Happy Campers director Amy Nicholson with Anne-Katrin Titze: “There are times when you get lucky and you get magic.”
I first met Amy Nicholson in 2013 when I was on the jury of the inaugural First Time Fest with Gay Talese, the B-52’s Fred Schneider, and Killer Films’ Christine Vachon. Amy’s documentary, Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride, won our Outstanding Achievement in Editing Award (by John Young and Jonah Moran): “Fast-paced editing that captures, in a balanced way, a story about humanity in an age of greed. The editing works like the Zipper itself, connecting the ride with the story of Coney Island.”
Amy Nicholson often places the people side-by-side, Wes Anderson style.
In Happy Campers, a highlight of the 14th edition of Doc NYC, we are taken to the Inlet View Rv Park campground on Chincoteague Island in Virginia. Nicholson often places the people side-by-side, Wes Anderson style,...
I first met Amy Nicholson in 2013 when I was on the jury of the inaugural First Time Fest with Gay Talese, the B-52’s Fred Schneider, and Killer Films’ Christine Vachon. Amy’s documentary, Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride, won our Outstanding Achievement in Editing Award (by John Young and Jonah Moran): “Fast-paced editing that captures, in a balanced way, a story about humanity in an age of greed. The editing works like the Zipper itself, connecting the ride with the story of Coney Island.”
Amy Nicholson often places the people side-by-side, Wes Anderson style.
In Happy Campers, a highlight of the 14th edition of Doc NYC, we are taken to the Inlet View Rv Park campground on Chincoteague Island in Virginia. Nicholson often places the people side-by-side, Wes Anderson style,...
- 11/25/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Documentary festival IDFA, which runs Nov. 8 to 19 in Amsterdam, has revealed its first 50 titles, including the top 10 Chinese films selected by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, IDFA’s Guest of Honor.
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Anne Frank continues to resonate as perhaps the most famous symbol of Jewish suffering and persecution in the face of the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust during World War II. It was her teenage diary, after all, that remains perhaps the most vivid description of what it was like to live under Nazi occupation – specifically in Amsterdam between 1942 and ’44, while her family was in hiding and she wrote her famed remembrance of being sheltered out of view until a betrayal led to their being discovered.
It was a woman named Miep Gies, however, who provided a first-hand aural witness’s account of those hiding out in what came to be known as the Secret Annex. It’s her tale that’s told in “A Small Light,” a powerful eight-part limited series from NatGeo that premieres with a pair of installments on May 1 and streams the next day on Disney+. It...
It was a woman named Miep Gies, however, who provided a first-hand aural witness’s account of those hiding out in what came to be known as the Secret Annex. It’s her tale that’s told in “A Small Light,” a powerful eight-part limited series from NatGeo that premieres with a pair of installments on May 1 and streams the next day on Disney+. It...
- 3/23/2023
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
In the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and music was primarily heard through vinyl discs on a rotating machine with a needle, you’d go down to your local record shop and purchase an album. Then you’d go back home, slap the platter on your player and listen intently. More often than not, these albums would have a picture of the artist or group on the front, staring joyously or moodily back at you. These were the people making the sounds you heard. All very simple. Ask your grandparents about it.
- 1/25/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThis week, we’re remembering the iconoclastic, anti-capitalist filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub, who has died at the age of 89. In the course of revisiting Christopher Small’s Straub-Huillet Companion column, we were moved by this quotation from Straub, from a 1974 edition of Jump Cut:The revolution is like God’s grace, it has to be made anew each day, it becomes new every day, a revolution is not made once and for all. And it’s exactly like that in daily life. There is no division between politics and life, art and politics. I think one has no other choice, if one is making films that can stand on their own feet, they must become documentary, or in any case they must have documentary roots. Everything must be correct,...
- 11/23/2022
- MUBI
It’s always fun and games until someone bites another person’s finger off.
To be fair, Maren — the young hero of Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, one half of its red-hot killer couple, our tour guide of ’80s Rust-Belt America and the role that officially confirms actor Taylor Russell as a best-of-generation contender — has sampled human flesh before. Her tastes first manifested themselves when she was three years old, we’re told, and her father (Andre Holland) has been shepherding Maren around from city to city, state to state ever since.
To be fair, Maren — the young hero of Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, one half of its red-hot killer couple, our tour guide of ’80s Rust-Belt America and the role that officially confirms actor Taylor Russell as a best-of-generation contender — has sampled human flesh before. Her tastes first manifested themselves when she was three years old, we’re told, and her father (Andre Holland) has been shepherding Maren around from city to city, state to state ever since.
- 11/21/2022
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Moonage Daydream, a film about David Bowie, opens with “Hallo Spaceboy,” a deep cut from his 1995 album Outside. It’s clear from the use of this song that Brett Morgen isn’t making a traditional documentary about the Thin White Duke.
“I was completely trolling,” admits Morgen.
But the use of a relatively obscure industrial track from later in Bowie’s career illustrates what the director is trying to achieve. He’s looking to tell the story of Bowie’s work as an experience or a feeling, full of “chaos” and “fragmentation,” rather than a chronological, visual biography. This is something that many music documentaries don’t attempt.
Morgen says there are plenty of books and other documentaries about David Bowie that tell this version of the story.
“What can I offer that you can’t get in Wikipedia? It’s an experience. It’s something intangible. What’s great...
“I was completely trolling,” admits Morgen.
But the use of a relatively obscure industrial track from later in Bowie’s career illustrates what the director is trying to achieve. He’s looking to tell the story of Bowie’s work as an experience or a feeling, full of “chaos” and “fragmentation,” rather than a chronological, visual biography. This is something that many music documentaries don’t attempt.
Morgen says there are plenty of books and other documentaries about David Bowie that tell this version of the story.
“What can I offer that you can’t get in Wikipedia? It’s an experience. It’s something intangible. What’s great...
- 9/16/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
The Rolling Stones have been doing Rolling Stones documentaries for nearly as long as they’ve been a band, and given their early goes, it’s impressive they’ve kept at it. The first, Charlie Is My Darling (1966), was shelved for decades due to legal fights and various shenanigans; The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1968), a trainwreck of poor planning, was also shelved for years. Jean Luc-Godard’s brilliant but befuddling docufiction One Plus One (Sympathy For The Devil) got consigned to the art film circuit that same year,...
