Elaine Epstein says that winning Hot Docs Forum’s top First Look prize of Can $20,000 cash for her film “Arrest the Midwife” is a “game changer.”
The project, which has been on a close to year-long hiatus, will now finally be able to resume due to the award.
“The last money we raised was 10 months ago,” Epstein said. “So it’s been a while. We raised money and then things stopped.”
“Arrest the Midwife” was one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the 25th edition of the two-day Forum pitch event.
Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producer Robin Hessman and executive producer Ruth Ann Harnisch, the doc chronicles the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities. When a Mennonite baby died after being attended to by a homebirth midwife, an unprecedented legal drama ensued.
The project, which has been on a close to year-long hiatus, will now finally be able to resume due to the award.
“The last money we raised was 10 months ago,” Epstein said. “So it’s been a while. We raised money and then things stopped.”
“Arrest the Midwife” was one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the 25th edition of the two-day Forum pitch event.
Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producer Robin Hessman and executive producer Ruth Ann Harnisch, the doc chronicles the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities. When a Mennonite baby died after being attended to by a homebirth midwife, an unprecedented legal drama ensued.
- 5/4/2024
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Elaine Epstein’s Arrest The Midwife won the top prize at 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum after decision-makers, funders and filmmakers considered 20 pitches in the two-day event in Toronto.
The project, which looks at how the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities encourages an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights, won Cad 20,000.
In total Hot Docs said more than Cad 47,000 was handed out at the festival’s international co-financing market event, including Cad 35,000 in first look Pitch Prizes, and the Cad 10,000 Cmf-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
The project, which looks at how the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities encourages an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights, won Cad 20,000.
In total Hot Docs said more than Cad 47,000 was handed out at the festival’s international co-financing market event, including Cad 35,000 in first look Pitch Prizes, and the Cad 10,000 Cmf-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
- 5/2/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Hot Docs Forum, the festival’s industry centerpiece, wrapped Wednesday with its most lively awards announcements in recent memory—complete with flamenco guitar, song and dance courtesy of Spain, this year’s country in focus—as hundreds of industry delegates assembled under the sun in the courtyard of Toronto’s Hart House.
Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife”—one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the two-day Forum pitch event—won the First Look first prize of Can $20,000 cash. Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producers Robin Hessman and Ruth Ann Harnisch, the film follows the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities, which spurs an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights.
First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic supporters of and investors in documentary film.
Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife”—one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the two-day Forum pitch event—won the First Look first prize of Can $20,000 cash. Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producers Robin Hessman and Ruth Ann Harnisch, the film follows the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities, which spurs an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights.
First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic supporters of and investors in documentary film.
- 5/2/2024
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Encanto, Raya And The Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs. The Machines among animated feature nominees.
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its feature film land animated feature nominees with The Power Of The Dog, Dune, Belfast all in the running.
Netflix films led the way on three nods in the feature category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom, while Amazon Studios’ Being The Riccardos was the surprise addition.The PGA nominations are a strong bellwether of a best picture Oscar nomination.
However while Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Tragedy Of Macbeth...
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its feature film land animated feature nominees with The Power Of The Dog, Dune, Belfast all in the running.
Netflix films led the way on three nods in the feature category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom, while Amazon Studios’ Being The Riccardos was the surprise addition.The PGA nominations are a strong bellwether of a best picture Oscar nomination.
However while Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Tragedy Of Macbeth...
- 1/27/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
For director Megan Mylan’s Simple as Water, which follows far-flung Syrian refugees as they strive to maintain their familial bonds in the aftermath of war, the filmmaker said she relied on an exhaustive casting process that involved building trust with her subjects.
“We spent lots and lots of time identifying which families would want to participate, because that’s key for this observational style,” Mylan said during the HBO movie’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary, where she was joined by producer Robin Hessman and co-producer Hazem Obid. “They have to welcome us in, and they choose how many layers they reveal, so those relationships were really fundamental.”
“When we set out to figure out the casting, what would be the family’s vignettes and what were the layers of this experience that we wanted to include, it was an extensive pre-production of many, many conversations,” Mylan said.
“We spent lots and lots of time identifying which families would want to participate, because that’s key for this observational style,” Mylan said during the HBO movie’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary, where she was joined by producer Robin Hessman and co-producer Hazem Obid. “They have to welcome us in, and they choose how many layers they reveal, so those relationships were really fundamental.”
“When we set out to figure out the casting, what would be the family’s vignettes and what were the layers of this experience that we wanted to include, it was an extensive pre-production of many, many conversations,” Mylan said.
- 11/21/2021
- by Scott Huver
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event, our virtual showcase of the year’s leading nonfiction, gets underway Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. Pt. This year’s lineup of 25 movies reflects the growing availability of documentary content across a variety of platforms: Showtime and HBO, streamers HBO Max, Netflix, Discovery+, Hulu, Amazon Studios, and Apple TV+, as well as theatrical distributors Neon, Focus Features, Searchlight Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics.
Click here to register and watch the livestream.
If Sunday’s Contenders event came with a soundtrack, it would be a chart topper for the ages. No fewer than four of the films in our panel lineup today throb to a musical beat: Summer of Soul recovers the long-forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 that welcomed incredible artists, from a teenage Stevie Wonder to Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Fifth Dimension.
Click here to register and watch the livestream.
If Sunday’s Contenders event came with a soundtrack, it would be a chart topper for the ages. No fewer than four of the films in our panel lineup today throb to a musical beat: Summer of Soul recovers the long-forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 that welcomed incredible artists, from a teenage Stevie Wonder to Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Fifth Dimension.
- 11/21/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: 1091 Pictures has scooped digital rights to actor Dante Basco’s (Hook) directorial debut, The Fabulous Filipino Brothers, with plans for a release across platforms on February 8, 2022.
Pic follows four brothers as their Fil-Am family prepares for the ultimate Filipino event: a wedding. It’s comprised of four vignettes, ranging in location from Northern California to The Philippiness, which feature everything from cockfights and adultery to romance, food and family.
Dante Basco and his brother Darion co-wrote the film, which made its world premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Together, they star alongside their entire family, including brothers Derek and Dionysio, and sister Arianna, with Solenn Heussaff, Tirso Cruz III, Liza Lapira, Joe Jitsukawa and Joey Guilla rounding out the cast.
The film was produced in collaboration with LA-based management and production company, TheMachine. In celebration of its release, Dante Basco and his co-stars will soon be going on tour,...
Pic follows four brothers as their Fil-Am family prepares for the ultimate Filipino event: a wedding. It’s comprised of four vignettes, ranging in location from Northern California to The Philippiness, which feature everything from cockfights and adultery to romance, food and family.
Dante Basco and his brother Darion co-wrote the film, which made its world premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. Together, they star alongside their entire family, including brothers Derek and Dionysio, and sister Arianna, with Solenn Heussaff, Tirso Cruz III, Liza Lapira, Joe Jitsukawa and Joey Guilla rounding out the cast.
The film was produced in collaboration with LA-based management and production company, TheMachine. In celebration of its release, Dante Basco and his co-stars will soon be going on tour,...
- 10/29/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: HBO Documentary Films has acquired worldwide and streaming rights to Simple as Water, a new documentary from Oscar winner Megan Mylan, which will hit theaters in limited release later this year before debuting on HBO, subsequently becoming available for streaming on HBO Max.
Mylan’s film is a meditation on the elemental bonds between parent and child. It takes audiences into Syrian families’ quests for normalcy and through a whirlwind of obstacles—to building life anew—examining the impact of war, separation and displacement.
The project was filmed in Turkey, Greece, Germany, Syria and the U.S. over the course of five years. It came to fruition through the joint efforts of small crews scattered across the world; many of those involved behind the scenes are Syrian refugees, themselves.
“I think of Simple As Water as a family love story celebrating the elemental bonds between parent and child,...
Mylan’s film is a meditation on the elemental bonds between parent and child. It takes audiences into Syrian families’ quests for normalcy and through a whirlwind of obstacles—to building life anew—examining the impact of war, separation and displacement.
The project was filmed in Turkey, Greece, Germany, Syria and the U.S. over the course of five years. It came to fruition through the joint efforts of small crews scattered across the world; many of those involved behind the scenes are Syrian refugees, themselves.
