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Canadian Filmmaker Probes Ukrainian Airliner Terrorism

2026-10-30T08:17:59.145-07:00

Feature documentary Fallen Star: The Shooting of Ukrainian Airlines PS752, which world premieres November 6th at Canada's Stratford Film Festival, has a bit of an unusual genealogy.

Director Moze Mossanen was initially approached by families of some of the Canadian victims in 2021, a year after the airliner was taken down by Iranian army fire following takeoff from Tehran. But he struggled with a way to approach the sensitive topic.

At the pre-Ukraine War time of the incident, Canadians of Iranian descent, when visiting the old country, would typically fly back home via Kiev. On that particular flight bound January 8th, 2020 for Kiev, there were 55 Canadian citizens and 30 more Canadian permanent residents aboard. Neither they, or any of the other 167 passengers and 9 crew members, survived.

In 2024, a friend told Mossanen about a one-night stage play that was being put on that year at the Theatre Center in Toronto about the airliner tragedy featuring some of the victim family members. That production became the spark and framing structure for the 80-minute feature documentary, with the filmmaker logging interviews with both family members and stage production staff.

“To this day, the Iranian government has not taken full responsibility for the plane that they shot down, which they still claim was by accident,” Mossanen told CJCS-FM. “But what my film shows, through the evidence compiled by the family members, it that it was really a deliberate act of terror, for political reasons, that they brought this plane down.”

In 2025, on the fifth anniversary of the incident, the Canadian government hosted an official remembrance ceremony, with officials meeting with some of the family members. The country has also, in partnership with Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, taken the fight for reparations and recognition from Iran to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

A devastating human toll

Mossanen is a veteran Canadian filmmaker whose previous effort, the 2018 HBO Canada documentary You Are Here: A Come From Away Story, delved into how Gander, Newfoundland residents welcomed passengers from various flights diverted and grounded by 9/11. The project was inspired by the Broadway musical of the same name. Mossanen has won a number of Canada's Emmys, the Gemini, including one as Best Director for the 2009 TV docu-drama Nureyev.

At the Stratford Film Festival premiere, Mossanen will participate in a Q&A alongside his editor Mike Lalonde and three family members featured in the film – Hamed Esmaeilion, Maral Gorginpour and Argravan Oveisi. The filmmaker is himself Persian, with his family having fled Iran decades earlier during the fall of the Shah's regime.

[Stratford Film Festival]

Alex Karpovsky Returns to Memphis With Riptides

2026-10-28T09:07:14.422-07:00

The last time actor Alex Karpovsky brought a feature-film directorial effort to Indie Memphis in 2012, he won a top prize.

Red Flag, his semi-autobiographical drama about an indie filmmaker who takes a road trip through the American Southwest after a tough break-up, won Best Narrative Feature. This year, Karpovksy is back with his subsequent directorial film effort, Riptides, which screens Saturday November 7th.

The 93-minute dark comedy premiered at the beginning of the month at the New/Next Film Festival in Baltimore and has a couple of very obvious HBO series connections. First and foremost, there is of course Karpovsky himself, known for his role as Ray on Girls. And there is also Steve Little, who co-stars as Toby, a Mexico tourist town beach bum and Airbnb manager, who played Stevie Janowski on Eastbound and Down.

Steve Little as Toby

Riptides is set in the Mexico Pacific coast beach town Sayulita. Much like Zihuatanejo, located an hour to the south, it's anchored to a bohemian, expatriate vibe and a maze of cobblestone streets. Into that mix and Toby's Airbnb arrives a self-help guru Paul Melton (Dylan Baker) and his daughter Michelle (Bojana Novakovic). Things quickly take a dark turn and Toby is soon helping Michelle try to keep the dreamy cash flow of her father's empire alive.

“New/Next is really one of the rising film festivals in the United States,” Indie Memphis artistic director Brandon Harris told WKNO-FM's Kacky Walton. “Riptides is a comedic, beach town film noir. It's a hoot.”

Harris is on a return journey of his own with Indie Memphis, which is back following a one-year financial pause. After serving as artistic director in 2016-17, he left the festival's fold and worked as both an executive with Amazon Studios and as a contributing editor for Filmmaker magazine.

Shifting to the South Main Arts District

He rejoined Indie Memphis earlier this year, once again as artistic director, and is set to oversee the event's move to a downtown location. In a very funny sort of coincidence, Harris directed his own film back in 2012 that had a similar title to Karpovsky's Red Flag. It's called Redlegs.

Riptides is produced by Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. Following the screening in Memphis, for which Karpovsky will participate in a Q&A, Riptides will continue on to the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina for a November 21st showing.

[Indie Memphis]

Leading Deaf Playwright Unveils New Short Film

2026-10-26T08:15:21.117-07:00

In retirement, 68-year-old deaf writer Willy Conley continues to explore new horizons.

Crab Theory, a 44-minute film written and directed by Conley, is set to world premiere November 2nd at the Rehoboth Beach International Film Festival in Delaware. The drama follows a group of deaf friends and family who gather on Deal Island in Maryland for a traditional crab feast that is upended by one particular attendee's simmering resentments. The film was put together by an all-deaf cast and crew, with ASL scenes subtitled in English.

Following the Rehoboth debut, Crab Theory will screen November 6th at the 22nd annual Maine Deaf Film Festival hosted at the University of Southern Maine's Portland campus. The event is the longest-running university student-led deaf film festival in the United States.

Conley, born profoundly deaf in Baltimore, has enjoyed an unusual career trajectory. He trained initially as a medical photographer, going on in the 1980s to work in this capacity at both the University of Texas and Cedars-Sinai in Beverly Hills.

But he then made a dramatic switch, working first for a year as an actor at the Fairmont Theatre of the Deaf in Cleveland before three years as a workshop leader at the National Theater of the Deaf in Chester, Connecticut. In the latter capacity, he also toured with Little Theatre of the Deaf, performing for young audiences.

From there, he vaulted in 1991 to the theater and dance department of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., where he served as a professor until retirement in 2020. It was during this time as a professor that he started prolifically writing and directing plays on the side.

On his website, Conley describes himself as a 'freelance writer, photographer and theater-film artist exploring serendipitous ways to use art and writing to enrich and uplift the deaf (and human) experience.' His wife Ingrid co-stars in Crab Theory and is also on board as a producer.

The film, made under the banner of Deaf HeART Studio Productions, will also screen November 14th at the Alexandria Film Festival in Alexandria, Virginia. At that showing, there will be a Q&A with sound designer Clayton Conley, Willy and Ingrid's son.

Dad previously wrote and directed the 2024 24-minute short The Koda-Chrome (W)rapper. Ingrid stars as a deaf mother struggling to connect with her aspiring-rapper hearing son, played by Clayton.

Texas Indie Resurrects Specter of 'Blackout Ripper'

2026-10-24T08:29:34.341-07:00

A few years ago, BBC podcast “Bad Women” zeroed in on the crimes of Gordon Cummins, a.k.a the “Blackout Ripper,” a serial murderer who preyed on women in central London during a brief wartime period in 1942.

Now comes Texas independent film Into Black, filmed over 11 days mostly in an abandoned south Dallas warehouse. Written and directed by Brad Osborne, the film will premiere November 7th at the inaugural Addison Full Circle Film Festival. It is set to then hit Prime and Apple TV November 10th.

The film follows four women trying to survive a night of World War II and serial killer terror. Via Facebook, Osborne told the funny story of how one of the four actresses, Lee Eden, was cast.

'Sometimes the casting department screws up,' he wrote. 'In this case, a casting notice for Into Black was posted prematurely, and on the wrong site.'

