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Egypt

Award-winning Egyptian films shine at International Festivals

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Hend El-Behary

Eshtebak (clash)

The 98-minute film, written and directed by Diab, depicts the political turbulence and uncertainty after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, particularly the conflict between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and those backing the military.

The film is set entirely in the back of a police van, into which both Brotherhood and military supporters had been thrown, in the wake of demonstrations following the overthrow of Morsi in July 2013.

Eshtebak was nominated to represent Egypt at the Oscars in 2017. Moreover It was among the opening films at the Cannes Festival’s. The movie was also screened at the Kairali Theatre, one the of the venues of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), and won three awards at Valladolid Film Festival, Spain’s largest film festival.

Nawara

Through the life of a domestic helper named ‘Nawara’ working for a rich family in Cairo, the film reflects the humanitarian and social conditions of Egyptians before and during the January 25 Revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. The film is directed by Hala Khalil.

This movie has won several awards, as actress Menna Shalabi who plays the title role of Nawara won the Best Actress Award at Morocco’s Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival and Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

In June 2016, the movie was screened at the 23rd Munich Film Festival and was also selected among the opening and closing films of the 6th Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden.

Hepta

The movie is based on a novel written by Mohammed Sadek in 2014. The story is about a renowned social-psychology specialist, Shukri Mokhtar, who decides to give one last lecture about the very simple question of “How do we love?” Through four different stories, the movie answers this question by showing the seven ‘stages of love’.

Hepta participated in the Festival of Arab Camera in Rotterdam. Moreover it competed for the Golden Award for Feature Films at Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival, where the film grabbed the attention of both critics and audience. The movie was chosen as one of the opening and closing films at the 6th Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden, where it was nominated for the Best Feature Film Award.

Meanwhile, the movie won the audience award at the Annual Arabian Sights Film Festival in Washington D.C. In addition, the movie participated in the Anab d’Or in the Feature Film Competition at the 2nd Mediterranean Film Festival of Annaba (FAFM) in Algeria and was screened at the Arab Camera Festival in Rotterdam.

Jeanne d’Arc

Influenced by Carl Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, the movie is a modern documentary, which through dancing, poetic narrative and mythology, sheds light on women’s circumstances and issues of women’s emancipation in post-2011-uprising Egypt.

Through interviews with several women, including artists and a poetic voiceover, the film draws attention to women’s repression and their suppressed feelings of guilt, especially among Egyptian female artists. The film is directed by Iman Kamel.

Jeanne d’Arc was screened at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December 2016.

Jareedy

Directed by Mohamed Hisham, the film highlighted the the story of a Nubian boy named Konnaf who faced his life with fear but in the end overcame it. Konnaf’s challenge was to reach a rock in the middle of the Nile through a traditional boat which is ‘Jareedy’ as he is not a swimmer, which is unusual for one who lives on the banks of the Nile.

During the journey, the Nubian boy is guided by an old boat craftsman who witnessed the displacement from Nubia in 1964. After telling the young boy stories from the past, he succeeds in helping Konnaf to reach his dream.

Jareeedy was shot in Nubia and tells the hidden stories in its own mother language, drawing attention to the marginalization of the Nubian people.

The movie was awarded Best Cinematography at London Film Festival in the UK. It participated in several other festivals, including Jaipur Film Festival in India, Afrika Film Festival in Belguim and the 12 Months Film Festival in Romania.

Mawlana (The Preacher)

Directed by Magdy Ahmed Ali, the film’s poster showcases actor Amr Saad alongside a sentence that reads: “There are more than 120,000 preachers in Egypt’s mosques. This is the story of one of them.” The story is based on a novel by the same name, written by Ibrahim Eissa.

Saad plays the character of Sheikh Hatem, a young preacher who was working in a governmental mosque then became a TV celebrity. Saad earlier told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the movie shows the lives of several sheikhs and calls for the reform of religious discourse. He added that the movie will be shown in several countries, including China, Malaysia and Latin America.

Mawlana was chosen to be screened at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

Har Gaf Sayfan (Dry Hot Summers)

This 30-minute film depicts the story of two lonely people at opposite chapters of life: the old Shawky and young Doaa accidentally meet on a scorching hot summer day in a Cairo taxi. They are both overcome by their gringing day-to-day routines, but suddenly, their race through the city evolves into a journey of self-discovery that reconnects them to life.

The film was directed by Sherif Elbendary, grabbing widespread attention as it premiered at the DIFF 12th edition in December 2015. While in April 2016, the movie was selected to open the 18th edition of the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts.

In February 2016, Har Gaf Sayfan (meaning “Hot and Dry in Summertime”) won the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Award for International Cooperation at a gala held during the ‘Berlinale Talents’, an annual summit and networking platform of the Berlin International Film Festival for 250 outstandingly creative filmmakers.

Moreover, the film participated at the Carthage International Film Festival in October and was also screened at the Dhofar Arab Film Forum in Oman in August.

Tuk Tuk

The film tells the story of kids who are working as TukTuk drivers in the streets of Cairo, through a camera trip in Egyptian slums. The film is directed by Romani Saad.

