Film
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Documentary Film Code Black
Dr. Ryan McGarry Reveals Real Life Drama of an ER
By: - Dec 16th, 2014Over the years countless TV series have focused on the life and death drama of hospital ER units. In the compelling documentary film, Code Black, Dr. Ryan McGarry focues on what actually happens day to day in LA County Hospital. In addition to saving lives for the severely injured the ER is also a defacto outpatient clinic for the urban poor. That equates to endless and unavoidable long waits in a national health care system struggling to cope and provide care for all.
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Swedish Film Force Majeure (Turist)
Award Nominations for Best Foreign Film
By: - Dec 11th, 2014The upper middle class Swedish couple, Emma and Tomas, have taken their kids Vera and Harry on an expensive, five day ski vacation in the French Alps. The complacency of this seemingly perfect, bourgeois family shatters in a tragic moment when a "controlled" avalanche is anything but. They respond instinctively but differently to that life threatening event. The film by Reuben Ostlund profoundly records the seismic emotional aftershocks of the life threatening incident. The film has been monimated for a Golden Globe award and is a likely candidate for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
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The Theory of Everything
Biopic of the Amazing Stephen Hawking
By: - Dec 10th, 2014Screenwriter Anthony McCarten and director James Marsh, of the romantic drama “The Theory of Everythingâ€, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, as Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane Wlde Hawking, have fashioned, with great skill, a movie about Britain’s famous living physicist.
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Mockingjay at Best a Holiday Turkey
Jennifer Dear How Could You
By: - Nov 26th, 2014In the first two Hunger Games films we fell deeply, madly in love with Jennifer Lawrence as the archer and woman warrior Katness Everdeen. The two hour third film Mockingjay Part One is little more than a boring rip off and setup for the hopefully better final film in the series a year from now.
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‘Birdman’ is Almost Wholly Original
Hollywood Celebrity Struggles on Broadway
By: - Nov 22nd, 2014Michael Keaton is the celebrity star of a series of comic book films as the super hero Birdman. At mid career he hopes to prove himself as a director and thespian on Broadway. In what seems like doomed ambition he risks enerything. The bitchy Times critic during a bar confrontation reveals plans to write a brutal review intended to close down the show. She has a thing, truly justified, about Hollywood taking over Broadway. Keaton and supporting actor, Ed Norton, give potentially Oscar nominated performances.
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Intersteallar by Christopher Nolan
Farout Film Stars Matthew McConaughey
By: - Nov 14th, 2014While "Interstellar" is profoundly beautiful, it is lacking in some fundamental elements of story and dialogue. What is most worrisome about the film is how the dialogue almost reaches a point of realism but falls into platitudes entailing unremarkable but easily understandable sentences.
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Three Current Films
Gone Girl, St. Vincent and CitizenFour
By: - Nov 14th, 2014In today’s world of $100 and $200 million dollar budgets, filmmakers only get one or maybe two shots at it. Thus, the “safe†and less risky films are what’s being produced and screened. It’s a “Hobson’s Choice†dilemma.
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Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy
Creepy Performance Jake Gyllenhaal
By: - Nov 12th, 2014During an evening of suspense Tony Gilroy showed a clip from Nightcrawler. It was a film wrtten and directed by his brother Dan. It was fun to see how that scene developed in the arc of a grim but fascinating film.
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Like Sunday, Like Rain by Frank Whaley
Breakout at Williamstown Film Festival
By: - Nov 10th, 2014Actor/ writer/ director Frank Whaley took seven years to develop Like Sunday, Like Rain. Screened on Sunday morning at the annual Williamstown Film Festival it proved to be the diamond in the rough, small and gleaming gem that scored big time with an appreciative audience. In this case the best film of the festival was saved for last.
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Lilli Taylor and Nick Flynn
Lunch Chat at Williams Inn
By: - Nov 10th, 2014During the recent Williamstown Film Festival Diane Pearlman and Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative hosted a lunch at the Williams Inn. It featured independent film star, Lilli Taylor, and her husband, Nick Flynn, a poet, essayist and author of three books of memoirs. Williams College professor, Jim Shepard, led the dialogue.
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Tony Gilroy Master of Suspense
Bourne Creator at Mass Moca/ WFF
By: - Nov 08th, 2014In a two hour presentation of clips from Bourne, his and other classic suspense films, Tony Gilroy presented a master’s class on state of the art filmmaking for an enthralled audience at the Hunter Center of Mass MoCA. The event which was hosted by artistic director, Steve Lawson, with the artist Stephen Hannock, an Oscar winner, as discussant, was a highlight of the 16th annual Williamstown Film Festival.
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Kings of the New City
WFF World Premiere Wins Reeve Award
By: - Nov 07th, 2014While an undergraduate at Williams College Nick Pugliese majored in philosophy and political science. He was also on the soccer team. During the Williamstown Film Festival he and Noah Schechter screened the twenty minute film King of the New City which was shot during some 18 months of living and playing soccer in Afghanistan. It's a corker. The film won the annual Christopher and Dana Reeve Award for best short film. The last two winners went on to win Oscars.
