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Previews
DocuWeeks Doc Showcases: True Grit
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 10 August 2011 03:24
- Written by Laura Blum
This year, more than ever, August is not a good time for shrinks to go on vacation. The world economy has tanked, Somalia is starving, Heaven help the Japanese, Norway must start locking its doors and now even stiff-upper-lipped England has descended into mayhem.
Into the abyss rushes the IDA-sponsored 15th Annual DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase (August 12 to September 1, 2011) with its added testimonies of global ruin. Who will be in New York to take care of audiences as they learn about a military cover-up of water contamination, an assassinated Russian journalist and other tales of woe?
Luckily, not all is gloom and doom among the 24 films to strobe the IFC Center's (323 Avenue of the Americas) screens.
DocuWeeks’ organizers at the International Documentary Association (IDA) have made sure to include a few mood leaveners in the mix. There’s Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, for example, about the man behind the famous muppet. Dying To Do Letterman promises some laughs, though its saga of a stand-up comedian who faces a terminal illness must ultimately fall in the bittersweet bin.
Whether uppers or downers, the films will leave DocuWeeks fit to be considered for The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Awards.
The same lineup will run in Los Angeles August 19 – September 8, 2011, at the Laemmle Sunset 5.
Showcase curators have scoured such festivals as Berlin, Sundance, Tribeca, Hotdocs, Sheffield and Los Angeles for what IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin calls “some of today’s most talked about docs.”
Among the 17 feature films appearing in this year’s Showcase are:
- Better This World
- A Bitter Taste of Freedom
- The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan
- The Carrier
- Darwin
- Hell and Back Again
- The Mexican Suitcase
- Miss Representation
- Phnom Penh Lullaby
- The Power of Two
- Semper Fi; Always Faithful
- S.O.S. / State of Security
- The Tiniest Place (El Lugar Mas Pequeno)
- To Be Heard
DocuWeeks will also show seven documentary short films:
- The Barber of Birmingham
- The Home Front
- Library of Dust
- Maya Deren’s Sink
- Poetry of Resilience
- Sand
- Sun City Picture House
Oscar winners from past DocuWeeks runs include:
- Smile Pinki (2008)
- Taxi To The Dark Side (2007)
- The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006)
In the nominated category, there’s Wasteland (2010), Sun Come Up (2010) Killing in the Name (2010), Rabbit à la Berlin (2009), among others.
For additional information visit: www.documentary.org/docuweeks2011
DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcases
New York
August 12 to September 1, 2011
IFC Center
323 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10014
www.ifccenter.com
Los Angeles
August 19 – September 8, 2011
Laemmle Sunset 5
8000 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, 90046
310-478-3836
www.laemmle.com
Sixth African Diaspora Summer Film Series Opens
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 05:00
- Written by Vevlyn Wright
Daytime talk show host Hebba (Mona Zakki) does what any good Egyptian wife would do 
when her husband asks her to stop proselytizing on behalf of women: she obeys him.
Karim (Hassan El Raddad) wants the subversive activities to cease so that he can lock down a coveted promotion as an editor at a government-controlled newspaper. When Hebba resorts to what are supposed to be fluff pieces about women’s lives, the genie is let out of the bottle. Now real subversion is flourishing.
Yousry Nasrallah’s Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story opens the 6th Annual African Diaspora Summer Film Series tonight (through August 21) at The Riverside Theatre in Harlem, New York City.
The film, which unfolds in a story-within-a-story format, was a darling on the film festival circuit in 2009. At the Venice Film Festival, it won the Lina Mangiacapre Award. Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story resurfaces at a very interesting time in Egyptian history and politics.
The revolution of a few months ago gave rise to long-suppressed rage at government corruption and gross neglect. Ailing former president Hosni Mubarak is out of power and on trial for many and sundry crimes.
In his production notes, Nasral
lah writes in part, "More than 70% of Egyptian households depend on women’s work. Rather than accept this reality, and accordingly accept women as equals, society is constantly pressuring women into showing more submission."
In the new Egypt that is being formed right before the world’s eyes, will men continue to treat women like chattel and serfs? Alas, at the moment it looks to be the case, but ultimately more time will tell. Until then, festival-goers should pay close attention to any cues in Scheherazade that may reveal what the future holds for women in Egyptian society.
Also dealing with a theme of oppression in an obliquely political way is Fire in Brooklyn, another of the eight features and documentaries in the summer film series, one of several mini-fests under the umbrella of the African Diaspora International Film Festival and co-presented by The Riverside Theatre.
Former members of the world renowned West Indies cricket team recount to director Stevan Riley their glory days as part of what is considered the best squad in the sport. But the film is really about an underdog excelling beyond what was thought unimaginable in a sport rooted in elitist, colonial values.
Initially dismissed as wild (read: savage), the cricketers, through remarkable displays of power, grace, finesse and speed would win grudging respect and admiration from their most vociferous detractors. Match commentary and reggae performances provide a backbeat to the story.
Music and musicians also figure in two other documentaries in the Summer Film Series. They will be shown as a double feature.
The Sons of Benkos of the title are the descendants of Benkos Bioho, a prominent black freedom fighter who died in the fight to emancipate enslaved Africans in early 17th-century Colombia. Director Silva Lucas acts as musical guide, revealing to the viewer the African culture of Colombia.
African culture in Peru informs Susana Baca: Memoria Viva from director Mark Dixon. His film is a tribute to Susana Esther Baca de la Colina, the legendary singer with the poetic, soulful voice. Her legacy will always include her efforts (through performance and education) to preserve the Afro-Peruvian heritage.
Rounding out the main category of films in the Summer Film Series are:
The Loves of a Zombie, Presidential Candidate director Arnold Antonin’s wry look at Haitian politicians and the country's people.
Stephen Lloyd Jackson takes a more serious tack in David is Dying, whose title character and London hedgefund manager has a difficult choice to make when he learns that he is HIV-positive.
In Nabil Elderkin’s Bouncing Cats, the choice of weapons to overcome poverty in Uganda is hip-hop and breakdancing.
Finally, craft is the topic of discussion in Directors on Directing. Among those who take questions from director Jamel Wade are Robert Townsend and Bill Duke.
Duke’s highly anticipated Dark Girls documentary will have its world premiere in October at the International Black Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.
Also on the schedule of the Summer Film Series are talkbacks, panel discussions and dance performances.
For more information, visit http://www.nyadff.org/Riverside_11.htm, http://www.nyadiff.org and www.theriversidetheatre.org
Vevlyn Wright is the publisher/senior writer of the online lifestyle newszine VEVLYN'S PEN (www.vevlynspen.com).
Latinbeat Goes On in 12th Year
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 05:00
- Written by Film FestivalTraveler Staff
The 12th annual Latinbeat Film Festival is running August 10 - 24, 2011 at Film Soc
iety of Lincoln Center‛s Walter Reade Theater in Manhattan, New York City.
"This year's Latinbeat Film Festival captures a stunning variety of films -- both commercial and independent -- currently coming out of Latin America," said Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Marcela Goglio.
"We are especially proud to spotlight the creative search for new forms of production in Central America and the Caribbean. The exploration of documentary/fiction boundaries that took such an exciting turn in Latin American cinema in the last few years has spread to this region and we are beginning to see the results of that now."
Goglio added, "We are also thrilled to be able to share some great new films from traditionally underrepresented countries, like Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Uruguay and Venezuela. We believe it will all add up to make this one of our most vibrant film festivals yet."
HollyShorts Film Festival 2011
- Details
- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 08 August 2011 05:00
- Written by Film FestivalTraveler Staff
The 7th annual HollyShorts Film Festival 2011 takes place August 11 - 18, 2011 at the 
Laemmle's Sunset 5 Theaters, with panels held at the Mondrian Los Angeles Hotel, both in West Hollywood, California.
HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) is an annual film festival showcasing the best and brightest short films from around the globe. The HollyShorts Film Festival showcases the top short films produced 30 minutes or less.
In this edition, well over 200 short films are being screened in competition, as well as 17 music videos, nine commercials and eight Web series.
