Author: CWB News Department

Jānis Skulme is a Latvian filmmaker based in London. He recently sat down with Cinema Without Borders to talk about his latest project, a video for Olga Korsak, the Latvian pop singer based in Toronto. Cinema Without Borders: How did the project come about? Jānis Skulme: As a filmmaker from RIJA films (http://www.rijafilms.lv) and a visual effects artist from Latvia, I did a short test video (https://vimeo.com/31230362) for the Toronto-based Latvian singer Olga Korsak and she liked it, so she invited me to make a music video for her song “Behind Closed Doors” for her new music album (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/olga-korsak-debut-album). I…

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 8, 2014 — HP today introduced its most powerful Z Workstations combining increased system expandability, higher-speed memory and multicore updates, as well as access to the latest technologies to help customers future-proof their investment in HP’s broadest workstation portfolio. HP Z Desktops and HP ZBook Mobile Workstations are built to address the constraints of compute-intensive industries, including media and entertainment, graphic design, CAD, architecture, photography, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, scientific imaging, and oil and gas exploration. The new additions to the portfolio include: The new HP Z840, Z640 and Z440 desktop workstations feature the latest Intel Xeon…

The Venezia 71 Jury, chaired by Alexandre Desplat and comprised ofJoan Chen, Philip Gröning, Jessica Hausner, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandy Powell, Tim Roth, Elia Suleiman and Carlo Verdone having viewed all 20 films in competition, has decided as follows: GOLDEN LION for Best Film to: EN DUVA SATT PÅ EN GREN OCH FUNDERADE PÅ TILLVARON (A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE) by Roy Andersson (Sweden, Germany, Norway, France) SILVER LION for Best Director to: Andrej Koncalovskij for the film BELYE NOCHI POCHTALONA ALEKSEYA TRYAPITSYNA (THE POSTMAN’S WHITE NIGHTS) (Russia) GRAND JURY PRIZE to: THE LOOK OF SILENCE by…

Here is the list of tilms at International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres at 71st Venice Film Festival.FATIH AKIN – THE CUT Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, Poland, Turkey, 138’Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou ROY ANDERSSON – EN DUVA SATT PÅ EN GREN OCH FUNDERADE PÅ TILLVARON (A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE) Sweden, Germany, Norway, France, 101’Holger Andersson, Nisse VestblomRAMIN BAHRANI – 99 HOMES USA, 112’Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Noah LomaxRAKHSHAN BANIETEMAD – GHESSEHA (TALES) Iran, 88’Fatemeh Motamedaria, Peiman Moadi, Baran Kosari, Farhad Aslani, Mohammadreza Forootan, Golab Adineh, Mehdi…

Times are tough for the characters in “Tales,” a Venice Film Festival entry from Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Jobs are scarce, prices are high and drug addiction claims too many young people.One of 20 films competing for the festival’s Golden Lion prize, “Tales” is a series of fictional vignettes set among struggling residents of Tehran – indebted cabbies, impoverished pensioners, unemployed factory workers.The movie never makes the cause of their woes explicit, but the director says she wanted to show the harm that Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program were doing to ordinary people.”The economic situation in Iran is critical,…

The following is September calendar of screenings at Echo Park Film Center (workshops still to be announced!). Shows begin promptly @ 8 PM and are $5 suggested donation (unless otherwise noted). EPFC’s microcinema is supported in part by grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Thursday, September 4 – OPEN SCREEN – 8 PMIt’s our cinematic free-for-all, daring you to share your film with the feisty EPFC audience. Any genre! Any style! New, old, work-in-progress! First come, first screened; one film per filmmaker; 10-minute maximum. DVD, VHS, mini-DV, DV-CAM, Super 8, standard…

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute invites Los Angeles-area filmmakers to its first day-long ShortsLab focusing on short-form documentary, taking place September 13 at the Cinefamily.ShortsLab L.A. offers filmmakers the opportunity to participate in an intensive one-day seminar of screenings and discussions with firsthand insight and access into the world of short-form documentary story development, production and exhibition. Among the featured speakers are filmmakers Rodney Ascher (Room 237), Academy Award nominee Kirby Dick (The Invisible War), Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles), AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain: About a Son) and Academy Award nominee Lucy Walker (The Crash Reel), as well…

New York – Martin Scorsese, Chair of The Film Foundation, issued the following statement in support of the announcement of Kodak’s decision to continue its production of film stock: We have many names for what we do – cinema, movies, motion pictures. And…film. We’re called directors, but more often we’re called filmmakers. Filmmakers. I’m not suggesting that we ignore the obvious: HD isn’t coming, it’s here. The advantages are numerous: the cameras are lighter, it’s much easier to shoot at night, we have many more means at our disposal for altering and perfecting our images. And, the cameras are more affordable:…

Berlin/Sao Paulo, 1 August 2014 – Berlin based international sales and production outfit, Picture Tree International (PTI), has secured the global distribution rights for the Paulo Coelho biopic “The Pilgrim – the Best Story of Paulo Coelho” from Brazilian production house CUATRO DAMA FILMES. Undoubtedly one of the most accomplished literary figures of the century, Coelho’s 30 novels have been translated into 80 languages, distributed in 224 countries and sold over 165 million copies. Many know the author of “The Alchemist” as an international celebrity, with faithful followers in the four corners of the world. What only few know is…

Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s new feature joins Liv Ullmann’s Miss Julie for world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s new drama, 1001 Grams (1001 gram), starring Ane Dahl Torp, will have its world premiere in the Masters sidebar for “the most inspiring, audacious, and original filmmakers working in cinema today” at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, which runs between 4-14 September. 1001 Grams follows a recently divorced, work-obsessed woman scientist in her late 30s, who goes to a seminar in Paris about the actual weight of the kilogram. She falls in love with a French colleague,…