News

The 2016 presidential election is finally coming to an end, but The Orchard is just getting started on “11/8/16,” the follow-up to Jeff Deutchman’s 2008 documentary about the election of President Obama, “11/4/08.” Produced by Deutchman and directed by more than 40 filmmakers who will capture footage from all over the country on Tuesday, November 8, the film represents the most ambitious Election Day documentary ever produced.

Read More: Hillary Clinton for President: 37 Filmmakers Reveal Why She’s the Best Choice

Filmmakers contributing to the project include “Suited” director Jason Benjamin, who will be following Lena Dunham as she volunteers for the Hillary Clinton campaign; “Bombay Beach” director Alma Har’el, who will be following Clinton’s director of video Sierra Kos; “Being Evel” director Daniel Junge, who will be follwing the Los Angeles Times’ assistant managing editor of politics, Christina Bellantoni; and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” director Alison Klayman, who will be following NPR...

In terms of support, they got a taste for what the Sundance Institute had to offer in concretizing aspects of their respective screenplays and in terms of scenery, they’ll need to pack significantly less heavier suitcases. Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), Olivia Newman (First Match), Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (pictured above) (Mustang) & Yung Chang (Eggplant), Christopher Makoto Yogi (I Was A Simple Man), Mark Kindred (Rogue) and trio Brent Green, Michael McGinley and Thyra Heder‘s untitled project are technically moving onto the next round working on the directing portion of their projects at the June Directors and Screenwriters Labs. they’ll be joined by The Imposter helmer Bart Layton‘s narrative debut, American Animals. The Screenwriters Lab attendees are Dan Krauss‘ docu-to-feature adaptation of The Kill Team, Boots Riley‘s Sorry to Bother You, Frances Bodomo, Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani and Irakli Solomanashvili‘s Afronauts, and finally Fernando Coimbra‘s The...

Eliza Hittman (was love at first sight for her directorial debut It Felt Like Love) and Yung Chang (a docu-helmer best known for the award-winning portrait of modern China in Up the Yangtze) are just two of the dozen folks/projects invited to the upcoming Sundance Institute 2015 January Screenwriters Lab. The labs work as a testing ground of sorts, with Lab Director Ilyse McKimmie seeing to it that the screenwriters are mentored by filmmaking professionals. I’d wager that a good portion of these projects on paper eventually make it onto the big screen (say about 65 to 70 percent) and about 35-40 percent break into the actual Sundance Film Fest. Not unlike her debut picture, Hittman’s potential sophomore pic Beach Rats features NYC borough backdrop and via a teenage vantage point but is sure to stir the pot with tad bit more destruction. After Up the Yangtze, China Heavyweight, and The Fruit Hunters,...

Accompanied by a strong presence of Tap producers at this year’s Tiff line-up, Trans Atlantic Partners (Tap), renowned international co-production training and networking program launches Module 2 of the 2014 edition in Halifax September 8th. Tap Producers will tackle a vast range of training topics and networking opportunities leading into the international coproduction market Strategic Partners, as part of the program.

Potsdam, Germany – After completing Module 1 in Berlin in June, The Erich Pommer Institut – Epi (Germany), new Presenting Partner Canadian Media Production Association – Cmpa (Canada), and the Independent Filmmaker Project – Ifp (USA) proudly present Module 2 of their annual intensive training and networking program for established producers from Europe, Canada, and the United States, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 8th- 14th. 22 experienced producers were selected from the target countries including, the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece, Denmark, Canada and USA to participate in the 6th edition.

Looking forward to the upcoming training unit, Tap Head of Studies, Jan Miller, comments, “With the strong presence of Tap producers at Tiff this year, we’re seeing tangible evidence that the training program in Berlin and Halifax is supporting the best in international producer talent.”

The Tap producers’ highlight list of films that premiere at Tiff include:

"Bang Bang Baby" produced by Daniel Bekerman (Tap 2013)

"Big Muddy"produced by Bob Crowe (Tap 2009)

"Cub" produced by Peter De Maegd (Tap 2009) and co-produced by Femke Wolting (Tap 2011)

"Dukhtar" co-produced by Shrihari Sathe (Tap 2013)

"Guidance" produced by Mike MacMillan (Tap 2014)

"Hole" produced by Laura Perlmutter and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith (both Tap 2014)

"Shelter" produced by Katie Mustard (Tap 2014)

"Tigers" produced by Guneet Monga (Tap 2011)

