The Skip City International D-Cinema Festival 2024 will celebrate its 21st edition from July 13th (Sat) to 21st (Sun), 2024 for 9 days at Skip City, which is an integrated institution for digital cinema production.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
- 2/2/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Point Road Productions, led by filmmaker Billy Raftery and NBA legend Grant Hill, unveiled a new slate of projects, including an animated series, a video game and a sports documentary.
Point Road Productions is a full-service production company that also provides gap financing and development funds, and is incubating a slate of high-profile, socially conscious and character-driven documentaries and scripted projects set to launch in Q4 2023 and 2024.
As part of its newest slate, Point Road has optioned Andrew Archer’s Edo Ball, a graphic novel that’s a collection of artwork that integrates modern basketball visuals with traditional Japanese art and aesthetics from the Edo era. They are adapting the IP into an animated series and video game. Talent will be announced in the coming weeks.
Additionally, Point Road is releasing a sports documentary, Nothing But Net, featuring NBA superstar Kevin Garnett and sports television personality Jay Bilas in a meta-cinematic approach,...
Point Road Productions is a full-service production company that also provides gap financing and development funds, and is incubating a slate of high-profile, socially conscious and character-driven documentaries and scripted projects set to launch in Q4 2023 and 2024.
As part of its newest slate, Point Road has optioned Andrew Archer’s Edo Ball, a graphic novel that’s a collection of artwork that integrates modern basketball visuals with traditional Japanese art and aesthetics from the Edo era. They are adapting the IP into an animated series and video game. Talent will be announced in the coming weeks.
Additionally, Point Road is releasing a sports documentary, Nothing But Net, featuring NBA superstar Kevin Garnett and sports television personality Jay Bilas in a meta-cinematic approach,...
- 6/22/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
When in the throes of a mental health crisis, whether anxiety or depression, it can be very easy to want to simply push the world away, to shut down the walls and to never let anyone in again. Josh Leong has candidly reached deep into his own struggles with anxiety to create a touching exploration of how it can impact those you love the most. Overlaying purposefully disparate audio and visual cues, keeping the camerawork fluid and even integrating touching dance movements, this tightly choreographed yet emotionally generous piece looks at both the caregiver and the victim in such a situation, resulting in a deeply touching exploration of the ties that bind us despite inner chaos. We had a chance to talk to Leong about working in conjunction with Trust, being inspired by the blog of a friend and how creating the unique dance movements in the film represented a form of therapy.
- 6/19/2023
- by Redmond Bacon
- Directors Notes
We are happy to announce that the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival 2023 will celebrate its 20th anniversary edition from July 15th (Sat) to 23th (Sun), 2023 for 9 days at Skip City, which is an integrated institution for digital cinema production
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 25th, 2023 (Wed) – March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
We remain committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now we call for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director’s 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
Our International Competition welcomes you!
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 25th, 2023 (Wed) – March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
We remain committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now we call for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director’s 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
Our International Competition welcomes you!
- 1/25/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Rolling Stone joined forces with IndieWire, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the online-education platform Yellowbrick to launch “Film and TV Industry Essentials” last year. The program began enrolling students earlier this fall, and the curriculum is composed of five easily digestible course modules. Each of the concise lessons lasts between three and five hours, and includes a range of veteran filmmakers, executives, NYU professors, alumni, and other experts discussing topics that matter to people in the field.
The online certificate program offers introductions and insight into multiple,...
The online certificate program offers introductions and insight into multiple,...
- 3/11/2021
- by RS Editors
- Rollingstone.com
Last year, Rolling Stone joined forces with IndieWire, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and online-education platform Yellowbrick to launch “Film and TV Industry Essentials,” an online certificate program that will cover multiple, interlacing careers in the film and television industry. Contributors include filmmakers such as Judd Apatow and Ang Lee as well as a range of craftspeople and executives from across the industry.
Now module 3, which focuses on the production process, is now available. Watch the trailer to survey course offerings below.
The completely online program,...
Now module 3, which focuses on the production process, is now available. Watch the trailer to survey course offerings below.
The completely online program,...
- 1/11/2021
- by RS Editors
- Rollingstone.com
It’s not easy to get to a classroom and study filmmaking these days — but that doesn’t mean that you can’t learn about the craft straight from pros in the entertainment industry. That’s one of the reasons why Rolling Stone joined forces with IndieWire, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the online-education platform Yellowbrick to launch “Film and TV Industry Essentials.”
The online certificate program offers introductions and insight into multiple, interlacing careers in film and television, with a roster of contributors that...
The online certificate program offers introductions and insight into multiple, interlacing careers in film and television, with a roster of contributors that...
- 11/27/2020
- by RS Editors
- Rollingstone.com
IndieWire is joining forces with Rolling Stone, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and online education platform Yellowbrick to launch “Film and TV Industry Essentials,” an online certificate program that will cover multiple, interlacing careers in the film and TV industry. Contributors include filmmakers such as Judd Apatow and Ang Lee as well as a range of craftspeople and executives from across the industry.
To sign up for email updates on the program, go here.
The completely online program, which will admit its first students in September, is comprised of modules covering the creative process, mechanics of crafts, business concepts, and criticism. The curriculum has been designed to help aspiring directors, producers, writers, and executives better understand their own inclinations and career paths. The organizers hope that Yellowbrick’s track record of attracting learners from diverse backgrounds will help draw talent that may not have otherwise found routes into the industry.
To sign up for email updates on the program, go here.
The completely online program, which will admit its first students in September, is comprised of modules covering the creative process, mechanics of crafts, business concepts, and criticism. The curriculum has been designed to help aspiring directors, producers, writers, and executives better understand their own inclinations and career paths. The organizers hope that Yellowbrick’s track record of attracting learners from diverse backgrounds will help draw talent that may not have otherwise found routes into the industry.
