Tense documentary follows the perilous ‘underground railroads’ defectors need to take to escape from the totalitarian state
The toxic anti-Shangri-La of North Korea continues to provide a rich seam of material for film-makers: the late Claude Lanzmann recounted his personal experiences there in the 1950s in Napalm and Werner Herzog discussed the North Korean reverence for Mount Paektu in Into the Inferno. There are many more, including Álvaro Longaria’s The Propaganda Game, Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s The Lovers and the Despot, Morten Traavik’s Liberation Day and Ryan White’s Assassins. So far no documentary film-maker to my knowledge has tackled one of North Korea’s strangest events: Kim Jong-un’s summit meeting in 2018 with Donald Trump, the man who’d threatened him with “fire and fury”. Oddly, this otherwise excellent documentary about North Korea doesn’t mention that, despite it coming within its timeline.
Beyond Utopia...
The toxic anti-Shangri-La of North Korea continues to provide a rich seam of material for film-makers: the late Claude Lanzmann recounted his personal experiences there in the 1950s in Napalm and Werner Herzog discussed the North Korean reverence for Mount Paektu in Into the Inferno. There are many more, including Álvaro Longaria’s The Propaganda Game, Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s The Lovers and the Despot, Morten Traavik’s Liberation Day and Ryan White’s Assassins. So far no documentary film-maker to my knowledge has tackled one of North Korea’s strangest events: Kim Jong-un’s summit meeting in 2018 with Donald Trump, the man who’d threatened him with “fire and fury”. Oddly, this otherwise excellent documentary about North Korea doesn’t mention that, despite it coming within its timeline.
Beyond Utopia...
- 10/26/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Long-awaited UK movie Fanny Lye Deliver’d, a regular fixture on Cannes prediction lists, has finally been delivered.
Thomas Clay’s third feature, shot in 35mm, bows this week at the BFI London Film Festival after more than three years in post-production, a delay that prompted speculation over the movie’s health and whereabouts. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Deadline had the first opportunity to sit down with multi-hyphenate Clay and get the inside track on his passion project’s winding road to screen.
“It’s going to be strange putting the film in front of an audience, it has been so long,” the 40 year-old director tells us. Clay, whose previous two feature-length films played at Cannes (The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael in 2005 and Soi Cowboy in 2008), has spent the best part of a decade working on this feature.
Styled as a “Puritan Western,” Fanny Lye stars Maxine Peake...
Thomas Clay’s third feature, shot in 35mm, bows this week at the BFI London Film Festival after more than three years in post-production, a delay that prompted speculation over the movie’s health and whereabouts. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Deadline had the first opportunity to sit down with multi-hyphenate Clay and get the inside track on his passion project’s winding road to screen.
“It’s going to be strange putting the film in front of an audience, it has been so long,” the 40 year-old director tells us. Clay, whose previous two feature-length films played at Cannes (The Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael in 2005 and Soi Cowboy in 2008), has spent the best part of a decade working on this feature.
Styled as a “Puritan Western,” Fanny Lye stars Maxine Peake...
- 10/8/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
One of South Korea’s leading classic film stars, she was abducted with her husband to North Korea in 1978.
Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, known as one of South Korea’s leading classic film stars as well as for having been abducted to North Korea with her then ex-husband and director Shin Sang-ok, died at the age of 91 today (April 16).
Yonhap news agency reports that her son, filmmaker Shin Jeong-kyun, confirmed she passed away late this afternoon after going to the hospital for kidney dialysis.
Born November 20, 1926 in Gwang-ju, Gyeong-gi Province, Choi debuted on the stage in 1942 and made her silver...
Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, known as one of South Korea’s leading classic film stars as well as for having been abducted to North Korea with her then ex-husband and director Shin Sang-ok, died at the age of 91 today (April 16).
Yonhap news agency reports that her son, filmmaker Shin Jeong-kyun, confirmed she passed away late this afternoon after going to the hospital for kidney dialysis.
Born November 20, 1926 in Gwang-ju, Gyeong-gi Province, Choi debuted on the stage in 1942 and made her silver...
- 4/16/2018
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
The veteran documentary-maker revisits a romantic interlude during a visit to North Korea in the 1950s, and the result is self-indulgent but undeniably fascinating
We are living through a mini-boom in documentaries about North Korea. Film-makers are getting into Pyongyang to shoot – clandestinely, semi-clandestinely and on various pretexts – those vast statues and eerie cityscapes. Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno suggested the North Koreans’ defensive mindset had something to do with living in the shadow of a volcano, Mount Paektu. Norwegian director Morten Traavik told the extraordinary story of how obscure Slovenian art-rockers Laibach became the first Western band to play North Korea. Alvaro Longorio’s The Propaganda Game argued that North Korea is a zombie state, kept alive by the duplicitous interests of great powers, and Ross Adam and Robert Cannon’s The Lovers and the Despot is about the staggering true story of how in late 70s the...
We are living through a mini-boom in documentaries about North Korea. Film-makers are getting into Pyongyang to shoot – clandestinely, semi-clandestinely and on various pretexts – those vast statues and eerie cityscapes. Werner Herzog’s Into the Inferno suggested the North Koreans’ defensive mindset had something to do with living in the shadow of a volcano, Mount Paektu. Norwegian director Morten Traavik told the extraordinary story of how obscure Slovenian art-rockers Laibach became the first Western band to play North Korea. Alvaro Longorio’s The Propaganda Game argued that North Korea is a zombie state, kept alive by the duplicitous interests of great powers, and Ross Adam and Robert Cannon’s The Lovers and the Despot is about the staggering true story of how in late 70s the...
- 5/21/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Tonight’s edition of The Real Story With Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discovery revolves around the Deltona massacre, also known as the Xbox Murders — in which a woman and five friends were beaten and killed by squatters. As described in the episode, simply called The Deltona Massacre, the four attackers tortured and killed four men, two women and a dog inside the Florida residence in August 2004. The killings made the incident the bloodiest mass murder in the history of Volusia County. It was carried out by Troy Victorino, Robert Cannon, Jerone Hunter and Michael Salas. They had apparently wanted to inflict revenge upon...read more...
- 5/1/2017
- by Kurt Orzeck
- Monsters and Critics
The 27th edition of the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 9 - 20) will present 200 films from 70 countries.
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
- 10/18/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Films about North Korea have an unfair advantage. The country is one of such baffling oddness that films told about it are often either tragic or outrageous, two extremes that make for memorable viewing. On the other hand, the nature of North Korea’s political situation means few films are indeed made about it. Titles like Solrun Hoaas’ Pyongyang Diaries in which the Australian filmmaker ventured to a North Korean film festival and gave us a glimpse of what it means to be a traveller in this land of fake smiles and concrete, and the giddy delight of Anna Broinowski’s Aim High in Creation in which she travels to North Korea to learn how to make propaganda films from the makers themselves.
This year we can add two more entertaining docs. Both are full of surprises that beggar belief at seemingly every turn: The Lovers and the Despot and Under the Sun.
This year we can add two more entertaining docs. Both are full of surprises that beggar belief at seemingly every turn: The Lovers and the Despot and Under the Sun.
- 9/27/2016
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
In The Lovers and the Despot, Ross Adam and Robert Cannan recount the bizarre and fantastic story of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, two darlings of the South Korean film industry kidnapped by Kim-Jong-il to make North Korea a leader in world cinema. CineVue's Maximilian Von Thun spoke to the directorial duo about the making of the film, its unsolved mysteries, and the realities of life in North Korea.
- 9/24/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Kim Jong-il loved movies. In fact, the late North Korean leader loved them so much that he despaired for his country’s sub-par cinematic output. (“Why do our movies have so much crying?” he once asked, without irony.) His solution: kidnap some talented people to make North Korean films look cool. Kim’s victims, director Shin Sang-ok and Shin’s ex-wife, the movie star Choi Eun-hee, were the perfect prey. They had been married and then divorced, had two adopted children, and were enjoying glamorous lives and flourishing film careers. Then in 1978, they disappeared, their story shocking South Korea. Robert Cannan and Ross.
