Exterior. Establishing: Film Independent HQ. Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Prelap the sounds of passionate conversation and laughter. Cut To: Interior, Conference Room, Film Independent HQ. Seven new screenwriting Fellows are arrayed around a table, the Hollywood Sign visible on the distant hills outside the window. They’re here to develop six deeply personal and wholly original feature film projects under the steady guiding hand of Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab. A fun, creative, safe space.
The End.
(Roll credits)
Sorry–we wish our story could’ve been longer but there wasn’t really any dramatic conflict at the Screenwriting Lab this year, just a lot of productive discussion and writing workshops with lead creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy,...
The End.
(Roll credits)
Sorry–we wish our story could’ve been longer but there wasn’t really any dramatic conflict at the Screenwriting Lab this year, just a lot of productive discussion and writing workshops with lead creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Film Independent has named Omer Ben Shachar, Mary Dauterman, Mg Evangelista, Naomi Iwamoto, Thomas Kivney, Juan Paulo Laserna and Jhanvi Motla as the screenwriters selected for the 26th edition of its Screenwriting Lab, an intensive program designed to provide individualized story and career development for screenwriters with fiction feature scripts.
Over the course of the program, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy, Amanda Marshall, Josh Peters, Jon Schumacher, Ellen Shanman, Lauren Shelton and Caddy Vanasirikul.
“We are honored to provide the tools and support necessary for these exceptional filmmakers to propel their projects and careers forward,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs for Film Independent.
Over the course of the program, Fellows will workshop their projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Jessica Sharzer, Jeff Stockwell and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Bridget Savage Cole, Lauren Craniotes, Ellie Foumbi, Priyanka Kapoor, Danielle Krudy, Amanda Marshall, Josh Peters, Jon Schumacher, Ellen Shanman, Lauren Shelton and Caddy Vanasirikul.
“We are honored to provide the tools and support necessary for these exceptional filmmakers to propel their projects and careers forward,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs for Film Independent.
- 4/16/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Management and production company 2Am is bolstering its finance and sales division with the hire of former Sundance Catalyst executive Julia Nelson.
Nelson will report to former WME & Endeavor Content exec Christine D’Souza Gelb who oversees the sales arm of 2Am.
2Am will be launching sales on two titles at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival: Sam and Andy Zuchero’s Love Me starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, and produced by 2Am, ShivHans, and AgX; and Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry, produced by Dweck and Flies Collective. 2Am is co-repping worldwide rights on both projects with WME, where the filmmakers are also represented.
The company, which is a producer on Celine Song’s Golden Globe nominee Past Lives, has previously repped Sing J. Lee’s Accidental Getaway Driver, Andrew Semans’ Resurrection, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man.
Nelson joins the company after six years at...
Nelson will report to former WME & Endeavor Content exec Christine D’Souza Gelb who oversees the sales arm of 2Am.
2Am will be launching sales on two titles at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival: Sam and Andy Zuchero’s Love Me starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, and produced by 2Am, ShivHans, and AgX; and Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry, produced by Dweck and Flies Collective. 2Am is co-repping worldwide rights on both projects with WME, where the filmmakers are also represented.
The company, which is a producer on Celine Song’s Golden Globe nominee Past Lives, has previously repped Sing J. Lee’s Accidental Getaway Driver, Andrew Semans’ Resurrection, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man.
Nelson joins the company after six years at...
- 12/15/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman and Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Eight-time NBA All-Star Paul George is launching film and TV outfit The Pack Productions.
First up, George is joining basketball-themed documentary Amongst the Trees as an executive producer. The film will get its world premiere at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.
George is launching The Pack Productions with his sister Teiosha George, who is also an executive producer on the film, which follows an upstart men’s basketball program at Copper Mountain College – a tiny community college in the middle of the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree, California – during the final week of their season. In just its second year of the team’s existence, the film drops viewers into the action as the Fighting Cacti make one last push for the playoffs.
The film is co-directed and co-produced by Trent Ubben and Jack Jensen of The Rec League in their feature documentary debut, and produced by...
First up, George is joining basketball-themed documentary Amongst the Trees as an executive producer. The film will get its world premiere at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.
George is launching The Pack Productions with his sister Teiosha George, who is also an executive producer on the film, which follows an upstart men’s basketball program at Copper Mountain College – a tiny community college in the middle of the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree, California – during the final week of their season. In just its second year of the team’s existence, the film drops viewers into the action as the Fighting Cacti make one last push for the playoffs.
The film is co-directed and co-produced by Trent Ubben and Jack Jensen of The Rec League in their feature documentary debut, and produced by...
- 12/12/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The American Film Market kicks off Oct. 31 and runs through Nov. 5 in its new headquarters at the Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica. Industry screenings are set at theaters throughout the city and AFM’s conference series, the AFM Sessions, will take place at the Hilton Santa Monica Hotel. More than 245 companies and organizations are exhibiting at this year’s AFM, with national pavilions from China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Thailand and the U.K. In all, buyers from more than 65 countries are registered at the film market.
Here are some of the buzziest titles at AFM 2023:
Alphas
Director: Liam O’Donnell
Producers: Pierre Morel, Renee Tab, Christopher Tuffin, Matthew Chausse, Drew Bailey
Key cast: Martin Henderson
Story is set in a quiet surfing community where killer whales are enlisted to fend off great white sharks after a series of attacks. When the alpha great white shark proves too powerful to stop,...
Here are some of the buzziest titles at AFM 2023:
Alphas
Director: Liam O’Donnell
Producers: Pierre Morel, Renee Tab, Christopher Tuffin, Matthew Chausse, Drew Bailey
Key cast: Martin Henderson
Story is set in a quiet surfing community where killer whales are enlisted to fend off great white sharks after a series of attacks. When the alpha great white shark proves too powerful to stop,...
- 10/31/2023
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
The inaugural Cinema at Sea – Okinawa Pan-Pacific International Film Festival is pleased to announce this year’s program line-up, featuring almost 40 films from around the world, screenings from November 23rd to 29th at cinemas across Okinawa.
