Polish director Marcin Wrona was found dead in his hotel room on Friday night, while attending the Gdynia Film Festival in the Baltic city of Gdynia for the Polish premiere of his latest movie Demon. He was 42.
“Demon” made its world premiere last week at the Toronto International Film Festival,
A police spokesman in Gdynia, Michal Rusak, said police found the body of a 42-year-old man, whom he did not identify, at a hotel in Gdynia. The police were notified by the victim’s wife at 5.30 a.m. local time.
The organizers of the 40th Gdynia Film Festival released a statement, “On Friday night, suddenly died Marcin Wrona, the director of “Demon”, screened in the Main Competition at 40th Gdynia Film Festival. As the organizers of the Festival and at the same time friends of Marcin, we are deeply shocked and saddened by this information. We would like to express our sincere condolences to the Wife of the director and all the people who were close to Him. At the same time we would like to inform that the Awards Ceremony planned for today will be held in a shortened form and with full respect to the memory of Marcin.”
The organizers of the Toronto International also released a statement, that said,“We are all deeply shocked and saddened at the news of the sudden death of Marcin Wrona. His filmDemon truly marked the emergence of a strong new voice on the world cinema stage. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family, especially his wife and producing partner, Olga Szymanska, who was with him at the premiere in Toronto.”
Demon directed by Marcin Wrona, is described by the Toronto International Film Festival as “A clever take on one of the most famous figures of Jewish folklore — the dybbuk, a spirit of a person not properly laid to rest that seeks to inhabit the body of a living person — Wrona’s latest sets a creepy tale of possession squarely in the middle of a night of wild revelry.
Peter (Israeli actor Itay Tiran, previously seen at the Festival in Lebanon) has just arrived from England to marry his beautiful fiancée, Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), at her family’s country house in rural Poland. The old homestead is a gift from his future father-in-law, and Peter is excited to renovate it into a home for his new family. While inspecting the grounds on the eve of his nuptials, Peter finds skeletal human remains buried on the property. Haunted by his discovery, Peter slowly starts to unravel while the joyous and drunken traditional Polish wedding goes on around him; and soon, he is overcome by what seem to be epileptic fits, panicking his bride and scandalizing his father-in-law.
As the night wears on, it becomes apparent that there is an uninvited guest at the wedding, that she is lonely — and that she is very, very dead.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn2zvlURSeU-
DEMON Director Marcin Wrona Dies While Attending Film Festival
Polish director Marcin Wrona was found dead in his hotel room on Friday night, while attending the Gdynia Film Festival in the Baltic city of Gdynia for the Polish premiere of his latest movie Demon. He was 42.
“Demon” made its world premiere last week at the Toronto International Film Festival,
A police spokesman in Gdynia, Michal Rusak, said police found the body of a 42-year-old man, whom he did not identify, at a hotel in Gdynia. The police were notified by the victim’s wife at 5.30 a.m. local time.
The organizers of the 40th Gdynia Film Festival released a statement, “On Friday night, suddenly died Marcin Wrona, the director of “Demon”, screened in the Main Competition at 40th Gdynia Film Festival. As the organizers of the Festival and at the same time friends of Marcin, we are deeply shocked and saddened by this information. We would like to express our sincere condolences to the Wife of the director and all the people who were close to Him. At the same time we would like to inform that the Awards Ceremony planned for today will be held in a shortened form and with full respect to the memory of Marcin.”
The organizers of the Toronto International also released a statement, that said,“We are all deeply shocked and saddened at the news of the sudden death of Marcin Wrona. His filmDemon truly marked the emergence of a strong new voice on the world cinema stage. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family, especially his wife and producing partner, Olga Szymanska, who was with him at the premiere in Toronto.”
Demon directed by Marcin Wrona, is described by the Toronto International Film Festival as “A clever take on one of the most famous figures of Jewish folklore — the dybbuk, a spirit of a person not properly laid to rest that seeks to inhabit the body of a living person — Wrona’s latest sets a creepy tale of possession squarely in the middle of a night of wild revelry.
Peter (Israeli actor Itay Tiran, previously seen at the Festival in Lebanon) has just arrived from England to marry his beautiful fiancée, Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), at her family’s country house in rural Poland. The old homestead is a gift from his future father-in-law, and Peter is excited to renovate it into a home for his new family. While inspecting the grounds on the eve of his nuptials, Peter finds skeletal human remains buried on the property. Haunted by his discovery, Peter slowly starts to unravel while the joyous and drunken traditional Polish wedding goes on around him; and soon, he is overcome by what seem to be epileptic fits, panicking his bride and scandalizing his father-in-law.
