For all you Tarkovsky obsessives out there, check out this link, in which the great Russian filmmaker's son Andrei posts and annotates some of his father's Polaroid pictures.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/29/2004 01:01:00 PM

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The Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, held every two years, was established in 2002 "to seek out young artists of extraordinary potential and provide them with a year of individual guidance and instruction from recognized masters."

"The programme fills a void in arts philanthropy by providing unprecedented corporate funding of individual artists," says Patrick Heiniger, president and CEO of Rolex SA, headquartered in Geneva. "We believe that no other company is supporting individual artists in such a systematic way, internationally, or across such a broad spectrum of artistic areas."

Focusing on artist-proteges "whose talent does not match the opportunities [otherwise] afforded them," the Initiative selects candidates working in multiple disciplines, such as Dance, Literature, Music, Theater and Visual Arts.

This year, the Initiative has added Film to the mix: Indian director Mira Nair, who referred to Rolex as "corporate Medicis" at a press conference earlier this week, was invited to be the Initiative's first Film Mentor. (She had previously served on its Advisory Board.)

Nair, in turn, selected Thai filmmaker Aditya Assarat (pictured right, with Nair) as her protege.

Assarat -- who is currently a Fellow at the Sundance Institute Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs, and was also named this week as one of the Institute's first Annenberg Film Fellows -- will meet with Nair periodically over the next year as she prepares for Focus Features' release this September of her adaptation of Thackeray's classic Vanity Fair, starring Reese Witherspoon.

Nair is also developing adaptations of Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul, for HBO, and Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, and she is scheduled to contribute a segment to the forthcoming 20-part "collective feature," Paris, je t'aime, which celebrates the plurality of cinema in Paris, the mythic city of Love.

Together with her production company, Mirabai Films, Nair plans to launch Maisha -- from the Swahili word for "zest for life" -- an annual filmmaker's lab to be held near her home in Kampala, Ugand, in spring 2005. Earlier this year, Mirabai Films also partnered with Bala Entertainment International to establish the International Bhenji Brigade, a film production company that will develop and produce Asian cinema for the global marketplace.

Nair also serves as Guest Director at this year's Los Angeles Film Festival, June 17-26, where she will introduce a 3-film showcase that includes Jane Campion's An Angel At My Table (1990), Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957), and Emir Kusterica's Time of the Gypsies (1988).

Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, Aditya Assarat, 32, who received a Master's degree from USC in Los Angeles in 2000, has written and directed several short films, including Motorcycle (2000), and a feature-length documentary, Raw Velvet (2002), about the Thai rock band PRU. He is currently completing a second feature documentary, Three Friends, and developing his first dramatic feature Hi-So, a semi-autobiographical film about a young Thai student who has a love affair while studying abroad before finally returning to Bangkok.

Assarat will receive a $25,000 stipend from Rolex, one of the world's foremost watchmakers, which will also reimburse his travel expenses to meet with Nair throughout the coming year. Each Mentor in the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative receives a cash honorarium of $50,000.

Participants in the Sundance Institute's Annenberg Film Fellows Program receive extended support over a two-year period to facilitate the creation of their current projects.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/28/2004 12:43:00 PM

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If you haven't already read Susan Sontag's fascinating piece on the images from Abu Ghraib prison, published in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine, here's an excerpt:

"...A digital camera is a common possession among soldiers. Where once photographing war was the province of photojournalists, now the soldiers themselves are all photographers -- recording their war, their fun, their observations of what they find picturesque, their atrocities -- and swapping images among themselves and e-mailing them around the globe.

"There is more and more recording of what people do, by themselves. At least or especially in America, Andy Warhol's ideal of filming real events in real time -- life isn't edited, why should its record be edited? -- has become a norm for countless Webcasts, in which people record their day, each in his or her own reality show. Here I am -- waking and yawning and stretching, brushing my teeth, making breakfast, getting the kids off to school. People record all aspects of their lives, store them in computer files and send the files around. Family life goes with the recording of family life -- even when, or especially when, the family is in the throes of crisis and disgrace. Surely the dedicated, incessant home-videoing of one another, in conversation and monologue, over many years was the most astonishing material in Capturing the Friedmans, the recent documentary by Andrew Jarecki about a Long Island family embroiled in pedophilia charges.

"An erotic life is, for more and more people, that which can be captured in digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture is more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual component. It is surely revealing, as more Abu Ghraib photographs enter public view, that torture photographs are interleaved with pornographic images of American soldiers having sex with one another. In fact, most of the torture photographs have a sexual theme, as in those showing the coercing of prisoners to perform, or simulate, sexual acts among themselves. One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Yet pictures of prisoners bound in painful positions, or made to stand with outstretched arms, are infrequent. That they count as torture cannot be doubted. You have only to look at the terror on the victim's face, although such '"stress"' fell within the Pentagon's limits of the acceptable. But most of the pictures seem part of a larger confluence of torture and pornography: a young woman leading a naked man around on a leash is classic dominatrix imagery. And you wonder how much of the sexual tortures inflicted on the inmates of Abu Ghraib was inspired by the vast repertory of pornographic imagery available on the Internet -- and which ordinary people, by sending out Webcasts of themselves, try to emulate."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/26/2004 03:41:00 PM

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First Run Features has signed a distribution deal with The Global Film Initiative (GFI), the U.S.-based charitable foundation dedicated to cross-cultural understanding through cinema.

First Run will collaborate with GFI to bring Initiative titles to home video, television and cable, and theatrical and semi-theatrical markets. In addition, educational materials will be made available through First Run's educational arm, First Run/Icarus Films.

The announcement was made by Initiative chairperson Susan Weeks Coulter and executive director Holly Ornstein Carter on the opening day of the Initiative's 10-film touring show, Global Lens: New Cinema from the Developing World, May 25-June 2, at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in Los Angeles.

Each year, GFI acquires films from countries in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and distributes them in the Global Lens series. First Run will represent the titles from each of the annual series up to and including the Global Lens offerings in 2008. The Initiative will hold the copyright on all films.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/26/2004 11:44:00 AM

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According to the International Herald Tribune, "MTV Networks has announced that, after a long delay, it plans to start the first cable television channel directed at gay viewers.

"MTV, a division of Viacom, said on Tuesday that the new network would be called Logo and should be available to cable viewers by next February.

"Beyond the typical challenges facing new cable networks of finding distribution and advertisers, the new channel will have one unusual obstacle: outrage from conservative groups...

