Over at The Wrap, Steve Pond chats with cinematographer Gordon Willis, a honorary Academy Award recipient this year, who dances and ducks his share of questions, but does share his thoughts on being excised from the main Oscar ceremony, and working with Francis Ford Coppola.
Daily Archives: October 20, 2009
Amelia
Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank can’t give any lift to Amelia, a soggy, unengaging biopic of Amelia Earhart, the American aviatrix who rose to fame with her transatlantic flights in the 1930s but disappeared in a later attempt to circumnavigate the globe. An attractively packaged but dramatically inert hagiography, the film feels so utterly designed not to offend, shock or confuse any potential age group that it ends up saying nothing of consequence about its subject. For the full, original review, from Screen International, click here. (Fox Searchlight, PG, 111 minutes)
My Hero Festival Spotlights Stories of Human Uplift
For the Extreme Makeover set and other fans of human uplift in general, the world’s best hero-themed movies will be honored next month at the My Hero Short Film Festival. The fifth annual festival takes place November 21 at 7 p.m. at the University of Southern California’s Norris Theater. Finalists include narrative, documentary and animated films, as well as music videos. Among them are:
- Biblioburro: The Donkey Library, an inspiring film by Valentina Canavesio about a Colombian teacher who brings books to rural communities that have no access to libraries
- Home Is Where You Find It, a touching film by 16-year-old AIDS orphan Alcides Soares, who received a movie camera from an American television writer and movie director, and who journeys to find a family and make a new life in his native Mozambique, a country ravaged by AIDS
- Iqra: Read, an eye-opening film by Fauzia Minallah, about the creation of a mural painted by Afghan and Pakistani boys in a settlement in Islamabad, which promotes the education of girls
For more information on the films and the festival in general, click here; to donate money, or otherwise help aid the festival, click here.