The first words from Film Francophone d'Angoulême 2020 jury member Evelyne Brochu :

“I knew the festival had an incredible reputation. A little bit… I’d dare to use the word: cool. But also, yeah, the festival where we feel good, where cinema is in the middle of it all. There’s a kind of poetry in French that really moves me.”

fr-en@darkbluecaro

NOIR CITY Returns to Bay Area!

Let’s try this again! The NOIR CITY film festival returns from COVID hiatus for an incisive and inspiring four-day festival at a new venue, Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theatre, March 24-27. Produced, programmed and hosted by Film Noir Foundation president Eddie Muller, 2022’s edition, subtitled “They Tried to Warn Us!”, showcases 12 movies from mid-20th century Hollywood sure to resonate with contemporary viewers. Included are shockingly prescient films focusing on megalomaniacal politicians, corrupt businessmen, neo-Nazis, racism, anti-Semitism, sexual predators, serial killers, police brutality — even a viral epidemic! This NOIR CITY program could not be more timely or topical.

For the return to in-person screenings, Muller has shifted the event to Oakland after many years at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre. The Grand Lake’s vintage movie palace atmosphere and the care and upkeep of the venue work perfectly for the type of show NOIR CITY loyalists have come to expect. To ensure festival attendees’ safety, proof of vaccination is required and mask protocols will be enforced.

NOIR CITY 19: The Bay Area Film Noir Festival will open Thursday night, March 24, with a double bill. First up, All the King’s Men (1949), the noir-stained 1950 Best Picture Oscar winner, starring Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark, an ambitious Southern politician who doesn’t let ethics interfere with his meteoric political rise. Crawford won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance. It’s paired with the world premiere of the FNF’s latest 35mm restoration — The Argyle Secrets, a 1948 B-picture directed by Cy Endfield, returned to circulation this year through the partnership of the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive. The film’s mystery centers around “The Argyle Album” containing the names of U.S. politicians and industrialists who abetted the Nazis in World War II.

Weeknight shows will be presented as double bills, with one $15 admission price for two movies. Saturday and Sunday shows will have separate admissions ($12.50) for each screening. All-access Passports, granting admission to all 12 films, are available for $100, a $30 savings over the purchase price of individual tickets. FNF proceeds from the NOIR CITY festival benefit the foundation’s efforts to rescue and restore noir films in danger of being permanently lost or damaged.

The full schedule, program notes are available atNoirCity.com

NOIR CITY 19 POSTPONED

Due to the surge in Omicron infections, the NOIR CITY 19 film festival scheduled for January 20–23 at the Grand Lake Theatre has been postponed. New dates will be announced when the threat of exposure is sufficiently diminished. All Passports and tickets purchased online will be honored at the re-scheduled festival. If you cannot attend the new dates, your purchase will be refunded (or you can donate the purchase price to the Film Noir Foundation). We regret any inconvenience caused in taking this measure, but we want to ensure the best possible experience for our loyal fans. We’ll be back soon, we hope. We are eager to once again see the movies we love, and the faces of our friends, in a grand movie palace. It will be cause for celebration!

—Eddie Muller

PBS ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL:2017

Explore these 25 films before time runs out! Watch now

Pros And Cons Of Film Festivals - Glen Reynolds

Elizabeth Taylor in Moscow, Russia, 1961

Sharon Tate at Acapulco Film Festival in Mexico, 1968

Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, Alain Delon and Hussein Fahmy, then president of the Cairo Film Festival, at the opening ceremony of the 23rd Cairo International Film Festival in 1999

* source *
Hussein Fahmy Appointed as New CIFF President
https://see.news/hussein-fahmy-appointed-as-new-ciff-president/

This day marks the end of Cinemalaya X. For 3 days, I enjoyed the experience of watching high quality Philippine indie films. Hands down. I preferred watching all of the movies but unfortunately, I just got to watch 4 films. Almost all of the tickets were already sold out. :(( but I think that’s a good thing. More and more people are embracing indie films nowadays. 

I was just upset ‘cause it just lasted for a week (More! More!).  Nevertheless, Cinemalaya is undoubtedly the best film festival in the Philippines.

Tailgating at 5 Point Adventure Film Festival in Carbondale Colorado last weekend.  What an awesome community of people stoked on the outdoors and who embrace distilling life down to the most pure experiences.  

Mary Katrantzou dress worn by Keira Knightly and the Toronto International Film Festival.

I’m hosting an online film festival which supports up-and-coming animators. This year we have 36 entries and will be premiering live tomorrow (Saturday 15th) at 6pm (UK time). Here is the link to the online screening. You can join us and engage in the live chat as these wonderful animations are being shown.

