Sorry for the double-shot of Spike Lee news today — Karina gave us word earlier on his being honored by SilverDocs — but at least I’ve managed to squeeze an obligatory Uwe Boll mention into the post, too. Now you’re probably wondering: what could the director of Do the Right Thing possibly have in common with the director of BloodRayne? Well, here’s your answer: they’re both encouraging the democratization of movies.

Lee is doing so more intentionally, though, by teaming up with Nokia in order to “direct” a film entirely shot by everyday people on their cell phones. According to Reuters, the film will consist of three acts, each made by a separate cameraphonographer (my lame term for the competing cell-phone filmmakers). And according to Lee, there’s no need for you to be trained in the craft to enter:

“Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker.”

Nokia will narrow down the contestants’ submissions to 25 videos, which will then be narrowed down to 10 by people voting online for their favorites. Then Lee will choose the three winners from those 10. Isn’t this kind of like a democracy where we vote for our top five Presidential candidates and then some politician gets to pick the actual commander-in-chief? For more info, check out Nokia Productions.

Meanwhile, someone has set up a whole blog devoted to something called “The Uwe Boll Movie Challenge,” which is inspired by the latest YouTube rant from the much hated filmmaker. The criteria is as follows:

To compete in the Uwe Boll Movie Challenge, you must create a short film that meets the following guidelines:

* It must be made at home.
* You must use ketchup.
* You must use a little brother.
* You must not use some bullshit nickname out of the internet.
* You have until May 16th.

Apparently there is no prize for this one “unless Uwe Boll decides to provide one.”

(via Defamer)