Submissions link for 6th Annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival ... #piff #uff #Pi6

Festival submissions are welcome at: PhilaIndie6
Thank you very much for the interest in our festival. We look forward to the discussion. Keep it coming and feel free to stop by!
The Festival Team
6th Annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival ... #piff #Pi6 #uff

Former Media Bureau Artist in residence - Curt Chambers "Out Of Body" new music video.

Here's to a great fest friend making video's and waves. Hit Curt up for soundtrack work when you can. You will not be disappointed. ~ Ed

Preparing for festival #6 June 26-30, 2013

Great team meeting today. The camp is in action! We have great things moving for festival #6 June 26 - 30, 2013. Follow along at Fest Twitter feed for up to date details. WAB has been set up and we should be live November 1st. Any questions, email or call us! We look forward to another great festival with lots to come. Benjamin Barnett Festival Director

A Jew in Maos China - a review of The Revolutionary

China is very much in the forefront of our current geopolitical dialogue today. To the unknowing, it has been at the forefront for decades. Thinking of the film The Revolutionary that screened at the National Constitution Center made us think of the times we have picked up and left home for change,  adventure and / or intrigue. Rarely do many leave to take part in global change.

Produced and directed by Lucy Ostrander and Don Sellers, a married couple from Seattle, and Irv Drasnin, “The Revolutionary” was partially based on “The Man Left Behind,” a memoir by Rittenberg, who is now a 91-year-old consultant to American businesses in China. It is a must see documentary that tells a story that once told, just might change how you see China today.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/159051/a-jew-in-maos-china/#ixzz209VtERg8

http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/159051/a-jew-in-maos-china/


~ Thank you to Forward.com and blogger Laura Goldman

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 5 - Festival Winners 2012

Best Feature:

1^st - Things I Don’t Understand Director - Director:  David Spaltro

2^nd - Maybe Tomorrow – Director: Michael Wolfe

Honorable Mention – Santiago - Director: Felix Martinez

Best First Time Director (Feature)

Angels Around Me – Director: Stephen “Stix” Josey

Best Short:

1^st – Organized Criminal – Director: George Santini

Honorable Mention – Nausea – Director: Jeff Curren

Best Local Feature:

1^st – Benny the Bum – Director: Paul and Dan Cantagallo

Honorable Mention – The Descending – Director: Kyle Thompson

Best Local Short:

1^st - Welcome Home – Director: Danny Donnelly

Best Sci-Fi Feature

1^st – Towers – Director: Jet Wintzer

Best Sci-Fi Short

1^st –Serum – Director: Chidi Ozeih

Best Comedy Feature:

1^st Trailer Park Jesus – Director: Sean Gerowin

Best Documentary Feature:

1^st - Contradictions of Fair Hope – Director: Epatha Merkerson

2^nd – The Revolutionary - Director: Lucy Ostrander, Irv Drasnin, Don Sellers
Honorable Mention- Bailout (US) - Director Sean Fahey

Best Documentary Short:

1^st – If I Make It, I Win – Director: Roberto Ferri

Best Social Documentary:

1^st It’s A Girl Thing – Director: Shannon Silva

Best Music Documentary:

1^st – Inside the Perfect Circle: The story of Joel Thome – Director: Chris Pepino

2^nd – Diary of a Decade – Director: Jason Orr

Best Foreign Documentary

1^st – In The Name of Our Mothers (Poland) – Director: Mary Skinner

Best Foreign Feature

1^st – Duck Hunter (Italy) – Director: Edgidio Veronesi

2^nd – Zima (Germany) – Katerina Stankovic

Best Foreign Short

1^st – Ausreichend (Germany) – Director: Isabel Prahl

2^nd  - Sea Pavillion (South Africa) – Director: Todd Somodevilla

Honorable Mention – Suddenly Zinal (Iran) – Director: Navid Azed

Best Animation

1^st – Landscape (France) – Director Anabela Costa

2^nd – The Game (Poland) – Director: Marcin Janiec

Honorable Mention – O-Bon (US) – Director: Robert Kauffman

Best Music Video

1^st - Magic Sounds of Arrows (Sweden) – Director: Oskar Gullstrand

2^nd – It's Over Now - KIN4LIFE (US) - Director: Dorian G. Stone

Thank you,

Benjamin F. Barnett

Festival Director

Cost of Construction playing tonight!! Producer Flavia Colgan in attendence.

