Shooting a feature film in Cuba comes with a unique set of challenges that make the usual logistical hurdles of filmmaking seem like nothing. Still, those who have had the opportunity to shoot in the socialist country say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. As the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba comes to an end, film production in the country is expected to ramp up.
While Hollywood studio productions like “Fast 8” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” claimed to be “making history” earlier this year by being the first American films to shoot in Havana in half a century, two American directors had already shot independent films in Cuba on the heels of the relaxed travel restrictions by the United States government: Bob Yari’s “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” and Ben Chace’s “Sin Alas” (“Without Wings”).
Read More: ‘Sin Alas’ – First American Film Shot in Cuba...
While Hollywood studio productions like “Fast 8” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” claimed to be “making history” earlier this year by being the first American films to shoot in Havana in half a century, two American directors had already shot independent films in Cuba on the heels of the relaxed travel restrictions by the United States government: Bob Yari’s “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” and Ben Chace’s “Sin Alas” (“Without Wings”).
Read More: ‘Sin Alas’ – First American Film Shot in Cuba...
- 6/23/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
It began quietly enough. I met with Maria Julia Antuna Acosta, the coordinator of international relations of Eictv, the international film school in Havana which is the most acclaimed international film school of the world founded by Gabriel Garcia Marquez with this Nobel Prize money on land donated by Castro. Eictv is a three year film school hosting students from all over the world where they are creating the possibility of creating companies of former students working together to create real Iberoamerican cinema. The “real” University for cinema is University of the Arts, the subject of the 2012 documentary “Unfinished Spaces”. It is a four year university with a faculty of cinema (along with a faculty of dance, of pictorial arts, architecture and plastic arts).
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
- 12/12/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sundance Institute has announced the four independent films that will make their digital debut on June 18 through a variety of platforms and storefronts, via the Institute’s Artist Services program. In addition, three previously announced titles will expand to additional portals. For details visit sundance.org/nowplaying.
The upcoming releases, three of which are documentaries, focus on unlikely heroes such as the bold and brave reporters challenging the boundaries of free speech in their homeland of China (High Tech, Low Life) and women serving time in a Siberian prison who organize a beauty pageant every year to demonstrate that beauty can still be found in the ugliest of places (Miss Gulag). Titles will be available on a variety of platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Entertainment Network, SundanceNOW, Vudu and YouTube.
Burn will be released as part of a recent collaboration between Artist Services and non-profit partner organization Film Independent. The collaboration allows partner organizations to select films they have supported to receive access to best-in-class digital distribution arrangements secured by Artist Services.
My Best Day premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in the Next section.
Titles Available June 18
Burn (Directors: Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez) — Burn is an award-winning, action-packed documentary capturing a year in the lives of Detroit firefighters who are charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead. A portion of proceeds from each sale go to the Leary Firefighters Foundation. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Film Independent)
High Tech, Low Life (Director: Stephen Maing) — High Tech, Low Life follows two of China’s first and most daring citizen reporters as they fight censorship, document the underside of the country’s rapid economic development, and challenge the boundaries of free speech. (2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab)
Miss Gulag (Director: Maria Yatskova-Ibrahimova) — Through the prism of a beauty pageant staged by female inmates of a Siberian prison camp emerges a complex narrative of the lives of the first generation of women to come of age in Post-Soviet Russia. (2006 Documentary Film Grant)
My Best Day (Director: Erin Greenwell) — Karen has to work her receptionist gig on the Fourth of July. A call comes from her long-lost father. Enlisting her friend Meagan, Karen investigates her father's trailer home. Karen's journey sets in motion a chain of events that will change not just her but this one small town forever. (2012 Sundance Film Festival)
Previously Announced Titles Available On Additional Platforms
Code of the West (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) — Code Of The West follows the human stories behind the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana growers. This is the story of what happens when politics fail, emotions run high and communities pay the price. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Ifp and Cinereach)
Ecological Design: Inventing the Future (Director: Brian Danitz) — This documentary's thesis focuses on the emergence of ecological design, from the original vision of the independent thinkers in the 1920s to the powerful present-day movement. (1995 Sundance Film Festival)
Unfinished Spaces (Directors: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray) — Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece. (Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue)
The Artist Services program provides artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work. The exclusive aggregation partner for distribution across all portals participating in the Artist Services program is Cinedigm. The Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation. These deals were brokered via pro bono legal services generously provided by law firm O’Melveny & Myers, which has built the legal framework for the Artist Services program and participating filmmakers since its inception.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
The upcoming releases, three of which are documentaries, focus on unlikely heroes such as the bold and brave reporters challenging the boundaries of free speech in their homeland of China (High Tech, Low Life) and women serving time in a Siberian prison who organize a beauty pageant every year to demonstrate that beauty can still be found in the ugliest of places (Miss Gulag). Titles will be available on a variety of platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Entertainment Network, SundanceNOW, Vudu and YouTube.
