FilmClick

The sometimes thought-provoking, often wacky, but always original Brainwash Bike-in Walk-in Movie Festival returns for its 15th year showing 23 unique independent short movies in Oakland at the American Steel Building on Friday, July 31 & Saturday, August 1, 2009, 9:00 pm.

“We project movies onto a tarp in West Oakland,” says festival director Shelby Toland.

See the trailer right here at FilmClick:

“These are movies that know they’re movies,” claims festival judge Jason Gohlke. “If you like the art of storytelling, if you care about the suspension of disbelief, or if you just like watching moving pictures on a screen, you don’t want to miss Brainwash this year.”

The 2009 15th Annual Brainwash Movie Festival will be held July 31st and August 1st at 9:00 p.m. at the American Steel Building at 1960 Mandela Parkway in Oakland. The fully juried festival will screen 23 original shorts in two separate programs.

Admission is $9 per person per night OR $20 for a Two-Day Pass, which gets two people into both nights of the festival Buy tickets at http://www.ticketweb.com/snl/EventListings.action?orgId=16986 OR at the gate.

For more info, see the offical site at:

http://brainwashm.com

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s film “Lorna’s Silence” opens August 7 at Lumiere in San Francisco and the Shattuck in Berkeley and on August 21 at Aquarius Twin in Palo Alto. The film, winner of the Cannes International Film Festival’s Best Screenplay Award in 2008, shows the audience a perspective of hope in the face of depression through the story of a young, ambitious Albanian woman living in Belgium named Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) . Lorna has dreams of leaving her dreary job and setting up a snack bar with her boyfriend Sokol (Alban Ukaj). Unfortunately Lorna and Sokol need money and Belgium residential status in order to make their dream come true. Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), an Italian taxi driver and an aspiring mob boss, hears of Lorna’s aspirations. Fabio knows a very wealthy Russian Mafioso named Andrei (Anton Yakovlev) who has a great deal of money but is also in need of Belgium residence papers in order to obtain an EU passport.

Fabio devises a scheme to get both Lorna and Andrei the Belgium papers. He finds Claudy (Jérémie Renier), a junky who is in desperate need for money, and who happens to be a Belgium citizen. Fabio sets up a false marriage between Lorna and Claudy allowing Lorna to get her Belgium citizenship. The plan is for her to divorce Claudy and marry Andrei in order to give him citizenship and a EU passport. However Fabio, impatient to move Lorna from the first marriage onto the next, decides to take matters into his own hands. In doing so he changes the plan to a much more sinister and bloody one and Lorna must decide whether to be safe and silent or be vocal and risk everything.

About the Filmmakers:
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne were born and raised in Seraing, near Liege. In 1975 they established the production company Dérives, where they made sixty documentary films before branching into narrative features. In 1994, they created Les Films du Fleuve, a company devoted to their narrative works. In 1996 the Dardenne brothers had a feature film breakthrough with the critically acclaimed release of LA PROMESSE (THE PROMISE). LA PROMESSE was followed by the 1999 critical smash ROSETTA, which won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or. The Dardennes won their second Palme d’Or in 2005 for there film L’ENFANT. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne belong to a rare group of filmmakers, including Bille August, Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica, who have won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or twice.

Check out more at the film’s offical site:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/lornassilence/

Chris Taylor’s documentary “Food Fight” plays at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Tuesday, May 12th, at 6:30pm at Regal Riverfront Twin Cinemas. Taylor’s film examines American agricultural policy and food culture development in the 20th century and how the California food movement has created a counter revolution against agribusiness.

This film delves in to the local-sustainable-organic food movement that grew out of the counter-culture of California in the late 1960s and 1970s and which lead to the birth of farmer’s markets.  Featuring interviews with restaurateurs Alice Waters and Suzanne Goin, writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma),  chef Wolfgang Puck and many more.

View the trailer here:

Director’s statement:

When I started to think about the story that I wanted to tell in FOOD FIGHT, I knew that the story would have many threads. It’s a story that starts politically, in the cultural ferment of Berkeley in the 60’s, and ends in pleasure, by way of some committed chefs, restaurateurs, and food activists in California. Along the way this counter-revolution has brought American food consumers, small farmers and political activists into direct conflict with the power of big agribusiness and American government policy.
This way of eating that I portray in the film started out (or more accurately was rediscovered) in a restaurant called Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Almost by accident, Alice Waters and her chef and partner Jeremiah Tower found that they could find the best ingredients not by buying from the usual industrial food distributors, but instead by canvassing the local neighborhood backyard gardens. Fellow-counter culturists and other proto-organic farmers were growing fresh tomatoes, lettuces, micro greens, and making artisanal cheeses locally.

As Alice herself says in the film, “When I started the restaurant I wasn’t looking for the local organic farmer. I was looking for taste. But in looking for taste, I found those farmers.” Soon she was putting together a local food chain, free from long-distance shipping, and without the pesticides and fertilizers that were leaching taste from supermarket food. As she developed this food chain of small local farmers, an especially fortuitous piece of California statehouse legislation opened a new opportunity for these same farmers to meet consumers directly. This legislation, in 1975, enabled local farmers to sell produce directly to consumers, and Farmers Markets were born. The first markets developed in university towns, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and later in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego. In the Bay Area, as Chez Panisse developed a national reputation for spectacular culinary results, the local farmers were named on the menu, and the spotlight of chef artistry was shown on the farmers. Savvy consumers realized that they could buy the same ingredients as Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck (who was reprising the same paradigm in spectacular fashion at Spago), and as dedicated foodies know, 85% of cooking is getting the best ingredients.

