Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
Mathieu Kassovitz is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards: Most Promising Actor for See How They Fall (1994), and Best Film and Best Editing for La Haine (1995). He also received Best Director and Best Writing nominations.
Nicole Frances Parker is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her work on Fox's sketch comedy show Mad TV, which she was a regular cast member. In July 2009, Parker concluded her run as Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked, a role that she reprised on tour across North America. She voiced Penelope Pitstop in the animated series Wacky Races (2017–2019) and has appeared in the parody films Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie. Parker currently co-hosts the Earwolf podcast The Neighborhood Listen, along with comedian Paul F. Tompkins.
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, B-rated and low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
Jagjaguwar is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana.
Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by ultra-low micro budgets, skeleton crews, and limited props using whatever resources, locations and equipment is available. The genre is named in reference to guerrilla warfare due to these techniques typically being used to shoot quickly in real locations without obtaining filming permits or providing any other sort of warning.
Peaches Christ is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where her Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based. Grannell studied film at Penn State University, where his senior thesis film Jizzmopper: A Love Story, about a janitor at an adult video store, won the audience award at the annual Penn State Student Film Festival. Grannell developed the Peaches Christ character during the production of this film.
James Dalessandro is an American writer and filmmaker. He is best known for his historical-fiction novel 1906 based on events surrounding the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Suzanne Todd is an American film and television producer, and the owner of the film production company Team Todd.
Daniel Nicoletta is an Italian-American photographer, photojournalist and gay rights activist.
The 44th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 May 1991. The Palme d'Or went to Barton Fink by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen.
Alma Har'el is an Israeli-American music video and film director. She is best known for her 2019 feature film debut Honey Boy, for which she won a Directors Guild of America Award.
Sharon Katharine Van Etten is an American singer-songwriter. She has released the albums Because I Was in Love (2009), Epic (2010), Tramp (2012), Are We There (2014), Remind Me Tomorrow (2019) and We've Been Going About This All Wrong (2022).
Bertha Bay-Sa Pan is a Taiwanese-American Director, Writer and Producer. Born in New Jersey and raised in Taiwan, Pan was educated at Boston University and the Columbia University Graduate Film School receiving a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Directing, while working as a Sales Executive in Film Distribution. Pan's graduate thesis short film at Columbia University, entitled "Face," garnered various awards from Film Festivals worldwide, including the Director's Guild Award for Best Asian American Student Filmmaker and the Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Screenplay.
Khavn De La Cruz is a Filipino poet, singer, songwriter, pianist and filmmaker. He is the founder and festival director of MOV International Film, Music and Literature Festival. Considered the father of Philippine digital filmmaking, Khavn has made 47 features and 112 short films since 1994. His 46th feature, Ruined Heart, is lensed by Christopher Doyle and features Tadanobu Asano and Nathalia Acevedo. It premiered in official competition at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival.
Montclair Film is a nonprofit that organizes the annual Montclair Film Festival (MFF). The festival is held between mid- to late- October in Montclair, New Jersey. The festival showcases new works from American and international filmmakers. Films are programmed based on categories including: Fiction, Non-Fiction, World Cinema, Short, and Student Filmmaking.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
Dina is an American documentary film about Dina Buno and her partner Scott Levin, both on the autism spectrum.
