Antalya, Turkey — ‘Your Beauty is Worth Nothing’, a film about an immigrant Turkish boy who struggles with his new life in Austria won the Best Film Award in the National Competition at the 49th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. The winners were announced at a Closing Night Gala on October 12, 2012.

This year’s festival sent out a strong message for peace and against a possible intervention in the conflict in Syria. Many participants also spoke out for peace and tolerance and their films focused on important social issues like recognition of ethnic identities, women’s rights, child abuse, gay rights and freedom of expression.

“This film is about a Turkish-Kurdish family and it’s a film that doesn’t take sides,” said the director Huseyin Tabak, the German-born director of ‘Your Beauty is Worth Nothing’. “It’s on the side of humanity.” The film also won the Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing awards and a Special Jury Prize.

“We don’t want to fight with anyone. We don’t want to fight with Syria,” said Ali Adnan Ozgur, whose film ‘Children of the Land’, about two children who take refuge in a village school won a Special Jury Prize.

In the International Competition, ‘Aglaya’ a film by Hungarian director Krisztina Deak about a Romanian circus family who escape persecution in the 80s, won The Best Film Award and a Special Jury Prize.

“This is my first premiere and international festival and I’m very, very happy,” said the director of ‘Aglaya’ who applied to Antalya right after finishing her film. “This is a wonderful festival, and the organization and the events were very good.”

The ten films in the International Competition came from Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

“What is most impressive is that all the National Competition films deal with really important issues for the country and the artists,” said Barbara Boyle, Associate Dean at UCLA’s Film Department. Boyle was the only member of the National Jury from the U.S. “For me that is the role of the artist, particularly the film artist, and it is important for audiences to deal with these issues and not be afraid.”

The festival was not without controversy. There was a public dispute within the national jury about censorship and artistic merit, and statements were made to the Turkish media during the festival.

For more information go to www.altinportakal.org.tr.

The winners are:

The International Competition:

Best Film: ‘Aglaya’ by Kristina Deak/ Hungary
Special Jury Award: ‘Keep Smiling’ by Rusudan Chkonia/ France
Best Performance: Marian Dziedziel for ‘Supermarket’/ Poland

The National Competition:

Best Film: ‘Your Beauty is Worth Nothing’ by Huseyin Tabak.
Special Jury Award: ‘Children of the Land’ by Ali Adnan Ozgur.
Best First Film and Best Director: ‘Zerre’ by Erdem Tepegoz.
Best Actress: Anna Andrusenko in ‘Farewell Katya’ by Ahmet Sonmez
Best Actor: Abdulkadir Tuncer in ‘Your Beauty is Worth Nothing’ by Huseyin Tabak

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The 12th annual Belfast Film Festival runs from May 31 – June 10, and sees a wide variety of films and events on offer for audiences of all ages and interests.

Last year’s festival, which takes place in the capital city of Northern Ireland, saw the premiere of Terry George’s Oscar-winning short film ‘The Shore’, and this year George is returning to the festival with his new film ‘Whole Lotta Sole’, which had its world premiere recently at the Tribeca Film Festival.

‘Sole’ brings together a diverse range of talent such as Brendan Fraser, Yaya DaCosta, Martin McCann, and Colm Meaney, and was shot at various locations all over Northern Ireland last Spring. The film will close the festival on June 10 at the Waterfront Hall, full details of which can be found here.

Opening the festival is the eagerly-awaited film ‘Good Vibrations’, which so far is set to have two screenings on May 31. The film brings together directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, along with Northern Ireland author Glenn Patterson who co-wrote the screenplay with Colin Carberry. The film stars Jodie Whittaker and Dylan Moran, and the official description is listed as:

“Terri Hooley … a radical, rebel and music-lover in 1970s Belfast when the bloody conflict known as the Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations.

Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city’s nascent underground punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley band of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an alternative Ulster, to bring his city back to life.”

Other highlights of the festival include:

• Gala screenings of ‘Shadow Dancer’, ‘Jump’, and ‘Toothbrush’. ‘Shadow Dancer’ screens on Wednesday June 6, and the director, cast and crew will be in attendance. ‘Jump’ will have a similar turn-out for its screening on June 8, where the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director (Kieron J. Walsh).
• Talks & Workshops with Terry George, James Marsh, Nick Emerson, and various people involved with ‘Good Vibrations’.
• A special screening of the 2002 film ‘Ghost Ship’ at The Lagan Boat on June 7.
• A ‘Zoolander’ night, bringing together fans of the 2001 film starring Ben Stiller.
• An Evening with James Ellis, the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

On top of all of these, the festival will feature short film competitions, screenings of documentaries and new cinema, a film quiz, and the 11th Belfast World Pong Championships.

The full festival program can be found here.

Image Courtesy of    Belfast Film Festival

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NEW YORK, US – One of underground rock’s most unusual stories of the 1970s, the tale of an obscure debut LP by a Detroit singer-songwriter named Rodriguez becoming a source of hope and inspiration to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, is the basis for the thought-provoking new film, Searching For Sugar Man.

The original motion picture soundtrack album will be available starting July 24, 2012 through Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The vinyl version of the soundtrack will be released by Light In The Attic Records.

Searching For Sugar Man, a Red Box Films & Passion Pictures Production in association with Canfield Pictures & The Documentary Company, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered in New York on April 24, 2012 at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 27, 2012 and will open in other markets throughout the month of August.

Directed by Malik Bendjelloul, Searching For Sugar Man tells a story that begins with the 1970 release of Rodriguez’s debut album, Cold Fact. In its Reissues Of The Year tally for 2008, Rolling Stone magazine called the album “A remarkable artifact of Michigan hippie soul by singer-songwriter Sixto Diaz Rodriguez.” The soundtrack album on Legacy will compile tracks from Cold Fact and its follow-up LP of 1971, Coming From Reality, reissued to critical acclaim in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Celebrated Motor City producers Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore discovered Rodriguez in the late 1960s in a local bar and were struck by his Dylanesque songwriting. A charismatic and mysterious artist behind his shades, Rodriguez had built a strong local following, a true folk hero in the purest sense.

Cold Fact was a fusion of gritty funk with “street-tough lyricism and psychedelic folk arrangements,” in the words of Doug Freeman of the Austin Chronicle. The album’s politically-charged “topical lyrics and druggy avant-garde arrangements” “folk-soul weirdness” and “lysergic gutter poetry” were unique even in the ’70s.

Nevertheless, the album did not succeed commercially, and despite the release of a second LP, Rodriguez drifted into obscurity. Rumors of his fate were widely and wildly exaggerated, ranging from reports of escalating depression to a sensationally gruesome suicide onstage, involving self-immolation.

Meanwhile, the LP had made its way around the world to South Africa, where it was banned by a repressive government. Copies were bootlegged and circulated, and Rodriguez inadvertently became the soundtrack of an emerging liberal African youth, whose resistance movement adopted Cold Fact as its rallying cry. Over the next two decades, Rodriguez became a household name in the country, where the number of copies of Cold Fact would have earned it platinum sales status.

Both sides of the story, Rodriguez’s life in Detroit and the subsequent impact of his music in the smoldering Apartheid era, pre-Nelson Mandela, proved fascinating to Stockholm-based documentary filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul. His subjects have included Kraftwerk, Bjork, Sting, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2, Kylie Minogue, Prince, and others.

His short documentary films for Swedish Television’s international cultural weekly show Kobra became the basis for such films as Men Who Stare At Goats (George Clooney) and The Terminal (Tom Hanks). The evolution of the financing, production, and filming of Searching For Sugar Man is as fascinating and complex as the life of Rodriguez himself.

“I describe myself as ‘musico-politico’,” Rodriguez said recently. “I was born and bred in Detroit, four blocks from the city center. Back then, I was influenced by the urban sounds that were going on around me all the time. Music is art and art is a cultural force. As far as my work from Detroit comparing to the South African Apartheid, the similarities echo. The placards of the 1970s in the United States read things like: We Want Jobs and Stop the War – I was looking at the music from a working class.

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2012 got off to a great start for Northern Irish director Terry George, when his short film ‘The Shore’ won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short. George now hopes to build on this momentum with the release of his new feature film ‘Whole Lotta Sole,’ premiering at the TriBeCa Film Festival (TFF) on Saturday April 21.

The film, which was also co-written by George, was shot on location in Ireland last spring, and attracted actors such as SAG winner Brendan Fraser (for 2004′s ‘Crash’) and IFTA winners Colm Meaney and Martin McCann (for 2001′s ‘How Harry Became a Tree’ and 2009′s Swansong: Story of Occi Byrne, respectively). Northern Ireland-born Foy Vance composed the film’s music, while Thomas Gallagher co-wrote the screenplay with George. As for the plot, the following is listed in the TFF Film Guide:

In a rowdy little corner of Belfast, hapless young father Jimbo tries to protect his family from the gangster he’s in debt to by robbing the local fish market… which turns out to be a front for the same gangster! On the run, Jimbo holes up in a local antique shop run by a long-lost man from his past. A colorful cast of character actors and a strong turn from Brendan Fraser light up this madcap Irish crime comedy from Terry George (Hotel Rwanda).

The film’s premiere at TFF presents a major festival coup for George, and an oddly poetic one at that. The festival was founded in response to the September 11 2001 terrorists attacks, while ‘Sole’ is an opportunity for George to expand upon what he did with ‘The Shore,’ which was to show to the world that Northern Ireland is not the war-torn place it once was, and that the people — as well as its creative offerings — have moved on.

Terms like ‘madcap’ and ‘crime comedy’ mark an extreme contrast to George’s last feature film set in Northern Ireland, 1993′s ‘In the Name of the Father’. For that film, which George again co-wrote, the country’s political situation weighed heavily on the characters, and its cultural resonance resulted in it being nominated for seven Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and a BAFTA.

Coupled with the success of ‘The Shore,’ it is clear that George has a long-standing successful reputation in critics’ circles, so all eyes will no doubt be on ‘Whole Lotta Sole’ when it makes its big-screen debut late next month. Screening details are as follow:

• Saturday April 21, 8:30pm, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice
• Sunday April 22, 3:00pm, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 7
• Wednesday April 25, 5:30pm, AMC Loews Village 7 – 3
• Saturday April 28, 3:45pm, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 8

Meanwhile, full details about the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 18 – 29, can be found here. The festival is also active on both Facebook and Twitter.

