Two Film Festivals Opened This Past Weekend…
on opposite sides of the country.
NOLASynchroniCITY film series - featuring the extraordinary culture of New Orleans and Louisiana heritage - kicked off on Sunday, December 2. The first screening was of the late filmmaker Stevenson Palfi’s award-winning 1982 documentary Piano Players Rarely Ever Play Together.
In stark contrast to the southern soul of the NOLASynchroniCITY fest, the icy Anchorage International Film Festival also kicked off this weekend. For the next week the 12th annual Anchorage International Film Festival will present more than 100 selections from more than 20 countries. This year’s AIFF started with an opening night gala and the Alaska premiere of Deadfall, the latest from Oscar award-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky.
DOC NYC 2012!!
This year’s DOC NYC film festival has just kicked off and there are some amazing films slated to play through the week. Check out their film schedule.
New Indiewire App for iPhone and Android
Our good friends over at Indiewire have made a nifty app that allows you to catch up on the latest news, clips, interviews, coverage and other journalistic-y things about indie film. You can even earn points and win badges! How does that work? You’ll have to get it to find out. The app is available for iPhone and Android devices.
La Jetée by Chris Marker (RIP).
A Romanticization of the Romanticized and de-Romanticization of the un-Romanticized…Get It?
In more ways than one, American ideals have changed since the 1950’s. Instead of poodle skirts, girls are wearing booty shorts. Instead of boys asking girls if they want to go steady, boys are asking girls if they’d like to go back to their frat houses.
Moviegoers often see glimpses of the 1950’s (or the romanticized version that the movies sell) and these adaptations of history always show smiling faces, neighbors outside walking their dogs, fathers and sons playing catch on their perfectly manicured lawn, and the aroma of a summer barbecue wafting through the air. In a word: suburbia. Obviously, the suburbs still exist, and are still drawing people in for the comfort and the status of this lifestyle, but do the ideals associated with suburbia (or at the very least the ones portrayed in movies) still exist?
This evening, as often happens on a beautiful summer day, I went on a run around my DC-suburban neighborhood. It started off like any other: I passed a neighbor who I smiled and waved at and then I saw that one woman who always walks her dog around 8 o’clock. It wasn’t until the final stretch that I felt like I had stepped into a scene from Pleasantville. There it was: the green, freshly cut lawn with a father and son happily throwing a baseball and the savory smell of a nearby barbecue.
Truthfully, it could have been a scene from Pleasantville, or even something more Sci-Fi like a black hole that actually transported me to the 1950’s (and I believe that movie would be Back to the Future). It could have been if it weren’t for the fact that when I stepped inside my own suburban home I was greeted by the most recent episode of The Real Housewives of New York, with (unfortunately) the booty shorts and frat houses.
Do you love 1950’s Americana? Make sure to watch School for Charm and Bettie: the Girl in the Leopard Print Bikini.
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Emily Catino
SnagFilms Staff Blogger
Jump into “The Tent”
From 1993 until 2010, Bryant Park was the home of New York Fashion week. For one week in February and one week in September, Bryant was covered with tents as it was transformed into a Mecca for fashion. During these two weeks each year, America’s top designers gathered to show their new lines for the upcoming season. Designers who have shown at Bryant Park include Michael Kors, Betsey Johnson, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, and so many more. For all aspiring fashion designers, the chance to show at Bryant Park was a dream come true. It meant that the designer had finally made it in the world of fashion. In 2010, New York Fashion week moved from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center. The same excitement still surrounds the event of Fashion Week, even though the new location does not hold the same history and meaning as Bryant Park had.
James Belzar’s new documentary, The Tents, takes a behind the scenes look at New York Fashion Week in Bryant Park. This documentary discusses the evolution of fashion week at Bryant Park. From the beginning, the audience will be able to see the struggles and triumphs of New York Fashion Week, and will understand all the work that went into making this event such a success. This documentary also gives audiences an inside look at New York Fashion Week through interviews with designers and the people who run the event. It’s not all the glitz and glam you might think it is…
The Tents will premiere in September to kick off this year’s Fashion Week.
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Maggie Pearce
SnagFilms Staff Blogger
Are you interested in fashion? Find out more about Ralph Lauren, Galliano, Issey Miyaki, Paul Smith and Prada in this documentary:
Remebering Amy Winehouse with a documentary
Remembering Any Winehouse with a documentary. (CLICK: Link to documentary)
Does Making Books into Movies Ruin the Magic? — A Look at Harry Potter and Other Books-to-Blockbusters
With the final installment to the Harry Potter movie franchise coming out last Friday to so much hype and excitement, then breaking just about every record in blockbuster history, it makes one wonder about the motivations filmmakers have behind recreating the world’s favorite novels and turn them into the world’s favorite blockbusters—looking closer, you realize how brave they have to be. This is because along with some of these recreations that can be considered true masterpieces (The Godfather, A Beautiful Mind, Gone With the Wind, Forrest Gump…), there also comes a number of flops and letdowns.
While these films, like Gone With the Wind, have shaped generations and will remain a classic gem until the end of time (whether you think the ending is horrible or not), it seems that recently books are being turned into movies simply because they already have popular appeal and not because they have true merit on their own (enter Twilight, apologies to all the “Twi-hards” out there). And when some great books are turned into so-so movies, some of the initial magic that the books carried can be stripped away from them.
This is what is worrisome about the conclusive chapter of Harry Potter being released into theaters. It’s always hard to end a series of beloved stories, book or movie, but for book-blockbusters the job may be even more difficult because it has to live up to an ending that had no “film appropriate” time limit—an ending that had already been scrutinized and accepted by millions. The slightest change in the ending could create mass hysteria in a way that is quite the opposite from the positive press it had been previously receiving. So this begs the question: can the “boy who lived” survive a mob of angry loyalists if the ending isn’t pitch perfect?
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Emily Catino
SnagFilms Staff Blogger
How Documentaries Have Changed the World, Literally.
Documentaries have the potential to change the world. Many documentary makers make films about subjects that they feel are important and they hope that others will be impacted by these films. But how do we know if these documentaries have an impact on the people or not? Researchers have begun to study the impact of documentaries to understand the impact that documentaries have on people.
One documentary that was evaluated was “The End of the Line,” a documentary about the collapse of the world’s fisheries. In studying the impact of this documentary, the exemplary report was used, which documented any significant changes that resulted from the film, highlighted the importance of partnership between brands and then provided people with useful lessons that were learned about social media and coordinating with partners. After seeing this film, many big companies in the UK, such as the grocery store Waitrose and sandwich shop Prêt-A-Manger, changed the way that they bought fish. The documentary successfully convinced these big companies to make a change, thus, even more people were changing the way they bought fish because they saw these big companies doing it. Therefore, it was concluded that this film had a significant impact on the people.
Another film that was evaluated was “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about Global Warming. The pioneering study was used to determine the social good that the documentary did. First of all, the media covered this documentary extensively, which helped to bring people’s attention to the issues, even if they did not see the documentary. People were learning about Global Warming through the media just because the film was made. Also, the coverage of Global Warming by the media continues today, which shows that the film had some long-lasting results. To determine the social value of this documentary though, the study used a technique called ‘willingness to pay.” Simply, the researchers asked people if they would be willing to pay to ensure that the film would be released in theatres or on TV. About 54% of those polled said that they would be willing to pay. Thus, this study showed that the documentary had a significant impact on a large amount of people.
The final film that was studied was “Waiting For Superman,” which addresses education reform in the United States. Researchers used substantial study to look at the success of the film in terms of how much it changed people’s views on the educational system. The study also highlighted the effectiveness of the content. Organizations that were affiliated with the film found increases in membership and participation. Thus, what was learned from this study was that gaining support from reputable affiliates was beneficial to the film (and it was beneficial to the affiliates). In conclusion, this film also had a significant impact on many people.
Through these studies, researchers began to understand what about documentaries influences people. By understanding this, one can understand how a documentary can help to change the world. By continuing to study the impact of documentaries, documentary makers in the future will be able to help make even bigger changes in the world.
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Maggie Pearce
SnagFilms Staff Blogger
