Month: July 2017

Interview with Festival Director Cristyn Steward (Columbus Black International Film Festival)

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The primary objective of the Columbus Black International Film Festival is to showcase Black filmmakers locally, nationally and internationally, while highlighting a spectrum of stories told by people of the African diaspora.

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Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Cristyn Steward: The Columbus Black International Film Festival (CBIFF) is a movement that centers positive media representations of African American and African Diaspora communities. It provides a unique platform in Columbus, Ohio, to showcase films that are often not at the forefront of the mainstream film festival circuit, especially at the local level. This festival’s goal is to show the value of independent black cinema and highlight the importance of black filmmakers being in charge of their own narratives.

What would you expect to experience if you attend the festival this year (2017)?

In its inaugural year, the festival is setting the stage for a culture shift in Columbus. There will be three days of entertainment featuring 28 films from around the world. There will also be many moments for black filmmakers to network and build community. Festival workshops will also be featured to engage new and intermediate filmmakers to cultivate local talent.

What are the qualifications for the selected films?

This mission of the Columbus Black International Film Festival is to unapologetically uplift media representations of the African American and African Diaspora experience. All films submitted to the festival were required to feature black filmmakers in front of and behind the camera. A jury featuring black filmmakers, business owners and media critics rated the films based on creativity, direction, cinematography and acting, among other things. Films were also required to feature a valuable story uplifting the African American and/or the African Diaspora experience.

Do you think that some films really don’t get a fair shake from film festivals? And if so, why?

Black voices have a long documented history of being ignored or suppressed in mainstream film. Many films that feature marginalized communities aren’t given their just due. There are many reason why this is. Our society has been built on structural oppression and the idea of uplifting certain voices over others. This of course also plays out in the film industry as well. Luckily there are many niche festivals that now uplift marginalized voices, from the American Black Film Festival in Miami to the OUTFest Film Festival in Los Angeles. The Columbus Black International Film Festival is simply creating space to fill a similar void in Columbus, Ohio.

What motivates you and your team to do this festival?

The motivation for the CBIFF Board of Directors and Staff to do this festival is to start a movement and uplift black filmmakers in Columbus in an unprecedented way. My personal passion comes from how beneficial this film festival can be to the City of Columbus, its artists and its filmmakers. Nothing like this has been done before and we want to make sure we create something that is truly lasting.

How has your FilmFreeway submission process been?

I am a strong advocate of FilmFreeway. It is very easy to navigate and they have created new additions to make film festival management much more convenient and efficient. I think it was because of FilmFreeway and its reputation among filmmakers that we were able to garner 81 submissions in our first year.

Where do you see the festival by 2020?

Once the festival makes it to its fourth year in 2020, we hope that it will become a staple statewide and nationally for black film. We hope to have doubled our submissions by then and will have expanded the festival to a week-long series of showcases and workshops hosted in various neighborhoods throughout the city.

What film have you seen the most times in your life?

Being a film nerd, I don’t think there is just one, but I would have to say “Crooklyn” or “Baby Boy.” During my “starving artist” period as a film student living in San Francisco without cable, I couldn’t stop watching these movies.

In one sentence, what makes a great film?

It’s quite simple, a valuable story that universally touches everyone who watches it. It’s simply put, but very hard for even the best filmmakers to accomplish.

How is the film scene in your city?

Columbus will surprise you. It has a growing film scene with many new filmmakers coming out of The Film Studies Program at The Ohio State University and the Columbus College of Art and Design who are looking to build more opportunities locally. There are several popular film festivals here, including the Columbus International Film + Video Festival, the LGBT Fest and the Columbus Jewish Film Festival. There are also several filmmakers that have set up successful production companies, including our 2017 Keynote Speaker, Mark A. Cummings’ Awalkonwater Entertainment, which has sold out several theaters in the city for his films because of his unique approach to creating universally comedic films that feature black actors and filmmakers, and expertly highlights the black experience.

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Interviewer Matthew Toffolo is currently the CEO of the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival. The festival that showcases 20-50 screenplay and story readings performed by professional actors every month. And the FEEDBACK Monthly Festival held in downtown Toronto, and Los Angeles at least 2 times a month. Go to www.wildsound.ca for more information and to submit your work to the festival.

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Netflix Original Film Review: OKJA (South Korea/USA 2017) ****

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

okja.jpgMeet Mija, a young girl who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend – a massive animal named Okja.

Director: Joon-ho Bong (as Bong Joon Ho)
Writers: Joon-ho Bong (screenplay) (as Bong Joon Ho), Jon Ronson (screenplay)
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Seo-Hyun Ahn

Review by Gilbert Seah

Ever since films like LASSIE COME HOME enchanted audiences, a lost pet reuniting
with its owner has been a favourite theme. In the new Netflix original movie OKJA, director Bong (MEMORIES OF MURDER, MOTHER, SNOWPIERCER) has broken all rules with the darkest kids movie since BABE IN THE CITY.

OKJA courted controversy at Cannes when it was argued that films like this Netflix original not slated for theatre release be disqualified from competition. Surprisingly, OKJA opens at the TIFF BELL Lightbox same day it opened on Netflix last week.

OKJA is a tale of a girl and her lost pet. The only difference is that the pet is a super pig named OKJA. For 10 idyllic years, young Mija has been caretaker and constant companion to Okja – a massive animal and an even bigger friend – at her home in the mountains of South Korea. But that changes when family-owned, multinational conglomerate Mirando Corporation takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where an image-obsessed and self-promoting CEO has big plans for Mija’s dearest friend. With no particular plan but single-minded in intent, Mija sets out on a rescue mission. She encounters the Animal Rights group helping her.

The film can be divided into three parts. The first and most family friendly shows Mija in the Korean countryside playing with OKJA. Bong includes a suspenseful sequence where OKJA saves Mija’s life. The second occurs after OKJA is abducted to Seoul. This is the funniest segment which shows how an individual can infiltrate a big conglomerate armed with a strong will never to give up. No glass doors or metal walls can stop Mija. It is hilarious watching the little girl pursued by security calling her ‘a little shit’. The third and darkest segment is OKJA ‘s rescue from New York City. Mija sees an abattoir complete with pig carcasses, something really unpleasant to even an adult. Bong does not shy away from violence. The animal rights group are the main target for the violence as many of them are beaten with batons and kicked on the ground.

Mija is played convincingly by South Korean child actress An Seo-hyun. Hollywood stars Jake Gyllenhaal has a field day with his over the top performance as TV personality Dr. Johnny. Tilda Swindon plays the villain of the piece, Lucy Mirando who wants to put OKJA on the dinner table. Paul Dano is equally winning as the animal rights group leader who aids Mija rescue her pig.

The question is why Netflix financed a film like OKJA. It is reported that most studios would stay away from films that do not fit a certain mould, like the recent Brad Pitt Netflix movie WAR MACHINE. It is clear the reason studios might be afraid of the adult dark tale of OKJA with its dose of violence and company satire. But thanks to Netflix, Bongs’s OKJA got to be made. OKJA is a brilliant dark and original piece of filmmaking complete with excellent special effects. Highly recommended!

Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AfAIP7dqnm8

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Film Review: PAST LIFE (Israel/Poland 2016)***

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

past life.jpgPast Life tracks the daring late 1970s odyssey of two sisters – an introverted classical musician and a rambunctious scandal sheet journalist – as they unravel a shocking wartime mystery that has cast a dark shadow on their entire lives.

Director: Avi Nesher
Writer: Avi Nesher
Stars: Nelly Tagar, Joy Rieger, Doron Tavory

Review by Gilbert Seah

 Director Avi Nesher (THE MATCHMAKER, TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD) sets the stage in the film’s first scene when Sephi (Joy Rieger) performs (she is a tenor in a choir) in Berlin. An elderly woman ( Katarzyna Gniewkowska) reproaches her after, in public, accusing her of being a murderer’s daughter.

Back home, she relates the incident to her feisty sister, Nana (Nelly Tatar), a writer for her husband’s journal and she insists of finding the truth of what happened in the war with their father, Dr. Baruch Milch (Doron Tavory).

The film is a period piece, beautifully mounted with vintage cars and sets and set in the year 1977. It is a spellbinding tale that tracks the trans-European odyssey of two sisters as they try to unravel a wartime mystery that has cast a shadow on their lives. Sephi is an aspiring composer, determined to succeed in the male-dominated classical music world. Her older sister Nana is a scandal-sheet journalist and aspiring playwright. The daughters of Holocaust survivors, the two are bent on uncovering the truth behind a dark family secret.

The entire film hinges on what the secret is. To keep the film interesting from start to end, Nesher inserts a rift between the siblings.

Sephi is content not to unravel the skeleton in the closet while Nana is the opposite. Nesher paints a more interesting character in Nana as she is one hot female, always searching, always wanting the truth which damages her relationship with her husband who owns the journal she writes for. To make matters worse, Nana believes that he flirts with Sephi. This makes the story more down to earth though the tension feels forced at times. Nesher also inserts a segment that involves the timely discovery of the father’s document in the archives just before the starting of a concert. This tactic is obvious to heighten tension though it compromises the authenticity of the story.

Nesher’s film is also clearly devoid of humour. The light touches in dialogue come mainly from Nana’s lines, especially the ones in the hospital or seeing the doctor. But rather than being funny, they come across as cynicism.

Neshe’s strength are in the dramatic parts. The film’s best segment is unexpectedly the meeting in the park at night of the girl’s mother (Evgenia Dodina) and the elderly woman at the concert at the film’s beginning. The mother’s begging of her forgiveness for her and her husband is both moving and riveting.

The film was inspired by Dr. Baruch Milch’s book Can Heaven Be Void?, which is based on a diary he kept during WWII, and the extremely difficult decisions he had to face during the times. Nana in real life edited the father’s book while the sister Sephi composed the orchestral piece to exorcise their demons.

Nesher is himself a Holocaust survivor, so making this film must be a story he wanted to tell from his heart. PAST LIFE eventually turns out to be a powerful film about the importance of forgiveness.

Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2nJsh8BHMQ0

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Film Review: THE JOURNEY (UK 2016) ***

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

THE JOURNEY.jpgA fictional account of the extraordinary story of two implacable enemies in Northern Ireland.

Director: Nick Hamm
Writer: Colin Bateman
Stars: Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, John Hurt

Review by Gilbert Seah
 
Who would think that former enemies Rev. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness nicknamed ‘The Chuckling Brothers’ would remain friends for life after their meeting that finally resulted in the long awaited peace in Northern Ireland. No more bombings! No more bullets! Director Hamm underlines the violence as the film starts.

Nick Hamm’s THE JOURNEY is a dramatization about how these two two political opposites came together to change the course of history – an event that resulted in the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin (the political party of the Irish Republican Army) signing a 2006 agreement, bringing peace to Northern Ireland after nearly 40 years of violence.

Hamm’s journey is basically a two-handler, performed by two actors, one known for his humour the Irish Colm Meaney (THE SNAPPER) and the other for his dead seriousness, Timothy Spall (the Mike Leigh films). Most of the scenes involve banter between both of them. The film imagines a trip in a minivan where the two sort out their differences, come to an agreement and finally bring peace to the different groups. It is a real event though that minivan trip was imagined, as written in the script by Colin Bateman. The real trip took pace in an airplane. But the facts remain true. The reason the film changed the venue is not given but the change offers a visual treat, with lush greenery and rocky shores seen through rain-splattered windows. The drive was to the airport in Glasgow, Scotland.