Burn will be released as part of a recent collaboration between Artist Services and non-profit partner organization Film Independent. The collaboration allows partner organizations to select films they have supported to receive access to best-in-class digital distribution arrangements secured by Artist Services.
My Best Day premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in the Next section.
Titles Available June 18
Burn (Directors: Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez) — Burn is an award-winning, action-packed documentary capturing a year in the lives of Detroit firefighters who are charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead. A portion of proceeds from each sale go to the Leary Firefighters Foundation. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Film Independent)
High Tech, Low Life (Director: Stephen Maing) — High Tech, Low Life follows two of China’s first and most daring citizen reporters as they fight censorship, document the underside of the country’s rapid economic development, and challenge the boundaries of free speech. (2010 Documentary Edit and Story Lab)
Miss Gulag (Director: Maria Yatskova-Ibrahimova) — Through the prism of a beauty pageant staged by female inmates of a Siberian prison camp emerges a complex narrative of the lives of the first generation of women to come of age in Post-Soviet Russia. (2006 Documentary Film Grant)
My Best Day (Director: Erin Greenwell) — Karen has to work her receptionist gig on the Fourth of July. A call comes from her long-lost father. Enlisting her friend Meagan, Karen investigates her father's trailer home. Karen's journey sets in motion a chain of events that will change not just her but this one small town forever. (2012 Sundance Film Festival)
Previously Announced Titles Available On Additional Platforms
Code of the West (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) — Code Of The West follows the human stories behind the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana growers. This is the story of what happens when politics fail, emotions run high and communities pay the price. (Released through Artist Services collaboration with Ifp and Cinereach)
Ecological Design: Inventing the Future (Director: Brian Danitz) — This documentary's thesis focuses on the emergence of ecological design, from the original vision of the independent thinkers in the 1920s to the powerful present-day movement. (1995 Sundance Film Festival)
Unfinished Spaces (Directors: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray) — Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece. (Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue)
The Artist Services program provides artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work. The exclusive aggregation partner for distribution across all portals participating in the Artist Services program is Cinedigm. The Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation. These deals were brokered via pro bono legal services generously provided by law firm O’Melveny & Myers, which has built the legal framework for the Artist Services program and participating filmmakers since its inception.
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a global, nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to nurturing artistic expression in film and theater, and to supporting intercultural dialogue between artists and audiences. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to unite, inform and inspire, regardless of geo-political, social, religious or cultural differences. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival and its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
- 6/9/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Watch 'Upstream Color,' 'Sleepwalk with Me' and More Via Sundance Institute's Digital Debut Platform
The Sundance Institute has announced that 12 independent films will make their digital debuts this spring through a variety of platforms to rent, download or stream, via the Institute's Artist Services Program. Included in the list of titles are Shane Carruth's gorgeous head-scratcher and fest favorite "Upstream Color," (which he is self-releasing to theaters April 5), Mike Birbiglia-starrer "Sleepwalk with Me" (a theatrical hit via IFC) and "Unfinished Spaces," a PBS documentary on the groundbreaking design of the National Arts Schools, which was released as an educational film on DVD. Titles will roll out between 16 and May 7. Watch them on the Institute's Now Playing page. Here are the films and schedule:titles Available April 16 Code of the West (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen) — Code Of The West follows the human stories behind the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana growers. This is the story of what happens when politics fail, emotions run high and.
- 4/3/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
A look back at 2012 reveals an undeniable fact, it has been a great year for Latino film. Sundance started the year off strong with films like Aurora Guerrero’s sweet and tender Mosquita y Mari and Marialy Rivas’ rambunctious Joven y Alocada (Young & Wild). Gina Rodriguez broke out in Filly Brown, as a rapper who needs to make it big so she can raise money to get her mom out of jail. In the film, Jenni Rivera played the part of Filly’s mom in her first, and sadly last, movie role.
There was also a strong Latin American presence at Cannes this past summer, boasting films from Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. It might as well have been called Mexi-Cannes, with Mexican films winning awards across all main sections of the festival. Carlos Reygadas was honored as the Best Director for his controversial film Post Tenebras Lux, despite having received boos at its premiere screening. The prize for the Critics’ Week section went to Aquí y Allá (Here and There) and Después de Lucía (After Lucia) won the top prize for Un Certain Regard.
