Posts Tagged 'THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY'

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL: OPENING NIGHT TITLES ANNOUNCED

THE CHAIR

THE CHAIR

Maryland Film Festival (May 8-12 in downtown Baltimore) is proud to announce our 2013 Opening Night Shorts program, an eclectic mix of work from an extremely talented array of filmmakers. Maryland Film Festival has played a special role in advocating for short-form film and video since the festival’s launch in 1999, and has dedicated each of its Opening Nights to short films since 2004. The MFF 2013 Opening Night Shorts program will take place Wednesday, May 8th at 8pm, in The Brown Center (1301 Mt. Royal Avenue) on the Maryland Institute College of Art campus.

BONESHAKER

BONESHAKER

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 Quvenzhané Wallis (Academy Award nominee, Beasts of the Southern Wild); 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.

In addition to approximately 50 feature films and this Opening Night program, Maryland Film Festival 2013 will include nine more programs of short films, totaling approximately 80 short films including comedy, drama, animation, documentary, and experimental work, as well as Maryland Film Festival’s signature, mind-bending “WTF Shorts” program. Other filmmakers with new short-film work in MFF 2013 include acclaimed filmmakers such as Tsai Ming-liang, Amy Seimetz, Clay Liford, Dustin Guy Defa, Kat Candler, Kelly Sears, Annie Silverstein, Steven Schardt and the team of Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer; shorts with performances from Martin Starr, Brie Larson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Will Oldham, and Tunde Adebimpe; and shorts from Baltimore-based directors such as Karen Yasinsky, Alan Resnick, Phil Davis, Lorenzo Gattorna, and the team of Nicholas Kovacic and Matthew Riggieri.

Maryland Film Festival’s Opening Night Shorts program is made possible by the generous support of the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards.

Maryland Film Festival has now announced the majority of its 2013 lineup, with the announcement of its 2013 Closing Night soon to come. A full list of the feature films announced for MFF 2013 follows:

12 O’CLOCK BOYS (Lotfy Nathan)

16 ACRES (Richard Hankin)

AATSINKI: THE STORY OF ARCTIC COWBOYS (Jessica Oreck)

AFTER TILLER (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson)

AUGUSTINE (Alice Winocour)

BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (PJ Raval)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (Peter Strickland)

BLUEBIRD (Lance Edmands)

THE BOY EATING THE BIRD’S FOOD (Ektoras Lygizos)

BUTTER ON THE LATCH (Josephine Decker)

BY AND BY: NEW ORLEANS GOSPEL AT THE CROSSROADS (Matthew T. Bowden & Joe Compton)

COMPUTER CHESS (Andrew Bujalski)

DOWNLOADED (Alex Winter)

DRINKING BUDDIES (Joe Swanberg)

FILL THE VOID (Rama Burshtein)

GOOD OL’ FREDA (Ryan White)

HERE COMES THE DEVIL (Adrián García Bogliano)

HIT & STAY (Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk)

I AM DIVINE (Jeffrey Schwarz)

I USED TO BE DARKER (Matt Porterfield)

IF WE SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH (Gabriel DeLoach and Zach Keifer)

IT FELT LIKE LOVE (Eliza Hittman)

LEVIATHAN (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)

THE LOST WORLD (Harry O. Hoyt)

MUSEUM HOURS (Jem Cohen)

PARADISE: FAITH (Ulrich Seidl)

PARADISE: HOPE (Ulrich Seidl)

PARADISE: LOVE (Ulrich Seidl)

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY (Sophie Fiennes)

PIT STOP (Yen Tan)

POST TENEBRAS LUX (Carlos Reygadas)

PRINCE AVALANCHE (David Gordon Green)

THE RAMBLER (Calvin Reeder)

REMOTE AREA MEDICAL (Jeff Reichert & Farihah Zaman)

SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM (Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar)

A TEACHER (Hannah Fidell)

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER (Chad Hartigan)

TOUCHY FEELY (Lynn Shelton)

V/H/S/2 (omnibus)

WATCHTOWER (Pelin Esmer)

WE ALWAYS LIE TO STRANGERS (AJ Schnack and David Wilson)

WILLOW CREEK (Bobcat Goldthwait)

WHITE REINDEER (Zach Clark)

ZERO CHARISMA (Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews)

TWELVE MORE FEATURES ANNOUNCED FOR MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 2013!

