The Fall of the Queens will have a digital release starting June 9, 2022. Photo: Uncork’d Entertainment, used with permission.
Uncork’d Entertainmenthas picked up Aleph Cine-directed Spanish thriller The Fall of the Queens, which will have a June 7 digital release. (Uncork’d Entertainment, 2022)
The Fall of the Queens– Two teenage sisters, Juana and Mara, live in an isolated beekeeping country house with their aunt. When their cousin Lucio bursts into their lives, the perfect symbiosis that is their relationship is endangered: seduction, jealousy, rivalry, and the need to destroy whatever gets in the way begins to grow. The hive is preparing for the arrival of a new queen bee.
Malena Filmus, Lola Abraldes, Franco Rizzaro, Umbra Colombo, and Giovanni Ciccia star in the Wicker Man-style spooker.
“A sibling of The Wicker Man and Dare Me, THE FALL OF THE QUEENS has one heck of a killer concept and it’s been executed magnificently,” said Keith Leopard, President Uncork’d Entertainment. “The direction, cast and, most importantly, scares are superb.”
Khadega in Nausheen Dadabhoy’s An Act of Worship. Photo: Capital K Pictures, used with permission.
In other film festival news, ‘An Act of Worship’ will have its WORLD PREMIERE in Documentary Competition at the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival 2022. The festival will take place in New York City from June 8 through June 19, 2022. (An Act of Worship, 2022)
‘An Act of Worship’ is a polyphonic portrait of the last 30 years of Muslim life in America. Told through the lens of Muslims living in the United States, the film offers a counter-narrative of pivotal moments in U.S. history and explores the impact of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policy on young Muslims who came of age after 9/11. Due to their first-hand knowledge and intimate access to the Muslim community, the filmmaking team is able to take charge of the account, which has previously been shaped by outsiders. ABER’s father was deported when she was 16. Now, she is a community organizer leading a sanctuary city initiative in New York. KHADEGA is an 18-year-old Sudanese immigrant living in Michigan. While she feels compelled to advocate for her community, she struggles to overcome society’s expectations of her and find her own way. AMEENA is a civil rights lawyer in California, but as a mother, she is conflicted between caring for her three young children or sacrificing her time with them to fight for change. Weaving together observational footage of these three women with community home videos, and evocative recollections from individuals impacted by incidents of Islamophobia,’ An Act of Worship’ opens a window into the world of Muslim Americans through collective memory.
NAUSHEEN DADABHOY is a director and cinematographer whose work spans fiction and documentary. She lensed an Oscar nominated film, an Emmy winning documentary, and films that have played at Sundance, TIFF, Locarno and on Al Jazeera, HBO and PBS. Her directorial debut THE GROUND BENEATH THEIR FEET premiered at IDFA.
Running Time: 83 Minutes Language: English, Arabic Country: USA
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2022 An Act of Worship (Section: Documentary Competition) WORLD PREMIERE Directors: Nausheen Dadabhoy Producer: Sofian Khan, Kristi Jacobson, Heba Elorbany
Public screening schedule: Thursday, June 9 at 5p.m. at Village East – WORLD PREMIERE Friday, June 10 at 6p.m. at Cinepolis – 2nd Public Screening Sunday, June 12 at 8:15p.m. at Tribeca Film Center – 3rd Public Screening
Film participant and illustrator Daxiong. “Eternal Spring (長春)”will make its West coast premiere on June 15 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters. Photo: Lofty Sky Pictures, used with permission.
Lofty Sky Pictures groundbreaking filmmaker Jason Loftus’ (“Ask No Questions”) latest film, the powerful animated documentary “Eternal Spring (長春)”will make its West coast premiere at this year’s Dances With Films (June 9 – 19, 2022), on Wednesday, June 15 with a 7p.m. premiere at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters (in the Hollywood & Highland complex in Los Angeles). “Eternal Spring (長春)” is a multiple award winner, most recently having won the Hot Docs Audience Award for best film and the Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian film, and both the audience and jury awards for International Documentary Feature Film at Mammoth Lakes Film Festival. (Loft Sky Pictures, 2022)
This extraordinary harmony of animation and documentary has been awarded and acclaimed across Europe in its Film Festival run thus far for its groundbreaking animation – and of particular note, has been its incredible comic-book-style animation that transports the viewer into the brave and heroic world of a group of Falun Gong practitioners. “Eternal Spring (長春)” with its story of survival at all costs & battle for human rights continues to draw powerful comparisons to beloved Oscar nominee “Flee.”
This Canadian film was made for theatrical (it is in 2.39 Cinema 4K and audiences are loving it on the big screen thus far from its international film festival run), most recently to sold out audiences at the New York Human Rights Film Festival on May 23 at Lincoln Center & May 24 at IFC Center (one of 10 official selections and the US premiere), and again on May 31 and June 2 at Krakow Film Festival (Oscar qualifying International Documentary Competition, Polish Premiere).
“Eternal Spring (長春)” – Confronted with government denunciations and human rights violations against their spiritual practice, a group of Chinese activists executes a bold and perilous plan to hack into state television.
“Eternal Spring (長春)”– In March 2002, a state TV signal in China is hijacked by members of banned spiritual group Falun Gong. Their goal is to counter the government narrative about their practice. In the aftermath, police raids sweep Changchun City and comic book illustrator Daxiong (Justice League, Star Wars), a Falun Gong practitioner, is forced to flee. He arrives in North America, blaming the hijacking for worsening a violent repression. His views are challenged when he meets the lone surviving participant to have escaped China, now living in Seoul, South Korea.
Combining present-day footage with 3D animation inspired by Daxiong’s art, Eternal Spring retraces the event on its 20th anniversary, and brings to life an unprecedented story of defiance, harrowing eyewitness accounts of persecution, and an exhilarating tale of determination to speak up for political and religious freedoms, no matter the cost.
SA Examiner 