Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 31, 2008 under Industry | Comments are off for this article
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) announced today the launch of the Dubai Film Market. The new initiative is in accordance with DIFFs commitment to raising the visibility of world cinema with an emphasis on Arab, Asian and African filmmakers and stimulating regional and international film production and trade.
The Dubai Film Market will facilitate the exchange of rights, services or product ownership. It will also empower buyers and sellers with industry knowledge and simplify the transaction of content trading.
The main highlight of the Dubai Film Market is the introduction of a revolutionary process to acquire audio-visual content, (”Content”), through Cinetech, a digitized film library that will include feature films, documentaries, short films and TV content. Cinetech will help participants browse and screen through a multitude of film titles. The initial archive will consist of over 200 titles, with the aspiration to grow year on year. Further assisting buyers and other industry professionals in their browsing experience, Cinetech will categorise all available content under different labels. Cinetech will also assist industry professionals in the selection process by giving them the opportunity to contact or interact with sales agents and rights holders.
“Dubai Film Market is a concept that resulted from the absence of an international content market in the region. Dubai is already the region’s hub for media and technology and it has established itself as a source of incomparable infrastructure for filmmaking and production. The Dubai Film Market is a natural progression as it is designed to gradually establish Dubai as the regional centre for discovery and trade of Content that will benefit the rapidly evolving film, media and technology industry at large” said Abdulhamid Juma, Chairman of DIFFDIFF. Read more of this article »
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 30, 2008 under Documentary | Comments are off for this article
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was invited to a screening of Trouble the Water Wednesday afternoon at the Stars Film Center in Denver during the Democrat Convention. Five minutes into a screening of the new documentary Trouble the Water, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin walked out of the theater, Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat reports. Trouble the Water tells the story of a young couple from the Lower Ninth Ward who survived both the hurricane and its aftermath.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 28, 2008 under Industry, Legal | Comments are off for this article
Actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has sued an independent film producer and his company, alleging she was taken for $75,000 that she paid in exchange for an acting role, credit as one of the film’s producers and a cut of the movie’s profits, The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting.
Newsom contends she was promised the role of “Penelope” in a coming-of-age film about ballet and fashion that ended up being made without her under the title “Milk & Fashion.”
Producer Jay Rothstein said the film was distributed in China in June and he is negotiating to have the film released in the United States. He said he plans to pay back Siebel Newsom with the money he earns.
The film is about a Mandarin-speaking Caucasian teen who feels alienated in China and dreams of one day being a ballet dancer like his mother. There’s no character named Penelope, but the first lady of San Francisco insists it’s still the same film she had eyes on, according to court documents filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on under Industry, New Release | Comments are off for this article
Warner Bros. and Warner Independent Pictures have refused to change the name of their upcoming film, Towelhead, despite a very public request from the Council on American-Islam Relations (CAIR).Writer-director Alan Ball expressed in a statement why the title would remain.
In her statement, Erian says, “As an Arab-American woman, I am of course aware that the title of my book is an ethnic slur. Indeed, I selected the title to highlight one of the novel’s major themes: Racism. In the tradition of Dick Gregory’s autobiography Nigger, the Jewish magazine Heeb or the feminist magazine Bitch, the title is rude and shocking, but it is not gratuitous. Besides the fact that the main character must endure taunting about her ethnicity (including being called a towelhead), so much of the novel’s plot is fueled by the characters’ attitudes toward race.”
She continues, “We live in a racist society, one in which people continue to use ethnic slurs to delineate those who are different than they are. Realistically speaking, though, these people are neither the audience for my book nor for the film. They will continue to use whatever language they wish whether or not a movie called Towelhead is released. For this reason, I am pleased that Warner Bros. is standing by the title.
Erian concludes, “Towelhead, like its many cousins—nigger, spic, gook, etc.—is an ugly word. The job of the artist, however, has been, and always will be, to highlight that which is ugly in the hopes of finding something beautiful. This charge, by necessity, will at times put the artist at odds with admirable groups such as CAIR. The solution, it seems to me, is not to force the artist to alter his or her work, but instead to use the occasion of that work as an entry point for meaningful debate and discussion.”
The statement from Warner Independent Pictures says, “One of the ideas conveyed in the film is that we all make assumptions about each other, without knowing, based on racial stereotypes. It was our goal in releasing Towelhead to help make this point. Some of our past releases, like Paradise Now, were extremely controversial and elicited demands that the film not be released; Good Night, and Good Luck drew criticism from some as well. Warner Bros. supported the release of these films then, as they do now of Towelhead, as a medium to create dialogue and support the expression of ideas, as controversial or as unpopular as they may be. We apologize for any offense that is caused by this title but support Alan Ball and Alicia Erian in this effort.”
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 26, 2008 under Box Office | Comments are off for this article
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Katrina doc, “Trouble the Water,” grossed $28,606 on 3 screens for Zeitgeist Films,” and Azazel Jacobs’ “Momma’s Man” grossed $11,072 from one engagement in New York for Kino International. The film with the most box office potential of the three, Andrew Fleming’s “Hamlet 2,” was also the most disappointing, grossing $439,925 on 103 screens. That gave the Focus Features purchase a $4,271 average. Meanwhile, two Penelope Cruz starrers, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Elegy,” held up very well in their second and third weekends, respectively.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on under Industry | Comments are off for this article
The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on Warner Bros. and Warner Independent Pictures to consider changing the title of the soon-to-be-released film “Towelhead” because that derogatory term is offensive to American Muslims and Arab-Americans. CAIR says Muslims and Arab-Americans view the term “towelhead” as a racial and religious slur.