It’s been an especially favorable year for Chilean cinema. The New York Film Festival, in its 50th edition this past Fall, included three highly anticipated films by Pablo Larraín, Valeria Sarmiento, and the late Raúl Ruiz. And Chile continued to outshine the rest of the region by winning two top spots at the Festival Internacional de Nuevo Cine Latino de La Habana (the Havana Film Festival) just a few days ago. Pablo Larraín’s No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, won the First Coral Prize. It’s a brilliant take on the real life story of an advertising campaign that ousted General Pinochet from power during a shining moment in Chilean politics. Violeta se fue a los cielos (Violeta Went To Heaven), a biopic about internationally famous Violeta de la Parra, a Chilean singer, songwriter, and poet won the Second Prize.
Whether it was at Cannes, Sundance, or countless other festivals, Latino films were winning award after award this year and even getting distribution (albeit usually in limited release). With the flurry of activity surrounding the region’s filmmaking, it can be hard to keep up with it all. Thankfully, there are professionals who get paid to keep track of what movies are receiving accolades, have the most buzz, and got picked up for distribution. LatinoBuzz went straight to the experts, film programmers, to ask, “What’s your top 5 Latino films of 2012?”
Carlos Gutierrez, Co-Founder and Director of Cinema Tropical
In no particular order, a list of five Latin American films that made it to Us screens in the past year (some of them are a couple of years old), which I highly recommend.
De Jueves a Domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), Director: Dominga Sotomayor, Chile
O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds), Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil
El Estudiante, Director: Santiago Mitre, Argentina
El Velador, Director: Natalia Almada, Mexico
El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place), Director: Tatiana Huezo, Mexico/El Salvador
Juan Caceres, Director of Programming at the New York International Latino Film Festival
Mosquita y Mari is a gorgeous film full of heart. Marialy Rivas (Director of Joven y Alocada) is an incredibly exciting new voice in Latin American cinema. She's fearless and full of love. I'm a huge fan of Lucy Mulloy (Director of Una Noche). She draws these wonderful performances from non-professional actors. A natural at using the lens to tell a story. In Las Malas Intenciones Fatima Buntinx plays the lead perfectly. Andres Wood made a beautiful film called 'Machuca', that captured the soul of Chile in the 70's and he does the same with a bio-pic of Violeta Parra, a folk singer who was a part of 'La Nueva Canción Chilena'.
Mosquita y Mari, Director: Aurora Guerrero, USA
Joven y Alocada (Young and Wild), Director: Marialy Rivas, Chile
Una Noche, Director: Lucy Mulloy, Cuba
Violeta Se Fue A Los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Director: Andrés Wood, Chile
Las Malas Intenciones (The Bad Intentions), Director: Rosario García-Montero, Perú
Christine Davila, Programming Associate at Sundance Film Festival
There are way too many Latino films and not enough coverage on American Latino films so with that -- mine are going to be strictly American Latino films.
Los Chidos, Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, USA/Mexico
Mosquita y Mari, Director: Aurora Guerrero, USA
Elliot Loves, Director: Terracino, USA
Aquí y Allá (Here and There), Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza, USA/Spain/Mexico
Love, Concord, Director: Gustavo Guardado, USA
Lisa Franek, Artistic Director at the San Diego Latino Film Festival
Just 5?? That's tough! In Filly Brown, Gina Rodriguez turns in a great performance, and I expect to see more great things from her very soon. No, I saw at Cannes, and it was fascinating, especially in contrast to Larraín's previous (amazing) films. La Hora Cero has unforgettable scenes and characters! La Mujer de Ivan has amazing acting, and I believe Maria de Los Angeles Garcia is definitely a talent to watch. Reportero is also fantastic.
La Mujer de Iván, Director: Francisca Silva, Chile
No, Director: Pablo Larraín, Chile/France/USA
La Hora Cero, Director: Diego Velasco, Venezuela
Reportero, Director: Bernardo Ruiz, USA/Mexico
Filly Brown, Directors: Youssef Delara, Michael D. Olmos, USA
Marcela Goglio, Programmer for Latinbeat at The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Las Acacias, Director: Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina
As Cançoes (Songs), Director: Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil
Unfinished Spaces, Directors: Alyssa Nahmias & Benjamin Murray, USA
O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds), Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil
Aquí y Allá (Here and There), Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza, USA/Spain/Mexico
Pepe Vargas, Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center and Chicago Latino Film Festival
Not an easy task to come up with 5 titles - there are so many good movies.