- 8/29/2022
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
Ed Lachman and New York remember Robert Frank: "Robert was the truest of poets but without words...his heart, mind and eye will always be missed...." Photo: Ed Bahlman
Robert Frank died on September 9, in Inverness, Nova Scotia, at the age of 94. He was the director of Me And My Brother on Julius and Peter Orlovsky, co-written by Sam Shepard; an infamous Rolling Stones documentary; Candy Mountain with Rudy Wurlitzer, and the short Pull My Daisy with Alfred Leslie, written by Jack Kerouac. Robert Frank, best known for his photography book The Americans, has been the subject of two recent documentaries.
The last time I saw Robert Frank and his wife June Leaf, was on June 1. They were sitting on the bench pictured here on Bleecker Street ... Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is Laura Israel’s Don't Blink: Robert Frank, shot by Edward Lachman and Lisa Rinzler, featuring archival footage of Allen Ginsberg,...
Robert Frank died on September 9, in Inverness, Nova Scotia, at the age of 94. He was the director of Me And My Brother on Julius and Peter Orlovsky, co-written by Sam Shepard; an infamous Rolling Stones documentary; Candy Mountain with Rudy Wurlitzer, and the short Pull My Daisy with Alfred Leslie, written by Jack Kerouac. Robert Frank, best known for his photography book The Americans, has been the subject of two recent documentaries.
The last time I saw Robert Frank and his wife June Leaf, was on June 1. They were sitting on the bench pictured here on Bleecker Street ... Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is Laura Israel’s Don't Blink: Robert Frank, shot by Edward Lachman and Lisa Rinzler, featuring archival footage of Allen Ginsberg,...
- 9/15/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Track my film passions of the past year and the result is this list. These are the films that wowed and moved me, that turned me into a rabid champion, that gave me hope that brilliant cinematic storytelling — and a rebel spirit — is alive and well. It turned out to be a strong year for women directors (five), romances (three), World War II dramas (two), Angelina Jolie movies (two), animation (one), and documentaries (one).
See More:The Best Movies of 2017, According to IndieWire Critic Eric Kohn 12. “The Breadwinner” (GKids)
Directed by Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon (“The Secret of Kells”) and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, Irish-Canadian “The Breadwinner” is based on Deborah Ellis’s Ya novel about 11-year-old Parvana (voiced by Canadian actress Saara Chaudry), a strong-willed Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family and save her father under threat from the Taliban.
See More:The Best Movies of 2017, According to IndieWire Critic Eric Kohn 12. “The Breadwinner” (GKids)
Directed by Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon (“The Secret of Kells”) and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, Irish-Canadian “The Breadwinner” is based on Deborah Ellis’s Ya novel about 11-year-old Parvana (voiced by Canadian actress Saara Chaudry), a strong-willed Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family and save her father under threat from the Taliban.
- 12/1/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
In 1983, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Media Study/Buffalo, created a touring retrospective of avant-garde films, primarily feature-length ones and a few shorts, which they called “The American New Wave 1958-1967.” To accompany the tour, a hefty catalog was produced that included notes on the films, essays by film historians and critics, writings by major underground film figures and more.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
- 11/25/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Dee Rees is a tall woman of fierce charisma. She’s the kind of director who talks fast, ideas coming so quickly that those less inclined can barely keep up. And yet her output has been slow: After Focus Features snapped up her breakout 2011 feature debut “Pariah” at Sundance, it was four years before HBO Film’s Emmy and DGA-award-winning 2015 biopic “Bessie.”
“There’s an assumption that men who do small personal movies can leap to deliver larger things,” said “Bessie” producer Shelby Stone. “It’s much harder for women.”
Finally, we get to see Rees fulfill her promise with “Mudbound,” a Sundance triumph that set the 2017 festival sales record with its $12.5 million sale to Netflix, and opened AFI Fest November 9 after wowing crowds at seven film festivals.
When Rees received the Sundance Next Fest Vanguard Award in August, her presenter, “Pariah” star Kim Wayans, said it best: “The introverted,...
“There’s an assumption that men who do small personal movies can leap to deliver larger things,” said “Bessie” producer Shelby Stone. “It’s much harder for women.”
Finally, we get to see Rees fulfill her promise with “Mudbound,” a Sundance triumph that set the 2017 festival sales record with its $12.5 million sale to Netflix, and opened AFI Fest November 9 after wowing crowds at seven film festivals.
When Rees received the Sundance Next Fest Vanguard Award in August, her presenter, “Pariah” star Kim Wayans, said it best: “The introverted,...
- 11/13/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
BAMcinématek pays screen tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright - True West: Sam Shepard on Film Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Sam Shepard, who died on July 27, 2017 at the age of 73, will be honored by BAMcinématek in New York with True West: Sam Shepard on Film.
Wim Wenders' Don’t Come Knocking and Paris, Texas (BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Shepard); Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff (Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination for Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager); Graeme Clifford's Frances; Daniel Petrie's Resurrection; Terrence Malick's Days Of Heaven; Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, co-written by Shepard; Robert Altman's adaptation of Fool For Love; Robert Frank's Me And My Brother (text by Shepard, poems by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky); Shirley Clarke's video of Shepard's Tongues performed by Joseph Chaikin, and Far North, directed by Sam Shepard will be screened.
Sam Shepard, who died on July 27, 2017 at the age of 73, will be honored by BAMcinématek in New York with True West: Sam Shepard on Film.
Wim Wenders' Don’t Come Knocking and Paris, Texas (BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Shepard); Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff (Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination for Shepard's portrayal of Chuck Yeager); Graeme Clifford's Frances; Daniel Petrie's Resurrection; Terrence Malick's Days Of Heaven; Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, co-written by Shepard; Robert Altman's adaptation of Fool For Love; Robert Frank's Me And My Brother (text by Shepard, poems by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky); Shirley Clarke's video of Shepard's Tongues performed by Joseph Chaikin, and Far North, directed by Sam Shepard will be screened.
- 9/14/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Tony Sokol Aug 1, 2017
Sam Shepard has sadly passed at the age of 73. We bid farewell to a great playwright, author and actor.
Playwright, author, and actor Sam Shepard, who spearheaded the Off Broadway movement, and starred in such films as The Right Stuff, Mud and Midnight Special, died on the 27th of July, the theatre public relations firm Boneau/Bryan-Brown announced. Shepard was 73 years old. Known for such plays as Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Curse Of The Starving Class and A Lie Of The Mind, Shepard’s 1969 science fiction play The Unseen Hand influenced Richard O'Brien's stage musical The Rocky Horror Show.
Shepard wrote 44 plays as well as books of short stories and essays. Besides his 1979 work Buried Child, his plays, True West and Fool For Love were also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 11 of Shepard’s plays won Obie Awards including Chicago and...
