Happy film productions are all alike; every unhappy film production is unhappy… well, it is unhappy in almost always the same way.

In Hearts of Darkness the angst, agony and ecstasy of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now receives a masterful dissection. That it doesn’t descend into parody for one minute is an accomplishment of Herculean proportions.

Coppola had originally intended upon shooting Apocalypse with George Lucas during the Vietnam Conflict. Screen writer John Milius wanted to stage the thing in Vietnam. Studios wouldn’t go near it for obvious reasons, and Coppola had to settle for making The Godfather I and II.

By 1976 he had parlayed that success into American Zoetrope and developed enough clout to make the epic.

Hearts is full of ghosts. The first is that of Joseph Conrad.

Conrad can have a funny influence on people. His books caused this reviewer (an ardent pacifist) to join The United States Navy. He inspired both Orson Welles and Francis Ford Coppola to tackle “Heart of Darkness.” Challenged would be closer. Should the Necronomiconesque qualities of the dour Pole be doubted, consider the Unabomber.

Welles must have felt the chill in the room. Before rolling a frame, Welles was looking at twice his allotted budget, butting heads with the studio and lost his screenwriting partner. No mention is made as to whether Coppola sought out Welles when beginning an adaptation of the same novel in a different war, but his shadow looms in any event. It is a substantial coincidence that after Welles’s aborted Heart of Darkness he went on to make Citizen Kane. Considering that Welles and Coppola respectively released what many consider to be the Number 1 and 2 films in the history of cinema, the idea of an odd type of curse is pervasive. “You may try,” we find Conrad taunting, “and for your efforts you will be rewarded. But I will be damned if you make the thing.”

Coppola is obviously cognizant of the connection. While we watch the priceless footage shot by his wife Eleanor, the feeling that he is willing the thing to be a fiasco is omnipresent. It is hard not to speculate as to whether Coppola wanted a failed production. He certainly played his hand into it. Negotiating a deal with Ferdinand Marcos whereby Philippine helicopters were leased with the caveat that they could be taken back at a moment’s notice should they need to be used for counterinsurgency. Giving his lead actor the sack and hiring on Martin Sheen, at the time something of a loose cannon. Casting the temperamental Brando as Kurtz and advancing him $1 million. (Why not just shoot the moon and have Orson play him?) It doesn’t require an undue amount of cynicism to postulate that the fruition of the film was the real failure in Coppola’s mind. As tapes of his conversations indicate, Coppola was motivated by something much larger than just a movie. With each outburst it seems that he’s aiming not so much for “Heart of Darkness” as “Dead Souls,” “The Anathemata” or Orson Welles’s Don Quixote. Though completed works make legends, those testaments to a creative genius delving so deeply into a work that he loses himself entirely make myths.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Forbidden Knowledge Conference UK 2006.

In 2006 best selling author, Philip Gardiner, held one of the UK’s biggest conferences on the unexplained and forbidden knowledge. With some of the world’s biggest names flying in the event was a huge success and is planned again for 2007. But if you missed out, fear not, because Gardiner had the event filmed and with USA company Reality Entertainment has now released the DVD.

The film features authors Andrew Collins, Tim Wallace-Murphy, Michael Cremo, Dr Robert Feather, Hamish Miller, Alan Alford, Nick Pope and of course Philip Gardiner. However, it Gardiner also arranged for an extra interview to be added with Dr John Jay Harper courtesy of Conscious Media Network.

The DVD has been specially edited and includes cutting edge music from the UK’s great new band, Soul Path, as well as Warrior, WWIII and many more.

From the mystery of Cygnus to the secret symbols of Freemasons; from the journey into the heart of a dark secret society to the real X-Files, this DVD has it all.

