Michael Moore’s announcement last month of his plan to help documentaries at the box office has sparked a lot of discussion. His plan is to meet with the heads of major theater chains to convince them to play documentaries every Monday night on one screen per theater. But because Moore withheld the details of the plan, some are skeptical.

As IndieWire reported today, people are asking questions like:

- Who will choose the docs being shown?
- Will the filmmakers have to pay and/or will they receive a portion of the ticket sales?

Also, just because a film is in a theater, doesn’t mean that people will show up. Distributors pointed out that big bucks would be needed for a marketing campaign.

Some doc bloggers are critical of the plan as well. On the blog, doc it out, author Agnes Varnum says that the plan “ghetto-izes certain films as unable to make a profit so they can only get into the theater on a night when almost no one goes anyways.”

And Spout blog has little faith in the plan:

But wait a minute, you can’t hate the guy for trying. It’s not as if Moore is doing this to help his own films get exposure; Sicko alone made $4.5 million on it’s opening weekend. This plan has the potential to help films that would never be seen in theaters (or ever) get a chance at some exposure.

As much as there has been skepticism, there has also been praise. Blogger AJ Schnack says in his blog, All These Wonderful Things:

Until the details of Moore’s proposed doc night are released, it’s hard to judge whether or not it will be a success. Overall, though, I think it’s a positive thing. It is one method that can be implemented, among many, to help the declining state of docs in theaters. At least he’s taking advantage of his influence and trying something new.

—Posted by Brittany Mayne

On Sunday, the New York Times reported activities around a new reading of the Alabama constitution, which will grant thousands of former felons in Alabama the right to vote.

It seems that the constitution, previously thought to ban all felons from voting, actually only disenfranchises those who have committed a felony involving “moral turpitude.” Drug possession felonies, among others, would fall outside that classification.

The most incredible quote in the article came from a Republican party official, who had this to say in reference to a previous piece of state legislation that would affect the voting rights of all ex-felons in Alabama, regardless of moral turpitude:

“There’s no more anti-Republican bill than this,” said Marty Connors, the chairman of the state Republican Party according to news reports at the time. “As frank as I can be, we’re opposed to it because felons don’t tend to vote Republican.”

The quote reveals the biggest obstacle to any type of electoral reform in the US: political leaders from both major parties only support reform to the extent that it further enfranchises their own constituencies. It’s just rare that a politician will admit to this so directly.

Armed with sodas and popcorn, ninety-five excited high school students entered the theater at Tribeca Cinemas for the Tribeca Youth Screening Series, presented by the Tribeca Film Institute and Arts Engine’s Media That Matters Film Festival. These young adults came from several public high schools across New York City to enjoy a screening of Patricia Riggen’s latest film, La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon). The film tells the story of Carlitos, a young Mexican boy who is left behind to live with his sick grandmother as his mother crosses the border to California. We watched as the mother braves the odds and risks all in order to secure Carlitos with a financial future. However, after his grandmother dies, Carlitos decides to cross the border alone and reunite with his mother. Facing the obstacles shared by many immigrants around the world, Carlitos meets various characters that attempt to take advantage of his unfortunate situation. Through a series of events he meets Enrique, a migrant worker, who initially resents Carlitos but learns to trust and care for him. Together they venture to east Los Angeles, where the only clue to the whereabouts of his mother is the description of a pay phone from which she would call him every Sunday.

Throughout the movie, the students were seriously engaged in this love story between Carlitos and his mother. During the funny scene of Carlitos and Enrique singing and dancing in the kitchen they laughed, and when the cops almost caught Carlitos the theater was so silent that anyone could hear our hearts beating. There were cheers and tears as the crowd rallied for the characters, and for the idea of immigrants escaping the oppressive and abusive system.

At the end of the film Adrian Alonso (Carlitos) and Eugenio Derbez (Enrique) were presented to the audience for a Q&A session. The students roared as if they had just spotted Britney Spears. Both actors had traveled to New York from Mexico City for the film’s promotional tour and were obviously excited to be present. The teachers had pre-selected students to come up and ask questions. Over and over the students spoke about how moved they were and how unaware they were to the rough life of immigrants. While thirteen-year-old Adrian joked around with the students, Eugenio spoke of the importance of having this movie reach young adults across the country in hopes that awareness and education would be the beginning of a solution. The chemistry between the two actors and the audience was incredible. Mission accomplished!

