The Palm Springs International Film Festival is celebrating its 24th year. The PSIFF Gala was held at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Jan. 5th. This gala is an awards ceremony presenting various awards to top actors, actresses and directors. This is one of the most famous film festivals in the US. Media across the country come to see the Star Studded Red Carpet Arrivals prior to the Gala Dinner and Awards ceremonies. Cartier is the sponsor for the Gala

Mary Hart was the Emcee and Hostess for the 10th time. She does an amazing job and the festival would not be the same without her. Festival Chairman Harold Matzner spoke about the loss of Tribal Chairman Richard Milanovich and Gala Chair, Jackie Lee Houston. Jim Houston took over the duties as Gala Chair for this year. Over 2000 people filled the ballroom and more than 1.8 million dollars was raised.

Most of the Celebrities walked the Red Carpet in front of hundreds of cameras, TV crews and interviewers. Other notables on the Red Carpet were Bill Pullman, Mayor Steve Pougnet, Mary Bono Mack and Connie Mack, Jack Jones and his wife, Charro, Many other Celebrities and Directors, plus PSIFF dignitaries and local Community Leaders.

Hundreds of fans waited across the street to watch Celebrities depart from their limos. Screams were heard each time a Celebrity arrived. A few celebrities walked over to that area to greet fans and have their photos taken. Some of the fans were lucky enough to get an autograph. The Festival is getting larger each year. It has become one of the most successful Festivals in the world and one of the top Festivals in the US. Sonny Bono’s dream has become a huge reality and he would be so proud to see it today. Over 180 films from 68 countries will be shown during the Festival that runs from Jan. 3rd to the 14th.

The Presenters for the evening praised the individual getting the awards and showed a short video about their careers. Diane Lane presented Richard Gere the Chairman’s Award for the movie, “Arbitrage”. Actor Martin Sheen presented the Career Achievement Award to actress Sally Field for, “Lincoln”. The Desert Palm Achievement Award went to two people, Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”, with presenter Tom Holland and Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”, with presenter David O. Russell. The Spotlight Award went to Helen Hunt for “The Sessions” and presented by John Hawkes.

Actress Helen Mirren was given the International Star Award for “Hitchcock” present by Tom Hooper. The Sonny Bono Award went to Tom Hooper for “Les Miserables” and presented by Eddie Redmayne. Actor Tom Hanks presented Robert Zemeckis, “Flight” with Director of the Year Award. Director Ang Lee gave Mychael Danna ‘The Life of PI” the Federick Loewe Award for Film Composing and the Cast of ARGO was handed the Ensemble Performance award by Tony Mendez. The cast included Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin and Bryan Cranston.

All photos by Pat Krause

The documentary film can be a powerful tool in the hands of a skilled filmmaker.  The genre has been with us for decades beginning with Robert Flaherty’s silent 1922 documentary “Nanook of the North”.  Flaherty’s film opened the floodgates of a new and arresting way to tell a story, and the genre has never looked back.

Through the medium of film, a new and exciting visual world of ideas was suddenly available to everyone for the price of a theatre ticket.   Later, during the 40s and 50s, television became a free travel ticket to the world.  It would be only a matter of time before ideas and subjects of real substance would find a place with the passionate and creative documentary filmmakers.

Nowhere, however, was this medium’s influence more effectively utilized, than in Hitler’s Germany.  It reached its pinnacle in the film documentaries of Leni Riefenstal, who raised the propaganda bar to unheard of heights with her documentary films “Triumph of the Will”, in 1934 and “Olympia”, in 1938.  Some said her films became a primer for documentary filmmakers on how to sway and influence public opinion.

“Defiant Requiem”, currently screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), is a powerful and emotional documentary by Doug Shultz that honors the Prisoners of Terezin (the infamous Nazi concentration camp located just outside of Prague).  Their story inspired the American Maestro/Conductor/Music Director/Teacher and Lecturer Murry Sidlin, to form The Defiant Requiem Foundation as a way of honoring the prisoners, and at the same time, informing the world of what took place there during World War II.

The untold story of Terezin travels far beyond the general perception of a Nazi concentration camp.  This is a film, inspired by the dedication of Murry Sidlin who worked tirelessly for ten years to bring the compelling and life-affirming story of thousands of Jewish prisoners who lived and died in the camp.  Those experiences, of defying their Nazi captors, became a study in courage, hope and a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the human condition… as well as to some actual survivors who relate their experiences on camera.

The “defiant” part takes the form of 150 prisoner/singers performing, under Rafael Schachter, a brilliant, young, passionate Czech opera-choral conductor who was arrested and sent to Terezin in 1941.  Schachter demonstrated his moral leadership at the camp over a three-year period by forming a choir to help sustain the prisoner’s spirits and hope in the face of what lay ahead.  His instrument of choice: Verdi’s master oratorio “Requiem”.

