Out of Focus

I knew today’s Gothamist Interview had done a lot, but I had no idea that Ross Martin had been this busy. In fact, I have no idea how the guy has ever found time to sleep. He’s already been a development exec for Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks and nerve.com’s Nerve Television. He also started his own film & TV production company called Plant Films, developing a whole slate of projects. Meanwhile, the whole time he’s been an active poet with a book of works published in 2001 and he’s taught poetry courses at The New School, Wash U. in St. Louis, and the Rhode Island School of Design. Oh, and now? Now Ross is the Head of Programming for mtvU, MTV’s new channel for college students available on campuses nationwide.

As you can imagine, Ross has plenty to talk about, and it’s all pretty interesting. So head on over to and read his interview. Come on … all the cool college kids are doing it!

HONEST. No really. That’s their name. HONEST. They’re a design team also branching into filmmaking. They do all kinds of things in print, graphic design, web design, commercials and music videos. Their talents are even on display in today’s Gothamist Interview.

Specifically, the interview is with Cary Murnion and Jonathon Milott, who basically are HONEST. Mostly, I enjoy writing HONEST, because doing so is just fun. HONEST. See what I mean? You can check out what HONEST has been up to by visiting their web site which you totally should do if only to watch their short film made for Nike’s Art of Speed series called The Shortest Race: “34 Competitors, 39.9 Inchest, $700.”

And if you’re a fan of Brisas del Caribe (or better yet, even know what it is), then you might appreciate Jon’s devotion to it. And then you might also be able to tell me exactly what and where it is. HONEST.

Just in case anyone continued to wonder whether the Golden Globes actually stood for anything other than a night for the TV networks to cash-in on some big-time event advertising, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has once again proven that the only excellence their annual awards show celebrates is their own marketing campaigns.

It seems that after consulting their "rules," the HFPA has determined that Fahrenheit 9/11 is ineligible for awards in any categories while The Passion of the Christ can’t win Best Drama Picture but could take home the Best Foreign Language Film award, as well as any others. Both of these decisions are completely asinine.

As far as Fahrenheit goes, the Golden Globes don’t have a documentary category — which in itself is stupid but slightly understandable since they consider themselves more of a populist entity than critical or artistic one — but they also apparently have a rule stating that "docus are ineligible for consideration in the top film award categories."  That’s just dumb. No other critics, and I’m sure if you polled HFPA members who were actually working critics (who knows how many that is in reality, though), they would have no problem ranking documentaries among their best of the year. Additionally, by the end of the year there is a better than not chance that Fahrenheit will have outgrossed some films that will receive nominations, and while a film’s box office take shouldn’t affect its awards consideration (even though it sometimes does), it does indicate that the movie was popular. But see, what the HFPA cares about is movies with actors who will show up for their TV show.

I’m not advocating awards for Fahrenheit; just its eligibility.  While I would certainly say that The Passion of the Christ was not a good enough movie to be considered for any award, it also should still be eligible. Hell, if Van Helsing and The Punisher are eligible for the top prize (and they are), there’s no reason The Passion shouldn’t be. Here again, the Globes rules state that no film predominantly in a language other than English can be eligible for their Best Picture prizes. The Golden Globe foreign film prize is actually much different than the Oscar version. For the Academy Awards, individual countries are asked to submit no more than one film for consideration. That is why there are almost always brilliant foreign films that don’t actually get Oscar consideration in the Foreign Language Film category: because their countries didn’t submit them. Last year is a weird example of how the Academy’s rules work: City of God was one of the best films anywhere last year (I called it #2). It received Oscar nominations for Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Cinematography, but not Foreign Language Film.  That’s because Brazil had submitted City of God in 2002, but it didn’t even receive a nomination. Suddenly after it receives a release from Miramax and people started seeing it, the film understandably received the attention it deserved.  An even better example is the year before when Pedro Almodóvar received directing and screenplay nominations for his brilliant Talk to Her, and even won the latter award. His film didn’t even have an opportunity to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar because Spain chose to submit Mondays in the Sun. To be fair, that film won Spain’s own Goya Awards, their equivalent to the Oscars, so in a sense they were submitting their "best."

Regardless, the rule is absurd and every year it discounts many worthy foreign films. But at least those films are also able to compete in all the other categories. A film could conceivably even win both the foreign film and Best Picture categories at the Oscars if it was submitted by its host country the same year as it’s released in the U.S. I’m not certain, but I assume The Passion would not be eligible for the Oscar foreign language film prize because a) it was produced primarily by an American company and b) both of it’s languages are "dead," so they don’t represent an official language of any other country. However, because The Passion is completely in Aramaic and Latin, the HFPA has determined for the purposes of the Golden Globes that it is not eligible for Best Picture, but is eligible for Best Foreign Language Film as well as all other categories.

