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Earlier this year, Riz Ahmed was Oscar-nominated for his stunning lead performance in the music drama “Sound Of Metal,” and in many ways, that should boost your excitement for a somewhat similar music drama, “Mogul Mowgli.” But the timing of this indie couldn’t be better because now the anticipation for the film has to be even higher: award-winning filmmaker Bassam Tariq, the “Mogul Mowgli” director, has been chosen to direct Marvel’s “Blade,” which has got to be a big co-sign on ‘Mowgli’ considering not that many people have seen it and Tariq really hasn’t made a lot of more notable films other than the celebrated indie doc “These Birds Walk” (which earned Tariq the title of a Filmmaker to watch by Filmmaker Magazine).

Continue reading ‘Mogul Mowgli’ Trailer: Riz Ahmed Stars In A ‘Sound Of Metal’-esque Tale Of Stardom, Hip Hop & Illness at The Playlist.

Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away.

"Blade Runner: The Theatrical Cut" was just added to Netflix streaming, but now it's facing a harsh expiration date of May 16. (We'll be up on the roof, holding a dove and crying.)

And dude! So bogus: Unless you have a time machine, you only have until May 1st to stream "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989).

Also leaving in May 2016: "Election," "Clerks," and "Black Hawk Dawn" as well as classic Marilyn Monroe movie "Bus Stop."

Here are all the movies and TV series leaving Netflix in May 2016. As always, all titles and dates are subject to change.

Leaving May 1

"The Animatrix" (2003)

"Anna Karenina" (1948)

"Author! Author!" (1982)

"Beware of Mr. Baker" (2012)

"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989)

"Broadway Idiot" (2013)

"Bus Stop" (1956)

"Election" (1999)

"The Good Life" (2012)

"Holiday Engagement" (2011)

"Kiss of Death" (1995)

"Mad Hot Ballroom" (2005)

"Mona Lisa Is Missing" (2012)

"Ralphie May: Austin-tatious" (2008)

"Terms And Conditions May Apply" (2013)

"That's What I Am...

Robert Green, Margaret Brown, Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq have been selected as fellows for Sundance Institute’s new ‘Art Of Nonfiction’ initiative.

The Fellowship is an addition to the Documentary Film Program (Dfp) providing filmmakers resources to build sustainable creative practices for their documentary work.

Director of Sundance Institute’s Dfp Tabitha Jackson developed the Fellowship and Cinereach provides editorial and financial support for the launch. Applications were accepted by invitation only.

Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine is about to receive its world premiere at Sundance. The other recipients are Margaret Brown for The Order Of Myths and Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq for These Birds Walk.

“This initiative represents our renewed thinking about how we, as a funder and creative resource, can experiment with our programmes to better serve the needs of filmmakers who are experimenting with their own work,” said Jackson.

“We hope this more robust infrastructure of support will bring the community...

Read More: Sundance Selects Picks Up Political Controversy Doc 'Weiner' Sundance’s Documentary Film Program (Dfp), which awarded $2 million in grants to documentary projects in 2015, today is announcing a new "Art of Nonfiction" initiative. The initiative, which is being financially backed by Cinereach, has been formed to find ways to creatively and financially support filmmakers "exploring inventive artistic practice in story, craft and form." The first fellows of the new program are Robert Greene ("Kate Plays Christine"), Margaret Brown ("The Great Invisible"), and Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq ("These Birds Walk"). The initiative is unique for the Dfp in the sense that they are backing filmmakers, rather than specific projects. The goal of the fellowship is to financially support filmmakers for 12 months and allow them the freedom to focus on their process and careers as artists, rather than being forced to take other work...

Nearly every month, Netflix adds new films and TV shows while its licensing deals for others lapse. We recently listed all of the movies coming to Netflix this month, but here's a curated look at select indies that are new to the streaming service -- including the Sundance hit "Escape from Tomorrow" and the animated Noam Chomsky documentary "Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?" They're listed below in alphabetical order, along with their average Criticwire rating. Perfect weekend viewing! "The Art of the Steal" (Dir: Don Argott) Average Criticwire Rating: B+ "Beware of Mr. Baker" (Dir: Jay Bulger) Average Criticwire Rating: B+ "Escape from Tomorrow" (Dir: Randy Moore) Average Criticwire Rating: B- "Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy?" (Dir: Michel Gondry) Average Criticwire Rating: A- "The Triplets of Belleville" (Dir: Sylvain Chomet) Average Criticwire Rating: N/A "These Birds Walk" (Dir: Omar Mullick, Bassam Tariq) Average Criticwire Rating:...

