New York, NY (The Hollywood Times) 4/26/2018 – “Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them,” from Robert Macfarlane’s Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination.
Mountain directed by Jennifer Peedom and narrated by Willem Dafoe is a hypnotic documentary introspection of humankind’s relationship with mountains. Director of Photography Renan Ozturk imagery paired with the classical score from the Australian Chamber Orchestra brings life and reality to the words of Macfarlane. This reality is not known to the human eye at the height that drones, Go-Pros and helicopters can reach. Audiences with an appreciation for mountains, majestic visuals and classical music will have a greater appreciation than an average viewer. Mountain does an extreme job of easing the viewer into the peaks of Tibet, Australia, Alaska and Norway. Mountainis more than looking for an action packed death-defining adventure and anyone solely seeking this thrill will be disappointed. Peedom’s passion for the mountains and the people that are attracted to them is beautifully highlighted.
Santa Monica, California (The Hollywood Times) 4/24/2018 – “We have a series called Earth Focus, produced in partnership with Thomson Reuters foundation, which was launched in 2007. It is the longest running environmental TV shows in the United States.” Juan Devis, KCETLink Chief Creative Officer told The Hollywood Times on Saturday.
“We have a very exciting new season starting on Wednesday, both nationally and locally on KCET. What we are trying to do this season is share a global story with a local story, that have a connection. How either climate change is effecting them in similar ways but in completely different parts of the globe. Bring two stories together in one.” Said Juan.
Juan mentioned that they almost didn’t have the second annual Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival because of limited resources a public television station to organize a film festival.
“I know this festival will grow because people are hungry for this type of content and get involved and figure out how to get activated. If we can be part of that, we are going to go forward with it.” Juan said.
Lek Chailert Founder of Save Elephant Foundation
Lek told The Hollywood Times that Noi Na, the elephant that was recused and the star of Ashley Bell’s documentary Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story, was very happy, she was for the first time playing with a ball and was swinging her truck. She has two friends now. Check out Lek’s facebook page to find out more about Noi Na and Lek’s Elephant Nature Park: https://www.facebook.com/lek.chailert
The Hollywood Times presented Lek with a vest hooded sweater with an embroidered Dumbo on the chest and a couple of Disneyland Dumbo pins. She was so happy to receive them.
She asks people reading this article to know she needs a voice to help with the education of elephants in service. Not to ride elephants, the elephants are overworked and not properly cared for and even work when they are pregnant and at times lose their baby. Do not buy painting done by elephants or go to circuses that have elephants there.
Raphael Sbarge
Raphael Sbarge: “The first one is always the hardest and now it actually feels like it has some momentum. There is a great vibe here, the fact that this is the only environmental film festival in Los Angeles is just crazy, right! You would think there would be many of them here. It is part of KCET’s commitment to the environment, speaking locally and tapping into the incredible pool of filmmakers and actors and people who really care about this.”
“It is so great and the fact that they are sold out speaks for itself. A spike in the curve in terms of awareness and a receptive audience.”
Maggie Q on the green carpet
Maggie Q: “I will be introducing the movie tonight and it was a wonderful movie and I hate what we are doing to the animals. It does affect me a great deal.”
Patrick Fabian
Patrick Fabian told The Hollywood Times and we was bringing his two daughters to the film festival and he was looking forward to watching the movie “Jane” with him.
He was also glad to hear that KCET was having the second annual Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival this year and he was happy to provide his support and looks forward for many more Environmental film festival in the years to come.
John Michael McCarthy
John Michael McCarthy, the writer and director of Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story told The Hollywood Times that this was a memorable experience for his being part of this elephant rescue and being in a truck with a 70-year old captive partially blind Asian elephant for 48 hours was somewhat intimidating. He is very proud of the work they all did on this amazing film and hopes that folks will go out to see it to be award of the abuse of service elephants.
Actress and environmentalist Maggie Q gives welcoming remarks at an advance screening of “Love and Bananas An Elephant Story” at Sony Studios on April 20, 2018 (Photo KCET)
Over Earth Day Weekend, KCET Hosted Private Advance Screening of ‘Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story’ at Sony Studios Introduced by Maggie Q To Kick Off EARTH FOCUS Environmental Film Festival
Celebrities Kim Delaney, Patrick Fabian, Sharon Lawrence and Raphael Sbarge Introduced Environmental-Themed Films at LA’s Only Green Film Festival During All Day, Open to the Public Event on Saturday, April 21 in Santa Monica Supported by Region’s Most Influential Environmental Organizations.
Actor Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul) actress Kim Delaney (Chicago Fire, The Oath, Army Wives, NYPD Blue) and actor-filmmaker Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time, Longmire) (Photo KCET)
From Left to Right: Patrick Fabian, Kim Delaney, and Raphael Sbarge introduce films at EARTH FOCUS Environmental Film Festival. Maggie Q introduces the West Coast Premiere of Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story at Sony Studios’ Opening Night Event. A full day of environmental films was open to the public at Santa Monica’s Laemmle Theatre for KCET’s second annual EARTH FOCUS Environmental Film Festival.
Filmmaker Roddy Tabatabai, Abramorama’s Evan Saxton, Save Elephant Foundation’s Sangdeaun~Lek Chailert with filmmakers Ashley Bell and John Michael McCarthy (Photo KCET)
On Fri., April 20 from 6:30-10:30 pm, KCET kicked off the second annual [ http://www.KCET.org/green ]EARTH FOCUS Environmental Film Festival, LA’s only environmental film festival, with an exclusive screening of Abramorama’s Love and Bananas: An Elephant
Filmmaker Ashley Bell, KCETLink Media Group’s CCO Juan Devis and Actress Maggie Q (Photo KCET)
Story at Sony Studios’ classic Kim Novak Theatre followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Actress and environmentalist Maggie Q (Designated Survivor, Divergent, Nikita) hosted the opening night event. Guests on Friday night were welcomed with opening remarks from KCETLink Media Group’s Chief Creative Officer Juan Devis followed by introductions of the documentary from actress / filmmaker Ashley Bell and actress Maggie Q.
The event began with a green carpet reception attended by actor Dylan McDermott (LA to Vegas, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Practice), actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Training Day, Blindspot, Broadchurch), Actress Reylynn Caster (Me, Myself and I), Actress Sara Rue (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Will & Grace), activist and host Sarain Fox (Viceland’s RISE, Future History), Actress Briana Evigan (Step Up 2: The Streets, Sorority Row), Kat Kramer (Little Fockers), Actor Michael Nouri (American Crime Story, Damages, Flashdance), former Anchor of KCET’s SoCal Connected Val Zavala, Hosts of KCET’s Globe Trekker Brianna Barnes and Zay Harding as well as many more.
Deadline chief film critic Pete Hammond, Filmmakers Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy, Roddy Tabatabai and Executive Producer David Casselman and film’s Sangdeaun~Lek Chailert (Photo KCET)
The opening night film was followed by a post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Ashley Bell, Roddy Tabatabai and John Michael McCarthy, Executive Producer David Casselman as well as the film’s Sangdeaun~Lek Chailert moderated by KCET MUST SEE MOVIES host and Deadline chief film critic Pete Hammond.
Actor and filmmaker Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time, Longmire), actor Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul), and actress Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue, Queen Sugar, The Ranch) were also in attendance and acted as presenters for the full day festival on Sat., April 21, along with actress Kim Delaney (Chicago Fire, The Oath, Army Wives, NYPD Blue) at Santa Monica’s Laemmle Monica Film Center from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sat., April 21.
A full day of environmentally-themed films open to the public, with many of the films free of charge, kicked off with an environmental shorts screening from UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) program followed by four acclaimed films (March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step, Evolution of Organic, The Last Animals and Jane) and closed with a screening of two all-new episodes of KCET and Link TV’s EARTH FOCUS, the longest running environmental news magazine on U.S. television. Each film was introduced by a celebrity host and followed by a Q&A panel. More information about the screenings and the Q&A sessions that followed can be found at KCET.org/green.
Mark Monroe Co-writer of The Last Animals Film and Link TV Co-Founder Kim Spencer (Photo THT)
All five of the movies shown this year, were educational, informative and eye-openers. The Q&As after each film where truly worth staying after the movie to listen to.
Don’t forget to turn into KCET tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25th –
Louisiana still is learning from Hurricane Katrina. Forecasts are dire for Louisiana to experience the second-highest sea level rise in the world. There is a big movement brewing in New Orleans to build adaptive “resilience zones.” In Southeast Louisiana, the native peoples of the Isle de Jean Charles have become the first U.S citizens moving within their homeland displaced by climate change.
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WednesdayApr25, 10:30 PM PT
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FridayApr27, 7:30 AM PT
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The 2018 EARTH FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL was in partnership with Sony Pictures Television Networks’ Picture This Festival For The Planet along with sponsors including Thomson Reuters Foundation, Deadline.com, UCLA’s LENS program, the International Documentary Association (IDA) and Motev, an environmentally conscious global executive transportation service.
The EARTH FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL also showcased green organizations in Los Angeles that included Heal The Bay, River LA, Sierra Club, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Project Save Our Surf and L.A. Works with tables upstairs in the mezzanine area at the Laemmle’s Monica offering important environmental educational information and volunteer opportunities to attendees.
Saturday’s event was attended by over 300 people committed to bringing environmental awareness and dialogue to our community with the hopes of helping save our planet for tomorrow.
Hollywood, California (The Hollywood Times) 4/17/2018 – “I am so excited to have been recognized by KCET and to have the opportunity to come out on a wide platform and getting the nationwide release that Abramorama is giving us.” Ashley Bell, director of “Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story” told The Hollywood Times.
This #EarthDay, discover the beauty of Asian Elephants and learn how their future is in jeopardy. Love And Bananas comes to theaters April 22, 2018 and tells the unlikely story of how a 70-year old Asian Elephant named Noi Na was rescued from a Thai trekking camp. Find a screening near you at http://loveandbananas.com/screenings/ #LoveAndBananas
Elephant rescues in Thailand are rare, unpredictable and often life threatening. Join a team of extraordinary people who race against the clock to save Noi Na, a 70-year old captive Thai trekking elephant in the new documentary Love And Bananas. Learn more at http://www.loveandbananas.com
Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers, led by world-renowned Asian elephant conservationist Sangdeaun Lek Chailert, embark on a daring 48-hour mission, 500 miles across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom. “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” is a heartwarming and hopeful film that exposes the plight of Asian elephants and the people who work tirelessly to save them.
Interview with Ashley Bell:
THT: “How exciting to have your movie première at the KCET Environmental Film Festival this Friday night.”
Ashley Bell: “It’s very surreal to think that a couple of years ago I was literally on the back of a truck with an 8,000 pound elephant covered in mud racing her to freedom and the fact that we are having the opportunity to have our LA première on the Sony Pictures lot with KCET, is a huge honor for me.”
THT: “I was lucky enough to preview this movie this weekend and I want to know how nervous were you riding in the back of that truck?”
Ashley: “Pretty nervous (with laughter). It hit me like a wave when that journey began with the severity of the situation that we were in. Noi Na got heat stroke on the truck and almost tipped it over. When the voyage began we were barreling down the super highway in Thailand with this huge elephant that was very scared, the truck got very quiet and our conservationist Lek got quite. When I saw her get quite, I knew that things were getting into a very sensitive and dangerous zone. The way she read Noi Na’s body language was one of the most fascination things I have ever witnessed. She explained to the camera what was happening with her. Noi Na refused to eat, she wasn’t drinking water, and she kept a small piece of corn tucked inside her mouth. She is partially blinded, so she can see out one eye, but here head was moving in a phonetic way, because she was trying to understand what was going on. For all Noi Na knew, that truck meant she was going to another logging camp, trekking facility or for more service. Who was she to know she was on her way to freedom.”
Ashley Bell and Lek
“What separated Lek and I from Noi Na were just two beams. I put my hand on the beam and Lek took my hand and moved it to the other side just in case Noi Na would make a surge to go forward. Lek did not want my hand to get broken in two. It was in that moment that it dawned upon me, my God this is just another day for this elephant, this is the life of a captive service elephant and this is what is normal for them. It was very quiet on those moments on the truck. We had 22 hours ahead of us throughout the night.”
