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Woodstock Film Fest Celebrates Sweet 16 With Music & Cinema

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Published on Friday, 11 September 2015 18:45
Written by Brad Balfour

3 Still Standing

With films, panels, and special performances lined up, the Woodstock Film Festival (Sept. 30 - Oct. 4, 2015) is going to have a very sweet sixteenth year in the Hudson Valley. Established in 2000 to provide a venue for independent films and international hits, the Woodstock Film fest this year features world and US premieres of films from around the world.

The festival opens with the premiere of The Poet of Havana, a documentary on the life of Cuban singer/songwriter Carlos Varela, and his long battle against censorship brought down on him by the Cuban government. Following a screening of the film is a performance by Varela himself, along with special guest Jackson Browne (of “Running on Empty” fame).

Panels include examination of women in film, films of social responsibility, and keynote by Josh Fox, director of Gasland.

Along with the plethora of shorts, documentaries, and feature films are a few special screenings too:

  • Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation (dir Barbara Kopple)
    A vivid look at America's oldest continuously published weekly magazine. With editor Katrina vanden Heuvel (who will be in attendance) at the helm, as well as an impressive array of brilliant and passionate writers, the film takes us on a journey into the soul of American journalism. Followed by a conversation between director Barbara Kopple and The Nation's editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel.

  • 3 Still Standing (dir Robert Campos and Donna LoCiero)
    Three veteran stand-up comics as they struggle to survive the downfall of comedy in a changing world. Contemporaries of Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and others in the hotbed of San Francisco during the heady 1980s, success seems to be just one great set away for Will Durst, Larry "Bubbles" Brown and Johnny Steele. Now that the heyday is over and comedy seems to have taken a hiatus, the skilled live performers must seek new ways to reinvent their acts in an unfamiliar landscape of social media and online celebrity. With surprisingly serious intent - after all these men are comedians -- the "3" pursue creative ways to make their comebacks. 3 Still Standing is a 30-year roller-coaster ride through comedy's boom and bust, with recollections from contemporaries and close colleagues Rob Schneider and Paula Poundstone. And on a poignant note, we get to hear one of Robin Williams last recorded interviews.

  • Mavis! (dir Jessica Edwards)
    Calling singer/civil rights activist Mavis Staples a living legend is no overstatement. With roots in gospel and a visionary father who molded his family into the Staple Singers, we watch the group go from gospel performances at local churches during the 1960s and '70s to chart-topping mainstream hits. Skillfully combining archival material, new interviews and live performances, filmmaker Jessica Edwards hits all the high notes of the Staple Singers tenure. The movie continues to track the roller coaster of the artist's solo career, including such tender moments as Mavis's visit to the late Levon Helm at his Barn. Julian Bond, Bonnie Raitt, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, and Bob Dylan are prominent among the friends, fellow musicians and civil rights veterans who pay homage to the documentary's star.

  • The Americans: Season 3, Episode 10 "Stingers" directed by Larysa Kondracki
    An episode of the hit FX Cold War spy-thriller followed by a discussion with showrunner Joe Weisberg. Moderated by Indiewire Chief Film Critic and Senior Editor Eric Kohn.

The Woodstock Film Festival kicks off the fall film fest season in scenic Hudson Valley.

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

The Woodstock Film Festival
September 30 - October 4, 2015

Various Locations

Convergence Reshapes Cinematic Reality at Film Society

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Published on Thursday, 20 August 2015 20:17
Written by Brad Balfour

Gamescape

While Google Glass may have become associated with “glassholes” and gadgetry purely for the sake of gadgetry, virtual reality is building up steam in the public consciousness, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival is taking part of in this new wave of virtual reality interest. As part of the 53rd New York Film Festival (September 25 - October 11, 2015), Convergence occurs from September 26 and 27th, and examines non-traditional forms of cinematic storytelling including virtual reality and live performances.

“This is our fourth year as part of the New York Film Festival and I couldn't be more excited about the lineup for 2015. There’s a lot of attention focused on virtual reality right now so we are really pleased to feature the U.S. premiere of The Dog House, a 360-degree film that’s going to start a lot of conversations,”  said NYFF Convergence programmer Matt Bolish.

The Doghouse, created by Johan Knattrup Jensen, Mads Damsbo and Dark Matters, sits users down at a dinner table with four other people, each of whom place on a virtual reality headset that allows each user to experience a family dinner and discussion from the point of view of five different characters.

From the minds of the esteemed, experimental idea house, NYU Game Center, Gamescape is an interactive deconstruction of games in which users can experience “storytelling games” created by game developers that use the medium to examine how storytelling works and affects people.

Along with these “non-traditional cinematic experiences” are a series of panels and workshops examining the relationship between interactive media and cinematic storytelling. A Conversation with Diana Williams has the producer of the acclaimed films Our Song and Another First Step discussing the emergence of new mediums and forms of storytelling.

