Moving Pictures and other Mass Media

Reel Geezers

2008-10-19T21:11:00.003-05:00

Producer Marcia Nasatir and Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. are The Reel Geezers. They post their YouTube movie commentary based on nearly a century of combined experience in the film game. Their Web site, ReelGeezers.com provides details on their careers and links to all of their current reviews.

Must see Documentaries...

2008-10-01T22:38:00.002-05:00

Wired magazine called it, "The scariest movie at the Sundance Film Festival."

Irena Salina's award-winning documentary Flow, investigates what experts are calling the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st century - the world water crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply and a domineering water cartel. This film intelligently reveals the rapidly building crisis along with practical solutions which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic water turnaround.

Screen Actors Guild Factions...

2008-09-20T09:14:00.006-05:00

"A breakaway faction within the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has gained a foothold on its ruling body, a win that could help break the deadlock over contract talks." - Breakaway actors win union gains, BBC.

The two factions have neatly split SAG into almost equal parts... for the moment.

"The Unite for Strength group won six of 11 Hollywood seats up for grabs in the union's National Board elections. Membership First, the faction led by SAG president Alan Rosenberg, won just five seats but still holds a majority on the board's influential Hollywood branch.

Screen Actors Guild National & Hollywood Board of Directors 2007-2008 National & Hollywood Board Members in Alphabetical Order
AngelTompkins	Renée Aubry	Joe Bologna	Seymour Cassel	Joanna Cassidy	George Coe
Anne DeSalvo	Frances Fisher	Leigh French	Elliott Gould	Valerie Harper	Sumi Haru
Robert Hays	William Katt	Lainie Kazan	Diane Ladd	Piper Laurie	William Mapother
Kent McCord	Esai Morales	Barbara Niven	William Russ	Susan Savage	Nancy Sinatra
	Renée Taylor	Angela Watson	Jobeth Williams	Jenny Worman
Hollywood Board Members in National Alternate Order
Karen Austin	Peggy Miley	Scott Wilson	France Nuyen	Brett Cullen	Ron Harper
Jane Austin	F.J. O'Neil	Yale Summers	Anthony DeSantis	Paul Napier	Michael Bell
Steven Barr	David Jolliffe	Russell McConnell	Warren Berlinger	Terrence Beasor	Jeff Austin
		Justin Shenkarow	Joe d'Angerio

The Prisoner

2008-09-17T05:59:00.002-05:00

OMG! After 40 years, The Prisoner is in remake in London as a TV mini-series with Ian McKellen playing "Two" and blogging about it at http://twurl.nl/a5ejrb The Village has been recreated in Africa, some say Namibia.
http://blogs.amctv.com/the-prisoner

A Single Woman

2008-09-12T23:22:00.001-05:00

A Single Woman is the story of first US Congresswoman and lifelong pacifist, Jeannette Rankin (Jeanmarie Simpson). Her humble beginnings in Montana during the era of the Indian Wars awakened her deeply pacifist nature.

She ran for Congress in 1916 and won, against all odds. The subject of her first vote (against President Wilson’s WWI war resolution) set the stage for her destiny. Most of the Suffragists who supported her campaign turned against her, believing that her anti-war vote made women look weak and hurt the movement.

In 1920, Jeannette was founding vice-president of the American Civil Liberties Union who, in 1933, tried to persuade President Roosevelt to revise immigration laws and allow Jewish refugees into the United States.

Twenty-two years later, in 1940, Jeannette was re-elected as Congresswoman from Montana on a peace platform and once again voted against a world war, this time as the lone anti-war voice in the American Legislature. She was mobbed and vilified and spent the rest of her life traveling to India and studying the teachings and methods of Mohandas Gandhi and the effects of colonialism on peoples all over the world.

During the Vietnam era, she enjoyed a renaissance when the anti-war culture of the day celebrated her perseverance as a dedicated pacifist and human rights advocate. She died in 1973.

The film begins in 1972, when Jeannette Rankin is 92 years old and vigorously engaged in Second Wave Feminism as well as the anti-war movement. As the film moves backward in time through her years working as the first US Congresswoman, peace lobbyist, suffragist and labor advocate, a tale of an encounter between settlers and American Indians moves forward concurrently.

This pivotal story from Jeannette's childhood is told through a series of exquisite hand-drawn illustrations of the American frontier in the late nineteenth century and voiced by prominent actor/activists.

Cutting-edge filmmaking techniques coupled with the contributions of virtuoso artists such as Joni Mitchell, Patricia Arquette, Karen Black, Peter Coyote, Mimi Kennedy, Margot Kidder, Elizabeth Peña and Cindy Sheehan, elevates A Single Woman to transcend traditional biography.

Who won what at the Venice film festival

2008-09-06T19:21:00.002-05:00

U.S. film "The Wrestler", directed by Darren Aronofsky, won the top prize at the Venice film festival on Saturday.

GOLDEN LION FOR BEST FILM:

"The Wrestler" (U.S.) by Darren Aronofsky

SILVER LION FOR BEST DIRECTOR:

Alexei German Jr. (Russia) for "Paper Soldier"

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE:

"Teza" by Ethiopian director Haile Gerima

SPECIAL LION FOR BODY OF WORK:

German director Werner Schroeter

BEST ACTOR:

Italian actor Silvio Orlando for "Il papa' di Giovanna" (Giovanna's Father)

BEST ACTRESS:

French actress Dominique Blanc for "L'autre" (The Other One)

BEST EMERGING ACTRESS:

U.S. actress Jennifer Lawrence for "The Burning Plain"

BEST SCREENPLAY:

Ethiopian director Haile Gerima for "Teza"

BEST FIRST FILM:

"Pranzo di Ferragosto" (Ferragosto's Lunch) by Italian director Gianni Di Gregorio.

The making of a film by consensus...

2008-08-10T15:50:00.005-05:00

I am tracing a 2006 documentary directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr entitled, Ten Canoes. It was filmed entirely in an Indigenous Aboriginal language on location in the Northern Territory of Australia's remote Arafura Swamp. But, most incredibly it was created by Rolf de Heer and the people of Ramingining, working in consensus.

Click for a 22-page background PDF, well-worth reading. There is a YouTube short, non-embeddable, that provides a glimpse of the humor and authenticity of the production. Ten Canoes evolved out of another award-winning Australian film, The Tracker, produced in 2002, which starred Indigenous performer (dance, film, theatre), David Gulpilil.

"The Thompson Times," refer to the memories of the past, retained by the Yolngu people through a set of photos taken by Dr. Donald Thomson, an anthropologist who worked in central and north-eastern Arnhem Land in the mid-1930. The photos, including one of a group of ten canoeists on an egg-hunting expedition, became the means of creating the film's plot.

The backgrounder explains, "Nowadays life is very different for the people of Ramingining. There is a supermarket and a takeaway shop. People live in houses with plumbing and television, and do their banking over the Internet," but they remember and celebrate the Thompson times. Ten Canoes revives those memories, enabling a people to revive and reanimate their past through storytelling.

Both The Tracker and Ten Canoes are available from Amazon.

Dr. Horrible is Wonderful!

2008-07-16T07:43:00.009-05:00

Episode 1 of 3 went live yesterday and hmmmm, crashed the servers. That's a good thing, right? It means the world is watching Dr. Horrible, or at least trying to watch. It also marks the successful unfolding of a new marketing model - one that might otherwise be remembered as the Revenge of the Hollywood Writers. Following his Tweets...

drhorrible We love you for crashing the site, we really do. In the meantime, you can go to itunes. Or just wait a few hours, we'll be back up. about 20 hours ago from web

Josh Whedon's mini, super-hero, evil genius, opera is a winner. Dr. Horrible, brought to life by Neil Patrick Harris is irresistibly endearing, in search of love while and on a quest for recognition as an evil superstar - one that reads his e-mail responses from readers on his blog. But where have I seen that face? OMG it's Doogie Howser, MD. Now I am tempted to track down some of his less-memorable work, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and its sequel Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

Web Scout at the LA Times says, Joss Whedon's 'Dr. Horrible' is a site-crashing success:

“Dr. Horrible,” you see, has the Internet cooked into its DNA. Rather than being a top-down, studio controlled production, it began earlier this year as a kind of dinner table brainstorm between Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Jed’s fiancée Maurissa Tancharoen.

Felicia Day as Penny, the object of Dr. Horrible's affection, captures my heart as well, but I'm easy, especially when it comes to women on a mission for social justice. Day is also the star, script writer and producer of the YouTube based web series The Guild, which won the 2008 "Greenlight Award for Best Original Digital Series Production" at the South by Southwest Festival.

I had no problem seeing Episode 1 and can't wait 'til midnight tonight to logon for Episode 2... with that added server capacity.