Image Courtesy of   http://theshorefilm.com

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The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by American Express, on March 28 announced that Marvel’s The Avengers, presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, will close its 11th edition on Saturday, April 28. Closing night will take place at Tribeca BMCC PAC and is sponsored by BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin.

Honoring the spirit of the Tribeca Film Festival, the screening will allow the opportunity for Marvel’s The Avengers to celebrate everyday heroes from police agencies, fire departments, first responders and various branches of the U.S. military.  These local heroes will have an opportunity to attend the screening and meet the cast.

Marvel Studios’ producer Kevin Feige says, “We are proud that Marvel’s The Avengers is the closing film of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and we are excited to welcome local heroes to the screening as special guests. We all know and love our iconic Super Heroes, but when it really counts, it’s our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us.”

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is an engaging, character-driven story packed with action, adventure and special effects.

When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins to assemble the iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

“Marvel’s The Avengers is an exciting ride that absolutely transports audiences,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “It is the perfect way to end our 11th Festival.”

Comments director Joss Whedon, “Showing at Tribeca is both an honor and a double homecoming for me, who grew up in Manhattan, and for the movie, which wrapped production there.  I’m thoroughly psyched to be closing the festival with our intimate little think-piece.”

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is produced by Marvel Studios’ Producer Kevin Feige and executive produced byAlan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story is by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon, and the screenplay is by Joss Whedon. The film releases May 4, 2012, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival will take place from April 18-29, 2012.

Visit www.tribecafilm.com/festival for more information about TFF’s 2012 programs and the full line-up of films.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/AvengersUK

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Though still not even in official release, the writer and director of “The Last War Crime” says that YouTube is already trying to suppress the movie, which is a new full-length feature film about indicting Dick Cheney for torture. The movie’s writer and director, who goes by the name of The Pen, asks, “And isn’t that something billions of people want to see?”

But, says The Pen, YouTube does not want their visitors to see the preview clip of the waterboarding scene from the movie, for the purported reason that it contains nudity or is otherwise sexually provocative. A protest is mobilizing against this accusation.

“That’s ridiculous,” exclaims Pen. “There is no actual nudity in it … none. The actor playing the detainee wore a swimmer’s style bathing suit the entire time, and we positioned the female interrogator character so view of his midriff was blocked entirely in any case. And if they’re complaining this scene is sexually suggestive, they need to ban half the rest of the movies on their site.”

The purpose of the scene in the movie is to condemn waterboarding, long recognized to be a form of torture unequivocally. According to The Pen, the scene also serves to remind everyone that the sexual taunting of helpless and mostly innocent captives, in places like Abu Ghraib, was a deliberate part of a de facto program to degrade people in violation of the Geneva Conventions. However, YouTube makes no provision on their site to challenge their own unilateral dictates.

Pen states, “Shame on YouTube for censoring this clip, which we believe, and we think you will agree, is part of an important cultural and artistic statement of social commentary.

We have already submitted the movie to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Cinequest Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, SXSW, the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival, seven of the top breakout venues for serious works of new film art.”

Pen continues, “And shame on YouTube further for deleting our waterboarding scene in such a summary and authoritarian manner. We had to build our own video server to do it, but people can now again see the clip for themselves on our new website.”

On the same web page is an action form configured to automatically send protests to YouTube. Pen is asking everyone to submit this form to send their own personal messages of complaint and is demanding that YouTube immediately restore the wrongfully deleted waterboarding scene from “The Last War Crime” movie, and put in place an accessible review process so nothing like this can ever happen again. Hoping thousands of people will join with him, Pen suggests, “Maybe that will start to get YouTube’s attention.”

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The second night of New York City’s Big Apple Film Festival ushered in independent movie lovers to packed theaters at TriBeCa Cinemas. The crowds were larger than the first evening, as over 20 independent films were shown over the duration of the night. There were six programs to chose from, each program containing a group of short films.

This gave viewers a chance to watch a variety of films without ever getting up from their seat. As one of the ticket options, movie goers were able to watch four films. The first film viewed was entitled Theatrics. Directed by David Lewis from Vancouver, Canada, this film depicted two women in their mid twenties as they sat in a movie theater, high off of weed laced with ketamine.

A nervous Austin was paranoid because a combination of the illegal drugs and the news that her mother and grandmother were in the theater as well. A more relaxed Samantha attempts to calm her down, but is unsuccessful. Although the film was only nine minutes long, it kept the audience laughing throughout.

In a short question and answer session at the end of the films, Lewis explained how the film was created. “The whole thing was done for 2,500 bucks” he stated, which was all generated from donation. Theatrics was a comical highlight of the night.

Following Theatrics was a more serious film, Faint by Numbers. Directed by Sean N. Ihne, Faint by Numbers followed the life of Dustin over the course of just a few days, where he learns that his father is dying and his fiance has moved out of their apartment. In an attempt to commit suicide by standing in front of oncoming traffic, Dustin is rescued by Rank, a stranger who pushed him out of the street.

Along with Rank’s roommate, Jessie, they move into Dustin’s apartment without knowing him for more than 48 hours. Over the course of the next few days, Dustin quits his monotonous job and finds out Rank has overdosed on heroin and is in the hospital.

