Digital Nation By Gary DretzkaDretzka@moviecitynews.com
We Live in Public
What follows is an extremely brief history of the Internet. Once upon a time in America, computers couldn’t talk to each other, instantly or otherwise. Then, they could. Once upon a time in America, e-mail didn’t exist. Then, it did. Once upon a time in America, commercial use of the Internet was forbidden. Then, it…
Read the full article »Crude
Documentaries aren’t like other movies. Facts, like disobedient children, don’t always come when they’re called. Too often, stories that appear to be no-brainers crumble like a house of cards, leaving filmmakers with nothing to show for their work, except a stack full of outstanding AmEx bills. Joe Berlinger understands how certain virtues – patience and…
Read the full article »Smile ’til it Hurts
The odd thing about conspiracy theories is that no matter how hard government officials, business executives and editorial writers work to discredit them, a surprisingly large number of them eventually turn out to be true. The CIA actually did ask the Mafia to help assassinate Fidel Castro; the FBI really had infiltrated the Black Panther…
Read the full article »Jeffrey Levy-Hinte Finds Some Soul Power
Nostalgia dictates that everything that came before not only is grander than what is currently in vogue, but, in all likelihood, what is yet to come. Nowhere is this belief more firmly entrenched than among sports fans and music lovers. No matter how much money HBO and Showtime pour into the promotion of title fights…
Read the full article »Looking Beyond the Veil: Arab Women in Film
In hindsight, it would be fair for a novice historian to assume that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — when considered alongside Germany and Italy’s military actions in Europe and North Africa – would have provided sufficient motivation for Americans to support our entrance into a global war against the Axis powers. If so,…
Read the full article »Irene in Time: A Father’s Day Gift from Henry Jaglom
Irene in Time, a movie devoid of any positive male role models, is being released Friday, two days ahead of Father’s Day. Naturally, the peculiar timing begged the question, “Who thought this was a good idea?” “Actually,” replied writer-director Henry Jaglom, “it was my idea. Sometimes, you need a marketing hook to encourage people to…
Read the full article »Real Life Meets Cinema: Unmistaken Child and Throw Down Your Heart
Twenty-three years ago, in his Graceland album, Paul Simon anticipated the coming of the digital age and global shrinkage as well as any scientist, engineer or palm reader. It was an analog world back then, and Pope John Paul II, President Reagan and MTV Europe had yet to make a dent in the Iron Curtain….
Read the full article »Real Life Meets Cinema: Issues Raised by Burma VJ Emphasized by Arrest of Activist
There was a day, not so long ago, when no potential blockbuster could be launched without the benefit of an elaborate publicity stunt. Every new Jaws was preceded by sightings of great white sharks on beaches from Cape Cod to Key West, and on-set romances had a way of dissolving as soon as the red…
Read the full article »Before the Rains
Even though the Indian film industry is the most prolific in the world, almost all of what American moviegoers know about Mombai and other major production centers derives from golly-gee features advancing the release of movies and musicals that borrow from the Bollywood stylebook. These have included such productions as Moulin Rouge!, The Guru, Hollywood/Bollywood, Bride…
Read the full article »ShoWest Sampler: Animation, 3-D and the new Woody Allen Film
LAS VEGAS — It’s been rumored here that the annual ShoWest soiree, as sure a harbinger of spring as any returning robin, soon could go the way of such once-storied conventions as COMDEX, VSDA, NATPE, NAB, Summer CES and E3. The computer industry’s “geek week,” as COMDEX became known, once brought 200,000 conventioneers to this…
Read the full article »ShoWest ’08
LAS VEGAS – Not many robins add a visit to the Strip to their itinerary, as they migrate north from their winter digs in Mexico. Blossoming fruit trees are few and far between and the fancies of young men turn less often to love than the pleasures associated with strip clubs and wagering on the…
Read the full article »Hurray, Independent!
Every year, in the days immediately following the Academy Awards, I rejoice in the knowledge that members of the mainstream and Internet media will get over themselves long enough to ponder something other than who’s wearing what, and by whom; which five, of the 25 equally qualified actors and directors nominated, are mortal-locks to take…
Read the full article »The Oscars and Iraq
Not surprisingly, perhaps, movies about the war in Iraq have failed to capture the attention of the movie-going American public, commercially or otherwise. In the competition for Academy and Spirit awards, theatrical releases inspired by W and Dick’s Excellent Misadventure have been virtually ignored, as well. Michael Winterbottom’s Daniel Pearlbiopic, A Mighty Heart, earned three nominations from Film…
Read the full article »SXSW Direct
As the big hand sweeps past the little hand of the springy Harold Lloyd clock on my tschotske-strewn desk, I’m once again reminded that South by Southwest 2009 will open in a few, short hours. I won’t be there in person, but, this year, I’ll be able to enjoy several of the movies that will…
Read the full article »The Betrayal
If they handed out special Oscars for patience and perseverance, Ellen Kuras would be a mortal lock for this year’s prize. Twenty-three years in the making, the veteran cinematographer’s haunting documentary, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), has made the short list of titles being considered in the feature-length category. It also has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award….
Read the full article »‘Tis the Oscar Season
December, once cherished for its singular place on the religious calendar, now serves primarily as a month-long orgy of conspicuous consumption and glorification of dubious cultural achievements. A tiding of comfort and joy has been drowned out by gifting concerns, and, in in the western precincts of Los Angeles, at least, anxiety over box-office tallies,…
Read the full article »Vampires
If every vampire that’s appeared in a movie or television show were laid head to toe, the line of blood-starved bodies would stretch from Hollywood to Transylvania. The Internet Movie Database lists more than 1,100 productions in which vampires play prominent roles or are the central focus of documentaries. Other sources put the number closer…
Read the full article »Blu-Ray
Finally, we’ve been given good reasons to go out and buy a Blu-ray player, and two of them are provided by animated films from a half-century ago. It’s taken far too long for studios to fulfill their promise of making the hi-def format something extraordinary. Until now, consumers have benefited mostly from the markedly better…
Read the full article »Flow
Global-warning crusader Al Gore asked his audiences to consider the possibility of the world not ending with a bang, but a gurgle. Irena Salina, director of the cautionary documentary, Flow, fears the world might end, instead, with a parched plea for water. T.S. Eliot couldn’t have imagined that the final stanza of “The Hollow Men” might…
Read the full article »Tell No One
With all due respect to the Marquis de Lafayette and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, France is one the last things on the minds of Americans on the 4th of July. To be fair, the last thing on the minds of French revelers on July 14 is how much our Declaration of Independence…
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