The American Film Institute (AFI) announced that AFI DOCS will pay tribute to renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog as the festival’s 2016 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
The AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honors documentary masters who have inspired audiences with their non-fiction stories of human experience. Taking place at the Newseum on June 24 at 7 p.m., the Symposium will include a conversation with Herzog along with clips from his amazing documentary oeuvre. Moderated by filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, the discussion will be followed by a screening of Herzog’s latest documentary, Lo And Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. Magnolia Pictures will open the film in select theaters in summer 2016.
“Whether exploring unseen corners of the world or contemplating technology in our lives, Werner Herzog’s cinematic voice is unmistakably evocative,” said Michael Lumpkin, director of AFI DOCS. “He wields a world-class power, using his artistry to provoke audiences into seeing their world from the most esoteric angles. We are honored to celebrate his distinguished storytelling career.”
The Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker’s vast documentary credits include Into The Abyss (2011), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), the Oscar®-nominated Encounters At The End Of The World (2007), Grizzly Man (2005), The White Diamond (2004), the Emmy®-nominated Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997), Bells From The Deep (1993), Fata Morgana (1971) and Land of Silence and Darkeness (1971). Throughout his career, Herzog has received top honors from the Berlinale, the Cannes Film Festival, the Directors Guild of America and many more prestigious institutions, including the German Film Academy, which presented him with a lifetime achievement award in 2009. In 2013, Herzog founded the Rogue Film School, through which he hosts a series of intimate seminars with aspiring filmmakers.
Herzog joins a renowned list of Guggenheim Symposium honorees: Charles Guggenheim (2003), Barbara Kopple (2004), Martin Scorsese (2006), Jonathan Demme (2007), Spike Lee (2008), Albert Maysles (2009), Frederick Wiseman (2010), Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker (2011), Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (2012), Errol Morris (2013), Alex Gibney (2014) and Stanley Nelson (2015).
Tickets to AFI DOCS, including the Charles Guggenheim Symposium and Screening as well as the Opening and Closing Night Galas, will be available early to AFI members exclusively from May 9–17, and to the public on May 18. Passes for AFI DOCS 2016 are now on sale here. More information about AFI DOCS screenings and other special events will be announced in the coming weeks.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More