If you’re in NYC today (and tomorrow) you should stop by New York International Latino Film Festival and catch a film. One that I recommend seeing is called La Americana. It’s a simple, moving portrait of a women caught between the realities of being an illegal immigrant and the love she feels for her family.

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The best from the around the internet the TakePart way:

CULTURE:

• Hidden Treasures : Keeping up with old movies at Bologna’s annual festival of rarities @ The Moving Image Source

ENVIRONMENT:

• Honey Bee Videos Latest Viral Trend? (VIDEO) @ Huffington Post

FAIRNESS:

• UPDATE: Rhode Island Courthouse Immigration Raids Spark Protest @ ABC6.com
  

HEALTH:

• KFC Canada Goes Vegan @ Ecorazzi

HUMAN RIGHTS:

• When Repression Rains, It Pours @ Lines of Flight

PEACE:

• Exiting Iraq Is Easier Than They Say @ The Nation
  

RESPONSIBILTY

• Our Warrantless Wiretapping Lawsuit @ The Nation

*picture from tm_lv

I was at the Nantucket Film Festival about a week ago to screen Meerkat Media’s film Every Third Bite. While there I only caught one film at the actual festival (it seemed a better use of my time to enjoy the outdoors). The film I saw was Brad Anderson’s Transsiberian. I’ve always been a fan of Anderson and usually enjoy his intelligent and uncommon approach to commonplace genres. Perhaps it’s been a while since I saw one of his films and in that time my viewing preferences have changed, but I found Transsiberian to be somewhat disappointing in a few ways.

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It’s June 27th, I’m Gina Telaroli and this is TakePart.com’s look at the week in social action…

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

U.S. Media Ignores Link Between Midwest Floods and Global Warming

Top 10 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution

* * *

Andy Kondrat:

Dubai to Build Rotating Positive Energy Tower

Bioethicist Peter Singer Tackles World Food Shortage

* * *

Jon Popham:

Americacorps Workers Assist Flood Ravaged Town

Australians “Out-Fat” Americans

* * *

Giulia Rozzi:

Progressive Book Club

Oprah Recommends “A New Earth”

* * *

Gina Telaroli:

Human Rights Watch 2008 Film Festival Update

SilverDocs 2008 Update

Lifetime Networks invites female filmmakers to submit their original short films at http://www.mylifetime.com/sweeps/ewfc/submit.php.  In 2006, women comprised only 15 percent of all directors, executive producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 25 domestic-grossing films. Lifetime Movie Network — the only movie channel dedicated to women and the #2 network for women, second only to Lifetime — is working to change those statistics by offering you, the next generation of female filmmakers, the chance to be discovered.

So takepart and visit http://www.mylifetime.com/sweeps/ewfc/submit.php to submit. Deadline for entries is July 8. The winning contestant will have their short shown on Lifetime Movie Networks and receive a cash prize of $5,000 plus the opportunity to attend networking events and festivals.

So far so good! It’s my last day at Silverdocs but so far it has been nothing short of amazing. Here’s a little refresher on what I’ve seen and also a list of what’s to come. Stay tuned for more Silverdocs 08 and for a comprehensive write-up stocked full of TakePart links about how you can connect to the issues in the films.

Thus Far:

• Silverdocs 08 : Head Wind
• Silverdocs 08 : Meet the Paro (Mechanical Love)
• Silverdocs 08 : Opening Night and All Together Now

To Come:

• A look at Up the Yangtze : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/yangtze/
• A discussion of the DocuClub screening of my film Stages
  
• Some shorts : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/shorts-program-4-disconnections/
• Corridor 8 : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/corridor-8/
• Frederick Wiseman’s Law and Order : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/law-and-order/
• A film that’s all about Dust : http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/dust/
• More video!!!!
• Lot’s of pictures

For now, here are some pictures from pal Cheryl - who also has a film in this years’ fest!

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/23166402@N06/sets/72157605653795062/
  

Over the next 2 weeks we at TakePart will be providing coverage of the 2008 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Any post that has the above banner will feature content related to the festival, whose films highlight issues that define us as world and prove how powerful the movies can be.

This year’s fest travels the globe taking us to Laos, the American West, Chile, Russia and many more places deserving of some attention. We visit the likes of writer Ariel Dorfman (pictured to the left), two Shoshone grandmothers and Russian independent journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

One thing that has always been interesting for me is watching the festival develop as digital filmmaking has developed over the years. When dealing with films that have important and unique content, sometimes the craft of documentary becomes less important, but with filmmakers tools have become more affordable and more transportable, sloppy filmmaking is becoming harder to let go.

That being said, there isn’t another festival where I consistently learn more.

Check back for our coverage of HRWFF 08 and takepart to check out the entire line-up!

The internet continues to expand in it’s ability to offer distribution alternatives. The nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute in New York and Amazon.com are teaming up to create an online space/service called Reframe : reframecollection.org, where they plan to make available films that normally aren’t seen or have had historically small distribution in the past. The films will available digitally and some, that are already owned by others, will be available on DVD:

Reframe, Mr. Newman and others said, is a hybrid. It is expected to serve as a nonprofit clearing house for short and feature-length films and video works, while giving rights holders a mechanism by which they can sell or rent downloads or DVDs through Amazon.

The service is unusual in that it offers to convert works to the digital format from video without charge and will convert film formats to digital at cost, under an arrangement that allows duplication of a 90-minute feature movie for as little as $672, far less than the thousands of dollars filmmakers usually spend on conversions.

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If you read our blog regularly you know I love movie trailers - they’re fun and can get you all pumped up about the movies. With this I’ve decided to implement a new series here on TakePart called “New Trailer Alert” - so those of you that are like me can always keep up to date on the first glimpses we get at awesome new films.

Hot off their Academy Award winning film No Country for Old Men, the Coens are ready with another film called Burn After Reading and while the trailer isn’t up on YouTube (meaning I can’t post it), I recommend you immediately go here :

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/burnafterreading/

and download the trailer as fast as you possibly can! It looks to me like the Coens are working with Big Lebowski-esque material again..

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