Cinephiles:
At the beginning, I had every intention of producing a weekly cinebulletin, providing URL references of background material that you might wish to read before screening http://www.my pov.ca/ movies. Time and circumstance have thwarted that somewhat, but this mailing might be a possible template, if there is sufficient positive response.
Movie Reviews
http://www.mrqe.com/ (Movie Review Query Engine) is a site that collects movie reviews and feature articles. I myself avoid reviews before seeing a movie, because many critics are spoilers, revealing plot points or other essential surprises I hate knowing in the movie I'm about to screen. But http://www.mrqe.com gathers bountiful European and Canadian material as well. (56 articles on Sugar, for example). It also makes no attempt to impose some artificial rating on the movies.
So while movie critics may be endangered species in both newspapers and on radio, a cornucopia of intelligent opinion can be found here. http://www.mrqe.com/ also is interactive, encouraging you to write your own reaction.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ is less successful in my opinion, in that it quantifies the merits of every film, according to critics. (Sugar scored a 95 % among Rotten Tomatoes top critics. Ridiculous!) My point being that if this smart little movie is a 95% (out of 100%), then what rating do you give to Apocalypse or Citizen Kane? 675%? Ratings are ridiculous. These Rotten Tomatoes evaluations show no restraint.
Sundance Festival Influence
Robert Redford is a moviedom saint. Sugar will be our 2nd Sundance Festival movie (Sunshine Cleaning being the first). In 1981, Redford founded The Sundance Institute to actively encourage aspiring filmmakers. By 1991, The Sundance Film Festival developed a rep for championing difficult indie directors to box office success: Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino were but two. Where once a Sundance film implied less than Hollywood standards, all that changed with 2006's Little Miss Sunshine. Now we see Sundance Festival movies everywhere: The Visitor, Frozen River, In Bruges, Man on Wire. This history is interesting. Here are some sites, you might enjoy.
http://www.ugo.com/movies/sundance-survival-guide/?cur=sundance-history
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/movies/caution-cools-old-feeding-frenzy-at-sundance.html?pagewanted=all
Half Nelson
You might also want to get out the dvd of Half Nelson, the first movie (shot in 16 mm) of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the young Brooklyn couple who made Sugar. (And also a Sundance success.) Half Nelson is a toughly observed story of a white Brooklyn teacher losing his own battle with drugs ,while mentoring a black kid whose family has been torn apart by drug dealing.
The death of Lino Ortiz
Sugar makes no allusions to drug use, but for the past ten years, sports stories have emerged of Dominican kids being pumped up. Sammy Sosa, the homerun slugger is from the DR. Indeed many of baseball's biggest stars now stand accused of having taken steroids. A lot say they procured them in the DR.
In 2005, Lino Ortiz, a young DR ballplayer, pumped up with steroids, died. His story is here: (http://denison.fdns.net/physedhtml/downloads/baseball.htm) `Nobody knows exactly what percentage of kids are using drugs. But in a country like this, where signing a contract can change your life forever ... imagine what they'll be willing to do, said one guy.
Hunger Follow Up
I understand the strong response against the graphic nature of Hunger (and Gomorra). Here's a piece from today's Salon, suggesting that the Bush administration started thinking like Nazis as early as 2001. I'm no more a fan of graphic movies than the next guy, but all these American torture revelations is profoundly disturbing. And watching Hunger certainly brought home to me that I better damn well understand stuff I have no stomach for watching: my own kind may have a capacity to behave like Nazis. I just don't know how to think about that.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/04/22/benjamin?source=newsletter
Feedback
I need to know whether turning out this kind of cinebulletin interests members. Drop me a note and let me know.
peter
At the beginning, I had every intention of producing a weekly cinebulletin, providing URL references of background material that you might wish to read before screening http://www.my pov.ca/ movies. Time and circumstance have thwarted that somewhat, but this mailing might be a possible template, if there is sufficient positive response.
Movie Reviews
http://www.mrqe.com/ (Movie Review Query Engine) is a site that collects movie reviews and feature articles. I myself avoid reviews before seeing a movie, because many critics are spoilers, revealing plot points or other essential surprises I hate knowing in the movie I'm about to screen. But http://www.mrqe.com gathers bountiful European and Canadian material as well. (56 articles on Sugar, for example). It also makes no attempt to impose some artificial rating on the movies.
So while movie critics may be endangered species in both newspapers and on radio, a cornucopia of intelligent opinion can be found here. http://www.mrqe.com/ also is interactive, encouraging you to write your own reaction.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ is less successful in my opinion, in that it quantifies the merits of every film, according to critics. (Sugar scored a 95 % among Rotten Tomatoes top critics. Ridiculous!) My point being that if this smart little movie is a 95% (out of 100%), then what rating do you give to Apocalypse or Citizen Kane? 675%? Ratings are ridiculous. These Rotten Tomatoes evaluations show no restraint.
Sundance Festival Influence
Robert Redford is a moviedom saint. Sugar will be our 2nd Sundance Festival movie (Sunshine Cleaning being the first). In 1981, Redford founded The Sundance Institute to actively encourage aspiring filmmakers. By 1991, The Sundance Film Festival developed a rep for championing difficult indie directors to box office success: Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino were but two. Where once a Sundance film implied less than Hollywood standards, all that changed with 2006's Little Miss Sunshine. Now we see Sundance Festival movies everywhere: The Visitor, Frozen River, In Bruges, Man on Wire. This history is interesting. Here are some sites, you might enjoy.
http://www.ugo.com/movies/sundance-survival-guide/?cur=sundance-history
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/movies/caution-cools-old-feeding-frenzy-at-sundance.html?pagewanted=all
Half Nelson
You might also want to get out the dvd of Half Nelson, the first movie (shot in 16 mm) of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the young Brooklyn couple who made Sugar. (And also a Sundance success.) Half Nelson is a toughly observed story of a white Brooklyn teacher losing his own battle with drugs ,while mentoring a black kid whose family has been torn apart by drug dealing.
The death of Lino Ortiz
Sugar makes no allusions to drug use, but for the past ten years, sports stories have emerged of Dominican kids being pumped up. Sammy Sosa, the homerun slugger is from the DR. Indeed many of baseball's biggest stars now stand accused of having taken steroids. A lot say they procured them in the DR.
In 2005, Lino Ortiz, a young DR ballplayer, pumped up with steroids, died. His story is here: (http://denison.fdns.net/physedhtml/downloads/baseball.htm) `Nobody knows exactly what percentage of kids are using drugs. But in a country like this, where signing a contract can change your life forever ... imagine what they'll be willing to do, said one guy.
Hunger Follow Up
I understand the strong response against the graphic nature of Hunger (and Gomorra). Here's a piece from today's Salon, suggesting that the Bush administration started thinking like Nazis as early as 2001. I'm no more a fan of graphic movies than the next guy, but all these American torture revelations is profoundly disturbing. And watching Hunger certainly brought home to me that I better damn well understand stuff I have no stomach for watching: my own kind may have a capacity to behave like Nazis. I just don't know how to think about that.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/04/22/benjamin?source=newsletter
Feedback
I need to know whether turning out this kind of cinebulletin interests members. Drop me a note and let me know.
peter
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