One of the most positive aspects of an often-fraught awards season is the light it shines on the craft behind some of the year’s best films. It’s a time to learn more about the contribution of cinematographers, production designers, editors, and many more. Casting directors have a strange distinction in the awards world: It’s a guild with an Academy branch, but without its own Oscar category. Imagine for a moment that there was one. What are the best-cast films of 2019?
IndieWire reached out to a number of the film industry’s top casting directors to ask them to not only nominate one of their colleagues for their work this year, but to help us understand why their work was so skillful and vital to the films they worked on. What follows is not another end-of-the-year list, but insight into the craft of casting by its leading practitioners.
IndieWire reached out to a number of the film industry’s top casting directors to ask them to not only nominate one of their colleagues for their work this year, but to help us understand why their work was so skillful and vital to the films they worked on. What follows is not another end-of-the-year list, but insight into the craft of casting by its leading practitioners.
- 12/13/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Labeouf writes and co-stars in this heartfelt, well-performed film based on his own personal history as a troubled young actor and addict
If there’s a Labeoufaissance to be had – of whatever duration – then this may be the starting point. Honey Boy is a fluent, heartfelt, tightly structured and well acted personal story starring Shia Labeouf, who reportedly drafted the script in rehab. The director is the Israeli-American film-maker Alma Har’el, and this tale of lost souls in trailer parks is a little like the scenarios conjured in her 2011 documentary Bombay Beach.
The drama is based on Labeouf’s own unhappy early life as a young actor who got into trouble with the unholy addiction trinity: drink, drugs and celebrity. Lucas Hedges plays a star, here renamed Otis, who has just sulkily accepted rehab as an alternative to jail after his latest boozy bust-up with the cops.
If there’s a Labeoufaissance to be had – of whatever duration – then this may be the starting point. Honey Boy is a fluent, heartfelt, tightly structured and well acted personal story starring Shia Labeouf, who reportedly drafted the script in rehab. The director is the Israeli-American film-maker Alma Har’el, and this tale of lost souls in trailer parks is a little like the scenarios conjured in her 2011 documentary Bombay Beach.
The drama is based on Labeouf’s own unhappy early life as a young actor who got into trouble with the unholy addiction trinity: drink, drugs and celebrity. Lucas Hedges plays a star, here renamed Otis, who has just sulkily accepted rehab as an alternative to jail after his latest boozy bust-up with the cops.
- 12/6/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In “Honey Boy,” Otis Lort is a precocious child with two jobs: an actor and then, off set, a caretaker for his father James (Shia Labeouf). Otis is 12. James, a former professional clown and recovering heroin addict, is an adult.
In the hands of others, it would be impossible to reserve judgment of this father-son dynamic. And yet for 92 minutes, director Alma Har’el (“Bombay Beach”), working from a script from Labeouf, exhibits restraint. Consequently, we must as well.
Unfurling like a familial stage play, “Honey Boy” is about as semi-autobiographical as films get. This is Labeouf’s life, through and through. It toggles between Otis at 12 and at 22 (now played by Lucas Hedges), where he’s entered a court-ordered rehab center. The inciting incident for Otis mirrors Labeouf’s public drunken arrest from 2017. Art and life have rarely been so entwined as it is here. It’s impossible to disassociate Labeouf from Otis,...
In the hands of others, it would be impossible to reserve judgment of this father-son dynamic. And yet for 92 minutes, director Alma Har’el (“Bombay Beach”), working from a script from Labeouf, exhibits restraint. Consequently, we must as well.
Unfurling like a familial stage play, “Honey Boy” is about as semi-autobiographical as films get. This is Labeouf’s life, through and through. It toggles between Otis at 12 and at 22 (now played by Lucas Hedges), where he’s entered a court-ordered rehab center. The inciting incident for Otis mirrors Labeouf’s public drunken arrest from 2017. Art and life have rarely been so entwined as it is here. It’s impossible to disassociate Labeouf from Otis,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Sam Fragoso
- The Wrap
Much has been made about the therapy-meets-art process of “Honey Boy,” which actor Shia Labeouf wrote while exploring his traumatic childhood in court-mandated therapy and rehab. The writer-actor even went so far as to play his father in the film’s flashbacks. Yet what’s fascinating about the making of “Honey Boy” is how those filmic connections made between Labeouf’s past and present evolved over the course of making the film.
When “Honey Boy” opens, we meet present-day Otis on the “Transformers” set, his emotions spiraling out of control as he hits rock bottom. Mirroring Labeouf’s own experiences, Otis is arrested and ends up in rehab. The film then weaves between present day Otis, doing the hard work of therapy and healing, with flashbacks of the past he is trying to reconcile — specifically a time when 12 year-old-Otis (Noah Jupe) was living with his abusive and alcoholic father (Labeouf).
Labeouf’s script was linear,...
When “Honey Boy” opens, we meet present-day Otis on the “Transformers” set, his emotions spiraling out of control as he hits rock bottom. Mirroring Labeouf’s own experiences, Otis is arrested and ends up in rehab. The film then weaves between present day Otis, doing the hard work of therapy and healing, with flashbacks of the past he is trying to reconcile — specifically a time when 12 year-old-Otis (Noah Jupe) was living with his abusive and alcoholic father (Labeouf).
Labeouf’s script was linear,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The brilliant creative relationship between Alma Har’el and Shia Labeouf began seven years ago when the actor contacted the documentarian after viewing her genre-bending documentary, “Bombay Beach,” a hypnagogic observation of societal outcasts in the abandoned settlement of the Salton Sea. The film is emblematic of both the empathy Har’el possesses as a filmmaker, as well as her seemingly effortless ability to blend fiction and nonfiction, adding an element of interpretive dance to her work.
Continue reading Director Alma Har’el On ‘Honey Boy’, Therapy & The New & Improved Shia Labeouf [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading Director Alma Har’el On ‘Honey Boy’, Therapy & The New & Improved Shia Labeouf [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 11/6/2019
- by Alex Arabian
- The Playlist
Movie stars’ vanity projects are more likely to fail than succeed, and the “Honey Boy” backstory would seem to play into those odds: an actor in lock-down rehab writes a screenplay about his deeply fraught relationship with his father, and finds himself playing his own parent. However, not only did Shia Labeouf find a director and financing, the film also sold to Amazon Studios at Sundance — and none of that could have happened without the deep trust between the star and Alma Har’el, his strong yet empathetic director who delicately steered a combustible movie toward safe harbor.
“Honey Boy” has received rave reviews in advance of its November 8 release (and a full 90-day theatrical window) during a competitive award season. Labeouf deserves consideration for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay. And he’s the first to admit that he couldn’t have done it without Har’el, making her fiction feature debut.
“Honey Boy” has received rave reviews in advance of its November 8 release (and a full 90-day theatrical window) during a competitive award season. Labeouf deserves consideration for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay. And he’s the first to admit that he couldn’t have done it without Har’el, making her fiction feature debut.
- 11/4/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Movie stars’ vanity projects are more likely to fail than succeed, and the “Honey Boy” backstory would seem to play into those odds: an actor in lock-down rehab writes a screenplay about his deeply fraught relationship with his father, and finds himself playing his own parent. However, not only did Shia Labeouf find a director and financing, the film also sold to Amazon Studios at Sundance — and none of that could have happened without the deep trust between the star and Alma Har’el, his strong yet empathetic director who delicately steered a combustible movie toward safe harbor.
“Honey Boy” has received rave reviews in advance of its November 8 release (and a full 90-day theatrical window) during a competitive award season. Labeouf deserves consideration for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. And he’s the first to admit that he couldn’t have done it without Har’el, making her fiction feature debut.
“Honey Boy” has received rave reviews in advance of its November 8 release (and a full 90-day theatrical window) during a competitive award season. Labeouf deserves consideration for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. And he’s the first to admit that he couldn’t have done it without Har’el, making her fiction feature debut.
- 11/4/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Natasha Braier is the cinematographer you call when you want a bold and visually ambitious look on an indie budget. From the fashion photography-meets-noir of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Neon Demon,” to the strong colors in Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria Bell,” to the hypnotic black-and-white water imagery of Lynne Ramsay’s short “Swimmer,” Braier finds a way to paint with the kinds of stylized strokes associated with films at 10 times the budget.
Director Alma Har’el wanted that for “Honey Boy,” but she also wanted the freedom that she had when shooting her documentaries “Bombay Beach” and “LoveTrue.”
“Alma really wanted me to bring my lighting approach, which is always quite moody, and driven by emotion, and somewhat poetic,” said Braier. “She also wanted me [to light] for 360 degrees, so that they are free and they can do whatever. So she wanted the best of both worlds. She was like, ‘I want them to be free.
Director Alma Har’el wanted that for “Honey Boy,” but she also wanted the freedom that she had when shooting her documentaries “Bombay Beach” and “LoveTrue.”
“Alma really wanted me to bring my lighting approach, which is always quite moody, and driven by emotion, and somewhat poetic,” said Braier. “She also wanted me [to light] for 360 degrees, so that they are free and they can do whatever. So she wanted the best of both worlds. She was like, ‘I want them to be free.
- 11/1/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Amazon has nabbed “Honey Boy,” a coming-of-age drama that is inspired by Shia Labeouf’s stormy relationship with stardom. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, earning a standing ovation and respectful reviews, particularly for Labeouf’s performance as his father and for Noah Jupe’s star turn as a child actor on the rise.
Amazon has been very active at this year’s festival, buying domestic rights for the Mindy Kaling comedy “Late Night” for $13 million and shelling out $14 million apiece for the rights to “The Report” and “Brittany Runs a Marathon.” The “Honey Boy” deal is for global rights and is in the $5 million range.
“Honey Boy” was directed by Alma Har’el (“Bombay Beach”) from a script by Labeouf. It was written as part of Labeouf’s rehabilitation program. The actor, once among the most promising stars in Hollywood thanks to turns in “Transformers...
Amazon has been very active at this year’s festival, buying domestic rights for the Mindy Kaling comedy “Late Night” for $13 million and shelling out $14 million apiece for the rights to “The Report” and “Brittany Runs a Marathon.” The “Honey Boy” deal is for global rights and is in the $5 million range.