"Voice Over" co-produced by Nicolas Comeau (Tap 2014)

"Wet Bum" produced by Paula Devonshire and Lauren Grant (both Tap 2013)

In Module 2, producers take part in a multi-facetted training programme including up-to-date topics on marketing and distribution and case studies. The list of experts and trainers is broad: Susan Shopmaker (Susan Shopmaker Casting, USA), Mark Horowitz (H20 Motion Pictures, USA), Mia Bays (Missing In Action Films, UK), Evan Schwartz (FilmBuff, USA), Jay van Hoy (Parts and Labor Films, USA), Marc Almon (Story Engine Pictures), Andrew Noble (Filmoption International) and Belgium producer Jean-Yves Roubin (Frakas Productions) as well as Phyllis Laing (Buffalo Gal Pictures). The Tap training leads directly into Strategic Partners where producers will participate in 3 days of b2b meetings, panels and keynote speakers at one of the world’s pre-eminent international co-production markets.

About Trans Atlantic Partners

Tap offers a unique combination of intensive, hands-on training with effective networking among potential partners, and targeted project feedback from resource trainers.

Tap alumni include internationally acclaimed producers such as Sol Bondy, Germany (Youth – bfi Award-nomination 2013), Peter Bouckaert, Belgium (Bullhead – Oscar®-nomination 2012), Marc- Daniel Dichant, Germany (In Darkness – Oscar®-nomination 2012), Anne-Marie Gelinas, Canada (Mars and Avril – Canadian Screen Awards 4 nominations 2013), Alexandra Johnes, USA (The House I Live in – Sundance Grand Jury Prize 2012), Bob Moore, Canada (China Heavyweight – Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination 2012), Guneet Monga, India (Gangs of Wasseypur– Toronto & Cannes 2012, The Lunchbox – 2013 Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Rail d’ Or), and Ryan Zacharias, USA (I Used to Be Darker – Sundance & Berlin 2013). Presenting

Partners

The Erich Pommer Institut (Epi) is one of the leading centers in Europe for media law, media management, and media research. As a non-profit independent institute, our curriculum follows the process of media convergence through research, consultation and advanced training. Each year, Epi organizes and hosts close to 40 seminars, workshops, conferences and panels – for the German as well as the European media industry. www.epi-medieninstitut.de

The Canadian Media Production Association (Cmpa) is Canada's leading trade association for independent producers. The Cmpa represents more than 350 companies engaged in the production and distribution of English-language television programs, feature films and digital media. Together, the production sector generates almost $6 billion of activity annually and sustains 127,700 high-quality, full-time jobs. The Cmpa works on behalf of members to promote and stimulate the Canadian production industry to ensure the continued success of Canada's independent production sector and a future for Canadian content. www.cmpa.ca

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) is the U.S.'s oldest and largest not-for-profit advocacy organization for independent filmmakers. Ifp represents a network of 10,000 filmmakers in New York City and around the world, with a mission of ensuring that independent films enrich the universal language of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness and fostering activism. www.ifp.org

Tap is supported by Telefilm Canada, Vff (Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten mbH) Germany, and Creative BC, Canada. Associate partner: Strategic Partners...

Boxing was banned as "too Western and brutal" after the revolution in 1949, but Canadian-Chinese director Yung Chang hopes his documentary China Heavyweight will explore aspects of contemporary life through the medium of the ring. The movie is due to screen at more than 200 theaters nationwide on Dec. 20, making it the most widely-screened documentary in Chinese history. A Canada-China co-production from Montreal's Eyesteel Films and Beijing’s Yuanfang Media, China Heavyweight was tailored for release in both markets. Since the ban on boxing was lifted in 1986 it has become more popular, and Chang's documentary

read more...

Dogwoof has acquired all foreign rights for Ryan Mullins’ documentary Chameleon, currently in production.

The acquisition will see Dogwoof acting as sales agent for all territories, across all platforms, and will include a UK distribution deal.

Chameleon is the story of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a deep-cover investigative journalist in Ghana who exposed a sex-trafficking ring by masquerading as a bartender, uncovered deplorable conditions in Accra’s psychiatric hospital by admitting himself, and posed as a Crown Prince in order to bypass a rebel checkpoint. The documentary follows Anas on his next big case.

Due for completion in late 2014, Chameleon was pitched at Hotdocs Forum, and has also received development and production grants from the Sundance Institute.

