I’ve been distracted from blogging for the past week by many things. First, I have been writing an article about short film distribution that has been soaking up all my free time and free brain. I love doing these things but I still get the terror every time because there is so much to say and so many different ways to say it.

I went to see Margaret Brown’s probing and beautifully shot The Power of Myths again yesterday at the IFC Center – it was the first night of Thom Powers’ Stranger Than Fiction Spring Season and it was great to see so many familiar faces, especially after my dismal attendance last season due to a crazy travel schedule. I’m really looking forward to seeing Ondi Timoner’s film about cults, Join Us, next week but the film I’m most excited to see again is James Marsh’s The Burger and the King: The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley. I saw this on telly in England many years ago and loved it then and have since become a huge Marsh fan after Wisconsin Death Trip and particularly the recent, glorious Man On Wire. I now have a picture of Philippe Petit dancing on the tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center pinned to the wall above my desk to remind me of the awe I felt watching Man on Wire. The human spirit man, it’s an amazing thing.

I have sadly failed to get to any screenings at New Directors/New Films and it looks like tickets for the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize Winner Trouble the Water might be hard to come by. Dammit. Other lucky folk are off to Sarasota and Full Frame neither of which I have ever been to. Next year maybe. I’m not bitter. For now there is a mountain of work to attend to here in New York City and plenty of festival action coming up including HotDocs and Tribeca later this month.

In other news Cynopsis Digital picked us as their website of the day today. Very cool:

Shooting People is a stimulating, nurturing community site built to bring indie filmmakers together. New York and London-based lensers upload their work, solicit advice and share secrets on how to save on production costs or circumnavigate permit restrictions. Because the site is run by filmmakers and charges a modest $40 annual fee to join, it seems to be mostly populated by working professionals – nearly 35,000 of them. Founders Cath Le Couter and Jess Search will celebrate Shooters’ 10 year anniversary in November.

Meanwhile events in the world, yes the world outside film!, have been giving me sleepless nights. I recently read Peter Godwin’s extraordinary books about growing up in (Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa) and then returning to Zimbabwe (When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa) and have been following the elections there as much as is possible given the restricted press access.

And back to the ridiculous: You may have noticed that I have recently succumbed to the microblogging drug that is Twitter so follow me there if you really want to see what I am doing all day long (thinking about cleaning products in WholeFoods was one scintillating post!). Do it. You know you want to.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 11:20 am and is filed under Documentary, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.