5/8/17

Paris Can Wait: A Conversation With Diane Lane And Eleanor Coppola

DIRECTOR ELEANOR COPPOLA: PARIS CAN WAIT

*STEVE COOGAN TALKS THE DINNER
*PARIS CAN WAIT: A CONVERSATION WITH DIANE LANE AND ELEANOR COPPOLA

*STEVE COOGAN TALKS THE DINNER
*PARIS CAN WAIT: A CONVERSATION WITH DIANE LANE AND ELEANOR COPPOLA

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Two new films mix cuisine and socio-cultural conflicted conversation:

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

** "I personally find it delightful to partake in an offering of a movie that is without aliens, robots, explosions, train wrecks, dire disease and plagues, or invasions from other planets."

That's Diane Lane, talking about her starring role along with Alec Baldwin as her emotionally self-absorbed spouse, in Paris Can Wait. Lane and the writer/director Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis Ford Coppola, met with Arts Express to discuss how they explore through this film together in front of and behind the camera as women, the journey beyond what is much more than a road movie and the predominant male perspective, filter, lens and narratives dominating cinema.

** "No man is an island, and we have to engage with things around us and speak our minds - and even though that means sometimes I'm going to invite a little derision and some negativity from certain quarters - but I'm okay with that."

Steve Coogan phones in to Arts Express from London to talk about his role opposite Richard Gere in The Dinner. And a film as much a mirror reflecting back critically on the audience as it is a movie, in how the drama challenges viewers regarding impulses that can compromise enlightened idealistic values versus self-serving behavior - whether tribal, familial or both - that dehumanizes and destroys those labeled as the "Other." And by extension, that could be referring to director Oren Moverman's native Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians, or the US inflicting horror on the people of any number of countries - all in the context of a ridiculously ostentatious and pretentious designer dinner.
A feature of the Tribeca Film Festival

** Tribeca Focus: The Foster File: A Kurt Vonnegut page to screen allegorical tale of Wall Street money versus musical obsession. Spotlighting humble grocery clerk Herbert Foster 'who never owned more than one pair of shoes at a time' - and his mysterious alternate persona Mr. Firehouse Harris, three nights out of seven.

Arts Express: Airing on the WBAI/Pacifica National Radio Network and Affiliate Stations

4/30/17

Director Matt Tyrnauer Discusses Citizen Jane: Battle For The City

By Liza Bear

New York, April 21 2017--Matt Tyrnauer, director, speaks on the making of CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY which opens tonight at the IFC. Now that I've seen it: don't miss! New Yorkers owe a lot to Jane--sharp, observant, resourceful, determined. An inspiration for activists and would-be activists, this visually arresting (not only lots of demolition, but priceless scenes of women with prams protesting) is well-argued, tough and still timely.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH MATT TYRNAUER HERE

The film examines closely the tactics employed in the 60s by feminist writer/activist Jane Jacobs--dismissed by the male urban planners as "a housewife"-- to defeat several ill-conceived plans by inhumane czar Robert Moses to destroy downtown New York neighborhood life--notably by extending Fifth Avenue through Washington Square and to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway through SoHo.

It also presents a comprehensive view of the history of sterile and brutish post war urban planning tracing it back to a misappropriation of Le Corbusier designs for office buildings and transferring them to housing projects --the tower in a park--for low-income people. Filmed by Liza Béar

Note: CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY premiered at the Tribeca International Film Festival in 2016 it was also shown at Hot Docs.

Liza Bear produces Nothingofficial on Youtube. She also writes for Bomb Magazine. Liza is a member of The Women Film Critics Circle.

1/1/17

Courage In Filmmaking: Bolivian Actress Turned Filmmaker Carla Ortiz Championing Peace As Doc Director In Syria

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Actress Carla Ortiz returns from Syria, pleads on CNN and Fox to end war and intervention

New Cold War.org, Dec 23, 2016

Carla Ortiz in Syria after witnessing civilian massacres by ISIS (photo on Twitter)

Bolivian-born actress Carla Ortiz recently visited Syria for ten days on a humanitarian mission. She was in Aleppo in the closing days of the defeat of the Western-backed regime-change paramilitary forces in mid-December 2016. It was her fourth visit to the country this year. She is preparing a documentary film on her visits.