Vesna Cudic, of Dogwoof Global, described the film as “an exhilarating story with a charismatic protagonist, and unprecedented access”.

Dogwoof will release the film to UK audiences in 2015 and act as international sales agents.

The move to...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.

The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.

Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.

"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...

The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.

That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.

AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.

Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors

Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”

Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”

Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”

Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”

Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”

Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”

Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”

Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”

Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

Finding The Forbidden: Chang Indulges In Produce

It seems that for some, the appetite for rare and exotic fruits extends far beyond mere curious fascination and well on into the realm of impassioned obsession. They’re appreciative of harvest heritage and community farming, craving unique local flavors home grown in the untapped wilderness or bought and sold via small provincial marketplaces. Exploring lighter, sweeter fare than his previous China focused efforts, Up The Yangtze and China Heavyweight, director Yung Chang follows the winding path to the gardens of Eden in his tangy exposé, The Fruit Hunters.

Following the pursuits of horticulturalists, pomologists, and backyard enthusiasts as they search for white fleshed mangoes and forgotten fruits preserved within Renaissance paintings, we travel the globe learning of fruits rarely tasted in the western world. As it turns out, actor Bill Pullman (of Independence Day and Lost Highway fame) is also a fruit fanatic.

Overall it's not the most exciting week for new releases on DVD and Blu-ray... unless of course, you happen to be a huge Woody Allen fan. His latest film To Rome with Love hits store shelves this week along with a couple of his classics on Blu-ray (Sleeper and Hannah and Her Sisters). The biggest studio releases are Taken 2 and The Possession, neither of which were particularly well-received in theatres, but on the plus side we have a couple of noteworthy documentaries in Detropia and China Heavyweight. Drafthouse Films is also putting out the long-lost Austalian genre cult classic Wake in Fright and Criterion is re-issuing Hitchcock's original The Man Who Knew Too Much. What will you be buying or renting this week? Check out the full list of releases after the jump. Amazon.com Widgets

For More Daily Movie Goodness, Visit Filmjunk.Com!

DVD Release Date: Jan. 15, 2013

Price: DVD $29.99

Studio: Zeitgeist

Qi Moxiang puts up his dukes in China Heavyweight.

The Best Documentary Winner at the 2012 Taiwan Golden Horse Awards (the Chinese Oscars), China Heavyweight is the latest film from Yung Chang, the award-winning director/producer of the acclaimed documentaries Up the Yangtze and Last Train Home.

The2012 movie focuses in on the charismatic Qi Moxiang, a former boxing star and state coach who recruits young fighting talent from the impoverished farms and villages across the Sichuan province. A select few boys (and girls) are sent to national training centers, with the hope of discovering China’s next Olympic heroes. But will these potential boxing champions leave it all behind to be the next Mike Tyson? Their rigorous training, teenage trials and family tribulations are intertwined with Coach Qi’s own desire to get back in the ring for one more shot at victory.

Actor Bill Pullman and director Yung Chang attended the Us premiere of the film The Fruit Hunters at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Environmental documentaries come in all shapes and sizes, but chances are you have not seen one as appetizing as this sensual and seductive tribute to nature’s sweetest bounty.

There is a reason that so many painters have turned to the bowl of fruit for inspiration, and if filmmakers have been slow to follow suit, Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze; China Heavyweight) is quick to make amends. Inspired by Adam Leith Gollner’s book of the same name, and accompanied by a motley group of fruit fanatics including the Hollywood actor Bill Pullman, Chang explores a wider, weirder world of fruit: stinky durians, cherimoyas, icecream beans.

Adventurers Noris Ledesma and Richard Campbell scour the jungle for rare mangos, hoping to intervene before the plants are steamrolled by industrialization. Pioneering scientist Juan Aguilar races to breed bananas resistant to a deadly fungus that threatens the worldwide crop. And fruit detectives including Isabella Dalla Ragione investigate Renaissance-era paintings for clues, hoping to rediscover lost varietals. Pullman’s efforts to seed a community orchard in the Hollywood hills are interspersed with juicy historical titbits tracing cultivation across centuries and continents.

Sticking with the whole erotica theme that I think will play out at the fest this year, you can’t get more exotic with The Fruit Hunters – a doc about obscure, hard to find fruits and its select fans – which includes Bill Pullman. With a sneak preview screening at this year’s Tiff and debut at Ridm, filmmaker Yung Chang will likely be invited to Park City again – as it was the lieu for U.S premieres of his award-winning Up the Yangtze (Sundance ’08) and China Heavyweight (Sundance ’12). To the publicist: I definitely want an after-screening party invite for this one.

