Archive for the ‘Film’ Category
The only CD I ever checked out of a library that I never returned was “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration. (After many overdue notices arriving in the mail, I went down to the library, told them I’d lost the item, and paid for it. they now have another copy in their stacks). I loved MLITBOG for a lot of reasons, the layered sounds, the samples, the beats, the moods that it created. At the time, I was already familiar with David Byrne’s solo work as well as his work with The Talking Heads, but I had only heard about Eno. Since then, I’ve come to love Eno and his work with a variety of other musicians, including his production work with Devo, Talking Heads, Jane Sieberry (now Issa, who, like Reznor, gives her music away for free) and especially James and the “Laid” and “Wah-Wah” albums. Eno, the “non-musician”, is most known for his prolific catalogue of ambient music, including the fantastic “Music for Airports”, as well as being an amazing record producer and contributor to such movies as David Lynch’s “Dune”.
Eno has always been fascinated by technology and how to twist and bend it for his own purposes. He’s experimented with generative music, music that composes itself, and has branched out into visual art as well, creating a computer game that generates a possible 77 million paintings, chosen by Eno himself. He is currently working on the soundtrack for the multi-player game Spore, “that allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a multi cellular organism, through development as a sapient and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture.” [Wikipedia]. I’m here to make the case that Trent Reznor is the new Brian Eno.
Reznor got his start in Cleveland creating what would become Pretty Hate Machine by himself after-hours at the Right Track Studio where he worked as an assistant engineer and janitor. He became proficient at manipulating sounds and bending technology to his own purposes as well, just as Eno learned to do. He’s produced many record albums, including a handful for Marilyn Manson, as well as the phenomenal “Natural Born Killers” soundtrack and the “Lost Highway” soundtrack. His subtle contribution to Tori Amos’ “Past the Mission” on her “Under the Pink” album showed how quiet he could be when he needed to be. It was also the first time I can remember hearing him sing quietly while someone else took the spotlight. Reznor’s original music from id Software’s video game “Quake” was long one of my favorite ambient pieces of music to load into iTunes when I needed to get some work done and didn’t want to be disturbed. He expanded his fascination with technology and its possibilities with the release of “Year Zero” and its companion alternate reality websites/reality game and subsequent user-submitted art in 2007. Eno once predicted that music would one day become user-modifiable constructs, and imagined a day when future generations would look at past generations in wonder, asking in wonder, “you mean you listened to the same music over and over?”. Reznor took that idea and ran with it, releasing “The Hand that Feeds” from his dismal “With Teeth” 2005 release as a multi-track Garage Band download that fans could get for free and remix as they pleased. His newest release “Ghosts I-IV”, was released in a variety of formats, including a free torrent seeded by NIN itself. “Ghosts” was released as with a Creative Commons license (no copyright), and Reznor announced yesterday that the tracks can be used to participate in a NIN sponsored film festival on You Tube. Talk about user generated content. The album itself is supurb. I’d love to hear Eno’s thoughts on it. Those of you who haven’t hear it, go grab it at NIN’s official site and give it a listen for yourself. Grab the torrent if you’re familiar with the technology. “Ghosts” ranges from smooth and quiet piano to the heavy muddy guitar and keyboard laden layers we’ve come to expect from Reznor. I’m looking forward to what people come up with, and might even make a contribution myself if I can find some time along with everything else I have going on. NIN Ghosts Film Festival on YouTube .. Tags: alternative, art, artist, artists, arts, call to artists, community, creativecommons, creativity, experiment, festival, film, inspiration, internet, music
I’m still recovering from the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and promise I’ll be reviewing the films here soon. In the meantime, in the spirit of documentaries and creativity, I wanted to share a video I found recently. Regular readers know that I am interested in street art and graffiti. I’m also interested in the imperminance of art. And, ultimately, I’m interested in making art for art’s sake. But, we live in a capitalist society, right? And Shakespeare’s got to get paid, son, so I try to make affordable art.
The video is a documentary created by Ana Alvarez-Errecalde and FILMCHICK PRODUCTIONS about Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, a street artist that creates huge murals of familiar figures in the neighborhood. Then, after creating them, they slowly vanish over time. Beautiful.
