The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Samantha N. Sheppard and J.E. Smyth as the 2021 Academy Film Scholars on Monday.
The annual grant is given to established scholars whose projects are focused on some aspect of filmmaking and the film industry. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Sheppard and Smyth each $25,000 on the basis of their proposals.
Sheppard is an associate professor at Cornell University. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in Film and Television Studies and Women and Gender Studies from Dartmouth College. Her book project, “A Black W/hole: Phantom Cinemas and the Reimagining of Black Women’s Media Histories,” will address the voids in cinema and media scholarship relating to Black women’s creative practices, histories, traditions, and discourses. Through a series of case studies,...
The annual grant is given to established scholars whose projects are focused on some aspect of filmmaking and the film industry. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Sheppard and Smyth each $25,000 on the basis of their proposals.
Sheppard is an associate professor at Cornell University. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in Film and Television Studies and Women and Gender Studies from Dartmouth College. Her book project, “A Black W/hole: Phantom Cinemas and the Reimagining of Black Women’s Media Histories,” will address the voids in cinema and media scholarship relating to Black women’s creative practices, histories, traditions, and discourses. Through a series of case studies,...
- 7/19/2021
- by Lawrence Yee
- The Wrap
The Academy has chosen its film scholars this year and is not letting the coronavirus pandemic get in the way of one of AMPAS’ most important programs, at least in terms of serious studies relating to the film industry. Fittingly, considering Oscar’s drive toward greater diversity, both projects involve issues revolving around movies and their depictions of the Black community.
Racquel Gates and Rebecca Prime have been chosen as 2020 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects, Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness and Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968, explore in depth the topic of race in Hollywood. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Gates and Prime $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship.
Racquel Gates and Rebecca Prime have been chosen as 2020 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects, Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness and Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968, explore in depth the topic of race in Hollywood. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Gates and Prime $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship.
- 7/30/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Toni Morrison, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who chronicled the black American experience, passed away Monday night at the age of 88. Her death, at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, was announced by her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. The cause of death was complications of pneumonia, according to a spokesperson. (Via The New York Times.) The author of 11 novels, including “Beloved,” “Sula,” and “Song of Solomon,” Morrison became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993.
Morrison’s biggest screen legacy was Jonathan Demme’s 1998 adaptation of “Beloved,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Set during the American Civil War, the story follows a former slave who is haunted by a poltergeist and visited by a reincarnation of her daughter. The film starred Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Thandie Newton, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.
In June, Magnolia Pictures...
Morrison’s biggest screen legacy was Jonathan Demme’s 1998 adaptation of “Beloved,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. Set during the American Civil War, the story follows a former slave who is haunted by a poltergeist and visited by a reincarnation of her daughter. The film starred Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Thandie Newton, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design.
In June, Magnolia Pictures...
- 8/6/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Allyson Nadia Field and Mindy Johnson have been named 2019 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects explore the impact of minstrelsy on early American film and the accomplishments of women in the formation of early animation.
The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Field and Johnson $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
“Field and Johnson’s research will shed new light on the history of the film industry through two distinct lenses,” said Marcus Hu, chair of the Academy’s Grants Committee. “This committee is honored to support them, and we look forward to seeing how their work impacts our historical understanding and appreciation of motion pictures for generations to come.”
Field is an associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. Her book, Minstrelsy-Vaudeville-Cinema: American Popular Culture and Racialized Performance in Early Film, reassesses...
The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Field and Johnson $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
“Field and Johnson’s research will shed new light on the history of the film industry through two distinct lenses,” said Marcus Hu, chair of the Academy’s Grants Committee. “This committee is honored to support them, and we look forward to seeing how their work impacts our historical understanding and appreciation of motion pictures for generations to come.”
Field is an associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. Her book, Minstrelsy-Vaudeville-Cinema: American Popular Culture and Racialized Performance in Early Film, reassesses...
- 5/30/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Cannes Ends with…Awards — 3rd of 3
The heightened security with machine gun armed soldiers and policemen constantly patrolling was intensified after the Manchester Massacre. With a pall over the festival, one minute of silence was observed for the 22 murdered and flags hung at half-mast. In addition to that, the sudden death at 57 of the Busan Film Festival deputy director Kim Ji-seok and that of the James Bond star Roger Moore brought the film world into a new perspective as we join the larger world to face the random indications of human mortality. High security vs. cinema as a sanctuary of freedom is highlighted this year like no other time that I can recall in my 31 years here.President of the jury, Pedro Almodovar
But life does go on, the jury judges, the stars get press attention on the red carpet and the rest of us continue to wait patiently in...
The heightened security with machine gun armed soldiers and policemen constantly patrolling was intensified after the Manchester Massacre. With a pall over the festival, one minute of silence was observed for the 22 murdered and flags hung at half-mast. In addition to that, the sudden death at 57 of the Busan Film Festival deputy director Kim Ji-seok and that of the James Bond star Roger Moore brought the film world into a new perspective as we join the larger world to face the random indications of human mortality. High security vs. cinema as a sanctuary of freedom is highlighted this year like no other time that I can recall in my 31 years here.President of the jury, Pedro Almodovar
But life does go on, the jury judges, the stars get press attention on the red carpet and the rest of us continue to wait patiently in...
- 5/29/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Abbas Kiarostami had one of the most acclaimed filmographies of any working director when he died Monday at the age of 76, but the godfather of the Iranian New Wave was expected to make a major change during the next chapter of his career by exploring more experimental work like art installations and performance art.
Read More: Here’s What It’s Like to Make A Short Film with Abbas Kiarostami in 10 Days
Kiarostami had told former MoMA senior curator Laurence Kardish, who first met the filmmaker at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, that he was very serious about moving beyond traditional cinema and being accepted by the art world. “He was thinking about ways of expressing himself in installation art and performance,” Kardish told IndieWire, adding that Kiarostami had written multiple live performance pieces that resembled plays. “He was very interested in new modes of expression.” The filmmaker has also...
Read More: Here’s What It’s Like to Make A Short Film with Abbas Kiarostami in 10 Days
Kiarostami had told former MoMA senior curator Laurence Kardish, who first met the filmmaker at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, that he was very serious about moving beyond traditional cinema and being accepted by the art world. “He was thinking about ways of expressing himself in installation art and performance,” Kardish told IndieWire, adding that Kiarostami had written multiple live performance pieces that resembled plays. “He was very interested in new modes of expression.” The filmmaker has also...
- 7/7/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
MoMA has fired its Assistant Curator of Film Sally Berger after 30 years at the organization, the museum’s Chief Curator of Film Rajendra Roy confirmed in an emailed statement.
“My actions reflect several complex and substantive issues, and are the result of a long and deliberative process that Sally has been part of,” Roy wrote. “As painful as this decision has been, I stand by it.”
Berger could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
MoMA spokeswoman Margaret Doyle told IndieWire the organization could not discuss the details surrounding personnel issues. Facebook posts from more than a dozen acquaintances of Berger’s seemed to suggest the reason for her termination was related to the canceling of a film that was scheduled to play at MoMA’s 2016 Doc Fortnight festival in February.
Last week, Roy issued a statement expressing regret for pulling “Under the Sun,” a documentary about North Korea, from the festival, saying that the decision was “made by the festival’s curator without my knowledge or input.” Roy called the film “a remarkable documentary that was wrongly disinvited.”
Though North Korea’s government allowed “Under the Sun” to be shot after approving the script, cast, and several other aspects, director Vitaly Mansky edited the film to reveal this manipulation, showing how the country attempted to exert control of the production, The New York Times reported.
Earlier this year, Berger wrote an email to the film’s distributor in which she expressed concern over potential retaliation from North Korea over screening the documentary. The concerns stemmed from the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures that the U.S. attributed to North Korea in response to the 2014 film “The Interview,” the Times reported. Berger wrote that the doc “simply came in too late to review all the possible ramifications of showing it.”
