Recently in Film Category

If so, I encourage you to attend the premiere, on U-Mich campus, of a new film: Life is for the Living, a documentary about the people, the politics and the science of stem cell research. It will be shown on March 12 at the Michigan Theater (603 E. Liberty St.) at 7:30 pm.

The film has added relevance as Michigan will be voting on a stem cell ballot initiative this fall.

The film includes the stories of five American families living with the painful realities of Juvenile Diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Spinal Cord Injury.

It is in the context of the statewide ballot initiative in Michigan this fall and the national debate over embryonic stem cell research.

As that debate continues in Washington and across the country, three generations of Americans reveal their challenges, their frustration with the President’s policy, and the hope that more funding for embryonic stem cell research will lead to new treatments and cures to relieve their suffering and save their lives.

Life is for the Living also explores the science behind stem cell research and the political debate taking place across the nation.

The film includes an introduction by CBS 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace and interviews with the nation's leading scientific researchers, political leaders, and advocates.

Here's a partial list of those who are in the documentary:

• The Honorable Janet Reno, Former United States Attorney General
• Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
• Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm
• Congressman Michael Castle (R-DE)
• Former Congressman Joe Schwarz (R-MI)
• Dr. Sean Morrison, Director, University of Michigan Center for Stem Cell Biology
• Dr. Clive Svendsen, University of Wisconsin Madison
• Dr. David T. Scadden, Co-Director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
• Dr. Stuart H. Orkin, Chair, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Harvard Medical School
• Dr. Amy Wagers, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
• Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, University of Utah School of Medicine
• Dr. Robert Lanza, VP Research, Advanced Cell Technology

Again, if you are in the area tomorrowthis evening, March 12, go see Life is for the Living at 7:30 pm at the Michigan Theater.

P.S. Oh and one more thing: the filmmaker, Michael Rubyan, is my son. He's 20 and a junior at U-M. I couldn't be prouder of him!

This is a parody of all the "100" list specials that the American Film Institute keeps putting out. Each clip shows a character giving a numerical quote, and all the clips count down from 100. It runs about 9 minutes; stick with it and see how many of these movies you can name.

Laughter isn't the best medicine. It's the only medicine.

Get Well Soon.
June 29th.

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir reviews Michael Moore's newest, Sicko, and comes away impressed:

When Americans do get to see "Sicko," Moore says, "They will understand that this was about helping 9/11 rescue workers who've been abandoned by the government. They're not going to focus on Cuba or Fidel Castro or any other nonsense coming out of the Bush White House. They're going to say: 'You're telling me that al-Qaida prisoners get better medical treatment than the people who tried to recover bodies from the wreckage at ground zero?'"

Hmmm. Wonder how they'll spin that?

Oh -- and the part about Moore, a right-wing blogger and his cancer-stricken wife will blow your mind. But you'll have to read that part for yourself.

"I hope this film engenders discussion, not just about healthcare, but about why we are the way we are these days," Moore told us. "Where is our soul? Why would we allow 50 million Americans, 9 million of them children, not to have health insurance? Maybe my role as a filmmaker is to go down a road we might be afraid to go down, because it might lead to a dark place."

Dark but entertaining for sure.

When Moore interviews Tony Benn, a leading figure on the British left, his larger concerns come into focus. Benn argues that for-profit healthcare and the other instruments of the corporate state, like student loans and bottomless credit-card debt, perform a crucial function for that state. They undermine democracy by creating a docile and hardworking population that is addicted to constant debt and an essentially unsustainable lifestyle, that literally cannot afford to quit jobs or take time off, that is more interested in maintaining high incomes than in social or political change. Moore seizes on this insight and makes it a kind of central theme...

I haven't seen the film yet, and/but I have a concern here. If Moore presents this as a shadow-policy, coordinated at the highlest levels, I'm skeptical because everyone knows no one is in charge. But that's a minor point. Either way you cut it, it's a devastating observation.

So I guess this film is going to rile people up. There is certainly something in Moore that brings out the worst in right-wing Bush apologists. They just go...nuts when he pops up on the radar. Of course, maybe there's not so many of them left and the few-and-far-between might finally have learned how to control themselves by now.

