Monday, April 21, 2008

Pam Grier Gets RiverRun Master of Cinema Award

At 2 pm on Saturday, April 26 (NEW DATE & TIME), RiverRun in Winston Salem, NC, will host A Conversation with Pam Grier, featuring a discussion about her career, film highlights and the presentation of her Master of Cinema award.

Moderated by North Carolina School of the Arts instructor Dale Pollock, this event will be held in the Stevens Center (405 W. 4th St.).
Previous Master of Cinema recipients include Cliff Robertson (2005) and Ned Beatty (2006).


Pam Grier broke new ground in the 1970’s as the first African-American female to headline a film.

After her breakout role as a drug dealer-fighting nurse in the film Coffy (1973), she became known the world over for her starring roles in gritty black action films such as Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), Friday Foster (1975)
and Greased Lightning (1975).
It didn't hurt any that she showed copious amounts of flawless skin, not to mention a toned and voluptuous body. But her face convinced you that while she could be seductive and indicing, she could also be tough and kick the badass out of the bad guys.

In 1997, she was tapped by Quentin Tarantino to portray the title character in his movie Jackie Brown. Tarantino has always been a fan of grindhouse and exploitation films he watched with his buddies when he worked at the famous LA video store.

Considered by many to be the best work of her career, the Jackie Brown role earned her a Golden Globe and a SAG award nomination. She has also been nominated for an Emmy in 2000.



Since 2004, Grier has appeared as a regular on Showtime’s The L Word.

For the full RiverRun schedule, see: Riverrun
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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Nina Repeta of "Dawson's Creek" hosts Cape Fear Independent Film Festival

May 2-4, 2008 in Wilmington.


Nina Repeta, North Carolina native and star of Dawson's Creek, will host the 2008 Cape Fear Independent FIlm Festival.


Put on by the Cape Fear Independent Film Network, the festival awards a Grand Prize for Best Film of $1000, plus $100 prizes for Best Short in the following categories: Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Family Film, Avant Garde, Screenplay and Special Interest.

CFIFN

Festival website:

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Blu Moon Film Festival: Call for Entries



Submit your short film, 10 minutes or less, by April 28th. Entries are free; awards are cash.

Categories include Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Broadcast (PSA’s, News Packages, Commercials and Music Videos), Grades K-12.

Awards include $50 for “Blu Moon viewer’s choice award”, $100 for “Best in Category”, and a $250 “Grand Prize”.
Film fest will be held on the campus of East Carolina University on May 2-3, 2008.
For more information, invitations to festival screenings, and submission guidelines visit:
http://www.blumoonfilm.com/

Reel Teal Film Festival on April 18

The Flicker Film Society at UNCW presents the 2nd Annual Reel Teal Film Festival this Friday, April 18, at 7:00 PM in Lumina Theater in the Fisher Student Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

The lineup of films in competition is:

Bus Stop (dir. Nate Rudolph / 4:30)

Urban Noise (dir. Duncan Hill / 2:10)

Eugene (dir. Leonard Brothers / 6:12)

Crush (dir. Joe Ensley / 8:00)

Duality (dir. Jason Barnette / 15:00)

Fester Weebles: County Pervert (dir. Lucas Boger & Bubba Noell / 8:00)

Jailhouse (dir. Taylor Gill / 2:04)

The Conflict 2: For a Few Scoops More (dir. Jon Applebaum / 12:11)

The Final Oh! (dir. Liz Wilson / 5:00)

A Good Life (dir. Joselyn McDonald / 5:40)

The Urinal Diaries (dir. Zack Drisko / 9:00)

An Indefinite Meandering of Words Left Unsaid (dir. Lexi Lefkowitz / 3:00)

Flush (dir. Taylor Gill / 17:58)

In addition to these films, two Flicker-produced shorts will be shown beforehand: David, a narrative piece directed by Devin DiMattia, and Permanent: Female Tattoo Artists in Wilmington, a documentary directed by Liz Wilson.

The Flicker Film Society: The 2nd Annual Reel Teal Film Festival on April 18

Monday, April 14, 2008

Docs on Jean-Luc Godard and Ingmar Bergman this week at Duke

Rarely seen docs featuring famous filmmakers screen free this week at Duke University.

On Monday, April 14:
Fragments of Conversations with Jean-Luc Godard (Alain Fleischer, 2007, 116 min, France, color, DVD, French w/ English subtitles)


On Tuesday, April 15:
Bergman’s Island (Marie Nyreröd, 2004, 85 min, Sweden, Swedish, color)


Both will be shown at 7pm in Griffith film theater.

For more info and other screenings at Duke visit:
Film/Video/Digital -- Screen/Society schedule

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Sunday, April 06, 2008

"Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story" at Full Frame: A Review

Above, Stefan Forbes films Michael Dukakis as he watches Atwater call him a hypocrite.

A Review by Allan Maurer
"Boogie Man," the new documentary about the blues singing, dirt-flinging political operative who gave us George Bush the First and is probably equally responsible for George Jr. also becoming President, stood out as one of the best entries at this year's Full Frame Documentary festival, where it premiered. But it is also strikes us as one of the most important films shown this year, of special interest in a season where we will elect a new president.

Director Stefan Forbes combines nicely paced cutting between current interviews and historical news footage to craft a compelling story of Atwater's rise to power and what it meant, then and now. A young George W. is seen at Atwater’s elbow throughout his father’s campaign, learning to dish the dirt and polishing that “aw shucks” charm we have come to know all too well.

Not untypically, a film about Iraq and a film about Katrina were among the award-winners at Full Frame. But “Boogie Man” may be among the most important the festival has ever screened. It documents Lee Atwater's willingness to fling rumor, innuendo and outright lies at Democratic political opponents, crafting the winning strategy Republicans still use. Both George W. and Karl Rove are Atwater protégés who learned their tricks at his hands.

Atwater, a South Carolinian who rose from head of the Young Republicans (an office gained thanks to an early foray into election tinkering) to chair of the Republican Party in Bush the First’s years in office, said, “Perception is reality,” and set about proving it. Famously scurrilous attacks on Michael Dukakis cost the Massachusetts dem the 1988 election against George the elder, and the same sort of attacks against Massachusetts Sen. Kerry helped do him in against George Jr.

Entertaining and well-made, this documentary is also instructive. It peels away the lies Presidents tell with a straight face, and reveals beneath their good-guy rhetoric, hearts corrupted by the need to win at any cost. We get to hear some real whoppers, including a classic lie from the lips of Ronald Reagan.

Although this may be particularly relevant in the Bush years, its context is apolitical. The warning is Orwellian. Unfortunately, the lesson remains one that Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, pointed out during the years of Nazi rule in Germany. He called it “the Big Lie.” Repeated loud enough and long enough, people will take it for the truth.
Visit www.boogiemanfilm.com to view trailers and learn more about this important film.

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Full Frame 2008 Press Breakfast



Members of the press met with the Full Frame attending filmmakers for a breakfast at the Piedmont Restaurant just around the corner from the Carolina Theatre in Durham.


Allan met up with Tia Wou and Stefan Forbes, who has previously won Emmy awards for his work on HBO and PBS. Forbes is in town for the world premiere of his first feature length doc, "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story," which turned out to be one of the highlights of Full Frame 2008. Co-produced by Emmy and Peabody award winning filmmaker Noland Walker, and already scheduled for theatrical release this summer, "Boogie Man" provides some fascinating political background in a year of presidential campaigns. Find out more at BoogieManFilm.com


The excellent breakfast at the Piedmont was sponsored by the NC Film Office, part of the Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development. They have a lot to celebrate right now with two major releases filmed in the state "Leatherheads" and "Nights in Rodanthe" both coming out this year. Above, our hosts (r to l), Joan Alford, Sallie Hedrick, and film office dirctor Aaron Syrett.

Find out more about the NC Film Office, movies lensed in the state, and assistance the office can provide to filmmakers, at NCFilm.com.




The Piedmont's chef, demonstrating the dangers and joys of the open kitchen concept, especially at 9 am.


