2001-2010

IMDB:
Newcastle’ is a coming-of-age/family drama/surfing movie. 17-year old Jesse lives in the shadow of his older brother Victor’s failure to become surfing’s Next Big Thing. Even when he’s in his natural habitat of magnificent surf breaks, his blue-collar future is brought home by the coal barges that constantly line his horizon. Jesse has the natural skills to surf his way out of this reality and onto the international circuit but can he overcome his equally natural ability to sabotage himself? A momentous weekend away with his mates that includes first love and tragedy leads him to discover what’s really important, and also to the performance of a lifetime. Written by Anonymous Read More »

10 to 11 is the story of a passionate collector Mithat and the concierge of the building, Ali. For Mithat Istanbul is as vast as his collections and for Ali is nothing more than a few blocks around the building. When the neighbors decide to have the building rebuilt with the fear of earthquake and the wish for a more valuable house, Mithat’s most challenging struggle to save his collections begins. The building becomes the common destiny of these two men living alone. Their relationship that begins with the collaboration to save the continuity of the collections changes track with Mithat’s handing Istanbul over to Ali and ends when they involuntarily change each other’s fate. (IMDb)Read More »

A war photographer on assignment in Kurdistan is traumatized by the death of his best friend. He is then nursed back to health by his girlfriend’s grandfather, who may or may not be a notorious war criminal from the Spanish Civil War.Read More »

BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette, Published: Monday, January 15 2007 wrote:
In film and life, all roads lead to Montreal.
Filmmaker Noel Mitrani returned to his place of birth and found home; French actor Laurent Lucas – and the character he portrays in Sur la Trace d’Igor Rizzi – followed their hearts

Sur la trace d’Igor Rizzi, the remarkable first feature from Montreal-based filmmaker Noel Mitrani, is a poetic look at a former French soccer star living in self-imposed exile in snow-covered Montreal. So it’s only appropriate that the film, which opens this Friday, is the result of a collaboration between two guys who, like the film’s anti-hero, made the decision to abandon France and come live here in Quebec.Read More »

A young man with a backpack walks all on his own into the endless Mexican cactus desert. He takes some peyote. How does he get out again? Pure cinema in the long-take tradition of Lisandro Alonso or Gus Van Sant.Read More »

Summary from yesasia – “It has been three years since pop auteur Iwai Shunji’s last film Hana and Alice, and his latest offering may seem a bit surprising. In a marked departure from his previous youth-centric works, his new film is a documentary about legendary director Ichikawa Kon, whom Iwai cites as one of his greatest influences. In a momentous career spanning over fifty years, 91-year-old Ichikawa Kon has long established himself as one of the great masters of Japanese cinema. A lifetime his junior, 44-year-old Iwai Shunji has, through acclaimed films like Swallowtail Butterfly and All About Lily Chou-Chou, emerged with a distinct voice and language of his own amongst the current generation of filmmakers.Read More »

A poor Chinese laborer learns important lessons after his son gets a strange new toy.

Plot:
Construction worker Ti (Stephen Chow) lives in a ramshackle shanty and scavenges everything from shoes to toys from the trash dump. Despite his state of abject poverty, the earnest, lesson-spouting Ti is determined to send his son Dicky (Xu Jiao) to a posh private elementary school. Dicky, however, is a lot more interested in playing than studying, and he’d like nothing more than a CJ1 robot dog to show up his bullying classmate. Unable to afford a CJ1, Ti brings home “CJ7”, a curious rubbery green ball he found at the dump. His son isn’t impressed – until the ball shows its true alien form, morphing into a little green dog whose penchant for mischief gives even Dicky a run for his money. Stephen Chow has helped launched the careers of many a starlet, and this time CJ7 co-stars Mainland newcomer Kitty Zhang and talented child actress Xu Jiao who genderbends as Chow’s son. Chow was so impressed with Xu Jiao’s performance, he not only has more plans in store for the budding ingenue, he’s adopted her as his goddaughter. Other key comedy players include portly Stephen Chow regular Lam Chi Chung and the cuddly titular alien that serves as another testament to Chow’s ability to effectively integrate state-of-the-art CGI into his films.Read More »

As the winning artist of the 2008 Film London Jarman Award, Luke Fowler was commissioned to produce four short films for 3 Minute Wonder, Channel 4s shorts strand.

The four films premiered on Channel 4 over four consecutive nights in April 2009. Entitled, Anna, Helen, David and Lester, they are a series of portraits of four diverse individuals brought together through a shared residence – a flat in a Victorian tenement in the West End of Glasgow. Composer: Lee PattersonRead More »

On a summer day, a small Japanese restaurant by the name of Ruokala Lokki (The Seagull Canteen) opens for business in the Punavuori district of Helsinki. The restaurant is run by 38-year-old Sachie who wishes to offer her Finnish patrons not only Japanese food but Japanese-style food for the soul, too. Attracting Finns to the small restaurant run by a lone Japanese woman proves quite difficult, however.

Luckily Sachie gets to know Midori and her restaurant’s only customer, Tommi Hiltunen, with the help of whom she slowly begins to bring in more customers and settle down in her new life. Kamome Shokudo is a charming little tale of people in the middle of a foreign culture. The film is based on a novel by popular Japanese writer Yoko Mure. Director Naoko Ogigami received an award at the Berlin International Film Festival for her previous film Barber Yoshino.Read More »