shake hands with the devil Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In this week's edition of Indie Roundup, we look back on a busy week for acquisitions, upcoming film awards, and two fests.

Deals. The Garden, nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, was picked up by Oscilloscope and will be released to theaters in the spring and on DVD this summer, according to indieWIRE. Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, the film follows a long court battle to save the South Central Farm, a community produce garden that sprang up in the wake of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.

With the unfortunate demise of New Yorker Films, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's critically-acclaimed Three Monkeys will now be distributed by Zeitgeist Films. The theatrical release planned for this month will be delayed to April.

Other films receiving deals, per indieWIRE, with distributor and release dates noted: Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil (Regent Releasing, Summer 2009); Lee Isaac Chung's Munyurangabo (Film Movement, late May 2009); and John Walter's Theater of War (Alive Mind, April 2009)

Awards. What, you thought the Academy Awards had the final word? Still to come are the Cinema Eye Honors on Sunday, March 29. Given in celebration of nonfiction films and filmmakers, the nominees include cinematographers, editors, composers, and graphic designers.

Box Office. In its second week of release at a single theater in New York, Andrzej Wajda's historical drama Katyn increased its take, earning $14,206. That indicates strong word of mouth. "Katyn is the name of the forest where the Soviets secretly murdered 15,000 Polish officers, intellectuals and professionals over a 3-day period in 1940 (Wajda's father among them)," according to publicity materials for the film. Distributor Koch-Lorber Films has more information. The dramatic trailer is embedded below.

After the jump: A tale of two festivals: Tribeca and True/False.

Continuing awards season, Canada's film awards, The Genies, announced their nominees last night. It's no surprise that David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is leading the charge with 12 nominations, an honor it is sharing with Roger Spottiswoode's Rwandan Dallaire drama Shake Hands with the Devil. The other Canadian biggie, Sarah Polley's Away From Her, only scored itself 7 nods, which is a bit of a bummer. Regardless, there's a lot of great CanCon in there, and it should make for a difficult decision come March 3rd.

Catch some of the big nominees below, and the rest after the jump:

Best Motion Picture -- Away From Her, Continental, a Film Without Guns, Eastern Promises, Days of Darkness, Shake Hands with the Devil

Achievement in Direction -- Sarah Polley (Away From Her), David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises), Denys Arcand (Days of Darkness), Roger Spottiswoode (Shake Hands with the Devil), Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments)

Actor in a Leading Role -- Gordon Pinsent (Away From Her), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Marc Labreche (Days of Darkness), Claude Legault (The 3 Little Pigs), Roy Dupuis (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actor in a Supporting Role -- Gilbert Sicotte (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises), Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge (The 3 Little Pigs), Danny Glover (Poor Boy's Game), Michel Ange Nzojibwami (Shake Hands with the Devil)

Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Christie (Away From Her), Beatrice Picard (My Aunt Aline), Ellen Page (The Tracey Fragments), Anne-Marie Cadieux (You), Molly Parker (Who Loves the Sun)

Actress in a Supporting Role -- Kristen Thompson (Away From Her), Fanny Mallette (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Marie-Ginette Guay (Continental, a Film Without Guns), Laurence Leboeuf (Ma fille mon ange), Veronique Le Flaguais (Comment survivre a sa mere)

I don't know about you, but I get all my history and current events from the movies. Okay, that isn't exactly true, and I never trust or believe that Hollywood is 100% accurate with its dramatizations of true stories, but I will admit that I unfortunately absorb the "facts" presented in films a lot more than I do through viable sources. And I'm pretty sure that much of the world is the same or worse when it comes to believing what they see. Hotel Rwanda is one of those films that presents a real event previously unknown to a majority of Americans and serves as educator for them. Now it seems that everything the masses learned from the film might be incorrect.

Two years after the film's release, Hotel Rwanda is being disputed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who claims that the film tries to rewrite the history of his country's 1994 genocide. The main events of the film happened, but Kagame denies the heroism of Paul Rusesabagina, who was played in the film by Don Cheadle. He says that Rusesabagina's involvement was merely an accident and the U.N. forces are the real saviors of the refugees at Hôtel des Mille Collines. In terms of dramatic entertainment, this may not seem like a big deal, but considering the ignorance of many moviegoers, it is fair for Kagame and other Rwandans to be upset.

Now is the chance for Hollywood to get it right, I guess. The other day I reported on another Rwandan genocide movie called Shake Hands With the Devil. Based on the book by Romeéo Dallaire, which includes the shelter of and transfer from the Mille Collines but never mentions Rusesabagina, this film could get the story straight with Kagame if it wants to. My guess is that director Roger Spotiswoode will stick to the account of Dallaire alone and not get involved with other witnesses and survivors, but it is also my guess that Dallaire doesn't mess around with the truth too much.

After getting all weepy from watching Hotel Rwanda, I wasn't sure I could take another film about the Rwanda genocide. At least, not another dramatization of the tragedy, anyway. Rwanda is a well-made movie with excellent performances by Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, but it really tugs on the emotions with deliberate fists. More informative and more insightful is the documentary Shake Hands with The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire, which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2005. Dallaire, who was partially the model for Nick Nolte's fictional character in Rwanda, was the commanding officer for the U.N.'s presence during the devastating events of 1994, and the documentary is based on his book of the same name.

Now, for no reason other than documentaries aren't as popular, the book is being adapted into a dramatic film called, simply, Shake Hands With the Devil. The film will be directed by Roger Spotiswoode (The 6th Day) and will star Roy Dupuis (The Barbarian Invasion) as Dallaire. The book is pretty long and it covers a lot of ground so it is hard to imagine all of it fitting into a movie. Since docs can generally fit more exposition into a feature-length running time, you're better off seeing Peter Raymont's Sundance winner instead. But if you like being made to cry more than think, by all means wait for the new version.