"Judy McGrath, the group president of MTV Networks, said detailed program announcements for Logo would be made in July but that original fare would initially make up 25 percent of the total, with the rest being movies and reruns of series."

The Financial Times adds, "The network... is scheduled to launch next February in major markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. The company expect the network to be in 10-14m homes by the end of next year, and to break even in two to three years."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/26/2004 10:32:00 AM

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McDonald's Corp. this week announced plans to install "automated entertainment machines" (AEMs), owned and operated by Silcon Valley-based DVDPlay, at 105 of its Denver-area fast-food outlets over the next month.

Each AEM will initially offer 30 to 40 popular titles for a rental fee of $1/day. (The machines can hold up to 350 titles.) No membership fee is required; customers use their credit cards to rent a DVD, which they can keep for as long as they want without paying late fees. DVDs must be returned to participating McDonald's stores. New DVDs will be added to the vending machines each week.

McDonald's has been testing the DVD rental service since January 2003 at outlets in both the D.C. area and in Las Vegas. Called TikTok DVD Shops, the machines used in these initial tests-runs were created by Hettie Herzog, president and owner of Automated Distribution Technologies in Exton, Pa., now owned by McDonald's.

Unlike the Denver AEMs, the TikTok Shops, which charged .99 to $1.50 per day for DVD rentals, as well as late fees, were installed in parking lots rather than inside the restaurant. In Denver, DVDs will be available for rent at Redbox kiosks situated both inside and outside restaurants.

According to the Washington Post, "In the past, similar vending machine concepts have proved risky. Peter Folger, president of Vending Intelligence in Sherman Oaks, Calif., built a machine that sold compact discs in 1992 and placed them around Los Angeles, but he took the machines off the streets two years later because sales were too slow."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/25/2004 12:59:00 PM

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From the excellent music online mag Pitchforkmedia comes this interesting review of The Advantage, the self-titled debut of a California five-piece band which exclusively plays "heavy, dynamic" indie-rock covers of Nintendo game music like Castelvania III and Super Mario Brothers 2 "that go far beyond simple nostalgia, exploring and ofthen enhancing the brilliance of their source material."

Continues Pitchfork's Matt LeMay, "The music for the Nintendo Entertainment system was created under tremendously limiting circumstances-- during the time that most of the songs covered here were written, composers had only three individual voices to work with at any given time, each consisting of little more than a modified sine wave. That being the case, melody was almost invariably given precedence over rhythm and texture. In this way, the songs covered here offer a perfect balance to the sprawling, rhythmically intense post-rock played by Hella and their contemporaries -- the simplicity and melodic strength of the source material focuses the players, and the players flesh out the source material beyond its original technological limitations."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/25/2004 08:17:00 AM

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Jehane Noujaim's Control Room, a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial Arab news network Al Jazeera, broke Film Forum's 34-year weekend single-screen box office record this past weekend. The film opened on Friday, May 21, selling out every show and grossing $27,125 through Sunday night on only one 180-seat screen.

Released by Magnolia Pictures, the film will expand to other New York theaters on June 11 as well as the top 15 national markets. Other cities will follow throughout the summer.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/24/2004 04:29:00 PM

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The Kangaroo Project has announced the 2004 deadline for its third annual PSA competition.

This year's competition focuses on AIDS prevention and education: "AIDS has become a crisis of America's youth. In the United States, half of the 40,000 new HIV infections each year are among people under 25. In 2002, it was estimated that there were 3.2 million teens under 15 living with HIV. Risky behavior has increased [among America's youth] and, consequently, so has HIV infections... The challenge is to create a PSA that will address these issues and reach the youth audience with the message 'protect yourself'."

The deadline to submit a concept for this year's competition is June 11; for the Director's Competition it is July 30. Fore more information visit the project Web site for an online application, or contact Kirk Hokanson, Voodoo Films, (612) 617-0000. The Kangaroo project is organized by the Sean Francis Foundation, a not-for-profit organizatuion memoralizing Sean Francis, who had a love and appreciation for film and creative media.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/24/2004 10:42:00 AM

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The jury of the 57th Festival de Cannes awarded its top prize, the Palm D'or, to Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of White House actions after the September 11 terror attacks. The film is the first documentary to receive the award since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World in 1956. A visibly overwhelmed Moore thanked the festival and jury for putting a spotlight on the film, adding, "I have a sneaking suspicion that what you have done here and the response from everyone at the festival, you will assure that the American people will see this film. I can't thank you enough for that... Many people want the truth, and many [others] want to put it in the closet, and just walk away. There was a great Republican president, [Abraham Lincoln], who once said, if you just give the people the truth, the republic will be saved... I dedicate this Palme d'Or to my daughter, to the children of Americans and to Iraq and to all those in the world who suffer from our actions."

For the first time in the history of the Festival de Cannes, Gilles Jacob gave the jury an opportunity to explain their Palme d'Or award choices:

"Judging a film by its politics is a bad thing," Quentin Tarantino explained. "If it wasn't some of the best filmmaking, then I would not have chosen it.... You can't strangle this movie with the title documentary. Michael Moore is fucking with the format to bring us a movie/documentary/critical essay."

"One of the reasons it is radical in its politics is because of its relation to the media," said Tilda Swinton. "It starts and ends with a question. It is sophisticated cinema. It wouldn't have served its political end if it wasn't a good piece of filmmaking. He has matured as a filmmaker since Bowling for Columbine... It is not a film about Bush, nor Iraq but rather the system. In the words of Godard, 'We spend so much time looking for the key to the problem; we need to begin looking for the lock.'"

Swinton also revealed that the jury had thought about "giving a special award for best comedic performance to George W. Bush. Seriously, we did."

"We had long and passionate debates, " said Benoit Poelvoorde. "We put the politics aside so as to talk film. We are not here to give a morality lesson. Personally, I think that the festival is very politically correct; on the other hand, it is hard to not be... At the same time, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a political tract. His unique viewpoint is not a problem for me since we have the possibility to inform ourselves elsewhere and also listen to other opinions."

"What struck me most was that I was laughing one minute, sobbing the next," said Edwidge Danticat. "I was taken to emotional heights. It let the voices speak for themselves, voices that are otherwise silent."

The festival's second-place honor, The Grand Prize, went to South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook for Old Boy, a blood-soaked thriller about a man out for revenge after years of inexplicable imprisonment.

The Jury Prize was awarded to the Thai film Tropical Malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an enigmatic film exploring the passionate relationship between two men. The jury also acknowledged the actress Irma P. Hall, who stars in the Coen brothers' The Ladykillers.

