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bomond-events · 6 months ago

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Exploring the Vibrant Ukrainian Cultural Scene in the USA: Your Guide to Upcoming Concerts and Art Showcases

The Ukrainian cultural scene in the USA is flourishing, with a rich array of concerts, art showcases, and events that celebrate the vibrant heritage and contemporary creativity of Ukraine. Whether you're a lover of traditional music, contemporary art, or simply eager to explore new cultural experiences, there's something for everyone. Here’s a guide to some of the most anticipated Ukrainian cultural events happening across the United States.

Upcoming Concerts

1. Ukrainian Folk Music Extravaganza Date: July 15, 2024 Location: Chicago, Illinois Venue: Millennium Park

Immerse yourself in the soulful sounds of traditional Ukrainian folk music at this open-air concert. Featuring renowned folk bands and solo artists from Ukraine, the concert promises an unforgettable evening of music, dance, and cultural celebration. Bring your friends and family to enjoy the melodies that have been passed down through generations.

2. DakhaBrakha Live in New York Date: August 5, 2024 Location: New York City, New York Venue: Lincoln Center

DakhaBrakha, the world-music quartet from Kyiv, brings their unique blend of Ukrainian folk, African rhythms, and contemporary sounds to New York. Their dynamic performance style and eclectic sound have garnered international acclaim. Don’t miss this chance to experience their innovative music live.

3. Classical Concert by Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra Date: September 10, 2024 Location: Los Angeles, California Venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall

Experience the grandeur of Ukrainian classical music as the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra takes the stage. With a repertoire that includes works by Ukrainian composers and classical masters, this concert is a must-see for classical music enthusiasts.

Art Showcases

1. Ukrainian Contemporary Art Exhibit Date: July 20 - August 30, 2024 Location: San Francisco, California Venue: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Discover the dynamic world of contemporary Ukrainian art at this extensive exhibit featuring works by prominent Ukrainian artists. The showcase will include paintings, sculptures, and multimedia installations that reflect the diverse and evolving artistic landscape of Ukraine.

2. Photography Exhibition: "Faces of Ukraine" Date: August 15 - September 15, 2024 Location: Washington, D.C. Venue: Smithsonian Institution

"Faces of Ukraine" is a powerful photography exhibition that captures the spirit, resilience, and beauty of the Ukrainian people. Through the lens of award-winning photographers, the exhibit tells the stories of individuals from various walks of life, highlighting the rich cultural tapestry of Ukraine.

3. Ukrainian Film Festival Date: September 20 - 25, 2024 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Venue: Coolidge Corner Theatre

Celebrate the best of Ukrainian cinema at the Ukrainian Film Festival in Boston. The festival will showcase a selection of feature films, documentaries, and short films that explore Ukraine’s history, culture, and contemporary issues. Engage in post-screening discussions with filmmakers and industry experts.

Conclusion

The Ukrainian cultural scene in the USA offers a wealth of experiences for anyone interested in exploring the rich traditions and contemporary creativity of Ukraine. From soul-stirring concerts to thought-provoking art showcases, these events provide a unique opportunity to connect with Ukrainian culture and community. Mark your calendars and prepare to be inspired by the diverse and vibrant cultural offerings this year.

Stay updated with the latest information on Ukrainian cultural events by visiting Bomond.com, your go-to source for all things cultural.

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whileiamdying · 1 year ago

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Film-maker Mehran Tamadon tells stories of torture in Iran, yesterday and today

With his new documentary “Where God is Not”, French-Iranian film-maker Mehran Tamadon hopes that the testimonies of former detainees who say they were tortured in Iran will “unsettle” some of their persecutors.

Thursday 20/04/2023

Iranian director Mehran Tamadon speaks during an interview during the 73rd Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin. (Reuters)

PARIS –

One man mimes his bones being broken, a woman recounts her surrender to religious brainwashing, while a third man replicates his confinement in a tiny prison cell.

All recount abuse that occurred before the protests that are now shaking Iran, from the brutal repression of the 1980s in the immediate aftermath of the revolution up until the last decade.

But “everything I am filming speaks of today,” said the director who was born to communist parents in Iran in 1972, but fled to France with his mother as a child.

“Right now, there are people being tortured in prison in Iran.”

Iranian authorities have arrested thousands since nationwide protests broke out following the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress rules for women.

Security forces have also killed 537 people during the crackdown, Norway-based Iran Human Rights watchdog says.

“For 43 years,” since the 1979 revolution that installed an Islamic theocracy in the country, Iran has been in the grips of a “totalitarian system”, said Tamadon, an architect who turned to cinema in the first decade of the millennium when he lived in Tehran.

After 2009 documentary “Bassidji” (“Basij”) in which he interviewed members of the paramilitary volunteer force, the atheist engaged in conversation with four clerics for his 2014 work “Iranian”.

The authorities were so unhappy with him that they confiscated his passports.

‘Russian roulette’

After they returned them to him in 2012, he decided to leave Iran, where he says violence has become so ingrained that, “like a Russian roulette”, it can strike at any time.

In “Where God is Not”, which premiered at the Berlinale in February, 50-year-old Mazyar welds a metal bed frame like the one he was tortured on after being detained for alleged spying and murder.

It was there the once business manager was tied up and his torturers broke the bones of his feet with a metal rod, he says.

When he was no longer able to walk, he was dragged in front of a camera to confess to crimes he had never committed.

