(A LETTER TO UNCLE BONMEE, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
September is only 9 days old, and already the pace of the worldwide film scene is in high gear. As the Venice International Film Festival goes into its final weekend, the excitement is just starting today at the Toronto International Film Festival. Add to that an excellent regional event on the lux island of Martha's Vineyard in Cape Cod, the Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival (www.mvfilmsociety.org), a...
Aspen Film announces today the selections that will be screening at the 32nd annual Aspen Filmfest, a five-day feast of film and fall color that will be held September 29 - October 3, 2010. With an emphasis on independent productions from around the world and a uniquely intimate scale, the festival champions filmmaking at its finest for film lovers and filmmakers alike. Screenings will be held at the historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen and at the Crystal Theatre in Carbondale, and tickets will...
The Jury Award (worth € 7,500) at the inaugural World Cinema Amsterdam festival was awarded to Juntos by Nicolás Pereda (Mexico). Honey (Bal) by Semih Kaplanoğlu from Turkey (also winner of a Golden Bear in 2010) took the World Cinema Amsterdam NTR Broadcast Award, consisting of acquisition and a television broadcast, worth € 10,000. Honey (Bal) will be broadcast by NTR in the 2010/2011 season. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) was given ...
On Thursday, August 19, 2010, shooting begins in Berlin for Mother’s Little Helper; a short film about what happens when dieting goes wild. The film is one of five projects that have made it to the final of the Berlin Today Award 2011 – the Berlinale Talent Campus short film competition. 150 young filmmakers from 55 countries responded to the call for projects that address the competition’s motto “Leaving the familiar sector”, to be realised in collaboration with producers from the Ber...
CAMERADO (www.camerado.com), an innovative production and media group working in Asia, has just wrapped the 1st edition of the BANGKOK INDIEFEST (www.bangkokfest.com), the first international film event to take place in Bangkok since the end of the 'Red Shirt' Protests.
An excerpt from a message to participating filmmakers reveals the incredible challenges involved in producing this year's event:
"Just a little over two months ago, the 'Red Shirt' protest situation here in Bangkok...
Director: Timothy Syrota.
A young woman has a nightmare about the killing of her father by soldiers in a mountain village in Burma. She wakes up. She is in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. She has already been here for 6 years but still her mind is not here. Instead, it drifts between the realities of refugee life and dreams and day-dreams about Burma and a life she used to live. She is with her childhood buffalo friend, Zu Zu Ma, she has imaginary conversations with her fishermen friends, and she dreams of the family she used to have. Burmese Dreaming combines a composed musical score with a non-fiction narrative scripted by refugees from Umphiem Mai refugee camp and based on the story of Say Say Lah, a young woman who was imprisoned by the Burmese military at age 5. Footage for Burmese Dreaming has been filmed throughout Burma including areas held by the Karen National Liberation Army, as well as in the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. This is the first feature documentary of author, director and international award winning photojournalist Timothy Syrota.
ERA New Horizons International Film Festival, named by the Polish Film Institute as the most significant film event in the country, is in full swing in the historic city of Wroclaw. Festivities began on July 22nd with the Polish Premiere of the Festival's opener Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Winner, Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) by Xavier Beauvois. That same evening also saw the screening of a second French film, the kaleidoscopic Enter the Void, the latest masterpiece ...
Detailed schedule and more info coming soon...
Selections for BANGKOK INDIEFEST 1.0 www.bangkokfest.com August 6-8 2553 BANGKOK, Thailand
Note: Schedule TBA; additional films may be added
10 Years to Nashville Katarzyna Trzaska
34 & Park Cameron Pearson
Amexica Ron Krauss
Born to Be Alive Alexander Felsing & Tobias Sparrman
Broken ...
Lower than expected theater attendance, a reluctance to travel to "town" to view movies, a need by organizers to cut financial losses by releasing screening equipment early (equipment that was costing nearly 30,000 Baht a day) shortening the Festival to 7 days from 10 and underfunding, (Festival was supported by one private sector source with only a 300,000 Baht grant from the Thai government) all led to the poor performance of the 2010 Phuket Film Festival.
Due to t...
Del Shores’ Yellow in West Hollywood by Marla LewinThis is Del Shores first new play in seven years! There is something so special about going to the opening night, and a World Premiere, because the living author/playwright/director/producer brings an emotional, engaging new play alive. With of course the help of so many great artists actors and his other producers. There is something so exciting when all of this comes together and the chemistry all works. It is magical.So what does one w...
Despite cloud covered skies, the torrential rains have ceased for the moment and things are looking up for the Phuket Film Festival. After reorganizing its schedule and having to drop some films from its line-up due to a decision to release projection equipment as a cost saving measure, tickets have begun to sell and special events are seeing a good turnout of patrons. Meet the Directors at Capt Yamu featuring New York based, Hollywood Director Darnell Martin ("Cadillac Records") was plagued by ...
The security to get into the film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives from Thailand at the Palais was extremely tight. When you are at Cannes one feels cut off from outside news. Yet we had heard of the burning of two theatres in Thailand during the latest protests. That situation and this movie, make other films we have seen here almost surreal.
Uncle Boonmee is a story of ghosts and Buddhist ritual. It is set in modern day in the country where a man is preparing to d...
The "Festival Awards Winners" includes films which have already managed to win audience`s hearts in Amsterdam, Leipzig or Jihlava and are presented for the first time to the Polish audience.50th Krakow Film Festival begins in two weeks: May 31st and June 6th.SIX WEEKS, dir. Marcin Janos Krawczyk, Poland 2009, 18’Six weeks – that much time is left for mothers to change their decision about giving a child to adoption. Meanwhile, newly born babies are taken to day care centres and wait for the ...
