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#AFI, #AFIDOCS, AFIDocs, Documentary, Film Festival, Meet The Press, television

THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES SPONSORS FOR AFI DOCS 2021

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THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES
SPONSORS FOR AFI DOCS 2021

Support Comes From Wide Range of Art and Cultural Institutions, Media Partners and Corporations

Apple Original Films Joins AFI DOCS as a Premium Sponsor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 18, 2021, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the sponsors for AFI DOCS 2021. Support for the festival comes from both local organizations based in the DC-metro area and major corporations across the nation. The 19th edition of AFI DOCS will run June 22–27, with films available to view on DOCS.AFI.com as well as in-person screenings at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD.

“AFI DOCS reaches a nationwide audience with the support of our sponsors,” said Sarah Harris, AFI Festivals Director of Programming. “It is their generosity that amplifies the voices of today’s most vital storytellers, and we thank them on behalf of all who find inspiration in the arts.” 

In addition to supporting AFI DOCS film programming and events, sponsors provide services and exclusive experiences to filmmakers and audiences throughout the festival. Sponsor participation includes sponsoring specific film screenings, panels and events as well as national and local promotion of the festival.  

This year, AFI is proud to have Apple Original Films support AFI DOCS for the first time as a Premium Sponsor. Top festival sponsors will give audiences sneak peeks at exclusive upcoming trailers and content on the festival’s streaming platform and in the AFI DOCS Festival Hub. Media partners will also provide DOCS audiences with access to their digital issues during the week of the festival via a virtual newsstand.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) returns as Official Sponsor of the festival. CPB is Official Sponsor of the AFI DOCS Industry Forum and the Spotlight on the Hindsight Project, a special selection of short filmsthat chronicle the experiences of BIPOC communities in the American South and U.S. Territories during the unprecedented events of 2020.  

NBC News’ Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and The Washington Post return this year as Primary Media Partners. Meet the Press and The Washington Post, in conjunction with the Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership, will provide moderators for a number of films in this year’s festival. Highlights include Meet the Press Moderator and NBC Political Director Chuck Todd moderating LFG and NBC News Correspondent Morgan Radford moderating the discussion following the Opening Night World Premiere of NAOMI OSAKA. In addition to supporting post-screening discussions, Washington Post Live, The Post’s live journalism platform, will host a conversation with ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN filmmaker Morgan Neville. Post Managing Editor for Diversity and Inclusion Krissah Thompson will also moderate the World Premiere of WE THE PEOPLE in the inaugural DOCS Talks program.

Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are this year’s Official Media Partners. This year, Variety sponsors the Charles Guggenheim Symposium, which will feature a conversation between the 2021 Guggenheim honoree Dawn Porter and Variety’s Clayton Davis, and The Hollywood Reporter will be a media partner for the screening of SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED). 

The Wrap joins AFI DOCS as an Affiliate Media Partner this year and is a media partner for the screening of TOM PETTY: SOMEWHERE YOU FEEL FREE.

Screen Sponsors are SHOWTIME® Documentary Films, Netflix, WarnerMedia and HBO Documentary Films. SHOWTIME® Documentary Films will once again host a networking event for filmmakers and industry, adjusted to be virtual instead of the in-person event they have hosted in the past. SHOWTIME® willalso send a special, customized gift to the festival filmmakers as they celebrate AFI DOCS from home.

Participant returns as a Major Sponsor, along with new sponsors National Geographic and Eventive. 

This year’s Contributing Sponsors are ESPN, the National Endowment for the Arts and the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment (OCTFME). 

Supporting Sponsors include the Maryland Film Office, Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce and Rev. 

The Embassy of Denmark in Washington, DC, and the Farhang Foundation are this year’s Cultural Sponsors. 

Generous individual support comes from Stephanie and Hunter Hunt.

About AFI DOCS 

AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival historically held in Washington, DC.  Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the heart of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 19th year, the festival will be held June 22-27, 2021. Visit DOCS.AFI.comand connect on Twitter.com/AFIDOCS,Facebook.com/AFIDOCS, YouTube.com/AFI andInstagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute. 

About the American Film Institute (AFI)
Established in 1967, the American Film Institute is the nation’s nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring artists and audiences through initiatives that champion the past, present and future of the moving image. AFI’s pioneering programs include filmmaker training at the AFI Conservatory; year-round exhibition at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and at AFI Festivals across the nation; workshops aimed at increasing diversity in the storytelling community; honoring today’s masters through the AFI Life Achievement Award and AFI AWARDS; and scholarly efforts such as the AFI Catalog of Feature Films that uphold film history for future generations. Read about all of these programs and more at AFI.com and follow us on social media atFacebook.com/AmericanFilmInstitute,YouTube.com/AFI, Twitter.com/AmericanFilm andInstagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.

About the Corporation for Public Broadcasting  

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services. For more information, visit www.cpb.org and follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia,Facebook and LinkedIn, and subscribe for email updates. 

About The Washington Post and Washington Post Press Freedom Partnership  

The Washington Post is an award-winning news leader whose mission is to connect, inform and enlighten local, national and global readers with trustworthy reporting, in-depth analysis and engaging opinions. It combines world-class journalism with the latest technology and tools so readers can interact with The Post anytime, anywhere.  

