More than 200 international filmmakers have rallied in support of ousted Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian, pledging their names to an open letter imploring the cultural organization to keep the artist director in place. Among the first signatories were Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Joanna Hogg, “Corsage” director Marie Kreutzer, Andrew Ross Perry, and Olivier Assayas. Over the course of the day on Wednesday, another 130 directors joined them, the list swelling to include M. Night Shyamalan, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tilda Swinton, and Claire Denis. 260 filmmakers have now signed the open letter.
“We, a diverse group of filmmakers from all over the world, who have deep respect for Berlin International Film Festival as a place for great cinema of all kinds, protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract,” says the letter.
Chatrian...
“We, a diverse group of filmmakers from all over the world, who have deep respect for Berlin International Film Festival as a place for great cinema of all kinds, protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract,” says the letter.
Chatrian...
- 9/6/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Paris-based sales agency Luxbox has added sales to the U.K., Australia and Brazil to previous deals with the U.S. and France on Directors’ Fortnight title “Clara Sola,” making good on its upbeat critical reception at the Cannes Festival this month.
London-based Peccadillo Pictures has acquired U.K. rights. Sydney’s Rialto Distribution, has scooped rights to Australia; Brazil’s Imovision, another classic arthouse distributor, has secured those to Brazil. Turkey (Bir Film) and Switzerland (Trigon) have also closed, Luxbox partner Fiorella Morretti told Variety.
At Cannes, Luxbox confirmed that Epicentre had picked up rights to France while Oscilloscope Laboratories swooped on rights to North America after the film’s world premiere.
One of a brace of features from young Latin American female directors selected for Cannes, like Mexican Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” in Un Certain Regard, and Brazilian Anita Rocha da Silveira’s “Medusa,” in Directors’ Fortnight,...
London-based Peccadillo Pictures has acquired U.K. rights. Sydney’s Rialto Distribution, has scooped rights to Australia; Brazil’s Imovision, another classic arthouse distributor, has secured those to Brazil. Turkey (Bir Film) and Switzerland (Trigon) have also closed, Luxbox partner Fiorella Morretti told Variety.
At Cannes, Luxbox confirmed that Epicentre had picked up rights to France while Oscilloscope Laboratories swooped on rights to North America after the film’s world premiere.
One of a brace of features from young Latin American female directors selected for Cannes, like Mexican Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” in Un Certain Regard, and Brazilian Anita Rocha da Silveira’s “Medusa,” in Directors’ Fortnight,...
- 7/28/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Mexico City — Mexico’s Cinepolis, one of the biggest movie theater chains in the world, has acquired rights for Latin America to Matías Meyer’s “Amores Modernos” (Modern Loves), which world premieres at this week’s Los Cabos Film Festival, playing in main competition.
In the U..S., “Modern Loves” has been taken by premium Latinx-content streaming platform, Pantaya, via the output deal Cinepolis has with Pantalion.
Moving ever more into distribution and sales for Latin America, as well as Mexican movie production, Cinepolis has also dropped a first trailer.Cinepolis will release “Modern Loves” directly in Mexico, licensing it in the rest of the region. A Mexican opening is scheduled for March 27, 2020.
“Modern Love is a project that we followed since its development,” said Leonardo Cordero, who runs Cinepolis Distribución.
He went on: “Matias’ willingness and bravery to work with actors after his previous work seems to reflect the...
In the U..S., “Modern Loves” has been taken by premium Latinx-content streaming platform, Pantaya, via the output deal Cinepolis has with Pantalion.
Moving ever more into distribution and sales for Latin America, as well as Mexican movie production, Cinepolis has also dropped a first trailer.Cinepolis will release “Modern Loves” directly in Mexico, licensing it in the rest of the region. A Mexican opening is scheduled for March 27, 2020.
“Modern Love is a project that we followed since its development,” said Leonardo Cordero, who runs Cinepolis Distribución.
He went on: “Matias’ willingness and bravery to work with actors after his previous work seems to reflect the...
- 11/13/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Projects selected by Annecy, Haf, Los Cabos, New Horizons, Thessaloniki and Malaga festivals will pitch to industry.
The Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) has announced the festivals and projects that will take part in its Goes to Cannes showcase (May 18-20).
Five international film festivals have been invited to programme work-in-progress projects actively seeking a sales agent, distributors or a festival selection.
The festivals taking part in the event this year are: Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), Los Cabos International Film Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival,...
The Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) has announced the festivals and projects that will take part in its Goes to Cannes showcase (May 18-20).
Five international film festivals have been invited to programme work-in-progress projects actively seeking a sales agent, distributors or a festival selection.
The festivals taking part in the event this year are: Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), Los Cabos International Film Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival,...
- 4/16/2019
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
2019 will mark the fourth time that Mexico’s Los Cabos Intl. Film Festival Goes to Cannes. Six works in progress selected by the Mexican festival, aiming to represent the vast panorama of current Mexican production, will be pitched to potential partners, sales agents and festival programmers at a Cannes Film Market screening.
“Modern Lovers,” from established director Matias Meyer – Morelia best film winner for “Yo,” best short winner for “El Pasajero” and two time Mexico Academy Ariel Award nominee – is produced by the director’s own Bhd films, and Woo Films, one of Latin America’s exciting young production houses.
The film tracks seven storylines over 24 hours in Mexico City, each featuring a lonely and inhibited protagonist.
Rubén Rojo Aura’s “Courage, another title in the lineup,” is a story influenced heavily by his own family. In it, an elderly actress worries she may lose her job when threatened by the loss of sight.
