There are two interesting stories today related to the new Disney movie Earth, and since I’ve seen the little kid-friendly doc and disagree with both sides of the backlash, I’m going to address the stories in today’s bloggery despite the fact that only a few film blogs have commented on this topic. First off, there’s the complaint from Newsweek’s Jesse Ellison who thinks the film is too violent to be rated G, to which I call b.s. If anything, the movie cops out too much when it comes to the food-chain kills that every kid is aware of. Bambiis more violent than Earth, and I do honestly believe Ellison made up, or at least exaggerated, his observation of a little girl jumping into her father’s lap. There were kids at the press screening I attended too, but they were so visibly bored with the tameness of the movie that they were literally running up and down the aisle of the Disney screening room.
As for the other story, apparently all of the footage in Earth is recycled from BBC’s Planet Earthseries and basically only the James Earl Jones narration is fresh. Well, sure, maybe this is true, and maybe it’s a bit of a scam, but if so it’s at least a decent abridged and censored version with which to introduce kids to that series (since I’ve only seen bits of the series, I guess it was an introduction for me, as well).
So, I guess your decision to see the movie now rests on three things: you’re okay with a little implicit nature violence, you’re okay with an excellent nature series being retooled for your kids and shown on the big screen (where Planet Earth was not made available), and you want Disneynature to plant a tree in your honor, as promised by the studio’s genius promotion.
After the jump, some responses from the blogs, plus some bonus bloggery related to Earth Day:
ATWT: Let me ask you about this book you have coming out, “The Conquest of the Useless”.
WH: Ah yes, that’s a book, a prose book that’s going to be released in the summer by Harper Collins. The translation is just finished and I’m working on the translation, I’m doing some corrections and modifications. But it’s good that you mention it, because this book is certainly better than all of my films together.
ATWT: Really? Why do you say?
WH: When it’s out, read it and you will know.
In an interview with AJ Schnack, Werner Herzog discusses his upcoming book, Conquest of the Useless, which will be released on June 30. According to Amazon, its subtitle is Reflections on the Making of Fitzcarraldo, which would suggest that it’s an English translation/update of a version of Herzog’s diaries from the making of that film which was already published in Italy.
“Conquistadors of the useless” is a pet phrase of Herzog’s, popping up in Herzog and Herzog in reference to his determination to actually move the boat over the mountain in the making of Fitzcarraldo, rather than fake it or take it apart and move it in pieces. The phrase most recently appeared in print when he used it to describe “[most] everyone who climbs a steep cliff and climbs a building made of steel and glass,” when two men tried to coincidentally tried to scale the New York Times building the same day Herzog appeared there in coversation with Jonathan Demme.
The shortlist has been announced for the 2009 Cinema Eye Honors. The list includes a number of titles that many felt were unjustifiably snubbed from the Oscars shortlist, some based on qualification quibbles, including Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, My Winnipeg, The Order of Myths, Stranded: I’ve Come From A Plane That Crashed Into The Mountain, and Waltz With Bashir. Omitted: Dear Zachary, a number of Oscar shortlisted titles including I.O.U.S.A., and each of the top five highest grossing non-fiction films of 2008, including Religulous.
I’ve pasted the full shortlist after the jump with links back to previous coverage of the films on SpoutBlog. Though I haven’t personally seen all of these, between everyone on the Spout team we’ve previously covered all but two.
Every time Kurt Kuenne’s Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, my review of the film gets a new flood of angry comments. Since my analytical response to the documentary seems to be so thoroughly out of tune with the emotional responses of MSNBC viewers, I thought I’d excerpt from a few of these comments in order present the argument of the other side:
“Katrina ,
Your pure uttering of nonsense assures me that you yourself suffer of some form of illness. And I am not saying this as an insult. I truly believe you must be scarred or simply looking to rile up attention by being simple.” — michelle
“Can’t you see that Karina wrote an amateur minded article with the purpose of stirring up emotions? … Move on to a quality review, secure in your own ideas and inspirations.” — John
“I’m stunned at reading the the above “review”, - or that this film was even ‘reviewed’ at all by anyone…The basis for this film are horrid, the final outcome is unthinkable, and for YOU to criticize “how” it was made is beyond me. Just how many devoted friends to you have Karina?” — Judy
“I’m writing to Karina and I just want to say that people like you are what makes up the crazy in this world. I will say a prayer for you.” — tammy
Lessons learned: Documentaries shouldn’t be reviewed; film reviews shouldn’t ask you to question “your own ideas and inspirations”; my name is Katrina, and I am sick and mad because I tried to do my job, which I’ve always thought is not to assess a film’s merits based on how it made me feel, but on the choices made by the filmmaker, his/her degree of craft, and the quality of the finished product divorced of the maker’s noble intentions. I guess I was wrong!