Originally uploaded by love not fear The festival has come to a close. I watched over 21 films this year. In the coming days, I’ll be reviewing them here, so drop by and see how they were. In the meantime, you can check out my ratings of the films. Thanks to the organizers of the festival, once again, for a great week. |
JIMMY ROSENBERG: THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE TALENT, Directed by Jeroen Berkvens
CONVICTION: THE TRUE STORY OF CLARENCE ELKINS, Directed by Mike West & Bill Ward
CLASS C, Directed by Justin Lubke & Shasta Grenier
WHEN CLOUDS CLEAR, Directed by Anne Slick & Danielle Bernstein
YA SHADAD, Directed by Keren Shayo
Finding Normal
Listening to the Q+A session after the film, it was good to hear that some of those depicted in the film have seen the film and liked it. They were present at screenings of the film in Portland and were able to interact with audience members, validating their process and strengthen them at the same time. Lindstrom said that he made the film because he believes in the program’s strength, and that it deserves to be replicated in other communities. He admitted that there were ethical concerns of following individuals on such a fragile journey, and, to his credit, said that their recovery was the most important thing. He said that if he thought at any time that their recovery was in jeopardy, he would have backed off. This responsible approach validates the folks in the program, giving them strength, and, by the director’s own accord, telling them that they are important and valuable human beings.
The director Brian Lindstrom took great care in patiently setting up the story of each character involved. The film follows three of the people involved in the running the mentoring program, David, Jill, and to a lesser extent, Randy. Their stories are told through their interactions with the people entering treatment. The film focuses upon three key individuals, a 36 year old white kid (who I thought would surely drop out of the program by the end of the film — he didn’t), Peni, a recovering drug addict (Peni eventually drops out), and a black ex-con who was to me the most ready to change from the very beginning of his introduction into the program.
David, the main councilor, is amazing as he non-judgmentally walks new inductees through what they can expect as they enter into the program, telling them in a no bullshit way what they’re up against. At the same time, David validates their addiction and fear of overcoming it through personal stories. David, like Jill and Randy, believe that people can change, and believe that the change is so profound and so worth it that they are willing to do everything in their power to help those who want help.
Jerky camera work and editing throughout the movie seemingly paralleled the confusion of someone entering and participating in a recovery program. Cutting back and forth between letting those in recovery tell their story, and letting those running the mentoring program tell their story, the film does a good job of depicting the difficulty of overcoming addiction. Around about the half-hour mark in the 77 minute film, I began to get fidgety. Lindstrom’s choice to attempt to tell two distinct stories is the film’s largest fault. Attempting to blend both the stories of the people in recovery as well as the stories of the people running the program proved to be too big a task and weakened what could have been a stronger film. Had he chosen to focus on one or the other of the stories, the secondary story would have told itself, and with more grace. The stronger of the two stories in the film as it stands is that of David, Jill and Randy.
The three mentors have been through so much in their lives, and have beaten their addictions in order to create new lives for themselves. The power of this accomplishment leads them to want to reach out and provide that opportunity for others, and that, to me, was the story the film was telling most eloquently. During the question and answer session after the screening, Lindstrom’s comment about “..what David, Jill and Randy had to deal with…” as they provided help to those in the program spoke to this idea that the film really should have been more focused upon the program itself, and those who created and run it.
Butte, America
Growing up in a union household in a workingman’s town, I felt a strong bond with Butte, MT the first time I visited it. My father was the union president for the Fraternal Order of Police in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and he did his time working a union job in the rubber shops of Akron at Goodyear and then at Firestone, just as his father had. I remember listening to him tell stories of the difficult conditions when he was building tires, conditions that the union always fought to improve. And I remember him telling me, as union power in America began to decline, that it is because of unions that American workers have many things that we take for granted, like eight hour days and five day work weeks.
Remembering this, I very much looked forward to seeing Pam Roberts’ rough cut of her work-in-progress, “Butte America”. Roberts, a Montanan, but not a Buttian, sought to tell a Montana story that had national significance, and she found her story in the dusty hills of Butte. She knew the challenge ahead of her and recruited Edwin Dobb, a Buttian who wrote the 1996 Harpers article Pennies From Hell: In Montana, the bill for America’s copper comes due. Dobb, who returned to Butte after a 25 year hiatus, was dragged “kicking and screaming” into the project, wary of “entering into such an extreme collaborative process”, being used to working alone as a writer. The time away gave Dobb perspective with which to help craft a compelling film.
