It said it had defined a maiden 1.2 billion tonne itabirite hematite resource in the `inferred' category under Australia's mineral reporting code, JORC, at the Mbarga deposit within the project.

Sundance managing director Don Lewis recently said itabirite hematite had very low phosphorous, alumina and silica content, so it was sought keenly by steel mills for use as direct reduction grade feed or for blending with lower-grade ores.

The company said it had increased the JORC-compliant inferred resource of direct shipping ore-quality hematite to 200 million tonnes.

Sundance shares were the most traded by volume in early trade, with 47.45 million shares changing hands worth $12.39 million.

At 1306 AEST, the company's shares were up 4.5 cents, or 20.45 per cent, to 26.5 cents.

Once é pequeno, tanto no sentido de ser curto (apenas 85 minutos) como na própria produção. Foram usadas câmeras de mão, em geral filmado bem perto dos atores, o que dá um grau de imersão muito grande na história. A falta de recursos nesse caso acabou sendo muito boa para o filme.

É aí que essa história te ataca os calcanhares. Você fica altamente enovlto pela atmosfera do filme. A construção dos personagens os faz parecer bem humanos, o que ainda agrava isso. Um terrível sensação de história real.  Quando você menos percebe, numa das primeiras cenas musicais do filme você já está tendo calafrios e cantando junto o refrão de "Falling Slowly" com os protagonistas, quando um deles (the guy) está ensinando ao outro (the girl) a tocar a música. Você provavelmente vai aprender e cantarolar essa múscica após ver o filme.

Alias, a cena toda em que é tocada essa música, numa loja de instrumentos musicais, é de uma grande safadeza. Sem dúvida é o primeiro momento que realmente cativa no filme e vai garantir que você o veja até o fim com o olhar que ele tem que ser visto. A cena vai te deixar preparado para chorar mais à frente.
No entanto, nem todo mundo vai chorar nesse filme, mas é muito improvável que uma pessoa com um coração não fique bem tocada pela história.

Veja com cuidado, esse filme é perigoso nos detalhes, pode ser que quando menos perceber você já esteja rendido. Mas não se preocupe, provavelmente serão poucas lágrimas, você deve conseguir disfarçar. Só evite uma fungada nesse momento, porque se não vai ficar na cara o que aconteceu.

Pode ser difícil superar os traumas do segundo grau. Algumas pessoas jamais conseguem sair da escola, e ainda continuam tentando conquistar a amizade dos alunos mais queridos. Com American Teen, que estréia nesta sexta-feira nos Estados Unidos, Nanette Burstein pode alegar certa experiência sobre o tema. O filme lhe valeu um prêmio como documentarista no festival Sundance de cinema este ano, e gerou uma guerra entre exibidores pela aquisição de seus direitos.

Burstein co-dirigiu com Brett Morgen dois documentários muito respeitados - On the Ropes, sobre três jovens boxeadores que sonham escapar da pobreza pelo esporte (o filme recebeu uma nomeação ao Oscar); e The Kid Stays in the Picture, uma biografia do extravagante produtor cinematográfico Robert Evans. Mas o que a inspirou a realizar American Teen foi algo de mais pessoal: a intensidade de suas experiências como secundarista, duas décadas atrás, em Buffalo.

Para produzir o filme de 90 minutos, Burstein se mudou para Warsaw, Indiana, e, usando múltiplas câmeras, registrou mil horas de imagem nas vidas de quatro alunos de 17 anos que estavam concluindo o colegial na moderna escola da cidade.

Leia mais clicando aqui.

I open my eyes, slowly. I peek my head out of my sleeping bag and look out the van window. I can't see more than a few feet. I am fogged in. Where am I? I'm trying to remember. My dog Moses is sleeping soundly on the floor. Think... It was late last night when I pulled in. Cambridge. That's right, Cambridge — Ohio. Right about now I wish it was Cambridge in England.

I am sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

I am on my way to Baltimore to judge a 48 Hour Film Festival for Creative Alliance. I left my home in Portland, Oregon 4 days ago on my Fall Tour. I remember driving last night until it started getting really foggy. I was lucky to find an exit so I could re-fuel and grab some dinner. After dinner at an "all you can eat" Chinese buffet, I took Moses twice around the parking lot so he could get some exercise before we called it a night. I parked next to two big motor homes and crawled in to my sleeping bag.