Spall and Meaney are a pleasure to watch. Other British actors in the film include the late John Hurt (THE ELEPHANT MAN) as M15 boss Harry Patterson and Toby Stephens as Prime Minister Toby Stephens. Freddie Highmore has a small but mischievous role as the chauffeur, a British agent in disguise.

Director Hamm takes his time to set up the stage for the action when the two are finally the car and talking. The chauffeur, through his head set, is prompted to instigate the conversation. It is comical to see two grown men behaving just like children, fighting and wanting their own way. The conversation starts when McGuinness’s mobile is unable to get a signal but Paisley refuses to lend his. Bateman’s script, which imagines the actual conversation involves lots of funnily one-liners and rebuttals. The script is also believable in the way the ice is broken and the two eventually get talking. At the same time, hatred, humour and hard-nosed stubbornness are on full display.

They is a little film that documents a real life-changing event through imagined conversation. It is an entertaining exercise that also reflects strength overcoming the weaknesses of the human character in the strife for the good of mankind. But at the time of writing this review, problems are beginning to resurface again as observed in the recent news.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc3jqf4cdfc

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Film Review: 13 MINUTES (Germany 2015) ****

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

13 minutes.jpgIn November 1939, Georg Elser’s attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler fails, and he is arrested. During his confinement, he recalls the events leading up to his plot and his reasons for deciding to take such drastic action.

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Writers: Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer (screenplay), Fred Breinersdorfer (screenplay)
Stars: Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaußner

Review by Gilbert Seah

A reenacted and partially imagined account of a true event, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 13 MINUTES tells of the attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler in 1939 by the planting of a bomb inside a column of a Munich bierkeller by German Georg Elser (Christian Friedel). The bomb detonates but misses killing Adolf Hitler, the German leader, by just 13 minutes.

Director Hirschniegel broke into the world film scene with DAS EXPERIMENT and made more headlines with his Oscar nominated Best Foreign Film DOWNFALL. 13 MINUTES lost to LABYRINTH OF LIES that year for Germany’s nominated entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar though 13 MINUTES is clearly the better film.
Watching the film, one would eventually wonder how Elser’s story came into fruition. It is clear from the film that Elser was arrested and told part of his story. Also, the explosion of the Munich bierkeller did occur and Elser confessed to the Nazis.

The film begins with Elser’s planting of the bomb and his arrest following. With maps of the building on him (why the hell would he not dispose of them after is the big question), the German Security Services link him to the assassination attempt. They believe Elser must have been working with a group of conspirators and torture him for information. They also round up members of his family from his home village, including Else Härlen (Katharina Schüttler), a married woman Elser has been seeing.

When Else Härlen is brought before Elser, he fears for her life and tells the police chief Arthur Nebe (Burghart Klaußner) and Gestapo head Heinrich Müller (Johann von Bülow) that he acted alone, procuring detonators from a steel factory and stealing dynamite from a nearby quarry. All these events including how he came to despise the Nazis are shown in the film through flashbacks when Elser is interrogated in prison. He outlines the two clockwork mechanisms he built to time the explosion and hopefully kill Hitler as he made a speech.

Still believing Elser could not have attempted the assassination alone he once more tortured using drugs (Pervitin) but with the same result as before – he confirms acted alone. The audience is also led to believe this fact, unlikely as it seems that one person from a village could be so tech savvy.

Elser is beautifully played by Christian Friedel, displaying a countryside charm and one that would change character from innocent bystander to convicted assassin.

This is not the first film made on an attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler. The Tom Cruise vehicle VALKYRIE immediately comes to mind, though that was supposedly masterminded by other German generals in 1944. But Hirschbiegel’s 13 MINUTES hits closer to home with a protagonist the audience can feel for.

Sadly, the audience learns at the end of the film that Elser was kept in concentration camps for five years and was shot only a few days before American forces liberated Dachau concentration camp (a few weeks before the war ended). Looks like time was never on the side of poor Elser.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SsIsCWXtV4
 

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com