Weekend Shorts.

Like docs? Think they can be, among other things, an effective means of getting word out on an urgent issue that wouldn't get out any other way? If so, you'll want to catch, and maybe even encourage others to catch Franny Armstrong's Drowned Out, the runner-up earlier this year at the San Francisco Film Festival for both the doc and doc audience award. In the film, prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy is, in a sense, a guide to one of the major crises in India, the building of the Narmada Dam, displacing millions who can't afford a voice of their own.

But wait. How will you see it? Unless you've caught the full version at festival or the 45-minute cut shown on PBS, you can't. At least not until the DVD comes out. This is where the production company, Spanner Films, needs your help:

We didn't decide to make a DVD because we're obsessed with the story and can't leave it alone (although we are and we can't), but because DVDs are now the primary means of distribution in the US, India and other countries. If we're really going to get the Narmada villagers' stories out as far as possible, we need to jump through just one last hoop.

If you can't afford to make a donation on your own, maybe you know someone who can. Thanks to Steve Rhodes for passing along word of this call.

On the other end of the doc economic scale, of course, is Michael Moore. First, though: Aren't you glad the Guardian is coming to the US? For years, Moore has been churning out bestselling books, going on wildly popular tours from coast to coast and yet went completely ignored by the spineless mainstream media until he started shouting at the Oscars. The Guardian, however, is running generous excerpts from his latest book, Dude, Where's My Country, and not just in its weekend edition, either. More excerpts are to appear on Monday and Tuesday. On top of all this is an accompanying profile by Gary Younge that helps get across to anyone outside Fortress USA just what a remarkable exception Michael Moore actually is. His ego, and occasionally, his rhetoric may get on your nerves now and then, but it's hard to read Younge and not be impressed all over again:

He has equivalents on the right in America, such as the columnist Ann Coulter and the radio shock jock Mike Savage, but they have a rightwing administration, Congress and media to back them up. He has equivalents on the left in Britain, but they have a long-established liberal network and a public understanding of satire to sustain them.... Then, suddenly last year, he had lots of company. Stupid White Men became the bestselling non-fiction book of the year and Bowling For Columbine became a hit. Through them, he bypassed the cultural and political gatekeepers, and established a link with a huge swath of Americans whose voices were not being heard.... His detractors have branded his work "Chomsky for children", but my guess is that he would consider that a compliment. Chomsky reaches thousands, maybe tens of thousands. Moore reaches millions, maybe tens of millions.

On to the paper that's done a fairly good job of pretending he doesn't exist: the New York Times. The Magazine this week is actually a terrific collection of piece that seem to question rather assert that there's a full-blown 70s revival going on in the city. AO Scott, for example, looks back a bit at portraits on film of the city in that now "wildly overstated" era, and then writes, "The recent revival of Wild Style at an East Village movie theater, just a stone's throw from the place where its final scenes were filmed, is only one example of a quiet but persistent cultural revisionism taking root among New York writers, musicians, filmmakers and artists, many of them too young to remember the bad old days they now embrace as a golden age."

Also in the NYT on a day that usually sees no new movie content: Stephen Holden reviews Dogville and Elvis Mitchell previews "Yasujiro Ozu: A Centennial Celebration."

Scott Thill interviews Richard Linklater for Salon.

"Like TiVo on steroids"? That's one sub-heading in Evan Hansen's long, informative look for CNET at the future of DivXNetworks.

"Linux dominates motion pictures more than anyone but studio insiders may realize. It has been used to produce more than 30 blockbuster films, including Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: Episode II, Harry Potter, Shrek, and Titanic," writes Robin Rowe for Tech News World: "It seems ironic that Linux dominates at studios known for building secret proprietary technology to gain competitive advantage."

No kidding. Speaking of LOTR, though, Daragh Sankey's dropped a line, wondering how people will make it through special extended editions of Fellowship of the Ring, then The Two Towers, and then take in the premiere of Return of the King. Frankly, I do, too. Wouldn't it be better to see Return for the first time with a clear mind and fresh body? And for that matter, among other clear minds and fresh bodies?

Posted by dwhudson at October 4, 2003 9:49 AM