News

Casting director Russell Boast, producer Annabelle K. Frost, producer Nana Greenwald, writer-director Tamar Halpern, animator David Kuhn, producer-director Sheldon Larry and broadcast journalist May Lee have been hired as full-time faculty at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

The new faculty members have worked on some of the most prominent film and television projects of the past 30 years, including the Harrison Ford starrer The Fugitive, David Fincher’s Seven and Disney’s Pocahontas. They will assume their new roles on Monday, Aug. 28, at the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

“This is an awe-inspiring group of teachers, whose range of experience adds a wealth of valuable knowledge to our already-impressive faculty,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Dodge College. “I can only wish I’d had professors like this when I was in film school.”

Russell Boast, CSA, head of casting and co-head of the Screen Acting program at Dodge College,...

Looking for a movie that combines our current challenges with gaining marriage equality as well as family, love and romance? You’ll find all that and more in I Do, the new film by writer/producer David W. Ross (who also stars in the film) and director Glenn Gaylord (Leave It On The Floor).

The film, in select theaters now and also available to buy on iTunes, focuses on a unique side of the marriage equality debate – that of immigration for a non-us citizen (Ross) who, because of Doma, is forced to fake a relationship with a woman – who happens to be a lesbian, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler – in order to stay in the country. The film also stars Mike C. Manning (The Real World), Alicia Witt, Patricia Belcher and Grant Bowler.

I chatted with Ross last week about the challenges of bringing all these issues together in the film,...

A same-sex bi-national couple fights inequality because of Doma (Defense of Marriage Act)

Next year the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of Doma For the first time in history the Democratic Platform supports Gay Marriage. Last year the Obama administration stopped defending Doma as it finds it unconstitutional

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"Ross is appealing in the lead role…. with particularly strong efforts from Witt and,

in a solid supporting turn, Mickey Cottrell as Jack's elderly friend and mentor." - Hollywood Reporter

I Do

Palm Springs International Film Festival

Friday Jan 11th 7:30 Pm Camelot Theaters (cast & crew in attendance)

Saturday Jan 12th 2:30 Pm Camelot Theaters (cast & crew in attendance)

Director: Glenn Gaylord

Writer: David W Ross

Producers: David W Ross, Stephen Israel

Starring:

Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Sopranos)

Alicia Witt (Friday Night Lights)

Maurice Compte (Breaking Bad, End of Watch)

David W Ross (Quinceanera)

Mickey Cottrell (My Own Private Idaho)

Grant Bowler (Liz & Dick)

World Premiere: Outfest 2012 Ford Series

Winner: Philadelphia QFest - "Rising Film Star Award" David W Ross

Winner: Long Beach QFilm Fest

Winner: Best Drama Atlanta Out On Film

Winner: Audience Award Pittsburgh Qfest

Winner: Audience Award Seattle Lgbt Film Festival

Beautiful urbanites steam up the screen in this ensemble family drama about a complicated love triangle from film maker Glenn Gaylord (Eating Out 3, Leave It On The Floor). To stay in New York City, gay Brit Jack (David W Ross "Quinceanera") convinces his lesbian best friend Ali (Jamie Lynn-Sigler, “The Sopranos”) to marry him. Things get messy when he falls for a sexy Spanish architect while his commitment to his brother's widow (Alicia Witt) and his young niece complicates his decision either to stay or to follow his lover.

I Do cleverly examines the complications of immigration issues in the absence of marriage equality for Lgbt people on a Federal level, while also presenting a nuanced adult drama that resonates deeply amidst the current fight for U.S. marriage equality.

for more info and trailer:

www.TwoWordscanChangeEverything.com

PR contact: idothemovie@gmail.com...

Summer means music festivals as well as musical movies - and if the Beyonce-influenced, vogue-tastic Leave It On The Floor isn't your groove, there's always the next Step Up dance flick.

Step Up 4: Miami Heat - the follow-up to Step Up, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D - breaks out its moves in UK cinemas on August 10.

Two new clips and three featurettes have been unveiled and are embedded below.

As the title indicates, it sets the dancing against the vibrant backdrop of Miami.

Emily (Kathryn McCormick) arrives in Miami with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer and soon falls in love with Sean (Ryan Guzman), a young man who leads a dance crew in elaborate, cutting-edge flash mobs, called The Mob.

When a wealthy business man threatens to develop The Mob's historic neighbourhood and displace thousands of people, Emily must band together with Sean...