“I think of Simple As Water as a family love story celebrating the elemental bonds between parent and child,...
- 10/7/2021
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
After naming Alfonso Cuarón the best-reviewed filmmaker of the 21st century and Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer the worst, Metacritic’s next list explores the 25 best movies directed by women. Unsurprisingly, Kathryn Bigelow takes both the #1 and #2 spots with “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker,” respectively.
Read MoreAlfonso Cuarón Is the Best Director of the 21st Century, According to Metacritic — See the Top 25
Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director with the latter, a painfully tense drama about the Iraq War. (Her latest, “Detroit,” just misses the list by a few points.) Ava DuVernay also shows up twice (with “Selma” and “13th”), as does Sarah Polley (“Away from Her” and “Stories We Tell”), while the likes of Sofia Coppola, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Maren Ade are represented as well. Here’s the data-driven review aggregator’s full list:
Read MoreUwe Boll Isn’t the...
Read MoreAlfonso Cuarón Is the Best Director of the 21st Century, According to Metacritic — See the Top 25
Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director with the latter, a painfully tense drama about the Iraq War. (Her latest, “Detroit,” just misses the list by a few points.) Ava DuVernay also shows up twice (with “Selma” and “13th”), as does Sarah Polley (“Away from Her” and “Stories We Tell”), while the likes of Sofia Coppola, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Maren Ade are represented as well. Here’s the data-driven review aggregator’s full list:
Read MoreUwe Boll Isn’t the...
- 7/30/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Robin Hessman doesn’t have a quick and easy answer to your questions about what it was like living through the fall of the Soviet Union. “Whenever a Russian expresses any kind of nostalgia,” she explains. “or longing for anything from the past, Westerners will gasp and get nervous, like this person is a Communist and wishes a return to the Soviet Union. And it’s much more complicated than that.
- 9/8/2011
- Pastemagazine.com
The Antenna International Documentary Film Festival has announced their inaugural line-up for the event which runs 5-9 October.
Boasting 15 Australian premieres and 25 Sydney premieres with films from 18 different countries, there is $10,000 in prizes.
Opening night at the Dendy Opera Quays will screen Robert Nugent’s Memoirs of a Plague that looks at the relationship between humans and the locust.
Closing night will be Philip Cox’s The Bengali Detective followed by an awards presentation to announce the winner of the Sbs Award for International Documentary (worth $5000) and the Best Australian Documentary ($2500). Both films are in competition.
Other films in International Competition: Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity, Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, Danfun Dennis’ Hell and Back Again and Marcus Linden’s Regretters – winner of the Prix Europa Best Documentary at Berlin 2010 about two transgender people regretting their decisions to undergo surgery.
In the international special screenings, see Alex Gibney’s...
Boasting 15 Australian premieres and 25 Sydney premieres with films from 18 different countries, there is $10,000 in prizes.
Opening night at the Dendy Opera Quays will screen Robert Nugent’s Memoirs of a Plague that looks at the relationship between humans and the locust.
Closing night will be Philip Cox’s The Bengali Detective followed by an awards presentation to announce the winner of the Sbs Award for International Documentary (worth $5000) and the Best Australian Documentary ($2500). Both films are in competition.
Other films in International Competition: Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity, Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, Danfun Dennis’ Hell and Back Again and Marcus Linden’s Regretters – winner of the Prix Europa Best Documentary at Berlin 2010 about two transgender people regretting their decisions to undergo surgery.
In the international special screenings, see Alex Gibney’s...
- 9/6/2011
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
The Antenna International Documentary Film Festival will debut this year at Sydney’ Chauvel Cinema from 5 to 9 October.
The festival, with 28 feature documentaries will also include nearly $10,000 in prize money spread across three categories.
Films will compete for either the Sbs Award for Best International Documentary ($5,000), Award for Best Australian Documentary ($2500), or a student competition in association with Aftrs ($2,000).
In a statement, Antenna Founding Director David Rokach said, “I have seen the impact that documentary film festivals have in other countries, not just in the development of new audiences for documentary but also in the quality of the films being produced. We thought a festival dedicated exclusively to documentary would be a great contribution to Australia and we hope Antenna will become a fruitful platform for presenting the complexities of the world we live in. We look to present films that will challenge audiences, while also being relevant.”
Matchmaking mayors, pool parties,...
The festival, with 28 feature documentaries will also include nearly $10,000 in prize money spread across three categories.
Films will compete for either the Sbs Award for Best International Documentary ($5,000), Award for Best Australian Documentary ($2500), or a student competition in association with Aftrs ($2,000).
In a statement, Antenna Founding Director David Rokach said, “I have seen the impact that documentary film festivals have in other countries, not just in the development of new audiences for documentary but also in the quality of the films being produced. We thought a festival dedicated exclusively to documentary would be a great contribution to Australia and we hope Antenna will become a fruitful platform for presenting the complexities of the world we live in. We look to present films that will challenge audiences, while also being relevant.”
Matchmaking mayors, pool parties,...
- 7/29/2011
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
The Economist Film Project, which I wrote about previously in this interview with editorial director Gideon Lichfeld, has just launched its website. At the site, viewers can watch the short documentary excerpts that appear via the project on the PBS News Hour. For example, embedded below is the debut offering, Dawn Sinclair Shapiro’s The Edge of Joy, about maternal healthcare in Nigeria. Also up on the site now are excerpts from Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, N.C. Heikin’s Kimjongilia, and Adam Wakeling’s Up in Smoke.
The website follows a Variety article on The Economist Film Project, which states that it’s now a prime publicity item for any documentary film. From the piece by Marc Graser:
More than 930 submissions have been received to date, with 1,000 expected by the end of the summer. Without much promotion, the project’s site has attracted 160,000 unique visitors. It’s not surprising why.
The website follows a Variety article on The Economist Film Project, which states that it’s now a prime publicity item for any documentary film. From the piece by Marc Graser:
More than 930 submissions have been received to date, with 1,000 expected by the end of the summer. Without much promotion, the project’s site has attracted 160,000 unique visitors. It’s not surprising why.
- 7/14/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There's nothing really good on TV tonight, just the occasional show that's more entertaining than it has a right to be (looking at you, "White Collar" with your dashing suits and your Matt Bomer who seems to have finally gotten a handle on the crazy eyes. Also that girl that looks and soundslike Emma Stone and Emma Pillsbury from "Glee" went into the "If they Mated" machine. If you watch the show you know what I mean.) and a lot of reality stuff involving cupcakes. Ok, maybe not a lot of it involves cupcakes but two different shows on two different networks qualifies as a lot of cupcake shows as far as I'm concerned. Maybe you could just throw a movie on. I'd suggest The Jungle Book because I've been singing "I Wanna Be Like You" to myself All Day and I'm spreading that ear-worm as far as I can...
- 6/28/2011
- by Intern Rusty
Russia over the last thirty years as lived by the political upheaval generation. New director Robin Hessman shows remarkable ingenuity and intelligence in this finely crafted mini budget documentary about a side of life Americans can only imagine. .My Perestroika. racked up a Sundance nomination for Grand Jury Prize in 2010 and Hessman is just the kind of filmmaker who could take that prize home next time. The film tells the stories of five Moscow schoolmates who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain in the height of the cold war. Born in the 1960s the five lived uniform lives, as one would expect. They were heartily encouraged to join various communist political groups, culminating with the Pioneers in...
- 5/12/2011
- by Ron Wilkinson
- Monsters and Critics
Director: Robin Hessman Perestroika, Glasnost, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and a ’91 hard-line Soviet coup…words and events both familiar and foreign at the same time, a story once well known but one that now only foggily lingers around the edges of memory for many Americans of my generation. But in presenting the stories of five Russian classmates, remnants of the last generation to be raised in the old communist state and one of the first to enter adulthood in the new post-communist Russia, My Perestroika (literal translation “My Restructuring”) masterfully weaves together vintage Soviet propaganda footage, recent personal interview recollections and childhood home videos to make the events break through the fog. And in the process, director Robin Hessman manages to juxtapose the official Soviet story against five diverse individual experiences, showing that in reality there is no true official history but only the shared experiences of countless individuals. And the individuals...
