Archive for the ‘FILM FESTIVALS’ Category

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Now in its 14th year.

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Starting a little earlier in the calendar year than usual, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) will run August 19-25, screening 25 features, 12 documentaries and 37 short films, plus conducting panels and parties , too.

For updated coverage please visit www.jestherent.blogspot.com

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LA Film Festival 2010 moves downtown, up in quality

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After four years in Westwood, the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) is heading east to downtown Los Angeles where it will screen most of its 200 feature films, documentaries, shorts, and music videos from over 40 countries worldwide.

Unlike its primary competitor in Los Angeles, the AFI Film Festival (running November 4-11, 2010), the 16th annual event is still running its ten-day course, June 17-27. While continuing to hold screenings in Hollywood and REDCAT (located downtown), some of the new LAFF venues are Regal Cinemas, the Grammy Museum, Nokia Plaza, the Orpheum Theatre, and L.A. Live.

Like in years past, especially for a festival run by the Independent Filmmaker Project – the organization who runs the Independent Spirit Awards the same weekend as the Academy Awards – LAFF still drags its feet through some horribly mainstream endeavors. For example, this year there is an “Evening with Sylvester Stallone” and a special screening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Yet despite these mainstream kowtows, LAFF 2010 offers what could be its strongest “indie” line up in the past 10 years. For starters, LAFF 2010 commences with a wonderful Opening Night Film, The Kids Are All Right.

For more LAFF 2010 information please go to www.jestherent.blogspot.com

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Starting January 21, 2009, you can find our coverage of Sundance Film Festival 2010 Festival http://jestherent.blogspot.com/

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Festival looks better shorter, possibly cheaper than recent years

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Starting October 28, 2009, you can find our coverage of this years AFI Film Festival at http://jestherent.blogspot.com/

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Indian Film Festival starts today.

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The 7th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, focusing on appreciation of Indian cinema and cinematography will run through April 26 at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles.

The IFFLA will host to a total of 15 feature films including, five feature length documentaries, along with 16 short films. Also, the IFFLA will feature seminars gearing towards topics including: “The State of the Indian Entertainment Industry” and “Film Financing: Co-Productions and Alternatives.”

The following capsule reviews are four examples of this year’s IFFLA.

Kanchivoram – As an aging man, Vengadam (Prakash Raj) is transported to his hometown after being released from jail. As the bus nears its destination (and throughout the movie), Vengadam recalls events that lead up to the present day: marriage, newborn child, dealing with low wages as a silk weaver, murder, and crime. What lead to this present day is drastic – Vengadam makes one sacred promise for his new born daughter (by the time she weds). The problem – he can’t afford it and has to conform to drastic measures to make this promise come to life.

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Overview of the 17th year

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The 17th annual Pan African Film Festival, which took place Feb. 5-16, was the same as usual. By this, I mean to compliment one of Los Angele’s true cultural gems, which year after year screens a frothy concoction of Black-themed indie, foreign, documentary, short subject, student and commercial studio movies and videos. Indeed, the biggest departure for 2009’s PAFF was its screening venue, as the venerable festival relocated from its longtime location at the then-Magic Johnson Theatres at Crenshaw to the Culver Plaza Theatres. The fact that Culver City, as the home of fabled Hollywood studios, has played a historic role in the cinema is underscored by the delightful photo and painted murals of movie icons such as Errol Flynn, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly that adorn the walls of the Culver Plaza Theatres.

The most valuable role PAFF plays is as a gateway for specialty cinema, either premiering pictures or screening films that Angelenos would not even have an opportunity to see, unless they traveled to far-flung countries such as Ethiopia or embargoed Cuba. The following is a cross section of this year’s offerings at America’s largest film festival of its kind.

Nonfiction biopics of back icons were screened, such as Annette von Wangenheim’s Joesphine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man’s World, about the actress, dancer and chanteuse who went from Harlem’s Cotton Club to Parisian cabarets. After taking Europe by storm Baker, who was renowned for her onstage shimmying scantily clad in banana leaves, remained in France, where there was less racism, and went on to heroically serve in the French resistance against the Nazis.

Sam Pollard’s Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun did not shrink from revealing the contradictions, as well as the glories, of this central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, a folklorist and author who during the 1920s proclaimed the “New Negritude,” but also allegedly ripped Langston Hughes off and ended up attacking the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of school desegregation. Huston became a sort of forerunner of the conservative black pundits cable TV news never has trouble finding, even as broadcast TV still somehow lags behind in presenting integrated and black-themed programming.

On the other hand, the otherwise informative AMS documentary, The Real Great Debaters – which examined the facts behind the Denzel Washington-directed fiction film The Great Debaters – avoided the biggest question raised by the 2007 feature. Although the doc reveals that the feature fudged the truth by depicting the white team defeated by Wiley College’s eloquent arguers as Harvard (it was really none other than our very own USC – which went on to formally deny Wiley the championship), the real Great Debaters doesn’t even remotely deal with whether or not debate coach and poet Melvin Tolson (Washington’s character) was a Communist Party member, as suggested by the feature. This may be one of the rare times in cinema history when the fiction film was more honest than the nonfiction film, although the latter remains worth seeing.

The San Fernando Valley-based left-leaning distributor Cinema Libre Studios produced The End of Poverty? which will be theatrically released in September, but had its L.A. premiere at PAFF. This thoughtful, hard-hitting documentary traces the 15th century origins of Third World poverty to the introduction of capitalism by European colonizers, and reveals how the perpetuation of the unequal distribution of wealth continues to this very day, and will only end when resource and income inequality are gapped. The doc’s insightful – and inciting — commentators include Blowback author Chalmers Johnson, “economic hitman” John Perkins and economist Jospeh Stiglitz. After the PAFF screening director Philippe Diaz did a Q&A with the audience.

Kangamba is a feature about the decisive military role Cuba played in 1983 during the national liberation struggle in Angola, backing the MPLA against South Africa-backed UNITA. This stand up and cheer film was actually smuggled out of Cuba and past the U.S. blockade so it could be presented at PAFF. While revolutionary in content Kangamba’s form is quite conventional, and reminded me of all those World War II pix co-starring William Bendix, such as 1943’s Guadalcanal Diary. All other Cuban films I’ve seen, such as last year’s PAFF entry from Cuba, El Benny, had a bolder cinematic stylistic sensibility. Perhaps Kangamba is more aesthetically conservative because the director of this co-production, Rogelio Paris, is Brazilian.

The doc Cuba: An African Odyssey covered some of the same subject matter, the untold story of the role Castro’s Cuba played in ending apartheid. Last year PAFF screened a feature with a similar theme, Nambia: The Struggle for Liberation with Danny Glover, directed by Charles Burnett (whose 1977 Killer of Sheep was presented by PAFF this year).

Other features screened by PAFF this year include the 1967 Oscar winner In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, Spike Lee’s 2008 Miracle at St. Anna and Sugar, about a Dominican baseball player’s effort to break into the major leagues. The following are the finalists for PAFF’s awards in various categories.

PAFF COMPETITION WINNERS:

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Prince of Broadway – US
Honorable Mention
Happy Sad – Trinidad/Tobago

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Cuba, An African Odyssey – France
Honorable Mention
The End of Poverty? – US
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
Kwame – US
Honorable Mention
Warrior Queen – Ghana

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre – US
Honorable Mention
Faubourg Treme’: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans – US

BEST FIRST FEATURE – DIRECTOR
Rain – Bahamas

JURY FAVORITE
Skin – US

PAFF AUDIENCE FAVORITE WINNERS: BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Skin – US

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Nubian Spirit: The African Legacy of the Nile Valley – Sudan/UK

PAFF DIRECTOR’S AWARD: BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Sugar – US

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Milking the Rhino – US

PAFF PROGRAMMER’S AWARD: BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Standing N Truth – US

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Run Baby Run – Ghana

PAFF is always presented in February — “Black History Month.” I suspect that this is because PAFF is not only Black, but it is, indeed, historic.

For more information see: www.paff.org.

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Our coverage of the 25th Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah

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For continually updated coverage tap into http://www.jestherent.blogspot.com/

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Another Los Angeles city starts a film festival

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The inaugural Bel Air Film Festival commenced this evening with a little party inside Lionsgate Vice Chairman and Director Mark Amin’s monstrously ostentatious mansion in the namesake city.

