Browsing: CinéEqual

Social Justice Cinema

A LONG-standing supporter of the Belfast Film Festival (BFF), film-maker Mark Cousins has now further reinforced his endorsement of the city’s annual celebration of cinema by becoming its chairman. Having already been involved behind the scenes as a BFF board member, now the Coventry-born, Co Antrim-raised director, producer and critic/presenter will be at the forefront of promoting the festival’s 18th year of screenings and film-related events. As a former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival who regularly shows his own work at film events around the world – 2015’s I Am Belfast premiered at BFF while his most recent…

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The fifth annual edition of SR Socially Relevant Film Festival New York opens tomorrow, March 16th, at Cinema Village in downtown Manhattan, screening 70 films from 35 countries on a broad range of social topics such as immigration, women and girls, human trafficking, climate change, aging, mental health, disability, social justice, LGBTQ rights and VR/360º films. Here are some highlights: Opening night, ceremony and opening film, followed by a reception; Film – Stickman, with Malik and the Turtle on Friday the 16th. Is there a winner hidden here? Film – Doing Nothing All Day, with Common Ground (very interesting and…

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Latin American filmmakers are riding on Cloud 9 this week. Guillermo del Toro just won two Academy Awards for directing and producing The Shape of Water, marking the fourth time in the last five years that the Best Director statue was awarded to a Mexican-born filmmaker. Hopefully, the trend continues in 2018 and extends across all film industry events. At the South by Southwest Film Festival, Latin American directors are being represented fairly well and looking to be recognized during the fest March 9-17. Films from countries like Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia are making their world and U.S. premieres…

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In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “Mountaintop” speech, the I AM 2018 campaign will hold a contest seeking short films featuring personal narratives in order to connect MLK’s fight for racial and economic equality to today’s movements. The nationwide campaign calls for participants to create a 30 to 60-second video “that succinctly and creatively connects the struggles of the past to those of the present …” a press release announcing the contest states. Winning videos will be included in I AM 2018’s online ad campaign initiative that is projected to reach thousands of viewers across the country…

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When we consider ways to initiate social change, we frequently favour legislative changes and enactments. We think of political activism and agitation as mechanisms of social justice. We emphasise fund-raising and other forms of financial assistance. And we volunteer our time and services for the greater good, confident that it will make a dent in the numerous social challenges our society faces. While this is necessary, we are overlooking something. We seldom think about the arts and the imperative role it plays in breaking social barriers and bridging socially constructed differences. For many, art – in whatever form it appears…

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“Indivisible Justice Beyond Walls & Borders” is the theme of the 2018 J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium. On Thursday, March 15, the symposium will include a full day of discussions, films and events at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts, 1000 E. University. On Wednesday, March 14, the public is invited to a pre-symposium community workshop by Christina Marín, from Phoenix College, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Isabella M. Crouch Theatre. Access to the theater is available from the parking lot near Barnes and Noble. The symposium, hosted by NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, will showcase…

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Mondays at Racine directed by Cynthia Wade is nominated for 2013 Best Documentary Short Film Oscar.  Every third Monday of the month, brassy Long Island, New York sisters Cynthia and Rachel open up their hair salon, called Racine, and offer free beauty services for women undergoing chemotherapy.  Determined to make their customers feel beautiful, the glamour duo knows that Mondays at Racine goes beyond purple painted toes or a frothy facial.  The sisters are determined to give women who are losing their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes a sense of normalcy and dignity in a traumatic and uncertain time. The story…

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MULBERRY CHILD is based on Jian Ping’s book Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China, the history of her coming-of-age under the brutality of Mao’s repressive Cultural Revolution. Told with the help of never-before-seen film footage inside the Cultural Revolution, MULBERRY CHILD, more than a journal of individual survival and family principles, is a lucid account of a dramatic period in China’s history. Susan Morgan Cooper was inspired to make her first documentary Mirjana… One Girl’s Journey, about a young Croatian girl displaced by The Balkan War. Her last documentary, the award winning An Unlikely Weapon was the story of photographer Eddie Adams who won a Pulitzer …

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Cynthia Wade, director of Born Sweet, is an Oscar-winning documentary director. Her directing credits include the Sundance Special Jury Prize winning, Academy Award winning “Freeheld” (2007), IFC Channel’s “Living the Legacy” (2009), HBO’s five-time award winning “Shelter Dogs” (2004) and the Cinemax documentary “Grist for the Mill” (1999). As a cinematographer, Wade has shot and produced documentaries for Discovery, A&E;, PBS, Bravo, AMC, The History Channel and MTV. She holds a Masters Degree in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University.Bijan Tehrani: How did you first encounter the subject of Born Sweet? Cynthia Wade: I was actively looking for a new film,…

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NEW HOPE, PA (March 6, 2008) – New Hope Celebrates, a an incorporated non-profit gay and lesbian marketing organization, will give a rare showing of Cynthia Wade’s Oscar-winning film “Freeheld” on the big screen on April 26. The documentary will serve as the centerpiece of the New Hope Celebrates film festival. Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and a Special Jury Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, “Freeheld” chronicles Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s struggle to transfer her earned pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree. The film depicts the media frenzy, political repercussions and advocacy…

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