For more information go to www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm or visit www.gardinersworld.com Contact: Michael Pralin at [email protected] part of Mayfair Promotions.REALITY ENTERTAINMENT
Foresthill CA 95631
ph-530-367-5389
fx-530-367-3024

www.reality-entertainment.com
www.reality-entertainment.com/books.htm

8th Los Angeles Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
Tuesday, November 14th 2006, 7:30 PM
Laemmle Music Hall Theatre
9036 Wilshire Blvd,
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
_____________________________

6th Nashville Jewish Film Festival
Wednesday, November 15th 2006, 7:00 PM
The Belcourt Theatre
2102 Belcourt Avenue,
Hillsboro Village, Nashville, USA

More info about this film and online purchse

Both times it aired earlier this month, the CNBC documentary “The Age of Wal-Mart” attracted larger audiences than any other business program on the network that week.

That’s not particularly noteworthy until you consider that they were reruns. More than a rerun: The Peabody Award-winning film is two years old and CNBC has shown it 44 times.

Television executives notice those kind of numbers, and the trend explains how Josh Howard got his job 10 months ago, running a newly formed documentary unit at CNBC and preparing the network’s first news magazine for its December debut.

“It just tells you that there’s a real appetite for in-depth documentaries on people and trends (in business),” the CNBC president, Mark Hoffman, said.

NY Sun article

Review of previous Wal-Mart documentary Store Wars

Brad Will, 36, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the chest when pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of Santa Lucia del Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.

A friend of Brads reporting for NarcoNews provides the details.

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Hello, everyone. I am the co-author of The Documentary Film Makers Handbook, a new book in The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series. Just wanted to tell everyone that after two years in the making, the book is now available for purchase at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble and most other bookstores.

We interviewed over 110 documentary industry professionals from every field (DP, editor, distributor, funder, broadcaster, etc.) and asked them the questions that you would NEED to know the answers to in order to make your doc. In these interviews, we also spoke to 24 working filmmakers who discuss their experiences making their films. Some of the films chronicled are MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, CONTROL ROOM, MAD HOT BALLROOM, DOGTOWN & Z-BOYS, WHY WE FIGHT?, LA SIERRA, MY DATE WITH DREW and TREMBLING BEFORE G-D.

There is also a Global Perspective chapter where you can get an insight into filmmaking, funding and distribution around the world, which given today’s climate is how many docs get made.

Here is the Amazon link to the book which is bright orange! To learn more about the book and myself, go to www.script-tonic.com. I hope you enjoy it and it is helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826416659/

Best,

Andrew Zinnes
Co-author, The Documentary Film Makers Handbook 310-837-1982

The festival strengthens its ties with the French filmmaker.

As of the next festival, Punto de Vista shall be awarding the Jean Vigo Prize to the best director (€ 5,000) from among those taking part in the Official Competition Section. The new award aims to strengthen both the spirit which inspired the festival in the first place and its commitment to the work of Jean Vigo. The creation of this prize has been made possible thanks to the close ties between PUNTO DE VISTA and the family of the great French filmmaker.

As you will remember, Punto de Vista paid tribute to the director of Zero de Conduite on the centenary of his birth in 2005. Luce Vigo, film critic and daughter of Vigo and Elizabeth Lozinska, attended that year. The festival provided an opportunity to look back on Vigo’s entire filmography and also represented the first step in a relationship which has now fructified in the form of this award. As you will already know, the Festival took its name, Punto de Vista (Point of View), as a tribute to Vigo, the first director to refer, back in the 30’s, to a “documented point of view” as a distinctive sign of a form of filmmaking which commits the filmmaker.

This is the first prize in Spain associated with the memory of the director of L´Atalante, but in France, the Prix Jean Vigo is closely related to some of the best filmmaking of the last 50 years. The Prix Jean Vigo was created in France in 1951 as a means of promoting young filmmakers with the greatest prospects. Figures such as Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard can all be named among its winners.