Usually June is associated with the first real month of summer -- a time to go out and frolic through the wilderness like a snowman that doesn't know any better. But it also gets really, really hot, which has people retreating to their local multiplex or, even better, their luxuriously air-conditioned living rooms. With that in mind, take a look at the television shows and movies that will be available on Netflix's steaming service come June (via Vulture).

Thought the snail-who-dreamed-of-being-a-racecar saga ended with last summer's DreamWorks Animated joint "Turbo?" Think again. Apparently there's a television spin-off. And you can watch it on Netflix. We also have to give it up for a pair of wonderful sequels that are going to be on in June: the obviously-shot-in-Canada-even-though-it's-set-in-New York robo-epic "Short Circuit 2" (a favorite since childhood) and the far darker and more sinister "Wolf Creek 2," a sequel to the...

Terry Gilliam introduces The Zero Theorem Photo: Neil Thomaas Douglas

Wednesday at the Glasgow Film Festival was a good day for catching up on good things missed earlier in the week, with second screenings for romance The Lunchbox and documentary These Birds Walk, whilst there were fans doing Kate Bush impressions on the ordinarily peaceful Rose Street in anticipation of the 1939 Wuthering Heights. Iboga Nights director David Graham Scott popped into the Gft to talk about making that film and about the reality of his own experience in tackling his drug addiction through the use of the African hallucinogen. Chilean film Things The Way They Are screened at Cineworld and Mrgaret Tait Award-winning artist Rachel Maclean brought together a group of creative types in the Cca for Tae Think Again, an event focused on exploring contemporary Scottish identity. Although inspired by the forthcoming independence referendum it wasn't a political event...

Thanks (again) in no small part to the impeccable programming at the True/False Film Festival (as well as strong documentary programs at Sundance and SXSW), I saw more documentaries in 2013 than ever before (even more than 2012!). As with the last couple of years, 2013 was an incredibly strong year for non-fiction filmmaking, making it incredibly difficult to whittle my favorites down to a mere 15 films. Thanks to Sarah Polley for making such a masterful and incredibly personal documentary, the only easy part of this list was choosing the top documentary film of 2013. Other than that, the ranking of the other films on this list has been incredibly fluid all year long. In the end, it felt like I was essentially just playing "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to figure out the final placement for the 2-14 slots. These films are all totally incomparable and therefore un-rankable, so please take the numbers...

Documentaries have come a long way in the past 20 years, especially in the last decade. Documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment, while having a bigger effect on society, usually addressing important issues with the goal of informing the public and pushing for social change. Ten years ago, it was more difficult to name 10 “great” documentaries released in one single year. Oh, how times have changed. There are so many incredible docs released each year – most never released wide – that it is impossible to catch up with each – but we try our best here at Sound On Sight. The following is a list of recent documentaries recommended most by our staff. It was hard to choose between the many great docs released this year, but we decided to narrow it down to a list of 10, based on what received the most votes from our end-year...

A near-perfectly imperfect burst of present-tense poetry, Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s These Birds Walk is messy with life and lyricism, a searching, empathetic piece of cinematic nonfiction that holds a close-up on a misunderstood part of the world and heralds the arrival of two new powerful voices in documentary. What begins as a portrait of Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Satar Edhi and his orphanage transforms into a deeply poignant study of youth under pressure and a potent reminder of the affecting possibilities of observation. The opening shot is a pure jolt of youthful, free cinema, as good a beginning to […]...

A near-perfectly imperfect burst of present-tense poetry, Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s These Birds Walk is messy with life and lyricism, a searching, empathetic piece of cinematic nonfiction that holds a close-up on a misunderstood part of the world and heralds the arrival of two new powerful voices in documentary. What begins as a portrait of Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Satar Edhi and his orphanage transforms into a deeply poignant study of youth under pressure and a potent reminder of the affecting possibilities of observation. The opening shot is a pure jolt of youthful, free cinema, as good a beginning to […]...