Former MoMA film curator Laurence Kardish told IndieWire in an email, “I no longer understand what goes on in my old stomping grounds…Doesn’t a curator have the right to pick and choose what is to be shown under his/her auspices?”
Kardish added that he also found the timing of Roy’s apology confusing. “Why is MoMA apologizing now for a film it did not show nor even announce it was going to show four months ago, and why is this newsworthy?” he wrote.
Roy wrote in his statement that MoMA “will maintain our commitment to showing the work of marginalized and under recognized communities and filmmakers and to combating censorship wherever we can.”
Related storiesDonald Glover Joins The Cast of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'Michael Keaton Back In Talks To Join 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' As VillainJazzed About 'The King of Jazz'...
“My actions reflect several complex and substantive issues, and are the result of a long and deliberative process that Sally has been part of,” Roy wrote. “As painful as this decision has been, I stand by it.”
Berger could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
MoMA spokeswoman Margaret Doyle told IndieWire the organization could not discuss the details surrounding personnel issues. Facebook posts from more than a dozen acquaintances of Berger’s seemed to suggest the reason for her termination was related to the canceling of a film that was scheduled to play at MoMA’s 2016 Doc Fortnight festival in February.
Last week, Roy issued a statement expressing regret for pulling “Under the Sun,” a documentary about North Korea, from the festival, saying that the decision was “made by the festival’s curator without my knowledge or input.” Roy called the film “a remarkable documentary that was wrongly disinvited.”
Though North Korea’s government allowed “Under the Sun” to be shot after approving the script, cast, and several other aspects, director Vitaly Mansky edited the film to reveal this manipulation, showing how the country attempted to exert control of the production, The New York Times reported.
Earlier this year, Berger wrote an email to the film’s distributor in which she expressed concern over potential retaliation from North Korea over screening the documentary. The concerns stemmed from the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures that the U.S. attributed to North Korea in response to the 2014 film “The Interview,” the Times reported. Berger wrote that the doc “simply came in too late to review all the possible ramifications of showing it.”
Former MoMA film curator Laurence Kardish told IndieWire in an email, “I no longer understand what goes on in my old stomping grounds…Doesn’t a curator have the right to pick and choose what is to be shown under his/her auspices?”
Kardish added that he also found the timing of Roy’s apology confusing. “Why is MoMA apologizing now for a film it did not show nor even announce it was going to show four months ago, and why is this newsworthy?” he wrote.
Roy wrote in his statement that MoMA “will maintain our commitment to showing the work of marginalized and under recognized communities and filmmakers and to combating censorship wherever we can.”
Related storiesDonald Glover Joins The Cast of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'Michael Keaton Back In Talks To Join 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' As VillainJazzed About 'The King of Jazz'...
- 6/15/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
This year the Art House Convergence has seen a huge jump in attendance. Eleven years ago when Sundance initiated the Art House Convergence a small handful of arthouse theater owners were in attendance. Five years ago when I began coming, there were more exhibitors plus the distributors of art house cinema began to come to chat and discuss their offerings. The congenial mix of the two charmed me. It reminded me of the early days of Sundance in the late 80s when acquisitions execs all knew and liked each other and we were able to cover all the ground without stress.
This year there were so many more people - about 600 total - including vendors of everything an exhibitor must need plus a parallel event of the Film Festival Alliance, a great initiative of Ifp established in 2010 in which festivals get together to discuss mutual interests.
The confluence of the smaller regional festivals and the art house theaters is a natural fit since the festivals are held in the theaters and bring in the community, obviously a desired outcome of art house exhibitors. All that combined makes for a much larger event than ever before and points toward even greater growth for Ahc, something perhaps to be desired but also something which perhaps will not be quite so welcoming for newcomers as the earlier events.
The topics covered in the break out sessions are a large part about the logistics of U.S. art house operations from creating fan bases and membership. Another large part focuses on festival logistics from starting a film festival – and here I want to give a plug to Jon Gann, the founder of DC Shorts Film Festival for his new book, So, You Want to Start a Film Festival: Conversations with Top Festival Creators -- to the panel “Conversation with Sundance Senior Manager Adam Montgomery” in which Montgomery discussed Sundance’s process of accepting submissions, the work flow, planning, technology, usage tips and more.
Some awards by way of recognition to those who established indies as a going concern and are keeping it going through their hard work and devotion were Gary Meyer, founder of Landmark Theaters in 1975, Jan Klingenhofer and Chapin Cutter.
Niches and small business introducing themselves included the former Emerging Pictures executive Barry Rebo with his new startup CineConductor, along with his international partner Ymagis. The service for a $75 per month fee allows theaters to download unlimited DCPs (The Digital Cinema Package is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema (DC) audio, image, and data streams.) from all distributors – an easy and cheaper way for theaters to show more films at various times during the week.
Barry Rebo of CineConductor says, “We had a terrific Art House Convergence. We arrived with 51 high profile arthouse members and left with close to 65, maybe more once we re-connect with ones now tied up at the actual festival.
Current venues are both evangelizing our value to new venues and lobbying rights holders to deliver their booked film via the CineConductor service rather than hard drives. It not only save the venues money it makes their day-to-day operations ever more efficient.
We also have two high profile international film agencies we are servicing via the portal - UniFrance’s ongoing Young French Cinema 2 and Tiff & TeleFilm Canada’s upcoming See The North series.
More information about CineConductor: Click this link.
Considering we only debuted the system - really a 'soft opening' - at last year’s Ahc and connected the first batch of venues beginning in June of ‘15 getting to 51 quality sites by the end of the first indicates the service is being seen as being both highly cost effective (venues join on a Network Access Fee basis - no charge for equipment and only $75.00 per month for Unlimited Dcp deliveries of Specialty Film & Event Cinema programs offered by their rights holder via CineConductor.
Rights Holders (Rh) - traditional distribution companies; international film advocacy groups; international sales agents; the filmmakers themselves pay nothing today to post on the CineConductor portal. They pay only $50.00 per feature Dcp delivery Includes Kdm if requested) and $10.00 per Dcp trailer set (flat and scope) once they accept an engagement directly from a participating venue. It’s a great deal for both the exhibition and distribution sides of the arthouse field.
For the broader arthouse community - exhibitors, distributors and audiences - our decision to go this way was based on our belief that by offering a flat fee, more valuable content is made available on more screens. More onscreen diversity will drive a more diverse audience. I’m happy to report it’s already working as planned.
What we have created is truly and international platform. My investor/ parent company, Ymagis, is Paris-based and operates all across Europe. See www.ymagis.com "
Another endeavor of note is Benjamin Oberman’s (Film Festival Flix) mountain climbing film “Citadel” around which he can mobilize literally millions of outdoors sports folk through organizations he has formed alliances with in every region of the U.S. This type of specialized distribution is one excellent way into the future! Compared to his development of this last year, he has moved miles ahead.
Another to watch is Bobbi Thompson as she creates pop-up theaters in studio spaces with art exhibition for adults with learning disabilities and other handicaps.
An example of the new types of festivals is that of Gary Meyer, always a pioneer from his launching of Landmark theaters, of animation showcases, of Telluride Film Festival programming to his newest, Eat Drink Films. Based in a San Francisco his site discusses film and food and hosts recently Real Food Media also announced the launch of its third-annual contest with a call for submissions of super-short films on underreported issues, unique change-makers and creative solutions to foster a broad, public conversation about solving our global food system’s most intractable problems – from hunger to diet-related illnesses to environmental crises.
And Ahc has gone international. Last year a few folks from France, Europa Cinemas and the U.S. in Progress in Poland (American Film Festival’s Ula Sniegowska) and in France (Adeline Monzier of Unifrance) were here. This year they are here again and joined by Brigitte Hubmann of Telefilm Canada with film packages available directly to theaters via Barry Rebo’s CineConductor, a model that German films and all other national film entities should emulate. Also attending this year is Europa International, a consortium of 40 European international sales agents from 13 European countries looking to find direct outlets to theaters without the distribution middleman. This will become increasingly important at Netflix swopes down on worldwide digital rights acquisitions. TrustNordisk’s head of sales, Susan Wendt from Denmark represented Europa International here.
