Hot Docs has wrapped its 11-day hybrid edition, handing out three more cash prizes, announcing audience top picks, and tipping the hat to the 225 films from 63 countries that screened during the festival.
The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. 25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.
“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.
Mark Bone’s “Okay! (The Asd Band Film),” which follows four autistic musicians as they prepare for their first live gig, is the second Roger...
The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. 25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.
“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.
Mark Bone’s “Okay! (The Asd Band Film),” which follows four autistic musicians as they prepare for their first live gig, is the second Roger...
- 5/9/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
“How Saba Kept Singing” seeks to understand how Polish Jewish teenager David Wisnia survived nearly three years in Auschwitz. The editing and vague timelines make it seem as if this latest doc from multi-hyphenate Sara Taksler (“Tickling Giants”) is revealing something previously unreported, even though a 2019 New York Times article already divulged the touching love story that underlies the “How” of the title. Still, as the more earnest than artful film repeatedly points out, very soon there will be no living witnesses to the hellish experience of the death camps. This incontrovertible fact lends a sense of urgency and poignancy to firsthand accounts of how survivors managed to endure and to move on.
If the title “One Voice, Two Lives” hadn’t already been used for Wisnia’s 2015 memoir, which describes in greater detail his remarkable journey from Auschwitz prisoner to 101st Airborne trooper, it could have served well for Taksler’s film.
If the title “One Voice, Two Lives” hadn’t already been used for Wisnia’s 2015 memoir, which describes in greater detail his remarkable journey from Auschwitz prisoner to 101st Airborne trooper, it could have served well for Taksler’s film.
- 5/2/2022
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
When supporters of President Trump expressed outrage over Michelle Wolf’s comedy routine at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, one interested observer kept a wary eye on the controversy. His name was Bassem Youssef and he knew a little something about the importance of political humor.
“Instead of being petty and getting all wrapped up in their egos, they should embrace the likes of Michelle Wolf,” Youssef wrote in a statement provided exclusively to Deadline. “[She] proves that not even the strongest man in the world is above satire. And that’s what makes America really great.”
Youssef, often called “the Jon Stewart of Egypt,” hosted Al Bernameg, a wildly popular late night comedy show that launched in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring. The documentary Tickling Giants—directed by Sara Taksler, a former Daily Show senior producer—tracked Youssef as he became a sensation in his country, and...
“Instead of being petty and getting all wrapped up in their egos, they should embrace the likes of Michelle Wolf,” Youssef wrote in a statement provided exclusively to Deadline. “[She] proves that not even the strongest man in the world is above satire. And that’s what makes America really great.”
Youssef, often called “the Jon Stewart of Egypt,” hosted Al Bernameg, a wildly popular late night comedy show that launched in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring. The documentary Tickling Giants—directed by Sara Taksler, a former Daily Show senior producer—tracked Youssef as he became a sensation in his country, and...
- 5/25/2018
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Political satirists in America generally don’t have to deal with anything more threatening than internet trolls. Such was not the case for Bassem Youssef, popularly known as “The Egyptian Jon Stewart” for his acerbic televised satire. During his several years hosting a political comedy show in his native country, Youssef and his team were faced with threats, protests, lawsuits, government oppression and eventually cancellation. His fascinating and often amusing story is well recounted in Sara Taksler’s documentary, Ticking Giants.
The director has no small affinity for her subject, since she’s a producer for The Daily Show who became inspired to...
The director has no small affinity for her subject, since she’s a producer for The Daily Show who became inspired to...
- 3/15/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 27th edition of the Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 9 - 20) will present 200 films from 70 countries.
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
The Stockholm International Film Festival will kick-off with Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake, followed by a mid-festival ‘middle film’ screening in the shape of Nate Parker’s Birth of A Nation, and will close with Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea.
Directors attending the festival include Francis Ford Coppola (who will receive the lifetime achievement award, present a public talk, and screen Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach, Francois Ozon (who receives the festival’s Visionary Award), Ira Sachs, Alice Lowe, Mark Cousins, Anne Fontaine, Gabe Klinger, and many more.
The festival’s main competition line-up is:
A Decent Woman by Lukas Valenta Rinner (Arg, S Kor, Aus)A Taste Of Ink by Morgan Simon (Fr)Albüm by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Tur, Fr, Rom)Are We Not Cats by Xander Robin (Us)Birth Of A Nation by [link...
