The New York Film Festival Celebrates 50 Years of Cinema

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

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Published on Tuesday, 07 August 2012 15:24

Written by Renzo Adler

1963 was a momentous year for film. Liz Taylor was re-defining the starlet in Cleopatra, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World brought a colossal conclusion to the remnants of slapstick humor of the silent era, and Sean Connery was helping create one of cinema’s major franchises in Dr. No,  and it was also the year the New York Film Festival was born.

2012 marks the 50th edition of the New York Film Festival (September 28 – October 14, 2012) at Lincoln Center (various locations). While none of the films being shown at the festival have been officially revealed yet, tickets are being quickly snatched up and Lincoln Center’s Subscription Packages have already sold out.

As part of 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center will be showing 50 Years of the New York Film Festival (August 7 - September 11, 2012), a series of films that were shown at previous years that helped make the NYFF what it is today. Films being shown include:

• Topsy-Turvy (1991, dir. Mike Leigh)
• House of Mirth (2000, dir. Terrence Davies)
• I’m Going Home (2001, dir. Manoel de Oliveira)
• Talk to Her (2002, dir. Pedro Almodóvar )
• Dogville (2003, dir. Lars von  Trier)
• The World (2004, dir. Jia Zhang-ke)
• The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, dir. Cristi Puiu)
• Offside (2003, dir. Jafar Panahi)
• Silent Light (2007, dir. Carlos Reygadas)
• Gomorrah (2008, dir. Matteo Garrone)
• The White Ribbon (2009, dir. Michael Haneke)
• Black Venus (2010, dir. Abdellatif Kechiche)
• Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

While New York is rife with different film festivals with their own audiences and agendas, Lincoln Center’s NYFF is quintessentially and eternally a New York festival, and not simply Sundance Ver.01. The New York Film Festival embodies a love of cinema, rather than an infatuation with media darlings or making deals with studios.

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

50 Years of the New York Film Festival
August 7 - September 11, 2012

50^th New York Film Festival
September 28 – October 14, 2012

Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St
New York, NY 10023

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
144 West 65th St
New York, NY 10023

Asian American International Film Festival 2012

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 03 August 2012 20:12

Written by T. Terry Maloney

There's no other film organization in New York that does more to help filmmakers of Asian descent than Asian CineVision (ACV). Over the last35 years, it has been the primary organizer of the Asian American International Film Festival. The 2012 edition of AAIFF takes place on from July 25th -29th and then resume on August 3rd - 5th. Screenings take place at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas (on 23rd St.), following the Opening Night presentation and Gala at the Asia Society on Park Avenue.

AAIFF 2012 showcases 14 full-length features and five shorts programs that encompass 33 films ranging in length from two to 35 minutes.

Countries represented at the AAIFF 2012 include: Hong Kong SAR, India, Canada, Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, China, Indonesia and the USA.

Directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Daniel Henney, Eliza Coupe, Alan Ruck, Zhu Zhu and Bill Paxton, Shanghai Calling opens the fest. It is the comedic story of Sam, an ABC (American-born Chinese) lawyer (Henney), who is sent to China to head his firm's Shanghai office. With no familiarity with either the Chinese language or the local culture Sam relies upon a lovely American relocation specialist (Coupe) and his comely assistant (Zhu) to help guide him through the maze of shady business deals and personal relationships.

The Closing Night film, Knots directed by Michael Kang and starring Ileanna Douglas, Kimberley-Rose Wolter and Sung Kang, is described as a Hawaian-based "un-romantic comedy. The story of a young wedding planner (Wolter) with serious commitment phobia it unveils her complicated relationships with a dysfunctional family and both her current (Kang) and former boyfriend.

Several major feature films to have their world or North American premieres at AAIFF 2012 include:  

• Supercapitalist, the fest centerpiece directed by Simon Yin tells the tales of a A maverick New York based Chinese-American hedge fund trader Conner (Derek Ting), who moves to Hong Kong to manages a mega-deal that swiftly escalates beyond his control. 
   
• Invoking Justice, a documentary by Indian director Deepa Dhanraj tells the story of a group of southern Indian women who establish all-female Islamic legal advisory panels (Jamaats) in response to the injustices created by all-male Jamaats where women are forbidden to participate even when they are the focus of the dispute.

