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Palestinian and Israeli Directors Discuss Why U.S. Distributors Shy Away from Their Documentary: The Reasons Are 'Completely Political'

"No Other Land" is a Palestinian-Israeli documentary that sheds light on the Israeli government's displacement of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, gaining recognition at prestigious events and film festivals. Despite international distribution, it faces challenges finding a distributor in the U.S. Directed by a collective of Palestinian-Israeli activists, the film has been praised for its critical perspective on Israeli policies. The filmmakers aim to reach a broader audience to prompt change and raise awareness about the situation in Masafer Yatta. The documentary's journey, from winning awards at the Berlin Film Festival to facing controversy in Germany, highlights the ongoing struggles faced by the filmmakers in shedding light on the plight of Palestinians. Despite the international attention brought by the film, the situation in Masafer Yatta has worsened in recent months, with increased demolitions and illegal settlements by Israeli settlers. The filmmakers hope that the film will inspire action and support for the Palestinian cause. An Oscar nomination for "No Other Land" would further amplify its message and bring greater awareness to the ongoing conflict in the region. The filmmakers urge viewers in the U.S. to watch the film and take action to support their cause. In conclusion, "No Other Land" serves as a powerful reminder of the need for coexistence and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. The filmmakers hope that the film will spark conversations and inspire meaningful change in the region. #News #BaselAdra #BerlinFilmFestival #CineticMedia #Completely #Directors #Discuss #Distributors #Documentary #Israel #Israeli #Israeligovernment #Israelimilitary #Israelipolicies #MasaferYatta #NewYorkFilmCriticsCircle #Palestinian #PalestinianIsraeli #political #Reasons #Shy #U.S #YuvalAbraham https://tinyurl.com/2y2v8tgl

[mariacallous]

For months the international film community has rallied behind a documentary about the Israeli military’s destruction of a Palestinian village in the West Bank that has failed to land a U.S. distributor despite widespread acclaim.

Now, “No Other Land” has another feather in its cap. On Thursday the movie, co-directed by an Israeli-Palestinian filmmaking collective, received an Oscar nomination for best documentary — a rare feat for an undistributed film.

In a thank-you message following the nomination, the film’s Israeli co-director, Yuval Abraham, wrote on X in Hebrew, “It was created thanks to the community of Masafer Yatta and countless human rights activists who documented the ongoing expulsion over the course of 20 years.”

Asked for a reaction to the Oscar nomination, representatives for the filmmakers said they didn’t have one yet as “things have been quite intense in the West Bank the last 48 hours.” 

Two of the film’s four nominated directors are Palestinians who live in the West Bank, where this week Israel has launched raids on the city of Jenin only days after reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, in an operation seeking the perpetrators of a recent terror attack. The region has also seen a dramatic rise in violent Israeli settler activity in the many months since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

Even as it remains in cinematic purgatory, “No Other Land” is still making its way to theaters nationwide. A representative for the film’s sales company, Cinetic Media, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency they were partnering with mTucker Media, which negotiates with movie theaters for independent film releases, to bring the documentary to more than 20 cities in the coming weeks. 

After opening at New York’s Film Forum next week, the movie will roll out to other markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. on Feb. 7. It is also available to stream for free for residents of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Cinetic has declined multiple JTA requests to interview any of the film’s credited directors, Israelis Abraham and Rachel Szor and Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. But elsewhere, the filmmakers have been outspoken about their struggle to secure a stateside release.

“I read it as something that’s completely political,” Abraham recently told Variety about its lack of distribution. “The film is very, very critical of Israeli policies. As an Israeli I think that’s a really good thing, because we need to be critical of these policies so they can change. But I think the conversation in the United States appears to be far less nuanced — there is much less space for this kind of criticism, even when it comes in the form of a film.”

“Americans have a responsibility, I believe,” Palestinian co-director Basel Adra said in the same interview. “And I hope that they watch it and move in the right direction and take any action they can in order to help us change.”

