Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.
This Past Weekend:
Yikes. What a terrible weekend we just had, not only for the new movies released but also for the Weekend Warrior’s predictions. Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks’ Sully won its second weekend in a row with just under $22 million, but as far as the new movies, neither Lionsgate’s Blair Witch nor Universal’s Bridget Jones’s Baby did very well, putting the last nail in the coffin (hopefully) for sequels/remakes trying to play upon nostalgia that just isn’t there. (Good luck to the Rings movie opening next month!) Blair Witch ended up with $9.6 million to take second place and both Bridget Jones’s Baby and Oliver Stone’s Snowden ended up with around $8 million, so...
This Past Weekend:
Yikes. What a terrible weekend we just had, not only for the new movies released but also for the Weekend Warrior’s predictions. Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks’ Sully won its second weekend in a row with just under $22 million, but as far as the new movies, neither Lionsgate’s Blair Witch nor Universal’s Bridget Jones’s Baby did very well, putting the last nail in the coffin (hopefully) for sequels/remakes trying to play upon nostalgia that just isn’t there. (Good luck to the Rings movie opening next month!) Blair Witch ended up with $9.6 million to take second place and both Bridget Jones’s Baby and Oliver Stone’s Snowden ended up with around $8 million, so...
- 9/21/2016
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Documentary festival announces winners.
Cameraperson, a documentary about the career of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, has won the grand jury award at Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15).
Johnson, who also directs the film, is the Us cinematographer behind Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour and Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War among many others.
The award, supported by Screen International and Broadcast, comes with a cash prize of £2,000 ($2,800).
The jury described the film as “a work that´s both expansive and intimate, formally ambitious and morally humble”.
“Though this filmmaker has travelled the world to tell others stories, her real...
Cameraperson, a documentary about the career of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, has won the grand jury award at Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15).
Johnson, who also directs the film, is the Us cinematographer behind Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour and Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War among many others.
The award, supported by Screen International and Broadcast, comes with a cash prize of £2,000 ($2,800).
The jury described the film as “a work that´s both expansive and intimate, formally ambitious and morally humble”.
“Though this filmmaker has travelled the world to tell others stories, her real...
- 6/14/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Tasters of the films in competition at this week’s Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Click here to see the full competition line-ups.
Opening FilmWhere To Invade Next - Michael Moore Grand JuryJim: The James Foley Story - Brian Oakes Brothers - Wojciech Staron The Settlers - Shimon Dotan Bobby Sands: 66 Days - Brendan J Byrne Presenting Princess Shaw - Ido Haar City 40 - Samira Goetschel Tempestad - Tatiana Huezo The Land of the Enlightened - Pieter-Jan De Pue Notes On Blindness - Peter Middleton, James Spinney Environmental JurySeed: The Untold Story - Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz Kivalina - Gina Abatemarco Freightened - The Real Price of Shipping - Denis Delestrac...
Click here to see the full competition line-ups.
Opening FilmWhere To Invade Next - Michael Moore Grand JuryJim: The James Foley Story - Brian Oakes Brothers - Wojciech Staron The Settlers - Shimon Dotan Bobby Sands: 66 Days - Brendan J Byrne Presenting Princess Shaw - Ido Haar City 40 - Samira Goetschel Tempestad - Tatiana Huezo The Land of the Enlightened - Pieter-Jan De Pue Notes On Blindness - Peter Middleton, James Spinney Environmental JurySeed: The Untold Story - Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz Kivalina - Gina Abatemarco Freightened - The Real Price of Shipping - Denis Delestrac...
- 6/9/2016
- ScreenDaily
Competition titles revealed; retrospectives of Ken Loach and Chantal Akerman; speakers include HBO documentaries president Sheila Nevins and revered filmmaker Da Pennebaker. Scroll down for competition films
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) has unveiled the programme for its 23rd edition, including 160 feature and short documentaries, an alternate realities line-up and a series of on-stage interviews and debates with major filmmakers and industry figures.