With all this evocations, it is an honour for Punto de Vista that, as of 2007, the festival shall be an accredited platform dedicated to the memory of Vigo, rewarding the most audacious, directors of non-fiction. A place for the films of tomorrow. Punto de Vista would like to thank the Vigo family for the support and generosity which they have given to the festival.
REGISTRATION OPEN UNTIL THE 9th OF NOVEMBER

The second deadline for films for the Official Competition Section closes on the 9th of November. This deadline is only for documentary films produced after the 1st of August 2006.

Punto de Vista, which is to be held in Pamplona from the 23rd of February to the 3rd of March 2007, has received 263 films during the first registration period. The competition rules and the registration form are available on the festival Web site www.cfnavarra.es/puntodevista.

PRIZES

Official Prizes
– “Punto de Vista” First Prize for the best film: 9.000 euro
– Prize Jean Vigo for the best Director: 5.000 euro
– First Prize for the best short film: 3.500 euro

Special Prizes
– The Audience’s Special Prize for the best film: 2.500 euro
– Special mentions: The Jury will be able to award up to three special mentions, worth 1.000 euro each

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Dan Berger, THINKFilm, (212) 444-7900, [email protected]
THINKFilm
New York, May 10 – THINKFilm has acquired the rights to BLOOD AND TEARS, a documentary about the Arab-Israeli conflict, it was announced today. Isidore Rosmarin, with 20 years of major network experience, including CBS “60 Minutes,” NBC “Dateline,” Court TV, and A&E, directed and produced the film. His co-producer was Jeff Helmreich, with Michael Dan and Robert Topol serving as executive producers.
BLOOD AND TEARS: The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Like an open wound that will not heal the Arab-Israeli conflict refuses to be resolved. Acclaimed documentary producer and director, Isidore Rosmarin, and co-producer, Jeff Helmreich, have made BLOOD AND TEARS – the definitive film on this seemingly irresolvable conflict. Rosmarin uncovers the truth beneath the hype and the headlines. Rosmarin and his team of Middle East experts have gone right to the source: the ministers and mullahs, the fanatics and peaceniks, the soldiers and terrorists, and the ordinary families battling extraordinary forces as they try to live a normal life. They have interviewed top officials from both sides, from former Israeli Prime Ministers to senior Palestinian officials to the leaders of the militant extremist group Hamas, Sheikh Bitawi and the late Dr. Abdel aziz Rantisi. They have also interviewed renowned Mideast scholars Bernard Lewis & Fouad Ajami and the foremost Palestinian scholar, Rashid Khalidi. BLOOD AND TEARS explores the origin of the confrontation itself, and challenges many of the deep-rooted myths we all hold about this epicenter of human conflict.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR “BLOOD AND TEARS” �

“… An excellent film with extraordinary value,” Dennis Ross, Mideast Envoy, Clinton Admin.
“… A powerful, must-see film,” Prof. Akbar Ahmed, Islamic Studies Chair, American Univ.
“… A remarkable achievement,” Dr. Bernard Lewis, Islamic Scholar, Princeton Univ.
“… A moving, well crafted, strong piece of work,” Michael Medved, nationally syndicated film critic
“… Painfully objective and powerful,” Jay Bushinsky, Mideast Bureau Chief, Infinity Broadcasting
“… An outstanding and dramatic film,” Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School�
“ … Enhances the confidence of peace advocates on both sides,” Muhammad Muslih, LI Univ.
“… A masterful, cinematic exploration of the Arab- Israeli Conflict,” Liel Leibowitz, Jewish Week
“… Unbiased and clear-sighted,” Bret Stephens, Editor, Wall Street Journal
“… A landmark film that gives new insight to the conflict,” Akhtar Faruqui, pakistanlink.com

