Eric Byler and Annabel Park have started an interesting “interactive documentary” project on YouTube to cover immigration policy in Northern Virginia in a timely fashion - before the news gets outdated in the usual production process.

Here’s what it says on their channel:

This channel is an “Interactive Documentary” about the politicization of the immigration issue, currently being shot in Northern Virginia. We will be posting new videos in quick intervals. And we will respond to viewer feedback, including requests for more coverage on certain storylines, contextual clarifications, and even perhaps on-site production excursions. The aim of this documentary is to inform the public, and investigate alternatives to the intense polarization that is hindering progress on the immigration issue. Clips on this page will be shot and edited quickly by independent filmmakers–Eric Byler, Annabel Park, and Jeff Man–with additional production support from Tomiko Anders, Tom Moore, Harry Yoon and Zhibo Lai. Because one of the chief aims of this project is to elevate dialogue, comments that contain inflammatory words will not be posted. Please help us create a constructive, public forum.

Check it out and join the debate by leaving a comment.

I went to see Gimme Shelter at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in NYC yesterday. I have seen this film many times before but really felt the tension last night, perhaps something to do with watching it in a room full of other people. I was torn, as I always am, between the rock and roll exhilaration of a young, hot Jagger prancing about on stage and the truly disturbing bad trip that Altamont became. I have always loved the scenes of the Stones listening to recordings of their own music, particularly Charlie Watts’ amazing face when he’s listening to Wild Horses. It never fails to send shivers down my spine. But the tension is in the film from the start and by the time we actually get to Altamont I am feeling the bad vibe like a host at a party gone horribly, horribly wrong. It’s 1969 and this is the skidding end of the 60s dream.

Gimme Shelter caused a critical furor when it was released. Pauline Kael wrote a scathing review saying: “The free concert was staged and lighted to be photographed, and the three hundred thousand people who attended it were the unpaid cast of thousands. The violence and murder weren’t scheduled, but the Maysles brothers hit the cinema-verite jackpot.” Ouch. I think Kael’s review is both inaccurate and unfair but it does raise some interesting questions about the very nature and intent of cinema verite filmmaking. You can read Kael’s review and the Maysles brothers’ reply on The Documentary Blog. I also highly recommend reading this 2000 Salon article by Michael Sragow which investigates the “true story” behind Gimme Shelter and the Altamont concert.

Sumner Jules Glimcher talking with Al Maysles after the screening (this was taken on my iPhone which I still haven’t quite mastered so excuse the odd composition!)

Al Gore’s recent Nobel Peace Prize has lots of people focusing on the role that An Inconvenient Truth played in the decision to award him the prize. If films really can change the world, what about filmmakers? Paul Harrill has a list of resources to keep filmmakers on their environmental toes on his Self-Reliant Filmmaking blog.

Have y’all checked out the Renew Media Resources blog? It’s packed with lots of really useful information for filmmakers from great writers and documentary cheerleaders like Agnes Varnum and Pamela Cohn and is definitely worth adding to your blog list. Pamela Cohn’s most recent entry is an interview with Brent Hoff of Wholphin. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of Wholphin and that I nag and nag people until they subscribe but nobody holds it against me cos the films are that good! You can watch some films on their website right now, including David Lowery’s Some Analog Lines and David and Nathan Zellner’s hilarious Quasar Hernandez. You should also know that Kent Osborne features in at least two films I watched on the site recently but he has a mustache in one of them. True story.

I just picked up my CMJ badge at the Puck building. Wow, it’s quite a change of scene from the IFP Market. More check-shirts, bangs, and beards for one thing! I’m trying to be all grown up and get over my obsession with boys with guitars but it all came flooding back for a second today. I remembered that I nearly got “ROCK” tattooed in huge Wild West letters on my back not too long ago. Before I chickened out and realized that I was all talk and no trousers. Plus playing guitar hurts my fingers. Wah!

Anyway, CMJ is not just about music, they also have a film festival running alongside the Music Marathon and they are showing a few films I really want to see. Unfortunately I just realized that I missed Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There which screened at 2pm today. NOT VERY CONVENIENT PEOPLE! But there’s more good stuff to come: G.J. Ekternkamp’s Frank & Cindy tonight and then Jonathan Demme’s Jimmy Carter Man From Plains tomorrow. Julien Temple’s Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten is playing on Saturday in a CMJ Clash Film Marathon. Check out all the CMJ film info here.

And I’ll be checking out a few music showcases as well of course. When in Rome and all that. I’m excited that there are a bunch of bands I want to see playing in Brooklyn so I don’t even have to move too far to rock out. Maybe I should get that tat after all!

David Carr has an article in The New York Times this week on the “glut of cinema” in theaters at the moment.

Just the other day I was trying to figure out if Great World of Sound had already been released in NYC and was horrified to find out that it had come and gone without me noticing! There are so many movies out at the moment that I hadn’t even noticed the release of a film I really loved and wanted to tell all my friends to see. In the article Bingham Ray, now with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, says “I very much doubt this environment would have given people a chance to see ‘My Dinner With Andre.’” Is this true? How are small indie films going to have a fighting chance? Is it just that everybody is misguidedly trying to get everything released at this time of year or are there just too many damn movies being made? Does the cream rise to the top? I think a lot of the cream gets pushed out of the cinema before it gets a chance to do much of anything.

King Corn opens today at Cinema Village in NYC. This is a really important documentary about the American food system, raising provocative questions about the way our food is produced, from the subsidized genetically-modified corn that plays such a large, and unhealthy role, in the American diet, to the cows that are fattened up on corn, a food they do not normally eat, in vast feed lots. This film made me really start thinking about what I put into my mouth, ahem, and also about the fact that food in this country may be too cheap, not reflecting the financial realities of food production. But if this all sounds too dry, it’s not. The story is told through college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis attempting to grow an acre of corn in Iowa and then follow it through the food system - it’s an entertaining journey that will also put you off drinking soda (high-fructose corn syrup is NEVER a good idea) for life!

Check out the website for more information about where you can see the film and how you can get involved:
www.kingcorn.net

The Academy has changed the rules for documentaries for the 81st Awards (ie. for the Oscars taking place in 2009), dropping the requirement for a multi-city rollout. Instead docs will now have to screen for 7 days in BOTH Los Angeles County and the Borough of Manhattan, rather than in one or the other as the rules stand now.

Films that reach the semifinal round of voting will no longer be required to provide two film prints to the Academy but will be able to submit in either film or digital format, complying with rigorous Digital Cinema standards.

Read the new rules here:

http://www.oscars.org/81academyawards/rules/rule12.html

And the press release here:

http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.10.09a.html

Ok, I know this is slightly off topic but is it just me or does this cloud not bear a striking resemblance to Lyle Lovett? Thanks to Jesse for the photo!

Radiohead are letting their fans decide how much to pay to download their new album In Rainbows. When you order the download it gives you the option to fill in the amount saying “It’s up to you” and then “No really, it’s up to you.” Is this the future of the music industry - trusting loyal fans to pony up the bucks for the work that they value and love, circumventing the bureaucracy and dishonesty of the music industry? Would this work with films? Are people willing to pay for stuff they believe in? I would really like to believe that the answer is yes.

There is more on the threat this could be posing to the music industry in The Guardian.