Speaking to Al-Wafd newspaper, Saad said that he tried to come closer to the real life of these street children to create a concrete background about their experiences and social conditions, pointing out that he chose two children and asked them to let him into their daily lives without his interference in their actions.

The movie participated in the Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival.

In the Last Days of the City

The movie talks about a 35 years old filmmaker ‘ Khalid’ who faces a loss in his life, then he decides to shoot a film that captures the soul of the city but he gets in trouble; Khalid’s friends support him to overcome the struggles and send him footages from Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin which enthuses him to keep going through the difficulty and capture the beautiful atmosphere of Cairo.

The movie is directed by Tamer Al-Saied and it is a co-production between Egypt, Germany, the U.K., and the U.A.E.

The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale talents, where it was awarded the Caligari film prize. However, the film was excluded from the Cairo Film Festival this year. It was the only work by an Egyptian director to take part in the 46th annual Berlinale Forum and win the Grand prize at the MFF T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival in Wroclaw.

Moreover, the film participated at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy; Olhar Cinema Curitiba Film Festival in Brazil; and Malta’s Valletta Film Festival.

Who Killed the Armenians

The film is the first of its kind produced in Egypt and dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. It was directed by Egyptian satellite TV anchor Myriam Zaki and film director Mohamed Hanafi.

The 70-minute film was shot in Armenia, Egypt, and Lebanon, from where it presents rare documents, testimonies of survivors of the genocide and footages that prove the violent acts by Ottoman Turks against the Armenian nation, beginning with the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896), the Adana Massacre (1909), and the 1915 genocide. These documents were revealed to Arab audiences for the first time.

The film won the Audience Award at the New York Film Festival and the director was awarded the Vanya Exerjian prize for Empowering Women and Girls.

Um Ghayeb (Mother of the Unborn)

Directed by Nadine Salib, the movie talks about a woman ‘Hanan’ who is yearning for a child for 12 years. She lives in a small village in Upper Egypt where it is common for women who suffer infertility to be called “Um Ghayeb”.

In spite of its international recognition, this extremely humanistic movie was only screened one single time in Egypt by Zawya, according to director Nadine Salib. The movie was screened in IDFA, along with the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, and Yamagata Film Festival in Japan.

It also participated in Carthage Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Award at Abu Dhabi festival. It also received the Peter Wintonick Special Jury Award for First Appearance at the IDFA 2014. It moreover won the first prize for Best Documentary in Mizna Twin cities, and the award for best documentary in AfryCam Film Festival.

Ali, Mea’za we Ibrahim (Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim)

The film tells the story of Ali who suffers the loss of his beloved fiancé who has died; Ali then falls in love with a goat naming it with the same name of his fiancée ‘Nada’. Ali’s mother insists on visiting a healer. At the healer’s clinic, Ali meets Ibrahim who works at a recording studio and claims that he hears voices frightening him; the healer said that both Ali and Ibrahim are “cursed” and their medication is to throw three “magic” stones in Egypt’s three water bodies.

Ali, Ibrahim and the goat start on a long adventure that takes them to the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Nile, building a good friendship along the way.

The movie had its MENA premiere at the DIFF and the actor Ali Sobhy, one of the cast, won the prize of best actor at “Al-Muhr Al-Tawil” competition at DIFF.

Abadan Lam Nakon Atfal (We Have Never Been Children)

The film is about a divorced woman who looks after her four kids. By and by, her life circumstances change gradually. The film is directed by Mahmoud Soliman and it is co-produced by four countries, including Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, and Lebanon.

The movie was premiered at the DIFF where it won the Best Muhr Non-Fiction Feature Award. Moreover, it was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Documentary Films category. It also participated in the Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival in March.

Hayat Tahra (Tahra’s Life)

The movie tells the story of Tahra, a woman from Upper Egypt who worked in all the men-restricted jobs including construction, bricks and cement lifting, metalurgy-related jobs, as well as sewing, all to earn a good life for her five children after her husband’s death. These professions, along with several small projects enable her to raise LE 150,000.

This movie was directed by Mohanad Diab and was premiered at the Shorts Corner at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. The movie was screened also at Dhofar Arab Film Forum.

Haram El Gasad (Sins of the Flesh)

Directed by Khaled El Hagar, the film was shot in only one location farm in the desert, using only fire and kerosene lamps, no electricity. The film is a drama set against the 25th of January uprising. The story examines love, revenge, passion and the misuse of power of four people who live on a desert farm during the uprising of 2011 and who get their news only via the radio. It shows how what was happing in the farm reflected what was happing in Egypt.

The movie participated in Carthage International Film Festival within the long feature film section, and was selected for screening at the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Rabie Shetwy (Wintry Spring)

The film is directed by Mohamed Kamel. It tells the story of Nour a schoolgirl who lives alone with her father, and is going through a very critical period in her life, as suddenly she is becoming a woman. She cannot reveal this to her father and keps it as her own secret, so her father cannot understand this change that occurrs in her life, which results in tension between them.

The film won the best short film and best actor awards from the Italian festival Fotogramma d’Oro and the Best Short Film Award at the Sose International Film Festival.

