Fabula-Fremantle’s “Hot Sur,” The Mediapro Studio’s “El Mal” and “Two Nights in Lisbon,” from Portugal’s Hop Films and the U.K’s Heroes Films, look like potential standouts at next week’s Content Americas Copro Pitch 2024, one of its industry centerpieces.
These series projects will be joined by crime mystery thriller “Delito,” from Barcelona’s Grup Focus TV & Films, behind banner Amazon Original “Reina Roja,” “Iron Woman,” a tumultuous political saga from Brazil-based Jarsom Wayans, two high concept doc series – Argentina’s “Climate Migrants” and Brazil’s “Mystery of the Megafauna” – and bio doc feature “Farraquito, a Flamenco Story,” profiling the famed flamenco bailaor.
Shaping up as one of the biggest new titles to be brought onto the market at Content Americas, “Hot Sur” marks the latest from a fruitful 2019 multi-year first-look deal between Fremantle and Fabula, headed by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, which has already yielded “La Jauría,...
These series projects will be joined by crime mystery thriller “Delito,” from Barcelona’s Grup Focus TV & Films, behind banner Amazon Original “Reina Roja,” “Iron Woman,” a tumultuous political saga from Brazil-based Jarsom Wayans, two high concept doc series – Argentina’s “Climate Migrants” and Brazil’s “Mystery of the Megafauna” – and bio doc feature “Farraquito, a Flamenco Story,” profiling the famed flamenco bailaor.
Shaping up as one of the biggest new titles to be brought onto the market at Content Americas, “Hot Sur” marks the latest from a fruitful 2019 multi-year first-look deal between Fremantle and Fabula, headed by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, which has already yielded “La Jauría,...
- 1/19/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
‘Rookies’ Directors Thierry Demaizière, Alban Teurlai on Bringing Parisian Hip-Hop to the Big Screen
Hip hop is a popular pastime in Paris and its suburbs, having now made its way into many of the city’s high schools. At The Turgot high school in central Paris, hip hop is now part of the curriculum, as the Berlinale documentary “Rookies” (“Allons Enfants”), by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai, shows.
This compelling film follows some of the school’s most talented hip hop aficionados train and battle under the watchful eye of a demanding coach. It served as the opening film this year for the Generation section at the Berlin festival, a sidebar dedicated to new films exploring the lives of teens and children. The film is a testament to the power of embracing raw talent and turning it into potential.
Producer-director Demaizière is best known for the documentaries “Lourdes” and “Rocco,” both of which he collaborated on with Teurlai who is an editor and director.
This compelling film follows some of the school’s most talented hip hop aficionados train and battle under the watchful eye of a demanding coach. It served as the opening film this year for the Generation section at the Berlin festival, a sidebar dedicated to new films exploring the lives of teens and children. The film is a testament to the power of embracing raw talent and turning it into potential.
Producer-director Demaizière is best known for the documentaries “Lourdes” and “Rocco,” both of which he collaborated on with Teurlai who is an editor and director.
- 2/28/2022
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
When it comes to adding new content, the biggest haul for any given streaming service is typically found on the first of the month, and that’s no different with Netflix.
Indeed, thanks to a huge day for new movies/TV shows on October 1st, the past week has seen the current leader in the industry add a whopping 74 films and 31 television series, ensuring that subscribers have plenty to entertain themselves with. From hidden gems to all-time classics and a few underrated titles that definitely deserve another look, there’s much to get excited about here and the full list of every new release that arrived this week can be found below.
74 New Movies
28 Days (2000) A Chaster Marriage (2016) A Toot-Toot Cory Carson Halloween (2020) Netflix Original A.M.I. (2019) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) All Because of You (Pasal Kau) (2020) Netflix Original Along Came a Spider (2001) Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part...
Indeed, thanks to a huge day for new movies/TV shows on October 1st, the past week has seen the current leader in the industry add a whopping 74 films and 31 television series, ensuring that subscribers have plenty to entertain themselves with. From hidden gems to all-time classics and a few underrated titles that definitely deserve another look, there’s much to get excited about here and the full list of every new release that arrived this week can be found below.