Website:	http://www.drhorrible.com/
Starring:	Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Felicia Day as Penny
Screenplay By:	Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Zack Whedon
Directed By:	Joss Whedon
Produced By:	David Burns, Michael Boretz, and Joss Whedon
Plot Outline:	The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. Music by: Joss Whedon and Jed Whedon Lyrics by: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen Score and Orchestration by: Jed Whedon

Changing the face of Show Business as we know it...

2008-07-01T21:51:00.008-05:00

Joss Whedon creator and head writer of the well-known television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly is about to exact his writer's strike revenge on traditional media with the release of a 3-part streaming Web opera. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog will be released for free on July 15, July 17 and July 19. Then, all three parts will vanish at midnight on July 20, only to reappear as a 42-minute feature for sale as a download and eventually published on DVD.

Whedon explains his theory, "The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the Internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way."

New TeeVee's Lisa Gannes provides the details...
Whedon to Pioneer New Distribution Model

Journalism students, "Create your own jobs..."

2008-07-01T16:14:00.005-05:00

"I think they should think about one thing in particular, the possibility, maybe likelihood that they may have to invent their own jobs... in a world where business models for traditional media are in trouble," says Dan Gillmor in this vblog interview by Howard Rheingold.

Dan Gillmor runs the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, a new project of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Apocolypse Road Movies...

2008-07-01T04:44:00.009-05:00

According to director Wim Wender's Web site, Until The End of the World is, "an odyssey for the modern age. As with Homer's Odyssey, the purpose of the journey is to restore sight - a spiritual reconciliation between an obsessed father and a deserted son. Dr. Farber, in trying to find a cure for his wife's blindness, has created a device that allows the user to send images directly to the brain, enabling the blind to see."

Wender, the son of a surgeon, was born in Germany in 1945. In the 60s he turned from following in his father's footsteps in studying medicine, to a pursuit of painting and moved to Paris. There he discovered the Cinemathèque Francaise, where he immersed himself in a study of film. His rise to fame includes working with Francis Ford Coppola and Sam Shepherd - in the 80's cult film hit, Paris, Texas.

Like Ridley Scott's battle over the first release of Bladerunner, Wender was forced to accept a forshortened version of Until the End of the World and like Scott he continued to edit his own director's cut - a 5-hour epic (which I hope to find.)

His latest films include The End of Violence, the award-winning music documentary Buena Vista Social Club and The Million Dollar Hotel which won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2000. He collaborated on Ten Minutes Older together with fellow directors Jim Jarmush, Spike Lee, Chen Kaige, Werner Herzog, Aki Kaurismaki and Victor Erice.

I must thank my Borg friend Kevin Lim, (another "social cyborg" who tweets his interest in the works of Wim Wenders) for pointing out the film and an essay on Until the End of the World by Toni Perrine that suggests we are suffering from a Disease of Images - a love-hate relationship with technology - where story-telling becomes the salvation.

"The 'disease of images' experienced by Claire and Sam (principal characters in the film) suggests the power and potential danger of mediated visual communication in western culture," he explains. "It seems inevitable that Claire be afflicted by the disease of images since it is her vision that structures much of the narrative. She is frequently shown recording her surroundings with a hand-sized video camera, in effect, experiencing the physical world second-hand through electronic mediation."

Timothy Leary was fascinated with the transformational changes brought about in human consciousness by the capacity to record and repeat sound and images... segments of time. He and David Byrne engaged in a dialogue in which Leary explains, "quantum mechanics, quantum physics: it's all movie; it's cast is changing, it's re-forming, it comes in clusters, it's not linear. And you don't study anything - you set up a situation and you record it." David Byrne, "And you follow the pattern."

David Byrne: "It seems that post-WW2 with television and movies and records being disseminated all over the globe, you have instant access to anything anywhere almost. But you have it out of context, free-floating. And , people in other parts of the world - India, South America, Russia - they have access to whatever we're doing. And they can take what they need and leave the rest. They can play around with it, they can misinterpret it or re- interpret it. And we're free to do the same thing. It seems to be a part of the age we live in, that that's a unique thing about this period, that there is that kind of communication, even though it's not always direct communication with people in different places - it can lead to direct communication if you follow through."

Wim Wenders currently lives in Los Angeles and Berlin. Read his complete biography...
Kevin Lim is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Communication at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and blogs at theory.isthereason.com.

Michel Gondry Picks 25 Classic Music Videos

2008-06-27T15:04:00.002-05:00

The acclaimed film and video director Michel Gondry, tells us why he loves clips from Michael Jackson, the White Stripes, Bjork, and more...

2008-06-12T16:51:00.003-05:00

In 2005, my friend Chris Hume created Red State Road Trip. "It was a bizarre film journey into the heart of a divided nation. 3 years later, America has changed, for better and for worse. Time for another road trip..."

Check out his latest work:

The desertification and renewal of Detroit, Cowboys for Christ, a small town battling Las Vegas for water, a Kansas couple who live in a nuclear missile silo, the mad metal man of Mullinville Kansas, gas-guzzlers running on empty...

http://www.shootandrunproductions.com/rsrt2gallery.htm

So far he has posted 3 episodes that deal with water scarcity out west. Excellent work!

2008-06-01T22:16:00.000-05:00

Short-form Video Production Conference... “Who would have ever thought that advertisers would want to put their ads up next to people eating spiders?” – Reality TV

2008-01-17T09:45:00.000-06:00

Barb Lawton says, "Wisconsin is now in a solid, competitive position in the high-tech creative industry. We kick off the year with the tax credits for the film, TV and video production industry finally taking effect. Expect to see good jobs as the high-tech manufacturing infrastructure is developed, along with increased tourism and global recognition of the beautiful vistas that define our state."

2008-01-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

FILM SCREENING

Los Zafiros - Music from the Edge of Time

At the Haggerty Museum of Art, January 17, 2008, 7 p.m.

As John, Paul, George and Ringo were forming the Beatles in Liverpool in the early 1960s, another band was coming together in the tough district of Cayo Hueso in Havana. Playing a brilliant mix of American-inspired doo wop and traditional Latin forms, Los Zafiros became a huge sensation in Cuba and beyond. Thirty years after the breakup of Los Zafiros, the two surviving band members, multiple Grammy winner and Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Manuel Galban and the group’s co-founder, Miguel Cancio, reunite in the streets of present-day Havana, a place full of unforgettable songs and memories for them and for their still-loyal fans.
Los Zafiros- Music from the Edge of Time was produced and directed by Lorenzo DeStefano.

All events are free.

2007-10-22T19:30:00.000-05:00

In a recent article writer Paula Wall explains, "In May 2004, Buffalo artist and university professor Steve Kurtz woke up to find that his wife, Hope, had stopped breathing. He called 911 and was subsequently plunged into a nightmare that is still going on. Kurtz and his wife were founding members of the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), which mounts exhibits sometimes critical of public health and military programs. In his home studio were biological materials for an upcoming exhibit about genetically modified agriculture at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA)."

What happened next is the subject of a new documentary film by Lynn Hershman Leeson entitled "Strange Culture." The official site says," Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife’s body. Today Kurtz and his long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, await a trial date."

2007-10-22T08:31:00.000-05:00

Wisconsin in the movies
Can the dairy state become the Hollywood of the Midwest?
October 22, 2007
by Kevin Kosterman
(originally published in the UW Oshkosh Advance-Titan)

Wisconsin is no stranger to the movies: The Cleveland Indians called Milwaukee County Stadium home in “Major League;” Rodney Dangerfield went “Back to School” at UW-Madison; and John Candy’s polka band in “Home Alone” was “huge in Sheboygan.”

Now with established ties to the film industry and attractive new tax incentives, Wisconsin is poised to usher in a Golden Age of filmmaking and, in turn, keep some of its brightest homegrown talent in state. The rewards are huge, but so are the challenges.

“Right now is probably the most opportune time in history to create a really vibrant film and television production community in Wisconsin,” said Scott Robbe, executive director of Film Wisconsin, a private sector non-profit dedicated to nurturing and maintaining the state’s film and media industry.

Robbe cited a convergence of factors as cause for optimism.

First and foremost, Robbe said, was the state legislature’s passing last year (June, 2006) of an aggressive set of tax incentives intended to lure Hollywood money and jobs to the state. The Film Wisconsin Bill (Senate Bill 563), pushed by Robbe and his associates, offers tax credits of up to 25 percent to companies who shoot in the state, which will apply to a film’s production costs, including lighting, makeup, company expenditures and workers’ wages.

According to Robbe, the Coen brothers (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”) were set to film their upcoming picture in Wisconsin, but because of the budget impasse — that Robbe said put a hold on an estimated $100 million worth of potential business — the rules and definitions for the incentives have not yet been published, so the Oscar-winning filmmakers took their business to Minnesota.

With rising real-estate prices and production costs in traditional filmmaking centers, Robbe said Wisconsin and other Midwestern states are becoming more and more attractive to filmmakers.

“The sheer difficulty of the logistics of filming on location in New York and L.A. now are starting to make it cost-prohibitive,” he said. “Hollywood is looking for new regional film hubs.”
And Wisconsin provides the right blend of affordability, talent and budding infrastructure to woo potential business, Robbe said calling the stretch between Chicago and Door County “the new affordable, film-friendly third coast.”

Benefits of a successful filmmaking industry in the state would be enormous, Robbe said, and would include a huge influx of new revenue, a host of employment opportunities, a new tax base and the retention of multitudes of college graduates who otherwise flock to the New York and Los Angeles in search of work in entertainment.

“That’s going to help to not only lure back people who have had to leave previously to other coasts to work in the film and television industries, but also to keep all of the young talent that graduates from the education system here in Wisconsin…” he said.

UW-Oshkosh alumnus Nick Kaat made the move to Los Angeles after graduating in 2005 to pursue his dreams of being a part of the film industry. He agreed that having a vibrant filmmaking market in Wisconsin would help retain many film-school graduates, but cautioned against over-emphasizing the potential impact.

“I think the hardcore people who really want to go for the big movies or big television shows — those who have the Hollywood itch — they’re still going to leave and I think they still have to,” he said. “No matter what, Wisconsin is not going to be the film production capital of the world.”

With similar tax incentives already in place in surrounding states like Illinois and Minnesota, Kaat said it will be tough for Wisconsin to sell itself as the only destination that provides a Midwestern look and feel, and the lack of an established film community will hurt the state at first.

“Not that it can’t be changed over time, but in the beginning people aren’t going to flock to Wisconsin,” he said. “Therefore the year-round market for filmmaking is going to be kind of rough.”

UW-Oshkosh radio/TV/film professor Douglas Heil said creating a sustainable filmmaking scene in Wisconsin would also be difficult because the changing of seasons prevents the type of year-round filming conditions that make film centers like Los Angeles, Louisiana and New Mexico desirable locations.

“I hope it’s not pie-in-the-sky thinking,” he said, “but I’m skeptical.”
Robbe said he feels that Wisconsin is culturally and politically ready to embrace the entertainment business and hopes that efforts like Film Wisconsin will help create a fertile environment in which filmmaking in the state can flourish and become a boon for the overall economy.

“Wisconsin now has put in place the elements that can make Wisconsin a leader in the film and television production industry,” he said. “What we have to do is finish the job we started.”

Movies Filmed in Wisconsin:

American Movie: Most people have heard of this movie and its weird stars by now. But if you haven't seen this yet, shame on you. Run to the video store nearest you now and see one of the funniest films ever made.

Amityville Horror: The remake of this classic horror tale had Silver Lake acting as the residence for the Amityville House's exterior while the interior was created in Buffalo Grove, Ill. in 2004.

Back to School: Classic Rodney Dangerfield comedy filmed at UW-Madison.

The Big One: Excellent documentary by UW alum Michael Moore filmed in Madison and Milwaukee.

The Blues Brothers: Elwood and Jake spent some time filming in Milwaukee and the Firstar Building can be spied as a car careens over the then-incomplete 794 freeway spur. Chicago? Who's kidding who?

Chain Reaction: This big budget action thriller starring Morgan Freeman and Keanu Reeves was filmed partly in Madison, Lake Geneva and Williams Bay.

Damien: Omen II and The Final Conflict: Omen III: Two of the sequels to one of the finest horror films ever made were filmed in Lake Geneva, Eagle River and Delafield. St. John's Military Academy got some screen time.

The Deep End of the Ocean: The big screen adaptation of Madison author Jacquelyn Mitchard's bestseller of the same name, which stars Michelle Pfieffer, was partly filmed in Madison.

Fever Lake: The horror movie starring Mario Lopez of "Save By the Bell" fame was filmed at Carthage College in Kenosha and in Twin Lakes.

For Keeps: This '80s classic starring Molly Ringwald was shot partly in Madison.

Hoop Dreams: Roger Ebert's favorite movie of the '90s filmed partly in Milwaukee.

I Love Trouble: Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte star in one of the most famous movies to be filmed in Wisconsin. It was filmed in Baraboo and Madison. According to Stanley Solheim at the Wisconsin Film Office, farmers picketed the film and tried to halt production.

Iron Will: Two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey stars in this film that filmed in Superior.

Major League: The team in the movie is the Cleveland Indians, but it should have been the Brew Crew. All of the stadium scenes were shot at our very own County Stadium. There were also outdoor scenes shot in the Third Ward, and a home on the corner of Kilbourn and Cass was used for interior shots.

Meet the Applegates: This dark comedy about a family of alien bugs living in surburbia was filmed in Neenah and Oshkosh.

Milwaukee, Minnesota: A tribute to Milwaukee it's not, but the indie dark comedy was filmed primarily in the Bay View area in Milwaukee. Kinnickinnic Avenue is shown prominently in the 2002 film which released almost three years later in June '05.

Mr. 3000: Comedian Bernie Mac starred in this baseball themed movie in 2003. Scenes were shot at the newly completed Miller Park. In between innings at Brewers games, shots of the movie were filmed.

Mrs. Soffel: One of Mad Max Mel Gibson's first starring roles, opposite Diane Keaton, briefly filmed in Freedom.

Novocaine: This movie filmed in Cedarburg over the summer. It stars Steve Martin, Kevin Bacon, Laura Dern and Helena Bonham Carter.

The Paint Job: The comedy/thriller was filmed in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine. The story was about a painter falling in love with his boss' wife.

One Night Stand: Acclaimed director Mike Figgis ("Leaving Las Vegas") filmed parts of this Wesley Snipes movie in Milwaukee, although exactly which parts are unclear.

Reeseville: It's an independent film about a murder set in the Midwest. Several cities were filming locations for the flick like Milwaukee, Madison, Watertown, Jefferson and, the movie's title location, Reeveville.

Rudy: The "Rocky" of college football movies, starring "The Goonies" Sean Astin, was partly filmed in Milwaukee.

Semi-Tough: Burt Reynolds' football movie has some scenes that were filmed in Green Bay.

A Simple Plan: Director Sam Raimi ("Evil Dead" and its sequels) filmed his 1998 masterpiece in Ashland because there wasn't enough snow in Minnesota. It stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda.

The Straight Story: Last year's beautiful David Lynch ("Twin Peaks," "Lost Highway") movie, which stars the late Richard Farnsworth, filmed in Mount Zion and Prairie du Chien. If you haven't already, see this movie ASAP.

Uncle Buck: The late, great John Candy filmed parts of this film in Lake Geneva.

Some other movies filmed in Wisconsin include Clive Barker's classic horror flick "Hellraiser," Christopher Lambert's action pic "The Hunted," "Angus" and "The Cure." But note, although at least one scene in "This is Spinal Tap" purports to be in Milwaukee, it is not.

Wisconsin References:

Anchorman: Ron Burgandy (Will Ferrell) has lost his precious dog Baxter. He gets a phone call that he thinks is from him and says "Bark twice if you're in Milwaukee."

Dogma: A dark comedy, Dogma has two angels trying to find a way back into heaven after they were exiled to Wisconsin. British actor Alan Rickman plays Metranon, the voice of god, who hilariously explains that there's something worse than being exiled to hell: "Worse. Wisconsin. For the entire span of human history."

Drop Dead Gorgeous: This satire about a beauty pagent in Minnesota finds itself amidst a murder mystery. One character says that the pagent cannot rule out sabotage from neighboring state pagents including Iowa, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Good Night and Good Luck: This 2005 movie makes numerous references to Wisconsin because Sen. McCarthy was the Junior Sentator from Wisconsin.

Love Actually: Although not truely shot in Wisconsin, British romantic comedy, "Love Actually," features a bar in Cedarburg when one character, Colin, goes to Wisconsin to meet American women (or babes in his phrasing). Plus it's a compliment when he says he's going "To a fantastic place called Wisconsin."

Stripes: Bill Murray stars in this war comedy. John Winger (Murrary) and Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis) are talking and Wisconsin makes an appearance. Winger says: "C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like we're going into Wisconsin." Ziskey replies, "I once got my ass kicked in Wisconsin."

That Thing You Do!: A musical movie that Tom Hanks wrote, directed and starred in. The band he created becomes famous, almost like Beatle-mania all over again. One concert brings them to Wisconsin where the band members are mobbed by fans. As a group of girls climbs onto their car, one band members says "I like Wisconsin."

Titanic: This classic love story involving the ship sunk because of an ice berg, starring Leonardo DiCario and Kate Winslet. Jack claims to have grown up in Chippewa Falls, Wis. where he and his father would go ice fishing. However, the lake which he claims to have fished at didn't exist at the time the Titanic actually sunk. Lake Wissota is a man-made lake which was made five years after the ship sunk. It's still a shout out to Wisconsin though.