- 9/22/2016
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
★★★☆☆Two subjects one would never expect to encounter in the same film; North Korea and cinephilia. They come together - bizarrely and fascinatingly - in Robert Cannan and Ross Adam's documentary The Lovers and the Despot. In 1978, celebrated South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee visited Hong-Kong to discuss what she believed to be the offer of a highly lucrative role. Instead, Choi was lured to a beach and kidnapped by North Korean agents, who whisked her off to North Korea under orders from then dear leader Kim Jong-il, one of her biggest fans.
- 9/22/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Hollywood is full of unscrupulous, power-mad producers, but none of them could ever hold a candle to Kim Jong-il. Fondly remembered as a sociopathic dictator, the former “Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” was also a notorious cinephile who — even before his father bequeathed him supreme control of the country — actively tried to weaponize motion pictures in order to fortify ideology at home and bolster North Korea’s reputation abroad. He even wrote a book about film theory called “On the Art of the Cinema,” a revolutionary text which offers almost as much insight into movies as “The Art of the Deal” does into business.
Needless to say, when Kim required something to enhance the local industry, people tended to do whatever was necessary in order to make it happen; after all, “You’ll never eat in this town again” is a particularly dire threat in...
Needless to say, when Kim required something to enhance the local industry, people tended to do whatever was necessary in order to make it happen; after all, “You’ll never eat in this town again” is a particularly dire threat in...
- 9/21/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Called one of international cinema’s greatest love stories – and wildest – “The Lovers and the Despot” tells the true-life story of how South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee, met and fell in love in post-war Korea. After a successful film career, they were both kidnapped by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.
A big fan of the duo and obsessed with movies, Jong-il forced them to create features for his pleasure and to improve North Korea’s film business. During their imprisonment, Choi and Shin gained the dictator’s trust and made 17 feature films, all while planning their escape.
“Kim laughed out loud like a triumphant general,” says Choi in the trailer about her experience. “Like a puppet, I was told what to eat, I was even told what to wear.”
Read More: ‘The Lovers and the Despot’ Exclusive Poster: New Doc Follows Director-Actress Couple Kidnapped By Kim Jong-il...
A big fan of the duo and obsessed with movies, Jong-il forced them to create features for his pleasure and to improve North Korea’s film business. During their imprisonment, Choi and Shin gained the dictator’s trust and made 17 feature films, all while planning their escape.
“Kim laughed out loud like a triumphant general,” says Choi in the trailer about her experience. “Like a puppet, I was told what to eat, I was even told what to wear.”
Read More: ‘The Lovers and the Despot’ Exclusive Poster: New Doc Follows Director-Actress Couple Kidnapped By Kim Jong-il...
- 6/17/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Sometimes, stories of love, abduction, and espionage don’t have to be concocted by a screenwriter because they already exist. Directors Ross Adam and Robert Cannan (who made his debut in 2008 with Three Miles North of Molkom) have teamed up for the documentary The Lovers and the Despot, a bizarre story about an actress and director who are taken hostage by Kim Jong-il. Looking equal parts a tale of undying love and espionage thriller, the first trailer promises a story that is stranger than fiction.
Unfortunately, the film itself falls back onto tired documentary formulas, as we said in our review, “The doc still relies on a parade of basic interviews to tell its story, and presents them without an iota of imagination. Why have so few realized that this is the essence of telling instead of showing, that it is awfully difficult to make dramatically engaging, much less satisfying?...
Unfortunately, the film itself falls back onto tired documentary formulas, as we said in our review, “The doc still relies on a parade of basic interviews to tell its story, and presents them without an iota of imagination. Why have so few realized that this is the essence of telling instead of showing, that it is awfully difficult to make dramatically engaging, much less satisfying?...
- 6/17/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Highlights include the UK premiere of Finding Dory and the world premiere of the 4K restoration of Highlander [pictured].Scroll down for competition titles
The line-up for the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been unveiled this morning by artistic director Mark Adams.
This year’s Eiff (June 15-26) will comprise a total 161 features from 46 countries including: 22 world premieres, five international premieres, 17 European premieres and 85 UK premieres.
Highlights include the UK premiere of Disney-Pixar animation Finding Dory, in-person events that include Us indie filmmaker Kevin Smith and Sex & The City actress Kim Cattrall, and the opening and closing gala world premieres of the previously announced Tommy’s Honour and Whisky Galore!.
Old classics will be re-imagined with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performing the score to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial live at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and the world premiere of the newly-restored 4K version of Highlander, celebrating its 30th anniversary with star Clancy Brown in attendance.
The...
The line-up for the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been unveiled this morning by artistic director Mark Adams.
This year’s Eiff (June 15-26) will comprise a total 161 features from 46 countries including: 22 world premieres, five international premieres, 17 European premieres and 85 UK premieres.
Highlights include the UK premiere of Disney-Pixar animation Finding Dory, in-person events that include Us indie filmmaker Kevin Smith and Sex & The City actress Kim Cattrall, and the opening and closing gala world premieres of the previously announced Tommy’s Honour and Whisky Galore!.
Old classics will be re-imagined with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performing the score to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial live at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and the world premiere of the newly-restored 4K version of Highlander, celebrating its 30th anniversary with star Clancy Brown in attendance.
The...
- 5/25/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The biggest European film festival excludsively dealing with Asian cinema will open on Friday the 22nd of April with the South Korean blockbuster “The Tiger” and close with the Hong Kong thriller “The Bodyguard” on Saturday the 30th with the presence of the legendary Sammo Hung. Legendary director Johnnie To and composer Lim Giong will also attend.
The festival will feature 72 films in the official selection (5 world premieres) a retrospective of Japanese science fiction, the restored 4K versions of four Bruce Lee masterpieces and over 100 events organized around the city.
The line up of 2016 includes the followings:
Competition Section
China (10)
Chongqing Hot Pot, Yang Qing, crime-action- hipster noir, China 2016, European Premiere
The Dead End, Cao Baoping, cop-loves-cop thriller, China 2015, European Premiere
Destiny, Zhang Wei, human drama, China 2016, World Premiere
The Left Ear, Alec Su, youth drama, China 2015, European Premiere
Lost in Hong Kong, Xu Zheng, clash of cultures comedy, China 2015, International Festival Premiere
The Master,...
The festival will feature 72 films in the official selection (5 world premieres) a retrospective of Japanese science fiction, the restored 4K versions of four Bruce Lee masterpieces and over 100 events organized around the city.
The line up of 2016 includes the followings:
Competition Section
China (10)
Chongqing Hot Pot, Yang Qing, crime-action- hipster noir, China 2016, European Premiere
The Dead End, Cao Baoping, cop-loves-cop thriller, China 2015, European Premiere
Destiny, Zhang Wei, human drama, China 2016, World Premiere
The Left Ear, Alec Su, youth drama, China 2015, European Premiere
Lost in Hong Kong, Xu Zheng, clash of cultures comedy, China 2015, International Festival Premiere
The Master,...
- 4/21/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The 18th Feff will feature 50 titles in competition, including Lost In Hong Kong, Mojin: The Lost Legend and Ip Man 3, as well as a new Focus Asia market.Scroll down for full programme
The Udine Far East Film Festival (Feff) has revealed the programme for its 18th edition (April 22-30), featuring a myriad of high-profile Asian titles from the past year.
The event will close with the European premiere of director and actor Sammo Hung’s latest feature, The Bodyguard [pictured], with Hung due to be in attendance.
Hung’s appearance marks the second year in a row that the festival has played host to a Hong Kong film icon, after Jackie Chan attended last year’s edition.
The Bodyguard (also known as My Beloved Bodyguard) has grossed close to $50m since its release in China on April 1. The film stars Sammo Hung as a retired bodyguard who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young girl.
The...
The Udine Far East Film Festival (Feff) has revealed the programme for its 18th edition (April 22-30), featuring a myriad of high-profile Asian titles from the past year.
The event will close with the European premiere of director and actor Sammo Hung’s latest feature, The Bodyguard [pictured], with Hung due to be in attendance.
Hung’s appearance marks the second year in a row that the festival has played host to a Hong Kong film icon, after Jackie Chan attended last year’s edition.
The Bodyguard (also known as My Beloved Bodyguard) has grossed close to $50m since its release in China on April 1. The film stars Sammo Hung as a retired bodyguard who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young girl.
The...
- 4/13/2016
- ScreenDaily
It’s astonishing that the story of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee has not made it onto movie screens before now, whether as a documentary or a work of fiction. In 1978 Shin, a South Korean film director, and Choi, his actress ex-wife, were both kidnapped by North Korean agents and taken to Pyongyang on the direct order of Kim Jong-il. The brutal dictator was also a dedicated cinephile, and he was displeased with the quality of his state’s film industry. For a real-life supervillain, the obvious solution to such a problem was to abduct some outside talent and put it to work.
Shin and Choi spent years being imprisoned and constantly surveilled, ultimately making films for Kim and even falling back in love before making a dramatic vehicular escape in Austria. Every single element reads like it sprung from the mind of a Hollywood hack. And yet it all happened.
Shin and Choi spent years being imprisoned and constantly surveilled, ultimately making films for Kim and even falling back in love before making a dramatic vehicular escape in Austria. Every single element reads like it sprung from the mind of a Hollywood hack. And yet it all happened.
- 1/30/2016
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
There’s an incredible story somewhere in this tale of how an actor and her husband were forced to make films for the late dictator, but this documentary buries it by way of over-measured effects and chronic pussy-footing
There’s not a lot that’s warm and fuzzy about the late dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il. One factoid that floats around is that “the guy loved movies!” As the documentary The Lovers and the Despot shows, even this is tinged with darkness.
Built around a lengthy interview with former film star Choi Eun-hee, directors Robert Cannan and Ross Adam tell the strange tale of how Choi, a South Korean, and her ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, were kidnapped by Kim’s agents and pressed into servitude, with the order to make North Korea’s film output great.
Continue reading...
There’s not a lot that’s warm and fuzzy about the late dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il. One factoid that floats around is that “the guy loved movies!” As the documentary The Lovers and the Despot shows, even this is tinged with darkness.
Built around a lengthy interview with former film star Choi Eun-hee, directors Robert Cannan and Ross Adam tell the strange tale of how Choi, a South Korean, and her ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, were kidnapped by Kim’s agents and pressed into servitude, with the order to make North Korea’s film output great.
Continue reading...
- 1/24/2016
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
There’s an incredible story somewhere in this tale of how an actor and her husband were forced to make films for the late dictator, but this documentary buries it by way of over-measured effects and chronic pussy-footing
There’s not a lot that’s warm and fuzzy about the late dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il. One factoid that floats around is that “the guy loved movies!” As the documentary The Lovers and the Despot shows, even this is tinged with darkness.
Built around a lengthy interview with former film star Choi Eun-hee, directors Robert Cannan and Ross Adam tell the strange tale of how Choi, a South Korean, and her ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, were kidnapped by Kim’s agents and pressed into servitude, with the order to make North Korea’s film output great.
Continue reading...
There’s not a lot that’s warm and fuzzy about the late dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il. One factoid that floats around is that “the guy loved movies!” As the documentary The Lovers and the Despot shows, even this is tinged with darkness.
Built around a lengthy interview with former film star Choi Eun-hee, directors Robert Cannan and Ross Adam tell the strange tale of how Choi, a South Korean, and her ex-husband, director Shin Sang-ok, were kidnapped by Kim’s agents and pressed into servitude, with the order to make North Korea’s film output great.
Continue reading...
- 1/24/2016
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
Perhaps one of the last great, and truly bizarre, propaganda machines on the planet, the North Korean government has become expert at attempting to sell itself as bigger, more threatening, and as culturally advanced as the world around it. However, that bluster has also seen the leadership make desperate moves, and the upcoming documentary “The Lovers And The Despot,” premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, dives into a truly odd portion of the country’s history. Read More: The 30 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Sundance Film Festival Directed by Ross Adam and Robert Cannan, the film tells the story of South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and leading actress Choi Eun-hee, both of whom wind up imprisoned and kidnapped separately by North Korea, and reunited by Kim Jong-il, who has another plan up his sleeve for them… Here’s the official synopsis: In the aftermath of the Korean War, ambitious young...