'Though it was immediately removed, it wasn’t before Eden had seen it,' he continued. 'She sent an email to management at AMS Pictures, which was forwarded to me. We connected and Lee’s audition was the first to come in. I was so impressed by Lee’s performance and mastery of a Cockney accent that she remained on the top of the list until casting was closed.'

Osborne has been directing and show-running for more than two decades. Most recently, he made and narrated the 2025 documentary Jackpot: America's Biggest Lotto Scam, about the Hot Lotto scandal.

The Addison Full Circle Film Festival, created by local production company Full Circle Films and open exclusively to Texas filmmakers, has an atypical structure. The plan is to hold weekend events every three months and culminate the competition annually in August. Winners of the 2026-27 fall, winter and spring editions will compete next August for top prize.

Playing the role of the Blackout Ripper in Into Black is veteran Texas actor Billy Blair, who has appeared in Robert Rodriguez films and much more. Osborne got the idea for the 93-minute feature from his wife, who was watching a documentary about the Blackout Ripper one day and brought it up with him.

[AMS Pictures]

A Memoir, a Documentary and a Very Late Female-to-Male Transition

2026-10-22T08:22:54.275-07:00

Born Michele Angela Petrillo in Ridgefield, New Jersey on January 3rd, 1964, Micky Angelo Petrillo fully transitioned in the winter of 2023 on the cusp of his 60th birthday.

Just before Christmas of that year, his name change and gender were officially recognized by New Jersey courts. And right after Christmas, on December 27th, Petrillo had surgery. Petrillo owns and operates a gift baskets store in Oredell called Baskets-N-Beyond.

A new 22-minute documentary, Call Me Micky, celebrates Petrillo's new life and is set for its home state premiere November 7th at the Teaneck International Film Festival. Petrillo will be in attendance for the screening, alongside director Andrew Rasmussen and producer Dominique Jackson, a transgender activist who played Elektra Evangelista on the F/X TV series Pose.

Separately, Petrillo has written a fuller 2026 memoir, Walking the Earth: First as a Man, Then as a Woman. It has been made available initially through independent channels starting this August.

Perhaps the most interesting twist is that this month, Petrillo appeared on the podcast The Locher Room to talk about it all. The podcast is hosted by Alan Locher, someone Petrillo has known since high school and whose sister played with Petrillo on both the basketball and softball teams.

In both the podcast and elsewhere, Petrillo talks about a key moment in his life: being kissed by another woman at the age of 30. In a crazy twist, after he told his Italian father about the incident, dad confessed that he was gay.

“He had a [male] partner for seven years, I remember he was over at the house,” Petrillo recalled during the podcast. “My mother [Jenny] let them go away. I think he was so happy, because I think he could live his life through me.”

“At one point, he said, 'Why don't you marry a man, and have relationships with women on the side?'” he added. “Before a wedding [in 2021] and again a month later on Father's Day, he asked me if I had gender issues. He was always there for me and told me he loved me unconditionally.” (Petrillo's father passed away in 2021.)

Another key incident for Petrillo happened earlier in 2023. Traveling back from Morocco, he was molested overnight at the airport. In reaction to the incident, he ordered a binder to suppress his breasts and was amazed when he looked in the mirror wearing it at how good he thought he looked. That fast-tracked the whole journey to surgery, through discussions with his therapist and more.

Three days before surgery, his mother told him, coldly: "I hope you die on the table." And a year later, around Christmas 2024, she put a restraining order out on Petrillo that remains in effect to this day.

[Call Me Micky ]

Editor's Note: Petrillo does not subscribe to the idea of deadnaming when it comes to his former identity. He credits Michele with getting him to his current joyful life stage and has no issue with his original monicker being mentioned.

California Community Rallies Around Sherlock Holmes 'I Believe' Campaign

2026-10-20T09:05:59.919-07:00

The 27-minute short film Sherlock Holmes and the True Believer has had a nice little run on the festival circuit since premiering in Jackson, California in December 2024.

The movie was made for just $6,000, thanks to everyone volunteering their time, including several Hollywood veterans such as visual effects wizard Tim Walton, who is based in London, and actor Jeffrey Weissman, who played George McFly in the second and third Back to the Future films. In the short, about a boy who travels back in time to the era of Holmes and Watson to save Christmas, Weissman portrays the evil Moriarty.

Dänna Wilberg, who wrote the children's book of the same name on which the project is based, is the writer-director of the short film. And in a funny twist, her collaborator who handled cinematography and editing duties is also named Tim Walton. His name in fact is what led some years ago the other Dalton to first get in contact with him.

Wilberg and Walton previously made a shorter but similar film, the 6-minute Sherlock Holmes and the Headless Bishop. They are now hard at work raising funds to support the expansion of True Believer into a full-length feature. The expanded movie picks up with the same children in the short, three years later, and will use the short film as its first act.

To support these efforts, there is a special fundraising screening event at the Zittle Family Amphitheater in Fulsom on Sunday November 1st. In addition, various local merchants are pitching in to help raise money under the Rubicon of “I Believe,” selling everything from a limited-edition Christmas ornament to a locally brewed champagne. All of these special items will be on display at the fundraising screening.

Filming for the feature-length version starts in Folsom in November, with the historic part of town and various shops doubling for Victorian-era London. When the crew shot a train sequence for the short in the summer of 2024 at the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, it was 118 degrees! The historic Sierra Nevada No. 6 rail car had its windows blacked out, with winter scenery effects digitally added in later.

A sweltering August day (Facebook)

What makes all this extra special is that any monies made in turn by the film will go to help Baker Street West, a local Holmes-loving group, settle into their new digs in the former Alamador County Courthouse in Jackson. Wilberg and Walton's company, Synchronicity Films, shot some of the short film at the non-profit's old headquarters and also cast some of its Baker Street Players performers.

The previously mentioned first short was also made in partnership with Baker Street West.

Film Archivist Rolls Out Some 107-Year-Old Slapstick

2026-10-18T08:45:16.183-07:00

Sendai, Japan is a long way from Georges Mills, New Hampshire.

And yet, that is where Kohei Ohita, a Japanese film student, earlier this year uncovered a long-lost copy of silent film performer and studio founder Billy B. Van's 1919 slapstick comedy Van-ar-chy. He didn't know what he had until he actually queued up the old reels, but it turned out to be the second rescued film of the performer since Hanover-based archivist John Tariot put out the word to find them about a decade ago.

A restored version of the Van-ar-chy print will return to the light of day Sunday November 1st at the Newport Opera House. (Newport is where much of this particular comedy was filmed.) As an added bonus, the twentyish-minutes movie will be framed with a new original piano score performed live by local pianist Bob Merrill. Merrill, in his 70s, has been doing silent-film accompaniment for decades.

Paired with Van-ar-chy at the special event is another Van 1919 film, Where Are Your Husbands? It was found in a Viriginia vault of the Library of Congress ten years ago and first screened in 2017. In that film, a man dreams that women go to war while men stay home and tend to domestic duties. The film also features an original Merrill piano score.

Tariot has built up an extensive and informative website about Van as part of his restoration efforts. Silent film production was just one of many careers pursued by the man born William Webster Van de Grift in 1870. Others included cattle herder, radio broadcaster and pine soap maker.

Van also holds the distinction of being the only honorary mayor in the history of Newport, where he moved to in 1920. In that era of his life, he also became a sough-after motivational speaker. Van passed away in 1950.

The rediscovery of Van officially started in 2016 with the publication of Billy B. Van: Newport's Sunshine Peddler, a biography by Jayna H. Hooper published in partnership with the Newport Historical Society. From a write-up about the book in the Valley News:

Van became a larger-than-life presence in Georges Mills, inviting many of his Vaudeville theater friends to join him. Though he owned a hotel and casino and started a movie production studio, Van appears to have worn out his welcome with the small town people who were heard to complain about “actors and actresses strolling through town in their costumes and make-up,” Hooper writes.