Around 11 PM a semi truck pulled up near us. I kept waiting for him to shut his engine off, but he didn't. After 40 minutes, I look out and see he is watching TV. I realize he isn't going to shut his truck off.

I get out of my sleeping bag, and head for where I think the Wal-Mart is. The parking lot is so foggy I can't see more than 30 feet. It is 6:30 in the morning and I am in search of a rest room.

This is the glamorous part of our business — life on the road.

I have been touring the US with my movies for 5 years. In the early years, I would fly in to a city, rent a car and do a giant loop around that state for 2 - 3 weeks, showing my films at media art centers, art house cinemas, and colleges and universities. I would end up back near the airport I had flown in to, return the car and fly home. On all of these trips I broke even. I wasn't making any money, but I wasn't losing any either. After doing this for 3 years, I realized that if I wanted to make money I was going to have to make some changes.

It’s a very strange time in our business. In my opinion there is no such thing as “Independent Film” anymore. It has all been co-opted and turned in to a marketing phrase. Hollywood stars working on $10 million dollar movies is not independent — I don't care what their ad campaigns say! The promise of the 80's and real independent filmmaking is over.

The small maverick distributors have either been eaten by the big companies or have become part of them. Unless you make a movie that costs millions and have famous actors slumming in them, or you are an actor making your directorial debut, or even a former independent filmmaker making cheap movies because you can afford to, you are never going to get any decent kind of distribution.

Film distributors and marketers have gotten extremely lazy. Unless they can sell your movie easily, they don't want it. The distributors want famous names associated with your movie. Nothing else matters! They say they can sell a movie with William Macy, Parker Posey, or Bill Murray, but don't give them something with a good plot, witty dialog, and an unknown cast. They can't help you.

Unless, of course, you are in your mid twenties, made your movie on credit cards, got it in to Sundance and won. But even those types of movies don't show up anymore. Sundance has gotten so famous and full of itself that they have forgotten why they started in the first place.

Standing in a Wal-Mart at 6 AM, I am trying to remember why I do this.

It's because of my love of movies. If I don't distribute my own films, who will? I spend between 5 and 6 months on the road each year. I drive 40,000 miles, speak to thousands of film students and aspiring filmmakers. I screen my movies and teach workshops where ever I can. At every stop, I try and sell as many of my DVD's and T-shirts as possible. On some days I make money. On other days I won't. I will sleep on friends couches and floors, as well as in strangers’ spare bedrooms. These strangers will become my friends and I know that next year when I am back this way again, I'll sleep in one less Wal-Mart parking lot.

Life on the road has it's own rhythm. When you have been on the road for even just a few weeks, your internal clock gets totally out of whack, as do your relationships.

When I go out on the road people ask, is it fun? Sometimes. Sometimes it's boring. Sometimes it's horrifying. Snow, dense fog, hail, down pours, ice, high winds, and that was just a few hours in Wyoming. I have driven through rain storms for 3 hours where I could barely see the truck in front of me! Once outside of Chicago, I pulled over in to a rest area as a storm went past. Even the truckers were off the highway.

When it's fun, it's great! I was at West Virginia State University a couple years ago. The professor who brought me there is a great filmmaker and a professional wrestler. Danny Boyd (aka Professor Danger) not only had me lecture to his classes, he had me accompany him to one of his practice sessions for an upcoming match. Like all good filmmakers, I took my camera to film the event. The next thing I know I am standing in the ring with Death Falcon Zero, and Danny is behind my camera. I got my butt kicked! I also learned different moves and that professional wrestling hurts! The Death Falcon was gentle – if there is such a thing.

After a screening in Montgomery, Alabama, I found myself in a cemetery having beers at the grave of Hank Williams, Sr. Apparently, there is a tradition to have a beer with Hank around midnight. Our group included musicians, civil rights attorneys, journalists, and someone who was introduced as an heiress. We spent the night talking about film, civil rights, politics and race relationships. It was amazing. I still think I heard some noises coming from the ground.

I have spoken at many colleges and with few exceptions, I have found students eager to learn about filmmaking. I teach four workshops, but sometimes students want me to just talk about what it's like to be an independent filmmaker – how it was working on some of the famous independent films that I worked on, and why I turned my back on the money and success to make my own movies and hit the road.

