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sexual abuse Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Now Playing at Cinematical Indie: Amy Berg on the Catholic Church Payout, John Sayles Gets an Award, and the Scoop on Mandy Lane

Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Casting », Deals », Celebrities and Controversy », Distribution », The Weinstein Co. », Family Films », Movie Marketing », Politics », Michael Moore », Lists », Cinematical Indie »


Have you been reading Cinematical Indie lately? If not, here's what you've been missing ...


INDIE FILM GRAB BAG


FEST NEWS

  • Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Fest announces its lineup, which includes some retro films (Grease, Raiders of the Lost Ark). It's Michael Moore's fest, so it's a given that there are plenty of social-issue films, but there will also be other fest fare like Waitress, Paprika and The King of Kong.
  • Heading to a slightly more exotic locale, news from the Thessaloniki Film Festival is that the fest will be honoring one of Monika's fave directors, John Sayles, with a "Golden Alexander." The fest will also screen the European premiere of Sayle's latest film, Honeydripper (Monika wrote earlier this month about Honeydripper being selected for Toronto ... busy year for Sayles.
  • The Middle East International Film Festival, announced at Cannes earlier this year, has a Festival Director: film fest veteran Jon Fitzgerald, who helped launch Slamdance and has worked for AFI and, well, lots of other fests. The fest will be held in October in Abu Dhabi, and the main site of the fest is the truly stunning Emirates Palace. Seems like the organizers of the fest intend to make it a major business-oriented fest with lots of deal-making going on ... it will be interesting to see how Fitzgerald grows the fest, and if it eventually becomes a key fest for dealmakers -- kind of like the Toronto or Sundance of the Middle East. Interesting ...
  • The AFI Dallas Film Fest has announced its call for entries for 2008, the second year of the fest, so get your films submitted.
  • Cinematical Indie gears up for our coverage of the major fall film fests, Telluride, Toronto and Venice.

DEALS and DISTRIBUTION

  • Just when we got all excited about the July 20 release of one of our fave flicks from Toronto last year, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, things got curiouser and curiouser, culminating with the announcement that -- too bad, so sad -- we're going to have to wait until 2008 for the film's official release now. Wha --? Poor Mandy -- first, she didn't get a freaking poster until two weeks before her release date, then she got dumped by the Weinsteins' Dimension and acquired by Senator Entertainment. But never fear, the Brothers Weinstein have a positive spin on the bizarre dumping of the film, saying that Senator will give Mandy a wider release than they had planned for her, and Senator already owned her German rights anyhow ... and there's less competition in the film's new release slot (and, just maybe, the horror genre will recover from the dreadful opening of Captivity by then -- though Elisha Cuthbert's career may not). Ah, Mandy. The guys dying to see the film will just have to wait a while longer ... but I guess as long as a girl is trading up, it's all good.
  • Speaking of the Weinstein boys, The Weinstein Company (TWC) also acquired Benny Chan's Invisible Target ... and Peter Martin ponders whether this one might head straight to DVD ...
  • Here! Films picks up Tribeca player Fat Girls, while First Run (finally, it's about time someone did) acquires one of my own fave Sundance flicks, For the Bible Tells Me So.
INDIES ONLINE AND ON DVD

Cinematical Indie Exclusive: Deliver Us From Evil Director Amy Berg on Mahony's $660 Million Payout

Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Lionsgate Films », Politics », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »

A couple days ago, Cardinal Roger Mahony, bishop of the Los Angeles diocese, made a public apology to the over 500 victims of alleged sexual abuse by priests he was in charge of, and announced a $660 million payout to the victims. While Father Oliver O'Grady, the priest profiled in the documentary Deliver Us From Evil, was not one of the priests this specific settlement dealt with, the film, directed by Amy Berg, has played a crucial role in bringing the issue to light and drawing the attention of the district attorney's office to Mahony.

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart played a brief clip of Mahony's apology, in which he said he was sorry to "anyone who might have been offended ... " Offended, as Stewart noted, hardly seems the right word to use when you are supposedly apologizing to people who were sexually molested as children by priests under your charge. I emailed Berg this morning about the payout, her film's impact on the case, and Mahony's apology, and this is what she had to say (Berg's response in its entirety is after the jump ... ):
 
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