“Modern Lovers,” from established director Matias Meyer – Morelia best film winner for “Yo,” best short winner for “El Pasajero” and two time Mexico Academy Ariel Award nominee – is produced by the director’s own Bhd films, and Woo Films, one of Latin America’s exciting young production houses.
The film tracks seven storylines over 24 hours in Mexico City, each featuring a lonely and inhibited protagonist.
Rubén Rojo Aura’s “Courage, another title in the lineup,” is a story influenced heavily by his own family. In it, an elderly actress worries she may lose her job when threatened by the loss of sight.
- 4/16/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Lucrative prize goes to the Indian director of Parched.
Leena Yadav, the Indian director of drama Parched, has been chosen as the winner of the new Stockholm Impact Award, from the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 11-22) and the City of Stockholm.
Yadav is given $114,000 (1 million Sek) to support upcoming film projects.
Parched, which had its world premiere in Toronto Special Presentations, is set in a rural Indian village, where three women begin to break from misogynistic traditions.
The jury for the award included artist Ai Weiwei (who designed the trophy), filmmaker Ida Panahandeh, and Linus Tunstrom director of Uppsala City Theatre.
The jury said, “Through superb acting, giving a unique insight into the minds and hearts of women in rural India, told with colorful, sensual cinematography, this film is a paradoxical celebration of life, in spite of tough circumstances, creating both anger and joy, giving fuel for debate as well as hope for change, when addressing...
Leena Yadav, the Indian director of drama Parched, has been chosen as the winner of the new Stockholm Impact Award, from the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 11-22) and the City of Stockholm.
Yadav is given $114,000 (1 million Sek) to support upcoming film projects.
Parched, which had its world premiere in Toronto Special Presentations, is set in a rural Indian village, where three women begin to break from misogynistic traditions.
The jury for the award included artist Ai Weiwei (who designed the trophy), filmmaker Ida Panahandeh, and Linus Tunstrom director of Uppsala City Theatre.
The jury said, “Through superb acting, giving a unique insight into the minds and hearts of women in rural India, told with colorful, sensual cinematography, this film is a paradoxical celebration of life, in spite of tough circumstances, creating both anger and joy, giving fuel for debate as well as hope for change, when addressing...
- 11/18/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Full line-up of the Stockholm film festival includes feature and documentary competition line-ups.Scroll down for full line-up
The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 11-22) has unveiled the line-up for its 26th edition, comprising more than 190 films from over 70 countries.
The Stockholm Xxvi Competition includes Marielle Heller’s Us title The Diary of a Teenage Girl and László Nemes’ Holocaust drama Son Of Saul.
It marks the first time Stockholm has a greater number of women than men competing for the Bronze Horse – the festival’s top prize.
The documentary competition includes Amy Berg’s An Open Secret, an investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry; and Cosima Spender’s Palio, centred on the annual horse race in Siena, Italy.
Announcing the programme, festival director Git Scheynius also revealed that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will visit Stockholm for the first time as chairman of the jury for the first Stockholm Impact Award, which...
The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 11-22) has unveiled the line-up for its 26th edition, comprising more than 190 films from over 70 countries.
The Stockholm Xxvi Competition includes Marielle Heller’s Us title The Diary of a Teenage Girl and László Nemes’ Holocaust drama Son Of Saul.
It marks the first time Stockholm has a greater number of women than men competing for the Bronze Horse – the festival’s top prize.
The documentary competition includes Amy Berg’s An Open Secret, an investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry; and Cosima Spender’s Palio, centred on the annual horse race in Siena, Italy.
Announcing the programme, festival director Git Scheynius also revealed that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will visit Stockholm for the first time as chairman of the jury for the first Stockholm Impact Award, which...
- 10/20/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
As a film fan, self-professed cinenerd, and an ex-film programmer at the New York International Latino Film Festival, the closure of the long-running fest last year was soul crushing. There are very few spaces dedicated to exhibiting Latino cinema and a lot of the remaining ones are on shaky ground.
Simultaneously though — as many U.S. Latino film institutions are on their last legs — movies directed by Latin American-born filmmakers are circling the globe at prestigious film festivals, winning awards, and garnering praise from critics. Production numbers, south of our border, have risen astronomically. It’s a renewal, renaissance, new wave — whatever you want to call it — that began in the mid-nineties. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with its eye on this rebirth, founded a film series in 1997. A yearly showcase of the newest voices in Latin American cinema, it would eventually be called Latinbeat.
This year’s Latinbeat, running July 11 – 20, carries on with its mission of presenting emerging directors and film trends from across Latin America with movies from powerhouses like Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil plus countries with smaller film industries like Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. From films about a Mexican garage band ("We Are Mari Pepa") to heavy metal in the Andes ("Holiday") and from first-time directors as well as established ones, this year’s lineup is centered on young protagonists.
In advance of the series’ opening night, I got the chance to chat with Marcela Goglio — Latinbeat’s film programmer since 1999 — about the origins of the longstanding showcase, how she ended up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the constant rebirth of Latin American cinema. Plus, there are some good stories about the struggles of getting filmmakers to their screenings on time. Spoiler alert: if something can go wrong, it will.
When did the Latinbeat series start? Was there something specific that motivated the creation of the series?
Latinbeat started in 1997, conceived by Richard Peña, the Programming Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the time (and until the end of 2012.) He actually programmed that first edition. I came in as an intern that year and helped with the marketing, outreach, and with Q&As. He came up with the idea mainly because at the time there was a very evident explosion or renaissance of film in Latin America, mainly Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico (the so called “New Argentine Cinema” started in the mid 90s). By explosion I mean not only a spike in quantity but mainly there was some really interesting formal exploration going on and new kinds of films emerging as a reaction to drastically changing socio-political realities — end of dictatorships in some countries, devastating economic crises that changed the social landscape in others — in a film landscape that, up until then, had become rather stale. It was the perfect time and there was a real need, as no other venues existed that were showcasing that cinema in New York. Latinbeat was the very first to showcase these new emerging filmmakers that later became such symbols of their time.
