Posts Tagged 'Andrew Dosunmu'

MFF 2013 Programmer Tips #5: A TEACHER and MOTHER OF GEORGE

Published May 8, 2013 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , ,

Maryland Film Festival 2013 begins tonight! Over the last week, our programmers have been counting down the days to MFF 2013 by highlighting a few titles for your consideration. Here’s a last pair of programmers’ tips to welcome in the festival, two dramas that premiered at Sundance 2013: Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher; and our closing-night film, Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George.

A TEACHER

A TEACHER


A TEACHER (HANNAH FIDELL)

Behind closed doors, a young woman working as a suburban Texas high-school teacher risks everything for an affair with a student. As their romance grows, each new element—text messages, photographs, increasingly public meeting places—carry reckless whiffs of both excitement and danger, but also send their lives further and further out of balance. Built around remarkable lead performances by Lindsay Burdge and Will Brittain, and avoiding expected beats at every turn, Hannah Fidell’s bold first feature A Teacher is a riveting psychological portrait that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.

You have two chances to see A Teacher within MFF 2013, with director Hannah Fidell hosting! Read more: http://www.mdfilmfest.com/festival/film-guide/26

MOTHER OF GEORGE

MOTHER OF GEORGE

MOTHER OF GEORGE (ANDREW DOSUNMU)

Maryland Film Festival is proud to present as our 2013 Closing Night selection the first public screening of Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George since its premiere at Sundance in January. The story of a Nigerian couple in Brooklyn struggling to make their young marriage work while running a restaurant, Mother of George boasts gripping performances from Danai Gurira (of The Visitor, The Walking Dead, and Treme) and Isaach De Bankolé (whose distinguished filmography includes career-spanning collaborations with such directors as Claire Denis and Jim Jarmusch). Also of note is the film’s gorgeous cinematography from Bradford Young (of Pariah, Middle of Nowhere, and Dosunmu’s 2011 feature Restless City), who won the U.S. Dramatic Cinematography award at Sundance 2013 for his gorgeous work on both this film and David Lowery’s forthcoming Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

Don’t miss Mother of George, our Closing Night film, with director Andrew Dosunmu and cinematographer Bradford Young presenting! Attendees also get access to MFF 2013’s Closing Night party! Read more: http://www.mdfilmfest.com/festival/film-guide/59

ACCLAIMED CINEMATOGRAPHER BRADFORD YOUNG TO CO-HOST MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL’S 2013 CLOSING NIGHT FILM, MOTHER OF GEORGE!

Published May 6, 2013 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Bradford Young

Bradford Young

Maryland Film Festival (May 8-12 in downtown Baltimore) is proud to announce that acclaimed cinematographer Bradford Young will co-host its 2013 Closing Night screening, presenting Oscilloscope Laboratories’ Mother of George alongside director Andrew Dosunmu. MFF 2013’s Closing Night, which takes place the evening of Sunday, May 12th in downtown Baltimore’s historic Charles Theater, will be the first public screening of Mother of George since its premiere within Sundance 2013.

Young won the U.S. Dramatic Cinematography award at Sundance 2013 for his gorgeous work on both Mother of George and David Lowery’s Cannes-bound Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. His rich body of work as cinematographer includes Dee Rees’ Pariah (2011) and Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere (2012), as well as two features screened within Maryland Film Festival: James Spooner’s White Lies, Black Sheep (MFF 2008) and Dosunmu’s earlier feature Restless City (MFF 2011). It’s with great pleasure that MFF welcomes back to Baltimore one of the most talented cinematographers working in contemporary film.

The story of a Nigerian couple in Brooklyn struggling to make their young marriage work while running a restaurant and navigating a new culture, Mother of George boasts gripping central performances from Danai Gurira (of The Visitor, The Walking Dead, and Treme) and Isaach De Bankolé (whose distinguished filmography includes career-spanning collaborations with such directors as Claire Denis and Jim Jarmusch). Maryland Film Festival has proudly supported Mother of George since its earliest stages of development, awarding Dosunmu and screenwriter Darci Picoult the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship for their script in 2005. It’s a beautiful and fitting selection for the closing night of the festival’s 15th annual edition.

DAVID LOWERY TO HOST MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 2013’S OPENING NIGHT!