THT: “How did the making of this documentary movie make you feel?”
Ashley: “Incredibly humble and incredibly grateful. I’ve known about Lek’s work as a kid growing up and before I met her, I had heard of this rock star elephant whisper/conservationist. When I met her, I was pretty tongue-tied, because Lek is on the frontline with every single day, in grave danger, fighting to protect this species and she trusted us, she let us accompanying her on an elephant rescue. She took us under her wings in the sanctuary and she showed us what happens when you take the chains off and let an elephant be an elephant.
She regards elephants like people, by saying that, she treats them with dignity and respect. How severely Asian elephants are abused and broken, you can feel them with love. I am a very skeptical person, but I saw it with my own eyes and what I saw were miracles. Our job, when she trusted us with her undercover footage, her undercover story, we were allowed to interview people in Thailand, that opened up to us, our job was to get it right before it was too late.”
THT: “Has your movie been at other film festivals?”
Ashley: “We had our world première at the DC Environmental Film Festival and you hope there are more than just 15 people. When we got there it was sold out and the audience was filled with kids and teenagers and that really was the audience we all strove to make the film for and make it feel safe for kids to come see”.
“Kids are super savvy and everything must be completely authentic, so we wanted to take people on an action packed rescue, and we are happy it landing with a younger audience.”
THT: “This movie brought me to tears and it was even hard to get through this interview, but okay, I did cry talking with Ashley.
She was kind enough to console me and to tell me she had that same reaction as well.”
Ashley: “When you know better, you do better. I was born and raised a vegetarian and always thought I was eco aware and environmentally savvy or just aware, an aware human. I saw as a teenager in US Weekly, some celebrity going on an elephant ride and I said, ‘oh, I want to do that,’ and my Dad said at the time ‘oh do you know what it takes to get them there?’ I didn’t and there is a saying now with every single environmentalist that they have a fur jacket in their closet, that is just a saying and it’s a thought that when you know better you do better. Nobody really knows the truth about elephant rides, elephant paintings, behind elephant polo or just seeing elephants in service. I am so unbelievably moved by your reaction because that was my aha moment. I have to use the resources I have at my disposable to do something. That was partnering with Change For Balance Productions and setting out to making a documentary about this.”
THT: “When did you actually finish the movie?”
Ashley: “About one year ago this month. We filmed for two weeks in Thailand and some in Cambodia. Going in we knew the story that we wanted to tell and we wanted to take people on an elephant rescue. That was always going to be the heart of the film. So that rescue took place over 22 hours and once we got there, via a Facebook message from Lek. I had about 48 hours to assemble a crew of three guys and take a redeye flight over to Thailand. When we woke up the next night we were on the back of that truck heading down to the rescue and it happened quickly because we waited two and half years for an elephant rescue to happen. There were false starts where elephants were up for rescue, but before Lek could get to them, they had been sold off to do circuses. We joke and say we had like a baby bag by the door because as soon as we go the call we have to leave right then.”
THT: “Can you image Lek, this tiny woman a true elephant whisper?”
Ashley Bell & an Elephant from Love & Bananas Documentary About a Thai Elephant Rescue
Ashley: “Can you believe it. Like getting any type of tap from an elephant’s knee felt like whiplash. I felt save around and under the elephants because I was with Lek and we are warned to give space to the elephants on the sanctuary land because the elephants are under a great deal of psychological stress and physical impairment. Because Lek is their mom, she is the matriarch of their society. Lek is the elephant whisper. I have never seen anybody as effortlessly, constantly give energy forward. I mean that in the sense of it’s just so fluid, that she is continuing to contribute to the animals, the environment and the betterment of the society that she is in. She does that without break and without hesitation.
Lek & Ashley hanging out with the Elephants
She sleeps about four hours a night in a room above her office with a bed full of dogs and a bunch of dogs on the ground and a husband.”
THT: “Are the dogs good with the elephants, is it therapeutic for both the dogs and elephants?”
Ashley: “They are great together. It is insane, you see this herd of about 90 elephants roaming around the sanctuary and 400 rescue dogs. A herd of buffalo and a couple of pigs. Everybody is in perfect harmony and Lek is on her bike riding around and it is Utopia!”
Lek with her many rescue dogs
“When Lek starts a sanctuary, she makes sure to take care of the whole surrounding village. She is providing school for all the local kids, she provides satellite and medical equipment, running water and she also provides jobs for the local villagers so that they don’t need to illegally poach and have a steady income on the sanctuary land. When she loads in that model, the whole area flourishes. Both the villagers, the environment, the forest that they are in and the sanctuary they are in. She was stuffing the bananas with de-worming medication to take care of the elephants as she was doing an interview. Then she stocked piled a mound of clothes and toys that she brought from the main village to give to all the villagers and their children. As she was doing this, someone complimented her shoes and she took them off her feet and gave them to this woman who had no shoes. That was day one!”
“If we all had one percent of Lek we could do something great with the world…”
“If truly been an honor to tell this story and our only job was to get it right.”
“There are around 415,000 African elephants left in the world, but only about 40-45,000 Asian elephants and they are endangered species of the two. In some parts of southern China, they are functionally extinct, meaning they don’t have a herd big enough to properly reproduce. We are there. I have been asked ‘why should I care about an Asian elephants, what can these elephants do for me?’ Which is a painful question because I wouldn’t think that you would have to explain the importance of a species by justifying their life on earth.”
“Asian elephants are a keystone species. Their existence provides environment, food and shelter and a whole ecosystem for a multitude of other species that they live with. They have actually linked Asian elephants to helping fight climate change. When an elephant goes through a jungle, they carve their path and eat a bunch of food and when they produce waste, out sprouts a kind of new jungle and they found that areas with Asian elephants show that there is a more densely populated forest and jungle and greenery.” With a species this huge, we do not know the ramification of what will happen when they are gone and we have to do something to stop it before it is too late.”
Publication from the WWF on Asian Elephants and Climate Change:
THT: “People argue that many animals have gone extinct without man, I say, who cares, they are going to continue to go extinct, but when man has something to do with it, we need to do something about that!”
THT: “What would you like to say about this new environmental documentary film?
Ashley: “Come on this journey. Even in the making of it, it’s a documentary, but I set out to not make a documentary, but to take audiences on a journey and on an elephant rescue. So join the rescue and join king banana, join the herd!”
THT: “How is Noi Na doing?”
Noi Na enjoying the river
Ashley: “As of now she has made two new friends and Lek said that Noi Na is still eating extending her truck and not going up to the food and eat, it’s like in her mind she is still chained. So when she eats she never approaches the food she just reaches out with her trunk. Psychologically she is still in chains to this day, but she does spend her days down by the river and she loves to go swimming.”
THT: “What is Lek up to these days?”
Ashley: “There are 12 satellite camps that have done the humane conversion. Where they were trekking camps and they changed their model to be humane sanctuaries.”
“All throughout southern Thailand and Lek again provides all the resources to that camp to help them with volunteers and switching the elephants from chains to living more humanly. She has a whole team that assists with that so that the trekking owners won’t feel alone in the process. In doing this they are much more profitable than they ever were as trekking camps.”
Man’s WayGods Way
“People are becoming more and more aware of wanting to be with elephants as elephants and not wanting to ride an elephant or see them in entertainment, that is just further proof that when you know better you do better.”
Ashley said that Lek will be here in Los Angeles for the KCET première on Friday at Sony studios.
“On Sunday, April 22nd we are going to be having a nationwide screening day on Earth Day of Love & Bananas all across the country and in the California locations Lek, myself and Change for Balance Productions, our production company will be doing Q&As and Skype.” Ashley said.
“You don’t need a bull hook to control an elephant. You can guide an elephant with love… And bananas” – Lek Chailert, Founder of Save Elephant Foundation
Please check this website out about a rescued elephant pictured here:
“Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” is truly a movie you should take your children, especially teenage children to see. It is a powerful and emotional movie that we all need to see as to bring awareness of what happens to service elephants. We must do something to help save this species before they are all gone. Don’t miss your opportunity this Earth Day Sunday, April 22nd. Here are the cities that will be showing this amazing movie:
Directed by: Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism I & II,Carnage Park, Novitiate)
Written by: Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy and Fernanda Rossi
Executive produced by: Steve Bannerman, David Casselman, Pam Casselman, Ian Hultquist, Sofia Hultquist, Samantha Housman, Leandro Marini, and Roddy Tabatabai
Produced by: Ashley Bell, John Michael McCarthy and Ross M. Dinerstein
Ashley Bell Love & Bananas: An elephant Story
Ashley Bell: Director, Producer, Writer
An actress across film, television and theater, Ashley Bell is most recognizable for her critically acclaimed role in “The Last Exorcism,” for which she earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and an MTV Movie Award nomination. The New York Post praised Bell’s acting as “Oscar-worthy” and one of the 10 best performances of 2010 for her extraordinary portrayal of the possessed Nell Sweetzer. She reprised her role in “The Last Exorcism Part II” in 2013 and yet again received high praise.
Bell has since crossed genres, and in 2014 she made her Broadway début in the revival of the 1920’s expressionistic drama “Machinal,” alongside Rebecca Hall and directed by Lyndsey Turner. Since then, Bell’s projects have been a staple in the independent film festival circuit, with premieres at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and TIFF. Bell most recently starred in Mickey Keating’s feature film “Psychopaths” (Tribeca Film Festival 2017,) and the drama “Novitiate” (Sundance 2017). Additionally, Bell has completed production on the indie dramas “Next Door” and “The Swerve,” and the motion capture video game “Scalebound.” In 2016, Bell starred in Mickey Keating’s indie film “Carnage Park,” which premiered at Sundance, and for which she received rave reviews.
Bell directed, wrote and produced the feature documentary entitled “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story,” which depicts the rescue of a blind Asian elephant from captivity in Thailand and her journey 500 miles to freedom.
It will be released nationwide in theaters this April by Abramorama. Additionally, Bell serves as an US Ambassador for Cruelty Free International.
Bell’s expansive list of film credits include the romantic comedy “Love & Air Sex,” directed by fellow Spirit Award nominee Bryan Poser, which premiered at SXSW; the romantic drama “From Above,” co-starring Danny Glover; the post-apocalyptic thriller “The Day,” starring opposite Shawn Ashmore and Dominic Monaghan, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival; the coming of age indie “There’s a New World Somewhere”; the noir feature film “Sparks,” based on the graphic comic; and the WWE’s action film “The Marine: Homefront.” Her television credits include AMC’s “The Walking Dead” webisode series “The Oath,” Lifetime’s “Don’t Wake Mommy,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “The United States of Tara.”
In 2012, Bell lent her voice to the animated series “The LeBrons,” starring NBA player LeBron James. Her voice has also been featured in several top-selling video games, including the lead role of Erline in Sony PlayStation’s “Sorcery” and The White Queen in Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bell is the daughter of actor/voice animator Michael Bell and actress and Groundlings co-founder Victoria Carroll. She studied acting and directing at Cambridge University, where she was awarded “Best Actress” for her portrayal of “Ophelia.” Bell later graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with honors, and was mentored by Oscar nominee Kathleen Turner.
Lek with Sri Nuan down in the river
Sangdeaun Lek Chailert: Herself, Founder Save Elephant Foundation
Sangdeaun Chailert, also known as Lek, which means “small” in Thai, was born in Thailand in 1962. In return for saving the life of a young man, her grandfather, a shaman or traditional healer, was given an elephant named Tong Kam, meaning Golden One. The bond that developed between Lek and Tong Kam sparked a love and respect for elephants that have shaped the course of her life.
After graduating from Chiang Mai University with an Arts degree, Lek worked in the tourist industry, where she became aware of the plight of the Asian elephant. She began championing the rights of elephants by raising public awareness of their situation and providing medical aid to elephants in remote villages.
In the 1990’s, Lek started rescuing injured, neglected, and elderly elephants and in 2003 was able to establish a permanent homeland for them in the picturesque Mae Taeng valley, near Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. She named this land Elephant Nature Park. Today, Elephant Nature Park is home to over 70 elephants that are able to roam freely during the day, live within family herds and develop close friendships with each other.
Elephants at the park are not required to work, do not perform tricks, and are not ridden, but instead, are allowed to live a natural life.
Lek is an award-winning conservationist, who has been working for over two decades to improve the conditions of elephants in Asia and promote their welfare.
Her work has received international acclaim and has been documented by National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, CNN, and the BBC, as well as print media around the world. In 2005, Lek was honored by Time Magazine as the “Hero of Asia” for her work to protect Asian elephants.
Hillary-and-Lek (Photo Chiang Rai Times)
In 2010, she was honored by Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton as one of six Woman Heroes of Global Conservation and recently, in 2017, Lek was invited to attend and speak at the “Global Pact for the Environment” Summit at the United Nations, New York, by President Macron of France.
Today, Lek continues to be at the forefront of elephant (and other animal rights causes), raising international awareness and encouraging other countries in the region to follow her lead, as well as helping provide sustainable alternatives to local villages.
She has initiated projects in Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar and maintains special relationships with the animals she rescues. Most days, she can be found at Elephant Nature Park spending time with the rescued herd.
Why Elephants are Important
Elephants are among the most intelligent of the creatures with whom we share the planet, with complex consciousness that are capable of strong emotions. Across Africa they have inspired respect from the people who share the landscape with them, giving them a strong cultural significance. As icons of the continent elephants are tourism magnets, attracting funding that helps protect wilderness areas. They are also keystone species, playing an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they live.
During the dry season, elephants use their tusks to dig for water. This not only allows the elephants to survive in dry environments and when droughts strike, but also provides water for other animals that share harsh habitats.
When forest elephants eat, they create gaps in the vegetation. These gaps allow new plants to grow and create pathways for other smaller animals to use. They are also one of the major ways in which trees disperse their seeds; some species rely entirely upon elephants for seed dispersal.
On the savannahs, elephants feeding on tree sprouts and shrubs help to keep the plains open and able to support the plains game that inhabit these ecosystems.
Wherever they live, elephants leave dung that is full of seeds from the many plants they eat. When this dung is deposited the seeds are sown and grow into new grasses, bushes and trees, boosting the health of the savannah ecosystem.
From Baby to Adolescence
A baby elephant weighs about 200-250 lbs. (91-113 kilgograms). At birth, a calf’s trunk has little muscle tone and no coordination. It takes several months for a calf to gain full control of its trunk. Baby elephants suckle through their mouth. Young Asian elephants are reported to stand soon after birth. After several months, the calf begins to eat grass and foliage. It stays under the supervision of its mother for several years, but begins making independent movements at four years. Full size is attained at about 18-24 years.
Katie Couric NatGEO America Inside Out (Photo iTunes-Apple)
By: Valerie MIlano
Hollywood, California (The Hollywood Times) 4/11/2018 – “Don’t say anything. Play along. Keep your head down.”– AIO interview subjects on workplace inequities.
From KCET and Link TV Announces 2018 Lineup for Earth Day Weekend
By: Judy Shields
West Coast Premiere of ‘Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story’ at Sony Studios Friday, April 20th
Saturday, April 21 All-Day Festival Features Celebrity Introduced Screenings – Followed by Q&A Panels; Kicks Off With Free Screening of Hulu Original Documentary March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step’ Plus National Geographic’s ‘Jane,’ ‘The Last Animals,’ ‘Evolution of Organic’ and Closing Night Screening of Environmental Documentary Series ‘Earth Focus’
KCETLink Media Group, a leading national independent broadcast and digital media network, has announced that its two services, KCET public television in Los Angeles and independent satellite network Link TV, will launch the second annual EARTH FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL, the only festival of its kind in Los Angeles on April 20, 2018, with a private opening night reception and West Coast premiere of Abramorama’s “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” followed by a full day of environmental-themed films, many of which are free and open to the public to attend. The film from actress/filmmaker Ashley Bell follows a daring 48-hour mission across Thailand to rescue a captive Asian elephant and set her free. The screening will take place at Sony Pictures Studios Kim Novak Theatre. A post-screening Q&A will follow with filmmakers Ashley Bell, Roddy Tabatabai and John Michael McCarthy, Executive Producer David Casselman as well as the film’s SangdeaunLek Chailert moderated by KCETMUST SEE MOVIES host and Deadline chief film critic Pete Hammond. This presentation continues KCETLink’s commitment to educating audiences about the global elephant poaching crisis following its 2016 award-winning campaign for EARTH FOCUS: Illicit Ivory. KCET and Link TV have partnered with the Save Elephant Foundation, a Thai non–profit organization dedicated to providing care and assistance to Thailand’s captive elephant population through a multifaceted approach involving local community outreach, rescue and rehabilitation programs and educational ecotourism operations.
“Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” follows filmmaker Bell, and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist and TIME Magazine’s “Hero of Asia,” SangdeaunLek Chailert, as they embark on a daring mission 480 miles across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old partially blind trekking elephant and bring her to freedom. The film aims to ignite a new way of thinking about this species and shows us what can be done to prevent the extinction of Asian elephants. The rapidly decreasing numbers of elephants in the world, combined with the popularity of elephant trekking camps and recent announcement to lift a ban on “trophy” elephant imports, makes this a timely and important film as it presents a solution to the problem. The film depicts a better way to co-exist with and enjoy elephants that will not put them at risk. The film is written and directed by Bell, John Michael McCarthy, and Fernanda Rossi, executive produced by Steve Bannerman, David Casselman, Pam Casselman, Ian Hultquist, Sofia Hultquist, Samantha Housman, Leandro Marini, Roddy Tabatabai and produced by Bell, McCarthy and Ross M. Dinerstein. Abramorama is handling the global release and rights management for the film on behalf of production companies Grumble Grumble, Change For Balance and Campfire. http://loveandbananas.com/
Five pair of tickets will be given away to the opening night screening event“Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” via facebook.com/kcet28. Go to kcet.org/green for details.
“We are committed to bringing environmental awareness and dialogue on multiple platforms through our EARTH FOCUS franchise, and are proud to host the festival as a resource for enlightenment and education,” said Juan Devis, Chief Creative Officer for KCETLink Media Group. “Capitalizing on the success of last year, we’ve been able to curate an incredible lineup that covers a range of issues impacting the environment today. We hope these films can encourage our community here in Southern California to play a part in helping save our planet for tomorrow.”
The Hollywood Times covered last years Environmental Film Festival, and it was outstanding. This year promises to be ever better. Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story is such a touching and heart-warming story, that everyone needs to see when it is released April 22nd, check your local movie theater for showing times. It will change what you thought you knew about elephants in captivity.
Ashley Bell & an Elephant from Love & Bananas Documentary About a Thai Elephant Rescue
Following the opening night event at Sony Pictures Studios, Los Angeles’ only environmental film festival will take place Sat., April 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica (1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA. 90401) in partnership with Laemmle’s Theatres. The second annual EARTH FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL is open to the public kicking off with an environmental shorts screening from UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) program followed by four acclaimed films and closing with a screening of two all-new, back-to-back episodes of KCET and Link TV’s EARTH FOCUS, the longest running environmental news magazine on U.S. television. The screening will premiere two episodes from the new season, exploring how environmental changes are forcing all living creatures to adapt in order to survive. The series premieres later this month, created in partnership with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Green Wish Co-Founders Ed Begley Jr. & Raphael Sbarge (Photo THT)
Thanks to Green Wish, a grassroots nonprofit that helps other local nonprofit green organizations fund projects for their communities, and Deadline.com, the media sponsor for the festival, celebrity environmental activists including filmmaker/actor Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon A Time, Murder in the First, Longmire), actor Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul) and actress Sharon Lawrence (Shameless, Queen Sugar, NYPD Blue) will introduce each film that will be followed by post-screening dialogues with the filmmakers. General admission tickets are available starting today at KCET.org/green
Go Metro and take the Expo Line to Downtown Santa Monica Station and walk a quick ten minutes to the festival. Attendees will receive a free KCET hat by showing a TAP card at check in. Additionally, Laemmle’s is offering a special discounted deal of $5 for a popcorn and soda all day to attendees of the festival. More information on Laemmle’s Monica can be found at www.laemmle.com
The schedule (subject to change) for Saturday, April 21 at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica (1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA. 90401 is as follows:
9:30 a.m.: Opening of all-day festival with Heal The Bay, River LA, Sierra Club,Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Project Save Our Surf and L.A. Works in the upstairs mezzanine area of the Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.
In partnership with KCET, UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) has launched a yearlong collaboration to create innovative forms of immersive environmental reporting and documentary storytelling. The project brings together UCLA faculty and students from English, Film, Anthropology and Environmental Science and also represents an original collaboration between LENS and UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. Films being shown include Taylor Yard: A Change of Heart in Los Angeles and Urban Ark Los Angeles introduced by Allison Carruth, LENS Faculty Director. A Q&A following features LENS co-founder Jon Christensen with moderator UCLA Film professor Kristy Guevara-Flanagan.
10 a.m.: “March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step” (Total Running Time 1 hr. 15 min.) – FREE!
Filmmaker Luc Jacquet returns to the Antarctic to revisit the Emperor Penguins who call the frozen continent home. A decade after making his Academy Award® winning March of the Penguins, Jacquet spent two months shooting in the Antarctic winter using the new technology of 4K cameras, airborne drones, and under-ice diving to show the astonishing lives of these mysterious creatures in an entirely new light.
Sharon Lawrence 2017 Environmental Film Festival (Photo: THT)
The film tells the story of two penguins, a father and son, as they face and overcome the almost unimaginable challenges of life in this hostile land. Introduced by actress Sharon Lawrence. Q&A following with Sara Mandel, aviculturist (bird expert) in charge of the June Keyes Penguin Habitat at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific, and moderated by Sharon Lawrence.
11 a.m.: “The Last Animals” (Total Running Time 1 hr. 32 min.)
Conflict photographer Kate Brooks turns her lens from the war zones she is used to covering to a new kind of genocide – the killing of African Elephants and Rhinos – in this sweeping and sobering exposé. As the single-digit population of Northern White Rhinoceros ticks closer to zero, Brooks outlines the myriad factors contributing to the current epidemic of highly effective poaching and trafficking syndicates, drawing startling connections between the illegal wildlife trade, drug cartels, international terrorism and border security. But all is not yet lost – at the same time, Brooks documents the heroic efforts of conservationists, park rangers, and scientists to protect these animals in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Q&A will follow.
12 p.m.: “Evolution of Organic” + short film “The Soil Story” (Total Running Time 1 hr. 28 min.)
Academy Award® nominated director Mark Kitchell (“Berkeley in the Sixties,” “A Fierce Green Fire”) brings us the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. The film is narrated by recent Oscar® winner Frances McDormand. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters reject chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives. It’s a heartfelt journey of change from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has gone mainstream – split into an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people, and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. Prior to the film, the short film “The Soil Story” from LA’s environmental non-profit Kiss the Ground, explores the first viable, low-cost way to reverse climate change through soil. Introduced by actor and filmmaker Raphael Sbarge. Q&A will follow.
2:30 p.m.: “Jane” (Total Running Time 1 hr. 30 min.)
Patrick Fabian and Kristin Davis – 2007 Environmental Film Festival (Photo: THT)
Oscar®– and Emmy®-nominated director Brett Morgen uses a trove of never-before-seen 16 mm footage unearthed after 50 years from the National Geographic archives to shed fresh light on trailblazing conservationist Jane Goodall. Morgen tells Goodall’s story starting in 1960, when the 26-year-old British woman arrives in a remote area of northwestern Tanzania to study chimpanzees.
Drawing on stunning wildlife footage and exclusive interviews with Goodall, as well as research footage from the Jane Goodall Institute and Goodall family videos, Morgen offers an unprecedented, intimate portrait of a woman who defied the odds to become one of the world’s most admired conservationists. Introduced by actor Patrick Fabian. Q&A will follow.
“Earth Focus: Sea Level Rising-Living with Water” explores how Louisiana is learning from Hurricane Katrina. Forecasts are dire for Louisiana to experience the second-highest sea level rise in the world. There is a big movement brewing in New Orleans to build adaptive “resilience zones.” In Southeast Louisiana, the native peoples of the Isle de Jean Charles have become the first U.S. citizens moving within their homeland displaced by climate change.
