🔎 Desktop documentary ‘Feng Shui’

Tariffs tariffs everywhereMay Last Sunday President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce a plan calling for tariffs on films produced outside of the United States The White House almost forthwith walked back his message but the post left film industry professionals everywhere reeling and wondering what exactly does this all mean The answer Hard to say While other details about the proposal have come out in the last scant days it s still pretty unclear how a tariff usually imposed on a physical good imported from another country would work on something like a movie which involves a multitude of more variables in terms of production and distribution I spent this week speaking to Georgia film industry professionals and experts to get a sense of how the industry here is feeling about the debacle You can find that piece here Without further ado Action Speaking of production moving away from California according to a new summary California s share of top animated productions has fallen by since The company MoviePass has created a new app called Mogul where users can create virtual movie studios and compete against their friends by picking actors directors and films The Golden Globes will add a Best Podcast category to its lineup starting in Resurgens Gaming is launching a new video meeting accelerator and publishing division called Ghost Launchpad If you ever wished to die in an Eli Roth horror film now s your chance The director is offering custom death scenes to top investors in a new venture called The Horror Section This week s newsletter includes an interview with a filmmaker who just got a movie into a New York film festival and one last look at selected of my favorite movies coming out of the Atlanta Film Festival We ve also got reviews of two feature debut films Bonjour Tristesse and The Ugly Stepsister Plus a new episode of my podcast Crash Zoom and particular reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break Thanks for reading Sammie For the first time ever Sotheby s International Realty is hosting a global Open House Showcase on May and Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby s International Realty is proud to participate featuring listings like this Downtown Alpharetta end-unit townhome offering luxury finishes private outdoor living and elevator access SPONSOR MESSAGEPhoto provided by Kofi KingAtlanta filmmaker to debut Feng Shui at Changing Minds Young Filmmakers Festival Kofi King has been telling stories since he was a little kid The Southwest Atlanta native grew up recording videos of his action figures with his cousins and made a short film that premiered at his school s festival when he was a teenager before deciding to major in film at Columbia University Now he has a new film called Feng Shui that covers extremely personal ground The film is a desktop documentary a type of audiovisual essay that uses the computer screen as the camera lens instead of using a traditional camera and will premiere at this year s Changing Minds Young Filmmakers Festival in New York City on May Learn more about Kofi s film and the inspiration behind it here Scenthound salutes educators with free servicesSPONSORED BY SCENTHOUND To celebrate Lecturer Appreciation Week May - and thank our amazing educators Scenthound is offering FREE Basic Hygiene Services for educators furry family members throughout May Free institution includes Bath Ear Cleaning Nail Clipping Filing Teeth Brushing Let Scenthound pamper your pup while you continue to shape young minds Contact our Buckhead Dunwoody or Tucker locations to schedule your free operation must have valid ID ORIf you know an amazing educator pass this on Photo via Atlanta Film Festival s websiteFive more movies to watch from the Atlanta Film Festival You thought we were done but we re not The Atlanta Film Festival ended its in-person run on May While the virtual rendition of the festival will run until May I feel now s a good time to run down through chosen of my favorite movies that played Ahead of the festival I issued a list of seven movies to watch out for All my praise for those films still applies but this list includes five new films that I came out of the theater loving Check out my list here Photo by Marcel ZyskindBeauty is pain in The Ugly Stepsister WEEKLY FILM REVIEW The Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella is quite a bit more grisly than you might remember I won t get into all the gory details but as a quick refresher when the prince in the Brothers Grimm version shows up to test the lost slipper on all the women living in Cinderella s house one stepsister cuts off her toes in order to ensure that the slipper fits The other shaves off part of her heel It s a sign of the sisters vanity and trickery one which they are punished for while Cinderella is rewarded for her purity But the Brothers Grimm failed to consider perhaps the largest part pivotal question that this plot point raises what on God s green earth would possess a woman to mutilate her foot in order to fit into a damn shoe The Ugly Stepsister the directorial debut from Emilie Blichfeldt is more interested in that question than any other iteration of the tale prior answering it by way of a body horror extravaganza that will test your endurance of that genre by its end Read my full review here Photo provided by Greenwich Entertainment Bonjour Tristesse Who do I want to be when I grow up WEEKLY FILM REVIEW At the beginning of Bonjour Tristesse based on the novel previously adapted into a film in by Otto Preminger Elsa Nailia Harzoune and her boyfriend Raymond Claes Bang take in Raymond s -year-old daughter C cile Lily McInerny as she overlooks the French seaside She s standing in that particular way teenagers do trying to look nonchalant and in the pursuit of that endeavor hyper concerned with how she comes across She s imagining what she looks like to us Elsa whispers to Raymond This adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse written and directed by filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose is about just this While Fran oise Sagan s novel and Preminger s movie are about a young woman coming to terms with her own selfishness Chew-Bose s film is more about that time in a young person s life when they must decide who they want to be how they want the world to see them From that source material Chew-Bose has wrung a sensitive and sharp coming-of-age story Read my full review here For the first time ever Sotheby s International Realty is hosting a global Open House Showcase on May and Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby s International Realty is proud to participate featuring listings like this Downtown Alpharetta end-unit townhome offering luxury finishes private outdoor living and elevator access SPONSOR MESSAGEPhoto by Lola Scott design by Aaron StrandCrash Zoom an interview with Madison Hatfield Welcome to Crash Zoom a podcast where we take a deep dive into film and entertainment industry news For a normal episode of Crash Zoom me and my cohost indie filmmaker Aaron Strand would explore how things happening at the highest level trickle down and affect the independent artist But for the latest episode we spoke with actress writer director Madison Hatfield about what it s like to direct vertical dramas short-form video series made for viewing on your phone and her fresh essay The Billionaire Trope Check out that interview here Lights Camera Action It will perhaps come as no surprise to anyone reading this newsletter that I am an AI skeptic particularly when it comes to its use in film and art That being mentioned I really enjoyed this Vulture conversation between Jerry Saltz and David Wallace-Wells one AI-skeptic and the other AI-curious about what constitutes the difference between AI art and art made by humans I particularly love this kicker quote from Jerry Maybe when AI starts having sex and fears death it will start making great art Critics deserve profiles too and this one is a doozy Andre Sennwald became the movie critic for the Times in at the age of He died in at the age of But even in his short tenure he witnessed and attempted to make sense of an industry that was hurriedly evolving whether it be moving from black and white to color or the invention of the Hays Code Richard Brody in the past few days wrote a wonderful essay dissecting the work of Sennwald for The New Yorker You can check that out here Who do you think are our greatest movie stars The Big Picture has various thoughts particularly when it comes to the millennial and up demographic The podcast of late issued their rundown of the best movie stars over the age of Take a listen to see if you agree In current times s Scene was edited by Julie E Bloemeke The post Desktop documentary Feng Shui appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta