As I write this report, oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, despite the many highly qualified scientists, environmentalists, engineers, technicians, politicians, activists, and volunteers all trying to control this catastrophe. Add numerous other human emergencies going on day-after-day around the world to this major environmental disaster and you can start feeling helpless and hopeless. But, turn around and take a look at some of the entries of this year’s HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, and there is actually some light at the end of the tunnel. A plethora of dedicated and talented filmmakers display their work,…
Browsing: Festivals
2010 Palm Springs International ShortFest Film Festival and Market starts next week. Cinema Without Borders’ Editor in Chief had a interview with Darryl Macdonald, director of the ShortFest about 2010 festival. Bijan Tehrani: What can we expect to see at this year’s festival?Darryl Macdonald: That’s a big topic; firstly the live action shorts that we received this year were more polished than the work that we had seen in the past. The use of the new technology on the market has really given great power to filmmaker to realize their visions on screen without making compromises. Certainly the animated shorts…
The 16th Annual Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) has moved to it’s new Downtown digs, prepared to bring some glam to LA’s aggressive downtown revival. LAFF will present 200-plus films (narratives, docs, shorts and music videos) from more than 40 countries.The fest opens Thursday, June 17 with Lisa Cholodenko’s comedy-drama “The Kids Are All Right”, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo (a crowd-pleasure at Sundance) and closes with the Steve Carrell animated comedy “Despicable Me” on June 27. The majority of the screenings will take place at L.A.Live’s 14-screen Regal Cinemas. REDCAT, Downtown Independent, the Orpheum and California…
Last week we interviewed the Director of The Los Angeles Film Festival, Rebecca Yeldham about the 2010 Festival. Rebecca has built a career championing films and filmmakers as a producer, festival programmer and production and acquisition executive. Yeldham recently produced THE KITE RUNNER, directed by Marc Forster (nominated for 2008 BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards), LINHA DE PASSE, directed by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas (winner best actress 2008 Cannes Film Festival), and the upcoming release ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, directed by first timer Sacha Gervasi (2008 Sundance Film Festival, 2009 SXSW and Spirit Award nominee and Audience Award…
Didn’t make it to Cannes? So Cannes is coming to you. The Karlovy Vary IFF will present an impressive collection of the awarded films from the Cannes festival in its traditional Open Eyes section. These include the winners of the Grand Prix and Best Screenplay, the Jury Prize and Best Actress. And many of their creators are no strangers to Karlovy Vary audiences because the KVIFF has already presented their previous work. Moviegoers in Karlovy Vary will see the French film Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) from director Xavier Beauvois, which took the Grand Prix, i.e.…
Los Angeles Greek Film Festival opens on June 11, 2010 and runs until June 13th. International Film fans find a unique opportunity to see the best films of Greek cinema and meet a few of the Greek film directors during the Festival. To learn more about Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, we spoke to Ersi Danou Festival Co-Founder and Matt Bolish, Director of Programming of the Festival.Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us a little bit about the background of the Festival and you involvement in it.Ersi Danou: The Festival started in 2007, we felt that there was no Greek Film presence…
The second annual Hola Mexico Film Festival (HMFF), the world’s largest tribute to Mexican Film wraps up a triumphant six city tour this weekend in New York at the QUAD Cinema,34 West, 13th St. Director Samuel Douek’s diverse programming celebrates Mexican Cinema in all its charm and artistry at a time when younger directors are creating a Mexican film renaissance. A MUST SEE!I was tipped to see the following titles which I missed in LA: “The Half Of The World,” Love on a WKND” and the anthology film “It Happens In One Day” which includes a short, made in 24…
The 45th Karlovy Vary festival will present a complete retrospective of the films of distinguished Czech director and thinker Karel Vachek. The filmmaker, who turns 70 this year, studied at Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU), and his graduation work Moravian Hellas (1963) had a difficult turn with the public because of its nonconformist character. In 1968 he shot Elective Affinities focusing on the participants of Prague Spring. Vachek returned to documentaries after the revolution of 1989, winning the prestigious Berlinale Camera a year later. Vachek’s seminal work of the period is the “Little Capitalist” tetralogy, which focuses on the newly forming…
For the past two weeks, the news was filled with world-impacting events: first the outbreak of the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, then the explosion of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, furthermore the total collapse of the Greek economy plus a SUV loaded with explosives on Times Square – all of this framing the 9th Tribeca Film Festival. So, there will be plenty of new material to explore for next year’s festival! But – returning to this year’s edition: the following report will feature a few festival favorites – by the press, the professional juries, the public, and me…
There are a number of ways to work through a festival program. One can look at the different festival sections, divide between the main program and the sidebars, report about the films that were picked up for distribution, write about the works one really liked (or not at all), group the film into common themes, search for an overarching focus, or simply write about entries from one specific country — which is what follows – a review of the German entries at this year’s Tribeca International Film Festival. A second report will look at some of the highlights from this…