As Chinese New Year, Valentine’s and Presidents Day pile on this weekend, we are are giving away some flicks on prezzes we have collectively loved, including these docs on iTunes, ‘Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived‘, ‘Senator Obama Goes to Africa‘, and ‘Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment‘.

From the HISTORY Channel, we are offering DVDs of the documentary series ‘The Presidents‘.*

Visit our Facebook fan page for details on how to enter to win.

* Contests open to U.S. residents only. For downloads you must have an iTunes account. Your tweet must be received by Friday, 2/19/2010, at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Felicia Day’s THE GUILD outpaced shows like Glee, Weeds, Caprica, Madmen and Lost during it’s launch this week. If you haven’t heard of this award-winning web series, Felicia Day of “Dr. Horrible” brilliance is part of an online gaming guild called “The Knights of Good.”

And, you can enter to win Season 3 of The Guild.*  New Video is offering two free iTunes downloads of Season 3. Enter on Twitter by tweeting us @NewVideoDigital your reason for loving ‘The Guild’ along with the hash tag #TheGuild.

The season pass on iTunes includes a free bonus episode, “Tips on Making a Web Series.”

Felicia fans in Canada (or who toggle the Canada store in the lower right corner of iTunes) can check out her awesome celebrity playlist.

* This contest is only open to U.S. residents with iTunes (U.S.) accounts. Your tweet must be received by Friday, 2/5/2010, at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Apple presented the iPad moments ago in San Francisco – much described as a merging of devices, and a rebuttal to e-readers at a very compelling price point. Starting at $499 for 16GBs, the first iPads will ship in 60 days (90 for 3G network compatibility). With a nifty and slick stand and folder, some are wondering if this could replace a laptop for certain users and create a whole new product category. Designed with “the intersection of technology and liberal arts” in mind, it will offer a new category of apps, the iWork suite and iBooks store, and a highly responsive (A4 chip) 9.7” screen, allowing improved media viewing. Media will be accessible in the same way as on an iPhone, allowing for better sized enjoyment of HD movies and TV.

Repeatedly called a “lifestyle device” that “comes alive in your hand” Apple’s newest product certainly is leading the charge in bringing the human and the technology closer than ever, or making the interface between the two less visible than before.  Skiffy dream come true.

Reknowned art collectors Dorothy and Herb Vogel amassed one of the most important collections of contemporary art on a librarian and postal clerk’s salary, and then donated the entirety to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and to museums in 50 states. We spoke with Dorothy Vogel, who has been buying art with husband Herb since the early 60s, about her experiences, detailed in the recent documentary “Herb & Dorothy.”

Q:  How did the many artists whose works you collected react to the donation of the artwork to the National Gallery and the Vogel 50/50?
Dorothy Vogel:  Everyone was excited about the National Gallery but some were skeptical about the 50/50 project.  Now that the project turned out to be successful everyone is pleased.

Q:  How did you react to director Megumi Sasaki approaching you to film this project? Did you have any indication of the scale of the film over so many years?
DV:  We didn’t think she could do it – didn’t think she could raise the money, didn’t know how long it would take. She didn’t either.

Q:  Did you expect that the rest of the world would catch on to the minimalist and conceptual art movement when you first began collecting?
DV:  Had no idea.

Q:  Had you ever gifted any of your artwork before the massive undertaking with the National Gallery?
DV:  No.

Q:  The film touches on your love for animals. Were any pieces ever damaged by a pet during your many years of collecting?
DV:  The cats did not do anything since we were protective of our works, but the fish in the fish tank – someone splashed water on a Warhol poster in the back of the tank and we had to get the watermark removed.

Q:  Did either of you ever consider applying your discerning eye for art toward a job in a gallery?
DV:  No.

Q:  Do you feel that art collecting is still for everyone or has the market changed drastically since you began your collection?
DV:  Think – If you want to collect, you can and will – if you really want to.

Q:  What advice would you offer to a beginner interested in collecting?
DV:  Buy what you love.

New Video Digital would like to add something other than coal to your stocking with some fun giveaways.

Fans of Highlander know There Can Be Only One. Our friends at Davis-Panzer Productions are now offering more than one way to win awesome things. Bullz-Eye, Geeks of Doom, and IESB are each featuring the chance to win a Connor or Duncan MacLeod katana, while Teen Hollywood, Slice of Sci-Fi, eFilm Critic, and Video Detective are bringing you the chance to win the six-volume DVD set, “Highlander – Ultimate Collection (Best of the Best).”

To help you catch up on your independent and documentary movie viewing, we’re giving away iTunes downloads of some favorite releases, including Herb & Dorothy, Objectified, Harlan Ellison: Dreams With Sharp Teeth, loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies, and many more. Visit our Facebook fan page for a complete list, and plan to gather round the screen.

If you want a break from Frosty and Heat and Snow Miser, may we suggest:  Christmas In Wonderland // The Christmas Toy // The Santa Trap // Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas // The Christmas Clause // Happy Holidays // Santa and Pete 

Here’s wishing you and yours an entertaining holiday season.

Director and producer Jon Reiss (Bomb It!) talks to Millimeter about the ideas in his new book on distributing and marketing film in today’s marketplace. His thoughts on free content and the challenges of piracy to independent producers, in particular, are worth a read.  The book, “Think Outside the Box Office” is a guide to distributing and marketing your film, phase by phase.

Director Kate Churchill and Nick Rosen talk about their collaboration in a grand yoga experiment captured in the documentary, “Enlighten Up!”

Q: How did the two of you come in contact with one another?  Kate, where did you locate subjects for the film?

Director Kate Churchill: Nick and I met each other at a think tank conference.  We were seated on the same panel and afterwards starting chatting about the work we were each doing. Nick was working as a journalist at the time and interested in documentary films so he sent me some of his articles to read for a possible future project. About 4 months later when the producers and I were debating how to tell this story, he became a potential subject for the film. I liked that he was a journalist, had a good sense of humor and that he was skeptical.

Nick Rosen: Yeah it was funny because it was a conference panel I was totally unprepared for and I didn’t even know I was on, and I totally faked and joked my way through it, trying to make people laugh to mask my total and utter cluelessness. And then Kate fell for it! I often wonder if I had prepared for that panel, and nobody much noticed me, whether Kate would have ever introduced herself, and later pick me for the movie. Lesson for the kids: always be unprepared.

Q: Did the making of this documentary help you to come to terms with some of the “contradictions of yoga” that you wished to explore?

KC: When I started making Enlighten Up! I was determined to find one teacher, or one practice that would have all of the “right answers” and help me overcome what I saw as the contradictions of yoga. Through the course of making the film, and especially during the three years editing Enlighten Up! I learned that there isn’t one teacher or a single practice that will have all the answers, and therefore everyone is going to have their own take on yoga based on what makes sense to them.

Q: Did the two of you ever discuss Nick’s relationship with rock-climbing and outdoor sports? Were there any parallels between Kate’s passion for yoga and anything in Nick’s life?

KC: It was always clear that Nick was a very physical person and rock climbing was one of his main passions. I had a sense that yoga would really help his climbing, which ultimately is really more of his own practice.

NR: Yeah, climbing is like yoga if you did yoga 100 feet off the ground and were always thinking about taking a big fall. Climbing = scary yoga.

Q: Kate, in trying to locate a practice of yoga that suited Nick, did you encounter forms that you yourself took issue with? (Yoga for Regular Guys, Laughter Yoga, etc.?)

KC: Throughout the film there is a back and forth between Nick and myself on who we will go see. It becomes a tug of war over control of the story at times. Inevitable we had our differences and Yoga for Regular Guys was certainly one of those moments. There were also a number of teachers who we went to see that we both were quite excited to spend time with, including: Norman Allen, Pattabhi Jois and B.K.S.Iyegnar.

Q: Nick, were there any moments that were not captured on camera that you wished had been?  Conversely, were there any moments that you did not want to relive when you saw the finished product?

NR: I think Kate did a really good job of covering all the big important moments. But there were stretches of time that I was practicing yoga without the camera. There was one time when the whole yoga class was sitting cross legged in a circle listening to the teacher give some weighty lecture on Hinduism, and—oops—I farted. The whole class heard it and the teacher thought it was someone speaking up and said, “What was that, does anyone have a question?” That would have been a pretty funny scene in the movie.

Q: Kate, how were you yourself introduced to yoga seven years before embarking on the

project? Did you initially experience any of Nick’s skepticism?

KC: Very much like Nick, I came to yoga initially for physical reasons. I was doing mini-triathlons and my body was starting to fall apart. I went to a local power yoga studio and was almost instantly hooked on the practice and how good it made me feel. Over the next seven years before I started making this film, I explored a number of different practices including asana (physical practice), meditation and pranayama (breathing).  During these years, I experienced some skepticism from the contradictions I discovered and it made me want to find a way to investigate deeper.

Q: Nick, were there any particularly ambitious poses that you were proud to be able to perform in the end?

NR: I did do some things with my body that I never thought possible. For instance, towards the end there I was doing a complex ashtanga pose called “Marichyasana B,” where my knees and elbows and feet are poking out all over the place like a bad car accident victim. My knee started to hurt at that point, so I eased off. I still am not sure whether that got me closer to any kind of higher spiritual truths. Corpse pose was my favorite.

Q: Would you consider practicing yoga again under less pressure? Have you applied any of the yogis’ teachings to other aspects of or activities in your life?

NR: Yes, I continued to practice after the project pretty intensively for a while. Yoga is like crack—it’s not easy to stop. Even today I do yoga (once a month) and I really enjoy it. And yes, the yogic lessons, even when I thought they sounded silly in the context of a glorified stretching class, did manage to trickle into my psyche. Some of the teachings we received from the wise men and women in India and America were simple but profound. Be true to yourself. Practice compassion. Go fuck yourself (that last one was my favorite).

Q: How did your parents react to your experiences and the insight you gained throughout the making of the film? 

NR: True to form: my mom says she saw a really big transformation, my dad was more skeptical, perhaps. I think this is true for most people. The movie is a kind of reflecting pool for their own beliefs—sometimes it reinforces those beliefs, sometimes it challenges them, but those insights are always different depending on where the viewer is coming from. And the same goes for my very different parents.

Believe it or not,
it’s 1980s TV,
You can watch it on your PC…
Believe it or not, Hulu’s free.

And while we stroll down memory lane: Co-Stan-Za.

 In 1993 Marion Cajori had just won the prestigious Pratt-Whitney Grand Prize at the International Film Festival for Films on Art in Montreal. The filmmaker had plans for a documentary about painter Alice Neel, but it was her Chuck Close project that occupied her mind for the next decade – along with her children, and the cancer she’d been diagnosed with. In 1998, PBS broadcast her Emmy-nominated special “Chuck Close: Portrait in Progress.” Just before her untimely death in August 2006, Cajoli completed a full-length documentary about Close – one of the world’s leading contemporary painters. A culmination of her years capturing the artist, ”Chuck Close” examines the artist with a focus worthy of his own intensive work. It is a final testament to Cajoli’s passion for studying artists with an intensive gaze, for moving towards the essence of her subjects and what motivates them.

New Video Digital is launching a Twitter retweet contest to promote the documentary “2012: Science or Superstition”, now available on iTunes.

Here are the contest details to enter:

Prize: $300 iTunes gift card (open to US residents only)
Duration: Ends on Sunday, 11/22, 11:59PM EST
Entry: Simply retweet the following link and hash tag on Twitter along with a witty 2012 prediction -  http://bit.ly/2NHaur #2012BadPrediction

As we honor those who fought in wars past and those who now serve in the armed forces, we remember the awesome impact that these fine men and women in uniform have had upon the world and not solely on the battlefields. At home last week, we witnessed admirable acts of heroism confront violence at a moment’s notice, such as the assault at Fort Hood. It should become paramount to our national duty that veterans are not only be met with our gratitude, but also with solutions to the threat of homelessness and the inequality of education that have mired countless others before. This Veteran’s Day we are reminded that their service and sacrifice should be a fixture in our civic conscientiousness year round.

Titles now on iTunes: Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived // The War Tapes // Body of War // Saints and Soldiers // Uncovered: The War on Iraq // The Top Secret Trial of the Third Reich // Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories // Operation Homecoming

A few weeks ago, France declared war… against Internet piracy. By adopting a three-strike law that could ultimately disconnect Internet access for its violators, the French government took an unprecedented stance on the illegal, online sharing of music and movies. In response, many Internet advocacy groups quickly disputed that such drastic measures would be a clear violation of fundamental rights, not just as citizens but as consumers. This past Thursday, however, the European Parliament and EU member states sided with the French government in its decision to expand the ability to cut off Internet access beyond what had solely been entrusted with judicial authority. Many in the Chinese business community publicly recognize that piracy poses a threat to growth and innovation. UK video platform VODO – founded by filmmaker/technologist Jamie King – has taken initiative in slowly trying to translate PSP views to money for independent filmmakers. What had seemed a colossal victory against piracy eight years ago with the shut down of Napster, now seems to have come around full-circle with a global outbreak of file-sharing. This week’s new iTunes release, “Steal This Film“, documents the steadfast movement against intellectual property, and features prominent players in the Swedish piracy culture such as the Pirate Bay, Piratbyran (Piracy Bureau) and the Pirate Party. As the piracy battles rage on in the courtrooms, the war online seems pretty lopsided.

Other Documentary titles now on iTunes: Chuck Close // A Life Without Pain // The Big Question

It’s been a great year for movies about music, encompassing the funny, the ironic and the tragic: filmmakers are finding plenty to say when the subject is the musicians they love. The unexpected passing of the King of Pop has turned the posthumous release of “This Is It,” into a phenomenon. Anvil, the Canadian rock band of the early 1980s, reveals its tale of missed opportunities and dire times in “Anvil!: The Story of Anvil,” recently winning DVD/Film of the Year at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards in London. Director Davis Guggenheim brought together a formidable rock triumvirate – Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White – for “It Might Get Loud,” and recently announced that his film will sell exclusively on iTunes  from December 8 to 22, weeks ahead of its retail competitors. After overtaking Wal-Mart as the number one music destination for American consumers last year, Apple launched a new initiative on iTunes this past week highlighting its library of music documentaries, concert films, as well as mainstream classics such as “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Purple Rain,” and “The Doors.” Among the new releases in the genre, “Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart“, finds banjo virtuoso Bela on his travels in Africa to explore the roots of the banjo and to share a cross-cultural appreciation of the stringed instrument.

Other Music Movies on iTunes: loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies // Punk’s Not Dead // Rip! A Remix Manifesto // Wilco: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart // Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek // Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras

Last month, when News Corp. deputy chairman Chase Carey suggested that Hulu might begin to charge for its online streaming, shock waves hit the online community faster than a leaked trailer for a new Twilight movie. First beta tested in October 2007, Hulu has quickly become the online destination for TV aficionados with an aversion to prime-time advertisements and for TiVo users with congested recording space. In response to the panic that had ensued over pricing speculation, a source close to Hulu told Entertainment Weekly last week that any premium-subscription service would only complement its free content, not replace it. Now, just as everyone started to breathe a sigh of relief, it’s been rumored that Apple has been in talks with TV networks for weeks proposing a monthly subscription service for access to its iTunes programming. But in contrast the rumors surrounding Hulu’s plan, Apple’s ambition seems to be on a much greater scale. If Apply can convince its 65 million iTunes account holders to shell out $30 per month, it may mark a dark day for cable TV. If Apple and networks confirm these talks and lay out a collective agreement, we might soon be hearing “It’s Not HBO. It’s iTunes.”

Tomorrow’s off-year election should shake up plenty of seats, with Republicans united under a common purpose of regaining some power, and Democrats both complacent from their successes and divided over priorities.  Dems may hope that the record turnout for the 2008 presidential election and Obama’s high marks in year one sustain them. The Daily Kos has a handy guide. Key fallout will be new governors in Virginia and New Jersey, flipped congressional seats in New York and California, and mayors for New York City and Atlanta. Gay marriage will be back on the hotseat: citizens in Maine will have an opportunity to veto marriage equity laws, and Referendum 71 will be on ballots in Washington DC.

The documentary Election Day looks inside the process of this formative day, following ordinary and extraordinary individuals who make democracy happen. For more docs on past US elections and their thornier issues, check out Hacking Democracy, Uncounted, See How They Run, So Goes the Nation and How Ohio Pulled It Off.  Tying the Knot offers insight into the political war over gay marriage.

Good luck to all those running on Sunday! We were inspired to hear about Ed Norton running to raise funds and awareness for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. He’ll be running with 3 Maasai, David Blaine and Alanis Morissette as team members. For those preparing, may we suggest Beppe for carbs (try the Butcher’s Spaghetti) and for inspiration, “Running the Sahara,” a doc Matt Damon produced about just that – super marathoners who cross six countries of the Sahara, averaging 2 marathons per day, in 80 days. Damon’s project aimed to raise awareness about water supply in Africa. Should make Sunday’s little jaunt, with scattered showers, feel like a blessing.

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Who will play Björn Türoque?

Paramount Pictures is producing a film based on the doc “Air Guitar Nation” & the book ”To Air Is Human” for 2011. 

Cue extended electric riff with reverb…

Justin Theroux has great taste but apparently will not be starring or directing.

For the roots of Air Guitar: DVD // on iTunes // Book

A law suit filed today against the Yes Men for their climate stunt this week - a faux press conference declaring the Chamber of Commerce’s support for environmental legislation – argues they crossed the line from symbolic parody into stealing, or in the words of the Chamber’s CLO Steven Law, “commercial identity theft.” So the Chamber hopes to prove. Law pointed to the Yes Men’s own commercial interests in promoting their product sales. Here is a link to the faux release, and complete coverage of the stunt on Politico. Reuters picked up the story so fast, it apologized for potentially effecting an epic hiccup in markets.

The 2010 DIY Film Festival is now accepting entries for its year-round program that celebrates independent and self-produced films. The spirit and history behind the “do-it-yourself” movement is the subject of Beautiful Losers, a doc about the personalities within the outsider subcultures of skateboarding, punk and graffiti in the 90s that transformed pop culture. Among other beautiful losers, Harmony Korine and Shepard Fairey continue to make controversial headlines and art. The DIY Film Festival began in 2002 as part of the DIY Convention in LA. The festival travels to New York, New Orleans, Austin and other cities, celebrating moxy and connecting winners with film industry pros.

DVD lifespan speculation heats up today with lively discussion on the Wall Street Journal on Disney’s “Keychest” technology announcement, which puts a single price on access to a movie or show across multiple platforms. The technology addresses two thorny issues of digital movies: cross-device portability and storage capacity. Another variation on cloud computing, participating distribution services could access the Keychest database to verify which films a consumer purchased elsewhere. DVDs could also be tagged with a key. Bob Chapek, Disney’s prez of home entertainment, sums up the dream:

“Our vision for the future is that consumers won’t have to think about where they bought (a movie), how they bought it, or when they bought it.”

Some perceive Disney’s play - with Steve Jobs as their largest shareholder - to be direct competion to the DECE initiative, a consortium headed by the CTO of Sony Pictures that includes five major studios, with Disney and Apple notably absent. Two challenges ahead for Disney: studios would be giving control of access to a competitor, and the studios’ ability to dictate which services and devices participate could make the consumer’s head spin.

Paranormal Activity recently became ”the first-ever major film release decided by YOU” after over 1 million fans asked for it in theaters near them. Kudos to Paramount for scaling this micro-budget thriller. If the Blair Witch-style flick leaves you lying awake at 3am, what better way to relax than to dial up more house-bound demons on your iTunes device?

The film 100 Feet stars Famke Janssen and a distinctly un-Chuck-like Ed Westwick as the boy next door.  Marnie Watson (Janssen) kills her abusive husband in self defense and is sentenced to house arrest… with, guess who? Demonic hubbie’s vengeful, violent spirit!

Also, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, appropriately.  

Update: Here’s a YouTube video of the arrest today of hemp farmers at DEA headquarters.

The DEA has arrested David Bronner, maker of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, for planting industrial hemp, inflaming the debate over the farming of hemp for its many practical, non-narcotic applications. Among supporters, the team behind the new film “Hempsters,” in which Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Ralph Nader and Woody Harrelson weigh in on the merits of this plant. Dr. Bronner’s delightfully eccentric approach to making and marketing soap has earned him devoted customers. For those who’ve always wondered about the man behing the soap bottle, the documentary DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX should enlighten.

Just a standard news week for Sir Elton John: he may be allowed to adopt a 14-month-old Ukrainian boy if he buys his murdering father a shoe store; he commented on the tragic death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately; and he was photographed by a herd of paparrazzi for seeming tired after eating dinner. Not much has changed since partner David Furnish documented Elton’s personal and professional life in all it’s chaotic glory in Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras, during the 1995 world tour. Now you can get to know the Rocket Man on your iPod.

The arrest of Elliot Madison for creating a virtual GPS on the police at the G-20 summit publicly marks an era of growing government unease with new technologies and security. From police to homeland security, cybercrime units are a hotbed of activity.   Recently, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that closing Guantanamo Bay by the January 22nd deadline would be difficult, with some conservatives still fighting to keep it operational. As the debate over how to handle the detainees’ future continues, more legal arguments persist over torture allegations of the past. This week a new documentary looks closely at the ultimate forbidden fruit, “Secrecy,” with arguments from all sides on whether secrecy regimes make us safer or breed incompetence. 

Also on iTunes this week: Columbus Crew: 2008 MLS Cup Champions // Ghost Image // Train Master // Shaolin vs. Evil Dead // Imagination (2007) // No Higher Love

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama throws rose petals at Raj Ghat, The Memorial to Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi.

