The world needs documentary cinema. Filmmakers willing to shine a light on the human condition, in all of its forms, are essential to the world. Moreover, we need tastemakers who are willing to seek out these stories, support them as they struggle to get made, and then nurture them as they enter the world. Too often, a documentary will go unseen. Kudos to our last President and First Lady, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, respectively, for the work they’re doing with their Higher Ground shingle. Partnered with Netflix, they won the Oscar Best Documentary Feature last year with American Factory. Tomorrow, they return with another awards worthy doc in Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. The film, coming at the same time as the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, looks at the revolutionary Camp Jened. In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities had very little in the way of options.
- 3/24/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
In today’s film news roundup, Cybill Shepherd’s “Being Rose” gets acquired, Booboo Steward gets a lead role, Itvs reaches a Sundance milestone, and oilfields drama “The Iron Orchard” gets a release.
Acquisition
Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Rod McCall’s romance “Being Rose,” starring Cybill Shepherd, James Brolin, and Pam Grier, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film will be available in theaters and on demand on Jan. 4. Shepherd plays an ex-cop diagnosed with serious health issues who goes on a road trip in a wheelchair to search for her estranged son. Along the way, she falls in love with Brolin’s cowboy character, who has come to a crossroads of his own.
“I consider ‘Being Rose’ the crown jewel of my career,” Shepherd said. “Rod McCall, who wrote and directed the film is one of the finest directors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.
Acquisition
Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Rod McCall’s romance “Being Rose,” starring Cybill Shepherd, James Brolin, and Pam Grier, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film will be available in theaters and on demand on Jan. 4. Shepherd plays an ex-cop diagnosed with serious health issues who goes on a road trip in a wheelchair to search for her estranged son. Along the way, she falls in love with Brolin’s cowboy character, who has come to a crossroads of his own.
“I consider ‘Being Rose’ the crown jewel of my career,” Shepherd said. “Rod McCall, who wrote and directed the film is one of the finest directors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.
- 12/1/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...
Managing Editor
This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...
- 12/16/2014
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Los Angeles, home of the most ambitious and successful environmental movements, will see eight free screenings of “A Fierce Green Fire” in late September and early October
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
- 9/28/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
(San Francisco) – 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the Independent Television Service (Itvs), one of the largest sources of funding for independent filmmakers. In recognition of this milestone, Itvs is launching the Itvs Indies Showcase, a free online film festival running from July 25 to September 23, 2011 in honor of the extraordinary contributions of independent filmmakers to public television.
The 20 unforgettable documentaries in the Itvs Indies Showcase represent glimpses of the collection of more than 1,000 productions Itvs has supported as the country’s leading provider of independent films for public broadcasting. Each full-length program will stream for free for three days on itvs.org/indies-showcase where viewers will also find a timeline of Itvs’s history, film trailers, clips, interviews, an audience award contest, and more.
Through the tenacity of filmmakers and their supporters seeking to foster plurality and diversity in public television, Itvs was established by an unprecedented mandate of Congress to...
The 20 unforgettable documentaries in the Itvs Indies Showcase represent glimpses of the collection of more than 1,000 productions Itvs has supported as the country’s leading provider of independent films for public broadcasting. Each full-length program will stream for free for three days on itvs.org/indies-showcase where viewers will also find a timeline of Itvs’s history, film trailers, clips, interviews, an audience award contest, and more.
Through the tenacity of filmmakers and their supporters seeking to foster plurality and diversity in public television, Itvs was established by an unprecedented mandate of Congress to...
- 8/2/2011
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Picture-postcard pretty but emotionally vapid, "Talk of Angels" has all the elements of a classy romantic drama -- an exotic locale, political intrigue and, of course, illicit love -- minus any convincing substance.
It's based on Irish author Kate O'Brien's controversial 1936 novel "Mary Lavelle", which was banned in Ireland on charges of "immorality." (O'Brien was subsequently kicked out of Spain by the Franco regime.) The film adaptation, marking the feature debut of theater director Nick Hamm, itemizes all the key personalities and events without giving viewers much to truly care about.
While it may be enough to satisfy those looking for a Harlequin Romance-style quick fix, "Talk of Angels'" will likely take speedy flight to the video heavens.
Taking its name from an Irish phrase that's equivalent to "speak of the devil," the film tells the story of Lavelle (the beauteous Polly Walker), a young convent girl who leaves Ireland behind to work as a governess in Spain at one of those ultra-bourgeois households with which Luis Bunuel would have had a field day.
Presided over by hovering matriarch Dona Consuelo (Marisa Paredes), a woman who has clearly seen too many Joan Crawford movies, the Areavaga clan is just one of your average wealthy Spanish families on the verge of disintegration as civil war looms large.
