Film
DEDICATED TO THE BUSINESS OF FILM
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER FESTIVAL OF WORLD CINEMA 2017
BERLIN 2017 EDITION
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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FOR AN EXCLUSIVE BACKGROUND STORY TO THE FILM “YOU HAVE A NICE FLIGHT” SEE PAGE 33
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WELCOME TO THE BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER FESTIVAL OF WORLD CINEMA 2017
Dear Filmmaker, Firstly, sincere congratulations to all filmmakers and scriptwriters who have been nominated for their latest project at Berlin IFF 2017! Both new and established independent filmmakers hone their craft far from the “pizzazz” of Hollywood. In a small studio or on local sets they transform their vision into a film that they hope will one day be seen by
Carl Tooney Publisher publishing@filmthemagazine.com Steve Grossmith Director of Marketing and Editor steve@filmthemagazine.com Shems Ghali Contributing Assistant Editor info@filmthemagazine.com Stephen Mina Graphic Designer/Illustrator stephen@filmfestinternational.com Dan Hickford Sponsorship & Marketing dan@filmfestinternational.com All articles, including all editorial used in this publication (whether printed or digital) do not necessarily represent the views of any of the International Filmmaker Festivals representatives, staff or associates.
thousands or even millions of people around the world. What they may lack in budget and star actors & actresses they more than make up for in ambition and drive. Independent filmmakers might remain forever in obscurity and that’s part of the reason that our international group of Festivals exist! We love to give both new and existing talent an opportunity to shine and celebrate the art of film and champion the artists who produce it and we are happy to accept submissions from any filmmaker, regardless of his or her past experience, budget or location. As digital technology races forward, most filmmakers produce and edit their films on computers rather than on celluloid and this profound and positive impact means that the total cost for film production has been driven down which results in a real opportunity for new talent to come through.
NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 2 - 2017 FEBRUARY 10 - 17 - 2018 MAY 5 - 12 - 2018 AUGUST 11 - 18 - 2018
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The Berlin International Filmmaker Festival 2017 is delighted to have the continued help and support of our industry experts, Paul Eyres, Neil McEwan, Ray Davies and Brad Blain, here to offer excellent advice to all filmmakers and scriptwriters. The Festival team will be more than happy to assist you in anything that you need whilst you’re here with us and I hope you will continue your support with our future Festivals. Have a wonderful festival and were looking forward to meeting you all in Berlin!
Carl Tooney President & Chief Executive Officer
Please enter your film or script directly through our web portal here! http://filmfestinternational.com/submit
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With some truly stunning films and scripts at all of our Festivals we are delighted that the entry standard for Berlin is as high as ever.
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THE BRIDGE a Cindy Iodice film Written by Benton Sen
Hawaiians say haweo to refer to a glow of light that makes things visible. It is in the light of knowledge that the darkness and confusion of the past are now being destroyed and the heroic deeds of our ancestors are being revealed. Filmmaker Cindy Iodice tells such a story of a place that arcs in reverse, describing an ancient world that inevitably leads you back to yourself. The journey is a bridge, connecting past and present, memory, myth, and the beauty of storytelling. “The Bridge,” Iodice’s short film, centers around Pono, a tenacious seven-‐year old boy who lives with his family in a tree house deep in the rainforest of Hawaii’s Manoa Valley. He is the youngest of three boys, and the heir of family traditions and his father’s Hawaiian culture, at least in his father’s eyes.
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Pono’s father provides critical ancestral knowledge through ancient Hawaiian beliefs. Pono’s Caucasian mother, however, is never fully able to embrace the family practices and customary beliefs. After a tragic event culminating in the death of Pono’s father, Rachel is forced to remain in a life that she has come to despise, on land that she has refused to embrace and in a culture that she’s never been able to fully appreciate.
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When Pono encounters a group of night marchers - ghostly apparitions of ancient Hawaiian warriors - he must make a lifealtering decision. For generations, encounters with armed spirit warriors or Hawaiian night marchers believed to be en route to and from ancient battle have occurred on the family homestead, inspiring profound spiritual experiences for those who have come into contact with the primeval Hawaiian ghosts. These are the phantoms of ancient Hawaiian warriors who are said to roam the islands at night.
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Mary Kawena Pukui, one of Hawaii’s most revered historians and scholars, said “every Hawaiian has heard of the ‘Marchers of the Night – ku huaka’i o ka po.” A few have seen this procession, she wrote. It is said that such a sight is fatal unless one had a relative among the dead to intercede for them. They cried, “Kapu o moe!” as a warning to stragglers to get out of the way or to prostrate themselves with closed eyes until the marchers passed.
Hinaleimoana Wong Kalu, Chairperson of the Hawaiian Burial Council for the State of Hawaii and the film’s cultural consultant, believes that the film brings forth elements of Hawaiian culture that speak to the ancestors that still show themselves and we call them for those that march along the pathways at night and Hawaiians have a particular understanding of how we conduct ourselves when our ancestors show themselves in that way.
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The night marchers’ job wasn’t to terrorize people, storyteller Lopaka Kapanui says. It was simply to protect the most sacred, high-ranking chiefs. The night marchers showed mercy by traveling at night to spare people from harm. They carry torches. They march to the thunderous sound of drums. They give warning by sounding a conch shell. That’s when you know it’s time to run and hide. “If you’re already in the path of the night marchers’ trail, legend dictates you must strip naked and lie face down. There’s a rumor that peeing on yourself will keep you alive. Whatever you decide to do, don’t look at them! If you’re lucky enough to share a blood line with somebody marching in the procession, you’ll supposedly be saved.” Wong-Kalu says that the project was actually intended to be a very personal thing. “Empowering the creator of the story, to help tell the story – that in itself is the cultural value of malama (care).” Iodice believes “The Bridge” linked various passages of her personal life. It began as a story about a mother’s love, and her inability to reconcile her guilt and grief over the tragic and sudden death of her son.
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“My family suffered a tragic loss. To this day, the events that surrounded the untimely death of my brother remain elusive. Now more than 35 years later, I have resigned myself to the fact that I may never know whether his death was accidental or intentional.” She says that she and her brother were as close as a big brother and little sister could be, and that her grief was devastating.
“After that, when I was eighteen, I bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii and felt raised up by the Hawaiian people. When I had the opportunity to incorporate the Hawaiian culture and mythology to a story I decided to explore my own ancestry through the eyes of the Hawaiian culture and spirituality concepts here in the islands.” Wong Kalu, also the film’s narrator, concluded with this final message: “...fear not the reflections of our own life experiences, for we of ourselves are the living images of our fore bearers, and you and I if we so aspire to embrace our destinies shall forge onward down the pathways our ancestors once walked. These are the pathways our future generations shall journey as well.”
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Audiences around the globe overwhelmingly received the message. “The Bridge” has won many national and international film awards. When asked about the film at one of the screenings, Cindy Iodice said that her mother died of a broken heart. “This film was intended to give a different ending to my mother’s story.” Iodice realized that through writing, she could change her ending and also change the ending of her family which would be a slight step toward hope.
The film emphasizes that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a conflict between cultural and spiritual beliefs and values. It encourages people to think. Like Pono and his mother in the film, what is the bridge that will connect lives? What exactly would I do? Where am I? When the film was screened on the continental U.S. the filmmakers asked audiences for their feedback. What did they consider the main message? What are the night marchers? Did the film change their understanding of Hawaiian culture?
Out there in this great big world of ours, there is pain, loss, guilt, grief, and tragedy. These are some of life’s most challenging experiences. Iodice affirms that the capacity for human beings to survive and potentially thrive through seemingly impossible obstacles is life changing if one is able to survive such encounters.
Connie Florez, the film’s producer, said that they shot for three days, a very tight schedule, and pretty much followed everything on the script breakdown. “We had John Kuamo’o, the Director of Photography. We had Tony Apilado, award winning Art Director and consultant with Cindy from the beginning. We had Meghan Paun the Art Director on set. Anthony Akona Ing, choreographed the night marcher scene. Moses Goods from the Bishop Museum on the artifacts. And an invaluable cultural consultant like Hina of the Hawaiian Burial Council.
“The story the film tells isn’t only personal,” Iodice adds,” it’s universal.”
“What we found most interesting,” Florez says, “we had folks in the continental United States who would watch the film and we would ask them for their feedback.” What didn’t they understand? What improvements would they make? Who are the night marchers? What does it mean to be Hawaiian? Did the film change their understanding of Hawaiian culture?
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Credits: Director and Writer: Cindy Iodice Executive Producer: Cindy Iodice Producers: Connie M. Florez and Ken Monroe Director of Photography: John Kuamo’o Editor: Thomas Schneider
Cast: Mia Adams (Rachel) Asher Morgado (Pono) Tamayo Perry (Manoa) Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (Narrator)
Awards: Global Accolade Film Competition 2015 Award of Recognition The Best Shorts Online Competition 2016 Award of Recognition Reel Time Int. Online Festival 2016 Best Short Category Winner Hawaii International Short Film Festival 2016 Best Short Film Tampa Bay Arts and Education 2016 Laurel of Excellence IndieFest 2016 Award of Recognition NY Film and TV Festival 2016 Best Indigenous Film F.A.M.E.U.S International Film 2017 Festival Bronze Award World Cinema IFF London 2017 Best Editing of a Short Film Depth of Field International Film Festival Loose Shorts 2017 Exceptional Merit Depth of Field IFF Loose Shorts 2017 Excellence in Editing Tom Schneider Nice International Film Festival 2017 Best Director Short Film Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Acting Tamayo Perry Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Acting Mia Adams Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Acting Jahmaika Rangihuna Ing Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Cinematography John Kuamo’o Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Editing Tom Schneider Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Music Tom Schneider Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Connie M. Florez & Ken Monroe Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Production Design Meghan Paun Southern Shorts Awards 2017 Award of Merit Sound Design Tom Schneider
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Official Selections: Audience Award 2016 LA Cinematic Art and Film Festival 2016 Cinema World Festival 2016 Diamond in the Rough Cut 2017 Berlin Independent International Film Festival 2017 Red Wasp International Film Festival 2017 Silver Screen for Short Film Festival 2017 Women of Wonder International Film Festival 2017 UKET International Film Festival 2017 Depth of Field International Film Festival 2017 World Cinema International Filmmaker Festival 2017 International Monthly Film Festival Online Competition March 2017 Female Filmmakers Film Festival Online Competition 2017 Gulf of Italy International Film Festival 2017 Cannes Short Film Corner 2017 Wairoa Maori Film Festival 2017 WRPN Global Film Competition 2017 Action on Film Festival/Hollywood Dreams 2017
Nominations: World Cinema IFF London 2017 Best Short International Monthly Film Festival March 2017 Best Drama International Monthly Film Festival March 2017 Best Editor World Cinema IFF Nice 2017 Best Cinematography World Cinema International Filmmaker Festival Nice 2017 Jury Award Austrian Film Festival 2017 Finalist Hong Kong National Film Festival 2017 Semi-Finalist Madrid International Film Festival 2017 Best Director Madrid International Film Festival 2017 Best Editing Short Film Madrid International Film Festival 2017 Best Short Film Auckland New Zealand International Film Festival 2017 Finalist www.islandgirlpictures.com
Drama
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Run Time 22 Mins
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CHAIRMAN BUDDHA A Feature Documentary By Louyi Tang
Chairman Buddha is about the mythology of Mao Zedong, who many Chinese today believe has been reincarnated as a Buddha. Convinced Mao is more powerful than the ancient Indian Buddha, worshippers fall to their knees inside Mao temples built in China’s countryside, and in front of Mao statues re-erected in city squares.
Diverging from other documentaries in Chinese and Western media, Chairman Buddha views Mao Zedong from the eyes of ordinary Chinese and tells the story with their words. The film focuses on today, a time of Mao Zedong, without Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong’s worshippers have created a new religion only a few decades after his death. His birthday is celebrated as Chinese Christmas today.
The purpose of making this film about Mao Zedong’s worshippers was never about politics. Considering it her destiny, Louyi Tang formed a tight crew and traveled half of China to film Chairman Buddha, a documentary that was greatly influenced by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tze. After a threeyear production, Louyi proudly claims that Chairman Buddha is not just a documentary, but a collaboration of brave souls, warm hearts and open minds.
The whole process of making this film gave Louyi a chance to reevaluate China’s culture and history that she had lived with for many years. One day when she looked at the tears streaming down the serene face of the crying nun, Louyi suddenly became aware that what she really wanted to express in this film is that life is misery. Layers of this meaning are deeply embedded in the film.
Documentary
http://chairmanbuddhathefilm.com
Run Time 63 Mins
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BX3M
About Judith Escalona Judith Escalona is a filmmaker, writer and gallerist. Her recent film “BX3M” garnered two awards at the International Filmmaker Festival in Milan 2016. It was nominated in 8 categories, including Best Feature Film and Best Director. Recently, Escalona screened “BX3M” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. The film is also nominated in 10 categories in the Berlin International Filmmakers Festival, including Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Escalona wrote the “BX3M” screenplay. She previously wrote and directed “The Krutch”, a half-hour, surreal narrative about a Puerto Rican psychoanalyst with an identity problem, starring Jaime Sánchez as the notorious Dr. Guzmán. In a scholarly work entitled “Revolving Door Life Writing: Literature and Cinema of Puerto Rican Women”, Christin Freyer, Ph.D. devotes an entire chapter to “The Krutch”. Escalona is currently working on a new screenplay based on the life of Lolita Lebrón.
Written & Directed By Judith Escalona
A timeless story of love and revenge, drugs and violence… Breaking free of the past to love and be loved. BX3M: Sometimes love is the endgame. GROWING UP FAST MEANS RISING ABOVE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES OR GIVING UP. For Maria and Mona, graduation means fulfilling a dream. For Michael it means dashing all hope of a better future. You either make the grade or you don’t - in academics or love - and that makes all the difference. MARIA, MONA, AND MICHAEL HAVE ISSUES…
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Things are heating up as Maria, Mona and Michael get ready for their senior year at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. Graduation is a no-brainer for Maria, a natural-born nerd. Mona, her best friend, wants to go to Cooper Union and that spells trouble for the aspiring photographer. Michael, Maria’s boyfriend, is flunking out. No matter, Michael is on a mission yet unknown to him -- call it destiny or revenge.