The duo formed a good team, creating a movie that spans 120 years of history — the rise and fall of the labor unions in Butte, and, by extension, in America. They capture the “feel” of Butte well, illustrating the ambivalence of a town’s dependency on “The Company” via footage with former miners, old timers who worked underground before they were “turned into truck drivers”, or just quit mining altogether when the pit mines opened, because their spirit was broken, their livelihood and stolen from them. They were proud men who did hard work in the mines underground, and they helped to build America.
But the story is more than just a story of workers and a boomtown gone bust. The story is a human one about the bonds that hard work can forge within a community, how hard work can actually become the defining element of a community. Those bonds and that sense of identity can be destroyed when work dries up. In the case of Butte, the work dried up as a result of corporate greed, when finally, mining left the town forever.
Roberts acknowledged, in the Q+A session after the showing, that one difficulty she faced in making the movie was the lack of first-hand accounts available. Many of the people who were alive during Butte’s heyday are dead. Killed in the mines, or by miner’s consumption. half of the characters in the film, Roberts told us, have died since the film was made. Roberts gracefully used the live resources available to her to create a beautiful film that blends archive film footage and photographs, donated home movies, and recreations, telling an important story in American history. Though the film is technically unfinished, (the movie still had many editor’s marks like running times and other video notations), the screening was a gripping one.
Roberts intends to put the finishing touches on the film, including more voice-over narration and more original scoring, in time for a spring 2008 release. I’m looking forward to seeing the final version.
Tags: 59801, arts and culture in missoula, bigskydocumentaryfilmfestival, Butte, community, documentary, drinking, festival, film, mining, missoula, montana, northwest, portland, process, recovery, story, travel guide to montana, workingclass, workingman 
Originally uploaded by love not fear
Today is one of my favorite days of the year. The opening of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. I’ll be running projection on a handful of films, as well as helping out in any other way that I can. Check back here for quick movie reviews, musings and other thoughts. Now through February 20th.
Check out my want-to-see calender, sign up for your own calender, see some films.
Gots to go.
Originally uploaded by Chris Lombardi
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is coming to town next week. here’s a short primer for all of the filmmakers and filmwatchers who will be descending on the Garden City.
Historical
People interested in the historical buildings of Missoula should definitely check out the definitive list offered by The Missoula Downtown Association. It details 15 different buildings within walking distance of The Wilma Theater, as well as listing 20 other buildings close by. In addition, 4 distinct historical neighborhoods within walking distance of the theater are described, as well as a listing of another 4 neighborhoods, most within walking distance as well. Visit the Missoula Downtown Association [link]. If you’ve got access to wheels, you might be interested in Fort Missoula [link]. The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula was established in 1975 to collect, preserve, and interpret the history of Missoula County, Fort Missoula, and the timber products industry in western Montana.
Dining in Missoula
When you get to town, you can pick up a copy of The Missoula Independent [link] (found in red drop-boxes around town) for a more definitive listing of restaurants. I’m going to list a few here according to the specials they have on specific days, and then list a couple of other favorites.
- Sundays and Mondays: The Old Post Pub [link] - burger and a beer for $6
- Wednesdays: Sushi Hana [link] - $1 sushi
- Saturdays: The Old Post Pub - Fish Taco and Choice of Any Mexican Beer or Margarita for $8.00
On days when there is no special in which I’m interested, I find myself splitting a healthy serving of pasta with a friend over at Sean Kelly’s [link], grabbing a cheap burrito at Taco del Sol [link], walking south across the bridge for some great Italian at Mambo Italiano [link] or, if it’s between the hours of 5.15 and 6.15 p.m., catching a burger at 515 [link].
Breakfast? It’s The Shack [link], Dauphine’s [link], The Hob Nob [link] (great lunches, too!), or, if it’s a late night after the bars, breakfast at The Oxford [link], the oldest bar in Missoula.
Drinking Establishments
Speaking of bars, Missoula has many of them. I’ll let you discover them on your own, but wanted to list a few of note here.