Where did the name Latinbeat come from?
Richard Peña chose the name. I think it was a reference to precisely an urgent, watershed moment, urgent films, something palpitating in the air that the festival wanted to capture. Also, it was a reference to a new rhythm or language that was being created.
How did you end up programming the series?
Newly arrived in New York City in 1997, after having lived in Costa Rica for four years where I worked as a journalist and programmed a series of Latin American cinema at the Spanish Cultural Center, I heard that Richard Peña, whom I had studied under at Columbia University before moving to Costa Rica, was organizing a Latin American film festival. (At the time it was called “Latin American Cinema Now.”) I called him up and volunteered to help on that festival that he programmed. So I became an intern at the Film Society helping with Latin American outreach and other stuff. In 1998, he asked me and a fellow colleague, Cord Dueppe, to program the following edition in 1999 (it was biannual back then) and we programmed the subsequent editions together. Ines Aslan, from the Public Relations department, joined our team around 2003 under Richard’s guidance. In 2007, I became the sole programmer (Ines and Cord left the Film Society) and have programmed it since.
Richard Peña, former Programming Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Can you describe the process of discovering and selecting the films each year? How is the process different now than when you first started?
I take submissions — and I watch everything that is sent to me — but I don’t do an open call for entries. Up until recently, I had traveled to the Havana Film Festival almost every year since 1996 and to every Bafici (Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival) since its first edition 12 years ago and I go to a few other festivals. Distribution companies send me titles and screeners but mostly the process involves keeping up to date with productions in the region through connections with film schools, institutes, filmmakers, and producers with whom I have developed a relationship with over the years. Also, of course, I follow the programming at all the other festivals.
The process now is different in that there are many more films to watch because, amongst other things, of an explosion in production in other countries in the region (and more production too in the aforementioned strongest countries: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil). The programming, necessarily, must become more complex because there is more to choose from and more variety but also more festivals that compete for the same films. There are more films to watch but because of technology it is also easier, in a sense, since viewing links get sent quickly instead of having to wait for screeners or videos via mail.
What was the biggest challenge in the first year of the series?
Getting a crossover audience, in terms of nationality.
Marcela Goglio with Yamandu Ross, co-director of '3 Million'
What years do you feel were the heyday of the series? What are some of your favorite memories of that time?
Definitely 2003 – 2004, when the festival was hugely successful — we had sold out screenings back to back — and longer, it ran for three weeks. We had a lot of Cuban cinema and my very favorite sidebar (in 2003) was these fabulous archival Cuban music documentaries (from the 50s, 60s, 70s) that we brought back from Havana and were never again shown in the city, or the U.S. The theater was packed and now, looking back, I realize we should have repeated that program. It was also the first year that I started to notice some crossover amongst audiences — Mexicans coming to see Chilean films, Argentines to see Cuban, etc — and that was thrilling.
One of my favorite memories is recognizing a Mexican bus boy from a neighborhood restaurant who came to see Carlos Sorin’s "Intimate Stories" (a small independent film from Argentina). He was standing in the back — there were no empty seats in the theater — laughing like crazy. One of the great things of those years too was that this “renaissance of Latin American cinema” that had started in the early/mid 90s was starting to come into its own and become more well known and popular abroad. Seeing such a new independent cinema gain popularity and fill the theaters — at least in NY, it definitely was not happening in Latin America, which made it even more exciting and special — was very gratifying. It felt like we were really a part of that big change that Latin America was experiencing cinematically.
Have you ever had trouble getting filmmakers to New York for their screenings?
In 2011, we opened the festival with Gustavo Taretto’s "Sidewalls" from Argentina. Taretto, who is of Italian descent and had a beard at the time, was coming for opening night and he almost didn’t make it because he was held up at the airport and being questioned. He claimed it was because of his “Middle Eastern” appearance. The irony is that Coca Cola was one of his clients; when the officers stopped him at the airport (because of his beard) and asked him his profession he made a joke about how he actually helped the American Empire — I’m paraphrasing — impose its products on the rest of the world.
Gustavo Taretto and Marcela Goglio
Something similar happened to another opening night guest, Roxana Blanco, coming to introduce the Uruguayan film "Kill Them All", a political thriller set in Uruguay. This time it was not because of her appearance, but because of the title of the film.
It also happened to the director and producer (Kenya Marquez and Karla Uribe) of Expiration Date, the opening night film in 2012. There was a storm so they were delayed arriving from the airport and couldn’t introduce the film. They finally showed up as the film was ending, direct from the airport and soaking wet, and practically changed in the lobby before marching into the theater to do the Q&A.
To Gustavo Taretto, it actually happened twice in that trip. After opening night (a Friday, I think) he had to travel to Mexico for a publicity gig. On his way back to New York, where he had to introduce his second screening, he was singled out in the immigration line (supposedly again because of his beard) and questioned right there.
Are there filmmakers who screened their first film at Latinbeat and are now big names? Do you feel like you took part in discovering them?
