekend trip to the Hudson Valley, Rebecca finds herself in between places. Traveling with her fiancé Thomas, and their friends Willy and Laura, Rebecca is anxious about transitioning from being a student to a professional and is torn between lust and love. As the trip unfolds, she struggles through emotional uncertainty, doubtful of her relationship with Thomas and intrigued by his best friend Willy’s bold advances. Nerves are pushed, wills broken, secrets exposed and relationships tested. Thomas and Rebecca may never recover from this weekend.
    U.S.A./76 min.

    X/Y
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Writer/Director: Ryan Piers Williams
    Producers: Jason Michael Berman, Kwesi Collisson, America Ferrera, Ryan Piers Williams
    Cast: America Ferrera, Melonie Diaz, Ryan Piers Williams, Jon Paul Phillips, Common, Dree Hemingway
    A look at the lives and interactions of a group of friends living in New York.
    U.S.A./82 min

    Zero Point  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Co-Creators: Gregory Bayne, Christian Lybrook
    Director: Gregory Bayne
    Writers: Gregory Bayne, Christian Lybrook
    Cast: Lisa King Hawkes, Vince Morales, Nora Thornton, Aaron Kiefer, Ben Chappel
    When children begin dying mysteriously, Dr. Alex Embry, driven by a hidden tragedy, becomes obsessed with finding the cause. What begins as a small, regional investigation soon expands into a global race to find the source of a growing epidemic that threatens to wipe out an entire generation.
    A sci-fi detective series set against the backdrop of increased shale oil exploration, the global proliferation of GMOs, and growing effects of climate change, ZERO POINT unfolds the story of human colony collapse through those who have survived the wreckage of their own lives only to confront a world dying off from the wrong end.
    U.S.A./47 min.
    * IDAHO SERIES PILOT

    DOCUMENTARY

    #ChicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator
    Writer/Director: Joe Piscatella
    Producers: Joe Piscatella, Mark Rinehart
    From the Chicago suburbs an American teenage girl helps coordinate the Syrian revolution. With social media, she helps her network expose regime atrocities. But as the violence rages everyone in her network must choose the best way to fight a dictator: Facebook or AK-47s.
    U.S.A., Syria/74 min.
    English/Arabic

    vAdd the Words 
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Directors: Michael D. Gough, Cammie Pavesic
    Producers: Michael D. Gough, Cammie Pavesic
    Executive Producers: Eugene Boyle, Gary Winterholler, Sean Small
    Since 2006 the LGBT community and human rights supporters have asked Idaho lawmakers to add the words sexual orientation and gender identity to the Idaho Human Rights Act. It is still lawful in this state to fire someone or refuse services or housing because of how they identify. For 8 years they were told, “we can’t this year because of the political climate. Be patient, and we will get to it next year.” With their left hands covering their mouths to symbolize how Idaho legislators have worked to silence them, they have begun an effective civil disobedience campaign.
    U.S.A./79 min.
    * IDAHO FILM

    Ann Sothern: The Sharpest Girl in Town  **Work in Progress Screening**
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director/Producer: Mike Kaplan
    Starring: Ann Sothern
    Featuring: Robert Osborne, Malcolm McDowell, Loretta Young, Gavin Lambert, Aljean Harmetz, Annie Ross
    ANN SOTHERN is often called the most under-appreciated star of the movies’ Golden Age – a brilliant comedienne (KID MILLIONS, BROTHER ORCHID), a compelling dramatic actress (A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, THE WHALES OF AUGUST) and a first-rate musical performer (LADY BE GOOD, PANAMA HATTIE).  Lucille Ball, her long-time friend and frequent co-star, called her “the best comedienne in the business.” Baby boomers know her two hit television series—PRIVATE SECRETARY and THE ANN SOTHERN SHOW (1953-1961) – in which she created TV’s first independent, working woman. This segment of THE SHARPEST GIRL IN TOWN, a work-in-progress documentary about Sothern, focuses on the creation, history and contributions to the cultural phenomenon that was “Maisie,” the street-smart, working-class show girl who became the movie’s first modern feminist and made Sothern a superstar.
    U.S.A./54 min

    Dog Days of Winter
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Brian Gilmore
    Executive Producer: Gene Gilmore
    Producers: Caleb Young, Stanley Larsen
    “Dog Days Of Winter” is a retrospective on the start up of organized freestyle skiing during the early 1970’s in America. Told from the point of view of some of the most influential pioneers of the sport, “Dog Days” tells the story of key people and events that set the stage for the birth of the sport, the spirit that freestyle is rooted in, factors that took the “free” out of freestyle and reflections on what has become of the sport today.
    U.S.A./65 min
    * IDAHO FILM

    The Empowerment Project
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director/Producer: Sarah Moshman
    Producer: Dana Michelle Cook
    Documentary Shooter: Vanessa Crocini
    The Empowerment Project: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things is the incredible journey of 5 female filmmakers driving across America to encourage, empower, and inspire the next generation of strong women to go after their career ambitions.
    Driving over 7,000 miles from Los Angeles to New York over the course of 30 days, the documentary spotlights 17 positive and powerful women leaders across a variety of lifestyles and industries.
    Created for women by women, they challenge the audience to ask themselves, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?”
    U.S.A./99 min

    Far From Home
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Galen Knowles
    Producer: Phil Hessler
    Director of Photography: Galen Knowles
    Sometimes the most beautiful forms of life can thrive in the most unfavorable conditions. At the age of two, his mother left the family in Uganda and reappeared nine years later, arranging Brolin’s emigration to the United States to join her in Boston’s suburbia. Brolin’s transition into American society was disheartening. Facing bullying and depression, Brolin saw little hope for the future. He was twelve when he saw snow for the first time, and as unlikely as it sounds, he found sanctuary in the snowboarding community on the icy slopes of Massachusetts. The film tells Brolin’s story from being raised in Uganda to rallying the support of an entire nation in his goal to make history in the 2018 Olympics as the first snowboarder to represent an African country.
    U.S.A., Uganda/73 min.

    Finders Keepers
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Directors: Clay Tweel, Bryan Carberry
    Producers: Ed Cunningham, Seth Gordon, Adam Gibbs, Bryan Carberry
    Shannon Whisnant has a nose for a bargain. But when he bought a used grill at a North Carolina auction, the severed human foot he found among its ashes was not part of the deal. Soon the gruesome discovery becomes the toast of the infotainment world, and the new owner spies a golden opportunity to cash in on the media frenzy, until struggling addict and amputee John Wood recognizes his missing member and demands his own foot back. It is the stuff of documentary legend.
    U.S.A./82 min

    Free to Rock  **Work in Progress Screening**
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Jim Brown
    Producers: Nick Binkley, Jim Brown, Doug Yeager
    Narrated by: Kiefer Sutherland
    Free to Rock is a documentary film directed by 4-time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Rock & Roll spread like a virus across the Soviet Union despite Communist attempts to outlaw it. Thousands of underground bands and millions of young fans who yearned for Western freedoms helped fuel the nonviolent implosion of the Soviet regime. Free to Rock features Presidents, diplomats, spies and rock stars from the West and the Soviet Union who reveal how rock and roll music was a contributing factor in ending the Cold War. 
    U.S.A., Russia/61 min

    Gardeners of Eden
    Directors: Austin Peck, Anneliese Vandenberg
    Producers: Austin Peck, Anneliese Vandenberg
    Production Company: RYOT Films
    Africa’s elephants are hurtling towards extinction to fuel the worldwide ivory trade. While conservationists howl and corrupt governments fail to address the ongoing slaughter, one brave family has been working for decades to stem the tide, one elephant at a time. Gardeners of Eden is a gripping, first-person experience inside the operations of Kenya’s David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From the frontlines of the crisis, we witness their heroic efforts to stop the poachers in the bush, rescue the orphans of slain elephants and raise them by hand, until one day, returning them to their home in the wild.
    Kenya/62 min

    Gaucho del Norte 
    Directors: Sofian Khan, Andres Caballero
    Producers: Sofian Khan, Andres Caballero
    “Gaucho del Norte” tells the story of a Patagonian sheepherder recruited to work in Idaho. The nomadic two-year journey follows Eraldo Pacheco and his herd of more than a thousand sheep across a lonely, rugged landscape — from the harsh beauty of wintry high desert, to the lush summer mountains.   Living in isolation, Eraldo faces the ups and downs of a psychologically demanding job far away from his home and family.
    Patagonia, U.S.A./58 min.
    * IDAHO FILM

    Girl From God’s Country  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Writer/Director/Producer: Karen Day
    Executive Producers: C.K. Haun, Karen Meyer, Eileen Barber, Arlene Vidor, Tracey Goessel, Boise State University, Idaho Film Collections, Peppershock Studios
    A documentary about Nell Shipman, Idaho’s first female independent filmmaker and animal-actor advocate. In 1921, Shipman refused a studio contract with Sam Goldfish (not yet Goldwyn) and moved to Priest Lake with a zoo of 70 wild animals to write, direct, act and produce films that portray women as self-reliant heroines in the wilderness. Shipman performed her own stunts and offered the first nude scene in film history. Her uncanny rapport with her wild animal actors earned her fame in her most successful film, THE GIRL FROM GOD’S COUNTRY. This documentary reveals the forgotten legacy of Shipman and an entire generation of female silent film pioneers from around the world. Rare footage from these early filmmakers, including Zora Neale Hurston, prove these women deserve the recognition they’ve never received.  Geena Davis and Hollywood’s Director of Women in Film discuss how the gender-inequities Nell and her counterparts faced perpetuate in today’s media industry. If you want to influence how women’s capabilities are perceived by future generations—don’t miss the world premiere of GIRL FROM GOD’S COUNTRY.
    U.S.A./63 min.
    * IDAHO FILM

    National Geographic Channel’s Hubble’s Cosmic Journey  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Executive Producer: Ben Bowie
    Producer/Director: Christopher Riley
    Narrator: Neil deGrasse Tyson
    Hubble’s Cosmic Journey is a celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 25 years orbiting our planet. Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Hubble’s Cosmic Journey is the story of one of the most remarkable advances in modern technology, as told by the people who designed, built, launched, operated and repaired the legendary observatory.
    U.S.A./48 min

    IDBDR – Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Sterling Noren
    Featuring: Jon Beck, Justin Bradshaw, Paul Guillien, Tom Myers, Rob Watt, Bill Whitacre, Sterling Noren
    The IDBDR documentary provides an in-depth look into the creation and first expedition of the IDBDR, a scenic ride across the state of Idaho, beginning in Jarbidge, NV and finishing at the Canadian border. The route has been created specifically for dual-sport and adventure motorcyclists who are interested in exploring Idaho’s remote backcountry. This 1,300-mile south-to-north route utilizes mainly dirt roads and leads riders across mountain ranges to isolated lookout towers, natural hot springs, old west mining towns, historic cemeteries, and the infamous Magruder Corridor and Lolo Motoway.
    U.S.A./72 min
    * IDAHO FILM

    Idaho Wine, From Bud to Taste Bud  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Drew Allen
    Producer: Rhea Allen
    The Idaho wine making tale is ripe and ready for picking. Not only to promote local business, but to increase economic viability and to highlight Idaho’s vineyards and wineries in the national arena. This feature length documentary will explore from bud to taste bud including Idaho culinary arts. It’ll highlight the past, the fruitful future, educate and explore modern agricultural (specifically viticultural) practices by seamlessly blending the voices of those whose lives are impacted by the Idaho wine industry.
    U.S.A./72 min.
    * IDAHO FILM

    Most Likely to Succeed
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Greg Whiteley
    Producer: Adam Leibowitz
    For most of the last century, entry-level jobs were plentiful, and college was an affordable path to a fulfilling career.  That world no longer exists. The feature-length documentary MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED examines the history of education, revealing the growing shortcomings of our school model in today’s innovative world. The film follows students in a school created to prepare graduates for the innovation era. There, over the course of a school year, ninth graders take on ambitious, project-based challenges that promote critical skills rather than rote memorization and, indirectly, bring to life new approaches that revolutionize school as we know it.
    U.S.A./86 min

    Omo Child: The River and the Bush
    Director: John Rowe
    Producers: John Rowe, Tyler Rowe
    For many generations people in the Omo Valley [southwest Ethiopia] believed some children are cursed and that these ‘cursed’ children bring disease, drought and death to the tribe. The curse is called ‘mingi’ and mingi children are killed.
    Lale Labuko, a young educated man from the Kara was 15 years old when he saw a child in his village killed and also learned that he had 2 older sisters he never knew who had been killed. He decided one day he would stop this horrific practice.
    Filmed over a five year period we follow Lale’s journey along with the people of his tribe as they attempt to change an ancient practice.
    Ethiopia/89 min.
    English/Kara

    Personal Gold
    Director: Tamara Christopherson
    Producer: Sky Christopherson
    Writer: James Lockard
    Reed Albergotti of The Wall Street Journal describes PERSONAL GOLD as ‘Miracle meets Moneyball’, a film with a behind-the-scenes look into how four underdog women cyclists become America’s hope for a medal at the 2012 London Olympics after the men’s team is banned during the Lance Armstrong drug scandal.
    The underfunded women turn to volunteers, including their husbands and a ‘Quantified Self’ experiment using ‘Data not Drugs’ in an attempt to do the impossible; win the first U.S. Women’s Track Cycling medal in over 20 years.
    U.S.A./88 min

    Nat Geo WILD’s Secret Garden  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Jan Haft
    Script: Gerwig Lawitzky, Thassilo Franke
    Narrator: Nancy Giles
    The garden has long epitomized paradise, and many of us derive great pleasure in creating our own Garden of Eden. With the help of nature, we fashion a world of beguiling scents and colors – but many of the creatures that live here go unnoticed, leading secretive and mysterious lives.  Stunning high definition footage and time-lapse photography reveal the vibrant colors of the seasons as we journey into an unknown and exotic wilderness that is our own back garden. 
    U.S.A./45 min

    Stray Dog
    Director: Debra Granik
    Producers: Anne Rosellini, Victoria Stewart
    Harley-Davidson, leather, tattooed biceps: Ron “Stray Dog” Hall looks like an authentic tough guy. A Vietnam veteran, he runs a trailer park in rural Missouri with his wife, Alicia, who recently emigrated from Mexico. Gradually, a layered image comes into focus of a man struggling to come to terms with his combat experience. When Alicia’s teenage sons arrive, the film reveals a tender portrait of an America outside the mainstream. Stray Dog is a powerful look at the veteran experience, a surprising love story, and a fresh exploration of what it takes to survive in the hardscrabble heartland. 
    U.S.A./105 min.
    English/Spanish

    True Appaloosa * INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Conor Woodman
    Executive Producer: Clare Handford
    A 69-year old horse-woman from California sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the truth about the origins of the Appaloosa spotted horse. Back in the saddle for the first time in 12 years, she crosses one of the world’s highest mountain ranges in search of a lost valley. There, she hopes to discover whether the experts have been wrong all along, and that the true source of the North American Appaloosa horse in Asia – and not Europe as the history books would have us believe. An inspirational adventure story inspired by a lifelong passion for horses.
    U.S.A., Pakistan/73 min

    Unbranded  **Work in Progress Screening**
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Director: Philip Baribeau
    Producer: Dennis Aig
    Featuring: Ben Masters, Ben Thamer, Thomas Glover, Jonny Fitzsimons
    Four young men take an unprecedented journey on adopted mustangs from the Mexican to the Canadian border through the backcountry of the American West. Their goal: to prove the worth of the iconic horses that are the subject of often bitter controversy. As they cover the 3000 miles of often unforgiving landscapes, the riders succumb to the contradictory tensions of camaraderie and rivalry. Filmed almost exclusively by first-time feature director Phillip Baribeau, who was with the riders nearly every mile of the way. As with so many Western films, Unbranded’s story is a metaphor for the decisive actions needed to preserve wild places and their animals and the personal and political conflicts that threaten these national treasures. 
    U.S.A./106 min

    Nat Geo WILD’s Wild Yellowstone  * WORLD PREMIERE
    * Filmmakers in Attendance
    Executive Producers: Karen Bass, Curt Morgan, Chad Jackson, Joseph Sorge, Shon Tomlin
    Producers: Joe Kennedy, Tom Stephens
    Yellowstone is a place of wonder. All life is focused on thing. Survival. There’s no place in Earth like Wild Yellowstone. Our cameras take a deep look into this gorgeous land and the animals that reside here.
    U.S.A./49 min

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  • 2015 Dallas Intl Film Festival Announces First 10 Films

    PLAYING IT COOLPLAYING IT COOL

    The 9th annual Dallas International Film Festival taking place April 9-19, 2015, announced the first 10 films, including the North American premiere of PLAYING IT COOL, a romantic comedy starring Chris Evans and Michelle Monaghan.

    Making its world premiere at this year’s Festival is the Civil War drama ECHOES OF WAR, starring James Badge Dale, Ethan Embry and William Forsythe.

    Director John Landis will receive the Dallas Star Award at Dallas Film Society Honors on Friday, April 17 at the Highland Hotel in Dallas. The Dallas Star Award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to modern cinema and the advancement of the art of film. The award presentation will be followed by a special screening of John Landis’s 1980 comedy classic THE BLUES BROTHERS on Saturday, April 18. John Landis has left a lasting impression on the film world as director of many iconic comedies such as NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, ¡3 AMIGOS!, COMING TO AMERICA, TRADING PLACES, and INTO THE NIGHT. John Landis also wrote and directed AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and the groundbreaking theatrical short MICHAEL JACKSON’S THRILLER.

    The Festival will also celebrate the incredible life and career of Texas writer, actor and producer L.M. Kit Carson by featuring his 1983 film BREATHLESS. Carson is recognized for writing the Palme d’Or winning PARIS, TEXAS, and also for inventing the first ‘mockumentary’ with his film DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY.

    5 FLIGHTS UP 
    Director: Richard Loncraine
    USA
    Cast: Morgan Freeman; Diane Keaton; Cynthia Nixon
    Synopsis: Over one crazy weekend, a long-time married couple discovers that finding a new apartment is not about winding down, but starting a new adventure.

    BEING EVEL 
    Director: Daniel Junge
    USA
    Synopsis: Millions know the man, but few know his story. In BEING EVEL, Academy Award® winning filmmaker Daniel Junge (SAVING FACE) and actor/producer Johnny Knoxville take a candid look at American daredevil and icon Robert “Evel” Knievel, while also reflecting on our voracious public appetite for heroes and spectacle.

    ECHOS OF WAR (World premiere)
    Director: Kane Senes
    USA
    Cast: James Badge Dale; Ethan Embry; William Forsythe; Maika Monroe
    Synopsis: A Civil War veteran returns home to the quiet countryside, only to find himself embroiled in a conflict between his family and the brutish cattle rancher harassing them.

    HOLLOW
    Director: Ham Tran
    Vietnam
    Cast: Kieu Chinh; Jayvee Mai The Hiep; Ngoc Hiep Nguyen
    Synopsis: A young girl falls into a river and drowns. When her body is found in a remote village along the river, her uncle arrives to claim her body, only to find that she is very much alive. But when she returns to her family, unexplainable occurrences lead them to believe she is possessed.

    JASMINE
    Director: Dax Phelan
    USA
    Cast: Jason Tobin; Byron Mann; Sarah Lian
    Synopsis: JASMINE is a gripping and chilling psychological thriller about a man still struggling to come to terms with his grief nearly a year after his wife’s unsolved murder.

    THE BLUES BROTHERS
    Director: John Landis
    USA
    Cast: John Belushi; Dan Aykroyd; James Brown; Cab Calloway; Ray Charles; Aretha Franklin; John Lee Hooker
    Synopsis: Jake Blues, just out from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised.

    THE LOOK OF SILENCE
    Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
    Denmark/Finland/Indonesia/Norway/UK
    Synopsis: In Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to the Oscar® nominated THE ACT OF KILLING, a family of survivors of the 1965 Indonesian genocide discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother’s murder – something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.

    PLAYING IT COOL (North American Premiere)
    Director: Justin Reardon
    USA
    Cast: Chris Evans; Michelle Monaghan; Luke Wilson; Aubrey Plaza; Topher Grace; Anthony Mackie
    Synopsis: It’s this generation’s SWINGERS meets (500) DAYS OF SUMMER. The story is fresh, quirky, and weirdly relatable as this young, slightly pretentious man falls for an unlikely girl, and will stop at nothing to get her even after realizing she’s already in a relationship.

    WELCOME TO LEITH
    Director: Michael Beach Nichols; Christopher K. Walker
    USA
    Synopsis: A white supremacist attempts to take over a small town in North Dakota.

    WESTERN
    Director: Bill Ross; Turner Ross
    USA/Mexico
    Synopsis: For generations, all that distinguished Eagle Pass, Texas from Piedras Negras, Mexico was the Rio Grande. But when darkness descends upon these harmonious border towns, a cowboy and lawman face a new reality that threatens their way of life.

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  • SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER Wins Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

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    SIBLINGS ARE FOREVERSIBLINGS ARE FOREVER

    The 2015 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival revealed the winners in the festival’s four competition categories and SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER which documents Norweigan siblings Magnar and Oddny won the Feature Award.

    MINI-DOC AWARD – (15 minutes and under)

    Winner: CAILLEACH, directed by Rosie Reed Hillman
    Artistic Vision Award: OMID, directed by Jawad Wahabzada
    Jury statements: CAILLEACH is a portrait of Morag, an 86-year old woman who revels in her aloneness on the Isle of Harris in the house in which she was born. This stunning film reconciles how time can stand still while the years pass by in rhythmic ruggedness.
    The craft of storytelling is alive in OMID, which looks in the face of contemporary cinema to open the eyes of the world.
    Jury: Filmmakers John Cohen and Adam Singer; Tracy Rector, Longhouse Media

    SHORT FILM AWARD – (15 and 40 minutes in length)

    Winner: LA REINA, directed by Manuel Abramovich
    Jury statement: LA REINA is a devastating combination of artistic vision, storytelling, cinematic composition, and perspective as we follow the experience of a young, privileged Argentinian girl who is pushed to excel in a way that one imagines extends to every facet of her life. It is truly devastating – in the best sense of that word.
    Jury: Alexandra Hannibal, Tribeca Film Institute; Christoph Green, Trixie Film; Noland Walker, ITVS

    BIG SKY AWARD –
    Presented to a film that artistically honors the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West.

    Winner: LOVE AND TERROR ON THE HOWLING PLAINS OF NOWHERE, directed by Dave Janetta.
    Artistic Vision Award: FISHTAIL, directed by Andrew Renzi
    Jury statement: FISHTAIL presents a quiet nostalgic beauty for a way of life that has drifted from mainstream consciousness. Its poetic, intimate story, portrayed through magnificent cinematography, shows a vibrant American West in which the ranchers connect deeply with their work and the land.
    Jury: Producer Sandy Itkoff; Julie Campfield, ro*co films; Nikki Hayman, POV

    FEATURE AWARD – (over 40 minutes in length)

    Winner: SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER
    Jury statement: SIBLINGS ARE FOREVER is a poetic and warm portrayal of the siblings Magnar and Oddny, whose existence and everyday life seems frozen in time. Capturing the beauty of family ties, as well as of the Norwegian landscape. Stunning cinematography.
    Jury: Brian Newman, Sub-Genre Media; Journalist Erik Augustin-Palm; Mia Desroches, National Film Board of Canada; Tracy Rector, Longhouse Media.