- Al’s and Vic’s [link] is the oldest bar in Missoula at its original location with its original name.
- Charlie B’s, owned and operated by a Vietnam vet who does a lot for the local vets, and is one helluva guy in general.
- The Rhino [link] - great smoking bar with the best ventilation in town of all of the smoking bars. Features a huge selection of 50 beers as well as a decent Scotch menu.
The locals discuss their favorite bars over here [link].
Brew Pubs
Missoula is home to three great brewpubs, each wonderful in its own right. Check ‘em all out:
Music and Dancing
Yeah, but where can I DANCE? Ah. Glad you asked. The venues for hearing music in Missoula are shrinking, but two of my favorites are The Badlander [link], which has been through many different incarnations in Missoula’s history, and The Union Club [link], a Union bar that has live music on the weekends.
More local discussion of best music venues here [link] (YRMV)
You’ll also find dancing at AmVets [link], with live DJs spinning the tunes.
If you’re into local music, while the venues to see music may be shrinking, the music scene here in Missoula is blowing up. Locals discuss their favorites here. [link].
Someone asked me about where to shop in Missoula, but I typically find myself at the Goodwill or some other hidden away thrift shop, so I’m no good at answering that one. 
This is most certainly not a definitive list, but meant to be a jumping off point. Any other locals want to weigh in and list some of their favorites?
Tags: architecture, art, arts and culture in missoula, bigskydocumentaryfilmfestival, community, dining, drinking, economy, lists, missoula, montana, music, travel guide to montana 
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival - Where Reality Plays Itself
Originally uploaded by love not fear
Sweet. Just got the press release from the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival announcing the 2008 selections.
There are 98 films this year from 40 countries. Already there are a handful of films I’ve heard about and I’m excited about.
This year, a fun added addition to the festival is an interactive community site where users can create an account to keep track of the films they have seen, and rate/review the films. Awesome.
Read the press release after the jump.
Sign up at the community site here [link].
Read the reviews I wrote about the films I saw last year: [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [links].
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 16, 2008
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Announces 2008 Selections
Event To Celebrate It’s 5th Anniversary With 98 Documentaries and 20,000 fans
Official selections for the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival are now on-line at: the official Big Sky Documentary Films site [link]
Missoula, Montana — From February 14 - 20, 2008, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival celebrates its 5th year by showcasing 98 films from 40 countries. The official selections represent a broad array of filmmaking styles, formats and production dates, from classics to World Premieres. The 2008 films were selected from nearly 1000 submissions from across the globe.
Since 2004 the festival has grown into a premier international venue for exhibition of innovative, contemporary and classic non-fiction cinema. Screenings are held in the historic Wilma Theater in scenic downtown Missoula, Montana. BSDFF has built a reputation for its programming excellence and is the largest event of its kind in the American West.
The event includes three competitions.
- Documentary Feature Competition - The award for Best Documentary Feature will be given to one film 50 minutes or longer in length. A cash award of $1000 will be presented by IndiePix.
- Documentary Short Competition - The award for Best Documentary Short will be given to one film up to 50 minutes in length.
- Big Sky Award Competition - The Big Sky Award will be given to one film of any length with significant content pertaining to the American West.
The 2008 jury includes distinguished filmmakers, industry professionals and academics. The jury members will present the awards at a reception and press conference on Tuesday, February 19, 2008. Competition films will be announced next week.
Each year BSDFF recognizes the work of important filmmakers by highlighting their contribution to documentary arts in the Big Sky Retrospective Series. The 2008 series will present the work of Hart Perry and Dana Heinz Perry. This distinguished filmmaking duo continues to make exciting new work today and will be two of this year’s BSDFF Judges. Their latest work, SEX: THE REVOLUTION, will have its World Premiere at Big Sky this year.
Q & A sessions with filmmakers follow most screenings. This year over President’s Day Weekend, Big Sky offers three panel discussions that are free and open to the public.
The Opening Night Film, THE GATES, presented by HBO Documentary Films, will feature the latest work from legendary documentarian, Albert Maysles. Missoula audiences will enjoy FREE PUBLIC ADMISSION for this special Valentines Day screening, courtesy of HBO. Co-director Antonio Ferrara will be in attendance.
