New Orleans Tagged Articles at Cinematical
New Orleanians: Does the 'Sherlock Holmes' Font Look Familiar?
Filed under: Posters »
Okay, maybe I'm crazy. Some people have suggested that, throughout my life. But I had a very strange moment earlier today, looking at the character posters for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie as I left a theater. Maybe you've seen these posters -- I've cropped one in the image on the right. Before my inner Robert Downey Jr. fan could coo "oooh" at the image of the actor, my inner New Orleanian spoke up and said, "Holmes? As in D.H. Holmes?"If you grew up in the New Orleans area and are a certain age, you may understand. D.H. Holmes was a popular department store when I was young -- in fact, it was a small chain that had stores in a number of Southern cities. The most famous D.H. Holmes was on Canal Street, where Ignatius Reilly waited under the Holmes clock in the novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Dillard's bought the department-store chain awhile ago, and the store on Canal is now a swanky hotel (they kept the clock, though).
Snag This: Music Rising
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Music & Musicals », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie », Trailers and Clips »
"The roots of our music, our culture, had suddenly been wiped out.." When the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans was devastated. Among the multitude of victims was the "cultural gumbo" of the city's vital music scene, built up over many decades. The city is "the crucible of music," says U2's The Edge. "Without New Orleans, there'd be no rock 'n' roll."
Music Rising, now available for free online viewing courtesy of our friends at SnagFilms, documents the efforts of musicians to help their fellow artists to continue playing and performing -- and to encourage musicians who had been forced to leave the city to come home. The film begins on a somber note, as the devastation is recapped. One musician sadly surveys the ruins of his home before leaving town, declaring that he will never return; he is emblematic of the many departed musicians. Record Producer Bob Ezrin, whose quoted words open this article, toured the city and admitted he could not quite process the extent of the damage that had been done. Along with The Edge and Henry Juszkiewicz, Ezrin was one of the creators of Music Rising, a campaign whose first phase was intended to replace musical instruments lost in the flood.
The documentary, directed by Canadian filmmaker Don Young, provides an overview of that first phase. It ends in September 2006, with many questions left unanswered. The campaign continued, but, tragically, the future of New Orleans remains cloudy. More information about the film is available at the official Music Rising campaign site and at SnagFilms.
Watch Music Rising after the jump!
SXSW Review: Mine
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », SXSW », Theatrical Reviews »
Get out a whole box of Kleenex, one of the jumbo packs, before you see Mine. Movies about post-Katrina problems can be sad enough, but this documentary is about pets, too. You know you're not going to get through this movie dry-eyed unless you have no heart whatsoever. You may even find yourself headed for an animal shelter afterwards, if you're not careful. Director Geralyn Pezanoski skillfully tells an emotional story that rarely resorts to the obvious, or to "good guys vs. bad guys."
Mine focuses on Katrina evacuees who were separated from their pets (involuntarily in one case), and who are trying to find and reunite with the animals. The movie opens with Malvin, a man in his eighties, reminiscing about his dog Bandit while carrying the dog's leash, which he found in his yard after the floods. I immediately suspected this story wouldn't end happily at all. The movie then shows us post-Katrina animal rescue. Shelters and many hotels didn't accept pets, so many evacuees had to leave the animals behind. They assumed it would only be for a few days, but the impact of the disaster was such that people couldn't return to their homes for weeks.
In the meantime, animal rescue teams were able to find and round up many of the stranded pets. Some pets were taken to animal shelters in other states, some of which offered the pets not for fostering but for adoption. Heartbreaking situations resulted, and Mine focuses on a few of them. For example, Victor's dog Max was sent to Florida and adopted by Tiffany, who bonded with her new pet immediately. But Victor missed Max. How could this be resolved?
Disney's 'Princess and the Frog' Gets a Teaser
Filed under: Animation », Disney », Family Films », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
I'm as big a fan of Pixar movies as anyone, but I honestly miss the old-fashioned 2-D style animation from Walt Disney. I think there's definitely room for both hand-drawn and computer animated films, because as brilliant as movies like Toy Story, Ratatouille and Wall-E may be, they're a completely separate kind of filmmaking from the traditional Disney films. They shouldn't be compared to nor should they replace the kind of beloved fairy tale classics we've enjoyed from the Mouse House for 70 years. So, before commenting on the new teaser trailer for The Princess and the Frog (available here if the YouTube version is removed), let me just say, welcome back, 2-D!
