Film Reviews & Previews
THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS Q&A’s:
The filmmakers of THE IMPALER will participate in a Q&A after the 7:30 screening at the NoHo on Halloween.
NPR just gave CAPITAL a great review. Ella Taylor writes “Costa-Gavras’ film excels as a meticulously researched procedural that goes deep into the grime of greed, deception and cynical exploitation. But it is also a wickedly clever character analysis of a man more divided against himself than his preternatural calm suggests.”
The WHEN I WALK filmmakers will appear at the Music Hall for Q&A’s with special guests: Friday, November 1 after the 7:10 screening with Hannah Simone of FOX’s The New Girl and Saturday, November 2 after the 7:10 screening with national TV and radio personality/journalist Allison Hagendorf.
DRAGON DAY director Jeffrey Travis and actors Ethan Flower, Eloy Mendez, Asa Wallander and William Knight will participate in Q&A’s after the 5 and 9:55 PM screenings at the Playhouse on Friday and Saturday, November 1 and 2.
LION ARK producer and star Jan Creamer and director Tim Phillips will participate in Q&A’s after the 4:50 and 7:20 screenings at the Music Hall on Saturday, November 16 and after the 7:20 shows on Wednesday and Thursday, November 20 and 21.
http://www.vimeo.com/73373239
The director and producer of THE SQUARE, the acclaimed documentary about the Egyptian revolution, will participate in Q&A’s at the Monica this weekend. Director Jehane Noujaim and producer Karim Amer will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening and introduce the 9:55 PM screening on Saturday, November 2. Amer will also do Q&A’s after the 4:10 and 7:10 screenings on Sunday the 3rd.
Blood Brother is a breathtaking film packed with humanity. It chronicles the life of ROCKY BRAAT, a young American who, on a trip to India, finds himself volunteering at a group home for kids with HIV. With Rocky and the irrepressible children, it’s love at first sight and their lives soon become intertwined.
Fortunately for Rocky and film audiences, his good friend STEVE HOOVER just happens to be a gifted filmmaker. Skeptical at first, Hoover is persuaded to travel to India and document Rocky’s exploits. The result is a powerful and eloquent depiction of the situation at the group home, illuminating Rocky, the plight of the kids, village life in India, and the nature of love, amongst other things.
There’s scarcely a need to go into further detail about Blood Brother. Yes, it’s well-made, even unexpectedly stylized at certain points. But more than that it’s a transformative experience. Brilliantly, it compels us to watch things that are very hard to watch, yet does so with such love and tenderness that we never feel the need to turn our heads. Buoyed by Rocky’s courage, we feel that we too can look into the heart of suffering and face it with newfound resolve and compassion.
In a Q&A session at the Royal, Hoover related that all ticket revenue from Blood Brother will be donated to a non-profit recently founded to support Rocky’s work. If that’s not enough you can also donate directly HERE.
For Laemmle audiences Blood Brother is yet another example of film transcending entertainment, commerce, and one might argue, even art. It’s a must see.
– Marc H.