Angelina Jolie’s ‘First They Killed My Father’ opens Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach this weekend
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- Published on Thursday, 14 September 2017 04:16
- Written by Pasadena Star News
The lineup varies from full-length films that touch on the deadly Khmer Rouge regime, horror, comedy and even a live stand-up show.But in one way or another, all of the films in the upcoming Cambodia Town Film Festival aim to celebrate both the resilience and the vibrant artistic spirit of the Cambodian community.“I’m am so happy to see Cambodian film moving forward at such a fast pace,” said praCh Ly, a Long Beach hip-hop artist who co-founded the festival along with filmmaker Caylee So.“It’s a whole collection of different stories and vivid tales,” he added.The fifth annual festival takes place at the Art Theatre in Long Beach with about a dozen films screening Sept. 16-17.It launches on Sept. 14 with a private filmmakers’ reception followed the next day by a public launch party.The films begin at 11 a.m. Saturday with the Angelina Jolie-directed drama “First They Killed My Father.”The movie is an adaptation of Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung’s memoir of surviving the Khmer Rouge regime as a child.Ung will be there after the film for a Q&A session.“It’s going to be a full house on our opening screening,” Ly predicted.Besides full-length features, the Saturday lineup also includes shorts like the 24-minute long “Float,” co-directed by Seattle-based couple Tristan Seniuk and Voleak Sip.The first-time directors call the story a love letter to the 1990s, since it’s set in that era.It follows a Cambodian-American named Rocky Mang. He’s a bit of a wannabe gangster and “man of the streets,” who is just too family-oriented and sensitive for a full-on life of crime.Plus, he’s trying desperately to hook up with a girl who works at a coffee stand.“We’re pretty excited about it (being part of the festival), because it’ll play in front of an audience that has a lot of, hopefully, Cambodian viewers,” said Seniuk, noting that the film includes jokes and family dynamics that Cambodian-Americans will instantly recognize.“It’s a family story but there are some very specifically Cambodian moments in there,” Sip added.
The first day closes with an all Cambodian-American stand-up show dubbed “The Khmers of Comedy.” Ly said the comedy is yet another way to showcase the diversity of Cambodian art, and this will be a little edgy.“The live stand-up show is a bit explicit, but it’s going to be hilarious. It’s a great way to end Saturday night,” Ly said.The festival starts at 11 a.m. the following day with a gripping documentary called “A Cambodian Spring.” Shot over the course of six years, the film offers a look at modern-day Cambodia through the lives of three people caught up in land-rights protests and other issues that come with the development that’s now shaping the country.Ly said this is one of his top two favorite documentaries in the festival, with the other being the film that follows it called “Surviving Bokator,” by Canadian filmmaker Mark J. Bochsler.The documentary looks at Cambodia’s ancient martial art of Bokator, which was nearly eradicated by the Khmer Rouge 40 years ago.Bochsler followed the efforts of genocide survivor San Kim Sean as he returns to Cambodia after learning that Bokator was unknown to many young Cambodians.He eventually opened the Bokator Academy in the capital city of Phnom Penh.Bochsler found out about Bokator while working on another film project in Cambodia and became fascinated by the long history of the relatively little-known martial art.He said one of the goals of the film was to expose those not familiar with Cambodia to this aspect of the culture.“The goal is just to provide a different face to Cambodia. Because until visiting Cambodia and stumbling on to the story my perception of the country, like many people, was the association with the genocide and the poverty and these sorts of things,” he said, referring to the country’s violent past.“I shot the film over five years and really got to know the country well and really saw a side of Cambodia that was full of life, full of positivity, with a positive outlook on the world,” he said.
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Angelina Jolie Reveals Her Hopes For Her Six Children
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 September 2017 19:13
- Written by Just Jared
Angelina Jolie arrives for the Women in the World summit on Monday (September 11) in Toronto, Canada.The actress, director, and humanitarian spoke about her six children, who joined her at the Toronto Film Festival for her premieres this week.“I hope they’re being raised to see the value of diversity, the value of other people. They ask the questions we’re all asking. They see what’s happening in Syria or in Myanmar and they ask why, and we’re all trying to find the same answers,” Angelina said. “I will look for all different ways to communicate about their histories and really to teach them.” “We homeschool and I’m very very aware of their education, mostly very aware of what’s lacking. For example it’s very important to me my daughter Zahara doesn’t start learning about her history through the civil rights movement in America, that’s not how she begins to learn about herself as a young African-American,” Angelina continued. “She needs to learn about the great history of Africa and who she is…and not start with the civil rights (movement).”