All teachers participating in the Tribeca Youth Screening Series were given study guides to discuss the issues of immigration further. These study guides include information about La Misma Luna as well as illegal immigration myths and realities, the impact of immigration on New York schools and advice on how their students can get involved. Arts Engine paired this film with The Sixth Section, from the fourth annual Media That Matters Film Festival, which was sent for free to participating teachers along with an accompanying Discussion & Take Action Guide. Students watched the film in their classrooms prior to screening La Misma Luna. The Sixth Section tells the story of Grupo Union; a small Mexican town behaving like a transnational corporation—in reverse. Instead of exporting jobs to the third world in order to pay low wages, the town of Boqueron has exported workers to New York, in order to earn higher wages. The two processes are mirror images of each other. Except for one major difference; when the executive travels to Mexico to relocate his factory, he doesn’t have to hide in the trunk of a car. Using this film, the students are able to dig deeper into the issues of immigration, especially in defusing the many myths associated with immigration, such as the accusation of immigrants “stealing” jobs from legal US citizens, or the association of “protecting” US borders with the “war on terror.” Educating youth in global issues is such an important goal and yet many filmmakers are not taking advantage of this key audience. One day, this generation will be our leaders, and I only hope that they will help to bring the dream of a new world order one step closer.

—Posted by Oliver Palan

In just six weeks IndieGoGo has featured 120 projects, raised $16,000 in fan contributions, and generated new partnerships for independent filmmakers, their projects and causes.

IndieGoGo, the online social marketplace that connects filmmakers and fans to make more independent film happen announced today that Minna Packer (Back to Gombin) raised $10,000 to shoot a “sneak peek” of her new narrative film The Lilliput.

This is the first project to successfully reach its fundraising goals on IndieGoGo. The film chronicles the true story of Umchzek Kerber, a Jewish dwarf and friend of the Packer family, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in garbage cans in a Warsaw railway station.

Earlier this week, I attended a press screening of Dean Budnick’s Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Rock Club. The film is a lively oral history of this influential club. When I first moved to New York about 12 years ago, I went to see a lot of live music. Sadly, most of the places I frequented are no longer around: CBGB on the Bowery, Brownie’s on Avenue A, Tramps in Chelsea, the Cooler in the Meatpacking District. Located in the nowhere land of the Tribeca of the early 1990s, add Wetlands to this long list of music venues that fell victim to the forces of gentrification. I have to confess, however, that part of my curiosity in watching this documentary was that I never saw a show at “Sweat glands” (the unfortunate nickname acquired after the club’s inadequate ventilation system). This was due partially to my indifference for the type of music most often associated with it, hippie jam rock.

Through the film, I enjoyed learning that club owner Larry Bloch had a strong commitment to establishing a connection between the music he supported and his lefty politics. Specifically, that the for-profit arm of the enterprise (the music club) funded its non-profit Center for Social and Environmental Justice. Wetlands played host to up-and-coming performers that later became hugely successful, such as Pearl Jam, the Dave Matthews Band, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Spin Doctors. Blues Traveler played there so often that it was known as the unofficial “house band.” (They also played a benefit for the club when it struggled financially.) But the club was just as adamant about supporting grassroots multi-issue organizing in campaigns that ranged from indigenous people’s rights to fighting police brutality and racial profiling. A bulletin board held postings that allowed folks with minority views to voice their opinion. It housed “eco-saloons” that gathered between 20 and 30 like-minded people to plan actions, such as demos and letter-writing campaigns. Bloch was using Dr. Bronner’s soap and other earth-friendly products in his club because he was ethically inclined to do so, long before Oprah, the New York Times, et al., got “green.”

The documentary tells Wetlands’ tale through lead singers and musicians, their fans, DJs, music critics, activists, and bartenders and bar backs. There is footage of what is left of the club—a mural in the former women’s restrooms, painted by the late Ed Vega. Animation takes the place of actual footage of the bands, which works to a certain extent. Still, Wetlands’ is a fun, inspiring story. Damn, I wish I had seen Fishbone there!

My colleague Rico pointed out to me today that former Arts Engine staff member Giulia Rozzi came up with a comprehensive list of the top feminist blogs around the web. While many of the blogs were created with a female audience in mind, some are more inclusive with a focus on creating a context by which women’s issues can be heard as part of a larger progressive movement.

A few of these blogs are new to me and I am excited to check them out. As some of you may remember from a previous post, I believe the influence of women in media and technology is incredibly understated so it is great to see more attention paid to females in these fields.

Austin “Live Music Capital of the World”, TX

Again it’s hard to summarize even just the Interactive Festival because there were so many panels happening at the same time. I will highlight some but I encourage you to visit the video coverage of the interactive panels for yourself.

Much of the post-festival buzz is about the interview between journalist Sarah Lacy and the keynote speaker Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO. It seems the audience found her style of interviewing Zuckerberg flirty and condescending. Much of their dismay was expressed in realtime on Twitter.com, winner of the SXSW Best Blog Award in 2007. Speaking of awards, check out the 2008 Web Award Winners. World Without Oil, a real approach to change, won the Activism Award and MetaNotes, which I found truly innovative, won the Experimental Award.