As the night wears on, it becomes apparent that there is an uninvited guest at the wedding, that she is lonely — and that she is very, very dead.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn2zvlURSeU
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SPOTLIGHT and CAROL to be Centerpiece Films for 23rd Hamptons International Film Festival
SPOTLIGHT will be the Saturday Centerpiece Film and CAROL will be the Sunday Centerpiece Film for the 23rd Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF), which runs October 8 to 12, 2015.
Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James and Stanley Tucci, Academy Award nominee Tom McCarthy’s SPOTLIGHT tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delve into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world. The Saturday Centerpiece screening will be sponsored by Blundstone Boots. Open Road Films will release the title in select theaters on November 6, 2015. SPOTLIGHT will be in theaters nationwide by Thanksgiving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXymzwz0V2g
In an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s seminal novel The Price of Salt, Academy Award nominee Todd Haynes’ CAROL, stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. The story follows two women from very different backgrounds who find themselves in an unexpected love affair in 1950s New York. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change. The Weinstein Company film will open in theaters on November 20th, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4z7Px68ywk
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Emily Blunt, Killer Films, Albert Maysles, Stuart Match Suna to be Honored at 2015 Hamptons International Film Festival Inaugural Awards Dinner
The 2015 Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) will honor Emily Blunt, iconic independent film production company Killer Films (celebrating its 20th anniversary), legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles (receiving a posthumous tribute), and longtime HIFF board chairman Stuart Match Suna, at its inaugural Awards Dinner to take place in East Hampton on Sunday, October 11, 2015. The Dinner, which will take place during the 23rd annual Hamptons International Film Festival, taking place October 8 to 12, 2015, will benefit the Festival’s year-round programming initiatives, the annual Screenwriters’ Lab, and the longtime summer initiatives; SummerDocs and the Student Filmmaking Workshops.
As part of the Awards Dinner, Emily Blunt will be presented with the Variety Creative Impact in Acting Award. Blunt has been to the festival previously in 2005 when she was recognized as one of HIFF’s Rising Stars [now Ten Actors to Watch] program in 2005 in conjunction with her performance in GIDEON’S DAUGHTER, for which she won a Golden Globe. Blunt can also be seen in the upcoming release SICARIO (pictured above), in which she stars as an FBI agent enlisted by an elected government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico. The Lionsgate film also stars Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0SDT2GeFg
Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, who founded the New York-based production company Killer Films in 1995, will be honored with the HIFF Industry Award for 20 years of innovative, risk-taking movies and for consistently championing unique voices in independent cinema. Killer Films has produced several of the most acclaimed American independent films over the past two decades, including CAROL, STILL ALICE, which made its US Premiere at last year’s Closing Night of HIFF with Julianne Moore in attendance, FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOYS DON’T CRY, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, HAPPINESS, and KIDS.
Legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles will receive a posthumous tribute. Maysles passed away in March 2015, leaving a rich cinematic legacy, including GREY GARDENS, GIMME SHELTER, SALESMAN, and IRIS, which won HIFF’s Audience Award last year for Documentary.
HIFF founding board member, Stuart Match Suna, will be honored for his 18 years as Board Chairman. After this year’s festival, Suna will step into the Chair Emeritus role, handing the Chairman reins over to longtime board members Randy Mastro and Alec Baldwin. Under Suna’s leadership, the Festival expanded into Southampton, Montauk, Sag Harbor, and Westhampton, and evolved into a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing film culture. Alec Baldwin will present the award to Suna.
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Winners of 42nd Student Academy Awards Receive Medal Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last night honored 15 student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards were announced and presented by actors Michelle Rodriguez and Jason Mitchell, Oscar®-winning director John Lasseter, and the Oscar-winning team behind the animated feature “Big Hero 6,” Roy Conli, Don Hall and Chris Williams.
