Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) kicks off the 10th edition of its Qumra project and talent incubator event meeting this Friday.
Running from March 1 to 6 in downtown Doha and the lofty surroundings of the city’s I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, the event will welcome the filmmakers and producers of 40 projects across all formats for six days of masterclasses, workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions.
Participants include UK director Ana Naomi de Sousa with Naseem, Fight With Grace about boxing star Naseem Hamed; Moroccan filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem with Eldorado, The Taste of the South, his second feature after Cannes Critics’ Week title The Unknown Saint; Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui with Aïcha, which follows 2019 drama A Son for which Sami Bouajila won Best Actor in the Venice’s Horizons sidebar, and Palestinian director Saleh Saadi with TV series Dyouf, about a young man who returns to his...
Running from March 1 to 6 in downtown Doha and the lofty surroundings of the city’s I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, the event will welcome the filmmakers and producers of 40 projects across all formats for six days of masterclasses, workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions.
Participants include UK director Ana Naomi de Sousa with Naseem, Fight With Grace about boxing star Naseem Hamed; Moroccan filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem with Eldorado, The Taste of the South, his second feature after Cannes Critics’ Week title The Unknown Saint; Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui with Aïcha, which follows 2019 drama A Son for which Sami Bouajila won Best Actor in the Venice’s Horizons sidebar, and Palestinian director Saleh Saadi with TV series Dyouf, about a young man who returns to his...
- 2/28/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Experienced feature film heads of department tend to be discreet about the productions they have worked on prior to their world premieres out of respect for the directors, not to mention the NDAs.
The Revenant and Dune: Part One costume designer Jacqueline West could not resist giving a shout-out to Martin Scorsese’s upcoming feature Killers of the Flower Moon, however, at the end of a masterclass for Qatar’s Doha Film Institute on Tuesday.
Moderator Richard Peña, the Columbia University professor of film studies, was about to move on to taking questions from the floor when West interjected, requesting one last word on her career trajectory.
“After Dune: Part One, I had the most incredible experience of my film career. I went to work with Martin Scorsese. I can’t talk about that film yet because nothing has been released but I just have to say it’s the...
The Revenant and Dune: Part One costume designer Jacqueline West could not resist giving a shout-out to Martin Scorsese’s upcoming feature Killers of the Flower Moon, however, at the end of a masterclass for Qatar’s Doha Film Institute on Tuesday.
Moderator Richard Peña, the Columbia University professor of film studies, was about to move on to taking questions from the floor when West interjected, requesting one last word on her career trajectory.
“After Dune: Part One, I had the most incredible experience of my film career. I went to work with Martin Scorsese. I can’t talk about that film yet because nothing has been released but I just have to say it’s the...
- 3/14/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Hampton gave updates on ‘Heart of A Soldier’, ‘White Chameleon’ and ‘Dalila’.
Stephen Frears’ Billy Wilder And Me is looking at a 2024 shoot due to other commitments from cast and crew, according to writer Christopher Hampton.
Speaking to Screen in Doha, Qatar, where he is a master at the Qumra incubator, Hampton said, “We’re in a good space because Stephen Frears is going to direct it, and Christoph Waltz is going to be playing Billy Wilder.”
He said didn’t believe that a shoot this year would be possible, with next year looking most likely.
First announced by Screen in May last year,...
Stephen Frears’ Billy Wilder And Me is looking at a 2024 shoot due to other commitments from cast and crew, according to writer Christopher Hampton.
Speaking to Screen in Doha, Qatar, where he is a master at the Qumra incubator, Hampton said, “We’re in a good space because Stephen Frears is going to direct it, and Christoph Waltz is going to be playing Billy Wilder.”
He said didn’t believe that a shoot this year would be possible, with next year looking most likely.
First announced by Screen in May last year,...
- 3/13/2023
- by E. Nina Rothe
- ScreenDaily
Bertrand Blier’s edgy romp about a pair of ne’er-do-well petty-crooks will go too far for many viewers — they’re antisocially chauvinistic in some really outrageous ways. Are they jolly adventurers or just terminally obnoxious? The twisted social comedy really needs its talented cast: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Fossey, and a very young Isabelle Huppert. The new presentation includes a commentary by Richard Peña.
Going Places
Blu-ray
Cohen Film Collection / Kino Lorber
1974 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 118 min. / Les valseuses / Street Date October 11, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Fossey, Jacques Chailleux, Isabelle Huppert, Thierry Lhermitte.
Cinematography: Bruno Nuytten
Production Designers: Jean-Jacques Caziot, Françoise Hardy
Film Editor: Kénout Peltier
Original Music:
Written by Bertrand Blier and Philippe Dumarçay from the novel by Bertrand Blier <smaStéphane Grappellill>
Produced by Paul Claudon
Directed by Bertrand Blier
The freedom of the screen that came with...
Going Places
Blu-ray
Cohen Film Collection / Kino Lorber
1974 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 118 min. / Les valseuses / Street Date October 11, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Fossey, Jacques Chailleux, Isabelle Huppert, Thierry Lhermitte.
Cinematography: Bruno Nuytten
Production Designers: Jean-Jacques Caziot, Françoise Hardy
Film Editor: Kénout Peltier
Original Music:
Written by Bertrand Blier and Philippe Dumarçay from the novel by Bertrand Blier <smaStéphane Grappellill>
Produced by Paul Claudon
Directed by Bertrand Blier
The freedom of the screen that came with...
- 11/12/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Noah Baumbach’s White Noise kicked off the 60th New York Film Festival Friday night with a heartfelt paean by the writer/director to an event that he said shaped his love of movies and his career path.
The Netflix film, based on Don DeLillo’s post-modernist 1985 novel, that premiered in Venice in August (Deadline review), stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lars Eidinger. Cast, co-producer David Heyman, composer Danny Elfman and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (behind the closing credits song set to an extravagant supermarket dance sequence) joined Baumbach onstage in a jam packed Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
“I grew up in Brooklyn and my parents [and I] would drive into the city or take the subway to go into the festival. They were very into movies, and this festival was very much a part of my movie education growing up,” he said. In 1995, at NYFF’s 33rd edition,...
The Netflix film, based on Don DeLillo’s post-modernist 1985 novel, that premiered in Venice in August (Deadline review), stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lars Eidinger. Cast, co-producer David Heyman, composer Danny Elfman and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (behind the closing credits song set to an extravagant supermarket dance sequence) joined Baumbach onstage in a jam packed Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
“I grew up in Brooklyn and my parents [and I] would drive into the city or take the subway to go into the festival. They were very into movies, and this festival was very much a part of my movie education growing up,” he said. In 1995, at NYFF’s 33rd edition,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Joanne Koch, the longtime executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center who helped shape the culture of cinema in New York and around the world, has died. She was 92.
Koch died Tuesday in New York, a spokesperson for Film at Lincoln Center, as the organization is now known, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Koch, who worked at the home of the prestigious New York Film Festival from 1971-2003, also served as publisher of the society’s Film Comment magazine and co-produced 19 Chaplin Award galas, which honor a major film artist each spring as a major fundraising event. Her stretch began with Fred Astaire in 1973 and ended with Audrey Hepburn in 1991.
An insatiable lover of movies, Koch was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 19, 1929. She graduated from Goddard College in Vermont with a degree in political science in 1950, then landed a job that year...
Joanne Koch, the longtime executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center who helped shape the culture of cinema in New York and around the world, has died. She was 92.
Koch died Tuesday in New York, a spokesperson for Film at Lincoln Center, as the organization is now known, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Koch, who worked at the home of the prestigious New York Film Festival from 1971-2003, also served as publisher of the society’s Film Comment magazine and co-produced 19 Chaplin Award galas, which honor a major film artist each spring as a major fundraising event. Her stretch began with Fred Astaire in 1973 and ended with Audrey Hepburn in 1991.
An insatiable lover of movies, Koch was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 19, 1929. She graduated from Goddard College in Vermont with a degree in political science in 1950, then landed a job that year...
- 8/21/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Historians may now acknowledge Oscar Micheaux as a pioneering Black filmmaker, and the industry could be catching up. However, that acclaim certainly didn’t follow him through his lifetime, when the hustling novelist and director made complex dramas about Black life in America across three decades, starting with the silent era and continuing for many years after that. By the time of his death in 1951, the child of former slaves in Kentucky had written six novels and directed 44 films, but around 80 percent of them have been lost.
Needless to say, most people have been late to the party when it comes to Micheaux’s career, including Cannes. But the festival’s Cannes Classics sidebar made up for that this year by screening a new restoration of Micheaux’s 1935 crime thriller “Murder in Harlem,” alongside a new documentary about the filmmaker’s contemporary resonance, “Oscar Micheaux – The Superhero of Black Cinema,...
Needless to say, most people have been late to the party when it comes to Micheaux’s career, including Cannes. But the festival’s Cannes Classics sidebar made up for that this year by screening a new restoration of Micheaux’s 1935 crime thriller “Murder in Harlem,” alongside a new documentary about the filmmaker’s contemporary resonance, “Oscar Micheaux – The Superhero of Black Cinema,...
- 7/11/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
French director discussed her childhood in 1950s West Africa.
Filmmaker Claire Denis has revealed that she would love to make a French version of UK director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe TV film series, capturing the lives of the Caribbean community in Paris.
“I would love to do a sort of French Small Axe,” she told the inaugural masterclass of the Doha Film Institute’s 2021 Qumra talent and project incubator event on Friday March 12.
While McQueen’s anthology spans five separate films capturing the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, Denis said her...
Filmmaker Claire Denis has revealed that she would love to make a French version of UK director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe TV film series, capturing the lives of the Caribbean community in Paris.
“I would love to do a sort of French Small Axe,” she told the inaugural masterclass of the Doha Film Institute’s 2021 Qumra talent and project incubator event on Friday March 12.
While McQueen’s anthology spans five separate films capturing the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s, Denis said her...
- 3/13/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Richard Peña on the Taviani brothers who won the Palme d’Or for Padre Padrone: "Vittorio's passing is a terrible loss for his family, friends and for the cinema, but we can comfort ourselves knowing how much great cinema he and Paolo have given us."
Vittorio Taviani died in Rome at the age of 88 on April 15. He together with his brother Paolo directed more than 20 films over five decades, winning the Palme d’Or in 1977 for Padre Padrone. The Taviani brothers had seven films screened in the New York Film Festival, Padre Padrone, The Night Of The Shooting Stars (La Notte Di San Lorenzo), Night Sun (Il Sole Anche Di Notte), Chaos (Kaos), Fiorile, You Laugh (Tu Ridi), and Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire) in 2012.
Vittorio and Paolo Taviani's Chaos (Kaos) closed the New York Film Festival in 1985
The former New York Film Festival Director of Programming and...
Vittorio Taviani died in Rome at the age of 88 on April 15. He together with his brother Paolo directed more than 20 films over five decades, winning the Palme d’Or in 1977 for Padre Padrone. The Taviani brothers had seven films screened in the New York Film Festival, Padre Padrone, The Night Of The Shooting Stars (La Notte Di San Lorenzo), Night Sun (Il Sole Anche Di Notte), Chaos (Kaos), Fiorile, You Laugh (Tu Ridi), and Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire) in 2012.
Vittorio and Paolo Taviani's Chaos (Kaos) closed the New York Film Festival in 1985
The former New York Film Festival Director of Programming and...
- 4/21/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As a film fan, self-professed cinenerd, and an ex-film programmer at the New York International Latino Film Festival, the closure of the long-running fest last year was soul crushing. There are very few spaces dedicated to exhibiting Latino cinema and a lot of the remaining ones are on shaky ground.