September’s International Day of Peace led up to Mahatma Gandhi’s 140th birthday last Friday, recognized as the International Day of Non-Violence. Among the torchbearers of Ghandiji’s efforts,  His Holiness The Dalai Lama said in 2006, “Today’s world really needs Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy, Mahatma Gandhi’s principle.” In “The Unwinking Gaze” filmmakers follow the Dalai Lama over 18 months, as he attempts to strike a balance between his spiritual imperitives and the realpolitik needed to engage China in a debate over Tibet.

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People look at an overflowing dam in Dindi, in Andhra Pradesh state, India, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Southeast Asia suffered massive earthquakes, landslides and typhoons this week, with the death toll in the Philippines, South India and Vietnam rising. For Americans with memories of Hurricane Katrina, it may be interesting to look back at the historical flood at Johnstown. Now a documentary on iTunes, “Johnstown Flood,” narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, revisits one of the worst disasters in US history. Known to residents of the Pennsylvania town as the Great Flood of 1889, it was responsible for the largest loss of civilian life at the time – over 2,200 – until it was later surpassed by the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the attacks of 9/11. Clara Barton and the Red Cross were some of the first respondents to Johnstown over a century ago – fittingly the organization she founded continues the legacy today.

Other Documentary titles now on iTunes: Alexandria: Discovering a Lost Empire // One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story // Rites of Passage: No Holds Barred Fighting // The Putin System // The Unwinking Gaze // W.I.S.O.R.

New Video’s Stephanie Bruder speaks with director Gary Hustwit about his film “Objectified” – the latest in a trilogy of documentaries on design. With Objectified, Hustwit unveils the world of product design: the people and personalities that create the objects that surround us, from iPods to cars to toothbrushes.

Farrah Fawcett passed away 3 months ago from a long, brave battle with cancer. While best known for her role in Charlie’s Angels, she also took on roles in films like Silk Hope, playing a free spirited Frannie Vaughn, who returns to her hometown to find that her mother passed away three days earlier. When her sister decides to sell the family house and split the profits, Frannie becomes determined to hold on to this vital piece of her past.

Polanski’s arrest this past Sunday by Swiss officials provides a stirring reminder to everyone, including the Zurich Film Festival, that he is a fugitive from justice. Polanski may be ruminating on his 1979 production of “Macbeth,” a tragedy that shows that all ghosts return to haunt even kings. The life and times of Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski merit a poetic film adaptation all their own. As a child he survived the Krakow Ghetto. He achieved extraordinary success with the classics “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) and “Chinatown” (1974). In between, tragedy struck when his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s family of followers. In 1977 he pled guilty to charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13 year-old girl and then fled the country. As years passed, Polanski continued to make films in Europe, including the World War II autobiographical production “The Pianist”, which took home the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and which won Polanski the Best Director Oscar in 2002.

“Plastics.” Uttered in the 1967 film classic “The Graduate,” the quote was a memorable token of advice given to Dustin Hoffman’s character on how to invest in his future. Today’s graduate navigates a sea of plastic, and often fights back, from the dangerously convenient financial kind, to Scotch tape to DVDs. The industry has been responsible for improved medical care, simplified household applications, efficient workplaces, and a severely compromised environment. ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle‘ has migrated from the fringe to the mainstream, and some graduates endeavor to turn plastics into fuel to curb the cumulative impact of plastics on the environment. This week’s new iTunes release, “Blue Vinyl“, takes a look at the controversial, and yet not widely exposed, industry of vinyl. Winner of the Excellence in Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival, this documentary mixes humor with education on how the vinyl siding business has dire consequences for Americans well beyond its unflattering façade.

Other Documentary titles now on iTunes: Note By Note // Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras // Horses of Gettysburg: Civil War Minutes IV Edition // Straight Acting // The Reckoning: Remembering the Dutch Resistance

By far our favorite pic, thanks to Stranger Than Fiction of Tuesday’s celebration.

D. A. Pennebaker poses with the doc ladies, including Chris Hegedus (far left) and Deborah Shaffer (far right). Credit: STFdocs.com

This fall marks ten years of distributing documentary films on the Docurama Films label. New Video co-presidents Steve Savage and Susan Margolin feted this proud anniversary Tuesday night with a rare screening of the 1962 film “Jane,” kicking off Stranger Than Fiction’s fall series. Thom Powers led a Q&A with filmmaker Robert Drew and cameraman D.A. Pennebaker. The celebration continues into December with the screening of ten powerful documentaries at the IFC Center, culminating with the one that started it all, Pennebaker’s “Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back.”

More photos after the break.

Dame Judi Dench has donated the set of the film “Shakespeare In Love” to be turned into a replica Rose Theatre in the north of England for the British Shakespeare Company. Dame Judi was given the set as a gift after she won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in the film. This is a fitting tribute to the golden age of British theater, which groomed actors whose careers continue to flourish well past their 60th birthdays. Ian McKellen and Dame Judi’s 1979 performance in Roman Polanski’s ”Macbeth” is now available on iTunes, as is Kenneth Branagh’s production of the lighthearted “Twelfth Night.”

Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen to Judi Dench.

The art world scuffle between representational and non-representational art may have cooled long ago, but the dust still settles in the vividly captured film Local Color, now in iTunes. An eighteen-year-old aspiring painter spends a life-changing summer with his idol, Nicoli Seroff – a character so real, you feel his art should exist. Nicoli is a reclusive, emotive and vodka-swilling “old master” landscape painter, and based on the director’s own mentor as a young artist. The title “Local Color” is a playful double entendre.  In addition to the common usage, “regional detail in a literary or an artistic work” – which the film demonstrates in conveying mid-20th century New York – the term is likewise known to painters as “the actual hue of a thing, independent of the ways in which different conditions of light and atmosphere might affect it.”

More art films on your iPod, for in between museum visits:  Painter’s Painting // The Cool School: Story of the Ferus Art Gallery // And coming soon, the heartwarming documentary on the Vogels, Herb & Dorothy

Animation in Japan began around 1917, as the film industry in the West was in its infant stage. Techniques in drawing and filmmaking would evolve over time, but anime remains rooted in manga (comic and print cartoon) publications. One popular manga, “Tomorrow’s Joe” or “Ashita no Jō” is the prototypical underdog story that first appeared in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1968. Chronicaling the life of a troubled orphan turned World Champion boxer, it was later renamed “Rocky Joe” for the plot correlation to the 1976 American film. The manga classic would spawn the animated series “Joe vs. Joe” in 1970, one of the first dramatic animations ever created globally. Over the past decades, the anime revolution has grown by leaps and bounds in the United States, with networks nabbing classic and promising titles. With the New York Anime Festival starting next week, we pay tribute to Japan’s #4 favorite all-time anime character with this week’s iTunes release of the 1980 film “Champion Joe“.

As “We Live In Public” rolls out in select theaters following its Grand Jury Prize win (U.S. Documentary) at Sundance, another doc from director Ondi Timoner, “Join Us,” has hit iTunes. The film, which aired on the Sundance Channel last month, follows four families in South Carolina coming to terms with the realization that their church pastor is in fact a cult leader, and their subsequent attempts to break free of his dangerous and destructive spell. Timoner manages to communicate the insidious nature of mind control, and weaves in enough historical context to reveal how America remains a breeding ground and haven for cults.

Jim Carroll, poet and punk rocker, died of a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment on Friday at the age of 60. Best known for his punk group, The Jim Carroll Band, he also authored The Basketball Diaries – a memoir about life as a teenager in New York City’s drug culture. Carroll’s legacy will endure in punk culture. As the film Punk’s Not Dead proves, people who think the genre is dead have lost sight of what punk is. More than a scene, punk is an attitude, a verb and a musical influence. Spawn include pop punk, ska punk, riot grrrl, street punk, anarcho punk, celtic punk, cowpunk, emo, gypsy punk and hardcore – and they’ll keep evolving. R.I.P., Jim.

Last Friday marked the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As a result of legislation signed by President Obama this past April, the 11th of September is now recognized as a National Day of Service and Remembrance. As traditional media covered the services and local acts of good deed commemorating the fallen, the digital community around the world also paid respect with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter posts flooding the web. There are some who wonder how our technologically-connected society would react if the 9/11 attacks happened today, while there are others who still look to the past for answers. Charlie Sheen recently made headlines voicing his conspiracy theory view that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, thus joining a long list of ‘truth movement’ advocates. The new documentary release on iTunes: “Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11“, takes a journalistic and scientific approach to question what might have happened.

Other Documentaries now on iTunes: Ballerina // Join Us // Burning the Future: Coal In America // How Ohio Pulled It Off // In Search of the Great Beast 666: Aleister Crowley // Inside the Koran // Orwell Rolls In His Grave // Pie In the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story // Random Lunacy: Videos from the Road Less Traveled // Albert Schweitzer // Con Man // Last Dispatch // Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain // American Scary // The Hollywood Collection: Audrey Hepburn Remembered // The Hollywood Collection: Steve McQueen – Man On the Edge // The Hollywood Collection: Gregory Peck – His Own Man // The Hollywood Collection: Marilyn Monroe – Beyond the Legend

According to the Walk To Action website, over 10,500 children are reported abused or neglected every day in America. That’s one child every 11 seconds. The aftermath of child abuse is deftly handled in multi-award winning indie film “Something Is Killing Tate.”  Days before his birthday and weeks before his wedding, Tate Bradley, a twenty-five year old, African-American man attempts to commit suicide. He survives the ordeal, but is left to face his demons. This film is not about defeat, tragedy and hopelessness, but a thoughtful investigation of a human spirit’s  journey towards healing.

Something Is Killing Tate is available on iTunes.

Leonardo's war machines

A few months ago Ron Howard’s “Angels & Demons” kicked off summer blockbuster season with Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. Dan Brown will soon have yet another payday when his much anticipated new novel, “The Lost Symbol“, hits bookstores this month. Sandwiched between these releases, Brownian replicas abound. In case you think you’ve already seen “The Da Vinci Treasure” – you probably haven’t yet – but the thrills, chills and mysteries will be familiar, as will the faces of C. Thomas Howell and Lance Henriksen.

More Action & Adventures on iTunes: Hide // Dragon Hunter // Snakes on a Train

As the dog days of summer begin to wind down, so too does another season of Major League Baseball. With the wild-card chase developing and the Fall Classic on the horizon, the usual chatter surrounding the Red Sox and the Yankees still flood the airwaves and continue to capture the headlines. Viewed by many as one of the most storied rivalries in sports, they have provided many memorable moments over the past decade, both on and off the field. But as college campuses get ready to welcome the Class of 2013, underclassmen and faculty alike know that Saturdays are reserved for college football. Nowhere is college football history more heralded or Heisman heroes hoisted higher than on the Big Ten stage that is the Michigan-Ohio State game. This week’s new iTunes release “Rivalries: The History of Michigan vs. Ohio State” chronicles the triumphs, the tragedies, the trophies and the titles that have followed these prestigious programs. Even the Nintendo Wii is getting into the football action with a new patent for a football-shaped peripheral. Many living room coffee tables will shatter.