Also in the film, Homa, a Marxist woman who was detained in an overcrowded prison in the 1980s, breaks down in tears as she recounts being so blasted with endless religious chants that she woke up one day brainwashed and started to pray.

Taghi Rahmani, a political activist who was locked up for 15 years for his views, re-enacts his confinement in a tiny Parisian cellar.

“I spent six months like this,” he said, counting out the three steps between the two walls of a former cell.

Rights groups have long lambasted the use of torture in Iranian jails, with Amnesty International in a September 2020 report detailing methods including beatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, water-boarding and sexual violence.

The group said in March that in the crackdown on the protest movement child protesters as young as 12 were being subjected to torture that included electric shocks and rape.

‘A torturer’s conscience’

In a second film also due out this year, “Mon Pire Ennemi” (“My Worst Enemy”), Tamadon asks award-winning Iranian-French actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi to step into the shoes of her interrogators.

Becoming her victim, the film-maker allows her to subject him to the same humiliation she says she endured at the hands of regime agents after a sex tape featuring her and her boyfriend was leaked online in 2006.

In one scene, she forces him to strip down to his underwear.

“I enjoyed destroying you with the words I said,” she says towards the end of the film.

Tamadon says he hopes both works will be enough to make some members of the regime in Iran re-examine their actions.

“Many of the questions I ask my characters about a torturer’s conscience are in fact directly aimed at them,” he said.

“Maybe this will plant a seed that will grow into something later on.”

Rahmani, the political activist who has lived in France for over a decade, does not believe either “Where God is Not” nor “My Worst Enemy” can bring about any redemption.

But everything in them “is happening at the moment in Iran. By speaking up, I’m trying to denounce it,” he said.

His own wife, prominent rights defender Narges Mohammadi, is jailed in Tehran’s Evin prison.

“As my wife is well known, she isn’t tortured physically. But she’s in solitary confinement,” he said.

“Whenever she suffers, I also suffer.”

#Iran #Cinema #Mehran Tamadon #The Arab Weekly #Narges Mohammadi #Mon Pire Ennemi #Where God is Not #My Worst Enemy #Bassidji

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deadlinecom · 1 year ago

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letterboxd · 3 years ago

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Top 100 Films by Asian Women.

East Asian literature/film academic and Ann Hui fan Jessica Siu-yin Yeung explores our newest official list—the 100 highest-rated narrative feature films directed by Asian women—where she finds quiet icons biding their time as the movie lovers of the world catch up.

In celebration of Chloé Zhao’s historic Oscar wins, and to fill a major gap in film lovers’ lives, the team at Letterboxd has computed the 100 highest-rated narrative feature films directed by Asian women. The list is derived purely from ratings rather than popularity (a measure of all activity around a film), and there are several well-known directors on the list—Lulu Wang, Chloé Zhao, Mira Nair, Naoko Yamada, Alice Wu, Deepa Mehta—alongside many more waiting to be added to your watchlists.

Eligibility for the top 100 required that directors be of Asian heritage, regardless of where they were born, or where they make their films. It is, of course, a sweeping definition, encompassing directors of south, east and central Asian heritage from across the world (a list focused on west Asian filmmakers is still to come).

From such a wide net, it could be assumed that common ground may be hard to find. And yet, having watched the films and examined the list’s statistics, I’ve noticed interesting thematic discoveries that highlight the ways in which Letterboxd members have been watching—and appreciating—the endeavours of female Asian filmmakers from the last half-century.

I specify “last half-century” because the earliest film on the list is from 1982. By comparison, the earliest film on the official Letterboxd list of 100 highest-rated films by women is from 1926, and the earliest from the Official Letterboxd 250 is Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., from 1924. As a comment on how the global film industry and film lovers alike have prioritized cinematic voices, this speaks volumes. In fact, just five films in the top 100 films by Asian women were released prior to this millennium.

‘Salaam Bombay!’ (1988), directed by Mira Nair.

Those five titles are from celebrated forerunners in their field. Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Mississippi Masala (1991), Ann Hui’s Boat People (1982), Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) and Naomi Kawase’s Suzaku (1997) are united in their humanitarian concerns for local, marginalized populations. From children in Mumbai slums and Vietnamese civilians under communist rule, to a cross-race relationship, lesbian love in India, and a Japanese family dissolving in the face of modernity, Nair, Hui, Mehta and Kawase have brought their documentarian interests to bear on their narrative filmmaking.

By earning selection in major film showcases, including the Hong Kong Film Awards (Hui), the Vancouver International Film Festival (Mehta), the Venice International Film Festival (Nair) and the Cannes Film Festival (Nair and Kawase), these directors’ endeavors paved the way for newcomers. Early success on the global stage might have seen these filmmakers labeled as arthouse directors, much like their auteurist male counterparts, such as Satyajit Ray, Wong Kar-wai and Yasujirō Ozu, who made films with interrelated themes and consistent styles.

But a tightly defined style is not a virtue of these four women, who straddle the arthouse-commercial divide, work across diverse media (fiction, documentary, television, short and feature films), and genres (comedy, romance, animation, fantasy, horror, crime and action). It seems that to be an Asian woman behind the camera is to be realistic rather than idealistic about the artistic visions they bring to life, to be flexible in managing different budgets and project sizes, and to be content with being regionally popular—until the world catches up.

‘A Simple Life’ (2011), directed by Ann Hui.