-Chris Taylor, Director, “Food Fight”

For more information on the film visit:

http://www.foodfightthedoc.com

Check out more films and ticket information about the Santa Cruz Film Festival, which runs from May 7 to May 15, by visiting their website at:

http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org/

The Santa Cruz Film Festival celebrates opening night at 7:30pm on May 7 at the Del Mar Theatre with Giancarlo Esposito’s (in attendance) directorial debut, “Gospel Hill”, starring Angela Bassett and Danny Glover and featuring Samuel Jackson, Julia Stiles and Adam Baldwin.

About the film
In the town of Julia, the neighborhood citizens of Gospel Hill are being forced out of their homes to make way for a multimillion-dollar development. Dr. Ron Palmer (Giancarlo Esposito, Do the Right Thing, The Usual Suspects), an influential black community leader who runs the local health clinic blindly supports the development. The good doctor’s desire for wealth and status awakens the racially divided community town. John Malcolm (Danny Glover, The Color Purple, Lethal Weapon), withdrew following his brother Peter’s (Samuel Jackson, Pulp Fiction, Eve’s Bayou) assassination thirty years ago, and is still haunted by the pain of the unsolved murder. He is detached from his wife and the society he once fought for.

John’s wife, Sarah (Angela Bassett, What’s Love Got To Do With It, How Stella Got Her Groove Back) takes it upon herself to battle Dr. Palmer and reveal his profiteering to the whole town. Meanwhile, the towns bigoted, ex-sheriff (Tom Bower, Appaloosa, North Country), who was responsible for letting the investigation of Peter’s murder go unresolved, is facing his own mortality and twisted choices.

Each of these characters’ lives intertwine to create a gripping, revealing and dramatic tale touching on issues of race, imminent domain, and the power of the human spirit to overcome the pain and hatred of division. Gospel Hill is overflowing with the deep emotions of greed, transformation, racism, redemption, forgiveness, and hope.

Check out more films playing at the Santa Cruz Film Festival from May 7 to May 15 by visiting their website at:

http://www.santacruzfilmfestival.org/

Interview with director Monty Miranda and writer/star Spencer Berger about their film “Skills Like This” which opens around the San Francisco Bay are on Friday, April 10. Shot during the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Monty Miranda’s directorial debut “Skills Like This” opens this weekend in the bay area, playing at the Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco, the Elmwood in Berkeley, and the Nickelodeon in Santa Cruz. Miranda’s film, the South by Southwest Film Festival audience award winner, is about a struggling writer named Max Soloman (played by screenwriter Spencer Berger) who decides to make an unlikely career change at the spur of the moment.  When Max calmly walks across the street and robs a bank after the failure of his latest play, he discovers that he’s finally found something he’s good at.  As Max embraces his new talents, his change in career filters through his friends and they start to look at their lives from new perspectives as well.  The film is amusing; it doesn’t take itself too seriously and features good performances from Berger, love interest Kerry Knuppe and Gabriel Tigerman as the uptight friend Dave.

FilmClick had an opportunity to discuss the film with director Monty Miranda and writer/star Spencer Berger while they were in town for the film’s showing at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.  Take a look.

For more info on the film, check out the “Skills Like This” website:

http://www.skillslikethis.com

“In a Dream”, a documentary about the tumultuous relationship between mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar and his wife, Julia, opens April 17 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. “In a Dream”, an IndiePix release, is in English, runs for 80 minutes, and is not yet MPAA rated.

In the vibrant, bohemian neighborhood of South Philadelphia, 50,000-square feet of concrete are covered with tile and mirrors-mosaics that were created by Isaiah Zagar, an eccentric, tormented artist.  The murals chronicle his love for his wife, Julia, and subtly hint at the darker corners of an extraordinary imagination. Where Isaiah is obsessive and narcissistic-a former Peace Corps volunteer who has become an icon in South Philly’s art community-Julia is gracious and warm. For decades, their opposing natures complemented one another perfectly. But suddenly the family is torn apart at the seams: A few hours before picking up his oldest son from a rehabilitation center, Isaiah declares to the camera, “As people get older they have less and less passion.” He then confesses to an affair with his assistant, is kicked out of the house, and spirals into a debilitating, suicidal depression.

The end result is a deeply moving film that started as an exploration of a man’s life and resulted in exposing the secrets of an entire family.

About the Filmmaker

Jeremiah Zagar was born in South Philadelphia in 1981. At age 19, he shot DELHI HOUSE, a documentary about a hospital and orphanage in India. The short premiered at the 2002 Slamdance Film Festival and aired on PBS affiliates across the country. Since then, Jeremiah has written and directed two award-winning short films: BABY EAT BABY and CONEY ISLAND 1945 They have screened in numerous festivals in the US and abroad, including Tribeca, SXSW, and the London Film Festival.  A graduate of Emerson College, Zagar now lives in Brooklyn.

“In a Dream” was part of the 2008 San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.

Interview with director Jon Bowden about the film “The Full Picture” which plays on Sat. Feb 21 at 9:30 PM at the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley, California. Shot during the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Interview with director Kevin Chapados about his film “Abraham Obama” which focuses on a grass-roots campaign to promote Barack Obama’s campaign for the Presidency through street art. Shot during the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

Interview with producer/writer Karim Ahmad about the film “Harrison Montgomery” which plays on Fri. Feb 20, at 7:15 PM at the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley, California. Shot during the San Francisco Independent Film Festival in San Francisco.