(Cinema at Sea Press Conference in Tokyo on October 11th 2023)
“The festival, initiated its groundwork in 2018 with the mission of exploring the Ocean and Pacific regions. Film, acting as a global lens, allows us to bridge the gap between different islands, fostering an inclusive atmosphere in Okinawa, where diverse cultures and nationalities converge. This embodies the essence of Cinema at Sea. Rather than defining boundaries on land, we encourage a perspective that looks outward, across the ocean. By doing so, our individual worlds expand. Our goal is to offer the audience a transformative experience, encouraging them to see beyond conventional limits.” said festival director Huang Yin-Yu.
Opening Film “From Okinawa with Love” director- Hiroshi Sunairi...
(Cinema at Sea Press Conference in Tokyo on October 11th 2023)
“The festival, initiated its groundwork in 2018 with the mission of exploring the Ocean and Pacific regions. Film, acting as a global lens, allows us to bridge the gap between different islands, fostering an inclusive atmosphere in Okinawa, where diverse cultures and nationalities converge. This embodies the essence of Cinema at Sea. Rather than defining boundaries on land, we encourage a perspective that looks outward, across the ocean. By doing so, our individual worlds expand. Our goal is to offer the audience a transformative experience, encouraging them to see beyond conventional limits.” said festival director Huang Yin-Yu.
Opening Film “From Okinawa with Love” director- Hiroshi Sunairi...
- 10/16/2023
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Michel Gondry’s Partizan and Rtg Features have tapped Christopher Makoto Yogi (I Was a Simple Man) to direct Merv and the Miracles, a feature-length doc that explores the legendary college basketball game between Chaminade and number-one ranked Virginia in 1982.
The film, currently in the early stages of production, is being co-produced and co-financed by Partizan and Rtg Features, with Julie Fong (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party), Brian Yang (Linsanity), and Justin R. Ching (Ritual) producing.
During the opening weekend of the 43rd annual Hawai’i Film Festival, Artistic Director Anderson Le will give attendees an early first look at the film during a panel conversation with Yogi, who is himself an Hiff alum. Pic will be one of two Hawaiian indies spotlighted during the 90-minute program taking place on Saturday, October 14th at Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Honolulu.
Merv and the Miracles picks up on December 23, 1982 with Coach Merv...
The film, currently in the early stages of production, is being co-produced and co-financed by Partizan and Rtg Features, with Julie Fong (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party), Brian Yang (Linsanity), and Justin R. Ching (Ritual) producing.
During the opening weekend of the 43rd annual Hawai’i Film Festival, Artistic Director Anderson Le will give attendees an early first look at the film during a panel conversation with Yogi, who is himself an Hiff alum. Pic will be one of two Hawaiian indies spotlighted during the 90-minute program taking place on Saturday, October 14th at Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Honolulu.
Merv and the Miracles picks up on December 23, 1982 with Coach Merv...
- 9/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
During his tenure as head of production at Columbia TriStar in the 1990s, Chris Lee oversaw such Hollywood classics as Philadelphia, Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets.
But behind the scenes, as the first known Asian American to lead production at a major Hollywood studio, the Hawaii native was also actively involved in nurturing the industry’s then-inchoate Aapi community of executives and creatives, co-founding in 1991 the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment.
Just over 20 years ago, Lee returned to his home state and continued his mission of developing Aapi storytellers by establishing the Academy for Creative Media across the University of Hawai’i system, where he still directs the program. Two ACM alumni have premiered features at Sundance over the past two years — Christopher Makoto Yogi with I Was a Simple Man in 2021 and Alika Maikau with Kaimuki in 2022.
This year Lee himself is returning to the...
But behind the scenes, as the first known Asian American to lead production at a major Hollywood studio, the Hawaii native was also actively involved in nurturing the industry’s then-inchoate Aapi community of executives and creatives, co-founding in 1991 the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment.
Just over 20 years ago, Lee returned to his home state and continued his mission of developing Aapi storytellers by establishing the Academy for Creative Media across the University of Hawai’i system, where he still directs the program. Two ACM alumni have premiered features at Sundance over the past two years — Christopher Makoto Yogi with I Was a Simple Man in 2021 and Alika Maikau with Kaimuki in 2022.
This year Lee himself is returning to the...
- 1/23/2023
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Laapff), presented annually by Visual Communications (Vc), Southern California’s leading showcase for new Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema, announced today the program for the 38th edition of the festival. The festival returns May 5th to 13th in Los Angeles and will feature an exciting lineup of in-person programming, along with virtual programming for our audiences at home in Southern California and beyond.
As Visual Communications premiere annual event, Laapff continues to build connections between peoples and generations through the amplification of Asian and Pacific Islander film, video, and media.The festival celebrates Asian Pacific American filmmakers and Asian international artists with profound, important and entertaining films and content from the new voices of cinema while honoring the legends and leaders who keep this cultural movement going forward. Important themes of representation, authorship, responsibility and ethics are at the forefront of content creation.
As Visual Communications premiere annual event, Laapff continues to build connections between peoples and generations through the amplification of Asian and Pacific Islander film, video, and media.The festival celebrates Asian Pacific American filmmakers and Asian international artists with profound, important and entertaining films and content from the new voices of cinema while honoring the legends and leaders who keep this cultural movement going forward. Important themes of representation, authorship, responsibility and ethics are at the forefront of content creation.
- 4/18/2022
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Film Independent has set Lanre Olabisi (A Storybook Ending), Sari Arambulo (Family Style), Sanford Jenkins (Joy and Pain), Rob Connolly (Lavender Country), Elise H. Greven (Silent Spring) and Phumi Morare (There is Salt in the Water) as the participants and projects for its 2022 Screenwriting Lab/
All of of this year’s participants are from communities underrepresented in film and half the participants are women. Over the course of the intensive program, they will workshop their feature projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Pamela Ribon, Ellen Shanman, Robin Swicord, and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Alex Camilleri, Angela Cheng Caplan, Kd Davila, Matthew Dy, Greta Fuentes, Sam Intili, Amanda Marshall, Alex Moratto, Sheila Hanahan Taylor and Elliott Whitton.
Film Independent also announced today that the inaugural Hyde Park Entertainment & Warner Music Group Screenwriting Fellowship is being awarded to Arambulo, who will...