- 8/20/2020
- by IndieWire Staff
- Indiewire
10th year of promoting inclusion at the Cannes Film Festival.
Created by Yolonda Brinkley, Diversity in Cannes is an independent movement promoting the presence of marginalized and underrepresented filmmakers as well as celebrating their achievements at the world's most prestigious film festival. The 10th anniversary celebration of Diversity in Cannes included film screenings, panel discussions, awards receptions and official after party as well as the world premiere of the organization’s first short film. Diversity in Cannes was held during the second week of the Cannes Film Festival, May 19-23, 2019.
Since its inception in 2010, Diversity in Cannes has emerged from a simple filmmaker symposium to a comprehensive program including a short film showcase, a U.S. based Pre-Cannes Film Festival information session sponsored by the WGA West’s Equity and Inclusion department, and the Black Lives Black Stories Matter Short Film Tour. In 2012, Ms. Brinkley and Diversity in Cannes were...
Created by Yolonda Brinkley, Diversity in Cannes is an independent movement promoting the presence of marginalized and underrepresented filmmakers as well as celebrating their achievements at the world's most prestigious film festival. The 10th anniversary celebration of Diversity in Cannes included film screenings, panel discussions, awards receptions and official after party as well as the world premiere of the organization’s first short film. Diversity in Cannes was held during the second week of the Cannes Film Festival, May 19-23, 2019.
Since its inception in 2010, Diversity in Cannes has emerged from a simple filmmaker symposium to a comprehensive program including a short film showcase, a U.S. based Pre-Cannes Film Festival information session sponsored by the WGA West’s Equity and Inclusion department, and the Black Lives Black Stories Matter Short Film Tour. In 2012, Ms. Brinkley and Diversity in Cannes were...
- 6/3/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Ava DuVernay‘s African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (Affrm) has launched its second annual membership drive, in an effort to assist black, brown and female filmmakers. “It’s important that we support filmmakers who are being excluded from the traditional ways of distributing their films,” DuVernay told TheWrap Monday. Since 2011, Affrm’s Array Releasing has distributed eight independent features including DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere,” which won the 2012 Sundance directing award and Alrick Brown’s “Kinyarwanda,” winner of the 2011 Sundance Audience Award. Also Read: Oprah Winfrey, 'Selma' Director Ava DuVernay Partner on Own Drama Series “I financed Affrm...
- 5/5/2015
- by Anita Bennett
- The Wrap
Beginning this April through the end of the year, Webby Award nominee and Indiewire parent company SnagFilms will roll premiere a new film for free each week. SnagFilms viewers will have the chance to watch 40 acclaimed indies and documentaries for the very first time exclusively on the website -- and at no cost! The monthly premieres, which you can stream online and through mobile devices and set-tops, will complement holidays as well as current and special events. The first of April's premieres is Alrick Brown's powerful Sundance Audience Award winner "Kinyarwanda" (available now), commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Also available now, in the spirit of Tribeca and Coachella, is "Let Fury Have the Hour," a portrait of 2012 counter-culture.Additional films making their April and May debuts include the following (select trailers below): "Rabbit Fever" (4/21) -- You've heard of dog and horse shows, but are you familiar with rabbit.
- 4/21/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Alrick Brown (director of the award-winning Kinyarwanda, released by Affrm last fall) is set to direct an adaptation of J.M. Benjamin's 2007 novel My Manz and ‘Em. The novel centers on... ... a Plainfield man sucked into a life of crime before undergoing a life-changing epiphany during and after a prison sentence. Plainfield as in Plainfield, New Jersey. As for what we can expect, especially for those who aren't familiar with the book, Benjamin, who previously did time in prison for drug trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and more, before becoming an author, states “This is the (prototypical) urban fiction, street lit book... But this isn’t...
- 10/10/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
‘Finding Hillywood’: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present documentary about Rwanda’s budding film industry The 2013 documentary Finding Hillywood, which offers a glimpse into the budding film industry in Rwanda, will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Bpeace, the Business Council for Peace, at a special screening on Monday, October 21, at 7 p.m. at the Academy Theater in New York City. The Finding Hillywood screening will be followed by an onstage discussion with Leah Warshawski, who directed and produced the documentary with Christopher Towey, and production designer Wynn Thomas (Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, Spike Lee’s Inside Man), who was a member of the Academy’s International Outreach delegation to Rwanda and Kenya in 2011. According to the Academy’s website, Wynn Thomas and several other Academy delegates, among them actress Alfre Woodard (Cross Creek), writer-director Phil Robinson (Field of Dreams...
- 10/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Congrats to both Mr. Jerry Lamothe and Mr Alrick Brown on their recognition. The nearly 50,000 professional artists who call New Jersey home form the very heart of the cultural community of this state. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when one considers the thousands more for whom artistic creation, performance and interpretation are a vocational, cultural, religious or recreational interest of the highest personal and community priority. Artists are the creative capital of our communities and this is why it is the Arts Council's goal to promote them, encourage them, assist them to achieve their highest ambitions and help a wider public understand and appreciate all that...
- 2/22/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Speaking at a panel moderated by Filmmaker Magazine's Scott Macaulay at the New York Television Festival's Development Day this past weekend, Jack Lechner, the executive producer of indies like "Blue Valentine" and "Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story" as well as the Sundance Channel series "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys," compared working in film and TV to dating. If he were the lead in a romantic comedy, he explained, film would be the beautiful woman who flirts but then never returns his calls, and TV would be the girl who's always available and willing to make time to go on dates with him. "I feel like it's 'Some Kind of Wonderful,'" he said. "Oh, television, I've been taking you for granted!" Like his fellow panelist Alrick Brown (director of "Kinyarwanda"), Lechner wasn't ready to or suggesting everyone give up on film entirely,...