THINKFilm received its fourth Oscar nomination earlier this year with MURDERBALL, which was up for a Best Documentary Feature award. Its 2005 comedy smash, THE ARISTOCRATS, was just released on DVD and their recent theatrical release, the Beastie Boys musical extravaganza AWESOME; I F*#&%N’ SHOT THAT!, had its world premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opened commercially on March 31^st. THINKFilm is a privately held company with offices in New York and Toronto. For information, please go to www.thinkfilmcompany.com.
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One year ago, Father Joe Benson watched Hurricane Katrina tear the roof off his church’s historic parish building, just two years after a fire nearly destroyed the church itself. But Blessed Seelos Catholic Church sits on precious high ground in New Orleans’ upper 9th Ward, and it is now being rebuilt by volunteers—-who are hammering right through another hurricane season. In this independent feature-length documentary, we meet Father Benson and Arthine Vicks, two kindred spirits who are working to reunite a fiercely independent congregation: Blessed Seelos is home to the city’s deaf Catholics and to many Spanish-speaking immigrants, making it trilingual and unlike any other church in New Orleans. With volunteer help from a group of strangers from Seattle and union craftsmen from New Orleans, many of whom lost their own homes to Katrina, this small church, perched on the edge of some of the worst destruction America has ever seen, is slowly becoming a symbol of renewal for the city. The Church on Dauphine Street reveals what life in New Orleans looks like a year after Hurricane Katrina and tells the story of Father Joe, Arthine, their unique church and the kindness of strangers.

It’s tough not to like record collector Joe Bussard, subject of the film Desperate Man Blues. Tough, provided you’re not a devotee of rock n’ roll music. Tough, unless you happen to be one of those people laboring under the misapprehension that jazz music has been made post-1933. Tough if you’re not one of the deluded fools whom thinks he has some classic sides available on 78 rpm. Even if you fall under one of these three categories, which comprises about 78% of the population of the United States circa 2006, not liking Bussard seems a difficult proposition.

Minutes into Desperate Man Blues we’re treated to the bubbly and idiosyncratic personality of Joe Bussard. On the opening cut he’s found smoking what is to be an omnipresent cigar and grooving to a prewar vinyl. Aficionados of air guitar will be as entranced with Joe as record collectors and old time music enthusiasts. Within minutes, the audience is treated not only to air guitar, but air clarinet, air fiddle, air trombone and even (this may be the only recorded case, which would suit Bussard fine to be sure) air Weissenborn. All this while dancing contagiously. Read the rest of this entry »

As posted here several days ago look for The Bridge and it depiction of death to be a leading documentary and film news story in the coming year.  The New York Times considers both The Bridge and Exit.  The article uses the excuse of comparing them to do a history of snuff films and death on film. 

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The evolution of snuff has paralleled that of pornography. Portable equipment and new media have made it easier to capture and disseminate images of real sex. The same goes for real death. Streaming video is to snuff as VCR’s were to pornography. Where snuff images were once so rare as to be almost mythic, they are now, if not quite commonplace, certainly more accessible. Videos of deadly insurgent attacks in Iraq are posted on YouTube. Hostage beheadings are available to any Google user.
Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Movies

In more ways than one, this era of immersive, one-click-away snuff was inaugurated on Sept. 11, 2001, when falling bodies and crumbling towers became the most widely viewed scenes of mass death in human history. The recent glut of extreme images reflects many things: the state of the world, the latest in technology, perhaps even our lowered inhibitions.

Full New York Times Story

Old timers tell of a mystical place not far from here. Health care is provided for all citizens. People take in idyllic winter scenes whilst enjoying jelly doughnuts and long johns with maple icing. It has a large frontier and a few major cities. Even in these cities people are polite, stand five feet behind you in the ATM line and leave their doors unlocked day and night. There are seven million guns for ten million families, yet homicides from firearms are an eighth that of the United States. There is magical wildlife, though no one has gone so far as to suggest pixies and unicorns.

Those of us who had heard tales of this frozen utopia were reasonable to be skeptical. If such a place indeed existed, why were we not emigrating in droves?

Then came Michael Moore’s third feature film, Bowling for Columbine. Read the rest of this entry »

Who would frame somebody with a Gardenburger?

In the real world, probably, no one. At the Renfrew Center in Florida, where the documentary THIN takes place, one anorexic named Shelly believes the staff of the rehabilitation center does.