The movie, moreover, was selected for screening at the Shorts Festival which chooses films shorter than 20 minutes that have received more than one award in 2015.

Al-Nossour Al-Saghira (The Small Eagles)

The film tells the story of Mohamed, the son of a simple worker in the city of Alexandria, where he dreams to move to Cairo, to become a filmmaker. He then meets Ali, Salma and Bassam. Mohamed finds that his new friends’ parents were leftists which enthused him to search in his father’s histor, hoping maybe to find something precious.

The film is directed by Mohamed Rashad and had its world premiere at the 13th DIFF.

Al Ma’a Wel Khodra Wel Wagh El Hasan (Water, Greenery, and a Beautiful Face)

Directed by Yousri Nasrallah, this movie depicts the troubles of Egyptian traditional marriage by telling the story of a family in a small Egyptian village preparing for a big wedding celebration.

The film was screened in the Locarno International Film Festival competition that included 17 movies from Greece, Portugal, Germany, Italy and several other European countries.

Withered Green

This indie drama narrates the life of a conservative girl Iman’s who feels stuck in antiquated traditions and norms especially after losing her parents; she attempts to convince any of her uncles to attend her younger sister’s engagement in her deceased father’s place, as is traditional. However, a shocking discovery prompts her to do away with all these withered traditions that she once clung to.

Directed by Mohamed Hammad, the movie won the “Directors of the Present” competition at the Locarno International Film Festival where it premiered.

Moreover, it was also the first Arab movie to ever be screened at the Singapore International Film Festival, in addition to being screened at the Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (FIFF) in Belgium.

Bara fe El-Share (Outside on the Street)

The film is based on a group of workers of Helwan neighborhood in Egypt. The film showed 10 workers joined in an acting workshop, but during the rehearsals they tell the stories of injustice inside the factory, the violence of the police, of courts that fabricate charges and an endless number of stories of corruption and exploitation by the employers.

The movie is directed by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk and won the Best Feature Film Award at the 5th Latin-Arab International Film Festival in Buenos Aires. It was screened within the official selection at the 26th edition of the Carthage in Tunisia, in addition to its featuring at the German Pavilion at the Venice.

Coma

The movie takes one on a long journey inside the human-self to restore memories, confront fears, and appreciate the blessings they have in life. As It tackles how we value people and objects from a human-interest perspective.

The movie is directed and produced by the young director Ghada Ali. The movie participated in the Fez International Film festival of Cinema & Education in Morocco, along with OZARK Shorts Film Festival in Missouri in the United States, GATFEST Film Festival in Jamaica.

The film was selected for screening at the Asia International Youth Short-Film Exhibition in Wenzhou, China, The Colour International Film Festival in India, and the International Women’s Film Festival in Kabul.

It has also won many awards including the Official Selection for the Biennial Edition of Ciné Women of America and the Best Cinematography award at FILMSAAZ of India.

Before the Spring

In 2008, the film maker travelled to Egypt to tell the story of metal and rock bands’ struggles in a conservative Muslim country.

“We meet the kids in Cairo’s tight-knit underground music scene who are the film’s main characters, including the sons of the country’s foremost political dissidents and the Muslim World’s first all-female metal band,” the film makers said.

After the 2011 uprising, the film makers shed light on new horizons and presented the main characters with a new set of life-changing dilemmas.

Directed by Jed Rothstein, the movie won the New York Festival’s Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature Award.

Osbou we Yomen (One Week and Two Days)

The film which is directed by Marwan Zain talks about the love story of a couple who faced some troubles over their decision of giving birth.

The movie made it to the competition in the 13th DIFF Muhr Shorts category.

(Source: http://www.egyptindependent.com)

Academy Awards, Oscar

336 FEATURE FILMS IN CONTENTION FOR 2016 BEST PICTURE OSCAR®

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Three hundred thirty-six feature films are eligible for the 2016 Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday, December 21, 2016.

To be eligible for 89th Academy Awards consideration, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by midnight, December 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days.

88-academy-awards-2016-oscars-list

Under Academy rules, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Feature films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category. The “Reminder List of Productions Eligible for the 89th Academy Awards” is available at http://www.oscars.org/oscars/rules-eligibility.

Nominations for the 89th Oscars® will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

The 89th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.  The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

screen-shot-2016-12-24-at-8-52-57-am

(Source: http://www.oscars.org)

#Berlinale, #BIFF

FORUM EXPANDED – THE STARS DOWN TO EARTH

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

The selection process for the 12th Forum Expanded is currently being finalised. This year’s theme is “The Stars Down to Earth”.

The search for ways to enable art to deal with an increasingly intangible reality forms an essential similarity between the selected works. Bringing one’s gaze back down to earth now seems more necessary than ever before. Yet how can one use film to take hold of something real when that very concept is ever harder to grasp?

The films and installations in the programme approach this question by attempting to both look and listen as closely as possible. In the video installation Twelve, for example, Jeamin Cha examines the pragmatic process underpinning the annual secret wage negotiations held between Korean employer and employee associations. Berlin artist Sandra Schäfer’s video installation Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik investigates city planning and redevelopment in Beirut and the political and religious ideologies they contain.

