Posted by editor@vimooz.com on June 3, 2009 under DVD, Documentary | Comments are off for this article
Dalai Lama Renaissance (www.DalaiLamaFilm.com), the award-winning feature documentary narrated by actor Harrison Ford, which played to sold out theater audiences around the world, arrives on DVD July 1, 2009.
The film, which features Nobel Prize-winning Tibetan Buddhist leader Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is the winner of 12 awards, and the official selection of over 40 international film festivals. The film has screened in theaters in over 100 cities in the United States, as well as in cinemas in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Taiwan, and other countries. Awards include: Best Documentary Film (Monaco Intl. Film Festival), Grand Jury Prize (Canada International Film Festival), and Audience Award (Sedona International Film Festival), and others.
‘Dalai Lama Renaissance’ tells the unique, funny and interesting story of 40 Western innovative thinkers who travel to India to meet with the Dalai Lama and to see if collectively they can come up with solutions for some of the largest issues confronting our world today. What happened to the group was surprising and wholly unexpected, and led to profound transformation.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on April 28, 2009 under Animation|Anime, DVD, Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article
Academy Award®-nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Waltz With Bashirwill be released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 23, 2009 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The winner of the Golden Globe® for Best Foreign Language Film, Waltz With Bashir was written and directed by Ari Folman.
Based on actual events, Waltz With Bashir is a powerful and groundbreaking animated feature that follows one man’s personal experience with the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In addition to its Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win, Waltz With Bashir was nominated for the Palme D’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was a 2008 official selection at the New York Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on April 27, 2009 under DVD, Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article
Daniel Henney of the popular Korean TV dramas (Spring Waltz, My Lovely Samsoon) will be playing Agent Zero/David North in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film opening in theaters May 1, 2009 across the country.
To mark this special event we are offering two fan favorites that we hope to open the door for new fans at a great price.
The title of Alan Brown’s second feature film, Superheroes, may be misleading. Anyone expecting an action packed story of costumed vigilantes will be disappointed to discover the movie is instead a darkly psychological look into the mind of an Iraq War Veteran.They might also be disappointed to find that the movie hits a nerve in the American Mentality, that Brown leaves moments lingering and resolution unavailable.Most disappointing about Superheroes is that you didn’t hear about it sooner.
The film gained rave reviews on the festival circuit, something Brownis used to. His directing debut was the critically acclaimed short film O Beautiful, a Sundance favorite. He has been called a “rare talent” and described as one of the most promising new faces. Brown got into film while he was drunk at a party. He met a camera man. They decided to make a movie. This is Do-It-Yourself Filmmaking at it’s finest. Oh yeah, he’s also written an award winning novel.
Superheroes is currently being distributed through IFC and will be available on iTunes soon. A rare combination of bleak style and haunting dialogue, it is a brilliant story as well as an important cultural document for our times.
Q: Superheroes is a very dark film dealing with the psychological scars of war. How did you come up with the idea? Was your main motive to write a political piece?
AB: I wasactive protesting the Iraqi War, and worked hard to defeat Bush in 2004.I was devastated when he was reelected, and felt I had to do something creative, to turn my anger and frustration into art.Otherwise I would continue feeling powerless.
The specific idea for the film came from an article I read about a mother removing shrapnel from her soldier son’s back.I started reading about and thinking about shrapnel and it became a metaphor for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the central image of the film.
Q: Dash Mihok is so convincing as a warvet, what did you have him do to prepare for the role?
AB: We talked through the script, and he did have a chance to rehearse some of his scenes.And I sent him articles and put him in touch with vets.But he really did his own preparation.He’s just an enormously talented actor with this vast reservoir of creativity.And we did have an exceptionally good and fruitful director-actor rapport, so there was a lot of creative energy on set while we were shooting.
Q: The end of the film (not to give anything away) conveys a sense of hopelessness. Can the audience pull out any optimism of the film?
AB: Not, in my opinion, regarding wars and their emotional and physical effect on those who have to fight them.
Q: Personally, do you see a light at the end of the tunnel? Can America come out of the war and begin to recover?
AB: I think it will take America, and the world, decades to recover from the eight devastating years of the Bush administration and the destruction those greedy, selfish politicians wrought.And we now have hundreds of thousands of ex-soldiers back home with injuries and emotional wounds, and very little resources to help them.It’s a national and international tragedy.
Q: Why is Superheroes a “true indie”?
AB: It was independently financed.We begged and borrowed(but did not steal ) from friends and relatives and produced the film for a very, very low figure, and shot it in 18 days.And it was a ‘true indie’ in the best sense of the term as well – most everyone involvedgot involved because they believed in the script and the projectand me, and they dedicated their time and energy and talents to making ‘Superheroes’ happen.It was personally and creatively very fulfilling.
Q: What have been the best reactions to the film?
AB: Of course, the film has won quite a few prizes at film festivals, and that’s very gratifying. Film festival audiences are made up of people who really know and care about film.And we’ve had only positive reviews.But the ‘best’ reactions have been from vets, from doctors who work with vets, and from journalists and others who have spent time at war and in Iraq, and who were moved by the film.
Q: The worst?
We haven’t really had any bad reactions to the film – unless you count Hollywood agents and distributors and producers, who just can’t understand why we’d bother making a film like this.
