In today’s film news roundup, “Roma” is getting a DVD release, Joaquin Phoenix backs an animal rights documentary, Humanitas announces nominations and “The Wretched” finds a home.
Roma DVD
Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” has become the first Netflix movie to get a Blu-Ray and DVD release, thanks to the Criterion Collection launching a special edition in February.
The release will include five separate documentaries about the creation of the film, and will feature the same 4K master and Dolby Atmos sound that were in the theatrical release. The movie won Academy Awards for Cuaron’s directing and cinematography along with the foreign-language film Oscar.
“Roma” follows Yalitza Aparicio, who plays a live-in housekeeper in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. It became Mexico’s first winner of the Oscar for foreign-language feature. The pic, produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant Media, joined foreign-language movies “Life Is Beautiful,...
Roma DVD
Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” has become the first Netflix movie to get a Blu-Ray and DVD release, thanks to the Criterion Collection launching a special edition in February.
The release will include five separate documentaries about the creation of the film, and will feature the same 4K master and Dolby Atmos sound that were in the theatrical release. The movie won Academy Awards for Cuaron’s directing and cinematography along with the foreign-language film Oscar.
“Roma” follows Yalitza Aparicio, who plays a live-in housekeeper in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. It became Mexico’s first winner of the Oscar for foreign-language feature. The pic, produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant Media, joined foreign-language movies “Life Is Beautiful,...
- 11/16/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Also screening at the Texas festival are A Hidden Life and The Truth.
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Truth and Kasi Lemons’ Harriet are among titles in the first wave of screenings confirmed for this year’s Austin Film Festival in the Us.
The Texas festival, which runs from October 24 to 31, will also include world premieres of Cassandra Suchan and Denis Henry Hennelly’s activism documentary The Animal People, with Joaquin Phoenix as executive producer, and Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait, from local Austin filmmakers John Langmore and Bud Force.
Other world premieres set for the...
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Truth and Kasi Lemons’ Harriet are among titles in the first wave of screenings confirmed for this year’s Austin Film Festival in the Us.
The Texas festival, which runs from October 24 to 31, will also include world premieres of Cassandra Suchan and Denis Henry Hennelly’s activism documentary The Animal People, with Joaquin Phoenix as executive producer, and Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait, from local Austin filmmakers John Langmore and Bud Force.
Other world premieres set for the...
- 8/23/2019
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
The Austin Film Festival said Friday that Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth will be in the lineup for the 26th annual fest, which is set for October 24-31.
The first wave of films also includes the world premieres of the documentary Cowboys, written and directed by Austin natives John Langmore and Bud Force; The Animal People, from executive producer Joaquin Phoenix; The Vice Guide to Bigfoot; and the Texas crime thriller Sleeping in Plastic, from writer-director Van Ditthavong.
Also set for the fest is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It’s Over, a documentary that follows the making of the show’s series-finale episode which aired in April. Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna and director Katie Hyde will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&a.
Here’s the first round of films set for the lineup,...
The first wave of films also includes the world premieres of the documentary Cowboys, written and directed by Austin natives John Langmore and Bud Force; The Animal People, from executive producer Joaquin Phoenix; The Vice Guide to Bigfoot; and the Texas crime thriller Sleeping in Plastic, from writer-director Van Ditthavong.
Also set for the fest is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It’s Over, a documentary that follows the making of the show’s series-finale episode which aired in April. Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna and director Katie Hyde will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&a.
Here’s the first round of films set for the lineup,...
- 8/23/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Lightning Entertainment has acquired international sales on the dramatic thriller directed starring Adrian Grenier and Gaby Hoffman.
Denis Hennelly directs the story of a couple living off the grid whose relationship is challenged when a swarm of old friends and acquaintances come knocking on their door after an apocalyptic cyber attack.
Rounding out the cast are Ben McKenzie and Caroline Dhavernas.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Goodbye World to buyers for the first time in Cannes and are confident the film will captivate them as it did us the first time we saw it,” said Lightning sales and acquisitions consultant Richard S Guardian. “This is a film and a story that audiences will seek out anywhere in the world.”
Lightning Entertainment evp and general manager Ken DuBow announced the acquisition after svp Joseph Dickstein negotiated the deal with producer Matthew Zamias.
Lightning’s sales slate include horror-thrillers Indigenous and Dark House, as well as...
Denis Hennelly directs the story of a couple living off the grid whose relationship is challenged when a swarm of old friends and acquaintances come knocking on their door after an apocalyptic cyber attack.
Rounding out the cast are Ben McKenzie and Caroline Dhavernas.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Goodbye World to buyers for the first time in Cannes and are confident the film will captivate them as it did us the first time we saw it,” said Lightning sales and acquisitions consultant Richard S Guardian. “This is a film and a story that audiences will seek out anywhere in the world.”
Lightning Entertainment evp and general manager Ken DuBow announced the acquisition after svp Joseph Dickstein negotiated the deal with producer Matthew Zamias.
Lightning’s sales slate include horror-thrillers Indigenous and Dark House, as well as...
- 5/12/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Lightning Entertainment has acquired international sales on the dramatic thriller directed starring Adrian Grenier and Gaby Hoffman.
Denis Hennelly directs the story of a couple living off the grid whose relationship is challenged when a swarm of old friends and acquaintances come knocking on their door after an apocalyptic cyber attack.
Rounding out the cast are Ben McKenzie and Caroline Dhavernas.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Goodbye World to buyers for the first time in Cannes and are confident the film will captivate them as it did us the first time we saw it,” said Lightning sales and acquisitions consultant Richard S Guardian. “This is a film and a story that audiences will seek out anywhere in the world.”
