13th PÖFF's competition programme EurAsia awarded German-Israel drama „Ajami". Best Baltic film award goes to Lithuanian film „Vortex". Scandar Copti (Palestine) and Yaron Shani (Israel) realistic street-story „Ajami" was awarded as best Eurasian film. The film tells a story of a poor Arab district Ajami in Tel Aviv and its colorful population that consists both Arabs and Jews. Best Eurasia film award was given in PÖFF for the sixth time. Gran...

FOX STORY #4702: SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND FAMILY (Fox News, US 1922)  James Seebach; New York, 24.6.1922;  Fox Movietone News Collection, University of South Carolina, Columbia. . On 9 April 1922 Conan Doyle arrived on the White Star Liner SS Baltic in New York City to give several lectures on Spiritualism. When they boarded the RMS Adriatic for their return sail on 24 June 1922, Fox News cameraman James Seebach recorded the family, as did crews from Pathé News and Kinograms. The officia...

L’ÎLE ENCHANTÉE (LutèceFilm, FR 1926) Regia/dir., scen: Henry Roussell; f./ph: Maurice Velle, Paul Portier; scg./des: Georges Jacouty, Gaston Dumesnil; riprese/filmed: 7-11.1926 (Corsica [Plana, Evisa], Caen (steelworks), La Grave, Vals les Bains; Studios Menchen, Épinay); data uscita/released: 13.5.1927; cast: Rolla Norman (Francesco della Rocca), Jacqueline Forzane (Gisèle Rault), Jean Garat (Firmin Rault), Gaston Jacquet (Gabriel Lestrange), Renée Héribel (Chilina Leonardi), Paul Jo...

 Abel Gance's J'Accuse (1919), a politically and stylistically daring anti-war drama produced while the trench warfare of World War I was still grinding up soldiers on both sides of the battle, opens with the title spelled out by the bodies of soldiers striding into formation, like a marching band at a half-time show. Then they collapse, as if dead, to startling effect. Appropriating the cry leveled by Emile Zola during the Dreyfus affair, Gance levels his accusations at war itself. The fil...

THE MERRY WIDOW (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, US 1925) is the opening night film at the 2009 Giornate de Cinema Muto 200, The Music When I first accompanied The Merry Widow years ago, I was totally struck by this highly creative and inventive film adaptation of the operetta, directed by the genius Erich von Stroheim. Immediately I realized that my “one” piano + singer accompaniment wasn’t at all enough to serve this brilliant film. I started a serious quest to develop a score for the...

THERE are nine movies in the main competition of the Bangkok International Film Festival 2009: Across the River (Iran); Adrift (Vietnam); Altiplano (Belgium); Breathless (South Korea); Everyone Else (Germany); Huacho (Chile/ France/ Germany); I Killed My Mother (Canada); Inland (Algeria / France), and The Search (China).   Across the River, by the prolific US-based Iranian director Abbas A. Motlagh, has barely been shown outside Iran, but is bound to attract attention here. In ...

THERE are nine movies in the main competition of the Bangkok International Film Festival 2009: Across the River (Iran); Adrift (Vietnam); Altiplano (Belgium); Breathless (South Korea); Everyone Else (Germany); Huacho (Chile/ France/ Germany); I Killed My Mother (Canada); Inland (Algeria / France), and The Search (China). Across the River, by the prolific US-based Iranian director Abbas A. Motlagh, has barely been shown outside Iran, but is bound to attract attention here. In the wake of a majo...

What happens when three diverse, yet influential electric guitar virtuosos, from ages spanning across three generations, meet for the first time at length to discuss and tour their hometowns, upbringings, how their bands formed,  political instability and social setbacks, their methods to their musical madness, and living room like jam sessions?   On Jan 23, 2008, self taught guitarist, producer, composer, and founder of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, known for his bow, slide guitar, eastern scal...