We met filmmaker Aurelien Foucault in the buffet line. The French filmmaker is in town for the world premiere of his short doc (23 min.), "Of Shadows and Men."


The film documents one of the last shadow-puppeteers in China, where the centuries-old art form is dying fast. You can watch a trailer at the filmmakers' myspace page.



Filmmakers Eva Weber and Samantha Zarsoza screened their new short "City of Cranes" in the 2008 New Docs competition. We had met the filmmakers at the 2006 Full Frame when they brought "The Intimacy of Strangers" to compete. Weber and Zarsoza are now expanding the interesting short, a story told entirely through overheard cell phone conversations, into a full-length feature.



"City of Cranes" explores the dynamic skyline of London.


Zoe Lowe, the press breakfast's youngest attending filmmaker, with her mother Kristin Nutile, editor and filmmaker for "Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness. " Nutile teamed with legendary doc maker Albert Maysles on the doc, an intimate portrait of the life and work of the critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer.


Find out more about "Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness" on Maysles' website. Maysles and his late brother David (1932-1987) are recognized as pioneers of "direct cinema," the distinctly American version of French "cinema verité." Their works include the landmark non-fiction feature film "Salesman" (1968), and 1970's "Gimme Shelter," the cult classic that follows the Rolling Stone's tour that ended at Altamont.



Jon Reiss is here for the latest screening of his feature-length doc "Bomb It!" exploring the graffiti art movement on five continents.


Press relations for this year's Full Frame Festival were expertly handled by MMI Associates of Raleigh. Below (r to l), president & CEO Patty Briguglio, Kate Catlin, and Jennifer Fair.

Press breakfast photos by RWright 2008 ARR

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Full Frame 2008: Opening Day





Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, was the featured guest at the launch of the 2008 Full Frame doc festival. When asked if she and her husband planned to do a film themselves "a la Al Gore," she replied, "Well, now that you mention it...."


Edwards said, "The new technologies mean that stories can be told, whether the big corporations like it or not."



A reception for sponsors, guests and press at the Durham Arts Council included music (above) and libations (below).








Before the evening's opening film, "Trumbo," Duke faculty member Ariel Dorfman (above) presented a career award to out-going festival director and founder Nancy Buirski. "Nancy broke every rule in the book," Dorfman said.



"A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman," a new doc by filmmaker Peter Raymont, recounting the Chilean exile's return to his home country 30 years after he was forced to flee by dictator Augusto Pinochet, screens Sunday at 7 pm.



For more on Full Frame, visit:

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Durham Art Walk this Sat & Sun


Saturday & Sunday April 5-6, 2008

Between movies at the Full Frame fest this weekend, you can enjoy the Durham Art Walk--a unique self-guided shopping tour of galleries, artist studios, and impromptu exhibits in businesses throughout downtown, featuring the original artwork of over 150 artists.

It will be held Sat. Apr. 5, 10am-7:30pm & Sun., Apr. 6, 1-5pm in downtown Durham. Besides a wide variety of art you can enjoy live music, food and fun activities for the whole family.

Bands and other entertainment groups can be found at:
CCB Plaza (201 Corcoran St.) - just behind the Civic Center/Carolina Theatre complex
Brightleaf Square (905 W. Main St.) -- 12- 2 pm Sat. only
Alivia’s Durham Bistro (900 W. Main St.) -- 2-5 Sat. only
West Village (604 W. Morgan St.)

Pick up your map and start your tour at the Durham Arts Council, 120 Morris Street, downtown Durham.

Unlike conventional studio tours, the Durham Art Walk places visual and performing artists in sites through out downtown--within easy walking distance--through newly renovated streetscapes and plazas.
For a full listing visit:
Durham Art Walk

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Full Frame exposes us to new experience

Full Frame 2008 will be held April 3-6

I first started going to film festivals in North Carolina early in this decade when the Full Frame Film Festival (coming up the first week in April in Durham), then called the Doubletake Documentary festival, showed a three-part biography of Vietnam-era President Lyndon Johnson. I felt a bit decadent sitting in a movie theater in the middle of an April afternoon watching the doc's three fascinating parts.