Gist: Co-written by Chang and Mark Slutsky, this is an adaptation of Adam Gollner’s bestselling nonfiction book of the same title. From Borneo to Hollywood, from Honduras to the monasteries of Umbria, the filmmaker follows these dogged fruit collectors (including actor Bill Pullman, among the most dogged of...

Zeitgeist Films has acquired Ben Shapiro’s documentary “Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters” and plans to open it at Film Forum October 31 before a nationwide release. Crewdson is an influential photographer who took inspiration from Diane Arbus, Edward Hopper and films such as “Vertigo,” “The Night of the Hunter” and “Blue Velvet” in creating his elaborately staged photographs of small-town American life. Shapiro’s documentary had its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Read More: Exclusive: Zeitgeist Films Acquires Gay Jewish Comedy 'Let My People Go!' Zeitgeist has recently released “Elena,” “Payback” and “China Heavyweight.”...

Title: China Heavyweight Director: Yung Chang Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang drew praise for 2007′s “Up the Yangtze,” which focused on the many socioeconomically disadvantaged people impacted by the building of the massive Three Gorges Dam in Hubei. With his latest movie, he returns to China for another unexpectedly lyrical snapshot of that country’s rapidly changing economic landscape. A nonfiction look at the recruitment and training of young boxers for future hopeful Olympic glory, “China Heavyweight” is an unadorned, guileless work that starts slowly but accrues a deeper emotional hold and resonance as it winds on. In not dissimilar fashion from “Pelotero: Ballplayer,” the recent documentary which examined teenage baseball prospects in [ Read More ]...

A mighty summer trio of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Moonrise Kingdom" and "To Rome With Love" continued to boost the summer indie box office, each finding very strong numbers in expansion. That overshadowed a generally uneventful batch of openers, which included "China Heavyweight," "The Do-Deca-Penathlon" and "The Magic of Belle Isle." A few days after we published an annual mid-year box office report that suggested things were coming along quite nicely so far this year, it seems the second half of 2012 is continuing that trend. Check out the full rundown below. The Debuts: "China Heavyweight" (Zeitgeist) Director Yung Chang ("Up The Yangtze") saw his latest film "China Heavyweight" open on a single screen care of Zeitgeist Films (which also released "Yangtze"). The film -- which looks at boxing in China -- took in $4,004 from its exclusive engagement. ...

You're probably already well aware of the biggest movie in theatres this weekend as The Amazing Spider-Man actually opened a few days ago and notched the biggest Tuesday opening ever, putting it on track for a $140 million debut. There are a few other new movies offering alternatives to Spidey, however, including Oliver Stone's Savages and the 3D documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me, both of which will still have to contend with Seth MacFarlane's Ted as well. If none of those appeal to you, in select theatres we also have the Duplass Brothers indie comedy The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, acclaimed boxing documentary China Heavyweight, and Rob Reiner's The Magic of Belle Isle, not to mention Nicholas McCarthy's haunted house flick The Pact. What will you be watching this weekend? The Amazing Spider-Man Savages Katy Perry: Part of Me China Heavyweight (limited) The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (limited) The Pact (limited) The Magic of Belle Isle...

Out This Week is a weekly column intended to provide reviews of nearly every new indie release. Reviews are written by Indiewire critic Eric Kohn and other contributors where noted. Reviews This Week "Crazy Eyes" "China Heavyweight" "Collaborator" "The Do Deca Pentathlon" "The Magic of Belle Isle" "The Pact" "Savages" "Crazy Eyes" Los Angeles is gorgeously photographed in this extended date-rape joke of a movie, which is possibly the most misogynistic film of the year. Lukas Haas  stars as the too-familiar aging and self-loathing playboy, who looks at the whisky and pills by his bedside table and realizes he needs to grow up. This lifestyle of daily binge drinking, sleeping till four, supporting his gold-digging ex, and flying random women to New York (because that's a more surefire way to get laid than even four bottles of...

Pulling No Punches, Boxing Gives Hope For Poor Rural Youth

Modern China is a place that revels in tradition, honor, and hard work – ethics that pervade the nationally sponsored youth boxing programs that have grown after the long running ban on the sport was lifted in 1986. In the southwest Sichuan Province of China, Huili County is one of the many rural communities being skimmed by selfless boxing coaches for young recruits who may one day become China’s Olympic competitors. Chinese Canadian director Yung Chang and a wholly Chinese film crew embedded themselves in the Huili countryside, sublimely documenting a group of fledgling boxers and their inspiring coaching staff as they brave through rigorous training, confer with fellow trainees, and confront their deeply conflicted, tobacco farming families.

