News

As Locarno’s 8,000-strong Piazza Grande audience welcomed Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan on stage Saturday evening, a much smaller crowd congregated across the way for an alternative film event.

Organized by local left-wing cooperative Coordinamento Unico a sostegno della Palestina/ Coordination in support of Palestine (Cusp), a group of local activists and out-of-towners, mostly Locarno festival delegates, huddled around a pop-up projector for an evening of film screenings about Palestine.

The pop-up event was hosted on a piece of green next to the Teatro di Locarno, the festival’s venue for press screenings, a few meters back from the large Piazza Grande screen. The event began with a book drive where literature on Palestinian history and merch like keffiyeh scarves were sold. The demo proved controversial with many unaffiliated people passing by the event and stopping to voice their displeasure.

“Return the hostages and we’ll stop the bombs,...

A footage used in the film quotes President Obama's 2009 Cairo speech: “America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable forever.” This is this idea that Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen have decided to investigate here. “Israelism” more specifically explores the narrative constructed around Israel through the experiences of two young Jewish American citizens, Simone and Eithan, whose perspectives offer a unique lens through which to understand the complexities of Israel's storytelling and its impact on broader political perceptions.

Buy This Title

by clicking on the image below

It is important to keep in mind that this documentary was shot prior to the October 7th, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack and the bloody retaliation in Gaza still ongoing as of June 2024, when this review is written. This context makes the subject highly sensitive, yet the film is even more pertinent for comprehending the ongoing cacophony among Biden's administration.

“Israelism,” a timely documentary exploring changing Jewish attitudes toward Israel, has been acquired by newly-launched distributor Watermelon Pictures for North America.

The film, the directorial debut of Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, premiered at the 2023 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and went on to win multiple awards, including an audience award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It will be released in theaters and on digital platforms nationwide early this summer.

As per the synopsis, “Israelism” is an “eye-opening and essential exploration of the dramatic shift in Jewish attitudes toward Israel, informed by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.”

The film centers on two young American Jews, Simone Zimmerman and Eitan, who are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military, while Zimmerman supports Israel on “the other battlefield:” America’s college campuses. When...

Cph: Dox, Copenhagen’s International Documentary Festival, has set the full lineup for its 2024 edition, including 84 world premieres, 32 international premieres, and 9 European premieres.

Running March 13-24, the festival will feature six competition categories: Dox: Award, F: Act Award, Nordic: Dox Award, Next: Wave Award, New: Vision Award, and the new Human: Rights Award.

Musician Pete Doherty will attend the festival for a screening of Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin. The event will take place on March 18 at Bremen Theater, when he and the film’s director Katia de Vidas – who became Doherty’s wife over the ten years she followed him with her camera – openly discuss the substance abuse that has shadowed his entire career. After the screening, Doherty will give an acoustic concert. Other high-profile titles include Lana Wilson’s Look Into My Eyes, Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s Gaucho Gaucho, Carla Gutierrez’s Frida, Yance Ford’s Power,...

When you think of high profile bank robberies, you don’t normally think of Rhode Island. The tiny state isn’t a hallmark for cinematic settings, but Vault is the exception to that rule. This film, opening this week, seeks to put Rhode Island on the map, at least when ti comes to gangsters and bank heists. It’s an intriguing idea, as this particular story is one most won’t have any clue exists. Alas, the execution here, while fine, never makes an effective case for its own existence. The movie won’t ever bore you, but at the same time, it rarely compels you either. The film is a crime tale, based on a true story. Taking place in 1975, it’s a depiction of what would become one of the biggest heists in American history. When we meet Deuce (Theo Rossi) and Chucky (Clive Standen), they’re just...

Woodhaven Production Company and Chad A. Verdi Productions have worked with some of the biggest names in horror, and now they are bringing in two more genre legends to star in their upcoming film Almost Mercy, written and directed by Tom DeNucci.

Both Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder will be featured prominently in the film.

Previously Woodhaven has featured such stars as Robert Englund in Inkubus, William Forsythe and Michael Madsen in Infected, Michael Berryman and Eric Roberts in Self Storage, and Tony Todd and Godsmack's Sully Erna in Army of the Damned just to name a few. Now Tom DeNucci has a whole new tale to tell, and Moseley and Hodder will be headlining the cast.

Fans of Tom DeNucci's previous movies certainly know that the filmmaker normally has a vein of comedy running through his horror films. However, with Almost Mercy, although there is certainly black comedy to it,...

Producer Chad A. Verdi had already assembled a memorable cast for his current project, Army of the Damned, but the man behind Woodhaven Productions refuses to rest on his laurels.

Verdi has now added former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis and the infamous Jasmine St. Claire to the project.

Everyone has a favorite wrestling diva, but it is this writer's opinion that there has never been a more drop-dead gorgeous creature to enter the squared circle than Maria Kanellis. She is absolutely stunning, and as you can see by the still shot from Army of the Damned below, she's got no trouble getting into the action of a bloody horror film.

Kanellis and St. Claire are added to a very interesting cast. Verdi stated, "We have a very eclectic group of actors on this project: horror legends, rock and pop stars, TV and wrestling superstars, Playboy Playmates and the list goes on.

With Michael Berryman, Sully Erna and Nick Principe already in the cast of their upcoming film, you'd think producer Chad Verdi and Woodhaven Productions would rest on their laurels. But that's far from the case as the team has enlisted Tony Todd for their Army of the Damned.

"Tony Todd is a great actor and a horror legend," Verdi said. "He was the last piece of the puzzle that I felt this film needed to be the blockbuster I know it will be."

Todd will join Berryman, Erna and Principe along with entertainer Joey Fatone and former professional wrestlers Tommy Dreamer and Thea Trinidad as well as David Chokachi, Jackie Moore and Tom Paolino in the Army of the Damned cast. The film will be directed by Tom DeNucci and photographed by cinematographer Sam Eilertsen. You can keep updated on the project by 'liking' Army of the Damned on Facebook.

Don’t look now but the Woodhaven Production Company is at it again. Producer Chad A. Verdi has announced his newest film, Army of the Damned, will begin filming in April.

Verdi was so impressed with Tom DeNucci, who wrote and directed his previous film, Self Storage, that he handed him the reins of this film as well.

Woodhaven has previously released the Robert Englund vehicle Inkubus, followed by Infected which starred William Forsythe and Michael Madsen. Dig the original artwork for Army of the Damned below.

From the Press Release

Verdi Productions and The Woodhaven Production Company announce that Rhode Island filmmaker Chad A. Verdi has tabbed writer/director Tom DeNucci to direct his next horror film, Army of the Damned. Filming will begin in April with a star studded cast to be announced soon. David Gere and Seth Rosenblit will join Verdi and Gino Pereira as producers on the project.