As is annual tradition, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced this year’s 25 film set to join the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected for their “cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance,” the films picked range from such beloved actioners as “Die Hard,” childhood classic “The Goonies,” the seminal “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and the mind-bending “Memento,” with plenty of other genres and styles represented among the list.
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.
“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...
- 12/13/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 725 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous...
- 12/13/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Harvey Keitel takes center stage as a double-crossed crook goes for blood after a major jewel heist turns sour — and bloody. Timothy Hutton and Stephen Dorff are in on the split for one late- ’90s crime caper that’s not a stylistic hijack of Quentin Tarantino. Directed by John Irvin.
City of Industry
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date October 3, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff, Timothy Hutton, Famke Janssen, Wade Dominguez, Michael Jai White, Lucy Alexis Liu, Reno Wilson, Dana Barron, Tamara Clatterbuck, Elliott Gould.
Cinematography: Thomas Burstyn
Film Editor: Mark Conte
Special Effects: Joe Lombardi
Original Music: Stephen Endelman
Written by Ken Solarz
Produced by Evzen Kolar, Ken Solarz
Directed by John Irvin
Director John Irvin earned his right to crow early on with TV’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the excellent action film about mercenaries The Dogs of War.
City of Industry
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1997 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date October 3, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff, Timothy Hutton, Famke Janssen, Wade Dominguez, Michael Jai White, Lucy Alexis Liu, Reno Wilson, Dana Barron, Tamara Clatterbuck, Elliott Gould.
Cinematography: Thomas Burstyn
Film Editor: Mark Conte
Special Effects: Joe Lombardi
Original Music: Stephen Endelman
Written by Ken Solarz
Produced by Evzen Kolar, Ken Solarz
Directed by John Irvin
Director John Irvin earned his right to crow early on with TV’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the excellent action film about mercenaries The Dogs of War.
- 10/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
June is coming to a close and you know what that means: fireworks and barbecues are just around the corner. We’ve got your Fourth plans sewn up in this week’s events calendar, along with a slew of other fun goings-on that will inspire, relax, and invite you to explore Los Angeles in new ways. Whatever this week holds for you, remember that your next big break might lurk in the most unexpected places. Cruise mural-filled streets on your bike.Explore parts of L.A. you may never have seen during the Eastside Mural Ride on July 1. Dust off your bike and prepare to trek through 10 miles of elaborate murals and oft-unseen corners of City Terrace and East L.A. If it’s been a minute since your last trek, don’t worry; the pace is medium and family-friendly and the event begins with a safety demonstration. Consider this a...
- 6/29/2017
- backstage.com
Hulu is closing the doors on East Los High — but there’s some good news for the cancelled teen drama.
The streaming service has ordered the one-hour special East Los High: Finale Event, premiering this fall.
RelatedCable/Streaming Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Cancelled? What’s On the Bubble?
The series ender picks up eight months after the Season 4 finale as the crew prepares to leave high school behind and maybe even East L.A. In the process, they will learn the true meaning of love, family and friendship in the “romantic, sexy and emotional” wrap-up, per Hulu.
The streaming service has ordered the one-hour special East Los High: Finale Event, premiering this fall.
RelatedCable/Streaming Renewal Scorecard: What’s Coming Back? What’s Cancelled? What’s On the Bubble?
The series ender picks up eight months after the Season 4 finale as the crew prepares to leave high school behind and maybe even East L.A. In the process, they will learn the true meaning of love, family and friendship in the “romantic, sexy and emotional” wrap-up, per Hulu.
- 5/19/2017
- TVLine.com
“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” surpassed Warner Bros.’ modest expectations by revealing itself as a full-on belly flop, grossing $14.7 million. While nothing else approaches its level of disaster, it’s a beacon for the weaknesses that have begun to plague summer 2017.
Next week, expect Fox’s “Alien: Covenant” to lead three new summer entries. Ridley Scott’s return to his 1979 classic opened to $42 million in a majority of the world (but not China, among other territories); it will need to soar next weekend at home in order to restore some confidence to the industry.
The Top Ten
1. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Disney) Week 2- Last weekend #1
$63,007,000 (-57%) in 4,347 theaters (no change); PTA (per theater average): $14,494; Cumulative: $246,164,000
2. Snatched (20th Century Fox) New – Cinemascore: B; Metacritic: 46; $; est. budget: $42 million
$17,500,000 in 3,501 theaters; PTA: $4,999; Cumulative: $17,500,000
3. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Warner Bros.) New – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 41; $; est. budget: $175 million
$14,700,000 in...
Next week, expect Fox’s “Alien: Covenant” to lead three new summer entries. Ridley Scott’s return to his 1979 classic opened to $42 million in a majority of the world (but not China, among other territories); it will need to soar next weekend at home in order to restore some confidence to the industry.
The Top Ten
1. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (Disney) Week 2- Last weekend #1
$63,007,000 (-57%) in 4,347 theaters (no change); PTA (per theater average): $14,494; Cumulative: $246,164,000
2. Snatched (20th Century Fox) New – Cinemascore: B; Metacritic: 46; $; est. budget: $42 million
$17,500,000 in 3,501 theaters; PTA: $4,999; Cumulative: $17,500,000
3. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Warner Bros.) New – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 41; $; est. budget: $175 million
$14,700,000 in...
- 5/14/2017
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
The specialty box office yielded a strong success this weekend in the form of Bh Tilt’s Latino drama “Lowriders,” which finished eighth among all films with an estimated opening of $2.4 million from just 295 screens. Directed by Ricardo de Montreuil on a budget of $916,000, the film stars Gabriel Chavarria as an East L.A. teen forced to choose between his father (Demian Bichir) and his criminal brother (Theo Rossi) at an annual event that celebrates the colorful cars that the movie is named after. Critics gave the film mixed reviews as it clocked in at 57 percent on Rotten...
- 5/14/2017
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
Theo Rossi‘s newest role in Lowriders, made us wonder, what we didn’t know about the actor. He’s been a part of very successful shows including Sons of Anarchy and Luke Cage, as well as being a father to two-year-old Kane and is excepting his second, as People exclusively reported this week. The man can do it all.
People Now sat down to chat with Rossi about his latest movie, Lowriders, which focuses on a family steeped in the car culture of East L.A. — while trying to outmaneuver some unsavory criminal elements. He also spoke about what it...
People Now sat down to chat with Rossi about his latest movie, Lowriders, which focuses on a family steeped in the car culture of East L.A. — while trying to outmaneuver some unsavory criminal elements. He also spoke about what it...
- 5/12/2017
- by Daniela Herrera
- PEOPLE.com
Hollywood and East L.A. are only about 12 miles apart, yet the former pays remarkably little attention to the latter, at least in the movies. Lowriders, set primarily in Boyle Heights (with occasional excursions to Elysian Park), aims to be a corrective, focusing on the region’s predominantly Latino population and hugely influential automotive culture. Anyone hoping to see some serious hydraulic action, however, will likely be disappointed. Low-riding takes a backseat here to man-whining, as the film’s main characters—a father and his two sons—petulantly jostle for dominance in a family melodrama so generic that it could unfold in just about any context. Far more creativity went into the various cars’ hood murals than into the screenplay.
As it happens, painting hood murals provides a legal opportunity for Danny (Gabriel Chavarria), a budding graffiti artist, to ply his trade. For some reason, it takes him a ...
As it happens, painting hood murals provides a legal opportunity for Danny (Gabriel Chavarria), a budding graffiti artist, to ply his trade. For some reason, it takes him a ...
- 5/11/2017
- by Mike D'Angelo
- avclub.com
Gabriel Chavarria loved that his latest movie kept him close to home and family. And since Lowriders is all about family and the importance of local culture in shaping our lives, the setting couldn't have been more perfect. In the film, which opens in theaters Friday, Chavarria plays Danny, a street artist from East L.A. whose father, played by Demián Bichir, only has eyes for the lowriders he's forever restoring and just doesn't get his son's passion. It's a complicated environment for Danny—and a tough role for any actor, having to draw attention away from the impressive array of cars that also populate director Ricardo de Montreuil's...
- 5/10/2017
- E! Online
It's full speed ahead for Yvette Monreal this week. The 24-year-old actress, known for roles on The Fosters and MTV's Faking It, makes her big-screen feature debut Friday in Ricardo de Montreuil's Lowriders, playing the studious, college-bound Claudia, a longtime friend of Gabriel Chavarria's street artist Danny, who's torn between wanting to pursue his passion and his family's roots in East L.A.'s macho car culture. "My favorite thing about filming in L.A. is that it's closest to home," Monreal, who hails from Lawndale, Calif., tells E! News. "I've had family visit me on set so it's really nice to be able to show them what I'm...