Lightning Entertainment evp and general manager Ken DuBow announced the acquisition after svp Joseph Dickstein negotiated the deal with producer Matthew Zamias.
Lightning’s sales slate include horror-thrillers Indigenous and Dark House, as well as...
Denis Hennelly directs the story of a couple living off the grid whose relationship is challenged when a swarm of old friends and acquaintances come knocking on their door after an apocalyptic cyber attack.
Rounding out the cast are Ben McKenzie and Caroline Dhavernas.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Goodbye World to buyers for the first time in Cannes and are confident the film will captivate them as it did us the first time we saw it,” said Lightning sales and acquisitions consultant Richard S Guardian. “This is a film and a story that audiences will seek out anywhere in the world.”
Lightning Entertainment evp and general manager Ken DuBow announced the acquisition after svp Joseph Dickstein negotiated the deal with producer Matthew Zamias.
Lightning’s sales slate include horror-thrillers Indigenous and Dark House, as well as...
- 5/12/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Indie films don’t often tackle issues that are big on a geographic scale — big drama sure, but big events are usually outside their budgetary range. An impending apocalypse is a good example of the type of topic beyond an indie’s reach, but there are exceptions including 2012′s It’s a Disaster which successfully married lots of laughs, some relationship drama and the possible end of the world. (Or at least the end of Los Angeles.) Goodbye World seems to start off on the same strong footing, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that director/co-writer Denis Hennelly isn’t entirely sure what kind of film he’s trying to make. There’s comedy, relationship drama and an impending apocalypse, but there’s also very little of value to hold it all together. There is plenty of bickering though. James (Adrian Grenier) and Lily (Kerry Bishé) are hosting some friends for the weekend at their rural...
- 4/4/2014
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Blame it on the Mayans, maybe, but 2012 and 2013 have seen a host of films with apocalypse on the brain, from big budget action flicks to meta-comedies like “This Is The End,” to smaller, more realistic dramedies like “It’s A Disaster." Director Denis Henry Hennelly’s “Goodbye World” falls more in line with the latter, situating a group of seven college friends in a Northern California cabin in the wake of a cyber attack. While it has its funny moments, it’s definitely not a comedy, but it seeks to acknowledge the weird ways in which people react to times of crisis, especially amongst this particular group, with their complicated personal histories. Will they implode from their own internal strife or outside threats? James (Adrian Grenier) and Lily (Kerry Bishé) have retreated from urban life, holing up with their four-year-old daughter Hannah (Mckenna Grace) in a stylishly appointed solar-powered cabin in NorCal.
- 4/3/2014
- by Katie Walsh
- The Playlist
Man has always been fascinated with the end of the world, but filmmakers seem extra intrigued recently, with World War Z, It's A Disaster, This is the End, After Earth, Oblivion, The Fifth Season, and Cloud Atlas all tackling the subject cinematically over the last year or so. Now we can add Denis Hennelly's Goodbye World to that list. With equal parts comedy and heart, Hennelly's film is one of the more entertaining films on the list. With a realistic scope and interpersonal relationships that sing of sincerity, Goodbye World is the kind of indie that has real potential to break out and find an audience. If the world doesn't come to an end first, that is. Set almost entirely on a remote Northern California...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/3/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Goodbye World director Denis Hennelly has acknowledged the influence of Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill on his own film, in which old college chums gather at the largely self-contained mountain house of James (Adrian Grenier, sporting a beard that just looks so slappable) and Lily (Kerry Bishé, who can totally do better) on the eve of a "large-scale cyber attack" that collapses the nation's infrastructure.
The Big Chill is a fine model to work from, since any apocalypse movie worth its now valuable salt focuses more on the characters than the destruction, but Goodbye World's two story tones never quite mesh.
The soapy material is at odds with the largely distant catastrophe, which often feels too abstract to be a real threat; the comp...
The Big Chill is a fine model to work from, since any apocalypse movie worth its now valuable salt focuses more on the characters than the destruction, but Goodbye World's two story tones never quite mesh.
The soapy material is at odds with the largely distant catastrophe, which often feels too abstract to be a real threat; the comp...
- 4/2/2014
- Village Voice
Over the past year or so, we've seen the end of society come in a variety of ways on the big screen from the outlandish comedic takes courtesy of "This Is The End" and "The World's End," to more grim takes in fare like "World War Z" that sees civilization on the brink of collapse. But in "Goodbye World," the apocalypse is viewed from afar, from the relative comfort of a cabin in Northern California. Adrian Grenier, Ben McKenzie, Mark Webber, Gaby Hoffmann, and rapper Kid Cudi star in the film co-written and directed by Denis Henry Hennelly, that follows a group of estranged friends who reunited at an off the grid cabin, when a mass text triggers a crisis of apocalyptic proportions. And as you'll see in this exclusive clip, it's not necessarily hysteria that sets in right away, as these folks use the opportunity to take stock of...
- 3/25/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
We've just populated the image database with fresh images from Samuel Goldwyn Films and Phase 4 Films' "Goodbye World" starring Kerry Bishé, Caroline Dhavernas, Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffman, Ben McKenzie, Scott Mescudi, Remy Nozik and Mark Webber. The film opens in theaters on April 4th, 2014, and is directed by Denis Henry Hennelly from a script by Sarah Adina Smith and Hennelly. James and Lily live off the grid, raising their young daughter in a cocoon of comfort and sustainability. When a mysterious mass text ripples its way across the country, triggering a crippling, apocalyptic cyber-attack, their home transitions from sheltered modern oasis to a fortress for the estranged old friends that show up at their door for protection and community...