A segment producer for CUNY-TV, Escalona is also the Founder of Puerto Rico and the American Dream (www.PRdream.com), the 19 year old award-winning website on the history, culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. Developed in 1998, PRdream was the first Latino website of its kind, with an art gallery, a film section, oral histories, and historical timelines. PRdream’s office was located in Spanish Harlem, where the organisation launched several new media initiatives, among them the PRdream Oral History Project and the technology-based art gallery MediaNoche (www.medianoche. us). MediaNoche exhibited local and international artists working in new media.
SOMEONE’S GOING TO DIE. SOMEONE’S GOING TO MAKE IT. BX3M traces the lives of three teenage friends growing up in a poor, workingclass neighbourhood in the Bronx. Maria loves Michael more than anything in the world but that love is blind. Her father knows it; Maria will have to see for herself. Mona feels trapped in a lover’s triangle, wavering between Seneca, a Monroe track star, and Sam, a Cooper Union art student. Her dilemma is a well-kept secret till her mother discovers Sam is a girl. Michael’s mother was gunned down by drug-dealers when he was three years old and his father never did anything about it. Michael refuses to be like him. When his best friend gets pushed out of a window and dies, Michael goes after his killer. “It’s an epic on a city block,” says Judith Escalona, the director and writer of “BX3M”. She grew up in the Bronx and knows these characters intimately. Genuine experiences inform the lives of Maria, Mona, and Michael, the fictional characters Escalona has created. Portraying the lives of inner city girls sets this urban drama apart from most films of the genre. These portraits of Latina adolescents are memorably different, yet their struggle is universal. Michael’s story, too, draws on the conventions used to represent ghetto life but with unique and unpredictable moments.
Drama
www.bx3mgrowingupfast.com
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Run Time 104 Mins
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water of life and death
His dedication to environmental conservation was never undeterred by the rain or storms. All these were simply for the humble wish of enabling his son to witness the same piece of prairie when he grew up. Like him, Jian Mu-cuo’s ancestors survived on the flora and fauna on the prairie. He understood people like him bear the responsibility to protect their homeland eternally. For this very reason, he didn’t hesitate in the the slightest to keep the orphan Przewalski’s gazelle that he came across. In fact, he looked after the creature like his own son. Yet, could Jian Mu-cuo indeed save the life of these ‘sons’ in Mother Nature to alter the future of his own son?
A Documentary Film By Eve Chong Yuk Lam
The first lunar month, the start of a new year. On the frozen surface of Lake Qinghai, Zhou, the Buddhist Practitioner and his friends are delivering supplies to the temple built on the isolated island at the centre of the lake. At their own peril, they venture on to the melting glaciers which are a result of global warming. Sadly, humans aren’t the only victims; the wildlife around Lake Qinghai suffers the same fate. Urban development and the opening up of the tourism industry have destroyed the greenery and wetlands surrounding the lake. They pose a threat to the life of the wildlife, whose regular sanctuary has suddenly become their last resting place.
Director Statement Below in the Kunlun mountains, Sanjiangyuan (or The Three Rivers) in Qinghai is the source of China’s three largest rivers. The pollution of the area has brought destructive impacts to rare species, as well as hundreds of thousands of human lives. Situated at high altitudes, the lake around the Qinghai mountain range is one of the first victims of global climate change. Its ecological variation in recent years could be an indicator of global warming. This video allows us, living in far-flung Hong Kong, to understand the changes at the forefront of environmental conversation. This video also enables citizens in China to get to know the challenges that the other side of their country is confronting. We hope to play a role in gathering the efforts of different sectors to build a better future for mankind and to protect nature from destruction.
In face of such a predicament, some choose to devote their whole life to safeguarding this piece of precious land. Nomad Jian Mu-cuo sold his herd of sheep in exchange for the funds for his camera and the opportunity to document the wildlife. He called up the villagers to pick up litter. His mission was to monitor the well-being of the wildlife surrounding the lake.
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Documentary
www.xebec.com.hk
THE LURKING MAN
Run Time 45 Mins
‘The Lurking Man’ has been nominated for Best Feature Film, Best Original Screenplay, Beast Lead Actress, Best Sound Design, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Talented New Filmmaker. The Berlin International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema is the European Premiere.
A Stunning Feature Film By Maritza Brikisak
‘The Lurking Man’ is a supernatural family drama about an alcoholic abusive mother ’Cailean’ who started drinking at a very young age in an effort to forget a childhood trauma. As a result she became a functioning alcoholic. Cailean had a happy family and life until one day an accident in the playground took her control away. Her drinking is now destroying her and her family. Her attempts at recovery continue to fail, the last one sends her to the ER and she is now on her deathbed. Death has been watching her all of her life and now sees this as an opportunity to make a deal. He breaks the rules and takes her soul before she dies hoping that this will give him time to expose the forces that manipulated and consumed her soul and convinces her to accept his offer.
Advisory: There is no graphic gore/language. There is Drinking, one slap, implied suicide trigger. Teen+
‘The Lurking Man’ is a feature film adaptation from the Novel by Keith Rommel of the same name. The award winning script was written by Maritza Brikisak and Keith Rommel. Maritza is also the Executive Producer, Editor and lead actress in the film. This multi award winning feature film brings awareness to the human struggle through supernatural imagery. A powerful message, ‘feeding the negative will eventually consume you’. www.lurkingmanmovie.com
Drama
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Run Time 90 Mins
THE
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
LURKING MAN Multi award winning Supernatural Drama! 'Cailean’ struggled all her life trying to live with a childhood trauma that is destroying her family and is causing her to lose her son, she is now dying and may be able to redeem herself if she accepts Death’s offer.
/LurkingManMovie www.maritzaweb.com www.LurkingManMovie.com
Stop Feeding The Monster Within
Executive Producer Co-Writer Editor Lead Actress Filmmaker Maritza Brikisak will be in attendance.
14:55 October 2 - Room 1 - 90 mins Premiere Event posters will be given away FREE after screening - limited supply.
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A Script by Todd Selleck
Finding Amelia is a feature length script based on the disappearance of beloved aviator Amelia Earhart and was written by American screenwriter Todd Selleck. The script has earned recognition across the globe in places such as England, South America, Australia and most recently Spain. The script is written with a completely unique, and a different point of view which has never been achieved or attempted with Amelia Earhart’s story: It uses a first and second person narrative to tell her story.
Mr. Selleck has written six feature length screenplays which have all earned awards and recognition in the U.S. and abroad. He has also three short screenplays within the last year and they are showing up in the winner’s circle in major competitions. He has authored several short stories under his pen name Von Kambro on which can be found on www.smashwords.com Keep your eyes on his scripts, because you’ll have the opportunity to experience amazing writing, and experience what a great movie looks like before it hits the screen.
MIDDLE IMAGE: AMELIA EARHART - RIGHT IMAGE: TODD SELLECK.
FINDING AMELIA
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The use of colorful scene depictions, personalized dialogue and ghostly passages that depict Amelia’s moments of despair, doubt and her charismatic wit come shining through all which build up to the climactic ending which is given a somber but undeniably realistic belief that what happened to her wasn’t just destiny, but may have been by her own choice. The script allows for the audience to decide for themselves what actually happened to Amelia Earhart and the journey we’re allowed to take with her shows how beautifully this script is written, and also how magnificient it would look on the big screen. Mystery
skreenplay@juno.com
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THE SYSTEM Written, Directed & Produced by Keith Kelly
It has been replaced by the mandate, “follow the policy.” Furthermore, respect for teachers has been greatly diminished, thus devaluing the importance of education.
Director Statement Education trumps everything! That is the first line in this movie and core belief of writer/director Robert Keith Kelly. Most problems can be solved by educating those involved or affected. But recently, critical thinking, the basis for learning throughout history, has been almost forbidden.
Script
However, unlike past generations where the young had to learn from the old, today tech savvy students can challenge older adults and institutions with their internet and social media skills. They are becoming agents of change, and that is the underlying theme of this movie. Kelly believes that comedy is the best weapon to attack serious, complex issues - so this biting satire is not just a film, but a call to action for those who care about the future. ABOUT Keith Kelly Robert Keith Kelly studied screen-writing at UCLA and received degrees in various areas of technology from W.Va. University, W.Va. Tech, Fairmont State, and the University of Georgia. He has a total of 5 degrees - thus the name “5 Degrees Production Company” Writer/director Kelly says he feels fortunate to have had such a talented ensemble of actors - Luke Donaldson (The Walking Dead), Haley Leary (Nashville), Callan Wilson (American made), Rusty Smith (Shakespeare) Lynn Learner (Broadway), Dave Watkins and Josh Haire of (Herman Jones) and the beautiful mother-daughter team of Kathy Lloyd and Cheyenne Johnson who do both acting and stunts. After completing several shorts and documentaries he wrote and directed the feature film “The System”. Keith is passionate about causes involving children and education. He is committed to writing and directing his own films. Comedy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5941158/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1
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Run Time 104 Mins
an award nominated script
FINDING A M E L I A RIVERS OF A Script by
Todd Selleck
BABYLON A Script by Tony Kayden
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FLOWERS AND A LAP OF ROSE A Beautiful New Film By The Award Winning Filmmaker – Shomshuklla Das
“Flowers and a lap of rose is my 6th feature film and very close to my heart. The film was shot in some of the exotic locations of New York and India. Initially the script of the film was written in poetic layout. The thought was to give an ethereal look to the film, because of which we planned the shoot during the snow in New York. And by God’s grace and our luck, just a couple of days before we planned to shoot, a snow storm hit the city and covered the entire central park and other places with fresh snow. It looked magical. Bharat Dabholkar, the lead male actor of my film is a reputed actor in Indian Cinema. His character sketch was designed in such a way so that it gives a distinctive look to the film; a masculine well built man having a good time with his dog and bird. He is playing the character of a poet in the film. My female lead, Ria Patel who acted as the muse in my film is an alumni of LA film school. She got connected to me and showed interest when I narrated to her the story of my film. She played her character wonderfully and has added beautiful flavours to my film. My DOP, Alex Megarowho is also a great friend and is from New York. I met him at a festival and got connected with him. The best thing that I liked about him was where he could visualize all of my ideas and give me exactly what I wanted from my film. Each frame that he shoots for my film is very artistic; he understands the brief. He is an award winning director and cinematographer.
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With great effort and hard work put in by all of my team we created this amazing art piece!” Shomshuklla Das Synopsis One can find love in the beauty of flowers or the verses of poems. Flowers and a lap of rose is a story of an established poet and the magic of his verse. It’s a story of finding a world in your dreams. The story makes you love yourself. One odd day something deep and a romantic sensation pushed him and he decided to pen a new sonnet. It is all about this young starryeyed girl who is in her own journey of discovery, she see everything differently. As the poet started writing this new poem he began to sail in a reverie with this charismatic girl of obsession. Drama
cuttocut.ent@gmail.com
Film THE MAGAZINE
Run Time 78 Mins
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a good dream A feature movie by Mahum Jamal
Straight out of the mind of debut director Mahum Jamal, A Good Dream portrays a vision of a fantasy New York through the eyes of a daring, lonely, female poet. A Good Dream takes the viewer on the surreal journey of a young woman in her 20s, lost deep in her mind’s world. As the protagonist, Uma (Melany Bennett), dives deeper into the abstract narrative, the audience joins her in unravelling the imaginary from the film reality. This artistic, unique vision takes the viewer on a conceptual, intellectual journey in a coming of age story true to the new millennium. The film sets a precedent for more work to come from the 25-year-old, San-Franciscobased writer/director. A Good Dream is a film for audiences with a wide imagination and a hunger for beautiful imagery.
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www.agooddreamfilm.com
Art Film
Run Time 102 Mins
Documentary
Run Time 48Mins
LORDEMANI A Film by Brais Revaldería & Ricardo Pérez
For over ten centuries, Galicia (Spain) has had a great relation with the Viking people. The different waves of Vikings on the Galician coasts has brought about that, today, that essence can still be appreciated in celebrations such as Catoira (Pontevedra), the twin of the Danish city of Fredrikssund. Danes and Spaniards joined by history and now by the bonds of friendship after more than 25 years of joint celebrations show us once again that racial, cultural or language differences are not an obstacle for the understanding and cooperation between these people, in an era when separatisms and discriminatory treatment towards race or religion have increased in first world countries. Lordemani is a sample of culture and of the common character of two people who without reaching verbal understanding are capable of coexisting and of creating lasting bonds of friendship by setting aside differences or quarrels from the past. http://lordemani.com
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DADA ON VACATION A Film by Errkaa
This 28-minute art film was conceived on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Dada art movement. Its focus is the North German performer and poet Emmy Hennings and the author, poet and artist Hugo Ball, who would later become her husband. The film is a fictional portrayal of the early stages of their relationship. They go on vacation together for the first time, travelling to a deserted village – absurdly – on Segways. All of the houses are empty. Only largeformat paper works of art hang on the facades of the buildings. This Dadaesque vacation film is shown at a party in Hugo’s flat. The two meet there once again, while all around them the party continues. The story is partly told using Dadaist stylistic devices such as absurdity (for example, the film within the film, whereby Emmy’s arrival in film time links seamlessly with the vacation film), masquerade, stylisation, slowmotion sequences, and special colouration. One part of the film is set in modern-day Hamburg, whereas the deserted village is situated in the open-cast coal mining area of Garzweiler.
www.bunkerhillgalerie.de
While the Dadaists (the real ones as well as those enacted in the film) playfully give themselves roles – for example that of the lift operator or of the servant and champagne waiter – in their distant stylisation, Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings remain true to themselves, right up to the balcony scene with fireworks at the end. The closing credits, which last for more than five minutes, are a mélange of film fiction, credits and makingof. Only now, almost at the very end of the film, does the viewer realise that the strangely deserted village is a place that has been depopulated for big money, a place that was destroyed by the huge bucket excavators of the Garzweiler II open-cast mining complex just a
few days after the completion of filming. Here, if you will, we see the political, socially critical side of Dada.
Directors Statement - Errkaa “The film is a fictional portrayal of the early stages of DADA`s founder members Emmy Hennings and Hugo Ball`s relationship set in the present time. Dadaist stylistic devices are used throughout the film.”
