Dallas International Film Festival Goes Populist After AFI

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 06 April 2010 05:00

Written by Laura Blum

Serving up Texas-sized helpings of cinema, the Dallas International Film Festival will engulf all eight screens of the Angelika Film Center for its Opening Night shindig on April 8, 2010. The festival runs through April 18.

The smorgasbord includes such fiction and documentary films as Bill Cunningham New York, by documentarian Richard Press; Multiple Sarcasms, Brooks Branch's relationship drama starring Timothy Hutton; Mexican classic Nosotros los pobres; and Anthony Burns' Texan-spun drama, Skateland.

It's a foretaste of programming categories to descend on America's eighth-largest city over the subsequent 11 days. Before the Festival closes, some 1,600 film-goers will have seen 153 films from 25 countries.

Dallas IFF's first edition following the expiration of its contract with AFI foregrounds local, Latino and Mexican titles, reflecting the populist convictions of artistic director James Faust, senior programmer Sarah Harris and Festival chairman Michael Cain.  

Last year's multi-screen finale was the model for this year's opener, according to Cain. Not only was it audience catnip, but the stretched slate vested that many more filmmakers in the glamor and goodwill of a gala celebration.

While the cultural flavor is down-home, the new regime hardly stints on pomp. And some of it converges on the Dallas Star Awards.

Mexican screenwriter/director Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, Babel, 21 Grams) will receive one. Further basking in the Festival limelight, the master of nonlinear narrative will be honored with a retrospective of his work at the Latino Cultural Center. Particular sizzle surrounds The Burning Plain, which female lead Jennifer Lawrence will be on hand to discuss, and which Arriaga also directed. In a "Conversation with… " panel discussion, erstwhile university maestro Arriaga will field questions about his work.

To salute Mexico's bicentennial, another Dallas Star Award will be presented (posthumously) to fellow countryman Pedro Infante. Among the screen icon's myriad hits were Opening Night's Nosotros los pobres (We the Poor) — a popular favorite set in a poor working-class barrio of Mexico City — Ustedes los ricos and Pepe el Toro. Mexico's first filmed trilogy, by Golden Age director Ismael Rodríguez, will be screened alongside other Infante greats.

Writer-director John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Blind Side) and three-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister (Batman Begins,The Dark Knight) round out the roster of Dallas Star Awardees.

Oscar-winning writer/director Pete Docter will take home the Texas Avery Animation Award, which Reel FX Entertainment is springing for. Docter will be decorated prior to a special salute to his animation career.

Also, Target is back for the fourth year to sponsor the Target Narrative and Target Documentary Feature Competition awards, each of dangles $25,000 in cash.

Dallas IFF is also cuing the drum roll for its “Super Saturday Presentations,” a slate of seven premiers to be presented April 10. Virsa, which is an official World Cinema Selection and Feature in Competition, makes its world debut that evening. The Punjabi-language film about cross-generational and cross-cultural tensions is directed by Pankaj Batra and executive produced by Dallas-born oncologist and hematologist Dr. Amanullah Khan.

Hold, Frank Mosely's drama about a young couple's relationship after the wife's rape also has its world premiere on Super Saturday, as do Derrick Borte's sendup of consumerist society, The Joneses (starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny) and Hollywood romance Waiting for Forever, by James Keach (starring Rachel Bilson, Richard Jenkins and Blythe Danner).

Sin Ella (Without Her), a drama by Jorge Colon about a TV producer whose late ex-wife comes back to guide him, and We are the Sea, Neil Truglio's portrait of a drifter, are other eagerly anticipated April 10 selections.

For information on additional films and awards at Dallas IFF, visit http://www.dallasfilm.org.

The Dallas International Film Festival
Apr. 8 - 18
the Angelika Film Center
3625 N Hall St
Dallas, TX
75219
(214) 720-0555
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Aspen Shortsfest an Embarrassment of Riches

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 05 April 2010 05:00

Written by Laura Blum

As the 17th-century philosopher Francis Bacon argued, "Rather to excite your judgment briefly than to inform it tediously." Aspen Film would appear to agree. Its acclaimed Aspen Shortsfest showcases films from two to 27 minutes long.

The 19th round takes place April 6 to 11, 2010, at Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, and at the Crystal Theatre in nearby Carbondale.
 
This year Aspen Film cherrypicked 85 competition contenders out of the 2,500 submissions that poured in from some 80 countries. Taken together with its non-competing titles, the Fest is screening about 100 short films from around the world.
 
Not only is the work exceptionally diverse, according to Aspen Film program director George Eldred, but it's more interesting, of higher quality and more skillfully produced than that of previous troves, he noted in a statement. "Creators worldwide benefit from unprecedented access to new technology and equipment," he added.
 
Take for example Home Is Where You Find It. The 27-minute documentary by 16-year-old Mozambican Alcides Soares recounts being orphaned by AIDS, and constituting a new family of loved ones. Produced by a group of professional mediamakers including Dick Wolf and Peter Jankowski, the film has swept numerous awards.
 
Another exemplar of this year's evolved concepts and executions is the British drama, Man and Boy. In their 20-minute put, directors Marcus McSweeny and David Leon explore paternal instincts gone amok in working-class London. Storylines jump up and back, here and there, suggesting several scenarios and letting the viewer decide what actually happened.
 
No less thought provoking is The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger, by U.S. animator and cartoonist Bill Plympton. His self-described "fairy tale gone bad" takes its palette from Vasily Kandinsky and character cue from Ferdinand the Bull. Look to the four-minute piece for answers about life and advertising. 
 
Kid-friendly shorts are in ample supply at Shortfest, thanks to "Films for Families," a docket of shorts for tweeners and up. Fest highlights also include "Micro Moviemaking," with director Lewis Teague (Navy Seals, The Jewel of the Nile), exploring his web series Charlotta-TS; and "Tropfest's Best: 7 Minutes or Less," spotlighting picks from Australia's celebrated shorts festival.
 
Ringed by mountains and affluent skiers, Aspen may better known for its outdoor sports than indoor lounging. Yet Aspen Shortsfest has been turning this perception around with its Oscar-qualifying International Competition, filmmaker appearances, parties and special presentations.
 
This year, its embarrassment of film riches prompted Eldred to extend the fest by a night.

For more info go to: http://www.aspenfilm.org/

Aspen Shortsfest
Apr. 6 - 11
Wheeler Opera House
320 East Hyman Avenue
Aspen, CO 81611
(970) 920 5770
 
Chrystal Theater
427 Main Street
Carbondale, CO 81623
(970) 963-0633

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Northern Exposures: Social Change & Sexuality in Swedish Cinema, 1913-2010

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 04 April 2010 11:52

Written by Jack Angstreich

Northern Exposures: Social Change and Sexuality in Swedish Cinema, 1913-2010 hits screens at The Film Society of Lincoln Center from April 16th-May 4th, 2010. Presented in collaboration with the Swedish Film Institute and the Swedish Institute, the series offers up a comprehensive survey of Swedish film from the early 20th century to the modern day including silent film gems, beloved classics, and exciting current releases.

"The selection of films is indeed very interesting and gives an insight and perspective to Swedish film and Swedish society. We are happy to be given this chance to raise awareness of Swedish cinema towards the American audience and hope that the visiting Swedish directors and producers will further strengthen the networks between our filmmaking communities," said Pia Lundberg, Head of International Department, Swedish Film Institute.
 
This extraordinary survey of a rich, eclectic national cinema spans from witty, thoroughly modern silent comedies (shown with live piano accompaniment) to Ingrid Bergman's breakthrough film, from dark suspense to insightful dramas (and, yes, Wild Strawberries!). It's also a chronicle of a pioneering social democracy-at the vanguard of social change and sexual openness. Showing alongside the survey will be recent films including work by the director of Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson,and prizewinning Sundance charmer The King of Ping Pong.
 
This series offers a chance for audiences to immerse themselves in the vital and engaging cinema of Sweden.

"We're very pleased with the Film Society of Lincoln Center's broad and perceptive presentation which outlines the development of Sweden in the 20th century and with it the country's film industry," says Olle Wästberg, General Director, Swedish Institute. "With focus on modern film and its creators, Northern Exposures is also a unique opportunity to discover the wealth of masters from earlier eras such as Ingmar Bergman, Hasse Ekman, and Vilgot Sjöman."
 
