Paris-based distributor Arp Selection has acquired French rights for Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Oscar nominee Schrader wrote and directed the film, which reunites him with Richard Gere some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, with other members of the cast including Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Schrader has adapted the drama from late writer Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a renowned documentary maker with secrets from the past. It is Schrader’s second adaptation of a work by Banks, after 1997 mystery thriller Affliction, starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.
“We’ve been long-time admirers of Paul Schrader’s work and devout readers of Russell Banks’ books,” said Arp Selection head Michèle Halberstadt.
“Oh, Canada is the reunion of two masters, and also a reunion between Paul Schrader and Richard Gere,...
Oscar nominee Schrader wrote and directed the film, which reunites him with Richard Gere some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, with other members of the cast including Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Schrader has adapted the drama from late writer Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a renowned documentary maker with secrets from the past. It is Schrader’s second adaptation of a work by Banks, after 1997 mystery thriller Affliction, starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.
“We’ve been long-time admirers of Paul Schrader’s work and devout readers of Russell Banks’ books,” said Arp Selection head Michèle Halberstadt.
“Oh, Canada is the reunion of two masters, and also a reunion between Paul Schrader and Richard Gere,...
- 4/30/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
French distributor Arp has picked up all French rights Paul Schrader’s new film Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in competition in Cannes next month.
The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.
David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...
The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.
Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.
David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...
- 4/30/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Starring Barbara Crampton and Rachel Michiko Whitney, we have an exclusive clip from Snow Valley! The film is the directorial debut of the late Brandon Murphy, and is now available from Gravitas Ventures, who had recently acquired Snow Valley from Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures.
"Written and directed by Murphy (Hitman’S Wife’S Bodyguard), the film stars Barbara Crampton (Re-animator), Rachel Michiko Whitney (The Card Counter), Cooper van Grootel (One Of US Is Lying), Tom Williamson (All Cheerleaders Die), David Lambert (The Fosters), Paige Elkington (Relationship Status), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (The Road Dance).
In this psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple's swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house's dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
Snow Valley was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub, Rachel Michiko Whitney, and executive produced by Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit.
"Written and directed by Murphy (Hitman’S Wife’S Bodyguard), the film stars Barbara Crampton (Re-animator), Rachel Michiko Whitney (The Card Counter), Cooper van Grootel (One Of US Is Lying), Tom Williamson (All Cheerleaders Die), David Lambert (The Fosters), Paige Elkington (Relationship Status), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (The Road Dance).
In this psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple's swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house's dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
Snow Valley was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub, Rachel Michiko Whitney, and executive produced by Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit.
- 3/26/2024
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Genre icon Barbara Crampton makes sure to keep busy in the horror world. As we covered earlier today, a character with her voice and likeness will soon be added to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game, and now a trailer for another Crampton project – the horror film Snow Valley – has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above. Gravitas Ventures holds the worldwide rights to Snow Valley and are planning to give the film a March 26th release.
The feature directorial debut of writer Brandon Murphy, who sadly passed away while the movie was in post-production, Snow Valley tells the following story: A newly engaged couple’s swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
Crampton, whose credits include Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and Suitable Flesh,...
The feature directorial debut of writer Brandon Murphy, who sadly passed away while the movie was in post-production, Snow Valley tells the following story: A newly engaged couple’s swank ski weekend goes horribly awry, when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
Crampton, whose credits include Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and Suitable Flesh,...
- 3/8/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to Uinta Productions and Paper Street Pictures’ “Snow Valley,” the directorial debut from the late Brandon Murphy.
Murphy, who died in January 2022, was the screenwriter for “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” He also wrote the script for “Snow Valley,” which was in post production at the time of his death.
The film stars Barbara Crampton (“Re-Animator”), Rachel Michiko Whitney (“The Card Counter”), Cooper van Grootel (“One Of Us Is Lying”), Tom Williamson (“All Cheerleaders Die”), David Lambert (“The Fosters”), Paige Elkington (“Relationship Status”), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (“The Road Dance”).
In the psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple’s swanky ski weekend goes horribly awry when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
“Snow Valley” was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub and Michiko Whitney. Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit executive produced.
Murphy, who died in January 2022, was the screenwriter for “Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.” He also wrote the script for “Snow Valley,” which was in post production at the time of his death.
