Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour: Films That Go Sky High

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 22 April 2022 14:29

Written by Brad Balfour

 Bear-Like

The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour is returning to New York City for its 23rd year on Sunday, May 15th and Monday, May 16th at Peter Jay Sharp Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025). The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival is the foremost mountain themed film festival and is now in New York as part of the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour hits the road. These are films that cover the beauty, adventure, and importance of mountains around the world. Each evening features a different film menu of cinematic works from around the world.

Films include: 

• FOLLOW THE LIGHT2021, France, 4 minutes
  Filmmaker: Pierre Henni, Commencal
  Advisory: General
  From sunsets over dramatic landscapes to the illumination of hot air balloons and the warm ambience of Turkey, immerse yourself in this colorful adventure with riders Kilian Bron, Pierre Henni, Pierre Dupont and JB Liautard.
  
  
• FINALLY
  2020, France, 13 minutes
  Filmmaker: Andy Collet, Marc Augey, Alex Hamelin, PVS Company
  Advisory: General
  After two months of confinement, freeskiing prodigy Ben Buratti finds himself alone on his home mountain of La Clusaz.

• BEAR-LIKE (DER BÄR IN MIR)
  (Tour Edit), 2019, Switzerland, 55 minutes
  Filmmaker: Roman Droux, Memox
  Advisory: Coarse language; violence
  Two adventurers engage in close contact with grizzly bears in Alaska experiencing first-hand the struggle for survival and dramatic fighting scenes. Driven by a desire to explore the unknown, the film tells a personal story of wilderness, framed through breathtaking footage of these amazing creatures.

• IF YOU GIVE A BEACH A BOTTLE
  2021, USA, 5 minutes
  Filmmaker: Max Romey
  Advisory: General
  Inspired by a picture book, Max Romey heads to a remote beach on Alaska’s coastline in search of marine debris. What he finds is a different story altogether.

• DREAM MOUNTAIN
  2020, USA, 18 minutes
  Filmmaker: InLightWorks Productions
  Advisory: General
  Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita is a certified international high mountain guide, an accomplished mountaineer, humanitarian, and a mother. She reflects on her personal highs and lows and rediscovers for herself just how much the mountains mean to her.

• EM
  2021, Canada, 14 minutes
  Filmmaker: Alexa Fay, Sophie Claivaz-Loranger
  Advisory: Coarse language
  Emilie Pellerin has spent most of her adult life travelling the world. She has honed her skills on the rock and has become one of the world’s best on-sight climbers. Now she’s ready to push her level on her hardest trad route yet, La Zébrée, a spectacular 5.14a overhanging crack in Quebec.

• MY MIDSUMMER MORNING
  2019, UK, 20 minutes
  Filmmaker: Alastair Humphreys
  Advisory: General, non-sexual nudity
  Alastair Humphreys, inspired by Laurie Lee’s book “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning”, sets out on his most terrifying journey yet - walking through Spain, earning money for food by playing his violin, being distinctly unmusical.

This year's will have no general admission with individual seats being reserved, so plan to buy your tickets ahead of time.

To learn more, go to: https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-banff-centre-mountain-film-festival-2

Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour
May 15 - 16, 2022

Peter Jay Sharp Symphony Space
2537 Broadway
New York, NY 10025

War, Climate Change, & Music: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 03 March 2022 10:51

Written by Brad Balfour

The Horizon

With a lineup of 23 films, the 2022 installment of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival arrives at Lincoln Center. Running March 3 to 13th, the festival features essential new films from returning favorites Christophe Honoré, Arnaud Desplechin, Mathieu Almaric, and Jacques Audiard, as well as exciting films from up-and-coming talents Emilie Carpentier, Vincent Maël Cardona, Rachel Lang, Leyla Bouzid, and more with stories of pain, passion, and romance.

In Rise, directed by Cédric Klapisch, ballerina Elise (Marion Barbeau) suffers two injuries at the same time: a devastating fall on stage that leaves her injured and unable to dance for up to two years, and her partner suddenly and humiliatingly breaking up with her for another dancer. Initially devastated, Elise slowly rebuilds her life while redirecting her efforts to contemporary dance in the troupe of real-life Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter, playing himself.

Secret Name, directed by Aurélia Georges, is set against the harsh front lines of World War I, as a former sex worker who’s now a nurse, Nélie Laborde (Lyna Khoudri, The French Dispatch), is given the unexpected chance to start a new life when one of her patients, Rose Juillet (Maud Wyler), is seemingly killed by invading German troops and Nélie assumes Rose’s identity and leaves the field of battle for the north of France, where the well-off Eléonore de Lengwil (Sabine Azéma) lives. 

Set in 1980s Brittany, Magnetic Beats, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona, two brothers operating a post-punk pirate station named (in homage to Joy Division) Radio Warsaw both fall for single mother Marianne, just before one of the brothers has to begin his compulsory year of military service abroad in Berlin.

Emilie Carpentier’s debut feature The Horizon follows 18-year-old Adja (Tracy Gotoas), a girl disconnected from her community—indifferent to climate change and mocking the efforts of activists to oppose construction of a new mixed-use facility. But when she grows closer to classmate Arthur (Sylvain Le Gall)—an earnest activist and fellow intern at a nursing home—Adja begins to find a sense of purpose in political engagement, drifting away from her shallow group of friends. 

Along with the lineup of films, free talks include a sit-down with filmmakers Claire Denis and official Guest of Honor at this year’s Rendez-Vous Jim Jarmusch, in an extended conversation about their decades-spanning careers; Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena, meeting to discuss their professional trajectories and creative influences; and “Working the image : a French-American look at cinematography,” a special panel organized in partnership with French In Motion and the Gotham Film & Media Institute and bringing together French and American filmmakers and cinematographers to discuss their varied inspirations, creative philosophies, and artistic practices.

To learn more, go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema/

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022
March 3 - 13, 2022

Film at Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Center Plaza #4
New York, NY 10023

French Animation Online: Animation First 2022

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 14 February 2022 16:25

Written by Brad Balfour

The Night Watch, directed by Julien Regnard

The 2022 Animation First Festival goes nationwide and online starting February 14th, 2022. Animation First is the only festival in the US dedicated to French animation. This year, the festival presents 51 premieres of feature-length and short films, Works in Progress of highly anticipated films, a 2nd Annual Student Short Film Competition, and more.

Films include The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily directed by Lorenzo Mattotti, which was inspired by the 1945 classic Italian children’s book by Dino Buzzati. In The Tower, directed by Mats Gorud, Wardi, an eleven-year-old Palestinian girl, lives with her whole family in a refugee camp in Lebanon and learns her family’s history. Shorts programs include Best of Annecy 2021: Spotlight on Women Directors, as well as two blocks of new French animated shorts, while the Fontevraud Presents block showcases animators from around the world. In Liberated! writers and broadcasters Ovidie and Sophie-Marie Larrouy examine prejudice and taboos around sex. Uncanny Stories is a showcase of horror centric animation, and for those looking for less unsettling fare, there's a screening of Don Bluth's classic An American Tail.

The online portion of the festival can only be viewed from within the United States.

To learn more, go to: https://fiaf.org/animation-first-2022/

Animation First 2022
February 14 - 21, 2022.

Online