June 3, 2004

Docs and shorts.

Control Room Not only has Jehane Noujaim's Control Room made the cover of LA Weekly this week, the alternative press in general is top-heavy to the tipping point with docs these days. What's more, most of them are overtly political, and what's even more, they seem almost furiously propelled by a need to provide an alternative history of our violent post-9/11 period - an alternative, that is, to the narrative dictated by the Bush administration and broadcast far and wide with the sort of passive complicity only an atmosphere those twin impulses - fear and patriotism - could conjure.

Over the past few years, there's been a general mourning of the American independent film movement. Peter Biskind claims Miramax and Sundance killed it; almost exactly two years ago, Anthony Kaufman made the case in the Village Voice for a more complex, multi-faceted culprit, though it essentially boiled down to the eagerness of young companies and young filmmakers to cash in far too early. But whether we interpret the major shifts in the scene over the past 20 years or so as the passing of a movement as we once knew it or a natural transformation reflecting all the growing pains you'd expect, now might be a good time to cut the mourning schtick.

Look at it this way: A documentary about an Arab news network ought to be a very, very hard sell. How about one on a Haitian radio journalist? An indictment of that late capitalist institution, the corporation? Dead or alive, the movement that stretched from, oh, say, Stranger Than Paradise to The Blair Witch Project did forge a few paths and open up perspectives for producers and distributors, exhibitors and audiences. How else could a polemic railing against a popular (albeit weakening) president open on a thousand screens?

But back to Brendan Bernard's LA Weekly cover story; it is about more than Control Room, actually; it's also about doc's subject, Al-Jazeera and, like the doc, "about contrasting views of one war." Which means it's also about the struggle for control over the imagery emanating from that war, so allow me one more brief tangent: Susan Sontag's recent cover piece for the New York Times Magazine has expectedly sparked a lively exchange of reactions and counter-reactions all over, and the Nettime mailing list is no exception (scroll down a tad). And it's by way of that list, and specifically, John Armitage, that word of this evocative and provocative piece in the current issue of the New Left Review comes: "Afflicted Powers: The State, the Spectacle and September 11," by the Bay Area Situationist collective, "Retort."

But back to this week's LA Weekly:

  • Ella Taylor: "The best of the Harry Potter films so far, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is also hands down the scariest, and the deepest." And she chats briefly with Alfonso Cuarón.

  • Scott Foundas on The Five Obstructions: "[F]rom its very first frames it exerts a powerful fascination." And Brendan Bernard meets Jorgen Leth.

  • Gendy Alimurung checks out an exhibition providing "a chance for the [Film Roman] employees - the animators, directors, producers, character designers - to show off their non-Simpsons, non-King of the Hill drawing or painting or sculpting skills."

  • Nikke Finke on the Viacom shake-up.

  • John Powers recasts Troy with the characters currently haunting the campaign trail.

    The BBC has taken some tough punches earlier this year, leading to the resignation of director general Greg Dyke in January, but he stands to leave a vital and unique legacy: The BBC Creative Archive. The Union for the Public Domain is issuing a call for support, having "joined forces with a cadre of groups and individuals in the UK to organise 'Friends of the Creative Domain,'" to ensure that the Archive lives up to its full potential.

    Along that line, you may want to follow the Wizards of OS 3: The Future of the Digital Commons conference taking place in Berlin, June 10 -12.

    "'The history of modern cinema is written first in festivals.' That's Gilles Jacob, quoted straight out of the festival's program book." B Ruby Rich almost didn't make it to Cannes - her sudden departure for France on a whim and the near-slapstick comedy of her return are chronicled in a diary on a neighboring page - but she did make it and offers her takes on La niña santa, 2046, Clean and more, all laced with rewarding tangents.

    Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

    The Corporation

    • Dennis Harvey: "The genius of new Canadian documentary The Corporation is that it puts a sort of identifiable human-esque face on the infinitely tentacled green, white, and cyber-paper trail beast we ought really to be voting, legislating, protesting, and counter-investing to its knees. It does that by putting said monster on a figurative analyst's couch, then developing a case history-cum-psychological profile that would make anyone order instant lockdown."

    • Oliver Wang: "Though the astounding success of Sweetback's established Peebles as an architect of a new black cinema, his contributions to modern black music are far less recognized, despite being just as seminal." Sidebar: "Sssssongs to live by."

    • Johnny Ray Huston: "Stan Shaff's only-in-San-Francisco creation Audium might be described as the greatest soundtrack or score for the film in your mind."

    • Victor Krummenacher introduces his "Picks from the golden age of soundtracks" with a concise history of the film score.

    • Cheryl Eddy on Azkaban.

    The Stranger's SIFF picks: Tati's Playtime, Zhang Yimou's Hero and t.o.L.'s Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space. Also: Sean Nelson on the director's cut of Donnie Darko ("the best kind of mess"); Jennifer Maerz on the very indie Benny, Marty & Jerkbeast; and Bradley Steinbacher on Azkaban.

    Austin Chronicle editor Louis Black celebrates Jonathan Demme's The Agronomist (more) and remembers art director and production designer Robert A Burns. Also: Russell Cobb relays student filmmaker John Fiege's Cannes adventure.

    "Crucially, brain scans, unlike focus groups, can't lie." Which is why, as Samantha Ellis reports, studios are snapping up techniques developed at CalTech to determine what you really think about their movies. Also in the Guardian:

    An honest-to-goodness accident is one thing. Trying to cover up the death of an assistant producer is another. Jonathan Brown reports in the Independent on yet another Bollywood scandal.

    For the New York Times, Caryn James sorts through 691 lots of stuff from Katharine Hepburn's estate to be auctioned by Sotheby's. Check the slide show for two stunning self-portraits.

    Online viewing tip. Tomorrow, Friday, June 4, 10:30 am PST, 1:30 pm EST, 5:30 pm CET, Todd Haynes with Richard Dyer, live at the Tate.



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    Posted by dwhudson at June 3, 2004 8:43 AM