- 5/9/2017
- E! Online
Theo Rossi is revving things up.
The Sons of Anarchy star sat down with People Now to talk about his latest movie, Lowriders, which focuses on a family steeped in the car culture of East L.A. — while trying to outmaneuver some unsavory criminal elements.
Last year was a huge one for Rossi, who starred in the Netflix smash Luke Cage as well as the psychological thriller When the Bough Breaks. For 2017, Rossi was ready for a new challenge. In Lowriders, the 41-year-old plays Ghost, a young man recently released from prison after getting caught up in the lowrider car culture of his hometown.
The Sons of Anarchy star sat down with People Now to talk about his latest movie, Lowriders, which focuses on a family steeped in the car culture of East L.A. — while trying to outmaneuver some unsavory criminal elements.
Last year was a huge one for Rossi, who starred in the Netflix smash Luke Cage as well as the psychological thriller When the Bough Breaks. For 2017, Rossi was ready for a new challenge. In Lowriders, the 41-year-old plays Ghost, a young man recently released from prison after getting caught up in the lowrider car culture of his hometown.
- 5/8/2017
- by Liam Berry
- PEOPLE.com
Eva Longoria is going gritty for her latest project.
Et has your exclusive first look at Lowriders, a new drama set against the backdrop of East Los Angeles.
“It’s a coming-of-age story about this kid from East L.A., who is a graffiti artist,” director Ricardo de Montreuil explains.
Watch: Eva Longoria Talks Wedded Bliss at Lowriders Los Angeles Film Festival Premiere
That artist is Danny, played by Gabriel Chavarria. Longoria is his stepmom, Gloria, who’s caught in the middle between Danny and his dad, Miguel, played by Demian Bichir.
“He is very, very talented, but he’s not choosing the right path,” Bichir says of Danny.
Adding more drama is Danny’s brother, Ghost (Sons of Anarchy’s Theo Rossi), who returns to the family after some time in prison.
Watch: Inside the Lowriders After-Party at the Los Angeles Film Festival
“He comes back in their lives,” Longoria explains. “There’s a lot...
Et has your exclusive first look at Lowriders, a new drama set against the backdrop of East Los Angeles.
“It’s a coming-of-age story about this kid from East L.A., who is a graffiti artist,” director Ricardo de Montreuil explains.
Watch: Eva Longoria Talks Wedded Bliss at Lowriders Los Angeles Film Festival Premiere
That artist is Danny, played by Gabriel Chavarria. Longoria is his stepmom, Gloria, who’s caught in the middle between Danny and his dad, Miguel, played by Demian Bichir.
“He is very, very talented, but he’s not choosing the right path,” Bichir says of Danny.
Adding more drama is Danny’s brother, Ghost (Sons of Anarchy’s Theo Rossi), who returns to the family after some time in prison.
Watch: Inside the Lowriders After-Party at the Los Angeles Film Festival
“He comes back in their lives,” Longoria explains. “There’s a lot...
- 5/3/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Actress, producer, and Mexican businesswoman Eva Longoria, spoke to us before the premiere of her upcoming movie Lowriders and shared her secrets on remaining eternally young.
What was the experience of filming this movie that encompasses the passion for the low-rider culture in East Los Angeles?
It was incredible and fascinating because it was directed by a Latino and has Latino stars. Gabriel Chavarria, who takes on the role of the main character, is from East L.A., so it was such an authentic way to tell a story and I think people are really going to enjoy it.
How important...
What was the experience of filming this movie that encompasses the passion for the low-rider culture in East Los Angeles?
It was incredible and fascinating because it was directed by a Latino and has Latino stars. Gabriel Chavarria, who takes on the role of the main character, is from East L.A., so it was such an authentic way to tell a story and I think people are really going to enjoy it.
How important...
- 4/12/2017
- by Pia Velasco
- PEOPLE.com
Robert De Niro in ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (Courtesy: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
The first few days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been filled with a slew of sweeping policy changes that have garnered plenty of criticism — but the recent changes to America’s immigration policy have topped headlines. With an executive order that has been considered a Muslim ban by many, let’s take a look at some great films about immigration to the United States. There are plenty of them, but here is just a sampling of 16 that you should definitely watch.
A Better Life (2011): This film was directed by Chris Weitz and is a drama about a gardener in East L.A. who struggles to keep his son away from both gangs and immigration agents all while trying to give him opportunities he never had. A Better Life — written by...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
The first few days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been filled with a slew of sweeping policy changes that have garnered plenty of criticism — but the recent changes to America’s immigration policy have topped headlines. With an executive order that has been considered a Muslim ban by many, let’s take a look at some great films about immigration to the United States. There are plenty of them, but here is just a sampling of 16 that you should definitely watch.
A Better Life (2011): This film was directed by Chris Weitz and is a drama about a gardener in East L.A. who struggles to keep his son away from both gangs and immigration agents all while trying to give him opportunities he never had. A Better Life — written by...
- 2/1/2017
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
NBCU Telemundo Enterprises has launched a feature film division, Telemundo Films, which will develop, produce and market features for both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.
Telemundo network president Luis Silberwasser will run the unit, which will exist under Telemundo Studios.
For its first project, Telemundo Films will partner with Imagine Entertainment, Blumhouse’s Bh Tilt and Universal for the release of Lowriders.
The Ricardo de Montreuil-directed feature, which opened the 2016 La Film Fest, centers on the car culture of East L.A. and follows a talented young street artist. Eva Longoria, Demian Bichir and Melissa Benoist star in the project, which was produced by Brian Grazer and Jason Blum. Gabriel Chavarria,...
Telemundo network president Luis Silberwasser will run the unit, which will exist under Telemundo Studios.
For its first project, Telemundo Films will partner with Imagine Entertainment, Blumhouse’s Bh Tilt and Universal for the release of Lowriders.
The Ricardo de Montreuil-directed feature, which opened the 2016 La Film Fest, centers on the car culture of East L.A. and follows a talented young street artist. Eva Longoria, Demian Bichir and Melissa Benoist star in the project, which was produced by Brian Grazer and Jason Blum. Gabriel Chavarria,...
- 1/26/2017
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Plenty of shows these days embrace their inner batshit insanity. Challenging norms via wild narratives or atypical execution is so deep within their nature that the show thrives on such inherent madness. Here at IndieWire, we refer to such efforts as “bonkers” TV, and Hulu’s latest original series, “Shut Eye,” could certainly be a candidate if it ever fully leans into its freshly bizarre elements.
After all, this is a show that constructs a climactic scene in which a woman walks between two rows of gypsies in a candlelit East L.A. mansion as the offended parties spit on her. And that’s just the start of her punishment for breaking the gypsy code. What comes next is enough to make even hardened TV viewers raise an eyebrow.
Yet “Shut Eye” blends a bit too much of the familiar with its crazy. Primarily tracking a veteran tarot card reader heading...
After all, this is a show that constructs a climactic scene in which a woman walks between two rows of gypsies in a candlelit East L.A. mansion as the offended parties spit on her. And that’s just the start of her punishment for breaking the gypsy code. What comes next is enough to make even hardened TV viewers raise an eyebrow.
Yet “Shut Eye” blends a bit too much of the familiar with its crazy. Primarily tracking a veteran tarot card reader heading...
- 12/6/2016
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Arrow Video digs its sharp talons into Wes Craven's dirt 'n' Bowie Knife slaughter-fest horror picture, yet another strange travel advisory not to go anywhere, 'cause strangers might be cannibals. But hey, the movie works, and like much of Craven's filmography, it sticks its neck way out into dangerous territory. The Hills Have Eyes Blu-ray Arrow Video (Us) 1977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date October 11, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace, Russ Grieve, John Steadman, Michael Berryman, Virginia Vincent, James Whitworth Cinematography Eric Saarinen Art Direction Robert Burns Film Editor Wes Craven Original Music Don Peake Special Effects Greg Auer, John Frazier Produced by Peter Locke Written and Directed by Wes Craven
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
With Wes Craven now passed on, we're left with the situation of a modern American horror director with an extremely successful body of work for analysis. Both an educator and a sometime adult filmmaker,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
With Wes Craven now passed on, we're left with the situation of a modern American horror director with an extremely successful body of work for analysis. Both an educator and a sometime adult filmmaker,...
- 10/25/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Here’s our first look at actor Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes, a.k.a. Ghost Rider, in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m actually kind of excited about seeing this version of Ghost Rider brought to life in the series. Executive producer Jed Whedon talked about their version of the character in an interview with EW:
“As always, we are going to put our own spin on the character. We are staying true to the comics in the places where we feel like it’s really important — we love the character’s family dynamic and the East L.A. kid in him.”
Whedon also talked about expanding on the supernatural aspect of the Marvel universe saying:
“It started out with a guy building a suit using science, and then we met aliens that are the origin of the myths behind some of our gods, and this year Doctor Strange comes out.
“As always, we are going to put our own spin on the character. We are staying true to the comics in the places where we feel like it’s really important — we love the character’s family dynamic and the East L.A. kid in him.”
Whedon also talked about expanding on the supernatural aspect of the Marvel universe saying:
“It started out with a guy building a suit using science, and then we met aliens that are the origin of the myths behind some of our gods, and this year Doctor Strange comes out.
- 9/5/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
In the past, many viewers have expressed concern with the lack of big name superheroes appearing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I completely understand where they’re coming from. While it may be cool to see guest appearances by characters such as Sif, Mockingbird, and even Nick Fury, it seems like we may never see the likes of an Iron Man or Captain America.
What got the attention of many a comic book fan – including my own – was when it was officially confirmed that Ghost Rider would be appearing during the show’s fourth season. Sure, he’s not part of the cinematic Avengers lineup, but he is an icon that brings a darker element to the series.
Undoubtedly raising some eyebrows, the Robbie Reyes version of the character (played by Gabriel Luna) is set to ride his flaming hot rod into your living room, as opposed to a motorcycle.
What got the attention of many a comic book fan – including my own – was when it was officially confirmed that Ghost Rider would be appearing during the show’s fourth season. Sure, he’s not part of the cinematic Avengers lineup, but he is an icon that brings a darker element to the series.
Undoubtedly raising some eyebrows, the Robbie Reyes version of the character (played by Gabriel Luna) is set to ride his flaming hot rod into your living room, as opposed to a motorcycle.
- 9/4/2016
- by Eric Joseph
- We Got This Covered
About a week ago, a piece of promo art for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was spotted in San Diego for Comic-Con. It featured a long flaming chain, which led fans to speculate that maybe Ghost Rider would be showing up in the series. I figured it would just be a story arc involving Hellfire, who also sports a flaming chain, but now it's starting to look like a version of Ghost Rider will show up after all!
A new casting notice that leaked recently suggests that Ghost Rider will make an appearance in the series, but it's not a version of the character you would expect. The most iconic version of Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze, who was portrayed by Nicolas Cage in two films. He's not the only version of the character that has existed in the comics, though.
The characters mentioned in the casting notice are listed as a pair of Latino brothers.
A new casting notice that leaked recently suggests that Ghost Rider will make an appearance in the series, but it's not a version of the character you would expect. The most iconic version of Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze, who was portrayed by Nicolas Cage in two films. He's not the only version of the character that has existed in the comics, though.
The characters mentioned in the casting notice are listed as a pair of Latino brothers.
- 7/1/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
The transition of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival continues. Geographically, the fest has moved away from downtown to multiple Arclight locations. Opening night in Hollywood, Ricardo de Montreuil’s coming-of-age East L.A. drama “Lowriders,” starring Demián Bichir and Theo Rossi as father and estranged ex-con son, signaled the fest’s mission: Provide a diverse program directed by rising filmmakers: among the 42 competition films, 87% are first-and-second-timers, 43% are women and 38% are people of color, while 90% of the 58 total festival films are world premieres.
Developed by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, “Lowriders” (written by Cheo Hodari Coker, Joshua Beirne-Golden, Elgin James, and Justin Tipping), finally got made when the budget dropped—under Universal’s low-budget producing partner, Jason Blum—from $20 million to $5 million. The grittiness helps the scruffy, colorful movie, which Laff head Stephanie Allain loved for being “so Los Angeles, so culturally rich,” she told the Arclight crowd. “Made by filmmakers of color, ‘Lowriders’ embodies our mission.” (The film will go out under a Universal label that remains to be seen, per Blum.)
Since Allain took over in 2014, the festival has lost some of its key programming talent (David Ansen, Doug Jones, Maggie McKay); the sprawling program is now commandeered by film professor Roya Rastegar (Bryn Mawr College). Very much in charge is Laff’s high-powered director, studio-trained producer Allain (“Boyz ‘n the Hood,” “Hustle & Flow”), who has pulled her friend Elvis Mitchell into a role as year-round “curator,” which basically means hosting Q & As at Film Independent-programmed events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As Laff becomes more local, eclectic, multi-cultural, and interactive, the Laff seeks to occupy a niche and grow its audience via a more populist, less international festival.
Truth is, only a few top-ranked film festivals a year are must-attend destinations packed with high-end world premieres and star attendees. Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Venice, New York, and Telluride top the list. So there’s some logic to opting out of that competitive arena. Increasingly, fests like Tribeca and SXSW are pushing outside the area of indie film to create alluring events for audiences, from interactive transmedia showcases and TV series premieres to high-profile panels, Q & As, and “Master Classes.” So it makes sense to brand Laff with an identifiable niche.
Giving people awards and tributes is another route pursued by awards-friendly fests like Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, hence Saturday Laff will award “Selma” director Ava DuVernay as well as her distribution company Array Releasing (her own “Middle of Nowhere” plus “Ashes and Embers,” “Mississippi Damned,” “Kinyarwanda,” and “Restless City”) with the annual Spirit of Independence Award given to members of the independent film community who “advance the cause of independent film and champion creative freedom.” Last year, Array bought La Film Festival Us Fiction award-winner “Out of My Hand” for distribution, along with “Ayanda.”
Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”) is the 2016 Festival’s Guest Director; he’s offering a master class on sound design for “Creed.” And Nate Parker hosted a screening of Sundance Oscar contender “Birth of a Nation.” This weekend also brings a panel of women cinematographers.
The question is whether Allain’s quest for diversity will coincide with choosing the best movies, ones that create buzz for must-see titles—so far, actress Amber Tamblyn’s directing debut, “Paint It Black,” debuting Friday night at Lacma, has earned the most advance word of mouth. Established fest circuit titles such as Roger Ross Williams’ autism doc “Life, Animated,” closing night border film “Desierto” from Jonás Cuarón (“Gravity”), starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Mike Birbliglia and Ira Glass’s latest collaboration, improv comedy “Don’t Think Twice,” starring Keegan-Michael Key, are all worth seeing.
But for many of the unknown titles unspooling this week, audiences and buyers will just have to check them out and spread the word, good or bad. Otherwise, they’ll disappear into the ether.
Here are Indiewire’s Laff picks so far.
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Developed by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, “Lowriders” (written by Cheo Hodari Coker, Joshua Beirne-Golden, Elgin James, and Justin Tipping), finally got made when the budget dropped—under Universal’s low-budget producing partner, Jason Blum—from $20 million to $5 million. The grittiness helps the scruffy, colorful movie, which Laff head Stephanie Allain loved for being “so Los Angeles, so culturally rich,” she told the Arclight crowd. “Made by filmmakers of color, ‘Lowriders’ embodies our mission.” (The film will go out under a Universal label that remains to be seen, per Blum.)
Since Allain took over in 2014, the festival has lost some of its key programming talent (David Ansen, Doug Jones, Maggie McKay); the sprawling program is now commandeered by film professor Roya Rastegar (Bryn Mawr College). Very much in charge is Laff’s high-powered director, studio-trained producer Allain (“Boyz ‘n the Hood,” “Hustle & Flow”), who has pulled her friend Elvis Mitchell into a role as year-round “curator,” which basically means hosting Q & As at Film Independent-programmed events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As Laff becomes more local, eclectic, multi-cultural, and interactive, the Laff seeks to occupy a niche and grow its audience via a more populist, less international festival.
Truth is, only a few top-ranked film festivals a year are must-attend destinations packed with high-end world premieres and star attendees. Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Venice, New York, and Telluride top the list. So there’s some logic to opting out of that competitive arena. Increasingly, fests like Tribeca and SXSW are pushing outside the area of indie film to create alluring events for audiences, from interactive transmedia showcases and TV series premieres to high-profile panels, Q & As, and “Master Classes.” So it makes sense to brand Laff with an identifiable niche.
