A reunification road trip through the two Koreas

World Broadcast Premiere on History Television

Monday, January 26, 2009 – 8:00pm (est/pst)

It’s fitting that Tiger Spirit the acclaimed feature length documentary by award-winning

filmmaker Min Sook Lee ( Hogtown: The Politics of Policing) will have its World Broadcast Premiere on  History Television on Monday, January 26, 2009 –  the first day of the lunar Korean calendar which is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays .

In Tiger Spirit filmmaker Min Sook Lee asks: “If North and South Korea did reunite

– what would that look like?” Shot in South and North Korea, Tiger Spirit introduces

two worlds split apart by one border but bound together by a sea of blood, family and memories. 

Korea is a divided nation.  The psychic scar shared by families divided during the Korean War in the 1950’s is symbolized by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing communist North from capitalist South.  Along this infamous border, filmmaker Min Sook Lee begins a revelatory, emotionally-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary people.

Lee joins one man’s quest to prove the tiger, a symbol of resilience in Korean mythology, still lives in the DMZ.  But Lee delves deeper than symbols, asking the crucial questions – how will the two Korea’s reunite?

In the South, we meet elderly Koreans waiting for news of family members they haven’t seen in over 50 years as well as young defectors haunted by memories of their recent escape.  In the North, we visit an inter-Korean economic project and gain unprecedented access to a state-sanctioned family reunion.

An eloquent tale of longing and hope, Tiger Spirit is an unforgettable portrait of Korea at a crossroads

Tiger Spirit is written and directed by Min Sook Lee, who also served as producer along with Ed Barreveld of Storyline Entertainment and Anita Lee from the NFB.  Directors of photography included Stan Barua, Mark Ellam and Michael Grippo while Ricardo Acosta served as editor.

Min Sook Lee is a writer, broadcaster and an award-winning documentary director/producer.  In 2006 she released the short docu-poem Borderless, a film about undocumented workers in Canada, which has screened internationally at festivals in Asia and North America.  Her feature documentary, Hogtown: The Politics of Policing was awarded for Best Feature-length Canadian Documentary at the 2005 Hot Docs festival.  Lee’s first feature El Contrato, was nominated for a Gemini award for Best Social/Political documentary in 2005.  In 2009 Min Sook will release the doc Badge of Pride, the story of queer cops in Canada.

Running time:  71 minutes

Visit these websites:

www.tigerspirit.ca

www.storylineentertainment.com

A Film by Astra Taylor

A Thoughtful Way to Begin the New Year

Opens in Toronto at The Royal – Friday, January 23, 2009

An intimate, engaging conversation with some of the greatest minds of our era, Examined Life conveys the wonderment and curiosity that drive philosophical thought. This feature length documentary also introduces the world's most formidable thinkers and some of the most compelling theoretical debates taking place today.

Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets.

Philosopher’s have long done their best thinking when directly engaging with the outside world, not in isolation from it.  Socrates roved the Athenian agora, courting trouble with the authorities.  Rousseau immortalized his rambles through nature on the printed page.  Nietzsche once said that only ideas conceived while walking have any value.

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor, named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces To Watch” (Zizek!) accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques.  Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure.  Juditih Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation on individualism.

And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West – perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual – compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be.

Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.

Examined Life features the “rock star philosophers” of our time, including Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor.

Examined Life is co-produced by the NFB and Sphinx Productions, whose award-winning theatrical documentaries include Imagine the Sound (Best Documentary, Chicago Film Festival), Comic Book Confidential, Grass (both Genie Award winners) and the soon to be released Know Your Mushrooms.

Running Time:  88 minutes

More info at: www.filmswelike.com

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS

A film by RON MANN

Opening Night Co-Presented by Hot Docs

Opens in Toronto at The Royal on Friday, January 30, 2009

From the award winning director of Comic Book Confidential, Grass, Go Further and a host of paradigm-shifting films reappraising the backwaters of popular culture, Ron Mann investigates the miraculous, near-secret world of fungi with his newest piece of cinema, Know Your Mushrooms.

