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27th Columbia University Film Festival Takes Place May 2-8, 2014

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Friday, 02 May 2014 21:06; Written by Brad Balfour

(Co-directors Chris Buck & Jen Lee at premiere)

Columbia University School of the Arts Film Program and the Film Society of Lincoln Center co-present the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF) -- a week of screenings, dramatic readings and special events focused on students or graduates of Columbia's film school running from May 2-8, 2014.

The celebration continues in Los Angeles, June 17-20, 2014; events to be announced. This marks the third year that the Festival -- in its 27th edition -- is co-presented by the Film Society.

Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film Program is one of the most prestigious in the country and boasts a graduate list that includes

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty)
Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said)
Kimberly Peirce (Carrie, Boys Don’t Cry)
Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia)
Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right)

Its esteemed faculty has included:

Milos Forman
Martin Scorsese
Emir Kusturica
Paul Schrader

Chair of the Columbia University School of the Arts Film Program, Ira Deutchman, stated, “Each year, the Festival is an opportunity to take a step back and marvel at the amazing body of work that has been created by our students. We are very pleased that the Film Society is co-presenting the festival with us again this year... There is no other film festival anywhere that showcases student work with such accomplishment, ambition and diversity.”

Frozen poster “Supporting emerging filmmakers is an important focus for the Film Society," said Film Society of Lincoln Center's Executive Director Lesli Klainberg. "We are delighted to welcome back the Columbia University Film Festival and their talented new student filmmakers.”

The Film Program at Columbia University School of the Arts offers students the opportunity to go to film school at one of the world’s great universities, with a faculty of working professionals esteemed in both Hollywood and the independent film community. New York City, creative capital of the United States, is its home, affording access to exceptional talent pools and locations, major research collections and the constant opportunity to see films from every country and era.

The Film MFA programs -- in Screenwriting/Directing and in Creative Producing -- are among the world’s premier training grounds for the next generation of filmmakers. Alumni of the school have won numerous awards, including top prizes at Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Berlin and the Academy Awards.

The MA Film Studies program and the undergraduate Film Studies major give students a unique opportunity to study film history and theory in the midst of an active filmmaking community. In addition to graduate degrees in Film, Columbia University School of the Arts awards MFA degrees in Theatre Arts, Visual Arts and Writing.

The School is a thriving, diverse community of artists from around the world, with a faculty composed of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film, and theatre directors; writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; playwrights, producers, critics, and scholars.

Frozen director Jennifer Lee (’05) will receive this year’s Andrew Sarris Award, named for the late School of the Arts Film Program professor and world-renowned critic and theorist, which honors outstanding service by and artistic achievement of distinguished Film Program alumni.

Lee grew up in the 1970s and '80s in Rhode Island, surrounded by hairspray, Irocs, and heavy metal. Her love of storytelling and literature led her to the University of New Hampshire, where she earned a BA in English in 1992.

From there she moved to New York City and built a career in book publishing. Saturdays at Lincoln Center introduced her to the films of Agnès Varda, the Coen Brothers, and Atom Egoyan. Inspired, she made her first short film and fell in love with visual storytelling.

She entered Columbia University School of the Arts’ graduate Film Program in 2001. In 2002, she received the William Goldman Award for excellence in screenwriting and the Kathryn Parlan Hearst Scholarship honoring women screenwriters. Her script Hinged on Stars won top prize at the 2004 Columbia University Film Festival and launched her career. She graduated in 2005 with an MFA in Film, and in 2006 she got her first film option for her script The Way Between.

Her next film, The Roundup, was optioned by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way. In 2010, she moved her family across the country to begin work on Wreck-It Ralph for Walt Disney Animation Studios with fellow Columbia graduate Phil Johnston (’04). The film went on to earn an Oscar® nomination for Best Animated Feature and won the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Screenplay.

As she was finishing her work on Wreck-It Ralph, Jennifer was tapped to write the screenplay for Disney’s Frozen. She also directed the film with animation veteran Chris Buck. The film has earned over one billion dollars at the box office and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, and two Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Lee currently lives in Los Angeles with her 10-year-old daughter, Agatha.

The annual Andrew Sarris Award winner is selected by current School of the Arts Film Program students.

Past recipients include

Adam Davidson (’91, The Lunch Date, Six Feet Under, Lost,Community)
Malia Scotch Marmo (’88, Rafina, Madeline, Hook, Once Around)
Greg Mottola (’91,Super Bad)
Albert Berger (’83, Little Miss Sunshine)
Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (’95 and ’94, American Splendor)
Kathryn Bigelow (’81, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty)
Lisa Cholodenko (’97, The Kids Are All Right)
Sabrina Dhawan (’02, Monsoon Wedding)
Simon Kinberg (’03, Sherlock Holmes)
Kimberly Peirce (’96, Carrie, Boys Don’t Cry)
James Mangold (’99, Wolverine, Walk the Line)
Nicole Holofcener (’88, Enough Said, Please Give).