“Honey Boy” was directed by Alma Har’el (“Bombay Beach”) from a script by Labeouf. It was written as part of Labeouf’s rehabilitation program. The actor, once among the most promising stars in Hollywood thanks to turns in “Transformers...
- 2/2/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Following sci-fi sound effects over the opening credits on a black screen, Honey Boy begins with a hard cut on the face of Lucas Hedges as he’s pulled back on a harness on the 2005 set of a blockbuster. A clear nod to the Transformers franchise, we then rapidly run through multiple on-set experiences that blend into an alcohol-induced car accident. This opening, however, is not an indication of where we’re headed. Written by Shia Labeouf, Honey Boy could have easily been a satire of his much-publicized last decade, with his headline-making performance act and legal troubles. To the film’s benefit, Labeouf and director Alma Har’el rather go much more in-depth (and farther back), taking a deep-rooted look into the actor’s traumatic childhood. Whether intentionally intended or not, this earnest endeavor does wonders to enact sympathy and overturn any negative public perception of his outbursts, even...
- 1/26/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
When Shia Labeouf was ordered by a judge to write about the childhood trauma that seeded a fiery transition to adulthood punctuated by angry outbursts, car crashes, and curious creative choices that transformed him from golden boy to pariah, his decision to bare his pain in the screenplay format he was so familiar with turned out to be a life changing experience.
Who could have imagined several years later that the result, Honey Boy, would become an early Sundance buzz title that brought Labeouf a standing ovation after its Friday premiere? Or that it might have the power to move audiences — and industry decision makers — to reconsider Labeouf’s place in the Hollywood ecosystem. It is a well told story that provides a clear understanding of the painful upbringing that fueled Labeouf’s demons as he transitioned to adulthood. Honey Boy is at the same time a story that will feel familiar to many who,...
Who could have imagined several years later that the result, Honey Boy, would become an early Sundance buzz title that brought Labeouf a standing ovation after its Friday premiere? Or that it might have the power to move audiences — and industry decision makers — to reconsider Labeouf’s place in the Hollywood ecosystem. It is a well told story that provides a clear understanding of the painful upbringing that fueled Labeouf’s demons as he transitioned to adulthood. Honey Boy is at the same time a story that will feel familiar to many who,...
- 1/26/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Shia Labeouf’s personal life has garnered as many headlines as his performances in recent years, so it only makes sense that he would eventually merge the two. He’s done just that in “Honey Boy,” which the actor wrote and stars in as his own father. Speaking at the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox, director Alma Har’el addressed the Sundance drama’s unusual origins.
“There was definitely an urgency in the script that I think anybody that read it felt,” said the filmmaker, who previously directed “Bombay Beach” and a slew of music videos. “An outpour, you know? He was basically court-ordered to go to rehab and write his memories. That’s how I got the script, like you see in the film, while he was in rehab. And I think you can sense that in the film, too.”
“I have no doubt. But time will tell, you know?...
“There was definitely an urgency in the script that I think anybody that read it felt,” said the filmmaker, who previously directed “Bombay Beach” and a slew of music videos. “An outpour, you know? He was basically court-ordered to go to rehab and write his memories. That’s how I got the script, like you see in the film, while he was in rehab. And I think you can sense that in the film, too.”
“I have no doubt. But time will tell, you know?...
- 1/26/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
One of the most anticipated titles at Sundance this year is “Honey Boy,” a movie about Shia Labeouf, written by Labeouf and starring Labeouf — but not as himself. Rather, the oft-provocative actor plays his own father, with Lucas Hedges playing Labeouf in his younger years, though in the film this version of Shia is called “Otis.” Director Alma Har’el, previously best known for the documentary “Bombay Beach,” stopped by the IndieWire Sundance Studio, presented by Dropbox, to discuss the film in general and its casting in particular.
“I think I’ve been blessed all around to be working with all of these people, who I think are some of the best actors in the world, and definitely Lucas falls under that,” Har’el said to IndieWire managing editor Christian Blauvelt of the decision to have Hedges play Labeouf.
“But other than just being great and one of my favorite actors,...
“I think I’ve been blessed all around to be working with all of these people, who I think are some of the best actors in the world, and definitely Lucas falls under that,” Har’el said to IndieWire managing editor Christian Blauvelt of the decision to have Hedges play Labeouf.
“But other than just being great and one of my favorite actors,...
- 1/26/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
“Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” That’s the ingenious header Us Weekly gives a section of otherwise worthless paparazzi shots depicting incognito celebrities shopping for groceries, feeding the meter, and otherwise spotted doing activities far too banal to merit publication. Certainly, when the very same stars let the public into their lives, as they do via talk-show interviews or Instagram posts, they’re careful to curate what they share, largely sparing fans the bits that might undermine the fantasy of being famous.
And then there’s Shia Labeouf, an incredibly gifted performer swept up by stardom who has pushed back on all the tabloid attention generated by his public intoxication, Ford-flipping accident, and so on. Since those incidents, Labeouf has made it a point to demystify his own celebrity, as when he attended the Berlin Film Festival wearing a paper bag over his head that read, “I Am Not Famous Anymore.
And then there’s Shia Labeouf, an incredibly gifted performer swept up by stardom who has pushed back on all the tabloid attention generated by his public intoxication, Ford-flipping accident, and so on. Since those incidents, Labeouf has made it a point to demystify his own celebrity, as when he attended the Berlin Film Festival wearing a paper bag over his head that read, “I Am Not Famous Anymore.
- 1/26/2019
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Few actors have engendered the level of curiosity and confusion surrounding Shia Labeouf, yet it’s seen little impact on his movie career. Labeouf’s arrests for public intoxication and his mixed bag of performance art may have hindered his public profile, but they never downgraded the quality of a risky and substantial filmography. Now, the dueling facets of Labeouf’s career and public life have collided in a most intriguing fashion.
With “Honey Boy,” Labeouf has scripted a rambling, understated autobiographical summation of his troubled youth, pinning much of his rough entryway into young adulthood on his abusive father — an exuberant role that the actor himself embodies with plenty of unsettling machismo, but it’s one of only a few meta flourishes in an otherwise straightforward addiction drama. Directed by expressionistic documentarian Alma Ha’rel in her narrative debut, “Honey Boy” benefits from the filmmaker’s keen eye, even...
With “Honey Boy,” Labeouf has scripted a rambling, understated autobiographical summation of his troubled youth, pinning much of his rough entryway into young adulthood on his abusive father — an exuberant role that the actor himself embodies with plenty of unsettling machismo, but it’s one of only a few meta flourishes in an otherwise straightforward addiction drama. Directed by expressionistic documentarian Alma Ha’rel in her narrative debut, “Honey Boy” benefits from the filmmaker’s keen eye, even...
- 1/26/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Why do James (Jason Clarke) and his visually impaired wife Gina (Blake Lively) live in Bangkok? It’s a question that hangs over “All I See Is You,” begging to be asked. We know that James does insurance work somewhere in the Thai capital, but the way he brings it up in conversation makes it sound like an alibi. Usually film characters take jobs in far-flung destinations towards the end of the story, not before it starts. In truth the answer couldn’t be more obvious; it’s there the whole time, right in front of our faces, visible to everyone but Gina. Or maybe she sees it too, and — like us — simply doesn’t want to accept the fact that her doting husband moved her to a foreign city because of her debilitating blindness, and not in spite of it.
It can be nice to feel needed, but there...
It can be nice to feel needed, but there...
- 10/26/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Men leave, women adapt and kids grow up quickly in Don’t Come Back from the Moon, a spare tone poem set in a tumbledown corner of the Southern California desert. Adapting a Detroit-set novel by Dean Bakopoulos, cinematographer-turned-director Bruce Thierry Cheung makes the community of Bombay Beach, a dilapidated one-time resort on the Inland Empire’s Salton Sea, a character in its own right. A delicate change-of-pace performance from Rashida Jones, as a young mother, is another notable strength of this understated coming-of-age drama.
Though the story’s early stretches feel slender and repetitive, Cheung gathers...
Though the story’s early stretches feel slender and repetitive, Cheung gathers...
- 6/15/2017
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lauded filmmaker Alma Har’el has again brought her distinctive documentarian’s eye to her latest effort, the genre-bending feature “LoveTrue.” After winning Tribeca’s Best Documentary Feature Award in 2011 for her remarkable and similarly boundary-pushingdebut, “Bombay Beach,” the filmmaker screened work-in-progress selections from “LoveTrue” at Tff 2015. The film is now available — thanks to Netflix — and it’s a spell-binding wonder that compellingly explores some very big questions.
“Love is…never as it seems,” subject Will Hunt a.k.a Coconut Willie, opines in the opening of our exclusive clip, which might as well be the tagline for the entire film. The feature-length doc follows three very different love stories around the country — from Alaska to Hawaii all the way to New York City — to get to the heart of what it really means to love someone.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don...
“Love is…never as it seems,” subject Will Hunt a.k.a Coconut Willie, opines in the opening of our exclusive clip, which might as well be the tagline for the entire film. The feature-length doc follows three very different love stories around the country — from Alaska to Hawaii all the way to New York City — to get to the heart of what it really means to love someone.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don...
- 5/23/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
First Look Media's Topic has acquired U.S. rights to Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry's documentary Death in the Terminal, exec produced by Zero Dark Thirty's Megan Ellison and Mark Boal. The doc, which has won prizes at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Israel's Academy Awards, was produced via Boal's Page 1 film and television company. Bombay Beach filmmaker Alma Har'el, who shepherded the project after discovering it at the Doc Aviv Film Festival…...
- 5/10/2017
- Deadline
A trifecta of badass female talent is on display in “Jellywolf,” a new short film from Alma Har’el for Chanel and iD’s new channel, The Fifth Sense. Known for her wildly inventive filmmaking techniques, Alma Har’el has garnered A-list collaborators, such as Shia Labeouf, who co-produced her forthcoming feature, “LoveTrue.” Har’el first made waves when her hybrid documentary, “Bombay Beach,” took home the top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011.