Simultaneously though — as many U.S. Latino film institutions are on their last legs — movies directed by Latin American-born filmmakers are circling the globe at prestigious film festivals, winning awards, and garnering praise from critics. Production numbers, south of our border, have risen astronomically. It’s a renewal, renaissance, new wave — whatever you want to call it — that began in the mid-nineties. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with its eye on this rebirth, founded a film series in 1997. A yearly showcase of the newest voices in Latin American cinema, it would eventually be called Latinbeat.
This year’s Latinbeat, running July 11 – 20, carries on with its mission of presenting emerging directors and film trends from across Latin America with movies from powerhouses like Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil plus countries with smaller film industries like Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. From films about a Mexican garage band ("We Are Mari Pepa") to heavy metal in the Andes ("Holiday") and from first-time directors as well as established ones, this year’s lineup is centered on young protagonists.
In advance of the series’ opening night, I got the chance to chat with Marcela Goglio — Latinbeat’s film programmer since 1999 — about the origins of the longstanding showcase, how she ended up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the constant rebirth of Latin American cinema. Plus, there are some good stories about the struggles of getting filmmakers to their screenings on time. Spoiler alert: if something can go wrong, it will.
When did the Latinbeat series start? Was there something specific that motivated the creation of the series?
Latinbeat started in 1997, conceived by Richard Peña, the Programming Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the time (and until the end of 2012.) He actually programmed that first edition. I came in as an intern that year and helped with the marketing, outreach, and with Q&As. He came up with the idea mainly because at the time there was a very evident explosion or renaissance of film in Latin America, mainly Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico (the so called “New Argentine Cinema” started in the mid 90s). By explosion I mean not only a spike in quantity but mainly there was some really interesting formal exploration going on and new kinds of films emerging as a reaction to drastically changing socio-political realities — end of dictatorships in some countries, devastating economic crises that changed the social landscape in others — in a film landscape that, up until then, had become rather stale. It was the perfect time and there was a real need, as no other venues existed that were showcasing that cinema in New York. Latinbeat was the very first to showcase these new emerging filmmakers that later became such symbols of their time.
Where did the name Latinbeat come from?
Richard Peña chose the name. I think it was a reference to precisely an urgent, watershed moment, urgent films, something palpitating in the air that the festival wanted to capture. Also, it was a reference to a new rhythm or language that was being created.
How did you end up programming the series?
Newly arrived in New York City in 1997, after having lived in Costa Rica for four years where I worked as a journalist and programmed a series of Latin American cinema at the Spanish Cultural Center, I heard that Richard Peña, whom I had studied under at Columbia University before moving to Costa Rica, was organizing a Latin American film festival. (At the time it was called “Latin American Cinema Now.”) I called him up and volunteered to help on that festival that he programmed. So I became an intern at the Film Society helping with Latin American outreach and other stuff. In 1998, he asked me and a fellow colleague, Cord Dueppe, to program the following edition in 1999 (it was biannual back then) and we programmed the subsequent editions together. Ines Aslan, from the Public Relations department, joined our team around 2003 under Richard’s guidance. In 2007, I became the sole programmer (Ines and Cord left the Film Society) and have programmed it since.
Richard Peña, former Programming Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Can you describe the process of discovering and selecting the films each year? How is the process different now than when you first started?
I take submissions — and I watch everything that is sent to me — but I don’t do an open call for entries. Up until recently, I had traveled to the Havana Film Festival almost every year since 1996 and to every Bafici (Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival) since its first edition 12 years ago and I go to a few other festivals. Distribution companies send me titles and screeners but mostly the process involves keeping up to date with productions in the region through connections with film schools, institutes, filmmakers, and producers with whom I have developed a relationship with over the years. Also, of course, I follow the programming at all the other festivals.
The process now is different in that there are many more films to watch because, amongst other things, of an explosion in production in other countries in the region (and more production too in the aforementioned strongest countries: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil). The programming, necessarily, must become more complex because there is more to choose from and more variety but also more festivals that compete for the same films. There are more films to watch but because of technology it is also easier, in a sense, since viewing links get sent quickly instead of having to wait for screeners or videos via mail.
What was the biggest challenge in the first year of the series?
Getting a crossover audience, in terms of nationality.
Marcela Goglio with Yamandu Ross, co-director of '3 Million'
What years do you feel were the heyday of the series? What are some of your favorite memories of that time?
Definitely 2003 – 2004, when the festival was hugely successful — we had sold out screenings back to back — and longer, it ran for three weeks. We had a lot of Cuban cinema and my very favorite sidebar (in 2003) was these fabulous archival Cuban music documentaries (from the 50s, 60s, 70s) that we brought back from Havana and were never again shown in the city, or the U.S. The theater was packed and now, looking back, I realize we should have repeated that program. It was also the first year that I started to notice some crossover amongst audiences — Mexicans coming to see Chilean films, Argentines to see Cuban, etc — and that was thrilling.
One of my favorite memories is recognizing a Mexican bus boy from a neighborhood restaurant who came to see Carlos Sorin’s "Intimate Stories" (a small independent film from Argentina). He was standing in the back — there were no empty seats in the theater — laughing like crazy. One of the great things of those years too was that this “renaissance of Latin American cinema” that had started in the early/mid 90s was starting to come into its own and become more well known and popular abroad. Seeing such a new independent cinema gain popularity and fill the theaters — at least in NY, it definitely was not happening in Latin America, which made it even more exciting and special — was very gratifying. It felt like we were really a part of that big change that Latin America was experiencing cinematically.
Have you ever had trouble getting filmmakers to New York for their screenings?
In 2011, we opened the festival with Gustavo Taretto’s "Sidewalls" from Argentina. Taretto, who is of Italian descent and had a beard at the time, was coming for opening night and he almost didn’t make it because he was held up at the airport and being questioned. He claimed it was because of his “Middle Eastern” appearance. The irony is that Coca Cola was one of his clients; when the officers stopped him at the airport (because of his beard) and asked him his profession he made a joke about how he actually helped the American Empire — I’m paraphrasing — impose its products on the rest of the world.
Gustavo Taretto and Marcela Goglio
Something similar happened to another opening night guest, Roxana Blanco, coming to introduce the Uruguayan film "Kill Them All", a political thriller set in Uruguay. This time it was not because of her appearance, but because of the title of the film.
It also happened to the director and producer (Kenya Marquez and Karla Uribe) of Expiration Date, the opening night film in 2012. There was a storm so they were delayed arriving from the airport and couldn’t introduce the film. They finally showed up as the film was ending, direct from the airport and soaking wet, and practically changed in the lobby before marching into the theater to do the Q&A.
To Gustavo Taretto, it actually happened twice in that trip. After opening night (a Friday, I think) he had to travel to Mexico for a publicity gig. On his way back to New York, where he had to introduce his second screening, he was singled out in the immigration line (supposedly again because of his beard) and questioned right there.
Are there filmmakers who screened their first film at Latinbeat and are now big names? Do you feel like you took part in discovering them?
None of these are “big names” but are well known now in the Latin American film world, with a respected body of work; I feel like we took part in discovering many of them, but not all: Celina Murga, Argentina ("Ana y los otros," ‘04), Damian Szifron, Argentina ("En el fondo del mar," ‘03 ), Matias Bize, Chile ("Sabado" ‘04), Marite Ugas and Mariana Rondon from Venezuela ("A la medianoche y media," ‘01), Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll from Uruguay ("25 Watts," ‘01), Everardo Gonzalez, Mexico ("Cancion del pulque," ‘04), Nicolas Pereda, Mexico ( "Perpetuum Mobile"— his second feature film, ‘09), Matias Meyer, Mexico ("Wadley," ‘08 ), Martin Rejtman, Argentina ("Silvia Prieto" — his second film, ‘99), Mercedes Moncada, Mexico/Nicaragua ("La pasion de Maria Elena," ‘03), Pedro Gonzales Rubio and Carlos Armella, Mexico ( "Toro Negro," ‘05), and finally Juan Jose Campanella from Argentina, we showed his "El mismo amor, la misma lluvia" in 1999. He went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 for "El secreto de sus ojos."
Matias Meyer, director of 'The Cramp' with Marcela Goglio
How does film production compare now to when Latinbeat started?
Numbers of films have increased twenty fold or more, in most countries — a lot. Mexico, Argentina and Brazil continue to produce the most but the main difference is that countries like Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela — though Venezuela always had a high production — underwent their own explosion in the last years, as you might have heard. So, they are also important players. Another big difference is precisely the variety of themes, formal approaches and, storylines — political and personal, different genres — though the “independent”, low budget, formal exploration strain continues to be strong in all the countries, which is what is so fascinating. It’s as if the cinema in the region is constantly renewing itself. Also, the fact that there is this variety of genres, levels of production, styles — and the fact that there are some solid commercial films produced and consumed regularly in some of these countries — to me is an indication that there is an industry that’s getting strong. That is really great, even if we may not love everything that is being produced.
Have you ever considered including U.S. Latino films in Latinbeat?
We did include a few over the years — the Dominican-American "Red Passport" and the films of U.S.-based Puerto Rican director Mario Diaz. But, we focused on Latin America mostly and we understood that as separate from “Latino”. Also, the New York International Latino Film Festival seemed to have that area covered those years. [The Nyilff launched in 1999.] Now that that festival is gone [Nyilff], I would want to consider more Latino films. I also don’t see the “Latino” and “Latin American” as that separate anymore.
What is your favorite part of being a film programmer?
I love almost all aspects of it: watching the films (even when they’re not always great); choosing them and finding the best ways to make them work together; and finally, meeting the filmmakers and having conversations with them and the audience, onstage, brings everything full circle.
Pablo Cerda, director of 'P.E.' with Marcela Goglio
When you want to just sit on the couch and unwind what sort of films do you watch in your spare time?
I generally don’t watch films to unwind — I prefer to read. But these days I enjoy watching Argentine public television — many filmmakers are directing great series.
Did you ever want to be a filmmaker?
I did, a screenwriter. But wasn’t 100% sure. I went to film school briefly at the Universidad del Cine, in Buenos Aires, while I studied Journalism at Universidad de Buenos Aires.
This year, there are lots of films about young people, from "Somos Mari Pepa" (Mexico) to "Holiday" (Ecuador) and "Mateo" (Colombia). The opening night film "Casa Grande" also centers on a teenager but in Brazil. Was this on purpose? Is it a reflection of a larger trend in Latin American filmmaking?
"The Militant," "Root," "The Summer of Flying Fish" and "Natural Sciences" are also about young people and are a variation of “coming of age” stories. So it is definitely a recurring theme in the program. Yes, it’s on purpose. Most of our past editions have had many young first-time directors; it has been like this from the start. We look to reflect the region’s new trends with the program, to highlight emerging talents always, even if they might have imperfect films. And some of these titles mentioned are definitely by filmmakers to watch.
Latinbeat runs July 11 – 20 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
Simultaneously though — as many U.S. Latino film institutions are on their last legs — movies directed by Latin American-born filmmakers are circling the globe at prestigious film festivals, winning awards, and garnering praise from critics. Production numbers, south of our border, have risen astronomically. It’s a renewal, renaissance, new wave — whatever you want to call it — that began in the mid-nineties. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with its eye on this rebirth, founded a film series in 1997. A yearly showcase of the newest voices in Latin American cinema, it would eventually be called Latinbeat.
This year’s Latinbeat, running July 11 – 20, carries on with its mission of presenting emerging directors and film trends from across Latin America with movies from powerhouses like Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil plus countries with smaller film industries like Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. From films about a Mexican garage band ("We Are Mari Pepa") to heavy metal in the Andes ("Holiday") and from first-time directors as well as established ones, this year’s lineup is centered on young protagonists.
In advance of the series’ opening night, I got the chance to chat with Marcela Goglio — Latinbeat’s film programmer since 1999 — about the origins of the longstanding showcase, how she ended up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the constant rebirth of Latin American cinema. Plus, there are some good stories about the struggles of getting filmmakers to their screenings on time. Spoiler alert: if something can go wrong, it will.
When did the Latinbeat series start? Was there something specific that motivated the creation of the series?