Giving people awards and tributes is another route pursued by awards-friendly fests like Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, hence Saturday Laff will award “Selma” director Ava DuVernay as well as her distribution company Array Releasing (her own “Middle of Nowhere” plus “Ashes and Embers,” “Mississippi Damned,” “Kinyarwanda,” and “Restless City”) with the annual Spirit of Independence Award given to members of the independent film community who “advance the cause of independent film and champion creative freedom.” Last year, Array bought La Film Festival Us Fiction award-winner “Out of My Hand” for distribution, along with “Ayanda.”
Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”) is the 2016 Festival’s Guest Director; he’s offering a master class on sound design for “Creed.” And Nate Parker hosted a screening of Sundance Oscar contender “Birth of a Nation.” This weekend also brings a panel of women cinematographers.
The question is whether Allain’s quest for diversity will coincide with choosing the best movies, ones that create buzz for must-see titles—so far, actress Amber Tamblyn’s directing debut, “Paint It Black,” debuting Friday night at Lacma, has earned the most advance word of mouth. Established fest circuit titles such as Roger Ross Williams’ autism doc “Life, Animated,” closing night border film “Desierto” from Jonás Cuarón (“Gravity”), starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Mike Birbliglia and Ira Glass’s latest collaboration, improv comedy “Don’t Think Twice,” starring Keegan-Michael Key, are all worth seeing.
But for many of the unknown titles unspooling this week, audiences and buyers will just have to check them out and spread the word, good or bad. Otherwise, they’ll disappear into the ether.
Here are Indiewire’s Laff picks so far.
Related stories2016 Los Angeles Film Festival Awards: 'Heis (chronicles)', 'Blood Stripe' & 'Political Animals' Win BigThe TV Director's Hurdle: Why A Small-Screen Actor Is Making An Indie Feature To Get His Foot In The DoorFilm Independent Announces The 10 Projects Selected for Fast Track and Recipient Of Alfred P. Sloan Grant...
- 6/3/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
It may be a measure of the lowered expectations surrounding this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival that the dominant mood after its opening night film “Lowriders” was mild surprise that it wasn’t bad. The family drama about East L.A.’s car culture was an appropriate kickoff for a festival whose programming strategy now emphasizes diversity and makes few nods toward the mainstream or toward the Hollywood films that once popped up among all the indies. Under the leadership of producer Stephanie Allain, Laff now places a premium on work from female and minority filmmakers — and while that approach is true to the.
- 6/2/2016
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
It takes approximately two minutes of speaking to Andrew Dice Clay before he starts a routine. "I was just in New York," he says in the same stentorian, street-tough voice that narrated his filthiest nursery rhymes at a sold-out Madison Square Garden in 1990. "It was so cold. I hate fuckin' bundling up, like. You know how you got to do it – the fuckin' scarf with the hat and the bullshit. But, you know, I love New York. I'm a Brooklyn boy."
Dice is now home in L.A. where it's...
Dice is now home in L.A. where it's...
- 4/13/2016
- Rollingstone.com
With the Spirit Awards behind them, Film Independent is ramping up for this summer's the 2016 La Film Festival (June 1-9). And they've chosen their opening nighter: Ricardo de Montreuil’s coming-of-age East L.A. drama "Lowriders" will play June 1 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinerama Dome. Produced by Brian Grazer and Jason Blum, "Lowriders" stars Gabriel Chavarria as a street artist with an old-school lowrider father (Demián Bichir). Eva Longoria and Melissa Benoist also star. “Made by filmmakers of color," said festival director Stephanie Allain, 'Lowriders' embodies our mission.” Ryan Coogler ("Creed") will be the 2016 Festival’s Guest Director and attend Film Independent’s annual Filmmaker Retreat, which brings the festival's filmmakers together with mentors before the official start of the festival. Coogler’s "Fruitvale Station" debuted at Sundance, played at Laff 2013 and won Best First Feature at...
- 4/6/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Ricardo de Montreuil’s Lowriders has been selected to open the La Film Festival, which runs from June 1-9 at the Arclight Cinemas. Set against the backdrop of East L.A.’s car culture, the film tells the story of Danny, a talented young street artist caught between the lowrider world inhabited by his old-school father and ex-con brother and his need for self-expression. Film Independent, which produces the festival, also announced Tuesday that Ryan Coogler, who most recently directed Creed, will serve as the festival’s 2016 guest director. It also said that director Ava DuVernay and
read more...
read more...
- 4/5/2016
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
All episodes were provided prior to broadcast.
Of all the critiques one could level at Judd Apatow, a particularly commonplace complaint is that the guy just doesn’t know when to cut. From his directorial ventures (especially Funny People and This is 40) to projects that merely bear his mark (like The Five-Year Engagement and Get Him to the Greek), Apatow joints are near-chronically overlong and digressive.
At this point, he’s no doubt aware of such criticism. And with the unveiling of Love, a 10-episode Netflix series that he both created (alongside Girls‘ Lesley Arfin and star Paul Rust) and exec-produced (with Arfin, Rust, Dean Holland, and Brent Forrester), it appears that his response to it is of the middle-finger-salute variety.
With episode lengths ranging from 30 minutes to more than 45 (in the unfortunately exhausting pilot), and a full season to just begin telling the story of how two people...
Of all the critiques one could level at Judd Apatow, a particularly commonplace complaint is that the guy just doesn’t know when to cut. From his directorial ventures (especially Funny People and This is 40) to projects that merely bear his mark (like The Five-Year Engagement and Get Him to the Greek), Apatow joints are near-chronically overlong and digressive.
At this point, he’s no doubt aware of such criticism. And with the unveiling of Love, a 10-episode Netflix series that he both created (alongside Girls‘ Lesley Arfin and star Paul Rust) and exec-produced (with Arfin, Rust, Dean Holland, and Brent Forrester), it appears that his response to it is of the middle-finger-salute variety.
With episode lengths ranging from 30 minutes to more than 45 (in the unfortunately exhausting pilot), and a full season to just begin telling the story of how two people...
- 2/17/2016
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
The love story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy has been told again and again onscreen, and each adaptation has in its own way addressed themes of class, social etiquette and romance that Jane Austen wove into the 1813 classic, Pride and Prejudice. But now Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, in theaters Feb. 5, introduces a whole new slew of themes: the undead, for example, and martial arts and lots and lots of blood and gore. The film has Cinderella star Lily James playing Elizabeth, who in this version just happens to be leading a small army of sword-toting society women in...
- 2/2/2016
- by Drew Mackie, @drewgmackie
- PEOPLE.com
Jack Larson, forever remembered as eager, wide-eyed cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman, has died. He was 87.
Larson, who went on to produce several films with his longtime partner, James Bridges, died Sunday at his home in Brentwood, California, according to The New York Times. Additional details on his death have not been released.
As chronicled in a 1988 People profile, Larson was merely 18 years old and an aspiring Broadway actor when he audition for Superman in 1951 and was offered the role of Jimmy. When Larson hesitated taking the role, the show's casting director finally persuaded him,...
Larson, who went on to produce several films with his longtime partner, James Bridges, died Sunday at his home in Brentwood, California, according to The New York Times. Additional details on his death have not been released.
As chronicled in a 1988 People profile, Larson was merely 18 years old and an aspiring Broadway actor when he audition for Superman in 1951 and was offered the role of Jimmy. When Larson hesitated taking the role, the show's casting director finally persuaded him,...
- 9/21/2015
- by Jodi Guglielmi, @JodiGug3
- People.com - TV Watch
"Vancouver's locations are like weirdly familiar character actors," says Vancouver native Tony Zhou in the short film essay Vancouver Never Plays Itself. The Canadian city is the third most popular film location, but unlike New York, it usually ends up playing other cities — everywhere from San Francisco to the Bronx to Seattle. For instance, if you're watching Fear the Walking Dead, which takes place in East L.A., everything after the pilot was shot in Vancouver. Of course, as Zhou demonstrates, a lot of this movie magic happens during post-production: Landmarks are inserted, as are USA Today vending machines, and well, title cards. That said, a lot of other Canadian cities may be challenging Vancouver's role as an empty vessel: Suicide Squad wrapped in Toronto and Stonewall shot in Montreal. Hopefully, sometime soon, Hollywood will make a riveting film about the struggle between poutine and universal health care.
- 9/14/2015
- by E. Alex Jung
- Vulture
“La Jaula de Oro” which translates to “The Golden Cage” now goes under the title “The Golden Dream”. The film, repped by Films Boutique, has sold widely. In U.S. it was acquired by HBO, but this week it is playing in L.A. at the TCM Chinese and Cinepolis Pico Rivera in East L.A. If you want an extra special treat, you will see it. It will also open Friday, September 4 at Village East Cinema in NYC and in DC at Cinema Pop-Up after Sept 11th.