Sam Shepard has sadly passed at the age of 73. We bid farewell to a great playwright, author and actor.
Playwright, author, and actor Sam Shepard, who spearheaded the Off Broadway movement, and starred in such films as The Right Stuff, Mud and Midnight Special, died on the 27th of July, the theatre public relations firm Boneau/Bryan-Brown announced. Shepard was 73 years old. Known for such plays as Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Curse Of The Starving Class and A Lie Of The Mind, Shepard’s 1969 science fiction play The Unseen Hand influenced Richard O'Brien's stage musical The Rocky Horror Show.
Shepard wrote 44 plays as well as books of short stories and essays. Besides his 1979 work Buried Child, his plays, True West and Fool For Love were also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 11 of Shepard’s plays won Obie Awards including Chicago and...
- 7/31/2017
- Den of Geek
Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated actor, died Sunday at the age of 73.
Shepard, who suffered from Als in recent years, died at his home in Kentucky from complications from the disease, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter.
The winner of 13 Obie Awards, Shepard won his first six for plays he penned between 1966 and 1968. After his success on the off-Broadway stage, Shepard segued to screenwriting with credits on films like Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriske Point and Robert Frank's Me and My Brother.
During this time, Shepard also...
Shepard, who suffered from Als in recent years, died at his home in Kentucky from complications from the disease, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter.
The winner of 13 Obie Awards, Shepard won his first six for plays he penned between 1966 and 1968. After his success on the off-Broadway stage, Shepard segued to screenwriting with credits on films like Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriske Point and Robert Frank's Me and My Brother.
During this time, Shepard also...
- 7/31/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Megan McGill Mar 20, 2017
Fancy some graphic novels that don't involve a Marvel or DC hero? Try some of these...
You don't need to tell comic book and graphic novel fans that there's a whole lot more than superheroes out there. However, if you're just starting to dabble, might we make a few recommendations...?
Sweet Tooth
Put Mad Max in some plaid, make him feel a little Wolverine circa X-Men: Origins, add some creepy Wes Anderson stop-motion animals, and you’ll get Sweet Tooth, the post-apocalyptic story of human-animal hybrids in rural Nebraska. You may be familiar with Jeff Lemire’s other work on Animal Man and Green Lantern, or his acclaimed graphic novel Essex County, but for me, Sweet Tooth really is something special. Running from 2009 to 2013, this forty-issue arc centres around Gus, a young boy with antlers living with his strictly religious father in a world infected by some sort of plague.
Fancy some graphic novels that don't involve a Marvel or DC hero? Try some of these...
You don't need to tell comic book and graphic novel fans that there's a whole lot more than superheroes out there. However, if you're just starting to dabble, might we make a few recommendations...?
Sweet Tooth
Put Mad Max in some plaid, make him feel a little Wolverine circa X-Men: Origins, add some creepy Wes Anderson stop-motion animals, and you’ll get Sweet Tooth, the post-apocalyptic story of human-animal hybrids in rural Nebraska. You may be familiar with Jeff Lemire’s other work on Animal Man and Green Lantern, or his acclaimed graphic novel Essex County, but for me, Sweet Tooth really is something special. Running from 2009 to 2013, this forty-issue arc centres around Gus, a young boy with antlers living with his strictly religious father in a world infected by some sort of plague.
- 3/13/2017
- Den of Geek
Set in the post-wwii South, “Mudbound” is the story of two farming families battling both with an unforgiving landscape and the region’s deeply ingrained racism. To create the look of the film, cinematographer Rachel Morrison and director Dee Rees explored the work of the great photographers who captured the era. Morrison then worked with natural light and the landscape to craft the look of this powerful drama.
Read More: ‘Mudbound’ Review: Dee Rees Enters the Big Leagues With Sweeping Period Epic — Sundance 2017
It’s one of the most gorgeously shot films to play at Sundance in years, and if the film’s yet-to-be named distributor does decide to make an awards push with the film, Rachel Morrison could be the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. Morrison was unable to be in Park City for the “Mudbound” premiere because she’s shooting “Black Panther” with director Ryan Coogler,...
Read More: ‘Mudbound’ Review: Dee Rees Enters the Big Leagues With Sweeping Period Epic — Sundance 2017
It’s one of the most gorgeously shot films to play at Sundance in years, and if the film’s yet-to-be named distributor does decide to make an awards push with the film, Rachel Morrison could be the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. Morrison was unable to be in Park City for the “Mudbound” premiere because she’s shooting “Black Panther” with director Ryan Coogler,...
- 1/28/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The struggle for racial equality in America, the careers of cinematographers, directors, and photographers, the immigration crisis, music as celebration and grief, and strange conspiracies — these were just a few of the places and stories that this year’s documentary offerings brought us. With 2016 wrapping up, we’ve selected 20 features in the field that most impressed, so check out our list below and, in the comments, let us know your favorites.
13th (Ava DuVernay)
Following the stunning Selma, which conveyed a present-tense urgency sorely lacking in many biopics and radically distributed screen-time away from Dr. King to communicate the collectivity inherent to any reform movement, Ava DuVernay has shifted her rhetorical approach, but her anger remains. Whereas Selma was emotive and explosive, 13th is lucid and level-headed, gradually and methodically making a case that black incarceration is actually just a reconfigured and rebranded form of slavery. Sticking to conventional but...
13th (Ava DuVernay)
Following the stunning Selma, which conveyed a present-tense urgency sorely lacking in many biopics and radically distributed screen-time away from Dr. King to communicate the collectivity inherent to any reform movement, Ava DuVernay has shifted her rhetorical approach, but her anger remains. Whereas Selma was emotive and explosive, 13th is lucid and level-headed, gradually and methodically making a case that black incarceration is actually just a reconfigured and rebranded form of slavery. Sticking to conventional but...
- 12/20/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The film-maker and war photographer is refreshingly prickly in this fine documentary
With its punchy soundtrack, snappy editing and confrontational attitude, this documentary about the seminal photographer Robert Frank brilliantly captures the essence of the man. Influenced by the Beat writers and by fellow photographers Walker Evans and Louis Faurer, Frank is best known for his seminal book The Americans. But he also forged a parallel career as an experimental film-maker. This bracing documentary portrait finds the artist, now in his 90s, as refreshingly prickly and uncompromising as ever.
Continue reading...
