Viva Maestro, a documentary starring the charismatic music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, opened on a high note taking in 14,310 on two screens — Film Forum/NYC and The Landmark/LA. That’s a PTA of 7,155 for the film directed by Ted Braun and presented by Greenwich Entertainment and Participant Media. It expands to 40+ theaters next weekend.
The doc was #1 at Film Forum and #2 at Landmark (behind A24’s indie smash Everything Everywhere All At Once).
The brilliant Dudamel, now in his 13th season atop the LA Phil (and in his inaugural season as music director of the Paris Opera), is only 41 and one of the few conductors who’s a real cultural phenomenon. He’s been that pretty much since his earliest appointment at age 18 as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra, comprised of graduates of Venezuela...
The doc was #1 at Film Forum and #2 at Landmark (behind A24’s indie smash Everything Everywhere All At Once).
The brilliant Dudamel, now in his 13th season atop the LA Phil (and in his inaugural season as music director of the Paris Opera), is only 41 and one of the few conductors who’s a real cultural phenomenon. He’s been that pretty much since his earliest appointment at age 18 as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra, comprised of graduates of Venezuela...
- 4/10/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has a conductor captured the imagination of the American public quite like Gustavo Dudamel.
The Venezuelan-born phenom with the flashing baton and flying curls has been featured on 60 Minutes, profiled in The New Yorker, inspired a TV series (Mozart in the Jungle), and even been animated on The Simpsons (the surest sign of broad cultural penetration). The music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director of the Paris Opera is the subject of a new documentary, ¡Viva Maestro!, opening today in New York (Film Forum) and L.A. (The Landmark Westside Pavilion).
“This is a very, very rare cat — very, very special musician,” declares director Ted Braun. “It’s the quality of his music-making and that emotional vitality and transparency that he brings. It’s just a magnet for musicians all over the world, from every walk of life and...
The Venezuelan-born phenom with the flashing baton and flying curls has been featured on 60 Minutes, profiled in The New Yorker, inspired a TV series (Mozart in the Jungle), and even been animated on The Simpsons (the surest sign of broad cultural penetration). The music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director of the Paris Opera is the subject of a new documentary, ¡Viva Maestro!, opening today in New York (Film Forum) and L.A. (The Landmark Westside Pavilion).
“This is a very, very rare cat — very, very special musician,” declares director Ted Braun. “It’s the quality of his music-making and that emotional vitality and transparency that he brings. It’s just a magnet for musicians all over the world, from every walk of life and...
- 4/8/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Luis Renart’s Canary Islands-based Bendita Film Sales has swooped on one of the big winners at Ventana Sur last year: Venezuelan Nico Manzano’s hotly courted debut feature “Me and the Beasts.”
Manzano’s debut, which will world premiere on Nov. 21 at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival, came from seemingly nowhere last December to took home three of the six prizes on offer at Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte pix-in-post section: a Dcp copy (from Nmf/Colorfront), color correction and Vxf supervision (Sofia Films) and a final mix check (La Mayor.Cine).
Having been made quite independently, those plaudits allowed the film to be completed. After its world premiere, it will return to Argentina to compete at the Mar del Plata Festival in the event’s main Latin American section.
The film follows Andrés Bravo, a guitarist and singer who starts his solo career after leaving his band...
Manzano’s debut, which will world premiere on Nov. 21 at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival, came from seemingly nowhere last December to took home three of the six prizes on offer at Ventana Sur’s Primer Corte pix-in-post section: a Dcp copy (from Nmf/Colorfront), color correction and Vxf supervision (Sofia Films) and a final mix check (La Mayor.Cine).
Having been made quite independently, those plaudits allowed the film to be completed. After its world premiere, it will return to Argentina to compete at the Mar del Plata Festival in the event’s main Latin American section.
The film follows Andrés Bravo, a guitarist and singer who starts his solo career after leaving his band...
- 11/11/2021
- by Emiliano Granada
- Variety Film + TV
"All of Venezuela is with the Venezuelan youth!" WarnerMedia has released the trailer for a documentary titled A La Calle, which translates to To the Street, about the fight for democracy in Venezuela. This premiered at the Doc NYC Film Festival last fall, and also played at Human Rights Watch Film Festival this year. It will be streaming on HBO Max starting next month for everyone to watch. A La Calle is a firsthand account Venezuelans fighting to reclaim their democracy from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, whose corrupt & brutal policies have sent the country into economic ruin. Working with a network of clandestine camera crews, the filmmakers spent three years recording exclusive interviews with key opposition figures including Leopoldo López — whose arrest and imprisonment inspired a massive national movement — and grassroots activist Nixon Leal, as well as a everyday citizens. The doc film "captures the remarkable courage of the...