Published April 29, 2013 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
DavidLoweryFace

David Lowery

Maryland Film Festival is thrilled to announce that filmmaker David Lowery will be the host for our 2013 Opening Night Shorts Program, which will take place on Wednesday, May 8th at the MICA Brown Center, 8pm.  Tickets for Opening Night and the rest of MFF 2013’s lineup are on sale now – click here to purchase through MissionTix.

Lowery, a multi-year participant in MFF and an alum of the festival’s signature Opening Night Shorts Program, has received widespread acclaim for his forthcoming feature, the Cannes-bound Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, starring Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Rooney Mara. Lowery has also made waves in recent months with a series of profile-raising announced projects, ranging from a reinvention of Disney’s Pete’s Dragon to a crime drama with Robert Redford attached as star and producer, The Old Man and the Gun.

MFF has been a proud supporter of Lowery throughout his career. Among Lowery’s films as director, MFF has screened his short film A Catalog of Anticipations in 2008, his feature St. Nick in 2009, and his Will Oldham-starring short Pioneer within MFF 2011’s Opening Night Shorts Program. The many other features Lowery has worked on in various capacities include editing Sun Don’t Shine (MFF 2012), shooting Lovers of Hate (MFF 2010) and Empire Builder (MFF 2012), and co-writing Pit Stop (MFF 2013).

MFF first devoted their Opening Night to short films in 2002, and has done so each year since 2004. Thanks to the ongoing support from the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards, the festival has played a unique role in advocating for short-form film and video work. MFF has presented its Opening Night with a series of fascinating hosts, from acclaimed critics like Andrew O’Hehir and Ann Hornaday to award-winning filmmakers such as Bobcat Goldthwait and Barry Levinson. It’s with great pleasure that the festival welcomes David Lowery, a visionary director and generous film collaborator, as the first Opening Night alumnus to host this special evening.

As announced last week, Maryland Film Festival 2013’s Opening Night Shorts Films are:  Frances Bodomo’s Boneshaker, a drama about an African family lost in rural Alabama starring Academy Award nominee Quvenzhané Wallis; Grainger David’s The Chair, the story of one boy’s reaction to an outbreak of poisonous mold in his small town, nominated for Cannes 2012’s Short Film Palme d’or and winner of SXSW 2012’s Short Film Jury Prize;  Riley Stearns’ 16mm-shot The Cub, a note-perfect dark comedy about humans living amongst wolves that was nominated for Sundance 2013’s short-film grand-jury prize;  Dara Bratt’s observational documentary Flutter, a portrait of an ordinary man living in the extraordinary world of butterfly collecting; Chetin Chabuk’s Jujitsuing Reality, an inspiring documentary about Scott Lew, a screenwriter living with ALS; and Lauren Wolkstein’s elegant and sly Social Butterfly, in which a mysterious American woman (Anna Margaret Hollyman) arrives at a teenage party in the South of France.

Maryland Film Festival 2013 will take place May 8-12 in beautiful downtown Baltimore, presenting approximately 50 features and 80 short films on 7 screens within the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Its Closing Night film, as announced last week, will be Mother of George by Andrew Dosunmu. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.mdfilmfest.com.

ANDREW DOSUNMU’S MOTHER OF GEORGE TO CLOSE MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 2013!

Published April 26, 2013 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
mother-of-george-danai-gurira

MFF 2013 Closing Night selection: Andrew Dosunmu‘s Mother of George

Maryland Film Festival (May 8-12 in downtown Baltimore) is proud to announce our 2013 Closing Night selection, Mother of George by Andrew Dosunmu. Mother of George, which premiered in the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Competition section of Sundance 2013 and is distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, will screen the evening of Sunday, May 12th in downtown Baltimore’s historic Charles Theater, with director Dosunmu in attendance.

The story of a Nigerian couple in Brooklyn struggling to make their young marriage work while running a restaurant and navigating a new culture, Mother of George boasts gripping central performances from Danai Gurira (of The Visitor, The Walking Dead, and Treme) and Isaach De Bankolé (whose distinguished filmography includes career-spanning collaborations with such directors as Claire Denis and Jim Jarmusch). Also of note is the film’s gorgeous cinematography from Bradford Young (of Pariah and Dosunmu’s 2011 feature Restless City), who won the U.S. Dramatic Cinematography award at Sundance 2013 for his gorgeous work on both this film and David Lowery’s forthcoming Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

Maryland Film Festival has proudly supported Mother of George since its earliest stages of development, awarding Dosunmu and screenwriter Darci Picoult the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship for their script in 2005. Dosunmu’s first produced narrative feature, the beautiful and moving Restless City, was presented within Maryland Film Festival 2011, and it’s with great pleasure that we welcomes him back to Baltimore with this tremendous new work.

The fifteenth annual Maryland Film Festival 2013 takes place May 8-12, 2013 in beautiful downtown Baltimore, screening nearly 50 features and 80 short films on 7 screens in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.  Click here to check out our 2013 program.

Matthew Porterfield, David Lowery, Amy Seimetz Among MFF Alum Featured in Sundance 2013

Published November 29, 2012 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The last few years have seen an explosion of Maryland Film Festival alumni landing new films in the annual Sundance Film Festival. That trend continued to rise yesterday as Sundance began unveiling the line-up for their 2013 festival (taking place January 17-27 in Park City, Utah).

Sundance has established itself as arguably the premiere festival for American independent film, as well as one of the world’s largest “market” festivals, where distributors acquire many a film for distribution–as was the case with this year’s art-house smash BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD by MFF alum Benh Zeitlin, which premiered at Sundance 2012.

The number of MFF connections in Sundance’s 2013 line-up thus far is so numerous we’re still tracking them, but the following are a dozen feature-film highlights. Needless to say, these are films we’ll be tracking at Sundance and throughout the year as we begin scouting films for Maryland Film Festival 2013:

—I USED TO BE DARKER, directed by Baltimore’s Matthew Porterfield (of MFF 2006’s HAMILTON and MFF 2010’s PUTTY HILL), shot in Baltimore, and co-written by Baltimore’s Amy Belk.

—AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, directed by David Lowery (director of MFF 2009 feature ST. NICK and MFF 2011 Opening Night short PIONEER), featuring an all-star cast that includes Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, and Keith Carradine.

—PIT STOP, directed by Yen Tan, co-written by David Lowery, and featuring a cast that includes Amy Seimetz (co-star of MFF 2010’s TINY FURNITURE; director of MFF 2012’s SUN DON’T SHINE) and John Merriman (co-writer/co-director/co-star of MFF 2012’s Opening Night short MODERN MAN).

—MOTHER OF GEORGE, directed by Andrew Dosunmu of MFF 2011’s RESTLESS CITY.  Andrew won the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship in 2005 for this script. The Fellowship is awarded annually by a group of independent readers,  picked from Friends of the Festival supporters, and given to a filmmaker who’s script has been through the Sundance Labs.

—TOUCHY FEELY, directed by Lynn Shelton, the writer/director of such titles as HUMPDAY, YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, and MFF 2008’s MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE.

—COMPUTER CHESS, directed by Andrew Bujalski, director of MFF 2005’s MUTUAL APPRECIATION.

—99%: THE OCCUPY WALL STREET COLLABORATIVE FILM, a collaborative documentary whose filmmakers include Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites of MFF 2010’s UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US.

—AFTER TILLER, co-directed by Martha Shane of MFF 2008’s BI THE WAY.

—THE GOOD LIFE, co-directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine of MFF 2007’s WAR/DANCE.

—A TEACHER, directed by Hannah Fidell and featuring a cast that includes MFF alums Jennifer Prediger, Jonny Mars, and Chris Dubeck.

—UPSTREAM COLOR, directed by Shane Carruth and starring frequent MFF alum Amy Seimetz (TINY FURNITURE, SMALL POND).

—GOD LOVES UGANDA, directed by Roger Ross Williams of MFF 2010’s Oscar-winning MUSIC BY PRUDENCE.

A big congratulations to all the filmmakers included in this year’s Sundance line-up! You can also head to Thompson on Hollywood, the Indiewire blog of noted film critic (and MFF 2012 guest) Anne Thompson, for more information on these and other announced Sundance titles.

Connect With Us!

  • 1 - Our Website
  • 2 - Mailing List
  • 3 - Facebook
  • 4 - Twitter
  • 5 - YouTube