None of these are “big names” but are well known now in the Latin American film world, with a respected body of work; I feel like we took part in discovering many of them, but not all: Celina Murga, Argentina ("Ana y los otros," ‘04), Damian Szifron, Argentina ("En el fondo del mar," ‘03 ), Matias Bize, Chile ("Sabado" ‘04), Marite Ugas and Mariana Rondon from Venezuela ("A la medianoche y media," ‘01), Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll from Uruguay ("25 Watts," ‘01), Everardo Gonzalez, Mexico ("Cancion del pulque," ‘04), Nicolas Pereda, Mexico ( "Perpetuum Mobile"— his second feature film, ‘09), Matias Meyer, Mexico ("Wadley," ‘08 ), Martin Rejtman, Argentina ("Silvia Prieto" — his second film, ‘99), Mercedes Moncada, Mexico/Nicaragua ("La pasion de Maria Elena," ‘03), Pedro Gonzales Rubio and Carlos Armella, Mexico ( "Toro Negro," ‘05), and finally Juan Jose Campanella from Argentina, we showed his "El mismo amor, la misma lluvia" in 1999. He went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 for "El secreto de sus ojos."
Matias Meyer, director of 'The Cramp' with Marcela Goglio
How does film production compare now to when Latinbeat started?
Numbers of films have increased twenty fold or more, in most countries — a lot. Mexico, Argentina and Brazil continue to produce the most but the main difference is that countries like Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela — though Venezuela always had a high production — underwent their own explosion in the last years, as you might have heard. So, they are also important players. Another big difference is precisely the variety of themes, formal approaches and, storylines — political and personal, different genres — though the “independent”, low budget, formal exploration strain continues to be strong in all the countries, which is what is so fascinating. It’s as if the cinema in the region is constantly renewing itself. Also, the fact that there is this variety of genres, levels of production, styles — and the fact that there are some solid commercial films produced and consumed regularly in some of these countries — to me is an indication that there is an industry that’s getting strong. That is really great, even if we may not love everything that is being produced.
Have you ever considered including U.S. Latino films in Latinbeat?
We did include a few over the years — the Dominican-American "Red Passport" and the films of U.S.-based Puerto Rican director Mario Diaz. But, we focused on Latin America mostly and we understood that as separate from “Latino”. Also, the New York International Latino Film Festival seemed to have that area covered those years. [The Nyilff launched in 1999.] Now that that festival is gone [Nyilff], I would want to consider more Latino films. I also don’t see the “Latino” and “Latin American” as that separate anymore.
What is your favorite part of being a film programmer?
I love almost all aspects of it: watching the films (even when they’re not always great); choosing them and finding the best ways to make them work together; and finally, meeting the filmmakers and having conversations with them and the audience, onstage, brings everything full circle.
Pablo Cerda, director of 'P.E.' with Marcela Goglio
When you want to just sit on the couch and unwind what sort of films do you watch in your spare time?
I generally don’t watch films to unwind — I prefer to read. But these days I enjoy watching Argentine public television — many filmmakers are directing great series.
Did you ever want to be a filmmaker?
I did, a screenwriter. But wasn’t 100% sure. I went to film school briefly at the Universidad del Cine, in Buenos Aires, while I studied Journalism at Universidad de Buenos Aires.
This year, there are lots of films about young people, from "Somos Mari Pepa" (Mexico) to "Holiday" (Ecuador) and "Mateo" (Colombia). The opening night film "Casa Grande" also centers on a teenager but in Brazil. Was this on purpose? Is it a reflection of a larger trend in Latin American filmmaking?
"The Militant," "Root," "The Summer of Flying Fish" and "Natural Sciences" are also about young people and are a variation of “coming of age” stories. So it is definitely a recurring theme in the program. Yes, it’s on purpose. Most of our past editions have had many young first-time directors; it has been like this from the start. We look to reflect the region’s new trends with the program, to highlight emerging talents always, even if they might have imperfect films. And some of these titles mentioned are definitely by filmmakers to watch.
Latinbeat runs July 11 – 20 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
Simultaneously though — as many U.S. Latino film institutions are on their last legs — movies directed by Latin American-born filmmakers are circling the globe at prestigious film festivals, winning awards, and garnering praise from critics. Production numbers, south of our border, have risen astronomically. It’s a renewal, renaissance, new wave — whatever you want to call it — that began in the mid-nineties. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with its eye on this rebirth, founded a film series in 1997. A yearly showcase of the newest voices in Latin American cinema, it would eventually be called Latinbeat.
This year’s Latinbeat, running July 11 – 20, carries on with its mission of presenting emerging directors and film trends from across Latin America with movies from powerhouses like Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil plus countries with smaller film industries like Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. From films about a Mexican garage band ("We Are Mari Pepa") to heavy metal in the Andes ("Holiday") and from first-time directors as well as established ones, this year’s lineup is centered on young protagonists.
In advance of the series’ opening night, I got the chance to chat with Marcela Goglio — Latinbeat’s film programmer since 1999 — about the origins of the longstanding showcase, how she ended up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the constant rebirth of Latin American cinema. Plus, there are some good stories about the struggles of getting filmmakers to their screenings on time. Spoiler alert: if something can go wrong, it will.
When did the Latinbeat series start? Was there something specific that motivated the creation of the series?
Latinbeat started in 1997, conceived by Richard Peña, the Programming Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the time (and until the end of 2012.) He actually programmed that first edition. I came in as an intern that year and helped with the marketing, outreach, and with Q&As. He came up with the idea mainly because at the time there was a very evident explosion or renaissance of film in Latin America, mainly Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico (the so called “New Argentine Cinema” started in the mid 90s). By explosion I mean not only a spike in quantity but mainly there was some really interesting formal exploration going on and new kinds of films emerging as a reaction to drastically changing socio-political realities — end of dictatorships in some countries, devastating economic crises that changed the social landscape in others — in a film landscape that, up until then, had become rather stale. It was the perfect time and there was a real need, as no other venues existed that were showcasing that cinema in New York. Latinbeat was the very first to showcase these new emerging filmmakers that later became such symbols of their time.
