Guests will include Wim Wenders, Joan Baez, Nathan Fielder.
The 20th anniversary edition of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) includes more than 200 films, of which over 100 are world premieres – the most ever at a single edition of the festival.
The festival will screen 61 titles across five international competition sections: New:Vision, F:Act, Nordic:Dox, Next:Wave and the previously announced Dox:Award titles.
Scroll down for the full list of competition titles
46 of the 61 competition titles are world premieres, with 10 international premieres and five European debuts.
Films directed by women make up 47% of the lineup, with men represented on 38%. Ten percent...
The 20th anniversary edition of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) includes more than 200 films, of which over 100 are world premieres – the most ever at a single edition of the festival.
The festival will screen 61 titles across five international competition sections: New:Vision, F:Act, Nordic:Dox, Next:Wave and the previously announced Dox:Award titles.
Scroll down for the full list of competition titles
46 of the 61 competition titles are world premieres, with 10 international premieres and five European debuts.
Films directed by women make up 47% of the lineup, with men represented on 38%. Ten percent...
- 2/21/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Fredrik Gertten’s feature doc Breaking Social has been selected to world premiere in competition at Cph:Dox.
Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s feature doc Breaking Social, which has been selected to world premiere in competition at Cph:Dox next month, has sold to Germany (Mindjazz), Netherlands (Cinema Delicatessen), Sweden (Triart), Canada (Level Films), and several Balkan countries including Croatia (Restart) and Serbia (Five Stars), ahead of its EFM screening.
Getten is repping the film himself through his Wg Film.
Breaking Social examines turning points that make people want to organise and protest such as the assassination of an investigative journalist in...
Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s feature doc Breaking Social, which has been selected to world premiere in competition at Cph:Dox next month, has sold to Germany (Mindjazz), Netherlands (Cinema Delicatessen), Sweden (Triart), Canada (Level Films), and several Balkan countries including Croatia (Restart) and Serbia (Five Stars), ahead of its EFM screening.
Getten is repping the film himself through his Wg Film.
Breaking Social examines turning points that make people want to organise and protest such as the assassination of an investigative journalist in...
- 2/20/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Warner Bros.’ “Elvis,” directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4.02 million (4.9 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.
After two weeks at the top, Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” was in second place in its third weekend with £3.4 million for a total of £27.1 million. In its fifth weekend, Paramount’s Tom Cruise jet “Top Gun Maverick” collected £3.3 million in third place and now has a total of £63 million.
Disney’s “Lightyear” was in fourth position with £2.2 million in its second weekend for a total of £6.9 million. Debuting in fifth place was Universal’s “The Black Phone” with £1.3 million.
Moviegoers Entertainment’s Bollywood release “Jug Jugg Jeeyo,” starring Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Neetu Kapoor and Kiara Advani, debuted in sixth place with £163,648. The other debut in the top 10 was Trafalgar Releasing’s music documentary “George Michael Freedom Uncut,...
After two weeks at the top, Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” was in second place in its third weekend with £3.4 million for a total of £27.1 million. In its fifth weekend, Paramount’s Tom Cruise jet “Top Gun Maverick” collected £3.3 million in third place and now has a total of £63 million.
Disney’s “Lightyear” was in fourth position with £2.2 million in its second weekend for a total of £6.9 million. Debuting in fifth place was Universal’s “The Black Phone” with £1.3 million.
Moviegoers Entertainment’s Bollywood release “Jug Jugg Jeeyo,” starring Anil Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Neetu Kapoor and Kiara Advani, debuted in sixth place with £163,648. The other debut in the top 10 was Trafalgar Releasing’s music documentary “George Michael Freedom Uncut,...
- 6/28/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Following two pandemic-caused online editions, Sunny Side of the Doc, the international marketplace for documentary and narrative experiences, has unveiled the pitch selection for its 33rd edition, which will be in-person.
48 projects from 22 countries will be presented across eight pitch sessions across three genre categories – global issues, wildlife and conservation, and science, history, arts and culture. The submissions this year were in response to the event’s callout for new voices.
The event has achieved a perfect 50/50 gender balance among the directors of the selected projects. These sessions will take place during the marketplace in front of more than 400 international decision-makers, including broadcasters, streamers, foundations, sales agents and other investors Eight winners will each receive a cash prize of €3,000 from the respective pitch session sponsors.
For the first time, a “Coup de Coeur” award will be presented by international student delegations to a director who has submitted a first or second documentary project.
48 projects from 22 countries will be presented across eight pitch sessions across three genre categories – global issues, wildlife and conservation, and science, history, arts and culture. The submissions this year were in response to the event’s callout for new voices.
The event has achieved a perfect 50/50 gender balance among the directors of the selected projects. These sessions will take place during the marketplace in front of more than 400 international decision-makers, including broadcasters, streamers, foundations, sales agents and other investors Eight winners will each receive a cash prize of €3,000 from the respective pitch session sponsors.
For the first time, a “Coup de Coeur” award will be presented by international student delegations to a director who has submitted a first or second documentary project.
- 5/10/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Given all the hardships of the year just past, it’s certainly understandable that some viewers eschewed some of 2020’s tougher non-fiction storytelling in favor of escapism. But even with — and sometimes because of — everything else going on, the last 12 months delivered some extraordinary documentaries, and whether or not they were directly about aspects of the pandemic, they all had a lot to say about the current state of the world.
10. “Push”: As the recent furor over water being traded as a commodity reminds us, it’s never a good idea to let Wall Street collide with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Director Fredrik Gertten takes viewers through a global crisis, in which poor people are kicked out of neighborhoods so that luxury high-rise apartments can be constructed but never occupied, purely for investment purposes. Thankfully, we also get to meet the people fighting to end this practice.
9. “American...
10. “Push”: As the recent furor over water being traded as a commodity reminds us, it’s never a good idea to let Wall Street collide with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Director Fredrik Gertten takes viewers through a global crisis, in which poor people are kicked out of neighborhoods so that luxury high-rise apartments can be constructed but never occupied, purely for investment purposes. Thankfully, we also get to meet the people fighting to end this practice.
9. “American...
- 12/22/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
The real villain in the affordable-housing emergency is not avocado-eating creatives but the financial elites, according to this sobering documentary
Don’t blame gentrification for pushing the poor out of inner cities. That’s the message of this plausible investigative documentary from Swedish journalist Fredrik Gertten, who zooms out to take a global view of rising rents. The real villain in the affordable-housing crisis, his argument goes, is not avocado-eating young creatives but the financial elites. And Gertten does a decent job of delivering an economics lesson, explaining the complexities of the “financialisation” of residential real estate; most politicians, apparently, just don’t get it.
At the heart of the film is Leilani Farha, a Canadian human rights lawyer working as the Un’s special rapporteur on adequate housing. With her hippy haircut and activist approach of getting stuck in, she flies around the world talking to people affected by rising housing costs.
