Wrong side of the art. This blog was originally made as an easy access page to view/manage my collection of movie posters specializing in cult/horror/exploitation/B/sci-fi and basically any other genre to which one may refer as 'shit'. Don't forget the blaxploitation, naziploitation, nunsploitation, and bruceleeploitation, and watch out out if you're at work: some B-movies aren't for kids.
posted on Jul 26, 2008 - View this thread

Tarantino's Mind.
posted on Jul 24, 2008 - View this thread

Dog Years. A brief, but touching short. Official site here.
posted on Jul 24, 2008 - View this thread

In January of 2004, Disney shut down their Florida animation studio, part of their decision to move away from 2D, or cell-shaded, animation for good. Two years later, as part of the new deal with Pixar, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were brought in as heads of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and promptly declared that 2-D Animation would thrive again on their watch. For their first new project, the team wanted to show support for the still-struggling New Orleans, and simultaneously introduce Disney's first Black Princess in "The Frog Princess" (Or The Princess and the Frog, as it is now known), a fairy tale set in 1920's Jazz-era Louisiana, with Randy Newman providing a period-specific score. Much response to the project has been quite positive, but as with all things, the devil is in the details.
posted on Jul 22, 2008 - View this thread

Home Movies. A 1975 documentary by a young academic folklorist, exploring what it was that people were doing when they made home movies: remembering selectively, creating a "golden age."
posted on Jul 21, 2008 - View this thread

Burton Holmes, Extraordinary Traveler. Burton Holmes didn't invent travel stories, slide shows, moving pictures or cross-country lectures, but he put them all together and created the travelogue (a term coined by his manager) as performance art. The site is full of information, pictures and additional links (including companion pages about the Trans-Siberian Railroad) chronicling Holmes' life and legacy.
posted on Jul 21, 2008 - View this thread

Flying derbys! Revolving revolvers! Ladders to nowhere! It's Hans Richter's wonderful Vormittagsspuk (or, Ghosts Before Breakfast), certainly one of the most playful and entertaining of all the Dada film experiments of the 1920s. Presented here with a nicely done soundtrack by Donald Sosin. .
posted on Jul 20, 2008 - View this thread

Mario is at bat, man! Just in time to handle your jones for singalong fan bonding, to speak the heretofore unspoken truths of super _jawesome classic film themes. Also he dresses up, like it's, um, Halloween.
posted on Jul 18, 2008 - View this thread

Bonsai! The Karate Kid Fan Documentary… 1 2 3 4 5
posted on Jul 10, 2008 - View this thread

Dystopian storytelling is pillar of Western narrative tradition, but this decade has seen a significant shift in the way our apocalypse is told. Orthodox tales of government tyranny are giving way to visions of humans running helpless in the wake of environmental meltdown. From the plausible to the fantastic, most of this fiction remains hauntingly real while the non-fiction can get downright scary. In 2008, the 20th anniversary of climatologist James Hansen's landmark speech before Congress, popular art is beginning to reflect an increasingly bleak public sentiment on the future, playing out some of our worst nightmares. It may be that these writers and directors are wishing for the end of the world, but even so, they are certainly giving voice to the creeping feeling that indeed, we might not make it.
posted on Jul 7, 2008 - View this thread

Karel Zeman was a Czech animator probably best known for his movies Journey to the Beginning of Time and The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. He used stop-motion animation, cartoons, puppetry, colorization, and live action to create surreal and otherworldly films of amazing beauty. Sadly (for some), there's not a lot on the internet in English about the man.
posted on Jul 6, 2008 - View this thread

Channel 4 recreates The Shining to promote its Kubrick season. A 65-second tracking shot through a recreated Shining set, complete with look-alikes.
posted on Jul 6, 2008 - View this thread

Jedi Gym
posted on Jul 4, 2008 - View this thread

Europa Film Treasures is a new window onto the film archivers of Europe, and "All genres are on the playbill! From comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies..." take some time to explore the European side of carefully preserved film history.
posted on Jul 2, 2008 - View this thread

The Bullitt chase entirely geocoded. (Previously.)
posted on Jun 30, 2008 - View this thread

The story behind Harpo Marx's "Gookie" face. (See 2:16.)
posted on Jun 28, 2008 - View this thread