Juan Devis The Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences 65th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards
“Earth Focus: Climate Migration” follows populations that are dramatically shifting as climate change drives migration. Droughts and floods are driving many people away from their rural, farming communities into big cities. We see how this is manifesting in Mongolia and examine the factors leading to the new community of Haitian people living in limbo at the border between Mexico and the U.S. Q&A following with Director Nicky Milne and moderated by KCETLink TV Chief Creative Officer Juan Devis.
Each of the films included in the film festival will be augmented by original content published on KCET and Link TV’s web sites at kcet.org/earthfocus and linktv.org/earthfocus, on related topics ranging from environmental justice to climate activism to green gentrification. Contributors will include veteran environmental journalists and other experts. Additionally, visitors to the websites will be treated to multimedia features, environmental-related discussion boards and social media videos as well as trailers to the films being featured.
The EARTH FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL is part of KCET’s month-long commitment to provide a robust library of content on multiple platforms intended to ignite compassion and action for helping to save and heal the planet. Additional content on KCET and Link TV that focuses on environmental challenges and solutions include:
EARTH FOCUS PRESENTS documentary film series airs Wed., at 9 p.m. on KCET and Link TV. The lineup includes: “Gringo Trails” (4/4), “Bluefin” (4/11), “Replan It” (4/18), and “Thank You For The Rain” (4/25).
ARTBOUND, KCET and Link TV’s arts and culture series airing Tues. at 9 p.m., presents two all-new environmental-themed specials that tie in the global conscious efforts surrounding art. “No Trespassing: A Survey of Environmental Art” airs 4/10 while “The Art of Basketweaving” airs 4/24.Two new environmental series, AMERICAN RIVERSand ANGRY PLANET will premiere on KCET on Tues., Apr. 3 at 10 p.m. and Wed. Apr. 4 at 8 p.m. respectively. While on Link TV, AMERICAN RIVERS will premiere on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT beginning Apr. 8 and ANGRY PLANET airs at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT beginning Apr.4.
KCET.org/green
LinkTV.org/green
Join the conversation on social media using #EarthFocus and #KCETgreen.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
EARTH FOCUS is supported by the Orange County Community Foundation, the Farvue Foundation and other generous institutional funders. The EARTH FOCUS series was created by Raisa Scriabine.
ABOUT KCETLINK MEDIA GROUP
KCETLink Media Group is an award-winning national independent, nonprofit, digital and broadcast network that provides high-quality, culturally diverse programming designed to engage the public in innovative, entertaining and transformative ways. With a commitment to independent perspectives, smart global entertainment, local communities, and opportunities for engagement and social action, KCETLink depicts people and the world through a lens unavailable elsewhere in U.S. media. A viewer-supported 501(c)(3) organization, KCETLink content is distributed nationally via satellite on Link TV – DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410 – and on KCET in Southern and Central California via broadcast and cable, as well as through various digital delivery systems. For additional information about KCET and Link TV productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org. Select programming from KCET and Link TV is also available for streaming on Hulu, Apple TV and Roku platforms.
ABC will screen the first episode of documentary series “The Last Defense,” from executive producers Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, XCON Productions and Lincoln Square Productions, at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on FRIDAY, APRIL 27. The seven-episode docu-series explores and exposes flaws in the American justice system through emotional, in-depth examinations of multiple death row cases.
This first hour of a three-hour-arc takes a look at the case of Julius Jones, a star college athlete convicted of shooting a father of two at point-blank range as his attorneys race against the clock to get him a new trial before his execution date is set.
The Last Defense (Photo Film Guide Tribeca)
Previously announced in June 2017, “The Last Defense” will look at cases from all angles returning to the scene of the crime, re-interview witnesses and delve beyond the details of the crime and court proceedings to take a deep look into the personal stories of the subjects, seeking to trace the path that led them to their place on Death Row.
With incisive, compelling storytelling, “The Last Defense” gives voice to those who can no longer be heard.
Julius Tennon and Viola Davis (Photo Emma McIntyre-Getty Images)
“The Last Defense” executive produced by Viola Davis and Julius Tennon for JuVee Productions, Christine Connor and Lee Beckett for XCON Productions, Vanessa Potkin and Aida Leisenring for Lincoln Square Productions to air on the ABC Television Network.
About JuVee Productions
JuVee Productions is an artist driven, Los Angeles-based production company that develops and produces independent film, television, theater, and digital content across all spaces of narrative entertainment. JuVee Productions seeks to produce economical yet premium, sophisticated, and character-driven stories. With an emphasis on producing narratives from a diverse range of emerging and established voices alike, JuVee Productions aims to become the go-to creative hub where the next generation of filmmakers and artists have the space to craft dynamic stories spanning the broad spectrum of humanity.
About XCON Productions
XCON Productions is an idea-driven television production company dedicated to bringing big ideas to the small screen with the goal of understanding the past, questioning the present and impacting the future. Established by veteran television producer Christine Connor in 2010, XCON Productions creates premium non-fiction narrative and documentary television for network, cable and streaming platforms from the genre-busting true-crime anthology series “Final Witness” for ABC to the critically acclaimed “Going Deep with David Rees” on NatGeo, and the Emmy Award-winning “A Crime to Remember.”
About Lincoln Square Productions
ABC News’ Lincoln Square Productions produces original content for broadcast, cable and digital distribution specializing in compelling ways to tell fact-based stories, including ABC’s “What Would You Do?, “In An Instant,” John Ridley’s critically-acclaimed documentary on the LA Riots “Let It Fall,” the “Madoff” miniseries starring Richard Dreyfuss and the “Oscars® Opening Ceremony: Live From the Red Carpet,” Investigation Discovery’s “Barbara Walters Presents,” as well as documentary programming for a wide array of partners, including PBS, Discovery Communications and A & E Networks. Lincoln Square Productions is wholly-owned by the American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. The headquarters are located in New York City’s Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival Celebrates Female-Led Films and World Premiere of “Academy Gold Program” Intern’s Short Film
The 4th annual Bentonville Film Festival will open with the World Premiere of Elissa Down’s THE HONOR LIST, and will present Lea Thompson’s THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN as its Centerpiece Film
BFF to showcase the World Premiere of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Academy Gold Program” intern TraceyAivaz’s short film inspired by Walmart’s blue shipping box on Opening Night
The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) returns to Bentonville, Arkansas May 1-6, 2018, and has announced two featured titles: its Opening Night Selection is the world premiere of Elissa Down’s THE HONOR LIST, from Lionsgate’s Studio L, and the festival will present a Centerpiece Screening of Lea Thompson’s THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN.
BFF will team with the founding sponsor for the World Premiere of Tracey Aivaz’s short film THE BOX, commissioned by Walmart to celebrate the art of storytelling.
“We’re thrilled to be hosting these trailblazing women in the beautiful region of Northwest Arkansas at the fourth installment of BFF,” said co-founder Geena Davis, Academy Award®-winning actor and founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. “This IS the Year of the Woman, and BFF is proud to be at the forefront of this seismic change. If they can see it, they can be it!”
BFF will kick-off its celebration of inclusive filmmaking with its Opening Night film with the World Premiere of THE HONOR LIST as its Opening Night film from Studio L, a Lionsgate company. Directed by Elissa Down and written by Marilyn Fu, THE HONOR LIST is based on a story by Marilyn Fu and Meghan Rienks, and stars Meghan Rienks, Sasha Pieterse, Karrueche Tran, and Arden Cho. The film follows former best friends who reunite when tragedy strikes before their graduation. It is produced by sisters Mariel, Zoe, and Cisely Saldana’s Cinestar Pictures, along with PopSugar Films, and had a crew of over 60% women. Truly a film made by women, for women, it explores the complexities of friendships, family, love, loss, and high school.
“We are very happy to premiere THE HONOR LIST at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival,” said Executive Producer Zoe Saldana. “The festival’s focus on women and inclusion perfectly reflect the theme and spirit of our film, filmmakers, and cast. We couldn’t ask for a better setting to launch this special movie.”
Madelyn Deutch, Lea Thompson & Zoey Deutch
In addition, BFF will present a Centerpiece Screening of Lea Thompson’s THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN, from a script by Thompson’s daughter, Madelyn Deutch, who also scored the film. Thompson plays a supporting role opposite both Madelyn and her other daughter, Zoey Deutch.
Madelyn Deutch portrays a woman out of college dealing with the seemingly incessant failures of adulthood and the reality of a substandard dating pool, so she resigns herself to the support of her mother and sister, who are struggling with their own relationship problems. Zoey Deutch and Thompson’s husband, Howard Deutch, served as the film’s producers, alongside Gordon Gilbertson and Parkside’s Dan Roth and Damiano Tucci. The movie also stars Avan Jogia, Melissa Bolona, Jesse Bradford, Brandon T. Jackson, Cameron Monaghan, Zach Roerig, and Nicholas Braun.
Leah and daughters (Photo Getty Images)
THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN is the first feature film Lea Thompson, Madelyn Deutch and Zoey Deutch have worked on together as creatives behind the scenes. It has been a long collaboration and labor of love that evolved from a yearning for funnier and more honest young women’s stories. The film is set for a June theatrical release by MarVista Entertainment “From our inception, MarVista has taken pride in supporting female filmmakers and voices,” said CEO Fernando Szew, “With THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN, we immediately connected with the authenticity of the story and performances and know this multilayered film will have strong appeal across generations. We are honored to be working with such a talented, creative and passionate group of women like Lea, Maddie, and Zoey, who also bring amazing dynamism as an inspiring family.”
As announced on the red carpet at the 90th Oscars®, BFF will also showcase the world premiere of THE BOX, Tracey Aivaz’s 60-second short film inspired by Walmart’s blue shipping box. Walmart collaborated with three female Hollywood directors on three short films that premiered during the 2018 Oscars® telecast, and Aivaz, an Academy Gold Program intern, was surprised with the opportunity to become Walmart’s fourth participating director. Her film will be featured at the BFF’s Opening Night Ceremony and will play before every competition film screening. Aivaz will also participate on a “Women in Film” panel with other high profile women who are championing the importance of inclusion in media.
Co-founded by Oscar® winner Geena Davis and Inclusion Companies CEO Trevor Drinkwater, with support from founding sponsor Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola, BFF and its partners champion inclusion across all forms of media.
The fourth annual BFF continues to “include” by showcasing filmmakers and artists who depict the diverse, innovative and authentic perspectives that influence and shape our continually shifting world. BFF seizes its unique opportunity to connect these storytellers with change makers and industry leaders, with the goal of producing and distributing mass-consumed media that reflects all voices. The full lineup of films, music, panels, and guests will be announced in the coming weeks.
About the Bentonville Film Festival
Co-founded by Academy Award® winner Geena Davis & Inclusion Companies CEO Trevor Drinkwater, the Bentonville Film Festival is a one of a kind annual event that champions inclusion in all forms of media. BFF is a yearlong platform, culminating with an annual six-day festival, in partnership with founding sponsor Walmart and presenting sponsor Coca-Cola. The Bentonville Film Festival is held the first week of May of every year in Bentonville, Arkansas and includes an impactful Inclusion, Research and Content Summit. Connecting engaged entertainment industry leaders and major corporate change makers with a diverse array of storytellers affords BFF the unique opportunity to amplify commercially viable content, solutions and initiatives that adequately represent the world around us. Because if they can see it, they can be it! www.bentonvillefilmfestival.com
About the Bentonville Film Festival Foundation
Bentonville Film Festival Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on promoting underrepresented voices in the entertainment industry through research, education, mentoring and industry partnerships. The primary partner of the Foundation is the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (GDIGM). The Foundation believes that by convening the media ecosystem – advertisers, content creators and content distributors – in support of media that accurately reflects the gender balance and diversity of our country, it can create a seismic change in how we inspire young minds to do great things. The Foundation also hosts events throughout the year in multiple locations and in collaboration with other likeminded organizations.
By Susan Bredau, THT Flacker (The Hollywood Times) 2/23/2018 – When I was a kid, I spent most of my Saturdays at the movies. These magical afternoons consisted of coming attractions, a cartoon, and 2 movies! The double-feature ruled. The same “coming attractions”, now known as trailers, were played regardless of the audience in the theater, and there was no rating system to protect us from unsavory subject matter.
