Quentin Tarantino’s mysterious new project (which he was referring to as a “Southern,” describing the setting of his unique take on the genre) hit the web this weekend, and movie enthusiasts were happy to finally know the name of his new film: Django Unchained. After the leak, a source who claims to have read said screenplay offered the site Shadow and Act a brief synopsis:
“Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (to be played by Christoph Waltz) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.”
Sounds like classic a pretty classic Wild West scenario, but with a twist. You don’t often see Western’s feature black protagonists (there are exceptions, but generally African American actors have taken on supporting roles in films set in the American frontier) or German co-stars, but this being a Tarantino production, anything goes. The main thing to keep in mind is that this will likely be very much the “Southern” that the filmmaker promised and that knowledge provides some context for the synopsis. As stated, Christoph Waltz (who won an Oscar for QT’s Basterds) will play the German bounty hunter while the rest of the cast falls into place. Collider says that both Keith Carridine and Treat Williams will also appear in the picture.
By Daniel Hubschman , Hollywood.com Staff, 05/01/11
Click here to read the entire article.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival
REEL SISTERS of the DIASPORA SEEKS ORIGINAL
WORKS For FILM FESTIVAL
Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is seeking films directed, written or produced by women of color. Reel Sisters is celebrating its 14th year anniversary and the festival has screened more than 400 films since its inception. “From Cleopatra Jones to First Lady Michelle Obama: Exploring Feminism in Film & Media” is the theme for this year’s festival.
Film shorts, animation, works-in-progress, narratives, features, documentaries and experimental works are eligible. Filmmakers will have their original works viewed at a public screening Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus from October 15-16, 2011.
Please include a short biography and film synopsis. Entries must be submitted on 1/2″ NTSC VHS videotape or PAL DVD (Region free DVDs. Entry fee is $20. All entries must be received or postmarked by June 10, 2011.
Reel Sister Website
www.withoutabox.com. For information call (347) 534-3304 or (212) 865-2982. Please note the www.withoutabox.com application will be available by next week.
Reel Sisters is presented by African Voices magazine. The festival is committed to providing opportunities for women of color in the film industry. Reel Sisters provides professional workshops for emerging women filmmakers wishing to improve their craft and gain access to the resources they need to succeed in the film industry. The festival offers workshops and panels on financing film projects, documentary filmmaking, screenwriting and exploring new opportunities in film on the Internet.
South Africa Photographer Sam Nzima Honored for Soweto Photo by President Zuma
 By: Donna Bryson, Associated Press PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA (AP).-A South African photographer is being honored for helping expose apartheid’s brutality to the world with a picture that ended his career. On Wednesday, celebrated as Freedom Day in South Africa because it is the anniversary of the country’s first all-race elections, President Jacob Zuma will bestow national honors on Sam Nzima for a photograph reminiscent of the “Pieta” he took showing a dying Hector Pieterson, a 13-year-old shot by police during the June 16, 1976 Soweto uprising. Nzima is receiving the Order of Ikhamanga, which recognizes South Africans who excel in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism and sport. He joins such past winners as jazz legend Hugh Masekela and novelist Alan Paton. Click here to read the entire article. |
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The Cry of Jazz & Director Ed Bland Come to IU Cinema, April 29 @ 3pm
Director Ed Bland will be in attendance and the film will be followed by a discussion with Mr. Bland. He will also be interviewed at the BFC/A by Michael Martin after the screening of The Cry of Jazz.
This screening is preceded by a brief introduction and is free, but ticketed. Tickets for this event are available now. You can pick-up tickets at the IU Auditorium Box Office during regular business hours (Monday through Friday 10am to 5pm during each semester), and in the IU Cinema lobby 30 minutes prior to any screening.
Being that this is a free event, tickets are not available online. There is a limit of (4) free tickets per patron for each event.
African Film Series @ Monroe County Public Library: Forgiveness
AFRICAN FILM SERIES
Monroe County Public Library Auditorium
FORGIVENESS
Thursday, April 28, 2011
6:30pm-8:30pm
FORGIVENESS (South Africa; 2005) Ian Gabriel [118 mins] English and Afrikaans Human Rights and Youth Jury Awards, Locarno Film Festival; Best Cinematography, Durban Film Festival
Tertius Coetzee, a former policeman who tortured and murdered ANC activist Daniel Grootboom, has confessed and been granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but he does not feel his guilt has been assuaged. He travels to the home of his victim’s family in a fishing village on the Western Cape to ask their forgiveness.
New Federal Theatre Honors Sidney Poitier, Imhotep Gary Byrd, Ntozake Shange & Many Other Cultural Leaders: May 22, 2011
Just a Maid in Movies, but Not Forgotten
“FOR Lynn Nottage, the aha moment that led to “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” her new play about race, sex, fame and the dream — and crushing reality — of Hollywood, was unexpected. She was watching “Baby Face,” a delectably sordid 1933 studio film about an Übermensch in silk stockings played by Barbara Stanwyck, who climbs to the top one bed at a time.
“But it wasn’t the star who caught Ms. Nottage by surprise, it was the woman next to her: Theresa Harris, the African-American beauty with the honey voice and sly look who was holding her own against Stanwyck and taking up precious screen space.”
Manohla Dargis, NYTimes, 04/21/11
Click here to read the entire article.
NYT Q. & A.: Filmmaker’s Path From Rwanda to Tribeca
“Grey Matter,” a feature film from the writer and director Kivu Ruhorahoza, represents the Tribeca Film Festival’s first movie from Rwanda by a Rwandan filmmaker. The film, which has its world premiere on April 21, blends fantasy and reality in its portrayal of the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda as seen through the eyes of a novice director struggling to make a film called “The Cycle of the Cockroach.” Mr. Ruhorahoza, 28, spoke recently to Arts Beat about the inspiration for the movie and its title, how Flaubert and Norman Mailer triggered his interest in storytelling, and why he chose filmmaking over practicing law. These are excerpts from that conversation.
Q. How did “Grey Matter” come about?
A. I wanted to start with a short story about two siblings who are experiencing trauma. Then I wrote another story about a madman who might have been involved in the killing of the parents of those siblings. It became one really long story. It was really, really experimental and not easy to understand. I tried to raise money. It became really frustrating. It had some elements of my own life. I was suffering to tell the story. So why not write about me suffering to tell the story? I wrote the part about a filmmaker who is not able to make a film that is so dear to his heart.
Felicia R. Lee, New York Times 04/20/11
Click here to read the entire interview.
Mellon Foundation gives WUSTL $550,000 to preserve Eyes on the Prize
“Washington University in St. Louis has received a four-year, $550,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to preserve Henry Hampton’s award-winning civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 as well as Hampton’s complete, unedited interviews recorded on film for the documentary. The grant is the largest ever received by University Libraries.”
eCampus News 04/19/11
Click here to read the entire article.
New PBS Documentary by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
“Now with Black in Latin America, his 11th title for PBS, Gates gently eviscerates the fixed idea—held especially by North Americans who think of race in terms of black and white—that long centuries of racial mixing can somehow eradicate racism. It will air in four parts, starting on April 19. In each episode, Gates travels to another part of the Latin-Caribbean world where he discovers racial conflicts and justifications that appear, to an American, entirely strange.”
Newsweek 04/10/11
Click here to read the entire article.