74 New Movies
28 Days (2000) A Chaster Marriage (2016) A Toot-Toot Cory Carson Halloween (2020) Netflix Original A.M.I. (2019) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) All Because of You (Pasal Kau) (2020) Netflix Original Along Came a Spider (2001) Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part...
- 10/4/2020
- by Matt Joseph
- We Got This Covered
‘Concrete Cowboy’ Review: Idris Elba Plays a Tough Inner-City Horseman in Masterful Father-Son Drama
Kicked out of school for fighting, again, 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin of “Stranger Things”) doesn’t know what to expect when his exasperated mom drives him to Philadelphia and drops the hotheaded teen on his estranged father’s doorstep for the summer, but the last thing he expects to find in the living room is a horse. Cole can hardly remember his dad, so he has no idea the guy spends most of his time around the corner at the Fletcher Street Stables, playing modern-day cowboy. Then again, who can blame the kid: How many people realize there’s such a thing as inner-city equestrians, much less remember the role Black men have played in American horsemanship?
After “Concrete Cowboy,” they won’t soon forget it. This is one of those rare, reframe-the-conversation films, like “Paris Is Burning,” “12 O’Clock Boys” and “Rize,” that take a very specific subculture and...
After “Concrete Cowboy,” they won’t soon forget it. This is one of those rare, reframe-the-conversation films, like “Paris Is Burning,” “12 O’Clock Boys” and “Rize,” that take a very specific subculture and...
- 9/14/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to “Giving Voice,” a documentary about the August Wilson Monologue Competition that won the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Giving Voice” is directed by James D. Stern and Fernando Villena and follows six students as they advance through the monologue competition, which highlights the work of the playwright behind “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson” and allows winners the chance to perform at the August Wilson Theater on Broadway.
The documentary specifically looks at students from public schools pursuing careers in performance arts, and it uses Wilson’s words to focus on the black experience in America and how words and voices can be ignited to inspire change. Netflix plans to release “Giving Voice” later this year.
Also Read: Watch Dave Chappelle Respond to George Floyd's Death in Surprise Netflix Special '8:46' (Video)
“This is my fifth project...
“Giving Voice” is directed by James D. Stern and Fernando Villena and follows six students as they advance through the monologue competition, which highlights the work of the playwright behind “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson” and allows winners the chance to perform at the August Wilson Theater on Broadway.
The documentary specifically looks at students from public schools pursuing careers in performance arts, and it uses Wilson’s words to focus on the black experience in America and how words and voices can be ignited to inspire change. Netflix plans to release “Giving Voice” later this year.
Also Read: Watch Dave Chappelle Respond to George Floyd's Death in Surprise Netflix Special '8:46' (Video)
“This is my fifth project...
- 6/18/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
A particularly fond look at a boy who is in love for the first time opens our eyes to see how affairs of the heart take precedence over all other events.This Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film Academy Award® had its U.S. premiere at the Asian World Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. It also won the Fipresci International Critics Prize at El Gouna Film Festival. Its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival garnered the Netpac Award, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, a worldwide organization of 29 member countries, created as the result of a conference on Asian cinema organized in New Delhi in 1990 with the support of Unesco, Paris.Gia Madi as Joana and Mohamad Dalli as Wissam
The film, which stars Lebanese actress and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nadine Labaki, revolves around a boy who is anxious about winning over a school crush.
The film, which stars Lebanese actress and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nadine Labaki, revolves around a boy who is anxious about winning over a school crush.
- 11/17/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Following last year’s launch of Rize, a many-to-many, cryptocurrency-based livestreaming video platform, YouNow has launched its second crypto-centered mobile app.