When I think about this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture, I can only imagine being able to see a double feature of “Darkest Hour” and “Dunkirk” on the big screen, if only for the sake of days gone by.
I have a good feeling about the 90th Academy Awards® Show this year. Jimmy Kimmel returns as host and three-time Oscar-nominated Michael De Luca and Emmy®-nominated producer Jennifer Todd, who produced the Oscars last year return to helm this year’s production, which airs LIVE on Sunday, March 4th on ABC.
You can replay Kimmel’s monologue about the Oscar nominations which aired on Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel on nomination day –Here’s the clip!
I’m happy to see the diversity among the nominees this year, which was conspicuously absent in the 2017 slate. I will be disappointed if the Oscar Red Carpet caters to and succumbs to a cause marketing platform, as we’ve seen with some other award shows this year.
The Oscar’s Nominee Luncheon, the annual celebratory mixer for the nominees in all categories was held February 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
A complete list of nominees is available at http://oscar.go.com, along with trailers and an Oscar Challenge.
Celebrating the Oscars is still a time-honored Hollywood tradition, complete with countless private viewing parties and Oscar pools to make it interesting. Have you picked your favorites yet? Do you like playing long shots, hunches, or do you go with the odds-on favorites? Yes, the experts have weighed in on the race for this year’s golden statues. Find out who has the odds in their favor!
THIRTEEN’s American Masters Closes Season 31 with the Exclusive Broadcast Premiere of This Is Bob Hope…
By: Judy Shields
For those of us who grew up watching Bob Hope and all those USO Christmas shows, will most definitely need to watch this show. It is wonderfully directed and produced to show the man who entertained us and many of the troops fighting the wars from WWII, Vietnam and to his last show at Desert Storm Gulf War.
Bob Hope on stage entertaining the troops in Vietnam (Photo Courtesy of Bob Hope Legacy, LLC.)
Please share this amazing show with your family and friends, it’s a great way to show all the younger generation the man who brought us stand-up comedy and wonderful TV shows and how the talk show host of today got their starts in the business thanks to Mr. Bob Hope.
American Masters: This is Bob Hope… the unabridged director’s cut of the film, featuring over 35 minutes of additional footage, premieres nationwide Friday, December 29 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). It will be available to stream the same day via Passport for PBS station members (contact your local PBS station for details) at pbs.org/americanmasters and on PBS OTT apps.
Features Hope’s writings voiced by Billy Crystal and new interviews with Conan O’Brien, Kermit the Frog, Tom Selleck, Brooke Shields, Dick Cavett, Margaret Cho and others Unabridged Director’s Cut premieres nationwide Friday, December 29 on PBS (check local listings)
During his eight-decade career, Bob Hope (1903-2003) was the only performer to achieve top-rated success in every form of mass entertainment: vaudeville, Broadway, movies, radio, television, popular song and personal appearances, including his annual USO Christmas military tours and hosting the Academy Awards more times than anyone else. A comedy innovator, Hope invented the topical monologue that later became a late-night TV staple and comedy tropes like talking while backing up. He refined a spontaneous, conversational, improvisational style of comedy as a vaudeville master of ceremonies that created a blueprint for acerbic standup comics.
Written, directed and produced by John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary), American Masters: This is Bob Hope… presents a candid look at a remarkable life with unprecedented access to Hope’s personal archives, including writings voiced by Billy Crystal and clips from Hope’s body of work to reveal a gifted individual who recognized the power of fame, embraced its responsibilities and handled celebrity with extraordinary wit and grace, becoming a model for public service in Hollywood.
Bob Hope, circa 1955 (Photo Credit Bob Hope Legacy, LLC.)
“Alongside an examination of Bob Hope’s extraordinary career achievements is a portrait of a gifted man with enormous personal contradictions,” says filmmaker John Scheinfeld. “Even in the longer cut, I barely scratched the surface of his huge impact and influence.”
American Masters: This is Bob Hope… features new interviews with Woody Allen, Dick Cavett, Margaret Cho, daughter Linda Hope, Kermit the Frog, film critic/historian Leonard Maltin, Conan O’Brien, Tom Selleck, Brooke Shields, Connie Stevens and biographer Richard Zoglin (Hope: Entertainer of the Century). Edited to evoke the fast, fun pace of Hope’s classic monologues, clips include highlights from numerous TV specials, his Pepsodent radio shows and classic films like The Cat and the Canary, My Favorite Blonde, his iconic Road pictures with Bing Crosby, and The Big Broadcast of 1938 featuring his signature song “Thanks for the Memory.”
The unabridged director’s cut also features Hope’s 1930s comedy shorts and delves further into his radio and TV career, USO tours and charity work. It will be available on DVD January 9, 2018, from PBS Distribution and is also available as part of Bob Hope: The Ultimate Movie Collection DVD box set on November 14 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Launched in 1986, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards — including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special — 12 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, a Critics’ Choice Documentary Award, and many other honors. To further explore the lives and works of masters past and present, the American Masters website (http://pbs.org/americanmasters) offers streaming video of select films, outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the American Masters Podcast, the Inspiring Woman web series, educational resources and In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive: previously unreleased interviews of luminaries discussing America’s most enduring artistic and cultural giants. The series is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and also seen on the WORLD channel.
American Masters: This is Bob Hope… is a production of Crew Neck Productions and American Masters Pictures. John Scheinfeld is writer, director and producer. Dave Harding, Richard Gurman, Richard Zoglin and James Hardy are producers. Peter S. Lynch, II is editor and co-producer. Michael Kantor is American Masters series executive producer.
Bob Hope’s Paramount photo by Bud Frake, circa 1953 (Photo Courtesy of Bob Hope Legacy, LLC)
Major support for This is Bob Hope… is provided in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Roslyn Goldstein. Major support for American Masters is provided by AARP. Additional support is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, Judith and Burton Resnick, Vital Projects Fund, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, and public television viewers.
About WNET
WNET is America’s flagship PBS station and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. WNET also operates NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings. WNET’s groundbreaking series for children and young adults include Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase as well as Mission US, the award-winning interactive history game. WNET highlights the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Theater Close-Up, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the daily multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. In addition, WNET produces online-only programming including the award-winning series about gender identity, First Person, and an intergenerational look at tech and pop culture, The Chatterbox with Kevin and Grandma Lill. In 2015, THIRTEEN launched Passport, an online streaming service which allows members to see new and archival THIRTEEN and PBS programming anytime, anywhere: www.thirteen.org/passport
About Bob Hope
When Bob Hope died in 2003, he left behind a legacy as one of the best known, most loved, and longest lasting stars in the entertainment business. For six decades, Hope made us laugh in vaudeville, in the movies, at the Academy Awards, on stage and in print. He was renowned for his longevity (he was 100 years old at the time of his death), his love for golf, and his contributions to charity. But perhaps Hope’s greatest legacy is his work entertaining the troops.
Beginning in 1941 and continuing for half a century, Hope headlined 57 USO tours, bringing a bit of joy to the lives of U.S. military men and women serving in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and beyond. And he was deeply proud of this work. When President Bill Clinton named Hope an honorary veteran in 1997, Hope responded, “I’ve been given many awards in my lifetime – but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most – is the greatest honor I have ever received.”
Bob Hope Special Around the Globe with the USO-Danang 1969
1944: A World War II show presented “somewhere in the South Pacific”
Memorials to Hope have proliferated across the American landscape. You can walk down streets named for Bob Hope in El Paso, Texas, Miami, Florida, and Branson, Missouri; cross the Cuyahoga River on the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio; and bypass the congestion at Los Angeles International by flying into the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. Hope’s name is memorialized on hospitals, theaters, chapels, schools, performing arts centers, and American Legion posts from Miami to Okinawa. The US Air Force named a transport plane for him, and the Navy christened a cargo ship in his honor. Bob Hope Village, in Shalimar, Florida, provides a home for retired members of the Air Force and their surviving spouses. The World Golf Hall of Fame, in St. Augustine, Florida, features an exhibit celebrating Hope’s passion for the game, “Bob Hope: Shanks for the Memory.” A dozen colleges offer scholarships in Hope’s name. Another dozen organizations give out awards in his honor, among them the Air Force’s annual Spirit of Hope Award and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
His punchy, two-syllable name, so emblematic of the optimistic American spirit; the unmistakable profile, with its jutting chin and famously ski-slope-shaped nose; the indelible images of Hope performing for throngs of cheering GIs in World War II and Vietnam—it was once impossible to imagine a time when the first question that needed to be answered about the most popular comedian in American history would be: Who was Bob Hope, and why did he matter?
By the time he died—on July 27, 2003, two months after his hundredth birthday—Hope’s reputation was already fading, tarnished, or being actively disparaged. He had, unfortunately, stuck around too long. The comedian of the century, who began his vaudeville career in the 1920s and was still headlining TV specials in the 1990s, continued performing well into his dotage, and a younger generation knew him mainly as a cue-card-reading antique, cracking dated jokes about buxom beauty queens and Gerald Ford’s golf game. “World’s Last Bob Hope Fan Dies of Old Age,” the Onion’s fake headline announced a year before his death. Writer Christopher Hitchens expressed the disaffection of many of the baby-boom generation in an online dismissal of Hope just a few days after his passing: “To be paralyzingly, painfully, hopelessly unfunny is a serious drawback, even lapse, in a comedian. And the late Bob Hope devoted a fantastically successful and well-remunerated lifetime to showing that a truly unfunny man can make it as a comic. There is a laugh here, but it is on us.”
Bob Hope with NBC Microphone for The Pepsodent Show
This was something of a revolution. When Hope made his debut on NBC in 1938, the popular comedians on radio all inhabited self- contained worlds, playing largely invented comic characters: Jack Benny’s effete tightwad, Edgar Bergen and his uppity dummy, Charlie McCarthy, the daffy-wife/exasperated-husband interplay of George Burns and Gracie Allen. Hope’s monologues brought something new to radio: a connection between the comedian and the outside world.
On a podium, no one could touch him. He was host or cohost of the Academy Awards ceremony a record nineteen times—the first in 1940, when Gone With the Wind was the big winner, and the last in 1978, when Star Wars and Annie Hall were the hot films. His suave unflappability—no one ever looked better in a tuxedo—and tart insider wisecracks (“This is the night when war and politics are forgotten, and we find out who we really hate”) helped turn a relatively low-key industry dinner into the most obsessively tracked and massively watched event of the Hollywood year.
The modern stand-up comedy monologue was essentially his creation. There were comedians in vaudeville before Hope, but they mostly worked in pairs or did prepackaged, jokebook gags that played on ethnic stereotypes and other familiar comedy tropes. Hope, working as an emcee and ad-libbing jokes about the acts he introduced, developed a more freewheeling and spontaneous monologue style, which he later honed and perfected in radio. To keep his material fresh, he hired a team of writers and told them to come up with jokes about the news of the day—presidential politics, Hollywood gossip, California weather, as well as his own life, work, travels, golf game, and show-business friends.
When television came in, Hope was there too. Others, such as Milton Berle, preceded him. But after starring in his first NBC special on Easter Sunday in 1950, Hope began an unparalleled reign as NBC’s most popular comedy star that lasted for nearly four decades. Other comedians who made the move into television—Berle, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Danny Thomas, even Lucille Ball—had their heyday on TV and then faded; Hope alone remained a major star headlining top-rated TV shows well into his eighties. His 1970 Christ- mas special from Vietnam was the most watched television program of all time up to that point, seen in a now-unthinkable 46.6 percent of all TV homes in the country. (The final episodes of Dallas, M*A*S*H, and Roots are the only entertainment shows ever to beat it.)
Bob Hope All-Star Christmas Comedy featuring Bob Hope with the Muppets Kermit the Frog & Miss Piggy Dec 19 1977
This was something of a revolution. When Hope made his debut on NBC in 1938, the popular comedians on radio all inhabited self- contained worlds, playing largely invented comic characters: Jack Benny’s effete tightwad, Edgar Bergen and his uppity dummy, Charlie McCarthy, the daffy-wife/exasperated-husband interplay of George Burns and Gracie Allen. Hope’s monologues brought something new to radio: a connection between the comedian and the outside world.
