In The Forgotten Kingdom, Atang (Zenzo Ngqobe) is a thuggish young man living in the South African city of Johannesburg. After finding that his estranged father has died, he makes the long journey back to his ancestral homeland of Lesotho…
Category: News
AIFF 2013: Curfew
During the 12th Ashland Independent Film Festival, audiences were lucky enough to see three of the 85th Academy Award nominated short films, including the film that took home this year’s award, Curfew. Curfew is a darkly funny short, and I…
AIFF 2013: The Story of Luke
“Grandma said that I defy clinical categorization, I am just as special as anyone else, maybe even a little bit more,” explains Luke (Lou Taylor Pucci) about his autism. That explanation may even be the best way to describe The…
AIFF 2013: Buzkashi Boys and Asad
Three shorts in this year’s festival were nominated for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Though “Curfew” was hailed as champion, the other two films were nothing short of masterpieces. In the theater I overheard one…
AIFF 2013: Shephard and Dark
Sometimes the old ways are best. So it goes in “Shephard and Dark”, a documentary featuring the written correspondence of two best friends over the course of several decades. Their friendship and history through letters details two interesting lives, but…
6th annual SOAR conference to showcase work of SOU students and faculty
The 6th annual Southern Oregon Arts and Research conference is fast approaching, providing an opportunity for Southern Oregon University students and faculty to show off the work they’ve been doing over the past year. Here’s a quick overview of…
Ashland Independent Film Festival 2013 Award Winners
The Ashland Independent Film Festival announced the 2013 juried and audience award winning films at a gala Awards Celebration at the Historic Ashland Armory on Sunday, Apr. 7. Twelve awards were presented to attending filmmakers, honoring their work screened at…
AIFF 2013: The Kings of Summer
The Kings of Summer, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and written by Chris Galleta, tells the story of teenaged best friends Joe and Patrick who spontaneously decide to abandon their awkward, boring and parent-dominated lives to build their own “kingdom” in…
AIFF 2013: From Nothing, Something – A Documentary On The Creative Process
From Nothing, Something is perhaps (in my opinion from what I’ve seen) the documentary of this year’s Ashland Independent Film Festival. The documentary, directed by Tim Cawley, chronicles the creative process. But where this diverges from most creativity based documentaries,…
AIFF 2013: Jake Shimabukuro – Life On Four Strings
“When I’m on stage, all I want to do is connect with people…” narrates Jake Shimabukuro over video of him performing for senior citizens in Sedai, Japan. It’s a common sentiment expressed by musicians, but perhaps it rings more true…