Category Archives: Arthouse

Japan Society Announces First North American Retrospective on Kaizo Hayashi

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Kaizo-Hayashi

To Sleep So as to Dream © Video Detective Agency

Japan Society Announces First North American Retrospective on Kaizo Hayashi, Independent Luminary of 80s and 90s Cinema

Japan Society has announced the first North American retrospective on director Kaizo Hayashi, one of the great luminaries of independent Japanese cinema in the 1980s and 1990s.

The world of Kaizo Hayashi is one of cinematic reverie and enchantment, whose reverence for film history—transposing genre and stylistic conventions from benshi and silent era serials to jidaigeki and hardboiled noir—results in one of the most imaginative and inspiring filmographies of the post-studio era. Invoking the mystery and intrigue of the moving image, amidst the flutter of celluloid frames, his cinema of the past brims with ingenuity and far-flung imagination, conjuring fantasies of what dreams may come.
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John Ford’s Epic Western “The Searchers” New 4K Restoration at Film Forum

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the-searchers-restrorationA new 4K restoration of John Ford’s monumental western THE SEARCHERS (1956), starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood, will run at Film Forum from Friday, September 13 through Thursday, September 19.

After John Wayne returns home to Texas from the Civil War, he sets out to track down the surviving members of his family who’ve been abducted by Comanches. With Jeffrey Hunter, they go on a dangerous multi-year quest to rescue his kidnapped niece Natalie Wood.

“THE SEARCHERS showed Ford’s willingness to make a more ‘modern’-seeming Western for an audience that wanted greater psychological realism from the genre… the film turns the concept of Western heroism inside out, showing the lone gunman who acts in the name of nascent civilization as a warped, destructive force.” – Joseph McBride in Searching for John Ford

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Film Feature: Something Divine Doc, Led by Hardcore Punk Rock Star and Ex-Monk Ray Cappo, Official Selection of Lonely Seal Film Festival

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something-divineThomas Essig’s new documentary feature Something Divine has been named an official selection of Lonely Seal Film Festival, scheduled from August 20-25, 2024 in Arlington, MA. The film will be screened on Wednesday, August 21st during the Midweek Music Movies and More themed evening.

In the film, Ray Cappo, the lead singer of the straight edge hardcore band Youth of Today, who at the height of its growing popularity, leaves the band and travels to India. Ray goes from punk artist and becomes the Monk Raghunath. What follows is the confluence of two opposites, hardcore punk and spirituality. The film follows a pilgrimage guided by Raghunath through the holy cities of India, chronicling a spiritual journey of transformation.

In 2017, Essig first went on pilgrimage to India with Monk Raghunath. What he believed was to be a yoga trip, was in fact a journey into yogic philosophy and transformation of oneself – the catalyst that forever changed his life.
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Film Forum Set To Premiere Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border”

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green-borderWinner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, “Green Border” immediately drew controversy from the Polish government for its depiction of the European migrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border.

Shot in stark black-and-white, this riveting thriller explores the intractable conflict from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing ISIS caught between cruel border guards in both countries; young guards instructed to brutally reject the migrants; and activists who, at great risk, aid the refugees.

Holland (three-time Academy Award® nominee for Angry Harvest, Europa Europa, and In Darkness) brings an unflinching eye and deep compassion to this blistering critique of a humanitarian calamity that continues to unfold.

The Museum of the Moving Image will present a series of films by Agnieszka Holland from June 7–21, 2024.

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Tarkovsky’s Haunting Late Masterpiece NOSTALGHIA New 4K Restoration Opens Feb. 21 at Film Forum

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ANDREI-TARKOVSKY---NOSTALGHIAAndrei Tarkovsky’s haunting late masterpiece NOSTALGHIA (1983) will run at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration from Wednesday, February 21 through Tuesday, February 29.

