As Film Independent’s Global Media Makers (Gmm) program has broadened its scope to new countries and regions, a significant part of Gmm’s initiative has been to conduct worldwide film diplomacy outreach trips and international film workshops guided by U.S. industry mentors, often Film Independent Fellows.
Recent trips have included destinations such as Algeria, India, Morocco, Nepal and Tunisia. In 2022, Gmm started supporting filmmakers throughout the continent of Africa. Our first trip was to South Africa was with producer Avril Speaks, a veteran program mentor who has previously collaborated with two filmmakers from Johannesburg.
Avril was gracious enough to share her experience with Gmm in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as some background about her long-standing relationship with Film Independent. Here’s the conversation:
Avril Speaks Avril Speaks at the 2022 Gmm LA Residency’s Creative Producing Retreat
Can you tell us about your background? Where...
Recent trips have included destinations such as Algeria, India, Morocco, Nepal and Tunisia. In 2022, Gmm started supporting filmmakers throughout the continent of Africa. Our first trip was to South Africa was with producer Avril Speaks, a veteran program mentor who has previously collaborated with two filmmakers from Johannesburg.
Avril was gracious enough to share her experience with Gmm in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as some background about her long-standing relationship with Film Independent. Here’s the conversation:
Avril Speaks Avril Speaks at the 2022 Gmm LA Residency’s Creative Producing Retreat
Can you tell us about your background? Where...
- 12/14/2023
- by Nora Bernard
- Film Independent News & More
“Government Cheese,” the upcoming Apple TV+ series starring and executive produced by David Oyelowo, has added Simone Missick to its cast.
The dramedy follows Hampton Chambers (played by Oyelowo), a man recently released from prison who struggles to keep his criminal past at bay and win back his family, all while processing moments of divine intervention that seem to happen with increasing frequency.
Missick will play Astoria, Hampton’s wife.
Missick is best known for starring in Misty Knight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series “Luke Cage,” which ran on Netflix from 2016 to 2018, and reprised the role in “The Defenders” and “Iron Fist.” More recently, she played Lola Carmichael in the legal drama “All Rise,” which ran on CBS from 2019 to 2021 and the Oprah Winfrey Network from 2022 to 2023. Her other prominent credits include the film “Jinn” and Season 2 of Netflix’s “Altered Carbon.”
She is repped by CAA, M88 & Goodman,...
The dramedy follows Hampton Chambers (played by Oyelowo), a man recently released from prison who struggles to keep his criminal past at bay and win back his family, all while processing moments of divine intervention that seem to happen with increasing frequency.
Missick will play Astoria, Hampton’s wife.
Missick is best known for starring in Misty Knight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series “Luke Cage,” which ran on Netflix from 2016 to 2018, and reprised the role in “The Defenders” and “Iron Fist.” More recently, she played Lola Carmichael in the legal drama “All Rise,” which ran on CBS from 2019 to 2021 and the Oprah Winfrey Network from 2022 to 2023. Her other prominent credits include the film “Jinn” and Season 2 of Netflix’s “Altered Carbon.”
She is repped by CAA, M88 & Goodman,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Joe Otterson and Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Chevalier) and Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) have closed deals to star opposite Stranger Things breakout Sadie Sink in Searchlight Pictures’ original rock opera O’Dessa from Patti Cake$ filmmaker Geremy Jasper. It is heading into production in Croatia in May.
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, O’Dessa follows Sink’s farm girl of the same name on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.
While no details as to Bartlett’s role have been disclosed, sources tell Deadline that Harrison will play O’Dessa’s love interest, Euri Dervish — a punk performer described as an “unholy mix of Iggy Pop, Marlene Dietrich and Prince.”
Written and to be directed by Jasper,...
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, O’Dessa follows Sink’s farm girl of the same name on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.