In her film Studies on the Ecology of Drama, Eija-Liisa Ahtila explores ways of finding film images that move beyond cinematographic anthropocentrism by shifting her gaze away from people and onto their environment.

The Karrabing Film Collective from Australia, whose work Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams is being presented in the group exhibition, shows three different variants of one and the same story, demonstrating how different approaches to a problem don’t just bring forth contradictory solutions but also mutually complimentary ones.

For his part, Joe Namy does away with pictorial representation almost entirely. His installation Purple, Bodies in Translation – Part II of “A Yellow Memory from the Yellow Age” merely shows a purple-colour surface, while the soundtrack explores the question of which details are lost in translation and what additional elements and contradictions are created by the differences between subtitles and image.

 

Marja-Leena Hukkanen © Crystal Eye – Kristallisilmä Oy
Studies on the Ecology of Drama by Eija-Liisa Ahtila

The central event location is once again the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg. A group exhibition of work by 14 artists takes place here together with screenings of numerous films. The artists already invited include Haig Aivazian, James Benning, Duncan Campbell, Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy, Noam Enbar, Mohamed A. Gawad and Lina Attalah, Eva Heldmann, Laura Horelli, Oliver Hussain, Ken Jacobs, Mahmoud Lotfy, Bernd Lützeler, Peter Miller, Rawane Nassif, Tomonari Nishikawa, Marouan Omara and Islam Kamal, Lukasz Ronduda, Ginan Seidl, Philip Scheffner, Merle Kröger and Izadora Nistor, Fern Silva, and Mohanad Yaqubi.

Forum Expanded will also be presenting different film archives and archive projects as part of a symposium to be held at the Kuppelhalle at the silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding, including ones from Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Palestinian Territories. SAVVY Contemporary are presenting an installation by Israeli filmmaker and artist Amos Gitai in their own exhibition space at the same location.

The Marshall McLuhan Salon at the Embassy of Canada at Leipziger Platz and the Arsenal Cinema at the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz form the other festival locations once again.

The full list of participating artists will be announced in the next press release in mid-January.

The works for this edition of Forum Expanded were selected by Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (head curator), Anselm Franke (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Nanna Heidenreich (ifs internationale filmschule köln), Khaled Abdulwahed (filmmaker and artist) and Ulrich Ziemons (Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art), with Bettina Steinbrügge (Hamburger Kunstverein) acting as a consultant.

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

Venice International Film Festival

BERLINALE POSTER 2017 – BELOVED BEARS RETURN

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

To attract attention to the Festival these inquisitive animals are again making their rounds throughout town!

*All poster motifs of the 67th Berlinale

Berlinale-
Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick

“Berlin is big and this year we’ll again follow the bear tracks to some typical spots in the capital,” remarks a delighted Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.

Once more the motifs have been designed by Velvet, a Swiss advertising agency.

The six posters in the series will be visible around town as of mid-January 2017. They will also be on sale at the Berlinale Online Shop starting January 16.

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(Source: Press Release provided by Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, Berlin Film Festival

BERLIN ANNOUNCES GENERATION 2017: PERIL AND PROMISE – WALKING FINE LINES AND LIFE ON THE ROAD

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Selection Process for Feature Film Programme at Halfway Mark

In the two competitions Kplus and 14plus, 15 feature films have already been selected for the 40th edition of Generation. Exhibiting an impressive range of cinematic approaches, these productions tell the stories of young people on inner and outer journeys and capture a sense of longing for new and altered horizons. The complete programme for Generation will be made public in mid-January.

Opening Film 14plus

Michael Winterbottom is slated to open the programme of Generation 14plus in the newly renovated Haus der Kulturen der Welt with a special screening of his vibrant music documentary On the Road. Shot in the characteristic hybrid style that has become the English director’s trademark, his newest outing follows the members of the band Wolf Alice on tour as they travel back and forth across their native Great Britain, where they have caused quite a stir in recent years. The film intimately portrays life on the road, in all its ecstasy and exhaustion. The connection between the musicians and their fans is palpable and there is a fine interplay between watching and listening amongst concert and film audiences

.

David Darcy © Good Dog Enterprises
Red Dog: True Blue by Kriv Stenders

Generation 14plus

Almost Heaven
United Kingdom
By Carol Salter
World premiere
Far from home, 17-year-old Ying Ling practices for her examination to become a mortician at one of China’s largest funeral homes. In addition to frequent qualms and farewell ceremonies, the everyday routine of this unusual occupation also serves up both humorous and life affirming moments. Carol Salter’s debut outing is an empathetic documentary portrait touching on fears, friendship and coming of age amidst ghosts and the dearly departed.

Butterfly Kisses
United Kingdom
By Rafael Kapelinski
World premiere
Jake and his friends pass their time hanging out in the courtyards of their high-rise development or in pool halls, talking about girls, watching pornos and getting drunk. Jake is burdened by a dark secret that distances him more and more from the others and drives him into dangerous isolation. Rafael Kapelinski stages his debut film in contrasting black and white, moving in respectful proximity to his characters, brought to life vividly here by an ensemble cast of new discoveries and young talents (including Thomas Turgoose – This Is England, Generation 2007).

Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves)
Canada
By Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
European premiere
With epic scope and stunning polymorphism, the film follows a group of young people in Québec who resolve to form a revolutionary cell together in the aftermath of student protests. This unflinching work from Mathieu Denis (Corbo, Generation 2015) and Simon Lavoie employs its protagonists to play through what it might mean to instigate a revolution and devote one’s life to a cause in today’s world.

Emo the Musical
Australia
By Neil Triffett
International premiere
The forbidden high school love between Ethan, the shy Emo kid with suicidal tendencies, and chipper Christian activist Trinity previously delighted Generation audiences as a short film in 2014. Director Neil Triffett is back with his heartbreakingly funny musical grotesque, now in feature-film length, and chock full of even more colourful characters to light up the big screen.

Mulher do pai (A Woman and the Father)
Brazil / Uruguay
By Cristiane Oliveira
International premiere
After the death of her grandmother, 16-year-old Nalu is left to care for her father alone. Any hope of leaving her dismal village now seems to have receded far off into the distance. Cristiane Oliveira’s coming-of-age drama, a work of slowly paced cinema characterised by respectful intimacy and subtle physicality, paints the complex portrait of a relationship between an adolescent daughter and her blind father.

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
USA
By Dash Shaw
European premiere
He’s not exactly popular, he’s got friend problems, he wants to make it big with the school paper and he goes by the name of his inventor, Dash. In the school basement, he discovers a secret that rocks the very foundations of his world. Graphic novelist Shaw hopes that his film will reach 15-year-old nerds who are just as crazy about drawings and paintings as he himself was at their age. This work of animation virtually spilling over with ingenuity (and featuring the voice-over talents of Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon) is sure to delight young viewers outside of this particular demographic as well.

Krolewicz Olch (The Erlprince)
Poland
By Kuba Czekaj
European premiere
The action in The Erlprince builds and surges as dramatically as the ballad by Goethe from which it borrows its title. The boundaries between reality, desire and appearance are blurred in this futuristically tinged film about an extraordinarily gifted young man and his ambitious and wondrous mother. Expressed in a form as unconventional as the characters it portrays, the film oscillates between the poles of both science and nature and love and violence.

Weirdos
Canada
By Bruce McDonald
European premiere
Just after the end of the Vietnam War and in the midst of the American bicentennial celebrations of 1976, runaway Kit and his girlfriend Alice hitchhike their way along the east coast of Canada. Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments, Panorama 2007) has managed to create a coming-of-age film that shines equally as a road movie, one driven by a fantastic soundtrack composed of deep cuts from the era in question. A rebellious trip in black and white, in which all sense of certainty gets left by the wayside.

Generation Kplus

As duas Irenes (Two Irenes)
Brazil
By Fabio Meira
World premiere
In the shimmering heat of Brazil, 13-year-old Irene discovers a dark secret her father’s been hiding: he has another family and even another daughter with the same name. Irene embarks on a risky game that could blow up in her face at any moment. The languid summer atmosphere of Fabio Meira’s feature film debut can’t hide the fact that something is simmering right under the surface.

Die Häschenschule – Jagd nach dem Goldenen Ei (Rabbit School – Guardians of the Golden Egg)
Germany
By Ute von Münchow-Pohl
World premiere
Scrappy city rabbit Max finds shelter in a hidden Easter bunny school after a misadventure with a model plane leaves him stranded far beyond the city limits. Here he encounters the keepers of the legendary Golden Egg, itself the coveted prize of scheming foxes. After an initial bout with boredom, the secret techniques of the Easter bunnies finally arouse Max’s curiosity. This lovingly drawn German animation film, based on the 1924 classic, is a pure delight buoyed by imagination and brisk pacing and graced with the voices of Senta Berger, Friedrich von Thun, Jule Böwe and Noah Levi.

Primero enero (January)
Argentina
By Darío Mascambroni
European premiere
Primero enero is the directorial debut of Argentinian filmmaker Darío Mascambroni. 11-year-old Valentino’s life goes off the rails when his parents get divorced, challenging him to see the world from a different angle. In a tender and moving father-son story, the director takes his protagonists and his viewers out to the countryside, into a world of heightened sensitivity.

Red Dog: True Blue
Australia
By Kriv Stenders
European premiere
Australian director Stenders delighted Generation audiences in 2011 with a legendary story about a very special dog. Now, at the centre of this sequel – which is also a prequel- the red canine is joined by 11-year-old Mick, who treasures his bond with his four-legged friend above all else. Destiny has brought the duo together on a farm in the Australian outback, where the two partake in mystical adventures and Mick encounters his first true love. With great humour and sensitivity, the film is a tale of growing up in a time of transformation.