Why bother, though? I mean according to Mel, the damn thing is virtually a documentary anyway, no? In that case, I guess the Globes should just forget about it all together.

Today’s Gothamist Interview is with one of my favorite people, and I’m not just saying that because she was once my boss (and quite possibly will be again). Nancy Schafer is a Co-managing Director and Programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival. She had the misfortune of encountering me when I volunteered to work at the first festival and divine providence (or carelessness) placed me in her “screenings” volunteer pool. From that point on, I’ve hounded her consistently about how the festival really should hire me year-round. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make me unique.

Nancy has a job I envy since a large part of it is programming a festival with hundreds of films. From the end of the summer until March, she and the other programmers of the festival travel to other film festivals around to the world as well as watch tapes/DVDs/special screenings of films trying to get into Tribeca. Even though a majority of the films she watches are most likely crap, somehow I’ve managed to make it through 33 years watching a ton of shit and never become tired of doing so.

And by the way: if you are a young minority filmmaker, you should go read Nancy’s interview and then follow the link over to the Tribeca Film Institute web sight. The submission process for next year’s edition of Tribeca All Access “Connects” — which aims to bring minority filmmakers together with industry professionals to help with their projects in various stages of development and production — is now open. TAA was a huge hit among its participants during its inaugural event at last year’s festival. I’m sure this year will be even better for those involved.

Back in August, my friend Lily and I spent a week being the guest interviewers over at Gothamist. We had some fun doing that first round (here are the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 links for the originals), so when TPTB at the ever-expanding Gothamist empire asked us to be one of five rotating interview people/teams, we said, Sure, why not.

So we’ve got this week, and we’ll have another week in December, and another week in January and maybe a week in February, but I haven’t actually checked the calendar, so we may be bypassing shorty. Anyway, today’s interview is with Jason Eaton, a really funny guy who writes children’s books. If you read Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown in The Daily News, you may have heard of Jason; last week after the election, he (unsuccessfully, and not exactly seriously) tried to sell his US citizenship on eBay (second item). Make sure to read the whole thing, because his “New York Story” is fantastic.

One week only, at Film Forum, one of the best movies of all time: On the Waterfront.  All that other stuff I mentioned about this weekend? Well, it’s important too, but if you’ve never seen Elia Kazan’s magnificent film or Marlon Brando’s brilliant performance — debatably, one of cinema’s all-time best — then get your ass down to Film Forum immediately. If you’ve only seen it on video, go treat yourself by celebrating the movie’s 50th Anniversary and watching this new 35mm restoration print. And if you’ve seen it multiple times like I have, well, I don’t really need to convince you why it’s worth seeing in its projected form again. It’s only scheduled to play through next Thursday, and chances are, it won’t be extended. So go. Now. Good.

It’s already started. When President Bush said he hoped to "earn" the trust of those who didn’t vote for him, he obviously was simply mangling the English language again because he must have meant to say "expect." Already, all this talk of a "clear mandate" or "broad victory" ignores the fact that while 51% does beat 48%, there are almost as many people who don’t believe in this president as those who do. Greg Mitchell’s column from Editor & Publisher about how the mainstream, supposedly unbiased media (read: reporters, not pundits) have inexplicably bought into this idea of Bush receiving a "mandate." This excerpt particularly puts things into perspective:

I’ve seen the word "mandate" a hundred times since the election but I have not encountered anyone making the following point: With nearly 115 million votes cast, if just 140,000 had gone a different way in Ohio we would not be talking about who is going to replace Colin Powell in the Bush cabinet, we’d be calling for abolishing the electoral college during President-elect Kerry’s first term.

Of course, anyone backing Bush will most likely call such a rational point simply that of a sore loser whining and not accepting that Bush won. It’s the same problem we keep encountering. Such a comment doesn’t say that Kerry actually won or was robbed; it just indicates how close the race was and how divided the country is. Those of us in the voting minority expect the President to respect those dissenting views not just during victory speeches, but when considering his policies and his methods in implementing them. Coming out one day later and discussing his "mandate" and the "political capital" he has "earned" is not the way to start.  But Bush backers won’t debate these points, because it’s easier to say that Democrats are whining about losing. The fact is, the two sides aren’t having the same argument, and in that case, logic gets thrown out the window. I suppose that’s because we no longer live in a rational "reality-based" world. At least, not all of us.

