The half brazilian documentary “Waste Land” Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary.

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

Source: Waste Land Movie

Brazil: Festival Varilux de Cinema Frances

The Varilux French Film Festival in Brazil will be held from June 2 through 10, 2010.

This year’s Varilux  French Film Festival will include preview screenings of 8 films acquired by Brazilian distributors (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Little Nicholas, One for the Road, The Refuge, Oceans, Hadewijch, A Prophet, and Fais-moi plaisir!) as well as screenings of two films that have not yet secured a buyer, presented to Brazilian audiences by two crew members from the French artistic delegation. Anna Mouglalis will present Jean-Paul Lillienfeld’s film Skirt Day, while Laurent Tirard will present Xabi Mollia‘s film, Eight Times Up.

In addition to these artists, the French delegation traveling first to Sao Paulo and then to Rio de Janeiro, will also include Adel Bencherif, Jacques Cluzaud, Frédérique Bel, Bruno Dumont, Julie Sokolowski, François Cluzet, Philippe Godeau, and Jan Kounen.

Films :

8 fois debout

A Prophet

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

Fais-moi Plaisir!

Hadewijch

Le dernier pour la route

Little Nicholas

Océans

Skirt day

The Refuge

More info: http://www.festivalvarilux.com/

Sundance film Festival by Sebastian Doggart

Sebastian Doggart, an expat film-maker, reports on a wave of largely foreign-based British talent that won plaudits at America’s favourite independent film festival

 The British are leaving Britain. I can vouch for it: there were hordes of them at the Sundance Film Festival. I’m a London-born expat who left the UK 10 years ago, first for Los Angeles, and now for New York. I was at Sundance, in Park City, Utah, to sell my film, and to promote a new distribution platform for indie films. Over 10 days, I met fellow Brits everywhere. They were returning knackered from the ski-slopes; complaining about Mormon-inspired restrictions on the size of vodka shots; and trudging drunkenly through the 2am Main Street snow.