Faint by Numbers was not embraced as favorably as other movies of the night, as the dramatic series of life changing events happened unrealistically quick. This movie was the longest of the group at 35 minutes. Ihne explained that the movie was “a long time in the making.” He wrote the movie three years ago and it had its debut at the Big Apple Film Festival on November 2.

The 16 minute movie entitled Found Art brought back some humor into the movie theater. Janine is an artist who strives to create a video installation by interviewing people on how their intentions of art may not always come across the way they want.

Janine interviews a young woman named Kristy, who was convinced to be photographed by a Connecticut man, and later found out that her picture ended up as a print advertisement for a company that teaches people a second language. Kristy speaks about how her original intentions were just to make a couple of hundred dollars, not knowing she would end up as the model for the company.

Director Yvete Morales explained how the film came about. “A lot of the inspiration was from Lee, my boyfriend, and I, sitting around and talking about people in the neighborhood and making stories.” The final film, Impostor, was a 25 minute long movie directed by Marc Masciandaro.

The main character, Arthur Semple, is a man with a daily routine and an office job that leaves him searching the internet for international vacations. He is a reserved man who takes interest in his beautiful next door neighbor, but is too shy to speak to her. Ray, his charismatic twin brother, comes to town for a long overdue visit.

Ray manages to ask the next door neighbor out on a date, but when he gets into a bloody fight and lands himself in the hospital, Arthur realizes that he can turn into his brother and go on the date with his long time crush. The date goes horribly wrong, but the film was a huge success at the festival. Masciandaro spoke about his film, “I wanted to create something that I could really torture my protagonist.”

Much of the audience at this group of movies came to support family and friends who acted or directed the films. The theater was packed, and this program was just one example of the success of the second evening at the Big Apple Film Festival.

cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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The life-confirming documentary about Dee Dee Ricks and her emotional rebirth as a cancer survivor will debut on October 27, exclusively on HBO in conjunction with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The 39-year-old mother-of-two was living her dream as a self-made millionaire on New York City’s Upper East Side when she was diagnosed with aggressive stage II breast cancer.

Insured and affluent, she could afford the best treatment money could buy, but was shocked to realize how difficult it is for uninsured women in the same situation, and determined to do something about it. So there she was; a successful woman who finally made her full potential in the face of breast cancer.

The honest story of The Education Of Dee Dee Ricks tracks the transformation of Dee Dee from successful businesswoman to determined advocate for poor breast-cancer patients, even as she faces her own battle with the disease.

According to HBO’s press release, the story begins in 2008, when this self-described “vain” woman and single parent was diagnosed with aggressive stage II breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. She decided to document her experience for her children, in case anything happened to her.

During her successful recovery, Ricks receives her first medical bills. Although able to afford the payments, she is disturbed by the realization that many women are bankrupted by the expense.

Ricks subsequently meets with Dr. Harold P. Freeman, founder and president of Harlem’s Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care, believed to be the only cancer center in the nation to provide or ensure access to timely cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment to all patients, irrespective of their ability to pay, and she pledges to raise $2.5 million for the clinic.

At the clinic, Ricks bonds with Cynthia Dodson, an uninsured African-American breast cancer patient whose resilience and optimism are an inspiration. According to the American Cancer Society, African-American women are less likely to develop breast cancer, but 37 percent more likely to die, from the disease than their white counterparts.

The two become as close as sisters, supporting each other through treatment. As Ricks celebrates her last chemotherapy session, she learns that Dodson has spots on her liver and resolves to make sure her friend receives the best care possible, while stepping up her support for the Center.

Unfortunately, because Dodson’s diagnosis and treatment came late due to her financial status, her future is in doubt. Reflecting on her new priorities in life, Dee Dee concludes, “Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me.” The Education Of Dee Dee Ricks showed at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and will screen at the Paley Center’s DocFest later this month.

The filmmakers have also joined a major National Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign. Perri Peltz, the documentary’s director, is a former news correspondent and longtime public health advocate who reported on health-related issues for NBC and CNN and has worked for the Robin Hood Foundation supporting organizations that fight poverty.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.theeducationofdeedeericks.com/

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The New York Film Festival comes to New York City for its 49^th annual showcase of new and emerging films in the entertainment industry. The yearly film festival will run from September 30 to October 16, celebrating up and coming filmmakers and actors.

The New York Film Festival was created in 1969 by The Film Society of Lincoln Center with aspirations of creating an event for filmmakers to show their movies. The love of art and film are combined during this festival and brings movie goers from all across New York City to exciting movie premieres.

International filmmakers are able to showcase their movies at the prestigious New York Film Festival. The Main Slate is the optimal venue to screen movies. Filmmakers from countries such as the United States, Iran, France, United Kingdom, Israel and Denmark are among those who will show their movies at the Main Slate.

In the movie entitled “Miss Bala,” a young Mexican woman competes in a beauty competition in Baja, where she gets involved in the ongoing narcotics battle in Mexico. “Miss Bala” depicts drug related gang violence and how it plays a role in Mexico.

“The Artist,” is a movie that pays homage to the original Hollywood entertainment business where the art of movie making was through black and white silent movies. “The Artist” highlights wonderful acting even though it is a silent movie and allows the audience to go back in time to when movies were first created.

