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GO WITH THE FLOW
Christopher Lucas and Avi Santo, coordinating editors of Flow, a new online journal of television and media studies out of the University of Texas at Austin, write: "Television and contemporary media are ephemeral experiences for most people, no less so for academics and cultural critics. Most of what we watch passes without notice. In an era of ever-increasing 'choices' it becomes ever more difficult to crown a particular televisual king or queen as representative of our current moment (not that this was ever possible. Certainly, the history of television in the 1950s is very different depending on whether you look at it through the lens of Ozzie and Harriet or The Adventures of Superman, and we are not simply referring to the stories told on these series, but their modes of production, their intended audience, their engagement with collective memory and popular culture, and so on).
"Yet, much critical writing about media has tended, even when addressing its complexity and diversity, to seize on particular programs, episodes, televisual moments and experiences. This necessity, despite the intentions of many, leads to canons, prescriptions, diagnoses that are antithetical to the ways most of us understand television.
"Flow [is] envisioned as an experiment in aligning the academic perspective more closely with the televisual experience."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/8/2004 05:14:08 PM Comments (0)
National and local news organizations will be conducting online polls during and after tonight's presidential debate asking for readers' opinions. Look for online polls at these news Web sites, and make sure to vote in every one of them:
CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com
CNN: http://www.cnn.com
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com
Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com
Akron Beacon-Journal: http://www.ohio.com
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: http://www.ajc.com
Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: http://www.startribune.com
Orlando Sentinel: http://www.orlandosentinel.com
Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com
And be sure to check the Web sites of your local newspapers and TV stations for online polls. For your voice to register it is crucial that you do this in the minutes immediately following the debate.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/8/2004 03:57:58 PM Comments (0)
For his latest multimedia installation, developed over the past two years, 2004 Turner Prize nominee Kutlug Ataman returned to his native Istanbul to work in one of the city's hidden ghettos, known only as Kuba.
The district came into being in the late 1960s and quickly became a shantytown where leftwing militants concealed themselves and their weapons from the police. Since then it has developed into a cohesive society, presenting an impenetratable solidarity to the outside world.
Kutlug Ataman's Kuba uses 40 television sets featuring video of 40 inhabitants of Kuba telling their personal tales of tragedy.
Commissioned by the British arts organization Artangel and co-produced with Carnegie International 2004/2005, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), Vienna, Theater der Welt, Stuttgart and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Kuba was produced by Yalan Dunya in Isanbul.
Kuba opens in Pittsburgh for the Carnegie International, October 9, 2004 - March 20, 2005 at the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, and arrives in London in the spring 2005. It will also be available as a 176-page full-color publication.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/8/2004 11:50:57 AM Comments (0)
OFF OFF CINEMA
As reported in Variety today: "Emerging Pictures will launch America's first full-time commercial cinema operating only with digital projection equipment in Manhattan's Off Off Broadway theater complex Theater Row," located at 410-412 W. 42nd St.
"Emerging Cinema will screen arthouse fare on a calendar basis," says Variety. "Docu Home of the Brave, bowing Oct. 27, will be the venue's first theatrical engagement. The space houses five Off Broadway theaters, ranging in capacity from 88 to 199 seats, but only one auditorium will be used to screen films at any time. The projection equipment, which is portable, will be shuttled from theater to theater, depending on the film and the live performances schedule."Home to the newly launched Summer Play Festival, Theater Row was dark last night when I caught a lecture organized by dorkbot -nyc at the multimedia space The Tank, which is a block away, followed by a performance of Quincy Long's terrific "comedy with music," People Be Heard, at neighboring Playwrights Horizons.
The Off Off Broadway theater community is still reeling from the redesign of the Arts & Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times, which scuttled the small-print column known as The Guide that provided comprehensive listings of all legit shows, even those playing the tiniest venues; and The Tank may be losing its space and is currently scrambling to find alternate digs. Let's hope Emerging Cinema's newest venture -- the first step in its plan to develop a digital theater chain of some 400 screens in existing theaters throughout the country -- fares well.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/7/2004 10:20:46 AM Comments (0)
PUPPET POLICE
Paramount's upcoming marionette comedy Team America: World Police has finally achieved an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), says The Hollywood Reporter.According to filmfodder.com, "The R comes after a long battle between the MPAA censors and Team America creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The film was originally slapped with an NC-17 (a.k.a. The Kiss of Death) because of an extended scene featuring simulated puppet sex.
