News

Twenty years ago this week - Feb. 9, 1996 - the romcom-dramedy Beautiful Girls first opened in theaters. The film centers around Willie (Timothy Hutton), who returns home for his high school reunion in a small Massachusetts town. It's funny, it's heartwarming, and it features one of the better ensemble casts of the 1990s. In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, we're pulling out the yearbook and looking up the film's cast to what they've been up to over the past 20 years. Timothy HuttonHutton won Best Supporting Actor in 1981 for Ordinary People when he was only 20. To this day he's the youngest-ever...

A case study of the success of "Awake: The Life of Yogananda" will highlight the second annual Illuminate Film Festival’s "Conscious Film Convergence," a series of workshops and panels offering filmmakers – those with experience as well as those just starting out – the opportunity to learn about developing, producing and distributing conscious films, May 27-31 in Sedona, Arizona.

After its southwest premiere at last year’s inaugural Illuminate Film Festival, "Awake: The Life of Yogananada," the unconventional biography of the legendary East Indian mystic, went on to screen at 250 venues across North America and booked more than 30,000 tickets through the Gathr® theatrical on-demand platform. At this year’s Festival, the filmmakers and their distribution partners will discuss how they combined strategic partnerships, grassroots marketing and a hybrid distribution model to gross over $1 million at the U.S. box office within the first three months of release.

Additional panels at the Conscious Film Convergence, the first gathering of significant industry executives in this independent film genre, will feature master distribution strategist Peter Broderick and industry icons Barnet Bain ("What Dreams May Come," "The Celestine Prophecy"); Elizabeth Sheldon, Senior Vice President at Kino Lorber; and Abramorama President Richard Abramowitz, among others, as part of the Festival’s five days of life-affirming cinematic works that encourage audiences to ponder existence more deeply than their daily routines.

The Illuminate Film Festival curates narrative features, documentaries and shorts in the mind-body-spirit genre, featuring inspirational human journey stories and themes related to mindfulness, self-discovery, body-mind science, yoga, meditation, spiritual practice, organic and plant-based food movements and sustainable living.

“As a launching platform for conscious cinema, our goal is to get enlightening content into movie theaters across the globe,” said Illuminate Film Festival Executive Director and Founder Danette Wolpert. “The Conscious Cinema Movement has reached a tipping point. Conscious concepts, once trivialized, have become mainstream thanks to moguls like Oprah, Russell Brand, Deepak Chopra and Russell Simmons. The Illuminate Film Festival is poised to establish conscious cinema as a viable business sector within the independent film business.”

The Conscious Film Convergence schedule is:

Friday, May 29

• Spotlight Conversation with Barnet Bain:

Bain, a television and film industry veteran whose credits include Oscar-winning "What Dreams May Come," Emmy-nominated "Homeless to Harvard," spiritual classic "The Celestine Prophecy" and the new documentary, "When I Was Young I Said I Would Be Happy," will tell you that to make a conscious film, you must first become a conscious individual. In this Q&A with Barnett, attendees will discover how to connect with their true calling and unleash their full creative potential.

• Conscious Film Financing: "The Connected Universe"

Perhaps it’s fitting that a film that explores the science behind the interconnection of all things has just become the highest funded documentary in Indiegogo history with over $290 thousand raised via the popular crowdfunding website. Join "The Connected Universe" director Malcom Carter and others for insight into cracking the crowdsourcing code.

Saturday, May 30

• The Conscious Cinema Accelerator:

Five applicants will be invited to participate in 20-minute speed meetings for personalized project and career coaching from veteran film professionals in conscious film production, finance, marketing and distribution. Submissions: https://filmfreeway.com/festival/ConsciousCinemaAccelerator.

• Powered By Your Audience with Peter Broderick

How can a filmmaker increase their independence and build a sustainable career that goes far beyond one film? Distribution guru Peter Broderick presents a comprehensive guide to help filmmakers develop and maximize their “own” audience and establish a strong foundation from which they can build a long-lasting filmmaking career. Using examples from across the Us and around the world, he will demonstrate how filmmakers are aggregating their audiences film by film and becoming empowered by followers who champion their work.

