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28.99
By Robert Scheer
$10.00
$24
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AP photo / Ed Andrieski
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While trying to teach her students about homophobia, Debra Taylor could have done without what appeared to be an illustrative demonstration: The Oklahoma high school teacher was forced to resign in a controversy that grew out of a gay-related project undertaken by her class. Taylor and her students had been working on their own production of “The Laramie Project,” a play and film based on the murder of Matthew Shepard.
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truthdig.com
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The renowned filmmaker visited USC’s Annenberg School for Communication on March 3 to talk with Truthdig editors Robert Scheer and Kasia Anderson and their students about “Wall Street,” his 1987 classic—suddenly all too relevant again—and to give a panoramic take on his body of work and what the future holds for the movie industry.
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timesonline.typepad.com
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A special delegation from Hollywood visited Iran this weekend. Said delegation was there to take part in a “cultural exchange,” according to The Wrap, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn’t rolling out the red carpet.
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AP file photo / Reed Saxon
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By Mike Farrell — The Hollywood-centric “Membership First” faction that has controlled the Screen Actors Guild’s national board for most of the last five years chooses tactics—misinformation, tough talk and over-promising—that undermine the union’s credibility.
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The New York Times
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The death and destruction from last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai are still fresh in the minds of many, but filmmakers in India nevertheless are rushing to retell the events cinematically, with over 20 Mumbai-themed movies already awaiting approval.
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AP photo / Altaf Qadri
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The Indian metropolis of Mumbai is well-known for its prolific entertainment industry, a.k.a. “Bollywood.” Following the recent terror seige, India’s entertainment community responded to the attacks, which claimed the life of at least one of its (international) members.
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filminfocus.com
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By Sheerly Avni — Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” is a movie to be thankful for. Go see it, tonight if you can, and in a crowded theater. Then open up some merlot and watch the documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk,” by Robert Epstein—because these two films belong together.
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independent.co.uk
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By Robert Fisk — Incredibly, as Afghanistan sinks back into the anarchy which became its natural state these past 29 years, Afghan film-makers are producing movies of international quality, turning out pictures which prove—even amid war—that a country’s tragedy can be imaginatively recreated for its people.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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The British government is planning to “significantly reduce” the country’s online file-sharing of copyrighted content, by at least 50 percent, in the next three years through a sequence of warning letters, Internet account suspensions and ultimate expulsion from Internet access.
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The Brave New Foundation is launching an important new project, “In Their Boots,” which gives veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a platform to tell their own stories about serving and sacrifice. Check out American soldiers’ compelling stories in this week’s installment.
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Arts Engine Inc.
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By Kasia Anderson — “Election Day” isn’t a film that highlights the horse-race aspect of American politics, nor is it about red or blue states. Instead, director Katy Chevigny and her colleagues from Arts Engine Inc. aimed to capture a much more complex story—or rather, a multilayered and interconnecting set of stories—about an array of Americans from different states, backgrounds and political positions, all taking part in some way in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
Posted on Jul 1, 2008
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totalfilm.com
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When someone points a gun in a movie, that’s usually the audience’s cue that adrenaline-cranking good times are about to be had. Not so in this lineup of films, compiled by Participant Media’s TakePart.com with the aim of countering the overplayed guns=fun equation.
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AP photo / Carlo Allegri
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One of the most hotly anticipated contenders at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s lengthy biopic of iconic Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, featuring Benicio del Toro in the title role. However, whether the excitement surrounding the “Che” screening at the French film fest is any indication that moviegoers will flock to the (currently) 4-hour-plus production remains to be seen.
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AP photo / Nicholas Ratzenboeck
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Erstwhile bombshell Brigitte Bardot is being tried on racism charges for her controversial stance against Muslims in France. She communicated her position last year to now-President Nicholas Sarkozy and publish her letter to Sarkozy in her own foundation’s journal.
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hodja.wordpress.com
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Conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilders certainly isn’t helping resolve religious and cultural tensions within his country with the release of his short film “Fitna” (running time 17 minutes), which portrays Islam in an extremely negative light. According to the BBC, the Dutch government “has distanced itself” from Wilders’ views. Good idea.
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By Amy Goodman — We just passed the grim milestone of 4,000 U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the invasion five years ago. Still, the death toll climbs.
