Paulista, Quanto Dura o Amor? (2009) by writer/director Roberto Moreira and actress Maria Clara Spinelli (winner of the Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival award for Best Actress) held its North American premier at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January, 2010. Both Roberto Moreira and Maria Spinelli attended for Q and A after screening. Roberto discussed that it was indeed a challenge to make a film that focuses o...

After the intense (and enjoyable) experience of sitting through at least 15 documentary feature films over 4 days at the just concluded AFI-Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, the question organically arose: do documentaries really matter? As someone who trained in documentary filmmaking techniques (and who made a few, best to be forgotten non-fiction nothings) and an irer of the stamina, grit and determination of the documentary filmmaker, my answer appeared more hopeful than det...

Last July, the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch put out a hefty report drawn from its prior two decades of watching dogs in some 20 countries. Called Selling Justice Short, the dossier showed why ability was a good thing for peace and, if nothing else, could help heal victims by acknowledging their anguish. I didn't read it – nor likely did you – but the Human Rights Watch Film Festival supplies some visual Cliff's Notes. This year it gives witness to human rights violations ...

I had to do a double-take when I saw the headline yesterday: GEN ART TO CLOSE ITS DOORS AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS. The Gen Art organization, which organizes networking and exhibition events for film, music and fashion in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and several other cities, is closing its doors? After what was an amazingly successful New York festival just two weeks ago? Well, the news apparently is true and s a wave of bad news for specialized events around the USA (and probably the wor...

  I had to do a double-take when I saw the headline yesterday: GEN ART TO CLOSE ITS DOORS AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS. The Gen Art organization, which organizes networking and exhibition events for film, music and fashion in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and several other cities, is closing its doors? After what was an amazingly successful New York festival just two weeks ago? Well, the news apparently is true and s a wave of bad news for specialized events around the USA (and p...

"Was it dangerous to make a documentary about the Russian mob?" Alexander Gentelev was asked after his Thieves by Law premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (April 22 to May 2, 2010). "We will find out after the protagonists see the movie," he deadpanned. The heroes Gentelev was referring to are three retired godfathers of Russia’s underworld who muse about their colorful exploits on camera. As he explained, "A lot of criminal kingpins were willing to mout...

Economic blues got you counting your pennies? Volcanic ash delaying your flight to New York? Can't get motivated to get dressed and come downtown? Afraid to be seen in public? Well, if you are a cinema lover and cannot quite overcome your own neuroses or spewing volcanos to attend this year's Tribeca Film Festival, don't despair.....the Festival is now coming to you. Tribeca Film, ed by founding partner American Express, has acquired the rights to distribute 12 independent films ...

  At his year´s 7th festival, DOCUMENTA MADIRD is offering broad programming in it´s parallel sections, including a series entitled "USA INDEPENDENTS" retrospectives of three filmmakers -Peter Hutton, Ben Russell and Joseph Strick- who have left their mark on recent history for their creative and revolutionary visions of the genre.  Peter Hutton has been a crucial figure in American documentary and experimental film for forty years. Hutton is the last link in the Nort...

AVATAR'S writer/director/producer James Cameron and Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri in the movie, spent some time after a 3-D screening in Hollywood to discuss the project. This screening was hosted by The Wrap and sponsored by Google.  This ultimate AVATAR interview gives you a glimpse into the making of what has become the biggest money maker in film history. Now you'll even know what the mythic substance "unobtainium" really is from director James Cameron's own personal tales be...

AVATAR'S writer/director/producer James Cameron and Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri in the movie, spent some time after a 3-D screening in Hollywood to discuss the project. This screening was hosted by The Wrap and sponsored by Google. This ultimate AVATAR interview gives you a glimpse into the making of what has become the biggest money maker in film history. 0000 Now you'll even know what the mythic substance "unobtainium" really is from director James Cameron's o...

AVATAR'S writer/director/producer James Cameron and Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri in the movie, spent some time after a 3-D screening in Hollywood to discuss the project. This screening was hosted by The Wrap and sponsored by Google. This ultimate AVATAR interview gives you a glimpse into the making of what has become the biggest money maker in film history. 0000 Now you'll even know what the mythic substance "unobtainium" really is from director James Cameron's own personal tales behind the s...

The 2010 Environmental FilmFestival at Yale (EFFY) announced today it will open with the East CoastPremiere of Houston We Have a Problem on Tuesday, April 6. The documentary thatexposes the hard truths about oil from Texas oilmen themselves, and how the oilindustry must adapt to meet America's future energy needs.  Following thefilm will be a discussion with director Nicole Torre and one of the film'ssubjects Matthew Simmons, one of the world's leading experts on the topic ofpeak oil, and moder...