Don’t blame gentrification for pushing the poor out of inner cities. That’s the message of this plausible investigative documentary from Swedish journalist Fredrik Gertten, who zooms out to take a global view of rising rents. The real villain in the affordable-housing crisis, his argument goes, is not avocado-eating young creatives but the financial elites. And Gertten does a decent job of delivering an economics lesson, explaining the complexities of the “financialisation” of residential real estate; most politicians, apparently, just don’t get it.
At the heart of the film is Leilani Farha, a Canadian human rights lawyer working as the Un’s special rapporteur on adequate housing. With her hippy haircut and activist approach of getting stuck in, she flies around the world talking to people affected by rising housing costs.
- 2/26/2020
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Efa members will now choose five nominations from the list.
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ Syrian war documentary For Sama and Sundance award winner Honeyland are among the 12 titles on the documentary longlist for the 2019 European Film Awards.
Scroll down for the full longlist.
For Sama launched at SXSW in the Us, before joining the Cannes official selection as a special screening. The film shows the female experience of the Syrian conflict through the lives of al-Kateab and her young daughter Sama. Republic Film Distribution has UK rights on the title, with PBS Distribution handling a Us theatrical release.
Honeyland,...
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ Syrian war documentary For Sama and Sundance award winner Honeyland are among the 12 titles on the documentary longlist for the 2019 European Film Awards.
Scroll down for the full longlist.
For Sama launched at SXSW in the Us, before joining the Cannes official selection as a special screening. The film shows the female experience of the Syrian conflict through the lives of al-Kateab and her young daughter Sama. Republic Film Distribution has UK rights on the title, with PBS Distribution handling a Us theatrical release.
Honeyland,...
- 8/27/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Hot Docs is coming to Toronto, and what better way to celebrate that than with a documentary on the increasing urban-global housing crisis (of which several Canadian cities qualify). Fredrik Gertten's documentary examines the 'gentrification' issue in a variety of key cities around the world. Unrelated, but really, have a look at Pang Ho-Cheung's 2010 real-estate slasher Dream Home as a fictional companion piece. The key art for Push has a nice echo to Saul Bass's opening titles work on North By Northwest, which was later repurposed for a real-estate slash home-invasion thriller by David Fincher, the underrated Panic Room. The black tiles that make up the bulk of the poster here, resemble apartment buildings, and also individual units within any given high-rise development. Coming...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 4/19/2019
- Screen Anarchy
A Moon For My Father, Dark Suns also among winners.
This year’s Cph:dox festival in Copenhagen has handed out its main prize, the Dox:Award, to John Skoog’s Ridge. The film is an artistic hybrid documentary portrait of the Swedish summer, featuring visual art, abstract fiction and documentary material from Skåne, the country’s southernmost county.
The jury, consisting of producer Katrin Pors, critic and curator Eric Hynes, filmmaker Soudade Kaadan, filmmaker Frederic Tcheng, and Berlinale Panorama programme director Paz Lazaro, also gave a special mention to Pia Hellenthal’s feminist doc Searching Eva about a young woman living in Berlin.
This year’s Cph:dox festival in Copenhagen has handed out its main prize, the Dox:Award, to John Skoog’s Ridge. The film is an artistic hybrid documentary portrait of the Swedish summer, featuring visual art, abstract fiction and documentary material from Skåne, the country’s southernmost county.
The jury, consisting of producer Katrin Pors, critic and curator Eric Hynes, filmmaker Soudade Kaadan, filmmaker Frederic Tcheng, and Berlinale Panorama programme director Paz Lazaro, also gave a special mention to Pia Hellenthal’s feminist doc Searching Eva about a young woman living in Berlin.
- 3/29/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Ai Weiwei film is a companion piece to Human Flow.
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 20-31) has revealed its line-up of competition titles for 2019.
Notable world premieres include The Rest, the latest feature from Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. His previous feature, refugee crisis doc Human Flow, premiered at Venice in 2017 and won multiple awards.
The Rest is a parallel work to Human Flow, again focusing on the refugee crisis, but this time in line with the voice and experience of an individual refugee. Edited down from 900 hours of footage, the film depicts those living in political limbo in Europe,...
Copenhagen-based documentary festival Cph:dox (March 20-31) has revealed its line-up of competition titles for 2019.
Notable world premieres include The Rest, the latest feature from Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. His previous feature, refugee crisis doc Human Flow, premiered at Venice in 2017 and won multiple awards.
The Rest is a parallel work to Human Flow, again focusing on the refugee crisis, but this time in line with the voice and experience of an individual refugee. Edited down from 900 hours of footage, the film depicts those living in political limbo in Europe,...
- 2/22/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day event will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day event will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day even will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.
Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day even will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.
The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.
Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Buzz projects include Eurimages prize-winner Journey To Utopia.
Lars von Trier was the talk of Copenhagen on Thursday (March 22) – and for once not because of a film he’s directed but for a documentary that turns the cameras on him.
Producer Sigrid Dyekjaer of Danish Documentary unveiled footage at Cph:forum of The Missing Films, a portrait of von Trier directed by two of his long-time collaborators, Tomas Gislason and Jacob Thuesen.
Attending industry experts were buzzing about the footage shown, demonstrating an unprecedented level of intimacy and access to von Trier that among other sequences shows him in production on his new serial killer story,...
Lars von Trier was the talk of Copenhagen on Thursday (March 22) – and for once not because of a film he’s directed but for a documentary that turns the cameras on him.
Producer Sigrid Dyekjaer of Danish Documentary unveiled footage at Cph:forum of The Missing Films, a portrait of von Trier directed by two of his long-time collaborators, Tomas Gislason and Jacob Thuesen.
Attending industry experts were buzzing about the footage shown, demonstrating an unprecedented level of intimacy and access to von Trier that among other sequences shows him in production on his new serial killer story,...
- 3/22/2018
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Works in progress to include ‘Reconstructing Utoya’; new science section includes portrait of Oliver Sacks.
Cph:Dox has unveiled the 26 projects to be presented in its Cph:Forum, its financing and co-production event (March 21-22) that works across creative filmmaking.
The projects are from the likes of established directors such as Maxim Pozdorovkin (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), Guy Davidi (5 Broken Cameras), Camilla Nielsson (Democrats), Anna Eborn (Pine Ridge) and Grant Gee (Meeting People is Easy).
Topics range from a family trying to find their own utopia in an organic village; a portrait of Lee Miller; the filmic obsessions of Lars von Trier; and Chinese women trying to find a partner by age 27.
For the fifth year, the Forum projects are eligible for the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of $18,400 €15,000 for the event’s best pitch. Kickstarter provides guidance and promotional support for the Forum projects as well.
More than 150 attending decision makers will include European broadcasters such as...
Cph:Dox has unveiled the 26 projects to be presented in its Cph:Forum, its financing and co-production event (March 21-22) that works across creative filmmaking.
The projects are from the likes of established directors such as Maxim Pozdorovkin (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), Guy Davidi (5 Broken Cameras), Camilla Nielsson (Democrats), Anna Eborn (Pine Ridge) and Grant Gee (Meeting People is Easy).
Topics range from a family trying to find their own utopia in an organic village; a portrait of Lee Miller; the filmic obsessions of Lars von Trier; and Chinese women trying to find a partner by age 27.
For the fifth year, the Forum projects are eligible for the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of $18,400 €15,000 for the event’s best pitch. Kickstarter provides guidance and promotional support for the Forum projects as well.
More than 150 attending decision makers will include European broadcasters such as...
- 2/8/2018
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
At Cph:Forum, Eurimages Award goes to Maria Back’s Psychosis in Stockholm; 31 projects pitched.
Cph:dox expanded its industry offerings this year by adding a Work-in-Progress session on the eve of its Cph:forum for six Nordic documentaries currently in production or post-production.
Short presentations including footage was shown for projects including:
The Acali Experiment (Swe/Den/Ger/Us), dir Marcus Lindeen, prod Erik Gandini
The story will examine what happened when Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés tried a unique experiment in 1973, putting 10 people on a raft for a 101-day voyage to study human behaviour. Lindeen brought the participants together for the first time in 43 years to talk about Genoves’ manipulative behaviour. “I wanted make a reunion and let them talk about their memories of what happened on the raft,” he said. “We let the subjects make a study of the scientist.” The team aims to deliver the film in the autumn.
Contact: gandini@fasad.se
[link...
Cph:dox expanded its industry offerings this year by adding a Work-in-Progress session on the eve of its Cph:forum for six Nordic documentaries currently in production or post-production.
Short presentations including footage was shown for projects including:
The Acali Experiment (Swe/Den/Ger/Us), dir Marcus Lindeen, prod Erik Gandini
The story will examine what happened when Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés tried a unique experiment in 1973, putting 10 people on a raft for a 101-day voyage to study human behaviour. Lindeen brought the participants together for the first time in 43 years to talk about Genoves’ manipulative behaviour. “I wanted make a reunion and let them talk about their memories of what happened on the raft,” he said. “We let the subjects make a study of the scientist.” The team aims to deliver the film in the autumn.
Contact: gandini@fasad.se
[link...
- 3/24/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Projects include The Distant Barking of Dogs, from The Act of Killing production company Final Cut For Real.
The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, to be held in Malmo, Sweden from Sept 18-20, has selected 24 documentary projects to be pitched to industry professionals.
They include Johan Von Sydow’s Swedish documentary about American musician Tiny Tim; Lea Glob’s Danish documentary about a female painter’s coming of age in Paris; Emil Trier’s feature debut about Norwegian con man Waleed Ahmed; and The Act of Killing production company Final Cut For Real’s new Ukraine-set project The Distant Barking of Dogs [pictured], directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont.
The full list of projects being pitched16, dir Kenneth Elvebaak, Fuglene (Norway)Adil and the Spy, dirs Randi Mossige-Norheim & Johan Palmgren, Mantaray Film (Sweden)Apolonia, Apolonia, dir Lea Glob, Danish Documentary (Denmark)Confessions of a Military Dictatorship, dir Karen Stokkendal Poulsen, Bullitt Film (Denmark...
The Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries, to be held in Malmo, Sweden from Sept 18-20, has selected 24 documentary projects to be pitched to industry professionals.
They include Johan Von Sydow’s Swedish documentary about American musician Tiny Tim; Lea Glob’s Danish documentary about a female painter’s coming of age in Paris; Emil Trier’s feature debut about Norwegian con man Waleed Ahmed; and The Act of Killing production company Final Cut For Real’s new Ukraine-set project The Distant Barking of Dogs [pictured], directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont.
The full list of projects being pitched16, dir Kenneth Elvebaak, Fuglene (Norway)Adil and the Spy, dirs Randi Mossige-Norheim & Johan Palmgren, Mantaray Film (Sweden)Apolonia, Apolonia, dir Lea Glob, Danish Documentary (Denmark)Confessions of a Military Dictatorship, dir Karen Stokkendal Poulsen, Bullitt Film (Denmark...
- 7/29/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The Swedish Film Institute has backed nineteen projects in its latest round of funding.
Swedish director Sanna Lenken, who won Berlin’s Crystal Bear in 2015 with My Skinny Sister, is now making a 30-minute short Night Child (Nattbarn), based on a graphic novel by Hanna Gustafsson.
The story is about 14-year-old girl Iggy “who lives a parallel online life to avoid the everyday tedium. A story about identity, sexuality, borderlands and friendship.”
The film is one of several new productions getting backing from the Swedish Film Institute. Others include Dome Karukoski’s anticipated new Tom Of Finland biopic [pictured] and Agnieszka Holland’s Polish drama Game Count.
Other projects backed, listed from highest investments, are:
Becoming Zlatan, wr/dirs Fredrik Gertten, Magnus Gertten; prods Margarete Jangård, Lennart Ström. Documentary about charismatic footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. $246,000 (2m Sek)
Tom Of Finland, dir Dome Karukoski, wr Aleksi Bardy, prods Gunnar Carlsson, Emma Åkesdotter Ronge. Drama about the...
Swedish director Sanna Lenken, who won Berlin’s Crystal Bear in 2015 with My Skinny Sister, is now making a 30-minute short Night Child (Nattbarn), based on a graphic novel by Hanna Gustafsson.
The story is about 14-year-old girl Iggy “who lives a parallel online life to avoid the everyday tedium. A story about identity, sexuality, borderlands and friendship.”
The film is one of several new productions getting backing from the Swedish Film Institute. Others include Dome Karukoski’s anticipated new Tom Of Finland biopic [pictured] and Agnieszka Holland’s Polish drama Game Count.
Other projects backed, listed from highest investments, are:
Becoming Zlatan, wr/dirs Fredrik Gertten, Magnus Gertten; prods Margarete Jangård, Lennart Ström. Documentary about charismatic footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. $246,000 (2m Sek)
Tom Of Finland, dir Dome Karukoski, wr Aleksi Bardy, prods Gunnar Carlsson, Emma Åkesdotter Ronge. Drama about the...
- 4/4/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
Variety‘s Kris Tapley on the top 10 shots of 2015:
John Seale came out of retirement to shoot George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and he even turned 70 years old during production. Not only that, but he was up on top of those war rigs tearing through the African desert operating camera himself in many instances, grips hanging off of the sturdy sport sailer who got his sea legs long ago. He took to the film’s action-filled spectacle like a duck to water.
Liv Ullmann recommends a Vittorio de Sica film:
Rolling Stone‘s David Ehrlich on why westerns are tragically more relevant than ever:
America...
Variety‘s Kris Tapley on the top 10 shots of 2015:
John Seale came out of retirement to shoot George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and he even turned 70 years old during production. Not only that, but he was up on top of those war rigs tearing through the African desert operating camera himself in many instances, grips hanging off of the sturdy sport sailer who got his sea legs long ago. He took to the film’s action-filled spectacle like a duck to water.
