Gary Spivey is my new hero. Internationally revered psychic medium/healer/attention skank notwithstanding, frankly it’s a miracle the guy can even walk or stand upright; the man has grapes the size of Bruce Bruce. Showing his face in public essentially wearing a PASGT for hydrocephalics covered in white fibers recycled from a 3M allergen filter takes a level of intestinal fortitude as yet not acheived by any human being.
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In a press release Tuesday, Viacom executives announced their newest hour-long VH1 Celebreality program, Knight Life, with former Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight, has been canceled for failing to reach the wretched depths of the network’s low standards.
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Have you ever wanted to relive your childhood and do things differently? Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) casts B-movie icon Ann Savage as his domineering mother in attempt to answer that question in MY WINNPEG, a hilariously wacky and profoundly touching goodbye letter to his childhood hometown. A documentary (or “docu-fantasia” as Maddin proclaims) that inventively blends local and personal history with surrealist images and metaphorical myths, the film covers everything from the fire at the local park which lead to a frozen lake of distressed horse heads to pivotal and factually heightened scenes from Maddin’s own childhood, all laced with a startling emotional honesty. MY WINNIPEG is Maddin’s most personal film and a truly unique cinematic experience, winning the best Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the opening night selection of the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum.
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In 1994, Jonathan Wells famously launched the film festival RESFest at a Christmas party in his San Francisco basement, when he showed a few friends some skate videos by a not-yet-mainstream director named Spike Jonze. RESFest quickly escalated into a global phenomenon — a decade later it had spawned the monthly culture magazine RES, a series of screenings in 18 countries a year, even a distinct and recognizable aesthetic that transcended film, bleeding into the tangential industries of music, art and design (people actually say “That is so RES”). After Wells sold RES in 2006, an entire generation of cool kids looked to Wells to tell them where to look next.
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MONSTER CAMP is a rare and fascinating glimpse into the world of live-action role playing (“LARPing”), a real-life version of the videogame phenomenon World of Warcraft. In this award-winning doc, gamer stereotypes are simultaneously shattered and confirmed.
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Initially Larry Towell wished to document the birth of a nation, following the Oslo-Agreement. Instead he ended up documenting what he would later refer to as “the World’s largest open-air prison”. In 2001 he was given a small video camera and began to maintain a video diary while working in Israel and Palastine. In his 40 minute documentary “Indecisive Moments” – which won the “Achievement in Filmmaking for a Documentary” award at the 2007 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, also known as “the voice of indie film” – Larry Towell documents events and perspectives of those caught up in violence. The result is a highly personal documentary from the perspective of one of the world’s most acclaimed photojournalists. “Indecisive Moments” bridges the gap between artist and reporter bringing the viewer inside Towell’s highly stylized world.
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What happens when those colorful little candy dispensers we all love actually come to life? Pez-sized adventures! These two animated tales are sure to please children, families and collectors of the candy novelty items alike. Bonus material includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the Pez factory that reveals how the popular sweets and their dispensers are made.
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In China, it is simply known as “The River.” But the Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian documentary filmmaker Yung Chang returns to the gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that traverses the gargantuan waterway. With Altmanesque narrative agility, a humanist gaze and wry wit, Chang’s Upstairs Downstairs approach beautifully captures the microcosmic society of the luxury liner. Below deck: A bewildered young girl trains as a dishwasher—sent to work by her peasant family, who is on the verge of relocation from the encroaching floodwaters. Above deck: A phalanx of wealthy international tourists set sail to catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenaged employees who serve and entertain them—now tagged with new Westernized names like “Cindy” and “Jerry” by upper management—warily grasp at the prospect of a more prosperous future. Singularly moving and cinematically breathtaking, UP THE YANGTZE gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large.
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To people who work in television, this development is known as “the viewer plunge.” Last spring at the upfronts, a chilling number was widely whispered: 2.5 million fewer people were watching NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox than had in spring 2006. TV executives repeatedly reassured ad buyers that everything was A-O.K., but they also took to kitchen-sinking to explain away the plunge. Daylight Savings Time had come too early. Everyone was using TiVo and the Internet. The rating system is unfair. The war. The economy. The toxins. The bees. But things were going to be great in ’08.
And then came the writers’ strike. Combined with the viewer plunge, it was like the Depression and the Dust Bowl — a double whammy for television and its audience. The strike “orphaned” viewers (as the jargon has it) without their favorite shows, which gave viewers a reason to leave network television entirely. And they did. Sayonara. According to The Hollywood Reporter, most returning shows lost between 10 and 30 percent of the viewers they had before the strike, when ratings for the networks were already low.
It’s not immediately clear what all this means for the upfronts. How do you celebrate your wedding anniversary the year that divorce is imminent? Do you drink alone? Toast to old times?