China’s very first professional boxer, Qi Moxiang, turned to coaching after he resigned from the national team in 2004. Since then he has...

Back in 2007, Montreal-based filmmaker Yung Chang examined the deleterious effects of grand-scale modernization in China on two cruise-ship employees in his celebrated documentary Up the Yangtze. Trailing his subjects as they minister to the needs of well-to-do passengers embarking on “goodbye tours” of river communities that will soon be flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, Chang offered a moving account of the wealth divide as well as the impact of unprecedented change on common people. Up the Yangtze screened at numerous festivals including Sundance, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and Idfa, winning Best Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and earned the director an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Regrouping with his Canadian colleagues at EyeSteelFilm (the producers of Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home) for China Heavyweight, which debuted at Sundance in January, Chang turns his attention to the rise of amateur boxing in the hyperdeveloping Asian nation,...

I’m not the biggest fan of sports documentaries, but you throw Western boxing into the middle of nowheresville China, and a bunch of poor kids trying to make it, and suddenly it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Or at least, more interesting than if it didn’t have those two elements. Yung Chang’s “China Heavyweight” is opening in limited release this July, then continuing around the States throughout the year. Until then, check out the trailer. Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) returns to China for another riveting documentary on that country’s ever-changing economic landscape—this time through the lens of sports. In China Heavyweight, Chang follows the charismatic Qi Moxiang, a former boxing star and state coach who recruits young fighting talent from the impoverished farms and villages across Sichuan province. A select few boys (and girls) are sent to national training centers,...

Following the critical and commercial success of his 2007 documentary, Up the Yangtze, director Yung Chang once again turns his camera towards a rapidly-modernizing China in China Heavyweight. The day before his film is set to have its Canadian premier at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival, Chang and I meet in a park to talk about it. Having not yet seen the film, our conversation takes an immediate turn to one of common ground -- documentaries we'd seen at the festival so far. We joke about the after-effects of being inundated with documentaries, that suddenly anything and everything has revealed itself as potential fodder. He is warm yet animated, and listens with his chin resting on clasped hands whilst we compare notes, giving off the...

0:00 - Intro 6:00 - Review: The Avengers 1:08:15 - Headlines: New Hulk Movie in 2015?, Marvel to Eventually Recast Iron Man, Universal Sues The Asylum Over Battleship Knockoff, The Dark Knight Rises Trailer, The Expendables 2 Trailer 1:39:10 - Hot Docs Reviews: The Imposter, Indie Game: The Movie, Glow: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, Beauty is Embarrassing, Tchopitoulous, Women with Cows, The Tundra Book, China Heavyweight, Shut Up and Play the Hits, Detropia, Low & Clear, Only the Young, Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet 2:42:05 - Other Stuff We Watched: Firefly, Serenity, 24/7: Floyd Mayweather vs. Miguel Cotto, Senna, The Five-Year Engagement, Hook 3:01:30 - Junk Mail: Directors with Perfect Filmographies, Movies You Don't Like That Have One Great Scene + Movies You Dislike for How They Make You Feel, Best Movie-Themed Rides 3:15:00 - This Week's DVD Releases 3:18:40 - Outro...

China Heavyweight

Directed by Yung Chang

Canada, 2012

In 1959, Chairman Mao banned Western-style boxing for being too American and too violent. Thirty years later, the ban was lifted. Although symptomatic of China’s ameliorating progress, Canadian director Yung Chang, in his documentary, China Heavyweight, exhibits how the country has yet to purge itself of Mao’s irreparable social and economic legacies.

The film documents the story of two teenagers in rural Sichuan, China, hoping to become the next big thing in international boxing. Coached by the dedicated Qi Moxiang, they try to rise through the amateur level in order to become professional boxers, and to break out of their substandard social-economic situations.

The best way to describe China Heavyweight is to call it the boxing equivalent of Steve James’ basketball documentary, Hoop Dreams. Rife with dialectical feelings of both desperation and aspiration, Heavyweight is an essential social document on the hardships...