Latinbeat started in 1997, conceived by Richard Peña, the Programming Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the time (and until the end of 2012.) He actually programmed that first edition. I came in as an intern that year and helped with the marketing, outreach, and with Q&As. He came up with the idea mainly because at the time there was a very evident explosion or renaissance of film in Latin America, mainly Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico (the so called “New Argentine Cinema” started in the mid 90s). By explosion I mean not only a spike in quantity but mainly there was some really interesting formal exploration going on and new kinds of films emerging as a reaction to drastically changing socio-political realities — end of dictatorships in some countries, devastating economic crises that changed the social landscape in others — in a film landscape that, up until then, had become rather stale. It was the perfect time and there was a real need, as no other venues existed that were showcasing that cinema in New York. Latinbeat was the very first to showcase these new emerging filmmakers that later became such symbols of their time.
Where did the name Latinbeat come from?
Richard Peña chose the name. I think it was a reference to precisely an urgent, watershed moment, urgent films, something palpitating in the air that the festival wanted to capture. Also, it was a reference to a new rhythm or language that was being created.
How did you end up programming the series?
Newly arrived in New York City in 1997, after having lived in Costa Rica for four years where I worked as a journalist and programmed a series of Latin American cinema at the Spanish Cultural Center, I heard that Richard Peña, whom I had studied under at Columbia University before moving to Costa Rica, was organizing a Latin American film festival. (At the time it was called “Latin American Cinema Now.”) I called him up and volunteered to help on that festival that he programmed. So I became an intern at the Film Society helping with Latin American outreach and other stuff. In 1998, he asked me and a fellow colleague, Cord Dueppe, to program the following edition in 1999 (it was biannual back then) and we programmed the subsequent editions together. Ines Aslan, from the Public Relations department, joined our team around 2003 under Richard’s guidance. In 2007, I became the sole programmer (Ines and Cord left the Film Society) and have programmed it since.
Richard Peña, former Programming Director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center
Can you describe the process of discovering and selecting the films each year? How is the process different now than when you first started?
I take submissions — and I watch everything that is sent to me — but I don’t do an open call for entries. Up until recently, I had traveled to the Havana Film Festival almost every year since 1996 and to every Bafici (Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival) since its first edition 12 years ago and I go to a few other festivals. Distribution companies send me titles and screeners but mostly the process involves keeping up to date with productions in the region through connections with film schools, institutes, filmmakers, and producers with whom I have developed a relationship with over the years. Also, of course, I follow the programming at all the other festivals.
The process now is different in that there are many more films to watch because, amongst other things, of an explosion in production in other countries in the region (and more production too in the aforementioned strongest countries: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil). The programming, necessarily, must become more complex because there is more to choose from and more variety but also more festivals that compete for the same films. There are more films to watch but because of technology it is also easier, in a sense, since viewing links get sent quickly instead of having to wait for screeners or videos via mail.
What was the biggest challenge in the first year of the series?
Getting a crossover audience, in terms of nationality.
Marcela Goglio with Yamandu Ross, co-director of '3 Million'
What years do you feel were the heyday of the series? What are some of your favorite memories of that time?
Definitely 2003 – 2004, when the festival was hugely successful — we had sold out screenings back to back — and longer, it ran for three weeks. We had a lot of Cuban cinema and my very favorite sidebar (in 2003) was these fabulous archival Cuban music documentaries (from the 50s, 60s, 70s) that we brought back from Havana and were never again shown in the city, or the U.S. The theater was packed and now, looking back, I realize we should have repeated that program. It was also the first year that I started to notice some crossover amongst audiences — Mexicans coming to see Chilean films, Argentines to see Cuban, etc — and that was thrilling.
One of my favorite memories is recognizing a Mexican bus boy from a neighborhood restaurant who came to see Carlos Sorin’s "Intimate Stories" (a small independent film from Argentina). He was standing in the back — there were no empty seats in the theater — laughing like crazy. One of the great things of those years too was that this “renaissance of Latin American cinema” that had started in the early/mid 90s was starting to come into its own and become more well known and popular abroad. Seeing such a new independent cinema gain popularity and fill the theaters — at least in NY, it definitely was not happening in Latin America, which made it even more exciting and special — was very gratifying. It felt like we were really a part of that big change that Latin America was experiencing cinematically.
Have you ever had trouble getting filmmakers to New York for their screenings?
In 2011, we opened the festival with Gustavo Taretto’s "Sidewalls" from Argentina. Taretto, who is of Italian descent and had a beard at the time, was coming for opening night and he almost didn’t make it because he was held up at the airport and being questioned. He claimed it was because of his “Middle Eastern” appearance. The irony is that Coca Cola was one of his clients; when the officers stopped him at the airport (because of his beard) and asked him his profession he made a joke about how he actually helped the American Empire — I’m paraphrasing — impose its products on the rest of the world.
Gustavo Taretto and Marcela Goglio
Something similar happened to another opening night guest, Roxana Blanco, coming to introduce the Uruguayan film "Kill Them All", a political thriller set in Uruguay. This time it was not because of her appearance, but because of the title of the film.
It also happened to the director and producer (Kenya Marquez and Karla Uribe) of Expiration Date, the opening night film in 2012. There was a storm so they were delayed arriving from the airport and couldn’t introduce the film. They finally showed up as the film was ending, direct from the airport and soaking wet, and practically changed in the lobby before marching into the theater to do the Q&A.
To Gustavo Taretto, it actually happened twice in that trip. After opening night (a Friday, I think) he had to travel to Mexico for a publicity gig. On his way back to New York, where he had to introduce his second screening, he was singled out in the immigration line (supposedly again because of his beard) and questioned right there.
Are there filmmakers who screened their first film at Latinbeat and are now big names? Do you feel like you took part in discovering them?
None of these are “big names” but are well known now in the Latin American film world, with a respected body of work; I feel like we took part in discovering many of them, but not all: Celina Murga, Argentina ("Ana y los otros," ‘04), Damian Szifron, Argentina ("En el fondo del mar," ‘03 ), Matias Bize, Chile ("Sabado" ‘04), Marite Ugas and Mariana Rondon from Venezuela ("A la medianoche y media," ‘01), Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll from Uruguay ("25 Watts," ‘01), Everardo Gonzalez, Mexico ("Cancion del pulque," ‘04), Nicolas Pereda, Mexico ( "Perpetuum Mobile"— his second feature film, ‘09), Matias Meyer, Mexico ("Wadley," ‘08 ), Martin Rejtman, Argentina ("Silvia Prieto" — his second film, ‘99), Mercedes Moncada, Mexico/Nicaragua ("La pasion de Maria Elena," ‘03), Pedro Gonzales Rubio and Carlos Armella, Mexico ( "Toro Negro," ‘05), and finally Juan Jose Campanella from Argentina, we showed his "El mismo amor, la misma lluvia" in 1999. He went on to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 for "El secreto de sus ojos."
Matias Meyer, director of 'The Cramp' with Marcela Goglio
How does film production compare now to when Latinbeat started?
Numbers of films have increased twenty fold or more, in most countries — a lot. Mexico, Argentina and Brazil continue to produce the most but the main difference is that countries like Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela — though Venezuela always had a high production — underwent their own explosion in the last years, as you might have heard. So, they are also important players. Another big difference is precisely the variety of themes, formal approaches and, storylines — political and personal, different genres — though the “independent”, low budget, formal exploration strain continues to be strong in all the countries, which is what is so fascinating. It’s as if the cinema in the region is constantly renewing itself. Also, the fact that there is this variety of genres, levels of production, styles — and the fact that there are some solid commercial films produced and consumed regularly in some of these countries — to me is an indication that there is an industry that’s getting strong. That is really great, even if we may not love everything that is being produced.
Have you ever considered including U.S. Latino films in Latinbeat?
We did include a few over the years — the Dominican-American "Red Passport" and the films of U.S.-based Puerto Rican director Mario Diaz. But, we focused on Latin America mostly and we understood that as separate from “Latino”. Also, the New York International Latino Film Festival seemed to have that area covered those years. [The Nyilff launched in 1999.] Now that that festival is gone [Nyilff], I would want to consider more Latino films. I also don’t see the “Latino” and “Latin American” as that separate anymore.
What is your favorite part of being a film programmer?
I love almost all aspects of it: watching the films (even when they’re not always great); choosing them and finding the best ways to make them work together; and finally, meeting the filmmakers and having conversations with them and the audience, onstage, brings everything full circle.
Pablo Cerda, director of 'P.E.' with Marcela Goglio
When you want to just sit on the couch and unwind what sort of films do you watch in your spare time?
I generally don’t watch films to unwind — I prefer to read. But these days I enjoy watching Argentine public television — many filmmakers are directing great series.
Did you ever want to be a filmmaker?
I did, a screenwriter. But wasn’t 100% sure. I went to film school briefly at the Universidad del Cine, in Buenos Aires, while I studied Journalism at Universidad de Buenos Aires.
This year, there are lots of films about young people, from "Somos Mari Pepa" (Mexico) to "Holiday" (Ecuador) and "Mateo" (Colombia). The opening night film "Casa Grande" also centers on a teenager but in Brazil. Was this on purpose? Is it a reflection of a larger trend in Latin American filmmaking?
"The Militant," "Root," "The Summer of Flying Fish" and "Natural Sciences" are also about young people and are a variation of “coming of age” stories. So it is definitely a recurring theme in the program. Yes, it’s on purpose. Most of our past editions have had many young first-time directors; it has been like this from the start. We look to reflect the region’s new trends with the program, to highlight emerging talents always, even if they might have imperfect films. And some of these titles mentioned are definitely by filmmakers to watch.
Latinbeat runs July 11 – 20 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
- 7/16/2014
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 22, 2014
Price: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.98
Studio: Cohen Media
The great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s (Certified Copy) acclaimed 1999 drama The Wind Will Carry Us arrives as a digitally remastered release on Blu-ray and DVD, an “acknowledgement” of the film’s 15th anniversary that marks its Blu-ray debut.
The Wind Will Carry Us film follows the changes in the daily routines of the inhabitants of a mountain village after a small group of outsiders arrives, claiming to be “communication engineers.” As the deceptive story unfolds, we learn that the mysterious strangers are on a secret mission: They are a television crew sent from Tehran to await the death of an old woman in order to cover the funeral practices of the village. But the village operates on its own schedule, forcing the TV crew to remain much longer than planned. The leader of the crew (Behzad Dorani) winds...
Price: DVD $29.98, Blu-ray $39.98
Studio: Cohen Media
The great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s (Certified Copy) acclaimed 1999 drama The Wind Will Carry Us arrives as a digitally remastered release on Blu-ray and DVD, an “acknowledgement” of the film’s 15th anniversary that marks its Blu-ray debut.
The Wind Will Carry Us film follows the changes in the daily routines of the inhabitants of a mountain village after a small group of outsiders arrives, claiming to be “communication engineers.” As the deceptive story unfolds, we learn that the mysterious strangers are on a secret mission: They are a television crew sent from Tehran to await the death of an old woman in order to cover the funeral practices of the village. But the village operates on its own schedule, forcing the TV crew to remain much longer than planned. The leader of the crew (Behzad Dorani) winds...
- 7/14/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Once again, this festival of both rarefied and salt-of-the-earth films from all over Latin America graces the Big Apple at the Walter Reade Theater, once again with a delicious menu that does the Film Society of Lincoln Center proud. I’ve been drawn to Latinbeat since now-retired Fslc Program Director Richard Peña established it in 1997. It has consistently displayed not only fine titles but also a less apparent connective tissue that has been expertly if unconsciously simulated, one affording us more than single plotlines, and which provokes a pleasurably heady and arty stretch. Now in its 15th edition, the films […]...