Liv Ullmann recommends a Vittorio de Sica film:
Rolling Stone‘s David Ehrlich on why westerns are tragically more relevant than ever:
America...
- 1/5/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Vimeo On Demand announced at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) on Monday that it has acquired Us rights to Fredrik Gertten’s documentary.
Bikes Vs Cars will open in the Us on December 15 and examines the role of bicycles as an agent of change at a time of deepening environmental crisis.
The Wg Film premiered at SXSW and is currently available in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway on the Vimeo On Demand platform
Gertten is at Idfa premiering his latest film, Becoming Zlatan.
Bikes Vs Cars will open in the Us on December 15 and examines the role of bicycles as an agent of change at a time of deepening environmental crisis.
The Wg Film premiered at SXSW and is currently available in Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway on the Vimeo On Demand platform
Gertten is at Idfa premiering his latest film, Becoming Zlatan.
- 11/23/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...
- 11/5/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Jumping into the growing urban bicycling subculture and the tension between drivers and riders, Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. rights to the new documentary Bikes vs. Cars. Directed by Fredrik Gertten (Big Boys Gone Bananas), the film is a deep dive into cyclist culture, the fight by biking activists to protect their access to streets, and issues such as the vested interest in keeping cities car-oriented, environmentalism, and more. Spanning cities such…...
- 8/5/2015
- Deadline
Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
- 5/6/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
The trailer for Bikes vs Cars, a new film by Swedish documentary-maker Fredrik Gertten. The film interrogates the environmental and psychological impact of owning and operating a car. As commuters in cities all over the world are increasingly gravitating towards cycling, the documentary asks whether the economic powers will allow such a potentially costly shift away from the big car manufacturers Continue reading...
- 5/3/2015
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
In Toronto, they’ve painted over the bike lanes. And in São Paulo, a cyclist got his arm torn off by a car that didn’t even stop … We knew it was bad on the world’s crowded roads, but a new film reveals it’s a fight to the death
Fredrik Gertten is a Swedish documentary-maker: he made a film about the banana industry, and then he made a film about being sued by the banana industry. He has recently been anointed one of Sweden’s “top environmentalists” – which, although the title is fairly broad, has got to be good. And he has now made Bikes vs Cars, which is as confronting – though I don’t think you’d call it exactly confrontational – as you would expect.
I have, give or take, mainly peddled the line that it’s not a war between the two-wheeled and the four-wheeled: how could it be,...
Fredrik Gertten is a Swedish documentary-maker: he made a film about the banana industry, and then he made a film about being sued by the banana industry. He has recently been anointed one of Sweden’s “top environmentalists” – which, although the title is fairly broad, has got to be good. And he has now made Bikes vs Cars, which is as confronting – though I don’t think you’d call it exactly confrontational – as you would expect.
I have, give or take, mainly peddled the line that it’s not a war between the two-wheeled and the four-wheeled: how could it be,...
- 5/3/2015
- by Zoe Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
Most American automobile commuters spend 55 working days in traffic every year, 3 hours per day, and 25% of their income on transportation costs, while 50% of their car trips are less than 3 miles long.
Fredrik Gertten's “Bikes vs Cars” is a terrific documentary which demonstrates just how draining and straining automobile traffic is in heavily populated cities like Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, Brazil, and just how easy and well accepted commuting by bicycle is in bike captial cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark, there are 1000 kilometers of bike lanes and 4 out of 5 people own a bike. 40% of the entire city commutes on bicycles, while in Los Angeles, California, only 0.8% commute by bike.
How many people dislike driving, traffic jams, the cost of parking, gas, tolls, registration, insurance, and maintenance, yet have no other public transportation options?
Why and when were these options eliminated and by who? Why were they in favor of constructing freeways? What percentage of Los Angeles is currently dedicated to roads and parking?
Bicyclist advocates, Raquel Rolnik, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism Department, Don Ward, organizer of L.A.’s ‘Wolfpack Hustle,’ the underground bicycling club known for their midnight rides, and Dan Koeppel, who founded and organized ‘The Big Parade,’ a two-day community walking event in Los Angeles, discuss urban sprawl, bicycle activism, and ways to improve the environment.
“They keep building the freeways wider and wider, 6-12 lanes wide, thinking that the traffic will improve, but it only keeps getting worse and worse.”
Are cars still a status symbol? What does your car say about you? Are you single? married? Wealthy? How much does the automobile industry spend on advertising? How many electric cars have they sold? What percentage of cars will be sold to the millennial generation over the next 5-6 years, and what type of cars will they be interested in? How many cars are there are on the planet, and how many will there be in the year 2020? Which automobiles emit the most Carbon Dioxide, and which are the most efficient? Why is it so difficult to change urban planning to be more bike and eco-friendly? What was the Carmageddon weekend really like for bike riders, the air quality and pollution? and What’s really in the bike vs car dilemma for the politicians and oil companies?
If you reduce the number of cars by making it more expensive for them, reduce the amount of lanes, reduce the parking, increase the prices, add toll roads, and pressure politicians, will the traffic congestion get better or worse?
“Bikes vs Cars” will answer all of these questions.
Fredrik Gertten's “Bikes vs Cars” is a terrific documentary which demonstrates just how draining and straining automobile traffic is in heavily populated cities like Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, Brazil, and just how easy and well accepted commuting by bicycle is in bike captial cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark, there are 1000 kilometers of bike lanes and 4 out of 5 people own a bike. 40% of the entire city commutes on bicycles, while in Los Angeles, California, only 0.8% commute by bike.
How many people dislike driving, traffic jams, the cost of parking, gas, tolls, registration, insurance, and maintenance, yet have no other public transportation options?
Why and when were these options eliminated and by who? Why were they in favor of constructing freeways? What percentage of Los Angeles is currently dedicated to roads and parking?
Bicyclist advocates, Raquel Rolnik, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s School of Architecture and Urbanism Department, Don Ward, organizer of L.A.’s ‘Wolfpack Hustle,’ the underground bicycling club known for their midnight rides, and Dan Koeppel, who founded and organized ‘The Big Parade,’ a two-day community walking event in Los Angeles, discuss urban sprawl, bicycle activism, and ways to improve the environment.
“They keep building the freeways wider and wider, 6-12 lanes wide, thinking that the traffic will improve, but it only keeps getting worse and worse.”
Are cars still a status symbol? What does your car say about you? Are you single? married? Wealthy? How much does the automobile industry spend on advertising? How many electric cars have they sold? What percentage of cars will be sold to the millennial generation over the next 5-6 years, and what type of cars will they be interested in? How many cars are there are on the planet, and how many will there be in the year 2020? Which automobiles emit the most Carbon Dioxide, and which are the most efficient? Why is it so difficult to change urban planning to be more bike and eco-friendly? What was the Carmageddon weekend really like for bike riders, the air quality and pollution? and What’s really in the bike vs car dilemma for the politicians and oil companies?
