Less Is More: How Eliza Hittman Sculpted the Subtle Story of ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’
UMFF 2019 Kicks Off Today!
UMFF 2019 Forum: What Is the Future of Georgia’s Film/TV Production Industry?
Urban Mediamakers Partner with Gwinnett County Public Library
Official Selections of UMFF 2019 Announced!
The 18th Urban Mediamakers Film Festival is proud to announce the 2019 official selections. We are honored to have exceptional content creators from around the world competing for awards and representing the United States, Germany, Canada, Italy, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Kenya, Western Cape South Africa, Mexico, Russia Federation, France and Spain.
Checkout the full list of UMFF 2019 official selections.
Register for the 18th Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, October 10-16 – Gwinnett County, GA
Actors, content creators, filmmakers and writers are coming to metro-Atlanta October 10-16, 2019 for the 18th Urban Mediamakers Film Festival. UMFF 2019 brings together creatives from Georgia, across the country and around the world to Gwinnett County, Georgia for films and scripts competition, panels, workshops, an AfroFuturism day, networking and awards.
Register today for UMFF 2019 – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/73525267053 and we’ll see you in October.
A Georgia Boycott Called For After Controversial ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Is Signed
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp just signed a very restrictive abortion ban referred to as the ‘Heartbeat Bill’ effective January 1, 2020. Planned Parenthood and other non-profits immediately filed lawsuits to stop the bill before it is effective. How will this bill affect the film industry in the state?
“The Farewell” – Written and Directed by Lulu Wang
Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai (Shuzhen Zhao), has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken.
Vulture has a great article about “The Farewell” that you should read. Here is a snippet of that article.
“Chinese people have a saying: When people get cancer, they die.” These are the words of wisdom imparted to Brooklyn twentysomething Billi (Awkwafina) by her mother while delivering the news of her beloved grandma Nai Nai’s lung cancer diagnosis. They’re clearly little comfort, but also prove to be anything but reliable in the turn of events that follows.
The Farewell, based on writer-director Lulu Wang’s own stranger-than-fiction true family story, was previously featured on the 2016 This American Life episode “In Defense of Ignorance.” But no podcast could have prepared anyone for the sophistication of Wang’s talents as a filmmaker, and in this, her second feature, she transcends the hooky premise with confidence and subtlety. The little dramas and themes that emerge during the reunion of the film’s far-flung brood become, like a family, more than the sum of its individual parts, and an incredibly satisfying meal of a film.
Read the full article – https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/the-farewell-awkwafina-sundance-movie-review.html
What is the Future of Filmmaking in Georgia?
Since the new abortion bill passed in Georgia this year, many have been asking “What is the future of filmmaking in Georgia?” An article in US News addresses that question. Below is an exert from the article.
A LITTLE UNDER A YEAR ago, Andrea Ferguson became one of the many people who left Hollywood for Georgia.
Ferguson, a graphic designer working for different film production companies, bought a house in Atlanta with her husband, who also works in the entertainment industry.[
Georgia increasingly appears in movies and TV shows, and has seen shooting for productions such as “Baby Driver,” “Selma” and “Stranger Things.” Film and TV production supports 92,000 jobs in the state, in addition to granting Georgia the national and international visibility it desires. In 2017, the state was the top shooting location in the country for the highest-grossing U.S. movies and tied with the United Kingdom for the No. 2 location worldwide.
But crew members and other people who work in entertainment now face a question: How will Georgia’s new law banning most abortions affect the industry?
“It has a lot of people very nervous because we’ve all invested in it,” Ferguson says.
Read the full article at USNews.com – https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2019-06-28/georgia-navigates-its-future-with-entertainment-industry