In “Jellywolf,” Clemons plays a young girl seeking answers in a topsy turvy world where jellyfish fall from the sky, and electrifying visions are had with one gulp of a witch’s brew. Lisa Bonet plays a mysterious shop owner who guides her on her vision quest, directing her to follow her nose and wearing a shirt that proclaims, “Women Smell Better.”
Read More: David Lynch Turns ‘La La Land’ Into a Twisted Drama in...
In “Jellywolf,” Clemons plays a young girl seeking answers in a topsy turvy world where jellyfish fall from the sky, and electrifying visions are had with one gulp of a witch’s brew. Lisa Bonet plays a mysterious shop owner who guides her on her vision quest, directing her to follow her nose and wearing a shirt that proclaims, “Women Smell Better.”
Read More: David Lynch Turns ‘La La Land’ Into a Twisted Drama in...
- 2/24/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Two brothers make a pitstop in a town teeming with cannibals in Chris von Hoffmann's Drifter, and for our latest Q&A feature, we caught up with Hoffmann to discuss the making of his feature film debut.
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Chris. How and when did you first come up with the idea for Drifter?
Chris von Hoffmann: I actually thought of the concept back when I was 16. It was just one of several script ideas I started putting together on paper but never saw it all the way through because of my attention span back then. However, I had the title, had written the opening scene and had the overall structure down, but it was slightly different. The original concept still centered on two brothers who wind up in a strange town, but the town was originally possessed by a...
Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Chris. How and when did you first come up with the idea for Drifter?
Chris von Hoffmann: I actually thought of the concept back when I was 16. It was just one of several script ideas I started putting together on paper but never saw it all the way through because of my attention span back then. However, I had the title, had written the opening scene and had the overall structure down, but it was slightly different. The original concept still centered on two brothers who wind up in a strange town, but the town was originally possessed by a...
- 2/23/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Bombay Beach director Alma Har’el blurs the boundary between drama and real life with three stories examining love and faith
Documentary film-maker Alma Har’el follows her extraordinary debut, Bombay Beach, with another picture that weaves together real life with dramatisation to poetic effect. While not quite as focused or poignant as her debut, this film explores love and faith through three very different stories. In Hawaii, William is struggling to come to terms with the fact that the son he adores is not his biological child. In Alaska, Blake’s self-worth is both boosted and undermined by her work as a stripper. And in New York, Victory and her seven musically talented siblings are grieving for their parents’ marriage, shattered after their father had an affair. Perhaps the most intriguing device is not just the fact that Har’el uses actors to speculate about the past and future of certain characters,...
Documentary film-maker Alma Har’el follows her extraordinary debut, Bombay Beach, with another picture that weaves together real life with dramatisation to poetic effect. While not quite as focused or poignant as her debut, this film explores love and faith through three very different stories. In Hawaii, William is struggling to come to terms with the fact that the son he adores is not his biological child. In Alaska, Blake’s self-worth is both boosted and undermined by her work as a stripper. And in New York, Victory and her seven musically talented siblings are grieving for their parents’ marriage, shattered after their father had an affair. Perhaps the most intriguing device is not just the fact that Har’el uses actors to speculate about the past and future of certain characters,...
- 2/12/2017
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
Author: Guest
Despite the title making it sound like a lost Prince album, Alma Har’el’s LoveTrue, a follow-up to her award-winning Bombay Beach, is in fact an experimental documentary tracking the lives of three people as they negotiate difficult real-life relationships.
Blake is a Warhammer nerd and stripper dating Joel, a man with a disease that has given him extremely brittle bones. Coconut Willie is a Hawaiian coconut collector, dealing with finding out his son is not his biological child by surfing and saying bleak ‘Bill and Ted’-isms like “I thought about committing suicide, but that shit is gnarly.” Then we have Victory, a girl adapting to life following the separation of her parents in ambiguous circumstances. Their stories intercut each other, and are intercut themselves with dramatic reconstructions featuring non-actors playing older and younger versions of each character in dream-like sequences or in faux-home movies.
If this sounds a little complicated,...
Despite the title making it sound like a lost Prince album, Alma Har’el’s LoveTrue, a follow-up to her award-winning Bombay Beach, is in fact an experimental documentary tracking the lives of three people as they negotiate difficult real-life relationships.
Blake is a Warhammer nerd and stripper dating Joel, a man with a disease that has given him extremely brittle bones. Coconut Willie is a Hawaiian coconut collector, dealing with finding out his son is not his biological child by surfing and saying bleak ‘Bill and Ted’-isms like “I thought about committing suicide, but that shit is gnarly.” Then we have Victory, a girl adapting to life following the separation of her parents in ambiguous circumstances. Their stories intercut each other, and are intercut themselves with dramatic reconstructions featuring non-actors playing older and younger versions of each character in dream-like sequences or in faux-home movies.
If this sounds a little complicated,...
- 2/9/2017
- by Guest
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The 2016 presidential election is finally coming to an end, but The Orchard is just getting started on “11/8/16,” the follow-up to Jeff Deutchman’s 2008 documentary about the election of President Obama, “11/4/08.” Produced by Deutchman and directed by more than 40 filmmakers who will capture footage from all over the country on Tuesday, November 8, the film represents the most ambitious Election Day documentary ever produced.
Read More: Hillary Clinton for President: 37 Filmmakers Reveal Why She’s the Best Choice
Filmmakers contributing to the project include “Suited” director Jason Benjamin, who will be following Lena Dunham as she volunteers for the Hillary Clinton campaign; “Bombay Beach” director Alma Har’el, who will be following Clinton’s director of video Sierra Kos; “Being Evel” director Daniel Junge, who will be follwing the Los Angeles Times’ assistant managing editor of politics, Christina Bellantoni; and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” director Alison Klayman, who will be following NPR...
Read More: Hillary Clinton for President: 37 Filmmakers Reveal Why She’s the Best Choice
Filmmakers contributing to the project include “Suited” director Jason Benjamin, who will be following Lena Dunham as she volunteers for the Hillary Clinton campaign; “Bombay Beach” director Alma Har’el, who will be following Clinton’s director of video Sierra Kos; “Being Evel” director Daniel Junge, who will be follwing the Los Angeles Times’ assistant managing editor of politics, Christina Bellantoni; and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” director Alison Klayman, who will be following NPR...
- 11/8/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Wme has signed Israeli-American director Alma Har'el, the filmmaker behind titles such as LoveTrue and Bombay Beach, to its books. Har’el is recognized for artistically blurring the lines between documentary and fiction and her first film, Bombay Beach, won best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, received a nomination for an Independent Spirit award and has been taught in several universities, including Harvard's Film Center. The doc takes place…...
- 10/25/2016
- Deadline
Filmmaker Alma Har’el Launches Historic Initiative To ‘Free The Bid’ For Female Commercial Directors
Filmmaker Alma Har’el, the director behind award-winning documentaries “Bombay Beach” and “LoveTrue,” has long also worked in the commercial space, and now she’s setting out to enact change on a side of the industry that is plagued by sexism. With her new initiative, Free the Bid, Har’el is asking ad agencies, production companies and brands to take a simple pledge: For a woman director bid on every commercial. Yes, that’s every commercial.
Prior to its official launch, several of the world’s leading advertising agencies already pledged to #FreeTheBid, including Fcb Global, Dbb North America, Bbdo Global, McCann NY, J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, Pereira&O’Dell, Mother, Joan, Phenomenon and 180La, all of whom have formally committed to get a woman bid on every job.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don’t – Girl Talk
Of the new initiative,...
Prior to its official launch, several of the world’s leading advertising agencies already pledged to #FreeTheBid, including Fcb Global, Dbb North America, Bbdo Global, McCann NY, J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, Pereira&O’Dell, Mother, Joan, Phenomenon and 180La, all of whom have formally committed to get a woman bid on every job.
Read More: Female Filmmakers Want to Direct Blockbusters; Here’s Why They Don’t – Girl Talk
Of the new initiative,...
- 9/16/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Girl Talk is a weekly look at women in film — past, present, and future.
IndieWire recently published a pair of lists that singled out 25 working female filmmakers that we deemed “ready” to make a blockbuster. From many readers, we got this response: “But do they even want to?”
It seemed like a strange question: Has anyone ever wondered, much less asked, if male directors were interested in big-budget movies? Nevertheless, we reached out to the filmmakers on our lists, and the response was nearly unanimous: Yes, of course they do.
That said, it wasn’t the first time they’d been asked. And, as it turns out, there are a number of reasons that might make them decide to steer clear.
“That Dream Is Not Gendered”
“Most filmmakers dream of breaking into Hollywood with a short film or indie feature and then getting recruited by the studios to make bigger movies,...
IndieWire recently published a pair of lists that singled out 25 working female filmmakers that we deemed “ready” to make a blockbuster. From many readers, we got this response: “But do they even want to?”
It seemed like a strange question: Has anyone ever wondered, much less asked, if male directors were interested in big-budget movies? Nevertheless, we reached out to the filmmakers on our lists, and the response was nearly unanimous: Yes, of course they do.
That said, it wasn’t the first time they’d been asked. And, as it turns out, there are a number of reasons that might make them decide to steer clear.
“That Dream Is Not Gendered”
“Most filmmakers dream of breaking into Hollywood with a short film or indie feature and then getting recruited by the studios to make bigger movies,...
- 8/11/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
As the main topic of this year’s festival, Docaviv will feature a select group of thought-provoking films about a world that is changing with the collapse of physical and social boundaries, growing economic disparities, the waves of refugees and immigrants, civil wars, international terrorism, and the ultimate undoing of social solidarity.
Within the framework of this theme the program does not only include documentaries about terror and refugees, but also about a fragmented society which is losing its solidarity. Both in Israel and elsewhere the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening, and so are the frustrations and the unrest. Israeli and international titles correlating to these themes can be found throughout the entire festival program:
“Death in the terminal” - Directors Tali Shemesh (“The Cemetery Club”) and Assaf Surd
A tense, minute-by-minute, Rashomon-style account of a tragic day. On October 18, 2015, a terrorist armed with a gun and a knife entered Beersheba’s bus terminal. Within 18 minutes Omri Levy, a soldier was killed and Abtum Zarhum, Eritrean immigrant asylum seeker, was lynched after being mistaken for a terrorist.