Watch the Trailer / Showtimes and Tickets
Q&A with filmmaker Fri 9/4, Sat 9/5, Sun 9/6 at the 7pm show.
It will continue through more cities before HBO puts it on cable. It has won awards at every festival screening, starting with Cannes 2013 where it played in Un Certain Regard and won A Certain Talent Prize for the ensemble and the Gillo Pontecorvo Award and François Chalais Award - Special Mention for the strength of the visual aspect, the violence of truth and its emotional intensity. It won 9 Ariel Awards, the Mexican equivalent to the Oscar.
“La Jaula” transcends the usual depiction of young immigrants taking La Bestia through Central America and illegally entering the United States. After “El Norte”, “Sin Nombre” and “Mary Full of Grace”, we have become inured to this long festering problem of immigration. However, this poetic yet realistic and heartbreakingly beautiful depiction of three teenagers (one is a girl) from the slums of Guatemala traveling to the U.S. in search of a better life is pure heart. On their journey through Mexico they meet Chauk, an Indian from Chiapas who doesn’t speak Spanish. Traveling together in cargo trains, walking on the railroad tracks, they form bonds that create the magic of this film.
The beauty of every shot is proof that Diego Quemada-díez was a cinematographer before this debut directorial tour de force.
Diego was interviewed at the premiere by Ian Bernie, festival programmer for Bombay and the New Orleans Film Festivals, former director of the renowned Lacma film program.
Diego:
The social reality in Latin America requires cinema to be deeply engaged with the world as it is. I am interested in making films firmly rooted in our contemporary society.
True realism has it all: fantasy and reason, suffering and utopia, the happiness and pain of our existence. I want to give voice to migrants – human beings who challenge a system established by impassive national and international authorities by crossing borders illegally, risking their own lives in the hope of overcoming dire poverty.
This film is not a documentary, rather it is a fiction based on reality, reenacting it from a place of authenticity and integrity. We constructed the narrative and poetics of this odyssey from the testimony of hundreds of migrants and from the personal sentiments of each and every person who participated in the creative process.
As we identify with Juan and Chauk, we depart from our own daily lives and embark on a grand emotional adventure that delivers us to profound discovery – a journey dispelling the notion that happiness awaits us in a distant place, a journey offering reflection on the borders that divide nations, a journey towards awareness of what separates us as human beings.
We made this adventure in the hope of deconstructing those conventions that imprison us so we can reinvent our own reality. My dream is that these boundaries that separate us dissolve, allowing us to board another train.
One whose destination doesn’t matter, a train whose passengers all know our all existence is interconnected, a train whose obstacles inspire us to celebrate our existence with respect and conscience that transcends nationalities, races, classes and beliefs.
The words of a Mexican man named Juan Menéndez López, spoken just before boarding a moving cargo train with seven of his companions, became the intention I wanted to communicate with the film, “You learn a lot along the path. Here, we are all brothers. We all have the same need. What’s important is that we learn to share. Only in this way can we move ahead, only in this way can we reach our destination, only a united people can survive. As human beings, there is no place in the world where we are illegal.”
Once you have the intention it acts like a magnet, the film starts speaking and we follow it. But to articulate an idea on film we need to do it thru actions, characters, conflict. A metaphor can help us articulate the idea.
In the painting called American Progress from Manifest Destiny, the unquestioned western model of "Progress" or "Civilization" spreads through the land. Then I discovered that behind migration there is a territorial conflict, still current in America. Two ways of looking at the world, with very diferent belief systems, still clashing.
So I thought "I will tell the story of the conflict of two cultures", a story of ‘Cowboys and Indians’ through the clash between a Tzotzil Indian and a mixed race Guatemalan who believes in the Western model. They have completely opposite views of the world, one more materialistic and mental, the other more grounded, more in touch with his soul, his feelings. Throughout the story there is a transformation of the protagonist due to the Indian, not the other way around as the western societies usually expect.
I wanted to question our model of "Progress".
What if it is the western model that needs to change and not the indigenous way?
The opening ten minutes were without words.
Diego: Show me, don’t tell me.
The ending seven minutes themselves are incredible, filmed in a cold, dehumanized Colorado meat-packing warehouse where our hero ends his journey, transformed within himself.
Diego: He was alone; migrants have a lot of loneliness. Many testimonies I gathered ended in ‘We were 15 when we left and none of us arrived’ or ‘one of us arrived’. Very few make it and I wanted to convey this.
A migrant starts the journey looking for the gold (for the money) and as soon as he/ she arrives is trapped due to current legislation. Many pay a high price to get to the U.S. For many it becomes a trap.
Tell us about the genesis of this project.
Diego: I spent seven years researching the story, finding locations, speaking with migrants, gathering their testimonies that the screenplay is based on.
In the production itself, I followed Ken Loach’s techniques, filming in chronological order, without the actors knowing what would happen next. That way they have a life experience instead of acting. I would read them the script five minutes before we shot. We would do this every day, for every scene and based on their words I would rewrite it on the set.
Tell us more about your technique for shooting this film.
Diego: We worked with over 600 migrants in this movie and many people from the villages we passed by. We incorporated our actors into each location surrounded by real people and real locations, then we just filmed like a documentary, becoming an observer of what was happening on front of us. I tried to get the best from fiction and the best from documentary: Dramatic structure, to be able to reenact events instead of talking about them, working with real people, real locations, showing contemporary events that speak about issues of our time.
The hero’s internal journey is a metaphor of our own life and our death. Each of us in our own journey of life meets obstacles; we fall, we stand up, we learn things, we grow or we give up. We are never the same when we arrive at the destination where we believed our dreams would be fulfilled.
I believe we can learn a lot from migrants, from their extreme odyssey. They are people who risk their lives to help their loved ones. They are heroes so I wanted to tell their story through an epic poem.
On a deeper level, I talk of my own life through others. Like twenty years ago when my mother died and I had to keep going. Things happen to you but you go on, you continue however you can. Migrants do that; some people stumble and fall in the journey and still they keep going as best as they can.
How did you find the migrants?
Diego: In regards to the extras in the film, the casting crew would arrive three days before we arrived at each location, so when we got there we could include migrants and people from the villages.
How was this film financed?
Diego: Through a Mexican tax incentive. That is why there are so many movies now being made in Mexico. Last year 140 films. Each very different.
Biography
Born in the Iberian peninsula, Diego has lived in the American continent for the past two decades as nationalized Mexican. His first job in the film industry was in 1995, in Ken Loach's film “Land and Freedom” as a camera assistant to the director of cinematography. A year later, he migrated to the U.S. where he continued his career in film. His graduation film at the American Film Institute (AFI) as writer/director/Dop, “A Table is a Table”, won the Best Cinematography award given by the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc).
He has collaborated as camera operator with directors Spike lee, Alejandro Gonzalez-iñarritu, Tony Scott, Fernando Meirelles, among others, as he wrote and directed his own short films and documentaries. In 2006 he premiered his second short film “I Want to Be A Pilot” at the Sundance Film Festival. The film played at over 200 festivals and won over 50 awards, including Audience Award at La Mostra Sao Paulo Film Festival, Special Mention at the Amiens Film Festival.
That same year he directed in Mexico his short documentary “La Morena”, that premiered at Morelia Film Festival in 2007. In 2010 he won one of the scholarship awarded by Cinéfondation, which enabled him to participate in the Cannes Film Festival Atelier workshop with his first long-feature film, “La Jaula de Oro”. As we said above, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard’s Official Selection and won Un Certain Talent Award and The Gillo Pontecorvo Award and François Chalais Special Mention Award. In its Mexican premiere at the Morelia Film Festival, the film won three awards: Audience Award, Best First Film and Press Guerrero Award. As a Director he has won Best Director at Vladivostock Ff, Best New Director at the Chicago Ff, Best Director at Thessaloniki Ff, Best Director at Havana New York Ff, Best Director at Luis Buñuel Calanda Ff in Spain, Best Director from Satjavit Ray Foundation at the London Ff and Jean Renoir Award in France. It also won Best First Film in Lima, La Habana, República Dominicana and Best Film in Mumbai, Mar de Plata,Thessaloniki, Zurich.
It won nine Ariel Awards from the Mexican Film Academy, including Best Film, Best First Film and Best Original Screenplay, as well as Best Iberoamerican Film at the Fenix Iberoamerican Awards held in Mexico City. Up to now the film has received over 80 awards.
As a writer, aside from his screenplays, he has also written a poetry book called I “Dreamed I Found My Octogonal Room”.