• Million Dollar Movie: "Awake: The Life of Yogananda" Case Study

Panelists: "Awake" Director Paola di Florio, Producer Peter Rader (CounterPoint Films); Richard Abramowitz (President, Abramorama); Richard Matson (Head of Distribution & Acquisitions, Gathr); The inaugural Illuminate Film Festival in 2014 was a launching platform for "Awake: The Life of Yogananada," the unconventional biography of the legendary East Indian mystic, whose box office success has turned the heads of distribution executives nationwide. Is this a model that can be replicated? Find out.

• Champions of Conscious Cinema: Meet the Distributors

Panelists: Elizabeth Sheldon (Senior Vice President, Kino Lorber), Richard Cohn (President, Beyond Words), Richard Abramowitz (President, Abramorama), Brian Parsons (Head of Content Partnerships, Tugg); Abundant Internet connectivity and social media tools beckon today’s filmmaker to flirt with the very real possibility of self-distribution, while the lure of traditional distribution offers remains strong. Join the leaders of conscious film distribution as they explore the pros and cons of "all-rights” vs. "hybrid" distribution, debate the logic of day-and-date releasing and consider direct engagement via theatrical-on-demand. Learn your best options for theatrical, broadcast, video-on-demand and educational distribution as panelists share their outlook on the future of conscious cinema and the factors they consider before acquiring a film.

Sunday, May 31

• Conscious Cinema Summit (Industry Guests Only): a roundtable discussion with conscious film industry visionaries and media change-makers to discuss how conscious cinema can become a viable business independent film-sector business. Conversations will range from how to define conscious cinema to new business models to brainstorming new collaborative strategies to increase quality, quantity and availability of conscious cinema around the globe.

To register for the Conscious Film Convergence, visit Here!

The 2015 Festival will feature 22 films and more than 50 expert facilitators, practitioners, healers, performers, musicians, speakers and new thought leaders. In addition to the panels and films, the Festival’s series of “View and Do” events will let audiences more deeply integrate a movie’s message into their lives.

The full list of films exhibiting at the 2015 Illuminate Film Festival are online. For more information, visit Here!

There’s still so much we don’t about our oceans, especially when it comes to what lies on their floors. In 1989′s Leviathan, a deep-sea mining crew is reminded of the saltwater’s deadly secrets when they find something horrifying living amongst a ship’s ruins at the sea bottom. This Peter Weller-starring film is shooting to the surface late this August as part of Scream Factory’s Summer of Fear, with a couple of bonus features in tow.

Set for an August 19th release on Blu-ray, you can pre-order the film now at Scream Factory and Amazon for around $25.00. This 1080p video resolution of Leviathan comes with new interviews and the theatrical trailer.

Press Release - “Five miles beneath the ocean surface, a crew of underwater miners stumbled upon a haunting secret. What they uncovered will strike terror into our hearts! On August 19, 2014, the long-awaited deep-sea sci-fi creature thriller Leviathan,...

A few months back we learned that Scream Factory had added the 1989 underwater monster flick Leviathan to their "Summer of Fear" schedule, and today full details about the release have come up to the surface. Read on for everything you need to know about this must-own Blu-ray!

From the Press Release

Five miles beneath the ocean surface, a crew of underwater miners stumbled upon a haunting secret. What they uncovered will strike terror into our hearts!

On August 19, 2014, the long-awaited deep-sea sci-fi creature thriller Leviathan, a film by George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II, Cobra) finally unleashes on Blu-ray for the first time from Scream Factory. Starring Peter Weller (RoboCop), Richard Crenna (First Blood), Amanda Pays ("Max Headroom"), Daniel Stern (Home Alone), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Michael Carmine (Batteries Not Included), Lisa Eilbacher (Beverly Hills Cop) and Hector Elizondo (The Celestine Prophecy), Leviathan features a solid script by veteran...