A personal narrative, the film focuses on Adra, a resident of the Masafer Yatta village collective, and Abraham, an Israeli journalist, in the aftermath of a controversial 2022 Israeli Supreme Court order ruling Adra’s home the property of the Israeli military. The title derives from a quote given by a village resident, as she contemplates the potential loss of her home: “We have no other land.”

The film chronicles various IDF demolitions, Palestinian resistance to evacuation orders and violent attacks on the village by Israeli settlers. The two also examine their own friendship and individual futures, which they conclude are built on unequal ground because Abraham is granted more rights as an Israeli citizen.

Shot almost entirely before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, the film focuses exclusively on the West Bank. A brief coda shows rising Israeli settler attacks on the villages since Oct. 7, and the film’s directors have also used their festival run to speak out against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end,” Abraham said during his acceptance speech at the February 2024 Berlin Film Festival, where the movie premiered and won a documentary prize. Adra said Israel was enacting a “massacre” of Palestinians and denounced German arms sales to Israel. Israeli TV said Abraham’s speech was antisemitic, which Abraham said lead to death threats. At the film’s release in Germany this fall, the city of Berlin accused the film of “exhibiting antisemitic content,” a charge the festival’s own director objected to.

American film critics, including several Jewish ones, have fiercely championed the movie. David Ehrlich, the Jewish lead film critic for Indiewire, named it the second-best film of the year and partnered with Adra to launch a fundraiser for the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

“I thought it was more than a film,” Jewish film critic J. Hoberman, who named ”No Other Land” the best movie of the year in Artforum magazine, told JTA. “I was really glad to have a movie that was so outspoken about what I perceive as a terrible injustice.” 

Industry insiders have speculated that the film hasn’t found a distributor because American companies don’t want to deal with the headache of backing a film that criticizes Israel after Oct. 7. 

“No company feels like they can take the risk of the baggage that that film might bring, whether or not they agree with the perspective in it,” Eric Kohn, a Jewish creative head at new-media production studio EDGLRD and former film critic, recently told JTA. (“Israelism,” another documentary critical of Israel, similarly found grassroots success for months before being acquired by newly formed Palestinian distributor Watermelon Films.)

The movie shares themes with “5 Broken Cameras,” an acclaimed 2011 documentary about a Palestinian West Bank resident caught in the middle of an Israeli settlement construction. The earlier film was also co-directed by Israelis and Palestinians, and was also nominated for an Oscar. Unlike “No Other Land,” however, “5 Broken Cameras” was screened widely by an American distributor and eventually aired nationally on PBS.

[lejournaldupeintre]

Cannes film market

“Post-strike and post-pandemic, the business is still sorting itself out,” “It’s been an enormously disruptive time and the industry is still trying to find its footing”  said John Sloss, a veteran sales agent and the founder of Cinetic Media But others feel that the European Film Market in Berlin was an unexpectedly robust marketplace, where movies like Celine Song’s “Big Bold Beautiful…

[saturdaynightmatinee]

CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 7.5 / 10

Título Original: Late Night with the Devil

Año: 2023

Duración: 86 min

País: Australia

Dirección: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

Guion: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

Música: Glenn Richards

Fotografía: Matthew Temple

Reparto: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Christopher Kirby

Productora: Future Pictures, Image Nation, Spooky Pictures. Productor: Joel Anderson. Distribuidora: Cinetic Media

Género: Horror

TRAILER:

[meugamer]

O Simpatizante, com Robert Downey Jr., ganha novo teaser

A HBO revelou a pouco um novo teaser trailer da minissérie O Simpatizante (The Sympathizer), com estreia para abril. “O Simpatizante” é uma minissérie histórica de drama, adaptada do livro homônimo de Viet Thanh Nguyen, com produção da HBO, A24, Rhombus Media, Cinetic Media e Moho Film. A narrativa segue um ex-espião comunista franco-vietnamita, papel desempenhado por Hoa Xuande, que atuou…