- 3/4/2014
- Upcoming-Movies.com
ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at the poster for director Denis Henry Hennelly's drama Goodbye World , starring Kerry Bishé, Caroline Dhavernas, Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann, Ben McKenzie, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Remy Nozik and Mark Webber. In the film, James and Lily live off the grid, raising their young daughter in a cocoon of comfort and sustainability. When a mysterious mass text ripples its way across the country, triggering a crippling, apocalyptic cyber attack, their home transitions from sheltered modern oasis to a fortress for the estranged old friends that show up at their door for protection and community. The unexpected reunion--abundant with revelry and remembrances, generously enhanced by organic wine and weed--is quickly undermined by the...
- 1/31/2014
- Comingsoon.net
Samuel Goldwyn Films and Phase 4 Films have jointly acquired all Us rights to Denis Henry Hennelly’s Goodbye World.
The ensemble drama screened in competition at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival and follows a group of estranged friends who reunite as civilisation collapses.
Kerry Bishé, Caroline Dhavernas, Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann, Ben McKenzie, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Remy Nozik, and Mark Webber star.
Goldwyn and Phase 4 plan a spring 2014 release after negotiating the deal with Gersh and Eric Feig Entertainment and Media Law on behalf of the filmmakers.
Mary Pat Bentel, Picturesque Films’ Matthew G Zamias, Guy Moshe and Albertino Matalon produced.
The ensemble drama screened in competition at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival and follows a group of estranged friends who reunite as civilisation collapses.
Kerry Bishé, Caroline Dhavernas, Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann, Ben McKenzie, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Remy Nozik, and Mark Webber star.
Goldwyn and Phase 4 plan a spring 2014 release after negotiating the deal with Gersh and Eric Feig Entertainment and Media Law on behalf of the filmmakers.
Mary Pat Bentel, Picturesque Films’ Matthew G Zamias, Guy Moshe and Albertino Matalon produced.
- 10/21/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Samuel Goldwyn Films and Phase 4 Films have partnered up to distribute "Goodbye World" in the Us. The film, which screened in competition at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival and features a large cast of notable stars including Adrian Grenier ("Entourage"), Gaby Hoffmann ("Louie"), Ben McKenzie ("Southland") and rapper Kid Cudi, is set to open next Spring. "Goodbye World is a unique apocalyptic movie about what happens between a cataclysmic event and the trials of survival to come in the new world -- that time when you decide who you will stand with and who you will fight," said director Denis Henry Hennelly. The official plot synopsis: James and Lily live off the grid, raising their young daughter in a cocoon of comfort and sustainability. When a mysterious mass text ripples its way across the country, triggering a crippling, apocalyptic cyber attack, their home transitions from sheltered modern oasis to...
- 10/21/2013
- by James Hiler
- Indiewire
Samuel Goldwyn Films and Phase 4 Films have jointly acquired all U.S. rights to Denis Henry Hennelly’s “Goodbye World,” which screened in competition at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival, the companies announced Monday. The film stars Kerry Bishé, Caroline Dhavernas, Adrian Grenier, Gaby Hoffmann, Ben McKenzie, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Remy Nozik and Mark Webber as a group of estranged friends who reunite as civilization collapses. Also Read: Anita Hill Documentary ‘Anita’ Acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films Samuel Goldwyn Films and Phase 4 Films are planning to release “Goodbye World” in the spring. Hennelly directed from a script he co-wrote with.
- 10/21/2013
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
Man has always been fascinated with the end of the world but filmmakers seem extra intrigued recently with World War Z, It's A Disaster, This is the End, After Earth, Oblivion, The Fifth Season, and Cloud Atlas all tackling the subject cinematically over the last year. Now we can add Denis Hennelly's Goodbye World to that list. With equal parts comedy and heart, Hennelly's film is one of the more entertaining films on the list. With a realistic scope and interpersonal relationships that sing of sincerity, Goodbye World is the kind of indie that has real potential to break out and find an audience. If the world doesn't come to an end first, that is. Set almost entirely on a remote Northern California hilltop,...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 6/25/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Note: This review contains mild spoilers.Blame it on the Mayans, maybe, but 2012 and 2013 have seen a host of films with apocalypse on the brain, from big budget action flicks to meta-comedies like “This Is The End,” to smaller, more realistic dramedies like “It’s A Disaster,” which made its premiere at last year’s L.A. Film Fest (we even wrote a guide on the 2013 apocalypse movies). Director Denis Henry Hennelly’s “Goodbye World” falls more in line with the latter, situating a group of seven college friends in a Northern California cabin in the wake of a cyber attack. While it has its funny moments, it’s definitely not a comedy, but it seeks to acknowledge the weird ways in which people react to times of crisis, especially amongst this particular group, with their complicated personal histories. Will they implode from their own internal strife or outside threats?...
- 6/20/2013
- by Katie Walsh
- The Playlist
We've had quite the week of exclusive first looks at some of the films that are playing the L.A. Film Fest this year, and as the festival kicks off tonight, we've got another exclusive clip from one of the films in the narrative competition -- the intriguing apocalyptic drama "Goodbye World," featuring a killer cast of Adrian Grenier, Ben McKenzie, Mark Webber, Gaby Hoffmann and rapper Kid Cudi. The film, directed by Denis Henry Hennelly, takes place in the wake of an apocalyptic cyber attack, at an off-the-grid cabin where a group of friends seek shelter. In the clip, Hoffman and Kid Cudi's characters talk about his possibly shady past working as a "private contractor" in Lebanon and the skills he learned from that, while Grenier and McKenzie disagree about the stakes of the situation at hand. While there's no shortage of apocalypse movies at hand this year,...