Other Sports titles now on iTunes: Friday Nights In America // History of the MLS Cup

On a muggy afternoon in New York, April Benavides of Docurama Films caught up with Peter Rosen about making “Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes,” now on DVD and iTunes.

Here’s an excerpt:

Peter Rosen: So I’ve always admired (Robert) Altman. So here was this director who I think was this real genius and I said,”Mr. Altman, we’re going to start this documentary about Garrison Keillor,” who he had just worked with. And he said,”Well, Keillor is the only genius I ever worked with.” So it was a little bit intimidating when we started out, that the man who I think is the genius of American cinema, telling me that Garrison Keillor was the only genius he ever worked with.

Listen to the conversation by podcast here, or read the complete transcript after the break.

TRANSCRIPT:

TRANSCRIPT:

April Benavides from Docurama Films interviews Peter Rosen, producer and director of the engaging film GARRISON KEILLOR: THE MAN ON THE RADIO IN THE RED SHOES.

Now available on DVD and the iTunes store, the film follows Garrison Keillor, America’s foremost humorist and commentator, as he takes his skits and jokes, music and monologues across the country in his traveling radio show. This freeform, intimate look at the private man in the public spotlight goes behind the scenes of America’s most popular radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, and inside the imagination of the man who created it. Over one year of filming resulted in a fascinating inside look at the enigmatic raconteur, and how the fictional world he created became a real place in America.

AB: Welcome, Peter.

PR: Hi. Nice to talk to you, April.

AB: You trained as an architect. How does this influence – if at all – the structuring of your storytelling or your photography?

PR: Well you know when I first got my degree in architecture I realized it was going to be 50 years in that profession before you get to actually design buildings. Today’s great architects are in their 50’s or 60’s and I had some really boring summer jobs doing drafting details. So I had always done a lot of photography and photography leads to film and one day you pick up the film camera and put down your Leicas, but in general, looking back, I think it was a really good education to have as a film maker because architecture basically is about structure and how you organize your ideas, how you’re presented with a program or a problem and you have to solve it in an organized way and that’s basically what documentaries are about. You don’t have a script like in a feature film that you really need to impose your own structural thinking on. You know, like in the Keillor film we shot about 100 hours with him over a year on and off with two cameras, and that’s a daunting task unless you have a brain where you can see the bigger picture and start to put these pieces together in some kind of orderly way that tells a story.

AB: You’ve said that Garrison Keillor is an enigma. Is that the main reason you chose him as your subject?

PR: Well you know it’s sort of an interesting thing from what we were just talking about, like an enigma is a puzzle, and putting together a puzzle is a good metaphor for making a documentary. You do have all these bits and pieces that at first don’t seem to fit together at all and you’ve got to kind of keep working on it in a sculptural way to make them fit. And Keillor himself, his story doesn’t lend itself to a traditional biography even though this was done for American Masters which, as you know, is a PBS series that’s like A&E Biography, of well known people that usually starts with when they were born, and what their family was like, and takes them in a chronological way through their life. Garrison Keillor doesn’t lend himself to that because he’s a storyteller, and you don’t know what’s true and what isn’t true in his stories, about his own life. So it would be kind of a trap to try to make a biography of Garrison Keillor. And, April, what I really liked about the project when I started, was you could really make a very untraditional biography where you don’t quite know what’s true, and what isn’t true. And that was the challenge in this project.

AB: What was Mr. Keillor’s response when you first approached him for the film?

PR: Well, it took about a year for him to okay it after we had a first meeting. I actually met him in the early 90’s because he was one of the subjects of a documentary we made called,”A Place of Dreams: Carnegie Hall At 100″ for the 100th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall, and we brought back to that stage all the great performers who were still around, who had performed on that stage, to tell stories. So I had met him back in 1990 and even then thought he was kind of a strange character and would make an interesting subject. So here we were 17 years later thinking about doing this documentary and I had a nice Sunday afternoon with him, we talked about the film. We saw eye to eye about quite a few things, like number one: don’t interview people about Garrison. He didn’t want us to go out and talk to his friends or other writers about him, and I was against doing interviews in this kind of film to begin with. So we saw eye to eye on that and I thought we were going to move forward, but then it was about a year before I finally got a call from his manager that he agreed to do the film. I don’t really know why. He’s a very private person. Not too many other people have been inside, behind the scenes of the Prairie Home Companion Show. So I don’t really know the answer to the question about why he agreed to do this.

AB: And speaking about his privacy, did you ever figure out what goes on inside Mr. Keillor’s head, what makes him tick? If so, how did you present that visually in the film?

PR: When I started to shoot this we spent a lot of time with him traveling and I noticed that he was always backstage, in dressing rooms, in airports, sitting on the plane, wherever he went he was always typing stuff on this laptop. You want to know what he’s typing. You can’t go look over his shoulder and read it. So I began to think it would be really interesting to try to tell an audience what might be going on in his head while he’s doing all this typing and that’s where we got the idea to create this as a kind of monologue of words inside his head while he’s doing the things that they do every day in terms of rehearsal and, as I said, travel, while he’s at home with his family. So that was really the kind of objective, was to not really figure out, again, I don’t think you can really figure out what’s going on inside his head, but to make up a story line of what he would be writing at the time. I sort of call the film an extended Garrison Keillor monologue. He’s pretty much the only voice in it. We did a few quick sound bites with back stage people or some of the actors who work with him, but 90% of this movie is a monologue by Garrison Keillor and it’s just a kind of flow of consciousness of what could be going on in his head.

AB: When your subject is a master yarn-spinner, how concerned are you with exposing the truth?

PR: Well you don’t know what the truth is so you can’t expose it. We gave up on that aspect of it. I don’t know how many aunts and uncles he had or brothers or sisters or whether all those stories about his childhood are true or not. We did know from the beginning we were making a documentary about somebody who’s primarily a writer even though he’s a very good singer. He holds his own on Prairie Home Companion with some of the top Rhythm and Blues and Country Western and Pop singers in the country. He does pretty well in those duets with them and they all compliment his singing. He’s a really good comedian. The show’s very funny. He’s like a standup comedian. He does all these other things, but we primarily realized we were making a film about a writer.

AB: Robert Altman comes up when you think about Garrison Keillor in film, and I know you have great respect for Robert Altman’s work, and an interview with Mr. Keillor and Mr. Altman appears in the DVD bonus features. How much were you influenced by his narrative”A Prairie Home Companion” as you set out to make”The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes?”

PR: Well you know I’m one of the few people who really like that film. As you know, it was Altman’s last film before he died. Garrison Keillor wrote the screenplay for it and they have Altman’s usual fantastic cast of Lilly Tomlin, and Meryl Streep, Lindsey Lohan and it was kind of a weird take on the show because it was about the Angel of Death lurking around backstage which is all shot in St. Paul in the Fitzgerald Theatre. But, because that was fiction and a screenplay by Garrison Keillor I didn’t see it too relevant to how it would impact the documentary that was to follow. They finished that film in 2006 which was just about when we got the okay and the funding to start our documentary. The only real link was, as you said, we did film a really kind of funny talk between Keillor and Robert Altman. They’re two guys who really have a lot in common. They kind of look alike a little bit. They’re sort of the same age. I guess Altman was a little bit older. And they just hit it off in a conversation like two old guys sitting on a back porch in their rocking chairs having a good time talking to each other about each others’ work. So it’s a really unique bonus to be able to keep that in the DVD. But the only link was when I met Robert Altman just after Prairie Home Companion was premiered at a film festival – I think a lot of documentary filmmakers relate to Bob Altman’s work because it is like documentary, the way its shot. He lets a lot of cameras roll on very spontaneous action or dialogue, lines overlap, things aren’t really read from a screenplay or prompt or cue cards like the way most features are blocked out and that’s what a documentary is: real action unfolding in front of a camera. So I’ve always admired Altman. So here was this director who I think was this real genius and I said,”Mr. Altman, we’re going to start this documentary about Garrison Keillor” who he had just worked with. And he said,”Well, Keillor is the only genius I ever worked with.” So it was a little bit intimidating when we started out, that the man who I think is the genius of American cinema, telling me that Garrison Keillor was the only genius he ever worked with.

AB: Good company to be in.

PR: Yeah and I think I know what he means because these words just keep flowing out day and night. He’s a completely spontaneous, unblocked writer and very few of them are like that. Most writers complain that they’ve got writer’s block all the time. And it seems to be torture for them to get their words out and Garrison just keeps writing stuff all the time.

AB: Right. And on deadline.

PR: Yeah and he says the reason other writers seem to be blocked is they drink so much at night that they wake up with this hangover so they can’t write the next day.

AB: So Peter, you are among a select group of documentarians who are being very creative and playful with storytelling. Where do you think the documentary film form needs to go next?

PR: What I really love about documentaries is that every project sort of takes on its own form depending on what the material’s all about. And so when you really talk about the real independent feature length documentary it’s a very different breed than docs that are made for TV shows. Those kinds of shows have kind of a template and most of the documentaries have to fit into a TV format. But the independent feature length documentary which can be any length, it doesn’t have to fit into a TV slot, can take on any kind of form. You’re totally free and independent to use this medium of film and video that can go in so many directions. When you think about it, we’re just beginning to explore the whole medium of film because it’s been around for 100 years when people had been painting for centuries. And people had been writing for centuries. It’s a very new art form. And we’re just at the beginnings of exploring how to use it. So when you have a documentary there’s no reason for it to have these voice over narrations. There’s no reason to keep zooming in and out on still photographs and to interview people. The thing that turns me off the most about some of the TV work is it’s all based on interviews. Filmmakers think,”Well gee, I’ve got this story so why don’t I go interview people and they can help me tell the story by what they say.” And it was great that Garrison didn’t want any interviews because when you sit somebody down and put lights on them and you’ve usually got a makeup person there and a whole crew around they tell you what they think you want to hear and it’s never that interesting no matter who the person is. But, on the other hand, if you’re just kind of with somebody with a camera and it’s very natural and things unfold in their own time, even if you have to wait a week for someone to open up on something, it’s so much better. So in my own work I try to not do too many interviews in these documentaries, and to find the use of the medium that’s different in each one. If we were going to do the same thing on the next project it would get kind of boring. So what keeps you really interested in this work is that you can find a new way to tell each story.

AB: What are you working on now?

PR: Well we just came back from a really difficult 5 week shoot down in Fort Worth, Texas where we have done, usually every 4 years, the documentary for PBS on the Van Cliburn piano competition. And this year it was really great because this young 20 year old blind pianist, a boy who was blind from birth from Tokyo, Nobuyuki Tujii, tied for first place. And I had a hunch from the beginning because when we go down there we have 30 young pianists to follow because you don’t know who’s going to win and you will eventually need material on whoever the winner is. You have to go back to whenever they start the competition. It’s sort of like American Idol. You’ve got to follow it through each elimination round. But I had a hunch that Nobuyuki or Nobu, as everybody called him, would do really well, so I personally just shot with him every day that he was there in Texas for four weeks and we ended up with a few hundred hours of his whole experience there and then he won. And to be blind from birth and win a classical music competition – the jury and other world class pianists thought it was some sort of miracle. So we’re putting that documentary together which I think will be really exciting when it’s done around September or hopefully by October.

