the LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced the final programming elements for the 2016 Festival including a special panel on international storytelling featuring filmmakers from the Global Media Makers program and the lineup for the Diversity Speaks panels. The Festival runs June 1-9, 2016 at the ArcLight Cinemas. Individual tickets and passes are on sale now; please visit www.lafilmfest.com for more details.
Global Media Makers Presents: Storytelling From The Inside Out
Global Media Makers is a U.S. Department of State and Film Independent international mentoring initiative that connects visual storytellers from around the world with leading U.S. entertainment professionals through specially tailored mentorships, workshops and master classes. Join us at the LA Film Festival where filmmakers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Turkey, engage in a candid dialogue with American filmmakers, to discuss diversity, representation, stereotypes and the importance of telling stories from an inside perspective. The event takes place on Thursday, June 2 and will be introduced by Evan Ryan, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Participating Global Media Makers filmmakers are: Amin Dora, director, Lebanon; Asma Bseiso, writer/director, Jordan; and Hüseyin Karabey, writer/director/producer, Turkey. Other filmmakers in the panel: Cherien Dabis (May in Summer, Amreeka), writer/director, USA; Hany Abu-Assad (Omar,Paradise Now), writer/director, Palestinian; and Mohamed Diab, writer/director, Egypt, who will be presenting clips from his most recent film Clash, which premiered at Cannes this year.
Diversity Speaks Panels
At the Diversity Speaks panels, taking place on Saturday, June 4, content creators of underrepresented communities who embody innovation will discuss how they manage to combine their passions for storytelling, entrepreneurship and their cultural identities into success stories. Issa Rae (Insecure, Awkward Black Girl) will join Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell in conversation for an intimate off-the-record talk. In the Art & Activism panel visual storytellers of various mediums will discuss how they use their art to bring light to social issues; panelists include Jay Ellis and Vanessa Ramos (Bordertown) and Terence Nance (Oversimplification of her Beauty). In the Low Budget in LA panel, Andrew Ahn, Kelly Thomas, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim and David Ariniello from Spa Nightshare their experience making a sub million-dollar movie in the film capital of the world. Diversity Speaks is sponsored by HBO and Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television and supported by Yvonne Huff Lee and Jason Delane Lee | Lagralane Group.
The Road to 2017 