Famous Hollywood actors can be seen in some of the movies on display at The New York Film Festival. “Melancholia” has actress Kirsten Dunst playing a bride in this science fiction movie. “The Descendants” ushers in George Clooney as a man who must cope with his wife who is in the hospital and his two daughters with whom he has shaky relationships.

Michelle Williams brings a performance as sex icon Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn,” one of the most anticipated movies of The New York Film Festival.

Aside from the Main Slate where much of the popular movies are watched, there are also other special events going on during the festival. Documentaries are also a part of the film festival where the daily international lives of people are portrayed through film. “Tahrir” is a documentary of the recent revolution in Egypt, as seen through the voices of Egyptians on the streets of Cairo.

“Paradise Lost 3,” is an American documentary that follows the lives of Alabama teenagers who are in jail for murdering three children. These documentaries are just a couple among many others that use film to highlight unique, real life stories. World renowned talent made appearances at the New York Film Festival.

Internationally famed director Martin Scorsese spoke by video during a press conference on October 3. Scorsese talked about “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” which is Scorsese’s new documentary. Special Anniversary Screenings of movies such as “The Royal Tennenbaums,” “Spirited Away” and “Howard’s End” will also be a part of The New York Film Festival.

Along with showing some of the world’s most talented actors and filmmakers, The New York Film Festival also gave the chance for bring up and coming movie makers to meet some famous directors and producers. The Emerging Vision event took place over the course of one day where 25 new and passionate film creators were given mentors to help produce high quality films.

The 25 chosen will have one year of ongoing guidance from professional directors and producers with the goal of helping young talents flourish in the entertainment industry. The New York Film Festival is a well respected annual event that gives both veterans and newcomers to the movie business a chance to share their talents for film with the world.
lev radin / Shutterstock.com

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The only premiering Tribeca film initially viewable from Europe was, perhaps ironically, European. The Irish director, Thomas Hefferon, delivered ‘The Heist’ alongside his competing short film ‘Switch’. Hefferon has before been selected for the Festival competition with his short film ‘The Confession’ and had ‘The Pool’ premiere at Tribeca last year. The Heist had the privilege of serving as a global sneak peak for the online Tribeca audience just before the actual event kicked off.

The movie is a 9 minute short comedy shot mainly from the insides of a parked car. Three amateur bank-robbers are making a last run-through of their plan, but quickly realize that the robbing business is a complicated affair.

The leader is Francis, played by Sean Flanagan, whose feeble leading skills are seriously strained as he attempts to reason with the other two characters. It seems obvious that Francis is far from intelligent, but at least he stands out as the most sensible in the group. Nicky, the guy on the left played by Donal Gallery, reminds you of every skinny bloke with the backbone of an earthworm ever to be portrayed in modern cinema. He comes off as simpleminded; almost childish, with a distinct feminine inclination for sulking. However, he is not the one causing the most problems in the tiny vehicle; that would be Dave.

Like my boyfriend use to say; “there’s always a Dave.” In this case, Dave is a Neanderthal of a man, clearly failing to realize the seriousness of the act he is about to commit, and with a serious case of the munchies. Within the feature’s 9 minute time frame, Dave manages to fizzle the momentum for the gang repeatedly with his outrageous requests.

The movie got plenty of positive feedback in the comment section while it was still viewable. Those in favor found the ‘verbal slapstick’ – exaggerated idiocy exceeding the boundaries of common sense, highly entertaining, and enjoyed the failure of the gang to pull off a ‘proper’ heist. I personally have to join the haters. Though it is clearly meant as a lighthearted take on bank robbers, having watched movies such as The Town, nominated at this years Academy Awards, you probably have no problem imagining that being victimized in a robbery is no picnic. What bothers me, however, is neither the crime nor the pending human consequences – it’s the characters.

For a character-driven short film, this is a problem. Why the writer chose to make the characters as shallow as the bottom of a water bottle I don’t know, but the result left me with a strange feeling of defeat, and funny enough, recognition. First of all, even when we agree that the collected IQ of the car come closest to 150, it is hard for me to believe that empathy is a foreign country to men of their un-profession. On the other hand, if we agree to relinquish their moral scruples, surely they must have fears and doubts about their impending action. But this is left untouched, denying the introduction of interesting characters. Secondly, as a native Dane, I found the dialogue oddly familiar. Tar-black humor that relishes in illogical, yet conceivable problematics. My research confirms that the writer is a Dane named Troels Jacob Hundtofte, and my guess is that he’s no stranger to modern Danish action comedy. He seems, however, a stranger to the fact that direct adaptation often ruins the intension. Being stranded on the beaches of an average cast, the already hampered dialogue is left to fend for itself and ends up being forced and uncomfortable. Since Hefferon obviously has drawn inspiration from the work of British gangster prodigy, Guy Richie, The Heist ends up as the awkward child of two offbeat genres.

Overall, the story was tame and uninteresting and could have been dealt with in a 5-lined joke. My only thumps-up is for the technical achievements – the film is well shot, well editing and the setup itself works. But in the end, what was meant as comic relief didn’t move me beyond thinking that I could be doing something else with my day.

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The TFF is over but as of April 29, five of this year’s short films became available to viewers for free, and without geo-restrictions, on YouTube. The selected shorts have been chosen from the 60 shorts screened at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, and first on the list is the 10 minute film Mr. Stache by director Jac Schaeffer. This story is the winner of the American Express contest called “My Movie Pitch” which aims to bring unique independent movie ideas to the screen. The writer John Nash’s idea was picked from over 2000 entries.

