Fotosíntesis Media, a Mexican pioneer in cause-driven entertainment, has unveiled “Ch’ulel,” a 2D fantasy adventure animated feature for 6-8s tapping into the mindset of Tzeltal community.
Mexico City-based, Fotosíntesis Media burst onto the scene in 2015, launched by Cannes-winning director Carlos Reygadas and producer Jaime Romandia and director-producer Miguel Angel Uriegas.
Having scored Mexican Academy best animated feature Ariels in 2016 for “The Stone Boy,” which Uriegas directed and produced and another Ariel in 2021 for “A Costume for Nicholas” “Ch’ulel” will be the sixth feature for Fotosintesis which world premiered a fourth, “Bestia,” co-produced with Denmark’s Zentropa and Brazil’s Levante Films, at June’s Guadalajara Film Festival.
Announced at the 2021 Quirino Awards, a fifth feature, “My Friend the Sun,” is in production, with a completion date set for Nov. 2024 and theatrical release in 2025.
“Ch’ulel” has just been selected for Animation! Pitching Sessions, the animated project forum at Ventana Sur,...
Mexico City-based, Fotosíntesis Media burst onto the scene in 2015, launched by Cannes-winning director Carlos Reygadas and producer Jaime Romandia and director-producer Miguel Angel Uriegas.
Having scored Mexican Academy best animated feature Ariels in 2016 for “The Stone Boy,” which Uriegas directed and produced and another Ariel in 2021 for “A Costume for Nicholas” “Ch’ulel” will be the sixth feature for Fotosintesis which world premiered a fourth, “Bestia,” co-produced with Denmark’s Zentropa and Brazil’s Levante Films, at June’s Guadalajara Film Festival.
Announced at the 2021 Quirino Awards, a fifth feature, “My Friend the Sun,” is in production, with a completion date set for Nov. 2024 and theatrical release in 2025.
“Ch’ulel” has just been selected for Animation! Pitching Sessions, the animated project forum at Ventana Sur,...
- 10/23/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Frederic Forrest, the resilient character actor best remembered for his performance as the high-strung Chef Hicks in Apocalypse Now and for his Academy Award-nominated turn as Huston Dyer, the Awol army sergeant who captured Bette Midler’s heart in The Rose, has died. He was 86.
Forrest died Friday at his home in Santa Monica after a long illness, his friend, actor Barry Primus, told The Hollywood Reporter.
On Twitter, Midler called Forrest “a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.”
The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.”
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 24, 2023
The first of two...
Forrest died Friday at his home in Santa Monica after a long illness, his friend, actor Barry Primus, told The Hollywood Reporter.
On Twitter, Midler called Forrest “a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.”
The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died. Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.”
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 24, 2023
The first of two...
- 6/24/2023
- by Chris Koseluk
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A panel of top animation professionals gathered in Cannes has underlined how festivals can help to promote a new generation of socially engaged animation films.
“It is one of the main launching pads for this very specific kind of film, which needs that kind of exposure. We have such strong industries in Europe, especially in France, and we need that exposure from the A-list festivals,” said panel member Eleanor Coleman, head of animation and new media acquisitions at Indie Sales, the Paris-based outfit that sold the Oscar-nominated “My Life as a Zucchini” around the world after it premiered in the Cannes sidebar Directors’ Fortnight in 2016.
According to Mexican producer-director Miguel Uriegas, the co-founder of Fotosintesis Media, which produces what he calls “cause driven” entertainment in Latin America, the major challenge is to make these films “sexy” at the distribution stage.
“It’s the same as any film – you need to...
“It is one of the main launching pads for this very specific kind of film, which needs that kind of exposure. We have such strong industries in Europe, especially in France, and we need that exposure from the A-list festivals,” said panel member Eleanor Coleman, head of animation and new media acquisitions at Indie Sales, the Paris-based outfit that sold the Oscar-nominated “My Life as a Zucchini” around the world after it premiered in the Cannes sidebar Directors’ Fortnight in 2016.
According to Mexican producer-director Miguel Uriegas, the co-founder of Fotosintesis Media, which produces what he calls “cause driven” entertainment in Latin America, the major challenge is to make these films “sexy” at the distribution stage.