Since then, I've encountered many films at Full Frame (and other festivals) that became part of my personal canon, those favorites I watch a number of times and foresee watching again.

Among them, I discovered Steve James (best known for "Hoop Dreams") who premiered his odd, touching documentary about a disturbed young man named "Stevie," and later, "Reel Paradise," at Full Frame. "Reel Paradise," fit a recurring subset of films at various Full Frame fests--movies about movies. It details Indy film producer John Pierson's odd sojurn in the Fiji Islands, where he bought a movie house. He says he went there with his family to get away, but he didn't get far away from movies. He exhibited them free for the Islanders, showing films as different as "Jackass" and Buster Keaton's wonderful silent, "Steamboat Bill, Jr." At the same time, James made a documentary of the whole adventure. Movies within movies.

John Pierson and his family in Fiji. Doc-maker Steve James made "Reel Paradise" about their time there showing free films to the islanders. Photo by Amy C. Elliott.

Movies about movies appear on Full Frame's schedule every year, sometimes making up an unanounced subtheme.

This year there is a doc about horror meister and promoter William Castle. Castles 50s promotions for horror fare such as "Macabre," "The House on Haunted Hill," and the "Tingler" were better than the cheesy films themselves. "Macabre," for instance, insured movie-goers against death from fright and some movie houses wired up seats to give patrons an extra thrill for shows of the "Tingler."

Two unconventional movies about movies are on the schedule this year, "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One" and "Take Two" by director William Greaves, as well as a short about an Indian with a cinema cart and 100-year-old projector.

One year I sat through the long "Phantom of the Cinemateque," about Henri Langlois, a film I subsequently rented from Netflix and recorded off of TCM and watched twice more. If you're a cinemaphile, it fascinates with its portrait of a man and the institution he created, both responsible for saving much film heritage, from sole surviving prints of many films since the silent era to artifacts ranging from costumers to the dessicated head of the dead Bates mother in "Psycho.


I stayed up late to catch "The Z-Channel," about the cinema-lover's cable channel that pre-dated our VCR/DVD/TCM/TIVO culture. Suffused with generous clips from the Z-Channel featured, and with interviews from Quentin Tarantino, F.X. Feeney, directors, actors and actresses, it captures also the tragic story of the channel's programmer and director, and his doomed love of cinema above all else. This went on my list of movies-I-love. I could watch it again tonight.

Then, just last year, best-selling author Walter Moseley (below, photo by RWright), who is on the Full Frame board, introduced us to "I'm Your Man," Liam Lumson's portrait of song writer Leonard Cohen. I'd heard Cohen songs all my life, but this exposure to his poetry won me over, with the aid of performances by Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, and Jarvis Cocker, among others. Their interpretations, particularly Wainwright's, give you new insight into the how a singer can redefine a song and make it his or her own. Or at least..shared. Moseley himself noted the odd way this film invites you back, especially the performances. Thanks for turning us on to it, Mr. Moseley.

Another category that could be a subcategory of films at Full Frame, just about year after year, is boxing. That probably says more about the role heavyweight title fights played in American culture for most of the last century than it does about Full Frame. Ken Burns premiered his work in progress about the first black heavyweight, Jack Johnson the same year we saw the doc about the two Joe Luis/Max Schmeling fights that preceded WWII.

This year we have Greaves' "The Fight," chronicling the incredible pop cultural hoopla that surrounded the first Ali/Frazier battle.




Someone should consider doing a doc showing the huge cultural impact boxing had on America throughout the 20th century and its incredible decline in the 21st. Today, I'm pressed to name the current heavyweight champion (s), or any division champions.
Yet Jack Dempsey, Joe Luis, Rocky Marciano, Ali, George Foreman, Frazier, were all household names during their prime and remain well known today.

That first political bio of LBJ that drew me to the doc fest initially was followed by others on many political subjects, including one on Barry Goldwater, the conservative Senator from Arizona who ran for President against LBJ in 1964. I sat directly in front of Goldwater's son, a former Congressman, his daughter, and his granddaughter, who made the movie. It brought tears to the eyes of both son and daughter several times. Seeing while hearing their whispered comments and close enough to feel the wave of their emotions was a heady experience.

