At the inaugural Illuminate Film Festival, the nation’s first mind-body-spirit film festival, "Awake: The Life of Yogananda" earned the Audience Award for Best Film and "When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra and the Theramin" received the Director’s Choice Award.
During the Festival’s four-day run, attendance reached 3,000. Filmgoers attended 23 screenings that included 7 sell-outs. The event attracted 35 filmmakers and industry guests and featured 10 workshop presenters, 10 local outreach partner organizations, 12 local musicians and nearly 100 volunteers. Over 500,000 hits and more than 8,500 unique visitors viewed the Illuminate website during the month of May.
Other award winners were: "No Strangers," Audience Award for Best Short Film, and "May I Be Frank," Illuminate Impact Award.
“The overwhelmingly positive response from the filmmakers, filmgoers, sponsors and community to our inaugural festival was exhilarating and humbling,” said Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert. “I was barraged by audience members sharing profound breakthroughs, aha moments, acknowledgements of kindness and commitments to action for the enlightenment of themselves and their communities. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
Sophie Jane Mortimer, producer of "Song of the New Earth," said that “if the first year was this good, I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”
Armen Ra, whose film premiered in Sedona was also overwhelmed. “A spectacular screening and performance at Illuminate Film Festival,” he wrote. “This was the first festival that accepted our film. Sold out with waiting list, honey! Standing ovation, the most loving beautiful people … I am humbled over and over again. To the festival team and every single person who came, thank you. Sedona is sacred.”
"When My Sorrow Died" captured the story of Persian-American Theremin virtuoso Ra and his journey through his earliest years in Iran, to his wild time modeling and tearing up the New York drag scene to his recovery from alcohol addiction and emergence as a world-renowned master of the Theremin, the only instrument played without actually touching it. He performed after the film.
Tony Carito of Sedona commented, “Illuminate. This word will now be connected in my mind to the Illuminate Film Festival, a global conscious cinema movement. My personal experience involved only four of the 23 films, but I was profoundly moved by each and every one of them.”
In its Southwest Premiere, "Awake: The Life of Yogananda" a told the unconventional biography of the legendary East Indian mystic who introduced yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s.
"Awake" director Lisa Leeman wrote in an email that she was “so honored to have been part of the first Illuminate Film Festival. Lasting transformation happened in Sedona. It’s surreal to be back in La. “
"No Strangers" celebrated the wonder of world culture and the plight of indigenous people through the images and commentary of acclaimed photographers.
"May I Be Frank" is the true story of Frank Ferrante’s personal transformation. The 54-year-old, 290-pound Sicilian American from Brooklyn with Hepatitis C handed his life over to the 20-something owners of a raw-vegan San Francisco restaurant who committed him to changing his ways over 42 days.
Illuminate also featured the world premieres of
• "Death Makes Life Possible," a beautiful and ground-breaking journey produced by Deepak Chopra, MD, and Marilyn Schlitz, PhD through one of life’s most taboo topics: death.
• "On Meditation," a fascinating portrait series offering a rare glimpse into how meditation transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures including director David Lynch, actor Giancarlo Esposito ( "Do the Right Thing," "The Usual Suspects") and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, and late author Peter Mathieson.
• "Dance of Liberation," the visually stunning, inspirational journey of Parashakti, a lost and broken young woman transformed into a powerful soul healer, who bravely tries to mend her deepest childhood wound along the way.
For more information, visit www.ILLUMINATEFilmFestival.com...
During the Festival’s four-day run, attendance reached 3,000. Filmgoers attended 23 screenings that included 7 sell-outs. The event attracted 35 filmmakers and industry guests and featured 10 workshop presenters, 10 local outreach partner organizations, 12 local musicians and nearly 100 volunteers. Over 500,000 hits and more than 8,500 unique visitors viewed the Illuminate website during the month of May.
Other award winners were: "No Strangers," Audience Award for Best Short Film, and "May I Be Frank," Illuminate Impact Award.