The film stars Barbara Crampton (“Re-Animator”), Rachel Michiko Whitney (“The Card Counter”), Cooper van Grootel (“One Of Us Is Lying”), Tom Williamson (“All Cheerleaders Die”), David Lambert (“The Fosters”), Paige Elkington (“Relationship Status”), and Ali Fumiko Whitney (“The Road Dance”).
In the psychological thriller, a newly engaged couple’s swanky ski weekend goes horribly awry when an unexpected guest arrives and the house’s dark supernatural forces begin to rise on the anniversary of a tragic event.
“Snow Valley” was produced by Chris Abernathy, Aaron B. Koontz, Justice Laub and Michiko Whitney. Andrea Chung and Solco Schuit executive produced.
- 3/1/2024
- by Katcy Stephan
- Variety Film + TV
Arclight Films will represent international sales at the EFM on Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael, and Jacob Elordi.
Schrader wrote and directed the film based on Russell Banks’s 2021 novel titled Foregone and reunites with Gere, who starred in the filmmaker’s seminal 1980 mystery drama American Gigolo
Oh, Canada depicts the story of famed documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, an American leftist who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
As Fife battles cancer in Montreal during his twilight years, he agrees to a final interview and makes a...
Schrader wrote and directed the film based on Russell Banks’s 2021 novel titled Foregone and reunites with Gere, who starred in the filmmaker’s seminal 1980 mystery drama American Gigolo
Oh, Canada depicts the story of famed documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, an American leftist who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
As Fife battles cancer in Montreal during his twilight years, he agrees to a final interview and makes a...
- 2/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
Arclight Films has boarded Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” starring Jacob Elordi and Richard Gere, and will launch sales at the upcoming European Film Market.
Along with Elordi and Gere, who worked with Schrader on his cult movie “American Gigolo” more than 40 years ago, the cast of “Oh Canada” also includes Michael Imperioli and Uma Thurman. WME Independent is co-repping domestic rights with Gonzales.
“Oh, Canada” is based on the 2021 searing novel “Foregone,” written by bestselling author Russell Banks. The film depicts the story of famed documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, an American leftist who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
“As Fife battles cancer in Montreal during his twilight years, he agrees to a final interview,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Intent on revealing his long-guarded secrets and demystifying his mythologized life, Fife’s shocking confession unfolds amidst the presence of his wife,...
Along with Elordi and Gere, who worked with Schrader on his cult movie “American Gigolo” more than 40 years ago, the cast of “Oh Canada” also includes Michael Imperioli and Uma Thurman. WME Independent is co-repping domestic rights with Gonzales.
“Oh, Canada” is based on the 2021 searing novel “Foregone,” written by bestselling author Russell Banks. The film depicts the story of famed documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, an American leftist who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
“As Fife battles cancer in Montreal during his twilight years, he agrees to a final interview,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Intent on revealing his long-guarded secrets and demystifying his mythologized life, Fife’s shocking confession unfolds amidst the presence of his wife,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Lorenza Izzo will star in Bowery Hill Entertainment’s feature Women Is Losers from Tribeca Institute and NYU Alum, Lissette Feliciano. Production is already underway in San Francisco.
Izzo, who was recently seen in the $131M-plus grossing Amblin feature The House With a Clock in its Walls, and stars next in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood plays Celina, a young Latina whose promising future is cut short with an unexpected pregnancy during the mid 1970s in San Francisco. Against all odds, while working multiple jobs, this young single mother, daughter of South American immigrants, fights the system and becomes a successful landowner. This was during a time when women’s salaries were half of a man’s and single mothers weren’t given loans (which unfortunately remains the same today).
“As a Latina woman going through a transformational process myself, this is an incredibly...
Izzo, who was recently seen in the $131M-plus grossing Amblin feature The House With a Clock in its Walls, and stars next in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood plays Celina, a young Latina whose promising future is cut short with an unexpected pregnancy during the mid 1970s in San Francisco. Against all odds, while working multiple jobs, this young single mother, daughter of South American immigrants, fights the system and becomes a successful landowner. This was during a time when women’s salaries were half of a man’s and single mothers weren’t given loans (which unfortunately remains the same today).
“As a Latina woman going through a transformational process myself, this is an incredibly...
- 2/12/2019
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Fortitude International to launch sales in Cannes.