Wayne's World: Slackers and public access cable show hosts Wayne and Garth get the chance of a lifetime to meet Alice Cooper at his Milwaukee show. They have this memorable conversation:

2007-10-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

My friend Coleen Rowley just posted an article in The Huffington Post that voices her outrage at a prominent Minnesota university that recently banned the appearance of Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu. It opens with the following:

"Last Tuesday, a couple of friends and I went to see the fantastic movie biography "Pete Seeger: the Power of Song". It featured great musical clips that told the unique life story of the folksinger and songwriter whose rendition of "We shall Overcome" inspired the civil rights movement (and anti-war movements). The inspirational movie also served as a timely reminder of the painful repression and vicious backstabbing that resulted from Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt back in the early 1950's. For a huge chunk of Seeger's life--17 years! -he was blacklisted. It was not until late in 1967 that the repression finally ended when the Smothers Brothers (courageous Comedy Hour) invited Seeger to perform on their TV show. And even then one of Seeger's songs, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," was censored. Only months later was he allowed to sing it on TV. No wonder the 88 year old Seeger has come to appreciate so much-as reflected in his lyrics-"the right to sing my song" that exists in America."

2007-09-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to articles on "The Hollywood Librarian" directed by Ann Seidl. It was shot from March 2005 through February 2006 with a Panasonic Varicam high definition digital camera, and professionally edited and sound mixed, with an original music score composed for the film. The total budget was $185,000, including grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York as well as $25,000 from individual librarians.

John Cusack's powerful new film, War Inc. pulls off the near-impossible: finding a savage reality-altering humor amidst the tragedy of Iraq. He provides a clip in this Huff Post article: HuffPost Exclusive: a Scene from John Cusack's War Inc.

2007-09-18T17:36:00.000-05:00

"Gimme Green" is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. Whether in the sun-parched deserts of the American southwest or the humid climates of the eastern seaboard, the residential landscape is the same. Lawns carpet 50,000 square miles in the United States, requiring more than 30,000 tons of pesticides each year and 200 gallons of water a day per American. Every day, 5,000 acres in America are converted to lawns. By examining the social, commercial, and environmental pressures surrounding the green-grass aesthetic, we begin to understand how a non-edible, resource-intensive plant has become our nation's largest
irrigated crop.

Employing an engaging blend of gravity and levity, this documentary short follows a lawn of the month contest in a small suburb and a city code enforcement officer as he writes citations for unkempt lawns. It examines the inner-workings of a desert sod farm as well as an artificial turf factory. It questions how lawn pesticides are applied and what their affects may be on our health. Through an unforgettable exploration of one of our most recognizable national symbols, Gimme Green will ensure you never look at grass the same way again.

2007-09-18T17:25:00.001-05:00

This Friday, September 21st 2007, Oscar award winning director and writer Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) releases his new movie, In the Valley of Elah (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478134/). The movie, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon, is about soldiers returning home from Iraq and the psychological effects they endure once they return. It is a stunning anti war film which will have a profound impact on anyone that watches it.

2007-09-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Kelpie Wilson is Truthout's environment editor. Trained as a mechanical engineer, she embarked on a career as a forest protection activist, then returned to engineering as a technical writer for the solar power industry. She is the author of "Primal Tears," an eco-thriller about a hybrid human-bonobo girl.

Her latest article in Truthout talks about Leonardo DiCaprio's new documentary film, "The 11th Hour," and other films on the environment.

2007-09-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

Thanks to NicheGeek for the following 10 Google Video Documentaries You Have To Watch... "I love Google Video because they have so many great documentaries free to watch. Here are my favorite 10. Some are sad, some are wacky, but they are all very informative and entertaining."

1. Dangerous Knowledge

In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians - Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing - whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide.

2. Dogfighting Undercover

BBC-Dogfighting Undercover-August 30, 2007 Investigation into the secret and dangerous world of international dogfighting. For a year and a half, a BBC undercover team operated alongside dogfighting gangs in the UK and Europe, capturing on camera the savagery of organised fights. The film also reveals how American pitbull terriers - a banned breed created to be the ultimate canine gladiator - have been sold by the gangs into inner city Britain.

3. Secret Space

'A masterful documentary it cracks on at a tremendous pace. A subject that at first seems too ridiculous to contemplate leaves you nodding in agreement ... I always thought there was something suspicious about NASA's attitude to UFOs. Now I know why.' - Jason Cooney, K-Drive Radio, Los Angeles.

4. The History Of Freemasonry Of US

Very interesting documentary about freemasonry in US from the very first days of independence. Produced by the History Channel.

5. The Iceman - Confessions Of A Mafia Hitman

Up Close and Personal with a Killer. When I was finally admitted into the bowels of Trenton State Prison in New Jersey’s capital to interview multiple murderer Richard Kuklinski, a.k.a. “the Iceman,” it wasn’t at all what I had expected. My assumption was that it would be like the movies. We’d be separated by a shatter-proof glass barrier. We’d communicate through telephone handsets. There would be guards all around watching our every move. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Clarice Starling had more protection when she visited Dr. Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lector in The Silence of the Lambs. At least she had bars.

6. Zeitgeist The Movie

This one will intrigue you. What does Christianity, 911 and The Federal Reserve have in common?

7. The Half-Ton Man Documentary

Patrick Deuel is the world's heaviest man - almost 1100 pounds. This documentary opens with paramedics removing a wall of his house in Valentine, Nebraska and transporting him six hours to a hospital where he spent months trying to lose weight to qualify for a gastric bypass operation.

8. Conspiracy Of Silence - Pedophile Ring In Washington DC

This was the biggest scandal in the history of the U.S.A history. The story received some newspaper coverage but there was a TV News Media blackout on the subject. For this reason, most Americans have never heard of it. Former republican Senator John Decamp was involved in the production a documentary called "Conspiracy of Silence" it was to air May 3, 1994 on the Discovery Channel. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies. At the last minute before airing, unknown congressmen threatened the TV Cable industry with restrictive legislation if this documentary was aired. Almost immediately, the rights to the documentary were purchased by unknown persons who had ordered all copies destroyed. A copy of this videotape was furnished anonymously to former Nebraska state senator and attorney John De Camp who made it available to retired F.B.I. chief, Ted L. Gunderson.

9. Why We Bang Documentary

The film, "Why We Bang," produced and directed by Orlando Myrics and Clifford Jordan for Ghetto Logik Entertainment is an independent film that documents the historical background of LA's Bloods and Crips gangs, then transitions into several interviews of current and former members of the Bloods and Crips of Los Angeles.

10. Big Sugar

Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet. Going undercover, Big Sugar witnesses the appalling working conditions on plantations in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian cane cutters live like slaves. Workers who live on Central Romano, a Fanjul-owned plantation, go hungry while working 12-hour days to earn $2 (US).

2007-09-06T15:24:00.000-05:00

The Green Bay Film Society's Fall schedule is out, and it looks like they'll be showing some great, free films at the Neville on Wednesday nights. Click to download a PDF poster of their film schedule.

2007-08-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

Saul Berman, IBM Media & Entertainment Strategy and Change practice leader, says, “The Internet is becoming consumers’ primary entertainment source. The TV is increasingly taking a back seat to the cell phone and the personal computer among consumers age 18 to 34. Just as mobile communications have replaced traditional land-lines, cable and satellite TV subscriptions risk a similar fate of being replaced as the primary source of content access.”

A new IBM online consumer study, a component of the upcoming report “The end of advertising as we know it” planned for fall 2007, shows that among consumer respondents, 19% stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus 9% of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing. 66% reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60% who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.

IBM end of advertising complete survey results

2007-08-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

Looking for free open source screenwriting software? "Celtx is the first, cross-platform media application that provides support for the entire pre-production process."

Script Crawler provides the largest on-line database of scripts from produced movies and also offers several versions of the same script. SimplyScripts has news on screen writing and links to hundreds of free, downloadable scripts. And there's Drew's Script-O-Rama, "the place you know & love for free movie scripts and screenplays." Get zipped screenplays in MS Word format from screenplay 451. For tips and advice check out: Screenwriters Web.

2007-08-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

"No End in Sight" counterspins Iraq war propaganda

Steven R. Hurst reports for The Associated Press: "The military and diplomatic public relations machines are running full bore. The message: 'Things are getting better, but we need more time.' Pushing that assessment most eloquently and fervently is Ambassador Ryan Crocker, a career diplomat and one of the State Department's most seasoned Middle East hands." Iraq: US Officials Will Ask for More Time

Meanwhile, a documentary which opened in select theaters on Friday by film maker Charles Ferguson takes a sober non-partisan inventory of the progress made in Iraq and comes to a different conclusion... "There has never been a film equivalent of 'The Best and the Brightest,' David Halberstam's masterful analysis of the mistakes that led to the American quagmire in Vietnam," says the San Jose Mercury Star's Bruce Newman. Until recently that is, "a new documentary 'No End In Sight' may be as close as the Iraq war ever comes to its own 'Best and the Brightest,' although in this case the title might need to be tweaked slightly to 'The Worst and the Stupidest.'"

