Jerusalem Post: Israel Film Archive website gives access to historical treasures. “Researchers, history buffs and movie lovers will rejoice at the news that the Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque has launched a website … that gives access to thousands of the films and clips in its collection. The launch of the site, which is available in both Hebrew and English, is the culmination of more than seven years of work to digitize the IFA’s films. The vast majority of the material on the IFA site is free, with a few VOD options that require a onetime payment.”
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The York Press: New Filmed in Yorkshire website enables you to ‘visit’ Yorkshire film and TV locations online
The York Press: New Filmed in Yorkshire website enables you to ‘visit’ Yorkshire film and TV locations online. “The new Filmed in Yorkshire website takes you to an interactive map. Magnifying glass icons show where major film and TV productions – including All Creatures, but also Gentleman Jack, Victoria and Peaky Blinders – were filmed. Click again and you can see locations shots and get more information about what scenes were filmed where.”
BBC: India’s first ‘lockdown film’ is an edgy thriller
BBC: India’s first ‘lockdown film’ is an edgy thriller. “C U Soon, a suspense drama, is possibly India’s first ‘made-at-home, lockdown film’, as [Mahesh] Narayanan called it. Released last week on streaming giant Amazon Prime Video, it is an unusual Indian film. At 90 minutes, it has a runtime which is a third shorter than a usual commercial release, and it has no song and dances. One critic called it an ‘an immersive experience like no other’. Another said it was ‘a radical film that offers a unique viewing experience’. There was appreciation for the film’s ‘dynamic visual setting’.”
NY CaribNews: African Film Festival, Inc. launches AFF Digital Streaming Service and Film Archives
NY CaribNews: African Film Festival, Inc. launches AFF Digital Streaming Service and Film Archives. “African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF), the premier U.S. presenter of African cinema, has unveiled its new streaming platform and digital archives at its online home… The portal to the Continent includes more than 800 profiles of directors from across the diaspora, from veterans like Ousmane Sembène, Safi Faye, Souleymane Cissé and Tunde Kelani to emerging talents like Mamadou Dia, Nuotama Bodomo, Abba Makama, and Mariama Diallo as well as more than 1,000 film profiles, and interviews, articles, reviews, photographs and more.”
Plant Based News: Major Vegan Film Festival Goes Online Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Plant Based News: Major Vegan Film Festival Goes Online Amid Coronavirus Crisis. “The International Vegan Film Festival has announced its third annual event will be held online due to the coronavirus pandemic…. A full list of films playing in the festival will be available in late September, but PBN can reveal three films that will be included: Regan Russell – A Short Documentary, Butenland, and INVISIBLE.”
Seattle Times: Seattle Black Film Festival 2020 celebrates its 17th year and goes online with screenings and events
Seattle Times: Seattle Black Film Festival 2020 celebrates its 17th year and goes online with screenings and events. “Taking place July 10-12… with assistance from the Seattle-based livestream film and music events platform Couch-a-thon, the SBFF will feature more than 30 films from Black filmmakers across the diaspora, including Nigeria, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Five are from local filmmakers: ‘Black Champagne’ by Jeremiah Williams, ‘RESPEK’ by Kamari Bright, ‘Headless Into Night’ by Nifemi Madarikan, ‘Retch’ by Tifa Tomb and Nicole Pouchet, and ‘Our Troll’ by D.J. Walker.”
Virtual Cannes Market: Arab Cinema Centre and Telescope Film launch database of Arab films (Ahram Online)
Ahram Online: Virtual Cannes Market: Arab Cinema Centre and Telescope Film launch database of Arab films. “Within the Virtual Cannes Market’s events, and aiming to expand the scope of the Arab cinema’s exposure internationally, Telescope Film announced the launch of Arab Cinema Centre’s microsite. Arab Films and Where to Find Them! is the opening motto for the new microsite, as it serves as a comprehensive English-language guide to Arab cinema.”
Study Breaks: The Power Of ‘Selfilm’ Is Inventing A New Cinematic Subgenre
Study Breaks: The Power Of ‘Selfilm’ Is Inventing A New Cinematic Subgenre. “It’s 7 p.m. and you’re ready to binge, assuming that content exists solely to comfort, to backload worries and delay the confrontation with the dreary world outdoors. Although the newly prescribed lifestyle of a hermit may precipitate greater escapism, it also welcomes the opportunity for self-exploration. It is impossible to regard film and television without one’s identity in mind, especially when so much of our quarantined lives are defined by the latest Netflix show. In an attempt to categorize and demystify this situation, an obscure word has found its way into my everyday thoughts: selfilm.”
