See an award-winning Spanish/Bolivian film and meet IC alum and casting director RODRIGO BELLOTT

UPSTATE NEW YORK PREMIERE: Even the Rain is a narrative feature film that chronicles a filmmaker who goes to Bolivia to make a film about Columbus in the New World, and encounters the indigeneous people dealing with the Cochabamba water issues.  Casting director and IC alum Rodrigo Bellott will be on hand for the post-screening discussion.

ONLY TWO SCREENINGS AT CINEMAPOLIS (NOTE THAT THERE IS NO FRIDAY SCREENING): 

THURSDAY APRIL 14  7:20
SATURDAY  APRIL 16 7:10

Use your FLEFF pass, or $9.50 general admission, $8 for students and senior citizens.

About the film:

Even the Rain (Iciar Bollain, Spain, 2010; 104 min)  Filmmaker Sebastian arrives in Cochabamba accompanied by a cast and crew ready to make a film about Columbus’s first voyage to the New World and the subsequent subjugation of the indigenous population. Sebastian wants to focus on the experience of Bartolome de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos who was so distraught over the treatment of the natives that he dedicated the rest of his life to their cause. His producer Costa has chosen Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, because it makes sense economically. Extras are willing to work long hours for just two dollars a day.

About Rodrigo Bellott 

Rodrigo Bellott  was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. He has a BFA in Film, Photography and Visual Arts from Ithaca College. His first student film, DESTIERRO, was one of five films around the world nominated for a student Academy Award in 2001.

In college, Rodrigo wrote and directed DEPENDENCIA SEXUAL (Sexual Dependency), his first feature film with its world premiere at the 2003 Locarno Film Festival. It won the FIPRESCI award. The film was a box office success in Bolivia, marking the re-birth of Bolivian cinema as the country's first official selection competing for "Best Foreign Language Film" at the 2004 Academy Awards. Rodrigo's second feature as director, WHO KILLED THE WHITE LLAMA?, the highest grossing box office success in Bolivian History.

In 2007, VARIETY named Rodrigo as one of the TOP TEN Latin American talents to watch.  In 2007, he   worked as CASTING DIRECTOR for CHE part I and II, directed by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh, starred by BENICIO DEL TORO. He has worked as Casting Director in 10 other international films In January 2010, CONTRACORRIENTE, a Perubian film Casted by Rodrigo, received the prestigious Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City Utah. Cannes.

Rodrigo’s last two features as a Casting Director were CONTRACORRIENTE and EVEN THE RAIN,  recently been selected by their respective countries (Peru and Spain) to compete for “Best Foreign Film” at the Academy Awards.

Like crocuses popping up in Spring, it's the return of an annual tradition at FLEFF:  a panel of entertainment industry insiders sharing the inside scoop.

Directors, screenwriters, distributors, and global innovators tell their stories of how they got their breaks. And they also reveal how YOU can break into the industry, from Hollywood, to indiewood, and to all the other exciting emerging zones of global media worlds.

Moderated, with his usual good cheer and elan, by FLEFF advisory board member and TVR faculty member Steve Gordon, formerly of Viacom.

Friday, April 15
4-5:30 p.m.
How to Get Your Break  
Williams 225
Ithaca College 
FREE

Moderated by Steve Gordon, featuring

Rodrigo Bellott (Even the Rain and IC alum)

Rodrigo Brandao (Kino Lorber Films and IC alum)

Karin Chien (dgenerate films)

Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned)

FLEFF: A Different Environment  

For more information on festival events and screenings for FLEFF 2011 Checkpoints running April 10-17, check here:  www.ithaca.edu/fleff

Blog written by Patricia Zimmerman, codirector of FLEFF

I have a big announcement to make: FLEFF is ALMOST programmed.

I say almost because every day, something seems to open up, we get a call, a lead on a film, or an artist comes through, some funding falls into place.

One thing I have learned about programming a festival is that it is not some bureaucratic organization. It operates as a living, constantly morphing organism in endless engagement with the outside world. 

Its always changing. Guests get added. Films get added.  Something happens. A conversation. A connection. An enthusiastic new idea from an intern. A new band. A different kind of party. Music that changes how you hear the world.

One BIG change this year is that we've expanded FLEFF from 7 days to 8 days. And we've expanded our downtown Ithaca presence significantly, from three days to four.  And, we're doing THREE whole nights of after parties with multiple bands and performers at Delilah's, programmed by the ever energetic London McDaniels.

This year, our downtown screenings and events have the most guests, the most filmmakers, the most films, and the most musicians for after parties of any FLEFF to date.

Here's just a very small sampling of FLEFF programming at Cinemapolis April 14-17, to whet your appetite for quality cinema that creates a different environment.

FLEFF opens up an international world of film directors, editors, new media artists, musicians presenting their work and post screening conversations with you at Cinemapolis, one of the most beautiful new multiplexes for art cinema in the country. 

Directors and industry professionals presenting at Cinemapolis include Rodrigo Bellott (Bolivia/Amsterdam, EVEN THE RAIN), Tina Mabry (MISSISSIPPI DAMNED), Danny Schecter (PLUNDER), David Brancaccio (FIXING THE FUTURE), James La Veck and Jenny Stein (PEACABLE KINGDOM), Jeremy Levine (GOOD FORTUNE), Helen De Michiel (LUNCH LOVE COMMUNITY), Franklin Lopez (END: CIV), Tom Swarthout (Sidney Lumet's film editor), Karin Chien (executive director of Dgenerate Films from China).

Plus, do not miss FLEFF's signature events of new commissions of live music for silent film at Cinemapolis:  THE LAST LAUGH, with John Stetch, piano; SIRENS OF THE TROPICS,the first film starring African American dancing sensation Josephine Baker, with performance by Cynthia Henderson and jazz music by Fe Nunn and Friends; and STORM OVER ASIA with Robby Aceto, Chris White,and Peter Dodge, electronic/experimental rock music.

The festival program is up, the grids for campus and downtown are onlinr, the bios of the 40 guests invited to this year's FLEFF are in PDFs for downloading. Find it all --and more-- on our website HERE. 

Just print out---and start charting your path through the multimedia extravaganza of the mind and the heart and the soul that we hope is FLEFF 2011 Checkpoints.

See you at the Checkpoint?