Mushrooms – we put them on our pizza and steaks and in our soups and salads: we marvel at their variety and are sometimes repelled by their grotesque beauty when encountering them in the bush.  And yeah, some have even sampled their more exotic possibilities and asked the question: “Do mushrooms come from a far away planet?”

Still others have asked, “Can mushrooms be a planet?”

The world of fungi and their integral relationship with the health of the planet have only recently been appreciated.  The oldest and largest living organisms recorded on Earth are both fungi.  And their use by a new, maverick breed of scientists and thinkers has proven vital in the cleansing of sites despoiled by toxins and as a “clean” pesticide among many other environmentally-friendly applications.

Inspired by a chance conversation with fellow filmmaker and mushroom bug Jim Jarmusch, Mann set off to the annual Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado.  It was there he encountered the unique sub-subculture surrounding fungi that includes an unlikely assortment of nerds, nuts, hipsters, tripsters, artists, chefs, musicians, foodies, foragers, and seekers all paying homage to the mighty mushroom.

Know Your Mushrooms follows uber-myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two of the more expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the community) as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.

Combining material filmed at the Telluride Mushroom Fest with animation and archival footage along with an ORIGINAL neo-psychedelic soundtrack by the Flaming Lips, Know Your Mushrooms opens the doors to perception, takes the audience on a longer, stranger trip and delivers them to a brave new world where the fungi might well guide humanity to a saner, safer place…

Running Time:  77 minutes   -    www.filmswelike.com

FLY ME TO THE MOON: Fateful Attraction

WORLD PREMIERE ON CBC ‘DOC ZONE’

THURSDAY, JANUARY 22

9:00 P.M.  (9:30 P.M. Nfld.)

Leading up to the commemoration of the 40^th anniversary of  man’s first walk on the moon in 1969, Montreal filmmaker John Curtin’s new documentary takes a whimsical look at our intriguing relationship to the moon – our closest and most romantic neighbour in the sky!

(Montreal – January 12, 2009) Commemorating the 40^th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon in 1969, Montreal filmmaker John Curtin’s new hour-long documentary FLY ME TO THE MOON: Fateful Attraction (CBC Television’s Doc Zone, Thursday, January 22 at 9:00 P.M., 9:30 P.M. Nfld.) takes a whimsical look at our intriguing relationship with the moon - our closest, and most romantic neighbour in the sky.

More than four billion years ago, an interplanetary collision tore away part of the earth, which eventually became the moon. But gravity has kept us orbiting together – the moon around the earth - in an endless dance. And it’s a fateful attraction that keeps bringing us back together.

Earth and moon were reunited when astronauts walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. But it didn’t last. Now, 40 years later, the relationship is hot again. Private companies are building moon-bound rockets. NASA plans a permanent human settlement up there and suggests the moon, because of its lower gravity, would be the perfect launching pad for further exploration of the solar system. And scientists say we can harness solar power on the moon and beam it to earth to solve our own planet’s energy crisis.

The moon has influenced us since the dawn of time, helping to create life on earth through gravitation and the tides. The moon also ensured the survival of the human race. When hunter-gatherers roamed the earth, women synched their menstrual cycles to the phases of the moon in a sex stratagem designed to get men to provide for their children. For astrologers, the moon is a symbol of femininity.

From Shakespearean romance to Beethoven’s famous Moonlight Sonata to the adventures of Jules Verne, the moon has loomed large in our culture and history. The absence of moonlight doomed the Titanic, while entire cities were destroyed in WWII under the “bomber’s moon”.

More recently, an American entrepreneur laid claim to the celestial body, selling millions of moon acres to earthlings for $19.99 an acre (plus $1.51 lunar tax)! And the ancient, intriguing art of ‘moon gardening’ is making a comeback in the UK, while experts (and the Montreal police) debate whether a full moon induces all the loony, lunatic effects ascribed to it.