Although more than 80% of the film is under-laid with music, it’s also a silent film, with just the same two words being repeated manifold on two occasions: Hugo and Emmy.
Who is Errkaa? Born in Hamburg, Errkaa studied at the University of Hamburg and Art College HfBK under Prof. Gustav Kluge. He has now launched several exhibitions and is a Member of the Professional Association of Fine Artists and since November 2016 has been a curator at the artists` cooperative gallery at BUNKERHILL Galerie.
Art
www.errkaa.de
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Run Time 28 Mins
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A Tale Of Water, Palm Trees And Family A feature documentary by Nasser Al Dhaheri
Synopsis The long documentary “A Tale Of Water, Palm Trees And Family “ is a deep-rooted journey in the UAE’s land, people and culture, through the trilogy of water, palm trees and people; the main components of the UAE’s civilisation. A tribute to the memory of those who worked hard in the past, and a reminder to future generations that today’s prosperity was made by the sweat and blood of the ancestors who carved rock for water, and cultivated palm trees for life. Charting 3,000 years of the UAE’s Civilisation
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The UAE may be a relatively new country that was formed out of a federation of seven emirates 46 years back, but since then it has stunned the world with its continuous progress and world-class development. To the West, the region is mostly considered as a land of camels, desert, and oil. But a refreshing documentary showcasing the roots of the country and stretching back some 3,000 years, made its latest triumph at The Cannes Festival by bagging the Best Film in Culture Preservation award in the World Peace Initiative Film Festival category. This is the 8th international award for A Tale Of Water, Palm Trees And Family by the Emirati filmmaker Nasser Al Dhaheri, since it started touring world festivals, following its premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in 2015. The 2h.22-minute feature length documentary tells the story of a deeprooted journey of the UAE – land, people and culture – through a trilogy that forms the main components of UAE’s civilisation. After bagging awards in Dubai, Norway, Oakland, Canada, Barcelona, Los Angeles and New York, the movie is now set to screen at the upcoming Madrid International Film Festival, and other festivals. “The documentary is a tribute to the memory of those who worked hard in the past.
In Al Ain, where Al Dhaheri was born, there is evidence of the world’s oldest known falaj – an ancient network of underground water channels that was carved out of rock around 1,000BC. “It is testament to Herculean effort, and engineering prowess. Many of these channels still remain the main source of irrigation in Al Ain even today,” Al Dhaheri said. But the journey of understanding the rich history was not easy. It involved touring across the entire span of the UAE. “We slept in the desert, and went (out to the sea) in the morning with fishermen. We ascended mountains, and ate in the middle of palm oases,” Al Dhaheri recalled. “We also had some funny situations, like being attacked by a raging bull while filming a bullfight in Fujairah. Our camera was the first victim, because we all ran when we saw that bull coming at us!” he told us. Part of a noticeably large contingent of Emirati films, A Tale Of Water, Palm Trees And Family highlights the region’s ancestral dependency on two essential lifelines: water and the date palms that provide both food and materials for building houses and boats.
A reminder to future generations that today’s prosperity was made possible because of the sweat and blood of our ancestors who carved rock for water and cultivated palm trees for life in this place,” said Al Dhaheri, writer, journalist and an award-winning photographer about his first film. “It is a story about three elements: water, palm trees and family, and how they combine to establish a civilisation and constitute a culture that people don’t know of. They know us only through the camel, desert and oil. This is our real story,” he added. “The Arabic narrative is marked by its poetic language and detailed cinematography focusing on the art of storytelling. The film is filled with stories. It shows the real culture which existed before oil was discovered,” said Al Dhaheri. The film, which is translated into English, French and Spanish, showcases the region’s ancestral dependency on two essential lifelines – water and date palm which provided food and materials for building houses and boats. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5460500/
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A storyteller by trade, Al Dhaheri’s biggest challenge was not in making the transition to cinema but in finding a common language of communication with a Dutch technical crew that included cinematographer Hans Fels, editor Hans Dunnewijk, sound man Charles Kerstin, sound design Erik Langhout, color correcting Petro Van Leeuwen and Alfarazdak ChiChan as executive producer.
Best foreign documentary film from “M. F. F.” Copenhagen – Norway. “Award of Merit” from “Impact docs Awards- U.S.A. “Award of Merit” from “Accolade Global Film Competition USA. Best director from “AllTFF” Alternative film festival - Toronto – Canada. ”Award of Merit “ from “documentary without Borders” USA. Best director in “Around The World Barcelona Festival – Spain”. “Best film in Culture Preservation” from “World Peace Initiative Film Festival Cannes 2017”.
Nasser Al Dhaheri - Filmmaker Al Dhaheri is an Emirati writer and journalist. He was born in 1960 in al-Ain, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He was educated in the UAE and in France. He has published several volumes of fiction and non-fiction, including short story collections and novels.
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As a journalist, he has been involved with a number of publications, such as al-Ittihad newspaper, Fairuz magazine, al-Idari magazine and Faris magazine. He is the publisher and chief editor of Hdhod, an electronic newspaper which appears in Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Persia. In 2009, Al Dhaheri was a participant in the inaugural IPAF Nadwa. His work has appeared in English translation in Banipal magazine. Nasser Al Dhaheri has held various positions, including the Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Dur El Watan’ magazine, managing editor of “El Ittihad newspaper”, Chairman of the Emirates Writers Union, General Manager and Editor of the Arab Association of Press and Media Publications and editor of the “Disney - Warner Brothers - BBC” Arabic children’s publications. He is a member of the International Organization of Journalists, the Board of Trustees of Al Owais Cultural Award, the Board of Trustees of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award and the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Journalism Award. Some of his works have been translated into several foreign languages including English, French, Russian, Spanish, Hindi and Germany. He has held several national and international photo exhibitions and received numerous awards & accolades from different countries. He has won the Best director award at the Dubai International Film Festival “DIFF” for his film “A Tale of Water, Palm Trees and Family”. Documentary
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Run Time 145 Mins
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
THE CREATIVE GYPSY Warm greetings from India to my fellow film makers! It is a pleasure to be with you all for the Berlin International Filmmaker Festival 2017. The Creative Gypsy proudly shares space with outstanding cinema with our film “All About Section 377” which has been nominated in a whopping 8 categories. A proud achievement indeed! It has been long and arduous journey. This was the first LGBT series made in India and also the first completely LGBT content to be shown on national TV as a series as well as a film. Made with a lot of heart it received accolades from critics as well as audiences. BUT no one wanted to be associated with this path breaking film and it led to heartache and despair. I learnt many lessons from what followed and it gave me all the more strength to carry on doing what I loved the most….to make
the kind of cinema that I believed in….and I continue doing that. I hope you enjoy seeing it and it brings a smile to your face as well as tears to your eye.
This film not only gave me the courage to choose more socially relevant topics to make my films but also led to establishing my own YouTube channel called THE CREATIVE GYPSY which now boasts nearly thirteen thousand subscribers and where “All about Sec 377” has crossed a million views. Also the shoot for Part 2 has just been completed. Another achievement which I would like to share with you all is that we are the first in India to have 6 of our short films aired on TV as a weekly series called THROUGH THE LENS and at the moment of writing this 4 have already been aired and have garnered much appreciation as well as great reviews.
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In addition we have signed a contract with HUNGAMA digital media entertainment which is one of the biggies to air all our content on their platform which will gives us enormous exposure. In addition to this we have also made our first music video “Jai jai Gange” which is an extremely melodious ode to the holiest of our rivers The Ganges. It includes a small documentary on keeping the Ganges clean, which is one of the most important social tasks in India today. Carrying on with our tradition of trying something different, we have also made our first thriller short, AKKAD BAKKAD with a literal twist in the tale! Next in line is a film on the compelling topic of relationships at various levels and how they have a dramatic effect on mental health. Making varied content with a young and talented team has given my passion for cinema a new turn. After a satisfying stint as a Producer I now take my first step as a Director. I have chosen the intriguing topic of psychosis for my directorial debut. It is based on a true story and I hope I can do justice to it. I’m from a background of educationists and I am the first in my family to take to the arts. In school and college it was acting and the theatre which gave me the greatest pleasure and which eventually led me to cinema. I am deeply attached to it and get enormous satisfaction from it. I would like to give back to society a bit of what I can and what better way to do it than the medium of visual cinema which fascinates most people. Even if I can make a small difference it would give me a sense of achievement. I hope I continue to carry on my love affair with cinema forever!! I would like to take this opportunity to thank FILM FEST INTERNATIONAL for organising these events to help bring world cinema closer and exposing us to so much talent. Looking forward to an interesting week full of awesome cinema and meeting friends both old and new. Neeru Khera Production Company
thecreativegypsy2015@yahoo.com
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FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
TAKE MY HAND AGAIN A short film by Lun Yan
Hans Brown and his wife Jasmin Brown were a happy couple until one day, Jasmin dies in a car accident. Her blood was transfused to a young man named John Smith who needed her type of blood urgently. When John wakes up, he believes he is Jasmin for her blood is now running in his body. John/Jasmine turns to her husband Hans for help and declares that “she” is his wife. Hans can’t accept him. One short moment when John folds the rear mirror of Hans’ car reminds Hans of a day when Jasmin did the same. Hans changes his opinion about John and believes that it is really the inner “Jasmin” that is in John’s body. Will he accept John even if he has a male appearance?
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In this film, you will see how a simple moment of love would change one’s opinion. There are a few details that you may miss. They all allude to the end of the film. Anyway, the love between the couple remains after the accident. Does the appearance matter? Does the gender matter? How do you understand them? If you have a similar situation, what would you do? These are many questions for us to think about. As the director of this film, Lun Yan has been making short films since he was 3 years and his projects are growing with each new film that he makes. He observes the problems in society and tries to discuss these through the art of film with the audience. His crew is international including from Germany, China and Hungary.
lebron271828@gmail.com
THE VALLEY A motion picture by Saila Kariat
The Valley is the story of a successful Indian American entrepreneur Neal Kumar and his family, who reside in the high octane, technologically driven culture that is silicon valley in California. His affluent life appears idyllic from the exterior, however, when his daughter Maya tragically commits suicide, the fractured nature of his interior life becomes apparent to himself and those around him. At the opening, Neal unveils his latest technology Augur from his company. Augur celebrates the fusion of man and machine and the ability to predict human behavior based on mathematical models. After his talk Neal drives to the coast, stops along a cliff and pulls out a gun. He reflects on the events of the past year.
Drama
Run Time 12 Mins
Drama
Run Time 94 Mins
After his daughter’s suicide, the family is devastated and does not understand the cause of the tragedy. When his attempts to talk to his family fail, Neal embarks on a journey to find out why it happened. In the course of his journey he learns many things about himself, his family and his own values and choices. Starring Alyy Khan, Suchitra Pillai, Jake T. Austin, Barry Corbin, Christa B. Allen, Agneeta Thacker and Salma Khan, The Valley is a poignant, moving film about what it means to be successful, and how the frantic pace and demands of modern life can contribute to mental health issues, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
http://www.thevalleyfilm.com
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Andreas Galffy
Melvin Japel
a Lun Yan Film
Take My Hand Again BOTTLE WULF :TAKE MY HAND AGAIN + AURORA GROUP CAST ANDREAS GáLFFY FRANZISKA NIED FABIAN LORENZ gHENNING PITZER SOUND WEN-NING TSAO EMMA SAUTER | /e MELVIN JäPEL ( LUN YAN
WWW.FILMFESTINTERNATIONAL.COM FTM: You had a successful career as a dip must have been a huge step to not only give become not a filmmaker, but also to make th feature? NR: I had been working briefly as a for the EU and I was working sp on the Ukraine crisis and it seeme that frankly diplomacy, even at th level, was not really helping this c in fact, in my view it was actuall the situation worse and it had just polarized along cold war lines once I became disillusioned by all of this always thought that diplomacy was prevent war and sooth tensions an feel that we were doing that and thought, what can I do and so I d make a film about the conflict.
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
THAT’S OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING Writer/Director Charles Pelletier
Comedy based on a true story wins 20 film festival awards and here we were also lucky enough to include a short interview with both the writer/director Chuck Pelletier and one of the key actors Stephen Foster! “The keen ensemble performances make this funny production hilarious.” Huffington Post Writer/Director Charles Pelletier got the idea for the script “That’s Opportunity Knocking” by an anecdote told by one of the actors, Thomas Anawalt, at a bar after a play in which they were both involved at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Thomas had been living in New York, and one night got home with his roommate, and went to bed, only to find the next morning that he had been robbed, and the burglars had been in the apartment the whole time they had been home. Hiding. Somewhere. The true story became a comedic “tall tale” in which two wanna-be thugs attempt to rob an apartment; everything goes awry when the theatreoflifeproductions@hotmail.com owners show up early for a little late-night sex. Toss in the third wheel roommate, fresh out of the mental hospital and comedy was created.
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The full audio interview is available via our Facebo
That’s Opportunity Knocking Writer/Director Charles Pelletier
Comedy based on a true story wins 12 film festival awards! “The keen ensemble performances make this production hilarious.” Huffington Post “Brilliantfunny writing that is perfectly performed by I believe great actors will eventually an extremely strong cast.” Movie-Blogger.com
find their way, if given a safe space and a morsel of guidance, but that journey is largely an internal one.
Writer/Director Charles Pelletier got the idea for the script “That’s Opportunity Knocking” Interview www.wearemovingstories.com by an anecdote told by one of the actors, WAMS: How do personal and universal themes work in WAMS: What type of feedback have you received so far? Thomas Anawalt, at a bar after a play in which your film? SF: 20 film festival awards told us we had SF: Well, there is the element of the 99% vs. something “special”. The feedback we’ve they were both involved at the Hollywood 1%. The two poor thugs have to resort to gotten is “The acting is top notch!” “The as a meansin of survival. script and characters all create a sitcom feel!” Fringe Festival. Thomasrobbing hadan apartment been living The theme of relationships gone haywire. “We want to see more!” It’s all been very New York, and one night got home with his positive and encouraging. WAMS: How have the script and film evolved over the roommate, and went tocourse bed, only to find the of their development? WAMS: Has the feedback surprised or challenged your CP: The script took about 2 or 3 months to point of view? next morning that he had been robbed, and write and we also had the use of a soundstage CP: It surprised us to win so many awards. and got the project the like a play. We Usually awards at film festivals go to heavy the burglars had been in theto rehearse apartment wanted the film to have a Marx Brothers feel dramas or coming of age stories, but we it. Like you were spyingHiding. on these characters noticed that people respond to comedy when whole time they had tobeen home. and their antics. it’s convincing. Director Charles Pelletier’s notes: Somewhere. Comedy Run Time 22 Mins www.thatsopportunityknockingthemovie.com I was anxious to write a project fo the very gifted actors I had worked w The true story became a comedic “tall tale” in Film Hollywood Fringe Festival (C. Steph which two wanna-be thugs attempt to rob an
Director Charles Pelletier’s notes: I was anxious to write a project for some of the very gifted actors I had worked with at the Hollywood Fringe Festival (C. Stephen Foster, Charlotte Gulezian, Moronai Kanekoa, Satchel Andre and Thomas Anawalt), mostly recent graduates of the USC MFA Acting program. Cynthia Webster read the script and was immediately excited about producing it. As a cinematographer, she had won two Emmy’s, so when she agreed to be the DP, it was a perfect scenario for me, as a first-time film director. Since she owned her own studio, we were able to have many rehearsals over a period of weeks, on the set, and find the characters, in the way you would direct a play. My philosophy is to cast the right people, and stay out of their way. The state an actor is in, when he or she is acting well, is vulnerable.
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From the creator of ‘UNTITLED’ comes a story about the creator of ‘UNTITLED’...
UNTITLED (a film) by Chris Loizou
OCTOBER 1st AT 12.05 SCREENING ROOM 2
In 2010 my producers and I had managed to secure three million pounds to shoot a romantic comedy in London. Camped at a London studio, sets designed, cast rehearsing and on the verge of having affairs already and Iʼm in the starting gate and ready to be released into the bull ring. The finance fell apart at the last minute and I remained bucking, bolting and rearing myself against the penn. The doors however, never opened. I limped back to my Kingʼs Cross office to lick my wounds and sat alone staring at a wall decorated
(SILVIA BUSUIOC Plays ‘KITTEN’ an internet sex slave)
with the set & costume designs I had imagined, a colourful strip board schedule and a photograph of me, smiling, along with my producers shaking hands on the 1st day of pre-production on my doomed project. Hardly an inspiration. I drew on all the scriptwriting books, seminars, courses I had taken through the years. My career & what it meant as a writer. Eight options and commissions under my belt for movies that never saw the light of day. Tv shows that never hit the small screen along with an exec who keeled over dead from a heart attack the day before the official green-light. I imagined Robert Mckee on his last legs, screaming in my face “Write what you know! Write what you know!” However, all I knew, at that point was a writer sitting alone in his office, beaten, and tired and trying to make sense of it all. Idea! So drawing from dozens of spec scripts to unrealised Hollywood deals and enough spitballing lunches that could have only have lead to a liver complaint, and through it all, my fare share of script notes. Script notes. Those meanderings of development executives, those sometimes
He just doesn’t know it...
generic musings of those who hope to shape your story into a palatable screen version for wide eyed popcorn chomping audiences. I started writing the screenplay, I had decided I would do exactly what I was told not to do, as GEORGE the agent says to (MARK DYMOND, MATT SCOTT & KURT “No black & writer, director CHRIS LOIZOU) white & no art Kurty Kurty boy”. I knew I wanted to make a convincing film-noir that fit the brief of an exciting thriller but is laughing and eating itself inside out. Too clever for itʼs own good? Possibly. I didnʼt have a title, so it was by pure definition UNTITLED. A thriller, following Kurtʼs low-budget ethos and his life imitating art as it turns into the very story Timothy is desperately trying to peddle, flaws and all. Shot in glorious black and white, in a style lost to the silver screen against a rousing orchestral score. Breaking every screenwriting & filmmaking rule by
by making a wry twist on the indie art-film, 40ʼs noir and modern cinema classic but with a nudge and a wink and crashing against modern technology, leaving the audience with an unsettling paradox. The characterʼs are bizarrely drawn, saved from Timothyʼs dreaded script notes, invading the screen relentlessly on what has become the way we digitally communicate today, you could connect with 100ʼs of people in a day and not see a soul. But to thrill, to scare, to shock, to intrigue, but to never leave that room. Cheekily making nods to some of the planetʼs most revered filmmakers, Godard, Fellini,, Hitchcock and loaded with film references, (Easter Eggs!) hidden away but there to be discovered. The plan was to make a truly unique, sexy, genre busting and commercially viable neo-noir thriller. I think Iʼve achieved that.
RGEIER
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
Eye of the Lammergeier
rt st er
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EYE OF THE LAMMERGEIER EYE OF THE LAMMERGEIER
Directed by Blake Kerr
s o n s’
A Film by Blake Kerr
Thirty years in the making, Eye of the Lammergeier opens with two American mountaineers, John Ackerly Esq. and Blake Kerr M.D., trying to get as high as they can on the Tibetan side of Everest, in sneakers.Behind Chinese propaganda in Tibet, an epic voyage into China's military occupation. When Chinese police open fire on unarmed A Film by Blake Kerr Tibetans in the capital of Lhasa, Ackerly photographs the largest independence demonstration against Chinese rule since the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. After documenting 12 deaths, Kerr sneaks out to treat the wounded hiding in their homes and monasteries, and meets the victims of torture and sterilization.
EYE OF THE LAMMERGEIER Thirty
The underside of China’s military occupation of Tibet is powerfully revealed by Kerr and Ackerly returning separately seven times to document China’s prisons, and China’s national policy of coerced abortions, sterilization and infanticide at People’s Hospitals in Lhasa and remote regions throughout Tibet.
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years in the making, Eye of the La mountaineers, John Ackerly Esq. and Blake Ke on the Tibetan side of Everest, in sneakers. Wh Tibetans in the capital of Lhasa, Ackerly demonstration against Chinese rule since the documenting 12 deaths, Kerr sneaks out to tre monasteries, and meets the victims of torture a
The underside of China's military occupation o Ackerly returning separately seven times to national policy of coerced abortions, sterilizatio Lhasa and and remote regions throughout Tibe
In February 2014, three years after Dr. Kerr against China’s Past President and Prime humanity in Tibet, Judge Ismael Moreno found Chinese leaders, guilty of committing genocide
In February 2014, three years after Dr. Kerr testified at the Spanish National Court against China’s Past President and Prime Minister for committing crimes against humanity in Tibet, Judge Ismael Moreno found Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, the five other Chinese leaders, guilty of committing genocide in Tibet. Five months later, in July 2014, China convinced Spain to reverse its National Court’s finding. With this in mind, Eye of the Lammergeier was made from the film submitted to the Spanish National Court, and is offered to the Court of World Opinion. Hidden camera footage that has never been seen before graphically illustrates the Tibetans’ plight.
Five months later, in July 2014, China convinc finding. With this in mind, Eye of the Lammerg the Spanish National Court, and is offered camera footage that has never been seen be plight.
Executive Produced & Dire Edited by ALAN SCOT Cinematography B Still photography by JOHN ACK
EYE OF TH Documentary
blakekerrmd@hotmail.com
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Run Time 41 Mins
Behind Chinese propaganda, an epic voyage into China's occupation of Tibet.
EYE OF THE LAMMERGEIER A documentar y by Blake Kerr
BEST ANIMATION OR ANIMATED SEQUENCE
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AMIKOM YOGYAKARTA For worldwide sales, contact FANTASTIC FILMS INTERNATIONAL at roxane@ffimail.com
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NOVEMBER 10TH Directed by Aryanto Yuniawan
After the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan surrendered to the Allies. It was signed on the USS Missouri. But the war wasn’t over, the Dutch forces rode on the Allies and reclaimed the Dutch East Indies. But the people of Indonesia did not remain silent. They rose up to defend the independence of the Indonesian Republic.
TOP IMAGE: NOVEMBER 10TH - BATTLE OF SURABAYA POSTER IMAGE - RIGHT IMAGE: DIRECTOR “ARYANTO YUNIAWAN” - BOTTOM IMAGE: MSV ANIMATION STUDIO CREW.
November 10th is a film set by the legendary battle on 10 November 1945 in Surabaya, Indonesia. The November 10th film presents the story of an adventure of a child with one of the most important historical events in Southeast Asia soon after the end of World War II. Generally, this film tells about the adventure of a boy named Musa in the frenzy of the greatest war in the revolutionary period of independence. Musa is a shoeshine boy who becomes a courier for the struggle of Arek-Arek Surabaya (Youth) against the Allies. Musa is trusted to be a messenger of letters and secret codes. An exciting and gripping adventure is passed. Starting from the loss of wealth and the loved ones to some unexpected encounters that enrich his mind and life. The main message of this movie has been represented in such a way in the tag line: No Glory in War; There is no triumph in the war. War only publishes sorrow and bitterness. This powerful message emanates from the entire film. Therefore, in this film, heroism is not presented as a hero of war who is able to eradicate dozens of enemies in a single sweep nor the story of the triumph of war with murder and extermination. The idea of this film is to present a humanitarian story and offer a heroic understanding that is not as commonly understood. Everyone can be a hero, hero of the nation, for the family, or even for himself. Everyone experiences the process of growing into a hero, becoming a better person, in their own way. In short, the moral of the film is; heroism can be presented in anyone. November 10th is not a biopic motion picture that presents the biographical story of historical figures. The story in this movie is fiction with a background of some historical events.
battleofsurabayathemovie.com
This historical background-story contains both real figures and fictional characters. Historical characters such as Resident Sudirman and Bung Tomo, two central figures in the November 45 war. While the fictional characters are Musa, Yumna, Danu. This film is produced by MSV Pictures, an animation studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In addition to producing feature films, MSV Pictures also produces movie series and serves the creation of animation aspects from concept to production. The film director is AryantoYuniawan, a young Indonesian director who is also the CEO of MSV Pictures. November 10th was screened in Indonesia under the title of Battle of Surabaya in 2015 and received a remarkable welcome. In addition to the audience’s appreciation, the film also won numerous awards both locally and internationally. There are 14 awards, including Best Foreign Animation Trailer, The 15th Annual Golden Trailer Award 2014 Winner People’s Choice Award, International Movie Trailer Festival (IMTF) 2013, Winner of Digital Animation, GOLD REMI AWARD, The Houston International Film Festival, 2016, Winner of Best Animation The 20th Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF), 2016, Best Animation 3rd Noida International Film Festival, 2016, and the winner of the category Best Animation or Sequence Animation in The International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema NICE 2017.
Amikom Yogyakarta & MSV PICTURES
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The film also became the Official Selection Holland Animation Film Festival 2016, Official Selection Animation Dingle 2016, and Official Selection Holland Animation Film Festival, 2016. The public appreciation to this November 10th is also reflected in the credentials from the film industry to its director, AryantoYuniawan. After directing this November 10th, Aryanto was then trusted to being a jury member at various local and international film festivals, such as the oldest and most prestigious festival in Indonesia; Film Festival Indonesia (FFI) in 2016, jury of 5th Delhi Shorts International Film Festival on October 6th, 2016, and SICAF Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF) 2017.
Animation
Run Time 110 Mins
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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THE FISH IN THE WATER Written & Directed by Tulay Kocaturk Produced by Alper Yanar
“Is a person’s will and talent enough to overcome his fate?” The inspiring and breathtaking story of a young swimmer. The Story: Sefa has a natural talent for swimming. He has always wanted to go to university but cannot for financial reasons and is then given an opportunity. Coach Yavuz invites him to the swimming team. This unexpected offer has an impact on Sefa’s family. His father objects whilst his grandmother supports his hope of going to the university on a sports scholarship. So Sefa says goodbye to his village and his one and only love, Ayse and goes to live in Izmir. His new life in the big city is not easier than the one before. When he also hears the news of Ayse’s soon-to-be engagement, his world falls apart. He now needs to make a choice between accepting his fate and swimming upstream against his destiny. But there are more surprises ahead affecting his decision.
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www.sudabalik.com
The Fish In The Water aka Suda Balik is a success story about a young man. It is the story of finding his life purpose through his inexperience and confusion. It is rather a neglected genre, the sports films, in Turkey. Nevertheless, we observe that young people are very much into sports, especially swimming because of the increasing number of swimming pools being built even in the cities without a way to the sea. We aim to encourage young people to be interested in swimming by telling a naive story of a village boy whose road to success is through making life choices just as it is in real life. In order to achieve what you want in life, it is not the physical or social obstacles one has to overcome but the mere self and way of thinking.
www.hylbz.com.tr
Drama
Run Time 134 Mins
Documentary
Run Time 80 Mins
Assault TO freedom Director: Marcos Moreno
ASSAULT TO FREEDOM is a documentary that tells the story of five young Cubans that in 1963, four years after the beginning of the revolution, took part in a risky plan to steal and kidnap a boat full of passengers, to find their freedom. This amazing real life story soon will also be a FEATURE FILM. The project is on its development stage and the final script is finished and ready to start pre-production. The movie will be filmed in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic with an international cast and first class production resources. Co-produced by companies from United States, Dominican Republic and Chile, the production opens the INVITATION FOR NEW CO-PRODUCERS for the movie. NOMINATED AT THE BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER FESTIVAL BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE DOCUMENTARY BEST DIRECTOR OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE DOCUMENTARY BEST EDITING OF A DOCUMENTARY BEST STORY
production@tharsisfilms.com
www.assaulttofreedom.com Screening - Sunday 1/10 -15:30 - Room 3
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an award nominated script
THE SUN IN THE SOUL A Script by
Massimo Bruni
The escape on "LA CONCHITA" in December 1963, marks the only successful maritime assault to freedom from Cuba. Dedicated to all those who fought to reach their freedom and never found it.
