Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Finding Some Post-Election Perspective at the 59th DOK Leipzig
Following the election returns via airplane TV (and hitting turbulence over the battleground states, no joke) on the second leg of my journey back from DOK Leipzig was surreal, to say the least. I’d just wrapped five whirlwind days at the oldest documentary film festival in the world (founded in 1955, also making DOK Leipzig the first independent film festival in East Germany) in a country heavy with a historical weight few Americans raised in the US could ever comprehend. Traveling outside my birth country – including through the terrific array of international films DOK Leipzig has a reputation for […]
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Hello, Oscar!: The Savannah Film Festival’s Docs to Watch Roundtable
Though the 19th edition of the Savannah Film Festival took place just a couple weeks after Hurricane Matthew forced festival staff to evacuate their offices, this year’s event ended up running every bit as smoothly as the effortlessly gracious, charming city itself. Hosted (and founded) by the Savannah College of Art and Design – SCAD seems to be the South’s answer to Parson’s or RISD – the festival is jam-packed with A-list flicks screened at gorgeous venues, attended by an eclectic mix of topnotch guests. For example, I caught sight of the adorably grateful Molly Shannon at the daily breakfast […]
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Religious Fervor and Precarious Times: The 2016 Indie Memphis Film Festival
I arrived in Memphis a week ago, but it feels like longer. It was a balmy evening like the last breath of summer, and I hadn’t yet met the full realization that Trump could become the President-elect in a matter of days. Making my way back from the opening night screening of The Invaders, a Memphis-produced documentary chronicling the local militant group’s role in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and their meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. right before his assassination, I walked the empty blocks with a homeless vet and long-ago college football star who foreboded the results of […]
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Bringing the Short Film The Quarry to the Tribeca Film Institute’s Through Her Lens Program
Sonejuhi Suha is an award-winning filmmaker, working in both narrative and documentary storytelling. Her narrative short film, Love Comes Later, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and screened at over 60 film festivals internationally, garnering awards at festivals. Below is her guest blog post on her experience with Tribeca’s Through Her Lens Program. Her short film script The Quarry, selected for THL, is a psychological drama about a gynecologist and abortion provider, Reese, who practices in a remote town in America. When a threat emerges in town and Reese finds herself drawn into a rabbit hole of paranoia, […]
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Keegan-Michael Key to Host 2016 IFP Gotham Awards Ceremony
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today that Emmy® Award-winner Keegan-Michael Key — actor, writer, and co-creator of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele — will host the 2016 IFP Gotham Awards. The ceremony will take place November 28, 2016 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. “We’re excited to have Keegan-Michael at the helm of this year’s Gotham Awards celebrations,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center by IFP. “His unique presence and brand of humor will be a perfect addition to what we expect will be a lively and […]
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New Horror Film Festival Will Debut at The Shining Hotel
Festival co-directors Michael Lerman and Landon Zakheim chose Halloween to announce The Overlook Film Festival, a new genre festival that will open April 27 at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge. The historic hotel at the base of Mt. Hood was used for the exterior setting of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The four-day festival will feature a weekend-long immersive game from Bottleneck Immersive and an original live version of the radio play Tales From Beyond the Pale by Glass Eye Pix. Live programming will also include musical performances, panel presentations, live podcasts, escape room challenges, magic shows, trivia night, games, […]
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Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn Opens Feature-Rich New York Theater
After a week-long soft open, Alamo Drafthouse opens today its first theater in the New York area, the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn. Snuggled away on the top floor of a brand new shopping mall, and following an escalator trip that takes you past a Target and a Century 21, the new seven-screen Drafthouse is feature-packed in more ways that one, offering state-of-the-art projection (including, in one theater, 35mm), Dolby 7.1, programming mixing mainstream arthouse with local, repertory and genre events, and, of course, food and drink. The latter is served up in the theaters as well as in the House […]
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Beyond Telefilm Canada: Curating the Future of Canadian Film at VIFF’s “Future//Present”
What does a Canadian film look like? This could be construed as a bad joke with limitless punch lines, the film equivalent of “a man walks into a bar…” But this query isn’t meant to drag my own national cinema, which has produced great filmmakers like Alanis Obomsawin, David Cronenberg and Michael Snow. Instead of a set-up to a gag, this line of questioning opens a conversation about the future of Canadian cinema, especially when it comes to funding. This topic was front of mind at the Vancouver International Film Festival this year, which debuted a new program, curated by […]
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2016 IFP Gotham Awards to Present Appreciation Award to NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today that the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment will receive a special Appreciation Award at this year’s Gotham Awards ceremony on Monday, November 28th. In recognition of the 50th Anniversary of New York City’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, the IFP and the Gotham Awards are celebrating the Agency’s legacy of supporting storytelling in New York City. Commissioner Julie Menin, of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen will receive the Appreciation Award at the event. Menin and Glen will then honor two outstanding members of NYC’s creative […]
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Watch: Effie T. Brown’s 2016 Film Independent Forum Keynote
“You have a story to tell that’s worthy. You have experience to share and you have a valid point of view,” producer Effie T. Brown told the audience during Sunday’s inspirational keynote at the 2016 Film Independent Forum at the Directors Guild in Los Angeles. Brown, who produced films such as Dear White People and Real Women Have Curves, is executive VP, production and development for TV and film at Lee Daniels Entertainment. Brown spoke of the need for diverse creators and told the audience they can make a difference with their wallets. “The next time there is a movie where there is […]