With its punchy soundtrack, snappy editing and confrontational attitude, this documentary about the seminal photographer Robert Frank brilliantly captures the essence of the man. Influenced by the Beat writers and by fellow photographers Walker Evans and Louis Faurer, Frank is best known for his seminal book The Americans. But he also forged a parallel career as an experimental film-maker. This bracing documentary portrait finds the artist, now in his 90s, as refreshingly prickly and uncompromising as ever.
Continue reading...
- 11/13/2016
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
On Tuesday, Americans go to the voting booth to determine what kind of country they want theirs to be. Months of the most polarized, and polarizing, presidential campaign in recent memory have left many of us with battle fatigue and gnawing pangs of cynicism and nausea. To quote Thomas McGuane, in the opening line of his 1973 novel “92 in the Shade”: “Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble with our republic.”
Our filmmakers might have a clue. And a little distance brings perspective. The American Film Festival just celebrated its seventh annual survey of new (and mostly) independent cinema made in the U.S.A., as assembled for and viewed by eager European audiences in Wroclaw, Poland. Though not without some escapist and experimental tangents, the selections couldn’t help but offer a provocative composite of work that serves as a kind of state of the union address.
Our filmmakers might have a clue. And a little distance brings perspective. The American Film Festival just celebrated its seventh annual survey of new (and mostly) independent cinema made in the U.S.A., as assembled for and viewed by eager European audiences in Wroclaw, Poland. Though not without some escapist and experimental tangents, the selections couldn’t help but offer a provocative composite of work that serves as a kind of state of the union address.
- 11/7/2016
- by Steve Dollar
- Indiewire
A total of 145 feature documentaries were submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the 89th Academy Awards.
Out of those films the members of the Academy’s documentary branch will select a shortlist of 15 features that will be announced in December, and the five nominations will be announced on January 24.
Read More: Documentary, Now: Three Rock Stars Who Run the Fast-Changing Non-Fiction World
Among the titles included in the list are Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner “Weiner” by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, Raoul Peck’s Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner “I Am Not Your Negro,” the visually stunning “Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience” by Terrence Malik and Otto Bell’s “The Eagle Huntress.”
Read More: Oscars 2017: 10 Documentary Shorts Vie for Nominations
This year Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’ film “Amy” about British singer Amy Winehouse...
Out of those films the members of the Academy’s documentary branch will select a shortlist of 15 features that will be announced in December, and the five nominations will be announced on January 24.
Read More: Documentary, Now: Three Rock Stars Who Run the Fast-Changing Non-Fiction World
Among the titles included in the list are Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner “Weiner” by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, Raoul Peck’s Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner “I Am Not Your Negro,” the visually stunning “Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience” by Terrence Malik and Otto Bell’s “The Eagle Huntress.”
Read More: Oscars 2017: 10 Documentary Shorts Vie for Nominations
This year Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’ film “Amy” about British singer Amy Winehouse...
- 10/29/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
The 5th Annual Key West Film Festival has announced its official 2016 lineup, including the opening night film, “20th Century Women,” directed by Mike Mills and starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup. As part of the festival’s signature Critics Focus program, MTV’s Chief Film Critic Amy Nicholson will present and lead a conversation around the film, alongside David Fear, Senior Film/TV Editor of Rolling Stone.
Director of Programming Michael Tuckman said of Nicholson’s pick, “I could not be more thrilled with Amy Nicholson’s choice of ’20th Century Women’ to kick off our 5th Anniversary edition of festival. Annette Bening’s performance is Oscar-deserving and the rich depth of the balance of the leading cast is Altman-esque in its quality. Amy’s discussion after the film will bring a cunning critic’s eye to this fabulous film for audiences.”
Read More: ’20th Century...
Director of Programming Michael Tuckman said of Nicholson’s pick, “I could not be more thrilled with Amy Nicholson’s choice of ’20th Century Women’ to kick off our 5th Anniversary edition of festival. Annette Bening’s performance is Oscar-deserving and the rich depth of the balance of the leading cast is Altman-esque in its quality. Amy’s discussion after the film will bring a cunning critic’s eye to this fabulous film for audiences.”
Read More: ’20th Century...
- 10/19/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
"Steady as a preacher, free as a weed," goes the Lady Antebellum tune that gives filmmaker Andrea Arnold's teenage-island-of-misfit-toys road movie its title. You can see why those two things might be aspirations for Star (newcomer Sasha Lane), the teenager we first meet digging through the trash for food, grubby kid siblings in tow. Stability and liberation aren't things she comes across a lot. Her life is a wreck, her residence is a parody of Southern trashiness (ants on the counter, handsy stepdad in the living room, Dixie flag...
- 9/30/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Don’T Blink – Robert Frank Screens September 23rd – 25th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).
Robert Frank, now 91 years old, is among the most influential artists of the last half-century. His seminal volume, The Americans, published in 1958, records the Swiss-born photographer’s candid reactions to peculiarly American versions of poverty and racism. Today it is a classic work that helped define the off-the-cuff, idiosyncratic elegance that are hallmarks of Frank’s artistry. Director Laura Israel (Frank’s longtime film editor) and producer Melinda Shopsin were given unprecedented access to the notably irascible artist. The assembled portrait is not unlike Frank’s own movies – rough around the edges and brimming with surprises and insights – calling to mind Frank’s quintessential underground movie, the 1959 Beat short, Pull My Daisy (co-directed by Alfred Leslie). Don’t Blink includes clips from Frank’s rarely seen movies, among them Me and My Brother...
Robert Frank, now 91 years old, is among the most influential artists of the last half-century. His seminal volume, The Americans, published in 1958, records the Swiss-born photographer’s candid reactions to peculiarly American versions of poverty and racism. Today it is a classic work that helped define the off-the-cuff, idiosyncratic elegance that are hallmarks of Frank’s artistry. Director Laura Israel (Frank’s longtime film editor) and producer Melinda Shopsin were given unprecedented access to the notably irascible artist. The assembled portrait is not unlike Frank’s own movies – rough around the edges and brimming with surprises and insights – calling to mind Frank’s quintessential underground movie, the 1959 Beat short, Pull My Daisy (co-directed by Alfred Leslie). Don’t Blink includes clips from Frank’s rarely seen movies, among them Me and My Brother...
- 9/22/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Whether you're an A-list celebrity or an average Joe, getting divorced is never easy. And unfortunately, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to experience it first-hand sooner rather than later. With both stars having so much success in Hollywood, money is going to play a big role in this pair's split. But even though the duo has been together for more than a decade, how long they were officially married could be what's most important. "So there are a couple of unusual things about this relationship. Number one is they were together much longer than they were married," CNBC wealth editor Robert Frank shared with E! News. "They've only been married for two years so that means...
