News

Dreamseeker Media Releases ‘Ferguson Rises’ Trailer

Dreamseeker Media, in association with Films With a Purpose, Yoruba Saxon and PhilmCo, released a trailer for “Ferguson Rises,” opening Sept. 17 at Laemmle Monica, with a national rollout following.

Directed by Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, the film explores the aftermath of the protests in Ferguson after the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. Highlighting diverse voices of community members, from residents to police officers to business owners, “Ferguson Rises” chronicles the 400-day protests and rise of Black Lives Matter.

Sandra Evers-Manly, Tj Martin, Gigi Pritzker, Kai Bowe, and RZA executive produce, with David Oyelewo and Jessica Oyelowo serving as producers.

Watch the trailer below.

The Redford Center Awards Additional Grant Funding to Six Environmental Impact Documentary Projects

The Redford Center announced that six environmentalist documentary features in the current Redford Center Grants cohort will receive a total of $295,000 in second-year funding. “Demon Mineral,” “Impossible Town,...

The nominations are out for the 21st annual Golden Trailer Awards, which celebrate the pros who created the trailers and film marketing for new movies from the past two years. Check out the full list below.

The honors cover content created between April 2019 and April 2021 from studios, independent films and foreign films. Winners will be announced during a hybrid ceremony July 22 at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center in Greeneville, Tn. Winners in 16 categories will be honored during a livestream that starts at 7 p.m. Pt.

“We’re absolutely amazed at the talent we’ve seen over the past couple years,” said Evelyn Brady-Watters, who co-founded the GTAs with her sister, Monica Brady. “Especially with the turbulent times we’ve had, we’re honored to celebrate the incredible and entertaining work of our industry professionals, whose craft shines through and entertains us through good times and bad.”

Here are the nominees...

Fully identified with a preteen heroine facing challenges that have no good solutions, Van Maximilian Carlson’s Princess of the Row views even the harshest realities of homelessness through the eyes of someone who stubbornly believes in happy endings. Sentimental at times but not as cloying as its title may suggest, the polished production benefits from the happily un-cute lead performance of young star Tayler Buck, whose determination suits the weighty social issues driving the plot.

Buck’s Alicia, nicknamed Princess in happier times, has bounced through some foster homes but spends much of her time in Los Angeles’ Skid Row,...

Fully identified with a preteen heroine facing challenges that have no good solutions, Van Maximilian Carlson’s Princess of the Row views even the harshest realities of homelessness through the eyes of someone who stubbornly believes in happy endings. Sentimental at times but not as cloying as its title may suggest, the polished production benefits from the happily un-cute lead performance of young star Tayler Buck, whose determination suits the weighty social issues driving the plot.

Buck’s Alicia, nicknamed Princess in happier times, has bounced through some foster homes but spends much of her time in Los Angeles’ Skid Row,...

"I like that dream. That's a good dream... We stick together. You and me." Gravitas has released an official trailer for an indie drama titled Princess of the Row, which first premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival last year. Directed by Van Maximilian Carlson (aka Max Carlson), the film is an inspiring tale of a runaway foster child who will stop at nothing to live with the only family that she knows: her homeless, mentally-ill veteran father who lives on the streets of LA's skid row. Tayler Buck stars as Alicia, a young woman with her father's creativity, who loves to write and spends most of her time writing fantasy tales of a Princess on a quest. Edi Gathegi stars as her father Bo, and the main cast also includes Ana Ortiz, Jacob Vargas, and Martin Sheen. The uplifting film is described as "an emotional, heart-wrenching tale about the powerful bond between father and daughter,...

Gravitas Ventures has picked up the North American rights to director Van Maximilian Carlson’s foster child drama Princess of the Row, which is executive produced by Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary.

A Nov. 27 theatrical and video-on-demand release is set for the Edi Gathegi, Martin Sheen, Tayler Buck, Ana Ortiz and Jacob Vargas starrer about a 12-year-old girl in foster care who wants to live with her homeless, mentally ill father on Los Angeles’ Skid Row.

