AWFJ To Present EDA Award at Salem Film Fest
See today’s press release from The Alliance of Women Film Journalists, a Salem Film Fest 2012 partnering organization:
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) is pleased to announce that we will present a juried EDA Award for the Best Female-Directed Film at the 2012 Salem Film Fest.
The jury for the EDA Award includes AWFJ members Cynthia Fuchs (Popmatters.com), Jennifer Merin (Documentaries.About.com and Womens eNews), Erin Trahan (The Independent), Susan Wloszczyna (USA Today) and Jeanne Wolf (JeanneWolfsHollywood.com and PARADE Magazine).
All jurors participated in the nominating process, selecting from all female-directed films programmed at the festival, the five following titles as EDA Award nominees:
- ALL ME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WINFRED REMBERT – Director: Vivian Ducat
- IN HEAVEN, UNDERGROUND – Director: Britta Wauer
- SKYDANCER – Director: Katja Esson
- WE STILL LIVE HERE: ÂS NUTAYUNEÂN - Director: Anne Makepeace
- WISH ME AWAY – Directors: Bobbie Birleffi & Beverly Kopf
The EDA Award winner will be announced and the award presented on Saturday March 3, at 1:30 pm, during an AWFJ-facilitated panel discussion about “How does media cover documentary film?.” Salem Film Fest takes place from March 1-8, 2012, in Salem, MA.
AWFJ commends the Salem Film Fest selection committee for its high ratio of female-directed films and for helping to facilitate this award process. AWFJ thanks the qualifying filmmakers and distributors for submitting their films for consideration, and our jury members for their participation in presenting this AWFJ EDA Award.
Source: http://awfj.org/2012/02/21/awfj-to-present-eda-award-at-salem-film-fest/
TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION
Guilty Pleasures; Dir: Julie Moggan
An Interview with Julie Moggan, director of GUILTY PLEASURES
By Dinah Cardin
Every four seconds a Harlequin Mills & Boon romance novel is sold somewhere in the world.
GUILTY PLEASURES, which makes its New England premiere at Salem Film Fest, examines some of the people who read and write these novels to discover how romance fiction affects their lives and inspires their fantasies. In India, the books give Shumita hope that her straying husband will return. In Japan, housewife Hiroko yearns to make fantasy reality with her handsome ballroom dancing teacher.
Dinah Cardin, Founder & Editor of North Shore ART*THROB, tracked down filmmaker – and new mom – Julie Moggan in London to discuss GUILTY PLEASURES and find out what directing a film about romance taught her about love.
Dinah Cardin: How did you come up with the idea to create a narrative around romance novels? Have you tried to read one in its entirety?
Julie Moggan: At the age of 30 I broke up with the boyfriend I’d been with since I was 17. The fairytale romance of my teenage years was over and I had some big questions about love. Around the same time, I came across an article about Mills & Boon romance novels (or Harlequin’s as they are known in the US). I had assumed Mills & Boon was a dying institution, with a readership made up solely of elderly British women. In fact, I couldn’t have been further from the truth. These romance novels were being exported to 109 countries around the world and every four seconds somebody was buying one! Making a film about this phenomenon seemed like a brilliant way into exploring some of my questions about love and relationships.
As soon as I began the project I went straight to a bookshop and bought loads of Harlequin Mills & Boon’s to read. I also met many of the writers who kindly gave me some of their novels. So I now have a bookshelf at home full of romance novels which many of my friends like to borrow.
DC: Do you think most people who read them have more difficulty with real-life relationships? Or does that particular difficulty pertain to everyone?
JM: I think everyone in the world has difficulty with their real-life relationships at some point or other. This is not at all specific to romance novel readers. I think we can all relate to the various struggles the characters go through in the film (loneliness, unrequited love, the difficultly of finding someone, the challenges of keeping a relationship going) – these are universal experiences.
As we see in the film, there are some readers for whom the books seem to get in the way of them having successful relationships. The books give them impossibly idealistic expectations that can never be met or false hopes that the torturous relationship they’re clinging to will work out in the end. But the vast majority of readers whom I met understood very well that these books are just harmless fairytales that they could gain huge enjoyment from escaping into. If anything, many of these women found the books were helping them in their real-life relationships, by inspiring them to introduce romance and adventure into their real-life relationships.