Fortitude International will introduce international buyers in Cannes to The Medusa starring Jesse Eisenberg, Pierce Brosnan and Vanessa Redgrave.
Peter Webber will direct his second film based on a renowned work of art after 2003’s Girl With A Pearl Earring, named after the painting by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.
The Medusa stars Eisenberg as Theodore Gericault, the early 19th century pioneer of the French Romantic movement whose masterpiece The Raft Of The Medusa was inspired by the sinking of a French frigate.
Survivors of the wreck spoke of incompetence and cannibalism and the painting stirred anti-royalist sentiment at the time of King Louis Xviii’s rule.
Brosnan will portray Gericault’s uncle Caruel, the artist’s nemesis who is hell-bent on ruining him, while Redgrave plays the painter’s anti-royalist innkeeper.
Sophia Al-Maria adapted the screenplay from Jonathan Miles’s book The Wreck Of The Medusa.
Production...
Fortitude International will introduce international buyers in Cannes to The Medusa starring Jesse Eisenberg, Pierce Brosnan and Vanessa Redgrave.
Peter Webber will direct his second film based on a renowned work of art after 2003’s Girl With A Pearl Earring, named after the painting by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.
The Medusa stars Eisenberg as Theodore Gericault, the early 19th century pioneer of the French Romantic movement whose masterpiece The Raft Of The Medusa was inspired by the sinking of a French frigate.
Survivors of the wreck spoke of incompetence and cannibalism and the painting stirred anti-royalist sentiment at the time of King Louis Xviii’s rule.
Brosnan will portray Gericault’s uncle Caruel, the artist’s nemesis who is hell-bent on ruining him, while Redgrave plays the painter’s anti-royalist innkeeper.
Sophia Al-Maria adapted the screenplay from Jonathan Miles’s book The Wreck Of The Medusa.
Production...
- 5/11/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Plus: Glass Eye Pix, Dogfish wrap ‘Like Me’; FilmRise acquires ‘The Witness’; and more…
Professional dancer Krystal Ellswort, rising South Indian star Amitash Pradhan, Paul McGillion and Daphne Zuniga have joined Myriad Pictures, Das Films and Bowery Hills Entertainment’s Heartbeats. Myriad will handle sales in Berlin.
Writer-director Duane Adler has begun production in Mumbai on the tale of a feisty female American hip hop dancer who travels with her family to India and falls in love with a young man and a new style of dance.
Justin Chon, Salman Yussuf Khan, Kishori Shahane and Mohan Kapur round out the cast. Producers are Sriram Das, Andrea Chung and Karine Martin. Myriad’s Kirk D’Amico serves as executive producer alongside Julie Stadler and CEO Brian Williams of co-financier Dance Network.
Glass Eye Pix and Dogfish Pictures have wrapped principal photography on Like Me, a neo-noir starring Addison Timlin as a discontented loner who documents her crime spree through...
Professional dancer Krystal Ellswort, rising South Indian star Amitash Pradhan, Paul McGillion and Daphne Zuniga have joined Myriad Pictures, Das Films and Bowery Hills Entertainment’s Heartbeats. Myriad will handle sales in Berlin.
Writer-director Duane Adler has begun production in Mumbai on the tale of a feisty female American hip hop dancer who travels with her family to India and falls in love with a young man and a new style of dance.
Justin Chon, Salman Yussuf Khan, Kishori Shahane and Mohan Kapur round out the cast. Producers are Sriram Das, Andrea Chung and Karine Martin. Myriad’s Kirk D’Amico serves as executive producer alongside Julie Stadler and CEO Brian Williams of co-financier Dance Network.
Glass Eye Pix and Dogfish Pictures have wrapped principal photography on Like Me, a neo-noir starring Addison Timlin as a discontented loner who documents her crime spree through...
- 1/21/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Myriad Pictures and Das Films have signed an exclusive deal with Us-based Dance Network on the upcoming dance feature Heartbeats that Myriad is selling at Afm.
Duane Adler, the creator behind Step Up, Step Up 2 and Save The Last Dance, will direct from his screenplay.
The story follows a feisty female American hip-hop dancer who travels to India with her family for a wedding and falls in love with a new style of dance and the young man who introduces it to her.
Dance Network is the first Ott subscription-based streaming-video service devoted entirely to dance programming.