“The Settlers” - Premiered in Sundance, Director Shimon Dotan.
A far-reaching, comprehensive look at the Jewish settlement enterprise in the West Bank. It examines the origins of the settlement movement and the religious and ideological visions that propelled it, while providing an intimate look at the people at the center of the greatest geopolitical challenge now facing Israel and the international community. (Isa Contact: Cinephil)
“Town on a Wire” - premiered at Cph: Dox Dir: Uri Rosenwaks
While Tel Aviv is thriving, just ten minutes away lies the town of Lod, right in the backyard of Israel’s bustling urban center. Unlike its affluent neighbor, Lod is a city that suffers from the blight of racism, crime, and sheer desperation. Can it be saved? Is there some way to bring hope to Lod’s Arab and Jewish residents?
“Foucoammare”/ “Fire at Sea” - by Gianfranco Rosi - winner of Golden Bear, Berlinale 2016 -every day the inhabitants of the Italian Island Lampedusa are confronted with the flight of refugees to Europe . These people long for peace and freedom and often only their dead bodies are pulled out of the water. (Contact Isa: Doc & Film Int’l. U.S.: Kino Lorber)
“Between fences” – by Avi Mograbi -. In an Israeli detention center asylum-seekers from Eritrea and Sudan can’t be sent back to their own countries, but have no prospects in Israel either thanks to the country’s policies. Chen Alon and Avi Mograbi, initiate a theatre workshop to give these people the opportunity to address their own experiences of forced migration and discrimination and to confront an Israeli society that views them as dangerous infiltrators.
“A Syrian Love Story” – by Sean McAllister -You can’t be Che Guevara and a mother Amer tells Raghda, but maybe she can't do it any other way. After years of struggle, life without her homeland and the revolution has no meaning for her. It is hard to determine what is more demanding in this bold film: the revolution, or the search for inner peace. (Contact Isa: Cat & Docs)
“Homo Sapiens” – by Nikolaus Geyrhalter - what does humanity leave behind when its gone? It sometimes seems as if the mark that humans leave on this planet will last forever. The truth is that the iron, bricks, cement, and steel – the human traces everywhere abandoned and forgotten – are erased by the forces of nature. This unusually beautiful film may lack people and words, but that leaves even more room for thought.(Contact Isa: Autlook)
“Land of the Enlightened” – Premiered at Sundance Ff 2016. Shot over seven years on evocative 16mm footage, first-time director Pieter-Jan De Pue paints a whimsical yet haunting look at the condition of Afghanistan left for the next generation. As American soldiers prepare to leave, we follow De Pue deep into this hidden land where young boys form wild gangs to control trade routes, sell explosives from mines left over from war, making the new rules of war based on the harsh landscape left to them. (Contact Isa: Films Boutique)
“Flickering Truth” - Premiered at Toronto Ff 2015. Director Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) directs this harrowing, compelling film about the power of cinema to preserve our history and in so doing potentially change our futures. (Contact Isa: Film Sales Company)
“Requiem for the American Dream” - Directed by Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, Jared P. Scott. In ten chilling but lucid chapters, Noam Chomsky, one of the great intellectuals of our time, analyzes the “system,” which allows wealthy capitalists to seize the reins of government and turn those without wealth into a passive herd, willing to forego power, solidarity, and democracy itself. (U.S.: Gravitas. Contact Isa: Films Transit)
The festival will open with a first film by Israeli director Roman Shumunov
“Babylon Dreamers” Directed by Roman Somonob. An intimate report about a troupe of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, from one of Ashdod’s poorest neighborhoods; they struggle to survive facing harsh conditions - poverty, mental illness, and broken families. They channel their anger and cling to their dream of attending and winning the International Breakdance Championship.
Israeli Competition
Some 70 Israeli films produced over the last year were submitted out of which 13 films have been selected for the Israeli Competition. They will be competing for the largest cash prize for documentary filmmaking in Israel 70,000 Nis (Us$ 15,000). Other awards in the competition include the Mayor’s Prize for the Most Promising Filmmaker, the Prize for Editing, the Prize for Cinematography, the Prize for Research, and the Prize for Original Score.
"The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev," directors Tal Barda, Noam Pinchas -Tajikistan’s answer to the Jackson Family. A modern-day Shakespearean tale about a famous Tajik musical family, controlled by their charismatic patriarch-grandfather - Papa Alaev.
"A Tale of Two Balloons" by Zohar Wagner - The tale of a women who thought a pair of perfect breasts would help her find true love. But when that love came along, those perfect breasts had to go.
"Aida's Secrets," director Alon Schwarz - At 68, Izak learns he has a brother he never knew about. As part of the discoveries about the family, the film uncovers the story of the Displaced Persons camps- the vibrant and often wild social life that flourished immediately after WW2.
"Child Mother" by Yael Kipper and Ronen Zaretzky - The story of elderly women born in Morocco and Yemen, who were married off when they were still little girls. Only now, as they enter the final chapter of their lives, do they openly face their past and the ways it still affects them and their families.
"The Last Shaman" directed by Raz Degan - Inspired by an article he read, James decides to travel to the Amazon rainforests, in search of a shaman whom he thinks can save him from a clinical depression that haunts him.
"The Patriarch's Room" by Danae Elon -The bizarre imprisonment of the former head of the Greek Orthodox Church in a tiny monastic cell in Jerusalem’s Old City leads to a fascinating journey in search of the truth, penetrating the remote world of the priesthood. The complex and unfamiliar picture that emerges is revealed here, on camera, for the very first time.
"Poetics of the Brain" by Nurith Aviv –weaving associative links between her personal biographical stories and neuroscientists’ accounts of their work. They discuss topics such as memory, bilingualism, reading, mirror neurons, smell, traces of experience.
"Shalom Italia," by Tamar Tal Anati (winner of Docaviv for Life in Stills) -Three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth, both of which really, truly happened.
"Week 23" by Ohad Milstein - Rahel, the daughter of a Swiss bishop, is coping with a difficult pregnancy in Israel. One of the identical twins she is carrying has died in utero, and now poses an almost certain threat to its sibling. The doctors are unequivocal about it. They tell Rahel that she should abort the surviving fetus and end her pregnancy.
"The Settlers" by Shimon Dotan; Town On A Wire directed by Uri Rosenwaksand Eyal Blachson; Death in the Terminal by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry, and Babylon Dreamers by Roman Shumunov.
The Members of the selection committee included Sinai Abt, artistic director of the Docaviv Film Festival; director Reuven Brodsky, winner of Docaviv in 2012 for his film Home Movie and of Honorable Mention at Docaviv in 2015 and film editor Ayelet Ofarim.
Twelve films have been selected for the International Competition, which will open with the The Happy Film by Stefan Seigmeister. Also competing are Jerzy Sladkowski’s Don Juan, winner of the Idfa Award; Author: The J.T. LeRoy Story about the imaginary cult figure who became the darling of New York society and nightlife, picked up by Amazon at Sundance as its first doc title. Another festival favorite is A Flickering Truth and Sean McAllister's daring award winning documentary A Syrian Love Story.
The Depth of Field Competition will open with LoveTrue by director Alma Har’el, who will be a juror for the Israeli Film Competition. This is the Competition’s third year, held in conjunction with the Film Critics’ Forum that will award films for an outstanding and daring artistic vision. Other films that will be screened as part of the competition include Sundance winners Kate Plays Christine by Robert Greene, and Pieter-Jan De Pue’s hybrid documentary The Land of the Enlightened; other titles that will be shown are Hotel Dallas by wife and husband artist duo Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, The Hong Kong Trilogy by noted cinematographer Christopher Doyle , and the musical- turned into documentary London Road by Rufus Norris and Alecky Blythe.
The Masters Section, a new category in the festival, highlighting new films by world renowned directors will be opened by Fire at Sea by director Gianfranco Rosi, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale. Avi Mograbi’s Between Fences will be accompanied by a play by the Holot Legislative Theater, with a cast of actors that includes Israelis and African asylum seekers.
Other films in this section include amongst others Junun, Paul Thomas Anderson’s portrayal of a musical project involving Shye Ben-Tzur and Jonny Greenwood, Homo Sapiens by director Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine by director Alex Gibney, To the Desert by director Judd Neeman, Unlocking the Cage by directors D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, De Palma by co-director Noah Baumbach and He Named Me Malala by David Guggenheim.
The Panorama selection of films will include amongst others the moving Strike a Pose, by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan about the dancers who accompanied Madonna on her “Blond Ambition” tour, Roger Ross Williams ‘Life, Animated depicting the remarkable story of an autistic boy, who learned how to communicate with his surroundings through Disney films, Those Who Jump about an African refugee who films attempts by other refugees to jump the barbed wire border fence in North Africa and Louis Theroux: My Scientology Film.
This year’s Arts Section will include Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville; I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman, which was produced shortly before her tragic death, Listen to Me, Marlon, which tells the story of Marlon Brando through the audio recordings he made throughout his life, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, the salacious story of art collector Peggy Guggenheim, Koudelka Shooting Holy Land, Gilad Baram’s film about famous Czech photographer Josef Koudelka’s travels along the Separation Fence, and more.
Seven films produced by the top film schools in Israel were selected to compete in the annual Student Film Competition. The prize for the competition was donated by the Gottesman family in memory of Ruti Gottesman, a leading supporter of Docaviv and of documentary.
The Members of the selection committee included Karin Ryvind Segal, programming director for Docaviv, Hila Avraham, curator and expert on film and audiovisual media preservation and screenwriter Danny Rosenberg, whose work includes the films My Father’s House , Susia and the television series Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee.
