Hey, remember that film that received so much hype and controversy only to be released with a whimper and a lot of negative reviews? I'm talking about Death of a President, a non-comedic mockumentary focused on the (fictional) assassination of George W. Bush. I thought it was a terrible movie, and not because I thought it was tasteless. I actually thought the idea was interesting; I just didn't think it was executed well in the style in which it was done. But plenty of others, including my friends and colleagues, liked the darn thing. It even played for a few months (mostly on Saturday nights) at the Pioneer Theater here in New York. Most astonishing, though, is the fact that it won an Emmy Award the other night. Actually, it was an International Emmy, for Best TV Movie/Mini-Series.

I didn't even know the International Emmys existed until the other night. I was walking down a Manhattan street and saw all these people in tuxedos walking up the red carpet to the ceremony. I didn't recognize anyone, but now, for all I know, one of the monkey-suited gents I walked past was DOAP filmmaker Gabriel Range. Not that I would have told him I disliked his movie -- once he had the statue in hand he wouldn't have cared what I thought anyway. Still, Robert DeNiro was apparently at the event, presenting a special award to Al Gore. Others who not only attended but also won include British actor Jim Broadbent, Dutch actor Pierre Bokma, French actress Muriel Robin and Stephen Fry, who features in the Best Documentary-winner Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive.

The controversial fake doc Death of a President came and went in America, where it earned only half a million bucks at the box office (it is still running every weekend at NYC's Pioneer Theater, if you're still interested), but it is still making its way around the globe. It will open this Friday in Italy, though on 30% fewer screens than originally planned. Lucky Red, which is distributing the film there claims that some exhibitors have bailed on their booking in order to avoid trouble. In addition to the cancellations, Lucky Red is also dealing with the fact that its ads for the film, which features a tombstone with President Bush's name inscribed, are disappearing all over Rome. Apparently people are tearing the posters down either for a souvenir or to protest (I say the former is more likely).

The main issue for exhibitors actually has little to do with protests regarding George Bush. In fact, the cancellations seem to be out of respect less for our current President than for their former prime minster, Aldo Moro, who was assassinated in 1978. It turns out that Lucky Red accidentally and coincidentally scheduled the release of DoaP on the 29th anniversary of Moro's kidnapping by the terrorist group The Red Brigades (they killed him nearly two months later). Of course, exhibitors should have been looking for an excuse to get out of their bookings anyway since the movie is not very good and it hasn't been performing well in other markets. After bans from theater chains may have helped DoaP flop in America, it can be expected that the same will happen in Italy.

Two separate documentaries to be shown on French television display some controversial concerns for world travelers. They appear to be unrelated, each set to appear on different stations, but they share the common interest of safety and security as related to 9/11.

The first film, airing this Friday, is about airport security at French airports. A reporter named Laurent Richard tested the security by seeing just how easy it would be to get different weapons onto a plane. It turned out to be very easy. With hidden cameras, he shows himself sneaking on box-cutters and de-activated explosives, plus he presents footage of himself driving a truck into secure, restricted areas. It is imaginable that beginning this weekend, wait times will be longer and security measures will be stronger all over France.

The second documentary, which doesn't yet have an air date, reports that French soldiers could have killed Osama Bin Laden, but were not ordered to do so by the U.S. military. Bin Laden: Failings of a Manhunt presents the testimony of four anonymous soldiers who were part of a special forces unit commanded by the U.S. in Afghanistan. They all claim that they had Bin Laden in their rifle scopes in 2003 and 2004 but were never permitted or ordered to fire. The French defense ministry, however, denies there is any truth to the story.

Both films reek of American fear-monger journalism, and if it weren't for the weak performance of Death of a President here, I'd be surprised if American distributors or television stations didn't pick up rights to show either of them in the U.S. Surely there are some viewers over here that would love to see them.

Another election, another politician wanted out of office ... and yet another documentary. This chain of events is so common now that the presence of partisan docs is as easy to ignore as all the real campaign ads on television. Even one such film, about Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, would have passed under the radar if not for gaining a bit of controversy over the weekend. The film, Running with Arnold, is against the re-election of "The Governator" and has reportedly gone over the line as far as taste goes in order to attack the actor's qualifications for office.

One person who isn't happy with the finished product is its narrator, Alec Baldwin. He could sue the film makers after having gotten no cooperation from them regarding his request to be removed from the project or a cease and desist letter that he issued to them. On The Huffington Post, he wrote about his disapproval of the film, particularly the unfair association of Schwarzenegger with Nazis. He also says that the film makers can not accommodate his wishes because of a distribution deadline (I can't seem to find a release date for the film to back up this deadline, but seeing as how election day is in one week, I'm guessing it will play somewhere starting this Friday).

Controversy doesn't always sell, and Newmarket Films found this out the hard way over the weekend with its dismal receipts from Death of a President. The faux doc grossed only $282,000 from the 143 theaters it played at in the U.S. and Canada, and its per-screen average was only $1,970. Compare that with the much better Shut Up & Sing, which also opened over the weekend with appeal to the Bush-hating crowd; it played in only four theaters for a per-screen average of $12,525. Plus, if we look at NYC's box office, which is a better gauge for small films like DoaP and SU&S, the latter made $21,159 (in two theaters), while the former made less than half that, at $9,043 (in three theaters).

