Cinema Without Borders is proud to present Bridging The Borders Award for the 16 year at the prestigious SEEfest, South East European Film Festival LA. Bridging The Borders Award offered by Cinema Without Borders goes to a feature film that helps bringing people of our world closer together. Winner will be announced on May 8th during the closing ceremony of the 19th Edition of the festival at the Fine Arts theater. SEEfest will run from May 1th to May 8th. Jury members for MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award are: KEELY BADGER Keely Badger is the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer…
Author: Bijan Tehrani
East Los Angeles College, Cinema and Without Borders Foundation in cooperation with the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, L’Agence du court métrage and Sony Classic Pictures are proud to present the French Animation Day, the ninth edition of the annual ELAC International Animation Day Festival, dedicated to French Animation. This event will be held on Saturday, May 18th, 2024, at East Los Angeles College, located at 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754. Screenings will be held at the Building S1 Screening Room 112. Free parking will be available in Structure 4. On the corner of W…
FAMILIA by Rodrigo Garcia, is one the best movies I have watched in recent years. FAMILIA. Rodrigo turns a simple family gathering into a suapensful drama based on relashinship between members of a family that must say farewell to an olive orchard and a house that they have emotional attachments to it. Rodrigo who is one of the best character developer in recent history of cinema, just by using dialouges introduces you the characters of his film so well that after twenty minutes to the film, you feel like you have known them forever. FAMILIA is also an entertaining film…
CLUB ZERO happens at an international boarding school, where an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak’s motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils…
In THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, a visionary new thriller that drops viewers into an extraordinary world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures, François (Roman Duris) does everything he can to save his wife, who is affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Paul Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with help from a local police officer (Adèle Exarchopoulos). From acclaimed director Thomas Cailley, the film world premiered as the opening night selection of Cannes Un Certain Regard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWAJXTcEEOU The…
Our choice for Movie of the Month is FAMILIA, a wonderful and masterfully made movie directed by Rodrigo Garcia. We introduce our picks for Movie of the Week through a video presentation of the film. https://vimeo.com/916833373?share=copy Leo owns an olive ranch in the Guadalupe Valley. He also has four children: Rebeca, Julia, Mariana, and Benny. Each month he brings the family together for a catch-up, but this time, there is another more important reason to meet. We will discover the secrets, memories, dreams, and motivations of each member of the family, as we delve deeper into the most private and…
In Blaga’s Lessons, Bulgaria’s Oscar Entry, directed by Stephan Komandarev, when a retired, recently widowed teacher falls prey to a phone scam, she’s left robbed of her life savings. Desperate to pull through, she accepts an alluring yet suspicious offer for work that will turn her life upside down and force her to make a decision beyond her principles. https://youtu.be/8Xb7i3m6jbU?si=EDP_CQRJju8LzPTp The following is our interview with Stephan Komandarev, director of Blaga’s Lessons: Bijan Tehrani: Blaga’s Lesson deals with elderly abuse by making them victims of fraud crimes, what motivated you to make it? Also please tell us about the trilogy that…
The award winning documentary film director and producer, Susan Morgan Cooper, grew up in a tiny village in Wales where her parents produced plays to raise money for charity. Shortly after arriving in America, she landed a small role in a Clint Eastwood film, but found film editing more fascinating than acting. In 1991, when Susan met a 16-year-old girl from Croatia, displaced by The Balkan War, she felt compelled to make her first documentary, Mirjana- One Girl’s Journey. She went on to produce and direct a documentary television series called Heroes and Sheroes about ordinary people doing extraordinary things…
In BAD LIVING, Portuguese Oscar entry directed by João Canijo in a family-run hotel, by the Portuguese northern shore, lives a group of women from different generations of the same family, whose relationships with each other have grown poisoned by bitterness. They try to survive in the declining hotel, as the unexpected arrival of a granddaughter to this oppressive space stirs trouble, reviving latent hatred and piled-up resentments. https://vimeo.com/876337272 Cinema Without Borders: What motivated you to make BAD LIVING? João Canijo: Mostly the need to expose something about my deeper concerns. I had to stop wandering around themes disguising my…
VERA Austrian Oscar Entry directed by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, is about the actress Vera Gemma who lives in the shadow of her famous late father, the Italo-Western actor Giuliano Gemma. She drifts through Roman high society, tired of countless plastic surgeries and superficial relationships. When, after a car accident, she takes the injured son of a working-class family to her heart, a moral parable unfolds that is as fascinating as it is tragic, trying once again to unite the rich with the poor, the lost with the found. The fact that contradictions are not only admitted but embraced…