Liberty Film Festival
Encyclopedia
Founded in July of 2004 by American independent filmmakers Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty
, the Liberty Film Festival took place primarily in West Hollywood, CA and was active between 2004 and 2008. The LFF screened over 80 films, of which approximately fifty were premieres and thirty achieved distribution,, with events attracting over 12,000 attendees. Best Film winners at the Liberty Film Festival included: In the Face of Evil: Reagan’s War in Word and Deed, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, and Border War. During its active years the LFF also hosted tributes to directors Cecil B. DeMille
, Raoul Walsh
, John Ford
, and Fritz Lang
, actors John Wayne
, Ronald Reagan
, and Charlton Heston
, and novelist Ayn Rand
. Festival speakers included Frank Price, former President of Columbia Pictures
and Universal Studios
, Joel Surnow, Creator and Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning TV series 24, actors Robert Davi
(License to Kil) and Morgan Brittany
(Melrose Place), writer/director David Zucker (Airplane!), writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh
(ABC's The Path to 9/11), film critics Richard Schickel
and Michael Medved
, screenwriter Paul Guay (Liar Liar), Kurdish-Iraqi director and human rights activist Jano Rosebiani
(Jiyan), and a number of other film and media professionals.
The Liberty Film Festival received extensive media coverage in: The LA Times, New York Times,, Washington Post, USA Today, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Human Events, and Townhall.com; the LFF was also featured numerous times on ABC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, AMC, CSPAN, NPR, and also on the UK’s BBC
, France's Canal Plus, Japan's NHK
, Italy's RAI
, and Dutch national TV.
The Liberty Film Festival has continued on in the form of its on-line film magazine Libertas, originally founded in January of 2005 by Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty
. LA Times film columnist Patrick Goldstein has called Libertas “a must read.”, and New York Times film critic A.O. Scott has called Libertas “insightful as well as provocative.” In 2007, the site was voted one of the top three culture blogs on the internet. Libertas went on hiatus in the summer of 2008, returning in 2010 as Libertas Film Magazine (LFM). LFM broke news in 2010 with its coverage of a major controversy: MGM's re-editing of the Red Dawn remake, with Libertas providing what is currently the only review of the original, uncensored version of the film. LFM's reporting on the Red Dawn story was featured in Variety, The LA Times and elsewhere.
Libertas Film Magazine garnered widespread attention soon after its re-launch. Los Angeles Times film columnist remarked that "Libertas Film Magazine, a newly revived version of the blog that set the standard for smart conservative film writing and in its first weeks of new life has already easily surpassed Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood." Govindini Murty
, co-editor of Libertas, appears weekly on the Lars Larson
national radio talk show to discuss film.
Govindini Murty
Govindini Murty is an Indian American actress and writer. She has been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and is currently the Co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine....
, the Liberty Film Festival took place primarily in West Hollywood, CA and was active between 2004 and 2008. The LFF screened over 80 films, of which approximately fifty were premieres and thirty achieved distribution,, with events attracting over 12,000 attendees. Best Film winners at the Liberty Film Festival included: In the Face of Evil: Reagan’s War in Word and Deed, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, and Border War. During its active years the LFF also hosted tributes to directors Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
, John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, and Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, actors John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, and Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, and novelist Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
. Festival speakers included Frank Price, former President of Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, Joel Surnow, Creator and Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning TV series 24, actors Robert Davi
Robert Davi
Robert John Davi is an American actor and singer. He has played such roles as Vietnam veteran and Special Agent Johnson in Die Hard, the villainous Jake Fratelli in The Goonies, and Al Torres in Showgirls...
(License to Kil) and Morgan Brittany
Morgan Brittany
Morgan Brittany is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her role in the 1980s primetime soap opera Dallas, where she portrayed Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes.-Early career:Under her birth name, Brittany...
(Melrose Place), writer/director David Zucker (Airplane!), writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh
Cyrus Nowrasteh
Cyrus Nowrasteh , born September 19, 1956, is an American screenwriter and director of theatrical films, television shows, and made-for-TV movies. He is best known for his involvement in the controversial docudrama The Path to 9/11.- Biography :...
(ABC's The Path to 9/11), film critics Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
and Michael Medved
Michael Medved
Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
, screenwriter Paul Guay (Liar Liar), Kurdish-Iraqi director and human rights activist Jano Rosebiani
Jano Rosebiani
Jano Rosebiani is a Kurdish/American film director and self-taught auteur of film with international, intercontinental and cross-cultural themes, in which diverse mores, values and traditions may be converged to make for a festive experience for the senses....
(Jiyan), and a number of other film and media professionals.
The Liberty Film Festival received extensive media coverage in: The LA Times, New York Times,, Washington Post, USA Today, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Human Events, and Townhall.com; the LFF was also featured numerous times on ABC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, AMC, CSPAN, NPR, and also on the UK’s BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, France's Canal Plus, Japan's NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
, Italy's RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, and Dutch national TV.
The Liberty Film Festival has continued on in the form of its on-line film magazine Libertas, originally founded in January of 2005 by Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty
Govindini Murty
Govindini Murty is an Indian American actress and writer. She has been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and is currently the Co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine....
. LA Times film columnist Patrick Goldstein has called Libertas “a must read.”, and New York Times film critic A.O. Scott has called Libertas “insightful as well as provocative.” In 2007, the site was voted one of the top three culture blogs on the internet. Libertas went on hiatus in the summer of 2008, returning in 2010 as Libertas Film Magazine (LFM). LFM broke news in 2010 with its coverage of a major controversy: MGM's re-editing of the Red Dawn remake, with Libertas providing what is currently the only review of the original, uncensored version of the film. LFM's reporting on the Red Dawn story was featured in Variety, The LA Times and elsewhere.
Libertas Film Magazine garnered widespread attention soon after its re-launch. Los Angeles Times film columnist remarked that "Libertas Film Magazine, a newly revived version of the blog that set the standard for smart conservative film writing and in its first weeks of new life has already easily surpassed Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood." Govindini Murty
Govindini Murty
Govindini Murty is an Indian American actress and writer. She has been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and is currently the Co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine....
, co-editor of Libertas, appears weekly on the Lars Larson
Lars Larson
Lars Larson is a conservative U.S. talk radio show host based in Oregon. Larson hosts a national talk radio show, which as of 2009 is syndicated by Compass Media Networks...
national radio talk show to discuss film.
External links
- Official Liberty Film Festival site
- LFF Co-Founder Govindini Murty's Wikipedia pageGovindini MurtyGovindini Murty is an Indian American actress and writer. She has been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and is currently the Co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine....