Lhasa de Sela Doc Among Six Canadian Films Set For Locarno Pro First Look
Award-winning film editor Sophie Leblond will be among six Canadian filmmakers showcasing upcoming films in Locarno Pro’s First Look work-in-progress event this August. Leblond, who has been feted for her editing of films such as Viking and Alexander Odyssey, will present directorial debut feature Lhasa. The doc explores the trajectory of late Canadian folk and world music star Lhasa de Sela, whose life and career were cut short in 2010, when she died of breast cancer at the age of 37. The other movies in the selection comprise Nick Butler’s misfit drama Lunar Sway; Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ Bulgarian artist homecoming tale Nina Roza; Bryce Hodgson’s Thanks To The Hard Work Of The Elephants, billed as a “queer love fantasy” about two teenage boys who escape a youth detention center and try to set up an alternative youth commune in a nearby suburban forest; Raymond St-Jean’s crime horror-mystery Veins, and documentary We Will Not Be Silenced, about three writers standing up for freedom of expression, by Catherine Hébert and Elric Robichon. The 14th edition of First Look unfolds as part of the Locarno Pro sidebar from August 8 to 10 and has been put together in partnership with Telefilm Canada.
Deauville Unveils Industry Day Fostering U.S.-French Exchange
The Deauville American Film Festival has unveiled details of its one-day industry program on September 8, aimed at fostering connections between French and U.S. film professionals. The event will kick-off with a focus spearheaded by the National Cinema Centre and Film France, entitled “France: A New Haven For U.S. Filmmaking”. Exploring tax rebate and public funding opportunities for U.S. productions, the focus will unfold three months after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of film tariffs on movies made outside of the U.S. In other sessions, L.A.-based intimacy coordinator Katherine O’Keefe will give an event entitled “Intimacy Coordinator: An American Trailblazing Craft”. O’Keefe has worked on shows such as Vida (Starz), Mythic Quest (Apple TV+), PEN15 (Hulu), Snowfall (FX), Rutherford Falls (NBCUniversal. There will also be a discussion on the role of casting directors for actors seeking international careers. “Our ambition is to make Deauville a true strategic hub and a project incubator, bringing together French and American professionals who will come to share their specificities, their strengths and their best practices, in order to encourage French-American creative synergies and think together about the future of cinema,” said Deauville Film Festival Director Aude Hesbert.
Arab Women In The Arts To Fete Late Tunisian Director Moufida Tlatli
Arab Women In The Arts, the annual showcase organized by the San Francisco-based Arab Film & Media Institute (AFMI), will honor late pioneering Tunisian director Moufida Tlatli at its upcoming fifth edition which opens on July 22. Tlatli made history at Cannes in 1994 with debut feature The Silences of the Palace, becoming the first female Arab director to feted by the festival when it won a special mention in the Camera d’Or first film category. Her second feature The Season of Men (2000) was also shown at Cannes, and the following year she was a member of the jury there. Set in Tunisia in the 1960s as the country was emerging from French rule, The Silences of the Palace stars Hend Sabry as a young woman who visits the royal palace where her mother was once employed. The journey triggers unpleasant recollections about the way her mother was treated by male members of the privileged class. Tlatli died at the age of 73 in the Tunisian capital of Tunis in 2021. The showcase will kick off with a retrospective screening of her debut movie and also feature screenings of The Season of Men as well as her third movie Nadia and Sarra, starring Hiam Abbass as a seemingly successful university professor struggling with family life behind the scenes. Twin editions of the Arab Women In The Arts showcases will run from July 22 to 27 in New York and San Francisco, from July 23.