- 10/30/2012
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
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
As we put the finishing touches on our “25 New Faces” list — which comes out this week — I’ll note the latest project of one of last year’s selections, director Alrick Brown. Last fall he had his Sundance hit Kinyarwanda arrive in theaters, and now he’s directed an episode of a new ABC series, Final Witness, that airs tomorrow night, July 18 at 10Pm Est on ABC.
The Wall Street Journal covered this show this past weekend, describing the style as “Sundance-era poetic indie film”:
Over seven Wednesdays each stand-alone true crime story dramatized and documented on “Final Witness,” braids a deceased victim’s fictionalized first-person voice-over with ambitiously staged re-enactments and interviews with actual friends, relatives and law enforcement. The result is a unique docudrama hybrid anchored in both the truth of fact and the emotional truth of fiction. “I’ve done a lot of work in true...
The Wall Street Journal covered this show this past weekend, describing the style as “Sundance-era poetic indie film”:
Over seven Wednesdays each stand-alone true crime story dramatized and documented on “Final Witness,” braids a deceased victim’s fictionalized first-person voice-over with ambitiously staged re-enactments and interviews with actual friends, relatives and law enforcement. The result is a unique docudrama hybrid anchored in both the truth of fact and the emotional truth of fiction. “I’ve done a lot of work in true...
- 7/17/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Last night I moderated an Ifp panel at Dctv, co-sponsored by the New York Television Festival, on transitioning from film to TV. It consisted of two TV execs — Colleen Conway (VP of Reality and Alternative Programming, Lifetime Networks) and Erin Keating (Director of Development & Production, IFC TV) — and one filmmaker, Alrick Brown. Filmmaker readers will be familiar with Brown as he was one of our 2011 25 New Faces and won an Audience Award at Sundance for his debut feature, Kinyarwanda. Brown recently broke into television by directing an episode of the upcoming ABC documentary crime series, Final Witness. All three were great panelists, with Conway and Keating sincere in their interest in material from new filmmakers but honest regarding the process by which that material filters to them. Namely, it helps to know someone, with that someone being an agent, lawyer or manager who can submit the project on your behalf,...
- 6/6/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Alrick Brown (director of the award-winning Kinyarwanda, released by Affrm last fall) is set to direct an adaptation of J.M. Benjamin's 2007 novel My Manz and ‘Em, with Jamie Hector (The Wire and other projects) set to star. The novel centers on... ... a Plainfield man sucked into a life of crime before undergoing a life-changing epiphany during and after a prison sentence. Plainfield as in Plainfield, New Jersey. As for what we can expect, especially for those who aren't familiar with the book, Benjamin, who previously did time in prison for drug trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and more before becoming an...
- 6/4/2012
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
I don't need to remind you that Single Ladies star LisaRaye McCoy doesn't give a "f**k" whether or not you like the show, as she told Huffington Post earlier this week; all she knows if that a healthy 3+ million people watched it last season which was enough for VH1 to renew it for a second season, which begins just 4 days from now - May 28th. Earlier this year, it was announced that Cassandra Freeman (most recently seen on S&A in Alrick Brown's Kinyarwanda) had joined the cast of the Queen Latifah-produced hour-long VH1 dramedy series which revolves around the romantic lives of three...
- 5/24/2012
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
Something nice happened to us while we were preparing the schedule for Ebertfest 2012, which plays April 25-29 at the Virginia Theater (above) in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. We'd invited Patton Oswalt to attend with his "Big Fan. He agreed and went one additional step: "I'd like to personally choose a film to show to the students, and discuss it." That sounded to me like a splendid idea, embodying the spirit of this festival, which combines the love of good films with volunteerism. This is a rare festival where no business takes place. No films are bought or sold. No deals are signed. It's simplicity itself: We join in a classic 1920 palace, 1,600 of us, and watch a film as it should be seen, on a vast screen with perfect sound. Then we talk about them afterwards. The festival and the theater come to us through the work of countless volunteers from the University and the community of Champaign-Urbana.
- 3/27/2012
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Chicago – As a graduate of the University of Illinois, I can tell you there is one time of the year that is very close to my heart, and many others in the Champaign-Urbana community. That is the last weekend of April every year which brings us Roger Ebert’s Film Festival (aka Ebertfest). And tonight, the lineup for the 14th Annual Ebertfest was announced and includes some very exciting guests.
Returning to the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Il, Ebertfest 2012 will feature 14 different films with special guests and panel discussions after each screening. The past few years have featured Ang Lee, Charlie Kaufman, Bill Nighy, Tim Blake Nelson, Tilda Swinton, and many more, and this year features some exciting guests as well, including Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, and Jacob Wysocki.
Oswalt will be appearing at the festival for his film “Big Fan,” and he will also be on hand to introduce...
Returning to the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Il, Ebertfest 2012 will feature 14 different films with special guests and panel discussions after each screening. The past few years have featured Ang Lee, Charlie Kaufman, Bill Nighy, Tim Blake Nelson, Tilda Swinton, and many more, and this year features some exciting guests as well, including Patton Oswalt, Michael Shannon, and Jacob Wysocki.
Oswalt will be appearing at the festival for his film “Big Fan,” and he will also be on hand to introduce...
- 3/21/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
(The Forgiveness of Blood is being distributed by Sundance Selects and comes to theaters on February 24, 2012. It world premiered at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. Note: This review was first posted at Hammer to Nail in conjunction with its screening at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.)
The future of American independent filmmaking may not lie in America at all. In recent years, a number of filmmakers have turned their eyes away from the complexities of 21st century American life and toward the world beyond our national borders. The decision to engage another culture through filmmaking, to do the work to create a compelling and accurate (if fictional) representation of the lives of others, has come at a time when American culture seems to have deepened its inward gaze; with every push by artists seeking to give voice to the complexity of, say, Arab or Persian life (vital stories in the...
The future of American independent filmmaking may not lie in America at all. In recent years, a number of filmmakers have turned their eyes away from the complexities of 21st century American life and toward the world beyond our national borders. The decision to engage another culture through filmmaking, to do the work to create a compelling and accurate (if fictional) representation of the lives of others, has come at a time when American culture seems to have deepened its inward gaze; with every push by artists seeking to give voice to the complexity of, say, Arab or Persian life (vital stories in the...
- 2/21/2012
- by Tom Hall
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
As expected, Tate Taylor's "The Help" won big at the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards. The film won Outstanding Picture of the Year with Viola Davis winning Outstanding Actress and Octavia Spencer taking home the Outstanding Supporting Actress award. Taylor lost to "Jumping the Broom's" Salim Akil for Best Director because apparently, it's a better picture than "The Help!"
Here's the complete list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards (To visit other award-giving bodies, check out our Awards Avenue coverage right here)
Motion Picture
Outstanding Motion Picture
.Jumping the Broom. (TriStar Pictures)
.Pariah. (Focus Features)
.The First Grader. (National Geographic
Entertainment)
*** .The Help. (DreamWorks Pictures/
Participant Media/Touchstone Pictures)
.Tower Heist. (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Eddie Murphy . .Tower Heist.
(Universal Pictures)
Laurence Fishburne . .Contagion.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
*** Laz Alonso . .Jumping the Broom.
(TriStar Pictures)
Oliver Litondo . .The First...
Here's the complete list of winners (highlighted) and nominees of the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards (To visit other award-giving bodies, check out our Awards Avenue coverage right here)
Motion Picture
Outstanding Motion Picture
.Jumping the Broom. (TriStar Pictures)
.Pariah. (Focus Features)
.The First Grader. (National Geographic
Entertainment)
*** .The Help. (DreamWorks Pictures/
Participant Media/Touchstone Pictures)
.Tower Heist. (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Eddie Murphy . .Tower Heist.
(Universal Pictures)
Laurence Fishburne . .Contagion.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
*** Laz Alonso . .Jumping the Broom.
(TriStar Pictures)
Oliver Litondo . .The First...
- 2/19/2012
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
"The Help" continued its hot streak during awards season by being the big winner at the 2012 NAACP Image Awards. The DreamWorks movie took home acting trophies for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, plus Outstanding Motion Picture.
The complete list of winners:
Motion Picture Categories
Outstanding Motion Picture
"Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
"Pariah" (Focus Features)
"The First Grader" (National Geographic Entertainment)
"The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
"Tower Heist" (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Eddie Murphy - "Tower Heist" (Universal Pictures)
Laurence Fishburne - "Contagion" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Laz Alonso - "Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
Oliver Litondo - "The First Grader" (National Geographic Entertainment)
Vin Diesel - "Fast Five" (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Adepero Oduye - "Pariah" (Focus Features)
Emma Stone - "The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
Paula Patton - "Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
Viola Davis - "The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
Zoë Saldana -...
The complete list of winners:
Motion Picture Categories
Outstanding Motion Picture
"Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
"Pariah" (Focus Features)
"The First Grader" (National Geographic Entertainment)
"The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
"Tower Heist" (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Eddie Murphy - "Tower Heist" (Universal Pictures)
Laurence Fishburne - "Contagion" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Laz Alonso - "Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
Oliver Litondo - "The First Grader" (National Geographic Entertainment)
Vin Diesel - "Fast Five" (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Adepero Oduye - "Pariah" (Focus Features)
Emma Stone - "The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
Paula Patton - "Jumping the Broom" (TriStar Pictures)
Viola Davis - "The Help" (DreamWorks Pictures)
Zoë Saldana -...
- 2/18/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
SnagFilms has acquired digital rights to "Kinyarwanda," winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film is nominated for three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Independent Motion Picture, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for a Motion Picture. "Kinyarwanda" will make its digital debut via SnagFilms’ transactional partners, including Comcast Xfinity, FiOS, Directv, iTunes, Amazon and Vudu. Directed and written by Alrick Brown, produced by Darren Dean and Tommy Oliver, and co-produced by Deatra Harris and Joshua Rodd, "Kinyarwanda" is based on true accounts of the Rwandan genocide, interweaving six perspectives to tell the complex story of human resilience and life during the genocide. The story was written by executive producer Ishmael Ntihabose. Roger Ebert selected the film as no. 6 in his Top 20 Films of 2011. The film opened in theaters via...
- 2/1/2012
- Indiewire
SnagFilms has acquired exclusive digital rights to Kinyarwanda, which won the world cinema dramatic audience award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it had its premiere. The film will debut via SnagFilms partners such as Comcast Xfinity, FiOS, Directv, iTunes, Amazon and Vudu. Photos: The Scene at Sundance Film Festival 2012 Alrick Brown wrote and directed the fact-based film, which follows six different storylines of people struggling through the Rwandan genocide. Darren Dean and Tommy Oliver produced; Ishmael Ntihabose is an executive producer. “SnagFilms is pleased to bring Kinyarwanda to digital audiences in the comfort of their homes,” said SnagFilms COO Stephanie
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- 1/30/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking have announced the five nominees for their second annual Heterodox Award, which honors a narrative film that "imaginatively incorporates nonfiction strategies, content and/or modes of production." Last year's winner was Matt Porterfield for "Putty Hill." This year's winner will be chosen by a jury of documentary filmmakers: Natalia Almada ("El Velador"), Sandi DuBowski ("Trembling Before G-d"), Shannon Kennedy (editor, "A Walk Into the Sea"), Alrick Brown ("Kinyarwanda") and Kimberly Reed ("Prodigal Sons"). The winner will be announced at the Cinema Eye ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image on January 11. The nominees follow. Descriptions provided by Cinema Eye Honors. "Beginners." Drawing from autobiographical elements, including his relationship to his dying father, Mike Mills has made a sensitive, insightful, and whimsically...
