Harlem International Film Festival

FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Angela Robinson Witherspoon ‘s CURTSY MISTER showcased at 12th Harlem International Film Festival celebrates independent filmmaking on the weekend of May 6th and 7th

By admin 9 years ago

The 12th Harlem International Film Festival’s red carpet on Saturday, May 6th, again gave a diverse group of filmmakers their due in front of the cameras. Sunday’s closing night presentation of Angela Robinson Witherspoon’s CURTSY, MISTER included a very special guest to see Witherspoon’s feature film directorial debut.

FILMS GONE WILD: Singing the praises of the truly great Florida Film Festival: Claire Carré ; doing the jury thing and talking to Billy Crudup for an hour

By John Wildman 9 years ago

that attention to detail and/or the prioritization as to where that attention to detail should be focused routinely comes from the top. And this is where I have to give a big nod to Executive Director David Schillhammer, Programming Director Matthew Curtis, and Programming Coordinator Tim Anderson. Those positions are fraught with epic headache-inducing crises and tough judgment calls, and thankless task after thankless task. And David, Matthew, and Tim, managed to both do whatever they had to do to command their film festival ship and heard the cats that are the filmmakers, jury members, patrons, sponsors, film fans, etc. quite obviously have good film programming chops, and also display poise befitting Mr. Roarke from “Fantasy Island.”

FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Daniel Peddle’s GARDEN OF THE PEACEFUL DRAGON Opens The 12th Harlem International Film Festival with style to spare

By admin 9 years ago

The 12th Harlem International Film festival’s Opening Night Afro Punk celebration, highlighted by the world premiere presentation of Daniel Peddle’s GARDEN OF THE PEACEFUL DRAGON featured more style on the red carpet than most. The impressive looks on the carpet showed that these filmmakers have figured out that the attention you get in front of the photographers and interviewers there can be useful to get attention for your film when it plays in the fest – and beyond.

TEN MOST RECENT FILMS WATCHED: Nicholas Ray ‘s JOHNNY GUITAR among unheralded cool films at The Harlem International Film Festival from Films Gone Wild

By admin 9 years ago

This list is dominated by the films I saw at the Harlem International Film Festival. Since my duties at this fest included doing A LOT of film introductions and Q&As, I saw more films than usual at a fest I am doing the press & PR thing at. But that was a big win for me, as I saw films not necessarily in my wheelhouse that I really enjoyed, appreciated, and affected me quite a bit. Making discoveries at film festivals is what it is all about – and that is exactly what happened here.

FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Daniel Peddle ’s GARDEN OF THE PEACEFUL DRAGON opens the 12th Annual Harlem International Film Festival (May 4-7) unveils its schedule

By admin 9 years ago

“This year’s lineup is typically diverse, both in content and the filmmakers responsible for the films, bookended by personal profiles that hit close to home both because of their redemptive themes and because they get to the heart of what is the best in humanity,” said Harlem International Film Festival Program Director Nasri Zacharia, “In our 12th year, the festival will once again provide a forum for wonderful storytelling and exciting moments on the big screen created by talent all around the world.”

FILMS GONE WILD: FESTWORKS.COM covers regional fests and film discoveries that happen there. Do you even give a damn about that?

By John Wildman 9 years ago

We don’t need more Clooney, Kidman, Lawrence, Adams, Streep, Cruise coverage. Monkeys can do that by this point. We need to find the new talent in film, and TV, and VR, etc. We need to give the new voices a forum to discuss their work. We need to help people find the golden film needles in the haystack of VOD titles we scroll past on Amazon and Netflix now.