Exclusive: Berlinale Special doc sells to Us, UK, Australia and more.
Well-received Toronto doc Watermark has sold to a number of major territories for eOne Films International, including Us (eOne), Australia (Madman), Benelux (Cineart), German speaking Europe (Senator), UK (Soda Pictures) and India (Pictureworks).
Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s doc, which screens in the Berlinale Special strand, charts how water shapes the lives of diverse people from around the globe.
The Toronto premiere incorporates floating abalone farms off China’s Fujian coast and the construction site of the biggest arch dam in the world – the Xiluodu, six times the size of the Hoover, the barren desert delta where the mighty Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean, and the water-intensive leather tanneries of Dhaka.
Baichwal’s docs Payback and Manufactured Landscapes both played at Sundance.
Well-received Toronto doc Watermark has sold to a number of major territories for eOne Films International, including Us (eOne), Australia (Madman), Benelux (Cineart), German speaking Europe (Senator), UK (Soda Pictures) and India (Pictureworks).
Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s doc, which screens in the Berlinale Special strand, charts how water shapes the lives of diverse people from around the globe.
The Toronto premiere incorporates floating abalone farms off China’s Fujian coast and the construction site of the biggest arch dam in the world – the Xiluodu, six times the size of the Hoover, the barren desert delta where the mighty Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean, and the water-intensive leather tanneries of Dhaka.
Baichwal’s docs Payback and Manufactured Landscapes both played at Sundance.
- 2/8/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 21, 2012
Price: DVD $29.99
Studio: Zeitgeist
Margaret Atwood consults her notes in Payback.
Margaret Atwood’s 2008 best-selling book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for the 2012 documentary Payback, which looks at the concept of “debt” in its various forms—societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic.
Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) interweaves a group of stories about debtor/creditor relationships: two families in a years-long Albanian blood feud; the Bp oil spill vs. the Gulf Coast; mistreated Florida tomato farm workers and their bosses; and imprisoned media mogul Conrad Black and the U.S. justice system.
The film also features commentary by academic/activist Raj Patel, former Un High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and Atwood herself.
The unrated Payback received a limited rollout to U.S. theaters in April, 2012. It received only fair reviews, though it appears...
Price: DVD $29.99
Studio: Zeitgeist
Margaret Atwood consults her notes in Payback.
Margaret Atwood’s 2008 best-selling book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for the 2012 documentary Payback, which looks at the concept of “debt” in its various forms—societal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic.
Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) interweaves a group of stories about debtor/creditor relationships: two families in a years-long Albanian blood feud; the Bp oil spill vs. the Gulf Coast; mistreated Florida tomato farm workers and their bosses; and imprisoned media mogul Conrad Black and the U.S. justice system.
The film also features commentary by academic/activist Raj Patel, former Un High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and Atwood herself.
The unrated Payback received a limited rollout to U.S. theaters in April, 2012. It received only fair reviews, though it appears...
- 8/15/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Margaret Atwood is helping promote a new film called Payback, a documentary spawned from her 2008 collection of essays Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth — which, despite the title, is not the economic work it sounds like. Her definition of debt is more flexible, and includes moral debts and the acts of revenge that they might inspire. (Payback opens with a blood feud between two families). With her classic work The Handmaid's Tale, about a dystopian future in which women have no control over their reproductive rights, being cited by politicians during this campaign season and its influence on the recent blockbuster The Hunger Games, Vulture thought it high time to check in with the author, who was in town to kick off Payback's premiere at Film Forum.Have you had a chance to read or see The Hunger Games? The games are designed for the districts...
- 5/1/2012
- by Jennifer Vineyard
- Vulture
What is the essence of debt, and what is debt that doesn't have a monetary solution? Canadian essayist, novelist, activist, and general "ist" Margaret Atwood pontificates on the complex nature of this kind of liability in "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth," a non-fiction book and the springboard for Jennifer Baichwal's concisely titled"Payback." Atwood's deconstruction of the idea is incredibly deep, at times both frightening and amusing; Baichwal attempts to translate her lecture into a documentary/video essay and succeeds in creating something original that still retains the strength of the author's voice. The director manages to look at what various people owe to each other, from small-scale (what convicts owe to both their victims and society) to all-encompassing (how we, as humans, are beholden to our planet) debt.
Those who have seen "The Forgiveness Of Blood" (and not to digress, but if you haven't,...
Those who have seen "The Forgiveness Of Blood" (and not to digress, but if you haven't,...
