Month: November 2024

Today’s Testimonial: LA/Toronto DOCUMENTARY Film Festival

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“This festival was a unique experience for me because of the provided audience feedback and the close and careful attention that was paid to the entry and the treatment it received. The communication was great and that feedback aspect is amazing and helpful for your growth as a filmmaker. Total class act.”

Watch Today’s Film Festival: Winning FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: THE INVISIBLE ONES.

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As one of the first women to join Hamburg’s homicide squad in the 1990s, Marianne Atzeroth-Freier, almost single-handedly, convicted the „acid barrel murderer“, who went down in German history as one of the most horrific murder cases.

During a court break in an abduction case, Marianne Atzeroth-Freier is approached by an older woman, whose daughter went missing. She feels obliged to help her. During her search for the missing daughter, she repeatedly encounters inconsistencies and resistance within the male driven police system.

As she received no support from her colleagues or the head of her department, she was forced to investigate in her private time.

Through her meticulous way of investigating, her empathy and ability to listen to the relatives of the victims, Marianne Atzeroth-Freier was able to break through the dominance of cruelty.

She was able to uncover the terrible deeds, finds the missing victims, giving certainty to the relatives and finally convicts the murderer Lutz R. Marianne Atzeroth-Freier never received recognition for this during her time in service.

Director Biography – Matthias Freier

Matthias Freier studied philosophy and film after graduation. In the middle of the 90ies, he moved to New York City for 6 years and visited the New York Film Academy. His short film “Fishmind” was shown at film festivals. Back in Germany, he directed over 50 music videos and quickly became one of the most appreciated directors in his field.

The experience from the world of music videos and image films, helped him into directing commercials and he has enriched the advertising industry with honest and memorable pictures since.

The Toyota campaign “Start your impossible” for which he directed three films, won the Golden Lion in Cannes in 2018.

In 2022 he finished the short film „Hauskeeper“ which ran on many festivals.

The documentary film “The Invisible Ones” is a long-awaited and personal project that Matthias has been working towards for the last 20 years. The film tells the story of his stepmother Marianne Atzeroth-Freier. She was one of the first women to join the Hamburg homicide squad. In the 80s and 90s, her empathy towards the victims and her criminalistic instinct played a major role in catching one of the worst serial killers in Hamburg’s history.

Awards: 2012 Cannes Gold for Corporate Media TV , Quadriga, Transform. 2013 Silver Effi for the films Deutsche Bahn: Kein Job wie jeder andere and Telekom: Stakkato. 2018 Golden Lion Cannes for the Toyota “Start your Impossible” campaign.

Happy Birthday Ed Harris

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Has been married to Amy Madigan since 1983.

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QUOTES:

  • I was very happy playing sports until I was 18, and then there were a couple of years where I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I saw some theatre in Oklahoma and made a decision to learn about acting. It wasn’t really with an eye on making films or even making a living; it was really about trying to focus on something that had the potential of taking the place of sport in terms of something to penetrate.
  • I don’t intentionally choose movies that aren’t going to be successful commercially. It just happens that the most interesting scripts I read are outside the mainstream. I like characters who have an edge to them, who are going to do something unexpected.
  • Acting is not a competition to me. One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.
  • [on Senator John McCain, whom he portrayed in Game Change (2012)] He’s a man with a tremendous sense of honor and duty. And I think, when he decided to go into politics, his ambition and his ego were in constant conflict with this sense of honor and duty and patriotism.

Happy Birthday Aimee Garcia

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Watch the best of Films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born

November 28 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

QUOTES:

  • When I was a kid, it wasn’t very often that I could go to the movies and see an entire movie carried on the shoulders of someone who looked like me.
  • It’s so exciting to headline a film. It’s not every day you see a Latina carrying a full-length feature.
  • I have been a fan of Dexter (2006) since the pilot. Once I got the audition I just squealed, and you would have thought I just won $45 million.
  • I’m dating a very high-maintenance career.
  • To me, acting is like tennis. You’re only as good as the person you’re playing with, so if you’re playing with Michael C. Hall, what do you have to worry about?
  • Latinos are the fastest growing minority, and we’re obviously not going anywhere. We’re extremely loyal as a people, and I think Hollywood is starting to recognize that. It’s very rare for a major studio to nationally distribute a film with Latino talent, not only in front of the camera, but also behind the camera.

Happy Birthday Alfonso Cuarón

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QUOTES:

  • What’s the point of being an Australian guy traveling through India if you are going to go to India to meet other Australians?
  • I believe that human beings are born first and given passports later. I’m really thankful for my journey. And it’s a journey I didn’t design.
  • The only reason you make a movie is not to make or set out to do a good or a bad movie, it’s just to see what you learn for the next one.
  • Most of cinema nowadays is about shooting a lot and then figuring it out in the cutting room, rather than seeing your film it the head and see what’s in your head and not shoot what you have already envisioned in your head.
  • When people see some depth you never intended that’s really cool, you just put on a face and say “Oh, yeah, that was deep”. What are you going to say? I’m just a moron with luck?
  • When you work with kids, people tell you to be very delicate, but that’s the last thing you should do with kids. They feel patronized if you’re like that. They just want you to be normal.

Happy Birthday Mary Elizabeth Winstead

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Married to Ewen McGregor

QUOTES:

  • [on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)] I honestly don’t know if they are things that Bryan would want out there, so I’ll keep them quiet. But things about her family-she’s kind of a tragic figure in a way. She’s been through a lot, and that’s why she’s so guarded and mysterious.
  • [on breaking into the indie film world with Smashed (2007)] It’s something I’ve been trying to do for years and years . . . It’s almost like my first movie in a weird way, ’cause it’s my first movie in this world, which is a world I’ve been trying to break into. [I’ve wanted] to be around filmmakers that are trying new things and not part of the system, so to speak, and they’re doing things on their own terms.
  • [on Death Proof (2007), in which she was a cheerleader] I haven’t, no. I was never a cheerleader. It was funny, because we were asked to wear cheerleading outfits to the audition, and most of the other girls had them because they were cheerleaders at one point and had them hanging in the closet, somewhere. So I went and found this kind of retro-looking, pseudo-cheerleader outfit and it was pretty cool.
  • [on Death Proof (2007)] Immediately when I heard Quentin Tarantino was having a project, I just wanted to be a part of it in any way I possibly could, even before I read the script. So when I got the script, I was just so excited because there were eight strong female roles, and it’s so rare for me to read a script like that. I’m usually going through the entire thing trying to find what part I’m supposed to be playing because it’s so male oriented and driven.
  • Hollywood really still is a boys’ club, unfortunately. Everything is from a male perspective. When Bridesmaids (2011) came out it was like this huge revolution, the fact that here was a comedy about women and written by women. It’s sad that it had to be such a big deal. Even though there are amazing female directors and executives it is still really off-balance.
  • It seems like when women are kicking ass it’s because we have some superpower. What’s so great about Ripley, from Alien (1979), is that she’s just a kick-ass woman. For younger women like myself growing up in the 1980s, to see something like that was really empowering so I really want to find roles like that for that same reason, so that other girls will be able to say, “Wow, she is a totally relatable woman who’s able to be strong and kick butt.”

Happy Birthday Karen Gillan

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Born

November 28, 1987 · Inverness, Scotland, UK

Married to Nick Kocher

QUOTES:

  • Matt Smith is an incredible actor and it is going to be so much fun to act alongside him. I just can’t wait to get started.
  • [on winning the role as Amy Pond on Doctor Who (2005)] I am absolutely over the moon at being chosen to play the Doctor’s new companion. The show is such a massive phenomenon that I can’t quite believe I am going to be a part of it.
  • I got a recall to come in and read with Matt [the eleventh Doctor] and that was quite funny, actually, because, I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that I was auditioning, what I was auditioning for, not even the people in the reception of the place that I was going to. So I had to give them a code name of ‘Panic Moon’. It was fun but it was actually an anagram for ‘companion’ which is quite clever.
  • I am legitimately Scottish. I can officially say – yes. Yeah, I am from Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.
  • To be honest, I wasn’t really a huge follower of Doctor Who (1963) before I got this part. I mean I knew it was huge, but … I was nothing like my mum, who’s a proper diehard Whovian. She’s got a Tardis money-bag, and Dalek bubble-bath. But having read the first episode I was utterly smitten, and with the character. Amy’s a sassy lady, funny and passionate, and her relationship with the doctor has a really interesting dynamic.
  • [on the Doctor] He’s just really unlikely as a hero – which makes him so brilliant, I think, because he’s like this mad professor.
  • I wasn’t horrifically bullied. There was some name-calling but nothing awful. All kids get teased about something. And this was quite an obvious feature. When you’re really tall and ginger and white at school, you’re going to get it.
  • [on Oculus (2013)] I love horror films so much. I like being scared. I want to be in good films, obviously, rather than cheesy ones. And some horror films can be quite cheesy. I love watching them but I don’t necessarily want to be in them.
  • [asked about some directors she would like to work with] I want to work with Michael Haneke, the Austrian director, more than anything in the world. Can you make that happen for me? I love his films so much. He’s my favourite director in the world.
  • [on Michael Haneke‘s movies] I like his films because I like big films as well but they’re far more manipulative, like we’re going to make you feel sad at this point, then the music kicks in and you know what you’re supposed to feel, and they’re telling you what to feel, but Haneke’s stuff is just this really unbiased view of events, and you choose how to feel about it, which is fun for me.
  • [on playing Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)] I was a little worried that I was going to look like an overgrown fetus. Maybe that’s true. But it’s liberating. It’s very liberating. Everyone here should shave their heads.

Happy Birthday Alan Ritchson

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Born

November 28, 1982 · Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA

Spouse: Catherine Ritchson – 3 children.

QUOTES:

  • I would definitely like to continue playing Aquaman. Playing a superhero is a lot of fun. Creating these stories is a lot of fun. I do what I love. And what I love is entertaining people.
  • I didn’t really grow up a comic book fanatic. I was a big baseball player, and my passion in life, in third grade, was collecting baseball cards. That was my childhood thing.
  • I was a big baseball player, and my passion in life, in third grade, was collecting baseball cards. That was my childhood thing.
  • I didn’t really grow up a comic book fanatic.

Happy Birthday Jon Stewart

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Watch the best of Films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

QUOTES:

  • [on the role of The Daily Show (1996)] When we spot silliness, we say so out loud. We’re not really Democrat or Republican. We’re out to stop that political trend of repeating things again and again until people are forced to believe them.
  • [in March 2003] I see myself as a driving force for global peace. Since we [The Daily Show (1996)] have been on CNNI [CNN International], the border between India and Pakistan has been stood down from red alert. Coincidence? We’re bringing healing to the international community.
  • [March 2003, on his role in The Daily Show (1996)] Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America. I represent the distracted center.
  • [February 2003, about his position at The Daily Show (1996)] I mostly work on writing the show. We have a talented crew of writers and I’m like the managing editor. I am the fake Lou Grant of the fake news world.
  • [on the attitude of The Daily Show (1996), referring to a role played by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live (1975), September 30, 2002] We have always embraced stupidity. We have always worshipped at the altar of a man bent over with his butt crack exposed, fixing a refrigerator.
  • [about The Daily Show (1996)] That’s the beauty of our show. Comedy or politics. We’re sort of a mix. A space-age polymer of both. A synthetic comedy-like material.
  • [in Nov. 2002] I was born in New York City, but I was raised in New Jersey, part of the great Jewish emigration of 1963.
  • [on being picked to host the 78th Annual Academy Awards] As a performer, I’m truly honored to be hosting the show. Although, as an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can’t help but be a little disappointed with the choice. It appears to be another sad attempt to smoke out Billy Crystal.