- 10/18/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Montreal — The first thing one might notice about “Tickling Giants” – a rousing documentary from Sara Taksler, recently screened at Just For Laughs – is just how audacious the first ten minutes are. Images of a violent revolution sweeping through North Africa are interlaced with a cynical edge of black comedy, punctuated by a fake […]
The post Documentary ‘Tickling Giants’ Shines A Light On Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s Jon Stewart [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Documentary ‘Tickling Giants’ Shines A Light On Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s Jon Stewart [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
- 7/23/2016
- by Michael Garmonsway
- The Playlist
Top brass at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival presented by At&T have announced selections in the Us Narrative, International Narrative and Documentary Competition strands.
The films comprise 55 out of 110 features that will play during the 15th edition of the New York festival from April 13-24. The festival will present features films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Sections on March 8.
Also included in Wednesday’s announcement are the out-of-competition Viewpoints titles.
The world premiere of Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ Contemporary Color will open the World Documentary competition on April 14, while the world premiere of Kicks by Justin Tipping will open the Us Narrative competition.
The world premiere of Madly directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.
One third of the festival’s feature films are directed by women...
The films comprise 55 out of 110 features that will play during the 15th edition of the New York festival from April 13-24. The festival will present features films in the Spotlight, Midnight, and Special Sections on March 8.
Also included in Wednesday’s announcement are the out-of-competition Viewpoints titles.
The world premiere of Bill Ross and Turner Ross’ Contemporary Color will open the World Documentary competition on April 14, while the world premiere of Kicks by Justin Tipping will open the Us Narrative competition.
The world premiere of Madly directed by Gael García Bernal, Mia Wasikowska, Sebastian Silva, Anurag Kashyap, Sion Sono, and Natasha Khan will open the International Narrative Competition. Viewpoints will open with the world premiere of Nerdland directed by Chris Prynoski.
One third of the festival’s feature films are directed by women...
- 3/2/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Jon Stewart’s Egyptian doppelganger Bassem Youssef is getting the documentary treatment courtesy of The Daily Show’s Sara Taksler. Tickling Giants, a chronicle of how Youssef went from being a heart surgeon to hosting an immensely popular — and controversial — satirical news magazine, has already been filmed, with difficulty, in Egypt. Now it’s looking for completion funding via Indiegogo as it eyes the fall film fest circuit.
The making of the film was kept under wraps until shooting finished because of safety concerns for the crew in Egypt. The production says that when one cameraman was filming a viewing party for Youssef’s Daily Show-esque Al Bernameg, a person unhappy with the program beat him up and took his memory card. Because the government had begun checking hard drives, to get the last drive out of Egypt someone unrelated to the film had to fly the footage out of the country.
The making of the film was kept under wraps until shooting finished because of safety concerns for the crew in Egypt. The production says that when one cameraman was filming a viewing party for Youssef’s Daily Show-esque Al Bernameg, a person unhappy with the program beat him up and took his memory card. Because the government had begun checking hard drives, to get the last drive out of Egypt someone unrelated to the film had to fly the footage out of the country.
- 2/12/2015
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline
By Neil Pedley
While Steve Carell and Mike Myers face off at the multiplexes this week, indie theaters fight back with a wide range of quirk, including a meter maid romance, a doc on balloon animals and a horror flick about killer hair extensions.
"Brick Lane"
"Brick Lane" in London's East End might be just a relatively short jaunt down the M1 from Salford, but it's still a million miles (and a decade) away from the careful multi-ethnic empathy of another film that dealt with south Asian refugees in England, the 1970s-set "East is East." This story follows 18-year-old Nazneem (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who steps off a plane from Bangladesh and into an arranged marriage with middle-aged Chanu (Satish Kaushik). Bored and lonely, she's forced to question her beliefs when the charismatic and secular Karim (Christopher Simpson) knocks on her door. Director Sarah Gavron landed herself a Bafta nomination for this...
While Steve Carell and Mike Myers face off at the multiplexes this week, indie theaters fight back with a wide range of quirk, including a meter maid romance, a doc on balloon animals and a horror flick about killer hair extensions.
"Brick Lane"
"Brick Lane" in London's East End might be just a relatively short jaunt down the M1 from Salford, but it's still a million miles (and a decade) away from the careful multi-ethnic empathy of another film that dealt with south Asian refugees in England, the 1970s-set "East is East." This story follows 18-year-old Nazneem (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who steps off a plane from Bangladesh and into an arranged marriage with middle-aged Chanu (Satish Kaushik). Bored and lonely, she's forced to question her beliefs when the charismatic and secular Karim (Christopher Simpson) knocks on her door. Director Sarah Gavron landed herself a Bafta nomination for this...
- 6/16/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
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