Producing for Impact: Finding the Story examines how non-fiction storytelling takes on new forms and reaches new audiences with social media, data visualization, and interactive documentaries.

In Pry, Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman will perform excerpts from Pry, an app experience that fuses cinema, video game, and the novella into what the LA Weekly calls “Charlie Kaufman by way of an acid trip.”

Convergence is looking at the future at how new technologies will reshape stories as we know them

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

New York Film Festival Convergence
September 26 - 27, 2015

NY Film Fest '15 Announces Main Slate

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Published on Wednesday, 19 August 2015 14:57
Written by Jack Angstreich
The Dog House
 
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has just announced the entire Main Slate for the 53rd New York Film Festival, which opens on September 25th, 2015 with the world premiere of The Walk, a 3-D film directed by Robert Zemeckis about tightrope-walker Philippe Petit, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. The director was at the Film Festival recently with his very fine Flight, the closing night selection in 2012.
 
The festival runs through October 11th ending with the world premiere of the closing night selection, the actor Don Cheadle's directorial debut, a biopic about legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis titled Miles Ahead.
 
The festival Centerpiece will be Steve Jobs, a biopic of the Apple Computers chairman starring Michael Fassbender and directed by Danny Boyle — whose 28 Days Later was memorable — with a screenplay by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin.
 
The remainder of the Main Slate includes a panoply of many of the finest directors working today the most exciting of which I note below.
 
Portuguese director Miguel Gomes returns to the festival with the U.S. premiere of his well-received Arabian Nights trilogy, which will be released by Kino Lorber.
 
For cinephiles, the most anticipated film will be the U.S. premiere of the martial arts epic, The Assassin, by Hou Hsiao-hsien, possibly the greatest filmmaker working today and a Festival favorite. It will be released by Well Go USA.
 
The world premiere of Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies is also highly anticipated — it features a screenplay co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance, possibly the greatest working actor.
 
Todd Haynes returns to the Festival with an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, Carol, shot by the great Ed Lachman, and features Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It will be released by the Weinstein Company.
 
Another of the best contemporary directors and a Festival favorite, Apichatpong Weerasethakul of Thailand, will be represented by the U.S. premiere of Cemetery of Splendor, which is distributed by Strand Releasing.
 
Michael Almereyda, who has been much featured at the Film Society, returns with Experimenter, a portrait of social scientist Stanley Milgram, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder, released by Magnolia Pictures.
 
Guy Maddin, another Festival veteran brings us The Forbidden Room, co-directed with Evan Johnson and released by Kino Lorber.
 
Philippe Garrel, another supreme artist, also returns to the Festival with the U.S. premiere of In the Shadow of Women.
 
Another excellent director and Festival veteran, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, delivers the U.S. premiere of Journey to the Shore.
 
Yorgos Lanthimos has also been featured at the Film Society and his new film, The Lobster, stars Colin Farrell, Léa Seydoux, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and Ben Whishaw and will be released by Alchemy.
 
Another Film Society veteran, Nanni Moretti, returns with the U.S. premiere of Mia Madre, also released by Alchemy.
 
Michel Gondry, whose work has previously screened at the Film Society, brings the U.S. premiere of Microbe & Gasoline, featuring Audrey Tatou.
 
One of the best contemporary directors, and a Festival favorite, Jia Zhangke returns with the U.S. premiere of Mountains May Depart, a Kino Lorber release.
 
Arnaud Desplechin is another superb filmmaker and a favorite of the Festival; he returns with the North American premiere of My Golden Days, starring the director's alter-ego, the wonderful Mathieu Amalric, and released by Magnolia Pictures.
 
The legendary Chantal Akerman delivers a portrait of her mother in No Home Movie, seen here in its U.S. premiere.
 
Festival favorite Hong Sangsoo's films are consistently enjoyable; his newest is Right Now, Wrong Then, which will be having its U.S. premiere.
 
Corneliu Porumboiu, one of the leading figures of the current new wave in Romanian cinema, is another Film Society favorite; The Treasureis his latest.
 
Also announced is a retrospective of the great American, non-narrative filmmaker, Nathaniel Dorsky, as part of the Avant-Garde Visions sidebar co-curated by Gavin Smith and Mark McElhatten.
 
To learn more, go to: http://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2015/
 
53rd New York Film Festival
September 25 - October 11, 2015

Virtual Reality Film Fest Tours N. America

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Published on Thursday, 06 August 2015 23:23
Written by Renzo Adler

Lovr

It has been many years since virtual reality was in the public consciousness. If you went to arcades or amusement parks in the mid 1990’s you might recall agonizingly heavy headsets and clunky graphics like those found in Dactyl Nightmare. The possibility of virtual reality led to some excitement and speculation, but little pay-off. The promise of being able to journey to strange and amazing worlds with the help of a computer and a visor was something that got tucked away at the end of the 90s along with VHS and the Clinton administration.

