weblog Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I like reading blogs from filmmakers, whether they're periodic reports on how a specific film is going, discussions about movies the filmmaker has been watching, or essays about anything that catches the blogger/filmmaker's attention. So you can imagine how pleased I was to learn that documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) has just started a new blog over at the online version of The New York Times. Morris's blog is called Zoom: A Filmmaker Uncovers the Hidden Truths of Photos -- the tagline tells me that this isn't going to be a "Today we edited that scene with the banana" type of filmmaker blog.

Morris has only posted one entry thus far, but it's thought-provoking and is spurring discussions around the film-blogging universe. (I am not using the word "blogosphere.") In fact, it's already received more than 140 comments. He brings up the topic of whether a photo is "true" or "false" and demonstrates why he feels that is a ridiculous label to attach to any image. It is an interesting debate for anyone who watches documentary films, especially in light of the criticism heaped upon Michael Moore for showing footage in films like Sicko that is sometimes considered to be taken out of context or otherwise labeled as "false." Anthony Kaufman (on whose site I found the link to Morris's blog) wonders if the entry was inspired by the Abu Ghraib photos. Morris's upcoming documentary, S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure, is about the Abu Ghraib scandal. I hope Morris will post more blog entries along the same lines, although I also wouldn't mind hearing about the film he's working on, as well.

I'm starting to think that I never should have read everyone else's blog entries about South by Southwest, because I'm envious of all the fun they're having and all the movies they liked that I haven't seen yet. I'm having a fabulous time, but Alan Cumming hasn't kissed me full on the mouth, and I missed the big Knocked Up premiere that everyone seemed to love. On the other hand, the festival's not over yet, so who knows what might happen?

Here are some of the reports coming in from SXSW about all kinds of aspects of the film festival and conference, so you can be jealous too:

• A.J. Schnack was in Austin for a few days to attend screenings of his documentary Kurt Cobain About a Son (look for a review from James Rocchi soon). He posted some party photos and a few thoughts about Hannah Takes the Stairs (look for a review from me soon). Also, his opinions on Manufacturing Dissent\ are much more negative than mine.
• Over at Anthony Kaufman's blog, Kaufman reveals that he was on the documentary award jury for SXSW and shares some of the jury's quotes about the award-winning docs. And again with Hannah Takes the Stairs; like Schnack, Kaufman also considers it part of a new indie-film movement.
• Last year, I got a kick out of Eric Snider's daily SXSW film diary. This year, he's at it again, having loads of fun at movies and parties and Starbucks. He's up to Day 4 right now so go back again later and catch up on the rest of his entries. I particularly liked his Sunday entry; he reminds me that I need to write about the horror panel I attended that included Cinematical's Scott Weinberg.
• Cinematical's editor emeritus Karina Longworth is at SXSW this year, covering film and music events for Netscape. She's also blogging about the festival films like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Running with Arnold on Vidiocy.com, her own personal site. (I interviewed Karina as part of the Studio SX program this year; I'll certainly post a link when the video from that interview is available online.)

This week's Austin Film Festival might not be quite as big as that other film festival that takes place in Austin in the spring, but it's still possible to see films on an entirely different parallel track to someone else. In other words, I can think of a few people I know who are also attending the festival whom I haven't seen because they're watching different films than I am. After all, it's impossible to see everything. Check out some of these blog entries from other AFF attendees who watched Death of a President while I was at Rescue Dawn, or who attended more conference sessions that I could manage.

• AFF itself has a blog that includes some interesting interviews with filmmakers whose movies screened at the festival this year. Highlights include Dale Kutzera, who directed the feature Military Intelligence and You, and Daniel O'Connor, who directed Run Robot Run.
  
• Austinist has been covering AFF continually, and was the best place to find the latest info about awards and special screenings -- I believe the site is actually one of the festival sponsors. There's a good interview with Brian Helgeland, who screened a director's cut of Payback at AFF. I also liked Austinist's cool photos from the opening-night party.
  

The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:

• If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
• Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
  
• Peter Martin at Twitch reviews the workprint version of Apocalypto, including plot spoilers. He's also posted capsule reviews from Friday, Sunday, and Monday's films.
• At News of the Dead, Wiley Wiggins has been posting photos, MP3s of festival Q&As, and his impressions of various films. He perfectly summarized my feelings about The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes.
  
• Austinist has some capsule reviews from the first four days. The site also posted an interview with Lucky McKee, who will be available at Fantastic Fest screenings for The Woods (which he directed) and Roman (in which he stars).
  

It seems like everyone's in Toronto this week (including Cinematical). Man, I feel so left out. However, since I couldn't possibly make a dent in all the Web coverage of the festival from news sites and blogs, here are a few blogs with some interesting reviews and opinions regarding TIFF:

• First and foremost, check out the Toronto Doc Blog if you haven't already. Filmmakers with docs at the festival are blogging about their experiences.
• John DeFore is posting colorful anecdotes about TIFF at Austin Movie Blog. He's bemused by the security measures at even the most obscure festival offerings and wonders if this isn't the wrong approach to take when publicizing an obscure film.
• Twitch is covering TIFF like crazy, cranking out reviews and interviews faster than you can say, well, twitch.
• Moviepie caught five movies at TIFF on Tuesday (yes, that's one person), and is reporting on 2-3 movies on other festival days.
• If you want still want to read more about TIFF, GreenCine Daily not only has daily dispatches, but also entries chock-full of links to festival coverage.