- 1/3/2012
- Indiewire
Nearly a full year since its premiere at Sundance, "Dee Rees's funny, moving, nuanced, and impeccably acted first feature" opens in New York and Los Angeles today before rolling out to more cities next month. See the site for cities and dates. That endorsement in quotes, by the way, comes from Melissa Anderson in the Voice: "Like the best films about adolescence, from Truffaut's Antoine Doinel movies to So Yong Kim's In Between Days, Pariah — about one lower-middle-class, African-American, lesbian teen — is a profoundly specific film centering on universal themes: discovering who and what you are drawn to, fighting for autonomy against arbitrary parental rules, or, in this case, tyranny."
David Fear in Time Out New York: "Establishing character, conflict and environment with astounding economy in the film's first ten minutes, Rees demonstrates the sort of filmmaking chops and personal storytelling (the director claims she drew on her...
David Fear in Time Out New York: "Establishing character, conflict and environment with astounding economy in the film's first ten minutes, Rees demonstrates the sort of filmmaking chops and personal storytelling (the director claims she drew on her...
- 12/29/2011
- MUBI
Making lists is not my favorite occupation. They inevitably inspire only reader complaints. Not once have I ever heard from a reader that my list was just fine, and they liked it. Yet an annual Best Ten list is apparently a statutory obligation for movie critics.
My best guess is that between six and ten of these movies won't be familiar. Those are the most useful titles for you, instead of an ordering of movies you already know all about.
One recent year I committed the outrage of listing 20 movies in alphabetical order. What an uproar! Here are my top 20 films, in order of approximate preference.
1. "A Separation"
This Iranian film won't open in Chicago until Jan. 27. It won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was just named the year's best foreign film by the New York Film Critics Circle. It is specifically Iranian, but I believe the more specific...
My best guess is that between six and ten of these movies won't be familiar. Those are the most useful titles for you, instead of an ordering of movies you already know all about.
One recent year I committed the outrage of listing 20 movies in alphabetical order. What an uproar! Here are my top 20 films, in order of approximate preference.
1. "A Separation"
This Iranian film won't open in Chicago until Jan. 27. It won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was just named the year's best foreign film by the New York Film Critics Circle. It is specifically Iranian, but I believe the more specific...
- 12/25/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Terrence Malick's non-linear existential meditation on family, "The Tree of Life," earned another accolade yesterday as the African-American Film Critics Association named it their selection for Best Picture of 2011.
In other major categories, "The Help" and the independent film "Pariah" led the way with two wins each, with "The Help"'s Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. "Pariah" took home the award for Best Independent Film, while star Adepero Oduye won for breakout Performance.
Meanwhile, Albert Brooks continued to build Oscar momentum, winning the award for Best Supporting Actor for his villainous turn in "Drive." Woody Harrelson took top honors in the Best Actor category for an even more villainous performance as a corrupt L.A. cop in "Rampart," while Malick was surprisingly stoned in the Best Director category; despite the singular vision of "Tree of Life," the Aafca bestowed the award...
In other major categories, "The Help" and the independent film "Pariah" led the way with two wins each, with "The Help"'s Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. "Pariah" took home the award for Best Independent Film, while star Adepero Oduye won for breakout Performance.
Meanwhile, Albert Brooks continued to build Oscar momentum, winning the award for Best Supporting Actor for his villainous turn in "Drive." Woody Harrelson took top honors in the Best Actor category for an even more villainous performance as a corrupt L.A. cop in "Rampart," while Malick was surprisingly stoned in the Best Director category; despite the singular vision of "Tree of Life," the Aafca bestowed the award...
- 12/13/2011
- by Scott Harris
- NextMovie
Brad Pitt, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, The Tree of Life
Best Picture: The Tree of Life
Top Ten Movies: Drive, Pariah, Rampart, Shame, Moneyball, The Descendants, A Better Life, My Week with Marilyn, The Help
Best Foreign Film: Alrick Brown, Kinyarwanda
Best Director: Steve McQueen, Shame
Best Actor: Woody Harrelson, Rampart
Best Actress: Viola Davis, The Help
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, Drive
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Breakout Performance: Adepero Oduye, Pariah
Best Documentary: The Black Power Mixtape
Best Screenplay: Ava DuVernay, I Will Follow
Best Song: Jason Reeves & Lenka Kripac, “The Show” from Moneyball
Best Independent Film: Pariah
Cinema Vanguard Award: George Lucas
Aafca Legacy Award: Richard Roundtree
Aafca Horizon: Hattie Winston
Institution Award: Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Tree of Life picture: Merie Wallace / 20th Century Fox...