Hope was the first to combine topical subject matter with the rapid- re gag rhythms of the vaudeville quipster. His monologues became the template for Johnny Carson and nearly every late-night TV host who followed him, and the foundation stone for all stand-up comics, even those who rebelled against him.
He transcended comedy; he was the nation’s designated mood-lifter. No one else could perform that role; few even tried. Comedians for years did impressions of Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, George Burns, and other classic clowns. Almost no one did Bob Hope. His ordinariness was inimitable.
This excerpt was written by Richard Zoglin and originally published in the introduction to his biography, Hope.
The annual Golden Globe nominations always seem to ruffle some feathers in Tinseltown. The Hollywood Foreign Press just announced it’s nominations slate and already Hollywood is in an uproar over the list…scroll to the end to find out why!
Best Motion Picture – Drama Dunkirk The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Call Me By Your Name
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy The Disaster Artist Get Out The Greatest Showman I, Tonya Lady Bird
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Jessica Chastain Molly’s Game
Sally Hawkins The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep The Post
Michelle Williams All The Money In The World
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Timothée Chalamet Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks The Post
Gary Oldman Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Judi Dench Victoria & Abdul
Helen Mirren The Leisure Seeker
Margot Robbie I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan Lady Bird
Emma Stone Battle of the Sexes
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Steve Carell Battle of the Sexes
Ansel Elgort Baby Driver
James Franco The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya Get Out
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Hong Chau Downsizing
Allison Janney I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer The Shape of Water
Mary J. Blige Mudbound
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe The Florida Project
Armie Hammer Call Me By Your Name
Richard Jenkins The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer All The Money In The World
Sam Rockwell Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Director – Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan Dunkirk
Ridley Scott All The Money In The World
Steven Spielberg The Post
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig Lady Bird
Liz Hannah, Josh Singer The Post
Martin McDonagh Three Billboards Outside
Aaron Sorkin Molly’s Game
Best Motion Picture – Animated The Breadwinner Coco Ferdinand Loving Vincent The Boss Baby
Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language A Fantastic Woman
Chile First They Killed My Father
Cambodia In The Fade
Germany, France Loveless
Russia The Square
Sweden, Germany, France
Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Carter Burwell Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Alexandre Desplat The Shape of Water
Jonny Greenwood Phantom Thread
John Williams The Post
Hans Zimmer Dunkirk
Best Original Song – Motion Picture ‘Home’ Ferdinand ‘Mighty River’ Mudbound ‘Remember Me’ Coco ‘The Star’ The Star ‘This Is Me’ The Greatest Showman
Best Television Series – Drama Game of Thrones The Handmaid’s Tale Stranger Things This Is Us The Crown
Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy Black-ish The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Master Of None Smilf Will & Grace
Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Big Little Lies Fargo (TV show) Feud: Bette And Joan The Sinner Top The Lake: China Girl
Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Nicole Kidman Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange Feud: Bette And Joan
Susan Sarandon Feud: Bette And Joan
Reese Witherspoon Big Little Lies
Jessica Biel The Sinner
Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Robert De Niro Wizard of Lies
Jude Law The Young Pope
Kyle MacLachlan Twin Peaks
Ewan McGregor Fargo (TV show)
Geoffrey Rush Genius
Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Caitriona Balfe Outlander
Claire Foy The Crown
Maggie Gyllenhaal The Deuce
Katherine Langford 13 Reasons Why
Elisabeth Moss The Handmaid’s Tale
Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama
Jason Bateman Ozark
Sterling K. Brown This Is Us
Freddie Highmore The Good Doctor
Bob Odenkirk Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber Ray Donovan
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Pamela Adlon Better Things
Alison Brie Glow
Rachel Brosnahan The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae Insecure
Frankie Shaw Smilf
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy
Aziz Ansari Master Of None
Kevin Bacon I Love Dick
William H. Macy Shameless
Eric McCormack Will & Grace
Anthony Anderson Black-ish
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Laura Dern Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd The Handmaid’s Tale
Chrissy Metz This Is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer The Wizard of Lies
Shailene Woodley Big Little Lies
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
David Harbour Stranger Things
Alfred Molina Feud: Bette And Joan
Christian Slater Mr. Robot
Alexander Skarsgård Big Little Lies
David Thewlis Fargo (TV show)
ALSO SEE
Golden Globes 2017: David E Kelley’s Big Little Lies leads TV nominations
Golden Globes 2018 nominations: It should have been renamed ‘White Men Awards’
Meryl Streep scores her 31st Golden Globe nomination, the highest ever for any artist
Festival Kicks Off With The LA Premiere of The Sublime Documentary “The Long Way Back”, The Week Includes More Than A Dozen LA Premieres
LOS ANGELES, CA – Writers In Treatment is proud to present the 9th Annual REEL Recovery Film Festival& Symposiumthe longest recovery event in the U.S, on October 20-26 at the Laemmle’s NoHo 7. This seven-day event is a celebration of film, the arts and recovery. It showcases filmmakers who make honest films about addiction, alcoholism, behavioral disorders, treatment and sobriety. Slated for screening is an eclectic lineup of contemporary and classic films, documentaries and shorts from American and international, first-time filmmakers and industry veterans. There will be insightful conversations and engaging discussions with filmmakers and clinicians following many of the screenings.
Opening night, Friday, October 20th will feature the LA premiere of the new Sublime documentary, The Long Way Back, which details how drug addiction ravaged the California ska-punk band after front man Bradley Nowell’s 1996 death from a heroin overdose. Opening night will also include a pre-screening reception with food and drink, located at The Federal (across the street from the theater). Tickets for the reception and film are $25, screening only is $10.
Other films making their Los Angeles premieres include The Man Who Built Peace and Welcome to the Men’s Group, directed by Joseph Culp and starring Mackenzie Astin (“Scandal”, “The Magicians”), Timothy Bottoms (The Last Picture Show) and Stephen Tobolowsky (“The Goldbergs”). Welcome to the Men’s Group will also close the festival on October 26. Other films featured at the festival include: Dying in Vein, a deeply personal exploration of opiate and heroin addiction through a cinéma vérité style that drops you directly into the lives of an addiction and recovery and a lesbian couple trying to get clean. Bar Fights, a noir-inspired feature length film, from first time director Michael Nitkowski, from Atlantic City, New Jersey will be answering questions.
“We have a few first time directors this year, who have truly embodied the vision of film festival director Leonard Buschel. “Anyone with a $1000, a few friends, a good idea, patience and persistence can make a film worth showing on the big screen.”
Cinephiles will flock to see two award winning double features. On Wednesday October 25th starting at 7pm. The 30th Anniversary of two of the greatest Hollywood addiction movies ever made. Less Than Zero, starring Robert Downey Jr. in his prognosticative role as the drugged out best friend of star Andrew McCarthy. And Charles Bukowski’sBarfly a tour de forcefor Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke. Tickets here. $10.00 for both films
Now tighten your seat belts for Trainspotting and Trainspotting II as they careen off the tracks into your brain on Monday October 21stat 7pm. Free, click here.
Located in seven cities around the Unites States, The REEL Recovery Film Festival highlights the challenges faced by addictive behavior, especially relevant during today’s opiate crisis.
Tickets to all films are available at the door. It is the policy of the REEL Recovery Film Festival to charge a nominal ticket price for all the films ($10), and to allow anyone admittance regardless of their ability to pay, if seats are available. 3500 FREE Tickets were donated byLuminance Recovery Center.
Festival sponsors include: KLEAN Treatment Centers; Luminance; Anaheim Lighthouse; Newport Academy; Betty Ford; Balboa Horizons; Gratitude Recovery; Harmony Place; New Directions for Women; Hotel California by the Sea; McShin Foundation, Malibu Hills Treatment Center and Social Model Recovery Systems.
For a full schedule and tickets for The REEL Recovery Film Festival on October 20-26 at The Laemmle NoHo, 5240 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601 visit www.ReelRecoveryFilmFestival.org
Founded by Leonard Buschel, Writers in Treatment helps individuals suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, and other self-destructive behaviors find treatment sources for their illness. The organization also produces REEL Recovery Film Festival & Symposium® and the annual Experience, Strength and Hope Awards.
KCET was proud to host the world premiere of the Netflix original documentary series Fire Chasers at the [ http://www.kcet.org/cinemaseries ]KCET Cinema Series, a weekly screening series in Los Angeles that shows the best of Hollywood, independent and festival films prior to their release in theatres, in partnership with the Washington, D.C.-based [ http://dceff.org ]Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF), which for over 25 years has been the world’s premier showcase of environmentally-themed films. Fire Chasers is a searing and intense documentary series that takes viewers into the heart of California’s devastating recent wildfires alongside the brave men and women of Cal Fire and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Fire Chasers is a Netflix Original Documentary produced by Appian Way and Original Productions.
Fire Chasers Episode 1 The New Normal
The screening event, which was the only public screening prior to the series launch on Netflix on Fri. Sept. 8, took place on Tues., Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. PT at the Aero Theatre (1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403) in Santa Monica. Following the screening of the first one-hour episode, KCET Cinema Series Host and Deadline.com Chief Film Critic Pete Hammond moderated a Q&A panel discussion about the film and the issues around fire prevention with executive producer/showrunner/director Molly Mayock, Producer Phillip Watson, CAL FIRE Director Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE Apparatus Engineer William Cody Parks and Firefighter Bri Cody.
CAL FIRE Apparatus Engineer William Cody Parks, Cinema Series host Pete Hammond, executive producer/showrunner/director Molly Mayock, CAL FIRE Director Chief Ken Pimlott, Netflix’s Director of Original Documentaries Ben Cotner and KCETLink Media Group’s President and CEO Michael Riley attend the world premiere of Netflix’s “Fire Chasers” at KCET’s Cinema Series on Sept. 5, 2017 at The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.
Following the world premiere of Netflix’s “Fire Chasers” at KCET’s Cinema Series on Sept. 5, 2017, Deadline’s Pete Hammond hosts a Q&A with executive producer/showrunner/director Molly Mayock, Producer Phillip Watson, CAL FIRE Director Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE Apparatus Engineer William Cody Parks and Firefighter Bri Cody.
Following the world premiere of Netflix’s “Fire Chasers” at KCET’s Cinema Series on Sept. 5, 2017, Deadline’s Pete Hammond hosts a Q&A with executive producer/showrunner/director Molly Mayock, Producer Phillip Watson, CAL FIRE Director Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE Apparatus Engineer William Cody Parks and Firefighter Bri Cody.
The fall KCET Cinema Series is sponsored by Deadline.com, the official media sponsor for the series.
Fire Chasers Episode 2 After BurnFire Chasers Episode 3 Keep These Jackasses Wet
Mark your calendars for these two film festivals. Irish Screen America is a bi-coastal film and media festival that showcases some of the best new films from Ireland each year in Los Angeles and New York.
The festival will run from Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th of September at the Aero Cinematheque in Los Angeles and Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st of October at NYU’s Cantor Film Center in New York.
Adapted from the 2008 award-winning novel by Sebastian Barry, the latest film from director Jim Sheridan, The Secret Scripture will open the 2017 edition of Irish Screen America.
The Secret Scripture is the hidden memoir of Roseanne McNulty, played by Vanessa Redgrave, confined to a Roscommon mental hospital for fifty years, and revealing the history of her passionate yet tortured life, and of the religious and political upheavals in Ireland during the 1920s and ’30s.
As well as the Oscar-winning Redgrave, the film stars Rooney Mara (A Ghost Story, Carol), rising star Jack Reynor (Free Fire, Sing Street), and Aidan Turner (Poldark, The Tudors). Eric Bana and Theo James also star. The Secret Scripture is a powerful story of love, loss, and belated redemption.
Director of Irish Screen America, Niall McKay said: “It is our pleasure to welcome back Jim Sheridan, the original pioneer of Irish cinema in the U.S., to our festival which strives to showcase all of the talent that exists in the trail which he blazed.”
Irish Screen America supports and guides Irish media-makers by showcasing their work and fostering partnerships in the two largest cities for the entertainment industry in the United States – New York and Los Angeles. The festival hosts screenings, industry panels, discussions and masterclasses.
The full line-up for both the Los Angeles and New York legs of the Irish Screen America festival will be revealed at a launch party at 62 Merrion Square in Dublin on Monday, September 4th at 5:30pm.
