News & festivals

My Stolen Revolution Audience Choice at Rotterdam International Film Festival

We are touched by the response of the audience voting My Stolen Revolution in 5th place as the Audience Choice http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/

Congratulations to Beate Petersen Winner of Autumn Exhibition Award 2012

This year's winner of the Autumn Exhibition BKHs price of NOK 100,000 is the artist Beate  Petersen, videodocumentary Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives. "The nearly hour-long project is an exceptionally well-executed artwork, both conceptually, technically and aesthetically. It is also one of several this year Autumn exhibition that examines the situation in the Middle - East, and thus has a particular relevance."

My Stolen Revolution Premiers at Rotterdam

We are excited to announce that Nahid Persson Sarvestani's newest film, My Stolen Revolution, will have its world premier at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. The film tells of Nahid's personal journey to find the truth surrounding her brother's death and exposes the realities of life inside Iran's political prisons.

Stuff Everywhere at Lincoln Center

We proudly announce Stuff Everywhere's screening at the Film Society Lincoln Center New York as part of Mountain Film 2012. www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/stuff-everywhere

Cinema Komunisto in the New Year

Cinema Komunisto continues its dazzling festival run and closes 2012 at Forum des Images in Paris and opens 2013 at the Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade

The British newspaper the Observer has reviewed Cinema Komunisto. If you would like to read it please click here www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/nov/25/cinema-komunisto-review

Nasseredin Shah and His 84 Wives wins Best Feature Documentary

The gem of a film Nasseredin Shah and His 84 Wives wins Best Feature Documentary, New York City International Film Festival

www.nyciff.com/2012-nyciff-winners

PR: Conversations with Peter Higgs

Press Release

CONVERSATIONS WITH PETER HIGGS ABOUT THE DISCOVERY OF HIGGS BOSON clips HIGGS, INTO THE HEART OF IMAGINATION 56’ documentary includes latest news

This Wednesday, the 4th of July 2012, news from Cern in Geneva will be released detailing the latest findings in the quest for the Higgs Particle and what gives matter mass. There will be an historic press conference.

The search for the Higgs Particle, it has been the greatest scientific experiment ever. It cost tens of billions and hundreds of the brightest people in the world have been devoted to finding it.

Viewpoint Productions has spent this last weekend in Sicily with Peter Higgs in conversation with him about these new findings 48 years after he first predicted the existence of the Higgs Particle.

The Dutch broadcaster HO has followed this research up until the revelations coming out tomorrow. It can be seen in the documentary Higgs- Into the Heart of Imaginationwhich has been just re-edited to include the new findings. The documentary follows Stan Bentvelsen program leader of the Dutch contingency at Cern in the preparations of the experiement until now. It explores the meaning of the Higgs Particle and power of the imagination.

For information about the new Clips with Peter Higgs or the documentary Higgs Into the Heart of Imagation, please contact:

Robin Brinster Illumina Films
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+31206248395
+31640701027

American Cinematographer Magazine Award

Stories from Lakka Beach wins the American Cinematographer Magazine Award for Best Cinematography at Salem Film Fest

Nasseredin Shah and His 84 Wives

Nasseredin Shah and His 84 Wives
Wins at Los Angeles International Underground
Film Festival 2011
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Film

Stories From Lakka Beach selected for IDFA

STORIES FROM LAKKA BEACH has been selected for IDFA Competition for First Appearance and IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary

In Lakka, a small beach village in Sierra Leone whose international story has been dominated by a rebel war, a colorful mix of villagers tell their own stories of war, love, god, tradition and foreigners. Together they tell us the story about a war-torn community in a peaceful Sierra Leone.

Two selections for Stand By Me

Stand By Me has been selected for the international program of the DOK Leipzig Film Festival

Stand By Me has been selected for the Gouden Kalf Competition of the Netherlands Film Festival

Stand By Me is am intimate look at the Dutch welfare system. It examines the simple question "would it help if I didn't help". It featured in last years IDFA competition Best Mid-length Documentary and Best Dutch Documentary.

Bronze medal for “The Road to Diyarbekir”

“The Road to Diyarbekir” has been awarded the bronze medal at the 30th International Grand Prix for Author’s Documentary given by the URTI. The 30th edition of the International URTI Grand Prix for Author's Documentary set a new record of participation with 223 documentaries presented by 140 international television channels representing 64 countries.

MIPDOC AND MIP 2011

MAKING THE BOYS Art, Music and Culture, MIPDOC
“In his absorbing documentary, director Crayton Robey digs into the divisiveness of a work held up as a pioneering breakthrough, but just as often dismissed as a pre-Stonewall anachronism. “ Hollywood Reporter, February 2011
 
MAKING THE BOYS explores the drama, struggle and enduring legacy of the first-ever gay play and Hollywood movie to successfully reach the mainstream The Boys in the Band. With Robert Wagner, Dominick Dunne, Edward Albee, William Friedkin, Michael Cunningham, Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Dan Savage, and of course Mart Crowley.
 
 
 
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SOMETHING UNKNOWN – Is Doing We Don’t Know What
Science and Knowledge, MIPDOC
 
The science behind psychic phenomena.

Is it possible that some people can read your mind, or look into
the future? How is it that some people can cure themselves in the last stages of a deadly cancer? Does mind over matter really exist, and if so, how do we explain it? In Something Unknown, these phenomena and questions are explored. It seeks out the foremost researchers and scientists in the fields of parapsychology to find out does telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing, psychic healing, telekinesis really exist.

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SELLING THE SILENCE Green, Point of View, MIPDOC
Salla, a small Finnish town lying at the most southerly border of Lapland. As we see from sprightly 8mm home movies, it was where filmmaker Markku Tuurna and his boyhood friend, Jyrki, spent many joyous years skiing, sledding, swimming, boating and fishing in the huge natural reserve.
 
Today, things are very different. Salla, as well as Markku’s friend, has been devastated by depopulation, recession and absurd income generating schemes. From a ski resort suffering from lack of snow, to Christmas beginning in November -- in Salla the struggle between environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and the area’s citizenry comes to blows leaving the Salla and the deep north as the greatest casualty.
 

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THE ROAD TO DIYARBEKIR Art, Music and Culture, MIPDOC
Legendary Kurdish musician Ciwan Haco lives a double-life. An exile, eking out an existence in the small Swedish village of Gävle, he lives with his wife and children. In Gävle he is just another asylum seeker in the cold, snowy landscape.

Not many people know that he is a superstar and folk hero among 30 million Kurds all over the world. After being blacklisted by the Turkish government for decades he is invited to give a concert in Diyarbekir the symbolic home for Kurds. In Diyarbekir, over one million people line the streets and pack the concert grounds awaiting the appearance of their great bard.
 
Not just a portrait of an artist, the film touches existential questions about home, conflict and a refugee’s search for identity in a foreign land.



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AMONG HORSES AND MEN Ethnology,Sociology MIPDOC
Bo, Charles, Chris, Dean, Gilbert, Mike and Steven are all in the final phase of long prison sentences. Before they are released, they take part in this unconventional rehabilitation program, under the patient and insightful guidance of veteran cowboy Hank Curry.
 
During the course of the three-month program, the men learn how to win the horses’ trust and to make non-violent contact with another living creature. As Chris puts it, "I believe the horse is teaching you a lot about yourself, your character flaws, your weaknesses and your strength even. 



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STAND BY ME Human Interest
A surprisingly warm and insightful look at the world renown Dutch welfare institution.
 
In Zutphen, a small town sitting on the Ijssel river, almost 1000 individuals are recipients of state aid. It’s up to the counselors, to decide each claimant’s fate. Thomas takes a more parental approach, Debbie is strict. Notwithstanding the varied social and psychological causes of unemployment, both Thomas and Debbie want to get their clients off the dole and back into the system.
 
Do Thomas, Sjoerd, the well-educated Dilshad and the apathetic couple Danny and Veronica deserve our understanding? Or is it absurd that they aren't working? Would it be better if they didn't get any help.



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MBAMBU AND THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON Ethnology, Sociology MIPDOC
Mbambu lives in the village of Kilembe, Uganda, a hamlet perched in the shadows of the Mountains of the Moon.
 
It’s a place where tradition and defined gender roles hold sway. She’s sixteen and already her life is taking a different course than her parents’. Mbambu wants to be the first in her family to get a secondary education and to do so, she becomes a mountain guide, an occupation traditionally held by men. Mbambu is undaunted. With the blessings of her mother and grandmother, she dons men’s trousers and enlists a famous former poacher to teach her the trade.
 
But, learning is not enough for Mbambu, she turns activist and joins the amateur theatre group. Together they spread the word about saving nature in her beautiful Mountains of the Moon.


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THE QUEEN AND I Point of View
Thirty-two years ago, Nahid Persson Sarvestani took part in the revolution which brought down Iran’s monarchy driving the Shah and his queen, Farah Diba, into exile. Betrayed by the revolution, Nahid was also forced into exile.
 
In the Queen and I, Nahid and Farah Diba come together in Paris. The former queen opens her home to the filmmaker and a unexpected personality and world emerges. The two women have intense moments of distrust of the other, yet courageously they go forward and a moving journey of two women living in exile unfolds.

Higgs, into the Heart of Imagination selected!

HIGGS, INTO THE HEART OF IMAGINATION has been has been selected in competition for The 13th Brooklyn International Film Festival 2010.

Directed by Hannie van den Bergh & Jan van den Berg, Higgs is about the quest for the Higgs particle. Also known as "The God Particle, the Higgs Particle is considered the missing link in particle physics. Higgs is a film about curiosity, passion, and the imaginative power of science.

Coming up: Body Politics

Coming up:
After the success of Over the Hill Sunny Bergman deepens her search for true feminine identity.

BODY POLITICS

The series BODY POLITICS explores images of femininity and feminine sexuality in a cross cultural and cross religious context. The series is a personal quest of filmmaker Sunny Bergman and it reveals diverse experiences of female sensuality in Uganda, India, Cuba, Egypt and Morocco.

Sunny looks to broaden her own sexual horizon, to knock her western ideas off balance and create room for a new female sexuality and femininity.

Sunny Bergman | documentary | human interest 2011 | Viewpoint Productions

Julie Bridgham's the Sari Soldiers

A reviews of PUNAM from the Alternative Film Guide:
http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-festivals/punam-lucian-muntean/

A screening of PUNAM at the UN's human rights week 06':
http://www.ohchr.org/english/events/day2006/events.htm