News & Updates
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Register Now for the Film Independent Forum Happening October 24-26
Posted by NALIP on October 08, 2014
Now in its 10th year, the Film Independent Forum is the pre-eminent event for independent filmmakers and content creators in Los Angeles. Join your peers for a weekend of solution-driven strategies, success stories and opportunities to connect one-on-one with working artists and industry pros. Hear from keynotes Jill Soloway (writer/director, Transparent, Afternoon Delight, United States of Tara) and Tim League (Founder/CEO, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Drafthouse Films, Fantastic Fest) and see the Opening Night Film Nightcrawler featuring a Q&A with writer/director Dan Gilroy and producer Jennifer Fox.
Register now! NALIP affiliates save almost 10%: https://my.filmindependent.org/Forum2014Partners
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Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle Screens on OVEE
Posted by NALIP on October 02, 2014
Join Latino Public Broadcasting, City Projects, and public media partners for an online screening and discussion of Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle taking place Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 7 PM PT, 9 PM CT, 10 PM ET, on OVEE. This interactive screening will feature a live chat with director/producer of the film, Phillip Rodriguez. Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle examines the life and death of pioneering Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar. At the heart of the story is his transformation from a mainstream, establishment Los Angeles Times reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement of the late 1960s. Killed by a law enforcement officer in 1970, Salazar became a martyr to the Latino community. For more information on this screening, please visit: https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/r53bp.
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Sony Pictures Television’s Diverse Directors Program Announces 2014 Fellows
Posted by NALIP on October 02, 2014
Sony Pictures Television’s Diverse Directors Program announced its four 2014 fellows. The program provides opportunities for artists of diverse backgrounds to shadow established TV directors on various scripted SPT series. This year Mandy Fabian, Kevin Lau, Sylvia Sether and Lucy Walker will have the opportunity to work on such SPT series as Battle Creek, The Goldbergs, The McCarthys and The Night Shift. SPT received more than 450 submissions for the Diverse Directors Program. In response to the large talent pool of applicants, SPT launched the Second Team/Second Screen this year, a pilot program that enables aspiring directors to create digital programming that will support and promote SPT series. Barry Jenkins was selected to be the first Second Team/Second Screen participant.
Check this out at Deadline.
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Don’t Miss the Last Few Days of Ambulante!
Posted by NALIP on October 02, 2014
The Ambulante California tour is in full gear! If you haven't had a chance to come out to one of their events, you have one more week to experience the movement! In each neighborhood where they have traveled, they have been witness to a truly unique and unforgettable experience as a new public shares our documentary program and exchanges dialogue with the filmmakers. They are revitalizing public spaces and building community across LA with the variety of alternative spaces they are inhabiting, from parking lots, parks and community gardens.
Don’t miss this last weekend on films! All of screenings are FREE.
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Gael Garcia Bernal, Guillermo del Toro, Salma Hayek + Others Vote On 1st Latin American Film Awards
Posted by NALIP on October 02, 2014
All you stick shakers have finally met your match. Yes, there are now officially more Latin American cinema awards ceremonies than you can shake a stick at. In addition to New York’s own Cinema Tropical Awards — which will be going into its fifth edition next year — and the recently inaugurated Premios Platino out of Panama, we can now look forward to the Fénix Film Awards, which will be coming to Mexico City for the first time in October.
An outgrowth of Cinema23, a professional association featuring some of the shining stars of Latin American cinema, the Fénix Film Awards were founded with the same good intentions as its forerunners: to provide global visibility for Latin American and Iberian cinema, celebrate the groundbreaking work coming out of the regions and strengthen bonds among regional industries.
While there’s certainly no need for competition when everyone’s just fighting the good fight, the Fénix Film Awards does conspicuously raise the bar for star power, with spokespeople like Gael García Bernal, Paz Vega, and Ana de la Reguera spreading the word about the upcoming festivities in the name of Cinema23. Even beyond promoting the events, the jury that nominates and votes on winners is a veritable who’s who of the biggest names in Iberoamerican film. Voting members of the jury include:Diego Luna, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Salma Hayek, and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu.
But beyond the glitz and glamour, in the end, it’s really just about the films. So, here are some of the nominees for the first ever edition of the Fénix Film Awards…
Read and watch at REMEZCLA.
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Award-winning DPs Launch Online 'Film School'
Posted by NALIP · October 02, 2014
The Advanced Filmmaking TeamBy Paula Bernstein | Indiewire
Master cinematographers Janusz Kaminski, Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC and Wally Pfister, ASC have launched Advanced Filmmaking, a new web site featuring an online series of instructional videos for aspiring filmmakers (which are available for rent or purchase).