If you reduce the number of cars by making it more expensive for them, reduce the amount of lanes, reduce the parking, increase the prices, add toll roads, and pressure politicians, will the traffic congestion get better or worse?
“Bikes vs Cars” will answer all of these questions.
- 3/24/2015
- by Sharon Abella
- Sydney's Buzz
Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Amy Schumer and Bill Hader in TrainwreckPhoto: Universal Pictures With Sundance just wrapping up and Berlin starting up in a few days, we are now immersed in the year-long barrage of film festivals. One such festival in South By Southwest. A few weeks back they announced the first seven films of their program, including the opening night film Brand: A Second Coming. Today, they have revealed the rest of the features to be shown in March (except for the midnight program), and some of it has me very excited. The bigger titles announced do not do much for me. Paul Feig's Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, and the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart starrer Get Hard leave a lot to be desired in terms of anticipation, as does a work in progress cut of Judd Apatow's latest film Trainwreck. I'm guessing an Apatow work in progress is probably around three and a half hours.
- 2/3/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
South by Southwest, the multi-faceted film, music and technology festival held annually in Austin, TX will feature such upcoming films as Paul Feig’s Spy, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn, Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Ondi Timoner’s Russell Brand profile Brand: A Second Coming as headliners in this year’s film festival lineup.
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
SXSW runs from March 13 to 21 in Austin and is now in its 22nd year. Variety has details of the 145 films and 100 world premieres bowing at this year’s festival. Brand, as previously reported, will be the festival’s opening night film.
Other notable titles on the list are the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard, a rough cut of Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck, the directorial debut of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland, Ex Machina, and a new comedy by Michael Showalter, Hello, My Name is Doris.
On the small screen,...
- 2/3/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Turkey or no turkey, these next couple of days lucky filmmakers who’ve been selected to screen as part of the Sundance Film Festival will get the invitation notice straight from John Cooper and the Park City programming team, and thus, those that we’re betting have made the cut have also inched up the list a bit. One of those that seem an obvious choice to premiere at the fest is director Steve Hoover and producer Danny Yourd’s Crocodile Gennadiy. Following up their Grand Jury Prize winning Blood Brother with incredible turnaround time, our new most anticipated film tracks the delicate operations of Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a Ukrainian activist, orphanage manager and savior of countless children whose addict parents favor injected cold medicine and alcohol over them. Part heartwrenching domestic drama, part sleuth thriller, the film looks to use the Ukrainian uprising as a backdrop to highlight its protagonist...
- 11/27/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while development and filming is underway. To chart this course with a little more precision, I’m launching Ioncinema.com’s latest feature, What’s Up Doc?, our monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated films, a sort of hitlist and/or snapshot of the most alluring, the most promising documentary film projects from the established documentarian guard, the new crop of future voices or the fiction filmmakers who on occasion dip their toes in the form. Curated by me, Jordan M. Smith, you’ll find docu items that are in their beginning stages to being moments away from their film festival berth. Like any such list, we can expect film items to fluctuate in ranking, with the cut-off being publicly items — such recent examples include Laura Poitras’s white hot Edward Snowden project,...
- 10/23/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Belle
The 2014 Athena Film Festival has unveiled its lineup of narrative, documentary and short films.
The New York Premiere of Belle, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and directed by Amma Asante, is the Athena Film Festival’s Opening Film, screening on Thursday evening. Decoding Annie Parker, starring Helen Hunt and Samantha Morton and directed by Steven Bernstein, is the festival’s Centerpiece Film, and will be screened on Friday evening. Geraldine Ferraro: Paving The Way, directed by her daughter, Donna Zaccaro, is the festival’s Closing Film, screening on Sunday evening.
The festival honors extraordinary women in the film industry and showcases films that address women’s leadership in real life and the fictional world. Now in its fourth year, the festival runs from Thursday, February 6 through Sunday, February 9 on the Barnard College campus in Morningside Heights. Artemis Rising Foundation is the Founding Sponsor of the Festival.
The Book Thief
Among...
The 2014 Athena Film Festival has unveiled its lineup of narrative, documentary and short films.
The New York Premiere of Belle, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and directed by Amma Asante, is the Athena Film Festival’s Opening Film, screening on Thursday evening. Decoding Annie Parker, starring Helen Hunt and Samantha Morton and directed by Steven Bernstein, is the festival’s Centerpiece Film, and will be screened on Friday evening. Geraldine Ferraro: Paving The Way, directed by her daughter, Donna Zaccaro, is the festival’s Closing Film, screening on Sunday evening.
The festival honors extraordinary women in the film industry and showcases films that address women’s leadership in real life and the fictional world. Now in its fourth year, the festival runs from Thursday, February 6 through Sunday, February 9 on the Barnard College campus in Morningside Heights. Artemis Rising Foundation is the Founding Sponsor of the Festival.
The Book Thief
Among...
- 1/7/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
★★★☆☆ Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) worked to bring the incessant ramblings of conspiracy theorists to the forefront of both the political and media mainstream, with its fast-paced, highly charged, wholly fresh brand of documentary. Following in hot pursuit was Robert Kenner's 2008 effort Food Inc. which encouraged a new generation of Americans to ask more questions about their country's powerful conglomerate organisations. Now, Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's new film Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2011) is the documentary that seems to have finally scared the big-wigs and fat cats into actually fighting back.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 11/27/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Dole Foods are the villain in this gripping – at times positively Orwellian – documentary
Targeted by the corporate lawyers from a global food conglomerate, Swedish director Fredrik Gertten adopts a brilliant judo defence: recording the entire process in the course of this gripping – at times positively Orwellian – documentary. Dole Foods are duly cast as the villains of the piece, aided and abetted by dodgy PR firms, internet astroturfers and a supine Us media content to run the company's press releases as fact. Gertten's film deftly lifts the lid on the black ops of 21st-century "brand management". Dole comes out smelling of ordure.
Rating: 4/5
DocumentaryXan Brooks
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Targeted by the corporate lawyers from a global food conglomerate, Swedish director Fredrik Gertten adopts a brilliant judo defence: recording the entire process in the course of this gripping – at times positively Orwellian – documentary. Dole Foods are duly cast as the villains of the piece, aided and abetted by dodgy PR firms, internet astroturfers and a supine Us media content to run the company's press releases as fact. Gertten's film deftly lifts the lid on the black ops of 21st-century "brand management". Dole comes out smelling of ordure.
Rating: 4/5
DocumentaryXan Brooks
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 9/20/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ Amongst the skyless summits of capitalist bureaucracy flutters creativity that no company can overturn. Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (2011), Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten's follow-up to Gertten's heinously underplayed Bananas!* (2009), documents the process of refusing to lie down and be trampled over by dirty money, dirty smear campaigns and some of the dirtiest men ever to regard themselves as humans.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 9/20/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
$200,000 Filmmaker Competition
Deadline Extended to Oct. 7!
