tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42698003836382601002024-03-12T16:24:59.719-07:00Dwight The ConnoisseurDwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.comBlogger501125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-47210958320617606732020-11-29T12:22:00.001-08:002020-11-29T12:22:22.136-08:0058th New York Film Festival-Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZcK5bGwse1_De7ADJVdw2aLXykKGCbWfUGH9ZM-WlcG4Yeml1jiq8PTydy5Cp1yvFSA6XoLPtjTPrsh0e0CF1qzHiWcX2mbyFQsti6FN14RZODAA43CPbLtJGLb8je5KpqMwFuWncmM/s1152/baldwin-paris-smoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZcK5bGwse1_De7ADJVdw2aLXykKGCbWfUGH9ZM-WlcG4Yeml1jiq8PTydy5Cp1yvFSA6XoLPtjTPrsh0e0CF1qzHiWcX2mbyFQsti6FN14RZODAA43CPbLtJGLb8je5KpqMwFuWncmM/s320/baldwin-paris-smoke.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>James Baldwin in Paris-Smithsonian Nationnal Museum of African American History<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCykrHVIReeXzDBHncz6kVnwuAu3hBmMUP7cw4YncjKnBULNqG4QGVsGnVwpL6Ut9gxmUIRP8Bk7hE-buD53sE0DIQx2MXX5OwkBF01feDnbEcbG47dYqYE4xKeFr1NF6jeNnB3vX3PE/s1000/James_Baldwin_37_Allan_Warrencopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCykrHVIReeXzDBHncz6kVnwuAu3hBmMUP7cw4YncjKnBULNqG4QGVsGnVwpL6Ut9gxmUIRP8Bk7hE-buD53sE0DIQx2MXX5OwkBF01feDnbEcbG47dYqYE4xKeFr1NF6jeNnB3vX3PE/s320/James_Baldwin_37_Allan_Warrencopy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>James Baldwin in London in 1976<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Y1yW3AYQuU5-D4HmU0t3aQc9FNMq9_uzwVPg5EGGwxPbIS7q26n1inw_XKF0vZxkeXMfFLZGdn4A9T521rp_MEnGYd3vEreW26rhgT4CpC-5jO31xWZu-q0tuSW9bvo7LlUABubk5YA/s959/960x0-3-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="959" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Y1yW3AYQuU5-D4HmU0t3aQc9FNMq9_uzwVPg5EGGwxPbIS7q26n1inw_XKF0vZxkeXMfFLZGdn4A9T521rp_MEnGYd3vEreW26rhgT4CpC-5jO31xWZu-q0tuSW9bvo7LlUABubk5YA/s320/960x0-3-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">James Baldwin and his good friend and fellow expatriate Beauford Delaney on a Paris Street in Saint Germain circa 1960-from the Beauford Delaney Estate</div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9FYqHDeN_8BuXbFpKXs1owwy6kO_w_mzaHYVbvF31AIeA2KNw-EXMVKf8IZfLLbdBWz2eH4R2YfJsZP19F_iFt3Fja29k6Pru2FnAUYQVS-Ms8r7O8HO-15gDP6rCUaPj_xFTKhB2XY/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="432" height="814" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9FYqHDeN_8BuXbFpKXs1owwy6kO_w_mzaHYVbvF31AIeA2KNw-EXMVKf8IZfLLbdBWz2eH4R2YfJsZP19F_iFt3Fja29k6Pru2FnAUYQVS-Ms8r7O8HO-15gDP6rCUaPj_xFTKhB2XY/w576-h814/image.png" width="576" /></a></div> <br /><p></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-13838439141718649312020-09-13T18:33:00.003-07:002020-09-13T18:34:54.676-07:002020 US OPEN MEN'S TITLE WON BY DOMINIC THIEM IN DRAMATIC COME-FROM-BEHIND VICTORY<p> <span color="var(--primary-text)" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dominic Thiem of Austria wins the 2020 US OPEN singles men's title becoming the first in 71 years to come-from-behind to Win. Also the first to do so in the Open Era. He beat Germany's Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(6) to win his first Grand Slam Singles title.</span></p><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" id="jsc_c_kr" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l tm8avpzi" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2652483264998534&set=a.1967446683502199&__cft__[0]=AZU_WDSYU8qT1sB08rXJEuD4oVJsX3DjmFp_B2q1PUiKfxv76NLGSUHjsA3OXRNedElw4YnEWCR8SnunM1NH95UXPR8VFEawtxygTE7MRkPPUg&__tn__=EH-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: break-word;">Share</span></div></div><div class="n00je7tq arfg74bv qs9ysxi8 k77z8yql i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 b5wmifdl hzruof5a pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 c5ndavph art1omkt ot9fgl3s" data-visualcompletion="ignore" style="border-radius: 4px; bottom: 0px; font-family: inherit; left: 0px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; transition-duration: var(--fds-duration-extra-extra-short-out); transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: var(--fds-animation-fade-out);"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="cwj9ozl2 tvmbv18p" style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><span class="rfua0xdk pmk7jnqg pfx3uekm ay7djpcl ema1e40h q45zohi1" data-html2canvas-ignore="true" style="clip-path: inset(50%); clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; width: 1px;"></span></div></div></div></div>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-44134359674428292612020-09-13T11:07:00.001-07:002020-09-13T11:07:13.787-07:00Wine of the Week: Juan Gil Monastrell Honoro Vera Organic Red Wine 2018-$10<p> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Wine of the Week: Juan Gil Monastrell Honoro Vera Organic Red Wine 2018-$10</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmvg8F9DtszCld1w5GX3gnRawma-XeouPQGCeN92F6bnzYmczJMT3y4G7DgSKbCy-nV7u8tqLjKsTem7E59Bjb9I3QYuuZphZDF-MWgOJ8NWQFHswWDeKaHYMuwZMYFe5K_O4ch_K6Os/s2048/20200913_113144+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmvg8F9DtszCld1w5GX3gnRawma-XeouPQGCeN92F6bnzYmczJMT3y4G7DgSKbCy-nV7u8tqLjKsTem7E59Bjb9I3QYuuZphZDF-MWgOJ8NWQFHswWDeKaHYMuwZMYFe5K_O4ch_K6Os/s320/20200913_113144+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">What wine goes best with BBQ, Pizza or a good, juicy hamburger (made with organic grass feed beef, of course). The answer is simple- Juan Gil Monastrell Honoro Vera Organic Red Wine 2018. At just $10 a bottle, it is a surprisingly rich and satisfying wine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Juan Gil is one of the premiere Spanish producers, and this beauty, made from indigenous Monastrell grapes, otherwise known as Mourvedre, is from the southern region of Jumilla, Spain, where the grape has been grown for centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Grown in the mountains high above the Mediterranean Sea, in sandy, stony limestone soils, the grapes must struggle to find moisture. They receive very little rainfall, in spite of their proximity to marine influence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Harvested by hand, the grapes are then vinified in stainless steel tanks for two weeks at very low temperature. Then Honoro Vera Organic 2018 is kept refrigerated until bottling. This process gives the wine a very fresh, fruity taste that makes it a great companion with hearty dishes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">This young wine is unoaked. That means that only the vibrant fresh fruit flavors of the Monastrell grape shine through. The Gil family has another winery, Bodega Ateca, which produces some really pleasant wines in the DO Calatayud bearing the same name, Honoro Vera. For more on Juan Gil wines visit </span><span style="background: white; color: #0e7744; font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">bodegasjuangil.com/en/.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-22797514739171183092020-09-10T21:46:00.000-07:002020-09-10T21:46:14.316-07:002020 US OPEN SHOCKER PITS NAOMI OSAKA AGAINST VICTORIA AZARENKA SATURDAY, 3PM CT ON ESPN, USOPEN.ORG<p> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Shocker throws Serena out as Osaka cruises into 2020 US OPEN finals</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMBXucKYJZFuf6pK2iNdH08vvQELGimpdMWZMmCtY0mNhAWxKOPlGf88ytTtcu3RqOIQIdmyDw7vs-T-jtm4pnIvG07TsWSNUhT-NbJ10OentamnOnvbmbEoyZKDEJRugeTpp0MVwWOA/s1222/naomi-osaka-tennis-september-2020-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="817" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMBXucKYJZFuf6pK2iNdH08vvQELGimpdMWZMmCtY0mNhAWxKOPlGf88ytTtcu3RqOIQIdmyDw7vs-T-jtm4pnIvG07TsWSNUhT-NbJ10OentamnOnvbmbEoyZKDEJRugeTpp0MVwWOA/s320/naomi-osaka-tennis-september-2020-01.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">An ankle-impaired Serena Williams lost out on a possible rematch with Naomi Osaka in the 2020 US OPEN final. Victoria Azarenka bludgeoned the tiring superstar 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 to face Osaka in the women’s singles final Saturday at 3pm CT. Catch the match live on ESPN, ESPN.com or on the official site at usopen.org. Just click on ‘Watch Live’ in the upper right hand corner of the site to catch all the action.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Williams used her signature power serve and mighty cross-court backhand to surge past Azarenka in the first game. The tide began to turn in the second set, with Azerenaka beginning to write her own story with some significant shots deep into enemy territory. The denouement came midway in the second set, when Serena injured her Achilles tendon (how symbolic!), requiring a three-minute medical break for some significant mummy’s tomb wrapping. It proved to be prophetic. In spite of some brief flashes of the aces that powered her into the semis and a few confounding shots, Azarenka managed to pull off a win that was dazzling to behold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“She won Cincinnati, so that’s good. She’s just the kind of person that always lifts herself to an unseen level. She’s someone you always want to root for, unless you’re playing against her, of course.” The two had paired off at least a dozen times over the years, with Azarenka winning their previous meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Naomi Osaka previously knocked out a plucky Jennifer Brady in the afternoon tea set. She gave a Master Class to the rising American star in a match that showed that Osaka has the staying power to be the next reigning Queen of Tennis. Seeming to shed her shyness, she told a reporter in the post-match news conference that “I don’t live in the past,” when asked if she was losing any sleep over a possible rematch with Serena in the US Open final. Fortune had other things in mind and Osaka will meet Azarenka at 3pm CT Saturday at Flushing Meadows. Ironically, Osaka would have faced Azarenka in the combined Western and Southern that she declined to play in due to her protest over Black Lives Matter, so it will be an interesting match to watch. Catch all the action on ESPN cable or online or at usopen.org.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-43103000134425421032020-09-05T03:51:00.002-07:002020-09-05T03:51:18.629-07:00MOVIE REVIEW: #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump-Video on Demand and in Virtual Theaters Everywhere<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Movie Review: #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump ON DEMAND EVERYWHERE NOW</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWW4sFrdZ2u6jbBoaQlpSgCf3gLbCRamA2K1LjF-4KHhxfgcL9prEH7jPlmjiOngxPVvF9nhswTokZQ2Cw0AeEkUJSrFLowvDlWcEsXYJt2kS9yYY7hwRXAk8uZ9Mqk06ekTdhNeQXaLE/s1100/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="734" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWW4sFrdZ2u6jbBoaQlpSgCf3gLbCRamA2K1LjF-4KHhxfgcL9prEH7jPlmjiOngxPVvF9nhswTokZQ2Cw0AeEkUJSrFLowvDlWcEsXYJt2kS9yYY7hwRXAk8uZ9Mqk06ekTdhNeQXaLE/s320/unnamed.png" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Is Donald Trump fit to serve as President and Commander In Chief? I can answer that with one word—No!” So says psychiatrist and former Georgetown University professor Justin Frank at the outset of director Dan Partland’s startling documentary #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump, now streaming on all major platforms.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Trump is a sociopath, a sadist, a con artist, a racist, a misogynist, a sexist in general, and I think it is a problem,” Frank expounds, and that’s just within the first 10 minutes of the film.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">#UNFIT begins with Day One of the Trump presidency when then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer gives an impromptu news conference in which he inflates the size of the Inauguration Day crowd. Citing “false reporting” by the media, Spicer declares, “This was the largest audience to witness an Inauguration, PERIOD!” When pressed by NBC’s Meet The Press host Chuck Todd on the matter, the President’s personal advisor, Kellyanne Conway profers, “Sean Spicer, our press secretary, offered ‘alternative facts,’” to which Todd, retorted; “’Alternative Facts’ are not Facts. They’re Falsehoods!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Her husband, George Conway, is an attorney and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group that has been running negative TV ads during the current presidential campaign. He also was one of the attorneys who represented Paula Jones in her lawsuit against U.S. president Bill Clinton. Conway says he first started suspecting that something was wrong with the President’s state of mind when he spotted an April, 2017 article by Alex Morris in Rolling Stone magazine entitled “Trump’s Mental Health: Is Pathological Narcissism the Key to Trump’s Behavior?”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Conway says a light bulb went off in his head. “That’s it. He’s a malignant narcissist.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">In an emotional moment later in the film, Conway is nearly in tears. In discussing whether or not Donald Trump is a racist, as many have charged, he reveals that he is half Filipino. “My mother came to the United States from the Philippines in the late 1950s. So I’m half Filipino, the other half of me is part Irish, part Scottish, a classic American ’mutt.’ I’ve always assumed that people aren’t racist but (after Trump’s ‘Good People on Both Sides’ comment following the Tiki Torch parade in Charlottesville), I guess some people are.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">#UNFIT continues along in that vein, with corroboration from the aforementioned Dr. Frank, former professor at Georgetown University and author of the book “Trump on the Couch,” John Gartner, psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of the book “Duty to Warn,” Lance Dodes, Psychiatrist and author of “Breaking Addiction,” Malcolm Nance, author of “The Plot to Betray America,” Anthony Scarmamucci, former White House Communications Director and author, “Trump: The Blue Collar President, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Historian and Author, “Strongmen,” among others.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Most notable is Tony Schwartz, author, with Trump, of “The Art of the Deal” which catapulted Trump into the national spotlight and an eventual groundbreaking Reality TV show, The Apprentice, which engraved his persona into the national psyche with his signature phrase ‘You’re Fired!” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Schwartz faces the camera and says emphatically to MSNBCs disgraced ‘Hardball’ host Chris Matthews, “One of the problems here is that Donald Trump doesn’t have empathy. He does not feel emotions like care and…’He’s a sociopath?” Matthews interjects in his classic, annoying fashion. “Yes, there is no question that he is a sociopath. Which means that he has neither a conscience nor a heart.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">From the moment Donald Trump descends the elevator at his eponymous Trump Tower, announcing his run for the presidency, to the recent day in July when the United States records its 100,000<sup>th</sup> death due to the Corona Virus, #UNFIT presents a searing portrait of a mental and political crisis unfolding in real time. The film asserts that Donald Trump represents a clear and present danger.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">#UNFIT also explores in depth the relationship between Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump, the legendary real estate developer who is largely responsible for reshaping the real estate landscape of Queens and The Bronx. Known for his ruthlessness and racial bias, he was sued by the federal government for racial discrimination. Trump proudly admits that he learned everything that he knows, literally, at his father’s knee.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> The apple did not fall far from the tree. In a 1996 interview with the BBC show Hard Talk, a young Donald Trump tells an interviewer, “I believe in an eye for an eye. If someone goes out of their way to hurt you, I think that, if you have the opportunity, you should go out of your way to do a number on them.” The look in his eyes as he makes that admission is chilling.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump is the new documentary now playing on all On Demand platforms that slices and dices the precarious mental state of the current sitting president. You must watch this film before you vote.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Multi-Emmy winning director Dan Partland (A and E’s Intervention, CNN’s The Sixties, and American Race and Charles Barkley for TNT) gives a jaw-dropping analysis of the dangerous behavior of the self-proclaimed ‘stable genius.’ Further drawing on analogies and gripping file film charting the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 1920s, and Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, the film paints a grim portrait.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">In an article entitled “Tsunami of Untruths,” The Washington Post estimates that the president has hit a milestone by making more than 20,000 false or misleading claims while in office.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Pursuing Truth is to the mind like food is to the body,” Dr. Frank declares at the conclusion of the film. “Without pursuing Truth, the psyche starves. And Trump’s psyche has been starving for a long time.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">#UNFIT is On Demand everywhere. Visit <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://unfitfilm.com&source=gmail&ust=1599389293720000&usg=AFQjCNFUqZOMYpiWHz0w9XWTQW72EqJaZw" href="http://unfitfilm.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">unfitfilm.com</a> for more information.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-45499168291075262342020-08-25T07:38:00.001-07:002020-08-25T07:38:44.389-07:00ENTERTAINMENT: "MORGANA," BIO/DOC OF HOUSEWIFE TO EROTIC FILM STAR<p> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Entertainment” “Morgana”, a female Icarus soars to erotic sun</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DEB6SqC0ihtT2_x_eADr-OjLIeBc2O5QCsEPiB8zuvxTVq64VL2V3hZHTn-JThyphenhyphenLrsbQ11XJ-cxrAmQhypf8P5PK85Ml6qE_UVIWRykww7Th5qbyyf8btX7EWWTXtV40HgmA_oVSAqE/s1240/1565921718292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DEB6SqC0ihtT2_x_eADr-OjLIeBc2O5QCsEPiB8zuvxTVq64VL2V3hZHTn-JThyphenhyphenLrsbQ11XJ-cxrAmQhypf8P5PK85Ml6qE_UVIWRykww7Th5qbyyf8btX7EWWTXtV40HgmA_oVSAqE/s640/1565921718292.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana is a quixotic but riveting documentary focused on the inexplicable rise of an overweight, abused housewife on the outer fringes of 50, to stardom in the world of erotic films. From a tiny burg on the outskirts of Victoria, Australia, Morgana resurrects from the ashes of a broken marriage and suicidal depression to reinvent herself as an influential independent filmmaker.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">A first-time feature by directors and writers Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess, Morgana dazzles in its revelatory bliss, even as it pushes the limits of common wisdom and propriety. The film, which premiered at the 2019 Melbourne Film Festival, has won awards at festivals from Sydney to San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana Muses (yes, that is her real name) spent 20 years in a loveless, sexless marriage. Divorcing after years of misery, she made the desperate decision to hire a male escort to have one last fling before committing suicide. Rather than reinforcing her sense of hopelessness, the encounter instead led her to believe that there was something better in store. She felt liberated, and began exploring a part of herself that had been buried beneath layers of self-loathing and emotional repression.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">After hearing about a competition for first time erotic film makers, Morgana decided to turn her male escort into the co-star of her first film, a self portrait entitled Duty Bound, which ‘SURPRISE!” captured the Petra Joy Award for first time film makers in 2012. Since then, her films have screened all over the world and captured awards in leading erotic festivals, such as Cinekink New York, the Berlin Porn Film Festival in 2015 and three awards at the 2017 Toronto Porn Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Inspired by her late father’s wanderlust (“My father had a choice; move to Argentina or Australia. He flipped a coin and went to Australia.”) So, she struck out for Berlin, the historic epicenter of free sexual expression. “Why go to therapy,” she mused (pardon the pun), when I can go to Berlin and be weird.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">The move paid off with dividends. Using money from her divorce settlement, Morgana began producing and starring in her own films, working with award-winning filmmaker Josie Hess. When Morgana got the idea to do a wildly imaginative film, documenting her 50<sup>th</sup> birthday, Josie enlisted the aid of fellow punk rock and erotic filmmaker Isabel Peppard. The rest, as they say, is erotic film history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana’s vivid concept of having herself suspended naked in an elaborate bondage installation as a birthday gift to herself blossomed into a full-scale feature-length bio doc, tracing her miserable roots in rural Victoria to the BDSM clubs of Berlin and beyond. What followed were a flurry of titles from the newly spawned team; its My Birthday and I’ll Fly If I Want To-2014, I Am Whole 2015, Having My Cake 2015, Breathtaking 2016, Labia of Love 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">In Morgana, the Cinematography by Hess and Peppard is arresting. A series of Miniature set pieces designed and built by Peppard and filmed by Gerald Thompson are a stroke of genius. The punk-influenced score by Jordan Gilmour accentuates the high wire daring of Morgana’s imaginings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana found herself the darling of the erotic film world. Instead of fueling elation, it plunged her deeper into depression. “The last 3 years have been a whirlwind. I had come full circle. So many highs, but I knew it was just a matter of time before I would fall. (Bi-polar and depressed) I felt that sometimes it’s better to feel worthless, then you don’t have so far to fall.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana faces her demons head on and wrestles them, literally, to the ground with her artful films. There are dazzling images that strokes of pure cinematic genius throughout the film. Her images probe deep beneath layers of emotional suppression and erupt a subterranean volcano of sensuality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Morgana is an empowering film that shatters all preconceptions of what erotic films are all about. More than anything, Morgana is a film about empowerment and the willingness to risk everything to rise to meet the horizon of your wildest dreams. Morgana premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival 2020 and will soon be available VOD. It will screen digitally at the festival through Sept. 2. For further details, visit morganadocumentary.com.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-38771472561150403742020-08-19T16:06:00.004-07:002020-08-19T16:06:40.626-07:002020 US OPENS SWINGS INTO AUG 31 START DESPITE STAR DROPOUTS<p> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">ENTERTAINMENT: US OPEN SWINGS ON Aug. 31 DESPITE TOP PLAYER DROPOUTS</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Nadal, Halep skip on corona fears, Serena eyes 24th Grand Slam title</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0QFxvDqzTEOjVOwI7N_U5o2D1KMjNnwmC_WzQ6K9URscSyPSLwm7tJ_N9OO3L1Pmj6Y9YgPchSbidKbrfEA-cFwB_-g5vLqFG-ctlftgcLW8N_4ymlt2Bfpo6uF5HvLUj0m3nIoZpc0/s360/SER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0QFxvDqzTEOjVOwI7N_U5o2D1KMjNnwmC_WzQ6K9URscSyPSLwm7tJ_N9OO3L1Pmj6Y9YgPchSbidKbrfEA-cFwB_-g5vLqFG-ctlftgcLW8N_4ymlt2Bfpo6uF5HvLUj0m3nIoZpc0/s0/SER.jpg" /></a></div><p>Serena Williams has been undertaking a rigorous training regimen</p><p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bEBbCeFn-cQi05rFPoaVqrr4khp3_pTLDmIsCPhAD4VH_MyUg4zxVi_toBpafXq7s5CDgbU3wbmHGi5CO_xN2D0TLNZY2mMv1BhPj9Qs3xdK4bwiPaivqBzGSh5jtPF-p08oKc-ixfw/s920/i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bEBbCeFn-cQi05rFPoaVqrr4khp3_pTLDmIsCPhAD4VH_MyUg4zxVi_toBpafXq7s5CDgbU3wbmHGi5CO_xN2D0TLNZY2mMv1BhPj9Qs3xdK4bwiPaivqBzGSh5jtPF-p08oKc-ixfw/s640/i.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Naomi Osaka was hesitant to commit, but has entered with her coach saying her expectation of repeating her dramatic 2018 title wine over Serena Williams "will be low."<p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">The US Open is set to begin August 31 at the Billy Jean King Tennis Center in New York, in spite of the withdrawal of some of the top players in the game.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">USTA CEO and Executive Director Mike Dowse told a national Media Conference Call on Health and Safety Protocols that many of the competitors have already started arriving at the tournament’s bio-secure compound at the Marriott on Long Island. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">This will be the first non-spectator US Open ever, with the stands devoid of fans and the players on lockdown due to rigorous multi-tiered health and safety protocols for them and their entourage. The same will apply to the phalanx of service personnel, drivers, caterers and the army corps of support staff that makes such a massive undertaking possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">A weakened field of top tier female players could mean that Serena William’s chance of gaining that elusive 24<sup>th</sup> Grand Slam Singles Title has just been ratcheted up a notch. Her flight to Grand Slam-Heaven has just gotten a First Class ticket with the withdrawals of World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia and No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania. Irina Khromacheva of Russia replaces Halep in the main draw.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">16-year-old tennis sensation Coco Gauff is signed up to compete. She has her eye keenly on upsetting the 38-year-old Serena’s chances.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Naomi Osaka, No. 3, who defeated Serena in a tear-and-tantrum drama for the 2018 US Open title has announced through her management team that she will compete in this year’s tournament. Her coach has already telegraphed a bid for sympathy with the ploy that her “expectation would be low.” That remains to be seen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">There’s plenty of star-power to go around in spite of the many withdrawals. Besides Serena, No.1 seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, No. 2 Sofia Kenin, are joined by Petra Kvitova and the powerful Spaniard Garbine Muguruza.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal will not return to defend his US Open title for what would have been a possible fifth win for fear of his safety because he did not feel that the pandemic is under control. Aussie Nick Kyrgios says he won’t show up for the same reason, to the disappointment of no one. Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 US Open Champion, is also out as is somersault sensation Gael Monfils of France.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">There is some good news. Novak Djokovic, the World No. 1, and the hardest working man in tennis and three-time US Open champion, leads the entry list that includes seven of the world’s Top Ten men. The list is an impressive one; No. 3 Dominic Thiem was expressing second thoughts, but so far remains in. No. 5 Danill Medvedev, who dropped to Nadal in an exhaustive 2019 US Open final, is back seeking a better outcome. No. 4 Roger Federer had previously withdrawn due to aright knee injury, that just leaves the speedway wide open for the rest of the men’s field, which includes No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, No. 7 Alexander Zverev, No. 8 Matteo Berrettini, No. 10 David Goffin and 2014 US Open champion, No. 37 Marin Cilic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">The good new is that with the withdrawals of some of tennis’ top cash and crowd draws dropping out, a host of hopefuls have moved into the Main Draw.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">There’s a sizeable purse for the winners, in spite of the drain on revenues due to no ticket sales and reduced sponsorship opportunities. Nearly 95% of the cash prize money is guaranteed, with the total prize money pool at $53.4 million, down a mere 6.7% from last year. The men’s and women’s singles champions will each receive $3 million to fill the silver chalice replica they’ll take home, down 22% from last year. First-round prize money gets a 5% boost from $58 grand for 2019 to $61,000. Second and third round money remains unchanged. In addition to holding reasonably steady on the prize money, all of the players stand to get a boost from a total of $7.6 million the USTA has set aside for monetary assistance for players who have had their earnings reduced this year by the nearly five month suspension of the tour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">The 13 Americans who received direct entry into this year’s tournament are: No. 21 John Isner, of Greensboro, N.C.; No. 24 Taylor Fritz, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; No. 39 Reilly Opelka, of Delray Beach, Fla.; No. 45 Sam Querrey, of Las Vegas; No. 55 Tennys Sandgren, of Gallatin, Tenn.; No. 57 Tommy Paul, of Delray Beach; No. 63 Steve Johnson, of Redondo Beach, Calif.; No. 81 Frances Tiafoe, of Hyattsville, Md.; No. 83 Mackenzie McDonald, of Orlando, Fla.; No. 102 Marcos Giron, of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; No. 111 Denis Kudla, of Arlington, Va.; No. 119 Jack Sock, of Kansas City, Mo.; and No. 126 Bradley Klahn, of Los Angeles.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">There’s plenty of opportunity to watch the 2020 US Open. ESPN is presenting first-to-last-ball coverage of the tournament for its 12<sup>th</sup> consecutive year with nearly 140 hours on TV via ESPN and ESPN2. Tennis fans will also have the opportunity for a digital grounds pass with more than 1,000 hours of coverage from all courts streaming live across ESPN3, ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Tennis Channel will also deliver daily US Open preview shows and extensive match encore programming. The 2020 US Open is from August 31 to September 13 live from Flushing Meadows, New York. Visit usopen.org for complete information.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-86571600443271387942020-08-17T11:46:00.000-07:002020-08-17T11:46:09.711-07:00Wine of the Week-From Portugal With Love-Quita De Santiago Alvarinho Reserva 2018-$17.59<p> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">WINE OF THE WEEK-SANTIAGO ALVARINHO RESERVA 2018-$17.59</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfPLDl2roXq3XvTK05SyJSxzX4t7y7uBW3O4ZTNLk4MBNm8sIFPJMgRUbXeAgVFwy1J-z3v92JU938gOgpCRpwD7sAgBLeNc_2Le9O7xsUPNdU_UfdKCVNz70FeqtjbJyjAWPuS6csuk/s907/0-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="680" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfPLDl2roXq3XvTK05SyJSxzX4t7y7uBW3O4ZTNLk4MBNm8sIFPJMgRUbXeAgVFwy1J-z3v92JU938gOgpCRpwD7sAgBLeNc_2Le9O7xsUPNdU_UfdKCVNz70FeqtjbJyjAWPuS6csuk/s640/0-1.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Fresh flowers. Hints of jasmine and orange blossoms, with flavors of fresh Asian pears and a faint touch of mint, Quinta De Santiago Alvarinho Reserva 2018 ($17.59), is the elegant, rich, and full-bodied white wine you’ve been waiting for. From Portugal’s Vinhos Verde region, and specifically, the Sub-region of Mancao and Melgaco, its the wine you want to have with your favorite dish of Pad Thai, Shrimp Kung Pao, Korean “Candy” Chicken, or Mongolian Ramen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Made from 100% Alvarinho grapes, this is the go-to wine for the waning days of summer. With its rich fruit flavor and bright minerality, it goes with a variety of summertime dishes, even lending itself to heartier fare, like a whole salmon roasted on the grill and stuffed with hot and sweet peppers and an abundance of oregano and sage. Because of its close affinity to spicy Asian dishes, I decided to take a cultural leap and try one of the New Orleans favorites that I grew up with, Seafood Gumbo. When you think about it, what goes into an Asian stir-fry and a gumbo isn’t all that different. With the exception of building the ‘Roux’, or rich spicy gravy made with the pan drippings, making a Gumbo isn’t that different from building a stir-fry. The blend of sweet and spicy peppers, fresh garden oregano, sage and garlic and onion and a heady seafood broth derived from fresh Gulf Shrimp and Blue Crab from Galveston and, of course, a splash of Alvarinho, made for a dance party in the mouth. Instead of the usual fluffy white rice, I used wild rice, which gave the dish an added nutty flavor that melded just perfectly with the Alvarinho.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">This is a finely crafted wine, using both old world and modern techniques to create a truly unique expression of Alvarinho. The wine is harvested by hand and the grapes are pressed gently to extract the concentrated juice. A short pre-fermentation maceration and the juice is off to temperature controlled cold fermentation before being aged in French oak barrels (70%), and stainless steel tanks (30%). The wine is allowed to remain on the lees until bottling. The distinctively shaped green bottle caresses the golden colored wine with flecks of spring green, a hint of the elegance therein.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">For a white wine, Santiago Alvarinho Reserva has a lot of backbone. It’s imbued with 14% alcohol, which gives it substantial legs and a hefty mouth feel that is unique for a white wine. The freshness and mineral character and pronounced aromatics derives from its unique micro-terroir along the Minho River. Protected from marine influences of the Atlantic, the wine stands out from others in the region, giving it a distinct expression of the Alvarinho grape. Versatile with all kinds of seafood, chicken, veal, or just a plate of cheese and some nice sausages and cured meats, this is a wine for every mood. If you’re still on self-imposed lockdown with the pandemic, you couldn’t ask for a more pliable companion. Quinta De Santiago, Alvarinho Reserva 2018-$17.59. From Portugal with Love! Visit quintadesantiago.pt for more details.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></p>Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-52594042961559348102020-07-22T12:05:00.000-07:002020-07-22T12:05:00.993-07:00MOVIE REVIEW-HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL OPENS FRIDAY JULY 24 AT CHICAGO'S MUSIC BOX VIRTUAL THEATER<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Directed by Gero von Boehm, Opening July 24 in Chicago’s Music Box Virtual Theater at musicboxtheatre.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Everybody remembers a bad picture. Nobody remembers the pain you went through to get a good picture.” Those were the immortal words of the great, celebrated and somewhat off-beat fashion photographic genius Helmut Newton, the subject of director Gero von Boehm’s expressive documentary Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful. It opened Friday July 24 in Chicago’s Music Box Virtual Theater at musicboxtheatre.com.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">The film is an Official Selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Helmut Newton is considered one of the most important and controversial photographers of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century. His photographs appeared regularly in in Vogue, both in the USA and internationally, Elle, Playboy and Marie-Claire, among others. He was the subject of numerous international solo exhibitions and established his own museum in Copenhagen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“World famous photographer Helmut Newton died today in a car crash in West Hollywood,” an off-screen narrator intones early in the film. Dead at 83, Newton left behind a plethora of unforgettable, sometimes shocking images that lept from the pages of Vogue and other publications, creating the images that were the calling cards of fashion legends Karl Lagerfeld and Yves St. Laurent, among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Legendary Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour explains:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“In Helmut’s visual world, the women are everything. “<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"><br />Helmut Newton liked to explain it thusly, “Men are just accessories, like hats and gloves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> Famed Italian actress and frequent Helmut model Isabella Rossellini sums it up best; “Helmut doesn’t just look at women as a sexual object. It’s much more complicated than that. A Helmut Newton woman is strong, provocative and in charge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“At the same time, the photos are an expression of machismo, but also an expression of a culture. Men are attracted to women. At the same time, they are also angry at them. Because they ARE attracted to them, it makes them (the men) vulnerable, and that makes men resentful!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">That psychological conundrum sheds some light on the iconic photographs that Newton took with perhaps his most controversial subject, the performance artist and singing legend Grace Jones. Newton photographed Jones lying nude with a knife in her hand, poised to attack some unseen assailant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“He seemed a little bit perverted,” Jones said of her first impression of Newton . “But, so am I. So it’s allright! His idea for the photo was erotic, but with dimensions. it had depth. It told a story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“ I watched everything he did, because he took the picture so quickly. He was waiting for just the right moment, when the light was coming down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“ I remember I was lying there naked on a cot, and he put a knife in my hand. The way that the light cast a shadow as it was moving, at one point it covered just over this part here ,” she says, pointing to her private area. “ But there was never anything vulgar about it. It was beautiful. It was done as if it was something to add to the story. “<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">She continues. “He (Helmut) waits just until the light hits the knife before he takes the picture. But there’s no one else in the picture, so it leaves the rest to your imagination. You’re still wondering, because it tells a story.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Helmut loved to photograph celebrities from all walks of life; from politicians and Hollywood icons to social trend-setters. His errant lens fell on everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Dennis Hopper and Liz Taylor to Playboy’s Hugh Hefner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“If I’m going to do a portrait,” Newton intones, “it has to be something with people that have power. Either political power, financial power, or sexual power. They make pretty good subjects for my camera,” he says offhandedly with a laugh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Fashion editors competed to throw assignments his way. So much so that they accepted even his wildest conceptions without reservation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> For some reason, Newton had an obsession with chickens. That obsession resulted in a series of fashion shoots involving uncooked chickens splayed with raw provocation on a counter juxtaposed with a model wearing expensive jewelry or clothing. Helmut Newton tells the story of this odd fixation. “So I’m going through this kitchen and the cook has prepared a chicken to be put in the oven. It was lying there, just as in my photo, with the legs spread out and lying next to it, the string to tie the legs together as if it was looking at me. And then came the ‘moment’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“I was given an assignment to shoot some expensive jewelry for Bulgari. When the people there saw the photos in the magazine, they almost passed out. They said, ‘How can this guy photograph our million dollar rocks with this bloody mean chicken, that is lying so provatively on the table?’ The photo shows the hand of a woman and she is wearing very expensive jewelry. But, she is obviously in the kitchen and she is preparing the chicken. And I said to them…’Why not?’ I find these two opposites madly exciting!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;"> Vogue Editor and photo stylist Phyllis Posnick tells another amusing Helmut ‘chicken’ story. “So I called him and said that we were doing an article on Fried Chicken and would he be interested in doing a picture. There was a long pause, and he said, ‘I’ve always wanted to photograph a chicken in high heels!” So we got a tiny pair of heels from the Doll Museum in Paris and flew them straight from Paris to his apartment in Monte Carlo. His assistant walked me up the hill to his butcher and I picked out the chicken with the best looking legs and took it back to him and he shot the picture in his kitchen.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Helmut Newton was born Helmut Neussaedter in 1920s Berlin. He legally changed his name to Helmut Newton in Melbourne in 1946. He says that growing up in Berlin, he became acutely aware of the perils of being Jewish in the throes of growing Anti-Semitism. He tells this story with wry humor. “As a teenager, I was thrown out of the local park for trying to undress a girl underwater in the pool. The park had a sign at the entrance that read ‘No Dogs Or Jews allowed.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Helmut dropped out of high school and took an apprenticeship with a local fashion magazine run by a woman who went only by the name Yva. “I worshipped the ground she walked on,” Helmut recalled joyfully. “Through her, I learned everything…lighting, composition. I was truly an apprentice in every sense of the word. And I loved every minute of it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">At that time, fashion magazines only used sketches of imaginary models to show off the latest styles. Yva revolutionized that concept for the entire industry by becoming the first to use live models in her fashion spreads. Helmut would become her star photographer. Sadly, Yva would die in a concentration camp, presumably in 1942.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">When the Nazis rose to power in 1938, Helmut fled to Trieste and jumped aboard a steamship bound for China ( “I remember the name. It was the Conte Rossa), He had gotten a job as a foreign correspondent for. “I was a terrible reporter,” he laughs. “By the time I got my rig set up, the story had passed. Everybody was long gone. I got fired within two weeks, and wound up stranded on the streets of Shanghai without a penny in my pocket.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">In time, he made his way to Australia, and that’s where he met a young gallery assistant named Judy, who would become his wife and life partner in his photographic studio. The two were inseparable and magical. She was both his manager and his muse. She inspired him and gave flight to his wildest ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">Throughout his career, fashion editors clamored for a ‘Helmut Newton.’ His name had become synonymous with bold, arresting images capable of putting a product and a publication on the map. Vogue USA’s fierce Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour. “Everyone wants a real ‘stopper’ in their magazine . Something iconic that really stands out. Even disturbing.” With that, director von Boehm cuts to Newton’s photo of a pair of shapely legs wearing a fetching pair of stilettos sticking out of a body bag on a rocky Cannes beach. Signature Newton.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial Black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Most movies about photographers are boring,” Newton shouts over his shoulder as he climbs the stairs to his lair at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood Hills. To be sure, in Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful, he is anything but.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-58857869722160882962020-07-17T17:59:00.000-07:002020-07-17T18:02:27.068-07:00MOVIE REVIEW: RED PENGUIN DOC, A 'DISNEY ON ICE' DREAM GETS ZAMBONI'D BY THE RUSSIAN MOB<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">By Dwight Casimere<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Chicago-bred, award-winning director Gabe Polsky takes a penetrating, tragic-comic look at the world of Russian professional hockey in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. His documentary film, Red Penguins, premiered to critical acclaim as an Official Selection at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Released by Universal Pictures, Red Penguin is available to Rent or Own Aug. 4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">As seen through the eyes of ambitious New York marketing whiz-kid Steve Warshaw, the film charts his wild scheme to transform a flailing Olympic Gold Russian Hockey team, into a sports promoter’s dream, complete with beer guzzling dancing bears, stripper “cheerleaders” and a multi-million dollar promotion deal complete with an ‘icing-on-the-cake’ (pardon the pun) Disney movie deal. All this takes place against the backdrop of the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian mob boss threats, and unbridled corruption, or as Steve Warshaw puts it, “The rule in Russia is that there are no rules!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Filmmaker Polsky is no stranger to the world of Russian professional hockey. His Sony Classics Pictures documentary Red Army premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews and was given its hometown debut at that year’s Chicago Film Festival. Red Army was a much more sober look at the development of the Soviet Union’s Olympic Gold winning titan of the ‘70s and ’80 and its rigorous training program. Potential stars were nurtured from their pre-teen years right through to the pros in an all-pervasive world, separated almost entirely from family and friends, living in total isolation. These players would have survived well in the current ‘bubble’ atmosphere U.S. pro teams are attempting to create, with halting success, in the current COVID era.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Shortly after the dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia took on the atmosphere of the ‘wild, wild East. Steve Warshaw got wind that the NHL was interested in starting a franchise in Moscow. The league had already been importing star players from the Soviet Union, which had taken over all the top spots in the league.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">At the outset, the Russians don’t quite know what to do with the curly-headed Jewish kid from New York and his wisecracking, backslapping ways and kooky ideas. His jocular demeanor and adventurous spirit is completely foreign to the tightly wound, controlling world of post Cold War Russia. The Russians also don’t quite trust him, but they find him fascinating and disarming in an amusing sort of way. They even give him a nickname that roughly translates to ‘an asshole with a handle.’ You had to be there to get it. In spite of it all, Warshaw gets what he wants out of the Russians and more. His disarming humor and ability to forge ahead through the towering inferno of entangled Russian intrigue while wearing asbestos blinders makes him seemingly invincible. Nothing shakes Warshaw, not even the atmosphere of spontaneous and ever-present violence that swirls around him. ‘What me worry,’ is the seeming motto of this Mad Magazine Alfred E. Newman transplant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Nothing like the Red Penguins had ever been seen in Russia before. Nor have they ever experienced a personality in the likeness of Steve Warshaw.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;"> When Warshaw first gets the idea to buy the floundering team in Russia, his business advisor thought it was just crazy enough to work, so he gave the go-ahead. When he approaches his Russian partners in Moscow, he says, brazenly, ‘I can fill this arena in six months” They respond, ‘Not even the Resurrection of Jesus Christ can fill this arena!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Warshaw quickly proves them wrong. He starts by giving away free American Beer (Penguin Brewing, of course, from Pittsburgh), advancing to dancing bears from the Moscow Circus acting as Beer Meisters on ice, then moving up to an intermission show complete with scantily clad cheerleaders, borrowed from the local strip club conveniently located in the arena’s basement to a grand finale intermission time fan giveaway of a luxury SUV. Before it’s all over, there’s a sponsor partnerships with likes of Nike and Disney that even includes production of the film Mighty Ducks 5, a natural shoo-in to the blockbuster film franchise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Warshaw quickly learns that in the new day Russia, nothing happens without intervention from the mob. “To live by the rules of the underworld,” Warshaw observes wryly, “is to live normally.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Red Penguins is a sweeping saga of a doc that rollicks between the worlds of comedy, tragedy, murder and intrigue, with real-life scenes of a modern-day insurrection thrown in for good measure. Although a scant 80 minutes long, it covers a lot of territory and gives you about as complete a picture of the forces that shape modern-day Russia as any lecture series at your local chapter of the World Affairs Council, only it’s a lot more entertaining. For more information on seeing the film on your home screen, visit redpenguinsmovie.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-22916736245583101122020-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:002020-07-17T10:54:40.868-07:00MOVIE REVIEW: "DRIVEWAYS" A QUIET FILM WITH A RESOUNDING MESSAGE<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">“DRIVEWAYS” A QUIET FILM WITH A STRONG MESSAGE</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">BY DWIGHT CASIMERE</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Brian Dennehy’s final film, Driveways, is a case study in quiet resolution. As Del, a widowed Korean War veteran consumed in his own deluge of self-pity and grief, he conveys a depth of emotion without speaking a word. Director Andrew Ahn makes full use Dennehy’s towering talents to contrast his character against those of his new next door neighbors, a Korean American single mom, Kathy (Hong Chau of HBO’s “Watchmen”) and her disarmingly charming 8 year old son Cody (Lucas Jaye). </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Driveways<i> is available to stream or download on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Cable On-Demand, and Google Play.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">The story of Driveways develops slowly, but powerfully. Del sits stoically on his front porch, licking his lingering emotional wounds in silence, while Cathy and Cody confront the whirlwind of confusion and uncertainty that is their current state of affairs. Kathy is charged with clearing out and selling the house of her recently deceased older sister Alice. The gravity of the situation is further weighed by the shocking disarray of the house; a stunning reflection of her late sister’s emotional decay. Alice was a hoarder who lived in isolation. The discovery of her dead cat only served to punctuate the desperate state of affairs. With no place else to go, Kathy and Cody are reduced to sleeping on the deck. The curious Cody makes his way to Del’s front porch and each, in their halting ways, come out of their separate protective cocoon’s of personal pain and loss, and work their way into each other’s hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">“Whose Vera?, Cody asks innocently, spying a discarded piece of old mail on Del’s porch. She is Del’s deceased wife, and so begins the unraveling of layers of protective emotional gauze covering a series of deep and unhealed wounds in both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Driveways, in its quiet way, speak volumes in this age of crisis and isolation. It is the perfect bromide to this troubled time and worthy of more than a single viewing. Besides the subject of social and emotional isolation, it also tackles the issues of aging, such as the onslaught of dimension and the perils of economic displacement along the way. These are issues that are playing out with greater resonance with each passing day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Driveways is also a shining example of a simple story well told. Director Ahn is masterful at allowing his characters to speak with resounding authority in their quietest moments. The fact that Dennehy’s character is a Korean War veteran and that Kathy and Cody are Korean Americans adds further subtext in these racially charged times. It is also a much-needed bromide of human bonding in a time of prolonged social isolation due to the pandemic.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial black"; font-size: 16pt;">Driveways has been streaming for a couple of months on VOD. I first viewed the film just prior to its premiere on May 7. It has taken on even greater meaning a second time around.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-86203994476805872352019-10-18T15:39:00.003-07:002019-10-18T21:12:46.701-07:0057th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL-AN AMERICAN TRIAL: THE ERIC GARNER STORY<div id="yiv2720775242" style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>By Dwight Casimere</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Eric Garner's widow-Esaw Garner Snipes</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcVbV-RK8xusr8RuePqM88eL7cXL6RIOUH5wwcy3VVIYpDnPGdiIPlVArUduzBjWRf3IinI7cHVGOIndeBEQOJN0dVfQClOPF7Rxr3fCZTkfhQF5cS69gwuDGkiIIWd-KY6aKTtIV6qA/s1600/IMG_8301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcVbV-RK8xusr8RuePqM88eL7cXL6RIOUH5wwcy3VVIYpDnPGdiIPlVArUduzBjWRf3IinI7cHVGOIndeBEQOJN0dVfQClOPF7Rxr3fCZTkfhQF5cS69gwuDGkiIIWd-KY6aKTtIV6qA/s320/IMG_8301.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The Judge portrayed by Isabelle Kirshner-Criminal Defense Attorney</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Unless you are a salamander living under a rock or a consistent viewer of Fox News, you must be aware of the Eric Garner story. To refresh your memory, Eric Garner was strangled to death on the afternoon of July 17, 2014 by NYPD officer Anthony Pantaleo and a gang of his fellow New York officers on a street corner in Staten Island. Garner was allegedly targeted by police for selling 'loosie's,' illegal single cigarettes, at most, a ticketable offense. A Staten Island Grand Jury refused to indict Pantaleo and a later federal probe was inconclusive. The Garner family eventually received a $5.6 million dollar settlement from the City of New York. Roee Messenger's film American Trial: The Eric Garner Story posits the question; "What if there had been a trial?"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The film immediately takes us away from the viral cell phone video of Garner's gruesome death and the street protests and rhetoric right into the courtroom. So widespread were the protests that LeBron James and the LA Lakers even took to the practice court wearing warmup shirts emblazoned with the phrase "I Can't Breathe.' </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The film uses a mix of fact and fiction to create an imaginary trial for Pantaleo, something the legal experts call 'moot court.' The particulars of the case are hashed out in gruesome detail with actual legal experts such as Alan Dershowitz and a parade of retired police officers including Det. Carlton Berkley of the 100 Black and Latino Police Officers Organization who gives a blood-curdling frame-by-frame description of what transpired in the Garner viral video.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The film uses actual people instead of actors in the courtroom drama, including Garner's widow and James Knight, his close friend who was with him the day of the murder. The only actor in the film is Anthony Altieri, who portrays Pantaleo. His words are taken from public statements and an interview with his defense lawyer Stuart London. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The trial dramatization features Garner's widow Esaw Garner Snipes, who after holding up a severely deformed arthritic hand to be sworn in, gives a testimony wracked with bitter tears. We learn that Erioc Garner was a family man. They were married 26 years and have 4 children. She has yet to recover emotionally from her loss. Her pain is palpable, even in the fake courtroom setting. In fact, at the end of the film, we see her in a backroom having an emotional breakdown over the experience of reliving her husband's death through her testimony. Coincidentally. the filming occurred just on the heels of losing her daughter, Erica Garner, to cardiac arrest. Expert witnesses also include Dr. Michael Baden, the former NYC Chief Medical Examiner, who performed the second autopsy on Eric Garner in the civil case. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Officer Pantaleo was finally fired by the City of New York in the summer of 2019 after an internal Police Commission investigation and stripped of his pension. The grand jury transcripts have never been revealed and there are no future plans for an actual trial.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Roee Messenger's American Trial: The Eric Garner Story envisions a justice that the Garner family, the nation, and, indeed, the world, will never see. The viral video of Garner's death is shown several times in the film. Its painful to watch, no matter how many times you see it. The fact that his case has never been brought to justice, as the film reminds us, causes it to become a gaping social wound that has yet to be healed. </b></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-57397020414434512092019-10-04T08:28:00.001-07:002019-10-18T15:32:35.253-07:0057TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT, WORLD PREMIERE MARTIN SCORSESE'S THE IRISHMAN SEPT. 27 2019THE IRISHMAN IN LIMITED THEATRICAL RELEASE NOVEMBER 1, 2019,<br />
STREAMING ON NETFLIX NOVEMBER 27, 2019<br />
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by Dwight Casimere</div>
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More than 300 scenes, 108 days of shooting, 117 locations, and a decade of planning culminated in the multiple Oscar-worthy masterpiece, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, in theaters in limited release Nov.1st then streaming on Netflix beginning Nov. 27. </div>
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Produced by Scorsese with Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro and their TriBeCa productions, among others, this is a film that should not be missed. It is particularly so in light of events that are now unfolding in our nation's capitol. The Irishman speaks to the moral dilemma of our time. Clocking in at just under three and a half hours, the film's content is so absorbing that the time is of no matter. With a production budget of $159 million, it is one of the most expensive films of Scorsese's career. Cost and running time notwithstanding, this is a film that commands your full attention throughout.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The Irishman is a 2019 American epic crime film produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian. Based on the 2004 memoir </span><b style="font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I Heard You Paint Houses</b><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> by Charles Brandt, it purports to trace the life of the man responsible for the murder and disappearance of Teamster Union boss Jimmy Hoffa. The film traces his simultaneous rise through the ranks of the union and the mob to become Hoffa's right hand man and confidant. As he is handed the coveted ring, marking him as the highest rank of "made" men ("there are only three of these," he is told by the Joe Pesci character, crime boss Russell Bufalino, "you are the only Irishmen to get one of these." Hence, the film's title). But, with that honor, comes a heavy price.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"This movie is not so much about the actual events, " Scorsese told a news conference after the films World Premiere screening at the 57th New York Film Festival, "but about what happens to us emotionally within. Yes, we know its all going to happen, no matter what, as the Pesci character points out, but how it weighs on us, and the regret it fosters. This is paramount throughout the film."</span></div>
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Digital effects by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Light_%26_Magic" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto;" title="Industrial Light & Magic">Industrial Light and Magic</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_effects_supervisor" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto;" title="Visual effects supervisor">visual effects supervisor</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Legato" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto;" title="Robert Legato">Robert Legato</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> along with a posture coach allowed the characters to age and de-age as the film's narrative time-shifts. "I was playing Jimmy Hoffa at the age of 39," Pacino told the critics assembled at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall for a pre-festival screening. "They're doing that on a computer. We went through all these tests and things (recreating a scene from Scorsese's earlier film Goodfellas) You're 39, some sort of memory of 39, and your body tries to acclimate to that." The result upon viewing the film is seamless. The special effects alone are worthy of an Oscar nod for their aesthetic achievement. </span></div>
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The all-star cast is punctuated in a bravura performance by Al Pacino as embattled union leader Jimmy Hoffa. I have memories of Hoffa's appearances at Union rallies in Chicago, where attendance was mandatory for two of my relatives, who were both union members and organizers. His fiery rhetoric and bombastic delivery were his signature and Pacino captures it perfectly in this film. Hoffa pulled no punches in his speeches and his troops were merciless in enforcing his iron will, which was his eventual downfall. (One particularly vivid memory is that of a union 'scab' being shot as he attempted to pull his Mack truck out of a neighboring driveway in the pre-dawn hours during a Teamsters' strike. My father immediately darkened the house so that no one could see that we had witnessed the travesty).<br />
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"There was a lot of film and old TV footage of Hoffa that I could draw from," Pacino told the news gathering. Scorsese chimed in, "You could also see Al walking around the set with an earpiece in his ear the whole time, listening to audio of Hoffa's speeches!" Joe Pesci as crime boss Russell Bufalino gives another tightly wound performance. The superb front-line cast is rounded out with Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno and a surprisingly scintillating performance by Ray Romano as the crime family's 'consiglieri' Bill Bufalino. </div>
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The film is pure genius and a virtual primer on what good filmmaking is all about. It should win many Oscars. </div>
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The Irishman</div>
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<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Directed by</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Martin Scorsese">Martin Scorsese</a></td></tr>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Martin Scorsese</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Robert De Niro">Robert De Niro</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Rosenthal" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Jane Rosenthal">Jane Rosenthal</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gast%C3%B3n_Pavlovich" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Gastón Pavlovich">Gastón Pavlovich</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Emmett" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Randall Emmett">Randall Emmett</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Tillinger_Koskoff" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Emma Tillinger Koskoff">Emma Tillinger Koskoff</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Chamales" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Gerald Chamales">Gerald Chamales</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irwin_Winkler" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Irwin Winkler">Irwin Winkler</a></li>
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<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Screenplay by</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Zaillian" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Steven Zaillian">Steven Zaillian</a></td></tr>
<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Based on</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_You_Paint_Houses" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="I Heard You Paint Houses">I Heard You Paint Houses</a></i><br />
by<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brandt" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Charles Brandt">Charles Brandt</a></td></tr>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Robert De Niro</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Pacino" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Al Pacino">Al Pacino</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pesci" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Joe Pesci">Joe Pesci</a></li>
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<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Cinematography</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_Prieto" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Rodrigo Prieto">Rodrigo Prieto</a></td></tr>
<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Edited by</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Schoonmaker" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Thelma Schoonmaker">Thelma Schoonmaker</a></td></tr>
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Production<br />
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriBeCa_Productions" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="TriBeCa Productions">TriBeCa Productions</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STX_Entertainment" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="STX Entertainment">STX Entertainment</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikelia_Productions" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Sikelia Productions">Sikelia Productions</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Fábrica de Cine</li>
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<tr><th scope="row" style="padding-right: 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">Distributed by</th><td style="vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Netflix">Netflix</a></td></tr>
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Release date</div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;">September 27, 2019(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_New_York_Film_Festival" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="2019 New York Film Festival">NYFF</a>)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px;">November 1, 2019(United States)</li>
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Running time</div>
</th><td style="vertical-align: top;">209 minutes<sup class="gmail-reference" id="gmail-cite_ref-Runtime_1-0" style="font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irishman_(2019_film)#cite_note-Runtime-1" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[1]</a></sup></td></tr>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-9537827686522185642019-07-07T14:42:00.004-07:002019-10-04T08:06:18.181-07:00ABT SWAN LAKE 2019: A TIMELESS CLASSIC IS RENEWED<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Superb dancing by Principals and Soloists and a precision ensemble</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>elevates a time-honored classic to new heights</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>ABT Spring Season</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>June 24-29, 2019</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Metropolitan Opera House</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>New York, NY</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyYoajJEFB7pHxBz_dFi-Ru22q8q2RGgzrOmCI6pFmchQ-JTEKeUG54GuEISRx0jktEBnTuGVhlUphrm0GaCXcyVRr9TvfguT8CqLiXZ4pJ8pJaPiIJYNegUJGIRzmmjp1N6psjRcapU/s1600/download-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="339" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMyYoajJEFB7pHxBz_dFi-Ru22q8q2RGgzrOmCI6pFmchQ-JTEKeUG54GuEISRx0jktEBnTuGVhlUphrm0GaCXcyVRr9TvfguT8CqLiXZ4pJ8pJaPiIJYNegUJGIRzmmjp1N6psjRcapU/s320/download-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK0oyNRqF-fYTdFacSSV8CrjJ3OTjgUCmwOnunNQg5hhR2eQq2iOAlOqpRuTtUkGYiirsAOtA-fVTqgQhOW02PlkEi3Z0ZRi5K_5Pql7nQXbTqlL4vspQuzOuBLAYLjXykG86yMo2iYTU/s1600/download-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK0oyNRqF-fYTdFacSSV8CrjJ3OTjgUCmwOnunNQg5hhR2eQq2iOAlOqpRuTtUkGYiirsAOtA-fVTqgQhOW02PlkEi3Z0ZRi5K_5Pql7nQXbTqlL4vspQuzOuBLAYLjXykG86yMo2iYTU/s1600/download-6.jpg" /></a></div>
Misty Copeland dances the role of Odete-Odile<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF1ogSkeeuxOAEllZ9VraiMJ3aHxSbErBn0kkA3IPX6cHjPirSeR4eWQ3OwgrjfKCL3nDoFqwla7XlnRz5y73oqYgsn4uu2Rf8Dj8LQnA0-TKFbDG3RwQoQFCHc-4tTaA0ah-BD4_IHs/s1600/download-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQF1ogSkeeuxOAEllZ9VraiMJ3aHxSbErBn0kkA3IPX6cHjPirSeR4eWQ3OwgrjfKCL3nDoFqwla7XlnRz5y73oqYgsn4uu2Rf8Dj8LQnA0-TKFbDG3RwQoQFCHc-4tTaA0ah-BD4_IHs/s1600/download-7.jpg" /></a></div>
The Swans at the Lakeside<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdMWYmdo2yWSwSon2u33ajED63_HXk7E_p7DSPU6GQPlymaFmqkKT1WFkO0ztYyEHrCld3oZawYVfAkVGT5Q6xVs-WDhn5tSQyw2LwB9G9-xBZ58p_Xh3oCy2XbMfcFErERn2RQj9sCI/s1600/download-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="201" data-original-width="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdMWYmdo2yWSwSon2u33ajED63_HXk7E_p7DSPU6GQPlymaFmqkKT1WFkO0ztYyEHrCld3oZawYVfAkVGT5Q6xVs-WDhn5tSQyw2LwB9G9-xBZ58p_Xh3oCy2XbMfcFErERn2RQj9sCI/s1600/download-8.jpg" /></a></div>
Scenes from ABT's Swan Lake<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFnz8yPFYofZW5QPG1HaOfJzWUmgG04DzVvMLqoThhtdU3YWQY2q3eOnNjg_UhWfqnjMYHpfGVR16t9c8CGBnpoIujZlAiyMYCeqzos2jQVGTNvZRaTM_04OjE8-6O1Us749LGprecNc/s1600/download-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFnz8yPFYofZW5QPG1HaOfJzWUmgG04DzVvMLqoThhtdU3YWQY2q3eOnNjg_UhWfqnjMYHpfGVR16t9c8CGBnpoIujZlAiyMYCeqzos2jQVGTNvZRaTM_04OjE8-6O1Us749LGprecNc/s1600/download-9.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVkPUs0FXNPo3muceQvcR_alK-qCHVhnM9S2YgbK0H10CuhmW3Qi-JpUbcDSChK68EusSw7qQw8XgT2HY6VHGivsDBccqfitPBtXELeOmDvEX-lQ90nbUrDxJ09_CLVRq6q3JRtScYAY/s1600/download-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIVkPUs0FXNPo3muceQvcR_alK-qCHVhnM9S2YgbK0H10CuhmW3Qi-JpUbcDSChK68EusSw7qQw8XgT2HY6VHGivsDBccqfitPBtXELeOmDvEX-lQ90nbUrDxJ09_CLVRq6q3JRtScYAY/s1600/download-10.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Swan Lake is the ultimate ballet. Composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsy's famous creation is, without question, the most well-known and performed ballet of all time. There isn't a budding ballet dancer alive who has not danced at least one scene from this master creation. It's music has been used in every genre there is from ballet, to film, to popular music. Its even been sampled in commercials, and, yes, you might even find a bar or two buried somewhere in the background track of a rap litany. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>It is, therefor, fitting that American Ballet Theatre would choose to include this repertoire mainstay in the final weeks of its Spring Season at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. No matter how many times you may have seen this or any other production, there is no mistaking that the June 24-29, 2019 performances were so vital and fresh that, even for the most jaded viewer, it was like seeing the ballet for the first time.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Principal Dancers Hee Seo as Odette-Odile, the Swan who is transformed into a beautiful princess, and Cory Stearns as her pursuer, Prince Seigfried, have made the roles their own. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The scenery and costumes by Zack Brown, with lighting by Duane Schuler, makes the production a delight to observe. Maestro David LaMarche's spirited conducting from the Company Orchestra pit sheds new light on the composer's shimmering melodies and lush orchestrations. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Like some many pieces that are regarded as mainstay's today, Swan Lake was met with less than enthusiastic criticism at its premiere in 1877 at the Bolshoi. The music was considered too complicated to be performed or appreciated by audiences of the day and the dancers found it impossible to keep step. It faded into obscurity until it was revived decades later by the legendary dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa and his collaborator Lev Ivanov. It is this iteration that serves as the Holy Grail of today's productions. Kevin McKemzie's further reworking for ABT transforms this timeless classic into a spectacle for the ages.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Known for its technical demands on the dancers, ABT makes the various scenes flow like an endless dream. All of the dancers perform complex feats with ease, moving with such precision the entire Corps de Ballet of Swans move as one. The Great Hall scene, which features spirited solos from the likes of Courtney Lavine as the Spanish Princess and the masterful ensembles that were the Czardas and the Spanish Dance troupe were the highlights of Act III. The Black Swan Pas de Deux by Hee Seo and Cory Stearns at the end of Act III was, without question the highlight of the evening. Soloist Thomas Forster as the wicked sorcerer von Rothbart made for a commanding and artful presence. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>ABTs Swan Lake was a spectacle to behold. Breathtaking and beautiful it left one almost speechless. As Odette-Odile and the Prince ascended to their new life in the emerging dawn, the soul almost rose to meet them in mid-flight.</b></span></div>
Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-58315751030993894552019-07-07T11:49:00.002-07:002019-07-07T13:15:56.601-07:00AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE-ABT-MANON GAINS NEW LIFE ON BALLET STAGE<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>June 22, 2019 2:00pm</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Part One: Manon</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSLVhJRIOlkDP_bXx71uMLBEwm3__LbX8PqIRT7soHjPYDoThlfEgfF-29pGm2NdXT0rp_WU1CU2VgYGP3jJG2Za7Cahs9CvmuQWoYanHV3ZaCbrc5wD70ztLvU4KFZOc0_jl0cDGS2Y/s1600/man1600x685.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1600" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSLVhJRIOlkDP_bXx71uMLBEwm3__LbX8PqIRT7soHjPYDoThlfEgfF-29pGm2NdXT0rp_WU1CU2VgYGP3jJG2Za7Cahs9CvmuQWoYanHV3ZaCbrc5wD70ztLvU4KFZOc0_jl0cDGS2Y/s320/man1600x685.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Stella Abreara in the title role</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2gfLVUqHyn0F9mv6Y3B9KeipxWFb4gFZlmX-ZEamFArrVS0RI-BA31SSv5TI86RA3BQ97HWzPOjHviFh6OvrCS0SBWYPRnyaB6zQWivQOZosLF37Yl13L80fH0-g33BiXcq00mIkr6A/s1600/stellaabreradetsky_1560777277_2068272169847056526_633853147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2gfLVUqHyn0F9mv6Y3B9KeipxWFb4gFZlmX-ZEamFArrVS0RI-BA31SSv5TI86RA3BQ97HWzPOjHviFh6OvrCS0SBWYPRnyaB6zQWivQOZosLF37Yl13L80fH0-g33BiXcq00mIkr6A/s320/stellaabreradetsky_1560777277_2068272169847056526_633853147.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjsu0hxtzxqL2SRhv4C_9f2OaWi96yCx65LP_X0CyZlWJp0KmAcvTdE2AbmQXzNjtNM-n7U6c7ktexDsDfJQlqVj3f5BAjY_XVYAGyLTKWisQLCR5VWvI57ItYF3d_TAxAm9CNfTUjoA/s1600/roc-manon-misty-copeland-cory-stearns-swamp_620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="620" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjsu0hxtzxqL2SRhv4C_9f2OaWi96yCx65LP_X0CyZlWJp0KmAcvTdE2AbmQXzNjtNM-n7U6c7ktexDsDfJQlqVj3f5BAjY_XVYAGyLTKWisQLCR5VWvI57ItYF3d_TAxAm9CNfTUjoA/s320/roc-manon-misty-copeland-cory-stearns-swamp_620.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> Principal Dancers Misty Copeland and Cory Stearns in Manon</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrfjCTPh7s_zkq9p8cxTcqcQit9v-lH99goEq95qGXemB6b2pnmEmisZSUBKtPGUWZa4SSQPHaMC9rtBAEaOnJFPFZ0vkj4Ec9jpJoXyOgHr2DgyDvj1ic2u8HWt3j7JYDKFtlFj37uMU/s1600/download-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="339" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrfjCTPh7s_zkq9p8cxTcqcQit9v-lH99goEq95qGXemB6b2pnmEmisZSUBKtPGUWZa4SSQPHaMC9rtBAEaOnJFPFZ0vkj4Ec9jpJoXyOgHr2DgyDvj1ic2u8HWt3j7JYDKFtlFj37uMU/s320/download-3.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>American Ballet Theatre ABT ended its Spring Season at New York's Metropolitan Opera House with ballet productions that epitomized its standing as the nation's preeminent ballet company. Those who saw Manon and Swan Lake, were treated to a ravishing display of classic ballet at its pinnacle. Sleeping Beauty was the season finale.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, which received its World Premiere at The Royal Ballet in 1974, was presented with all of its dramatic import and scenic glory intact. Adapted from the 1731 novel of the same name my Abbe Prevost , the story of the rise and fall of a woman born into poverty working her way through the misogynistic ethos of the era to fleeting wealth only to fall victim to its imbeded traps, is the ultimate tragic tale.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> In Manon's world, she is bartered like a piece of chattel by her greedy brother, Lescaut to be passed between the hands of the older gentleman she is traveling with and the wealthy Monsieur GM. When she arrives in Paris in the courtyard of the inn where her brother and GM await, she meets the handsome young student Des Grieux among the glamorous habitués and demimonde of Paris, and instantly falls in love. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The opera's score is a pastiche of music gleaned from more than a dozen of Massenet's operas, orchestral divertissements and piano works (one recognizes themes from Thais, Don Quixote, Le Cid, Cleopatre, Cendrillon, among others). The themes are beautifully spun out like gilded threads by members of the Company Orchestra. Principal Conductor Charles Barker imbued the score with an air of depth and clarity.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Manon is one of the most enduring tragic stories in all art. It is a tome that has found its way into the pages of literature, to the opera stage, and then to the ballet. It follows the path of a fallen heroine, a theme which lies at the heart of so many great operatic tragedies. In fact, when MacMillan first proposed his new ballet to his principal dancers at The Royal Ballet, he presented them with a double volume that included a novella of that most eponymous of all tragic heroines, Carmen.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Those who saw several productions of Manon during its run at the MET were treated to a cornucopia of superlative performances from ABT's principal dancers, who brought differing levels of dramatic tension and choreographic nuance to the characters and the ballet's expertly staged scenes. It is hard to believe that all of the principals were appearing in their role debuts, as their performances were so in sync with their partners. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The matinee performance of Manon featured Principal Dancers Isabella Boylston and David Hallberg in the title roles of Manon and her ardent suitor Des Grieux. Principal Dancer Christine Shevchenko danced the role of Lescaut's Mistress and Soloist Blaine Hoven was Lescaut.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Things heated up quickly in Act I. Once Manon spied De Grieux they instantly fell in love. The ballet and the performances by Boylston and Hallberg then moved into high gear. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The party scene which opened ACT II was a masterpiece of stagecraft. The costumes and scenery were a glory to behold. Lighting by Thomas R. Skelton underscored the gaiety of the moment and portend the gravitas to follow.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>With Massenet's glorious themes swelling from the orchestra pit, the ballet soared to theatrical and balletic heights. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The party scene was where the principals and soloists began to shine. The pas de deux between Manon and Des Grieux was danced by Boylston and Hallberg to the apex of seduction. Sir MacMillan's ingenious choreography was expertly danced by the pair. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ultimately, it was Manon's journey that served as the dramatic arc of the ballet. Artful dancing and exceptional staging made for an indelible experience. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>There's plenty of 'storm und drang' in this ballet, complete with stabbings, murders and passion to spare. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Staged by the team of Julie Lincoln and Robert Tewsley, the Scenery and Costumes by Nicholas Georgiadis, as recreated by ABT, brilliantly depicted the razor-thin delineation between great opulence and absolute degradation. Manon's fall from grace as a bejeweled courtesan and the object of Des Gireux's ardor, to her subsequent arrest as a disgraced woman charged with prostitution and her banishment to the wilds of the Louisiana Territory are portrayed with stunning clarity. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Manon's story is the ultimate dramatic tragedy. It inspired not only Sir Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, but two grand operas; Jules Massenet's Manon and Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut. As one who has seen both opera versions numerous times, it was refreshing to see it transposed to the balletic stage. ABT's presentation of this classic once again proved the enduring power of dance.</b></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-32928290500476206662019-07-05T19:58:00.001-07:002019-07-05T19:58:30.453-07:00"The Pieces I Am"-Bio Film Explores the Creative Soul of Nobel Prize-Winning Author Toni Morrison<br />
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by Dwight Casimere</div>
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Dwight Casimere with the film's director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders<br />
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Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison<br />
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No one knows the power of words better than Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. In the brilliant documentary, The Pieces I Am' by celebrated photographer and long-time Morrison confidant Timothy Greenfield Sanders, she tells how, as a toddler, when she and her sister began scratching the letters of a curse word she had seen on the sidewalk in front of her childhood home on Lorain, Ohio, her mother had become enraged beyond words. Later in life, she received word that the Texas Correctional Authority had banned her book Paradise from the prison reading library because, in their words, it would start a riot. "Now that's power,: Morrison says in the film, "that I could tear the whole place up!"</div>
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Using archival footage, artful animation, on camera interviews with Morrison herself and celebrated writers such as Angela Davis, Walter Mosley, Sonia Sanchez, her longtime editor Robert Gottlieb and others, combined with Greenfield-Sanders' own gripping photographs, the film is an absorbing and thoroughly informative portrait of the artist which dares to delve deep inside both her outwardly creative and introspectively inner soul.</div>
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With sensitive cinematography by Graham Willoughby, skillful editing by Johanna Giebelhaus, and a haunting score by Kathryn Bostic that incorporates both traditional and modern black music, the film has thundering impact in spite of its quiet, measured pace.</div>
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Born Chloe Ardella Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, the film reaches deep into the author's cultural roots. She tells of her grandfather who proudly told her that he had read the Bible cover to cover five times. "In those days, it was against the law for a white person to teach a black person to read, much less for a black person to read. That alone brought a heavy penalty. In that sense, reading was a revolutionary act." That declaration by Morrison is layered with photos of lynchings to drive the thought home. One of Greenfield's own photo portraits of a pair of weathered black hands resting on a Bible further illustrates both the gravity and grace of the moment. </div>
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Reflections on her later thirst for reading and knowledge involved her work as a teenaged ;library assistant where she spent the majority of her time reading the classics rather than dutifully stacking the shelves. Her voracious appetite for knowledge caused her to delve deeper and deeper into the world of literature, an act that would later inform her writing. </div>
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After protesting her mother's early demands that she attend nearby Oberlin College, where Morrison felt parental interference would constantly distract her, she managed a scholarship to Howard University, the nation's most historic of Historically Black Colleges and ground zero for progressive black thought. Howard, the undisputed black Harvard, had its impact on a young, impressionable and idealistic Morrison. It gave full flower and substance to her burgeoning personal and racial identity and fueled and informed her creativity. Morrison's career as both an author and editor at one of the nation's most powerful publishing houses, which brought to the public the autobiographies of Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali, among others, is further illustrative of her commitment to promoting the thoughts and beliefs of her people. The path to her Nobel Prize is given further weight by the fact that her fellow black writers all joined to petition the National Book Award to grant her a prize which they felt she richly deserved.</div>
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In the film, Morrison is very clear about her mission as a writer. "I wanted to write books that spoke to me. I always felt that black writers were always writing to white people. The writers were always explaining things that they didn't have to explain to me. Even Frederick Douglass. He wasn't writing to me. The Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison). Invisible to whom!?"</div>
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"The Pieces I Am" is one of the most absorbing biographical films you will ever see. It is both provocative and haunting and, like Morrison's many books, it compells one to revisit it again and again.</div>
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Particularly provocative is the anecdote she relates as to the incident that planted the seed for her celebrated novel, Beloved. The novel is loosely based on the story of a slave woman, Margaret Garner, who flees slavery in Kentucky only to be captured in the free state of Ohio is 1856. Rather than surrender to the 'Paddy Rollers' (slave hunters), she elects to kill her own children rather than have them raised in slavery. The central issue surrounding her later trial was should she be tried for murder, which would mean that slaves were human beings, or for destroying property.</div>
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Beloved's place in black literature is immutable . Not only does it give flesh and blood to the saga of slavery it, in the words of editor Gottlieb, "crystalizes" the impact of slavery on black history and gives it a face and a soul. |t also, in Morrison's words, tells the story of the impact of slavery from the unique perspective of a black woman who must make a momentous and difficult choice.</div>
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Morrison opted not to make her novel a literal retelling of the facts of the story but merely used it as a jumping off point to explore a larger truth. She says the answer came to her in a vision.</div>
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"Early one morning I looked out my window at the end of the pier. And out of the river, a young woman arose, fully dressed, and sat on the edge of the pier. She was wearing a nice hat. Then she disappeared. I new then that I had the solution for Beloved."</div>
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That's just one of the spoken gems of "The Pieces I Am." By viewing the film, one learns that the personality fragments that the author reveals are also deeply woven into the fabric of our own inner beings. </div>
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Receiving the Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden and (below) the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama<br />
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-32997214066249908122019-06-28T13:16:00.001-07:002019-06-28T13:16:35.851-07:002019 NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL: JAZZ LEGENDS, BIG NAMES PROMISE BEST FEST EVERJON BAPTISTE, HERBIE HANCOCK, DIANNE REEVES, RON CARTER, RAVI COLTRANE<br />
AMONG HEADLINERS<br />
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Newport Jazz Festival 2019 is pulling out all the stops to ensure that this year's festival is the greatest ever. Celebrate under the stars at Newport's famed International Tennis Hall of Fame with TV personality and Grammy-winning Louisiana Roots musician Jon Batiste and Friends at 8pm, Friday August 2. Earlier that day, jazz legend Herbie Hancock stars on the festival's opening day performances at Fort Adams. .The Oscar and Grammy-winning jazz icon will also partner with festival Artistic Director Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiouta for a Special Performance Saturday, August 3 , also at the festival's Fort Adams venue.</div>
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As if that weren't enough to entice music lovers to jam the feast's online ticket office, the hurricane force saxophone whirlwind Kamasi Washington brings his musical gravity defying ensemble to the Fort Adams stage on Saturday as well. Washington's 2015 album The Epic won him the inaugural American Music Prize. He is currently scheduled to make his first appearance as a film director at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival next January, collaborating with new wave film directors Bradford Young, Jenn Nkiru, Terrence Nance and Marc Thomas in the film As Told To G/D Thyself, inspired by his genre bending 2018 album Heaven and Earth. </div>
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Speaking of genre bending, perhaps one of the biggest all-around stars of all time, Chicago's very own Common will break down all barriers between music, spoken word and performance art in his appearance at Fort Adams Sunday, August 4. The Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy-winning artist and actor promises to bring a diverse set to the Newport stage that will further cement his image as one of the most impactful performers of our time. </div>
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Dianne Reeves, the world's undisputed premier jazz vocalist will bring her powerful improvisational chops to the forefront on Saturday, August 3. Featured in the Academy Award nominated George Clooney film "Good Night, Good Luck," Reeves won a Grammy as Best Jazz Vocal for the film's soundtrack.</div>
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Another multi Grammy winner and perennial Newport favorite is Cecile McClorin Salvant who is also among the stellar lineup of vocalists, which include Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Memphis Soulphony. Even Salvant's longtime pianist and music director Aaron Diehl is featured in a solo turn. </div>
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There's no shortage of jazz legends in this year's festival program and true jazz lovers would do well to be front and center for some bedrock jazz names; Ron Carter and his trio, Terence Blanchard, Gary Bartz and Another Earth 50 Year Anniversary, Ravi Coltrane, all make for a landmark experience.</div>
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There are performers to satisfy the most eclectic musical palate. The legendary Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Ghost-Note and Thundercats, to name a few of the wide-ranging offerings that will satisfy the discriminating few . For the full festival lineup and tickets visit newportjazz.org.</div>
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HERE ARE SOME SCENES FROM LAST YEAR'S FESTIVAL:</div>
