Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Post: National Constitution Center screening schedule.



(All screenings subject to change!)


NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER 


Adobe / Empowerment group / Media Bureau Network  / Franklin Institute / Corzo CenterUArts  / National Constitution Center / Raven Lounge / SnappDecisions / buyboards.com  / Phillyacting.com / All American Artists / stopCAIDnow.org / 1st Unitarian Sanctuary & Chapel / Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts / Theatre Ariel / MBPS.cc / Take Action News / Ultimate Robot 88 / Honey’s Sit and Eat / 700 Club / Philadelphia Theatre Company / Red Cup / Lazer Illusions / Cardinal Hollow Winery / Sheraton Society Hill / Philadelphia Distilling / GPFO / Sharp /  n.o.e / random tea room / 
Center City magazine / WL magazine   
 

NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER – FRIDAY

11:00-12:50pm - The Contradictions of Fair Hope (Documentary)
July 1865. Over 4 million slaves have been freed. Forced to roam the antebellum countryside, and ill prepared to cope with the realities of their new found freedom, the freed slaves formed 'benevolent societies' throughout the South to respond to the abject hunger, illness and the fear of a pauper's grave.

Set in rural Alabama, the film traces the development, struggles and gradual loss of tradition of one of the last remaining benevolent societies in America, known as 'The Fair Hope Benevolent Society,' and provides an unprecedented look at its complex and morally ambiguous world.

1:00-2:35pm - A.L.F. (Drama, Documentary)
What happened, that 24th of December ? This is what officer Chartier wants to find out. To understand, he will have to go back 48 hours earlier: Franck's Christmas eve. The characters of A.L.F. are bound by a limitless empathy towards mistreated animals, and will have to show courage to complete a mission they have been preparing for months. One will betray them.

2:50-3:45pm – The Songs They Sang. Documentary
The Songs They Sang is the remarkable tale of music and theatre performed by Jewish musicians held in ghettos and concentration camps across Europe during the Holocaust. It explores the stoicism of the Jewish people who created art and recorded important historical perspectives in the face of the most horrific persecution and tyranny. The film centres on the work of lyricists Avrom Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski, who wrote startling and poetic eyewitness accounts of Vilna., and risked his life in order to protect and preserve Jewish writings and music before his brutal untimely death. The documentary also considers his legacy of song and the various people preserving such music today.  






National Constitution Center – Saturday
11:30am - Bailout 85min (Documentary) (Dir. Sean Fahey)
Fed up with corrupt bailout banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash to give themselves a long overdue bailout of their own. 
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America's financial crisis. We discover how politically powerful banks are systemically eliminating America's middle class through fraudulent home foreclosures. An enigma wrapped in Doc hybrid form, Bailout is a social documentary that explores American anger with the Wall Street elites who survive and thrive on government bailouts, fraud, & political corruption. 
Organized Criminal (18min)(Thriller)(Local)
When an ambitious up and coming criminal (Bobby) decides to get even with a vicious drug dealer from his past (Dominick), he realizes that in order to do so, he has to level the playing field first.

Bobbys task is to persuade Vincent that surrendering to his own greed without fear and without regard for his morals will lead them both to creating one of the most intelligent, most modern and most powerful criminal organizations the world has seen yet."

1:30-2:15pm - Colored Confederates (42min) (Documentary)
A documentary shedding light on an obscure corner of American history: Did blacks actively 'fight' for the Confederacy during the Civil War and if so why?

Welcome Home (18min) (Drama) (Local) (Short)
Short film about a local hero coming home from the War in Iraq.


2:30-4:45pm - The Revolutionary. The story of Sidney Rittenebrg. (87min) (Documentary) Dir. Lucy Ostrander
During China's Cultural Revolution, Sidney Rittenberg, an American citizen, became the most important foreigner in China since Marco Polo. Arriving as a GI interpreter at the end of World War II, he was an active participant in the Chinese communist revolution. An intimate of the Party's leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. This is the story of the biggest revolution of the 20th century, unknown to most Americans, told by an American who was there.


Post :Franklin Institute screening schedule.


PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT 
FILM FESTIVAL 5
 JUNE 20-24, 2012
     
Franklin Institute  
Screening schedule
(subject to change)
Adobe / Empowerment group / Media Bureau Network  / Franklin Institute / Corzo CenterUArts  / National Constitution Center / Raven Lounge / SnappDecisions / buyboards.com  / Phillyacting.com / All American Artists / stopCAIDnow.org / 1st Unitarian Sanctuary & Chapel / Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts / Theatre Ariel / MBPS.cc / Take Action News / Ultimate Robot 88 / Honey’s Sit and Eat / 700 Club / Philadelphia Theatre Company / Red Cup / Lazer Illusions / Cardinal Hollow Winery / Sheraton Society Hill / Philadelphia Distilling / GPFO / Sharp /  n.o.e / random tea room / Center City magazine / WL magazine 



 :::::: MEDIA BUREAU NETWORK ANNOUNCES ::::::
THE 5TH ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
June 20 through the 24th, 2012
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE screening schedule:
Wednesday: Opening night ($20 includes opening event)

Bail Out (Documentary) Dir. Sean Fahey. 87min 8:00 – 9:40 (Franklin Theatre)
Fed up with corrupt “bail-out” banks trying to foreclose on them, five Chicagoans drive to Vegas with stacks of cash withheld from bailed out banks—to give themselves a long-overdue bailout of their own!
A feature documentary that explores the causes and effects of America’s financial crisis: after losing his job as a big-firm lawyer, Titus withholds his mortgage payment from a major bailout bank for several months. Seeing his friend rack up tens of thousands of dollars, comic John Fox wheedles Titus into taking a Winnebago excursion to the Las Vegas Tropicana where Fox has a stand-up gig.

From entry-level workers in northeast Indiana RV factories to Congressional leaders to rock stars, Bailout will tell the story of recent American economic events through the mouths of people who labored through thick and thin--what it was and how it has affected us all.


Zima (Germany) (Drama) 45 min - 7:00 – 8:00 (Franklin Theatre)
Michael announces his plans to come home after a long mysterious absence. The people whom he had left behind decide to organize a small get-together for his return. Despite his promise, Michael stays away yet he remains strangely omnipresent, just like the fears that he may never return.

Nausea (Drama) (Experimental Short) Dir. Jeff Curran. 13 min 7:00 – 8:00 (Franklin Theatre)
A young woman takes a man from her class home with her one night and wakes up to find him lying dead next to her.  As she attempts to find the cause and a solution, she begins to see that things are not in the least bit as they seem.


Thursday:
Bringing King to China (Documentary) 85 min. Dir. Kevin McKieman, Haskell Wexler
 7:30 – 9:15 (Franklin Theatre)
Bringing King to China documents a cross-cultural dialogue about the current relevance of Dr. King's philosophy of peace and non-violence. The feature-length documentary conveys the lead character's "dream to build a bridge between the societies by talking about peaceful struggle and universal rights" (The New York Times). It chronicles her twelve-month struggle to interpret and adapt King's message for Chinese society, preserve the historical accuracy of the U.S. civil rights movement, clear bureaucratic hurdles before opening night and raise funds to pay the theater company. Powerful and intimate, the film takes American viewers backstage at the National Theatre of China, as Chinese actors rehearse with African-American gospel singers.  

Tango MacBeth – (Drama) 73 min. 7:30 – 9:15. Dir. Nadine M. Patterson.  (IMAX)  
Macbeth, deconstructed, Tango Macbeth is a visceral, fluid, energetic re-imagining of this classic tragedy for a 21st Century multicultural world. A play, within a documentary, within a film. Tango Macbeth follows the actors as they lose themselves within Shakespeare's world.
The form of the film is improvisational narrative observational documentary. There are points where the narrative flow is intentionally disrupted and audience expectations are smashed. The camera work, music, and casting all reflect the re-imaging of the text. Not in a superficial way, but in a way that gets to the core of the story.

Friday:
Things I Don’t Understand Drama – (Mystery) 8:00 – 9:45 Dir. David Spaltro (IMAX) 
The story follows Violet Kubelick, a brilliant young grad student studying near-death experiences and her recent withdrawn, closed-off behavior after a mysterious, failed suicide attempt. She and her two artist-roommates are forced by financial matters to finally confront their fears and step out of the protective bubble they've created for themselves in their Brooklyn loft while Violet herself forms a cathartic relationship with a young, terminally ill girl in a hospice she is interviewing for her thesis. A story of changing, relationships, love, life and what comes after we die.

Santiago  (Documentary/Drama) 10:10 – 12:08 Dir. Felix Martiz (IMAX)
Santiago is a drug dealer who agrees to let Miguel, a Mexican actor, follow and study him for his next role. With only Billy the cameraman at his side, the two set out to document a day in the life of Santiago. Through Billy's camera we see the story of a man struggling to survive as he juggles a world of prostitutes, territorial control, and drugs in the streets of Los Angeles. As the night comes closer to an end, all is not as it appears to be in a world of lies and blood shedding truths.

Saturday:
True Bromance (COMEDY) 5:15 – 7:00 (IMAX)
A musician hopelessly in love with Republican heroine Condoleezza Rice embarks on an odyssey across America, receiving hilariously absurd counsel on how to win her heart

Red Corvette (DRAMA) 7:20 – 8:55 (IMAX)
Cindy Reese, a suburban high school senior, who is burdened with more than her fair share of teenage angst. Utterly friendless, she longs for the day when she can graduate and leave all her troubles behind. But it won't be easy as a rival of hers manages to make her fail for the year. Cindy is forced to enroll in Summer School, where she finds herself seated next to the extremely sultry Bella Fagone, the daughter of a mob boss. The two immediately bond whereupon Cindy soon finds her staid suburban life turned upside down. Watch as Bella introduces her new-found protege to the seedy and oftentimes dangerous world of her NYC night life, a world filled with illicit drug use and eventually cold-blooded murder.

Angels Around Me – (Documentary / DRAMA) 9:05 – 10:45 Dir. Stephen “Stix” Josey (IMAX)
A film about choices. Everyone makes choices in life; some good, some bad. Angels provide a special few another chance. We all have protection around us that we can't see ... the Angels Around Me.

Sunday:
Willie Sutton (Documentary) 5:00 – 6: 00 (IMAX)
America's most famous bank robber of the twentieth century doesn't fancy prison accommodations. When he gets caught and confined, he escapes ... three times! In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton is a documentary film that follow this gentleman bandit's criminal career that spans over four decades.

Animation Festival  6:05 – 7:05
Ø       Landscape (11 min) (France)
Ø       The Game (6 min) (Poland)
Ø       O-Bon (12 min) (Japan)
Ø       The Story of Cholera (4 min) (Israel)





Festival screening update: Welcome to the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts as a sponsoring venue!

A quick note, we are excited to be working with PAFA and their film theater group. We will be screening both Friday and Sunday and have a bold mix of local and international films. Thank you to Paul Hamannaka and Judi Garst for the help and encouragement. We are looking forward to working with you both.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

A quick programming update: Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 5

We are about 70% along the way. We are very excited for this years schedule and it is shaping up, as we had hoped, to be one of the best we have ever had. It looks good that we will screen about 125 films as of this post. Thank you very much for your interest and for considering your film for our festival. Please keep upto date with the fest Twitter feed at @PhilaIndie and of course the blog.

In the #uff underground film forum: Towers a film by Jet Wintzer

TOWERS: When the human race can no longer feel happiness, peace or joy due to mutations caused by radiation from cell phones and towers, humanity becomes virtually extinct.

Do you have it in you to survive?

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Behind the Scenes at Philadelphia Independent Film Festival | Directors Live

Thank you to Artist First and Kin4life.
Behind the Scenes at Philadelphia Independent Film Festival | Directors Live

Benjamin F. Barnett
Festival Director
Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 5
June 20 - 24, 2012.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Talking film and acting at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival - See you June 20 - 24, 2012.

 As we cruise through final submissions we tend to think back on other fest moments for inspiration and reflection.

See the classic interview with Executive Producer and Actor Tony Shalhoub, Actor Michael Chernus and Producer Nick Langholff at the 3rd Annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.

Flashback: Talking film in the studios. via

 

~ ed

Sunday, May 6, 2012

We have started to inform the film makers, the discussions have begun. #Pi5 #piff #uff

::::> We have started to inform the film makers, the discussions have begun. If you are interested in seeing a film screened at this years Philadelphia Independent Film Festival on June 20 - 24, 2012, now is the time to start posting up about it and passing on the Event invite link (Skip and go directly to the Event invite link below)! Thanks for the great discussions and feedback to date as usual. Thanks to this years #uff. Nothing like watching hundreds of movies from all over the globe. This is what it's all about and it's an exciting process. We are physically and literally on the move and it is an exciting time around here. Stop by on Monday or Tuesdays 11am-3pm and take part during our open #uff discussions. If you have a film in consideration still at this stage, walk it in and put it on. More soon - Benjamin F. Barnett Festival Director #Pi5 Let us know you want to attend the 5th Annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival June 20 - 24, 2012.