Upon her return to the United States, she spoke to CNN and Fox television outlets. She pleaded for the world to welcome the restoration of Syrian government rule to the city of Aleppo and for a comprehensive peace for the country.

Watch the six-minute CNN interview here or by clicking the first screen below. Watch her six-minute interview on FOX 11 (Los Angeles) here or by clicking the second screen below.

WATCH CARLA ORTIZ VIDEOS HERE

Report by Carla Ortiz on her Facebook page on Dec 15: (with video)

This is only for the people that want to know the truth about #Aleppo.

1. These are real images of civilians that have been evacuated. I believe the number is over 95k.

2. The people that evacuated this AM in 20 buses with help of the Red Cross were rebels, militants and terrorists that have been moved with their families to Idlib [city and province]. Many of them were wounded, including children. The “Red Cross” confirmed that the evacuation of this almost 5k people was done smoothly and with no open fire of any kind!

3. The civilians that are crossing to the safer side claim that the rebels deprive them of food, water and medicine. They also said that many would be shot by these rebels for just trying to cross to the west side of Aleppo.

4. They have reported that schools were closed and children were deprived of education.

5. When you ask about the “White Helmets” they [the people of eastern Aleppo] don’t know who they are…. and then they say, ‘Oh, Al Nusra front’ (a terrorist group).

6. Many of these people don’t sympathize with any political party or political philosophy; they are just happy that they made it alive!

7. Every single person we ever talked to has lost a family member in these last 6 years.

8. There is not one civilian that supports the War.

9. They say that they had no access to electricity nor to internet! ( only very few with access with their 3G)

10. The people of Syria want this war to end!!! Maybe we could listen to their voice for once and stop this madness!

12/18/16

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2016

The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its 2O16 awards for the best movies this year by and about women, and outstanding achievements by women, who get to be rarely honored historically, in the film world.

The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of 80 women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media. They came together in 2004 to form the first women critics’ organization in the United States, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully. WFCC also prides itself on being the most culturally and racially diverse critics group in the country by far, and best reflecting the diversity of movie audiences.

Critical Women On Film, a presentation of The Women Film Critics Circle, is their journal of discussion and theory. And a gathering of women’s voices expressing a fresh and differently experienced perspective from the primarily male dominated film criticism world.

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Hidden Figures

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
13TH

AVA DUVERNAY, DIRECTOR OF 13TH

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
13TH, Ava DuVernay

BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman, Jackie

BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge Of Seventeen

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
The Handmaiden

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
13TH

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Hidden Figures

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Neighbors 2

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Loving

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Dirty Grandpa

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE
Hidden Figures

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Ava DuVernay, 13TH

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Rebecca Hall, Christine

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
American Honey

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
Hidden Figures

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Hidden Figures

*THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD: [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
The women of Hidden Figures

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Loving

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO
The women of Ghostbusters

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Anne Sutton, Nocturnal Animals

BEST LINE IN A MOVIE:
"I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us." - Jackie

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD:

Emma Watson: UN Goodwill Ambassador, tells the UN General Assembly that universities need to be a safe space against campus sexual and racial assault, for women and people of color.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Annette Bening: For taking on roles that go against the grain of conventional female 'objective' beauty.

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Loving

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Moana

BEST FAMILY FILM
Queen Of Katwe

WFCC Hall Of Shame
Women Dating Their Rapists In Movies:
Elle

**ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: Adrienne Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of forty by a construction worker in the building, after she complained about noise. Her killer tried to cover up his crime by hanging her from a shower rack in her bathroom, to make it look like a suicide. He later confessed that he was having a “bad day.” Shelly, who left behind a baby daughter, had just completed her film Waitress, which she also starred in, and which was honored at Sundance after her death.

**JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and marriage at age fifteen, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer, starring in the films Princess Tam Tam, Moulin Rouge and Zou Zou. She also survived the race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois as a child, and later expatriated to France to escape US racism. After participating heroically in the underground French Resistance during WWII, Baker returned to the US where she was a crusader for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks against her by reporter Walter Winchell who denounced her as a communist, leading her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless integration was implemented.