- 9/20/2016
- E! Online
The BAMcinématek series The Films of Robert Frank features the notorious Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972) and "includes some 25 moving-image works of varying lengths and genres," notes Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "The series as a whole cannot be summarized, nor can the individual films except to say that they share the characteristic of having been made by someone who stubbornly insists on walking out on a high wire without a net. If you’ve not seen Pull My Daisy, it is the classic. But do not miss Conversations in Vermont (1969), Life Dances On (1980) and True Story (2008)—all of them naked in their confusion and anguish about fathering. Best of all is the seemingly casual Paper Route (2002), as close to a perfect movie as you’ll ever see." » - David Hudson...
- 8/4/2016
- Keyframe
The BAMcinématek series The Films of Robert Frank features the notorious Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972) and "includes some 25 moving-image works of varying lengths and genres," notes Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "The series as a whole cannot be summarized, nor can the individual films except to say that they share the characteristic of having been made by someone who stubbornly insists on walking out on a high wire without a net. If you’ve not seen Pull My Daisy, it is the classic. But do not miss Conversations in Vermont (1969), Life Dances On (1980) and True Story (2008)—all of them naked in their confusion and anguish about fathering. Best of all is the seemingly casual Paper Route (2002), as close to a perfect movie as you’ll ever see." » - David Hudson...
- 8/4/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Mike Birbiglia’s “Don’t Think Twice” (The Film Arcade) is the latest mid-summer hit, joining the recent turnaround in art house fortunes. Following his template for “Sleepwalk With Me,” Birbiglia & Co. boosted box office via frequent appearances at their New York cinema. The already strong film surged to a huge initial $90,000 number with many sold out shows on multiple screens.
Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” (Lionsgate) continued to improve on the director’s recent performance, and could end up besting two other recent strong openers. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) continue to have strong expansions; both could end up over $10 million as well.
Asian wide-audience commercial releases are performing well in domestic play, with entries from South Korea, India, the Philippines along with China continuing to deliver strong niche results.
Opening
“Don’t Think Twice” (Film Arcade) – Metacritic: 83; Festivals include: South by Southwest,...
Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” (Lionsgate) continued to improve on the director’s recent performance, and could end up besting two other recent strong openers. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) continue to have strong expansions; both could end up over $10 million as well.
Asian wide-audience commercial releases are performing well in domestic play, with entries from South Korea, India, the Philippines along with China continuing to deliver strong niche results.
Opening
“Don’t Think Twice” (Film Arcade) – Metacritic: 83; Festivals include: South by Southwest,...
- 7/24/2016
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Mid-summer brings the biggest limited opening of 2016, with a return to form by Woody Allen as new distributor Amazon Studios and partner Lionsgate pushed “Café Society” to numbers unseen since last December. It’s not at Allen’s top level, but a huge leap above his last two films as well as anything else so far this year.
For a totally different market, Dinesh D’Souza doc “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” had a limited opening in Middle America with strong front-loaded initial numbers. The political doc goes wider this Friday and could see a better eventual total —via an entirely different audience—than Allen’s film.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) from New Zealand leads the films in wider release as it continues to build word-of-mouth success. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) boasted a decent second weekend expansion and could end up at a...
For a totally different market, Dinesh D’Souza doc “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” had a limited opening in Middle America with strong front-loaded initial numbers. The political doc goes wider this Friday and could see a better eventual total —via an entirely different audience—than Allen’s film.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) from New Zealand leads the films in wider release as it continues to build word-of-mouth success. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) boasted a decent second weekend expansion and could end up at a...
- 7/17/2016
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
To help sift through the increasing number of new releases (independent or otherwise), the Weekly Film Guide is here! Below you’ll find basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for July 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, July 15. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ghostbusters
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Bill Murray, Charles Dance, Elizabeth Perkins, Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis: A paranormal researcher (Melissa McCarthy), a physicist (Kristen Wiig), a nuclear engineer (Kate McKinnon) and a subway worker (Leslie Jones...
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for July 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, July 15. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ghostbusters
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Bill Murray, Charles Dance, Elizabeth Perkins, Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis: A paranormal researcher (Melissa McCarthy), a physicist (Kristen Wiig), a nuclear engineer (Kate McKinnon) and a subway worker (Leslie Jones...
- 7/15/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Since the late 1980’s, editor Laura Israel has spent much of her time as editor for legendary photographer Robert Frank. One of photography’s most intriguing and influential voices since the 1950s, Frank has become synonymous with avant-garde photography and filmmaking, and his recent work owes a great debt to the work of Israel, a filmmaker in her own right. And now, she’s decided to take a leap behind the camera, and give her collaborator the retrospective he so rightly deserves.
A Swiss-born photographer, Frank first truly burst onto the scene with the 1958 masterwork, The Americans a haunting and in many ways medium-shifting meditation on post-wwii America and the poverty and racism that became widespread therein. A groundbreaking work of photojournalism, this is only the launching pad for this new documentary, entitled Don’t Blink – Robert Frank. Israel uses this collection of photographs as an introduction into the world,...
A Swiss-born photographer, Frank first truly burst onto the scene with the 1958 masterwork, The Americans a haunting and in many ways medium-shifting meditation on post-wwii America and the poverty and racism that became widespread therein. A groundbreaking work of photojournalism, this is only the launching pad for this new documentary, entitled Don’t Blink – Robert Frank. Israel uses this collection of photographs as an introduction into the world,...
- 7/15/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
From its opening minutes, “Don’t Blink — Robert Frank” establishes itself more as a collage than a simple documentary. It starts with quickly strung-together shots of the legendary Robert Frank, now 91 years old, and his apartment. The Mekons‘ “Memphis Egypt” blares in the background. Directed by longtime collaborator Laura Israel, the film is about a […]
The post ‘Don’t Blink — Robert Frank’ Is A Chaotic Look At A Legendary Photographer [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
The post ‘Don’t Blink — Robert Frank’ Is A Chaotic Look At A Legendary Photographer [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
- 7/13/2016
- by Jason Ooi
- The Playlist
Few people are living embodiments of their style. Now that David Bowie and Prince have left us in the same year, even fewer are. Robert Frank, the subject of Laura Israel‘s documentary Don’t Blink – Robert Frank, and his art — striking photographs and film of Americana — reflect one another like those collages of dog owners and their pets. Rather than both having droopy ears or a snooty nose, they crunch like shards of glass beneath boots. Frank and his creations grind against good taste while still being sharp and beautiful. His is an imperfect America, as if Norman Rockwell subjects stepped out of frame for a few drinks and a game of dice, then got lost on their way back home.
