Update on the New Orleans Film Fest '07
Stars are expected to come out for the biggest New Orleans Film Festival yet
Posted by Mike Scott, Movie writer September 20, 2007 8:00AM
Storm? What storm?
Two years removed from its Katrina-forced hiatus in 2005, the New Orleans Film Festival is gearing up for its biggest schedule ever: 117 films and such marquee attendees as Vince Vaughn and Alan Cumming.
"We've never played more than 67 (films)," said Ali Duffey, executive director of the New Orleans Film Society, which organizes the festival. "I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm really glad that it happened."
Festival officials will announce the full schedule for the Oct. 11 to 18 event -- as well as the list of 2007 major winners (see box below) -- at a "launch party" today at the International House Hotel.
One of this year's festival highlights will be the attendance of funnyman Vaughn, the star of the hit comedy "Wedding Crashers" and the forthcoming fall films "Fred Claus" and "Into the Wild."
Vaughn will bring along his lengthily titled documentary "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland." Set for a February release, the film follows Vaughn on a 30-day comedy tour with a hand-picked cadre of comics.
Cumming, who has appeared in such films as "X2" and "Spy Kids," also will attend in support of his horror-comedy "Suffering Man's Charity," his big-screen solo directorial debut. The film tells the story of a failed composer turned music teacher who becomes embittered when a struggling young artist takes advantage of his generosity.
Duffey also predicted that other notable filmmakers and guests would attend, though she did not release all of their names.
The festival doesn't officially adopt a theme each year, but Film Society Artistic Director John Desplas said that this is shaping up to be the year of the documentary.
"I don't think we've ever devoted as much programming as we did this year to documentaries," Desplas said.
The winner of the festival's documentary category, "The Allen Toussaint Touch," is a profile of the New Orleans musician songwriter, composer, pianist and producer, produced for the BBC by director Jill Nicholls. Toussaint is expected to attend.
Among the other documentaries to be screened are "Oswald's Ghost," a deconstruction of the presidential assassin, from director Robert Stone; "Tootie's Last Suit," a look at the local Mardi Gras Indian culture, from director Lisa Katzman; a sneak preview of Sundance Film Festival hopeful "Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans," from director Dawn Logsdon and written by Times-Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie; "The King of Kong," the critically acclaimed look at the enduring video game culture, and the lost boys who can't seem to give it up, from director Seth Gordon; and "Left Behind: The Story of the New Orleans Public Schools," a film with a depressingly self-explanatory title from directors Vince Morelli and Jason Berry.
Other notable films to be screened at the festival include:
- "Grace is Gone," written and directed by James C. Strouse, and starring John Cusack. Winner of the Audience Award for Drama at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The feature film tells the story of an Iraq war veteran's husband (Cusack) who struggles to find the courage to tell his children of their mother's death.
-- "Killer of Sheep," directed by Charles Burnett. Declared one of the "100 Essential Films" by the National Society of Film Critics, and among the first 50 films placed on the National Film Registry, Burnett's 1977 film has never been released theatrically or on video due to problems associated with music licensing. Examining Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood in the mid-1970s through the eyes of one of its residents, a slaughterhouse worker, the film is only now being released in the 35 mm format after music rights were finally secured.
-- "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," directed by Julian Schnabel, the 2007 Cannes Film Festival winner for best director. Based on real events, the French feature film tells the story of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was incapacitated in 1995 by a stroke but who refused to yield to his medical condition. In French with subtitles.
-- "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney. The legendary Lumet's suspense thriller, which is one of the festival's opening-night selections, focuses on a pair of brothers (Hoffman and Hawke) who decide to rob a mom-and-pop jewelry shop. The problem is that the mom and pop are their own, and the perfect robbery proves to be anything but.
-- "Lady Chatterly," directed by Pascale Ferran. D.H. Lawrence's celebrated and subversive love story gets another adaptation. In French with subtitles.
. . . . . . .
Movie writer Mike Scott can be reached at mscott@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3444. To comment on this story or read Scott's other film-related features and reviews, go to http://blog.nola.com/mikescott.
Posted by Mike Scott, Movie writer September 20, 2007 8:00AM
Storm? What storm?