[il-lato-nerd-della-forza]

Joe Russo e John Sloss parlano di piattaforme di streaming ed elogiando la loro propensione alla diversificazione di produzioni

Il tema dello streaming ha avuto un grande risalto durante la sessione della seconda edizione del Sands Film Festival, con Joe Russo e il fondatore di Cinetic Media John Sloss. La coppia è stata raggiunta sul palco dalla sceneggiatrice-regista britannica Adura Onashile (Girl), con Mike Fleming di Deadline in veste di presentatore, e ha aperto il panel chiedendo al gruppo se credono che ora sia…

[uomo-accattivante]

Oscar Isaac will read transcribed interviews in this film directed by Ethan Hawke:

Ethan Hawke is to direct and Martin Scorsese exec produce a celebration of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman’s lives for CNN+ and HBO Max.

Featuring transcribed readings of interviews read by the likes of George Clooney, Oscar Isaac, Laura Linney and Zoe Kazan, The Last Movie Stars will celebrate the enigmatic personas, incandescent talent and love story of the two actors, who occupy a unique space in the Hollywood pantheon.

The project emerged from Woodward and Newman’s daughter approaching Hawke during the early days of the pandemic, at which point they asked him to direct a doc about their parents from Nook House Productions.

Central to the film is a long-abandoned project that Newman, who died in 2008, commissioned from friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern. At Newman’s request, Stern interviewed the likes of Woodward, Elia Kazan, Sidney Lumet, Karl Malden, Sidney Pollack, Gore Vidal, Jacqueline Witte and others for a planned memoir. He also interviewed Newman, and they discussed his youth, first marriage, romance and life with Woodward, personal demons, and the loss of his son Scott.

Scorsese is exec producing and is also interviewed contemporarily alongside the likes of Sally Field and Melanie Griffith.

The film is a big play for CNN+, which is slated for early-2022 launch and retains broadcast and streaming rights to The Last Movie Stars. It will air on HBO Max at a later date.

“Exploring Woodward and Newman through their 50-year love affair has proven more rewarding than I could have imagined,” said Hawke. “Their work, philanthropy, and lives serve as a kind of North Star, illuminating what a substantive, meaningful life can look like.”

Amy Entelis, Executive Vice President for Talent and Content Development for CNN Worldwide, added: “Ethan’s brilliant vision illuminates what fascinates us about Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman in a film worthy of their talents and passions. We look forward to sharing this unique, multi-chapter story with CNN+ subscribers.”

Entelis is also exec producing alongside CNN Films SVP Courtney Sexton.

The film is produced by Mario Andretti, and Emily Wachtel and Lisa Long Adler of Nook House Productions, Ryan Hawke of Under the Influence Productions, and Adam Gibbs. Hamilton Leithauser is developing an original score for the film. The deal was negotiated by Stacey Wolf, Senior Vice president of Business Affairs, and Kelly MacLanahan, Assistant General Counsel, both for CNN Worldwide, on behalf of CNN Films and CNN+. Marc Simon of Fox Rothschild LLP handled negotiations for Nook House Productions. Cinetic Media advised the filmmakers on the transaction.

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[porterdavis]

When legends collide

Jimmy Carter and Willie Nelson ca. 1975

Photo -  Cinetic Media

[letterboxd]

Greater Lovers: The Céline Sciamma Q&A.

“It’s a new narrative of love.” On the eve of its Valentine’s Day wide release, Dominic Corry puts your questions to the writer and director of our highest-rated romance film of the decade, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Few films have more hearts beating on Letterboxd lately than Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which has a 4.4 average rating, was second only to Parasite as the highest-rated feature film of 2019, and holds the number one position on our official Top 100 Narrative Feature Films by Women Directors.