In the film, well-known Quebec pianist and singer Gregory Charles performs several moon-themed musical numbers, including Fly Me To The Moon, That’s Amore, Aquarius, and excerpts from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Starring the inconstant, ever-changing symbol of beauty, magic, danger, romance, power, and mystery, FLY ME TO THE MOON, in one entertaining hour, offers a fascinating short history of our close relationship, both scientific and cultural, with the moon.

John Curtin is a Montreal filmmaker and journalist with 25 years of experience in television, radio and print. He has freelanced for The New York Times and reported from abroad for CBC and National Public Radio. He is founder and owner of the film and television production company Kaos Films and has produced and directed sixteen one-hour documentaries which have been broadcast on the CBC, CTV, BBC, PBS, ARD, NHK, National Geographic, ARTE,  Discovery Channel and others. They include the recent documentary special To Hell With Manners: The Decline of Civility, as well as A Song for Africa, which won  the 2007 Deborah Fletcher Award of Excellence in Filmmaking on International Development; Dangerous When Provoked, about cartoonist Terry Mosher, which won both the 2007 Gemini Award and the Yorkton Golden Sheaf Award for Best Biography; Last Dance: Rex Harrington’s Story; Our Grieving Hearts; Islam Behind Bars; Ten Seconds of Eternity, which followed the world’s top sprinters to the Sydney Olympics;  and three biographies for CBC: Being Red Green: Steve Smith’s Story;  Olympic Warrior: Donovan Bailey’s Story, nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Sports Program; Passion before Reason: Margaret Trudeau’s Story. His production, Flirting with the Opposition, received a Gemini Award nomination for the Donald Brittain Award for Best Documentary Program. Curtin’s portrait of his father, Light and Shadow: A Photographer in the 20^th Century, was screened at the Kunsthalle Museum in Vienna.

 FLY ME THE MOON: Fateful Attraction is written, directed, edited and produced by John Curtin. Narrator is Ann-Marie MacDonald; Director of Photography is Glenn Weston; Original Music by Robert M. Lepage. Michael Claydon is Area Executive Producer and Linda Laughlin is Senior Producer for CBC Independent Documentaries. Mark Starowicz is Executive Director of Documentary Programming for CBC Television.

FLY ME TO THE MOON: Fateful Attraction is produced by Kaos Productions Inc. in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian cable industry, CTF: License Fee Program, the Québec Film and Television Tax Credit administered by SODEC, and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit Program.

Repeat Showing – FLY ME TO THE MOON will be repeated on CBC Newsworld Saturday, January 24 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT.

Austin, Texas -- January 12, 2008 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced today additional titles and guest speakers for this year’s Festival, March 13 – 21, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Among the new titles unveiled is the Warner Bros. Pictures release “Observe and Report,” which will premiere in the Centerpiece slot on Monday, March 16th.

Written and directed by Jody Hill (“Foot Fist Way”), “Observe and Report” is a dark comedy starring Seth Rogen (“Pineapple Express,” “Knocked Up”) as Ronnie Barnhardt, a deluded, self-important head of mall security who squares off in a turf war against the local cops. Opening wide on April 10, 2009, the film also stars Anna Faris, Michael Peña and Ray Liotta, and was produced by Donald De Line and executive produced by Andrew Haas, Marty Ewing, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni under the Legendary Pictures banner. Rogen previously attended the 2007 Festival with the world premiere of “Knocked Up,” which went on to gross nearly $150 million in its domestic release.

New panelists added to the SXSW Film Conference (March 14 – 17) include filmmakers Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight,” “Thirteen”), Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City,” “Spy Kids”) and Mike Judge (“Office Space,” “King of the Hill”), SXSW alum and Mumblecore pioneer Joe Swanberg (“Nights and Weekends, “Hannah Takes the Stairs”) and Mark Woollen, the award-winning creator of many memorable trailers (“Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”).

