If you’ve ever watched season three of Prison Break and wondered what was going on with Sona’s weird open air slum-like community barely watched by guards, know that the truth isn’t very far off. Just look at Bolivia’s San Sebastian Prison in Cochabamba, a small concrete establishment that ballooned from 180 inmates to over 700 in less than five years. You have to purchase a cell for $2,100 American dollars of your own money if you don’t want to sleep in the halls. You have to wait months and sometimes years before your trial even occurs. And the majority of those sentenced are merely low-level drug offenders filling a governmental quota so their bosses can remain free and continue feeding the nation’s economy. It’s a world unto itself.
Filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw willfully enter this enclosed community posing as aides teaching inmates English. On top...
Filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw willfully enter this enclosed community posing as aides teaching inmates English. On top...
- 9/13/2017
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Part of Ifp’s 2013 Project Forum slate, Cocaine Prison is the latest completed work from indigenous Latina filmmaker Violeta Ayala, who’s long been an outspoken critic of the War on Drugs, which not only disproportionately affects low-income folks here in the States, but especially our impoverished neighbors south of the border, from Mexico on down. For this follow-up to 2015’s The Bolivian Case (another tale of South American coke smuggling and its consequences, but with a Norwegian teenagers twist), Ayala, along with filmmaker partner/husband Dan Fallshaw (a producer, cinematographer and editor on Cocaine Prison), have headed back to her birth […]...
- 9/11/2017
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
By Thom Powers
“Resistance is a key theme in this year’s documentaries,” said Tiff Docs Programmer Thom Powers. “We pay witness to rebels challenging the status quo in art, politics, sexuality, religion, fashion, sports and entertainment. They speak powerfully to our times as audiences seek inspirations for battling powerful and corrupt systems.”
Tiff’s 2017 documentary lineup goes deep into the lives of boundary-pushing characters — Grace Jones, Jim Carrey, Jane Goodall, and Eric Clapton, to name only a few of the most famous. But the celebrity factor isn’t enough to make a great film. What sets these docs apart is their directors’ ability to a bring fresh perspective.
Azmaish: A Journey through the SubcontinentBoom For Real The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Then there are figures whose names you may not recognize, but they become unforgettable after you see them on screen. They include Scotty Bowers, who was...
“Resistance is a key theme in this year’s documentaries,” said Tiff Docs Programmer Thom Powers. “We pay witness to rebels challenging the status quo in art, politics, sexuality, religion, fashion, sports and entertainment. They speak powerfully to our times as audiences seek inspirations for battling powerful and corrupt systems.”
Tiff’s 2017 documentary lineup goes deep into the lives of boundary-pushing characters — Grace Jones, Jim Carrey, Jane Goodall, and Eric Clapton, to name only a few of the most famous. But the celebrity factor isn’t enough to make a great film. What sets these docs apart is their directors’ ability to a bring fresh perspective.
Azmaish: A Journey through the SubcontinentBoom For Real The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Then there are figures whose names you may not recognize, but they become unforgettable after you see them on screen. They include Scotty Bowers, who was...
- 8/3/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
ThelmaA selection of films from the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Sebastián Lelio, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Darren Aronofsky, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo Del Toro, Joachim Trier, Wim Wenders, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Ladybird (Greta Gerwig)Closing Night: Sheikh Jackson (Amr Salama)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton)Bpm (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)The Brawler (Anurag Kashyap)The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)Catch the Wind (Gaël Morel)The Children Act (Richard Eyre)The Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie)The Guardians (Xavier Beauvois)Hostiles (Scott Cooper)The Hungry (Bornila Chatterjee)I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Omerta (Hansal Mehta)Plonger (Mélanie Laurent)The Price of Success (Teddy Lussi-Modeste)Professor Marston & the Wonder Women...
- 8/3/2017
- MUBI
Following an initial round of premieres and the announcement that Borg vs. McEnroe will open Toronto International Film Festival 2017, they’ve now announced their lineup for Midnight Madness and Documentaries. Leading the pack of our most-anticipated among midnight tiles is Brawl in Cell Block 99, which is S. Craig Zahler’s follow-up to Bone Tomahawk and will premiere at Venice beforehand. There’s also the latest film from Joseph Kahn, Bodied, which will open the sidebar, and the first trailer has landed.
On the documentary side, there is Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris – The New York Public Library, as well as new films from Morgan Spurlock, Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck), and more. Check out the new additions below, along with images and trailers where available.
Midnight Madness
Midnight Madness Opening Film
Bodied Joseph Kahn, USA
World Premiere
Our #TIFF17 Midnight Madness Opening Night Film is @JosephKahn’s Bodied,...
On the documentary side, there is Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris – The New York Public Library, as well as new films from Morgan Spurlock, Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck), and more. Check out the new additions below, along with images and trailers where available.
Midnight Madness
Midnight Madness Opening Film
Bodied Joseph Kahn, USA
World Premiere
Our #TIFF17 Midnight Madness Opening Night Film is @JosephKahn’s Bodied,...
- 8/2/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Morgan Spurlock re-engages with the food industry, James Franco digs into the ‘worst film ever made’.
Top brass at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) unveiled on Tuesday selections in the Tiff Docs, Midnight Madness, and Short Cuts programmes.
The Canadian titles that are part of this year’s programme will be announced on August 9. The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from September 7-17 and will open with Borg/McEnroe.
Tiff Docs
The world premiere of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! joins a marquee Tiff Docs roster from renowned filmmakers that opens with Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami.
Selections include Brett Morgen’s profile of primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane; the story of three Hasidic Jews who attempt to join the secular world in One Of Us by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; Violeta Ayala’s Bolivian drug trade film Cocaine Prison; and Emmanuel Gras’ closing film Makala...
Top brass at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) unveiled on Tuesday selections in the Tiff Docs, Midnight Madness, and Short Cuts programmes.
The Canadian titles that are part of this year’s programme will be announced on August 9. The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled to run from September 7-17 and will open with Borg/McEnroe.
Tiff Docs
The world premiere of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! joins a marquee Tiff Docs roster from renowned filmmakers that opens with Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami.
Selections include Brett Morgen’s profile of primatologist Jane Goodall in Jane; the story of three Hasidic Jews who attempt to join the secular world in One Of Us by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; Violeta Ayala’s Bolivian drug trade film Cocaine Prison; and Emmanuel Gras’ closing film Makala...
- 8/1/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
They are two of the Toronto International Film Festival’s wildest sections — for very different reasons — and this year’s slate of both Midnight Madness and Documentary offerings appear to signal another strong lineup for the festival. Thrills, chills, terror, and scares await movie-goers, all care of unbelievable real-life stories and slightly less true tales for genre fans of all stripes.
This year’s Midnight Madness section will open with Joseph Kahn’s provocative World Premiere of “Bodied,” and also offers up the World Premiere of “The Disaster Artist,” directed by James Franco and based on the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film, “The Room.” (The film previously screened as a work-in-progress at SXSW.)
Read MoreTIFF Reveals First Slate of 2017 Titles, Including ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’
In his first year as programmer, Peter Kuplowsky is also welcoming back several fest alumni, including David Bruckner,...
This year’s Midnight Madness section will open with Joseph Kahn’s provocative World Premiere of “Bodied,” and also offers up the World Premiere of “The Disaster Artist,” directed by James Franco and based on the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film, “The Room.” (The film previously screened as a work-in-progress at SXSW.)
Read MoreTIFF Reveals First Slate of 2017 Titles, Including ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’
In his first year as programmer, Peter Kuplowsky is also welcoming back several fest alumni, including David Bruckner,...
- 8/1/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The fall festival rush is upon us. Locarno is currently ramping up. Venice has released their line-up and Thom Powers and the Toronto International Film Festival team have dropped a bomb with a previously unannounced new feature from powerhouse docu-provocateur Michael Moore. It is truly a miracle that the production of a film such as Moore’s upcoming Where To Invade Next (see still above) managed to go completely undetected by the filmmaking community until it was literally announced to world premiere at one of the largest film festivals in the world. Programmed as a one of the key films in the Special Presentations section at Tiff, the film sees Moore telling “the Pentagon to ‘stand down’ — he will do the invading for America from now on.” Also announced to premiere at Tiff was Avi Lewis’ This Changes Everything, which has slowly been rising up this list, as well as...
- 8/7/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It’s been a surprisingly interesting month of moving and shaking in terms of doc development. Just a month after making his first public funding pitch at Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, legendary doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman took to Kickstarter to help cover the remaining expenses for his 40th feature film In Jackson Heights (see the film’s first trailer below). Unrelentingly rigorous in his determination to capture the American institutional landscape on film, his latest continues down this thematic rabbit hole, taking on the immensely diverse New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights as his latest subject. According to the Kickstarter page, Wiseman is currently editing the 120 hours of rushes he shot with hopes of having the film ready for a fall festival premiere (my guess would be Tiff, where both National Gallery and At Berkeley made their North American debut), though he’s currently quite a ways away from his $75,000 goal.
- 7/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.
- 6/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...
- 5/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...
- 11/27/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while development and filming is underway. To chart this course with a little more precision, I’m launching Ioncinema.com’s latest feature, What’s Up Doc?, our monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated films, a sort of hitlist and/or snapshot of the most alluring, the most promising documentary film projects from the established documentarian guard, the new crop of future voices or the fiction filmmakers who on occasion dip their toes in the form. Curated by me, Jordan M. Smith, you’ll find docu items that are in their beginning stages to being moments away from their film festival berth. Like any such list, we can expect film items to fluctuate in ranking, with the cut-off being publicly items — such recent examples include Laura Poitras’s white hot Edward Snowden project,...
- 10/23/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
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