Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie is making waves with award-winning movies that take a provocative stance on social and gender taboos. BroadcastPro ME spoke to her about her motivations, resources and convictions. Continue reading Zain Duraie making waves with award winning movie
Molly Stuart (Objector) In Imagineindia
First published in FILM DAILY
Molly Stuart is an up-and-coming filmmaker with a message to send. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Molly was a 2018 Women Peace and Security Fellow. She did all this while earning an MFA in cinema at San Francisco State University. That’s not all. Molly has won the Bill Nichols Excellence in Cinema Award, the Canon Best in Show Award, the Spotlight on Women in Film Award, and the Barbara Hammer Award. Continue reading Molly Stuart (Objector) In Imagineindia
Objector (Molly Stuart) Israel
Objector
Molly Stuart
Israel. 2019. 75 min
Like most young adults in Israel, Atalya is required to join the army. She strongly objects to the army’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and doesn’t want to be part of it. But she’s also scared that if she refuses to do military service, people will view her as a traitor. She talks at length about her intentions with family members, who have differing opinions on the matter. It’s striking how much real listening is done, and how much space there is for dissenting views. The way her grandfather lovingly clasps her hand in his as he says it’s “so stupid” to be an objector, is telling.
While preparing herself for a possible jail sentence of indefinite length, Atalya makes increasingly frequent visits to the occupied territories. There, she sees Palestinians being chased from their homes, which are subsequently destroyed. She also gets into contact with other objectors.
Slowly but surely, she transforms from a 19-year-old with a strong sense of justice into a leader of a group of young people who are saying “no” to the occupation, and who don’t see military service the way the older generations do: as a necessary step on the road to adulthood.
MOLLY STUART
Molly Stuart is an up-and-coming filmmaker with a message to send. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Molly was a 2018 Women Peace and Security Fellow. She did all this while earning an MFA in cinema at San Francisco State University. That’s not all. Molly has won the Bill Nichols Excellence in Cinema Award, the Canon Best in Show Award, the Spotlight on Women in Film Award, and the Barbara Hammer Award.
Molly has also won several film festival awards, including Best Documentary Short, Best Short, and Best Young Storyteller Award. Previously, Molly has worked on other projects including Guy Hircefield, a Guy with a Camera and A Wake.
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CONTACT
Olivier Semonnay : olivier@javafilms.tv
Interview to Pavel Lungin (Brotherhood, Official Section)
Interview by Sasha Sulim
Russian director Pavel Lungin’s new film Brotherhood is out in Russian theaters, but its journey to this point has not been easy. The pacifist film, which depicts the withdrawal of Soviet troops at the close of the brutal Afghan war, struggled to attract funds despite approval from prominent veterans. After a successful premier, the film raised hackles among some government officials, most prominently Senator Igor Morozov, who called the movie “unpatriotic.” After Morozov’s criticism came to light, Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky asked for the film’s government-approved public release date to be pushed back by a day so that it would not coincide with Victory Day, which is celebrated on May 9. In advance of the film’s release, Sasha Sulim spoke with Lungin about making Brotherhood and watching Russian society grapple with its demons. Continue reading Interview to Pavel Lungin (Brotherhood, Official Section)
Interview to Sajin Babu (Biriyaani. Official Section)
By JYOTHI VENKATESH for BOLLYY
You made your debut with the Malayalam film Unto the Dusk in 2014 which was showcased at IFFK, Bengaluru Film Festival and MAMI when you were just 26 years old. Ayaal Sassi was your second Malayalam film as a director in 2017. Your latest film Biriyaani has just won the Best Film award at the recently concluded 12th Bengaluru International Film Festival. What inspired you to make Biriyaani?
My debut film Unto the Dusk, questioned conventional mores and sanctity of familial bonds. Ayaal Sassi, my second film, tracked a man’s desperate craving for publicity and how he would go to any length to become the cynosure of all eyes. The plot of my third film Biriyaani was culled by me from a childhood event which has ingrained in my mind. I have always been passionate about Cinema right from my childhood. Continue reading Interview to Sajin Babu (Biriyaani. Official Section)
Gamak Ghar (Achal Mishra) India. Official Section
Gamak Ghar
Achal Mishra
India. 2019. 91 min
The film takes place in the ancestral home in Madhopur village in Bihar. Gamak Ghar (The house in the village) unfolds over three phases – 1998, 2010 and the present. The members of the clan live elsewhere and reconvene in the house on festivals. They make trips to their mango orchard, catch up on the gossip, watch television together and take dips in the local pool for Chhath Puja celebrations.
