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Posts Tagged ‘Film Festivals’

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) film program is primarily composed of world premieres of narrative, documentary and short films. As such, it is the leading film festival in the world for African American and urban content. Since its inception, the ABFF has showcased more than 600 films, rewarding and redefining artistic excellence in independent filmmaking.

ABFF marks the celebration of Black and urban-inspired independent films. Its mission is to promote the work of independent filmmakers to diverse communities while cultivating a theatrical market for independent Black cinema nationwide.

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is held each year in South Beach Miami, and attracts close to 3,000 film enthusiasts with a unique mix of celebrities, industry executives, sponsors, and artists. In addition to its film showcases, the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) facilitates networking and is committed to nurturing artists by offering symposiums and educational workshops for actors, filmmakers and writers.

Each year, the ABFF attracts approx 5,000 artists, executives and film fans, providing a strategic vehicle for companies to reach this trendsetting and influential audience. Top-tier corporations have engaged in partnerships with the festival to promote their products, services, multicultural initiatives and branded entertainment content. This support fuels the growth of the festival and furthers the evolution of the Black independent film community. HBO is the festival’s founding sponsor.

History of ABFF

The first American Black Film Festival (originally called the Acapulco Black Film Festival, or ABFF, until the name was changed in 2002) was held in June 1997. The aim of its founders, Jeff Friday, Byron E. Lewis and Warrington Hudlin, was to create a venue at which members of “Black Hollywood” could meet, network, collaborate, and celebrate Black cinema.

Influence of ABFF

The ABFF has been acclaimed for its positive effect on the Black filmmaking community. The festival has through its various programs helped the careers of countless actors, writers and directors. Numerous Hollywood insiders, including director Antoine Fuqua (Director of ‘’Training Day’’ and Charlie Jordan Brookins of MTV Films have endorsed the festival, as well as rapper/actor Common who has stated that, “It’s a good vehicle to get out great art that we want the world to see.

ABFF 2012

The 16th American Black Film Festival is schedule for June 20th – 23rd 2012 at Miami. Traditionally held in July, the event moves to June in 2012 offering participants an opportunity to showcase films on the leading pay network and gain revenue from award prizes. A new mobile entertainment section will launch at the 16th ABFF, to showcase quality short form content ideal for distribution via the internet and mobile devices.

Keep checking this online film blog for updates on the latest industry goings-on and film festival news.

The creators of the ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival have had to cut nearly 500 entries in its first 20 favorites. The festival is in its 15th year, attracts more than 1,200 fansoutside the museum.

Spiak which serves as museum curator, was inspired by a film festival in an old shipyard in Orange County, California, was screened films on the side of a building. The festival has ended, and Pece, a filmmaker in Southern California, wrote to launch a Spiak Arizona. The first one here has attracted more than 500 people.

“I think people are attracted to short films, and there’s such a diverse range of works,” Spiak said. “There are not a lot of places in town where there are art-based, foreign films and that you can watch them outside. And, it’s free.”

The only guideline for the festival is that all entries need to be 10 minutes or less. Other than that, filmmakers are free to pursue any subject and genre.

Tempe’s Jane Lindsay, a photography student at ASU, entered “Dan’s Big Find” this year and was chosen the winner of the AZ Award. The film is based on a story her husband (who is in the film) told her about finding an arrowhead while out target shooting.

“I love to tell a story,” Lindsay said. “Short films, to me, are a lot easier to make because they really pack a punch, and they aren’t too long so the audience gets bored.”

Word of the festival has grown so much that the 482 entries represented 43 states and 36 nations.

“It’s built a reputation as one of the festivals that people are keeping an eye on,” Spiak said. “It’s not intimidating, and a lot of filmmakers feel comfortable showing their films here first. And often times, other festivals pick them up after.”

In one success story, high school student Ryan McCulloch entered “Without You” in the 1998 festival, and it ended up being picked up at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, as well as featured in an HBO documentary.

The festival takes place in the back plaza at the museum, and a large projector screen is mounted on the backside of the building. Guests bring their own chairs, blankets and snacks, and there will also be popcorn and Hawaiian shaved ice for sale.

“This is a community gathering, and I think especially in this day and age, things have changed a lot,” said Spiak. “There is no gathering places must for clients, you have shopping malls, but it’s nothing like bringing your lawn chairs and watch movies together.”

