Havana, Havana! a new film by David Grubin will premiere on PBS this week, Friday, July 27th at 9pm EST as part of the PBS Summer Arts Festival

Check Your Local Listings for Details

ABOUT THE FILM
This music-documentary vibrates with the soul and energy of African-Cuban drummers, guajira guitarists, and the pulsing melodies of celebrated Cuban musician Raul Paz. Paz brings together fellow musical stars Descemer Bueno, Kelvis Ochoa and David Torrens for a concert in Havana. All of them left Cuba years ago, and their decision to return has injected a new spirit into Cuban music. Mirroring Cuba’s growing relationship with the world, HAVANA, HAVANA! highlights how the country’s musical expression is evolving in the 21st century.

For more information, and behind the scenes videos visit the Havana, Havana! website

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York will be screening The Buddha this month as part of their Wednesday lunchtime documentary series “LunchMatters”. It will be followed by a Q&A with David. We hope you can make it!

Full event details:

Wednesday, March 14th 2012
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, New York NY 10011

We’re excited to announce that David’s feature film, Downtown Express, will be showing at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan starting April 20th. We’d love to see you there! Click here for more information.

As part of their Fair Use Without Fear! workshop project, UnionDocs will be screening The Buddha on Saturday, October 29 at 8pm. It will be followed by a Q&A with David.

Click here and here for more information.

About Fair Use Without Fear!
Saturday, October 29 at 4:00pm
Copyright has become a terrifying word, as copyright problems have floated into everyone’s daily life. Bloggers, filmmakers, photographers, teachers, students and remix artists face daily decisions about how to handle copyrighted material when they use it in their work. This session features insights from a leading scholar of fair use and from creators with both questions and answers.

BMI staged its “Music in Film” panel during the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival on September 24 at Utopia Studios in Woodstock, New York. An annual tradition since the festival’s inception in 2000, the panel was a frank and lively discussion about the creative aspects of music in film; the composer/director relationship; the unique concerns created by new media music use; and more.

BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross moderated the conversation, which drew on insight from composer George S. Clinton (Austin Powers, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee); music supervisor Sue Jacobs (Little Miss Sunshine, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly); Amy Rosen, Vice President and Director of Music Supervising, Grey Advertising; director Alex Steyermark (Losers Take All, Prey for Rock & Roll); composer Michael Bacon (Downtown Express, Boy Interrupted); and director David Grubin (Downtown Express).

Source

Robert M. Young and David Grubin’s haunting documentary “William Kurelek’s The Maze” is a film that was literally forty years in the making. Begun in 1969, the cinematic biography of Canadian artist William Kurelek was finally completed after lost footage was recovered.

The film’s titular work is a symbolic painting of the interior of the artist’s skull. Details such as scientists examining a body in a test tube or a cat-o’-nine-tails which serves as a tongue make the viewer wonder what sort of life experiences could inspire such images. Young and Grubin decode the painting’s disturbing imagery through animation and interviews with the Kurelek family. The answers involve a father who fetishized material success and mental breakdown necessitating electroshock treatment.

The film chronicles Kurelek’s search for tranquility through his art and life. Yet ironically even when he finds a measure of peace, the shadow of past miseries lurks underneath his placid surface.
Peter Wong, BeyondChron

The Maze will be shown on Oct 12 at 7.15PM and Oct 15 at 5.15PM.

More information:
The Maze at Mill Valley Film Festival
The Maze Official Site

We’re pleased to announce that David’s first feature film, Downtown Express has been selected for the Woodstock Film Festival, FilmColumbia, and opening night at the Cinema Arts Festival in Houston.

This fall, David will be a visiting professor at Columbia University, teaching a course in producing documentaries.

Thank you to everyone who voted for The Buddha in the Webby Awards. Excitingly, The Buddha earned both the Peoples Voice and the Jury prize! It would not have been possible without your support, so thank you once again.

View all the winners here.