The short is a narrative about a man who grows a mustache in order to change his life. But as the facial hair grows, so does the question: How much does it take to wear your inner mustache on the outside, where it makes way more sense, and still be accepted?

Several things are working extremely well for this short. First of all, the narration is a comfortable break from ordinary dialogue and fits perfectly with the format. It reminded me of Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction, only in a much more concentrated dosage. On one hand with hints within the storyline, but most obviously with the narrator’s ‘stream-of-thought’, filling the void of actual conversation perfectly. The story is still able to stand on its own though, as the mans dilemma leads to the girl, and then resolves in a ‘very serious situation’ of a climax.

Second of all, on the actors front, the lack of character dialogue is beautifully compensated by impeccable acting. Rich Sommer plays our main protagonist, the man who meets the girl, played by Amy Smart, in a very romantic ‘love-at-first-sight’ moment. Without actually uttering more than a few lines in total (I believe the only spoken line was the girl’s), our mustached hero and his heroine succeed in visually interpreting all the drama of their characters. In fact, so well that you end up being incredibly intimate with their emotions.

I need to say that I absolutely loved it. The story is funny and carries a wonderful message about realizing your true self and loving others for the same reason. You completely understand why it won the movie pitch contest. It’s uplifting and, despite its unusual obsession with facial hair, it carries a heartfelt message. The progression of the narrative has a feel of a children’s story to it, emphasizing details and the ‘very serious drama’, but it deals with universal, existential issues that I’m guessing most viewers will be able to relate to.

As a piece of craftsmanship, the short is equally excelling; the cinematography and editing is intimate when needed and expressive when wanted, giving you a good sense right away of the personality and emotional state of the characters throughout the story. The changes in location, wardrobe, and extras indicate either a proper budget or a creative production, but I’m learning towards the first. With American Express and Tribeca as backers, it would be bad publicity otherwise. Thus, the final product beams of well-polished quality and experience while sporting a vibrant, quirky 70s atmosphere. You wouldn’t achieve this without money.

Jac Schaeffer’s work is definitely worth a look and you can still find Mr. Stache, along with the four other brilliant shorts, online at Tribeca Film Festival 2011 YouTube Screening Room. Enjoy.

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This year Italy lands at Tribeca Film Festival of New York with the movie “A quiet life” – in Italian “Una vita tranquilla” – directed by Claudio Cupellini.

This movie come out in Italy in November 2010 and took part in the International Film Festival of Rome. At Tribeca Festival it was presented at the spotlight section and it was welcomed with the audience’s applause.

Rosario Russo is an Italian man immigrated to Germany, he lives in a small and quiet town with his German young wife Renate and his son Mathias. He owns a restaurant and hotel in a rural area leading a simple life and enjoying his fellow villagers’ esteem.

One day the arrival of two young Italian man from Naples , on a secret mission for a settling of scores, stirs his quiet life and his past emerges all in one go. Since that moment two lives, two faces and two worlds interlace for Rosario. His old and real identity comes back and he starts to be in torment with it.

For him past means camorra, and camorra, as it is shown in the movie, doesn’t stick in Naples, but goes beyond the Italian borders without losing its power and its rules.

The immigration of Rosario Russo to Germany is in fact the escape from a certain death of the camorrist Antonio Di Martino, whom left his first wife and son in Naples to take refuge abroad under false pretences.

A tangled mix between ties with past, family and camorra which leads to a short circuit of violence, pain and love developed with a slow and suspenseful rhythm.

The action has a minor importance in comparison with the characters, which being explored and studied, are the actual focus of the story. The antihero figure of Rosario, interpreted by Toni Servillo – the actor of Gomorrah and Il Divo -, plays a central role especially for his inner conflicts and his fixation for preserving the future and cheat the death.

This crime-drama movie, structured as a thriller, digs into an individual man’s soul to make emerge the two scourges that afflict Naples: camorra and garbage, which are indissolubly tied.

The linguistics choices are very careful, the alternation between Italian and German is useful to achieve the effect of separation among Rosario’s two worlds and two faces. Also the choice of the regional Napolitani marked Italian – perceptible by Italian native or high level speakers – appears to be appropriated for creating a sense of reality.

Director Claudio Cupellini makes sophisticated and careful choices succeeding in constructing a net of symbols, fine metaphors, significances and correspondences with a brilliant result in terms of a realistic representation of the human being and the world.

Toni Servillo’s performance is excellent in conveying Rosario’s strong inner conflicts, managing to express the constant tension between his double personality and double feelings, highlighting the discrepancy of the two different lives and the true human nature which broods over fear, individualism and violence.

Another Italian crime movie masterpiece.

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It is the 10^th annual Tribeca Film Festival! And tonight we watch the Awards show online from Germany, to make a great coverage of what went on, for all our dear readers to grab a look. It just couldn’t get better, with tons of excitement, and the exposure and appreciation of diverse tastes, and talented directors of incredible films, bringing their views and insight to incredible stories and plots, of all types of varieties, and styles.