The Secret Scripture premieres on Thursday, September 21st at 7:30pm in The Linwood Dunn Theater, at the Academy’s Pickford Center in Los Angeles and on Friday, September 29th at 7:30pm at the NYU Cantor Film Center in New York. The film will be preceded by an opening night reception and followed by a Q+A with director Jim Sheridan.
The Galway Film Fleadh kicked off its 29thedition on Tuesday with a sold out crowd for its opening film, Song of Granite, by director Pat Collins. At the opening night gala, Film Fleadh Chair Kate O’Toole urged audiences to take full advantage of the diversity of films and filmmakers available in the city during the film festival’s six days.
The celebration of all things film continues Wednesday with the Judd Apatow produced film, The Big Sick, a comedy romance starring Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, Portlandia). There’s also Spoor, a quirky murder mystery billed as a ‘Polish Fargo’ from acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland, and Tiger Girl, a German femme street fighter flick.
Highlights for Thursday include the documentary In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America, focusing on the Nobel Peace Prize winner and how he leveraged U.S. support for peace in Northern Ireland; A Ghost Story, a supernatural romance from director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) reuniting stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara; and Inertia Variations, a candid portrait of English band The The, playing as part of the Fleadh’s music documentary programme.
Films to catch this weekend include the wondrous space exploration documentaryThe Farthest from director Emer Reynolds; Condemned to Remember, a powerful portrait of Irish Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental, of vital viewing considering recent sectarian attacks globally and at home in Galway; God’s Own Country, described as a British Brokeback Mountain, but better; Limbo the latest film from rising star Irish director Gerard Barrett; and Richard the Stork, a fun family animation with an adventurous spin on the ugly duckling story.
Running alongside all of these film premieres are a number of events that will be of interest to film-goers: panels on short filmmaking and international documentary filmmaking on Friday, an open discussion with directors on Irish cinema on Sunday, Q+A’s with directors and actors and surprise guests throughout the week.
The Galway Film Fleadh runs at the Town Hall Theatre and other venues throughout the city until Sunday July 16th. For the full details on all of these screenings and events, visit www.galwayfilmfleadh.com or pick up a brochure from the Town Hall Theatre.
Welcome to the Galway Film Fleadh 2017. In the 12 months since our last Fleadh we’ve been encouraged and delighted by the success of some of the films showcased at …
29th Galway Film Fleadh | July 11th – 16th, 2017
21st Galway Film Fair | July 13th – July 16th, 2017
23rd Junior Film Fleadh | November 8th – 11th, 2017
The Camino journey has been the subject of many books and several movies yet filmmakers Terry Parish with Chris Karcher and the main subjects of the film I’LL PUSH YOU, Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray bring a perspective like no other. Justin is in a wheelchair due to a debilitating muscular disease which he has not allowed to define his life as he continues to live a challenging but happy life life with his beautiful wife and three young children. Patrick is his lifelong friend since infancy who agrees to Justin’s wish to travel the Camino in a three wheel sled as they traverse over the rugged and varied terrain of the pilgrim paths through Spain. Justin got the idea while watching world renown travel host Rick Stevens on TV.
The filmmakers are thrilled by the critic acclaim of I’LL PUSH YOU.
The movie received an unprecedented three screenings being immediately sold out and a fouth one selling quickly, the filmmakers are humbled by the public’s enthusiasm for the film.
As a journalist covering this film festival, there are 500 films available to review. From that list maybe 40 or so make direct contact with the press. Factor in 7 days to either preview or review the chosen pictures whittles the list to 7-14 films to hopefully see. Several things intrigued me about this movie. The first appeal was the subject matter of the Camino as it is on my bucket list since my retired former editors, Liam amd Pauline Ferrie in Galway Ireland at emigrant.ie shared their travel story and stamped Camino passport with me about their Camino journey as retirees in their 60s. Like most Camino walkers they had seen the Martin Sheen inspiring movie ‘The Way’ created with his son Emilo Esteban.
The publicist wrote to me and he sent a confidential press screener link. I was on vacation in Ireland and I started to watch it. This guy Justin in the wheelchair is so funny and happy. Is he for real? I stopped the video and figured I need to witness this movie in a theatre and hopefully see the stars of the documentary. As luck would have it, I make it back to my 15th year covering the Newport Beach Film festival though jet lagged to attend the sold out screening. Just because one is press doesn’t guarantee one gets a seat. The ticket buyers are first. As I waited for permission to enter from the long time festival Volunteer, I spotted a suited man walking in with the film’s promotion banner easel. It was Max Danielson, the film publicist who had sent me the press release. He had some extra tickets from the producer so I was covered. I had spotted Justin and Patrick walking in earlier so it was with great delight that I was introduced to them both by Max as well as sitting besides Justin and his wife. While watching the movie I had a side eye glance into the love story of this couple. I’LL PUSH YOU is more than a Camino journey. It is a love story on many levels not undermined by circumstances. It is joy and genuine.
Justin and his wife were like a cute young couple on a date giddy with excitement despite him being in a wheelchair with very limited physical movement of his body below his neck. He is a handsome mischievous man with a heartwarming twinkle in his eye with an infectious smile. What you see on the screen is the real deal. His wife and the mother of his beautiful three children is a saint. How does one woman manage it all?
Back to the Camino. This journey is a real transformation of the lifelong friend behind the wheel Patrick Gray. For five weeks and 500 hundred miles Patrick takes over the around the clock care of his comical buddy Justin. Patrick does everything for Justin from pushing him to feeding him, bathing him, taking care of toilet duties, putting him to bed, waking him up, brushing his teeth, changing and washing his clothes and pulling up Justin’s pants to cover his sneak peak cheeky side, plus take care of himself which reveals his own shortcomings as Patrick puts himself beyond the scope of what most people would do.
Patrick is an overachiever in the most blessed sense yet while on the Camino he has revelations that this journey for Justin is a journey of transformation for himself as well.
Without giving away the movie, be prepared to find your eyes watering as well as laughing out loud to the fun of the journey. It is a well paced documentary covering footage from almost everyday of their trip. The viewer feels the ebb and flow of the toil and triumphants of the walk. In the beginning of the walk there is Ted their EMT friend who could only be with them for the first 10 days which were very difficult and challenging.
The music in the film is an array of well placed tunes including Switchfoot. Film producer Turner orchestrated the film compilation of music after an exhausting search through the mire of publishing and music clearance copyrights.
The producer spoke of the movie saying that even if one doesn’t personally walj the Camino that by seeing this movie you are still a witness to the power as a pilgrum viewer to the healing of tge Camino. During the Camino at a special milestobe is a cross where travelers leave a rock or memento tying in their lesson. As a viewer i reflected on my day. I learned from a fortune cookie saying ‘Never judge a day till it is over’. My morning Facebook post was ”Life is what happens while making other plans’ should be tattooed on my right foot. Making the most out of situations beyond my control. God has a plan for my life. I just need to heed the road signs. Sometimes simple necessities for life make one realize the bigger picture at hand. My folks taught me resilience when inconvenience appears plus laughter no matter what. Have a great Monday and a great week everyone. #LaundryRoomReflections’
It was a privilege to be a witness to the world premiere of I’ll Push You with the principal real life stars and producers with their post premiere emotional affirmations and love for each other and what they achieved with this collective production on film.
TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON TO OPEN THE 18TH ANNUAL NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL ON THURSDAY, APRIL 20TH
Newport Beach, CA (April 1, 2017) – The 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) proudly announces TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON as its Opening Night film. The screening of TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON will take place on Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 7:30pm at Edwards Big Newport (300 Newport Center Drive) followed by a gala reception at Fashion Island (401 Newport Center Drive). The 18th annual NBFF will run from April 20 – April 27, 2017.
TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON tells the remarkable story of American icon and innovator, Laird Hamilton, who changed the sport of big wave surfing forever. Hamilton is an athlete who refused to compete professionally, yet dominated and changed his sport like no other figure in history has ever done. The film is an in-depth portrait of a hard-charging, driven athlete that explores the fear, courage, ambition and talent that push a man to greatness–and the costs that comes with it.
“We are thrilled to have a film that tells such a dynamic story open the 18th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival,” stated Gregg Schwenk, CEO and Executive Director of the Newport Beach Film Festival, “TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON continues the Festival’s rich tradition in showcasing Action Sports films in the seaside setting of Newport Beach.”
“Laird Hamilton is one of the greatest big-wave surfers of all time. As an innovator, he has changed the sport more than any other figure in at least the last half century,” stated TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON Director Rory Kennedy. “To me, Take Every Wave isn’t a sports documentary. It is a universal story about human potential—about striving, about the power of the individual to overcome limits, and about the ability we all have to create our own destiny. We could not be more thrilled to be opening the Newport Beach Film Festival.”
Following the screening, the Festival will host an Opening Night gala at Fashion Island presented by Fashion Island, LA Times and Tito’s Vodka. The gala will feature culinary tastings from 30 of Orange County’s premiere restaurants, hosted bar by Tito’s Vodka with a special performance from “O”: the timeless aquatic production by Cirque Du Soleil only at Bellagio Resort & Casino
Tickets to the Opening Night screening and gala are $225 each and are available at http://www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com starting April 1. Patrons can also purchase tickets to the Opening Night gala only for $175 each. Guests must be at least 21 years old and cocktail attire is highly recommended.
The Newport Beach Film Festival will showcase more than 350 films from 50 countries and host nightly special events, red carpet galas, compelling conversations with filmmakers, international spotlight events and seminars. The Festival offers filmgoers unique opportunities to mingle with celebrities, filmmakers from around the globe and film industry professionals in a beautiful seaside locale.
The Newport Beach Film Festival is sponsored in part by Tito’s Vodka, Fashion Island, Los Angeles Times and the City of Newport Beach.
Passes and tickets for film screenings, galas and special events go on sale April 1. To purchase tickets and for information about the Newport Beach Film Festival visit http://www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com
About the Newport Beach Film Festival
Celebrated as one of the leading lifestyle film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival seeks to bring to Orange County the best of classic and contemporary filmmaking from around the world. Committed to enlightening the public with a first-class international film program, a forum for cultural understanding and enriching educational opportunities, the NBFF focuses on showcasing a diverse collection of studio and independent films from around the globe. The 18th annual Newport Beach Film Festival runs April 20th – April 27th and will spotlight over 350 films from around the world.
About Cirque du Soleil:
Since 1984, Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to more than 100 million spectators in more than 300 cities in over forty countries on six continents. The company has 5,000 employees, including more than 1,000 performing artists from close to 50 different countries.
In Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil has seven permanent resident shows. These productions include Mystère at Treasure Island, “O” at Bellagio Resort & Casino, Zumanity, The Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil at New York-New York Hotel & Casino, KÀ at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage Hotel & Casino, CRISS ANGEL Believe at Luxor Hotel and Casino and Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay. In Orlando, La Nouba is presented exclusively in Downtown Disney West Side at Walt Disney World Resort.
Nestled among golden stretches of pristine Pacific coastline between Los Angeles and San Diego, Newport Beach epitomizes the casually sophisticated lifestyle of Southern California. This idyllic seaside destination is widely celebrated for its natural beauty and vibrant yachting community alongside stylish accommodations, eclectic coastal cuisine and upscale shopping. Ranked among the “Top 10 Resort Towns in the U.S.,” Newport Beach also is distinguished as one of the country’s “Top 10 Best Family Beaches.” A mild climate and picturesque backdrop minutes from John Wayne Airport, Orange County (SNA) offers year-round appeal. For more information on Newport Beach or for a complimentary visitor guide, visit http://www.visitnewportbeach.com, or call (800) 94-COAST.
The beauty of the Oscars and the Academy Awards is the culmination of all the bits and pieces to arrive at this point today. Yes there is the glamour, limos, press, red carpet, the award show, the speeches, the fans, security, the after parties. Yet there is more than meets the eye. There is all those people who helped make all these movies and it begins with the story. The tales shared. The stories written.
The journey of storytelling throughout one’s life. From before we are born the stories of the child on its way. The arrival, the stages of a new person. Each of us have stories yet only so many are really told. First those stories need to be written and our society still has so many people who fell in between the cracks in their education who cannot read or write so how do they communicate let alone survive. I know of a close friend who had a young mover who couldn’t write the labels on boxes being moved nor read the words on it. He is 33.