Variety: Studios and Movie Theaters Want to Reopen, but Coronavirus May Still Scramble Plans
Variety: Studios and Movie Theaters Want to Reopen, but Coronavirus May Still Scramble Plans. “From delaying ‘Tenet’ by two weeks to pushing the Oscars by two months, Hollywood is scrambling to adjust to a new reality. In the coronavirus era, it’s nearly impossible to predict what the world will look like next week, much less for the rest of the year and even into 2021. Because of this persistent fluidity, studios have been gripped by a new and growing sense of uncertainty.”
Coronavirus movie delays: New release dates for 2020 and 2021 blockbusters (CNET)
CNET: Coronavirus movie delays: New release dates for 2020 and 2021 blockbusters. “When the latest James Bond premiere was called off because of the coronavirus outbreak, it came as a shock. But that was just the first in a cascade of movie blockbusters being canceled or postponed, causing a huge reshuffle of the release schedule throughout 2020 and into 2021.”
Forbes: The American Black Film Festival Goes Online This Year
Forbes: The American Black Film Festival Goes Online This Year. “The American Black Film Festival will be taking place online only this year. The festival, overseen by ABFF Ventures LLC, has been running in person for the last 24 years. The annual fest usually draws 7,000 to 10,000 people to Miami Beach, but this year due to social distancing concerns and the coronavirus, the festival will take place on August 21-30, 2020… While it will be online only, the schedule will still boast studio premieres, conversation, panels, business of entertainment seminars and virtual networking events. ”
WCCO: Walker Art Center Unveils Online Archive Of 3 Decades’ Worth Of Filmmaker Interviews, Retrospectives
WCCO: Walker Art Center Unveils Online Archive Of 3 Decades’ Worth Of Filmmaker Interviews, Retrospectives. “Over the course of the last three decades, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has hosted retrospectives of many of the most internationally renowned contemporary filmmakers, as part of their Dialogues and Film Retrospectives series. The roster of luminaries highlighted by the Walker since 1990 includes directors like Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Jane Campion, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Abbas Kiarostami, Joel and Ethan Coen, Claire Denis, and John Waters; and also actors like Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks, Lily Taylor, and Harry Belafonte.”
“Germ-Zapping Robots”: How Hollywood Might Kill Coronavirus Fears on Set (Hollywood Reporter)
Hollywood Reporter: “Germ-Zapping Robots”: How Hollywood Might Kill Coronavirus Fears on Set. “With plans for safely revving up production underway in Hollywood, the industry is looking at creative ways to make sure sets are sanitary in the age of COVID-19. One newly emerging strategy might have people wondering whether the pandemic is turning Hollywood into one of the sci-fi films it churns out: ‘germ-zapping robots.’ Yes, really. Hollywood has begun to take interest in a lab-certified disinfecting robot that uses pulses of ultraviolet (UV) light to kill SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.”
CNET: Coronavirus shut down Hollywood, but there may be a silver lining
CNET: Coronavirus shut down Hollywood, but there may be a silver lining. “Last month the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that, at least for next year’s Oscars ceremony, movies no longer need to fulfill a one-week run in a Los Angeles theater to be eligible for best picture. As long as a film had a scheduled theatrical release, it qualifies for a chance at an Oscar nomination. Out of the few films trickling out during the pandemic, several of the standouts were directed by women. These films could bring long-overdue recognition for female directors at the next Oscars, where women have historically missed out on nominations in the best director category.”
The Conservation: International film archives are streaming up a storm during lockdown. Australia’s movie trove isn’t even online
The Conservation: International film archives are streaming up a storm during lockdown. Australia’s movie trove isn’t even online. “Film archives began to be established in 1933 as archivists realised films needed to be safeguarded for their own sake, rather than for military or religious purposes. Nitrate film used from the early 1890s through the mid-1950s, and magnetic tape used from the mid-1940s to the early 2000s, cannot survive the test of time. So, in addition to managing storage environments, archives preserve films digitally. Commercial streaming services offer access to films, but they do not ensure this content is stored, saved and contextualised. They are not custodians of history or culture. Archives ensure recordings of the past remain meaningfully embedded in our contemporary life. In a time when the audiovisual is our primary mode of communication, the archive as an institution protecting and championing our shared history is more important than ever.”
