TWO LOVERS, directed by James Grey and an Offical Selection at AFI FEST 2008, is available on DVD this week. Here is Karina Longworth’s review from Spout....
Bloody Disgusting has premiered the trailer for DEADGIRL online. The film was an Official Selection at AFI FEST 2008 and screened on Halloween to a packed house. For a bit more perspective on the film, here is an interesting article on “Zombie Feminism” from Annalee Newitz at IO9....
Silver Spring, Maryland, June 22, 2009—SILVERDOCS: AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival announced its distinguished award winners, culminating the weeklong Festival activities that included screening 122 films representing 58 countries, free outdoor screenings and live performances, and a five-day concurrent International Documentary Conference. The festival is on target to host over 25,000 attendees, including more than 1,000 filmmakers, film and television executives and m...
It is being reported from various news sources that Darren Aronofsky is moving forward with his next film project. The film, titled BLACK SWAN is set to star Natalie Portman and is being described as a supernatural thriller set in the world of New York City ballet.
Darren Aronofsky is one of the most succesful graduates of the AFI Conservatory. His last two films, THE FOUNTAIN and THE WRESTLER were both Official Selections at AFI FEST in 2007 and 2008 respectively....
24 CITY was an Official Selection at AFI FEST 2008. Here is what we said about it then:
Jia Zhangke goes one (magnificent) step further in his idiosyncratic exploration of both the thin border between documentary and fiction and the self-imposed destruction experienced by China in her march toward a free-market economy. Though factories were once the temples in which socialism was built, with their workers treated as heroes, they are now being dismantled all over the country, and thousands of ...
The 2008 AFI FEST closing night film was DEFIANCE directed by AFI Alumni Edward Zwick. It’s now available on DVD.
Click here to add it to your Netflix queue....
Silver Spring, Maryland, May 21, 2009—AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival announced its full slate of films for the Festival taking place June 15-22, 2009 in the Washington, DC area. SILVERDOCS 2009 will present 122 films representing 58 countries selected from 1,983 submissions with seven World, three North American, 12 US, and 14 east coast premieres, plus 12 retrospective films. Now in its seventh year, SILVERDOCS and its concurrent International Documentary Conference h...
Award winning blog Tokyomango had an article highlighting BIG DREAMS LITTLE TOKYO last week. This film world premiered at AFI FEST in 2006 and is available right here on Amazon.
Thanks for the kind words, Tokyomango!...
Pushing his themes of sexual liberation to their boiling point, Yugoslavian art-house provocateur Dušan Makavejev followed his international sensation WR: Mysteries of the Organism with this full-throated shriek in the face of bourgeois complacency and movie watching. Sweet Movie tackles the limits of personal and political freedom with kaleidoscopic feverishness, shuttling viewers from a gynecological beauty pageant to a grotesque food orgy with scatological, taboo-shattering glee. With its le...
AMBUSH takes place in the first days of WWII in Russia’s Karelia, near the Finnish border. A young lietenant is sent on a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines, leaving his beautiful fiancee behind. During his mission, he receives tragic news that she has been killed in a Russian ambush. Now, the war for him is radically changed. The young, blue-eyed officer becomes a vengeful killing machine.
An official selection at AFI FEST 1999, you can watch the film online here....
Following his wedding, yuppie, upwardly mobile Kresten (Anders W. Berthelsen), learns of his fathers death. Leaving his new bride and comfortable city life, he sets off for the run-down family farm, deep in the countryside. Once there he must arrange the funeral, assist his simple-minded brother, and hire a housekeeper, who turns out to be a prostitute on the run from her past. With Kreston’s highly suspicious wife on her way to visit, his troublesome brother in the garden, nosy neighbors, an...
Romania, during the final days of Communism. Otilia and Gabita are students; they share a room in a hall of residence in Bucharest. Gabita is pregnant. The girls arrange to meet a certain Mr. Bebe in a cheap hotel. He will perform Gabita’s illegal abortion. But Mr. Bebe refuses their money and demands to be paid in kind.
An official selection at AFI FEST 2007, you can view the entire film online here.
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Peter Martin from Cinematical responds to the plans for free tickets at AFI FEST here. David Poland at The Hot Blog has an analysis up here....
Two interlaced stories unfold over the course of the same long, hot day in the once lush and now decadent resort town of Acapulco. The first involves the beautiful and cool Fernanda, who is forced to deal with the sudden emergence of her ex-lover, Chino. Her boyfriend, Gonzalo, must now compete with the intense sexual tension Fernanda and Chino share. The second story concerns Jaime, an office worker with hidden indiscretions who feels there is only one way out. But, in a beachfront hotel, he me...
Aza Jacabs first film, NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW was an Offical Selection at AFI FEST 2003. His follow up feature THE GOODTIMES KID was an Official Selection at AFI FEST 2005. His third film, MOMMA’S MAN premeired at the Sundance Film Festival last year and was part of the New Directors/New Films series in New York earlier this year. In conjunction with New Directors, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has commissioned a 90 second film from Jacobs that will screen at the museum and on M...
Three interconnected stories about the different strata of life in Mexico City all resolve with a fatal car accident. Octavio is trying to raise enough money to run away with his sister-in-law, and decides to enter his dog Cofi into the world of dogfighting. After a dogfight goes bad, Octavio flees in his car, running a red light and causing the accident. Daniel and Valeria’s new-found bliss is prematurely ended when she loses her leg in the accident. El Chiro is a homeless man who cares ...
Three young friends read the death notice of who they suppose to be an old schoolmate that they have not seen in a long time. The three go to the funeral home and from then on confusion and chance weave a story of friendship, love and death.
An offical selection at AFI FEST 2006, you can view the film online here.
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When art student Ben Willis is dumped by his girlfriend Suzy, he develops insomnia. To pass the long hours of the night, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, all of whom have their own ‘art’ in dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour-shift. Ben’s art is that he imagines himself stopping time. This way, he can appreciate the artistic beauty of the frozen world and the people inside it–especially S...
A small Egyptian Police band arrives in Israel. They are supposed to play at an initiation ceremony but instead are left stranded at the airport. The band tries to make their way on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A lost band in a lost town.
An official selection at AFI FEST 2007, you can watch it online here.
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The story of America as seen through the eyes of Robert S. McNamara, the former Secretary of Defense. McNamara, one of the most controversial and influential figures in world politics, leads viewers on an insider’s journey through many of the seminal events that shaped the 20th Century.
Directed by Academy Award winning documentarian Errol Morris, this film was an official selection at AFI FEST 2003 and can be viewed online here.
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Devous Michel 