- 7/11/2014
- by Howard Feinstein
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Once again, this festival of both rarefied and salt-of-the-earth films from all over Latin America graces the Big Apple at the Walter Reade Theater, once again with a delicious menu that does the Film Society of Lincoln Center proud. I’ve been drawn to Latinbeat since now-retired Fslc Program Director Richard Peña established it in 1997. It has consistently displayed not only fine titles but also a less apparent connective tissue that has been expertly if unconsciously simulated, one affording us more than single plotlines, and which provokes a pleasurably heady and arty stretch. Now in its 15th edition, the films […]...
- 7/11/2014
- by Howard Feinstein
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Patricia Arquette with Ethan Hawke and Ellar Coltrane: "you lose contact with those people and then you can never find them again." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Richard Linklater's 12-years-in the making opus Boyhood had a New York première at the Museum of Modern Art with its stars Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter, attending. Boyhood producers Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, filmmakers Alex Gibney, Joe Berlinger with current and former New York Film Festival Directors of Programming and Selection Committee Chairs Kent Jones and Richard Peña celebrated the IFC Films release. Joel Grey, although not in the film, shared with me a very early boyhood memory. I brought up to Linklater, Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom as filmic references and the director was surprised and amused.
Ethan Hawke with Lorelei Linklater: "You always start to...
Richard Linklater's 12-years-in the making opus Boyhood had a New York première at the Museum of Modern Art with its stars Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter, attending. Boyhood producers Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, filmmakers Alex Gibney, Joe Berlinger with current and former New York Film Festival Directors of Programming and Selection Committee Chairs Kent Jones and Richard Peña celebrated the IFC Films release. Joel Grey, although not in the film, shared with me a very early boyhood memory. I brought up to Linklater, Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom as filmic references and the director was surprised and amused.
Ethan Hawke with Lorelei Linklater: "You always start to...
- 7/8/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
On the occasion of its 700th issue, legendary French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma has partnered with the French Institute Alliance Française (Fiaf), New York's premiere French cultural center, to present a special two-part CinéSalon film series. Beginning this week, the series features a selection of rarely shown treasures from French film history and continues in June with a showcase of top picks that have been championed in the pages of the magazine. Indiewire pleased to be partnering with Fiaf and Cahiers du Cinéma to present reviews of films in the series originally published in the magazine and available here in English for the first time with translations by Nicholas Elliott, the magazine's New York correspondent. On Tuesday, June 24, Fiaf screens former Cahiers contributor Mia Hansen-Løve's "Goodbye First Love" at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The 7:30 screening will be introduced by Richard Peña, Director Emeritus of the New York.
- 6/24/2014
- by Florence Maillard
- Indiewire
One of my favorite aspects of Abbas Kiarostami’s films is how thoroughly he realizes the world within and around his characters. You hear the “world of the film” used often to describe the visions of directors attendant to detail, but no other filmmaker manifests a world of the film at quite the intimate yet expansive scope that Kiarostami does. His films make the camera feel almost incidental, as if this is simply the character or the moment that Kiarostami decided to focus on amongst a great many incidents and possibilities happening around that character or that moment. The world of his films offers glimpses into the lives of supporting characters, any of whom could be the focus of a Kiarostami film all their own. Take his latest, Like Someone in Love, for example. At one point Akiko (Rin Tanakashi) has her cab driver circle a roundabout while she looks on at her grandmother at a transit...
- 4/18/2014
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 10, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Ennui lives!: Francisco Rabal and Monica Vitti in Antonioni's L’eclisse.
The 1962 Italian drama L’eclisse is the concluding chapter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’avventura and La notte).
L’eclisse (The Eclipse) tells the story of a young woman (L’avventura’s Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Viridiana’s Francisco Rabal) and drifts into a relationship with another (Purple Noon’s Alain Delon).
Using the architecture of Rome as a backdrop for the doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition of the movie, which is presented in Italian with English subtitles, contains the following features:
• New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Ennui lives!: Francisco Rabal and Monica Vitti in Antonioni's L’eclisse.
The 1962 Italian drama L’eclisse is the concluding chapter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’avventura and La notte).
L’eclisse (The Eclipse) tells the story of a young woman (L’avventura’s Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Viridiana’s Francisco Rabal) and drifts into a relationship with another (Purple Noon’s Alain Delon).
Using the architecture of Rome as a backdrop for the doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition of the movie, which is presented in Italian with English subtitles, contains the following features:
• New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with...
- 3/28/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Jimmy P and Georges Devereux: "And to be in Topeka, Kansas which is nothing, the most boring place in the world."
In Part 1 of my conversation with Arnaud Desplechin on Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian, Jimmy Stewart began the masculine thread. Here the director sheds light on Mathieu Amalric's approach to his character Georges Devereux and how it differed from Benicio Del Toro's with Jimmy P.
We discussed how widowers, Gary Cooper's Doc Frail in The Hanging Tree and Henry Fonda's Young Mr. Lincoln, can give a "Thomas Hardy kind of feeling", and the ties Kings and Queen with Emmanuelle Devos, Catherine Deneuve, and Amalric has to Jimmy P.
Arnaud Desplechin arrived to meet me for our conversation with his star Mathieu Amalric and the current and former New York Film Festival Directors Kent Jones and Richard Peña.
Anne-Katrin Titze: When I spoke with Mathieu [Amalric] earlier,...
In Part 1 of my conversation with Arnaud Desplechin on Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian, Jimmy Stewart began the masculine thread. Here the director sheds light on Mathieu Amalric's approach to his character Georges Devereux and how it differed from Benicio Del Toro's with Jimmy P.
We discussed how widowers, Gary Cooper's Doc Frail in The Hanging Tree and Henry Fonda's Young Mr. Lincoln, can give a "Thomas Hardy kind of feeling", and the ties Kings and Queen with Emmanuelle Devos, Catherine Deneuve, and Amalric has to Jimmy P.
Arnaud Desplechin arrived to meet me for our conversation with his star Mathieu Amalric and the current and former New York Film Festival Directors Kent Jones and Richard Peña.
Anne-Katrin Titze: When I spoke with Mathieu [Amalric] earlier,...
- 10/22/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Steve Apkon, Kent Jones, Joanne Koch and Richard Peña Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze In celebrating the New York Film Festival at 50 (1963-2012), what do Luis Buñuel's Exterminating Angel, Alain Resnais' Muriel, Chris Marker's Le Joli Mai, and Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water have in common? How about Lucrecia Martel's haunting La Ciénaga, Michael Moore's Roger And Me as first time filmmakers and Last Tango In Paris, In The Realm Of The Senses, The Marriage Of Maria Braun, Barfly, and This Is Not A Film?
New York Film Festival Gold: A 50th Anniversary Celebration Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Jacob Burns Film Center Founder & Executive Director Steve Apkon moderated the discussion between Richard Peña, director of the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 2012, Joanne Koch, who was the executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Kent Jones, the present New York Film Festival Director of Programming,...
New York Film Festival Gold: A 50th Anniversary Celebration Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Jacob Burns Film Center Founder & Executive Director Steve Apkon moderated the discussion between Richard Peña, director of the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 2012, Joanne Koch, who was the executive director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Kent Jones, the present New York Film Festival Director of Programming,...
- 9/13/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Instituto Cervantes New York hosted a press conference with Pablo Berger, director/screenwriter of Blancanieves, and director/screenwriter Paula Ortiz of Chrysalis aka De tu ventana a la mía, moderated by Richard Peña for the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Spanish Cinema Now. Maribel Verdú, Leticia Dolera and Luisa Gavasa give masterful performances in Ortiz's feature debut as they weave in and out of narratives that could be reflections of Lillian Gish from Victor Sjöström's The Wind or Emmanuelle Riva from Alain Resnais' Hiroshima, Mon Amour.
Paula Ortiz, Richard Peña, Pablo Berger at the Spanish Cinema Now press conference. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In my conversation with Paula Ortiz we spoke about the telling of three women, three destinies and the history of Spain in the 20th century.
Fairy tales are present in her movie, as they are in Blancanieves by Berger, with whom I had a snow white...
Paula Ortiz, Richard Peña, Pablo Berger at the Spanish Cinema Now press conference. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In my conversation with Paula Ortiz we spoke about the telling of three women, three destinies and the history of Spain in the 20th century.
Fairy tales are present in her movie, as they are in Blancanieves by Berger, with whom I had a snow white...
- 7/8/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (Nalip) is ramping up for its 14th Annual Conference this weekend and to my great gusto, the discourse promises to be more specific, relevant and fresh than last year on how to empower Latino independent storytellers. Judging by the practical and forward-thinking panel discussions, Nalip’s YouTube channel premiering a curated selection of upcoming films, and the hip, savvy talent invited to represent, Nalip is setting the tone for discovery and healthy debate. Chief among the themes will be a contextualized creative response to the much-propagated Latino trillion dollar purchasing power statistic, and how to strategically seize territorial claim to the wild wild west expansion of online distribution platforms.
Among the established and rising American Latino actors and filmmakers on tap are Richard Montoya, Cristina Ibarra, Aurora Guerrero, Gina Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, Jeremy Ray Valdez, and Jesse Garcia. The keynote speech on Friday will be given by none other than Richard Peña, one of the most influential film curators in the world who headed the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center for twenty-five years. It will be an insightful and thoughtful conversation moderated by the sensitive, master documentarian and MacArthur Genius Grant fellow, Natalia Almada. As this year’s Nalip Conference Co-Chair, Almada helped inform the direction of the conference and scored Peña’s participation. When talking about how each year’s conference organically takes shape with the feedback of board members, staff and hosting committee, Beni Matias, Acting Executive Director of Nalip, referenced Natalia’s concern of prominently featuring the voice of the independent filmmaker over the commercial as a guiding pursuit.
Natalia’s involvement with Nalip goes back to 2003 when she became the recipient of the Estela Award, given in recognition to an emerging filmmaker who has ‘arrived’. Her revelatory documentaries include El Velador, El General and Al Otro Lado – all which have been critically acclaimed worldwide and have been featured in museums and screened at film festivals including Sundance and Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. I asked her to share a few words about Nalip’s import and she replied over email, “I think that more than anything else the conference is a place where we can really exchange ideas, address shared concerns in our community and collectively fuel to keep going”.
Natalia is part of the sub-cine filmmaking crew who came of age through Nalip like Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera and Bernardo Ruiz. In fourteen years the organization has managed to be one of the few consistent Latino forums that has nurtured a family of artists/active organizers. Along with Beni Matias, Maria Agui Carter, who is a filmmaker and the Chair of the Board of Directors, has been actively with Nalip since the beginning. Other members who have continued with the organization since the beginning include Louis Perego Moreno who use to spearhead chapter leadership meetings, Jimmy Mendiola filmmaker and Director of CineFestival in San Antonio, Frank Gonzalez from Disney/ABC, Kim Meyers and Terri Lopez at WGA, Alex Nogales, to name just a few. Nalip has also enjoyed a sustained relationship with Time Warner and HBO who have taken turns at being the presenting partners of the conference since 2000.
Part of the reason I’m so eager to engage with and synthesize this year’s theme is this following text written by Maria Agui Carter to describe the Opening Plenary:
“Forbes magazine has called the Latino Market the “New Media Jackpot.” What is at stake? Why is every network and cable outlet now chasing the Latino market and how are Latino voices participating in this explosion not just as consumers but as creators?
There it is: “But as creators”. Amid all the hoopla over the rising Latino market data that makes corporations and brands salivate at the mouth over how to exploit us as consumers, nobody has thought about reckoning a counter creative force. We should be imagining how to harness, demand and unleash our creative power with that kind of purchasing power. Otherwise, the data simply makes us a target of a branding attack towards the depletion of our capital power and identity.
A programming change for this year and aimed to provide a more significant showcase for upcoming Latino films, Nalip is spotlighting brand new films on their Nalip YouTube channel. They’ve done away with the NALIPsters On View programming where members could openly screen their work during the conference. Those screening rooms tended to be lightly attended since there was little visibility and competition from the panel programming. Instead, this year Nalip will be premiering trailers of upcoming films to build buzz around them. The curated selection of fifteen new documentaries, narrative features and shorts will become available on Thursday, June 6.