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In fact, “Guest of Cindy Sherman,” which was co-directed by Tom Donahue, feels more like three or four docs fused into one entertaining (and sometimes squirm-inducing) concoction. We get a sidelong view of the art world and its symbiotic relationship with commerce and celebrity, as well as an exploration of the awkward life of a famous person’s “plus one.” (H-O’s own complaints are bulked up by an amusing interview with Elton John’s companion, David Furnish.) At the center of it all is Sherman, in a fragmented portrait of a woman H-O calls “the most famous mystery girl of art,” a photographer who has used her own image as the basis for a hugely influential body of work.
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I Need That Record, a new documentary aims to look at the problems facing independent record stores throughout North America. The film focuses on why over 3000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade. The film uses found footage, expository voice over, talking head interviews with artists, musicians, retail owners, and animation to tell the story.
The film also features commentary from many notable figures including Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth/ Ecstatic Peace! Label, Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat/Teen Idles, Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads, Pat Carney of the Black Keys, Mike Watt of the Minutemen/reunited Stooges, Patterson Hood of The Drive By Truckers, Noam Chomsky, guitar composer Glenn Branca, punk author Legs McNeil, rock photographer Bob Gruen, Bryan Poole guitarist of Of Montreal, Numero Records, Rhino Records, Bloodshot Records, United Record Press (the largest vinyl plant in the U.S.),
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Youth can be a minefield: drugs, sex, violence, and peer pressure. One group has an extreme way of dealing with it. They call themselves Straight Edge, and while they are being classified as a violent gang in areas such as Salt Lake City and Reno, they aren’t like any other gang you know: they reject drugs, drinking, smoking, and even casual sex. They’re rebels against a society in which everything goes. National Geographic goes inside this growing youth movement caught between being a refuge for Americas kids and a dangerous gang wanted by authorities.
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“Bra Boys” is a film about the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle of its youth – the tattooed and much maligned surf community known as the Bra Boys. Central to the story is the true-life struggle of the Abberton brothers – Sunny, Koby, Jai and Dakota … one charged with murdering a Sydney standover man, another pursuing a professional surf career but charged as an accessory in his brother’s legal fight, another trying to hold the family together and a young brother whose inheritance is his siblings’ notoriety. The story is narrated by Academy Award-winning Australian actor Russell Crowe, and is told through the eyes of members of the Bra Boys.
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“So, how is it that you managed to be on the roadway that night?” The question was posed by a reporter from the Dallas Morning News. This was in 1988, during an interview about my recently released film, “The Thin Blue Line.” I had decided for the first time as a documentary filmmaker to use slow-motion re-enactments in my account of the wrongful conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Dallas Police Officer Robert Wood.
The question seemed insane. The film was released in 1988. The crime occurred in 1976. Was this reporter suggesting that I had been out on the roadway with a 35-millimeter film crew the night of the murder, and just happened to be at the right place, at the right time to film the crime – over a decade earlier? Indeed, he was.
Just so there is no doubt about this: I wasn’t there.
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New from director Errol Morris.
Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America’s image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains. Did the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military, or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few “bad apples”? We set out to examine the context of these photographs. Why were they taken? What was happening outside the frame? We talked directly to the soldiers who took the photographs and who were in the photographs. Who are these people? What were they thinking? Over two years of investigation, we amassed a million and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted reports, and hundreds of photographs. The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in moral ambiguity, but it is clear what happened there. The Abu Ghraib photographs serve as both an expose and a coverup
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Friday night I rented this documentary and watched it at home. My wife loved it, felt it had an important message about man’s impact on the environment, and was really taken by Edward Burtynsky’s photographs. I felt differently: if I ever wanted to make photography seem boring to a bunch of students, to discourage them from getting into the field, this is the film I would show them
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NOFX has announced the details for their long-promised documentary covering their recent world tour. The show will be aired on Fuse and includes their visits to o Singapore, Peru, Israel, South Africa, Turkey and South Korea.
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“He’s really changed my life,” Paris Hilton told paparazzi from her car, adding she offered the necklace “because the greatest gift is to give.”
Turns out, as some outlets later discovered, the “mystic” was an actor named Maxie Santillan Jr., who has appeared on CSI and My Name Is Earl. And though some accused Hilton of getting Punk’d, the joke’s on them: The entire scene was staged for a new show from Punk’d producer Ashton Kutcher premiering Sunday on E! (10:30 ET/PT).
Pop Fiction, an eight-episode series, is a prank show targeting paparazzi and gullible media outlets. It’s made with the eager help of stars, who were the laughing stocks of Kutcher’s former MTV show. This time the shoe’s on the other foot, and the series has been kept so tightly under wraps that E!’s own website fell victim to the Hilton hoax and other planted stories that producers won’t yet divulge
Check it out here.
Here’s a trailer for Crash Course: The Accidental Art of Arnold Odermatt, a Swiss police photographer.
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