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YOU HAVE A NICE FLIGHT A film by Jimmy Dinh
It’s said that God loves a trier and here, there is a no more perfect example of this than the filmmaker Jimmy Dinh. With multiple award nominations at The Berlin International Filmmaker Festival 2017 as well as the opportunity to interview him for this article, we are delighted to be able to delve into the incredible story of one man’s drive, determination, desire, ability and belief. You Have a Nice Flight (YHANF) is a comedydrama-romance feature film by Jimmy Dinh that mixes humor and heartfelt feelings into a story of obstacles, misunderstandings, love, heroism, and ultimately triumph. A short Vietnamese manicurist living in California, ĐỒNG HÙNG (Jimmy Dinh), tries desperately to catch his flight in time at the Burbank airport to go home to Vietnam to donate his kidney for a transplant to save his sick twin brother. In the process chaos ensues, shutting down the airport. A tall beautiful stewardess named Jesta (Shelley Dennis) devotedly helps ĐỒNG HÙNG and a romance develops despite their height mismatch. Other stars include Richard Riehle, Dominique Swain, Keesha Sharp, and Amiée Conn. You Have A Nice Flight was edited by Mark Newton and Jimmy Dinh, and the Director of Photography was Bill Otto.
BIOGRAPHY of JIMMY DINH by John BELCHER Personal Friend and Co -Producer of YHANF
I would like to introduce you to the amazing story of Jimmy Dinh who directed and played the lead actor and 4 other roles in this movie. Jimmy and his identical twin brother, Daniel, were born in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam with 9 siblings during the American-Vietnam war. They began their long journey to the United States with 2 other siblings in 1992, leaving behind the rest of their family. They arrived in the U.S. with no money and limited English.
You Have A Nice Flight to date has been selected for 25 Film festivals with 21 nominations and 10 awards including Best Feature Film, Best Comedy, Best Screenplay, Best Lead Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. After film festivals screenings are completed, twenty percent of all theatre ticket sales that go to Vietwins Productions will be donated to charity organizations located in the same cities, states and countries as the theaters.
After 12 years in the U.S. lots of hard work and a little luck, the twins started a thriving eyelash extension business in Beverly Hills, catering to celebrity clients. Jimmy entertained his eyelash clients with his funny life stories. They loved his stories and encouraged him to try acting and comedy. In 2006, Jimmy did, and soon discovered that Hollywood writers didn’t create many leading roles for authentic Asian characters. If they did, the roles were stereotypical mean, bossy, or flamboyant Asian men. So Jimmy decided to take control of his own destiny and write a script for a feature film about a good-hearted, lovable, VietnameseAmerican guy named Đông Hùng. ĐỒNG HÙNG uses his Vietnamese and American cultural experiences to change incidents at the airport from hate to love, revenge to forgiveness, and negative to positive. During that time Jimmy was inspired by appearances as a comedian on America’s Got Talent and the Chelsea Lately Show. In 2015, the script was far enough along to begin shooting. Jimmy and I arrived in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam in February to shoot the Vietnam scenes. Since it was Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday celebration, professional actors from Saigon were unavailable, so Jimmy had to play two roles: Đông Hùng’s father and his sick twin brother. We cast the other roles with local people from Jimmy’s home village.
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An interview FTM: How did you and John Belcher (co-producer of YHANF) actually meet? JD: It was in 1999 and I first met him at the University of Minnesota where I was taking a class for chemical engineering (!) and where John was working, we hit it off very quickly!
After 4 days of preparations, we shot the Vietnam scenes in only 1 day at 4 different locations in Jimmy’s home village. Jimmy’s sister Oanh was critical to getting a local cast and crew together. Jimmy looked very comfortable and natural as Director. When we returned to Los Angeles, we began preparing to shoot the airport scenes. We scouted airport locations and assembled a production crew.
FTM: Why did you originally choose to settle in the US, how did that come about? JD: So we had a sponsor from an American organisation, they sponsored me, 2 of my brothers and a sister and we came to America in 1992. I wanted to come to the US for freedom and a better way of life and in fact had to go to a settlement camp in the Philippines. We had to stay there for 6-months to study American culture and English before we could finally go to the US.
Jimmy began searching for an experienced Director. After an exhaustive interview process without success, friends of Jimmy in the TV and film industry like Sarah Magness and Julie Pernworth tried to persuade Jimmy that he was the best choice to direct the film. After all it was his story, “his first baby”. He thought of it every second and knew exactly what he wanted from each scene down to the smallest detail. Finally, Jimmy agreed to be the Director. He started reading books about directing and sought wisdom from some of his eyelash clients who are female directors in Hollywood. He soon learned that an important aspect of his job as Director was casting. He worked with Dream Big Casting and watched over 200 talent audition clips for 37 speaking roles. In the ‘CallBack Auditions’, Jimmy spent 2 whole days at the casting office directing the actors. Jimmy knew that finding the most talented actors would make his directing easier on the set. The audition process and reading table made Jimmy feel more comfortable and believe in himself as Director. To foster creativity, Jimmy directed all the actors to do “improv” as much as they wanted, but keep the main dialog.
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FTM: Can you tell us what happened after you arrived in the US in 1992? JD: We lived in Minneapolis from 1992 onwards. In 2004 my brother Daniel went to Orange County, California for a computer science job and when he was there he was working part-time in a friend’s hair salon. He enjoyed it so much that he started taking cosmetology classes. During that time he began developing a unique method to apply eyelash extensions. By 2005 he was so good at it that he became very famous. One day one of his eyelash clients visited a famous eyebrow expert in Beverly Hills. The famous eyebrow expert asked, “who did your beautiful lashes? I’ve never seen such beautiful lashes”. She introduced Daniel to her Hollywood celebrities and almost overnight Daniels’s lashes became a must-have accessory. Business was so brisk that in 2005 Jimmy moved to California and started working with Daniel at the busy Beverley Hill’s salon and doing house calls at homes of the rich and famous.
The U.S. portion of the film was shot in 10 days at an airport gate set built at a mall in Simi Valley north of LA, 1 day at an airplane mockup and 4 days at Burbank Bob Hope airport. Initially, Jimmy was afraid that the experienced Hollywood actors and crew would be reluctant to take directions from a first-time film Director with broken English. But the opposite was true. The cast loved Jimmy and did an amazing job under his direction. Somehow, it all came together and Jimmy was a natural directing his story. Being the writer gave him the ability to imagine what the scene should look like on the screen and helped him to direct the camera, crew, and actors.
FTM: And how did you go from there to making this brilliant first Feature “You Have a Nice Flight”? JD: Well, we were already so busy and that’s when I started to meet lots of famous movie stars. When I told people funny stories about my life they started to say “Jimmy, you should take acting classes”. Then I was lucky enough to meet Ivana Chubbuck at the salon who’s a very famous acting coach who had taught many famous actors including Halle Berry and she encouraged me as well. But at the time I kept saying “no I can’t do it, I’ve got broken English,” but you know they kept saying....go and do it! Finally I decided to go for it and can you believe that I asked Ivana if she would give me acting lessons in exchange for doing her eyelashes for free and she agreed, I was so lucky and so grateful. I had no acting experience and here I am being taught by one of the best acting coaches in the World and this lasted from 2006 until 2008 where I went to the master class (in acting). Then after that I went to so many auditions and I tried so hard and I went to every workshop that I could in LA & Hollywood and I was going anywhere that I could to learn my craft including stand- up comedy.
During post-production, Jimmy sat long hours next to the editor, Mark Newton, learning editing skills on Adobe Premiere Pro. After 8 months, Jimmy took over and edited the final versions himself. He found editing to be synergistic with writing and directing, and key to making a beautiful, artistic story. He also discovered that the music was a powerful enhancer that enabled the audience to deeply feel the story’s emotions. One unique aspect of You Have A Nice Flight is that Jimmy Dinh plays 5 roles: ĐỒNG HÙNG, his sick Twin Brother, his Father, Thai Lady Boy, and Granny. Jimmy earned 12 IMDb credits including Director, Screen Writer, Executive Producer, Producer, Editor, Music Supervisor, Foley Artist, and Location Manager. He learned not only about the importance of hard work and creativity, but also about the importance of believing in yourself and bringing out your heart to put positive messages into your movie that will help others.
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I was trying everything possible and was literally sleeping around 4 hours a day, I would finish acting classes at around 10pm then race around to movie star’s houses to do their lashes....can you imagine! In 2010, I auditioned for America’s Got Talent as a stand-up comic and I was selected to appear on the show! They did a nice behind-the-scenes feature about me on the show. Although I was voted off the show, it was a wonderful experience that gave me confidence to continue acting. This was followed by an appearance on an episode of the Chelsea Lately Show. But despite this success, as an Asian actor my roles were limited. I had only 2-3 auditions a year for minor roles. I was starting to get depressed, so in 2011, I decided to take control of my own destiny and write a script for a feature film. I wanted to keep my dream alive; I had to take control! Instead of creating the bad Asian characters like Hollywood writers, I created a goodhearted and lovable character. FTM: Did the knockbacks make you even more determined to make YHANF? JD: During that same time my twin brother said to me that an acting career is not for you. So many people fail in this business. Of those people that want to become actors, only about 5% get any work and of those 5% only about 10% have constant work, so it’s very tough. But when I was going to the acting classes I would hear people laugh when I was doing my performance and people would say “Jimmy, you are so funny and you are different from other people”. These comments would lift me up and made me determined to carry on with my acting. So many people were saying the same thing about how tough it is, how you will struggle, how you will not make any money, but I believed in myself; God had given me a talent, which was acting and I was never going to give up. FTM: You were involved in so many ways on YHANF, can you give us a sense of how difficult it was compared to how you thought it would be? JD: (Laughs) You know if I had thought really hard about all of the jobs that I needed to do on this movie then I wouldn’t have made it! I didn’t plan to do all of these jobs from the beginning but I want to tell you that it was the most enjoyable thing. But I had no choice and you discover just how talented you can be when you’re put in a bad situation and you want to survive and you say I have to do it but always underneath I have this positive energy. Also, you have to have positive people around you like John (Belcher) who will be totally honest with you but they also have this positive energy in there as well and you have to find people that have a good heart and will try to help you. And I had so many obstacles in making this film. For instance, we had planned to begin shooting in late 2014, but we had to postpone filming. We had to pay almost $50,000 to the crew, the producer and the director. We found out that our producer wasn’t ready yet with many issues, including locations and so on. The director was very mean and a bully to the talents and me.
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He took about 15 of our auditioned talents out and replaced these actors with his friends and talents who were in his previous movie.
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FTM: Now you’ve made your first feature, are you hooked and do you want to make more films? JD: Well I wanted so much to make it happen, I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted but I’m more of a survivor! But yes, I definitely do want to make more films but in a different way so that I will have a larger team around me. It was OK to have a small team for YHANF because I learned the filmmaking process from “A to Z”. Which was amazing and taught me so much. But for my next film, which is planned for 2018, perhaps I won’t be doing so many things!
He changed the script and told me not to touch the modified script because I was a terrible English writer. After the postponement I asked him to send me back the amended script. I was shocked that the script was so racist to other minority people including Chinese and Vietnamese. It was so lucky that we didn’t make my movie with his version of the script. We had to fire our first director and producer and start again. So in the end there I am directing this film with my broken English and my fast speaking and I’m trying to act as well, so you can imagine for me, it was a lot of trouble! But when I try to do something or show how something should be done in a certain way I’ve learned that I just need to slow down. I would talk slowly and physicalize the way I would want it done...my mouth would get tired and my hands would get tired, too!
The thing is for this film and any film that I will make in the future I try to send a positive message to the audience. I just hope that anyone that sees my movie will be inspired, and if they think “can I do it?” Well, if Jimmy has done it then I can do it. The people in Berlin, London, Paris, Milan, Moscow or wherever in the world, and it’s not just about making a movie. Maybe they have a dream, I’m not saying that they should perhaps do it the way that I’ve done it, but I want to inspire people, whatever they do in life to challenge themselves to become better at what they do.
I also remember the auditions and when I was doing them would focus on a lot of things, I have a really good eye and I can see very quickly if the person we are auditioning will fit into the characters. So these talented people were so good! On the set I would actually have them do “improv” and in fact even before we shot a frame every actor had already done several table reads and rehearsals etc. http://youhaveaniceflightmovie.com
(310) 622-2547
jimmydinh99@yahoo.com
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Comedy
Run Time 92 Mins
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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DOG PARK A Short Comedy by Katie Enright
Responsible. Kind. Caring. Outdoorsy. These are qualities that any romantic hopeful appreciates in a potential partner. They also happen to be characteristics that make someone the perfect dog owner. This is the logic that Amelia and Jake employ when they head to their local dog park in search of not only canine, but also human connection. The only catch is, neither of them owns a dog! Dog Park is a romantic comedy ripe with the awkwardness and excitement of a first meeting. Without giving too much away, it’s safe to say that viewers will be left with the hopeful feeling that yes, it is possible to find love offline in 2017. Since its debut at the London International Film Festival, Dog Park has been making a big impression on the festival circuit all over the world, garnering such awards as Best Comedy Short at the Nice International Film Festival and Best Editing at the Madrid International Film Festival. The film was an official selection for the Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas, and it will be featured in the Silicon Valley International Film Festival in December of 2017. The Dog Park team is thrilled to be included as an official selection for the Berlin International Film Festival, where it is being considered for numerous awards. At a time when female representation in film, television, and new media is a hot button issue, Dog Park boasts talented women both in front of and behind the camera. The short marks the directorial debut of up-and-coming director Katie Enright, who honed her craft under the mentorship of esteemed directors and authors Mary Lou Belli and Bethany Rooney and as an apprentice with the Warner Brothers Television Directing Workshop. Enright was a finalist in the 2016 AFI Women Directors Workshop and was the recipient of the Best First Time Filmmaker Award at the 2017 Action On Film Festival in Las Vegas. Lead actress Gilli Messer is also the writer of Dog Park. Gilli was recently featured as a writer in both the 2016 and 2015 ABC Diversity Showcases, and she is currently a writer for the 2018 CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy Showcase. Her humor prose has also been featured on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. As an actress, Gilli’s credits include roles on network television shows such as Jessie, 2 Broke Girls, and American Housewife.