As far as the accuracy of my movies goes, [says Moore] I think the record speaks for itself. Maybe people will say: He warned us about General Motors, he warned us about school shootings and he warned us about Bush.

Crikey. This'll definitely drive them around the bend.

I can hardly wait!

Lots in the news recently about how rocky is the road travelled by Google in trying to make YouTube an online video money-making powerhouse. The always-excellent Internet Marketing Monitor has catalogued a series of "setbacks" suffered by Google recently:

• Viacom Wants Its MTV… Pulled From YouTube
  
• NBC's Zucker Lashes Out at YouTube
• Is Google Killing YouTube With Pre-roll Advertising?
  

...and so forth.

I know how they feel. I believed that Google couldn't help but succeed, given the enormous amount of money that Google's audience represents in advertising revenues. Reading these stories was a disappoitment because I felt that Google might let this opportunity slip through its fingers.

But then I thought about it some more and here is what I found…There is plenty of blame to spread around.

In fact, although you could blame Google, I think the lion’s share of the blame should rest with the studios — based on their ignorance, greed and a desire to control forces that are grossly beyond their control.

Hear me out and consider this:

Of all the studio honchos that I’ve read about, only Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television, got it right when she said “We want to go wherever our viewers are. Viewers have control and show no sign of giving it back.”

Is she really the only honcho who understands that the viewers are walking away (in droves!) from “traditional” movie, music, and broadcast TV prodcuts? Maybe not. But she does show a refreshingly pragmatic approach to the market.

Seems obvious — there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. That said, Disney is still taking the ultra-cautious approach, having cut a deal with board director Steve Jobs’ iTunes and not Google. And make no mistake: iTunes represents only 1/40th of the volume of downloaded music — and they’re the Big Dog in the pay-for-play music industry. Hunh.

Makes you wonder what would happen if someone offered non-DRM mp3s for, say, 3 cents each. I think there’s money to be made on that, boys and girls. But the traditional studios won’t do it because they want the Big Score.

In other words, all the other studio heads are still thinking about old patterns and protocols. For example, television networks are used to getting $0.30 and more in commercial advertising revenues per viewer for a hit show.

But the revenues from Google advertising are considerably lower than that: A page eCPM of $1 generates only a tenth of a cent per view in revenue. Multiply that by ten and you still have only a cent. But those fractions-of-a-penny have added up to billions-with-a-B for little old Google.

Yes, yes, I know: the content on YouTube is infringing on copyrighted material. But, paraphrasing Sweeney again, piracy is, in fact, a business model.

But that apparaently is too daring a concept for the studio heads. Not only that — they cannot even acknowledge that a YouTube video ain’t broadcast TV and never will be.

So, I ask you: who really has their head you-know-where?

Bottom line: movie, music and TV entertainment content isn’t worth what the studios think it’s worth — not anymore, not in a Bit Torrent/YouTube world.

In THAT world, I think Google has a better idea of what (and where) the viewers are — and where the money is coming from and how much of it there really is and how to get it.

Anyway, that’s all just my opinion. I might be wrong.

But I doubt it.

This is the Top Ten list of most popular videos I created in 2006. They were posted on both YouTube and Google Video.

10. Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival
This is a 5-minute preview of the films being shown at the festival in January, 2007.

9. Amnesia
Inspired by David Byrne's song of the same name.

8. New Orleans Jazzfest 2006
The international music festival returns to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

7. Jesus Hates Democrats, So Vote AGAINST Stem-Cell Research
Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviziel gets creepy in an anti-stem cell research ad that ran in Missouri. This ad was eventually banned from YouTube -- but the proposition to support stem-cell research won, carrying Claire McCaskill into the Senate.

6. Tai Chi & Cool Jerk
My first video.

5. New Orleans Mardi Gras
Laissez les bon temps rouler! This video is the next best thing to being there.

4. My ad gets shown on The Colbert Report!
You're nobody til Stephen Colbert disses you. Crum-believable!

3. Bring 'Em Home
My daughter and I shot this one day at a municipal park in suburban Detroit; the music is from Bruce Springsteen.