I talk to them about the lies, the deceit, and the commercialism of the art form. I tell them not to even bother applying to Sundance and some of the other so-called independent film festivals. Just look at the films they have been showing these last few years, and you will see that we no longer fit in. But people like Jake Paltrow do.

I get asked about the promise of the Independent Film movement of the 80s and I have to tell them it no longer exists. The filmmakers of the 70s and 80s have become part of the establishment. With few exceptions, they have joined the companies they fought against and now seem to be making sure that other filmmakers don't have the same opportunities they had.

I tell them to cheer people like John Sayles who continues to make the films that he wants to make. He does it on his own time frame and he doesn't seem to care about the marketing. That’s a wonderful position.

There are others besides Sayles that march to their own drummer, unfortunately we aren't seeing much from them anymore. Where are Ross McElwee, Steven Okazaki, and Les Blank?

It is no longer about the work, it is about the opening weekend. It doesn't matter how good your film might be. If it doesn't open strong the first weekend, it usually won't be around for a second. Just like in Hollywood. When did all this happen? The very nature of independent movies means that they usually take time to get discovered. They have to find their audience. And they do that best by word of mouth. Not all of us can afford to open our movies in New York or LA and take out ads in the papers there.

Finding an audience is still what it's all about. Ani DeFranco had it right. If the powers that be don't want your work, and you believe in it, then take it to the people. I tour like a punk band, minus the punks and the music! I take my movies out and you know what I learned?

The distributors are wrong!

People do want to see good movies without stars. They want to see things that are different from the crap they are being fed. If they get the opportunity to talk to a filmmaker, they like that even more. People come to my shows and when I go back, the people who saw me before bring their friends. I am building my audience base just like a band. And it is rewarding.

If Fine Line sells 10,000 DVDs of one of their movies, they would consider it a failure. But if I sell 10,000 that is a huge hit for me.

For some reason, filmmakers don't feel they have to get their work out in the same way that other artists do. Musicians tour. Actors & Comedians tour. Why do Filmmakers think they are special and that the audience will come to them? I tell all filmmakers the same thing. Get off your asses and get your movies out there. You are not special! You have to do the work like every other artist. Too many people fall for the press releases from Sundance and other places. They are waiting to be discovered. I have been in this business for a long time, and trust me when I say, “The probability of getting discovered sitting on your ass at home is right up there with getting struck by lightning or winning the lottery.” Good luck with that.

Me? I'll be hoping that Map Quest is indeed right and the exit I want is just a few miles ahead. Now, if I can only see through this dense fog and get out of this Wal-Mart parking lot!

See you on the road.

Kelley

www.angryfilmmaker.com

When I was in 3rd grade, my PE teacher's dog had puppies, and my parents decided that now was a great time to get me a dog, since I had been begging for one since I was old enough to talk. When we got there, my mom fell completely in love with the runt of the litter. He was tiny, prissy, and would only let you hold him for about 2 minutes before he would suddenly jump down and go do something more important. My mom had to have him. I fell in love with the chubbiest, silliest and laziest of the litter. I picked him up when we first got there, and he was content to just sit in my lap. Forever. I could not leave without this puppy. So, my mom did what any mother would do when confronted with this situation: She got both. Her only condition for this was that she got to name them. And I didn't mind, she was much more creative in that department than I would ever be anyway. She named them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. See, I told you.

When I first got him, my mom tried to tell me he couldn't sleep with me, but I would sneak him up to my room every night (and always be too lazy to wake up early in the morning to take him back downstairs). After awhile, she just gave in. He had this adorable habit of laying under the covers in between my legs. That was his spot. And I could move him, kick him (accidentally, in my sleep, of course) and uncover him, and he would not move. Then when my dad would come to wake me up in the morning, he would growl from his warm hidey-hole under my covers, but not move. Not once. It's a good thing the person coming into my room was my dad and not a burgler or a kidnapper, cuz Dancer wasn't going to be doing anything about it.

Through the next 15 years, Sundance would be there...when I was in 4th grade and had a cast on during Spring Break and couldn't do anything. In 5th grade when I won a trip to a beach house because I sold 800 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, but couldn't go because of chicken pox. In 7th grade when I changed schools and had no friends. In 8th grade during my first "real" crush. In highschool, before I could drive, and I was at home during Friday night football games because I lived a half an hour away from school and my parents didn't want to take me. He was there for me to lay on, to cuddle with and who would listen to me rant during fights with friends, boyfriends, and parents.