The livestreaming game show, dubbed Wtf, is a pop culture-focused competition in which players can earn crypto prizes in real time. Wtf capitalizes on both YouNow’s previous efforts in the crypto space as well as the buzz surrounding live game show apps, including runaway hit (though recently-beleaguered) HQ Trivia. YouNow claims that Wtf, in which viewers can win cash prizes in the form of Ethereum, is the first “cryptocurrency-powered game show app in the world.”
Wtf games are hosted every weekday at 6:00 pm Et. And if HQ Trivia has viral celebrity host Scott Rogowsky, Wtf has enlisted its own rotating cast of three professional comics to headline daily competitions: Madelyn Murphy, Julia Johns, and Josh Rodriguez.
Players can team up in groups of three to work together...
The livestreaming game show, dubbed Wtf, is a pop culture-focused competition in which players can earn crypto prizes in real time. Wtf capitalizes on both YouNow’s previous efforts in the crypto space as well as the buzz surrounding live game show apps, including runaway hit (though recently-beleaguered) HQ Trivia. YouNow claims that Wtf, in which viewers can win cash prizes in the form of Ethereum, is the first “cryptocurrency-powered game show app in the world.”
Wtf games are hosted every weekday at 6:00 pm Et. And if HQ Trivia has viral celebrity host Scott Rogowsky, Wtf has enlisted its own rotating cast of three professional comics to headline daily competitions: Madelyn Murphy, Julia Johns, and Josh Rodriguez.
Players can team up in groups of three to work together...
- 11/13/2018
- by Geoff Weiss
- Tubefilter.com
Anyone who’s ever been to a roller-skating rink knows such establishments tend to bombard their patrons with rules — rules that dictate the kind of clothes, the kind of wheels, and the kind of moves permitted on the floor. For kids, it may be easy to assume that these restrictions are designed for everyone’s safety, but in many cases, they actually serve as a coded form of racial discrimination (in much the same way a Pennsylvania golf course kicked out five black women for playing too slowly earlier this week).
Now — and not a moment too soon, as once-thriving rinks go bust at a rate of three a month — first-time directors Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s deep-dive documentary “United Skates” reveals what these social-gathering places mean to African-Americans, past and present. Like such trendsetting classics as “Paris Is Burning” and “Rize,” this kaleidoscopically vibrant, essential-viewing survey plunges audiences into a dazzling underground scene,...
Now — and not a moment too soon, as once-thriving rinks go bust at a rate of three a month — first-time directors Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s deep-dive documentary “United Skates” reveals what these social-gathering places mean to African-Americans, past and present. Like such trendsetting classics as “Paris Is Burning” and “Rize,” this kaleidoscopically vibrant, essential-viewing survey plunges audiences into a dazzling underground scene,...
- 4/26/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix is going all in on anime as they add the eagerly anticipated Godzilla movie and 12 other projects to their slate of upcoming programming. Deadline says in addition to the series the network is also overseeing the development of Cannon Busters, Devilman Crybaby, B: The Beginning, and Knights Of The Zodiac: Saint Seiya just to name a few.
The Godzilla and Saint Seiya grabs really show that Netflix is working to grab their Western audience who loves anime, but with competitors like Crunchyroll and Funimation (who was recently bought by Sony) in the mix, who knows if they'll be able to compete on that front. Time will tell, but the addition of so many projects seems promising for the future of anime on the platform.
Below you'll find details photos and some trailer for the anime projects that Netflix has picked up!
Cannon Busters
Created, directed and executive produced...
The Godzilla and Saint Seiya grabs really show that Netflix is working to grab their Western audience who loves anime, but with competitors like Crunchyroll and Funimation (who was recently bought by Sony) in the mix, who knows if they'll be able to compete on that front. Time will tell, but the addition of so many projects seems promising for the future of anime on the platform.
Below you'll find details photos and some trailer for the anime projects that Netflix has picked up!
Cannon Busters
Created, directed and executive produced...
