Manufactured Landscapes
Director Jennifer Baichwal followed my favourite photographer, Edward Burtynsky, as he documented landscapes transformed by humans due to manufacturing and industrial work. The 2006 documentary is luckily available on YouTube.
This is my home - Short Film
A story by Kelsey Holtaway and Mark Cersosimo about Anthony Pisano. A man, his collectables, his home.
Wes Anderson - From Above
Say what you will about Wes Anderson movies but the charming visuals and cinematography cannot be debated. This is a video montage of Wes Anderson’s overhead point-of-view shots. The compilation, created by Vimeo user Kogonada, includes infamous shots from Anderson’s best movies namely the beautifully shot (yet highly eerie suicide scene) from Royal Tenanbaums.
Ai Weiwei : Never Sorry
The documentary about the Chinese artist/activist received a rare standing ovation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Oscar Roundtable
The ultimate reality show for me features accomplished professionals sitting at a table, turning the camera on and letting them talk. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether you’re interesting in what they do but the passion, hard work and path they got to where they are leads to an extremely inspiring and refreshing dialogue.
Anthony Bourdain and his Travel Channel special ‘At The Table’, featured respected chefs/friends as they talked shop. Same with legendary comedians, Louis CK, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais with ‘Talking Funny’.
And since 1998, Newsweek has hosted an Oscar roundtable with Hollywood’s elite talking about their craft. Newsweek and The Daily Beast was able to get this years’ front runner Oscar favourites, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Christopher Plummer.
Enjoy.
Detropia
Detroit. Birthplace of the American middle class and now the deathbed of what was once a thriving and successful city. With a city that has lost 25% of its population in the last decade, thousands of factories closed and millions of workers/residents unemployed, the city is the unforunate result of globalization and the decay of the American manufacturing industry.
Oscar nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachael Grady, the women behind ‘Jesus Camp’, are back with ‘Detropia’. The documentary focuses on the deterioration of the city and its residents. For more, check out their New York Times feature, ‘Dismantling Detroit’. I highly recommend watching their video feature. ‘Detropia’ will premiere at this year’s Sundance Festival.
Paths of Glory
It’s becoming more and more evident that the tension between individuals and the institutions they serve have reached a boiling point. See: The greedy financial sector, the corruption of political bureaucracy and the broken education system. This led me to recently revisit the 1957 WW1 movie, ‘Paths of Glory’. Stanley’s Kubrick brilliant anti-war film on the failures of the institution and the tribulations of politics and management. A favourite amongst the legendary directors and the creator of ‘The Wire’, David Simon.
Best Movie Posters of 2011
One might debate today’s importance of movie posters. The legendary Saul Bass designs have been replicated to exhaustion and movie trailers spearhead online hype and fandom. Even so, the first impression of a movie poster displayed in front of the theatre cannot be replaced.
This year, we’ve seen some great poster designs, which range from the simplistic photography for ‘Shame’ to the homage of ’70s exploitation cover ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’. Flavorwire released their top picks for this year’s best movie posters. Criterion fans rejoice.
Urbanized