That he tried to change the name of the village on the northern edge of Lake Sunapee to Van Harbor probably didn’t endear him to the locals either. He would eventually lose his Georges Mills property to auction, about the same time that his first marriage failed.

Operatic Life Story of Ta'u Pupu'a Heads to Hawaii

2026-10-16T09:21:32.498-07:00

Short film The Platform is in the midst of an October for the ages on the film festival circuit.

After making its international debut October 1st at the Edmonton International Film Festival, the 10-minute drama is set to screen October 17th at the Newport Beach Film Festival and October 24th at the San Jose International Short Film Festival. The film will then cross the Pacific for October 26th and 29th showings at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The Platform is one of seven short films comprising the block “Pacific Shorts: Where We Belong” and the Hawaii screenings, which will also include a November 15th date in Maui, have special significance for the husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Mark Harris and Monica Foley.

“I grew up in Hawaii and the islands have always been a huge part of my life and identity,” Harris tells FilmStew. “Years ago, my mother spotted an article in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about Ta'u performing at the Blaisdell and his remarkable journey from the NFL to opera. She clipped it from the newspaper and mailed it to me in Los Angeles - the old-fashioned way.”

“The moment I read it, I knew there was a movie there,” he continues. “Monica and I eventually met Ta'u in New York, and we immediately connected. There was an instant sense of 'ohana. That meeting launched our journey together, but the story really began in Hawaii. It's home to me, and Ta'u has deep family and community ties there as well. Bringing the film back to the islands feels like coming full circle.”

The name of Harris and Foley's production company is, fittingly, Ohana Pictures. From the get-go, the trajectory of Pupu'a from a Bill Belichick-recruited defensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns felled by injury to the halls of Juilliard and opera stages has been on their radar as feature film material. The short is but the first step.

“The feature screenplay explores Tu'a's intervening years in much greater depth, including his time working at O'Neals, a well-known New York restaurant right across the street from the Metropolitan Opera,” Harris explains. “It gives us the opportunity to tell the fuller story of his struggles, perseverance and eventual triumph.”

(l to r) Foley, Pupu'a, Harris

Harris and Foley are developing the feature project with producer Mark Ciardi (The Rookie, Secretariat, Invincible). He says they've had encouraging interest from studios and are in active conversation with potential creative and producing partners.

“Ta'u's story has elements of Billy Elliot and Rocky, but at its heart, it's a uniquely Polynesian story with a profoundly universal message,” Harris states. “The specifics of Ta'u's journey are astonishing, but the underlying themes are deeply human and relatable. Life inevitably knocks us down. What defines us is how we respond, how we find the strength to get back up, and whether we have the courage to imagine a different future for ourselves.”

One of the reasons The Platform has connected so dynamically with audiences beginning this spring at the Cleveland International Film Festival is that it very cleverly compresses and conveys the transformation of Pupu'a from lineman to baritone. Although the storytelling device at the center of the short film never actually happened, it packs an incredible visceral punch while also fitting perfectly into a short-film narrative structure. (Pupu'a plays himself in the film.)

Pupu'a performing Tosca at the Hawaii Opera Theatre

Pupu'a says the landscape of the opera world has yet to recover from the ravages of the pandemic. “These days, much of my performing is centered around gala concerts and special engagements, while I've also devoted considerable time and energy to bringing The Platform and the feature version of my story to life,” he reveals.

“I'm increasingly passionate about mentoring and guiding young artists, particularly fellow Polynesians who may not see themselves represented in the world of classical music and opera,” he adds. “I've been fortunate to have extraordinary people open doors for me along the way, and I want to do the same for others."

"If my story can inspire even one young person from the islands to pursue a dream they once thought impossible, that would mean as much to me as any performance on the world's great stages.”

[Ohana Pictures]

Movie Projectionist Outlives Movie Theater

2026-10-14T09:24:33.271-07:00

Following World War II, Benny Gordon, a resident of the so-called Twin Towns of Ballybofey-Stronarlan in County Donegan, Ireland, began working as a projectionist at the local Ritz Cinema.

In his early 20s at the time, he embraced his “dream job” right up and through until the cinema closed in September of 1962 with showings of the John Schlesinger-directed drama A Kind of Loving starring Alan Bates and June Ritchie. Two decades later, the building was transformed into a home for the Balor Theater Company but has sat in disrepair ever since the company vacated for new digs in 2008.

Gordon for his part is still alive and kicking, having turned 101 this summer. And on October 21st, at the Regional Cultural Center in Letterkenny, there will be a screening of Great, a one-hour documentary about the life of Benny Gordon made by his son and daughter, Seamus and Margaret. The film was produced after the death of Gordon's beloved wife Margaret in 2018 and first premiered in 2025 to celebrate dad's centenary.

When you've lived as long as Gordon has, there are a whole bunch of pursuits to look back on. In addition to his days as a projectionist, he worked variously as a smuggler, boxer, trombonist in the Brendan McNulty band, laborer and more.

In retirement, he has become known as the longest and most faithful fan of local soccer club Finn Harps FC. And really, you have to hand it to his daughter Margaret. Not only did she give him the gift of a documentary at age 100, but she also came up with this to celebrate his 98th:

It was arranged that [managers] Dave Rogers, Darren Murphy and players would visit Benny at his home. Benny had about one minute's notice that he was to be visited. And he asked me why?

Why would they be visiting him? Because he is probably Finn Harps' longest-serving supporter. He's certainly reported to be the oldest person in the Twin Towns.

Once a part of William Barry's six-theater local chain

There have been various attempts since the Ritz Cinema closed to re-imagine it through some sort of adaptive re-use. But right now, the building looks its age. With no documentary to go along with it.

Gordon, born July 3rd, 1925, is an odds-on favorite to make it to his 102nd birthday in 2027 and perhaps another memorable gift from Margaret. The October 21st screening event, which benefits a local charity, also includes Crossing Lines, a short film made by Margaret and Seamus in 2022 about a plucky women's soccer team.

Strawberry Shortcake Originator Roars Back Into the Spotlight

2026-10-12T08:10:43.432-07:00

At age 81, Muriel Fahrion is having a moment.

A new feature documentary about her life and work is set to premiere in Tulsa on October 18th and the “VIP Muriel Experience” aspect of it is sold out. Priced on the reasonable Midwestern scale ($25), the 40 special screening tickets to the Tulsa Underground Film Festival closing-day event include a meet-and-greet with Fahrion a half-hour before the 7:30 p.m. start. Fahrion will also hang around for a post-screening Q&A alongside Tulsa-based filmmakers Bill Doty and Tonya Powers.

Fahrion also recently guested on the new Cleveland magazine podcast THE CLE Connection, talking about her life growing up in the city and more. It was in 1977 that Fahrion sketched the first concept of Strawberry Shortcake for the American Greetings card company, where she worked at the time.

Like the filmmakers, Fahrion also has a connection to Tulsa as she currently resides south of the city in Beggs. That proximity is in fact what led Doty to first meet with her and finalize an agreement to make the film.

Doty told Tulsa World that one compelling aspect of the story is Fahrion's emotional strength after losing husband Michael in 2018. “She said, 'No, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to start thriving again,'” he explained. “So this has basically been a rebirth of her life at the age of 75.”

Indeed, Fahrion currently operates the online boutique Outta Thin Air Studio, which includes Care Bears artwork. Part of the funding for the documentary was raised through sales of items on the site.

Fahrion also had a hand in the similar, earliest development at American Greetings of the Care Bears characters. The documentary, titled Strawberry Colored Glasses: The Berry Sweet Tale of Muriel Juneberry Fahrion & Her Fans, covers it all and follows along as Fahrion visits fan conventions.

There's an important caveat to Fahrion's iconic character work. Much of the fleshing out of the Strawberry Shortcake character was done later in the 1980s by Frances Kariotakis, another artist at American Greetings.

'It is heartbreaking to see Fran’s legacy and her family’s perspective overlooked,' daughter Anna Smith commented on Facebook. 'I truly hope journalists take the time to speak with Fran’s family, view the original artwork and explore the full story from those closest to her work...'

'While Muriel Fahrion is rightly recognized for creating the original concept of Strawberry Shortcake, my mother’s contribution was transforming that concept into the polished artwork that millions of children came to know and love on dolls, books, stationery, toys, calendars, puzzles and countless pieces of licensed merchandise...'

'My goal is not to diminish anyone else’s contributions. Every iconic character is the result of a talented team. Rather, I simply want to ensure that my mother’s role is recognized and that history reflects the contributions she made.'

Kariotakis passed away in 2025.

[PowDot Studios]

Snyder, Texas Celebrates Life, Legacy of Powers Boothe

2026-10-10T07:39:58.404-07:00

If still alive today, character actor Powers Boothe would have been 78.

Boothe passed away in 2017, but this weekend, his hometown of Snyder, Texas - per a Scurry County proclamation - is holding a special “Powers Boothe Day” on October 10th as an informal cap to the Class of 1966 Snyder High School 60th year reunion, which took place September 30th-October 1st. (Boothe was part of that class.)

There are screenings of Red Dawn as well as the premiere of a new, commissioned documentary The Powers That Be, a 57-minute profile directed by fellow Snyder High School graduate Kyle Beights (Class of 2025). The documentary debuts via a free event at the school's Jerry P. Worsham Auditorium.

Boothe's widow Pam will be in attendance and is bringing along the Primetime Emmy Award won in 1980 by Powers for portraying cult leader Jim Jones in the two-part CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. Boothe was the only one of 52 winners at the September 7th, 2020 COVID year Emmy Awards show to cross the SAG actors strike picket line and accept.

“This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest,” Boothe said at the podium, as part of a ceremony co-hosted by Steve Allen and Dick Clark. “I also thought long and hard whether or not I would attend.”

“But I came here because this is America and one must do what one believes. I believe in the Academy. I also believe in my fellow actors in their stand.”

In winning that year's Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special, Boothe impressively beat out Tony Curtis (The Scarlett O'Hara War), Henry Fonda (Gideon's Trumpet) and Jason Robards (F.D.R.: The Last Year). It was a huge win and stands as one career bookmark to go along with his induction into the Texas Hall of Fame in 2009.

Red Dawn co-stars Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell and Sean Astin

Documentary director Beights is currently a student at Texas Tech University and made some waves during his high school years with his short film I Remember. The documentary was commissioned by the Snyder Chamber of Commerce and features rare home movie footage and photographs, as well as interviews with Boothe's daughter Parisse and longtime friend Bob Covey.

All in all, a pretty swell way to mark the most famous member of Snyder High School's Class of 1966. One whose string of memorable roles also spanned Deadwood, 24, Tombstone and Oliver Stone's Nixon (as Alexander Haig).

[Photos of Red Dawn co-stars, taken at the FanExpo in Dallas in September, 2026, courtesy of Snyder's Smithsonian Museum.]

Irish Actor Sails Into the Sunset as Elvis Presley

2026-10-08T08:22:09.892-07:00

Gary Lydon, best known to international audiences for playing Barry Keoghan's character's father in 2022's The Banshees of Inesherin, passed away suddenly this spring at the age of 61.

But thanks to the magic of film, he will next month grace the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, via the world premiere of his final role. In One Sweet Hour, Lydon plays Gerry, a man who lives on a canal boat in the Irish midlands and makes a living impersonating Elvis Presley in various rural towns. One day, his estranged brother Colum (Bryn F. O'Byrne) shows up after decades living as monk in a monastery under a vow of silence. Together, the two embark on a journey of potential reconciliation.

The film was directed by Declan Recks and written by Eugene O'Brien, whose professional associations with Lydon date back to the 2005 RTE miniseries Pure Mule. After Lydon's death, the cause of which was not publicly disclosed, O'Brien wrote a wonderful tribute:

I remember our time in my home town of Edenderry where we went to see a real-life Elvis impersonator, Greg Traynor, doing his thing. Gary stood and drank him in, every move, every gesture… the job started there and then, a full eight months before we shot.

He would ask questions about every aspect of the character, times and dates of births and deaths and backstories, and then there was the Elvis training which he worked so hard at. Endless hours of singing and movement, determined to pull it off. Putting pressure on himself to get it right. He was becoming the King!

(l to r) O'Byrne, Lydon as Colum and Gerry

One Sweet Hour was produced by Samson Films, a leading Irish independent film production company that has been in business since the mid-1980s. It was one of four feature films the company backed in 2025, along with The Three Urns, Ancestors and Gorky Resort. It also so happens that Samson Films were involved in not just the aforementioned Pure Mule, but also another Recks-O'Brien collaboration, the 2008 drama Eden.

One Sweet Hour, which screens November 16th, is one of 24 films in Official Competition at the Tallin Black Nights Film Festival (a.k.a. Pimedate Ööde Filmi Festival). The Grand Prix prize comes with a cash award of $22,500.

In the small pantheon of Elvis impersonator-character movies, One Sweet Hour is closest in spirit to the 2012 Argentinian film The Last Elvis. In that one, a factory-worker father who performs as Elvis on the side reconnects with his daughter Lisa Marie (!) after a tragic accident. The lead role of Carlos Guitierrez was played by real-life local Buenos Aires impersonator John McInerny.

[POFF: One Sweet Hour ]

Cheeky Horror-Comedy Hits the Ground Running in Louisiana

2026-10-06T09:06:48.070-07:00

After a sold-out “brown carpet” premiere, The Fois: Revenge of Maw Maw Claudette is playing twice daily at the Rice City Theatre in Crowley, Louisiana through Sunday, October 11th.

And boy, are those involved with the film having fun with the whole thing. This morning, writer-director David Rabalais continued a string of local media appearances with a drop-in on the morning show of local TV station KLFY, where he started his career a few decades ago. He brought along a special guest, Anita Terlette, one of several stunt double dummies used during the production.

Fois (pronounced "Fwaa") is French slang in south Louisiana for diarrhea. In the film, the ghost of a Cajun grandmother conjures up a cursed case of the fois to retaliate against an individual who dared cook up a questionable batch of gumbo in her prized pot.

The film is showing daily at the Rice City Theatre at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (both Sunday October 4th screenings also sold out.) After the Saturday October 3rd premiere, Dominic Felix, one of several first-time local actors featured in the film, shared his excitement about the project:

HOLLLLYYY SHITTT (Pun intended) WHERE DO I BEGIN??? I been working to be in a movie for the last 4 years and on October TURD (3rd) my time came... I just wanna thank David Rabalais for giving me the opportunity to be in this movie. I know SHIT happens but you still owe me them 10 push-ups for missing my last play lol... Make sure you go see The Fois or you’ll end up with the runs. I don’t make the rules.

Alongside a pair of more well-known actors with Crescent State ties - Nick Manning (Nightwatch) and Kristen Renton (Sons of Anarchy) - Rabalais also rounded out his cast with a number of Louisiana content creators including Corey LeDoux and the Cajun Mamas. Rabalais himself also appears in the movie as a private investigator by the name of Magnum Poo Yie.