Sriram Das produces through Das Films alongside Karine Martin through Mediabiz, Andrea Chung and Dileep Singh Rathore of On The Road India.
Duane Adler, the creator behind Step Up, Step Up 2 and Save The Last Dance, will direct from his screenplay.
The story follows a feisty female American hip-hop dancer who travels to India with her family for a wedding and falls in love with a new style of dance and the young man who introduces it to her.
Dance Network is the first Ott subscription-based streaming-video service devoted entirely to dance programming.
Sriram Das produces through Das Films alongside Karine Martin through Mediabiz, Andrea Chung and Dileep Singh Rathore of On The Road India.
- 11/7/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Myriad Pictures and Das Films have signed an exclusive deal with Us-based Dance Network on the upcoming dance feature Heartbeats that Myriad is selling at Afm.
Duane Adler, the creator behind Step Up, Step Up 2 and Save The Last Dance, will direct from his screenplay.
The story follows a feisty female American hip-hop dancer who travels to India with her family for a wedding and falls in love with a new style of dance and the young man who introduces it to her.
Dance Network is the first Ott subscription-based streaming-video service devoted entirely to dance programming.
Sriram Das produces through Das Films alongside Karine Martin through Mediabiz, Andrea Chung and Dileep Singh Rathore of On The Road India.
Duane Adler, the creator behind Step Up, Step Up 2 and Save The Last Dance, will direct from his screenplay.
The story follows a feisty female American hip-hop dancer who travels to India with her family for a wedding and falls in love with a new style of dance and the young man who introduces it to her.
Dance Network is the first Ott subscription-based streaming-video service devoted entirely to dance programming.
Sriram Das produces through Das Films alongside Karine Martin through Mediabiz, Andrea Chung and Dileep Singh Rathore of On The Road India.
- 11/6/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Evan Peters is taking a room in Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Hotel. Also included in our latest round-up are details on The Girl in the Photographs, starring Kal Penn and executive produced by Wes Craven, as well as recently revealed photos from Fox's Scream Queens.
American Horror Story: Hotel: Ryan Murphy announced on Twitter today that Evan Peters has officially joined the cast of FX's American Horror Story: Hotel. Peters, a frequent American Horror Story actor, joins a cast that includes Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Matt Bomer, Cheyenne Jackson, Wes Bentley, and Chloë Sevigny.
This season, Evan Peters will be waiting for you in Room 64. #Ahshotel
— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) April 24, 2015
------------------
The Girl in the Photographs: Press Release -- "Los Angeles, CA (April 23, 2015) – Al-Ghanim Entertainment (Age), a specialty financing and production company founded by Kuwaiti industrialist Nawaf Alghanim, has announced today that Kal Penn...
American Horror Story: Hotel: Ryan Murphy announced on Twitter today that Evan Peters has officially joined the cast of FX's American Horror Story: Hotel. Peters, a frequent American Horror Story actor, joins a cast that includes Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Matt Bomer, Cheyenne Jackson, Wes Bentley, and Chloë Sevigny.
This season, Evan Peters will be waiting for you in Room 64. #Ahshotel
— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) April 24, 2015
------------------
The Girl in the Photographs: Press Release -- "Los Angeles, CA (April 23, 2015) – Al-Ghanim Entertainment (Age), a specialty financing and production company founded by Kuwaiti industrialist Nawaf Alghanim, has announced today that Kal Penn...
- 4/24/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Sundance: Kuwaiti industrialist Nawaf Alghanim announced in Park City on Friday (January 23) the formation of his Los Angeles and Kuwaiti-based financing and production company.
The Alghanim family, which owns international conglomerates and has ties to the majority of theatres in Kuwait, will back the new entity, set up to make two to four films a year budgeted up to $15m.
Alghanim (pictured, at top left) will serve as CEO and is joined by industry veterans and partners Andrea Chung, Krystal Tiffany Vayda and Brandon M Vayda.
Al-Ghanim Entertainment kicks off with The Girl In The Photographs from Wes Craven protégé Nick Simon. Alghanim will fully finance and produce and the project will shoot in British Columbia.
The Girl In The Photographs will be in a similar vein to Craven’s iconic Scream films and is set against the glamorous backdrop of the fashion world.