As previously announced, Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next will open the festival with the Us documentarian in attendance at Doc/Fest for the first time since 1998.
The UK premiere and Q&A will be live streamed to 114 cinemas across the UK through distributor Dogwoof. It marks the second time Doc/Fest has streamed its opening, following Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets in 2014.
There are a total of 27 world premieres, 15 international, 19 European and 52 UK premieres with documentaries from 49 countries including Mexico, Cuba, China and Peru.
Competition titles...
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) has unveiled the programme for its 23rd edition, including 160 feature and short documentaries, an alternate realities line-up and a series of on-stage interviews and debates with major filmmakers and industry figures.
As previously announced, Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next will open the festival with the Us documentarian in attendance at Doc/Fest for the first time since 1998.
The UK premiere and Q&A will be live streamed to 114 cinemas across the UK through distributor Dogwoof. It marks the second time Doc/Fest has streamed its opening, following Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets in 2014.
There are a total of 27 world premieres, 15 international, 19 European and 52 UK premieres with documentaries from 49 countries including Mexico, Cuba, China and Peru.
Competition titles...
- 5/5/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Competition titles revealed; retrospectives of Ken Loach and Chantal Akerman; speakers include HBO documentaries president Sheila Nevins and legendary filmmaker Da Pennebaker.Scroll down for competition films
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) has unveiled the programme for its 23rd edition, including 160 feature and short documentaries, an alternate realities line-up and a series of on-stage interviews and debates with major filmmakers and industry figures.
As previously announced, Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next will open the festival with the Us documentarian in attendance at Doc/Fest for the first time since 1998.
The UK premiere and Q&A will be live streamed to 114 cinemas across the UK through distributor Dogwoof. It marks the second time Doc/Fest has streamed its opening, following Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets in 2014.
There are a total of 27 world premieres, 15 international, 19 European and 52 UK premieres with documentaries from 49 countries including Mexico, Cuba, China and Peru.
Competition titles...
Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 10-15) has unveiled the programme for its 23rd edition, including 160 feature and short documentaries, an alternate realities line-up and a series of on-stage interviews and debates with major filmmakers and industry figures.
As previously announced, Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next will open the festival with the Us documentarian in attendance at Doc/Fest for the first time since 1998.
The UK premiere and Q&A will be live streamed to 114 cinemas across the UK through distributor Dogwoof. It marks the second time Doc/Fest has streamed its opening, following Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets in 2014.
There are a total of 27 world premieres, 15 international, 19 European and 52 UK premieres with documentaries from 49 countries including Mexico, Cuba, China and Peru.
Competition titles...
- 5/5/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
DVD Release Date: Jan. 10, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
The 2010 documentary film Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? examines the dangerous phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, which revolves around the disappearance of honeybees from their hives, a syndrome that has no clear single explanation.
Directed and produced by Taggart Siegel, the movie looks at the global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers and philosophers, while chronicling the 10,000-year history of beekeeping and how man’s relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices.
Among the experts who appear in Queen of the Sun are biodynamic beekeeper Gunther Hauk, founder of the Spikenard Farm & Honeybee Sanctuary; writer Michael Pollan, author of the 2006 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and Indian activist and physicist Vandan Shiva, who speaks of the development of chemical agriculture and the effects of pesticides and genetically modified food on bees.
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
The 2010 documentary film Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? examines the dangerous phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, which revolves around the disappearance of honeybees from their hives, a syndrome that has no clear single explanation.
Directed and produced by Taggart Siegel, the movie looks at the global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic beekeepers, scientists, farmers and philosophers, while chronicling the 10,000-year history of beekeeping and how man’s relationship with bees has been lost due to highly mechanized industrial practices.
Among the experts who appear in Queen of the Sun are biodynamic beekeeper Gunther Hauk, founder of the Spikenard Farm & Honeybee Sanctuary; writer Michael Pollan, author of the 2006 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and Indian activist and physicist Vandan Shiva, who speaks of the development of chemical agriculture and the effects of pesticides and genetically modified food on bees.
