Tuesday, April 14, 2015
ROBIN ROSE SINGER'S APHASIA SCREENS AT TFF WITH FML SHORTS
Film Festivals are a great place to meet the stars of tomorrow, both actors and directors.
Robin Rose Singer is a Rapidly Rising Star. She wrote, starred in, and co-produced the short APHASIA which will get its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in the FML Shorts program. (FML is slang for "Fuck My Life" -- or any other reasonably similar expression for which the acronym fits.) I've seen her act (impressively) in Serious Shakespeare and modern comedy, she's worked in film and on stage, including starring in a martial arts themed version of Electra. She starred in the HIFF feature film selection "Kisses, Chloe" a few years ago. In addition to being a terrific, versatile actress, she is smart, reliable, nice, and beautiful.
APHASIA is very well written, directed and acted, and although it was made as an indie film, it has the production design, and production values of a major studio production. It's worth seeing, not only to get a handle on some important new talent (they are planning to attend the screenings), but especially because it's a good film that's... worth seeing.
Directed by Luke LoCurcio
Screenplay by Robin Rose Singer
Cinematography by Shawn Greene
Production Design by Anna Kathleen
Starring Robin Rose Singer and Frankie J. Alvarez
"what price are you willing to pay for plugging in?"
sci-fi/drama/short narrative | running time:12’19” | country: USA
SYNOPSIS
"Emily is your average 20-something in 2018. She texts her friends, orders food
online, and uses GPS to get where she’s going. When her online crush, Austin,
messages her to suggest meeting in person for the first time, Emily suddenly
comes face to face with the consequences of living a digital life."
FML SHORTS PROGRAM WITH APHASIA
screening schedule including Press/Industry screenings
04/16/2015 6:30 PM 7:43 PM Public Screening
04/17/2015 12:30 PM 1:43 PM Press/Industry Screening
04/20/2015 8:30 PM 9:43 PM Public Screening
04/22/2015 4:30 PM 5:43 PM Public Screening - FES
04/25/2015 4:30 PM 5:43 PM Public Screening
APHASIA OFFICIAL SITE
http://www.aphasiathefilm.com/
APHASIA TICKETS
(Note: BE AWARE! As of publication of this article,
there are only a limited number of seats available!)
https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/aphasia-2015
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL TICKETS
https://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets
ROBIN ROSE SINGER - HOME PAGE
http://www.robinrosesinger.com/
ROBIN ROSE SINGER - IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3295250/
We've covered Robin before, here are some other stories in QPORIT:
KISSES, CHLOE AT HIFF
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2010/10/kisses-chloe-with-robin-singer-mikal.html
PUBLIC RELATIONS, THE WEBISODES
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2011/01/public-relations-webisodes.html
SOME GIRLS by NEIL LABUTE
http://bobooblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/some-girls.html
Labels: Anna Kathleen, APHASIA, Frankie J. Alvarez, Luke LoCurcio, Robin Rose Singer, Shawn Greene, TFF, Tribeca Film Festival
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
TRIBECA FILM LIVE PRESS CONFERENCE
LIVE PRESS CONFERENCE from TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL about the start of TRIBECA FILM a new indie film distribution company, and the opening of the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.tribecafilm.com/virtual/video/?fr_chl=44e43cb442117c2759d578df5ad709a616267730&fr_story=0a74b84a64472f5373ea4c7e89eca7bb5c8626c9
10:57 AM -- Press conference is over. They do seem to be re-broadcating the archived event from time to time.
For the festival, try:
http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/
http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/
Labels: Tribeca Film, Tribeca Film Festival
Friday, March 13, 2009
THE CAKE EATERS - AND MARY STUART MASTERSON
Director of THE CAKE EATERS
at the Tribeca Film Festival 2007
Photo by Eric Roffman for QPORIT
Mary Stuart Masterson's brilliant and sensitive film, The Cake Eaters (TCE) opens Friday the 13th at "selected theaters in selected cities".