"Let's go over that again. Team America was given an NC-17 because of an extended scene featuring simulated puppet sex. Want specifics? Check out this article from Guardian Unlimited. It's a sad state of affairs. "Parker and Stone reworked the scene 10 times before the MPAA bumped the rating down to an R."
The R-rated Team America: World Police won't be released until Oct. 15, but the ever-resourceful Moriarty over at Aint It Cool News has the early buzz.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/6/2004 02:19:12 PM Comments (0)
Vice President Cheney, in defense of his tenure at Halliburton, referred viewers to the Web site www.FactCheck.com in last night's televised debate with John Edwards. That URL actually redirects to www.georgesoros.com, which today leads with a personal message from George Soros that reads:
"President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values."
A visit to the Annenberg Political FactCheck site, www.FactCheck.org -- the site we assume Cheney intended to refer viewers to -- today leads with the following summary of the debate:
"Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted 'for the war' and 'to commit the troops, to send them to war.' He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals.
"Edwards falsely claimed the administration 'lobbied the Congress' to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, something the White House never supported, and he used misleading numbers about jobs."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/6/2004 01:21:12 PM Comments (0)
ANIMATED MUHAMMAD
You thought The Passion of the Christ was controversial.Fine Media Group has announced the nationwide theatrical release of a feature-length animated film that chronicles the early life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.
The release of Muhammad: The Last Prophet, directed by former Disney animator Richard Rich, is scheduled to coincide with Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Islamic fast of Ramadan.
The 90-minute film, produced by the creators of animated films as The King and I and The Fox and the Hound for Badr International will be shown in theaters in 37 U.S. and Canadian cities for one week beginning November 14.
Because of Islamic traditions prohibiting the visual representation of religious figures, no images of the Prophet Muhammad appear in the film. Instead, Mohamad is represented as a bright light and an off-screen voice. (The only other major film production to chronicle the life of Prophet Muhammad was The Message, a 1976 film by Syrian director Moustapha Akkad in which the Prophet was neither portrayed nor voiced-over. The Prophet's uncle, Hamza, however, was portrayed in the movie by Anthony Quinn.)
As part of the film's promotional campaign, Fine Media Group is raffling off a round-trip plane ticket (New York to Jeddah) to experience Hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah which is one of the five "pillars" of Islam.
In a statement released today, Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) is quoted as saying, "This is an exciting opportunity for parents and children of all faiths to learn more about an historic figure like Prophet Muhammad and events that shaped today's world. The release of this film in theaters also offers a chance to interact with American Muslims in a learning environment."
However, according to IslamOnline, "Some [Egyptian] critics and journalists expressed their disappointment" following a screening of the $12 million film in Cairo, where it was released in 2002. (The film was also released in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.)
"The movie ignores important events such as the struggle between Muslims and Jews, leading many critics to say that it is deliberately ignored due to political considerations as the film producers wanted to avoid any political problems that may occur in case this struggle was mentioned.
"The movie is below any expectations and full of political problems, one of them is the total ignorance of the struggle of the first Muslims with the Jews and the Prophet's battles against them in Madinah," said Ashrah El Bayoumi, a critic.
"He added that it is impossible to talk about the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) without mentioning the struggle against the Jews, the second force after the infidels of Makkah in their animosity to the Prophet's (pbuh) message, as well as their role in the attempt to suppress it, especially in its early phases in Madinah.
"On the other hand, Ali Mohieb, a movie director, said he sympathizes with the producers of the movie as they are exerting a remarkable effort, he said, adding that ignoring the part related to Jews may be because the producing company wanted to 'save its money' and guarantee that the English version of the movie will be allowed in Western markets.
"Answering these criticism, Mowafak El-Harthy, the Saudi head of the producing company Badr, said that critics should not turn the movie into a political issue."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/5/2004 03:58:14 PM Comments (3)
CROSS COUNTRY
Via Eyebeam's reBlog, check out Michel and Olivier Gondry's video for "Behind", the first single by the new French recording artist Lacquer, whose debut album Overloaded was released this summer. # posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/4/2004 07:13:56 PM Comments (0)
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© 2004 Filmmaker: The Magazine of Independent Film