It was my first experience with unconditional love.

And I will miss him.

Paul Curington, the operations manager of the Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center, talks about how green shelters are vastly better for the health of the animals and make a big difference in energy and water conservation.

This shelter would be a great place to adopt an animal.

Here is a little piece on the opening ceremony for the building.

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Photos: maui, oceanview, beaches, sunsets, dolphins, Sundance and Katie, their children and first grandchild

Music: Kirtana CD, “Falling Awake” with “Ramana’s Song;” Kirtana CD, “This Embrace” with “A Deeper Surrender;” and John Astin CD, “Already Shining” with “Love, Serve and Remember”

Subjects: looking within, enlightened relationship, being now, Katie meets Sundance, what is awakening, practices, being the Beloved, only this love, looking for love in all the wrong places, realizing fulfillment, concepts, conditioning, writing their books with desks side by side, “Awake Joy” book summary, why Katie wrote “Awake Joy,” what is satsang, core theme of “Free Spirit,” the pain gap, women and emotion and enlightenment, where are you looking from, the eyewitness, I am the witness only, reference points, between two worlds, Sundance and Katie Tour Schedule 2008.

Free Video Library at:

www.KatieDavis.org, www.SundanceBurke.org, www.SundanceandKatie.org

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(60 minutes) Sundance Burke, author of “Free Spirit: A Guide to Enlightened Being” and Katie Davis, author of “Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment” is interviewed by Padma of Beauty Truth on a Vancouver BC Radio Show. The free podcast presents a beautiful slide show with music by Kirtana (www.Kirtana.com) and John Astin (www.integrativearts.com/blog).

Photos: maui, oceanview, beaches, sunsets, dolphins, Sundance and Katie, their children and first grandchild

Music: Kirtana CD, “Falling Awake” with “Ramana’s Song;” Kirtana CD, “This Embrace” with “A Deeper Surrender;” and John Astin CD, “Already Shining” with “Love, Serve and Remember”

Subjects: looking within, enlightened relationship, being now, Katie meets Sundance, what is awakening, practices, being the Beloved, only this love, looking for love in all the wrong places, realizing fulfillment, concepts, conditioning, writing their books with desks side by side, “Awake Joy” book summary, why Katie wrote “Awake Joy,” what is satsang, core theme of “Free Spirit,” the pain gap, women and emotion and enlightenment, where are you looking from, the eyewitness, I am the witness only, reference points, between two worlds, Sundance and Katie Tour Schedule 2008.

Free Video Library at:

www.KatieDavis.org, www.SundanceBurke.org, www.SundanceandKatie.org

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MP3 Eef Barzelay - The Girls Don't Care
MySpace: Eef Barzelay

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By Lindsay Zoladz

This summer I'm working at a program at my university that teaches communications courses to high school students. Last Saturday night, the good folks at AFI were kind enough to give us passes to attend the screening of American Teen at their Silverdocs festival. American Teen was one of the most talked-about darlings of Sundance this year, and it's getting ready for a relatively wide release. Needless to say, those of us involved in scheduling events for the students were all pretty pumped to see it. The kids, however, were skeptical.

When I went to pick them up at the dorm, one of the students glared at me and said, "This is going to be one of those movies that is like, 'all teens are really destructive and terrible,' isn't it?" Sniffing out the air of dissent, a few others chimed in. "I watched the trailer online. It looks stupid." I tried my best to quell a mutiny that seemed almost inevitable, as Kung Fu Panda had opened only a day before. "Well, we already bought the tickets," I shrugged. Somehow, that worked. We were off, but nobody seemed too happy about it.

We arrived just on time to the AFI Silver Theater (hands down my favorite place to see a movie in the entire DC area), which stands like a glowing beacon in a turbid sea of Red Lobster and Panera that is "downtown" Silver Spring, Maryland. The kids began to let their guards down a bit, impressed by the size of the theater and swept up in the hubbub of SilverDocs. But they really came full cirlce once the film started. I could tell immediately that they were into it; they laughed at all the jokes and booed almost any time Megan, the spoiled prom queen archetype, appeared on screen. (At one point, when Megan was fretting about how her SAT scores had only gone up 70 points, one of our kids yelled out, "Oh, your life is so hard." I mean, we were all thinking it.)

