Miami New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Miami, Florida

In When Liberty Burns, Local Filmmakers Reminisce About the Life of Arthur McDuffie

By Tamica Jean-Charles

Mar 6, 2020

"When Liberty Burns" looks at the life and death of Arthur McDuffie while examining the history of race relations in Miami.

Mariana Di Girolamo and Gael García Bernal in Ema.

From Sociopaths to Sincere Storytelling, Miami Film Festival 2020 Offers Several Worthwhile Watches

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Mar 5, 2020

Pablo Larraín’s "Ema," starring Mariana Di Girolamo and Gael García Bernal, is a standout selection from the festival's 2020 edition.

In Time, a wife and husband devise a plan that will haunt their family for decades.

Time and Mucho Mucho Amor Top Miami Film Festival 2020's Documentary Offerings

By April Dobbins

Mar 4, 2020

The cinema gathering's 2020 documentary lineup includes "Time" and the Walter Mercado feature "Mucho Mucho Amor." Both films premiered at Sundance and offer captivating perspectives on unique lives.

Miami Film Festival Announces Lineup for 2020 Edition

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Feb 3, 2020

This year's offerings include a screening of the Walter Mercado documentary "Mucho Mucho Amor" and an appearance by "Midsommar" director Ari Aster.

Taraji P. Henson in This Changes Everything.

Miami Film Festival Calls for Gender Parity in Hollywood — as It Works Toward Equality Itself

By Ciara LaVelle

Feb 28, 2019

The Miami Film Festival's opening night documentary, "This Changes Everything," is a bold call for gender equality in the film industry. It cites devastating statistics that measure women's participation in some roles as low as 2 percent, and includes testimony from directors, producers, television network executives, and women actors from...

Bandleader Rey Mambo and his wife Lynita playing on South Beach.

The Mamboniks Follows Mambo-Obsessed Jewish Youths in 1950s Miami Beach

By Celia Almeida

Feb 27, 2019

As millions of young people across the country became transfixed by Elvis Presley's hip shaking, a subculture of young, Jewish, New York-to-Miami Beach transplants looked past the blues and country-tinged sounds coming out of the American South, leaning instead toward the tropical beat of pre-revolution Cuba. This is the story pf the Mamboniks.

Bill Murray Documentary Headlines the Miami Independent Film Fest

By Luis Gomez

Jul 11, 2018

You’ve heard about the Bill Murray urban legends. Now watch the supposed witnesses tell the tales on camera when The Bill Murray Stories makes its Miami premiere at the third annual Miami Independent Film Festival.

Isabelle Huppert on Barry Jenkins and Showing Her Comic Side

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Mar 13, 2018

On March 16, Miami Film Festival will honor one of the most talented actresses in modern cinema. The night will reflect on an extensive career that spans more than a hundred films, highlight one of her latest leading roles, and finish with a birthday celebration on the stage of the Olympia Theater. This performer is Isabelle Huppert.

Blake Jenner (left) and Nick Eversman in Juvenile.

Blake Jenner Brings Juvenile to Miami Film Festival — for Real This Time

By Hans Morgenstern

Mar 8, 2018

Last year, around this time, Blake Jenner, the actor most people know for playing the dyslexic golden boy Ryder Lynn on Glee, was to make a homecoming at last year's Miami Film Festival. Jenner, who grew up in Kendall, was traveling from his home in Los Angeles for the world premiere of his first script turned into a movie...

Miami Film Festival 2018: The Best Events This Year

By Juan Antonio Barquin and Hans Morgenstern

Feb 28, 2018

Happy birthday to Miami Film Festival — it's finally fully legal. In its 35th year, the fest will show 148 films on movie screens around Miami, as well as host parties, dinners, panel discussions, and other celebrations of cinema in South Florida. Even the most devoted moviegoer couldn't see and do it all. But if you're looking for a place to start, check out New Times' best bets.

Rene De Dios (center) was more than a shark fisherman — he was a local legend.

Rene De Dios and the South Beach Shark Club Recalls Shark Fishing in Old Miami Beach

By Travis Cohen

Feb 26, 2018

Before there was the South Pointe Pier most Miamians know, there was the First Street Pier. Back then, locals could cut bait, cast, and fish at their leisure from the pier. But as Miami Beach began to draw more tourists, the city began encroaching on the fishermen who had long called the pier home.

Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben at the Miami Film Festival.

Rakontur Unveiled Its Upcoming Projects at Miami Film Festival 2017

By Hans Morgenstern

Mar 13, 2017

The Miami Film Festival event Straight Out of Miami: Rakontur Previews New Work, which took place at Regal South Beach, began with the most pressing question of the night. Festival documentary programmer Thom Powers asked Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman: "What the fuck have you been doing?"

A scene from Scenes From Our Young Marriage.

How Ronald Baez Turned a Failed Feature Into an Intimate Short Film

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Mar 10, 2017

Sometimes failure leads to success. With the short film Scenes From Our Young Marriage, filmmaker Ronald Baez learned that lesson. What began as a feature production became a lengthy journey to create a short film that would screen at Borscht's West Kendall International Film Festival and the Miami Film Festival this year.

Miami Film Festival 2017: Google Seminar Series Offers Advice for Women in Film

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Mar 7, 2017

“Do not wait for permission,” film critic Rebecca Theodore-Vachon urged at this weekend’s Miami Film Festival. The Google Seminar Series on Gender & Racial Gaps in Film & Tech, which featured festival programmer Kiva Reardon moderating conversations with five women in the industry, emphasized that advice.

Dubfire: Above Ground Level Takes Viewers Inside a DJ's World

By David Rolland

Mar 7, 2017

"A lot of DJ documentaries have a glossier perspective of what we do. I wanted a warts-and-all perspective," Dubfire says of his aim for the new documentary, Dubfire: Above Ground Level. The 77-minute movie, which will screen at the Miami Film Festival Wednesday night, begins with a career retrospective showing Dubfire's first snippets of fame...

José María Cabral on the set of Carpinteros (Woodpeckers).

Woodpeckers Tells a Dominican Love Story From Inside Najayo Prison

By Mario Ariza

Mar 7, 2017

José María Cabral is a 28-year-old Dominican film director whose fifth movie, Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), will be screened at the Miami Film Festival this Friday, March 10. The feature, set in the Dominican Republic’s infamous Najayo prison, tells the story of two lovers forced by distance and incarceration to use sign language to communicate.

Billy Corben always has his eyes on Miami.

Billy Corben on Rakontur's New Projects: "Florida Has Unlimited Characters"

By Chris Joseph

Mar 7, 2017

"It's been two years since we've released anything," director Billy Corben says of himself and Rakontur producing partner Alfred Spellman. After a brief pause, he laughs and rhetorically asks, "It's like, what the fuck do these guys do for a living?" Corben is reluctant to share what exactly he's been...

Rossy de Palma Wowed Her Audience at the Miami Film Festival

By Juan Antonio Barquin

Mar 6, 2017

Not a soul in the world who has seen one of Rossy de Palma's performances will be surprised to know that every ounce of energy and charisma the Spanish actress brings to her work is a part of her natural being. That fact was proven beautifully at Miami Film Festival’s riveting Saturday-night event, An Evening With Rossy de Palma.

Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On shows the struggles of porn's female directors.

Hot Girls Wanted's Ronna Gradus on Miami's Role in the Porn Industry

By Ciara LaVelle

Mar 3, 2017

In "Women on Top," the episode of the new Netflix docuseries Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On that screens Tuesday as part of the Miami Film Festival, two women struggle with the conventions of modern pornography from their careers behind the camera. Holly Randall, daughter of the pioneering Playboy photographer Suze Randall, fights to produce glossy, traditional porn shoots on budgets that have been slashed in the wake of free online porn. Erika Lust, faced with a dearth of erotica made with women in mind, makes her own sexy films based on real women's fantasies.

Cargo Premieres to Miami Film Festival's "Pan-Caribbean" Crowds

By Hans Morgenstern

Mar 3, 2017

There is probably no better place for the world premiere of Bahamian filmmaker Kareem J. Mortimer’s latest movie than the Miami Film Festival. With a cast and crew representing an array of islands in the Caribbean, Cargo focuses on an American exile with a gambling addiction in Nassau who takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate act to support his family.

Miami Film Festival

Local Filmmakers Headline Miami Film Festival

Directors Joe Talbot and Stella Meghie Speak Candidly About Moviemaking

I support

Keep New Times Free.

This Week's Issue