Remember how Joaquin Phoenix said he was quitting the acting game and becoming a hip-hop star? He grew a beard and acted weird on David Letterman and other things.
At the time it all seemed very odd and rumour had it that it was all in the name of art.
Turns out that was exactly the case and Casey Affleck has supposedly finished the mockumentary based around Phoenix’s crazy antics.
Deadline have the news that it was shown for the first time in a private lunchtime screening at WME headquarters last week for buyers — including Harvey Weinstein — who were sworn to secrecy.
They are going to keep the actual content of the mockumentary as secret as they can, but it will be interesting to see what it has all been about. Personally I can’t wait to see Phoenix back on the Letterman show once the film is released.
Salt is the story of award winning and internationally renowned photo-artist, Murray Fredericks on his annual solo pilgrimage to the heart of Lake Eyre in the remote north corner of South Australia. It is a piece on the personal journey of the artist, the creative process and the landscape itself.
Alone on the most featureless landscape on earth, Murray’s personal video diary captures the beauty of this bleak, empty and desolate environment – and provides the catalyst for an unexpected personal transformation.
Told with subtlety, care and gentle, dry humour, Salt is the story of what emanates from emptiness. By combining the breathtaking imagery of this surreal landscape with the hauntingly delicate sounds of Aajinta’s Harmonic Spheres, it attempts to identify what lies beneath the surface of our reality and how ‘something’ can be produced from ‘nothing’. Vodpod videos no longer available.
You can do some good and help fund this indie documentary. You never know, it may just change someones life. Thanks to Deniese Davis for sharing.
Las Vegas is a city well known around the world as an “Adult’s Playground” for vacation getaway and fun. What about the children and teens who reside here as “locals”? They are enclosed in a beautiful place where its main focus is money, tourism and more money. Las Vegas resides in Clark County, which is the fifth largest and second worst school district in America with 309,051 students enrolled in K-12. It is also one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. In the 1980’s there were 12 major high schools in Vegas but as of 2009, there are now 52. There are city municipal codes, which enforce a strict minor curfew of midnight for anyone under 18 years old. That includes movie theaters, bowling alleys and even arcades. 75% of the movie theaters in Vegas are built inside a casino and heavily upholds this law. Where are the entertainment outlets for teenagers? There are none.
With the grueling five-day week at school behind them, kids just want to have fun. The most common form of escapism for Vegas teens is house parties. These are thrown at a teen’s house sometimes with no parental supervision, as a parent working a graveyard shift is common in this 24-hour city. Most often than not- the parties spin out of control. Violence occurs, gangs clash, gunshots go off and the party ends in an abrupt state of panic.
Lost Vegas will explore the restrictions placed upon the adolescence that reside in the city of Las Vegas and the dampening effects it has on their lives. The young people in this city struggle with positive entertainment outlets because of the lack of resources Vegas provides for them. The films point of view will be seen through the children of Las Vegas, those who have resided here their entire lives or through grade school but have been deeply impacted by this ever growing problem. Telling the story through their eyes will suggest a style that is most empathetic with viewers. The subject is the city of Las Vegas and these are the people who know this city best. Ultimately, I want the audience to feel and understand that this social problem may also exist elsewhere in the country. I want to focus on an issue of positive change in resources for ALL teenagers and explore different solutions to help better their lives overall.
I am approaching this project single handily all shot on an HD small consumer video camera. At the end of the day, its the story that counts and this style will reinforce that (which is why the budget is so tiny)!
No One Knows About Persian Cats is a 2009 Persian film directed by Bahman Ghobadi, starring Hamed Behdad, and produced by Wild Bunch.
Originally titled Kesi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh, in the film’s native language, this film first took on the name of Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats before finally being titled No One Knows About Persian Cats.
The film offers perspective of Iran as it explores its underground Rock scene. It won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
When world-renowned architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown discover that their iconic pop-art creation will be demolished in ten days, they scramble to save the house as the city of New York cheers them on.
180° SOUTH is the story of one of the most unique and prolific environmentalists of our time -Yvon Chouinard.
Rather than re-living Yvon’s story through old photos and his life’s work with pie charts, 180° SOUTH weaves Chouinard’s tale through a modern day expedition. This expedition was inspired by the rumor of a legendary trip in 1968 and the proof that came with it when the lost cans of film that documented the trip were recently discovered. The old footage captures Chouinard and best friend Doug Tompkins in 1968 as they explore untouched mountain ranges and un-surfed coastline on a 5000 mile expedition from California to deep Patagonia. For the two men, the original ’68 adventure still stands as “the trip of our lives.”
A young American adventurer named Jeff Johnson happened upon the footage in 1999 and spent the next ten years of his life dreaming of following their footsteps south. In 2007, Jeff dropped everything to finally fulfill his dream. He set out to follow Chouinard’s classic route on what became a six month traverse of North and South America.