Lauren Greenfield’s debut as a documentary filmmaker is not for the faint of heart. In the United States, we have come to believe that the food we are eating is making us fat, which it is. The majority of American adults are clinically overweight or obese (more than 63 percent according to 2005 studies).  However, there are also five million people who suffer from eating disorders that keep them too thin. Greenfield opens the film with a little known and shocking truth: one in seven anorexic women will die from complications caused by their disease.

She takes us on a dark journey inside the Renfrew Center, one of a handful of treatment centers in the nation for women who suffer from anorexia or bulimia, most often both. We first meet Shelly, a psychiatric nurse who enters the clinic at a whopping 84.3 pounds. Polly comes to the center after attempting suicide over two “pieces” of pizza. She does admit on camera that the cheesy-doughy goodness wasn’t the only thing that led her to slice her wrists, but she adds, “that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Brittany is 15 and she’s had eating disorders since she was eight. She went from 185 pounds to 95 in one year and it becomes clear to the viewer that perhaps she didn’t have the best role model around her when she starts talking about the “chew and spit” candy parties that her mother initiated. When her mother comes to visit Brittany at the center, she picks through her plate right in front of her child. Another woman, Alisa, says she developed her eating disorder after hearing the pediatrician deem her fat when she was 7 years old. She recounts graphically a typical day in her life: She would drive to Dunkin’ Donuts and buy a dozen doughnuts then to Burger King and McDonald’s to buy large orders of breakfast items, all to bring them home, eat them in their entirety and vomit profusely afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »

DocMaroc – A brand new intensive documentary training course in Tangier, Morocco. 9^th – 24^th December

2006 (Includes Travel days)

The aim of this residential course is to allow participants to immerse themselves totally in the practice of documentary filmmaking. Each student writes, shoots and edits their very own short documentary film. There is an emphasis on hands-on training and respect for the creative process. The course is intensive, practical and most of all, a lot of fun! Over the two-week course six overseas participants will work in collaboration with six emerging Moroccan documentary filmmakers, exchanging and developing ideas together and everyone will make a short documentary.

The course includes the following elements:
Digital Camera, Lighting and Sound – Learn to use professional DV Cameras through a range of practical exercises. The tutors will help you get to grips with advanced lighting, sound recording and camera techniques that will make your film stand out.
Researching & Planning Your Film – We will assist you in following leads and scouting locations as well as suggesting possible local stories of interest. You will be taught interview techniques and provide you with interpreters to help you on location and whilst editing.
Shooting Your Film – You will direct your own film and crew on other films, so that you will become familiar with shooting, sound recording and interviewing as well as the skills involved in producing, production management and working within a film crew.
Preparing for the Edit – Logging and organising your rushes/tapes, pre-selecting footage, and understanding the fundamentals of the paper edit.

Editing – Using state-of-the-art Mac work stations with Final Cut Pro, you will learn the essentials of a documentary edit and put these skills into practice as you edit your film.

Price: £1300 + VAT - Includes tuition, use of camera and Editing equipment, accommodation, food and a comprehensive handbook for the course.

Working Language: English (with translation to French& Arabic)
Location: The course will be held at a purpose built training environment at the Cinémathèque de Tanger, a new artist-run theatre for independent film events and workshops. Application Deadline: 13th November

To find out more see www.dfgdocs.com or e-mail [email protected]

An interview with Ramin Farahani, director of “Jews of Iran”, about this documentary, the responses, the way of film making in Iran and more. Read it here: Cinema without borders.

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The brand new DVD from author Philip Gardiner, entitled Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon’s Temple Revealed is being peer reviewed to great acclaim. International best selling author of over 170 books, Brad Steiger, said on the Jeff Rense show that it was a “must see for everyone” and that “it held the truth.”

Dr Sandra Gaskin, a well-known metaphysical expert said, “I found it to be extremely thought-provoking and well presented. I think you’ll find as I did, that Gardiner is a metaphysical marvel & we are privileged to share in the fruits of his labors.”