“This is one of the most emotionally intense viewing experiences I’ve had in a while, so I’m not ready to sum it up with a neat and tidy star rating,” wrote Trudie. “My body is still visibly shaken… yearning personified,” said Lucy. “I’m going to think about those last fifteen minutes for the rest of my life,” swooned Stephanie, speaking for us all.

Starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, the film had a short Oscar-qualifying run in American theaters at the end of last year, and although it was criminally overlooked by the Academy (it was not France’s submission for International Feature, though it is up for ten Césars), it’s finally going wide on American screens on Valentine’s Day.

As a giant fan, it was a huge honor to personally convey all the Letterboxd love for Portrait of a Lady on Fire to Sciamma, and to take with me several of your questions. (Lucy, we read your entire comment to her: “I just wanted to thank Céline for Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It holds a very special place in my heart now and is my favorite film of the decade. I’m truly, eternally grateful.”)

Spoiler warning: several questions reference the nature of the film’s ending, without getting into specifics. And a warning for easy fainters: Kristen Stewart may have been brought up during this interview; and Céline has been reading your Letterboxd reviews.

Adèle Haenel (left) and Noémie Merlant in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.

What would you like to say to your Letterboxd fans who have fallen so completely in love with your film? Céline Sciamma: Well thank you! No, but really. Because what touched me the most is the fact that people will write about films. And that’s the beauty of this digital era. I’m paying a lot of attention about what’s going on around the film, what is being said. I’m really looking at things, so I’ve seen a lot of Letterboxd [reviews]. And I’ve seen that Letterboxd, at some point, used the emoji thing, which was really, really beautiful and fun [Sciamma is referring to the fire and picture frame emoji we added to our Twitter name at the time of the film’s release last year].

And the fact that people who were touched by the film would take the time to write about it, I think it’s something really beautiful, especially with this film, which is about how love is an education to art. Because art consoles from love, or makes us greater lovers. I find it beautiful that people would express their feelings and put their heart and their mind into cinema. As a young cinephile there was no internet, and I remember writing, just only for myself in little diaries, about film. And so I found it really, really important.

There’s one question we like to ask every filmmaker we speak to: what is the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Well, the film that made me understand filmmaking, mise-en-scène, was The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Jacques Demy, as a director, his films in France, we see them when we are very young; he made Peau d’âne, which is a film that is shown to kids. He is such a great director. Definitely as a young kid—I was twelve years old—I found out that, okay, there’s somebody behind this with a vision. Somebody would paint a city like in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. Somebody would paint a wall to make it sing the vision of somebody.

And when discovering mise-en-scène—the fact that there was a director, a vision of somebody—it really blew my mind. I remember I fell in love with the idea of cinema. So, you know, it’s not one film that makes you want to be a director. There are some films that connect you to the idea of cinema and vision and just make you crave for this idea.

Before this interview, we asked our community to submit questions for you. The first is from Letterboxd member ‘I’, who wants to know if you were inspired by any movie in the process of making Portrait of a Lady on Fire. When I’m writing a film, or just even just going with the idea of starting to dream about a film, I don’t watch films anymore, because it’s a very fragile moment. I’m trying to be candid and I’m trying to create this prototype and not to begin being in dialogue with the history of cinema.

But then when the script is done, and especially when we are talking with the team, with the DP, there are some films that can come up in the discussion. “Okay, we should we should take a look at that,” regarding one specific issue. For instance, with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, regarding the lighting, there was this idea, I mean you could definitely look at all the period-piece films and be like, “What about the candles? Are they in the frame? Are there a lot of candles? Are they on chandeliers? Or are they held?”

So, I’m thinking about that, this issue of the light in the candles. Night. Day. So me and [cinematographer] Claire Mathon, we had that discussion. So Kubrick, Barry Lyndon, we watched obviously.

