If the only film about a teenage girl with cancer you've seen recently is The Fault in Our Stars, get ready for a new and stranger heartbreak. Reggie, the subject of the documentary Farewell to Hollywood, also wields the camera. Her collaborator is Henry Corra, an experienced director who specializes in "living cinema," an intimate style of documentary that blurs divisions between filmmaker and subject. Henry and Reggie quickly become close, and their shared love of filmmaking and each other is the engine of this bizarre and wonderful doc that's pitched like a home movie but crafted with fine, poignant sensibilities. Reggie's parents do not take kindly to the project. Imagine losing control over your adolescent daughter as adulthood kicks in; now imagine ...
- 2/25/2015
- Village Voice
In the late ‘70s, Henry Corra was attending Franconia College, a small experimental liberal arts school in New Hampshire. While there, he and his classmates watched a film called Grey Gardens. Immediately upon graduation, with a smoking-hot performing arts degree in hand, he made his way to New York City and made a beeline to the offices of Albert and David Maysles, the directors of this film that had galvanized him. He told them he wanted to work for them. They promptly hired him. The first time I met Henry was in 2008 at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Idfa). […]...
- 2/18/2015
- by Pamela Cohn
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In the late ‘70s, Henry Corra was attending Franconia College, a small experimental liberal arts school in New Hampshire. While there, he and his classmates watched a film called Grey Gardens. Immediately upon graduation, with a smoking-hot performing arts degree in hand, he made his way to New York City and made a beeline to the offices of Albert and David Maysles, the directors of this film that had galvanized him. He told them he wanted to work for them. They promptly hired him. The first time I met Henry was in 2008 at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (Idfa). […]...
- 2/18/2015
- by Pamela Cohn
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
One and a half months after her 16th birthday, Regina Diane Nicholson, from Long Beach, California, was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma, a malignant, cancerous, bone tumor that usually develops in teenagers and young adults when they are growing rapidly. Many first complain of pain which may be worse at night. Those active in sports, may complain of pain in their lower femur, or right below their knee. A pathological bone fracture may also be a first sign or symptom, as the bones may not be as strong as they normally would be.
Regina, or Reggie, handles her diagnosis with maturity and humor, and seeing as she has a passion for films and filmmaking, decides to document her experience, the disease process, and the impact it has on her family, friends, and healthcare providers.
In her film, “Farewell to Hollywood,” she compares the anguish she is experiencing, to the intensity, rawness, and violence exhibited in Quentin Tarantino’s, “Pulp Fiction,” often cutting to scenes from the 1994, action thriller. A film enthusiast through and through, Reggie has film posters all over her bedroom walls and even “Made a Wish” with the “Make a Wish” Foundation and was allowed to be an extra on the film set of Kevin Smith’s “Red State."
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Good natured, with only good intentions demonstrated in the film, director Henry Corra, met the then 17 year old filmmaker, Regina (Reggie) Nicholson at a film festival, and agreed to help her make her feature film. As Reggie turned 18, her parents had conflicting emotions about Reggie becoming an adult and her desire to branch out, creating an independent life for herself, which would mean, she would be moving out of their house, getting her own work space, completing the film, all the while, continuing to receive treatment while documenting the film. Everyone handles stress differently.
The film carries the viewer through the difficult decisions that this young adult female has to make. You will see how she copes, the medications that she chooses to take, the surgeries she chooses to undergo, what and who makes her happy, who she appoints as her healthcare proxy, and how she and her caretaker decide to carry out her end of life care. The film should raise awareness to the fact that we should all appoint a healthcare proxy (someone who would make healthcare decisions for you in the event you are unable to make them yourself), even at a young age
In the film, she often shows herself swinging on a swing over a cliff and the sea in Southern California, where she appears to be very free and happy.
Regina is a very brave woman who knows what and who makes her happy and knows how to live life to the fullest.
This award-winning documentary has screened at numerous international film festivals including Idfa, Hot Springs Doc Fest and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
The film will open in New York at Cinema Village on Wednesday, February 25 , 2015 (the day of Reggie Nicholson’s birthday),
and at the Noho 7 in Los Angeles on Friday, March 13, 2015.
A national release will follow.
Regina, or Reggie, handles her diagnosis with maturity and humor, and seeing as she has a passion for films and filmmaking, decides to document her experience, the disease process, and the impact it has on her family, friends, and healthcare providers.