Europa International’s panel presented European case studies on ways to attract new audiences in the era of social media with an eye toward directing young people towards “quality” cinema and fostering critical minds while forming partnership strategies included Justin Camileri of Euro Media Forum, Fatima Djoumer of Europa Cinemas, Matts Gillmor of Palladium, Elisa Giovannelli of Cineteca Bologna and Justyna Kociszewska of Kino Lab.
U.S. distributor Neil Friedman’s Menemsha Films is here with the Jonathan Pryce film “Dough” a funny and feel-good trans-cultural mix proving ‘you don’t have to be Jewish’ to love this film. Representing Menemsha at Ahc is former United King acquisitions executive from Israel, Oded Horowitz, who has now moved to California with his partner and their 6 year old twin girls. Diarah N’Daw-Spech of ArtMattan is here among now old friends managing to inject some diversity into a little too homogenous population of film lovers.
This place is full of 'our' people, that is, we-the-now-older generation who got this thing going in the 80s: those I mentioned above plus Paul Cohen, Ira Deutchman, Anne Thompson, Mj Pekos (Dada Films), Larry Greenberg (Momentum/ eOne), Richard Abramowitz (Abramarama), Cary Jones (IFC), Peter Baxter (Slamdance), Peter Becker (Janus) (who was a young one when we began but was there - and our sympathy to him for his father’s passing… whose colleague Jonathan Turrell whose father Saul in those days in print distribution at Janus Films was one of New York’s most colorful figures), Ron Diamond (Animation Show of Shows), Peter Belsito (SydneysBuzz), Mark Fishkin (California Film Institute), Christian Gaines (ArtPrize), Larry Kardish (Board member and former head of NY Film Society, Lincoln Center, now with Chatham Film Club), Greg Laemmle of Laemmle Theaters, Los Angeles’ preeminent indie arthouse started by his grandfather Carl Laemmle, former head of Universal (!), Richard Lorber (Kino Lorber), Scott Mansfield (monterey media), Mike Thomas (Theatre Properties) and Michael Donaldson (Donaldson & Callif).
After the panel “Why Critics Matter: A Conversation with Anne Thompson and Sam Adams” moderated by Ira Deutchman, a discussion of contemporary film criticism and its importance within the independent exhibition community created a flurry of comments on the Ahc newsletter which you can read along with other year round commentaries of importance by subscribing to Google Groups "Art House Convergence". Sam Adams himself writes,
“In a national survey covering 25 art house theaters and 20,000 patrons, Avenue Isr's Woody Smith said that reviews were the third-most important tool in drawing audiences to theaters, just behind recommendations from friends. (Most-effective, by a wide margin: trailers.) 41 percent of respondents listed print reviews among the most important factors, with online reviews at 35 percent, although the former number drops dramatically when limited to viewers 35 or younger.
Speaking anecdotally to me, many exhibitors told me that Rotten Tomatoes plays a huge role in what films audiences select. In one medium-sized market, the local paper, which no longer employs its own critics, uses the Tomatometer to decide which review to pull from the wire services: If it's "fresh," they run a positive review; if it's "rotten," they run a pan. By pretty much any measure, that's a huge dereliction of duty — not to mention incredibly lazy journalistic practice — but the good news is that same exhibitor sought me out later to tell me he going to start a criticism contest for local students, bringing back dialogue to a community that's lost an outlet for those voices.”
At Ahc with a new panel discussion, one most worthy of notice is Hollie Mahadeo, General Manager of Enzian Theater in Maitland Florida. Her initiative, Starting Young: Hooking Youth on Cinema, discussed cultivating the next generation of filmgoers and film lovers. Amy Averett of Alamo Drafthouse, Mats Gillmor of Palladium and Hollie Mahadeo of Enzian spoke of their successes in this crucial area.
Hollie has spent 17 years building a home for youth in cinema. Art houses do not generally think about kids because the ones working in them are usually young and single and the ones attending them are usually grandparents. As Hollie and her colleagues grew, they married and now have children and so are concerned with how cinema and their own children will interact. Six years ago their audience was all over 40 and so they began programming to get 20-somethings in.
Then they started courting the children with their Peanut Butter Matinees, programming films to appeal to the children and their parents, like “Neverending Story”. These monthly matinees work well for parents with children from five to ten years who would not ordinarily go to cinemas. The room seats 220 but is filled with tables and chairs so some play while others eat and others sit enraptured by the cinema. They have 1,200 screenings in a year and are a $3.5 million organization in all.
The Peanut Butter Matinee has a kid friendly menu, balloons to take away, raffles to take part in and the film, always projected digitally. It has grown to special holiday celebrations for Christmas, Halloween, Easter and the children have also grown. The events are free for children under 12; all others buy $8 tickets.
Amy of Alamo states that it is cheaper to bring kids to the movies than to hire a babysitter.
Enzion has also instituted a Filmmaking Camp, a summer day camp now in its seventh year. It began as a one-week camp for 10 kids but now has a four-week camp, Thirty-two kids go to a two-week session in Camp 1 and another 32 go to a second two-week session. They have temporary staff of two filmmakers who bring in the equipment and one head instructor, a teacher from a local film school and a counselor to help with the scheduling, meals, and other issues. There are volunteer filmmakers from college and a junior counselor program for kids too old to be campers but too young to be filmmakers (yet). The oldest graduate of the camp is now in high school and looking at film schools. The youngest camper is in the fifth grade. At the end of the camp there are at least two world premiers.
Now they also have youth acting Programs. For grades 2 through 12, classes are held after school twice a week.
All in all, the Ahc was full and fun. The cold was bitter and when we left to go down the road to Sundance, about half of us were nursing our first winter colds which made for an even more fun filled Sundance Film Festival…well for me at least, my low energy level was no match of the excitement of the festival this year.
This year there were so many more people - about 600 total - including vendors of everything an exhibitor must need plus a parallel event of the Film Festival Alliance, a great initiative of Ifp established in 2010 in which festivals get together to discuss mutual interests.
The confluence of the smaller regional festivals and the art house theaters is a natural fit since the festivals are held in the theaters and bring in the community, obviously a desired outcome of art house exhibitors. All that combined makes for a much larger event than ever before and points toward even greater growth for Ahc, something perhaps to be desired but also something which perhaps will not be quite so welcoming for newcomers as the earlier events.
The topics covered in the break out sessions are a large part about the logistics of U.S. art house operations from creating fan bases and membership. Another large part focuses on festival logistics from starting a film festival – and here I want to give a plug to Jon Gann, the founder of DC Shorts Film Festival for his new book, So, You Want to Start a Film Festival: Conversations with Top Festival Creators -- to the panel “Conversation with Sundance Senior Manager Adam Montgomery” in which Montgomery discussed Sundance’s process of accepting submissions, the work flow, planning, technology, usage tips and more.
Some awards by way of recognition to those who established indies as a going concern and are keeping it going through their hard work and devotion were Gary Meyer, founder of Landmark Theaters in 1975, Jan Klingenhofer and Chapin Cutter.
Niches and small business introducing themselves included the former Emerging Pictures executive Barry Rebo with his new startup CineConductor, along with his international partner Ymagis. The service for a $75 per month fee allows theaters to download unlimited DCPs (The Digital Cinema Package is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema (DC) audio, image, and data streams.) from all distributors – an easy and cheaper way for theaters to show more films at various times during the week.
Barry Rebo of CineConductor says, “We had a terrific Art House Convergence. We arrived with 51 high profile arthouse members and left with close to 65, maybe more once we re-connect with ones now tied up at the actual festival.
Current venues are both evangelizing our value to new venues and lobbying rights holders to deliver their booked film via the CineConductor service rather than hard drives. It not only save the venues money it makes their day-to-day operations ever more efficient.
