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Previews
ReelAbilities
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Thursday, 28 January 2010 05:00
- Written by L E Shannon
The Second Annual ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival is running January 2
8 through February 1, 2010, at The JCC in Manhattan at 334 Amsterdam Avenue, and at other locations throughout the New York metropolitan area. ReelAbilities is dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with different abilities.
The festival presents award-winning films, discussions and other engaging programs to bring the community together to explore, discuss and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience.
The award winning animated feature Mary & Max, directed by Adam Elliot, opens the festival on January 28. This clay-animated film tells the story of a pen-friendship between a lonely 8-year-old girl in Melbourne and a 44-year-old Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in New York.
The Closing Night film is Coming Down the Mountain, directed by Julie Anne Robinson. It's the story of David, a teenager whose 17-year-old brother, Ben, has Down's Syndrome, and how the family's world revolves around Ben's needs while David's are unwittingly neglected by their parents. 
Other films are:
Beeswax, directed by Andrew Bujalski, a story of twin sisters who share a house, and their loves and dilemmas.
Among the Giants, directed by Cory Tomascoff, about the Adaptive Design Association, a nonprofit organization that builds customized equipment for kids and adults with disabilities, mainly using cardboard.
Nobody's Perfect, directed by Niko von Glasow. This documentary follows von Glasow as he looks for 11 people who, like him, were born disabled due to the side-effects of Thalidomide, and who are prepared to pose — naked — for a book of photos.
Shooting Beauty, directed by George Kachadorian, a documentary of fashion photographer Courtney Bent, who discovered a hidden world of beauty at a center for people living with significant disabilities, and began inventing cameras accessible to her new friends.
White Balance, directed by Dorit Hakim, is the story of a 12-year-old with a deep passion for ice skating, who is slowly losing his hearing, and therefore his balance, but refuses to give up his dream.
Henry O!, directed by Ziad H. Hamzeh, a documentary about Enrique (Henry) Oliu, a blind baseball commentator, who hears the crack of the bat and knows if it's a single, double or home run.
Zig-Zag Love, directed by Gillies Mackinnon. This is a love story about a relationship between a teenage cancer patient and a girl with cerebral palsy.
The Hunger House, directed by Justin Edgar, a moving short film touching on the dehumanization of people with disabilities by the Nazis during World War II.
All films are followed by discussion with filmmakers and speakers.
Other events:
Crooked Beauty
Following a screening of this excerpt from the work-in-progress film, Jonah Bossewitch, Ashley McNamara, and Annie Robinson of the Icarus Project will discuss viewing "mental illness" as a disability versus The Icarus Project's vision of a new culture and language that resonates with their actual experience of "mental illness". This panel explores questions of creativity and "madness," "divers-ability" and normality, mutual aid and biomedical psychiatry.
Flame
A band made up of 11 musicians/performers with developmental and physical disabilities.
Infinity Dance
A non-traditional dance company featuring dancers with and without disabilities
Gimp
Choreographer Heidi Latsky presents a roster of performers who embody unique physical virtuosity.
To Be Seen
An original theater piece written and performed by The Creative Alternatives NY (CANY) and The JCC in Manhattan's Adaptations Drama Group.
Music for Autism
An Interactive, "Autism Friendly" Concert with Tony Award-winner Jarrod Emick and singer/guitar player Andrew Ross.
Practical Guide to Autism
Author discussion and book signing with Dr. Fred Volkmar.
Seeing with Photography
The Seeing with Photography Collective is a group of photographers based in New York City who range from sighted to visually impaired and and totally blind.
Kids Club Art Exhibit
Featuring self- portraits created by the children of the Kids Club for Special Children.
For more information, visit www.reelabilities.org.
ReelAbilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival
January 28 through February 1, 2010
The JCC Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Avenue
New York City
The Best of the African Diaspora Film Festival
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 03:08
- Written by FFTraveler Staff
Cape Verde/Portugal
52min, in Portuguese with English subtitles.
Martinique/France/Algeria/Tunisia, in French with English subtitles.
Nigeria, in Yoruba with English subtitles.
60mins, Sweden/U.S.
78min
U.S./Germany
28min.
U.S., in Spanish with English subtitles.
30min,
Bolivia, in Spanish with English subtitles.
U.S/U.K.
United States
90min
Jamaica/France
South Africa
118min.