- 4/27/2012
- by Christopher Bell
- The Playlist
Jennifer Baichwal is an accomplished Canadian filmmaker whose ever-searching documentaries have taken up such diverse subjects as photography (The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia), literary biography (Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles), the metaphysics of lightning strikes (Act of God), and the devastating underside of mass Western consumption (Manufactured Landscapes). In her latest film, Payback, loosely based on the prolific Booker Prize–winning author Margaret Atwood’s book-length study of debt as a structuring principle of life, language, and contemporary culture (the subtitle for her tome is The Shadow Side of Wealth), Baichwal investigates the disparate ways in which the idea of indebtedness has come to define everything from blood feuds to labor practices, prison terms to environmental clean-up efforts.
What does it mean to say we “owe” someone? How are debts created? Under what conditions do we seek justice or retribution, or attempt...
What does it mean to say we “owe” someone? How are debts created? Under what conditions do we seek justice or retribution, or attempt...
- 4/27/2012
- by Damon Smith
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Payback
Directed by Jennifer Baichwal
Written by Margaret Atwood (book) and Jennifer Baichwal (adaptation)
Canada, 2012
Movies inspired on books are a dime a dozen, with almost every week there being something released in theatres which is based on some of sort of novel. Very often, whenever the source material happens to be much beloved, the ire of the film goers curious about of cinematic translation is felt shortly after the opening weekend. It also seems second nature to readers and movie goers: love the book but loath the film. Of course, in the majority of cases, said films are based on fiction literature. An entirely different sort of adaptation is required when the source material is an essay and documentary form, which is precisely the challenge director Jennifer Baichwal faced when translating Margaret Atwood’s intellectual exploration of the notion of debt from the page to the screen.
Baiwchawl film...
Directed by Jennifer Baichwal
Written by Margaret Atwood (book) and Jennifer Baichwal (adaptation)
Canada, 2012
Movies inspired on books are a dime a dozen, with almost every week there being something released in theatres which is based on some of sort of novel. Very often, whenever the source material happens to be much beloved, the ire of the film goers curious about of cinematic translation is felt shortly after the opening weekend. It also seems second nature to readers and movie goers: love the book but loath the film. Of course, in the majority of cases, said films are based on fiction literature. An entirely different sort of adaptation is required when the source material is an essay and documentary form, which is precisely the challenge director Jennifer Baichwal faced when translating Margaret Atwood’s intellectual exploration of the notion of debt from the page to the screen.
Baiwchawl film...
- 3/14/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
As we roll into Berlin where War Witch (aka Rebelle) (Isa: Films Distribution) by Kim Nguyen is in Competition. While it’s Kim’s 4th feature, this is the first of his films to have a world premiere at an international festival. This is exceptional as well because the last time the Canadians had a Canadian director in Competition at the Berlinale was in 1999 with Emporte-Moi ! Guy Madden’s Keyhole holds a Berlinale Special slot. Guy is Canada’s cultural ambassador in Berlin and a regular at the Festival and sat on the Berlinale’s Official Jury last year – with Isabella Rossellini.
Sheldon Larry’s Leave It on the Floor (Isa: Arrow) is a U.S.-Canadian Co-pro which has played Laff, Tiff and is now in the Panorama.
Films in the Forum include Green Laser by another Berlinale favorite, John Greyson. Green Laser is his 8th film at the festival. His first was Urinal in 1989. Denis Côté’s Bestiary, straight from Sundance, and Francine, the first narrative feature by Melanie Shatzky (Canada) and Brian M. Cassidy (U.S.) the team that directed Patron Saints (Tiff 2011, Rotterdam 2012) are are all in the Forum.
4 films are in the Forum Expanded:
Chris Kennedy’s 349 (For Sol LeWitt)(1min long!) in Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule
American Colour, Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule
Road Movie by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzkystarring Melissa Leo (Frozen River) Tiff 2011 Future Projections: Schedule, a 6-channel installation produced by The National Film Board of Canada. Elle Flanders’ documentary Zero Degrees of Separation was screened in the Forum section of the Berlin Festival in 2005.
The Tiny Ventriloquist by Steve Reinke, (with contribution from James Richards). The installation will be presented at the McLuhan Salon of the Canadian Embassy
In Berlinale Shorts Competition, The Man That Got Away by Trevor Anderson is his second film in this section (2009 The Island). His doc short The High Leve Bridge was in Sundance in 2010.
All we have to do now is wait to see which prizes go to them! Last year Canadian productions came away with three.
