IFF PANAMÁ 2013—BLANCANIEVES (2012)

My air itinerary from San Francisco to Panama City is such that I will be arriving too late for the International Film Festival Panamá (IFF Panamá) opening night gala screening of Pablo Berger's Blancanieves (2012) at the Teatro Nacional in the historic Casco Viejo, which would have upset me had I not caught Berger's innovative take on the Grimm Brothers fairy tale "Snow White" earlier this year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), where it likewise served as the opening night gala and won that festival's inaugural Cine Latino Award. Since January, however, Blancanieves h

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IFF PANAMÁ 2013—STORIES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA

Whereas the regional cinema of Idaho earnestly sought a national stage at the 2013 Sun Valley Film Festival, the upcoming International Film Festival Panamá (IFF Panamá) inverts the strategy and bolsters the somewhat neglected national cinemas of Central America through a regional sidebar that stretches from Guatemala to Panama, providing strength in solidarity by way of a select sextet of films. Thus, "regionality" in and of itself becomes a flexible term to be understood appropriate to scale and purpose; which, remains at heart, the desire for films to reach their audience.Among IFF Panamá

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IFF PANAMÁ 2013: THE RAMP-UP

Pituka Ortega Heilbron, director of the International Film Festival of Panamá (IFF Panamá), has announced the line-up for IFF Panamá's sophomore edition, to be held April 11-17, 2013. IFF Panamá will include more than 60 films from all over the world that have been exhibited and / or awarded at such prestigious film festivals as Cannes, Toronto, Sundance and San Sebastián. Several of the directors of these films will be present to show their movie in person and to participate in follow-up question and answer sessions with their audience to encourage dialogue and understanding between cultur

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FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (2011): Nostalgia For the Future—By Frako Loden

©2011 Chizuru Takahashi - Tetsuro Sayama - GNDHDDT"For those (like me) weary of CGI fantasy and 3D effects, the latest animated film from Ghibli Studios is a fresh sea breeze scented with flowers. From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), Gorō Miyazaki's second film after his 2006 Tales From Earthsea, was written by his father Hayao Miyazaki, who adapted the story from the 1980 serialized shōjo manga Kokurikozaka Kara (From Coquelicot Hill) by Takahashi Chizuru and Sayama Tetsuro. I haven't had a chance to check out this manga, so I can't compare it to the film’s remarkable and loving attention to peri

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SVFF 2013 / TREEFORT MUSIC FEST 2013: CINEMA DISRUPTION (ONLINE, IN CINEMA & BACK AGAIN)—The Evening Class Interview With A.J. Eaton, Daniel Ahearn and the Creative Team Behind the Road to Treefort Web Series

"Interesting distributing something like this with the internet and then not really knowing much beyond that."—Zach Voss, Retroscope Media.My focus at this year's edition of the Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) was both regional filmmaking—as monitored primarily through Idaho-produced short films and music videos—but also the multiple national and international platforms that have become increasingly available to exhibit short form work and, thereby, obviate regional restrictions. The interstitial tension between film production and film exhibition seems nowhere more apparent than in the oppo

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SVFF 2013—STUCK (2013)

It's easy to see why Stuart Acher's Stuck (2013) [Official site / Facebook] won Audience Award at the recent Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF). This vehicular narrative—which, in mood, is 180° away from SVFF's "other" stuck-in-a-car film Craters of the Moon—froths up its meet cute into a satisfying love story with a warm upbeat ending. It's an entertaining and honest romance from start to finish. Credit lies in the pacing, of course. Brisk tight editing with revelatory flashbacks inch us episodically forward through a drunken one-night stand and its comic aftermath. Two early morning stran

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SVFF 2013: WORKS IN PROGRESS—The Evening Class Interview With Dave Jones

Photo courtesy of Sun Valley Film FestivalA brave—if challenging—new programming initiative at the 2013 Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) were the three works-in-progress featured in a separate sidebar: Wind Walkers, The Unkindness of Ravens (both steered by Russell Friedenberg) and Children (directed by Jaffe Zinn, last year's Gem Award winner for Magic Valley). As George Prentice wrote in his piece for the Boise Weekly: "It's a film fan's dream and a reporter's nightmare. While buffs are getting a sneak peek at films before they are 'locked' and ready for distribution, it's an agreed-upon p

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SVFF 2013: SPONSOR REEL—The Evening Class Interview With Zach Voss

SVFF Sponsor Reel from Zach Voss on Vimeo.Isn't that just about one of the most beautiful bumper reels you've ever seen? All throughout the Sun Valley Film Festival (SVFF) weekend, I kept asking, "Who made that?" Then, during a casual conversation with Zach Voss in the Halliman Hospitality Suite, I found out he did. But of course! Zach Voss has rapidly become the charismatic young face of independent film production in Idaho. When I mentioned to him that there were those intent upon usurping his throne, he grinned, "Bring it on!" Zach agreed to sit down with me to discuss how he produc

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