Ted (15)

(Seth MacFarlane, 2012, Us) Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Joe McHale, Giovanni Ribisi. 106 mins

Those unconvinced by MacFarlane's Family Guy cartoon series will be even less convinced by his first feature – basically a routine manchild/bromance story with one novel idea: Wahlberg has a magic talking teddy, which has grown up into an obnoxious party animal – thus creating relationship issues with shrewish girlfriend Kunis. It's all gags and no comedy. And if you're anything other than white, male and pop culture-literate, you'll find the humour at best patchy, at worst, downright nasty.

Sound Of My Voice (15)

(Zal Batmanglij, 2011, Us) Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius, Brit Marling. 85 mins

As with Another Earth, co-writer Marling takes an unorthodox line through a familiar genre here. This time she's a spacey/scary cult leader who claims to be from the year 2054. A couple of investigative journalists get out of their depth taking her on.

Described as a mash-up of Paris Is Burning, Rent and Dreamgirls, the big-screen musical Leave It On The Floor vogues its way into London this week.

Peccadillo Pictures is holding a premiere on August 1 to launch an exclusive two-week theatrical run (August 1 to 16) at the Leicester Square Theatre. Leave It On The Floor then heads to DVD on September 10. The trailer is included below.

The film takes viewers into the world of the ball scene or ballroom community. This is an Lgbt subculture in the USA in which people band together in groups called houses and compete at events known as balls, performing routines that include the voguing dance popularised by Madonna's 1990 hit single.

Leave It On The Floor stars Ephraim Sykes as Bradley Darnell Lyle, Phillip Evelyn as Princess Eminence, Andre Myers as Carter and Miss Barbie-q as Queef Latina.

R&B star Beyonce acknowledged the ball culture with...

The setting is downtown La.

Our hero is Brad, hunky but homeless, reeling from being discarded by his homophobic mother, who falls into the colourful world of the House of Eminence.

Brad (Ephraim Sykes), hunky but homeless

Queef Latina keeps a firm rule over her makeshift troupe, which makes for problems when two of them fall instantly for the new arrival.

Click Here For More Clips And Trailers...

Inspired by the documentary Paris is Burning, Leave It On The Floor is packed with songs and dance, a big musical with a big heart - leaving the heterodox boundaries of Rock of Ages far behind.

'A sizzling mash up of Paris Is Burning, Rent and Dreamgirls'

It's in UK cinemas from 3 August, with a cracking premiere night arranged in London's Leicester Square for the 1 August, and we have an exclusive clip. Watch below...

The media-driven stereotype of the Lgbt community is largely of an affluent white community. The well turned out men of Queer Eye putting you in fancy clothes, decor and food. Will rooming with Grace in a Manhattan apartment. A trendy liberal in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. To the degree that society wants to think about homosexuals, they want gay to mean happy and fabulous. This isn’t the reality for many, especially Lgbt youth from poor urban communities. It’s a sad fact that Black Protestant and Hispanic Catholic parents are often less accepting of homosexuality, leaving these kids in a bind. A few recent films have attempted to shine a light on this reality, though as one director noted, often reduced by distributors to “urban niche” (urban meaning Black and niche meaning Lgbt) and not likely to have broad appeal.

Leave It On The Floor is a...

Following up the initial announcement of titles, the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival revealed it will open with the period drama Les Adieux à la reine (Farewell My Queen) today. From director Benoît Jacquot, the drama stars Inglourious Basterds lead Diane Kruger, as well as Léa Seydoux who broke-out in Midnight in Paris and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol this year. Based on, Chantal Thomas’ novel we have the first stills of the film (from Lumiere via The Playlist) that follows the “first few days of the French Revolution from the perspective of the servants at Versailles.”

Kruger, who plays Marie Antoinette here, has only appeared in one big film following her post-Basterds role with Unknown, but I look forward to her future work, especially with this film. I thought Seydoux was great as an action villain in Ghotocol and excited to see her career rise. Check out the stills below,...

The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival to be held from February 9-19, 2012 announced the list of films to be screened in Panorama section. The lineup includes renowned names such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Volker Schlöndorff, Cao Hamburger, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Teona Strugar Mitevska.

No Indian film has yet found a place in Berlinale Panorama 2012. Last year Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf, Kaushik Mukherjee’s Gandu and Phil Cox’s The Bengali Detective were presented in this section.

Feature films to date:

10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien,Taiwan

Death For Sale by Faouzi Bensaïdi, France

Die Wand (The Wall) by Julian Roman Pölsler, Austria/Germany

Dollhouse by Kirsten Sheridan, Ireland

Elles by Malgoska Szumowska, France/Poland/Germany

Fon Tok Kuen Fah (Headshot) by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand/France

From Seoul To Varanasi by Kyuhwan Jeon, Republic of Korea

Hot boy noi loan – cau chuyen ve thang cuoi, co gai diem va con vit...