- 4/18/2011
- by Linc Leifeste
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
"If you're under the impression that post-Soviet Russia is a Wild West peopled at one extreme by gold-chained Mafiosi and at the other by starving babushkas hawking single daffodils in the Moscow subway, you may want to treat yourself to a riveting new documentary by New York-based filmmaker Robin Hessman," writes Ella Taylor, introducing her interview for NPR. "My Perestroika is an intimate portrait of five middle-class Moscow schoolmates. All of them were raised as upstanding Communist youth. All of them came of age with glasnost, and all of them — closing in on middle age today — piece together more or less viable lives under Vladimir Putin's queasy democracy, 20 years after the failed coup that led to the collapse of Soviet rule."...
- 3/24/2011
- MUBI
In 1985, while Sting was singing smug songs about whether the Russians loved their children, actual Russian children were watching Mikhail Gorbachev on TV for the first time, and wondering if that strange middle-aged man talking about openness would be shot before he finished a sentence. Robin Hessman’s documentary My Perestroika offers a series of intimate interviews with five people who were teenage classmates when the glasnost era began, and were young adults trying to start their lives when the political upheavals of the early ’90s transformed their country. Each describes what it was like to grow up indoctrinated ...
- 3/24/2011
- avclub.com
In her first feature, documentarian Robin Hessman looks at Russia’s 1990′s reforms through examining the lives of five former classmates who came of age as the Ussr crumbled. My Perestroika neatly knits together these intimate portraits within the context of Russia’s cultural and political revolutions to create something surprising and engrossing.
Hessman presents five Russians who were part of the last generation of children to be indoctrinated with Soviet Union ideals of community, communism, and conformity. Today they exist in different social classes, revealing the truly revolutionary changes their country underwent during their formative years. Olga, the prettiest girl in her class, is now a single mother, living just above the poverty level. Andrei, who dreamed of joining the Soviet party as a boy, has become a wealthy businessman who bought into Russia’s thirst for Western fashions by purchasing a French shirt franchise. Ruslan, currently a street...
Hessman presents five Russians who were part of the last generation of children to be indoctrinated with Soviet Union ideals of community, communism, and conformity. Today they exist in different social classes, revealing the truly revolutionary changes their country underwent during their formative years. Olga, the prettiest girl in her class, is now a single mother, living just above the poverty level. Andrei, who dreamed of joining the Soviet party as a boy, has become a wealthy businessman who bought into Russia’s thirst for Western fashions by purchasing a French shirt franchise. Ruslan, currently a street...
- 3/24/2011
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
Reviewed by Amanda Georges
(March 2011)
Directed by: Robin Hessman
Featuring: Olga Durikova, Boris “Borya” Meyerson, Lyubov “Lyuba” Meyerson, Mark Meyerson, Ruslan Stupin and Andrei Yevgrafov
During the 1980s, the Perestroika (restructuring) political movement initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev brought a wave of political and economic changes that would end in the dissolution of the Ussr. Director Robin Hessman’s documentary “My Perestroika” examines this crucial span of time as told by five adults who were schoolmates during this era, offering individual retellings that make politics personal.
The children born behind the Iron Curtain are now adults, weathered and facing the gamut of challenges in contemporary life, and each relives his or her experiences through the restructuring of Soviet Russia and life after communism. Each retelling is informed by unique events and perspectives, but there are clear similarities that bind them. But as compelling as it is to hear personal accounts of history,...
(March 2011)
Directed by: Robin Hessman
Featuring: Olga Durikova, Boris “Borya” Meyerson, Lyubov “Lyuba” Meyerson, Mark Meyerson, Ruslan Stupin and Andrei Yevgrafov
During the 1980s, the Perestroika (restructuring) political movement initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev brought a wave of political and economic changes that would end in the dissolution of the Ussr. Director Robin Hessman’s documentary “My Perestroika” examines this crucial span of time as told by five adults who were schoolmates during this era, offering individual retellings that make politics personal.
The children born behind the Iron Curtain are now adults, weathered and facing the gamut of challenges in contemporary life, and each relives his or her experiences through the restructuring of Soviet Russia and life after communism. Each retelling is informed by unique events and perspectives, but there are clear similarities that bind them. But as compelling as it is to hear personal accounts of history,...