DC: What have you learned from making this film that surprised you the most?
JM: It’s a cliché, but it’s true – that real life is stranger than fiction! If someone tried to write these characters or the things that happen to them in the film, people would say it’s too unbelievable. But you’ll have to watch the film to see what I mean…
DC: Why does the desire for romantic love play such a huge role in people’s lives? Did making this film help you find an answer?
JM: As Stephen, the male model in the film, says; “We’re all yearning for love.” It would seem there is an innate desire in all of us to find and experience romantic love. It’s just the way we are made!
Countdown to SFF 2012: BURY THE HATCHET
BURY THE HATCHET
Aaron Walker
Massachusetts Premiere
Running time: 86 minutes
BURY THE HATCHET features three Mardi Gras Indian Chiefs in a dynamic portrait of the unique and endangered culture of New Orleans they represent–as bearers of tradition, as artists and as musicians. Descendents of runaway slaves given harbor by the Native Americans in the bayous of Louisiana, these practitioners of a hundreds-years-old tradition sew elaborate costumes resembling those of the Indians, parading through the streets of the city on Mardi Gras day while singing traditional songs that contribute another layer to New Orleans’ already rich musical vernacular. Following these men, we get to experience the vulnerability of the black community in New Orleans–from the destruction of middle class African-American neighborhoods to make way for an interstate highway, to the violence that once defined their culture, to police crackdowns, the reality of aging and death, and finally the absolute devastation of their community following Hurricane Katrina. While the Chiefs differ in many ways, their need to pass on their traditions drives all three men as they give schoolbooks to children, teach the craft of sewing and song, tell stories and give advice, and generally serve as informal leaders in their communities. Yet despite their setbacks, the Mardi Gras Indians display an overwhelming sense of determination and vitality in their dedication to their community.
Countdown to SFF 2012: SMOKIN’ FISH
SMOKIN’ FISH
Directed by Luke Griswold-Tergis & Cory Mann
Massachusetts Premiere
Running time: 81 minutes
Cory Mann is a quirky Tlingit businessman hustling to make a dollar in Juneau Alaska. He gets hungry for smoked salmon, nostalgic for his childhood, and decides to spend a summer smoking fish at his family’s traditional fish camp. The unusual story of his life and the untold history of his people interweave with the process of preparing traditional food as he struggles to pay his bills, keep the IRS off his back, and keep his business afloat. By turns tragic, bizarre, or just plain ridiculous, Smokin’ Fish, tells the story of one man’s attempts to navigate the messy zone of collision between the modern world and an ancient culture.
Countdown to SFF 2012: SFF SNEAK PEEK
SFF SNEAK PEEK
Directed by
Filmmakers in attendance
Running time: 82 minutes
Psst… check out this special preview screening of a film by a local filmmaker. It’s a modern-day Oskar Schindler story, and we can’t tell you more, other than it’s a film that will have people talking in 2012 – trust us, you don’t want to miss it.
Countdown to SFF 2012: SKYDANCER
SKYDANCER
Directed by Katja Esson
Massachusetts Premiere
Running time: 75 minutes
SKYDANCER is a feature-length documentary about work, masculinity, and what it means to be Native American in the 21st Century. The film takes us intothe breathtaking and dangerous world of Mohawk “sky walkers”. These specialized ironworkers, for six generations, have raised America’s cityscapes from The Brooklyn Bridge to the World TradeCenter and the new Yankee Stadium, building highways over boroughs, and weaving carpets of steel across rivers. They are famous for being able to walk – and work – on steel beams just a foot wide, at spectacular heights above the city. Who are these sky walkers? What is their secret for overcoming fear? Are Native Americans somehow specially gifted with this ability? Is it a modern version of an ancient rite of passage for native men? What is their life really like?