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Dog Park is just one of several artistic collaborations between Katie, Gilli, and the film’s assistant director and editor, Jimmy Gadd. As lead editor of network television shows such as The Mentalist and Rosewood and as a graduate of the WBTV Directing Workshop, Jimmy and his talents were invaluable to Dog Park. With the help of producer Colby Hanik, Katie put together an incredible cast and crew to join her, Gilli, and Jimmy. From lead actor Blaise Miller, who has made his mark on the indie film scene in movies such as Homestate, to the adorable canine actors, without whom the dog park would have just been a park, Dog Park is the result of the collaborative synergy that defines independent filmmaking. Romantic Comedy
kenright4@hotmail.com
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Run Time 7 Mins
Fantaisie IMpromptu
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SYNOPSIS Fantaisie Impromptu - a prologue is the story of Laura, a middle-aged piano teacher, who is dissatisfied with her
life and marriage. She meets a new piano student and the enthusiasm of his arrival makes her reflect on the world around her.
DUDA GORTER’S BIOGRAPHY Duda Gorter started her career in theatre as a female actor and later on, became an Assistant Director, who has hitherto worked on
several plays in Rio de Janeiro. She has also worked in several audiovisual areas and eventually became an acclaimed director and the screenwriter of her own films.
a Prologue FANTASIA IMPROVISO – PRIMEIRO MOVIMENTO A beautiful short film by Duda Gorter
Fantaisie Impromptu – a Prologue is Duda Gorter’s fourth short film. This short film premiered on the 69th Cannes International Film Festival – Short Film Corner 2016. It has travelled around the world via several film festivals and film showcases, winning The Accolade Global Film Competition for Best Direction and Best Female Actor Performance by Gisele Fróes.
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This short film counts on a renowned technical team in the Brazilian Film Industry, having Jacques Cheuiche’s photography, executive production by Flávio Chaves, and Mônica Costa’s Art Direction. “Fantaisie Impromptu - a prologue moves at a slow, uneventful pace.
There’s just not much going on. What it does have is grace and elegance, and it is beautifully shot. Duda Gorter wrote and directed this study of a woman suffering boredom and questioning her own existence. For Laura, life has come to a crossroads. This is a portrait of a woman staring out a window at the rest of the world. The musical score provided by Bernardo Uzeda is almost hypnotic in its lingering pace. It adds to her mood. The lighting and Cinematography are rich and moody and very ‘film like’. This movie could have been shot in 1960’s Paris. It shares the same flavour as classics of that era.” Brian Lutes - World Premiere Film Awards ( WPFA/Canada)
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PHOTO: DUDA GORTER - CLAUDIA RIBEIRO - PHOTO: LITTLE CHURCH LIT BY CANDLES. “OH WE’VE GOT TO GO BACK, GOT TO GO BACK, GOT TO GO BACK, GOT TO GO BACK, FOR THE HEALING, GO ON WITH THE DREAMING, I’VE GOT TO GO BACK MY FRIEND, IS THERE REALLY ANY NEED TO ASK WHY, GOT TO GO BACK WITH THE DREAMING”. VAN MORRISON (GOT TO GO BACK) ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF FERNANDA VASCONCELOS
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
PHOTO: LAURA SEATED IN FRONT OF THE PIANO. “THERE’S COMFORT IN MELANCHOLY, WHEN THERE’S NO NEED TO EXPLAIN, IT’S JUST AS NATURAL AS THE WEATHER, IN THIS MOODY SKY TODAY”. JONI MITCHELL (HEJIRA) PHOTO: LAURA, STANDING UP, WITH THE LETTER IN HAND. “I’M POROUS WITH TRAVEL FEVER, BUT YOU KNOW I’M SO GLAD TO BE ON MY OWN, STILL SOMEHOW THE SLIGHTEST TOUCH OF A STRANGER, CAN SET UP TREMBLING IN MY BONES”. JONI MITCHELL (HEJIRA) PHOTO: LAURA SEATED IN BED/ GAZING. “LOVE CAME TO MY DOOR, WITH A SLEEPING ROLL, AND A MADMAN’S SOUL, HE THOUGHT FOR SURE I’D SEEN HIM, DANCING UP A RIVER IN THE DARK, LOOKING FOR A WOMAN TO COURT AND SPARK”. JONI MITCHELL (COURT AND SPARK)
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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PRODUCTION CREDITS - FANTAISIE IMPROMPTU – A PROLOGUE Screenplay, Direction, Production: Duda Gorter Executive Production: Flávio G. Chaves Cast: Gisele Fróes Alexandre Mofati Maria Clara Spinelli Betina Viany Nelson Freitas Clara Sverner, Stella Randolph, Natalie Ann Truman Cinematography: Jacques Cheuiche; Art Direction: Mônica Costa; Soundtrack: Claudio Lyra; Editing: Tuco; Sound Design: Bernardo Uzeda. Costume: Fernanda Fabrizzi Assistant Director: Marilia Gurgel FESTIVALS AND AWARDS Short Film Corner – Cannes 2016 Festival internacional de Cine de Autor 2017 Mindfield Film Festival - Los Angeles 2017 Best Film Best Diretor Best Cinematography Best Actress Best Sound Design Best Editing Polish International Film Festival – Warsaw 2017 Southern Shorts Awards - Georgia/ USA 2017 Best Actress Best Cinematography Bucharest ShortCut CineFest – Bucharest 2017 NYC Indie Film Awards – New York 2017 – Award winner Best shortfilm - Diamond Awards Best Director - Diamond Award Best Actor - Gold Award Best Cinematography - Diamond Award Accolade Global Film Competition - La Jolla 2017 – Award Winner Award of merit – Duda Gorter for Fantasia improviso – primeiro movimento Market Clermont Ferrant Short Film Festival – Clermont Ferrant 2017 Nice International Film Festival – Nice 2017 Winchester Short Film Festival – Winchester 2017 European Independent Film Award ( EIFA) – 2017 International Filmmaker Festival (BIFF) Berlin 2017 World Premiere Film Awards ( WPFA) – Canadá 2017 Winter session: Best Actress Best Cinematography Best Best Lighting Best Sound Design TMFF - The Monthly Film Festival – Glasgow 2016 StoneFair International Film Festival - Piatra - Neamt 2016
“There is an infinite wealth/ambiguity within the human being – Am I sure of what I desire? What paths to take to get what I desire? I wrote the screenplay of this short film listening to Joni Mitchell, Chopin, Arrigo Barnabé, Marianne Faithfull and Van Morrison. I like to dive into the desire terrain and, having an obsessive personality; nothing feeds or intrigues me more than the vast theme of human desires. The terrain is moody and full of lights and shadows; that is why it is rich, instigating, irresistible and infinite. All said, this film is basically about mixed emotional feelings, therefore it has so many meanings – it is much better for you the viewer to discover your own meaning to it. ...and certainly there’s more yet to come...” Duda Gorter “That’s when you fall into a trance, sitting on a sofa playing games of chance...” Van Morrison (Madame George) ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF FERNANDA VASCONCELOS
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Drama
Run Time 20 Mins
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FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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RIVERS OF BABYLON A Script by Tony Kayden
Rivers of Babylon is a Scarface/City of God style screenplay about a group of kids growing up in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica in the late 1970’s. Kids who were brought up on American gangster flicks and Italian spaghetti Westerns. Hired by the local politicians to be their bodyguards while they go into the slums to win the sufferer’s votes, once the elections are over, they become expendable. Unable to find the non-existent jobs that were promised, they find no other way out of their terrible conditions but to turn to a life of crime. These same politicians who once gave these kids guns to protect them during the elections, now label them as “mad dogs” and turn the police and the army against them.
118 S. LUCIA AVE, UNIT 3, REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA, 90277 - 1 (323) 841-1114
Forced to flee to America, they settle in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in the mid-80’s and become the most ferocious posses ever to hit U.S. shores. Ten years before the Crips and the Bloods terrorized Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, the Jamaicans were the first to distinguish their posses by wearing their colors: red and green. The influx of crack cocaine into their culture during the Reagan era, set the stage for a drug epidemic that not only devastated Jamaica, but spread to all our major cities here in the States, and these kids rode that crack wave to our shores. Feared and honored for being “harder than the rest”, they laid claim to their new American turf with outlaw bravura. The raw dance hall music born of their world would define “gangsta” culture for a generation of angry young men in the U.S., England and Jamaica.
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Our story centers on two childhood friends, Johnny an aspiring singer/songwriter who never killed anyone and Gordon his childhood friend, a street smart kid who becomes the leader of the Renker posse in Crown Heights, ruthlessly dispatching with anyone who gets in his way. After Gordon brutally tortures one of his own posse members, sick of the violence and the misery crack has brought, Johnny realizes Gordon has to be stopped. Doyle, an Irish ATF agent, who sees some good in Johnny and knows he’s not a killer, agrees to help him bring Gordon down. But when Gordon suspects that Johnny is the person who betrayed him, he orders his posses members to gun down Johnny’s pregnant girlfriend Dion, his childhood sweetheart from Jamaica who fled to America to avoid the violence and start a new life. Marveling at his newborn baby daughter Deon Ivy, who survives and fearful that Gordon won’t stop until everyone in his family is dead, rather than go mano a mano against him, he lets the law take him down and flees with his baby girl to Miami, where he becomes a successful singer/songwriter after a DJ hears the song he wrote for Dion and plays it on a local station. Drama
tkayden@earthlink.net
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Script
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
BREATHE A Script by David Ince
A ferocious Action/Thriller about a man with acute asthma, who has just 24hrs to recover a mysterious cargo. How do you run when you can’t breathe? Sebastian is early. He arrives in town with cargo to deliver. He doesn’t know what the bag contains, he doesn’t want to know, but he’s pretty sure it isn’t drugs or money. Isobel is a slave. Dominated by a man she calls Mr Punch, Isobel has blood on her hands and guilt in her heart. Mr Punch is legend. Mysterious and terrifying, he uses blackmail, violence and fear to manipulate people, forcing shopkeepers, office workers and nurses to become henchmen and assassins. The cargo is stolen. Trapped between his employer and Mr Punch, Sebastian has just 24 hours to recover the bag or face the consequences. Running isn’t an option for a man with asthma. His only way out is finding the enigmatic Isobel.
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ABOUT THE STORY Screenwriter and author David Ince grew up watching movies starring Schwarzenegger and Stallone, and he always wondered about the henchmen. Who were these people who went up against the hero only to be gunned down? Why did they bother? Were they mercenaries or was it loyalty? With Breathe, David is answering that childhood question. Firmly anchored in reality, David’s characters are real, broken, damaged people, victims in one sense – manipulated and coerced by a powerful and faceless nemesis - and criminals in another, wrestling with the guilt of the crimes they’ve been forced to commit. This dichotomy adds a layer of emotional complexity to a story firmly placed in the action/thriller genre. Set against the backdrop of urban streets in the dead of winter, Breathe is a bleak and uncompromising study of power and control.
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REVIEWS “It is a wonderful thing when you start to read a book and get totally gripped from the first page. Breathe did just that for me and I was devastated when it finished.” - GrabThisBook.net “Barely breathed the whole way through. Phenomenal.” - Papillon “Breathe is certainly what you need to do reading this novel, it’s fast paced, full of twists and surprises yet always sticking to the point and never going off on a tangent, and when I set the book down after finishing it, I genuinely was in shock at how the story panned out.” - The Reading Chestnut “Fast, suspenseful, and oh-so-dark, this is one of those crime/thriller novels that keeps you guessing and second-guessing.” - Amazon Reviewer ABOUT THE WRITER David is a multi award-winning filmmaker and best selling novelist. He won Best Feature Screenplay at the Nice International film festival 2017 for What Waits In The Red. The movie, David’s first feature as a writer/director, also won the Festival Director’s Choice Award at the Unrestricted View Film Festival in London. The film has won 5 awards in total, and received a further 10 international nominations, including 4 for Best Film. David was one of six writers selected internationally for the North Sea Screen Partnership
(NSSP) script-writing programme in 2011, and one of eight teams selected nationally for the Screen South Creative Business Base script development programme in 2012. In the same year, David also completed his Master’s degree in Creative Writing at CCCU, graduating with Distinction. He has written, produced, directed, shot and edited a number of short form projects including narrative, music videos and viral ads.
David published his first novel, Bubble Goes Bang, in 2013, and followed this up two years later with the bestselling Breathe. The novel of What Waits In The Red is due to be published on 14 November 2017 and is available for pre-order now. David is currently developing new screenplays, while writing two new novels, one of which, Punch, is the sequel to Breathe.
Breathe is adapted from the bestselling novel by David Ince. The book was published by Caffeine Nights Publishing in 2015 and has received rave reviews, topping the Amazon Noir Thriller and Mystery chart in Canada. Listed as one of the Top Ten Novels of 2015 by Grab This Book, Breathe is the first part of the Meat Puppets trilogy, with volumes 2 and 3 due to be published in the next couple of years. This gives the movie adaption franchise potential. www.davidince.com
davidincecreate@gmail.com
@DavidInceCreate
Film THE MAGAZINE
Action/Thriller
Script
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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THE BESTSELLING NOVEL NOW AN ELECTRIFYING FEATURE SCREENPLAY
DAVID INCE @DavidInceCreate
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THE SUN IN THE SOUL A Script by Massimo Bruni
“The Sun In The Soul,” based on the applauded novel by Massimo Bruni, brings a colorful array of intensely rich and entertaining characters together in this charming and funny drama as they wrestle through the sunset of their lives. Set in the retirement home of “Serenity Villa,” new arrivals Samuel and Julie fatefully meet and embark on a remarkable journey with their fellow residents that will forever change their lives: The wisdom of The Master, the secret of Emily, the charm and lust of Clark, along with the whimsical and forever young Queenie, come together and defy the preconceptions of their friends, families, and the society around them as they rescue a reality once left in oblivion. Reminiscent of “Cocoon” within the meaningful revelations, conflict, and joy, Massimo Bruni weaves a complicated web of sorrow and despair only to be resurrected through the magic of the delightful story that audiences of all ages will enjoy.
Beat by beat, peeling back the layers of time, trials, and tribulation, each one of these characters emerges untethered within their own truth and destiny. Will the sun stand still? You’ll have to find out for yourself and you’ll enjoy every drop of it. The multi-layered storytelling is truly captivating and the dramatic arcs of these characters are nothing less than a filmmaker’s dream. “The Sun In The Soul” will engage and enlighten demographics from all over the world. Currently, Massimo has just developed an adaptation of his novel,“Flash,” with producers Daryl Lynn Matthews (Dance With Me) and Carlos Saura Jr. (Goya in Bordeaux) for a 2018 production.
