Amreeka Trailer
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Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home. Amreeka recalls Dabis’s family’s memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War. The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi. Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler. Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin. Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers. Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Amreeka …
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1996, 10 minutes A 12 year-old Olympic swimmer and her mother (both played by July) speak to the public about “going for the gold”. Videoed by Miranda July, Wu La Dawson, and Summer Mastous Edited by Miranda July Miranda July makes movies, performances, recordings and combinations of these things. July’s first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know premiered in January 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received a special jury prize for originality of vision. It debuted internationally at the Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded with four prizes, including the Camera d’Or. It was released theatrically in July of 2005. July’s videos ( Haysha Royko, The Amateurist, Nest of Tens, Getting Stronger Every Day ) have been screened internationally at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. July participated in the 2004 Whitney Biennial with learningtoloveyoumore.com. July’s multi-media performances ( Love Diamond, The Swan Tool, How I Learned to Draw ) have been presented at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and The Kitchen in New York. July’s stories can be read in The Paris Review, The Harvard Review and Zoetrope All Story.
SPIKE JONZES ROBOT LOVE STORY A CREATIVE COLLABORATION WITH ABSOLUT VODKA ABSOLUT and Spike Jonze Premiere I?m Here at Sundance Film Festival Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze premieres his latest work Im Here, a 30-minute short film today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the first-ever Opening Nights Shorts Program at the festival. The film is a collaboration with ABSOLUT VODKA, and the partnership acknowledges the brands position as a pioneering and culture-shaping brand. ABSOLUT has always stood out in the marketplace as a groundbreaking company that has been supporting artists for decades. Previous collaborations include those with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Helmut Newton. Im Here honors the brands history while embarking on a new and innovative alliance with one of todays most original filmmakers. The film came about when ABSOLUT reached out to Jonze to make a film, and gave him creative control to create the film he wanted. It was a pretty incredible opportunity, says Jonze. They (ABSOLUT) didnt give me any requirements to make a movie that had anything to do with vodka. They just wanted me to make something that was important to me, and let my imagination take me wherever I wanted. And it wasnt like working with some huge corporation where I had to meet with committees of people. It was just a small group, and it seemed like creativity and making something that affected them emotionally was the only thing that really mattered to them. I got to make my …
SPIKE JONZES ROBOT LOVE STORY A CREATIVE COLLABORATION WITH ABSOLUT VODKA ABSOLUT and Spike Jonze Premiere I?m Here at Sundance Film Festival Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze premieres his latest work Im Here, a 30-minute short film today at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the first-ever Opening Nights Shorts Program at the festival. The film is a collaboration with ABSOLUT VODKA, and the partnership acknowledges the brands position as a pioneering and culture-shaping brand. ABSOLUT has always stood out in the marketplace as a groundbreaking company that has been supporting artists for decades. Previous collaborations include those with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Helmut Newton. Im Here honors the brands history while embarking on a new and innovative alliance with one of todays most original filmmakers. The film came about when ABSOLUT reached out to Jonze to make a film, and gave him creative control to create the film he wanted. It was a pretty incredible opportunity, says Jonze. They (ABSOLUT) didnt give me any requirements to make a movie that had anything to do with vodka. They just wanted me to make something that was important to me, and let my imagination take me wherever I wanted. And it wasnt like working with some huge corporation where I had to meet with committees of people. It was just a small group, and it seemed like creativity and making something that affected them emotionally was the only thing that really mattered to them. I got to make my …
Management of the Festival was taken over by the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization, in 1985. In 1991 the Festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford’s character The Sundance from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Many famous independent filmmakers, including Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, James Wan, Edward Burns and Jim Jarmusch had their big break at Sundance. “Dialogue en perspective”, sponsored by the French television channel tv5monde in cooperation with the German-French Youth Office, Filmbay was awarded for the first time. The prize jury has eight members: it is headed by a president, a professional whose work represents the cinematographic dialogue between France and Germany, and further consists of Filmbay.com four French and three German members.