Best Picture: The Tree of Life
Top Ten Movies: Drive, Pariah, Rampart, Shame, Moneyball, The Descendants, A Better Life, My Week with Marilyn, The Help
Best Foreign Film: Alrick Brown, Kinyarwanda
Best Director: Steve McQueen, Shame
Best Actor: Woody Harrelson, Rampart
Best Actress: Viola Davis, The Help
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, Drive
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Breakout Performance: Adepero Oduye, Pariah
Best Documentary: The Black Power Mixtape
Best Screenplay: Ava DuVernay, I Will Follow
Best Song: Jason Reeves & Lenka Kripac, “The Show” from Moneyball
Best Independent Film: Pariah
Cinema Vanguard Award: George Lucas
Aafca Legacy Award: Richard Roundtree
Aafca Horizon: Hattie Winston
Institution Award: Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Tree of Life picture: Merie Wallace / 20th Century Fox...
- 12/13/2011
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
25 New Face filmmaker Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda, a project of the Ifp Narrative Lab, opens today via the Affrm and Visigoth Pictures, and I urge you all to see it. Brown has made an extraordinary and ambitious independent film that tackles one of the gravest subjects of the 20th century: the Rwandan genocide. He does so with an intimate, character-based approach, evoking details that add up to full, human picture of the conflict. Writes Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars
I thought I knew something about Rwanda, but I didn’t really know very much. I was moved by Hotel Rwanda (2004), but not really shaken this deeply. Not like this. After seeing Kinyarwanda, I have a different kind of feeling about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The film approaches it not as a story line but as a series of intense personal moments.
Winner of...
I thought I knew something about Rwanda, but I didn’t really know very much. I was moved by Hotel Rwanda (2004), but not really shaken this deeply. Not like this. After seeing Kinyarwanda, I have a different kind of feeling about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. The film approaches it not as a story line but as a series of intense personal moments.
Winner of...
- 12/2/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Kinyarwanda (also sometimes known as Rwanda, Ruanda or Rwandan), is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language spoken by some 12 million people.
Kinyarwanda combines six different stories together for one narrative that takes place during the genocide in Rwanda.
All that I knew about it was that it was directed by a first time director and it took place in Rwanda during the genocide. Socially conscious films
Alrick Brown (in blue) on the set of 'Kinyarwanda'
traditionally leave me in a pool of my own tears on the floor or so upset that I want to storm Washington and demand answers. I wondered where I would be at the end of this film. Pleasantly surprised is not where I expected. Hitting each note perfectly and allowing us moments of levity with tragedy – Alrick Brown has orchestrated a beautiful film to introduce himself to the indie feature world. I spoke...
Kinyarwanda combines six different stories together for one narrative that takes place during the genocide in Rwanda.
All that I knew about it was that it was directed by a first time director and it took place in Rwanda during the genocide. Socially conscious films
Alrick Brown (in blue) on the set of 'Kinyarwanda'
traditionally leave me in a pool of my own tears on the floor or so upset that I want to storm Washington and demand answers. I wondered where I would be at the end of this film. Pleasantly surprised is not where I expected. Hitting each note perfectly and allowing us moments of levity with tragedy – Alrick Brown has orchestrated a beautiful film to introduce himself to the indie feature world. I spoke...
- 12/1/2011
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent
Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead AFI Fest 2011, currently being held in Los Angeles, has announced the winners of its audience and jury awards. The Breakthrough section Audience Award winner was Alexandra-Therese Keining's Swedish romantic drama With Every Heartbeat, starring Ruth Vega Fernandez and Liv Mjönes as two women who meet and fall in love at a family wedding. Michaël R. Roskam's Belgian [not Dutch, as previously stated in this post] crime drama Bullhead, that country's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar entry, was the winner in the New Auteurs section. The film's star, Matthias Schoenaerts, was given the Acting Award for his portrayal of a Limburg cattle farmer enmeshed in shady activities. In the Young Americans section, the winner was Clay Liford's comedy Wuss, the story of a high-school teacher whose life takes a turn for the worse after he gets beaten up by his own pupils. David Gelb's Philip Glass-scored documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about sushi master Jiro Ono,...
- 11/11/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
AFI Fest 2011 presented by Audi announced today the features and short films that are the recipients of this year.s Audience and Jury Awards. The films will screen today in an encore run at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA.
.It has been an exciting year for world cinema and emerging international filmmakers,. said Jacqueline Lyanga, Director of AFI Fest presented by Audi. .We’ve had incredibly enthusiastic audiences for all of the screenings at AFI Fest. It’s wonderful to discover the films that especially resonate with audiences and put a spotlight on filmmakers as part of awards season critical acclaim.. .It has been eight fantastic days of screenings here in Los Angeles with over 150 filmmakers from around the world attending to present their works,. said Lane Kneedler, Associate Director of Programming for AFI Fest presented by Audi. .What a wonderful way to end AFI Fest.s 25th Edition...
.It has been an exciting year for world cinema and emerging international filmmakers,. said Jacqueline Lyanga, Director of AFI Fest presented by Audi. .We’ve had incredibly enthusiastic audiences for all of the screenings at AFI Fest. It’s wonderful to discover the films that especially resonate with audiences and put a spotlight on filmmakers as part of awards season critical acclaim.. .It has been eight fantastic days of screenings here in Los Angeles with over 150 filmmakers from around the world attending to present their works,. said Lane Kneedler, Associate Director of Programming for AFI Fest presented by Audi. .What a wonderful way to end AFI Fest.s 25th Edition...
- 11/10/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ruth Vega Fernandez, Liv Mjönes, With Every Heartbeat Rwanda Genocide, Sushi Chef, Matthias Schoenaerts: AFI Fest 2011 Awards Audience Awards Breakthrough Section (award accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize) With Every Heartbeat by Alexandra-Therese Keining New Auteurs Section Bullhead by Michaël R. Roskam World Cinema Section A tie: Jiro Dreams Of Sushi by David Gelb and Kinyarwanda by Alrick Brown Young Americans Section Wuss by Clay Liford Live Action And Animated Short Film Section Jury Awards As in previous years, a jury determines the AFI Fest 2011 Live Action and Animated Short Film Section Awards. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognizes each winner as a qualifier for the annual Academy Awards. The Short Film Jury — comprised of filmmakers Barry Jenkins and Gerardo Naranjo (AFI Conservatory Class of 2001) and festival programmer Kim Yutani — announced the awards with their statements. Live Action Short Film Section Grand Jury Prize: Frozen Stories from...