The Press Freedom Partnership is a public service initiative from The Washington Post to promote press freedom and raise awareness of the rights of journalists who are in pursuit of the truth. Learn more at www.wapo.st/pressfreedom

About Meet the Press with Chuck Todd 

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on Americans across the country. It is the #1 most-watched Sunday public affairs show for the 2019-2020 season, reaching more than three million viewers every Sunday and millions more through social, digital and on-demand platforms. Meet the Press brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with MTP Daily weekdays at 1 p.m. ET, to the ongoing weekly podcast, The Chuck ToddCast, and to Meet the Press Reports, a 30-minute program on NBC News NOW and Peacock, focusing on a single topic explored through the Meet the Press lens. It’s the longest-running show in television history, recently expanding its brand to also include a political short-documentary film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of Meet the Press; John Reiss is the executive producer. 

CONTACT: 

Elizabeth Ward, AFI DOCS PR,elizabeth@prcollaborative.com 

American Film Institute: Stacy Adamski, 323.856.7759,SAdamski@AFI.com

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Berlin’s Panorama Dokumente Complete: Opening on February 10, 2017

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

 

 

Authoritarian Regimes Under Observation / Music Documentaries Featuring Almodóvar’s Muse and Electronic Avant-Garde

Director Monika Treut Receives Special TEDDY Award 2017

 

The French production Belinda by Marie Dumora is slated to open Panorama Dokumente with a contribution to the previously announced thematic focus “Europa Europa” (see post here). The Yenish people have occupied a difficult position in the national fabric of Europe since time immemorial: like the Sinti and Roma, they typically have trouble aligning themselves as they are legally and socially excluded by majority populations. The grandparents of 15-year-old sisters Belinda and Sabrina first met in a German concentration camp – the young women were placed in foster care at an early age and were lucky to land in the La Nichée children’s home. With the start of life comes the start of a long struggle with the world – a world also determined by limits and rules on this most diverse of all continents. A haunting, harrowing documentation of everyday life as it is lived on the margins of society.

Three films demand that we take a fresh historical look at European events whose echoes are still felt so many years later:

First off is No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) from Brazil’s João Moreira Salles, who juxtaposes a cornucopia of archive materials documenting the events which unfolded in Paris in 1968 with amateur footage showing the suppression of the Prague Spring and footage of a self -confident Chinese society under Mao, just as his mother experienced it back then – as a private political reflection.

Next up is an exciting bit of time travel in Jochen Hick’s Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin), an account of queer living situations in West Berlin in an era when emancipation had yet to be invented, primarily covering the 1960s to the the 1980s but also taking time to revisit the roots of the gay rights movement in the immediate post-war period.

 

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Bones of Contention, by American Andrea Weiss, is an in-depth look at the LGBT community in Spain during the Franco regime into the present. (Photo courtesy of Berlinale Press Office)

 

And finally, a long look underneath the rug of Spanish reticence in Bones of Contention by Andrea Weiss of the USA: In search of the earthly remains of iconic Spanish poet and fascist murder victim Federico García Lorca, the filmmaker stumbles upon the entirely unexamined history of the suppression of the LGBT community under Franco, while also becoming familiar with the struggles of today’s movement, whose efforts to procure some sort of long overdue justice for the hundreds of thousands who were “disappeared” during the fascist era are met with little support.

In Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise), distinguished French director Merzak Allouache seeks answers to a question which also exerts an influence on today’s Europa. In order to try to fathom the origins of the desire for death exhibited by so many young Arab men in Algeria, one must understand that they are motivated by the florid fairy tales that their spiritual leaders have led them to believe, including above all the notion that sex and wine will finally be available in abundance after death. The young Algerian journalist Nedjma researches the paradise that Salafist preachers promise young men together with her colleague Mustapha. A dense analysis of the extreme manifestations of a destructive, conservative Islam that seeks to dominate.

The second of the two previously mentioned thematic focal points “Black Worlds” is reinforced by Yance Ford’s Strong Island. The director processes the murder of his own brother 25 years ago in a documentary film by equal turns personal and political, in a formally open examination of racist terror, grief work and smouldering anger about inequality.

Is this the heart of “America”? And does Rambo live inside it like the man in the moon lives inside his satellite? Erase and Forget by Andrea Luka Zimmerman (Great Britain) doesn’t pose the question, it answers it instead. The all American hero, the most highly decorated soldier of all time with hundreds of human lives on his conscience, roams like a benevolent patriarch through Idaho, where the people are proud of the high level of diversity in the available flavours of right-wing radicalism, just another normal part of life out here.

Two films turn their attention to Latin America and structures that still make their effects felt from left and right-wing authoritarian forms of society.

In Tania Libre, Lynn Hershman Leeson, a guest at Panorama for the third time, accompanies Cuban artist Tania Bruguera during sessions with trauma therapist Dr. Frank Ochberg. After having served a sentence for treason meted out in the wake of a performance that expressed criticism of the regime, she wants to acquire the skills necessary to process the invasive infringement wrought by the paranoid machinery of the people’s dictatorship, including the revocation of her right to practice her art. The founder of the Institute for Artivism Hannah Arendt in Havana intends to campaign in Cuba’s next presidential election in 2018.

The second film hails from Chile: El Pacto De Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) by Lissette Orozco. The director accidently comes across indications that her once favourite aunt Adriana colluded actively with the secret service back in the days of the Pinochet junta. Her research yields a picture that can be found after the fall of every dictatorship ever: those that lived well under the terror regime steadfastly deny their involvement after the winds have shifted. A macrocosm opens up within a family’s intimate history – and no one knew nothing.

The French-Swiss-Palestinian co-production Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) by Raed Andoni on the other hand leads us back into the present. In the scope of shooting for a film, a group of ex-prisoners from Israeli detention re-enact a sort of exhaustive catalogue of their experiences, in role plays and often in what borders on trauma therapy. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have experienced things like this in a variety of forms – what impact will these experiences have on the affected societies in the future?

 

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Three extraordinary music documentaries make up a last thematic focus: On the one hand, we have Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, an homage to the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, whose exceptional talent carried her to the world’s most notable concert halls, and whose independence and prodigious sacrifice in her life as a lesbian testified to an admirable attitude that stayed with her to a ripe old age. The last concert of this lover of Frida Kahlo, which took place under the patronage of Pedro Almodóvar (who has featured her music consistently in his films), was an homage performed in Madrid to the great gay Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (see also the Panorama production Bones of Contention in this connection).

On the other hand, Panorama brings together two films that treat electronic music culture in Germany: An inventor, innovator, a creator of genres, that’s Edgar Froese. Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream by Margarete Kreuzer is devoted to the story of the band and their influential, world famous music – while director Romuald Karmakar turns his attention once again to the settings of his “Club Land Trilogy”: With Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) he shows the development of the music genres in question in the here and now, by enabling us to watch and listen to notable DJs while they work, including Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata Macias, Roman Flügel and Move D/David Moufang.

After her success at Panorama with Anderson, Annekatrin Hendel is back with an extremely intimate story of friendship that has larger societal implications. In Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) she spends four existential weeks in a seaside hotel with a close female friend. The two women’s conversations revolve around the often glamorous past in East Berlin, the current struggle with a diagnosis – and how our life plans relate to our actual lives.
Speaking of life plans: they can be found in abundance in Tristan Milewski’s Dream Boat – even if they seem to resemble one another, here under the premise of a temporary manipulation of society on a cruise exclusively for gay men. A society completely devoid of heteros, who normally rule the world, and completely devoid of women too: by purging the majority the minority becomes one. Many of the guests come from countries where simply being the way they are exposes them to serious danger: a concentrated form of existence is the result here, which represents a challenge beyond the purely physical for the participants.

Special TEDDY for Monika Treut

The Special TEDDY Award is presented by the friends’ association TEDDY e.V. to a filmmaker whose accomplishments have made an especially significant contribution to the characterisation of queer filmmaking over the years.

As a director, producer and author, Monika Treut has not only left her mark on feminist and lesbian cinema since the 1980s – she has also had a great impact on the German-speaking independent film scene and inspired practitioners and audiences alike all the way into world of US American indie cinema as a trailblazer for the New Queer Cinema. The boldness of and iconoclastic approach to her subjects and aesthetics are closely linked with the liberating energy of the Spontex movement of the 1970s. Her documentary Gendernauts won the TEDDY Award for Best Documentary Film in 1999 as well as audience prizes the world over. Since the presentation of her feature film debut with Elfi Mikesch Seduction: The Cruel Woman in 1985, the Berlinale has shown more than twelve of her films. On the occasion of the presentation of the award in the scope of the 31st TEDDY Awards on Friday, February 17th, Panorama will be showing her second feature film, the 1989 classic Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine).

 

Panorama Dokumente

Belinda – France
By Marie Dumora
World premiere

Bones of Contention – USA
By Andrea Weiss
World premiere

Chavela – USA
By Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi
With Chavela Vargas, Pedro Almodóvar
World premiere

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) – Germany
By Romuald Karmakar
With Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flügel, Move D/David Moufang
World premiere

Dream Boat – Germany
By Tristan Ferland Milewski
World premiere

Erase and Forget – United Kingdom
By Andrea Luka Zimmerman
World premiere

Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) – Germany
By Annekatrin Hendel
World premiere

Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) – France / Palestinian Territories / Switzerland / Quatar
By Raed Andoni
World premiere

Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin) – Germany
By Jochen Hick
World premiere

No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) – Brazil
By João Moreira Salles
World premiere

El Pacto de Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) – Chile
By Lissette Orozco
World premiere

Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream – Germany
By Margarete Kreuzer
With Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Christoph Franke, Johannes Schmoelling
World premiere

Strong Island – USA / Denmark
By Yance Ford
International premiere

Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise) – France / Algeria
By Merzak Allouache
International premiere

Tania Libre – USA
By Lynn Hershman Leeson
With Tania Bruguera, Frank Ochberg
Spoken by Tilda Swinton
World premiere

 

Already announced for Panorama Dokumente:

Casting JonBenet – USA / Australia, by Kitty Green
Combat au bout de la nuit (Fighting Through the Night) – Canada by Sylvain L’Espérance
I Am Not Your Negro – France / USA / Belgium / Switzerland, by Raoul Peck
Política, manual de instrucciones (Politics, instructions manual) – Spain, by Fernando León de Aranoa
Ri Chang Dui Hua (Small Talk) – Taiwan, by Hui-chen Huang
Untitled – Austria / Germany, by Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi

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(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

 

Dubai Iternational Film Festival, Egypt

Egypt’s award-winning films showcased at Dubai International Film Festival

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

Egypt has shown a strong participation at the latest edition of the Dubai International Film Festival. Egyptian directors featured prominently at the festival, showcasing a wide variety of unique films in various segments of the festival. Much of their works were a welcome departure from the usually commercial formulas followed by many directors.

Starting with Withered Green, the film’s young director Mohammed Hammad was awarded the best long film director in the Long Muhr feature competition. This is the film’s first award after having competed in six other film festivals.

Withered Green tells the story of Eman, portrayed by young actor Asmaa Fawzy, who is an extremely conservative religious woman living according to enforced societal and cultural limits that confine her to be a specific person. This is translated through her actions, as she takes people’s opinions of her into account and shows uptight restrictions against all of the withering social traditions while raising her younger sister Noha, after the death of their parents. For a girl that lives a strict life, in which moving away from the mainstream path is not allowed, her life is upended by a life altering event that changes her forever.

screen-shot-2016-12-18-at-5-46-13-pm“Every main character in any film has its own mechanical rhythm, like robots, but for Iman’s ‎character, and as we follow her life’s details, there is not much happening to her. I ‎tried to focus on her, as a woman, to engage the audience with her character more than ‎with what’s going on around her,” Hammad said at the film’s premier in the festival.

The films is also written and co-produced by Hammad alongside producer Mohamed Hefzy. The film follows the path of independent films in Egypt, which struggle to gain recognition on par with commercial films.

“The most important thing for independent films in Egypt is the artistic quality and the ‎quantity of films produced. It won’t be possible for you to make your voice heard or leave an ‎impact, without mass production. As for the distribution, it should be diverse with all the ‎films getting equal opportunities because at the end of the day, no one can ever determine ‎which film will make a difference and capture the audience’s interest,” Hammad added.

As for the Egyptian actor Ali Sobhi, he was awarded the best actor award for his role in Ali, Me’za w Ibrahim (Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim). This marks the film’s first award.

The film tells the story of Ali who was born and raised in a rough neighbourhood before he travels across Cairo with Ibrahim based on the recommendation of a psychic due to voices he hears in his head. Their journey turns into a voyage of friendship and self-discovery.

Directed by Sherif El Bendary, Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim is written by Ahmed Amer, based on Ibrahim El Batout’s story and is produced by Mohamed Hefzy’s Film Clinic, Transit Films of Hossam Elouan, and the French film production company Arizona Productions.

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

Telluride, Toronto International Film Festival

Critically Acclaimed Film ‘Moonlight’ Coming to U.K., Ireland

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Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Reuters and Variety

Altitude Film Distribution has acquired distribution rights in the U.K. and Ireland to Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed movie “Moonlight,” which is expected to be an awards contender. Altitude will release the film in early February, allowing the pic to be eligible for the BAFTAs.

screen-shot-2016-11-09-at-9-39-32-amAltitude chief Will Clarke said: “‘Moonlight’ is one of those life-affirming films that immerses you in its universal themes and kaleidoscopic view of life, but told with such emotional intimacy, delicacy and beauty that no one could fail to be moved in a way that is surprising and unforgettable. It is pure cinema and a milestone in independent film.”

A24 is handling international sales on the film, and is also distributing in the U.S., where it has grossed $1.47 million to date from a limited release. A24 will expand the release in the coming weeks.

“Moonlight,” the second feature from writer-director Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”), was a hit with critics at its premiere at Telluride Film Festival and subsequent festival screenings at Toronto and London.

The pic — about a young gay African-American man growing up in a tough neighborhood of Miami — won the Gotham Special Jury Award for the performances of its cast, including a breakout performance by former athlete Trevante Rhodes (“Westworld”) as the lead character, Chiron. Also starring are Andre Holland (“The Knick”), Janelle Monae (“The Equalizer”), Naomie Harris (“Skyfall”), Ashton Sanders (“Straight Outta Compton”), Jharrel Jerome (“Monster”) and Mahershala Ali (“House of Cards”).

The producers are Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, and Adele Romansk.

(Source:www.nbcnews.com)

Hollywood, Hollywood Film Awards

Leonardo DiCaprio and Fisher Stevens to Be Honored With the Hollywood Documentary Award

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James Corden Will Host Special Anniversary Ceremony on Sunday, November 6, 2016 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel

HOLLYWOOD, CA–(Marketwired – November 02, 2016) – dick clark productions announced today that Academy Award-winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Fisher Stevens will be honored with the “Hollywood Documentary Award” for National Geographic’s “Before the Flood” at the 20th Annual “Hollywood Film Awards® Presented by Virginia Black.” In the film, director and producer Stevens follows DiCaprio, who also executive produces, as he travels to five continents and the Arctic to gain a deeper understanding of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change.

