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Posts Tagged ‘Film Festivals’

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.”

Peruvian film Undertow (Contracorriente), directed by Javier Fuentes Leon, won the Best Feature Film at the 21st Film Festival Melbourne Queer Australia.

The Peruvian film has received many audience awards in festivals such as Sundance, Cartagena, Miami, Montreal, Chicago and Utrecht (Holland).

The plot takes place in a small fishing village on the northern coast of Peru and is the story of two lovers, Miguel (Cristian Mercado) and the plastic artist Santiago (Manolo Cardona), who are violently separated by a tragic event.

According to Fuentes Leon, the film examines homosexuality, love from many angles, life, beliefs, religion and even death as a door to liberation.

The Peruvian-born director is currently working on two films form a trilogy with Undertow.

2011-Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) announced today Tribeca (online) Film Festival, an innovative digital, which will allow spectators to watch domestic and short films for a free public and the world to collaborate with Industry experts and filmmakers FFT’s 10th edition will take place simultaneously in lower Manhattan from April 20 to May 1.

The beginning of 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (online) provides avenues national film new movie fans to experience a film festival. Tribeca (online) uses the latest digital video technology and the Web to deliver interactive and immersive experience unlike any other content, re-contextualization and presentation of the Festival.

The multi-dimensional experience features five areas: Festival Streaming Room, Live From…, Tribeca Q&A, Filmmaker Feed, and the Future of Film blog.

The Streaming Room will host six feature films from the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, including two that are making their world premieres at TFF, and 18 short films, four of which are world premieres, and 9 of which retrospective short films from past Tribeca Film Festivals. Each film will have three to five 24-hour screening windows, during which there will be a select number of “seats” available.

In Live From….online audiences across the globe will have the ability to watch live streams of Festival events, including the opening press conference, red carpet premieres, and the award show. Viewers will also have the opportunity to engage with other audience members and onsite participants.

Tribeca Q&A, which launches today, will offer the online audience the opportunity to engage with the larger online community, one another, and experts by submitting questions to a pool of 20-25 exciting film and new media experts from Tribeca’s Jane Rosenthal, Geoff Gilmore, and Nancy Schafer, to Whoopi Goldberg, and Brian Williams, and filmmakers David Gordon Green, and Zach Braff, plus a host of participating Tribeca (Online) filmmakers, programmers, actors, jurors, film experts, and more. Community members will vote on individual questions, and top-rated queries will be submitted for official response, made available to the public.

The Filmmaker Feed contains aggregated information on all Tribeca (Online) Film Festival filmmakers, each of whom will have a custom page on the feed, with a biography, interviews, favorite links, social media feeds (Twitter/Facebook), blog posts, vide updates, and more.

The Future of Film blog brings together experts from the world of cinema and technology to comment on the changing environment of the messages in the media as well. Participants will be announced in early April.

The American Media Asia Center presents the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) every March. The SFIAAFF is the most prestigious showcase for new Asian American and Asian films in North America annually present approximately 120 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose.

SFIAAFF also equipped with the best of Asian American music and digital media and interactive. Since 1982, SFIAAFF has been an important launching pad for independent filmmakers Asian Americans and an important source for new Asian cinema.

“It’s [SFIAAFF] great. I’m really proud to be part of it because it’s a community. It really is a community. And it’s great to see the variety of films this year. We’ve gone beyond talking and complaining about Asian American issues and being a minority to just telling great stories. That’s exciting to me.”

-Daniel Wu, Actor
“What began as a way for Asian Americans to counteract negativity and neglect in American mainstream media has blossomed into an acclaimed draw for actors, producers, musicians and artists of all kinds.”

- Kevin Lee, AsianWeek
“The pressures to make a living and to fit in, without denying one’s parents or losing sight of one’s origins, are the stuff of cliché, or fiction. To the contrary, the S.F. International Asian American Film Festival reminds us, in a variety of ways from a dozen directions, that’s reality. Up to the minute and at the same time the latest chapter in an unfolding history. Our collective history, I might add.”

- Michael Fox, KQED Arts and Culture
“This is one of the finest, most respected Asian American film festivals in the country, and they always put together a really fun, amazing program. I’ve had a close relationship and affinity for the good people who put this festival on for years. SFIAAFF rules.”

- Angry Asian Man
“… SFIAAFF event has grown from a niche to a major competitor in the international festival circuit with more than enough votes and Crossing heavy justify his nickname.”

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.

Tropfest, the largest festival of short films, announced today that is bringing the world-famous festival in the Middle East and North Africa. The new event, Tropfest Arabia, will premiere in Abu Dhabi in November 2011 with great prizes on offer.

Award poolavailable include cash prizes of $ 15,000, $ 10,000 and $ 5,000, a trip to Los Angeles the week facilitated meetings with senior executives of the journey of the film industry in Australia to attend Tropfest 2012, the opportunity to work with producers established and directors of regional production, may be an international standard training sessions provided twofour54 tadreeb and get the latest production and post production twofour54 intaj.

Tropfest Arabia aims to become one of the most influential and popular short film in the cinema calendar in the region. One of his priorities will be to help fill the community in the region film growth by adopting a basic approach and support the talent that would otherwise be excluded from festivals in the region.

One of Australia’s and New York’s most iconic cultural events, Tropfest was founded by the award winning actor and director John Polson, as a short film festival for friends and family at the Tropicana Café in Sydney, Australia almost 20 years ago. Today it is a world class platform and is widely regarded for its support of new film making talent through festivals and film maker initiatives. Tropfest Australia 2011 takes place on 20th February.

Commenting on the launch of Tropfest Arabia, John Polson, founder of Tropfest said: “It is clear that over the last few years the short film industry has been growing throughout the Middle East. As this industry continues to develop so too does the need to provide budding film makers with a channel through which to showcase their creative talents. We hope that the introduction of Tropfest Arabia will do just this.”

Criteria for entering Tropfest Arabia are that the film must be made specifically for the festival, with the first public screening happening during the event. Each film must be no more than seven minutes long (including credits) and must contain a specific object, known as the Tropfest Signature Item (TSI).

Each year filmmakers wait with anticipation for the announcement of the coming festival’s Tropfest Signature Item. Some of the films entered are heavily inspired by the Item and others have only small and sometimes hidden references to it. The Tropfest Signature Item is designed to test the creativity of professional and amateur filmmakers by challenging them to reference it in their film. The signature item for the first running of Tropfest Arabia will be ‘STAR’.

Aspiring film makers across the region can submit their entries to Tropfest Arabia until 22nd September 2011. Judging will commence on 1st October 2011, with the 12 short-listed finalist films picked by a specialist jury announced on 16th October 2011. Those short listed films will then be premiered and screened at the Tropfest Arabia festival in Abu Dhabi, with a celebrity jury seeing the films live for the first time and picking the winner for 2011 at the beginning of November.

In order to be eligible to submit an entry, participants must be a citizen of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region including Algeria, Bahrain , Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. Entrants must conform to the religious, cultural and political sensitivities of the region and films must be appropriate for public screening in Abu Dhabi.

Support for Tropfest twofour54 main sponsor is Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi government initiative to develop a world-class Arabic media content creation and entertainment.

Change and joviality were a thrilling combina­tion at the Global Issues Film Festival. This great mixture was obvious in the movie Yes Men Fix the World, directed by Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonan­no, and Kurt Engfehr.

The film is about the epic journey of Andy and Mike hoaxing many big cor­porations to prove different points about the cor­rupt economics the world revolves around. Andy and Mike pose as many different CEO’s and big organizations’ leaders to get messages across to the business world. Major disasters such as Bhopal and Hurricane Katrina have left many unanswered questions, and it is up to Andy and Mike to give the world the answers it is looking for.

The excit­ing and revolting antics of Andy and Mike toss the audience into a world of corrupt and greedy cor­porations.

Cleverness and the ability to make a worthy web­site allowed Andy and Mike to penetrate the BBC and broadcast a fake announcement. It was the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, and Dow chemical had not taken care of what was left of their mess in Bhopal. As a result, Andy and Mike announced that Dow chemical was going to pay 12 billion dollars to the disaster victims of Bhopal and help fix the problem there. This was a cruel gag on the Indian victims, but it also made Dow chemical lose billions of dollars from their stock crashing. The satisfaction that I felt could have been the same feelings felt by the Bhopal victims after Dow lost a huge amount of money.

