All Posts Tagged With: "afi fest"

AFI Fest Announces Line-Up

October 8th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • 3 comments • Related Posts • Tags

Once upon a time, I worked as a theater manager at AFI Fest, and it was maybe the hardest 10 days of work I’ve ever done. Yet, I have a very soft spot for the fest. The films are strong, the social events are top notch including a great view of LA from their parking-garage-rooftop-turned-tent-palace, and while some of the folks who sauntered down the red carpet were a bit snooty, the majority of staff, volunteers and cineastes were a pleasure to share company with. The doc competition films are as follows:

Agile, Mobile, Hostile by Tricia Todd and Eric Matthies

Alone in Four Walls by Alexandra Westmeier

Gogol Bordello Non-Stop by Margarita Jimeno

Hi My Name is Ryan by Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose

Imaginadores by Daniela Fiore

Kassim The Dream by Kief Davidson

The Last Days of Shishmaref by Jan Louter

Of All The Things by Jody Lambert

Pindorama: The True Story of the Seven Dwarves by Roberto Berliner, Lula Queiroga and Leo Crivellare

Playing Columbine by Danny Ledonne

Prodigal Sons by Kimberly Reed

Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies by Yulene Olaizola

Until the Light Takes Us by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell

Witch Hunt by Don Hardy and Dana Nachman

I’ve seen a some or all of few of the selections that I’d definitely recommend: Agile, Mobile, Hostile, Jody Lambert’s Of All The Things, Hi My Name Is Ryan, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop, and Kim Reed’s Prodigal Sons. Where I saw works-in-progress, the stories and material were looking good.

Finneran Moves to Sundance Doc Fund

September 8th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

Patricia Finneran is moving on from Silverdocs to head up the New York presence of the Sundance Documentary Program effective November 1. From the press release, she replaces Bruni Burres. I’m curiously out of the loop on that one - I’ve never heard of Bruni working with , but evidently she is moving on to more human rights work. Finneran’s work will include, “… Representing the Documentary Program internationally, [and] Finneran will be responsible for recommending film projects, maintaining the Documentary Program’s New York base and working on the Program’s initiatives such as the Doc Fund and the Skoll Foundation’s Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary.”

This is the second high-profile departure from AFI’s family of festivals in fairly short order, with executive director Christian Gaines leaving AFI Fest in for a position at Withoutabox.com. Who will take over ? I’m on the edge of my seat. Nominations?

Submit to AFI Fest

June 4th, 2007 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

In case you weren’t reading my blog back in November, I’ll remind you that I went out to to work for AFI Fest, an 11-day extravaganza at the fantastic Arclight cinema (see some pics). Some of the great docs that screened where Lucy Walker’s Blindsight, Kurt Cobain About a Son (where AJ and I first “met”), and one of my doc favorites, TV Junkie by Michael Cain (pictured right with Susan, the fabu box office manager). They also programed an amazing line-up of features which include the likes of Who Loves the Sun? by Matt Bissonnette, Cashback by Sean Ellis and the award-winning Grbavica by Jasmila Zbaniç.

The deadlines for submission are coming up! The early deadline with reduced fees for all film submissions is June 9, 2007. The final deadline for shorts (under 30 minutes) is July 6, 2007. The final deadline for features (over 30 minutes) is July 16, 2007. Decisions will be announced no later than October 6, 2007.

More from the press release to entice you: The Festival spans 10 days each November and features international films from emerging filmmakers, global showcases of the latest work from the great film masters, nightly special screenings and red-carpet gala premieres. Each year, presents International Competitions of features, documentaries and shorts, as well as regional showcases including Asian New Classics, Latin Cinema Series and American Directions. A broad World Cinema as well as African Voices series were added in 2006.

The International Feature Competition is open to narrative feature films that are US, North American or World Premieres made by first or second time filmmakers. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category for the annual Academy Awards.

More international sales occurred at than any other American Film Festival, this is in direct response to the /American Film Market partnership since 2003.