We also have two high profile international film agencies we are servicing via the portal - UniFrance’s ongoing Young French Cinema 2 and Tiff & TeleFilm Canada’s upcoming See The North series.
More information about CineConductor: Click this link.
Considering we only debuted the system - really a 'soft opening' - at last year’s Ahc and connected the first batch of venues beginning in June of ‘15 getting to 51 quality sites by the end of the first indicates the service is being seen as being both highly cost effective (venues join on a Network Access Fee basis - no charge for equipment and only $75.00 per month for Unlimited Dcp deliveries of Specialty Film & Event Cinema programs offered by their rights holder via CineConductor.
Rights Holders (Rh) - traditional distribution companies; international film advocacy groups; international sales agents; the filmmakers themselves pay nothing today to post on the CineConductor portal. They pay only $50.00 per feature Dcp delivery Includes Kdm if requested) and $10.00 per Dcp trailer set (flat and scope) once they accept an engagement directly from a participating venue. It’s a great deal for both the exhibition and distribution sides of the arthouse field.
For the broader arthouse community - exhibitors, distributors and audiences - our decision to go this way was based on our belief that by offering a flat fee, more valuable content is made available on more screens. More onscreen diversity will drive a more diverse audience. I’m happy to report it’s already working as planned.
What we have created is truly and international platform. My investor/ parent company, Ymagis, is Paris-based and operates all across Europe. See www.ymagis.com "
Another endeavor of note is Benjamin Oberman’s (Film Festival Flix) mountain climbing film “Citadel” around which he can mobilize literally millions of outdoors sports folk through organizations he has formed alliances with in every region of the U.S. This type of specialized distribution is one excellent way into the future! Compared to his development of this last year, he has moved miles ahead.
Another to watch is Bobbi Thompson as she creates pop-up theaters in studio spaces with art exhibition for adults with learning disabilities and other handicaps.
An example of the new types of festivals is that of Gary Meyer, always a pioneer from his launching of Landmark theaters, of animation showcases, of Telluride Film Festival programming to his newest, Eat Drink Films. Based in a San Francisco his site discusses film and food and hosts recently Real Food Media also announced the launch of its third-annual contest with a call for submissions of super-short films on underreported issues, unique change-makers and creative solutions to foster a broad, public conversation about solving our global food system’s most intractable problems – from hunger to diet-related illnesses to environmental crises.
And Ahc has gone international. Last year a few folks from France, Europa Cinemas and the U.S. in Progress in Poland (American Film Festival’s Ula Sniegowska) and in France (Adeline Monzier of Unifrance) were here. This year they are here again and joined by Brigitte Hubmann of Telefilm Canada with film packages available directly to theaters via Barry Rebo’s CineConductor, a model that German films and all other national film entities should emulate. Also attending this year is Europa International, a consortium of 40 European international sales agents from 13 European countries looking to find direct outlets to theaters without the distribution middleman. This will become increasingly important at Netflix swopes down on worldwide digital rights acquisitions. TrustNordisk’s head of sales, Susan Wendt from Denmark represented Europa International here.
Europa International’s panel presented European case studies on ways to attract new audiences in the era of social media with an eye toward directing young people towards “quality” cinema and fostering critical minds while forming partnership strategies included Justin Camileri of Euro Media Forum, Fatima Djoumer of Europa Cinemas, Matts Gillmor of Palladium, Elisa Giovannelli of Cineteca Bologna and Justyna Kociszewska of Kino Lab.
U.S. distributor Neil Friedman’s Menemsha Films is here with the Jonathan Pryce film “Dough” a funny and feel-good trans-cultural mix proving ‘you don’t have to be Jewish’ to love this film. Representing Menemsha at Ahc is former United King acquisitions executive from Israel, Oded Horowitz, who has now moved to California with his partner and their 6 year old twin girls. Diarah N’Daw-Spech of ArtMattan is here among now old friends managing to inject some diversity into a little too homogenous population of film lovers.
This place is full of 'our' people, that is, we-the-now-older generation who got this thing going in the 80s: those I mentioned above plus Paul Cohen, Ira Deutchman, Anne Thompson, Mj Pekos (Dada Films), Larry Greenberg (Momentum/ eOne), Richard Abramowitz (Abramarama), Cary Jones (IFC), Peter Baxter (Slamdance), Peter Becker (Janus) (who was a young one when we began but was there - and our sympathy to him for his father’s passing… whose colleague Jonathan Turrell whose father Saul in those days in print distribution at Janus Films was one of New York’s most colorful figures), Ron Diamond (Animation Show of Shows), Peter Belsito (SydneysBuzz), Mark Fishkin (California Film Institute), Christian Gaines (ArtPrize), Larry Kardish (Board member and former head of NY Film Society, Lincoln Center, now with Chatham Film Club), Greg Laemmle of Laemmle Theaters, Los Angeles’ preeminent indie arthouse started by his grandfather Carl Laemmle, former head of Universal (!), Richard Lorber (Kino Lorber), Scott Mansfield (monterey media), Mike Thomas (Theatre Properties) and Michael Donaldson (Donaldson & Callif).
After the panel “Why Critics Matter: A Conversation with Anne Thompson and Sam Adams” moderated by Ira Deutchman, a discussion of contemporary film criticism and its importance within the independent exhibition community created a flurry of comments on the Ahc newsletter which you can read along with other year round commentaries of importance by subscribing to Google Groups "Art House Convergence". Sam Adams himself writes,
“In a national survey covering 25 art house theaters and 20,000 patrons, Avenue Isr's Woody Smith said that reviews were the third-most important tool in drawing audiences to theaters, just behind recommendations from friends. (Most-effective, by a wide margin: trailers.) 41 percent of respondents listed print reviews among the most important factors, with online reviews at 35 percent, although the former number drops dramatically when limited to viewers 35 or younger.
Speaking anecdotally to me, many exhibitors told me that Rotten Tomatoes plays a huge role in what films audiences select. In one medium-sized market, the local paper, which no longer employs its own critics, uses the Tomatometer to decide which review to pull from the wire services: If it's "fresh," they run a positive review; if it's "rotten," they run a pan. By pretty much any measure, that's a huge dereliction of duty — not to mention incredibly lazy journalistic practice — but the good news is that same exhibitor sought me out later to tell me he going to start a criticism contest for local students, bringing back dialogue to a community that's lost an outlet for those voices.”
At Ahc with a new panel discussion, one most worthy of notice is Hollie Mahadeo, General Manager of Enzian Theater in Maitland Florida. Her initiative, Starting Young: Hooking Youth on Cinema, discussed cultivating the next generation of filmgoers and film lovers. Amy Averett of Alamo Drafthouse, Mats Gillmor of Palladium and Hollie Mahadeo of Enzian spoke of their successes in this crucial area.
Hollie has spent 17 years building a home for youth in cinema. Art houses do not generally think about kids because the ones working in them are usually young and single and the ones attending them are usually grandparents. As Hollie and her colleagues grew, they married and now have children and so are concerned with how cinema and their own children will interact. Six years ago their audience was all over 40 and so they began programming to get 20-somethings in.
Then they started courting the children with their Peanut Butter Matinees, programming films to appeal to the children and their parents, like “Neverending Story”. These monthly matinees work well for parents with children from five to ten years who would not ordinarily go to cinemas. The room seats 220 but is filled with tables and chairs so some play while others eat and others sit enraptured by the cinema. They have 1,200 screenings in a year and are a $3.5 million organization in all.
The Peanut Butter Matinee has a kid friendly menu, balloons to take away, raffles to take part in and the film, always projected digitally. It has grown to special holiday celebrations for Christmas, Halloween, Easter and the children have also grown. The events are free for children under 12; all others buy $8 tickets.
Amy of Alamo states that it is cheaper to bring kids to the movies than to hire a babysitter.