Our dear friend Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert has such a great idea here for this new and exciting Festival in beautiful Sedona Arizona.

1st Mind-Body-Spirit Film Fest Offers World Premieres, View & Do Experiences, Healing Village, Workshops.

The inaugural Illuminate Film Festival will blend 22 transformative films, 15 enlightening speakers and workshops, a healing village and an innovative “view and do” experience for moviegoers to more deeply process and integrate what they see on screen while surrounded by Sedona’s stunning backdrop and transformative, healing qualities, May 29-June 1.

The first-of-its-kind mind-body-spirit film festival “is at the forefront of an exploding global conscious movement connecting the film industry to a growing, identifiable, interconnected community of conscious consumers,” said Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert, who spent five years as Miami International Film Festival Associate Director. “While industry festivals currently exist for most niche genres, one, surprisingly, does not exist for mind-body-spirit. With conscious cinema on the verge of exploding, the time is now and the opportunity is unparalleled.”

Illuminate showcases paradigm-busting, consciousness-expanding narrative features, documentaries and shorts including inspirational human journey stories and themes related to wellness, self-discovery, consciousness, body-mind science, yoga, meditation, spirituality, organic and plant-based food movements and sustainable living.

The full selection of films, guests, events and workshop speakers will be announced in early April.

Among the confirmed commitments:

• The World Premiere of Death Makes Life Possible, presented by world-renowned author, speaker and executive producer Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, former President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the film’s co-director. This exceptional documentary explores ‘the inevitable’ and appeals to anyone with questions about life, death and what’s next.

• The Festival World Premiere of On Meditation, a fascinating portrait series that offers a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures including: director David Lynch, a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (Tm); film and television actor Giancarlo Esposito, (Do the Right Thing , The Usual Suspects, King of New York, and drug kingpin Gustavo "Gus" Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad); three-time National Book Award-winner and prominent environmental activist Peter Matthiessen; six-term Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, author of A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit; and esteemed Hatha Yoga master Elena Bower.

• The Sedona Premiere of When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra & the Theremin, followed by a soul-shifting performance/sound journey by Ra, the legendary Iranian-Armenian musician. Known for both his exceptional artistry and his eccentric theatrical appeal, Ra has performed in esteemed venues including the United Nations and Lincoln Center, and has appeared on CNN, HBO, MTV, VH1 and in Vogue, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and Glamour. The film took home Best Film and Best Documentary awards at the Byron Bay International Film Festival.

• The world’s first Conscious Filmmaker Convergence, a half-day film industry program for notable and aspiring mind-body-spirit filmmakers featuring workshops and panels with Betsy Chasse, director of What the Bleep Do We Know?; Illuminate board member Nicole Guillemet, former Co-Director of the Sundance Film Festival and 360 Degree Communications, a leading boutique marketing firm whose projects include What Dreams May Come , The Way, Peaceful Warrior, The Cove ,Fuel , Finding Joe and The Celestine Prophecy .

Among others expected to make appearances or presentations at the Festival are Dr. Chopra, Armen Ra and Parashakti, founder of the Dance Liberation movement.

Additional festival features include:

• View & Do: A New Concept in Movie-Going: to enrich the movie-going experience and enable audiences to process what they witness on screen, the "Reel Healing Series" will include a comprehensive "View and Do" experience for participants to enjoy a hand-selected, soul-inspiring movie coupled with an immersive workshop by a skilled practitioner for a deeper integration of the movie's message.

• Healing Village: offering samplings and services of the region’s best health and wellness practitioners including massage therapists, meditation guides, Reiki specialists, sound healers, Ayurvedic consultants, astrologers and more. Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old system of traditional natural healing with origins in India.

