Posts Tagged ‘Cinereach Award’

09/30/2010

»  Cinereach-Supported Films’ Upcoming Screenings

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Festivals have a contagious energy which enhances the pleasure of watching thoughtful work. Experience the following Cinereach-supported films amongst audiences at these upcoming events, or pass along these recommended titles to your friends in Maine, Tokyo and beyond. Check the links below for screening details:

The Boy Mir_final2_16x9The Boy Mir
Winter 2010 Grantee

Directed by Phil Grabsky, The Boy Mir tracks the irrepressible and lovable Mir over not just one year but ten. This decade of coverage reflects not only Mir’s journey into early adulthood in one of the toughest places on earth, but it also serves as a film that is unmatched in mirroring and unveiling the vitally important story of modern Afghanistan.

The Boy Mir will be shown at:

Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Santa Barbara, California
January 27th – February 6th
US Premiere

And it was shown at:

IDFA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 17th – 28th
World Premiere

A Nomad's Life3
Summer Pasture
Winter 2008 Grantee

Filmed in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet by Lynn True, Nelson Walker and Tsering Perlo, Summer Pasture is a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of a young couple and their infant daughter during a time of great transition. As traditional nomadic life confronts rapid modernization, the family is at a crossroads, and Summer Pasture ultimately reveals the profound sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter’s future.

Summer Pasture will be shown at:

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Missoula, Montana

And it was shown at:

Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo, Japan
October 23rd – 31st

Dok Leipzig
Leipzig, Germany
October 18th – 24th

Hawaii International Film Festival
Honolulu, Hawaii
October 14th – 24th

Black Bear Film Festival
Milford, Pennsylvania
October 8th – 9th

Camden International Film Festival
Camden, Maine
September 30th – October 3rd

Togetherness Supreme

Togetherness Supreme
Winter 2008 Grantee

Directed by Nathan Collett, Togetherness Supreme is a feature length narrative made by, with and for the community of Kibera, east Africa’s largest slum. Its story follows three young people and the tensions that complicate the quest to change their community. After the 2007 Kenya presidential elections, Kibera is torn apart by conflicting tribal loyalties- so are these three characters.

Togetherness Supreme will be shown at:

Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Santa Barbara, California
January 27th – February 6th
US Premiere

And it was shown at:

Africa in the Picture
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 2nd – 7th

Africa in Motion Film Festival
Edinburgh, Scotland
October 21st – November 5th

Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver, Canada
September 30th – October 5th
International Premiere

Burma Soldier

Burma Soldier
Winter 2010 Grantee

This documentary by Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern and Nic Dunlop, provides a rare glimpse of a brutal dictatorship seen through the eyes of Myo Mint, a former soldier who swapped sides to join Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle for a democratic Burma.

Burma Soldier was shown at:

IDFA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 17th – 28th

Sheffield Doc/Fest
Sheffield, UK
November 3rd – 7th
World Premiere

Donor Unknown

Donor Unknown
Winter 2010 Grantee

A twenty-first century tale of identity and genetic inheritance, and perhaps the family of the future. This documentary by Jerry Rothwell follows members of a generation of children born through artificial insemination who are now old enough to search for their biological father.

Donor Unknown was shown at:

IDFA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 17th – 28th

Sheffield Doc/Fest
Sheffield, UK
November 3rd – 7th
World Premiere

Pushing the Elephant big
Pushing the Elephant
Summer 2008 Grantee

Directed by Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel, this documentary chronicles the story of Rose Mapendo and how she escaped from the ethnic violence of the Democratic Republic of Congo to become a vital voice to help mend her divided country. She has assisted dozens of survivors to rebuild their lives, but there is still one person Rose must teach to forgive–her daughter Nangabire. Pushing The Elephant counters the horrors of genocidal violence with the moral fortitude and grace of one woman’s mission for peace.

Pushing the Elephant was shown at:

IDFA
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 17th – 28th

Trenton Foreign Film Festival
Trenton, New Jersey
November 5th – 7th

TGOS_STILL_6_DOCTOR-Cropped

Two Gates of Sleep
Winter 2009 Grantee

In this narrative feature by Alistair Banks Griffin, the Conroy family live on the edge of society, deep in the rural south, surviving off the land around them. When Jack discovers his mother dead at the edge of a field, he and his brother set out on an arduous journey to carry out her last wishes.

