★★★☆☆ "When a star with a small mass quietly loses energy, it becomes a white dwarf. It sheds its outer layers to form a nebula; a pale remnant of what it once was." This may shed some cosmic light onto one aspect of what Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong is getting at with her confounding feature debut, Mundane History (Jao Nok Krajok, 2009). However, a larger part of its true meaning still remains hidden behind its beautiful and languid visuals. Arkaney Cherkam plays Pun, a nurse that is brought into the home of the affluent Thanin (Paramej Noiam) to care for his recently paralysed son, Ake (Phakpoom Surapongsanuruk).
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- 10/23/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
- 6/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Cannes's 6th Cinefondation Atelier has a lineup of directors which this year includes more known auteurs than previously. It has also joined with Mexico's Expresion den Corto for a summer residence program in Guanajuato, Mexico. Both programs include a dozen of the best young filmmakers in the world, offering them a platform designed to propel their careers with master's classes, workshops and meetings with public and private organizaitons to help obtain financing for their film projects.
The Cannes lineup of 15 films this year includes 4 films by first time directors one of whom is a woman and 2 Latino filmmakers.
Debuting directors:
Taiwan based former actress Show-Chun Lee from France, a protege of Claude Miller with Shanghai-Belleville
Karoly Ujj Meszaros from Hungary with Liza, the Fox-Fairy, a comedic serial killer nurse romp
Diego Quemada-Diez from Mexico with La Jaula de oro
Ruben Sierra Salles from Venezuela with Lucia
A third Latino filmmaker...
The Cannes lineup of 15 films this year includes 4 films by first time directors one of whom is a woman and 2 Latino filmmakers.
Debuting directors:
Taiwan based former actress Show-Chun Lee from France, a protege of Claude Miller with Shanghai-Belleville
Karoly Ujj Meszaros from Hungary with Liza, the Fox-Fairy, a comedic serial killer nurse romp
Diego Quemada-Diez from Mexico with La Jaula de oro
Ruben Sierra Salles from Venezuela with Lucia
A third Latino filmmaker...
- 4/15/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Updated through 2/11.
The last round of awards to be presented during this year's just-wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced Saturday night. The Iffr 2010 Audience Award goes to Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro's Yo, también, the Dioraphte Award "for the Hubert Bals Fund film held in highest regard" to Hawa Essuman's Soul Boy, produced by Tom Tykwer.
2010's three winners of the Vpro Tiger Awards, given to debut or second features by new directors, are Paz Fábrega's Agua fría de mar, Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History (I posted first impressions of those last two here; meantime, indieWIRE reports that Film Movement has picked up Alamar for distribution in the Us). The International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) has presented its Rotterdam award to Ben Russell's Let Each One Go Where He May and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) has selected Whang Cheol-Mean's Moscow.
The last round of awards to be presented during this year's just-wrapped International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced Saturday night. The Iffr 2010 Audience Award goes to Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro's Yo, también, the Dioraphte Award "for the Hubert Bals Fund film held in highest regard" to Hawa Essuman's Soul Boy, produced by Tom Tykwer.
2010's three winners of the Vpro Tiger Awards, given to debut or second features by new directors, are Paz Fábrega's Agua fría de mar, Pedro González-Rubio's Alamar and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History (I posted first impressions of those last two here; meantime, indieWIRE reports that Film Movement has picked up Alamar for distribution in the Us). The International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) has presented its Rotterdam award to Ben Russell's Let Each One Go Where He May and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) has selected Whang Cheol-Mean's Moscow.
- 2/12/2010
- MUBI
Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels! Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE. Kudos! I wish I could have seen these!
Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...
Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...
- 2/10/2010
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Berlin -- Films from Costa Rica, Thailand and Mexico won this year's trio of Tiger Awards at the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam, which took place Jan. 27-Feb.6, with the prizes for first- and second-time directors going to Paz Fabrega's "Cold Water of the Sea," Anocha Suwichakornpong's "Mundane History" and Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's "To the Sea."
The prizes, which are valued equally, each come with a cash bursary of €15,000 ($20,520).
Spanish drama "Yo, Tambien," which scooped the acting prizes in San Sebastian last year, won Rotterdam's audience award. The Dioraphte Award, which is given to a film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, went to "Soul Boy" from Kenyan director Hawa Essuman. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer produced "Soul Boy" as the pilot project for his new One Fine Day Films shingle, which aims to help filmmakers in the poorer regions of Africa finance and produce their stories.
"Soul Boy...
The prizes, which are valued equally, each come with a cash bursary of €15,000 ($20,520).
Spanish drama "Yo, Tambien," which scooped the acting prizes in San Sebastian last year, won Rotterdam's audience award. The Dioraphte Award, which is given to a film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, went to "Soul Boy" from Kenyan director Hawa Essuman. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer produced "Soul Boy" as the pilot project for his new One Fine Day Films shingle, which aims to help filmmakers in the poorer regions of Africa finance and produce their stories.
"Soul Boy...