Without a doubt, the most anticipated happening of this year’s conference will be the Nalip and Sundance Institute screening of Richard Montoya’s debut feature film, Water & Power at the AMC CityWalk. The impact and influence of this Chicano icon will be evident by the droves of fans, tentacle network of familia and homies, a wide range of community activists, artists, politicians who will be in attendance and who might reflect the young and old blood of the characters he writes. I listed W&P as number one in my top five movies to watch out for in 2013 so I’m thrilled to see it screen this way. Richard Peña will moderate a Q&A with Montoya after the screening. I couldn’t think of a better filmmaker and moderator pairing.
On Saturday at the Awards Gala, Machete Kills star Danny Trejo, the menacing but actually sweet hood actor will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Aurora Guerrero, filmmaker of Mosquita y Mari will be honored with the Estela Award that comes with a $7500 grant from McDonalds. And in what will surely be an emotionally inspiring moment, the first ever La Lupe Award will be bestowed to Gina Rodriguez. Her effervescence completely evokes the spitfire tenacity of the late great Lupe Ontiveros. I couldn’t think of a more perfect homage and passing of the torch.
While I found last year’s panel topics all over the place, this year it feels more targeted and practical. Panels like Beyond The Latino Market: Getting Your Film Out To A Wider Audience with Gabriel Reyes, Writing on Latino Cinema (a panel LatinoBuzz, Latin Heat and yours truly will be participating on!), Whatever It Takes: Diy Technology and the Democratization of Content Creation, and Entertainment Industry Writer Development Programs, all feature legit, intrepid filmmakers and industry sharing resources.
On Sunday the Closing Plenary will be Latinos and Media Stereotypes in which Natalia Almada, Richard Montoya, Aurora Guerrero, Yancey Arias will be participating, moderated by Mandalit del Barco of NPR. These are all highly experienced opinionated individuals with distinct tastes so I expect this one to be one of the livelier talks. Overall, this year’s Nalip conference feels like a live one and just about to go off.
Nalip 2013 Spotlight on the Trillion Dollar Latino Market will take place June 7-9 at the Universal Sheraton Hotel.
For a full list of speakers and panels here available at http://conference2013.nalip.org/conference/keynotes-speakers/
**Update** Maria Agui Carter will replace Aurora Guerrero as participant on the Latino Stereotypes panel.
Among the established and rising American Latino actors and filmmakers on tap are Richard Montoya, Cristina Ibarra, Aurora Guerrero, Gina Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, Jeremy Ray Valdez, and Jesse Garcia. The keynote speech on Friday will be given by none other than Richard Peña, one of the most influential film curators in the world who headed the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center for twenty-five years. It will be an insightful and thoughtful conversation moderated by the sensitive, master documentarian and MacArthur Genius Grant fellow, Natalia Almada. As this year’s Nalip Conference Co-Chair, Almada helped inform the direction of the conference and scored Peña’s participation. When talking about how each year’s conference organically takes shape with the feedback of board members, staff and hosting committee, Beni Matias, Acting Executive Director of Nalip, referenced Natalia’s concern of prominently featuring the voice of the independent filmmaker over the commercial as a guiding pursuit.
Natalia’s involvement with Nalip goes back to 2003 when she became the recipient of the Estela Award, given in recognition to an emerging filmmaker who has ‘arrived’. Her revelatory documentaries include El Velador, El General and Al Otro Lado – all which have been critically acclaimed worldwide and have been featured in museums and screened at film festivals including Sundance and Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. I asked her to share a few words about Nalip’s import and she replied over email, “I think that more than anything else the conference is a place where we can really exchange ideas, address shared concerns in our community and collectively fuel to keep going”.
Natalia is part of the sub-cine filmmaking crew who came of age through Nalip like Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera and Bernardo Ruiz. In fourteen years the organization has managed to be one of the few consistent Latino forums that has nurtured a family of artists/active organizers. Along with Beni Matias, Maria Agui Carter, who is a filmmaker and the Chair of the Board of Directors, has been actively with Nalip since the beginning. Other members who have continued with the organization since the beginning include Louis Perego Moreno who use to spearhead chapter leadership meetings, Jimmy Mendiola filmmaker and Director of CineFestival in San Antonio, Frank Gonzalez from Disney/ABC, Kim Meyers and Terri Lopez at WGA, Alex Nogales, to name just a few. Nalip has also enjoyed a sustained relationship with Time Warner and HBO who have taken turns at being the presenting partners of the conference since 2000.
Part of the reason I’m so eager to engage with and synthesize this year’s theme is this following text written by Maria Agui Carter to describe the Opening Plenary:
“Forbes magazine has called the Latino Market the “New Media Jackpot.” What is at stake? Why is every network and cable outlet now chasing the Latino market and how are Latino voices participating in this explosion not just as consumers but as creators?
There it is: “But as creators”. Amid all the hoopla over the rising Latino market data that makes corporations and brands salivate at the mouth over how to exploit us as consumers, nobody has thought about reckoning a counter creative force. We should be imagining how to harness, demand and unleash our creative power with that kind of purchasing power. Otherwise, the data simply makes us a target of a branding attack towards the depletion of our capital power and identity.
A programming change for this year and aimed to provide a more significant showcase for upcoming Latino films, Nalip is spotlighting brand new films on their Nalip YouTube channel. They’ve done away with the NALIPsters On View programming where members could openly screen their work during the conference. Those screening rooms tended to be lightly attended since there was little visibility and competition from the panel programming. Instead, this year Nalip will be premiering trailers of upcoming films to build buzz around them. The curated selection of fifteen new documentaries, narrative features and shorts will become available on Thursday, June 6.
Without a doubt, the most anticipated happening of this year’s conference will be the Nalip and Sundance Institute screening of Richard Montoya’s debut feature film, Water & Power at the AMC CityWalk. The impact and influence of this Chicano icon will be evident by the droves of fans, tentacle network of familia and homies, a wide range of community activists, artists, politicians who will be in attendance and who might reflect the young and old blood of the characters he writes. I listed W&P as number one in my top five movies to watch out for in 2013 so I’m thrilled to see it screen this way. Richard Peña will moderate a Q&A with Montoya after the screening. I couldn’t think of a better filmmaker and moderator pairing.
On Saturday at the Awards Gala, Machete Kills star Danny Trejo, the menacing but actually sweet hood actor will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Aurora Guerrero, filmmaker of Mosquita y Mari will be honored with the Estela Award that comes with a $7500 grant from McDonalds. And in what will surely be an emotionally inspiring moment, the first ever La Lupe Award will be bestowed to Gina Rodriguez. Her effervescence completely evokes the spitfire tenacity of the late great Lupe Ontiveros. I couldn’t think of a more perfect homage and passing of the torch.
While I found last year’s panel topics all over the place, this year it feels more targeted and practical. Panels like Beyond The Latino Market: Getting Your Film Out To A Wider Audience with Gabriel Reyes, Writing on Latino Cinema (a panel LatinoBuzz, Latin Heat and yours truly will be participating on!), Whatever It Takes: Diy Technology and the Democratization of Content Creation, and Entertainment Industry Writer Development Programs, all feature legit, intrepid filmmakers and industry sharing resources.
On Sunday the Closing Plenary will be Latinos and Media Stereotypes in which Natalia Almada, Richard Montoya, Aurora Guerrero, Yancey Arias will be participating, moderated by Mandalit del Barco of NPR. These are all highly experienced opinionated individuals with distinct tastes so I expect this one to be one of the livelier talks. Overall, this year’s Nalip conference feels like a live one and just about to go off.
Nalip 2013 Spotlight on the Trillion Dollar Latino Market will take place June 7-9 at the Universal Sheraton Hotel.
For a full list of speakers and panels here available at http://conference2013.nalip.org/conference/keynotes-speakers/
**Update** Maria Agui Carter will replace Aurora Guerrero as participant on the Latino Stereotypes panel.
- 6/5/2013
- by Christine Davila
- Sydney's Buzz
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Robert Koehler would be resigning immediately from his position as director of programming due to family health issues. In his place, the Film Society announced the appointment of Dennis Lim in the position of Director of Cinematheque Programming. Koehler was hired last fall in the new position alongside New York Film Festival director Kent Jones following the departure of Richard Peña, who previously handled both roles. In the wake of his departure, the Film Society said that Koehler would be returning to Los Angeles and requested that his family's privacy be respected. Read More: Celebrating Its 50th Anniversary, the New York Film Festival is Bigger Than Ever. Here's What the Future Holds Lim previously served as a member of the New York Film Festival selection committee from 2009 to 2011. A former film editor for The Village Voice, he founded the Museum of...
- 3/4/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are calling for submissions to the 42nd edition of New Directors/New Films. The festival, which runs March 20-31, welcomes two new programmers: Robert Koehler (Fslc’s Director of Year-Round Programming) and Joshua Siegel (Associate Curator at MoMA). They will replace Richard Peña, who will step down from his position at the end of the year, and Lawrence Kardish, who retired in October. The Nd/Nf selection committee is comprised of Koehler, Marian Masone, and Gavin Smith of Fslc and Siegel, Jytte Jensen and Rajendra Roy of MoMA. Fslc exec director Rose Kuo states: “I have long admired and respected the vision and film knowledge of both Bob and Josh so it's with great pleasure to welcome them to the New Directors selection committee.” To submit to Nd/Nf for free go here. The deadline is January 9. Guidelines...
- 11/12/2012
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
Robert Zemeckis with the cast of Flight on flying, Michael Haneke without a manual for Amour, Peter Kubelka's Monument Film installation, and Richard Peña, aka Richard Parker gives Ang Lee an ultimatum for Life Of Pi.
Flight
Denzel Washington (Captain Whip Whitaker) arrived a little late for the New York Film Festival press conference, sat down next to the other cast members on stage, and was asked about the toughest scene for him in the movie. "Right now," he said, to the great amusement of the audience, and threw the question to his director. "What do you think, Bob?" "They were all tough. Making movies is tough," Zemeckis answered. In my question, I thanked them for not having any bird strikes in the movie and inquired how the real-life miracle landing into the Hudson played into the shaping of Flight.
Writer...
Flight
Denzel Washington (Captain Whip Whitaker) arrived a little late for the New York Film Festival press conference, sat down next to the other cast members on stage, and was asked about the toughest scene for him in the movie. "Right now," he said, to the great amusement of the audience, and threw the question to his director. "What do you think, Bob?" "They were all tough. Making movies is tough," Zemeckis answered. In my question, I thanked them for not having any bird strikes in the movie and inquired how the real-life miracle landing into the Hudson played into the shaping of Flight.
Writer...
- 10/19/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With a rich history of cinematic lineage, the annual New York Film Festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary uptown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This year's lineup features new works from such auteurs as Olivier Assayas, Michael Haneke, Alain Resnais, and Brian De Palma, among many others. Also of note is that this is the last year that Richard Peña will serve as the Film Society's Program Director and Nyff Selection Committee Chair. Mr. Peña will be leaving both positions after 25 years of service. Looking ahead, Eugene Hernandez explains, 'A programming duo will replace longtime [Peña]. Kent Jones will return to the Film Society next year to lead the New York Film Festival and Robert Koehler will move from Los Angeles to New York to handle year-round programming duties at Lincoln Center.' But back to this year! Join us as we celebrate seven diverse Nyff ...
- 10/12/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
Richard Peña's unparalleled leadership from 1988 through 2012 as the selection committee chair of the New York Film Festival and subsequent Film Society of Lincoln Center programme director was honored at a Gala Tribute on the evening of October 10, 2012 by filmmakers and colleagues.