Board of Advisors Brings Key Industry Experience

The Illuminate Board of Advisors includes highly experienced film-festival and film-industry professionals and experts including: • Nancy Schafer , former executive director, Tribeca Film Festival • Nicole Guillemet, former co-director, Sundance Film Festival and former director, Miami International Film Festival • Sarah McLean, founding director, McLean Meditation Institute • Steven C. Beer, entertainment and sports attorney • Bill Stankey, president, Westport Entertainment Associates representing clients including Joy Behar, Gayle King, Ty Pennington and Bob Greene.

Illuminate films will be screened at Sedona’s state-of-the-art Mary D Fisher Theater, Creative Life Center and the Sedona Performing Arts Center.

For more information, visit www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.

Wow, the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival already has been amazing!

Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il

The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.

http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012

Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Thursday, November 15th

Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships

Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre

Shorts that give romance a twist.

Boo! (Rupert Reid, Australia, 2012, 5 min.): An aging married couple keep their love alive by staying one step ahead of each other. Coffees (Alex Beh, U.S., 2012, 11 min.): As a last-ditch effort, Mikey decides to go to his ex...

Meat Loaf confers with Ally Sheedy in Citizen Jane.

Green Apple Entertainment will release the crime mystery TV film Citizen Jane, starring Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) and Sean Patrick Flanery (Deadly Impact), on DVD on Aug. 23 for a list price of $26.98.

Based on a true story that dominated the headlines in the 1990s and the subsequent best-selling book by James Dalessandro, the movie tells the tale of Jane Alexander (Sheedy), who lives an enviable life in San Francisco with the handsome and slyly charismatic Tom O’Donnell (Flanery). But Jane’s idyllic life is shattered when her beloved, elderly aunt is brutally murdered.

Embarking on an epic, 13-year journey to track down the killer, Jane stuns authorities with her shrewdness and intelligence and ultimately brings her aunt’s killer to justice. In the process, she starts up the activist group Citizens Against Homicide, which supports families looking for justice.

Before we get all philosophical and meditative (which we will), let’s begin by considering the many forms of the human and non-human characters in “Parliament of Rooks”. A lot of credit goes, I expect, to penciller Jill Thompson, who moves from the very thin lines of Lyta and her son Daniel, figures in a world of primarily horizontal and vertical shapes, to the rougher, thicker lines and shapes of the Dreaming, where the characters need to align with their representations from previous Sandman issues and from their incarnations in other comics. In addition to all that — enough to give even a talented artist a headache — somebody, most likely either Thompson or Gaiman, decided to depict Abel’s story of the early days of Death and Dream as a mix of anime and what looks to my eyes like some sort of Saturday morning TV cartoon show from the ’80s...

Tanit Phoenix is a temptress of many trades.

Aside from speaking three languages and being a multi-talented dancer and martial artist, the South Africa native is also making headway as a hot rising star in Hollywood. Now appearing in “Death Race 2″ (on Blu-ray and DVD today) in which she plays perhaps the sexiest convict who ever lived (and which was filmed in her homeland), Phoenix is currently shooting an epic 13-part series for HBO called “Femme Fatales.”

Amidst her busy schedule, Phoenix took some time to tell us what feeds her pop culture fix.

Movies ‘Avatar’

It’s just an incredible film and it’s never been done before. [James Cameron] took 12 years to get to this point and to make something like this is a visual masterpiece. It was my first 3-D film and I was blown away.

‘Wall Street’

I’m a huge Michael Douglas fan. It was just...

WWE Studios have announced the leading role debut of one of the biggest names in the WWE, Triple H. The wrestler, real name Paul Levesque, will join Kevin Corrigan, Ariel Winter and Annabeth Gish (one of my all-time favourite actresses), in the upcoming comedy, The Chaperone.

Triple H will play ex-con Ray Bradstone, a former getaway driver determined to turn his life around and establish a relationship with his estranged daughter Sally, in the film directed by Stephen Herek (Critters, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The Mighty Ducks).