J.J. Abrams Empowers Female Filmmakers at 5th Annual Archer Film Festival

The Archer School for Girls hosted its fifth annual Archer Film Festival empowering female filmmakers, featuring director and producer J.J. Abrams as the keynote speaker. Seeking not to exclude men, but rather to include women, Archer received thousands of student-produced film submissions from young filmmakers globally. Celebrities, media, and the public viewed screenings of finalist films at the Arclight Cinema in Culver City after a pink carpet reception at The Culver Hotel. Event sponsors included Bad Robot Productions, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, The Mark Gordon Company, Mandeville Films, CBSEntertainment, Everywhere Studios, Premier Digital, Relativity School, and ArcLight Cinemas.

Embrace Your Inner Monster

When the Filmquest Film Festival commissioned me to create a new bumper for this year’s fest, I recruited some of the best ladies I know to be a part of it.

Directed & Shot & Edited by Megan Duffy
Music by Sarah Negahdari / PISCES
Model: Alondra Excene Shields
SFX Makeup: Allison McGillicuddy
Makeup Asst: Tara Parti
Costume Design: Kristin Parker
Ears: Dyad
Gils: Out of Kit

The Samurai that Night tomorrow (7/21) at 1 PM.

With English subtitles.

Tickets available at our box office and online at: http://www.japansociety.org/event/the-samurai-that-night

The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky today (7/20) at 4 PM. 

With English trailer.

Tickets available at our box office and online at: http://www.japansociety.org/event/the-cowards-who-looked-to-the-sky-fugainai-boku-wa-sora-wo-mita

It’s a Double Billing!

Don’t miss Masaaki Yuasa’s (Mind Game)madly frenetic new short, Kick-Heart, preceding Show Must Go Ontomorrow (7/20) at 1 PM.

Introduction by producer Justin Leach. 

More information at: http://www.japansociety.org/event/kick-heart

Tickets available at our box office and online at: http://www.japansociety.org/event/documentary-of-akb48-no-flower-without-rain

The Ravine of Goodbye tonight (7/19) at 7 PM.

Winner of the Moscow International Film Festival Special Jury Prize 

With English subtitles.

Tickets available at our box office and online at: http://www.japansociety.org/event/the-ravine-of-goodbye

I am on the Board of a film festival in my area and tonight was the Opening Night of this year’s festival! Fun times posing on the red carpet… ❤️

Speak of the devil - we officially won the Student Film category in the New Media Film Festival.

We also got Semi-Finalist for the New York Animation Film Awards back in June (I got confused about the laurels and didn’t know what they meant at the time)

My work SLEEVELESS / FEARLESS (and me) will be in Berlin next week as part of Berlin Feminist Film Week on 8th - 14th March 2016!

Welcome to the screening  BODY POSITIVE – My body is my temple on 9th of March at  20:30 to Moviemento! I will be taking part to the panel discussion as well with Hengameh Yaghoobifarah - I’m little bit nervous and totally exited! 

Hereandhere are the Facebook events! 

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SLEEVELESS / FEARLESS ja mä ollaan Berliinissä ensi viikolla Berlin Feminist Film Weekillä! Jännittää!!!

Welcome to Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy next week where I will be showing 3 films and talking in a panel! 

Cut to the Chase – R&A Shorts: Queer Bodies
keskiviikkona 26.9.2018
klo 18:45
WHS Teatteri Union

The screening, curated by the Young Artist of the Year 2018, J. A. Juvani, preent the politics of body, sex, sexuality, and gender. According to Queer Bodies (2011) by Heather Sykes, “queer bodies” include all that are excluded from the norm, such as the overweight body. In the screening, Aurora Reinhard’s interview documentary Boygirl (2002) is followed by recent works of a new generation of artists: Hinni Huttunen, Artor Jesus Inkerö, Camille Auer, and Kristoffer Ala-Ketola. The screening is associated with the forthcoming educational material on queer thematics produced by AV-arkki and Seta and curated by J. A. Juvani.


R&A TALKS: Queer Bodies 
Torstaina 27.9. at 17-18
Bio Rexin lämpiön lavalla

Co-hosted with  AV-Arkki – the Centre for Finnish Media Art jaThe Family Federation of Finland we dive into representations of gender. On stage artists J.A. Juvani, Hinni Huttunen, Artor Jesus Inkerö, the Family Federation of Finland’s Jaana Tiiri and transactivist Sakris Kupila. The discussion will be moderated by Marjo Pipinen.

