• MVFF’s Audience Award winner last year was Tim Disney’s American Violet—opened theatrically at the Smith Rafael Film Center on Friday, May 1st. This is a really moving, compelling film based on the true story of a young woman in Texas who goes up against the powerful local DA. Newcomer Nicole Behaire in the lead is incredible, an important young talent. Do go and see it if you can—and help support the buzz for this film.
• Denise Zmekhol, director of Children of the Amazon has been showing her film in Europe where it received the Jules Verne Award for Best Picture and the Jules Verne Youth Choice Award at the Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival in Paris. Last Wednesday Children of the Amazon was screened, and very well received, in Prince Charles’ private screening room at Clarence House for the Prince’s Rainforests Project.
• And: The great news from the prestigious and inspiring Goldman awards: one of the 7 winners was Maria Gunnoe, featured in David Novack’s Burning the Future: Coal in America, another ’08 AC film.
• Wangari Maathai was a 1991 Goldman winner—long before she won the Nobel Prize; Lisa Merton and Alan Dater’s film about her, Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai recently played on KQED; watch out for further screenings on PBS.
• Just received an email from Rosemary Rawcliffe: she is in Dharamsala, and news reached her there that her 2007 AC film, Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution, has just received an Emmy Award nomination. You may remember the MVFF post-screening discussions with Rosemary, Ama Adhe Tapantsong, and Dolma Tsering: they were extraordinary.
Gratitude
We recently heard that our friends at Bellam Storage & Boxes, who stepped up and became Active Cinema’s first sponsor last year, are again supporting AC. Our gratitude and thanks to Bellam!