The Berlinale's announced today that 20 films are now lined up for its Panorama program. All in all, around 50 titles will make up the main program, Panorama Special and Panorama Dokumente.

10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wang Toon, Wu Nien-Jen, Sylvia Chang, Chen Guo-Fu, Wei Te-Sheng, Chung Meng-Hung, Chang Tso-Chi, Arvin Chen, Yang Ya-Che and others, Taiwan — see a full report from the Taipei Film Commission: "Funded by the Golden Horse Film Festival and the Republic of China Centenary Foundation, 10+10 [is] a movie comprised of 20 short films by 10 renowned and 10 emerging Taiwanese filmmakers."

Death For Sale by Faouzi Bensaïdi, France

With Fehd Benchemsi, Fouad Labiad, Mouhcine Malzi, Imane Elmechrafi, Faouzi Bensaïdi

Die Wand (The Wall) by Julian Roman Pölsler, Austria/Germany

With Martina Gedeck — Synopsis from The Match Factory: "(1.) The wall is a highly unusual exploration of solitude and survival. (2.) It is the story of a woman who is separated from the...

image+nation, the oldest Lgbt film festival in Canada, will close its 24th edition in dance and music with Leave It On The Floor, an outstanding musical film by filmmaker Sheldon Larry, presented on Sunday November 6 at 8:30 p.m. at the Theatre Hall Concordia, right after the unveiling of the winners of this year’s competition. However, before bowing out, image+nation will offer to cinephiles a last weekend of unforgettable films and meetings with filmmakers, plus a conference by film critic Matthew Hays.

Screening The Epidemic: 30 Years of Vih/Sida

Recognizing the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS, film critic, author and lecturer Matthew Hays will deliver a talk chronicling the onscreen history of an epidemic. From Hollywood’s reluctance to touch AIDS to the brilliant treatment afforded it by documentary filmmakers, Hays will touch on selective moments in the evolution of the epidemic’s big and small-screen representations,...

There are a lot of Canadian films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival to be excited about, including works from our favourite filmmakers Guy Maddin, Bruce McDonald,Vincenzo Natali and Jean Marc Vallee. Below is the list of films in the Canada First selections as well as other CanCon movies scattered through the main programs.

Toronto – The Toronto International Film Festival® boasts a strong lineup of Canadian features including new works by acclaimed Canadian filmmakers Carl Bessai, Mike Clattenburg, Michael Dowse, Philippe Falardeau, Guy Maddin, Bruce McDonald, Léa Pool, Jean-Marc Vallée and Ingrid Veninger, and onscreen appearances by Jay Baruchel, Camilla Belle, Anupam Kher, Akshay Kumar, Mia Kirshner, Rob Lowe, Vanessa Paradis, Jason Patric, Alison Pill, Russell Peters, Isabella Rossellini, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Scott Speedman and Nick Stahl.

“This year saw many Canadian filmmakers address a wide range of pressing social issues including the dangers of progress...

Twenty years after “Paris Is Burning” revealed New York’s “ball” culture, Sheldon Larry’s “Leave It on the Floor” explores Los Angeles’ contemporary ball scene with a musical scored by Beyoncé’s music director and choreographed by her dance master. Director Sheldon Larry writes for Moving Pictures about the impetus for the project, the challenges of getting inside the tight-knit community and the dangers his cast face during production.

Sheldon Larry

By Sheldon Larry (director-producer of “Leave It on the Floor”)

(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)

The idea to create “Leave It on the Floor,” our original narrative musical feature, came to me profoundly almost 20 years ago, when I first saw Jennie Livingston’s documentary “Paris Is Burning” in 1990. I was living in New York City and directing film and theater off-Broadway. That film took a memorable first look at the New York “ball” community of the late 1980s,...

Twenty years after “Paris Is Burning” revealed New York’s “ball” culture, Sheldon Larry’s “Leave It on the Floor” explores Los Angeles’ contemporary ball scene with a musical scored by Beyoncé’s music director and choreographed by her dance master. Director Sheldon Larry writes for Moving Pictures about the impetus for the project, the challenges of getting inside the tight-knit community and the dangers his cast face during production.

Sheldon Larry

By Sheldon Larry (director-producer of “Leave It on the Floor”)

(from the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival)

The idea to create “Leave It on the Floor,” our original narrative musical feature, came to me profoundly almost 20 years ago, when I first saw Jennie Livingston’s documentary “Paris Is Burning” in 1990. I was living in New York City and directing film and theater off-Broadway. That film took a memorable first look at the New York “ball” community of the late 1980s,...