- 6/13/2013
- by Katie Walsh
- The Playlist
Gaby Hoffmann stars in two films premiering at the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 13-23 in downtown L.A.) — Crystal Fairy, co-starring Michael Cera and directed by Sebastian Silva, and Goodbye World, co-starring Adrien Grenier and directed by Denis Hennelly. Hoffmann was a child actress, with featured roles in classics like Sleepless in Seattle and Field of Dreams. More recently, she’s starred in Silva’s HBO Go series The Boring Life of Jacqueline and the upcoming independent film Burma, plus had recent guest spots on The Good Wife and Homeland. Below in a post as-told-to EW’s Laura Hertzfeld,...
- 6/11/2013
- by EW staff
- EW.com - PopWatch
When civilization finally cracks, and the world turns on itself, it might be important to be surrounded by friends.
Maybe.
In Goodbye World, an apocalyptic drama that will have its world premiere on Saturday at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Adrian Grenier and Kerry Bishé (Argo) play a wealthy couple whose rural home becomes an oasis for all their old Stanford University pals after a mysterious cyber attack cripples society. For awhile, the emergency reunion seems like a nice opportunity to catch up on old times, but as reality closes in, friendships are tested as old resentments surface. “The beginning...
Maybe.
In Goodbye World, an apocalyptic drama that will have its world premiere on Saturday at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Adrian Grenier and Kerry Bishé (Argo) play a wealthy couple whose rural home becomes an oasis for all their old Stanford University pals after a mysterious cyber attack cripples society. For awhile, the emergency reunion seems like a nice opportunity to catch up on old times, but as reality closes in, friendships are tested as old resentments surface. “The beginning...
- 6/11/2013
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The summertime, downtown set, glitzy yet ‘cashz’ La Film Festival, presented by Film Independent has announced their film lineup today. The verdict on the Latino rep? Compared to the last three festivals I’ve examined this year, Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca, La Film Festival comes through with arguably the most valuable representation; there are three films representing American Latino in the narrative competition and one in documentary competition.
The lineup consists of a handful of new American indies mixed in with many favorited international films from last year’s Toronto, Venice, London and Berlin film festivals, and seven Sundance films screening out of competition including Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won both the Audience and Jury Awards in Park City. Starring Boricua Melonie Diaz as Oakland police murder victim Oscar Grant’s girlfriend, Fruitvale will be given the gala treatment (like last year’s Sundance awarded, Black film, Middle of Nowhere), alongside the direct-from-Cannes, Only God Forgives, the reteaming of director Nicolas Winding Refyn and GQ sensitive alpha hero Ryan Gosling (Drive).
But I’m not here to comb and recycle through the ‘high profile’ films that come armed with buzz. As always I’m spotlighting U.S. films in which the writer/director/cast are native born whose ethnic/cultural roots originates from Mexico, Central or South America. In addition, films by filmmakers who may not be Latino, but whose narratives explore and relate to the relevant bi-cultural experience/subjects. And finally I also like to mention the Latin films (international).
While I’m happy to acknowledge and give it up for La, it’s still painful for this blogger/programmer to know there are so many more fresh American Latino films out there ready to be discovered. Game-changing films offering such fresh and original perspectives, which have by and large been dismissed by most of the major Us Film Festivals. With the futures of the two highest profile Latino niche festivals in limbo, The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and HBO’s NY International Latino Film Festival, it’s especially crushing to know that these films might also be robbed of their only community platform. It’s cause for alarm and high time to address this void. But wait, lets save that for another post. For now, lets get back to the Latino stories coming at you at this year’s La Film Festival. For official synopsis and pics check the Film Guide here.
Narrative Competition – Notably 9 of the 12 are Us, hopefully giving the scrappy indies a better chance to compete and win the cash prize against the healthy subsidized production value of foreign movies. Five are first features and only one female narrative director.
40 Years From Yesterday written and directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian
This is the first feature from the writing/directing team who got a lot of attention with their 2010 short Charlie and The Rabbit. Ojeda-Beck (whose parents are from Peru) and Machoian who is from the heavily Mexican populated King City, met at Cal State, Monterey Bay where they forged a tight artistic collaboration. Forty Years from Yesterday is described as Machoian’s imagination of how his mother’s death would unfold for his own family, capturing the loss his siblings would feel in losing a parent and his father’s pain in facing the death of his partner.
The duo have their way with documentary, fiction and experimental form, instilling an aura of temporality in an anchored realism. This unique evocative alchemy is found in Machoian’s doc short, Movies Made from Home #16, a 4 minute existential moment which screened at Sundance this year. The cosmic life themes they tend to broach are treated in such a down to earth and sensitive way, which is further made relatable by the natural non-pro performances they employ. Robert’s father, Bill Graham has starred in a few of his films and in Forty Years from Yesterday, both Robert’s parents and siblings play themselves. See this endearing behind the scenes clip of the making of the film:
The House That Jack Built written by Joseph B. Vasquez and directed by Henry Barrial
Written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez (d 1995) whose 1991 movie, Hanging with the Homeboys, was a groundbreaking urban comedy when it came out, now very much a classic albeit sadly forgotten gem. The only one of Vasquez’s five movies that was distributed (by New Line), Hanging with the Homeboys was shot in the South Bronx where he was born and raised. About four homeys, two Puerto Rican (one of them played by a baby-faced Johnny Leguizamo) and two Black, the movie, available on dvd from Amazon (or, I found it in 6 parts on Youtube) screened at the Sundance Film Festival at its indie darling peak. Its good-natured humor is derived from neighborhood beefs, trying to rap to ladies, and the racial tensions of the day delivered with unapologetic commentary. An overall glimpse into a day in the barrio slice life, the film is clearly an early influence for the Ice Cube Friday series.