Where did the name Latinbeat come from?
Richard Peña chose the name. I think it was a reference to precisely an urgent, watershed moment, urgent films, something palpitating in the air that the festival wanted to capture. Also, it was a reference to a new rhythm or language that was being created.
How did you end up programming the series?
Newly arrived in New York City in 1997, after having lived in Costa Rica for four years where I worked as a journalist and programmed a series of Latin American cinema at the Spanish Cultural Center, I heard that Richard Peña, whom I had studied under at Columbia University before moving to Costa Rica, was organizing a Latin American film festival. (At the time it was called “Latin American Cinema Now.”) I called him up and volunteered to help on that festival that he programmed. So I became an intern at the Film Society helping with Latin American outreach and other stuff. In 1998, he asked me and a fellow colleague, Cord Dueppe, to program the following edition in 1999 (it was biannual back then) and we programmed the subsequent editions together. Ines Aslan, from the Public Relations department, joined our team around 2003 under Richard’s guidance. In 2007, I became the sole programmer (Ines and Cord left the Film Society) and have programmed it since.
Richard Peña, former Programming Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Can you describe the process of discovering and selecting the films each year? How is the process different now than when you first started?
I take submissions — and I watch everything that is sent to me — but I don’t do an open call for entries. Up until recently, I had traveled to the Havana Film Festival almost every year since 1996 and to every Bafici (Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival) since its first edition 12 years ago and I go to a few other festivals. Distribution companies send me titles and screeners but mostly the process involves keeping up to date with productions in the region through connections with film schools, institutes, filmmakers, and producers with whom I have developed a relationship with over the years. Also, of course, I follow the programming at all the other festivals.
The process now is different in that there are many more films to watch because, amongst other things, of an explosion in production in other countries in the region (and more production too in the aforementioned strongest countries: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil). The programming, necessarily, must become more complex because there is more to choose from and more variety but also more festivals that compete for the same films. There are more films to watch but because of technology it is also easier, in a sense, since viewing links get sent quickly instead of having to wait for screeners or videos via mail.
What was the biggest challenge in the first year of the series?
Getting a crossover audience, in terms of nationality.
Marcela Goglio with Yamandu Ross, co-director of '3 Million'
What years do you feel were the heyday of the series? What are some of your favorite memories of that time?
Definitely 2003 – 2004, when the festival was hugely successful — we had sold out screenings back to back — and longer, it ran for three weeks. We had a lot of Cuban cinema and my very favorite sidebar (in 2003) was these fabulous archival Cuban music documentaries (from the 50s, 60s, 70s) that we brought back from Havana and were never again shown in the city, or the U.S. The theater was packed and now, looking back, I realize we should have repeated that program. It was also the first year that I started to notice some crossover amongst audiences — Mexicans coming to see Chilean films, Argentines to see Cuban, etc — and that was thrilling.
One of my favorite memories is recognizing a Mexican bus boy from a neighborhood restaurant who came to see Carlos Sorin’s "Intimate Stories" (a small independent film from Argentina). He was standing in the back — there were no empty seats in the theater — laughing like crazy. One of the great things of those years too was that this “renaissance of Latin American cinema” that had started in the early/mid 90s was starting to come into its own and become more well known and popular abroad. Seeing such a new independent cinema gain popularity and fill the theaters — at least in NY, it definitely was not happening in Latin America, which made it even more exciting and special — was very gratifying. It felt like we were really a part of that big change that Latin America was experiencing cinematically.
Have you ever had trouble getting filmmakers to New York for their screenings?
In 2011, we opened the festival with Gustavo Taretto’s "Sidewalls" from Argentina. Taretto, who is of Italian descent and had a beard at the time, was coming for opening night and he almost didn’t make it because he was held up at the airport and being questioned. He claimed it was because of his “Middle Eastern” appearance. The irony is that Coca Cola was one of his clients; when the officers stopped him at the airport (because of his beard) and asked him his profession he made a joke about how he actually helped the American Empire — I’m paraphrasing — impose its products on the rest of the world.
Gustavo Taretto and Marcela Goglio
Something similar happened to another opening night guest, Roxana Blanco, coming to introduce the Uruguayan film "Kill Them All", a political thriller set in Uruguay. This time it was not because of her appearance, but because of the title of the film.
It also happened to the director and producer (Kenya Marquez and Karla Uribe) of Expiration Date, the opening night film in 2012. There was a storm so they were delayed arriving from the airport and couldn’t introduce the film. They finally showed up as the film was ending, direct from the airport and soaking wet, and practically changed in the lobby before marching into the theater to do the Q&A.
To Gustavo Taretto, it actually happened twice in that trip. After opening night (a Friday, I think) he had to travel to Mexico for a publicity gig. On his way back to New York, where he had to introduce his second screening, he was singled out in the immigration line (supposedly again because of his beard) and questioned right there.
Are there filmmakers who screened their first film at Latinbeat and are now big names? Do you feel like you took part in discovering them?