RIP Tartan Films. The UK-based film distribution company has gone into administration, laying off it's entire staff.
posted on Jun 28, 2008 - View this thread

Avebury. A short, trippy 8mm film shot around the Neolithic stone circles and henge at Avebury, Wiltshire. [Via BB]
posted on Jun 27, 2008 - View this thread

Our wonderful nature is a hilarious 5-minute animation about the mating rituals of the water shrew. The action starts at around 1:30. Other gems found at the bitfilm 08 Digital Film Festival include "The post-it note prison".
posted on Jun 27, 2008 - View this thread

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (that's MCA to you) says you got to fight for your right... to make movies?
posted on Jun 26, 2008 - View this thread

Record player + video camera = Phonographantasmascope, animator Jim LeFevre's extension of the zoetrope. "It is all live action and works by using the shutter speed of the camera rather than the rather irritating stroboscope methods other 3D Zoetropes use."
posted on Jun 23, 2008 - View this thread

"This film is so bad that I feel compelled to make a spoiler-laden list of its most laughably terrible parts rather than review it." - Christopher Orr reviews spoils M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" to save people from having to watch it. The film is getting the worst reviews of Shyamalan's career. Which is saying something.
posted on Jun 17, 2008 - View this thread

The films of Joel and Ethan Coen. The films of Tim Burton. The films of Stanley Kubrick.
posted on Jun 17, 2008 - View this thread

Rare Kishore Kumar Songs is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood playback singer and comic actor Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
posted on Jun 16, 2008 - View this thread

Walkenworks
posted on Jun 10, 2008 - View this thread

Have your filmmaking questions answered by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC . One of the great cinematographers maintains a forum on his website in which he answers readers' questions with a treasure trove of information and opinion on cameras, lighting and filmmaking in general.
posted on May 30, 2008 - View this thread

Sydney Pollack has died of cancer, at age 73. While best known as the director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, he also made documentaries (Sketches of Frank Gehry) and was an actor with notable roles in Eyes Wide Shut, Michael Clayton, and even an appearance in The Sopranos.
posted on May 26, 2008 - View this thread

Charlie Chaplin Filter.
posted on May 26, 2008 - View this thread

The opening shots of 1920s New York City are wonderful, then you get a zany high-speed Harold Lloyd blazing down the avenues, and that's fun to watch, but the real killer is the horse-drawn trolley absolutely tearing-ass through lower Manhattan, full gallop. Ends badly. Then it's over to San Francisco for one last bit of homicidal vehicular activity with a bus. Well, they sure don't drive like they used to!
posted on May 25, 2008 - View this thread

Shaft was so cool that he had his own theme song. Shaft walked across the street whenever he wanted to. Shaft was a complicated man. But not all Blaxploitation heros were Private Dicks. They could be a Pimp, a Power-Hungry Criminal, a Coke Dealer, or a Male Prostitute. One was a Former Green Beret, one was a Bounty Hunter, and one was a Prize Fighter. Some were Foxy Ladies, such as Vigilante Nurses, US Special Agents, or Escaped Convicts. They might even be a Karate Master or a Vampire.
posted on May 24, 2008 - View this thread

"America's most valuable resource is poor people." The award-winning Internets Celebrities (Dallas Penn, Rafi Kam and director Casimir Nozkowski) take on check cashing joints with a short documentary called Checkmate. Don't know the IC? Educate yourself with Bodega, Cereal Is Dope and the incredibly informative Urine Nation. (via Hip-Hop is Read)
posted on May 22, 2008 - View this thread

If you can make it through the glacially paced intro and can put up with the typically clunky, often laughable and jingoistic fifties-style narration, this 1958 film from Chevrolet, The American Look is worth viewing. Chock full of futuristic telephones, toasters, blenders, office machines, architecture and more, it's a mid-century design lover's dream. The film is visually striking and elegant, and presented in widescreen format. Here's part 2 and part 3. Or see it here in its entirety.
posted on May 12, 2008 - View this thread

Koyaanisqatsi
posted on May 10, 2008 - View this thread

Do-it-yourself film manufacturing. "Can't buy the film you want any more? Just make the stuff! In this set you will find random photos and information on a project a friend has undertaken - a machine to make his own camera film. Plastic and goop go in one end, and camera film comes out the other end. This is not a trivial undertaking."
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