“The overwhelmingly positive response from the filmmakers, filmgoers, sponsors and community to our inaugural festival was exhilarating and humbling,” said Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert. “I was barraged by audience members sharing profound breakthroughs, aha moments, acknowledgements of kindness and commitments to action for the enlightenment of themselves and their communities. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
Sophie Jane Mortimer, producer of "Song of the New Earth," said that “if the first year was this good, I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”
Armen Ra, whose film premiered in Sedona was also overwhelmed. “A spectacular screening and performance at Illuminate Film Festival,” he wrote. “This was the first festival that accepted our film. Sold out with waiting list, honey! Standing ovation, the most loving beautiful people … I am humbled over and over again. To the festival team and every single person who came, thank you. Sedona is sacred.”
"When My Sorrow Died" captured the story of Persian-American Theremin virtuoso Ra and his journey through his earliest years in Iran, to his wild time modeling and tearing up the New York drag scene to his recovery from alcohol addiction and emergence as a world-renowned master of the Theremin, the only instrument played without actually touching it. He performed after the film.
Tony Carito of Sedona commented, “Illuminate. This word will now be connected in my mind to the Illuminate Film Festival, a global conscious cinema movement. My personal experience involved only four of the 23 films, but I was profoundly moved by each and every one of them.”
In its Southwest Premiere, "Awake: The Life of Yogananda" a told the unconventional biography of the legendary East Indian mystic who introduced yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s.
"Awake" director Lisa Leeman wrote in an email that she was “so honored to have been part of the first Illuminate Film Festival. Lasting transformation happened in Sedona. It’s surreal to be back in La. “
"No Strangers" celebrated the wonder of world culture and the plight of indigenous people through the images and commentary of acclaimed photographers.
"May I Be Frank" is the true story of Frank Ferrante’s personal transformation. The 54-year-old, 290-pound Sicilian American from Brooklyn with Hepatitis C handed his life over to the 20-something owners of a raw-vegan San Francisco restaurant who committed him to changing his ways over 42 days.
Illuminate also featured the world premieres of
• "Death Makes Life Possible," a beautiful and ground-breaking journey produced by Deepak Chopra, MD, and Marilyn Schlitz, PhD through one of life’s most taboo topics: death.
• "On Meditation," a fascinating portrait series offering a rare glimpse into how meditation transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures including director David Lynch, actor Giancarlo Esposito ( "Do the Right Thing," "The Usual Suspects") and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, and late author Peter Mathieson.
• "Dance of Liberation," the visually stunning, inspirational journey of Parashakti, a lost and broken young woman transformed into a powerful soul healer, who bravely tries to mend her deepest childhood wound along the way.
For more information, visit www.ILLUMINATEFilmFestival.com...
- 6/17/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Our dear friend Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert has such a great idea here for this new and exciting Festival in beautiful Sedona Arizona.
1st Mind-Body-Spirit Film Fest Offers World Premieres, View & Do Experiences, Healing Village, Workshops.
The inaugural Illuminate Film Festival will blend 22 transformative films, 15 enlightening speakers and workshops, a healing village and an innovative “view and do” experience for moviegoers to more deeply process and integrate what they see on screen while surrounded by Sedona’s stunning backdrop and transformative, healing qualities, May 29-June 1.
The first-of-its-kind mind-body-spirit film festival “is at the forefront of an exploding global conscious movement connecting the film industry to a growing, identifiable, interconnected community of conscious consumers,” said Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert, who spent five years as Miami International Film Festival Associate Director. “While industry festivals currently exist for most niche genres, one, surprisingly, does not exist for mind-body-spirit. With conscious cinema on the verge of exploding, the time is now and the opportunity is unparalleled.”
Illuminate showcases paradigm-busting, consciousness-expanding narrative features, documentaries and shorts including inspirational human journey stories and themes related to wellness, self-discovery, consciousness, body-mind science, yoga, meditation, spirituality, organic and plant-based food movements and sustainable living.
The full selection of films, guests, events and workshop speakers will be announced in early April.
Among the confirmed commitments:
• The World Premiere of Death Makes Life Possible, presented by world-renowned author, speaker and executive producer Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, former President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the film’s co-director. This exceptional documentary explores ‘the inevitable’ and appeals to anyone with questions about life, death and what’s next.
• The Festival World Premiere of On Meditation, a fascinating portrait series that offers a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures including: director David Lynch, a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (Tm); film and television actor Giancarlo Esposito, (Do the Right Thing , The Usual Suspects, King of New York, and drug kingpin Gustavo "Gus" Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad); three-time National Book Award-winner and prominent environmental activist Peter Matthiessen; six-term Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, author of A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit; and esteemed Hatha Yoga master Elena Bower.