Northern Exposures creates not only a chronicle of the development of Swedish filmmaking, but of the country itself. At the moment that movies were introduced to Sweden, it was an overwhelmingly rural society, very much wrapped in traditional ways of life and thought. Yet by the 1930s, Sweden had introduced legislation that would create the world's first true social democracy; changes in land ownership, working conditions, the status of women, as well as the growth of industry decisively transformed the society.

Sweden suddenly found itself in the vanguard of social change-as evidenced by the increasing sexual openness of its cinema, from the bathing scenes of Only a Mother and One Summer of Happiness to the taboo-smashing I am Curious (Yellow), a film that helped change US laws regarding moral restrictions in art.
 
The multi media installation "Ingmar Bergman: The Man Who Asked Hard Questions" will be on view in the Film Society's Furman Gallery from April 16th- 25th. This installation invites visitors to encounter Bergman's fascinating world via projections onto five screens on a man-made tree. The projected materials include scenes from Bergman's films, interview clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and more. "The Man Who Asked Hard Questions" offers a look at new and unexpected facets of the Swedish film legend's life and work, and has been presented in combination with the director's films around the world since 2008.
 
Filmmakers in attendance include Henrik Hellström, Stig Björkman, Fredrik Edfeldt, and Babak Najafi.

Series highlights include the US premiere of The Girl Who Played with Fire -- the film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's wildly popular novel and sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Additional US premieres include Hellström and Fredrik Wenzel's lyrical Burrowing, and Najafi's emotionally gripping Sebbe, which was awarded best debut feature at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2010.

 In addition to films, the series offers a filmmakers panel discussion on Swedish Cinema: Then and Now, and a Meet the Programmer event that offers a peak into the planning of the series.
 
Surveys of national cinemas, in my view, are of considerably less interest than director retrospectives; such series substitute sociology for aesthetics as their guiding principle. However, I always welcome an opportunity to deepen my knowledge of film history; the Film Society of Lincoln Center's three-week Northern Exposures series, starting April 16th, devoted to Swedish cinema provides ample occasion to view rare titles from a not inconsiderable national industry. Below are capsules of a few highlights screened in advance.

A Night (1931)
directed by Gustaf Molander
A very early sound film, A Night's visual approach is memorably rooted in the silent cinema -- indeed this work is remarkable for the degree to which its story is articulated through visual means. The film concerns two brothers on opposites sides of the Russian Revolution in Finland; the political content of this remarkable subject matter is regrettably flattened to serve the purposes of melodrama, reducing the interest of A Night more to the status of a curiosity.

The film was screened in what looked to be a recently struck archival print and it looked too dark in some scenes, but the pure visual storytelling on display here more than held my interest -- indeed the celebratory editing of the photographed landscape here rises to the level of visual poetry.

The Girl with Hyacinths (1950)
directed by Hasse Ekman
Probably the strongest film of the four classics was the previously shown The Girl with Hyacinths. However, it was the least visually splendorous but by far the most elegantly constructed. The Girl with Hyacinths takes the form of an investigation into the causes of the suicide of a young woman who dies at the film's outset.

Screened in a what looked to be a newly struck print, The Girl with Hyacinths is a moving experience, featuring memorable performances by Ulf Palme and Anders Ek, among others.

One Summer of Happiness (1951)
directed by Arne Mattson
This film is also graced by excellent nature photography, seen to superb effect in the excellent, newly struck print screened here. The film is a tragic love story set in the Swedish countryside and holds one's interest through the appeal of its two young leads and some fluid deployment of camera-movement.

Kisses & Hugs (1967)
directed by Jonas Cornell
Kisses & Hugs was the oddest of these four films. A couple takes in an eccentric writer when the girlfriend he lives with ends their relationship; what ensues is a series of quasi-picaresque episodes which unfold with a verite quality. 

If this film too remains a curiosity of its period, it is possibly the most visually remarkable and it is screened in an outstanding print which reveals the subtle tonalities of the lighting to full effect.