Titled “Film Fashion Night,” non-filmmakers, leisure class denizens and others swallowed sparkling wine served in plastic cups while chowing down snacks of various merit. Honorees for the evening included Anya Sarre, celebrity stylist for such banal enterprises as Entertainment Tonight, The Insider and ET on MTV.

Hosted by Genlux Magazine, opening night held screenings of the short and enlightening 1999 documentary, Louise Dahl-Wolfe: Painting with Light, about the famed photographer’s life and works. While few from those present attended that documentary, only a few remained for the second and last short documentary of the night, James Gill Full Circle (2008), which is an autobiographical look at the American pop artist James Gill.

For updates on the film festival, go to http://jestherent.blogspot.com/

Above: A photo from Louise Dahl-Wolfe: Painting with Light,

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Writing against storytelling at 15th AFF

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Originating in 1994, the Austin Film Festival is “dedicated to celebrating the art of storytelling through film.” The four-day conference, featuring panel discussions and roundtables, gives amateur writers intimate face time with renowned screenwriters and producers; while the eight days of film screenings (limited to a predominately evening-oriented schedule) consistently feature a strong narrative film competition alongside high profile marquee premieres.

 

Recently, AFF has steered away from the “screenwriting” moniker which differentiated it from most film festivals, leading to a less-restrictive descriptor of “storytelling.” Several of this year’s films lacked strong and/or innovative writing, or arguably any writing at all (I’m looking at you Largo), though they all told stories.

 

The 15^th Annual Austin Film Festival ran from October 16^th-23^rd. Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Sunshine) received AFF’s top honor (Boyle gets a tribute at AFI Fest 2008, too), the award for Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking; Greg Daniels (“The Simpsons”, “The Office”) was honored as the Outstanding Television Writer.

 

Oliver Stone opened the festivities with a bio-pic of one of Austin’s most despised ex-residents – W. (written by Stanley Weiser); Kelly Reinhardt’s Wendy and Lucy (written by Reinhardt and Jonathon Raymond) snuggled in as the fest’s centerpiece selection (also at AFI Fest 2008); and James Gray’s Two Lovers was the festival’s good night kiss. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected (both at AFI Fest 2008) were two other notable premieres.

 

On Saturday, I found myself engulfed by a never-ending sea of burnt orange-clad college students (go Longhorns!). I was a non-conforming outcast lacking visible support of their number-one ranked football team; they were a drunken and unruly mob. Luckily the dark shelter of the nearby Dobie Theater offered suitable protection from public lynching. As if my weekend was penned by a screenwriter with a sharp sardonic wit, Sunday brought hundreds of zombies (marching in the 2^nd Annual Dismember the Alamo celebration) leering hungrily upon a crowd waiting for Wendy and Lucy outside the Paramount Theatre. Rather than feasting on the apathetic AFF crowd, the zombies moseyed on up Congress Ave. to the state capital building (much to the chagrin of Texas state troopers).

 

The pedestrian-unfriendly, scattered locations of theaters (some only accessible by automobile) and sparse scheduling of screenings made it nearly impossible to see more than 10 percent of the 190+ selections.

 

The following are synopses of the noteworthy of that 10 percent:

 

How to Be – The only film to screen three times at the 2008 AFF, How to Be garnered the most repeat viewers and was the most recommended film by other festival-goers. I entered the screening with lofty expectations and found myself leaving a wee bit underwhelmed. That is not to say that Oliver Irving’s 83-minute comedy is not worthwhile. Unlike most stateside comedies (which rely heavily upon lowbrow jokes about sex and bodily functions – for example: Role Models, which also premiered at AFF), the British How to Be is sublimely intellectual and class oriented. Robert Pattinson’s performance as Art is topnotch, as is Powell Jones as the personal self-help guru Dr. Ellington.