Schachter convinced starving, brutally mistreated prisoners, that music was a way to sustain one’s hope and courage, while at the same time sing to their Nazi captors what they dare not speak out loud.  Verdi’s lyrics foretell of the avenging of the oppressed and the destruction of those who oppress.  Sixteen performances were given over a three-year period at the camp, the last being sung before clueless high-ranking German officers (who despite their cultural heritage, obviously didn’t understand Italian and the real meaning of the Oratorio).

“Defiant Requiem” as a film, produces many lump-in-the-throat moments, to say nothing of a few tears.  It’s a poignant, affecting, powerful statement on man’s inhumanity to man, and a testament to the transformative and redemptive power of the arts.

The highlight of the film, narrated by actress Bebe Neuwirth is the re-creation of Verdi’s “Requiem” performed and filmed in 2006, by a group of 150 musicians and singers under the music and choral direction of Maestro Murry Sidlin.  The emotional re-creation takes place in the actual room in Terezin where seventy years before brave and courageous souls placed their lives at risk.

“Defiant Requiem” is a film that should be seen.  When it comes to an art house theatre near you, make sure you see it.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation – http://www.defiantrequiem.org/

Partisan Pictures – http://defiantrequiemfilm.com/

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Film writer/director Jose Maria Cabral has cracked the code on how to get your first feature length film accepted at the third largest film festival in North America, and he is only twenty-four years old.  No, he hasn’t a powerful relative in the movie industry.

What he does have is the talent and the personal vision to write a suspense/action movie that has been resonating with audiences wherever his film “Check Mate” has been shown.  “Check Mate”is the 2012 Official Oscar submission from the Dominican Republic (D.R.)

The story revolves around one David Hernandez (Adrian Mas), a successful and famous host of a TV show in the Dominican Republic.  When Andres (Frank Perozo) a caller to the show reveals that he is holding David’s family hostage, David must stay on the air and play the terrorist’s game or his family will die.  Now, the deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

What will it take for the terrorist to release his hostages ?  The police and David seem paralyzed and unable to do anything, at first.  When the demands of Andres are made to a now listening audience of the entire country, via TV, it becomes impossible for David to comply and the hostage-taking plan and the rescue operation begin to deteriorate.    Adrian Mas as David has the lion’s share of the meaty roles, and he makes the most of it.  His emotions range from confident to uneasy to unsure, then to fearful, to desperate, and finally to resignation.  Without revealing anything more so as not to spoil the ending for futures audiences, lets just say there is lots of action, drama, plot-twists, and suspenseful moments in “Check Mate”.

I had the opportunity to speak with writer/director Cabral about his film and his rising career as an international filmmaker.

JL:  You’re only twenty-four.  When did you decide you wanted to become a filmmaker?

Jose Maria Cabral:   Early on I wanted to become an actor; which I did beginning at the age of eight.  I made home movies using all of my friends as actors. They were 10 and 15 minute short films.  By the time I was fifteen, I was writing movie shorts to star myself, however, I realized I preferred to be behind the camera.

JL:  Sounds like you’re channeling Stephen Spielberg’s career path.  What made you decide to write “Check Mate” as your first feature length film ?

JMC:  Initially, I was looking to make a bank robbery film.  But television has always intrigued me.  Not as a subject of a film, but as a component in daily life.  So I switched the story from a bank robbery film to a kidnapping-revenge movie utilizing the setting of a television studio to act as a metaphor.

JL:   A metaphor for what?

JMC:  There are 10 million people who live in the Dominican Republic.  TV is extremely important in the lives of these people.  Television becomes a metaphor, if you will, for DR society.  I wanted to capture and incorporate this aspect of our society into the story of “Check Mate”.

JL:   American audiences are quite familiar with police procedures and SWAT team techniques, thanks to American TV shows.  How was your film received in the DR?

JMC:    Pretty much the way police shows are accepted here in the States.  We see a lot of American TV shows, and cop shows are popular at home as well.

JL:   I understand the DR movie industry is going through a renaissance.  Film production went from just two government-supported films a year, to more than 10 this year.  Did you receive any government support for “Check Mate”?

JMC:   No, we received no such funding.

JL:   What was the budget on your “Check Mate” film?

JMC:   $180,000.  And I shot the film in 16 days.  I had to shoot the car chase and street action sequences in just one day.   There was very little margin for errors.

JL:  That’s impressive.  What’s next for Jose Maria Cabral ?

JMC:   My next film is currently in post-production, so I’m rather busy and committed to it, at the moment.

JL:   And after it’s finished, what then?

JMC:   I have this idea for a Syfy comedy/drama about a bank robbery that takes place in the past, present, and the future.  And the McGuffin is, these guys rob the same bank each and every time.

JL:   Sounds like a movie Ionesco or Dali would love to see. By the way do you have a thing about “bank robberies” as subjects of your movies?  (Cabral just smiles)  Thanks for taking the time from your busy schedule, and Good luck with “Check Mate”.

JMC:  Thank you.  I enjoyed it.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs through January 14, 2013.  The Festival has something for everyone.  You won’t be disappointed.

The 24th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) kicked off its eleven-day festival of films on Thursday, January 3, 2013.  More than 180 films from over sixty countries will screen at the prestigious festival – the third largest film festival in North America; and it’s all happening right here in America’s favorite getaway playground for stars and celebrities of every stripe.

Not only are celebrities attending, but filmmakers from all over the globe are here; some to present their films, others to see and be seen, perhaps catching a production or a distribution deal, in the bargain.  In addition, more than 135,000 film junkies, writers, directors, producers, actors, and Hollywood execs, will be sipping a cool one, or a café-latte at some of the movie industry’s favorite watering holes like Peabody’s, or talking deals at Spencer’s, or noshing at Sherman’s Deli.

Festival time in Palm Springs is a time when “the joint really jumps”, as the old saying goes.  Excitement and movies, and lots of movie aficionados are the main ingredients that drive the city’s entertainment scene during early January.  If you’re a movie fan, Palm Springs is definitely the place to be in January.

The Opening Night movie at this year’s festival is a somewhat unusual, but brilliant selection, called “Blancanieves” (“Snowhite”) from Spain.  It’s also Spain’s Official Oscar submission for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Written and directed by Pablo Berger, “Blancanieves”, is a wildly creative re-imagining of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of Snow White.  In Berger’s surreal-like version, the movie brilliantly brought to life in silent-movie style is somewhat akin to last year’s Oscar winner “The Artist”, also a black and white silent film.  But that is where the similarity ends.

Berger’s story revolves around Antonio (Daniel Gimenez Caco), a rich and famous matador, who after being gored by a bull in Seville’s great Bullring, La Colossa, ends up a quadriplegic.  When his wife dies in childbirth, Antonio marries his wicked nurse Encarna (the wonderfully villainous Maribel Verdu), only to find himself confined to an upstairs room in his own mansion while Encarna spends his money on clothes and her lovers.  His daughter Blancanieves (played by Sofia Oria as his young daughter, and the beautiful Macarena Garcia as the adult daughter), treated like a lowly servant by her wicked stepmother, eventually escapes and joins up with a traveling group of entertainers called “The 7 Bullfighting Dwarfs”.  When they discover Blancanieves’ DNA-infused talent as a bullfighter, thanks to tutoring from her famous father as a young girl, she joins the act and becomes a national sensation.

“Blancanieves”, filmed in dazzling black and white cinematography by the very talented Kiko de la Rica would make cinematographers James Wong Howe and deep-focus pioneer Gregg Toland stand up and cheer. It simply radiates as it jumps off the screen.  As a matter of fact, all of the technical credits are absolutely superb.  The splendid warp-speed cutting techniques of editor Fernando Franco in the montage sequences work for 20th century-born audiences as well as for the younger generation. The music, so important and integral to a silent film, incorporates at times, flamenco rhythms with its staccato beat, which propels the story forward with a sense of urgency and heightened anticipation.

The delightfully expressive Mediterranean faces of the young actors and the craggy and lived-in visages of the older actors, is what makes this movie so winning, and appealing.  Iberia is an ancient landmass, and its inhabitants have lived through many emotional ups and downs, which are etched in the faces of the older actors, and are perfectly brought to life by director Berger.

When I asked PSIFF Artistic Director Helen du Toit what the rationale behind the selection of a silent film was, in launching a 21st century International film festival, she replied  “ …our choice was driven by the brilliant visuals, the story, plus the technical artistry and personal vision of Director Pablo Berger.  I believe we were correct.”

Darryl Macdonald, the long-time Executive Director of PSIFF, said “ Berger’s film book-ends both eras of moviemaking.  The transition from silent into talking films lovingly comes together under his creative gifts”, adding “the story and visual artistry of the film set in Europe of the 1920s, becomes a precursor of what world-cinema is all about.  It was an easy decision for us.”  Du Toit and Macdonald are absolutely correct on all counts.  Initially, I came prepared to be disappointed, instead I came away as a true believer.

The movie is full of wonderful directorial touches too numerous to list here.  However, it should be noted: the last scene of “Blancanieves” is worth the price of admission alone.  It’s features one of film’s sublime and truly poignant cinematic moments that rivals the ending of the great Chaplin film “City Lights”.