109min,
Egypt,120min, in Arabic with English subtitles. 35mm
60min, in French with English subtitles
When Sara and her cousin arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport from Brazzaville, they are soon put to work in a prostitution ring. When Omar, the pimp, kills Sara’s cousin in a brutal beating, Sara decides to take matters into her own hands.
108min, in English and French with English subtitles. 35mm
Dance On Camera NY
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 01:07
- Written by L E Shannon
The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents the 38th annual Dance on Camera film se
ries running January 29-February 2, 2010 at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City, co-presented by Dance Films Association.
Special guests from the world of dance include the legendary Marge Champion and Donald Saddler, as well as Murray Louis, Phyllis Lamhut, Anne Bass, Claudia Gitelman, Mimi Garrard and Robert Johnson.
The highlight is an All Day Event: Celebrating Choreographer Alwin Nikolais.
An innovator in love with movement, Alwin Nikolais astonished the world of dance with his dazzling multimedia performances in the 1960s and ’70s. This unique program celebrates the beloved “Nik” with special guests, tribute films from former dancers turned choreographers, a documentary portrait of Nikolais and his muse/collaborator Murray Louis, and rare interviews.
The film series includes such offerings as:
Breath Made Visible - introduced by director Ruedi Gerber, who creates a stunning, inspiring account of one of the most important cultural icons in modern dance, Anna Halprin.
Dancing Across Borders - Anne Bass makes her directorial debut with this intimate and ultimately 
triumphant portrait of a young life in transition. On a trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia in 2000, Bass came across a supremely talented young man dancing a traditional temple dance. Struck by his grace and charm, she offered him the opportunity of a lifetime to follow a dream he could not have imagined - studying classical ballet in a private studio with master teacher Olga Kostritzky in New York.
Dancing for Disney - Dance scholar Mindy Aloff hosts a discussion of the artistry and movement that distinguished Disney’s classic animations. Following the program, Ms. Aloff will be signing copies of her book Hippo in a Tutu.
Forty Years of One-Night Stands - Jeff McKay. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet went from humble beginnings to setting the ballet world on fire. RWB company members, past and present, recount the obsessive commitment and vision of those who brought the lofty art of ballet to the people.
Meredith Monk: Inner Voice - directed by Babeth M. VanLoo. A Buddhist Foundation documentary on the much-admired composer/choreographer/filmmaker Meredith Monk, with excerpts from her films.
Also screening are several excellent short films, including:
Keep Dancing - Douglas Turnbaugh and Gregory Vander Veer
Since they appeared in Follies together on Broadway, Marge Champion and Donald Saddler have been fast friends and informal dancing partners. Although both have hit the 90 year mark, they still get together weekly in a studio, warm up, do a barre, and indulge in their favorite pastime, dancing. The film seamlessly blends nine decades of archival film and photos to give an intimate glimpse of two extraordinary and beloved artists for whom the aging process is only a statistic.
Dance Shorts for the Camera - The best new short-form unions of movement and film.
Beguine - Douwe Dijkstra, Netherlands, 2009; 5m
This surreal short based on a poem by Giza Ritschl features one man's strange response to losing his lover.
The Last Martini - Vickie Mendoza
The rain-soaked reveries of a man whose psyche is tangled in a broken dance of passion and heartbreak.
Danse Macabre - Pedro Pires
An inventive look at life after death.
Jackie & Judy - Phil Harder
New York-based choreographers Rosanne Chamecki and Andrea Lerner’s ode to Canadian animator Norman McLaren.
Little Ease (Outside the Box) - Ami Ipapo and Matt Tarr
A new take on a classic piece of choreography conceived by extreme action pioneer Elizabeth Streb.
Becoming - Joseph Johnson Camí and Ayelen Liberona
An ancient woman lures Man into one final battle.
Sunscreen Serenade - Kriota Willberg
This innovative homage to Busby Berkeley celebrates the merits of skin protection. Commissioned by EMPAC. Introduced by Bob Sikoryak, project animator.
Cinetica - Ana Cembrero
A woman inhabits, searches, dances, fights, and plays without separating what is lived from what is dreamed.
A reception hosted by New York Women in Film and Television and DFA will follow the Sunday, Jan. 31 screening.
The Tiny Dance Film Series
In the Furman Gallery, adjacent to the Walter Reade Theater
In four darkened kiosks, very short and very small dance films screen for an audience of one. A collaboration between choreographer Peter Kyle and sound artist James Bigbee Garver.
For further information, visit www.filmlinc.com.