All of of this year’s participants are from communities underrepresented in film and half the participants are women. Over the course of the intensive program, they will workshop their feature projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Pamela Ribon, Ellen Shanman, Robin Swicord, and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Alex Camilleri, Angela Cheng Caplan, Kd Davila, Matthew Dy, Greta Fuentes, Sam Intili, Amanda Marshall, Alex Moratto, Sheila Hanahan Taylor and Elliott Whitton.
Film Independent also announced today that the inaugural Hyde Park Entertainment & Warner Music Group Screenwriting Fellowship is being awarded to Arambulo, who will...
- 3/18/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
After Yang (kogonada)
Following his serenely stunning drama Columbus, video-essayist-turned-director kogonada headed to the future with After Yang. The gorgeous, moving drama about what makes up a family premiered at last year’s Cannes (where our own Rory O’Connor was mixed) and after a few tweaks recently landed at Sundance, where it received quite a rapturous response. Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Justin H. Min, Sarita Choudhury, Haley Lu Richardson, and Clifton Collins Jr., it follows Farrell as Jake, a father who attempts to repair the malfunction Yang, an android that was a companion to his young daughter. In his second feature, kogonada perfectly depicts quite a seemingly realistic near-future while still retaining the peaceful artistic sensibilities of his debut.
After Yang (kogonada)
Following his serenely stunning drama Columbus, video-essayist-turned-director kogonada headed to the future with After Yang. The gorgeous, moving drama about what makes up a family premiered at last year’s Cannes (where our own Rory O’Connor was mixed) and after a few tweaks recently landed at Sundance, where it received quite a rapturous response. Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Justin H. Min, Sarita Choudhury, Haley Lu Richardson, and Clifton Collins Jr., it follows Farrell as Jake, a father who attempts to repair the malfunction Yang, an android that was a companion to his young daughter. In his second feature, kogonada perfectly depicts quite a seemingly realistic near-future while still retaining the peaceful artistic sensibilities of his debut.
- 3/4/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Having just held the world premiere to August at Akiko in Rotterdam, Christopher Makoto Yogi has a slate full of feature film projects including I Was a Simple Man. In what feels like an Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee type set in Hawai’i. This was my sit down with the USC filmmaker back in 2015.
…...
…...
- 3/3/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
- 2/21/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The first ever Sands: International Film Festival, set to be held in Scotland’s St Andrews, has revealed its line-up.
Running March 25-27, the program will consist of nine fiction and non-fiction features, including a mystery film not yet announced.
On the list is documentary Long Live My Happy Head, from Leith-based filmmaking duo Will Hewitt and Austen McCowan, which is a love story about comic books and caner that follows a long-distance couple as they navigate a Covid lockdown. The film will premiere at this year’s BFI Flare festival next month.
Screening in St Andrews having premiered recently in Sundance is Jono McLeod’s My Old School, a documentary-animation hybrid that unravels a Scottish scandal.
Arriving from Sundance’s 2021 edition will be Blerta Basholli’s feature debut Hive, Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was a Simple Man.
A pair of titles will...
Running March 25-27, the program will consist of nine fiction and non-fiction features, including a mystery film not yet announced.
On the list is documentary Long Live My Happy Head, from Leith-based filmmaking duo Will Hewitt and Austen McCowan, which is a love story about comic books and caner that follows a long-distance couple as they navigate a Covid lockdown. The film will premiere at this year’s BFI Flare festival next month.
Screening in St Andrews having premiered recently in Sundance is Jono McLeod’s My Old School, a documentary-animation hybrid that unravels a Scottish scandal.
Arriving from Sundance’s 2021 edition will be Blerta Basholli’s feature debut Hive, Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was a Simple Man.
A pair of titles will...
- 2/21/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Air Doll (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Despite coming from one of international cinema’s foremost working filmmakers, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2009 film Air Doll had never seen a release in the U.S. Adapted by Kore-eda from Yoshiie Gōda’s manga series Kuuki Ningyo, it’s a modern retelling of the Galatea myth—in which the king Pygmalion fell in love with his ivory statue and the goddess Aphrodite brought the statue to life. For a 21st-century spin on the tale, Kore-eda naturally updated the statue to a blow-up sex doll, played by Bae Doona. – Mitchell B. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Junta Yamaguchi)
The logistics behind Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes are mind-boggling to fathom; time-travel stories are...
Air Doll (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Despite coming from one of international cinema’s foremost working filmmakers, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2009 film Air Doll had never seen a release in the U.S. Adapted by Kore-eda from Yoshiie Gōda’s manga series Kuuki Ningyo, it’s a modern retelling of the Galatea myth—in which the king Pygmalion fell in love with his ivory statue and the goddess Aphrodite brought the statue to life. For a 21st-century spin on the tale, Kore-eda naturally updated the statue to a blow-up sex doll, played by Bae Doona. – Mitchell B. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Junta Yamaguchi)
The logistics behind Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes are mind-boggling to fathom; time-travel stories are...
- 2/4/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 22nd San Diego Asian Film Festival (Sdaff) announced the winners of its competition categories at the Sdaff Awards Gala, held virtually on Saturday, November 6, 2021.
Top honors went to I Was A Simple Man for the Grand Jury Prize, Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust for Best Documentary Feature, and 7 Days for Best Narrative Feature.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Asian American Juried Competition
Jurors include Peter X Feng, Keisha N. Knight, Phuong Le, and Meena Nanji
Grand Jury Prize
I Was A Simple Man
Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi
Best Documentary Feature
Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust
Directed by Ann Kaneko
Best Narrative Feature
7 Days
Directed by Roshan Sethi
Best Documentary Short
An Uninterrupted View Of The Sea
Directed by Mika Yatsuhashi
Best Narrative Short
Americanized
Directed by Erica Eng
Best Experimental Short
Rumi And His Roses
Directed by Navid Sinaki
Special Jury Mention
To...
Top honors went to I Was A Simple Man for the Grand Jury Prize, Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust for Best Documentary Feature, and 7 Days for Best Narrative Feature.
The full list of winners is as follows:
Asian American Juried Competition
Jurors include Peter X Feng, Keisha N. Knight, Phuong Le, and Meena Nanji
Grand Jury Prize
I Was A Simple Man
Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi
Best Documentary Feature
Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust
Directed by Ann Kaneko
Best Narrative Feature
7 Days
Directed by Roshan Sethi
Best Documentary Short
An Uninterrupted View Of The Sea
Directed by Mika Yatsuhashi
Best Narrative Short
Americanized
Directed by Erica Eng
Best Experimental Short
Rumi And His Roses
Directed by Navid Sinaki
Special Jury Mention
To...
- 11/8/2021
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: M. Night Shyamalan on the set of Old (2021). Berlinale has announced that the one and only M. Night Shyamalan will serve as the Jury President for the festival's 2022 edition. In a statement, Shyamalan said: "I have always felt like an independent filmmaker within the system of Hollywood. It is exactly those things in us that are different and unorthodox that define our voice. I have tried to maintain these things in myself and cheer others on to protect those aspects in their art and in themselves. Being asked to be a part of Berlinale is deeply meaningful to me. It represents the highest imprimatur for a filmmaker. Being able to support and celebrate the world’s very best talent in storytelling is a gift I happily accepted.”David Fincher is partnering with Netflix...
- 10/20/2021
- MUBI
Following up his lovely, meditative debut feature August at Akiko’s, Christopher Makoto Yogi returned this year with I Was a Simple Man, a serene ghost story set in the pastoral countryside of the north shore of O’ahu, Hawai’i. Premiering at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and now coming next month via Strand, it tells the story of an elderly man facing the end of his life, visited by the ghosts of his past. Ahead of the release, the first trailer and poster have now arrived.
David Katz said in his Sundance review, “One of the most succinct, yet heavily weighted lines of dialogue in cinema history is a three-syllable call to death: “Time to die,” as Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty commands Deckard in Blade Runner. Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was a Simple Man makes its own attempt at this profundity, attempting to...
David Katz said in his Sundance review, “One of the most succinct, yet heavily weighted lines of dialogue in cinema history is a three-syllable call to death: “Time to die,” as Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty commands Deckard in Blade Runner. Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was a Simple Man makes its own attempt at this profundity, attempting to...
- 10/15/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
"Dying isn't simple, is it?" Strand Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for an acclaimed indie film titled I Was A Simple Man, which originally premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film is made by a Hawaiian filmmaker named Christopher Makoto Yogi, his second feature, and it earned some rave reviews from critics. It's a gorgeous slow burn work of art. A family in Hawai'i faces the imminent death of their eldest as the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside. The director explains: "It was always the goal to make it feel honest to my experience growing up in Hawaii. When I think back to my childhood, I was always surrounded by ghost stories... it's very much a vibrant part of the culture. They are told in the same ways that one would trade memories." I Was A Simple Man stars Steve Iwamoto and Constance Wu,...
- 10/14/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Fox Maxy's Maat Means Land (2020) MoMA has announced the lineup and schedule for “To The Lighthouse,” a thrilling carte blanche program by curator Mark McElhatten featuring new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, Ernie Gehr, Jodie Mack, Dani and Sheilah ReStack, and more, along with older films by Rivette, Joseph H. Lewis, Claire Denis, and Marguerite Duras.An essential annual list, Filmmaker Magazine's 25 new faces of film for 2021 includes Kate Gondwe (the founder of Dezda Films), filmmaker Fox Maxy, Omnes Films (the collective behind Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye), and others. A24 and Emma Stone’s production company, Fruit Tree Banner, have come together to back Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow. The film, a follow-up to Schoenbrun's debut from this year, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, follows...
- 10/13/2021
- MUBI
Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature “I Was a Simple Man” was one of the best films to world-premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film stars Constance Wu opposite a cast ensemble of Asian American and Native Hawaiian actors, including Iwamoto, Wu, Kanoa Goo, Tim Chiou, and Chanel Akiko Hirai.
The official synopsis for “I Was a Simple Man” reads: “A lyrical ghost story set in the lush Hawaiian countryside, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) whose life is slowly fading away because of a terminal illness. As his estranged family members struggle to care for him, Masao is visited by his deceased wife Grace (Constance Wu), and is forced to confront the decisions of his past.”
IndieWire Chief Film Critic David Ehrlich named “I Was a Simple Man” an official Critic’s Pick out of the Sundance Film Festival, writing, “Layering the spectral hush of...
The official synopsis for “I Was a Simple Man” reads: “A lyrical ghost story set in the lush Hawaiian countryside, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) whose life is slowly fading away because of a terminal illness. As his estranged family members struggle to care for him, Masao is visited by his deceased wife Grace (Constance Wu), and is forced to confront the decisions of his past.”
IndieWire Chief Film Critic David Ehrlich named “I Was a Simple Man” an official Critic’s Pick out of the Sundance Film Festival, writing, “Layering the spectral hush of...
- 10/13/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
While the 2020 edition was understandably canceled due to the pandemic, BAMcinemaFest will be returning this year for a virtual edition from June 23-39, the same month that Bam Rose Cinemas will reopen––specifically on June 11.
The lineup for the annual festival, which celebrates some of the finest new offerings in indie filmmaking, is pared down from the standard in-person edition but still features five New York premieres, including Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli starring Riz Ahmed; the world premiere of BAMcinemaFest alum Ougie Pak’s Clytaemnestra; an artist spotlight on the work of Fox Maxy; as well as documentary and experimental shorts programs, and filmmaker Q&As.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have BAMcinemaFest back virtually this year,” said Jesse Trussell, Bam’s senior film programmer. “We’re so happy to present work by this collection of pathbreaking, incisive, formally and politically daring filmmakers—and to help these films find...
The lineup for the annual festival, which celebrates some of the finest new offerings in indie filmmaking, is pared down from the standard in-person edition but still features five New York premieres, including Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli starring Riz Ahmed; the world premiere of BAMcinemaFest alum Ougie Pak’s Clytaemnestra; an artist spotlight on the work of Fox Maxy; as well as documentary and experimental shorts programs, and filmmaker Q&As.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have BAMcinemaFest back virtually this year,” said Jesse Trussell, Bam’s senior film programmer. “We’re so happy to present work by this collection of pathbreaking, incisive, formally and politically daring filmmakers—and to help these films find...
- 5/18/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
After being closed for over a year due to Covid-19, Bam Rose Cinemas will reopen Friday, June 11 for in-person screenings of first-run and repertory films, the Brooklyn mainstay has today announced. All four screens will reopen, with approximately 20 to 50 seats available in each theater, in accordance with reduced capacity New York State guidelines.