La Piel que Habito (The Skin I Live In)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Salvando al Soldado Pérez, (Saving Private Perez)
Director: Beto Gómez, Mexico
Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-Out)
Director: Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina/Spain
Lobos de Arga (Game of Werewolves)
Director: Juan Martínez Moreno, Spain
Mariachi Gringo
Director: Tom Gustafson, USA/Mexico
Amalia Cordova, Coordinator of the Latin American Program at the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Granito, Director: Pamela Yates, USA/Guatemala/Spain
Desterro Guarani, Directors: Patricia Ferreira y Ariel Duarte Ortega, Brazil
Violeta Se Fue A Los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Director: Andrés Wood, Chile
5 x Favela – Agora por nós Mesmos (5 x Favela, Now by Ourselves), Directors: Manaíra Carneiro, Wagner Novais, Cacau Amaral, Rodrigo Felha, Luciano Vidigal, Cadu Barcelos, and Luciana Bezerra, Brazil
Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-Out), Director: Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina/Spain
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
There was also a strong Latin American presence at Cannes this past summer, boasting films from Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. It might as well have been called Mexi-Cannes, with Mexican films winning awards across all main sections of the festival. Carlos Reygadas was honored as the Best Director for his controversial film Post Tenebras Lux, despite having received boos at its premiere screening. The prize for the Critics’ Week section went to Aquí y Allá (Here and There) and Después de Lucía (After Lucia) won the top prize for Un Certain Regard.
It’s been an especially favorable year for Chilean cinema. The New York Film Festival, in its 50th edition this past Fall, included three highly anticipated films by Pablo Larraín, Valeria Sarmiento, and the late Raúl Ruiz. And Chile continued to outshine the rest of the region by winning two top spots at the Festival Internacional de Nuevo Cine Latino de La Habana (the Havana Film Festival) just a few days ago. Pablo Larraín’s No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, won the First Coral Prize. It’s a brilliant take on the real life story of an advertising campaign that ousted General Pinochet from power during a shining moment in Chilean politics. Violeta se fue a los cielos (Violeta Went To Heaven), a biopic about internationally famous Violeta de la Parra, a Chilean singer, songwriter, and poet won the Second Prize.
Whether it was at Cannes, Sundance, or countless other festivals, Latino films were winning award after award this year and even getting distribution (albeit usually in limited release). With the flurry of activity surrounding the region’s filmmaking, it can be hard to keep up with it all. Thankfully, there are professionals who get paid to keep track of what movies are receiving accolades, have the most buzz, and got picked up for distribution. LatinoBuzz went straight to the experts, film programmers, to ask, “What’s your top 5 Latino films of 2012?”
Carlos Gutierrez, Co-Founder and Director of Cinema Tropical
In no particular order, a list of five Latin American films that made it to Us screens in the past year (some of them are a couple of years old), which I highly recommend.
De Jueves a Domingo (Thursday Till Sunday), Director: Dominga Sotomayor, Chile
O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds), Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil
El Estudiante, Director: Santiago Mitre, Argentina
El Velador, Director: Natalia Almada, Mexico
El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place), Director: Tatiana Huezo, Mexico/El Salvador
Juan Caceres, Director of Programming at the New York International Latino Film Festival
Mosquita y Mari is a gorgeous film full of heart. Marialy Rivas (Director of Joven y Alocada) is an incredibly exciting new voice in Latin American cinema. She's fearless and full of love. I'm a huge fan of Lucy Mulloy (Director of Una Noche). She draws these wonderful performances from non-professional actors. A natural at using the lens to tell a story. In Las Malas Intenciones Fatima Buntinx plays the lead perfectly. Andres Wood made a beautiful film called 'Machuca', that captured the soul of Chile in the 70's and he does the same with a bio-pic of Violeta Parra, a folk singer who was a part of 'La Nueva Canción Chilena'.
Mosquita y Mari, Director: Aurora Guerrero, USA
Joven y Alocada (Young and Wild), Director: Marialy Rivas, Chile
Una Noche, Director: Lucy Mulloy, Cuba
Violeta Se Fue A Los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Director: Andrés Wood, Chile
Las Malas Intenciones (The Bad Intentions), Director: Rosario García-Montero, Perú
Christine Davila, Programming Associate at Sundance Film Festival
There are way too many Latino films and not enough coverage on American Latino films so with that -- mine are going to be strictly American Latino films.
