The 7th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on September 5-8 at the Factory Theatre, opens with a real bang when they will screen cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest cinematic odyssey, The Dance of Reality. This is Jodorowsky’s first film in over twenty years and is an imaginative and playful quasi-autobiography.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.
Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.
- 8/15/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This review was originally published in February. Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abdul-jamal never played theatrically in St. Louis (thankfully) and my review has been amended to include a look at the extras on the new DVD of the film.
Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abdul-jamal is a documentary from producer, director, cinematographer Stephen Vittoria about convicted cop killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abdul-Jamal (real name: Wesley Cook), an articulate, relatively intelligent radical with a distinctive speaking voice and a passion for public relations. Slickly produced, and with an excellent original score by Robert Guillory, the film is presented as a collective form of tribute to Mumia, with dozens of “witnesses” including Amy Goodman, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Ruby Dee, Cornel West, Peter Coyote, Lydia Barashango, Juan Gonzalez, and Linn Washington, all testifying on-camera to the brilliance of the subject’s writing skills.
Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abdul-jamal is a documentary from producer, director, cinematographer Stephen Vittoria about convicted cop killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abdul-Jamal (real name: Wesley Cook), an articulate, relatively intelligent radical with a distinctive speaking voice and a passion for public relations. Slickly produced, and with an excellent original score by Robert Guillory, the film is presented as a collective form of tribute to Mumia, with dozens of “witnesses” including Amy Goodman, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Ruby Dee, Cornel West, Peter Coyote, Lydia Barashango, Juan Gonzalez, and Linn Washington, all testifying on-camera to the brilliance of the subject’s writing skills.
- 6/18/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
By Alex Simon
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of journalism’s most outspoken voices for nearly forty years. However, Mumia’s greatest fame has come not from his written work, but from the fact that he is one of the most famous state “employees” in the country: he has been in state prison since 1982, serving on death row until just over a year ago.
Born Wesley Cook in Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal made his name as a tireless writer and journalist during the racially-charged 1970s that often portrayed the City of Brotherly Love as anything but. With his intense coverage of the M.O.V.E. organization, a black empowerment group whose ongoing battle with the police and city hall came to a fiery end in 1985, Abu-Jamal became a constant thorn in the side of the city’s powerful establishment. Things came to a sudden head for Abu-Jamal himself on the evening...
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of journalism’s most outspoken voices for nearly forty years. However, Mumia’s greatest fame has come not from his written work, but from the fact that he is one of the most famous state “employees” in the country: he has been in state prison since 1982, serving on death row until just over a year ago.
Born Wesley Cook in Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal made his name as a tireless writer and journalist during the racially-charged 1970s that often portrayed the City of Brotherly Love as anything but. With his intense coverage of the M.O.V.E. organization, a black empowerment group whose ongoing battle with the police and city hall came to a fiery end in 1985, Abu-Jamal became a constant thorn in the side of the city’s powerful establishment. Things came to a sudden head for Abu-Jamal himself on the evening...
- 2/24/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey With Mumia Abul-jamal is a documentary from producer, director, cinematographer Stephen Vittoria about convicted cop killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal (real name: Wesley Cook), an articulate, relatively intelligent radical with a distinctive speaking voice and a passion for public relations. Slickly produced, and with an excellent original score by Robert Guillory, the film is presented as a collective form of tribute to Mumia, with dozens of “witnesses” including Amy Goodman, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Ruby Dee, Cornel West, Peter Coyote, Lydia Barashango, Juan Gonzalez, and Linn Washington, all testifying on-camera to the brilliance of the subject’s writing skills. Mumia himself is represented through archival footage, voice-over, prison visitation footage, and by an actor portraying the convicted killer moping in his prison cell.
Before viewing, I had never paid much attention to the Mumia Abu-Jamal case, but the film inspired me to do some research.
Before viewing, I had never paid much attention to the Mumia Abu-Jamal case, but the film inspired me to do some research.
- 2/5/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Former United States Senator, and Presidential candidate, George McGovern.
In 2005, I had the good fortune to interview former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern for Venice Magazine, in conjunction with the release of Stephen Vittoria's documentary "One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern," which looked at McGovern's ill-fated 1972 bid for the White House. During our interview, and during a lengthy dinner at Kate Mantilini in Beverly Hills several months later, (which happened to fall on what would have been the 80th birthday of his close friend, Robert F. Kennedy), McGovern was thoughtful, direct, and kind-hearted; a gentleman and a gentle man. When we raised a glass to toast Bobby Kennedy's memory, Senator McGovern said quietly "Bobby made us all want to be better people." A more fitting valediction of George McGovern couldn't be said. Rest in peace.
George McGovern Shines On
By
Alex Simon
Editor's...
In 2005, I had the good fortune to interview former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern for Venice Magazine, in conjunction with the release of Stephen Vittoria's documentary "One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern," which looked at McGovern's ill-fated 1972 bid for the White House. During our interview, and during a lengthy dinner at Kate Mantilini in Beverly Hills several months later, (which happened to fall on what would have been the 80th birthday of his close friend, Robert F. Kennedy), McGovern was thoughtful, direct, and kind-hearted; a gentleman and a gentle man. When we raised a glass to toast Bobby Kennedy's memory, Senator McGovern said quietly "Bobby made us all want to be better people." A more fitting valediction of George McGovern couldn't be said. Rest in peace.
George McGovern Shines On
By
Alex Simon
Editor's...
- 10/22/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
By Stephen Vittoria
With apologies to Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn.
When I decided to make the film “One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern,” the person to interview at the top of my list was Gore Vidal – for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, he knew McGovern very well and one could always count on Gore to bring his razor sharp wit, his intellectual wherewithal, and his brutal honesty to any situation. For our session in his backyard in the Hollywood Hills, he was on, very on. In fact, to this day, right to a screening last night, his interview clips elicited more great responses from the audience than anyone else in the film. It was the same at almost every screening. Here’s a sample of classic Gore Vidal from the film:
“Well, now, you know, I was brought up in the ruling class…...
With apologies to Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn.
When I decided to make the film “One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern,” the person to interview at the top of my list was Gore Vidal – for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, he knew McGovern very well and one could always count on Gore to bring his razor sharp wit, his intellectual wherewithal, and his brutal honesty to any situation. For our session in his backyard in the Hollywood Hills, he was on, very on. In fact, to this day, right to a screening last night, his interview clips elicited more great responses from the audience than anyone else in the film. It was the same at almost every screening. Here’s a sample of classic Gore Vidal from the film:
“Well, now, you know, I was brought up in the ruling class…...
- 8/2/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Mumia Abu-Jamal
By Alex Simon
"Wrapped in the sweet, false escape of dreams, I hear the unmistakable sounds of meat being beaten by blackjack, of bootfalls, yells, curses; and it merges into the mind's movie-making machine, evoking distant memories of some of the Philadelphia Police Department's greatest hits--on me. "Get off that man, you fat, greasy, racist, redneck pig bitch muthafucka!" My tired eyes snap open; the cracks, thuds, "oofs!" come in all too clear. Damn. No dream. Another dawn, another beating on B-Block, another shackled inmate at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon prison pummeled into the concrete by a squadron of guards." -Mumia Abu-Jamal "B-Block Days & Nightmares"
Stephen Vittoria is that rare commodity in Hollywood today: a filmmaker with a conscience. To be more precise, a filmmaker with a strong political conscience. After making two feature films, Black and White (aka Lou, Pat & Joe D., 1987) and Hollywood Boulevard (1996), as well as...
By Alex Simon
"Wrapped in the sweet, false escape of dreams, I hear the unmistakable sounds of meat being beaten by blackjack, of bootfalls, yells, curses; and it merges into the mind's movie-making machine, evoking distant memories of some of the Philadelphia Police Department's greatest hits--on me. "Get off that man, you fat, greasy, racist, redneck pig bitch muthafucka!" My tired eyes snap open; the cracks, thuds, "oofs!" come in all too clear. Damn. No dream. Another dawn, another beating on B-Block, another shackled inmate at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon prison pummeled into the concrete by a squadron of guards." -Mumia Abu-Jamal "B-Block Days & Nightmares"
Stephen Vittoria is that rare commodity in Hollywood today: a filmmaker with a conscience. To be more precise, a filmmaker with a strong political conscience. After making two feature films, Black and White (aka Lou, Pat & Joe D., 1987) and Hollywood Boulevard (1996), as well as...
- 3/11/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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