Perspective Canada will present 16 titles at the Market:
Café de Flore - Jean-Marc Vallée, Films Distribution, France
China Heavyweight (Straight from Sundance) - doc - Yung Chang Cat & Docs, France & EyeSteelFilms
Décharge (Trash) - Benoit Pilon, eOne
Edwin Boyd - Nathan Morlando, Myriad Pictures, USA
French Kiss - Sylvain Archambault ,Delphis
Goon - Michael Dowse, Myriad Pictures, USA
La Peur de l'eau - Gabriel Pelletier, eOne
Marécages - Guy Édoin, Fortissimo Films
Monsieur Lazhar - Philippe Falardeau, Films Distribution, France
Nuit #1 - Anne Émond, Wide Management, France
Payback (Straight from Sundance) - doc- Jennifer Baichwal, National Film Board of Canada
Pink Ribbons - doc - Léa Pool, National Film Board of Canada
Pour l'amour de dieu - Micheline Lanctôt, Filmoption
Roméo onze - Ivan Grbovic, Reprise Films
Surviving Progress - doc- Mathieu Roy + Harold Crooks, National Film Board of Canada
Take this Waltz - Sarah Polley, TF1 International, France...
Sheldon Larry’s Leave It on the Floor (Isa: Arrow) is a U.S.-Canadian Co-pro which has played Laff, Tiff and is now in the Panorama.
Films in the Forum include Green Laser by another Berlinale favorite, John Greyson. Green Laser is his 8th film at the festival. His first was Urinal in 1989. Denis Côté’s Bestiary, straight from Sundance, and Francine, the first narrative feature by Melanie Shatzky (Canada) and Brian M. Cassidy (U.S.) the team that directed Patron Saints (Tiff 2011, Rotterdam 2012) are are all in the Forum.
4 films are in the Forum Expanded:
Chris Kennedy’s 349 (For Sol LeWitt)(1min long!) in Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule
American Colour, Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule
Road Movie by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzkystarring Melissa Leo (Frozen River) Tiff 2011 Future Projections: Schedule, a 6-channel installation produced by The National Film Board of Canada. Elle Flanders’ documentary Zero Degrees of Separation was screened in the Forum section of the Berlin Festival in 2005.
The Tiny Ventriloquist by Steve Reinke, (with contribution from James Richards). The installation will be presented at the McLuhan Salon of the Canadian Embassy
In Berlinale Shorts Competition, The Man That Got Away by Trevor Anderson is his second film in this section (2009 The Island). His doc short The High Leve Bridge was in Sundance in 2010.
All we have to do now is wait to see which prizes go to them! Last year Canadian productions came away with three.
Perspective Canada will present 16 titles at the Market:
Café de Flore - Jean-Marc Vallée, Films Distribution, France
China Heavyweight (Straight from Sundance) - doc - Yung Chang Cat & Docs, France & EyeSteelFilms
Décharge (Trash) - Benoit Pilon, eOne
Edwin Boyd - Nathan Morlando, Myriad Pictures, USA
French Kiss - Sylvain Archambault ,Delphis
Goon - Michael Dowse, Myriad Pictures, USA
La Peur de l'eau - Gabriel Pelletier, eOne
Marécages - Guy Édoin, Fortissimo Films
Monsieur Lazhar - Philippe Falardeau, Films Distribution, France
Nuit #1 - Anne Émond, Wide Management, France
Payback (Straight from Sundance) - doc- Jennifer Baichwal, National Film Board of Canada
Pink Ribbons - doc - Léa Pool, National Film Board of Canada
Pour l'amour de dieu - Micheline Lanctôt, Filmoption
Roméo onze - Ivan Grbovic, Reprise Films
Surviving Progress - doc- Mathieu Roy + Harold Crooks, National Film Board of Canada
Take this Waltz - Sarah Polley, TF1 International, France...
- 2/11/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Trailer roundups can grow to be rather unwieldy and slow to load, so I'm rounding up trailers for films screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival in two batches, the competitions and all the other programs.
Us Dramatic Competition
Ira Sachs's Keep the Lights On
Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere
Youssef Delara and Michael D Olmos's Filly Brown
Us Documentary Competition
Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Kirby Dick's The Invisible War
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia
Sam Pollard's Slavery by Another Name
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
The trailer for Keiichi Kobayashi's About the Pink Sky is here.
Luciano Moura's Father's Chair (A Cadeira do Pai)
Babis Makridis's L
Armando Bó's The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis)
David Trueba's Madrid, 1987
Andrés Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven
Kieran Darcy-Smith's Wish You Were Here
And the trailer for...
Us Dramatic Competition
Ira Sachs's Keep the Lights On
Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere
Youssef Delara and Michael D Olmos's Filly Brown
Us Documentary Competition
Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Kirby Dick's The Invisible War
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia
Sam Pollard's Slavery by Another Name
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
The trailer for Keiichi Kobayashi's About the Pink Sky is here.
Luciano Moura's Father's Chair (A Cadeira do Pai)
Babis Makridis's L
Armando Bó's The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis)
David Trueba's Madrid, 1987
Andrés Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven
Kieran Darcy-Smith's Wish You Were Here
And the trailer for...
- 1/16/2012
- MUBI
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