I’m sure I’ll have more political stuff to say, but for now, it’s time to get back to entertainment. Every Friday, I seem to long for the weekend more and more. Then, by the time I actually get home – whenever that may be – for some reason, I feel like it’s already Sunday. That kind of, you know … sucks. Although this weekend, there actually is good reason to look forward to Sunday, at least within the realm of television. Still, after the emotions and depression of this week that was, a long weekend (say, 30 or 40 days?) would be much appreciated right now. Sadly, no matter how often I state my case for the four day work week to everyone I know (and yes, I actually have a case, as in rational, much considered arguments as to why our entire society hurts itself with only a two day weekend), I have yet to see any progress on making Monday the new Sunday. But I digress …

• You know where you need to be this Sunday at 8:30 PM? Planted in front of your TV tuned-in to Fox. That’s right: the new season of the Emmy-winning Arrested Development premieres. If you’ve never watched it, it’s now time to jump on board and get addicted. Today’s Variety says this first episode "may well be its funniest" (sub. req’d). That’s saying something considering that it’s already the best comedy on television. It’s time for you to go see what the fuss is about, and if you don’t love the first episode you see, give it a chance with one or two more. It’s like anything that’s good for you: it takes time to ween yourself from the crappy, packaged, fabricated, laugh-track sitcoms you’re used to. The rest of Fox’s Sunday lineup premieres too. Of special note, the 16th season premiere of The Simpsons. At 16, it’s still better than most of the other half-hour comedies on the show.

• Get those DiVos/VCRs ready for Saturday night, unless, of course, you’re going to be home, in which case at 9 PM you’ll want to tune in to The Sundance Channel to catch DiG! That’s right, the documentary about the relationship between the bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols that had the entire NYC blogosphere atwitter (yours truly included) when it premiered here about a month ago is hitting our cable television screens. (If you live in Manhattan and have Time Warner digital cable, Sundance is on channel 101.) If the film hasn’t come to your town or you missed it, definitely check it out. Sundance is actually using this Saturday night to kick off its featured series for November under the moniker (((AMPED))). Every Saturday night, Sundance will air a double-feature of rock-themed films, fictional and documentary. After DiG!, they’ll be showing Tom Dowd & The Language of Music, about famed and influential record producer and engineer Tom Dowd. Other films programmed include Michael Winterbottom’s interesting depiction of the rise and fall of The Factory in 1980s Manchester 24 Hour Party People next weekend , Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) about the band They Might Be Giants on 11/20, and Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the great documentary about The Funk Brothers who played the music behind a large percentage of the best Motown singers.

• This Sunday, Showtime makes its latest (and supposedly best) effort to find a high-profile dramatic series hit on the level of The Sopranos or even Six Feet Under. Showtime has had several series for years. Some, like Queer as Folk and The L Word, gained a lot of notice in the press but certainly never caught on as a broad hit. I would count myself a fan of Dead Like Me, but not so much that I remembered it was ever on during its recently concluded second season. Other series, like The Chris Isaak Show and Street Time, barely register a blip in the public consciousness at all. But this Sunday, with the premiere of Huff, Showtime is laying it all on the table. A concerted (and expensive) marketing office has been underway for weeks. In last week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, subscribers received a DVD of the entire first episode of the show for them to preview, a great idea for a premium cable channel, with maybe half the subscribers of HBO, trying to reach new subscribers. And timing-wise, they couldn’t have picked better. The new season is well-underway and some people may be looking for something new. Huff will air at 10 PM when only ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast, and none of them have breakout hits that control the time slot. Additionally, 10 PM is the secondary time slot for HBO’s shows, and right now it’s the home of the incredibly boring Family Bonds. And on top of all that, it looks to actually be a good, interesting show with a very talented cast. All of this simply points to the fact that Showtime might finally be getting its act together.

Continue reading “MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANY: THE WEEKEND AHEAD”

OK, we’re going to try to start moving on. But first, a couple worthwhile links:

• There has been much talk throughout the blogosphere — not to mention the real world, but obviously nobody pays attention to that — about moving to Canada. Some of it is meant as a joke. Some of it is probably at least a little bit serious. To address this topic seriously for a moment, please go read this post at Daily Kos. You may want to sit down.

