A true classic!

I recently attended Crossover Labs in Australia, working with indigenous filmmakers and storytellers there. I was very inspired by their work and the other mentors were razor-smart on the art and business of storytelling across multiple platforms. While I was there I realized that a lot of filmmakers don’t really know what cross-platform, interactive storytelling can look like, so I created a new page on the Digital Bootcamp wiki to give some examples, across various genres. Please add to it with more examples!

I never did see a koala.

Image via Wikipedia

The test is quite simple. Take any movie and ask 3 questions:

1. Does the film have two women with names in it?
2. Do these two women talk to each other?
3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

Hat Tip: Ted Hope

Very cool ad directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Makes me even more excited about the World Cup. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Hat tip: Matt Dentler

Living in Emergency is a film about the work of Doctors Without Borders, focusing on doctors working in Africa. It’s a powerful film: complicated, messy and necessarily uncomfortable viewing. I’ve been wondering when more people would get a chance to see it so am really happy to see that it is opening theatrically in the US on June 4th. More details here: www.livinginemergency.com

Living in Emergency Trailer from LivinginEmergency on Vimeo.

This is one of the drunkest Drunk Histories I’ve seen. I love Tesla, so much so that I wrote my Masters dissertation on the guy. So it makes me very happy to see him described by a guy with his head in the the toilet: “I’m talking about Tesla in my puke. Tesla was the electric Jesus. I can’t breath.” Genius!

Love this project wherein Alex Jablonski and cinematographer Michael Totten make and exhibit one short documentary per month, every month for one year. The first episode is about John Wood who writes and records one full-length musical album per month – and he’s been doing this since November 2006!

I can’t even write a blog post once a month.

Sparrow Songs – Episode 1 – Learning Music from Sparrow Songs on Vimeo.

Murch discusses Beethoven, Flaubert and Edison as the fathers of cinema. Would be nice to have some mothers of cinema in there too but I like this idea, inspired by Beethoven: “The job of cinema is to put doves and crocodiles together in the same cage.”

Walter Murch: “Three Fathers of Cinema” from Old School Cinema on Vimeo.

Cool video from Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues) showing how creative work builds on what came before:

Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years in prison twenty years ago tomorrow – February 11th 1990. I just read his extraordinary autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and have been thinking about Mandela and South Africa a great deal recently so I’m really pleased to be moderating a discussion after the screening of Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation at Union Docs on Friday, February 19th. Here’s a description of the film:

A captivating view of the indomitable spirit if one of the world’s most fascinating figures, this full-length documentary follows Nelson Mandela from his early days and tribal education to his election as South Africa’s first black president. Providing insights into his early life, the film takes us through Mandela’s childhood, adolescence, career in law and first marriage. “Mandela” is an absorbing look at the courageous life, tribulations and fortitude of Mandela the leader, while never forgetting the engaging and charismatic spirit of Mandela the man, as seen through exclusive interviews and narration from Mandela himself.

Please join us at Union Docs on the 19th!

Now I am reading Joseph Lelyveld’s Pulitzer Prize winning book on South Africa, Move Your Shadow, originally published in 1985. It opens with this terrifying extract from J.D. Bold’s Fanagalo Phrase Book, Grammar and Dictionary, the Lingua Franca of Southern Africa, 10th Edition, 1977. Fanagalo is a pidgin amalgam of Zulu, English and Afrikaans and was mainly used for communication in South Africa’s mines but according to this phrase book it can also be put to great use in a racist game of golf!

Wena azi lo golof? Mina hayifuna lo mampara mfan.
Have you caddied before? I don’t want a useless boy.
Tata lo saka gamina.
Take my bag of clubs.
Tata mabol, yena doti. Susa yena nga lo manzi.
These balls are dirty. Clean them with water.
Muhle wena tula loskati lo-mlungu ena beta lo bol.
You must be quiet when my partner plays a shot.
Tula!
Be quiet.
Noko wena lahlega lo futi bol, hayikona mali.
If you lose another ball, there will be no tip for you.
Susa lo-mtunzi gawena. Hayikona shukumisa lo saka.
Move your shadow. Don’t rattle the bag.