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Amal Clooney Did NOT “Reject” Angelina Jolie “Peace Offering,” Despite Reports
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 September 2017 10:42
- Written by Gossip Cop
Amal Clooney did not “reject” a “peace offering” from Angelina Jolie, nor did the Oscar winner extend an “olive branch” to the human rights lawyer. These are false claims being spread online by two sister outlets. And now Gossip Cop can expose them both.On its website, Star is announcing, “Dissed! Amal Clooney Rejects Angelina Jolie’s Peace Offering.” In the article, the tabloid declares, “Amal Clooney does not want to be friends with Angelina Jolie. George Clooney’s wife has snubbed mother-of-six Jolie after she reached-out to her.” According to the gossip magazine, the actress “tried to mend their friendship,” but Clooney was “not interested.” A so-called “insider” is quoted as saying, “Angie went out of her way to try and mend fences, reasoning there’s a lot of water under the bridge and life’s too short for petty grudges. But Amal was bemused at the suggestions she would want to socialize with a woman she barely knows – let alone has any respect for! She turned her down flat!” For a similarly-written story, RadarOnline is blaring, “Cold Shoulder: No Thanks! Amal Clooney Snubs Angelina Jolie’s Olive Branch For Friendship.” The post is penned almost the exact same way, with the subtlest of word changes. For instance, instead of just “George Clooney’s wife,” as Star says, this piece uses the phrase, “George’s Clooney’s British lawyer wife.” But line by line, the claims are the same. Like its print counterpart, the webloid goes on to assert, “This snub infuriated Jolie who thought that her approach would be warmly welcomed at a time when she admitted that her divorce from Brad Pitt has been very difficult.” And both outlets quote the “insider” as claiming, “She’s got no idea why Amal and George for that matter have an issue with her. Angie wanted them to be friends since they have so much in common and Brad’s not standing in the way anymore. But now she accepts it’s not going to happen.” Absurdly, RadarOnline ends its version by saying, “To make matters worse the Clooneys were recently photographed with Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso in Italy recently,” as if the actors promoting a movie with their spouses should have any bearing on Jolie. More importantly, though, is that both publications are peddling the same allegations because they were seemingly made up by the same company, in which the staffs of its individual outlets apparently share resources, including manufactured claims. Though the tabloids have spent years trying to push a Jolie-Clooney feud narrative simply because the women aren’t close friends, there’s no truth to these two new stories about the movie star extending a “peace offering” and “olive branch,” only to be “rejected” and “snubbed” by the attorney. A rep for the Clooneys even confirms to Gossip Cop that the articles have no merit and are fictional.