Then, there are the celebrities. It's not unusual to have an encounter at Full Frame such as seeing Ken Burns pass Michael Moore in the hall, each waving to the other without stopping; seeing Martin Scorsese lean back in his chair as he takes questions form a small group of reporters and students, or to see "Tootsie" director Sidney Pollock enjoying his lunch and arguing a point with a friend, or have a star such as Danny DeVito touch you on the shoulder as he passes through the lunch crowd on awards day.

Above, DeVito works the lunch crowd at Full Frame 2006. Photo by RWright.ARR

So, go already. Film festivals are not only a great way to gorge yourself on film over three or four days. They're an experience in themselves.

Tickets are available at:
http://www.fullframefest.org/boxoffice/

Allan Maurer

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Friday, March 28, 2008

RiverRun Takes its Show on the Road

RiverRun, coming up in Winston-Salem April 23-28, just announced its very interesting schedule (more about that to come). In the meantime, you can catch a free screening of the best shorts from the 2007 festival at a venue near you, as RiverRun repeats -and expands - its popular Roadshow program.

Screenings are scheduled at:

Saturday, March 29 3:00pm King Recreation Acres (White Road) King
Tuesday, April 1 7:30pm Brevard College (1 Brevard College Dr.) Brevard
Thursday, April 3 9:00pm Pizza & Brewing Company (675 Merrimon Ave.) Asheville
Friday, April 4 8:00pm The Werehouse (211 E. 3rd St.) Winston-Salem
Saturday, April 5 9:00pm The Evening Muse (3227 N. Davidson St.) Charlotte
Saturday, April 5 6:00pm Korner's Folley (413 S. Main Street) Kernersville
Tuesday, April 8 7:30pm The Garage (110 W. 7th St.) Winston-Salem
Thursday, April 10 7:30pm The Downtown Cinema Theater (142 Main St.) Mt. Airy
Monday, April 14 7:00pm The Green Bean (341 S. Elm St.) Greensboro
Tuesday, April 15 8:30pm 6th and Vine (209 W. 6th St.) Winston-Salem

Short films from the 2007 Festival to screen at the free events include:
ONE RAT SHORT – USA, 10 minutes – (Dir: Alex Weil) A common rat accidentally infiltrates a high-tech laboratory where a computerized robot rules the roost. But when the street-smart rodent falls in love with a lovely lab rat, misfortune follows. This tragic love story won the 2007 Festival jury award for Best Animated Short.
LAID OFF – United Kingdom, 11 minutes – (Dir: Zam Salim) – According to this funny gem, dying is a lot like getting fired from work. Stuck in a postmortem limbo, one man contends with boredom and the ridiculous personalities that surround him. Won last year’s Best Narrative Short prize.
PENPUSHER – France, 8 minutes – (Dir: Guillaume Martinez) – Romance blooms when an attractive woman sits next to a young man on the Paris metro. Without speaking, the two communicate using a memorable method that underlines the possibilities for passion in everyday life.
USELESS DOG – Ireland, 6 minutes – (Dir: Ken Wardrop) – Sometimes we love in spite of what others do and do not do. The affectionate, tongue-in-cheek portrait of an Irish farmer’s “useless” dog won a Special Jury Prize Award at the 2007 Festival.
TONY VS. PAUL – USA, 5 minutes – (Dir: Paul Cummings) – This film wowed a packed house at The Garage (110 W. 7th St.) during last year’s Midnight Shorts program. When two friends get into a fight, the world of stopmotion animation becomes their battleground as they punch, kick, and pummel each other across the neighborhood.
For more information, visit:
RiverRun International Film Festival 2008 - Home

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Duke's Movie Making Marathon 2008

MMM Casting Call this Friday.

This Friday from 6:30 - 8pm in the Rehearsal Space 127 in the BC will be the casting call for the MMM. This is your chance to talk with a film crew that could make you a movie star.

On Sunday, March 30, the resulting film will premiere
For more details, visit:

MMM2008