"Under the Sun": meta-film based on North Korean propaganda about its wonderful family life, a big sell-out at festivals in the US

I found the film “Under the Sun” already sold out when I tried to buy tickets for AFI-Docs , so I will have to wait for a theatrical release, DVD, or streaming on Amazon or Netflix (for my Wordpress blog, which I’ve explained before).

But CNN has a story by Brian Todd and Dougal McDonald on the original attempt to make an “invitation film” with director Vitaly Mansky of “family life” inside North Korea, focusing on the life and growth of a particular eight-year-old girl, Zin-Mi.  The CNN excerpt video shows child and adult actors being prodded to act with “joy”.  The trailer follows,



Note the slogan, “We do not envy”.  Like, “thou shalt not covet”.

The finished film for the US will be a “meta-film” about the attempt to make a propaganda film for North Korea.

Hollywood Reporter has a review here, and Variety here.

Wikipedia attribution link for Juche Tower picture by Martyn Williams under CCSA 2.5

Remembering Anton Yelchin, and his character Charlie Bartlett

Russian born (St. Petersburg) actor Anton Yelchin was killed in a freak accident when his own car rolled into him against a wall or fence at his home on Sunday morning.

Yelchin, 27, had a long resume of films, including many Star Trek movies.  One of my favorites was “Charlie Bartlett” (2007), a Sidney Kimmel company film for MGM directed by Jon Poll, where he plays a kid who himself plays psychiatrist in a public school.  I remember seeing the film at the old legacy National Amusements complex in Merrifield that was torn down for the new residential and business complexes, including the new Angelika Mosaic Theater.



His Jeep Cherokee had slipped into neutral and apparently rolled downhill when he though it was in park.  The car had only recently been recalled.  

"A Seaborne Cizenry": The HMS Braak

Since I’ve started reviewing major films on my Wordpress blog, here’s another incidental minor one.

“A Seaborne Citzenry: The DeBraak and Its Atlantic World: The Royal Navy of Great Britain” is a history of the British Royal Navy (going back to the time when Scotland’s was separate) and the role of a particular Dutch ship, the HMS Braak, in the late 18^th Century.  Note the title of the film has a double article in it. 

  

It is shown at the Zwannendael Museum in Lewes, DE, which I visited today. And, “It’s Free”.