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Nine Global Lens Films Featured in April 2015 Series at MOMA

By The Global Film Initiative, on March 13th, 2015%

New York audiences have a second chance to view 9 Global Lens films that they might have been overlooked during their initial screenings. Our special thanks to Curator Jytte Jensen who has championed GFI’s activities for the past twelve years, and for her role as an uncompromising supporter of films from emerging nations.

The films and the dates of screenings are as follows:

Saturday, April 4

About 111 Girls (Darbare 111 Doktar)

Iraq | Directed by Nahid Ghobadi & Bijan Zamanpira (79 mins.) — A government official, carrying a message from Iran’s president, travels across Iranian Kurdistan with his driver and a young guide on a mission to stop 111 young Kurdish women from committing suicide.

Sunday, April 5

Cairo 678

Egypt | Directed by Mohamed Diab (100 mins.)- Three Cairene women from different backgrounds join together in uneasy solidarity to combat the sexual harassment that has impacted each of their lives.

Student

Kazakhstan by Darezhan Omirbayev (90 mins.)-A solitary philosophy student steers his directionless life toward the commission of a violent crime.

Monday, April 6

Pegase

Morocco | Directed by Mohamed Mouftakir (104 mins.)-An emotionally exhausted psychiatrist assigned to a pregnant young woman found in the street muttering about “The Lord of the Hope.”

Qarantina

Iraq | Directed by Oday Rasheed (90 mins.)-A broken family with

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Recipient of 2012 Global Film Initiative Grant Factory Girl – Congratulations!

By The Global Film Initiative, on February 6th, 2015%

Cairo, Egypt | Friday- 6 February, 2015

In a fresh breakthrough for Mohamed Khan‘s Factory Girl across film festivals worldwide, Arab Cinema in Sweden (ACIS), a distribution arm under the umbrella of Malmo Arab Film Festival, has announced the theatrical release of Factory Girl across Sweden on Friday, April 24th, 2015. Marking the film’s first release beyond the Arab world, Factory Girl is part of the European Film Market (EFM) within 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Across Sweden where the largest Arabic-speaking community resides in Europe, Factory Girl will release in 12 screening venues including, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Norrkoping, Fajo, Umeå, Luleå, Lund and Hillsburg.

Produced by Mohamed Samir‘s DayDream Art Production, MAD Solution handled the distribution of Factory Girl in the Arab world, which also helms the Arab Cinema Center in its 1st edition at Berlinale as part of its long-term strategy to support and promote the Arab filmmaking industry in the Arab world.

Alaa Karkouti, CEO and Co-founder of MAD Solutions commented, “Factory Girl‘s theatrical release across Sweden is going to function as a new window on the Arab cinema for all film lovers in Sweden. He further added, “Our collaboration with the ACIS is an important step to us, as the screening of Factory Girl will highlight the artistic diversity and abundance of the Arab cinema. Since its inception, Malmo Arab Film Festival has been playing a crucial role in backing Arab filmmakers and this step marks a culmination of these long-standing efforts.”

Expressing his eagerness

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The Genius of Marian

By The Global Film Initiative, on June 23rd, 2014%

Clay Theater

On June 12th, more than 250 people gathered at the historic Clay Theater in San Francisco to meet Dr. Bruce Miller, UCSF Dept. of Neurology Memory and Aging Center and filmmaker, Banker White, at the screening of his extraordinary documentary film, The Genius of Marian—an intimate portrait exploring the tragedy of Alzheimers, the power of art, and the meaning of family.

As our population ages and so many are connected to someone struggling with Alzheimer’s, The Genius of Marian offers inspiration, illuminating the love and dignity to be found along the journey.

Flyer TGM

Banker

Taco Truck

This Summer: Young Filmmakers Camp and SFFS Supported Films in Theaters

By The Global Film Initiative, on June 23rd, 2014%

Filmmake photo

Future Filmmaker, 2013 Young Filmmakers Camp

Photo by Lizzy Brooks 2014 YOUNG FILMMAKERS CAMP

JULY 7 - AUGUST 8

University High School

LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE, ENROLL NOW This intensive film program is an opportunity for teens to learn from first-class film professionals in a fun, interactive, collaborative environment. Aspiring filmmakers can enroll in in either the 2-week Starter Lab or the 2-week Advanced Lab — or take both for a full four weeks of total film.