More information on the film below:
"La Jaula de Oro" (The Golden Dream)
A film by Diego Quemada-Diez (Mexico/Spain, 102 min. In Spanish and Tzotzil with English subtitles)
Opens Friday, September 4 Village East Cinema 181-189 Second Avenue (at 12th Street) New York City, (212) 529-6998
Watch the Trailer / Showtimes and Tickets
Q&A with filmmaker Fri 9/4 and Sat 9/5 at the 7pm show.
The most awarded Mexican film in history -with over 80 international accolades- Diego Quemada-Diez's acclaimed debut feature "La Jaula de Oro" tells the story of three teenagers from the slums of Guatemala travel to the Us in search of a better life. On their journey through Mexico they meet Chauk, a Tzotzil kid from Chiapas who doesn’t speak Spanish. Travelling together in cargo trains, walking on the railroad tracks, they soon have to face a harsh reality.
Watch the Trailer / Showtimes and Tickets
Q&A with filmmaker Fri 9/4, Sat 9/5, Sun 9/6 at the 7pm show.
It will continue through more cities before HBO puts it on cable. It has won awards at every festival screening, starting with Cannes 2013 where it played in Un Certain Regard and won A Certain Talent Prize for the ensemble and the Gillo Pontecorvo Award and François Chalais Award - Special Mention for the strength of the visual aspect, the violence of truth and its emotional intensity. It won 9 Ariel Awards, the Mexican equivalent to the Oscar.
“La Jaula” transcends the usual depiction of young immigrants taking La Bestia through Central America and illegally entering the United States. After “El Norte”, “Sin Nombre” and “Mary Full of Grace”, we have become inured to this long festering problem of immigration. However, this poetic yet realistic and heartbreakingly beautiful depiction of three teenagers (one is a girl) from the slums of Guatemala traveling to the U.S. in search of a better life is pure heart. On their journey through Mexico they meet Chauk, an Indian from Chiapas who doesn’t speak Spanish. Traveling together in cargo trains, walking on the railroad tracks, they form bonds that create the magic of this film.
The beauty of every shot is proof that Diego Quemada-díez was a cinematographer before this debut directorial tour de force.
Diego was interviewed at the premiere by Ian Bernie, festival programmer for Bombay and the New Orleans Film Festivals, former director of the renowned Lacma film program.
Diego:
The social reality in Latin America requires cinema to be deeply engaged with the world as it is. I am interested in making films firmly rooted in our contemporary society.
True realism has it all: fantasy and reason, suffering and utopia, the happiness and pain of our existence. I want to give voice to migrants – human beings who challenge a system established by impassive national and international authorities by crossing borders illegally, risking their own lives in the hope of overcoming dire poverty.
This film is not a documentary, rather it is a fiction based on reality, reenacting it from a place of authenticity and integrity. We constructed the narrative and poetics of this odyssey from the testimony of hundreds of migrants and from the personal sentiments of each and every person who participated in the creative process.
As we identify with Juan and Chauk, we depart from our own daily lives and embark on a grand emotional adventure that delivers us to profound discovery – a journey dispelling the notion that happiness awaits us in a distant place, a journey offering reflection on the borders that divide nations, a journey towards awareness of what separates us as human beings.
We made this adventure in the hope of deconstructing those conventions that imprison us so we can reinvent our own reality. My dream is that these boundaries that separate us dissolve, allowing us to board another train.
One whose destination doesn’t matter, a train whose passengers all know our all existence is interconnected, a train whose obstacles inspire us to celebrate our existence with respect and conscience that transcends nationalities, races, classes and beliefs.
The words of a Mexican man named Juan Menéndez López, spoken just before boarding a moving cargo train with seven of his companions, became the intention I wanted to communicate with the film, “You learn a lot along the path. Here, we are all brothers. We all have the same need. What’s important is that we learn to share. Only in this way can we move ahead, only in this way can we reach our destination, only a united people can survive. As human beings, there is no place in the world where we are illegal.”
Once you have the intention it acts like a magnet, the film starts speaking and we follow it. But to articulate an idea on film we need to do it thru actions, characters, conflict. A metaphor can help us articulate the idea.
In the painting called American Progress from Manifest Destiny, the unquestioned western model of "Progress" or "Civilization" spreads through the land. Then I discovered that behind migration there is a territorial conflict, still current in America. Two ways of looking at the world, with very diferent belief systems, still clashing.
So I thought "I will tell the story of the conflict of two cultures", a story of ‘Cowboys and Indians’ through the clash between a Tzotzil Indian and a mixed race Guatemalan who believes in the Western model. They have completely opposite views of the world, one more materialistic and mental, the other more grounded, more in touch with his soul, his feelings. Throughout the story there is a transformation of the protagonist due to the Indian, not the other way around as the western societies usually expect.
I wanted to question our model of "Progress".
What if it is the western model that needs to change and not the indigenous way?
The opening ten minutes were without words.
Diego: Show me, don’t tell me.
The ending seven minutes themselves are incredible, filmed in a cold, dehumanized Colorado meat-packing warehouse where our hero ends his journey, transformed within himself.
Diego: He was alone; migrants have a lot of loneliness. Many testimonies I gathered ended in ‘We were 15 when we left and none of us arrived’ or ‘one of us arrived’. Very few make it and I wanted to convey this.
A migrant starts the journey looking for the gold (for the money) and as soon as he/ she arrives is trapped due to current legislation. Many pay a high price to get to the U.S. For many it becomes a trap.
Tell us about the genesis of this project.
Diego: I spent seven years researching the story, finding locations, speaking with migrants, gathering their testimonies that the screenplay is based on.
In the production itself, I followed Ken Loach’s techniques, filming in chronological order, without the actors knowing what would happen next. That way they have a life experience instead of acting. I would read them the script five minutes before we shot. We would do this every day, for every scene and based on their words I would rewrite it on the set.
Tell us more about your technique for shooting this film.
Diego: We worked with over 600 migrants in this movie and many people from the villages we passed by. We incorporated our actors into each location surrounded by real people and real locations, then we just filmed like a documentary, becoming an observer of what was happening on front of us. I tried to get the best from fiction and the best from documentary: Dramatic structure, to be able to reenact events instead of talking about them, working with real people, real locations, showing contemporary events that speak about issues of our time.
The hero’s internal journey is a metaphor of our own life and our death. Each of us in our own journey of life meets obstacles; we fall, we stand up, we learn things, we grow or we give up. We are never the same when we arrive at the destination where we believed our dreams would be fulfilled.
I believe we can learn a lot from migrants, from their extreme odyssey. They are people who risk their lives to help their loved ones. They are heroes so I wanted to tell their story through an epic poem.
On a deeper level, I talk of my own life through others. Like twenty years ago when my mother died and I had to keep going. Things happen to you but you go on, you continue however you can. Migrants do that; some people stumble and fall in the journey and still they keep going as best as they can.
How did you find the migrants?
Diego: In regards to the extras in the film, the casting crew would arrive three days before we arrived at each location, so when we got there we could include migrants and people from the villages.
How was this film financed?
Diego: Through a Mexican tax incentive. That is why there are so many movies now being made in Mexico. Last year 140 films. Each very different.
Biography
Born in the Iberian peninsula, Diego has lived in the American continent for the past two decades as nationalized Mexican. His first job in the film industry was in 1995, in Ken Loach's film “Land and Freedom” as a camera assistant to the director of cinematography. A year later, he migrated to the U.S. where he continued his career in film. His graduation film at the American Film Institute (AFI) as writer/director/Dop, “A Table is a Table”, won the Best Cinematography award given by the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc).
He has collaborated as camera operator with directors Spike lee, Alejandro Gonzalez-iñarritu, Tony Scott, Fernando Meirelles, among others, as he wrote and directed his own short films and documentaries. In 2006 he premiered his second short film “I Want to Be A Pilot” at the Sundance Film Festival. The film played at over 200 festivals and won over 50 awards, including Audience Award at La Mostra Sao Paulo Film Festival, Special Mention at the Amiens Film Festival.
That same year he directed in Mexico his short documentary “La Morena”, that premiered at Morelia Film Festival in 2007. In 2010 he won one of the scholarship awarded by Cinéfondation, which enabled him to participate in the Cannes Film Festival Atelier workshop with his first long-feature film, “La Jaula de Oro”. As we said above, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard’s Official Selection and won Un Certain Talent Award and The Gillo Pontecorvo Award and François Chalais Special Mention Award. In its Mexican premiere at the Morelia Film Festival, the film won three awards: Audience Award, Best First Film and Press Guerrero Award. As a Director he has won Best Director at Vladivostock Ff, Best New Director at the Chicago Ff, Best Director at Thessaloniki Ff, Best Director at Havana New York Ff, Best Director at Luis Buñuel Calanda Ff in Spain, Best Director from Satjavit Ray Foundation at the London Ff and Jean Renoir Award in France. It also won Best First Film in Lima, La Habana, República Dominicana and Best Film in Mumbai, Mar de Plata,Thessaloniki, Zurich.