Dance on Camera
January 29-February 2, 20010
Walter Reade Theater
Lincoln Center
West 65th Street at Amsterdam Avenue
New York City
SHOWWX™ Film Festival at Sundance
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Friday, 22 January 2010 09:55
- Written by L E Shannon
The SHOWWX™ Film Festival at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, A Mobile Program of F
ilms, Documentaries, Shorts, and Animated Shorts screening on multiple unique surfaces using Microvision’s SHOWWX™ Laser Pico Projector for Mobile Devices, is screening January 22–23 at The Sidecar Bar, 333 Main Street, 2nd Level in the Main Street Mall.
The SHOWWX™ Film Festival at The 2010 Sundance Film Festival, a creative collaboration between cloudzero, a San Francisco–based transmedia company and Microvision Inc., the Redmond, Washington–based pioneer in innovative ultra-mini projection technology whose CES 2010 Innovations Honoree–winning SHOWWX™ laser pico projector for mobile devices projects DVD-quality images up to 200 inches onto any surface. The SHOWWX™ Film Festival matches Microvision's revolutionary device with expertly curated content chosen by seasoned programming director Shade Rupe.
The SHOWWX™ Film Festival boasts three unique screening stations:
an Ice Theater with films projected onto an ice-screen sculpture;
the Sistine Chapel Lie-in Theater where rugs and pillows are arranged on the floor so that the audience can watch films on the ceiling;
the BYOMS AKA Bring Your Own Multiplex Screen! station, where cloudzero will demonstrate how the movie screen is evolving into a platform of creative DIY possibilities including a "hard-boiled egg screen."
The self-focusing SHOWWX™ can project onto any surface, including an egg, without losing any of its sharp DVD-quality resolution.
A special prize will be awarded to the audience member who comes up with the most original “spontaneous screen” for the SHOWWX™ laser pico projector. The audience will vote for the best screen creation.
“The SHOWWX Film Festival 2010 is where visionary micro-imaging technology meets cutting-edge independent filmmaking,” says Alexander Besher, CEO, and partner with filmmaker Maria Karpoukhina, of cloudzero. “We’re in the early days of a new era when it’s possible for anyone to curate their own film festival, anywhere. You can have your films screened on a coconut or on the side of a volcano. ‘You are the Film Fest’ is one of our credos. ‘Stream your dream’ is another. We're excited to partner with Microvision on this road to new forms of filmmaking."
The SHOWWX™ Film Festival Highlights:
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (US, 2009). A breathtaking blend of comedy, thriller, horror, and romance, this mind blower was written and directed by David Russo. After he loses his high-paying job, Dory takes a gig as a night janitor in order to pay rent. Alone late at night inside a market research firm, he soon discovers the company is experimenting on their entire staff of janitors including him.
Katie Turinski’s incredibly funny and fiery Sissyboy (US, 2009), a documentary about the outrageous lives of twelve “in your face” yet deeply sensitive drag queens.
The unbelievably talented Floria Sigismondi celebrates her Sundance feature debut The Runaways featuring Kristen Stewart (Twilight), with her personal short film Postmortem Bliss.
The SHOWWX™ FILM FESTIVAL delivers unique visual mindbursts such as iconic British bad boy Ken Russell's (The Who’s Tommy, Altered States) Boudica Bites Back (UK, 2007), a cine-opera retelling of the legend of Boudica, warrior queen, played by Ken’s wife Elize Russell.
The astonishingly beautiful Delphinium (US, 2009) by Matthew Mishory, a lyrical coming-of-age portrait of famed director Derek Jarman’s artistic, sexual, and political awakening in post-War England.
A Panel Discussion is held Friday, January 22 at 2:30 pm.
Where is the Future of Film Going -- And Who’s Going to Direct?
Participants:
Alexander Tokman, CEO & President, Microvision, Inc.
Lance Weiler, (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma, HiM), Chief Story Architect of Seize the Media
Scilla Andreen, CEO and cofounder of IndieFlix.com
Srini Vasan, Founder & CEO, iDIstribute whose flagship product is Gigaplex, an iPhone app and content distribution platform for streaming movies
Shade Rupe, Director of Acquisitions and Festivals for cloudzero
Alexander Besher and Maria Karpoukhina, Cofounders of cloudzero
For more information, visit www.cloud-zero.com.
The SHOWWX™ Film Festival
January 22–23, 2010
The Sidecar Bar
333 Main Street
2nd Level in the Main Street Mall.