The awards ceremony, celebrating its 20th anniversary as the official launch of the awards season®, will be hosted by actor and comedian James Corden, and will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, on November 6, 2016. The Hollywood Film Awards honors some of the most acclaimed films and actors, as well as previews highly anticipated films and talent for the upcoming year. Additional artists are also honored in the categories of Cinematography, Visual Effects, Film Composing, Costume Design, Editing, Production Design, Sound and Makeup & Hairstyling. Its honorees over the past 20 years have included the world’s biggest stars and more than 110 have gone on to garner Oscar nominations and/or wins.

Past honorees of the “Hollywood Documentary Award” include Asif Kapadia for “Amy” in 2015 and Mike Myers for “Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon” in 2014.

“Before The Flood” hit theatres October 21st (NY & LA) and aired globally (in 171 countries and 45 languages) on National Geographic on October 30th. From October 30 through November 6th “Before The Flood” will be available for free (commercial free) via a record number of digital and streaming platforms around the world. Visit www.beforetheflood.com/ for more information.

From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, “Before the Flood” presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet. The film follows DiCaprio as he travels to five continents and the Arctic speaking to scientists, world leaders, activists and local residents to gain a deeper understanding of this complex issue and investigate concrete solutions to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time. It premieres on National Geographic on October 30th.

LEONARD DiCAPRIO (Producer) is an Academy Award® award-winning actor (and five-time nominee), who has been recognized for his work as an actor, producer and activist. DiCaprio most recently starred in The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, for which he received the Academy Award® (2016) for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as the Golden Globe® for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama; Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role; and Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Actor.

Previously, he worked with Netflix to release Virunga, an Oscar-nominated documentary that examines gorilla preservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park. He produced and starred in The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese, for which he received the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, as well as Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Picture from his role as a producer. Prior to The Wolf of Wall Street, he starred in blockbuster hit The Great Gatsby as well as Django Unchained, and received a Golden Globe nomination for his work. As the title role in J. Edgar, under the direction of Clint Eastwood, he received Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations for his work in the film. Additionally, he starred in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Inception, and the dramatic thriller Shutter Island, which marked his fourth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese.

Before earning two Academy Award nominations for The Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio earned an Oscar nod in 2007 for his performance in Edward Zwick’s drama Blood Diamond. He also received Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations for his work in the film. That same year, he garnered Golden Globe, BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award and SAG Award nominations for his role in the Oscar-winning Best Picture The Departed, directed by Scorsese. He also shared in a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast Performance as a member of the ensemble cast of The Departed.

He previously earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Scorsese’s acclaimed 2004 biopic The Aviator. DiCaprio’s portrayal of Howard Hughes in that film also brought him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama, as well as Critics’ Choice and BAFTA Award nominations. He was also honored with two SAG Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast Performance as part of the Aviator cast. In addition to his acting work, DiCaprio launched his own production company, Appian Way. Under the Appian Way banner, he wrote, produced and narrated the acclaimed environmentally themed documentary The 11th Hour. Among Appian Way’s other productions are the aforementioned Shutter Island and The Aviator, as well as The Ides of March, Red Riding Hood, Orphan, Public Enemies, Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson, and Runner, Runner, starring Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck. Their upcoming production slates includes Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood: Origins, a feature adaptation of the Japanese manga “Akira” and three projects written by Billy Ray: The Twilight Zone, an Untitled Richard Jewell. Dennis Lehane’s critically acclaimed novel Live By Night, written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck will bow December 2016.

Born in Hollywood, California, DiCaprio started acting at the age of 14. His breakthrough feature film role came in Michael Caton-Jones’ 1993 screen adaptation of Tobias Wolff’s autobiographical drama This Boy’s Life. That same year, he co-starred in Lasse Hallström’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, earning his first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his performance as a mentally handicapped young man. In addition, he won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s New Generation Award for his work in the film.

In 1995 DiCaprio had starring roles in three very different films, beginning with Sam Raimi’s Western, The Quick and the Dead. He also garnered praise for his performance as drug addict Jim Carroll in the harrowing drama The Basketball Diaries, and for his portrayal of disturbed pansexual poet Arthur Rimbaud in Agnieszka Holland’s Total Eclipse. The following year, DiCaprio starred in Baz Luhrmann’s contemporary screen adaptation of Romeo + Juliet, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. He also joined an all-star ensemble cast in Marvin’s Room, sharing in a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast Performance.

In 1997 DiCaprio starred opposite Kate Winslet in the blockbuster Titanic, for which he earned a Golden Globe Award nomination. The film shattered every box-office record on its way to winning 11 Oscars, including Best Picture. His subsequent film work includes dual roles in The Man in the Iron Mask; The Beach; Woody Allen’s Celebrity; Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (receiving a Golden Globe nomination); Gangs of New York (his first film for director Martin

Scorsese); Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies; and Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, which reunited DiCaprio with Winslet and brought him his seventh Golden Globe nomination.