The Tribeca Film Festival was co-founded by Robert De Niro and has gained special interest and value to all the different directors out there who create independent films. It has become a medium to present their work. The collaboration and founding sponsor American Express, awarded many directors with great prizes.  Tonight’s ceremony was hosted in New York City, at the W. Union Square.

The night started with the awards host, Gideon Yago. He started the awards mentioning that tonight; it’s been the time to see and hear from the filmmakers, directors that brought their talent to the festival.

The evening counted with many festival juries. Chief Geoff Gilmore presented chief creative officer the first two awards of the night. The first award of the evening went to Rider and Shiloh Strong with Dungeon Master.

The best feature film went to Donner Unknown by Jerry Rosswell. The award contain a price of $25.000 by the founding partner American Express, and also an artistic award by Chanel, a piece valued in $35.000. As the awards went on the first jury award, was presented by Ahmed Ahmed Juror. He presented the Student visionary award: Whose prize consisted on a Mac pro Desktop donated by Apple, valued at $35,000. The film was admired by appreciating its detail. “Sometimes Less is more,” said Ahmmed Ahmmed, referring to the film Rooms, by Johanna Jurewicz.

One of the most outstanding films of the night that reflected the experienced trauma in time of war, where a man struggles for his legacy, was the film Incident in New Baghdad by James Spione. He went to the stage and thanked saying: “It is a small firm, which was made by only four people”. He gave special acknowledgements and appreciation to Ethan McCore referring to him as: “A man that went to Irak as one person, and came back as another, what amazed me was his incredible courage in coming back and telling what he experienced there.

The comedian Denis Leary Juror presented the best Narrative Short award. He mentioned that it was a difficult category. “ There were about 40 short films, and we were only able to pick 2 films, very difficult”, he said.  He tried to bring a little bit of the publics attention to the film by saying: “The opening scene in that movie involves a dad shooting his son and its a comedy, it is a terrific movie, terrific acting, and it is their first short film, and the winner is David Leon and Marcus McSweeney, with their film Man and Boy.

The Tribeca Film Festival introduced a new category to the documentary section, the juror, Lauren Hutton presented the Best New Documentary Director. She said, “First I like to give special jury mention, to a film, and honor the films makers of 6 years of hard work, that exposed how a society has collapsed, in the movie Giving Up tomorrow, by Michael Collins.”

The Best new documentary director award went to the film Like Water, by Pablo Croce by opening up a violent world. Croce received his award by saying “This is very Surreal, It was quite a journey, quite an experience personally. We found a treasure behind this whole world.”

A very interesting award category was, the best new narrative director: Which was awarded with 25.000 dollars in cash and 50,000 dollars donated by company 3. The movie was valuated by its extraordinary journey of an outcast. The movie was “emotionally erasing” and the award went to Park Jung-bum, The Journals of Musan.

Later on, Amir Bar-Lev Juror presented the best of the world documentary competition. The award consisted on the best editing, with a prize $5000. The award appreciated the emotional personal narrative exposed in the film, Semper Fi: Always Faithful by Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert.

Lastly the night ended with several final awards, the final award for best documental feature, for its beauty and literacy the award was given to one of the most outstanding films of the festival Bombay Beach, directed by Alma Har’El. She received the award saying these words “ It was just overwhelming, to see how people just respond to the film” She gave special thanks to her team who were open to do something different, and ended up saying “Go visit Bombay Beach is really cool”.

By the end of the awards, there were other films mentioned and awarded by the precious experience, which take us to various journeys, which make these films special. The juror Rula Jebreal mentioned, the 1^st award best screenplay, which was an anonymously award given by the jury, to the film by Jannnicke Systad, Turn me on Godammit.

The night ended up mentioning and depicting the best cinematography in a narrative feature, for a vivid depiction of external and internal landscape, awarding one of the most noticeable films of the night, Artificial Paradises by Luisa Tillinger.

The night finished with emotion. Where many directors, and filmmakers felt content to have a place where their work can be rewarded and shown. The Tribeca Film Festival has become an open door for many directors out there, who are very talented and wait with an inner sigh hoping to have their work appreciated and valued.

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Tuesday afternoon, the 30 Rock ‘alpha male’ Alec Baldwin had Doug Liman, director of  The Bourne Identity and Mr. And Mrs. Smith, pinned down in a tongue-in-cheek discussion about the filmmaker’s career. Doug Liman barged into Hollywood as the independent director of Swingers and has since worked his way into blockbuster nirvana – a path which the discussion revealed was not always straight.

Joining Liman on stage was Alec Baldwin, casually dressed (sporting a mature 5 o’clock shadow) and firing off the talk with charismatic sarcasm – one that entertained the audience with several self-inflicted zingers throughout the session. His first question to the filmmaker was what made him want to become a director.

Liman took us back to when he, as a child, picked up an unwanted present to his father, a camera, and started shooting – his first movie was named ‘The Mummy’ and starred his dad. When asked by Baldwin if his choice of career had been purely out of convenience, Liman admitted a profound love for film and seemed to share an interest that moved beyond the traditional rites of moviemaking. As much as he enjoyed the process and challenges of cinema, however, he has never been in one of his own films and at this point, he admitted being a little superstitious as to whether he ever should.

Baldwin made sure to keep the talk ‘interesting’, grilling Liman on such subject as filming sex scenes. The director admitted to one movie with sex in, to try it out and Baldwin cheekily asked for its name and if it was available online – to the amusement of the audience. However, Liman revealed that the experience had been overall uncomfortable – made him feel like a pervert.