Passes are now available for sale on-line at the BSDFF site [link] and will also be sold at the box office at the Wilma Theatre during the week of the festival. For ticket prices, pass purchases and more information for this year’s festival visit http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org/
Sponsors of the 2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival include Bresnan Communications, HBO Documentary Films, Modern Digital, Montana Film Office, Indie Pix, Sony, B-Side Entertainment, Absolut Vodka, Panasonic, Current TV, Avid, Big Sky Brewing, Vanns and the International Documentary Challenge.
2008 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Official Selections
Features:
2nd Verse The Rebirth of Poetry
4 Elements
24 Solo
A Dream in Doubt
A Father’s Music
A Snowmobile for George
A Walk to Beautiful
Achieving the Unachievable
An Audience of One
Bending Space
Bomb It
Butte, America
Cartoneros
Che Guevara-The Body and the Legend
Civilians on the Battlefield
Class C
Doubletime
Eloquent Nude
Finding Normal
Flying On One Engine
>From Prison to Home
Golden Days
Hear and Now
Hell on Wheels
I Love Hip Hop In Morocco
In the Shadow of the Moon
Jimmy Rosenberg - The Father, the Son & the Talent
King Corn
Knee Deep
Knuckleball
Kurt Cobain: About A Son
La Americana
Lynch
Mexiphobia
Movement (R)evolution Africa
Oh My God! It’s Harrod Blank!
Polis is This
River Ways
Row Hard, No Excuses
Second Chance Season
Sex - The Revolution
Shadow of the House
Silhouette City
Soldiers of Conscience
The Gates
The Linguists
The Listening Project
The Little Red Truck
The Sky Below
Up the Yangtze
We Feed the World
When Clouds Clear
Wild Horse Redemption
Wrath of Gods
Shorts:
Atlantis Unbound
Begging for Grace
Blind Faith
Body & Soul - Diana & Kathy
Broadcast Cowboy
Casualty of the Promised Land
City of Cranes
City of Lost Carts
Conversing With Aotearoa
Conviction
Crack in the Sidewalk
Dimmer
El Otro Lado
Getting Eve Off
Hattenhorst
Inheritance
Landscape as Muse - The Forest with Peter Von Tiesenhausen
Left in Baghdad
Love Takes
Ma’Rib
Milk Matters
Night Visions
Pictograph
Portraits of Hope
Prayer of Peace
Resting Places
Reversing the Odds
State of Mind
The End for Beginners
The Farther, The Dearer
The Legend of Rosalie
The Man With the Electric Boots
The Storytellers
The Ville
Unfettering the Falcons
Verve
Ya Shadad
Perry Films Retrospective:
And you Don’t Stop - 30 years of Hip Hop
Harlan County, USA
Hartigan
Imagining America
John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen
Making a Noise: A Native American Musical Journey with Robbie Robertson
The Rest is Silence
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival - 2008 Official Selections
For details and descriptions see the interactive community site. [link]
Contact:
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
131 South Higgins Avenue, Suite 307
Missoula, Montana 59802
(406) 541-3456
http://www.bigskyfilmfest.org/
director@bigskyfilmfest.org
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is a program of the
Big Sky Film Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Cool. The folks over at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival got ahold of me earlier this summer to ask if it was cool if they used a photo I took (left) for their 2008 promo materials. I just noticed that they’re using it on their site, too. I get no cash for it, but I love that they’re using it. Go have a look at the original, uncropped photo.
Seems like some of my other photos are getting some notice as well. The folks over at Schmap sent me a message saying that two of my photos have been shortlisted for inclusion in the Minneapolis shmapplet. From the Schmap site: Schmap is a leading publisher of digital travel guides for 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The innovative technology behind Schmap Guides is also used by clients, partners and bloggers to power schmapplets – a range of fully customizable map mashups and map widgets. Founded in 2004, Schmap is privately owned and based in Carrboro, North Carolina. Interesting concept, eh? The two photos are below.
Gluek opened in 1934 and is the oldest bar in Minneapolis.
Tags: art, art in missoula, arts, bar, bigskydocumentaryfilmfestival, documentary, drinking, economy, marketing, missoula, montana, photography