- 8/17/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: WarnerMedia OneFifty have picked up award-winning documentary A La Calle which will premiere on HBO Max on Wednesday, Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy.
Directed by Nelson G. Navarrete and Maxx Caicedo, A La Calle is a firsthand account of the extraordinary efforts of ordinary Venezuelans to reclaim their democracy from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, whose corrupt and brutal policies plunged the country into economic ruin. Working with a network of clandestine camera crews, smuggling hard drives out of Venezuela, the filmmakers spent three years recording exclusive interviews with key opposition figures including Leopoldo López (whose arrest and imprisonment inspired a national movement), Venezuelan democratic leader Juan Guaidó, and grassroots activist Nixon Leal, as well as a host of everyday citizens.
A La Calle is produced by Priority Pictures and Vitamin Productions in association with The Brakefield Company and executive produced by Greg Little, Karen Lauder, and Lizzie Friedman.
Directed by Nelson G. Navarrete and Maxx Caicedo, A La Calle is a firsthand account of the extraordinary efforts of ordinary Venezuelans to reclaim their democracy from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, whose corrupt and brutal policies plunged the country into economic ruin. Working with a network of clandestine camera crews, smuggling hard drives out of Venezuela, the filmmakers spent three years recording exclusive interviews with key opposition figures including Leopoldo López (whose arrest and imprisonment inspired a national movement), Venezuelan democratic leader Juan Guaidó, and grassroots activist Nixon Leal, as well as a host of everyday citizens.
A La Calle is produced by Priority Pictures and Vitamin Productions in association with The Brakefield Company and executive produced by Greg Little, Karen Lauder, and Lizzie Friedman.
- 7/20/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
This documentary about Sean Penn’s response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti may be self-congratulatory, but the actor has had an undeniable impact
Actor, director, screenwriter and now novelist Sean Penn has had some mixed notices for his non-showbiz activities and his dramatic interventions in various international situations – including his defiant declaration of faith in the late Hugo Chávez and his successor as Venezuelan president, the now-notorious Nicolás Maduro. And the naysayers and the eye-rollers may not be entirely mollified by this documentary about Sean Penn’s charity work in Haiti, which does come across in some ways as a 93-minute self-administered high-five.
It begins with a carefully curated montage of TV news footage tacitly admitting what a paparazzo-punching brat he once was – but there is no clip of his puppet appearance in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s comedy Team America: World Police as an archetypal whiny liberal. Well,...
Actor, director, screenwriter and now novelist Sean Penn has had some mixed notices for his non-showbiz activities and his dramatic interventions in various international situations – including his defiant declaration of faith in the late Hugo Chávez and his successor as Venezuelan president, the now-notorious Nicolás Maduro. And the naysayers and the eye-rollers may not be entirely mollified by this documentary about Sean Penn’s charity work in Haiti, which does come across in some ways as a 93-minute self-administered high-five.
It begins with a carefully curated montage of TV news footage tacitly admitting what a paparazzo-punching brat he once was – but there is no clip of his puppet appearance in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s comedy Team America: World Police as an archetypal whiny liberal. Well,...
- 5/6/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Propped shakily over the lapping waters of Lake Maracaibo in the Caribbean-facing northeast corner of Venezuela, the tiny settlement of Congo Mirador is as tranquil as it is far-flung, but only the most obtuse of passing backpackers would describe it as idyllic. Impoverished and increasingly depopulated as it bears the economic brunt of the country’s political discord, it’s a village almost literally on the verge of sliding into the mud: Water pollution and sedimentation from nearby oil drilling have strangled its local fishing industry, while modest houses struggle to stay afloat. Over the course of several years, Anabel Rodriguez Rios’ unsentimentally elegiac documentary “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” quietly observes Congo Mirador being brought to its knees, to progressively powerful and enraging effect.
Yet this is not a work of heart-sinking miserablism: The film captures communal resilience and institutional corruption in equal measure. Since its premiere in Sundance’s world documentary competition,...
Yet this is not a work of heart-sinking miserablism: The film captures communal resilience and institutional corruption in equal measure. Since its premiere in Sundance’s world documentary competition,...
- 12/2/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
As the title of this documentary from Maxx Caicedo and Nelson G Navarrete suggests, the pair get down to street level to consider the mix of politics and protest currently affecting Venezuelan society. In contrast to the single community consideration of Once Upon A Time In Venezuela - which is also screening as part of Doc NYC - here the directors are trying to give a more panoramic view of the issues, offering an array of voices, from medics to opposition leaders and blue collar workers.