AB: That sounds great. Well this concludes our interview. Many thanks to Peter Rosen for joining me, April Benavides, for this Docurama Films podcast.

PR: Thanks, April.

On a recent weekend in Las Vegas, the Hilton hosted one of the largest Star Trek conventions of all time. A legion of new Trekkies and Trekkers emerged to make their presence felt in the wake of the critically-approved blockbuster. The event beamed aboard its usual crew, including Starship pioneers William Shatner (aka the Priceline Negotiator) and Leonard Nimoy. In the unusual documentary “Mind Meld” both men reveal how their lives were forever changed on and off the Enterprise. Fans can brush up on the Final Frontier’s founding fathers while the waiting for the next movie to be made.

Other Sci-Fi & Fantasy on iTunes: The Source // Invasion of the Pod People

What would The King look like, had he lived into his 70s practicing karate and drinking health shakes? In “Lonely Street,” Robert Patrick transforms into a well-aged Elvis under masterful prosthetic makeup. The talent that created makeup for “Iron Man” reveal how they pulled it off, and co-stars Jay Mohr and Lindsay Price talk about being on set with “Mr. Aaron.”

Our most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Christian Bauer, the German producer and versatile director of “The Ritchie Boys,” “Missing Allen” and countless inspired productions. It has been our honor to share “The Ritchie Boys” with the world, and we know his work will continue to influence many documentary and narrative filmmakers of tomorrow.

Congrats to Felicia Day for ranking #5 in the geekdom’s popularity contest at Comic Con. She beat James Cameron’s movie handily for most buzz. We are thrilled to hear Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: Next Generation, Stand by Me) is joining the cast of The Guild for Season 3.  The first 2 seasons will come to iPod + DVD on September 29.

Our panel on the upcoming Farscape DVD release packed in nearly 2,000 fans.  Brian Henson (executive producer), Rockne O’Bannon (the show’s creator) as well as stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black brought the crowd.

We were awed as ever by the studio’s investments in this wee comic book convention. Notable booths were AMC’s for THE PRISONER remake, Warner Bros.’ interactive displays for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, and of course Funimation’s unstoppable DOCTOR HORRIBLE.  More photos after the break.

Think way back to 2006 – when Time Magazine’s Person of the Year was ‘You’ – this was perhaps the dawn of the digital era, and a new page for Hollywood. YouTube was the new darling of the web and each of us played a supporting role… almost Oscar-worthy.  Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi are two such noteworthy stars of Web 2.0 with 1,248,653 YouTube subscribers of their spoofs. As a reward for parodying some of Hollywood’s biggest hits and stars, this dynamic duo got a chance to star in their own film: “Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure,” now the #9 Comedy on iTunes, and #22 in overall movie sales, surpassing The Simpsons Movie, Pineapple Express, and closing in on Harry Potter. While these two Hollywood outsiders may be the first true web-celeb pioneers to parlay a successful movie, Emmy®-winner Lisa Kudrow and ‘friends’ are also blazing the trail with the series “Web Therapy” – not to mention the online juggernaut releases “Dr. Horrible” and “The Guild.”

Also now available on iTunes: A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms // Horatio Hornblower: The Mutiny // Stephen Hawking and the Theory of Everything // A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth About Factory Farms // Waiting for Dublin // The Federation of Black Cowboys // Other Voices, Other Rooms // Rudy Ray Moore: Live At Wetlands N.Y.C.

Nelson Mandela’s 91^st birthday was feted at Radio City Music Hall with a performance by Carla Bruni, the first since she became first lady of France, as well as Lil’Kim and Cyndi Lauper. In “Senator Obama Goes to Africa,” the current U.S. President makes a humbling visit to the former South African President’s cell on Robben Island where he spent many of his 27 years in prison.  Nick Broomfield gets up close and personal with the face of the white supremacist movement in South Africa in “His Big White Self.” May Mandela Day, the new holiday in his honor, raise awareness for all humanitarian efforts, such as those of fellow Nobel Peace laureate James Orbinski, movingly documented in the film “Triage.” Watch on iTunes: Senator Obama Goes to Africa // His Big White Self // Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma

The lifestyles of New York’s privileged kids has been under the spotlight of late, from Bravo’s NYC Prep to Real Housewives of New York’ to the CW’s Gossip Girl. This week on iTunes, Nursery University, spotlights a somewhat younger set of Silver Spooners.

These toddler’s parents have their eye on the prize: New York City’s schools have produced the likes of Bobby Darin (Bronx H.S. of Science), Barbara Streisand (Erasmus), Truman Capote (Dwight), Gwyneth Paltrow (Spence), and John McEnroe (Trinity), to name a few.

Spotted: New parents in Gotham, elbowing for the ivy-track nursery school for their newborns. How will this mommy & daddy version of ‘Lord of the Flies’ pan out? Who will score front-row seats to a Harvard commencement in 20 years, and who will be ironing blue-collar shirts? Good luck to all. XOXO.

Also new on iTunes: Garrison Keillor: The Man On the Radio In the Red Shoes // The Wind In the Willows: The Movie // Poirot: Lord Edgware Dies // Peace! // Horatio Hornblower: The Dutchess and the Devil // Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within // Dark Chamber // Brakhage // Horatio Hornblower: The Fire Ships // Countdown: Armageddon // The First Turn-On! // Burning Down the House // Camjackers

Much has been written of late on the success of Netflix and Redbox–with speculation on the demise of the DVD within 4 to 9 years.  ‘Dead,’ and ‘obsolete,’ are hot-button words when hypothesizing DVD’s fate.  As someone who has sold DVD to retail for the past decade, the debate over the half life of the format has long been in question. Inevitably someone will discuss the collector, a personality the film industry has courted since its origins. Slim and book-like, the DVD trounced the clunky VHS tape, and was shined up with a lower SRP, special features, liner notes, booklets. DVD will always appeal to the collector, and there are more collectors in the world than we may think, as the week of Michael Jackson reminded us. The cultural moment of his death caused a sales explosion of CDs.  Album sales through Sunday reportedly hit 422,000, up from 10,000 the week prior, in tandem with digital track downloads spiking to 2.3 million, a lesser number in terms of individual tracks, spread over a greater number of purchasers. The collector wants a piece of a legacy, a tangible tribute to an idol or their own history. As in the realms of music and books, there is room for coexistence of the physical and the ephemeral video formats, at least for a good long while.

The blood-thirsty genre is alive and well – so to speak, in the similarly vampiric world of entertainment. Enjoying a second year of feasting, franchises like the ‘Twilight’ sequel and HBO’s second season of ‘True Blood‘ trace their genetic makeup to Abraham “Bram” Stoker, who wrote novels in the late 19th century to make extra money. Stoker’s regular job was as a business manager for the world renowned Lyceum Theater in London. When one of his novels, ‘Dracula,’ was published in 1897, it was not the first book to talk about vampires, but it would easily become the best. Like today’s ‘Twilight’ sensation, ‘Dracula’ was put to film in the classic silent film ‘Nosferatu‘ – copyright issues and an absence of Hollywood lawyers caused names and details to change a bit. From Béla Lugosi to Blade to Buffy, vampires have shown their preference for the limelight over the sunlight since Stoker’s passing in 1912.  With the influence of his work still evident in popular lexicon, it’s safe to say that Bram Stoker will remain an immortal for years to come. In commemoration of all characters ambiguously deceased, please enjoy two of the latest releases to reach iTunes: Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s Curse and Witchouse, joining other spawn of the genre, 1st Bite and Dracula: The True Story.

Also new on iTunes this week: Horatio Hornblower: The Duel // Poirot: Murder In Mesopotamia // Poirot: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Shackleton // Jane White Is Sick and Twisted // Nobody the Great // Little Red Riding Hood // Laserblast // The Dead Hate the Living! // This Is the Life // Ernest In the Army // Man of the Year // Kicking the Dog // Rock Fresh // Class of Nuke ‘Em High // Def By Temptation // Mad Dog Morgan // Interstate // Altered By Elvis

The endless launch of new cell phone models and gaming platforms in the battle royal for your leisure hours leaves a consumer to play Simon Cowell to the auditioning product du jour. In the quest for portable and interactive entertainment, arcade and pinball machines are indeed from another century. Pac-Man is gone from the arcade, but lives somewhere in a downloadable format. A great deal of nostalgia exists for that bygone era of brands like Atari, Coleco and Sega to name just a few. The documentary Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball, now on iTunes, chronicles the glory days of pinball and tells the tale of a last-ditch effort to save the industry. This one will have you reaching in your pocket for more quarters.

New and browsable on iTunes: Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman: The Movie // Saints and Soldiers // Michael Winslow: Live // Poetry In Motion // InSearchOf

At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, consoles began showing signs of serious momentum as video pipelines into the living room. Sony has a new technology that downloads movies and TV directly the PSP portable console wirelessly.

In the future, your mother may use a game console

Console makers are broadening their content offerings, to branch out from the tried and true 80-90% young male demographic. To that point, Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s SVP of Interactive Entertainment, said, “This E3 is about breaking down barriers — between generations, between games and entertainment, and most important, between video game players and everyone else.”

One player notably absent from this particular game: Nintendo, which has no comparable video download service in the US, and seems somewhat lackluster on the propects – President Satoru Iwata told the LA Times, “We are hopeful that we launch a similar service in America someday. But we do not have anything to announce today.”

As the worthiness of the new “Star Trek” sparks debate – in Klingon and Vulcan – one consensus among fans of the original series is veneration for the episode ‘The City on the Edge of Forever.’ The auteur of this masterpiece of sci fi, writer and foul-mouthed provocateur Harlan Ellison is the subject of a gem of a doc now on iTunes, Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Ellison wrote the episode’s original script and feuded with Gene Roddenberry on the rewrites. At day’s end, the episode brought home a Hugo Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and a glimpse at a pre-Dynasty Joan Collins.

Outside the Star Trek galaxy, Ellison’s body of work speaks for itself.  Short stories. Teleplays. Essays. Novellas. Ellison has boldly gone where few writers of the last century have gone before. Enjoy the voyage.

Also gluing us to our iTunes devices: In Debt We Trust // Tales of the Rat Fink // Tupac: Assassination – Conspiracy or Revenge // Farmingville // The Young Unknowns // Michael Winslow: Live

Where are viewers going these days? According to this chart courtesy of our esteemed colleagues at Silicon Alley Insider, it appears that watching TV at home is dead in the water and people are glued to their smart phones. However, is this the kind of data that is actionable or useful in predicting the future? Comparing a new technology to a dinosaur technology in terms of new adopters will predictably yield a chart that looks exciting but in truth is a no-brainer. We couldn’t resist comparing Pinocchio’s proboscis problem. Clearly, mobile phone watching is growing but, ah, tell me something I don’t know. Like a network that boasts to be ”fair and balanced,” here we have a nugget of truth stretched to make a point and get a rise.