• The Sedona Premiere of When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra & the Theremin, followed by a soul-shifting performance/sound journey by Ra, the legendary Iranian-Armenian musician. Known for both his exceptional artistry and his eccentric theatrical appeal, Ra has performed in esteemed venues including the United Nations and Lincoln Center, and has appeared on CNN, HBO, MTV, VH1 and in Vogue, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and Glamour. The film took home Best Film and Best Documentary awards at the Byron Bay International Film Festival.
• The world’s first Conscious Filmmaker Convergence, a half-day film industry program for notable and aspiring mind-body-spirit filmmakers featuring workshops and panels with Betsy Chasse, director of What the Bleep Do We Know?; Illuminate board member Nicole Guillemet, former Co-Director of the Sundance Film Festival and 360 Degree Communications, a leading boutique marketing firm whose projects include What Dreams May Come , The Way, Peaceful Warrior, The Cove ,Fuel , Finding Joe and The Celestine Prophecy .
Among others expected to make appearances or presentations at the Festival are Dr. Chopra, Armen Ra and Parashakti, founder of the Dance Liberation movement.
Additional festival features include:
• View & Do: A New Concept in Movie-Going: to enrich the movie-going experience and enable audiences to process what they witness on screen, the "Reel Healing Series" will include a comprehensive "View and Do" experience for participants to enjoy a hand-selected, soul-inspiring movie coupled with an immersive workshop by a skilled practitioner for a deeper integration of the movie's message.
• Healing Village: offering samplings and services of the region’s best health and wellness practitioners including massage therapists, meditation guides, Reiki specialists, sound healers, Ayurvedic consultants, astrologers and more. Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old system of traditional natural healing with origins in India.
Board of Advisors Brings Key Industry Experience
The Illuminate Board of Advisors includes highly experienced film-festival and film-industry professionals and experts including: • Nancy Schafer , former executive director, Tribeca Film Festival • Nicole Guillemet, former co-director, Sundance Film Festival and former director, Miami International Film Festival • Sarah McLean, founding director, McLean Meditation Institute • Steven C. Beer, entertainment and sports attorney • Bill Stankey, president, Westport Entertainment Associates representing clients including Joy Behar, Gayle King, Ty Pennington and Bob Greene.
Illuminate films will be screened at Sedona’s state-of-the-art Mary D Fisher Theater, Creative Life Center and the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
For more information, visit www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.
1st Mind-Body-Spirit Film Fest Offers World Premieres, View & Do Experiences, Healing Village, Workshops.
The inaugural Illuminate Film Festival will blend 22 transformative films, 15 enlightening speakers and workshops, a healing village and an innovative “view and do” experience for moviegoers to more deeply process and integrate what they see on screen while surrounded by Sedona’s stunning backdrop and transformative, healing qualities, May 29-June 1.
The first-of-its-kind mind-body-spirit film festival “is at the forefront of an exploding global conscious movement connecting the film industry to a growing, identifiable, interconnected community of conscious consumers,” said Illuminate Founder and Executive Director Danette Wolpert, who spent five years as Miami International Film Festival Associate Director. “While industry festivals currently exist for most niche genres, one, surprisingly, does not exist for mind-body-spirit. With conscious cinema on the verge of exploding, the time is now and the opportunity is unparalleled.”
Illuminate showcases paradigm-busting, consciousness-expanding narrative features, documentaries and shorts including inspirational human journey stories and themes related to wellness, self-discovery, consciousness, body-mind science, yoga, meditation, spirituality, organic and plant-based food movements and sustainable living.
The full selection of films, guests, events and workshop speakers will be announced in early April.
Among the confirmed commitments:
• The World Premiere of Death Makes Life Possible, presented by world-renowned author, speaker and executive producer Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, former President and CEO of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the film’s co-director. This exceptional documentary explores ‘the inevitable’ and appeals to anyone with questions about life, death and what’s next.
• The Festival World Premiere of On Meditation, a fascinating portrait series that offers a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures including: director David Lynch, a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (Tm); film and television actor Giancarlo Esposito, (Do the Right Thing , The Usual Suspects, King of New York, and drug kingpin Gustavo "Gus" Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad); three-time National Book Award-winner and prominent environmental activist Peter Matthiessen; six-term Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, author of A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit; and esteemed Hatha Yoga master Elena Bower.