“Van’s film highlights ongoing issues in our country that push many people to the margins, and humanizes those struggles through rich, grounded characterizations and ...

Gravitas Ventures has picked up the North American rights to director Van Maximilian Carlson’s foster child drama Princess of the Row, which is executive produced by Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary.

A Nov. 27 theatrical and video-on-demand release is set for the Edi Gathegi, Martin Sheen, Tayler Buck, Ana Ortiz and Jacob Vargas starrer about a 12-year-old girl in foster care who wants to live with her homeless, mentally ill father on Los Angeles’ Skid Row.

“Van’s film highlights ongoing issues in our country that push many people to the margins, and humanizes those struggles through rich, grounded characterizations and ...

Princess Of The Row will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd) Saturday, Nov 16 at 2:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Writer/Director Max Carlson will be in attendance and will host a post-screening Q&a. Ticket information can be found Here

Princess Of The Row tells a heart-wrenching tale about the powerful bond between a father and daughter. Alicia Willis (Tayler Buck) — a 12-year-old who’s bounced around the foster-care system for most of her life — longs to live with her father, Sgt. Beaumont “Bo” Willis (Edi Gathegi), a homeless veteran on the streets of La’s Skid Row. Bo, who suffered a battle-induced brain injury during the Iraq War, is unable to recognize his own daughter most of the time, but she remembers the father he used to be: a caring man with a love of storytelling. Alicia, who has inherited her father’s creativity,...

Max Carlson’s Princess of the Row claimed the Audience Award at the just-concluded Method Fest Independent Film Festival.

The film, about a runaway foster child and her homeless, mentally ill father, also earned Tayler Buck the fest’s Geraldine Page Award for Best Actress for playing the title role, while Edi Gathegi received the Break Out Acting Award for playing the homeless father.

Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life, starring Jess Weixler and Adam Pearson, was named best feature, while two performers shared the best actor prize — Ethan Hawke for Stockholm and John Rezaj for Albanian Gangster.

Windows on ...

Max Carlson’s Princess of the Row claimed the Audience Award at the just-concluded Method Fest Independent Film Festival.

The film, about a runaway foster child and her homeless, mentally ill father, also earned Tayler Buck the fest’s Geraldine Page Award for Best Actress for playing the title role, while Edi Gathegi received the Break Out Acting Award for playing the homeless father.

Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life, starring Jess Weixler and Adam Pearson, was named best feature, while two performers shared the best actor prize — Ethan Hawke for Stockholm and John Rezaj for Albanian Gangster.

Windows on ...

Edi Gathegi is joining Martin Sheen in the indie drama The Princess of the Row.

The movie follows a 12-year-old girl in foster care who will stop at nothing to live with her homeless, mentally ill father (Gathegi), a veteran who now lives on the streets of Los Angeles' Skid Row. 

Max Carlson will direct the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shawn Austin. Gathegi will produce, along with Carlson and Austin.

The Blacklist actor's other upcoming film credits include the Jeremy Irons-starrer Monumental and the drama Pimp, in which he stars opposite Keke Palmer. He can currently be seen on NBC's Blacklist spinoff...

Exclusive: Martin Sheen is set to appear in the indie film Princess of the Row, from writer-director Max Carlson. The pic is set in the streets of Los Angeles’ impoverished Skid Row and follows 12-year-old Alicia Willis who, bouncing around the sometimes abusive foster care system, will stop at nothing to run away and live with her homeless, mentally ill father. Sheen will play John Austin, Alicia’s kindly yet eccentric foster father. Shawn Austin co-wrote and is…...

‘Bhopali’ - A documentary about the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal will be screened in Mumbai on Tuesday, April 24 at 6:30pm in Alliance Francaise.

Directed by Van Maximilian Carlson, ‘Bhopali’ documents the experience of second generation children affected by the worst industrial disaster in history, and subsequent contamination of groundwater by Union Carbide Corporation (an American company now owned by Dow Chemical, the second largest chemical company in the world).

