Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSambizanga.For the past six years, the Belgian film journal Sabzian has invited a guest to deliver an annual “State of Cinema” address. This year’s speaker will be Alice Diop. She will deliver her text on Thursday, December 7, in Brussels, alongside a screening of Sarah Maldoror’s film Sambizanga (1972). Learn more on Sabzian’s website, recently sleekly redesigned for the publication’s tenth anniversary. You can also watch previous State of Cinema speeches on Sabzian’s Screening Room, including last year’s address by Wang Bing.Recommended VIEWINGOutwardly from Earth's Center.Streaming on e-flux until November 30 is Outwardly from Earth’s Center (2007), a short pseudo-documentary by filmmaker and artist Rosa Barba. The film details the experiences of the inhabitants of a fictitious offshore island as...
- 11/29/2023
- MUBI
Programme includes ‘top 10’ films selected by director Wang Bing and selection of Peter Greenaway films.
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has revealed the first 50 titles for this year’s edition, running Nov 8 to Nov 19.
As part of a previously announced Wang Bing retrospective, the director has been invited to programme his “top 10”. The films he has selected are all Chinese and all date from 1999 or later.
They are: Before the Flood (2005) directed by Yifan Li, Yu YanBing’ai (2007) by Yan Feng; Born in Beijing (2011) by Li Ma; Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan; The Next Life (2011) by Jian Fan...
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has revealed the first 50 titles for this year’s edition, running Nov 8 to Nov 19.
As part of a previously announced Wang Bing retrospective, the director has been invited to programme his “top 10”. The films he has selected are all Chinese and all date from 1999 or later.
They are: Before the Flood (2005) directed by Yifan Li, Yu YanBing’ai (2007) by Yan Feng; Born in Beijing (2011) by Li Ma; Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan; The Next Life (2011) by Jian Fan...
- 9/20/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Documentary festival IDFA, which runs Nov. 8 to 19 in Amsterdam, has revealed its first 50 titles, including the top 10 Chinese films selected by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, IDFA’s Guest of Honor.
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Acclaimed director Wang Bing, this year’s guest of honor at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, will be using his IDFA platform to highlight nonfiction cinema of his native China.
The festival, which runs from Nov. 8-19, announced the 10 films Bing has selected to be screened at IDFA – one of the perquisites of being named guest of honor. Among the documentaries he’s choosing to highlight are Old Men (1999), directed by Lina Yang; Wheat Harvest (2008), directed by Tong Xu, and IDFA Bertha Fund-supported Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan, “documenting the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.” (Scroll to see Bing’s full top 10 list).
Director Wang Bing attends the Cannes Film Festival May 19, 2023.
The documentaries chosen by Bing “and their politics are subtle in their film language,” IDFA noted in a release, “representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.
The festival, which runs from Nov. 8-19, announced the 10 films Bing has selected to be screened at IDFA – one of the perquisites of being named guest of honor. Among the documentaries he’s choosing to highlight are Old Men (1999), directed by Lina Yang; Wheat Harvest (2008), directed by Tong Xu, and IDFA Bertha Fund-supported Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan, “documenting the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.” (Scroll to see Bing’s full top 10 list).
Director Wang Bing attends the Cannes Film Festival May 19, 2023.
The documentaries chosen by Bing “and their politics are subtle in their film language,” IDFA noted in a release, “representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.
- 9/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
On the final weekend of a bustling 18-day event, the in-person edition of this year’s Melbourne Film Festival has drawn to a close with an awards ceremony that saw a whopping $300,000 Aud in prize money handed out across six categories. The biggest individual award of $140,000 Aud was presented to the winner of the fest’s international Bright Horizons competition: “Banel & Adama,” an arresting debut feature by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
It’s a notable coup for a small-scale rural love story that turned heads — but won no prizes — when it premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is still seeking distribution in the U.S. and other major territories. Reviewing the film out of Cannes, Variety critic Jessica Kiang commended the “subtly seductive power” of a “striking debut [that] revolves with graceful poetry around the inner experiences of a curious, unknowable woman.”
Its win came...