Two Gates of Sleep was shown at:

AFI Film Festival
Los Angeles, California
November 4th – 11th
US Premiere

Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
Taipei, Taiwan
November 3rd – 20th

Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo, Japan
October 23rd – 31st

American Film Festival
Worclaw, Poland
October 20th – 24th

BFI London Film Festival
London, UK
October 13th -28th

Ok Enough Goodbye
OK, Enough, Goodbye (Tayeb, Khalas, Yalla)
Summer 2010 Grantee

Directed by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia, this narrative feature follows the chain of events that unfold when a forty year-old man living with his elderly mother in Tripoli, Lebanon is suddenly abandoned by her.

Recently awarded a Cinereach grant towards its remaining post-production costs, OK, Enough, Goodbye had its world premiere at:

Abu Dhabi Film Festival
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
October 14th – 23rd

At the festival, OK, Enough Goodbye was awarded Best Narrative Film by a New Director from the Arab World!

WarDonDon_IssaSesay_Detention

War Don Don
2010 Cinereach Award

A feature documentary by Rebecca Richman Cohen that goes to the capital of Sierra Leone, where the United Nations soldiers guard a heavily fortified building known as the “special court.” Inside, Issa Sesay awaits his trial. With unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and, from behind bars, Sesay himself, War Don Don puts international justice on trial for the world to see — finding that in some cases the past is not just painful, it is also opaque.

War Don Don was included in these festivals:

Bahamas International Film Festival
Nassau, Bahamas
December 1st – 5th

Amnesty International Film Festival
Vancouver, Canada
November 18th – 21st

Camden International Film Festival
Camden, Maine
September 30th – October 3rd

Rio International Film Festival
Rio, Brazil
September 23rd – October 7th

Also, visit the websites for the documentaries A Small Act, a Cinereach grantee in Summer 2009, and Gasland, supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute, to check for additional screenings throughout the US and beyond.

06/11/2010

»  Extended Q&A: Following up on Back Home Tomorrow

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Thank you to all those who attended the May 26th screening of Back Home Tomorrow at DCTV.

To jog your memories regarding Back Home Tomorrow, which received a Cinereach Award in connection with last year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the film deftly weaves together the stories of two children affected by war during their stays in the caring hands of Italian aid organization Emergency. Yagoub fled with his family from Darfur to the Mayo Refugee Camp in Khartoum. He has to undergo a serious heart operation, but neither his family nor his fellow tribesmen can come up with the money to pay for it. Murtaza is recuperating in a hospital in Kabul after losing his left hand to a landmine.

Eric Talbert of EMERGENCY USA, the international aid organization that provides medical care to the subjects of the film, took questions regarding the organization.  One of the film’s co-directors, Fabrizio Lazaretti, had hoped to join the Q&A via skype but was unable to. Audience members had some follow-up questions for Fabrizio which we relayed to him by email. We’ve posted his answers below, in addition to  relaying some key points from Eric regarding EMERGENCY USA.

If you haven’t seen the film, or would like to see it again, please add the film to your queue on Netflix. We hope it will soon be available to view in the US as it has recently been released on DVD in Italy (where the directors are from).

1256058624Back_Home_Tomorrow2_16x9

Murtaza, one of Back Home Tomorrow's young protagonists

Email Q&A from Fabrizio Lazzaretti

Q: Can you discuss your shooting format and the approach you used to capture Back Home Tomorrow? How were you able to achieve such compelling and extensive coverage during difficult and frightening circumstances?

We shot Back Home Tomorrow on HDV, and used two Sony Z1 cameras and a Sony AE1. [Co-director Paolo Santorini and I] shot for most of the time with two cameras simultaneously to obtain a fluid visual  language much closer to narrative cinema than to traditional documentary.

The scenes that are painful to watch in the film unfortunately represent just a fraction of what we witnessed. Being behind cameras helps to distance us from a scene a bit, because we concentrate on the technical aspects of capturing what is unfolding. But the sadness of what we were witnessing did often follow us home at night and stays with us still.

However while we did witness extreme human suffering, and it has definitely left deep scars, the experience also gave us the opportunity to observe great resilience and strength – which was especially powerful to see in the young boys that were the subjects of our film.

Q: How did you become involved with EMERGENCY?

