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Hanna teams up with her sister and counterculture friends to create a parody romance on Instagram between herself and young actor Ekku. Hanna starts living a crowd-pleasing love story for the public, only to find herself tangled up in the unresolved past with her “you were never my boyfriend” friend Lasse, who also happens to be the real-life co-writer and cinematographer of Fucking with Nobody. Fiction and auto-fiction crash and melt into each other, as writer-director Hannaleena Hauru plays the lead role of an ever-single film director Hanna.
Takeo Goda (Ryohei Suzuki) is a high school student 2 m tall and weighting more than 100 kg. He has a righteous character. The male students adore him, but female students do not like him. All of the girls Takeo likes prefer his handsome friend Makoto Sunakawa (Kentaro Sakaguchi). One day, Takeo saves female high school student Rinko Yamato (Mei Nagano) from a pervert on train. Takeo falls in love with her at first sight. He feels Rinko likes Makoto, but Makoto isn’t the one she likes. Takeo struggles to liaise between Rinko and Makoto.
Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.
Delves into the career of the notorious Italian filmmaker, Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D’Amato, the infamous director behind the legendary Video Nasties Anthropophagus: The Beast and Absurd.
The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna’s best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel’s uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).
Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the “DP” (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
José Henrique Fonseca crafts an ambitious and long overdue homage to a central icon in Brazil’s 20th century history. Reminiscent of film noir classics, the biopic tells the glorious and tragic story of the legendary football striker Heleno de Freitas. The sumptuous black and white cinematography reflects the chic life of Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s as it fell under the spell of sports royalty. Heleno was no doubt one of the most popular players of his time for his bravura in the field and magnificent goal-scoring that lead the Botafogo team to the top and himself into a vicious downward spiral.
When Liza gets mysteriously struck by a hit and run driver, her teenage daughter Jessica finds herself alone and with no one to look after her. When wealthy Eva offers to take care of her, Jessica can’t help but be seduced by Eva’s world. However, nothing is what it seems, and Jessica now must come up with a plan to save herself…and her comatose mother.
Brash and opinionated, Christine Choy is a documentarian, cinematographer, professor, and quintessential New Yorker whose films and teaching have influenced a generation of artists. In 1989 she started to film the leaders of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests who escaped to political exile following the June 4 massacre. Though Choy never finished that project, she now travels with the old footage to Taiwan, Maryland, and Paris in order to share it with the dissidents who have never been able to return home.
South African enfant terrible filmmaker and artiste-cineaste Manus Oosthuizen meets with Rotten Tomatoes-approved indie film critic Babette Cruickshank in an Echo Park sound studio. With key members of Manus’s crew joining, they record an audio commentary track for his new elegiac feature documentary Razzennest. But the session goes down a different path… cazzart! The ultimate elevation of arthouse horror, just not as you might expect.
A cinematic and musical odyssey that explores the remarkable relationship between humans and rivers. Throughout history, rivers have shaped our landscapes and our journeys; flowed through our cultures and dreams. RIVER takes its audience on a journey through space and time; spanning six continents, and drawing on extraordinary contemporary cinematography, including satellite filming, the film shows rivers on scales and from perspectives never seen before. Its union of image, music and sparse, the poetic script will create a film that is both dream-like and powerful, honouring the wildness of rivers but also recognizes their vulnerability.
Deborah makes a living by drawing the skin of her clients. One night, her housemate invites her boyfriend and friend to their house. Sitting in the armchair, they consume the series of the moment, Gain of Clones, until, suddenly, the signal is cut off and the screen is dyed red while subliminal images float. No one remembers what happened the last two minutes. The answer will be in the enigmatic presence of giant cats that will later invade the city. As in El sol (2010), the second feature of the animator Ayar Blasco outlines apocalyptic situations where chaos and paranoia is the best excuse to meet surrealist creatures and scenes. Blasco understands that animation is a language with resources that live action does not possess, and exploits those tools as a child who became an adult just to give himself permission to play forever.
What do a farmer in Kansas, a laid-off factory worker in Ohio, and an Uber driver in Florida have in common? All three are resourceful, positive thinkers who strive to adapt and thrive despite dehumanizing forces at play in the American economy. As the film’s heroes face these roadblocks with courage, certain ideals remain sacred: family, love, and staying strong in the face of adversity. Lush cinematography galvanizes a sense of place and, as the narrative unfolds, the intimacy with the characters results in an emotionally rich observational drama. Ultimately, “The Disrupted” reveals a collective American experience of financial challenge, family resilience, and the quest for the purpose and dignity of work.