In a letter sent last week to studio executives, the Islamic civil rights and advocacy group asked that the film be called “Nothing is Private” — a title previously used in some markets.
In the letter to Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry M. Meyer, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in part: “The title… is of great concern to us, since the word is commonly used in a derogatory manner against people of the Muslim faith or Arab origin… We have no desire to inhibit the creative process or your right to produce any film you wish. However, I ask you to take the above concerns into consideration and examine the social implications of releasing the film under its current title, ‘Towelhead.’”
Ayloush said that although Warner Bros. executives have made it clear they intended no offense, the use of such a derogatory term by a major film studio will serve to increase its acceptability in public discourse.
“It is unfortunate that a major film studio would choose to exploit an ethnic slur as a sensational promotion for a movie,” said Ayloush. “Mainstreaming a bigoted term in this manner will only serve to legitimize and normalize anti-Muslim prejudice in our society.”
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on under Documentary | Comments are off for this article
World Bank’s Social Development Department announced today the launch of a world-wide documentary competition that will highlight the social aspects of climate change as experienced and/or observed by the film-maker(s).
Caroline Kende-Robb, Acting Director, Social Development Department, said, “There is a need to see climate change as an issue of global social justice. The rights, interests and needs of those affected by climate change must be acknowledged.”
Thecontest is open to anyone who wishes to have their voice heard. The submitted films should innovatively illustrate the consequences of climate change through one of the following theme categories: conflict, migration, the urban space, rural institutions, drylands, social policy, indigenous peoples, gender, governance, forests, and/or human rights.
There are two award categories: 1) Social Dimensions of Climate Change Award (general category) and 2) Young Voices of Climate Change (youth category). The general category is open to professional and amateur; the youth category is open to entries submitted by filmmakers who are under 24 years old. Award winners will be chosen through a combination of public voting and a judging panel. The film with the most public votes in each theme category will receive honorable mention.
The Award Winners will receive an all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC for a screening of their film and will have the opportunity to attend a series of networking and learning events organized by the Social Development Department of the World Bank in December, 2008. The submission period ends on Friday, October 24, 2008.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 23, 2008 under Documentary, Premiere | Comments are off for this article
Billionaires Warren Buffett and Pete Peterson were at the premiere of the documentary movie “I.O.U.S.A.” to add their views to the movie’s message: An economic disaster will befall the nation if the federal government’s $53 trillion in debts continue to grow.
But Buffett said at a news conference before the movie’s showing that he doesn’t think the country’s financial picture is quite as dire as the filmmakers portray.The film that opened Thursday nationwide details the federal government’s debts.
The “I.O.U.S.A.” filmmakers followed former U.S. Comptroller David Walker as he toured the country, speaking to college groups, newspaper editorial boards and community groups about the nation’s financial problems.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 21, 2008 under Film Festival, Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article
A low budget New Zealand feature film that almost did not make the silver screen thanks to a conman will premiere at the Feel Good Film Festival in Los Angeles this week.
The movie Sisterhood features Nick Ball, who also stars in Footballers’ Wives and East Enders, comedian Jon Gadsby and Emily Corcoran.
In 2006, drama school graduate Corcoran had raised enough money from an investor to make the film and had organised a director, Richard Wellings-Thomas.
However, six weeks into production Corcoran’s investor’s cheques began to bounce.
“His identity began to unravel and I eventually discovered the man was a well known criminal fraudster,” she said.
The project fell apart and Corcoran was threatened with a lawsuit from an equipment company that had not been paid.
But 12 months later, after intensive fundraising efforts, the writer was back on track and had pulled most of her family and friends along for the ride.
“My brother was a runner, my sister did continuity, my uncle did all the lighting, my aunty did the catering, my cousins also did the catering and helped out, an old friend from school played one of the sheep shearers it was crazy, we all knew each other.
“Oh, and my mother was in it, playing my mother.”
Corcoran plays the main role of Shirley a girl who grew up on a Southland farm and heads to London to find her rogue father Ball.
She ends up by finding her chic upper-class half-sister who is continually embarrassed by her exploits.
“It’s a very silly, silly movie, I should point out. It’s a very fun, light hearted feel-good film.”
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on August 20, 2008 under Industry | Comments are off for this article
Signaling the official kick-off to the film awards season, the IFP announced today that Penélope Cruz will be presented with a Gotham Award Tribute at the 18th Annual Gotham Awards™ on Tuesday, December 2nd in New York.
Presented by IFP, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, The Gotham Awards™ is one of the leading awards for independent film and the first major honors of the film awards season. The awards provide critical early recognition to worthy independent films, such as past winners JUNO (2007), HALF NELSON (2006), JUNEBUG (2005), all of which went on to numerous awards and Oscar™ nominations for their stars — Ellen Page, Ryan Gosling, and Amy Adams, respectively.Read more of this article »
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New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was invited to a screening of Trouble the Water Wednesday afternoon at the Stars Film Center in Denver during the Democrat Convention. Five minutes into a screening of the new documentary Trouble the Water, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin walked out of the theater, 