Best Director was presented by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine to Tony Galtif, a French-Algerian of gypsy descent, whose film Exiles features actors Romain Duris and Lubna Azabalin as descendents of Algerian exiles who journey from Paris back to Algiers in search of their roots. "This film is about a new generation who are part of a mix, a fusion in motion," Gatlif explained. "This young generation of people with North African, sub-Saharan or South American origins is in the process of bringing an extraordinary richness from all points of view; these young people from the 16th arrodissement in Paris who listen to Arab music without speaking the language. I find this fusion of cultures wonderful."

Maggie Cheung was singled out by the jury as Best Actress for her performance in Olivier Assayas's Clean, (co-produced by Filmmaker editor Scott Macaulay and his partner at Forensic Films, Robin O'Hara); and 14-year-old Yagira Yuuya was awarded Best Actor for his performance in Kore-Eda Hirokazu's Nobody Knows.

The jury prize for Best Screenplay went to Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for Comme une image (Look at Me), in which Jaoui and Barci co-star, and which Jaoui also directed.

The festival's Camera d'Or, for Best First Feature, was awarded to Keren Yedaya for the French-Israeli co-production Or, about the daughter of an aging prostitute whose mental health is deteriorating. Yedaya dedicated her award in a moving speech to "all who are not free," including not only those who live today as prostitutes, but also, "as an Israeli, [in solidarity] for the Palestinians," who continue to suffer due to the persecution of the Israeli government.

The Camera d'Or jury awarded special mentions to the Chinese film Passages, directed by Yang Chao, which screened in Un Certain Regard, and to the Iranian film Bitter Dream, directed by Mohsen Amiryoussefi, which screened in Directors Fortnight.

Jonas Geirnaert, whose animated film Flatlife shared the Palm D'Or for Best Short with the Romanian film Trafic, by Catalin Mitulescu, set the tone for the awards ceremony, televised live on IFC, when he implored the festival to focus less on business in the future and more on the art of filmmaking, and, in the event that Michael Moore's film was not recognized by the jury, Geirnaert added, "Do not vote for Bush."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/22/2004 02:28:00 PM

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A.O. Scott of the New York Times is one of the first critics to weigh in on Wong Kar-wai's 2046, which finally arrived in Cannes, albeit a bit later than expected.

Writing in his "Critic's Notebook" column, Scott says the film is "full of lush, melancholy sensuality and swathed in light as lustrous and supple as the Shantung dresses all of the actresses seem to wear. The title, by the way, refers both to a hotel room in Hong Kong in the late 1960's and a high-speed train racing through the future, and one of the film's themes (aptly enough, given the drama surrounding its arrival) is time. The characters are always falling in and out of love too soon or too late, and the chronology glides forward and backward.

"Like other work from this director, 2046 teases the boundary of incomprehensibility. It is a series of moods, nuances and gorgeous moments -- seductions, couplings, tearful partings -- with the usual connective tissue left out, or implied in title cards or voice-overs. After the two screenings in the early evening, quite a few viewers rushed back to see it again Thursday night, to experience its intoxicating beauty one more time, and also to figure out what on earth it was about."

"In watching the film," writes Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, "we are marooned in a virtual 'present' time of exquisite unhappiness. It is an absorbingly mysterious, richly sensuous film."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/21/2004 10:25:00 AM

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Via Ratchet Up comes this link to John On's Net-art project, They Rule, which Ratchet's John Schott calls "the best cartography of social and political influence I have ever seen."

"They Rule aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the U.S. ruling class. It takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors. Some individuals sit on 5, 6 or 7 of the top 500 companies. It allows users to browse through these interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and e-mail links to these maps to others. They Rule is a starting point for research about these powerful individuals and corporations."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/19/2004 12:32:00 PM

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According to BBC News: "The Mexican defense ministry confirmed [11 UFOs had been videotaped] by members of the air force, but did not comment on [the content of the video]. Mexican UFO investigator Jaime Maussan said that, while there were hundreds of UFO videos, it was the first time one 'had the backing of the armed forces'."

Scientist speculate that the cluster of mysterious objects that surrounded a Mexican Air Force plane, alarming the pilots and sparking a UFO scare, could be a weather phenomenon known as ball lightning, or possibly just "gases in the atmosphere".

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/19/2004 11:47:00 AM

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The explosion of so-called "gay TV" has been seen as damaging by some as it is empowering for others. Indeed, Will & Grace's swishy, neutered males have about as much sex-appeal as a marshmallow, while the not so "fab five" of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy do everything in their power to reinforce stereotypes about gay men that activists have been railing against for years. Controversial Steven Cojocaru, style correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, is adored by straight middle-America, yet reviled by many gays for his effete, surgically enhanced visage and queeny mincing. Queer as Folk serves up a bevy of brain-dead, self-involved beauties only concerned with their next bed partner.

Are these the only kind of gay images straight America wants to see: Shallow, callow, safe and ultimately white-washed?

Perhaps, but gay viewers and filmmakers have different ideas. Already, two very different TV series you may not have heard of are coming to DVD, bringing with them a very distinct set of characters, lives and issues.

Bravo Network's "docu-soap" Fire Island details the trials & tribulations of two sets of gay vacationers, one male and the other female. Shot reality-TV style and featuring a cast of 30- and 40-something gay friends and couples, Fire Island rips away the glamorous fantasy most of us have of summers at the Pines, instead painting a gritty portrait of shaky relationships, body issues and sex in the AIDS era. But of course, what reality show worth its salt would be complete without a battle of wills between housemates?

Punks' writer, director and producer Patrik-Ian Polk brings us Noah's Arc, a night-time soaper attempting to blend a Sex and the City sensibilty with the whiny angst of Queer As Folk. Importantly, it features an all-black cast, aiming right for an audience that has been shamelessly underserved by the media, the all-but-invisible gay black man.

The first season of Noah's Arc will be available for purchase on DVD/VHS beginning Tuesday, June 22 at a video store near you. Look for Fire Island on May 25 from Win Media Direct.

Lastly, here! TV, the nation's first programming service appealing to gay and lesbian audiences is planning to launch a 24/7 schedule of movies, new original series, classic films and television series and other general entertainment content.