I first saw TCE at the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) two years ago, where it was one of my favorite films. It features a great (award worthy!) performance by Kristen Stewart, who is soon to be one of our most important actresses. Kristen is beautiful, young, interesting to watch, extremely talented (with a wide range of roles), and almost ubiquitous (the mega-hit Twilight, the comedy What Just Happened, the action film Jumper, plus Panic Room, In The Wild, and five films in the works!).
Also notable about The Cake Eaters is -- well, it's a cliche, but even cliches can be true -- that the location is "almost a character." Shot in upstate New York, the physical environment has a reality that contributes to the mood and the substance of the film, in much the same way that environment was so important in Altman's films.
On a personal note, I interviewed Mary Stuart's father, actor/director Peter Masterson, many years ago, and he was very smart, and the nicest person; I saw Mary Stuart first, long ago, on location on her first film, when she was eight or nine; and I saw her, more recently, bouncing down the Red Carpet at The Tribeca Film Festival, and later I had the opportunity to speak with her on the phone and post about the film, before TCE opened at the Stony Brook Festival last year. She is charming, vivacious and friendly.
The Cake Eaters has a strong pedigree as an award winner at many film festivals (including Best Feature at Stony Brook), and is a very special film to see.
As an extra bonus, Mary Stuart will be on hand for a Q & A after the screenings in New York:
Q&A with Director Mary Stuart Masterson
Cinema Village (NYC) – 3/13 after 7:25p show & 3/14 after 3p show
Cobble Hill Cinemas (Brooklyn) – 3/14 after 7:45p show & 3/15 after 3:10p show
THE CAKE EATERS starring Kristen Stewart, Aaron Stanford, Bruce Dern, Elizabeth Ashley, Jayce Bartok. Directed by Mary Stuart Masterson.
OPENS MARCH 13TH – New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Phoenix, Santa Fe…
http://www.thecakeeaters.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418586/
Labels: Kristen Stewart, Mary Stuart Masterson, The Cake Eaters, Tribeca Film Festival
Monday, July 14, 2008
MARY STUART MASTERSON AND THE CAKE EATERS
Mary Stuart Masterson directing
The Cake Eaters
Mary Stuart Masterson, is charming, ebullient and intelligent... and an actress and the director of The Cake Eaters, to be shown on Saturday evening (July 17, 7:00 PM) at the Stony Brook Film Festival (SBFF) (see our post on SBFF below).
In this film, she tells an interesting, romantic story, about difficult and troubled people. The acting, especially by Kristen Stewart, is dead-on. Kristen plays an adolescent girl with a serious disease and, thinking about the film, I kind-of had to keep reminding myself that Kristen was an actress and not a patient recruited for a film role.
Mary Stuart (that seems to be what she likes to be called) said that she cast Kristen (fifteen when this film was made), remembering having seeing her in The Panic Room in 2002 (which she made when she was just nine). Meeting her, she found Kristen was "so poised and intelligent and ... had such a ferocious... love for the character, that I just knew that it had be her." (Poised, intelligent and ferocious: great qualities for an actress!)
Mary Stuart Masterson with her brother
cinematographer Pete Masterson
What makes the film most special, it seems to me, is that it is uniquely American in a way that few films are. It was shot on location upstate in New York, and has an authenticity that comes from being firmly rooted in the present time in a real place in this country. The film was shot with understated realism by Mary Stuart’s brother, Peter Masterson.
Mary Stuart Masterson and Bruce Dern
The story is contemporary and gently treats of romance and relationships, difficult and otherwise. The character’s talk, and the action proceeds, with a rhythm that is genuine to the place, the time and the story. The script, by Jayce Bartok, who also appears in the film, has not been formulized the way studio films are.
