The Liberty Film Festival was an American film festival founded by independent filmmakers Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty in July 2004 and was active until 2008, but the efforts of the organization continue via ''Libertas Film Magazine.''
History
Founded in July 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. During its active years the LFF also hosted tributes to directors
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
,
Raoul Walsh,
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
, and
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
, actors
John Wayne,
Ronald Reagan, and
Charlton Heston. Festival speakers included
Frank Price
Frank Price (born May 17, 1930) is a television writer and executive during the 1950s to 1970s, and a Hollywood studio chief in the 1980s. He held a number of executive positions including head of Universal TV in the 1970s; president, and later ...
, former President of
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
and
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
,
Joel Surnow
Joel Surnow (born December 18, 1955) is an American television writer, producer and director.
He is the co-creator of the action series '' La Femme Nikita'' and '' 24''.
Life and career
Joel Surnow is of Jewish descent. He was raised in Mic ...
, Creator and Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning TV series ''24'', actors
Robert Davi
Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985), ...
(''License to Kill'') and
Morgan Brittany
Morgan Brittany (née Suzanne Cupito) is an American actress born in Los Angeles. She is known for her role as Katherine Wentworth, the scheming younger half-sister of Pamela Ewing and Cliff Barnes, on the prime-time soap opera ''Dallas''.
Car ...
(''Melrose Place''), writer/director David Zucker (''Airplane!''), writer/director
Cyrus Nowrasteh
Cyrus Nowrasteh ( Persian: سیروس/کوروش نورسته ; ; born September 19, 1956) is an American-Iranian screenwriter, director, and producer of film and television. He has worked on numerous television series and made-for-TV movie ...
(ABC's ''The Path to 9/11''), film critics
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for ''Time'' magazine from 1965–2010, and also w ...
and
Michael Medved
Michael Saul Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is syndicated via G ...
, screenwriter Paul Guay (''Liar Liar''), Kurdish-Iraqi director and human rights activist
Jano Rosebiani
Jano Rosebiani ( ku, Cano Rojbeyanî) is an Iraqi-Kurdish American filmmaker. He is the winner of numerous international awards and has been listed in the top 35 world filmmakers in the book "Cineaste Uit De Schaduw" (Filmmakers from the Shad ...
(''Jiyan''), and a number of other film and media professionals.
The Liberty Film Festival received extensive media coverage in: the ''LA Times'', ''The New York Times'', ''Washington Post'', ''USA Today'', ''Variety'', and ''Hollywood Reporter''; the LFF was also featured numerous times on ABC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, AMC,
C-SPAN, NPR, and also on the UK’s
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
The Liberty Film Festival has continued on in the form of its on-line film magazine ''Libertas'', founded in January 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'').
In recent years, ''Libertas'' has focused its coverage increasingly on independent film festivals, and such progressive themes as women's rights, human rights, science, and technology.