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Match with Patrick Stewart
Stephen Belber Film at WFF
By: - Nov 07th, 2014In transferring his 2005 Tony nominated play Match to screen Stephen Belber has created a dense, tight, indeed, claustraphobic film. Initially there are long shots but in the equivalence of the second act, a turning point in the drama, the camera zooms in on the iconic face of the magnificent Sir Patrick Stewart launching into a new dimension of one of his finest performances.
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Williamstown Film Festival 2014
Project Screenplay
By: - Nov 06th, 2014The 16th annual Williamstown Film Festival was launched with a hilarious contest last night and runs through this sindey afternoon. The festival is special for both its local, grass roots feeling as well as a lively mix of Indy and big time Hollywood productions and stars.
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The Winding Stream at Berkshire Int'l Film Festival
Documentary Follows the Course of Country Music from its Roots
By: - Jun 09th, 2014Beth Harrington’s film follows the rich musical legacy of seminal country trio The Carter Family, themselves influenced by white and black string music, as passed down to their daughters, to son-in-law Johnny Cash and to his offspring, while inspiring many other musicians. Ten years in the making, the film itself is an historical treasure.
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9th Annual Berkshire International Film Festival
May 29 – June 1 in Great Barrington and Pittsfield
By: - Apr 27th, 2014The Berkshire International Film Festival will showcase 75 of the latest in independent feature, documentary, short and family films from some 18 countries. The festival, which takes place from May 29 – June 1, 2014 in Great Barrington and May 31 – June 1st in Pittsfield, MA, will bring films, filmmakers, industry professionals and film fans together for a four-day festival celebrating independent film featuring 29 documentaries, 28 narrative features and 16 short films. Some of the countries represented this year are Jordan, Afghanistan, Philippines, India, Chile, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Morocco, Iceland, Israel and France, and a record 41 filmmakers will be in attendance with their films.
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BIFF Presents A Place at the Table
Thursday, March 13 at Monument High School
By: - Mar 09th, 2014THE BIFF is proud to partner with Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS) to present a very special community screening of the award-winning documentary A PLACE AT THE TABLE, narrated by Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges and directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush. The BIFF and MMRHS will present a FREE community dinner followed by the screening and panel discussion on Thursday, March 13 at Monument High School.
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24th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Shoes Written and Directed by Ukrainian-born Costa Fam
By: - Feb 20th, 2014The story of the film “Shoes†is cleverly told without dialogue or seeing the faces of the actors. This unique film approach immediately engages the viewer; drawing them deeper into the story that director Costa Fam wants to tell. “Shoes†is a powerful, yet tenderly crafted movie, that traces a pair of red shoes from their purchase by a young woman just beginning to enjoy the pleasures and dreams that life has to offer.
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It Happened in Saint-Tropez
French Film Directed by Daniele Thompson
By: - Feb 20th, 2014“It Happened in Saint-Tropez†is gorgeously photographed by Jean-Marc Fabre along with a stunning production design by Michele Abbe-Vannier. The film is easy on the eyes, and is well acted. It’s a light, frothy, tasty French pastry of a movie that produces chuckles and laughs all the while being entertaining in the process. And there isn’t a calorie in sight. Enjoy!
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Neil Diamond: Solitary Man
Film by BBC-TV Production Team
By: - Feb 20th, 2014“Neil Diamond: Solitary Man†chronicles Diamond’s early years growing up in Brooklyn and his initiation into the world of songwriters working in the famous Brill Building, in New York City in the fifties. He wrote songs for others, but always harbored a desire to become a performer of his own songs.
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The 64th Berlinale Set New Records
Film Festival reigned February 6-16
By: - Feb 19th, 2014The 64th Berlinale just closed after eleven days, while 400 films from around the world were viewed by 330.000 Berliners and international visitors. The talk of the city while it lasted!
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The Monuments Men
WWII Saga That Saved Western Cultural Icons
By: - Feb 07th, 2014The Monuments Men is a American-German war film based on the book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel. The film follows the story of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, an Allied group, tasked with saving pieces of art and other culturally important items before their destruction by Hitler during World War II. It focuses on a squad comprised of seven museum directors, curators, and art historians who with limited resources enter Germany with the Allied forces during the closing stages of World War II to rescue artworks plundered by the Nazis. It is a terrific story.
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Cambodia's Animated The Missing Picture
2014 Oscar Nominee
By: - Jan 18th, 2014Cambodia’s 2014 Official Submission for the Academy Awards is “The Missing Pictureâ€, by native Cambodian director and narrator Rithy Panh. In this deeply personal film Panh laments the genocide of almost two million Cambodians carried out by the infamous Pol Pot regime under the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s.
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Oscar Race 2014
Overall a Very Good Year
By: - Jan 17th, 2014The front runners with most nominations this year are for American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street and Twelve Years a Slave. With a divided pack there is bound to be diversity when the awards are handed out on Oscar night. We have an overview of what proved to a year of numerous fine films and performances.
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Denmark's The Hunt Stars Mads Mikkelsen
2014 Oscar Nominee for Best Foreign Film
By: - Jan 16th, 2014The child Klara confuses a glimpse of her older brother's porn film, and anger over seeming rejection by her teacher Lucas, twisted into a false accusation. In this Oscar nominated Danish film we see the life and career of Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) utterly destroyed by a witch hunt in a village. There are stunning parallels to the sensational Fells Acres daycare center case in Massachusetts that sent members of its Amirault family to jail.
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