It won nine Ariel Awards from the Mexican Film Academy, including Best Film, Best First Film and Best Original Screenplay, as well as Best Iberoamerican Film at the Fenix Iberoamerican Awards held in Mexico City. Up to now the film has received over 80 awards.
As a writer, aside from his screenplays, he has also written a poetry book called I “Dreamed I Found My Octogonal Room”.
More information on the film below:
"La Jaula de Oro" (The Golden Dream)
A film by Diego Quemada-Diez (Mexico/Spain, 102 min. In Spanish and Tzotzil with English subtitles)
Opens Friday, September 4 Village East Cinema 181-189 Second Avenue (at 12th Street) New York City, (212) 529-6998
Watch the Trailer / Showtimes and Tickets
Q&A with filmmaker Fri 9/4 and Sat 9/5 at the 7pm show.
The most awarded Mexican film in history -with over 80 international accolades- Diego Quemada-Diez's acclaimed debut feature "La Jaula de Oro" tells the story of three teenagers from the slums of Guatemala travel to the Us in search of a better life. On their journey through Mexico they meet Chauk, a Tzotzil kid from Chiapas who doesn’t speak Spanish. Travelling together in cargo trains, walking on the railroad tracks, they soon have to face a harsh reality.
- 9/4/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Blake Anderson stars in festival hit Dope, Rick Famuyiwa‘s coming of age film about an ambitious East L.A. kid named Malcolm, who finds himself thrust into the world of drug-fueled underground parties. Blake Anderson ‘Dope’ Video Interview In Dope, Anderson plays Will Sherwood, a dealer who helps Malcolm and his similarly studious pals unload the stash of […]
The post Blake Anderson On ‘Dope,’ Playing A Drug Dealer And Not Cutting His Hair [Exclusive Video] appeared first on uInterview.
The post Blake Anderson On ‘Dope,’ Playing A Drug Dealer And Not Cutting His Hair [Exclusive Video] appeared first on uInterview.
- 6/18/2015
- by Chelsea Regan
- Uinterview
Mexican-American actress Eva Longoria is one of the most visible Latinas in entertainment, but filmmakers on her latest project needed convincing she could play an inner-city Latina. Speaking Sunday at the Produced By Conference, Longoria fielded an audience question about juggling her identity as both a Mexican and American female. She touched on her casting in Universal’s upcoming “Low Riders,” a family drama set in the world of hydraulic cars that starts production on Tuesday. “I kind of had to fight for the part because it’s this girl from East L.A.,” Longoria said of her character in the film.
- 6/1/2015
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
Central Intelligence
Aaron Paul is in negotiations to join Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Amy Ryan and Danielle Nicolet in Rawson Marshall Thurber's action comedy "Central Intelligence" at New Line. Filming is underway in Boston.
Hart plays a boring accountant who was previously the cool guy in high school. He reconnects with an acquaintance (Johnson), a formerly bullied nerd who turns out to be a rogue spy. Paul will play Johnson's CIA partner who seemingly sacrifices himself for Johnson. [Source: THR]
The Belko Experiment
Michael Rooker ("Guardians of the Galaxy") has joined the cast of the horror film "The Belko Experiment". Rooker will play Bud Melks, the head of maintenance in the Belko building.
Greg McLean helms and James Gunn produces the film which deals with an American company after it’s mysteriously sealed off in South America. It's currently targeting a May 5th 2017 release. [Source: Variety]
Independence Day 2
Garrett Wareing ("Boychoir") has joined...
Aaron Paul is in negotiations to join Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Amy Ryan and Danielle Nicolet in Rawson Marshall Thurber's action comedy "Central Intelligence" at New Line. Filming is underway in Boston.
Hart plays a boring accountant who was previously the cool guy in high school. He reconnects with an acquaintance (Johnson), a formerly bullied nerd who turns out to be a rogue spy. Paul will play Johnson's CIA partner who seemingly sacrifices himself for Johnson. [Source: THR]
The Belko Experiment
Michael Rooker ("Guardians of the Galaxy") has joined the cast of the horror film "The Belko Experiment". Rooker will play Bud Melks, the head of maintenance in the Belko building.
Greg McLean helms and James Gunn produces the film which deals with an American company after it’s mysteriously sealed off in South America. It's currently targeting a May 5th 2017 release. [Source: Variety]
Independence Day 2
Garrett Wareing ("Boychoir") has joined...
- 5/23/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Exclusive: Supergirl star Melissa Benoist has just closed a deal to star in Lowriders, the pic from Universal Pictures, Blumhouse and Imagine Entertainment. The film takes takes place in the East L.A. world of lowrider cars and street tagging. Ricardo de Montreuil is on board to direct Josh Bierne-Gordon and Justin Tipping’s script. Previous drafts were written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James. Benoist’s casting as Lorelai — previously Lily Collins and Nicola Peltz…...
- 5/21/2015
- Deadline
Yesterday was a big day for Fast & Furious 7 with the latest installment in the long running action franchise surprising just about everybody by becoming a global phenomenon, and reaching $1 billion in the world wide box office. Not only that, it managed the fantastic feat in seventeen days, beating The Avengers, Avatar, and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 who all reached this magic number in nineteen. The Fast & Furious series is the only original live action franchise to achieve this level of box office success, with Fast & Furious 7 pushing the series passed $3 Billion worldwide, and it's the first movie for Universal to reach $1 Billion on it's initial release. For the only other time the studio reached this number, you'd have to go back to Jurassic Park, which reached $1.044 billion after it's 3D re-release in 2013. Not bad for a series that started off as a small movie about the...
- 4/18/2015
- by noreply@blogger.com (Tom White)
- www.themoviebit.com
I don’t have friends. I got family.
These seven words have come to exemplify the very heart of the Fast & Furious franchise, both for the faithful team of characters on screen and the band of actors, filmmakers and crew who have grown as tight as any bloodline over the course of seven movies together. At its outset, 15 years ago, no one could have foreseen that the destiny of this story about a team of street racers in East L.A. would transform into one of the most popular and enduring motion-picture serials of all time.
Now, Furious 7 arrives as the crowning achievement in this ongoing saga—the best, biggest and most fulfilling Fast & Furious movie yet. For every person in the Fast & Furious family—those on screen, those behind the camera and those who count themselves among its vast and varied fans around the world: This one is special.
These seven words have come to exemplify the very heart of the Fast & Furious franchise, both for the faithful team of characters on screen and the band of actors, filmmakers and crew who have grown as tight as any bloodline over the course of seven movies together. At its outset, 15 years ago, no one could have foreseen that the destiny of this story about a team of street racers in East L.A. would transform into one of the most popular and enduring motion-picture serials of all time.
Now, Furious 7 arrives as the crowning achievement in this ongoing saga—the best, biggest and most fulfilling Fast & Furious movie yet. For every person in the Fast & Furious family—those on screen, those behind the camera and those who count themselves among its vast and varied fans around the world: This one is special.
- 3/19/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
CAA is “Sleeping With Other People,” UTA is taking “The D Train,” Alicia Van Couvering is “Digging for Fire” and WME will award “The Bronze”...
Buyers will be out in full force this week in Park City but with so many options to choose from, it helps to have a cheat sheet to prioritize the must-see acquisition titles at Sundance. After talking to buyers and sellers alike, here are the 10 most promising titles with the loudest buzz heading into this year’s festival.
The Bronze (WME)
What’s the Deal?: The highlight of Sundance’s opening night lineup is this raunchy comedy from director Bryan Buckley featuring co-writer Melissa Rauch in what could prove to be a star-making performance. The “Big Bang Theory” actress plays a washed-up Olympic gymnast whose local celebrity is threatened by the arrival of a promising young gymnast seeking a mentor. Sundance describes the foul-mouthed protagonist as “a lovably loathsome character who makes Tonya Harding look like Grace Kelly,” so perhaps this will be the next “Bad Words?”