Two years removed from its Katrina-forced hiatus in 2005, the New Orleans Film Festival is gearing up for its biggest schedule ever: 117 films and such marquee attendees as Vince Vaughn and Alan Cumming.
"We've never played more than 67 (films)," said Ali Duffey, executive director of the New Orleans Film Society, which organizes the festival. "I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm really glad that it happened."
Festival officials will announce the full schedule for the Oct. 11 to 18 event -- as well as the list of 2007 major winners (see box below) -- at a "launch party" today at the International House Hotel.
One of this year's festival highlights will be the attendance of funnyman Vaughn, the star of the hit comedy "Wedding Crashers" and the forthcoming fall films "Fred Claus" and "Into the Wild."
Vaughn will bring along his lengthily titled documentary "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland." Set for a February release, the film follows Vaughn on a 30-day comedy tour with a hand-picked cadre of comics.
Cumming, who has appeared in such films as "X2" and "Spy Kids," also will attend in support of his horror-comedy "Suffering Man's Charity," his big-screen solo directorial debut. The film tells the story of a failed composer turned music teacher who becomes embittered when a struggling young artist takes advantage of his generosity.
Duffey also predicted that other notable filmmakers and guests would attend, though she did not release all of their names.
The festival doesn't officially adopt a theme each year, but Film Society Artistic Director John Desplas said that this is shaping up to be the year of the documentary.
"I don't think we've ever devoted as much programming as we did this year to documentaries," Desplas said.
The winner of the festival's documentary category, "The Allen Toussaint Touch," is a profile of the New Orleans musician songwriter, composer, pianist and producer, produced for the BBC by director Jill Nicholls. Toussaint is expected to attend.
Among the other documentaries to be screened are "Oswald's Ghost," a deconstruction of the presidential assassin, from director Robert Stone; "Tootie's Last Suit," a look at the local Mardi Gras Indian culture, from director Lisa Katzman; a sneak preview of Sundance Film Festival hopeful "Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans," from director Dawn Logsdon and written by Times-Picayune columnist Lolis Eric Elie; "The King of Kong," the critically acclaimed look at the enduring video game culture, and the lost boys who can't seem to give it up, from director Seth Gordon; and "Left Behind: The Story of the New Orleans Public Schools," a film with a depressingly self-explanatory title from directors Vince Morelli and Jason Berry.
Other notable films to be screened at the festival include:
- "Grace is Gone," written and directed by James C. Strouse, and starring John Cusack. Winner of the Audience Award for Drama at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The feature film tells the story of an Iraq war veteran's husband (Cusack) who struggles to find the courage to tell his children of their mother's death.
-- "Killer of Sheep," directed by Charles Burnett. Declared one of the "100 Essential Films" by the National Society of Film Critics, and among the first 50 films placed on the National Film Registry, Burnett's 1977 film has never been released theatrically or on video due to problems associated with music licensing. Examining Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood in the mid-1970s through the eyes of one of its residents, a slaughterhouse worker, the film is only now being released in the 35 mm format after music rights were finally secured.
-- "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," directed by Julian Schnabel, the 2007 Cannes Film Festival winner for best director. Based on real events, the French feature film tells the story of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was incapacitated in 1995 by a stroke but who refused to yield to his medical condition. In French with subtitles.
-- "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney. The legendary Lumet's suspense thriller, which is one of the festival's opening-night selections, focuses on a pair of brothers (Hoffman and Hawke) who decide to rob a mom-and-pop jewelry shop. The problem is that the mom and pop are their own, and the perfect robbery proves to be anything but.
-- "Lady Chatterly," directed by Pascale Ferran. D.H. Lawrence's celebrated and subversive love story gets another adaptation. In French with subtitles.
. . . . . . .
Movie writer Mike Scott can be reached at mscott@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3444. To comment on this story or read Scott's other film-related features and reviews, go to http://blog.nola.com/mikescott.
Labels: Movies
posted by Unknown at 3:25 PM
1 Comments:
Check out the trailer for the film Oswald's Ghost at http://www.myspace.com/oswaldsghost and on Facebook too http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18541237464
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