 

Left – Winner of the narrative feature Special Jury Award, writer-director Froukje Tan found a fantastic way to keep his cast to a minimum – create a lead character that sees a few people replicated everywhere. Dexter’s (Jeroen van Koningsbrugge) first clue is that only one of the several incarnations of his girlfriend recognizes him. After a rash of car accidents and unpaid tickets, Dexter is hospitalized and discovers another mental complication – he (like McCain supporters) cannot see left. This further hinders his grasp on reality and his outlook on life, while casting a larger net for the philosophical context of this film (Are people becoming as homogenized as Longhorn football fans? Are views becoming more polarized – left or right?). This psycho-babbling gem from the Netherlands is a brainteaser to the tenth degree.

 

A Quiet Little Marriage – Winner of an audience award and my pick for the best film of the narrative feature competition (I was not able to view the winner – Nobuyuki Miyake’s Lost & Found), writer-director Mo Perkins’ A Quiet Little Marriage is an improvised (a la John Cassavetes) tale of a young, fault-filled marriage. The story is brutally realistic; the dialogue and the performances are skillfully subdued and the cinematography is perfectly natural. The ending twist is a bit trite, but otherwise the only “fault” of A Quiet Little Marriage is that the writing plays second fiddle to the acting (I still consider AFF to be a writer’s festival).

 

Wendy and Lucy – Clearly the highlight of the week-long festival was Kelly Reichardt’s follow-up to Old Joy. Reichardt waxes poetically on the plummeting economic situation in the United States (without any references to plumbers named Joe or Sam) and its effect on an everyday young woman and her faithful dog. Without any back story, we find Wendy driving across the United States with her dog, Lucy. Wendy is unemployed. She is Alaska-bound, in search of lucrative job prospects. Unfortunately, her car has different plans and Wendy finds herself hemorrhaging her remaining money in Oregon.

 

Les Ninjas du Japon – Giommi Giovanni’s film about a team of Japanese semiprofessional cyclists that traveled to Burkina Faso to compete in Africa’s most prestigious bike race won the documentary feature competition.

 

And then there were shorts:

 

Martha – My favorite narrative short film of the competition (the competition winner was Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s Sikumi), Martha is a semi-autobiographical tale of a young girl who is embarrassed by her father’s quirkiness as well as her family’s financial status. Martha deserves kudos for its set design and lead acting performance (Christine Cheney), as well as its writing (Katja Straub). Writer-director Katja Straub is working on a feature version of this story.

 

Zietek – Winner of the documentary short competition, this Polish short tells the story of Bogdan Zietek who has filled his house with wooden, life-sized sculptures of women. The dirty old man opts to lust longingly at (and inappropriately touch) the fake women while ignoring his not-so-finely-aged wife.

 

Frankie – Winner of a Special Jury Award for Ryan Andrews’ lead performance, Frankie is the tale of a 15-year-old Irish boy who is about to become a father. The once-a-hoodlum-always-a-hoodlum Frankie recognizes that he is unfit for parenthood, so he prepares for the life-changing experience by carrying around a crying doll to the constant ridicule of his hoodlum friends.

 

Passages – Winner of the Special Jury Award for Personal Expression and Advocacy, the journal entries animated in Passages are like drawings on a chalkboard (with white sketches on a black background). Canadian writer-director Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre’s intensely personal story commences with her unbridled excitement of being pregnant and evolves into a battle with the Canadian health care system over her child’s complicated birth (thanks, in part, to an incompetent staff at the hospital).

 

Love You More – It is June 1978 – the release date for the Buzzcock’s fourth single “Love You More”. Two young punks (unbeknownst to each other) scurry down to the local record shop after school; both fatefully grab for the only copy of the 7-inches of vinyl bliss wrapped in a pink sleeve (the color of a tit). They return to the female punk’s bedroom, listening to “Love You More” on repeat. The music converts the two awkward virgins into orgasm addicts. They never even get to listen to the b-side (“Noise Annoys”).

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A transitional year for the festival

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AFI FEST 2008 UPDATE:
Closing night for AFI Film Festival 2008 will be Defiance, directed by Edward Zwick (Glory; Legends of the Fall) . Based on a true story, Zwick’s latest epic follows three Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell) in Nazi-occupied Poland who escape into the forest, join up with Russian Resistance fighters and create a fortified village. There, they courageously battle the Germans, saving the lives of more than 1200 other Jews.

(Defiance screens Nov. 9, 7 p.m.)

For our daily coverage of AFI Fest 2008 please go to
www.jestherent.blogspot.com/