Author: Robin Menken

Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.

The 19th Annual Arab Film Festival (AFF) plays the San Francisco Bay Area from October 16-25, then moves on to Los Angeles on November 13–15. Villa Touma will open the LA edition of the Festival at the Harmony Gold, Friday, November 13, 8pm then plays San Diego, November 20–22.AFF was founded in 1996 to transform the way people see the world through Arab film, and to AFF foster a space for independent Arab filmmakers to screen their work for the public.AFF seeks to enhance understanding of Arab culture, to provide alternative representations of Arabs and to counterbalance to the stereotypes…

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International Short Film Festival! Animation Libation Studios & Animation Magazine present The World Animation Celebration international short film animation festival hosted by Sony Pictures Animation. The event will take place for two days on October 24 and 25 at Sony Pictures Animation, 9050 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, California. Animation Magazine, is the leading magazine promoting the business, art, and technology of animation globally. Animation Libation Studios makes it possible for newly emerging artists to work hand-in-hand with seasoned industry professionals from around the world. Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for audiences around the…

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The festival was created by “Heavenly Nomadic” producer Sadyk Sher-Niyaz to bring a broad selection of Asian world cinema to Los Angeles, drawing greater recognition to the region’s filmmakers and strengthening ties between the Asian and Hollywood film industries.Sadyk Sher-Niyaz is the Chairman of the Union of Filmmakers of Kyrgyzstan, the founder of the Aitysh Public Fund, and one of the founders of the Ak Ilbers Film Awards. In 2011 he founded the International Film Festival ‘Kyrgyzstan – Land of Short Films’, held every December in the capital of Bishkek. His directorial debut film ‘Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains’,…

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The Hollywood Film Festival (HFF) 2015 was the second edition since the festival was acquired last year by Jon Fitzgerald and Brad Parks’ philanthropic body Cinecause. The new festival now promotes socially conscious films.The state of the art ArcLight Theater in Hollywood played host to the festival which ran from September 23-27. This year’s team of CEO/Executive Producer Brad Parks and Executive Director Rod Beaudoin selected 85 projects from an unprecedented 3,019 submissions, including films from James Franco and “Orange is the New Black” star Uzo Aduba.Under Parks’ guidance, the festival transitioned toward socially relevant films anchored in causes and…

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“Theeb”, Jordan’s entry for this year’s Foreign Language Film, is set in the desert of southern Jordan in 1916 during the Arab Revolt (that brought Lawrence of Arabia his fame).The beautifully shot film feels like Like a British Boy’s Own Adventure story- bedouin style, or a short story by Honore de Balzac Theeb (Jacir Eid Al- Hwietat)) is the youngest of three sons of the dead Sheik, a family of Pilgrim Guides who traditionally lead pilgrims across the desert to Mecca,Lessons from their father appears in titles before the credit sequence, a legacy for the recently orphaned three brothers.Theeb means…

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“Xenia” is Greece’s Official Oscar Submission. Panos H. Koutras’s road movie, about two recently orphaned Patty Pravo obsessed brothers, premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was seen in LA at the 2015 Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF)Flamboyantly gay 15-year-old Dany (Kostas Nikouli), a part time hustler with a pet white rabbit, leaves Crete after his Albanian mother, once a successful pop singer,dies. He goes to Athens to find his older brother, hunky Odysseus or Ody (Nikos Gelia), tell him about her death, and coach him for a nationally televised Singing contest. Charismatic Dany is a chatty, acting…

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Unlike countless Improv shows that ask for audience suggestions, take too many and seem to avoid the challenging suggestions, the group asked for two suggestions and ran with them. The category- a family Heirloom and why it was important. A woman suggested the mystifying pressed glasses, which appeared as a throwaway joke later in the show. I suggested a Lucite Ukulele, the only one of it’s kind, and we took to sea, in a musical set on a Cruise Ship. Guest Musical director, brilliant pianist Matthew Loren Cohen galloped through Sondheim’s signature musical tricks: the rapid swings from dissonant to consonant…

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The Psycho sexuality behind transvestitism has been haunting films since jaye Davison’s surprise turn in “The Crying Game” and would seem to be played out; yet Francois Ozun has found a novel way to address it in his genre bending “The New Girlfriend.”Uneven but consistently amusing, François Ozon’s “The New Girlfriend” is a sort of guilty pleasure. In a way, Ozon’s bitten off more than he can chew, balancing a creepy neo-Patricia Highsmith ambiance, a cross dressing comedy, and a series of charged sexual double crossed fantasies. Ozun homages Otto Preminger’s “Laura”, Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in several plot arcs. Philippe Rombi’s score…

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Film producers Meire Fernandes and Nazareno Paulo are the visionaries behind the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival. Their latest production “Colors of Love” a narrative short about Autism, will be screened during the Special Screenings – USA on Tuesday, September 15th @ 4:15pm | Regent TheaterNow in its eighth year, the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival is recognized as the most prestigious Brazilian film festival outside Brazil.LABRFF, 2015 runs from September 13 to 16. Opening night will be presented at Harmony Gold. All other screenings take place at Landmark Regent theatre in Westwood.Showcasing the best in new Brazilian cinema and…

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Screenwriter Kurt Sutter’s screenplay, a remake of the classic “The Champ” (Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper) can’t help itself. Every fight film since “The Champ” uses the same arc: a counted out fighter fights his way back to title\holder and personal redemption.Think of all the fight pictures, which escapes these hoary clichés? None.Under the capable direction of Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”), peppered with knowing fight details and featuring a committed performance from Jake Gyllenhaal (with exception of “Nightcrawler”, his best in years) the film grips.Originally written as a vehicle for Eminem after his role in “8 Mile”, the film was…

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