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<br />Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-58566570653322915902019-05-31T12:28:00.002-07:002019-05-31T12:28:38.446-07:00FILM REVIEW: MOUTHPIECE OPENS MAY 31 VILLAGE EAST NY, JUNE 7 MONICA FILM CENTER LA <br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Mouthpiece examines a conflicted mother/daughter relationship with quirky candor</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Mouthpiece is a provocative film by Patricia Rozema (Into the Forest, Mansfield Park) that gives an imaginative exploration of the inner emotional turmoil that is faced by a young woman, Cassandra Haywood(Amy Nostbakken) who is confronted with the sudden death of her mother Elaine (Maev Beaty). In Mouthpiece, director Rozema chooses to depict the internal conflict of a mother/daughter love/hate relationship. From a script writing by the director Rozema, Mouthpiece stars Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava. The film takes the quirky tack of involving the central character, Elizabeth in a running conflict with her alter-ego, played with tongue-in-cheek candor by Sadava. Those who have endured a similar circumstance may find the film excruciating to watch because it really cuts close to the bone. Fortunately, director Rozema handles the delicate subject with a deft hand that injects a certain level of dry humor with candor and a stunningly accurate incite into this prickly subject. The film is presented with such clarity, both dramatically and cinematically that its hard to turn away from. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Beautifully filmed on location in Toronto, Cinematographer Catherine Lutes and Production Designer Zazu Myers take full advantage of that city's atmospheric surroundings to draw an effective portrait of psychic angst. Set decoration by Matthew Bianchi, costumes by Marissa Schwartz and Mara Zigler and a killer sound track with original music by star Amy Nostbakken and incidental and background music assembled by Amy Fritz and Michelle Irving make for an absorbing experience. The nearly all-female production team is to be credited with delivering a truly polished film with lasting impact.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Cassandra Haywood represents the thoroughly modern woman, whose fast-paced life is suddenly interrupted by a seemingly insurmountable personal tragedy. The film represents the conflicting voices that rage inside her head in the 48 hours leading up to her mother's funeral. As seemingly adept as she is at managing the affairs of her personal life, she's all thumbs when it comes to handling this disarming personal crisis. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The film is loosely adapted from the play of the same name by co-stars Nostbakken and Sadava. The film is produced by director Rozema's own production company, Crucial Things and First Generation Films. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>With stellar supporting performances throughout, notably Taylor Belle Puterman and Sarah Camacho as Little and Medium Cassandra, respectively, and Paula Boudreau as Aunt Jane (Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves alsdo steals a scene or two as the Bartender), Mouthpiece is a film worth seeing. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Open Friday, May 31 at Village East Cinema NYC and Friday, June 7 at Monica Film Center, LA.</b></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-12256698450578372422019-05-17T20:58:00.001-07:002019-05-18T11:56:39.533-07:00FILM REVIEW: WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE NOW IN THEATERS AND VOD<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Taissa Farmiga as Merricat and Alexandra Daddario as Constance, the two sisters in We Have Always Lived in the Castle from Brainstorm Media</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">by Dwight Casimere</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Columbia College Chicago graduate (1993)and GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film-Limited Release-winner Stacie Lyne Passon has delivered one polished Gothic suspense drama in the form of Brainstorm Media's We Have Always Lived In The Castle, in theaters and VOD beginning May 17. Executive Produced by Michael Douglas, the film stars Taissa Farmiga as the troubled teen Merricat Blackwood, who is haunted by the mystery surrounding the arsenic poisoning death of her parents. It quickly becomes evident that, with her passion for her Book of Spells and her belief in the power of the Forces of Darkness, she may more than a passive hand in the events that have unfolded. Alexandra Daddario plays her prim and proper sister Constance, who likewise suffered the post traumatic stress of the horror and veteran British actor Crispin Glover as her partially paralyzed Uncle Julian. His memory has been all but wiped clean by the poison. In the aftermath of surviving the incident, he desperately grabs at straws of the details of that fateful night, trying to reconstruct its unfolding under the guise of writing a novel. He recounts the course of events, down to the last morsel of food that was served ("roasted lamb leg of lamb with mint") with the dispassionate air of an observer, all the while seeking to exorcise his seething rage as its victim. Sebastian Stan stars in the pivotal role of the charming cousin Charles who arrives on the scene, much to the chagrin of young Merricat. The son of Julian, Charles is the crasher of this sullen pity party, totally unwanted by Merricat, who becomes ever more jealous and enraged as sister Constance becomes entranced by his charms. Its obvious that Charles is only interested in one thing, unearthing the family wealth that has been rumored by the local townies and the tabloids. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>The facts of the murder emerge slowly in the course of the film, like figures emerging from the foggy shadows surrounding the Blackwood Estates, perched ominously on a hill high above a tiny village on the outskirts of 1950s Dublin.The film is not without its moments of high drama, which erupt with the sudden force of a newly awakened dormant volcano.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Mention of Passon's Columbia College Chicago roots is significant because the college is noted for chruning out significant TV and film personalities. Notable among them is Conan O'Brien's sidekick, Andy Richter, Wheel of Fortune's Pat Sajack, Mission Impossible III and Gone Baby Gone actress and Film Producer Michelle Monoghan, </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Director and Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Rapper Rhymefest, Film Producer and Playwright Nelsan Ellis and TV and Film Director John McNaughton among many others., </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>We Have Always Lived in the Castle is expertly filmed by award-winning British cinematographer Piers McGrail with atmospheric music by BAFTA nominee for Best New Composer for film and TV Andrew Hewitt. Based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, the film is a tribute to the art of suspense drama. With superb production design from Anna Rackard and art design from Louise Mathews, the film gradually reveals hints of the darkness that lurks beneath. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Constance's crinoline dresses, the luxurious stained-wood veneers and elegantly appointed sitting rooms of the star-crossed mansion are just so much window dressing for the ugly secrets buried inside the house and under its grounds. Te film is well-grounded with scenes that scream authenticity. (And yes, that is actress Alexandra Daddario on the keyboard playing Chopin's Nocturne No. 9!)</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCH4ATM9J2RKsc40UuMftV8flNsLJC5Zw3UhRuCnM40V8UaPtKldrRFlijY5L1GFwpcMGhb20ZaXop_dfbAaOVZIgkVmffS5jLD1n84Ggu-QY4QnwIDrbVfH1A_EW96xNNkqANQJM9Mmk/s1600/th-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="154" data-original-width="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCH4ATM9J2RKsc40UuMftV8flNsLJC5Zw3UhRuCnM40V8UaPtKldrRFlijY5L1GFwpcMGhb20ZaXop_dfbAaOVZIgkVmffS5jLD1n84Ggu-QY4QnwIDrbVfH1A_EW96xNNkqANQJM9Mmk/s1600/th-7.jpg" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>The Blackwoods argue in the kitchen. From left, Crispin Glover (Uncle Julian), Sebastian Stan (Cousin Charles), Taissa Farmiga (Merricat), Alexandra Daddario (Constance)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> "The Blackwoods have always lived in this house," Merricat says defiantly as the story unfolds. "and we will never leave here, no matter what they say, or what they do to us. Never. But a change is coming, and nobody knows it but me." Stick around and fasten your seat belt. You're in for a bumpy, gut-wrenching ride for the next 96 minutes.</b></span></div>
Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-18435935033329497812019-05-15T00:27:00.003-07:002019-05-15T00:29:51.333-07:0017 BLOCKS: 18th TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL WINNER FOR BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMETARY FILM <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Award-winning film is a 20 year chronicle of hard-scrabble life just blocks from the Nation's Capitol</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A 9 year old Emmanual Durant with the video camera used to record 17 Blocks</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXscjYvFwCA8xXQZ7vSfc8-Puko1PTuT6lsdj95Iskf2Ayu-EqktQe8lvDiulU4-aoykgodjvG_sFgS7cfkvqfJPXP7b8nF34qX_0Xd9MScYuE193gjrd2eA0n9crqC2BQtsoJOxuPa0/s1600/17-BLOCKS-director-Davy-Rothbart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXscjYvFwCA8xXQZ7vSfc8-Puko1PTuT6lsdj95Iskf2Ayu-EqktQe8lvDiulU4-aoykgodjvG_sFgS7cfkvqfJPXP7b8nF34qX_0Xd9MScYuE193gjrd2eA0n9crqC2BQtsoJOxuPa0/s320/17-BLOCKS-director-Davy-Rothbart.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>17 Blocks director Davy Rothbart</b></span>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Meet Cheryl Denice Catherine Cashwell Alizea Santiago Sanford. We see the 57 year old as she mounts the stairs of an old house in Southeast Washington D.C., a house she claims to have lived in "all of my life." She's greeted by the new owner, a young white millennial, a sign of the gentrification that has occurred in many old line black communities around the country. Her erstwhile host watches in dismay as she quickly devolves into a tearful monologue of self-recrimination. "My actions started a chain reaction that put things in motion that should not have happened," she says ruefully. "Everything that was about to take place changed in one night!" We then hear the cold, metallic voice of a 911 call center dispatcher dispassionately announcing a shooting at 17th and Kennedy, the house where Cheryl stands crying. "Somebody got shot," the voice says. This is the raw drama that unfolds in the excellent documentary 17 blocks (USA), from director Davy Rothbart, which won the 18th Tribeca FILM FESTIVAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION for Best Editing in a Documentary Film. </b><b><span id="goog_2019588562"></span><span id="goog_2019588563"></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The Sanford-Durant family was given a video camera in 1999 and used that camera to record their day-to-day lives over the next 20 years. The result is a revealing chronicle of life in an evolving urban landscape that is being played out at this very moment in inner cities around the country. Knock on any door in Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, L.A. or any other bulging metropolis and you will meet families with like circumstances. In the case of the Sanford-Durant family, the tragedy of their lives unfolded just 17 blocks from the Nation's Capitol. Thus, the title of this award-winning documentary from director Davy Rothbart and film editor Jennifer Tiexiera.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We meet Cheryl's children, Akil, her first born, nicknamed Smurf, Denice Catherine, her namesake, and young Emmanuel. Smurf and Emmanuel, are seen at ages 15 and 9, respectively, playing with the other neighborhood boys on the basketball court, a scene of numerous triumphs and tragedies over the course of the film. Emmanuel is seen kicking the can on the way to what was then their new home on 17th and Kentucky, after several years of living pillar to post. The house was a step up, and the move considered a sign that things were looking up.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Cheryl recounts how her upbringing was very middle class. The daughter of civil servants, her mother had intended for her to grow up among a better class of people and join the social set. She tells a story of how she tried to blend in with the wealthier kids in high school. When a date who was considered a vey desirable upper class boy took her out for her high school prom, she thought she was well on her way to acceptance. When it came time for her to be taken home, he diverted the car and took her to a park to meet up with a group of other boys who raped her. "In those days, they called it gang-banging," she recounts bitterly. Thus began the downward spiral of her life into abusive relationships and drug addiction.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We see her oldest son Smurf, smoking reefer and lounging around the house with a group of low-lifes. He's decided to drop out of school and become a drug dealer. "I can't blame him for deciding to get into 'the life,'" Cheryl says with resignation. "I was the one who introduced him to it."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>We also see young Emmanuel, speaking directly into the camera. His face is a shining beacon of hope as he expresses his desire to stay away from drugs, finish school and, as he so charmingly says in his limited perspective, birthed in innocence, "earn a thousand, two thousand, a million dollars a week, or a month, live in a mansion. Don't come knockin' on my door looking' for food!" His proclamation is both sweet and tragic.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>A later scene shows the boys playing with the video camera. It shows a closeup shot of Emmanuel and Smurf in reverse chroma, which gives their faces a ghost-like aura. The shot is eerily prophetic. And so go the unrelenting law of cause and effect that takes its toll in 17 Blocks. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>In its awarding of the $2,500 dollar prize, the Tribeca Jury commented: "the award for best editing goes to a film for its profound treatment of vast amounts of honest, often raw footage. The film is structured in a way that renders some of the most affecting moments with great subtlety." 17 Blocks makes its point without hitting you over the head. Sadly, it is a story that is as true to life today as it was 20 years ago, when its filming began.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheroNDVKc2P0oTwwHtVAbroklTiOZOIolhPxT8QyE7QZ55KQKmGdiuai-0GBgsxhVNywMQWdKtXfCfdqfVftQlIscxm60YjrpiEETBNTpPMY24ylmQVe8gcC0hwtIbDmy4WRfUO-PzCFc/s1600/17_blocks-publicity_still-h_2019_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="928" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheroNDVKc2P0oTwwHtVAbroklTiOZOIolhPxT8QyE7QZ55KQKmGdiuai-0GBgsxhVNywMQWdKtXfCfdqfVftQlIscxm60YjrpiEETBNTpPMY24ylmQVe8gcC0hwtIbDmy4WRfUO-PzCFc/s320/17_blocks-publicity_still-h_2019_.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Emmanuel Durant, a central figure in the documentary 17 Blocks</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtw3f67vmNlHh0qCuxn05-MVzqzTJdAEWqP4TaKRbI41iR0hLmiyEBH4kWibs4pA6n99nPCjP2X6coXhNr55yj8907UxwQLJ5yGqGs_TXQ_hRJgDxuwTkP4TkNM1cYm52zRjVdkGUlso/s1600/17%252BBlocks%252B2019%252BTribeca%252BFilm%252BFestival%252BxHisDnn8VEGx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1024" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtw3f67vmNlHh0qCuxn05-MVzqzTJdAEWqP4TaKRbI41iR0hLmiyEBH4kWibs4pA6n99nPCjP2X6coXhNr55yj8907UxwQLJ5yGqGs_TXQ_hRJgDxuwTkP4TkNM1cYm52zRjVdkGUlso/s320/17%252BBlocks%252B2019%252BTribeca%252BFilm%252BFestival%252BxHisDnn8VEGx.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> Director Davy Rothbart (c) with 17 Blocks editor Jennifer Tiexiera (r) at the World Premiere of 17 Blocks at the 18th Tribeca Film Festival</b></span><br />
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-35605014889719248842019-05-13T14:59:00.003-07:002019-05-17T10:50:43.599-07:0019 YEAR OLD DIRECTOR MAKES HISTORY AT 2019 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL AS FIRST BLACK AND YOUNGEST FOUNDERS AWARD WINNER <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> Phillip Youmans' Burning Cane World Premiere wins Narrative Competition at the 18th Tribeca Film Festival</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> by Dwight Casimere</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1mu-S0se9sMp7FZ6W-JGwN9P6LAKDi1rmsJRN4gwF2HN_SEj3ehrSyoL6Vvc-vA0gwajJJJJNYyRJcunnZmSSEI2FFvrKxIERVh41wYF4FBsoaFFSdD16ML9_u44gr-sX82_wzUWs20/s1600/burning_cane-publicity_still-h_2019_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="928" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1mu-S0se9sMp7FZ6W-JGwN9P6LAKDi1rmsJRN4gwF2HN_SEj3ehrSyoL6Vvc-vA0gwajJJJJNYyRJcunnZmSSEI2FFvrKxIERVh41wYF4FBsoaFFSdD16ML9_u44gr-sX82_wzUWs20/s320/burning_cane-publicity_still-h_2019_0.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Best Actor Foundation Award Winner Wendell Pierce as Rev. Tillman in Burning Cane</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder with Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal, presenting the Founders Award to Phillip Youmans at the Awards Ceremony</b></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>History was made at the 18th Tribeca Film Festival. 'Burning Cane', the debut feature narrative by 19 year old director Phillip Youmans made him the first African American to win the coveted Founder's Award for Best Narrative Feature, he is also the youngest director to ever have a film presented in the prestigious film festival. Yuma's finished the film at the same time that he was finishing high school. He is now a Freshman at New York University.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Youmans' masterpiece charts the events of a few days in the lives of the Wayne family and one Rev. Tilman in a small, rural Parish outside New Orleans. the film is recorded in almost documentary fashion b y the young director's revelatory camerawork, which also brought him honors for Best Cinematography in a U.S. Documentary Narrative Film. Youmans was forced to shoot the film himself after his original choice for cinematic chores became unavailable. His handheld camera gives the film a realistic feel that further adds to its impact. What may have been the result of sheer necessity turned out to be a fortuitous happenstance. Youmans camera captures microscopic moments that are fleeting, yet quite telling; the opening scene of the sugar cane fields burning in the distance with the faint glimmer of a rainbow, a young boy riding his scooter inside the house. In later scenes, an alcoholic father is seen vomiting in ulcer-induced pain after a bout of binge drinking. One can sense the undercurrent of raw human drama beneath the placid overlay of long, humid afternoons. (A local radio announcer warns residents to stay inside 'the cool of your home' as defense against the 90 degree heat and to 'stock up on blue crabs and crawfish. The sale ends when the doors are locked!') Theirs are still waters, but they run deep. The film's story unfolds with the deft hand of a young William Faulkner. We hear the voice of Helen Wayne (a riveting Karen Kaia Livers), the matriarchal core of the film, recounting her endless quest to cure her beloved dog of 13 years, JoJo, of the mange. Applying consecutive doses of Apple Cider Vinegar, Hydrogen Peroxide, Borax, Vegetable Oil and Honey; all home remedies suggested by well-meaning friends and relatives, to no effect. "I won't take him to the doctor. They'll just tell me to take him out to the cane fields and shoot him. They can't tell me when JoJo should die. Only the Lord can do that!") Her mangy dog becomes a metaphor for the wounded souls we meet later in the film. Most astonishing is the fact that she recounts all of this tender, loving care of her dog while butchering a chicken in the bloodiest and most callous manner possible! The film is loaded with such contradictions. Which, as we all know, is a fact of the human condition. We then hear a male singer and organist singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot in the local church. That's when we meet the Right, Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce). </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Vastly underrated, the veteran actor Wendell Pierce (HBO TVS THE WIRE) plays Rev. Tillman, the alcoholic fire-and-brimstone preacher with feet of clay, For his efforts, Pierce also received the Founder's Award for Best U.S. Actor in a Narrative Documentary from the festival. He accepted the award via video from London, where he is currently starring as Willy Loman in the Young Vic production of Death of A Salesman. He was awarded for his stentorian delivery of the sermons that are proclamations of faith, even in the face of his own morass of self-doubt and alcoholism. His words, in part, act as the narrative 'glue' of the film. His first sermon, invokes the edicts of the late millionaire piublisher Malcolm Forbes who was famously quoted as saying "He who dies with the most toys wins!" Pastor Tillman uses that quote as a parable to springboard into a searing message, admonishing those who place wealth over friendship, possessions over family values and human relationships. As a storm brews in the distance, Helen confronts her alcoholic son, Daniel, begins to recount his growing insecurity; his brother Malcolm served honorably in the military ("I can't compete with that!"). and his father's real or imagined prowess as a breadwinner. " In his clouded mind, his father "worked his fingers to the bone" to provide for his family. He worked hisself to death," he proclaims. Helen quickly retorts: "Your Daddy died of AIDS! You know your daddy was a whore!" And so goes their increasingly stormy relationship, which figures greatly in the films shocking and inevitable outcome. "I'm worried about JoJo," she continues. "I've done everything I can for him." She may be talking about her dog, but the concern in her eyes is for her son. The film is rife with symbolism. Even the title itself, and the opening image of the cane fields burning in the distance is metaphorical. Cane burning is both destructive and restorative. It gets rid of the wasted crop and provides the ground cover to fertilize the new. It as much an act of annihilation as it is one of purification. Thus the title, which telegraphs the film's shocking conclusion.