# posted by Andre Salas @ 5/18/2004 01:26:00 PM

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Every other filmmaker these days references those easy riders and raging bulls of '70s American cinema. Few people, however, remember that other '60/'70s filmmaking style, the syncopated fractured cinema of the Brits. Luckily, a current retrospective of Joseph Losey at the Walter Reade in New York City will help you catch up with what was all the rage 40 years ago. Although Losey was actually an American -- from Wisconsin no less -- his English dramas, starting with the homoerotic upstairs/downstairs s&m drama The Servant (based on his longtime collaborator Harold Pinter's script), showcased his skill at dramatizing the uneasy psychology of class and desire, especially in men with a desire to destroy themselves. But even more fun is to enjoy the film's look -- the sudden unmotivated zooms, the over dramatic score (often my Michel Legrand) punctuated by the jarring edits, the occasional lilting musical montage sequence, the baroque use of mirrors and windows -- which at the time must have felt very new, and now feels new all over again.

# posted by Peter Bowen @ 5/18/2004 12:02:00 PM

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Variety reports today: "Following Newmarket's enormously successful release of Icon's The Passion of the Christ, the two companies have created an informal alliance to buy movies together for distribution in North America, the U.K. and Australia."

The pact, which was announced at Cannes, "is intended to give Newmarket greater clout to acquire U.S. rights in the face of competition from the specialized arms of the major studios, which often bid for all English-language territories."

"The idea of cooperating," writes Adam Dawtrey in Variety, "grew out of the fact that Newmarket and Icon separately bought U.S. and Australian rights to the Charlize Theron pic Monster."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/18/2004 11:04:00 AM

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The reviews are beginning to pour in from Cannes for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11: The Guardian calls it "a powerful film.. about losses on both sides of the Iraq war and the grief of American and Iraqi families," while Peter Brunette at indieWIRE writes, "This time around, Moore drops the zaniness and high entertainment value evident in Bowling for Columbine in favor of an elegiac approach that is less funny but ultiimately, maybe, more politically effective."

Time magazine weighs in: "Fahrenheit 9/11 may be seen as another example of the liberal media preaching to its own choir. But Moore is such a clever assembler of huge accusations and minor peccadillos (as with a shot of Wolfowitz sticking his pocket comb in his mouth and sucking on it to slick down his hair before a TV interview) that the film should engage audiences of all political persuasions... In one sense, Michael Moore took George W. Bush's advice. He found 'real work' deconstructing the President's Iraq mistakes. Fahrenheit 9/11 is Moore's own War on Error."

And BBC News Online says: "Moore himself appears less in this film than he has in his previous documentaries, leaving most of the talking to politicians, soldiers, parents, experts and assorted real Americans. There is highly selective editing, but the story is not totally one-sided. For example, there are soldiers in Iraq who believe in their mission, as well as those who say they are disillusioned. But the movie's conclusions -- true or otherwise -- and highly emotional interviews with bereaved parents and injured soldiers will have a big impact on audiences around the world."

Will it influence the election?

"I hope it just influences people to leave the theater and become good citizens," Moore said at a news conference Monday. "I'll leave it to others to decide what kind of impact it's going to have on the election."

Canada.com reports: "Harvey Weinstein showed up outside the Cannes theatre after the first Fahrenheit 9/11 screening. He declined to speak at length, but as reporters asked if the film would be released, he said, 'Have I ever let you down?'"

Hmmm...

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/17/2004 03:12:00 PM

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The American Avant Garde, a new half-hour TV show about people making cinema across the United States, is seeking work by flim and video makers who take "creative risks".

Airing weekly on The Seattle Channel (and Webcast globally) beginning May 27, The American Avant Garde will focus on the history and the future of independent film/video making. All genres and lengths of film/video will be accepted.

"The American Avant Garde production team is headed by Karl Krogstad, who will also host the show. One of Seattle's most celebrated independent filmmakers, Krogstad began his zany and insightful career as writer, director and producer in 1968 and has since created over 60 works of film and video art."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/17/2004 11:35:00 AM

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Gus Van Sant, whose film Elephant, produced in conjunction with HBO Films, won the Palm d'Or at the Festival de Cannes last year, will reteam with the cable company to dramatize the final days in the life of Kurt Cobain. Filming in New York, Last Days features Michael Pitt, Asia Argento and Lukas Haas, who will improvise from a "loose script". Harris Savides, returning as d.p., will employ the same "semi-documentary" visual style as Elephant.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/17/2004 10:51:00 AM

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First Run Features and Human Rights Watch will collaborate to bring films dealing with human rights' issues to a wider audience. The first of their collaborative efforts is First Run's release of Rithy Panh's S21:The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, which opens in NYC at the Film Forum on May 19th.

S21 was a Cambodian prison where thousands were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge after it came to power in 1975; in total, 1.75 million Cambodians were killed between 1975-1979. Director Rithy Panh, who lost his parents and a sister in the genocide, reconstructed the horrors from the testimonies of two survivers and various prison guards.

According to a jointly issued press release: "First Run Features and Human Right Watch will work together to bring the theatrical release of S21 and future titles to the attention of the public and media through joint marketing and advertising campaigns, including First Run's newly designed Community Website. The collaboration will also culminate in a new line of DVDs from First Run called 'Human Rights Watch Selects', where films will be supplemented with extra features, including background information on subject matter, information on HRW as well as how to get involved in the issues addressed."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/14/2004 05:08:00 PM

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HBO and the New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF) have joined forces to host a competition for a Latino filmmaker to direct and produce a short narrative film on DV. The winning project, which will receive $15,000 towards production, will premiere at the NYILFF this July. Submission fee: $10. Deadline for entries is May 31.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/14/2004 04:29:00 PM

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Most producers I know have their favorite teamster captains and are skilled at figuring out whose personality will mesh best with the particular needs of production. But the "teamster casting" process takes a new twist according to day's Variety, which notes that 500 New York and L.A. casting directors are formally seeking to be represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

"The casting directors and associates cite lack of health care coverage, late pay and performing uncompensated work as key issues that have driven the organizing effort," Variety writes.

The Variety article goes on to suggest that casting directors may be unhappy with their independent contractor status: "Currently, casting directors operate as independent contractors. Among the complaints: They're routinely hired for eight-week periods and then required to work two extra weeks without compensation, and they're forced to absorb such costs as office space, payroll taxes and worker's compensation insurance for their employees."

Of course, all the above applies to any small business owner, and most casting agencies are structured as small businesses, with all the negative but also positive tax and employment benefits that that designation implies.

I spoke to one casting director who pooh-poohed the effort, claiming that the rules being discussed would prevent casting agents from casting the small films that allow them to find new actors and boost their careers.

According to the article, casting directors are threatening to strike if they are not formally recognized as a bargaining unit. We'll keep you informed...

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/14/2004 01:33:00 PM

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The Virtual Doc Conference is an ongoing dialogue between filmmakers on documentary filmmaking and is facilitated by filmmaker Doug Block and the D-word online community of filmmakers throughout the world.

Upcoming dialogue, May 17-21: Sustaining a Career in Documentary with director Jonathan Stack (The Farm: Angola USA)

Register for free to ask questions during the online discussion.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/14/2004 11:54:00 AM

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Entrance to Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq.

Electronic Iraq is a supplementary news portal from the people who brought you the Electronic Intifada (founded 2001) and veteran antiwar campaigners Voices in the Wilderness (founded 1996).

Electronic Iraq was launched on 8 February 2003 to offer a humanitarian perspective during the then-looming conflict, as the U.S. government made clear its determination to go to war against Iraq.

It was the alternative news moonshot. Before, during, and after the U.S. "Shock & Awe" bombing campaign, eIraq writers from Voices in the Wilderness's Iraq Peace Team reported on what they saw and heard via available Internet and a satellite modem connection. Visitors got a never-before-seen glimpse of war and its aftermath through the eyes of peace activists based at ground zero.

Post war, eIraq's work continues, documenting the U.S. occupation and the rebuilding of Iraq, offering a range of reportage that includes News & Analysis; Opinion/Editorial; Iraq Diaries; International Law; Aid & Development; The Media; Art, Music & Culture; and Action & Activism.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/14/2004 11:24:00 AM

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New York Women In Film & Television (NYWIFT) will host Green Light Night, an event that gives writers, producers and filmmakers the opportunity to pitch their feature film projects to a panel of industry executives including Doreen Oliver, Lee Daniels Entertainment; Arianna Bocco and Julie Goldstein, Miramax; Merideth Finn, New Line Cinema/Fine Line Features; and Sofia Sondervan, ContentFilm.

The panel will be moderated by producer's rep Page Ostrow, president of Ostrow and Company, who has arranged financing and negotiated distribution for over 80 feature films.

No submissions are allowed at the event, but the evening's best pitch will receive consideration by all panelists and their respective companies.

Date: June 9
Time: 6-9 pm
Location: Marymount Manhattan College, Theresa Lang Theatre, 221 East 71st St. (b/ Second and Third Avenues)
Cost: general admission $40; IFP/NY members receive a $10 discount.
Tickets or call 212.679.0870 x0

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/14/2004 10:32:00 AM

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Project Greenlight has announced the top 10 directors in this year's contest. Videos created by the directors can also be viewed at the PGL site.

The top 3 finalists will be announced on June 29, and a winner will be crowned July 14.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/13/2004 03:53:00 PM

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A scene from Fahrenheit 9/11: Michael Moore is stopped by the secret service outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, D.C.

Miramax toppers Harvey and Bob Weinstein has been given the greenlight to privately buy back the rights to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 from Disney, ending speculation about the fate of Michael Moore's latest film, at least for now. (The film, which premiers this Monday in competition at the Festival de Cannes, has yet to secure a U.S. distributor.)

"We are very happy that Disney has agreed to allow Bob and Harvey to buy back the company's entire financial interest in Fahrenheit 9/11," Miramax senior vp of corporate communications Matthew Hilzik is quoted as saying in Variety.

Disney had previously vetoed the release of the film, saying "it was not appropriate for Disney, a family entertainment company, to be the distributor of a politically charged movie in an election year." (However, as Moore has since pointed out, Disney and its various TV and radio channels do air programs featuring Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson.)

Fahrenheit 9/11 is reportedly critical of President Bush's handling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and connects the Bush family with Osama Bin Laden's.

Meanwhile, Michael Moore complains on his Web site: "This morning, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal -- who has not seen the film -- has decided, instead, to review a 'synopsis' of the film. That's right, a 'synopsis' from a fax of an early version of a press release someone gave him from the studio. Based on this, he accuses the film of being inaccurate. But guess what? Everything he says about the film in his column is completely false. I mean, seriously, NOTHING of what he describes is in the film!

"Most real journalists would be embarrassed to do such a thing. What's next -- 'I can't see the film, I can't see the synopsis -- so I'm reviewing the poster!' I worry that Fahrenheit 9/11 is already driving otherwise sane people to lunacy."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/13/2004 10:36:00 AM

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Agent Mike Lubin has rejoined the William Morris Agency, his home for eight years before he left for the Gersh Agency in 2000. You may remember that we blogged his abrupt departure from Gersh a few weeks ago and wondered where he'd wind up. According to Variety, such indie directors as Nicole Kassell, Rose Troche, Debra Granik and Alan Taylor will be travelling to WMA with him.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/13/2004 03:58:00 AM

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As reported by Reuters today: "Vivendi Universal Entertainment and NBC have completed their merger to create NBC Universal, a media and entertainment giant with expected 2005 revenues of $15 billion, the companies said Wednesday.

"The deal between VUE, the movie studio and television wing of France's Vivendi Universal, and NBC, the U.S. television arm of General Electric Co. ... is part of Vivendi's plan to restructure after expansion in the 1990s brought it to its knees.

"GE will own 80 percent of NBC Universal and Vivendi Universal the remaining 20 percent. Vivendi Universal will have the right from 2006 to sell its stake over time at fair market value, the statement said.

"The new company's assets range from television networks such as NBC, Telemundo, USA Network and CNBC to film studios Universal Pictures and interests in five theme parks including Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/12/2004 03:55:00 PM

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Sony's new Playstation Portable

According to Daily Variety, Sony and Nintendo "both revealed new mobile gaming devices Tuesday as vidgame pros from around the world converged on Los Angeles for the 10th annual E3 confab, which opens today.

"Sony's new device, the Playstation Portable (PSP), will be of particular interest to Hollywood, since it plays video and audio content along with games."

From the E3 Web site: Nintendo's new handheld device, code-named DS, "will offer backwards compatibility with Game Boy Advance as well as a new bay for new DS games. Two wireless communications protocols allow up to 16 people to play up to 100 feet apart, as well as across the internet via Wi-Fi. The console is controlled through Game Boy-style buttons and cross, as well as a new touch-screen interface that works with a stylus or your finger."

"As Nintendo is fond of pointing out, they are the undisputed kings of the portable gaming world," writes Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica, "and they hope to continue their dominance with the Nintendo DS. As widely rumored, the DS indeed has two screens, one of which is touch-sensitive. A demo given at the announcement showed an example of how developers could use the two screens: the DS version of Metroid had a map on one screen and a first-person view on the other, and another picture of the device shows a Mario Brothers game using the dual displays in a similar fashion. In addition, games can be programmed to span images and scenes across the two displays and is programmable in either 2D or 3D.

"Other features of the DS include built-in Bluetooth support, WiFi, two media bays, and a microphone for voice control. The Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity are intended primarily for head-to-head gaming, and the DS will support up to 16 players going head-to-head. One of the two media bays is for GameBoy Advance games, so there should be full backwards compatibility for the DS. Numerous third-party vendors have promised support for the DS, including Sega, Activision, and Atari. Questions remain about the true usability of the dual screen (is it more of a gimmick than something that makes the gaming experience better?), battery life, and the controls not being particularly friendly to southpaws. Pricing is expected to be in the US $150 range and availability is expected by year end (read: holiday shopping season) in the US and Japan, with Europe and Australia seeing shipments in 1Q 2005.

"Touted as the 'Walkman of the 21st Century' by father of the PlayStation Ken Kutargi, the Sony PSP does more than just play video games. In addition to its primary purpose, the PSP can be used for listening to music or watching video on its 4.3" widescreen LCD (480x272 resolution). The PSP measures 6.7" x 2 .9" x 0.9" and sports the same button layout as the PS2 controller. Connectivity comes via USB 2.0, 802.11b, and IrDA. In addition, it has a Memory Stick slot and can be controlled via an infrared remote. The guts of the PSP include 32MB of system RAM, 4MB of embedded DRAM, a 333MHz CPU (proprietary), a Li-ion battery with 2.5 hours of usage for video and 8-10 hours for gaming/audio, and Sony's Universal Media Disc (1.8GB) for media. The choice of optical media for the games over cartridges is an odd one, especially given Sony's poor track record with the PlayStation2 and the increased battery demands over cartridges. The PSP will be available in Japan for the 2004 holiday season and in US and Europe in early 2005. Pricing has not yet been announced, but it speculated that it will be around US$ 50-100 more than the DS."

"Handheld gaming is [still] a relatively small size of the gaming market, generating just $750 million in hardware sales and two of the top games in the $11.2 billion videogame industry last year. But it's a space totally dominated by Nintendo," echoes Ben Fritz in Variety. "Company execs said they expect to lose some market share among dedicated gamers to the PSP, which features a larger screen and better graphics, but that they hope to maintain the lead among younger and casual players."

In a related gaming report from E3:, CNN.com reports, "Nekkid people are coming to a video game near you. Some will be funny. Some will be sexy. And some will be just plain raunchy. At least three games on display at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3, the annual trade show of the gaming industry) feature characters frolicking au naturale -- with two of those introducing sexual elements."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/12/2004 11:40:00 AM

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IndieWIRE has posted an updated version of its Guide to Acquisitions online.

Profiling "the people who attend festivals (in addition to other events) scouting for projects that will fit their respective companies' distribution goals," the updated list includes: Udy Epstein (7th Art Releasing), Jason Resnick (Focus Features), Sarah Lash (IFC Films), Jason Constantine (Lions Gate Films), Eammon Bowles and Tom Quinn (Magnoia Pictures), Matt Brodie (Miramax), Bob Berney (Newmarket), David Koh (Palm Pictures), Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein (Paramount Pictures), Doug Witkins (Picture This Entertainment), Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff (Roadside Attractions), Dylan Leiner (Sony Pictures Classics), Marcus Hu (Strand Releasing), Daniel Katz (ThinkFilm), Richard Wolff (TLA Releasing), Jack Turner (United Artists), Paul Federbush (Warner Independent Pictures), Marie Therese Guirgis and Rob Williams (Wellspring Media), and Emily Russo (Zeigeist Films).

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/11/2004 04:07:00 PM

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vyZ Music has launched a Web site to promote its new movie, NOVUS (short for Novus Ordo Seclorum -- New Order of the Ages), an experimental documentary celebrating the achievements of one of the world's greatest inventors, Nikola Tesla.

This off-the-wall film is described in a press release as follows: "NOVUS paints an inspiring, yet highly controversial, picture of Tesla's most incredible invention, which was his greatest secret: the flying saucer. Do flying saucers really exist? Did Tesla really invent them? Are they humanity's greatest invention? What about free unlimited energy? The playful combination of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, pirate cartoons, Superman, UFO mythology, black-hole astronomy and investigative journalism, evoke a trailblazing tale of the past 100 years with an optimistic vision of the future. While avoiding the cliche of 'New World Order' conspiracy theory, the film does 'connect the dots' to the genius of Tesla and the real possibility that we can create a better world: A New Order of the Ages."

Personally, I am looking forward to Ken Russell's Charged: The Life of Nikola Tesla, from a script by Ljiljana Kojic-Bogdanovich and Katarina Bogdanovich, reportedly starring Paul Rhys and featuring music by Michael Nyman. (Russell dismissed rumors that Jack Nicholson -- who at one point had optioned the rights to Margaret Cheney's Tesla biography -- had been cast to play Tesla, as the actor was "too old".)

According to The Sunday Telegraph, the family of Thomas Edison are unhappy with Russell's plans to depict Tesla's arch rival as a ruthless sadist who encouraged NY prison authorities to use Tesla's alternating current (AC) to carry out the country's first electrocution of a death row prisoner.

Previously called Tesla & Katharine, Ken Russell's film, still in pre-production, deals primarily "with aspects of [Tesla's] private life based on his correspondence with close friends, Robert Johnson, poet and editor of the magazine Century, and his wife Katharine, in New York during [the] 1890s. This is [the] story of [a] complex and delicate triangular relationship, and Tesla and Katharine's love."

Although Tesla did have a close relationship with J.P. Morgan's daughter, Ann Morgan, who Jean Strouse once told me she suspected was a lesbian, perhaps Russell has discovered information that Tesla's biographers -- who generally support the claim that he was asexual -- previously overlooked... or perhaps Tesla's "greatest secret" remains his invention of the flying saucer!

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/11/2004 01:22:00 PM

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Threshold Digital Research Labs' Lady X


The always interesting Ratchet Up has posted an item about Threshold Digital Research Labs, a company described as "next generation Pixar."