Mary Stuart comes from a family and milieu of actors and directors. Her mother is the Tony winning actress Carlin Glynn. And Mary Stuart has appeared as an actress in films which are something of a family affair, such films as The Trip to Bountiful, written by the playwright, Horton Foote and directed by her father, Peter Masterson (who is Horton Foote's cousin). Mary Stuart's father is a charming, and intelligent (Note: it's not a coincidence that I used the same adjectives to describe Mary Stuart) actor, writer and Tony nominated director (for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas). That understanding of family, and that tradition of crafting film and theater which is in her background history, seems to inform the decisions and structure that were made in crafting a film that portrays sophisticated relationships, and that looks and feels unique and genuine.
There is likely to be a Q&A with Mary Stuart after the screening on Saturday. With a diverse and interesting schedule of films, the Stony Brook Film Festival seems like a very good place to visit between Thursday (July 17) and Saturday (July 26), with the first Saturday night (July 19) a particularly fine time to attend, for the screening of The Cake Eaters.
Note (July 25, 2009) -- The Cake Eaters is now out on DVD. Below is a link to watch the film online or buy a DVD. Also, Mary Stuart has produced a new film, Tickling Leo, written and directed by her husband, Jeremy Davidson, which is being shown today at the Stony Brook Film Festival 2009.
Labels: Kristen Stewart, Mary Stuart Masterson, Peter Masterson, The Cake Eaters, The Stony Brook Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
TONIGHT - PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG
This is a terrific film, reviewed earlier here in QPORITwhen it played at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's on tonight on channel 13 at 9 PM in NY and possibly other channels in other places.
Don't miss it if you love music, the history of modern America, or just enjoy a good time.
Labels: Pete Seeger, Tribeca Film Festival
Thursday, November 08, 2007
SOME FILM FESTIVAL INFORMATION
Bulletfilm, a new site for filmmakers, has put up a nice list of film festivals:
http://www.bulletfilm.com/festivals .
(Bulletfilms seems to have been created to host films, but they seem to be planning to charge to host them. It is not clear to me why one would host there, and not on a free site like Video Google or YouTube. It is not clear if Bulletfilms has any traffic; they say nothing about sharing revenue; and there were programming errors in the promotional e-mail they sent.)
But it seems like a nice list of festivals!
Here's some more ...
FILM FESTIVAL INFORMATION
- http://www.filmfestivals.com/index.shtml - A site devoted to FF info
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS
- Cannes FFl -- http://www.festival-cannes.fr
Cannes FF (English Language)-- http://www.festival-cannes.fr/index.php?langue=6002 - Edinburgh FF -- http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/
- Toronto International FF -- http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2005/home.asp
- The Haifa International FF -- http://www.haifaff.co.il/index_eng.asp
- Hertfordshire International Film Festival -- http://www.hiff.co.uk/
- Rakkautta & Anarkiaa - 18th Helsinki International FF -- http://www.hiff.fi/
- Sydney (Australia) FF -- http://www.sydneyfilmfestival.org/
- Bahama's International FF -- http://bahamasinternationalfilmfestival.com/
- Venice FF -- http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/
NATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS
- Sundance FF -- http://www.sundance.org/festival/
- Hawaii International FF -- http://www.hiff.org/
- Vail FF -- http://www.vailfilmfestival.org/
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVALS
- The New York Film Festival -- http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.htm
- Tribeca FF -- http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/
- Hampton's International FF -- http://www.hamptonsfilmfest.org
- The Harlem International Film Festival -- http://www.harlemfilmfestival.com/
- Home FF -- http://www.homefilmfest.com/
- New York Film & Video Festival -- http://www.nyfilmvideo.com/
- Gotham City Short Film Festival -- http://www.gothamfestival.com/
- Queens International Film Festival -- http://www.queensfilmfestival.com/
Features of a World-class Film Festival Website and
Covering a Film Festival
Here are some more festival sites:
Intl. Black Women's Film Festival
Note that some festivals (especially the smaller ones) may (suddenly!) disappear.
Labels: Cannes, film festival, HIFF, NYFF, Tribeca Film Festival