Cost of Construction

Produced by Flavia Colgan

Directed by Jordan Ehrlich

Will be playing tonight! Flavia Colgan will be in attendance.

5:30pm at the Franklin Institute

8:30pm at the First Unitarian Church (The Sanctuary)

17 people die everyday on construction sites across the country. Three OSHA officials have resigned in the past five years.  Government is stone walling efforts to remedy these preventable disasters.

Festival Screening and Discussion Venues:

Franklin Institute: (Franklin Theatre Capacity: 245) and (Imax Theatre Capacity: 340)

The Franklin Institute Science Museum is in Center City Philadelphia, at the intersection of 20th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway ...

Call Franklin Institute Box Office for Tickets: 215-448-1254

National Constitution Center: (Capacity: 180)

525 Arch Street  Philadelphia, PA 19106
Call Media Bureau Box Office for Tickets: 267-228-0333

First Unitarian Church – (Festival Headquarters) (Sanctuary, Parrish, Chapel) (Capacity: 400, 120, 75)

         2125 Chestnut Street  Philadelphia, PA 19103    (215) 563-3980

Raven Lounge Comedy Club: (Capacity: 65)

          1718 Sansom Street Philadelphia, PA 19103

          Call Media Bureau Box Office for Tickets: 215-592-1242 or the Raven 215 840-3577

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: (Capacity: 120)

          LandMark Building

          118-128 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. Judi Garst - Director of Facility Rentals
          215-972-1609 or jgarst@pafa.org

True Bromance to screen at Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 5

Saturday, June 23^rd, 2012 5:15pm-7:00pm - Franklin Institute IMAX Theater

True Bromance is a unique and hilarious film, falling somewhere between the various realms of comedy, drama, documentary, and mockumentary.  It is a highly self-conscious film, and rightly so because of it’s subject, but what makes True Bromance stand out amongst many other films is it’s extremely reflexive nature.  The film places real people in fake situations, fake people in real situations, real people acting, people playing caricatures of themselves, and contains some who are completely unaware of the proverbial joke of authenticity running through the film. 

The film has a long and tortured production history, and it is frankly a miracle of the director and main actor’s focus and dedication that made the film come together.  It is also apparent that throughout the project, the film has become something quite different since it’s initial conception, and it is a great trait of the film to be so constantly changing and re-evaluating itself.  The through line of Devin Ratray attempting to find love with Condoleeza Rice holds everything together quite well, and Devin Ratray is at times absolutely brilliant, truly living the role to the point that it becomes very questionably how much he is acting and how much he is being.

The film is about love of all sorts, romantic, parental, brotherly, between friends, but it ultimately also becomes about so many other things, such as privacy, friendly advice, projection of love, rights to our own image, celebrity and it’s pitfalls, and towards the end it becomes a hilarious questioning of our own government and their responses to someone attempting to profess their love for Condi.   The various ways the film is constructed all work rather well, although the comic book interlays taken from The Hangover and the bromance subplot feel slightly added on after the fact.  But they work, and within the reappropriated media of Condi, and the back and forth between real and fake, the real significance of the film can be found.  The film is an example of the post-postmodern crisis we face in media today.  Ultimately, the film asks the question: what is truly real in our world of illusions, and what illusions in our world are as real as it gets?

- Jeff Curran for #Pi5

Posting for and about independent film in Philadelphia ... #uff

We welcome you to Philadelphia and the 5th annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. Thank you for attending. We hope you like the show. Please use the comment cards and or just stop an usher with your opinion. Thank you to our sponsors: Filmmakers worldwide, Empowerment Group, Adobe, UArts, Philadelphia Distillery, Philadelphia Acting Studio, and Media Bureau Network. We'll see you in the theater's. Benjamin F. Barnett Festival Director Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 5

Festival Opening Night 2012

    * 2012 Festival Opening night screenings & events: $40.00 *

See 4 films while enjoying our sponsors Philadelphia Brewing Company, Philadelphia Distilling Company, Boyds Cardinal Hollow Winery,  and other treats at the fest lounge.

