You get a Wholphin. It's also the name of good people at McSweeney's DVD label whose new issue has more great short films than you can shake a stick at.
The newly released 'Wholphin: Issue 15' features a short meditation on La Santa Muerte, shot on my second day ever in Mexico City at the Altar de la Santa Muerte in Tepito and cut by the maestro Carter Gunn. It won't give you nightmares I swear.
The DVD is packed with pedigree and also features films by Sean Durkin (Martha Martha May Marlene), The Love Competition by Brent Hoff and a film by the Duplass brothers featuring the ever smoking Selma Blair who we don't see enough of on our screens anymore.
The Adam Curtis appreciation continues with a tip that the full length versions of his latest BBC series 'All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace' are all available on Youtube.
I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Hardie, director of the documentary 'The Edge of Dreaming' some time way back in 2010 while she was charming festival audiences with her wonderful movie. I also managed to see the film while I should really have been having breakfast and despite being surrounded by what felt more like a casting session for 'The Golden Girls' than your average movie crowd, it was worth getting out of bed early for...
A review in today's New York Times also tells me that the film is opening at one of my favorite places in the city, the Rubin Museum of Art. It's well worth checking out for those loitering in the cold and looking for something to do and a seems like a perfect venue for the film with the Rubin's incredible collection of Buddhist art and preoccupation with all things spiritually esoteric.
Amy's film is one of those films that is personal and diaristic and makes you glad that someone had the courage to put themselves on camera and be a voice for the kind of gnawing thoughts that we have probably all had at one time or another. A unique film that I really loved. More links below...
Delighted to see the Ian Palmer's 'Knuckle' made into this year's World Documentary Competition at Sundance. Described as "An epic 12-year journey into the brutal and secretive world of Irish Traveler bare-knuckle fighting, this film follows a history of violent feuding between rival clans" it's a film I've been hearing about with some anticipation for ages.
Congrats to Ian for dedication beyond the call of duty and ditto to Danfung Dennis on his film 'Hell and Back Again' which grabbed our attention with the incredible original footage first used in the PBS Frontline series Obama's War'.
I'm glad Danfung has added something different and unique to the already platinum standard of films about the Afghanistan war, most notably 'Restrepo' and Danish feature 'Armadillo' by focusing on the battle soldiers face when returning from war, something not seen to great effect since legendary director John Huston's post-WWII documentary masterpiece 'Let There be Light' which you can watch in it's entirety below...
Looking at both the incredible imagery from the recently released US Geological Survey images from the Landsat 7 and Terra satellites and the 2010 Nikon Small World microscope photography competition winning images has led me to do a little compare and contrast in homage to Charles & Ray Eames, makers of one of my favorite short films "Powers of Ten"
Two forms of scientific photography that take us from the outer space to the inner, yet remain eerily similar at times, both sets of images are beguiling on every level. From Karmen vortices on Alexander Selkirk Island to highly magnified pictures of soy sauce they both manage to show us the building blocks that bind our fragile world together. The best ones, such as the above image of Bolivian deforestation can transcend into a kind of social commentary, as documentary evidence. The caption reads: "Once a vast carpet of healthy vegetation and virgin forest, the Amazon rain forest is changing rapidly. This image of Bolivia shows dramatic deforestation in the Amazon Basin. Loggers have cut long paths into the forest, while ranchers have cleared large blocks for their herds. Fanning out from these clear-cut areas are settlements built in radial arrangements of fields and farms. Healthy vegetation appears bright red."
Desptie that, it's still nice to hear this Guardian article quote the USGS boffins in charge of the Landsat 7 say they decided to start collecting these images "for their aesthetic beauty rather than any scientific value".
Roger Ebert's report on a meeting of the two giants of documentary filmmaking Errol Morris and the legend Werner Herzog earlier this week at the Toronto International Film Festival included some cheerful reminiscing of the pair's history together.
Thankfully this time, older and perhaps wiser, no footwear was consumed on stage....
Werner Herzog and Errol Morris have been friends for a very long time, from the days in the 1970s when Morris saw Herzog's first films at the Univ. of Wisconsin and decided to become a filmmaker. Errol told Herzog of a film he wanted to shoot, but kept delaying. Herzog told him he needed more self-discipline. He added: "If you make this film, I'll eat my shoe." That led to a famous evening at the Pacific Film archive in Berkeley, at which Herzog sat on the stage and did indeed eat his shoe. He was assisted in its preparation by the famous chef Alice Waters -- perhaps suggesting that you can find everything you don't want at Alice's Restaurant. The meal was the subject of a famous documentary by Les Blank titled "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe."
On Sept. 13, 2010, Morris and Herzog both premiered their new films at the Toronto International Film Festival: Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," a 3D documentary about cave paintings 32,000 years old; and Morris' "Tabloid," about the UK tabloid sensation "The Case of the Manacled Mormom." Earlier in the day, they held a conversation at TIFF's new Bell Lightbox. Herzog questioned Morris' slow process of post-production, Morris suggested you could find strangeness as easily in Van Nuys as at the ends of the earth, they discussed a book of letters written to a dead dog, and then talked about their own voracious reading.
They discussed single shots in detail: A shot repeated five times in "Tabloid" of the heroine repeating the same thing, and a shot in "Grizzly Man" when the hero disappeared into some grasses and wasn't seen for an extended period. Morris realized their favorite shots had both been photographed by their subjects themselves. Yes, said Herzog, but the secret is to recognize them. He found his shot discarded by a subeditor.
Herzog's advice to a young would-be director: "Read, read, read, read, read, read. Read." As for Morris, he offered no advice and cheerfully implied he doesn't have a clue what it takes.
And you may find yourself...finally reading the 'Bicycle Diaries' that your ever-cool mother bought you for Christmas... And you may find yourself...watching the trailer for the new documentary Ride, Rise, Roar And you may find yourself...at the party and taking the advice of the girl to put your camera down and have a dance with her... they're playing 'Once in a Lifetime' after all. Girl dancing at The Factory party, Good Friday, 2010
Coincidences, coincidences.
The silver haired soundster seemed to pop up across all sectors of my radar this week. So much so that I'm tempted to name the week 'David Byrne Week' here on Milky Blacks but what with it being Easter and all someone'salready stolen the thunder...
Perhaps comparisons with the almighty might going a little bit too far but Byrne's output across so many artforms over so many years is pretty awe inspiring. Be sure to follow his antics and collaborations with the likes of Stefan Sagmeister, Fatboy Slim and Hillman Curtis over on his website.
Proving that almost anything with the words Werner and Herzog in the synopsis probably gets my seal of approval, for your viewing pleasure comes this unbelievably beautiful short film 'Plastic Bag' by wunderkind director Ramin Bahrani.
I hold my hand up and admit that I haven't seen any of Bahrani's previous feature length efforts, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop or Goodbye Solo but all have been highly praised. Roger Ebert named Bahrani as 'Director of the Decade' for what it's worth.
Plastic Bag is that rare beauty, a short film that is perfectly suited to the short form. The film is kind of 'Wall-E' meets Herzog's own 'Lessons of Darkness' and is poetic, uplifting and timely all at the same time. It's social message touches on that black hole of human waste that no-one seems to want to dredge the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' alluding to the issue without beating us over the head with it or resorting to any kind of environmental hyperbole or hysteria.
Plastic Bag is part of the recently launched Futurestates project, a series of short films by established and emerging directors that aims to 'present a different filmmakers vision of American society in the not too distant future, fusing an exploration of social issues with elements of speculative science fiction.' Check em out...
No-one sees the world the way you do. The BBC wants to see things from your perspective – and create a unique picture of our lives today across the planet.
We are asking you to use any camera you can find – a mobile phone, a point-and-click, or a friend’s camcorder – and shoot a two-minute documentary with the theme MyWorld. We are looking for original films that you think the world should know about and will shortlist films that are emotionally touching, important or visually impactful.
The best will then be selected by a panel of the world’s top documentary makers and assembled into sequences showing the stories of each continent.
About the Competition
We are looking for entries from across the planet
You can interpret the MyWorld theme any way you choose. Your film could be a compelling personal story, tell of a place that is changing, or document the joy or difficulty of your work life.
Each film must be relevant to one of the five major continents – Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania – and must be tagged as such. You can shoot a single shot documentary, if appropriate to your story, or edit your film with any editing software available to you.
A selection of all work received may be shown on TV and online and an ultimate winner will be selected based on the judging criteria.
After submissions close, five prestigious MyWorld curators will each be assigned films from a particular continent. From each, they will choose and assemble a sequence of up to ten of the best films creating a fascinating portrait of the world today.
Finally each of the five curated sequences will be available to view online and on BBC World News. An overall winner will then be chosen and receive a prize of a semi-professional HD mini DV camcorder.
No-one sees the world the way you do. Make and enter a short film about life from your perspective and you could be broadcast around the world by the BBC (Closing date 1600 GMT March 12 2010)
Judges
Americas – Cara Mertes, Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Europe – Greg Sanderson, Executive Producer, BBC Storyville Africa – Mandisa Zitha, Festival Director, Encounters Documentary Festival Asia – Fujioka Asako, Director, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Tokyo Office Oceania – Stuart Menzies, Head of Documentaries, theclick Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC)
The closing date for the competition is 12 March 2010 so just under 2 weeks left to enter.
More information is on their website: www.bbcworldservice.com/myworld
You can also follow the competition via their twitter account: www.twitter.com/bbc_myworld
While attending this year's IDFA Festival in Amsterdam with our film Colony, one of the many documentaries screening there that I checked in my program and subsequently sold out was Frank van den Engel's "Photo & Copyright: G.P. Fieret". I caught an exhibition of Fieret's work at Deborah Bell Photographs some time ago and was captivated by this Dutch photographer's rough and ready black and white images, many of them signed by the photographer or stamped with his studio address on top of the prints.
The pictures, mostly amateurish images of young local girls, posing in Fieret's studio, some nude, some just having fun, others seemingly imagining this encounter with a dynamic photographer to be a pre-cursor to a long and illustrious future as a screen siren or model, capture a carefree abandon that transports us right into the Swinging Sixties. Full of honesty and appreciation for his models who exude a confidence and feminine glow in the photographers presence, Fieret's images do not seem voyeuristic or exploitative, his subjects always seeming to have as much fun as Fieret himself.
Untitled, ca 1960s G.P. Fieret
Van den Engel's documentary however, shot during the last two year's of Fieret's life is one of those classic, poignant stories of the artistic line between genius and madness that, being in Amsterdam for the first time and the Van Gough Museum fresh in my mind, couldn't help but reminding me of that other tragic artist's saga.
Depicting Fieret, broke and living in squalor (yes, with his pigeons), confused, angry and close to death, he is a world away from the collectors and archivists who discuss whether a cache of previously undiscovered work would be appropriate fare for the Museum of Modern Art or not. Touching stuff.
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