Pros, Students, Procrastinators still have time to submit 3-minute nonfiction film on innovation and win up to $100,000 because the deadline has been extended to Oct. 7th. Your work deserves to be right up there alongside 30 Focus Forward shorts, and for selected finalists, that's exactly what will happen, providing a global showcase like no other. The Grand Prize Winner will be unveiled at Sundance 2013. Ff's jury of industry luminaries, including José Padilha, Barbara Kopple, Daryl Hannah, Caroline Libresco, Joe Berlinger, Peter Wintonick, and Floyd Webb will determine the top five winners, awarding a total of $200K in cash. This is the largest prize package ever offered for nonfiction shorts, so what are you waiting for? It's Free to enter. More information and FAQs about the competition can be found at www.focusforwardfilms.com/challenge. For complete rules and submission guidelines visit www.vimeo/focusforwardfilms/rules.
The four latest Focus Forward shorts generated a lot of buzz last week at the Melbourne International Film Festival and online after their day-and-date world premiere. If you haven't seen them yet, take a look.
Latest Films
Operation Free Lunch | Lixin Fan
Journalist Deng Fei set up the Free Lunch Campaign in 2011 - raising $3.9 million from Chinesesocial-media users in just one year - and pioneered the power of micro-blogging in China's battle against inequality.
The Auto-Tune Effect | Stanley Nelson
A tuneful look at the unlikely origins of the world's favorite pitch-modulation audio software and the ways in which its creative impact has been felt by musical artists and listeners worldwide.
The Sky Is Not The Limit | Ricki Stern &
Annie Sundberg
A dynamic portrait of Peter Diamandis, the visionary behind the X Prize Foundation, which provides financial awards to spur the next generation of big thinkers and enables inventors to solve the world's biggest crises.
The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten
Fredrik Gertten profiles two idealistic young female entrepreneurs who created a revolutionary 21st-century design object everyone told them would be impossible to fashion.
1.3 Million See The Invisible Bicyle Helmet
Fredrik Gertten's Focus Forward film, The Invisible Bicycle Helmet, had its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival and then went on to receive more than 1 million views online. The film received shout-outs from TechCrunch, Vice, CNN, Reddit, ABC, and tastemakers all over the Web. Watch it now.
The next destination on the Focus Forward festival train is the Busan International Film Festival (Oct. 4-13) in South Korea. We're pretty jazzed about our first appearance in Asia and Busan is a true crossroads, a place to meet new friends and future colleagues. Attendees are coming from 60 countries and audiences are expected to exceed 200,000. We have a couple of great World Premieres lined up for them.
Deadline Extended to Oct. 7!
Pros, Students, Procrastinators still have time to submit 3-minute nonfiction film on innovation and win up to $100,000 because the deadline has been extended to Oct. 7th. Your work deserves to be right up there alongside 30 Focus Forward shorts, and for selected finalists, that's exactly what will happen, providing a global showcase like no other. The Grand Prize Winner will be unveiled at Sundance 2013. Ff's jury of industry luminaries, including José Padilha, Barbara Kopple, Daryl Hannah, Caroline Libresco, Joe Berlinger, Peter Wintonick, and Floyd Webb will determine the top five winners, awarding a total of $200K in cash. This is the largest prize package ever offered for nonfiction shorts, so what are you waiting for? It's Free to enter. More information and FAQs about the competition can be found at www.focusforwardfilms.com/challenge. For complete rules and submission guidelines visit www.vimeo/focusforwardfilms/rules.
The four latest Focus Forward shorts generated a lot of buzz last week at the Melbourne International Film Festival and online after their day-and-date world premiere. If you haven't seen them yet, take a look.
Latest Films
Operation Free Lunch | Lixin Fan
Journalist Deng Fei set up the Free Lunch Campaign in 2011 - raising $3.9 million from Chinesesocial-media users in just one year - and pioneered the power of micro-blogging in China's battle against inequality.
The Auto-Tune Effect | Stanley Nelson
A tuneful look at the unlikely origins of the world's favorite pitch-modulation audio software and the ways in which its creative impact has been felt by musical artists and listeners worldwide.
The Sky Is Not The Limit | Ricki Stern &
Annie Sundberg
A dynamic portrait of Peter Diamandis, the visionary behind the X Prize Foundation, which provides financial awards to spur the next generation of big thinkers and enables inventors to solve the world's biggest crises.
The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten
Fredrik Gertten profiles two idealistic young female entrepreneurs who created a revolutionary 21st-century design object everyone told them would be impossible to fashion.
1.3 Million See The Invisible Bicyle Helmet
Fredrik Gertten's Focus Forward film, The Invisible Bicycle Helmet, had its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival and then went on to receive more than 1 million views online. The film received shout-outs from TechCrunch, Vice, CNN, Reddit, ABC, and tastemakers all over the Web. Watch it now.
The next destination on the Focus Forward festival train is the Busan International Film Festival (Oct. 4-13) in South Korea. We're pretty jazzed about our first appearance in Asia and Busan is a true crossroads, a place to meet new friends and future colleagues. Attendees are coming from 60 countries and audiences are expected to exceed 200,000. We have a couple of great World Premieres lined up for them.
- 9/7/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Title: Big Boys Gone Bananas!* Director: Fredrik Gertten In 2009, Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s “Bananas!*” was just one of more than a dozen nonfiction competition entries in the Los Angeles Film Festival — the story of a (successful) lawsuit that a dozen Nicaraguan plantation workers had brought against the Dole Corporation, alleging sterility and other health problems brought about by continued and knowing exposure to illegal pesticides. But the movie itself became a story when, in the weeks leading up to its festival premiere, Dole started flexing its corporate might, and tossed out a steady stream of lawsuit threats left and right if the movie was shown in its present form – owing [ Read More ]...
- 8/4/2012
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
Big Boys Gone Bananas!
Directed by Fredrik Gertten
Sweden, 2011
Not so long ago in a country not so far, far away…
A Swedish journalist publishes a fiery polemic against a large, multi-national corporation. In response, said corporation successfully alleges fraud, effectively burying his work and blacklisting him from various media and journalistic syndications. To try and clear his name, the journalist embarks on a crusade against his own crusade, hoping to regain his own credibility, while trying to discredit the claims of his accusers.
You’ve heard of this story before. But this is not Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is Fredrik Gertten’s Big Boys Gone Bananas!.
Director Fredrik Gertten
In 2009, Gertten, a Swedish filmmaker, made a documentary called Bananas!. The film, which has nothing to do with Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy of the same name, was about the Dole Food Company’s use of dangerous pesticides in Nicaragua,...
Directed by Fredrik Gertten
Sweden, 2011
Not so long ago in a country not so far, far away…
A Swedish journalist publishes a fiery polemic against a large, multi-national corporation. In response, said corporation successfully alleges fraud, effectively burying his work and blacklisting him from various media and journalistic syndications. To try and clear his name, the journalist embarks on a crusade against his own crusade, hoping to regain his own credibility, while trying to discredit the claims of his accusers.
