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EXCLUSIVE: The Lighthouse International Film Festival has announced nan documentary lineup for its upcoming 18th edition, a slate boasting immoderate of nan astir talked astir nonfiction films of nan year.
The cinematic arena moving June 10-14 connected Long Beach Island, NJ will characteristic My NDA, directed by Juliane Dressner and Miriam Shor, which precocious premiered astatine SXSW. “Bound by non-disclosure agreements that forbid them from moreover acknowledging they signed one,” notes a description, “three individuals consequence everything by breaking their soundlessness to expose really NDAs person been weaponized to conceal rape, group discrimination, firm crimes, and different unlawful activity – reclaiming their voices from nan institutions that tried to hide them.”
My NDA is screening successful Documentary Competition, arsenic is Public Access, nan characteristic directed by David Shadrack Smith that bowed astatine Sundance. “Before nan net and societal media, Public Access tv gave mean group thing radical: their ain channel,” sounds a synopsis. “Public Access explores New York City’s extremist research successful unfastened media, drafting connected uncommon archival footage and firsthand accounts that floor plan really Public Access TV became a abstraction for marginalized voices and fierce nationalist debate. The consequence was chaotic, raw, and ephemeral.”
Seized, directed by Sharon Liese, besides is group for Documentary Competition. The Sundance premiere examines a shocking incident successful Kansas wherever constabulary raided nan Marion County Record, a mini municipality newspaper. “The movie unfolds successful existent clip done constabulary body-cam and surveillance footage, revealing nan raid’s chaos, nan bombshells that followed, and nan devastating individual toll connected nan newsroom, including nan tragic decease of its 98-year-old co-owner.”
The festival’s Special Screenings conception features 2 world premieres, including Our Colors Never Fade, directed by Jim McSherry.
“Amid Russia’s penetration of Ukraine,” notes nan film’s description, “Our Colors Never Fade follows LGBTQIA+ civilians who time off down their mundane lives to take sides their country. Told done intimate, gradually unfolding portraits, nan movie resists easy labels, revealing its characters first arsenic people, past arsenic soldiers, and yet arsenic individuals navigating identity, duty, and endurance nether bonzer circumstances. With a restrained observational style and a soundscape shaped by nan rhythms of regular life successful a warfare zone, nan movie invites audiences crossed perspectives into a profoundly quality story.”
RELATED: ‘Our Colors Never Fade’ To Document Wartime Experience Of Ukrainian LGBTQ Soldiers And Civilians
Also slated for nan Special Screenings conception is nan world premiere of Celluloid W-W-Wars, a profoundly individual communicative from head Allan Holzman.
“Molested by his uncle nan nighttime his relative was born, Allan was incapable to speak,” sounds nan description. “His mother declared that he was truthful overwhelmed pinch joyousness that he didn’t cognize what to say, truthful his vocal cords became paralyzed for 2 weeks, and erstwhile he started speaking again, he stuttered. His deficiency of fluency successful connection done reside began pinch a profession way successful math, past acting (you don’t stutter erstwhile you act), and arsenic nan schoolhouse projectionsist successful college, discovering fluency done movie editing.”
The explanation continues, “From nan first clip he asked debased fund kingpin Roger Corman to nonstop and said, ‘Roger, tin I d-d-d…,’ to winning a Peabody and 2 Emmys, Allan’s fearless penchant for taking risks led to an endless and an often unintended humorous array of twists and turns, while trying to make it arsenic a stuttering head successful Hollywood.”
Holzman is besides scheduled to lead a masterclass astir nan low-budget genre cinema of nan chaotic movie manufacture successful nan 80s. He is serving arsenic a juror for nan Documentary Competition, on pinch filmmaker Rachel Mason, and Lisa Hoen, head of nan Tromso International Film Festival successful Norway.
Mason’s caller documentary, My Brother’s Killer, will surface successful Lighthouse’s Spotlight Section. Description: “In 1990, nan severed caput of Bill Newton, besides known arsenic Billy London, a cheery big movie performer, was discovered successful a dumpster successful West Hollywood. After 3 decades, this documentary ignited an investigation which yet led to a solution to nan murder. The answers to this gruesome crime shed caller ray connected 1 of nan astir convulsive chapters successful cheery history.”
(Mason and Holzman’s films are not screening successful competition, truthful they won’t beryllium presiding arsenic jurors complete their ain documentaries).
Among different films programmed successful Special Screenings is Clay Tweel’s Andy Kaufman Is Me, a movie astir nan famed comedian. “Through individual audio diaries and puppet animations, an friendly image emerges of nan analyzable comedian Andy Kaufman, while those closest to him uncover nan man down his celebrated performances.”
LIFF has go “renowned for showcasing a divers lineup of independent films,” notes a release, “fostering emerging talent, and creating meaningful connections betwixt filmmakers and audiences.”
Lighthouse programs fabrication and nonfiction films. As antecedently announced, actors Jason Alexander and Tony Shalhoub will beryllium typical guests of nan show and LIFF will showcase a typical revival screening of Big Night, nan 1996 drama starring Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, directed by Tucci and Campbell Scott.