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty interested to see The Chaperone. For one, Triple H can do comedy and action – we’ve seen that in the WWE; two it also stars Annabeth Gish; and three, it’s directed by Stephen Herek – who has made some damn fine comedies over the years.

NEW YORK -- Paul Bettany and Thomas Kretschmann will join Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent in the royal biopic The Young Victoria from producers Graham King and Martin Scorsese.

In Jean-Marc Vallee's film, Bettany will play Lord Melbourne, the adviser who helped Britain's Queen Victoria (Blunt) learn about government and politics. Kretschmann will play Victoria's uncle, King Leopold of Belgium.

Victoria began its 10-week shoot Aug. 13 in Britain. The film, written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), is a GK Films production produced by King and Scorsese with Tim Headington and Sarah Ferguson.

Bettany's credits include Universal Pictures' A Beautiful Mind, 20th Century Fox's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," Columbia Pictures' The Da Vinci Code and New Line Cinema's upcoming Inkheart.

Kretschmann's credits include Universal's King Kong, RAM Entertainment's The Celestine Prophecy and Universal's upcoming Wanted.

Bettany is repped by ICM, Melanie Greene of Melanie Greene Management and Troika. Kretschmann is repped by Lena Roklin of Roklin Management and David Feldman of Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette & Feldman.

Hollywood studios and networks are becoming more willing to distribute and air inspirational content that deals with issues of consciousness because they have come to realize there is a market for it, a panel of filmmakers concluded. Tuesday's panel, part of the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) conference, was moderated by Robert J. Dowling, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. "For the first time ever, we have a perception that there is a marketable community here that has a unique set of values," said Barnet Bain, producer of 1998's What Dreams May Come and The Celestine Prophecy, set for release in October. "I've been making these kinds of movies for a lot of years, and it's always been a battle to get them out there. ... I think there's a sea change," Bain said. Dowling noted there is a dichotomy in Hollywood, with the vast majority of the industry caring "deeply" about the same environmental and sustainability issues that LOHAS is concerned with yet needing to deliver profitable content: "As a steward, they have the heart and soul. But the problem is they have to put something out in the marketplace."...

Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies have been cast in the supernatural thriller Whisper. Stewart Hendler is making his directorial debut on the film for Gold Circle Films. Callies plays the girlfriend of a convict/kidnapper, to be played by Holloway, in the story of a New England-set kidnapping of a young boy. The screenplay is from producer-turned-writer Chris Borrelli. The producers are Gold Circle president Paul Brooks and H2F partner Walter Hamada and Deacon head Damon Lee. The executive producers are Gold Circle chief financial officer Scott Niemeyer and chairman of the board Norm Waitt and H2F partner Chris Fenton. Gold Circle's production executive Zak Kadison will co-produce and shepherd the film through production. Callies recently shot the Fox pilot Prison Break, which was directed by Brett Ratner. She also stars in the film The Celestine Prophecy, based on the novel, which will be released this year by Barnet Bains Films. She is repped by WMA. Her attorney is Jason Sloane. Holloway's credits include the TV series Lost and the features Cold Heart and Moving August. He is repped by Diverse Talent Group and Brillstein Gray. Hendler, who is repped by Foursight Entertainment and CAA, is a USC film school graduate. His previous films include the Sundance short One and the short Beyond Suspicion.

NEW YORK -- Thomas Kretschmann has signed on to star with Sarah Wayne Callies and Matthew Settle in the big-screen adaptation of James Redfield's best-selling New Age novel The Celestine Prophecy. Kretschmann -- whose credits include The Pianist and John Duigan's upcoming Head in the Clouds, with Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz -- also has joined the cast of the vampire feature Perfect Creature, starring Dougray Scott and Saffron Burrows. In Celestine, Kretschmann will play Will, an outdoorsman and guide who also is a mystic. The film follows a spiritual search in a Peruvian rain forest for a long-lost manuscript containing insights into the nature of human existence. Also joining Celestine are Hector Elizondo, Jurgen Prochnow and Joaquim de Almeida.