Los Chidos, Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, USA/Mexico
Mosquita y Mari, Director: Aurora Guerrero, USA
Elliot Loves, Director: Terracino, USA
Aquí y Allá (Here and There), Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza, USA/Spain/Mexico
Love, Concord, Director: Gustavo Guardado, USA
Lisa Franek, Artistic Director at the San Diego Latino Film Festival
Just 5?? That's tough! In Filly Brown, Gina Rodriguez turns in a great performance, and I expect to see more great things from her very soon. No, I saw at Cannes, and it was fascinating, especially in contrast to Larraín's previous (amazing) films. La Hora Cero has unforgettable scenes and characters! La Mujer de Ivan has amazing acting, and I believe Maria de Los Angeles Garcia is definitely a talent to watch. Reportero is also fantastic.
La Mujer de Iván, Director: Francisca Silva, Chile
No, Director: Pablo Larraín, Chile/France/USA
La Hora Cero, Director: Diego Velasco, Venezuela
Reportero, Director: Bernardo Ruiz, USA/Mexico
Filly Brown, Directors: Youssef Delara, Michael D. Olmos, USA
Marcela Goglio, Programmer for Latinbeat at The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Las Acacias, Director: Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina
As Cançoes (Songs), Director: Eduardo Coutinho, Brazil
Unfinished Spaces, Directors: Alyssa Nahmias & Benjamin Murray, USA
O Som ao Redor (Neighboring Sounds), Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil
Aquí y Allá (Here and There), Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza, USA/Spain/Mexico
Pepe Vargas, Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center and Chicago Latino Film Festival
Not an easy task to come up with 5 titles - there are so many good movies.
La Piel que Habito (The Skin I Live In)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Salvando al Soldado Pérez, (Saving Private Perez)
Director: Beto Gómez, Mexico
Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-Out)
Director: Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina/Spain
Lobos de Arga (Game of Werewolves)
Director: Juan Martínez Moreno, Spain
Mariachi Gringo
Director: Tom Gustafson, USA/Mexico
Amalia Cordova, Coordinator of the Latin American Program at the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Granito, Director: Pamela Yates, USA/Guatemala/Spain
Desterro Guarani, Directors: Patricia Ferreira y Ariel Duarte Ortega, Brazil
Violeta Se Fue A Los Cielos (Violeta Went to Heaven), Director: Andrés Wood, Chile
5 x Favela – Agora por nós Mesmos (5 x Favela, Now by Ourselves), Directors: Manaíra Carneiro, Wagner Novais, Cacau Amaral, Rodrigo Felha, Luciano Vidigal, Cadu Barcelos, and Luciana Bezerra, Brazil
Un Cuento Chino (Chinese Take-Out), Director: Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina/Spain
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on twitter.
- 12/19/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Public television has long been a champion of diversity and through October 15, PBS will honor Latinos by celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a varied lineup of new and encore programming. Among the repeat broadcasts that are absolutely worth your time are the documentaries Tales From a GhettoKlown, a behind-the-scenes look at John Leguizamo’s Broadway show of the same name; Mariachi High, an inspiring year in the life of the champion mariachi ensemble at Zapata High School in South Texas; and Waste Land, an Academy Award-nominated film about a Brazilian artist who uses materials found in a landfill to create larger-than-life portraits of garbage collectors. (Checklocallistings)
One of the new programs spotlighted this month is Voces, a showcase of documentaries that celebrate the rich diversity of the Latino cultural experience, that will premiere in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month on four consecutive Friday nights.
Executive Director of Latino Public Broadcasting, Sandie Viquez Pedlow, took great care in selecting the four documentaries that make up the series, “I am always looking for stories that are relevant, that take creative risks, that are artfully produced and well told, and have the potential to engage a national audience.”As a result of her thoughtful choices, the current season of Voces will highlight Latino artists, athletes, and performers in Mexico, Cuba, and the U.S. And for those of you who think public television is boring, get ready to be proven wrong.
Voces kicks off with Tales of Masked Men (September 28), an absorbing insider’s look at the world of Mexican “lucha libre,” famous for its masked wrestlers, followed by Escaramuza: Riding From the Heart (October 5), about a gutsy team of women rodeo riders vying to represent the U.S. at the National Charro Championships in Mexico.Unfinished Spaces (October 12) tells the story of the Cuban Revolution through its most significant work of architecture, Cuba’s National Schools of Art, and the three visionary men who designed it, while Lemon (October 19) follows Puerto Rican poet/performer Lemon Andersen, a three-time felon and one-time Tony Award winner, as he struggles to take his life story to the New York stage.
