All these wonderful things

The Monday Brief: Critics Love Them Some COVE, Grant Deadlines & Oprah Takes the Doc Plunge

Good afternoon and apologies for a slightly late (and abbreviated) Monday brief - a combo of internet failures and trying to stay on top of the Top 25 Film Festival list (as well as my real job(s)).

As the midday sun hits Los Angeles, the orgy of film critics prizes is in full effect and it's pretty clear that the early favorite for crix nods will be Louie Psihoyos' THE COVE.  Just this weekend, it picked up prizes from the Los Angeles Film Critics (which split the award between COVE and Agnes Varda's THE BEACHES OF AGNES), the Boston Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online and even the Alliance of Women Film Journalists (which also gave two awards to Varda - the Lifetime Achievement and Perseverance Award).  11 days ago, THE COVE picked up the Best Documentary laurel from the National Board of Review.

Only today did some critics groups start to break away from THE COVE, as the New York Film Critics gave their doc prize to OF TIME AND THE CITY and the Southeast Film Critics awarded FOOD, INC. (which previously picked up the DC Film Critics award), with THE COVE as runner-up.

This is setting up and interesting dynamic heading forward, with THE COVE seemingly the critics choice and FOOD, INC. sweeping the major pre-Oscar documentary awards (winning at the Gothams, nominated for the IDA, the Spirits and Cinema Eye), where THE COVE was mostly shut out (it leads Cinema Eye nominations with 7 but was bypassed by the other awards).

Also today, the Broadcast Film Critics named their 5 nominees.  In addition to front-running COVE and FOOD, they nommed ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY and MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT.

And at the European Film Academy's Awards on Saturday, Peter Liechti's THE SOUND OF INSECTS: RECORD OF A MUMMY received the Documentary Prix Arte.  The film is up for Cinema Eye's new Spotlight Award.

Cinelan Launches Short Film Initiative in Berlin with Spurlock, Jarecki, Yu & Steve James Aboard

Film festivals are often used as launch pads for new film entities (witness our own Cinema Eye announcement in Park City last month) and last week in Berlin was no exception.  Chief among these for those of us in the documentary community was the launch of Cinelan, a short film content producer and publisher, which comes on the scene with the backing of an impressive roster of filmmakers and partners, including commitments from noted filmmakers Steve James, Morgan Spurlock, Jessica Yu, Eugene Jarecki and Ross Kaufman.  Each will make short films for Cinelan and serve on the company's advisory board.

Variety has more:

"Cinelan will focus on professionally produced, three-minute nonfiction films that will be distributed worldwide on multiple platforms, including the Internet, in digital cinemas, on TV and mobile phones.

The startup's syndication partners include U.K. publishing group Guardian News & Media, leading indie U.K. exhib chain Picturehouse Cinemas and Arts Alliance Media's digital distribution specialist Vizumi Network.

Cinelan is backed by London-based venture capital group Arts Alliance."

From the press release:

"'Cinelan represents a new way for smart non-fiction films to reach mainstream audiences,' said Morgan Spurlock. 'It excites me as a filmmaker to know that avenues like this are expanding to reach global audiences with movies reflecting real information and original viewpoints outside traditional media.'"

Shouts!: Black Gold, Brothers of the Head, Cinemad, Darryl Hunt, Pixies & Young American Bodies

Time for the debut of a new feature on All these wonderful things in which we direct attention to what's happening with some of our favorite films, writers, filmmakers, etc. in a Larry King-influenced, Green Cine-ripoff that we like to call Shouts!

First off, Black Gold, the Fair Trade coffee film that I saw at this year's True/False and praised here has been picked up for distribution by California Newsreel, which bills itself as a leading resource for films about Africa. Black Gold is set to return to the US in June with a screening at the Seattle Film Fest, which should be quite interesting considering the nervous behavior of coffee giant Starbucks during Black Gold's run at Sundance. That story is well recounted in filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis' post-Sundance post at the Huffington Post (man that's a lot of posts). Should be interesting to see what happens on Starbucks' home turf.

Next up is Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe's Brothers of the Head, which I saw last year just before it premiered at Toronto. It has since gone on to play just about every festival since - Berlin, SXSW, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland and, soon, Tribeca. And today, Newsweek named it one of the 15 must-see films of the summer:

     It's a wild, haunting tale about identity and
     exploitation, with spot-on period detail and a
     pair of astonishing performances by first-time
     actors—and real-life brothers—Harry and Luke
     Treadaway. It might not be playing at a theater
     near you, but if it is, don't miss it.

I couldn't agree more.

Meanwhile, the latest issue of Cinemad, Mike Plante's online film 'zine is now up, including interviews with Deborah Stratman, Phil Solomon and the late Garrett Scott.

Two Sundance films - A Lion in the House and The Trials of Darryl Hunt shared the documentary prize at the Nashville Film Festival. The latter film, which was one of my favorites in Park City also recently took the audience award at the Full Frame Fest in Durham.

Our pal Sarah Jo at Documentary Insider recaps the recent screening of the new Pixies film loudQUIETloud at the AFI Music Documentary series at the Arclight. I've been hearing great things about the film and Sarah Jo posts a rave:

     (T)he film does something most music films don’t
     do; it shows vulnerability, honesty and dare I say
     it, reality. As soon as you see Pixie sister Kelly Deal
     doing cross-stitch and drummer David Lovering on
     the beach with his metal detector, it’s all over, the
     film’s gotcha.

Finally, Joe Swanberg, who I wrote about in February, sees the online launch Tuesday of his new project Young American Bodies. It's airing at Nerve on their Nerve Video site - but apparently the programs will air for free, so there's no Nerve membership required. The first three episodes of Joe's sexy soap opera for the post-collegiate crowd are reportedly available for viewing starting May 2.