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

First started in 1998 the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) was an a stage to honor great American cinema & cinema artist by  Maine Film Center. Maine Film Center is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enrich, educate and entertain Maine communities through film and art. A 10 day festival were more than 100  best films  show n which represents the best of American independent and international cinema.

This year’s event which started from 15^th July 2011 and will be concluding on 24^th of July. The highlight of this year’s event was the honoring of veteran actor Malcolm McDowell.

Malcolm, 67, was awarded mid-lifetime achievement award on 16^th July. MIFF also arranged special screening to honor and educate his contribution to the younger generations. The films screened includes “A Clockwork Orange,” “Never Apologize” and “Assassin of the Tsar.”

Past recipients of Mid-Life Achievement award include Terrence Malick, Walter Hill, Jonathan Demme, Ed Harris, Lili Taylor.

The festival which is in its 14^th year is organized at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville and Given Auditorium.

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 beautiful Angelina Ristorante in Future, with its water view, was the scene of the celebrity of the sixth annual Film Festival Staten Island and sponsor of the party last night.

Celebrities Island, Fred Cerullo, president and CEO of the Grand Central Partnership, and the “Biggest Loser” runner-up in Alfredo (Frade) leading cable network and the hillside Todt were familiar face was visible last night. And the 1980 theme of the evening, a few other familiar faces – through the double – has become popular in the decade of icons like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper.

“You have a great history here,” announced Donna Maxon, aka The Divine Miss M when I switch on the base. More than 150 supporters and guests present, said Executive Director Cesar Claro, the Staten Island Economic Development Corp., which organizes the festival.

Organizers and sponsors said making the showings free this year “has people very excited and it’s an incentive that is really appealing to the public,” noted Jeannine Marotta, festival director.

Sally Ann Bartels of National Grid, an event sponsor, noted the festival can have an educational purpose with films like the dynamic documentary “Sing Your Song,” which gives young people a chance to know entertainer Harry Belafonte beyond his song “Day-O.”

Visitors got the opportunity to munch on hors d’oeuvres underneath a white tent and listen to a live band. They also got to see performers like David Lenson, 17, of New Dorp, aka Michael Jackson, bust moves for the crowd dressed in a red leather “Thriller” outfit.

In accord with the 1980s theme, Claro said his favorite song was Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon,” and Cerullo said he loves John Hughes’ movies “because they have a real message,” similar, in a way, to what the film festival provides.

“This is really an opportunity for us to put Staten Island in an amazingly positive light, in contrast to how people think we are when what they see on TV is not great works of art, it’s ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Mob Wives,’ and those things don’t really portray who we really are.”

Gorman Bechard filmmaker religion is The Replacements a legendary band from Minneapolis who made his debut as a cast of hard Swilling barely legal (and in case of Tommy Stinson, by virtue of age) known to be noisy rockers.

So when he started to “Color Me Obsessed,” a documentary about the band, Bechard depicts a film that has no physical evidence of their existence. No “Here Comes a Regular” plays in the background, no icon “Let It Be” album cover, no cameo from Paul Westerberg.

“I wanted to make a documentary, and I wanted to do something I was passionate about,” Bechard said in a telephone interview. “I wanted to do something different. I fell in love with her do without music and no pictures of the band. To believe in themselves as people who read the Bible believe in God. To me they were my rock gods.”

“Color Me Obsessed,” which Rolling Stone magazine has called one of the seven best music documentaries of the year, is the closing-night film of the Sound Unseen Film and Music Festival. It will be screened at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Spirit of the North at the Fitger’s Complex. Producer Jan Radder is scheduled to be at the show for a Q&A.

Sound Unseen runs today through Sunday and includes more than 20 films screened at Zinema 2, Teatro Zuccone, Clyde Iron Works and the Spirit of the North. Six of the films are in competition for the festival’s jury prize, which will be determined by a panel of five judges and announced before Bechard’s film at Spirit of the North.

Bechard said he didn’t try to get rights to The Replacements’ music, the photos, the video for “Bastards of Young” that features a stereo speaker that ends up in critical condition. And he certainly didn’t try to snag any interviews with the remaining living band members.

“I’m not a big believer in meeting your idols,” Bechard said. “Some things are better worshipped from afar.”

“Color Me Obsessed” includes interviews with musicians such as Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Tommy Ramone, Grant Hart and Greg Norton of Husker Du and Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, who wrote a novella-length tribute to the band “The Replacements: Let It Be” as part of series of books written about albums.