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Family affair! Angelina Jolie is a bombshell in black as she poses with her six children and child stars of First They Killed My Father at TIFF
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- Published on Tuesday, 12 September 2017 10:28
- Written by Daily mail
It's been nearly a year since her split from Brad Pitt.But if she's still harboring any rancor, not a shred of it showed in her face when she hit the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday.The 42-year-old beamed while wearing a slinky black dress at the Canadian premiere of First They Killed My Father, which she's directed, co-written and co-produced.She was joined by her six children, the eldest of whom - son Maddox - was adopted from Cambodia where the film is set, and is one of the movie's executive producers. Joining 16-year-old Maddox were 13-year-old son Pax, 12-year-old daughter Zahara, 11-year-old daughter Shiloh and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.Kimhak Mun and Sareum Srey Moch, child actors who star in the movie, posed with Angelina and her six children, as well as with Luong Ung, whose story the film tells.First They Killed My Father is adapted from the harrowing 2000 memoir of the same name by Cambodian writer Loung.It recounts her life as a child in the 1970s under the brutal Khmer Rouge, as she and her family struggled to survive the murderous regime of Pol Pot.Luong attended Monday's premiere in a stylish pair of white slacks she'd teamed with an off-the-shoulder black blouse, rounding out the look with black shoes. Angelina shot the movie on location in Cambodia - the country from which she'd adopted Maddox, who's one of six executive producers of the film listed on IMDb. Variety reported Monday that the film will start playing this Friday in 10 American movie theaters, though it's still scheduled to go on Netflix on Friday as well.Angelina adopted Maddox in 2002, three years before she began her relationship with Brad, though Brad later adopted him and he's now Maddox Jolie-Pitt.It was in 2005 that Brad infamously left his first wife Jennifer Aniston for Angelina, and that was also the year Angelina adopted Zahara, whom Brad also soon adopted.Shiloh, Angelina and Brad's first biological child, was born in 2006, and the next year Angelina adopted Pax, whom Brad adopted once he was stateside, owing to a law in Pax's native Vietnam whereby unwed couples couldn't jointly adopt, per People.Brad and Angelina's biological twins were born to them in the South Of France in 2008, six years before the couple started a marriage that ruptured last year.Off the shoulder at the right side, Angelina's premiere dress on Monday featured a sash of black fabric and a nearly full sleeve at the left, plus an asymmetric hem.Balancing on a pair of black heels, she'd slicked her hair back and wound it into a ponytail, accessorizing the ensemble with a pair of drop earrings.Whilst outside at the premiere, Angelina was seen gracefully posing for a selfie with a fan, as well as signing an autograph for another one.Cambodian documentarian Rithy Pahn, one of Angelina's fellow producers on the movie, arrived at the premiere in a black suit, matching black hat and white shirt.Angelina posed affectionately with Rithy, standing behind him with her hands at his shoulders as the two of them smiled for the cameras.The pair seemed to be having a ball on the premiere red carpet, Rithy pointing playfully as Angelina gestured toward herself, bending a bit at the waist.First They Killed My Father had its Cambodian premiere in Siem Riep on February 18, and its American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on September 2.Held at the Princess Of Wales Theatre in Toronto's Entertainment District, Monday's premiere has been part of a chockablock day for Angelina in Canada.She also spoke that day at The Women In The World Canada Summit, where the lineup included none other than incumbent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Tina Brown, who went from editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair to editor-in-chief of The New Yorker to founder of The Daily Beast, interviewed Justin, per Maclean's.According to The Canadian Press as run online by The Toronto Star, Angelina said at the Women In The World Canada Summit: 'There’s just so much for all of us to do and the first and foremost is we have to just get the best education.'She's explained: 'With all that’s accessible to us sometimes we get completely overwhelmed and we don’t know what to believe and what to do, so I’m just trying to listen to other women, I’m trying to lend my voice where possible. We all need to do, I think, even more than we’ve ever done because we’re at a very dark time.'
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Family Fun! Angelina Jolie Steps Out with 5 of Her 6 Kids to the Toronto Film Festival
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- Published on Monday, 11 September 2017 03:18
- Written by People
Angelina Jolie made a stop at the Toronto Film Festival a fun family outing when she brought five of her six kids to the Sunday premiere of The Breadwinner.Wearing a white dress, Jolie walked the carpet with Pax, 13; Zahara, 12; Shiloh, 11, and twins Knox and Vivenne, both 9. They linked up with the film’s director Nora Twomey as well as Saara Chaudry, who voices the character of Pavana in the animated film. She also signed autographs for gathered fans and stopped to take selfies with the gathered crowd.Jolie’s Sunday stop at the film festival wasn’t just about supporting The Breadwinner, which she also produced — the actress-turned-director is taking part in a public conversation about her career later in the day. (Javier Bardem, Gael Garcia Bernal and Helen Mirren are taking part in similar talks.) Jolie is also getting ready for the Toronto premiere of her latest directorial project, Netflix’s First They Killed My Father, which is earning rave reviews. Last weekend, she took all six of her children — including eldest son Maddox, 16, to the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado for another premiere of the new film.First They Killed My Father is based on Cambodia human rights activist Luong Ung’s memoir, which documents her experience as a young girl under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge. The film is a passion project for Jolie, who said she was motivated to make the film by Maddox, who was born in Cambodia.
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