Natalie Zee Drieu, Senior Editor for CRAFT Magazine

In A Dream movie poster

On March 14, the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas organized a panel of queer Asian American visual artists working mainly on video. The event, which took place at Downtown Community Television, featured artists Alan Calpe, Lynne Chan, and Stuart Gaffney. I was invited to moderate the discussion. The evening was introduced by curator Doreen Wang, who selected the presenters because of the ways in which their work speaks about the intersection of queerness and being Asian American. Approaches to this question varied widely. Gaffney’s videos contained autobiographical musings on his parents mixed race marriage and the lack of role models for queers of mixed descent, while Chan looked to subvert stereotypes of Asian masculinity by adopting a comic persona and engaging in physically demanding activities like driving in a demolition derby and training in Muay Thai kickboxing. Calpe’s film work used camp to critique the desire for gay assimilation by depicting a scene of couple domesticity that starts with the making of a souffle, and ends with its inevitable implosion.

The ladies of Production here at Arts Engine are mentors for IFP’s Documentary Rough Cut Lab, a program that, through the feedback and guidance of more experienced filmmakers, supports first time filmmakers in the completion of their first feature length documentary. This week we had our first meeting to prep for the upcoming madness. Apparently there is a video on the IFP website that features both the narrative and doc labs. Watch it to (briefly) see us in action.

Note: Filmmakers talk with their hands … a lot!

The new Errol Morris doc, Standard Operating Procedure, has it’s latest trailer up on Apple Trailers. It looks so good! Also, Errol Morris’ website is one of the biggest time-sucks ever. There is a ton of stuff there!

While my idea of a good time gaming is plugging in the Nintendo Wii at home and playing a good game of tennis or rocking out with Guitar Hero, lots of ladies are apparently turning to the online game Miss Bimbo as reported by Games Radar.

Miss Bimbo, in short, allows you to live the life of whomever is the current socialite du jour vicariously through your online avatar. Games Radar sums up the details in the following quote:

While the creators may have intended to be ironic, many are wondering whether this is the Grand Theft Auto (a video game thought to encourage violent behavior in boys) equivalent for girls. Another video game blog, Gaming Today, provides a very real concern:

As a woman, who is also tired of seeing largely untalented socialites serve as role models for young women, I believe that we should instead promote games that portray women in a more positive light or at the very least games that empower our girls to do good.

Great News! Our very own staff member, Jolene Pinder, has won first place in the documentary category at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ College Television Awards (aka the Student Emmys).

She shares the award with her long-term friend and co-director Sarah Zaman for their film Bismillah, a feature length documentary about a Muslim woman who runs for political office in Minnesota. The film was also a finalist for the International Documentary Association’s David Wolper Award for Student Documentary and was selected to participate in Working Films’ Content + Intent Documentary Institute at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

(from left to right, directors Sarah Zaman and Jolene Pinder with the film’s composer, Yazan Fahmawi)

Film Synopsis:

Bismillah follows the beginnings of one Muslim woman’s groundbreaking struggle against America’s political structure. The film tells the story of Farheen Hakeem, a 31-year-old Muslim Girl Scout troop leader who puts herself under public scrutiny by taking part in the consummate patriotic act — running for office. Farheen’s challenge: to tackle head-on the assumptions our society makes about Muslims today.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Farheen is the first Muslim woman to run for office in Minnesota. She is not your typical Muslim woman. She covers her head but shakes hands with men. She is neither apologetic for her religious beliefs nor silent about the biases she sees in her community. She is neither suppressed nor oppressed. She is a fighter.

Congratulations, Jolene and Sarah!

The Cinema Eye Honors originated to recognize documentary filmmakers as artists deserving of attention for their craft. The first award ceremony was held at the IFC Center, in New York, a few weeks ago. Organizers AJ Schnack and Thom Powers sought to expand the categories under which documentarians are celebrated; for example, awards were given for “Outstanding Achievement in Editing” and “Outstanding Achievement in Graphics & Animation.” The night’s big winner was Manda Bala, which took top prizes in Cinematography (for a female DP, Heloisa Passos—hooray), Editing, and for Best Nonfiction Filmmaking. There were moving tributes to St. Clair Bourne and Tony Silver—by far, these segments were my favorite part of the evening. Nonso Christian Ugbode humbly recalled Bourne as a generous mentor as well as a fierce filmmaker; Ugbode also put together a nice selection of clips of Bourne’s work. As a longtime resident of Alphabet City (and Avenue D at that), it was such a thrill for me to watch the opening scenes of Silver’s Style Wars, with its shots of subway cars covered in graffiti and B-boys flipping on their heads. Another highlight was that The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (a big favorite among the Arts Engine crew) won the Audience Choice Award. Kudos go to distributor IndiePix for sponsoring the awards and to Danielle DiGiacomo for being such a staunch supporter of documentary.