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Documentary on Fukushima town screened at Berlin film festival

BERLIN (Kyodo) — A documentary film featuring residents forced to evacuate their town, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, was screened Sunday at the Berlin International Film Festival.

“I hope nobody in the world will have such an experience like ours again,” Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, said in a video message shown after the screening of the tentatively titled “Nuclear Nation” by director Atsushi Funahashi.

“We had attracted the nuclear power plant to promote our town. But I changed my mind because of the accident. While a final disposal site for nuclear waste is not set, it is quite dangerous that many nuclear power plants are built in the world,” the mayor said.

The documentary depicts residents taking shelter at a former school building in Saitama Prefecture and scenes of Futaba town, which was evacuated due to a nuclear crisis following the March 2011 quake and tsunami.

The film director said after the screening, “I hope many people in the world will look at the current situation of people from Futaba. I will continue keeping a record until they find a permanent dwelling place.”

Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who composed piano music used in the documentary, also attended the screening.

Sakamoto said he plans to produce an album under the theme of Fukushima this summer and stage a performance with fellow musicians.

SE Asian Film Festival returns in March

SINGAPORE: The Southeast Asian Film Festival returns next month with its largest offering of cinematic works from the region.

It will showcase 20 challenging works by filmmakers from the region produced in the past two years.

Nineteen are Singapore premieres, while Myanmar will be part of the festival for the first time.

Many of the 20 films are also being shown outside their home country for the first time.

Organised by Singapore Art Museum (SAM), the films reflect and bring to the forefront a range of pertinent issues facing the region.

Director of SAM, Mr Tan Boon Hui, said: “Cinema, as a moving image medium, becomes a distinct and dynamic contemporary visual art form that examines the social and cultural transformations of today.

“Like many major contemporary art institutions around the world where films are a part of their regular programming, SAM is committed to extend the reach of our exhibitions by creating opportunities for visitors to experience the most contemporary visual art and cultural expressions of the Southeast Asian region and deliver new perspectives, through the powerful medium of cinema.”

The festival will offer the public greater insight into film-making and the Southeast Asian wave.

There will be a directors’ panel on 3 March, as well as 12 post-screening discussions with directors, producers and actors.

To provide an avenue for the works of local film makers to be presented to a wider audience, the festival will feature four Singapore films.

They include “The Legend of the Impacts” by Jeevan Nathan, “Water Hands” by Serbian-born Singapore-based director Vladimir Todorovic, as well as an animated feature film “Tatsumi” by Eric Khoo which debuted at Cannes and is Singapore’s official entry for the 2012 Academy Awards.

The festival will run from March 2-31 at the Moving Image Gallery at SAM at 8Q.

Based on the early days of the French revolution, Farewell My Queen is set to have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, starting 9^th February, according to the news media tracking the latest film festival reviews. The backdrop is France in those days of turmoil as soon through the eyes of the Versailles staff and stars Diane Kruger of Troyfame as Queen Marie Antoinette. The French-language period film is one of the 18 flicks in the main competition, and hundreds of more would showcased in venues across Berlin over the next ten days.

Image courtesy: germany.info

The French-language period drama, starring Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette, is one of 18 films in the main competition, and hundreds more films will be showcased in cinemas across the city over the next 10 days.

Members of the Management Look to Add Glitz to Film Festival

The freezing cold in Berlin may prove to be a deterrent to viewership, but the film festival director Dieter Kosslick is hoping that the A-list actors set to saunter down the red carpet may counter that, helping the film festival generate the required buzz.

Another crucial matter would be the health of the film market that has grown up around the festival, attracting movie executives from the world over looking to buy and sell titles.

If critics are to be believed, the annual film festival is looking to add cutting edge to its selection this year by featuring several promising (and as yet unproven) directors in the main lineup.

It will also seek to build on the success of 2011, when Iranian divorce drama A Separation won the Golden Bear for best movie and went on to scoop a Golden Globe and two Oscar nominations.

Film Festival Jury Hoping for Hidden Gems

The jury at this year’s festival, led by British director Mike Leigh and including US actor Jake Gyllenhaal, will be looking to discover another hidden gem of world cinema.

Kosslick believes that this would once again underline Berlin’s reputation for championing films that would otherwise struggle to find an international audience.

This could be Africa’s year, as three films, Tey, War Witch and and Tabu promise to present viewers with poignant images from contemporary Africa.

Hard Hitting Films Hoping to Make a Mark at Berlin Film Festival

As ever this year, hard-hitting movies tackling difficult themes are looking to make a mark at this film festival.

Coming Home is about a girl who is locked up for eight years, and was inspired by the real-life case of abducted Austrian schoolgirl Natascha Kampusch.

White Deer Plain, which is more than three hours long, chronicles the often violent social turmoil in China throughout the 20th century.

And Just The Wind reconstructs the murder of a Roma family in Hungary and is also based on a true story.

On the lighter side, the hottest ticket in town is to see Iron Sky, a futuristic story about Nazis who had escaped to the moon in 1945 and have now launched a “meteor Blitzkrieg” on Earth.

Stalwarts of Conventional Cinema to Grace Film Festival Venue

Among the Hollywood superstars expected in 2012 is Meryl Streep, who will receive an honorary Golden Bear on February 14 when her latest movie The Iron Lady will be screened, with her portraying Margaret Thatcher. The film itself has failed to excite critics, but Street is supposed to be in the running for a ‘Best Actress’ award at the Oscars.

Angelina Jolie is due in Berlin with Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey, while the cast of star-filled productions such as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Haywire should add to the celebrity count at the film festival.

For more film festival reviews and news, keep watching this space.

As reported by several film festival news publications, the 25^th edition of the Braunschweig International Film Festival shall honor noted French actress Isabelle Huppert with the European Actors Award, also known as “The Europa”. The awards committee of the Braunschweig International Film Festival has chosen Huppert for the honor in recognition of her lifetime achievements in the field of cinema and her outstanding role in the development of European film culture. Huppert will receive this award during the Braunschweig International Film Festival Awards ceremony which shall be held in Braunschweig’s State Theatre. Volkswagen Financial Services AG, which is also the primary sponsor for the 25^th Braunschweig International Film Festival, shall also be sponsoring this particular award.

Online Film Blog: Isabella Huppert’s Iconic Stature in European Cinema

“Isabelle Huppert is an icon of contemporary auteur cinema“, says festival director Volker Kufahl, “We are proud and happy to welcome this exceptional actress, who gives every role her distinctive expression.”

Huppert is considered as one of the greatest actresses in world cinema. To this day she has played in more than 80 films, 16 of which were selcted for the official competition in Cannes – a record. She is the only Frenchwoman to have been awarded the Golden Palm of Cannes twice: in 1978 for the Claude Chabrol directed “Violette Nozière”, who she worked with in seven films, and 2001 for ”The Piano Teacher” by Michael Haneke, for which she also received the European Film Award.

The list of directors she has collaborated pretty much resembles a who’s who of European arthouse cinema: André Techiné, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrzej Wajda, Marco Ferreri, the Taviani brothers and many more. The Paris-born actress became famous for her role in in Claude Goretta’s “The Lacemaker” which earned her a César and a BAFTA Award.

Hupperts Films being Screened at The Braunschweig International Film Festival

The Braunschweig International Film Festival will show Goretta’s drama as part of a retrospective with “The Piano Teacher” (director: Michael Haneke, A/F/D 2001), “8 Women” (François Ozon, 2002), “Comedy of Power” (Claude Chabrol, F/D 2006), “White material” (Claire Denis, F/Kamerun 2009), ”Villa Amalia“ (Benoît Jacquot, F/CH 2009) and “Copacabana” (F 2010) by Marc Fitoussi, where she co-stars with her daughter Lolita Chammah.

History of the Europa Award at the Braunschweig International Film Festival

Since 2007 the Braunschweig International Film Festival has awarded the “European Actors Award”, aka the Europa. Former prize winners include noted thespians such as Bruno Ganz, Stellan Skarsgård, Hanna Schygulla and John Hurt. Isabelle Huppert has already worked together with the latter two: in Marco Ferreri’s “Storia di Piera” she is Hanna Schygulla’s daughter (first Europa winner 2007), and in Michael Cimino’s late western ”Heaven’s Gate” she plays a business savvy prostitute next to John Hurt (Europa winner 2009).

For regular updates on the world of film festivals, and film festival reviews and news, including more on the Braunschweig International Film Festival, keep reading our online film blog.

As an unprecedented platform for independent films, the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival 2011 showcased some of the world’s finest contemporary cinema by independent filmmakers as well as established ones. The myriad kaleidoscope of talent included independent films from all over the world. Here’s a brief look at some of the best works:

Independent Films : Azhagarsami’s Horse (India)

This film explores the importance of symbolic objects in everyday rural India, weaving this theme into the life of a simple village man called Azhagarsami who earns his living by ferrying goods on a horse. In this village, a ceremonial horse statue disappears overnight. This holy symbol, or its suspicious disappearance more accurately, causes a chain of blame games that leads to a comically chaotic situation. With this situation as the backdrop, our hero must put his marriage on hold as his own horse has also gone missing and he must search for it. One of the most touching, yet understated independent films to come out of India.

Independent Films : Death for Sale (Morocco)

A heist tale with a twist in the tail, Death for Sale is set in Tetouan, Morocco, where crime is a way out of a life of misery and poverty in the city slums. Three such young boys decide to rob a jeweler’s, a plan that goes awry with drastic consequences. Director Faouzi Bensaidi paints a compelling portrait of a city left to the tender mercies of criminal lords, extremist factions and a corrupt officialdom, forming a vivid backdrop for an edge-of-the-seats crime thriller; a rarity among independent films.

Independent Films : Elena (Russia)

This film tells the story of Elena, who is the second wife of an rich elderly man called Vladimir and has a son from her earlier marriage. This son is an unemployed drifter, forever in financial doldrums and unable to provide for his own family. She hopes to be able to provide her son with more than just handouts once her husband passes away and his estate comes to her. These hopes, however, are dashed when Vladimir patches up with his estranged daughter and names her as the sole beneficiary of his will. The hitherto shy and subservient homemaker now silently rebels and plans to give her son and grandchildren a real chance at living. It is a well-crafted plot with noir undertones that have been so popular among directors of independent films in the past.

Independent Films: Free Men (France/ Morocco)

The German-occupied Paris of 1942, and the resistance activities of a handful of Muslim immigrants form the backdrop of this Second World War saga. The main protagonist is Younes, an Algerian black marketer who falls into the Gestapo’s net and agrees to spy and inform on a Parisian mosque suspected of pro-resistance and pro-Jewish activities. As this young man witnesses the brutality of the occupying regime first hand, he switches sides to become a freedom fighter.

Independent Films : Lucky (South Africa)

This is the tale of a boy named Lucky and his struggles. When AIDS takes away his parents, he goes to Durban to live with his uncle. The big city ghetto starts giving him hard life lessons, his only solace being an unlikely bond he forms with an elderly Indian neighbor, is spite of racial tensions and linguistic barriers. Lucky  is their story, a coming of age tale that deals with love, loss, self-discovery and the pursuit of happiness.

These films form barely a glimpse of the sheer variety  of contemporary cinema that was shown at TIFF 2011. Keep watching this online film blog for more film festival reviews, celebrity news and independent films.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) took off on Thursday marking its 60^th anniversary. As usual the Melbourne International Film Festival will be highlighting some of the best local and international film in its stage. No matter what your taste would be here you won’t be returning unsatisfied.

The festival which started off on July 21^st with the screening of the movie The Fairy. Melbourne International Film Festival will be concluding on Sunday August 7^th and during this period the festival will screen over 300 feature films and shorts, and will arrange well panel discussions, workshops and question and answer rounds with filmmakers like Morgan Spurlock,  Mike Mills, Alex Gibney .