Dr John Jay Harper, an author and clinical hypnotherapist said “One of the most visually and musically synchronized DVDs that I have ever seen yet. This is the new cutting-edge in this genre beyond a doubt. In fact, after reading the book, then watching this author’s Gnosis DVD, I was stunned to find that I, too, finally understood the secrets of Solomon’s Temple and Freemasonry.” He went on to commend the book of the same name, also recently released, “Read this book, then watch this DVD, and you too will become alive to the legends in your family tree and the “serpent power” spiraling within your body-mind-spirit awaiting to manifest a whole new life in the future from your blood, sweat, and tears shed in the past!”

The DVD follows the author on a world-wide trail to uncover the secret of this enigmatic mystery and comes away with some startling new insights that are finding a home in a great many minds. Gardiner has now done over 400 radio interviews, recorded a Freemasonry documentary for Discovery Channel and several TV chat shows. Dozens and dozens of magazines from Italy to the USA are covering the amazing new discovery over the coming weeks.

The DVD was written, filmed and directed by the author, who said he wanted to maintain control due to the depth of the work. However it has been co-produced by one of the world’s leading record companies, Reality Entertainment, who have such bands as Krokus, Marcy Playground and K.C. and the Sunshine Band in their fold.

So did the Temple exist? Not according to the author, who clearly shows that the evidence is sadly lacking, but that the truth is much more profound than anybody could imagine. One 32^nd degree Freemason, out of the hundreds that have emailed the author, said “Thank you for showing me the truth behind the symbols I have been seeing for decades.”

For more information and to see a trailer go to www.gnosisbookdvd.com . The DVD and book are both widely available from most bookstores and online at amazon.com.

End

For more information or to book an interview with the author please email [email protected] or [email protected]

Cable network Turner Classic Movies is currently developing a brand new, 90-minute documentary on the career of Steven Spielberg entitled, simply enough, “Spielberg on Spielberg.”

Spielberg associate Richard Schickel (who directed the Spielberg-produced documentary “Shooting War” in 2000) will be producing the feature doc that according to trade publication Variety will feature an “extensive interview with the director supplemented with clips of his movies.”

Schickel interviewed Spielberg in 2005 for two very separate projects including last summer’s TCM sci-fi documentary “Watch the Skies,” and Time’s cover story “Spielberg Takes on Terror” on the film “Munich.”

Narrated by acclaimed journalist Christiane Amanpour, THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL was directed and produced by Ahmed A. Jamal and Ramesh Sharma, who gained unprecedented access to many of the key figures in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in early 2002. Anant Singh (“Sarafina!,” “Cry, The Beloved Country,” HBO’s Oscar®- nominated “Yesterday”) also produced.

The debut of THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL coincides with events taking place around the globe between Oct. 6 and 15, and organized by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which battles cultural and religious intolerance through journalism, music and dialogue. Read the rest of this entry »

A full review of Rank will be coming later in the week, but for now let me say if you have a chance to catch this film you should.  The inherent drama of bull riding is undeniable, but the personal stories of the bull riders and breeders makes this film.

If I wasn’t riding bulls for a living, I wouldn’t have a really good job or nothing because I am not a really smart guy or nothing.  My talent is livestock.  I just have a feel for livestock, raising and riding bulls.

–Mike Lee 21, third in points going into finals

Bull that can jump the highest, kicks the hardest, and spins the hardest, those are the rankest bull.

–Champion Bull Breeder

Rank official web site.

I am jaded.  I live in a culture where something is always being sold to me.  I believe the worst until I know better.  Irony is presumed long before sincerity.  I get magazines which are nothing more than elaborate advertisements for one product or a group of products.  I get instant messages that aren’t even from a real person, only a program pretending to be one.

Documentaries offer no relief from suspicion.  Granted they are presumed to be reality or at least one perspective on it.  And so when I begin to watch a documentary that is a personal story I often give it the benefit of the doubt.  But not this time.