First Screening: Thursday, Jan. 22, 9:30 p.m. – Eccles
Digging for Fire (Alicia Van Couvering)
What’s the Deal?: Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt play East L.A. parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown as they juggle marital and parenting duties. Things get weird when she enjoys a night on the town with her girls and he takes the opportunity to invite his buddies over for smoking, drinking and carousing. Joe Swanberg’s latest may be his most commercial film yet, and it certainly features his most high-profile cast. Between Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Chris Messina, Jenny Slate, Melanie Lynskey, Timothy Simons, Ron Livington, comedian Mike Birbiglia and veterans Sam Elliott and Judith Light, there’s someone for everyone.
First Screening: Monday, Jan. 26, 9:45 p.m. – Eccles...
Buyers will be out in full force this week in Park City but with so many options to choose from, it helps to have a cheat sheet to prioritize the must-see acquisition titles at Sundance. After talking to buyers and sellers alike, here are the 10 most promising titles with the loudest buzz heading into this year’s festival.
The Bronze (WME)
What’s the Deal?: The highlight of Sundance’s opening night lineup is this raunchy comedy from director Bryan Buckley featuring co-writer Melissa Rauch in what could prove to be a star-making performance. The “Big Bang Theory” actress plays a washed-up Olympic gymnast whose local celebrity is threatened by the arrival of a promising young gymnast seeking a mentor. Sundance describes the foul-mouthed protagonist as “a lovably loathsome character who makes Tonya Harding look like Grace Kelly,” so perhaps this will be the next “Bad Words?”
First Screening: Thursday, Jan. 22, 9:30 p.m. – Eccles
Digging for Fire (Alicia Van Couvering)
What’s the Deal?: Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt play East L.A. parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown as they juggle marital and parenting duties. Things get weird when she enjoys a night on the town with her girls and he takes the opportunity to invite his buddies over for smoking, drinking and carousing. Joe Swanberg’s latest may be his most commercial film yet, and it certainly features his most high-profile cast. Between Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Chris Messina, Jenny Slate, Melanie Lynskey, Timothy Simons, Ron Livington, comedian Mike Birbiglia and veterans Sam Elliott and Judith Light, there’s someone for everyone.
First Screening: Monday, Jan. 26, 9:45 p.m. – Eccles...
- 1/20/2015
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
• Tessa Thompson, who gained acclaim for this year's Dear White People and Selma, has claimed the female lead in Creed. Fruitvale Station's Ryan Coogler is directing the Rocky spinoff, which also stars Sylvester Stallone, reprising his iconic role as Rocky Balboa, and Michael B. Jordan. The story follows Balboa as he trains the grandson (Jordan) of his fellow boxer, Apollo Creed. Coogler wrote the script with Aaron Covington. [Deadline] • Nicola Peltz has signed on for Universal's untitled low riders project, replacing Lily Collins in the role of Lorelai. The film, which centers on the East L.A. world of lowrider cars and street tagging,...
- 12/17/2014
- by C. Molly Smith
- EW - Inside Movies
Americanah
David Oyelowo ("Selma," "Spooks") is set to co-star with Lupita Nyong'o in the indie drama "Americanah," based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The story follows a pair of young Nigerian immigrants who face a lifetime of struggle while their relationship endures. Brad Pitt is producing. [Source: Variety]
The Bfg
Ten-year-old newcomer Ruby Barnhill ("Four O'Clock Club") is set to play Sophie in Steven Spielberg's upcoming film adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel "The Bfg".
The story follows a young orphan girl and the mysterious friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) who introduces her to Giant Country. Production begins next year ahead of a July 2016 release. [Source: Variety]
Lowriders
Nicola Peltz ("Transformers: Age Of Extinction") and Theo Rossi ("Sons of Anarchy") have joined the cast of the untitled "Lowriders" project at Universal Pictures, Blumhouse and Imagine Entertainment. The story is set in the East L.A. world of lowrider cars and street tagging. [Source: Deadline]
Roadies
Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men,...
David Oyelowo ("Selma," "Spooks") is set to co-star with Lupita Nyong'o in the indie drama "Americanah," based on the novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The story follows a pair of young Nigerian immigrants who face a lifetime of struggle while their relationship endures. Brad Pitt is producing. [Source: Variety]
The Bfg
Ten-year-old newcomer Ruby Barnhill ("Four O'Clock Club") is set to play Sophie in Steven Spielberg's upcoming film adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel "The Bfg".
The story follows a young orphan girl and the mysterious friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) who introduces her to Giant Country. Production begins next year ahead of a July 2016 release. [Source: Variety]
Lowriders
Nicola Peltz ("Transformers: Age Of Extinction") and Theo Rossi ("Sons of Anarchy") have joined the cast of the untitled "Lowriders" project at Universal Pictures, Blumhouse and Imagine Entertainment. The story is set in the East L.A. world of lowrider cars and street tagging. [Source: Deadline]
Roadies
Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men,...
- 12/16/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Exclusive: Nicola Peltz (Transformers: Age Of Extinction) is joining the cast of the untitled Low Riders project for Universal Pictures, Blumhouse and Imagine Entertainment. As previously announced, Demian Bichir has been tapped to play the lead in the pic, which takes place in the East L.A. world of lowrider cars and street tagging. Eva Longoria also stars.
Peltz replaces Lily Collins, who had previously been attached, for the role of Lorelei.
Ricardo de Montreuil is on board to direct the script, written by Josh Bierne-Gordon and Justin Tipping. Previous drafts were written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James.
Imagine’s Brian Grazer will produce the Low Riders movie with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum. Kim Roth and Alexandre Dauman will oversee for Imagine, with Couper Samuelson overseeing for Blumhouse.
Peltz is repped by Wme and Management 360.
Peltz replaces Lily Collins, who had previously been attached, for the role of Lorelei.
Ricardo de Montreuil is on board to direct the script, written by Josh Bierne-Gordon and Justin Tipping. Previous drafts were written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James.
Imagine’s Brian Grazer will produce the Low Riders movie with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum. Kim Roth and Alexandre Dauman will oversee for Imagine, with Couper Samuelson overseeing for Blumhouse.
Peltz is repped by Wme and Management 360.
- 12/12/2014
- by Ali Jaafar
- Deadline
Just before fictional college football teams Gotham City University and Metropolis State University square off in front of the cameras for Warner Bros. upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie, the team’s jerseys have been unveiled. Batman News has posted the first look at the apparel (and technically, the first look from anything in the movie, beyond Ben Affleck’s face) the two teams will wear during a shoot scheduled for Saturday at East Los Angeles College’s 10,000-seat Weingart Stadium. Also read: Batman vs. Superman Movie to Start Shooting at East L.A. College Stadium Zack Snyder, who directed summer blockbuster “Man of Steel,...
- 10/18/2013
- by Greg Gilman
- The Wrap
Permission to geek out, granted. Zack Snyder’s newest entry to the man of steel’s world covers quite a bit of ground in a mere two-minutes and 13 seconds. All of it, to be exact. In honor of the 75th anniversary of Superman, Snyder directed an animated short that covers the entire history and multitude of transitions of Krypton’s favorite — and final — son. Also read: Batman vs. Superman Movie to Start Shooting at East L.A. College Stadium The cartoon begins with the superhero’s Action Comics No. 1′s debut in 1938 — though when he jumps off the page, that’s when stuff gets real.
- 10/15/2013
- by Tony Maglio
- The Wrap
Even though actual production doesn't begin until February, some filming on Warners' big-budget "Batman vs. Superman" is set to take place this weekend in Los Angeles - and you could be a part of it.
Here's the details courtesy of the East L.A. College Campus News:
Warner Bros. Pictures new untitled Superman/Batman project comes to film at East Los Angeles College Weingart stadium during halftime of the Oct. 19 Husky football game.
Elac and Victor Valley College will kickoff the game at 6:30 p.m. At halftime, the stadium will transform into Gotham City University home stadium.
Director Zack Snyder and producers of the film are looking for people in the Los Angeles area, preferably Elac students, to be extras for the upcoming film.
The stadium will be made into the backdrop for a football game between Gotham City University and rival Metropolis State University.
The first 2,000 people who sit...
Here's the details courtesy of the East L.A. College Campus News:
Warner Bros. Pictures new untitled Superman/Batman project comes to film at East Los Angeles College Weingart stadium during halftime of the Oct. 19 Husky football game.
Elac and Victor Valley College will kickoff the game at 6:30 p.m. At halftime, the stadium will transform into Gotham City University home stadium.
Director Zack Snyder and producers of the film are looking for people in the Los Angeles area, preferably Elac students, to be extras for the upcoming film.
The stadium will be made into the backdrop for a football game between Gotham City University and rival Metropolis State University.
The first 2,000 people who sit...
- 10/15/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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