Long known as a banner destination for compelling documentary films, the lineup for the 2009 SXSW Film Conference & Festival will include:

“Objectified” – From acclaimed SXSW alum Gary Hustwit ("Helvetica") comes a new film that documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential industrial designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

“New World Order” – Directed by SXSW alum Andrew Neel, this documentary about conspiracy theorists is a behind the scenes look at the underground anti-globalist movement. The film chronicles celebrity radio host and underground cult hero Alex Jones, (of “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly”), and other conspiracy theorists on their ceaseless quests to expose the 'massive global conspiracy' that they believe threatens the future of humanity.

“Winnebago Man” – Jack Rebney is the most famous man you've never heard of – after cursing his way through a Winnebago sales video, Rebney’s outtakes became an underground sensation and an online phenomenon seen by millions. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer climbs to the top of a mountain and goes deep into the woods to find the recluse who unwittingly became an Internet superstar.

“RiP: A Remix Manifesto” – Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. Gaylor's documentary features artists like Girl Talk, who employ mash-up techniques, mixing samples of existing music into new songs. Interviews with additional artists, lawmakers, companies and consumers are interspersed with animation, archive footage and collages.

The SXSW Film Festival will open on March 13th with a screening of “I Love You, Man,” directed by John Hamburg and starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. Previously announced panelists for the 2009 SXSW Film Conference & Festival include acclaimed writer/directors Todd Haynes and Richard Linklater in conversation together, longtime Stanley Kubrick producer Jan Harlan, as well as a rare appearance by Col Needham, Vice President of IMDb.com Service Limited. The complete festival lineup will be announced in early February 2009.

South By Southwest Film Conference & Festival SXSW offers a uniquely creative space for filmmakers, film fans, and even cinephiles to partake in the big and small picture discussions about filmmaking today. The Conference hosts a five-day adventure in the latest filmmaking trends and new technology, featuring Conversations with film icons, intimate mini-meetings and one-on-one mentor sessions with industry veterans. The internationally-acclaimed, nine-day Festival boasts some of the most wide-ranging programming of any US event of its kind, from provocative documentaries to subversive Hollywood comedies, with a special focus on emerging talents. Learn more at sxsw.com/film.

SXSW Film Conference and Festival is sponsored by Miller Lite, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), The Austin Chronicle, Fuze Beverage and ZonePerfect.

FEBRUARY’S DOC SOUP SEES CANADIAN PREMIERE OF

 CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED AFRICA DOC MILKING THE RHINO

DIRECTOR DAVID E. SIMPSON IN ATTENDANCE

MILKING THE RHINO screens on Wednesday, February 11, at 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema

Toronto, January 14, 2009 – Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is pleased to announce that MILKING THE RHINO (D: David E. Simpson, USA) will receive its Canadian premiere at February’s Doc Soup. An official selection of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), MILKING THE RHINO is touted as “fascinating… beautiful” in a four-star review by the Chicago Tribune and “refreshingly optimistic” by Variety. MILKING THE RHINO screens on Wednesday, February 11, at 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West. Director David E. Simpson will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

The familiar scenes of wildlife documentaries – a ferocious kill on the Serengeti, warnings about endangered species – all ignore a key feature of the African landscape: villagers, just off-camera, who endure the daily trials of living amongst wild animals. When seen at all, rural Africans are often depicted as the problem: they poach wildlife and encroach on habitat, spoiling romantic, Western ideas of wild Africa. Not so in MILKING THE RHINO, which takes the unique approach of turning the cameras around to tell a more nuanced tale of conservation in post-colonial Africa. The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba—two of the oldest cattle herding cultures on earth—are emerging from a century of “white man’s conservation,” which turned their lands into game reserves and elevated wildlife for its exoticism at the expense of local peoples. Having borne the costs of wildlife conservation while reaping few of the benefits, the Maasai and Himba are now vying for a piece of the economic pie and a path towards self-sufficiency. MILKING THE RHINO depicts people at the cutting edge of Community-based Conservation (CBC), a new paradigm that tries to balance the needs of both wildlife and people. It is a movement led by NGO field workers and social entrepreneurs at the village level. CBC has been touted by environmentalists as “win-win,” but the devil is in the details.