Columbia Film faculty member Frank Pugliese (House of Cards) will lead a discussion on the new so-called “Golden Age of Television” and how aspiring artists can use their skills and talent to break into the world of TV.

Panelists will include accomplished Columbia alumni with a diverse range of experience working in television as writers, directors, and producers. The event, which is free to the public, will be held Tuesday, May 6, at 7pm at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and will also be streamed live.

The Festival is the annual premiere of over 40 thesis short films and feature screenplays by MFA students in the Columbia University School of the Arts Film Program. Like Adam Davidson’s film, many of the films premiered over the past 25 years have gone on to win top awards and honors at prestigious festivals worldwide.

Columbia University Film Festival
May 2-8, 2014

MoMA's "Iberoamerican Images - The State of The Art" This May 1-14

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Monday, 28 April 2014 10:54; Written by Brad Balfour

Still from Mute.

For over 15 years, Ibermedia has been essential in the ascent of Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese filmmaking. The intergovernmental agency began with seven member countries; today films from over 20 member countries appear on festival schedules and in cinemas the world over.

Ibermedia facilitates and finances co-productions of documentaries and fiction films between its Spanish- and Portuguese-language member countries, and grants money for international distribution and promotion. Professional film organizations from each country sponsoring a proposal select the projects to be helped by the Ibermedia umbrella, thus ensuring each project’s autonomy. Ibermedia has supported over 600 films and provided training for filmmaking professionals

No film MoMA’s fourth biannual Ibermedia -The State of The Art program offers a number of films that have U.S. distribution and/or a healthy festival run behind them. The museum will present a treasure trove of offerings from filmmakers who seldom get to show their work in the U.S.

Perhaps her most accomplished feature yet, Mercedes Moncada Rodríques' stunning, heartbreaking Magic Words (Breaking a Spell) opens the festival with a weeklong run.

Films by promising new talents from Uruguay, Cuba, and Colombia appear alongside work by seasoned filmmakers like Brazil’s Lúcia Murat, capturing a stirring picture of the state of the medium today, in all its variety and splendor.

Several filmmakers will be present to introduce their films, and on May 3, a special screening and round-table discussion takes place at New York University’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center in conjunction withthe exhibition. All films are in Spanish with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

The series is organized by Film Department Curator Jytte Jensen with curatorial intern Jesse Cumming. Prints courtesy the filmmakers and Films Boutique, Film Movement, Habanero Films, Memento Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Talga Films, and Urban Distribution International.

Screening Schedule

Thursday, May 1

7:00p

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])
2012 Mexico/Guatemala 82 min]
Written and directed by Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez

In the vein of Chris Marker’s finest essay films, Mercedes Moncada’s Magic Words is both sweeping and deeply personal, exploring 40 years of Nicaraguan history with a voice that is equally erudite, poetic, and indignant. Tracing the fraught Sandinista revolution throughout the 1980s and its aftermath, Moncada examines the impact of grand ideologies, politics, and lingering memories on communities and individuals, in many ways still left raw and reeling. To echo a quote from Marker’s Sans Soleil, Moncada seems to demand: “Who says that time heals all wounds?” Introduced by Moncada.

Friday, May 2

4:00

El Mudo (The Mute)
2013 Peru/Mexico 90 min.
Written and directed by Daniel Vega Vidal, Diego Vega Vidal
With Fernando Bacilio, Lidia Rodríguez, Juan Luis Maldonado

Judge Constantino Zegarra has earned his name as an incorruptible stalwart with an impressive conviction rate. Impervious to sob stories and appeals, he has also earned many enemies, any one of whom could be behind a conspiracy that leaves him demoted and—after a bullet strikes him in the neck—mute. Smart and shrewd (a kind of black comedy version of Michael Haneke’s Caché), The Mute is an exciting and exceedingly fresh take on the political thriller.

7:00

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

Saturday, May 3

1:30

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

4:00

Yvy Maraey: Tierra sin mal (Yvy Maraey: Land without Evil)

2013 Bolivia/Mexico 107 min.

Written and directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia

Based on a story by Valdivia, Elio Ortíz.

With Valdivia, Ortíz

A well-off metropolitan filmmaker hoping to retrace the trail of an early Swedish documentarian travels to the Bolivian highlands in search of savages. Once there, however, he finds his privileged cultural position met with ire more often than awe. Including allusions to documentary classics like Nanook of the North, Valdivia’s film moves beyond the plot itself to probe larger questions of memory, the politics of representation, and the power of cinema, all with sophistication and grace. Valdivia will be present.