Sponsors: PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL 5

PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT FILM  FESTIVAL 5
JUNE 20-24, 2012   

Venue Screening Schedule

Powered by:

Empowerment Group / Media Bureau Network / PhilaActing.com  

Franklin Institute / National Constitution Center / Raven Lounge

1st Unitarian Sanctuary & Chapel / Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts

All American Artists / Theatre Ariel / GPFO / Take Action News

Adobe / MBPS.cc / Corzo Center UArts  / Fontaine Studios / buyboards.com stopCAIDnow.org / Adobe / N.O.E / Philadelphia Theatre Company

Honey’s Sit ‘n Eat / Random Tea Room / 700 Club / Red Cup Cafe

Lazer Illusions / Ultimate Robot 88 /Cardinal Hollow Winery / Sheraton Society Hill

Philadelphia Distilling / Center City Magazine / WL Magazine / Publish America

Shahora Music Studios / DJK2 Productions

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.

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.

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.

Record Paradise: The Musical Life of Joe Lee - Michael Streissguth (54 min) - UFF

In the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival #UFF screening room: Record Paradise: The Musical Life of Joe Lee Michael Streissguth (54 min) #UFF Record Paradise rolls with Joe Lee, black sheep of a blue-blood Maryland family, owner of one of the nation's most successful record stores, and an irreverent musical impresario. Leading an unruly parade of musicians, collectors, and disc jockeys, Joe has sold records to generations of music fans and produced, booked and managed some of Washington D.C.'s most beloved blues and rock acts, including the tragically zany Root Boy Slim. Opinionated, brash, and unabashedly entertaining , Joe Lee is a movie unto himself. Record Paradise is the next best thing. ~ed

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 2011 Award Recipients.

Thank you to all.
It takes time for us to figure out best of festival. We truly believe all movies in our fest deserve such accolades. It is also true that we screen movies for reasons other than "cinematic" appeal.

We really take a hard look at the awards.

Thank you for your patience and we are sorry for any confusion :)

If you would like a High Resolution (300 dpi) Adobe PhotoShop .psd file, please email us directly and we will send it to you.

We want to thank you all for submitting, sponsoring, and participating.

See you at #uff...

Benjamin F. Barnett
Festival Director
Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 4

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival Best of Festival recipients 2011:
Posted: v o2

Best Feature – From The Head (91min) (Comedy, Drama) Dir. George Griffith. On his third anniversary as a bathroom attendant in a New York City strip club, SHOES sees the same idiosyncratic characters that have flooded his porcelain kingdom for years. But before this shift is over, Shoes will discover that things have changed, and it’s no longer “same tits, different day.”

Honorable Mention - Rachel & Diana (76min) (Drama) Dir. Dave Janetta. "Rachel & Diana" is the story of one young woman's search for perspective and clarity in a modern, digital world. When an unexpected package arrives in the mail shedding new light on her past she takes to the highway.

----------------------------------------

Best Political Documentary - Zielinski (66min) (Politics / Documentary) Dir. Chase Thompson / Ryan Walker. By 1983 John Zielinski was a well-known author and photographer. His work had appeared in Life Magazine, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and countless other publications. But in a devastating 1984 contract dispute, he lost $50,000 and his professional credibility.

Honorable Mention - - A Hitler (min) The film, by writer/director Barry J. Hershey, is a phantasmagoric journey into the darkest recesses of the mind of Adolf Hitler. In a dreamlike subterranean environment removed from historical time, Adolf Hitler confronts the demons of his psyche. As he dictates his memoirs, Hitler encounters apparitions of his fiendish confidant, Joseph Goebbels; his enigmatic mistress, Eva Braun; the mastermind of his military campaigns, Hermann Goering; Jewish psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud; and a mysterious Woman in Black.

----------------------------------------

Best Short - Bathing and the Single Girl (11min) (Underground Romance). Dir. Christine Elise McCarthy. A raw & irreverent comedic look at the unspoken horrors of dating - and bathing with - younger men.

Honorable Mention - The Pond (19min) Dir. Dan Hannon. Shelly, a young woman distraught over the death of her husband, sets about scattering his ashes on the pond in an apple orchard they had both loved. But the waters of the pond hold a secret, and when a stranger appears unexpectedly, she learns the truth about this stunning locale.

Honorable Mention - - Blink of an Eye (Augenblicke) (Germany) (19min) (Thriller). Dir. Martin Bargiel. In the middle of the night a fight between Schenker’s neighbors won’t let him rest. Half asleep his mind is playing tricks on him: constantly he awakes in different places. Now he has to face questioning by an inspector about a dead woman, and his nightmare begins.

