Shorts, fests, DVDs, 3/11.

Seymour Cassel "arrived three weeks late for an acting workshop of Cassavetes's and ended up as associate producer on Shadows, while [Al] Ruban pitched in as assistant cameraman. The tireless Ruban, extraordinarily, both produced and shot for Cassavetes's most famous movies (after an entertaining sojourn into Sixties sexploitation). Embodying the freewheeling warmth in the films, the rascally Cassel went on to star in Faces and Minnie and Moskowitz and now enjoys a new generation of fans in roles for Wes Anderson, among others." Nicolas Rapold talks with Cassel and Ruban for Stop Smiling.

John Del Signore interviews J Hoberman for Gothamist. Via William Speruzzi.

Girish presents Nicole Brenez's comments on avant-garde cinema in Fergus Daly's Experimental Conversations.

"[I]f you are one of the many who are not excited about Juno or Hillary, the next time someone asks how you could possibly be against those two plucky can-do underdog stories and alleges you're just recently become part of the backlash, look them in the eye, explain how you've been part of the frontlash for a while, and then tell them why." James Rocchi in the Huffington Post.

"Her Name Is Sabine embodies an essential, brutal sadness," writes Michael Atkinson for the IFC. "In contrast, Barbet Schroeder's bio-doc Terror's Advocate (2007) is as complicated and duplicitous as full-on espionage."

"In recent years, stars have learned that their intense presentness in people's daily lives and their access to the uppermost realms of politics, business and the media offer them a peculiar kind of moral position, should they care to use it," writes James Traub in a cover story for the New York Times Magazine. "Hollywood celebrities have become central players on deeply political issues like development aid, refugees and government-sponsored violence in Darfur."

In the paper:

• "Film enthusiasts vote at the box office on which movies succeed or fail," writes Charles Lyons in the paper. "The idea behind a new Web site, Massify.com, is to give them a vote on which films are made in the first place, along with some say in the script and the casting."

• John Metcalfe reports on how Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore has ticked off the makers of the pro-Intelligent Design doc, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed with his scathing review.

• Dave Kehr reviews the second volume of Warners' Forbidden Hollywood collection: "A new documentary, Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollwyood, rounds out this nicely packaged anthology."

David Bordwell's in Japan.

Tim Lucas revisits Henry & June: "It smoulders, and it does so deliciously."

And Glenn Kenny revisits Daisy Kenyon, "a melodrama that's directed like a crime picture, the first great film melodrama of the Age of Anxiety, a picture in which each of the love triangle's integers are all up in their own complete messes."

"So... the idea with attending the Guadalajara film festival is to survey what's popping up on the Mexican cinema horizon." Which gets a little complicated for Variety's Robert Koehler when he blogs for Doug Cummings.

"Set for April 23 - May 4, 2008, the Tribeca Film Festival has unveiled the competition and Encounters slates for the upcoming Manhattan event," reports indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez.

Tracy Wilkinson talks with Uros Stojanovic about his first feature, Charleston & Vendetta, "set in a ravaged Serbia just after the First World War and tells the story of a village where there are no men left - they've all died in battle."

Also in the Los Angeles Times, Sam Adams talks with Gus Van Sant about Paranoid Park.

"[Michael] Sarne's casting seems ludicrous on its face, but within the context of Myra Breckinridge, which turns every assumption about gender and sexuality on its head, it seems quite sensible," writes Lauren Wissot at the House Next Door. Also: wrapping CineKink.

"Two Eastern European countries with small but exciting film industries handed out their national film awards earlier this month: Romania and the Czech Republic." Boyd van Hoeij has the award-winners at european-films.net.

"Of all the recent movies to tackle the terrifying issue of human trafficking (including the crude and manipulative Trade and the eerily calm and cynical Holly), none has evoked the anxiety, despair, or sheer outrage to be found in Blind Mountain, which opens tomorrow at Film Forum." S James Snyder in the New York Sun.

"Oscar-nominated star Samantha Morton has revealed that she was 'close to death' after suffering a debilitating stroke two years ago," report Vanessa Thorpe and Andy Capper for the Guardian.

New blog on the block: Films Without Families. Adopt a movie. Via Thom at Film of the Year.

DVD roundups: Sean Axmaker and Bryant Frazer.

Robert Cashill remembers screenwriter Malvin Wald.

Posted by dwhudson at March 11, 2008 11:09 AM