American Teen is being advertised with a poster that cleverly apes The Breakfast Club, even using the same tagline as John Hughes' iconic ode to teen-dom. It's an incredibly smart ad campaign, because it deflects the film's biggest criticism up front. American Teen isn't breaking any new ground, and it doesn't pretend for a second that it is. It's just one more take on an age that has always fascinated filmmakers, only this time it is seen through the lens of text messages and Facebook profiles. And although the methods might be different (the bullying of the John Hughes era certainly did not know the particular sting of having your nude photos passed around the internet), the cataclysmic feelings of teenage love, aspiration and heartbreak are all too familiar.

I'll admit that I, like the kids, was a little apprehensive about the film at first too. After all, in a culture saturated with reality TV, the premise of the film seems pretty banal. I expected it to be a glorified episode of MTV's Made. And in some ways, it is. In the end, American Teen doesn't really come to any conclusions on life that are any grander than the scope of its small town high school world. But it doesn't need to. Director Nanette Burstein engrosses you so completely in the world of these kids that you cannot even believe that there could be something out there more heart-poundingly glorious than being asked out by Mitch or more catastrophic than waiting in vain for him to call you back.

Everybody in the group was, like myself, totally swept up in the film. So much so that when one of its subjects, Hannah Bailey (the one that the ad campaign has fashioned into the Ally Sheedy of the bunch), turned out to be the surprise guest in the audience and went up to do a Q & A after the screening, we were acting a little bit like she was a bona fide movie star.

On the Metro ride home, I turned to our standard method of evaluating the evening's activity: the gladiator-style thumbs up or thumbs down. To my pleasant surprise, I was met with twelve hearty thumbs up, and one that was pensively teetering at at 45-degree angle between up and halfway-up. I considered this a tremendous success. The only universal complaint was that the kids said they'd seen the "small town" angle pulled so many times and would have liked to seen the same story in a more urban environment. Still, in the discussion that the film generated, we were all able to agree on one simple truth: it is never Ok to break up with someone via text message. Thanks, American Teen.

First let give disclosure -- I am largely a festival outsider.  I've been to SXSW, but mostly as a part of their Interactive section.  I've never been to Sundance, Cannes, or Berlin.  I did submit to the Thunderbird Film Festival years ago and my short film Internet Addiction screened there.

I like Robert Rodriguez's thinking on this subject (paraphrasing from Rebel Without a Crew).  Basically festivals are a good barometer of how you're doing as a filmmaker.   If your films are getting accepted to multiple festivals and you're winning those festivals.  That's probably a pretty good sign that you are ready to start your career.

The problem is that the festival circuit is often mistaken for a career.  Once you are on it, it can be hard to get off it.  It's like those folks that never really graduate from school.  Sure, school is a good time, you meet a lot of cool peeps, learn some stuff.  But eventually you become Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.

So to extend this school metaphor even further, there are good schools (Sundance) and other schools (every other film festival), both give you an education, but good schools gets you something extra -- pedigree.

Pedigree is nice to have.  It makes you feel warm and cozy at night, and gives people with money a reason to take a meeting with you (she was a winner at Sundance!), but it doesn't necessarily get you a job.

Festivals are just like school in another key way -- some people deserve to be there and some people don't but got there through connections and money.

Why do I keep saying the festival circuit is not a career?  I've just spoken to many festival darlings that have gone everywhere with their film, but at the end they were no better off than when they started.  They've seen the world (usually on their own dime), which is awesome, but their goal of becoming an enduring filmmaker has not been furthered because they didn't have enough time to write or put together their next project.

Awards are the bastard cousin of festivals.  Most organizations give out awards live off of the entrance fees that prospective winners send along with their applications (which is the same in the festival world).  They take your money and only give the awards to the pool of entrants.  Which means you can only win if you throw your own hat (and check) into the ring [the notable exception was the YouTube award, they nominated us and there was no entrance fee].

I've won my fair share of awards, some very high profile, but none of them have ever gotten me a gig.  They are just like festivals, they can open the door a crack, but you have to deliver in the room.  I can only imagine it's the same at every level -- even the Academy Awards (Michael Cimino anyone?) [and sure I know it gets you a ton of buzz, etc. but listen to this podcast by a shrink who's worked with Oscar winners].

I view awards as a karmic thumbs up that I'm going in the right direction.  Nothing more, nothing less.

