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Previews
NY Int'l Children's FF: Spring Edition 2012
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Thursday, 15 March 2012 19:10
- Written by Joanne Choi
The New York International Children’s Film Festival (March 2nd - 25th, 2012) is back once again this year with new films from around the globe. From the romantic scenery of France to the nostalgic horizons of Japan, the diversity of animated and feature films is celebrated.
The festival is packed with premieres of both live action and animated features, filmmaker Q & A sessions, and more.
Screenings include:
Cinderella Moon
Richard Bowen (China)
Chinese version of the classic Cinderella story
US Premiere
Based on the earliest known version of Cinderella, the Chinese tale “Ye Xian” from 768 A.D., cinematographer Richard Bowen’s wonder-filled feature debut is a gorgeous and enchanting fairytale, with exquisitely ornate costumes, dazzling scenery shot in Yunnan Province, and an underlying message that is as timely today as it was thirteen centuries ago.
In a mythical kingdom, a girl is born. The village shaman had foretold a boy and Mei Mei’s father is sorely disappointed. Years later with her mother gone, Mei Mei is left with nothing but a pair of bejeweled slippers and the hope that one day she will get to dance at the Festival of the Full Moon. Meanwhile, the kingdom has been thrown out of balance – the moon is stuck in the sky – and the handsome young king is commanded by his mother to take a wife to restore the celestial harmony. But the king refuses to have a child with a woman he does not truly love.
One day, peering through a telescope from his island home, the king spies Mei Mei floating on air in her magical slippers. Convinced that he’s seen an angel, he sets out in search for her – but she runs off, losing one bejeweled slipper along the way.
Screening date with Q &A: Saturday, March 17th 2:30pm & 5:00pm at the Asia Society Theater
3D animated features include:
Magic Piano, a magical tale from Poland by Martin Clapp
US PREMIERE - IN 3D WITH LIVE MUSIC AT MAR 17 SCREENING ONLY
MAR 18 SCREENING WILL BE IN 2D, NO LIVE MUSIC - Don’t miss this special US Premiere presentation of Magic Piano, the virtuosic stop-motion masterpiece from the Academy Award-winning producer of Peter and the Wolf, and set to Chopin’s etudes in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth. The film will be screened in 3D with live concert piano accompaniment by Derek Wang and Anna Larsen, Young Scholars of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
The film, part of the Flying Machine series – and short-listed for an Oscar – is a soaring tale of a girl who takes off into the open skies and travels the globe on a flying piano in search of her father. Other musical animation in the program includes Little Postman, Pl!ink, and Night Island, also from the Flying Machine series, as well as the award-winning musical films Luminaris (winner at Annecy and also short-listed for an Oscar) and The Maker.
Screening Date with Q&A: Saturday, March 17th at 7:15pm in Walter Reade
Explore fables from France in Tales of the Night by Michel Ocelot
IN 3D WITH FILMMAKER Q&A AT MAR 18 SCREENING ONLY
MAR 3 SCREENING WILL BE IN 2D - NYICFF welcomes renowned animator Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar) to present his newest film. Tales of the Night is Ocelot’s first foray into 3D animation and extends the shadow puppet style of his Princes and Princesses into the third dimension, with silhouetted characters set off against exquisitely detailed backgrounds bursting with color and kaleidoscopic patterns like a Day-Glo diorama.
The film weaves together six exotic fables each unfolding in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Caribbean Land of the Dead. In Ocelot’s storytelling, history blends with fairytale as viewers are whisked off to enchanted lands full of dragons, sorcerers, werewolves, captive princesses, and enormous talking bees - and each fable ends with its own ironic twist.
Screening Date with Q&A: Sunday, March 18th at 5pm in the Walter Reade Theater
China’s magical tale in The Monkey King- Uproar in Heaven by Su Da/Chen Zhihong
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - IN 3D - NYICFF is thrilled to present this sumptuous new frame-for-frame restoration and 3D rendering of the Wan Laiming masterpiece, a national treasure and China's most celebrated and accomplished work of animation. Composed of gorgeously flowing animation created by hand from over 130,000 ink drawings and an opulent soundtrack inspired by the Beijing Opera, the film follows the adventures of the magical Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain, a mischievous character who creates havoc by refusing to bow down to the authority of the Celestial Jade Emperor.
After stealing a magic staff from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, the cheeky Monkey King challenges the established order of heaven, freeing horses from the imperial stables, disrupting imperial banquets, and entering into epic battle with one colorful god after another – while snubbing his nose at the pompous formality of the heavenly court.
Based on the classic Chinese story Journey to the West, the original film was made at the height of that country’s golden period of animation and was released a mere months before the before the entire film industry was shut down by the Cultural Revolution. This is a truly stunning work of animation and mythological storytelling, far surpassing anything China has produced before or since.
Screening date with Q&A: Wednesday, March 21 at 6:30pm in Walter Reade Theater
Advanced tickets are still available for some screenings; there are also waitlists for shows. Check out the website above for more info.
For further details on screening schedules/tickets visit: http://www.gkids.tv/intheaters.cfm
New York Int'l Children's Film Festival
NYICFF
295 Greenwich Street, #426
New York, NY 10007 (212) 349-0330
Marrakech Int'l Film Fest Celebrates Its 11th Year
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 22:02
- Written by Renzo Adler
The 11th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF) brings together a wide range of films from all over the 
world. This year’s MIFF will feature 83 films from 21 different countries, including 15 films focused on emerging filmmakers from around the world and as many as 10 debut features.
Film categories include:
- feature film competitions
- out of competition films
- a short film competition
A special spotlight on alternative Mexican and Spanish cinema called Generation Mexique looks at films like sexual odyssey Y Mama Tu Tambien, the political horror/fantasy fable Pan’s Labyrinth, and the hardboiled The Bastards.
There will also be a spotlight on young Morroccan directors called Moroccan Cinema at Heart.
Films include:
- 180° -- directed by Cihan Inan
- Baby Factory -- directed by Eduardo Roy Jr. & Almon L. Derla
- Belvedere -- directed by Ahmed Imamovic
MIFF will also include special honors given to some of the best actors, wirters, and directors working in film including:
- actor Mohamed Bastaoui
- Italian director Marco Bellocchio
- American director Terry Gilliam
- Indian actor and director Shah Rukh Khan
- American actor-director Forest Whitaker
- Moroccan actor-director Roschdy Zem
Gilliam, Bellocchio and other writers and directors will also be hosting a series of Master Classes on cinema for film students and festival goers.
His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid, President of the MIFF Foundation, offered his take on this very international festival by saying: “This year, at the dawn of the second decade of the FIFM, I wish to make the following statement: it is no accident that Moroccan cinema should open and end our 11th edition, as it results indeed from the happy and deliberate meeting of a great festival and a strong emerging cinema!”
To learn more, go to: http://en.festivalmarrakech.info/
Marrakech International Film Festival
December 2nd to 10th, 2011
Angle Boulevard Mohammed VI Rue Ibn El Kadi
BP 14212 Riad Larrouss - 40 000
Marrakech, Morocco
Tel: + 212 (0)5 24 43 24 93/94
Fax: + 212 (0)5 24 43 25 11
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Iranian Asghar Farhadi Gets Support For "A Separation" & A Retrospective at Lincoln Center
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 21:20
- Written by Brad Balfour
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi manages to both enlighten and mystify. Maybe that's why he's been able to evade both the censors and jailers who police filmmakers for thought crimes against the mega-Fascist totalitarian state.
Or maybe because this director/writer so "honored" Iran by becoming the first Iranian to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for A Separation, he proved to be too prominent to supress.
The film centers on a couple faced deciding to divorce so the wife can move elsewhere with her daughter or they al stay in Iran to look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease. But what starts out as a domestic drama turns into a legal and religious mystery by odd twists and turns.
In any case, A Separation's success -- which played at the 49th New York Film Festival -- has offered a perfect opportunity to further introduce US audiences to Farhadi's body of work. So the Film Society of Lincoln Center launches the series, Asghar Farhadi's Iran, which will play April 6 - 8, 2012 at the Walter Reade Theater.
Yossi: Tribeca FF's 2012 Opening Night Narrative Film
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 12 March 2012 16:56
- Written by Laura Blum
Yossi
Directed by Eytan Fox
starring Ohad Knoller, Yehuda Levi, Orly Zilbershatz
The Bible tells us there's nothing new under the sun. Yet Yossi, the Israeli drama opening Tribeca Film Festival's World Narrative Competition (April 19, 2012) says there is.
Directed by Eytan Fox, Yossi is the sequel to his wartime romance Yossi & Jagger. In the 10 years since Fox shot that 2002 release, Israel has shed some of its machismo and become more accepting of homosexuality. (To wit, gay themes will share the spotlight at this year's Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival in Tel Aviv.) In today's more progressive Israel, Yossi's title hero is out of the closet -- if not out of the woods.
It's 2010, a decade after the death of Yossi's lover Jagger (Yehuda Levi) in South Lebanon. Yossi is now a successful cardiologist, though his own heart is still convalescing. When Jagger's mother (Orly Zilbershatz) unexpectedly shows up at the hospital, so do the doctor's demons. Why Yossi remains mired in past traumas will come in for a probing.
Israeli cinema has come a long way since its early salutes to warrior mythology. Zionism set out to create a new breed of Jewish man in reaction against the effeminate Diaspora caricature, and yet filmmakers like Fox who are subverting the tough guy image are forging a new link in the nation's identity chain.
The fact that Yossi & Jagger was based on a true story lent it a certain gravitas and helped smooth its way into local hearts and minds. Originally made for Israel Cable Programming, it became a domestic box-office hit and a festival darling.
The film had its US premiere at the second annual TFF. Ohad Knoller took home a medal for his portrayal of Israel Defense Forces company commander Yossi, and he was tapped to play the older Yossi in this follow up. The new production is something of a class reunion for 48-year-old Fox and his creative alum: Lior Ashkenazi, who starred in his 2004 Mossad drama Walk on Water, plays a doctor on Yossi's ward; and Zilbershatz appeared in his 1994 comedy set during the first Gulf War, Song of the Siren/Shirat Ha'Sirena.
Newcomers include Oz Zehavi, in the role of Yossi's new lover, and Yediot Ahronot TV critic Itay Segal, who wrote the screenplay. (Long-time partner and scriptwriter Gal Uchovsky sat this one out.)
Will Fox's next project be a third installment in the Yossi series? Or will the Manhattan-born, Jerusalem-raised filmmaker take on the story of his father, as he suggested following the TFF 2007 screening of his make-love-not-war seriocomedy The Bubble? Just how Fox would weave Conservative rabbi and Jewish educational leader Seymour Fox into his canon -- which generally canvasses gay love and political tensions -- remains to be seen. But it'd surely offer up something else new under the sun.
Tribeca Film Festival
World Narrative Competition
April 19, 2012