In a video tribute that started off the evening, Martin Scorsese spoke of Richard's "spirit of discovery," and Noah Baumbach recalled seeing a "silent Chinese film at Prada," a memorable event Richard made happen, because he was so "invested in people seeing that movie," not only because Baumbach got a free suit. Todd Solondz felt "very lucky to be included" in the marvellous company of New York Film Festival directors, and Olivier Assayas said: "He saved my life… he connected me with a broader audience." Abbas Kiarostami wondered how someone with such a "face of innocence" could hold...
In a video tribute that started off the evening, Martin Scorsese spoke of Richard's "spirit of discovery," and Noah Baumbach recalled seeing a "silent Chinese film at Prada," a memorable event Richard made happen, because he was so "invested in people seeing that movie," not only because Baumbach got a free suit. Todd Solondz felt "very lucky to be included" in the marvellous company of New York Film Festival directors, and Olivier Assayas said: "He saved my life… he connected me with a broader audience." Abbas Kiarostami wondered how someone with such a "face of innocence" could hold...
- 10/12/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The New York Film Festival is celebrating its 50th birthday this year while at the same time saying goodbye to Richard Peña, who served as Program Director for the last 25 years. This year’s festival is packed with films from all over the world, bringing the best of the best from Cannes, Berlin, and other renowned festivals to a New York audience. Peña, who also teaches in the Film Department at Columbia University, has long championed Latin American cinema, in particular. After traveling in the region as a young undergrad he decided to focus his academic research on Latin America. Peña has gone on to not only spotlight Latino films in the classroom but also carved out a space, year after year, for Latino films to shine at the New York Film Festival. This year is no exception. Now in its second week, the fest has some exciting Latino premieres that will close out its 50th edition.
Here and There
Aquí y Allá | Antonio Méndez Esparza (2012)
Mexico/Spain/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Having won the top prize at the Critic’s Week sidebar at Cannes, this debut feature from Antonio Méndez Esparza looks at immigration from a different point of view--what happens when you go back? Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico after a stint working in New York. When he arrives he is surprised to see how different things look, how things have changed. He has little to say to his daughters and has to get to know his wife all over again. He feels detached, lonely, alienated. He feels distant from his family--and in parallel, the camera stays far away from the characters. In a series of long takes, conversations amongst family and friends are seen from a distance and the camera remains stationary. People walk in and out of scenes, have their backs turned to the camera, or are just too far away to see clearly. We rarely get a glimpse of those who talk and without close-ups of their faces--miss out on facial expressions and the nuances of the nonverbal. Just like Pedro--the audience, as a result of the camera work--has trouble emotionally connecting with the people on the screen.
No
Pablo Larraín (2012)
Chile/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Pablo Larraín and Gael García Bernal in person at both screenings and at the SoHo Apple Store on Thursday, October 11 as part of NyffLive.
“In 1988, in an effort to extend and legitimize its rule, the Chilean military junta announced it would hold a plebiscite to get the people’s permission to stay in power. Despite being given 15 minutes a day to plead its case on television, the anti-Pinochet opposition was divided and without a clear message. Enter Rene Saavedra, an ad man who, after a career pushing soft drinks and soap, sets out to sell Chileans on democracy and freedom.” Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) stars as Rene Saavedra. His performance is said to be the major reason behind the standing ovation it received at the Cannes Film Festival, its world premiere. It also was just announced as Chile’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
The Dead Man and Being Happy
El muerto y ser feliz | Javier Rebollo (2012)
Spain/Argentina/France | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 94 minutes
“For his third feature, the gifted Spanish director Javier Rebollo (Woman Without Piano) has decamped to Argentina and created a literate, screwball road movie that Borges surely would have loved. The “dead man” of the title is Santos (veteran Spanish screen star José Sacristán), a cancer-stricken hired killer who flees his Buenos Aires hospital bed and sets off on one last assignment. It is a journey that takes him through an interior Argentina rarely glimpsed in movies, from the Cordoba resort town of La Cumbrecita (with its disproportionate—and disconcerting—population of elderly Germans) to the northern province of Santiago del Estero. Along the way, Santos finds himself joined by Alejandra (the wonderful Roxana Blanco), an attractive middle-aged woman who impulsively jumps into his vintage Ford Falcon at a gas station and soon thwarts him from his intended path.”
Films from Portugal are often excluded from a discussion of Latin American or Latino films. But, in the same way that we include Brazilian films even though they are in Portuguese and Spanish films because of the country’s colonial ties to the Americas--i personally think that films from Portugal should also qualify as Latin American or Latino. Maybe, I’ll just start calling them Ibero-American films.
Tabu
Miguel Gomes (2012)
Portugal | Portuguese with English Subtitles | Format: 35mm | 118 minutes
“Shot in ephemeral black-and-white celluloid, Tabu is movie-as-dream—an evocation of irrational desires, extravagant coincidences, and cheesy nostalgia that nevertheless is grounded in serious feeling and beliefs, even anti-colonialist politics. There is a story, which is delightful to follow and in which the cart comes before the horse: the first half is set in contemporary Lisbon, the second, involving two of the same characters, in a Portuguese colony in the early 1960s. “Be My Baby” belted in Portuguese, a wandering crocodile, and a passionate, ill-advised coupling seen through gently moving mosquito netting make for addled movie magic.”
The Last Time I Saw Macao
A Última Vez Que Vi Macau | João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012)
Portugal/France | Portuguese with English Subtitles | 85 minutes
“This stunning amalgam of playful film noir and Chris Marker–like cine-essay from João Pedro Rodrigues (To Die Like a Man, Nyff 2009) and João Rui Guerra da Mata explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony. After a spectacular opening scene, in which actress Cindy Scrash lip-synchs, as tigers pace behind her, to Jane Russell’s “You Kill Me”—from Josef von Sternberg’s Macao (1952), a key reference here—the film shifts to da Mata’s off-screen recollections of growing up in this gambling haven in the South China Sea.”
The New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs through October 14.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
Here and There
Aquí y Allá | Antonio Méndez Esparza (2012)
Mexico/Spain/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Having won the top prize at the Critic’s Week sidebar at Cannes, this debut feature from Antonio Méndez Esparza looks at immigration from a different point of view--what happens when you go back? Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico after a stint working in New York. When he arrives he is surprised to see how different things look, how things have changed. He has little to say to his daughters and has to get to know his wife all over again. He feels detached, lonely, alienated. He feels distant from his family--and in parallel, the camera stays far away from the characters. In a series of long takes, conversations amongst family and friends are seen from a distance and the camera remains stationary. People walk in and out of scenes, have their backs turned to the camera, or are just too far away to see clearly. We rarely get a glimpse of those who talk and without close-ups of their faces--miss out on facial expressions and the nuances of the nonverbal. Just like Pedro--the audience, as a result of the camera work--has trouble emotionally connecting with the people on the screen.
No
Pablo Larraín (2012)
Chile/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Pablo Larraín and Gael García Bernal in person at both screenings and at the SoHo Apple Store on Thursday, October 11 as part of NyffLive.
“In 1988, in an effort to extend and legitimize its rule, the Chilean military junta announced it would hold a plebiscite to get the people’s permission to stay in power. Despite being given 15 minutes a day to plead its case on television, the anti-Pinochet opposition was divided and without a clear message. Enter Rene Saavedra, an ad man who, after a career pushing soft drinks and soap, sets out to sell Chileans on democracy and freedom.” Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) stars as Rene Saavedra. His performance is said to be the major reason behind the standing ovation it received at the Cannes Film Festival, its world premiere. It also was just announced as Chile’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
The Dead Man and Being Happy
El muerto y ser feliz | Javier Rebollo (2012)
Spain/Argentina/France | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 94 minutes
“For his third feature, the gifted Spanish director Javier Rebollo (Woman Without Piano) has decamped to Argentina and created a literate, screwball road movie that Borges surely would have loved. The “dead man” of the title is Santos (veteran Spanish screen star José Sacristán), a cancer-stricken hired killer who flees his Buenos Aires hospital bed and sets off on one last assignment. It is a journey that takes him through an interior Argentina rarely glimpsed in movies, from the Cordoba resort town of La Cumbrecita (with its disproportionate—and disconcerting—population of elderly Germans) to the northern province of Santiago del Estero. Along the way, Santos finds himself joined by Alejandra (the wonderful Roxana Blanco), an attractive middle-aged woman who impulsively jumps into his vintage Ford Falcon at a gas station and soon thwarts him from his intended path.”
Films from Portugal are often excluded from a discussion of Latin American or Latino films. But, in the same way that we include Brazilian films even though they are in Portuguese and Spanish films because of the country’s colonial ties to the Americas--i personally think that films from Portugal should also qualify as Latin American or Latino. Maybe, I’ll just start calling them Ibero-American films.
Tabu
Miguel Gomes (2012)
Portugal | Portuguese with English Subtitles | Format: 35mm | 118 minutes
“Shot in ephemeral black-and-white celluloid, Tabu is movie-as-dream—an evocation of irrational desires, extravagant coincidences, and cheesy nostalgia that nevertheless is grounded in serious feeling and beliefs, even anti-colonialist politics. There is a story, which is delightful to follow and in which the cart comes before the horse: the first half is set in contemporary Lisbon, the second, involving two of the same characters, in a Portuguese colony in the early 1960s. “Be My Baby” belted in Portuguese, a wandering crocodile, and a passionate, ill-advised coupling seen through gently moving mosquito netting make for addled movie magic.”
The Last Time I Saw Macao
A Última Vez Que Vi Macau | João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012)
Portugal/France | Portuguese with English Subtitles | 85 minutes
“This stunning amalgam of playful film noir and Chris Marker–like cine-essay from João Pedro Rodrigues (To Die Like a Man, Nyff 2009) and João Rui Guerra da Mata explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony. After a spectacular opening scene, in which actress Cindy Scrash lip-synchs, as tigers pace behind her, to Jane Russell’s “You Kill Me”—from Josef von Sternberg’s Macao (1952), a key reference here—the film shifts to da Mata’s off-screen recollections of growing up in this gambling haven in the South China Sea.”
The New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs through October 14.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
- 10/10/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
As New York Film Festival selection committee chairman Richard Peña pointed out this past Saturday, October 6th at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade theater, "The Untold History of the United States" might make a good title for a survey of Oliver Stone’s films. Unfortunately for any academics working on a Stone book, Peña continued, the title has already been taken by the man himself. Stone was on hand at the Nyff to preview the first three episodes of his upcoming 10-part Showtime docu-series, titled, yes, "Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States." The series, an alternative history of the Us from World War II onward, makes for a logical endpoint for the American history investigations Stone has ferreted out over the course of his career. These films, which have covered the Nixon administration, the war in Vietnam, the presidency of George W. Bush, and, of course, the JFK assassination (the zenith of.
- 10/8/2012
- by Zach Wigon
- Indiewire
Above: Juan Gatti’s original Spanish poster for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain).
After covering the posters for the very first and the current New York Film Festivals, I thought it might be fitting, in this last year of Richard Peña’s tenure as Program Director and Selection Committee Chairman of the festival, to gather all the posters from Peña’s very first Nyff, 24 years ago.
In the current edition of Film Comment—an essential souvenir of the history of the festival to date, complete with a list of every feature film to have played the festival in its 50 years—Gavin Smith writes that “The 25-film lineup of the 1988 Nyff was partly a reflection of the decade’s drift and uncertainty—two came from Nyff veterans (Sergei Paradjanov, Marcel Ophuls), two were post-Glasnost rediscoveries (Andrei Konchalovsky, Larissa Shepitko), and nine were bets that didn...
After covering the posters for the very first and the current New York Film Festivals, I thought it might be fitting, in this last year of Richard Peña’s tenure as Program Director and Selection Committee Chairman of the festival, to gather all the posters from Peña’s very first Nyff, 24 years ago.