Model Minority, a Japanese-American teen's coming of age story directed by Lily Mariye; I Am A Ghost, a haunted house tale directed by Filipino-American H.P. Mendoza, and Viette, the story of a young Vietnamese-American woman living with an oppressive family, directed and starring Mye Hoang, will have their East Coast premieres this year. 

Other films being presented for the first time in New York City at AAIFF 2012 include:

• Mr. Cao Goes to Washington directed by S. Leo Chiang, the story of Rep. Joseph Cao (R-Louisiana)
   
• Pearls of the far East, a Canada-Vietnam produced anthology of seven vignettes directed by Cuong Ngo
   
• Senorita,directed and starring Vincent Sandoval, the story of a transgendered woman in Talisay, The Philippines, a former sex worker "reborn" as a political activist
   
• Touch, directed by Minh Duc Nguyen, is the story of the unlikely friendship between a Vietnamese manicurist and a shy mechanic
   
• Yes We're Open, directed by Rich Wong, is the story of a young couple whose claim to be open-minded free spirits is tested by circumstances

Two other documentaries being presented at AAIFF 2012 are: Seeking Asian Female, directed by Debbie Lum, and A Lot Like You, by Korean-American-Tanzanian director Eliaichi Kimaro.

One of the five shorts programs, Love Interrupted, features five short films dealing with LBGTQ issues and will be presented as part of LBGTQ Cinema Night on July 27.

In addition to the film screenings, the Asian American Media Award will be presented at AAIFF 2012 to producer Janet Yang. Yang's filmography includes Shanghai Calling, The Joy Luck Club, Disney High School Musical (China), Dark Matter, High Crimes and The People Vs. Larry Flynt.

Tickets to AAIFF 2012 screenings can be purchased online at www.aaiff.org or at the Clearview Cinema box office.

Asian American International Film Festival 2012
July 25th -29th and August 3rd - 5th

Docuweeks NY and LA: Clowns, Bipolar Disorders, and Haitian Janitors

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

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Published on Wednesday, 01 August 2012 05:00

Written by Renzo Adler

Conducted by The International Documentary Association (IDA) The 16th Annual Docuweeks film festival (August 3 – August 23, 2012 in New York and August 10 – August 30 in LA) brings together that genre of filmmaking that blurs the line between artist and journalist. Docuweeks presents 17 feature films and 11 shorts from 19 different countries.

The New York branch of the film festival at the IFC Center (323 Avenue of the Americas, NY) features a program of 10 short documentaries. The LA branch of the festival at Laemmle Noho 7 (5240 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA), will lead up to the 28th Annual Documentary Awards in December.

La Source (Dir. Patrick Shen)
Josue Lajeunesse, a Hatian man living in New Jersey and working as a janitor Princeton University and as a taxi driver, has, since 1989, been sending money to his home of La Source so that the villagers their can have access to clean water.

Of Two Minds (Dir. Doug Blush and Lisa Klein)
Of Two Minds examines the lives of people with bipolar disorders. These people must cope with not only their own disorders, which can make life unpredictable, but also with a society that does not understand their affliction.

Without A Net (Dir. Kelly J. Richardson)
Youths living in an impoverished and drug controlled ghetto in Rio de Janeiro make a very brave and mature decision to change their lives by running away to the circus. Now training to be acrobats and contortionists, these young men struggle to take control of their lives.

Other documentaries being shown are:
The Anderson Monarchs
Defiant Requiem
Digital Dharma: One Man's Mission to Save a Culture
Drought
Garden in the Sea (Jardín en el Mar)
Love Free or Die
The Magic Life
Once In a Lullaby: The PS 22 Chorus Documentary

Documentaries are a unique form of filmmaking. A constant interplay between the subject and the film maker raises questions about how the presence of the camera can alter the behavior of subjects or how careful editing can completely alter the tone and message behind someone’s words, but it also brings people much closer to obscure people and ideas and offers new perspectives.  Sometimes a documentary can eclipse a feature film in narrative originality (raise your hand if you think Hearts of Darkness was better than Apocalypse Now). Docuweeks, with its long runtime and varied subjects, strives to bring documentary film making out in to the open and to as many people as possible.

To learn more, go to: http://www.documentary.org/docuweeks2012

Docuweeks
August 3 – August 23, 2012 (New York)
August 10 – August 30, 2012 (LA)

IFC Center
323 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY

LAEMMLE NoHo 7
5240 Lankershim Boulevard
North Hollywood, CA