National Geographic Society

Back by popular demand, Suzi Yoonessi's Dear Lemon Lima is having an impromptu third screening in Los Angeles at Landmark 8 this Saturday at 4:15 PM after to two sold-out screenings on the 20th and 23rd.

Dear Lemon Lima, an All-Roads Seed Grant recipient, tells the story of 13-year-old Vanessa Lemor, a Yu'pik girl with a vivid imagination. After getting dumped by her true love, she rallies with her fellow misfits, including a bi-racial girl named Nothing and a pathological liar who claims that Puff Daddy is her father, to compete in the Snowstorm Survivor Competition, her prep school's bastardized version of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.

The film was originally inspired by director Suzi Yoonessi's childhood diary, which is a "rainbow-studded, tragic and funny compilation of letters to [her] imaginary friend Lemon Lima." As Yoonessi flipped through the pages, she was struck by genuine amount of passion, sincerity and heartbreak that was communicated in each passage. With Dear Lemon Lima, the director intends to prove that "every human connection deserves the love and compassion that a 13-year-old girl embraces the world with."

Yoonessi's award-winning short version of "Dear Lemon Lima" (2007) played internationally in over 60 festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. Suzi Yoonessi has also directed Vern (2004) and No Shoulder (2005), and her producing credits include 3 Weeks After Paradise (2002), Vern (2004), Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), and Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005).

"Suzi Yoonessi's delicious debut makes the life of her Alaskan teenage heroine as colorful and sweet as a snow cone." - Jonathan Wysocki of the Los Angeles Film Festival

"...one of the most affecting and poised performances by a 13-year-old we've seen in quite some time." - Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine

"...as refreshing as an Astro-Pop on a summer's day." - The Los Angeles Times

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"Amreeka," to be released by National Geographic Entertainment in September, was awarded the International Film Critics Award (the FIPRESCI Prize) Saturday at Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The award, aimed at promoting film art and young and new cinema, is presented at international film festivals. "Amreeka" is the story of a Palestinian mother who immigrates with her son to a small Illinois town. Writer/director Cherien Dabis is a former NG All Roads seed grant recipient. "The award signifies the global appeal of "Amreeka," and acknowledges the artistry and skill as a director of Cherien," said NG Cinema Ventures President Lisa Truitt. "This prestigious award adds to the acclaim "Amreeka" received at the Cannes Film Festival, which included a five-minute standing ovation after the screening as part of the Festival's Directors' Fortnight selections of films."

article courtesy of AFP

Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah, a tale of young love in a troubled indigenous community, was Sunday awarded the Camera d'Or first film prize at the Cannes festival.

Thornton's feature takes an unflinching look at the problems facing Australia's remote Aboriginal communities: violence, substance abuse and poverty.

Shot in a derelict Aboriginal community near Alice Springs, it follows the slow, shy courtship between a boy who spends his time sniffing petrol and lost in music, and a girl forced to care for her ailing grandmother.

French actress Isabelle Adjani awarded the Camera d'Or of the 62nd Cannes film festival to what the jury described as "the best love film we've seen for many a year, 'Samson and Delilah.'"

Played by first-time Aboriginal actors Rowan McNamara and Marisa Gibson, both 14 at the time, the film is marked by long silences, and what little is spoken is mostly in the Central Australian language Warlpiri.

"Thank you for believing in our first born baby," Thornton said as he accepted the award. "I don't don't know what to say. Viva Cannes, viva le cinema."

The 38-year-old filmmaker drew on his own experience of growing up on the streets of Alice Springs when writing the screenplay, and approached local Aboriginal communities for help in finding his actors.

"It is about Aboriginal kids growing up and how incredibly strong and resilient and beautiful they are, and how they are neglected, not only by their own people and their own families but by the system."

In an interview with AFP, Thornton said a sense of his identity ran strongly through his work.

"I'm an Aboriginal and I will be all my life," he said. "The stolen generation, that's me. I'm actually not supposed to be here, it was actually government policy to breed us out and get rid of us."

"When you're writing your first feature you have to ask yourself, have you got something to say? Is there a fire inside of you, that you can translate to the film?"

"That's what it was. Everything that's in the film I've seen personally."

CONGRATULATIONS WARWICK!!!!