Film Festival reViews

Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World" directed by Michael Fiore, is an intimate look at a father-and-son relationship in a family business that their Ukrainian patriarch started. Then in 2022 war broke out in Ukraine..

What brought us together – going to Sundance, hosting panels and programming, and speaking engagements, was a connection to a very special mentor, guru, and guiding star – Alice Guy Blache.

You can’t beat the hospitality that comes along with top-notch programming, in California wine country. Steve Shor has the magic touch as program director for the Sonoma International Film Festival with 120 films from 35 countries, chefs preparing food, and sommeliers pouring the wine.

LIGHT FROM THE EAST is about an extraordinary Ukrainian American stage production taking place during a coup in August 1991, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

After 40 years with Asbury Shorts USA, and still going strong, Doug LeClaire shares his secrets to a successful four-decade run that compares this theatrical event with an off-off-Broadway production.

I start the New Year catching up with Meira Blaustein Co-Founder/Executive & Artistic Director of the Woodstock Film Festival. Fiercely independent is her motto.

Cine Qua Non Screenwriting Lab and an international homage to Alice Guy Blache.

My goal, such as it is for any film festival outside of my daily driving ability, was to find the Registration room, pick up my badge and get the lay of the land.

Tribeca Film Festival is my backyard as a Reel Jersey Girl accessing the most interesting, spine-tingling, and controversial work for the nextfor eleven days.

Twelve years, on New Year's Eve, I put out my first podcast program calling it a tryst for indie film lovers around the film festival circuit worldwide.

Witnessing Jessica Sherr’s one-woman show, Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies, we concur it’s a firecracker of a show where “you fasten your seatbelts– it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

While most films we've seen at Tribeca Film Festival depend upon a programmer's scheduling to fit with our own, there were several that fit perfectly with the Women in Film lineup that I focus on.

A one-of-a-kind cinematic experience The Public Image is Rotten combining performance and conversation with John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, original frontman for the punk rock band, the Sex Pistols.

My crazy as a March Hare month as I recall falling into the rabbit hole a decade ago with Fort Lee Film Commission introducing me to Alice Guy Blache, the first woman filmmaker and the godmother to all women in film.

Strad Style, winner of the 2017 Slamdance Documentary Feature and Audience Award literally knocked us off our feet.

Recap in an absorbed art of conversation sorting through a carefully chosen weekend schedule of award-winning films– picking out the sounds that underscored the visually beautifully made sights.

Dark Horse was a runaway hit at Sundance 2015 winning the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Winning the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, Across the Sea (Deniz Seviyesi), is a Turkish story of life, loving and living, written and directed by Esra Saydam and Nisan Dag

Inspired by the Clash hit Rock the Casbah, Traitors is transposed by lead singer, a punk rocker with the refrain– "I'm so bored with Morocco, but what can I do?" representing the restless generation in Tangiers, Morocco. 

Joan's Day Out, a short film by Ellen Houlihan, is a very funny slice of life with a grandma's version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off