The theater will also be implementing a variety of enhanced safety measures, including mandatory masks unless eating or drinking (concessions will be available), socially-distanced seating, enhanced Hvac filtration, and increased time between screenings to facilitate thorough cleaning and minimize interactions.
The theater will play a variety of new releases and older selections when it opens, including several titles that initially premiered as virtual cinema titles, such as Ousmane Sembène’s “Mandabi,” which first played on the virtual platform in February. “Sembène is an artist I love to see on the big screen,” senior film programmer Jesse Trussell told IndieWire.
The theater will also be implementing a variety of enhanced safety measures, including mandatory masks unless eating or drinking (concessions will be available), socially-distanced seating, enhanced Hvac filtration, and increased time between screenings to facilitate thorough cleaning and minimize interactions.
The theater will play a variety of new releases and older selections when it opens, including several titles that initially premiered as virtual cinema titles, such as Ousmane Sembène’s “Mandabi,” which first played on the virtual platform in February. “Sembène is an artist I love to see on the big screen,” senior film programmer Jesse Trussell told IndieWire.
- 5/18/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Christopher Makoto Yogi’s “I Was a Simple Man,” which stars Constance Wu and had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance film festival.
A lyrical ghost story set in the lush Hawaiian countryside, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) whose life is slowly fading away because of a terminal illness. As his estranged family members struggle to care for him, Masao is visited by his deceased wife Grace (Wu) and is forced to confront the decisions of his past.
Spanning multiple generations, “I Was a Simple Man” features a rich ensemble of Asian American and Native Hawaiian actors, including Iwamoto, Wu, Kanoa Goo, Tim Chiou and Chanel Akiko Hirai. The film participated in the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs, as well as Sundance Catalyst.
“I was lucky enough to be introduced to Chris and this project at the Sundance Labs,...
A lyrical ghost story set in the lush Hawaiian countryside, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) whose life is slowly fading away because of a terminal illness. As his estranged family members struggle to care for him, Masao is visited by his deceased wife Grace (Wu) and is forced to confront the decisions of his past.
Spanning multiple generations, “I Was a Simple Man” features a rich ensemble of Asian American and Native Hawaiian actors, including Iwamoto, Wu, Kanoa Goo, Tim Chiou and Chanel Akiko Hirai. The film participated in the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs, as well as Sundance Catalyst.
“I was lucky enough to be introduced to Chris and this project at the Sundance Labs,...
- 5/11/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
In his short documentary “Occasionally, I Saw Glimpses of Hawai’i”, Christopher Makoto Yogi looks at the ways American cinema represents his native state Hawai’i.
Occasionally, I Saw Glimpses of Hawai’i is screening on Prismatic Ground
The short comprises of footage from 34 Hollywood movies depicting Hawai’i, shot in the span of 80 years. The oldest one dates from 1931, while the newest, from 2011. They aren’t used as is, though. Scenes from the Hollywood productions are slowed and superimposed with their soundtracks and dialogue made to overlap. This creates a pronounced fever dream-like feeling, amplified by the way some slowed-down footage is also looped in a Gif-like fashion. This all creates the strong impression on the viewer that he is watching something from another, skewed world.
Thorough the entire short, we don’t the real Hawai’i, but the place through the Western exoticizing gaze. Rather than a complex and nuanced place,...
Occasionally, I Saw Glimpses of Hawai’i is screening on Prismatic Ground
The short comprises of footage from 34 Hollywood movies depicting Hawai’i, shot in the span of 80 years. The oldest one dates from 1931, while the newest, from 2011. They aren’t used as is, though. Scenes from the Hollywood productions are slowed and superimposed with their soundtracks and dialogue made to overlap. This creates a pronounced fever dream-like feeling, amplified by the way some slowed-down footage is also looped in a Gif-like fashion. This all creates the strong impression on the viewer that he is watching something from another, skewed world.
Thorough the entire short, we don’t the real Hawai’i, but the place through the Western exoticizing gaze. Rather than a complex and nuanced place,...
- 4/14/2021
- by Martin Lukanov
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Constance Wu, star of ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat and Crazy Rich Asians, is moving into TV production and has struck a first-look deal with eOne.
The actress is launching a production venture and has tapped Justine Jones as Vice President of Development.
It comes as Wu is developing a feature adaptation of Rachel Khong’s novel Goodbye Vitamin, with Dylan Clark Productions, that she will star in and exec produce.
Last year, Wu wrapped up the sixth and final season of ABC comedy Fresh Off The Boat, in which she starred as Jessica Huang. She also starred as Rachel Chu in Warner Bros. hit feature film Crazy Rich Asians, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, where she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Coming up, Wu stars in Amazon anthology series Solos, alongside Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Helen Mirren, Uzo Aduba, Nicole Beharie, Anthony Mackie and Dan Stevens.
The actress is launching a production venture and has tapped Justine Jones as Vice President of Development.
It comes as Wu is developing a feature adaptation of Rachel Khong’s novel Goodbye Vitamin, with Dylan Clark Productions, that she will star in and exec produce.
Last year, Wu wrapped up the sixth and final season of ABC comedy Fresh Off The Boat, in which she starred as Jessica Huang. She also starred as Rachel Chu in Warner Bros. hit feature film Crazy Rich Asians, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, where she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Coming up, Wu stars in Amazon anthology series Solos, alongside Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Helen Mirren, Uzo Aduba, Nicole Beharie, Anthony Mackie and Dan Stevens.
- 3/30/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: George Segal and Elliot Gould in California Split (1974). Actor George Segal, a "defining face of 1970s Hollywood" known for his roles in films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Robert Altman's California Split, has died. The 2021 Jury and Special Award winners of the 28th SXSW Film Festival have been announced, with winners including Megan Park's The Fallout and Jeremy Workman's Lily Topples the World. Recommended VIEWINGFor the series A One-Woman Confessional: Eight Films by Cecilia Mangini, Another Gaze's streaming project Another Screen has also made available a video of Mangini and Agnès Varda's first meeting in 2011. Metrograph's official trailer for Claire Denis' L'Intrus, her 2004 adaptation of an essay by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. The film will be available at the cimema's virtual theatre from March 26 to April 8. A fan-made...
- 3/28/2021
- MUBI
Roster includes mountaineering documentary The Sanctity Of Space.
Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films has added acclaimed Sundance titles I Was a Simple Man, El Planeta and First Date to the sales roster for this week’s virtual EFM.
The slate includes previously announced Sundance thriller Superior, as well as mountaineering documentary The Sanctity Of Space, Tribeca 2020 selections Lorelei and My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, 2020 SXSW selection The Surrogate, and survival thriller Wildcat.
Visit holds international rights to Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man, which takes place in the countryside of the north shore of O‘ahu,...
Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films has added acclaimed Sundance titles I Was a Simple Man, El Planeta and First Date to the sales roster for this week’s virtual EFM.
The slate includes previously announced Sundance thriller Superior, as well as mountaineering documentary The Sanctity Of Space, Tribeca 2020 selections Lorelei and My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, 2020 SXSW selection The Surrogate, and survival thriller Wildcat.
Visit holds international rights to Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man, which takes place in the countryside of the north shore of O‘ahu,...
- 3/1/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Former Endeavor Content partner Christine D’Souza Gelb has teamed with Killer Films production exec David Hinojosa and manager Kevin Rowe to launch 2Am, a new production and management venture that gets off the ground with backing from A24.
The company launches with designs on managing filmmaker clients, and producing projects primarily in the film and television space. For indie studio A24, this is its first foray in investing in a management concern. Sources said there will be an arms length relationship between the two companies with no first look deal.
The catalyst for the new company is D’Souza Gelb, who spent 15 years at a top agent in film financing and sales as a partner at Endeavor Content, before surprising colleagues last May with an internal note that she would stop being an agent. She wanted to take some time and plot a course change, and early this fall she began putting together 2Am.
The company launches with designs on managing filmmaker clients, and producing projects primarily in the film and television space. For indie studio A24, this is its first foray in investing in a management concern. Sources said there will be an arms length relationship between the two companies with no first look deal.
The catalyst for the new company is D’Souza Gelb, who spent 15 years at a top agent in film financing and sales as a partner at Endeavor Content, before surprising colleagues last May with an internal note that she would stop being an agent. She wanted to take some time and plot a course change, and early this fall she began putting together 2Am.
- 2/23/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
The Sundance Film Festival always has a few surprises in store. This year, they didn’t come from record-breaking deals or overnight talent discoveries. All of that happened, but the surprise of Sundance 2021 was that it worked so well.
Over the past year, the concept of the virtual film festival has been eyed with skepticism at best, and at worst, outright revulsion. Cannes shrugged off the notion of a virtual festival each time it postponed its 2020 dates until all it could do was announce a selection with no screenings. The Toronto and New York festivals found basic solutions to make their lineups available in virtual form. For its part, TIFF actually pulled off a localized version of its event that included indoor screenings. Venice went a step further as the only snazzy red-carpet fall event to take place exclusively in physical form.
Sundance took a different path. By late June...
Over the past year, the concept of the virtual film festival has been eyed with skepticism at best, and at worst, outright revulsion. Cannes shrugged off the notion of a virtual festival each time it postponed its 2020 dates until all it could do was announce a selection with no screenings. The Toronto and New York festivals found basic solutions to make their lineups available in virtual form. For its part, TIFF actually pulled off a localized version of its event that included indoor screenings. Venice went a step further as the only snazzy red-carpet fall event to take place exclusively in physical form.
Sundance took a different path. By late June...
- 2/3/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
This week on the New Hollywood Podcast, we have not one, not two but 16 guests in four separate segments. The Sundance Film Festival was virtual this year as was Deadline’s Sundance Studio. For this special episode, we share our studio interviews in podcast form.
For this episode, I had the chance to speak with Christopher Makoto Yogi, Kanoa Goo, Chanel Akiko Hirai, Tim Chiou and Nelson Lee from the Hawaii-set familial drama with a ghost story twist I Was A Simple Man as well as Nikole Beckwith, Ed Helms and Patti Harrison for the platonic friend comedy Together Together. Meanwhile, Amanda N’Duka chatted with Rebecca Hall, Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and returning guest Andre Holland for the highly-anticipated drama Passing. She also sat down and had a talk with Carlson Young, Vinessa Shaw, Dermot Mulroney and Udo Kier from the fantasy-horror The Blazing World.
Each film in this...
For this episode, I had the chance to speak with Christopher Makoto Yogi, Kanoa Goo, Chanel Akiko Hirai, Tim Chiou and Nelson Lee from the Hawaii-set familial drama with a ghost story twist I Was A Simple Man as well as Nikole Beckwith, Ed Helms and Patti Harrison for the platonic friend comedy Together Together. Meanwhile, Amanda N’Duka chatted with Rebecca Hall, Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and returning guest Andre Holland for the highly-anticipated drama Passing. She also sat down and had a talk with Carlson Young, Vinessa Shaw, Dermot Mulroney and Udo Kier from the fantasy-horror The Blazing World.
Each film in this...
- 2/2/2021
- by Dino-Ray Ramos and Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
One of the most succinct, yet heavily weighted lines of dialogue in cinema history is a three-syllable call to death: “Time to die,” as Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty commands Deckard in Blade Runner. Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was a Simple Man makes its own attempt at this profundity, attempting to sum up the big goodbye in one epigrammatic phrase. “Dying isn’t simple is it?” is spoken––murmured gently, more like––no less than three times across the film, and by the end, Yogi’s work seems to have offered a resolution to that question, although viewers may beg to differ.
Ah, death. You can’t stop what’s coming, and equally, you can’t stop art film directors conjuring up all their poetic means to give this subject its due. Yogi has switched tack for his second feature, his first to premiere in the U.
Ah, death. You can’t stop what’s coming, and equally, you can’t stop art film directors conjuring up all their poetic means to give this subject its due. Yogi has switched tack for his second feature, his first to premiere in the U.
- 1/31/2021
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). Acting as the editor for his film, Yogi discusses staying true to his initial emotion in writing the film, as well as the value of brutal honesty in your team. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and […]
The post "My Collaborators Are Geniuses": Editor Christopher Makoto Yogi on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "My Collaborators Are Geniuses": Editor Christopher Makoto Yogi on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/30/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). Acting as the editor for his film, Yogi discusses staying true to his initial emotion in writing the film, as well as the value of brutal honesty in your team. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and […]
The post "My Collaborators Are Geniuses": Editor Christopher Makoto Yogi on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "My Collaborators Are Geniuses": Editor Christopher Makoto Yogi on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/30/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The rigorously restrained, contemplative nature that struck viewers of Christopher Makoto Yogi’s first feature, August at Akiko’s, in 2018, remains the distinctive trait of his new film I Was a Simple Man. At its core an account of an aging man as he willingly takes the dive from being into nothingness, the film is defined by its discipline and a style that might be called lushly austere. This is refined, specialist cinema that will be warmly embraced by aesthetes.
The film premiered Friday in the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition lineup.
Yogi’s cinema is built on blocks of strong, mostly static compositions and a mood in which the serene beauty of the Hawaiian setting is encroached upon by restless winds, insistent music, relentless Westernization and unsettling portents of mortality. Calm acceptance of the inevitable does quiet battle with clenched fear and the ever-growing specter of morality.
The film premiered Friday in the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition lineup.
Yogi’s cinema is built on blocks of strong, mostly static compositions and a mood in which the serene beauty of the Hawaiian setting is encroached upon by restless winds, insistent music, relentless Westernization and unsettling portents of mortality. Calm acceptance of the inevitable does quiet battle with clenched fear and the ever-growing specter of morality.
- 1/30/2021
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
When filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi made the 2011 short film “Obake,” he didn’t necessarily expect to have the film so greatly impact his creative life.
“The short was inspired by my personal experience with death in the family and really trying to capture the feeling of being in the room with someone who is passing over,” he tells Gold Derby. “I wanted to process it on some level as well. I made the short just to make it.”
But a couple of years later, he couldn’t shake the themes of family and death. “I thought I was done with it and for whatever reason, the story stayed with me,” he says. “I kept thinking of the characters and coming up with more story, more to explore. So maybe two or three years after the short was done, I sat down and wrote it and the first draft poured out of me.
“The short was inspired by my personal experience with death in the family and really trying to capture the feeling of being in the room with someone who is passing over,” he tells Gold Derby. “I wanted to process it on some level as well. I made the short just to make it.”
But a couple of years later, he couldn’t shake the themes of family and death. “I thought I was done with it and for whatever reason, the story stayed with me,” he says. “I kept thinking of the characters and coming up with more story, more to explore. So maybe two or three years after the short was done, I sat down and wrote it and the first draft poured out of me.
- 1/30/2021
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
“Dying isn’t simple, is it?” Those words repeat through Christopher Makoto Yogi’s “I Was a Simple Man,” calling frequent attention to the film’s title, and to its curious use of the past tense. It frames the cancer-stricken final days of Masao Matsuoshi (Steve Iwamoto) in the context of someone who’s only thinking about the mess of people caught in his web now that his body has run out of filament and they’re all forever enmeshed.
Not that Yogi holds that against him. Layering the spectral hush of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” over the elegiac domesticity of a late Ozu film like “An Autumn Afternoon,” the Honolulu-born filmmaker’s singularly Hawaiian second feature is haunted and haunting in equal measure — a reckoning pitched at the volume of a whisper. Just because people don’t stay behind doesn’t mean they ever leave.
Not that Yogi holds that against him. Layering the spectral hush of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” over the elegiac domesticity of a late Ozu film like “An Autumn Afternoon,” the Honolulu-born filmmaker’s singularly Hawaiian second feature is haunted and haunting in equal measure — a reckoning pitched at the volume of a whisper. Just because people don’t stay behind doesn’t mean they ever leave.
- 1/29/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“Dying isn’t simple, is it?” That question is asked at three separate points in “I Was a Simple Man,” and with each repetition, it sounds slightly less rhetorical, less worldly-wise, more loaded with anxious uncertainty. Christopher Makoto Yogi’s hushed, ruminative study of an elderly man’s last days in Oahu doesn’t quite settle on an answer either. It considers the troubling weight of impending death on the victim — as failing health, glitching memory and drifting ghosts of the past combine to disorienting effect — as well as on his burdened, emotionally conflicted family. Yet there’s serene peace here amid the trauma: At the film’s most lyrical points, mortality doesn’t seem a threat or a ticking clock, so much as a breeze to which you eventually bend. It might help, of course, to be surrounded by the gracious greenery and oceanic soundtrack of Oahu, to which...
- 1/29/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In the opening scene of Christopher Makoto Yogi’s lyrical family drama, I Was a Simple Man, the elderly protagonist looks out over densely built-up Honolulu and recalls when there was just beautiful green where concrete towers now cluster. That sense of a spiritual connection to nature, cultural foundations and people long departed, even to the characters’ younger selves, permeates this delicate, time-shifting study of a solitary man’s rueful end-of-life introspection. “Dying isn’t simple, is it?” asks the ghost of his wife, who died young, leaving him with sorrow and anger. But it’s a transition that ultimately ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In the opening scene of Christopher Makoto Yogi’s lyrical family drama, I Was a Simple Man, the elderly protagonist looks out over densely built-up Honolulu and recalls when there was just beautiful green where concrete towers now cluster. That sense of a spiritual connection to nature, cultural foundations and people long departed, even to the characters’ younger selves, permeates this delicate, time-shifting study of a solitary man’s rueful end-of-life introspection. “Dying isn’t simple, is it?” asks the ghost of his wife, who died young, leaving him with sorrow and anger. But it’s a transition that ultimately ...
- 1/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). Dp Eunsoo Cho clues us in on how to capture the majesty of Hawai’i’s landscape, as well as how to portray a movie that eschews time and space. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
The post "I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic": Dp Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic": Dp Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). Dp Eunsoo Cho clues us in on how to capture the majesty of Hawai’i’s landscape, as well as how to portray a movie that eschews time and space. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
The post "I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic": Dp Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic": Dp Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? I Was a Simple Man is a film that is inspired by my personal experiences with death in the family, and the making of the film was a way for me to confront and process these experiences. But one of the most unanticipated aspects of developing our film was that whenever someone would read the script or listen to me speak about the film, folks would immediately tell me a story about someone dear […]
The post "It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect": Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect": Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? I Was a Simple Man is a film that is inspired by my personal experiences with death in the family, and the making of the film was a way for me to confront and process these experiences. But one of the most unanticipated aspects of developing our film was that whenever someone would read the script or listen to me speak about the film, folks would immediately tell me a story about someone dear […]
The post "It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect": Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect": Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/29/2021
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Here are the titles most often mentioned by buyers and sellers as having the potential to shake up this virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival marketplace. While you can say they are a bit light on starpower, Sundance success has never been defined by that. There are solid plot lines in numerous genres and the potential for magic to unfold on…the television sets of buyers and viewers.