Takes the music from the studio to the screen with gorgeous visuals and a sense of heightened reality envisioned by Musgraves and Zeinali and shot by Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Matthew Libatique.
Steven, A young teenage boy, is found in a comatose state deep in the woods several months after his kidnapping. The man that kidnapped him is still at large and Steven is the only person who witnessed and survived the ordeal. Now, Steven has been brought to a Doctor who specializes in PTSD patients. Using his technology to guide his patients though their traumatic event, he must connect to Steven and make him face his fears in order to bring him out of his coma.
Austin, Texas, is an Eden for the young and unambitious, from the enthusiastically eccentric to the dangerously apathetic. Here, the nobly lazy can eschew responsibility in favor of nursing their esoteric obsessions. The locals include a backseat philosopher who passionately expounds on his dream theories to a seemingly comatose cabbie, a young woman who tries to hawk Madonna’s Pap test to anyone who will listen and a kindly old anarchist looking for recruits.
He’s one of the hardest working filmmakers in the genre business…….So what’s HATCHET man Adam Green been up to this past year apart from working on his sit-com ‘Holliston’, writing KILLER PIZZA and prepping EXORCISM ON CROOKED LAKE? The answer is this documentary starting out exploring genre-based monster art and then taking an odd turn into the blurring of fantasy and reality. Because halfway through producing this treatise with cinematographer Will Barratt at his L.A. ArieScope Pictures offices, they are contacted by former policeman William Dekker who claims he can prove that monsters are indeed real. That they live in world just below our own named The Marrow and he knows where one of the entrances to this dark hidden universe is. Green of course is intrigued and so the monster hunting expedition begins… to become something else far more frightening than he ever imagined.
Thunder, an abandoned young cat seeking shelter from a storm, stumbles into the strangest house imaginable, owned by an old magician and inhabited by a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos. Not everyone welcomes the new addition to the troupe as Jack Rabbit and Maggie Mouse plot to evict Thunder. The situation gets worse when the magician lands in hospital and his scheming nephew sees his chance to cash in by selling the mansion. Our young hero is determined to earn his place and so he enlists the help of some wacky magician’s assistants to protect his magical new home.
More than two decades after catapulting to stardom with The Princess Bride, Robin Wright decides to take her final job: preserving her likeness for a future Hollywood. Through a deal brokered by her loyal, longtime agent and the head of Miramount Studios, her digital doppelganger will be controlled by the studio, and will star in any film they want, with no restrictions. In return, she receives healthy compensation so she can care for her ailing son. Twenty years later, under the creative vision of the studio’s head animator, Wright’s double rises to immortal stardom. With her contract expiring, she is invited to speak at Miramount’s “Futurological Congress”. However, a group of terrorists plot an attack on the convention.
Iconic snowboarder Travis Rice and friends embark on a multi-year mission to follow the North Pacific Gyre’s flow. As Rice and the crew experience the highs and lows of a journey unlike any previously attempted, cutting-edge cinematography captures some of the world’s most remote environments bringing breathtaking scenery and thrilling action to viewers worldwide.
Brandon Semenuk’s Rad Company pushes the limits of freeride mountain biking and showcases the skills and passion that make him one of the most versatile and explosive riders on the planet. Brandon handpicked a crew of riders who drive and inspire him in each discipline for this film, ultimately creating some of the highest level of riding ever caught on camera. The film features an eclectic soundtrack that flows like your favorite mix tape, while seamlessly meshing all disciplines of mountain biking. NWD Films and Red Bull Media House have teamed up with some of the top cinematographers and digital effects artists to create an innovative style, while keeping true to the “all killer no filler” style of the New World Disorder. FEATURED LOCATIONS: Fiji, Retallack BC, Sunshine Coast BC, Pemberton BC, Kamloops BC, and Utah
A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers. Avid movie-watcher and video store clerk Bazil has had his life all but ruined by weapons of war. His father was killed by a landmine in Morocco and one fateful night a stray bullet from a nearby shootout embeds itself in his skull, leaving him on the verge of instantaneous death. Losing his job and his home, Bazil wanders the streets until he meets Slammer, a pardoned convict who introduces him to a band of eccentric junkyard dealers including Calculator, a math expert and statistician, Buster, a record-holder in human cannonball feats, Tiny Pete, an artistic craftsman of automatons, and Elastic Girl, a sassy contortionist. When chance reveals to Bazil the two weapons manufacturers responsible for building the instruments of his destruction, he constructs a complex scheme for revenge that his newfound family is all too happy to help set in motion.
