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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

AIFF 2013: Features In Competition - Time To Plan What To See


Thirteen Features were selected and six [five*] are in competition.  They represent nine different countries. 
  • Australia/USA 
  • Canada 
  • France 
  • India 
  • Iran 
  • Kenya 
  • Netherlands 
  • Paraguay 
  • USA 
**  the filmmaker(s) scheduled to be there for Q&A after showing
This is a short preview of just the films in competition.   You can see a list of all the features selected and the other film categories here.


Image from Vino Veritas website





Vino Veritas
Sarah Knight
USA √
96m
8:00 PM     Fri, Dec 13  Bear Tooth** the filmmaker(s) scheduled to be there for Q&A

4:00 PM     Sat, Dec 14  AK Exp Small

I would rather know nothing about the movie I'm seeing - just see it cold.  But there are too many movies to see for total hit and miss.  I'd rather spend my time at good movies and at least get a hint of what's good before hand.  I haven't seen this movie, but this comment from the director doesn't tell you anything about it, but tells you something. 
"This film is a kind of communion for people with partners who still baffle them, whose children aren’t quite turning out the way they imagined, and who have begun to realize that their most basic reptilian instincts aren’t that far below the surface.  No helicopters explode in Vino Veritas and no zombies appear.  It’s far more real, far more primal than that, and it’s a film that will resonate with adults in a way that few movies do thanks to the simple fact that they will be able to identify with the characters and the lives of quiet desperation that the characters are leading.  Having screened a rough cut of the film for a few people (both acquaintances and strangers), I can vouch for the fact that it inspires long e-mails and a general reaction of, “So-and-so has to see this movie!”
Here's a link to the website if you want to know more.  But be careful, their videos aren't trailers, they're just ads.  Left a bad taste in my mouth - I wanted to see a trailer and had to hear about Doritos instead.  No vino veritas in that. 

It was filmed in Lincoln, Nebraska and the Daily Nebraskan has this interview with the director.  It sounds like another Virginia Woolfe film.  I didn't know that was a genre until the 2012 festival when the director of my favorite feature film - Between Us - told me.  And that film was also made in Nebraska. 


Tu Seras Un Homme (You’ll Be A Man)
Benoit Cohen
France ✓ 
87m

8:00 PM Sat, Dec 14 Bear Tooth**Film maker scheduled to be there.
1:30 PM Sun, Dec 15 AK Exp Small

From the movie's Facebook page:
Un film de Benoit Cohen - Une musique de French Cowboy
Sortie en salles le 15 mai 2013 avec Jules Sagot, Aurélio Cohen, Eléonore Pourriat, Grégoire Monsaingeon et Clara Bonnet
 From Filmthreat:
YOU’LL BE A MAN (TU SERAS UN HOMME), Benoit Cohen, France
Leo is 10 and wise beyond his years. A solitary dreamer who seeks refuge in books. When the carefree 20-year-old Theo steps into his life, it forces Leo out of his shell. Despite their age difference, the two become best friends, helping each other face up to their responsibilities.








Hank and Asha
James E. Duff
USA √
73m
8:00 PM Sun, Dec. 8 Bear Tooth**Film maker scheduled to be there.
6:30 PM Tue, Dec 10 Alaska Exp Small

From the Hank and Asha website:

"What do you do if your first real love is half a world away? In this charming romantic comedy, an Indian woman studying in Prague and a lonely New Yorker begin an unconventional video correspondence — two strangers searching for human connection in a hyper-connected world. "Hank and Asha" is a hopeful story about identity, longing, and the irresistible appeal of entertaining life's what-ifs."




Variety was not terribly impressed though:
If “Hank and Asha” were any more purposefully winsome, it would curl up on your lap and indicate a desire to be petted. Even at a briskly paced 73 minutes, James E. Duff’s romantic indie feels slightly padded as it unfolds a thin scenario about two twentysomethings who initiate and sustain a long-distance relationship through video letters. Fortunately, the lead players are attractive and appealing enough to make them good company for the short haul. After fest dates, the pic will play best, if not exclusively, in home-screen venues.