The genesis of the series was a few years back and was prompted by a lack of regular Latino-themed programming on public television. “Voces was launched in 2006 by Luca Bentivoglio, then executive director of Latino Public Broadcasting. Luca had worked for Univision and Telemundo and knew that stations in areas of large Latino populations such as New York, Miami, California, Texas, Chicago and other markets would benefit from more Latino programming to better serve their audience,” says Viquez Pedlow.
A series like Voces, this year airing nationwide on PBS, is in the unique position to bring Latino stories to a broad general audience. But, Viquez Pedlow feels that even more programming is needed, “I think we need more Voces on public media and commercial channels and the opportunity to present Latino compelling stories with diverse points of view so they are seen and understood by the American public.” Particularly at times when immigration becomes a hot-button issue, it is vital to have positive stories circulating in the public sphere to help counteract the negative and stereotyped portrayals of Latinos that the mainstream media perpetuates.
In keeping with it’s mission to, “to bring more Latino voices to public media” Latino Public Broadcasting has committed to helping the films reach an even wider audience after their broadcast. “We are focusing on 6 markets with high Latino populations, creating partnerships between public television stations and Latino organizations, museums, schools and universities for screenings, events and online activities to create dialogue around the programs and extend the footprint of the series.”
The hope is that these films will not only entertain but also educate, inform, and transform audiences. It is programs like Voces that push our stories into the mainstream at a pivotal time in U.S. history. It is a time in which demographics are rapidly changing and where soon minorities may no longer be minorities. It is about time that all Americans celebrate the diversity that this country has to offer.
Voces On PBS, premieres this Friday, September 28 and runs on four consecutive Friday nights through October 19 at 10:00 p.m. Et.
VocesonFacebook| VocesonTwitter
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
One of the new programs spotlighted this month is Voces, a showcase of documentaries that celebrate the rich diversity of the Latino cultural experience, that will premiere in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month on four consecutive Friday nights.
Executive Director of Latino Public Broadcasting, Sandie Viquez Pedlow, took great care in selecting the four documentaries that make up the series, “I am always looking for stories that are relevant, that take creative risks, that are artfully produced and well told, and have the potential to engage a national audience.”As a result of her thoughtful choices, the current season of Voces will highlight Latino artists, athletes, and performers in Mexico, Cuba, and the U.S. And for those of you who think public television is boring, get ready to be proven wrong.
Voces kicks off with Tales of Masked Men (September 28), an absorbing insider’s look at the world of Mexican “lucha libre,” famous for its masked wrestlers, followed by Escaramuza: Riding From the Heart (October 5), about a gutsy team of women rodeo riders vying to represent the U.S. at the National Charro Championships in Mexico.Unfinished Spaces (October 12) tells the story of the Cuban Revolution through its most significant work of architecture, Cuba’s National Schools of Art, and the three visionary men who designed it, while Lemon (October 19) follows Puerto Rican poet/performer Lemon Andersen, a three-time felon and one-time Tony Award winner, as he struggles to take his life story to the New York stage.
The genesis of the series was a few years back and was prompted by a lack of regular Latino-themed programming on public television. “Voces was launched in 2006 by Luca Bentivoglio, then executive director of Latino Public Broadcasting. Luca had worked for Univision and Telemundo and knew that stations in areas of large Latino populations such as New York, Miami, California, Texas, Chicago and other markets would benefit from more Latino programming to better serve their audience,” says Viquez Pedlow.
A series like Voces, this year airing nationwide on PBS, is in the unique position to bring Latino stories to a broad general audience. But, Viquez Pedlow feels that even more programming is needed, “I think we need more Voces on public media and commercial channels and the opportunity to present Latino compelling stories with diverse points of view so they are seen and understood by the American public.” Particularly at times when immigration becomes a hot-button issue, it is vital to have positive stories circulating in the public sphere to help counteract the negative and stereotyped portrayals of Latinos that the mainstream media perpetuates.
In keeping with it’s mission to, “to bring more Latino voices to public media” Latino Public Broadcasting has committed to helping the films reach an even wider audience after their broadcast. “We are focusing on 6 markets with high Latino populations, creating partnerships between public television stations and Latino organizations, museums, schools and universities for screenings, events and online activities to create dialogue around the programs and extend the footprint of the series.”
The hope is that these films will not only entertain but also educate, inform, and transform audiences. It is programs like Voces that push our stories into the mainstream at a pivotal time in U.S. history. It is a time in which demographics are rapidly changing and where soon minorities may no longer be minorities. It is about time that all Americans celebrate the diversity that this country has to offer.
Voces On PBS, premieres this Friday, September 28 and runs on four consecutive Friday nights through October 19 at 10:00 p.m. Et.
