The 20th edition of the Newport Beach Film Festival presented by Pacific Sales is now up and running. Films are shown at several venues, including Starlight Cinemas, Edward?s Big Newport Cinemas, the historic Lido Theater, and The Lot in Fashion Island. If you?re in the area, schedule and tickets can be found at the festival…
While many of my Screenfish colleagues (and most of the rest of the world) will be seeing The Avengers: Endgame this weekend, I?ll be absent from that crowd. Instead, I?ll be starting my weeklong coverage of the 20th Newport Beach Film Festival presented by Pacific Sales. This year?s festival includes 131 feature films and 321…
Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul, was a well-established star in 1972 when she chose for her next album to return to the music of her youth?gospel. The daughter of a Baptist minister, singing in church was where her sound was born. In Amazing Grace, we travel back to the two-night recording session/church service that…
This is the 10th anniversary of Disneynature creating documentary films about our planet and its inhabitants. This year?s offering (as always, being released for Earth Day) is Penguins. And as with previous Disneynature films, they will make a donation to Wildlife Conservation Network for every ticket sold during the opening week (April 17-23). The Disneynature…
I recently had a chance to sit down with Tim Disney to talk about his film William. William is the story of a cloned Neanderthal who is raised by a pair of academics who have different visions of who he is and should become. There were a lot of different movies that could have been…
It is important to have a place where you belong?people who journey with us. Or as Qoheleth put it: ?Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not…
What makes one ?human?? Can one be human but not Homo sapiens? Until about 30,000 years ago, there were other species of human that in time died out. One of those was Homo neanderthalensis, or Neanderthals. If a Neanderthal could be born today, how would it differ from modern humans? Would he truly be human?…
?Non silba sed anthar (not for self, but for others)? [Ku Klux Klan motto] Based on a true story, Best of Enemies tells the story of Durham, NC, in 1971. When a school for blacks has a fire, the students need to be moved. But where, to a white school? That certainly gets everyone?s attention….
?When you serve me?, I feel sanctified.? In Diane, from writer/director Kent Jones, we watch the title character (Mary Kay Place) spend her days selflessly trying to help others. Diane is constantly in motion, driving between visits to her dying cousin Donna (Deidre O?Connell), trying to help her drug addicted son Brian (Jake Lacy), and…
I recently had the chance to take part in a small group conversation with Diane writer/director Kent Jones and the film?s lead, Mary Kay Place. This represents some of the topic we discussed. I noted that one of my favorite lines in the film was when the character Tom, one of the people Diane served…