The surprising twists and hilarious vignettes throughout this touching tale bring a life affirming energy to all who witness it. massimo_bruni@yahoo.es
Drama
+34 699 75 96 73
Film THE MAGAZINE
Script
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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THE MAGIC DOOR By Rongdanyang Xiang
Lucy, a cute and pretty young girl is playing in the forest with her father, a young and good-looking man. He looks down at her with a smile as she looks up at him smiling. He bends to squat and picks a flower. He gives the flower to her. She smiles. She rides on his shoulders. Then they lie down on the grass and have a break. They both close their eyes, but she leaves her father stealthily and plays around alone. She plays on another side of forest and she discovers a door. She opens the door and goes through it. She grows up into a twenty-year-old girl who sees an old man arranging flowers in a small glass greenhouse. She moves close to him and pats his shoulder. She sees that he is her father when he is 50 years old. She cries and can’t believe that it is true. She opens the door and turns back into a young girl. She finds her father and gives him a huge hug.
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This film’s idea is based on losing. We believe that everyone worries about losing, especially a young girl who has a strong attachment to her father. She has a great relationship with her father. In her world, she can’t imagine that her father can turn old. If her father turns old, she can’t accept that. In The Magic Door, the door is a way to show the emotion changing between a young girl seeing a young father and an old father. The purpose of the film is to make everyone think about the relationship he or she has with their parent and cherish everything they have.
During filmmaking, we met with some difficulties. For example, we couldn’t find a location that had a small glass green house, so we built a small green house in the studio. Everything was so difficult, because we needed to imitate the exterior light and building the green house in the studio was also difficult. We tried our best to do that and everything came out great…in the end! In our film, it is our wish to make everyone feel happy and cherish everything they have.
Drama
xiangrongdanyang@163.com
Film THE MAGAZINE
Run Time 3 Mins
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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LEMON & LETTER
Synopsis Kijima Kaito (grade 5) moved with his family to Ogi-jimah, where his father was originally from, because of his mother’s illness. After the death of his mother, he lived with his father and grandfather. Eventually his father left the island to go back to work as a photographer.
A Short Film by Keiko Umenoki
This was filmed with a focus on the scenery of Ogi Island, found within the Seto Naikai area and with a focus on the people living there. “W&M”, my previous film portrayed the lives of individual women visiting the island. But during the creation of this film I had in mind the children, who’ve moved to the island and their growth and struggles regarding their future.
Yuu Takagi (also grade5), who recently moved to the island, smiles at him in the midst of his loneliness. The two of them grow up together and are now high school students.
My desire is to continue to show these films, both inside and outside of Kagawa, as a means of revitalising the islands of Seto Naikai and Kagawa prefecture.
This is a story of two children who moved to the island, fell in love, and grew up together.
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Cast Makoto Shinada as Kaito Kijima Kyoko Ujihara as Yuu Takagi Yoshiyuki Ito as Denjiro Kijima Akiko Kinouchi as Michiko Takagi Takaki Obayashi as Kaito Kijima’s Child Aoi Kobayashi as Yuu Takagi’s Child Crew Writing & Director Keiko Umenoki Director of Photography Tomoaki Iwakura Editor Takeshi Iwamoto Music Main theme guitar Music [Beyond the sky] by Howdy Music tomy M Ending theme song [Instead of saying good-bye] by Maiko Piano music [Dream diary] by Haruna Okada
Drama
www.facebook.com/lemonandletter
Film THE MAGAZINE
Run Time 30 Mins
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
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The Gaelic Curse A Feature Film By Brian Walsh & Edwina Forkin
Two ordinary young men are the recipients of an ancient Gaelic Curse handed down through the centuries. Bailey O Farrell with a hump on his back that moves around and Paddy O Reilly who has a leg that has a life of its own. Neither are accepted like regular people. They find each other over the internet and agree to get together with the intention of breaking the curse. Bailey’s parents have already turned their back on their son and left Los Angeles abandoning him and have returned to their native Cara village in Ireland. Despite his scary hump Bailey has I.T. credentials and wins a trip to England and agrees to come to Ireland to Paddy the Limp O Reilly to try and break the curse. The parents are unaware that their son has arrived in Cara!
Through a series of unusual events, characters, twists and turns and a little supernatural intrigue we follow the journey of the two boys. The story all the while is told in real time with light hearted humour as the boys encounter true love for the first time in their lives with two strong women who can see past their disabilities and awkwardness. Bailey and Limps plight holds a mirror up to the society they find themselves in that are embarrassed by them. Each finds true love and the curse is broken. We are left thinking about the messages running throughout the tale and perhaps are unaware we are left analyzing our own perception of people who are different to us!
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Comedy
www.zanzibarfilms.net
Film THE MAGAZINE
Run Time 87 Mins
SUNDAY 1ST OCTOBER SCREEN 1 12:00 Halo: The Fall of Reach Halo: The Fall of Reach is an animated adaptation of the beloved Eric Nylund novel of the same name, and in many ways the origin story of the Master 65 minutes Chief and Blue Team. 13:10 Little Wounds Warriors As Pine Ridge Indian Reservation faces the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma as well as a recent teen suicide epidemic, the voices of Little Wound High School students rise up in hope through their traditions, language, and the Lakota warrior heritage. 57 minutes
14:10
November 10th - Battle Of Surabaya 110 minutes
16:05 River Blue Internationally renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo, journeys through some of the world’s most pristine waterways, to some of its most polluted, in an unprecedented global adventure that reveals the dark side of the fashion industry. 90 minutes 17:40 Haka And Guitars During the Pacific’s most bloody Civil War, the New Zealand Army found a way to achieve peace without guns and violence. Through the powerful influence of women and multiculturalism ‘Haka and Guitars’ shows the world there is a way to achieve peace in our time. 53 minutes
SCREEN 2 12:05 Untitled (a Film) ‘Fresh from a successful film festival, a super smooth movie producer returns to a day at the office, where in just eight hours, his infidelities & addictions and his dodgy finance deals come crashing down and ludicrously unravel threatening his success, his marriage, his life and even stranger, his reality’. 88 minutes 13:35 The System While doing a story at a local high school, a celebrity journalist teams with a tech savvy student to take on politicians, the media, zombies and the school board in this clever comedy which spoofs modern society.. 104 minutes 15:25 The Gaelic Curse The story begins when the devil cursed two servants for accidentally killing a Gaelic `king with whom he had made a pact. This curse was handed down through every generation and which changes each time. 86 minutes 17:05 Le Moulin During the 1930’s, Taiwan had already spent close to 40 years under Japanese rule, and had entered a stage of stable assimilation. This period saw the appearance of Taiwan’s earliest modern poetry group—the“le Moulin” poetry society. 165 minutes
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SCREEN 3 12:10 The Trade 10 years after his retirement, “death-match” wrestler Nick Mondo is distressed to find a younger generation mimicking his former selfdestructive antics. 60 minutes 13:15 Casual Hero
35 minutes
13:50 Sisters! Share Everything Ama, Senta and Klara are sisters in their thirties and couldn’t be more different. Ama studies medicine, Senta is a dedicated prostitute and Klara is more of a house maker, who desperately wants a child, even if it is from her abusive, lorry driver husband. 94 minutes
13:10 Perfect Worlds When Susan forgives her past it changes the world for everyone. Burying her mothers ashes brings back a past Susan would rather forget but needs to forgive. 35 minutes 13:45 Inherit The Stars: The Director’s Cut A retired Russian-Japanese soldier Eiji Onodera (Keishi Suenaga) was going to his hometown in Japan. But on his way, he was caught and given a new mission by his ex-colleague Captain Vadim Dadikov (Gohnosuke Tokuda). 134 minutes
15:30 Assault to Freedom In 1963, five years after the Cuban revolution, four young men and two young women put together a risky plan in action: assaulting and taking control of a passenger boat, looking for freedom. 80 minutes
16:00 The Man Who Loves To Hurt Himself A look at the man’s 25+ year career as an extreme performer and his reflection of his life. A documentary about the musician, not the music itself: not a typical “music” documentary but rather a “musician” documentary. 93 minutes 18:00
MONDAY
NETWORKING
SCREEN 3
2ND OCTOBER SCREEN 1
12:00 Actors of Sound From footsteps to bone cracks, Foley artists bring films to life with their imaginative sound effects, but as digital technology goes full speed ahead in 21st century moviemaking, can Hollywood’s low tech Foley artist survive in this high tech age? 82 minutes
13:25 Canción de Iguaque
12:45 Is Sumiyati going to Hell? As told through the perspective of Layan, the youngest child of a family, the story centers on a maid named Sumyati. She has to navigate and survive a horrible job due to her racist employers. 25 minutes
87 minutes
14:55 The Lurking Man Cailean’ started drinking very young in an effort to forget a childhood trauma. She became a functioning alcoholic. Had a happy family and life until one day an accident in the playground took her control away. Her drinking is now destroying her and her family. 90 minutes
16:30 I Go Back Home - Jimmy Scott I Go Back Home – Jimmy Scott tells the story of jazz legend Jimmy Scott and disillusioned producer and composer Ralf Kemper who took on the journey to produce an album with the almostforgotten icon. 97 minutes
12:10 Reborn Lost The deep cover sleeper cell John Martin is activated to assassinate the man who is turning the tables of power on a corrupt society. But when he realizes he is carrying out a suicide mission he must choose: execute his final order or turn against the world’s most dangerous villain, the man who is pulling the strings from the shadows. 40 minutes 12:55 Inner Court Inspired by true events, a judge finds himself trapped in the Brazilian criminal justice system. In this Kafkaesque environment, the splendor and magnificence of the architecture conceals a labyrinth of crime, corruption and bureaucracy. 75 minutes 14:10 Palyadawasi A film, Palyadawasi, is based on the real fact of the hapless ‘Paradhi’ tribe in India that has been suffering from injustice by police and other elements of the society 122 minutes 16:15 Torments of Love A film from Guadeloupe based on hidden love and untold feelings between two sisters in their thirties and their father 54 minutes 18:00
TUESDAY
18:00 NETWORKING
SCREEN 2 12:20 Heavenkid ToTo by accident opened a device that transformed a chessboard into a Space Door. So, he and Ahya could become anything they wanted, going anywhere they wished. 12 minutes 12:35 Rewinder After humanity’s excesses have depleted the water supply, one man journeys to the past to secure his future. 6 miuntes
NETWORKING
3RD OCTOBER SCREEN 1
12:00 Mountain Fever As a fatal flu virus devastates Europe, Jacques, a young man from the city, takes refuge in the French Alps. Illequipped to survive the harsh winter, things only get worse when Kara, armed and dangerous, breaks into his house and commandeers his dwindling food supplies. 92 minutes
Film THE MAGAZINE
13:35
A Tale Of Water... Palm, Trees and Family 150 minutes
16:05 The Admired Actress Olivia Spencer dreams of being a glamorous movie star in 1940’s Hollywood. She gets her wish when she meets a handsome “Devil”, but all is not what it seems when she’s hurtled into danger and intrigue in the world of the Old Hollywood studio system. 20 minutes 16:30 Through the Eyes of My Meal A contemporary dance film, featuring movement investigating vulnerability and betrayal. 7 minutes 16:40 Voices A b/w film on the relationship between body and voice with the collaboration of the vocal quartet Leg’gio with Paola Milzani, Caterina Comeglio, Elena Biagioni and Simona Zambetti. 6 minutes 16:50 This Modern Man is Beat In the post 911 world of cultural confusion and erroneous judgment, Habib bin Habib al Fulan tries to pawn his last possession and reconcile with his American wife. 18 minutes 17:10 A Little Memory In a story about finding oneself, this four-minute erasure animation takes us through a young woman’s life who in the beginning is facing depression, but then upon returning to her childhood home and is uplifted by the memories of her grandmother.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING TIME AND DATE OF ANY FILM IN THE FESTIVAL COMPETITION WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTIFICATION. PLEASE REFER TO THE DISPLAYED DAILY SCREENING SCHEDULE.
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
5 minutes
17:15 Clever Girl, Episode One The story of a desperate writer’s participation in her lover’s brutal pastime, and the ripple effect their dark secret has on the troubled lives of besieged detectives and voyeuristic neighbors. 17 minutes 17:35 Falling in The Flower A small girl that has trouble finding confidence in herself finds a flower that gives her the confidence to be who she really is; however, it is not the flower that makes her confident, but rather helps her discover the confidence that was always inside. 13 minutes
17:50
Answer Me
13:10
Fantaisie Impromptu - a Prologue
13 minutes
SCREEN 2 21 minutes
13:35 Before Anything You Say Weaving through Paris and Winnipeg, a married couple struggle to maintain their love and marriage even as a lifealtering decision threatens to tear them apart. 61 minutes 14:40 Teenagers 1998. Lucas, young adult, has an enormous problem. In a song he had composed, he had denounced the massacre of children by terrorists. Those condemned him to death and sent Saïd (14) to execute Lucas. But when Lucas and Saïd met, they discovered each one at the other the affection that they missed. Problem: if Saïd did not carry out his mission, it is him who would be killed with all his family, what Lucas could not accept… 165 minutes
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FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
17:25 Low Tide Driss is a respected and proud fisherman who lives in a Village in the north of Morocco. He lives with his only son, Adil, 16, on one of the Small terraces of the village. After the departure of his wife Relationship with his son became very conflictual. Adil decides to leave too, letting Driss sink in Grief, guilt, disappointment and alcohol. Adil comes back out of love, but not for long. 30 minutes
SCREEN 3 12:10 The Big Secret: Survival Guide for The New Millenium 72 minutes 13:25 Boundaries of the Heart
95 minutes
15:05 Slipaway Neglected by her family, Fall, an eclectic elder with good intentions but extreme measures, finds little companionship in our hyper-busy world. 89 minutes
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15:25 Take My Hand Again If your wife becomes a man. Will you accept him? 12 minutes 15:40 Shadow Jae-Ha, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, finds a strange advertisement that will pay huge sum of money for filming a person for three-days, begins to secretly filming a stage actress, Sun-Woo as requested by the client. 19 minutes 16:00 DADA On Vacation The approximately 28-minute art film was conceived on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Dada art movement. Its focus is the North German performer and poet Emmy Hennings and the author, poet and artist Hugo Ball, who would later become her husband. 28 minutes 18:00
SCREEN 2
17:10 Water of Life and Death On the frozen lake surface of Qinghai Lake, Zhou, the Buddhist Practitioner and his friends are delivering supplies to the temple built on the isolated island at the lake centre. At their own peril, they venture on the melting glaciers resulted from global warming.