DiCaprio is well known for his dedication to the environment on a global scale, producing creative projects such as the documentary 11th Hour, spearheading numerous public awareness campaigns, and launching The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. He and Appian Way are currently in partnership with Netflix to produce two environmentally themed documentaries titled Catching the Sun and How to Change the World, both currently in post-production and slated for release in 2016. DiCaprio also serves on the boards of World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

In September 2014 DiCaprio was designated as a United Nations Messenger of Peace for his longstanding commitment to environmental activism. That same month, DiCaprio was honored with the Clinton Global Citizen Award, participated in history’s largest climate march in New York City and powerfully addressed the UN Summit. In January 2016 DiCaprio was awarded a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for his work to bring global attention to the urgent need to address climate change.

Fisher Stevens has worked in the entertainment industry for over 30 years. His versatility is evidenced by his credits, which range from acting to producing to directing and from film to television to theater, as well as working with the United Nations. Most recently he had recurring arcs on the HBO productions “The Night Of,” the acclaimed miniseries starring John Turturro, and “Vice Principals,” a comedy series with Danny McBride and Walton Goggins. His newest project, Before the Flood, is his third environmental film, following the Academy Award-winning The Cove and Racing Extinction. The documentary follows Academy Award-winning actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio as he travels to five continents to gain a deeper understanding of climate change and its impact on the world. Additionally, he directed the upcoming HBO documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, about the Hollywood family and produced the upcoming Netflix documentary Sky Ladder, about celebrated Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

Previously announced honorees for this year’s show include: “Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” Eddie Murphy; “Hollywood Actor Award,” Tom Hanks; “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award,” Hugh Grant; “Hollywood Actress Award,” Natalie Portman; “Hollywood Supporting Actress Award,” Nicole Kidman; “Hollywood Comedy Awards,” Robert De Niro; “Hollywood Breakout Actress Award,” Naomie Harris; “New Hollywood Award,” Lily Collins; “Spotlight Award,” Janelle Monáe; “Hollywood Ensemble Award,” “Gold;” “Hollywood Song Award,” Justin Timberlake; “Hollywood Blockbuster Award,” “The Jungle Book”; “Hollywood Animation Award,” “Zootopia”; “Hollywood Director Award,” Mel Gibson; “Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award,” Tom Ford; “Hollywood Producer Award,” Marc Platt; “Hollywood Screenwriter Award,” Kenneth Lonergan; “Hollywood Cinematography Award,” Linus Sandgren; “Hollywood Film Composer Award,” Mychael Danna; “Hollywood Editor Award,” John Gilbert; “Hollywood Visual Effects Award,” Stephane Ceretti and Richard Bluff; “Hollywood Sound Award,” Christopher Boyes and Frank Eulner; “Hollywood Costume Design Award,” Albert Wolsky; “Hollywood Make Up & Hair Styling Award,” Shane Thomas, Angela Conte, Bec Taylor and Noriko Waztanabe; and “Hollywood Production Design Award,” Wynn Thomas.

The 20th Annual Hollywood Film Awards are presented by Virginia Black. Virginia Black. Rich. Decadent. Smooth. Whiskey redefined.

CHEAT TWEET: .@LeoDiCaprio and Fisher Stevens will be honored with the Hollywood Documentary Award at the @HollywoodAwards: hfas.news/holly9927 #HFAs

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About dick clark productions
dick clark productions (dcp) is the world’s largest producer and proprietor of televised live event entertainment programming, with the “Academy of Country Music Awards,” “American Country Countdown Awards,” “American Music Awards,” “Billboard Music Awards,” “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” “Hollywood Film Awards” and the “Streamy Awards.” Weekly television programming includes “So You Think You Can Dance,” from 19 Entertainment, a division of CORE Media Group and dcp. dcp also owns one of the world’s most unique and extensive entertainment archive libraries, with more than 55 years of award-winning shows, historic programs, specials, performances and legendary programming. For additional information, visit www.dickclark.com.

ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS®
The Hollywood Film Awards®, founded in 1997, were created to celebrate Hollywood and launch the awards season. The recipients of the awards are selected by an Advisory Team for their body of work and/or a film(s) that is to be released during the calendar year. For additional information, visit www.hollywoodawards.com.

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M. Night Shyamalan’s SPLIT Added to AFI FEST 2016

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Universal Pictures’ SPLIT — from Academy Award®-nominated director/writer/producer M. Night Shyamalan and Academy Award®-nominated producer Jason Blum — will play as a Special Screening at AFI FEST 2016 presented by Audi. Watch the trailer below.

Written and directed by Shyamalan, SPLIT is an original thriller that delves into the mysterious recesses of one man’s fractured, gifted mind. Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him — as well as everyone around him — as the walls between his compartments begin to shatter apart.

Following last year’s THE VISIT, Shyamalan reunites with producers Blum and Marc Bienstock and executive producers Ashwin Rajan and Steven Schneider for the film, which also stars Jessica Sula and Haley Lu Richardson.