The 2015 Student Academy Award winners are:
Alternative
Gold: “Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California
Silver: “Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York
Animation
Gold: “Soar,” Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco
Silver: “An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts
Bronze: “Taking the Plunge,” Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of
Visual Arts
Documentary
Gold: “Looking at the Stars,” Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California
Silver: “I Married My Family’s Killer,” Emily Kassie, Brown University
Bronze: “Boxeadora,” Meg Smaker, Stanford University
Narrative
Gold: “Day One,” Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California
Silver: “This Way Up,” Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute
Bronze: “Stealth,” Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute
Foreign Film
Gold: “Fidelity,” Ilker Çatak, Hamburg Media School, Germany
Silver: “The Last Will,” Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Bronze: “Everything Will Be Okay” Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria
The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker and Robert Zemeckis.
Image: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards® on Thursday, September 17, in Beverly Hills. Gold Medal winners (left to right): Alternative film winner Daniel Drummond, Documentary film winner Alexandre Peralta, Animated film winner Alyce Tzue, Narrative film winner Henry Hughes and Foreign film winner Ilker Catak.
credit: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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THE DANISH GIRL + SPOTLIGHT to Open 2015 Mill Valley Film Festival
The 2015 Mill Valley Film Festival, scheduled for October 8 to 18, will open with Tom Hooper’s THE DANISH GIRL, starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, and Tom McCarthy’s SPOTLIGHT, starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams.
Oscar®-winning The King’s Speech (MVFF 2010) director Tom Hooper returns with another remarkable historical drama. Based on the incredible true story of painter Lili Elbe (Academy Award®-winner Eddie Redmayne, MVFF Spotlight 2014), The Danish Girl explores the life of one of the first people in recorded history to receive gender reassignment surgery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d88APYIGkjk
In Spotlight, Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo head an impeccable ensemble cast recreating the true events of 2001, when The Boston Globe broke open the massive child molestation scandal within the local Catholic Archdiocese—and the shocking Church cover-up that kept it a dirty secret for decades. it is the All the President’s Men of our generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXymzwz0V2g
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BEST OF ENEMIES Wins 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award | TRAILER
BEST OF ENEMIES, directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, is the winner of the 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award. The award-winning film chronicles the groundbreaking series of televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., during the 1968 presidential conventions. The film was released by Magnolia Pictures this summer.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today. In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult—their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed. And a new era in public discourse was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgfQvB2dvA
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Director Masato Harada to be the focus of JAPAN NOW at 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival
Masato Harada will be the first Director in Focus of 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)’s new section JAPAN NOW. Masato Harada is the award-winning director of such works as “Bounce Ko Gals,” “Climber’s High,” “Chronicle of My Mother” and “The Emperor in August.”
Created to showcase outstanding Japanese films from recent and upcoming months, JAPAN NOW will display the diversity of Japanese film, and unique facets of Japanese culture, as well as providing a multifaceted look inside Japan today. The section will also highlight outstanding work by other directors, with subtitled screenings of films to boost their recognition overseas.
Masato Harada was chosen as the initial Director in Focus due to his success over a 30-year career, creating a range of compelling films that are both social criticisms and world-class entertainments. He has received international attention, but JAPAN NOW will present the first mini-retrospective of his work, with English-subtitled screenings of “Kamikaze Taxi” (1994), “Climber’s High”(2008), “Chronicle of My Mother” (2011), “Kakekomi” (2015) and “The Emperor in August” (2015).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMxeYUWjAgU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10CY5odEygo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk9cOWlhV2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0uE7cCqyKw
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Pharrell Williams + Daft Punk Documentary DAFT PUNK: UNCHAINED to Screen at Doc’n Roll Film Fest
Doc’n Roll Film Festival will screen the French documentary Daft Punk: Unchained, directed by Hervé Martin Delpierre, and the first film to be made about the pop culture phenomenon.
The often elusive duo have sold 12 million albums worldwide and won awards around the globe without ever compromising their vision or sound. Between fiction and reality, magic and secrets, future and reinvention, theatricality and humility, The Robots have built a unique world. The documentary shows Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo on their permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom. Unchained has unprecedented access and combines rare archive footage and exclusive interviews with their closest collaborators including Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, Michel Gondry, Pete Tong, Skrillex and Leiji Matsumoto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0
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Dustin Guy Defa’s Short Films to Get 1 Week Run at Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC will feature a one-week run, from October 14 to 20, of short films by filmmaker Dustin Guy Defa under the theme Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa.
