JUNE | FILM HIGHLIGHTS

JUNE | FILM HIGHLIGHTS

PHANTOM LOVE (2007)
On Fandor: June 6 (SVOD Premiere) | Director: Nina Menkes

Called "stunning" and "luminous" by critics, Nina Menkes’ enigmatic character study is full of striking black-and-white imagery and bewitching surreal touches—like the huge snake forever slithering down an apartment building hallway—as beauteous young Russian émigré Lulu's (Marina Shoif) divides her daily life between two primary tasks: dealing blackjack to casino patrons in L.A.’s Korea town and enduring joyless sex with her boyfriend.

BURNING BUSH (2013)
On Fandor: June 11 (SVOD Premiere) | Director: Agnieszka Holland
Launching day and date with Theatrical Premiere

Director Agnieszka Holland returns to form in this epic political thriller that tackles one of the most harrowing events of Czech social history: in 1969, student Jan Palach lit himself afire in Prague to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The emotional, social, and political fallout are woven into a rich portrait of resistance and complicity and the high cost of one family's fight for the truth. Fandor will be the only place online to watch it, launching simultaneously with its theatrical opening at Film Forum in New York at 2pm on June 11. This is the first time that Film Forum has agreed to such a launch. The film will be available across the US, excluding New York City.
A preview screener link is available for editorial & review coverage. Please reach out to morgan@brigademarketing.com for more information.

ROY COHN / JACK SMITH (1994)
On Fandor: June 20 (SVOD Premiere) | Director: Jill Godmilow

This imaginative cinematic translation of an acclaimed stage show has Ron Vawter playing two real-life men, both middle-aged white gay New Yorkers who died of AIDS in the late 1980s. Yet in every other sense they were polar opposites: Cohn the 1950s Commie-hunter turned closeted Reagan-era foe of gay rights and AIDS funding, Smith an envelope-pushing experimental filmmaker whose drag-camp 1962 FLAMING CREATURES toppled obscenity laws. They’re together at last in a bravura performance by an actor who himself died of AIDS-related complications shortly before the film’s premiere.

KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS (1998)
On Fandor: June 27 (SVOD Premiere) | Director: Michel Ocelot

Cut-out animation artist Michel Ocelot once said he knew nothing but happiness growing up in Guinea, and it shows in his first feature-length animated film about a cheeky newborn who braves the mythological and the real to fix the water problem in his West African village. Spectacular Rousseau-imagined jungles, a spare score by Youssou N’Dour, and a plethora of accolades did not help the film’s chances for distribution in markets like the United States and Great Britain, which shied away from the portrayals of bare-breasted women and a thoroughly naked man-cub. 

FANDOR UPDATES & INFORMATION

Spotlight on LGBTQ Cinema
On Fandor: June 10 

We will be celebrating Pride Month at Fandor. Fandor is home to over 130 LGBTQ films, more than 650 Avant Garde films. During June, we will be showcasing the previously unpublished TONGUES UNTIED (1989) by director Marlon Riggs and spotlighting films by truly great filmmakers, including Derek Jarman, Wong Kar-Wai & Todd Haynes.

REINVENT HOLLYWOOD
JUNE 10 (THE ARTISTS) | JUNE 24 (THE AUDIENCE) | JULY 8 (THE BUSINESS) | JULY 22 (THE FESTIVALS, SCHOOLS & NONPROFITS) | AUGUST 5 (THE RULES OF THE GAME)

Fandor is partnering with Reinventors to create a series that will envision a film ecosystem that would work better for the artists, the industry, and society at large.  The series, led by Fandor CEO Ted Hope is divided into six episodes, with each part focused on a topic that addresses the larger issue at hand – the future of film. Learn more at www.fandor.com/reinvent-hollywood 

WERNER HERZOG COLLECTION
Fata Morgana (1970) | On Fandor June 3 (SVOD premiere) Elements of documentary and allegory merge in Werner Herzog’s most experimental, unclassifiable feature. The disparate ingredients include everything from stark Sahara landscapes to Leonard Cohen songs and spoken excerpts from Mayan mystical text the Popul Vuh. It’s an experience alternately meditative, surreal and sardonic.
The Enigma of Kasper Hauser (1974) | On Fandor June 10 (SVOD Premiere) Starring:  Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira. Werner Herzog takes on the real life story of a wild child savant Kasper Hauser, a young man who arrives in Hamburg a blank slate, raised in isolation without language or social engagement, in this touching and troubling story of wild innocence tamed and corrupted. Bruno S., a street musician who spent most of his youth growing up in mental institutions and prisons, offers a childlike performance as Kasper, a holy innocent with a loving but wounded soul, in Herzog's warmest and most poignant film.
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) | On Fandor June 17 (SVOD Premiere) Featuring:  Fini Straubinger. The first of Werner Herzog "portrait" films, this poetic study Fini Straubinger, a fifty-six year old woman who went deaf and blind as a teenager and later becomes an advocate for others similarly afflicted in Germany. This 1971 film was Werner Herzog's first feature documentary and, in true Herzog fashion, he uses image and sound to introduce us to the lives of people who cannot see or hear. As we observe members of this singular community take in a day at the zoo or experience an airline flight for the first time, Herzog shows us a gamut of experiences, from the isolation of the most extreme cases to those like Fini determined to commune with the world around them. It is the agony and the ecstasy of an existence experienced almost solely by touch and human contact.
Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) | On Fandor June 24 (SVOD Premiere) Starring:  Bruce Spence, Wandjuk Marika, Roy Marika, Ray Barrett, Norman Keye. One of Werner Herzog’s most absorbing fiction narratives, WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM was loosely inspired by real-life disputes. Here, a mining company’s plans to access lucrative uranium deposits that are protected by indigenous people of Australia who claim the area is a sacred one whose violation will trigger disaster for all mankind. The desert Down Under provides another striking setting for a filmmaker always drawn to the mystic power of landscapes.

ABOUT FANDOR
Fandor is where the film community comes together, where filmmakers and enthusiasts are advancing film culture, and where audiences are connecting with films across genres and decades. Fandor offers a broad library of independent and international cinema specially curated to make discovering new and classic favorites easy and accessible. Fandor’s member-based service allows audiences to watch unlimited movies wherever they are: on TVs, computers and mobile devices. Fandor showcases and supports the world’s best filmmakers and returns half its revenue to them. For more information, visit www.Fandor.com.

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