Do you remember the very first moment when you realized a movie could be far more than just a brief, amiable diversion from the temporal slog of life as an extant human? That first moment you realized film could be art capable of providing a fully nourishing spiritual experience? That perhaps even made you want to become a filmmaker in order to provide that experience to someone else? Just as important: Do you recall the most recent movie that gave you that same feeling or fit of inspiration? Well, in this week’s Survey Says that’s just what we asked: What’s the first movie you saw that you considered a masterpiece… and the most recent?
Thirty-plus years of Film Independent Artist Development, of course, means access to the accumulated wisdom Film Independent Fellows. So with our latest query in hand, we took a trip down memory road to...
Thirty-plus years of Film Independent Artist Development, of course, means access to the accumulated wisdom Film Independent Fellows. So with our latest query in hand, we took a trip down memory road to...
- 4/22/2024
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Calling all Latino filmmakers, John Travolta wants to work with you. Swinging by Panama to present his 1978 musical rom-com “Grease” at the 12th Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama), Travolta professed his great love for “Mexico, Central America, South America, all of its parts.”
“There is an incredible humanity that prevails and is different from anywhere else in the world,” he told Variety.
Surprised to hear that Robert de Niro had starred in the Argentine series “Nada,” Travolta exclaimed: “I would have loved that, I would have enjoyed being lured to South America to play a part for a while.”
The closest he’s come to working with a Latino director was with Alfonso Cuarón, who produced the short film streaming on Disney+ “The Shepherd,” based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella, which follows a young Royal Air Force pilot flying home for Christmas across the North Sea. When the pilot...
“There is an incredible humanity that prevails and is different from anywhere else in the world,” he told Variety.
Surprised to hear that Robert de Niro had starred in the Argentine series “Nada,” Travolta exclaimed: “I would have loved that, I would have enjoyed being lured to South America to play a part for a while.”
The closest he’s come to working with a Latino director was with Alfonso Cuarón, who produced the short film streaming on Disney+ “The Shepherd,” based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella, which follows a young Royal Air Force pilot flying home for Christmas across the North Sea. When the pilot...
- 4/8/2024
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Over the course of her career, Gina Prince-Bythewood has proven she can do it all. Across five films and roughly 20 years, she had made an enduring romantic sports story, a southern family drama, a pop star star-crossed romance, a superhero fantasy action film, and a feminist historical epic. And with every new genre the filmmaker has ticked off her list, Prince-Bythewood has shown a mastery for its particularities every time.
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pacific Grove, California, Prince-Bythewood attended University of California in Los Angeles, where she studied film and graduated in 1991. After several years as a writer on TV shows like “A Different World” and “South Central,” her first film, 2000’s “Love and Basketball,” was released to critical acclaim. The story of two childhood best friends with a shared love for basketball — and a chronicle of their tumultuous relationship through the years as they both seek...
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pacific Grove, California, Prince-Bythewood attended University of California in Los Angeles, where she studied film and graduated in 1991. After several years as a writer on TV shows like “A Different World” and “South Central,” her first film, 2000’s “Love and Basketball,” was released to critical acclaim. The story of two childhood best friends with a shared love for basketball — and a chronicle of their tumultuous relationship through the years as they both seek...
- 2/2/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
While the horror genre touched on queerness well before Hellbent was ever released, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’ 2004 film is considered to be the first of its kind: an openly queer slasher. Without question, there is no ambiguity about the characters’ sexualities as they partake in the annual Halloween festivities in West Hollywood. The only real mystery about these men is the masked killer following them, hoping to add their names to his growing list of headless victims.
Art director Etheredge-Ouzts was first approached by producers Michael Roth, Joseph Wolf and Karen Lee Wolf in 2000 about making a gay horror film. By then, the trend of slashers hard on the heels of Scream had already reached its expiration date, but even so, what eventually became Hellbent remains a unique entry in the first major revival of slashers. And what was once coded in both past and contemporary films was now glaring and unapologetic in this one.
Art director Etheredge-Ouzts was first approached by producers Michael Roth, Joseph Wolf and Karen Lee Wolf in 2000 about making a gay horror film. By then, the trend of slashers hard on the heels of Scream had already reached its expiration date, but even so, what eventually became Hellbent remains a unique entry in the first major revival of slashers. And what was once coded in both past and contemporary films was now glaring and unapologetic in this one.
- 9/28/2023
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Ava DuVernay’s arts and social collective Array has announced its slate of summer programming, including an actor’s masterclass taught by Emmy winner Niecy Nash-Betts, a cinematic celebration of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the debut of two new commissioned projects from Array’s Law Enforcement Accountability Project (Leap).
The summer lineup is curated by Array’s SVP of public programming, Mercedes Cooper, and in keeping with the Array’s mission of “igniting social change through the cinematic arts,” all events are free to the public.
“Array’s focus on instigating narrative change through our non-profit Array Alliance allows us to gather audiences around issues aligned with our core mission and everyday work,” said Cooper in a statement announcing the lineup.
“With film and art as the doorway, this summer’s programs invite conversations around otherness, authority and privilege, love and loss, as well as Black masculinity,” she continued. “Our ongoing...
The summer lineup is curated by Array’s SVP of public programming, Mercedes Cooper, and in keeping with the Array’s mission of “igniting social change through the cinematic arts,” all events are free to the public.
“Array’s focus on instigating narrative change through our non-profit Array Alliance allows us to gather audiences around issues aligned with our core mission and everyday work,” said Cooper in a statement announcing the lineup.
“With film and art as the doorway, this summer’s programs invite conversations around otherness, authority and privilege, love and loss, as well as Black masculinity,” she continued. “Our ongoing...
- 6/1/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Saturday, May 27 after two weeks of films, celebrities, parties and interviews in the small city on the French Riviera. Now that the prizes have been given out, we can start looking at what could be top contenders for next year’s Oscars. Let’s analyze the results from this year’s festival and see this history that each category has when it comes to the Academy Awards.
Over the past several years the festival has been a springboard for major players in the Oscar derby. We’ve really seen it be an influence in the International Feature category where in-competition films have been nominated a regular basis. Recent Cannes films that ended up being top awards contenders in above the line categories include “Triangle of Sadness,” “Drive My Car,” “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “BlacKkKlansman.
Over the past several years the festival has been a springboard for major players in the Oscar derby. We’ve really seen it be an influence in the International Feature category where in-competition films have been nominated a regular basis. Recent Cannes films that ended up being top awards contenders in above the line categories include “Triangle of Sadness,” “Drive My Car,” “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “BlacKkKlansman.
- 5/28/2023
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
“Happiness is a Warm Gun” isn’t the only connection between The Beatles and Peanuts. Both groups exemplified the optimism of the 1960s era. Charles M. Schulz’s Charlie Brown was so assured of positive outcomes he repeatedly tried to kick a field-goal-placed football held by the town’s resident five-cents-a-session psychiatrist, Lucy, in spite of the knowledge she would pull it out from under him at the last moment. He faced defeat and realized “the world didn’t come to an end.”
When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...
When Schulz’s comic strip moved into animated TV specials, much of that expectant wonder was expressed through the music. Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi joined the Peanuts’ creative gang in 1964, when he was hired to score a TV documentary about Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The documentary never aired, but jazz label Fantasy Records released the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack, Jazz Impressions of A Boy...
- 3/11/2023
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Anthology Film Archives
Citizen Kane plays on 35mm this Saturday and Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
The Todd Solondz retro continues with 35mm showings of Happiness, while Wild at Heart, Poetic Justice, Vanilla Sky, and Kuroneko also play on film.
Japan Society
The anime classic Whisper of the Heart plays on 35mm this Friday.
Museum of Modern Art
A series on Claudia Cardinale continues, including 8 1/2 this Friday.
Film Forum
Lou Ye’s Suzhou River has been given a 4K restoration, while Black Orpheus screens on 35mm this Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Scorsese, Elaine May, von Sternberg and more.
IFC Center
House, Akira, and Rosemary’s Baby have screenings.
The post NYC Weekend Watch: Citizen Kane, Vanilla Sky, Whisper of the Heart & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
Anthology Film Archives
Citizen Kane plays on 35mm this Saturday and Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
The Todd Solondz retro continues with 35mm showings of Happiness, while Wild at Heart, Poetic Justice, Vanilla Sky, and Kuroneko also play on film.
Japan Society
The anime classic Whisper of the Heart plays on 35mm this Friday.
Museum of Modern Art
A series on Claudia Cardinale continues, including 8 1/2 this Friday.
Film Forum
Lou Ye’s Suzhou River has been given a 4K restoration, while Black Orpheus screens on 35mm this Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Scorsese, Elaine May, von Sternberg and more.
IFC Center
House, Akira, and Rosemary’s Baby have screenings.
The post NYC Weekend Watch: Citizen Kane, Vanilla Sky, Whisper of the Heart & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
- 2/16/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After two years of cancellations and delays, the Cannes Film Festival finally returned to the south of France during the month of May. The winners of this year’s festivities were announced on Saturday, May 25. How many of these will become major players in this year’s Oscar derby? Below let’s review the results from the 75th installment of the international festival and examine the history each serves as a forecaster for the Academy Awards.
In recent years, Cannes has served as a launching pad for films that have become major contenders in awards season. This is particularly true in the International Feature category which, for the past several years, has had several nominees that were screened in competition. It’s also been true in other categories, including several above the line races, with films like “Drive My Car,” “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “BlacKkKlansman” having their premieres on the Croissette.
In recent years, Cannes has served as a launching pad for films that have become major contenders in awards season. This is particularly true in the International Feature category which, for the past several years, has had several nominees that were screened in competition. It’s also been true in other categories, including several above the line races, with films like “Drive My Car,” “Parasite,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “BlacKkKlansman” having their premieres on the Croissette.
- 6/6/2022
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
After the Oscars, the Palme d’Or is the most prestigious film award in the business, and it’s a lot less predictable. Coming from a jury usually comprised of actors and directors, it arrives as the outcome of furious debate and often conflicting values about the nature of the art form. There is no mathematical formula for predicting the Palme d’Or, and educated guesswork can be misleading, but it’s still worth a shot.
Handed out at the festival since 1955, the golden prize represents the pinnacle of prestige for the filmmaker who receives it. As Cannes presents itself as the nexus of the greatest cinema on the planet, the prize is an extension of that mentality, and it invites winners into an exclusive club that spans film history. Recipients of the Palme d’Or have ranged from “Black Orpheus” and “La Dolce Vita” to “Apocalypse Now.” In some cases,...
Handed out at the festival since 1955, the golden prize represents the pinnacle of prestige for the filmmaker who receives it. As Cannes presents itself as the nexus of the greatest cinema on the planet, the prize is an extension of that mentality, and it invites winners into an exclusive club that spans film history. Recipients of the Palme d’Or have ranged from “Black Orpheus” and “La Dolce Vita” to “Apocalypse Now.” In some cases,...
- 5/27/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Paris Theater
An all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective is underway, with the director present for The Piano on Sunday.
Metrograph
Films by Varda, Chris Marker, Demy, and Resnais play in a new series on Left Bank cinema; “Metrograph A to Z” returns with Polanski’s Bitter Moon; Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and Perfect Blue screen late.
Museum of Modern Art
A Peter Bogdanovich retrospective has begun, as has a look at the films of Larry Clark.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of Black Orpheus and Pink Narcissus play this weekend.
Film Forum
A new restoration of Joseph Losey’s The Servant begins playing, while Donkey Skin screens on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
As First Look commences the Museum offers “Second Look,” a retrospective of past festivals that includes a print of Chantal Akerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Loznitsa’s Donbass.
Paris Theater
An all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective is underway, with the director present for The Piano on Sunday.
Metrograph
Films by Varda, Chris Marker, Demy, and Resnais play in a new series on Left Bank cinema; “Metrograph A to Z” returns with Polanski’s Bitter Moon; Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and Perfect Blue screen late.
Museum of Modern Art
A Peter Bogdanovich retrospective has begun, as has a look at the films of Larry Clark.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of Black Orpheus and Pink Narcissus play this weekend.
Film Forum
A new restoration of Joseph Losey’s The Servant begins playing, while Donkey Skin screens on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
As First Look commences the Museum offers “Second Look,” a retrospective of past festivals that includes a print of Chantal Akerman’s Almayer’s Folly and Loznitsa’s Donbass.
