A TRIP (2011) producer Ales Pavlin The Slovenian film IZLET (A TRIP, 2011) by writer/director Nejc Gazvoda and producer Ales Pavlin most recently traveled to the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF) and screened in competition at 'Cinedays' in Skopje, Macedonia. A TRIP's 'trip' will continue to Goa, India for the Goa Film Festival and then begin its tour in the USA. It is the first feature film (of what promises to be many) for both writer/director Nejc and producer Ales.  I in...

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  This week at 'Cinedays' in Skopje, Macedonia, during the 70 films in 10 days event, Bela Tarr's latest film (and final the director says), THE TURIN HORSE (2011) screened to local and international audiences. Bela Tarr is a loved auteur around the world and some even say, an 'apocalyptic' director.  The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Bé...

A TRIP (2011) producer Ales Pavlin   The Slovenian film IZLET (A TRIP, 2011) by writer/director Nejc Gazvoda and producer Ales Pavlin most recently traveled to the 52nd Thessaloniki Film Festival (TIFF) and screened in competition at 'Cinedays' in Skopje, Macedonia. A TRIP's 'trip' will continue to Goa, India for the Goa Film Festival and then begin its tour in the USA. It is the first feature film (of what promises to be many) for both writer/director Nejc and producer Ales. ...

Not long after the debut of Jonathan Demme’s latest film, I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2011), at the 68th Venice Film Festival, I interviewed Carolyn Parker’s daughter Kyrah Julian, who stars in the documentary and who attended Venice with Demme. Kyrah has been working with Demme since he started the documentary in 2006. Demme met the strong and outspoken Carolyn Parker in 2006 when she complained to the New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin about the neglect of the Nin...

Actress Kyrah Julian and producer Lindsay Jaeger Not long after the debut of Jonathan Demme’s latest film, I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2011), at the 68th Venice Film Festival, I interviewed Carolyn Parker’s daughter Kyrah Julian, who stars in the documentary and who attended Venice with Demme. Kyrah has been working with Demme since he started the documentary in 2006. Demme met the strong and outspoken Carolyn Parker in 2006 when she complained to the New Orle...

LOVERBOY at TIFF 2011               LOVERBOY (2011) is the newest film by the Mitulescu brothers, Catalin and Daniel. LOVERBOY opened at Cannes 2011 in ‘Un Certain Regard’ and has screened in competition in several festivals since, including Sarajevo at the 17th Sarajevo Film Festival where the stunning lead actress, Ada Condeescu, won a merited Best Actress award, and most recently at the 52nd Thessalon...

In his feature film debut “Being Mitsuko” which had its world premiere on October 13 at the Warsaw Film Festival, Japanese director Kenji Yamauchi walks a fine genre line between the comic and the tragic. And it works. Imbued with a strong dose of black humor and absurdist elements, Yamauchi has crafted an intricate narrative that revolves around the lives of Mitsuko and Emi Shinozaki, two 20-something sisters living in their family house in suburban Tokyo.  But there is hardly...

Walking around New York, London or Paris, if you offered someone 100 dollars, pounds or euros to name just one Bulgarian film or director, you'd likely still have the money in your pocket after an hour of trying. Of course, this fact has nothing to do with a lack of productivity or talent in contemporary Bulgarian cinema.And with “Avé”, the feature film debut by director Konstantin Bojanov, Bulgarian cinema's profile is likely to be raised higher, as audiences discover a deeply personal and...

   The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr film. As a writer myself, I’m big on unadulterated organic creativity and this exemplary director has gone against all the rules doing everything a filmmaker is taught not to do, making himself quite a name in his 34 years of doing so. Tarr even holds the credit to having directed one...

  The first time I had heard about Béla Tarr was from a Serbian filmmaker friend who told me that if I wanted to know some real avant-garde plucky cinema, I hadn’t lived until I had seen a Béla Tarr film. As a writer myself, I’m big on unadulterated organic creativity and this exemplary director has gone against all the rules doing everything a filmmaker is taught not to do, making himself quite a name in his 34 years of doing so. Tarr even holds the credit to having directed one of the ...

In Retrospect... From RIFF 2010 to MIPCOM 2011... Last year the film at RIFF 2010 which stirred up quite a debate was this documentary, WHEN THE DRAGON SWALLOWED THE SUN (2010), which threatened to destabilize the friendly relationship between China and Iceland (the film is about China's oppressive hold over Tibet). Now one year later the film is being sold at the world's biggest TV market, MIPCOM, at Cannes; October 03-06, 2011.   Interview with director Dirk Simon from ...

                photo from Venice poster at La Biennale, 68.This past week I attended the 8th annual Reykjavik Film Festival (RIFF) after going nonstop from Venice La Biennale, then to TIFF and then to RIFF. I was tired of course but so anxious to catch up on the films that I had missed at the former festivals that appeared also in Iceland. One of these films was one that had received a great buzz in Venice, a lyrica...

At the 68th Venice Film Festival, Belgian director Nicolas Provost held his world premier for his first feature film THE INVADER (2011). He immediately after traveled to Toronto for TIFF 2011 where he held his North American premier and where we held our interview. THE INVADER is an intense and arresting arthouse dramatic thriller about an African immigrant, AMADOU (played hauntingly by actor Isaka Sawadogo) who travels to Belgium for a new and hopefully better life. While finding himself at ...