As her husband, the idealistic Dr. Vicente Franco Nero) secretly tends to injured radicals, her son Francisco (Vincent Perez), trapped in a loveless marriage, eyes the comely Mary and the laws of mutual attraction take over.
Despite the counseling of a colorful group of fellow expatriate Irish women who function as the picture's Greek chorus -- including the big-sisterly O'Toole (Ruth McCabe) and the tormented Conlon (Frances McDormand), who confidentially admits to having a forbidden crush on Mary -- our heroine finds herself at a tricky crossroads in a city on the brink of irrevocable change.
Romantic leads Walker and Perez certainly make a photogenic pair and have done fine work elsewhere (she in "Enchanted April", he in "Queen Margot"), but they fail to ignite a convincing spark chemistry-wise, which is obviously crucial to the story's effectiveness.
Director Hamm is underserved by the perfunctory script credited to Ann Guedes and Frank McGuinness. But he tries to compensate with artful framing and thoughtful composition, for which he is richly served by the contributions of cinematographer Alexei Rodionov ("Orlando") and production designer Michael Howells ("Ever After").
But in the end, it's all very attractive frosting on an unsatisfying, underbaked cake -- angel food or otherwise.
TALK OF ANGELS
Miramax Films
Director: Nick Hamm
Producer: Patrick Cassavetti
Executive producers: Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Donna Gigliotti
Screenwriters: Ann Guedes, Frank McGuinness
Director of photography: Alexei Rodionov
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Gerry Hambling
Costume designers: Liz Waller, Lala Huete
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mary Lavelle: Polly Walker
Francisco Areavaga: Vincent Perez
Dr. Vicente Areavaga: Franco Nero
Conlon: Frances McDormand
O'Toole: Ruth McCabe
Dona Consuelo: Marisa Paredes
Pilar: Penelope Cruz
Beatriz: Ariadna Gil
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
It's based on Irish author Kate O'Brien's controversial 1936 novel "Mary Lavelle", which was banned in Ireland on charges of "immorality." (O'Brien was subsequently kicked out of Spain by the Franco regime.) The film adaptation, marking the feature debut of theater director Nick Hamm, itemizes all the key personalities and events without giving viewers much to truly care about.
While it may be enough to satisfy those looking for a Harlequin Romance-style quick fix, "Talk of Angels'" will likely take speedy flight to the video heavens.
Taking its name from an Irish phrase that's equivalent to "speak of the devil," the film tells the story of Lavelle (the beauteous Polly Walker), a young convent girl who leaves Ireland behind to work as a governess in Spain at one of those ultra-bourgeois households with which Luis Bunuel would have had a field day.
Presided over by hovering matriarch Dona Consuelo (Marisa Paredes), a woman who has clearly seen too many Joan Crawford movies, the Areavaga clan is just one of your average wealthy Spanish families on the verge of disintegration as civil war looms large.
As her husband, the idealistic Dr. Vicente Franco Nero) secretly tends to injured radicals, her son Francisco (Vincent Perez), trapped in a loveless marriage, eyes the comely Mary and the laws of mutual attraction take over.
Despite the counseling of a colorful group of fellow expatriate Irish women who function as the picture's Greek chorus -- including the big-sisterly O'Toole (Ruth McCabe) and the tormented Conlon (Frances McDormand), who confidentially admits to having a forbidden crush on Mary -- our heroine finds herself at a tricky crossroads in a city on the brink of irrevocable change.
Romantic leads Walker and Perez certainly make a photogenic pair and have done fine work elsewhere (she in "Enchanted April", he in "Queen Margot"), but they fail to ignite a convincing spark chemistry-wise, which is obviously crucial to the story's effectiveness.
Director Hamm is underserved by the perfunctory script credited to Ann Guedes and Frank McGuinness. But he tries to compensate with artful framing and thoughtful composition, for which he is richly served by the contributions of cinematographer Alexei Rodionov ("Orlando") and production designer Michael Howells ("Ever After").
But in the end, it's all very attractive frosting on an unsatisfying, underbaked cake -- angel food or otherwise.
TALK OF ANGELS
Miramax Films
Director: Nick Hamm
Producer: Patrick Cassavetti
Executive producers: Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Donna Gigliotti
Screenwriters: Ann Guedes, Frank McGuinness
Director of photography: Alexei Rodionov
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Gerry Hambling
Costume designers: Liz Waller, Lala Huete
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mary Lavelle: Polly Walker
Francisco Areavaga: Vincent Perez
Dr. Vicente Areavaga: Franco Nero
Conlon: Frances McDormand
O'Toole: Ruth McCabe
Dona Consuelo: Marisa Paredes
Pilar: Penelope Cruz
Beatriz: Ariadna Gil
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 10/26/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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