There are also stories from famous fans like Dave Foley of “The Kids in the Hall,” and actor/comedian Tom Arnold, who lived for a while in Minneapolis. And there are a collection of unknown Gen-Xers who have something to say about “the Mats”.

Fans who have logged in to IMDB.com to review the documentary after seeing it play at film festivals are digging it, taking a page out of the documentary’s style and writing reviews with their own memories of The Replacements.

PopMatters has called it one of the top five most anticipated music documentaries.

The City Pages said, “What the film does best may be introducing or bittersweetly summating The Replacements, but below that is an underlying indictment of the way things have shaken out in rock and roll and, through that, us.”

It made its Twin Cities debut in early May, selling out three shows, according to Sound Unseen’s director of programming Jim Brunzell.

Bechard said he saw The Replacements open for REM at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Conn., in 1983. They were a mess, he recalled.

“I thought they were the worst band I’d ever seen in my life. They were loud and obnoxious.”

That critique changed. Bechard said he probably saw the band perform live 15 times and when they broke up he suffered withdrawal.

The part of the project Bechard said he found most interesting was when six different people would talk about seeing the same show, all with differing views.

“It was wonderful,” Bechard said. “Even if I had Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson in this, telling me their versions, I don’t know if I would believe their version was any more factual than these six. At this point it’s memories.”

Bechard said that is how rock and roll Replacements redefined and their attitude has been very important for the fans.

A selection of five Chinese feature films will debut in Singapore’s cinemas as part of the 2011 China Film Festival.

The screenings will take place alongside Screen Singapore this June.

The five films include award winners, and box-office successes, including the country’s most expensive animated film.

The selection presents a snapshot of China’s vibrant and diverse film industry and highlight a new generation of filmmakers exploring a variety of genres including romance, drama and animation.

The five-day China Film Festival will open on June 6 with the critically acclaimed Deep in the Clouds, a love story set in the remote mountains directed by Liu Jie, which swept four awards at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival last year.

It will close on June 10 with Eternal Moment, a box office hit in China directed by Zhang Yibai and produced by popular actor Li Yapeng, who also starred in the film opposite top-rated actress Xu Jinglei.

The film selection also includes The Piano in The Factory, and Walking to School (pictured above), which was conferred Best Children’s Film at several festivals.

Completing the line-up is The Dreams of Jinsha, a hand-drawn animation masterpiece that took five years and US$11 million to complete, and which was one of 15 films to qualify for the Best Animation Feature at this year’s Oscars.

The 2011 China Film Festival is organised by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and supported by the Film Bureau under China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)

This is the second time that both parties are collaborating to host film festivals in each other’s country, following the inaugural Singapore Film Festival in Beijing and Shanghai in 2007, and the first China Film Festival in Singapore in 2008.

The 2011 China Film Festival is a co-located event of Screen Singapore.

Screen Singapore is positioned as the country’s first international cinema event that brings together movie stars, renowned directors and eminent film industry professionals to exchange ideas explore business opportunities and showcase film products.

The week-long event from June 5 to June 12 comprises a trade show, conferences, master classes and nightly red carpet premieres.

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”

Edson two directors will be present in its inaugural Home Grown Film Festival this weekend.

“It’s a fairly new thing,” says Nova theater director Sandy Moore, adding that the festival is also a regular film festival takes place in spring and autumn.

Going with local filmmakers “was the next step up,” Moore explained.

On Saturday, April 30, audiences will see “Shi-Shi-Etko”, a 12-minute film by Kate Kroll, which details a young Aboriginal girl’s last four days before going to residential school, and “Hair Trigger”, by John Groshko.

The latter film, which lasts 50 minutes, is about a cop who goes on a personal vendetta to kill the man responsible for his brother’s death.

On Sunday, May 1, Kroll’s documentary “No Fun City” will be shown.

The 80-minute movie deals with the battle to find a home for Vancouver’s tight-knit underground music scene. Audiences will also see “Hair Trigger”.

This will make the Sunday showing the longer one, said Moore.

Admission to the festival is by silver collection, the proceeds of which will go to Habitat for Humanity.

Moore said that organization was chosen before the festival’s name was, but the two happened to fit together very well.

She said word of the festival has spread through social media and through some traditional media, as well.

“I’m just hoping that our film festival folks will come out (to this one) as well.”

The aim is to make the Home Grown Festival an annual event, said Moore.

“I know there are other filmmakers around.”