Flash forward to 2014, the company Oculus VR, which had been founded in 2012 by Palmer Lucky following a succesful Kickstarter campaign, is bought out by Facebook to the tune of $2 billion. Since 2012, companies like Facebook, Sony, and Samsung have been exploring the possibility of a VR resurgence where it is now a major part of interactive entertainment rather than just a forgotten novelty, with a consumer version of the Oculus Rift due out Q1 2016, with competing devices to follow. With dev kits on the market for years now we have seen applications for everything from video gaming, to PTSD therapy and meditation. And now virtual reality is also taking a step into cinema.

Virtual reality agency Kaleidoscope announced the Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival Presented by Vrideo, a multi-city tour set to showcase the best in virtual reality filmmaking and artists working in this cutting edge field. From August 22 to October 14, 2015, Kaleidoscope will tour ten cities across North America.

Using headsets from Oculus and Samsung, viewers will experience new forms of interactive narratives and environments. You can go from walking inside the Van Gogh painting The Night Cafe, traverse the Korean DMZ, to analyzing the neural synapses that cause the feeling of love.

nepal“We have seen the gaming industry embrace virtual reality, and now the film industry is on the verge of the same breakthrough,” said Kaleidoscope co-founder René Pinnell.  “After the unprecedented popularity of virtual reality components in this year’s major film festivals – including Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and Hot Docs – as well major film and television studio’s recent VR initiatives, including Jurassic World, Wild, Interstellar and Game of Thrones, we want the chance to highlight the incredible independent filmmakers who are pioneering this new film language.”

 

Films include:

  • THE NEPAL QUAKE PROJECT (U.S., Dir: David Darg)
    Narrated by Susan Sarandon, THE NEPAL QUAKE PROJECT uses Virtual Reality technology to immerse viewers in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake. The film not only marks the first in natural disaster VR, but it represents the future of news and action.

  • THE NIGHT CAFÉ  (U.S., Dir: Mac Cauley)
    THE NIGHT CAFÉ is an immersive VR environment that allows you to explore the world of Vincent van Gogh first hand. Take a moment to enjoy his iconic sunflowers in three dimensions or walk around the chair he painted in his bedroom to see it from another angle. Step into the vivid colors straight from his palette.

  • BRIGHT SHADOWS (U.S., Dir: Michael Catalano)
    Inspired by the abstract visual music animators of the early to mid-1900's, Bright Shadows is an 11 minute computer generated animation of dynamic, colorful abstractions choreographed to instrumental music. It is comprised of seven distinct movements with unique emotional tones that are brought to life with high-quality lighting and shading techniques and rendered in stereoscopic 3D.

  • BUTTS (U.S., Dir: Tyler Hurd)
    Widely credited as the first animated cartoon for virtual reality, BUTTS is a story about love, trust, and learning what it means to be truly free. Transport yourself into a brand new bright and colorful world of happiness and excitement, and make some friends along the way. BUTTS will make you laugh, cry, fill you with unimaginable bliss, and return you to that innocent place of childlike wonder you've long forgotten.

  • CLOUDS OVER SIDRA (U.S., Dir: Chris Milk and Gabo Arora)
    CLOUDS OVER SIDRA follows a twelve year old in the Za’atari camp in Jordan – home to 84,000 Syrian refugees. It follows her to school, to her makeshift tent and even to the football pitch. The film was commissioned as part of the UN’s advocacy at the World Economic Forum in Davos to state and business leaders and offers a unique perspective into the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.

  • COLOSSE (Israel, UK, U.S., Producer: Joseph Chen)
    COLOSSE is a real-time virtual reality storytelling experience, with a stylized, character-focused visual language. While the viewer has no direct control over the action, the progression of the narrative is gaze-based. The viewer's gaze – things the viewer pays the most attention to – directs the experience around them, giving a subtle influence over events as they unfold. The story of the long lost Great Spirits known as the COLOSSE explores themes of fear, power and respect.

Much like the nickelodeons of old turning into the cinemas and movie studios of today, VR is growing from novelty, to entertainment revolution.

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

2015 Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival

Portland, OR  - Saturday, August 22
Seattle, WA  - Wednesday, August 26
Vancouver, BC  - Saturday, August 29
San Francisco, CA  - Tuesday, September 15
Los Angeles, CA  - Wednesday, September 23
Denver, CO  - Saturday, September 26
Montreal, QC  - Thursday, October 1
Toronto, ON  - Sunday, October 4
New York, NY  - Tuesday, October 6
Austin, TX  - Wednesday, October 14

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