In the current edition of Film Comment—an essential souvenir of the history of the festival to date, complete with a list of every feature film to have played the festival in its 50 years—Gavin Smith writes that “The 25-film lineup of the 1988 Nyff was partly a reflection of the decade’s drift and uncertainty—two came from Nyff veterans (Sergei Paradjanov, Marcel Ophuls), two were post-Glasnost rediscoveries (Andrei Konchalovsky, Larissa Shepitko), and nine were bets that didn...
- 10/6/2012
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Surprises have been popping up all over the 50th annual New York Film Festival. Perhaps because it's celebrating an important semi-centennial milestone and its beloved chairman Richard Peña is stepping down after 25 years, Nyff is pulling in several riches this year. There's a surprise secret screening on Monday (which could be Fox Searchlight's "Hitchcock" if our guess work is right) and last night a small teaser was unveiled of a highly anticipated 2013 film: Park Chan-Wook's "Stoker." At the conclusion of the gala tribute to Academy-Award winner Nicole Kidman (her latest, "The Paperboy" screened afterwards), Pena and Nyff revealed a small teaser taste of "Stoker," a Southern-gothic thriller from the director of "Oldboy," starring Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode. A picture that could ostensibly go under the title "Blood Ties," or something like "Family Bonds,"...
- 10/4/2012
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
Ang Lee and New York Film Festival director Richard Peña talk about Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger, during the press conference for the world premiere of Life Of Pi at the 50th New York Film Festival on September 28, 2012.
Anne-Katrin Titze: I am interested in how you assembled your tiger. How many Richard Parkers - I was almost going to say Richard Peñas…
Life of Pi director Ang Lee: It's also short for Rp
Akt: How many real...
New York Film Festival director Richard Peña interjects: How do you think it got into this festival?
Akt: How many real tigers did you work with? How did you assemble this fantastic creature?
Ang Lee: We had four tigers. Three from France. I think he's the world's greatest trainer and totally respects animals. Actually, I learned most of the tiger scenes from this person. So three from him. He doesn't...
Anne-Katrin Titze: I am interested in how you assembled your tiger. How many Richard Parkers - I was almost going to say Richard Peñas…
Life of Pi director Ang Lee: It's also short for Rp
Akt: How many real...
New York Film Festival director Richard Peña interjects: How do you think it got into this festival?
Akt: How many real tigers did you work with? How did you assemble this fantastic creature?
Ang Lee: We had four tigers. Three from France. I think he's the world's greatest trainer and totally respects animals. Actually, I learned most of the tiger scenes from this person. So three from him. He doesn't...
- 10/1/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee and author Yann Martel will sit down with Film Society of Lincoln Center Program Director Richard Peña for a discussion of the film adaptation of...
- 9/28/2012
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
For the tenth year in a row, ComingSoon.net is attending and covering the Film Society of Lincoln Center's New York Film Festival , now celebrating its 50th Anniversary with what is likely to be the biggest festival in Film Society history. They've been building up to it by showing movies from the film festivals' illustrious past over the last year and once again the festival is going to give New Yorkers a chance to see some of the season's strongest foreign and art films as well as a couple of major releases. This will be the last festival programmed by Richard Peña, who has been with the New York Film Festival for 25 years, literally half its life, so this year's festival is a special one, not only due to the 50th anniversary celebration but also because it's a transition year...
- 9/26/2012
- Comingsoon.net
Last year, Richard Peña had an idea. After 25 years of serving as program director for the Film Society of Lincoln Center and chairman of the New York Film Festival, Peña announced his decision to step down and focus on other pursuits. But he also had a plan for what should come next. "I don't think it would be a bad idea to hire two people," he told me in a conversation the day after his official announcement, "not because no one can replace me but because the festival and year-round programming has increased so much." Having carried the weight of a major film institution on his back for a quarter of a century and played a key role in bringing a wide variety of world cinema to New York, Peña sometimes comes across like a solitary figure leading American audiences toward new, adventurous encounters with a multitude of cinematic experiences.
- 9/25/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
For some years now Tom Prasek and I have commiserated about the need for a serious networking solution and overview organization about (for lack of a better term) 'the film festival world'.
I think Ffa might be on to something and I am really glad to lend support. I urge filmmakers, market participants and festival folks and press to pay close attention.
Where: Amphitheater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Lincoln Center, NYC
When: 27th/28th September 2012
As each industry event produced by the Film Festival Academy is specifically curated in light of the requirements of the hosting festival or organisation, the first theme of our event in New York is New York film programming, looking at all the very many different institutions – festivals, cinemas, museums, galleries – involved in programming specifically for New York audiences.
The second theme focuses on film festival form, and here again we're looking to kick-start a debate that will run on longer via the Film Festival Academy website and related blogs etc.
Confirmed speakers and timetable:
Thursday 27th – Focus on New York-specific Film Programming
09:30–10:00 Registration, coffee
10:00–10:15 Welcome
10:15–12:15 Mapping the Landscape of New York Programming and Connecting with Audiences
Comprising a panel of NYC-based film programmers and moving image museum/gallery curators discussing various aspects of their responsibilities programming specifically for NYC audiences, and the various institutional freedoms and constraints they have, ie a general introduction to the practical context of NYC-specific film programming.
– Scott Foundas (New York Film Festival)
– David Schwartz (Museum of the Moving Image)
– Thom Powers (Doc NYC)
– Cristina Cacciopo (92Y Tribeca)
– Jon Dieringer (Screen Slate)
12:15–13:30 Lunch (provided, for all participants/attendees)
13:30–14:45 A Detailed Look at New York Cinephilia
A moderated conversation between Richard Peña (New York Film Festival) and Lisa Schwartzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) discussing in greater depth the theory and practice behind NYC-specific programming and festival programming more generally, from viewpoints that encompass experience in actual programming as well as academia/film history and film criticism.
14:45–15:00 Coffee
15:15–16:45 Programming for Niche Audiences
A session focusing on the specific issues involved in programming for target constituents, and exploring issues of reach and retention of interest from core communities, whether 'genre' focused or more 'ethnically/culturally' defined.
– Chair: Brian Gordon (festival consultant)
– Lisa Vandever (CineKink)
– Basil Tsiokos (festival consultant)
– Stephen Kent Jusick (Mix)
– Bradford Nordeen (Dirty Looks)
16:45–17:00 Coffee
17:00–18:30 Exploring the Nature of Contemporary Scholarly Film Festival Studies
Comprising a panel of scholars working in the fast-growing area of academic film festival studies, providing an overview of their area of research and thereby shedding light on more theoretical, historical issues, and developing the specific focus on NYC back out to wider considerations; note, these will Not be academic papers in any conventional sense, but rather informal accounts given by people professionally engaged in researching this field, providing insight into what, and why, and so balancing the NYC-specific practical considerations above with more theoretical considerations of the nature and role of film festivals generally.
– Faye Ginsburg (New York University)
– Toby Lee (Harvard University)
– Dennis Broe (Long Island University)
Friday 28th – Focus on Film Festival Form
09:45–10:00 Coffee
10:00–12:00 An Interrogation of Film Festival Form
A focus on theoretical and practical considerations of film festival form; this will be instigated by a manifesto on film festival form proposed by Mark Cousins that will then responded to by a panel that, again, represents the various interested constituents from festival programming, film criticism, and academic film festival studies, but will very much be an open session.
– Chair: Sean Farnel (festival consultant)
– David Sterritt (Columbia University)
– Ingrid Kopp (Tribeca Film Institute Digital Initiatives)
– Dan Nuxoll (Rooftop Films)
12:00 Closing remarks
Free registration is available to all Premium Members of the Film Festival Academy. Places currently remaining:32
Attendees already confirmed include:
– Mitch Levine (The Film Festival Group)
– Peter Belsito (festival consultant)
– Claus Mueller (Hunter College, City University of New York)
– Jose Augusto Barriga (Boston Latino International Film Festival)
– Goran Topalovic (New York Asian Film Festival)
– Elizabeth Weatherford (Native American Film and Video Festival)
– Michal Chacinski (Gdynia Film Festival, Poland)
– Joe Bateman (Rushes Short Film Festival, London, UK)
– Bryce Renninger (Rutgers University, indieWIRE)
– Christina Marouda (Los Angeles Indian Film Festival)
– Miriam Bale (freelance film curator)
– Ania Trebiatowska (Off Plus Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema, Krakow, Poland)
– Sylvie Vitaglione (New York University)...
I think Ffa might be on to something and I am really glad to lend support. I urge filmmakers, market participants and festival folks and press to pay close attention.
Where: Amphitheater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Lincoln Center, NYC
When: 27th/28th September 2012
As each industry event produced by the Film Festival Academy is specifically curated in light of the requirements of the hosting festival or organisation, the first theme of our event in New York is New York film programming, looking at all the very many different institutions – festivals, cinemas, museums, galleries – involved in programming specifically for New York audiences.
The second theme focuses on film festival form, and here again we're looking to kick-start a debate that will run on longer via the Film Festival Academy website and related blogs etc.
Confirmed speakers and timetable:
Thursday 27th – Focus on New York-specific Film Programming
09:30–10:00 Registration, coffee
10:00–10:15 Welcome
10:15–12:15 Mapping the Landscape of New York Programming and Connecting with Audiences
Comprising a panel of NYC-based film programmers and moving image museum/gallery curators discussing various aspects of their responsibilities programming specifically for NYC audiences, and the various institutional freedoms and constraints they have, ie a general introduction to the practical context of NYC-specific film programming.
– Scott Foundas (New York Film Festival)
– David Schwartz (Museum of the Moving Image)
– Thom Powers (Doc NYC)
– Cristina Cacciopo (92Y Tribeca)
– Jon Dieringer (Screen Slate)
12:15–13:30 Lunch (provided, for all participants/attendees)
13:30–14:45 A Detailed Look at New York Cinephilia
A moderated conversation between Richard Peña (New York Film Festival) and Lisa Schwartzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) discussing in greater depth the theory and practice behind NYC-specific programming and festival programming more generally, from viewpoints that encompass experience in actual programming as well as academia/film history and film criticism.
14:45–15:00 Coffee
15:15–16:45 Programming for Niche Audiences
A session focusing on the specific issues involved in programming for target constituents, and exploring issues of reach and retention of interest from core communities, whether 'genre' focused or more 'ethnically/culturally' defined.
– Chair: Brian Gordon (festival consultant)
– Lisa Vandever (CineKink)
– Basil Tsiokos (festival consultant)
– Stephen Kent Jusick (Mix)
– Bradford Nordeen (Dirty Looks)
16:45–17:00 Coffee
17:00–18:30 Exploring the Nature of Contemporary Scholarly Film Festival Studies
Comprising a panel of scholars working in the fast-growing area of academic film festival studies, providing an overview of their area of research and thereby shedding light on more theoretical, historical issues, and developing the specific focus on NYC back out to wider considerations; note, these will Not be academic papers in any conventional sense, but rather informal accounts given by people professionally engaged in researching this field, providing insight into what, and why, and so balancing the NYC-specific practical considerations above with more theoretical considerations of the nature and role of film festivals generally.
– Faye Ginsburg (New York University)
– Toby Lee (Harvard University)
– Dennis Broe (Long Island University)
Friday 28th – Focus on Film Festival Form
09:45–10:00 Coffee
10:00–12:00 An Interrogation of Film Festival Form
A focus on theoretical and practical considerations of film festival form; this will be instigated by a manifesto on film festival form proposed by Mark Cousins that will then responded to by a panel that, again, represents the various interested constituents from festival programming, film criticism, and academic film festival studies, but will very much be an open session.