In her film, “Farewell to Hollywood,” she compares the anguish she is experiencing, to the intensity, rawness, and violence exhibited in Quentin Tarantino’s, “Pulp Fiction,” often cutting to scenes from the 1994, action thriller. A film enthusiast through and through, Reggie has film posters all over her bedroom walls and even “Made a Wish” with the “Make a Wish” Foundation and was allowed to be an extra on the film set of Kevin Smith’s “Red State."
.
Good natured, with only good intentions demonstrated in the film, director Henry Corra, met the then 17 year old filmmaker, Regina (Reggie) Nicholson at a film festival, and agreed to help her make her feature film. As Reggie turned 18, her parents had conflicting emotions about Reggie becoming an adult and her desire to branch out, creating an independent life for herself, which would mean, she would be moving out of their house, getting her own work space, completing the film, all the while, continuing to receive treatment while documenting the film. Everyone handles stress differently.
The film carries the viewer through the difficult decisions that this young adult female has to make. You will see how she copes, the medications that she chooses to take, the surgeries she chooses to undergo, what and who makes her happy, who she appoints as her healthcare proxy, and how she and her caretaker decide to carry out her end of life care. The film should raise awareness to the fact that we should all appoint a healthcare proxy (someone who would make healthcare decisions for you in the event you are unable to make them yourself), even at a young age
In the film, she often shows herself swinging on a swing over a cliff and the sea in Southern California, where she appears to be very free and happy.
Regina is a very brave woman who knows what and who makes her happy and knows how to live life to the fullest.
This award-winning documentary has screened at numerous international film festivals including Idfa, Hot Springs Doc Fest and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
The film will open in New York at Cinema Village on Wednesday, February 25 , 2015 (the day of Reggie Nicholson’s birthday),
and at the Noho 7 in Los Angeles on Friday, March 13, 2015.
A national release will follow.
- 2/13/2015
- by Sharon Abella
- Sydney's Buzz
Some movies push beyond perceived moral boundaries for the sake of being purely transgressive. "Farewell to Hollywood," documentarian Henry Corra's collaborative project with Regina Nicholson -- who died of cancer last year at the age of 19 -- has a blurrier agenda. Corra, whose previous credits include "The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan," began a peculiar relationship with Nicholson after meeting her at a film festival and learning of her interest in completing a feature before her death. The mission is noble, but the final, scrappy product contains an ethical dubiousness that slips between Nicolson's apparent intentions and those of the much older man with whom she spent her dying days. Is it a provocation from beyond the grave or a misconceived paean from the surviving director? Alternately confounding, upsetting and riddled with grief at every turn, "Farewell to Hollywood" is certainly the most paradoxical moviegoing experience I've endured this year.
- 11/23/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Selection includes competition titles, a focus on Southeast Asia and a ‘Top 10’ compiled by director Rithy Panh.
The selection for the 26th Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled and includes 288 titles – selected from more than 3,000 submissions – of which 100 will receive their world premiere during the festival (Nov 20 – Dec 1).
There will be a strand dedicated to documentaries from Southeast Asia titled Emerging Voices from Southeast Asia.
This year’s Idfa Top 10 is compiled by Cambodian director Rithy Panh, and a retrospective of his work will be screening at the festival.
Panh, whose doc The Missing Picture won the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes in May, has selected:
Alone
Wang Bing (Hong Kong/France, 2012)Don’t Look Back
D.A. Pennebaker (USA, 1967)Farrebique - The Four Seasons
Georges Rouquier (France, 1946)The Football Incident
Joris Ivens/Marceline Loridan-Ivens (France, 1976)I Am Cuba
Mikheil Kalatozishvili (Cuba/Russia, 1964)In Vanda’s Room
Pedro Costa (Portugal, 2000)A Man Vanishes...
The selection for the 26th Idfa (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has been unveiled and includes 288 titles – selected from more than 3,000 submissions – of which 100 will receive their world premiere during the festival (Nov 20 – Dec 1).
There will be a strand dedicated to documentaries from Southeast Asia titled Emerging Voices from Southeast Asia.
This year’s Idfa Top 10 is compiled by Cambodian director Rithy Panh, and a retrospective of his work will be screening at the festival.
Panh, whose doc The Missing Picture won the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes in May, has selected:
Alone
Wang Bing (Hong Kong/France, 2012)Don’t Look Back
D.A. Pennebaker (USA, 1967)Farrebique - The Four Seasons
Georges Rouquier (France, 1946)The Football Incident
Joris Ivens/Marceline Loridan-Ivens (France, 1976)I Am Cuba
Mikheil Kalatozishvili (Cuba/Russia, 1964)In Vanda’s Room
Pedro Costa (Portugal, 2000)A Man Vanishes...
- 10/11/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The 8th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is all set to run for ten days this Feb. 11-20 in Missoula, Montana. This year, the fest will have a whopping 140 film programs, a growth that necessitates an expansion from its regular home at the Historic Wilma Theatre — where it will occupy two screens — to also feature screenings at the former Pipestone Mountaineering store.
Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)
Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.
Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)
Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.
- 1/15/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
You'd be partially right if you thought that Thom Powers would simply do a "copy and paste" job of shuffling films from Tiff's Reel to Real programme to the first edition of the Doc NYC festival. Powers, the fest's Artistic Director has loaded the inaugural edition of the New York City based documentary film festival with U.S preems of several titles from Tiff -- it includes a pair of galas for Herzog's 3D docu and Errol Morris' Tabloid, but Doc NYC will also include a dozen selected films including flip camera docu Five Weddings and a Felony from Josh Freed (see pic). Here's the complete rundown of sections and film selections for the event - a lean fest that could be digested by any hardcore docu-phile between the 3rd and the 9th of November. Galas Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog) – Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film...
- 9/29/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Always one of the most enjoyable events of the year, the 17th Austin Film Festival is gearing up to kick-off next month.
The annual event takes place from October 21-28 in Austin, Texas with movies such as Natalie Portman's "Black Swan" on the docket.
With other films set to screen including "Meek's Cutoff," "127 Hours," and "Fair Game," the full lineup is as follows:
Marquee Screenings
"127 Hours" – Danny Boyle (Writer/Director), Simon Beaufoy (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Black Swan" – Darren Aronofsky (Director), Andres Heinz (Writer), John McLaughlin (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Peep World" – Barry W. Blaustein (Director), Peter Himmelstein (Writer) – (U.S. Premiere)
"Bloodworth" – Shane Dax Taylor (Director), W. Earl Brown (Writer) – (World Premiere)
"Blue Valentine" – Derek Cianfrance (Writer/Director), Joey Curtis (Writer), Camille DeLavigne (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Exporting Raymond" – Phil Rosenthal (Director) – (World Premiere)
"Fair Game" – Doug Liman (Director), Jez & John-Henry Butterworth (Writers) – (Regional Premiere)
"High School" – John Stalberg (Writer/Director...
The annual event takes place from October 21-28 in Austin, Texas with movies such as Natalie Portman's "Black Swan" on the docket.
With other films set to screen including "Meek's Cutoff," "127 Hours," and "Fair Game," the full lineup is as follows:
Marquee Screenings
"127 Hours" – Danny Boyle (Writer/Director), Simon Beaufoy (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Black Swan" – Darren Aronofsky (Director), Andres Heinz (Writer), John McLaughlin (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Peep World" – Barry W. Blaustein (Director), Peter Himmelstein (Writer) – (U.S. Premiere)
"Bloodworth" – Shane Dax Taylor (Director), W. Earl Brown (Writer) – (World Premiere)
"Blue Valentine" – Derek Cianfrance (Writer/Director), Joey Curtis (Writer), Camille DeLavigne (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Exporting Raymond" – Phil Rosenthal (Director) – (World Premiere)
"Fair Game" – Doug Liman (Director), Jez & John-Henry Butterworth (Writers) – (Regional Premiere)
"High School" – John Stalberg (Writer/Director...
- 9/21/2010
- GossipCenter
The Austin Film Festival has unveiled the program for its 17th edition, which runs October 21-28.
"Black Swan," "127 Hours," "Peep World," "Meek's Cutoff," "Conviction," "Brother's Justice," "Fair Game," and many more, including 23 U.S. and world premieres and a handful of locally-made projects, will screen at the fest. The opening, centerpiece and closing night films have not yet been announced.