- 3/22/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Amanda Georges
(March 2011)
Directed by: Robin Hessman
Featuring: Olga Durikova, Boris “Borya” Meyerson, Lyubov “Lyuba” Meyerson, Mark Meyerson, Ruslan Stupin and Andrei Yevgrafov
During the 1980s, the Perestroika (restructuring) political movement initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev brought a wave of political and economic changes that would end in the dissolution of the Ussr. Director Robin Hessman’s documentary “My Perestroika” examines this crucial span of time as told by five adults who were schoolmates during this era, offering individual retellings that make politics personal.
The children born behind the Iron Curtain are now adults, weathered and facing the gamut of challenges in contemporary life, and each relives his or her experiences through the restructuring of Soviet Russia and life after communism. Each retelling is informed by unique events and perspectives, but there are clear similarities that bind them. But as compelling as it is to hear personal accounts of history,...
(March 2011)
Directed by: Robin Hessman
Featuring: Olga Durikova, Boris “Borya” Meyerson, Lyubov “Lyuba” Meyerson, Mark Meyerson, Ruslan Stupin and Andrei Yevgrafov
During the 1980s, the Perestroika (restructuring) political movement initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev brought a wave of political and economic changes that would end in the dissolution of the Ussr. Director Robin Hessman’s documentary “My Perestroika” examines this crucial span of time as told by five adults who were schoolmates during this era, offering individual retellings that make politics personal.
The children born behind the Iron Curtain are now adults, weathered and facing the gamut of challenges in contemporary life, and each relives his or her experiences through the restructuring of Soviet Russia and life after communism. Each retelling is informed by unique events and perspectives, but there are clear similarities that bind them. But as compelling as it is to hear personal accounts of history,...
- 3/22/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
This interview with "My Perestroika" director Robin Hessman was originally published during indieWIRE's coverage of last year's New Directors/New Films. "My Perestroika" opens in limited release this Wednesday, March 23. "My Perestroika" follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates ...
- 3/21/2011
- Indiewire
This interview with "My Perestroika" director Robin Hessman was originally published during indieWIRE's coverage of last year's New Directors/New Films. "My Perestroika" opens in limited release this Wednesday, March 23. "My Perestroika" follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times — from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates ...
- 3/21/2011
- indieWIRE - People
International Film Circuit has announced its plans for a theatrical release of Robin Hessman's "My Perestroika," which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival and has since gone on to screen at New Directors/New Films, Full Frame (where it won the 2010 Filmmaker Award), and Silverdocs (where it won the 2010 Special Jury Award). The film will open in New York on March 23rd, followed by a national rollout. Full ...
- 3/10/2011
- Indiewire
Yeo-haeng-ja's "A Brand New Life," and Robin Hessman's "My Perestroika," were the big winners at the 2010 Milwaukee Film Festival which just wrapped last Sunday, topping the Fiction Competition and Documentary Competition respectively. Each film walked away with a $2,500 cash prize. The award ceremony marked the end of the 11-day event, presented by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This year, the second edition of the festival, saw ticket sales increase fifty ...
- 10/5/2010
- Indiewire
Like history itself, historical documentaries tend to be written by the winners – experts whose “greatest hits” style approach is as comforting as the muzak that plays underneath their interviews. Last night’s Stranger Than Fiction featured director Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, a documentary so good at breaking the rules of historical docs that it makes you question why anyone ever follows them. Hessman focuses on the Meyersons, an ordinary Moscow couple who teach history at the same school they attended as children. Struggling to articulate what it meant to grow up Soviet to a group of students that did not, the Meyersons are a little stunned to realize that the world they knew is not just past – it’s history. Weaving...
- 5/19/2010
- by Mary Anderson Casavant
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The history of the 20th century was bookended by the Bolshevik Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in between came the era-defining Cold War. But for Russians who grew up during this history and now live beyond it, what does it mean to be Russian today? Robin Hessman’s thoughtful and beautifully crafted documentary explores the lives of a group of former schoolmates who are finding their ways in ...