Film is not dead it just smells funny - Analog photography blog - a nice way to discover some new photographers - a few images NSFW.
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

In a pilot project with Canada's National Film Board, Katerina Cizek is Filmmaker-in-Residence at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital (Flash site with videos). She directed The Interventionists: Chronicles of a Mental Health Crisis Team, a film about a unique crisis team in downtown Toronto. A mental health nurse and a police officer ride the streets of the inner city together in an unmarked police car, responding to 911 calls involving "emotionally disturbed persons." The team is a partnership between St. Michael's Hospital and two downtown police divisions. Their mandate is to de-escalate crises and avoid unnecessary arrests and emergency room visits by providing referrals, services and resources within a patient's own community.
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

Jonathan "King of Hits" King is a former pop impresario now best known for his conviction and imprisonment for having sex with teenage boys. He has turned his experiences into a satirical musical, Vile Pervert [NSFW], and released the film for free online. In one number, adopting the persona of Oscar Wilde, King asserts that "there's nothing wrong with buggering boys".
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Movies by Armond White. Premiere.com critic and cineaste blogger, Glenn Kenny responds. Movie reviewers across America lose their jobs. Hachette Filipacchi follows suit at Premiere.com. Kenny blogs about The End of an Era - having written reviews for the site and the previously cancelled Premiere magazine for nearly fifteen years.
posted on May 8, 2008 - View this thread

17 Notorious Living, Working Cinematic Provocateurs. The Onion A/V Club strikes again.
posted on May 5, 2008 - View this thread

"Girls Will Be Girls", the hilariously tacky and tasteless story of a trio of women in Hollywood, earned Best Actress awards for its leads at both Outfest and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2003. This was notable largely because the parts were played by three male performers. Now, thanks to the internet, you can watch the continuing adventures of Varla, Coco, and Evie in streaming hi-def. Oh, the gays and their wit.
posted on May 3, 2008 - View this thread

La Cabina (The Telephone Box) 1, 2, 3, 4 Emmy winning short Spanish film. Saw this once as a kid and I’ve never forgotten it… There's no subtitles but that doesn't really matter.
posted on May 2, 2008 - View this thread

Fritz Langs M as adapted by comicbook artist Jon J Muth.
posted on Apr 24, 2008 - View this thread

Why do we spend so many precious hours of our lives watching films? What is it about cinema that it should occupy a place of such prominence in our lives? And why do we even need movies? It is as though we are trying to fill a gap in our lives - a void, an emptiness within ourselves. So to even begin on the path of our Truth Quest, we have to see the broader picture of how film correlates to life, and life to film. To find this higher perspective, it is helpful to look towards the other arts, as well as philosophy.
Cinema Seekers: Searching for truth in cinema and in life.
posted on Apr 21, 2008 - View this thread

High-Tech Noon. What makes a classic Western even more classic? Blasters and force-fields, that's what. (SLYT)
posted on Apr 21, 2008 - View this thread

The Carry On films have been a much-loved part of British life for the last 50 years, and they may even be making a new one. This give a quick feel of what you might of missed (slightly NSFW) And though it does have its knockers, one person liked them so much he made a religion out of them, literally.
posted on Apr 18, 2008 - View this thread

The Grace Lee Project Inspired by the Jennifer 8. Lee post, here goes Grace Lee. She's a filmmaker who made a documentary about women named Grace Lee.
posted on Apr 17, 2008 - View this thread

Young@Heart. What started as a 2006 British television documentary and became an audience favorite at the Los Angeles and Sundance film festivals in 2007 and 2008 opens across the United States this weekand will soon open in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Australia. The opening sequence showing Eileen Hall , then 92 , singing the 1982 hit from punk-rock group The Clash provided the inspiration for director Stephen Walker when he first saw the group on stage in London in 2005. Besides giving new meaning to lyrics from popular hits, the film is comedic and poignant as it explores friendship, old age and death.
posted on Apr 13, 2008 - View this thread

Tilting at Windmills: The Outrageous Fortune of Terry Gilliam
posted on Apr 9, 2008 - View this thread

Multiple SIDosis is nine minutes and seven seconds of pure joy.
posted on Apr 8, 2008 - View this thread

The Makhmalbafs are an Iranian family of filmmakers, although Samira tends to get the most press.
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread