Saturday, February 26, 2011

Help EVEN THE RAIN to Get to More Theatres: Go This Weekend

We are making a big push today to get word out about Even the Rain/Tambien La Lluvia across the country - and we need your help. If people don't see it this weekend we may not be able to stay in theatres or get new ones.

People are asking how can I see it in Arizona, Texas, Florida. The answer is that you who have seen it need to tell friends in cities where the film is open, TO GO THIS WEEKEND!

If you've seen the film please tell friends, share links, share the event on Facebook, e-mail friends, write a review on
imdb.com, yahoo.com, fandango.com or any site in your city!

You can also get an e-flyer for the film off of our website to forward to friends.

Here is a clip from Even the Rain. In the film within a film, Sebastian, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, is holding an open casting call to find extras for the film. Because they are shooting cheaply in Bolivia they are using Quechua indigenous people instead of the Taino people of the Caribbean that Columbus encountered in real life. This is one of the ironies that screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Bread and Roses) infuses into the script which juxtaposes the abuses of the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago with the exploitation that continues today.


Monday, February 21, 2011

"The People’s Alternative Academy Awards: 2010 PROGIE AWARDS FOR BEST PROGRESSIVE FILMS & ARTISTS

2010 PROGIE AWARDS FOR BEST PROGRESSIVE FILMS & ARTISTS

The Awards Honor Outstanding Films and Artists of Conscience and Consciousness

Los Angeles, Feb. 21, 2011 – A Spanish film about a peoples power uprising in Bolivia has swept the James Agee Cinema Circle’s fourth annual “Progie” Awards for Best Progressive Films and Filmmakers of 2010. Upon receiving word Even The Rain screenwriter Paul Laverty declared: “I like the sound of best Anti-Fascist film very much!! I'll take that to the grave with pride… I must tell all our compañeros in Cochabamba too... sure they will feel honored.”

The James Agee Cinema Circle is a new international, independent umbrella group of lefty film critics, reviewers, scholars and historians dedicated to raising public awareness about films dealing with political, social and cultural issues such as: Human rights, workers’ struggles, women’s rights, environmentalism, ethnic rights, free speech, gay rights, civil liberties, immigrant rights, people’s activism and peace. The JACC annually presents The Progies to the year’s Best Progressive studio features, indies, documentaries and artists. The Progies are the “un-Oscar”, the “people’s alternative Academy Awards,” honoring movies and talents of conscience and consciousness.

2010’s Progie Award winners reflect the protest and strike wave stretching from Tunisia to Wisconsin, including: Even The Rain’s 4 Progies include The Trumbo for Best Progressive Picture; Naomi Watts won the Karen Morley Best Progressive Actress Progie for Fair Game; the Matt Damon Iraq War drama The Green Zone won the Renoir for Best Anti-War Progie; The Wall Street expose Inside Job won the Dziga for Best Progressive Documentary Progie; the British feminist strike drama Made In Dagenham earned the Our Daily Bread Progie for best progressive working class portrayal; Jean-Luc Godard won the Sergei Progie for Best Progressive Lifetime Achievement, while his latest work Film Socialisme received the Langlois Progie for Best Progressive Film Deserving U.S. Theatrical Release. The Fighter’s Mark Wahlberg and Casino Jack’s Kevin Spacey tied in the Garfield Best Progressive Actor category.

Below is a complete list of all of the 2010 Progies winners, followed by the nominees in every category. Each Progie is awarded in a category named after a great cinema artist or film that made a contribution to movies that inspire, enlighten and entertain audiences.

Ed Rampell, author of Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States, and other members of the James Agee Cinema Circle are available for comment and interviews with the press.

THE TRUMBO: The Progie Award for BEST PROGRESSIVE PICTURE is named after Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a member of the Hollywood Ten, who was imprisoned for his beliefs and refusing to inform. Trumbo helped break the Blacklist when he received screen credit for “Spartacus” and “Exodus” in 1960.

Winner: Even The Rain
Other nominees:
Social Network,
Casino Jack, Made In Dagenham

THE GARFIELD: The Progie Award for BEST ACTOR in a progressive picture is named after John Garfield, who rose from the proletarian theatre to star in progressive pictures such as “Gentleman's Agreement” and “Force of Evil,” only to run afoul of the Hollywood Blacklist.

Winners: Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter and Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack

Other nominees: James Franco, Howl, Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

KAREN MORLEY AWARD: The Progie Award for BEST ACTRESS in a film portraying women in a progressive picture is named for Karen Morley, co-star of 1932’s “Scarface” and 1934’s “Our Daily Bread.” Morley was driven out of Hollywood in the 1930s for her leftist views, but maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for New York’s Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

Winner: Naomi Watts, Fair Game

Other nominees: Sally Hawkins, Made In Dagenham

THE RENOIR: The Progie Award for BEST ANTI-WAR FILM is named after the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir, who directed the 1937 anti-militarism masterpiece “Grand Illusion.”

Winner: The Green Zone

Other nominees: Route Irish
(scripted by Paul Laverty), Miral

THE GILLO: The Progie Award for BEST PROGRESSIVE FOREIGN FILM is named after the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, who lensed the 1960s classics “The Battle of Algiers” and “Burn!”

Winner: Even The Rain

other nominees: Tears Of Gaza

THE DZIGA: The Progie Award for BEST PROGRESSIVE DOCUMENTARY is named after the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov, who directed 1920s nonfiction films such as the “Kino Pravda” (“Film Truth”) series and “The Man With the Movie Camera.”