Special Guests attending the Festival:
Award winning Director Ondi Timoner, will be attending the Israeli premiere of her film Russell Brand: A Second Coming. Her Sundance-winning film Dig! will be among the music documentaries screened at the Tel Aviv Port. In conjunction with the Film Department of Beit Berl College, Timoner will also be conducting a special master class for students, professionals, and amateurs.
This year’s festival will include a special tribute to acclaimed director Nikolaus Geyrhalter who will be attending the festival with his recent Homo Sapiens. This year’s festival will also include two previous films of his, Our Daily Bread and Abendland,.
International jury members attending the festival include:
Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, Director of the Idfa industry office; Gary Kam, producer of Planet of Snail; film director Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach; LoveTrue) ; Nilotpal, Director of Docedge Kolkata, Sascha Lara Bleuler, Director of the Human Rights Film Festival in Zurich, and film director Tatiana Brandrup.
The Israeli jurors include:
Director Dror Moreh, director and producer Barak Heymann, director Robby Elmaliah, producer Elinor Kowarsky, photographer David Adika, and film editor Tal Rabiner.
Around town. A record number of twelve screening venues spread out across Tel Aviv will offer free screenings. These are: Habima Square, the Beit Danny Community Center, the Hatikvah neighborhood, the Arab-Jewish Community Center in Jaffa, the rooftop of Tel Aviv City Hall, WeWork, Levinsky Park, Bar Kayma, Beit Romano, the Nalaga’at Center, Picnic Little Italy-Sarona Tel Aviv, and Artport.
Outdoors. The Tel Aviv Port will continue to host the festival this year, with outdoor screenings of music films with guest deejays from KZRadio. Films to be screened at the port include Janis: Little Girl Blue, The Reflektor Tapes about the band Arcade Fire, P.T Andersoan’s Junun about the musical collaboration between Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, Nigel Godrich, and a dozen Indian musicians.
Festival Firsts. DocaviVR: a collaboration between Docaviv and Steamer, Israel’s first Interactive and Virtual Reality Film Festival, presents original documentary projects from Israel and around the world, created especially for viewing with Vr gear. The event will take place at Beit Romano. A cinema will pop up in one of Tel Aviv’s trendy hubs, with 25 stations equipped with Vr gear.
The Docommunity conference aims to promote dcomentary across the country by bringing together cultural coordinators and artistic directors from across the country to introduce them to the latest documentary films from Israel and around the world.
The Platform for Alternative Documentation at Artport art space: A performative piece that brings together film artists, social activists, and researchers studying the various aesthetic, social, and philosophical aspects of documentation. Curated by Laliv Melamed and Gilad Reich.
Young audiences. For the first time, films from The Next Doc will be screened, a special initiative of Docaviv, the Second Channel, and the New Fund for Film and Television, which led to the production of three films created especially for a teenage audience.
Docaviv will also be hosting the final event of Docu Young, at which films by students in residential schools, who participated in film workshops , will be screened.
The Docyouth Competition will feature the best documentary films produced by students in high school film programs throughout the country. For the first time, voting for this year’s competition will be held online and open to high school students across the country.
Among the Screenings of docs for kids are Victor Kosakovsky’s “Varicella”, and “Landfilharmonic”.
Over the course of the festival, 110 films will be screened.
Within the framework of this theme the program does not only include documentaries about terror and refugees, but also about a fragmented society which is losing its solidarity. Both in Israel and elsewhere the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening, and so are the frustrations and the unrest. Israeli and international titles correlating to these themes can be found throughout the entire festival program:
“Death in the terminal” - Directors Tali Shemesh (“The Cemetery Club”) and Assaf Surd
A tense, minute-by-minute, Rashomon-style account of a tragic day. On October 18, 2015, a terrorist armed with a gun and a knife entered Beersheba’s bus terminal. Within 18 minutes Omri Levy, a soldier was killed and Abtum Zarhum, Eritrean immigrant asylum seeker, was lynched after being mistaken for a terrorist.
“The Settlers” - Premiered in Sundance, Director Shimon Dotan.
A far-reaching, comprehensive look at the Jewish settlement enterprise in the West Bank. It examines the origins of the settlement movement and the religious and ideological visions that propelled it, while providing an intimate look at the people at the center of the greatest geopolitical challenge now facing Israel and the international community. (Isa Contact: Cinephil)
“Town on a Wire” - premiered at Cph: Dox Dir: Uri Rosenwaks
While Tel Aviv is thriving, just ten minutes away lies the town of Lod, right in the backyard of Israel’s bustling urban center. Unlike its affluent neighbor, Lod is a city that suffers from the blight of racism, crime, and sheer desperation. Can it be saved? Is there some way to bring hope to Lod’s Arab and Jewish residents?
“Foucoammare”/ “Fire at Sea” - by Gianfranco Rosi - winner of Golden Bear, Berlinale 2016 -every day the inhabitants of the Italian Island Lampedusa are confronted with the flight of refugees to Europe . These people long for peace and freedom and often only their dead bodies are pulled out of the water. (Contact Isa: Doc & Film Int’l. U.S.: Kino Lorber)
“Between fences” – by Avi Mograbi -. In an Israeli detention center asylum-seekers from Eritrea and Sudan can’t be sent back to their own countries, but have no prospects in Israel either thanks to the country’s policies. Chen Alon and Avi Mograbi, initiate a theatre workshop to give these people the opportunity to address their own experiences of forced migration and discrimination and to confront an Israeli society that views them as dangerous infiltrators.
“A Syrian Love Story” – by Sean McAllister -You can’t be Che Guevara and a mother Amer tells Raghda, but maybe she can't do it any other way. After years of struggle, life without her homeland and the revolution has no meaning for her. It is hard to determine what is more demanding in this bold film: the revolution, or the search for inner peace. (Contact Isa: Cat & Docs)
“Homo Sapiens” – by Nikolaus Geyrhalter - what does humanity leave behind when its gone? It sometimes seems as if the mark that humans leave on this planet will last forever. The truth is that the iron, bricks, cement, and steel – the human traces everywhere abandoned and forgotten – are erased by the forces of nature. This unusually beautiful film may lack people and words, but that leaves even more room for thought.(Contact Isa: Autlook)
“Land of the Enlightened” – Premiered at Sundance Ff 2016. Shot over seven years on evocative 16mm footage, first-time director Pieter-Jan De Pue paints a whimsical yet haunting look at the condition of Afghanistan left for the next generation. As American soldiers prepare to leave, we follow De Pue deep into this hidden land where young boys form wild gangs to control trade routes, sell explosives from mines left over from war, making the new rules of war based on the harsh landscape left to them. (Contact Isa: Films Boutique)
“Flickering Truth” - Premiered at Toronto Ff 2015. Director Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) directs this harrowing, compelling film about the power of cinema to preserve our history and in so doing potentially change our futures. (Contact Isa: Film Sales Company)
“Requiem for the American Dream” - Directed by Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, Jared P. Scott. In ten chilling but lucid chapters, Noam Chomsky, one of the great intellectuals of our time, analyzes the “system,” which allows wealthy capitalists to seize the reins of government and turn those without wealth into a passive herd, willing to forego power, solidarity, and democracy itself. (U.S.: Gravitas. Contact Isa: Films Transit)
The festival will open with a first film by Israeli director Roman Shumunov
“Babylon Dreamers” Directed by Roman Somonob. An intimate report about a troupe of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, from one of Ashdod’s poorest neighborhoods; they struggle to survive facing harsh conditions - poverty, mental illness, and broken families. They channel their anger and cling to their dream of attending and winning the International Breakdance Championship.
Israeli Competition
Some 70 Israeli films produced over the last year were submitted out of which 13 films have been selected for the Israeli Competition. They will be competing for the largest cash prize for documentary filmmaking in Israel 70,000 Nis (Us$ 15,000). Other awards in the competition include the Mayor’s Prize for the Most Promising Filmmaker, the Prize for Editing, the Prize for Cinematography, the Prize for Research, and the Prize for Original Score.
"The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev," directors Tal Barda, Noam Pinchas -Tajikistan’s answer to the Jackson Family. A modern-day Shakespearean tale about a famous Tajik musical family, controlled by their charismatic patriarch-grandfather - Papa Alaev.
"A Tale of Two Balloons" by Zohar Wagner - The tale of a women who thought a pair of perfect breasts would help her find true love. But when that love came along, those perfect breasts had to go.
"Aida's Secrets," director Alon Schwarz - At 68, Izak learns he has a brother he never knew about. As part of the discoveries about the family, the film uncovers the story of the Displaced Persons camps- the vibrant and often wild social life that flourished immediately after WW2.
"Child Mother" by Yael Kipper and Ronen Zaretzky - The story of elderly women born in Morocco and Yemen, who were married off when they were still little girls. Only now, as they enter the final chapter of their lives, do they openly face their past and the ways it still affects them and their families.
"The Last Shaman" directed by Raz Degan - Inspired by an article he read, James decides to travel to the Amazon rainforests, in search of a shaman whom he thinks can save him from a clinical depression that haunts him.
"The Patriarch's Room" by Danae Elon -The bizarre imprisonment of the former head of the Greek Orthodox Church in a tiny monastic cell in Jerusalem’s Old City leads to a fascinating journey in search of the truth, penetrating the remote world of the priesthood. The complex and unfamiliar picture that emerges is revealed here, on camera, for the very first time.
"Poetics of the Brain" by Nurith Aviv –weaving associative links between her personal biographical stories and neuroscientists’ accounts of their work. They discuss topics such as memory, bilingualism, reading, mirror neurons, smell, traces of experience.
"Shalom Italia," by Tamar Tal Anati (winner of Docaviv for Life in Stills) -Three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth, both of which really, truly happened.
"Week 23" by Ohad Milstein - Rahel, the daughter of a Swiss bishop, is coping with a difficult pregnancy in Israel. One of the identical twins she is carrying has died in utero, and now poses an almost certain threat to its sibling. The doctors are unequivocal about it. They tell Rahel that she should abort the surviving fetus and end her pregnancy.
"The Settlers" by Shimon Dotan; Town On A Wire directed by Uri Rosenwaksand Eyal Blachson; Death in the Terminal by Tali Shemesh and Asaf Sudry, and Babylon Dreamers by Roman Shumunov.