- 8/2/2017
- by Mick Joest
- GeekTyrant
For years David Lachapelle was the go-to photographer for the world's biggest stars. But in 2006 he ditched fashion for fine art. As an exhibition of his work opens in London, he talks to Elizabeth Day about death, divas and decadence
David Lachapelle is running late. Though the term "running" doesn't quite describe it. "He's sleeping," says one of Lachapelle's assistants, peering at me languidly through those ironic-retro spectacles that seem to be de rigueur for arty types. "People are working on it." Working on what, I wonder? Getting him out of his pyjamas?
The assistant explains that Lachapelle flew in from his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui yesterday and is still jet-lagged. This is why we've had to change the interview location at the last minute and congregate in the lobby of a chintzy five-star hotel just off Sloane Square in London. Besides, he's not that used to...
David Lachapelle is running late. Though the term "running" doesn't quite describe it. "He's sleeping," says one of Lachapelle's assistants, peering at me languidly through those ironic-retro spectacles that seem to be de rigueur for arty types. "People are working on it." Working on what, I wonder? Getting him out of his pyjamas?
The assistant explains that Lachapelle flew in from his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui yesterday and is still jet-lagged. This is why we've had to change the interview location at the last minute and congregate in the lobby of a chintzy five-star hotel just off Sloane Square in London. Besides, he's not that used to...
- 2/19/2012
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
Sometimes, when it comes to art, you have to give yourself deadlines. The collaborators behind Sparrow Songs, cinematographer Michael Totten (who worked on the beautiful-looking doc Rize) and Alex Jablonski (whose short, Blue Boy, played at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival), have used this principle to produce one short documentary a month. It's a fascinating project, and it's taken them around America, from a donut shop to porn star karaoke to the circus to minor league ball, with every scenario shot in the most elegant and beautiful way by Totten's camera. As disparate as the topics may be, the shorts are all united in their humanity and gentleness, the respect and empathy that they show towards each subject. Their latest short, The Farm, would make a nice starter for Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Sugar - both films take a hard look at what it takes to be a minor league baseball player,...
- 8/27/2010
- TribecaFilm.com
From Martin Scorsese to Peter Doig, film-makers, photographers and artists explain how Caravaggio's prophetically cinematic paintings inspired them
David Lachapelle – Photographer and film director
Caravaggio is often called the most modern of the old masters – there's a newness, a contemporary feel to his work that painting prior to him just didn't have. It's like when [fashion designer Alexander] McQueen came on the scene, everything else [in the fashion world] suddenly looked old. Caravaggio used light like a photographer and his pictures are cropped like photographs. One that sticks in my mind is Boy Bitten By a Lizard. That's a beautiful example of the one-source light that we identify Caravaggio with, that he pioneered, but it's also a wonderful captured moment, this boy's sort of feminine reaction to the lizard's bite. It's a photograph before photography.
The flower in the boy's hair and the blouse coming off his shoulders I think signify that the boy is a male prostitute.
David Lachapelle – Photographer and film director
Caravaggio is often called the most modern of the old masters – there's a newness, a contemporary feel to his work that painting prior to him just didn't have. It's like when [fashion designer Alexander] McQueen came on the scene, everything else [in the fashion world] suddenly looked old. Caravaggio used light like a photographer and his pictures are cropped like photographs. One that sticks in my mind is Boy Bitten By a Lizard. That's a beautiful example of the one-source light that we identify Caravaggio with, that he pioneered, but it's also a wonderful captured moment, this boy's sort of feminine reaction to the lizard's bite. It's a photograph before photography.
The flower in the boy's hair and the blouse coming off his shoulders I think signify that the boy is a male prostitute.