OK, so what do I think? Well, upon seeing the New Orleans setting, my first response was unfortunately one of fear: what if Disney one-ups its Hunchback of Notre Dame pole-dance debacle with a scene involving Mardi Gras beads? Well, obviously Disney knows better than to be so blatantly naughty, though I wouldn't doubt that animators will find some way to slip in a hint of Big Easy-style debauchery.
'Trouble the Water' Sells International Rights
Filed under: Documentary », Awards », Deals », Sundance », Distribution », Movie Marketing », Politics », Oscar Watch », Cinematical Indie »
One of my favorite films at Sundance this year was Trouble the Water. The film, directed by Michael Moore producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, was a collaboration with Kimberly Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts, two residents of New Orleans who were trapped by floodwaters during Hurricane Katrina when the levees broke a few blocks from their home. Kim Roberts, who like many of New Orleans' poorer residents, didn't have the resources to evacuate when the hurricane hit, had just purchased a camcorder off the streets for $20 the week before the storm blew in, and she was able to capture some remarkable footage of the hurricane, the flood waters rising, and the aftermath as New Orleans residents tried to rebuild their lives. I was disappointed that the film, which won the Grand Jury prize for documentary at Sundance, didn't get picked up during the fest. Word just came out this morning that Trouble the Water has been acquired by Maximum Films International for international rights. It's great news that the filmmakers have a deal for rights outside North America, but I really want to see the film get picked up for North American distrib as well, and it's surprising that none of the independent distributors have picked it up yet. With the right marketing campaign backing it up, Trouble the Water has "Oscar contender" written all over it. Where are THINKfilm or Magnolia? Come on guys, get on the ball here -- someone needs to pick this film up and get behind it, and get it out in North America as well.
AFF Review: Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras
Filed under: Documentary », Theatrical Reviews », Austin », Cinematical Indie »
I grew up in the New Orleans area, so I can't resist movies set in that location, especially documentaries. The only problem is that I worry about seeing anything involving the term "post-Katrina" in a theater, because I'm always worried I'll end up in tears or enraged in public. Fortunately, Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras kept me more amused than sad, but at the same time managed to accurately represent the problems that South Louisianians faced in the six months after the hurricane and ensuing floods.
Don't Eat the Baby focuses on the ways in which New Orleanians dealt with Mardi Gras in 2006. The city was devastated, with much of its population forced to live elsewhere, and for many people it seemed inappropriate to spend money and other resources on a big celebration. Still, the large parade organizations (called krewes) wanted to roll, the mayor and other politicians hoped that the festivities would draw tourism and thus bring needed revenue to local businesses, and many New Orleanians simply wanted to take a little time to forget about the bad things in their lives, and celebrate as they have done every year.
'Levees' Wins Big at Creative Arts Emmys
Filed under: Documentary », Awards », Home Entertainment », HBO Films », Cinematical Indie »
The big ceremony for the Emmys isn't until Sunday night, but the Creative Arts awards, which include nonfiction programming, have already been announced, as Variety has reported. Several documentaries that originally played film festivals took home Emmys, including Spike Lee's look at post-Katrina New Orleans, When the Levees Broke. The HBO-produced film won three awards for directing, exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking and picture editing. I own the DVD myself and highly recommend it, although you'll want to have a box of tissue close at hand.Other Emmy-winning documentaries included A Lion in the House, which shared the exceptional merit award with Levees, and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which won for best nonfiction special. As usual, filmmaker/blogger A.J. Schnack, who keeps a close watch on all documentary-related news, has the best roundup of Emmys given to documentary films, so you don't have to pick through a longer list of all the Creative Arts awards for guest appearances on TV dramas and so forth. He's also posted a photo from the awards ceremony of the producing teams from Lion and Levees together. I love seeing Spike Lee with his Emmy statuette and hope it's a sight we'll enjoy again with future projects.
Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke' Gets Six Emmy Noms
Filed under: Documentary », Awards », HBO Films », Cinematical Indie »
The Emmys may be for television programming, but often the nonfiction categories include some great documentary films that would be just as much at home in a theater; some have even had theatrical exposure at festivals before selling distribution rights to TV. When the Primetime Emmy nominations were announced this week, I noticed a couple of familiar documentary titles, most notably Spike Lee's amazing documentary about New Orleans, When the Levees Broke -- one of my top ten film picks from 2006. The four-hour HBO film has been nominated not only for best nonfiction filmmaking, but five other awards in the nonfiction categories: direction, cinematography, picture editing, sound editing and sound mixing. I'm sorry not to see the Terence Blanchard score nominated -- the documentary had a rich, haunting soundtrack -- but pleased the movie is being honored overall.AJ Schnack, whose blog All these wonderful things is a go-to place for news and analysis about documentaries, has posted a list of nominations for just the nonfiction Emmy categories, if you don't want to wade through the long lists on the Emmy website. He also pointed out several other documentaries that played film fests and are nominated for Emmys: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple and A Lion in the House. I noticed that Thin, which premiered at Sundance in 2006 before playing on HBO, is up for a direction award for Lauren Greenfield. Finally, since we're discussing movie-related programming here, it's only fair to note that the "AFI's 100 Years ...100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies" special is up for some of these awards, but I'm hoping the documentaries win in those categories.
Brad Pitt Goes Green
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand », Brad Pitt »
Ok, imagine for a moment that you're superstar actor and recent father Brad Pitt. You've starred in some of the best and most successful films of the last ten years, you're married to one of the hottest women in the world and, let's face it, you're regarded in most circles as pretty darn handsome. You've got all this going for you and it all adds up to a pretty great life, right? So, with all that great stuff in your life, what do you do next? Well, if you are Brad Pitt and you're concerned about the environment, the Katrina disaster in New Orleans and you want to do something really good for people who need it, you do what Yahoo reports the actor and philanthropist is doing right now. According to the article, construction began today on homes in New Orleans devastated 9th ward that will eventually provide residences for about a half-dozen single-families, 18 apartments, a community center, play area and a park for the neighborhood to enjoy.
Also according to the article, this project will be made using recycled components and other "green" technologies including energy-saving materials such as metal roofing and recycled textiles. Pitt, who's contributed $200,000 to the project so far, including money to underwrite the contest to pick the design for the structures as well as a cash award for the winners. Said Pitt about the project's importance: "I'm crying out for one of our leaders to really make this a priority," he said. Good for you Mr. Pitt I say.
Disney Reveals 'The Frog Princess' and Details on 'Toy Story 3'
Filed under: Animation », Disney », Family Films »
The Disney princess fairy-tale movie genre is back, and with traditional hand-drawn animation, too. John Lasseter has announced the next Disney animated movie, slated for 2009: The Frog Princess. It's unclear whether this is a riff on the fairy tale "The Frog Prince," in which a young girl rescues a frog that turns out to be a handsome prince, or original material. The movie will bring something new for Disney -- the studio's first African-American princess/heroine. This could open whole new vistas for Disney marketing with their popular "princess" line of merchandise. Lasseter also announced that Toy Story 3 is scheduled to release in 2010, and that the script is being written by Michael Arndt, who just won an Oscar for his Little Miss Sunshine screenplay. The Frog Princess will be set in New Orleans, which I find intriguing. I assume this will be some fantasy New Orleans of the past, with harmless voodoo queens and street vendors dressed as pirates and bayous adjacent to the French Quarter, which is the only part of New Orleans that Hollywood knows about. Disney has already announced there will be a "soulful singing alligator." I can hear the opening number now: "New Orleans! Home of pirates, drunks and whores --" No, wait, that's from The Simpsons. The music will actually be written by Randy Newman, who's been composing regularly for Pixar films, including Toy Story 3. After the announcement, Newman previewed a song from The Frog Princess with help from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
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Exclusive 'Nine' Poster Premiere!
Exclusive: Title Track for 'The Road' Soundtrack
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