SPLIT joins the already announced Special Screenings BRIGHT LIGHTS: STARRING CARRIE FISHER AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS (DIRS Fisher Stevens, Alexis Bloom), THE COMEDIAN (DIR Taylor Hackford), LION (DIR Garth Davis), MISS SLOANE (DIR John Madden), MOANA (DIRS Ron Clements, John Musker), PATERSON (DIR Jim Jarmusch) and TONI ERDMANN (DIR Maren Ade).

Free tickets to AFI FEST will be available on AFI.com beginning November 1. For the full slate of previously announced titles screening at the festival, visit the Film Guide, now online here.

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(Source:www.blog.afi.com)

KIMFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

White Sun to premiere at Kimff 2016

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Nepali feature film White Sun (Seto Surya) will open the 14th Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (Kimff), slated to be held at the Kumari Hall in Kamal Pokhari in the Capital, starting Dec 8. White Sun, which was recently screened in Toronto International Film Festival and Venice Film festival, is slated for an all-Nepal release from Dec 9.

Speaking during an event hosted in the Capital earlier this week, Tsering Ritar Sherpa, producer of the film, shared, “We are very excited with the response the film received after being screened at the Venice Film Festival. The film, based on the 10-year Maoist insurgency, has been garnering positive reviews internationally; hopefully, the audience at home will like it too.”

According to Sherpa, the film tries to explore the psychological impact the insurgency had on Nepalis.

Directed by Deepak Rauniyar, White Sun features actors Dayahang Rai, Raj Kumar Baniya and Sumi Malla in lead roles.

Along with White Sun, Kimff 2016 will feature a total of 80 films—features, animations, short films and documentaries—from 28 different countries.

The film fest will also hold a short film competition under the theme: Strengthening Nepal’s Public Services.

This year’s festival is slated to run through Dec 12.

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(Source: http://www.kathmandupost.ekantipur.com)

 

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Hollywood

FILM REVIEW: Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954): USA

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Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Viewed at the Mann Chinese theater as part of the AFI film festival, Hollywood, Calif.

alfred_hitchcockRear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a brilliantly filmed movie, adapted from Cornell Woolish’s, “It had to be Murder”, of a man, L.B. Jeffries, an injured war photographer/correspondent, played by James Stewart of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946),  who believes he has witnessed a murder in the apartment complex where he lives. Hitchcock uses this window view to film his entire story. John Michael Hayes wrote the screenplay. His other credits include The Man who Knew too Much (1956) and To Catch A Thief (1955). George Tomasini provides the editing as he also worked on other Hitchcock classic films Psycho (1960) and North by Northwest (1959). The viewer is treated to a look into all the neighboring dwellings as seen from the protagonist’s, L.B. Jeffries’ window – seemingly many New York apartment dwellers partake in the alluring fascination of peeping through neighboring windows. The cinematography is credited to Robert Burks. Bruks other works include Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). The production design was done by Sam Comer and Ray Moyer of Sunset Blvd (1950) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) fame. James C. Katz is listed as producer having produced the epic Spartacus (1960) and Vertigo (1958). Paramount Pictures with over six thousand pictures to its credit, is listed as the production company.

Hitchcock, known for powerhouse suspense films like Psycho (1960), Birds (1963) and North by Northwest (1959), shows cooped up newlyweds, a buxom young skimpily-clad, shapely exercise-crazed maiden, a lonely, love sick lady, a socially-inclined, romantic-minded musician and a seemingly ordinary housewife married to a seemingly normal traveling salesman, whom Stewart’s character, Jeffries, claims has murdered the wife. Jeffries doesn’t actually see the murder. Nevertheless, he is convinced the salesman murdered his wife after witnessing several highly acute, suspicious events . Stewart’s facial expressions and what appear to be exaggerated eye movements key the viewer in on action as Stewart plays the role of Jeffries, a wounded war hero who confined to a wheelchair and who passes the time by peering out his rear window at the neighbors as they go about their everyday lives.  Jeffries also uses his camera with a telescopic lens to provide up-close detail of his subjects and he frantically uses exploding flashbulbs as he attempts to thwart the murdering salesman’s efforts to silence Jeffries.

Hitchcock  introduces and develops several strong and powerful characters, most notably in the form of Grace Kelly, later known as the Princess Consort of Monaco,  as Jeffries love interest. Kelly’s striking good lucks coupled with her patient, unrequited love for Jeffries provide the viewer a glimpse into Hitchcock’s portrayal of a 1950’s socialite. She credibly plays the role of murder investigator with a refreshing vim and vigor. In addition, Wendell Corey plays a rather uninteresting yet wary detective who also happened to be a war buddy of Jeffries. Thelma Ritter plays Stella, Jeffries’ physical therapist, who drops by for daily therapy and, at times colorful banter. And, Raymond Burr plays the antagonist, a wife-murdering,  traveling salesman who dwells across from the rear window. Rear Window is splendid film, an Academy Award Runner-up for Best Picture to the American drama film, On the Waterfront (1954), about longshoreman corruption and mob violence starring Marlon Brando, I recommend wholeheartedly.