Striking a poetic cord, These Birds Walk finds a symbiotic naturalism between those filming, newcomers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, and those being filmed, the unwanted children of Pakistan. Pakistan, more than any other country, feels like an innocent bystander to the draconian war on terrorism, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong set of circumstances. The Taliban found harbor in its borderlands, and the U.S. military marched in and took advantage of a government with few options. None of this is directly addressed in this impressionistic documentary, but by focusing on the most vulnerable and credulous demographic, it documents the heartbreaking after-effects of the chaos imposed on Pakistan the past ten years. The behind-the-scenes setting is a safe home...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The filmmakers behind "These Birds Walk" have gotten high marks from critics for resisting the cliches of documenting non-profits in the so-called developing world. Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq's film focuses on the Edhi Foundation, which helps street kids in Pakistan. In his review for Variety, critic Peter Debruge says, "Documentary subjects don’t come much more shy than Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi, though the same could hardly be said for the attention-starved Karachi street children his world-renown welfare org attempts to shelter and support. After giving 'These Birds Walk' directors Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq permission to tell his story, Edhi demurs, saying, 'If you want to find me, look to ordinary people.' So the helmers do exactly that, focusing on several camera-comfortable youngsters..." After seeing the film this spring, we asked the filmmakers to share with us their tips for making films in...

Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.Scroll down for full list of winners

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.

The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.

The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.

The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best...

Actor prizes go to Dame Judi Dench and Jesse Eisenberg; Enough Said, starring the late James Gandolfini, wins audience award.

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival handed out its Black Pearl awards at a closing ceremony tonight (Oct 31), including cash prizes amounting to around $700,000.

The Black Pearl for Narrative Feature, worth $100,000, went to A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) directed by Jia Zhangke.

The film, which played in competition at Cannes where it won the best screenplay award, revolves around four threads set in vastly different geographical and social milieus across modern-day China and features random acts of violence.

The Narrative jury, presided over by two-time Oscar nominated actress Jacki Weaver, gave the special jury award ($50,000) to Hiner Saleem’s My Sweet Pepper Land, centred on a law man in a small town on the border of Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

In addition, Dame Judi Dench won best actress for her performance in Stephen Frears’ [link...

Transitional care facilities are all the rage this cinematic season. Following Destin Cretton's sensational Short Term 12, Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq's These Birds Walk showcases another such supportive environment, and is a touching portrait of youthful resilience and displacement set amid the drab backdrop of war-ravaged Karachi, Pakistan. Abdul Sattar Edhi began the Edhi Foundation as a safe space for runaway boys, one of many humanitarian efforts that have earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. His paternal presence opens the film: He washes small, malnourished children by hand in a basin on a gravel floor, a surrogate caregiver for what seems like a lost generation. A documentary on his lifesaving work wouldn't be inappropriate, but Birds<...

The 9th Zurich Film Festival wrapped over the weekend in Switzerland with a closing awards ceremony where films from Mexico, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland all prevailed. The jury for the International Feature Film competition, led by "World War Z" filmmaker Marc Forster (who's Swiss), awarded the Golden Eye for Best Film to "La Jaula de Oro," from Mexican filmmaker Diego Quemada-Diez. They gave a Special Mention to Michael B. Jordan, star of "Fruitvale Station." The documentary jury awarded Denmark's Kaspar Astrup Schroeder with the Golden Eye for best documentary for "Lej En Familie A/S." Pakistan's "These Birds Walk" was singled out for a Special Mention. Below find a list of the event's other winners: Golden Eye for Best Film in the German-Language Feature Film Competition: "Finsterworld," Frauke Finsterwalder Golden Eye for Best Film in the Documentary Film Germany, Austria, Swizerland Competiton: "Neuland," Anna Thommen Svfj Critics Choice Award: "Finsterworld,...

Attendance up 22%; festival director Karl Spoerri talks about Zurich’s potential as a film finance hub.

The Zurich Film Festival’s ninth edition has given its Golden Eye for best international film to The Golden Cage (La Jaula De Oro) from Mexico’s Diego Quemada-Diez. The jury gave a special mention to actor Michael B Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.

The International Documentary Film winner was Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schroeder’s Rent A Family Inc. (Lej En Familie A/S). A special mention went to Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk from Pakistan.