Below are nan documentaries announced for nan Lighthouse International Film Festival:
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
THE ART OF ADVENTURE
Alison Reid / Canada, 99 min
The Art of Adventure is an inspiring and profoundly quality documentary astir nan bonzer lifelong relationship betwixt world renowned wildlife creator Robert Bateman and spirited biologist Bristol Foster. Through their epic 1957 travel astir nan world – equipped pinch a 16mm camera and an artist’s brushwood – nan movie opens a vivid model onto a satellite erstwhile chaotic and unscarred and a enslaved formed though curiosity, courageousness and emotion of nature. At its bosom nan movie weaves together nature, art, and activism, showing really 2 very different men fought to protect nan earthy world: 1 done art, nan different done science. Now successful their 90’s Bob and Bristol present a moving reflection connected legacy, mortality and nan contented of our elders – and a reminder that humanity and quality are inseparable.
East Coast Premiere
THE ASCENT
Edward Drake, Scott Veltri, Francis Cronin / US, 103 min
THE ASCENT tells nan bonzer existent communicative of climber Mandy Horvath, a bilateral amputee attempting to crawl to nan acme of Mt. Kilimanjaro connected her hands and follows an investigation surrounding nan nighttime she tragically mislaid her legs. Years earlier, a nighttime retired pinch friends escalated into tensions astatine a section bar, and soon aft Mandy’s world went black. Her adjacent memory: waking successful an ambulance surrounded by paramedics, some legs gone. What happened betwixt nan barroom and nan infirmary remains a enigma – shattering her spot successful nan world astir her. As Mandy pushes her assemblage to its limits connected Africa’s tallest mountain, she must reckon pinch her past and study to spot again if she is to succeed.
* Premiered astatine SXSW, victor of nan Audience Award.
East Coast Premiere
BLOOD AND GUTS
Carlye Rubin, Katie Green, Tina Grapenthin / US, 80 min
Through vérité footage, family archives, and excerpts from their ain gloriously gory films, Blood & Guts follows nan Adams family arsenic parents John and Toby title to complete 1 last “D.I.Y. ’til you die” scary movie earlier their youngest girl leaves for college. For complete a decade, filmmaking has been nan glue holding this unconventional family together—but now Toby and John must face what it intends to fto go, not conscionable of their kid, but of a measurement of life. A emotion missive to indie scary and 1 tight-knit family who make them, Blood & Guts asks what it takes to support creating erstwhile everything—money, time, nan manufacture itself—seems stacked against you.
A DROP IN THE OCEAN
Holo Wang / Taiwan, 70 min
Competitive freedivers Hua nan and Afa push nan limits of accomplishment and endurance arsenic they hole for nan prestigious Blue Hole Vertical Blue Depth Competition, 1 aiming to break Asia’s deepest dive record, nan different striving to go Taiwan’s apical freediver. This documentary follows their journeys from onshore to nan serene, mysterious bluish depths, capturing their contrasting techniques, personalities, and ambitions. Through exquisite underwater cinematography, nan movie explores nan fluidity of gender and nan quiet unfolding of queer identity, revealing really courage, grace, and self-discovery intertwine beneath nan surface. Each dive becomes some a beingness feat and a meditation connected connection—to nan water, to oneself, and tothe unspoken currents of quality desire.
US Premiere
ICE GRAVE
Robin Hunzinger / France/Finland/Sweden, 59 min
11 July, 1897. Three men group disconnected from Spiztbergen successful a hydrogen balloon towards nan North Pole. They ne'er came back. 33 years later, nan remains of nan expedition, bodies perfectly preserved, arsenic good arsenic notebooks and rolls of film, are discovered. What do these photographs show us?
US Premiere
MY NDA
Juliane Dressner, Miriam Shor / US, 99 min
Bound by non-disclosure agreements that forbid them from moreover acknowledging they signed one, 3 individuals consequence everything by breaking their soundlessness to expose really NDAs person been weaponized to conceal rape, group discrimination, firm crimes, and different unlawful activity – reclaiming their voices from nan institutions that tried to hide them.
* Premiered astatine SXSW
PUBLIC ACCESS
David Shadrack Smith / USA, 106
Before nan net and societal media, Public Access tv gave mean group thing radical: their ain channel. PUBLIC ACCESS explores New York City’s extremist research successful unfastened media, drafting connected uncommon archival footage and firsthand accounts that floor plan really Public Access TV became a abstraction for marginalized voices and fierce nationalist debate. The consequence was chaotic, raw, and ephemeral. Artists, activists, eccentrics, and provocateurs abruptly appeared connected tv screens crossed nan city, creating an unpredictable image of New York itself and a caller shape of content. A mesmerizing rediscovery of a media gyration that tested nan limits of expression, provoked ineligible battles, and revealed enduring tensions betwixt freedom, power, and self-expression.
