Two of the world’s most influential women — pioneering primatologist Jane Goodall and lauded writer Joan Didion — are both on the receiving end of insightful new documentaries this year, both of which are hitting screens in the coming weeks. Brett Morgen’s “Jane” (which opened just last week to deservedly rave reviews) tracks the early years of Goodall’s work in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, combining both new interviews with the still-trailblazing scientist and early footage lensed by her former husband Hugo van Lawick (a celebrated animal photographer) to tell a full-bodied story about Goddall’s amazing ethic and her tremendous empathy for the animals she’s made the center of her life.
This week, Griffin Dunne’s look at Didion’s life, “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” will arrive on Netflix, following her own early years and her current state as a literary icon. Both...
This week, Griffin Dunne’s look at Didion’s life, “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” will arrive on Netflix, following her own early years and her current state as a literary icon. Both...
- 10/24/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
As an adult, documentary filmmaker Sara Lamm discovered that she was conceived via sperm donor. She’s spent years trying to track down her biological dad, using her skills as an investigator to dig ever deeper to uncover where half of her DNA comes from. It’s a fraught premise — and one that threatens to upset her seemingly very happy and loving family — but it’s one she embraces fully in her latest film, “Thank You For Coming.”
Lamm’s search forms the heart of the film, along with a few big twists, like meeting another woman who was conceived at the same clinic in the same year who looks an awful lot like her and wrestling with what her now-deceased mother did and did not know about the situation. The film builds together two years of work and discoveries, and ultimately finds Lamm traveling all the way to Hawaii...
Lamm’s search forms the heart of the film, along with a few big twists, like meeting another woman who was conceived at the same clinic in the same year who looks an awful lot like her and wrestling with what her now-deceased mother did and did not know about the situation. The film builds together two years of work and discoveries, and ultimately finds Lamm traveling all the way to Hawaii...
- 5/24/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It's official: Beyoncé has started a new trend in the music biz (somehow we're not surprised). With just one single tweet alerting fans that "something new" would be coming at midnight in local Ulaanbaatar time (the capital of Mongolia, in case you were unaware), Coldplay released their latest single "Midnight" as well as the accompanying music video, which will presumably be featured on their yet-to-be-announced sixth studio album. "Here is the video for our new song, Midnight…," the British rockers captioned the clip, which was directed by Mary Wigmore, who also directed the 2005 video for "The Hardest Part" and is an incredibly close friend of lead vocalist Chris...
- 2/25/2014
- E! Online
Coldplay takes a bit of a left turn in the British band’s new tune, “Midnight.” The trance-like tune features Chris Martin’s heavily-processed vocals layered upon a bed of a spacey beats. The band dropped the song with no warning at, appropriately enough, midnight. It’s the first new music from Coldplay since “Atlas,” written for “Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Sounding more like a song from Peter Gabriel or Bon Iver, “Midnight” follows no traditional song structure, instead relying on a certain ambient charm to make its case. The lyrics are fairly indecipherable other than “leave a light on,” at the end. The track’s video, a druggy negative-image movie of the band frolicking in the woods above the lights of Los Angeles directed by Mary Wigmore, certainly doesn’t provide any illumination. Given its mysterious appearance and lack of any attendant press release from the band’s usually reliable press team,...
- 2/25/2014
- Hitfix
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced on Sunday the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival at the Awards Brunch, hosted by Chaya Downtown for the third year. Actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor were on hand to present the awards. The La Film Fest, presented by Film Independent and Host Venue Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 and presenting media sponsor Los Angeles Times, ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles.
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear.diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear.diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
- 6/25/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The last movie to be screened at this year's La film festival was Magic Mike: cue The Full Monty lite, Miami-style
This being Hollywood, there's no fat lady; just Channing Tatum stripping down to the buff in the premiere of Magic Mike, the last movie to be screened at this year's La film festival. Director Steven Soderbergh summed up succinctly in his affable introduction, "We're happy to be the closing night film. If you've been here for 10 days, you deserve some R and R, and this film is definitely that." While Tatum showed his best moves, this was The Full Monty lite, Miami-style. Matthew McConaughey's shirt ripping, leather-thonged performance was certainly what the enthusiastic festival crowd needed at the end of this ambitious programme, which boasted more than 200 selections. And even if they didn't, it's what they got.
Earlier in the day, assisted by actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor,...
This being Hollywood, there's no fat lady; just Channing Tatum stripping down to the buff in the premiere of Magic Mike, the last movie to be screened at this year's La film festival. Director Steven Soderbergh summed up succinctly in his affable introduction, "We're happy to be the closing night film. If you've been here for 10 days, you deserve some R and R, and this film is definitely that." While Tatum showed his best moves, this was The Full Monty lite, Miami-style. Matthew McConaughey's shirt ripping, leather-thonged performance was certainly what the enthusiastic festival crowd needed at the end of this ambitious programme, which boasted more than 200 selections. And even if they didn't, it's what they got.
Earlier in the day, assisted by actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor,...
- 6/25/2012
- by Lisa Marks
- The Guardian - Film News
Pocas Pascoal’s All is Well, a Portuguese film about two sisters struggling to establish a new life in Lisbon after fleeing the Angolan civil war, was awarded the jury prize for best narrative film at the Los Angeles Film Festival, while Everardo Gonzalez’s Drought, a portrait of endangered cattle ranchers in Northeast Mexico, took home the jury prize for best documentary feature. Photos: Laff 2012: Canon Celebrates Cinematographers and THR Hosts a Reception Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild continued its festival winning streak as it received the audience award for best narrative feature, and the audience award for best documentary feature went to Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore’s Birth Story:
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- 6/24/2012
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HollywoodNews.com: Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival at the Awards Brunch, hosted by Chaya Downtown for the third year. Actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor were on hand to present the awards. The La Film Fest, presented by Film Independent and Host Venue Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 and presenting media sponsor Los Angeles Times, ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles.
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear—diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear—diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
- 6/24/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
In a very real way, Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives presents the other side of the Pincus coin: where that film teeters near death, Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore’s documentary focuses on birth. Gaskin, regarded as the “mother of authentic midwifery,” has been present for over 1,200 births, written four books, and lectured across the U.S. and abroad since founding the Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee in the early ’70s—no slim resumé. Lamm and Wigmore have compiled a great deal of footage from the period – bearded men wielding guitars, fuzzy camerawork, and hippie gatherings are all on prominent display – that seems to be of a bygone era until you realize that so much of Gaskin’s worldview is born of this time, that she’s still carrying a torch most others have long since extinguished. Not only an advocate for natural, harmonious childbirth but also for the mothers themselves,...
- 6/23/2012
- by Michael Nordine
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There is literally nothing more natural than for a human being (or, really, any mammal on Earth) to give birth – it’s ostensibly the exact thing that the body was made to do. Yet, over time, the modern birthing process has turned into something rooted in fear – all that screaming, all that blood, all those terrified demands for doctors to “give me the juice!” – and the joy of having a child has been usurped by the presumed inevitable pain of delivery. Yet, in Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore‘s tremendous documentary, Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives, the pair present a different way of thinking about and actually giving birth, and while those specific techniques may not be for everyone, their film does provide a very satisfying takeaway for the masses. Gaskin is hailed as the most famous midwife in the world, but she came to her calling in a very basic way – she...
- 6/18/2012
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
"Birth Story" co-directors Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore have both made documentaries before; Lamm directed "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox" and Wigmore tackled Ashtanga yoga founder Sri K. Pattabni in "Ashtanga, NY." They're also both mothers and say that in order to take the time away from their families, a project must feel relevent and helpful. "This project felt bigger than us," they say. "It motivated us to do the insane things we had to do in order to keep all the kid and movie balls in the air." What's it's about? "Ina May Gaskin is a counterculture heroine, author, activist, and world-famous midwife, who changed the way a generation of women thought about childbirth with her simple message: You Can give birth." Who is it for? "We want people to know that this film is not just for (marvelous) pregnant ladies, it's for the general public, especially anyone with an interest in the.
- 6/13/2012
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
HollywoodNews.com: Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, in conjunction with Presenting Media Sponsor the Los Angeles Times and Host Partner L.A. Live, announced the Closing Night film and official Us and international selections for the 2012 Festival. Guest Director, Artists in Residence and Conversations with special guests will be announced later this month. The 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of nearly 200 feature films, short films, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries, along with signature programs such as the Filmmaker Retreat, Poolside Chats, Coffee Talks, music events and more. As previously announced, Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love will be Opening Night, sponsored by Virgin America, and Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild were selected for the Galas section.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles and headquartered at L.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles and headquartered at L.
- 5/1/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
The awards season is about to come to a climax with the arrival of the Academy Awards - otherwise known as the ultimate ceremony for making a spectacle of yourself. Here are the most cringeworthy Oscar speeches.
10. Jack Palance – Best Supporting Actor, City Slickers
Jack Palance was so happy to win an Oscar that he ran out of gratuitous words, and decided to fill in the time he had left on the stage…by doing one armed push ups.
Why???
Click here to watch the video.
9. Angelina Jolie – Best Supporting Actress, Girl Interrupted
A gothic looking Jolie waltzed onto the stage to collect her Oscar, and decided this would be the best time to announce that she is in love with her brother. Yup, she actually said that. Yes, it sounded incestuous. No, they were not in such a relationship. But it still sounded Wrong.
8. Tom Hanks – Best Actor, Philadelphia...
10. Jack Palance – Best Supporting Actor, City Slickers
Jack Palance was so happy to win an Oscar that he ran out of gratuitous words, and decided to fill in the time he had left on the stage…by doing one armed push ups.
Why???
Click here to watch the video.
9. Angelina Jolie – Best Supporting Actress, Girl Interrupted
A gothic looking Jolie waltzed onto the stage to collect her Oscar, and decided this would be the best time to announce that she is in love with her brother. Yup, she actually said that. Yes, it sounded incestuous. No, they were not in such a relationship. But it still sounded Wrong.
8. Tom Hanks – Best Actor, Philadelphia...
- 2/23/2009
- by Melissa Brobby
- Movie-moron.com
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