There are puns galore in the film and in fact, to promote the October 3rd debut, Rabalais engaged the services of his film's fictitious KRAP-TV. Meanwhile, one piece of the special merchandise created for the film is a wooden paddle inscribed with the words, 'You can't handle – The Fois.'

Rabalais's self-proclaimed gumbo ghost story is a triumph of grassroots promotion. The October 3rd premiere sold out through Facebook word-of-mouth and prompted the follow-on showings. Rabalais is also offering brief promotional ads to local businesses before each showing for $150.

[David Rabalais website]

This 'Best Independent Film' Category Has 40 Nominees

2026-10-04T08:54:31.152-07:00

Following a decade and change of being held in London, the annual International Motor Film Awards are crossing the pond for their 2026 black-tire ceremony.

Set to be held November 14th on the 2nd and 4th floors of the Petersen Automotive Museum in mid-city Los Angeles, the event takes a turbo-charged approach to awards season. For example, in the Best Independent Film category, there are a staggering 40 nominees vying for pole position.

It's a cornucopia of subject matters. Lost on Planet 11, a fictional short film written, directed and produced by Rob Hamilton and shot on the rugged plains of southeast Australia, is all about a lost astronaut, while Svea Celine Wenderoth's more self-explanatory The Jesus Bikers and Their 'Peace Ride' to the Pope documents a trek by a German bikers group in the fall of 2025 that ended with the presentation to Pope Leo XIV of a sick ride.

Then there's Skybound Pursuit: The Rotors and Motors Chase, made in the U.K. by 24-year-old twin brothers James and Robert Newby. Their namesake company JRN Visuals, based in Herefordshire, cranked out a helicopter and car chase film for Skydrive Events to help the firm promote a new event called “Rotors and Motors.” Both siblings will be in Los Angeles for the awards ceremony.

Another international flavor can be found via Best Independent Film nominee The Last Road Race: 75 Years of the Carrera Panamericana. This Mexican short documentary by Manuelo Alejandro Diaz Ruiz documents the 75th year edition of a border-to-border race first staged from 1950 to 1954.

Cancelled in the mid-1950s due to safety concerns, the race was revived in 1988 and run annually through 2016. It was revived yet again last year, for a special platinum anniversary celebration, and that is the subject of Ruiz's film. 'The voice of one its protagonists, alongside other perspectives from within the race, guides the film into the spirit of the competition: the tension of the road, precision under pressure and the ultimate bond between body and machine,' the synopsis reads.

Perusing the nominees not just for the Independent category but the other brackets at the upcoming awards – Drama Feature, Drama Short, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Documentary Episode, Journalism Film, Event Film, Commercial Film, Promotional Film, Student Film, Creative Film – is a hoot. The only remaining question really is, does Jay Leno know about this event? He might want to clear his calendar for November 14th and cruise down from Burbank in one of his showcase vehicles to attend the festivities.

[International Motor Film Awards judges]

Magan's Fare Review

2026-10-02T15:32:08.847-07:00

There are a couple of strands of special resonance that frame the new short drama Magan's Fare.

The first is that before star Barkhad Abdi broke onto the scene as a Somali pirate in the 2013 Tom Hanks drama Captain Phillips, he was driving a taxicab in Minneapolis. In Magan's Fare, he is once again a ride-share driver.

The other is that when Dana White wrote the script for Magan's Fare, which she co-directed with husband Christopher Knoblock, she did so with Abdi specifically in mind for the titular role of Magan. Just like writer-director Teddy Cherim has said was the case with Abdi in the forthcoming 2027 Belgian film Maalstroom. In that one, Abdi plays a migrant who stows away with others on a barge traveling from Dunkirk, France to Amsterdam.

There have been various grandiose examples of filmmakers tailoring scripts for specific actors, such as Sofia Coppola conjuring up Lost in Translation for Bill Murray and the Coen brothers calibrating The Big Lebowski to the natural charms of Jeff Bridges. And that really is the biggest takeaway from Magan's Fare.

From the opening winter's day frames, Abdi as Magan effortlessly inhabits the role that was written for him, juggling repeated split-phone calls from his mother and wife as he navigates another typical day of ride-share driving. A day that takes a sudden turn when he encounters an unexpected passenger, Jorani, an elderly Asian woman played by Alexis Rhee.

Brought together by happenstance

Alongside Abdi's anchor performance, White packs a solid handful of surprising plot twists into the film's 26 minutes. It also helps that the film unfolds in, essentially, real time and is buttressed throughout by bursts of fast-paced editing and strategic drone shots.

All told, it's easy after watching Magan's Fare to understand why White and Knoblock are hoping to be able to expand the short into a feature-length film. While the final scene is poetic and wonderfully open-ended, it also leaves viewers wanting more and would stand as a perfect Act One close if Magan's Fare is indeed expanded to a full film.

White and Knoblock's third short film hit the film festival circuit with a bang in the fall of 2025, debuting at Raindance and winning Best Live Action Short at the St. Louis Film Festival. Just a few days ago, it added a Grand Jury Prize from the Healdsburg Short Film Festival in northern California as the 2026 edition's Best Live Action Short.

Which brings us to the Oscars. Magan's Fare has qualified for the Live Action Short 2026 derby and was tapped recently by Hollywood Reporter executive awards editor Scott Feinberg as a legitimate contender for a nomination.

Knoblock, White on set

It would be a bold return to the ceremony for Abdi, now 42, after the incredible whirlwind of 2013-14, when he lost both the Oscar and Golden Globe for Supporting Actor to Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club. He's worked steadily since he made a name for himself portraying Abduwali Muse, who is currently incarcerated in Maryland, and Magan is arguably right up there as a naturalistic and engaging performance.

The moments are quieter in Magan's Fare than they were in Captain Phillips and full of subtlety. But Adbi is once again in the middle of a life drama in which he steals the show.

[Magan's Fare ]

Scottsdale Set for Premiere of All-Inclusive Local Production

2026-10-02T08:26:24.363-07:00

When the romantic comedy Underneath the Glittery Moon debuts October 15th at the Virginia G. Piper Theater in downtown Scottsdale, it will be a celebration of the city through and through.

Writer, director, producer and co-star Mark Bork has lived in Scottsdale for decades. Now retired, he worked for many years as a stage manager and field producer for the Arizona Cardinals and was also along the way an adjunct professor at ASU Walter Cronkite for Documentary Film Production.

It was Bork who assiduously raised the $250,000 funding for the project, shot in Scottsdale, Phoenix and featuring a gaggle of local actors. In the film, he plays an eccentric leading man who falls in love with his director (Julie Van Lith) during rehearsals for a 1950s-set community theater musical. Their romance is one of three that courses through the movie.

On the night of the upcoming premiere, a painting featured in the film will be auctioned off to benefit the north Scottsdale location of national organization GiGi's Playhouse, a non-profit that provides therapy, classes and career support to individuals with Down syndrome. Bork discovered young actress Moriah Silverberg through Gigi's Playhouse and cast her in the pivotal role of a coffee shop barista.

Meanwhile, the day after the premiere, various cast and crew are scheduled to appear at Anticus Fine Art Gallery & Bookstore to help launch the 110-page companion coffee table book. Available exclusively at the store for $34.95, the tome features stories, behind-the-scenes photos and also highlights the various Scottsdale businesses shown in the movie.

An array of supportive local businesses

“I've been a part of the Arizona film industry since 2008, and in those 18 years, I've never seen an Arizona film premiere this big," raved Glittery Moon cinematographer Jason Ryan. “Our [Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts] venue has over 850 seats and it looks certain to sell out.”