We follow two legendary sky walkers, old friends now in their forties, over what turns out to be a pivotal year in their lives, experiencing the real complexities of their lives. From the fragile hierarchy atop high steel in New York City to life ‘on the Rez’ atop New York State on the Canadian border, the film gives a fresh perspective on Native Americans as working Americans. Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and Sky Fox struggle with the same issues as other blue-collar men today, but with “extra twists” – the unique challenges and gifts of being Mohawk today, and the special stresses of working on the high steel. Over the course of our filming, Jerry and Sky both separately end up taking the radical step of quitting ironworking, stepping out into the unknown and courting new risks, leaving their lives up in the air in a whole new sense.
Official Film Website | Find Skydancer on Facebook
Countdown to SFF 2012: REGGAE IN THE RUFF
Directed by Don McConnell
US Premiere
Filmmaker in attendance
Running time: 55 minutes
Do you remember the power and spirit that Reggae music brought to us back in the 1970′s? That torch still burns brightly for a group of elder Rasta hills-men from Nonsuch, Portland, Jamaica. They survive by living close to nature, working the land organically and harvesting wild fruits and bush medicines from the jungle. For over 30 years in obscurity they have also been creating a unique yet familiar style of Roots Reggae music. From the foothills of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains, Johnnie Walker and the Disappointers are now stepping out with their powerful and positive music. In a stunning new documentary that examines their natural lifestyle, philosophy and the creation of their music, this genre-busting film offers a very realistic glimpse into what it is to be a Rasta elder in the 21st century.
Official Film Website | Find Reggae in the Ruff on Facebook
Trailer : Top Spot from McConnell Productions on Vimeo.
Countdown to SFF 2012: WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE
WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE
Directed by Alex Dawson & Greg Gricus
Massachusetts Premiere
Running time: 106 minutes
Each year thousands of wild horses are rounded up and removed from public lands by the U.S. Government. All will need permanent homes. None have ever been touched by a human hand. WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE tells the story of the Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge, an annual contest that dares 100 people to each tame a totally wild mustang in order to get it adopted into a better life beyond federal corrals.
Stunning and poignant, Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus’ debut feature documentary chronicles a handful of unforgettable characters from their first uneasy meeting with their horses and over three months as they attempt to transform from scared strangers to the closest of companions. Eventually all will converge in Fort Worth, Texas, to compete against each other and offer the horses up for adoption at an auction in which the trainers, if they wish to keep their horses, must bid against the public. Hailed by The Hollywood Reporter as a “crowd-pleaser with a big heart,” the film traverses across the United States to tell stories of the profound the bonds that can develop between people and animals. From the rolling hills of New Hampshire to the Navajo Nation to the heart of Cowboy Country, the film captures a journey that is at times harrowing, humorous, heartwarming and heartbreaking as these wild spirits – both human and horse – embark on the ride of their lives.
Official Film Website | Find Wild Horse Wild Ride on Facebook
Countdown to SFF 2012: WISH ME AWAY
WISH ME AWAY
Directed by Beverly Kopf & Bobbie Birleffi
New England Premiere
Running time: 110 minutes
WISH ME AWAY is the story of Chely Wright, the first country music star to come out as gay. Over three years, the filmmakers were given extraordinary access to Chely’s struggle and her unfolding plan to come out publicly. Using interviews with Chely, her family, her pastor, and key players in Nashville interwoven with Chely’s intimate private video diaries, the film goes deep into her back story as an established country music star and then forward as she steps into the national spotlight to reveal her secret. Chronicling the aftermath in her hometown of Nashville and within the larger LGBT community, WISH ME AWAY reveals both the devastation of her own internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life.
Countdown: IN HEAVEN, UNDERGROUND
IN HEAVEN, UNDERGROUND
Directed by Britta Wauer
Massachusetts Premiere
Running time: 90 minutes
An enchanting journey into history that celebrates life and the immortality of memories. North of Berlin’s noisy city center, surrounded by a jungle of trees and lush foliage, lies the peaceful and secluded 130-year-old Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery still in use in Europe. Its one hundred acres hold 115,000 graves and a meticulous archive record. The cemetery has never closed, and was one of the few institutions to remain in Jewish hands during the Nazi regime. Award-winning director Britta Wauer’s charming portrait creates a serene experience following a delightful array of characters from around the world: mourners, tourists, a young family residing at the cemetery, a third-generation gravedigger and an ornithologist studying rare birds of prey.
Official Film Website | Find In Heaven, Underground on Facebook