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By Amy Goodman — On the Sunday following Sept. 11, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney told the truth. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said regarding plans to pursue the perpetrators of that attack: “We have to work the dark side, if you will. We’re going to spend time in the shadows.”
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AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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Director Oliver Stone has already demonstrated his penchant for making movies about controversial figures and critical moments in world history, so it should come as no surprise that Stone is turning his lens on George W. Bush for his next film, simply and succinctly called “Bush.”
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amazon.com
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By Eunice Wong — Todd Haynes’ film “I’m Not There,” “inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan,” shows that art reveals truth when it has the imagination to move away from the imitation of reality.
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AP photo / Damian Dovarganes
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An end may be in sight for striking television and film writers and their studio bosses if negotiations, now set to resume Nov. 26, are effective. However, WGA West President Patric Verrone cautioned union members to stand their ground in an e-mail titled “Don’t Break Out the Champagne Just Yet.”
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Well, this particular motion picture decidedly won’t be the feel-good family drama of the year—and that’s just one more excellent reason to go see “Heavy Metal in Baghdad,” an inside glimpse into the Baghdad metalhead scene, when it (hopefully) comes to a theater near you. Meanwhile, check out the theatrical trailer here.
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Now seems as good a time as any to revisit the genius of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.” In this climactic scene, Chaplin rails against the menace of war and hopes for a world where people actually care about each other.
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Director Brian DePalma says “Pictures are what will stop the war,” and he’s out to prove it. His new film “Redacted,” which focuses on the brutal rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family, uses graphic images from the war that he says media outlets have been too timid to show.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Bruce Willis will star in an Oliver Stone film about the My Lai massacre, perhaps the most infamous atrocity to emerge from the Vietnam War. In other Stone news, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he has “no objection, generally speaking,” to the director’s rumored desire to make a biopic about him but that Stone would need to “let me know what are the frameworks.”
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thevillager.com
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Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who burst upon the ‘50s cinema scene with films like “Wild Strawberries” and “The Seventh Seal” and went on to become one of the world’s most highly acclaimed auteurs, died Monday on the Baltic island of Faro at age 89.
Posted on Jul 30, 2007
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foxnews.com
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Plans by director Oliver Stone (pictured) to make a film focusing on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have met with opposition from the Iranian government, which, according to a spokesperson, considers Stone’s movies to be “part of the ‘Great Satan.’ ”
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AP Photo / Hermann J. Knippertz
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By Reese Erlich — The veteran journalist and Mideast traveler profiles Jafar Panahi (above), whose socially conscious films have earned him critical acclaim, box-office success and the unwelcome scrutiny of his government.
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europafilms.com
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Ed Rampell —
Film historian and author Ed Rampell registers a shift in popular depictions of journalists on big and small screens since 9/11, linking the recent skeptical, critical portrayals of iconic media figures like Truman Capote (played by Toby Jones, above) to the evaluation of mainstream journalism’s performance.
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“An Inconvenient Truth” took home two Academy Awards on Sunday, one for best documentary and the other for Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” (best song). In case you missed it, here’s a video summary of Al Gore’s night at the Oscars.
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pitt.edu
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Film director James Cameron is gearing up for another epic release. Once again, Cameron is turning his lens on a historical event, but he’s thinking even bigger than his monolithic “Titanic”: This time, the self-declared “King of the World” is taking on the King of the Jews.
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In a video interview with Counterpunch magazine, the legendary filmmaker discusses the power of movies to engender social change on a grass-roots level. (Fellow director Tao Ruspoli conducts this street-level interview on the eve of his own Ken Kesey-esque bus trip across America to shoot socially conscious films.) Watch it
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robertredford.com
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Robert Redford opened the Sundance Film Festival by demanding an apology for the war in Iraq. The festival features several decidedly political films, including “Chicago 10,” which centers on demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic convention, and “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.”
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from childrenofmen.net
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By Sheerly Avni — How do you make the best movie of the year—possibly the decade—and still get pummeled at the box office by Ben Stiller and a CGI dinosaur? Sheerly Avni, Truthdig’s movie critic, lays it out in 10 easy steps.