Good Ol' Freda production still horizontal

GOOD OL’ FREDA

Maryland Film Festival is proud to announce a dozen more titles for our 2013 edition, bringing the total number of features revealed to 36 thus far.  Our fifteenth annual festival, which will take place May 8-12 in downtown Baltimore, has expanded to 5 days and will include approximately 50 features and 9 shorts programs.  We will also present a silent classic with an original score performed live by the Alloy Orchestra and a favorite film selected and hosted by legendary director John Waters!

The diverse round of titles announced today includes work from Finland, Mexico, Austria, and Israel, and such titles as Zach Clark’s holiday-themed, darkly comic White Reindeer; Alex Winter’s riveting look at the rise and fall of Napster, Downloaded; Jessica Oreck’s experiential documentary about a family of reindeer herders, Aatsinki; and Calvin Reeder’s surreal, horror-tinged mindbender about a mysterious loner, The Rambler.

More MFF 2013 lineup announcements are coming soon! If you haven’t seen them yet, make sure to check the 24 features we announced last week! For all the latest information, continue to visit this blog, and follow us at facebook.com/MarylandFilmFestival and on Twitter, @MdFilmFestival.

Today’s announced features for Maryland Film Festival 2013 are:

16 ACRES_070412_02284504.jpg

16 ACRES

16 Acres (Richard Hankin) From the editor and co-producer of Capturing the Friedmans comes this riveting and nuanced documentary look at the rebuilding of Ground Zero—one of the most architecturally, politically, and emotionally complex urban renewal projects in history.

AATSINKI_[Jessica_Oreck]1

AATSINKI: THE STORY OF ARCTIC COWBOYS

Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys (Jessica Oreck) One year in the life of a family of reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland yields an immersive study of hard work, hard earned leisure, and an intricate bond between man and nature. From the director of Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.

Before You Know It (P J Raval) This observational documentary raises the curtain on a profoundly neglected segment of the LGBT community, its senior population, as three gay men residing in very different regions of the U.S. face new life challenges.

Bluebird_30

BLUEBIRD

Bluebird (Lance Edmands) In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.

Downloaded (Alex Winter) With remarkable insight and access, this documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of Napster, taking a close look at the internet mavericks and musicians involved and the lasting global impact of peer-to-peer file sharing.

Here_Comes_The_Devil

HERE COMES THE DEVIL

Here Comes the Devil  (Adrián García Bogliano) From Mexico comes this horror film concerning disappeared children and panicked parents, offering ever-escalating thrills as it heads to increasingly bloody, diabolical, and even psychedelic territory.

Fill the Void (Rama Burshtein) This drama set in Tel Aviv’s Orthodox community centers around 18-year-old Shira, who faces unexpected life challenges when her older sister dies.

Good Ol’ Freda (Ryan White) Freda Kelly was just a shy Liverpudlian teenager when she was asked to work for a local band hoping to make it big. That band was The Beatles, and Freda was their devoted secretary and friend for 11 years; this documentary tells her story—and the story of the world’s most famous band through her eyes.

MH_Guard

MUSEUM HOURS

Museum Hours (Jem Cohen) From the director of Benjamin Smoke and Instrument comes this gentle and expertly crafted drama about a Vienna museum guard and the friendship he forms with a woman visiting town to care for a sick friend.

THE RAMBLER_Lindsay Pulsipher and Dermot Mulroney shooting_photo by Juliana Halvorson

THE RAMBLER

The Rambler (Calvin Reeder) Dermot Mulroney, Lindsay Pulsipher, and Natasha Lyonne star in the latest psychotronic vision from the director of The Oregonian, in which a mysterious loner, newly released from prison, sets out on a journey filled with bizarre characters and warped experiences.

We Always Lie to Strangers (AJ Schnack and David Wilson) A documentary story of family, community, music and tradition, built over five years and set against the backdrop of Branson, Missouri, one of the biggest tourist destinations in America.

WHITE REINDEER STILL 1

WHITE REINDEER

White Reindeer (Zach Clark) After an unexpected tragedy, Suzanne searches for the true meaning of Christmas during one sad, strange December in suburban Virginia. From the director of Vacation! and Modern Love Is Automatic.

