FEATURES
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"Waltz with Bashir": autobio-animation and the horrors of war
Just as the graphic novel has in recent decades completely altered the once strictly-kidstuff landscape of the “comic book,” so now animated features are beginning to embrace more grown-up stories... more
NEWS
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Michael Lumpkin named new E.D. of International Documentary Association
Press release: "Independent film veteran Michael Lumpkin has been chosen by the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association to lead the organization as its new Executive Director. Lumpkin... more
SEEN
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Sun shines on the wardrobe shed during the Civic Center-based filming of Milk in San Francisco this past year. After filling the Castro Theatre for the month, the film is... more
BLOGS
Rocchi's Retro Rental: Donald Westlake, 1933-2008
Point Blank (1967) I know, I know -- I wrote about a crime film last week. And there's always the danger of turning this column into a constantly rotating memorial, where whichever notable...
[From SFGate: Culture Blog!]
Category: Manual of Self-Reliance
Re-distributing oneself
Have you ever gone on holiday only to wish that you would never return to the place that you’d departed? I wished it. In a sense, I actually did it. If late-August/early-September is traditionally a time for changes, I’ve done this season in spades – married, ankled (in Variety-speak) one job and started another. Why, after writing and talking in the past about my faith in the concept of digital delivery as an ever-expanding and ever-evolving solution to our current film distribution woes, would I leave the Internet-to-TV realm? I haven’t changed. They have.
topics: bay area, digital filmmaking, directors, distributors, dvd, experimental film
moreNot quite "quiet" desperation
Desperate times require desperate measures. Or, as Guy Fawkes supposedly put it (regarding the Gunpowder Plot), "The desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy." For instance, when Thor Heyerdahl’s theory about the possible migration of folks from Peru to the islands of the South Pacific was repeatedly ridiculed, the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer built a raft and made the journey himself. Proved it could be done by sailing the Kon-Tiki toward Tahiti. Didn’t prove that it was done, though.
The minor kerfuffle that resulted from a pair of pieces that ran at the Daily (They didn’t build their sales model for you and An open reply) and the similar outpouring of naysayers that followed former Miramax President/current The Film Department CEO Mark Gill’s speech at the Los Angeles Film Festival (Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling) reinforces the notion of two overlapping realities—that, firstly, truth is critically needed but, secondly, such truths will nonetheless be systematically rejected by those who need them most.
topics: bay area, digital filmmaking, directors, distributors, exhibitions
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Awesome: "The Book of Caleb" screens in San Francisco as part of the From Here to Awesome film festival. (Photo courtesy BoC)
Not quite quiet desperation
Desperate times require desperate measures. Or, as Guy Fawkes supposedly put it (regarding the Gunpowder Plot), "The desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy." For instance, when Thor Heyerdahl’s theory about the possible migration of folks from Peru to the islands of the South Pacific was repeatedly ridiculed, the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer built a raft and made the journey himself. Proved it could be done by sailing the Kon-Tiki toward Tahiti. Didn’t prove that it was done, though.
The minor kerfuffle that resulted from a pair of pieces that ran at the Daily (They didn’t build their sales model for you and An open reply) and the similar outpouring of naysayers that followed former Miramax President/current The Film Department CEO Mark Gill’s speech at the Los Angeles Film Festival (Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling) reinforces the notion of two overlapping realities—that, firstly, truth is critically needed but, secondly, such truths will nonetheless be systematically rejected by those who need them most.
topics: bay area, distributors, how-to
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