Q: Is making a political film a death wish for filmmakers who want to get distribution?Why have movies become so apolitical and how can the new generation of filmmakers change that?
AB: It depends on what kind of distribution you’re aiming for.We’re very pleased that IFC picked up ‘Superheroes,’ and will soon release the DVD.And that it has been on television via IFC Video-on-Demand, and was just released through Amazon , and will soon be on iTunes.So for a small, grim, political drama, that’s pretty good.Honestly, as proud as I am of the film, I know that if we’d had a theatrical release, nobody would have come to see it. Americans have no interest in the War.Only horror films and romantic comedies are profitable these days.
I hate the keep returning to the Bush administration as the root of all evil, but it was Bush who told everyone to go out and ‘shop’ after 9/11.It was to their advantage to promote a culture of consumerism,and to keep the war out of the news and out of people’s consciousness.They were very successful at that.But I think it’s our duty as artists and filmmakers to give voice to our political views.Every decision we make is a political decision, and our films should reflect that.Don’t give up.
Q: It seems to me that your choice to remain independent has a lot to do with what you’ve encountered working with big studios. Can you talk about your experience with “Hollywood” filmmaking and how it has solidified your decision to remain independent?
AB: In truth, I haven’t worked with big studios, though I have regularly dealt with ‘Hollywood’ – agents, managers, producers, et al.I did work for Miramax (back when it was the Weinsteins’company) on the screenplay for the film version of my novel, ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck,’ (available from Washington Square Press) and had the unpleasant experience of seeing one of my main characters changed from gay to straight because of a development executive’s homophobia.And on my first feature, ‘Book of Love,’ I had to sign away the final cut of the picture to the Hollywood producers who financed it – and then had to stand by helpless as a completely inexperienced, cinematically-illiterate, none-too-bright producer came in and edited out some of the very best moments in my film.That was devastating to me, and made me very, very angry.Money buys power- most often for people who have no talent but end up with control of your film.
All that said, if Hollywood would give me the money to make one of my films, I wouldn’t turn it down.But obviously my aesthetic and voice aren’t commercial.
Q: Future plans/Projects?
AB: I’m working on a number of projects simultaneously, including a contemporary adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, using Shakespeare’s text,and set in an all-male military academy.I’ve also written a stage play, ‘Nights in Falluja,’ which is about a gay soldier in Iraq, and deals with the colossal stupidity of our government’s homophobic ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy.As I’m not a theater director, I’m working on it with Kevin Newbury, a wonderfully talented theater and opera director.Political theater is exciting to me, so I’m jazzed about our collaboration.And then I have a new screenplay, a dramatic thriller about the moral choices we make and their consequences.And one or two other projects.Sometimes it’s dizzying, and I long for the days when I could just devote myself for months to a single writing project.But that’s not realistic or useful these days.Youneverknow which project will ‘pop,’ which one will allow you to survive and keep making films.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on April 7, 2009 under DVD | Comments are off for this article
Donkey Punch
Nichola Burley (Tammi) in DONKEY PUNCH, directed by Olly Blackburn. A Magnet Release, photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
Donkey Punch, the British suspense/thriller made its US premiere at the 2008 Sundace Film Festival.
Robert Boulter (Sean) in DONKEY PUNCH, directed by Olly Blackburn. A Magnet Release, photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
After meeting at a nightclub in a Mediterranean resort, seven young adults decide to continue partying aboard a luxury yacht in the middle of the ocean. But when one of them dies accidentally, the others argue about what to do, which leads to a ruthless fight for survival. Also available in an R rated version
DOUBT is a mesmerizing, suspense-filled drama with riveting performances from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Sister Aloysius Beauvier, suffers an extreme dislike for the popular parish priest Father Flynn. Looking for wrongdoing in every corner, Sister Aloysius believes she’s uncovered the ultimate sin when she hears Father Flynn has taken a special interest in a troubled boy. 5 Golden Globe and 6 Academy Award nominations!
Posted by adam.s.ryan@vimooz.com on April 5, 2009 under DVD, DVD Review, drama | Comments are off for this article
A labor of love at least as sugary as its titular confection, the independent film Scripture Cake—from writer/director and academic Dr. Emily Edwards—is a well-meaning celebration of family and its discontents.
The personal meets the political in the story of a Deep South interracial family coping with a dark history of segregation. An upbeat gospel-tinged score forms the background to their generational anxiety, as the values of the old are tested, and the young try to figure out why any of this was ever a big deal.
The enforcement of a shameful miscegenation law a half-century ago is the original sin the family tries to overcome, leaving the grandparents testy, the parents eager to provoke, and the grandchildren wondering if there’s a baby worth keeping in all that murky bathwater.
Tensions come to a climax in a reunion weekend marked by the preparation of an old family recipe: the hand-written directions for scripture cake from a generation of old.
Scripture cake, in case you’re wondering, is a traditional Southern recipe with ingredients culled from Bible verses. That old-time religious cooking turns out to be a balm for the wounds of the divided clan, some of whom still harbor a scandalous bigotry. (There’s a line about African AIDS victims that sounds like something Pat Robertson’s angry grandmother would say.)
But there’s love too, and sweetness, and this tender-hearted film has plenty of both to go around.
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