NYU King Juan Carlos I Center

53 Washington Square South.

Sunday, May 4

2:00

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

5:00

Yvy Maraey: Tierra sin mal (Yvy Maraey: Land without Evil)

Writer/director Juan Carlos Valdivia will be present.

Monday, May 5

4:00

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

Tuesday, May 6

4:00

2012 Chile/Mexico 118 min.

Directed by Pablo Larraín

Screenplay by Pedro Peirano, based on the play by Antonio Skármeta.

With Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers

Set during the 1988 Chilean referendum challenging the rule of President Augusto Pinochet, the fast-moving, entertaining (and Oscar-nominated) No concludes Pablo Larraín’s unofficial trilogy of films detailing life under the former dictator. Gael García Bernal plays René, a bright young ad man enlisted to boost the “No” campaign. To recreate the feel of the era (and seamlessly integrate actual ads and television reports), Larraín shot the film on U-matic magnetic tape.

7:00

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

Wednesday, May 7

4:00

Palabras mágicas (Para romper un entendimiento) (Magic Words [Breaking a Spell])

7:00

A Memória que me contam (Memories They Told Me)

2013 Brazil/Chile 95 min.

Directed by Lúcia Murat

Screenplay by Murat, Tatiana Salem Levy

With Franco Nero, Irene Ravache, Simone Spoladore.

Though the film is set in present-day Brazil, the past hangs palpably over Memories They Told Me. With their friend and former comrade Ana on her deathbed, a group of aging revolutionaries are reunited and forced to grapple with their former accomplishments, failures, and lingering resentments. Wary of self-aggrandizing nostalgia or romanticism, Murat offers an honest, complicated look at youthful idealism and the often uneasy overlap between the personal and the political. In Portuguese; English subtitles.

Thursday, May 8

4:00

La Jaula de oro (The Golden Dream)

2013. Mexico/Spain 102 min.

Directed by Diego Quemada-Diez

Screenplay by Quemada-Diez, Lucia Carreras, Gibrán Portela

With Brandon López, Rodolfo Domínguez, Karen Martínez

One of the most promising debut features in years and winner of the Un Certain Regard award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Golden Dream is an assured and impressive addition to a time-honored cinematic tradition of tracing the arduous journey from Central America to “el norte.” Drawn from hundreds of real-life interviews the director conducted with past immigrants, the film balances a vital and unflinching urgency with moments of tranquil lyricism.

7:00

El Mudo (The Mute)

Friday, May 9

4:00

La Demora (The Delay)

2012. Uruguay/Mexico 84 min.

Directed by Rodrigo Plá

Screenplay by Laura Santullo

With Roxana Blanco, Néstor Guzzini, Carlos Vallarino

Forced to care for her increasingly dependent father and three children between shifts at the local textile factory, María feels the world closing in. Unable to afford professional care or secure help, she makes a rash and desperate decision as a means of escape. With an impeccable sense of detail in every shot—whether emphasizing wide-angle symmetry or tight, claustrophobic framing—The Delay is a testament to cinematic restraint and efficiency, eschewing fanfare for a lean and assured austerity. 35mm print.

7:00

No. 2012. Chile/Mexico. Directed by Pablo Larraín. Screenplay by Pedro Peirano, based on the play by Antonio Skármeta. With Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers.

Saturday, May 10

4:00

Yvy Maraey: Tierra sin mal (Yvy Maraey: Land without Evil).

7:30

La Sirga (The Towrope)

2012. Colombia/Mexico 88 min.

Written and directed by William Vega

With Floralba Achicanoy, Joghis Seudin Arias.

As the distraught Alicia arrives at her uncle’s cabin in the Colombian Andes, having escaped a war that left her home village decimated, she attempts to rebuild her life while grappling with lingering fears. With emphasis on sound and visual poetics over dialogue—recalling the hazy, languid worlds of 1970s Andrei Tarkovsky—Vega evocatively details the anxiety of negotiating an unfamiliar environment, even one where beautiful scenery still hints at a hidden menace.

Sunday, May 11

2:00

Melaza (Molasses)

2012. Cuba/Panama 80 min.

Written and directed by Carlos Lechuga

With Yuliet Cruz, Armando Miguel Gómez, Luis Antonio Gotti

With the closure of their town’s sugar mill, a young couple, Aldo and Monica, are pushed to the point of desperation as they struggle to preserve their personal passions and principles. While these are potentially the makings of an overwrought drama, director Carlos Lechuga deftly defies the film’s title and delivers a work this is neither sickly sweet nor exceedingly dark. With acutely drawn characters, a subtle wit, and an understated style that never sacrifices humanism for the cerebral, Molasses heralds the arrival of a distinct new voice in world cinema.