Winner: Inside Job

Other nominees: Client 9, South Of The Border

OUR DAILY BREAD AWARD: The Progie Award for the MOST POSITIVE AND INSPIRING WORKING CLASS SCREEN IMAGE is named after King Vidor’s 1934 classic about an American collective farm, which starred Karen Morley and was produced by Charlie Chaplin.

Winner: Made In Dagenham

Other Nominees:
Even The Rain
, The Fighter

THE ROBESON: The Progie Award for the BEST PORTRAYAL OF PEOPLE OF COLOR that shatters cinema stereotypes, in light of their historically demeaning depictions onscreen. It is named after courageous performing legend, Paul Robeson, who starred in 1936’s “Song of Freedom” and 1940’s “The Proud Valley,” and narrated 1942’s “Native Land.”

Winner: Even The Rain

Other nominees: Night Catches Us, Miral, Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench, Frankie & Alice

THE SERGEI: The Progie Award for LIFETIME PROGRESSIVE ACHIEVEMENT ON- OR OFFSCREEN is named after Sergei Eisenstein, the Soviet director of masterpieces such as “Potemkin” and “10 Days That Shook the World.”

Winner: Jean-Luc Godard

Other nominees: Sean Penn
, Mike Leigh, Ed Asner

THE BUNUEL: The Progie Award for the MOST SLYLY SUBVERSIVE SATIRICAL CINEMATIC FILM in terms of form, style and content is named after Luis Bunuel, the Spanish surrealist who directed 1929’s “The Andalusian Dog,” 1967’s “Belle de Jour” and 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”

Winner: The Social Network

Other nominees: Enter the Void, Hitler in Hollywood

THE PASOLINI: The Progie Award for BEST PRO-GAY RIGHTS film is named after Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who directed 1964's “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” and “The Decameron” and “The Canterbury Tales” in the 1970s.

Winner: The Kids Are Alright

Other nominees: I Love You Philip Morris

THE LAWSON: The Progie Award for BEST ANTI-FASCIST FILM is named after John Howard Lawson, screenwriter of 1938’s anti-Franco “Blockade” and the 1940s anti-nazi films “Four Sons,” “Action in the North Atlantic,” “Sahara” and “Counter-Attack,” and one of the Hollywood Ten.

Winner: Even The Rain

Other nominees: The King’s Speech, Casino Jack, The Last Circus

THE LANGLOIS: For BEST PROGRESSIVE PICTURE DESERVING THEATRICAL RELEASE IN THE US and distribution in other countries and platforms is named after film archivist Henri Langlois, co-founder of Paris’ Cinémathèque.

Winner: Film Socialisme

Amigo, Vlast, Cleveland Versus Wall Street, Nostalgia For The Light, The Housemaid

Sunday, February 20, 2011

'Even the Rain' (Tambien La Lluvia) Wins Panorama Audience Award at Berlin Film Festival

Berlin, February 19, 2011

The day after 'Even the Rain' opened in the United States, the film was honored with the Berlin Film Festival Panorama section Audience Award. On behalf of the filmmakers, of 'Even the Rain' screenwriter Paul Laverty issued this statement upon learning that the film won the Audience Award in Berlin:


IT IS A GREAT HONOUR TO RECEIVE THIS PRIZE FROM THE PUBLIC AND WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THEM ALL FOR THEIR SUPPORT. WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO THANK THE FESTIVAL FOR THE THEIR HOSPITALITY AND EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR THEIR HARD WORK AND KIN

DNESS TO US.


ABOVE ALL WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE PEOPLE OF COCHABAMBA IN BOLIVIA WHO INSPIRED THE STORY. MANY OF THEM FACED TEN YEARS AGO IN THE WATER WARS WHAT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS NOW FACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA. ORDINARY CITIZENS SICKENED BY CORRUPTION AND POVERTY NOW RISK LIFE AND LIMB FOR BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS. WE SALUTE THEIR COURAGE AND THE HOPE THEY

GIVE US.


HOWARD ZINN, THE HISTORIAIN TO WHOM THIS FILM IS DEDICATED, ONCE SAID, "NOT TO BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF DRAMATIC CHANGE IS TO FORGET THAT THINGS HAVE CHANGED, NOT ENOUGH OF COURSE, BUT ENOUGH TO SHOW WHAT IS POSSIBLE. WE HAVE BEEN SURPRISED BEFORE IN HISTORY. INDEED, WE CAN DO THE SURPRISING."

THANK YOU,


PAUL LAVERTY - WRITER

ICIAR BOLLAIN - DIRECTOR

JUAN GORDON - PRODUCER

About the Film:

A Spanish film crew arrives in Bolivia to make a film about Columbus in the New World. Idealistic director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal, The Motorcycle Diaries) wants to denounce the injustices of the past, focusing on exploitation of the indigenous people. Practical producer Costa (Luis Tosar, Cell 211), working on a tight budget, has chosen Bolivia, one of Latin America's poorest countries, to stand in for Santo Domingo because extras will work for only $2 a day.


After an open casting call almost degenerates into a riot, Sebastian hires outspoken Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) to play the rebel Indian leader. But when the locals begin demonstrations against a multinational's plans to privatize water-even the rain-Daniel is in the thick of them, endangering the film's shooting schedule.


The thought-provoking screenplay by frequent Ken Loach collaborator Paul Laverty (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) cunningly parallels the Spanish conquest of the Americas with the modern spread of capitalism. This fascinating mixture of past and present, fiction and fact, features spectacular scenes of the period film within a film. Directed by Icíar Bollaín (Take My Eyes).


How did the Morena Films crew work with the Bolivian community in Cochabamba?
Producer Juan Gordon and director Iciar Bollain explain in this
video. View the trailer for Even the Rain.

Read more about the award
Find Even the Rain in a theatre near you.