In Tarkovsky’s first film made outside the USSR, Russian expatriate Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky, THE MIRROR), wanders wintry Italian landscapes while returning in memory to his homeland. He becomes obsessed with the Botticelli-like beauty of his translator Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), as well as with the apocalyptic ramblings of a self-destructive wanderer named Domenico (Erland Josephson, THE SACRIFICE). In one of cinema’s most agonizingly suspenseful sequences, the fate of the world is found hanging on a candle’s flight across a dry pool, culminating in an overwhelming final shot.

Written with Tonino Guerra, frequent collaborator of Michelangelo Antonioni (on every film from L’AVVENTURA through BLOW-UP), Federico Fellini (AMARCORD), and Francesco Rosi (ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI), NOSTALGHIA is a mystical and mysterious collision of East and West, shot with the tactile beauty that only Tarkovsky could provide.

NOSTALGHIA won the Grand Prix du cinéma de creation prize for Best Director (shared with Robert Bresson for L’ARGENT) and the international film critics prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d’Or, which hardened Tarkovsky’s resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again.

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Trailer Premiere: Peter Callahan’s “Out And About” Set For Release On May 16

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Peter-Callahan’s-Out-And-About-Set-For-Release-On-May-16The film was written and directed by it star, Peter Callahan, whose film Against the Current, starring Joseph Fiennes, was critically acclaimed at the Sundance Film Festivasl. Producers are Ivon Visalli (High Voltage) and Konstantin von Krusenstiern (Last Ball). David Snyder is the Executive Producer.

Here’s the official release about “Out And About”:
Out and About is an unconventional tale about Jeff, a middle-aged man trying to come to terms with his life over the course of an afternoon walk through his hometown. Distinctive in both style and substance and told in real time, the story weaves together the protagonist’s inner monologue with conversations he has with the people he encounters along the way.

Raw, brutally honest, poignant and funny, Out and About explores the contrast between our inner and outer selves, the conflict between old dreams and new realities, and one man’s search for meaning as he wrestles with aging, success and failure in America, and his ultimate place in the world.

“Out And About” will be available on DVD and streaming on May 16, 2023.

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Tribeca Festival Announces 2023 Audio Storytelling Lineup

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tribeca festival 2023The 2023 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced its audio storytelling lineup, including 18 world premieres from independent and established narrative audio creators and 11 “Live-from-Tribeca” events. This year’s Festival, which takes place June 7-18, will highlight its audio storytelling selection from June 12-16, connecting creators and listeners in-person at Tribeca.

The lineup includes 11 “Live-from-Tribeca” events, from exclusive conversations with audio creators to live tapings of hit shows, such as an audio artists panel hosted by Avery Trufelman (Articles of Interest, 99% Invisible); a live taping of Crooked Media’s Pod Save America with guest co-host Alex Wagner; a 25th anniversary rewatch event of Will & Grace followed by a live taping of SmartLess Media’s Just Jack & Will featuring Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack; a live taping of Selected Shorts with New York Times Bestselling author Roxane Gay; a live taping of New York Times Audio’s Modern Love with Kim Cattrall; and a live taping of Sonic Union’s Perreo 101 followed by a musical performance by Cuban artists Yotuel and Beatriz Luengo.

Additionally, the 2023 Audio Storytelling program showcases 16 official selections, including eight from independent creators and eight from established creators–evenly divided between fiction and narrative nonfiction series. World premieres from independent audio creators include the fiction series The Fabulists and These Were Humans, as well as the narrative nonfiction series Abridged and Magic on a Winter’s Night. World premieres from established creators include The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island (Radio Diaries and Radiotopia from PRX), Free from Desire (Paradiso), The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen (Wolf at the Door Studios), and Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto (Crooked Media). Official selections will be previewed at the Emerging Audio Artists Panel hosted by a special guest and the Established Audio Artists Panel hosted by Avery Trufelman, and available the following day at https://tribecafilm.com/podcasts and @TribecaAudio.