The official site has a link to tell your congressman to see this film, now playing at the E Street Cinema in Washington DC and across the country. Click here for a full theater list.

2006-06-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM
The film is tenatively scheduled for release on July 4th 2006.
"FOUR STARS (Highest Rating). The scariest goddamn film you'll see this year. It will leave you staggering out of the theatre, slack-jawed and trembling. Makes 'Fahrenheit 9/11' look like 'Bambi.' After watching this movie, your comfy, secure notions about America -- and about what it means to be an American -- will be forever shattered. Producer/director Aaron Russo and the folks at Cinema Libre Studio deserve to be heralded as heroes of a post-modern New American Revolution. This is shocking stuff. You'll be angry, you'll be disgusted, but you may actually break out in a cold sweat and feel a sickness deep in your gut; I would advise movie theatre managers to hand out vomit bags. You may end up needing one."
--- Todd David Schwartz, CBS
Aaron Russo interview about his new movie, From Freedom to Fascism:

2006-06-10T12:09:00.000-05:00

Now in their fourth year, the American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) is preparing for its 2006 festival to be held November 2-5, 2006, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia (about 70 miles west of Washington, DC).

2006-06-07T04:56:00.000-05:00

"There are by God more Washington lobbyists than tree frogs... with stickier fingers," says Granny D in Almost Level, West Virginia, a short Truthout film by Rebecca MacNeice. As the destruction of America's Appalachian Range accelerates in the mad rush for coal, activist Doris "Granny D" Haddock and former congressman Ken Hechler act as tour guides flying over regions of mind-boggling devastation.

Meanwhile at home in Sturgeon Bay it's time to tell Dave at Cinema 6... Don't Ignore 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Call him on the office line at 920.746.8371 and let him know you and forty of your friends would come see it if he manages to screen a copy.

Gore's film finished in the Top Ten in terms of overall weekend gross with $1.356 million despite its limited run, placing ninth. Indiewire reports, "...one of the most interesting statistics came out of the Dallas film-distribution region. There, the film opened at three theaters - Landmark's Magnolia in Dallas, the Angelika Film Center in Plano and the Arbor in Austin (part of the Paramount Classics' Dallas market). Exit polling showed that 80+% of viewers who consider themselves Republican said they'd recommend the film... two other encouraging trends are emerging. First, young people are going to the movie sooner than Paramount Classics assumed. Second, local corporations in various cities are calling to ask about sponsoring screenings."

Here's where An Inconvenient Truth will be playing in Wisconsin so far as of June 4:

WI Ashwaubenon 06/30/06 Bay Park 54304
WI Brookfield 06/16/06 West Point 8 Plex 53045
WI Madison 06/16/06 Eastgate 53718
WI Madison 06/16/06 Westgate 53711
WI Menomonee Falls 06/16/06 Marcus Cinemas 53051
WI Milwaukee 06/09/06 Oriental 53202
WI Milwaukee 06/16/06 Oriental 53202
WI New Berlin 06/16/06 Ridge Cinema 53151
WI Oak Creek 06/16/06 Southshore 16 53154
WI Wauwatosa 06/16/06 Mayfair Mall 53226

"President Bush will be ignoring "An Inconvenient Truth" when the movie opens in the nation's capital, just as he has ignored the inconvenient truth of global warming throughout his administration," says Alternet's EnviroHealth. Gore is launching a book, a movie, and a new environmental group with one mission: convincing Americans that climate change is real.

When Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush (R) was asked by a reporter if he would see Al Gore’s global warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” he said, “No, I’m not going to be doing that.” He did see the latest X-Men movie, which he described as “excellent.”

2006-06-03T02:59:00.000-05:00

The Last Communist - Chin Peng in 1950s Malaysia

http://anystreetcorner.blogspot.com/2005/03/chin-peng-my-dad-and-me.html

It’s the end for The Last Communist

By MANJIT KAUR

PADANG BESAR: The decision to ban the screening of The Last Communist (Lelaki Komunis Terakhir) is final.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said allowing the film to be screened in the country would give the wrong impression about Chin Peng, the exiled leader of the Communist Party of Malaya.

“It will be like allowing a film portraying Osama Bin Laden as a humble and charitable man to be screened in the United States,” he said.

Mohd Radzi said there was no violence shown in the movie and it gave a wrong impression about Chin Peng.

“People who don’t know about Chin Peng will think what a ‘poor old man’ he is. The impression given is wrong,” he told reporters after meeting with Umno members at SMK Datuk Jaafar Hassan near here yesterday.

It was reported on May 24 that the Government and not Umno would decide whether the film could be released for public screening.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim had said that under the Film Censorship Act, the Home Affairs Minister had the final say.

On another matter, Mohd Radzi who is also the Umno secretary-general, said Umno members must pay their annual fees to their branch representatives by October.

He said although about 30% of Puteri Umno members had registered with the party they had yet to register with the Election Commission.

“It does not mean that you are automatically registered with the commission when you register with the party,” he said.

MEDIA-MALAYSIA:
Film on Communist Leader Banned on Shaky Grounds
Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (IPS) - The Malaysian government has banned a film on the life and times of an octogenarian communist insurgent leader, who had also collaborated with the British during World War II, setting off a hornet's nest of charges about denial of freedom and space for democratic expression.

Film makers, movie buffs and ordinary people have expressed shock and anger at the sudden and unexpected ban on ‘The Last Communist' --a semi-musical road movie that looks at life in the small towns in Malaysia that were connected with the colourful career of Chin Peng (pseudonym for Ong Boon Hua), former head of the long defunct Communist Party of Malaya.

Chin Peng, son of Chinese immigrants, collaborated with the British to resist the Japanese occupation of Malaya and was even decorated for it with the Order of the British Empire (OBE). But, in 1948 he launched a communist insurgency in what became Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Ironically, the film, by independent film maker Amir Muhammad, was treated as benign by the Censor Board which approved it for screening to general audiences without a single cut.

Amir himself described the movie as a ''semi-musical documentary road movie inspired by the places and events in the early life of Chin Peng'', the secretary-general of the outlawed Communist Party of Malaya.

It was to have been shown in three cinemas from May 19.

Even a group of Special Branch political police, that has a reputation for its anti-communist stance, did not object to the film.

However, the decision to screen the film was objected to by nationalistic-minded Malays in the ‘Berita Harian', a mass circulation Malay-language daily, which launched a venomous attack on the film in early May.

It accused Amir and the film of glorifying communism. It interviewed leading personalities, including a historian who derided the director and the film and urged the government to ban it.

What many found hard to stomach was the fact that none of the critics of the film had actually seen it. Yet, in a knee-jerk reaction, the government succumbed to their demands and announced, last week, that the film was banned.

''It is truly disgusting that a Malaysian film which is showing at 14 film festivals around the world is banned in the country,'' said opposition member of parliament, S. Kulasegaran.

''The government has made a fool of itself,'' Kulasegaran told IPS. ''Even Singapore which once fought a life and death struggle with the communists is to screen the film.''

But then the difference may lie in the fact that Chin Peng's movement, for all its ideological moorings, was supported by ethnic Chinese, rather than the indigenous Malays who dominate Malaysia. In Singapore, on the other hand, ethnic Chinese form the majority.

The Malaysian government says people in this country -- a few of whom are victims of Chin Peng's atrocities -- are not ready for such a movie.

Relentless government propaganda is partly to be blamed for the public reaction to Chin Peng. It was trend that continued from colonial days when the British successfully equated communists with bandits and Chin Peng was not only branded a traitor but his name made synonymous with terror.

In his own views recorded in ‘My Side of the Story', a book compiled from interviews by journalists, Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor and released in 2003, Chin Peng speaks about the effectiveness of British propaganda in exaggerating atrocities committed by the insurgents while camouflaging their own -- such as the 1948 massacre at Batang Kali.

In Singapore, the monolithic People's Action Party (PAP) government of then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew locked up leaders of the main opposition party, the Barisan Sosialis, in the early 1960s, on the grounds that it had links with Chin Peng's movement.

Film makers, enthusiasts and critics are not taking the Malaysian ban lying down. They have launched a campaign to force the government to reverse its decision and supporters from countries like Australia and New Zealand are writing to the government and local media arguing against the ban.

Locally, supporters plan to boycott the ‘Berita Harian' and also pressure advertisers to drop the paper.

The government's explanation is that the atrocities committed by the communist are still fresh in people's mind. "I don't think it's right. I also received a lot of objections and negative feedback from the public so I don't believe Malaysians have reached a level where they are ready for such a movie," Interior Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said.

"So whether you like it or not, the underlying message is that this movie will promote Chin Peng. This is the man who was behind the destruction of property and the loss of many innocent lives,'' he said.

The movie, written and directed late last year, made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. It has been invited to 14 international film festivals including those in London, Seattle, Vancouver and Hong Kong.

In a long and passionate rebuttal of the ban in his blog, Amir said: "I am not naive and do know that the subject of communism is taboo in Malaysia. I maintain that The Last Communist was made with a certain sense of responsibility and sensitivity to history."

"It is not a propaganda film but a rather ‘odd' documentary," he said. The film does not include any interviews with, or even photographs of, Chin Peng himself.

Amir attacked ‘Berita Harian', as a "conservative newspaper whose cultural politics verges on the ethnocentric and the semi-fascist."

"It is, to put it mildly, horribly unfair for a movie to be banned based on comments by people who had not seen it. I am dismayed that a single newspaper (and a culturally chauvinistic one at that) could cause the government to reverse the decision by the censors," Amir said.

Amir and the production company have appealed against the decision. "I made the documentary for Malaysians first of all, since it is about our own past and present. We can't let chauvinists tell us what we can or cannot see."

Human rights activists also decry the ban and demand that the government reverse it.

"It lacks accountability and transparency because it was made at the absolute discretion of the minister," said Sonia Randhawa, executive director of Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia.

"Under the current law the minister does not have to account for decisions made for the rest of us," she said, urging the repeal of sections of the film censorship act that disallow appeals against a decision.

"The fact that the minister can ban a movie because people who have not watched it have protested also demonstrates that the government is not interested in transparency," she told ‘The Sun' newspaper.

The National Human Rights Society in a statement said the ban was "another nail in the coffin" for artistic expression in the country. Its president Cecil Rajendra said it is because of such ‘'mindless censorship and repression'' that the country's creative and innovative people preferred to emigrate or stay in exile. (END/2006)

May 21, 2006 22:56 PM

Rais Finds 'The Last Communist' Film Not Offensive

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 (Bernama) -- The banned musical documentary "The Last Communist" is not offensive, said Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

"The plot isn't controversial and there's nothing that could be deemed as offensive from the cultural viewpoint," he said.

The facts portrayed in the documentary could be read in the book about former Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng sold in book stores, he told reporters after joining Members of Parliament to watch the film at the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) Sunday.

The Internal Security Ministry banned the documentary produced by independent film-maker Amir Muhammad on May 10 days before its screening in cinemas although it had been passed by the Censorship Board.

The ban followed criticisms that the film glorified the cause of the communists and Chin Peng.

The documentary was screened for the MPs at the request of parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang who wanted to see the justification for its ban.

Rais said there was nothing new in the film except for the interviews with the Communist Party of Malaya's former members.

"They were vague, not conclusive for any quarters... that's normal," he said, adding that whether the ban would be lifted was the prerogative of the Internal Security Ministry.

He said his ministry would give its views if it was asked to do so but he hoped the issue would not be blown out of proportion.

Lim said that he could not see anything controversial that could justify the banning of the film.

"When I went in, I was prepared to be outraged. But, hard as I tried, I could not find anything to be outraged about because it does not glorify the Communist Party or Chin Peng, and does not even promote communism.

"It just used the Chin Peng connection to make a documentary about life in the country and a little bit about life at the border. Some scenes such as the charcoal factory (in Taiping), petai boys (in Bidor) are an eye opener for many and highly educational," he said.

PAS secretary-general Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar said it was a simple film portraying the life of a group of Malaysians in the 1940s and 1950s.

"It does not even tell a full story on the communist insurgency in the country nor is it a propaganda film," he said, adding that it would not leave a negative impact on the audience.

-- BERNAMA

2006-05-31T07:24:00.000-05:00

Keanu Reeves Slams Police State As Scanner Lights Up Cannes
Media suggest films show world is in sorry state

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | May 30 2006

Keanu Reeves has slammed the modern day police state and surveillance society, a centerpiece of the upcoming film in which he stars, during promotion for A Scanner Darkly at the Cannes film festival.

In A Scanner Darkly, the government, corporations and the elite conspire together to keep free thinking, free expression, freedom itself on the outside-- to facilitate a perceptive wall confining individuality itself to a realm doomed to the fringes.

The film chronicles how power interests exploit the drug war in order to create unthinking armies of drone servants and erect police state measures to prevent the people from ever glimpsing the dark truth behind a highly mechanized surveillance panopticon.

"Certain personal rights that were protected in the (U.S.) constitution for privacy are being chipped away at under the guise of homeland security without redress, and that's not good," Reeves told Reuters.

Several years ago the media tried to create a stereotype that Keanu Reeves isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, a complete 180 from the truth. Anyone that knows Reeves and has spoken in depth with him comes back with the same impression, that Keanu is a deeply engaged thinker and cares passionately about real issues.

Media reports out of Cannes have focused on the hard-boiled edge of the productions filling the screens this year, which include Aaron Russo's eagerly awaited America: From Freedom to Fascism, saying they represent a mirror for a world in a sorry state.

In reality the overwhelming rush of influential new films tackling topics of war, government control, surveillance and dictatorship are a creative backlash to the tiresome dumbed-down verbal diarrhea dished out by the establishment propagandists.

In a nation where the White House produces fake government PR and packages it as 'news' for the indoctrination of a bewildered US television audience, movies like Scanner are a refreshing challenge to the conformist driven orthodoxy

The outstanding Scanner Darkly website is continually updated and has a new audio clip of one of Alex's rants from the movie. Click here for the website and then click 'substance D'.

A Scanner Darkly is set for release on July 7. Read producer Tommy Pallotta's Cannes blog by clicking here.

2006-05-30T06:54:00.000-05:00

Documentary tells story of execution
by Bobbie J. Clark - The Daily Iberian

ST. MARTINVILLE — Willie Francis practiced walking up and down the hallway of the Iberia Parish Jail. He wanted to make sure his legs would be under him when he made the march to the electric chair.

He didn’t want to embarrass his family by having his legs fail him.

Francis was scheduled to be put to death May 3, 1946, for murdering Andrew Thomas in St. Martinville. However, something went wrong, and Francis survived the execution.

A long legal battled ensued, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled another execution should take place.

Francis was finally executed in May of 1947. He was 18 years old.

Francis’ ordeal has been documented in several books and studied by many legal scholars. It is now the subject of a documentary titled, “Willie Francis Must Die Again,” written and directed by Allan Durand.

Durand lives in St. Martinville and practices law in Lafayette. He graduated from Catholic High School and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He graduated from Louisiana State University Law School.

He moved back to St. Martinville in 1981, and shortly after started making movies.

“I’ve been working on this film on and off for the last five or six years,” he said. “The Willie Francis case is probably the most famous case to come out of the 16th Judicial District. It’s one of the most famous capital punishment cases to go to the Supreme Court. It’s the only time in U.S. history that anyone’s gone to the electric chair twice.”

The lawyer who took Francis’ case was Bertrand DeBlanc, Durand’s great uncle. Durand said Francis’ father paid DeBlanc with two gallons of potatoes.

“Bertrand knew he wasn’t going to get paid,” Durand said. “This offended his sense of fairness to put a kid in the electric chair a second time.”

DeBlanc’s family had kept all the files from the case over the years. Durand used those files, along with some books written about it and articles from The Daily Iberian for his research.

Since the completion of the documentary, Durand has been traveling the film festival circuit. In April, the film was named Best Documentary at the Memphis International Film Festival. At the Santa Barbara Film Festival, it was nominated for the Social Justice Award.

The next stop is the Atlanta Film Festival, where the film was nominated for best documentary short. If it wins, it will be in contention for an Academy Award. Durand was recently honored with the visual arts award at the Ninth Annual Bunkfest Arts, Heritage and Music Awards program.

Durand said his ultimate aspiration for the documentary would be for it to be made into a feature film.

“I’ve tried to pitch it as a feature film for (several) years,” he said. “Everyone says it’s a good story, but has a sad ending. It might have been made by now if it had a happy ending.”

He said Madonna’s film company, Maverick Films, has expressed interest in the film, but added he has not heard from the company about it.

PBS has decided to run the documentary regionally and maybe nationally, which could give it the publicity it needs to be made into a feature film.

“It helps when you’ve got an unusual story,” he said. “At some point, someone will see it.”

Durand knows how the film industry works. He has several projects under his belt, including the film, “Belizaire the Cajun,” staring Armand Assante and Robert Duvall.

He’s recently gotten the green light to do a documentary on a guy from Breaux Bridge who went to New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina and saved 798 people.

“I can’t point out a time where I decided I wanted to make movies,” he said. “It’s just something I grew up always wanting to do.”

2006-05-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

In 1990 - to commemmorate Earth Day - founders launched the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair.

"Reneweable energy is a different kind of a thing," says Randy Udall. "...and we're a little divorced from it. The beauty of a fair like this is it's bringing people back in touch with... flows of energy which are always going to dwarf fuels. Flows are much bigger than fuels. The sunlight hitting all the people outside of this tent right now left the sun eight minutes ago... It's travelled 93 million miles in eight minutes. It's hauling ass, and it's not just a good idea it's the law!"

The 17th annual Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair takes place this summer from June 23-25, 2006. The Fair will again be held at the ReNew the Earth Institute, MREA’s educational facility, in Custer, WI (just 7 miles east of Stevens Point).

Udall says, "Some people would ask, in terms of our energy future, 'Why are we working on anything else?'"

Here's a great 10-minute video made possible by Focus on Energy, on the event...
The "World's Largest Renewable Energy Event" (QuickTime recommended)

2006-05-22T09:06:00.000-05:00

Gor'es movie opens tomorrow... in theaters

"By their contempt for expert opinion on everything from Iraqi reconstruction to the cost of their tax cuts, Republicans have turned Diagram (Al) Gore into a hero. By their serial dishonesty, Republicans have created a market for "An Inconvenient Truth" - the title of Gore's movie," says WAPO's Sebastian Mallaby.

2006-05-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

Darwin's Nightmare is a tale about humans between the North and the South, about globalization, and about fish. Some time in the 1960's, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are today exported all around the world.

Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch in exchange for their southbound cargo… Kalashnikovs and ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent. This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.

Watch for it to screen at the Coffeehouse as soon as it is released on US format DVD... and we are looking for a copy of this year's Best Wisconsin Film: TRIVIATOWN
directed by Patrick Cady and Brit McAdams - any help locating them would be appreciated.

2006-05-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

Hey tinfoil-hatters!
Forget about Building 7, planned demolitions, missing surveillance tapes and a hole in the Pentagon that's too damn small to hold a big airplane...
The following film, shown recently at Tribeca, documents the run up, all of the pre-911 , and it connects all of the dots from A...bramoff to Z...arqawi that resulted in the 2nd Pearl Harbor. It is factual, chilling, unsettling and well documented:
Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime 1.0 (1 hr 11 min 48 sec)

2006-05-13T06:17:00.000-05:00

"The West Point honor code, which mandates cadets will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do, defines honor and duty," says Joseph Wojcik, co-founder of West Point Graduates Against the War. "And this provides us with a lifelong sense of duty, a shared responsibility for graduates to do the right thing, even if that means admonishing our country's leadership."

The late General Dwight D. Eisenhower was a West Point graduate who also served as the 34th President of the US from 1953-1961.

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing."

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."

"If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower's Farewell speech delivered on January 17, 1961 should be mandatory reading for all future Presidents... it sets the tone for a new documentary that is currently in limited distribution, making the rounds of art house cinema - Why We Fight, directed by Eugene Jarecki. It will be released on DVD on June 27, 2006.

2006-05-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

Robert Greenwald sent the following update on his forthcoming film:

Dear activists, colleagues and friends:

AMAZING!

We are stunned, energized and very moved by your outpouring of generosity to help make "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers." In the last eight days, you democratized film and political story telling. It's quite remarkable.

Overall, we raised $347,094, just blasting through our $300,000 goal! 2,701 of you contributed an average of $60. Because of that momentum, two large donors pushed us over the top: Erika Glazer and Dick Mazess who champions many great causes, most notably VotersForPeace.us. All of the money will be put to use specifically for this film, both for production and now with some funds to help with outreach, education and distribution.

But first we have to make the movie... so filming starts next week!

The plan: We shoot through the month of May with Kerry Candaele (story producer) and Nick Higgins (director of photography) on the road most of the time while story producers Abbie Hurewitz and Amanda Spain continue researching and interviewing. Lisa Remington is our line producer holding it all together with Ricardo Acuna assisting.

Come June, we'll edit. Carla Gutierrez and Mike Stanley (with Mike Beegle assisting) will start the cutting marathon so we can finish in late July or early August. Sarah and Devin are insisting late July, but I am begging for early August. (This happens with every film!)

And then it’s back to you to take the country by storm beginning in late September!

Stay tuned and hang onto your seats. This is explosive stuff. Your faith and money brings this to life. In September we will need your help again, this time by screening, writing, protesting, organizing and using the film to register new and mobilize voters to force the issue right into the heat of the '06 elections.

We can and will change the way this country runs.

And from the bottom of all our hearts at Brave New Films, THANK YOU for your incredible support!

Robert Greenwald

2006-04-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

VIDEO | Dennis Banks: Sacred Run
A Film by Rebecca MacNeice
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, organized the first Sacred Run across the country 28 years ago. The run is a staggered event that covers the country by foot between February 11th and April 22nd, ending in Washington, DC, on Earth Day. Along the way, the core group of runners is joined intermittently by other walkers and runners. This year's closing ceremony was held at the Lincoln Memorial. Banks has always been accompanied by Buddhist monks from the Nipponzan Myohoji sect.

2006-04-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

I just discovered an article in the Valley Scene regarding 5th annual WildWood Film Festival which took place April 14-15 at The Big Picture in Appleton, that deserves to be archived...

How to draw a Doggie
By Jim Lundstrom

Eric Carter was so inspired to see his work on a big screen at last year’s WildWood Film Festival that this year he not only has his own short film – “How to Draw a Doggie in Four Easy Steps” – entered for judging in the comedy category, but he also took part in the filming and editing of works entered by two filmmaking friends who also have works entered in the 5th annual WildWood Film Festival.

“Last year I had two shorts in Wildwood,” said Carter, a 33-year-old Green Bay resident. “It was awesome. I think it’s great to have the chance to show your films.”

WildWood is a two-day event that begins with a single viewing session Friday, April 14, and continues for two more sessions on Saturday.

For the past two years it was held in the small hall at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, but this year moves to the large-screen format movie theater The Big Picture in downtown Appleton, a move that Carter applauds.

“That should actually be better,” he said. “The PAC is a prestigious place, but they didn’t have the best equipment for showing films.”

Still, he said, “It was just exciting to see something I did play on a big screen.”

That’s exactly why WildWood founders Craig Knitt, Tom Thorne and Jason Buss created the festival, to shed light on the largely underground film community in Wisconsin. They hope this year’s crop of films give wider exposure both to the filmmakers and the film festival.

“We had close to 50 submissions this year,” Buss said. “Quite a few of those are returning filmmakers. That’s good to see.”

“We’re proud to encourage Wisconsin filmmakers,” Thorne said. “We’re hoping this fifth year will be the breakout year for us. We’d like to have multiple venues around the state in the future – Green Bay, La Crosse, Wausau.”

Carter said he enjoys taking part in WildWood for the pleasure of seeing his work in public on a big screen, but last year’s event also turned into opportunities to work with others.

“I was just surprised to find there are so many actors and people who want to make movies around here,” said Carter, who makes a living as a picture frame and wedding video editor.

“I made a lot of short films in high school,” he said. “I really wanted to go to college for film, but I didn’t want to go far away, so I ended up studying photography and art (at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay).”

In 2004 he took an editing class at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay that led to his entry in this year’s festival, “How to Draw a Doggie…”.

“The assignment was to do an instructional video, and I really didn’t want to do an instructional video,” Carter said. “I wanted to do something a little more creative.”

What he came up with could be seen as a comic take on the creative process, but Carter insists it’s all arbitrary stuff designed to fulfill the class assignment.

“In art school, I was into surrealism and dada,” he said.

So, the four steps to drawing a doggie include 1. Coffee, with Frank Sinatra on vocals; 2. Drawing a doggie, which Carter does; 3. A Levitating Strawberry (part of the assignment called for inserting a clip, and Carter found this one on the Internet); 4. Crabmeat Rangoon, which requires a trip to a Chinese restaurant.

“I never knew the WildWood Festival existed until someone at NWTC told me I should enter my couple of films in it,” Carter said. “It was cool to see there were other local people making movies. I was in my own little bubble and didn’t even know there was a group getting together to make movies.”

That led to his discovering the Independent Filmmakers Guild, which operates out of Green Bay, and put him in touch with other likeminded filmmakers.

“Scott Harpt started the IFG, and he’s the guy who wrote and directed ‘Chester McPhail’ (another comedy in this year’s WildWood lineup),” Carter said. “I did all the filming and editing on that. Then there’s a documentary, a short profile called ‘Menzel.’ I helped with the editing on that.”

All of which has inspired Carter to do more.

“I have a lot of ideas,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how to write using scriptwriting software and write an actual story instead of just piecing stuff together. I’m studying stop-motion graphics because I want to get more into the animation side of things.”

2006-04-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

Robert Greenwald writes...

Dear field producers and screening hosts,

So we have gone public with our new film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. It was sooner than we had thought, but given the critical nature of raising the funds now or not having the film available for the fall, the Brave New Films team decided it was better to go public. And what a great response we've had already... a thousand people have contributed over $60,000!! And if you take the time to look through the contributors, the variety, the personal dedications, the political passion jumps off the page.

http://iraqforsale.org/

I can't overstate the potential political import of having this film available as a tool in mid-September. Rick Jacobs, the Brave New Films chairman, wrote about this today on the Huffington Post.

