In 2011, Irish author, filmmaker, and former director of Edinburgh Film Festival, Mark Cousins, ended his cinematic odyssey with the release of the 15 hour long compilation documentary: The Story of Film. For this epic project, Mark traveled the world to learn more about the films of renowned directors such as Youssef Chahine, John Ford, Abbas Kiarostami and Ritwik Ghatak and to experience firsthand the settings of their master works. While in Iran, Mark made two tribute documentaries on Iranian cinema: On the Road with Kiarostami and Cinema Iran.
In A Journey Through Iranian Cinema With Mark Cousins, Iranian filmmaker Ehsan Khoshbakht catches up with Mark during the English tour of The Story of Film. Mark explores the impact of the films of Forough Farrokhzad, Abbas Kiarostami and the Makhmalbaf(s) have had on his life as filmmaker and film lover, as he reminisces about the two trips he made from Scotland to Iran in his campervan. Mark also offers fascinating insights on modern Iran: A country whose rich culture and vast history are often overshadowed by the day-to-day fluctuations in modern-day politics.
Reviews:
“Mark Cousins is incapable of writing anything about cinema history without making it fascinating.”
—Sean Connery
“A provocative and hilarious cross-cultural investigation.” — Jonathan Rosenbaum
“Jerry & Me is a love letter to cinema” — Chicago Journal
In her intimate documentary “Jerry & Me,” filmmaker Mehrnaz Saeedvafa examines the significant role that Hollywood movies played in her life, both as a young film lover growing up in pre-revolutionary Iran, and as an adult working as a filmmaker and educator in both Iran and the USA.
Of particular focus in “Jerry & Me” is the intimate relationship young Mehrnaz develops with the image of Jerry Lewis, the iconic American film auteur who delighted audiences around the world with hilarious portrayals of outcasts and misfits in popular Hollywood comedies of the 1950s and ’60s.
As illustrated through a variety of Lewis’ film clips, the shifts in the comedian’s on-screen persona reflected the twists and turns of Saeedvafa’s own life, providing her much needed comfort and companionship during a time that was tumultuous and chaotic. Mehrnaz’s illusion of Lewis as an empathetic fellow outsider is ultimately shattered, however, by the stark reality of a real-life encounter with the star.
A semi-autobiographical short video play by Jamil Khoury, both/and disrupts the dictates of “either/or” and “us vs. them,” imagining identities that are holistic and non-fragmented.
In both/and, the characters of Jamil, Arab Man, and Gay Man explore and explode the constructed boundaries between American and Arab, Arab American and gay, for-profit and not-for-profit, and other assorted disputed territories.
DVD copies include On both/and and Being a Both/And-er, an 11-minute video essay in which writer-producer Jamil Khoury discusses the themes and ideas presented in his film. Khoury’s documentary film Not Quite White is also available from Typecast here.
Inspired by Jamil Khoury’s short play WASP: White Arab Slovak Pole, Not Quite White: Arabs, Slavs, and the Contours of Contested Whiteness is a thought-provoking documentary that explores the complicated relationship of Arab and Slavic immigrants to American notions of whiteness.
The film integrates scenes from WASP alongside interviews with Arab American and Polish American academics who reflect upon contested and probationary categories of whiteness and the use of anti-Black racism as a “whitening” dye.
In Not Quite White, Jamil Khoury (Artistic Director of Chicago’s Silk Road Rising) draws upon his own Arab (Syrian) and Slavic (Polish and Slovak) heritage as the lens through which to investigate the broader issue of immigrants achieving whiteness and hence qualifying as “fully American.” The film advances society’s on-going conversations about the meaning of whiteness and efforts at redefining whiteness.
Not just for white people, and not just for Arabs and Slavs, Not Quite White proceeds from the assumption that whiteness affects all our lives and that we all need to critically engage whiteness. “Whiteness has everything to do with melanin and pigmentation and it has nothing to do with melanin and pigmentation,” Khoury observes. “Whiteness is about power and borders and authorship. And whiteness can, and does, change.”