Craven serves as executive producer alongside the Vaydas and Alghanim. Thomas Mahoney produces...
The Alghanim family, which owns international conglomerates and has ties to the majority of theatres in Kuwait, will back the new entity, set up to make two to four films a year budgeted up to $15m.
Alghanim (pictured, at top left) will serve as CEO and is joined by industry veterans and partners Andrea Chung, Krystal Tiffany Vayda and Brandon M Vayda.
Al-Ghanim Entertainment kicks off with The Girl In The Photographs from Wes Craven protégé Nick Simon. Alghanim will fully finance and produce and the project will shoot in British Columbia.
The Girl In The Photographs will be in a similar vein to Craven’s iconic Scream films and is set against the glamorous backdrop of the fashion world.
Craven serves as executive producer alongside the Vaydas and Alghanim. Thomas Mahoney produces...
- 1/23/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Toronto-born child of Korean parents who left their homeland in the 1960s returns to Sundance after 1998 selection Miss Monday with a unique spin on the teen movie genre based on his own experiences.
Seoul Searching takes place in the South Korean capital in 1986 as a cosmopolitan gaggle of high school students born to expatriate Korean parents arrive for summer camp to reconnect with their roots.
Lee and Andrea Chung produced and Seoul Searching stars Justin Chon, Jessika Van, In-Pyo Cha, Teo Yoo, Esteban Ahn and Byul Kang.
Lee talks to Jeremy Kay about his homage to John Hughes and his own journey to self-discovery.
Wme Global and Preferred Content represent world rights. The film screens for press and industry on January 23 followed by the public world premiere in Premieres on January 30.
What was the inspiration for the story?
It’s based on a personal experience of mine that took place in 1986. My parents were from Seoul...
Seoul Searching takes place in the South Korean capital in 1986 as a cosmopolitan gaggle of high school students born to expatriate Korean parents arrive for summer camp to reconnect with their roots.
Lee and Andrea Chung produced and Seoul Searching stars Justin Chon, Jessika Van, In-Pyo Cha, Teo Yoo, Esteban Ahn and Byul Kang.
Lee talks to Jeremy Kay about his homage to John Hughes and his own journey to self-discovery.
Wme Global and Preferred Content represent world rights. The film screens for press and industry on January 23 followed by the public world premiere in Premieres on January 30.
What was the inspiration for the story?
It’s based on a personal experience of mine that took place in 1986. My parents were from Seoul...
- 1/22/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Reporting from Cartagena Film Festival.
Coproductions are increasing in Colombia.The French are participating as special guests at the Encuentros (Coproduction Meetings) this year but coproductions of the last four years have been with Germany, Norway, Spain in Europe as well as with Argentina, Peru and Uruguay. In 2013 the U.S. joined in as well.
There is a special relationship and notable variations on the coproduction theme between U.S. and Colombia. It doesn’t hurt that there is a direct flight on Jet Blue from N.Y. to Colombia , making travel less difficult to Colombia from the U.S. than it is from Europe.
Colombian directors such as Simon Brand (who lives in U.S.) are making English language genre films such as this year’s festival debuting Default which Wild Bunch has already sold in Hong Kong, the Middle East and the Netherlands. For budgets under Us$1 million, action, thrillers and horror genres can cross borders, and can recoup costs and even profit because they are in English and as such are perceived as more “Hollywood”, a positive marketing point.
There are other such coproductions: Gallows Hill coproduced with Peter Block’s L.A.-based A Bigger Boat, David and Angelique Higgins’ Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung of Bowery Hills Entertainment which has the further distinction of being sold internationally by Im Global. And there is Out of the Dark, a coproduction with the prestigious Participant. These are not represented at the festival, and so they are not really the subject of this blog.
The reverse is also notable. Four films screening at the Cartagena Film Festival are Colombian films made by Americans. Each one has been created by unique and different types of Americans. They are the subject of this blog.
The winner of three (3!) prizes here for Audience Favorite, Best Director and Best Picture, Marmato by Mark Grieco was work-shopped twice at Sundance labs and premiered at Sundance this January 2014 (Isa: Ro*co, U.S. contact Ben Weiss at Paradigm). Manos Sucias by Josef Wladyka is a film with great pedigrees, directed, produced and shot by a team who have received the highest film and business educations from Tisch and Stern Schools at Nyu, Parador Hungaro by Patrick Alexander and Aseneth Suarez Ruiz a work of passion made with love and sweat, and Mambo Cool by Chris Gude and uniquely beautiful and soulful study of a small part of the underbelly of the underworld in Medelin.