#AFI, #AFIFEST, Featured, Hollywood

FILM REVIEW: Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1976): USA

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Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Viewed at the Egyptian Theatre, AFI film festival, Hollywood, Calif.

screen-shot-2016-10-24-at-4-47-43-pmEraserhead, directed by David Lynch, the 2010 AFIfest’s guest director, continues to mesmerize audiences with its stark portrayal of the many all too human desires. As NY Times’ Manohla Dargis so eloquently writes “The black-and-white world of Eraserhead disturbs, seduces and even shocks with images that are alternately discomforting, even physically off-putting. It also amuses with scenes of preposterous, macabre comedy, among them a memorable family dinner involving a cooked bird that wiggles obscenely on its plate while it gushes forth a menacing dark liquid.” Consequently, Henry Spencer, played by John Nance is informed that he has fathered a child with girlfriend Mary X, played by Charlotte Stewart. However, the child is born as a mutated fetus. The doctors aren’t even sure the baby is human any longer. The baby appears with shuffling eyes and a bulbous wet head that looks like a skinned lamb and just lies on a table, cackling and cooing – more an emblem of dread than a bundle of joy. Henry and Mary move into Henry’s single-room apartment where the baby’s constant crying keeps them awake at night. Their existence is dominated by the overwhelming banality of Henry’s single apartment and its outlook onto a brick wall. Eventually, Mary walks out, leaving Henry with sole charge of the baby. Henry is left with what is some men’s greatest nightmare – of being left with the sole responsibility for  raising an unwanted child.

Throughout Eraserhead, Lynch plays with a good deal of sexual imagery and sexual energy which seems to be the through action of the film. In the opening moments, we see Henry floating through space dreaming and what look like sperm emerging from his mouth. When domestic life with the baby starts going wrong, Henry is seen pulling sperm out of the sleeping Mary’s mouth as though trying to symbolically reverse the pregnancy. The sex in the film seems tinged with disgust – Henry’s future mother-in-law questions Henry about whether he and Mary have had sexual intercourse and proceeds to come onto Henry by slobbering on his check and neck. Later  Henry hooks up with the seductive, attractive woman from across the hallway. However,  Henry’s bed turns into a glowing swamp. Henry’s pick up attempt comes full circle as he sees the woman seducing another man. She teasingly turns to Henry and laughs at him somewhat menacingly. The only happiness Henry seems to find is in his radiator dream-land where a girl with puffy pock-cheeked cabaret-style dancer  nervously sings and moves on stage as sperm drop on her. Perhaps as Richard Schieb suggests “this latter seems to be arguing that masturbation is the only safe form of sex – certainly, this would seem to be the case at the climax of the film, which sees Henry going off to join the pure and innocent puff-cheeked girl in radiator dream-land in a blaze of white light that may be the hereafter.” And who is the mysterious man depicted at the beginning and at the end of the film? He appears to be “the man behind the curtain” pulling the lever that controls Henry’s fate. Moreover, he quite possibly may represent Henry’s bloodline with his disfigured appearance shadowed by the flying sperm-like images. Or, maybe he represents a higher duality of fear and omniscience as Henry, in the opening scene, is seen confessing a wrongdoing and receiving forgiveness. This first scene sets the tone for Eraserhead. It is open to your interpretation.

Eraserhead certainly defies any type of classification. Lynch literally seems to have tapped into his subconscious. He uses dreams and dream-like imagery. Overall, Eraserhead  seems to symbolize industrial dehumanization to a post-holocaust nuclear proliferation era with powerful sexual overtones. Henry lives in the midst of an industrial wasteland. The only views we get of the outside world are of cold, dirty factories. The only greenery we see is in Henry’s room consisting of two piles of dirt, one on his dresser and one on his bedside table where branches have sprouted. And, as Scheib so poignantly asks, “What do the pencil erasers represent – do they, as some pedantic academic suggested, symbolically represent the mind’s ability to repress or ‘erase’ matter?” Indeed.

Eraserhead was produced by the American Film Institute (AFI). AFI is known for its Lifetime Achievement Awards and for its production of over 250 short films.  Eraserhead appeared at the 1976 Chicago International Film Festival, at the Filmex Film Festival in 1977 and at the 1978 Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival garnering the Antennae II Award. In 2004, The USA National Film Preservation Board named Eraserhead to the National Film Registry. It took Mr. Lynch five years to complete it. Other notable films by Mr. Lynch include Mulholland Drive (2001), Blue Velvet (1986), Twin Peaks: Firewalk with Me (1992). Recommended.

#AFIFEST, Hollywood, Venice International Film Festival

JACKIE to Screen at AFI FEST 2016

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Fox Searchlight’s JACKIE, directed by Pablo Larraín, will screen as a Centerpiece Gala at AFI FEST 2016 presented by Audi. Starring Academy Award® winner Natalie Portman, the film will screen on Monday, November 14, at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

JACKIE is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy portrayed by Natalie Portman. JACKIE places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well. JACKIE is directed by Larraín and written by Noah Oppenheim. In addition to Portman, the film stars Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Academy Award® nominee John Hurt. JACKIE is produced by Juan De Dios Larraín, Academy Award® nominee Darren Aronofsky (AFI Class of 1992), Mickey Liddell, Scott Franklin and Ari Handel.

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(Source: http://www.blog.afi.com)