– Chair: Sean Farnel (festival consultant)
– David Sterritt (Columbia University)
– Ingrid Kopp (Tribeca Film Institute Digital Initiatives)
– Dan Nuxoll (Rooftop Films)
12:00 Closing remarks
Free registration is available to all Premium Members of the Film Festival Academy. Places currently remaining:32
Attendees already confirmed include:
– Mitch Levine (The Film Festival Group)
– Peter Belsito (festival consultant)
– Claus Mueller (Hunter College, City University of New York)
– Jose Augusto Barriga (Boston Latino International Film Festival)
– Goran Topalovic (New York Asian Film Festival)
– Elizabeth Weatherford (Native American Film and Video Festival)
– Michal Chacinski (Gdynia Film Festival, Poland)
– Joe Bateman (Rushes Short Film Festival, London, UK)
– Bryce Renninger (Rutgers University, indieWIRE)
– Christina Marouda (Los Angeles Indian Film Festival)
– Miriam Bale (freelance film curator)
– Ania Trebiatowska (Off Plus Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema, Krakow, Poland)
– Sylvie Vitaglione (New York University)...
- 9/25/2012
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
News.
Robert Koehler and Kent Jones are taking over Richard Peña's programming duties at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. As two of the hardest working and knowledgeable film critics working, this comes as exciting news. We here at Mubi offer them ecstatic congratulations. Tiff has run its course, and the awards have been divvied up accordingly. Those prolific cats over at Cinema Scope have a "Listomania" ripe for those keen on the less official accolades.
Finds.
The French Connection, Dir. William Friedkin (1971)
The Thomas Crown Affair, Dir. John McTiernan (1999)
Above: You may have already noticed a post about this amazing find on our Facebook page. It comes by way of Khoi Vinh, who brought this to our attention at his blog. The idea over at FILMography is simple but very cool: Christopher Moloney goes to the original shooting location of a film, armed with a still, and takes...
Robert Koehler and Kent Jones are taking over Richard Peña's programming duties at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. As two of the hardest working and knowledgeable film critics working, this comes as exciting news. We here at Mubi offer them ecstatic congratulations. Tiff has run its course, and the awards have been divvied up accordingly. Those prolific cats over at Cinema Scope have a "Listomania" ripe for those keen on the less official accolades.
Finds.
The French Connection, Dir. William Friedkin (1971)
The Thomas Crown Affair, Dir. John McTiernan (1999)
Above: You may have already noticed a post about this amazing find on our Facebook page. It comes by way of Khoi Vinh, who brought this to our attention at his blog. The idea over at FILMography is simple but very cool: Christopher Moloney goes to the original shooting location of a film, armed with a still, and takes...
- 9/19/2012
- MUBI
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced Robert Koehler and Kent Jones as the replacements for longtime Program Director Richard Peña. Film Society Executive Director Rose Kuo said, “Richard Peña has played a fundamental role in defining our organization and its commitment to discovering and supporting the best and most important cinema in the world. Kent Jones and Bob Koehler, whose thinking and writing about cinema I deeply respect, are the perfect team to build upon Richard’s vision and carry it forward.” Peña will be honored at a Gala Tribute during this year’s New York Film Festival.
Jones, who was a part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center from 1998 to 2009, will be returning to helm the New York Film Festival. Jones said, “The New York Film Festival has always been a beacon to me—when I was young and pouring over the yearly schedule in the Sunday Times,...
Jones, who was a part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center from 1998 to 2009, will be returning to helm the New York Film Festival. Jones said, “The New York Film Festival has always been a beacon to me—when I was young and pouring over the yearly schedule in the Sunday Times,...
- 9/13/2012
- by Billy Brennan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
One of the top film programming jobs in America has now become two. With Film Society of Lincoln Center program director and New York Film Festival selection committee head Richard Peña stepping down at the end of this year, he will be replaced by two people: Kent Jones as director of programming of the New York Film Festival and Robert Koehler as the Fslc's year-round director of programming. Jones' appointment represents a full-circle homecoming: In 2009, he left his position as Fslc's associate director of programming and editor-at-large at Film Comment after 10 years at the organization and six months after the arrival of then-excecutive director Mara Manus. Read More: Kent Jones' Resignation Marks Latest High-Profile Film Society Departure Koehler is a veteran film critic who most recently served as director of programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles, where he helped create a new competition section, “New Lights.” However, the...
- 9/13/2012
- by Dana Harris
- Indiewire
While it does not seem likely that anyone would have expected that Nicole Kidman would have something of a career resurgence at the hands of a hack like Lee Daniels and a film that sees her peeing on Zac Efron in an apparent act of love but, hey, Hollywood is insane (as evidenced by the fact that Daniels gets to even make movies). As part of that resurgence, Kidman will be honored with a Gala Tribute at this year’s New York Film Festival. The tribute will include both an on-stage conversation with Kidman and a screening of The Paperboy (don’t let my disdain for Daniels obscure the fact that I cannot wait to see this film and am deeply jealous of all the Gothamites who will see it at Nyff). The festival has also announced that they will be holding another Gala Tribute during the second half of the festival to honor their own Film...
- 8/22/2012
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
This year's New York Film Festival just keeps expanding. Yesterday it was revealed that anniversary screenings of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Princess Bride" would be on the docket for the 50th annual, and today, it's been revealed that, like Telluride and AFI Fest, Nyff has added a tribute element to its proceedings. The first-ever honorees will be actress Nicole Kidman -- whose film "The Paperboy," from director Lee Daniels, was also added to the line-up today -- and Nyff Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center Richard Peña....
- 8/21/2012
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
The festival begins on September 28th and runs through October 14. Lee Daniels' The Paperboy is scheduled to open in limited release on October 5. So those attending the New York Film Festival will probably get to see The Paperboy a few days before its official opening (I'm sure one of the cities it'll open in is NYC). The rest of the story (which includes announcements of galsa tributes for Nicole Kidman and Richard Peña) from the New York Film Festival press release follows... New York, August 21, 2012 —The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Nicole Kidman and Richard Peña will be the subject of gala tributes to be...
- 8/21/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
New York, August 21, 2012 —The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Nicole Kidman and Richard Peña will be the subject of gala tributes to be presented by the festival for the first time during the historic 50th edition of Nyff. Fslc also announced the addition of Kidman’s upcoming film, Lee Daniels’s adaptation of Pete Dexter’s popular novel, The Paperboy to Nyff’s main slate schedule. The Gala Tribute to Nicole Kidman will take place on Wednesday, October 3, and the Gala Tribute to Richard Peña will take place on Wednesday, October 10. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Nyff, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has added two gala tributes to its programming schedule of films and events. These tributes celebrate the work of individuals working in film who have made significant artistic contributions to film culture in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
- 8/21/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that its inaugural New York Film Festival Gala Tributes will honor Nicole Kidman and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's departing programming chief Richard Peña. The Kidman tribute will occur October 3; Peña will be celebrated in what is essentially a retirement party on October 10. The Film Society of Lincoln Center also announced that Kidman's latest film, Lee Daniel's "The Paperboy," which was one of the Cannes Film Festival's most divisive titles earlier this year, is a part of this year's Nyff main slate. The Southern potboiler stars Kidman as Charlotte, the fiancée of a wrongly convicted man (John Cusack) on death row. Charlotte meets college dropout Jack Jensen (Zac Efron) who helps his journalist brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) investigate. In a release that cited Kidman's breakthrough performance in "To Die For," three Oscar...
- 8/21/2012
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
The Lincoln Center has recently announced that Ang Lee’s Life of Pi will be making its world première in 3D at the 50th Anniversary of the New York Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala (September 28 – October 14). The visionary director will mark his return to Nyff after 12 years since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon closed the festival in 2000. This selection also marks Lee (joining the ranks of Robert Altman, Pedro Almodovar and Francois Truffaut) as one of the only directors to have more than one film chosen to open the festival (The Ice Storm opened 1997). Read below for a full press release of the announcement, along with a synopsis of the film.
The Film Society Of Lincoln Center announces
the World Premiere of Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi
as the Opening Night Gala selection
for the 50th Anniversary of the New York Film Festival
New York, NY, August 13, 2012 – The Film...
The Film Society Of Lincoln Center announces
the World Premiere of Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi
as the Opening Night Gala selection
for the 50th Anniversary of the New York Film Festival
New York, NY, August 13, 2012 – The Film...
- 8/19/2012
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
Amour
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14) including such notable directors as Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis.
Regarding the line up of 32 films comprising the main slate for the 50th anniversary of Nyff Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, .The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness” that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go..
Award winners that will be presented for...
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14) including such notable directors as Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis.
Regarding the line up of 32 films comprising the main slate for the 50th anniversary of Nyff Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, .The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness” that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go..
Award winners that will be presented for...
- 8/16/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has just announced their “main slate” of films for the 50th New York Film Festival, and it includes some expected names (Baumbach, De Palma, Haneke) and some wonderful treats (Carax, Kiarostami, Potter). How jealous are we that our intrepid Jack Giroux will get to see Holy Motors next month? Unspeakably so. The slate includes winners from Cannes (Michael Haneke’s Amour and Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills), Berlin (Christian Petzold’s Barbara and Miguel Gomes’s Tabu), and Locarno (Song Fang’s Memories Look at Me). Speaking about the thirty-two main slate films, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center Richard Peña commented, “The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance...
- 8/16/2012
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Just announced is the full slate for this year’s Nyff, this year celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. Already announced were the opening, closing and centerpiece movies (Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Robert Zemeckis’ Flight and David Chase’s Not Fade Away, respectively — all world premieres), and the rest of the lineup is as typically exciting and robust as it ever is, packed with auteur works culled almost exclusively from Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto.
Unveiling the summation of the best of arthouse cinema in 2012, Richard Peña, the Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, “The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may...
Unveiling the summation of the best of arthouse cinema in 2012, Richard Peña, the Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, “The films making up the main slate of this year’s Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may...
- 8/16/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Complete Lineup: Baumbach, De Palma, Haneke, Lee and Ruiz To Help New York Film Festival Turn 50
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival, which will run September 28-October 14, 2012. The lineup includes work from Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis. “The films making up the main slate of this year's Nyff, have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works," Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said. "These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go.” Award winners from festivals around the world will be presented for the first time for New York audiences at the fest. These universally acclaimed.
- 8/16/2012
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
The world premiere of Life of Pi, Ang Lee’s epic 3-D adaptation of Yann Martel’s highly acclaimed Booker Prize-winning novel, will open the New York Film Festival, which starts September 28 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Lee is no stranger to the Nyff: this will be the second time one of his movies has opened the fest (The Ice Storm kicked off the 1997 edition), while in 2009 Lee was the subject of a career retrospective at Fslc’s annual celebration of cinema.
“Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision,” said Richard Peña, the head of the Nyff selection committee. “Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We’re enormously proud to have this film for our Opening Night for the 50th Nyff.”
“I am both...
“Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision,” said Richard Peña, the head of the Nyff selection committee. “Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We’re enormously proud to have this film for our Opening Night for the 50th Nyff.”
“I am both...
- 8/14/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Big-screen adaptation of Yann Martel's prize-winning novel will become the first 3D film to open the festival next month
Ang Lee's big-screen adaptation of the bestselling Yann Martel novel Life of Pi is to become the first 3D film to open the New York film festival next month.
Lee, who opened the festival in 1997 with The Ice Storm, joins Robert Altman, Pedro Almodóvar and François Truffaut in the rank of film-makers who opened the festival at least twice. The screening on 28 September, which raises the curtain on the festival's 50th edition, should help position Life of Pi for an awards season run.
"Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision. Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We're enormously proud to have this film for our opening night for the 50th Nyff,...
Ang Lee's big-screen adaptation of the bestselling Yann Martel novel Life of Pi is to become the first 3D film to open the New York film festival next month.
Lee, who opened the festival in 1997 with The Ice Storm, joins Robert Altman, Pedro Almodóvar and François Truffaut in the rank of film-makers who opened the festival at least twice. The screening on 28 September, which raises the curtain on the festival's 50th edition, should help position Life of Pi for an awards season run.
"Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision. Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We're enormously proud to have this film for our opening night for the 50th Nyff,...
- 8/14/2012
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
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