You’ve heard of this story before. But this is not Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is Fredrik Gertten’s Big Boys Gone Bananas!.
Director Fredrik Gertten
In 2009, Gertten, a Swedish filmmaker, made a documentary called Bananas!. The film, which has nothing to do with Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy of the same name, was about the Dole Food Company’s use of dangerous pesticides in Nicaragua,...
- 4/22/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Trailer roundups can grow to be rather unwieldy and slow to load, so I'm rounding up trailers for films screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival in two batches, the competitions and all the other programs.
Us Dramatic Competition
Ira Sachs's Keep the Lights On
Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere
Youssef Delara and Michael D Olmos's Filly Brown
Us Documentary Competition
Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Kirby Dick's The Invisible War
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia
Sam Pollard's Slavery by Another Name
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
The trailer for Keiichi Kobayashi's About the Pink Sky is here.
Luciano Moura's Father's Chair (A Cadeira do Pai)
Babis Makridis's L
Armando Bó's The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis)
David Trueba's Madrid, 1987
Andrés Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven
Kieran Darcy-Smith's Wish You Were Here
And the trailer for...
Us Dramatic Competition
Ira Sachs's Keep the Lights On
Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere
Youssef Delara and Michael D Olmos's Filly Brown
Us Documentary Competition
Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Kirby Dick's The Invisible War
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia
Sam Pollard's Slavery by Another Name
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
The trailer for Keiichi Kobayashi's About the Pink Sky is here.
Luciano Moura's Father's Chair (A Cadeira do Pai)
Babis Makridis's L
Armando Bó's The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis)
David Trueba's Madrid, 1987
Andrés Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven
Kieran Darcy-Smith's Wish You Were Here
And the trailer for...
- 1/16/2012
- MUBI
Back in 2009, Indiewire reported on the controversy surrounding Swedish filmmakers Fredrik Gertten and Margarete Jangård, who were embroiled in a legal battle to save their documentary "Bananas!*" after their subject, the Dole Food Company, threatened to sue. The original film recounts the lawsuit that 12 Nicaraguan plantation workers successfully brought against Dole. It was selected to compete at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, but was removed from the Documentary Competition once Dole took action (it screened as a case study instead). In "Big Boys Gone Bananas!*" (World Documentary competition), Gerrten takes the offensive and gets personal by documenting everything that went down when Dole got involved. What it's about: "First we made a film about banana workers claiming Dole Food Co. made them sterile," Gertten told Indiewire. "Dole attacked/sued the filmmakers. Time for a new film! Mostly, it's a personal story about what...
- 1/6/2012
- Indiewire
On May 10, Oscilloscope Laboratories will release Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten’s Bananas!*, a documentary about a ground-breaking 2007 legal battle waged against the Dole Food Corporation, on DVD.
Focusing on a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaragua banana plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation, Bananas!* uncovers the alleged usage of a banned pesticide and its probable link to generations of sterilized workers. Central to both the film and case is Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney who, although iconic within the Latino community for his ubiquitous billboard ads, is unquestionably facing the biggest case and challenge of his career. At stake in the classic David vs. Goliath story are the futures of generation of workers and their families, as well as the culture of global multinational business.
Although Bananas!* was screened at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival with a disclaimer from the festival, filmmaker...
Focusing on a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaragua banana plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation, Bananas!* uncovers the alleged usage of a banned pesticide and its probable link to generations of sterilized workers. Central to both the film and case is Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney who, although iconic within the Latino community for his ubiquitous billboard ads, is unquestionably facing the biggest case and challenge of his career. At stake in the classic David vs. Goliath story are the futures of generation of workers and their families, as well as the culture of global multinational business.
Although Bananas!* was screened at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival with a disclaimer from the festival, filmmaker...
- 3/20/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Based on an order from a Los Angeles judge, Dole Food Co. has to doll out nearly $200,000 in legal fees and costs to Swedish filmmaker Fredrik Gertten who went up against the company in a free speech case involving the release of his documentary "Bananas." The New York Times reported that Dole had sued Gertten for showing the documentary, "despite a court ruling that the case on which the ...
- 12/2/2010
- Indiewire
Cemetery Junction (15)
(Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, 2006, Us) Christian Cook, Jack Doolan, Tom Hughes, Felicity Jones. 95 mins
Those averse to Ricky Gervais's "white-man overbite" will see surprisingly little of it in his second co-directed movie. Set in suburban 70s Reading, this rites-of-passage drama stars newcomers Cook, Doolan and Hughes as three mates growing apart on the threshold of adulthood. The ending may be formulaic, but Gervais and Merchant carve a neat middle path between comedy and pathos to get there.
The Ghost (15)
(Roman Polanski, 2010, Fr/Ger/UK) Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor. 128 mins
While he remains in chokey, Polanki's latest release is an old-school political thriller, starring Brosnan as a slick ex-pm with guilty secrets and McGregor as the hack hired to launder them.
Beeswax (Nc)
(Andrew Bujalski, 2009, Us) Tilly Hatcher, Maggie Hatcher. 100 mins
Mundane mumblecore about the travails of twins.
The Heavy (18)
(Marcus Warren, 2010, UK) Gary Stretch, Vinnie Jones. 102 mins...
(Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, 2006, Us) Christian Cook, Jack Doolan, Tom Hughes, Felicity Jones. 95 mins
Those averse to Ricky Gervais's "white-man overbite" will see surprisingly little of it in his second co-directed movie. Set in suburban 70s Reading, this rites-of-passage drama stars newcomers Cook, Doolan and Hughes as three mates growing apart on the threshold of adulthood. The ending may be formulaic, but Gervais and Merchant carve a neat middle path between comedy and pathos to get there.
The Ghost (15)
(Roman Polanski, 2010, Fr/Ger/UK) Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor. 128 mins
While he remains in chokey, Polanki's latest release is an old-school political thriller, starring Brosnan as a slick ex-pm with guilty secrets and McGregor as the hack hired to launder them.
Beeswax (Nc)
(Andrew Bujalski, 2009, Us) Tilly Hatcher, Maggie Hatcher. 100 mins
Mundane mumblecore about the travails of twins.
The Heavy (18)
(Marcus Warren, 2010, UK) Gary Stretch, Vinnie Jones. 102 mins...
- 4/16/2010
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
Campaigning documentary about scandals in Nicaragua. By Peter Bradshaw
Not the early Woody Allen classic, but a campaigning documentary from Swedish film-maker Fredrik Gertten. A new wave of class-action lawsuits is being taken out against the Dole Food Company, which for decades used controversial chemicals on their banana plantations in Nicaragua, causing sterility among male workers. The movie is very similar to Joe Berlinger's 2009 film Crude, about similar campaigns on behalf of Ecuadorean oil workers. Like Berlinger's movie, it allows the viewer to ponder the possibility that this is a lawyers' gold rush, but the employers' complacency and defensiveness tell their own story. It seems that Us corporations may be reaping a whirlwind of litigation from developing-world communities in Latin America for years to come, and like the cigarette companies, they will fight it every step of the way. What a prospect.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryNicaraguaPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk © Guardian...