While no details as to Bartlett’s role have been disclosed, sources tell Deadline that Harrison will play O’Dessa’s love interest, Euri Dervish — a punk performer described as an “unholy mix of Iggy Pop, Marlene Dietrich and Prince.”
Written and to be directed by Jasper,...
- 4/4/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
- 2/21/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Just One Film is a series that recommends individual films from festivals around the world—the movies you otherwise might have missed that deserve to be discovered.The fall of “innocence” looms over girlhood, an hour of imminent despair. We arrive at the coming-of-age drama already well-versed in the limits she will encounter as she explores her sexuality: there are clashes and confrontations, frustration and discomfort. She may make questionable sexual decisions or very natural ones. She may have to abandon her own home to survive. Haya Waseem’s Quickening belongs more specifically to those films that account for the sexual awakening of Muslim girls, divided between family influence and Western mores. In just the last few years there has been Iram Haq’s What Will People Say (2017), Jinn (2018) by writer-director Nijla Mu’min, and Minhal Baig’s Hala (2019). Waseem’s debut feature departs from its more straightforward predecessors by...
- 12/22/2021
- MUBI
Jordanian multihyphenate Bassel Ghandour since graduating from USC film school has among other things worked closely with Kathryn Bigelow on “The Hurt Locker,” and penned and produced Naji Abu Nowar’s groundbreaking Bedouin Western “Theeb.” Now he is making a splash with his first feature as director “The Alleys,” even before its launch.
Ghandour’s multi-character tale, which is now in post, is set – and was shot – in a claustrophobic neighborhood in East Amman called Jabal Al Natheef where violence, and gossip, run rampant. “The Alleys” involves a young hustler named Ali who pretends to be a white-collar career man, his secret love interest Lana, and an extortion attempt that brings Lana’s mother and an older cutthroat gangster into the picture. The promising pic just scored several prizes at the Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market.
“Ali is a hustler who takes tourists to dodgy night clubs in exchange for kickbacks,...
Ghandour’s multi-character tale, which is now in post, is set – and was shot – in a claustrophobic neighborhood in East Amman called Jabal Al Natheef where violence, and gossip, run rampant. “The Alleys” involves a young hustler named Ali who pretends to be a white-collar career man, his secret love interest Lana, and an extortion attempt that brings Lana’s mother and an older cutthroat gangster into the picture. The promising pic just scored several prizes at the Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market.
“Ali is a hustler who takes tourists to dodgy night clubs in exchange for kickbacks,...
- 12/10/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Cairo-based film marketing and distribution outfit Mad Solutions is launching Mad Rising Celebrity, a new unit dedicated to launching up-and-coming film and TV acting talents from across the Arab world.
The new Mad Solutions subsidiary has recruited a rich roster of rising Arab actors comprising Saudi Arabia’s Fatima AlBanawi (pictured) – who starred in groundbreaking Saudi comedy “Barakah Meets Barakah,” and more recently landed a small role in new Netflix Arabic original “Paranormal” – and Tunisian thesp Farès Landoulsi, featured in Netflix drama “Messiah,” among other rising celebrities.
“Nobody has been working on new Arab talents,” noted Mad Solutions co-founder Alaa Karkouti, speaking to Variety. He added that besides filling the gap by representing actors the new unit also intends to start handling up-and-coming Arab directors, writers, producers and cinematographers.
Karkouti also noted that Mad Solutions – which has long been active as an Arab world film distributor and has been branching...
The new Mad Solutions subsidiary has recruited a rich roster of rising Arab actors comprising Saudi Arabia’s Fatima AlBanawi (pictured) – who starred in groundbreaking Saudi comedy “Barakah Meets Barakah,” and more recently landed a small role in new Netflix Arabic original “Paranormal” – and Tunisian thesp Farès Landoulsi, featured in Netflix drama “Messiah,” among other rising celebrities.
“Nobody has been working on new Arab talents,” noted Mad Solutions co-founder Alaa Karkouti, speaking to Variety. He added that besides filling the gap by representing actors the new unit also intends to start handling up-and-coming Arab directors, writers, producers and cinematographers.