“I am exceedingly proud of what we accomplished,” he added. “The primary credit goes to Mark Bork, who diligently raised funds to make this film properly instead of trying to hodgepodge a film together using all or mostly an unpaid cast and crew, which is too commonly done.”

Bork also made the 54-minute 2021 documentary Legacy in Stone, which aired on PBS. Filmed in Idaho, it's all about the discovery in 1961 of prehistoric remains on the Fairfield farm of Bill Simon.

[Underneath the Glittery Moon ]

A Film Festival Slightly Older Than Clint Eastwood

2026-09-30T08:06:42.606-07:00

The enigmatic star of this year's Carmel International Film Festival, which runs October 1st to the 4th, is without a doubt its scintillating poster, framing a roster of special guests that includes Ed Burns, Frank Darabont, Eric Roberts and Frances Fisher.

The Carmel-by-the-Sea event was launched with a pair of silent films in the summer of 1929 by Mildred Taylor, the wife of artist James Blanding Sloan, who together had a summer home there. The following spring, future Carmel mayor Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco on May 30th.

One of the launch-year silent films, The Light of Asia (a.k.a. Prem Sanyas), was a 1925 Germany-India co-production about the life of Buddhism founder Prince Siddhartha Gauthama. Starring Indian actors and shot by a pair of German cinematographers, the movie gave the inaugural Carmel event its international flavor and as such, technically qualifies it as the oldest international film festival in the world. Three years ahead of Venice.

The imagery for this year's stunning poster was created by Carmel artist Jason Fosler using the surrealist “fumage” technique. Among those who favored the method were Salvador Dali, who lived in Carmel from 1940 to 1948.

Furthermore, the treatment of Elizabeth Taylor from the 1963 Hollywood big-budget 20th Century Fox production directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz features a Cleopatra headdress designed by Wah Ming Chang. Chang was the adopted son of aforementioned event founders Taylor and Sloan, who took him in at age 12 in 1927 after his mother died.

Chang, who segued back to Carmel in 1970 and lived in the area until his death in 2003, also contributed a range of stop-motion work to the original Star Trek TV series. Among his creations were the famous Tribbles and a Vulcan harp.

The Carmel festival poster stands as a perfect prelude to artist Fosler's upcoming 2027 spring exhibition “Goddess of 10,000 Names.” Previews of the show shared on his website are astounding.

'Fumage, the use of smoke to create art, is extraordinarily delicate,' Fosler explains. 'Anything that touches the surface leaves a permanent mark. Even a moth landing on the drawing will leave a trace. The medium demands extreme care when working, handling, storing and framing, but the effect is like no other.'

P.S. Another artist who specializes in fumage is Adam Blakemore, based in Cornwall, U.K. His series of Hollywood portraits includes one of - you guessed it - Clint Eastwood.

P.P.S. There is a major caveat to the approaching centennial of the Carmel International Film Festival. The event was abruptly scandalized in 2007 when president Scott Brown admitted making up celebrity board members, lying about his credentials and plagiarizing earlier articles. The festival was relaunched in 2008 but later went on hiatus from 2017 to 2023 before starting up again in 2024.

[Carmel International Film Festival]

A Fantasy Epic Forged in Albania

2026-09-28T08:37:58.308-07:00

Not only did Steven Kastrissios write, direct and produce the indie fantasy feature Skybreaker. He also served as director of photography, VFX supervisor and supervising sound editor.

The 122-minute privately funded epic about Vlora (Xhulia Musagalliu), a woman who travels across modern-day Albania to rescue her lover from a witch, is set to world premiere October 10th at the 2026 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival. It's been a long wait for fans of Australian filmmaker Kastrissios, whose last film Bloodlands, also shot in Albania, came out in 2017.

The 44-year-old filmmaker's connection to Albania started by chance when he got together with Albanian-Australian pal Dritan Arbana for coffee. Arbana told him about the blood feuds coursing through Albania, which formed the basis of Bloodlands.

For Skybreaker, Kastrissios generated around 3,000 VFX shots that he then pared down to approximately 1,000. “I wanted to shoot on location as freely as possible and then mold the fantasy world in post to seamlessly blend into our plate photography,” he told Australia's Inside Film magazine. “The idea was that this would allow us to experiment, to look at a mountain range in the background and explore competing ideas.”

“Maybe there’s a castle made of bones back there, or maybe a flock of prehistoric birdlife, elements that would build out the story. It was a method of the writer and the VFX artist working as one.”

Kastrissios spent five years overall making Skybreaker, which included living in Albania for two of them. He is paired on the film with Albanian producer Tan Kazazi, who also partnered with him for Bloodlands. (A big difference is that while Bloodlands was performed in the Albanian language, Skybreaker is an English-language film.)

Back in 2022, another Australian film publication, FilmInk, hailed Kastrissios as one of the country's 'Unsung Auteurs.' They ended their appraisal by writing, 'Though he hasn’t made a film since 2017’s wonderfully atmospheric Bloodlands, we know that this kind of drive and work ethic will see the cruelly unsung Steve Kastrissios back in cinemas soon, with another bold, striking work.' They were right.

The Albanian cast for his new film also includes Ina Gjonci as the witch, Emina, Igli Zarka as Vlora's in-need-of-rescue partner Tori and Romir Zalla as a warlock named Ilir. During the making of the film, Kastrissios shot another unnamed feature, which is currently in post-production, and produced short film The Dream Keeper, written and directed by Rain Nikolla.

That short won an award a long way from Albania and Australia. In March of this year, The Dream Keeper was voted “Best Fantasy Short Film” at the A Night of Horror International Film Festival in Eau Clair, Wisconsin.

[Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival]

Former Green Book Venue Roars Back to Life in New Orleans

2026-09-26T08:46:20.206-07:00

This past spring, the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans hosted an original stage musical, Irma Meets Etta, which imagined what might have happened if R&B greats Irma Thomas and Etta James had crossed paths at the historic establishment.

Next month, a wide swath of the LaSalle Street joint's actual history will be revived with the world premiere at the 2026 New Orleans Film Festival of feature documentary The Dew Drop Inn: Resistance and Resilience. Written and directed by Michael Murphy, the film is set to open the festival October 22nd.

Along with the Inn's long history as a Negro Motorist Green Book destination during the Jim Crow days and original owner Frank Paina's battles with local authorities over his choice to allow Black and White musicians to perform together, the film also examines the recent and somewhat unlikely restoration of the locale. Following damage from Hurricane Katrina, and due to a lack of insurance coverage, the Inn sat vacant from 2005 to 2021, when an $11 million restoration project began under the tutelage of local developer Curtis Doucette Jr.

The Dew Drop Inn was reopened in March 2024 as a boutique hotel with 17 rooms, a restaurant and live performance space. From a report by the National Trust for Historical Preservation:

Each room is named for a person of significance to the storied establishment. There's the Patsy Vidalia room, named after the self-proclaimed “Toast of New Orleans,” who hosted an annual gay ball on Halloween and fostered a safe space for LGBTQ+ people at the Inn.

There's the Little Richard room, named for the innovator of rock 'n' roll. And of course, Frank Paina's Groove Room, which honors the unofficial “mayor of Lasalle Street,” the man who started it all. The Inn also pays tribute to its history through educational exhibits that grace the walls throughout the historic building.

Murphy has been making documentary features and TV series about New Orleans for decades. His 2021 feature documentary Irma: My Life in Music, about the aforementioned Irma Thomas, ran on PBS stations, while his more recent Rhythm Kitchen, a series commingling local chefs and musicians, won a 2025 Telly Award.

There is currently no listing on the Dew Drop Inn events calendar for an October 22nd post-premiere jam session and party. But chances are there will be some sort of celebration at the hotel following the arrival of Murphy's film.