Then there is the time to write. In our explosive age of multiple devices to write on the messages are often just under 50 words. Time is flying. Yet the power of movies. We can watch movies on all these devices so we do love storytellers yet do we support the art of writing in our self and in our families and friends?
I was recently questioned by a sibling do I get paid for writing? I get paid for certain projects and publications yet not always. I don’t write for the money though I would like it yet I write as I must. I feel the calling. I feel the importance of the power of words used correctly. I dislike when some adults have limited foul mouths spewing degrorative remarks. There is a dictionary of incredible descriptive words to embellish life.
A writer is part of the creative arts like a musician, singer, actor or speaker. To be in the game one must play and practice like an athlete does.
So when we watch the Oscars and go to the movies or watch them on our devices, we are watching the completed project from a thought in a mind to the printed page. Support writers and journalism. Support the arts. Without the voices of people speaking and sharing we leave too much space for those who bark and shout to silence the masses. The Oscars give us hope that one’s person idea with a lot of help becomes a reality for others to identify with. It is our visual history. It is empowering.
by Dr. Laura Wilhelm, LauraWil Intercultural & Valerie Milano
Milano interviewing, with other reporters, Gloria Allred (Photo: THT)
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/29/16 – On August 26th, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote was certified as law. The amendment was first introduced many years earlier in 1878.
Every U.S. President has published a proclamation for Women’s Equality Day since 1972, the year after legislation was first introduced in Congress by Bella Abzug. This resolution was passed in 1971 designating August 26th of each year as Women’s Equality Day.
But are U.S. women really equal? Director Kamala Lopez examines this controversial question in her documentary EQUAL MEANS EQUAL, which screened on the evening of Friday, August 26th, 2016 at Laemmle’s Music Hall Theatre located at 9036 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
The unrated one hour and thirty-three-minute film was preceded by an all-star red carpet graced by actress Nicolette Sheridan and followed by a panel discussion to promote Women’s Equality Day. Director Kamala Lopez and Executive Producer Patricia Arquette were front and center on the red carpet to discuss the film.
“This is the civics class we’re never given in school,” said Patricia Arquette at the panel discussion, which also included Kamala Lopez and Gloria Allred among others. Allred is a lawyer known for taking on high-profile women’s rights cases who was born in Philadelphia and received degrees from the University of
Bamby Salcedo is the founder of the Los Angeles-based TransLatin@ Coalition, which according to its website “is an organization form[ed] by Trans Latin@ immigrant leaders who have come together (Photo: THT)Pennsylvania, New York University, and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Noted Hispanic playwright and human rights activist Josefina Lopez (REAL WOMEN DON’T HAVE CURVES) was on hand to moderate.
Milano interviewing, with other reporters, Nicolette Sheridan (Photo: THT)
Arquette, 48, used her 2015 Oscar acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress (BOYHOOD) as an opportunity to champion women’s rights in America. “To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America!”
In EQUAL MEANS EQUAL Kamala Lopez uncovers how outdated and discriminatory attitudes inform and influence seemingly disparate issues such as workplace harassment to domestic violence, rape and sexual assault to the foster care system, and the healthcare conglomerate to the judicial system. Along the way, she reveals the inadequacy of present laws to protect women.
“I found laws that are incomplete, insufficient, and in some cases actually deleterious to the women they are supposed to be helping,” Lopez says in her Director’s Statement on the film’s official website. “What are noticeably and shockingly absent are the basic explicit human and civil rights protections that men are afforded by the Constitution.”
In unflinching detail Lopez illustrates how the American system repeatedly fails women in their dual roles as underpaid wage earners and underserved mothers. Possible solutions to “The War on Women” are presented in the form of the national Equal Rights Amendment and the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. However, the United States is still far from adopting either of these.
Perhaps the most definitive statement on gender relations in the film came from Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Gloria Steinem, the world-famous publisher of MS. Magazine. “We are linked, not ranked,” said Steinem.
THT prefers to keep the present article relatively short as EQUAL MEANS EQUAL will become available for house party screenings on Tuesday, September 6th, 2016. Please see this fact-laden film for yourself and let it spur you to action during the two months remaining before the 2016 Presidential election! Failure IS impossible.
Beverly Hills, California (The Hollywood Times) 8/2/16 – “Harley Davidson company opened up its archives, and family members spoke to researchers about family member and gave them historical background that was used to form characters and key events for the miniseries, debuting next month. But producers had complete editorial independence, and the company had no financial arrangement with the project,” Raw Television’s EP Dimitri Doganis told TV critics TCA yesterday. Continue reading “Harley and The Davidsons –”
LOS ANGELES, CA – JULY 17: Actress Molly Shannon attends the 2016 Outfest Los Angeles Closing Night Gala of ‘Other People’ at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on July 17, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: David Livingston / Getty Images Entertainment
with Molly Shannon’s flawless performance in Other People.
By: Kim Kennedy
Los Angeles, Ace Hotel Theatre, (The Hollywood Times) 07/17/16 – Chris Kelly took to the stage introducing a star-studded cast of his new feature film, Other People. Haven written for SNL and received high praise from Sundance, the audience was expecting great things on this closing night. theatre of the Ace hotel, built in 1927, describing it as “an underwater church”.
By Alana Bonilla 
Juan mentioned that they almost didn’t have the second annual Earth Focus Environmental Film Festival because of limited resources a public television station to organize a film festival.
A full day of environmentally-themed films open to the public, with many of the films free of charge, kicked off with an environmental shorts screening from UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) program followed by four acclaimed films (March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step, Evolution of Organic, The Last Animals and Jane) and closed with a screening of two all-new episodes of KCET and Link TV’s EARTH FOCUS, the longest running environmental news magazine on U.S. television. Each film was introduced by a celebrity host and followed by a Q&A panel. More information about the screenings and the Q&A sessions that followed can be found at KCET.org/green.
Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers, led by world-renowned Asian elephant conservationist Sangdeaun Lek Chailert, embark on a daring 48-hour mission, 500 miles across Thailand to rescue a 70-year old captive blind Asian elephant and bring her to freedom. “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” is a heartwarming and hopeful film that exposes the plight of Asian elephants and the people who work tirelessly to save them.
Ashley: “We had our world première at the DC Environmental Film Festival and you hope there are more than just 15 people. When we got there it was sold out and the audience was filled with kids and teenagers and that really was the audience we all strove to make the film for and make it feel safe for kids to come see”.
“If we all had one percent of Lek we could do something great with the world…”
“Asian elephants are a keystone species. Their existence provides environment, food and shelter and a whole ecosystem for a multitude of other species that they live with. They have actually linked Asian elephants to helping fight climate change. When an elephant goes through a jungle, they carve their path and eat a bunch of food and when they produce waste, out sprouts a kind of new jungle and they found that areas with Asian elephants show that there is a more densely populated forest and jungle and greenery.” With a species this huge, we do not know the ramification of what will happen when they are gone and we have to do something to stop it before it is too late.”
Ashley: “There are 12 satellite camps that have done the humane conversion. Where they were trekking camps and they changed their model to be humane sanctuaries.”
“You don’t need a bull hook to control an elephant. You can guide an elephant with love… And bananas” – Lek Chailert, Founder of Save Elephant Foundation
Please check this website out about a rescued elephant pictured here:
Check out these videos about Lek and her elephants.
Bell directed, wrote and produced the feature documentary entitled “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story,” which depicts the rescue of a blind Asian elephant from captivity in Thailand and her journey 500 miles to freedom.
In 2012, Bell lent her voice to the animated series “The LeBrons,” starring NBA player LeBron James. Her voice has also been featured in several top-selling video games, including the lead role of Erline in Sony PlayStation’s “Sorcery” and The White Queen in Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
In the 1990’s, Lek started rescuing injured, neglected, and elderly elephants and in 2003 was able to establish a permanent homeland for them in the picturesque Mae Taeng valley, near Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. She named this land Elephant Nature Park. Today, Elephant Nature Park is home to over 70 elephants that are able to roam freely during the day, live within family herds and develop close friendships with each other.
Lek is an award-winning conservationist, who has been working for over two decades to improve the conditions of elephants in Asia and promote their welfare.
She has initiated projects in Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar and maintains special relationships with the animals she rescues. Most days, she can be found at Elephant Nature Park spending time with the rescued herd.
A baby elephant weighs about 200-250 lbs. (91-113 kilgograms). At birth, a calf’s trunk has little muscle tone and no coordination. It takes several months for a calf to gain full control of its trunk. Baby elephants suckle through their mouth. Young Asian elephants are reported to stand soon after birth. After several months, the calf begins to eat grass and foliage. It stays under the supervision of its mother for several years, but begins making independent movements at four years. Full size is attained at about 18-24 years.
From KCET and Link TV Announces 2018 Lineup for Earth Day Weekend
KCETLink Media Group, a leading national independent broadcast and digital media network, has announced that its two services, KCET public television in Los Angeles and independent satellite network Link TV, will launch the second annual 
Filmmaker Luc Jacquet returns to the Antarctic to revisit the Emperor Penguins who call the frozen continent home. A decade after making his Academy Award® winning March of the Penguins, Jacquet spent two months shooting in the Antarctic winter using the new technology of 4K cameras, airborne drones, and under-ice diving to show the astonishing lives of these mysterious creatures in an entirely new light.
Academy Award® nominated director Mark Kitchell (“Berkeley in the Sixties,” “A Fierce Green Fire”) brings us the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. The film is narrated by recent Oscar® winner Frances McDormand. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters reject chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives. It’s a heartfelt journey of change from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has gone mainstream – split into an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people, and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. Prior to the film, the short film “The Soil Story” from LA’s environmental non-profit Kiss the Ground, explores the first viable, low-cost way to reverse climate change through soil. Introduced by actor and filmmaker Raphael Sbarge. Q&A will follow.
Oscar®– and Emmy®-nominated director Brett Morgen uses a trove of never-before-seen 16 mm footage unearthed after 50 years from the National Geographic archives to shed fresh light on trailblazing conservationist Jane Goodall. Morgen tells Goodall’s story starting in 1960, when the 26-year-old British woman arrives in a remote area of northwestern Tanzania to study chimpanzees.
“Earth Focus: Sea Level Rising-Living with Water” explores how Louisiana is learning from Hurricane Katrina. Forecasts are dire for Louisiana to experience the second-highest sea level rise in the world. There is a big movement brewing in New Orleans to build adaptive “resilience zones.” In Southeast Louisiana, the native peoples of the Isle de Jean Charles have become the first U.S. citizens moving within their homeland displaced by climate change.
At The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, April 27
BFF to showcase the World Premiere of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “Academy Gold Program” intern Tracey Aivaz’s short film inspired by Walmart’s blue shipping box on Opening Night
The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) returns to Bentonville, Arkansas May 1-6, 2018, and has announced two featured titles: its Opening Night Selection is the world premiere of Elissa Down’s THE HONOR LIST, from Lionsgate’s Studio L, and the festival will present a Centerpiece Screening of Lea Thompson’s THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN.
As announced on the red carpet at the 90th Oscars®, BFF will also showcase the world premiere of THE BOX, Tracey Aivaz’s 60-second short film inspired by Walmart’s blue shipping box. Walmart collaborated with three female Hollywood directors on three short films that premiered during the 2018 Oscars® telecast, and Aivaz, an 
ld premiere of Netflix’s “Fire Chasers” at KCET’s Cinema Series
The beauty of the Oscars and the Academy Awards is the culmination of all the bits and pieces to arrive at this point today. Yes there is the glamour, limos, press, red carpet, the award show, the speeches, the fans, security, the after parties. Yet there is more than meets the eye. There is all those people who helped make all these movies and it begins with the story. The tales shared. The stories written.
![Bamby Salcedo is the founder of the Los Angeles-based TransLatin@ Coalition, which according to its website "is an organization form[ed] by Trans Latin@ immigrant leaders who have come together (Photo: THT)](https://thehollywoodtimesdotorg.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/bamby.jpg?w=225&h=300)
New 3 part Mini-Series, Discovery Channel
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