- 2/8/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Long takes seem to characterize a group of films in this year’s Tiger Awards competition. Each one of these films ends of being distinct and memorable. This is the kind of fare that only programmers can identify, not those who market the films.
Nikolay and Yelena Renard’s Mama (Russia) includes long takes where the camera is entirely stationary, does not move and maintains a distance from is (only) two central characters. An overtly (some say obscenely) obese son of an obsessive mother makes his way to the store window as he seems to have fallen in love with a mannequin. He then walks into a park, at a speed that he can manage, to eat. When he comes home, we notice his mother is angry, who then bathes him, clothes him and helps him pack his suitcase because he is taking a flight the next morning. He misses...
Nikolay and Yelena Renard’s Mama (Russia) includes long takes where the camera is entirely stationary, does not move and maintains a distance from is (only) two central characters. An overtly (some say obscenely) obese son of an obsessive mother makes his way to the store window as he seems to have fallen in love with a mannequin. He then walks into a park, at a speed that he can manage, to eat. When he comes home, we notice his mother is angry, who then bathes him, clothes him and helps him pack his suitcase because he is taking a flight the next morning. He misses...
- 2/7/2010
- by Shekhar Deshpande
- DearCinema.com
This evening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the three Tiger Award winners were announced. The winners were:
"Agua Fría de Mar"
(dir: Paz Fábrega, Costa Rica)
"Alamar"
(dir: Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico)
"Mundane History"
(dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand)
The Tiger can only be won by directors who have made their first or second film. It is not just an award for good filmmaking, but also meant as an encouragement to make more films and includes a nice 15,000 Euro (each) to help do so.
The Fipresco award from the international film press went to "Let Each One Go Where He May" by Ben Russell, while the Netpac award for promoting Asian cinema was won by the Korean film "Moscow" from director Whan Cheol-Mean. ...
"Agua Fría de Mar"
(dir: Paz Fábrega, Costa Rica)
"Alamar"
(dir: Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico)
"Mundane History"
(dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand)
The Tiger can only be won by directors who have made their first or second film. It is not just an award for good filmmaking, but also meant as an encouragement to make more films and includes a nice 15,000 Euro (each) to help do so.
The Fipresco award from the international film press went to "Let Each One Go Where He May" by Ben Russell, while the Netpac award for promoting Asian cinema was won by the Korean film "Moscow" from director Whan Cheol-Mean. ...
- 2/6/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The 39th annual International Film Festival Rotterdam announced the winners of its Vpro Tiger Awards competition this evening, with "Agua fría de mar" ("Cold Water of the Sea") by Paz Fábrega (Costa Rica, France, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico), "Mundane History" ("Jao nok krajok") by Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand), and "Alamar" ("To the Sea") by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio (Mexico) taking the top Tiger. Each Vpro Tiger Award comes with a prize of €15,000. Iffr's Fipresci ...
- 2/5/2010
- Indiewire
Berlin -- The East and the Far East are in focus at this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival, which unveiled its competition lineup Thursday. Of the 15 titles vying for Rotterdam's Tiger Awards, more than half are from Eastern Europe and Asia.
Japan has two contenders: Tsubota Yoshifumi's "Miyoko," a biopic based on the Manga artist Abe Shinichi and his wife Miyoko and "Autumn Adagio" from first-timer Inoue Tsuki, which focuses on the life of a middle-aged nun.
Anocha Suwichakornpong, whose short "Graceland" (2006) was the first Thai film included in Cannes' official selection, makes her feature debut in competition at Rotterdam with "Mundane History," a drama about a family dealing with their wheelchair-bound son. Scwichakornpong will also attend Rotterdam's CineMart, chasing funds for his next project "By the Time it Gets Dark."
Other Asian entries in Rotterdam this year include minimalist drama "Sun Spots" from China's Yang Heng and "My Daughter,...
Japan has two contenders: Tsubota Yoshifumi's "Miyoko," a biopic based on the Manga artist Abe Shinichi and his wife Miyoko and "Autumn Adagio" from first-timer Inoue Tsuki, which focuses on the life of a middle-aged nun.
Anocha Suwichakornpong, whose short "Graceland" (2006) was the first Thai film included in Cannes' official selection, makes her feature debut in competition at Rotterdam with "Mundane History," a drama about a family dealing with their wheelchair-bound son. Scwichakornpong will also attend Rotterdam's CineMart, chasing funds for his next project "By the Time it Gets Dark."
Other Asian entries in Rotterdam this year include minimalist drama "Sun Spots" from China's Yang Heng and "My Daughter,...
- 1/7/2010
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ben Russell’s “Let Each One Go Where He May,” Anocha Suwichakornpong’s “Mundane History” and Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio’s “To the Sea” have been announced as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Vpro Tiger Awards Competition 2010. The festival additionally announced that the 2010 festival jury will include Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, French actress Jeanne Balibar and Singapore International Film Festival director Philip Cheah. Two further jury members will be announced later. “Let …...
- 10/26/2009
- Indiewire
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