“Good short films don’t get the attention that they deserve, which is all the more grievous as there are some terrific short films being made—and Defa is making many of them,” wrote Richard Brody (The New Yorker) in admiration of the director’s Person to Person, an official selection of last year’s New Directors/New Films and part of Local Color. “Put ’em together and it’s almost a feature release, which is what these richly thoughtful yet ultra-low-budget films merit.”
In addition to Person to Person, Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa also includes Family Nightmare (2011), Declaration of War (2013), Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman (2013), and Review (2015), an official selection of the 53rd New York Film Festival.
LOCAL COLOR: THE SHORT FILMS OF DUSTIN GUY DEFA
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Declaration of War
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, digital projection, 7m
Defa takes the piss out of Bush-era foreign policy as our then-President’s declaration of the War on Terror is met by an unrelenting standing ovation.
Family Nightmare
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2011, HDCAM, 10m
Defa delves into his family’s home-movie archive for this by turns bleak and funny but always moving Bosch-esque group portrait, an act of personal exorcism on VHS.
Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, HDCAM, 15m
After being dumped by her fed-up boyfriend (Josh Safdie), a young woman (Hannah Gross), allows an alluring stranger (Dakota Goldhor) to crash at her place, unwittingly opening a Pandora’s Box of insecurities and paranoia.
Person to Person
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 18m
The morning after hosting a party, record-store clerk Benny (Bene Coopersmith) finds a stranger (Deragh Campbell) passed out on his floor; upon waking, she refuses to leave. A New Directors/New Films 2014 selection.
Review
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2015, digital projection, 4m
A young woman recounts a story to a group of friends who listen on with rapt attention, but the tale sounds very familiar… An NYFF53 selection.
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Studio Ghibli to Receive 2015 Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award
The 20th Busan International Film Festival selected Studio Ghibli as the recipient of the 2015 Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award. The Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award is presented to an Asian filmmaker or a group that has significantly contributed to the development of the Asian film industry and Asian culture.
Studio Ghibli, celebrating its 30th anniversary, was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao who are well known for significant achievements in animated film history. Miyazaki Hayao consolidated the status of Japanese animated films, especially with Spirited Away (2001) which won with the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2003 Oscars. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Career Achievement at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival. Takahata Isao also led in the golden age of Japanese animated films by directing Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1991), Pom Poko (1994), and the Oscar-nominated feature The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013).
Studio Ghibli has produced numerous masterpieces with an extended production period, providing a stable production system as well as training successors for the development of animations. The studio has also left a significant mark through activities concerning environmental protection, peace, and the future of children.
In celebration of Studio Ghibli as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year, the Busan International Film Festival will screen Miyazaki Hayao’s My Neighbor Totoro (1988) in the Open Cinema section and Takahata Isao’s Only Yesterday (1991) in the Wide Angle – Animation Showcase section. A chairman and a producer of Studio Ghibli Suzuki Toshio will attend the award ceremony for The Asian Filmmaker of the Year. The Busan Cinema Center will also screen another 18 masterpieces of Studio Ghibli under the ‘Spotlight on STUDIO GHIBLI’ from September 21 (Mon) to September 27 (Sun). For more information, please visit the Busan Cinema Center website.
Studio Ghibli Inc. / Animation Film Studio/ Japan
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao, and has produced twenty-one feature-length films. Most Studio Ghibli films ranked number one at the box office in Japan in the year in which they were released. Spirited Away, directed by Miyazaki Hayao and released in 2001, is the all-time highest grossing film in Japan, earning 30.4 billion yen at the box office. The Studio’s Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) are among Japan’s top 5 grossing films. Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. Spirited Away was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2003 Oscars. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Miyazaki Hayao. Studio Ghibli released two films in 2013, The Wind Rises, written and directed by Miyazaki Hayao, and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, directed by Takahata Isao, that earned consecutive nominations for the 2013 and 2014 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. The latest film, When Marnie Was There, opened in Japan on July 19, 2014.