Richard the Stork
Germany / Belgium / Luxemburg / Norway
By Toby Genkel, Reza Memari
World premiere
Even though everybody else thinks he’s a sparrow – Richard himself holds tight to the conviction that he is in fact a stork. In this fast-paced adventure, Toby Genkel and Reza Memari tell the story of a bird who sets off self-confidently on a winter trip to Africa in a literal rite of passage that simultaneously serves as an empathetic tale about otherness and self-discovery. This German-international co-production provides spellbinding entertainment with its fantastic and fanciful fable showcasing top-shelf animation.

Tesoros
Mexico
By María Novaro
World premiere
Siblings Dylan and Andrea set off with their new friends on a marvellous journey of discovery in search of long lost pirate loot. In refreshingly sunny images, María Novaro gets up close to her characters to tell a story of children confidently indulging their lust for life and curiosity. In a commune on Mexico’s Pacific coast, they are given space to go their own ways and together find something much more valuable than buried treasure.

Shi Tou (Stonehead)
People’s Republic of China
By Xiang Zhao
World premiere
10-year-old Shi Tou, the son of a migrant labourer, grows up alone with his grandmother. It’s so hard to tell right from wrong! Sharing a reward with a classmate or waiting until his father returns, obeying his teacher of protecting his friend – which one should he choose? With documental authenticity, Xiang Zhao paints a portrait of life in rural China and a society in which an entire generation has too often been left to grow up in the absence of their parents.

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#SBIFF, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Showcase Series

#SBIFF The Showcase – Neruda

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

The eventful and unorthodox life of the Nobel Prize–winning poet, politician, committed communist, unapologetic hedonist, and Chilean cultural icon Pablo Neruda provides plentiful territory for cinematic exploration. The poet’s early-1950s exile in Procida previously inspired Michael Radford’s Il Postino, a fictionalized story about Neruda’s relationship with a local postman that left few cinemagoers dry-eyed. Now, Pablo Larraín, Chile’s most inventive and provocative contemporary filmmaker, takes a wholly unique approach to his famous countryman’s life and work with Neruda, which is set during the poet’s sojourn underground in the late 1940s.

neruda

“A captivating original literary chase thriller.”
Justin Chang – LA Times

“Stunningly inventive… A work of cleverness, beauty and power.”
Jay Weissberg – Variety

“Neruda is a warmhearted film about a hot-blooded man that is nonetheless troubled by a subtle, perceptible chill.”
A.O. Scott – NY Times

Get tickets here

Screening:
Friday, December 23 @ 11:00am
Saturday, December 24 @ 11:00am
Sunday, December 25 @ 2:00pm
Monday, December 26 @ 7:30pm
Tuesday, December 27 @ 5:00pm
Wednesday, December 28 @ 7:30pm
Thursday, December 29 @ 11:00am
Friday, December 30 @ 11:00am
Saturday, December 31 @ 11:00am
Sunday, January 1 @ 2:00pm
Monday, January 2 @ 7:30pm
Tuesday, January 3 @ 5:00pm
Wednesday, January 4 @ 7:30pm
at the Riviera Theatre – 2044 Alameda Padre Serra

NERUDA
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Written by Guillermo Calderón
Starring Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Alfredo Castro, Michael Silva,  Mercedes Morán,  Pablo Derqui
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Rated R (for sexuality/nudity and some language)
Subtitled
 

Check out the trailer below:

(Source: sbiff.org)

#AFI, IMDB

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: 16 Surprising Facts on the Film’s 70th Anniversary

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

This is one of my all-time favorite holiday films!

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TheWrap takes a look at some fun trivia about “It’s a Wonderful Life” directed by Frank Capra, courtesy of Alonso Duralde, IMDb and Old Hollywood biographer Robert Matzen in his new book, “Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe.

From Beatrice Verhoeven and Alonso Duralde, provided by The Wrap

According to Alonso Duralde’s book, “Have Yourself a Very Movie Christmas,” Uncle Billy actor Thomas Mitchell was actually considered to play Mr. Potter, but Lionel Barrymore got the role because of his popularity after radio versions of “A Christmas Carol.”

Jimmy the Raven appeared in Capra’s “You Can’t Take It With You” (1938) and other post-“Wonderful Life” Capra movies.

The film was such a financial disappointment that it busted Capra’s production company, Liberty Films.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” was the first and last time Capra produced, financed, directed and co-wrote a film.

The original screenplay began with a scene in Benjamin Franklin’s workshop in heaven.

Yes, Bert and Ernie from “Sesame Street” have the same names as the cop and the cab driver in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But it’s just a coincidence, “Muppet” insiders have claimed.

It’s a Wonderful Life” was Jimmy Stewart’s first picture after 20 months on the front lines of WWII. He was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while filming.

According to IMDb, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was ranked as the #1 Most Inspiration Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute in 2006.

It is also the only film in history to originate from a greeting card.

James Stewart has said that while filming the scene in which George prays in the bar, he began to sob and later, Capra re-framed the now much closer shot to capture his expression. That’s why the shot appears grainy compared to the rest of the film.

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Nick the Bartender (left) in a scene from It’s a Wonderful Life. (Photo via Bostonhassle.com)

Actor and producer Sheldon Leonard said that he only agreed to play Nick the bartender so he could buy baseball tickets with his paycheck.