- 3/24/2010
- indieWIRE - People
The history of the 20th century was bookended by the Bolshevik Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in between came the era-defining Cold War. But for Russians who grew up during this history and now live beyond it, what does it mean to be Russian today? Robin Hessman’s thoughtful and beautifully crafted documentary explores the lives of a group of former schoolmates who are finding their ways in ...
- 3/24/2010
- indieWIRE - People
The annual New Directors / New Films showcase organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center has selected as one of this year’s films Amer, the feature film debut by Montreal transgressive filmmaking duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani. The film will screen twice during the program:
April 2
9:15 p.m.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
April 3
2:00 p.m.
Museum of Modern Art
So far, 2010 is looking to be a huge year for Cattet and Forzani. Prior to Nd/Nf in April, Amer will screen in March at both the Boston Underground Film Festival and at SXSW. This is already after having a very successful 2009, where the film played at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival and has won awards at the Lund Fantastisk Film Festival, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Festival Nouveau Cinema de Montreal and more.
Amer is a tribute to the...
April 2
9:15 p.m.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
April 3
2:00 p.m.
Museum of Modern Art
So far, 2010 is looking to be a huge year for Cattet and Forzani. Prior to Nd/Nf in April, Amer will screen in March at both the Boston Underground Film Festival and at SXSW. This is already after having a very successful 2009, where the film played at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival and has won awards at the Lund Fantastisk Film Festival, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Festival Nouveau Cinema de Montreal and more.
Amer is a tribute to the...
- 2/28/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
While our Sundance home page is the place for all our coverage from Park City, here is a brief rundown of what's been going on during the last 24 hours, including Matt Singer's interview with "The Freebie" writer/director Katie Aselton and co-star Dax Shepard and reviews of the Chace Crawford drama "Twelve," the Banksy doc "Exit Through the Gift Shop," Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut "Jack Goes Boating" and the 3D Aussie doc "Cane Toads 2: The Conquest."
Some were puzzled when Sundance accepted "Batman and Robin" director Joel Schumacher's latest film "Twelve." James Rocchi writes that the concern was justified. Here's an excerpt from his review, which can be found in full here:
Directed by Joel Schumacher ("Batman and Robin," "The Lost Boys"), "Twelve" is unquestionably the funniest film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival; if only it had been made with that intention. "Twelve"'s ham-handed ineptitude...
Some were puzzled when Sundance accepted "Batman and Robin" director Joel Schumacher's latest film "Twelve." James Rocchi writes that the concern was justified. Here's an excerpt from his review, which can be found in full here:
Directed by Joel Schumacher ("Batman and Robin," "The Lost Boys"), "Twelve" is unquestionably the funniest film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival; if only it had been made with that intention. "Twelve"'s ham-handed ineptitude...
- 1/28/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Robin Hessman makes her Sundance debut with “My Perestroika,” a documentary that “adopts the idea of the ‘everyman story,’ suggesting that the unheralded lives of the last generation of Soviets to grow up behind the iron curtain hold the key to understanding the contradictions of modern Russia from the inside out. “Crafted during five years of researching and shooting, and based on almost a decade of living in Russia in the …...
- 1/8/2010
- indieWIRE - People
Robin Hessman makes her Sundance debut with “My Perestroika,” a documentary that “adopts the idea of the ‘everyman story,’ suggesting that the unheralded lives of the last generation of Soviets to grow up behind the iron curtain hold the key to understanding the contradictions of modern Russia from the inside out. “Crafted during five years of researching and shooting, and based on almost a decade of living in Russia in the …...
- 1/8/2010
- Indiewire
Robin Hessman makes her Sundance debut with “My Perestroika,” a documentary that “adopts the idea of the ‘everyman story,’ suggesting that the unheralded lives of the last generation of Soviets to grow up behind the iron curtain hold the key to understanding the contradictions of modern Russia from the inside out. “Crafted during five years of researching and shooting, and based on almost a decade of living in Russia in the …...
- 1/8/2010
- indieWIRE - People
Judging by names like Gibney, Blitz, Poitras, Guggenheim, Stern/Sundberg and Grady/Ewing, 2010's Sundance Documentary Competition will be stellar edition with so many return Sundance filmmakers clogging up the section. - Judging by names like Gibney, Blitz, Poitras, Guggenheim, Stern/Sundberg and Grady/Ewing, 2010's Sundance Documentary Competition will be stellar edition with so many return Sundance filmmakers clogging up the section. I'll do more groundwork but off the bat, I'm automatically interested in Gibney's exploration of Jack Abramoff and crew (the official title for the doc is Casino Jack and the United States of Money), Amir Bar-Lev moves from Kids who paint pictures to adults creating their own pictures as was the bad judgment calls from some high ranking folk in the U.S. government (I'm Pat ------- Tillman) and Jeffrey Blitz's long awaited doc on lottery winners (Lucky). Dammit. I pretty much want to see the entire section.
- 12/13/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
I feel a special bond with the Sundance Film Festival. Not because I’ve been there, but because the guy in charge of it this year, John Cooper, shares my name. Because we share this bond, I feel that I’m able to take license in referring to the man as Coop for the rest of this article.
For the annual event held in Park City, Utah from January 21-31, thousands of films are submitted and screened — this year, 3,724 films were viewed by the festival’s ten programmers. I wonder when they slept.
Coop has high hopes for the festival as a whole:
“We may even be going into a golden age for independent films, in that the technology will make it possible for the films to be made and for audiences to see them. The industry is going through a major evolutionary stage right now, there’s no doubt about that,...
For the annual event held in Park City, Utah from January 21-31, thousands of films are submitted and screened — this year, 3,724 films were viewed by the festival’s ten programmers. I wonder when they slept.
Coop has high hopes for the festival as a whole:
“We may even be going into a golden age for independent films, in that the technology will make it possible for the films to be made and for audiences to see them. The industry is going through a major evolutionary stage right now, there’s no doubt about that,...
- 12/3/2009
- by John Cooper
- ReelLoop.com
Sundance Film Festival 2010 is a little over a month away and that means we can now bring you a list of the competition films that will be playing. Here you go boys and girls… enjoy!
Documentary Competition
“Blue Valentine” – Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, a portrait of an American marriage that charts the evolution of a relationship over time. With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman. “Douchebag” – Directed by Drake Doremus, written by Lindsay Stidham, Doremus, Jonathan Schwartz and Andrew Dickler, in which a man about to be married takes his younger brother on a wild goose chase to find the latter’s fifth-grade girlfriend. Features Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey. “The Dry Land” – Directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams, in which a returning U.S. soldier tries to reconcile his experiences overseas with his life in Texas.
Documentary Competition
“Blue Valentine” – Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, a portrait of an American marriage that charts the evolution of a relationship over time. With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman. “Douchebag” – Directed by Drake Doremus, written by Lindsay Stidham, Doremus, Jonathan Schwartz and Andrew Dickler, in which a man about to be married takes his younger brother on a wild goose chase to find the latter’s fifth-grade girlfriend. Features Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey. “The Dry Land” – Directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams, in which a returning U.S. soldier tries to reconcile his experiences overseas with his life in Texas.
- 12/3/2009
- by Scott
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Photo: Sundance Today the Sundance Institute announced the films that will be in competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in both the U.S. and International dramatic and documentary categories. The festival will run from January 21-31 in Park City, Utah. There are a few changes this year as there will be no opening-night picture and the festival will take select festival films to eight cities during as the fest plays out.
Last year notable films such as this year's major Oscar contenders Precious and An Education debuted at Sundance 2009 as did audience and critical favorite (500) Days of Summer.
As for this year's crop I have highlighted a few titles among the list below in red, but I have primarily done so considering the names attached to the pictures not necessarily based on any advanced buzz I've heard around any of the films. Names to look out for include Ryan Gosling,...
Last year notable films such as this year's major Oscar contenders Precious and An Education debuted at Sundance 2009 as did audience and critical favorite (500) Days of Summer.
As for this year's crop I have highlighted a few titles among the list below in red, but I have primarily done so considering the names attached to the pictures not necessarily based on any advanced buzz I've heard around any of the films. Names to look out for include Ryan Gosling,...
- 12/2/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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