Following is an interview with Chris Gude, the director of Mambo Cool. Interviews will soon follow with the other three directors who came to Colombia and, because of their experiences here, decided to make these exceptional movies. With its 40% cash rebate, Colombia is a great place to make movies.
Mambo Cool
While only 60 minutes long, Mambo Cool stirred great interest in the beautiful and packed theater Teatro Adolfo Maijia Cine Colombia (Tam). In a unique impressionistic style, the depiction of a micro-ecology of the underbelly of Medellin. Colombia. At the core of the film is the connection between the characters' passion for mambo dancing, music and history. Drug dealers and drug takers, whores and salsa dancers spend time in the shadows, in rat-hole apartments or in a dance bar which actually exists in Medellin under the name El Bururu Barara, talking poetically and philosophically about the meaning of friendship vs. loyalty. The main salsero of this film gave us 5 minutes of dancing which I am going to post here as soon as I can figure out how.
I interviewed the filmmaker Chris Gude, an American who in 2006 came here to work with an Ngo for displaced persons, met and established a friendship with the people in this fiction film in Medellín. Chris lives in New York. He graduated from Middlebury and attended Columbia grad school in anthropology. Perhaps his anthropology interests were part of the inspiration for this work. He returned to make this film when his friends here suggested he return to make a movie that he wrote in close collaboration with the film’s protagonist, Jorge Gavidor and other protagonist-friends. Jorge, who is the bald guy in the film is self-described as an industrial mechanic and inventor. The dialogue is stylized to communicate the magic of the environment. Cinema veritè would not work to communicate what they wanted about the environment. Chris also says that the film does not come close to fully communicating the community and mythology of the place. But for me it captures an essential rhythm and soulful quality that kept me immersed in the story.
The film has shown in various festivals and has no sales or distribution representation. Fid Marseilles invited it to play and since then it has played at the Transinema Festival in Lima, Split Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, , Free Zone Festival in Belgrade, Serbia, Mar del Plata in Argentina and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
Coproductions are increasing in Colombia.The French are participating as special guests at the Encuentros (Coproduction Meetings) this year but coproductions of the last four years have been with Germany, Norway, Spain in Europe as well as with Argentina, Peru and Uruguay. In 2013 the U.S. joined in as well.
There is a special relationship and notable variations on the coproduction theme between U.S. and Colombia. It doesn’t hurt that there is a direct flight on Jet Blue from N.Y. to Colombia , making travel less difficult to Colombia from the U.S. than it is from Europe.
Colombian directors such as Simon Brand (who lives in U.S.) are making English language genre films such as this year’s festival debuting Default which Wild Bunch has already sold in Hong Kong, the Middle East and the Netherlands. For budgets under Us$1 million, action, thrillers and horror genres can cross borders, and can recoup costs and even profit because they are in English and as such are perceived as more “Hollywood”, a positive marketing point.
There are other such coproductions: Gallows Hill coproduced with Peter Block’s L.A.-based A Bigger Boat, David and Angelique Higgins’ Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung of Bowery Hills Entertainment which has the further distinction of being sold internationally by Im Global. And there is Out of the Dark, a coproduction with the prestigious Participant. These are not represented at the festival, and so they are not really the subject of this blog.
The reverse is also notable. Four films screening at the Cartagena Film Festival are Colombian films made by Americans. Each one has been created by unique and different types of Americans. They are the subject of this blog.
The winner of three (3!) prizes here for Audience Favorite, Best Director and Best Picture, Marmato by Mark Grieco was work-shopped twice at Sundance labs and premiered at Sundance this January 2014 (Isa: Ro*co, U.S. contact Ben Weiss at Paradigm). Manos Sucias by Josef Wladyka is a film with great pedigrees, directed, produced and shot by a team who have received the highest film and business educations from Tisch and Stern Schools at Nyu, Parador Hungaro by Patrick Alexander and Aseneth Suarez Ruiz a work of passion made with love and sweat, and Mambo Cool by Chris Gude and uniquely beautiful and soulful study of a small part of the underbelly of the underworld in Medelin.