Genre-wise, the list’s 27 comedies and 35 romances testify as to how these shrewd directors have combined commercial appeal with their personal aspirations in order to build their careers. Accordingly, recognition has often come later in life than it did for their male counterparts. Take septuagenarian Hong Kong New Wave director Ann Hui. Of the more than 30 films she has made, two appear in the top 100: Boat People (1982) and A Simple Life (2011). The former, a socio-political feature, was banned in Taiwan and China, while the latter was an apolitical Hong Kong-mainland co-production, acclaimed by pan-Chinese and international audiences.

At 74, Hui is the same age as the Taiwanese New Wave male filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, who has enjoyed auteur status and critical attention ever since his film A City of Sadness won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion in 1989. Having worked diligently over the past four decades, Hui, however, only received her Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement last year (it was a small miracle that she was able to attend in person, thanks to Venice’s commitment to a real-life festival event in 2020).

“Diligence is fucking useless!” bursts Hui, in Man Lim-chung’s recent and moving documentary Keep Rolling (2020), a timely celebration of Hui and her storytelling. Her frustration in navigating the highly commercialized movie industry as a humanitarian female filmmaker is evident—and somewhat universal. Geopolitical sensitivities notwithstanding, female Asian filmmakers like Hui are sincere in making the most of their opportunities to shine a light on peoples’ plights, especially those suffering because of their gender or sexuality.

‘A Silent Voice’ (2016), directed by Naoko Yamada.

The new generation of Japanese and South Korean female filmmakers approach these themes creatively. Naoko Yamada and Shouko Nakamura use their deep understanding of Japan’s edge as the hub of East Asian popular culture to approach sensitive subjects through animation. Nakamura-san’s Dou kyu sei (‘Classmates’, 2016), is a sweet, 61-minute boys’ love story, while the highest-rated film in the top 100 is Yamada-san’s touching and gorgeous A Silent Voice (2016), which addresses disability and school bullying.

While this list focuses only on directors, it is important to note that, more often than not, these filmmakers also wrote their films, and that when they have worked with others, they are often loyal collaborators. A Silent Voice’s scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, for example, has worked alongside director Yamada for years.

This feels important in the context of the “epidemic of invisibility”, as documented by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which recently found that only 5.9 percent of the speaking roles in major box-office films from 2007 to 2019 were played by Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) actors. When writer-directors can shape their own cinematic worlds, stereotypes and under-representation become less of an issue. As a female Asian spectator, I find myself more likely to relate to characters in these 100 films, than in Hollywood representations of ‘Asian-ness’ such as Mulan (2020) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018).

Although East Asia is a stronghold for female filmmaking success—41 of the directors on the list are from the region—Southeast Asian filmmakers are up-and-coming. Films by directors from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam comprise eighteen of the list entries, and seventeen are helmed by Korean or Korean American directors (including Jennifer Yuh Nelson, making the list with Kung Fu Panda 2).

‘Kim Ji-young, Born 1982’ (2019), directed by Kim Do-young.

Released between 2001 and 2020, the South Korean films in the top 100 epitomize that country’s belated feminist filmmaking movement. Kim Do-young’s Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (2019) sits at the forefront of the movement, and is especially representative of the multitude of roles held by Asian female creatives as they work towards film careers. The story of a woman who struggles to reconcile her gender expectations, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 was originally a novel written by television scriptwriter Cho Nam-ju, then adapted by Kim as her first feature film, after a career as an actress.

Before, and especially since Bong Joon-ho’s Academy Awards for Parasite (2019), he has made a habit of pointing film lovers towards female Korean directors, especially Yoon Ga-eun. Indeed, the Korean filmmakers on this list are well-celebrated at home: Lee Jeong-hyang’s The Way Home (2002), Boo Ji-young’s Cart (2014), July Jung’s A Girl at My Door (2014), Han Jun-hee’s Coin Locker Girl (2015), Lee Hyun-ju’s Our Love Story (2016), Yoon Ga-eun’s The World of Us (2016), Jeon Go-woon’s Microhabitat (2017), Bora Kim’s House of Hummingbird (2018), Yim Soon-rye’s Little Forest (2018), Yoon Dan-bi’s Moving On (2019) and Hong Eui-jeong’s Voice of Silence (2020) have won or been nominated for the Blue Dragon Film Awards, also known as “the Korean Oscar”. I hope these filmmakers can also win major international awards someday—as long as voters can overcome the “one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles”.

A threshold of at least 1,000 ratings means that many films and directors who are highly celebrated by local audiences did not make this global list. This requirement explains why the godmother of Malaysian cinema, the late Yasmin Ahmad, is missing. Likewise, the list focuses only on narrative features, but that is no reason to sleep on the films of Vietnam’s celebrated documentarian, Trinh T. Minh-ha. A particularly surprising omission from this year: Jia Ling’s Hi, Mom. The hit comedy, the highest-grossing film by a solo female filmmaker of all-time, is a local phenomenon in China but yet to register with Letterboxd members.

‘Suzaku’ (1997), directed by Naomi Kawase.

The lesson here is watch, log and rate—if you can find the films, that is. To my surprise, Mira Nair’s Golden Lion winner Monsoon Wedding (2001) is the only film from the list currently in the Criterion Collection. As the ‘World of Wong Kar Wai’ box set, released in March this year, has become an instant bestseller, can we please also have the ‘World of Naomi Kawase/Mira Nair/Ann Hui’ and other younger filmmakers’ works, so that when we look up Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, we’ll not be offered Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960)? Educators, I believe, would especially welcome the move; teaching the art of female Asian filmmakers requires the availability of such resources.

In fairness, many of the films are available on streaming platforms, and some of the filmmakers on this list have been widely celebrated. There was Ann Hui’s Venice honor last year, and Deepa Mehta’s Elements trilogy (Fire, Water, Earth) was in focus at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival. Currently, Japan Society has Naomi Kawase’s True Mothers streaming, and from South Korea, Jeon’s Microhabitat features in Hong Kong’s Independently Yours Korean Women Independent Film Series (running until July) and Boo’s Cart is in Korean Film Festival Canada’s Women’s Perspective in Korean Film season-two program, from September 30 to October 30 of this year.

‘Dead Pigs’ (2018), directed by Cathy Yan.

As international film festival programmers organize more retrospectives, and film archivists thrill at discovering prints from early- and mid-20th-century Asia, the boundless possibilities for showcasing more works by female Asian filmmakers remain largely unexplored.

For now, book yourself a ticket for Cathy Yan’s 2018 masterpiece Dead Pigs, number 64 on the list. Yan’s Birds of Prey predecessor is a social satire based on real events involving the Yangtze River, the aforementioned pigs, homing pigeons, noodles and class differences. Thanks to Film Movement, it’s in select real and virtual cinemas in the US now.

I look forward to seeing your lists of the ten, or twenty, or one hundred films by Asian women that you love the most.

Related content

Asian Women Directors: The Official Top 100 Narrative Feature Films

Keep Rolling, Man Lim-chung’s documentary on filmmaker Ann Hui, currently doing the festival circuit

R’s list of films directed by Korean women

Rahat’s list of the 100 Highest-Rated Chinese-Language Feature Films (including films from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong)

So Yun Um highlights ten underrated and under-seen Asian American and Pacific Islander films set against the backdrop of America

Follow Hayley Scanlon’s Windows on Worlds project for deep dives into East Asian cinema

Follow Jessica on Letterboxd

Header image: Ann Hui, photographed with camera, during her school days.

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kuramirocket · 3 years ago

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As Mexico looks back on the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, an award-winning filmmaker wants his fellow Mexicans and others to confront their national identity — and re-examine how the legacy of colonial history still impacts people today.

“Nationalism tells you where you come from so it can tell you where you’re going,” Rodrigo Reyes told NBC News. “I think it’s important to feel proud of where you’re coming from. I’m super proud of being from Mexico. But I do believe that some of these narratives are so simplistic, so black and white, that they damage our understanding of who we are and how we’re interconnected.”

On Aug. 13, 1521, the army under Spanish "conquistador" Hernán Cortés took the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán after a brutal siege with warships and cannons that lasted at least 75 days. The popular idea of a small Spanish army defeating a much larger Mesoamerican empire is factually incorrect, Reyes said.

The filmmaker described his movie “499,” which won best cinematography as a documentary at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, as an “anti-epic” that “hacks the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest” to expose the far-reaching footprint of colonialism that still lingers over Mexico today.

“We spoke with an amazing group of scholars who are local chroniclers, and they point out that the conquest didn’t end on Aug. 13, 1521,” Reyes said. “It continues to this day because Mexico sadly has a huge problem with racism and classism that forces Indigenous communities to assimilate.”

The movie, premiering in New York on Aug. 20, is a hybrid of a documentary and a fiction film. It follows a 16th-century chrome-armored conquistador (played by Eduardo San Juan) who travels through time to modern-day Mexico and goes on the path Cortés’ army took from the coast of Veracruz to Mexico City.

The conquistador narrates moments from the Spanish invasion in 1521 as he is also compelled to listen to the testimonies of contemporary Mexicans — who are grappling with their own issues around violence and politics a half-millennium after Cortés' army's victory.

History, Reyes said, is not something remote or alien but very much alive in different parts of society.

Mexico, U.S. struggle with 'uneasy truths about the past'

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote a letter to Felipe VI, king of Spain, denouncing the inhumane violence of the Spanish Empire on the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Cortés’ army in 2019. Obrador’s government has also renamed the five-century anniversary of the conquest as 500 years of Indigenous resistance.

When comparing the Mexican government's perspective of history with the United States', the filmmaker said both countries struggle with uneasy truths from the past.

“In the U.S., we’re still wrestling with the fact that George Washington was a slave-owner and the founding father of our country,” he said. “The stories of victims are pretty often being erased. And this is true for every country that is grappling with a history that remains unattended.”

Reyes said this is the case for many Latinos and other diverse groups in the United States who are struggling with the unattended history of their own communities and demanding greater inclusivity in mainstream society.

Engaging with history, the filmmaker said, can help people work through centuries of cultural and social traumas.

The 'atrocious' reality of conquest

“For the defeated, the days immediately after the fall of Tenochtitlán were atrocious,” historian Hugh Thomas said.

Thomas wrote that when looking back at the destruction of the Aztec Empire and the conquest of other Indigenous peoples in the Americas, European colonizers have tried to justify the violence.

Yet historians say the magnitude of violence the Spanish conquest had on Mexico — as well as the destruction perpetrated by other European conquests in the Americas — is undeniable.

Thomas referenced a letter from Pedro de Maluenda, a commissary working with Cortés, which said making the trip back from Tenochtitlán to Veracruz was like traveling from hell to heaven.

The historian described a devastated city in the wake of the Spanish conquest, with defeated Aztecs leaving their homes in smoke and ruins and the streets of their capital full of unburied bodies.