It follows several children as they and their families cope with the ongoing medical and social disaster, as well as their memories of that traumatizing night that shocked the world and changed Bhopal forever. Set against the backdrop of vehement protests for the 25th anniversary of the disaster, the film features Noam Chomsky, Satinath Sarangi, and attorney Rajan Sharma.

It won the Grand Jury Best Documentary Award and Audience Award at Slamdance Film Festival, 2011.

The...

Following an Indian Supreme Court decision regarding the fate of several managers and supervisors who were arrested following the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster at Union Carbide, IndiePix has announced that they have acquired the U.S./Canadian distribution rights to Van Maximilian Carlson's doc about the disaster, "Bhopali," which debuted at this year's Slamdance. The film will get a theatrical this fall. Full release follows... IndiePix Acquires Documentary Film "Bhopali" Award ...

Capping off five days of Indian cinematic excellence, the 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival came to a close in grand fashion on May 8 with the spectacular Closing Night red carpet premiere of Rituparno Ghosh's powerful film Noukadubi which was attended by Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Ambassador Prakash Shah, Consul General Prabhu Dayal, and many other notable celebrities. Following the premiere at Asia Society in Manhattan was the festival's annual awards ceremony. The winners are listed below.

Best Feature Film - Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas

Best Director - Aparna Sen, Iti Mrinalini

Best Actor - Rishi Kapoor, Do Dooni Chaar

Best Actress - Konkona Sen Sharma, Iti Mrinalini

Best Screenplay - Mohan Raghavan, T.D. Dasan Std. VI B

Best Documentary - Bhopali (Max Carlson)

Best Short Film - Just That...

Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony) directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas was declared the Best Feature Film at the 11th New York Indian Film Festival which concluded recently. Abhay Kumar’s Just That Sort of a Day won the Best Short Film while Bhopali by Max Carlson was adjudged the Best Documentary.

Aparna Sen won the Best director for Iti Mrinalini. Rishi Kapoor won the Best Actor for Do Dooni Chaar while the Best Actress award went to Konkona Sen Sharma for Iti Mrinalini. Mohan Raghavan’s T.D. Dasan Std. VI B won the Best Screenplay.

Do Dooni Chaar directed by Habib Faisal opened the festival while Rituparno Ghosh’s Nauka Dubi was screened as the closing film. Organized by the Indo-American Arts Council, the festival was held from May 4-8, 2011 in Manhattan.

Capping off five days of Indian cinematic excellence, the 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival came to a close in grand fashion on May 8 with the spectacular Closing Night red carpet premiere of Rituparno Ghosh's powerful film Noukadubi which was attended by Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Ambassador Prakash Shah, Consul General Prabhu Dayal, and many other notable celebrities. Following the premiere at Asia Society in Manhattan was the festival's annual awards ceremony. The winners are listed below.<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Feature Film</span> - Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Director</span> - Aparna Sen, Iti Mrinalini<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Actor</span> - Rishi Kapoor, Do Dooni Chaar<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Actress</span> - Konkona Sen Sharma, Iti Mrinalini<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Screenplay</span> - Mohan Raghavan, T.D. Dasan Std. VI B<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Documentary</span> - Bhopali (Max Carlson)<span style="font-weight: bold;">Best Short Film</span> - Just That...

Do Dooni Chaar directed by Habib Faisal, starring Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh will open the 11th New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff). The festival will take place from May 4-8, 2011 in Manhattan. A total of 25 feature films will be screened in the festival which is presented by The Indo-American Arts Council (Iaac).

Rituparno Ghosh’s Nauka Dubi will be presented as the Closing Night selection, while Aparna Sen’s Iti Mrinalini (An Unfinished Letter) will screen as the Centerpiece selection.

Film personalities like Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Habib Faisal, Rituparno Ghosh, and Aparna Sen will be present at the festival.

The complete lineup:

The Bengali Detective (Documentary), directed by Phil Cox

Bhopali (Documentary), directed by Max Carlson

Daayen Ya Baayen, directed by Bela Negi

A Decent Arrangement, directed by Sarovar Banka

Do Dooni Chaar, directed by Habib Faisal

Geeta in Paradise, directed by Benny Mathews

Geeta in Paradise, directed...