Karkouti also noted that Mad Solutions – which has long been active as an Arab world film distributor and has been branching...
- 11/16/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Egyptian music star Amr Diab is set to return to acting after a 27-year hiatus with an Arabic original series for Netflix.
The as yet untitled series is a musical drama and is currently being developed.
The bestselling artist last featured in an acting role in 1993’s “Dehk Wele’b Wegad Wehob”, alongside the late Omar Sharif.
“I am thrilled to work with Netflix on this new project,” said Diab. “I have always believed that art is a global language, and we have been able to build bridges of connections and love with diverse cultures through music. And, now with this new project with Netflix, I am excited that we will be reaching more than 193 million members in more than 190 countries around the world where they will be able to watch new content made in Egypt and enjoyed by the world.”
From 1983, when he released his first album “Ya Tareeq,...
The as yet untitled series is a musical drama and is currently being developed.
The bestselling artist last featured in an acting role in 1993’s “Dehk Wele’b Wegad Wehob”, alongside the late Omar Sharif.
“I am thrilled to work with Netflix on this new project,” said Diab. “I have always believed that art is a global language, and we have been able to build bridges of connections and love with diverse cultures through music. And, now with this new project with Netflix, I am excited that we will be reaching more than 193 million members in more than 190 countries around the world where they will be able to watch new content made in Egypt and enjoyed by the world.”
From 1983, when he released his first album “Ya Tareeq,...
- 8/18/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
A perfect illustration of growing up today, French director Maïmouna Doucouré’s spirited debut “Cuties” assesses the transition from childhood to adolescence by pointing its lens at an 11-year-old girl at the crossroads of tradition and personal discovery. It’s the type of first feature that heralds an indelible directorial voice.
Echoes of Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood,” Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” or Nijla Mumin’s “Jinn” are strident, but the age gap separating the teens in those efforts and the young lead here strongly distinguishes this new film from its forebears. Although not breaking untraveled ground, “Cuties” is a necessary new entry among these idiosyncratic narratives centered on black girlhood going against the grain of the status quo, and no less noteworthy for that.
Exposed to loads of instantly reachable information, both detrimental and advantageous, kids raised on online gratification inevitably mature at a faster rate, or so at first...
Echoes of Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood,” Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” or Nijla Mumin’s “Jinn” are strident, but the age gap separating the teens in those efforts and the young lead here strongly distinguishes this new film from its forebears. Although not breaking untraveled ground, “Cuties” is a necessary new entry among these idiosyncratic narratives centered on black girlhood going against the grain of the status quo, and no less noteworthy for that.
Exposed to loads of instantly reachable information, both detrimental and advantageous, kids raised on online gratification inevitably mature at a faster rate, or so at first...
- 1/24/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
If a film played at a major festival like Sundance, SXSW or the Toronto International Film Festival, chances are, Kelvin Harrison Jr. was in it. The breakout actor has a resume filled with festival favorites such as Mudbound, Monsters and Men, All Rise, Jinn and Assassination Nation and The Wolf Hour. He appeared in Trey Edward Shults’ indie horror It Comes at Night and the Buddy Bolden pic Bolden. He’s even delved into TV with roles in Shots Fired and most recently, Godfather of Harlem. The talented actor has modestly and impressively racked up credits that have caught the deserving attention of Hollywood — and we want more.
2019 was a good year for Harrison. He appeared in two films that are a one-two punch of his incredible capabilities as an actor. Harrison earned an Independent Spirit Award for his role in Julius Onah’s Luce where he plays an adopted...
2019 was a good year for Harrison. He appeared in two films that are a one-two punch of his incredible capabilities as an actor. Harrison earned an Independent Spirit Award for his role in Julius Onah’s Luce where he plays an adopted...
- 12/10/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos and Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
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