GRANTING: Ten Years to the Day in Global Film Funding

By The Global Film Initiative, on May 16th, 2013%

Ten years ago today, GFI announced the recipients of the inaugural granting program, and look at us now…

granting

On April 10, The Global Film Initiative announced it’s most recent grant recipients from the Winter 2012 granting cycle. The list of grantees features 11 works from both emerging and established filmmakers, representing 10 different countries around the world, and each project demonstrates great promise and vision. As Susan Weeks Coulter, Founder and Board Chair, said in the announcement: “We are pleased to identify and support these eleven unique and powerful narratives.”

What makes this granting cycle particularly special, however, is that it is the most recent in GFI’s now decade-old granting program. Ten years ago to the day, the very first round of grantees were announced on May 16, 2003. In celebration of this milestone, we’re taking a look back on the films GFI has funded over the years.

Again and again, our grantees represent filmmakers who are not afraid to challenge convention-to make sometimes dangerous, but always fiercely truthful statements about the society, and the world, that reflect them. These films often represent new perspectives and voices in storytelling-voices which are too often silenced or misrepresented in the mainstream-and hold promise in heralding a new generation of filmmakers.

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INTERVIEW: Life, Death and Moving On with Sebastián Silva

By The Global Film Initiative, on May 1st, 2013%

Filmmaker Sebastán Silva

Rob Avila asks the [young] veteran about his very first feature, LIFE KILLS ME, and whether there’s any truth to the saying ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’…

Rob Avila met Sebastián Silva-the 34-year-old New York-based Chilean filmmaker, who received international acclaim in 2009 with his beautifully wrought, darkly funny drama, THE MAID (LA NANA)-at the beginning of a very big week. Silva debuted not one but two new films at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival—CRYSTAL FAIRY and MAGIC MAGIC—both featuring popular Canadian actor Michael Cera. Even before that happened, Silva headed to the Museum of Modern Art for the New York premiere of yet another of his films-his very first, 2007’s LIFE KILLS ME (LA VIDA ME MATA), as part of the Global Film Initiative’s Global Lens 2013 series.

LIFE KILLS ME centers on a taciturn young man, Gaspar (Gabriel Díaz), emotionally immobile and feebly suicidal with grief since the death of his idolized older brother. Gaspar lives with his older sister, his senile mother, and his dying grandfather, but occupies his time working as a cinematographer on a short horror film written and directed by, as well as starring, a flamboyant and irrepressible no-talent named Susana (the scene-stealing Claudia Celedón, who with costar Catalina Saavedra would go

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FESTIVALS & AWARDS: Africa Movie Academy Awards, Miami IFF, ReelWorld FF and festivals, festivals, FESTIVALS!

By The Global Film Initiative, on March 27th, 2013%

Screening of TANTA AGUA

NINAH’S DOWRY (Cameroon), SO MUCH WATER (Uruguay) and WHEN I SAW YOU (Palestine/Jordan) are just a few titles among a host of Global Lens films and grant recipients keeping our news feed a-buzzing…

The buzz just won’t stop. From nominations, to awards, to screenings in festivals across the globe, GFI grant recipients and Global Lens films are continuing to impress in a big way. Check out the most recent news:

Continue reading FESTIVALS & AWARDS: Africa Movie Academy Awards, Miami IFF, ReelWorld FF and festivals, festivals, FESTIVALS!

FEATURE: An Indie from India Comes to SF

By The Global Film Initiative, on March 22nd, 2013%

Ashim talks to students at Berkeley High School

Joanne Parsont, Director of Education at the San Francisco Film Society, reflects on SFFS’ incomparable artist in residence, Ashim Ahluwalia…

Each time the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) invites an international filmmaker to participate in our Artist in Residence program (funded this winter by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences), there’s a mix of eager anticipation and wary uncertainty. We’ve seen their films, but what will they actually be like in person? Will they take full advantage of their two weeks in San Francisco? Will they be any fun to hang out with? For our latest Artist in Residence (and, really, all of our previous residents), the answer to both of these questions is a resounding “yes.”

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NOW PLAYING: Come into THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF JUAN OROL

By The Global Film Initiative, on March 20th, 2013%

“A visually playful biopic on Mexico’s Ed Wood.” -Variety

The accolades continue to roll in as Global Lens 2013 enters the Spring! This month in the spotlight: THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF JUAN OROL, which recently played at the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

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