Over the years, the number of visitors dwindles. The house starts to lose its sparkle, partly because of recurring floods, and there is talk of reconstructing it.
The film is in the Maithili language spoken in the region. The characters are based on Mishra’s family members, and are played by neighbours and other villagers. A photograph of the family patriarch, the playwright and actor Kedar Nath Mishra, is a talismanic presence in the film. He is not a creature of the imagination, but is actually the director’s grandfather.
ACHAL MISHRA
Achal Mishra is a 22-year-old, self-taught filmmaker and photographer. A native of Darbhanga – a small town in the North Indian state of Bihar, he started making films during his school days, and went on to undergraduate Film Studies at King’s College. After a brief stint in London, which was largely spent watching and absorbing cinema, he returned to India and has been making short films since then. Gamak Ghar is his first feature film.
MAKING OF
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CONTACT
Achal Mishra : achal.mishra@icloud.com
Mosley (Michael Shevloff) Great Britain
Mosley
Michael Shevloff
Great Britain. 2020. 96 min
The film chronicles both the highs and lows of Mosley’s career, during which he was one of Formula 1’s main powerbrokers as President the FIA from 1993-2009.
Produced and directed by Michael Shevloff, Mosley follows Shevlov’s previous work : Life at the Limit, which explored F1’s approach to safety and the impact of Professor Sid Watkins.
Featuring appearances from Bernie Ecclestone, Jean Todt, Flavio Briatore and Gerhard Berger among others, Mosley himself has promised the film will be a “warts and all thing”.
It’s got everything in it, including the News of the World and what’s happened since. Bernie’s interview is interesting, because they go into the whole thing of whose side was he on when the story came out.
“Someone asked does it include Hitler being a guest as his parents’ wedding? The answer is yes it does.” Mosley’s father Oswald was the leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
“There are one or two elements in it that if I were in charge, I would cut out,” Mosley admitted. “But then it would take away the whole point of it – it needs to be independent.”
MICHAEL SHEVLOFF
Michael Shevloff is an award-winning television, film and documentary producer/showrunner and now director. Shevloff began his career in England working on feature films such as Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Full Metal Jacket. Michael produced a series of independent films including the Sundance hit, Bandwagon and the critically acclaimed independent films The Big Empty and La Cucaracha.
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Michael Shevloff : mshevloff@gmail.com
Meet Jessica Oreck – “One man dies a million times”
By Sophia Stewart for Women and Hollywood
Jessica Oreck is a writer and director. Her first film, “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2010 and aired on PBS’ “Independent Lens” series, as well as playing theatrically around the world. Since then, her credits have included ” “Venus,” “Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys,” and “The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga.” Continue reading Meet Jessica Oreck – “One man dies a million times”
Acting in Satyajit Ray,s cinema
Talking about Satyajit Ray and his cinema in a very short span is really difficult. He is no doubt a complete artist and one who is a master in so many different aspects of cinema and culture.
Realism in Satyajit Ray’s cinema is the very first of its kind in the context of Indian cinema. Earlier mostly cinematic expressions were borrowed heavily from theatre and also literature.
Ray was one of the first who showed how to evolve a cinematic language which is distinct from theatre and literature. Continue reading Acting in Satyajit Ray,s cinema
Mother (Aleksandr Myskin) Russia
Mother
Aleksandr Myskin
Russia. 2019. 12 min
Disabled Katya and her mother moved in a new apartment. After a quarrel Katya break an ampoule with medicine. Later she founds out that she can stand on her legs. Then Katya discovers, that all these years mother poisoning her. She decided to escape. To be saved she injects a big amount of medicine into mothers back.
ALEKSANDR MYSKIN
Alexander Myskin was born in Pyt’-Yakh. He got a qualification as a translator in business communications in 2010. Aleksandr graduated Omsk State Technical University, course of Information Technology in Media Industry. He worked as a designer in an advertising agency and lectured in Omsk State Technical University. In 2017 he got into Industry Film School.
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Ekaterina Rusakovich : ekaterina@eastwood.agency
imagineindiafestival.com 