  > FIFDH Paris 2010 Awards : The 8th edition of the Paris International Film Festival on Human Rights (FIFDH) which took place at the Nouveau Latina cinema (4th arr.) from 9-16 March managed to reveal the complexity of human rights breaches as well as those of economic social and cultural rights (DESC) and civil and political rights. The juries of the "Creative Documentaries" and "Investigative reports" categories were made up of two teams of professional...

blank_page The Jury, Audience, Festival, and other special award-winners of the 2010 PAN AFRICAN FILM & FESTIVAL (PAFF) were announced tonight at the Festival's Awards Ceremony hosted by actress CCH Pounder (Avatar) at the Culver Plaza Theatres (9919 Washington Blvd. Los Angeles).  The Kenyan narrative FROM A WHISPER won for Best Narrative Feature.  A three-way tie was announced for the Audience Favorite Narrative Award for films SOUL DIASPORA, A STING IN A TALE, and ...

The North Sea is a stretch of water separating the East and North coast of Britain from the northern European mainland. Over 100,000 tonnes of oil is dumped in the North Sea by ships. Marine life that can be harmed by sea pollution. Seven EU countries bordering the North Sea and Norway have agreed an action plan to tackle marine pollution in the region. NORTHSEA POLLUTED by ManuelSeixasMany shirt designs available at zazzle...

The inaugural Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) announced today it will open with a special screening of director Mira Nair's “Amelia,” a thrilling of legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart starring two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank and Golden Globe® winner Richard Gere. Organizers also revealed the 32 films that will comprise the rest of the Festival’s film slate. 12 of the films have roots in the Middle East and the balance is a diverse selection of acclaimed title...

The inaugural Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) announced today it will open with a special screening of director Mira Nair's “Amelia,” a thrilling of legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart starring two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank and Golden Globe® winner Richard Gere. Organizers also revealed the 32 films that will comprise the rest of the Festival’s film slate. 12 of the films have roots in the Middle East and the balance is a diverse selection of acclaimed title...

Tony Rayns and Shelly Kraicer, programmers of the Vancouver International Film Festival's big Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia section, today announced that the program will showcase a total of 35 features, four mid-length films and 22 shorts (programmed to date). Dragons & Tigers, one of the pre-eminent showcases of East Asian films in the world, is presented with the generous of Brad Birarda and Robert Sali. The series will feature five World Premieres, eight Internat...

Follow the Money   In the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, a particularly fascinating group of films has emerged that might help explain the mess we're in. In the Vancouver International Film Festival's Follow the Money series, various sectors of the economy (and aspects of human nature) are examined in illuminating, scarifying and perversely entertaining detail.   It's worth ing that last year's VIFF took place in the midst of the very worst stret...

Of the forty-three documentaries in this year's DIFF, twenty-one are from or in co-production with South Africa , and eight are from or in co-production with African countries. Politics and history feature prominently. Iseta - Beyond the Roadblock covers the return to Rwanda of the filmmaker who shot the only known footage of killings during the Rwanda genocide, remarkable considering that over a million people were murdered. Zola Maseko explores ancient African civilization in The Manuscripts ...

The SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film events devoted to the non-fiction form, has ed forces with UK's Channel Four BRITDOC Foundation (www.britdoc.org/goodpitch) and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (www.sundanceinstitute.org/docsource) to present the North American tour of THE GOOD PITCH, a co-production market initiative that will be part of the Festival's industry events this week. The initiative received over 300 applications, with the ...

  by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor The SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film events devoted to the non-fiction form, has ed forces with UK's Channel Four BRITDOC Foundation (www.britdoc.org/goodpitch) and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (www.sundanceinstitute.org/docsource) to present the North American tour of THE GOOD PITCH, a co-production market initiative that will be part of the Festival's industry events this...

## #What It’s Like to Chill with the Most Ruthless Men in the World Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic: Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand.  Mladic,  a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at larg...

Rockwell the Inspiration for Duncan Jones' 'Moon' WHOA! This movie is a mind-blow. Let me start by saying that I am quite unfamiliar with the genre of science fiction. When I read about this movie I didn't think, 'Oh what a cool sci-fi this movie will be.' SO it was a surprise to me when during the Q&A at the West Coast premiere of the movie at the SFIFF Sunday night so many questions and answers had to do with the sci-fi genre (themes borrowed from other movies, etc...