His hope is simply to find unclimbed mountains and un-ridden waves in the spirit of his heroes. However, as he travels, his eyes open up to the see environmental disasters that threaten these places as well as the human triumphs that are working to save them. From the start of the film, each scene seamlessly echoes back and forth between Jeff’s modern day adventure and conversations happening in a century old stone cabin in deep Patagonia. The two men (Chouinard and Tompkins) cook the fish they have just caught on a wood-burning stove. Their hair is silver now and the lines on their faces speak volumes. They have been best friends and expedition partners for over fifty years. They recount their lives with simple and humble narratives (all of which have achieved folkloric stature in the outdoor world).
The stories come to life with classic archival footage and hand drawn animation (by artist Geoff McFetridge). Each story flows in-and-out of Jeff’s voyage becoming a parable to a thesis that has solidified them as true visionaries in the most important revolution of our time: the preservation of the natural world. As the film progresses and Jeff picks up several more characters, each with their own unique views of the world, we realize that Jeff has been with the old men in the cabin the whole time. Asking the questions that have produced the stories and philosophies we see. We also come to find out that we are on the eve of what could be the last big climb of their lives together (as they are both almost 70 now). It is an unclimbed, unnamed peak that is part of a two-million acre preserve. A park that the two have created together.
Dozens of Utah companies attracted unwanted attention from Hollywood heavyweights when, in the name of conservative family values, they began sanitizing films of sex, nudity, profanity, and violence. Outraged over the unauthorized editing of their work, prominent filmmakers began to speak out, thrusting the two groups into a legal, theoretical, and moral battle that would last six years before coming to a shocking conclusion.
Mormons can be movie lovers too. The problem is that their religious leaders strongly discourage R-rated content. As one Mormon prophet explained, “The mind through which
this filth passes is never the same afterwards.” In order to better serve their Mormon
clientele, enterprising video stores in Utah started to offer “clean” versions of popular titles
like The Matrix and Titanic. Using digital editing software, self-appointed censors removed nudity, gratuitous violence and profanity, then mass duplicated the clean versions for DVD rental. Soon the idea took off, and multiple franchises sought to capitalize on brands like CleanFlicks and Flick’s Club. For a brief spell, it seemed like the perfect business.
Unfortunately, no one consulted the copyright holders. Hollywood figures such as Steven Soderbergh, Curtis Hanson and Michael Mann became vocal opponents of having their
work re-edited. As quickly as the clean movement blossomed, it started to unravel, with
legal threats from Hollywood, accusations among rivals and even a sex scandal in the
back room of a clean video store.
In Cleanflix, directors Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi chronicle the rise and fall of the
clean movement. Having grown up in the Mormon community, the duo gained close
access to the main players that outsiders might never have achieved. The controversy
over cleaning films raises further questions: Who gets to set cultural standards? Does
what we watch affect how we behave?
The film gives a broader context for understanding the Mormon institution (known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) by talking to its adherents and those who
have dropped out, most notably the playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute, known for the
dark themes in scripts like In the Company of Men and Bash.
As events unfold, one thing becomes clear: in movies, you can skip over the parts you
don’t like. But in real life, you can’t.
The Parking Lot Movie is a documentary about a singular parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia and the select group of parking lot attendants that inhabit its microcosm. The attendants are a uniquely varied group of men comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, artists, musicians, intellectuals, philosophers and marginal-type characters.
A strange rite of passage for all involved everything from cars and license plates, class struggles, capitalism, anger, justice, drunkenness, and awareness receive daily scrutiny and detailing. For these denizens of Charlottesville, the intersection between the status quo and the quest for freedom becomes the challenge. Something as simple as a parking lot becomes an emotional weigh station for The American Dream. In the end, as one attendant interestingly puts it, We had it all in a world that had nothing to offer us.
Waiheke Island, New Zealand, might as well be a Greenpeace retirement village, ever since members of the pioneering crew of the famous Rainbow Warrior ship settled there. Advancing age causes the “burnt-out greenies” to wonder what their activism has achieved for the world as they look back on their adventures aboard Greenpeace’s first vessel. From her maiden voyage to her burial at sea, the Rainbow Warrior was more than just a ship; she was the symbol for an entire movement. In the memories of those who served as her crew, she was also a living thing, a protectress, and a colleague in the fight for environmental justice. Archival footage and interviews reveal telling differences between protests of the past and contemporary campaigning. Have celebrity endorsements supplanted direct action? Have chipper telemarketers replaced risk-taking demonstrators? Is Greenpeace still a movement—or a multinational?
Remember how Joaquin Phoenix said he was quitting the acting game and becoming a hip-hop star? He grew a beard and acted weird on David Letterman and other things.
Live for Films 