To put the size of the destruction into perspective, Thomas described Sevilla, Spain’s biggest city at the time, as “probably a mere quarter of the size of Tenochtitlán.” The Aztec capital was bigger than any other city the Spanish soldiers had seen.

"Cortés and his men felt awe,” the historian wrote. “For in front of them lay a city as large as any that anyone in his party had seen — though Naples and Constantinople, with over 200,000 people each, ran Tenochtitlán close.”

For Reyes, the footprint of colonialism still looms over the Americas, in large part because different groups don't heed the lessons of history through the eyes of others' experiences.

“We are in a moment of conflict. And there are huge sectors of society, huge sectors of power, who do not want to listen to the voices of people who are being impacted by the lingering actions of colonial domination,” he said. “If we can listen to the voices of our history, then we can actually reinvent the future.”

Reyes is currently taking his film on a pilgrimage of sorts through Mexico, screening “499” for people living on the historic warpath that Cortés took from Veracruz to Tenochtitlán. On Aug. 13 he will arrive in Mexico City — which is built on the ruins of the Aztec capital.

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brokehorrorfan · 4 years ago

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Versus will be released on Blu-ray on December 8 via Arrow Video. The two-disc set includes the original cut of the 2000 Japanese zombie action film and Ultimate Versus, the extended cut that debuted in 2004.

Ryûhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train, Godzilla: Final Wars) directs from a script he co-wrote with Yudai Yamaguchi (Meatball Machine). Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, and Kenji Matsuda star.

Versus has been newly restored in 2K from original film elements, approved by Kitamura, with original lossless Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio (with English subtitles) and English 2.0 stereo audio options.

Chris Malbon designed the new cover art for the 2000 Japanese zombie action film; the original poster is on the reverse side. Read on for the special features.

Disc 1: Versus:

Audio commentary by director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura and producer Keishiro Shin

Audio commentary by director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura and the cast and crew

Visual essay on director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp (new)

Behind Versus - 2-part behind-the-scenes documentary

First Contact: Versus Evolution - Featurette on the origins

Tak Sakaguchi’s One-Man Journey - Featurette on the actor’s visit to the 2001 Japan Film Festival in Hamburg

Film festival screening footage

Team Versus - A look inside the Napalm Films office

Deep in the Woods - Interviews with director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura, cast, and crew

Interview with editor Shûichi Kakesu

Deleted scenes with audio commentary by director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura, cast, and crew

Versus FF Version - Condensed, 20-minute version of the film

Nervous and Nervous 2 - 2 short films featuring characters Versus

Nervous 2 making-of featurette

Trailers

Image gallery

Disc 2: Ultimate Versus:

Audio commentary by director/writer Ryûhei Kitamura, cast and crew

Sakigake! Otoko versus Juku - Featurette on the new material for Ultimate Versus

A mysterious face-off in a wooded clearing between two escaped convicts and a carload of sharply dressed yakuza holding a beautiful woman captive ends in hails of bullets and showers of blood. The location for this violent encounter is the mythic Forest of Resurrection, the site of the 444th portal of the 666 hidden gates that link this earthly domain to the netherworld – and it didn’t get this name for nothing. As one of the surviving prisoners escapes with the girl into the darkness of the forest, disgruntled gangsters soon become the least of their worries as an earlier battle between a lone warrior against hordes of zombie samurai is carried over from a millennium ago into the present day…

#versus #ryuhei kitamura #tak sakaguchi #zombie #zombies #arrow video #dvd #gift #chris malbon #japanese film #japanese horror #foreign horror #the midnight meat train #godzilla final wars #godzilla: final wars

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brutal-vamp · 4 years ago

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https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/versus-blu-ray/FCD2000

VERSUS is coming back with Brand new 2K restoration!

A relentless one-of-a-kind sensory assault chock-full of hyper-kinetic fight scenes, gangster shootouts, sword-slashing violence and gory zombie horror, Versus was a key title amongst the barrage of innovative horror and action movies that appeared as if from nowhere from Japan at the turn of the millennium, leading to a new wave of appreciation for Asian extreme cinema.

Versus caused a sensation both in Japan and internationally upon its release, launching the careers of director Ryûhei Kitamura (Godzilla Final Wars, Midnight Meat Train) and action star and fight choreographer Tak Sakaguchi (Battlefield Baseball, Yakuza Weapon). Arrow Video is proud to present this mythic cult title in both its original 2000 and expanded 2004 Ultimate Versus iterations, in a brand new, director-approved restoration.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements by Arrow Films, approved by director Ryûhei Kitamura

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ presentations of both versions of the film: the original 2000 cut and 2004’s Ultimate Versus, featuring over 10 minutes of new and revised footage

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon

DISC 1: VERSUS

Original lossless Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio and English 2.0 stereo audio

Optional English subtitles

Audio commentary by Audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew

Audio commentary by Kitamura and the cast and crew

New visual essay on the career of Kitamura by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp

Behind Versus, a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the film’s production

First Contact: Versus Evolution, a featurette exploring the film’s origins

Tak Sakaguchi’s One-Man Journey, an archival featurette on the actor’s visit to the 2001 Japan Film Festival in Hamburg

Film festival screening footage

Team Versus, a brief look inside the Napalm Films office

Deep in the Woods, an archival featurette featuring interviews with Kitamura, cast and crew