- 1/20/2016
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
My second trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah promises to be much colder, though no less exciting than last year’s unseasonably-warm introduction. You could barely hear yourself think over the constant roar of snow cannons trying to preserve the anemic ski slopes. This year finds a return to freezing temperatures and the emergence of female directors. Over 40 feature films are helmed by women.
My personal approach to this year’s festival will be to focus on diversity. Rather than plunging into one particular Section, I will sample generously from each, with no regard to the obscurity of the title. Last year’s Next Section, for example, produce three of my favorite films of 2015, including H., James White, and Tangerine. With that in mind, here are my 10 most anticipated films from Sundance 2016.
The Lure
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Section: World Dramatic Competition
What to make of a film that promises mermaids,...
My personal approach to this year’s festival will be to focus on diversity. Rather than plunging into one particular Section, I will sample generously from each, with no regard to the obscurity of the title. Last year’s Next Section, for example, produce three of my favorite films of 2015, including H., James White, and Tangerine. With that in mind, here are my 10 most anticipated films from Sundance 2016.
The Lure
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Section: World Dramatic Competition
What to make of a film that promises mermaids,...
- 1/14/2016
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
Exclusive: Dan Mazer, all-around comic whiz and long-time Sacha Baron Cohen collaborator, has come on-board to co-write, direct and exec produce Three Miles North Of Molkom for Euro film major StudioCanal. Graham Broadbent and Czernin’s Blueprint Pictures are producing. Also writing the script is Jamie Minoprio & Jonathan Stern. StudioCanal will finance and distribute in its territories and handle international sales. The feature project is inspired by Robert Cannan and…...
- 1/11/2016
- Deadline
Kate Plays ChristineThe lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 21 -31, has been announced.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITIONAs You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, USA): As You Are is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation. Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton, Amandla Stenberg, John Scurti, Scott Cohen, Mary Stuart Masterson. World Premiere The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, USA): Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Gabrielle Union, Mark Boone Jr. World PremiereChristine (Antonio Campos,...
- 12/7/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Sundance Film institute has released the line-up of film for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Going to Sundance is one of my favorite events of the year. I love going because you never know what kind of movies you're going to see. Sometimes they are great films that amaze and entertain, other times they completely suck ass, but that's all part of the fun of going to the festival. It's an awesome experience for any hardcore movie geek, and if you ever get a chance to go, you need to.
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
The event takes place in Park City, Utah next year from January 21st to the 31st. It looks like there's a great line-up of movies at next year's event. My favorite portion of the event is the Midnight section because it deals more with geeky genre type movies, but I also enjoy the various sections of other line-ups.
Some of...
- 12/6/2015
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
In 2015 it was Chad Gracia’s The Russian Woodpecker that walked away with the top World Cinema honors landing the coveted World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. In this year’s twelve pack we have Turtles Can Fly director Bahman Ghobadi making a more docu carbon footprint with A Flag Without a Country, we have The Last King of Scotland‘s Kevin Macdonald and his fiction-non-fiction balancing act continue with Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang) and finally a Sundance Lab participant we have the crazy kidnapping/escape story of The Lovers and the Despot by docu-helmers Robert Cannan and Ross Adam. Here is the eleven of the future dozen.
All These Sleepless Nights / Poland (Director: Michal Marczak) — What does it mean to be truly awake in a world that seems satisfied to be asleep? Kris and Michal push their experiences of life and love to a breaking point...
All These Sleepless Nights / Poland (Director: Michal Marczak) — What does it mean to be truly awake in a world that seems satisfied to be asleep? Kris and Michal push their experiences of life and love to a breaking point...
- 12/2/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Titles include Tallulah starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, and Chad Hartigan’s Morris From America (pictured); Next strand also announced.Scroll down for full list
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.
Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.
Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.
The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...