"It Might Get Loud" Up close with Jimmy Page, U2's, The Edge and Jack White/"The White Stripes"/"The Raconteurs"What happens when three diverse, yet influential electric guitar virtuosos, from ages spanning across three generations, meet for the first time at length to discuss and tour their hometowns, upbringings, how their bands formed, political instability and social setbacks, their methods to their musical madness, and living room like jam sessions? On Jan 23, 2008, self taught guitarist, ...

The Academy of Television of Arts and Sciences presented a symposium for its members entitled the HiDef Revolution 2 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA on May 5th, 2009.The expert panel consisted of FÉLIX ENRÍQUEZ ALCALÁ Director, Cinematographer ROBERT PRIMES Cinematographer, Director;  DP BARRY BRAVERMAN,  DP TOM CURRAN , PHILIP HODGETTS Intelligent Assistance Inc. provided the technical or geek-speak overview and the panel was moderated by CONRAD DENKE, Publisher HighDef Magazine. ...

Academy Television of Arts and Sciences presented a symposium for its members entitled the HiDef Revolution 2 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA on May 5th, 2009.The expert panel consisted of FÉLIX ENRÍQUEZ ALCALÁ Director, Cinematographer ROBERT PRIMES Cinematographer, Director; DP BARRY BRAVERMAN, DP TOM CURRAN , PHILIP HODGETTS Intelligent Assistance Inc. provided the technical or geek-speak overview and the panel was moderated by CONRAD DENKE, Publisher HighDef Magazine. Their purp...

Houston World Fest will run April 17 - 26, 2009 WorldFest was founded 49 years ago as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society in August, 1961. WorldFest became the third competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York. WorldFest is the oldest Independent Film & Video Festival in the World. It evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April, 1968. It was founded by award-winning producer/director Hunter Todd to present a quality fi...

Stressed-out New Yorkers can take a big breath now and get some much-needed relief by watching a new short film titled, "Inner Peace” a Positive Vision Network Production. "Inner Peace" has been selected to screen as part of the prestigious New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (NYIIFVF) on March 25th at the Village Cinema in Manhattan.This film is co- directed by award-winning filmmaker Kathleen Ammalee Rogers and 13 times Telly Award Winner Alan Heath. Festival officials...

Synopsis The destruction of a Class V+ white water rapid is investigated in QUARTZITE'S FALL: A WILDERNESS TALE. Federal agents arrest eight men for blowing up Quartzite Falls, the most dangerous rapid in Arizona's Salt River Canyon. As the story behind their crime unravels, their alibi -- to make a deadly place safer -- sparks debate about the meaning of wilderness. Director Kristin Atwell is an independent producer, editor and writer who trained with Academy Award-nominat...

Ten days have gone by like a flash and I'm sitting here in the press room on Saturday afternoon, Valentine's Day, mulling over the dull flicks I slept through, the one or two that kept me awake, and the handful that I really wanted to see but never got around to. ("John Rabe", Sean Penn's "Milk", a Persian film called "Barbareye Elly", the latest Wajda, and a few others). Of the half dozen competition films I did get to, not one was a real winner, and most were so...

With the world premiere of the star-studded action thriller "The International" by ace German director Tom Tykwer (of "Lola Runs" fame), the 59th Berlin International Film Festival opens this evening, Febsuary 5,  in the presence of the director and the actors Clive Owen, Ulrich Thomsen and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Festival Director Dieter Kosslick will ring the curtain up in conjunction with Jury President, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton. The event will be telecast liv...

With the world premiere of the star-studded action thriller "The International" by ace German director Tom Tykwer (of "Lola Runs" fame), the 59th Berlin International Film Festival opens this evening, Febsuary 5, in the presence of the director and the actors Clive Owen, Ulrich Thomsen and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Festival Director Dieter Kosslick will ring the curtain up in conjunction with Jury President, Scottish actress Tilda Swinton. The event will be telecast live hosted by popular TV present...