Robert J. Anderson said H.B. Warner really was drunk in the scene in which Mr. Gower slaps George. The real slaps caused real blood to ooze out of Anderson’s ear. After the cameras stopped rolling, he comforted Anderson.

(Source: Excerpt from http://m.chron.com)

 

Palm Springs International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

PSIFF Announces 3-Year Platinum Sponsorship with Bennion Deville Homes

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Palm Springs, CA (December 21, 2016) – Bennion Deville Homes has signed a $100,000 three-year platinum sponsorship with the Palm Springs Bennion Deville
International Film Festival.  The Festival will be held January 2-16, 2017.

“We are excited and grateful to have Bennion Deville return as a platinum sponsor,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner.  “For many years, Bennion Deville has played a significant role in the success of both the Film Awards Gala and Festival.  This is a great partnership for our festival and we look forward to working with them for many years to come.”

“We are proud to continue our relationship with the Palm Springs International Film Festival,” said Bob Deville, Co-Founder/Broker of Bennion Deville Homes.  “The Palm Springs International Film Festival is vital to the local community because of the spotlight it shines on our region each year, something we have recognized since we started our business here in 2001. Fifteen years of sponsorship, as well as fifteen years as a board member, shows just how much we care about the Palm Springs International Film Society and their critical role in putting on this marquee event annually. I am honored to play an integral part within the film society and the event itself, and look forward to future support as our festival continues to grow and enhance the global image of Palm Springs.”

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About The Palm Springs International Film Festival The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 135,000 attendees last year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, a glamorous, black-tie event, presented by Chopard and sponsored by Mercedes Benz and Entertainment Tonight, and attended by 2,500.  The Film Awards Gala honors the year’s best achievements in cinema in front of and behind the camera.  The celebrated list of talents who have been honored in recent years includes Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Julianne Moore, Brad Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Julia Roberts, David O. Russell, Meryl Streep, and Reese Witherspoon.  PSIFF is organized by The Palm Springs International Film Society, a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization with a mission to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness.   For more information, call 760-778-8979 or 800-898-7256 or visit www.psfilmfest.org.

About Bennion Deville Homes Founded by Bob Bennion and Bob Deville in 2001, Bennion Deville Homes is one of the largest independent real estate brokerages in Southern California, serving the region from 26 offices throughout the Coachella Valley and San Diego and Orange counties. The powerhouse company serves the Coachella Valley from offices in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Bermuda Dunes, and Indio. Bennion Deville Homes entered the coastal Southern California communities of San Diego and Orange counties in 2010, with offices serving Orange County in Laguna Niguel, and offices in Carlsbad, Carmel Valley, Encinitas, Hillcrest/Mission Hills, and Little Italy in San Diego County. Bennion Deville Homes also serves Southern California from offices in Glendora, Lake Arrowhead, and Redlands.

The LUXE Collection program, exclusive to Bennion Deville Homes, lists and showcases some of the finest properties available on the market, maximizing exposure of high-end luxury homes to qualified buyers across a variety of mediums and channels.

For the location of the office nearest you, please visit BDHomes.com. For the latest trends in Southern California real estate and community news, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @BDHSoCal.

(Source: PSFilmFest.org)

#SBIFF, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

#SBIFF American Riviera Award 2017

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Jeff Bridges will be honored with SBIFF’s 2017 American Riviera Award on Thursday, February 9, 2017 at the historic Arlington Theatre. Bridges will be fêted with a Tribute, moderated by Scott Feinberg, celebrating his illustrious career, culminating with his captivating performance in David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water, a CBS Films release. The film opened in August to critical acclaim.

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American Riviera Award
honoring Jeff Bridges
Moderated by Scott Feinberg
Thursday, February 9, 2017 @ 8:00pm
Arlington Theatre

Click here for tickets

For his role in Hell or High Water, Bridges has received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, as well as the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bridges’ renowned career includes celebrated roles in films such as The Big Lebowski, Fearless, The Contender, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Door in the Floor, True Grit, Starman, The Morning After, Jagged Edge, The Last Picture Show, Against All Odds, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Fisher King, Seabiscuit, and Crazy Heart (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor).

11162014-Roger-Durling_t479“Jeff Bridges shows us in Hell or High Water that an already great artist can continue his growth.  I may go as far as saying that this is his best performance,” stated SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. “It’s truly special to be able to celebrate Jeff – for he’s not only a dear friend of SBIFF – but he is a timeless legend in our industry.”

The American Riviera Award was established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American Cinema. Bridges will join a prestigious group of past recipients, including last year’s honorees Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Mark Ruffalo (2016), Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke (2015), Robert Redford (2014), Quentin Tarantino (2013) and Martin Scorsese (2012), Annette Bening (2011), Sandra Bullock (2010), Mickey Rourke (2009), Tommy Lee Jones (2008), Forrest Whitaker (2007), Philip Seymour Hoffman (2006), Kevin Bacon (2005) and Diane Lane (2004).

(Source: sbiff.org)

#SBIFF, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Showcase Series

Note from Roger – Daughters of the Dust

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Dear Cinephiles,

Julie Dash’s DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST is one of the most important indie films.  It was the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide release 25 years ago.  The film is beautiful, haunting and a true work of art.  Beyonce’s groundbreaking feature length music film “Lemonade” pays homage to “Daughters of the Dust”.

Below is an article about the film from the Los Angeles Times. Come check out the 25th Restoration of this masterpiece tonight (Thursday) at 7:30pm at the Riviera Theatre.

See you at the movies!
Roger Durling

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‘Daughters of the Dust,’ Julie Dash’s 1991 triumph, makes a welcome return
By Justin Chang

“Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash’s magical 1991 debut feature, captures a sad, thrilling moment of transformation for a community of Gullahs, who are the descendants of African slaves who lived on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. On an August day in 1902, several generations of the Peazant family are preparing to move to the U.S. mainland, bidding farewell to their island home and the vibrant, uniquely African-influenced culture they’ve succeeded in keeping alive.

All good period pieces achieve and sustain a sense of immersion in a different time and place. “Daughters of the Dust,” which Dash spent many years researching, producing, writing and directing, goes further than most. Its examination of a bygone way of life is so patient and evocative, so beholden to its own storytelling conventions and rhythms, that watching it is a bit like submitting to a form of time travel. You emerge from the experience feeling slightly dazed and disoriented, but also deeply and thoroughly ravished.

This is partly due to the hypnotic pull of Arthur Jafa’s cinematography (which won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival) and the atmospheric drumbeats of John Barnes’ score, which conspire to establish an enveloping, dreamlike mood at the outset. But it is also because of the strong, vividly detailed personalities of the women at the film’s center, each one representing a different voice in a timeless tug of war between tradition and modernity, assimilation and isolation.

There is the family’s octogenarian matriarch, Nana Peazant (Cora Lee Day), who is determined to remain on the island with her rituals and herbal potions to the chagrin of her embittered granddaughter-in-law, Haagar (Kaycee Moore), who looks forward to the prosperity that she hopes awaits them on the mainland.

Two other women have returned for the Peazants’ final island gathering after leaving home years ago, though their experiences could scarcely have been more different. Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) has become an outspokenly devout Baptist while Yellow Mary (Barbara O.), who returns with her girlfriend (Trula Hoosier) in tow, is ostracized by her family members for being a prostitute.

One of the few who openly embraces Yellow Mary is the spirited Eula (Alva Rogers), who was raped by a white man on the mainland and may be carrying his child, to the horror of her husband, Eli (Adisa Anderson). It is Eula who becomes the film’s wrenching voice of conscience and sanity when she cries, “Let’s live our lives without living in the fold of old wounds!” — a plea that, even for ears unaccustomed to the thick, West African-inflected creole of the region, cuts to the bone.

Viola has brought a photographer (Tommy Redmond Hicks) to the island to document the occasion. He’s something of a stand-in for Dash, whose father was a Gullah, and whose film becomes its own striking act of witness. The manner of that witness — including the use of voice-over narration from the perspective of Eula’s unborn child — shows a remarkable integrity.

Rather than telling her story via clean, linear strokes and manufactured crises, Dash lingers on the sights and sounds of Sea Island life, from the unforgettable images of women on the beach in floor-length white dresses to the close-ups of fresh-cooked prawns, hard-boiled eggs and other dishes served at the Peazants’ feast. These moments are not incidental to the narrative; they are essential to it, as Dash seeks to convey the very look, feel and texture of something that is about to be lost forever.

When “Daughters of the Dust” premiered in the dramatic competition at Sundance in 1991, the field included two other major indie breakthroughs: Todd Haynes’ “Poison” (which won the grand jury prize) and Richard Linklater’s “Slacker.” That their directors have gone on to become prominent auteurs on the independent scene is an undeniable testament to their genius.

But it also speaks to the cultural and gender-based norms that kept a singular talent like Dash from the filmmaking career she deserved — in part because “Daughters of the Dust,” one of the most striking American independent movies ever made, didn’t conform to any studio executive’s ideal of what a “black” movie should look and sound like. (The year 1991 saw a mini-renaissance for African American commercial cinema, including “Boyz n the Hood,” “New Jack City,” “Jungle Fever” and “A Rage in Harlem.”)

Even still, “Daughters of the Dust” hasn’t exactly languished in obscurity. Although it struggled to find a distributor post-Sundance, it did become the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release (courtesy of Kino International). Its reemergence in theaters is timely for any number of reasons, a widely spotted shout-out in Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” not least among them.

The present-day resonance of a movie about an immigrant community caught between a traumatic past and an uncertain future can largely speak for itself. But it’s especially meaningful in a year marked by a remarkable range of serious new works from black filmmakers, from Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” and Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” to Denzel Washington’s forthcoming “Fences” — each one offering a different vision of African American families trying to rise above a deeply entrenched legacy of oppression.

As an example of how to realize that vision without compromise, “Daughters of the Dust” remains a pioneering work of art — a vibrant dispatch from our historical and cinematic past that continues to look ahead to a more hopeful future.

showcasesbiff

(Source: sbiff.org)