I started working with Emergency in 1999-2000, making a film about the construction of their first hospital in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan during the war between the Taliban and the Mujaheddin. After September 11, 2001 we returned to shoot another film on the takeover of Kabul. In 2006, we knew that Emergency wanted to build its first Cardiac Center to treat patients free of charge in Africa, so we decided to join forces again to portray this new experience. We wanted to tell two parallel human stories that were representative of the NGO’s work in two distant countries, but similar in how they handled the long-term effects of war.

Q: How did you find your protagonists?

For the Sudan part of the story, we met Yagoub in the pediatric clinic of Emergency which was located in the Mayo refugee camp. We decided to start to follow his story in parallel of the building of the Center for Cardiac Surgery because his condition could be treated at the hospital when it was complete.

In Kabul, we were beginning to be familiar with patients at that specific clinic when Murtaza arrived with his injuries, and we began to follow him from the moment he was admitted. In his case, it was really fate that caused us to cross paths.

About Emergency USA

Who: Emergency USA, Life Support for Civilian Victims of War and Poverty, an independent nonprofit organization established to raise awareness through education about a culture of peace and respect for human dignity, and to raise funds and community support for medical care, rehabilitation and relief efforts for victims of wars, landmines and poverty.

What: The programs we support provide free-of-charge, high-standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas. All facilities are designed, built and managed by the Italian NGO EMERGENCY where specialized international staff is committed to training local medical personnel.

Why: In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians, of which 1/3 are children.

When: EMERGENCY USA’s (2005) medical-humanitarian mission is inspired by the innovation, integrity and accomplishments of the international NGO based in Italy, EMERGENCY which has operated independently since 1994.

Where: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone and Sudan, with a newly opened Pediatric Center in Nyala, South Darfur, in Western Sudan.

EMERGENCY has completed programs in Algeria, Angola, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Serbia and Palestinian Territories.

Getting Involved: For volunteer opportunities that include helping to raise awareness and funds, please contact [email protected].

More info:
www.emergencyusa.org
www.emergency.it
www.emergencyuk.org

05/20/2010

»  2010 Cinereach Award Goes to War Don Don

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Rebecca Richman Cohen’s War Don Don takes a complex look at international justice.

Full Press Release

In connection with the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Cinereach presents its annual Cinereach Award to Rebecca Richman Cohen for her work as Director/Producer of War Don Don. The award, which includes a $5,000 prize, recognizes excellence in artful, vital storytelling.

In the film, Issa Sesay is tried in the “Special Court” of Sierre Leone, accused of committing war crimes during the country’s recent civil war. With unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and, from behind bars, Sesay himself — War Don Don puts international justice on trial, finding that in some cases the past is not just painful, it is also opaque.

War Don Don

War Don Don by Rebecca Richman Cohen

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York takes place from June 10-24. War Don Don will screen, with Rebecca Richman Cohen in attendance, at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center on:

June 12, 2010, 6:45PM *including panel discussion with co-council to Issa Sesay and others
June 13, 2010, 2:00PM
June 16, 2010, 4:00PM

Buy Tickets

Leading up to its Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York screenings, War Don Don was a selection of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, the London International Documentary Film Festival, and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival London. It premiered, and won the Special Jury Prize, at SXSW 2010, and received the Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Documentary Editing at the Independent Film Festival Boston.

07/21/2009

»  Tune into P.O.V tonight for the broadcast of “The Betrayal”

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Ellen Kuras & Thavi Phrasavath's "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"

Ellen Kuras & Thavi Phrasavath's "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"

Academy-Award nominated and Cinereach Award winner “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” will be airing on P.O.V. tonight. The film is the directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a unique collaboration with the film’s subject and co-director, Thavisouk (“Thavi”) Phrasavath. For more information on the film and to watch the trailer, click here.

05/20/2009

»  Cinereach Award Presented to HRWIFF’s “Back Home Tomorrow”

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“A cinematically stunning examination of two lives affected by conflict that illustrates how hope prevails in even the most desperate of settings.” 

Cinereach Award Recipient "Back Home Tomorrow"

Cinereach Award Recipient "Back Home Tomorrow"

Cinereach has chosen “Back Home Tomorrow” to receive a Cinereach Award, a film making its US premiere at NYC’s Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. The film, directed by Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini, depicts the moving story of two children affected by war. The Cinereach Award is presented to filmmakers who convey vital messages through artful storytelling. Last year’s inaugural award was given to Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, for their film “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon).” For more on the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, please click here.

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