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> BURNING CANE STARS DOMINIQUE MCCLELLAN (L) AND BRAELYN KELLY (R. AND BELOW) ON THE RED CARPET AT THE TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL WORLD PREMIERE</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>FOUNDERS AWARD WINNER-DIRECTOR PHILLIP YOUMANS</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>We then meet Jeremiah the luminous wandering sprite of a young boy with hopeful eyes, played brilliantly by Braelyn Kelly. He is like a latter day Candide wandering through the cane fields and orange groves of his rural Louisiana Parish with eyes of wonder. Youman's unflinching camera captures every nuance of the grim life that he faces within the confines of his tiny railroad car of a home. He's trapped into living with an unemployed alcoholic father who commands him to drain out the dregs of wasted beer cans as respite from his endless watching of old cartoons and coloring books. We see his father crushing beer </b></span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">cans with angry pent up emotion. Then follows a scene of the two dancing as they take alternate swigs of whiskey, swaying to an old blues tune on the phonograph (Robert Johnson's They're Red Hot). The dance is at once endearing and disturbing. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Along the way, we meet Daniel's common-law wife and Jeremiah's mother, Sherry (Emyri Crutchfield), Sherry's admonitions that Daniel find a job are met with violence that only escalates with Daniel's drinking. Soon after, we learn that Sherry is missing. Momma Helen is quick to confront her son on her fate. ( "Do you </span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">think</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> I'm simple?!" she demands.)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There are further taboos only hinted at in the briefest suggestions of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">child sexual abuse, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> spousal abuse and, the ultimate taboo in the black community, honor killing. Young </span>Youmans<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> handles all of these weighty subjects with a deft hand, and a maturity far beyond his years. These subjects all fall under the category of "the name that I shall not speak," in Rev. Tillman's final admonitions on the evil subterfuges of the devil, "He will use your family, your friends, your neighbors to turn you to his side. He's coming for you, our children, these precious babies.) His booming words border on homophobia. The film moves at a snail's pace, reflective of the life of those who inhabit it. Scenes are punctuated with angelic swells of choral music from the ages (Mary Lou Williams' Black Christ of the Andes from the words of St. Martin de Pores), Old Time Spirituals (Swing Low Sweet Chariot, This Little Light of Mine, and finally, It'll Be Alright In The Morning from the very real local Mount Sinai Youth Choir). All of this serves to ground the film in its own reality and bring it on home. Burning Cane is a powerful film that reminds us that the concepts of sin and redemption lie within our own grasp and that none of us is free from the consequence for our actions. Youmans' Burning Cane presents a universal theme that transcends race and class. Its hard to believe that he conceived this film when he was just 16 years old and filmed it when he was 17. The themes, and the way he presents them is mindful of a young William Faulkner, the Nobel Prize laureate author from Oxford, Mississippi. Burning Cane is a masterpiece. Make way for the new generation of great black filmmakers in the person of one Phillip Youmans.</span></span></b></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-2006511962078267182019-05-13T11:11:00.004-07:002019-05-13T11:11:44.607-07:0018TH TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SCHEME BIRDS<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>First Time Directors also win New Documentary Director Award</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b> GEMMA AND PAT IN A RARE MOMENT OF JOT</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>GEMMA TENDS TO THE HOMING PIGEONS UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF HER GRANDFATHER JOSEPH IN THE BACKGROUND</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>"If you stay here, you either get locked up or knocked up." Those candid words from Gemma, the film's primary focus, provide the nucleus of the narrative for the 18th Tribeca Film Festival's Best Documentary Feature Scheme Birds from first time directors Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin. Seen through the unflinching eye of cinematographer Hallin, the feature-length debut from this Swedish duo places a laser-like focus on the grim world of wayward teens growing up in the concrete wasteland of the housing projects of Motherwell, a forlorn Scottish town just on the outskirts of Glasgow. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Music by Charlie Jefferson further illuminates the measured progression of this unfolding drama of hope and humanity.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>With its gang bangers, school dropouts and teen pregnancies, this fractured coming-of-age tome could just as easily been filmed in Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, or any other hovel of despair in America.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Gemma was born just after the Thatcher administration shut down the steel mills in Motherwell, the town's sole source of livelihood. As she grows into her teen years, she witnesses the steel mill's demolition, a reflection of the crumbling pillars of her own life and those around her.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Gemma and her teen cohorts seem to delight in their endless cycle of violence, drugs and promiscuity. There's a certain bravado in Gemma's voice as she says with pride that she and her cohorts nicknamed themselves "Scheme Birds."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The seeds of the unraveling of the Scheme Bird's flawed paradise quickly develop. Gemma becomes pregnant by Pat, one of the ringleaders of the Scheme Birds who starts to rack up some serious jail time notches on his belt. The gang takes their violent outbursts to the brink by beating one of their own into a comatose near- human vegetable. Gemma begins to reassess her loyalty to a lifestyle on the fast track to disaster.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Gemma is mentored under the world-weary eye of her grandfather, the local boxing gym manager, who finds solace in raising homing pigeons, which become a running metaphor throughout the film.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Most of the birds return home, grandpa Joseph muses, but there are a few who, once released, never come back.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The words "let the free birds fly" are tattooed on Gemma's shoulder. One has the feeling that Gemma has just what it takes to become one of the lucky few who will. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b> GEMMA EXPRESSES HER LOVE FOR HER BABY'S FATHER, PAT</b></span><br />
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-47203973809604998122019-03-25T18:32:00.002-07:002019-03-25T18:51:31.718-07:0036TH MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL-ASH IS THE PUREST WHITE, A MASTERPIECE FROM CHINESE DIRECTOR JIA ZHANG-KE NOW IN THEATRES<div class="ii gt" id=":25v" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">
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ASH IS PUREST WHITE IN FLORIDA PREMIERE AT MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL-KNIGHT MARIMBA AWARD CONTENDER</div>
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By Dwight Casimere<br />
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ASH IS PUREST WHITE is Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-Ke's latest masterpiece. Often referred to as the Chinese Scorcese, the director's film is now on screen's everywhere. </div>
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For those who follow the autiere, the film represents a compilation of his work, borrowing liberally from two decades of films (Mountains May Depart, A Touch of Sin) that have garnered awards and nominations everywhere from Cannes to Chicago. As in so many of his past films, it stars his real-life leading lady, the luminous Zhao Tao.</div>
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Ash is a complicated film that masquerades as a Chinese gangster movie encased in an exploration of shadow boxing interpersonal relations. Stereotypes of women and the complexities of male/female relations are juxtaposed against an equally complex pandora's box of commentary and cliches on modern Chinese life.</div>
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Enough with the socio-psycho babble. Ash Is The Purest White is simply an absorbing, beautiful constructed (thanks to the writing and direction of Zhang-Ke and a killer soundtrack with atmospheric music by Lim Giong, a Taiwanese experimental electronic musician) and artfully filmed tone poem from multiple BAFTA nominee and Cannes Film Festival and Lumier eAward winner, French cinematographer Eric Gautier.</div>
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Qiao (Zhao Tao) starts the film as arm candy to local crime boss Guo</div>
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Bin (a searing performance by top-notch award-winning Chinese cinema star Liao Fan) who has ambitions of moving up the food chain to become a kingpin. When Bin takes her up in the mountains to show off his illegally gotten gun, you can hear the wheels of the film's plot machine start to turn. Bin reluctantly gets her to take a few target practice shots. Qiao then questions the ethics of it all. She references something she read about dormant volcano like the one off in the distance. She muses that the fiery lava creates a white ash that is the purest of all things. It is capable of purifying anything in its path. Even (by unspoken implication) their twisted, convoluted lives. Thus the title of the film, and now you already know where this is all going.</div>
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Bin and Qiao head into town where they cross paths with a rival gang of young toughs who are hell bent on unseating Bin. (This scene is telegraphed early in the film when a group of young toughs attacks Bin as he's leaving the club. He has them captured by his henchmen, but instead of exacting punishment, shows mercy. The ensuing events give credence to the adage that no good deed goes unpunished!) </div>
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Qiao chases them off with the illegal gun, but is quickly arrested. She takes the rap for her man, telling the cops the gun was actually hers, and goes to jail for five years.</div>
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This is where the film takes on legs. Qiao comes out of jail to a world vastly different than it was when she entered. None of the old rules apply. Capitalism has begun to sink its hooked tentacles into everything. The honor code of the old gangs is a thing of the past. It's every man and woman for themselves in a free-floating sea of uncertainty. But Qiao catches on quickly and manages to navigate her way through the maze toward survival with a blend of flattery, chicanery, cajoling and just plain old lying. </div>
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Bin is not so fortunate. He's inflexible, wanting to maintain his swagger, even as his life begins to fall apart. It's fascinating to watch Bin's character deconstruct right before your eyes. It is a master class in fine acting. </div>
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The nightclub scene at the start of the film is set in the dawning days of the new millennium. It is a vivid portrait of the gaudy, overblown past, Good Fellas camaraderie and excess was at the center of that heady world which Bin strove to dominate. </div>
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A Flash Dance scene at the club is later echoed in a street scene upon Qiao's return to civilian life. Only this time, its performed in a decaying public square. No disco lights. No booming karaoke music. My, how things have changed.</div>
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There are flashes of violence and long, melancholy scenes in which the characters barely interact. That's part of the beauty of this film. Some of its most resonating moments happen in absolute silence. Such is the power and majesty of Jia Zhang-Ke's Ash Is The Purest White.</div>
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From MK Productions</div>
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In Mandarin with English subtitles</div>
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2 hours 16 minutes</div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-26738790161825029762019-03-24T17:29:00.001-07:002019-03-24T17:29:15.502-07:00GLORY: A LIFE AMONG LEGENDS, A MEMOIR BY DR. GLORY VAN SCOTT<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">GLORY: A LIFE AMONG LEGENDS CELEBRATES THE HEROES AND EVENTS OF BLACK HISTORY THROUGH THE EYES OF A GREAT DANCE ARTIST, PLAYWRIGHT AND EDUCATOR</span></span><br />
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WITH PRINCIPAL DANCER PHILIP STAMPS LANGSTON HUGHES' PRODIGAL SON 1965<br />
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KATHERINE DUNHAMS QUEEN DIVINE DRUMBEATS CARNEGIE HALL CBS TV 1980<br />
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AS MISS TRUTH IN SOJOURNER TRUTH CBS TELEVISION MOVIE IN 1966<br />
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WITH NAACP PRESIDENT ROY WILKINS AT HIS RETIREMENT BANQUET 1977<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>by Dwight Casimere</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Glory: A Life Among Legends, a Memoir by Dr. Glory Van Scott is a breezily written account of a life that witnessed some of the great moments of the recent past. It is also a deeply personal account of an unusual life, someone who was born to a very normal, middle class life in one of the nation's great cities, who went on to not only rub shoulders with the guiding lights of her day, but to make her own mark, in her own unique way. It particularly bears witness to those heroes and heroines who shaped the black cultural and political dynamic of the formative middle years of the past century. Born and raised on Chicago's south side, Dr. Glory Van Scott went on to mingle among a heady milieux of trailblazers who created events and institutions that became the bedrock of the Black cultural ethos. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Raised by a father who was a prominent doctor and a mother who was a socialite as one of six children, she was exposed early on to the arts. Studying at the Abraham Lincoln Center on Oakwood Boulevard, which remains today a foundation for many aspiring young artists, she was exposed to drama, speech, creative writing, classical music, and, what would become her lifelong passion, dance. The book recounts how her music teacher, John Green, instilled in her and her fellow students a love of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bach and Chopin. One day, Mr. Green brought his good friend, Mr. Paul Robeson, the towering singing,stage and film star and political activist to Abraham Lincoln Center. Imagine the impact of being serenaded by the great Paul Robeson at just six years old!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Dr. Van Scott's activism was further shaped by the horrifying genocide of Emmett Till, who was her cousin. His brutal murder not only rocked the world and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement, but it forged a fire within her soul. A revealing family portrait of Till, never before seen, says everything there is to say about this heart rending tragedy. It is Dr. Van Scott's own poetic words that immortalize his young spirit and give voice to her resolve:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>"I want Jesus, to turn His face to the sun, where beauty and love and humanity abound, so that He can see I did not succumb to the depths of despair and hatred because of Emmett's death....my success in life is my refusal to spew hatred, and that my challenge continues to be to eradicate racial and religious prejudice."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Dr. Van Scott is one of those rare personages who, although not so well known, was a witness to history. She truly walked among King's, yet kept the common touch, paraphrasing Kipling. The book is filled with rare and never before seen photos of the author with the likes of the great writer Langston Hughes (whose singular musical, Prodigal Son, she premiered in Europe after a calamitously aborted Paris opening, worthy of its own movie), Dr. Ralph Bunche (the first African American awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 and co-founder of the United Nations), Julia Belafonte (then wife of you-know-who), a young Ben Vereen, William Warfield, the great operatic baritone who starred in the film version of Showboat, and, of course, her mentor and lifelong muse Katherine Dunham. Dr. Van Scott gives credit to those who helped in guiding her journey in the opening pages of the book. Some, like impresario George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, singer and actor Robert Guillame (TVs Benson and the first black Phantom of the Opera onstage!) are well known, others, such as producer and director Vinnette Carroll, Dunham Principal Dancer Vanoye Aikens, Dunham company director Lenwood Morris, choreographer Tally Beatty, soprano Mary Louise and Rev. Melony McGant, who encouraged her completion of the book, have all passed into the firmament of history. Fortunately, they are all given their due in the pages of this lovingly written memoir. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>It is Ms. Dunham who had the greatest impact on Dr. Van Scott's early artistic life, and to whom a great deal of the book is referenced. It was with the Katherine Dunham Company that she had her earliest and greatest triumphs. It was also through Dunham and her efforts to produce the Katherine Dunham Gala at Carnegie Hall in January, 1979, with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the able assistance of her beloved friend and mentor George Wein, Founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, that she honed her skills as a producer, subsequently giving a lasting stage presence to the greats of her art form.( Ms. Dunham also received the Albert Schweitzer Music Award that night) </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Some of the most touching photographs in the book are of the preparations and rehearsals for the gala, with some of the greatest black dancers of all time performing some of Dunham's signature routines.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>(Katherine Dunham's life and career is a book unto itself. She was a product of Chicago, and subsequently Glen Ellyn and Joliet, where she attended Joliet Central High School and formed her first dance company and dance school for young black girls.She was one of the first African American woman to attend the University of Chicago, and began her exploration of Caribbean and African dance as the basis for a Masters Degree thesis, for a never-completed degree. She became, however, one of the early exponents of a field hat came to be known as social anthroplogy. In 1937, she left the world of academia to pursue what became a meteoric career on the stage and screen on Broadway, in Hollywood and the world. The Library of Congress credits her with creating "the first African American Concert Dance Technique" known as the Katherine Dunham Method, one of the most challenging in all modern dance.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b> Particularly touching are photos of the great Katherine Dunham preparing Dr. Van Scott to play the part of the Queen in a 1980 CBS Television special entitled Divine Drumbeats. Rites des Passage for Dance In America. "I am the only person aside from Katherine Dunham to dance this part," Dr. Van Scott writes. Ms. Dunham insisted on personally preparing her protege for the part. A photo of Katherine Dunham gently helping to apply her makeup almost bring tears to your eyes. "She insisted on dressing me. She didn't want anyone else doing that because no one else had ever worn that costume but her. Only her hands had been on it. She painted my face the way she wanted it. It was a moving experience. I cherish it."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Another landmark moment was The Great Gathering Photo taken in the Alvin Ailey Dance Studio in January, 2001, which featured all of the dancers, choreographers, educators, scholars and historians aged 50 and older who were the guiding lights of modern dance. "I would have to say that this was truly the greatest day of my life," according to its producers, Aziza. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>You too will cherish every moment that you spend with Glory: A Life Among Legends. It illuminates a crucial time in Black history from the perspective of someone who witnessed it first hand. This is a rare opportunity to see the seismic cultural changes that occurred from the 1950's, the turbulent '60s and the black identity movement of the 70s and beyond, through the prism of art. It is a powerful testimony that both illuminates and inspires.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>GLORY: A Life Among Legends</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>A Memoir by Dr. Glory Van Scott</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Copywright 2018</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Water Street Press </b></span></div>
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Dwight the Connoisseurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15604179263775284294noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4269800383638260100.post-61019546164143767332019-03-22T13:44:00.002-07:002019-03-22T17:32:33.020-07:0036TH MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS NIGHTMIAMI-BASED FILMS AMONG BIG WINNERS ON MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS NITE<br />
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Audience Award (Feature) winner, director Billy Corben (l) holds the trophy on Awards Night with Festival Director Jaie Laplante (c) and producer Alfred Spellman<br />
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Theatrical post (above) and Jeffry Batista as Reinaldo Cruz<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The inaugural edition of Knight Heroes; Oscar winner director <span style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barry Jenkins</span> (center-<em style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mcoonlight</em>, <em style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If Beale Street Could Talk</em>), award-winning filmmaker <span style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Boots Riley</span> (right-<em style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sorry to Bother You</em>) and <span style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aaron Stewart-Ahn</span>,left- co-writer of Sundance favorite <em style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mandy on the Red Carpet (above) and (below) at CINEDWNTWN MASTERCLASS</em></b></span></div>
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Dwight Casimere at the EPIC filmmakers reception and (below) on the Red Carpet Awards Night<br />
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by Dwight Casimere<br />
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Winner of the $40,000 Knight Marimbas Award, the 36th Miami Film Festival's Grand Jury prize was Columbia's Birds of Passage, now on selected screens nationwide, directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra. The film made the short list for Best Foreign Film nominations at the 91st Oscars, but was nudged out for the final nominations. </div>
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Billy Corben's Screwball took the festival's Audience Award. the documentary takes the viewer through the labyrinth of the origins of the recent Major League Baseball doping scandal, which had its roots in nefarious south Florida tanning salons. </div>
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There was also a winner among the strong roster of 36 Miami-based films at the festival. Audience Award for Best Short went to Jose Navas, a product of Miami International University School of Art and Design, for his narrative film The Rafter (*El Balsero). The film tells the story of Reinoldo Cruz's bold escape from Cuba in 1964, the first person to escape Castro's regime successfully on a makeshift raft. Visually stunning, with equally effective special effects, the film is given further depth and power by its narration, in the weathered, plaintive voice of Cruz himself. Following the awards presentation, the festival presented a first time viewing of the first two season opening episodes of the runaway Spanish TV hit, Gigante, with star "Nene" Librado in person! The well-constructed crime family suspense drama was well constructed and suspenseful, holding the audience in awe throughout. The fast-paced action and tightly woven plot lines are sure to make it a worldwide sensation. Even with Spanish subtitles, the visceral acting, spectacular on-location scenery and fast-paced editing make it a joy to watch and a hit in any language.<br />
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Other festival awards included Best Feature, Pahokee from directors Ivette Lucas and Patrick Bresnan for the Knight Made in MIA Award. This was my personal favorite in the festival. It tells the story of a spunky group of local teens at a predominantly black high school in a small,. southern Florida town, who strive for excellence in academics, sports and school spirit as a way out. Pahokee is a small town, whose only remaining industry is local farming in the sugar cane fields, where workers barely eke out a living. Their one shot at a state basketball title is cruelly ripped away from t hem on a minor technicality, that could easily have been forgiven. The students persevere in spite of it. Film subjects include a heart-tugging profile of the students; a firebrand candidate for Student Body Queen and the lead drummer of the Dru and Bugle Corp, who manages to succeed in spite of being the teen father of a young baby, and many more. The film draws you close to these youngsters and makes the audience truly care for them as if they were their own. And, in many ways, they are.</div>
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SCENES FROM 36TH MIAMI FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS NIGHT 2019<br />
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INSIDE THE ORNATE OLYMPIA THEATRE<br />
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AWARDS NIGHT PARTY AT THE FREEDOM TOWER<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Awards Night Party in the historic and iconic Freedom Tower. Originally completed in 1925 as the headquarters and printing facility for the newspaper <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miami_News" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="The Miami News">The Miami News</a></i>,. Designed by Schultz and Weaver, the Freedom Tower is an example of a Mediterranean Revival styled structure with design elements borrowed from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giralda" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Giralda">Giralda</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seville" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Seville">Seville</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain" style="background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Spain">Spain</a>. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Clear the dance floor for <span style="border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PALO!</span>, the Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban Funk band! </b></span><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6DT5XmEvjcwYXQZEiYwXcS9OuYjgUn9a-G2KevGoARUdn4tVjuYRD5HfusymdN23HRpyQAzfx3OwNN4Z27KF6-U3dEIytacHHYKKRJc1il_ijGvgBMc1AcBkOiCkhL81hkRTpMANJgU/s1600/15-1-ag5i7747-1060x707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1060" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6DT5XmEvjcwYXQZEiYwXcS9OuYjgUn9a-G2KevGoARUdn4tVjuYRD5HfusymdN23HRpyQAzfx3OwNN4Z27KF6-U3dEIytacHHYKKRJc1il_ijGvgBMc1AcBkOiCkhL81hkRTpMANJgU/s320/15-1-ag5i7747-1060x707.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Spanish beer giant Estrella Damm of Barcelona and Spanish wine giant Marqués de Riscal of the “City of Wine” in the Basque Country of northern Spain, the libations of this Awards Night Gala </b></span></span><br />
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Here is the complete list of winners:</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$5,000 IMDbPro Short Film Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/orphan/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNGo9BYimv_iIV2Q3tNJRTMB3cfMBA" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/orphan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">THE ORPHAN</a> – Directed by Carolina Markowicz</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$10,000 HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/fireflies/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNFNUjdmudhnPYhEXZKOUjBaXTKE6A" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/fireflies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">FIREFLIES – </a>Directed by Bani Khoshnoudi. Lead produced by Pensée Sauvage and Zensky Cine of Mexico.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$5,000 HBO Ibero-American Short Film Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/this-is-your-cuba/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNF7So1OxzTcmcnUI2fx8qANeyVTxg" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/this-is-your-cuba/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">THIS IS YOUR CUBA </a>– Directed by Brian Robau<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/this-is-your-cuba/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNF7So1OxzTcmcnUI2fx8qANeyVTxg" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/this-is-your-cuba/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></a></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$10,000 Jordan Ressler First Feature Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/socrates/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNEtkZ5OxR1vqEmbkV-xmJ3pnlhGbw" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/socrates/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SOCRATES – </a>Directed by Alexandre Moratto</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$10,000 Documentary Achievement Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/magic-city-hustle/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNFA0s0xcsWKkduIscPqQLmcGe8VAw" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/magic-city-hustle/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MAGIC CITY HUSTLE </a>– Directed by Billy Corben. Produced by Miami-based company Rakontur.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$5,000 Alacran Music in Film Award</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/burning/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNGe8d19-Oi2PTSUz2Zn379dHA5iBg" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/burning/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">BURNING </a>– Original score by Mowg</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$5,000 Zeno Mountain Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/my-daughter-yoshiko/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNG7NYtlZARr2PDER8dRInzmw_CGtQ" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/my-daughter-yoshiko/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MY DAUGHTER YOSHIKO</a> – Directed by Brian Blum</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$2,500 Best Trailer</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/knife-heart/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNF_yN6Fst9i1s7tD3GBOtOxz2Afig" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/knife-heart/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">KNIFE + HEART</a> – Trailer by Joe Hackman</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">$2,500 Best Poster</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Design</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/fragile/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNHfSLjxgO0NRYCrSM-kS_pXbNrsiQ" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/hbo-ibero-american-short-film-award/fragile/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">FRAGILE</a> – Poster by Edel Rodriguez</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Rene Rodriguez Critics Award</span><br />
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/nightingale/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNEII9-Pyl6vrbuE_6oInN7oJo1zbA" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/nightingale/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">THE NIGHTINGALE</a> – Directed by Jennifer Kent</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Audience Award</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">for Best Feature</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/screwball/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNFhvlX3JCrbSyGKhFbLSDHWZNKVXw" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/screwball/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SCREWBALL </a>– Directed by Billy Corben. Produced by Miami-based company Rakontur.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Audience Award for Best Short</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/the-rafter/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNHyTKZZ5MyES8aTdbxw5gMPnkhMbw" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/the-rafter/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">THE RAFTER </a>– Directed by Jose Navas</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/cinemaslam/&source=gmail&ust=1553372903529000&usg=AFQjCNGLYUtDLgpG0d57xMiAG_hly7Pg7Q" href="https://2019.miamifilmfestival.com/films/cinemaslam/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation CinemaSlam Competition 2019</a></span><br />
Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation Best Student Film Using Archival Footage From Wolfson Archives ($5,000 cash prize) – <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">HAPPY TO BE NAPPY, d. Xiao Che</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Champion ($500 cash Sara Fuller Scholarship from FilmFlorida) –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> CHESS, d. Alejandro Gonzalez Valdés</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Best Director –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> Andrew García, THE SKIN OF YESTERDAY</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Best Actor –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> Andrés Nicolás Chavez, THE SKIN OF YESTERDAY</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Best Actress –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> Paulina Gálvez, ESCAPÉ</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Best Writing –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> Alejandro Gonzalez Valdés, CHESS</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Best Technical Achievement –<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> THE CHASE, d. Chantal Gabriel</span></div>
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Wolfson Cinemaslam Works-in-Progress Grants for Films That Will Contain Archival Footage From Wolfson Archives: <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">CAN OF BEANS</span> (Miami International University of Art & Design, D. Paul Alvarado, Roberto Tula), <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">IN HUMAN KIND</span> (Miami Dade College, D. Juancho Rodriguez), <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">LONELY IS THE NIGHT</span>(Miami Dade College, D. Gian Luca Laplume), SAL AND VINNY (Florida International University, D. Lucia Plaza), <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">CELESTIAL</span> (New York Film Academy – South Beach, D. Bruklyn Miller), <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">WADE IN THE WATER: DROWNING IN RACISM (</span> (University of Miami, D. Cathleen Dean).</div>
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