----------------------------------------

Best Documentary Virtual JFK - What if JFK had never been assassinated? (91min) (Documentary) Dir. Koji Masutani ’05 (Watson Visiting Fellow ) Watson Professor Jim Blight and Adjunct Associate Professor Janet M. Lang have been focusing their research on this question and on the lessons that revisiting the Vietnam War could provide for contemporary US policy.

Honorable Mention -- Schooling the World The White Mans Last Burdon (65min) (Documentary) Dir. Carol Black. If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates it’s children.

Best Doc Short: - Voices of Sculpture (30min) (Documentary) Dir. David Steele. Featuring some of the most important and innovative sculptures and sculptors of the modern art world, Voices of Sculpture is a tour DE force documentary exploring the role and interrelationship of art, artist and observer. Set in the unique Grounds For Sculpture located near Princeton N.J., the film tells the story of Seward Johnson's founding and development of this extraordinary venue for the arts and explores the sustaining spirit that made it grow into being.

Best Real Time Documentary - Cure for the Crash - The Art of Train Hoppin (91min) (Doc / Narrative) Dir. Brian Paul Higgens. Just beyond the tracks and the world you find familiar, endures a freedom found on the edges of American excess. I traveled these outer limits via the art of hopping freight trains with a photographer named Sepher and a brave women named Ruin. We rode through mountains, over clear meadows, near hidden canyons, along sprawling farms and countless other American...


Best Music Documentary – - Meet Me on South Street - History of J. C. Dobbs (50min) (Music Documentary) Dir. George Manney. Meet Me On South Street, The Story of JC Dobbs documents, the evolution of Philadelphia's fertile music and arts subculture in the 1970's until the sad closing of JC Dobbs in 1996. Between the gritty walls and dressing room grandeur, to the mystique and dysfunctional family-like workplace, what was once the club in Philly known for live music seven nights a week, showcasing artists in the infancy of their rising careers, JC Dobbs was Philadelphia's premiere rock & roll bar!

Honorable Mention ToddStock (91min) (Music Documentary). Dir. Todd Rundgren, Ed Vigdor. Camping out at Todd’s house for his 60th birthday. Toddstock was born.

Honorable Mention - BEATBOXING - THE FIFTH ELEMENT OF HIP HOP (55m, U S A)
Dir. by Klaus Schneyder The undocumented 5th element of HipHop. Beatboxing.

----------------------------------------

Best Comedy – - Big Guns Big Guns: (85 mins) (Comedy) Dir. Chris McDonnel. The world's worst cop gets fired and for reasons unknown becomes the target of every criminal in town. As a PI he must overcome incompetence and several character defects to solve the case and save his life.

Honorable Mention - Frontman (104min) (Comedy) Dir. Ben Hyland. When the former frontman of 'Stanley and the Knives' suddenly dies his old friends and band mates are forced back together after twenty-five years apart. Cracks soon start to appear in their relationships and it becomes clear why they split up in the first place. Frontman is a musical journey of five strangers, becoming friends for the second time.

Best Comedy Short - Gratitude (21 min) (Drama/Surreal). Dir. Cyrus Mirakhor. A harried chef learns about cooking and hard choices from a talking fish.
----------------------------------------

Best Thriller / Crime / Drama Hamesima X (91min) (Israel) Dir. Or Yashar & Yuval Ovadia. A man is sent to Earth on a mysterious mission and caught trying to infiltrate the Mossad's most highly classified facility. During an intensive interrogation, instead of getting the information he was hoping for, the Mossad's investigator is surprised to be given mystical information and Kabalistic secrets.
Honorable Mention - Murdered - Intersecting Memoires (60min) (Crime) Dir. Terance Ross. MURDERED, intersecting memoirs is an experimental single author movie. It is a cinema/literature fusion and is part of an interactive site best experienced by going to murderedtheweb.com.


----------------------------------------

Best Art House - Hunger (min) (Art House / Mystery) Dir. A typical dinner with friends where their secret desires are anything but. (French: Un dîner typique avec les amis où leurs désirs secrets sont tout sauf.)

----------------------------------------

Best Foreign : Chasing Che (78m, Iran) Dir. by Alireza Rofougaran One mans journey to follow the footsteps of his hero, Che Guevera while he translates his history into Farsi.


Honorable Mention -DILLI (25m, India) Dir. by Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas. What happens when you relocate 2 million people to nowhere?