TDRL recently teamed with IBM "to create CG films that can be produced at the same speed as a traditional film and at roughly half the cost of past CG features. Or at least that's their claim, and IBM is buying it. Literally."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/11/2004 10:49:00 AM

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A rare exhibition of a complete collection of photomontages by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore opened May 7 at Studio 1347, 601 W. 26th Street, in NYC. After a three-day preview, the exhibit moves to Pool New York, 450 W. 24th Street, #1EE, where viewings can be scheduled by appointment (917-257-0207) from May 10-28.

The exhibition is organized by Alix Umen, who is currently working on a feature film, I am in Training Don't Kiss Me, inspired by the life of Claude Cahun. The film, which screened as a work-in-progress at the IFP Market this past fall, follows Cahun as she and her lover/stepsister Suzanne Malherbe (a k a Marcel Moore) become involved in the Surrealist movement.


Born in 1894, Cahun, the daughter of a prominent Jewish newspaper publisher in the French port city of Nantes, was a "poet, essayist, literary critic, novelist, translator, comedienne, 'constructor and explorer of objects,' and revolutionary activist" who gained renown for advocating sexual and intellectual freedom in her polemical prose and for a series of photographic self-portraits in which she often appeared in masks, costumes and wigs.

Cahun and Moore moved to the Channel Islands in 1937, where they became active in the resistance against the German Occupation of Jersey. They were eventually arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and remained in prison until the liberation of Jersey in 1945.

According to the Video Databank catalogue, "Alix Umen grew up in the midwest and early on discovered the differences between boys and girls. With a dislike for the conventional, she often cut her Barbie dolls' hair short and made G.I. Joe wear dresses. She has attended the Minnesota College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota. She made her directorial debut with Mad About the Boy."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/10/2004 04:55:00 PM

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From DW Hudson at Green Cine Daily, the best film blog on the Web, comes an interesting post on May 9 about Criterion's plans to issue a box set of five films by John Cassavetes, placing the company squarely in the middle of a blood feud between Gena Rowlands and Ray Carney over Carney's recent discovery of a print of the original version of Shadows.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/10/2004 10:34:00 AM

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Via my favorite non-film and non-politics Web site, the excellent music daily Pitchforkmedia, comes this tidbit of info that relates to a good cause. A number of musicians, including Cat Power, J. Mascis, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will play a benefit entitled "Fuck Cancer" May 11 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. The evening will raise funds for Jackie Farry, a young tour manager with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.

Among the acts is Chavez, the beloved NYC band that hasn't released an album since 1996's Ride the Fader. I've known bassist Clay Tarver for years. After the band he went into commercial directing and screenwriting, which the normally blase Pitchforkmedia finds surprisingly shocking. After citing Tarver's credit as co-writer of John Dahl's Joyride, the website intones, "Your unreal is here... now."

Hey guys, film is not as glamorous as it sounds. In fact, we in film think music is cooler.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/08/2004 12:18:00 AM

Friday, May 07, 2004

PROJECT GREENLIGHT 

The Top 50 Directors (out of 1733 entrants) in this year's Project Greenlight can now be found on the PGL Web site.

The Top 10 Directors will be named on May 12th.

Director Contestants who reach the Top 10 will each be given an identical scene assignment. The assignment challenges the contestants to be creative, while still following all the assignment parameters. Not an easy task. Judge for yourself.

Project Greenlight will announce its Top 5 Screenplays (out of 4212 screenplays submitted) on June 1st. The Director and Screenplay winners will be announced on July 14.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/07/2004 02:44:00 PM

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AMERICAN PYTHON 

Producers from Hippofilms, a Los Angeles-based film production company, have announced a worldwide casting call for the roles of the young members of Monty Python, the famed British comedy troupe, for a theatrical bio of the late Graham Chapman entitled Gin and Tonic.

The first auditions took place in Hollywood on March 20 for the $12-million-dollar production, to be shot in London later this year.

"The first Monty Python auditions redefined how much fun an auditioning process could be," said David Eric Brenner, president of Hippofilms, who will direct Gin and Tonic from a script he co-wrote with Jim Yoakum. "The costumes were hilarious, the camaraderie amazing, and most important, the comedic talent was inspired. We're expecting more of the same in New York."

New York City auditions will take place on Saturday, June 5 from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM at Theatre Row Studios, 410 West 42nd St. Reservation Hotline (not required): 310-445-9157. (Following the auditions there will be a Python-themed mixer at a nearby midtown pub.)

Hippofilms' last movie was the 2002 romantic comedy Rent Control, written and directed by Brenner, and starring Melissa Joan Hart and Carmen Electra. The company is also developing an Olympic-themed picture, Pepper in the Blood, which Brenner is co-producing with Brian Dyson, former vice-chairman of the Coca-Cola Company.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/07/2004 01:45:00 PM

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW -- AND PRIZES, TOO 

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke has announced the Arts Project Contest, "a contest to create a 2-minute moving image that explains to the public some of the tensions between art and intellectual property law, and the intellectual property issues artists face, focusing particularly on either documentary film or music.

"Create or mash-up a moving image using your favorite moving image authoring tool, such as Flash, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro. Entries can contain video, animated images, text, and audio. You may incorporate other people's work, but only if you have permission or the work is Creative Commons-licensed or public domain."

Some of the places filmmakers can access public domain or Creative Commons-licensed footage include: the Prelinger Archives, Opsound, and Commoncontent.org.

For additional background info, check out text and Web casts from the recent Duke Law School conference held in conjunction with the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Framed! How Law Constructs and Constrains Culture.

Deadline for entries is August 1, 2004.

Prizes include:

First Prize: The winner may choose either an Apple Power Mac G5 Computer or an Alienware Roswell 4100 Performance Digital Video Editing System Single Processor -- AMD Opteron 242 64-Bit 1GB DDR PC-3200.

Second Prize: Sony Handycam Camcorder (Model DCR-PC120BT).

Third Prize: Apple iPod 20GB Digital Music Player.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/07/2004 11:04:00 AM

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Tuesday, May 04, 2004

I AM MY OWN WIFE 

This past weekend I finally managed to get to the Lyceum theater in NYC to see Doug Wright's (Quills) I Am My Own Wife, in which Jefferson Mays (left) gives a tour de force performance re-enacting scenes from the life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (born Lothar Berfelde in 1928), who managed to survive both the Nazis and the East German secret police while living openly as a transvestite and tenaciously amassing a huge collection of turn-of-the century furniture and other household relics in a "museum" in the basement of her Eastern-bloc home.