- 7/24/2010
- by Imogen Carter
- The Guardian - Film News
- Unlike 2005's David Lachapelle's Rize - a docu on the dance movement called 'Clowning' that had only a niche following, Planet B-Boy looks at a retro (we are talking 80's here folks) revamped form of breaking moves that has a surprising global reach. Premiered at the past Tribeca, independent NY-based production house Elephant Eye Films are continuing the grassroots campaign - handling distribution of Benson Lee's four corner of the globes documentary with a nationwide release on March 21, 2008. We've got your first look at the poster image below (click on it for a larger version) and as usual have included the synopsis for your use... A vibrant and infectious look at the global resurgence of break-dancing, Planet B-boy weaves spectacular dance footage with poignant personal stories. From the outskirts of Paris to the suburbs of Seoul, Korea, Lee’s film deftly spotlights how young men of such
- 12/6/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
'Penguins' on docu Oscar short list
The indie blockbuster March of the Penguins is among the 15 documentaries that have made the cut for consideration for the best feature documentary Oscar at the 78th annual Academy Awards. The short-listed candidates -- drawn from 82 films that were eligible -- include After Innocence, The Boys of Baraka, Darwin's Nightmare, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Favela Rising, Mad Hot Ballroom, March of the Penguins, Murderball, Occupation: Dreamland, On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report, Rize, Street Fight, 39 Pounds of Love and Unknown White Male, the Academy said Tuesday. Eligible documentaries were screened by the documentary branch screening committee, made up of members of the branch who serve on a volunteer basis. The above films were chosen after a preliminary round of screenings. The nominated films will be announced along with nominations in 24 other categories on Jan. 31. The Academy Awards will be presented March 5 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, televised live by ABC.
- 11/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Penguins' on docu Oscar short list
The indie blockbuster March of the Penguins is among the 15 documentaries that have made the cut for consideration for the best feature documentary Oscar at the 78th annual Academy Awards. The short-listed candidates -- drawn from 82 films that were eligible -- include After Innocence, The Boys of Baraka, Darwin's Nightmare, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Favela Rising, Mad Hot Ballroom, March of the Penguins, Murderball, Occupation: Dreamland, On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report, Rize, Street Fight, 39 Pounds of Love and Unknown White Male, the Academy said Tuesday. Eligible documentaries were screened by the documentary branch screening committee, made up of members of the branch who serve on a volunteer basis. The above films were chosen after a preliminary round of screenings. The nominated films will be announced along with nominations in 24 other categories on Jan. 31. The Academy Awards will be presented March 5 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, televised live by ABC.
- 11/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rize
An exhilarating portrait of a groundbreaking, up-from-the-L.A.-streets strain of athleticism as performance art, Rize would make a provocative companion piece to skateboard documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. In contrast to the latter's retrospective look at the creation of a cutting-edge, beach-infused sensibility, stylemaker David LaChapelle's first docu feature, centering on L.A.'s more landlocked stretches, pulses with an of-the-moment urgency. Strong reviews and word-of-mouth should make it one of the best-performing nonfiction films of the year.
Rize looks at practitioners of rubber-limbed, freestyle clown dancing and its fiercer spinoff, krumping, which burst forth in predominantly black, low-income areas of South Central such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. Clown dancing arose in response to the Rodney King riots of '92, when a one-time drug dealer who had discovered his inner entertainer turned himself into Tommy the Clown, whose birthday parties for kids and Hip-Hop Clown Academy spawned a generation of clown dancers and krumpers. With his rainbow wig and painted face, Tommy, a father figure to kids in need, turns the Bozo template into an unlikely expression of dignity.
The dancers LaChapelle profiles testify to the surrogate-family aspect of dance groups, which number upward of 50 and provide a vital alternative to gangs. That's a lot to offer in economically ravaged neighborhoods where there are no after-school arts programs. Exuberant in their wild beauty and physics-defying speed, clown dancing and the harder-edged krumping give form to a self-affirming, primal fury. One dancer speaks of krump as innate, and in an extraordinary sequence LaChapelle intercuts the L.A. performers with scenes of strikingly similar African tribal dance rituals.
Fashion photographer/music video director LaChapelle closes Rize by indulging in a redundant dance sequence that, however visually impressive, zaps some of the film's cumulative force. And after some of the subjects have proclaimed their determination to resist commercial, MTV-style co-optation, it feels antithetical.
The time would have been better spent listening to the dancers -- like 18-year-old Swoop, who started clown dancing at 12 and says he would have been a "bad person" without it. Or the eloquent Dragon, whose story is a testament to inner strength and resilience. Given their landscape of deprivation, addiction, incarceration and violence, anything these spirited survivors have to say is well worth hearing.
Rize looks at practitioners of rubber-limbed, freestyle clown dancing and its fiercer spinoff, krumping, which burst forth in predominantly black, low-income areas of South Central such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. Clown dancing arose in response to the Rodney King riots of '92, when a one-time drug dealer who had discovered his inner entertainer turned himself into Tommy the Clown, whose birthday parties for kids and Hip-Hop Clown Academy spawned a generation of clown dancers and krumpers. With his rainbow wig and painted face, Tommy, a father figure to kids in need, turns the Bozo template into an unlikely expression of dignity.
The dancers LaChapelle profiles testify to the surrogate-family aspect of dance groups, which number upward of 50 and provide a vital alternative to gangs. That's a lot to offer in economically ravaged neighborhoods where there are no after-school arts programs. Exuberant in their wild beauty and physics-defying speed, clown dancing and the harder-edged krumping give form to a self-affirming, primal fury. One dancer speaks of krump as innate, and in an extraordinary sequence LaChapelle intercuts the L.A. performers with scenes of strikingly similar African tribal dance rituals.
Fashion photographer/music video director LaChapelle closes Rize by indulging in a redundant dance sequence that, however visually impressive, zaps some of the film's cumulative force. And after some of the subjects have proclaimed their determination to resist commercial, MTV-style co-optation, it feels antithetical.
The time would have been better spent listening to the dancers -- like 18-year-old Swoop, who started clown dancing at 12 and says he would have been a "bad person" without it. Or the eloquent Dragon, whose story is a testament to inner strength and resilience. Given their landscape of deprivation, addiction, incarceration and violence, anything these spirited survivors have to say is well worth hearing.
- 7/22/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rize
An exhilarating portrait of a groundbreaking, up-from-the-L.A.-streets strain of athleticism as performance art, Rize would make a provocative companion piece to skateboard documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. In contrast to the latter's retrospective look at the creation of a cutting-edge, beach-infused sensibility, stylemaker David LaChapelle's first docu feature, centering on L.A.'s more landlocked stretches, pulses with an of-the-moment urgency. Strong reviews and word-of-mouth should make it one of the best-performing nonfiction films of the year.
Rize looks at practitioners of rubber-limbed, freestyle clown dancing and its fiercer spinoff, krumping, which burst forth in predominantly black, low-income areas of South Central such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. Clown dancing arose in response to the Rodney King riots of '92, when a one-time drug dealer who had discovered his inner entertainer turned himself into Tommy the Clown, whose birthday parties for kids and Hip-Hop Clown Academy spawned a generation of clown dancers and krumpers. With his rainbow wig and painted face, Tommy, a father figure to kids in need, turns the Bozo template into an unlikely expression of dignity.
The dancers LaChapelle profiles testify to the surrogate-family aspect of dance groups, which number upward of 50 and provide a vital alternative to gangs. That's a lot to offer in economically ravaged neighborhoods where there are no after-school arts programs. Exuberant in their wild beauty and physics-defying speed, clown dancing and the harder-edged krumping give form to a self-affirming, primal fury. One dancer speaks of krump as innate, and in an extraordinary sequence LaChapelle intercuts the L.A. performers with scenes of strikingly similar African tribal dance rituals.
Fashion photographer/music video director LaChapelle closes Rize by indulging in a redundant dance sequence that, however visually impressive, zaps some of the film's cumulative force. And after some of the subjects have proclaimed their determination to resist commercial, MTV-style co-optation, it feels antithetical.
The time would have been better spent listening to the dancers -- like 18-year-old Swoop, who started clown dancing at 12 and says he would have been a "bad person" without it. Or the eloquent Dragon, whose story is a testament to inner strength and resilience. Given their landscape of deprivation, addiction, incarceration and violence, anything these spirited survivors have to say is well worth hearing.
Rize looks at practitioners of rubber-limbed, freestyle clown dancing and its fiercer spinoff, krumping, which burst forth in predominantly black, low-income areas of South Central such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. Clown dancing arose in response to the Rodney King riots of '92, when a one-time drug dealer who had discovered his inner entertainer turned himself into Tommy the Clown, whose birthday parties for kids and Hip-Hop Clown Academy spawned a generation of clown dancers and krumpers. With his rainbow wig and painted face, Tommy, a father figure to kids in need, turns the Bozo template into an unlikely expression of dignity.
The dancers LaChapelle profiles testify to the surrogate-family aspect of dance groups, which number upward of 50 and provide a vital alternative to gangs. That's a lot to offer in economically ravaged neighborhoods where there are no after-school arts programs. Exuberant in their wild beauty and physics-defying speed, clown dancing and the harder-edged krumping give form to a self-affirming, primal fury. One dancer speaks of krump as innate, and in an extraordinary sequence LaChapelle intercuts the L.A. performers with scenes of strikingly similar African tribal dance rituals.
Fashion photographer/music video director LaChapelle closes Rize by indulging in a redundant dance sequence that, however visually impressive, zaps some of the film's cumulative force. And after some of the subjects have proclaimed their determination to resist commercial, MTV-style co-optation, it feels antithetical.
The time would have been better spent listening to the dancers -- like 18-year-old Swoop, who started clown dancing at 12 and says he would have been a "bad person" without it. Or the eloquent Dragon, whose story is a testament to inner strength and resilience. Given their landscape of deprivation, addiction, incarceration and violence, anything these spirited survivors have to say is well worth hearing.
- 7/15/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IFP plans outdoor summer film series
IFP is set to program an outdoor film series at Rockefeller Center in midtown this summer, it was announced Thursday. The program, "Drive-In Movies at the Rock" will run from June 14-17 and screen Lions Gate's Rize and IFC Films' The Baxter prior to their theatrical release. It is the second year the series has run. The slate also includes films still seeking distribution: the Rosanna Arquette documentary All We Are Saying and the doc Show Business. The film Alchemy, which is also seeking distribution, will be screened on June 18 outside of the branded slate. Cast and filmmakers from each film (including Arquette and Baxter director Michael Showalter) are scheduled to introduce each screening. "Drive-In Movies at the Rock" is presented by Target and sponsored by Bank of America.
- 6/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lions Gate leads second buying wave
PARK CITY -- With the Sundance Film Festival's first, frenzied weekend over, no deal the magnitude of the $16 million Hustle & Flow sale to Paramount/MTV Films appears in sight, but acquisitions activity is heating up. On Monday, Lions Gate Films paid slightly less than $1 million to purchase worldwide rights to Rize, David LaChapelle's dance documentary about the krump craze in South Central Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures Classics, Palm Pictures and the Samuel Goldwyn Films chased the energetic picture, but Lions Gate won the prize. "This film has a unique voice and brilliantly captures the spirit of this community," Lions Gate Films Releasing president Tom Ortenberg said. "We plan to work hard to bring this film to audiences across the country."...
- 1/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Rize' beaming to fest for peak performance
In a worldwide first, a select audience at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday will have the opportunity to watch a movie streamed over a high-speed wireless link. Intel, working with Alavarion and Mountain Wireless, chose David LaChapelle's new feature-length documentary Rize to demonstrate the potential of the technology known as WiMax. Rize has been digitized for the occasion. Intel will stream the movie from its facilities in Oregon over the Internet to Salt Lake City. From there, LaChapelle's documentary will be sent over a wireless microwave network to Park City and then to the Empire Lodge at Deer Valley -- 12,000 feet up in the mountains. Audiences at that venue will see Rize on a full-size cinema screen.
- 1/21/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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