Culloden is a 1964 docudrama written and directed by Peter Watkins for BBC TV. It portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the British Army’s destruction of the Scottish Jacobite uprising and, in the words of the narrator, “tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands”. Described in its opening credits as “an account of one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Britain”, Culloden was hailed as a breakthrough for its cinematography as well as its use of non-professional actors and its presentation of an historical event in the style of modern TV war reporting. The film was based on John Prebble’s study of the battle.
From the Academy-Award nominated creators of the Broadway show STOMP and the award-winning film Wild Ocean, The Last Reef is an uplifting, inspirational large-format and 3D cinema experience capturing one of nature’s more vibrant and diverse wonderlands. Exotic coral reefs, vibrant sea walls in the sub-arctic pulsating with anemones and crustaceans: these biodiversity hot spots are as vital to our lives as the rainforests. Shot on location in Palau, Vancouver Island, French Polynesia, Mexico, and The Bahamas using groundbreaking 3D cinematography, The Last Reef takes us on a global journey to explore the connection of our cities on land with the ocean’s complex, parallel world of the coral reefs beneath the sea.
Belle, her little sister, and her comatose twin brother move into a new house with their single mother Joan in order to save money to help pay for her brother’s expensive healthcare. But when strange phenomena begin to occur in the house including the miraculous recovery of her brother, Belle begins to suspect her Mother isn’t telling her everything and soon realizes they just moved into the infamous Amityville house.
American: The Bill Hicks Story is a biographical documentary film on the life of comedian Bill Hicks. The film was produced by Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, and features archival footage and interviews with family and friends, including Kevin Booth. The filmmakers used a cut-and-paste animation technique to add movement to a large collection of still pictures used to document events in Hicks’ life. The film made its North American premiere at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival. The film was nominated for a 2010 Grierson British Documentary Award for the “Most Entertaining Documentary” category. It was also nominated for Best Graphics and Animation category in the 2011 Cinema Eye Awards. Awards won include The Dallas Film Festivals Texas Filmmaker Award, at Little Rock The Oxford American’s Best Southern Film Award, and Best Documentary at the Downtown LA Film Festival. On Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of the first 47 reviews counted were rated positive.
Featuring jaw-dropping 3D cinematography, stirring original music, and Africa’s original rock star animals. Emmy Award-winning host Hunter Ellis takes viewers on an unforgettable safari that puts them up-close and personal with the wonders of Africa. With Hunter as your very own personal safari guide, you will run with a herd of graceful gazelles, travel in a hot air balloon to soar with high-flying birds, cross the wide-open plains in an elusive hunt to track down the nearly extinct African black rhino, and scramble up a steep mountain in the rain to meet a pack of gorillas in the mist.
From acclaimed director Michael Apted (The Up Series, Masters of Sex, The World is Not Enough) comes a revealing look at the art of filmmaking and photography. A journey of glass, the documentary explores the relationship between the artisans who create camera lenses and the masters of light who use these lenses to capture their beloved art form. Bending the Light features never-before-seen footage from inside a premier Japanese lens factory, intimate interviews with lens engineers, and a peek into the world of award-winning photographers and cinematographers Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC, Greg Gorman, Simon Bruty, Laura El-Tantawy, and Richard Barnes.
The close-knit community of Brackenmore is harboring a secret. After the untimely death of an uncle she never knew she had, Kate (Sophie Hopkins) is forced to return to her ancestral home, a tiny rural village in the South of Ireland. Soon after her arrival she meets Tom (D.J. McGrath), a mysterious young local who helps her to rediscover her long-neglected roots and forget about the anxieties of her life in London. The longer Kate stays in Brackenmore, the more she begins to realize that the eccentricities of its self-protective residents, may be more ominous than she first thought and the secluded family estate is harboring a dark and ancient secret. From the opening scenes of a fateful car crash to the shocking ending Brackenmore weaves its ways under your skin shifting between classic horror to the mysteries of the occult. Cinematographer Justin McCarthy keeps a steady hand as he captures the silent fear that begins to grow as Hopkins uncovers the dark horror that is Brackenmore.