- 8/19/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSLandscape Suicide, included on Benning's Sight & Sound ballot.Sight & Sound has made individual ballots available for their Greatest Films of All Time poll. You can browse the full, alphabetical list of critics and filmmakers here, along with voters’ comments and accompanying essays. Some favorites of ours so far: James Benning on self-referentiality, Genevieve Yue on the wind.Eight years after The Intern, Nancy Meyers has a new romantic comedy in the works at Netflix, reportedly budgeted at $130 million. Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Michael Fassbender are all in early talks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Author and curator Barbara Wurm has been appointed the new head of the Berlinale Forum program, succeeding Cristina Nord.Recommended VIEWINGIf it's too bad to be true,...
- 3/8/2023
- MUBI
The Berlin Film Festival today announced eight titles that have been added to its Berlinale Special program. The new crop of films includes Golda, starring Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, and Liev Schreiber.
Directed by Guy Nattiv from a screenplay by Nicholas Martin, the pic follows the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, former Israeli prime minister, faced during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Mirren stars as Meir. Jane Hooks and Michael Kuhn are producers on the pic. Embankment is handling sales.
Other titles added to the program include Netflix’s Kill Boksoon. Jeon Do-Yeon, who won the best actress award at Cannes in 2007 for Secret Sunshine, stars in the pic, which follows a single mother and renowned hired killer who struggles to find a balance between her personal and work life.
Also selected is Andrea Di Stefano’s Last Night of Amore, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Linda Caridi,...
Directed by Guy Nattiv from a screenplay by Nicholas Martin, the pic follows the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, former Israeli prime minister, faced during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Mirren stars as Meir. Jane Hooks and Michael Kuhn are producers on the pic. Embankment is handling sales.
Other titles added to the program include Netflix’s Kill Boksoon. Jeon Do-Yeon, who won the best actress award at Cannes in 2007 for Secret Sunshine, stars in the pic, which follows a single mother and renowned hired killer who struggles to find a balance between her personal and work life.
Also selected is Andrea Di Stefano’s Last Night of Amore, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Linda Caridi,...
- 1/13/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Memories Hidden Inside Tree Trunks““They carried me to a particular spot where I saw a herd of antelopes; but I laid aside all thoughts of sport, as soon as I perceived a tree of a prodigious thickness, which drew my whole attention.”—Michel AdansonAfter watching Safi Faye’s masterly Fad’jal in an air-conditioned cinema on a muggy summer day, I had a peculiar dream. In this dream, I went to see the film again but the cinema was neither air-conditioned nor was it a normal cinema space at all. Instead, this cinema was inside the huge African baobab which proudly protects the eponymous village and its inhabitants who gather under it to recount their history in the film. In my dream, I put my ear against the trunk and heard chuckling sounds. I was not sure if it belonged to bees, evil spirits, or a whirling projector. I...
- 1/24/2022
- MUBI
With his epic fourteen-hour documentary “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” writer/director Mark Cousins doesn’t skimp in his continuing pursuit to celebrate female filmmakers. Set to finally screen at its full-length (in five parts) next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is narrated by an eclectic list of voices.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
- 8/14/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
With his epic fourteen-hour documentary “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” writer/director Mark Cousins doesn’t skimp in his continuing pursuit to celebrate female filmmakers. Set to finally screen at its full-length (in five parts) next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is narrated by an eclectic list of voices.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
UK actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join previously announced narrators Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer. Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which debuted at Venice 2018.
“We have 11 decades of women making films,” Swinton told IndieWire. “Another slight tweak of the goalpost is talking about women filmmakers. Women have made films since Mary Pickford onwards in incredible numbers. We know who made Hitchcock’s films with him (Alma Reville), but we don’t focus on it.
- 8/14/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The all-female FFFest, the Female Filmmakers Festival, has set its inaugural lineup, highlighted by the world premiere of Maverick, directed by Cara Stricker.
The three-day screening and talk series will celebrate accomplished female filmmakers and empower women who want to break into the industry. It will take place at The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles October 12-14 and hopes to provide guidance, resources, and community for women filmmakers aspiring to break into the industry, along with inspiration to women at all career levels.
