Dolls of Lisbon documentary – Free Screening: Saturday, May 19th


SATURDAY MAY 19
7pm
Free Screening
Q&A WITH DIRECTOR

at ARTOMATIC
1851 South Bell Street,
Crystal City, Arlington, VA 22202

Metro Accessible/Parking

Click here for more info
about the film… 

Underlying the premise of the Dolls of Lisbon project is a larger story – the story almost every artist knows well – the struggle to create art while surviving in a monetarily based world. The film employs stop-motion animation and a vital alternative soundtrack. The film features the artwork of rock and roll royalties such as: Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes, Arturo Vega from the Ramones and Ted Riederer of Never Records fame.

The Dolls of Lisbon project and film was based on the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico which used art, music, and poetry to attract the eyes of the world, and the dolls have spread the word about the otherwise unknown rebellion. The Antagonist Movement, Inc., a consortium of artists, writers and musicians based in New York’s East Village, handmade 100 blank canvas dolls and shipped them around the world for other artists to fashion as they saw fit. The various dolls were then displayed at an annual art fair in Lisbon, Portugal in June 2010.

      


How news does travel – Les Blank in DC

Seems that Washington DC is just awakening to the fact that the great documentary filmmaker is in the nation’s capital this week. Les Blank: Living in Film on Thursday night was followed by a screening of his film Sworn to the Drum at the Smithsonian today. Tonight’s rarely seen documentary by Les Blank - on a major rock star of the 70s, described by the Washington Post “The best film ever made on rock.” (1974/90 mins./USA) sold out quickly following yesterday’s Washington Post article.  The DC Independent Film Festival has responded by adding an extra screening of the film at noon, Saturday March 3rd. Same venue. Tickets at the festival website or directly at brownpapertickets.com.

Eating your shoe

Les Blank, guest of honor a this year’s DC Independent Film Festival is not too concerned about how long a film is.  While television has encouraged films to fit into an exact programming format, independent film eschews such narrow confines. Perhaps the most intriguing film length is the 20 minutes Les Blank dedicated to  Werner Herzog eating his shoe.  Herzog promised to eat his shoe if a certain young American film student went out and actually made the film he was always only talking about. The young student was Errol Morris, who met the challenge with his off-beat 1978 pet cemetery documentary Gates of Heaven (and went on to make The Thin Blue Line and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control ). Les Blank then made the film of Herzog eating his shoe.

Come meet Les Blank and learn about his life through film at the DC Independent Film Festival 2012, March 1st.

Cutting Edge Animation and Experimental Film

Animation, digital technology and imagination come together nowadays at the forefront of creativity – a place where new ideas take wing alongside new science. The DC Independent Film Festival’s Cutting Edge Program on Saturday March 3rd, 4.30pm at the US Naval Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Ave, DC 20004 captures this energy. With filmmakers attending – including renowned cartoonist Patrick Chappatte – and a skype discussion with Drained director Nick Petersen and his producer, the much-loved and admired actor Jon Heder.

World Premieres at DCIFF

Film festivals showcase both the films and the people who made them, so it is excellent that  so many filmmakers will attend the DC Independent Film Festival (Feb 29-March 4, 2012) this year.  The festival has 3 feature premieres:

The gothic vampire movie The Caretaker will be discussed by director Tom Conyers and producer Mike White who are flying in from Australia. The film is presented by the hugely successful and talented producer Jorge Sarlegui (Queen of the Damned, Dread and The Red Planet).

The Bright Side of the Moon, a visually powerful and tense psychological thriller, set in snow-bound Canada will be director Farhad Ahi’s first feature film made in North America.  Farhad Ahi  will come from Canada to present the film with director of photography Yadi Shahbazi.

Finally, DC’s own Rohit Colin Rao, brings his first feature film Ultrasonic to the screen. Shot on a micro-budget, but with macro style, this black and white film delves into conspiracy, paranoia and friendship.  Rohit Rao with cast and crew will be there to answer questions.

Early ticketing revealed for “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”

DCIFF Live
February 7

by Russ Imrie

Who is Judi Bari? The life and death of environmental activist Judi Bari is one of the most compelling real-life sagas ever. With elements of law enforcement and FBI abuse, idealistic protesters, angry loggers and finally a devastating car bomb explosion in downtown Oakland California in the car of Bari and companion Darryl Cherney, it’s a real account of the costs and successes of a commitment to environmental change in a region and an industry.

The redwood forests of California’s North Coast are a last stand for old-growth trees thousands of year old. Thanks to an enlightened population who owe a debt to both the logging communities that helped build homes and an industry and the incredibly dedicated activists who at last halted  rogue abuses by corporate interests, a small percentage of that forest will be around for our descendants to see.

The DC Independent Film Festival is making early ticketing available for filmgoers.  The filmmaker’s site and Earth First!  are great visits for more background on the struggle.

Latest news on this and all DCIFF events at http://www.dciff-indie.org or http://www.dciff.org  

Renowned composer Morten Lauridsen to attend DCIFF

DCIFF Live
February 6

by Russ Imrie

With ticket sales to open on Wednesday, February 8, news has come in that Morten Lauridsen will be attending the screening of  ’Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen’ by Director Michael Stillwater (an Official Selection of the DC Independent Film Festival).
 
America’s most-often performed choral composer, Lauridsen is a National Medal of Arts recipient who spends summers on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Filmed between 2010-2011 in California, Scotland, Germany and Waldron Island, Washington, the documentary conveys the richness and breadth of the award-winning composer’s life, with a soundtrack featuring his masterworks- Lux Aeterna, O Magnum Mysterium, Nocturnes (Sa Nuit D’Ete, Soneto de la Noche, and Sure On This Shining Night), Dirait-On and Madrigali.
 
Commentaries as well from Dana Gioia (poet and chairman of National Endowment for the Arts, 2003-2009), Paul Salamunovich (director emeritus of the Los Angeles Master Chorale), Robert Geary (artistic director of Volti and the San Francisco Choral Society) and Paul Mealor (composer and conductor of Con Anima and the University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Orchestra), Alex Shapiro and others. 
 
Latest news on this and all DCIFF events at http://www.dciff-indie.org or http://www.dciff.org