Enzion has also instituted a Filmmaking Camp, a summer day camp now in its seventh year. It began as a one-week camp for 10 kids but now has a four-week camp, Thirty-two kids go to a two-week session in Camp 1 and another 32 go to a second two-week session. They have temporary staff of two filmmakers who bring in the equipment and one head instructor, a teacher from a local film school and a counselor to help with the scheduling, meals, and other issues. There are volunteer filmmakers from college and a junior counselor program for kids too old to be campers but too young to be filmmakers (yet). The oldest graduate of the camp is now in high school and looking at film schools. The youngest camper is in the fifth grade. At the end of the camp there are at least two world premiers.
Now they also have youth acting Programs. For grades 2 through 12, classes are held after school twice a week.
All in all, the Ahc was full and fun. The cold was bitter and when we left to go down the road to Sundance, about half of us were nursing our first winter colds which made for an even more fun filled Sundance Film Festival…well for me at least, my low energy level was no match of the excitement of the festival this year.
- 2/2/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSThe big news in Hollywood is that "the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has approved a series of major changes, in terms of voting and recruitment, also adding three new seats to the 51-person board — all part of a goal to double the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020. The changes were approved by the board Thursday night in an emergency meeting," Variety reports. A major step, certainly, but we've still to see what the results will be. And certainly Academy membership does little to alter what kinds of movies get produced and by whom.Charles Silver, the head of the Museum of Modern Art's Film Study Center, passed away last week. IndieWire is running an homage by Laurence Kardish, a former MoMA film curator:"Perhaps,...
- 1/27/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Other winners include Venice title Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me and documentary Rabin In His Own Words.
Elad Keidan’s debut feature Afterthought (Hayored Lemaala) was crowned Best Israeli Film at this year’s Haifa Film Festival (Sept 26-Oct 5).
London-based Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf presided over the jury that included Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och, MoMA’s former cinema curator Laurence Kardish, Israeli cinematographer-director-actress Yvonne Miklosh and director Julie Schlez.
Screened earlier this year in Cannes’ Special Screenings section, the film is a metaphor of Israel today, focusing on two characters, one going up and the other down the staircases crisscrossing Haifa’s Mount Carmel and was entirely shot on location in the city.
Back from Venice’s Horizons section, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me (Lama Azavtani), a gloomy portrait of a city slum and of a teenager living on the fringes of society who desperately tries to find his own identity, gained director...
Elad Keidan’s debut feature Afterthought (Hayored Lemaala) was crowned Best Israeli Film at this year’s Haifa Film Festival (Sept 26-Oct 5).
London-based Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf presided over the jury that included Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och, MoMA’s former cinema curator Laurence Kardish, Israeli cinematographer-director-actress Yvonne Miklosh and director Julie Schlez.
Screened earlier this year in Cannes’ Special Screenings section, the film is a metaphor of Israel today, focusing on two characters, one going up and the other down the staircases crisscrossing Haifa’s Mount Carmel and was entirely shot on location in the city.
Back from Venice’s Horizons section, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me (Lama Azavtani), a gloomy portrait of a city slum and of a teenager living on the fringes of society who desperately tries to find his own identity, gained director...
- 10/5/2015
- by dfainaru@netvision.net.il (Edna Fainaru)
- ScreenDaily
Read More: How the Magic & Economics of Canadian Sci-Fi TV Helped Create 'Continuum' Telefilm Canada has launched the Canada Cool comedy tour, a new annual tour of critically acclaimed films not yet in American distribution but coming to the States in the fall. The films, chosen by former MoMA film curator Laurence Kardish, consist of ten new works and two classics. The films will screen among the arthouse circuit across the country, but will open first in New York and La. The organizers of the tour, along with its curator, hope that the tour will not only bring awareness of Canadian comedic influence to Us audiences but also will expose American audiences to new independent films. The Canadian comedy-focused series starts with the premiere of the documentary "Being Canadian" in New York and Los Angeles from September 18 to 25. The lineup is below, with synopses courtesy of Telefilm Canada's Canada Cool: "Being Canadian" Dir: Robert.
- 7/27/2015
- by Meredith Mattlin
- Indiewire
The national film body is behind a Us tour this autumn of 10 new comedies without Us distribution.
Former MoMA senior curator of film Laurence Kardish selected the films, which will arrive in New York and travel to Los Angeles and additional markets.
The Canada Cool tour runs from throughout the autumn and kicks off in New York on September 18 with the premiere of Robert Cohen’s Being Canadian (pictured) at Cinema Village.
The other titles are: Ingrid Veninger’s Animal Project; Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver’s Asphalt Watches; Jeffrey St Jules’ Bang Bang Baby; and Émile Gaudreault’s Fathers And Guns (De Père En Flic).
Rounding out the slate are Henri Henri by Martin Talbot;
Relative Happiness from Deanne Foley; Kris Elgstrand’s Songs She Wrote About People She Knows; Aaron Houston’s Sunflower Hour; and Maureen Bradley’s Two 4 One.
Classics Selection entries are John Paizs’ Crime Wave and The Decline Of The American Empire (Le Déclin...
Former MoMA senior curator of film Laurence Kardish selected the films, which will arrive in New York and travel to Los Angeles and additional markets.
The Canada Cool tour runs from throughout the autumn and kicks off in New York on September 18 with the premiere of Robert Cohen’s Being Canadian (pictured) at Cinema Village.
The other titles are: Ingrid Veninger’s Animal Project; Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver’s Asphalt Watches; Jeffrey St Jules’ Bang Bang Baby; and Émile Gaudreault’s Fathers And Guns (De Père En Flic).
Rounding out the slate are Henri Henri by Martin Talbot;
Relative Happiness from Deanne Foley; Kris Elgstrand’s Songs She Wrote About People She Knows; Aaron Houston’s Sunflower Hour; and Maureen Bradley’s Two 4 One.
Classics Selection entries are John Paizs’ Crime Wave and The Decline Of The American Empire (Le Déclin...
- 7/23/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Laurence Kardish and James O. Naremore have been named the 2013 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kardish, the senior curator emeritus at the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film, is writing a book about the independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke called Shirley Clarke: The Original Chelsea Girl. Naremore, the Chancellors' professor emeritus in the English department at Indiana University is writing a two-part book project about the director Charles Burnett called The Cinema of Charles Burnett. The Academy's Educational Grants Committee, which selected Kardish and Naremore on the basis of their manuscript
read more...
read more...
- 3/14/2014
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With the 2014 Oscars over, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can get back to work as usual. It's easy to overlook all the work the Academy does, from the Margaret Herrick research library and archives, ongoing panels, screenings, talks, Nicholls screenwriting fellowships and student awards. The Academy’s cultural and educational wing – the Academy Foundation – annually grants $1 million to cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, as well as the Academy's Educational Grants Committee's Academy Film Scholars. This year they have selected Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus at the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film, a grant to explore the life and career of vanguard independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke, and James O. Naremore, Chancellors’ Professor Emeritus in the English department at Indiana University, to delve into the socially conscious films of L.A. pioneer...
- 3/14/2014
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
We arrived on Thursday on the Sundance Express Airliner. First seats in first class, all on an aisle row seat one behind the other: Rena Ronson of UTA (read Indiewire article on “making the grade at UTA” Here, Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road and Board of Directors Film Independent, Peter Schlessel of Focus Features, and in cabin class Tony Safford, Evp, of acquisitions at 20th Century Fox and his wife Julie. Arriving late, I missed the Sundance press conference. But you can read all about it and all of Day One on the Sundance blog Here. We were also too late to pick up our registration and so our Opening Night looked like it would begin with the annual Indiewire Chili party hosted by Rose McGowan, director of her directorial debut, the short, Dawn. But before braving the cold walk up the hill, we stopped in at the Yarrow Bar to check in on our flat mate Peggy Johnson, Executive Director of The Loft, Tucson’s non-profit, independent arthouse theater.
