Masters
A Murder in Mansfield Barbara Kopple International Premiere Now 38, Collier Boyle returns to his home town of Mansfield, Ohio, where as a 12-year-old boy, he was a prosecution witness in the trial of his father John. The elder Boyle was charged with the murder of Collier’s mother Noreen on New Year’s Eve 1989. After the trial, John was found guilty and Collier lost touch with every member of his family except his manipulative, narcissistic father, who still exerts power over him. To come to terms with his past, Collier revisits the places and people that were significant at the time: his childhood home, his high school, the court, the head of the investigation, his adoptive parents and his mother’s best friend, culminating in a confrontation with his father in prison. Collier’s memories come to life in the video reports of the trial in 1990, family photos, the heartrending letters he wrote to his father as a teenager, and shots from a drone flying above the snow-covered city. A Murder in Mansfield is a sensitive portrait of a brave man struggling to free himself from the burden of the past, revealing the far-reaching effects of a violent crime.
United States, 2017 DCP, color, 84 min Director: Barbara Kopple Cinematography: Gary Griffin, Tony Hardmon Editing: Rob Kuhns Sound: Jonathan Jackson Production: David Cassidy, Ray Nowosielski,
Barbara Kopple, Maureen Dougherty, John Morrissey for Cabin Creek Films Executive Production: Barbara Kopple, David Cassidy, Collier Landry, Diana Sperrazza Screening Copy: Cabin Creek Films
Barbara Kopple:
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976), Keeping on (1983), American Dream (1990), Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson (1993), Woodstock ‘94 (1998), A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999), My Generation (2000), Bearing Witness (2005), Havoc (fiction, 2005), Shut Up and Sing (2006), High School Musical: The Music in You (2007), The DC Sniper’s Wife (2008), Woodstock: Now and Then (2009), The House of Steinbrenner (2010), Gun Fight (2011), A Force of Nature (2011), Running from Crazy (2013), Hot Type: 150 Years of the Nation (2015), Miss Sharon Jones! (2015), Shelter (2015), This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (2017) a.o.
Masters
One of Us Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady The opening shot sums up the story: Hasidic Jews, dressed in their best—the men with their distinctive hats and sidelocks, the women with white scarves and wigs, all dressed identically, as if we’re still in the 19th century—stand on the banks of the East River looking across at the enticing Manhattan skyline. But the gulf between this extremely isolated religious community and the secular world on the other side is far wider than the river can symbolize. We follow the story of three protagonists over several years as they struggle to leave the Hasidim and build a life in the secular world. They pay a high price to make the transition, plagued by threats, rejection, addiction and loneliness. ‘The Hasidic community is designed so you cannot leave.” The makers of Jesus Camp (2006) previously exposed indoctrination by evangelical Christians. The Hasidim come off even worse.
United States, 2017 DCP, color, 95 min Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady Cinematography: Jenni Morello, Alex Takats Editing: JD Marlow, Enat Sidi Music: T. Griffin Production: Heidi Ewing for Loki
Films, Rachel Grady for Loki Films
World Sales: Netflix Screening Copy: Netflix
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Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing:
The Boys of Baraka (2005), Jesus Camp (2006), 12th & Delaware (2010), Detropia (2012), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016)
Heidi Ewing:
Dissident: Oswaldo Paya and the Varela Project (2003)
Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing & others:
Freakonomics: The Movie (2010)