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theage.com.au
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AlterNet’s Jonathan Jones probes Hollywood’s post-“Passion” fetish for Christian-oriented films and challenges the assumption that religious movies will rake in the cash by pandering to an attention-starved audience.
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latimes.com
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The auteur filmmaker behind “MASH” died of complications from cancer. An unconventional artist, Altman was nominated for five best-directing Academy Awards over the years, and won an honorary statue this year.
Posted on Nov 21, 2006
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John Lennon historian Jon Wiener discusses the soon-to-be-released documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,” which recounts President Richard Nixon’s campaign to deport the Beatle because of his antiwar activism. Wiener notes the eerie historical parallels between Nixon’s pronouncements about Vietnam and Bush’s statements about Iraq.
Posted on Sep 12, 2006
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Courtesy Lions Gate Films
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By Robert Scheer — John Lennon historian Jon Wiener supplements his Truthdig article on John Lennon and the Politics of Deportation in this interview with Truthdig editor Robert Scheer.
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Courtesy Lions Gate Films
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By Jon Wiener — The documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,? which opens today, recounts President Richard Nixon?s campaign to deport the Beatle because of his antiwar activism. In this report, Jon Wiener, a Lennon historian who consulted on the film, writes that President Bush has gone much further than Nixon in using immigration law to get rid of noncitizens whom the White House doesn?t like.
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ziyue.com
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Oliver Stone, speaking at the Venice Film Festival, criticized Hollywood?s romance of war. ? ‘Pearl Harbor’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’—these movies worshipped the machinery of war and I think America went back to the concept of war too easily.?
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From IMDB.com
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Have you ever wondered why the people who rate American movies (i.e. “PG-13” vs. “R”) consider nudity and foul language so much more dangerous to children than graphic depictions of violence? So did the guy who made this new movie. Read about him.
Posted on Aug 14, 2006
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Check out this ultra-campy educational film from the 1960s about the rise of pornographic culture. Money quote: “We know that once a person is perverted, it is practically impossible for that person to adjust to normal attitudes in regards to sex.” (h/t: BoingBoing)
Posted on Aug 6, 2006
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From pub.tv2.no
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The guerrilla documentary filmmaker’s next movie, “Sicko,” will be “a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth.” But it’s not just “a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I’d like to show you some things you don’t know.”
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Blofeld: swapmeetdave.com; Jong-Il: dictatorofthemonth.com
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By Andy Borowitz — “The question ‘What does Kim Jong-Il really want?’ was definitively answered today when the mercurial North Korean dictator offered to abandon his nuclear weapons program in exchange for the role of the villain in the new James Bond film.”
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The fact that Egyptian authorities didn’t censor a box office-topping film that deals frankly with homosexuality—along with police torture and government corruption—is probably a sign that Egypt’s government is adopting a more tolerant, progressive attitude.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Bush just signed the “Janet Jackson FCC bill,” which raises by tenfold the fines for broadcasing so-called indecent material.
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Matt Drudge removed from his web site an apparently false story about Al Gore being hypocritically unfriendly to the environment after a blogger called him on it.
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We usually don’t like to point to mud fights, but on something as deadly serious as global warming, we thought it proper to call out conservative Internet kingpin Matt Drudge, who tried to peddle the apparently false story that Gore & Co. were hypocritically environmentally unfriendly at the Cannes Film Festival.
Posted on May 22, 2006
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pub.tv2.no
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After all that hand-wringing by Christian leaders about the deleterious influence that the movie would have on the faithful, it turns out that the film is stillborn.
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AP / John Marshall Mantel
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The former vice president is going high profile with his climate-change film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Speculation is rife that he is using the issue as a stalking horse for the White House in 2008.
Check out an early review of the movie.
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By Sheerly Avni — Tommy Lee Jones revives the western with his feature film debut about justice, redemption and relations with our neighbor to the south.
Posted on Feb 4, 2006
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By Sheerly Avni — In “Match Point,” Woody Allen abandons his quirky cosmos for beauty and treachery. Sheerly Avni explores why greatness continues to elude the self-effacing filmmaker.
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The Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan says “Munich” is a movie that demands to be seen as much for its place in the world as for whether it succeeds. He calls it “... the most questioning, provocative film [Spielberg’s] ever made.”
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