The House that Jack Built similarly has that raw and authentic Nuyorican energy but pushed into a rollercoaster of a dysfunctional family drama with warmth, affection and intensity. The director, born from Cuban parents and raised in Washington Heights, Henry Barrial, is also an alumni of Sundance (Somebody 2001). The film stars E.J. Bonilla as the hot-blooded self-imposed king of his family who buys an apartment building to keep his family close, only to start dictating everybody’s life since he’s letting them live rent free. Bonilla is a fiercely charismatic up and coming actor who was last at the festival with the film Mamitas in 2011 and was also in Don’t Let Me Drown (Sundance 2010). An uproarious and high-edged Harlem set chamber piece, the heavy conflict of gravity that besets Jack is from being pulled in opposite directions by his street values on one side and deeply rooted family values on the other. See the trailer on their Kickstarter page.
My Sister’S Quinceanera written and directed by Aaron Douglas Johnston
This was reportedly one of the most talked about American films in the experimental leaning Rotterdam Film Festival this year. The filmmaker who was born and raised in Iowa, Aaron Douglas Johnston, has an impressive academic pedigree having attended world prestigious universities, Oxford and Yale. His first feature, the small town, gay life set, Bumblefuck, USA screened at Outfest 2011. In My Sister’s Quinceanera, he uses the local Mexican-American Iowa residents as his non-pro actors with whom he collaborated with on the story. It’s a gentle and earnest portrayal of a young man named Silas who is convinced he has to leave town to become independent and start his life but must first see his sister’s Quinceanera take place.
Workers written and directed by Jose Luis Valle (Mexico/Germany) - A quietly simmering artful drama about a retiring factory worker and housemaid in Tijuana circumstantially reunited and trying to compensate for their spent lives. An accomplished and arresting feature debut, the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section and won Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara film Festival. A full investment into the contemplative tone and rhythm yields an appreciation for the film’s visceral and dry humor undertones. Born in El Salvador, Jose Luis Valle previously made a documentary short called Milagro del Papa.
Documentary Competition: 7 out 10 are Us, 4 first features, six female directors (incl. 2 co-directors)
Tapia directed by Eddie Alcazar
The 5 time world boxing champion and emotionally damaged blue-eyed Chicano from the 505, Johnny Lee Tapia, survived a series of near deaths before his turbulent life ended at the young age of 45 last year. The sheer volume of tragedy and coping afflictions Johnny endured in his Vida Loca, as he openly shares in his autobiography, includes the scarring experience of seeing his mother’s kidnapping and violent murder at the tender age of eight. Tapia funneled his heartbreaking life to fuel a successful professional boxing career. Tapia’s confrontation to such tumult is so impressive, it’s no wonder that former EA video game designer Eddie Alcazar decided to both dramatize and document his harrowing real life story. Originally announced as a biopic, subsequently the documentary was born of it, in which Eddie captures final interviews and archival footage with the haunted boxer. Remarkably, watching the clip below, a slight zeal and spirit, however low key and worn, emanates from the towering rumble of his battered lifetime – unquestionably his refusal to be knocked out. This is actually the first feature out of the gate for filmmaker Eddie Alcazar whose radical sci-fi film 0000 has been curiously tracked as in production for a couple years now. The ambitious looking trailer only piqued mad interest when it was released last year.
Purgatorio directed by Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico) - An elegiac and cinematically shot poem filled with emotional narration and iconography, this border film is told by way of a tapestry of stories that culminates into a strong cry for human compassion. Imagining the border as if purgatory, where migrants must suffer in order to get through to the other side, the dangerous plight in crossing the Us/Mexico border is viewed outside political context but rather a metaphysical prism. This is the fourth film from Reyes, a talented young documentarian from Mexico.
International Showcase
Europa Report directed by Sebastian Cordero and written by Philip Gelatt - From award winning Ecuador born filmmaker Sebastian Cordero (Rabia, Cronicas, Pescador) Europa Report marks his first film in English. Somewhat shrouded in mystery, the story is written by Philip Gelatt, an adult comic book author, and is set aboard the first manned mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The genre bending sounding sci-fi thriller was recently picked up by Magnolia’s Magnet division and will go straight to VOD on June 27 after its La Film Festival premiere. Cordero, who is a UCLA grad, has a well-controlled gritty realism to his aesthetic, which might inhabit and distinguish this deep space thriller among the genre’s canon.
Crystal Fairy written and directed by Sebastian Silva (Chile) - From the crafty young Chilean filmmaker whose first first film, The Maid put him on the international map, this is one of two films he screened at Sundance this year. A road trip of self-discovery featuring the charming free spirited Gaby Hoffman pitted against a smarmy American tourist Michael Cera in the long and vast Chilean coast side, the film explores their unusual and fluid character dynamic and opposing auras.
The Women And The Passenger directed by Valentina Mac-Pherson, Patricia Correra (Chile) - A 45 minute version of this screened at the prestigious documentary film festival in Amsterdam Idfa. An unobtrusive camera follows four maids as they clean the rooms of one of those clandestine by-the-hour motels. Amid the moans behind doors and bed aftermaths of torrid love affairs, the women reveal their own perspectives about life, love and sex in some kind of visual love letter to the special place. I don’t believe the title is translated to interpret its full meaning, its more like, “The Transients’ women”.