We learned that Liman’s directional debut prompted his departure from USC; a school he told the audience he hated because of its rigidness. After trying to follow the rules, the director realized that working within them was against his nature. When he started developing Swingers, the budget was set at $500.000 – but he could only raise $200.000. He explained the defining moment; where other productions would go into stalemate, he came to the conclusion that if you don’t have enough money to do it properly, you shouldn’t even pretend to do it that way. Instead, you should take the fact that you don’t have enough money and turn it to your advantage.

This became Liman’s style – not too concerned with the restrictions of moviemaking, the director has repeatedly filmed without permits and gone against studio orders. He contributed the rough style of The Bourne Identity to the fact that he had to sneak around the streets of Paris with his camera to avoid being caught.

Baldwin then asked about the post-Swingers experience. Liman explained that Swingers made him the ‘flavor of the month’. When asked back then what he wanted to do next, he already knew: Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity. But the studio disagreed, so Liman explained spending a lot of time chasing the movie rights. Some of his unorthodox methods of persuasion included crashing a wedding and eventually, flying solo to Ludlum’s private home to secure the rights. Ludlum nicknamed him ‘Hollywood’ and agreed.

The final subject was Fair Game and Liman’s observation that the US is very good at forgetting things. With a father who was the chief counsel for the US Senate Iran-Contra hearings, Liman wanted to prove that it’s possible to get people to care about politics – even when they don’t want to.

Baldwin was snappy throughout the talks, adding his personal experiences more or less discriminately. There were moments where the brash Baldwin seemed unable to contain himself and unintentionally mowed over the soft voice of Liman. In such instances, Liman patiently waited with a shy calm that made a great contrast to the loud and unapologetic Baldwin. The contradiction was most blatant when Baldwin repeatedly used the f-word, leaving Liman momentarily lost for any.

The bonus was some insightful facts about Hollywood; For example, that Warner Brothers don’t make dramas. It proves a connection between the fondness of drama in independent cinema and the fact that big budgets can buy emotions with extravagant set pieces and special effects. That Doug Liman’s mind seems to move at a different plane than others goes to show, as so vigorously emphasized by the verbose Mr. Baldwin, that the director is in a league of his own.

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While the attendees of Tribeca Film Festival crowd up the streets of Lower Manhattan, this reporter is ‘stuck’ in Berlin, weighing her options. It would have made for a much more interesting piece had I actually been attended the event – but distances can often act against us.

What, then, is Tribeca outside the US? To be honest, not much. Two of the three founders would not ring a bell to most people where I am from and until now, I personally had no knowledge of the Tribeca area itself. I have learned that the founding of the Tribeca Film Festival was a response to the devastation of 9/11, an event that redefined the world and to this day, 10 years on, has left scars yet to be healed. The idea behind the festival, as defined by De Niro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff, was to “spur the economic and cultural revitalization of the lower Manhattan district through an annual celebration of film, music and culture” according to the event website. A noble cause – inspirational and with the breath to reach hearts and minds of a broad segment of movie lovers. Especially since you can attend the event online.

It is an ingenious idea. The instant availability of Tribeca exposes the festival to a massive online audience across the US, the platform is simple and accessible and the content deserves the attention of anyone with an interest in cinema. But as I scripple away at my desk in Berlin, I cannot help but to feel a little – excluded. Shortly before Tribeca kicked off, we realized in the huddle of signing up the Toonari team to My Tribeca, that reporters outside of the USA were destined to run into some problems. It is very often so with online American video content that geo-targeted restrictions apply – you will find the same restrictions on free online British television content because outlets such as the BBC and Channel 4 are funded or partly-funded by the public. In situations like these, as a viewer, you quietly realize that this is not a machine of entertainment – but one of green.

However, I was not deterred. Despite the unfriendly geo-targeted restrictions, the inquiry service was swift and informative. One of the festival blogs is dedicated to trouble-shooting and after my initial disappointment over the exclusion from film viewing rights, I wrote the blog moderators to ask about the availability of live event streaming overseas. In response to my inquiry, Tribeca user ‘kmccrack’ wrote “Hi Claudia – Yes, live events will be available everywhere – the only geo-targeted restrictions are on the films themselves. (Also, you can watch HEIST from anywhere – give it a try!)”

I watched The Heist, by the Irish craftsman Thomas Hefferon, and patiently waited for the live events to start streaming.

It didn’t take long for me to lose interest. It is essentially a futile mission to take on the Tribeca Film Festival from Europe – or anywhere else outside of the US I would imagine. No matter how deeply you declare your love to the art of cinema, to only have the viewing pleasure of a single short movie and the soundless streaming of the red carpet (from an, I must say, awkward angle) is simply not enough to satisfy your enthusiasm. It is not without reason Tribeca has been comparatively unsuccessful in arousing the interest of a greater European audience; access will consequently define the masses. With its reputation and rising prestige, it may gain a significant level of international fame, such as for example the Sundance Film Festival, in a few years – without actually providing us Europeans with equal access. I have spoken on behalf of the people of Europe but my plea extends to all of us which are bared from Tribeca Online Film Festival: Let us join!

Until May 1, enjoy the Festival USA.

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