News

The Brazilian distributor launches Tucaman France to promote Brazilian and Latin American cinema and kicks off with Sand Dollars.

Geraldine Chaplin stars in Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán’s Dominican Republic-set drama (Dólares De Areia) that will screen in Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse in France next week.

The showcase will also present Tucaman France’s Brazilian amateur football story Sunday Ball from Eryk Rocha.

The distributor’s line-up includes Rio 2096 - A Story Of Love And Fury (Brazil), The Other Side Of Paradise (Brazil), The Telescope Of Time (Brazil) and Chronicles Of The End Of The World (Colombia).

Tucuman Films launched in 2009 to release Latin American and European art house cinema in Brazil. Its roster includes Jealousy, La Ritournelle, Mr. Morgan’s Last Love and 7 Boxes.

Over a decade ago, Staceyann Chin burst onto the scene with Russell Simmons’ “Def Poetry Jam” on Broadway. Sharing the stage with other prominent poets and hip-hop artists, she garnered a Tony Award for her performance.

Chin, known for candidly revealing her frustrating childhood in Jamaica -- a country known for homophobia -- said she became aware of a growing interest in her experience as a Jamaican lesbian immigrant. In 2010, she released her critically acclaimed memoir, The Other Side Of Paradise.

Chin, 40, a lover of “a good story,” is now working on a new book about motherhood and parenting. When she’s not writing, on stage or traveling the world, she's hosting comrades for tea, wine, “crap TV,” or political talk. In the living room of her Brooklyn apartment, her daughter by her side, Chin chatted with HuffPost about homophobia, Jamaica, motherhood, and more.

What urged you to write your memoir,...

Most filmmakers find inspiration in the work of those who came before. But this fall, I was fortunate enough to make one of my biggest artistic breakthroughs with the direct help of a creative idol — and one of cinema’s most notorious enfants terrible — Lars Von Trier. Well, with an assist from Paul Gauguin and August Strindberg. Mid-summer, I was in a pretty dry place creatively as an artist. My last feature, the road movie “The Other Side of Paradise,” played in more than 30 festivals, winning some awards along the way, and culminated in a theatrical release in New York in December 2009 to mostly positive reviews. After that film, however, our producing team started a documentary that drained us all physically and creatively. I didn’t feel free as an artist anymore. Then, in June 2011, my wife gave birth to our son, and while it provided a very different perspective from which to create,...

Filmmaker Justin D. Hilliard is one of Texas' best kept secrets. Three years ago, his film The Other Side Of Paradise made its world premiere at the AFI Dallas Film Festival. Fast forward those three years, and I've suddenly given myself a palm-sized bruise on my forehead for not catching this in theaters when I had the chance. I rarely watch screeners and I only own about 10 DVDs (it's crucial to note Universal Soldier is one) and Blu-rays together. I'm the guy who likes seeing things on the silver screen - it's all about the experience.

Read more on Indie Spotlight: The Other Side Of Paradise co-writer/director Justin D. Hilliard...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Love Life Trailer A few weeks ago I talked about a trailer called New Kids Turbo. I received a good amount of e-mail letting me...

Just as I’m about to move off to Austin for a new chapter in my life, I found out this: Frank Mosley (Hold) and Justin D. Hilliard (The Other Side Of Paradise) are teaming up to make a new web series called Komodo, which you can file under “dark” and “funny.” If you’ve seen Hold and Paradise, then you know the aforementioned adjectives come easy for them. I’ve seen almost everything Mosley has done and spoke with him a few times about this project and I’m confident this will take off; these gents take filmmaking very serious and have stamped a name for themselves in the Dfw area.

Read more on Exclusive: Dallas filmmakers team up to make web series…...

Wow, how time flies. Gatw was just taking baby steps in the movie blogging world when we met writer/director/actor/do-it-all Frank Mosley, who had just made a short film called Little Boy. Some time later, Frank went on to co-star in Justin D. Hilliard’s The Other Side Of Paradise which premiered at last year’s AFI Dallas Film Festival (now Diff). Frank has a new film under his belt, Hold, and since he’s based in the same wonderful town Gatw was started in — Dallas, TX — it’s only right that we kick off our Diff preview coverage with Hold.

Read more on Diff 2010 Preview: Frank Mosley’s Hold…...