It’sGo Skateboarding Day, and what better way to celebrate than to highlight  films throughout Sundance Film Festival history that feature skateboarding. 

Founded in 2004 by Don Brown and the International Association of Skateboard Companies in California, the holiday gives skateboarders an opportunity to get outside and practice the sport with the help of participating cities worldwide.

Here are just a few films that capture the creativity, passion, drive, and so much more that skateboarding can ignite. 

(Above) 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Hala dir. by Minhal Baig

Hala is her father’s pride and joy. Dutiful and academically gifted, she skillfully navigates both her social life as a teen in Chicago and her obligations as an only child to Pakistani immigrants. When she meets Jesse, a classmate who shares her love for poetry and skateboarding, their romance is complicated by her Muslim faith and a father who is prepared to arrange her marriage according to their family’s cultural tradition. As Hala begins to challenge these customs, her parents’ own lives start to unravel, testing the power of Hala’s flourishing voice.

2018 Sundance Film Festival, Skate Kitchen dir. by Crystal Moselle

Introverted 18-year-old skateboarder Camille lives on Long Island with her single mother. After a startling injury, she promises her mother she’ll hang up her board, but the pull to skate is too strong. On Instagram she discovers “The Skate Kitchen,” a subculture of girls whose lives revolve around skating, and bravely seeks them out… Skate Kitchen precisely captures the experience of women in male-dominated spaces and tells a story of a girl who learns the importance of camaraderie and self-discovery.

2001 Sundance Film Festival, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography dir. by Stacy Peralta

Today skateboarding is omnipresent. Take a walk down any street in any town, and you are destined to see someone riding a skateboard. Well, it wasn’t always like that. In the early ’80s, skateboarding was fading away until Stacy Peralta brought a profoundly talented group of outsiders together and dubbed them the Bones Brigade. This documentary chronicles their epic rise, using awesome archival footage and moving first-person accounts from Brigade members Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen, among others.

1999 Sundance Film Festival, Dogtown and Z-Boys dir. by Stacy Peralta

Skateboarding has crossed over into the mainstream population due in large part to the humble beginnings of a group of eight teenagers in an area of Santa Monica called Dogtown. It was there that this mismatched gang of kids from broken homes formed a group known as the Zephyr Team aka Z-Boys… Reuniting the original crew 25 years later enables us to hear in their own words what it was like before x-treme sports existed.

All film stills courtesy of respective film titles. 

A brief history of Parker Posey’s (aka “The Queen of the Indies”) Sundance career in film posters

SubUrbia, 1997 Sundance Festival

Directed by Richard Linklater and written by Eric Bogosian, SubUrbia is an extraordinary blend of the disparate visions of two celebrated observers of pop culture and disaffected youth… SubUrbia seduces you with a cinematic style that captures the dark heart of middle America.

Frisk, 1996 Sundance Film Festival

Frisk is the much-anticipated adaptation of Dennis Cooper’s infamous novel about homosexuality, sadism, and insanity. Ironically, Dennis is also the name of the main character, whose lead we follow on this path between what is real and what we can only hope is surreal.

Broken English,2007 Sundance Film Festival

Nora isn’t broken; she just acts that way. She is actually sexy, funny, and creative, and her only fault is being cursed with that modern affliction of wanting more out of life than what others want for her. She must suffer quietly her best friend’s “perfect marriage,” a job she has outgrown, and a mother who constantly reminds her of it all.

Fay Grim,2007 Sundance Film Festival

Eight years have passed since the infamous Henry Fool fled the country, abandoning his wife, Fay Grim, and their son, Ned. Played to Hartley-esque perfection by Parker Posey, Fay is falling to pieces. Ned is being expelled from school, and Fay’s brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), the reviled garbageman/poet, is serving a 10-year sentence for aiding Henry’s escape. 

Spring Breakdown,2009 Sundance Film Festival

An outlandish, quick-witted romp that jubilantly leaves none immune to ridicule, Spring Breakdown chews up our geeky gals and spits them out as triumphant powerhouses—confident that being who they truly are is way cooler than fitting in.

Grab,2011 Sundance Film Festival

Each year residents of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico honor individual family members by throwing food and gifts from the rooftops of their homes to the community that gathers below. Billy Luther’s film follows three families as they prepare for this ancient tradition, which has taken many modern twists.

Columbus, 2017 Sundance Film Festival

While his father is in a coma, Jin finds himself stuck in an unusual Midwestern city renowned for its modernist buildings. Though not fond of architecture, Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a bright girl who works at the city library (avoiding college and her future), and she shows him the local marvels.

-All film posters courtesy of respective film titles-