- 3/11/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: A new musical stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning 1959 film Black Orpheus is being readied for a Broadway premiere next season, producers said today. The production will feature a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, original music by Brazilian music icon Sergio Mendes, and direction and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, the Tony-winning choreographer of Ain’t Too Proud.
In addition to winning both the Cannes Palme d’Or and the 1959 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the 1959 film directed by Marcel Camus based on a play by Vinicius de Moraes played a seminal role in launching the international popularity of Bossa Nova music. The stage adaptation will feature both new, original music by Mendes and selections from the beloved movie score by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Vinicius de Moraes.
In a statement, producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey said, “It is our privilege to ready Black...
In addition to winning both the Cannes Palme d’Or and the 1959 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the 1959 film directed by Marcel Camus based on a play by Vinicius de Moraes played a seminal role in launching the international popularity of Bossa Nova music. The stage adaptation will feature both new, original music by Mendes and selections from the beloved movie score by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Vinicius de Moraes.
In a statement, producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey said, “It is our privilege to ready Black...
- 1/20/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
France has been a supreme force in the Oscars’ international feature race for decades. This year, three acclaimed films from women directors — Céline Sciamma, Audrey Diwan and Julia Ducournau — are believed to be at the top of the list to represent the country for the upcoming 94th ceremony, set to take place on March 27. Though France is the most-nominated country in the history of the category, it hasn’t walked away with the prize in nearly 30 years. Can that change this year?
The French submission is decided annually by the National Cinema Center. The committee will hold its first meeting on Thursday to pre-select a shortlist of films, with the producers being “auditioned” by the committee on Oct. 12, before the final choice is made. Sciamma’s “Petite Maman,” Ducournau’s “Titane” and Diwan’s “Happening” are believed to be the favorites for consideration. “Happening” was just acquired by IFC Films...
The French submission is decided annually by the National Cinema Center. The committee will hold its first meeting on Thursday to pre-select a shortlist of films, with the producers being “auditioned” by the committee on Oct. 12, before the final choice is made. Sciamma’s “Petite Maman,” Ducournau’s “Titane” and Diwan’s “Happening” are believed to be the favorites for consideration. “Happening” was just acquired by IFC Films...
- 10/7/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
After going virtual last year and not handing out any prizes due to the Covid pandemic, the 2021 Cannes Film Festival returned to form by announcing its winners on July 17. How many of these will figure in the upcoming Oscar race? We recap the results from the 74th edition of this foremost of film festivals and review its history as a forecaster of the Academy Awards.
The top award at Cannes is the Palme d’Or. Over the years, 40 winners of this prize have amassed 135 Academy Award nominations. Seventeen of these have claimed a combined 32 Oscars. This year, the Palme d’Or went to French filmmaker Julia Ducournau‘s “Titane.” Her dramatic thriller centers on a father reunited with his son who was missing for a decade during which several unexplained crimes were committed. Ducournau is the second woman to take this top prize following Jane Campion‘s breakthrough in 1993 with “The Piano.
The top award at Cannes is the Palme d’Or. Over the years, 40 winners of this prize have amassed 135 Academy Award nominations. Seventeen of these have claimed a combined 32 Oscars. This year, the Palme d’Or went to French filmmaker Julia Ducournau‘s “Titane.” Her dramatic thriller centers on a father reunited with his son who was missing for a decade during which several unexplained crimes were committed. Ducournau is the second woman to take this top prize following Jane Campion‘s breakthrough in 1993 with “The Piano.
- 7/18/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
The final full day of screenings at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ended with a statistic, which was delivered by Cannes General Delegate Thierry Fremaux on the stage of the Salle Debussy just before midnight on Friday:
Over the first 11 days of the festival and the thousands of Covid-19 tests administered on the premises each day, 70 people tested positive for the virus. For Fremaux and the festival, the stat – slightly more than the three-positive-tests-per-day estimate made earlier – was still one to celebrate, suggesting that the scaled-down Cannes managed to navigate a difficult time without turning into a superspreader event.
Of course, Fremaux’s announcement preceded the screening of Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” a movie about aging, illness and death, which perhaps made it a tricky moment to be celebrating all the negative tests.
The prize parade
According to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top...
Over the first 11 days of the festival and the thousands of Covid-19 tests administered on the premises each day, 70 people tested positive for the virus. For Fremaux and the festival, the stat – slightly more than the three-positive-tests-per-day estimate made earlier – was still one to celebrate, suggesting that the scaled-down Cannes managed to navigate a difficult time without turning into a superspreader event.
Of course, Fremaux’s announcement preceded the screening of Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” a movie about aging, illness and death, which perhaps made it a tricky moment to be celebrating all the negative tests.
The prize parade
According to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top...
- 7/17/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Tilda Swinton to attend restored screening of Peter Wollen’s 1987 UK film Friendship’s Death.
Two documentaries from Mark Cousins and restored films from Kinuyo Tanaka, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles will screen in Cannes Classics, announced on Wednesday (June 23).
Cousins’ The Story Of Film: A New Generation and The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas, a profile of the celebrated British producer, are among a documentary line-up that incudes Buñuel, Un Cineasta Surrealista from Javier Espada, and All About Yves Montand by Yves Jeuland.
The roster of restored narrative films includes David Lynch’s 2001 Mulholland Drive, Japanese actor-filmmaker Kinuyo Tanaka’s (pictured) The Moon Has Risen,...
Two documentaries from Mark Cousins and restored films from Kinuyo Tanaka, Oscar Micheaux, and Orson Welles will screen in Cannes Classics, announced on Wednesday (June 23).
Cousins’ The Story Of Film: A New Generation and The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas, a profile of the celebrated British producer, are among a documentary line-up that incudes Buñuel, Un Cineasta Surrealista from Javier Espada, and All About Yves Montand by Yves Jeuland.
The roster of restored narrative films includes David Lynch’s 2001 Mulholland Drive, Japanese actor-filmmaker Kinuyo Tanaka’s (pictured) The Moon Has Risen,...
- 6/23/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Antoine Fuqua will direct and produce a new film adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning look at greed, family, death and sexual repression.
The “Training Day” and “Magnificent Seven” director will join forces with producers Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey, who backed a 2008 revival of the show that made history with a sold-out 19-week run as the first all-African American production on Broadway. It was also the highest-grossing play during that season.
The show was directed by Debbie Allen and featured Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. The original play centers on Brick, a former athlete turned alcoholic, his sexually frustrated wife Maggie and Big Daddy, the ailing and wealthy family patriarch.
The filmmakers say the movie “will combine elements of the play with new storylines and weave them together to bring the production to the big screen.
The “Training Day” and “Magnificent Seven” director will join forces with producers Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey, who backed a 2008 revival of the show that made history with a sold-out 19-week run as the first all-African American production on Broadway. It was also the highest-grossing play during that season.
The show was directed by Debbie Allen and featured Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. The original play centers on Brick, a former athlete turned alcoholic, his sexually frustrated wife Maggie and Big Daddy, the ailing and wealthy family patriarch.
The filmmakers say the movie “will combine elements of the play with new storylines and weave them together to bring the production to the big screen.
- 4/21/2021
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
by Nathaniel R
In today's big "international feature" news, Denmark has selected Efa frontrunner Another Round for its submission but we already covered Denmark so let's move southwest to a country that also just announced. They've struggled to return to the Oscar lineup since their golden heyday, the late 1990s, when they had three nominees in a four year span. Brazil has selected Babenco: Tell Me When I Die for its Oscar submission this year. It's a documentary about the last years of Hector Babenco's life, directed by his widow Barbara Paz. Oscar voters are already familiar with Babenco, of course, since he made quite an international splash in the 1980s with films like Pixote, Ironweed, and the Oscar-nominated Kiss of the Spider-Woman. It's an interesting choice for a submission though it's not likely to be nominated given Oscar's general resistance to documentaries about film. Still, we're eager to see it.
In today's big "international feature" news, Denmark has selected Efa frontrunner Another Round for its submission but we already covered Denmark so let's move southwest to a country that also just announced. They've struggled to return to the Oscar lineup since their golden heyday, the late 1990s, when they had three nominees in a four year span. Brazil has selected Babenco: Tell Me When I Die for its Oscar submission this year. It's a documentary about the last years of Hector Babenco's life, directed by his widow Barbara Paz. Oscar voters are already familiar with Babenco, of course, since he made quite an international splash in the 1980s with films like Pixote, Ironweed, and the Oscar-nominated Kiss of the Spider-Woman. It's an interesting choice for a submission though it's not likely to be nominated given Oscar's general resistance to documentaries about film. Still, we're eager to see it.
- 11/18/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Alice (Josephine Mackerras)
It makes no sense. The night before saw Alice Ferrand’s (Emilie Piponnier) husband François (Martin Swabey) going out of his way to passionately make-out with her in front of their friends at a dinner party and now he won’t answer her calls. Despite his running out of the house earlier than usual without any explanation, however, there’s nothing to make her think something is wrong until a trip to the drugstore exposes a freeze on their finances. One credit card won’t work. Then another. The Atm won’t accept her sign-in and François still isn’t picking up his phone.
Alice (Josephine Mackerras)
It makes no sense. The night before saw Alice Ferrand’s (Emilie Piponnier) husband François (Martin Swabey) going out of his way to passionately make-out with her in front of their friends at a dinner party and now he won’t answer her calls. Despite his running out of the house earlier than usual without any explanation, however, there’s nothing to make her think something is wrong until a trip to the drugstore exposes a freeze on their finances. One credit card won’t work. Then another. The Atm won’t accept her sign-in and François still isn’t picking up his phone.
- 5/15/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Frenchman Marcel Camus’ 1959 work of audiovisual splendor, “Black Orpheus,” sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Based on the play, “Orfeu da Conceição,” by the Brazilian writer Vinicius de Moraes, the film, now streaming on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy, was quite literally a coming-out party for Brazil, albeit as a European-American curiosity. It was the first internationally acclaimed film to take place entirely in a favela, with an all-black Brazilian cast, and is...
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Frenchman Marcel Camus’ 1959 work of audiovisual splendor, “Black Orpheus,” sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Based on the play, “Orfeu da Conceição,” by the Brazilian writer Vinicius de Moraes, the film, now streaming on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy, was quite literally a coming-out party for Brazil, albeit as a European-American curiosity. It was the first internationally acclaimed film to take place entirely in a favela, with an all-black Brazilian cast, and is...
- 5/14/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
by Cláudio Alves
After a limited release in Us theaters, Karim Aïnouz's Invisible Life is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. The film was Brazil's submission for last year's Best International Feature Oscar and, although the Academy chose to overlook its merits, that doesn't mean the picture is undeserving of our attention. This tropical melodrama is one of 2019's most ravishing cinematic experiences, a saturated explosion of deep feeling and chromatic excess, as beautiful as it is devastating. Harkening back to the glory days of Old Hollywood's women's pictures, Invisible Life is like a cocktail made of equal parts Douglas Sirk and Black Orpheus, a hint of Fassbinder adding an abrasive zing to the recipe…...
After a limited release in Us theaters, Karim Aïnouz's Invisible Life is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. The film was Brazil's submission for last year's Best International Feature Oscar and, although the Academy chose to overlook its merits, that doesn't mean the picture is undeserving of our attention. This tropical melodrama is one of 2019's most ravishing cinematic experiences, a saturated explosion of deep feeling and chromatic excess, as beautiful as it is devastating. Harkening back to the glory days of Old Hollywood's women's pictures, Invisible Life is like a cocktail made of equal parts Douglas Sirk and Black Orpheus, a hint of Fassbinder adding an abrasive zing to the recipe…...
- 4/4/2020
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)
It sounds almost too perfect: Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers, the beloved children’s entertainer. Of course, who else could it be, really? It is so seemingly predestined, in fact, that Hanks’s first onscreen appearance as Fred Rogers elicits knowing laughter from the audience. Yes, Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers looks and sounds exactly how you would imagine. Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, however, is much more than an obvious biopic. It’s not really a biopic at all. Nor is it a rehash of 2018’s much-heralded documentary profile of Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be MyNeighbor?...
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)
It sounds almost too perfect: Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers, the beloved children’s entertainer. Of course, who else could it be, really? It is so seemingly predestined, in fact, that Hanks’s first onscreen appearance as Fred Rogers elicits knowing laughter from the audience. Yes, Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers looks and sounds exactly how you would imagine. Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, however, is much more than an obvious biopic. It’s not really a biopic at all. Nor is it a rehash of 2018’s much-heralded documentary profile of Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be MyNeighbor?...