Studio Ghibli Filmography
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Pom Poko (1994)
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Cat Returns (2002)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)
Arrietty (2010)
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
The Wind Rises (2013)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
When Marnie Was There (2014)
* Past Recipients of the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award
12th (2014): Ann Hui (Director, Hong Kong)
11th (2013): Rithy Panh (Director, Cambodia)
10th (2012): Wakamatsu Koji (Director, Producer / Japan)
9th (2011): Tsui Hark (Director, Producer / Hong Kong)
8th (2010): Tsai Ming-Liang (Director / Taiwan)
7th (2009): Yash Chopra (Director, Producer / India)
6th (2008): Gulnara Sarsenova (Festival Director of International Eurasia Film Festival / Kazakhstan)
5th (2007): The late Edward Yang (Director / Taiwan)
4th (2006): Andy Lau (Producer, Actor / Hong Kong)
3rd (2005): NHK (Broadcasting Station / Japan)
2nd (2004): Hou Hsiao Hsien (Director / Taiwan)
1st (2003): Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Director, Producer / Iran)
via release
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Director Stephen Frears to be Honored with the 2015 Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award
Director Stephen Frears will be honored with the 2015 Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming 26th Stockholm International Film Festival taking place November 11 to 22, 2015. During the premiere of his latest film The Program, Frears will visit the 2015 Stockholm International Film Festival to receive the Bronze Horse.
The festival notes that, “British director Stephen Frears never shies away from taking on people’s dark and tragic sides, doing so with warmth, passion and a sense of humor.”
“This year’s receiver of the Lifetime Achievement Award is a filmmaker who is not afraid to take a stand for those who exist at the margins of society. His filmmaking ranges from political films with social pathos to grand epics with the biggest stars. Regardless of what form the story takes, Stephen Frears shows us that he is a director with a genuine curiosity for people’s life stories.”
The prize has previously been awarded to directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Quentin Tarantino, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Oliver Stone and Mike Leigh.
Stephen Frears latest film Philomena (2013) was shown during the Stockholm International Film Festival two years ago and he returns with The Program (2015), which tells the dramatic story of Lance Armstrong. The undefeated Tour de France champion was discovered to be involved in the most sophisticated doping program in the history of cycling. Starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and Chris O’Dowd as David Walsh, the journalist who devoted years to reveal the scandalous fraud, The Program is described as a gripping story with a deeply psychological portrait of its main characters.
The Program stars Ben Foster, Lee Pace, Dustin Hoffman, Chris O ‘Dowd, Elaine Cassidy, Jesse Plemons, and Laura Donnelly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBL6Qmloj0
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2015 Seattle South Asian Film Festival Reveals Lineup; Opens with Comedy FOR HERE OR TO GO?
The 10th annual Seattle South Asian Film Festival slated for October 15-25, announced a lineup of 59 films from 9 countries, under the theme “Coming Home”.
Sri Lanka is in the spotlight at 2015 Seattle South Asian Film Festival with a program of films and the attendance of veteran Sri Lankan filmmaker and recipient of the 2014 Tasveer Emerald Award Prasanna Vithanage. A retrospective of Vithanage’s work will take place over the first weekend of the Festival and the filmmaker himself will appear at Q&As following each of the four films included in the retrospective, at a symposium titled “Human Rights and the Politics of Filmmaking in South Asia,” and at a reception to be held in his honor.
Opening Night kicks off the 2015 Seattle South Asian Film Festival with the dramatic comedy FOR HERE OR TO GO?, (pictured above) a humorous look at personal battles faced by immigrants living in America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4F3A_e4zAc
Pakistani-American comedian Fawzia Mirza will grace the Festival’s Centerpiece Gala to present her short film THE FIRST SESSION and perform her one-woman play, “Me, My Mom, and Sharmila.” Mirza is known for her web series “Kam Kardashian” and sketch comedy series “Brown Girl Problems” and was named to Indiewire’s Top 10 Creatives of 2014.
The 2015 Seattle South Asian Film Festival closes with THE SPECTACULAR JIHAD OF TAZ RAHIM with the director Raghav Murali and actor Rahsaan Islam expected to attend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMzbTIfi-FI
Local films featured at SSAFF 2015 include DRAWING THE TIGER by Amy Benson and Scott Squire, FLYING KISS by Tarun Seth, THREADS by Cathy Stevulak, SONGS OF THE BARDS OF BENGAL- THE BAULS AND FAKIRS by Monalisa Dasgupta, and THE DECISION by Joydeep Das.
Further highlights include a new documentary AMONG THE BELIEVERS, a timely look into radical Islam in Pakistan and the conditions that led to its rise. Filmmakers Hemal Trivedi and Mo Naqvi are expected to attend the screening. A double-feature presentation on partition includes A THIN WALL by director Mara Ahmad and PEACE, DAAL, AND PARTITION by director Paisley Smith.