The academics featured in Not Quite White include: Roxane Assaf, Adjunct Faculty, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Director of Cultural Studies, Columbia College Chicago; John Tofik Karam, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, De Paul University; Dominic A. Pacyga, Professor of History, Columbia College Chicago.
DVD copies also include On Whiteness, a 16-minute video essay in which writer and co-director Jamil Khoury discusses the themes and ideas presented in his film. Khoury’s short film both/and is also available from Typecast here.
Reviews:
“Not Quite White is a bold and dynamic examination of the social construction of race and ethnicity in the United States. Switching between the theatrical performance of an Arab American who ‘looks’ white and interviews with scholars from the Arab American and Polish American communities, the film is able to offer a multi-dimensional understanding of whiteness as a contested racial category. As a Lecturer in Cultural Studies, I find the film useful as a tool for teaching students that race is more complex than what meets the eye.”
- Michelle Yates, Ph.D., Dept. of Humanities, History, & Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago
“Zeroes in on whiteness as a constructed social and political category…that historically ‘played favorites,’ advantaging Northern and Western European immigrants over immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and the Middle East.”
- PRNewswire
“Not Quite White presents the often sensitive topics of race and identity in an entertaining, thoughtful, and enlightening way. The film is very well done and also a great reminder that appearances cannot always provide the full story of politics, race, and class that come into play in American society. Jamil Khoury has turned his vision and personal experiences of race and identity into a powerful artistic piece.”
- Christie J. Dal Corobbo, Cultural Studies and Minors Programs at Columbia College Chicago
Basketball is much more than a game in David Fine’s stirring documentary about an Iraqi women’s basketball team at the American University of Iraq—Sulaimani (AUIS) in Kurdistan. For the young women on the team, most of whom have never touched a basketball or been allowed to play sports at all before, it is a blissful escape from the realities of living in a war-torn nation.
The team members come from a variety of ethnicities and sects—Arab, Kurd, Christian, Sunni, Shiite—but the joy they discover in playing together and the deep love they come to feel for one another and for Ryan, their young American coach, reveals an Iraq united in a way we’ve rarely seen before.
Reviews:
“A stirring example of the possibilities for young Iraqis outside the country’s war zones.”
- Variety
“Of the majority of images and video to be coming from Iraq…SALAAM DUNK stands aside from the pack.”
- IndieWire
“Sometimes, it’s the simple things that we take for granted that can become the subjects of powerful films when told through the eyes of people a half a world away.”
- Film Slate Magazine
“The film captures their love for one another and for the game. It’s a purity that leads them to shoot free throws in the rain, or run layup drills at a hoop in the middle of nowhere. They don’t play for fame, scholarships, or money; they play because they can.”
- ESPN
Trailer:
At Festivals
2011 – LA Film Festival – World Premiere
2011 – Winner! Golden Plaque, Chicago Film Festival
2011 – DOHA Tribeca Film Festival – International Premiere
2011 – (IDFA) International Documentary Festival Amsterdam – European Premiere
2012 – Reframe International Film Festival – Canadian Premiere
An accomplished new documentary feature from Jawad Metni, Remnants of a War is a portrait of the people of South Lebanon who endeavor to rebuild and reclaim their land for their fellow countrymen following the devastating 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
During the 33 days of fighting, Israel dropped more than one million cluster bomb munitions onto the fields, orchards and towns of South Lebanon—with the majority of the bombs being deployed in the final 3 days of the war. An estimated 35% of these cluster bombs failed to detonate upon impact, leaving the mine-like devices scattered over the countryside until unwitting civilians stumble upon them and are maimed or killed by the resulting explosion. In 2007, teams of locally recruited and trained de-miners race to locate and deactivate the bombs before even more civilians are injured or killed.
Remnants of a War takes an intimate look into the lives of these brave workers—Muslims and Christians; Sunnis and Shia; women and men—who work shoulder to shoulder in the sweltering heat to make their lands available for ranching, farming and for children to safely play upon once again.
