Yesterday saw the launch of iArthouse, a download-to-burn service offering a large selection of foreign films. According to Scott Kirsner, the site is an outgrowth of an existing service that I’ve never heard of called EZ Takes––Scott calls it “a rebranding of EZTakes.com without some of the schlockier stuff — no ‘Extreme Sports’ category, for instance, and no Troma movies like Toxic Avenger.” Not that it’s all trophy class from here on out––Currently promoted on the front page of iArthouse: Roberto Benigni’s much-maligned The Tiger and the Snow. Scott goes on to note that EZTakes’ traffic currently falls far short of iArthouse’s logical competitor, Jaman.com, although metrics for actual downloads on these kinds of sites are hard to come by.

Meanwhile, in news that’s so related as to seem ironic: today comes the news that both Starz!-owned Vongo and Morgan Freeman-owned ClickStar are shutting down.

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• From the Dear God, I Guess It’s Really Happening file: Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum have been cast in the lead roles in Stephen Sommers’ G.I. Joe movie.
• From the Dear God, Why Are You LETTING It Happen file: Starz is turning Paul Haggis’ Crash into a miniseries. “This deal fits well with Starz’s strategy of making TV series out of presold movie commodities,” says Starz’ VP of programming, although as far as I can tell, this’ll be the movie net’s first original scripted drama as well as their first pillage of a “movie commodity.”
• Variety notices that Cloverfield dropped almost 70% in its second weekend–a day after the same statistic was glossed over in their own box office writeup–and then lines up excuses for why it’s not *that* bad of a fall-off.

Posting may be a bit light today and Friday, as I’m heading to Denver to attend the final weekend of the Starz Denver Film Festival. Kevin and Paul will be posting a bit while I’m gone, so be nice to them. Hopefully I’ll find the time to scribble something about the films screening while I’m there, including Starting Out in the Evening, the much-lauded doc  A Walk Into the Sea, and the comedy Karl Rove, I Love You. And if you’re in Denver, come see me speak on this panel on Friday. It’s very important that I put as many sympathetic plants in the audience as possible.

The description for Mariners and Musicians describes the film best:

A cinematic tone poem based on conversation, writings, and music by acclaimed singer/ songwriter/ author Rosanne Cash. This dreamlike mosaic portrait, with stunning Super 8mm and 16mm visuals and Holga animation, features songs from Cash’s celebrated album Black Cadillac.

The choice director Steve Lippman made to photograph Rosanne Cash in grainy 8mm and 16 mm film was a masterful choice. As Rosanne remembers her recently deceased parents and ponders her great great grandfather who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Long Island, the blurry and grainy imagery of the film communicates where she is at — a woman sifting through memories, memories that are guiding her towards song. Though the film was highly experimental, it was not without a kind of structure. What the film does is portray how we remember and how Rosanne Cash is remembering. After the screening, I spoke with Liselle Feingold who was there to represent the film for director Steve Lippman. We talked the about the film’s style and what her impressions were as a collaborator on the project.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Mariners and Musicians, Liselle Feingold.

The screening of the short documentary Living Lightly was a debut in more ways than one. Its screening at the Denver Film Festival marked the films first public screening and it was director Robin Burke’s directorial debut. Prior to making this film, she worked predominantly as a producer on other people’s projects. Living Lightly is a debut that any first time director would be very proud of. It is poetic and thought provoking and just plain beautiful. The film is about the Vido family. They have chosen to live in such a way that they only take what they need from the earth. The film focuses on their practice of schything to make hay for their livestock. Interviews with the family are imbued with a kind of pastoral poetry that few documentaries achieve. Burke’s approach is not to charm the audience with flashy camera work or clever editing but rather, she places the camera, frames her shots wide and captures the beauty of this family, swinging their scythes in what amounts to a kind of moving painting. After the screening I talked about her process when making a documentary and what it was like to enter the world of this unusual and fascinating family.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Living Lightly, Robin Burke

I saw Arturo Cabanas’ film, Man Up in the shorts program “Pocket Sized Portraits.” His film is a challenging portrait of a father with a son who is a gifted young wrestler. The father responds to his son’s talent with a determination that his son be the best. The film raises questions about whether or not the father’s approach to molding his son into a master wrestler is misguided or on the nose. On the one hand, his son is learning independence and strength of character through the way his father is training him. On the other hand, when does this kid get to be a kid? The deeper one digs into the films questions, the more one begins to reevaluate how our culture defines independence and more specifically, masculinity. Besides the discussion this film sparks, it’s visually compelling and masterfully edited. Cabanas’ camera essentially acts as fly on the wall for most of the film, with brief, to the point interviews of the father and son throughout. The familial drama he captures in his film is fascinating and it rivals any fictional portrayal of drama. In terms of documentary filmmaking, Man Up strikes the perfect balance between thought provoking subject matter and a strong visual style. Cabanas and I talked about the questions this film raises and how he went about making the film.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Man Up, Arturo Cabanas

Today at the Starz Denver Film Festival I spoke with Aaron Wiederspahn about the unique way his film, The Sensation of Sight was created. Wiederspahn discusses the creative challenges faced by filmmakers on a tight budget and how making a film has a lot to do with being in the moment. Finally he discusses the filmmakers who have had an impact on him as a filmmaker, and what projects await him.

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Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, The Sensation of Sight, Aaron Wiederspahn

Just moments after walking out of the film The Sensation of Sight at the Denver Film Festival, I decided to record this audio review. I was very moved by Aaron Wiederspahn’s film both for it’s artistry and for the independent spirit in which it was made.

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Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, The Sensation of Sight, Aaron’s review

I talked with director Erik Canuel about his action-comedy, Bon Cop, Bad Cop at the Canadian filmmakers reception here at the Denver Film Festival. Canuel discussed how his film came into being and what filmmakers inspire him the most–essentially all filmmakers with real vision and passion.

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Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Erik Canuel

Aaron, Bill, Kevin and I watched Breaking and Entering at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Opening Night of the Denver Film Festival. Unfortunately we did not have a ride on the gondola to do our podcast in but we were all enchanted by the amazing venue we were in.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Roundtable Recap, Thursday November 9, 2006, Bill, Dave, Kevin, Aaron

Aaron chats with Ron Henderson, the co-founder and artistic director of the Starz Denver Film Festival, about his take on this year’s opening night as well as some of his favorite film such as Midnight Cowboy, Blue, and West Side Story.

Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Ron Henderson