 |
SIFF CINEMA:
The 2008 Seattle International Film Festival
SIFF's mission is to create experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films from around the world.
news & film reviews
.....................................
TRIBECA FILN FESTIVAL:
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2001.
news & film reviews
.....................................
SAN FRANCISCO INTER. FILM FESTIVAL:
Founded in 1957, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas.
news & film reviews
|
Stalags: Pornography and Holocaust in Israel
The subject matter of Ari Libsker’s Stalags: Holocaust and Pornography in Israel is
utterly outrageous and absurd... read more
............................................
TimecrimesFilms that feature time travel are at best a difficult task. Fortunately, Spanish director Nacho Vigalando does not waste any time in trying to unravel or solve the paradoxes of this genre. read more
............................................ Combining the worst elements of avant-garde and masochistic Korean cinema, Fantastic Parasuicides is an incoherent mess. read more............................................
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Half Life with Jelly Fish: a post premier chat with writer/director Jennifer Phang
By Michael Ricciardi
I sat down for coffee with Jennifer Phang (writer-director of Half Life) at the Joe Bar, just across the street from the Harvard Exit Cinema on Roy St. in Seattle, to discuss her first feature film, its inspirations and intent.
I noted that, watching Half Life, there was this constant sense of pending apocalypse or momentous change. Phang jokingly offered: “Maybe we should have called it ‘apocalypse pending’…we wanted to convey strongly that something is happening in the world.…and offer a macro/micro look at crisis.”
One of the strangely ominous threads in the film involved jellyfish (an image that would become central to the mother’s eschatological dream). I ask Jennifer to clarify the origins of this. Phang stated she recalled “reading about a jellyfish invasion in Scotland which killed off all the salmon there.” Odd, recurring elements like this contributed decidedly to the tone—the sense of moment--of the film.
The film maintains a near constant drumbeat of disastrous (and some more promising perhaps) events from around the globe.
“We put out a call for footage (news footage of disasters and other ‘earth-shattering’ events) on Craigslist.org,” explained Rueben Lim, the film’s main producer (who also joined us for coffee), “…we were amazed at the responses from all over.” Use of such footage proved to be an important textural element in crafting the film’s tone, pace, and total look,
As a writer, one needn’t have to make up dire sounding news about world-wide environmental change—it’s already out there, all one has to do is pay attention.
The film Half Life is getting a good degree of deserved, critical praise..
read more...
.......................................................................................
FEST BLOG:
Dakota Skye (87 min, CA)
Directed By John Humber
First Glance Film Festival
Reviews By Linda Overly
Before I begin this review let me warn you that Dakota Skye is a film about a girl in high school. Now you must erase every beloved high school movie of recent decades such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, American Pie, etc. from your mind. Now, if you can, imagine a high school film that is so honest and engaging that you wish it wouldn't end.
Dakota Skye is a teenager with problems similar to most girls her age, except she is cursed with a super power she hates. She knows whenever someone is lying to her. The opening scene of the film is Dakota's graduation day. But her story begins with a flashback of the year before.
In her junior year Dakota is disillusioned by her boyfriend's narcissism, and bored with her friends' obsession with SATs and the future. She is like a walking time bomb ready to explode from the all the deceit. Although she resents each of them, she holds on to them because they are all she's got.
Nearly at end of her rope, a miraculous incident occurs; Dakota meets Jonah, the first person she's ever met that does not lie about anything. Immediately the two are attracted to each other but there are a couple problems. Jonah is her boyfriend's best friend and despite the fact the she tries to deny it, Dakota is falling for him. Jonah feels the same way and tells her. Now Dakota must decide if she should stay in her completely uncomfortable comfort zone or take the risk and trust Jonah with her heart. read more...
.......................................................................................
FEST INTERVIEW:
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Green Carpet - Part 2 - Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Green Carpet 2008 interviews with the Filmmakers. Including Richie Mehta and Rupinder Nagra from the film AMAL.
|
|
|
|