Frank is best-known for his 1958 photography collection The Americans, which recorded the photographer’s explorations of social and economic struggle. A documentary about this kind of artist has...
Frank is best-known for his 1958 photography collection The Americans, which recorded the photographer’s explorations of social and economic struggle. A documentary about this kind of artist has...
- 7/11/2016
- by Jacob Oller
- The Film Stage
Fledgling NY outfit Grasshopper Film has taken rights to Oliver Laxe’s Morocco-set Western.
New York-based Grasshopper Film has acquired Us rights to Oliver Laxe’s Cannes-winning film Mimosas.
The Arabic language Western, which won the Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes in May, follows a caravan carrying a dying sheikh who wished to be buried with his loved ones in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
The Us deal was negotiated by Ryan Krivoshey, founder and president of Grasshopper Film, with Fiorella Moretti of Paris-based sales agent Luxbox.
Krivoshey commented: “Mimosas is an enigmatic, gorgeous work that will enthrall audiences around the country, much as it did in Cannes. We are extremely excited to be working with Oliver, Fiorella, and the entire Luxbox team on this release.”
Laxe’s feature debut You All Are Captains premiered at Cannes in 2010, winning the Firpresci prize.
Launched earlier this year, Grasshopper Film’s upcoming slate includes Laura Israel’s documentary Don’t Blink...
New York-based Grasshopper Film has acquired Us rights to Oliver Laxe’s Cannes-winning film Mimosas.
The Arabic language Western, which won the Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes in May, follows a caravan carrying a dying sheikh who wished to be buried with his loved ones in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
The Us deal was negotiated by Ryan Krivoshey, founder and president of Grasshopper Film, with Fiorella Moretti of Paris-based sales agent Luxbox.
Krivoshey commented: “Mimosas is an enigmatic, gorgeous work that will enthrall audiences around the country, much as it did in Cannes. We are extremely excited to be working with Oliver, Fiorella, and the entire Luxbox team on this release.”
Laxe’s feature debut You All Are Captains premiered at Cannes in 2010, winning the Firpresci prize.
Launched earlier this year, Grasshopper Film’s upcoming slate includes Laura Israel’s documentary Don’t Blink...
- 6/29/2016
- ScreenDaily
I saw The Academy of Muses a month ago and have considered it almost every day since then, turning over in my mind the clearly defined ideas, only-half-understood narrative directions, and documentary-narrative distinctions that mark José Luis Guerín‘s first fiction feature since 2007’s In the City of Sylvia. Those who go into it blind won’t initially find much distinction, though: there might instead be the belief they’ve entered an At Berkeley-esque documentary about European academia — until the movie slowly becomes something much more complicated, and then blossoms into full-on drama.
Grasshopper Film — recently of Fireworks Wednesday and Kaili Blues, and soon to release Right Now, Wrong Then and Don’t Blink – Robert Frank — will begin distributing The Academy of Muses stateside this September, and has let us premiere the trailer. A film with as many moving parts probably couldn’t be captured in a two-minute preview, so the strategy, it seems, is one of general mood and feeling, here communicated in the best way: through Guerín’s mixture of verbosity with light-streaked, reflection-heavy images. If what’s seen herein manages to intrigue, the full experience is certain to captivate.
See it below:
Synopsis:
A university professor teaches a class on muses in art and literature as a means of romancing his female students in this breathtaking new film from Jose Luis Guerín, director of the widely heralded In the City of Sylvia. Part relationship drama, part intellectual discourse, the film centers on a philology professor — played by actual philology professor Raffaele Pinto — and the women surrounding him: his wife and students. But as each and every player engages in debates — concerning, among other things, art, the artist’s perspective, and male-female dynamics — Guerín focuses as much attention on the slippery boundary between documentary and fiction, in turn engaging with an evolving narrative, increasingly complex character dynamics, and an endlessly vivid emotional journey.
The Academy of Muses begins a U.S. theatrical run at New York’s Anthology Film Archives on September 2.
Grasshopper Film — recently of Fireworks Wednesday and Kaili Blues, and soon to release Right Now, Wrong Then and Don’t Blink – Robert Frank — will begin distributing The Academy of Muses stateside this September, and has let us premiere the trailer. A film with as many moving parts probably couldn’t be captured in a two-minute preview, so the strategy, it seems, is one of general mood and feeling, here communicated in the best way: through Guerín’s mixture of verbosity with light-streaked, reflection-heavy images. If what’s seen herein manages to intrigue, the full experience is certain to captivate.
See it below:
Synopsis:
A university professor teaches a class on muses in art and literature as a means of romancing his female students in this breathtaking new film from Jose Luis Guerín, director of the widely heralded In the City of Sylvia. Part relationship drama, part intellectual discourse, the film centers on a philology professor — played by actual philology professor Raffaele Pinto — and the women surrounding him: his wife and students. But as each and every player engages in debates — concerning, among other things, art, the artist’s perspective, and male-female dynamics — Guerín focuses as much attention on the slippery boundary between documentary and fiction, in turn engaging with an evolving narrative, increasingly complex character dynamics, and an endlessly vivid emotional journey.
The Academy of Muses begins a U.S. theatrical run at New York’s Anthology Film Archives on September 2.
- 6/15/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Laura Israel‘s Don’t Blink – Robert Frank is a fine documentary offering for acolytes and neophytes alike, barreling through its amazing subject’s photography-filled life and career with as much eye for small details as the basics of exposition. Along with offering many fun tidbits (clips from Frank’s infamous Cocksucker Blues always help), this is a visually splendid work, mixing seemingly every film format known to man — digital cinematography can stand right alongside grainy black-and-white stills to represent his decades-long journey — in representing the plurality of Frank’s experiences.
Grasshopper Film, who will give Don’t Blink a U.S. run that starts this summer, have let us debut an excellent poster created by Yolanda Cuomo Design and Alex Bingham. With the flashes of a lifetime’s experience and Frank himself — who, despite standing front and center, maintains some air of mystery — it offers a strong representation of the complete film.
Grasshopper Film, who will give Don’t Blink a U.S. run that starts this summer, have let us debut an excellent poster created by Yolanda Cuomo Design and Alex Bingham. With the flashes of a lifetime’s experience and Frank himself — who, despite standing front and center, maintains some air of mystery — it offers a strong representation of the complete film.
- 6/1/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After a fall-festival run that earned one fine notice after another, Don’t Blink – Robert Frank will hit theaters this summer courtesy of Grasshopper Film. Laura Israel‘s documentary on the photographer — one of the few living artists who truly earns the word “legendary,” if only for his time with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and The Rolling Stones, to name but a few collaborators — was praised for its level of access and insight, though those qualities (key for any documentary) are said to be boosted by the director’s unique eye.
A trailer released ahead of Don’t Blink‘s theatrical release gives some taste of this direction, offering a wider variety of forms — from current interviews to archival materials, even down to the type of film stock being employed — than most documentaries do in an entire runtime.
Watch the preview below:
Synopsis:
A feature length documentary about the life...
A trailer released ahead of Don’t Blink‘s theatrical release gives some taste of this direction, offering a wider variety of forms — from current interviews to archival materials, even down to the type of film stock being employed — than most documentaries do in an entire runtime.
Watch the preview below:
Synopsis:
A feature length documentary about the life...
- 5/13/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Trailer For ‘Don’t Blink – Robert Frank’ Goes Behind The Camera Of The Famed Photographer
While photographer Robert Frank is perhaps most notoriously known as the director of “Cocksucker Blues,” the debauchery-filled documentary about The Rolling Stones‘ 1972 tour in support of Exile On Main St., that’s only a mere moment in the artist’s expansive career. The upcoming documentary “Don’t Blink — Robert Frank” shines a light on the man […]
The post Exclusive: Trailer For ‘Don’t Blink – Robert Frank’ Goes Behind The Camera Of The Famed Photographer appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Exclusive: Trailer For ‘Don’t Blink – Robert Frank’ Goes Behind The Camera Of The Famed Photographer appeared first on The Playlist.
- 5/6/2016
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Mubi is exclusively showing two new, brilliant and unconventional films from Spain: Luis López Carrasco's El Futuro (April 11 - May 10) and Ion de Sosa's Androids Dream (April 12 - May 11). We asked the two filmmakers—friends and collaborators—a few questions about their work. For an in-depth exploration of the two films, we recommend Michael Pattison's article, Back to the Future: Androids Dream and El Futuro.Spanish directors Ion de Sosa (front left) and Luis López Carrasco (back right).Notebook: How did you each manage to bring your projects to life?Luis LÓPEZ Carrasco: After living in Berlin for a few months through a scholarship program, I came back to Spain in 2010 fully energized with the aim to set up a production company, finance my own projects and support friends whose work I deeply admire. The international success of Los Hijos Collective led me to believe...
- 4/22/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Plus: Lonsgate, Kevin Hart partner on Ott platform; FilmRise acquires Harry & Snowman; and more
Kevin Bacon has joined CBS Films and Lionsgate’s Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots Day.
Bacon joins Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan on the film, which is currently filming in Boston and is scheduled to open in the Us on December 21.
FilmRise has acquired exclusive worldwide rights from Concourse Media to Ron Davis’ horse-jumping documentary, Harry & Snowman. The film will receive a theatrical release in September.Grasshopper Film has acquired all Us rights from Assemblage Films to Don’t Blink – Robert Frank, the documentary from Laura Israel about the life and work of the influential artist. The film will open on July 13 at New York’s Film Forum.Lionsgate has formed a partnership with Kevin Hart and his Hartbeat Digital to launch Ott platform Laugh Out Loud and create a social adventure mobile tablet game. One of the...
Kevin Bacon has joined CBS Films and Lionsgate’s Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots Day.
Bacon joins Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, J.K. Simmons, and Michelle Monaghan on the film, which is currently filming in Boston and is scheduled to open in the Us on December 21.
FilmRise has acquired exclusive worldwide rights from Concourse Media to Ron Davis’ horse-jumping documentary, Harry & Snowman. The film will receive a theatrical release in September.Grasshopper Film has acquired all Us rights from Assemblage Films to Don’t Blink – Robert Frank, the documentary from Laura Israel about the life and work of the influential artist. The film will open on July 13 at New York’s Film Forum.Lionsgate has formed a partnership with Kevin Hart and his Hartbeat Digital to launch Ott platform Laugh Out Loud and create a social adventure mobile tablet game. One of the...
- 3/31/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Films include Shepherds and Butchers with Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...
- 1/21/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Films include Shepherds and Butchers, starring Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films.
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...
- 1/21/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.
Competition
Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)
Portugal
By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)
With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova
World premiere
Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)
Iran
By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)
With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol
International premiere
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary
Italy / France
By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...
Competition
Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)
Portugal
By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)
With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova
World premiere
Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)
Iran
By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)
With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol
International premiere
Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary
Italy / France
By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...
- 1/11/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Todd Haynes' "Carol" has been receiving a lot of love from various critics groups and this time, it topped the ranking of the year's best films at the annual Film Comment magazine poll!
Take a look at the complete list below and then wonder, didn't these critics see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens?"
Film Comment's Top 20 Films of 2015
1. "Carol"
2. "The Assassin"
3. "Mad Max: Fury Road"
4. "Clouds of Sils Maria"
5. "Arabian Nights"
6. "Timbuktu"
7. "Spotlight"
8. "Phoenix"
9. "Inside Out"
10. "The Look of Silence"
11. "Hard to Be a God"
12. "Anomalisa"
13. "In Jackson Heights"
14. "Son of Saul"
15. "Horse Money"
16. "Jauja"
17. "Tangerine"
18. "Brooklyn"
19. "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"
20. "Bridge of Spies"
Film Comment's Best Undistributed Films of 2015
1. "Right Here, Right Now"
2. "Chevalier"
3. "The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers"
4. "The Academy of Muses"
5. "Don't Blink . Robert Frank"
6. "Cosmos"
7. "Journey to the Shore"
8. "Happy Hour"
9. "Lost and...
Take a look at the complete list below and then wonder, didn't these critics see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens?"
Film Comment's Top 20 Films of 2015
1. "Carol"
2. "The Assassin"
3. "Mad Max: Fury Road"
4. "Clouds of Sils Maria"
5. "Arabian Nights"
6. "Timbuktu"
7. "Spotlight"
8. "Phoenix"
9. "Inside Out"
10. "The Look of Silence"
11. "Hard to Be a God"
12. "Anomalisa"
13. "In Jackson Heights"
14. "Son of Saul"
15. "Horse Money"
16. "Jauja"
17. "Tangerine"
18. "Brooklyn"
19. "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"
20. "Bridge of Spies"
Film Comment's Best Undistributed Films of 2015
1. "Right Here, Right Now"
2. "Chevalier"
3. "The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers"
4. "The Academy of Muses"
5. "Don't Blink . Robert Frank"
6. "Cosmos"
7. "Journey to the Shore"
8. "Happy Hour"
9. "Lost and...
