On the night of Milcho Manchevski’s ‘Conversations With’ we spoke briefly on the red carpet about his experience in Aruba.ME: So, Milcho. You just did your ‘conversations with’ panel. How did it go?MILCHO: It went extremely well. I've been extremely happy with the whole thing. We had a whole thing, the issues we touched upon, the feedback, the viewers who were there. It was nice.ME: How does it feel to be in Aruba right now? I mean, you've been to a 1000 festivals with your latest fi...

 IRON DOORS (2010), a new psychological thriller to make you think. About an investment banker with no name (we never get his name in this film so he’s a kind of Everyman investment banker) wakes up to find himself stuck inside a vault with no way out. ‘No food. No water. No way out.’ We experience his loneliness, hunger, thirst, frustration and even his hallucinations with him as he struggles to stay alive… or we are also left to wonder if he is even alive at all and maybe he has been ...

At Zagreb's newest festival, the late night outdoor film festival FANTASTIC ZAGREB, the American thriller film RED, WHITE AND BLUE (2010) screened on the night of July 3, 2011 just in time to celebrate America's 'red, white and blue' day July 4th! Crowds gathered for a night of terror and fantasy under the stars in Zagreb, Croatia to share this unique cinematic experience. What a way to usher in America's birthday!  The internationally acclaimed and festival winning Red White and B...

One of the most memorable films I have seen this past year was the haunting and lyrical film WHITE AS SNOW (Turkey, 2010) by director Selim Gunes and producer Nur Gunes. This is an unforgettable experiment in storytelling, disrupting our linear-prone conception of time in order to think in fragments. The mind doesn’t look back in time sequentially so why should a film that is retrospective? In this film about a poor young boy, Hasan, from the 1970’s, the viewer is forced to struggle through...

One of the films screened at this year's Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF 2011) was Spain's Oscar Entry, EVEN THE RAIN (2010). 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 ...

 On April 17th, during the closing ceremony of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival (IFF), the award for the best DOP went to Birgit Gudjonsdottir for her work in the Turkish film, OUR GRAND DESPAIR (2011). Recently, I conducted an interview with the award-winning and highly accomplished DOP/Producer. Aside from working on widely known films such as THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) and GOODBYE LENIN! (2003), she has worked as DOP on a number of documentaries, most recently including IN THE BEGINNING ...

One of the most memorable films I have seen this past year was the haunting and lyrical film WHITE AS SNOW (Turkey, 2010) by director Selim Gunes and producer Nur Gunes. This is an unforgettable experiment in storytelling, disrupting our linear-prone conception of time in order to think in fragments. The mind doesn’t look back in time sequentially so why should a film that is retrospective? In this film about a poor young boy, Hasan, from the 1970’s, the viewer is forced to struggle through...

 On April 17th, during the closing ceremony of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival (IFF), the award for the best DOP went to Birgit Gudjonsdottir for her work in the Turkish film, OUR GRAND DESPAIR (2011). Recently, I conducted an interview with the award-winning and highly accomplished DOP. Aside from working on widely known films such as THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004) and GOODBYE LENIN! (2003), she has worked as DOP on a number of documentaries, most recently including IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS...

  Radiant Venezuelan actress Prakriti Maduro appeared at the second annual Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) for the screening of the Venezuelan/Cuban film HABANA EVA (2010). The morning after seeing the film, I spoke at length with Prakriti about her film with its many layers and her active acting career in general. We met at the Hyatt Grand, Aruba overlooking the stunning Edenic beaches below. ME: So, how are you today? Are you enjoying the Aruba Film Festival? PRA: ...

 Radiant Venezuelan actress Prakriti Maduro appeared at the second annual Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) for the screening of the Venezuelan/Cuban film HABANA EVA (2010). The morning after seeing the film, I spoke at length with Prakriti about her film with its many layers and her active acting career in general. We met at the Hyatt Grand, Aruba overlooking the stunning Edenic beaches below. ME: So, how are you today? Are you enjoying the Aruba Film Festival? PRA: Yes, I love it...

Aaron Hose at AIFF 2011 Last year one of the films to premier at the inaugural Aruba International Film Festival was Aruba native director Aaron Hose’s award-winning documentary film VOICES IN THE CLOUDS (2010). This year Hose acted as director of the Caribbean Spotlight Series (CSS) for the 2nd annual AIFF. When I asked Aaron what that was like he said, ‘it was a great learning experience that I hope to repeat next year’. Aaron’s film VOICES IN THE CLOUDS is a poignant...

Aaron Hose at AIFF 2011 Last year one of the films to premier at the inaugural Aruba International Film Festival was Aruba native director Aaron Hose’s award-winning documentary film VOICES IN THE CLOUDS (2010). This year Hose acted as director of the Caribbean Spotlight Series (CSS) for the 2nd annual AIFF. When I asked Aaron what that was like he said, ‘it was a great learning experience that I hope to repeat next year’. Aaron’s film VOICES IN THE CLOUDS is a poignant l...

  One of the most memorable films I have seen this past year was the haunting and lyrical film WHITE AS SNOW (Turkey, 2010) by director Selim Gunes and producer Nur Gunes. This is an unforgettable experiment in storytelling, disrupting our linear-prone conception of time in order to think in fragments. The mind doesn’t look back in time sequentially so why should a film that is retrospective? In this film about a poor young boy, Hasan, from the 1970’s, the viewer is forced to struggl...

  One of the most memorable films I have seen this past year was the haunting and lyrical film WHITE AS SNOW (Turkey, 2010) by director Selim Gunes and producer Nur Gunes. This is an unforgettable experiment in storytelling, disrupting our linear-prone conception of time in order to think in fragments. The mind doesn’t look back in time sequentially so why should a film that is retrospective? In this film about a poor young boy, Hasan, from the 1970’s, the viewer is forced to struggl...

Just a few day ago Ivo Arakov graduated NATFA in the class of prof. Atanas Atanassov. Now he acts in “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” and “King Lear” at the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” and in Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” at Sfumato theatre. In Sneakers he makes his feature debut in a starring role. Ivo is hesitant in painting his future as a professional actor in bright colors, but we wish him the competition programmes of Moscow and Karlovy Vary change this into a positive conf...

  Costume Designer Michael Kaplan attended an ‘In Conversations With’ panel in Aruba during the Aruba International Film Festival 2011. Journalist Brandon Harris conducted the interviews. The panel went on for over and hour. Below is transcribed part of the Q and A that followed (to the best of what I could transcribe). Q: How are you able to keep yourself and your soul in the work that you do when it is for someone’s film and they have a specific idea of what they want? And als...