Major Energy Interests Linked To Attacks On ‘Gasland’ Film
I had a chance to attend a screening of Gasland last year. It is an eye-opening film which exposes the severe dangers fracking presents to the environment and the public. Naturally, any controversial documentary is bound to make a few enemies. MNN reports:
Josh Fox, the director of the Academy Award nominated documentary Gasland isn’t surprised at the recent reports that oil and natural gas front groups are behind campaigns aimed at discrediting him and his film.
On Thursday, Brendan DeMelle reported on Desmogblog.com and the Huffington Post that a memo had surfaced linking the group Energy in Depth with oil and natural gas interests. In recent months Energy in Depth has been at the center of criticism aimed at not only Gasland, but also reporters at ProPublica and the Associated Press following stories that reflected negatively on the hydraulic fracturing industry. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it has become known, is a process where chemicals are injected deep into the ground at a high pressure to get to natural gas reserves.
The Sordid History Of Product Placement In Cinema
Did you know that product placement in movies began in 1919, during the silent era? Ultimately, that paved the way for last year, when Michael Bay broke his own record by promoting products from 49 corporations within a single film (the blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Conceived by FilmDrunk:
Public Domain Works In 2011: What Could Have Been?
In the spirit of the Disinfo film RIP! A Remix Manifesto, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain goes dreaming and takes a look at classic works which would be entering the public domain in 2011, but for the passing of 1976’s restrictive Copyright Act. Among the cultural items to become freely available for quoting, remixing, and all other use would be books such as Waiting for Godot and Lord of the Flies, movies including On the Waterfront and Rear View Window, and the songs ‘Mr. Sandman’ and ‘Mambo Italiano.’
Current US law extends copyright protections for 70 years from the date of the author’s death. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years).
‘The Empire Strikes Back’ & Others To Be Preserved By U.S. Library
Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back is to be preserved by the US Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry:
Each year, 25 “culturally” significant films are added to the registry, which was founded in 1989. Lucas’s Star Wars and American Graffiti are among the 550 titles already selected for preservation.
This year’s raft of entries includes Robert Altman’s 1971 western McCabe and Mrs. Miller starring Warren Beatty, Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther and Elia Kazan’s first feature film, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, made in 1945.
So You Think You Can Laugh? ‘Laughology’ Inspires First-Ever Laughter Championship
Contestants and their fans will converge in Montreal on October 27, 2010 for the first ever laughter competition — Le Grand Championnat de Rire de Montreal. Comedy contests are common, however this will be the world’s first televised laughing contest. The contest was inspired by my documentary Laughology, currently distributed by The Disinformation Company, in which I demonstrate that people can laugh spontaneously by using various “active laughter” techniques.
Contestants across Quebec will compete in diabolical laughter competitions, contagious laughter face-offs, and competitive laughter duels to see who will be crowned the “Best Laugher in Quebec.” The show is a pilot for an eventual international laughter competition to demonstrate that laughter could itself be a competitive sport.
The Championnat is a based on the revolutionary concept that because laughter is contagious: laughing makes people laugh. It involves games designed to produce natural contagious laughter. The whole event is also being filmed for Rire Extreme, a documentary for CANAL D. I got the idea for my documentary Laughology after meeting Doug Collins, an American who is said to have the most contagious laugh in the world:
I believe that because of Quebec’s tradition of Joie de Vivre and Quebec may have laughers who are as good or better than Collins. This summer Laughter contests where held at major Quebec festivals, including le Festival du Grand Rire in Quebec, The Western Festival of St. Tite and le Festival de Poutine du Drummonville. The winners of those contests have been invited to the Championnat which takes place at in Montreal in a special ring.
We really found some extraordinary laughers. I’m afraid to imagine what happens when we get them all in the same room. I hope that the idea of a laughter competition is to spread the positive, healthy emotions of laughter. And I’m trying to prove that laughter could be a competitive sport.
Contestants are coming from around Quebec however, we have left one spot open for one last great laugher. Auditions will be held on Oct 27th at Salla Rossa at 5 p.m. Please email hey@laughology.info. to be put on the list.
Kenneth Anger Interviewed by Gaspar Noe
Here is an interesting match-up… Pioneering esoteric filmmaker Kenneth Anger gets interviewed by pioneering esoteric filmmaker Gaspar Noe in this match-made-in-heaven (hell?) tete-a-tete:
Kenneth Anger, the octogenarian American underground filmmaker, has largely been heralded as one of the founders of experimental film, with his role in inspiring directors such as Martin Scorsese and David Lynch. He pioneered queer, cult and psychedelic film without ever imagining himself in a gere, and this year he crossed over into fashion and created a piece (with longtime collaborator Brian Butler) for the Italian fashion house Missoni.