"The various perspectives on Charlotte's life are all enacted by Mr. Mays in a simply splendid, genuinely artful performance," wrote Bruce Weber in his review of the production for the New York Times this past winter. "The characters include a television talk show host, more than a few brutal authoritarians, several of Charlotte's family members and friends, as well as Mr. Wright, the playwright himself. The total number of characters is 35, each with a separate voice and many with differing accents. Mr. Mays is able to render quite remarkably an American newsman whose German is inflected with a Texas drawl, but no less remarkable is that he consistently switches roles not only with vivid persuasion but also with uncannily precise timing."

Directed by Moises Kaufman (Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project), with exquisite lighting by David Lander and sound design by Andre J. Pleuss, I Am My Own Wife was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and more recently the Outer Critics Circle Award for best play.

Those of you unable to make it to New York to catch the Broadway production of I Am My Own Wife should check out Rosa von Praunheim's 1992 docudrama I Am My Own Woman (based on Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's autobiographical book, I Am My Own Woman: The Outlaw Life of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, Berlin's Most Distinguished Transvestite), which features von Mahlsdorf herself (pictured, far right, with Jens Taschner, who plays Charlotte from 15-17, and Ichgola Androgyn, who plays her from 20-30) in a featured role.

As Randy Turoff writes in a PlanetOut review: "What's most interesting about von Praunheim's film treatment of Charlotte is the absolute equivalence given to her achievements as a longtime sexual pervert, Nazi resister, gay liberator, and conservative-looking housekeeper with a genius for restoring palaces, manors, and antique mass-produced Victoriana. Charlotte is not a simple character: she's complex and colorful, with a repertoire of bawdy stories and gruesome World War II recollections; at the same time she is a historical gay figure who's made a huge difference simply by following her own queer proclivities with boundless bravery and enthusiasm."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/04/2004 11:22:00 AM

Monday, May 03, 2004

THE MATRIX PING PONG 

Via Video Link Japan, a streaming video blog from Tokyo, comes this link to "The Matrix Ping Pong"... from a Japanese TV show on NTV called "Kinchan and Katori Shingo no Zen Nihon Kasou Taisho". It's the funniest video we've seen in a long time. This is better than every Matrix film put together, and they didn't even use CG. Check it out (for Win. Media Player w/broadband).

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/03/2004 12:33:00 PM

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IRAQ IN THE AFTERMATH 

Also from Video Link Japan comes the following link to Iraq in the Aftermath: Visions of the Future by Lee Siu Hin, a Bay area video activist who just returned from Iraq and has posted dozens of media clips online featuring man-on-the-street interviews. "A great chance for you to see what it really looks like and what people on the street are saying."

Lee Siu Hin is also selling an interactive CD-ROM for $15 to benefit ActionLA, Peace, No War, and to help finance an indie media center in Bagdad.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/03/2004 11:49:00 AM

2046 

Fortissimo Film Sales has released the following description of Wong Kar-wai's highly anticipated new film, 2046, which debuts in competition at the Cannes Film Festival:

"He was a writer. He thought he wrote about the future but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention... to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed. Nobody knew for sure if it was true, because nobody who went there had ever come back -- except for one. He was there. He chose to leave. He wanted to change."

The film, which was lensed by cinematographer Chris Doyle, stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Chang Chen, Faye Wong, Zhang Ziyi, Carina Lau Ka-ling, Gong Li, Kimura Takuya, Bird Thongchai McIntyre, with a special appearance by Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/03/2004 10:33:00 AM

Saturday, May 01, 2004

JACKASS 

On Hollywood films and also those by conscientious independents, the American Humane Association is brought in by the production to "monitor animal activity" when animals are featured on the set. But as producers know, the AHA isn't just there to protect the lives of the animals -- the organization also serves to protect the sensibilities of the performers. Case in point: John C. Reilly reportedly walked off the set of Lars von Triers' new Mandalay in protest after the production slaughtered an "old and sick" donkey on the set.

Animal slaughter is nothing new in contemporary filmmaking. Gaspar Noe's Carne, the precursor to his I Stand Alone, opens with the killing of a horse in a French abbatoir, a single-shot scene that is clearly real. A similar event, also at a slaughterhouse, occurs in Barbet Schroeder's s/m drama Maitresse. There's that ending spectacle, which looks awfully real, in Apocalypse Now. And of course, the death of a donkey -- although most probably staged -- is the final transcendent moment of Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar. Whether our favorite filmmaking Dane is emulating the shock of Noe and Schoeder or the spirituality of Bresson will have to be seen.

Commented Peter Aalbaek Jensen, executive producer with Zentropa films, to the Ritzau news service about the scene, "As it was explained to me from Sweden, everything went by the book and the entire process was monitored by a veterinarian. We were very conscientious about that, because we didn't want 70,000 American animal rights groups on our back. (With regards to the above link, what's with PETA? Their spokesperson went from Pam Anderson to Bea Arthur?)

Last we checked, the animal rights movement is essentially a global one, but still, it's unlikely that Jensen's veterinary Kevorkian will find much work in Hollywood. The Screen Actor's Guild requires that SAG films sign an agreement with the AHA, an agreement that gets the producer a friendly AHA rep who hangs out and watches the animal scenes. In turn, good behavior by the production gets it that AHA logo that pops up at the end of almost every film nowadays.

As a producer, I've found working with the AHA easy and painless, which isn't to say that there haven't been some difficulties along the way. I was one of the producers of Harmony Korine's Gummo, which offended some with a kids-killing-cats storyline, and we were exactingly diligent about treating animals safely. (We learned, though, that road kill was fair game... and in Nashville, there was a lot.) In fact, the AHA logo was a requirement of our financing deal. When the film came out, there were some complaints that the AHA had "sanctioned" an anti-animal film, but to its credit, the organization said it wasn't in the business of censorship and it defended our production.

No, our only tussle with the AHA came when we were scheduled to shoot two days in a house filled wall to ceiling with junk. After about an hour of shooting, we realized that the house had a massive cockroach infestation. The crew complained, and we made plans to fumigate before we returned to the location only to learn that our AHA contract forbid it. No animals could be harmed during the making of the film, and that included bugs. So, we let crew members stay home for the day if they wanted to (I don't remember any taking us up on it), we bought spooky Hazmat suits for anyone who wanted them, transforming our set into something out of "The Hot Zone." And, in the version Korine tells in several interviews, he and d.p. Jean-Yves Escoffier showed up in Speedos.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 5/01/2004 12:57:00 AM

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