Movie Magazine International Blog

By Moira Sullivan Golden Mulberry and Audience Award Derek Tsang's Better Days The 22nd Far East Film Festival ended July 4 after 9 days and it was a huge online success with over 3000 card holders and 25,000 visits to the website where films were screened for accredited patrons. The festival works with the public because the organizers are so thoroughly prepared for this event directed by Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche. It is a festival that specializes in popular film in East Asia with experts that provide detailed information about the films, and about the state of the film business in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The contacts with directors, distributors and producers is world class and many legendary directors visit the festival such as Takeshi Miike, Johnny To and Derek Tsang. Dongyu Zhou in Better Days Derek Tsang’s Better Days was awarded the Golden Mulberry this year and it also took home...

By Monica Sullivan In the 1960’s, Life Magazine used to run articles about what was happening down South and for a Catholic school kid in California, the articles were a horrifying shock.  One of the articles featured John Lewis, who was nearly killed when a policeman tried to break up a peaceful march by cracking his skull open.  I couldn’t imagine him surviving such a blow, but survive he did and he outlived many of his contemporaries, many of whom were much bigger and stronger than him: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, and yet he endured.  He spoke at the March On Washington, and after watching many other documentaries and not finding any footage of John Lewis, I was surprised to find one of his speeches in Dawn Porter’s new film, “John Lewis: Good Trouble”. I was also unfamiliar with the ins and outs of his troubled relationship with the late Julian Bond when John Lewis was campaigning against him for the Congressional seat he now holds.  Bond’s histor...

Victim(s) Layla JI (Malaysia 2020) ©FEFF By Moira Jean Sullivan The 22nd Far East Film Festiva l (FEFF) located in UDINE ITALY is held o nline this year using the same platform as the Cannes Film Market   (Marché du Film) at the end of June . 46 films  are to be screened June 26 - July 4, 2020   (4 world premieres) through memberships to the festival. There have been many excellent films so far, and these are some of my favorites: Changfeng Town (China 2019). CHANGFENG TOWN  (The City of Changfeng) directed by the young independent director WANG Jing  ( China 2019 ) is the story of a small rural village in Southern China. Complete with the village dentist, an ice cream machine and a corner cinema, It’s not hard to notice the stiff old movie chairs, mostly high back benches where classic Chinese films as well as foreign films are screened in the village square. Films such as Fellini’s La Strada and Truffaut’s 400 Blows are screened every ...