Gaspar Noé, director of the recent film Enter the Void and creator of the controversial film Irreversible, has long been a vocal supporter of Kenneth Anger…
‘Star Wars’ As A Silent Film
I know scenes have been floating around on the internet, but in my opinion the climax from Empire is the best use of this treatment:
Spike Lee on Gulf Coast Trauma: If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise (Video)
Keith Olbermann interviews filmmaker Spike Lee on his new documentary, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise and the current state of Gulf Coast affairs:
Why Did the Nazis Film the Dying Jews of Warsaw?
Sharon Waxman on her blog WaxWord:
In a French-themed café a block from the teeming beach, producer Noemi Schory explained why her new Holocaust documentary, “An Unfinished Film,” did not deserve the R rating that the MPAA handed down last week after a final appeal.
Yes, she said, the film has shocking images: corpses on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, starving children, a mass grave. And some nudity: naked men, and then women, entering a ritual bath.
It is a harsh film, even a brutal one. But it is also an historical document that until now has been unseen by the public, and whose purpose remains a mystery.
“I am upset about (the rating) theoretically, and practically this will create difficulties,” she said, ignoring an iced lemonade. “It puts up another obstacle to seeing it. “
With whichever rating, ‘An Unfinished Film’ is not a typical Holocaust documentary. Instead it investigates a mysterious Nazi…
Watch A Never-Before-Screened Scene Cut from the Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy
Looks like Gawker is keeping it on the ‘net here:
This is incredibly epic …
A never-before-screened scene cut from Return of the Jedi in which Darth Vader tempts Luke Skywalker to join the dark side, paired with footage of Luke constructing/activating his green lightsaber and officially becoming a Jedi Knight.
Let’s Get Lost With Dennis Hopper
Since the death of Dennis Hopper, I’ve been searching and scratching in the lesser known spots of his career trying to get a better feel for the man. YouTube is currently home to a couple of beautiful treasures that have had me reading and viewing for weeks now.I finally got around to creating a new Sleepless Film Festival to showcase this bizarre double-feature.
The Last Movie is Hopper’s follow-up to Easy Rider. It won him the Golden Lion in Venice and promptly ended his career as a director when he got back to America. The other film is a documentary called The American Dreamer. ‘Dreamer archives the strange days that Hopper lived through as he tried to edit The Last Movie in the midst of an ongoing, hedonistic orgy at his New Mexico ranch.
With this episode, we are looking back on the career of the late, great Dennis Hopper. While we can’t resist re-visiting highlights…
Hong Kong Filmmakers Shoot “First” 3D Porn Film
Reports the AFP via Google News:
A group of Hong Kong filmmakers have started shooting what they claim will be the world’s first 3D pornographic film. The 3.2 million-US-dollar 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, set for release in May, has already generated interest in a host of Asian film markets, as well as Europe and the US, the Sunday Morning Post reported.
Loosely based on a piece of classical Chinese erotic literature, The Carnal Prayer Mat, the movie will star Japanese adult actresses Yukiko Suo and Saori Hara, the Post said.
The film chronicles the story of a young man who, after being introduced to the erotic world of a duke, realises his ex-wife is the love of his life and features “orgies, swinging and some very graphic sex scenes”, the paper said.
Producer Stephen Shiu acknowledged that censors would likely block the movie’s screening in mainland China, a key market for Hong Kong…
Pi, Plato, And The Language of Nature
After I posted an article about technical analysis – an investment method that looks for patterns in the stock market – a couple people commented that it reminded them of the film Pi, about a renegade mathematician somehow using Pi to search for patters in the stock market with a homemade supercomputer in his crummy Manhatten apartment.
Technical analysis was probably the inspiration for the stock market portion of the film, but did you know that the part about renegade mathematicians building supercomputers in their living rooms to calculate Pi is actually based on a true story? Aronofsky almost certainly took the inspiration from a 1992 New Yorker story about the Brothers Chudnovsky.
Barack Obama: The Movie
Obama The Menteng Kid book cover
President Barack Obama spent four years of his childhood life living in Indonesia. He attended Primary School 1 in the Menteng district of Jakarta, where they referred to him as Barry.
