The drama America’s Family had a strong showing at the 25th annual Dances with Films festival in Los Angeles, claiming the Grand Jury Award for Features as well as the Audience Award for Competition Features when the fest wrapped on Sunday.
The film from writer-director Anike L. Tourse watches as the Diaz family home is raided by Ice on Thanksgiving, with mother Marisol (Tourse) being put in detention, son Koke (Ricardo Cisneros) being deported and father Jorge (Mauricio Mendoza) fleeing for protective sanctuary. Marisol and Jorge’s two American-born children—young attorney Emiliano (Emmanuel López Alonso) and his disabled teen sister Valentina (Jailene Arias)—then scramble to reunite the family as their parents and brother fight to get home.
Dwf is a festival celebrating the best of the best in independent film, which is based at the Tcl Chinese Theatre. It ran this year from June 9-19. Closing out...
The film from writer-director Anike L. Tourse watches as the Diaz family home is raided by Ice on Thanksgiving, with mother Marisol (Tourse) being put in detention, son Koke (Ricardo Cisneros) being deported and father Jorge (Mauricio Mendoza) fleeing for protective sanctuary. Marisol and Jorge’s two American-born children—young attorney Emiliano (Emmanuel López Alonso) and his disabled teen sister Valentina (Jailene Arias)—then scramble to reunite the family as their parents and brother fight to get home.
Dwf is a festival celebrating the best of the best in independent film, which is based at the Tcl Chinese Theatre. It ran this year from June 9-19. Closing out...
- 6/20/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Zita Bai, Boni Mata, Vas Provatakis, Helen Sun | Written by Zita Bai | Directed by Jesse Dvorak
If a movie’s description has ‘coming-of-age’ written in it, I will nearly always be giving it a watch. And as you’ve probably guessed, that was exactly what I read about Baby, Don’t Cry. The Fantasia website also mentioned John Hughes so I couldn’t not watch it.
But Baby, Don’t Cry is a very different kind of coming-of-age story. It’s both strange and fantastical, and gritty and harsh. Blending all kinds of emotions and styles into one twisted story. Written by its lead actor Zita Bai who plays Baby, a seventeen year old girl living on the outskirts of Seattle. The Chinese immigrant has a difficult home life and meets ‘Fox’, a twenty year old whose life is just as pained as hers. They start a relationship that...
If a movie’s description has ‘coming-of-age’ written in it, I will nearly always be giving it a watch. And as you’ve probably guessed, that was exactly what I read about Baby, Don’t Cry. The Fantasia website also mentioned John Hughes so I couldn’t not watch it.
But Baby, Don’t Cry is a very different kind of coming-of-age story. It’s both strange and fantastical, and gritty and harsh. Blending all kinds of emotions and styles into one twisted story. Written by its lead actor Zita Bai who plays Baby, a seventeen year old girl living on the outskirts of Seattle. The Chinese immigrant has a difficult home life and meets ‘Fox’, a twenty year old whose life is just as pained as hers. They start a relationship that...
- 8/27/2021
- by Alain Elliott
- Nerdly
Baby (Zita Bai) is a seventeen-year-old Chinese immigrant surviving on the fringes of her community. She’s a voyeur—always with camera on to capture the dialogue and actions of others so she can better mimic how to act and “fit in.” That she also photographs animal carcasses and death with excitement might make that sort of assimilation tough, but she’s not really interested in those that would dismiss such a thing without context. It’s not until she meets Fox (Vas Provatakis) that Baby finally sees someone worth the effort to let the full breadth of her eccentricity become visible. He’s a drug dealer who parties hard, has zero respect for anyone around him, yet finds himself enamored by her singular mystique.
Director Jesse Dvorak says he wanted to bring his coming-of-age filmmaking sensibilities to the unique immigrant experience written by Bai herself. And that goal does...
Director Jesse Dvorak says he wanted to bring his coming-of-age filmmaking sensibilities to the unique immigrant experience written by Bai herself. And that goal does...
- 8/23/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Scripted, acted and designed by Chinese immigrant Zita Bai, “Baby, Don’t Cry” is a different coming-of-age film that focuses on the marginalized of Seattle, without necessarily providing a message of hope, in an approach that allows it to stand as far out from the plethora of sugar-coated, romantic teenage films as possible.
“Baby Don’t Cry” is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival
Baby is a 17-year-old Chinese immigrant who dreams of becoming a filmmaker one day and moving to Los Angeles. However, her life is not exactly paving her way, since she is completely marginalized in school, her mother seems to suffer from some sort of mental illness, which frequently makes her abusive towards her daughter, while she also has to clean houses in order to make a living. Her only solace is constantly recording with her phone everything she finds interesting, a fixation on dead things, and occasionally the world of dreams.
“Baby Don’t Cry” is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival
Baby is a 17-year-old Chinese immigrant who dreams of becoming a filmmaker one day and moving to Los Angeles. However, her life is not exactly paving her way, since she is completely marginalized in school, her mother seems to suffer from some sort of mental illness, which frequently makes her abusive towards her daughter, while she also has to clean houses in order to make a living. Her only solace is constantly recording with her phone everything she finds interesting, a fixation on dead things, and occasionally the world of dreams.
- 8/15/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Baby, Don't Cry
Baby (Zita Bai) is a Chinese immigrant with a troubled home life, living on the outskirts of Seattle. Fox (Vas Provatakis) is a young delinquent who steals from her only to be charmed by her fighting spirit. Their passionate affair turns everything upside down. Screening as part of 2021’s Fantasia International Film Festival, Baby, Don’t Cry! is a small but impactful film which presents an outsider’s view of US culture and charts a young woman’s sexual and spiritual journey into adulthood.
Zita, who wrote the film herself – it was directed by Jesse Dvorak – agreed to meet shortly before the festival to talk about the film. Her co-star Vas and producer Qiyu Zhou joined us, and I began by asking Zita about the roots of the story.
“I think that goes back to a lot of how I was growing up in America as an immigrant,...
Baby (Zita Bai) is a Chinese immigrant with a troubled home life, living on the outskirts of Seattle. Fox (Vas Provatakis) is a young delinquent who steals from her only to be charmed by her fighting spirit. Their passionate affair turns everything upside down. Screening as part of 2021’s Fantasia International Film Festival, Baby, Don’t Cry! is a small but impactful film which presents an outsider’s view of US culture and charts a young woman’s sexual and spiritual journey into adulthood.
Zita, who wrote the film herself – it was directed by Jesse Dvorak – agreed to meet shortly before the festival to talk about the film. Her co-star Vas and producer Qiyu Zhou joined us, and I began by asking Zita about the roots of the story.
“I think that goes back to a lot of how I was growing up in America as an immigrant,...
- 8/7/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This week, in anticipation of the Fantasia Film Festival coming in August, we have the key art for Jesse Dvorak and Zita Bai's troubled teenager coming-of-age drama, with a dollop of magical realism, Baby, Don't Cry. Be it hand painted, or photoshop plug-in (it is getting increasingly difficult to tell the difference any more), the image of the title character, Baby, looking just past the viewer, an eponymous tear crawling down one cheek. The film aims to tell a the story from the perspective of Chinese immigrants in Seattle. The handsome fox behind her hints at the fantasy elements in the film, without taking away from the emotion or humanity on display. It looks like he is there for moral support, and a bit of mystery. ...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/23/2021
- Screen Anarchy
Baby Don't Cry: Exclusive Clip From Zita Bai's Crime Thriller, World Premiere at Fantasia Next Month
Hot on the heels of today's final wave announcement for Fantasia we have an exclusive clip to share with you from one of those films, the crime thriller Baby Don't Cry. Check it out down below, with a small selection of stills as well. Baby, a withdrawn and sensitive 17-year-old Chinese immigrant from a troubled home, is living in the outskirts of Seattle. One day, she meets a 20-year-old delinquent named Fox. Together they embark on a twisted journey to escape their hopeless fate. Jesse Dvorak directs a script by actress and filmmaker Zita Bai, who produced with Zeron Zhao and Qiyu Zhou, and stars in the film alongside Vas Provatakis. Baby Don't Cry will have its world premiere during the Fantasia...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/21/2021
- Screen Anarchy
Quebec’s Fantasia Festival has unveiled the third and final wave of titles set to screen at this year’s 25th edition and announced that Takashi Miike’s latest feature “The Great Yokai War – Guardians,” will close the festival. The world premiere of Julien Knafo’s Quebec zombie flic “Brain Freeze” will open the festival following an Aug. 4 pre-fest screening of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.”
“The Great Yokai War- Guardians” is the follow-up to Fantasia 2006 opener “The Great Yoki War,” and unspools in a fantasy world of Japanese demons, kaiju and pop culture references which proved a hit in Montreal the first time around.
Other key titles featured in the third wave lineup include Lee Won-tae’s “The Devil’s Deal,” his first film since “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” won Sitges’ best film award in 2019. BAFTA-winner Paul Andrew Williams’ (“Murdered for Being Different”) “Bull,” a revenge thriller,...
“The Great Yokai War- Guardians” is the follow-up to Fantasia 2006 opener “The Great Yoki War,” and unspools in a fantasy world of Japanese demons, kaiju and pop culture references which proved a hit in Montreal the first time around.
Other key titles featured in the third wave lineup include Lee Won-tae’s “The Devil’s Deal,” his first film since “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” won Sitges’ best film award in 2019. BAFTA-winner Paul Andrew Williams’ (“Murdered for Being Different”) “Bull,” a revenge thriller,...
- 7/21/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
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