This we know– the biggest chunk of  mobile phone video watching is coming from smart phones and most of that from iPhones and, yes, New Video Digital is a supplier of video to iTunes. So, we want to believe in this chart – we do. But, jeehz. Let’s get some data out there… in context.

Here’s what we saw (Pinocchio added to show scale). See if you agree:

CHART OF THE DAY: Screen Shift: U.S. DVR and Mobile Video Growth Climbing Fastest
from Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Colarusso, Kamelia Angelova
A new Nielsen report shows Americans watching plenty of TV at home — 153 hours every month — but DVR viewership and mobile video are growing faster than any other segment. Mobile video watching jumped 52% from the previous year and “time-shifted” TV watching climbed 37% over the same period.

Over the past year, Hollywood has revisited Nazi Germany with hero stories grounded in fact (see Tom Cruise’s “Valkyrie”) and outrageous fiction (see Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards”). The reimagining of those who did attempt to take down Hitler and his henchmen, no matter how fantastically realized, must always pale when compared to the breath-taking documents of those individual hero’s lives. This week we are wowed by trials of the men who plotted to assasinate the Führer in the documentary “The Top Secret Trial of the Third Reich.” The footage, created on Goebbels orders and then banned when it backfired against him, reveals the secret groups of the anti-Nazi movement. As war trials for crimes against humanity still linger from that era, we reflect on those who fought the good fight to their death.

More good stuff to download:  Standing With Stones // Speedo // Homemade Hillbilly Jam // Moving Midway // Sole Journey // Trancers // The Book of Caleb // Sam Kinison: Breaking All the Rules // Cannibal! The Musical // 1st Bite // Little Shots of Happiness

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without oil? While that is an eventuality, how about a world without people? You can stretch your imagination this week with two new iTunes releases, ”CRUDE IMPACT” and “LIFE AFTER PEOPLE.”     

Rip! A Remix Manifesto on iTunes

And, having practically realized life after CDs, the question is, will there one day be life on Earth after DVDs? Sure, music labels have been in dire straits over the past decade.  As Napster gave way to myriad other sites, the online sharing movement put a huge dent in a once stable industry. Movies now tread cautiously in music’s footsteps, and the film industry nervously watches tickets sales and DVD purchases. “RIP! A REMIX MANIFESTO“ tackles the intellectual property debate head on, exposing the extent to which corporations will go to control public use. The digital revolution forces media companies to change and defend their business models. And of course some will always have their day in court.

More browsable new releases: Painter’s Painting // Sam Kinison Family Entertainment Hour // Winter of Frozen Dreams // Voice of the Heart // Tapioca // Bird By Bird With Annie // H2 Worker // For The Bible Tells Me So // Perfect Sport // Union Square // Coffee Date

It’s very official: “May the Fourth” is Star Wars Day! Celebrate with the surreal clay-mation event that is: STAR WARP’d on iTunes.

Scott Kirsner’s written a new book on indy distribution and promotion, and recently commented on the Disney announcement that they’re joining the Hulu consortia. There’s been a lot of hand-wringing on what this means to paid downloads in general, and to iTunes specifically.

Scott points out that with Hulu, people are tethered to the web. Agreed, however let the conversation begin on watching movies with or without commercial interruptions every eight minutes. For TV shows like Deal or No Deal most people have no problem. But are we ready to surrender our film experience to words from our sponsor? Premium viewing started with HBO, solidified with video and DVD, then VOD, and now is offered by iTunes and others.

Will free + ads be the victor? Likely there’s room for both (for our part, New Video Digital has ramped up delivery to Hulu and other free platforms– for their promotional heft). Take a look at the metrics for a TV show like Homicide. On TV tens of millions watched it; the DVD sold hundreds of thousands. By the numbers the DVD got creamed, but those DVDs brought in significant dollars from fans wanting to own their show without interruption.

The takeaway: the battle is not Hulu versus iTunes, but Hulu versus cable providers. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Some interesting extrapolation today after Digital Entertainment Group’s Q1 report. NewTeeVee highlights the half billion dollars of digital download revenue reported in that quarter, and looks at the ad sales component. Others are watching the interaction of emerging formats against traditional DVD, with digital revenue now more than twice the $230 million from Blu-Ray. And The Carpetbagger underscores that putting it all in one pot, home entertainment numbers were down 5% since last year – with a very nice image of the DVD, setting over the Hollywood hills.

As summer weather pops in for a visit this weekend, cinephiles will find the cool theaters of TFF a pleasant contrast.

Some juicy docs are presenting this year – SHADOW BILLIONAIRE, about  DHL founder’s disappearing act – involving a WWII seaplane, the South Pacific, and teenage prostitutes clamoring after billions, promises crackling drama.  Two docs from abroad import even more sunshine: THE LOST SON OF HAVANA (Cuba) and ONLY WHEN I DANCE (Brazil).

And taking a break from foreign productions with his latest WHATEVER WORKS, Woody Allen kicked off Tribeca with this wake-up call to the New York Film Commission:

“I can’t really afford to shoot in New York because it’s too expensive for me. I can make the money stretch further if I’m shooting in London or shooting in Barcelona.”

What we’re browsing on the iPod, under the umbrella, this weekend:  The Wandering Soul Murders // Sprawling From Grace // Comic Book Confidential // A Jihad for Love // America Betrayed // New Flavors // Hare & Hound Classic // Twist // Cold Play

Happy Earth Day! Enjoy these enlightening docs the greenest way – digitally – and don’t forget to hit the lights!  A Crude Awakening // Beyond Global Warming // Flow

In memory of the millions who perished, a few stirring films to recommend today: “Partisans of Vilna” chronicles the amazing endeavors of Jewish resistance fighters, and “My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports” tells the story of the children ferreted out of Germany to a safe haven in London. As the Huffington Post reminds us in a piece on the strength and success of survivors, “The survival rate for children was far lower: Seven percent made it through the Holocaust.” The Volokh Conspiracy blog has a moving personal account of David Bernstein’s great aunt’s life, and death, in Nazi Germany.

And inspiring to the core, ”The Ritchie Boys” were a small contingent of German Jewish intellectuals run out of Germany by the Nazis, who exacted the perfect revenge–returning to Europe as U.S. soldiers to defeat the enemy. (One wonders if Tarantino was aware of these guys – the real deal - when penning his upcoming “Inglourious Basterds.”)

The New York Times had a story yesterday about Time Warner Cable’s failure to jump start an “a la carte” rate card. The COO attempted the analogy of two friends at lunch- one eats a salad, the other a steak. Should the friends split the bill down the middle? How unfair is that to the light eater? Interestingly, the plan was to increase the rates (substantially!) for the big eaters.

Like a “no star” restaurant review the paper destroys the metaphor, and hints that the motivation for the rate hike is actually their eroding monopoly on entertainment coming into the home through that coaxial cable. The article states:

Cable systems in the United States use the same technology and have roughly the same costs. Comcast told investors that the hardware to provide 50-megabits-per-second service costs less than it had been paying for the equipment for 6 megabits per second.

With Netflix, iTunes, Hulu and others at play, it seems that cable behemoths just might be relegated to their business roots of being utility companies.

You can’t blame them for trying to price all streaming and downloading companies out of the game. You just can’t let them get away with it.

The article is worthy of a read (registration required)– NYT: As Costs Fall, Companies Push to Raise Internet Price

Director Andrew Robinson survived the shootings at Columbine High School ten years ago today, and now, with the release of his feature film on that experience, he hopes to raise funds for school programs.

Fifty percent of first week’s box office and $1 from every download of the movie will be donated by the filmmaker and IndieFlix to schools and charities that support art in education.

“Given the current state of the economy and the subject matter of the film, I could not in good conscience release April Showers in a traditional way,” said Robinson. “Schools need our help more than ever and if a film like April Showers can help turn a negative into a positive by shedding light on aspects of a story never told and also give back to the community that supports it, then it’s a win-win.”

April Showers features Tom Arnold, Illeana Douglas and a budding cast including Kelly Blatz, Daryl Sabara, Janel Parrish and Ellen Woglom.

And where are we with gun violence and school safety today? The answers are not comforting. Slate offers this piece on the four most useful lessons of Columbine.

Red Hook, Brooklyn gets a close up as an urban landscape that is different things to different people – a canvas begging for art, a squat, a development opportunity, an architect’s fantasy – in A HOLE IN A FENCE, a love song to the border between haunting urban decay and rampant development; Ikea, of course, plays a role in this doc. CONSTANTINE’S SWORD explores religion as a weapon, and we meet the real Dr. Bronner, who uses soap as his weapon a quirky spiritual quest to rid the world of dirt of all kinds (All-One!) in DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX.  And… Sean Penn narrates the doc WITCH HUNT, the story of a small town district attorney who convicted dozens of innocent working class moms and dads. The kicker? He remains in office today.

More to explore: 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests //  Freedom State // Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories // Romero // Cafe Society

As loyal fans await the game release, seasons 1 through 4 can now travel on your iPod. Look out for the Highlander taking Immortal heads on a mobile device near you.

If you just enjoyed the Seder, you’ll appreciate this madcap, playful comedy that takes the holiday dinner genre in a whole new direction – When Do We Eat? Michael Lerner is patriarch Ira Stuckman, attempting to get his family through Passover Seder in one piece.

And by the way, check out the guest list for the first president-hosted Seder at the White House.

Whether or not you just had a holiday meal, with warmer weather upon us, some of us are reminded of our waistlines, and seasonal dieting is in full swing. This documentery delves into the reason America is the most obese nation. Like Super Size Me, Killer At Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat unveils some shocking findings.

Who owns what? It’s all so very confusing. The digital media community loves to debate this issue ad nauseam, and it’s easy to acquire blog overload (blogitis?) on the subject– always examined from the point of view of media companies’ rights.

But what about the consumers? Recently, an executive from a leading media company sat in our offices and matter-of-factly stated that any kid under the age of 9 in 2009 will never own hard goods. Not a CD, not a DVD, probably not a game cartridge. He didn’t mention books but he might as well have. Whether or not he nailed the cut-off date, we got to thinking: what is ownership? How is our yearning to possess things changing and evolving?

The era of surrounding oneself with treasured albums, books and movies is fading fast. In that era, if Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull was a favorite you’d probably have it on a shelf somewhere. Having a physical copy allowed you to watch it any time- but perhaps more importantly, the physical copy reflected your identity. (No matter if it was a heady choice on display; it could be Air Guitar Nation or even Fast and Furious.)

Here’s a riddle: if a kid (okay, an adult) pulls together a list of his favorite movies of all time, that includes Raging Bull, and posts his list on Facebook, does he actually need to own the movie? If he’s in arm’s reach of the web he can have it from Netflix, iTunes or even Hulu (if he tolerates commercials during a Scorsese film). In a Facebook world, and in the larger world, has virtual ownership crept up on physical owning?

I don’t know when George Bush’s ownership society began unraveling; probably when home owners tossed the deeds to homes whose mortgages exceeded their value. As college kids swap music libraries, the rules of possession are shifting under our feet.

Is the concept of ownership becoming as virtual as the media itself?

In anticipation on the 24 Hours of le Mans race, Audi has released the HD feature “Truth In 24” – free on iTunes – about the 24 hours of pure exhilaration, complete exhaustion, and the dedication, determination and spirit required to survive and win 3,000 grueling miles.

Here’s an interview with head of Audi Motorsports Wolfgang Ullrich, responsible for the prototype that just won Sebring, and those that will be raced this weekend at Nürburgring. Audi is now the only top automaker racing prototypes – stealing the thunder, and top drivers, from Porsche and Maserati.

The Audi R15 cost millions to develop, and may affect the efficiency of a car you drive in the future, if you roll like that.

This past Sunday evening, the documentary film world had its second annual we-don’t-get-enough-love-from-the-Academy-so-we’ll-do-it-ourselves extravaganza awards ceremony, compliments of IndiePix and with the support of Arts Engine. The brainchild of Thom Powers and AJ Schnack, the Cinema Eye Honors emerged from a conversation over beers in 2007.

Just two years later, the sold out event at the Times Center gathered formidable talent from the documentary realm and beyond, to celebrate an industry that knocks ever more loudly at the door to mainstream entertainment media. The selection of nominees, made by a consortium of worldwide fest administrators, boasted the strongest docs of the year, but honors were overwhelmingly focused on three in particular: Waltz with Bashir (4 wins), Man on Wire (3 wins, including top feature) and Up the Yangtze (2 wins).

David Polonsky, the art director for Waltz with Bashir, stole the evening for charm, accepting all 4 awards on behalf of his team with equally witty and pithy comments. “This is getting embarrassing,” he offered with a grin. “I’m just the art guy.” Of his accumulating awards that resemble weapons, or iron salad-tossers, he muttered “this will give me trouble in the airport later.”

Other highlights included AJ Schnack’s medley opening ceremonies, involving song, stand-up and an entrance with P.O.V.’s Yance Ford in full king-and-queen pageant garb, a tribute to Margaret Brown’s “The Order of Myths.” Among the luminous presenters, Laurie Anderson (for Music Composition) attended with husband Lou Reed; Albert Maysles, Gary Hustwit, Morgan Spurlock, DA Pennebaker and Chris Hedegus brought élan, context and energy to the proceedings. A panel discussion delved into the filmmaking experience, from James Marsh’s segue between fiction and non-fiction storytelling, to Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath’s 23 years of devotion to their child “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon),” to Jody Shapiro’s on set life with Guy Maddin for “My Winnipeg.”

Much joking reference was made to the award itself, an industrial style iron eye, the lashes of which resemble a claw worthy of a Lions Gate production. Indie to the core, the award represents the rough and ready attitude of doc filmmakers, a distinctly tenacious and fun-loving bunch who greatly deserve this evening of appreciation. Here’s looking at you, kids. More candid photos here, and loving this one.

Producer Gary Hustwit (Objectified) with April Benavides of Docurama Films and Stephanie Bruder of New Video

CAT DANCERS, now available on DVD from Docurama, is the fascinating tale of Ron and Joy Holiday, the husband-and-wife team who first engaged the world in the art–and tragedy–of exotic cat entertainment. Producer/director Harris Fishman and film subject/narrator Ron Holiday here answer questions that linger after viewing the film.

“Watchmen” has made over $91 million since the film’s release this month. While many insiders debate the true dimensions of this box office hit, it does support this statement from Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers, “Whatever is coming out in the theaters, audiences are lining up to see it. Recession-era moviegoing is in full swing.”

The opiate for the masses mentality is exactly what Alan Moore, mastermind creator of the original comic book, vehemently despises about Hollywood: “They take an idea, bowdlerize it, blow it up, make it infantile and spend $100 million to give people a brief escape from their boring and often demeaning lives at work. It’s obscene and it’s offensive. This is not the culture I signed up for. I’m sure I sound like Bobby Fischer talking about chess.”

Moore has a singular distaste for screen adaptations of his other works, and apparently has never viewed any of them, including “V for Vendetta,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” and “From Hell.” In “The Mindscape of Alan Moore,” Moore illuminates his singular vision on graphic novels, magic, and his subversive transformation of the comic book medium into an extraordinary world where science, spirituality and society interlace. The man who passionately revolutionized comic books and ceaselessly champions the medium, over all celluloid substitutes, finally warms up to film, as documentary.

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[endif]–>New Video Digital participated on a SXSW 2009 panel on future DVD prospects and the financial outlook for indie filmmakers in the digital market. The panel packed in bloggers, filmmakers and a smattering of distributors. Gary Huswit, director of Helvetica and this year’s SXSW hit Objectified, and fellow filmmaker and producer Morgan Spurlock headlined the panel, emceed by CinemaTech’s Scott Kirsner.

Huswit and Spurlock broke down the current actual potential for filmmakers in frank language, and Spurlock had the (literal) money quote that boomeranged around the blogosphere for a day or so:

“If you’re looking to pay your rent [with digital distribution], not so much,” Spurlock offered. “But if you’re looking to pay your phone bill, you have a great chance.”

We’ve seen otherwise at New Video Digital. Notably, Huswit shared that he earned over $60,000 in digital royalties in just six months. Also remarkable, while Rick Allen, CEO of Snagfilms, sang the praises of free documentary film streams, he held back about Snagfilms’ subsequent announcement of plans to deliver docs to Hulu.

In the quest for the right mix of platforms, Cinetic’s Matt Dentler and New Video Digital’s Steve Savage debated two differing strategies: the first, “agnostic” approach, could be likened to throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, and the second involves an analysis to “follow the money” – with Dentler advocating the first and Savage the second.

Perhaps only one thing is certain in this incredibly dynamic space: if the same panel were to convene just a few months from today, perspectives and understanding of the marketplace will have already shifted enormously. Certainly by SXSW 2010, we’ll have marked some interesting twists and turns. Perhaps by then Morgan Spurlock will be ready to talk about car payments.

World Water Day is March 22, 2009.

When Graham Bensinger interviewed ultra-marathoner Charlie Engle on ESPN.com, he asked how he is satisfied with work that others perceive as torturous.

“What is gratifying is being able to force myself to get up day after day and run. It sounds crazy to a lot of people, but it is the ultimate test in self torture with the ultimate goal of self-knowledge,” Charlie said.

According to Charlie’s website, his mission in life can be summed up in three simple words: DO SOMETHING NOW. Appropriately reminiscent of a certain ad campaign for sports footwear, Charlie’s motto suggests more altruism, as in – take control of all the bad news, and do one thing – because something is better than nothing, and now better than later.

This attitude is no doubt part of what attracted Matt Damon to the project “Running the Sahara,” and seems to summarize Damon’s approach to his own life. The doc, narrated by Damon, records Charlie and 2 more international ultramarathoners crossing 4300 miles, and six countries, in 111 days. The film also dovetails well with Mr. Damon’s non-profit H20 Africa, which shines a light on water supply issues in Africa.

Charlie’s team meets a child left alone in the desert for 24 hours while his father travels long miles for their store of water. In “Flow,” a preeminent doc on the topic of world water supply, poor villagers in South Africa pay more for a gallon of water than their wealthy city-dwelling neighbors miles away. (Flow is a wise acronym for “For the Love of Water.”) While presenting the clean water supply crisis in the US and worldwide, “Flow” chronicles instances of social conflict and unrest that erupt in reaction to water privatization, with South Africa as just one example.

On February 20, 2007 Charlie, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin touched the Red Sea – completing their quest, and accomplishing something no human being had done before. It’s no surprise to learn that Charlie’s determination and strength got him through a dark era of drug and alcohol addictions. His ongoing quest is an example of the human ability to radically reverse course, by doing something now.

Here are some places to do just that: Project Concern International, WaterAid America, About World Water Day

“Running the Sahara” on iTunes // “Flow” on iTunes

As legions await the April Fools’ street date for the book, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” and with two movie spin-offs – and, Natalie Portman? – ambling slowly but surely on the horizon, let us turn to the question of zombies, and why they are so very special to us.

Reanimated human corpses, as we know them in pop culture, reflect our deeply complicated psyche, philosophies, office life and even financial world. Born into our cultural conversation by George Romero as menacingly, even comically, slow and relentless monsters, they evolved to have superhuman speed and ability. Along the way, we have absorbed the subtle meanings of zombie identity and begun to understand why this particular form of monster is so lovable.

In Afro-Caribbean Vodou, the supposed origin of the pop culture zombie, they were helpless people controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer. As Paul Kruger rages this week against Bernanke’s denial of the existence of “zombie institutions” in the US, that definition strikes too close to home. In our current reality, AIG and countless institutions seem to be both the powerful sorcerers and brainwashed masses of a financial apocalypse.

Deep down, we know the truth- we’re all zombies at some point. The mockumentary “American Zombie” nails this affinity by interviewing the zombie next door. We learn about his daily struggles to get by and fit in, with little identity and no memory of the past. Following four high-functioning zombies as they live, date and work in the city of Los Angeles, zombies finally evolve once more – to become the sympathetic underdogs we know they can be.

American Zombie on iTunes: www.itunes.com/movies/americanzombie

As yet another lauded filmmaker is lured by the mystique of Kurt Cobain, here’s a tidbit that may give you pause: Kurt Cobain would be 42 last week. Bono was recently quoted in the Mirror as saying,

“One of the things we like about rock’n’roll is the religiosity. And genuinely people do want you to die on a cross age 33, with a Jack Daniels in your hand.”

Perhaps Bono goes a bit far, but then again, lest we forget the supreme reverence for Kurt shared by almost every boy with a guitar in the 90s, a recent blogger on the Huffington Post checks in to dust off the shrine.

Bono’s word – religiosity – has been described as our continual awe at the unconditioned mystery. The mystery of this particular singer’s martyrdom is probed by director Nick Broomfield in the doc that was pulled from the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, Kurt and Courtney. Broomfield circles a conspiracy theory, all the while resisting conclusions in his signature approach which has drawn criticism and praise. Courtney Love’s grudge-carrying ex-boyfriend and estranged father strut the stage, suggesting with flourish and bravado that Love might have had Cobain murdered. As Broomfield well knows, probing the mystery is more provocative than exposing the truth.

Kurt and Courtney on iTunes http://www.itunes.com/movies/kurtandcourtney

Happy birthday, Kurt. And here’s a couple party favors for those faithful- The Jesus Lizard will have a flash reunion in May. And just as saints’ birthdays are sacred, every icon must have relics.