“It’s the same as any film – you need to...
- 7/12/2021
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Eduardo Rivero’s debut feature “A Costume for Nicholas,” Bernardita Ojeda’s “Petit Season Two” and Alberto Vázquez’s “Homeless Home” won big at Saturday’s 4th Quirino Awards, which prize animated films and series from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Winners picked up their plaudits at a on-site ceremony held at La Laguna in Spain’s Canary islands.
“A Costume for Nicholas,” from Mexico, took best feature, winning out in a category whose four nominees included three Mexican productions.
The third movie from Mexico’s Fotosintesis Media, a social a cause-driven entertainment label set up by the Mantarraya Group and producer-director Miguel Uriegas (“The Stone Boy”), the toon movie is co-produced by Mexico’s Pēek Paax animation studio.
Marking Uriegas’ debut as screenwriter, the feature follows Nicholas, a 10-year-old orphan with Down syndrome who dons magical costumes from his mom to save his brother from nightmares and the world from chaos.
Winners picked up their plaudits at a on-site ceremony held at La Laguna in Spain’s Canary islands.
“A Costume for Nicholas,” from Mexico, took best feature, winning out in a category whose four nominees included three Mexican productions.
The third movie from Mexico’s Fotosintesis Media, a social a cause-driven entertainment label set up by the Mantarraya Group and producer-director Miguel Uriegas (“The Stone Boy”), the toon movie is co-produced by Mexico’s Pēek Paax animation studio.
Marking Uriegas’ debut as screenwriter, the feature follows Nicholas, a 10-year-old orphan with Down syndrome who dons magical costumes from his mom to save his brother from nightmares and the world from chaos.
- 5/29/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
September Dawn
September Dawn, opening in limited release from Black Diamond Pictures, is a solemn package of historical fiction and an exceedingly old-fashioned one at that. It is also quite controversial among Western historians and the Mormon community, but this alone is unlikely to boost boxoffice. History teachers everywhere could rent this indie for years to come; otherwise, the market is a small one.
Director/co-writer/producer Christopher Cain's ambitious pioneer picture tells the story of the little-known Mountain Meadows Massacre of Sept. 11, 1857, in the Utah Territory. The event represented a low point in Mormon history, and many aspects and details of the incident are still debated to this day. In a small but key role, an aged Brigham Young (Terence Stamp) is seen in isolated testimony and heard in voice-over, punctuating the drama with spiteful rhetoric that the filmmakers (including co-screenwriter Carole Whang Schutter) claim they lifted from Young's own words.
The principal story line is anything but verbatim history, and the screenplay is the weakest aspect of the film. Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight), an invented amalgam of extremist Mormon deacons and military generals, has two young-adult sons: Jonathan (Trent Ford), the more handsome, sensitive and progressive of the two, tames wild horses. Micah (Taylor Handley) is his more obedient, unquestioning brother.
When a wagon train of humble Christians traveling from Arkansas to California asks to settle in for a few weeks of rest in a valley outside Cedar City, Utah, Jonathan locks eyes with sweet, young Emily (Canada's Tamara Hope), who is the minister's daughter. It is the young man's first encounter with outsiders, and he begins to stand up to his own martinet father (who is less God-fearing than godlike).
Samuelson still blames Missourians not only for rejecting the Latter-Day Saints years earlier but for the death of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith (Dean Cain, the director's son, in a cameo). Apparently believing in guilt by association -- since Arkansas is near Missouri? -- he stirs up Cedar City congregants into a frenzy. He enlists deacon/lieutenant John D. Lee (an effective Jon Gries) in his scheme and dupes the local Paiute tribe into believing the worst about the innocent pioneers. All this builds toward a horrific attack that Jonathan tries his best to thwart.
Samuelson and the budding Romeo and Juliet are fictitious, but John D. Lee and other bits of the film are real, or at least based on research. (The LDS Church has been denouncing this picture for quite a while.) The performances are satisfactory, including an underused Lolita Davidovich, even if Voight appears to have left restraint in his trailer. Director Cain (The Stone Boy, Young Guns), a South Dakota native, has spent his film career outdoors. While this is weightier material than he typically handles, Cain has crafted a modest picture, filmed in Canada, that too often feels like a very elaborate episode of Gunsmoke.