The German-language competition awards went to Frauke Finsterwalder’s German feature Finsterworld and Anna Thommen’s Swiss documentary Neuland. A special mention went to Die Frau Die Sich Traut by Marc Rensing for feature and to Sabine Lidl’s Nan Goldin – I Remember Your Face for documentary.

Each of the awards comes with a $22,050 (CHF20,000) cash prize and...

In Karachi, Pakistan, an elderly man named Abdul Sattar Edhi runs a safe house for orphaned and abandoned children. Filmmakers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq spent three years shooting "These Birds Walk," which judging from the trailer below, features stunning cinematography to tell the moving story of a troubled country's lost children. From the synopsis: Omar is a young runaway boy in Karachi, Pakistan, whose life hangs on one critical question: what is home going to mean for him? Is it going to be in the urban streets where he has made his life, an unstructured home for runaways, or the difficult rural family life he has been trying to flee? And might Omar find an answer in the hardened young man Asad, himself a former street kid and now an ambulance driver for the humanitarian Edhi Foundation who helps the children at Omar's orphanage return to their homes, often...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

The full line up has been unveiled for the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Daniel Schechter’s Life Of Crime will open the 7th edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs Oct 24- Nov 2.

13 Arab feature films (seven of which are world premieres) will compete across different sections of the festival, including Rani Massalha’s Giraffada and Nejib Belkhadi’s Bastardo in the New Horizons Competition, Ahmed Abdallah’s Rags And Tatters and Hicham Ayouch’s Fevers in the Narrative Feature Competition, and Sherief Elkatsha’s Cairo Drive and Mohammad Soueid’s The Boy From Aleppo in the Documentary Feature Competition.

Tobe Hooper’s UAE horror Djin will screen in the festival’s Showcase section.

Films competing in the Narrative Feature Competition include Jun Robles Lana’s Barber’s Tales, Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Danis Tanovic’s An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker, Jasmila Zbanic’s [link...

Striking a poetic cord, These Birds Walk finds a symbiotic naturalism between those filming, newcomers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, and those being filmed, the unwanted children of Pakistan. Pakistan, more than any other country, feels like an innocent bystander to the draconian war on terrorism, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong set of circumstances. The Taliban found harbor in its borderlands, and the U.S. military marched in and took advantage of a government with few options. None of this is directly addressed in this impressionistic documentary, but by focusing on the most vulnerable and credulous demographic, it documents the heartbreaking aftereffects of the chaos imposed on Pakistan the past ten years. The behind-the-scenes setting is a safe home...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Far from stripped down, the massive 2013 edition will kick off with the world premiere of The Manor, a documentary by first-time Canadian director Shawney Cohen, about a Jewish family running a Guelph strip club. Growing in popularity and acclaim with each edition, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival is one of North America’s most anticipated film festivals and a haven for lovers of great documentaries — its sold-out screenings and long line-ups attest to the festival’s ever-growing importance and impressive status. Yesterday, Hot Docs unveiled its full line-up (which runs April 25th to May 5th) of 205 official selections from 43 countries, chosen from over 2,300 submissions, with 44 World premieres.

If the subjects and titles are any indication, it promises to be yet another fascinating year in documentaries. 2012 was highly successful for the festival with 9 of its selections making up the 15 documentaries shortlisted for the Best Feature Documentary at the recent Academy Awards.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, the Pakistani philanthropist, inspired filmmakers Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq to go to Pakistan to learn more about the man and his Edhi Foundation. When they got to the country, Edhi, who had originally welcomed them and promised full access, challenged Mullick and Tariq to instead look at the lives of people who work in or are supported by his organization. The Edhi Foundation has multiple programs, but among the many ways it serves is by providing ambulances in Pakistan.  There are also sorts of fostering-type facilities run by the nonprofit to house runaway boys. 

Thus, the two people the directors chose to follow in These Birds Walk are twentysomething ambulance driver Asad and young runaway Omar. Edhi shows up a few times, but is separate from the two stories we are told about Asad and Omar. This is striking, after Edhi pointedly remarks, "If you want to find me,...

Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq are among a handful of directors selected for Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” in 2012 who are taking their debut features to this year’s SXSW Film Festival (alongside Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye’s Our Nixon, Ornana’s euphonia and Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher). Mullick and Tariq’s These Birds Walk, an alumni of the Ifp Documentary Labs, is a moving and lyrical portrait of a home for young runaway boys and street children in Karachi, Pakistan, run by the humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi and his Edhi Foundation. The beautifully shot film (lensed by Mullick, a former photographer) was picked up by Oscilloscope prior to its …...