None of these are “big names” but are well known now in the Latin American film world, with a respected body of work; I feel like we took part in discovering many of them, but not all: Celina Murga, Argentina ("Ana y los otros," ‘04), Damian Szifron, Argentina ("En el fondo del mar," ‘03 ), Matias Bize, Chile ("Sabado" ‘04), Marite Ugas and Mariana Rondon from Venezuela ("A la medianoche y media," ‘01), Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll from Uruguay ("25 Watts," ‘01), Everardo Gonzalez, Mexico ("Cancion del pulque," ‘04), Nicolas Pereda, Mexico ( "Perpetuum Mobile"— his second feature film, ‘09), Matias Meyer, Mexico ("Wadley," ‘08 ), Martin Rejtman, Argentina ("Silvia Prieto" — his second film, ‘99), Mercedes Moncada, Mexico/Nicaragua ("La pasion de Maria Elena," ‘03), Pedro Gonzales Rubio and Carlos Armella, Mexico ( "Toro Negro," ‘05), and finally Juan Jose Campanella from Argentina, we showed his "El mismo amor, la misma lluvia" in 1999. He went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 for "El secreto de sus ojos."
Matias Meyer, director of 'The Cramp' with Marcela Goglio
How does film production compare now to when Latinbeat started?
Numbers of films have increased twenty fold or more, in most countries — a lot. Mexico, Argentina and Brazil continue to produce the most but the main difference is that countries like Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela — though Venezuela always had a high production — underwent their own explosion in the last years, as you might have heard. So, they are also important players. Another big difference is precisely the variety of themes, formal approaches and, storylines — political and personal, different genres — though the “independent”, low budget, formal exploration strain continues to be strong in all the countries, which is what is so fascinating. It’s as if the cinema in the region is constantly renewing itself. Also, the fact that there is this variety of genres, levels of production, styles — and the fact that there are some solid commercial films produced and consumed regularly in some of these countries — to me is an indication that there is an industry that’s getting strong. That is really great, even if we may not love everything that is being produced.
Have you ever considered including U.S. Latino films in Latinbeat?
We did include a few over the years — the Dominican-American "Red Passport" and the films of U.S.-based Puerto Rican director Mario Diaz. But, we focused on Latin America mostly and we understood that as separate from “Latino”. Also, the New York International Latino Film Festival seemed to have that area covered those years. [The Nyilff launched in 1999.] Now that that festival is gone [Nyilff], I would want to consider more Latino films. I also don’t see the “Latino” and “Latin American” as that separate anymore.
What is your favorite part of being a film programmer?
I love almost all aspects of it: watching the films (even when they’re not always great); choosing them and finding the best ways to make them work together; and finally, meeting the filmmakers and having conversations with them and the audience, onstage, brings everything full circle.
Pablo Cerda, director of 'P.E.' with Marcela Goglio
When you want to just sit on the couch and unwind what sort of films do you watch in your spare time?
I generally don’t watch films to unwind — I prefer to read. But these days I enjoy watching Argentine public television — many filmmakers are directing great series.
Did you ever want to be a filmmaker?
I did, a screenwriter. But wasn’t 100% sure. I went to film school briefly at the Universidad del Cine, in Buenos Aires, while I studied Journalism at Universidad de Buenos Aires.
This year, there are lots of films about young people, from "Somos Mari Pepa" (Mexico) to "Holiday" (Ecuador) and "Mateo" (Colombia). The opening night film "Casa Grande" also centers on a teenager but in Brazil. Was this on purpose? Is it a reflection of a larger trend in Latin American filmmaking?
"The Militant," "Root," "The Summer of Flying Fish" and "Natural Sciences" are also about young people and are a variation of “coming of age” stories. So it is definitely a recurring theme in the program. Yes, it’s on purpose. Most of our past editions have had many young first-time directors; it has been like this from the start. We look to reflect the region’s new trends with the program, to highlight emerging talents always, even if they might have imperfect films. And some of these titles mentioned are definitely by filmmakers to watch.
Latinbeat runs July 11 – 20 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
- 7/16/2014
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Dok Leipzig’s Golden Dove for Best International Documentary went to the Us, while Norway scored a hat-trick at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck.
The top award in Leipzig’s International Documentary Competition went to Italian-born, Us-based film-maker Roberto Minervini’s Stop The Pounding Heart whose portrayal of a strict religious family was described by the jury as ¨refreshing and unsettling at the same time.¨
The Us-Belgian-Italian co-production is handled internationally by Doc & Film.
The Golden Dove in the German Documentary Competition was awarded to Carlo Zoratti for his feature-length debut The Special Need, while the newly-created Golden Dove for the animation-documentary hybrid form was presented to French director Daniela De Felice’s Casa.
A total of 18 prizes with cash awards totalling almost €70,000 ($95,000) included the Fipresci Prize for Gang Zhao’s A Folk Troupe; the Mdr Film Prize for Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline; and the Youth Jury Prize to Joanna by Aneta Kopacz, a graduate...
The top award in Leipzig’s International Documentary Competition went to Italian-born, Us-based film-maker Roberto Minervini’s Stop The Pounding Heart whose portrayal of a strict religious family was described by the jury as ¨refreshing and unsettling at the same time.¨
The Us-Belgian-Italian co-production is handled internationally by Doc & Film.
The Golden Dove in the German Documentary Competition was awarded to Carlo Zoratti for his feature-length debut The Special Need, while the newly-created Golden Dove for the animation-documentary hybrid form was presented to French director Daniela De Felice’s Casa.
A total of 18 prizes with cash awards totalling almost €70,000 ($95,000) included the Fipresci Prize for Gang Zhao’s A Folk Troupe; the Mdr Film Prize for Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline; and the Youth Jury Prize to Joanna by Aneta Kopacz, a graduate...