Charting the collision of ancient lifestyles with Western expectations, MILKING THE RHINO tells intimate, harrowing and hopeful stories of rural Africans in the midst of deep cultural change.

The Doc Soup monthly screening series brings the latest Canadian and international documentaries to the big screen in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. Single tickets for MILKING THE RHINO are $12 and can be purchased in advance at www.hotdocs.ca or at the door on the night of the screening (subject to availability). A limited number of free tickets for the 9:15 p.m. screening will be available to students with proper ID (subject to availability) at the door, on a first-come first-served basis beginning at 5:30 p.m.  

Upcoming screening dates for Toronto’s Doc Soup are February 11, March 11 and April 15. Doc Soup titles are announced at least one month prior to their screenings and, whenever possible, guest directors are in attendance.

Hot Docs is pleased to acknowledge Citytv as the Presenting Partner of the Doc Soup series.

Doc Soup Toronto is sponsored by Rogers and the Toronto Star.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

Canada’s Very Own

Darryl’s Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival

Returns To London To Scandalize Proper Society

Saturday, January 10^th, 2009

Roxy Bar & Screen – 128-132 Borough High Street, London ES1

Showtime  8:00pm

£3 Entry

For Tickets and more information 

http://www.roxybarandscreen.com/listings.php?event=809

www.hardliquorandporn.com

(Toronto – January 6, 2009) – Those kinky Canadians and their popular program of prurient and puerile sex-coms are returning to the London Short Film Festival for a second year. This follows an overwhelmingly successful debut last year, playing to a triple-capacity crowd at the Roxy Bar and Screen.

Now in its sixth year, the London Short Film Festival (http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/ ) plays in several theatres in the heart of London, showcasing leading-edge short films from around the world. “Darryl’s” Director of Programming Darryl Gold and Executive Producer Jill Rosenberg have been invited back to showcase a provocative selection of short films spoofing sex and porn.

Darryl’s Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival (DHL&P) played to capacity crowds in Toronto in September 2008 and will continue to tour its program of original and witty creative erotica to Montreal on January 31st at the Society of Arts and Technology and in New York on February 14.
 
The London screening will offer a full and eclectic evening program of short films, many that have been specifically produced for DHL&P.  The event will mark the European premiere for the majority of these films. 

Highlights include the 3D film “Gender Vision” by Neil Hollands (Canada) “Toe Jam” by The Brighton Port Authority (USA), “XXX-Ray” by Jill Rosenberg (Canada), “The Secret to Success With Women” by Darryl Gold (Canada), and the Best Foreign Film winner at Darryl’s Toronto ‘08 festival, “A Mate” by Finland’s Teemu Nikki.

Audience members are encouraged to dress up as their inner porn star.

Missoula, Montana - The 2009 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival has announced the Official Selections for the annual 10-day event, February 13-22.  Now in its sixth year, the 2009 installment includes

143 extraordinary films from more than 30 countries, a selection chosen from nearly 1000 submissions. The 2009 program is truly distinguished, offering the most diverse exhibition of work to ever screen under the Big Sky.

This year's films cover the gamut of possibilities within the non-fiction form, with topics ranging from the ivory-billed woodpecker to art cars; from rock docs to opera; from Antarctica to Swaziland! Special presentations include retrospectives of filmmakers Ron Mann & Joe Berlinger (both in attendance) and a live musical accompaniment to silent film by the world renowned Alloy Orchestra.

Now expanded to 10 days, downtown Missoula's historic Wilma Theatre, the 1100-seat venue that houses Montana's largest screen, once again hosts the visual immersion into a world where reality plays itself.

With packed audiences of avid moviegoers, most films are accompanied by a Q&A with their respective filmmakers.