STF abuzz with COLONY

image New York City was a swarm with different kinds of bees on Tuesday night, as COLONY co-director Carter Gunn poses here at the Sixth Avenue newsstand outside the IFC Center. Inside the theater, it was a packed hive of activity for the film’s first sneak preview since its acclaimed world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The New York Times Urban Eye gave the following plug:

You’ve probably heard about the mass death of the world’s honeybees. Scientists are still debating how much to worry about it; filmmakers, though, are acting. The documentary “Colony” tackles the subject, shifting “seamlessly from macroimages of the swarming bees to close-ups of their fretting keepers who are struggling with the devastation,” Manohla Dargis writes. With its “attention to beauty, interview style and even pacing,” she compares the film to the works of Errol Morris.

In the Q&A, Gunn talked about the hazards of making the film, including 35 bee stings in one day. The screening attracted many STF newcomers, several of whom joined for the regular post-film celebration at the bar 99 Below.




LOOT wins while the Yankees lose

image LOOT made a sensational debut last night at Stranger Than Fiction with director Darius Marder in attendance. Not even the World Series stopped the theater from filling up. Winner of the jury prize at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, the film was introduced at STF by one of those jurors, Esther Robinson who praised the film for being full of surprises. Indeed, the most frequent comment heard after the show is that audience members didn’t think the film’s synopsis does justice to its splendors. Rather than dwell on the plot-line about World War II veterans going in search of buried wartime treasure, perhaps it’s better to take Sam Shepard’s word that it’s “a powerful evocation of fathers, sons, war and time, that sneaks up on you like a thief in the night.”  Or as Michael Tully wrote yesterday in HAMMER TO NAIL: “Darius Marder’s LOOT isn’t just proof that truth is stranger than fiction; in this case, it is infinitely richer than the very best of fiction.”  LOOT will open later this month at the IFC Center.

(Q&A photo courtesy of Tequila Minsky)




STF celebrates the 25th anniversary of THE GOOD FIGHT

image Matti Mattson, the 93-year-old veteran who fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, took the stage on Tuesday to a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd at Stranger Than Fiction (pictured). The occasion was the 25th anniversary screening of THE GOOD FIGHT, co-presented by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Mattson praised the filmmakers for capturing the spirit of the times when over 3,000 American soldiers volunteered to fight against the fascist forces in Spain. The filmmaking trio of Noel Buckner, Mary Dore, and Sam Sills were joined by the film’s consulting historian David Paskin in a Q&A to discuss the making of the film. They noted that the film was among the last round of projects to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under the administration of President Carter. It took over five years to complete and entailed over 100 interviews. Twenty-five years later that investment of energy is still paying dividends as a historical record. Among the STF audience were filmmakers who have previously presented their own work in the series including George Stoney, Ngawang Choephel, and David Leitner.




New film in STF fall line-up: HOOP DREAMS

image This year marks the 15th anniversary since HOOP DREAMS premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the audience award for Best Documentary.  Roger Ebert described this film as “one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.”

To celebrate this special anniversary, STF will screen HOOP DREAMS on Monday November 9th.  Due to the length of the film - the screening will commence at 7pm.  Filmmaker Peter Gilbert will be in attendance.  Tickets now on sale here.


STF hosts STILL BILL

Written by guest-host Hugo Perez

image Last Tuesday night, STF (with co-presenter SXSW) hosted the sold out New York premiere of Damani Baker and Alex Vlack’s STILL BILL, an intimate and engaging portrait of music icon Bill Withers.  Withers is one of those iconic figures whose name some people don’t recognize until you mention that he penned and performed songs like “Lean on Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, and “Lovely Day”.  But STILL BILL is not just your standard biopic of a music industry legend, it’s an examination of an artist who stopped publishing and performing at the height of his career and a man who wonders whether he still has something to say in today’s world.  Withers’ common sense philosophy of life suffuses his ruminations on his career – ruminations shared both with the camera, and with friends like Cornell West and Tavis Smiley who drop by for an impromptu visit.  Withers’ classic songs are woven in throughout the portrait through archival performances that compliment Withers’ reflections on his life and whether he wants to get back in the saddle again.




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Upcoming Screenings

Sep 20: THE HOUSE OF STEINBRENNER

image from THE HOUSE OF STEINBRENNER by Barbara Kopple
STF pre-season MONDAY SPECIAL (Season passes now on sale at early bird rate through Thurs. Sept. 16; Individual tickets go on sale Fri. Sept. 17, subject to availability) Love them or hate them, ...
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Sep 28: MARWENCOL

image from MARWENCOL by Jeff Malmberg
STF Fall Season Opening Night (Season passes now on sale at early bird rate through Thurs. Sept. 16; Individual tickets go on sale later in Sept.) STF kicks off its fall season with MARWENCOL, ...
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Oct 5: AMERICAN SPLENDOR

image from AMERICAN SPLENDOR by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
(Season passes now on sale at early bird rate through Thurs. Sept. 16; Individual tickets go on sale later in Sept.) STF pays tribute to Harvey Pekar, who recently died, with this special screening ...
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Oct 12: ON COAL RIVER

image from ON COAL RIVER by Francine Cavanaugh & Adams Wood
Coal River Valley, West Virginia is a community surrounded by lush mountains and a looming toxic threat. ON COAL RIVER follows a former miner and his neighbors in a David-and-Goliath struggle for ...
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Oct 19: THE CANAL STREET MADAM

image from THE CANAL STREET MADAM by Cameron Yates
Until an FBI bust upended her life, Jeanette Maier was a successful New Orleans madam. Her discreet clientele included a number of powerful, high-ranking politicians. The ensuing very public trial - ...
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Oct 26: TAKING ON THE KENNEDYS

image from TAKING ON THE KENNEDYS by Joshua Seftel
“A film that would be mistaken for a Robert Altman political satire if it weren’t absolutely and horribly true.” —USA TODAY When Kevin Vigilante took on Patrick Kennedy for a seat in the U.S. House ...
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Nov 2: WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU MOMMY)

image from WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU MOMMY) by Stephanie Wang-Breal
In presenting WO AI NI MOMMY with the Sterling Award for Best US Feature this past June, the jury at Silverdocs noted: “The film dives so deeply into its story that the filmmaker’s hands disappear. ...
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Nov 9: WAR DON DON

image from WAR DON DON by Rebecca Richman Cohen
Profiled in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an “up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film”, Rebecca Richman Cohen won Special Jury at SXSW and the ...
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Nov 16: 12TH & DELAWARE

image from 12TH & DELAWARE by Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the filmmaking team behind the 2006 Oscar-nominated doc JESUS CAMP, take us on another controversial journey with 12TH & DELAWARE.  Description from Sundance 2010 ...
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Nov 23: MARLENE

image from MARLENE by Maximilian Schell
Director Maximilian Schell got the reclusive Marlene Dietrich to agree to appear in this documentary only on the stipulation that she not be photographed as she looked today. Instead, we only hear ...
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Nov 30: SURVIVING HITLER: A LOVE STORY

image from SURVIVING HITLER: A LOVE STORY by John-Keith Wasson
Winner of the Inspiration Award at the 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival As a teenager in Nazi Germany, Jutta is shocked to discover she is Jewish. She joins the German resistance and meets ...
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