INTER SCI climatologist Dr. David Kotzman has evidence that a shift in the Earth’s polarity triggered the last Ice Age…in a single day. Now, it’s happening again, and there’s no time to escape. As the temperature plummets, Miami is blasted with snow and ice. Evacuation routes are jammed. The only chance David, his old flame Bryn, and a few other hopeful survivors have is to hole themselves up in a special chamber at INTER SCI. A desperate race for survival is ignited as nature’s fury rages and the temperature plunges toward -459.67° F…ABSOLUTE ZERO!
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
A meditative, immersive tribute to the astonishing work and achievements of naturalist, inventor and pioneering filmmaker F. Percy Smith. Smith worked in the early years of the 20th century, developing various cinematographic and micro-photographic techniques to capture nature’s secrets in action. Working in a number of public roles, including the Royal Navy and British Instructional Films, Smith was prolific and driven, often directing several films simultaneously, apparently on a mission to explore and capture nature’s hidden terrains. This film is an interpretative edit that combines Smith’s original footage with a new contemporary score by tindersticks to create a hypnotic, alien yet familiar dreamscape that connects us to the sense of wonder Smith must have felt as he peered through his own lenses and seen these micro-worlds for the first time.
Oliver Hayes, an aspiring animator whose confidence is at a low point, meets the captivating and impulsive Lily Blush, who encourages him to drop everything and go with her to Northern California in the hopes of fulfilling his fantasy of working for Pixar Animation Studios. As they travel up the coast, Oliver falls deeply in love but upon making certain startling discoveries he must decide if he wants to face reality or stay in dreamworld.
A team of filmmakers take a tour of South America with mural artist and animator Blu, looking to see how his art and mind will be influenced through total immersion in foreign cultures. The team traveled through Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua Costa Rica and Argentina, and named the film after those countries. In the director’s words, “What came out was an unscripted film about improvisation, inspiration (and perspiration), innovation, self-exploration and all the other good things in life that end with -ion.”
A car crash prevents Jeanine Markham, a world-renowned astrophysicist, from delivering her controversial lecture about her findings. The accident puts Jeanine at the cross roads of conscious and subconscious, between Comatose and awake as she struggles to live. But even in her vegetative unresponsive state, her mind, slipping between the two realities, continues her quest to deliver the truth. For Jeanine’s husband and others, accepting the irrefutable proof that she presents is unthinkable – that we’re alone in the universe, that no deity hears or answers our prayers nor punishes our sins, that humanity is entirely the product of random events, and that our sufferings, indeed our lives and loves are ultimately pointless. Her journey, stuck between the two worlds, becomes shrouded by dark and mysterious events that create a whirlwind of tumultuous emotions and terrifying realizations.
Young ballad singer Ruadhan watches in distress as the traditional fabric of life in his small Scottish village is inexorably eroded. With fish dying and no jobs on land, the young people are escaping to the cities. Meanwhile, the old people of the town, to whom Ruadhan feels closest and whose traditions he wants to preserve, are dying off. A rich, delicate, and powerful film with superb cinematography and a stirring soundtrack filled with traditional ballad singing.
In the winter of 2002, over 300 bodies were discovered strewn about the property of the Tri-State Crematory in Noble, GA, in various stages of decay. “Sahkanaga” imagines this event from the perspective of a teenager who discovers the first body. Filmed on location in Walker County, GA, with a cast of non-professional actors, some of whom had direct connections to the real-life scandal, “Sahkanaga” observes a tight-knit community on the brink of a terrible tragedy and their efforts to make sense of the unknowable.
A simple can of ravioli propels this spectacular 30,000-kilometre, eight-country journey through all phases of food production and the far flung sources of international ingredients. A dream-like voyage with glimpses of disconcerting realities, the story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. Along the way, the workers whose calloused hands mine, raise and harvest each ingredient reveal their dreams and hopes, like the Danish pig farmer who loves his sows but longs for a girlfriend, and the Portuguese tomato picker who wants to stay healthy long enough to pay her daughters way through university. Sumptuous photography and impressive sound design make an eloquent statement about our modern, globalized world, making us aware of the hundreds of invisible people who prepare the food we eat every day. -Gisèle Gordon (HotDocs.ca)