VocesonFacebook| VocesonTwitter
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
- 9/28/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, handed out top honors to The Artist, The Descendants and Margin Call at this afternoon’s 27th Film Independent Spirit Awards. My Week With Marilyn, Beginners, 50/50, A Separation and The Interrupters also received awards at the ceremony, held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
Tune in to IFC tonight at 10:00 pm Et/Pt to catch all the action at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with actor, writer and producer Seth Rogen hosting. Highlights include: John Waters as the Voice of God, musical performances by My Morning Jacket and K’Naan.
The Spirit Awards was the first event to exclusively honor independent film, and over the past 27 years, has become the premier awards show for the independent film community, celebrating films made by filmmakers who embody independence and originality. Artists...
Tune in to IFC tonight at 10:00 pm Et/Pt to catch all the action at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with actor, writer and producer Seth Rogen hosting. Highlights include: John Waters as the Voice of God, musical performances by My Morning Jacket and K’Naan.
The Spirit Awards was the first event to exclusively honor independent film, and over the past 27 years, has become the premier awards show for the independent film community, celebrating films made by filmmakers who embody independence and originality. Artists...
- 2/26/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
DocHouse Thursdays brings the best in documentary filmmaking from around the world to UK audiences, presenting an intriguing variety of untold stories that rarely make the headlines, and the recent screenings of Ariel Nasr's The Boxing Girls of Kabul, Juila Meltzer and Laura Nix's The Light in Her Eyes and Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray's Unfinished Spaces were no exception.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 2/24/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
Congratulations to Without writer/director Mark Jackson (one of Filmmaker‘s 2012 25 New Faces), producer Sophia Lin (Take Shelter), director Heather Courtney (Where Soldiers Come From) and directors Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias (Unfinished Spaces) for winning Spirit Awards today at the event’s nominee brunch in Los Angeles. Jackson, Lin and Courtney received unrestricted grants of $25,000 from, respectively, Audi, Nokia and Piaget, while Murray and Nahmias received a $40,000 marketing and distribution grant that will go towards the release of their feature. (Note: I served on the jury for the Jameson grant.)
The complete press release follows.
Los Angeles (January 14, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the winners of its four Spirit Awards filmmaker grants today at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch held at Boa Steakhouse in West Hollywood. Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson hosted the casual event and handed out the honors.
The complete press release follows.
Los Angeles (January 14, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the winners of its four Spirit Awards filmmaker grants today at its annual Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch held at Boa Steakhouse in West Hollywood. Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson hosted the casual event and handed out the honors.
- 1/15/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
"Unfinished Spaces" won the Jameson Find Your Audience Award from Film Independent on Saturday, receiving a $40,000 grant to help expand the film's reach. "We're going to use this to start an outreach program with schools and museums," Benjamin Murray, director of the documentary about an architecturally significant group of art schools in Castro's Cuba, told TheWrap after receiving the award. "Instead of this being the end of the movie's story, it's going to be the beginning." The award was one of four sponsored grants given out at the Film Independent Spirit Awards...
- 1/14/2012
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Sundance Institute announced the renewal of its program-Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative which was introduced last year. The program with travel to India apart from China, Morocco, Columbia and France this year.
Film Forward connects contemporary U.S. and international films and filmmakers with diverse global audiences and features documentary and narrative films.
The films selected for the second year of the Film Forward program are: Another Earth, by Mike Cahill; Beginners, by Mike Mills; Bran Nue Dae, by Rachel Perkins; Buck, by Cindy Meehl;Grbavica, by Jasmila Zbanic; The Green Wave, by Ali Samadi Ahadi; On The Ice, by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Senna, by Asif Kapadia; Somewhere Between, by Linda Goldstein Knowlton; and Unfinished Spaces, by Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias.
Film Forward filmmakers will travel with the initiative to present their work and participate in master classes, discussion panels, Q&As and other engagements with audiences.
“Film...
Film Forward connects contemporary U.S. and international films and filmmakers with diverse global audiences and features documentary and narrative films.
The films selected for the second year of the Film Forward program are: Another Earth, by Mike Cahill; Beginners, by Mike Mills; Bran Nue Dae, by Rachel Perkins; Buck, by Cindy Meehl;Grbavica, by Jasmila Zbanic; The Green Wave, by Ali Samadi Ahadi; On The Ice, by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Senna, by Asif Kapadia; Somewhere Between, by Linda Goldstein Knowlton; and Unfinished Spaces, by Benjamin Murray and Alysa Nahmias.
