Thursday, August 27, 2020

Telluride at Home-Take One / Ammonite Has a Trailer / The Truffles Hunt Up More Festing / TFF Will Present All In

TELLURIDE AT HOME-TAKE ONE



Last Monday I suggested that those of us that will be missing being at the 47th Telluride Film Festival might curate our own TFF's right at home.  

That's what the Mrs. and I will be doing in about a week.  We'll be choosing 10 or so films that we've either seen at TFF in our 14 years of attending or films that played at TFFs during those fests but that we missed and have never caught up with.  I'll be posting our list a week from today.  We're even going so far as to trying to replicate meals from some of our favorite places to eat in Telluride and Mountain Village.

I also invited you readers to join the party and program your own TFF #47 using the same guidelines I listed above and then drop me a note about what films you included.  My plan is to post and maybe even tweet the TFF #47 lists I get.  So send those to me in any of the variety of contact methods listed at the bottom of this post.

I also reached out specifically to some acquaintances to see what they might program.  I already have some responses from that quarter.

Eric Kohn from Indiewire was the first to respond with this list:

The Act of Killing
12 Years a Slave
Moonlight
Uncut Gems
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Anomalisa
Lady Bird
Starred Up
Stories We Tell
Heart of a Dog

Scott Feinberg from The Hollywood Reporter says:

Here are my 10 most memorable Telluride screenings — not necessarily the greatest movies that played at Telluride, but the ones that I most enjoyed seeing for the first time at that fest, which I began attending in 2011

1.Gravity (2013) 
2.45 Years (2015)
3.The Artist (2011)
4.Argo (2012)
5.12 Years a Slave (2013)
6.Spotlight (2015)
7.Moonlight (2016)
http://8.Free Solo (2018)
http://9.Red Army (2014)
10.Toni Erdmann (2016)


Kris Tapley, formerly of InContention and Variety was very enthusiastic:

My first year was 2009. Keeping it to 30:

AMOUR (Michael Haneke, 2012)
ANOMALISA (Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman, 2015)
ANOTHER YEAR (Mike Leigh, 2010)
ARGO (Ben Affleck, 2012)
BIRDMAN (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014)
BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
FIRST MAN (Damien Chazelle, 2018)
FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller, 2014)
GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
HOSTILES (Scott Cooper, 2017)
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
LA LA LAND (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
MARRIAGE STORY (Noah Baumbach, 2019)
MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles, 2018)
PARASITE (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
A PROPHET (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
A SEPARATION (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
'71 (Yann Demange, 2014)
SHAME (Steve McQueen, 2011)
SON OF SAUL (László Nemes, 2015)*
SPOTLIGHT (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
STEVE JOBS (Danny Boyle, 2015)
UNCUT GEMS (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019)
UP IN THE AIR (Jason Reitman, 2009)
WAVES (Trey Edward Shults, 2019)
THE WAY BACK (Peter Weir, 2010)
WILD TALES (Damián Szifron, 2014)

And some special screenings I adored:

AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (Herzog Theater Christening)
APOCALYPSE NOW (40th Anniversary)
BARAKA (Guest Director Selection)
A TRIP TO THE MOON AND BEYOND (Serge Bromberg Restoration)


More to come as we get closer to what would have been TFF #47 weekend.  SEND ME your "Telluride at Home" list of 10 films!


AMMONITE HAS A TRAILER

One of the buzziest of titles on Telluride's list of films that would have played had the fest been able to occur is Francis Lee's Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.  Neon (who distributed last year's Best Picture Oscar winner-Parasite) released a trailer for the film earlier this week.  Here that is from YouTube:


The Hollywood Reporter, among others, provided coverage of the release of the trailer.  That is linked here.


Ammonite is set to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.


THE TRUFFLES HUNT UP MORE FESTING



TFF #47 selected documentary The Truffle Hunters is on a roll as we found out this week that the film had been added to the Toronto lineup and had also been selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Indiewire's Kate Erbland reported the TIFF addition on Tuesday.  Also added were a number of "conversations" including one between Claie Denis and Telluride favorite Barry Jenkins.



TFF WILL PRESENT ALL IN



There had been hints that Telluride might schedule another "special event" after originally announcing that the fest would screen Chloe Zhao's Nomadland at a drive-in location in Los Angeles on Sept. 11.

That seems to be a special screening of the voting rights documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy.    The film will be screened in conjunction withe the Mill Valley Film Festival on Sept. 2/next Wednesday.

According to the press release:

Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) Director/Founder Mark Fishkin and Telluride Film Festival (TFF) Executive Director Julie Huntsinger announced the World Premiere of the Amazon Original All In: The Fight for Democracy, to be screened Wednesday, September 2 in the SF Bay Area at the West Wind Solano Twin Drive-In located in Concord. 

 “We are delighted to be presenting the World Premiere of All In: The Fight for Democracy, and partnering with our long-time friends at the Telluride Film Festival,” said Mark Fishkin. “All In: The Fight for Democracy is a film for our times and also timeless; the subject matter could not be more important as we enter this election season. The ability of a great film to not only create empathy, but to activate a cause can never be underestimated. It’s also the personal story of Stacey Abrams, who has devoted her life to equity and a democratic society. All In, the Fight for Democracy, is all that, and so much more.”

Julie Huntsinger adds, “How incredible it is to be able to share the important message of a singular woman - the one and only Stacey Abrams! Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus have created an exhilarating portrait of Stacey and the fight against voter suppression.  This is a film for everyone and we hope our spotlight leads to many others.”

Directed by Oscar® and Emmy®-Award nominated filmmaker Lisa Cortés and Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus, All In: The Fight for Democracy examines the enduring legacy of voter suppression in the US and features Stacey Abrams, the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.

 Fishkin also announced that the 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) will take place Thursday, October 8– Sunday, October 18, 2020 online and in drive-in locations.

 The All In: The Fight for Democracy screening kicks off the Mill Valley Film Festival’s 2020 Contenders Season. MVFF will celebrate this exceptional and timely work from directors Cortés and Garbus with the first ever Active Cinema Spotlight program, presenting them with the MVFF Award virtually just prior to the screening. 

Staying connected has rarely been more important than now, during this crucial time of social distancing and social turmoil. The Mill Valley Film Festival will continue to provide a beacon of connection, information, and inspiration through the power of visual storytelling. Utilizing digital platforms, virtual cinema, and nightly drive-in events, MVFF43 will offer a selection of film screenings, online conversations, workshops, and panels to our loyal audience here in the Bay Area, as well as new audiences around the nation.

 About All In: The Fight for Democracy

In anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has corrupted our democracy from the very beginning. With the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary offers an insider’s look into laws and barriers to voting that most people don’t even know are threats to their basic rights as citizens of the United States.

The film will launch globally on Prime Video September 18, 2020. 

About Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, in 2018, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, when she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States. After witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Abrams launched Fair Fight Action to ensure every Georgian has a voice in our election system. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South. 

She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the 2012 recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress. Abrams has also written eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, in addition to Lead from the Outside, formerly Minority Leader, a guidebook on making real change.

About Filmmakers

Lisa Cortés is an award-winning film producer and director. The film Precious (2009), which she executive produced, received Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for best drama. Marking the acting debut of Gabourey Sidibe, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two. 2019’s The Apollo, an HBO documentary, explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Her directorial debut, The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (2020), traces the impact of street fashion and African American creativity on global cultural trends. Her early career as a music executive was launched at the iconic Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management; she also was VP of A&R at Mercury Records, and founded the Loose Cannon label. Her film productions have received over 70 international awards and nominations.

 Two-time Academy Award®-Nominee, two-time Emmy Winner, Peabody Winner, Grammy Nominee, DGA Nominee, and BAFTA-nominated director Liz Garbus is renowned for creating electrifying archival-driven historical documentaries that retain all the narrative velocity, artistic craft, and conceptual depth of propulsive vérité films, as well as vérité films which take deep dives into today's most hotly debated topics. Garbus’ latest series I'll Be Gone in the Dark premiered on HBO in June 2020.  Her narrative feature debut, Lost Girls, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and was released on Netflix and in theatres in March 2020.  The Fourth Estate, for Showtime, was nominated for a 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Her 2015 feature, Sundance opener, What Happened, Miss Simone?, a Netflix original, was nominated for a 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and took home the Emmy Award for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special.  Other credits include:  The Innocence Films (Netflix, 2020), Who Killed Garrett Phillips (HBO 2019), There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (HBO), The Farm: Angola, USA (AA nominee 1998) and many others.




EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

2 comments:

Jim Brooks said...

Love the lists!!! I will be looking up streaming info on some of these so I can knock out a few things I missed!!!!

Anonymous said...

Preparing meals? I guess that means you'll be making popcorn! That's about all I eat during TFF!