Shorts
I Was Born In Mexico But…. written and directed by Corey OHama - 12min (Us) - Per the IMDb description, “using found footage to tell the story of an undocumented young woman who grew up thinking she was American, only to find out as a teenager that she didn’t have papers because she was brought to the U.S. as a young child. “ Sounds like the thousands of Dreamers plights whose stories are being suppressed.
Misterio written and directed by Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain) 12min - So even though this is from Spain (not the Americas), I mention it if because I’m a huge fan of Chema’s shorts, Protoparticles and The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5. I have no doubt this will share that similar strange, whimsical vibe.
Al Lado De Norma written and directed by Camila Luna, Gabriela Maturana 14min (Chile) - 49 year-old Jorge is a silent, tired man, whose life seems to revolve around Norma, his elderly mother who has Alzheimer’s. But Antonio, who rents a small room in their home, will provide him with the chance to examine himself and question his monotonous life, which might just make for a radical change.
Papel Picado – written and directed by Javier Barboza - From a 2007 Cal Arts Alumnus, and independent animation teacher and filmmaker, this looks wild! Check out his vimeo works here.
Saint John, The Longest Night, written and directed by Claudia Huaiquimilla (Chile) 18 min - The filmmaker is of the indigenous Mapuche tribe of Southern Chile. Set amid the happy Saints celebration of June 24, a young boy must wrestle with the reappearance of his violent father.
Too Much Water (Demasiada Agua) written and directed by Nicolas Botana, Gonzalo Torrens (Uruguay) 14 min - A young woman fills her backyard pool every night and finds it empty in the morning. Strange neighbors and even stranger circumstances stir her paranoia.
Lastly, I have to mention dance beat rapper Kid Cudi’s feature film acting debut in Goodbye World directed by Denis Hennelly (Rock the Bells doc about Wu Tang Clan) and written by Sarah Adina Smith. Essentially, the film is about a group of friends hanging out when some kind of apocalypse hits. Hijinks ensue. (There’s a trend here after It’s A Disaster and the upcoming “look-we’re-so-cool-celebs partying of This is The End). Although it’s a small role, it is the first of a number of films Kid Cudi is in that are coming through the pipelines. Born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland Ohio, he is a beautiful brown blend of African American on his mother’s side and Native/Mexican mix on his father’s side.
The La Film Festival kicks off with Pedro Almodovar’s, I’m So Excited on June 13 and runs until the 23. Tickets and info here.
The lineup consists of a handful of new American indies mixed in with many favorited international films from last year’s Toronto, Venice, London and Berlin film festivals, and seven Sundance films screening out of competition including Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won both the Audience and Jury Awards in Park City. Starring Boricua Melonie Diaz as Oakland police murder victim Oscar Grant’s girlfriend, Fruitvale will be given the gala treatment (like last year’s Sundance awarded, Black film, Middle of Nowhere), alongside the direct-from-Cannes, Only God Forgives, the reteaming of director Nicolas Winding Refyn and GQ sensitive alpha hero Ryan Gosling (Drive).
But I’m not here to comb and recycle through the ‘high profile’ films that come armed with buzz. As always I’m spotlighting U.S. films in which the writer/director/cast are native born whose ethnic/cultural roots originates from Mexico, Central or South America. In addition, films by filmmakers who may not be Latino, but whose narratives explore and relate to the relevant bi-cultural experience/subjects. And finally I also like to mention the Latin films (international).
While I’m happy to acknowledge and give it up for La, it’s still painful for this blogger/programmer to know there are so many more fresh American Latino films out there ready to be discovered. Game-changing films offering such fresh and original perspectives, which have by and large been dismissed by most of the major Us Film Festivals. With the futures of the two highest profile Latino niche festivals in limbo, The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and HBO’s NY International Latino Film Festival, it’s especially crushing to know that these films might also be robbed of their only community platform. It’s cause for alarm and high time to address this void. But wait, lets save that for another post. For now, lets get back to the Latino stories coming at you at this year’s La Film Festival. For official synopsis and pics check the Film Guide here.
Narrative Competition – Notably 9 of the 12 are Us, hopefully giving the scrappy indies a better chance to compete and win the cash prize against the healthy subsidized production value of foreign movies. Five are first features and only one female narrative director.
40 Years From Yesterday written and directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian
This is the first feature from the writing/directing team who got a lot of attention with their 2010 short Charlie and The Rabbit. Ojeda-Beck (whose parents are from Peru) and Machoian who is from the heavily Mexican populated King City, met at Cal State, Monterey Bay where they forged a tight artistic collaboration. Forty Years from Yesterday is described as Machoian’s imagination of how his mother’s death would unfold for his own family, capturing the loss his siblings would feel in losing a parent and his father’s pain in facing the death of his partner.
The duo have their way with documentary, fiction and experimental form, instilling an aura of temporality in an anchored realism. This unique evocative alchemy is found in Machoian’s doc short, Movies Made from Home #16, a 4 minute existential moment which screened at Sundance this year. The cosmic life themes they tend to broach are treated in such a down to earth and sensitive way, which is further made relatable by the natural non-pro performances they employ. Robert’s father, Bill Graham has starred in a few of his films and in Forty Years from Yesterday, both Robert’s parents and siblings play themselves. See this endearing behind the scenes clip of the making of the film:
The House That Jack Built written by Joseph B. Vasquez and directed by Henry Barrial
Written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez (d 1995) whose 1991 movie, Hanging with the Homeboys, was a groundbreaking urban comedy when it came out, now very much a classic albeit sadly forgotten gem. The only one of Vasquez’s five movies that was distributed (by New Line), Hanging with the Homeboys was shot in the South Bronx where he was born and raised. About four homeys, two Puerto Rican (one of them played by a baby-faced Johnny Leguizamo) and two Black, the movie, available on dvd from Amazon (or, I found it in 6 parts on Youtube) screened at the Sundance Film Festival at its indie darling peak. Its good-natured humor is derived from neighborhood beefs, trying to rap to ladies, and the racial tensions of the day delivered with unapologetic commentary. An overall glimpse into a day in the barrio slice life, the film is clearly an early influence for the Ice Cube Friday series.