- 11/23/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Title: Queen of the Sun Director: Taggart Siegel The plight of the honeybee may not be first and foremost on the mind of even some of the more dedicated environmentalists out there, but as not one but two recent documentaries have persuasively argued, the tiny winged creatures serve as an early indicator for the continued prospects of much of humankind’s agriculture, and so their rapid disappearance across the United States over the past five years should certainly be cause for concern and action. Vanishing of the Bees, narrated by Oscar nominee Ellen Page, tackled systemic pesticides (the likely culprit, based on similar situations in Europe) in a much more forthright, and slightly...
- 7/2/2011
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
Reviewed by James Scarborough
(June 2011)
Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Featuring: Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, Vandana Shiva, Horst Kornberger, Jeffrey Smith, Raj Patel, Carlo Petrini and May Berenbaum
A documentary of mellifluous beauty and feeling, Taggart Siegel’s “Queen of the Sun” buzzes with what is wrong with man (corporate myopia, widespread pesticide use and a not-so-fine disregard for the interconnectedness of things) through the plight of the world’s honeybees. It’s a lovely production. Scrumptious to look at, informative and a spur to action, it presents commentary (some scientific, some poetic, some semi-apocalyptic) by a cast of wildly different apiarists (beekeepers) linked by one common goal: the reversal of colony collapse disorder, by which bees don’t return to the hive. At stake here is not just the possible unavailability of honey on your morning toast.
You connect with the piece on several levels. First, there’s dismay. At...
(June 2011)
Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Featuring: Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, Vandana Shiva, Horst Kornberger, Jeffrey Smith, Raj Patel, Carlo Petrini and May Berenbaum
A documentary of mellifluous beauty and feeling, Taggart Siegel’s “Queen of the Sun” buzzes with what is wrong with man (corporate myopia, widespread pesticide use and a not-so-fine disregard for the interconnectedness of things) through the plight of the world’s honeybees. It’s a lovely production. Scrumptious to look at, informative and a spur to action, it presents commentary (some scientific, some poetic, some semi-apocalyptic) by a cast of wildly different apiarists (beekeepers) linked by one common goal: the reversal of colony collapse disorder, by which bees don’t return to the hive. At stake here is not just the possible unavailability of honey on your morning toast.
You connect with the piece on several levels. First, there’s dismay. At...
- 6/9/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by James Scarborough
(June 2011)
Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Featuring: Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, Vandana Shiva, Horst Kornberger, Jeffrey Smith, Raj Patel, Carlo Petrini and May Berenbaum
A documentary of mellifluous beauty and feeling, Taggart Siegel’s “Queen of the Sun” buzzes with what is wrong with man (corporate myopia, widespread pesticide use and a not-so-fine disregard for the interconnectedness of things) through the plight of the world’s honeybees. It’s a lovely production. Scrumptious to look at, informative and a spur to action, it presents commentary (some scientific, some poetic, some semi-apocalyptic) by a cast of wildly different apiarists (beekeepers) linked by one common goal: the reversal of colony collapse disorder, by which bees don’t return to the hive. At stake here is not just the possible unavailability of honey on your morning toast.
You connect with the piece on several levels. First, there’s dismay. At...
(June 2011)
Directed by: Taggart Siegel
Featuring: Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk, Vandana Shiva, Horst Kornberger, Jeffrey Smith, Raj Patel, Carlo Petrini and May Berenbaum
A documentary of mellifluous beauty and feeling, Taggart Siegel’s “Queen of the Sun” buzzes with what is wrong with man (corporate myopia, widespread pesticide use and a not-so-fine disregard for the interconnectedness of things) through the plight of the world’s honeybees. It’s a lovely production. Scrumptious to look at, informative and a spur to action, it presents commentary (some scientific, some poetic, some semi-apocalyptic) by a cast of wildly different apiarists (beekeepers) linked by one common goal: the reversal of colony collapse disorder, by which bees don’t return to the hive. At stake here is not just the possible unavailability of honey on your morning toast.
You connect with the piece on several levels. First, there’s dismay. At...
- 6/9/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Taggart Siegel’s documentary Queen Of The Sun is a fine enough piece of work, but it’s a shame Werner Herzog didn’t get to Gunther Hauk first. Hauk’s main function is to warn viewers about the pending catastrophe of colony collapse disorder, where large numbers of honeybees suddenly and inexplicably vanish. But Hauk, a protégé of the anthroposophist philosopher Rudolf Steiner, values bees for reasons beyond the fact that without them to spread pollen from plant to plant, some 40 percent of our food supply would cease to exist. At one point, he muses how worker ...
- 6/9/2011
- avclub.com
"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" director Taggart Siegel investigates the decline in the world's bee population in his latest documentary, "Queen of the Sun." Below find an interview with Siegel where he discusses what led him to make the film and his passion for anthropology. "Queen of the Sun" opens at New York's Cinema Village on Friday, June 10th. What it's About: In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher ...
- 6/6/2011
- Indiewire
"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" director Taggart Siegel investigates the decline in the world's bee population in his latest documentary, "Queen of the Sun." Below find an interview with Siegel where he discusses what led him to make the film and his passion for anthropology. "Queen of the Sun" opens at New York's Cinema Village on Friday, June 10th. What it's About: In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher ...
- 6/6/2011
- indieWIRE - People
Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.
Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!
B. Monkey (1999)
Streaming Available: 05/01/2011
Director: Michael Radford
Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...
Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!
B. Monkey (1999)
Streaming Available: 05/01/2011
Director: Michael Radford
Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...
- 4/29/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The 8th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is all set to run for ten days this Feb. 11-20 in Missoula, Montana. This year, the fest will have a whopping 140 film programs, a growth that necessitates an expansion from its regular home at the Historic Wilma Theatre — where it will occupy two screens — to also feature screenings at the former Pipestone Mountaineering store.
Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)
Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.
Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)
Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.
- 1/15/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
if you missed part one
I have a small window of time in Tribeca duties so I must wrap the unfortunately brief Nashville Film Festival coverage.
New Directors Competition
This is the jury that I served on along with Lou Harry A&E editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal and actor Brian O’Halloran who you’ll remember from Clerks. It's interesting to watch so many debut features back to back because patterns do emerge in regards to strengths and weaknesses within first efforts. The jury discussions were yet another reminder – as if I needed one covering the Oscars so closely each year – that one man’s treasure is another man’s… anyway, the discussions were lively and fun but so much disagreement! We ended up not spreading the wealth much because we were very divided about our slate of films and even the individual achievements within the films. Our...
I have a small window of time in Tribeca duties so I must wrap the unfortunately brief Nashville Film Festival coverage.
New Directors Competition
This is the jury that I served on along with Lou Harry A&E editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal and actor Brian O’Halloran who you’ll remember from Clerks. It's interesting to watch so many debut features back to back because patterns do emerge in regards to strengths and weaknesses within first efforts. The jury discussions were yet another reminder – as if I needed one covering the Oscars so closely each year – that one man’s treasure is another man’s… anyway, the discussions were lively and fun but so much disagreement! We ended up not spreading the wealth much because we were very divided about our slate of films and even the individual achievements within the films. Our...
- 4/27/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Last week, America's indie film community took a long, hard look at its precarious state.
After industry pros flew back home from the Toronto International Film Festival -- heads throbbing from too many drinks, not enough sleep and the lackluster marketplace, where few films were bought and sold -- many headed straight to the Ifp's annual Independent Film Week and Conference, a 31-year-old event where people like Jim Jarmusch, the Coen brothers, Michael Moore, Whit Stillman, Todd Haynes and Todd Solondz first stepped through the industry's door. Capping off the run of whining and redefining was an "Indie Film Summit," a meeting of some 60 significant distributors, producers and other insiders at the Museum of Modern Art, all looking for answers in these tumultuous times, when economic and technological changes have irrevocably shattered the conventional models of making and distributing movies.
For first-time filmmakers entering the business during this moment of upheaval,...
After industry pros flew back home from the Toronto International Film Festival -- heads throbbing from too many drinks, not enough sleep and the lackluster marketplace, where few films were bought and sold -- many headed straight to the Ifp's annual Independent Film Week and Conference, a 31-year-old event where people like Jim Jarmusch, the Coen brothers, Michael Moore, Whit Stillman, Todd Haynes and Todd Solondz first stepped through the industry's door. Capping off the run of whining and redefining was an "Indie Film Summit," a meeting of some 60 significant distributors, producers and other insiders at the Museum of Modern Art, all looking for answers in these tumultuous times, when economic and technological changes have irrevocably shattered the conventional models of making and distributing movies.
For first-time filmmakers entering the business during this moment of upheaval,...
- 10/5/2009
- by Anthony Kaufman
- ifc.com
CAVU Pictures
NEW YORK -- The Real Dirt on Farmer John covers about 50 years in the life of a struggling farmer, but this documentary by Taggart Siegel is not exactly The Grapes of Wrath.
Written and narrated by its eponymous subject, John Peterson, the film is an idiosyncratic portrait of an equally idiosyncratic figure whose personal travails well mirror many of the sociological changes that took place in the country during the past several decades. Hailed at numerous film festivals, the film is playing limited theatrical engagements.
Siegel was a friend of Peterson's for about two decades before he made the film, so his affectionate regard for his subject is more than evident. After inheriting a family farm that achieved great success under his grandfather's ownership, Peterson weathered numerous ups and downs while pursuing the family vocation in his own unique way. This included wearing a feather boa while plowing; pursuing his avant-garde artistic passions; and turning the farm into a sort of hippie commune during the freewheeling 1970s.
More significantly, he helped pioneer the concept of CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, and eventually transformed his farm into a highly successful example of organic agriculture.
Peterson is an undeniably eccentric and compelling figure, and his narration, not to mention the extensive use of family home movies, gives the film a personal quality that will make it of interest even to those not particularly interested in the subject of farming. While it sometimes has a rambling, disjointed quality and moments of self-indulgence, Farmer John, as evidenced by the laudatory quotes from such figures as Al Gore and chef Alice Waters, has no small amount of relevance.
NEW YORK -- The Real Dirt on Farmer John covers about 50 years in the life of a struggling farmer, but this documentary by Taggart Siegel is not exactly The Grapes of Wrath.
Written and narrated by its eponymous subject, John Peterson, the film is an idiosyncratic portrait of an equally idiosyncratic figure whose personal travails well mirror many of the sociological changes that took place in the country during the past several decades. Hailed at numerous film festivals, the film is playing limited theatrical engagements.
Siegel was a friend of Peterson's for about two decades before he made the film, so his affectionate regard for his subject is more than evident. After inheriting a family farm that achieved great success under his grandfather's ownership, Peterson weathered numerous ups and downs while pursuing the family vocation in his own unique way. This included wearing a feather boa while plowing; pursuing his avant-garde artistic passions; and turning the farm into a sort of hippie commune during the freewheeling 1970s.
More significantly, he helped pioneer the concept of CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, and eventually transformed his farm into a highly successful example of organic agriculture.
Peterson is an undeniably eccentric and compelling figure, and his narration, not to mention the extensive use of family home movies, gives the film a personal quality that will make it of interest even to those not particularly interested in the subject of farming. While it sometimes has a rambling, disjointed quality and moments of self-indulgence, Farmer John, as evidenced by the laudatory quotes from such figures as Al Gore and chef Alice Waters, has no small amount of relevance.
- 7/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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