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DECEMBER 29, 2009
FACING ALI
An
interview with PETE McCORMACK the
director of FACING ALI. Three-time World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad
Ali defeated almost every top fighter of the golden age of boxing and
symbolized the
sport for generations of fans. Now, ten of his acclaimed rivals pay tribute
to perhaps the world’s most beloved and inspiring athlete in FACING
ALI, a riveting documentary from director Pete McCormack (Uganda Rising)
and producer Derik Murray (Legends of Hockey). From the moment he captured
the gold at the 1960 Summer Olympics, the fighter who first came to prominence
as Cassius Clay electrified the world and transformed the art of boxing.
Articulate, handsome, charismatic and outspoken, he became an icon of
the burgeoning civil rights movement and a hero to millions around the
globe. A master showman and a brilliant strategist, Ali won as much by
getting inside his opponents’ heads as by his astounding physical
talents. With exclusive interviews and vintage footage from the champ’s
unmatched career, FACING ALI recreates his most unforgettable rivalries,
and recounts his triumphs, tragedies and unstoppable spirit.
December 22, 2009
treeless mountain
An interview with SO YONG KIM the
director of TREELESS
MOUNTAIN. When their mother needs to leave in order to
find their estranged father,seven-year-old Jin andher younger sister,
Bin, are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a
small piggy bank and their mother’s promise to return when it is
full, the two young girls are forced to acclimate to changes in their
family life. Counting the days, and the coins, the two bright-eyedyoung
girls eagerly anticipate their mother’s homecoming. But when the
bank fills up, and with their mother still not back, Big Aunt decides
that she can no longer tend to the children. Taken to live on their grandparent’s
farm, it is here that Jin comes to learn the importance of familybonds
in this beautiful, meditative, and thought-provoking second feature from
So Yong Kim, the acclaimed director of IN BETWEEN DAYS. TREELESS MOUNTAIN
is Kim’s second feature film. Her first feature,
IN BETWEEN DAYS, was acclaimed by critics and won the Special Jury Prize
at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival along with the International Critics’ Prize
at Berlin. TREELESS MOUNTAIN is nominated for a 2010 Independent Spirit
Best Cinematography and John Cassavetes Award.
DECEMBER
15,
2009
THE MESSENGER
An
interview with OREN MOVERMAN director
of THE MESSENGER — the
story of a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (Ben Foster) who has just returned
home from a tour in Iraq and is assigned to the Army’s Casualty
Notification service. Partnered with fellow officer Tony Stone (Woody
Harrelson) to bear the bad news to the loved ones of fallen soldiers,
Will faces the challenge of completing his mission while seeking to find
comfort and healing back on the home front. When he finds himself drawn
to Olivia (Samantha Morton), to whom he has just delivered the news of
her husband’s death, Will’s emotional detachment begins to
dissolve and the film reveals itself as a surprising, humorous, moving
and very human portrait of grief, friendship and survival. Moverman co-wrote
the screenplay for JESUS' SON, co-wrote Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan biopic
I'M NOT THERE, and penned two films currently in production: INTERRUPTED,
about legendary director Nicholas Ray, and WILLIAM BURROUGHS' QUEER, for
DECEMBER
8,
2009
EASIER WITH PRACTICE
An
interview with KYLE
PATRICK ALVAREZ the director of EASIER
WITH PRACTICE — the story of Davy Mitchell who, in an effort
to promote his unpublished novel, sets out on a road trip with his younger
brother. However, the idealism of being on the road wears off and it quickly
proves to be a lonely and unfulfilling experience for Davy. One night
in a motel room he gets a random phone call from a mysterious woman named
Nicole. They start a funny and intimate long distance relationship that
leaves Davy happier than he has been in years. Hoping there is more to
the relationship then a voice and a phone bill, Davy decides he wants
to meet Nicole. Ultimately, he will have to face not only the truth about
their relationship but also about himself. EASIER WITH PRACTICE won the
Grand Jury Award at the 2009 CineVegas International Film Festival and
has a Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature and the Someone to
Watch Award.
DECEMBER
1,
2009
WILLIAM KUNSTLER: DISTURBING THE
UNIVERSE
An
interview with EMILY
KUNSTLER the co-writer director (with her sister Sarah) of WILLIAM
KUNSTLER: DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE — the story of the life of
their father, the late radical civil rights lawyer. In the 1960s and 70s,
Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. and represented
the famed “Chicago 8” activists who protested the Vietnam
War. When the inmates took over Attica prison, or when the American Indian
Movement stood up to the federal government at Wounded Knee, they asked
Kunstler to be their lawyer. To his daughters, it seemed that he was at
the center of everything important that had ever happened. But when they
were growing up, Kunstler represented some of the most reviled members
of society, including rapists and assassins. This powerful film not only
recounts the historic causes that Kunstler fought for; it also reveals
a man that even his own daughters did not always understand, a man who
risked public outrage and the safety of his family so that justice could
NOVEMBER
24,
2009
THE END OF POVERTY?