The Encounter, an archival interview with editor Shûichi Kakesu

Deleted scenes with audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew

Nervous and Nervous 2, two “side story” mini-movies featuring characters from the main feature

Featurette on the making of Nervous 2

Versus FF Version, a condensed, 20-minute recut of the film

Multiple trailers

Image gallery

DISC 2: ULTIMATE VERSUS

Original lossless Japanese 6.1 and 2.0 stereo audio and English 6.1 and 2.0 stereo audio

Optional English subtitles

Audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew

Sakigake! Otoko versus Juku, a featurette on the newly shot material for Ultimate Versus

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film and a reprinted interview with Kitamura by Tom Mes, and notes on the making of the film by Kitamura

#tak sakaguchi #hideo sakaki #versus #ryuhei kitamura #movie #zombie #坂口拓 #＃北村龍平

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popentertainmentmusic · 4 years ago

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THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? (2020)

Featuring Barry Gibb, Peter Brown, Eric Clapton, Vince Melouney, Mark Ronson, Noel Gallagher, Mykaell Riley, Lulu, Nick Jonas, Linda Gibb, Alan Kendall, Yvonne Gibb, Bill Oakes, Dennis Byron, Blue Weaver, Karl Richardson, Chris Martin, Albhy Galuten, Justin Timberlake, Nicky Siano, Charlie Steiner, Vince Lawrence, Dwina Gibb, and archival footage of Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Hugh Gibb, Barbara Gibb, Robert Stigwood, Arif Mardin, Lindsey Buckingham, Alice Cooper, Mick Fleetwood, Steve Dahl, John Travolta, Ed Sheeran and Andy Gibb.

Directed by Frank Marshall.

Distributed by HBO Documentary Films. 111 minutes. Not Rated.

Screened from the 2020 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Although they don’t always get the respect of say Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon or several others, the Gibb brothers – Barry, Robin and Maurice – should be right up at the top of the list of the great songwriters of the 20th Century. Not only that, they were amazing performers – natural singers with an uncanny sense of harmony. They created some of the most gorgeous ballads of the 1960s and early 1970s before reinventing themselves as a dance band, which led to one of the greatest hot streaks in music history. As pointed out in this film, from 1977 through 1979, it was not unusual to find songs that they either performed or wrote in four of the top five positions of the pop charts.

The songs speak for themselves. “Massachusetts.” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” “Jive Talkin’.” “Staying Alive.” “Run to Me.” “Too Much Heaven.” “To Love Somebody.” “I Started a Joke.” “How Deep is Your Love?” “Nights on Broadway.” “You Should Be Dancing.” “Lonely Days.” That’s just scratching the surface of the Bee Gees’ hits. Most artists would give anything for half as many songs that became musical standards.

This is at least the third full documentary on The Bee Gees of the new millennium, each one exactly a decade apart. Previously, there was Bee Gees: This Is Where I Came In in 2000, which was released in conjunction with what turned out to be the band’s final original album of the same name. Then, in 2010 they released Bee Gees: In Our Own Time. And now, as timely as the census, we have our 2020 Bee Gees doc, Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

Unfortunately, since two of the brothers Gibb are now dead (three, if you count youngest brother Andy, who had a very successful solo career), the filmmakers had to use archival interview footage of everyone but Barry (and they even used some older footage of him). I can’t swear to it, because it has been a long time since I saw it, but I am almost certain that the interview footage from Robin and Maurice (and some of Barry, too) was the same footage used in This Is Where I Came In. Not only that, since Maurice died in 2003, I’m almost positive that they previously had resurrected some of this same interview footage from In Our Own Time.

However, there is new interview footage of Barry here, as well as from their producers, musical fans and members of their band, so this is not all just a repeat of previous films.

And, let’s face it, the Bee Gee’s life story and most importantly their music is endlessly entertaining, so if they are going to release a film on it every decade or so, even though the band has not released any new product in about 20 years, I’m on board.

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? actually adds a touch of tragic pathos to the story. Barry Gibb – the oldest of the brothers and probably the most recognizable – is now alone. As he states towards the end of the film, he still misses every single one of them and still feels like they should be performing together, even though they are long gone. Andy died soon after his 30th birthday in 1988, of a heart attack due to a previous drug problem. (He had just been announced as an official member of the Bee Gees soon before his death.) Maurice died in 2003, due to a surprise complication on what was supposed to be a fairly standard surgery. Robin succumbed to cancer in 2012.

The film occasionally plays fast and loose with their history. During Robin’s early 1970s break with his brothers, the film says that the band was completely broken up for a year and a half, but Barry and Maurice released the Bee Gees’ Cucumber Castle album and telefilm as a duo, while Robin tried his hand as a solo artist – which was shown here. (However, the film ignores Barry and Robin’s solo attempts in the mid-80s.)

Also, as far as the disco backlash that finally knocked the band from the top reaches of the charts, the film blames the – granted stupid – novelty song “Disco Duck” for the death of disco. But they forget to acknowledge that song came out a year and a half before Saturday Night Fever – in fact, it was even used mockingly in the film (though not on the soundtrack album) during a scene of middle-aged squares learning how to disco dance.

However, it is nice that as a talking head, house musician Vince Lawrence, who was working as an usher at Chicago’s Comiskey Park on the day of Steve Dahl’s infamous “Disco Demolition” stunt, which did essentially kill disco, called it out for what it was – a racist and homophobic book burning.