12:30 The Last Beautiful Girl Jason falls in love with Jules. And he falls hard. But when things start to fall apart, Jason finds letting go to be easier said than done. 87 minutes
21 minutes
WEDNESDAY 4TH OCTOBER SCREEN 1 12:00 Lordemani Lordemani is a sample of culture and of the common character of two people who without reaching verbal understanding are capable of coexisting and of creating lasting bonds of friendship by setting aside differences or quarrels from the past. 48 minutes
12:50 Lemon & Letter
30 minutes
13:25 A Good Dream A psychological art-film about a girl in her 20s trying to find herself in New York City. When she suddenly finds herself haunted by a presence, she has trouble distinguishing fiction from reality and falls deeper into a world of her perceptions. 12 minutes 15:10 Launch A lone space traveler in a cutrate interplanetary relocation pod grapples with his thoughts as the launch approaches. 102 minutes
25 minutes
14:00 You Have a Nice Flight Airlines always wish You Have a Nice Flight, but we rarely have one. We never know what can happen to us at a foreign airport with their different rules, culture and langue. 97 minutes 15:40 Flowers and a lap of rose Flowers and a lap of rose is a story of an established poet and the magic of his verse. It’s a story of finding a world in your dreams. The story makes you love yourself. 78 minutes 17:00 Bison Nation-Walking Sacred Sites We are still here. This is our story, the story of the bison, who inhabit the Northern Hemisphere. It is a story of disconnection and destruction as well as a story of hope, resilience, beauty, interconnectedness, return and reunion. We are walking sacred sites because we take care of our biggest sacred site: The Earth. 49 minutes 18:00
8 minutes
17:45 Caja Rápida 18:00 PROFESSIONAL PANEL
THURSDAY 5TH OCTOBER SCREEN 1
12:05 The Wedding Dress Asmahan is a superstitious seamstress. She believes, like everyone in town, if she sews her daughter’s wedding dress for herself she would die. A curies all seamstress must endure. In the other hand, her daughter, Maryam, does not believe in any of the town’s superstitions.
17:55 2 Self Help Book Away From Being Perfect
16:40 Chairman Buddha Chairman Buddha is about the mythology of Mao Zedong, who many Chinese today believe has been reincarnated as a Buddha. 63 minutes
PROFESSIONAL PANEL
16:35 Wasati Wasati is based on true events that happened during a play in Riyadh Saudi Arabia 10 years ago. The play was called ‘Wasati bela Wastiah’ which roughly translates to ‘A Moderate Without a Middle-Ground,’ where a group of extremists attacked the theater and the play was shut down. 34 minutes
45 minutes
14:25 All About Sec-377 The journey of a Homophobic man ducking & dodging through the days & sleeping with one eye open in the night because of his gay cousin & his boyfriend in the same house. 125 minutes
PROFESSIONAL PANEL
SCREEN 3 12:10 Ambassador of Peace A portrait of retired US general Edwar Rowny, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars and the chief US negotiator of SALT and START nuclear arms reduction treaties. 47 minutes 13:00 Cash aka GEN AR An ingenious theft of heavily protected jewels a great start for the diamond plotters. 83 minutes
12:15 Bills Records Bills Records is a short documentary about the current life of 72 year old Bill Wisener, record store proprietor of 42 years, and his massive and unwieldy collection of records. 10 minutes 12:25 Connected “Connected” portrays this unique relationship between humans and technology. 16 minutes 12:45 Courage A man struggles to overcome his nervousness with women in a bar when he stumbles upon words of wisdom in the bathroom. 4 minutes 12:50 I Me Myself I me myself is an expression of a teenage girl and her journey. This is a story about how in today’s world the insecurities brings out the worst in a human. Its a journey of a young mind who overcomes her fears and finds a pathway which brings sunshine to her life. 6 minutes 13:00 I Am Still Here I AM STILL HERE is the story of 10-year old Layla, who was stolen from her family and thrown into America’s child sex industry. 103 minutes 14:45 Hotel Everest Hotel Everest is a story about individuals who have the courage to overcome ancient hatreds, fear and mistrust to find a better and peaceful way for themselves, their communities and their families. 39 minutes 15:25 Shadow of the Missing Based on Actual Events. A group of comedians and young filmmakers go missing while exploring an abandoned church in Wales. With only the footage left behind to tell the tale, local residents and experts attempt to piece together what happened. 86 minutes
Film THE MAGAZINE
12:05 The Watchtower A story of love and survival in New York City’s notorious Hell’s Kitchen as declining West side Irish and Italian gangs compete for their bloody share of the action. 56 minutes 13:05 Wishbone An old lover trying to get back to her love which is married and famous foot ball coach . movie try to talk about problems which short marriage is giving to the family and its one type of marriage in Iran( which you can marry for short period of time and after contract date expire this marriage will be over . 105 minutes 14:55 Alpha An ex-assassin turned family man is called back into action when his former employers give him a visit. 10 minutes
12:00 #Actor’s Life A selfie-addicted, struggling actor that would do anything to gain fame and so happens to be at the right place at the right time, but he gets in the wrong car when mistaken for someone else. 14 minutes
16:55
SCREEN 2
The Miraculous Postcards 90 minutes
15:05 Blackout A young woman awakens in the woods, alone and covered in blood, with no memory of how she got there. 12 minutes 15:20 Hope “Hope” tells the Story of a little boy, who is condemned to spend the time he has left in a prisoners’ camp. The memories of his mother are the only thing keeping him alive. 6 minutes
15:30 Johnny Cinematic representation of a young man who goes off to the Somme in WW1 who loses his fiends and his lover. A story told in song. 5 minutes
15:35 Glass Between Us Ever since Gerald Marshall has been isolated from the outside world, there is glass between him and the people in his life. He loses contact to his sister. The contact to his son is mostly through letters. However, they have never touched each other. Gerald, Jaelon and Julia each handle the separation in their own way, they try to break it or recoil from it. 35 minutes
16:15 The Whisker Seeker
71 minutes
17:30 Homebird - Nepal How does it feel, to live in one of the poorest but also most spectacular countries on the planet? We are following 5 various souls, born and raised in Nepal, in order to find out more about this exotic and strong culture. This is documentary about beautiful landscapes- reaching from the jungle in the South to the spectacular Himalayas in the North. 52 minutes
SCREEN 3 12:10 Halumim / Beneath The Silence 1973, a small family crumbles due to the father’s PTSD, on the verge of the Yom Kipur War. 106 minutes 14:00 Atomic Eden Trapped inside an old mining complex, somewhere in the ruins of Chernobyl, a group of international mercenaries must band together to fight an army of mad men. 8 against 800, they just couldn’t lose. 85 minutes
15:30 White Bee A couple meet, after a separation – perhaps for the last time. The woman seems vulnerable, broken by the failed marriage. The man appears blasé about the break-up. 78 minutes
16:50 From Ashes To Immortality A dark, human story about an innocent girl, a disturbed father, a troubled neighbor, and a tale of magic. 26 minutes 17:20 Emotional State When an Elite Guard in a society ruled by the emotionless meets a grieving rebel, she’s forced to come to terms with her desire for vengeance and choose the future she wants to live in. 17 minutes
17:40 Dog Park It’s hard to find love in 2016. If you don’t fare well with online dating, you’re limited to looking for love on a hike, at a yoga class, in the aisles of Whole Foods, or, as Jake and Amelia come to discover, at the local dog park. Canines, singles, and potential love collide in this romantic comedy. 7 minutes
17:50 Magdalena’s File Magdalena can write their lives all over again - but she has only 30 seconds. 5 minutes 17:55 The Bridge Pono, a tenacious seven-year old boy lives with his family in a five-story tree house deep in the rainforest of Hawaii’s Manoa Valley. 20 minutes
FRIDAY
5TH OCTOBER SCREEN 1 12:00
Haruo
82 minutes
13:25 BX3M A timeless story of love and revenge, drugs and violence. Breaking free of the past to love and be loved. Bx3M: Sometimes love is the endgame... 103 minutes
15:10 Daughter of the Lake A group of friends take a trip through the country, hoping to have a nice getaway for the weekend. But their trips takes a dangerous turn, when their tire mysteriously pops and an old stretch of road through the woods. 15 minutes 15:25 It Gets Better An older gay man is inspired to record a testimonial after watching a bisexual teenager’s video, assuring him that ‘It Gets Better.’ 12 minutes
15:40
Kiss of Death
A black-and-white neo-noir short film about a young thief and his wife who prepare to flee town by sunrise, until the arrival of a mysterious stranger changes everything. 10 minutes
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15:50 Lilly Hits the Road Lilly, a 10 foot tall orange monster, and her adorable friend Fluffle are abducted by aliens. An epic adventure ensues as they try desperately to return home in the nick of time. 5 minutes
16:50 Dress Rehearsal A struggling method actor takes his research too far. 22 minutes
15:55 The Story of l’Homme Cirque Its 1920, David dreams of his own circus, he lives in the barn of Mr. Max’s farm. Claudine the daughter of Mr. Max and David fall in love, not a simple love, Claudine is to marry the rich and evil Henry. David has to save her! A dramatic love story with humour and acrobatics, bringing back the good old silent movie times. 30 minutes 16:35 Sophia Lazzati When Sophia leaves her violent husband, new problems arise as she regains fortitude and her daughter struggles with adolescence. 84 minutes
18:00
The Magic Door
4 minutes
18:05
Extramaritals
10 minutes
SCREEN 2 12:05 The Fish in The Water Sefa has a natural talent for swimming. During a thunderstorm, he rescues his father who is a fisherman. By her efforts, he gets an invitation from a swimming instructor. Accepting it means that Sefa has a chance of getting into a college and leaving his hometown and beloved family behind. Is he ready for the journey and the mysteries of the road ahead or will he be haunted by the secrets of his past? 134 minutes 90 minutes
15:50 The Spring of Life THE SPRING OF LIFE is a comedy movie about adolescence, and student life. It follows a double cast story about two friends who live in center of Zagreb. They experience quest for identity and longing for love as well as need to gain knowledge. 22 minutes 16:15 Skin Eleni, an 11 year-old girl, faces the changes in her family and social environment, after she’s infected by a rare illness that periodically turns any human organism into a robotic one. 18 minutes 16:35 Temporal A widow gets illegal gravediggers to dig up her recently deceased husband, who is about to wake up because the innovative device in his brain will malfunction. 13 minutes
SCREEN 3 12:10 Farewell My Bird An elderly photographer who loves his pet canary more than anything becomes jealous when a young boy makes a connection with his bird causing a “love triangle.” 23 minutes
13:00 The Valley Devastated by his daughter’s suicide, an immigrant entrepreneur working in high-tech seeks answers to his lingering questions. 98 minutes
17 minutes
20 Years
40 minutes
12:35 That’s Opportunity Knocking Two wanna-be thugs attempt to rob an apartment; everything goes awry when the owners show up early for a little late-night sex. A game of cat and mouse ensues. 22 minutes
18:20 Chasing Birdie After college, perpetuated by what the media told Chase on how to get girls, he thought he had to have a lot of money. As a result, he finds himself in the rat race slaving away at a job that slowly eats away at his soul. It isn’t until he meets Melody that he gets back in touch with pursuing his dreams & learns about the true meaning of love along the way.
14:20
17:15 Eye of The Lammergeier An American physician and lawyer witness China’s violent suppression of Tibetans demonstrating for independence in the capital of Lhasa in 1987, and return separately seven times to document China’s prisons in Tibet, and coerced abortions and sterilizations at People’s Hospitals in Lhasa and remote regions.
NOMINATED SCRIPTS Resurrection Time Conspiracy James Carroll Nefertiti’s Love Shereen Elcherif Lost Cause David Schroeder Rivers of Babylon Tony Kayden Nothing in Common? Philipp Senn The Wonderful Demitra Papadinis Voodoo Love Mario Pineda Diminuendo Paul Gross
14:40 Venus Obscura A theater director leads his two actors and his assistant to an isolated cottage in the open countryside in order to better rehearse for their theatrical performance of Heiner Müller’s « Hamlet-machine ». Once on sight, the small troupe faces not only the dullness of daily routine, tensions and the usual hurdles of rehearsals, but eventually strange occurrences that turn out to be extraordinary and extreme in nature. 102 minutes
The German Sky Darkens Saul Braun
16:25 Walking the Dead Shawn loves his zombie pet Buster, but he chooses today out of all days to misbehave. 8 minutes
The Silent Seed Nancy Haverington
16:35 Mayur MAYUR, which means “peacock” in Sanskrit, is a 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution abstract, visual music animation inspired by Asian cosmologies, symbols and music. 8 minutes
16:45 No Exit Joe comes home from a regular day at work, until something becomes very wrong and slowly Joe realizes that he is trapped in a nightmare. 9 minutes
Year of the Rabbit Julie Fischer
Lunar Flight Verena Braun
Tantalum Mass: The Last Hacker David Garrett Silk And Thorns Alonzo Crawford Making Olivia Josie Kaye
16:55 Ketetapan A multiracial couple has a serious argument during their ride home. Entangled in cultural and religious differences they desperately try to find reconciliation only to realise that matters are more complex than they thought. 7 minutes
The Red Girl Anthony Liakopoulos
17:05 Dustards “DUSTARDS” is the first Ukrainian feature documentary film about a cross-country motorcycle journey through one of Europe’s biggest countries. The film tells the story of four friends and follows them on their journey. 57 minutes
Finding Amelia Todd Selleck
Film THE MAGAZINE
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING TIME AND DATE OF ANY FILM IN THE FESTIVAL COMPETITION WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTIFICATION. PLEASE REFER TO THE DISPLAYED DAILY SCREENING SCHEDULE.
FILM: THE MAGAZINE/BERLIN/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
The Sun in the Soul Massimo Bruni
Breathe David Ince
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