They can be a good PR boost for you and your project, but that is fleeting.

But please remember, the pursuit of these awards and festivals should not be your primary goal.  The best thing about festivals and awards is that they have concrete deadlines, which can really spur you on as an artist.  I know I am much better with a deadline looming than I am with day to day responsibilities, and I know a lot of you are like me too.

Festivals and awards are neither good or bad.  They are what you make of them.  Just keep perspective, don't pin all of your hopes and dreams on any particular pludit or statue and keep making your films.

From his blog:

My advice? You should make an indie film to make a film. Period. Artistic and commercial success don’t correlate well, and at the moment, only the former is remotely within your control.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have made the same movie but completely rethought how it went out into the world. I would have challenged a lot of the standard operating procedures, which seem to be part of an indie world that no longer exists. The Nines would have likely made just as little at the box office, but could have made a bigger impact on a bigger audience. Ultimately, I think that’s how you need to measure the success of an indie film’s release: how many people saw it.

He's got a lot to say, including that Theatrical releasing is overrated and Sundance buzz is meaningless.

But to get back to his point -- you as a filmmaker will always have a different agenda than whomever is producing or distributing (even if that person is you).

The filmmaker just wants to share their work with the largest possible audience.  To communicate and to move people.  The producer and distributor wants to make money from showing it to those people.

Sometimes those goals are in conflict, or at least they appear to be.

Especially nowadays when it takes a massive amount of cash to build awareness and get anyone remotely excited enough to shell out $10 or more to see your film in a theater and $20 to buy it on DVD.  If it's an unknown quantity, they are not going to want to buy it.

That's why you as a filmmaker want to give it away.  You want to build that audience because that's the only thing you can directly influence.  That influence has value to you moving forward in your career because there will always be someone who is better at producing than you that will want to try and use your influence with the audience to make them lots of money.

When I say that independent film is dead, I'm mostly talking about the pipe dream of theatrical distribution.  That's a money losing affair, even big studios look at major releases like Pirates of the Caribbean as a loss leader for merch, DVD, TV licensing, etc.

And look who the messenger is on this, not some sort of Hollywood outsider or new media miscreant, this is the dude that wrote the Charlie's Angels movies.  He has more access to the system than you or me (even taking into account how much writer's are shat upon in Hollywood).

If he's having these problems and learning these lessons, you will too.

(found via NewTeeVee)

Así empieza Slacker, con un desconocido hartándonos a preguntas metafísicas. Un profundo monólogo sacado del bolsillo que no espera atención ni respuestas. Como si no hubiera otra cosa en la que pensar (y de la que hablar) en un viaje en taxi por la capital de Texas, Austin. Esto es precisamente lo que define a la generación que retrata la película, la slacker: jóvenes (de espíritu) inteligentes que intentan definir su vida haciendo, pensando y hablando lo que quieren  y cuando quieren; al margen de la sociedad.

La película Slacker nació en 1991 de la mano guionista, productora y directora del treintañero Richard Linklater. Tanto su presupuesto (23.000 dólares), como su temática y su puesta en escena la convierten desde el primer minuto de metraje en una producción indie. Con un ritmo estructurado en forma de carrera de relevos, decenas de personajes pasan delante del espectador para soltar libremente sus divagaciones (que van desde sólidas teorías anticapitalistas hasta el flujo vaginal de Madonna) La sensación que queda tras verla no es la de haber visto una película como tal, sino la de haber sido espectador de un día de una clase social alternativa, la “marginal voluntaria”, la slacker.

Los slackers de Linklater son como los hippies de los sesenta pero sin la agenda política. Aunque en sus discursos la crítica al sistema capitalista  es constante no hay ni rastro de intención alguna por levantarse del sofá y cambiar las cosas. Al contrario, los tiempos muertos y los días perdidos son el ecosistema de estos jóvenes, en el fondo,  adultos enfermos del síndrome de Peter pan. Conformistas, devoran información conspiratoria y gastan todas sus energías en ser apáticos. Si bien no se adaptan al mundo, deciden crear el suyo propio equivalente, una realidad  paralela en Austin. Y no es casual que sea Austin el marco de esta película pues es, en sí misma, una ciudad slacker. Su resistencia a los Mc Donald’s y a los Starbucks como conceptos de masa y homogeneización del consumo la han hecho famosa por sus lugares corrientes, costrosos, cutres y ya en peligro de extinción en Norteamérica.