- 2/7/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With the six Oscar nominations Bong Joon Ho‘s “Parasite” scored on Monday morning, the film became the latest to have won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and score an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Only one film has actually succeeded in winning both of those honors: Delbert Mann‘s “Marty,” which prevailed in 1955.
Since the Palme d’Or was established, 15 other films have managed to take the top prize at Cannes and make it into the Best Picture race: “Marty” (1955), “Friendly Persuasion” (1957), “M*A*S*H” (1970), “The Conversation” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Apocalypse Now” (1979), “All That Jazz” (1979), “Missing” (1982), “The Mission” (1986), “The Piano” (1993), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Secrets & Lies” (1996), “The Pianist” (2002), “The Tree of Life” (2011) and “Amour” (2012).
See 2020 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
The top prize from the French film festival is not always a reliable barometer for what will get in at the Oscars.
Since the Palme d’Or was established, 15 other films have managed to take the top prize at Cannes and make it into the Best Picture race: “Marty” (1955), “Friendly Persuasion” (1957), “M*A*S*H” (1970), “The Conversation” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Apocalypse Now” (1979), “All That Jazz” (1979), “Missing” (1982), “The Mission” (1986), “The Piano” (1993), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Secrets & Lies” (1996), “The Pianist” (2002), “The Tree of Life” (2011) and “Amour” (2012).
See 2020 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
The top prize from the French film festival is not always a reliable barometer for what will get in at the Oscars.
- 1/16/2020
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Onscreen depictions of Brazilian life are often caught up in one of two clichés: the exotic, like the Palme d’Or winning “Black Orpheus,” and grim representations of poverty and crime, best exemplified by “City of God” and “Elite Squad.” There is a third image of Brazilian cinema reaching out to arthouse audiences, however, one that is steeped in humanity—think of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s profoundly moving “Aquarius” with an elder Sonia Braga raging against an underhanded real-estate company.
Continue reading ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’: Cannes Award Winner Is A Compelling, Humanist Melodrama [Fnc Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao’: Cannes Award Winner Is A Compelling, Humanist Melodrama [Fnc Review] at The Playlist.
- 10/26/2019
- by Bradley Warren
- The Playlist
João Gilberto, the pioneering Brazilian musician and composer credited as “the father of bossa nova,” has died at the age of 88.
Gilberto’s son João Marcelo Gilberto confirmed his father’s death Saturday in Rio de Janeiro in a Facebook post, “His struggle was noble. He tried to maintain his dignity in the light of losing his independence.” No cause of death was provided.
Gilberto is considered the progenitor of bossa nova, or “new beat,” a subgenre of the Brazilian samba that scaled back that style’s percussion and arrangements.
Gilberto’s son João Marcelo Gilberto confirmed his father’s death Saturday in Rio de Janeiro in a Facebook post, “His struggle was noble. He tried to maintain his dignity in the light of losing his independence.” No cause of death was provided.
Gilberto is considered the progenitor of bossa nova, or “new beat,” a subgenre of the Brazilian samba that scaled back that style’s percussion and arrangements.
- 7/7/2019
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, a deceptively simple story of a professional dogsitter’s attempt to achieve recognition among gangsters in a small Italian town, reminds me of the great “art-house” films I watched when I was a teenager: The Magician, La Strada, Bicycle Thief, Black Orpheus. A spare story grows and builds and pushes itself until it swells to the bursting point and then: suspension. Viewers are forced to meditate on what they have watched, as all of the mini-scenarios that have built it gain their own weight. Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is friends with Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce), a small-time crook; Marcello is […]...
- 6/20/2019
- by Max Winter
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, a deceptively simple story of a professional dogsitter’s attempt to achieve recognition among gangsters in a small Italian town, reminds me of the great “art-house” films I watched when I was a teenager: The Magician, La Strada, Bicycle Thief, Black Orpheus. A spare story grows and builds and pushes itself until it swells to the bursting point and then: suspension. Viewers are forced to meditate on what they have watched, as all of the mini-scenarios that have built it gain their own weight. Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is friends with Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce), a small-time crook; Marcello is […]...
- 6/20/2019
- by Max Winter
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival has wrapped and the two films that looked well-positioned for this year’s Oscars (Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” and Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”) both went home empty-handed.
Cannes’ coveted Palme d’Or went to South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s comedy-drama, “Parasite.” The film, about two families from different classes that find themselves on a collision course with each other, had the most glowing reviews of this year’s entries. Bong is now the first Korean director to win the top honor. The film’s win here could catapult it into serious Oscar consideration. Since 1955, 39 winners of this top honor have amassed a total of 129 Academy Award nominations, with 28 Oscar wins spanning 16 films. And 15 Palme d’Or champs scored Best Picture nominations: “Marty” (1955), “Friendly Persuasion” (1957), “M*A*S*H” (1970), “The Conversation” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Apocalypse Now...
Cannes’ coveted Palme d’Or went to South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s comedy-drama, “Parasite.” The film, about two families from different classes that find themselves on a collision course with each other, had the most glowing reviews of this year’s entries. Bong is now the first Korean director to win the top honor. The film’s win here could catapult it into serious Oscar consideration. Since 1955, 39 winners of this top honor have amassed a total of 129 Academy Award nominations, with 28 Oscar wins spanning 16 films. And 15 Palme d’Or champs scored Best Picture nominations: “Marty” (1955), “Friendly Persuasion” (1957), “M*A*S*H” (1970), “The Conversation” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Apocalypse Now...
- 5/26/2019
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
First introduced as a national proclamation by Congress in 1981, Women’s History Month has been celebrated every year since then, using the 31 days of March to promote and amplify the voices of women across the country — and around the world.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we asked nine actresses to tell us about the books, films and television shows that have inspired them, as women, over the years. Many of their selections were written by female writers, or star strong female leads. The shared goal of these actresses is to not only commemorate the achievements of women this month, but to celebrate their voices — and the stories they continue to tell — all year long.
Michaela McManus, “The Village” (premieres March 19 on NBC)
I read “Just Kids” by Patti Smith about seven years ago and it has stayed with me ever since (read it here). I moved to New York...
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we asked nine actresses to tell us about the books, films and television shows that have inspired them, as women, over the years. Many of their selections were written by female writers, or star strong female leads. The shared goal of these actresses is to not only commemorate the achievements of women this month, but to celebrate their voices — and the stories they continue to tell — all year long.
Michaela McManus, “The Village” (premieres March 19 on NBC)
I read “Just Kids” by Patti Smith about seven years ago and it has stayed with me ever since (read it here). I moved to New York...
- 3/2/2019
- by Tim Chan
- Variety Film + TV
When Hollywood discusses diversity and inclusion, the focus naturally tends to be on the future — diversifying writers’ rooms and executive suites; tackling pay inequality; erasing the many long-held myths about box office performance and films with people of color. But there’s an all-too-important counterpart to that discussion: How to address Hollywood’s past, and reevaluate the film canon, in a way that takes into account perspectives from outside of the white establishment that has typically served as gatekeeper for which films are considered classics.
That was part of the motivation for the African-American Film Critics Assn.’s partnership with Turner Classic Movies, “The Black Experience on Film,” which launched this week. For the next month, an Aafca-curated program of 32 films, stretching from the 1920s to the early 1990s, will screen on the network, presented and contextualized by a pair of Aafca members each night. Organized by theme, the offerings...
That was part of the motivation for the African-American Film Critics Assn.’s partnership with Turner Classic Movies, “The Black Experience on Film,” which launched this week. For the next month, an Aafca-curated program of 32 films, stretching from the 1920s to the early 1990s, will screen on the network, presented and contextualized by a pair of Aafca members each night. Organized by theme, the offerings...
- 9/7/2018
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
In “Adrift,” young sailors in love with world travel and each other (Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin) agree to pilot a yacht across the South Pacific for $10,000. They fancy 30 days of watching sunsets. What they get is a Category 5 hurricane.
Tami Oldham Ashcraft recounted the real-life ordeal she and fiancé Richard Sharp endured in Fall 1983 in “Red Sky at Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea.” The self-published memoir was found by identical twin screenwriters Aaron and Jordan Kandell. They abandoned plans for an original maritime tale, wanting instead to adapt Ashcraft’s text, and envisioning their friend Woodley as its indefatigable heroine.
Read More: ‘Adrift’ Review: Shailene Woodley Rescues a True Life Survival Thriller from Drowning at Sea
When Woodley was 18 and filming Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” in the brothers’ native Hawaii, Jordan’s wife was the teacher hired by the studio to help...
Tami Oldham Ashcraft recounted the real-life ordeal she and fiancé Richard Sharp endured in Fall 1983 in “Red Sky at Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea.” The self-published memoir was found by identical twin screenwriters Aaron and Jordan Kandell. They abandoned plans for an original maritime tale, wanting instead to adapt Ashcraft’s text, and envisioning their friend Woodley as its indefatigable heroine.
Read More: ‘Adrift’ Review: Shailene Woodley Rescues a True Life Survival Thriller from Drowning at Sea
When Woodley was 18 and filming Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” in the brothers’ native Hawaii, Jordan’s wife was the teacher hired by the studio to help...
- 6/1/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
The Cannes Film Festival just wrapped up its 71st edition and the film with the biggest Oscar potential got a big boost at the closing ceremony. Spike Lee’s, “BlacKkKlansman,” the true story of an African-American cop who infiltrated the Kkk, took home the Grand Prix, the second highest prize of the festival. It was Lee’s first time competing on the Croisette since 1991 when “Jungle Fever” was in competition and was a bit of retribution for Lee after his widely acclaimed 1989 film, “Do the Right Thing,” received nothing from the jury.
If “BlacKkKlansman” were to get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, it would be the second time a Grand Prix winner has gotten into the race for Oscar’s top honor. The first was “Life is Beautiful” in 1998. Thirteen past Grand Prix winners went on to earn 22 total Oscar nominations with five films scoring seven wins. Each...
If “BlacKkKlansman” were to get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, it would be the second time a Grand Prix winner has gotten into the race for Oscar’s top honor. The first was “Life is Beautiful” in 1998. Thirteen past Grand Prix winners went on to earn 22 total Oscar nominations with five films scoring seven wins. Each...
- 5/20/2018
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Despite being two of the longest running institutions in cinema, the Oscars and Cannes have not always been the best of bedfellows. Only one film, 1955’s “Marty,” has won both the Palme D’Or and Best Picture. But many more films that have played on the croisette at Cannes have been nominated or won other big prizes from the Academy. These are the 16 films that both won the Palme D’Or and won an additional Oscar.
“Marty” (1955)
In the first year that Cannes started calling their top prize the Palme D’Or, the Delbert Mann drama and romance based on the Paddy Chayefsky teleplay won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing and Best Actor for Ernest Borgnine.
“The Silent World” (1956)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s pioneering, underwater nature documentary beat out films from Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and more to win the Palme, and it also took home the Best Documentary Oscar.
“Black Orpheus” (1959)
Marcel Camus’s dreamy, contemporary take on the Orpheus and Eurydice Greek myth won the Palme and the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
“La Dolce Vita” (1960)
Federico Fellini’s sensuous reverie of a film “La Dolce Vita” managed Oscar nods for Best Director and Screenplay, but only won for Best Costume Design.
“A Man and a Woman” (1966)
The Academy rewarded this French New Wave romance starring Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant with two Oscars, one for its screenplay and another for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Mash” (1970)
It’s surprising to see Cannes anoint a film as irreverent as Robert Altman’s screwball war satire “Mash,” but though the Oscars nominated it for Best Picture, the award went to another war film, “Patton.” “Mash” did pick up a win for Altman’s ingenious ensemble screenplay.
“Apocalypse Now” (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war masterpiece was still a work-in-progress when it screened at Cannes, and it would split the Palme with “The Tin Drum” that same year. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won two, but lost Best Picture to “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
“The Tin Drum” (1979)
After splitting the Palme with “Apocalypse Now,” “The Tin Drum” won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar with ease.
“All That Jazz” (1980)
Weirdly, Bob Fosse’s musical was nominated alongside “Apocalypse Now” at the 1979 Oscars, opening in December of that year, but it won the 1980 Cannes after cleaning up four Oscars just a month earlier.
“Missing” (1982)
Jack Lemmon won Cannes’s Best Actor prize for Costa-Gavras’s political thriller in addition to “Missing” winning the Palme. And Lemmon and co-star Sissy Spacek each scored acting nominations in addition to the film being nominated for Best Picture, but it only won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“The Mission” (1986)
Starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons as Spanish Jesuits trying to save a native American tribe, Roland Joffe’s “The Mission” won the Palme and earned seven nominations but only one Oscar win for Best Cinematography.
“Pelle the Conqueror” (1987)
The legendary Max von Sydow plays a Swedish immigrant in Denmark in this Danish film that won the Palme, the Best Foreign Language Oscar and netted Sydow his first acting nomination.
“The Piano” (1993)
Holly Hunter won the Best Actress prize at both Cannes and the Oscars for Jane Campion’s drama that won the Palme D’Or and was nominated for eight Oscars in all.
“Pulp Fiction” (1994)
Much has been written about the bombshell Quentin Tarantino set off when “Pulp Fiction” debuted at Cannes and polarized audiences by winning the Palme, not to mention the cultural rift it created when it went head to head with “Forrest Gump” at the Oscars and lost.
“The Pianist” (2002)
Winning Best Director for Roman Polanski and Best Actor for Adrien Brody, “The Pianist” was a strong favorite to win Best Picture after winning the Palme, but it lost to the musical “Chicago.” Just don’t expect a repeat from Polanski anytime soon.
“Amour” (2012)
Michael Haneke had just won his second Palme D’Or for his sobering romance about old age “Amour,” and rightfully so. The film paired French New Wave legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva and scored five Oscar nominations in all, including Best Picture, but only came away with a win for Best Foreign Language Film.
Read original story 16 Cannes Winners That Went on to Take Oscar Gold (Photos) At TheWrap...
“Marty” (1955)
In the first year that Cannes started calling their top prize the Palme D’Or, the Delbert Mann drama and romance based on the Paddy Chayefsky teleplay won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing and Best Actor for Ernest Borgnine.
“The Silent World” (1956)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s pioneering, underwater nature documentary beat out films from Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and more to win the Palme, and it also took home the Best Documentary Oscar.
“Black Orpheus” (1959)
Marcel Camus’s dreamy, contemporary take on the Orpheus and Eurydice Greek myth won the Palme and the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
“La Dolce Vita” (1960)
Federico Fellini’s sensuous reverie of a film “La Dolce Vita” managed Oscar nods for Best Director and Screenplay, but only won for Best Costume Design.
“A Man and a Woman” (1966)
The Academy rewarded this French New Wave romance starring Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant with two Oscars, one for its screenplay and another for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Mash” (1970)
It’s surprising to see Cannes anoint a film as irreverent as Robert Altman’s screwball war satire “Mash,” but though the Oscars nominated it for Best Picture, the award went to another war film, “Patton.” “Mash” did pick up a win for Altman’s ingenious ensemble screenplay.
“Apocalypse Now” (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war masterpiece was still a work-in-progress when it screened at Cannes, and it would split the Palme with “The Tin Drum” that same year. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won two, but lost Best Picture to “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
“The Tin Drum” (1979)
After splitting the Palme with “Apocalypse Now,” “The Tin Drum” won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar with ease.
“All That Jazz” (1980)
Weirdly, Bob Fosse’s musical was nominated alongside “Apocalypse Now” at the 1979 Oscars, opening in December of that year, but it won the 1980 Cannes after cleaning up four Oscars just a month earlier.
“Missing” (1982)
Jack Lemmon won Cannes’s Best Actor prize for Costa-Gavras’s political thriller in addition to “Missing” winning the Palme. And Lemmon and co-star Sissy Spacek each scored acting nominations in addition to the film being nominated for Best Picture, but it only won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“The Mission” (1986)
Starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons as Spanish Jesuits trying to save a native American tribe, Roland Joffe’s “The Mission” won the Palme and earned seven nominations but only one Oscar win for Best Cinematography.
“Pelle the Conqueror” (1987)
The legendary Max von Sydow plays a Swedish immigrant in Denmark in this Danish film that won the Palme, the Best Foreign Language Oscar and netted Sydow his first acting nomination.
“The Piano” (1993)
Holly Hunter won the Best Actress prize at both Cannes and the Oscars for Jane Campion’s drama that won the Palme D’Or and was nominated for eight Oscars in all.
“Pulp Fiction” (1994)
Much has been written about the bombshell Quentin Tarantino set off when “Pulp Fiction” debuted at Cannes and polarized audiences by winning the Palme, not to mention the cultural rift it created when it went head to head with “Forrest Gump” at the Oscars and lost.
“The Pianist” (2002)
Winning Best Director for Roman Polanski and Best Actor for Adrien Brody, “The Pianist” was a strong favorite to win Best Picture after winning the Palme, but it lost to the musical “Chicago.” Just don’t expect a repeat from Polanski anytime soon.
“Amour” (2012)
Michael Haneke had just won his second Palme D’Or for his sobering romance about old age “Amour,” and rightfully so. The film paired French New Wave legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva and scored five Oscar nominations in all, including Best Picture, but only came away with a win for Best Foreign Language Film.
Read original story 16 Cannes Winners That Went on to Take Oscar Gold (Photos) At TheWrap...
- 5/8/2018
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Produced by Fabiano Gullane, Walter Salles and Globo Filmes, and unfolding to the strains of Bossa Nova, “Noah’s Ark” has closed brisk pre-sales for Edward Noeltner’s Cinema Management Group (Cmg) off a Berlin Festival launch.
Those deals reflect the status of “Noah’s Ark” – directed by Sérgio Machado (“Lower City”) and with songs and lyrics by Bossa Nova legend Vinicius de Moraes – as both one of the biggest-budgeted of current Brazilian movies and a flagship of its vibrant animation sector, which will receive a tribute at June’s Annecy Festival.
Made in what is now the long run-up to Cannes, deals also underscore Cmg’s making full use of Bordeaux’s Cartoon Movie and Hong Kong’s FilmArt to not only pre-sell “Noah’s Ark” in small-to-midsize territories – a traditional strategy – but position “Noah’s Ark” for the Cannes Festival. That tactic is likely to be copied by...
Those deals reflect the status of “Noah’s Ark” – directed by Sérgio Machado (“Lower City”) and with songs and lyrics by Bossa Nova legend Vinicius de Moraes – as both one of the biggest-budgeted of current Brazilian movies and a flagship of its vibrant animation sector, which will receive a tribute at June’s Annecy Festival.
Made in what is now the long run-up to Cannes, deals also underscore Cmg’s making full use of Bordeaux’s Cartoon Movie and Hong Kong’s FilmArt to not only pre-sell “Noah’s Ark” in small-to-midsize territories – a traditional strategy – but position “Noah’s Ark” for the Cannes Festival. That tactic is likely to be copied by...
- 3/29/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) is an adaptation of the ancient Greek myth updated to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was a cultural event, kicking off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.
Black Orpheus is available to buy now from Amazon.
To win the Criterion release of Black Orpheus and a copy of the soundtrack, just answer the following question:
Black Orpheus is a retelling of which myth? Is it:
a) Persephone and Hades
b) Odysseus and Penelope
c) Orpheus and Eurydice
Email your answer to NerdlyComps@gmail.com, making sure to include your name and address. You can also leave your answer on our Facebook page, just make sure to like...
Black Orpheus is available to buy now from Amazon.
To win the Criterion release of Black Orpheus and a copy of the soundtrack, just answer the following question:
Black Orpheus is a retelling of which myth? Is it:
a) Persephone and Hades
b) Odysseus and Penelope
c) Orpheus and Eurydice
Email your answer to NerdlyComps@gmail.com, making sure to include your name and address. You can also leave your answer on our Facebook page, just make sure to like...
- 1/26/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Lea Garcia | Written by Marcel Camus, Vinicius de Moraes, Jacques Viot | Directed by Marcel Camus
Made in 1959 by the French filmmaker Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus is a Portuguese-language adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here it is relocated to Rio de Janeiro, during Carnaval, which gives the impression that the city is in perennial party mode.
Orfeu (Breno Mello) is an eager young musician who happens to greet Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as she arrives in Rio for the first time. Both are in an awkward position. Orfeu is facing a marriage to Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), whom he doesn’t love. (He’d rather spend his money on a guitar than a wedding ring.) Eurydice is on the run from a stalker: a man dressed as Death.
It turns out Death has followed her to Rio. Orfeu chases him off,...
Made in 1959 by the French filmmaker Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus is a Portuguese-language adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here it is relocated to Rio de Janeiro, during Carnaval, which gives the impression that the city is in perennial party mode.
Orfeu (Breno Mello) is an eager young musician who happens to greet Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as she arrives in Rio for the first time. Both are in an awkward position. Orfeu is facing a marriage to Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), whom he doesn’t love. (He’d rather spend his money on a guitar than a wedding ring.) Eurydice is on the run from a stalker: a man dressed as Death.
It turns out Death has followed her to Rio. Orfeu chases him off,...
- 1/16/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Palme Thursday is A.A. Dowd’s monthly examination of a winner of the Palme D’Or, determining how well the film has held up and whether it deserved the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.
Black Orpheus (1959)
It isn’t often that a movie commences with a perfect summary of its own appeal. But that’s exactly what Black Orpheus does. Marcel Camus’ 1959 melodrama opens on a marble statue of its mythological namesake, a tableau of Greek tragedy set to the gentle strum of an acoustic ballad. But after no more than 10 seconds (and immediately following the appearance of the title), this black-and-white image seems to shatter into a hundred star-shaped shards. They fall away to reveal the film’s next and much more illustrative image: men smiling, dancing, and playing music under the Brazilian sun. The first shot prepares you for a funeral ...
Black Orpheus (1959)
It isn’t often that a movie commences with a perfect summary of its own appeal. But that’s exactly what Black Orpheus does. Marcel Camus’ 1959 melodrama opens on a marble statue of its mythological namesake, a tableau of Greek tragedy set to the gentle strum of an acoustic ballad. But after no more than 10 seconds (and immediately following the appearance of the title), this black-and-white image seems to shatter into a hundred star-shaped shards. They fall away to reveal the film’s next and much more illustrative image: men smiling, dancing, and playing music under the Brazilian sun. The first shot prepares you for a funeral ...
- 9/29/2016
- by A.A. Dowd
- avclub.com
There are so many reasons for the movies’ recent fascination with Barack Obama’s formative years — this summer saw the release of “Southside With You,” a chintzy rom-com that chronicled Obama’s idyllic first date with his future wife — but chief among them is the feeling that he’s the first modern President who feels like a real person. Which is not to say that Bill Clinton is an android or that George W. Bush is (necessarily) a stack of hay that’s been stuffed into a business suit and enchanted by a vengeful wizard, but that Obama came to lead America in large part because he is America, a one-man melting pot whose vagabond life was driven towards a singular destiny. He knows what it means to be an outsider in this country, to be rejected for attempting to make good on the promise of his homeland. He did drugs.
- 9/11/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress and pioneering female film producer. Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress was pioneering woman producer, politically minded 'femme engagée' Danièle Delorme, who died on Oct. 17, '15, at the age of 89 in Paris, is best remembered as the first actress to incarnate Colette's teenage courtesan-to-be Gigi and for playing Jean Rochefort's about-to-be-cuckolded wife in the international box office hit Pardon Mon Affaire. Yet few are aware that Delorme was featured in nearly 60 films – three of which, including Gigi, directed by France's sole major woman filmmaker of the '40s and '50s – in addition to more than 20 stage plays and a dozen television productions in a show business career spanning seven decades. Even fewer realize that Delorme was also a pioneering woman film producer, working in that capacity for more than half a century. Or that she was what in French is called a femme engagée...
- 12/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Caribbean Film Mart (Cfm) has been in the making for several years and in September its debut took place at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) . Bruce Paddington, a filmmaker himself as well as an academic and the Founder and Director of the Festival, along with Annebelle Alcazar, Jonathan Ali and Nneka Luke, and spearheading the Cfm and the Caribbean Film Database (Cfdb) , Emilie Upczak and Melanie Archer, have created an A level event which after 10 years now encompasses three important aspects of film beyond the showcasing of the Caribbean and international docs and fiction films: filmmaking, film marketing and film education which this year included an academic symposium through the University of the West Indies, a Youth Jury of young people from 16 to 21 and sold out matinees for school children.
Cfm envisages the Caribbean -- home to the most genetically variegated people of the world -- as a whole whose varied stories will go out into the larger world (much like the Trinis themselves). Coming from islands which remind us of those planets described in Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ), the Caribbeanos gathered here in Trinidad to receive coaching and positive feedback to extend their reach into the rest of world. Our world, still divided along colonial and post-colonial color and class lines needs this idealistic and inspiring vision.
For more coverage of the event, Lisa Harewood, a Barbados filmmaker, has written about the event in Shadow and Act.
This year 15 feature film projects from 10 countries were pitched and discussed at the inaugural Caribbean Film Mart (Cfm) in parallel with an academic symposium of university professors presenting on films, festivals and markets at the Hyatt Hotel. The unique mix of academics and professionals with upcoming filmmakers was vibrant, alive and upbeat, and we hope it continues to grow even though the financing from Acp Cultures which made this event possible may not continue to lend its support.
The 11 fiction feature projects and four doc projects (out of 100 submissions) selected from Guadaloupe, Cuba, Curaçao, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Barbados, Dominican Republic and The Bahamas in development and pre-production were discussed over three days with 30 international film producers, sales agents and film funds coming from diverse countries in the Caribbean, Europe and North America.
The meetings resulted in professional relationships and partnerships that will enable the production and distribution of the participating projects going forward.
“We are pleased that a number of the projects are from ttff alumni, some of whom have gone through our Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion, and others the Eave Producers’ training initiative which took place at ttff/14,” said Emilie Upczak, ttff Creative Director.
The selected projects were selected by the ttff, the Global Foundation of Democracy and Development from the Dominican Republic, the Association for the Development of Art Cinema and Practice from Guadeloupe, the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema in Cuba, and the Regional and International Festival of Cinema of Guadeloupe.
The project is co-financed by the Acp Cultures+ Program (Acp Group of States), funded by the European Union ( European Development Fund), and implemented by the Acp Group of States.
The projects were all most interesting visualized stories, and the filmmakers themselves, whether just beginning or with one or two features already under their belts, were all well prepared and professionally aligned with the more seasoned professionals in their objectives. Every one of the selected projects holds a promise of unique enchantments.
Jan Miller the international consultant and trainer specializing in film and television coproduction and coventuring who started Transatlantic Partners after she established Atlantic Partners, part of the Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia, and who has delivered one of the top pitching and content development events for 20 years created a substantive and fun environment intensely devoted to the filmmakers.
The winner of the 15 selected Cfm projects was:
1. "Kidnapping Inc.” a fiction feature from Haiti to be directed by Bruno Mourral and produced by Gaethan Chancy and Remi Grelletty who both produced “Moloch Tropical” and “Murder in Pacot” and Raoul Peck the award winning director who has also produced five features and four docs.
Read more about Raoul Peck and his current production “The Young Karl Marx” on Shadow and Act.
“Kidnapping Inc.” has Canal + Antilles as a coproducer as well as private equity. They are still seeking other coproduction partners.
This twisted, dark comedy is about two delivery men working for an underground kidnapping corporation in Haiti. Doc and Zoe are scheduled to deliver a senator’s son worth $300,000. In the midst of their usual bickering, one kills the senator’s son accidentally. Trying to fix the mess they find themselves in, they stumble upon the senator’s son’s lookalike, which sets them on the craziest kidnapping of their lives.
Bruno Mourral is interested in developing the industry in Haiti as well as making movies. He says, “’Kidnapping Inc. is a dark comedy and satire of Haitian society waltzing between ‘City of God’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’. This film depicts the raw complexity and Haiti’s harsh day-to-day and pushes the viewer towards a better understanding of social issues such as color, sexism, machismo, social class discrimination and identity.
2. “The Dragon” is a fictional story from Trinidad and Tobago based upon the novel by the world renowned (but little known in the U.S.) Earl Lovelace and to be directed by his daughter Asha Lovelace. Having read the novel I can say that this story of a Trinidad community of African descendants which has inherited traits cultivated under slavery is immediately riveting. It brings another view of the radical political actions we in the U.S. witnessed in the 70s. Moreover, a musical composition written by a Trini composer who read the novel and was so enamored that he freely and without asking composed an entire opus makes this immediately into a transmedia project which is accessible and exploitable. The novel, the musical opus, and what I hope to see -- the movie -- all tell a tale of a people we can identify with but have never seen like this.
The book is a masterpiece and brings to mind “Black Orpheus” with its setting in the poverty-stricken Calvary Hill whose inhabitants’ lives are centered in the yearly Carnival. It also brings to mind John Steinbeck’s stories with struggling characters in the Salinas Valley.
Director Asha Lovelace’s debut short “George and the Bicycle Pump” premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. She co-wrote, produced and directed her first feature “Joebell and America” which screened at several film festivals and won for Best International Narrative Feature Film at the Women’s International Film Festival in Miami in 2008. She lectures on film at the University of the West Indies, founded and is festival director of Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago, a film festival dedicated to African cinema.
Producer Lesley-Anne Macfarlane has worked in the audio-visual industry in U.K. and Trinidad, graduated with an Ma in Cultural Policy and Management from City University, London and has produced several short films and music videos.
The story centers on Aldrick whose sole responsibility in life is to his dragon masquerade that he plays for Carnival. When he finds himself falling for Sylvia, the most desired young woman on the hill, he is unable to commit to her and she succumbs to the advances of an older man. This plummets Aldrick into a moment of blind rebellion that ends in tragedy and forces him to confront his role as dragon and man.
3. “ Sprinter” from Jamaica will be directed by Storm Saulter whose well-received first feature, the 2010 crime drama “Better Mus’ Come” received U.S. distribution through Ava du Vernay’s Affrm. It is being produced by Donald Ranvaud (“City of God”) who is well known and well loved on the international film circuit.
This fictional feature is set against the world of track and field – an area in which Jamaica has excelled for decades – and addresses urgent and poignant broader themes. “Those images of Rastas smoking ganja on the beach or the gunman from Kingston – it isn’t who we are,” Saulter told Jeremy Kay in a Screen interview.
In his interview with Screen, Jeremy also asked what has it been like pitching to dozens of people here.
“You kind of have to get to the soul of the thing and you see what people respond to. This is about meeting with people that can help with financing and also potentially sales agents and exploring co-production possibilities. Jamaica does not have a treaty with the U.S .but we have treaties with the U.K. and Canada. It’s this whole puzzle you have to put together. The responses have been positive.”
The film is about Akeem, a young Rastafarian, who surprisingly shatters the 200-metre high-school track record. He must make the national team tocompete at the World Youth Championships in Philadelphia if he wants a chance to reunite with his mother who has been living there illegally for ten years. Akeem’s overnight popularity and the sudden return of his estranged older brother disrupt his focus. Meanwhile, a scandal is brewing that threatens to derail his career before it’s even started.
4. “ Beauty Kingdom ” is a Dominican Republic project to be directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas who will also produce along with Mónica De Moya. Guzmán and Cárdenas also worked together on "Sand Dollars" (2014) which premiered at Tiff in 2014, "Jean Gentil" (2010) which premiered in Venice in 2010 and "Cochochi" (2007).
This fictional feature takes place in a magical place in the Caribbean and is about the most expensive film of all time which is about to be shot. The Diva, a 70-year-old eccentric actress (played by Geraldine Chaplin), has arrived to star in the film. She finds herself surrounded by the absurdity that such a film production implies, as she rigorously prepares for her role. All the while, she senses the impending end of the world. Nevertheless, the film must go on.
5. “Doubles With Slight Pepper” is a fiction feature coproduction of Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. to be directed by Ian Harnarine, produced by Ryan Silbert and exec produced by Spike Lee.
Ian Harnarine , a Trinidadian living in Canada has already won numerous awards for the short that this feature is based upon and has been working on this feature for several years. The film will go into production in Trinidad in November.
In Lisa Harewood’s interview for Shadow and Act , Ian said, "The Caribbean Film Mart was incredibly important in opening up the world (literally!) to the project. To meet face to face with people from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Norwegian South Film Fund, World Cinema Support etc makes the opportunities available to me very real."
Dhani, a young Trinidadian street vendor, struggles to support himself and his mother by selling doubles. When his estranged father, Ragbir, unexpectedly invites him to New York, Dhani must travel to America and decide if he will save his father’s life.
Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Best Live Action Short Drama at the Genie Awards 2012 (the Canadian Academy Awards)
Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film:
filmmakermagazine.com/news/people/ian-harnarine/
Watch the short Here.
6. “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia” from Cuba will be the first fiction feature to be directed by Arturo Infante. His shorts have shown at home and abroad and have won several awards and he has written several produced scripts such as “Havana Eva” and “L’edad de la peseta”, films which Cuban film fans all know well. His producers,Claudia Calviño and Alejandro Tovar are two of Cuba’s top young producers whose film “Juan of the Dead” is Cuba’s most current best selling satire. Like that, this story highlights characters who must react to a surreal situation in an already slightly surreal country called Cuba.
Celeste is in her sixties and sells tickets at a planetarium. The discovery of an alien race shocks the world. Humans will send a spaceship carrying regular citizens to make contact with the alien civilization. Tired of her monotonous life, Celeste decides to apply for a spot on the ship and embark into the unknown.
What Celeste and the rest of the passengers on the ship seek in another galaxy is the Cuban dream of a better life.
Arturo speaks of his interest in characters, both real and as actors. “Growing up in a family with many women made me develop a special ‘ear’ towards the feminine. I spent my childhood in an old colonial-style house, hearing the voices of my mother, my grandmothers, aunts and neighbors. They all talking from one side to another, sharing their stories, dreams and secrets, but also their visions about the reality and politics of my country. That’s why I think the main character in my story must necessarily be a woman. I realize now that Celeste embodies all those voices of my childhood. Celeste’s character also represents my parents’ generation. A generation that gave their best years to build a utopian project that was diverted into paths that were not exactly the ones they dreamed of. A generation now marked by disenchantment and skepticism, a process of which I have been a constant witness. With my story I want to give Celeste a chance to travel to a new planet, the opportunity to see the rebirth of those fallen dreams of her youth.”
http://www.facebook.com/produccionesdela5taavenida
7. “The Fisherman’s Son” from Puerto Rico and Colombia will be directed by Edgar Deluque. Producer Annabelle Mullen from PR is a former entertainment attorney with several credits to her name. She presented this project about a transsexual running away from the city to his childhood home at a fishermen’s island after murdering a policeman. He must face his father whom he hasn’t seen in fifteen years and who doesn’t want anything to do with his transsexual child.
The writer-director, Edgar Deluque, is an emerging talent from Colombia.
8. “Hello Nicki” from Trinidad and Tobago will be directed by Miquel Galofré whose previous moving doc about songwriters who were in prison in Kingston, Jamaica, “Songs of Redemption”, showed at various festivals including Havana and Krakow. Aside from this Miquel has made six other feature docs This doc, produced by Jean Michel Gibert whose sequel to “Pan! Our Music Odyssey” called “ Re-Percussions! Our African Odyssey ” just won the award for Best Trinidad and Tobago Documentary Feature Film at ttff.
This documentary follows Shanice, a teenage girl from Trinidad, as she seeks to actualize her grand dream of making music and collaborating with Nicki Minaj, a Trinidadian born American rapper – the most popular musical personage in the world today. Shanice is a spirited soul living with cerebral palsy and has a unique way of viewing the world. She is keenly aware of the isolation her appearance has caused, but her personality remains bright, upbeat and hopeful.
http://www.miquelgalofre.com .
You can meet Shanice here: https://vimeo.com/136969025 Password: Shanice
9. “Papa Machete” from Haiti, Barbados and U.S. to be directed by Jonathan David Kane is based upon the short which screened at ttff. The producers, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers and Keisha Rae Witherspoon were discussing the doc as well as the fiction feature to be made. Many of the people they spoke with, including myself, thought the fiction feature would be more accessible, though perhaps a TV doc would also be possible with the footage they have made the 10 minute short with.
The story is fascinating as the machete was used as a weapon 200 years ago when Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s armies with the very tool they used to work the land. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art that emerged from this victory through the life and recent death of Alfred Avril, a poor farmer who was one of the art’s few remaining masters. With his passing, Avril’s two sons are confronted with loss, legacy and American dreams.
10. “Wind Rush” is conceived as a doc coproduction between Trinidad and Tobago and U.S. director-writer-producer Vashti Harrison lives in Atlanta, Geogia. Her parents are Trinis and she has a great love for Trinidad and its music. This is an experimental doc about Calypso music which serves a significant role in the Caribbean emigrant experience in London, which began in earnest in the 1950s. Calypso was the music of the minority, the voice of the other, and it helped to define the West Indian identity in England. Using the music of calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Kitchener as a road map to this journey of discovery and displacement, the film will focus on their homes both in Trinidad and London.
The criticism she received was about obtaining music clearances in U.K. when she herself is not a U.K. resident or citizen. Perhaps she needs to find a U.K. producer who can also access U.K. Funds. Her experimental films and docs have shown around the world at Rotterdam, Edinburgh, N.Y. and Havana Film Festivals. All of her work focuses into her Caribbean heritage and is quite evocative, artistic and well executed.
11. “Conch” from Curaçao will be directed and produced by German Gruber whose first film, urban drama, “Sensei Redenshon” was completed in 2013 and will be released in the Netherlands this fall. This fiction feature about the natural side of Curaçao is a road movie about a young boy who runs away from home after the loss of his mother. Searching for the message that he saw her whisper into a conch shell the night before her death, he seeks clues from the characters he meets along his desolate journey. Between nightmares of drowning and daydreams of becoming a musician, he eventually confronts his fear of the sea to find the answer.
12. “Green Days by the River” is a fiction feature set against the backdrop of rural Trinidad in 1952. A fifteen-year-old boy who has just moved to a village naively seeks the affection of two girls, an attractive rich Indian girl, and a more personable and accessible one. The ensuing triangle forces him to focus on becoming a man as he must make life enduring decisions.
Director Michael Mooleedhar has made several award winning shorts.Producer Christian James graduated in 2014 with an Mfa in Cretive Producing from Columbia College Chicago, has interned with K5 International during 2014 Cannes and participated in the 2015 Rotterdam Film Festival Lab.
13. “Potomitans : Women Pillars in Revolt” , a doc project from Guadeloupe will be directed by Bouchera Azzouz whose first documentary, “Nos Meres nos daronnes” (“Our Mothers”) aired this year on France 2 (France Televisions) and was one of its biggest audience hits. This is her second work on popular feminism. Producer Nina Vilus' short "Vivre” has won awards and their “Villa Karayib”, a 3 minute 30 second series with 140 episodes aired on Canal + Antilles. Laurence Lascary is coproducing.
This film is an exploratory journey into the heart of the everyday life of five Guadeloupean women who are considered “potomitans”, women who assume professional and familial responsibilities without the help of a man. Everything rests on the courage of these women, who are trying to emancipate themselves by claiming a new way of being a woman.
It is an Art & Vision Productions, De l’autre cote du periph (Dacp) and Canal + Antilles coproduction which Canal + will broadcast in the French Caribbean. 37% of the financing is secured through the Guadeloupe regional council, Agence national pour la cohesion social et l’egalite des chances (Asce), Ministry of French overseas territories. Apcag network of theaters in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana along with Aubervilliers Theater in France will premiere the film.
14. “The Seawall” is a fiction project to be coproduced by Guyana and U.S.
Director Mason Richards says, “My intention for ‘The Seawall’ is to create a dramatic narrative set in Guyana, South America with simple characters navigating through complex issues within the Caribbean cultural context. It is also my intention to make a film that seeks to reconcile our Caribbean and non-Caribbean identities through the journey of my protagonist who returnes “home” to Guyana and is confronted with issues of his past that he has suppressed. The story needs to be told because many of us from the Caribbean diaspora struggle with “trans-national” identities, meaning we are from the Caribbean, however we’ve immigrated to other countries like the U.S. where we’ve adapted to a new dominant culture and way of life. With tht, there is a feeling of “dis-connect” as though we have left something behind, back “home” in the Caribbean, whether it’s family members, our cultural identity, or simply our childhood memories. It is also my intention to make an entertaining, quality film that highlights the beauty of the Caribbean through the stories and hearts of the characters.
The fiscal partner of this project is Frog (Friends and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Guyana), Verisimiltude in New York City. The executive producer C.R. Wooten has exec produced several film projects for TV and HBO and exec produced the short film, “The Seawall”.
The writer-director, Mason Richards, is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve, a recipient of Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship 2012, winner of The Ainslie Alumni Achievement Award 2011 and Guyana’s 46th Independence Golden Arrowhead Award.
Producer Sohini Sengupta is an award-winning of creative director of theatrical campaigns, including “Birdman”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Black Swan” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. She is a production team member of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 35 under 35 Women Who Run Hollywood.
Malachi, a struggling young writer in Brooklyn, learns of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and returns to his birth country, Guyana, to sell off his inheritance. In Guyana, Malachi ends up confronting his estranged father who abandoned him as a child. Malachi gets closure, and makes decisions about the kind of father he would be to his unborn child.
15. “Epiphany” by Maria Govan who is a self-taught filmmaker from the island of New Providence in The Bahamas. When she was 18 she moved to L.A. and worked for four years on Hollywood sets. In 1999 she returned home, bought a digital camera and began making small guerilla-style local documentaries. In 2004 she moved to New York and began writing her first narrative script “Rain” which premiered in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival, won several awards and aired on Showtime to a strong audience response. Her second film “Play the Devil” was shot entirely in Trinidad in the spring of 2015 and she hopes it will premiere in the winter of 2016.
Producer Abigail Hadeed has worked with Caribbean crews on big budget commercials. She worked on the short “4am” in 2011 which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festval. In 2012 she produced an award winning feature doc “La Giata” and produced “Play the Devil” with Maria.
They are looking for coproducers and can offer a 35% rebate on Trinidadian spend with a 50% rebate on roles in key positions for films shot in Trinidad. Exterior and ocean environments can be shot in the Bahamas.
Set in the Bahamas — Mary, a loner with a passion for spear fishing and the sea, is forced to give up her room to her overbearing cousin’s girlfriend, an “illegal” colorful Cuban named Gabriel. When a love triangle develops and George realizes he’s been betrayed, the women are forced into the dark terrain of human smuggling.
Links to “Rain” (director’s previous work): Trailer
Link to Maria Govan’s Show Reel: https://vimeo.com/35611171
Other films in the program but exceeding the official number of 15 include
16. “Cargo” from The Bahamas, a fiction feature based upon the short film of Kareem Mortimer. Producer Trevite Willis has produced several films including the Lgbt feather “Children of God” with Kareem directing. Producer Alexander Younis now has a doc, “Brigidy Bram ” in post-production.
“Cargo”, based upon Kareem’s short “Passage”, is about a Bahamian fisherman whose life is slowly unraveling. After wasting his remaining money at a gambling house, he is approached by a security guard who suggests that Kevin supplement his income by using his vessel as a means to transport people illegally into the United States. Kevin leads scores of migrants on a treacherous, unsettling and perilous final journey.
17. “Scattered” reminded me of “Desperately Seeking Susan” in the story of an young uptight British woman who has her run-of-the-mill life disrupted when the Caribbean grandmother she barely knew leaves a request for her to scatter her ashes in Trinidad where a free-spirited cousin takes her on a wild road trip that changes her life forever.
The director-producer-cowriter, Karen Martinez, is a Trinidadian filmmaker based in London, U.K. She has worked extensively in the film world in U.K. and the Caribbean. In 2013 she wrote, produced and directed her frist narrative fiction “After Mas”. Her most recent film, “Dreams in Transit” is an essay-style documentary of a contemporary migrant reflcting on identity and the meaning of “home”.
18. “Unfinished Sentences” by writer-director-producer Mariel Brown, an award winning documentary director and founder of the creative and production company Savant. Her documentary films have been screened on television, at festivals and other special events around the world, most recently at the Pan African Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand.
This is a story of a writer father and a filmmaker daughter who walks the line between adoration and disappointment, success and failure, race, family and art. When he dies, in her great grief she discovers his poetry and prose transcend death, allowing her to hear his voice again and to find a way back to her own self. For more information go to http://www.unfinishedsentencesfilm.com.
19. “Queen of Soca” by Kevin Adams
“’ Queen of Soca’ was inspired by my home base of Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago where the frustration of living a life of restricted opportunity is a narrative I observe often.“
“ Queen of Soca” is the story of Olivia, who lives in an impoverished community and is striving to make a better life for herself. Her life is full of struggles, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The short version of “Queen of Soca”, entitled “No Soca No Life” premiered at Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2012 and has been well received by movie goers and movie industry practitioners. “No Soca No Life” is currently available on Vimeo, Pay per view.
“We are now focused on the original goal of creating a blockbuster inspirational story for the world to enjoy, and using the Trinidad and Tobago culture as the vehicle for our message. On behalf of myself and my team, thank you for your interest in this project and we look forward to completing this journey with you !”
The Cfm was held from 24-27 September at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The ttff/15 took place from 15-29 September.
Cfm envisages the Caribbean -- home to the most genetically variegated people of the world -- as a whole whose varied stories will go out into the larger world (much like the Trinis themselves). Coming from islands which remind us of those planets described in Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ), the Caribbeanos gathered here in Trinidad to receive coaching and positive feedback to extend their reach into the rest of world. Our world, still divided along colonial and post-colonial color and class lines needs this idealistic and inspiring vision.
For more coverage of the event, Lisa Harewood, a Barbados filmmaker, has written about the event in Shadow and Act.
This year 15 feature film projects from 10 countries were pitched and discussed at the inaugural Caribbean Film Mart (Cfm) in parallel with an academic symposium of university professors presenting on films, festivals and markets at the Hyatt Hotel. The unique mix of academics and professionals with upcoming filmmakers was vibrant, alive and upbeat, and we hope it continues to grow even though the financing from Acp Cultures which made this event possible may not continue to lend its support.
The 11 fiction feature projects and four doc projects (out of 100 submissions) selected from Guadaloupe, Cuba, Curaçao, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Barbados, Dominican Republic and The Bahamas in development and pre-production were discussed over three days with 30 international film producers, sales agents and film funds coming from diverse countries in the Caribbean, Europe and North America.
The meetings resulted in professional relationships and partnerships that will enable the production and distribution of the participating projects going forward.
“We are pleased that a number of the projects are from ttff alumni, some of whom have gone through our Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion, and others the Eave Producers’ training initiative which took place at ttff/14,” said Emilie Upczak, ttff Creative Director.
The selected projects were selected by the ttff, the Global Foundation of Democracy and Development from the Dominican Republic, the Association for the Development of Art Cinema and Practice from Guadeloupe, the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema in Cuba, and the Regional and International Festival of Cinema of Guadeloupe.
The project is co-financed by the Acp Cultures+ Program (Acp Group of States), funded by the European Union ( European Development Fund), and implemented by the Acp Group of States.
The projects were all most interesting visualized stories, and the filmmakers themselves, whether just beginning or with one or two features already under their belts, were all well prepared and professionally aligned with the more seasoned professionals in their objectives. Every one of the selected projects holds a promise of unique enchantments.
Jan Miller the international consultant and trainer specializing in film and television coproduction and coventuring who started Transatlantic Partners after she established Atlantic Partners, part of the Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia, and who has delivered one of the top pitching and content development events for 20 years created a substantive and fun environment intensely devoted to the filmmakers.
The winner of the 15 selected Cfm projects was:
1. "Kidnapping Inc.” a fiction feature from Haiti to be directed by Bruno Mourral and produced by Gaethan Chancy and Remi Grelletty who both produced “Moloch Tropical” and “Murder in Pacot” and Raoul Peck the award winning director who has also produced five features and four docs.
Read more about Raoul Peck and his current production “The Young Karl Marx” on Shadow and Act.
“Kidnapping Inc.” has Canal + Antilles as a coproducer as well as private equity. They are still seeking other coproduction partners.
This twisted, dark comedy is about two delivery men working for an underground kidnapping corporation in Haiti. Doc and Zoe are scheduled to deliver a senator’s son worth $300,000. In the midst of their usual bickering, one kills the senator’s son accidentally. Trying to fix the mess they find themselves in, they stumble upon the senator’s son’s lookalike, which sets them on the craziest kidnapping of their lives.