Eight For Silver – Director: Sean Ellis. Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, Alistair Petrie. In the late 1800s, a man arrives in a remote country village to investigate an attack by a wild animal but discovers a much deeper, sinister force that has both the manor and the townspeople in its grip. Section: Premiere. 1st Screening: Saturday, January 30, 6 Pm Pt
Coda – Director: Sian Heder. Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family.
Eight For Silver – Director: Sean Ellis. Cast: Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, Alistair Petrie. In the late 1800s, a man arrives in a remote country village to investigate an attack by a wild animal but discovers a much deeper, sinister force that has both the manor and the townspeople in its grip. Section: Premiere. 1st Screening: Saturday, January 30, 6 Pm Pt
Coda – Director: Sian Heder. Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family.
- 1/28/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe death of the great John le Carré reminds us of the power of secrets—the oldest of narrative devices. Thankfully, there’s a brand new festival launching, focused entirely on secrets. Spyflix will showcase stories from classic espionage and hacking adventures to thrillers, investigative documentaries, true crime, and detective stories. Spyflix is accepting submissions (for awards with cash prizes) now through February 28th, 2021, and will start screenings April 18th, 2021.The Sundance Film Festival has announced its 2021 lineup, which includes the latest Sion Sono, Theo Anthony, Christopher Makoto Yogi, and Ana Vatz.The country submissions for International Feature Film at the 2021 Academy Awards—currently scheduled for April next year—are keeping us on our toes. Beginning, which will be coming to Mubi next year, is Georgia's submission, and Jallikattu, a bold genre favorite from our Toronto coverage last year,...
- 12/17/2020
- MUBI
I Was A Simple ManThe Sundance Institute has announced 72 feature films and 50 shorts selected for their 2021 Festival, including 66 world premieres and 38 films from first-time feature filmmakers. The first festival under new Festival Director Tabitha Jackson, Sundance 2021 is set to take place both digitally and in person across the entire United States at drive-ins and independent arthouses between January 28—February 3.U.S. Dramatic Competitioncoda (Siân Heder, USA) — As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin. World Premiere.I Was a Simple Man (Christopher Makoto Yogi, USA) — As a family in Hawai'i faces the imminent death of their eldest, the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside.
- 12/15/2020
- MUBI
Taking place January 28 through February 3 next year, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will look quite different than ever before. After unveiling their screening plans, featuring a new online platform, drive-ins, screenings at independent arthouses around the country, and more, the lineup has now arrived.
The full 2021 slate of works includes 72 feature-length films, representing 29 countries and 38 first-time feature filmmakers. These films were selected from 14,092 submissions including 3,500 feature-length films. Of the feature film submissions, 1,377 were from the U.S. and 2,132 were international.
Check out the lineup below.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 10 films in this section are all world premieres.
Coda (Director and Screenwriter: Siân Heder, Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger) — As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.
The full 2021 slate of works includes 72 feature-length films, representing 29 countries and 38 first-time feature filmmakers. These films were selected from 14,092 submissions including 3,500 feature-length films. Of the feature film submissions, 1,377 were from the U.S. and 2,132 were international.
Check out the lineup below.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 10 films in this section are all world premieres.
Coda (Director and Screenwriter: Siân Heder, Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger) — As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.
- 12/15/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The directorial debuts of actress Robin Wright and musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and a documentary from Edgar Wright will be among the new films screening at the largely virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Sundance organizers announced on Tuesday.
Robin Wright’s “Land,” starring Wright, Demian Bichir and Kim Dickens and set in the Rocky Mountains, will premiere at Sundance in advance of its Feb. 12 release from Focus Features. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” is a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, which drew 300,000 people in the summer of 1969. Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is about Ron and Russell Mael, the two brothers who founded the rock band Sparks.
The Sundance lineup, which was revealed in its entirety, will consist of 72 feature films, 50 shorts, four indie episodic series and 14 “new frontier” projects. The films will screen on Sundance’s online platform, with each one having a live online premiere, and also...
Robin Wright’s “Land,” starring Wright, Demian Bichir and Kim Dickens and set in the Rocky Mountains, will premiere at Sundance in advance of its Feb. 12 release from Focus Features. Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” is a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival, which drew 300,000 people in the summer of 1969. Edgar Wright’s “The Sparks Brothers” is about Ron and Russell Mael, the two brothers who founded the rock band Sparks.
The Sundance lineup, which was revealed in its entirety, will consist of 72 feature films, 50 shorts, four indie episodic series and 14 “new frontier” projects. The films will screen on Sundance’s online platform, with each one having a live online premiere, and also...
- 12/15/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Sundance Film Festival has announced its full slate for the 2021 edition, which will take place primarily as a virtual event through an online platform in addition to physical screenings at satellite locations across the country. The program includes 72 feature-length films, representing 29 countries, and 38 first-time feature filmmakers. Fourteen films and projects announced today were supported by Sundance Institute in development, through direct granting or residency labs. The festival runs January 28 through February 3, 2021.
This robust lineup features plenty of familiar names and faces, including Edgar Wright, Lucy Walker, Robin Wright, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, Siân Heder, Sion Sono, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones, Ana Katz, Kevin Macdonald, and many more. More than half the lineup is first-time filmmakers, and they range from established actors like Rebecca Hall and Jerrod Carmichael to newcomers like Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. Sixty-six of the festival’s feature films, or 92 percent of the lineup announced today,...
This robust lineup features plenty of familiar names and faces, including Edgar Wright, Lucy Walker, Robin Wright, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, Siân Heder, Sion Sono, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones, Ana Katz, Kevin Macdonald, and many more. More than half the lineup is first-time filmmakers, and they range from established actors like Rebecca Hall and Jerrod Carmichael to newcomers like Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. Sixty-six of the festival’s feature films, or 92 percent of the lineup announced today,...
- 12/15/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
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