A potted history of recent Venezuelan politics is stitched through the film - although, like much here, it could do with a tighter focus - but it basically emphasises the economic crisis in the country that has worsened under Hugo Chávez's successor Nicolás Maduro, exacerbated by his refusal to acknowledge the deep problems his country faces or to accept international aid. This crisis is at the.
A potted history of recent Venezuelan politics is stitched through the film - although, like much here, it could do with a tighter focus - but it basically emphasises the economic crisis in the country that has worsened under Hugo Chávez's successor Nicolás Maduro, exacerbated by his refusal to acknowledge the deep problems his country faces or to accept international aid. This crisis is at the.
- 11/16/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
National Harbor, Maryland — “America is founded on a simple idea, and that idea… [dramatic pause] is freedom.” So declared Vice President Mike Pence in a booming staccato during his Friday morning Cpac address. “Freedom works,” Pence assured the room of conservative conference-goers. “We have the courage to stand for freedom.”
Pence played the hits: low unemployment, strong economy, tax cuts and an extended riff about infanticide. A customary “build-the-wall” chant broke out, but fizzled nearly as soon as it began. That’s Cpac’s dirty little secret: The wall is not the fetish object it once was.
Pence played the hits: low unemployment, strong economy, tax cuts and an extended riff about infanticide. A customary “build-the-wall” chant broke out, but fizzled nearly as soon as it began. That’s Cpac’s dirty little secret: The wall is not the fetish object it once was.
- 3/1/2019
- by John Hendrickson
- Rollingstone.com
Univision reporter Jorge Ramos described in detail his brief detainment at Venezuela’s Presidential Palace on Monday, uploading a video to Facebook telling followers exactly how it went down.
“They took me into a security room, with producer Maria Guzman and they asked for our cellphones. I didn’t want to give them my cellphone. So they turned off the light of the room and a group of agents came in,” Ramos said. “They took forcefully my backpack, my cellphone, they did the same thing with Maria’s, and they forced us to give them our pass codes for the cellphones. We didn’t know what was going to happen to us.”
Ramos described how his interview with the country’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, went off the rails after the journalists showed him footage of Venezuelan kids eating food out of a garbage truck.
Also Read: Univision's Jorge Ramos...
“They took me into a security room, with producer Maria Guzman and they asked for our cellphones. I didn’t want to give them my cellphone. So they turned off the light of the room and a group of agents came in,” Ramos said. “They took forcefully my backpack, my cellphone, they did the same thing with Maria’s, and they forced us to give them our pass codes for the cellphones. We didn’t know what was going to happen to us.”
Ramos described how his interview with the country’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, went off the rails after the journalists showed him footage of Venezuelan kids eating food out of a garbage truck.
Also Read: Univision's Jorge Ramos...
- 2/26/2019
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
This story was originally published in Spanish by Rolling Stone Colombia‘s editors. Read the original Spanish version here.
Update 2/23/18: The moment of music has long passed. It was nearing 7 a.m. on Saturday when the Colombian authorities were preparing to pass along humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The night before, however, Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of Venezuela, announced the closure of the Simón Bolívar, Unión and Santander Bridges for “serious and illegal threats attempted by the Government of Colombia against La Paz.”
By 8 a.m., members of the Bolivarian...
Update 2/23/18: The moment of music has long passed. It was nearing 7 a.m. on Saturday when the Colombian authorities were preparing to pass along humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The night before, however, Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of Venezuela, announced the closure of the Simón Bolívar, Unión and Santander Bridges for “serious and illegal threats attempted by the Government of Colombia against La Paz.”
By 8 a.m., members of the Bolivarian...
- 2/24/2019
- by Rolling Stone
- Rollingstone.com
When Boots Riley won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature on Saturday, he closed his acceptance speech with an impassioned plea to pay attention to the unfolding tension currently happening in Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro, currently Venezuela’s president, is under international pressure to lift restrictions on resources into the country. The border between Venezuela and Colombia has been closed signaling that further escalation may be imminent.
While the ceremony cut Riley off before he could finish his speech, the director expanded on his sentiments backstage. To assembled press Riley said,
“Obviously, the CIA, every time they targeted a country for regime change, they tell you the same things. They tell you the same things in Iraq, they tell you the same things that they did in Chile in 1973. They all say, ‘They’ve lost support, they’re dictators. We’re just helping people.’ We know. C’mon.
While the ceremony cut Riley off before he could finish his speech, the director expanded on his sentiments backstage. To assembled press Riley said,
“Obviously, the CIA, every time they targeted a country for regime change, they tell you the same things. They tell you the same things in Iraq, they tell you the same things that they did in Chile in 1973. They all say, ‘They’ve lost support, they’re dictators. We’re just helping people.’ We know. C’mon.