Following is an interview with Chris Gude, the director of Mambo Cool. Interviews will soon follow with the other three directors who came to Colombia and, because of their experiences here, decided to make these exceptional movies. With its 40% cash rebate, Colombia is a great place to make movies.
Mambo Cool
While only 60 minutes long, Mambo Cool stirred great interest in the beautiful and packed theater Teatro Adolfo Maijia Cine Colombia (Tam). In a unique impressionistic style, the depiction of a micro-ecology of the underbelly of Medellin. Colombia. At the core of the film is the connection between the characters' passion for mambo dancing, music and history. Drug dealers and drug takers, whores and salsa dancers spend time in the shadows, in rat-hole apartments or in a dance bar which actually exists in Medellin under the name El Bururu Barara, talking poetically and philosophically about the meaning of friendship vs. loyalty. The main salsero of this film gave us 5 minutes of dancing which I am going to post here as soon as I can figure out how.
I interviewed the filmmaker Chris Gude, an American who in 2006 came here to work with an Ngo for displaced persons, met and established a friendship with the people in this fiction film in Medellín. Chris lives in New York. He graduated from Middlebury and attended Columbia grad school in anthropology. Perhaps his anthropology interests were part of the inspiration for this work. He returned to make this film when his friends here suggested he return to make a movie that he wrote in close collaboration with the film’s protagonist, Jorge Gavidor and other protagonist-friends. Jorge, who is the bald guy in the film is self-described as an industrial mechanic and inventor. The dialogue is stylized to communicate the magic of the environment. Cinema veritè would not work to communicate what they wanted about the environment. Chris also says that the film does not come close to fully communicating the community and mythology of the place. But for me it captures an essential rhythm and soulful quality that kept me immersed in the story.
The film has shown in various festivals and has no sales or distribution representation. Fid Marseilles invited it to play and since then it has played at the Transinema Festival in Lima, Split Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, , Free Zone Festival in Belgrade, Serbia, Mar del Plata in Argentina and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
- 4/12/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
You hear it all the time: Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News. But Americans were buying all the same, and to quote Screen International: “The current market is focused on smart money and smart deals, not volume of product”. Business at Afm was also solid though unspectacular. Moreover, the pre-buying of projects may be below the radar of this $3 billion business of international film buying and selling. TrustNordisk’s CEO Rikke Ennis says that 70% of their films are pre-sold. As you look at the upcoming Winter Rights Roundup due out in two weeks from SydneysBuzz.com/Reports, you will notice many of the films have been pre-buys this market and many films screening were already pre-sold during Afm in November.
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
- 2/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: IFC takes North American rights to Victor Garcia’s genre outing.
IFC has picked up North American rights to Victor Garcia’s genre title Gallows Hill following a strong buyer response at a recent Los Angeles screening.
Im Global’s Octane division handles international sales at Efm.
The film screens in the market tomorrow (Feb 8) and stars Peter Facinelli, the UK’s Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, part of a large Colombian contingency.
Gallows Hill was financed entirely within Colombia by television network RCN¹s affiliate Five 7 Media, who produced with A Bigger Boat and Launchpad Productions. Peter Block, David Higgins and Andrea Chung produced.
Rich D’Ovidio, whose credits include The Call and Thir13en Ghosts, wrote the screenplay about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded...
IFC has picked up North American rights to Victor Garcia’s genre title Gallows Hill following a strong buyer response at a recent Los Angeles screening.
Im Global’s Octane division handles international sales at Efm.
The film screens in the market tomorrow (Feb 8) and stars Peter Facinelli, the UK’s Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, part of a large Colombian contingency.
Gallows Hill was financed entirely within Colombia by television network RCN¹s affiliate Five 7 Media, who produced with A Bigger Boat and Launchpad Productions. Peter Block, David Higgins and Andrea Chung produced.
Rich D’Ovidio, whose credits include The Call and Thir13en Ghosts, wrote the screenplay about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded...
- 2/7/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Peter Facinelli ("Twilight," "Damages") will star in Victor Garcia's supernatural horror thriller "Gallows Hill" for Launchpad Productions and A Bigger Boat says Heat Vision.
Facinelli plays an American, widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Sophia Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos).
After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.
Richard D’Ovidio ("Thirteen Ghosts") wrote the story with producer David Higgins. Peter Block and Andrea Chung also produce and shooting begins later this month in Bogota.
