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Seven years after the QATSI trilogy (KOYAANISQATSI, POWAQQATSI, NAQOYQATSI), director Godfrey Reggio together with Jon Kane and genius composer Philip Glass have completed a new film called VISITORS.
Presented in Black and White digital 4K projection, VISITORS reveals humanity’s trancelike relationship with technology, which, when commandeered by extreme emotional states, produces massive effects far beyond the human species. The film is visceral, offering the audience an experience beyond information about the moment in which we live.
Here’s an extended trailer sneak preview to what seems to be a phenomenal film. Can’t wait to see it in the fall!
My dear friend cinematographer Dafne Capella (who shot most of my short projects including BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY) was announced winner of 2013 Newsprint Award with her photo project 26 PATIENTS, 1 EMPLOYEE AND 1 VISITOR AT SANTA LUCIA MENTAL INSTITUTE.
Back in Rio de Janeiro Dafne will be working on her newsprint publication consulted by bookdummypress, as well as on her solo exhibition at the Reminders Project Stronghold Gallery in Tokyo, which will be held from Sep. 14th to Oct. 6th, 2013.
The Newsprint Award is seeking contributors who will enable them to publish 24 pages tabloid-size newsprint publication, organize the exhibition production, and cover Dafne’s travel expenses to Tokyo (so far they’ve collected 1/5 of what’s needed). More details and a short interview with Dafne about the project here.
Consider this а pre-order of great portrait photography at discounted rates!
Help make it happen!
Lucy Walker - one of the most amazing social issue documentary directors (Waste Land, Blindsight, Devil's Playground) - just launched her latest film The Crash Reel on HBO, following its premieres at Sundance and Belrinale.
The film tells the dramatic story of U.S. champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce and his recovery from a Traumatic Brain Injury or as the log-line reads "a comeback story with a difference". It combines twenty years of stunning action footage with new specially-shot verité footage and interviews and exposes the irresistible but potentially fatal appeal of extreme sports.
Read more about what made Lucy dedicate over two years to the film, why is it that what we call extreme sports the sponsors call "action sports" and how much risk is too much and #loveyourbrain.
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage. For filmmaker Nina Davenport, that old playground song didn’t go as planned. Single at age forty-one, she decides to have a baby on her own, never minding the odds stacked against her or the extra hurdles of living in New York City. Filming the whole process, she excels at candour and comedy. Think of a real-life Girls, only with more grown-up problems.
I saw FIRST COMES LOVE while at the New York Film Academy when it was almost final cut and loved it! It tackles big questions like reimagining the contemporary family and single parenthood in a strikingly personal, funny and up-front way.
Don't miss it - it's on HBO and at IFC right now!
Just saw one of the most powerful and disturbing documentaries of all times.
The background: when the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.
THE ACT OF KILLING is a film about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The film is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. The documentary allows the killers to stage the genocide they have executed, adapted to their favorite film genres – gangster, western, musical. They write the scripts. They play themselves. And they play their victims.
I found the film deeply disturbing, not only because of the committed crimes but because it gives a fascinating inside into the way the human mind works under specific circumstances. The story is so unbelievable that after more than 5 years of shooting director Joshua Oppenheimer got Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on board as executive producers. Here's what Herzog says about it: "I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade...it is unprecedented in the history of cinema" (see more on the film by the two documentary masters).So go see it on the big screen - showing at Landmark Sunshine until 25 July (and more screenings here) - a must, must see!
Following a Tribeca premiere, part two of one of the most discussed social issue documentaries in history is now out!
Director and journalist Josh Fox follows the empire's strike back as governmental and corporate reactions following his first investigation. In Gasland II, Fox continues the story of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" and its impact on lives. He also explores the corruption in America's political system reaching all the way up to President Obama in painting a very sobering picture of what the future of fracking holds for all of us. The film explores the global trends that perpetuate the massive rush to frack America, namely the worldwide demand for natural gas. He concludes that it is not merely a desire to free America from dependence on foreign energy that is motivating the multi-trillion dollar oil and gas industry to destroy America's groundwater system, but the lure of foreign sales.
Actually, connecting some more dots, one of the top news topics over the last few weeks has been the new EU-US Trade Treaty. A big part of it will concern gas trade and easing the export of American gas to Europe thus fighting the current Russian monopoly. And once the markets open, demand can only go up.... and wouldn't it be great if businesses and governments could think of stuff like the environment, biodiversity, people's health and the future of our water supplies before they go for the profit!
Watch GASLAND II premiere on HBO on July 8.
After finishing the Heaven of Music documentary gig with the Mindpirates, I decided to check out some of their previous work. This is how I came across PROBLEMA, directed by Ralf Schmerberg.
A cinematic interpretation of the world's largest round table gathering in Berlin, PROBLEMA is a thought-provoking invitation to a world of global dilemmas. Focusing on existential questions confronting who we are and where we're going, the film follows the insights, perceptions, reflections and views of over 100 intellectuals from all over the world (including people like the amazing Arundati Roy and Wim Wenders).
A not-for-profit production, PROBLEMA is freely available to watch and download. If you'd like to support the film, you can also host a screening. And if you feel like a true philosopher today, check out the complete 100 questions answered by the 112 participants.