Reviews:
“Metni offers an humanitarian advocacy, economically and judiciously, about a silent war which is still killing and maiming civilians in South Lebanon…a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking.” – L’Orient Le Jour
“Reveals the uncertain future of a Lebanon where the generation that should be running the country is struggling to survive.” - filmjournal.com
“The film speaks volumes about the fate of civilians caught in the crossfire.” - filmcritic.com
Trailer:
On TV
This film is not yet on TV.
In Theaters
At Festivals
WINNER! – Best Documentary, 2010 British Independent Film Festival
WINNER! – Golden Palm, 2010 Mexico International Film Festival
When the residents of Budrus learn that the Israeli army plans to build the Separation Barrier through their town, cutting them off from neighboring Palestinian villages and uprooting their precious olive groves, they decide to organize. Under the leadership of Ayed Morrar, Palestinian men of all political factions come together to wage an unarmed struggle to preserve their lands. Victory seems unlikely until Ayed’s 15-year-old daughter steps in to organize a female contingent that brings the women of Budrus to the front lines in a tense stand-off with the military.
As word of the nonviolent protest spreads, Israeli citizens, international activists and Palestinians from other villages join the people of Budrus to demand that the Barrier be moved. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known movement that is still gaining ground today. Featuring interviews with unarmed demonstrators, Israeli soldiers and the citizens of Budrus, this harrowing, action-filled, and ultimately inspiring documentary has given hope to audiences around the world with its story of the ground-breaking nonviolent movement spreading across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
DVD Special Features: Trailer Q&A with Director Checkpoints Award “What’s your Calling” Language: Arabic, Hebrew & English | Subtitles: English
Reviews:
“A poignant chronicle… This inspiring documentary stresses peaceful resistance as the best means of conflict resolution.” - Variety
“A complex … documentary that shows a balanced picture of its competing protagonists. It finds a story for the future… in the shape of a social movement driven by pragmatism.” - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitun
“A moving sliver of hope that nonviolent resistance may yet blossom out of violence.” – New York Magazine
“A powerful film filled with the kind of hope you rarely see around this issue.” – Michael Moore
“ This story is a journey that stretches beyond borders to provide hope, and it should be seen by everyone.” – Jessica Alba, Actress
“A strong piece of work from intelligent filmmakers.” – The Jewish Week
“Budrus chronicles a small victory in a much larger and uncertain battle, but with so much hopelessness in the region, it’s worth highlighting and, hopefully, emulating.” – The Nation
Trailer:
On TV
This film is not yet on TV.
In Theaters
December 20th – 23rd, 2010 – Real Art Ways - Hartford, Connecticut December 20th – 24th, 2010 – Varsity Theater – Seattle, WADecember 27th – 30th, 2010 – Facets Cinematheque - Chicago, IllinoisJanuary 3rd, 2011 – Haifa Cinematheque - Haifa, IsraelJanuary 6th, 2011 - SPACE Gallery - Portland, MaineJanuary 7th – 13th, 2011 – Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts - Grand Rapids, MichiganJanuary 14th – 20th, 2011 – Shattuck 10 – Berkley, CaliforniaJanuary 14th – 20th, 2011 – Lumiere Theater & Opera Plaza - San Fransisco, CaliforniaJanuary 29th & 31st, 2011 – Varsity Theatre – Davis, CaliforniaFebruary 16th, 2011 – Avon Theatre Film Center Inc. – Stamford, ConnecticutFebruary 25th – 27th, 2011 – Flint Institute of Arts – Flint, MichiganMarch 18th – 24th, 2011 – Main Art Theatre – Royal Oak, MichiganMarch 28th – 30th, 2011 – Fine Arts Theatre – Asheville, North CarolinaMay 3, 2011 - Bryn Mawr Film Institute - Bryn Mawr, PennsylvaniaMay 27, 2011 - Culver Center for the Arts - Riverside, California
At Festivals
Winner, Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, 2011 Winner, Inaugural Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize, 2011 Winner, Amnesty’s Matter of Act Human Rights Award, 2011 Winner, Panorama Audience Award Second Prize, Berlin International Film Festival, 2010 Winner, Special Jury Mention, Tribeca Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Audience Award, San Francisco International Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Honorable Mention Spirit of Freedom Award, Jerusalem International Film Festival 2010
Winner, Witness Award at Silverdocs Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Honorable Mention of the Jury, Documenta Madrid 10
Winner, Amnesty Italia Award, Pesaro Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Founders Prize, Best of Fest, Nonfiction, Traverse City Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Checkpoints Award, Bergen International Film Festival, 2010
Winner, Festival des Libertés Prize, Festival des Libertés, 2010
Winner, Spirit of Freedom Documentary Award, Bahamas International Film Festival, 2010
Cultural Bridge Gala, Dubai International Film Festival, 2009
Official Selection, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival London, 2010