“We want more women to make films and we believe that sharing as much information as possible is the way forward,” said festival founder and creative director Clémence Polès. “We want to tackle topics that are not addressed, like how to balance motherhood and filmmaking.”
In Maverick, A young woman struggles to break free from a controlling relationship and reclaim her identity in a story of love and gaslighting.
The three-day screening and talk series will celebrate accomplished female filmmakers and empower women who want to break into the industry. It will take place at The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles October 12-14 and hopes to provide guidance, resources, and community for women filmmakers aspiring to break into the industry, along with inspiration to women at all career levels.
“We want more women to make films and we believe that sharing as much information as possible is the way forward,” said festival founder and creative director Clémence Polès. “We want to tackle topics that are not addressed, like how to balance motherhood and filmmaking.”
In Maverick, A young woman struggles to break free from a controlling relationship and reclaim her identity in a story of love and gaslighting.
- 9/17/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Fonda joins Tilda Swinton as a narrator on the project.
Two-time Oscar-winning American actress Jane Fonda has signed up to be the second narrator of epic documentary Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, the first part of which plays at Venice Film Festival this week.
Tilda Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which premieres in the Venice Classics strand on Saturday (Sept 1) and will then travel to Toronto.
Mark Cousins directs the episodic project, which will be 16 hours long when completed in spring 2019. Producers are John Archer for Hopscotch Films with Swinton as exec producer.
Two-time Oscar-winning American actress Jane Fonda has signed up to be the second narrator of epic documentary Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, the first part of which plays at Venice Film Festival this week.
Tilda Swinton narrates the first four hours of the film, which premieres in the Venice Classics strand on Saturday (Sept 1) and will then travel to Toronto.
Mark Cousins directs the episodic project, which will be 16 hours long when completed in spring 2019. Producers are John Archer for Hopscotch Films with Swinton as exec producer.
- 8/29/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
In among Venice’s typically stellar documentary line-up was Northern Irish director Mark Cousins’ next film: Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema.
More details are emerging today about the episodic 16-hour documentary, whose first four hours will debut on the Lido and be narrated by Tilda Swinton. The film will celebrate female directors from around the world.
The project is produced by Hopscotch Films, with Dogwoof handling world sales. Swinton will also serve as an executive producer on the movie, which is debuting in Venice’s Classics strand.
Cousins writes and directs, with John Archer from Hopscotch producing. Four years in the making and still in production, the finished film will be ready in spring 2019.
The epic undertaking is made up of forty chapters to be narrated by Swinton and other leading women in cinema who have yet to be announced. According to the production, “using almost...
More details are emerging today about the episodic 16-hour documentary, whose first four hours will debut on the Lido and be narrated by Tilda Swinton. The film will celebrate female directors from around the world.
The project is produced by Hopscotch Films, with Dogwoof handling world sales. Swinton will also serve as an executive producer on the movie, which is debuting in Venice’s Classics strand.
Cousins writes and directs, with John Archer from Hopscotch producing. Four years in the making and still in production, the finished film will be ready in spring 2019.
The epic undertaking is made up of forty chapters to be narrated by Swinton and other leading women in cinema who have yet to be announced. According to the production, “using almost...
- 7/31/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Orson Welles will be featured at next month’s Cannes Film Festival. It still won’t be via his previously unfinished The Other Side Of The Wind, which recently got caught in the scrum between the festival and Netflix. Rather, Welles will be represented in The Eyes Of Orson Welles, a new documentary from Mark Cousins that’s part of the Cannes Classics selection.
The festival today unveiled its full roster for the Classics sidebar which includes tributes and documentaries about film and filmmakers, and restorations presented by producers, distributors, foundations, cinemathèques and rights holders. Among the attendees this year are Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Christopher Nolan and John Travolta.
The Eyes Of Orson Welles is a journey through the filmmaker’s visual process. Thanks to Welles’ daughter Beatrice, Cousins (The Story Of Film) was granted access to never-before-seen drawings, paintings and early works that form a sketchbook from his life.
The festival today unveiled its full roster for the Classics sidebar which includes tributes and documentaries about film and filmmakers, and restorations presented by producers, distributors, foundations, cinemathèques and rights holders. Among the attendees this year are Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Christopher Nolan and John Travolta.
