Directed by Véréna Paravel and J. P. Sniadecki documentary "Foreign Parts" about the Willets Point section of Queens recieves NY Times Critics' Pick.
It’s a safe bet that the Willets Point section of Queens, setting and subject of the new documentary “Foreign Parts,” does not figure in many New York tourist itineraries, though it has starred in a movie before, Ramin Bahrani’s “Chop Shop.” This battered stretch of junkyards and auto repair shops may thrive (or fester, depending on your point of view) in the shadow of Citi Field, but it seems a universe away from that gleaming corporate food court where the Mets occasionally win a baseball game.
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5 BROKEN CAMERAS is a very powerful and emotional piece of filmmaking. Now, it was never your original intention to set out to make a documentary, is that correct?
EB: Actually, when I started filming my village in 2005 I was filming and documenting for many purposes. But after a few months, the idea of making a film came to me. I saw other films had been made about the subject so I decided not to do it at that time. Instead, I started to focus on my friends, my family, and my son growing up. It was like constructing the story.
GD: When Emad asked me to work with him, it was in 2009, a few months after the killing of Bassem Abu-Rahme - El Phil. The name of the project was "Elephant in Bil'in". I actually was skeptical, since the Bil'in moevement had been portrayed in the media a lot, (think of the 2006 film "Bil'in My Love"). I didn't think it would be logical to make another film on the characters of the village and the movement. Plus, I grew up with so many films that commemorate the deaths of soldiers (Israelis of course) that I didn't like the idea of making another film that commemorates death.
Read full interview on Alive Mind Cinema
Something’s rotten in the state of Jiabo, where the king is dead, the queen has married her brother-in-law, the prince is acting crazy and his girlfriend is even crazier. Nothing ends well in “Prince of the Himalayas,” a high-altitude “Hamlet” that takes several liberties with Shakespeare’s plot but reps a muscular, boldly dramatic trip into a fanciful ancient Tibet. Considering the breathtaking landscapes, the reckless but effective camerawork and the star turn by young Tibetan comer Purba Rgyal, a festival run seems assured. Theatrical success may seem as remote as Lhasa, but it’s a heck of a calling-card movie.
Read full film review at Variety
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Something’s rotten in the state of Jiabo, where the king is dead, the queen has married her brother-in-law, the prince is acting crazy and his girlfriend is even crazier. Nothing ends well in “Prince of the Himalayas,” a high-altitude “Hamlet” that takes several liberties with Shakespeare’s plot but reps a muscular, boldly dramatic trip into a fanciful ancient Tibet. Considering the breathtaking landscapes, the reckless but effective camerawork and the star turn by young Tibetan comer Purba Rgyal, a festival run seems assured. Theatrical success may seem as remote as Lhasa, but it’s a heck of a calling-card movie.
Read full film review at Variety
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Photographer Francesca Woodman died years ago. It is apparent from how her parents, sculptor Betty, and painter George, speak distantly of her. The pain is still there, but it’s not as acute as it must have been when they found out. The Woodmans are a family of artists. Charlie, Francesca’s older brother, a video artist, faces the camera to give insight into who Francesca was, what their childhood was like with such intense, parental mountains, who believed, and still believe, that art is paramount. The elder Woodmans are not full of themselves. Their art is quite good, and part of the framework of this documentary from filmmaker C. Scott Willis is Betty creating artwork for the American Embassy in China, so we can see what she looks like when she’s creating. The same goes for George, who we see painting, as well as examples of his own work.
Read full review on Movie Gazette Online