An
interview with PHILIPPE
DIAZ the director of THE
END OF POVERTY? — a documentary revealing that poverty is not
an accident. Global poverty did not just happen. It began with military
conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land,
minerals and forced labor. Today, the problem persists because of unfair
debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries taking
advantage of poor, developing countries. Renowned actor and activist,
Martin Sheen, narrates The End of Poverty?, a feature-length documentary
directed by award-winning director, Philippe Diaz, which explains how
today's financial crisis is a direct consequence of these unchallenged
policies that have lasted centuries. Consider that 20% of the planet's
population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet
can regenerate. At this rate, to maintain our lifestyle means more and
more people will sink below the poverty line.Filmed in the slums of Africa
and the barrios of Latin America, The End of Poverty? features expert
insights from: Nobel prize winners in Economics, Amartya Sen and Joseph
Stiglitz; acclaimed authors Susan George, Eric Toussaint, John Perkins,
Chalmers Johnson; university professors William Easterly and Michael Watts;
government ministers such as Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera
and the leaders of social movements in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and Tanzania.
NOVEMBER
17,
2009
THAT EVENING SUN
An
interview with SCOTT TEEMS the
director of THAT EVENING SUN — the
story of Abner, an aging Tennessee farmer discarded to a nursing facility
by his lawyer son, who flees the old folks' home and catches a ride back
to his country farm to live out his days in peace. Upon his return, he
discovers that his son has leased the farm to Abner's old enemy and his
white trash family. Not one to suffer fools or go down easy, Abner moves
into the old tenant shack on the property and declares that he won't leave
until the farm is returned to his possession. But Lonzo Choat, the new
tenant, has no intention to move out or give in to the old man's demands.
This sets up a ruthless grudge match between Abner and Choat, each man
right in his own eyes, each too stubborn to give an inch. Angered by his
son's betrayal, and haunted by recurring dreams of his long_dead wife,
Abner sets about his own path toward reclaiming his life. Lines are drawn,
threats are made, and the simmering tension under the Southern sun erupts,
inevitably, into savagery. Scott Teems is a writer-director born and raised
in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. His screenplay for That Evening
Sun previously won the Emerging Narrative Screenplay Award at the IFP
Market, and the film marks his feature directorial debut.
NOVEMBER
10,
2009
SKIN
An
interview with ANTHONY
FABIAN the director of SKIN.
Ten year-old Sandra is distinctly African looking. Her parents, Abraham
and Sannie, are white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. They
are shopkeepers in a remote area of the Eastern Transvaal and, despite
Sandra’s mixed-race appearance, have lovingly brought her up as
their ‘white’ little girl. By the time she is 17, Sandra realises
she is never going to be accepted by the white community. She falls in
love with Petrus — a black man, the local vegetable seller, and
begins an illicit love affair. Abraham threatens to shoot Petrus and disown
Sandra. Sannie is torn between her husband’s rage and her daughter’s
predicament. Anthony Fabian has produced and directed five short films,
four hour-long documentaries and over a dozen classical music programmes
NOVEMBER
3,
2009
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
An
interview with ANDY
BICHLBAUM co-director and co-writer of THE
YES MEN FIX THE WORLD. Along with co-Yes Man Mike Bonanno, Andy Bichlbaum
has an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations he hates.
Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, the Yes Men lie their way into
business conferences and parody their corporate targets in ever more extreme
ways - basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences
to the danger of letting greed run our world. At conference after conference,
the Yes Men try to wake up their corporate audiences to this frightening
prospect, in the process taking on some of the world's biggest and baddest
corporations. Just one example: as Exxon, Andy and Mike demonstrate a
new biofuel made from climate-change victims. It's a gut-busting laugh
riot - one of several in the film - to see the unsuspecting audience learn
that the lit candles they hold are made out of dead people. On their journey,
the Yes Men act as gonzo journalists, delving deep into the question of
why we have given the market more power than any other institution to
determine our direction as a society. They visit the twisted (and accidentally
hilarious) underworld of the free-market think tanks, where they figure
out a way to defeat the logic that's destroying our planet. And as they
appear on the BBC before 300 million viewers, or before 1000 New Orleans
contractors alongside Mayor Ray Nagin, the layers of lies are peeled back
OCTOBER
27,
2009
SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE
An
interview with DANIEL
RAIM the director of SOMETHING’S
GONNA LIVE — an intimate portrait of life, friendship and the
movies, as recalled by some of Hollywood's greatest cinema artists. A
follow-up by Daniel Raim to his Oscar-nominated documentary, THE MAN ON
LINCOLN'S NOSE, the film profiles renowned art directors Robert Boyle
(NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS), Henry Bumstead (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,
THE STING), Harold Michelson (STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, CATCH-22)
and Albert Nozaki (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS), as well
as master cinematographers Conrad Hall (IN COLD BLOOD, BUTCH CASSIDY AND
THE SUNDANCE KID) and Haskell Wexler (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, MEDIUM
COOL). From snapshots, sketches, and vintage footage, interwoven with
interviews and new scenes of these octogenarian artists at work, we get
a behind-the-scenes look at moviemaking in the golden age of cinema. As
we watch iconic scenes of our collective imagination emerge from their
drawings, models, matte paintings, and sets, we hear tales of Mae West, "Hitch",
and DeMille, and experience their longing for the sense of community that
made working on these films so great. Not a nostalgia piece, but an exploration
of the artist's moral obligation to truthfully portray the human condition,
SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE is a deeply moving and thought-provoking celebration
OCTOBER
20,
2009
AFI FEST
An
interview with the head of Press & Public Relations for the American
Film Institute JOHN WILDMAN and programmer LANE
KNEEDLER about the AFI
FEST in Los Angeles running from October 30 thru November 7. AFI FEST
presents a survey of the year's most significant films each fall. Featuring
international work from emerging filmmakers, global showcases of films
from the great masters and red-carpet gala premieres, AFI FEST brings
world cinema to the heart of Hollywood. Since 2000, the consumer audience
at AFI FEST has tripled to over 65,000 attendees. In 2008, over 600 press
representatives secured accreditation to the Festival, with combined media
impressions in excess of 1.6 billion worldwide. AFI FEST is the only film
festival in the United States to hold the prestigious FIAPF accreditation,
assuring a high standard of quality and reliability for the international
film community. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes
AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category of the
OCTOBER
13,
2009
THE MAID
An
interview with SEBASTIAN
SILVA the director of THE MAID.
The story of how a maid called Raquel, who has worked for over 20 years
in one affluent Chilean household, rediscovers herself. The Maid is a
microcosm of Latin social hierarchy while also focusing on one woman's
journey to free herself from a mental servitude of her own making. Born
in Santiago Chile in 1979, Sebastián Silva is a multifaceted artist
whose body of work includes painting, illustration and popular music.
Silva studied filmmaking at the Escuela de Cine de Chile for a year before
leaving to study animation in Montreal. While eking out a living selling
shoes, Silva mounted the first gallery exhibition of his illustrations
and started his band CHC who have since gone on to record three albums.
Silva’s second illustration show brought him in contact with Hollywood
but a frustrating period in Los Angeles spent pitching to Steven Spielberg
and others netted no tangible results. Fleeing Hollywood, Silva initiated
two more musical projects, “Yaia” and “Los Mono”,
both picked up for distribution by Sonic360 and released in the US and
the UK, and exhibited his art work in New York while writing the script
for what would become his first feature La Vida me Mata. Back in Chile,
Silva recorded a solo album and directed La Vida me Mata. Released in
2007, La Vida me Mata was a critical success, garnering multiple awards
including Best Film from the Chilean Critics Circle. Setting aside a script
based on his disastrous trip to Hollywood, Silva wrote and directed The
Maid in February of 2008.
SEPTEMBER
29,
2009
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA
An
interview with RICK GOLDSMITH the
director of THE MOST DANGEROUS
MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS — the
story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, armed only with
his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified
documents, decides to challenge an "Imperial" Presidency, answerable
to neither Congress, the press, nor the people-in order to help end the
Vietnam War. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg shook America to its foundations
when he smuggled a top-secret Pentagon study to the New York Times that
showed how five Presidents consistently lied to the American people about
the Vietnam War that was killing millions and tearing America apart. President
Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger called Ellsberg "the
most dangerous man in America," who "had to be stopped at all
costs." But Ellsberg wasn't stopped. Facing 115 years in prison on
espionage and conspiracy charges, he fought back. Ensuing events surrounding
the so-called Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate and the downfall
of President Nixon, and hastened the end of the Vietnam War.
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