* Premiered astatine Sundance
SEIZED
Sharon Liese / USA, 94
Seized is simply a gripping, stranger-than-fiction investigative thriller that plunges audiences wrong nan troubling constabulary ambush connected nan Marion County Record. What originates arsenic a shocking small-town incident quickly spirals into a nationalist story, exposing really corruption, politics, and decades-long tensions turned a quaint Kansas organization into a battleground complete nan First and Fourth Amendments. The movie unfolds successful existent clip done constabulary body-cam and surveillance footage, revealing nan raid’s chaos, nan bombshells that followed, and nan devastating individual toll connected nan newsroom, including nan tragic decease of its 98-year-old co-owner. Director Sharon Liese allows nan communicative to unfold pinch nuance, surprises, eccentric characters, and humor. By letting each sound speak for itself, she crafts a uncommon documentary successful which sympathies displacement infinitesimal to moment, revealing really truth, ego, and fearfulness collide successful existent time. Blending nan juicy intrigue of a classical muckraking communicative pinch a clear-eyed exploration of power, politics, and nan fragility of a free press, Seized transforms a headline-grabbing arena into a profoundly quality communicative that is urgent, unsettling, and intolerable to ignore.
* Premiered astatine Sundance
Documentary Competition Jury:
Lisa Hoen, head of nan Tromso International Film Festival (Norway); Allan Holzman, Emmy-winning filmmaker; Rachel Mason, Emmy-nominated filmmaker
HEADLINERS
PHOENIX JONES: THE RISE AND FALL OF A REAL LIFE SUPERHERO
Bayan Joonam / US, 115 min
In 2010, reports began surfacing of a masked vigilante successful a black-and-gold supersuit stopping crime connected nan streets of Seattle. His sanction is Phoenix Jones. Armed pinch capsicum spray, a taser, and a squad of costumed crime fighters, he quickly becomes an world media sensation. But erstwhile his existent personality is exposed by nan Seattle Police, nan heroic image originates to unravel and his squad abandons him. Ten years later, arsenic protesters prehend six blocks of Seattle and state a nary bull zone, Phoenix reemerges amid ineligible problem and nationalist skepticism.
* Premiered astatine SXSW
East Coast Premiere
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
ADMISSION POSSIBLE
Matthew Syrett, Bowie Alexander / US, 93 min
Admission Possible follows high-achieving, first-generation assemblage applicants from a azygous NYC nationalist precocious schoolhouse arsenic they navigate a fiercely competitory admissions process and strive to unafraid futures erstwhile unimaginable for their migrant families. Set against a scenery reshaped by nan pandemic, nan Supreme Court’s rollback of affirmative action, rising assemblage costs, and nan broader challenges facing immigrants successful nan U.S., nan movie captures nan pressure, promise, and affectional stakes of nan assemblage exertion journey. Co-directed by Matthew Syrett (producer of nan Oscar-winning Freeheld, Oscar-nominated Mondays astatine Racine, and Emmy-nominated Grit) pinch Co-Director Bowie Alexander, Admission Possible is an urgent, profoundly quality image of resilience, ambition, and nan conflict for entree and equity successful higher education.
ANDY KAUFMAN IS ME
Clay Tweel / US, 101 min
Through individual audio diaries and puppet animations, an friendly image emerges of nan analyzable comedian Andy Kaufman, while those closest to him uncover nan man down his celebrated performances.
CELLULOID W-W-WARS
Allan Holzman / US, 84
Molested by his uncle nan nighttime his relative was born, Allan was incapable to speak. His mother declared that he was truthful overwhelmed pinch joyousness that he didn’t cognize what to say, truthful his vocal cords became paralyzed for 2 weeks, and erstwhile he started speaking again, he stuttered. His deficiency of fluency successful connection done reside began pinch a profession way successful math, past acting (you don’t stutter erstwhile you act), and arsenic nan schoolhouse projectionsist successful college, discovering fluency done movie editing.
From nan first clip he asked debased fund kingpin Roger Corman to nonstop and said, “Roger, tin I d-d-d….,” to winning a Peabody and 2 Emmys, Allan’s fearless penchant for taking risks led to an endless and an often unintended humorous array of twists and turns, while trying to make it arsenic a stuttering head successful Hollywood.
● Holzman will be nan show arsenic a juror and will lead a masterclass astir nan low-budget genre cinema of nan chaotic movie manufacture successful nan 80s.
World Premiere
OUR COLORS NEVER FADE
Jim McSherry / Germany/Ukraine, 83 mins
Amid Russia’s penetration of Ukraine, Our Colors Never Fade follows LGBTQIA+ civilians who time off down their mundane lives to take sides their country. Told done intimate, gradually unfolding portraits, nan movie resists easy labels, revealing its characters first arsenic people, past arsenic soldiers, and yet arsenic individuals navigating identity, duty, and endurance nether bonzer circumstances. With a restrained observational style and a soundscape shaped by nan rhythms of regular life successful a warfare zone, nan movie invites audiences crossed perspectives into a profoundly quality story.
World Premiere
SPOTLIGHT
MY BROTHER’S KILLER
Rachel Mason / US, 95 min
In 1990, nan severed caput of Bill Newton, besides known arsenic Billy London, a cheery big movie performer, was discovered successful a dumpster successful West Hollywood. After 3 decades, this documentary ignited an investigation which yet led to a solution to nan murder. The answers to this gruesome crime shed caller ray connected 1 of nan astir convulsive chapters successful cheery history.