Much of Indonesia still think of Obama as that ambitious child who someday wanted to be a president. Moved from the Menteng park to Primary School 1, there stands a seven foot statue of Obama as a 10-year old boy holding a butterfly.
His success has been materialized throughout Jakarta as an inspiration. Screenings have begun in Jakata of the new film Obama The Menteng Kid, due to be released on July 1.
The film is based on a book which explores a fictionalised portrayal of President Obama’s life from 1967 to 1971 when he was living in Indonesia. Obama is portrayed by Hasan Farooq Ali, 14, who told the BBC how the film helped him to…
Coming Soon: The Bollywood Hitler Movie
Dear Friend Hitler is a lighthearted Bollywood romp, presumably filled with dancing, based on “Hitler’s love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence.” Anupam Kher and Neha Dhupia star as Hitler and Eva Braun (although Kher just quit, following the public controversy). The Guardian reports:
Western productions have occasionally attempted to make fun of Hitler, ranging from successes like The Producers to fiascos like Heil Honey, I’m Home. But Dear Friend Hitler is not a traditional Bollywood musical, and makes no claim to comedy. “It aims to capture the personality of Adolf Hitler and his insecurities, his charisma and his paranoia during the last few days of his life,” Kumar says. In other words, this is Downfall – but with a positive spin.
What’s Your Favorite Film or Documentary About Conspiracy Theories (And Facts)?
Disinformation’s Raymond Wiley started this conversation over on Disinfo’s Facebook Wall and a great question for disinfo.com readers to address (if you haven’t already).
I’m partial to Oliver Stone’s filmmaking … and I can’t wait for his Wall Street sequel later this year.
Here’s a bit of JFK that is about the power of questioning established truth, regardless of how entrenched that “truth” might be.
I’ll let the film speak for itself and do share your favorite films or film moments:
Stanley Kubrick Acting Psycho On The Set Of ‘The Shining’ (Video)
Thanks to Charlie Jane Anders on io9.com for pointing this out:
Purported Serial-Killing Film Critic Reviews the ‘Star Wars’ Prequels (Video)
If you haven’t seen Red Letter Media’s (a.k.a. Milwaukee-based filmmaker Mike Stoklasa’s) take on the Star Wars prequels, they are really worth the lengthy video reviews.
Do note that his twisted sense of humor isn’t for everyone, particular his “Buffalo Bob”-style narration and the “Mr. Plinkett” scenes in these reviews can be distracting. (My take is he does this in the reviews to say that it’s even obvious to someone psychotic that these movies are terrible … or he might just enjoy playing a psycho.)
Regardless, he does have some salient points about filmmaking, particularly on establishing a protagonist the audience can identify with and actually having a story arc in your movie. Stoklasa also does a great job at pointing out the pitfalls of completely digital filmmaking and a (seemingly) lack of true collaboration between Lucas and his staff in the making of these prequels.
If you haven’t seen it yet I’d start from the beginning with his review of The Phantom Menace, but if you’ve already seen those, Red Letter Media’s take on Attack of The Clones is now out.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Review (Part 1 of 9)
‘Jew Süss’: The Most Notoriously Anti-Semitic Movie Ever Made
Living in downtown Manhattan, I regularly go by the peerless Film Forum cinema, which is currently playing Harlan: In The Shadow Of The Jew Suss. I was curious to know what it was about and conveniently Larry Rohter obliges in the New York Times (I’ve also included a clip from Harlan’s film, Jud Süss):
In the history of the cinema, the German director Veit Harlan occupies an especially ignominious position. It is his name that is attached to “Jew Süss,” perhaps the most notoriously anti-Semitic movie ever made, a box office success in Nazi Germany in 1940 that was so effective that it was made required viewing for all members of the SS.
But what motivated Harlan to write and direct such a film? Was he a Nazi true believer, an opportunistic careerist or just a filmmaker too fearful of retribution to say no to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief…
Sitting Now (Podcast) Raises Pan with Brian Butler
Via: sittingnow.co.uk:
This week we venture back into the worlds of the Occult, and film-making. Brian Butler is a filmmaker, magician, and colleague to legendary director Kenneth Anger.
In this weeks episode we discuss: Jack Parsons and his magickal journey, The Night of Pan, Kenneth Anger, and how the occult can influence the filmmaking process.
This weeks guest is Brian Butler
Brian is screening his new film The Night of Pan, as well as performing live music with Death in Vegas’ Richard Fearless in London this week, make sure you don’t miss it — the event is free, and you can get more details here.
Read More: sittingnow.co.uk