• And over at MyDD.com, there are a few statistically related notes which are well worth reading, such as this one which notes that in addition to Bush receiving more votes than anyone else who has ever run for president, “This is the largest number of people who have ever voted AGAINST a president.” MyDD.com also highlights this post from Another Liberal Blog which mentions that if Iowa and New Mexico do go his way, the three states that won the election (IA, NM and Ohio) would have been won by a combined total of 161,989 votes. Of course, all of this supports the point I was making while discussing his press conference: That while the President absolutely won a majority fair and square, that’s not the same thing as winning a mandate. If he doesn’t recognize that, he will never be able to “earn” the “trust” of those who voted for his opponent.

• If Arafat is really dead or on his way, it changes the entire dynamic of the Middle East peace process. This administration has done nothing to help advance the notions of peace in the area. They have disengaged themselves more than any administration in the last 30 years, and doing so has only helped the situation get worse by the day. Their primary excuse has been that they won’t talk to Arafat. If Arafat dies, they will have no further excuses to not get in the middle of the issue and restart some form of peace process. Can anything be done at this point since tensions are now probably even greater than before the progress made during the Clinton years? Hopefully, yes, if only because the Palestinians who have been fighting for change feel like without Arafat acting as a held-hostage figurehead, they can finally make their voices louder. But the Bush Administration absolutely must engage in this process and help force the two sides to get together. Without the US, nothing positive will ever happen there.

And now for some things far more trivial, and therefore, much more important:

Continue reading “MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANY: THE SLOW SHIFT AWAY FROM POLITICS EDITION”

I really do plan to get back to mostly non-political stuff in the days ahead. I guess I’m on The Rude Pundit’s schedule for the five stages of grief of “Acceptance” by Friday. I might even be a little ahead of that, but the issues stay at the forefront of my mind.

President Bush is giving a press conference right now, which I guess, actually, is a step in the right direction since it is very unusual for him to do so. But the first journalist asked three important questions off the bat, and Bush’s first response was that now that “the people have spoken,” he now has the power to enforce his “one question rule.” Yeah, it was in a somewhat jokey manner, but not completely, because when the second journalist asked two related questions, Bush chuckled again to comment about how the journalist is obviously disregarding “the will of the people.” He also mentioned that there’s a “no follow-up rule.” Again, it seemed to be partially in jest, but considering his dislike of press conferences and answering questions, especially those that challenge him, I’m sure it’s not completely. Meanwhile, the AP headline this morning reads, “White House Claims Mandate for Bush Agenda.”

It’s not surprising that a President who places everything into an either/or context, without any complexities or shades of grey, sees a 3% popular vote win as a “mandate” or the “will of the people.” I’m not trying to claim that Bush didn’t win legitimately: he did. But it would be more accurate to say that he has won the will of slightly more than half the people. If he’s a true leader, he would recognize that his only actual “mandate” — one definition by Webster’s states “an authorization to act given to a representative” — is to convince those 49% who didn’t vote for him that he’s going to do the right thing without pissing them off. Instead, he just said, “I earned political capital in this election, and I’m going to spend it.” A majority rule is not the same as “the will of the people” when there are so many people who disagree.

Of course, the question remains, when the differences are ideological and so stark, is it even possible to find compromise and ways to bring in those who fundamentally think you’re wrong? No, not everyone, of course. There are plenty of people on both sides who would be angry with any compromise whatsoever. But the greatest successes in our government and country have been specifically due to two ideologies coming together to find the middle ground and creating change. (To be fair, so have some have the greatest failures because sometimes ideas get too watered down until they become change in name but not in fact.) I do believe that somewhere down the middle lies what’s best for everyone because when you don’t get to implement everything you believe in 100%, that means you’ve also stopped thinking completely selfishly and become more tolerant of others and their opinions.

Sadly, this press conference continues to indicate an opposite reality — as I too live in the “reality-based community.” He just stated that a president has to “make decisions and lead,” meaning make decisions without truly considering the dissent to those ideas and forging ahead disregarding the number of people actually following. Again, that’s not leading.

Bush was just asked what is his definition of bipartisanship? Is it simply getting a few Democrat votes in order to pass his bills or is it actually trying to bring in the other side and work with the leadership in an effort to get true bipartisan support. His answer was, “Do you remember the No Child Left Behind act? That’s the model I’d look at. I worked with both Republicans and Democrats to get that bill passed.” Which is true. But his government has also not supplied the promised funds necessary to make the program work, and since then, all the Democrats have criticized how his administration has followed through with its own law. That wasn’t just for political purposes; it was true.

And he continues to joke about how “sometimes I mangle the English language. I get that.”

Oy. Not that I expected anything different, but … oy.