- 11/10/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As this year’s AFI Fest presented by Audi winds to a close with this evening’s Closing Night Gala of The Adventures of Tintin, it’s time to start celebrating the films and talents that made this year’s festival such a massive success. The festival announced their full listing of award winners and prize recipients at their annual awards brunch, held this morning. There are a number of winners here that have already racked up some wins and notice throughout the festival season, including Michael R. Roskam‘s Bullhead, Athina Rachel Tsangari‘s Attenberg, and Clay Liford‘s Wuss, but the festival also paid special notice to Bullhead star Matthias Schoenaerts, along with their selections of shorts. The festival ends this evening with that very special Tintin screening, which both Ms. Loring and I will be attending, with animated bells on. Look for Allison’s review of the film tomorrow, one...
- 11/10/2011
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
AFI Fest 2011 wraps up tonight with the closing gala premiere of The Adventures of Tintin. Awards were handed out this morning to a crowded Roosevelt Ballroom which attendees were informed hosted the very first Academy Awards ceremony. There was only a bit less fanfare (and no Muppets) for this morning's ceremony where the following films were recognized: Young Americans section - Audience Award Wuss - Director: Clay Liford Breakthrough section - Audience Award With Every Heartbeat - Director: Alexandra-Therese Keining World Cinema section - Audience Award Kinyarwanda - Director: Alrick Brown (Tie) Jiro Dreams Of Sushi - Director: David Gelb New Auteurs section - Audience Award Bullhead - Director: Michael Roskam New Auteurs section - Critics Special Acting Prize Matthias Schoenaerts - Bullhead New...
- 11/10/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Yesterday we brought you a look at 10 films from the Galas & Specials programs ahead of Thursday's kick off of Hollywood's AFI Fest 2011. Today we've got a preview of a few highlights from the extensive World Cinema program. Don't forget to check out our interview with programming brass Jacqueline Lyanga & Lane Kneedler and stay tuned for plenty more from AFI Fest soon. Carre Blanc One of the big hits from this year's Fantastic Fest, Jean-Baptiste Léonetti's French dystopian science fiction tale is weird, poetic and wonderful. Bring along your best croquet gear. Trailer | Clips & Clips | Trailer Kinyarwanda Alrick Brown's film set during the Rwandan genocide has found fans everywhere it has played - not to mention winning the...
- 11/2/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Up until last year, film festivals had always been a bit of a mystery to me. I had gone to a few conventions before and been shown advanced screenings of films, but to actually go to an event where all you did was watch films seemed a bit beyond my reach. Didn’t help either that I had never really lived in areas with affordable or frequent festivals. That is, up until last year when I was introduced to AFI Fest. They hooked me in with free tickets and the promise of engaging cinema from around the world. To say I had fun is a bit of an understatement. As the credits to the last film rolled, I decided that I would come back next year in a more professional manner and write about it.
Which brings us to now. AFI Fest 2011 Presented by Audi is a little over a...
Which brings us to now. AFI Fest 2011 Presented by Audi is a little over a...
- 10/24/2011
- by Jonathan Hardesty
- Flickchart
Jean-Marc Vallée's Café du Flore Chantal Akerman, Joseph Cedar, Béla Tarr, Nuri Bilge Ceylan: AFI Fest 2011 World Cinema Selections Arirang: Traumatized by a near-fatal accident during filming, director Kim Ki-duk offers a visionary self-portrait of a troubled artist reeling from an emotional breakdown. Dir Kim Ki-duk. South Korea. U.S. Premiere. CAFÉ Du Flore: In his follow-up to C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean Marc Vallée tells two parallel stories connected by music about a Montreal D.J. and a mother devoted to her special-needs son. Dir/Scr Jean-Marc Vallée. Cast Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent, Evelyne Brochu, Marin Gerrier. Canada. U.S. Premiere. Extraterrestrial: Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo’s surprising second feature finds an alien invasion providing the backdrop for one of the most delightful romantic comedies in years. Dir/Scr Nacho Vigalondo. Cast Julian Villagran, Michelle Jenner, Raul Cimas, Carlos Areces, Miguel Noguera. Spain. Faust: Russian Ark director...
- 10/23/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
If you’ve taken a ride in the back of a New York City taxi cab these last two weeks, you may have heard the stories of seven of New York’s most distinctive independent filmmakers of the moment. In partnership with Royal Bank of Canada and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, the Ifp has produced six spots that are playing not only in cabs but on NYC Life. Jamie Stuart directed, T. Griffin scored and I produced these pieces, and each one, in addition to profiling a person, highlights a different aspect of the independent filmmaker’s current creative, production or marketing brief. All the filmmakers were veterans of the Ifp Labs and also selected for Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces.
Today I’m posting Alrick Brown, whose Kinyarwanda won the Audience Award in Sundance’s World Cinema Competition this year and is forthcoming in theaters this fall from the Affrm.
Today I’m posting Alrick Brown, whose Kinyarwanda won the Audience Award in Sundance’s World Cinema Competition this year and is forthcoming in theaters this fall from the Affrm.
- 10/9/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
As one of roughly a dozen full time staffers at Ifp, I’ve been working the past six months to help launch the 33rd annual Independent Film Week. It’s our first year at Lincoln Center’s new Elinor Bunin Film Center, and more than a thousand indie filmmakers and industry professionals are in town for the festivities.
