I haven’t gone to see a movie in a theater for years. Not because I don’t like movies or going to the theater or watching a movie in a theater (and eating movie theater snacks!) but because I’ve been busy writing a dissertation and having babies. It seemed like too much effort to go see a movie when you could stream the latest ones while sitting on your couch. For one thing, you’re not paying a babysitter, and instead of nachos with Velveeta cheese, you can have samosas and chaat (I do miss theater popcorn though). But when “Top Gun:…
Author: CWB News Department
Principal photography has wrapped on Following Harry, a documentary that offers an inside view of 96-year-old civil rights icon Harry Belafonte’s continuing mission of social justice. The film directed and edited by Susanne Rostock is being readied for premiere at fall film festivals. Belafonte, who celebrated his birthday on March 1, executive produces Following Harry. He, Rostock and producer Julius Nasso previously collaborated on the 2011 documentary Sing Your Song, a film that examined both Belafonte’s groundbreaking career in entertainment and his key role in the Civil Rights Movement. Following Harry is a present-tense account of Belafonte’s ongoing dedication to…
Before LED lights hit the scene, tungsten was the only affordable option. And even then, it wasn’t all that affordable. The specialized cinema equipment cost money and electricity. But this is 2023, and LED has paved the way for affordable lighting. For our Deals of the Week, we found three brands to get your scene lit and gripped. Aputure amaran The amaran series from Aputure has been a boon for budget creatives all over the world. Not only are its lights powerful, but they cost a fraction of what other companies (even Aputure) are charging. What makes Aputure lights stand out from the…
My Sunny Maad, a Czech-Slovak-French co-production directed by Czech filmmaker Michaela Pavlátová, has won a César Award, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, in the category of Best Animated Feature Film. This year’s César Awards were handed out during a gala ceremony in Paris on Friday evening, with Dominik Moll’s crime thriller The Night of the 12th winning for Best Feature Film. Brad Pitt made a surprise appearance at the awards show to honor his 1999 film Fight Club. Competing alongside My Sunny Maad for the Best Animated Feature César was directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be? (Le Petit Nicolas: Qu’est-ce qu’on attend…
Most film festivals can be counted on to provide entertainment, laced with some introspection. The weeklong FESPACO that opened Saturday in violence-torn Burkina Faso’s capital goes beyond that to also offer hope, and a symbol of endurance: In years of political strife and Islamic extremist attacks, which killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million in the West African country, it’s never been canceled. “We only have FESPACO left to prevent us from thinking about what’s going on,” said Maimouna Ndiaye, a Burkinabe actress who has four submissions in this year’s competition. “This is the event that must not be canceled…
Veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert was the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, taking the prize for his film “On the Adamant,” a poignant observational study of a Paris mental health care facility. https://youtu.be/b43bHQb0UFE He received the award from jury president Kristen Stewart, after the star offered an extended and plainly heartfelt ode to the film’s humanity and simplicity: “People have gone in circles for thousands of years trying to pin down what can be deemed art, who’s allowed to do it and what determines its value,” she said, citing the boundary-pushing nature of the festival, and…
Maryam Keshavarz’s sophomore feature, “The Persian Version,” premiered with pizzazz at Sundance this year. In-person screenings – even those starting at eight in the morning! – saw packed theaters, inviting audiences to laugh (and cry) each time. In this ode to the director’s own family, Keshavarz maps out the relational entanglements of a lesbian, Iranian American woman (played by fresh faces Layla Mohammadi and Chiara Stella) born to a household of seven boys, who — by some off-chance one-night-stand — becomes pregnant. In this heartfelt mother-daughter tale, Keshavarz invites her audiences on a rollercoaster of tenderness and tough love that…
LOS ANGELES – They only each run about three minutes, but in that short time “soundies” are helping to preserve Black history from decades ago. Soundies were short films often depicting a musical performance that could run before or after feature films in movie houses around the nation. The reels, many of which were made in the 1940s, typically featured musicians of all races, but they are particularly significant for preserving performances from Black luminaries like Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Cab Calloway and Fats Waller in the prime of their careers. For Black performers, soundies were an opportunity for exposure…
For our first edition of the I, Immigrant International Online Film Festival, organized by Cinema Without Borders Foundation,” we received 449 submissions. The CWBF Selection Committee chose 33 films and from those films, two programmers, assigned by CWBF, nominated 17 films to receive the “I, Immigrant’s Best Film Awards.” The jury awards of $1,000, $600, and $400 will be given to the top three I, Immigrant International Online Film Festival, respectively. The I, Immigrant International Film Festival is a competition film series launched by the Cinema Without Borders Foundation, dedicated to social justice cinema. Beginning with Season One: I, Immigrant…
Last week, Masoumeh Jahanbin, an Iranian artist participated in a group exhibition at Ehsan Art Gallery in Tehran. ‘Root in the Sky’ is one of her paintings in the ‘My Roots’ Collection. The composition of this artwork is changeable in two different forms which shows a union in one way and in another way indicates a separation. The exhibition title was ‘Self Portrait’ and Jan 25, 2023, was the last day of it. https://vimeo.com/794917529 Masoumeh Jahanbin started her artistic activities with painting in 1994. She entered the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University with a sculpture major and through her…