**KAREN MORLEY AWARD: Karen Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, in such films as Mata Hari and Our Daily Bread. She was driven out of Hollywood for her leftist political convictions by the Blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. And also for daring to have a child and become a mother, unacceptable for female stars in those days. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

CONTACT: Criticalwomen@gmail.com

12/15/16

The Women Film Critics Circle Nomination Award Picks For 2016

Hidden Figures and Loving Sweep The Nominations

The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its 2O16 nominations for the best movies this year by and about women, and outstanding achievements by women, who get to be rarely honored historically, in the film world.

The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of 80 women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media. They came together in 2004 to form the first women critics’ organization in the United States, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully. WFCC also prides itself on being the most culturally and racially diverse critics group in the country by far, and best reflecting the diversity of movie audiences.

Critical Women On Film, a presentation of The Women Film Critics Circle, is their journal of discussion and theory. And a gathering of women’s voices expressing a fresh and differently experienced perspective from the primarily male dominated film criticism world.

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO NOMINEE: The Women Of Free State Of Jones

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Certain Women
Christine
Hidden Figures
20th Century Women

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Certain Women
Queen Of Katwe
The Dressmaker
13TH

AVA DUVERNAY, DIRECTOR OF 13TH

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Equity, Amy Fox
Maggie's Plan, Rebecca Miller
13TH, Ava Duvernay

BEST ACTRESS
Rebecca Hall, Christine
Taraji P. Henson, Hidden Figures
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie

REBECCA HALL IS CHRISTINE

BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Joel Edgerton, Loving
Matthew McConaughey, Free State Of Jones
Christopher Plummer, Remember

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Sasha Lane, American Honey
Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Madina Nalwanga, Queen Of Katwe
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge Of Seventeen

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Judy Davis, The Dressmaker
Sally Field, Hello My Name is Doris
Greta Gerwig, Maggie's Plan
Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Julieta
The Handmaiden
Things To Come
Toni Erdmann

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Audrie & Daisy
Miss Sarah Jones
The Eagle Huntress
13TH

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Certain Women
Hidden Figures
Loving
Queen Of Katwe

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Elle
Neighbors 2
Nocturnal Animals [The obese naked women dancing]
Zoolander 2

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Free State Of Jones
Loving
Paterson
Snowden

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Dirty Grandpa
Frank & Lola
Weiner
Zoolander 2

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE
Ghostbusters
Hidden Figures
The Dressmaker
20th Century Women

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Ava Duvernay, 13TH
Janet Grillo, Jack Of The Red Hearts
Meera Menon, Equity
Kelly Reichardt, Certain Women

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Rebecca Hall, Christine
Zoe Saldana, Nina

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against womenAmerican Honey
Audrie & Daisy
Colonia
The Uncondemned

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
Hidden Figures
Loving
Moonlight
Nina

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Christine
Hidden Figures
Loving
Things To Come

*THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD: [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Rebecca Hall, Christine
The women of Hidden Figures
Theresa Saldana, Nina

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Allied
Loving
Paterson
Snowden

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO
Emma Watson, Colonia
The women of Free State Of Jones
The women of Ghostbusters
Wonder Woman: Gal Gadot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Mila Kunis, Bad Moms
Laura Linney, Nocturnal Animals
Emma Thompson, Barney Thomson
Renée Zellweger, The Whole Truth

BEST LINE IN A MOVIE:
"I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us." - Jackie

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD:

SHAILENE WOODLEY MUGSHOT: STANDING WITH THE WATER PROTECTORS OF STANDING ROCK

Geena Davis: She has put in many decades of political service to feminist causes and has never held back even when speaking out could potentially harm her career. Her screen roles reinforce her beliefs. The Geena Davis Institute does research and advocacy.

Jane Fonda: For a lifetime of activism both on screen and off.

Emma Watson: UN Goodwill Ambassador, tells the UN General Assembly that universities need to be a safe space against campus sexual and racial assault, for women and people of color.

Shailene Woodley: For standing with the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and jailed for her activism there.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Julie Andrews
Annette Bening
Martha Coolidge
Viola Davis

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Allied
Hidden Figures
Loving
Paterson

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Finding Dory
Moana
The BFG
Your Name

BEST FAMILY FILM
Hidden Figures
Kubo
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Queen Of Katwe

WFCC Hall Of Shame
Women Dating Their Rapists In Movies:
Elle
Frank & Lola
Sunset Song

CONTACT: Criticalwomen@gmail.com