- 2/23/2019
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
President Donald Trump is looking into the future and predicting Republicans will “win big” in the 2020 elections.
Trump took to Twitter Saturday to remind the nation that the Gop maintained control of the Senate in November, crediting “energy” among conservatives for election victories on the right.
“There is far more Energy on the Right than there is on the Left. That’s why we just won the Senate and why we will win big in 2020,” he tweeted, adding, “The Fake News just doesn’t want to report the facts.”
One fact he left out of his tweet is that Democrats won big in the House, leading to Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker for a second time — possibly because of energy on the left, particularly in Pelosi’s home state of California.
Trump also mentioned the political crisis in Venezuela, saying “God Bless the people of Venezuela!”
Hours later he wrote: “The...
Trump took to Twitter Saturday to remind the nation that the Gop maintained control of the Senate in November, crediting “energy” among conservatives for election victories on the right.
“There is far more Energy on the Right than there is on the Left. That’s why we just won the Senate and why we will win big in 2020,” he tweeted, adding, “The Fake News just doesn’t want to report the facts.”
One fact he left out of his tweet is that Democrats won big in the House, leading to Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker for a second time — possibly because of energy on the left, particularly in Pelosi’s home state of California.
Trump also mentioned the political crisis in Venezuela, saying “God Bless the people of Venezuela!”
Hours later he wrote: “The...
- 2/23/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
International charity concert “Venezuela Aid Live” kicked off Friday morning on the Colombian border town of Cúcuta, which sits on the Venezuelan border. Sponsored by Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson, as well as Colombian transportation mogul Bruno Ocampo, the humanitarian fundraiser was inspired by Bob Geldof’s Eighties ‘Live Aid’ telethons. Broadcasted today via livestream, 32 artists from all over the world are confirmed to perform through 5pm local time — including Colombian rock star Juanes, Puerto Rican hitmaker Luis Fonsi, Mexican pop star Paulina Rubio and many more.
The event was...
The event was...
- 2/22/2019
- by Suzy Exposito
- Rollingstone.com
Ever since George Harrison’s two concerts for Bangladesh in 1971, charity concerts have been a pop-music staple. Most have been straightforward in their goals of relieving suffering at a particular spot on the globe, but rarely have pop benefits been as complicated as the two dueling concerts for Venezuela scheduled for this weekend — which pit country against country, and even Roger Waters against one of the organizers.
Related: Heal the World: 20 Songs for a Good Cause
Venezuela is unquestionably in the midst of a crisis. Hyperinflation, food shortages and a...
Related: Heal the World: 20 Songs for a Good Cause
Venezuela is unquestionably in the midst of a crisis. Hyperinflation, food shortages and a...
- 2/22/2019
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
British billionaire and Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson announced a benefit show last week to raise funds for food and medicine for the citizens of Venezuela. Modeled after Bob Geldof’s Eighties ‘Live Aid’ telethons for Ethiopia, the concert is set to take place this Friday in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta, which sits on the Venezuelan border.
On Tuesday, Roger Waters entered the fray, criticizing the concert and citing concerns over the ramifications of foreign intervention. “The Red Cross and the U.N., unequivocally agree, don’t politicize aid,...
On Tuesday, Roger Waters entered the fray, criticizing the concert and citing concerns over the ramifications of foreign intervention. “The Red Cross and the U.N., unequivocally agree, don’t politicize aid,...
- 2/19/2019
- by Suzy Exposito
- Rollingstone.com
New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss dropped another incendiary column on social media Wednesday afternoon, using the paper to denounce liberal intolerance on college campuses and beyond. “We live in a world in which politically fascistic behavior, if not the actual philosophy, is unquestionably on the rise,” Weiss writes in “We’re All Fascists Now,” rattling off a list of examples including Xi Jinping’s China, Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela. “Yet these are generally not the extremists that leftists focus on. Instead, they seem to believe that the real cause for concern are the secret authoritarians passing as liberals and conservatives...
- 3/8/2018
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
Édgar Ramírez has left an indelible mark on cinematic history playing Jennifer Lawrence’s sentimental ex husband in Joy, Panamanian boxing legend Roberto Durán in Hands of Stone and Venezuelan military leader Simón Bolívar in The Liberator. In his latest turn, he brings the late Italian designer Gianni Versace to life on FX series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, premiering Jan. 17 at 10 p.m. Et. Here are 5 reasons to love the 40-year-old Venezuelan heartthrob.
1. He’s hot and super smart: “I’m a journalist and I specialize in political journalism,” he told People of his life before fame.
1. He’s hot and super smart: “I’m a journalist and I specialize in political journalism,” he told People of his life before fame.
- 1/15/2018
- by Lena Hansen
- PEOPLE.com
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