When Andy and Mike revealed the human flesh energy concept, acting as if they were Exxon execu­tives, many people at the conference were grossed out, but a few were still interested. Andy and Mike wanted the concept to be appalling, but the greed in the investors came from the profits the human flesh could bring. As I was grossed out at the fact of holding a human flesh candle, the use of hu­man flesh for candles was obviously not enough to make everyone squeamish. Andy and Mike were great at using grotesque concepts like this one, which people know are ludicrous, to prove that everyone is greedy in our society, and that even ob­vious moral standards do not stand in the way of trying to make money.

The final hoax was on the contractors who have used Hurricane Katrina to better off New Orleans the way they want. Andy and Mike take a look at public housing that is being torn down and tak­en away from people who were returning to their home after the hurricane. The film shows the feel­ings and emotions of the people being affected by this hunt for profits.

So Andy and Mike took the situation into their own hands and acted as mem­bers of the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the city conference. There they said that the housing was not being torn down and that the government was intervening in the issue. The suspense and excitement from the cast acting like government officials is unbelievable. The im­pact of their involvement goes beyond the ordi­nary imagination.

The humor and the cunning of the Yes Men set the world takes the viewer into a new perspective, which shows the association corrupt and greedy that we all live, often without realizing it. Andy and Mike reveal how companies are themselves, and the sacrifice of a few people here and there, usually in the hundreds of thousands, to get what you want.

Very often they are not even held accountable, to enjoy the freedom of individuals, but not its responsibility. The corporate greed can overcome humanity which we belong. Andy and Mike are doing a terrific job of guiding you along the CIES and corrupt political organizations greedy, and we hope you will leave with the feeling that you can be civil and humanitarian.

How publicists, filmmakers and journalists made their way out of Park City, Utah, Sunday, and turned the land back over to its rightful owners (for snowboarders and ski bums), we decided to look back at the past 11 days only 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Six of the story grew. (Well, not too few others, but you’re a nice ring to it.) Here they are, in no particular order:

The cultists: This may well be remembered as the year cults and their leaders became a Sundance fixture. Two highly buzzed-about, if very different, films put a cult front-and-center: Sean Durkin’s flashback-happy “Martha Marcy May Marlene” cast Elizabeth Olsen as a woman who seeks to escape the psychological clutches of a charismatic but murderous leader, while Zal Batmanglij’s “Lost”-like “Sound of My Voice,” about a cult figure (Brit Marling) who may or may not be from the future, provided some of the most well-received storytelling of the festival.  Both movies will  have a cultural impact beyond Park City — “MMMM” will get a major release from Fox Searchlight, and the second could well end up as a television pilot and subsequent series, according to the movie’s representatives.

Rebirthing: It may not be the most talked-about current-events documentary to come out of the festival (that honor probably belongs to Morgan Spurlock’s “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”). But when the festival fades into history, time could well show that the 9/11 movie “Rebirth” — which will be a part of the national 9/11 museum and will likely get theatrical and television distribution too — as the Sundance product with the longest reach. First-time filmmaker Jim Whitaker spent nearly a decade dealing with the messy emotional business of people who lived through, and with, the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His movie looks to be a factor for even longer than that.

Tickle Me Emo: At Sundance 2010, “Blue Valentine” took the pining and emotional shoe-gazing pretty deep; this year’s “Like Crazy” takes its story of lovers divided by an ocean a level deeper. Whether or not Drake Doremus’ drama becomes a hit when it’s released by Paramount this year, it already seems bound to usher in a new round of sensitivity in independent-film circles. And much like “An Education” did for Carey Mulligan at the festival two years ago, “Like Crazy,” which won two major prizes from the jury, heralds the arrival of a young British actress (in this case, the vulnerable, young Felicity Jones).

The actress bounty: In addition to Jones, the festival broke out two new actresses who will book big gigs and may well end up in award conversations down the road: the aforementioned Olsen and Marling. Each actually starred in two Sundance movies that could make a box-office dent (Olsen in the thriller “Silent House,” which will come out from Lionsgate, and Marling in the sci-fi drama “Another Earth,” which will come out from Fox Searchlight). Last year, the actress discovery was essentially a group of one: Jennifer Lawrence of “Winter’s Bone.” This year, it’s a Jones-Olsen-Marling hat trick.