The House that Jack Built similarly has that raw and authentic Nuyorican energy but pushed into a rollercoaster of a dysfunctional family drama with warmth, affection and intensity. The director, born from Cuban parents and raised in Washington Heights, Henry Barrial, is also an alumni of Sundance (Somebody 2001). The film stars E.J. Bonilla as the hot-blooded self-imposed king of his family who buys an apartment building to keep his family close, only to start dictating everybody’s life since he’s letting them live rent free. Bonilla is a fiercely charismatic up and coming actor who was last at the festival with the film Mamitas in 2011 and was also in Don’t Let Me Drown (Sundance 2010). An uproarious and high-edged Harlem set chamber piece, the heavy conflict of gravity that besets Jack is from being pulled in opposite directions by his street values on one side and deeply rooted family values on the other. See the trailer on their Kickstarter page.
My Sister’S Quinceanera written and directed by Aaron Douglas Johnston
This was reportedly one of the most talked about American films in the experimental leaning Rotterdam Film Festival this year. The filmmaker who was born and raised in Iowa, Aaron Douglas Johnston, has an impressive academic pedigree having attended world prestigious universities, Oxford and Yale. His first feature, the small town, gay life set, Bumblefuck, USA screened at Outfest 2011. In My Sister’s Quinceanera, he uses the local Mexican-American Iowa residents as his non-pro actors with whom he collaborated with on the story. It’s a gentle and earnest portrayal of a young man named Silas who is convinced he has to leave town to become independent and start his life but must first see his sister’s Quinceanera take place.
Workers written and directed by Jose Luis Valle (Mexico/Germany) - A quietly simmering artful drama about a retiring factory worker and housemaid in Tijuana circumstantially reunited and trying to compensate for their spent lives. An accomplished and arresting feature debut, the film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section and won Best Mexican Film at the Guadalajara film Festival. A full investment into the contemplative tone and rhythm yields an appreciation for the film’s visceral and dry humor undertones. Born in El Salvador, Jose Luis Valle previously made a documentary short called Milagro del Papa.
Documentary Competition: 7 out 10 are Us, 4 first features, six female directors (incl. 2 co-directors)
Tapia directed by Eddie Alcazar
The 5 time world boxing champion and emotionally damaged blue-eyed Chicano from the 505, Johnny Lee Tapia, survived a series of near deaths before his turbulent life ended at the young age of 45 last year. The sheer volume of tragedy and coping afflictions Johnny endured in his Vida Loca, as he openly shares in his autobiography, includes the scarring experience of seeing his mother’s kidnapping and violent murder at the tender age of eight. Tapia funneled his heartbreaking life to fuel a successful professional boxing career. Tapia’s confrontation to such tumult is so impressive, it’s no wonder that former EA video game designer Eddie Alcazar decided to both dramatize and document his harrowing real life story. Originally announced as a biopic, subsequently the documentary was born of it, in which Eddie captures final interviews and archival footage with the haunted boxer. Remarkably, watching the clip below, a slight zeal and spirit, however low key and worn, emanates from the towering rumble of his battered lifetime – unquestionably his refusal to be knocked out. This is actually the first feature out of the gate for filmmaker Eddie Alcazar whose radical sci-fi film 0000 has been curiously tracked as in production for a couple years now. The ambitious looking trailer only piqued mad interest when it was released last year.
Purgatorio directed by Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico) - An elegiac and cinematically shot poem filled with emotional narration and iconography, this border film is told by way of a tapestry of stories that culminates into a strong cry for human compassion. Imagining the border as if purgatory, where migrants must suffer in order to get through to the other side, the dangerous plight in crossing the Us/Mexico border is viewed outside political context but rather a metaphysical prism. This is the fourth film from Reyes, a talented young documentarian from Mexico.
International Showcase
Europa Report directed by Sebastian Cordero and written by Philip Gelatt - From award winning Ecuador born filmmaker Sebastian Cordero (Rabia, Cronicas, Pescador) Europa Report marks his first film in English. Somewhat shrouded in mystery, the story is written by Philip Gelatt, an adult comic book author, and is set aboard the first manned mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The genre bending sounding sci-fi thriller was recently picked up by Magnolia’s Magnet division and will go straight to VOD on June 27 after its La Film Festival premiere. Cordero, who is a UCLA grad, has a well-controlled gritty realism to his aesthetic, which might inhabit and distinguish this deep space thriller among the genre’s canon.
Crystal Fairy written and directed by Sebastian Silva (Chile) - From the crafty young Chilean filmmaker whose first first film, The Maid put him on the international map, this is one of two films he screened at Sundance this year. A road trip of self-discovery featuring the charming free spirited Gaby Hoffman pitted against a smarmy American tourist Michael Cera in the long and vast Chilean coast side, the film explores their unusual and fluid character dynamic and opposing auras.