In commemoration, I’ve dug up my long neglected digital camera, and I’ll be sharing photo highlights from Ifw all week long. Here are some snapshots from Day 1:
The team behind the upcoming Detroit Unleaded (editor Nathanial Sherfield, director Rola Nashef, producers Marwan Nashef and Leon Toomey) explore the Lincoln Center area.
During the Filmmaker Conference, producers Ted Hope (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Mynette Louie (Children of Invention) debate whether filmmaking is a career or a hobby. Hope argues that it’s nearly impossible to pursue a career in...
In commemoration, I’ve dug up my long neglected digital camera, and I’ll be sharing photo highlights from Ifw all week long. Here are some snapshots from Day 1:
The team behind the upcoming Detroit Unleaded (editor Nathanial Sherfield, director Rola Nashef, producers Marwan Nashef and Leon Toomey) explore the Lincoln Center area.
During the Filmmaker Conference, producers Ted Hope (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Mynette Louie (Children of Invention) debate whether filmmaking is a career or a hobby. Hope argues that it’s nearly impossible to pursue a career in...
- 9/19/2011
- by Dan Schoenbrun
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Sneak Preview” Public Screening Series at Central Park & The Highline And Filmmaker Conference 2012 Speakers Announced For Ifp’s Independent Film Week New York, NY – Ifp announced its public programming for Independent Film Week today, including screenings of new independent films at iconic locations throughout the city in a partnership with Rooftop Films, as well as speakers for the Filmmaker Conference. Screenings are open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis and passes for the Filmmaker Conference can be purchased at http://www.ifp.org until Friday, September 9th. Ifp’s 2011 Opening Night film, Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda, will take place in…...
- 9/19/2011
- Sydney's Buzz
This year’s Urbanworld Film Festival in New York City covers everything from black swan theory to arranged marriage and Southern gothic tradition. The festival opens September 14 with Nelson George’s and Diane Paragas' "Brooklyn Boheme" and closes September 18 with Alrick Brown’s Sundance World Cinema Audience award winner "KinyaRwanda." Below we’ve compiled a list of eight must-see films at this year’s festival. Check them out. Yelling to the Sky Logline: ...
- 9/13/2011
- Indiewire
The Ifp and the Film Society of Lincoln Center have announced a collaborative program to take place during this year’s New York Film Festival called Emerging Visions.
According to the press release, Emerging Visions will take place Oct. 3 at Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center with 25 emerging filmmaking talents attending with a documentary or narrative feature that has been selected from Ifp and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s talent pool. They will be paired with an established director or producer who will mentor them through the current filmmaking landscape, offering guidance and connections to filmmakers on both their current projects and careers. Each filmmaker will receive mentorship and year round support from both organizations through annual memberships and participation in panels and events. The program will also include a live pitching session featuring panelists Christine Vachon (producer, Killer Digital), John Sloss (principal, Cinetic Media), Lucy Stille (agent,...
According to the press release, Emerging Visions will take place Oct. 3 at Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center with 25 emerging filmmaking talents attending with a documentary or narrative feature that has been selected from Ifp and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s talent pool. They will be paired with an established director or producer who will mentor them through the current filmmaking landscape, offering guidance and connections to filmmakers on both their current projects and careers. Each filmmaker will receive mentorship and year round support from both organizations through annual memberships and participation in panels and events. The program will also include a live pitching session featuring panelists Christine Vachon (producer, Killer Digital), John Sloss (principal, Cinetic Media), Lucy Stille (agent,...
- 9/13/2011
- by Jason Guerrasio
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Ifp announced today the slate for this year’s Project Forum, which will take place during the 33rd edition of Independent Film Week on Sept. 18-22 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center.
The centerpiece of Independent Film Week, Project Forum is designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers.
Read the complete press release and full list of titles in this year’s Project Forum.
All 150 projects showcased in the Project Forum this year are narrative and documentary features ranging from films in development, or the early stages of production, to those nearing completion.
Some of the notable directors in this year’s Project Forum include: Bruce La Bruce (Otto: Or, Up With Dead People), Alrick Brown (Kinyrwanda), Adam Bowers (New Low), David Lowery (St. Nick), David Robert Mitchell...
The centerpiece of Independent Film Week, Project Forum is designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers.
Read the complete press release and full list of titles in this year’s Project Forum.
All 150 projects showcased in the Project Forum this year are narrative and documentary features ranging from films in development, or the early stages of production, to those nearing completion.
Some of the notable directors in this year’s Project Forum include: Bruce La Bruce (Otto: Or, Up With Dead People), Alrick Brown (Kinyrwanda), Adam Bowers (New Low), David Lowery (St. Nick), David Robert Mitchell...
- 8/11/2011
- by Jason Guerrasio
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Affrm--aka the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement--will give U.S. theatrical distribution to "Kinyarwanda," the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner for World Cinema Drama. The film will be released in November. Written and directed by Alrick Brown, "Kinyarwanda" is the Rwandan-produced drama about the country's 1994 genocide and interweaves six true stories into a single narrative. This is the second release for Affrm, a theatrical distribution collective founded by ...
- 7/5/2011
- Indiewire
Tuesday night next week, we will be screening Alrick Brown's Kinyarwanda as part of our This is that Goldcrest NYC screening series. I remember why I want to make movies when I see films that take me to other lands and help me gain a better understanding of the world I am part of. When a film is able to also deliver such understanding in a personal and intimate way, making me feel at one with a diverse group of characters on multiple sides of an incredibly complex issue, the passion to create meaningful work grows even stronger. I remember…...
- 3/11/2011
- Hope for Film
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