The 17th annual Slamdance Film Festival has handed out awards to 10 films out of the 83 movies that screened this year. A few films received multiple awards in different categories and several of the winners will be given a limited theatrical release sponsored by Slamdance later this year.

Awards were organized in the sections: Grand Jury Awards, Audience Awards and Sponsored Awards. The documentary Bhopali, directed by Van Maximillian Carlson about the effects of the horrific 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster, won both a Grand Jury and an Audience award. Another documentary, Shunka by Cj Gardella, won both an Audience and a Sponsored award.

Also, in addition to several winners, the Slamdance jury made several mentions to runners-up deserving special recognition. Those special jury notes are included in the full list of winners below.

Two films — the short Hello Caller by Andrew Putschoegl and the feature Superheroes by Michael Barnett — have been...

The 17th annual Slamdance Film Festival is all set to run for eight days and nights Jan. 21-27. The festival is featuring a bold theme this year of “All Is Not Lost” where — due to the current devastating economic climate — Slamdance will donate 10% of ticket proceeds back to the filmmakers.

The fest is screening 14 feature films — 10 of which are in competition — and 8 feature documentaries, all of which are in competition. In addition, there will be 56 short films screening.

Plus, there are a couple of special screenings, including the Straight 8 event where anybody can register to receive a single roll of Super-8 film that they can use to direct their own in-camera edited mini-masterpiece. Also, on the 26th, there will be a special retrospective of the works of renegade ’60s filmmaker J.X. Williams.

The full film lineup is below, but for more information on the site please visit the official Slamdance website.

[1] Slamdance has officially announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City, Utah. For those of you who don't know, the festival was founded in 1995 by filmmakers whose movies didn't get into Sundance, and has since become a yearly film festival spotlighting "emerging filmmaking talent and their new work." Slamdance touts that their festival is "programmed by filmmakers for filmmakers." While Sundance is still the big show in Park City, big filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) are often mentioned as Slamdance discoveries. Hit the jump to read the full press release which includes the full line-up for the 2011 Festival. For Immediate Release Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition “All Is Not Lost” for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 – Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition...

The Slamdance Film Festival wasn't that far behind The Sundance Film Festival in releasing their film line-up, and it's a compelling mix of titles. For those of you who don't know, Slamdance is another film festival that is going on at the exact same time, and in the exact same place as Sundance, and that's in Park City Ut, from January 21-28th. Slamdance focuses more on genre type indie films.

Check out the list below and tell us what you think! Do any of you plan on attending? I always try to catch a few of these films while up up in Park City.

Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition

"All Is Not Lost" for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round

Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 - Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City,...

With the complete Sundance lineup now out in public you had to know that Slamdance couldn't be far behind. And it wasn't. The complete list of competition selections for Slamdance 2011 was announced today and it's a compelling mix of titles.

On the genre front Fernando Barreda Luna's found footage shocker Atrocious is the festival's one true horror entry while Simon Arthur's Silver Tongues also sounds like it could delve into dark thriller territory. Experimental effort The Beast Pageant is probably worth a look as well and I've been hearing growing buzz about inner city crime moc doc Snow On The Bluff as well.

On the real documentary side of things there are a couple music themed pieces - Road Dogs and Last Fast Ride - cranked up to 11. Stephan Wassman's Scrapper - the story of a group of men who collect scrap from a Us military bombing...

The Slamdance Film Festival which takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival has just announced its program for the 2011 edition. The festival was founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn and Peter Baxter and has since become a year-round organization championing emerging filmmaking talent and their new work. The aim is to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent filmmaking).

The fest has earned a solid reputation for premiering films by first-time writers and directors working within the creative confines of limited budgets. Festival discoveries have included directors such as Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite).

The 17th annual fest will screen 10 narrative films and eight documentary features in competition from Jan. 21-27. Fourteen of the movies are world premieres. As part of this year’s festival theme — “All Is...