Official Selection, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, E Tudo Verdade/It’s All True Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Hot Docs Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Sydney Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Planete Doc Review, 2010
Official Selection, Documentarist Film Festival, Istanbul, 2010
Official Selection, DokuFest Kosovo, 2010
Official Selection, Woods Hole Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, EBS International Documentary Festival, Korea, 2010
Official Selection, Festival do Rio, 2010
Official Selection, Take One Action Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Bergen International Film Festival, Norway, 2010
Official Selection, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Festival des Libertes, 2010
Official Selection, Doha Tribeca Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Jihlava International Documentary Festival, 2010
Official Selection, St. Louis International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Milwaukee International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Jakarta International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Bend Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Toronto Palestine Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Boston Palestine Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Arab Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Rehoboth Beach Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films, 2010
Official Selection, One World Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Lens Politica Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Doha Tribeca Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Reykjavik International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Camden International Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Palestine Human Rights Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, Global Peace Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, International Women’s Film Festival, 2010
Official Selection, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, 2010
While visiting Iraq in 2007 for the premiere of his first feature film, Ahlaam, director Mohamed Al-Daradji summons the courage to look back over the turbulent past three years of his life and the making of his film in a volatile war zone.
Undaunted by ever present dangers and heartbreaking chaos, Mohamed returned to his home in Baghdad in 2004. The Iraq he had once known had vanished, replaced by the gritty aftermath of 35 years of dictatorship, three wars, and the wake of occupation. Finding the once vibrant streets consumed by unemployment, poverty, and madness, he strives to fulfill his dream of making a film in the country he loves.
Determined not to succumb to physical and emotional strife, Mohamed’s camera rolls on as the world begins to unravel around him. A spectrum of society previously sidelined by images of war is introduced to the audience: a young child sings for Saddam; a father grieves for his hanged son; a young actor thinks back on his time in prison; a troubled friend becomes lost in madness.
Struggling against seemingly insurmountable hurdles involving persecution, imprisonment, personal injury, terrorist attacks, and the numerous restrictions established by U.S. troops, Al-Daradji proves himself to be one of the world’s most truly independent filmmakers. War, Love, God, & Madness is the riveting film that documents his experience of making cinematic art in one of the most dangerous and chaotic places on Earth.
Reviews:
“The horrific toll on cast and crew during the making of Iraqi feature Ahlaam is told by its helmer, Mohamed Al-Daradji, in War, Love, God, & Madness. More than merely a companion piece to the 2005 drama, docu provides a disturbing look at the situation in occupied Baghdad, when safety was illusory and kidnapping and torture became not merely a hypothetical fear but a reality.” – Jay Weissberg, Variety
“War, Love, God, & Madness offers a staggering and petrifying insight into the very real dangers faced by Al-Daradji and his crew as they attempt to give politics a bodyswerve, in favour of lending the average person on the street a voice.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
“This isn’t just a film about making a film, but a film about not letting go of your dreams even when circumstances are at their worst.” – Robin Ruinsky, Film School Rejects
“An amazing and uplifting documentary, which shows precisely how dangerous shooting in Iraq can be.” – Mark Kermode, BBC
Trailer:
At Festivals
2008 – Premiered at the Rotterdamn International Film Festival
2008 – Top 10 Best Films at the Tribeca International Film Festival
2009 – Grand Jury Prize at the Ismailia International Film Festival (Egypt)
2009 – Cinema City International Film Festival (Siberia)
2010 – Jury Special Mention at the Moqavemat International Film Festival (Iran)
2010 – Bradford International Film Festival (UK)
2010 – Washington D.C. International Film Festival: Arabian Sights
Blu-ray version is available. Click here to buy the Blu-ray
Description:
With “an elegiac poignancy” (New York Times), director James Allen Smith’s Floored ” captures the waning heyday of the Chicago Trading Pits” (ABC News) and tells the bizarre and gripping stories of the traders—”overgrown kids with money, brains and a pathological need to release stress” (Barron’s) whose chaotic, audacious and thrill-seeking way of life has all but vanished with the recent shift toward automated computerized stock trading.