Bruno Mourral is interested in developing the industry in Haiti as well as making movies. He says, “’Kidnapping Inc. is a dark comedy and satire of Haitian society waltzing between ‘City of God’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’. This film depicts the raw complexity and Haiti’s harsh day-to-day and pushes the viewer towards a better understanding of social issues such as color, sexism, machismo, social class discrimination and identity.
2. “The Dragon” is a fictional story from Trinidad and Tobago based upon the novel by the world renowned (but little known in the U.S.) Earl Lovelace and to be directed by his daughter Asha Lovelace. Having read the novel I can say that this story of a Trinidad community of African descendants which has inherited traits cultivated under slavery is immediately riveting. It brings another view of the radical political actions we in the U.S. witnessed in the 70s. Moreover, a musical composition written by a Trini composer who read the novel and was so enamored that he freely and without asking composed an entire opus makes this immediately into a transmedia project which is accessible and exploitable. The novel, the musical opus, and what I hope to see -- the movie -- all tell a tale of a people we can identify with but have never seen like this.
The book is a masterpiece and brings to mind “Black Orpheus” with its setting in the poverty-stricken Calvary Hill whose inhabitants’ lives are centered in the yearly Carnival. It also brings to mind John Steinbeck’s stories with struggling characters in the Salinas Valley.
Director Asha Lovelace’s debut short “George and the Bicycle Pump” premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. She co-wrote, produced and directed her first feature “Joebell and America” which screened at several film festivals and won for Best International Narrative Feature Film at the Women’s International Film Festival in Miami in 2008. She lectures on film at the University of the West Indies, founded and is festival director of Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago, a film festival dedicated to African cinema.
Producer Lesley-Anne Macfarlane has worked in the audio-visual industry in U.K. and Trinidad, graduated with an Ma in Cultural Policy and Management from City University, London and has produced several short films and music videos.
The story centers on Aldrick whose sole responsibility in life is to his dragon masquerade that he plays for Carnival. When he finds himself falling for Sylvia, the most desired young woman on the hill, he is unable to commit to her and she succumbs to the advances of an older man. This plummets Aldrick into a moment of blind rebellion that ends in tragedy and forces him to confront his role as dragon and man.
3. “ Sprinter” from Jamaica will be directed by Storm Saulter whose well-received first feature, the 2010 crime drama “Better Mus’ Come” received U.S. distribution through Ava du Vernay’s Affrm. It is being produced by Donald Ranvaud (“City of God”) who is well known and well loved on the international film circuit.
This fictional feature is set against the world of track and field – an area in which Jamaica has excelled for decades – and addresses urgent and poignant broader themes. “Those images of Rastas smoking ganja on the beach or the gunman from Kingston – it isn’t who we are,” Saulter told Jeremy Kay in a Screen interview.
In his interview with Screen, Jeremy also asked what has it been like pitching to dozens of people here.
“You kind of have to get to the soul of the thing and you see what people respond to. This is about meeting with people that can help with financing and also potentially sales agents and exploring co-production possibilities. Jamaica does not have a treaty with the U.S .but we have treaties with the U.K. and Canada. It’s this whole puzzle you have to put together. The responses have been positive.”
The film is about Akeem, a young Rastafarian, who surprisingly shatters the 200-metre high-school track record. He must make the national team tocompete at the World Youth Championships in Philadelphia if he wants a chance to reunite with his mother who has been living there illegally for ten years. Akeem’s overnight popularity and the sudden return of his estranged older brother disrupt his focus. Meanwhile, a scandal is brewing that threatens to derail his career before it’s even started.
4. “ Beauty Kingdom ” is a Dominican Republic project to be directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas who will also produce along with Mónica De Moya. Guzmán and Cárdenas also worked together on "Sand Dollars" (2014) which premiered at Tiff in 2014, "Jean Gentil" (2010) which premiered in Venice in 2010 and "Cochochi" (2007).
This fictional feature takes place in a magical place in the Caribbean and is about the most expensive film of all time which is about to be shot. The Diva, a 70-year-old eccentric actress (played by Geraldine Chaplin), has arrived to star in the film. She finds herself surrounded by the absurdity that such a film production implies, as she rigorously prepares for her role. All the while, she senses the impending end of the world. Nevertheless, the film must go on.
5. “Doubles With Slight Pepper” is a fiction feature coproduction of Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. to be directed by Ian Harnarine, produced by Ryan Silbert and exec produced by Spike Lee.
Ian Harnarine , a Trinidadian living in Canada has already won numerous awards for the short that this feature is based upon and has been working on this feature for several years. The film will go into production in Trinidad in November.
In Lisa Harewood’s interview for Shadow and Act , Ian said, "The Caribbean Film Mart was incredibly important in opening up the world (literally!) to the project. To meet face to face with people from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Norwegian South Film Fund, World Cinema Support etc makes the opportunities available to me very real."
Dhani, a young Trinidadian street vendor, struggles to support himself and his mother by selling doubles. When his estranged father, Ragbir, unexpectedly invites him to New York, Dhani must travel to America and decide if he will save his father’s life.
Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Best Live Action Short Drama at the Genie Awards 2012 (the Canadian Academy Awards)
Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film:
filmmakermagazine.com/news/people/ian-harnarine/
Watch the short Here.
6. “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia” from Cuba will be the first fiction feature to be directed by Arturo Infante. His shorts have shown at home and abroad and have won several awards and he has written several produced scripts such as “Havana Eva” and “L’edad de la peseta”, films which Cuban film fans all know well. His producers,Claudia Calviño and Alejandro Tovar are two of Cuba’s top young producers whose film “Juan of the Dead” is Cuba’s most current best selling satire. Like that, this story highlights characters who must react to a surreal situation in an already slightly surreal country called Cuba.
Celeste is in her sixties and sells tickets at a planetarium. The discovery of an alien race shocks the world. Humans will send a spaceship carrying regular citizens to make contact with the alien civilization. Tired of her monotonous life, Celeste decides to apply for a spot on the ship and embark into the unknown.
What Celeste and the rest of the passengers on the ship seek in another galaxy is the Cuban dream of a better life.
Arturo speaks of his interest in characters, both real and as actors. “Growing up in a family with many women made me develop a special ‘ear’ towards the feminine. I spent my childhood in an old colonial-style house, hearing the voices of my mother, my grandmothers, aunts and neighbors. They all talking from one side to another, sharing their stories, dreams and secrets, but also their visions about the reality and politics of my country. That’s why I think the main character in my story must necessarily be a woman. I realize now that Celeste embodies all those voices of my childhood. Celeste’s character also represents my parents’ generation. A generation that gave their best years to build a utopian project that was diverted into paths that were not exactly the ones they dreamed of. A generation now marked by disenchantment and skepticism, a process of which I have been a constant witness. With my story I want to give Celeste a chance to travel to a new planet, the opportunity to see the rebirth of those fallen dreams of her youth.”
http://www.facebook.com/produccionesdela5taavenida
7. “The Fisherman’s Son” from Puerto Rico and Colombia will be directed by Edgar Deluque. Producer Annabelle Mullen from PR is a former entertainment attorney with several credits to her name. She presented this project about a transsexual running away from the city to his childhood home at a fishermen’s island after murdering a policeman. He must face his father whom he hasn’t seen in fifteen years and who doesn’t want anything to do with his transsexual child.
The writer-director, Edgar Deluque, is an emerging talent from Colombia.
8. “Hello Nicki” from Trinidad and Tobago will be directed by Miquel Galofré whose previous moving doc about songwriters who were in prison in Kingston, Jamaica, “Songs of Redemption”, showed at various festivals including Havana and Krakow. Aside from this Miquel has made six other feature docs This doc, produced by Jean Michel Gibert whose sequel to “Pan! Our Music Odyssey” called “ Re-Percussions! Our African Odyssey ” just won the award for Best Trinidad and Tobago Documentary Feature Film at ttff.
This documentary follows Shanice, a teenage girl from Trinidad, as she seeks to actualize her grand dream of making music and collaborating with Nicki Minaj, a Trinidadian born American rapper – the most popular musical personage in the world today. Shanice is a spirited soul living with cerebral palsy and has a unique way of viewing the world. She is keenly aware of the isolation her appearance has caused, but her personality remains bright, upbeat and hopeful.
http://www.miquelgalofre.com .
You can meet Shanice here: https://vimeo.com/136969025 Password: Shanice
9. “Papa Machete” from Haiti, Barbados and U.S. to be directed by Jonathan David Kane is based upon the short which screened at ttff. The producers, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers and Keisha Rae Witherspoon were discussing the doc as well as the fiction feature to be made. Many of the people they spoke with, including myself, thought the fiction feature would be more accessible, though perhaps a TV doc would also be possible with the footage they have made the 10 minute short with.
The story is fascinating as the machete was used as a weapon 200 years ago when Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s armies with the very tool they used to work the land. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art that emerged from this victory through the life and recent death of Alfred Avril, a poor farmer who was one of the art’s few remaining masters. With his passing, Avril’s two sons are confronted with loss, legacy and American dreams.
10. “Wind Rush” is conceived as a doc coproduction between Trinidad and Tobago and U.S. director-writer-producer Vashti Harrison lives in Atlanta, Geogia. Her parents are Trinis and she has a great love for Trinidad and its music. This is an experimental doc about Calypso music which serves a significant role in the Caribbean emigrant experience in London, which began in earnest in the 1950s. Calypso was the music of the minority, the voice of the other, and it helped to define the West Indian identity in England. Using the music of calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Kitchener as a road map to this journey of discovery and displacement, the film will focus on their homes both in Trinidad and London.
The criticism she received was about obtaining music clearances in U.K. when she herself is not a U.K. resident or citizen. Perhaps she needs to find a U.K. producer who can also access U.K. Funds. Her experimental films and docs have shown around the world at Rotterdam, Edinburgh, N.Y. and Havana Film Festivals. All of her work focuses into her Caribbean heritage and is quite evocative, artistic and well executed.
11. “Conch” from Curaçao will be directed and produced by German Gruber whose first film, urban drama, “Sensei Redenshon” was completed in 2013 and will be released in the Netherlands this fall. This fiction feature about the natural side of Curaçao is a road movie about a young boy who runs away from home after the loss of his mother. Searching for the message that he saw her whisper into a conch shell the night before her death, he seeks clues from the characters he meets along his desolate journey. Between nightmares of drowning and daydreams of becoming a musician, he eventually confronts his fear of the sea to find the answer.
12. “Green Days by the River” is a fiction feature set against the backdrop of rural Trinidad in 1952. A fifteen-year-old boy who has just moved to a village naively seeks the affection of two girls, an attractive rich Indian girl, and a more personable and accessible one. The ensuing triangle forces him to focus on becoming a man as he must make life enduring decisions.
Director Michael Mooleedhar has made several award winning shorts.Producer Christian James graduated in 2014 with an Mfa in Cretive Producing from Columbia College Chicago, has interned with K5 International during 2014 Cannes and participated in the 2015 Rotterdam Film Festival Lab.
13. “Potomitans : Women Pillars in Revolt” , a doc project from Guadeloupe will be directed by Bouchera Azzouz whose first documentary, “Nos Meres nos daronnes” (“Our Mothers”) aired this year on France 2 (France Televisions) and was one of its biggest audience hits. This is her second work on popular feminism. Producer Nina Vilus' short "Vivre” has won awards and their “Villa Karayib”, a 3 minute 30 second series with 140 episodes aired on Canal + Antilles. Laurence Lascary is coproducing.
This film is an exploratory journey into the heart of the everyday life of five Guadeloupean women who are considered “potomitans”, women who assume professional and familial responsibilities without the help of a man. Everything rests on the courage of these women, who are trying to emancipate themselves by claiming a new way of being a woman.
It is an Art & Vision Productions, De l’autre cote du periph (Dacp) and Canal + Antilles coproduction which Canal + will broadcast in the French Caribbean. 37% of the financing is secured through the Guadeloupe regional council, Agence national pour la cohesion social et l’egalite des chances (Asce), Ministry of French overseas territories. Apcag network of theaters in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana along with Aubervilliers Theater in France will premiere the film.
14. “The Seawall” is a fiction project to be coproduced by Guyana and U.S.