As always, the best part of our traveling on the film circuit is seeing old and dear friends: Laurie Ann Schag, VP of Independent Documentary Association whose Sundance node is Here , Susan Margolin, Cinedigm President in charge of Docurama and Special Acquisitions, Jillian Slonin missing her husband Larry Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York who was in India on the jury at the Pune International Film Festival, Telefilm Canada’s Sr. Advisor, Festivals and Industry Promotion, Brigitte Hubmann, excited about this years Arthouse Convergence and the possibility of streaming films on new platforms.
While there, we also saw Sony Pictures Classics’s Michael Barker and Dylan Leiner going tete a tete very intensely. They were the first to make a deal here, acquiring opening night film Whiplash U.S. rights (according to Toh, “reportedly for around $3 million, however after Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group had already picked up many foreign territories before the festival”.) Those territories are reported as Canada, Germany and Australia. Parlux has Hungary rights. Writer/ director Damien Chazelle’s prize winning short at last year’s Sundance came back with a feature length film of it this time produced by Jason Blum and financed by Bold Films, (Isa: Sierra Affinity) proving once again, Shorts are In The Air! Miles Teller plays a school drummer with potential who strives for perfection under the tutelage of a ruthless band conductor. This was a Sundance supported project which received 2013 Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute Grant, a Sundance Screenwriting Mentorship as well.
A propos of shorts and Sundance, the Somali pirate film, a U.S.-Somalia-Kenya coproduction, (Isa: Altitude Film, U.S. Producer Rep: Wme) Fishing Without Nets’ filmmakers met Vice Films at Sundance 2012 after they saw the short film, Fishing Without Nets, which led them to producing the feature version as Vice Films’ first fictional feature.
So Sundance is definitely the place for shorts. At the next day’s International Filmmakers Lunch we met another short filmmaker whose short Love, Love, Love about Russian female stereotypes is a must see. More in tomorrow’s Day 2 Sundance Journal.
As always, the best part of our traveling on the film circuit is seeing old and dear friends: Laurie Ann Schag, VP of Independent Documentary Association whose Sundance node is Here , Susan Margolin, Cinedigm President in charge of Docurama and Special Acquisitions, Jillian Slonin missing her husband Larry Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York who was in India on the jury at the Pune International Film Festival, Telefilm Canada’s Sr. Advisor, Festivals and Industry Promotion, Brigitte Hubmann, excited about this years Arthouse Convergence and the possibility of streaming films on new platforms.
While there, we also saw Sony Pictures Classics’s Michael Barker and Dylan Leiner going tete a tete very intensely. They were the first to make a deal here, acquiring opening night film Whiplash U.S. rights (according to Toh, “reportedly for around $3 million, however after Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group had already picked up many foreign territories before the festival”.) Those territories are reported as Canada, Germany and Australia. Parlux has Hungary rights. Writer/ director Damien Chazelle’s prize winning short at last year’s Sundance came back with a feature length film of it this time produced by Jason Blum and financed by Bold Films, (Isa: Sierra Affinity) proving once again, Shorts are In The Air! Miles Teller plays a school drummer with potential who strives for perfection under the tutelage of a ruthless band conductor. This was a Sundance supported project which received 2013 Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute Grant, a Sundance Screenwriting Mentorship as well.
A propos of shorts and Sundance, the Somali pirate film, a U.S.-Somalia-Kenya coproduction, (Isa: Altitude Film, U.S. Producer Rep: Wme) Fishing Without Nets’ filmmakers met Vice Films at Sundance 2012 after they saw the short film, Fishing Without Nets, which led them to producing the feature version as Vice Films’ first fictional feature.
So Sundance is definitely the place for shorts. At the next day’s International Filmmakers Lunch we met another short filmmaker whose short Love, Love, Love about Russian female stereotypes is a must see. More in tomorrow’s Day 2 Sundance Journal.
- 1/22/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Sitting in the office of Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, we had a chance to discuss the upcoming Kino! New German Cinema programme, the importance of film restoration and preservation work, and the transition for him into 2013. The day before, New York representative for German Films Service + Marketing Oliver Mahrdt gave us some insight on the history and impact of the synergy between MoMA and German film.
Anne-Katrin Titze: Taking over from Larry Kardish, this is your first year of selecting films for Kino!?
Rajendra Roy: It's my first time directing the selection for the programme. Same with the Canadian (Front, March 13-18) showcase. When there's a retirement there's always a reshuffling.
Akt: 35 years for Kino!, which is a very long time for a programme to exist.
Rr: It is. The thing that's most critical...
Anne-Katrin Titze: Taking over from Larry Kardish, this is your first year of selecting films for Kino!?
Rajendra Roy: It's my first time directing the selection for the programme. Same with the Canadian (Front, March 13-18) showcase. When there's a retirement there's always a reshuffling.
Akt: 35 years for Kino!, which is a very long time for a programme to exist.
Rr: It is. The thing that's most critical...
- 4/14/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In 1979, Adrienne Mancia together with Larry Kardish curated the first program of Kino!, new German cinema at New York's Museum of Modern Art. For 34 consecutive years, Larry Kardish, distinguished Senior Film Curator at MoMA, presented work by celebrated international filmmakers including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Rosa von Praunheim, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Wolf Gremm, Wolfgang Becker, Doris Dörrie, Andreas Dresen, to Christian Petzold, and many others to enthusiastic audiences.
For 2013, Kino! continues, now organised by Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA, with Nicole Kaufmann, Project Co-ordinator, German Films Service + Marketing (Munich) and its New York representative, Oliver Mahrdt (read our interviews with them, here).
Here is the 35th edition lineup of reinvention with filmmakers Stephan Lacant, Nico Sommer, Laura Mahlberg, Andreas Bolm, and Jan Ole Gerstner in attendance to present their work and participate in Q&As.
Free...
For 2013, Kino! continues, now organised by Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA, with Nicole Kaufmann, Project Co-ordinator, German Films Service + Marketing (Munich) and its New York representative, Oliver Mahrdt (read our interviews with them, here).
Here is the 35th edition lineup of reinvention with filmmakers Stephan Lacant, Nico Sommer, Laura Mahlberg, Andreas Bolm, and Jan Ole Gerstner in attendance to present their work and participate in Q&As.
Free...
- 4/12/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Berlinale has come and gone so quickly, so intensely. Everyone was catching the flu or a cold, and I was left with the sniffles. My last two days I was lucky to be able to catch some films. Before that I only saw Don Jon’s Addiction which I was charmed by. Scarlett Johanssen played the best role of her life, she is a great comedienne. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was delightful. Upstream Color bit off more than it could chew. The reviews express my feelings about it better than I can.
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The National Society of Film Critics today voted Michael Haneke.s Amour the best film of 2012. From Sony Pictures Classics, Amour revolves around a husband and wife living out their final years and when one is paralyzed after suffering a stroke, the couple’s bond of love is severely tested.
Called “A Masterpiece” by Manohla Dargis in her NY Times review, the film previously won the Palm D’Or – 2012 Festival de Cannes, named best feature at The European Film Awards and has been embraced by the Broadcast Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics, Washington DC Area Film Critics Assocation, New York Online Film Critics and Boston Society of Film Critics. Amour (Love), Austria.s official selection for the 85th Academy Awards, is considered by most to be the front-runner for the best foreign-language Oscar.
A full list of the other awards follows, with the winner designated by an asterisk and...
Called “A Masterpiece” by Manohla Dargis in her NY Times review, the film previously won the Palm D’Or – 2012 Festival de Cannes, named best feature at The European Film Awards and has been embraced by the Broadcast Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics, Washington DC Area Film Critics Assocation, New York Online Film Critics and Boston Society of Film Critics. Amour (Love), Austria.s official selection for the 85th Academy Awards, is considered by most to be the front-runner for the best foreign-language Oscar.
A full list of the other awards follows, with the winner designated by an asterisk and...
- 1/6/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Last week, the Museum of Modern Art announced that its longtime Senior Curator, Laurence Kardish, would retire from his position in October. More than shouldering responsibility for MoMA's continuing reputation as one of New York's preeminent destinations for first-rate cinema both new and old, Kardish has been a fixture of the museum's film department since 1968. Over the course of his 44-year tenure, he has helped usher in a more profound appreciation for the broad scope of film history while also keeping an eye on the present. Indiewire spoke to Kardish earlier this week and extracted the following reasons why his legacy has such profound ramifications for anyone who cares about cinema's lasting relevance. He programmed some of the best retrospectives in the history of the profession. "There are many, but one I really liked was conceiving and preparing the retrospective of Senegalese cinema, which was the first time that there was an.
- 7/27/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
"Forty-one years young, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art's annual New Directors/New Films festival is committed to compiling a slate of artistically diverse films from every corner of the world," writes Ed Gonzalez, introducing Slant's collection of reviews. "Twenty-eight countries represent the 29 feature films (24 narrative, five documentary) and 12 shorts that make up this year's program, which kicks off on March 21 with a screening of Where Do We Go Now?, Nadine Lakaki's follow-up to Caramel, and closes with a special surprise screening that won't be revealed to the audience until it screens at Film Society on Sunday, April 1. Any guesses?"
Not from this corner, though the wish-list runs pretty long. "We weren't planning to do a surprise for New Directors," Richard Peña tells the Fslc's Jonathan Robbins, "but there is a unique situation with this film." As for Nd/Nf as a whole, Peña...
Not from this corner, though the wish-list runs pretty long. "We weren't planning to do a surprise for New Directors," Richard Peña tells the Fslc's Jonathan Robbins, "but there is a unique situation with this film." As for Nd/Nf as a whole, Peña...
- 3/23/2012
- MUBI
The Columbian film ‘Porfirio’ directed by Alejandro Landes and produced by Franciso Aljure has bagged the coveted Golden Peacock Award for the Best Film at the 42nd International Film Festival of India 2011, while the Silver Peacock Award for the Best Director went to Asghar Farhadi for his film ‘Nader and Simin-a Seperation’.
The Indian film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ won the Special Jury Award. Director of the film Salim Ahamed received the award which consists of a Silver Peacock, Certificate and a Cash Prize of Rs. 15 Lakhs.
The Best Actor award of Rs. 10 lakh went to the Israeli actor Sasson Gabay for his role in the film ‘Restoration’ whereas the Best Actress Award was won by Nadezhda Markina for her role in ‘Elena’.
The Iffi competition jury comprised of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Laurence Kardish, Lee Yong Kwan, Tahmineh Milani and Dan Wolman. The festival concluded today with the screening of the English...
The Indian film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ won the Special Jury Award. Director of the film Salim Ahamed received the award which consists of a Silver Peacock, Certificate and a Cash Prize of Rs. 15 Lakhs.
The Best Actor award of Rs. 10 lakh went to the Israeli actor Sasson Gabay for his role in the film ‘Restoration’ whereas the Best Actress Award was won by Nadezhda Markina for her role in ‘Elena’.
The Iffi competition jury comprised of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Laurence Kardish, Lee Yong Kwan, Tahmineh Milani and Dan Wolman. The festival concluded today with the screening of the English...
- 12/3/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan Wednesday turned an otherwise drab official function into a rib-tickling affair by offering to strip and reveal his bermudas on stage at the inauguration of the 42nd International Film Festival of India (Iffi).Shah Rukh, the chief guest at the inauguration of the 11-day festival, was at his hilarious best and had union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni and Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in splits by threatening to strip down to his beach wear, which he claimed he was wearing beneath his formal slacks..I wanted to wear my bermudas, but then chose to wear my suit. But I am still wearing bermudas beneath. Do you want me to take my pants off,. he asked, leaving the 1,000 strong audience laughing their guts out..The younger girls (referring to compere Tisca Chopra and actress Rituparna Sengupta) and Ambika ji are saying .take it off,...
- 11/23/2011
- Filmicafe
Melissa Anderson for Artforum: "After last year's glut of bumptious, high-profile nonfiction films — some of which were revealed to be hoaxes (Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here), possible hoaxes (Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop), or artless, witless pseudohoaxes (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's Catfish) — Clio Barnard's Brechtian documentary The Arbor stands out all the more for its seamless hybridization of fact and fiction. Barnard, an artist making her feature-length directorial debut, traces the troubled life and legacy of British playwright Andrea Dunbar (1961–1990), whose highly autobiographical work chronicled her grim existence on the Bradford, West Yorkshire, council estate where she grew up. (And which she never left: Dunbar died of a brain hemorrhage at age 29, shortly after collapsing at her local pub.) Though widely acclaimed for her three plays — her first, The Arbor, premiered in 1980 at London's Royal Court Theatre; her second, Rita, Sue and Bob Too, was made...
- 4/29/2011
- MUBI
It’s stories like this that really make my day! As a teen, Hole was one of my favorite bands… Heck, I still break out their CD’s to jam! Now, there is a new documentary that follows Patty Schemel, former drummer of Hole, and her journey between the rock-n-roll world and a much darker side. Well, keep reading son!
The Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that the members of Hole will reunite to celebrate the first of two New Directors/New Films screenings of P. David Ebersole.s documentary, Hit So Hard at MoMA on Monday, March 28 at 6:00Pm.
The reunion will mark the first time Love, Erlandson, der Maur and Schemel have been together at a public event in 13 years.
Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson and Melissa auf der Maur will join former bandmate Patty Schemel for the New York debut of Ebersole.s rockumentary.
The Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that the members of Hole will reunite to celebrate the first of two New Directors/New Films screenings of P. David Ebersole.s documentary, Hit So Hard at MoMA on Monday, March 28 at 6:00Pm.
The reunion will mark the first time Love, Erlandson, der Maur and Schemel have been together at a public event in 13 years.
Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson and Melissa auf der Maur will join former bandmate Patty Schemel for the New York debut of Ebersole.s rockumentary.
- 3/30/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Announce Feature Film Lineup for the 40th Annual New Directors/New Films March 23 . April 3
J.C. Chandor.s .Margin Call. is the Opening Night presentation with Maryam Keshavarz.s Award-winning .Circumstance. the Closing Night selection
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the full lineup today for the 40th edition of New Directors/New Films (March 23 . April 3). Dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, the film festival will screen 28 feature films (24 narrative, 4 documentary) representing 22 countries.
The opening night feature is J.C. Chandor.s Margin Call. Screening on Wednesday, March 23, at 7:00Pm at MoMA, Chandor’s feature film directing debut is a timely and terrifying dramatic expose that tackles twenty-four hours on an investment bank trading floor; a day that brings layer upon layer of human and...
J.C. Chandor.s .Margin Call. is the Opening Night presentation with Maryam Keshavarz.s Award-winning .Circumstance. the Closing Night selection
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the full lineup today for the 40th edition of New Directors/New Films (March 23 . April 3). Dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, the film festival will screen 28 feature films (24 narrative, 4 documentary) representing 22 countries.
The opening night feature is J.C. Chandor.s Margin Call. Screening on Wednesday, March 23, at 7:00Pm at MoMA, Chandor’s feature film directing debut is a timely and terrifying dramatic expose that tackles twenty-four hours on an investment bank trading floor; a day that brings layer upon layer of human and...
- 2/17/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A beautiful poster for Das alte Gesetz (The Old Law), from 1923, a seeming precursor to The Jazz Singer about a rabbi’s son who becomes a successful stage actor. During my all-too-brief visit to New York City recently I stopped by the Museum of Modern Art, where my old friend and colleague Larry Kardish was kind enough to show me around the striking multimedia exhibit that’s been mounted to accompany his film series Weimar Cinema 1919-1933: Dreams and Nightmares, which was presented in association with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation in Wiesbaden and in cooperation with the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. The…...
- 1/24/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will host a festival of Adelaide Film Festival Investment fund films in April.
“Baff has become major, not only through its judicious selection of films, but by the remarkable number of extraordinary works that the Festival has supported with production funds; The Adelaide Film Festival has, in effect, a ‘curatorial’ investment fund [...] The track record of the works the Fund assisted has indeed been both distinguished and impressive,” said MoMA senior curator Laurence Kardish.
The program includes previous Affi projects such as Look Both Ways, Ten Canoes, Samson & Delilah, Boxing Days, Last Ride, My Year Without Sex, as well as two 2011 premieres, the documentary Mrs. Carey’s Concert, and the short Stunt Love.
The screenings will take place from 7 to 13 April in New York. The 2011 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival will take place from 24 February to 6 March 2011.
www.adelaidefilmfestival.org.
“Baff has become major, not only through its judicious selection of films, but by the remarkable number of extraordinary works that the Festival has supported with production funds; The Adelaide Film Festival has, in effect, a ‘curatorial’ investment fund [...] The track record of the works the Fund assisted has indeed been both distinguished and impressive,” said MoMA senior curator Laurence Kardish.
The program includes previous Affi projects such as Look Both Ways, Ten Canoes, Samson & Delilah, Boxing Days, Last Ride, My Year Without Sex, as well as two 2011 premieres, the documentary Mrs. Carey’s Concert, and the short Stunt Love.
The screenings will take place from 7 to 13 April in New York. The 2011 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival will take place from 24 February to 6 March 2011.
www.adelaidefilmfestival.org.
- 1/24/2011
- by Miguel Gonzalez
- Encore Magazine
London -- Nick Whitfield's "Skeletons" walked away with this year's Michael Powell Award for best new British feature at a ceremony held Saturday evening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival ahead of Sunday night's closing ceremony and gala screening.
At an awards ceremony prior to the closing gala for "Third Star," organizers also dished out the best performance in a British feature to David Thewlis for his turn in "Mr Nice."
Best international feature nod went to "The Dry Land" directed by Ryan Piers Willians while Gareth Edwards picked up this year's new directors award. Laura Poitras secured the best documentary nod for "The Oath."
The awards were presented by Eiff Artistic Director Hannah McGill and festival patrons Tilda Swinton and Seamus McGarvey.
The Michael Powell jury, under president Patrick Stewart, with director Mike Hodges, film curator Laurence Kardish, director Rafi Pitts and actress Britt Ekland, also gave a...
At an awards ceremony prior to the closing gala for "Third Star," organizers also dished out the best performance in a British feature to David Thewlis for his turn in "Mr Nice."
Best international feature nod went to "The Dry Land" directed by Ryan Piers Willians while Gareth Edwards picked up this year's new directors award. Laura Poitras secured the best documentary nod for "The Oath."
The awards were presented by Eiff Artistic Director Hannah McGill and festival patrons Tilda Swinton and Seamus McGarvey.
The Michael Powell jury, under president Patrick Stewart, with director Mike Hodges, film curator Laurence Kardish, director Rafi Pitts and actress Britt Ekland, also gave a...
- 6/27/2010
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
London -- Former Bond girl Britt Ekland, director Mike Hodges, New York's Museum of Modern Art's senior film curator Laurence Kardish and Iranian director Rafi Pitts have all been called to jury duty as the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) is due to kick off June 16.
The quartet have signed up for the festival's main draw jury, the Michael Powell jury, and will assemble under the panel's president Patrick Stewart, organizers said.
Named in homage to the U.K. filmmaker and inaugurated in 1993, the Michael Powell Award is sponsored by the U.K. Film Council and carries a prize of £15,000 ($22,000).
The prize aims to reward imagination and creativity in British filmmaking and 2009 saw Duncan Jones walk off with the prize for his debut "Moon," while the jury gave Katie Jarvis last year's best performance in a British film for "Fish Tank."
The winner of 2010's Michael Powell Award will come from Ashey Horner's "brilliantlove,...
The quartet have signed up for the festival's main draw jury, the Michael Powell jury, and will assemble under the panel's president Patrick Stewart, organizers said.
Named in homage to the U.K. filmmaker and inaugurated in 1993, the Michael Powell Award is sponsored by the U.K. Film Council and carries a prize of £15,000 ($22,000).
The prize aims to reward imagination and creativity in British filmmaking and 2009 saw Duncan Jones walk off with the prize for his debut "Moon," while the jury gave Katie Jarvis last year's best performance in a British film for "Fish Tank."
The winner of 2010's Michael Powell Award will come from Ashey Horner's "brilliantlove,...
- 6/15/2010
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The film side of Canadian Artists ’68—an open competition that started with 120 entries and ended with 20 finalists and four prizewinners dividing $6,000— leaves strong impressions, stronger say than those of Secret Ceremony or the latest film featuring acting by a one-movie nymphet whose playing of a little girl parasite (Zita, Joanna, or Cenci) is being memorialized at this moment in Sunday supplements by Rex Reed or Guy Flatley.
Some of these impressions would obviously include (1) an austere “Loft To Let” space overlooking Canal Street in Manhattan, which is examined for 45 minutes in Michael Snow’s Wavelength as no room ever has been, outside of Vermeer paintings, (2) the nasty blankness of a prefab room in Clarke Mackey’s On Nothing Days and the poignantly dispirited way the lacklustre teenager walks to the window and stares at a scene of children jumping rope—as though he were going through a tunnel that stretched across seventeen cheerless years,...
Some of these impressions would obviously include (1) an austere “Loft To Let” space overlooking Canal Street in Manhattan, which is examined for 45 minutes in Michael Snow’s Wavelength as no room ever has been, outside of Vermeer paintings, (2) the nasty blankness of a prefab room in Clarke Mackey’s On Nothing Days and the poignantly dispirited way the lacklustre teenager walks to the window and stares at a scene of children jumping rope—as though he were going through a tunnel that stretched across seventeen cheerless years,...
- 12/7/2009
- MUBI
The Museum of Modern Art is presenting "Rialto Pictures: Reviving Classic Cinema," a 17-film series celebrating the 10th anniversary of the art house revival distributor. Films by Robert Bresson ("Mouchette"), Carol Reed ("The Third Man"), Luis Bunuel ("Diary of a Chambermaid"), Federico Fellini ("Nights of Cabiria"), Jean-Luc Godard ("Masculin feminine") and Jean-Pierre Melville ("Bob le Flambeur") will be screened. The selection chosen by MOMA Department of Film senior curator Laurence Kardish will be screened from July 25 to Aug. 10 in New York.
- 6/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian filmmaker Allan King, who pioneered the use of direct interviews in 1950s TV documentaries, will be honored with a retrospective of his films at the Museum of Modern Art in May, it was announced Tuesday.
MOMA will present 22 fiction and nonfiction works by King to celebrate his 50 years in film, said Laurence Kardish, senior film curator at the New York-based museum.
"King, has perfected a style, at once straightforward and nuanced, that allows his subjects, buffeted and strengthened by life's natural stresses and challenges, to retain their dignity while revealing their pain, confusion, and joys," Kardish said in a statement.
Notable King films to screen at MOMA include "Warrendale" (1966), a cinema-verite film shot in a home for emotionally disturbed children, and "A Married Couple" (1969), what the filmmaker calls an "actuality drama" portraying a couple negotiating their marriage as it collapses around them.
The retrospective is scheduled to run May 9-30.
MOMA will present 22 fiction and nonfiction works by King to celebrate his 50 years in film, said Laurence Kardish, senior film curator at the New York-based museum.
"King, has perfected a style, at once straightforward and nuanced, that allows his subjects, buffeted and strengthened by life's natural stresses and challenges, to retain their dignity while revealing their pain, confusion, and joys," Kardish said in a statement.
Notable King films to screen at MOMA include "Warrendale" (1966), a cinema-verite film shot in a home for emotionally disturbed children, and "A Married Couple" (1969), what the filmmaker calls an "actuality drama" portraying a couple negotiating their marriage as it collapses around them.
The retrospective is scheduled to run May 9-30.
- 4/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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