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Vanessa is a novel writer, screenwriter, rep and a film producer. She shares her discoveries and film surprises. :-)
This was a very endearing press conference, especially in light of Lars Von Trier’s press conference two days prior for MELANCHOLY (2011) that still had everyone’s head spinning in Cannes. Von Trier’s comments on his Nazi sympathies as well as his protested desire to return to Denmark and focus only on soft and hardcore porn had everyone at Cannes thinking twice about Danish cinema and its praiseworthy art-house directors.
Nicolas Winding Refn is a former student of Von Trier...
RESTLESS (2011)SUMMARY: “The story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII”.During the press conference at Cannes I sat next to actor Henry Hopper’s mother and she said, ‘that’s my son!’ with pride and a twinkle in her eye. Many say that RESTLESS (2011) is a tribute to French cinema. It may even hint to a touch magical realism meets Woody Allen (just read this sweet ...
SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011)One of the films in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival was SLEEPING BEAUTY (2011) by writer/director Julia Leigh. While one might recall the sweet animated Disney film SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959) or the classic fairytale in reference to this title, this film is a far cry from these classics with the same name; rather, this ‘sleeping beauty’ is about the erotic desires of a young woman and her ‘female gaze’, as opposed to the much discussed, much debated cinem...
THE TREE OF LIFE (2011), a humble review!Ok, there have been a lot of write-ups about this Palme d’Or winner but having attended the premier and having witnessed firsthand the reaction of audiences, I felt I should write a little piece of my own. The theater was certainly filled up with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars- Jude Law, Uma Thurman and Robert DeNiro (all members of this year’s jury), Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, Jessica Chastain, and even Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossda...
Pacha Pictures launch at 64th Cannes Film Festival Leave it to the Egyptians to do it their way…I have nothing but the utmost awe and admiration for the revolutionary energy and passion for filmmaking and change coming out of Egypt, setting things in motion in the way of communication, revolution, cinema and now… world distribution!!! I met up with producer/actor Khaled Abol Naga in Istanbul when he told me about their plan to launch an independent World Sales/Distribution company betw...
INTERVIEW WITH IGNACIO NUNEZAt the 64th Cannes, one of the most talked about films on the market was the legendary film director Roland Joffe's latest film, THERE BE DRAGONS (2011). I sat with producer Ignacio Nunez at the Hotel Martinez for our one-on-one interview about this highly anticipated multi-cultural epic film. ME: Can you tell us about the film and how difficult this three-year highly ambitious indie film project was to get off the ground?NUNEZ: Roland Joffe wrote and directed the fil...
p>64th Cannes Market : Cannes, 2011 Cannes Market2011...Was it a success? This year's Cannes (2011), I had the opportunity to interview Scott Martin of ARCHSTONE DISTRIBUTION and we spoke about the 64th Cannes Film Festival, their sales company and the results of this year's market in general. It's no secret that since the economic recession of the past few years as well as various changes in modes of distribution outlets, recent market sales have taken a hardhit. However, the mood ...
PRESS CONFERENCE at 64th Cannes Film Festival for: HEARAT SHULAYIM (FOOTNOTE, Israel, 2011) By director Joseph Cedar…
SUMMARY: “The story of a great rivalry between a father and son, both eccentric professors in the Talmud department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The son has an addictive dependency on the embrace and accolades that the establishment provides, while his father is a stubborn purist with a fear and profound revulsion for what the establishment stands fo...
stay tuned for daily interviews, reviews, panels, pictures and news right here on filmfestivals.com and fest21.com!!! READ WHOLE FESTIVAL CANNES BLOG HERE: http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/cannes ...
photo stills from filmANNETA PAPATHANASSIOU INTERVIEW about her film, “The Nymphs of Hindu Kush” (Oi nymfes tou Hindu Kush) (Greece, 2010), which first screened at the 13th International Thessaloniki Doc Fest 2011 two months ago. After many attempts to see her film and to speak with her, Anneta and I finally made our interview. And just before the circus of the 64th Cannes Film Festival begins with all its fiction films and fantasy glitz and glamor and yachts and movie myth, I thought ...
Mike Ott’s film, LITTLEROCK (2010) has traveled the globe (most recently in Copenhagen at CPHPIX 2011 and SFIFF 2011 in San Francisco) with this ‘coming-of-age’ road movie about the little pleasures in life and the fascinations of cultural differences and similarities. A film about finding translation while seemingly lost in it, this film communicates universally and one finds oneself celebrating the similarities of culture rather than the differences. ME: How did you come up with ...
Since BARDSONGS (2010) screened in Palm Springs this past PSIFF 2011, I’ve been speaking to director Sander Francken about doing an interview about what I thought was an extremely intriguing subject for a film, that of oral storytelling in a time where storytelling has changed so much that the old modes have long since departed us. Or have they? Sander’s film is a tribute to oral storytelling and ‘bardsongs’. I tracked him down in Copenhagen at CPHPIX 2011 where his fil...
ROAD TO NOWHERE (2010) premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival and since then has screened in prestigious festivals around the world, its latest at the Copenhagen Film Festival, CPHPIX, 2011. Monte has won numerous awards throughout his career and was recently guest of honor at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2011.
When I went to interview Monte at his home in Los Angeles, tucked in the sundrenched hills of Laurel Canyon, not only did I have the privilege of...
A still from 'Charlie Butterfly'
INTERVIEW WITH DARIUSZ STEINESS on his film CHARLIE BUTTERFLY (2002) and his director cut release at Copenhagen Film Festival, CPHPIX 2011.
I interviewed Dariusz in Copenhagen over a fantastic French dinner the night before his big premier, the re-release of his film CHARLIE BUTTERFLY (Denmark, 2002) in the form of a never before seen Director’s Cut. When I asked Dariusz about his film, he simply said: “If I coul...
LITTLE BLUE PILL (USA, 2011) is a new fresh comedy by director Aaron Godfried. In the style of a Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 2007) and Paul Weitz (American Pie, 1999) and even more closely, Todd Phillips (The Hangover, 2009), this film depicts the essence that is the American sense of humor. They say comedy is local but due to the universal situation of sex appeal and sex stimulants, this could just hit an international audience successfully. LITTLE BLUE PILL is an all American indie...
EVEN THE RAIN was directed by Iciar Bollaín and written by award winning screenwriter Paul Laverty. The film takes place in the village of Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2000. The premise was to make an epic film about Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. It is a fiction film in the style of a documentary about this film crew and its director, Sebastián (Gael García Bernal), and his producer (Luis Tosar) as they attempt to show Columbus, exploiter of the indigenous people of Bolivia...
Interview with director Juanita Wilson
Director Juanita Wilson won the Film Award of the Council of Europe (FACE), presented in scope of Human Rights in Cinema competition with her film AS IF I AM NOT THERE (Ireland, Bosnia, 2010). I interviewed with Juanita Wilson at the Marmara Taksim Hotel in Taksim Square on the 20th floor with a stunning view of Istanbul surrounding us. Juanita spoke passionately about her film that has now traveled around the world and which has e...
INTERVIEW with director Johannes Stjärne Nilsson, SOUND OF NOISE (2010)
THE SOUND OF NOISE (Sweden, 2010) screened in competition at the 30th Istanbul Film Festival IFF. Co-directed by directors Johannes Starne Nilsson and Ola Simonsson, this film is a one of a kind experiment of music on film. Many have compared the lively inventive percussionists in the film to the traveling band STOMP but as Johannes explained, ‘well, maybe it’s a bit similar but our band will ...
photo still from film
One of the documentaries highest on my list at this year’s 13th TDF was the film, RAW MATERIAL (Greece, 2011) by director Christos Karakepelis. This documentary left me with chills, not only because of its raw subject about the declining Greek economy but the worsening of the situation of immigrants to Greece and the inhumane lives they lead.
When we follow the lives of three Roma from Albania, two Indians, a Turk and a Greek who subsist on the collecting...
Interview with director Amir of THE TILLMAN STORY (USA, 2010).
First, read more about the film here: http://www.fest21.com/en/blog/vanessa_mcmahon/the_tillman_story_q_and_a
ME: First of all I want to congratulate you on your film which to me is very thought-provoking in terms of the questioning of what makes a myth.
AMIR: Well, thank you.
ME: So, how did you start to make this film and when?
AMIR: Well, we started in 2007 which was right around ...
THE TILLMAN STORY- Q and A.
THE TILLMAN STORY (USA, 2010) by director Amir Bar-Lev is a documentary about the football player Pat Tillman who gave up a multimillion dollar career in professional American football to go to war with the Army Rangers in 2002. He sacrificed personal success to fight alongside his brothers in war, a decision which for him was deeply personal. While in Iraq, Pat was tragically killed by ‘friendly fire’ (his own men). After his death he b...
MY SWEET CANARY (Israel, Turkey, Greece, 2011) opened the 13th Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival to a full enthusiastic audience and standing ovations. Director Roy Sher and two singers featured in the film, Mehtap Demir and Martha D. Lewis, attended a Q and A after both screenings of the film.
In response to a question from the audience of how his fascination with Roza began, Roy explains: ‘My first interaction with Roza was through hearing her and her Jewish...
MY SWEET CANARY (Israel, France, Greece, 2011) by director Roy Sher opened the 13th Thessaloniki Film Festival at the Olympian theater to a sold out audience on March 11th, 2011 and screened again on March 15th. The energy and excitement of the audience began with the presentation of the film by the director and sustained right to the end.
Filmed in Turkey, Greece, Israel and England, MY SWEET CANARY is a purely captivating story about history, love, art, passion and vibrant radian...
PORTRAIT OF A MAN (Finland, 2010) by director Visa Koiso-Kanttila screened in competition at this year’s Thessaloniki Doc Fest to international audiences. It is a beautifully filmed story about the truth of one man’s search for new meaning in his life. While a true story, this has the feeling of a fiction film as it follows one main character and his personal search for truth.
A Finnish man, Kalle Rissanen, is in now in his 40s. His father killed himself at the same age and recent...
IF NOT US, WHO? (Greece, 2010) is a documentary film by Greek filmmaker Nikoletta Papathanassiou about highschool students in Athens in 2006 who occupy their highschool in protest of the worsening education system in Greece which they feel is turning them into robots to serve an Americanized capitalist system rather than to create thinking individuals who serve a collective democratic society.
The students sleep in and live in the school in form of a strike making it impossible fo...
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