𝔽𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔽𝕚𝕝𝕞𝕤

  It was the summer of 2016, an election year with unrest rumbling through America. There were countless triggers – the murder videos of Philando Castille and Alton Sterling, the counterpunch of Alt-Right and Fake News, Black Lives Matter, Russian meddling – a discordant national cauldron ready to boil over. It was the birth of Trumpism, but no knew it yet.    Then, Colin Kaepernick took a knee and America lost its mind. Kaep’s knee touched down on the divide between America’s Black and white tectonic plates, creating an earthquake in the eternal race debate. The aftershocks of his singular gesture have already rippled through our country for years.    Kaepernick himself answered any and all thoughtful questions for a time, then stopped talking. And the resulting quiet has allowed for a thoughtful examination of the man and his story. It reveals layer upon layer of surprises and contradictions.  Raised in a white family, he became a Black quarterback, while in fact, he is an adopted, b

  Today I'm joined by director Josh Leong to discuss his live-action narrative short, CHICKEN. The film was inspired by the true stories of real children he first met while volunteering in NYC juvenile detention centers in the summer of 2021. This topical film will screen in competition at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, featuring a real prison chick-hatching program, that the filmmakers partnered with. Screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival will be held on Sunday, June 12th at 5:45 pm and Monday, June 13th at 5:45 pm. The film is produced by Denyvi Rose, Nadera Herbert-Bey, Catherine Nguyen and Josh Leong – all NYU students. The stunning cinematography was created by Luc Ung. HERE  for tickets, for both in-person and virtual screenings 

  Directed by: Lee Sunday Evans Executive Produced by: Lee Sunday Evans, Arian Moayed, Ryan Chanatry, Gena Konstantinakos, Anne Carey Starring: Marsha Stephanie Blake, Michael Braun, Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael Chernus, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, Linda Powell, Kristin Villanueva, BD Wong In this powerful drama from director Lee Sunday Evans and writer (and Succession breakout star) Arian Moayed, the legal thriller is given a bold and innovative new twist. Adapted verbatim from court transcripts, The Courtroom follows the harrowing journey of Elizabeth Keathley (Kristin Villanueva) a Filipina immigrant who mistakenly registers to vote while on a K3 visa, a crime punishable by deportation. Married with a newborn baby, Elizabeth, with the support of her husband and the tireless efforts of their lawyer, struggles to navigate an increasingly convoluted and nightmarish legal system.  Originally presented as a critically-acclaimed off-Broadway play, The Courtroom successf

DIRECTORS | Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman, Stuart Samuels PRODUCERS | Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman, Stuart Samuels CAST | May Pang, John Lennon, Julian Lennon "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story” explores the 18-month relationship (1973-1975) that John Lennon spent with May Pang, his Chinese American assistant turned lover (on Yoko Ono’s insistence). With May's help, Lennon reunited with his son Julian and had his most artistically and commercially productive period post-Beatles - with the albums "Mind Games", "Walls and Bridges" which included his only #1 Hit Single "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", "Rock and Roll" and collaborated with Elton John, David Bowie, Harry Nilsson, Mick Jagger, and Ringo to name a few.  Pang chronicles it all revisiting her younger self, a naïve 22-year old experiencing her first, unforgettable love. SCREENINGS:  Online, Friday, June 10, 2022, 8:00PM  Purchase your passes HERE

The Miles Doleac-directed comedy/musical/thriller, OPEN, has added William Forsythe (BOARDWALK EMPIRE, RAISING ARIZONA) and Yohance Myles (AMBITIONS, 2 GUNS) to a cast that already includes Jeremy London, Doleac, Elena Sanchez, and Lindsay Anne Williams.   "Adding Will and Yohance, two tremendous actors with whom I've worked before, rounds out an exemplary cast of performers to join us on this wacky ride. They also possess strong comedic chops and I can't wait to see them let that side rip."  OPEN co-written by Doleac and Lindsay Anne Williams, tells the story of a woman in a troubled marriage who falls for a former TV star, all the while hallucinating that she's the front woman of an 80's new wave band, populated by the major players in her personal life. The film contains 10 original songs, inspired by the 80s post punk/new wave era.  OPEN begins shooting May 31, 2022, in Hattiesburg, MS.

Cleopatra Entertainment has finished production on their newest feature film FROST. The thriller - which was directed by Brandon Slagle with the story by James Cullen Bressack and screenplay by Robert Thompson - was filmed on location in the San Bernardino mountains in southern California during winter of 2020. After recently wrapping up final production on the upcoming Glen Danzig film DEATH RIDER IN THE HOUSE OF VAMPIRES, Bressack also produced with Tim Yasui co-producing the feature.  The film stars Vernon Wells (MAD MAX II : THE ROAD WARRIOR, COMMANDO, WEIRD SCIENCE), Devanny Pinn (THE DAWN, HOUSE OF MANSON, CROSSBREED) and Venus DeMilo Thomas (LIFE, SISTER SISTER, FAMILY MATTERS) and tells the story of a young woman and her estranged father who have to fight to survive after being stranded on a remote mountainside during a winter storm.  A full motion picture soundtrack for FROST is scheduled for both the CD and VINYL LP formats to accompany the film’s release and features contrib

Earlier today Music Box Films announced the US theatrical release of LOST ILLUSIONS, Xavier Giannoli’s sumptuous adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s seminal 19th century Paris-set epic novel of ambition, lust, betrayal, and the birth of modern media.  LOST ILLUSIONS will open on Friday, June 10 in New York (Film Forum and Film at Lincoln Center) and Los Angeles (Laemmle's Royal, Pasadena’s Playhouse and Encino’s Town Center), followed by a national expansion. Giannoli’s deft, au courant adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s sprawling novel of social-climbing and artistic compromise reminds us that the thorny entanglements of art, commerce, and media are centuries-old. This decadent, satirical romp that “plays with all the brio and jeopardy of a modern-day gangster movie” (Variety) is replete with both the opulence and grittiness of 19th-century Paris. Fake news and “pay for play” are familiarly pervasive, though sexier and funnier than today’s version -- and not a little soul-pricking, sin