And also at that moment I’m trying to watch, not specifically films that seem to be related, but films that give me faith in cinema. For instance, Jeanne Dielman by Chantal Akerman, which is such a radical film. I’m trying to get radical positions that have nothing to do with the film, subject-wise, but of people who firmly believed in the language of cinema, and were radical about it. I’m trying to watch radical films that renew your faith in cinema. I mean, they’re major pieces of art, but just give this feeling that you can be radical, you can be bold, and to get this excitement about, really, the language of cinema.

Many of our members are writing that Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the most romantic film ever made, and one of the best expressions of female desire ever put on screen. What’s the most romantic film you’ve ever seen? You know, it’s weird because when I think about it… film is emotional right? A lot of the things that come to my mind are films that are not necessarily pure love stories. This is gonna sound stupid, but E.T., for instance, is a great love story. This is a great love story for me, and one of the greatest endings in terms of how a relationship ends: E.T. has this idea that the breakup between the two characters is… they want the same thing. And that’s why they’re breaking up, because one is saying “come” and one is saying “stay”, which I think is the most heartbreaking breakup, not being a breakup.

I think there might be a new contender for most heartbreaking breakup. The ending of it is really climaxing. Because when we watch love stories, it’s harder, the frozen image of two people leaving in a car, you know, marriage, whatever. Like the romantic-comedy ending where they end up together, then that’s the end. Eternal possession as a promise of fulfilment. Or, it’s the tragic ending, where they will never [be together]. And I really tried to find another way [in Portrait of a Lady on Fire], like in E.T. you know, it’s two people saying “I love you” but not being together. It’s a new narrative of love.

So I’m always trying also to think about forms. Mulholland Drive is a film that definitely was also an inspiration, because it’s a film that creates its storytelling around an idea of love. Everybody said: “Oh this film is so hard to get”. [But] it’s really simple. It’s like the first part is a dream of a story that has already happened. And so Lynch created this, screenwriting-wise, he created this idea that those two women, they meet and suddenly they’re in bed together and one says “I think I’m in love with you”, which means that Lynch is telling us that “I love you” is always something you say in the past. And with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I was thinking I have to create a form where “I love you” is something that always has a future. So that’s the kind of dialogue I have with films that inspire me.

And also Titanic. It has kind of the same structure as Portrait of a Lady on Fire: the presence of a love story but the memory of a love story. And also, not being together even though there’s a tragic death. It’s a love story about emancipation. And that’s so much what we’re trying to tell: it’s not about whether you end up together, or you don’t. A good love story isn’t about that, it’s about: did it give you emancipation?

This last question is from Pauline: “How much do I need to pay you to hire Kristen Stewart—who has just said Portrait was her favorite movie of 2019 and that she has seen all of your movies—in your next project? I’m ready to write the check, just say a number.” Well no, it’s not about the money. But I met Kristen Stewart a few months ago. So I mean, it’s already a start. We talked about cinema, and, and I really enjoyed talking about cinema with her, so…

‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ is in select US theaters now, and on wide release from 14 February. This interview took place in the English language and has had minor edits for clarity. With thanks to NEON, Cinetic Media and Ginsberg/Libby.

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Watch Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston & Laurence Fishburne on a Road Trip in Richard Linklater's Poignant & Funny 'Last Flag Flying' (Trailer)

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[gossipify]

Black Bear, New Regency Form Non-Fiction Company Double Agent -

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[thepeoplesmovies]

First Look At Sharlto Copley As 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski In Ted K

First Look At Sharlto Copley As ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski In Ted K

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[trendsfashion27]

What Does Obama and Reagan’s Official Photographer Think About Trump? From The Way I See It (2020), dir. Dawn Porter (courtesy Cinetic Media) Pete Souza has twice been a presidential photographer, documenting the Reagan administration early in his career and later becoming chief official White House photographer for Barack Obama.

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It's What You See That Matters in Todd Haynes Coming-of-Age Drama 'Wonderstruck' (First Look Clip) with Julianne Moore & Michelle Williams

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