Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), directed and produced by Jason Kohn, is a richly painted, riveting documentary weaving together threads of political corruption and disparity of wealth distribution in Brazil, frog farms, kidnappings in Sao Paulo, reconstructive ear surgery, and the growth of the personal security business in Brazil. If all this sounds like a lot to meld together into one coherent tale, it is, but Kohn proves himself more than up to the task. Cinematical spoke to Kohn by phone recently about Manda Bala, which has received numerous awards on the fest circuit over the past year, and recently won three awards at the inaugural Cinema Eye Awards.

Cinematical: I read that at the Cinema Eye Awards, in your acceptance speech you talked about this film being made out of anger; can you talk a bit more about that?

Jason Kohn: Really that came out of my sense of frustration at the state of contemporary documentary films, at least at the time when I started making the film. There was a lot of talk going on about the democratization of docs, how it's cheaper to make them with new technologies, and I thought that was mostly bullshit. This idea that people on the marginalized fringes of society now have access to these technologies – it's just not true.

• Richard Curnock (1922-2007) - British actor who appears in Paradise. He died February 6, in Stratford, Ontario. (CBC)
• Donfeld (1934-2007) - Oscar-nominated costume designer for Prizzi's Honor, Days of Wine and Roses, Tom Sawyer and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? His other credits include Spaceballs, Viva Las Vegas, The Great Race and the television series Wonder Woman. He had a brief stint as a set director in the mid-'70s. He died February 3, in Los Angeles (LA Times)
• Victor Griffin (c.1918-2007) - Singer, dancer and actor who appears in Annie. He died February 3, in Syosset, New York. (Variety)
• Griffith Jones (1910-2007) - British actor who appears in Olivier's The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France, as well as The Wicked Lady and Miranda. He died January 30. (Telegraph)
• Frankie Laine (1913-2007) - Singer of the title songs to a number of westerns, including 3:10 to Yuma, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Blazing Saddles. He also appears in Blake Edwards' He Laughed Last and Bring Your Smile Along, as well as Meet Me in Las Vegas and Make Believe Ballroom. He died of complications from hip surgery February 6. (LA Times)

• The Weinstein Company bought the U.S. distribution rights to Death Defying Acts, a feature about the life of illusionist Harry Houdini. Perhaps the recent success of The Prestige and The Illusionist inspired the deal. The film is directed by Gillian Armstrong and stars Guy Pearce as Houdini, who becomes involved with a psychic played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. One of the writers is Tony Grisoni, whose writing credits include Brothers of the Head, Tideland, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Armstrong is good at turning a biography into an interesting movie, as with My Brilliant Career, and the combination of her direction and Grisoni's writing has suddenly made me twice as interested as I would normally be in a film about Houdini. (Okay, Guy Pearce was also an influence.) TWC intends to premiere the film at Cannes in 2007.
• Palm Pictures picked up the North American rights to distribute Solo Dios Sabe (Only God Knows), a Brazilian drama that debuted at Sundance earlier this year. Palm plans to release the film in theaters in early 2007. The film stars Alice Braga (City of God) and Diego Luna (Y Tu Mama Tambien) as a Brazilian student and Mexican journalist travelling together.
• Strand Releasing acquired the North American rights to White Palms, a Hungarian movie about young gymnasts. The movie is Hungary's entry in the Academy Awards' Foreign Language Film category for 2006. Strand is apparently betting the movie will make the cut to the final Oscar nominations and subsequently garner more publicity. White Palms sounds fascinating to me, as it contrasts Eastern European and North American methods of training young athletes in gymnatics. I'm looking forward to the chance to see the film.
  

With Terry Gilliam's luck what it is these days, it might be smart for him to move ahead with projects when he can. In the case of his next film, Good Omens, may mean not casting as he would prefer. It seems that the religious fantasy comedy, which is based on the novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, may begin shooting as early as this winter now that Stephen Evans has stepped in as producer. Brendon Connelly at Film Ick points out that schedule won't fit Johnny Depp's, and the actor will therefore not be starring as was hoped. In fact, actors Gilliam had in mind for other characters, namely Robin Williams (who is always good in Gilliam films, if not much else) and Jonathan Pryce, are also expected to be unavailable at that time.

As an enormous fan of Gilliam, I have to say I'm completely bummed. Not so much because of Depp and Williams not being in the movie, but more because I would prefer it if Gilliam could deliver his exact vision, as he so famously fought for on his earlier pictures. Sure casting is just one simple part of the vision, and using actors who aren't your first choice isn't as horrible as being forced to shoot a happy ending to Brazil or urged to use CGI in The Brothers Grimm, but knowing that a different movie exists in Gilliam's warped and brilliant mind, is enough to make for a disappointing end-product. I will admit that Grimm probably wouldn't have been much better had (supposedly) original choices Depp and Williams been cast, and I was surprised at how enjoyable Matt Damon and Heath Ledger are in the film. So, don't think I will be taking prejudice with whoever is cast in Good Omens. But I won't be able to help imagining the film that should have been.

• The Call Of Cthulhu - The H.P. Lovecraft Preservation Society, a group of dauntless fans that created the brilliant, Cthulhu-themed musical, A Shoggoth On The Roof, have created the ultimate fan film, an incredible tribute to the writer whose work seeded modern horror favorites like Re-Animator and From Beyond. Shot like a 1920's era silent film, the 47-minute feature is technically amazing, shot (in black-and-white), lit and performed like an authentic film of the period would have been (although it would have horrified people of the time right into Arkham Sanitarium.) Considered Lovecraft's most famous story, the story of a man who inherits a collection of documents detailing the ghastly Cthulhu Cult, it is very faithfully adapted, not to mention super-efficient. The title cards are in the viewer's choice of an astonishing 24 different languages, and the lush, symphonic score can be played in hi-fi and the kitschy-fun, lo-fi "Mythoscope". A skillful build and an extremely satisfying payoff (think creature design King Kong '33 style) add up to one of the smartest horror films of recent memory.