The same day that I wrote my post about the attack on Michael Moore, Gregg Kilday of the Risky Biz blog caught up with Moore on the phone. Here’s a bit from the resulting post, Moore Comes Out Swinging:

…Moore, never one to shy away from a righteous fight, isn’t playing defense. I talked with him by phone Sunday night–I was in Cannes and he was in New York, putting the final touches on his film–and he displayed his usual mix of passion, outrage, humor and bravado. “Why would they do it now? I have no idea,” he said of the government maneuver. “Were they just sitting around there and somebody said, ‘Hey, this is opening in Cannes next week. We have to do something.’ Are they that divorced from reality or the popular culture to know that isn’t the right thing to do? I think maybe they thought, ‘We’re going to chance it here to try to paint him with some Castro brush or whatever.’ I think when people see the film, there is going to have to be a lot of rewriting done on the initial stories that went out last week in terms of what really happens in the film and what we really did.”

Have you ever sat in a theater laughing at a movie until your insides hurt, and then realized you’re the only person laughing? Or have you ever had a friend carry on about some YouTube video you HAVE to see because it’s so funny you’ll pee your pants…and when you see it, you’re mildly amused, at most?

Humor is one of those things. It’s highly personal, right up there next to how you like your ham sandwiches made and how you like your underwear to fit. With that being the case, I’m wondering if it’s possible to pull off an all-funny-videos site. Isn’t that putting all your eggs in one basket? Promising too much?

“Will Ferrell” could very well be the answer to any and all “Is it possible?” questions. He’s also the one who’s been busy making such a site happen. Yesterday it was announced that Ferrell, along with his business partner Adam McKay, has launched a new comedy video site, FunnyorDie.com. Sure, the name alone represents a big promise, but so far the site is either keeping that promise or it’s riding the power-of-positive-thinking wave–yesterday the video Ferrell and McKay made had already attracted 1.5 million page views. So many people are hitting the site that today it had a “Too many people are blowing off work to download our videos” message on the homepage.

Kicking this site off right on the heels of Blades of Glory, when our laugh lines from Talladega Nights are also still fresh, was smart for sure. With two movies in a row like that, Ferrell starts to feel like a magic drug–”magic” because everything he touches gets your laugh going, and “drug” because the more you get, the more you want. (At least if that’s your kind of humor, which it either is or isn’t.)

It will be interesting to see how much Ferrell shapes and controls the flavor of the site and if he can sustain its original brand. Will it become synonymous with a certain Ferrell-style of humor, or will it quickly morph into just another video site where finding a real laugh is like winning a big prize?

Daniel Schechter’s number one goal in his films is to get people talking about issues. It seems to work. Last night, after the screening of his newest film, In Debt We Trust, people couldn’t stop talking. Schechter says it’s because the film’s topic–the alarming problem of credit card debt and consumption in America–is one everyone gets. Like the best political documentaries, In Debt We Trust does its job when it comes to getting people talking and thinking and even doing something about the problem. Although the topic is sobering–even depressing and alarming–Schechter uses humor and an amusing original soundtrack to ease us through the message.

Starz Denver Film Festival, spout.com podcast