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Film Festivals
Podcast: Berlin 7 Yelling to the Sky
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Friday, 15 April 2011 19:20
- Written by David D'Arcy
Yelling to the Sky – Oprah-Ready
Take two teenaged daughters, a bruised Black mother, and a drunken White father. It adds up to a lot of yelling, a new indie film genre, and a potential cast visit to Oprah.
Yelling to the Sky is the debut film by Victoria Mahoney, and it features Zoe Kravitz in the role of Sweetness O’Hara. Move over, Scarlet.
David D’Arcy saw Yelling to the Sky at the 2011 Berlinale, without earplugs.
* click on the player to hear the podcast
{enclose berlin-7-yelling-to-the-sky.mp3}
The Tournées Fest -- Diplomacy Through French Film
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Tuesday, 28 September 2010 21:22
- Written by Laura Blum
In the 15 years since the Tournées Festival began bringing contemporary French films to campuses across the U.S., it has stirred that warm, 
bubbly feeling for Gallic cinema normally induced by champagne. The Festival’s creators, Cultural Services of the French Embassy and French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), are downright giddy about its stats.
As well they should be. Some 350 films have reached 450,000 students in 350 universities since the program’s founding in 1995; and in 2009-2010 alone, 100 or so universities from nearly 40 states and Puerto Rico benefited from its largesse.
French cinephilia has even spread to l’Amérique Profonde. This includes a state school in Maine and a small bible college in Alabama, as FACE Chairman of the Board Jacques Bouhet told a glittering crowd assembled last night at the French Consulate in New York to fête the program’s anniversary.
Tribeca's Best NY Documentary -- "The Woodmans"
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Monday, 03 May 2010 05:41
- Written by Laura Blum
If asked to name an American female photographer who committed suicide, you
'd probably first think of Diane Arbus. Until now.
Francesca Woodman may be about to give Arbus a posthumous run for her money. The doomed heroine lives on in The Woodmans, which won Best New York Documentary at the ninth Tribeca Film Festival.
Best known for her dreamy black-and-white stills and videos, Francesca often appeared in the raw. Ophelia herself couldn't have composed more intimate, unearthly meditations on the feminine and the floral. Francesca's work has entranced art insiders for 30 years, and now its mystique is spreading to the cinema world as well.
Doc "Thieves by Law" Steals Hurrahs at Tribeca
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Friday, 30 April 2010 02:07
- Written by Laura Blum
![Alexander Gentelev (photo: B. Balfour]](/images/stories/al-gentelev.jpg "Alexander Gentelev (photo: B. Balfour]")
"Was it dangerous to make a documentary about the Russian mob?" director Alexander Gentelev was asked after his Thieves by Law premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (April 22 to May 2, 2010).
"We will find out after the protagonists see the movie," he deadpanned.
The heroes Gentelev was referring to are three retired godfathers of Russia’s underworld who muse about their colorful exploits on camera. As he explained, "A lot of criminal kingpins were willing to mouth off, but not on film." Finding insiders willing to help lift the "veil of secrecy" surrounding followers of the so-called "Thieves Code" took the Russian-born director two years. It was well worth the wait.