The Eyes Of Orson Welles is a journey through the filmmaker’s visual process. Thanks to Welles’ daughter Beatrice, Cousins (The Story Of Film) was granted access to never-before-seen drawings, paintings and early works that form a sketchbook from his life.
- 4/23/2018
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Gulabi GangThe legacy of feminist cinema showcases the complexities of women’s humanity through different prisms of ideology, time, landscapes, and national origin. The revolutionary potential of witnessing women’s liberation through a visual medium has provided a deeper and more complex portrayal of the diversity of narratives and characters that have otherwise been stripped from other areas of culture. These will only grow under the blossoming contemporary feminist movement that will celebrate the 103th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017. This anniversary comes mere months after the momentous Women’s March, whose formation has roots in the result of Donald Trump’s presidential win but was truly years in the making with cuts to reproductive healthcare access, trans and queer civil rights, and general inadequacies towards women. The galvanization of millions of women around the world has ushered an even greater desire for better representation on screen,...
- 3/8/2017
- MUBI
Always a feast for the film lover (especially the lover of African cinema), the lineup for the 2015 edition of the New York African Film Festival (Nyaff), which will run from May 6 - 12. has been announced. You'll recognize some of the titles and filmmakers listed (previously covered on this blog), like the South African crime drama "Cold Harbour" by Carey McKenzie, Senegalese drama "Mossane," veteran filmmaker Safi Faye's last feature film (released in 1996), the feature documentary, "National Diploma" ("Examen d’Etat") from Drc's own Dieudo Hamadi, Côte d'Ivoire native Philippe...
- 4/16/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Thankfully, this year, we'll be able to cover some of this festival, including this specific event, which reads interesting. For those who will be attending the festival, consider adding this to your to-do list. During the upcoming International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa), there will be a themed program on the role of women in documentary called "The Female Gaze," which will consist of a survey, a film screening series, and discussions with the directors present. 15 leading international women directors, including Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye, as well as others representing a variety of countries around the world,...
- 11/12/2014
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Themed programme to include discussions with 15 leading female directors including Kim Longinotto.
The International Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) is to investigates the role of women in documentary as part of its next edition (Nov 19-30).
The Female Gaze will comrise a programme of titles by women directors as well as discussions with filmmakers at the festival.
A total of 15 female directors, including Pirjo Honkasalo, Barbara Kopple and Kim Longinotto, have compiled a programme of old and new documentaries by themselves and others.
Idfa will also investigate the share female directors have had of the festival’s own selections during the past ten years, and attention will be devoted to the question of how women are represented in documentaries and of whether a ‘female gaze’ can be said to exist within the documentary genre.
The festival will organise a debate on the role of women for the documentary industry on Nov 22.
The directors who made a selection for Idfa...
The International Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) is to investigates the role of women in documentary as part of its next edition (Nov 19-30).
The Female Gaze will comrise a programme of titles by women directors as well as discussions with filmmakers at the festival.
A total of 15 female directors, including Pirjo Honkasalo, Barbara Kopple and Kim Longinotto, have compiled a programme of old and new documentaries by themselves and others.
Idfa will also investigate the share female directors have had of the festival’s own selections during the past ten years, and attention will be devoted to the question of how women are represented in documentaries and of whether a ‘female gaze’ can be said to exist within the documentary genre.
The festival will organise a debate on the role of women for the documentary industry on Nov 22.
The directors who made a selection for Idfa...
- 9/9/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
African women filmmakers have a very hard time to have a voice in the concert of voices that today resonate in African cinema. The names of Safi Faye, Fanta Nacro, Khady Sylla, Wanuri Kahiu, Ana Lisboa, Nadia El Fani and many more are not well known. However, many of them have a body of work that is impressive as they go into areas that many of the male filmmakers don't even think about. Khady Sylla died last week at the age of 50 and she was an important personality in the context of Senegalese intellectual life. She was a writer, a filmmaker and a thinker. Her point of view about Islam and society, expressed in Angèle Diabang Brener film Islam and Women of...
- 10/21/2013
- by ArtMattan Films
- ShadowAndAct
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