En definitiva, el panfleto anticapitalista que desprende por sus poros, sus personajes tan extravagantes como vacíos y su peculiar dinámica, hacen de esta película una obra nada recomendable para las “masas” sedientas de tramas y argumentos. Eso sí, tampoco es un producto diseñado exclusivamente para el disfrute de los manifestantes antiglobalización o los gafapasta progresistas. Más allá de todo eso, es cine. Y dentro de este, una propuesta visual alternativa digna de mención dentro de la tradición del mejor cine independiente americano. Al mismo tiempo que Linklater pone en la mesa de operaciones a los referentes de la cultura norteamericana para diseccionarlos y sacar de ellos  “la otra América”, también hace lo propio con  el cine fácil e intrascendente. Así, apuesta explícitamente por lo que uno de los personajes finales llama el “anti arte”, el arte inusual e incómodo que “destruye el trabajo artístico de los demás” y construye con él algo nuevo, original y nunca-visto.

Son los dos desafíos que dominan Slackers: el sociocultural y el cinematográfico; ambos resumidos en la frase más sintética que lanza el film: “Despierta América”

Not just a domain but a way of life: página (que en su url incluye la asociación Austin-slacker) que sintetiza muy bien con su contenido lo que el término slacker pasó a significar tras la película de Linklater.

Ficha imdb de la película

Trailer de la película

Shadow told you about the new Bond trailer earlier and I wanted to add my two cents on films you should mark your calendars to see.  The Wackness, which premiered last night in NYC, has won a ton of critical acclaim already and went home with the Audience Award from Sundance this year.   

It comes out July 3, in select theaters.   The synopsis courtesy of imdb:

It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop. Set against this backdrop, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends his last summer before college selling dope throughout New York City, trading it with his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy, while crushing on his step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby).

The real problem with new media that no one seems to be detecting yet is the democratic process itself. For all the complaining some do about Hollywood spoon-feeding us crap, democracy as a business model is far worse. Leaving aside the nightmare of actually finding a decent independent movie in the sea of amateur waste floating on social networking sites, consider for a moment that you’re an independent filmmaker with some real chops. Let’s also imagine that you’re stuck, like so many others, and have no possible route to selling your film after studios and distributors stop buying unknowns at festivals.

According to the Youtube model, you throw your masterpiece up there to the gaping maw of the public. If buzz never catches on, if there’s no tipping point, you’re in trouble. But it’s far worse if you actually do get a million viewers in one week. Because, congratulations, your film isn’t marketable anymore. While creating a massive audience for a film, new media simultaneously reduces the sales potential of a movie.

How many of those million will head to the theaters to see a movie on the big screen that they’ve already seen? How many who felt compelled to write “Gr8 job, dood!!” on your profile page will still feel compelled to spend money for the mega-plex release a year later?

Arrgh.

New media is just like old media, only better for artists.  Both are about building your quote, how much you get paid to ply your craft.  Typically you get low money the first time out and you build from there.  But if no one knows who you are, no one will even know to pay you.

That's where YouTube comes in, if you make a hit that gets millions of views then maybe you can do it again.  That's where you get paid.  Just like in old Hollywood you must have a track record of success to get people to pay you moving forward. But there's a difference, you still own your original work that has been seen by millions.  That still has value.  People will still buy the DVD, broadcast networks still need to pay you for the rights to air it.  Other video sharing sites could license it, etc.

Democratization of the media and the removal of gatekeepers is a good thing.  Bloggers are the new gatekeepers.  And they are much better gatekeepers than the old school, because they are always going to need pageviews, and their space is unlimited.  So if they like something they are going to share it, and if they share it, so might their readers.

The only people that will be hurt by this new open access are the frauds that could previously fool the handful of elites and present themselves as misunderstood artists (*cough*Vincent Gallo*cough*).  The emperor's new clothes are easy to spot in this new world order.

And I have news for everyone.  Adults don't go to movie theaters anymore.  And when they do, they generally want to watch the same sort of big experience films that can only be experienced on a 70 foot screen.

So if you want to create small and meaningful films, most likely they won't be appearing in the local multiplex.  They will be watched on DVD, TV, VOD, and the Computer.