SIX WEEKS, dir. Marcin Janos Krawczyk, Poland 2009, 18’Six weeks – that much time is left for mothers to change their decision about giving a child to adoption. Meanwhile, newly born babies are taken to day care centres and wait for the course of events. LAST TRAIN HOME, dir. Lixin Fan, Canada / China, 2009, 85’More than 130 mln Chinese people work far away from home. They come back once a year – to celebrate the Chinese New Year`s Day. Qin`s parents are among those who left their childr...
Take Your Seat at the Phuket Film Festival June 4 – 13Thailand has recently undergone some traumatic events which lay heavy in the minds of its people. Lose of life and property damage in Bangkok was tragic. But things have returned to normal and it is time to Bring Back the Smile to Thailand. Tourism accounts for 6-7% of total GNP in this country which has slowed to a trickle in the past few months because of the Bangkok disturbances. But we need you to come back; tourists need to return to e...
by Marla LewinThe security to get into the film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives from Thailand at the Palais was extremely tight. When you are at Cannes one feels cut off from outside news. Yet we had heard of the burning of two theatres in Thailand during the latest protests. That situation and this movie, make other films we have seen here almost surreal.Uncle Boonmee is a story of ghosts and Buddhist ritual. It is set in modern day in the country where a man is preparing to ...
Despite Red Shirt protests, lack of government support, and a diminishing pool of potentialsponsors, one emerging Bangkok-based movie festival is determined to carry on.The new Bangkok IndieFest (www.bangkokfest.com), slated for August 4-8 of this year, wasset into motion as a grass-roots undertaking by Thai and International organizers last August,when times in Thailand were relatively untroubled.Since then, hundreds of international and local filmmakers have submitted their work, eagerto scree...
With just 4 weeks to go, the Phuket Film Festival which runs June 4 – 13 is firming up its film lineup. An eclectic grouping of award winning festival films, the Festival kicks off with the Italian romantic drama, "Per Sophia". Director Ilaria Paganelli will attend screenings of her film. Paresh Mokashi's debut film, Harishchchandrachi Factory will be the Festival's Opening Film. "Factory" was the Indian submission to the 2010 Academy Awards Foreign Language Films category. Mokashi's film also...
Further to Wilson Ip's last piece of work, the festival has presented 72 films from a range of 9 different Asian genres.
UDINE - The great festival will be closed on Saturday 1st May by Wilson Yip's highly anticipated Ip Man 2, on the screen at Far East Film as an International Premiere (thanks to the collaboration with Mandarin Film). After having enchanted the Udinese audience in 2009 with his first title, triumphing also at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Wilson Yip therefore ad...
The Phuket Film Festival will screen acclaimed Thai director Yuthlert Sippapak's Friday Killer as its closing film, Sunday, June 13 2010. This will be a World Premier for director Sippapak's first movie in The Killers Trilogy.Director, writer, and producer Yuthlert Sippapak has received international recognition for his daring visual style and unconventional screenwriting. His film credits include Killer Tattoo (2001), February (2003), and Buppah Rahtree (2003) which is one of Thailand’s highe...
23rd April to 1st May 2010 - Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine” and the Visionario UDINE FAR EAST FILM 12 The Udine Festival is granted, for its launch on the 23rd April, the World Premiere of Dream Home, the highly anticipated slasher by Pang Ho-cheung! 15th March 2010 UDINE – The highly anticipated World Premiere of Dream Home by Pang Ho-cheung will be the film to open the late-night section of Far East Film 12, during the Festival’s o...
The 2nd edition of the Phuket Film Festival which runs June 4 - 13 on the beautiful resort island of Phuket, Thailand is pleased to announce its Opening Film will be the Asian premiere of Indian director Paresh Mokashi's debut film, Harishchchandrachi Factory. Director Mokashi will attend.
Harishchchandrachi Factory was India's entry to the 2010 Oscars in the Foreign Language Film category.
The quirky, light hearted film depicts the struggle of Dadasaheb Phalke, the...
Rap music and urban renewal aren't the only things Brooklyn, New York, and the Dutch city of Rotterdam have in common. Both advance a version of the Rotterdam film festival.On March 3-9, 2010, a month after curtains closed at the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam (January 27—February 7), the Brooklyn Academy of Music rolls out Rap music and urban renewal aren't the only things Brooklyn, New York, and the Dutch city of Rotterdam have in common. Both advance a version of the Rotterdam f...
Missoula, MT - The judges of the seventh annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival have selected this years award winning films in the four competitive categories: Best Feature, Big Sky Award, Best Short Film and Best Mini Doc (under 15 minutes). The awards were announced Thursday evening at the awards ceremony at The Loft in downtown Missoula.
The Best Feature Award was given to Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan for Last Train Home. The emotionally gripping film draws us into t...
Director: Tony Clark.
Peter and his parents arrive on their holiday hut in the idyllic Tyrolean Alps. Although seemingly a happy family, not everything is well under the picture-perfect surface. Peter's parents are unusually quiet, father seems tense and mother is becoming more and more distant. Something is wrong, yet Peter isn't let in on the cause. One fine day his father sets out for an unexpected hike in the mountains, taking the boy with him. As they walk towards the snowy peak of the mountain, the truth that has been carefully kept from Peter is slowly revealed...