I’m still catching up on RSS feeds after a week away, but as movie blog talk increasingly moves towards Oscar prognostication (because what else are we gonna talk about between now and Sundance –– Bride Wars?), I’m noticing a sort of two-headed theme emerge in the last week of the year. One the one hand: While Slumdog Millionaire, Milk and Benjamin Button all have their fans, no one seems crazy enough about the front-runners for the final two best picture slots (Frost/Nixon, Doubt and, um … Revolutionary Road? Maybe?) to label any of them as a lock; on the other: this year, to be contrarian seems to be equivalent to being populist.
AJ Schnack is publishing a series of year-end email interviews with non-fiction filmmakers. So far, he’s talked to Man on Wire director James Marsh, Trouble the Water’s Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, and Jeremiah Zagar of In a Dream; today’s interview is with Patrick Creadon, director of Wordplay and the Oscar shortlisted debt doc, I.O.U.S.A. Amongst other things, Creadon talks about a potential pitfall of having such a timely film on the festival circuit: his story balooned so fast that between its Sundance premiere and its theatrical release in August, I.O.U.S.A. was screened in four different versions.
This reminds me of something that I’ve been meaning to post about for awhile: there’s yet another version of I.O.U.S.A, a 32-and-a-half minute version which has been posted on YouTube. This authorized re-edit, according to its YouTube description, was “designed specifically for watching and sharing on the web - for free.” So have at it — I’ve embedded it above.
I’m going to go ahead and answer the question I posed in the headline: No. Now, let’s back up a bit…
At Movie City News, Kim Voynar has written a column in which she admits that she has “just not been blown out of the water much by the docs this year”:
Maybe it’s the tightening of the economy overall making it harder for filmmakers to get compelling documentaries made. Maybe we’re just in a cycle of docs not being the preferred flavor of the month again…Many of the docs I saw this year, while they had interesting subject matter, were not what I would consider “theatrical” films. They were films that would have played just as well, or even better, on a television screen.
As you might have guessed, I disagree that this has been a weak year for documentaries. As I wrote last week, many of the most successful nonfiction films of the year have been challenging in form and idiosyncratic in content, and though I’m not cukoo-bananas for all of them, I think the fact that art seems to be trumping artless activism is encouraging. But that is not the aspect of Voynar’s piece that I take issue with. This is the aspect of Voynar’s piece that I take issue with:
The complete slate of non-fiction films to be unveiled at the Toronto International Film Festival has been announced, and there are some interesting bedfellows on the list. Keven McAlester’sThe Dungeon Master must be the hippest nerd doc of all time (or, at least, since Nerdcore Rising. Or We Are Wizards. Or King of Kong. Or…nevermind.) A “whimsical look at three adults deeply involved with Dungeons & Dragons explores how the game affects their lives and relationships,” the film features cinematography by Lee Daniel (he shot Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, as well as McAlester’s Roky Erickson doc, You’re Gonna Miss Me) and music by everyone’s favorite Japanese/Italian art rock band, Blonde Redhead.
Master will be unveiled on the Reel to Reel program, alongside a documentary treatment of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation called Food Inc; American Swing, about the notorious 1970s sex club Plato’s Retreat; and 18 other new features. Meanwhile, the fest will also host special presentations of Agnes Varda’s Les Plages d’Agnes, described as a “self-portrait via photographs, film clips and some surprising encounters”; and Matt Tyrnauer “fly-on-the-wall exploration” of fashion designer Valentino.
We’ve been running into a really exciting company at festivals called SnagFilms (snagfilms.com). Today, they launched their beta site with a slate of over 270 free documentaries, many of them full-length. The next few weeks the library should increase to 400. They’ve also acquired the perennial news source for independent film, indieWIRE, which will be SnagFilms editorial voice for these unsung gems that would probably otherwise languish on the festival circuit.
Many of the docs available were featured at the SXSW Film Festival, like award winning audience favorite of SXSW 2006, Darkon. Watch it. It’s free. (It feels so good to write that.)
I’ve been making plans travel plans for the next couple of months this week, and it looks like in mid-June I’ll be making my first trip to SilverDocs. And look: they’ve just made their first major program announcement:
Spike Lee, the Oscar-nominated director of Do the Right Thing, will be honored at this year’s Silverdocs film festival for his documentary work including When the Levees Broke, on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, organizers said on Wednesday.