A friend told me this film wasn’t really a documentary when I mention my intention to view it; how is that to start the seed of doubt?  Whether intentionally or not this film initially feeds that doubt.  I am questioning whether this is yet another attempt to shoot fiction in a documentary style.  Even the subtitle of the film A True Story, has my cultural radar going off.  Who needs to call their documentary true unless it is fake?  Who believes this Unknown White Male really has amnesia, that he really exists? Read the rest of this entry »

WIN AN HBO FILMS AUTOGRAPHED BOOK BY REVIEWING DOCUMENTARIES ON THIS SITE.

On November 14, 2006 at 9pm EST, HBO is presenting Thin an intimate look into the lives of four women suffering from an eating disorder.

HBO Films and Documentary Films .Net are offering two autographed copies of the accompening book Thin to our readers.  The book is a photojournalistic showcase for the woman in the story and includes photos from author/filmmaker.  Greenfield has been named one of the 25 most influential photographers by American Photo Magazine.

One autographed book will be given to the reader who has the most posts in our forum in the month of October.  The other book to the reader who has posted the most reviews in our new documentary film review database in October.  Click here to see the current top reviewers.

Thin takes director Lauren Greenfield (author of the critically acclaimed book Girl Culture) along the various stages of recovery and downfall through group therapy sessions, mealtimes, weigh-ins and heated arguments.

Thank you to HBO and Deep Focus for making this possible.

All decisions by Documentary Films .Net editors are final on the results.   Be sure to check out this film and contribute to our new sections.

Footage at reasonable prices!

adventurefilmproductionscanada.com

(416)699 FILM (3456)

e-mail [email protected]

The AFP archive contains footage going back to the beginning of the 1900’s. We’ve got everything from wars to a marijuana festival in Amsterdam to a total eclipse of the sun shot in Dachau. Historical shots … yep we’ve got ‘em …. weird and wacky …. yep! Do we have every shot you’ll need … probably not … but give us a shot.

Check our web site … this list is just the tip of the iceberg (and we have shots of icebergs too). By the way .. our services also include script writing.

regards

Neil

A friend of mine has decided to create a website that parodies the US army recruitment site. Interesting in itself, but I thought it would be relevant here because if you click on the banner in the site, you are able to watch a documentary film called “Paralels” in it’s entirety.

I saw this film being shown at the Calgary International film festival and it is being shown at the Vancouver international film festival as well. The film deals with desertion and interviews soldiers from Vietnam and Iraq who decided to desert, showing the “parallels” in their experiences. Very cool, worth checking out, it’s an important issue and it’s better than paying the 10 bucks to see it in the theatre.
click here to view

In an hour long documentary for German television, Werner Herzog returns to the South American jungle with Juliane Koepcke, the woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash there in 1972. They travel the streets of the country and eventually go to the site of the crash.  The film is now available in its entirety online.

View Film

George Lucas has a message for studios that are cutting their slates and shifting toward big-budget tentpoles and franchises: You’ve got it all wrong.

The creator of “Star Wars,” which stamped the template for the franchise-tentpole film, says many small films and Web distribution are the future.

And in case anyone doubts he means it, Lucasfilm is getting out of the movie biz.

“We don’t want to make movies. We’re about to get into television. As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we’ve moved away from the feature film thing because it’s too expensive and it’s too risky.

“I think the secret to the future is quantity,” Lucas said.

He spoke to Daily Variety after the groundbreaking ceremony for the renamed School of Cinematic Arts at USC.

He gave $175 million — $100 million toward the endowment, $75 million for buildings — to his alma mater. But he said that kind of money is too much to put into a film.

Spending $100 million on production costs and another $100 million on P&A makes no sense, he said.

“For that same $200 million, I can make 50-60 two-hour movies. That’s 120 hours as opposed to two hours. In the future market, that’s where it’s going to land, because it’s going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable.

Click here for the full article at Variety.