- 11/4/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Trinidad & Tobago is a very small country filled with every race, as varied as the innumerable species of rice. "One quality we all share as humans is we are all different from each other," to quote Dylan Kerrigan. T&T seems like a microcosm of the world today at its best. I know I am not seeing the daily or the political problems the people must cope with in their lives, but I do have the privilege not to be a tourist but a participant in trinidad + tobago film festival, a seven year old event. Film, one of the seven new industries this oil-rich republic has designated for development, is vibrant and alive here. This country is not only a tropical paradise with its beaches and its forests, its music and its people of indescribable beauty, but its intelligence -- made of Amerindian, African, East Indian, Asian, Arabic, Spanish, French, British and American traditions as translated by the new generation -- is unique. The new and well-educated generation, as we all know, has a special edge over the old and the mainstream. What do I mean with these flaunting words?
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
- 10/3/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
I can't remember a time I went to the Seattle International Film Festival (Siff) press launch and looked over the list of films and saw so many I was interested in seeing. The claim to fame for over the years is to call it the largest and most-highly attended festival in the United States. This is a fact I've often taken issue with as I don't equate quantity with quality. Granted, there has been a large number of quality features to play the fest over the years, including Golden Space Needle (Best Film) winners such as Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), My Life as a Dog (1987), Trainspotting (1996), Run Lola Run (1999), Whale Rider (2003) and even recent Best Director winner, Michel Hazanavicius's Oss 117: Nest of Spies in 2006. That said, looking over this year's crop of films I see a lot of films I will be doing my absolute best to see.
- 4/27/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
North American sales agency and distributor FiGa Films has recently acquired several new Ibero American titles just in time for the American Film Market. From Mexico, The Last Christeros (Los ultimos cristeros) by Matias Meyer, photo below, which had its world premiere in Toronto Film Festival, and Machete Language, directed by Kyzza Terrazas, which had its world premiere in Venice. Further south of the equator, Zoo (Zoológico), directed by Rodrigo Marin, and Thursday Till Sunday (De jueves a domingo), directed by Dominga Sotomayor, both from Chile. From Argentina, winner of the Teddy Award at the 2011 Berlinale, Absent (Ausente) by…...
- 11/2/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
North American sales agency and distributor FiGa Films has recently acquired several new Ibero American titles just in time for the American Film Market. From Mexico, The Last Christeros (Los ultimos cristeros) by Matias Meyer, photo below, which had its world premiere in Toronto Film Festival, and Machete Language, directed by Kyzza Terrazas, which had its world premiere in Venice. Further south of the equator, Zoo (Zoológico), directed by Rodrigo Marin, and Thursday Till Sunday (De jueves a domingo), directed by Dominga Sotomayor, both from Chile. From Argentina, winner of the Teddy Award at the 2011 Berlinale, Absent (Ausente) by Marco Berger. The Parents (Los...
- 11/2/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
Breaking out around the time where Nyff is on its last legs, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (October 12 to 23) kicks in with about four times the size in volume, and obviously more of an eclectic range. This year is the festival's big 40 - and for the occasion they've commissioned some of the names who've been a part of the festival to each contribute a short film in the context of what is being called the "Cartes Blanches" series. Denis Côté, Deco Dawson, Sophie Deraspe, Rodrigue Jean, Zacharias Kunuk, Marie Losier, Catherine Martin, Bruce McDonald, Théodore Ushev and Denis Villeneuve will each submit a four minute short. For their opening and closing festival items they've got the distinction of showing off Foreign Film Oscar selected items in Philippe Falardeau's Monsieur Lazhar and selected as the opener well before it was announced as France's submission for Oscar is Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli.
- 9/27/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.
Opening and closing
The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.
Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.
Opening and closing
The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.
Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.
- 9/27/2011
- by noreply@blogger.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.
Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...
Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...
- 9/27/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma has announced their line up for the films competing for the Louve d’Or, a prize of $15 000 awarded to the best film. This marks the festivals 40th year and once again the line up is stellar. If you are not familiar with the festival than now is the time to do so. I honestly think it is the best film festival I have ever been to. While Fantasia may be the most fun, the Fnc not only picks the best of Venice, Cannes and Tiff, but they don’t focus on red carpets, celebrities, nor do they overcharge for tickets. Its classy, laid back and more importantly, all about the movies. Here is the first wave of films announced.
Behold the Lamb, John Mcllduff (Royaume-Uni)
Black Blood, Miaoyan Zhang (Chine)
Blue Bird, Gust Van Den Berghe (Belgique)
Elena, Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russie)
Les Géants, Bouli Lanners (Belgique)
The Island,...
Behold the Lamb, John Mcllduff (Royaume-Uni)
Black Blood, Miaoyan Zhang (Chine)
Blue Bird, Gust Van Den Berghe (Belgique)
Elena, Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russie)
Les Géants, Bouli Lanners (Belgique)
The Island,...
- 9/21/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Gerard Butler and Ryan Gosling are heading to Toronto for the 36tht international film festival, which kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 8.
The fest today confirmed the hundreds of celebrities that will be attending the can’t-miss event, promoting films and making the rounds as the annual awards season starts to take shape.
Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Luc Besson, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog are just a few of the filmmakers who have confirmed their attendance.
Celebrities making the trek include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Clive Owen, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young also are expected to...
Hollywoodnews.com: Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Gerard Butler and Ryan Gosling are heading to Toronto for the 36tht international film festival, which kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 8.
The fest today confirmed the hundreds of celebrities that will be attending the can’t-miss event, promoting films and making the rounds as the annual awards season starts to take shape.
Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Luc Besson, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog are just a few of the filmmakers who have confirmed their attendance.
Celebrities making the trek include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Clive Owen, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young also are expected to...
- 8/23/2011
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
Toronto - The 36th Toronto International Film Festival® welcomes hundreds of guests this year. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Agnieszka Holland, Guy Maddin, Luc Besson, Bill Duke, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Darrell Roodt, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog.
Actors expected to attend include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, Jeon Do-Yeon, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Ryan Gosling, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians include: U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young.
The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.
The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Adam Shaheen, Adam Wingard, Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr., Agnieszka Holland, Akin Omotoso,...
Actors expected to attend include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, Jeon Do-Yeon, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Ryan Gosling, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians include: U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young.
The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.
The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Adam Shaheen, Adam Wingard, Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr., Agnieszka Holland, Akin Omotoso,...
- 8/23/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Toronto International Film Festival, running from September 9 through 18, has released some of its most anticipated lineups today: Wavelengths, Visions, Contemporary World Cinema, Future Projections, Galas and Special Presentations. We're taking them one at a time, first posting them program by program with descriptions provided by the festival — and then returning over the coming hours and days to add links and further notes. First up: Visions.
Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr's Fable of the Fish. A couple, Lina and Miguel, move into a dumpsite in Catmon, Malabon. As they adjust to their new abode and surroundings, Lina's longing to have a child intensifies. One day, Lina learns that she is pregnant. She gives birth in the middle of a storm, and those who witness the birth are shocked – her son is a fish. While Miguel cannot accept it, Lina embraces what has happened and treats the fish as her son. What...
Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr's Fable of the Fish. A couple, Lina and Miguel, move into a dumpsite in Catmon, Malabon. As they adjust to their new abode and surroundings, Lina's longing to have a child intensifies. One day, Lina learns that she is pregnant. She gives birth in the middle of a storm, and those who witness the birth are shocked – her son is a fish. While Miguel cannot accept it, Lina embraces what has happened and treats the fish as her son. What...
- 8/16/2011
- MUBI
Alright now here is the program everyone should be keeping a close eye on. Yorgos Lanthimos, Bertrand Bonello, Shinya Tsukamoto and Toshiaki Toyoda all have films lined up for the Toronto International Film Festival this year. The fest has announced the complete lineup for Visions programme and it is pretty awesome. We also recently posted the complete line-up for the gala, special presentations and the World Cinema programs as well. Here is the press release:
Toronto – The 36th Toronto International Film Festival® announces a strong line-up of 18 films in this year’s Visions programme. Works presented under the Visions banner are films from around the world by filmmakers who challenge audiences’ notions of mainstream cinema.
Alps Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece/France (North American Premiere)
A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast, and her coach have formed a secret, illegal company. The service they provide is to act as stand-ins for the recently deceased,...
Toronto – The 36th Toronto International Film Festival® announces a strong line-up of 18 films in this year’s Visions programme. Works presented under the Visions banner are films from around the world by filmmakers who challenge audiences’ notions of mainstream cinema.
Alps Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece/France (North American Premiere)
A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast, and her coach have formed a secret, illegal company. The service they provide is to act as stand-ins for the recently deceased,...
- 8/16/2011
- by Kyle Reese
- SoundOnSight
After three separate announcements (here, here and here), the Toronto International Film Festival has announced the final line-up for their Galas and Special Presentations, as well as a few other categories. Most notable is Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank follow-up Wuthering Heights, the next film from Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo, as well as Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps.
We also get Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig and Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini. In what should be a little fun we have Gary McKendry‘s Killer Elite starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham. We also get Owen’s horror flick Intruders and Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass starring Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. Check out the full line-ups below.
Galas
Closing Night Film
Page Eight David Hare, United Kingdom
International Premiere
Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving M15 officer.
We also get Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig and Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini. In what should be a little fun we have Gary McKendry‘s Killer Elite starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham. We also get Owen’s horror flick Intruders and Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass starring Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. Check out the full line-ups below.
Galas
Closing Night Film
Page Eight David Hare, United Kingdom
International Premiere
Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving M15 officer.
- 8/16/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels! Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE. Kudos! I wish I could have seen these!
Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...
Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...
- 2/10/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
London -- A quartet of Dutch production banners will each receive €50,000 ($70,000) from the Hubert Bals Fund Plus cashpool, a fund from the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Netherlands Film Fund.
Circe Films, Idtv Motel Films, Volya Films and Waterland Film have been selected by fund managers to co-produce four films from filmmakers from Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Uzbekistan.
Seyfi Teoman's project "Our Grand Despair" from Turkey, "Los ultimos cristeros" (The Last Cristeros) from filmmaker Matias Meyer in Mexico, Milagros Mumenthaler's "Ausencias" (Absences) from Argentina and "40 kun chilla" (40 days of silence) by Saodat Ismailova, Uzbekistan have been selected.
The Hubert Bals Fund manager Iwana Chronis said: "Looking back on the last four years, the Hbf Plus program can be considered a great success and we are happy to see so many of the supported films doing so well at international festivals."
Previous Bals' beneficiaries have gone on to...
Circe Films, Idtv Motel Films, Volya Films and Waterland Film have been selected by fund managers to co-produce four films from filmmakers from Turkey, Mexico, Argentina and Uzbekistan.
Seyfi Teoman's project "Our Grand Despair" from Turkey, "Los ultimos cristeros" (The Last Cristeros) from filmmaker Matias Meyer in Mexico, Milagros Mumenthaler's "Ausencias" (Absences) from Argentina and "40 kun chilla" (40 days of silence) by Saodat Ismailova, Uzbekistan have been selected.
The Hubert Bals Fund manager Iwana Chronis said: "Looking back on the last four years, the Hbf Plus program can be considered a great success and we are happy to see so many of the supported films doing so well at international festivals."
Previous Bals' beneficiaries have gone on to...
- 7/14/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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