The current plight of the Native American Film community was illustrated via mainstrean media in the April 11, 2007 edition of LA Weekly. Written against the context of the 10th anniversary of the critical and commercial success of "Smoke Signals," author Matthew Fleischer, delves into the complex struggles facing today's Native Filmmakers. From the usual suspects of funding and distrubution to the complexities of substantive storytelling, there appears to be a new wave of filmma...
40 new films, including 20 features (all premieres) and 20 new shorts, will be shown at the 11th Annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA). Acclaimed Berlin Film Festival opening film, “La Vie En Rose,” writer-director Olivier Dahan’s masterful biopic of Edith Piaf, starring Marion Cotillard and Gérard Depardieu, will open the showcase on Monday, April 16, 2007. Picturehouse will release the film on June 8th in New York and Los Angeles. The U.S. Premiere of “Michou D’Auber”...
Very Short Movies Founder and President Serge Polakoff and actress Linda Gray presented ten awards at the Second Annual Very Short Movies festival closing award presentation at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The awards were in the competitive categories of drama, comedy, animation, documentary, experimental and music video. The “New Frontier” Award was also selected for the top innovative work of the festival and two Audience Choice Awards were tallied and announced at the closing night...
The “Other” Venice Film Festival
Venice California was one man's dream of a place to resemble Venice, Italy. In 1900 Abbot Kinney founded Venice, California. At first Venice was a romantic network of canals but Kinney's idea never really worked, and with the arrival of cars and freeways to LA, the canals were abandoned. In the 1960s Venice, California became a low rent district on the ocean that attracted artists and young radicals from across the nation.
Always slightly on the margin...
ELVIS MITCHELL AS GUEST CURATOR FOR THE 2005 LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVALJUNE 16 – 26, 2005Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of Film Independent (FIND), announced Elvis Mitchell as the Guest Curator for the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs Thursday, June 16 through Sunday, June 26, 2005. In this official position, Mitchell will be selecting a number of special screenings and moderating discussions for the 2005 festival. Mitchell joins Festival Director, Richard Raddon and Director of Pro...
FULL PROGRAM LINE-UPDirector of Programming Rachel Rosen joined Festival Director Rich Raddon in announcing the full program line-up for the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival (June 16-26), including the Centerpiece Premiere, the Guest Director, the Artist in Residence, and the Closing Night Film. The Festival also announced that Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, and Elijah Wood will serve as Honorary Festival Chairs for the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. “We are thrilled to be highlighting two films ...
The 2005 DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books kicks off its six-day festival of national and regional independent music acts and films beginning Monday.The performances are part of the fifth annual festival and convention, which celebrates creating, promoting, protecting and distributing independent film, music and books. The DIY Convention will be capped with two days of panels and workshops on Feb. 11 and 12 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.Keynoting the conference portion ...
More women are working in the indie scene as witnessed by this year's Sundance festival. As proof, a staggering 56% of the documentary competition films this year were made by women. Sundance also scheduled a panel entitled "The Next Wave: Where Does Women's Film Go from Here". One of the festival films, Lesli Klainberg "In the Company of Woman," is a documentary about the contributions of women to independent film. In 1987 3% of the top 100 films were directed by women. Now the figure is at ...