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  • First Films Revealed for Art of the Real Doc Fest in NY

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    Iec LongIec Long 

    The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the initial selections for Art of the Real, the second annual documentary-as-art festival, taking place April 10-26. 

    Opening Night will premiere new works by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata (The Last Time I Saw Macao,Mahjong), Eduardo Williams, and Matt Porterfield (I Used to Be Darker), and all filmmakers will be in attendance. The U.S. Premiere of Rodrigues & Guerra da Mata’s Iec Long, screening this week at the Berlinale, mixes archival footage, photographs, figurine-based reconstructions, and oral testimony in an eclectic depiction of a derelict Macao fireworks factory. Argentinian director Williams’s spellbinding and enigmatic I Forgot, which will also have its U.S. Premiere, follows a group of Vietnamese teenagers as they stave off boredom by leaping from one building to the next. A North American Premiere, Porterfield’s Take What You Can Carry, in competition at the 2015 Berlinale shorts program, is a delicate portrait of a young American woman in Berlin (Hannah Gross) attempting to reconcile her need for a stable sense of identity with her itinerant lifestyle.

    The lineup will also feature The Actualities of Agnès Varda, a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work in the context of her career-long focus on merging fact and fiction. Varda will be in attendance for several screenings, and the spotlight will feature many new digital restorations, including her debut feature, La Pointe Courte, the landmark Vagabond, and all of her “California Films” (Lion’s Love, Documenteur, Mur Murs, Black Panthers, Uncle Yanco). The spotlight will also feature some of Varda’s most celebrated documentaries, such as Daguerrotypes and The Gleaners and I. Varda is a longtime favorite of the New York Film Festival, and several of her works will return to the big screen at the Film Society, including Documenteur(NYFF ’81), The Gleaners and I (NYFF ’00), Lions Love (NYFF ’69), and Mur Murs (NYFF ’80).

    The films in Repeat as Necessary: The Art of Reenactment trace a partial history of reenactment as its own medium, an act of repetition that often leads to revelation. Recent films like The Act of Killing and The Arbor have called attention to its uses, but reenactment has a rich history as an invaluable mode of documentary art, employed as a tool of dramatization, an investigative strategy, and a means of creating art from the archive. The spotlight will feature works by a wide range of artists and filmmakers working today and over the past several decades, from Jean Eustache, Juan Downey, and Harun Farocki to Elisabeth Subrin, Ming Wong, Simon Fujiwara, Jill Godmilow, and many more.

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  • SNL Documentary to Open 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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    live fom new york documentary The world premiere of the “Saturday Night Live” documentary Live From New York!, will open the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 15.  “Saturday Night Live” has been reflecting and influencing the American story for 40 years. Live From New York! explores the show’s early years, an experiment that began with a young Lorne Michaels and his cast of unknowns, and follows its evolution into a comedy institution. Archival footage is interwoven with stolen moments and exclusive commentary from “SNL” legends, journalists, hosts, crew and others influenced by the comedy giant. LivFrom New York! captures what has enabled “SNL” to continually refresh itself over nearly 800 episodes and keep America laughing for 40 years.  Live From New York! is directed by Tribeca alum Bao Nguyen and produced by JL Pomeroy and Tom Broecker. Tickets for the TFF 2015 Opening Night Gala go on sale on March 23 at tribecafilm.com/festival. The Tribeca Film Festival runs April 15 to April 26. “’SNL’s’ contribution to the arts and to pop culture has been—and continues to be—groundbreaking, and Live From New York!offers an inside look at the show’s inimitable ability to both reflect and impact American news, history and culture,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “This is the story of a creative journey from pilot to institution and a tribute to the moments that kept us laughing and talking long after the episodes aired. We are excited to welcome Bao Nguyen back to Tribeca to open our 14th Festival with the world premiere of Live From New York!.” “After 40 years, the timing just felt right,” said Lorne Michaels. “The selection of Live from New York! to open the 14th Tribeca Film Festival is personally gratifying to me on several levels. Having hosted SNL three times, and guested on several occasions, I speak from a first-hand experience about “SNL’s” rightful place in our culture as well as a welcome addition to our Festival,” said Robert De Niro, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “’Saturday Night Live’ is such a revered institution and we really wanted to make a film that reflected its significance not just to the American comedic tradition but also to American culture and society,” said director Bao Nguyen. “I want to thank Lorne Michaels for allowing us to film in the storied halls of Studio 8H.   I’d also like to thank JL Pomeroy and Tom Broecker for trusting me with their creative vision. Finally, I can’t thank Tribeca enough for all their support. We couldn’t dream of a better place to world premiere Live From New York! than at New York City’s own Tribeca Film Festival.”