Festival line-up is below:
Marquee Screenings
"127 Hours" – Danny Boyle (Writer/Director), Simon Beaufoy (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Black Swan" – Darren Aronofsky (Director), Andres Heinz (Writer), John McLaughlin (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Peep World" – Barry W. Blaustein (Director), Peter Himmelstein (Writer) – (U.S. Premiere)
"Bloodworth" – Shane Dax Taylor (Director), W. Earl Brown (Writer) – (World Premiere)
"Blue Valentine" – Derek Cianfrance (Writer/Director), Joey Curtis (Writer), Camille DeLavigne (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Exporting Raymond" – Phil Rosenthal (Director) – (World Premiere)
"Fair Game" – Doug Liman (Director), Jez & John-Henry Butterworth (Writers) – (Regional Premiere)
"High School" – John Stalberg (Writer/Director...
"Black Swan," "127 Hours," "Peep World," "Meek's Cutoff," "Conviction," "Brother's Justice," "Fair Game," and many more, including 23 U.S. and world premieres and a handful of locally-made projects, will screen at the fest. The opening, centerpiece and closing night films have not yet been announced.
Festival line-up is below:
Marquee Screenings
"127 Hours" – Danny Boyle (Writer/Director), Simon Beaufoy (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Black Swan" – Darren Aronofsky (Director), Andres Heinz (Writer), John McLaughlin (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Peep World" – Barry W. Blaustein (Director), Peter Himmelstein (Writer) – (U.S. Premiere)
"Bloodworth" – Shane Dax Taylor (Director), W. Earl Brown (Writer) – (World Premiere)
"Blue Valentine" – Derek Cianfrance (Writer/Director), Joey Curtis (Writer), Camille DeLavigne (Writer) – (Regional Premiere)
"Exporting Raymond" – Phil Rosenthal (Director) – (World Premiere)
"Fair Game" – Doug Liman (Director), Jez & John-Henry Butterworth (Writers) – (Regional Premiere)
"High School" – John Stalberg (Writer/Director...
- 9/21/2010
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival is currently underway, and I completely forgot to look over the list of films scheduled to screen for any relevant to this blog.
Thankfully, an email from a representative of one of the films in the festival, reminded me to do just that. So, I’ll start with that film, titled, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan – which Danny Glover helped realize by producing it.
The story goes: “Private McKinley Nolan vanished forty years ago in Vietnam on the Cambodian frontier. Some say he was captured, some say he was a traitor, some even say he was an American operative. The U.S. Army officially claims he was radicalized and “went native,” joined the Viet Cong and was later murdered by the Khmer Rouge. In 2006, retired U.S. Army Lt. Dan Smith, revisiting the battlefields of his youth, may have encountered McKinley, alive. So begins a...
Thankfully, an email from a representative of one of the films in the festival, reminded me to do just that. So, I’ll start with that film, titled, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan – which Danny Glover helped realize by producing it.
The story goes: “Private McKinley Nolan vanished forty years ago in Vietnam on the Cambodian frontier. Some say he was captured, some say he was a traitor, some even say he was an American operative. The U.S. Army officially claims he was radicalized and “went native,” joined the Viet Cong and was later murdered by the Khmer Rouge. In 2006, retired U.S. Army Lt. Dan Smith, revisiting the battlefields of his youth, may have encountered McKinley, alive. So begins a...
- 6/27/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
1. Christie Brinkley. 2. Paul Sevigny at the Beatrice Inn when the nightclub was still open. 3. Diddy. From PatrickMcMullan.com. Vf Daily’s picks for the top three parties around the globe last weekend. Garden Party What: A screening of H.B.O.’s dramatized version of the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, and a celebratory dinner. Where: Grey Gardens and Goose Creek, the Hamptons, New York. Who: Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn (current owners of the Grey Gardens property), newly minted memoirist Quinn Bradlee, Frances Hayward (who lives at the mansion during the off season), Lorraine Bracco and daughter Stella Keitel, Michael Suscy (the writer and director of the movie), Christie Brinkley, Bob Balaban with daughter Hazel, Martha Stewart, Euan Rellie and Lucy Sykes Rellie, Dick Cavett, Jay McInerney (who is busy promoting his new book), Anne Hearst McInerney, Richard Meier, Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, Peggy Siegal, Henry Corra, and Celia Maysles (whose...
- 4/13/2009
- Vanity Fair
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