Directors Mona Eldaief and Jehane Noujaim discuss the twists and turns of RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA
It’s unclear whether the titular character in Rafea: Solar Mama would personally identify as a “feminist.” Still, the women in Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief’s documentary are certainly committed to advancing the roles of women in otherwise male-dominated cultures. The film follows Rafea and her aunt, Umm Badr, as they leave their families in Jordan and travel to The Barefoot College in India to study solar engineering alongside women from Kenya and Colombia. They are determined to develop skills that will allow them to better their own lives and the lives of those in their village, but the men at home remain unconvinced that this is the correct goal for women to pursue. The challenges that Rafea and Umm Badr face are ongoing, well past the narrative depicted in the film, but their ambition and desire for a better, more sustainable future is clear. Rafea: Solar Mama, which won the Audience Award at DOC NYC last fall, demonstrates that while no advancement in gender equality comes quickly and easily, hope and perseverance is what makes change possible.
After Tuesday’s screening, STF’s Thom Powers led a discussion with Noujaim, Eldaief, and a special guest.
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Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, directors of the film LEVIATHAN, are set to be honored at True/False this year.
This week the True/False Film Fest, set to run Feb. 28 – March 3 in Columbia, Missouri, announced the lineup for this year’s incarnation of the festival. Adam Benzine of Realscreen reported the news. The festival this week also announced that directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel would receive the True Vision Award for their body of work. The festival also said its True Life Fund would recognize Sebastian Junger’s doc WHICH WAY IS THE FRONT LINE FROM HERE? THE LIFE & TIME OF TIM HETHERINGTON.
Across the Atlantic, the Berlin International Film Festival kicked off on Feb. 7 and is slated to conclude on Feb. 17. On his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of the docs screening at the Berlinale this year. Adam Dawtrey of Variety took a look at the business side of the festival. And Tom Christie, writing for Indiewire, had a review of THE ACT OF KILLING from director Joshua Oppenheimer.
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Amy Nicholson shares her passion for the ride that inspired ZIPPER.
When Amy Nicholson set out to produce Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride, she planned to make a short film about the titular amusement park ride. After decades of providing fun and excitement to Coney Island’s visitors, the Zipper was set to retire. It was only after Nicholson began to question the reasons why the ride was leaving that she expanded the scope of the documentary to tell the story of Coney Island’s controversial development plans and the fight to preserve the neighborhood’s history and character. Zipper takes viewers inside the corridors of City Hall and along the boardwalk to explore the various perspectives on Coney Island’s evolving identity. If you’ve ever wondered how buildings and neighborhoods change so quickly, Zipper can serve as a primer.
The screening was packed with STF regulars and Zipper’s cast and crew. When the film ended, Nicholson joined STF’s Thom Powers for a discussion.
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THESE BIRDS WALK from filmmakers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq was one of the feature docs selected to screen at SXSW this year.
The South by Southwest Film Festival this week announced the lineup of its feature films, both documentary and narrative. At Realscreen, Kelly Anderson took a look at some of the docs that made the cut, as did Basil Tsiokos on his What (Not) to Doc blog.
Sundance news continued to make its way out of Park City this week as well. Writing for Indiewire, Jon Fougner examined the Sundance Institute’s Artists Services Program, which provides filmmakers with different means of getting their work to audiences. The hive mind of Indiewire’s Criticwire Network anointed AFTER TILLER by Lana Wilson and Martha Shane as the most highly rated feature doc to come out of Sundance. And Julie Fischer of MIT’s Open Doc Lab reviewed GOOGLE AND THE WORLD BRAIN by Ben Lewis.
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For most people on the indie film circuit, the Sundance Film Festival marks the start of the new year. Park City is where filmmakers go to earn buzz for their projects, get some press and maybe even ink a distribution deal. On Jan. 30 I spoke with Thom Powers about the documentary films at Sundance that garnered the most chatter and the biggest checks, among other subjects.
[Q&A has been edited for content and clarity]
Rahul Chadha: It seemed like so much of the press attention around Sundance was focused on sales. The Hollywood Reporter said that four docs sold for at least seven figures and I read a report that BLACKFISH elicited a bidding war from four or five distributors. Did you get the sense that sales were better this year, and if so, why do you think that was?
Thom Powers: Some of those figures are slightly inflated. I know at least one of those films that is being reported as a million dollar sale is a little under a million dollars. But the fact remains that there were some very strong doc sales, and notably the emergence of a new player in The Weinstein Company’s RADiUS brand run by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Tom previously worked for Magnolia, where he worked on several successful docs such as FOOD INC. and MAN ON WIRE. Months ago RADiUS announced involvement in the new Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld, THE UNKNOWN KNOWN, due out later this year. Tom told me they would be very selective about docs which left me unprepared for their recent buying streak. Their first Sundance acquisition was the opening night title 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, set in the music industry that gives it a solid commercial hook. Then RADiUS acquired INEQUALITY FOR ALL, which struck me as less obvious. But if you imagine it following in the footsteps of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH you can see the commercial appeal. Then they announced CUTIE AND THE BOXER, which has no celebrity connection and on the surface feels less obviously commercial, although it had strong word of mouth. So it seems RADiUS is trying out a wide range of docs and it’s good for the industry to have a new player in the mix. In addition to their strong showing, there was notable acquisitions by mainstay distributors including Sundance Selects, which bought DIRTY WARS and THE SUMMIT, and Magnolia Pictures, which bought BLACKFISH.
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