----------------------------------------

Best Horror – Summer of Massacre. (78min) (Horror) Dir. Joe Castro. This movie is insane, actually insane is an understatement. It's a 100 MPH gore ride that never slows down. This film offers you not 1 but 8 maniacal, terrifying, relentless, and unstoppable killers. Prepare yourself for a body count so high, so bloody, so shocking, it is unlike anything have ever seen… in the history of slasher films.


Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 2011 Award Recipients.

http://PhiladelphiaIndependentFilmFestival.com

725 N. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
215 592-1242

http://Twitter.com/PhilaIndie



Thank you!

Festival goers - CONTACT INFORMATION for this years 2011 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.

Thank you for all of your input and comments!

Please follow along with festival happenings and discussions at the following networks:

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/PhilaIndie

Facebook: GROUP - Fest GROUP on Facebook

Facebook: PAGE - Fest PAGE on Facebook

ALL festival venues: Box Office Phone # 215 592-1242 (except Franklin Institute)

Franklin Institute Box Office Phone # 215 448-1254

Franklin Institute festival listings: Franklin Institute screening listings

Thank you! See you at the Screenings.

Welcome! The decisions have been finalized. We will contact you all in the afternoon. Check WAB, email or call the studio at: 215 -592-1242.

We want to thank the film makers from all over the world who submitted this year. We say this every year, but it holds true, hearing your stories over the months has proven to be as rewarding as ever and is a Fest in itself. Thank you to the underground film forum #uff, underground film guild #ufg, and the Media Bureau for the platform.

14 screenings at the Franklin Institute are on tap. Media Bureau, Cafe Treece, Raven Comedy club, and the Random Tea Room round out the screening rooms. We will post the screening schedule this Thursday, May 26.

Please send in Fest screening copies now!

The Film makers lounge is open June 14th and tickets go on sale May 29th. Tickets are $8 and $10. Opening night, June 22 and closing night June 26, are $20. Please purchase early and support Independent Film Making.

Thank you from everybody at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 4.

See you at the Fest June 22-26.

Benjamin Barnett
Festival Director

Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 2011

Posted: 4th Philadelphia Independent Film Festival

June 22nd - 26th, 2011

#film #media #piff2011


Special selections.

Check in at PhilaIndie
or view feed via this blog to your right ~~~~~~>

Who Killed Chea Vichea? #Piff2010 #PUFF #uff #PhilaIndie

Posted: Philadelphia Independent Film festival
/ Philadelphia Underground Film Forum.

Screening's:
Media Bureau - Saturday ~ 2:45pm - 3:45pm
Random Tea Room - Friday ~ 6:00pm -
Ruba - Sunday ~ 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Amy Leonard
freeRADlab

Title: Who Killed Chea Vichea?


Bradley Cox's unsettling documentary Who Killed Chea Vichea? follows the investigation of the murder of Chea Vichea, leader of a Cambodian worker's rights union. A champion of justice and the humane treatment of laborers in Cambodia's extensive production industry, Chea Vichea was shot and killed on the Chinese New Year in 2004 in front of a newsstand on the street. Amid demands for justice from Vichea's many supporters, Cambodian police arrested two men alleged to be the culprits despite considerable evidence to the contrary. The political nature of the arrests raise disquieting suspicions about the Cambodian government, giving followers of Vichea little hope of justice or reconciliation in the future. Meanwhile, two men serve a 20-year prison sentence for a murder they likely did not commit while Vichea's family mourns the unresolved murder of a beloved brother, husband, and father.

Featuring interviews with Vichea's family and supporters as well as family and friends of the men convicted for his murder, Who Killed Chea Vichea? weaves a disturbing tale of corruption, injustice, and unanswered questions. Through investigative-reporting style filmmaking, Bradley Cox unveils a nation in sociopolitical turmoil despite reassuring claims to the contrary made by numerous international ambassadors. Under threat of death or incarceration by the government, many Cambodian citizens fear to speak out against this and other injustices occurring in their country.

Who Killed Chea Vichea? speaks to an international audience about human rights and democracy. It provides excellent insight into a disturbing situation, developing a compelling story that calls viewers to action against corruption and injustice around the world.

Movie site: http://WhoKilledCheaVichea.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WhoKilledCheaVichea#!/group.php?gid=76083065273
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RGarella

TRT: 56 min
Language: English / Khmer