The 19th annual Brooklyn Film Festival is about to kick off starting June 3rd and running through the 12th at venues around the city, and today the full lineup of films has been announced. Sean Garrity‘s Borealis is set to open
The 19th annual Dances With Films Festival is set to kick off in Los Angeles starting June 2nd and running through the 12th, and today the full lineup of 117 films has been announced. Erik Peter Carlson‘s Wolf Mother has been chose
5.5
From 2007 to 2012, the county of Bridgend, Wales, had 79 reported cases of individuals committing suicide, most of whom were teenagers who left no note and chose to hang themselves in the nearby forest. Director Jeppe Rønde, whose background is in documentary filmmaking, followed the teens living there for six years, compiling their stories for this film, titled Bridgend, a fictionalized version of a very real and very strange occurrence plaguing this county.
7
Scherzo Diabolico, the latest film from Adrián García Bogliano, is a twisted tale of revenge that continually subverts the viewer’s theories about where it’s going and how it’s going to end. It’s a tough film to watch and an even tougher one to write about, considering the unique narrative path it takes, but this proves to be Bogliano’s best film yet, featuring a completely insane conclusion that shocked even a horror nut like myself.
The 2016 Greenwich International Film Festival is gearing up to kick off June 9th in New York City, with this year’s centerpiece films being announced today. These include Rob Burnett‘s The Fundamentals of Caring, Sophie Goodhart‘s My Blind Brother, and Kim Snyder‘s Newtown.
The competition lineup for the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival has been announced, which include 12 U.S. narrative features, 12 documentaries, and 6 international features. You can take a look at the full lineup of competition titles below, and be sure
Diego Luna‘s latest, Mr. Pig, won the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature at this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, which just wrapped its tenth edition. Other winners include Jessica Dimmock and Christopher LaMarca’s The Pearl for Best Documentary, Greg Kwedar‘s Transpecos winning
I had a great time attending last year’s Rooftop Films Summer Series last year, and this year’s opening weekend lineup has been announced, with highlights including Anna Rose Holmer‘s The Fits, Taika Waititi‘s Hunt For The Wilderpeople, and Elizabeth Wood‘s White
The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival is wrapping up this weekend and with that the audience awards have been officially announced. Rod Blackhurst‘s Here Alone wont the audience award for narrative and Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway‘s The Return won
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After falling in love with Alma Har'el's striking 2011 documentary Bombay Beach, I was naturally quite anxious and excited to learn her next feature, Lovetrue, has been finished and would be premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Thankfully, Har’el has once again proven she has a unique vision within the documentary world, injecting some much-needed style into a genre that I feel is oversaturated and overwrought with the same stories told over and over.
As this year’s edition of the Tribeca Film Festival comes to a close, the jury award winners for 2016 have been announced. Winners include Demetri Martin‘s directorial debut Dean for Best Narrative, Michael Ragen winning Best Cinematography for Kicks, and Udi Aloni‘s Junction
6.5
Always cautious to recognize that the real-life version of what we’re seeing on screen might have been drastically different from what is presented in the film, I can fully appreciate that King Cobra is filmmaker Justin Kelly’s dramatic interpretation of the real-life story of a young porn star who becomes caught in the middle of a deadly industry rivalry. That said, it is a movie full of interesting characters that is well told, well shot and unlike any other murder-mystery film I’ve seen.
8.5
While Hollywood churns out nothing but big, over-the-top fantasy films, the indie scene has been defiantly pushing in the opposite direction for years, delivering hyper-realistic stories that frequently blur the lines of fact and fiction.
Last year’s Heaven Knows What was one that, at times, felt more like a documentary than narrative, and I absolutely loved it. Now, Nathan Silver and Mike Ott are here to even further blur these lines with Actor Martinez, a comedically tragic piece of genius filmmaking that, try as you might, you never know exactly what’s going on, its most endearing quality.
6.5
Califórnia begins with the lead character, Estela (Clara Gallo), discovering she has had her first period. For many girls this is the first step into womanhood and a fitting start to this Brazilian coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in São Paulo in the eighties.
7
Not a chess player myself, I was not sure whether I would like, much less understand, Magnus, a documentary about a chess prodigy who became the youngest grandmaster in the world at age 13; drew a tie with the world’s best chess player and 15-year reigning champ, Garry Kasparopv, also at age 13; and who became the world chess champion at the tender age of 22.
5.5
Rod Blackhurt’s feature debut Here Alone starts off interestingly enough, with a lone woman covered head to toe in mud, attempting to forage for food in the forest and peeing into a giant white bucket.
We then cut to a couple, one of whom is the woman from the earlier scene, packing their belongings and leaving a hotel room hurriedly whilst gun shots ring out in the background. The stage has been set for an unknown future where something terrible has happened. What it is and what lies in store for these individuals remains to be seen, although we can all surmise it’s not going to be pretty.