• The Sedona Premiere of When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra & the Theremin, followed by a soul-shifting performance/sound journey by Ra, the legendary Iranian-Armenian musician. Known for both his exceptional artistry and his eccentric theatrical appeal, Ra has performed in esteemed venues including the United Nations and Lincoln Center, and has appeared on CNN, HBO, MTV, VH1 and in Vogue, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and Glamour. The film took home Best Film and Best Documentary awards at the Byron Bay International Film Festival.
• The world’s first Conscious Filmmaker Convergence, a half-day film industry program for notable and aspiring mind-body-spirit filmmakers featuring workshops and panels with Betsy Chasse, director of What the Bleep Do We Know?; Illuminate board member Nicole Guillemet, former Co-Director of the Sundance Film Festival and 360 Degree Communications, a leading boutique marketing firm whose projects include What Dreams May Come , The Way, Peaceful Warrior, The Cove ,Fuel , Finding Joe and The Celestine Prophecy .
Among others expected to make appearances or presentations at the Festival are Dr. Chopra, Armen Ra and Parashakti, founder of the Dance Liberation movement.
Additional festival features include:
• View & Do: A New Concept in Movie-Going: to enrich the movie-going experience and enable audiences to process what they witness on screen, the "Reel Healing Series" will include a comprehensive "View and Do" experience for participants to enjoy a hand-selected, soul-inspiring movie coupled with an immersive workshop by a skilled practitioner for a deeper integration of the movie's message.
• Healing Village: offering samplings and services of the region’s best health and wellness practitioners including massage therapists, meditation guides, Reiki specialists, sound healers, Ayurvedic consultants, astrologers and more. Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old system of traditional natural healing with origins in India.
Board of Advisors Brings Key Industry Experience
The Illuminate Board of Advisors includes highly experienced film-festival and film-industry professionals and experts including: • Nancy Schafer , former executive director, Tribeca Film Festival • Nicole Guillemet, former co-director, Sundance Film Festival and former director, Miami International Film Festival • Sarah McLean, founding director, McLean Meditation Institute • Steven C. Beer, entertainment and sports attorney • Bill Stankey, president, Westport Entertainment Associates representing clients including Joy Behar, Gayle King, Ty Pennington and Bob Greene.
Illuminate films will be screened at Sedona’s state-of-the-art Mary D Fisher Theater, Creative Life Center and the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
For more information, visit www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.
- 4/24/2014
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
The 21st annual Chicago Underground FIlm Festival, which ran April 2-6 at the Logan Theatre, has announced their list of award winners.
Winners were decided by a three-panel jury that included Brian Chankin, owner of the Odd Obsession Movies video store in Chicago; Alison Cuddy, the arts and culture reporter for Wbez 91.5 FM Chicago Public Media; and Mike Everleth, editor of the Underground Film Journal.
In total, the jury gave out eight official awards, which are listed below. In addition, given the incredibly strong lineup of films that screened at the festival, a total of 11 Honorable Mentions were also given out, and are listed below as well.
To add a personal note, it was a pleasure and and honor to serve on the jury with Brian and Alison, and our decisions came to us fairly easily, which is a testament to the strength of the work that was made and...
Winners were decided by a three-panel jury that included Brian Chankin, owner of the Odd Obsession Movies video store in Chicago; Alison Cuddy, the arts and culture reporter for Wbez 91.5 FM Chicago Public Media; and Mike Everleth, editor of the Underground Film Journal.
In total, the jury gave out eight official awards, which are listed below. In addition, given the incredibly strong lineup of films that screened at the festival, a total of 11 Honorable Mentions were also given out, and are listed below as well.
To add a personal note, it was a pleasure and and honor to serve on the jury with Brian and Alison, and our decisions came to us fairly easily, which is a testament to the strength of the work that was made and...
- 4/9/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 21st annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, which will run April 2-6 at the Logan Theater, will be extra special this year. Why? Because Mike Everleth, the Executive Editor of the Underground Film Journal, is sitting on this year’s festival jury! And looking over the fest lineup below, he is incredibly excited to witness this visual extravaganza of revolutionary cinematic madness. (Other jurors are Brian Chankin, Therese Grisham and Alison Cuddy.)
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
- 3/28/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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