“We’re honored to premiere the work of these innovative creators and to celebrate audio storytelling with the high level of recognition the medium deserves,” said Davy Gardner, Curator of Audio Storytelling at Tribeca Festival. “The program brings together an expansive community of listeners and creators alike with interdisciplinary programming, parties, and sound-rich live events.”
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Tribeca Festival Announces 2023 TV and NOW Lineup

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Tribeca-Festival-Announces-2023-TV-and-NOW-LineupThe 2023 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced its lineup of world premieres of new and returning television and original indie episodic series. The Festival, which takes place June 7-18, showcases a selection of highly anticipated programs from networks and streamers at the forefront of groundbreaking storytelling including Disney+, Max, Apple TV+, Starz, AMC, A&E, BET+, and more.

This year’s TV lineup features eight series premieres and two first looks at returning classics. World premieres include Max’s Full Circle about an investigation into a botched kidnapping that reveals long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Dennis Quaid, Claire Danes, Timothy Olyphant, Zazie Beetz, and Jharrel Jerome; Prime Video’s The Horror Of Dolores Roach, a Sweeney-Todd inspired tale with Justina Machado; and BET+’s Diarra From Detroit, a dark comedy executive produced by Kenya Barris that centers on a divorcing school teacher, written and starring Diarra Kilpatrick.

The program also features subject-centric stories from HBO Sports Documentaries’ The Golden Boy, a definitive documentary unpacking the life of cultural icon Oscar De La Hoya, executive produced by Mark Wahlberg and Mario Lopez; Disney+’s Choir based on the inspirational story behind America’s Got Talent finalists the Detroit Youth Choir; A&E’s Exposing Parchman, an investigative documentary that explores the efforts to reform the Mississippi correctional system led by a team of attorneys on behalf of the inmates of Parchman Prison featuring Jay-Z; and Paramount+’s De La Calle, a docu-series that takes a journey into the Latino diaspora with special guests Fat Joe and Juelz Santana among other artists.

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“Daliland” Trailer: Ben Kingsley, Ezra Miller And More In The Mary Harron Biopic

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Daliland-TrailerDirected by acclaimed filmmaker Mary Harron (“I Shot Andy Warhol”, “American Psycho”), Dalíland stars Ben Kingsley as the titular Salvador Dalí, one of the most world-renowned artists of the 20th century.

The film focuses on the later years of the strange and fascinating marriage between Dalí and his wife, Gala, as their seemingly unshakable bond begins to stress and fracture.

Set in New York and Spain in 1974, the film is told through the eyes of James, a young assistant keen to make his name in the art world, who helps the eccentric and mercurial Dalí prepare for a big gallery show. Rupert Graves, Suki Waterhouse, Andreja Pejic, and Ezra Miller also star.

From a screenplay by John C. Walsh, Magnolia Pictures is distributing the movie. “Daliland” is set for its theatrical and on-demand release on June 9, 2023.

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“Balloon Animal” Trailer Debut

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Balloon Animal Trailer DebutFirst Bloom Films production has recently released the trailer for its latest film “Balloon Animal”. The film is set to be available on VOD on Friday, April 7, 2023 (U.S. & U.K.) in Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Comcast/Xfinity, Charter, Cox, etc.

Written and directed by Em Johnson, the drama film s Katherine Waddell, Ilia Volok, Erin Li, Dani Baez, and Michael David Wilson.

“Balloon Animal” follows Poppy Valentine, a young circus performer who has grown up in her family’s traveling circus, begins dreaming of what life would be like outside of its fences.

Now in her mid-20s and with more unwelcomed responsibility weighing her down, she’s desperate to figure out if this life is for her. As she slowly begins to take time for herself, finding independence and even love, she strains her relationship with those around her in the tight-knit circus community. Amidst her overprotective father, stressful circus expectations, and a blossoming curiosity for a life of her own, Poppy must decide if the risk is worth leaving everything she’s ever known behind.

A First Bloom Films production, “Balloon Animal” is written and directed by Em Johnson. Cinematography by Megan Stacey. Produced by Ruvi Leider, Monica O’Hara, and Katherine Waddell. Composed by Alexa L. Borden and Connor Cook. Edited by Gregory Tuzin.

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