Director Mason Richards says, “My intention for ‘The Seawall’ is to create a dramatic narrative set in Guyana, South America with simple characters navigating through complex issues within the Caribbean cultural context. It is also my intention to make a film that seeks to reconcile our Caribbean and non-Caribbean identities through the journey of my protagonist who returnes “home” to Guyana and is confronted with issues of his past that he has suppressed. The story needs to be told because many of us from the Caribbean diaspora struggle with “trans-national” identities, meaning we are from the Caribbean, however we’ve immigrated to other countries like the U.S. where we’ve adapted to a new dominant culture and way of life. With tht, there is a feeling of “dis-connect” as though we have left something behind, back “home” in the Caribbean, whether it’s family members, our cultural identity, or simply our childhood memories. It is also my intention to make an entertaining, quality film that highlights the beauty of the Caribbean through the stories and hearts of the characters.
The fiscal partner of this project is Frog (Friends and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Guyana), Verisimiltude in New York City. The executive producer C.R. Wooten has exec produced several film projects for TV and HBO and exec produced the short film, “The Seawall”.
The writer-director, Mason Richards, is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve, a recipient of Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship 2012, winner of The Ainslie Alumni Achievement Award 2011 and Guyana’s 46th Independence Golden Arrowhead Award.
Producer Sohini Sengupta is an award-winning of creative director of theatrical campaigns, including “Birdman”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Black Swan” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. She is a production team member of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 35 under 35 Women Who Run Hollywood.
Malachi, a struggling young writer in Brooklyn, learns of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and returns to his birth country, Guyana, to sell off his inheritance. In Guyana, Malachi ends up confronting his estranged father who abandoned him as a child. Malachi gets closure, and makes decisions about the kind of father he would be to his unborn child.
15. “Epiphany” by Maria Govan who is a self-taught filmmaker from the island of New Providence in The Bahamas. When she was 18 she moved to L.A. and worked for four years on Hollywood sets. In 1999 she returned home, bought a digital camera and began making small guerilla-style local documentaries. In 2004 she moved to New York and began writing her first narrative script “Rain” which premiered in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival, won several awards and aired on Showtime to a strong audience response. Her second film “Play the Devil” was shot entirely in Trinidad in the spring of 2015 and she hopes it will premiere in the winter of 2016.
Producer Abigail Hadeed has worked with Caribbean crews on big budget commercials. She worked on the short “4am” in 2011 which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festval. In 2012 she produced an award winning feature doc “La Giata” and produced “Play the Devil” with Maria.
They are looking for coproducers and can offer a 35% rebate on Trinidadian spend with a 50% rebate on roles in key positions for films shot in Trinidad. Exterior and ocean environments can be shot in the Bahamas.
Set in the Bahamas — Mary, a loner with a passion for spear fishing and the sea, is forced to give up her room to her overbearing cousin’s girlfriend, an “illegal” colorful Cuban named Gabriel. When a love triangle develops and George realizes he’s been betrayed, the women are forced into the dark terrain of human smuggling.
Links to “Rain” (director’s previous work): Trailer
Link to Maria Govan’s Show Reel: https://vimeo.com/35611171
Other films in the program but exceeding the official number of 15 include
16. “Cargo” from The Bahamas, a fiction feature based upon the short film of Kareem Mortimer. Producer Trevite Willis has produced several films including the Lgbt feather “Children of God” with Kareem directing. Producer Alexander Younis now has a doc, “Brigidy Bram ” in post-production.
“Cargo”, based upon Kareem’s short “Passage”, is about a Bahamian fisherman whose life is slowly unraveling. After wasting his remaining money at a gambling house, he is approached by a security guard who suggests that Kevin supplement his income by using his vessel as a means to transport people illegally into the United States. Kevin leads scores of migrants on a treacherous, unsettling and perilous final journey.
17. “Scattered” reminded me of “Desperately Seeking Susan” in the story of an young uptight British woman who has her run-of-the-mill life disrupted when the Caribbean grandmother she barely knew leaves a request for her to scatter her ashes in Trinidad where a free-spirited cousin takes her on a wild road trip that changes her life forever.
The director-producer-cowriter, Karen Martinez, is a Trinidadian filmmaker based in London, U.K. She has worked extensively in the film world in U.K. and the Caribbean. In 2013 she wrote, produced and directed her frist narrative fiction “After Mas”. Her most recent film, “Dreams in Transit” is an essay-style documentary of a contemporary migrant reflcting on identity and the meaning of “home”.
18. “Unfinished Sentences” by writer-director-producer Mariel Brown, an award winning documentary director and founder of the creative and production company Savant. Her documentary films have been screened on television, at festivals and other special events around the world, most recently at the Pan African Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand.
This is a story of a writer father and a filmmaker daughter who walks the line between adoration and disappointment, success and failure, race, family and art. When he dies, in her great grief she discovers his poetry and prose transcend death, allowing her to hear his voice again and to find a way back to her own self. For more information go to http://www.unfinishedsentencesfilm.com.
19. “Queen of Soca” by Kevin Adams
“’ Queen of Soca’ was inspired by my home base of Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago where the frustration of living a life of restricted opportunity is a narrative I observe often.“
“ Queen of Soca” is the story of Olivia, who lives in an impoverished community and is striving to make a better life for herself. Her life is full of struggles, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The short version of “Queen of Soca”, entitled “No Soca No Life” premiered at Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2012 and has been well received by movie goers and movie industry practitioners. “No Soca No Life” is currently available on Vimeo, Pay per view.
“We are now focused on the original goal of creating a blockbuster inspirational story for the world to enjoy, and using the Trinidad and Tobago culture as the vehicle for our message. On behalf of myself and my team, thank you for your interest in this project and we look forward to completing this journey with you !”
The Cfm was held from 24-27 September at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The ttff/15 took place from 15-29 September.
- 10/7/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Criterion digitally restores its previous edition of Alain Resnais’ landmark directorial debut, Hiroshima Mon Amour, a jagged cornerstone of the French New Wave, which forever associated the reluctant auteur with one of the most acclaimed cinematic movements to date. Roughly preceding the renowned debut of Jean-Luc Godard and released the same month as Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (they competed against one another at Cannes), Resnais’ contribution changed the way we regarded linear narrative and flashback sequences, and much like those iconic works of his peers, now bears several decades worth of critical acclaim on its shoulders. Tragic, moody and ultimately a poetic exchange of present interludes shattered by ghosts of the recent past, Resnais begins with motifs he would remain fascinated with throughout his career, the nature of remembrance and recollection, instances as shattered as the narrative chronologies in his films.
Fourteen years after the atomic bomb laid waste to Hiroshima,...
Fourteen years after the atomic bomb laid waste to Hiroshima,...
- 7/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Criterion releases actor turned director Bernhard Wicki’s feature film debut The Bridge for the very first time on Region 1. Though he directed a mid-length film the year before, Why Are They Against Us?, it would be his next project, arriving in 1959, that would come to be known as the first anti-war film to come out of Germany, as well as the nation’s first post-war film to reach international recognition and critical acclaim. It would go on to win the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in the Us, and it secured an Academy Award Nomination in the same category (losing out to Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus).
The title paved the way for a short-lived English language career for Wicki, but more importantly, stood as the platform upon which the burgeoning New German Cinema auteurs would proliferate, precipitating Volker Schlondorff’s own 1966 debut, Young Torless, a much darker...
The title paved the way for a short-lived English language career for Wicki, but more importantly, stood as the platform upon which the burgeoning New German Cinema auteurs would proliferate, precipitating Volker Schlondorff’s own 1966 debut, Young Torless, a much darker...
- 6/23/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Jazz music has long expressed its capacity to borrow from various, sometimes contradictory sources in order to create something which in every sense transcends the original elements. Since the earliest days of jazz as a musical form, it has been inspired by military and funeral marches; has stylishly interpreted popular songs; and even brought the classical intricacies of Wagner into the domain of swinging brasses and reeds. This multiculturalism and eclecticism of jazz likens it to cinema which, in turn, has transformed pop culture motifs into something close to the sublime and mixed ‘high’ and ‘low’ artistic gestures to remarkable effect.In the history of jazz, the evolution from ragtime or traditional tunes, to discovering the treasure trove of Broadway songs was fast and smooth. The latter influence was shared by cinema, as the history of film production quickly marched on. The emergence of ‘talkies’ in the United States meant rediscovering Broadway,...
- 6/1/2015
- by Ehsan Khoshbakht
- MUBI
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Organizing Committee for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro just announced its official mascots will be 'Vinicius' and 'Tom' -- named after legendary Bossa Nova artists Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos 'Tom' Jobim. These two vital voices in Brazilian culture were responsible, along with collaborator Luiz Bonfa, for the now iconic music at the heart of the Academy Award and Cannes Palme d'Or winning film Black Orpheus.
- 12/15/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
'The Way He Looks' movie: Gay teen love story is Brazil's entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (photo: Fábio Audi and Ghilherme Lobo in 'The Way He Looks') In mid-September, The Way He Looks / Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho was selected as Brazil's entry for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Written and directed by 32-year-old São Paulo native Daniel Ribeiro, The Way He Looks (the Portuguese-language title literally means "Today I Want to Go Back Alone") won two awards at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival: the International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize for Best Film in the Panorama sidebar and the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender characters. Based on Ribeiro's 2010 short I Don't Want to Go Back Alone / Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho, The Way He Looks tells the story of Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo), a blind 15-year-old struggling to become...
- 9/29/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Above: 1964 poster for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, Germany, 1920).
I’ve written a lot about the German designer Hans Hillmann in these pages and elsewhere, and the current exhibition running through September 27 at the Kemistry Gallery is a must-see if you’re in London (there are some great images of the exhibit here if you’re not), but I only recently came across the work of a peer and compatriot of Hillmann’s, Karl Oskar Blase. Born the same year as Hillmann, on March 24, 1925, and now in his late 80s, Blase was, like Hillmann, a professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Art director of the German design magazine Form, Blase designed every cover of the magazine from 1957 to 1968. He is also renowned as a designer of stamps.
Throughout the 1960s Blase also designed film posters for the revival house Atlas Films (as did Hillmann). His posters are mostly a...
I’ve written a lot about the German designer Hans Hillmann in these pages and elsewhere, and the current exhibition running through September 27 at the Kemistry Gallery is a must-see if you’re in London (there are some great images of the exhibit here if you’re not), but I only recently came across the work of a peer and compatriot of Hillmann’s, Karl Oskar Blase. Born the same year as Hillmann, on March 24, 1925, and now in his late 80s, Blase was, like Hillmann, a professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Art director of the German design magazine Form, Blase designed every cover of the magazine from 1957 to 1968. He is also renowned as a designer of stamps.
Throughout the 1960s Blase also designed film posters for the revival house Atlas Films (as did Hillmann). His posters are mostly a...
- 9/14/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
So it's finally happening... It was in the summer of 2010 when it was first announced that Tony Award winning choreographer and director, Bill T. Jones' ("Fela!") intended to bring "Black Orpheus" to the Broadway stage as a musical. Many, including myself, could immediately picture a stage musical based on "Black Orpheus" - itself a harmonic piece of cinema history, with the Brazil carnival as a backdrop; It made and still makes sense. Film lovers rant about Hollywood's seemingly fading interest in original ideas, opting to adapt already existing works to film (stage plays and musicals, for example); Meanwhile,on...
- 7/7/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Prolific director George C. Wolfe and Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage are on board with producers Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones-Harvey and Paula Marie Black to recast Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus as a Broadway musical. The steamy 1960 Best Foreign Film Oscar winner, which set the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in modern-day Rio de Janeiro against the orgiastic background of carnavale, had a celebrated score by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim that’s widely credited with launching the Bossa Nova craze in the U.S. with such classics as its theme, “Manha de Carnaval.” Rick Miramontez, a spokesman for the show, said that […]...
- 7/7/2014
- Deadline
New York — Black Orpheus, a new musical version of the Brazilian love story made famous in Marcel Camus' 1959 screen adaptation, which won an Oscar for best foreign-language film, will have its world premiere on Broadway. While no timeline has been set for the project, Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is writing the book for the musical, with multiple Tony winner George C. Wolfe attached to direct. Lead producers Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones-Harvey and Paula Marie Black announced the production on Monday, adding their good-luck wishes to Brazil's World Cup team in the semifinal match against
read more...
read more...
- 7/7/2014
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.