At once art installation and experimental documentary, Fiona Tan’s lyrical film about Japan’s Mt. Fuji is the sort of cinematic effort for which the word “meditation” readily applies. This non-linear portrait of the iconic mountain includes thousands of still photographs spanning many decades and incorporates references to everything from classic Japanese folk tales to the movie King Kong vs. Godzilla, in which Mt. Fuji plays a crucial supporting role. Ascent sometimes lives up to its title by proving a slog, not fully earning its feature-length running time. But the film nonetheless exerts fascination with its haunting imagery of what it...
- 6/7/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mount Fuji is perhaps the most photographed volcanic mountain in the world. Its iconic, perfectly shaped appearance -- perfectly symmetrical 45 degree slopes on both sides, reaching to its slender necked caldera, often snow capped in winter -- is instantly recognizable and fittingly figures into the exquisitely coiffed Japanese culture landscape. You can see the prevalence of its presence in Japanese art, from Hokusai block prints, literature, manga to films. Visual artist Fiona Tan makes a poignant film completely comprised only of still pictures involving Mt. Fuji. Ascent is a correspondence of two lovers in voice-overs. This fictional narrative starts with a woman (the director herself) informing us that she received a large package from her Japanese lover, Hiroshi, who has passed on. It's full...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/6/2017
- Screen Anarchy
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) kicks off its 16th annual Doc Fortnight on Thursday, a 10-day festival that includes 20 feature-length non-fiction films and 10 documentary shorts. This year’s lineup includes four world premieres and a number of North American and U.S. premieres.
Read More: 2017 New Directors/New Films Announces Full Lineup, Including ‘Patti Cake$,’ ‘Beach Rats,’ ‘Menashe’ and More
The festival is far from the only major North American showcase for non-fiction cinema. Festivals ranging from Hot Docs to True/False have played key roles in the expanding documentary festival circuit. However, Doc Fortnight has maintained its own niche on the scene, by aiming to expose undiscovered stories and filmmakers, screening a range of documentaries from around the world and capturing the ways in which artists are pushing the boundaries of non-fiction filmmaking.
“It’s not an industry festival, there aren’t awards, and distributors aren’t all coming looking to buy,...
Read More: 2017 New Directors/New Films Announces Full Lineup, Including ‘Patti Cake$,’ ‘Beach Rats,’ ‘Menashe’ and More
The festival is far from the only major North American showcase for non-fiction cinema. Festivals ranging from Hot Docs to True/False have played key roles in the expanding documentary festival circuit. However, Doc Fortnight has maintained its own niche on the scene, by aiming to expose undiscovered stories and filmmakers, screening a range of documentaries from around the world and capturing the ways in which artists are pushing the boundaries of non-fiction filmmaking.
“It’s not an industry festival, there aren’t awards, and distributors aren’t all coming looking to buy,...
- 2/15/2017
- by Chris O'Falt and Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Dawn City: Frozen Time“A place is thus an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies an indication of stability. A space exists when one takes into consideration vectors of direction, velocities, and time variables… Every story is a travel story, a spatial practice."—Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday LifeTime is the central tenet of all cinema. The impression of its passing is the enthralling illusion at the medium’s flickering heart; petrified images are reanimated by the whirr of the projector. Even at its most micro level cinema traverses the intersection of time and place, as the static location of a single picture is temporally transported before our eyes by the flurry of subsequent frames. On a macro level, that relationship and those concepts are no less pervasive or vital. In 2006, found footage filmmaker Bill Morrison told Senses of Cinema that: "for better or worse, the projector is...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
La La Land, The Birth Of A Nation, Arrival and Snowden announced as headline galas; new venue to be built on London’s Embankment; official competition will include Elle, Moonlight, Una and Neruda.
The BFI London Film Festival (October 5-16) has unveiled the full line-up of 245 feature films for its 60th festival. This year’s festival will screen 193 fiction and 52 documentary features, including 18 world premieres and eight international premieres.
This year’s headline galas are: Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (Royal Bank of Canada gala); Damien Chazelle’s Venice opener La La Land; Ja Bayona’s A Monster Calls; Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals; Oliver Stone’s Snowden; Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest (The Mayor of London gala); Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation; and Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
The Birth Of A Nation
They join four previously announced headline galas: Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, which opens the...
The BFI London Film Festival (October 5-16) has unveiled the full line-up of 245 feature films for its 60th festival. This year’s festival will screen 193 fiction and 52 documentary features, including 18 world premieres and eight international premieres.
This year’s headline galas are: Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (Royal Bank of Canada gala); Damien Chazelle’s Venice opener La La Land; Ja Bayona’s A Monster Calls; Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals; Oliver Stone’s Snowden; Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest (The Mayor of London gala); Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation; and Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
The Birth Of A Nation
They join four previously announced headline galas: Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, which opens the...
- 9/1/2016
- by matt.mueller@screendaily.com (Matt Mueller)
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.