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  • Black Women Film Summit Announces 2015 Festival Finalists

    blackwomenfilmsummit 

    The Black Women Film Network (BWFN) announced the finalists who will screen their films at the Black Women Film Festival taking place during the Black Women Film Summit on March 5-7, 2015 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. 

    The finalists are:

    “The Same Difference” – Nneka Onuorah (New York, NY)
    “Your Love” – Laila Petrone (Los Angeles, CA)
    “Black Girl in Paris” – Kiandra Parks (Wilmington, DE)
    “Queen” – Brittany Fennell (Jersey City, NJ)
    “Hands to the Sky”- Kimberly Townes (Los Angeles, CA)
    “New Heights” (web series) – Jenna Bosco (Jersey City, NJ)
    “Bristol Place” – LaShunda Smith (Buford, GA)
    “Rapunzel Jackson” – Malia Dawkins (Studio City, CA)
    “Untold” – Letia Solomon (Gardena, CA)
    “Grey” –  Janlatae Miller (Marietta, GA)
    “The Productive Live” – Mike Ray (Atlanta, GA)

    The Summit will open on Thursday, March 5 with a screening of the Season 4 premiere episode of Centric TV’s “Single Ladies” and close on Saturday, March 7 with a 40th Anniversary screening of the classic film Mahogany featuring a special performance by recording artist and “Empire” actress V. Bozeman.

    A three-day cultural celebration set during Women’s History Month, the Black Women Film Summit consists of the inspiring “Untold Stories” luncheon, the Black Women Film Festival and various seminars and activities that will connect key industry players with aspiring entertainment professionals.

    During the Summit, several VIPs will be honored at the “Untold Stories” Luncheon for their career achievements and their “untold” secrets to success. The luncheon also serves as a fundraiser for scholarships for students entering the film and television industries. 

    The 2015 Untold Stories Luncheon Honorees are:

    Will Packer – CEO – Will Packer Productions
    Robi Reed – VP, Talent Casting – BET Networks
    Lamman Rucker – Actor – Why Did I Get Married, Too?
    Logan Browning – Actress – VH1’s “Hit the Floor”
    Shante Bacon – CEO/Founder – 135th Street Agency
    Tomika DePriest – BWFN Chair Emeritus
    Tia Powell – Publisher – Georgia Film Source Book

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  • Mo’Nique & Isaiah Washington’s BLACKBIRD Sets Release Date

    blackbird Isaiah Washington MoNique

    The urban coming-of-age film BLACKBIRD starring Academy Award winning actress and comedian Mo’Nique and Isaiah Washington, will open in theaters in the U.S. on April 24, 2015.

    Based on the novel by the same name by Larry Duplechan, the film is directed by Patrik-Ian Polk (Noah’s Arc, The Skinny), which he also co-wrote with Rikki Beadle Blair (Stonewall). The film stars Academy Award winning actress and comedian Mo’Nique (Precious), Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy, Blue Caprice, The 100), Terrell Tilford (Single Ladies, Guiding Light), D. Woods (MTV’s Danity Kane), Gary L. Gray(The Cosby Show, Bring It On: All Or Nothing),Torrey Laamar, Kevin Allesee, Nikki Jane and introduces breakthrough talent Julian Walker.

    BLACKBIRD is described as a personal, controversial, and inspiring story that introduces two up-and coming actors – Julian Walker and Kevin Allesee.  BLACKBIRD tells the story of seventeen-year-old Randy (Julian Walker), a devout Christian who tries very hard to be a good person. Since his father (Isaiah Washington) left, Randy takes care of his emotionally disturbed mother (Mo’Nique), sings lead in the church choir and is the kind of friend all of his classmates can depend on. As strong as he seems on the outside, Randy is hiding a secret inner struggle – a denial of his true self. It is not until he opens himself up to love that he discovers that becoming a man means accepting who you really are.

    In February 2014, ‘Blackbird’ began its very successful film festival run as the closing night gala screening for Los Angeles’ Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) where it won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature Film. Other notable festival appearances include Newfest at Lincoln Center in New York City, Out On Film in Atlanta, Reeling in Chicago, Outfest Fusion in Los Angeles, The Seattle LGBT Film Festival, ReelQ in Pittsburgh, Outflix in Memphis, Long Beach QFilms, New York’s American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and The Tampa International LGBT Film Festival.  ‘Blackbird’ also sold out the twelve-hundred-seat historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco at Frameline Film Festival, the country’s oldest LGBT film fest.