Not the early Woody Allen classic, but a campaigning documentary from Swedish film-maker Fredrik Gertten. A new wave of class-action lawsuits is being taken out against the Dole Food Company, which for decades used controversial chemicals on their banana plantations in Nicaragua, causing sterility among male workers. The movie is very similar to Joe Berlinger's 2009 film Crude, about similar campaigns on behalf of Ecuadorean oil workers. Like Berlinger's movie, it allows the viewer to ponder the possibility that this is a lawyers' gold rush, but the employers' complacency and defensiveness tell their own story. It seems that Us corporations may be reaping a whirlwind of litigation from developing-world communities in Latin America for years to come, and like the cigarette companies, they will fight it every step of the way. What a prospect.
Rating: 3/5
DocumentaryNicaraguaPeter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk © Guardian...
- 4/15/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Cologne, Germany -- Following the success of Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc.", which opened the Berlin Film Festival's Culinary Cinema sidebar last year, Berlin has decided to load its plate with documentaries.
Seven of the 11 films screening as part of the 2010 Culinary Cinema lineup are non-fiction, including an inside look at a pastry competition in Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker's "Kings of Pastry" and "The Botany of Desire," Michael Schwarz's adaptation of the book on plant passion by "Food, Inc." author Michael Pollan.
Berlin is stretching the definition of food issues to fit in several docs that focus on ecological and social themes. These include Fredrik Gertten's "Bananas!" about the legal battle between Nicaraguan fruit pickers and Dole Food over the use of a banned pesticide; and Chris Smith's "Collapse" in which radical reporter Michael Ruppert apocalyptic vision of a world without crude oil.
Tilda Swinton,...
Seven of the 11 films screening as part of the 2010 Culinary Cinema lineup are non-fiction, including an inside look at a pastry competition in Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker's "Kings of Pastry" and "The Botany of Desire," Michael Schwarz's adaptation of the book on plant passion by "Food, Inc." author Michael Pollan.
Berlin is stretching the definition of food issues to fit in several docs that focus on ecological and social themes. These include Fredrik Gertten's "Bananas!" about the legal battle between Nicaraguan fruit pickers and Dole Food over the use of a banned pesticide; and Chris Smith's "Collapse" in which radical reporter Michael Ruppert apocalyptic vision of a world without crude oil.
Tilda Swinton,...
- 1/13/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dole Food Company, Inc. has announced that it is dismissing its defamation lawsuit against filmmakers Fredrik Gertten, Margarete Jangard and Wg Film Ab in the Los Angeles Superior Court, relating to the film “Bananas!*.” The lawsuit came about this past July. indieWIRE reported that Gertten, Jangard and Wg Film were being sued by Dole for including “patent falsehoods” in their documentary, which had screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The …...
- 10/15/2009
- Indiewire
"Bananas!*" -- Film Review
Dole Food Co. filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against a Swedish filmmaker it accuses of knowingly including "patent falsehoods" in a documentary about Nicaraguan banana workers who sued Dole for allegedly exposing them to pesticides on its Nicaraguan plantations.
Dole said it repeatedly "implored" director Fredrik Gertten and producer Margarete Jangard to revise the film "Bananas!*" to show the bananeros' lawsuits against Dole were thrown out in April by a Los Angeles judge who found a "pervasive conspiracy" to defraud U.S. courts by plaintiffs attorneys and Nicaraguan judges.
Gertten "refused to make any meaningful changes to the film and persisted in publicly screening it and touting its accuracy in the face of court rulings that the story was false ...," said the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"To screen, promote, and profit from this film, despite the fact that its entire premise has...
Dole Food Co. filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against a Swedish filmmaker it accuses of knowingly including "patent falsehoods" in a documentary about Nicaraguan banana workers who sued Dole for allegedly exposing them to pesticides on its Nicaraguan plantations.
Dole said it repeatedly "implored" director Fredrik Gertten and producer Margarete Jangard to revise the film "Bananas!*" to show the bananeros' lawsuits against Dole were thrown out in April by a Los Angeles judge who found a "pervasive conspiracy" to defraud U.S. courts by plaintiffs attorneys and Nicaraguan judges.
Gertten "refused to make any meaningful changes to the film and persisted in publicly screening it and touting its accuracy in the face of court rulings that the story was false ...," said the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"To screen, promote, and profit from this film, despite the fact that its entire premise has...
- 7/8/2009
- by By Gina Keating, Reuters
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Universal Pictures' "Public Enemies," starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, will screen as the Centerpiece Premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs June 18-28.
Directed by Michael Mann, whose "Collateral" screened as a sneak peek at the festival five years ago, "Enemies" also stars Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. The film opens nationally July 1.
Organized by Film Independent, the fest announced the bulk of its lineup Tuesday,encompassing more than 70 feature films, 70 shorts and 50 music videos drawn from more than 30 countries.
Said Rebecca Yeldham, who recently stepped into her new role as the festival's director: "The Laff is a celebration of culture, cinema and community. We're dedicated to our public, and we're dedicated to our filmmakers. We see ourselves as part of the international community of artists and passionate cinephiles."
Joining Yeldham and programming director Rachel Rosen at the Hotel Palomar in Westwood, actors Gael Garcia Bernal...
Directed by Michael Mann, whose "Collateral" screened as a sneak peek at the festival five years ago, "Enemies" also stars Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. The film opens nationally July 1.
Organized by Film Independent, the fest announced the bulk of its lineup Tuesday,encompassing more than 70 feature films, 70 shorts and 50 music videos drawn from more than 30 countries.
Said Rebecca Yeldham, who recently stepped into her new role as the festival's director: "The Laff is a celebration of culture, cinema and community. We're dedicated to our public, and we're dedicated to our filmmakers. We see ourselves as part of the international community of artists and passionate cinephiles."
Joining Yeldham and programming director Rachel Rosen at the Hotel Palomar in Westwood, actors Gael Garcia Bernal...
- 5/5/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday and Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Discovering and developing talent is what they do, and judging by the high quality level of docs they are able to support and then showcase at the snowy Park City fest it makes all the sense in the world that the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program would find it advantageous to want split the atom as many times possible and fork over what I imagine is some Ben Franklins that will be well spent. Its folks like me who get to sink their teeth into these films every trip back to Sundance.This year, 25 feature-length docs and their filmmakers will receive financial grants from the fund – many of these filmmakers are familiar names to those who know more than a thing or two about contemporary doc films. Here is the list of recipients provided below. Development GRANTSRob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, $10,000Howl (Us)Using animation to explore Howl , the poetic masterpiece by Allen Ginsberg,
- 6/8/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.