Some of the anticipated movies of the festival are,

1.      Project Nim

2.      Melancholia

3.      Outrage

4.      Life in a day

5.      Finisterra

6.      Inside the New York Times

7.      The eye of strom

8.      El Valador

9.      Take shelter

10.  Time in Anatolia

Well it is the latest update from Camden that the passes to the 2011 Camden International Film Festival and Points North Documentary Forum are available online now. The above mentioned are on sale now through the organization’s website, camdenfilmfest.org. The 7^th annual Camden International Film Festival will be there from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.

The Camden International Film Festival is a must-attend fest for documentary filmmakers, film lovers and industry giants alike since it is renowned as one of the top 25 international film festivals for documentaries. The quality of the film selection combined with the accessibility of the filmmakers gives attendees an intimate experience not found in other festivals. This year, the festival will screen more than 50 documentary features and shorts followed by discussions with nearly all of the filmmakers.

Running concurrent with the festival, the Points North Documentary Forum serves as a two-day networking session for New England filmmakers to meet key industry leaders. Last year’s forum included participants from the BBC, PBS, Sundance, Tribeca and many others.

“We’re getting extremely excited about this year’s program,” said Ben Fowlie, founder and director of the festival.

“Every year, we’ve had the opportunity to share some amazing and highly captivating films from both emerging and established filmmakers on a number of global topics. This year will be no different, the focus will be on storytelling, and we hope our audiences will find several films that resonate with them. Weaving together the documentary community with our community is what makes CIFF so memorable,” Fowlie said.

The Camden International Film Festival offers two passes for attendees who want to experience it all. The Festival Pass grants admission to all festival screenings and all events associated with the Points North Documentary Forum. The VIP Pass grants the same admission as the Festival Pass plus special events and parties. Weekend passes are available at discounted Early Bird Special prices ranging from $65 to $100 if purchased prior to Aug. 15. After that date, pass prices will rise to $75 to $125.

Well the Opening and Closing Night films will be announced on Aug. 15 2011; apart from this the entire film schedule will be released on Sept. 1. You can visit camdenfilmfest.org for more details on schedule and passes. By the way attendees can also avail special discounts from the festival’s lodging partners including Point Lookout Resort, The Country Inn at Camden Rockport and the Cedar Crest Inn. CIFF 2011 is made possible in part through the generous support of the University of Maine, Maine Magazine and Cellardoor Winery.

The China Film Festival organized by Singapore’s Media expansion Authority kicked off at a local cinema on Monday as part of the inaugural media week Screen Singapore.

The film festival opened with the critically acclaimed Deep in the Clouds, a love story set in the remote mountains of southwestern China. It is directed by Liu Jie and swept four awards at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival last year.

Other films to be featured include The Piano in The Factory, Walking to School and The Dreams of Jinsha. The last to be aired will be Eternal Moment, a box office hit in China directed by Zhang Yibai.

Film has come to be bridge of cultural exchanges between Singapore and China, and the two countries have signed an agreement on co-production of films, said Sam Tan, senior parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development, Youth and Sports.

Wang Fenglin, vice president and secretary general of China Film Producers’ Association, said China now produces over 700 films a year, with the box office worth 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The 2011 China Film Festival is organized by the Media Development Authority of Singapore with the support of the Film Bureau under China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

Following the 2011 China Film Festival in Singapore, China will host a Singapore Film Festival next year.

It was the second time that both parties are collaborating to host film festivals in each other’s country.

Well the G.I. film festival had concluded with a grand weekend in D.C. which had showcased military-themed films this time. The G.I. Film Festival is more than just about winning awards; it’s about filmmakers telling stories of the men and women who fight for our freedom every day.

Amongst the films that will be featured in the G.I. Film Festival is the faith-based “Flag of my Father”, starring William Devane, John Schneider, Andrew Sensenig, and Argentine-American Gigi Erneta.

