Jack Valenti steps down from his power position at the Motion Picture Association of America and has named Dan Glickman as his successor. Valenti, 82, will officially retire Sept. 1, Will he celebrate his birthday with Anne d'Ornano during the Deauville Film Festival remains uncertain.Texas born, Harvard educated, Jack Valenti has led several lives: a wartime bomber pilot, advertising agency founder, political consultant, White House Special Assistant, movie industry leader. In his current role ...
On its fourth and fifth day, Ecocinema International Environment Film Festival in Rhodes (Greece) focused on information films that try to raise our awareness on environmental matters. Here is the review of 3 of these documentaries that drew a special attention.Battle’s poison cloud, by Cecile Trijssenaar from the UK (2003, 53 minutes)The first image sets the tone of the documentary as the camera pans over shelves of jars containing monstrously malformed dead foetuses. The sequence graphically...
Politics is the theme of the day at Cannes May 17. Young Austrian Hans Weingartner --brings German film up to speed with 'The Edukators'. "Many young people yearn for radical political change, but there's a real lack of new suggestions," says Hans Weingartner. "We live in a society that's so individualistic that the idea of group action has become impossible, or nearly. 'The Edukators' tells a story of resistance – a story of poetic resistance." Sean Penn was on hand for 'The Assassination of ...
WINNERS FROM OVER 25 COUNTRIES HONORED AT THE HUGOS The Chicago International Television Competition announced the winners of its 40th Annual Hugo Awards at Park West this evening. Ten different countries won awards in this year’s competition, with Silver Hugos being awarded to Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Slovakia. “This is truly an international event,” said Founder and Artistic Director Michael Kutza. “With hundreds of excellent entries, the jury decisions were extremely diffic...
2004 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Reveals the Guts and Glory of Directing From Peter Biskind’s documentary, Don’t Bank on Amerika to Denys Arcand’s, The Barbarian Invasions Santa Barbara never ceases to amaze us. On Saturday, January 31st a panel of eight prominent directors answered Biskind’s Q’s at the 2004 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It is an event like this Directors on Directing panel that inspires and intrigues us as filmmakers, film enthusiasts, and f...