The Members of the selection committee included Sinai Abt, artistic director of the Docaviv Film Festival; director Reuven Brodsky, winner of Docaviv in 2012 for his film Home Movie and of Honorable Mention at Docaviv in 2015 and film editor Ayelet Ofarim.
Twelve films have been selected for the International Competition, which will open with the The Happy Film by Stefan Seigmeister. Also competing are Jerzy Sladkowski’s Don Juan, winner of the Idfa Award; Author: The J.T. LeRoy Story about the imaginary cult figure who became the darling of New York society and nightlife, picked up by Amazon at Sundance as its first doc title. Another festival favorite is A Flickering Truth and Sean McAllister's daring award winning documentary A Syrian Love Story.
The Depth of Field Competition will open with LoveTrue by director Alma Har’el, who will be a juror for the Israeli Film Competition. This is the Competition’s third year, held in conjunction with the Film Critics’ Forum that will award films for an outstanding and daring artistic vision. Other films that will be screened as part of the competition include Sundance winners Kate Plays Christine by Robert Greene, and Pieter-Jan De Pue’s hybrid documentary The Land of the Enlightened; other titles that will be shown are Hotel Dallas by wife and husband artist duo Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang, The Hong Kong Trilogy by noted cinematographer Christopher Doyle , and the musical- turned into documentary London Road by Rufus Norris and Alecky Blythe.
The Masters Section, a new category in the festival, highlighting new films by world renowned directors will be opened by Fire at Sea by director Gianfranco Rosi, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale. Avi Mograbi’s Between Fences will be accompanied by a play by the Holot Legislative Theater, with a cast of actors that includes Israelis and African asylum seekers.
Other films in this section include amongst others Junun, Paul Thomas Anderson’s portrayal of a musical project involving Shye Ben-Tzur and Jonny Greenwood, Homo Sapiens by director Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine by director Alex Gibney, To the Desert by director Judd Neeman, Unlocking the Cage by directors D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, De Palma by co-director Noah Baumbach and He Named Me Malala by David Guggenheim.
The Panorama selection of films will include amongst others the moving Strike a Pose, by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan about the dancers who accompanied Madonna on her “Blond Ambition” tour, Roger Ross Williams ‘Life, Animated depicting the remarkable story of an autistic boy, who learned how to communicate with his surroundings through Disney films, Those Who Jump about an African refugee who films attempts by other refugees to jump the barbed wire border fence in North Africa and Louis Theroux: My Scientology Film.
This year’s Arts Section will include Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville; I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman, which was produced shortly before her tragic death, Listen to Me, Marlon, which tells the story of Marlon Brando through the audio recordings he made throughout his life, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, the salacious story of art collector Peggy Guggenheim, Koudelka Shooting Holy Land, Gilad Baram’s film about famous Czech photographer Josef Koudelka’s travels along the Separation Fence, and more.
Seven films produced by the top film schools in Israel were selected to compete in the annual Student Film Competition. The prize for the competition was donated by the Gottesman family in memory of Ruti Gottesman, a leading supporter of Docaviv and of documentary.
The Members of the selection committee included Karin Ryvind Segal, programming director for Docaviv, Hila Avraham, curator and expert on film and audiovisual media preservation and screenwriter Danny Rosenberg, whose work includes the films My Father’s House , Susia and the television series Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee.
Special Guests attending the Festival:
Award winning Director Ondi Timoner, will be attending the Israeli premiere of her film Russell Brand: A Second Coming. Her Sundance-winning film Dig! will be among the music documentaries screened at the Tel Aviv Port. In conjunction with the Film Department of Beit Berl College, Timoner will also be conducting a special master class for students, professionals, and amateurs.
This year’s festival will include a special tribute to acclaimed director Nikolaus Geyrhalter who will be attending the festival with his recent Homo Sapiens. This year’s festival will also include two previous films of his, Our Daily Bread and Abendland,.
International jury members attending the festival include:
Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, Director of the Idfa industry office; Gary Kam, producer of Planet of Snail; film director Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach; LoveTrue) ; Nilotpal, Director of Docedge Kolkata, Sascha Lara Bleuler, Director of the Human Rights Film Festival in Zurich, and film director Tatiana Brandrup.
The Israeli jurors include:
Director Dror Moreh, director and producer Barak Heymann, director Robby Elmaliah, producer Elinor Kowarsky, photographer David Adika, and film editor Tal Rabiner.
Around town. A record number of twelve screening venues spread out across Tel Aviv will offer free screenings. These are: Habima Square, the Beit Danny Community Center, the Hatikvah neighborhood, the Arab-Jewish Community Center in Jaffa, the rooftop of Tel Aviv City Hall, WeWork, Levinsky Park, Bar Kayma, Beit Romano, the Nalaga’at Center, Picnic Little Italy-Sarona Tel Aviv, and Artport.
Outdoors. The Tel Aviv Port will continue to host the festival this year, with outdoor screenings of music films with guest deejays from KZRadio. Films to be screened at the port include Janis: Little Girl Blue, The Reflektor Tapes about the band Arcade Fire, P.T Andersoan’s Junun about the musical collaboration between Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, Nigel Godrich, and a dozen Indian musicians.
Festival Firsts. DocaviVR: a collaboration between Docaviv and Steamer, Israel’s first Interactive and Virtual Reality Film Festival, presents original documentary projects from Israel and around the world, created especially for viewing with Vr gear. The event will take place at Beit Romano. A cinema will pop up in one of Tel Aviv’s trendy hubs, with 25 stations equipped with Vr gear.
The Docommunity conference aims to promote dcomentary across the country by bringing together cultural coordinators and artistic directors from across the country to introduce them to the latest documentary films from Israel and around the world.
The Platform for Alternative Documentation at Artport art space: A performative piece that brings together film artists, social activists, and researchers studying the various aesthetic, social, and philosophical aspects of documentation. Curated by Laliv Melamed and Gilad Reich.
Young audiences. For the first time, films from The Next Doc will be screened, a special initiative of Docaviv, the Second Channel, and the New Fund for Film and Television, which led to the production of three films created especially for a teenage audience.
Docaviv will also be hosting the final event of Docu Young, at which films by students in residential schools, who participated in film workshops , will be screened.
The Docyouth Competition will feature the best documentary films produced by students in high school film programs throughout the country. For the first time, voting for this year’s competition will be held online and open to high school students across the country.
Among the Screenings of docs for kids are Victor Kosakovsky’s “Varicella”, and “Landfilharmonic”.
Over the course of the festival, 110 films will be screened.
- 5/11/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This Israeli director’s film, backed by Shia Labeouf, follows a pensive stripper, busker and surfer – but while well shot, their stories just aren’t that interesting
What is love? It’s a question that has vexed thinkers from Plato to Haddaway. Israeli director Alma Har’el, whose roots lie in music videos and art installations, makes no claim on knowing the answer, but is persistent in repeating the question. If the chatter at this year’s Tribeca film festival is to be believed LoveTrue, Har’el’s latest, was financed without the consultation of lawyers after the increasingly art-adjacent Shia Labeouf became a fan of the director since her last picture, the hallucinatory portrait of a California ghost town, Bombay Beach.
LoveTrue is a portrait of three individuals who share no connection other than being unhappy. Blake is a big-hearted young stripper in Alaska, who finds tremendous empowerment and gratification in her job,...
What is love? It’s a question that has vexed thinkers from Plato to Haddaway. Israeli director Alma Har’el, whose roots lie in music videos and art installations, makes no claim on knowing the answer, but is persistent in repeating the question. If the chatter at this year’s Tribeca film festival is to be believed LoveTrue, Har’el’s latest, was financed without the consultation of lawyers after the increasingly art-adjacent Shia Labeouf became a fan of the director since her last picture, the hallucinatory portrait of a California ghost town, Bombay Beach.
LoveTrue is a portrait of three individuals who share no connection other than being unhappy. Blake is a big-hearted young stripper in Alaska, who finds tremendous empowerment and gratification in her job,...
- 4/22/2016
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
This Israeli director’s film, backed by Shia Labeouf, follows a pensive stripper, busker and surfer – but while well shot, their stories just aren’t that interesting
What is love? It’s a question that has vexed thinkers from Plato to Haddaway. Israeli director Alma Har’el, whose roots lie in music videos and art installations, makes no claim on knowing the answer, but is persistent in repeating the question. If the chatter at this year’s Tribeca film festival is to be believed LoveTrue, Har’el’s latest, was financed without the consultation of lawyers after the increasingly art-adjacent Shia Labeouf became a fan of the director since her last picture, the hallucinatory portrait of a California ghost town, Bombay Beach.
LoveTrue is a portrait of three individuals who share no connection other than being unhappy. Blake is a big-hearted young stripper in Alaska, who finds tremendous empowerment and gratification in her job,...
What is love? It’s a question that has vexed thinkers from Plato to Haddaway. Israeli director Alma Har’el, whose roots lie in music videos and art installations, makes no claim on knowing the answer, but is persistent in repeating the question. If the chatter at this year’s Tribeca film festival is to be believed LoveTrue, Har’el’s latest, was financed without the consultation of lawyers after the increasingly art-adjacent Shia Labeouf became a fan of the director since her last picture, the hallucinatory portrait of a California ghost town, Bombay Beach.
LoveTrue is a portrait of three individuals who share no connection other than being unhappy. Blake is a big-hearted young stripper in Alaska, who finds tremendous empowerment and gratification in her job,...
- 4/22/2016
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
In 2011, Alma Har’el won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her doc Bombay Beach. Now just five years later, Har’el is back with another documentary at Tribeca, called Love True. Grammatically it may incorrect but visually, it astounds the audience’s eyes with amazing aesthetics of the past, present, and future of three characters.
What makes the film remarkably poignant is not only the subject matter, but rather the story between Har’el and executive producer Shia Labeouf. At the time of filming, Har’el was going through a bitter divorce with her filmmaker husband, and she talks about the struggle between what the film showed and her actual life.