Illustration Copyright © New Video Group Inc. All Rights Reserved 2009

Arrr! Arrr! Arrr!
A pirate, a pirate, a pirate says “Arrr!”
It might seem strange, just a bit bizarre,
But they know you’re a pirate,
When they hear you say “Arrr!”
-From The Backyardigans

A few weeks ago the NY Times published a cold sobering truth that the commercial digital download industry didn’t want to be reading about in the newspaper of record. Was offshore pirated streaming reaching a point where the commercial markets might just not be able to compete?

From The New York Times: By BRIAN STELTER and BRAD STONE  February 5, 2009– Hollywood may at last be having its Napster moment – struggling against the video version of the digital looting that capsized the music business. Media companies say that piracy – some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act – is an increasingly mainstream pursuit. At the same time, DVD sales, a huge source of revenue for film studios, are sagging. In 2008, DVD shipments dropped to their lowest levels in five years. Executives worry that the economic downturn will persuade more users to watch stolen shows and movies. “Young people, in particular, conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong,” said Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC Universal.

Pirates are a pretty nasty lot. Not the digital pirates that the Recording Industry’s RIAA had their lawyers chasing until recently– those pirates are nice pirates. They’re our friends, our children, even ourselves. How do we reconcile the surly pirates of yore (and, Somalia!) with college kids that won’t pay for a download because “it’s not just about the money?”

It seems that pirates being mean, bad and ugly is a black and white world that is now so gray. “We’re competing with free,” is the way Eddie Cue, head of Apple’s iTunes stores, nailed the competitive landscape in another Time’s article. While the Hollywood Studios walk on tiptoes so as to not disturb Walmart, their DVD cash machine, the emerging commercial digital storefronts are being strong-armed by the studios to charge ten or more dollars per download– making competing with the free streaming sites an uphill climb. As streaming services refine their offerings and their interfaces, they are creating a new world of free movies that seems deceptively legitimate.

Nickels, Dimes and Quarters
The video business might indeed be having their Napster Moment– if piracy is to race along towards broader appeal and acceptance and the price of a download is to continue pegged to supporting percentage of the retail price of a DVD. The fear is that to price the online download to compete with “free” is to undermine the stability built into Hollywood’s value structure. This mindset so reminds one of how with Napster and its progeny out there in plain daylight the record companies kept the CD’s retail price point up around $16.

I don’t know how we get there but I sense that over time the pipeline for digital downloads will, like water, seek its own level. The first DVD players that came out cost over $1,000 with movies selling up to $90 each. Now the players are available for $50 and movies selling for $15. For the ecology of content production and distribution to find their level in the digital playing field, the prices need to trend towards micro transactions of nickels, dimes and quarters. Maybe fifty cent pieces.

Oh, by the way, we trademarked that illustration at the top of the page and anyone who pirates it and publishes it– beware! We have engaged all those under-employed RIAA gumshoes to track you down, sue your sorry ass and teach you all a lesson about piracy.

What really happened on 9/11 is likely to continue to haunt us all. Like the Kennedy assassination which occurred over forty years ago historians and, in this case, passionate filmmakers will be sifting through the evidence and the government’s reluctance to pursue a rapid and thorough investigation. It took some determined widows (known as the Jersey Girls) to push for truth. In DVDTalk.com they discuss at length where this films goes. Here’s a snippet:

The docu presents a reasoned overview of the Jersey Girls’ story. The widows and survivors got together initially because no investigation was planned for exactly what happened before and after 9/11. There was a lot of confusing information to be sorted out, such as the fact that no jets were scrambled when the airliners were known to be hijacked, although doing so was standing operating procedure for even minor aerial misadventures, like an off-course jet over Florida. Contradicting administration statements, older news bulletins on the web revealed that the government knew for months that Al Qaeda operatives were in the country and that their plans for violence specifically mentioned hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings. The survivors also noted that many high-ranking Pentagon officials cancelled travel plans for September 11 because of ’security concerns.’ Why that particular morning, and why just them? Finally, when President Bush was staying in Florida, anti-aircraft missile batteries were installed atop his residence — an extraordinary precaution, we are told.

Here is the direct link to “9/11 Press For Truth” on iTunes.

For more information about the 9/11 families and their push for the creation of the 9/11 Commission, check out this blog: http://notruerhearts.blogspot.com

Michael Giltz, a reviewer at Huffington Post had some nice words for a show now on DVD (Amazon) as well as on iTunes for rental or download. 

“STOP! DO NOT GO ON! – Not until you’ve read about The Gospel At Colonus ($26.95; New Video), one of the landmark musicals of the past three decades. The idea was simple: present Oedipus at Colonus as a tale of woe presented in a church, complete with gospel numbers. “I take my text today from the Book of Oedipus,” intones a young Morgan Freeman, who is electrifying and commanding as the preacher/narrator. This 1985 Philadelphia performance was captured for TV with care and discretion by Kirk Browning, who knows you don’t need to cut every five seconds to create excitement. All you really need are talented performers like Jevetta Steele, Robert Earl Jones and Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama and great songs by Lee Breuer and Bob Telson.”How Shall I See You Through My Tears?,” “Stop! Do Not Go On!,” “Lift Him Up” and the moving “A Voice Foretold” are among the nonstop highlights. This is brilliant stuff and I’ve always been disappointed that I never got to see it live and had to settle for listening to the cast album. No more.”

The Blind Boys of Alabama, Morgan Freeman, Mabou Mines.

New Video's first store on Macdougal Street in the Village around 1982

Welcome to New Video Digital. Here’s some ancient history– worth skipping unless you’d like to know something about the company’s DNA for whatever reasons.

We’re part of a bigger company (called New Video Group) that’s been around, in one form or another, since the first video revolution in the early eighties. Back then it took two people to lift the Betamax out of the shipping carton onto the snazy new media center that housed your brand new 19 inch Sony TV. This early version of New Video was a Manhattan based video shop catering to downtowners stopping by to pick up their weekend videos before heading off to Danceteria or the Mud Club. The excitement and the sense of discovery was infectious.

New Video’s first store was on Macdougal Street in New York City. The store was staffed by NYU film students who could, on-the-fly, dub in the dialog to Scorcese’s Raging Bull with the TV’s sound turned down to slack-jawed customers. Stocked with every foreign and black and white film that was out on videocassette as well a steady flow of Hollywood’s stock and trade the store quickly earned a reputation as the video store worth taking a taxi to.

The original Macdougal Street storefront was seven cast-iron steps down into low-ceilinged room that was nine feet across at it widest point. Within months a second store was in the planning. Over the early years the chain grew to five Manhattan locations.The retail chapter of New Video ended before the decade faded when the chain was sold to the then up-and-coming Vestron Entertainment.

It took a few years for New Video to be reconstituted as a distributor of independent and alternative videos. Starting out with some great foreign films and documentaries Newest Video believed that television and video could be collaborators instead of competitors becoming the exclusive distributor for the A&E cable network. Over the next ten years the company slowly and steadily grew to become one of the leading suppliers of independent content first on videocassettes and, then, on DVDs. As A&E launched The History Channel, New Video added their programs and series. Acquisitions of diverse yet collectible properties such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Avengers, Homicide kept us busy and relevant to our customers.

In 2000 Docurama Films was launched as the first and only DVD label dedicated exclusively to independent documentaries. We had been going to the Sundance Film Festival and were blown away by the quality, freshness and great storytelling. We wondered if independent documentaries could be finally be ready for broad commercial success. We started meeting with the filmmakers and premiered the line with one of our favorite films, D.A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back. Since then we’ve released over 200 classic and cutting edge docs. If you’re a fan of documentaries link to Docurama Films and browse to your heart’s content.

Over the last six years we have also have been releasing a line in partnership with Scholastic of bestselling children’s books translated through animation and celebrity voice readings. Recently we’ve had a hit with the Scholastic Treasury of 100 Children’s Stories. This sixteen DVD box set is a behemoth but a great gift and a perennial best seller at shops like Amazon and Costco.

In 2007 New Video dove into the nascent next revolution of digital downloads, rentals and streaming markets. We are a leading supplier of broad libraries of films and television properties to iTunes, Amazon, Xbox and other emerging platforms. This blog is dedicated to those interested in watching the flow of non-Hollywood movies and shows onto these new platforms. We see ourselves as a partner to content libraries bringing their works to market in thoughtful and strategic ways. We also see ourselves as curators for these emerging virtual shops. We hope to help provide, as we did in our very first store,  a great selection of award-winning, intelligent and sought after stories both fictional and documentary that will entertain and help us understand our crazy world. Welcome and stay in touch.

An interview with Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester and Director Kevin Palys on his independent directorial debut.

Co-director Scott Galloway and Pearl Fryar, the subject of A MAN NAMED PEARL, talk to Jason Brantley of Docurama Films about their inspiring documentary that chronicles the story of Pearl’s dazzling garden as well as his extraordinary life, tracing his journey from a small-town sharecropper’s son to an internationally acclaimed artist.

Director Rawn Fulton and producer Christine Lundberg talk to Liz Ogilvie, Docurama Films Head Programmer about their film that offers a unique portrait of one of the most significant authors & illustrators of the 20th century, Virginia Lee Burton.

Emmy Award® winning directors Julia Reichet and Steven Bogner talks to Docurama Films head programmer Liz Ogilvie about their epic film about families dealing with childhood cancer, A LION IN THE HOUSE.

Liz Ogilvie, Docurama Films Head Programmer speaks to award-winning experimental filmmaker Abigail Child about her controversial exposé about African American  men living on the Down Low.

Award-winning journalists Joe Fox and James Nubile, discuss their acclaimed film about how Japanese internees were used by the US government to help develop a Native American reservation during WWII with Docurama Films’ Head Programmer Liz Ogilvie.

Director Andrew Walton talks to head programmer Liz Ogilvie about his film ARTIC SON that puts a Native father and son at odds in a remote village 80 miles above the Arctic Circle.

Liz Ogilvie, Docurama Films Head Programmer speaks to Academy Award® -nominee director Jonathan Stack about his landmark film that offers an up-close look at the violent battle to oust Liberia’s leader Charles Taylor.

Academy Award® nominee and Peabody winner Roger Weisberg talks to head programmer Liz Ogilvie about his film that outlines what happens when you are sick and uninsured in America.

Award-winning cinematographer Judy Irola speaks to head programmer Liz Ogilvie about her hilarious and fascinating film CINE MANIFEST.

Jon Fauer, director of CINEMATOGRAPHER STYLE talks to Docurama Films head programmer Liz Ogilvie about his award-winning film on the art of transforming ideas into images.

Listen to the podcast for the film, “Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Beyond the Steps”.

Listen to the podcast for the award-winning film “The Chances of the World Changing”, directed by Eric Daniel Metzgar.

Listen to the podcast for the film “Fall From Grace”!

Check out the podcast for film “Music From the Inside Out”, directed by Oscar-nominee Daniel Anker.

Listen to the podcast for the film “Pictures from a Revolution”!!

Check out the podcast for the Oscar-nominated film “Building Bombs”!!

Podcast for the film “Plagues and Pleases on the Salton Sea”!!!

Check out the podcast for the film “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?”!!