However, calling the Bee Gees a disco band would be way, way underestimating them. They were one of the great pop groups of their time, and Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is almost two hours of sheer bliss.

(Ed. Note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 annual Philadelphia Film Festival has been changed to a virtual festival. All films and Q&As will be available for streaming. You can get information on the festival at their website target="_blank"http://filmadelphia.org/festival/)

Jay S. Jacobs

#The Bee Gees #2020 #Music Review #How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?#Jay S. Jacobs

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documentarynews · 5 years ago

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New documentary includes never-before-seen footage of life in the Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of its kind in Europe – but the story of its inhabitants has always been told using Nazi footage, until now.

Never-before-seen footage shot by amateur Polish filmmaker Alfons Ziolkowski in 1941 shows what life was like for Jews inside the ghetto – from children smuggling food, to a dying man on the sidewalk, to Nazi guards dishing out beatings.

The 10-minute film is the only known footage of the ghetto that was not recorded by Nazis, and provides an invaluable historical record of the Jewish experience there.

The rare footage is included in Eric Bednarski’s hour-long documentary “Warsaw: A City Divided.”

“Warsaw: A City Divided” premiered earlier this month in Warsaw, Poland at the 16th annual Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival.

Source: Daily Mail

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nicraknes2 · 6 years ago

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Millennium After The Millennium Official Trailer (2019) from Resurrection Films, LLC on Vimeo.

17 Festival Selections, 3 Semi Finalists, 5 Best Picture Awards and counting.

In 1996 Chris Carter followed up THE X-FILES with the darker, arguably more sophisticated series MILLENNIUM, a gothic horror show that pit actor Lance Henriksen against a thousand points of darkness. The series ended abruptly in 1999, but the darkness remains. Fans yearning for Frank Black’s heroic return can revisit past nightmares and see glimpses of a hopeful future in the new feature-length documentary, MILLENNIUM AFTER THE MILLENNIUM.

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beaverhallgallery · 2 years ago

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14th DOCNOW Festival

DocNow is an interdisciplinary documentary festival featuring innovative work from the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Media program. This multi-arts, multi-media festival showcases the film, photography, installation, and new media work of a diverse group of international storytellers.

Beaver Hall Gallery Opening Reception June 23rd 6-8pm June 22 – July 2nd, 2022 Wednesday – Saturday 1 – 6pm

Wonscotonach Lives By Denis Romanov

Is there a place for nature in a modern post-industrial city? If so, how does it fit in with the urban environment? What does nature mean for urban citizens? Denis Romanov’s multi-media installation Wonscotonach Lives, assembled from photographs, video and sound, approaches these questions by exploring Toronto’s Don River Valley (Wonscotonach in the Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe language) as a microcosm of ‘urban nature’ – with its inherent contradiction of simultaneously existing within the city and independent of it. As the title ambiguously hints, the project both presents the river as a living, ever-changing substance and also acknowledges the ways in which it affects the life of Toronto and its inhabitants.

"Pingjiang River 平江河" By Chenix Bao

Pingjiang River is a photography project combining landscape and street photography that explores the Pingjiang River and reveals the consequences of the historical city preservation policy. For a millennium, the river served as the main space for Suzhou residents’ needs for transport, drainage, defense, fire isolation, domestic water, and climate regulation. Under modernization development and historical preservation, the river is not just a living space but also a famous tourism site.

Pingjiang River aims to show the complicated status of the Pingjiang River and address the systemic question regarding urban planning in the historical context. This is accomplished by offering an observational window into the environment and human activities. Pingjiang River provides an in-depth and comprehensive look at the complex city space.

**Masks must be worn in the hallway entering and exiting the building

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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Home Entertainment Consumer Guide: October 4, 2018

10 NEW TO NETFLIX

"Billy Madison" "Blade II" "Blazing Saddles" "Chappaquiddick" "The Devil's Advocate" "The Green Mile" "Monty Python's Life of Brian" "Mountain" "Mystic River" "The Shining"

7 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

"Andrei Rublev" (Criterion)

It's funny how classic directors can ebb and flow into the national conversation. I feel like I've heard Andrei Tarkovsky's name more in 2018 than in many recent years. Some years everyone thinks everything is "Hitchockian" or "Kubrickian." Perhaps Film Twitter is expanding its auteur vocabulary because I've seen several recent films, including "Annihilation" and "High Life," compared to Tarkovsky's work. Did Criterion somehow know this was going to happen, thereby timing their HD upgrade of his epic "Andrei Rublev" for late September? Probably not, but you never know. As for the release, it's a beauty, including both versions of the film, a few documentaries, and new interviews. Some of the Criterion upgrades are merely that (imports of special features with an HD transfer) but this is more like a brand new release. After all, Andrei Tarkovsky has never been hotter.

Buy it here

Special Features New high-definition digital restoration of the director’s preferred 183-minute cut, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray The Passion According to Andrei, the original 205-minute version of the film Steamroller and Violin, Tarkovsky’s 1961 student thesis film The Three Andreis, a 1966 documentary about the writing of the film’s script On the Set of “Andrei Rublev,” a 1966 documentary about the making of the film New interviews with actor Nikolai Burlyaev and cinematographer Vadim Yusov by filmmakers Seán Martin and Louise Milne New interview with film scholar Robert Bird Selected-scene commentary from 1998 featuring film scholar Vlada Petric New video essay by filmmaker Daniel Raim New English subtitle translation PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman

"Leave No Trace"

Debra Granik's first film since "Winter's Bone" remains one of my favorites of 2018 and loses none of its remarkable power on second viewing at home. It's just as phenomenal as I remember when I saw it at Sundance. This is a gentle, truthful tale about a father and daughter growing apart, a division deepened by his severe PTSD. Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie gives one of the most genuine performances of the year, and Ben Foster nearly matches, finding a more subtle register than the one for which he's most well-known. This is a beautiful movie, one that I hope everyone gets a chance to see.