2. Multiple ads for Democratic challengers
As a lark, I did 5 ads for Democratic congressional challengers: Patrick Murphy (PA-08), Paul Hodes (NH-02), Linda Stender (NJ-07), Jerry McNerney (CA-11), and Nancy Skinner (MI-09). I also did a generic ad for the Democratic party. Most got posted on candidate blogs and web sites, etc. Then Carol Gay (NJ-04) saw them and asked me to do one for her campaign. Eventually, Stephen Colbert saw THAT one and the rest is history -- see #4 above. [P.S. Carol lost, but many of the others won.]

And the #1 most popular video of mine from 2006 is...

1. Vote Republican (Because Jesus Hates Democrats)
A YouTuber sent me a video response to one of my candidate ads and I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. So I, um, tweaked it to remove all doubt. An instant classic!

Joe Barbera began his career as an animator in 1932 when he joined the Van Beuren Studio. Over the next 70+ years he (and his partner Bill Hannah) entertained multiple generations of kids and adults with cartoons like Tom & Jerry, The Ruff & Reddy Show, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Quickdraw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and many, many more.

Their animation style, coming as it did during the golden years of Disney, looked crude. But the characters were iconic and the humor was irrepressible. C'mon -- admit it -- you cracked up when you discovered that there actually was a man named Yogi Berra!

"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters (Barbera) created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.

Here's one to remember Joe Barbera by:

Man, don't that band swing?

Here's some other classics:

• Huckleberry Hound (whose title intro didn't even include the Hound himself, but rather the Kellogg's rooster!)
  
• Yogi Bear (in another Kellogg's cereal tie-in)
  
• Jerry the Mouse (and that hoofer Gene Kelly)

• Matt craps on a bunch of ridiculous ideas about programming and code that Hollywood can't seem to stay away from. His Top 10 list include this (my favorite):

  Most code is not inherently cross platform Remember in Independence Day when whatshisface-math-guy writes a virus that works on both his Apple laptop AND an alien mothership? Bullshit! If real life were like film I'd be able to port Wordpress to my toaster using a Cat5 cable and a bag of glitter.

  Read the other related posts: Top 20 Hackers in Film History.

• Speaking of films (OK this is a stretch), people are talking about Al Gore and Barack Obama as THE ticket for 2008.

• Speaking of Al Gore and war in Iraq, I have some advice for Democrats: stay the hell away from the ISG Report. It is a bag that you don't want to be left holding, if you catch my drift.

• Lastly, could there BE a funnier guy than Bill in Portland Maine? With the possible exception of John Rogers, (again, the Hollywood connection!) I doubt it.

• No wonder Scalia and Breyer have time to take their show on the road: The SCOTUS calendar has 40% fewer cases on it this year compared to last year. Given Alito/Roberts joining Scalia/Thomas, I guess that's a good thing.

• Wow! -- Selected early Kodachrome images from the 30's and 40's. And not only that: here are some additional web sites with searchable databases of images:
  • Farm Security Administration--Office of War Information Collection,
  • Library of Congress--Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America,
  • Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection.

• The reviews on the ISG and its report are all over the map. And/But this comment by Walter Shapiro seems to fly in the face of the conventional wisdom: that the group is devoid of anyone that is actually, you know, knowledgeable about the Middle East -- until you read the last sentence.

  The significance of the Iraq Study Group has little to do with its actual recommendations, which Baker admitted were not a "magic formula that will solve the problems of Iraq." Rather its importance rests entirely with the luster of the former officials on the commission, including two secretaries of state (Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger), a secretary of defense (William Perry), an attorney general (Ed Meese) and its only woman, retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Baker jokingly described them as "a group of has-beens" -- but the reality is this is about as blue-ribbon an assemblage as you get in contemporary America aside, perhaps, from the front row at a state funeral.

  Wow. I'm not sure where he's going here. Irony? Respect?

• Holy crap! Three women show up at the Kennedy Center Honors reception wearing the identical $8500 Oscar de la Renta red dress -- and that's not counting Laura Bush who was also wearing it.

• Dec. 7, 1941: The survivors of that day gather one more time.

I'm on the festival committee and volunteered to produce the web site and this video. Check it out (that's me doing the voice-over!)