Directed by Rodney Ray, “Flag of my Father” is a patriotic tale of the struggle to mend broken relationships, heal, and forgive.

Capt. Judith Rainier (Erneta), an Army nurse who was a prisoner of war while serving in Iraq and returns home with severe post-traumatic-stress disorder. She and her veteran father share a strong bond because of their common military experiences, which is a source of jealousy among her brothers.

Fox News Latino caught up with Argentine-American Gigi Erneta to talk to her about her experience with the film, patriotism, and her faith.

“There’s a lot of buzz behind it,” says Erneta.  “It’s more than I thought.  It’s interesting to kind of watch it evolve.”

Erneta says “Flag of my Father” is a very patriotic film that hits home no matter what ethnic background you have.

“I just think that what the American flag stands for really comes out in the film no matter what ethnic background you are,” says Erneta, “I think you’ll walk away going, you know, I’m an American and I’m glad I’m here so especially with what’s going on in the world.”

Erneta said her grandparents, who fled Argentina and eventually moved to the United States, instilled in Erneta a respect and deep love for her country.  Erneta says as other Latinos watch the film, they will remember an appreciation for those that went before them.

“I think they’ll take back how important it is to stand up for what we believe in and how important it is that our parents got us here — or whether it was our grandparents or our great grandparents, whoever got us here,” says adds Erneta, “how awesome it is that we get to be who we are here and express ourselves here and have our culture here. I think the whole point is that’s who we are as Americans and I think that when you leave the theatre, you’ll leave proud of being one”

She expressed that how proud she is of her country and proud of her Latino heritage.  She said, “I think it is important for us to know where our roots are, who we really are.  It makes a lot of sense to me,” and continued saying, “I hear tango and it’s like everything inside of me lights up and it’s almost like I see an empanada and you have to hold me back.  So there’s something to be said with our culture that I think it’s in our genetics”

Docs one of the problems is that people should see that the majority (ie people, especially the events of the film) would not normally see at all. Case in point: how many Republican senators think you’ve seen Michael Moore’s “Sicko”?

Louie Psihoyos best film director last year’s Oscar-winning documentary “Cave”, the idea of a way to solve the problem: he sent copies of the Oscar-winning documentary film, dubbed in Japanese, every family in the village of Taiji in Japan. The village was in the film, which presented a horrific slaughter of dolphins off the coast of Taiji.

“The people in Taiji deserve to know what millions of others around the world have learned about their town,” said Psihoyos. Most of the Japanese people featured in the film were unaware of the hunt or the sale of dolphin meat.

A local group called People Concerned for the Ocean helped to distribute copies of the movie by mail to each household in the village. As of now, Taiji City Hall has confirmed that at least two copies of the DVD have been received and that neither had been watched yet.

It is one of them being monitored? I hope at least some of the residents of Taiji will appear on the DVD and have a look. After all, only a few people to spread the word. The best way to get the hunting of dolphins in Taiji to stop the slaughter of thousands of dolphins is to get the town of Taiji in the arms of this.

The 9thedition of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) kicked off here on Thursday after its inauguration by the state environment and cultural affairs minister, Sanjay Deotale.

Popular Marathi actress Sonalee Kulkarni and her troupe enthralled the audience with their lavani performance. On the occasion of Mughal-e-Azam completing 50 years, noted Kathak dancers Sharvari Jamenis and Payal Vrunda mesmerised the audience with their Kathak performance on melodies and costumes from the landmark film.

Veteran Bollywood actress Shashikala was presented with the Life Time Achievement award. Expressing her gratitude for the award she said, “I hope the audience will love me forever.”

Since eminent actress Saira Banu couldn’t attend the function due to ill health of her husband, Dilip Kumar, director Subash Ghai accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Sachin Dev Burman international award for Creative Music and Sound was given to legendary music composer, Khayyam, who dedicated it to his guru. “I reached here because of my guru, hence I consider the award as the gift of my guru,” he said.

“Puneites are very loving and I have never seen such great connoisseurs of music anywhere else,” Khayyam added.