Although Peter Farrelly's Oscar-winning 2018 film Green Book was shot on location in New Orleans and across southeast Louisiana, the Dew Drop Inn is not highlighted in any scenes.

[Michael Murphy Productions]

Tom Waits Returns For Another Year of HISFF Jury Duty

2026-09-24T07:39:08.629-07:00

In 2021, post-COVID, the Healdsburg International Short Film Festival relocated to the Raven Performing Arts Center in the picturesque Sonoma County, California river town of Healdsburg. A year later, Tom Waits joined the festival jury.

He's back this September 25th-27th weekend for a fifth straight spin, alongside his wife Kathleen Brennan and a rather impressive group of fellow jurors. Joining the local-resident couple are actor Ed Begley Jr., former SNL cast member Laraine Newman, character actor Jack McGee, actor Jeff Kober, writer-director Billy Ray, London-based producer Yasmin Rais, TV writer-producer Cindy Caponera and actress Kathia Sanchez-Aldana.

And in a wonderful bit of serendipity, one of the feature attractions at this year's event, the 26-minute dramatic short Magan's Fare, stars Barkhad Abdi, a Somali actor who burst on to the scene as a pirate in the 2013 Tom Hanks film Captain Phillips. Abdi was nominated for an Oscar, as was the aforementioned Ray, who wrote the script. In the short, Abdi stars as the titular rideshare driver who becomes involved in the drama of a woman whose nursing home bed has been taken away.

Magan's Fare has been on the film festival circuit for a year and a half, winning prizes along the way at events in St. Louis and Cleveland. Co-directors Dana White and Christopher Knoblock are flying to California for the Friday September 25th opening night screening. (Couples are in fact a big theme of the Healdsburg event, as it was founded by Kirk Demorest and his wife Pamela.)

Intriguingly, White and Knoblock are hoping to expand Magan's Fare into a feature-length film and are also aiming for a Live Action Short nomination for this year's Oscars. After meeting in New York as struggling actors, the pair moved to Hollywood and worked on TV on shows like The Amazing Race. But then, in a twist, a late pursuit of a graduate degree in writing by White led the pair to become professors at Kent State University in Ohio, where they currently reside.

Magan's Fare is their third short film, following In the Orchard (2018) and Involuntary (2023). (They have also made a fourth, Turning Blue,completed this year.) They were able to get to Abdi's agent through a casting director they knew.

Meanwhile, the Healdsburg event began in 2011 as the Bodega Bay International Short Film Festival, running through Memorial Day Weekend (May 28th-29th). It relocated to Healdsburg the following year and after some fits and starts, finally found a permanent annual home there in 2021.

Waits, now 73, has famously lived on a stretch of Petaluma and Sebastopol in Sonoma County with his wife since the 1990s. Their cabin home was designed by a retired architect who also lives in that neck of the (Red)woods.

[Healdsburg International Short Film Festival]

Postscript: Magan's Fare won the Grandy Jury Award, which comes with a cash prize of $2,500. For a full list of the winners chosen by the stellar jury, click here.

The Wild and Woolly Life of Bill Fuller

2026-09-22T08:58:52.691-07:00

This year has turned out to be a big one for the late Bill Fuller, an Irish-born music impresario and ballroom dance hall owner who passed away in Santa Monica in 2008 at the age of 91.

On the one hand, there is the feature documentary Ballroom Boom, narrated by U2's Adam Clayton, which recounts the heyday of Irish cover-music showbands. Fuller was instrumental in getting several of these groups into Las Vegas and one of his daughters, Kate, who now runs his famed Electric Ballroom in the Camden Town area of London, hosted a screening and conducted the Q&A with director Bill McGrath this past spring.

Then there is the provocatively titled other feature documentary, Have You Never Heard of Bill Fuller? Written and directed by David Burke, the film premiered in February at the Dublin International Film Festival and is now set for a series of special roll out screenings across Ireland, starting with a September 28th showing in Limerick.

Prior to all this, Fuller emerged from a life spent in the background when he funded the legal defense of Las Vegas stripper Sandy Green who, along with boyfriend Rick Tabish, was accused of murdering casino mogul Ted Binion in 1998. Initially found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, Green was subsequently exonerated in 2004 when the case was retried on appeal.

There is so much rich color to Fuller's life, it's hard to believe he was able to stay in the background for most of it. Within three years of leaving his native Kerry, Ireland at age 17 in 1935, he was running London's The Buffalo Club. (renamed The Carousel in the 1960s and reborn yet again as the Electric Ballroom in 1978). From the venue's very colorful history page:

An opportunity for expansion of The Buffalo Club came during the war in 1941, when the Camden Town tube station was bombed. Both the back of the Buffalo and the small side street beside it, which was called Dewsbury Terrace, were literally blown away. Bill then bought the whole site and built the Buffalo up into a ballroom that could hold 2,000 people.

As Fuller accumulated dance halls in Ireland, the U.K. and on both coasts of the United States following the end of World War II, he also built out a large demolition firm through which he funded purchases. As one 2008 obituary noted, there was a saying about his firm - “What Hitler didn't knock down, Bill Fuller did.”

Fuller was married three times, including to Dublin-born singer Carmel Quinn, whom he discovered and brought to America. He also famously leased out his Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco to U.S. concert promoter Bill Graham, who renamed it the Fillmore West and used it to launch the psychedelic rock movement.

Following the Limerick event, subsequent screenings of Have You Never Heard of Bill Fuller? will be held in Galway (October 2nd), Tralee (October 6th), Letterkenny (October 8th) and Wicklow (October 20th). A limited theatrical release will follow.

Kenya Hosts African Premiere of Cutting-Edge Rhino Doc

2026-09-20T09:20:35.743-07:00

Tom Martienssen worked as a journalist for the BBC from 2013 to 2015 after joining the news giant through its extensive and ongoing apprenticeship program. He was able to log some impressive reporting from both Afghanistan and Nepal.

He then transitioned to making environmental documentaries that he likes to refer to as “eco-thrillers” through his company Dustoff Films. His first feature-length completed effort Rhino, narrated by actor Tom Hardy, is set to have its African premiere September 26th at the Trademark Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The event, organized by the Loisaba Conservancy and featuring a silent auction as well as a performance by local musical star Moso Pal, is tied to the country's week-long celebrations of World Rhino Day September 22nd.

Martienssen spent four years in the wilderness of Kenya documenting the efforts of elite wildlife rangers to protect the critically endangered black rhino species. For almost all of the film's sequences, it was just him and a second crew member, sound man James May. Martienssen believes sound is as important to his documentaries as the visuals, and he was able to soldier through in Kenya, relying on the sturdiness of Sennheiser MKH 8000 series microphones despite having to deal with record drought conditions.

The filmmaker also did something rather unusual when it came to the editing of his film. He brought editor Cassandra Roberts over to Kenya for the final few months of filming, to get a feel for the environment and reality of the story.

“She spent three months in Kenya, editing on location,” Martienssen explained in a deep dive by Sennheiser. “I believe this had the biggest impact on the [Dolby Atmos] sound of the film. The sounds of the Borana Conservancy, especially, struck her deeply.”

Martienssen, showing footage to the park rangers (Dustoff Films)

“While this level of sound design is rare for documentaries and is typically reserved for high-end productions, we committed to it because we wanted the quality of recording to match the final experience,” he continued. “Our sound mixer Nas [Parkash], who works at Molinare, is a genius. He's the best sound professional I've worked with.”

Martienssen's first documentary was the 2017 short feature Gaucho: The Last Cowboys of Patagonia, about an octogenarian rancher still tending to a herd of cattle in vast plains region of Argentina and Chile. Among his current, upcoming projects is another Kenya-focused feature documentary, Ambrose and the Black Leopard. It tells the story of pioneering wildlife biologist Ambrose Letoluai.

For Rhino, one of the interesting wrinkles is that Martienssen and May followed three different pregnant rhinos for months, hoping to capture a birth. The first two animals delivered in the jet-black darkness of night, but when it happened for the third mama rhino in daylight, the pair were there to capture it.

[Dustoff Films]

Film Score Composer Continues His Reimagination of a Buster Keaton Classic

2026-09-18T08:48:01.555-07:00

On July 17th, 1926, the Hollywood Theatre opened in Portland, Oregon, complete with an eight-piece orchestra and organist to accompany silent films.

That same year, Buster Keaton filmed his masterpiece The General in the logging town of Cottage Grove and held a special Oregon premiere December 31st at the nearby Majestic Theatre. This weekend, to mark the centenary of both the Hollywood Theatre and Keaton's beloved film, a new partly improvisational score will accompany sold-out screenings Saturday and Sunday, September 19th and 20th.

The "Keaton at 100" screenings cap a four-day event, the Sonic Silents Film Festival, organized by local musician and film score composer Mark Orton, whose credits include The Holdovers and Nebraska. From the program notes:

The Hollywood Theatre commissioned Orton to score The General for its 90th anniversary [in 2016]. That run of performances sold out, and he toured it through theaters across Oregon.

For the centennial, he returns with an updated score and a beautifully restored 4K cut of the film, performing live alongside Carla Kihlstedt, Jenny Scheinman, Todd Sickafoose, Andrew Borger and the 45th Parallel Universe. The program also includes two shorts: Florence Turner’s Daisy Doodad's Dial (1914), scored by Sickafoose, and J. Stuart Blackton’s Princess Nicotine (1909) (a.k.a. The Smoke Fairy), scored by Scheinman.

Offering up new accompaniments to Buster Keaton is something that runs deep with Orton. "In my pre-Tin Hat Trio days, I ran The Knitting Factory in New York and I went on to tour with a number of those artists, including Bill Frisell," he told Oregon Artswatch. "I was his sound engineer when he was doing his Buster Keaton projects."

"Joey Baron, one of the greatest drummers on Earth, was often given free rein, especially when things go nuts in the films," he continued. "He’d basically play along with Keaton live, staring at the screen, watching the movement, and improvising from that. It was one of my favorite things to see."

The Hollywood Theatre was purchased in 1997 by local non-profit Film Forever Northwest and subsequently refurbished. The Sonic Silents opening night on Thursday was toplined by a showing of the 1920 German expressionistic silent film The Golem, with live music performed by Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin, guitarist Max Knouse, multi-instrumentalist Adam Dorn and drummer Scott Amendola.

[Mark Orton official website]

Independent Film Curation Pioneer Honored With Namesake Award

2026-09-16T08:43:46.828-07:00

Mary Jane Coleman launched the Sinking Creek Film Celebration in 1969 on her farm in East Tennessee, naming it after a stream on the property.

The event moved the following year to Tusculum College and, in 1973, Vanderbilt University. In 1998, her celebration was renamed the Nashville Independent Film Festival, which was later shortened in 2003 to the Nashville Film Festival.

At this year's edition of the Nashville Film Festival, which runs September 24th through the 30th, a new award will be presented to one of the participating female filmmakers. The Mary Jane Coleman Award is designed to recognize the maker of an officially selected short or feature that "demonstrates innovation, a distinctive creative perspective and a collaborative spirit within the filmmaking process."

There will also be a companion exhibit about Coleman's early film festival efforts put on by the 2026 NashFilm Creators Conference, which runs concurrently with the festival. The "Sinking Creek Exhibition" has tapped Vanderbilt University's Special Collections and University Archives to showcase historic artifacts and photographs from the spark for what remains the longest continuously running film festival in the U.S. South.

Coleman, who died in 2010 at the age of 86, was no stranger to awards herself. In 2004, Tusculum College bestowed her with a "Woman of Courage" Award. In another full circle moment, among those praising her at the event was Rich Boyd, executive director of the Tennessee Arts Commission. Coleman was appointed to that organization at the very outset, when it was launched in 1967.

"She was always inviting you in," Boyd said. "She was 'Southern hospitality' at its very best. She was also ahead of her time. The more avant-garde a film was, the better she liked it."

"Mary Jane was so accepting of everyone," he added. "She was sort of a messiah for independent filmmaking when we didn't know what she was talking about. She was passionate about it, even before Sundance and other major film festivals."

It will all kick off on Thursday September 24th when the festival hosts a "Celebration of Female Filmmakers" at Hooky Entertainment beginning at 4 p.m. The jurors for the first annual Mary Jane Coleman prize are Jessica Driver, Mariah Kramer and Karen Shane.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any specific list of the individual films shown at the inaugural Sinking Creek Film Celebration in 1969. It would be such a trip to mull the titles Coleman highlighted that launch year.

[2026 Nashville Film Festival]

Update:

The winner of the inaugural Mary Jane Coleman Award is Liz Sargent for her film Take Me Home. The drama, about a 38-year-old Korean woman taking care of her parents in Florida, is an expansion of Sargent's 2023 Sundance Film Festival short.

Miscarriage of Canadian Justice Frames Indigenous Feature Drama

2026-09-14T08:04:24.920-07:00

The late Canadian Indigenous rights activist Donald Marshall Jr. was famously convicted in 1971 as a teen for a murder he did not commit.

Wrongfully imprisoned for 11 years, the Nova Scotia native was released in 1983 after his conviction was overturned by the province's Court of Appeal. One of the first things Marshall Jr., who passed away in 2009, did after his release was take a road trip with his then-17-year-old nephew Glen Gould. Decades later, that trip and others that followed became the spark for Gould's new feature drama Jeffrey's Turn, debuting September 19th at the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax.

"A lot of us have that one uncle that your mother is always comparing you to, and she does not want you to “end up like,”" Gould writes in his Director's Note. "I grew up with not just one, but a few of those uncles. There was never a boring moment growing up, that’s for sure."

"There are a lot of traumatizing events witnessed by many of us who grew up on the Reservation," he added. "Events that have resulted with many of us walking through life, hurt and damaged, heavy and broken, burdened with layers of PTSD from the events we have witnessed."

Gould, a veteran actor, is making his directorial debut with the film. He also stars as Arty, an ex-con who gets into trouble in Maine and recruits his 17-year-old nephew J.R. Sylliboy (Zeegwon Shilling) at Black Bear Nation in Unama’ki to come retrieve him.

Co-starring as J.R.'s mother is another veteran Canadian Indigenous actor, Grace Dove, who played Leonard DiCaprio's wife in the 2015 film The Revenant. She was also, with her brother, a runner-up in the 2025 season of Canada's version of The Amazing Race.

Gould wrote the script for Jeffrey's Turn a decade ago and later brought on Joe LeClair as a co-writer. Among the many obstacles he overcame to shoot and edit the film was suffering a minor stroke in 2025.

(l to r) Co-stars Shilling, Gould

The conviction of Marshall Jr. played another, earlier key role in Gould's artistic evolution. When the National Film Board made the 1989 movie Justice Denied about the case, Gould drove his grandparents, who played themselves in the production, to set every day. That experience planted the seed in Gould of himself wanting to become an actor and led to his moving to Toronto to pursue the craft.

Gould will be on hand at the festival world premiere September 19th, along with producer Hank White, for a post-screening Q&A. He is best known in Canada for playing Detective Jerry Commanda in the bilingual CTV drama series Cardinal, which ran for four seasons.

[Jeffrey's Turn ]