Considering the $1 million that Newmarket reportedly paid for the film, the take is very disappointing. Still, there is a good chance that even moviegoers turned off from the subject matter will be more curious in the privacy of their own homes, and the distributor should make its money back through DVD and TV sales. But the numbers should show that such awareness does not always mean anticipation. The same was true last summer with the opening gross for Snakes on a Plane (coincidentally, DoaP rhymes with SoaP).

More on Death of a President:

Netscape Video: Death of a President

TIFF Review: Death of a President

Death of a President: There's No Publicity Like No Publicity

Death of a President -- in the U.S.?

Netscape's Karina Longworth sat down with Death of a President director Gabriel Range, and has intertwined the interview with her own thoughts and criticisms of the faux documentary and the controversial buzz surrounding it. The most important point addressed in the video is probably the fact that the film is actually the opposite of anti-Bush. Karina even goes so far as to say it is, "definitely sympathetic," in its treatment of the president and, "it manages to truly humanize him," turning him into a "misunderstood hero."

You can watch the video right here, or go to Netscape and download it.

More on DOAP:

Cinematical Buzz Reviews: Death of a President

Death of a President: There's No Publicity Like No Publicity

Canadians Want You to See Death of a President

(The following review ran during Cinematical's coverage of The Toronto International Film Festival; with Death of a President bowing today in limited release, we're glad to share it with you again.)

Occasionally, on the festival circuit, there's a movie that garners significant press before it even opens, and mainstream press at that. The controversy could be political, artistic or any one of a number of things. This year at Toronto, the as-yet-unseen-but-buzzed-about buzz flick was Death of a President -- a British mockumentary promising a look at a hypothetical 2007 assassination of George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States. Coyly listed in the program guides as D.O.A.P., the film's mere existence and outline caused a controversy, and incited strong feelings from both the Right-wing blogosphere and Kevin Costner (raising the question of which of those is actually less relevant). Political filmmaking about what-ifs is nothing new, nor are mock-docs about politically charged realities. C.S.A: The Confederate States of and It Happened Here both come to mind, as well as much of the work of Peter Watkins. Death of a President, it seemed, might be the newest entry into the field. Or public outrage over its essential plot might make the film disappear, a casualty of a just-declared War on Premises. ...

If you don't live in a big city or attend a big film school, the availability of most art films to you is next to nothing. And when I say art films, I don't mean Little Miss Sunshine; I mean Man Ray's Emak-Bakia and Nam June Paik's Zen for Film. Okay, so those might show up at your local museum, but what about avante garde films by John Lennon and Yoko Ono? Stan Brakhage? Joris Ivens? William S. Burroughs? Rather than trying to rent these experimental films from Netflix or buying whole collections from Amazon, you can go the digital route and watch them on your computer for free. Cinematical's sister-site DV Guru has discovered UbuWeb, which features around 100 different artists, each with one or more films available to download. So, if you haven't seen Ballet Méchanique or, God forbid, Un Chien Andalou, now you have no more excuses.

For less high-brow material, you can also always go to Jonhs.net, which streams (no time-consuming downloads) films that have fallen out of copyright, or for some other reason are available for free. There you can watch everything from silent films by Buster Keaton, classics like It's a Wonderful Life, recent films like Steal this Movie, cheap B-movies, training videos, undistributed documentaries, and more. If you don't see anything you like now (how is that possible?), keep going back, as the site is constantly getting new stuff in daily. And sometimes what is there today may be gone tomorrow. I just watched Death of a President on the site Tuesday, and now it has been removed.

Be warned: you might not leave your computer for awhile.

There has been a lot of press over Death of a President, and we've been following this fictional documentary since it made its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Controversy has also been following this film from day one -- of course, this is a movie that features images of the assassination of President Bush, so said controversy should come as no surprise.

Some of the latest buzz surrounding Gabriel Range's film revolve around the difficulties he has had with advertising and distribution, but a Canadian distribution company thinks they might have the answer. Maple Pictures has produced an ad campaign for Buffalo NY newspapers to encourage Americans to make the drive to Canada to see the film. The ads will be running on October 27 -- the same day the film will open both in Canada and the US.

Maple hopes to spread their campaign to other neighboring American cites like Seattle and Detroit once the film has opened to try and boost it's visibility. An admirable idea, but I doubt whether people are willing to make a border crossing just to see what all the fuss is about.

[via Variety]

Movie marketing's a bit of a chess game for a lower-budget indie -- you want to always make tactical choices between advertising (which you pay for) and publicity (which you don't). For a great demonstration of this phenomenon, check out this press release from Newmarket films who picked up shock mock doc Death of a President at Toronto about how they are shocked, shocked that NPR and CNN won't run ads for the film.

Of course, this is the best of both worlds, as the Movie City News point out in their pithy headline -- now Newmarket doesn't have to pay money it probably doesn't have to run ads it can't afford ... and they'll benefit from some nice, juicy controversy. I think my favorite weasel-words in the press release come courtesy of Newmarket co-founder Chris Ball: "As everyone who has actually seen the movie agrees, Death of a President is the opposite of a call for violence – it's a powerfully cautionary tale about the pernicious effects of violence. ..." Take this the right way, Mr. Ball, but I don't think that a cautionary subtext about the pernicious effects of violence is what people go see DOAP for, anymore than they're watching porn for the safe sex message when the condoms come out. And also, let's not forget there's a fine distinction between censorship (which, to me, has always meant the government actively banning something) and the legitimate decision of a business to not accept an advertisement. Are NPR and CNN within their rights, in your eyes ... and will you go see Death of a President when it opens?

(Click here for Cinematical's Toronto Film Festival review of Death of a President.)