- 12/18/2015
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
GeniusThe films included in the lineup for the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place between February 11 - 21, are starting to be announced.Opening FILMHail, Caesar! (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, USA)COMPETITIONBoris without Béatrice (Denis Côté, Canada)Genius (Michael Grandage, UK/USA)Alone in Berlin (Vincent Perez, Germany/France/UK)Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols, USA)Zero Days (Alex Gibney, USA)Berlinale SPECIALThe Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (Morgan Neville, USA)The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger (Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth, bartek Dziadosz, Tilda Swinton, UK)Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore, USA)PANORAMAJá, Olga Hepnarová (Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda, Czech Republic/Poland/Slowak Republic/France)Junction 48 (Udi Aloni, Israel/Germany/USA)Les Premiers, les Derniers (Bouli Lanners, France/Belgium)Maggie's Plan (Rebecca Miller, USA)Nakom (Kelly Daniela Norris, Tw Pittman, Ghana/USA)Remainder (Omer Fast, United Kingdom/Germany)S one strane (Zrinko Ogresta,...
- 12/17/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Other titles include Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan, starring Greta Gerwig, and David Farr’s The Ones Below, starring David Morrissey.Scroll down for full lists
The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has announced the first titles in Panorama – its strand that comprises new independent and arthouse films that deal with controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles.
The initial features include three from the UK, with John Michael McDonagh returning to Berlin for the world premiere of War On Everyone.
The film, a satire centred on two corrupt cops in New Mexico, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James and Tessa Thompson.
McDonagh was previously in Panorama in 2011 with The Guard and 2013 with Calvary.
Also from the UK is David Farr’s The Ones Below, which revolves around a couple expecting their first child who discover an unnerving difference between themselves and the couple living in the flat below. Receiving its European...
The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has announced the first titles in Panorama – its strand that comprises new independent and arthouse films that deal with controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles.
The initial features include three from the UK, with John Michael McDonagh returning to Berlin for the world premiere of War On Everyone.
The film, a satire centred on two corrupt cops in New Mexico, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James and Tessa Thompson.
McDonagh was previously in Panorama in 2011 with The Guard and 2013 with Calvary.
Also from the UK is David Farr’s The Ones Below, which revolves around a couple expecting their first child who discover an unnerving difference between themselves and the couple living in the flat below. Receiving its European...
- 12/17/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
At the halfway point of December, there are, to put it lightly, many end-of-year lists hitting the web, and few publications have round-ups as consistently excellent as Film Comment‘s. (“Consistently excellent” translates to “aligns with my specific taste,” of course.) Their 20-film selection represents the year rather nicely, from the widely seen and frequently listed (e.g. Mad Max: Fury Road and Inside Out) landing among some of our limited-release favorites, including Timbuktu, The Assassin, and Jauja. As editor Gavin Smith says, “That balance, which happens to be encapsulated in the top five in micro form, feels about right for the agenda of this magazine, which, since the very beginning, has been to champion the best in cinema wherever it hails from, all creatures great and small. Since we managed to run features on 11 of these and sung the praises of another five, it’s a pleasure to close...
- 12/14/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Before its flame was extinguished, New York’s legendary Kim’s Video contributed further to the world of cinephilia by polling better-known customers about their favorite films. One of these customers happened to be Allen Ginsberg, a figure whose relative lack of experience in cinema certainly won’t stand as any sort of qualifier. Thanks to The Allen Ginsberg Project (via Open Culture), we can now get a wider — and, to our eyes, more immediately understandable — grasp of what made this generation-defining voice tick.
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
- 12/7/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Submarine announced at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) it has licensed Jessica Edwards’ Mavis! and Laura Israel’s Don’t Blink - Robert Frank in multiple territories.
Mavis! has gone to Madman in Australia and New Zealand, Films We Like in Canada, NonStop Entertainment in Scandinavia and Ntr for Dutch TV. Submarine represents remaining Us rights.
David Koh brokered the deals for Submarine and the filmmaker with Madman Entertainment managing director Paul Wiegard, Ron Mann of Films We Like, CEO Jakob Abrammsson of NonStop and Ntr head of documentary acquisitions Nathalie Windhorst.
Mavis! is screening at Idfa and chronicles the life of gospel/soul singer and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, the Staple Singers.
Don’t Blink - Robert Frank (pictured) has gone to Nfp Films in Germany and Austria, Films We Like in Canada and Feltrinelli in Italy.
Koh negotiated the deals with managing director Christophe Ott of Nfp Films, Mann of...
Mavis! has gone to Madman in Australia and New Zealand, Films We Like in Canada, NonStop Entertainment in Scandinavia and Ntr for Dutch TV. Submarine represents remaining Us rights.
David Koh brokered the deals for Submarine and the filmmaker with Madman Entertainment managing director Paul Wiegard, Ron Mann of Films We Like, CEO Jakob Abrammsson of NonStop and Ntr head of documentary acquisitions Nathalie Windhorst.
Mavis! is screening at Idfa and chronicles the life of gospel/soul singer and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, the Staple Singers.
Don’t Blink - Robert Frank (pictured) has gone to Nfp Films in Germany and Austria, Films We Like in Canada and Feltrinelli in Italy.
Koh negotiated the deals with managing director Christophe Ott of Nfp Films, Mann of...
- 11/22/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Watch: 30-Minute Short 'Pull My Daisy' Written By Jack Kerouac & Co-Directed By Robert Frank Robert Frank, one of the most important living photographers, now has a record of his own life in the form of the documentary "Don't Blink: Robert Frank," directed by his long-time editor, Laura Israel. Frank rose to fame with the book "The Americans," a candid outsider's observation of American life that won him comparisons to Alexis de Tocqueville. The photographer also built up 23 directing credits over the course of his career, including three features. The poster for "Don't Blink" is a minimalist representation of the director's work, featuring black and white photographs taped up against a blank wall. The highlights of red tape, the photographer's intense stare in the middle photographs and the unevenness of the composition suggests an intensity and frankness to both the director and his work. Check out an exclusive look at the poster above.
- 10/5/2015
- by Wil Barlow
- Indiewire
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