Facinelli plays an American, widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Sophia Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill (Nathalia Ramos).
After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences.
Richard D’Ovidio ("Thirteen Ghosts") wrote the story with producer David Higgins. Peter Block and Andrea Chung also produce and shooting begins later this month in Bogota.
- 9/11/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
With The Twilight Saga finally drawing to a close, it's good to see the franchise stars moving on to things that do not involve brooding, sparkling, or whimpering during a kiss. Case in point: Peter Facinelli.
THR reports that Facinelli will star in Gallows Hill, a supernatural horror movie to be directed by Victor Garcia. Sophia Myles (Underworld) and Nathalia Ramos (Nickelodeon’s "House of Anubis") are also in the movie, which is being produced by David Higgins of Launchpad Productions, Peter Block of A Bigger Boat, and Andrea Chung.
Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos). After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement,...
THR reports that Facinelli will star in Gallows Hill, a supernatural horror movie to be directed by Victor Garcia. Sophia Myles (Underworld) and Nathalia Ramos (Nickelodeon’s "House of Anubis") are also in the movie, which is being produced by David Higgins of Launchpad Productions, Peter Block of A Bigger Boat, and Andrea Chung.
Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, Jill (Ramos). After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement,...
- 9/11/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
The Twilight Saga’s Peter Facinelli will star in Gallows Hill, a supernatural horror movie to be directed by Victor Garcia. Sophia Myles (Underworld) and Nathalia Ramos (Nickelodeon’s House of Anubis) are also in the movie, which is being produced by David Higgins of Launchpad Productions, Peter Block of A Bigger Boat and Andrea Chung. Written by Richard D’Ovidio (Thirteen Ghosts), the story follows an American (Facinelli), widowed from his Colombia-born wife, who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter Jill (Ramos). After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated
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- 9/10/2012
- by Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
More from my inbox… Running from July 15 – December 19, 2010, at MoCADA, in Brooklyn, NY; Curated by Kimberli Gant. Details below:
This group exhibition offers contemporary artistic depictions of women of African descent, focusing specifically on their interiority. Rather than examining women through the objectivity of their bodies, the artists portray African Diasporan women as active participants in their own visual representations. Ain’t I A Woman features works in painting, video, installation and mixed media by damali abrams, Eric Alugas, Kimberly Becoat, Priscila De Carvalho, Andrea Chung, Elizabeth Colomba, William Mwazi, Kenya (Robinson), Phoenix Savage and Francis Simeni.
Taking its title from the 1885 speech given by orator and activist Sojourner Truth, this exhibition attempts to move the conversation toward the intellectual, emotional and spiritual components in the lives of women of African descent. In addition, each featured artist is paired with an African female poet, selected from The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry,...
This group exhibition offers contemporary artistic depictions of women of African descent, focusing specifically on their interiority. Rather than examining women through the objectivity of their bodies, the artists portray African Diasporan women as active participants in their own visual representations. Ain’t I A Woman features works in painting, video, installation and mixed media by damali abrams, Eric Alugas, Kimberly Becoat, Priscila De Carvalho, Andrea Chung, Elizabeth Colomba, William Mwazi, Kenya (Robinson), Phoenix Savage and Francis Simeni.
Taking its title from the 1885 speech given by orator and activist Sojourner Truth, this exhibition attempts to move the conversation toward the intellectual, emotional and spiritual components in the lives of women of African descent. In addition, each featured artist is paired with an African female poet, selected from The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry,...
- 7/12/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Author Joe R. Lansdale is teaming up with Razor Films to adapt Lansdale's thriller novel "Savage Season" for the big screen. "Savage" is the first of eight books in the acclaimed "Hap Collins and Leonard Pine" crime adventure series. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are two best friends, who are polar opposites living in small town Texas. When Hap's ex shows up from nowhere promising a huge score, Hap lets Leonard in on the scam leading to an adventure that unravels in unexpected ways. Lansdale will also write the screenplay. Razor Films' Andrew Fuller and Lowell Northrop will produce the project. Andrea Chung ("Passion Play") will serve as an executive producer. Lansdale is a seven time Bram Stoker Award Winner and recipient of...
- 12/12/2009
- shocktillyoudrop.com
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