The Women And The Passenger directed by Valentina Mac-Pherson, Patricia Correra (Chile) - A 45 minute version of this screened at the prestigious documentary film festival in Amsterdam Idfa. An unobtrusive camera follows four maids as they clean the rooms of one of those clandestine by-the-hour motels. Amid the moans behind doors and bed aftermaths of torrid love affairs, the women reveal their own perspectives about life, love and sex in some kind of visual love letter to the special place. I don’t believe the title is translated to interpret its full meaning, its more like, “The Transients’ women”.
Shorts
I Was Born In Mexico But…. written and directed by Corey OHama - 12min (Us) - Per the IMDb description, “using found footage to tell the story of an undocumented young woman who grew up thinking she was American, only to find out as a teenager that she didn’t have papers because she was brought to the U.S. as a young child. “ Sounds like the thousands of Dreamers plights whose stories are being suppressed.
Misterio written and directed by Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain) 12min - So even though this is from Spain (not the Americas), I mention it if because I’m a huge fan of Chema’s shorts, Protoparticles and The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5. I have no doubt this will share that similar strange, whimsical vibe.
Al Lado De Norma written and directed by Camila Luna, Gabriela Maturana 14min (Chile) - 49 year-old Jorge is a silent, tired man, whose life seems to revolve around Norma, his elderly mother who has Alzheimer’s. But Antonio, who rents a small room in their home, will provide him with the chance to examine himself and question his monotonous life, which might just make for a radical change.
Papel Picado – written and directed by Javier Barboza - From a 2007 Cal Arts Alumnus, and independent animation teacher and filmmaker, this looks wild! Check out his vimeo works here.
Saint John, The Longest Night, written and directed by Claudia Huaiquimilla (Chile) 18 min - The filmmaker is of the indigenous Mapuche tribe of Southern Chile. Set amid the happy Saints celebration of June 24, a young boy must wrestle with the reappearance of his violent father.
Too Much Water (Demasiada Agua) written and directed by Nicolas Botana, Gonzalo Torrens (Uruguay) 14 min - A young woman fills her backyard pool every night and finds it empty in the morning. Strange neighbors and even stranger circumstances stir her paranoia.
Lastly, I have to mention dance beat rapper Kid Cudi’s feature film acting debut in Goodbye World directed by Denis Hennelly (Rock the Bells doc about Wu Tang Clan) and written by Sarah Adina Smith. Essentially, the film is about a group of friends hanging out when some kind of apocalypse hits. Hijinks ensue. (There’s a trend here after It’s A Disaster and the upcoming “look-we’re-so-cool-celebs partying of This is The End). Although it’s a small role, it is the first of a number of films Kid Cudi is in that are coming through the pipelines. Born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland Ohio, he is a beautiful brown blend of African American on his mother’s side and Native/Mexican mix on his father’s side.
The La Film Festival kicks off with Pedro Almodovar’s, I’m So Excited on June 13 and runs until the 23. Tickets and info here.
- 5/1/2013
- by Christine Davila
- Sydney's Buzz
Scott "Kid Cudi' Mescudi's acting run got cut a bit short when HBO cancelled How To Make It In America, but he's been making his move into features as of late. He's set to make his big screen debut later this year with both Max Nichols' Two Night Stand and Denis Hennelly's Goodbye World and today he's added another title to his docket. Deadline says that the artist/music producer has landed a part in the upcoming video game adaptation Need For Speed. The movie, scripted by John and George Gatins, stars Aaron Paul as Tobey Marshall, a young man who is framed for a racing accident that ends up killing his best friend. Upon being released from prison he races from New York to Los Angeles to get revenge against the man really responsbile. The trade adds that Ramon Rodriguez, Rami Malek and Harrison Gilbertson have...
- 1/15/2013
- cinemablend.com
Scott Mescudi, known to most of the world as rapper, singer-songwriter, producer Kid Cudi, has added 2 new roles to his fledgling acting resume: an apocalyptic indie comedy titled Goodbye World, starring Adrian Grenier, and an indie thriller titled Tacoma, with Patricia Clarkson. The first, which just wrapped principal photography, under Denis Henry Hennelly's direction, follows a group of college friends who reunite in a remote Northern California town as civilization collapses. Kid Cudi plays one of the college friends, an eccentric computer hacker. He's joined by a couple (Adrian Grenier, Kerry Bishe) whose off-the-grid home becomes the...
- 8/21/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Just as we hear Mark Webber is getting a lead, we also hear he’s finished another. Variety tells us the Scott Pilgrim star, Adrian Grenier, Ben McKenzie (The Oc), Scott Mescudi (or Kid Cudi), Caroline Dhavernas (Devil), Gaby Hoffmann (Life During Wartime), and Kerry Bishé (Red State) recently shot Goodbye World, an apocalypse comedy directed by Denis Hennelly.
Consider it a more noble spin on Seth Rogen‘s The End of the World, as this centers on some old college pals who decide to converge upon a small town in Northern California while everything else goes to hell. (No James Franco, folks.) Hennelly illustrated his intentinos by saying he and the co-writer, Sarah Adina Smith, were looking to make a picture “about that moment we don’t usually see — the part of the story that happens between the cataclysmic event and the trials of survival that come with the new world.
Consider it a more noble spin on Seth Rogen‘s The End of the World, as this centers on some old college pals who decide to converge upon a small town in Northern California while everything else goes to hell. (No James Franco, folks.) Hennelly illustrated his intentinos by saying he and the co-writer, Sarah Adina Smith, were looking to make a picture “about that moment we don’t usually see — the part of the story that happens between the cataclysmic event and the trials of survival that come with the new world.
- 8/21/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
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