But the bigger question is, what is a small and meaningful film?  The 90-120 minute single expression has been born out from the theatrical experience.  TV series (like what's being done on AMC, TNT, HBO, and ShowTime) give filmmakers a much broader canvas of 6-10 hours.  The web can support expressions from 60 seconds to multiple hours.  It all depends on what you have to say.

The only sorts of indies we're going to see with big theatrical runs will continue to be genre flicks, Jason Reitman-style comedies (well crafted, funny, a little off center, and palatable to the mainstream), and Oscar fodder (big stars going for the statue).

So why the frickin' hand wringing?  I mean Sundance and the other festivals are great, but they can't get you an audience of close to 90 million that Ask A Ninja has acquired over the last 3 years.  That audience has value not only in terms of what we can do to make money from Ask A Ninja, but also in getting us real Hollywood deals.  Giving it away got us seen and paid.  And now we're working on raising our quote.  :)

So stop worrying about the death of indie film.  It's already dead.  There's something better to replace it, but it's scary because it seems to violate every rule from that old world.  We'll all figure out the new rules sooner or later (and then it'll stop being interesting).

But now's the time, if you've been waiting on the sidelines wondering if you should jump in or not, this is your official invitation.  I'm an adult and I say it's okay.  Come on in, the water's fine.

However, this might be something completely different...

(in case you haven't noticed this may or may not be nsfw)

I am enthralled. I have hopes that SBS might pick this up. But I'm not watching that much TV these days, particularly as I can't afford one of my own.

It certainly makes me wish I'd taken more invertebrate zoology classes back at university for some reason.

I think that sets the bar for my new blog rather well.

Hulu is a free streaming video site- like Youtube, but they carry entire shows and movies.  It's legal, and there's some stuff you have to sign in to watch, and there are a couple of commercials played during each episode.  But the videos stream pretty quickly and without weirdness for me, so that's a nice big plus.

You can watch clips or episodes from "Big Ideas for a Small Planet", which is a documentary series about sustainable topics- power, water, fashion (!?), and the like. "Eco Biz" profiles entrepreneurs in green businesses, and new eco-business strategies. "Ecoist" appears to be clips of famous people talking about their environmental activism. National Geographic has a passel of short environment documentaries posted, also. Oh, and Fox was helpful and posted their 10-second clips of famous people telling you to do green things from Earth Day. So, if you feel the need to hear Omar Epps lecture you on reusable bag use, be Hulu's guest.

As for environment movies, there's...uh...The Day After Tomorrow.  Which is awesome, but not in the informative way.

Looks like there are some entire channels dedicated to green programing now- Sundance's The Green, Discovery's Planet Green.  They've got reality shows (on Planet Green: Greensburg- after a tornado destroyed everything, they're trying to rebuild, well, green) and celebrities (Sundance does Ecoist, but a more entertaining series has Isabella Rosselini in elaborate insect costumes while describing in graphic detail their mating rituals.  Probably NSFW, or children for whom the facts of life have not been outlined, though bug love presents a much less loaded conversation-starter than most cable programming).  Plus home makeovers, science, history, business...like other cable channels, only I'm hoping the show host banter is less grating and more informative.

I've got at least a season of Steele left, but maybe I'll stream some Big Ideas afterward.  Anyone else seen these shows?  Whats good?

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZermattResort

Well stupid me for jumping on the buzz train with Mandy Lane. This spin on the slasher film garnered decent buzz after Sundance a few years ago with Harvey Weinstein apparantly buying it on the spot. I guess I can see why, it does have a marketable angle to it. A few young babes and a bunch of dumb guys thrown into a half decent slasher story, but this is really nowhere near as original as it thinks it is.

On the upside, the film "looks" fairly gritty. It was obviously shot quite cheaply and that adds to its attempt at scaring us, but don't let its indie look fool you, this baby is as generic and predictable as any dodgy straight to DVD teenage slasher film.

What a shame, I'm always on the lookout for a film to re-ignite the slasher genre, but Mandy Lane aint it. Infact it seems to be nothing more than yet another "teenagers in peril" flick, this time taking place on a secluded ranch. Yep, it's that simple.

I'm sure I was supposed to be blown away by the apparant "twist" at the end, but if anyone didn't see it coming about 10 minutes into the film, they should be ashamed.

Kudos must go out to newcomber Amber Heard who puts in a great performance as the title character, though it is but a lone bright spot in an overall underwhelming film.

My wait for a decent slasher film continues....