But how did Labeouf come to work together with Har’el? After going through a bad relationship of his own, he was searching through movies and found Har’el’s Bombay Beach in...
What makes the film remarkably poignant is not only the subject matter, but rather the story between Har’el and executive producer Shia Labeouf. At the time of filming, Har’el was going through a bitter divorce with her filmmaker husband, and she talks about the struggle between what the film showed and her actual life.
But how did Labeouf come to work together with Har’el? After going through a bad relationship of his own, he was searching through movies and found Har’el’s Bombay Beach in...
- 4/18/2016
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
Very high on my list of anticipated works at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is LoveTrue, Alma Har’el’s follow-up to her stunning documentary, Bombay Beach. For her new hybrid doc, Har’el — a Filmmaker 25 New Face — has followed three very different couples whose behaviors challenge our expectations of what constitutes a love story. She’s also employed actors, who play her real-life subjects past and future selves. Har’el’s work is always provocative, soulful, and rich with stunning images and gorgeous music. Last year, I watched a short work-in-progress cut of this project, and interviewed Har’el. Here she is answering […]...
- 4/11/2016
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Alma Har’el broke out big in 2011 when Bombay Beach hit the Berlin Film Festival. Winner of the Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival and nominated for the Independent Spirit “Truer than Fiction” award and Cinema Eye Honors “Best Film Debut” and “Best Cinematography” awards we’ve been patiently waiting for a follow up since. A good morsel of LoveTrue was divulged (this snip-it is pure beauty) this past April at Tribeca as a work-in-progress and naturally Berlin and Tribeca are both lieus where this could shore up, but Sundance could be a good fit as well. Shia Labeouf who performed for her in the music video for Sigur Rós, supported this project.
Gist: This offers a unique exploration of the challenges that love can present and how our past and present experiences shape the decisions we make when the fantasy of True Love dissipates. Using cinematic expressions of past memories and possible futures,...
Gist: This offers a unique exploration of the challenges that love can present and how our past and present experiences shape the decisions we make when the fantasy of True Love dissipates. Using cinematic expressions of past memories and possible futures,...
- 11/25/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Read More: "Bombay Beach" Director Alma Har'el: "I'm Not a Documentarian, or a Filmmaker, or Anything." Last night at New York's School for Visual Arts, a number of Tribeca Film Festival attendees saw an exclusive preview of scenes from Alma Har'el's new film "LoveTrue." Har'el returned to Tribeca this year after winning the festival's Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary in 2011 with "Bombay Beach," a surreal and beautiful portrait of a small town in the California desert. After directing Shia Labeouf in the music video for Sigur Rós' "Fjögur píanó," Har'el and the actor teamed up for "LoveTrue," which she directed and he produced. The two discussed the project in between three clips from the film. "LoveTrue" is as of yet a work in progress, to be completed next year. The film blurs the line between documentary and fiction, interweaving three distinct (true) love stories of couples living.
- 4/17/2015
- by Anya Jaremko-Greenwold
- Indiewire
Alma Har’el’s 2011 Bombay Beach is one of the most striking feature debuts of any sort, fiction or doc, in recent years. In writing about the film and Har’el for our 25 New Faces of 2011, I called it “not only a loving, deeply empathetic portrait of the diverse characters who make up the town” (a small burg in the Salton Sea) “but also a beautifully poetic cinematic essay on the power — and necessity — of play and self-invention.” Bombay Beach, shot largely by Har’el herself on a handheld, $600 Canon consumer video camera, had style to burn, and […]...
- 4/17/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Alma Har’el’s 2011 Bombay Beach is one of the most striking feature debuts of any sort, fiction or doc, in recent years. In writing about the film and Har’el for our 25 New Faces of 2011, I called it “not only a loving, deeply empathetic portrait of the diverse characters who make up the town” (a small burg in the Salton Sea) “but also a beautifully poetic cinematic essay on the power — and necessity — of play and self-invention.” Bombay Beach, shot largely by Har’el herself on a handheld, $600 Canon consumer video camera, had style to burn, and […]...
- 4/17/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Director Alma Har’el, known for blurring lines between documentary and fiction, previously worked with Labeouf on a Sigur Rós music video.
London-based Dogwoof has acquired worldwide sales rights to award-winning director Alma Har’el’s new documentary LoveTrue, currently in post production and executive produced by Us actor Shia LeBeouf.
Dogwoof previously worked with Har’el in 2012 for her debut feature Bombay Beach - which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 - acting as UK distributor.
This latest feature will see Dogwoof representing the film as worldwide sales agents as well as UK distributor. It will bring LoveTrue to the Cannes Marché next month as part of its sales slate.
LeBeouf, star of Transformers and Fury, was directed by Har’el in her most recent music video for Icelandic band Sigur Rós, Fjögur píanó, in 2013.
Har’el and LeBeouf will present exclusive first clips from LoveTrue at Tribeca on Thursday...
London-based Dogwoof has acquired worldwide sales rights to award-winning director Alma Har’el’s new documentary LoveTrue, currently in post production and executive produced by Us actor Shia LeBeouf.
Dogwoof previously worked with Har’el in 2012 for her debut feature Bombay Beach - which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 - acting as UK distributor.
This latest feature will see Dogwoof representing the film as worldwide sales agents as well as UK distributor. It will bring LoveTrue to the Cannes Marché next month as part of its sales slate.
LeBeouf, star of Transformers and Fury, was directed by Har’el in her most recent music video for Icelandic band Sigur Rós, Fjögur píanó, in 2013.
Har’el and LeBeouf will present exclusive first clips from LoveTrue at Tribeca on Thursday...
- 4/13/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Born of a Small Town: Droz Tragos & Droz Palermo Regard Three Boys Living With Ingrained Poverty and Troubled Pedigree
With increasing frequency, documentary filmmakers are examining the developing lives of youngsters, observing the rapid transformation of their bodies and their transitioning self images in reciprocating unrest, their puberty ridden psyches an emotional microcosm often illuminating the family and communities in which they’re raised. Some indulge juvenile subversion like 12 O’Clock Boys, some investigate race relations as in American Promise, some observe the fragile state of growing relationships like Young Ones, some conjure the spirit of youthful wonder à la Tchoupitoulas, and some document the naive resilience of young minds stuck in dire situations as co-directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo have with their visually sumptuous collaboration, Rich Hill. Following a trio of teenage boys who’ve inherited the heartbreak of poverty and domestic disputes, the film calls...
With increasing frequency, documentary filmmakers are examining the developing lives of youngsters, observing the rapid transformation of their bodies and their transitioning self images in reciprocating unrest, their puberty ridden psyches an emotional microcosm often illuminating the family and communities in which they’re raised. Some indulge juvenile subversion like 12 O’Clock Boys, some investigate race relations as in American Promise, some observe the fragile state of growing relationships like Young Ones, some conjure the spirit of youthful wonder à la Tchoupitoulas, and some document the naive resilience of young minds stuck in dire situations as co-directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo have with their visually sumptuous collaboration, Rich Hill. Following a trio of teenage boys who’ve inherited the heartbreak of poverty and domestic disputes, the film calls...
- 8/1/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The Salton Sea in California's desert is a huge lake that shouldn't be. Created accidentally at the beginning of the 20th century when irrigation routes from the Colorado River flooded the Salton Sink in the Coachella Valley. The spot was a popular tourist spot, and properties were snapped up by celebrities like Sonny Bono. After all, how often is there new waterfront property?
Of course, with no consistent water source the Salton Sea's water level fluctuates wildly, and the salinity grows ever higher, much of it being leeched out of the surrounding land (which also takes with it pesticides). By the 1970s, the water could no longer support the fish that called it home, and they died off by the millions, washing ashore. The area is described as smelling like an old fish market on a hot day. You might drive past and think it looks like a nice, quiet...
Of course, with no consistent water source the Salton Sea's water level fluctuates wildly, and the salinity grows ever higher, much of it being leeched out of the surrounding land (which also takes with it pesticides). By the 1970s, the water could no longer support the fish that called it home, and they died off by the millions, washing ashore. The area is described as smelling like an old fish market on a hot day. You might drive past and think it looks like a nice, quiet...
- 2/12/2014
- by Alyse Wax
- FEARnet
When it was announced that Only The Young and Tchoupitoulas would be released together in a single package, I was a little taken back by the seemingly strange pairing. A coming-of-age story of teenage southern Cali punks playing alongside a trio of young brothers venturing the vibrant streets of New Orleans in an overnight adventure? Sure, they are two of the best American documentaries of 2012, and yes, they both employee a group of kids as their subjects, but it still seemed a little odd. Watching them side by side though, it makes a whole lot of sense. Both films, gorgeously shot and inventively structured, take a look at the world through the naïve eyes of youth, experiencing the awkward tensions between love and friendships or letting the alien mores of a city so near, yet so far, wash over them in a hail of aural overload. Directors Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet,...
- 5/14/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
We reveal the 10 debut films in the frame, which include a documentary that doubles as a thriller, an urban drama set in east London, and a postmodern horror
Each year, the Guardian does its bit to contribute to the annual hysteria that is the movie awards season; though ours steers clear of glitzy dance routines, on-camera meltdowns and off-colour jokes about interpersonal relationships.
The Guardian first film award is designed to reward debut directors whose films went on release during 2012 in UK cinemas (festival screenings don't count), and the rollcall of previous winners comprises Joanna Hogg's Unrelated, Gideon Koppel's Sleep Furiously, Clio Barnard's The Arbor and, last year, The Guard, directed by John Michael McDonagh. There may have been a preponderance of British films there, but Britishness is certainly not a requirement: we are looking for ambition of theme, originality of vision, and proficiency of achievement. In other words,...
Each year, the Guardian does its bit to contribute to the annual hysteria that is the movie awards season; though ours steers clear of glitzy dance routines, on-camera meltdowns and off-colour jokes about interpersonal relationships.
The Guardian first film award is designed to reward debut directors whose films went on release during 2012 in UK cinemas (festival screenings don't count), and the rollcall of previous winners comprises Joanna Hogg's Unrelated, Gideon Koppel's Sleep Furiously, Clio Barnard's The Arbor and, last year, The Guard, directed by John Michael McDonagh. There may have been a preponderance of British films there, but Britishness is certainly not a requirement: we are looking for ambition of theme, originality of vision, and proficiency of achievement. In other words,...
- 1/22/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Visions of the American apocalypse, camp tough guys, and teen stars ruining their clean-cut reputations … it's been quite a year on the big screen
Wrecked America
Sure, the Mayans were wrong, but turns out we're off to hell in a handcart anyway. From Beasts of the Southern Wild to Bombay Beach, Killing Them Softly to The Queen of Versailles, Hollywood took us on a guided tour of a land blighted by ecological and economic collapse. Be sure to stop in at the gift shop on your way out.
Dogs in peril
Last year was vintage for big-screen mutts, with pooches stealing the show on The Artist, and making the posters for Hugo and Young Adult. Call it karma, then, that 2012 has metaphorically drowned Uggie's puppies. Bonnie the shih tzu was snatched in Seven Psychopaths, Poppy the terrier abducted in Sightseers. But they get off lightly compared with Fanny the springer spaniel in The Hunt.
Wrecked America
Sure, the Mayans were wrong, but turns out we're off to hell in a handcart anyway. From Beasts of the Southern Wild to Bombay Beach, Killing Them Softly to The Queen of Versailles, Hollywood took us on a guided tour of a land blighted by ecological and economic collapse. Be sure to stop in at the gift shop on your way out.
Dogs in peril
Last year was vintage for big-screen mutts, with pooches stealing the show on The Artist, and making the posters for Hugo and Young Adult. Call it karma, then, that 2012 has metaphorically drowned Uggie's puppies. Bonnie the shih tzu was snatched in Seven Psychopaths, Poppy the terrier abducted in Sightseers. But they get off lightly compared with Fanny the springer spaniel in The Hunt.
- 12/27/2012
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Mims and Tippet Find Faith In Punks
Another non-fiction tale of sun-kissed west coast kids, Only The Young follows a trio of good-hearted teenage punks meandering their way through high school problems while trying to deal with innate ones that are just too big for their own naïve hands to hold. In a small town in southern California, directors Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet found Garrison, Kevin and Skye, a pair of young skaters and their pierced up female counterpart trying to find themselves among the corroding abandoned buildings and fluorescent lit underpasses that make up their neighborhood. Their brief, supremely honest account is one of growing up in a small town with a small clique and a head full of perplexities and the best intentions.
The trio have been friends since the dawning of their teens and have since spent every spare minute sharing their boredom in good company,...
Another non-fiction tale of sun-kissed west coast kids, Only The Young follows a trio of good-hearted teenage punks meandering their way through high school problems while trying to deal with innate ones that are just too big for their own naïve hands to hold. In a small town in southern California, directors Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet found Garrison, Kevin and Skye, a pair of young skaters and their pierced up female counterpart trying to find themselves among the corroding abandoned buildings and fluorescent lit underpasses that make up their neighborhood. Their brief, supremely honest account is one of growing up in a small town with a small clique and a head full of perplexities and the best intentions.
The trio have been friends since the dawning of their teens and have since spent every spare minute sharing their boredom in good company,...
- 12/14/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Role Reversal: Filmmakers “Composing” for Music and a Look Into Sigur Rós’ ‘Valtari Film Experiment’
You may have watched, or even just heard of, the slightly strange video featuring Shia Labeouf and dancer Denna Thomsen that hit the web a few months back. The video features the pair dancing, fighting, and losing themselves to the almost sad sounding piano refrains of Sigur Rós’ “Fjögur Píanó” from the band’s latest album, Valtari. But even though the duo may have been performing to the music, the production was clearly more than a simple music video. Clocking in at a little over eight minutes, the video was directed by Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach) and is one of seventeen videos commissioned by Sigur Rós to be a part of their Valtari Film Experiment. Rather than simply going on tour to bring their latest album to the public, Sigur Rós had various filmmakers and artists take each of Valtari’s tracks and create their own visions inspired by them. Music...
- 12/6/2012
- by Allison Loring
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
With the credits poised to roll on 2012, it's time for the Guardian's countdown through the year's best films. We start at number 10: Lauren Greenfield's tragicomic documentary about the Us housing crisis
It's been a pretty good year for documentaries. Bart "Banged Up Abroad" Layton gave us the trashy thrills of The Imposter, Alma Har'el's Bombay Beach offered a mournful valediction to ruined lives on the American margins, while Werner Herzog – who else – took an intriguingly uninflected position on the death penalty with Into the Abyss. But Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles was arguably the pick of the year, zeroing in on a very contemporary fable and telling its story with sly wit and a degree of empathy.
Greenfield hasn't arrived from nowhere, though: a photographer of considerable distinction, she put herself on the map with her Girl Culture book before breaking into feature-length film-making with the eating-disorder doco Thin,...
It's been a pretty good year for documentaries. Bart "Banged Up Abroad" Layton gave us the trashy thrills of The Imposter, Alma Har'el's Bombay Beach offered a mournful valediction to ruined lives on the American margins, while Werner Herzog – who else – took an intriguingly uninflected position on the death penalty with Into the Abyss. But Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles was arguably the pick of the year, zeroing in on a very contemporary fable and telling its story with sly wit and a degree of empathy.
Greenfield hasn't arrived from nowhere, though: a photographer of considerable distinction, she put herself on the map with her Girl Culture book before breaking into feature-length film-making with the eating-disorder doco Thin,...
- 12/3/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Veteran colorist Beau Leon has joined Company 3, Deluxe’s digital intermediate and post production business that maintains bases in Los Angeles, London, New York, Atlanta and Chicago. Leon’s artistic work spans long and short form projects, including indie films and documentaries such as Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You, Joseph Kahn’s Detention, and the Alma Har’el helmed Bombay Beach. He recently worked on HBO’s documentary series Witness. Leon has also been the colorist on many high profile commercials and music videos. These include Lady Gaga’s You and I, Katy Perry’s E.T., Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight Tonight, and Madonna’s Take A Bow.
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- 10/2/2012
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shia Labeouf will have his first major post-Transformers moment with the arrival of his prohibition western Lawless, but the actor already made waves recently when he appeared in an artsy Sigur Rós video directed by Alma Ha'rel. How did he get involved? "I wrote a fan letter," Labeouf told us last night at the Lawless premiere. "I saw Bombay Beach, the movie that Alma Har'el made. It touched me. I told her so. She told me she’d like to work with me. I said, 'What are you doing?' She said, 'I got this Sigur Rós thing.' I said, 'Cool. Can I get involved?' And at the time, it was a different idea. So we worked on the idea for a week." In the video, Labeouf plays a man in a tempestuous relationship, and he gets to show an emotional, mature side of himself that isn't often tested by battling-robots movies.
- 8/14/2012
- by Tory Hoen
- Vulture
Containing the same truthful fusion of fantasy and reality as found in her documentary Bombay Beach, filmmaker Alma Har’el’s latest work is a provocative and dramatically compelling short film for the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, made as part of the group’s Mystery Film Eeperiment. For the Project, the band invited a dozen filmmakers to select a track from their new album, Valtari, gave them the same modest budget, and told them to do what they saw in their heads. “The idea is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom,” they wrote on their site. In the case of Har’el, the result is “Fjögur Píanó,” a wildly ambitious emotional journey in which a couple — Shia Labeouf and Denna Thomsen — passes through all the stages of a relationship amidst imagery ranging from psychedelic drug trips to a room decorated with butterflies. And,...
- 6/26/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
It's fair to say that 2011 was not a vintage year for Edinburgh Film Festival. With considerable trouble at the top, a truncated programme and a hole left where the Michael Powell Award should have been, the edition was heavily criticised, although it's worth remembering it still featured a number of notable films including The Turin Horse, Bombay Beach and Tomboy. A year is a long time in programming, however, and new artistic director Chris Fujiwara, along with the festival's stalwart team of long-standing programmers, has brought a welcome calm and confident air to the 2012 programme.
The end result is as cosmopolitan as Fujiwara's background. A New Yorker, who has most recently been living and working in Japan, he has written books on the equally well-travelled Otto Preminger and Jacques Tourneur, and a glance at his website insanemute reveals a man of diverse taste and cinematic...
The end result is as cosmopolitan as Fujiwara's background. A New Yorker, who has most recently been living and working in Japan, he has written books on the equally well-travelled Otto Preminger and Jacques Tourneur, and a glance at his website insanemute reveals a man of diverse taste and cinematic...
- 6/19/2012
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
How do you make the music video relevant again? With full-frontal Shia Labeouf nudity, of course!
Something about that sentence sounds wrong…
In any case, the music video for Sigur Ros’ “Fjogur Piano” has surfaced (via Indiewire), and it’s an intense, trippy, sexually-charged experience that certainly can’t be dinged for lack of ambition. Directed by Alma Har’el, who helmed the documentary Bombay Beach, the video even surprised Sigur Ros bassist Georg Holm:
“We really had no idea what to expect from Alma. Originally she was going to film us on super 8 in Iceland all playing the piano lines from the song, but then she rang and said she’d met Shia Labeouf and they’d changed the idea, that was the last we heard of the concept and she told us nothing about what was going on … At first I didn’t know what to make of the video,...
Something about that sentence sounds wrong…
In any case, the music video for Sigur Ros’ “Fjogur Piano” has surfaced (via Indiewire), and it’s an intense, trippy, sexually-charged experience that certainly can’t be dinged for lack of ambition. Directed by Alma Har’el, who helmed the documentary Bombay Beach, the video even surprised Sigur Ros bassist Georg Holm:
“We really had no idea what to expect from Alma. Originally she was going to film us on super 8 in Iceland all playing the piano lines from the song, but then she rang and said she’d met Shia Labeouf and they’d changed the idea, that was the last we heard of the concept and she told us nothing about what was going on … At first I didn’t know what to make of the video,...
- 6/18/2012
- by Jonathan R. Lack
- We Got This Covered
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