In addition to offering extensive interviews with the award-winning cinematographers, the site currently boasts over 12 hours of video with their colleagues, including Alexander Payne, Wim Wenders and others.
"We conceived Advanced Filmmaking as a way to communicate lessons that aren’t normally covered in film school," said Papamichael in a statement. "In our interactions with students and young filmmakers around the world, we saw a thirst for information about other topics like successful collaboration, making good career decisions, and managing your personal life."
The three filmmakers, who have been developing the site for two years, first met while making low-budget films for Roger Corman.
"There is so much more to carving out a successful career than knowing exposure, camera placement and shot selection," said Pfister. "Those nut-and-bolts skills are important, of course, but we have learned so many hard-won life lessons along the way, insights I wish I’d known when I was starting out. That’s the idea behind Advanced Filmmaking."
A seminar highlighting the rollout of the site is planned for this year's Camerimage International Festival of the Art of Cinematography, held annually in November in Poland. Papamichael and Kaminski are slated to attend.
Below is a trailer for the new service featuring advice from Kaminski, Papamichael and Pfister. Find out more about Advanced Filmmaking here.
Check this out at Indiewire.
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'The Liberator' is a compelling primer on Simón Bolivar
Posted by NALIP · October 02, 2014
Unless you were raised in Latin America, there's a good chance you know little about Simón Bolívar, and that's exactly what director Alberto Arvelo expected.
The Venezuelan filmmaker's biopic of the revolutionary Bolívar opens with this eloquent primer:
"Simón Bolívar fought over 100 battles against the Spanish Empire in South America. He rode over 70,000 miles on horseback. His military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. His army never conquered — it liberated."
Simple enough for audiences who know nothing about Bolívar, poetic enough for those who grew up reading aboutEl Libertador in school books. It's a tricky line to walk, but Arvelo manages to do it over and over in this compelling and lush Spanish-language film.
"The Liberator" is set in South America at the turn of the 19th century, where tangled junglescapes, mossy colonial architecture and butterfly-inhabited meadows abound. But within all that beauty lies tyranny — the Spanish Empire has ruled the region for 300 years, enslaving Africans, massacring the indigenous and crushing anyone who opposes colonization.
Bolívar (Édgar Ramírez) is a wealthy young Venezuelan from a prestigious family, immune to the injustice suffered by most of his countrymen. But he's predisposed to the idea of equality for all thanks to the early teachings of his socialist-leaning tutor and his near-familial bonds to the African slaves who raise him. When a devastating personal loss causes Bolívar to leave the insulated family estate, he finds purpose in the fight for Venezuela's independence.
He finances a meager military campaign against the powerful Spanish forces and ultimately is defeated. Exiled to the jungle, he begins to galvanize races, tribes and neighboring states around the idea of fighting for one united sovereign country that would span much of Latin America.
In a David and Goliath attempt to overthrow the Spanish Crown, Bolívar and his people's army crisscross the continent and change the course of history.
Ramírez, a former Venezuelan telenovela star, portrays Bolívar as a sensitive and impressionable young man who evolves into a passionate and resolute leader over three decades until his demise in 1830. Though Ramírez never goes incredibly deep into Bolívar's psyche or motivations, he's persuasive — or perhaps inspiring enough — to follow into battle.
And there are lots of battles.
Blood is spilled on beaches, riverbanks, slave quarters and muddy streets. Pitchforks and machetes versus cannons and rifles in sugar cane fields and atop strategic bridges.
Edgar Ramirez portrays Simon Bolivar in a scene from "The Liberator." (Teresa Isasi / AP)
Despite the carnage, Bolívar manages to rile the troops with passionate speeches on freedom, equality and dignity — themes that resonate today be it in Ferguson, Mo., or Ukraine. Screenwriter Timothy J. Sexton ("Children of Men") apparently reworked the script many times over to get it right, and the writing here is as refined as it is moving. There are, however, a few speeches too many, which feels a bit redundant if not lofty at points.
Shot in Venezuela and Spain, the scenery and locations are beautiful — from the royal palace grounds in Spain to the thick canopy of the Amazon. An emotive score by the L.A. Philharmonic's Gustavo Dudamel adds to the majesty, layering more drama atop this historic drama.
"The Liberator" may be too romantic and sweeping for some, but right now, do we really need another gritty, dark film about the murky realities of war?
The admittedly simple premise — that El Libertador fought the good fight, for a worthy cause — is refreshingly escapist. By only briefly addressing the complications of Bolívar's later life as a ruler, it lets us revel in the antiquated notion, if only for a couple of hours, that there are some battles worth fighting.
Check this out at the Los Angeles Times.