The French festival closed in Marseille on Sunday July 9.
Background, the second feature from Syrian director Khaled Abdulwahed, won the €8,000 grand prix of the international festival at the FidMarseille festival in France on July 9. The fesival showcases discoveries and innovative features and projects to a public and industry audience.
The experimental documentary explores concepts of memory and identity as Abdulwahed pursues the story of his father who studied in Germany in the 1950s along with the director’s own journey to Germany, where he is now based following Syria’s devastating civil war.
Abdulwahed previously co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea...
Background, the second feature from Syrian director Khaled Abdulwahed, won the €8,000 grand prix of the international festival at the FidMarseille festival in France on July 9. The fesival showcases discoveries and innovative features and projects to a public and industry audience.
The experimental documentary explores concepts of memory and identity as Abdulwahed pursues the story of his father who studied in Germany in the 1950s along with the director’s own journey to Germany, where he is now based following Syria’s devastating civil war.
Abdulwahed previously co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea...
- 7/10/2023
- by Stuart Kemp
- ScreenDaily
German director Angela Schanelec to head international competition jury.
The Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille) has selected 45 films for its competition sections, of which 34 are world premieres.
World premieres in the international competition include An Evening Song (For Three Voices) by US director Graham Swon, who previously directed 2018 feature The World Is Full Of Secrets.
Germany’s Khaled Abdulwahed also world premieres Background, having formerly co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea.
FIDMarseille, which takes place July 4-9, bills itself as a pioneering festival, championing new styles and ways of production, and puts its First Film Competition and films by young filmmakers...
The Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille) has selected 45 films for its competition sections, of which 34 are world premieres.
World premieres in the international competition include An Evening Song (For Three Voices) by US director Graham Swon, who previously directed 2018 feature The World Is Full Of Secrets.
Germany’s Khaled Abdulwahed also world premieres Background, having formerly co-directed 2020 refugee documentary Purple Sea.
FIDMarseille, which takes place July 4-9, bills itself as a pioneering festival, championing new styles and ways of production, and puts its First Film Competition and films by young filmmakers...
- 6/6/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Amel Alzakout and Khaled Abdulwahed's Purple Sea is showing on Mubi starting August 25, 2021 in many countries in the series Undiscovered.Different dimensions. No gravity rules. No reference point, no perspective. It makes you feel sick, but you can’t stop.Legs, sneakers, butterflies, wood pieces, nails, diapers, chocolate bar, muted screams, muffed whistles, and a calm voice. A continuous tragedy you have to share with everyone along with the curse that comes with it, its image.
- 8/11/2021
- MUBI
Closing out the summer, Mubi has unveiled their August 2021 lineup, kicking off most fittingly with Brett Story’s acclaimed recent documentary The Hottest August. Also among the lineup is Akira Kurosawa’s epic Ran, Fritz Lang’s hugely entertaining two-parter The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. As his latest films arrive, Pablo Larraín’s The Club is also part of the lineup.
Xinyuan Zheng Lu’s Rotterdam winner The Cloud in Her Room is coming to Mubi in August, plus a “late film” special featuring Manoel de Olviera’s Gebo and the Shadow and The Last Sentence by Jan Troell. There will also be a canine double feature of Heddy Honigmann’s Buddy and Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff.
See the lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.
August 1 | The Hottest August | Brett Story
August 2 | Gebo and the Shadow | Manoel de Oliveria | Twilight...
Xinyuan Zheng Lu’s Rotterdam winner The Cloud in Her Room is coming to Mubi in August, plus a “late film” special featuring Manoel de Olviera’s Gebo and the Shadow and The Last Sentence by Jan Troell. There will also be a canine double feature of Heddy Honigmann’s Buddy and Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff.
See the lineup below and get 30 days of Mubi free here.
August 1 | The Hottest August | Brett Story
August 2 | Gebo and the Shadow | Manoel de Oliveria | Twilight...
- 7/19/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Migration documentaries tend to follow a single person or family or to focus on groups all travelling together - good examples of which, should you be interested, include Midnight Traveller and, more recently, Purple Sea - but Wissam Tanios' very personal documentary takes an unusual approach in following two brothers, Milad and Jamil (who are the director's cousins) as they both decide, separately, to leave Syria for Europe. The resulting film is less about the physical journey the two take - one to Berlin and the other to Sweden - but the emotional ground that they have to cover in order to leave one home and establish another.
Tanios grounds his film well in the family's history, using the carpentry workshop of his cousin's father as a touchstone he returns to through home videos throughout the film, representing shared history and cultural tradition. Jamil has a love of the carpentry trade - although.
Tanios grounds his film well in the family's history, using the carpentry workshop of his cousin's father as a touchstone he returns to through home videos throughout the film, representing shared history and cultural tradition. Jamil has a love of the carpentry trade - although.
- 5/29/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
There have been a number of films regarding the war refugees who try to escape the Middle East towards the European Union and particularly Greece, with the images and events included being as shocking as they are appalling. Amel Alzakout tried to capture the agony of the people fleeing Turkey towards Lesbos through a unique approach, through a camera bound on her wrist, in an effort to record the images and sounds of the sinking boat transporting her and 316 other passengers across the Mediterranean Sea. The video was shot between 1:30 pm and 5:30 pm on October 28, 2015, marking the time they left the Turkish coast, to the boat sinking around 1:45 pm, to the time a rescue team arrived. According to the Hellenic Coast Guard, 42 of the 316 died in the meantime.
Purple Sea is screening at Alfilm
The approach Alzakout and Adbulwahed implement is quite unusual, as most of the footage is shot underwater,...
Purple Sea is screening at Alfilm
The approach Alzakout and Adbulwahed implement is quite unusual, as most of the footage is shot underwater,...
- 4/25/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Swiss sales outfit Lightdox has acquired Julien Faraut’s documentary “Les Sorcières de l’Orient,” taking part in the Big Screen Competition of the Rotterdam Film Festival.
The film follows the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team. Now in their 70s, they used to be known as the “The Sorcerers of the East” because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts. From the formation of the squad in the late 1950s as a worker’s team at a textile factory, right up until their triumph at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, their memories and true magic from long ago bubble up into a heady brew where fact and fable fly hand in hand.
Faraut told Variety: “I’ve always thought that if I enjoyed making a film, the viewers will probably enjoy watching it afterwards. It was such a delight to meet The Sorcerers, to be inspired by their strength,...
The film follows the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team. Now in their 70s, they used to be known as the “The Sorcerers of the East” because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts. From the formation of the squad in the late 1950s as a worker’s team at a textile factory, right up until their triumph at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, their memories and true magic from long ago bubble up into a heady brew where fact and fable fly hand in hand.
Faraut told Variety: “I’ve always thought that if I enjoyed making a film, the viewers will probably enjoy watching it afterwards. It was such a delight to meet The Sorcerers, to be inspired by their strength,...
- 2/3/2021
- by Davide Abbatescianni
- Variety Film + TV
Swiss sales company Lightdox has acquired international rights to Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén’s legal documentary “Arica” ahead of its IDFA world premiere in the Frontlight section.
Andreas Rocksen at Laika Film & Television Ab and William Johansson Kalén produced the legal documentary, with Clin d’Oeil films, Relation04 Media As, Radio Film Ltd. and Aricadoc each contributing as co-producers.
One of several high-profile Chilean productions or co-productions featuring at this year’s event, “Arica” examines the circumstances, long-term fallout and eventual legal battle resulting from illegal waste dumping of toxic chemicals by the Boliden mining company on the outskirts of Arica, a village in northern Chile.
According to the Business & Human Rights Resource Center, Boliden shipped approximately 20,000 tons of smelter sludge to the Polygono area in Arica between 1984 and 1985. The waste, originating from Boliden’s Rönnskär arsenic plant in Sweden, was sold to Chilean company Promel for processing, however,...
Andreas Rocksen at Laika Film & Television Ab and William Johansson Kalén produced the legal documentary, with Clin d’Oeil films, Relation04 Media As, Radio Film Ltd. and Aricadoc each contributing as co-producers.
One of several high-profile Chilean productions or co-productions featuring at this year’s event, “Arica” examines the circumstances, long-term fallout and eventual legal battle resulting from illegal waste dumping of toxic chemicals by the Boliden mining company on the outskirts of Arica, a village in northern Chile.
According to the Business & Human Rights Resource Center, Boliden shipped approximately 20,000 tons of smelter sludge to the Polygono area in Arica between 1984 and 1985. The waste, originating from Boliden’s Rönnskär arsenic plant in Sweden, was sold to Chilean company Promel for processing, however,...
- 11/19/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Leading documentary festival Idfa has added 47 films to its program, which run as part of its Masters, Paradocs and Best of Fests sections.
In the Masters section, Idfa has selected 18 titles from today’s auteurs of documentary cinema. In “Irradiated,” winner of the Berlinale Documentary Award, Rithy Panh “contemplates the image of human suffering throughout history in a revolutionary film that approaches cinematic installation,” according to a statement from the festival.
In “Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky “intimately examines our relationship with animals as he invites audiences to fall in love with the titular character, a wonderful mother pig.” “Paris Caligrammes” sees Ulrike Ottinger “curate a rich archival history of 1960s Paris,” in which the director features alongside the great artists, thinkers and revolutionaries of the day.
Dieudo Hamadi’s “Downstream to Kinshasa” pays tribute to the survivors of the Six-Day War in Hamadi’s native Congo, “finding poetry in stories of human resilience.
In the Masters section, Idfa has selected 18 titles from today’s auteurs of documentary cinema. In “Irradiated,” winner of the Berlinale Documentary Award, Rithy Panh “contemplates the image of human suffering throughout history in a revolutionary film that approaches cinematic installation,” according to a statement from the festival.
In “Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky “intimately examines our relationship with animals as he invites audiences to fall in love with the titular character, a wonderful mother pig.” “Paris Caligrammes” sees Ulrike Ottinger “curate a rich archival history of 1960s Paris,” in which the director features alongside the great artists, thinkers and revolutionaries of the day.
Dieudo Hamadi’s “Downstream to Kinshasa” pays tribute to the survivors of the Six-Day War in Hamadi’s native Congo, “finding poetry in stories of human resilience.
- 10/6/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The non-fiction film festival’s tenth edition will take place online this year, running from 9 to 15 September. Open City Documentary Festival will host its tenth annual festival this year, bringing together filmmakers, industry professionals and film enthusiasts from the UK and globally to celebrate the art of documentary filmmaking. In response to the pandemic, this year’s edition will take place entirely online from 9 to 15 September, and will be the first available to access internationally. The programme features 48 new films and 10 cross-media projects, with 54% of the selected filmmakers being women or non-binary. Among the festival’s three world premieres, three international premieres, five European premieres and 29 UK premieres, highlights from the European productions include Valentina Pedicini’s Faith, Amel Alzakout and Khaled Abdulwahed's Purple Sea, and Mehrdad Oskouei’s Sunless Shadows, all of which featured at prominent festivals this year and the last. Special events this year...
Claire Denis, Petra Costa and Peter Mettler to give online masterclasses.
Swiss documentary festival Visions de Réel, which was to have taken place from April 24 to May 2 in the lakeside town of Nyon, has revealed details of the online format it has developed to replace the physical event which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Visions du Réel 2020 will not take place at the Place du Réel, in the cinemas, in the tent and in the bar, in Nyon,” said artistic director Émilie Bujès, referring to the event’s traditional festival and industry hubs. “But it will resolutely be held on the internet,...
Swiss documentary festival Visions de Réel, which was to have taken place from April 24 to May 2 in the lakeside town of Nyon, has revealed details of the online format it has developed to replace the physical event which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Visions du Réel 2020 will not take place at the Place du Réel, in the cinemas, in the tent and in the bar, in Nyon,” said artistic director Émilie Bujès, referring to the event’s traditional festival and industry hubs. “But it will resolutely be held on the internet,...
- 3/31/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Claire Denis, Petra Costa and Peter Mettler to give online masterclasses.
Swiss documentary festival Visions de Réel, which was to have taken place from April 24 to May 2 in the lakeside town of Nyon, has revealed details of the online format it has developed to replace the physical event which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Visions du Réel 2020 will not take place at the Place du Réel, in the cinemas, in the tent and in the bar, in Nyon,” said artistic director Émilie Bujès, referring to the event’s traditional festival and industry hubs. “But it will resolutely be held on the internet,...
Swiss documentary festival Visions de Réel, which was to have taken place from April 24 to May 2 in the lakeside town of Nyon, has revealed details of the online format it has developed to replace the physical event which was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Visions du Réel 2020 will not take place at the Place du Réel, in the cinemas, in the tent and in the bar, in Nyon,” said artistic director Émilie Bujès, referring to the event’s traditional festival and industry hubs. “But it will resolutely be held on the internet,...
- 3/31/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
QFest continues today in St. Louis. QFest, the annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is celebrating it’s fifth year with a terrific line-up of films spotlighting Gay and Lesbian filmmakers and themes. QFest is a Cinema St. Louis event and this year is presented by Tla Releasing, a Us film distribution company whose primary output is Lgbt-related films from all over the world. All films will be shown at the Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Blvd. in the University City Loop district). Individual tickets are $12 general admission or $10 for students and Cinema St. Louis members with valid and current photo IDs. Advance tickets are available through the Tivoli Theatre box office or online at Landmark Theatres’ web site
Here’s the line-up for the QFest films playing today and tonight:
Tuesday, April 24th at 5:00pm
Vito (U.S., 2011, 93 min) Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz n the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly...
Here’s the line-up for the QFest films playing today and tonight:
Tuesday, April 24th at 5:00pm
Vito (U.S., 2011, 93 min) Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz n the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly...
- 4/24/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
QFest, the annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is celebrating it’s fifth year with a terrific line-up of films spotlighting Gay and Lesbian filmmakers and themes. QFest is a Cinema St. Louis event and this year is presented by Tla Releasing, a Us film distribution company whose primary output is Lgbt-related films from all over the world.
QFest begins this Sunday, April 22nd and runs through Thursday, April 26, 2012, at the Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Blvd. in the University City Loop district). QFest uses the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the diversity and inherent complexities of living an alternative lifestyle in today’s society. This year’s event features an eclectic slate of contemporary Lgbtq-themed feature films, documentaries, and shorts.
Here’s the line-up for this year’s QFest:
Sunday, April 22nd at 1:30pm.
Cloudburst- (Canada, 2011, 93 min.) Directed Thom Fitzgerald
In this moving comedy, Oscar®-winning actresses...
QFest begins this Sunday, April 22nd and runs through Thursday, April 26, 2012, at the Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar Blvd. in the University City Loop district). QFest uses the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the diversity and inherent complexities of living an alternative lifestyle in today’s society. This year’s event features an eclectic slate of contemporary Lgbtq-themed feature films, documentaries, and shorts.
Here’s the line-up for this year’s QFest:
Sunday, April 22nd at 1:30pm.
Cloudburst- (Canada, 2011, 93 min.) Directed Thom Fitzgerald
In this moving comedy, Oscar®-winning actresses...
- 4/19/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
If there’s a theme to 2011’s crop of films featuring lesbian/bi women, it’s that this was a very good year for emerging voices. First time and younger filmmakers made a mark in huge ways this year, providing everything from spellbinding documentaries (No Look Pass), heart-wrenching drama (Pariah, Break My Fall, Circumstance), and fresh comedy (Jamie and Jessie are Not Together, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same). Pair that with the quality coming from established filmmakers like Celine Sciamma (Tomboy), and you have a year marked by the presence of strong, unique voices.
Hard Hitters
Nowhere is that strength of vision more prominent than in the year’s dramas. Well-meaning (but tired) melodramas were drowned out by clear-eyed, nuanced filmmaking, most evident in Pariah, the story of a young African-American woman struggling with her identity, and Circumstance, which features the romance between two teenaged girls in Iran.
As AfterEllen.
Hard Hitters
Nowhere is that strength of vision more prominent than in the year’s dramas. Well-meaning (but tired) melodramas were drowned out by clear-eyed, nuanced filmmaking, most evident in Pariah, the story of a young African-American woman struggling with her identity, and Circumstance, which features the romance between two teenaged girls in Iran.
As AfterEllen.
- 12/27/2011
- by Danielle Riendeau
- AfterEllen.com
Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Donatella Maiorca's "Purple Sea," which will screen at Los Angeles' upcoming Outfest and be released theatrically in late fall.
Based on a true story and inspired by the novel by Giacomo Pilati the film is set in a scenic area near Sicily and tells of the love between two young woman. Its screenplay is by Mario Cristiani, Donatella Diamanti, Maiorca and Pina Mandolfo.
Strand's Jon Gerrans and Intra Movies' Jef Nuyts negotiated the sale.
Based on a true story and inspired by the novel by Giacomo Pilati the film is set in a scenic area near Sicily and tells of the love between two young woman. Its screenplay is by Mario Cristiani, Donatella Diamanti, Maiorca and Pina Mandolfo.
Strand's Jon Gerrans and Intra Movies' Jef Nuyts negotiated the sale.
- 6/4/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Being a part of the fourth Rome International Film Festival's out-of-competition official selection, "Julie & Julia" is given the honor to be the closing movie at the festival which will run from October 15 to 23. The festival's organizers announced the picking up of the culinary dramedy on Wednesday, August 5.
The Nora Ephron-directed movie will be introduced by one of its stars, Meryl Streep, at the gala screening to be held on Friday, October 23, which also marks its Italian premiere. In conjunction with the screening, Streep, who will be honored with the Eternal City extravaganza's Golden Marcus Aurelius acting award, would participate in Q&A session with the audience.
Beside unraveling "Julie & Julia" as the closing film, the organizers also let out three Italian titles included in the competition. The three are Donatella Maiorca's Sicilian costumer "Viola Di Mare", Alessandro Angelini's boxing drama "Alza La Testa" and Giorgio Diritti's...
The Nora Ephron-directed movie will be introduced by one of its stars, Meryl Streep, at the gala screening to be held on Friday, October 23, which also marks its Italian premiere. In conjunction with the screening, Streep, who will be honored with the Eternal City extravaganza's Golden Marcus Aurelius acting award, would participate in Q&A session with the audience.
Beside unraveling "Julie & Julia" as the closing film, the organizers also let out three Italian titles included in the competition. The three are Donatella Maiorca's Sicilian costumer "Viola Di Mare", Alessandro Angelini's boxing drama "Alza La Testa" and Giorgio Diritti's...
- 8/6/2009
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
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