SIFF’s Post

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to Brad Lee Zimmerman and Yuka Shirasuna, hosted by British Film Editors (BFE) to talk about their experience editing #BlueEyeSamurai.    I was particularly inspired by Yuka, who said that she applied for this job, even if she didn't have any experience in animation. Turns out they needed someone with experience in live-action! It is a powerful example of how important it is to go beyond our fears and rigid mental schemes. She also shared that during this first experience cutting an animation show, she could finally say: "Let's fix it in animation!", instead of hearing the usual "Fix it in post", often frustrating for us editors🙁    Anyway, live-action or animation, it's all about the story, and Blue Eye Samurai is surely a great one! I believe its strength lies in underlying the beauty of "impurity," mainly characterized by Mizu, a Japanese woman with blue eyes who is also a samurai. I guess we can all relate to this character, everyone with his own "impure" journey. I personally always believed that my multidisciplinary path was a weakness. Going from applied mathematics, music, digital graphics, and data science, to editing, I always felt I was not specialized enough to become an impeccable editor. Nevertheless, being film editing my true passion, I have no choice but to embrace this weakness, hoping to turn it into a strength, just like Mizu. On the other hand, a perfect samurai blade holds its structural integrity only if the metal retains some impurities, as stated by Mizu's sword master Eiji! #BFE #editing #animation #BlueEyeSamurai #thebeautyofimpurity

How We Made Noise with Make News When we set out to launch "Make News, Make Noise" Season 1 Showcase, our goal was simple: be unapologetically indie, painfully authentic, and speak directly to an audience we know—our people. The creators who aren’t afraid to fail fast, start over, and make the kind of art they *want* to make. We had to get real about our resources, so we bootstrapped this campaign video and leaned all the way into what we do best—telling honest stories with impact. It’s here that Zanah Thirus came in and gave our direction sharp focus. She dropped one line that became the seed for the entire campaign's manifesto: "Real indies deserve the big screen." That line was the game-changer. It wasn’t about trying to be more than what we are, but about leaning into our indie identity with purpose. Our strategy was never to over-promise production value we didn’t have, but to speak to the heartbeat of our community. We’re tired of the artificial, copy-paste narratives, and so is our audience. We’re speaking to the storytellers who define culture, not the ones who mimic it. Out of that came "Paper Route", our campaign manifesto led by Jordan our Creative Director (who is truly the coolest older Gen Z lol). It's a rallying cry for creators like us—hungry, creative, and driven by purpose. In every city, on every block, there’s a story waiting to be told. And we’re ready to fill the streets with stories that matter. Real indies deserve more than just the big screen—they deserve the respect of the industry. Check out the our manifesto Directed by Jordan (., and blessed by Production Coordinator Andrea Tangelo, and the Queen of Niche Copy Lauren Grant, and our designer Ashuni Perez and follow along because this is only the beginning. Special thanks to our friends at Seed&Spark, NextFoundArtist, Kinema & The Black TV & Film Collective. Did I mention that this is 100% women-led? Welp. #MakeNewsMakeNoise #IndieFilm #RealIndies #AmplifyVoices #CulturalStrategy #CommunityDriven #FilmCampaign

My review of Levan Akin’s thoughtful, melancholy and yet uplifting film Crossing, set in Istanbul, is in the current issue of The Times Literary Supplement

Robin Wright reunites with her "Forrest Gump" co-stars Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis in the new drama "Here." Based on the acclaimed graphic novel, the film explores family, love, and loss across generations. #Here #RobinWright #TomHanks #RobertZemeckis #ForrestGump #HereMovie #RobinWrightInterview #Movies #MovieNews #Entertainment #EntertainmentNews #Celebrities #Celebrity #CelebrityNews #CelebrityInterviews

Here is the official poster for my final film at KCAI: The Regressionist. This film is a multi-media, narrative self-portrait about different experiences in my life, and how they’ve shaped me as an artist. 💙

This is what GIS and data visualisation was made for!! #GIS #Data #Digital #LordOfTheRings

Most filmmakers knew Lynch for sexy noir cinematic greatness. I became a fan for different reason: The David Lynch Foundation In striving to be a better screenwriter with the double whammy of being deployed and female… I discovered that his foundation was the ONLY legit resource for artistic excellence in film that was accessible, for free, with zero bureaucracy, for veterans, even female ones. Lynch started one of the only .orgs I’ve ever found that did not exploit, control or mansplain to me. Because of Lynch, I FINALLY leaned to how meditate like a pro. Until, during aerial firefighting training in 2015, when, like so many other unmarried women in my unit, I was drugged, raped and left for dead by my “Band of Brothers” (allegedly 🙄) The abuse continues today, it’s a sport really. A side hobby for comfortable bureaucrats whose salaries, flight hours and golf games you foot a massive tax bill for while they violate the most basic Geneva Conventions again their own airmen to intentionally disable survivors for life. I have witnessed first hand how It’s the primary reason women veterans are dying by suicide at 12 times the rate of civilians. If this is you or someone you know don’t feel bad. Any human can be broken by a highly trained team of abusers, as long as congress continues to look the other way. What I learned from Lynch’s Foundation became the foundation of my survival strategy for the last decade. Because of Lynch. (plus the world class POW training given to high risk of capture aviators) I’m still alive, while other victims of my command are not. Don’t feel bad if you can’t mediate in silence. After violent trauma you may need headphones, blankeys, eye mask, grounding sheet plus some delta/theta waves and CBD/THC to find stillness again. But it CAN be done. And once you find a new system of survival, and a new rhythm, you WILL be a better writer. And perhaps, most importantly, a braver human. I never met Lynch (though of course I always hoped to be a “good enough” filmmaker to earn that privilege). I was too simple too country and too to blue collar to really understand his films. And yet, he saved my life. I can’t imagine a better epitaph.

Published by Culture Matters, here's the full transcript and audio of my interview with Palestinian director, Muayad Alayan, about his new film 'A House in Jerusalem' https://lnkd.in/ebCsEbnP

Step into the captivating world of film noir with David Muir's blog post. Explore the timeless questions of morality and society through iconic classics like "Double Indemnity" and "Bad Company." Dive into the darkness and intrigue of noir cinema by reading the full blog! Link in the comments 👇 #blog #filmnoir #classicmovies