- 12/2/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The fall festival rush is upon us. Locarno is currently ramping up. Venice has released their line-up and Thom Powers and the Toronto International Film Festival team have dropped a bomb with a previously unannounced new feature from powerhouse docu-provocateur Michael Moore. It is truly a miracle that the production of a film such as Moore’s upcoming Where To Invade Next (see still above) managed to go completely undetected by the filmmaking community until it was literally announced to world premiere at one of the largest film festivals in the world. Programmed as a one of the key films in the Special Presentations section at Tiff, the film sees Moore telling “the Pentagon to ‘stand down’ — he will do the invading for America from now on.” Also announced to premiere at Tiff was Avi Lewis’ This Changes Everything, which has slowly been rising up this list, as well as...
- 8/7/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It’s been a surprisingly interesting month of moving and shaking in terms of doc development. Just a month after making his first public funding pitch at Toronto’s Hot Docs Forum, legendary doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman took to Kickstarter to help cover the remaining expenses for his 40th feature film In Jackson Heights (see the film’s first trailer below). Unrelentingly rigorous in his determination to capture the American institutional landscape on film, his latest continues down this thematic rabbit hole, taking on the immensely diverse New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights as his latest subject. According to the Kickstarter page, Wiseman is currently editing the 120 hours of rushes he shot with hopes of having the film ready for a fall festival premiere (my guess would be Tiff, where both National Gallery and At Berkeley made their North American debut), though he’s currently quite a ways away from his $75,000 goal.
- 7/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Well folks, after a rather long and brutal winter (at least for me here in Buffalo), we are finally heading into the wonderful warmth of summer, but with that blast of sunshine and steamy humidity comes the mid-year drought of major film fests. After the Sheffield Doc/Fest concludes on June 10th and AFI Docs wraps on June 21st, we likely won’t see any major influx in our charts until Locarno, Venice, Telluride and Tiff announce their line-ups in rapid succession. In the meantime, we can look forward to the intriguing onslaught of films making their debut in Sheffield, including Brian Hill’s intriguing examination of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, The Confessions of Thomas Quick, and Sean McAllister’s film for which he himself was jailed in the process of making, A Syrian Love Story, the only two films world premiering in the festival’s main competition.
- 6/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
It should come as no surprise that Cannes Film Festival will play host to Kent Jones’s doc on the touchstone of filmmaking interview tomes, Hitchcock/Truffaut (see photo above). The film has been floating near the top of this list since it was announced last year as in development, while Jones himself has a history with the festival, having co-written both Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. and Martin Scorsese’s My Voyage To Italy, both of which premiered in Cannes. The film is scheduled to screen as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar alongside the likes of Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, which will play as part of the festival’s tribute to the late starlet, and Gabriel Clarke and John McKenna’s Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (see trailer below). As someone who grew up watching road races with my dad in Watkins Glen,...
- 5/1/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...
- 11/27/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, The Lovers and the Despot and Irene’s Ghost to receive funding following Sheffield Doc/Fest pitching session.
Three feature documentaries are to receive support from the BFI Film Fund following a pitching session at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
The three projects are Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, a journey into the private and public worlds of Grace Jones, Robert Cannan & Ross Adam’s The Lovers and the Despot, about a celebrity director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films, and Iain Cunningham’s Irene’s Ghost, chronicling the journey of the film-maker to build a picture of the mother he never knew.
Lizzie Francke, BFI Film Fund senior executive, commented: “We were blown away by the quality of all the projects selected to pitch at the Sheffield Doc/Fest session. The pitch session provides a valuable opportunity to pinpoint...
Three feature documentaries are to receive support from the BFI Film Fund following a pitching session at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
The three projects are Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones - The Musical of My Life, a journey into the private and public worlds of Grace Jones, Robert Cannan & Ross Adam’s The Lovers and the Despot, about a celebrity director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films, and Iain Cunningham’s Irene’s Ghost, chronicling the journey of the film-maker to build a picture of the mother he never knew.
Lizzie Francke, BFI Film Fund senior executive, commented: “We were blown away by the quality of all the projects selected to pitch at the Sheffield Doc/Fest session. The pitch session provides a valuable opportunity to pinpoint...
- 6/11/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
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