Buy it here

Special Features Creating Leave No Trace - Featurette Deleted Scenes Behind the Scenes Vignettes Location Scout Photo Gallery

"The Naked Prey" (Criterion)

Academy Award nominee Cornel Wilde stars in this adventure film, which he also directed and produced, reportedly based on the life of John Colter, an explorer chased by Blackfoot warriors in Wyoming. The script for "Naked Prey" was Oscar-nominated but if you're thinking this is a relatively obscure choice for Criterion, especially when compared to the other two films in this column, you're not wrong. The company often includes at least one film a month that you probably haven't heard of or at least haven't seen in a very long time, to go with it's more widely-acknowledged collection of classics. Such is the case with "Naked Prey," a film that reportedly earned mixed reviews on its release but is now considered influential both in its focus and brutality. Roger himself was not a fan. Buy it here

Special Features Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Audio commentary from 2007 by film scholar Stephen Prince “John Colter’s Escape,” a 1913 record of the trapper’s flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti Original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement by Tracey Trailer PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and a 1970 interview with Wilde

"A Raisin in the Sun" (Criterion)

When Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun in the '50s, do you think she had any idea it would become a staple of American theater, and regularly adapted for film and television? The play has really stood the test of time, and it's still produced in near-constant rotation around the country, but Criterion has gone with the original, and still-best, film production of it, starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Louis Gossett Jr. Regular readers of this column know that I'm always curious about the timing of Criterion releases. So why "Raisin" now? Well, it's clear that the themes of the play still resonate today, and perhaps the company is responding to criticism that their collection is largely full of white filmmakers telling white stories. Whatever the reason, "A Raisin in the Sun" remains essential to the story of American theatre in the '50s and '60s and this is a great way to bring this seminal work to a wider audience.

Buy it here

Special Features New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr. New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie Trailer PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”

"Solo: A Star Wars Story"

If you ask a certain sector of the movie-going public, they'll tell you that "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was a massive bomb. They'll claim that negative feelings about "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" caused a backlash against "Solo" and the box office reflected that, leading to the lowest-grossing "Star Wars" film of the modern era (and that includes the prequels). The truth is that "Solo" likely wasn't as impacted by "TLJ" as it was over-saturation. There was a time when a "Star Wars" movie was an event, which is inherently more difficult when one is practically still playing in theaters as a new one comes out. There's also the fact that, sorry, "Solo" isn't very good. One can see the struggle behind the scenes that led to Ron Howard being brought in to helm the pic, and the result is a film that's only sporadically entertaining (and horribly under-lit). The Blu-ray is solid, as they often are for "Star Wars" films, but I think the lesson to take from "Solo" is that any universe loses its luster if we visit it too often and the best thing this franchise could do after "Episode IX" would be to go away for a little while. Absence makes the Wookie heart grow fonder.

Buy it here

Special Features Solo: The Director & Cast Roundtable Team Chewie Kasdan on Kasdan Remaking the Millennium Falcon Escape from Corellia The Train Heist Becoming a Droid: L3-37 Scoundrels, Droids, Creatures and Cards: Welcome to Fort Ypso Into the Maelstrom: The Kessel Run Deleted Scenes The Millenium Falcon: From Page to Park

"Three Identical Strangers"

2018 has been an amazing year for documentaries. Films like "RBG," "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," and now "Free Solo" have become surprising arthouse hits, finding devoted fans. I'm hoping that the trend brings people to one of the best docs of the year, a hit at Sundance and the Chicago Critics Film Festival earlier this year, "Three Identical Strangers." This is one of those WTF documentaries that keeps unfolding new secrets and revelations as it progresses. Without spoiling anything, the craziest part of this story is not what you think it is. It's not merely that three identical triplets found each other after years apart. There's more to this tale than any writer could possibly devise. Check it out and see for yourself.

Buy it here

Special Features Audio Commentary with Director Tim Wardle and Editor Michael Harte Q&A with David Kellman, Robert Shafran, Brenda Galland, Ellen Cervone, and Director Tom Wardle Photo Gallery Trailer

"X-Men Trilogy"

The MCU may be thriving but the "X-Men" franchise is in a weird phase. The "Dark Phoenix" trailer dropped last week only for the movie's release date to then be pushed back. People just don't seem as excited about "X-Men" as they used to be, but that shouldn't stop superhero fans from going back to the beginning, Bryan Singer's wildly influential first film about Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, and company. Christopher Nolan gets a lot of credit for influencing where the market is now, but Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer deserve just as much, if not more, for creating the templates for the modern superhero movie. The first two films in this trilogy are phenomenal, and they hold up beautifully in these new 4K editions. The third film? It was horrible then and it's horrible now, another film that can be used as a template for what NOT to do in the superhero genre.

Buy it here

Special Features Audio Commentaries Behind-the-Scenes Footage Deleted/Extended Scenes The Mutant Watch Animatics Character and Production Design Stills

from All Content https://ift.tt/2IEsQSy

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