Film Forward filmmakers will travel with the initiative to present their work and participate in master classes, discussion panels, Q&As and other engagements with audiences.
“Film...
- 11/11/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Texas is known for some great film festivals. apart from SXSW and Fantastic Fest, both held in Austin – Houston also hosts some wonderful events. Among them is the Cinema Arts Festival. This year’s line-up is extremely strong, with titles that include Pina, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, The Artist and the World Premiere of Art Car: The Movie. Sadly we do not have any contributors over in Houston, but I did feel the need to quickly promote the festival. Here is the press release.
Houston – Now in its third year, Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which runs from November 9 to 13, 2011 will bring an ambitious program of films by and about artists to the vibrant Texas city known internationally for its dynamic art scene. From painting and dance to classical music and multimedia work, this edition will also include appearances by directors, actors, musicians, and special tributes to Ethan Hawke and documentary master Patricio Guzman.
Houston – Now in its third year, Cinema Arts Festival Houston, which runs from November 9 to 13, 2011 will bring an ambitious program of films by and about artists to the vibrant Texas city known internationally for its dynamic art scene. From painting and dance to classical music and multimedia work, this edition will also include appearances by directors, actors, musicians, and special tributes to Ethan Hawke and documentary master Patricio Guzman.
- 10/31/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Updated through 6/27.
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
- 6/27/2011
- MUBI
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
(June 2011, screening at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Directed by: Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray
Featuring: Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi
Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray’s documentary deposits us into gently undulating art school buildings in Havana, Cuba, that have been abandoned, are desolate and overgrown, and are, most certainly, unfinished. Juxtaposing 1959 footage of Castro overthrowing Batista and other images of the passion and spirit of that revolution with interviews with Cuban artists, “Unfinished Spaces” measures the unrealized potential of the revolution on the art scene and, in particular, the art schools of Cuba.
Castro commissioned the schools with the goal of transforming what was once a bourgeois golf course into a collection of the best art buildings in the world. Given two months to finish the drafting, architects came together with students and unleashed unbridled enthusiasm into expressions of modernism and...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Making its world premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, “Unfinished Spaces” visits Cuba’s National Art Schools, visionary buildings constructed during the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution. The campus lies in ruins now, though art students still study there. Here, documentarians Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray write for Moving Pictures about meeting the architects behind the project and the opportunity to restore their utopia.
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Making its world premiere at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival, “Unfinished Spaces” visits Cuba’s National Art Schools, visionary buildings constructed during the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution. The campus lies in ruins now, though art students still study there. Here, documentarians Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray write for Moving Pictures about meeting the architects behind the project and the opportunity to restore their utopia.
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
By Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray (directors of “Unfinished Spaces”)
(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)
Alysa Nahmias
“Unfinished Spaces” is as much about nature and human nature as it is about architecture. It depicts the organic aging and inevitable decay of all people, places and politics over time.
In spring 2001 in Havana, we first had the opportunity to visit the National Art Schools — organic, modern brick buildings, now in ruins but still home to Cuba’s best and brightest art students. After touring the campus,...
- 6/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Holding court downtown from June 16-26, 2011, the Los Angeles Film Festival comprehensively curates the cinematic landscape across a variety of media. Produced by Film Independent, the festival has continued to grow in recent years, and now boasts many of the best independent films of the year.
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
- 5/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Holding court downtown from June 16-26, 2011, the Los Angeles Film Festival comprehensively curates the cinematic landscape across a variety of media. Produced by Film Independent, the festival has continued to grow in recent years, and now boasts many of the best independent films of the year.
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
- 5/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Film Independent Announces First Round Of Us & International
Film Selections For 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival,
Presented By The Los Angeles Times - 19 Films Chosen for Narrative & Documentary Competition - - International Spotlight to Focus on Cuba -
Los Angeles (May 3, 2011) . Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, announced the first round of official Us and international selections. The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent . the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Spirit Awards . and will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries. Opening and Closing Night films, Galas, Conversations, Artists in Residence, Lafca.s Films That Got Away, along with additional special guests and programming for the Festival Talks will be announced at later dates.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday,...
Film Selections For 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival,
Presented By The Los Angeles Times - 19 Films Chosen for Narrative & Documentary Competition - - International Spotlight to Focus on Cuba -
Los Angeles (May 3, 2011) . Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, announced the first round of official Us and international selections. The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent . the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Spirit Awards . and will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries. Opening and Closing Night films, Galas, Conversations, Artists in Residence, Lafca.s Films That Got Away, along with additional special guests and programming for the Festival Talks will be announced at later dates.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday,...
- 5/3/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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