Steady Diet of Film

Rory Kennedy on Hardball aka why the sky is not falling on documentary film-makers.

Combining many of my favorite things, documentary director Rory Kennedy (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) was a guest on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews this afternoon to discuss her latest film Thank You, Mr President about White House press corp reporter Helen Thomas. 

The film premieres next month as a part of HBO's Documentary Film Series, a program spearheaded by Sheila Nevins to showcase a new documentary film each Monday throughout the summer. The series also includes Susan and Alan Raymond's (the Police Tapes) latest Hard Times at Douglass High and the Black List (produced by film critic extraordinaire Elvis Mitchell) as well as festival darlings like Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired and the Recruiter. 

While premiering on television (even a premium channel that was home to critical favorites like "the Sopranos", "Sex and the City" and "Entourage") may be considered a step down for a lot of film-makers one can't help but sense that in a year that has seen the demise of no fewer than five indie distributors and boutique studio branches (with another circling the drain) having a captive audience of 40 million paid subscribers (which also makes their checks less likely to bounce) if cable television may not play a bigger role in the changing distribution system that is presently in total upheaval.

Of course my basic cable package and I will be waiting to these films on dvd, which are slated to be released later this year.

SnagFilms makes hundreds of docs available online.

The above video is a full-length embed is Girl 27, a documentary (directed by David Stenn) that played at Sundance 2007 and I've been a cheerleader for ever since.

The film tells the story of Patricia Douglas a dancer who was raped at an MGM party in 1937 and became the target of a massive cover-up and smear campaign coordinated between the powerful film studio, local media and local government.

The embed is provided by a new start-up called SnagFilms, founded by four AOL alums the site is a sort of Hulu-style model exclusively for documentaries. Providing full-length streaming that is free (ad- and donation-supported) and works on all platforms including ready-made embeds for mobile devices and social networking sites. The site currently has 270 documentaries available with that number expected to be around 800 by the end of the year.

The announcement this morning of Snag's acquisition of indieWIRE (the goto site for coverage, reviews and interviews for independent films, documentaries and film festivals) provides some insight into how Snag views it's future as a destination site for high-information film lovers. In an open letter to their readers indieWIRE's editor-in-chief/co-founder Eugene Hernandez wrote:

We guarantee our commitment to maintaining indieWIRE's integrity, and I also want to focus on what we can do to bolster our own fledgling social network, IndieLoop. More than 10,000 people have joined that site and I am anxious to hear how we should rebuild it into an even more useful set of tools for filmmakers.

However, since Snag's business model is predicated on theatrical releases being less relevant to both audiences and film-makers one has to wonder if there won't be some influence over indieWIRE's content in the coming months and years. Then again, with several independent distributors and "boutique" branches of studios folding, declaring bankruptcy or bouncing payroll checks in recent months, it's likely the site's coverage would be changing anyway. 

And while I still bristle a bit at the language the site uses to talk about supporting film-makers being an act of charity (bloggers posting ad-supported video on their site as an act of "filmanthropy", partnerships with charitable organizations to entice donations, etc.) this is a huge step forward in connecting a wider audience (specifically the demographic with the most disposable income, natch) with deserving and powerful documentary films.

Previously:
Watch Great Documentaries Online Without Incurring the Wrath of the MPAA.

UPDATE: Alright well, the embeds don't seem to be working for me or for other bloggers. But they are linking back to Snag's site and the streams are fine. We'll keep you posted.

Recently on Show Me Your Titles: Cathy & Erin Do America! And Senior Year.

Cathy and Erin celebrate the 4th of July by reviewing a few classic American films including Rocky (John G. Avildsen), Airplane (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker) and Revenge of the Nerds (Jeff Kanew). 

Cathy and Erin also review three recent films about kids saying farewell to high school including American Teen (Nanette Burnstein), the Wackness (Jonathan Levine) and Remember the Daze (also known as the Beautiful Ordinary (Jess Manafort).

Share any feedback at Show Me Your Titles.

Review: Patriotism.

Patriotism (also called "The Rite of Love and Death") is a 27-minute silent film directed by Yukio Mishima, the subject of Paul Schrader's film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (re-released by Criterion on the same day). The film was shot in secret and screened in France in attempt to raise Mishima's profile in Europe as he believed he was in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The film, shot four years prior to Mishima's suicide by seppuku (self-inflicted disembowelment followed by beheading) eerily features himself in the lead role as a general whose men are unable to incite a coup and decides to commit harakiri (self-inflicted stab wound to the stomach). His shy, but beautiful and besotted wife pledges her devotion to him and agrees to also commit harakiri.

Click here to read my review of Patriotism.

Review: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Paul Schrader -- having internalized the criticism he faced after Taxi Driver of pouring his obsession with ritualistic suicide into an illiterate, mentally ill Vietnam veteran -- explores the real life (and gruesome death) of one of Japan's most revered literary figures, Yukio Mishima. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters exists in Schrader's eclectic directorial body of work squarely between the re-make of Val Lewton's Cat People and the oddball Joan Jett/Michael J. Fox vehicle Light of Day. And even though he would go on to direct the widely commended Affliction and the intriguing Auto Focus, Schrader has always maintained (rightfully so) that Mishima was his greatest work.

The film follows the traditional trajectory of a biopic: his dysfunctional upbringing, romantic endeavors, romantic failures, political radicalization and self-discovery but the wikipedia-approach is not the main objective. Schrader (always more respected as a screenwriter than director, then and now) understands that a writer's work and fantasy life hold the key to understanding the choices they make in the terrestrial realm.

Click here to read my review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.