Underground Film Journal

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Underground Film Links: December 5, 2010

By Mike Everleth ⋅ December 5, 2010

  1. The Minneapolis Underground Film Festival is still going on this weekend and it got some advance press, so we’ll start with those: First, the Star Tribune newspaper described the fest as feeling like “a hardy community of low-budget filmmakers supporting and celebrating one another.”
  2. Local public radio station MPR has a nice interview with festival founder, and entrant, Greg Yolen.
  3. The MinnPost just gets right down to business and states the facts, but also focuses on the Minneapolis Project short film collection.
  4. So, that’s it for MUFF. In nearby film fest news, last month the Ann Arbor Film Festival posted up an interview with experimental filmmaker Steve Cossman, who also runs the successful Mono No Aware annual expanded cinema event.
  5. The Winnipeg Film Group throws a shout out to several members who have won awards recently, such as Cecilia Araneda, Caroline Monnet, Andrew George and more. Congrats to everybody!
  6. In the New York Times, film critic Manohla Dargis takes a look at the phenomenon of Hollywood directors who have websites. Although, what was nice was that she included a shout-out to several underground filmmakers who also have sites, like Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Jem Cohen, Su Friedrich and more. (I won’t hold it against her that she didn’t also mention Underground Film Journal’s Filmmaker Index.)
  7. Michael Varrati runs through the history of adult film actors — gay and straight — who moved from porn to regular movies, including most recently Sean Lockhart being cast in Tim Sullivan’s upcoming horror movie, Chillerama.
  8. Jo Dery posted up her cute animated intro for Holly Hey’s documentary Rat Stories. Plus, she’ll have a new book coming out, Living Things.
  9. Making Light of It has several stills from Andy Warhol’s screen test of filmmaker Barbara Rubin.
  10. Donna k. is in love with Hollywood — the place, not the industry, at least. I can’t argue. I love living here!
  11. To celebrate Jean-Luc Godard’s 80th birthday the other day, Facets Features is running a clip contest until the 10th. Go enter!
  12. Andrea Grover reprints an open letter by computer engineer Kevin Nelson about the importance of art in the field of science. Plus, is technology making us smarter or stupider?
  13. Mike White answers an important question: Did he make any money off of his Impossibly Funky book? (These days, what do you think?)
  14. Professor Tryon looks into whether or not Netflix has a sustainable business model. (Don’t people talk about Netflix these days the way they used to talk about Blockbuster?)
  15. Rodney Perkins has some notes about Criterion’s Blu-ray release of Guillermo Del Toro’s first film Chronos, which he recommends even though it’s not a great movie.
  16. Bob Moricz of when film format plans go awry. You make do! Plus, help support Moricz’s wife Irina’s art biz.
  17. DVD Beaver finally gets around to reviewing one of the Underground Film Journal’s favorite films, Joshua von Brown’s Altamont Now.
  18. Chained to the Cinémathèque has several gorgeous images from Steven Soderberg’s Che to intro his two-part article on the film.
  19. Chris Hansen is a proud father.
  20. The Online Film Critics Society asked its members what DVD they’d consider buying all their friends for Christmas. I was one of the few who answered.
  21. Patrick Smith shares some of his favorite animated GIFs.
  22. Reading notes on Ed Halter’s article “The Matter of Electronics.”
  23. If you speak Spanish, Visionary Film has notes on the Flux Festival de Vídeo d’Autor 2010.
  24. Ever wonder what a Mexican telenovella set looked like? Rhizome has some set pics, which if you never wondered are still way cool.
  25. It’s good to be Bill Plympton. He just went to a film fest in Trinidad and Tobago.
  26. DINCA reviews yet another short film by Laida Lerxtundi, Cry When It Happens. Somebody has a crush!
  27. This article by Mark Evanier isn’t really film related, but it’s excellent advice for screenwriters and film bloggers alike and it boils down to: They pay you, you don’t pay them!
  28. For a quick, cheap laugh, my favorite cartoonist, Sam Henderson, takes a look at teen movies in space.