New York's Rooftop Films summer film screening series, which screens films on rooftops throughout the summer across the city, has announced its 2012 lineup.  Though the other dates have been left unannounced, the series will launch with opening weekend with a screening of shorts from around the world on Friday, May 11, and with Bryan Wizemann's "Think of Me" on May 12. Films in this year's series include Sundance favorites "China Heavyweight," "Detropia," "Kid-Thing" and "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty," and SXSW favorites like "Kumare," "Gayby" and "Sun Don't Shine."  The complete lineup of films is below. Rooftop Films 16th Annual Summer Series Opening Weekend Friday, May 11, 2012   This is What We Mean by Short Films Opening Night of Rooftop Films 16th Annual Summer Series will feature grand stories in little packages, with some...

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Announces 188 Outstanding Films For 2012 Edition Presented By Visual Communications

Southern California.s Largest Asian Film Festival Runs May 10 . 20, 2012, Will Present 188 Films From

Over 20 Countries Featuring World Premieres, Sneak Previews; Showcasing Documentaries and Narratives

Focusing on the Voices of Asian Americans and Asian Peoples from Around the World.

The Launch of the C3: Project Market and the Vc Film Development Fund

Festival Opening Night Selection Shanghai Calling, Directed By Festival Alum Daniel Hsia, Starring: Daniel Henney, Eliza Coupe and Bill Paxton.

Centerpiece Presentations, SXSW favorite Sunset Stories, Directed by Ernesto Foronda and Silas Howard; Sundance Winner Valley Of Saints directed by Musa Syeed. Saturday Night Gala Yes, We.Re Open, directed by Festival Alum Richard Wong.

Joyful Reunion Directed by Tsao Jui Yuan, Selected as Closing Night Gala Presentation.

Visual Communications (Vc), the nation.s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, announced its...

Zeitgeist Films has acquired Us rights to Yung Chang's "China Heavyweight," the documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film is Chang's follow-up to the acclaimed "Up The Yangtze," which Zeitgeist also distributed. A Summer 2012 release in planned. Full press release below. Zeitgeist has announced today that they have acquired U. S. rights from EyeSteelFilms to Yung Chang's latest film 'China Heavyweight'.    EyeSteel was also the producer of Yung Chang's 'Up the Yangtze' and Lixin Fan's 'Last Train Home', both of which Zeitgeist distributed in the U. S.     In southwestern China, a Master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. Through hard work and discipline, these boys and girls come of age, trained in the art of boxing and the game of life. They are filled with Olympic...

Following two event-filled weekends, March 1-4 and 9-11, the third edition of the AmérAsia Film Festival has come to a close. This year the festival featured about 50 Asian and Asian-Canadian films including Cannes and Academy Award-winning productions from China, Kyroskistan, India, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, as well a number of Quebec-origin films. Over 100 invited guests from as far as Japan and South Korea were in attendance at five different venues across Montreal, mixing with homegrown filmmakers and academics. Sound On Sight contributor Edgar Chaput was present for the majority of the event, providing some excellent coverage. Here is a quick break down of some of his reviews:

Pearls of the Far East

Directed by Cuong Ngo

Written by Minh Ngoc Nguyen and Matt Guerin

Vietnam, 2011

Any young director is faced with a steep challenge when shifting his or her focus from the realm of short films to that of the feature length.

As we roll into Berlin where War Witch (aka Rebelle) (Isa: Films Distribution) by Kim Nguyen is in Competition. While it’s Kim’s 4th feature, this is the first of his films to have a world premiere at an international festival. This is exceptional as well because the last time the Canadians had a Canadian director in Competition at the Berlinale was in 1999 with Emporte-Moi ! Guy Madden’s Keyhole holds a Berlinale Special slot. Guy is Canada’s cultural ambassador in Berlin and a regular at the Festival and sat on the Berlinale’s Official Jury last year – with Isabella Rossellini.

Sheldon Larry’s Leave It on the Floor (Isa: Arrow) is a U.S.-Canadian Co-pro which has played Laff, Tiff and is now in the Panorama.

Films in the Forum include Green Laser by another Berlinale favorite, John Greyson. Green Laser is his 8th film at the festival. His first was Urinal in 1989. Denis Côté’s Bestiary, straight from Sundance, and Francine, the first narrative feature by Melanie Shatzky (Canada) and Brian M. Cassidy (U.S.) the team that directed Patron Saints (Tiff 2011, Rotterdam 2012) are are all in the Forum.

4 films are in the Forum Expanded:

Chris Kennedy’s 349 (For Sol LeWitt)(1min long!) in Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule

American Colour, Tiff 2011 Wavelength Program: Schedule

Road Movie by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzkystarring Melissa Leo (Frozen River) Tiff 2011 Future Projections: Schedule, a 6-channel installation produced by The National Film Board of Canada. Elle Flanders’ documentary Zero Degrees of Separation was screened in the Forum section of the Berlin Festival in 2005.

The Tiny Ventriloquist by Steve Reinke, (with contribution from James Richards). The installation will be presented at the McLuhan Salon of the Canadian Embassy

In Berlinale Shorts Competition, The Man That Got Away by Trevor Anderson is his second film in this section (2009 The Island). His doc short The High Leve Bridge was in Sundance in 2010.

All we have to do now is wait to see which prizes go to them! Last year Canadian productions came away with three.

Perspective Canada will present 16 titles at the Market:

Café de Flore - Jean-Marc Vallée, Films Distribution, France

China Heavyweight (Straight from Sundance) - doc - Yung Chang Cat & Docs, France & EyeSteelFilms

Décharge (Trash) - Benoit Pilon, eOne

Edwin Boyd - Nathan Morlando, Myriad Pictures, USA

French Kiss - Sylvain Archambault ,Delphis

Goon - Michael Dowse, Myriad Pictures, USA

La Peur de l'eau - Gabriel Pelletier, eOne

Marécages - Guy Édoin, Fortissimo Films

Monsieur Lazhar - Philippe Falardeau, Films Distribution, France

Nuit #1 - Anne Émond, Wide Management, France

Payback (Straight from Sundance) - doc- Jennifer Baichwal, National Film Board of Canada

Pink Ribbons - doc - Léa Pool, National Film Board of Canada

Pour l'amour de dieu - Micheline Lanctôt, Filmoption

Roméo onze - Ivan Grbovic, Reprise Films

Surviving Progress - doc- Mathieu Roy + Harold Crooks, National Film Board of Canada

Take this Waltz - Sarah Polley, TF1 International, France...

The Year of the Dragon calls for boldness, passion and power. What better way for Sundance to usher in the new year than a dragon dance up and down the aisles of the Yarrow Theatre? Cavorting to drums and cymbals, the dragons were introducing the world premiere of the documentary, China Heavyweight.

China Heavyweight is the second feature-length doc from Montreal’s Yung Chang, who helmed the award-winning Up The Yangtze. Chang follows coach Qi Moxiang and his two boxers, Zongli He and Yunfei Miao, in southwestern China as they train for the championships. The area they come from is poor, isolated and a breeding ground for kids looking for a way out. One way is boxing. These kids dream of being world stars like Mike Tyson, amazing given the fact that during his reign Chairman Mao Tse-tung banned pugilism for being violent and decadent.

Like Up The Yangtze, China Heavyweight...

Trailer roundups can grow to be rather unwieldy and slow to load, so I'm rounding up trailers for films screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival in two batches, the competitions and all the other programs.

Us Dramatic Competition

Ira Sachs's Keep the Lights On

Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere

Youssef Delara and Michael D Olmos's Filly Brown

Us Documentary Competition

Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Kirby Dick's The Invisible War

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia

Sam Pollard's Slavery by Another Name

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

The trailer for Keiichi Kobayashi's About the Pink Sky is here.

Luciano Moura's Father's Chair (A Cadeira do Pai)

Babis Makridis's L

Armando Bó's The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis)

David Trueba's Madrid, 1987

Andrés Wood's Violeta Went to Heaven

Kieran Darcy-Smith's Wish You Were Here

And the trailer for...

"China Heavyweight" (alternative title: 千錘百煉, screening in the World Documentary competition at Sundance) documents the industry of Chinese boxing coaches recruiting talent from remote rural areas of the country. Director Yung Chang ("Up the Yangtze") told Indiewire that the film was inspired by such films as "Raging Bull" and "Enter the Dragon," and he confessed to Indiewire that a Mike Tyson cameo never materialized. The up-and-coming doc director is now hard at work at a documentary called "The Fruit Hunters," a film about the fruit underground based on the book of the same name by Adam Gollner. What's it about? 千錘百煉 means "To be tried and tested a thousand times." This is a kung-fu meets boxing documentary about a coach & his 2 boxers in new China. Says director Yung Chang: "For someone like myself, who grew up in two worlds, it is inevitable that you love kung-fu movies (the...