    Internationally, ‘Blackbird’ had successful screenings at festivals in Barcelona, Melbourne, Copenhagen and Amsterdam with forthcoming appearances in Canada, England and Italy.  Multiple festival juries and audiences have rewarded ‘Blackbird’ with ‘Best Feature’ honors: Outflix Memphis, Atlanta’s Out On Film, Reeling in Chicago and the Crossroads Film Festival in Polk’s native Mississippi. Additionally, the film received honors for Best Ensemble Cast, Best Director & Best Actor (Julian Walker) at Atlanta’s Out On Film and the Diversity Award at the Barcelona LGTIB Film Festival.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ-HwLGkz2E

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  • Award Winning Indie Film THE WIDOWERS on VOD February 18th

    Richard Lovejoy in THE WIDOWERS, courtesy of Candy Factory Films

    Jonathan Scott Chinn’s directorial debut, THE WIDOWERS, described as a powerful and hilarious film about grief, loneliness, and loss, will be available on VOD February 18.

    A true independent film, THE WIDOWERS was self-financed from personal savings and depended on the contributions of its actors, crew, and craftsmen.  Its core film team, along with a 60% female crew, tell a personal story of loss and explore what happens after the dramatic impact of death has subsided, and the loss has become a new norm.

    As Jake (Richard Lovejoy) finds himself unable to put his life back together after the death of his wife, his best friend signs the two of them up for a grief counseling retreat in upstate New York. There they meet an odd ensemble of fellow mourners. Desperate to feel something again, Jake pushes back against the charade of group therapy sessions and useless bonding exercises. However, he soon discovers that the last remnants of his old life are beginning to crumble, and a new beginning is on the horizon.

    THE WIDOWERS is the winner of Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Ensemble at Chain NYC Film Festival.

    {vimeo}46152726{/vimeo}

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  • Full Frame Doc Film Fest Reveals 2015 Tribute Award Honoree

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     full frame documentary film festival

    The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will honor Marshall Curry with the 2015 Tribute Award, presenting a retrospective of his work; and this year’s Thematic Program will be curated by filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal. 

    Curry is a two-time Academy Award®–nominated documentary director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His first film, Street Fight, won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, AFI/Discovery SilverDocs Festival, and Hot Docs Film Festival. It also received the Jury Prize at Hot Docs and was nominated for a Writer’s Guild of America Award, an Oscar®, and an Emmy. Curry’s next film, Racing Dreams, won the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Documentary. His film If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front won the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Documentary Editing and was nominated for an Academy Award®. Curry’s most recent film, Point and Shoot, won Best Documentary at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award, an IDA Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors Award. Curry’s films have been broadcast nationally on PBS, and have played around the world on the BBC, HBO Latin America, and others. Curry also served as executive producer of Mistaken for Strangers, which opened the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013.

    For this year’s Thematic Program, Full Frame will focus on the complex moral questions around documentation, tapping filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal to curate.

    Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 20 years. Her films include Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, about enigmatic expatriate novelist Paul Bowles; The True Meaning of Pictures,about the work of Appalachian photographer Shelby Lee AdamsManufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky; Act of God, about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning; Payback, a documentary adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth; and Watermark(co-directed by Edward Burtynsky), about human interaction with water around the world. Her films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival, and have won an International Emmy Award for Best Arts Documentary, the Toronto Film Critic’s Association prize for Best Canadian Film, the Canadian Media Awards prize for Best Documentary, and numerous other awards.

    “The ethics and politics of representation have preoccupied me since I started making films two decades ago,” said Baichwal. “It came to a head in 2003 with The True Meaning of Pictures. I realized that by showing the photographs of Shelby Lee Adams in our film, we were subject to exactly the same criticism leveled against him for taking them. And I knew we had to address this in some way beyond having people argue about whether the representation was ethical or not. I also realized that there is no overall rule for tackling these issues: each context, each situation, demands its own complex, delicate, honest, ethical approach.”

    The 18th Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will be held April 9-12, 2015, in Durham, N.C., with Duke University as the presenting sponsor. 

     

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  • THE SURFACE Starring Sean Astin to Open Gasparilla Film Fest

    the surface

    The Florida Premiere of the film “The Surface“, starring Mimi Rogers, Chris Mulkey and Sean Astin will open the 2015 Suncoast Credit Union Gasparilla International Film Festival, taking place March 24 – 29, 2015.

    Directed by Gil Cates, Jr., the movie tells the story of two strangers, both at the end of their rope, who suddenly meet in the middle of the unpredictable waters of Lake Michigan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1gHRRzIqiU

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