“A lively documentary about a profession that has almost been wiped out” (Bloomberg.com), Floored takes audiences into the lives of the Chicago trading floor’s everyman—from those who have gracefully adapted to the new age of electronic trading to those who have defiantly refused to change—and offers a fascinating examination of the never-ending pursuit of the American Dream. Prairie Miller of News Blaze calls Floored “a must-see about greed, material obsession, perpetually unfulfilled lust for loot, shoving matches, and suicide.”
Reviews:
“Floored focuses on the working-class wolves who stalk Chicago… Director James Allen Smith delves deep…” - Eric Hynes, Time Out
“(Floored) captures waning heyday of Chicago Trading Pits…” - Michael Hirtzer, ABC News
“There’s an elegiac poignancy in James Allen Smith’s Floored” - Andy Webster, The New York Times
“A must-see about greed, material obsession, perpetually unfulfilled lust for loot, shoving matches, and suicide.” - Prairie Miller, News Blaze
“…a lively documentary about a profession that has almost been wiped out.” - Rick Warner, Bloomberg.com
“Floored profiles a handful of eccentric (read: obnoxious) traders attempting the difficult transition to electronic exchange. Stock-doc acknowledges the high-pressure stakes that led many traders to addiction and suicide…” - Andrew Schenker, Village Voice
“I enjoyed the hell out of the film” - Ain’t It Cool News
“This is a memorable portrait of men whose experience buying and selling futures hardly prepared them for what their own future held in store.” - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
” (Smith) captured the traders when their lives were at a turning point.” - Crain’sNew York Business
While in Beirut to attend a glamorous banquet, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve (Potiche, Belle de Jour) insists on being taken to the southern regions of Lebanon in order to see first-hand the devastation caused by Israel’s month-long bombing campaign there in the summer of 2006.
Cleverly blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas (A Perfect Day) create a mesmerizing, thought-provoking travelogue in which they appear as filmmakers capturing Deneuve’s road-trip on camera.
After visiting the crumbling ruins of ancient villages and watching as the shattered remnants of cities and towns are slowly pushed into the sea, Deneuve’s perception of Lebanon is transformed somewhat when she appears later that evening before the myriad photographers ardently capturing her image at the elegant evening gala.
DVD Special Features: Filmographies Typecast Trailers Language: Arabic & French | Subtitles: English
Reviews:
“There’s no denying that this is a single-note film, but it’s a note of considerable emotional clout.” —David Jenkins, Time Out
“Magnificent!…must not be missed. I could heap praises on it forever.” —Charles Mudede, The Stranger
“A fascinating little film in which Deneuve’s disorientation comes to stand for that distance we all feel in the West when forced to think about the reality behind the headlines and news reports.” —Jon Fortgang, Film4
“An unusual, personal film…defies description.” —Ted Fry, The Seattle Times
“A potent and intriguing cinema of ideas.” —Peter Bradshaw, Guardian (UK)
In Theaters
Typecast Releasing is pleased to announce that I Want to See, the new feature film from directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (A Perfect Day) will have its U.S. theatrical premiere at Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum on Saturday, July 9th, where it will play daily through Thursday, July 14th. More info can be found here:
At Festivals
In Theaters
