GUY MADDIN - The Heart of the World

Extraordinary!

The Heart of the World is a short film written and directed by Guy Maddin, produced for the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. Enjoy.

Filmmaker Quotes and Video: Stan Brakhage

Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, and unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception.

~ Stan Brakhage, from Metaphors on Vision

One of my favorite Brakhage pieces.

Billy's Balloon - Short Animated Film by Don Hertzfeldt

A good friend sent this animated short my way and it is worth a viewing. I have a real soft spot for this sort of primal, two-dimensional animation and the concept is quite funny though almost uncomfortably harsh at times - but i like that aspect as well.  Oh yeah, I apologize for the pop up ad - damn embedding from you-tube.  It can be closed out easily.

Bill Hicks - One Night Stand - Video

This is Bill Hicks' One Night Stand in its entirety - just for your viewing, comedic, and mental pleasure.

Oh yeah, Bill was also from TX and considered Austin a second home.

"Bill Hicks - another dead hero."

Bill Hicks - One Night Stand (28 mins.)

WWII Combat Cameraman: 'The Public Had To Know'

Further affirmation of the social relevance and potency of film. He carried a camera instead of a gun. Below is an interview with Major Norman Hatch, USMC in his later years. To view the short documentary that he filmed as a soldier, click the post-title to link to NPR.

During Word War II, Staff Sgt. Norman Hatch was a cinematographer and combat photographer who witnessed — and filmed — some of the most bitter fighting in the Pacific theater. His efforts ended with, of all things, an Academy Award — for footage so brutal that it took special permission from President Franklin Roosevelt to allow his short documentary, With the Marines on Tarawa, to be shown as a newsreel.

News from Cannes - Tim Burton, President of the Jury of the 63rd Festival de Cannes

American film director Tim Burton is to be Jury President for the 63^rd Festival de Cannes, which takes place from May 12^th to 23^rd 2010. Upon accepting the invitation from Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux, Tim Burton declared: "After spending my early life watching triple features and 48-hour horror movie marathons, I’m finally ready for this. It’s a great honour and I look forward, with my fellow jurors, to watching some great films from around the world. When you think of Cannes you think of world cinema. And as films have always been like dreams to me, this is a dream come true."

I'm a little late to the game, as the official press release was in late January. However, I found it to be an interesting selection, and it made me smile a bit.

I wonder if the Cannes selection committee had screened Alice in Wonderland yet? Yes, that was a cheap shot. No more comments on Alice beyond this - It made me quite sad due to overall disappointment (particularly, aspects of the storytelling were flat and underdeveloped), but the root of the sadness was the lost cinematic opportunity. Refer to Bressonian Quote #2. With that being said, the high level of disappointment would not have been possible without an endearing respect for Burton and his body of work. His filmography and the general honesty of his vision afford him quite a bit of forgiveness. There is a quality retrospective of his work on the Festival de Cannes home page.

An early Tim Burton film for your viewing pleasure.

Stan Brakhage - Eye Myth (1972) and more...

"If Maya Deren invented the American avant-garde cinema, Stan Brakhage realized its potential... Brakhage single-handedly transformed the schism separating the avant-garde from classical filmmaking into a chasm. And the ultimate consequences have yet to be resolved; his films appear nearly as radical today as the day he made them." At the end of the video, options to play more Brakhage films will reveal as thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. I recommend Black Ice (1994) as a more contemporary sample of his work. To find out more about Stan Brakhage and his films, visit the link to the post title.

Rachel's Song - an exercise of rhythm in image

anything goes in love, magic, and mystical mayhem under a 90 degree sun

product of a 24 hr/One-Take film fest (In-Camera edit only) and a $200

micro-camera from target.