Trailer for new fish film w/ (my kid) Jess Atkins and some great music— “A new fly fishing documentary, ‘Raising the Ghost,” chronicles 7 epic days of fly fishing in a remote region of British Columbia’s Skeena River system. The Fly Boys team attempts to catch Steelhead eating dead-drift dry flies.”

The Mountain Music Project went lookng for connections between the music of Appalachia and the Himalayas. They found ‘em. The film will be finished by end of 2008 (produced by HV’s Jack Chance). The trailer is out now and gorgeous, “A Higher Lonesome Sound:”

Had to check out Hulu.com after reading about it. It’s kind of like YouTube Pro. Given that they’re doing limited commercials and putting things on there that people actually want to watch without being hunched over the screen, the TV industry might avoid the RIAA’s fate. The video quality is pretty good. At full-screen, I could sit back six feet and it looked fine. Want to watch Saturday Night Live clips or full-length The Simpsons or whole movies like “The Big Lebowski” or “The Usual Suspects.” Hulu is “joint venture owned by NBC Universal and News Corp [Fox]:”

Hulu offers U.S. consumers a vast selection of premium video content, on demand, free and ad-supported: full episodes of TV shows, both current and classic, full-length movies, thousands of clips, and much more.

There’s also short films, like from the Sundance series The Art of Seduction, “Not Pretty, Really:”

John and Abagail Adams played by Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Nuff said, no? Parts 1 & 2 of the HBO 7-week mini-series “John Adams” rocked, rolled, tarred, feathered, cannon fired, and created a nation. “He United the States of America.” Based on the David McCullough 900-pager, “John Adams (HBO) full-length trailer”:

From the March/April 2008 Issue of The Believer, a conversation between two great filmakers: “Errol Morris talks with Werner Herzog.”

I was a private detective for years after I started as a filmmaker. I like to think, of course I could be completely wrong, that there’s this detective element in everything I do. My movies start from interviews. Everything that I’ve really done. —EM

Wait for the afterthought. Be patient. Don’t say, “Cut.” Just let them do it. The unplanned, the unexpected, the afterthought. —WH

via Zak Rosen- WDET.

“Basketball is a wonderful thing for a community because it is a warm place where everyone can go and it isn’t a church or a bar.” - Phil Jackson

Apathy was thick as I approached the theater for a screening of Class C. Five minutes in, I was completely converted. Class C, a documentary film produced by Bozemanite Mark Zetler, follows 5 Montana Class C girls basketball teams as they make their way to the State tournament. Instantly engaging and entertaining, it’s a beautifully crafted story about Montana and basketball; an interview with coaching legend and Montana native Phil Jackson is deftly intertwined. Go out of your way to see it!

Free screening at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings on February 23rd at 8pm.
Airs on MontanaPBS:
Wednesday February 27th at 8pm
Monday March 3rd at 7pm
More on Class C

Bombs become the beat in this final scene of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film “Zabriskie Point”. Music by Pink Floyd:

The Hollyweird writer’s strike pits the wits of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) against the pens the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Well, online at least, the WGA pens have the AMPTP pinned. AMPTP.org never got around to registering AMPTP.com, but WGA did. Sez Deadline Hollywood Daily of this “satirisite”:

It looks almost identical, too, down to those Did You Know? factlets. (Example: Six out of 10 non-Judd Apatow movies never recoup their original investment… “Writer” comes from the Latin ritem meaning “unhygienic and doughy.”) This is what clearly happens when writers have way too much free time on their hands.

From the AMPTP.com home page:

We are heartbroken to report that despite our best efforts, including sending them a muffin basket, making them a mix CD, and standing outside their window with a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel songs, our talks with the WGA have broken down.

While we’re not going to point fingers or assign blame, we do feel justified in saying that they are entirely at fault.

Why does the WGA hate freedom and democracy so much?