The issue of war profiteering, of profit over patriotism, of our being less safe because money that is meant for the soldiers and for the reconstruction of Iraq, is going into the pockets of these greedy corporations. We've found some incredibly brave individuals who are willing to talk on camera about what they have witnessed.

And now once more we need your help. Please take my video appeal, if you like it, if not make up one of your own. And then with a personal note send it on to your e-mail lists. Tell them about your experience as a field producer or a host, tell them about the films you've seen and screened, and the possibility with this film. And then ask them if they would sign up and contribute.

Here's the link:
http://iraqforsale.org/

Get those email lists out and fire away, we need you to distribute the fundraising, just as you have distributed the films. Thanks!

Robert Greenwald

P.S. Here's what two field producers working with me on the film had to say:

Janie: "I've loved tracking down information that in the long run is going to benefit the well-being of our troops that are placed in harms way, while at the same time being able to support them in a way that really matters, not just slapping a bumper sticker on my car and calling it a day.

Ellen: "Working on the film is a way for me, an ordinary citizen with no big political or Hollywood connections, to feel like I'm making a difference. They say that knowledge is power. This is a way for me to get knowledge and help disseminate it, too."

2006-04-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)Opens May 24 nationwide...

Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Mr. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way.

"Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny and engaging style, and by the end has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message," says Guggenheim.

An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share.

"It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," says Gore.

2006-04-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

On April 29 thousands of people will be gathering all across the nation and here in Wisconsin at Coate field on the UW-LaCrosse campus at around 7:30 8 PM. Then they will "commut" (walk) to the parking lot of the YMCA in La Crosse and spending the night sleeping in the parking lot. They are doing this because every night thousands of children in Uganda must walk miles from their homes into the center of the city each night to spend the night packed together like sardines in basically empty warehouses - because that is the only place they are safe from being kidnapped and used as child soldiers or sex slaves.

On April 29 people around the world are commuting to the center of their cities and spending the night outside to bring awareness of the situation into focus to create the support that is needed to end this crisis.

During the night they will write letters to congress, sign petitions and also take pictures, do artwork, and write letters that will be taken to Uganda and be given to the children there!

Find out more at www.invisiblechildren.com , click on the Global Night Commute button and then sign up somewhere.

There is a film available on DVD...

2006-04-13T18:57:00.000-05:00

Kavanah: A Progressive Jewish Voice, Along With The Social Justice Film Series, Presents:
================================================================
PROMISES — the Film
Monday, April 17th 7:30pm TITU (Look for "Promises: Social Justice Film Series")
Running time, 106 minutes.
Arabic, Hebrew and English dialogue with English subtitles.
Abstract below.
================================================================

PROMISES follows the journey of one of the filmmakers, Israeli-
American B.Z. Goldberg. B.Z. travels to a Palestinian refugee camp and
to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and to the more familiar
neighborhoods of Jerusalem where he meets seven Palestinian and
Israeli children.

Though the children live only 20 minutes apart, they exist in
completely separate worlds; the physical, historical and emotional
obstacles between them run deep.

PROMISES explores the nature of these boundaries and tells the story
of a few children who dared to cross the lines to meet their
neighbors. Rather than focusing on political events, the seven
children featured in PROMISES offer a refreshing, human and sometimes
humorous portrait of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

PROMISES, a film by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg and co-director and
editor Carlos Bolado, was shot between 1995-2000.

To find out more about the film and the project please go to:

http://www.promisesproject.org/index.html

The Social Justice Film Series is an open space for activists to share and unite in struggle, sponsored by:
Amnesty International (UW and local chapters), The Madison InfoShop, Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), UW Stop the War!, Action In Sudan, Community Action on Latin America (CALA), Kavanah (A Progressive Jewish Voice), The Homeless Cooperative, Madison Warming Center Campaign (MWCC), the LGBT Campus Center, Al-Awda (the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition), Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance (MadFTAA), FH King Students for Sustainable Agriculture, the Campus Women's Center, Family Farm Defenders, MultiCultural Student Coaltion (MCSC), MEChA (El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), Industrial Workers of the World, (IWW-Madison Chapter) and the Madison Observer.

2006-04-07T05:52:00.000-05:00

Filmmaker Jyllian Gunther will be blogging live from the Full Frame documentary film festival in Durham, N.C., from April 6-9. Stay tuned to THE MIX for daily cinematic highlights (and lowlights).

2006-04-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

The Trials of Henry Kissinger
Jigsaw Educational Productions, Inc.
1 hr 19 min 41 sec - Mar 20, 2006
www.thetrialsofhenrykissinger.com

The war crimes of Henry Kissinger, and how he is connected to the Rockefellers. BBC 2002

2006-04-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

Two New Films About Vets and The War to Premier at TriBeCa Film Festival:

In January, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) took the message of today's Troops and Veterans to the Sundance Film Festival as part of the premier of "The Ground Truth," a documentary film following the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans after they return from war.

Next month, two more films about Veterans' issues and the Iraq War will premier at the TriBeCa film festival in New York City. "When I Came Home" chronicles the all-too-common problem of homelessness that many Veterans face when they return from war. The second film, "The War Tapes," is the first documentary shot entirely by the Soldiers themselves. IAVA was involved with each of these films from the beginning.

2006-03-24T11:07:00.000-06:00

Participant believes in the power of media to create great social change. Their goal is to deliver compelling entertainment that will inspire audiences to get involved in the issues that affect us all. Videoblogger Karmagrrrl says, "With films like Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, North Country, Murderball, and others, they really are taking a stand and letting it be known that a movie can be both good and raise public awareness about important issues in our society."

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers is a membership organization serving local and international film and videomakers — from documentarians and experimental artists to makers of narrative features. Books, workshops, screening events... based in NYC.

2006-03-23T09:54:00.000-06:00

B.I.K.E. a film about rebels with a cause...

Fred King
fking@fountainhead.com
212-620-3092

Ann Arbor, MI
Ann Arbor Film Festival, Screening Room
Saturday, March 25th @ 3:30pm
Sunday, March 26th @ 3:00pm

New York City
Bicycle Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 7:00 PM / 9:00PM / 11:00PM
& After Party with Black Label Bike Club
Sunday, May 14, 2006, 3:00 PM

2006-03-17T05:21:00.000-06:00

"'V for Vendetta' is a pro-revolutionary, action-adventure romp that makes other political films look like 'Little House on the Prairie.'" says Anthony Kaufman in Anarchism, Hollywood-Style posted in AlterNet. The conservative managers at Cinema 6 must have let this one slip by since it poses as sci-fi set in Britain...

Set in the year 2020, "V for Vendetta" takes place in a fascistic London, some time after "America's war grew worse and worse," as one character narrates, "when unfamiliar words like 'collateral' and 'rendition' became frightening." The government is a cross between a full-blown totalitarian state and the current administration's scare tactics: with constant surveillance, a citywide "yellow-coded curfew" that instills paranoia and restricts nighttime movement, and a menacing band of secret police called "Fingermen" who patrol the streets and harass the citizens.

Somehow all that seems just like yesterday.

WARNING... don't click that link above unless you want to more than you should about V before you see it.

2006-03-12T17:28:00.000-06:00

The Battle for America... by Alrick A. Brown, a graduate student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is a streaming short - not to be missed! A writer and teacher, he has found his calling directing and producing narrative films and documentaries on social issues affecting the world at large.

Road to Guantanamo

2006-03-12T05:27:00.000-06:00

The Road to Guantanamo won the prestigious Silver Bear for Direction for Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross in competition at The 56th Berlin International Film Festival.

Brittain's Channel 4 interviewed him in preparation for a March 9, 2006 airing of the saga on how a group of friends set off to a wedding in Pakistan in September 2001 and somehow blunder into the war in Afghanistan. The film-makers tell the story using reconstructions with actors, newsreel footage and interviews. At the outset, we hear President Bush solemnly telling the world that the Guantánamo prisoners are "bad guys". Once we meet Ruhel, Asif, Shafiq and Monir, the irony becomes evident. The young Brits, who became know as the Tipron Three, that Bush seems to regard as the embodiment of evil are ordinary lads, neither especially political nor devoutly religious.

No stranger to making movies about controversial issues, Winterbottom won the Berlin International Film Festival's top prize in 2003 for "In this World," which portrayed people fleeing Afghanistan by using real refugees as actors, and combined drama and documentary.

You can rent for 48 hours or buy this film... either way online at: videoclub.tiscali.co.uk

If you intend to download a film to yur PC and then want to project it on a TV... here's a lesson on how to hook it all together:
http://videoclub.tiscali.co.uk/info/tv.html
UK police arrest stars of award-winning film "The Road to Guantanamo" under the Prevention of Terrorism Act