LOS ANGELES: Daniel Talbot, a force in the independent film world who distributed art house movies and co-founded New York City’s influential Lincoln Plaza Cinema, has died.
Talbot’s death was announced on Friday in a post on the movie theater’s Facebook page. He was in his 90s and had been in declining health in recent months, according to trade publication Variety.
Two weeks ago, it was reported that the theater’s lease was up and it could close in January after operating for nearly four decades. Talbot and his wife and business partner, Toby Talbot, started and ran the six-screen theater tucked into a basement in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood. The couple would determine which films passed muster, flagging them for wider attention, Toby Talbot said in a recent interview with the website Deadline.
“We acted as kind of first readers. If a film opened at Lincoln Plaza, it had to be worthwhile,” she said.
Daniel Talbot ran the New Yorker Theater in the early 1960s and started the distribution company New Yorker Films in 1965 with “Before the Revolution,” among Bernardo Bertolucci’s earliest films.
“I had no interest in distribution,” Talbot told Variety in 2009. “I made him a very small offer and I got the film, and that was the beginning of New Yorker Films.”
Other releases included Louis Malle’s “My Dinner With Andre" and films by Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
A memorial service was scheduled Sunday at New York City’s Riverside Memorial Chapel, the chapel said Saturday.
Talbot’s survivors include his wife and three daughters, according to Variety.
Daniel Talbot, influential indie film figure, dies in NYC
Daniel Talbot, influential indie film figure, dies in NYC
59-kilogram monster fish catches eyes at Nigerian fishing festival
- Over the decades, the festival grew into one of Nigeria’s biggest cultural events, drawing international visitors, before insecurity and funding shortages reduced it to an occasional celebration
ARGUNGU: Local fisherman Abubakar Usman’s 59-kilogram monster catch was the major highlight of the UNESCO-listed Argungu fishing festival, which returned after a six-year hiatus because of the insecurity in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state.
Thousands of people, including a handful of women and children, defied the blistering 39-degree heat to take part. Fishermen from Nigeria’s West African neighbors Niger, Chad, and Togo also came to compete.
The fishing festival was first staged in 1934 by the then traditional ruler of Argungu, Mohammed Sama. It was held to mark an end to a century-old history of hostility and distrust between his people and the region’s most powerful ruler, the Sultan of Sokoto, then Hassan Dan-Mu’azu.
FASTFACT
The festival has grown into one of Nigeria’s biggest cultural events, drawing international visitors, before insecurity and funding shortages reduced it to an occasional celebration.
Over the decades, the festival grew into one of Nigeria’s biggest cultural events, drawing international visitors, before insecurity and funding shortages reduced it to an occasional celebration. The last full edition was held six years ago, say organizers.
On Saturday, fishermen floated on brown, round gourds as they hunted for the biggest catch in Matan Fada river, using only their hands and nets in the river’s murky waters.
Thousands of spectators lined the riverbank cheering loudly.
For the Emir of Argungu, Al-Hajji Samaila Mohammed Mera, hosting the festival this year was a victory of some sort.
Parts of Kebbi state have seen sporadic militant attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.
“I came back to have a fuller experience,” said Adeniyi Olugbemii, 56, who is attending the festival a second time from neighboring Sokoto state.
Outside the arena that sits on the edge of the Matan Fada, chants, drumbeats, and cultural displays added to the atmosphere, highlighting the heritage that has turned Argungu into a global tourism draw.
Rukaya Ismaila, 23, said she had traveled from Kogi state, some 850 kilometers away, to attend the festival for the first time.
“The famous Argungu that we’ve been told about since primary school,” she said.
“It is worth all the excitement,” she added, praising the way the competing fishermen helped each other out.
Days of activities preceded the fishing competition, including a motor rally from Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, a Durbar procession, and a variety of cultural events.
Abubakar Usman’s hefty catch earned him two new saloon cars and 1-million-naira cash prize (about $739).
Hundreds of much smaller catches ended up at a makeshift market set up on the adjoining streets to the arena.
The event was overshadowed by a prominent political campaign for the re-election of President Tinubu and Kebbi Gov. Mohammed Nasir Idris.
Billboards and posters of both men lined the streets leading to the river arena.
Supporters in blue t-shirts emblazoned with their images drummed and danced, drawing crowds of their own, while songs eulogising the visiting president blared through speakers inside the main arena.
Earlier in the day, a false start around midday had forced the already anxious contestants to plunge into the river. They had defied the scorching sun to wait for the arrival of President Bola Tinubu.
The president arrived more than two hours later, after which the contest was restarted.