Previously Announced Titles for 2013:

12 O’CLOCK BOYS (Lotfy Nathan)

AFTER TILLER (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson)

AUGUSTINE (Alice Winocour)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (Peter Strickland)

COMPUTER CHESS (Andrew Bujalski)

DRINKING BUDDIES (Joe Swanberg)

HIT & STAY (Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk)

I AM DIVINE (Jeffrey Schwarz)

I USED TO BE DARKER (Matt Porterfield)

IF WE SHOUT LOUD ENOUGH (Gabriel DeLoach and Zach Keifer)

IT FELT LIKE LOVE (Eliza Hittman)

LEVIATHAN (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY (Sophie Fiennes)

PIT STOP (Yen Tan)

POST TENEBRAS LUX (Carlos Reygadas)

PRINCE AVALANCHE (David Gordon Green)

SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM (Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar)

A TEACHER (Hannah Fidell)

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER (Chad Hartigan)

TOUCHY FEELY (Lynn Shelton)

V/H/S/2 (omnibus)

WATCHTOWER (Pelin Esmer)

WILLOW CREEK (Bobcat Goldthwait)

ZERO CHARISMA (Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews)

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 2013: FIRST LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT

Photo still from Lotfy Nathan's 12 O'CLOCK BOYS.

12 O’CLOCK BOYS

Maryland Film Festival has begun unveiling the lineup for its 15th annual festival, which will take place May 8-12, 2013 in downtown Baltimore and include over 50 feature films and 10 short-film programs from around the world.

The first dozen feature films announced include several highly anticipated made-in-Baltimore films, among them Matt Porterfield’s art-house drama I Used to Be Darker and Lotfy Nathan’s gritty documentary 12 O’Clock Boys. Also on tap for MFF 2013 are Bobcat Goldthwait’s Bigfoot-themed Willow Creek, and a diverse spectrum of films launched at Sundance 2013, including Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess, Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely, Yen Tan’s Pit Stop, and Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love.

Maryland Film Festival has distinguished itself as a creatively charged meeting place for filmmakers and audiences, offering all U.S.-made features hosted by a filmmaker in a competition-free format. The festival is also known for its close relationship with legendary filmmaker John Waters, who selects and hosts a favorite film within each year’s festival. Building off record ticket sales in 2012, the festival has expanded from four to five days for its 2013 edition.

Lineup announcements will continue over the next 2 weeks. The first dozen titles announced for MFF 2013 are:

12 O’Clock Boys (Lotfy Nathan) This gritty and exhilarating documentary follows several years in the life of Pug, a young Baltimorean who hopes to join the exclusive ranks of Baltimore’s urban dirt-bike riders.

After Tiller (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson) A documentary look at the personal and professional lives of the only four U.S.-based doctors who continue to perform third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller.

Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski) A subculture of offbeat personalities attempt to create the first computer system capable of beating human chess masters in this subversively shot, Robert Altman-worthy ensemble comedy.

IUSEDTOBEDARKER

I USED TO BE DARKER

I Used to Be Darker (Matt Porterfield) Ned Oldham, Kim Taylor, Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell star in this Baltimore-made drama about shifting family and romantic relationships from the director of Hamilton and Putty Hill.

If We Shout Loud Enough (Gabriel DeLoach and Zach Keifer) An inside look at the Baltimore underground music scene through one of its most pivotal bands, Double Dagger, as they embark on their final tour.

A002_C004_0731UY

IT FELT LIKE LOVE

It Felt Like Love (Eliza Hittman) On the outskirts of Brooklyn, a fourteen-year-old girl’s sexual quest takes a dangerous turn when she pursues an older man and tests the boundaries between obsession and love.

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes) Philosopher Slavoj Žižek and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes use their interpretation of moving pictures to present a compelling cinematic journey into the heart of ideology–the dreams that shape our collective beliefs and practices.

Pit Stop (Yen Tan) Two gay men in small-town Texas, one maintaining the façade of a family life with his ex-wife and daughter and one spending much of his spare time visiting an ex-lover in the hospital, live parallel lives with overlapping hopes and dreams.

Touchy Feely (Lynn Shelton) The new film from the director of Humpday and Your Sister’s Sister is a family drama boasting a brilliant cast that includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Josh Pais, Ellen Page, Allison Janney, and Ron Livingston.

Photo still from Omnibus' V/H/S/2

V/H/S/ 2

V/H/S/2 (omnibus) Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find a horrifying collection of VHS tapes. This sequel to cult favorite V/H/S includes segments by Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project) and Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption).

Willow Creek (Bobcat Goldthwait) MFF audience favorite Bobcat Goldthwait follows up his acclaimed dark comedy God Bless America with this riveting Bigfoot film, shot on the same location as the controversial Patterson–Gimlin Bigfoot footage some 45 years ago.

Photo still from Katie Graham & Andrew Matthews' ZERO CHARISMA.

ZERO CHARISMA

Zero Charisma (Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews) An indie comedy about an ill-tempered game master and the neo-nerd hipster that interferes with his game, fresh from winning the SXSW 2013 Narrative Spotlight Audience Award.

First TIFF 2012 Report From The MFF Programming Team

Toronto International Film Festival launched their 2012 edition Thursday afternoon with a classy touch, a free 35mm screening of the recently departed master filmmaker Chris Marker’s 1983 film essay Sans Soleil.

While the official opening night film came hours later with the Bruce Willis-starring sci-fi title Looper, the choice to open a festival featuring roughly 300 new titles from 70+ countries with this challenging, subtle repertory work signaled a confirmation of sorts that, amidst increasing celebrity and corporate presence, TIFF still holds “pure cinema” as one of its guiding principles. Indeed, in his moving introductory remarks, TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey evoked the term “pure cinema” specifically, naming Sans Soleil as the single experience that made film central to his life and thanking an almost-capacity and very appreciative crowd for beginning their festival with this early screening.

THE BITTER ASH – (L to R) Director Larry Kent and TIFF Programmer Steve Gravestock.

So if one initially sensed a little friction between this exploratory, dissonant film and the supermodel-laden L’oreal ad that runs before each TIFF film this year, all of that dissipated quickly as Marker’s mesmerizing film took over. Set largely in Japan; featuring exhilarating bursts of synthesized visuals and sound; and tackling issues of technology, memory, and film culture (especially with its poignant revisiting of locations from Hitchcock’s Vertigo), Marker’s film reminds us that the artistic possibilities of film are limited only by personal imagination.

Not incidentally, later that afternoon TIFF also served up a free screening of Roman Polanski’s oft-neglected 1979 period piece Tess. Presumably included in TIFF as an accompaniment to Marina Zenovich’s second Polanski documentary, Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, the festival offered a stunning digital restoration of the film. Baltimore currently offers few opportunities to view vintage films presented in state-of-the-art digital, and this DCP presentation of Tess highlighted how far the technology has come. One wonders if every restoration will take such care and if every venue’s presentation standards will be this high. But for this one screening at least, a digital print of a title from the vault flickered and danced with the warm, living grain we expect from film.

As the first full day of programming hit us Friday, we jumped into a 10-day spree of 3-5 features apiece per day. Films we’ve seen so far that may be of particular note to MFF fans include:

FRANCES HANoah Baumbach’s new character study, co-written with star (and frequent MFF guest) Greta Gerwig and crafted in tribute to both the French New Wave and the Woody Allen films shot in black-and-white with Gordon Willis.

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY – Slavoj Žižek speaks before the screening of PERVERT’S GUIDE at the Isabel Bader Theater.

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGYSophie Fiennes’ epic documentary exploration of the philosophical insights of Slavoj Žižek,which uses film history to tackle issues of personal and political conformity, and began with insightful analysis of John Carpenter’s They Live (recently screened in our Gunky’s Basement series).

TIFF 2012: THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY– (L to R) Director Sophie Fiennes (sister of Ralph) and Slavoj Žižek in conversation about their newly completed film.

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – A surprising new work from Iranian master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. It follows the story of a young student/call girl as she accidentally entangles a well-respected elderly client into the snare of her personal affairs. The film is set in Tokyo and features outstanding performances by an all-Japanese cast who will be largely unknown to western audiences. Endowed with such fresh and lively filmmaking and story telling, even the most hardened skeptic of Kiarostami’s films will find pleasures here.

PARADISE: LOVE – The latest work by Ulrich Seidl, perhaps best known to our audiences for Dog Days, which John Waters selected to present at MFF in 2004. Seidl’s films can be brutal both in their visual content and their emotional honesty, and he delivered a dark masterpiece of sorts with 2007’s Import/Export. Here, with this first film in a projected “Paradise” trilogy, he looks at middle-aged Austrian women who travel to Kenya to indulge in sexual tourism. Seidl’s eye remains as unflinching as ever, and certainly this film could come across as shocking to those not familiar with his work; but in the context of that body, Paradise: Love felt almost gentle in comparison, at times evoking the wit and humor we might expect from a Todd Solondz or Alexander Payne tackling this subject.

In short: TIFF’s presentation and curatorial skills remain exemplary. Stay tuned, as MFF’s programmers each take in another 40+ films apiece by the end of the week, and we continue to report back here and on the MFF’s Twitter.

MFF Programming Director Eric Allen Hatch and Programming Administrator Scott Braid