Nim’s Island and the Land of OWN: We’ve known for years how strong Sundance is in the documentary category (Kenneth Turan runs down some of the notable ones at this year’s festival). James Marsh’s “Project Nim” was one of the standouts about a group of scientists trying to play god with a chimp (the movie will air on HBO and get a big theatrical release from the company that released “winter’s Bone”). Spurlock’s “Greatest Movie Ever Sold” will get a similarly big theatrical push. And Sundance documentaries will be at the fore even further with Oprah Winfrey’s new network, OWN, which has purchased a slew of docs that played the festival, including the warmly regarded Chastity Bono sex-change film “Becoming Chaz.”

Hoisted sales: This may seem a little to congratulate themselves sales executive job well done, but under a blizzard of numbers and proclamations business is a very real consequences for viewers. Sometimes festivals are to see a movie once, and those who are unable to take the festival are unlikely to display. Not this year. Nearly two dozen films received distribution contracts and will be available for viewing on any platform, many real theaters. It is also the group of films that came with the distribution agreements in place. Prepare all year at Sundance.

A large number of benefits to go along with being a celebrity. At the Sundance Film Festival, which includes a trip to the Often-buzz-on gift suites?

America Ferrera, Rick Fox, and Chaske Spencer of “Twilight” are some of the celebrities who hit up after GBK gifts this season. The suite is filled with everything from watches Puma serum Revitalash eyelash extension and a new hair conditioner thickens.

Utahn Christine Heathman represented that line and the Glymed Plus skin care line. Glymed handed out silver bags stocked with four of its specialty products. “It has been great coverage for us because being a professional company we don’t have that exposure of over the counter,” Heathman said.

Many of the products centered on beauty – skin care and hair care. SH-RD is a new line from Taiwan. Celebrities at Sundance got first crack at the protein cream.

Handbags, jewelry and art also were up for grabs.

Christie Communications promoted a philosophy as well as a product. All of its products are green, organic, and natural and give back to the community.

“What we’re doing is influencing the influencers,” Christie says. “So, we feel if we can teach them to shop organically or consider the impact they make as a brand themselves as a celeb, we can change the world together.”

Retailers are hoping their giveaways pay off with a celebrity endorsement, a news story, word of mouth — whatever makes their product the next big thing.

Near Main Street at the Talent Resources gifting suite, celebrities like Anne Heche, Carmen Electra, rapper Lil Jon and baseball players Dustin Pedroia and Andre Ethier stopped by to check out a variety of gifts, including cookies from Wonderland Bakery.

A bakery representative told KSL celebrity endorsements can translate to a huge boost in sales. Gifting suites also give businesses the opportunity to make connections that can help to grow their company.

Enticement to suites is difficult to find. They are generally those in the entertainment industry. But the public will be less frequently encountered Gifts on Main Street. These include hats, shirts, movie posters and other memorabilia.

A selection of 30 feature films and audiovisual works from short films, animation and documentaries made between 1961 and 2009, comprise the display of Cuba as the guest of honor at the International Film Festival in Mexico City (FICCMEXICO).

The meeting, planned by the Ministry of Culture of the Federal District, with support from the Ministry of Tourism, will be held from 4 to 13 February at different sites of Mexico City, among which the Zocalo.

The festival will consist of about 130 titles and sections such as the Mexican Film Festival, will present recent films of national cinematography, including some premieres in the capital. This edition will also feature two competitive sections: National and International and the back, to provide an opportunity to learn about the most important in the history of film making in the Caribbean country and its recent production.

Before 1959 there was in Cuba a film industry, but only isolated attempts, usually co-produced film with Mexico, Spain and Argentina, among other Latin American countries. With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution created the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), considered the real take-off of Cuban cinema with a distinct cultural identity. Since 1959 the Cuban cinema began to participate in festivals and film.

Thanks to director Santiago Alvarez, separated from the creator and director of new talent, the school was a real documentary. Around these years he founded the Cinematheque of Cuba, who was the first Latin American to store your most important titles of the film, and set the art cinema to serve the people.