Banner news first: two days into the 10th annual True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri’s immensely likable documentary/hybrid-friendly showcase, the marquee title of the six films I’ve seen so far from the slate (three of which I saw before arriving) is Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk. The starting point is Abdul Sattar Edhi, a Pakistani humanitarian and founder of a number of shelters, rehab centers and other faculties for the dispossessed. As he washes naked runaway children, some pitifully scrawny, he says his philanthropic reputation and prominence mean nothing; to understand his work you have to understand common …...

As you might've guessed from our ongoing crystal ball look at what and who could be the Oscar contenders for next year, we've been focusing on the major categories thus far, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. And while we won't get to it, one category that always has plethora of strong competitors is the Best Documentary category. Could "These Birds Walk" be one that's talked about twelve months from now?That will be for prognosticators to decide, but until then we have the exclusive first clip from the film, which is energetic, raw and certainly beautiful. Filmed over nearly three years by co-directors Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq, the non-fiction feature centers on Omar, a young runaway boy in Karachi, Pakistan. He finds shelter in one of the homes of philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, and the film chronicles Omar's journey to find himself in the world, all...

It was announced today, in advance of the film’s screenings at True/False and SXSW, that Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s doc These Birds Walk had been acquired by Oscilloscope. The film is an alum of the Ifp Documentary Labs, and Mullick and Tariq were named to the 2012 list of Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces.” Check out the film’s trailer above.

Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq's upcoming documentary "These Birds Walk," has been acquired by Oscilloscope Laboratories, the company announced today exclusively to Indiewire. The film is set to world premiere at the upcoming True/False Film Festival and will screen at SXSW soon after. The company began its involvement with the just-completed film while it was still in production, marking the earliest the company has ever come aboard a project. "These Birds Walk" documents the heart-warming journey of a runaway child in Karachi, Pakistan in search for a home through the city's streets, orphanages, and the family that he originally ran away from. The film is the feature length directorial debut for Bassam and Mullick, who last worked as a cinematographer on the 2012  documentary short "Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman." Speaking about the acquisition, Oscilloscope's Dan Berger and David Laub (they both exec produced the...

There’s been a lot going on with our current crop of 25 New Faces, so I thought I’d do a quick catchup of recent goings on. Firstly, four feature projects by 2012 alums are playing at this year’s SXSW Film Festival: there’s a world premiere for Ornana’s first narrative feature, Euphonia, while Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick’s evocative documentary These Birds Walk (a world premiere at True/False later this month), Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher (which was actually shot in Austin) and Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye’s archival doc Our Nixon will continue their fest circuit runs there. (Incidentally, Lane and …...

Some of the best films of the 2012/2013 calender year from Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Bujalski, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Shane Carruth and Joshua Oppenheimer are among the headliner names for the 2013 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival. With a little over 100 plus film line-up (a whopping 2000+ titles were submitted), almost 70 are world premieres: there is the highly anticipated sophomore film (that has been on our radar since it first went into production) with M. Blash’s (The Wait), Joe Swanberg who makes SXSW his second home will premiere Drinking Buddies, veteran indie filmmaker John Sayles saddles in with Go For Sisters, and rounding out the Narrative Spotlight section we’ve got The Bounceback from Bryan Poyser, Loves Her Gun from Geoff Marslett along with titles we thought might break into Park City, but found an Austin home instead with Jacob Vaughan’s Milo and...

While not all films mentioned below are necessarily guaranteed future place among the Sundance Film Festival elite, it’s certainly a step in the right direction for the filmmakers and more importantly the producers backing the future of independent film. Among the eleven project participants below selected for the annual Creative Producing Labs and Creative Producing Summit (July 30 – August 3) in the Feature Film category we find such names as future superstars in Summer Shelton (she worked with Ramin Bahrani) and receives the first ever Bingham Ray Creative Producing Fellow, Tory Lenosky (worked as an assistant to Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen) and Lucas Joaquin (second unit producer for Beasts of the Southern Wild). Here is the full press release below.

Feature Film Creative Producing Lab

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab is a five-day Lab where narrative feature film producers work with an accomplished group of Creative Advisors to develop their creative instincts,...