Detroit Unleaded
Rola Nashef
USA √
90m
1:30 PM     Sun, Dec 08  Alaska Exp Small
8:00 PM     Mon, Dec 09  Bear Tooth **Film maker scheduled to be there.


From Detroit Unleaded's website:
"Between Detroit and Arab-America, Sami works behind the bulletproof glass of a 24-hour gas station with his cousin Mike. Inside this unique neighborhood, the station is more than just a pitstop for rolling papers and fake perfume, but a place where an infinite stream of spirited and often hilarious people flow through. When Najlah walks in, Sami's shift becomes anything but routine.

​Made and cast in Detroit, the film stars first-time feature actors EJ Assi and Nada Shouhayib, along with Actor/Comedian Mike Batayeh (Breaking Bad, You Don't Mess with the Zohan), Mary Assel, Steven Soro, and Lebanese film and television Star Akram El-Ahmar.

​Detroit Unleaded had it's World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from audiences and film critics alike.
"









7 Cajas (7 Boxes)
Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schémbori
Paraguay √
100m
8:00 PM     Thu, Dec 12  Bear Tooth
11:30 AM Sun, Dec 15 Alaska Exp Small


From Cinemablographer:
Running hustle-bustle through the crowded stalls is seventeen-year-old Víctor (played by impressive newcomer Celso Franco). Víctor is a street-smart youth, but he is still a little too young, idealistic, and naïve to appreciate fully the seediness of the underworld he inhabits. He’s an errand boy who dreams of playing the lead. Víctor begins his chaotic whirlwind to stardom when he accepts an innocuous task from a marketplace butcher: he is to transport seven sealed boxes on his wheelbarrow and deliver them to a location that will be revealed via a cell phone call that he will receive during the journey. The role seems simple enough and it offers a Hollywood paycheck of an American hundred-dollar bill. The amount is incalculable in the local denomination for Víctor, yet he grasps that the piece of paper is a passport to escape. .  .

Running hustle-bustle through the crowded stalls is seventeen-year-old Víctor (played by impressive newcomer Celso Franco). Víctor is a street-smart youth, but he is still a little too young, idealistic, and naïve to appreciate fully the seediness of the underworld he inhabits. He’s an errand boy who dreams of playing the lead. Víctor begins his chaotic whirlwind to stardom when he accepts an innocuous task from a marketplace butcher: he is to transport seven sealed boxes on his wheelbarrow and deliver them to a location that will be revealed via a cell phone call that he will receive during the journey. The role seems simple enough and it offers a Hollywood paycheck of an American hundred-dollar bill. The amount is incalculable in the local denomination for Víctor, yet he grasps that the piece of paper is a passport to escape. - See more at: http://www.cinemablographer.com/2013/04/review-7-boxes-7-cajas-latin-american-film-fest.html#sthash.nVg9rjHq.dpuf
Running hustle-bustle through the crowded stalls is seventeen-year-old Víctor (played by impressive newcomer Celso Franco). Víctor is a street-smart youth, but he is still a little too young, idealistic, and naïve to appreciate fully the seediness of the underworld he inhabits. He’s an errand boy who dreams of playing the lead. Víctor begins his chaotic whirlwind to stardom when he accepts an innocuous task from a marketplace butcher: he is to transport seven sealed boxes on his wheelbarrow and deliver them to a location that will be revealed via a cell phone call that he will receive during the journey. The role seems simple enough and it offers a Hollywood paycheck of an American hundred-dollar bill. The amount is incalculable in the local denomination for Víctor, yet he grasps that the piece of paper is a passport to escape. - See more at: http://www.cinemablographer.com/2013/04/review-7-boxes-7-cajas-latin-american-film-fest.html#sthash.nVg9rjHq.dpuf






*One more film that had been in competition - Nairobi Half-Life - is no longer in.  It's been on the circuit since 2012 and was the most successful local film in Kenyan history.  You can read more about it and see a scene from the film here.

**The film maker is scheduled to be there.

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