All these wonderful things

Hoop Dreams, Fast Times added to National Film Registry

Earlier this week, the Library of Congress named it's choices for the 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry. This is always one of the most interesting film lists, as it combines a wide spectrum of films and archival footage deemed by the LOC to be worthy of saving for all time.

This year's list is no exception. In addition to film classics like The Sting, The French Connection and Giant, the films include Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Steve James and Peter Gilbert's Hoop Dreams and Richard O'Brien & Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Prognosticators Push Personal Picks

Of late, one of my favorite ongoing, online battles has been between Movie City News' David Poland and Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells over who will win this year's Oscar for Best Picture - Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain or Steven Spielberg's Munich.

Or should I say, who is not going to win.

Poland has been dismissing Brokeback since he saw it at Telluride, declaring, among other things, that the man-on-man sex early in the film would kill its Oscar chances:

     If you are willing to put blinders on to how thin the
     movie is and if you are into mushy romance, you will
     probably love it.

     If you are one of 60%-plus of Academy members, you
     won’t be in theater after the first act.

     I would be pleased to say this is the kind of movie that
     is really good but that will freak out older awards voters
     I would be pleased to say that this is the kind of movies
     that regular audiences won’t get, but that awards voters
     will embrace. But alas, it is neither.

The Voice Poll: Grizzly Man in Top 5

The beginnings of the annual Village Voice Film Critics Poll are online and, while it's still early, Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man is currently at number 4. This coming on the heels of a number of critics prizes for the acclaimed film that continue to call into question its exclusion from the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentary Feature (more on this subject in the coming week).

Also of note in the top 10 is the presence of Gus Van Sant's Last Days, which I wrote about back in July. I had mixed feelings about the film then but was feeling mostly positive. I have to say that in the past three months I have been asked about Last Days a lot and most of the people quizzing me have been almost angry in how much they disliked the film. So it's interesting to see it near the top of the Voice list.

Priests v. Penguins: Indiewire Looks at Docs '05

Indiewire's Jonny Leahan takes a look back at the year in documentary films, with some very interesting tidbits.

First off is Warner Independent prez Mark Gill's wholesale credit-taking for making March of the Penguins the biggest doc of the year:

"The short answer is that I spent five years reworking movies at Miramax," says Mark Gill, president of Warner Independent Pictures, "and learned a great deal about what changes make a big difference to an American audience's enjoyment of a movie. My colleagues also have worked on such a large number of movies that they, too, have seen the patterns of what works best in this culture."

I mean, seriously, God bless 'em for believing in a French documentary about penguins that was getting a lot of acclaim (in the original French) when it played Sundance last year, and further, good on them for getting (the Voice of God) Morgan Freeman to narrate a new script, but wow. OK. I wonder what happened with The Jacket?

Snoopgate?

In a just-published and fairly shocking web-commentary, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter reveals that Bush pulled in the publisher and editor of the New York Times to make a personal appeal to them not to run the "spying on Americans story" that threatens to further unravel his presidency.

This meeting happened on December 6, a full ten days before the Times splashed the story on its front page - more than enough time for the White House to plot its public relations frenzy (Cheney to Iraq! Bush live radio address! live Oval Office address! press conference! interviews with Hume! Lehrer! Williams! Rice on Meet the Press! Gonzales on the morning shows!) and full-throated defense of the president's (possibly) illegal doings.

All this and perhaps another indictment on the way.

Third Round of Shoot Pictures

Starting to get re-organized enough that I could post a few of the photos from last week's (and the week before) shoot:

Wyatt and I in Seattle's Gas Works Park, setting up a time lapse shot of evening arriving over Lake Union.

Wyatt and Charles during our shooting in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

And I'll Keep On Doing It

The decision by the Bush administration to not only admit to spying (perhaps illegally) on American citizens but also to assert that it will continue as long as (Bush) deems necessary represents one of the more curious turns in recent events for the not-so-slowly imploding White House.

Determined that a series of speeches (culminating in tonight's live address to the nation) in which Bush would take some responsibility for bad intelligence but continue his greatest hits campaign of "stay the course", "terrorists bad" would somehow rebound Bush's tanking poll numbers (so much so that a 1-point increase - not only within the margin of error but also within the margin of "maybe I should give the guy a break during the holid--, oh, I'm sorry, Christmas season" - was heralded by some in the main stream press, bloggers and pollsters as being a major bounce back for the president), the White House also believed that the sight of millions of Iraqis with purple fingers would somehow give the nation the courage to stick it out in Iraq, never mind that no one outside of the Washington establishment seems to quite grasp what these elections are for and what they really mean for our presence there.

Grace Lee in New York

My pal Grace Lee is in New York celebrating the opening of her eponymous film The Grace Lee Project at Film Forum. Screenings run through Tuesday the 27th.

I wrote about seeing The Grace Lee Project at the Los Angeles Film Fest (is it now the Find Film LA Film Fest? or the Film Independent LA Independent Film Fest?) and I wondered about who would get behind the film. So kudos to Women Make Movies for getting behind TGLP and here's to a great run at Film Forum.

Seattle & Olympia, Day Fifteen

Spent Tuesday waiting for the weather to clear. But more about that in a second.

The second round of shooting went extremely smoothly, despite some concerns that our way of working (shoot, move, shoot, move) would be more difficult in the city environs of Seattle. While this was true to an extent (parking seeming to be a constant discussion), everyone on the crew was in such a groove that we were able to make the transition.

It was interesting to shoot the film sequentially as we have, starting in Aberdeen, before moving to Olympia and, finally, Seattle, and to pay attention to how there are certain elements that repeat and others that morph and change. The sense of these three places as characters in their own right is a big part of this film, and I feel like we were able to capture a true sense of that in our work and travels.

Seattle, Day Thirteen

A short post tonight. Back shooting in Seattle today after a short trip to Olympia yesterday. It was a wonderful and crazy day yesterday as we had our longest day and shot so much stuff that it's a little hard to believe - portraits with Charles Peterson, steadicam with Bela, underwater footage at a swimming pool, an impromptu alley show with our friends The Pasties, shots in an office, at KAOS, the Evergreen State radio station where Nirvana played an important early show, and seemingly much much more.

Leaving Olympia last night made me feel a little strange - I've come there four times in the last six months and now I have no definite date of returning (aside from the notion of coming back with a finished film). And I'm so grateful to everyone in Olympia that was such a help in making the film there, especially Kendl and Joe, Evan, the Bushes, the folks on Pear Street, Heather at Caffe Vita and everyone who let us shoot in their business or house.