Lee will screen excepts from his documentary works and discuss his career on June 19 at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium, which recognizes top documentary filmmakers and is a centerpiece of the June 16-23 festival.
Disney celebrated Earth Day by announcing Disneynature, a new production shingle exclusively devoted to making documentaries about the environment. Films in the pipeline include Oceans, the lastest from Winged Migration director Jacques Perrin.
Jackie Chan has been recruited by the MPA as the poster boy for a new campaign targeting piracy in China. The action star will appear on a “huge” anti-piracy billboard, to be displayed in Beijing’s Silk Market for two weeks.
The RAAM Conference on British and Irish film distribution will lure surely reluctant attendees to an advance screening of Iron Man, by first presenting an award to Varietyporn analyst/editor-in-chief Peter Bart.
We made the most recent entry to our Sundance deal chart late Sunday, and since then, there just hasn’t been anything firm to report. In fact, from Sunday to Tuesday, I think there have been more “why aren’t movies selling” think pieces in places like Variety and the New York Times than their have been actual deals throughout the course of the festival. Of course, nobody really knows what the problem is, but everyone’s willing to hazard a guess.
In her writeup for Variety proper, Anne Thompson said buyers are holding out for “that magic combo of an easy-to-market movie that will earn great reviews”; on her blog, she said buyers “are looking for love. And some may not have found it yet.” David M. Halbfinger’s NYT piece suggests that buyers are holding out in the hopes that prices wold drop. He also manages to find a way to blame bloggers for the sluggishness, with a quote from Sony’s Tom Bernard:
Slamdance has announced their 2008 lineup. On first glance, three documentary titles immediately pop out:
I Think We’re Alone Now (Documentary Feature Competition): Labeled “stalkers” by the media, Jeff and Kelly profess their love for the 80’s pop icon, Tiffany.
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (Twilight Screenings):A chronicle of the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.
Wesley Willis’ Joyride (Documentary Feature Competition): An underground rock icon and revered artist, the late, great Wesley Willis attracted and offended people from all walks of life. The film follows the prolific and controversial artist on his journey from obscurity to cult hero.
It’s pretty upsetting when you see more documentaries than most Americans, and yet you haven’t seen any of the 15 docs deemed best of the year by the Academy. This is my case this year, and I guess I was slacking. Or maybe the real problem is that Oscar has shortlisted too many films that haven’t been released commercially. In his IN DEPTH look at the shortlisted docs, Kurt Cobain About a Sonfilmmaker AJ Schnack points out that only 6 of the films have pursued a true theatrical release and 2/3 have not been available for review by critics nor have they reported their box office. For commentary on Schnack’s earlier analysis of both this year and last year’s eligible docs, check out Karina’s post from last week.
So, there’s my excuse. Anyway, I still have many months to see the docs that are most likely to receive the five nominations. My guesses of what I need to see before Oscar night: Sicko, No End in Sight, Lake of Fire, Body of Warand War/Dance (or Taxi to the Dark Side, if the Academy allows so many Iraq War docs). Of course, if I want to be a true doc fan, I should make sure to see all 15, as well as a lot of other films left outside the shortlist.
Paul on A Woman in the Dunes: “It seems the premise of a man trapped, living in poverty against his will with a cruel and unusual brood of villagers in control would make for a downer of a flick. But I found Woman to be as much ecclesiastical as it is existential.”
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
The shortlist has been announced for the 2009 Cinema Eye Honors. The list includes a number of titles that many felt were unjustifiably snubbed from the Oscars shortlist, some based on qualification quibbles, including 
Every time Kurt Kuenne’s 
I’m still catching up on RSS feeds after a week away, but as movie blog talk increasingly moves towards Oscar prognostication (because what else are we gonna talk about between now and Sundance –– 
I’m going to go ahead and answer the question I posed in the headline: No. Now, let’s back up a bit…
Disney celebrated Earth Day by announcing Disneynature, a new production shingle exclusively devoted to making documentaries about the environment. Films in the pipeline include Oceans, the lastest from Winged Migration director Jacques Perrin.
We made the most recent entry to our 
It’s pretty upsetting when you see more documentaries than most Americans, and yet you haven’t seen any of the 15 docs deemed best of the year by the Academy. This is my case this year, and I guess I was slacking. Or maybe the real problem is that Oscar has shortlisted too many films that haven’t been released commercially. In his 
