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Film Festivals
Miami Jewish Film Fest & the Liberation of Auschwitz
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 12 January 2015 17:24
- Written by Renzo Adler
Anita B.
Marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Miami Jewish Film Festival (January 15 - 29, 2015) at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center (3385 Northeast 188th Street Aventura, FL 33180) examines a dark and painful chapter of history, but also “celebrates the unexpected,” as its tagline touts, in Jewish history and life.
- Anita B., directed by Roberto Faenza, is a story of healing and change as a woman liberated from Auschwitz starts a new life in Prague.
- The Last Mentsch, directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati, shows a man denying his Jewish identity since escaping Auschwitz. But now that he’s aware of his own mortality he wishes to be burried in a Jewish cemetary and must prove something that he has spent most of his life denying.
- The Decent One, directed by Vanessa Lapa, examines the life of SS chief Heincrich Himler through personal photographs, documents, and journals, and how he became one of the top designers of murder and genocide for the Third Reich.
- Colette, directed by Milan Cieslar, is based on the novel by Arnost Lustig, a concentration camp survivor. The film is a tale of escape and survival that draws from Lustig’s own experiences.
Along with its films set around Auschwitz, the festival also has works focuses on Jewish life today. In it’s North American premiere, Bible Kings, a documentary directed by Antoine Arditti, examines a world of Talmudic scholars (of sorts) that are competitors in The World Bible Quiz, a global competition testing knowledge of who said what, where, and when in the Old Testament. Director Arditti will be in attendance to introduce the film and give a Q&A when it is over.
The Miami Jewish Film Festival touches on Jewish life, past and present, with a wide array of films.
To learn more, go to: http://miamijewishfilmfestival.net/
Miami Jewish Film Festival
January 15 - 29, 2015
Aventura Arts & Cultural Center
3385 Northeast 188th Street
Aventura, FL 33180
Various other locations.
French Short Films at the IFC Center
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Tuesday, 06 January 2015 23:24
- Written by Renzo Adler
Kiki of Montparnasse
These days when your average blockbuster is bloated beyond two hours and you could knit a sweater in the time it takes to finish The Wolf of Wall Street, isn’t it nice to enjoy some cinema in bite sized chunks? Presented in conjunction with Unifrance, the IFC Center (323 Avenue of the Americas, NY NY) will be screening New French Shorts 2015, six genre spanning shorts from the home of Godard, on Wednesday, January 14.
Having previously appeared at Cannes, the Berlin Film Festival, and Rotterdam, these films showcase animation, documentary, and drama all with runtimes that don’t go beyond thirty minutes. From the awkward realization that someone is having sex upstairs while you’re trying to have a conversation, to an immigrant recounting her life to a border doctor, to a woman in prison getting a new pet. Along with screening of the shorts there will be a live Q&A with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, director of Rabbit.
The films being shown are:
- The Runaway, dir. Jean-Bernard Marlin
- Kiki of Montparnasse, dir. Amelie Harrault
- The America of Womankind, dir. Blandine Lenoir
- Aissa, dir. Clément Tréhin-Lalanne
- Butter Lamp, dir. Wei Hu
- Rabbit, dir. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Following the festival is the myFrenchFilmFestival, organized by Unifrance. Viewable at myFrenchFilmFestival.com, viewers will be able to see ten feature length films and ten short film January 16 to February 16, 2015. IFC’s New French Shorts 2015 is a rapid fire evening of fine French films.
To learn more, go to http://en.unifrance.org/ or http://www.ifccenter.com/
New French Shorts 2015
January 14, 2015
IFC Center
323 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10014
John Carpenter Slashes the Silver Screen at BAM Retrospective
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Friday, 26 December 2014 17:43
- Written by Renzo Adler
From the blasted ruins of New York, to the frozen wastes of Antartica and beyond, John Carpenter has re-shaped action, suspense, horror and sci-fi with his hands-on approach to genre film, and a distinct sound design. From February 5th to the 22nd, 2015 the BAM Rose Cinema and BAM Cinematek (30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY) will pay tribute to the maestro of movie malevolence with John Capenter: Master of Fear.
Opening the festival on February 5 is a one night only one on one conversation between Carpenter and Brooke Gladstone of NPR’s On the Media. Over the course of the fest is a showing of the finest films from Carpenter’s cinematic history:
- Halloween
- Escape From New York
- The Thing
- The Fog
- Starman
- Big Trouble in Little China (my personal fave)
- Dark Star
- Prince of Darkness
Also selected are several of Carpenter’s favorite films, such as William Friedkin’s suspenseful Sorcerer, Peckinpah’s gripping Straw Dogs and the sci-fi classic that’s equal parts schlock, Freud, and Shakespeare: Forbidden Planet.
John Carpenter's work in cinema both built up genres and teared down conventions as he made the mundane suburban neighborhood into a place of sheer terror while also making men beyond the stars funny and loveable. Tickets are on sale now.
To learn more, go to: http://www.bam.org/
John Carpenter: Master of Fear
February 5 - 22, 2015
BAM Cinematek
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Film Society Showcases Spanish Comedies
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Previews
- Published on Thursday, 04 December 2014 10:05
- Written by Jack Angstreich
From December 12th to the 18th, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be presenting a series called The Last Laugh: An Alternate History of Spanish Comedy, which aims to canvas a “grotesque” tradition in that national cinema. It seems that this retrospective is typically and regrettably over-representative of recent works but a few films from the Golden Age of Spanish movies will be featured including an early work by the formidable Marco Ferreri, The Little Coach, co-scripted by, and adapted from the novel by, the eminent screenwriter and author, Rafael Azcona — the illustrious careers in cinema of both Ferreri and Azcona began together and the latter went on to author the wonderful Il Mafioso of Alberto Lattuada and to brilliantly collaborate with Carlos Saura.
The most significant of Azcona’s collaborations, beside those with Ferreri and Saura, was with the remarkable Luis García Berlanga, who was the subject of a memorable Film Society retrospective a few years ago. One of Azcona’s most impressive scripts and one of Berlanga’s finest films was the classic El Verdugo, which is a highlight of this series, about an undertaker, beautifully played by the great Italian star, Nino Manfredi, who finds himself placed against his will in the role of executioner. This work is, to a large degree, a subtle and ingenious bureaucratic satire but sustains an undercurrent of unexpectedly moving pathos. (The great Spanish comic actor, José Luis López Vásquez, who starred in many Berlanga films — and whom the filmmakers wanted for Manfredi’s part — is terrific in a small role as the undertaker’s brother.)
El Verdugo is one of Berlanga’s most stylistically accomplished works, excellent photographed by the extraordinary Tonino Delli Colli, who is especially famous for his magnificent collaborations with Pier Paolo Pasolini and Sergio Leone. In this film, the director favors the sequence-shot and compositions in depth, achieving a truly Bazinian realism. The visual effect of Berlanga’s approach is enhanced by the glorious 35-millimeter print being screened, which although it is slightly dirty and worn, conveys the splendors of this vanishing art.