SEPTEMBER DAWN
Black Diamond Pictures
September Dawn Llc./Voice Pictures
Credits:
Director: Christopher Cain
Screenwriters: Carole Whang Schutter, Christopher Cain
Producers: Scott Duthie, Christopher Cain, Kevin Matossian
Executive producers: Michael Feinberg, Patrick Imeson, Wendy Hill-Tout
Director of photography: Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Production designer: Rick Roberts
Costume designer: Carol Case
Music: William Ross
Editor: Jack Hofstra
Cast:
Jacob: Jon Voight
Jonathan: Trent Ford
Emily: Tamara Hope
John: Jon Gries
Nancy: Lolita Davidovich
Brigham Young: Terence Stamp
Micah: Taylor Handley
Joseph Smith: Dean Cain
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Director/co-writer/producer Christopher Cain's ambitious pioneer picture tells the story of the little-known Mountain Meadows Massacre of Sept. 11, 1857, in the Utah Territory. The event represented a low point in Mormon history, and many aspects and details of the incident are still debated to this day. In a small but key role, an aged Brigham Young (Terence Stamp) is seen in isolated testimony and heard in voice-over, punctuating the drama with spiteful rhetoric that the filmmakers (including co-screenwriter Carole Whang Schutter) claim they lifted from Young's own words.
The principal story line is anything but verbatim history, and the screenplay is the weakest aspect of the film. Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight), an invented amalgam of extremist Mormon deacons and military generals, has two young-adult sons: Jonathan (Trent Ford), the more handsome, sensitive and progressive of the two, tames wild horses. Micah (Taylor Handley) is his more obedient, unquestioning brother.
When a wagon train of humble Christians traveling from Arkansas to California asks to settle in for a few weeks of rest in a valley outside Cedar City, Utah, Jonathan locks eyes with sweet, young Emily (Canada's Tamara Hope), who is the minister's daughter. It is the young man's first encounter with outsiders, and he begins to stand up to his own martinet father (who is less God-fearing than godlike).
Samuelson still blames Missourians not only for rejecting the Latter-Day Saints years earlier but for the death of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith (Dean Cain, the director's son, in a cameo). Apparently believing in guilt by association -- since Arkansas is near Missouri? -- he stirs up Cedar City congregants into a frenzy. He enlists deacon/lieutenant John D. Lee (an effective Jon Gries) in his scheme and dupes the local Paiute tribe into believing the worst about the innocent pioneers. All this builds toward a horrific attack that Jonathan tries his best to thwart.
Samuelson and the budding Romeo and Juliet are fictitious, but John D. Lee and other bits of the film are real, or at least based on research. (The LDS Church has been denouncing this picture for quite a while.) The performances are satisfactory, including an underused Lolita Davidovich, even if Voight appears to have left restraint in his trailer. Director Cain (The Stone Boy, Young Guns), a South Dakota native, has spent his film career outdoors. While this is weightier material than he typically handles, Cain has crafted a modest picture, filmed in Canada, that too often feels like a very elaborate episode of Gunsmoke.
SEPTEMBER DAWN
Black Diamond Pictures
September Dawn Llc./Voice Pictures
Credits:
Director: Christopher Cain
Screenwriters: Carole Whang Schutter, Christopher Cain
Producers: Scott Duthie, Christopher Cain, Kevin Matossian
Executive producers: Michael Feinberg, Patrick Imeson, Wendy Hill-Tout
Director of photography: Juan Ruiz-Anchia
Production designer: Rick Roberts
Costume designer: Carol Case
Music: William Ross
Editor: Jack Hofstra
Cast:
Jacob: Jon Voight
Jonathan: Trent Ford
Emily: Tamara Hope
John: Jon Gries
Nancy: Lolita Davidovich
Brigham Young: Terence Stamp
Micah: Taylor Handley
Joseph Smith: Dean Cain
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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