The Dark & Strange Films of Juraj Herz at the Metrograph

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 01 August 2019 10:36

Written by Brad Balfour

Juraj Herz (1934 - 2018) was a challenging and controversial director, actor, and Holocaust survivor. Part of the Czechoslovakian New Wave of the 1960s, with his 1969 black comedy The Cremator, earning him the ire of of the Communist regime. Now the Metrograph theater (7 Ludlow Street, NY, NY) pays tribute to the director’s life and work with the film series Juraj Herz: In & Out of the Czechoslovakian New Wave. Running August 2 to August 9, the film series is comprised of new restorations and newly translated subtitles for his films.

Films include Beauty and the Beast (1978), The Cremator (1969), Morgiana (1972) and Ferat Vampire (1982). His interpretation of the classic fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, is filled with an air of bizarre menace unlike any other on film, in a twisted tale of captivity. His early 1966 film, Sign of Cancer, is a murder mystery set inside a dysfunctional and corrupt hospital that was critical of how The Party filled public offices with dangerous and incompetent men.

To learn more, go to: http://metrograph.com/

Juraj Herz: In & Out of the Czechoslovakian New Wave
August 2 - 9, 2019

Metrograph
7 Ludlow St.
New York, NY 10002

Long Beach International Film Fest: Drones, Astronauts, & Blind Dates on Film

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 29 July 2019 22:14

Written by Brad Balfour

Now in its eighth year, the Long Beach International Film Fest (LBIFF) returns to scenic Long Beach New York. Running July 31 to August 3, the festival is held at venues throughout Long Beach with shorts, documentaries, features, foreign films, and more. The opening night film is Astronaut, starring Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland’s Opus) as a lonely widower is  helped by his family to achieve his dream of going to space. The animated short Bristled is a look at the trials and trepidations of blind dates. The Japanese film Amanogawa - The One I’ve Longed, is about a shy high school girl using a robot drone to communicate with a boy. Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind the Bunny is a look at the life of the magazine’s iconic graphic designer.

Along with the films, LIBFF has The Taste on the Plaza features live music, gourmet food and craft beers along the scenic beach along with filmmakers doing talks after screenings.

To learn more, go to: http://www.longbeachfilm.com/

Long Beach International Film Festival
July 31 - August 3, 2019

Various Locations

NYAFF 2019: Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 01 July 2019 18:09

Written by Donna Cheng

"Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die": The New York Asian Film Festival survives and thrives to an adult age 18 this year. The festival takes place in NYC from June 28–July 11 at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, and then at SVA Theater from July 11–14. NYAFF brings to the U.S. a film survey of the best of East Asia’s breadth of cultures. Their film industries in the global market are vibrant and growing in 2019: China ranks as No. 2; Japan as No. 4; and South Korea as No. 7. Films will be organized by regions along these tracks: Hong Kong Panorama, Mainland China, New Cinema from Japan, South Korean Cinema, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian Vanguard.

 NYAFF opened on June 28 with Samurai Marathon, a  jidaigeki or period piece set in the 1850s during the arrival of the U.S. Commodore Perry in feudal Japan. The film was scored by Philip Glass. Q&A with Director Bernard Rose followed the film screening, along with The Rising Star Asia Award presentation for Komatsu Nana, and the annual Night Market reception.

 Also on opening weekend at Alice Tully Hall, NYAFF presented a very special screening with a live score accompaniment of Kokdu: A Story of Guardian Angels by director Kim Tae-yong. With the full orchestra from the National Gugak Center of traditional performing arts, classical Korean instruments played alongside the film melding fantasy, Korean folklore and the netherworld of guardian angels. Composer Bang Jun-seok was in attendance.

 On Sunday night, June 30, while the rest of NYC was celebrating Pride month, Walter Reade Theater was hosting a packed audience who came out for the Taiwanese film, Han Dan. Director Huang Chao Liang and actor George Hu (both, center front in photo) in a Q&A discussed the Taiwanese firecracker ritual of the god, Han Dan, and the tragic story of two young men caught in a cycle of revenge and atonement.

Fight choreographer Grandmaster Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Kill Bill) will be honored tonight at NYAFF 2019 on July 1 with the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award. Classic kung-fu films will be screened at the festival in tribute to him. He will give a free masterclass on July 2nd to the public. (Register on filmlinc.org.)

The Centerpiece is the North American premiere of The Fable, directed by Kan Eguchi, who will attend the festival. The Closing Night will be announced later in the festival.  On July 13 at SVA, the Secret Screening is a Hong Kong classic given a live-music treatment by the hip-hop collective Shaolin Jazz.

The festival continues on through Sunday, July 14th.

To learn more and buy tickets:
https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff19/schedule

18TH NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Jun 28 - Jul 14, 2019

Film at Lincoln Center

165 West 65th Street

SVA Theatre

333 West 23rd Street