Savage Popcorn

Lloyd Kaufman, Chairman of the IFTA, delivers a speech on media consolidation and the dangers it poses to independent art.

Ironically, I found this YouTube video by way of Kaufman’s MySpace blog.

Minuscule is a fusion between the documentary style of National Geographic and the universe of Tex Avery in which animated insects experience their adventures against a background of real-world sets. The films are short, dialogue-free and very, very funny.

Inevitably enough, plenty of these films have turned up online and you can also subscribe to the sites RSS feed and download the much prettier MP4 clips. And don’t forget to check out the DVD for over four hours of comedy genius.

Via BoingBoing

(Found @james_gunn)

Back in 2004 I saw, and tremendously enjoyed G.O.R.A., a science fiction comedy written by and starring Turkish comedian Cem Yilmaz. Twitch has been closely following the progress of Yilmaz’s follow up to G.O.R.A., a time-travel comedy entitled A.R.O.G.

No synopsis in English has turned up yet, but Yilmaz has been releasing a stream of teasers, each of which reveals a single plot element and really does leave you wanting to see more. The fifth teaser is now online and really does need to be seen to be believed.

You can catch all five, as well as the opening scene from the film at Twitch.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley is a tale of spell binding suspense in which something evil lurks just beneath the lush surfaces of teenaged girl’s private school world - and it holds the rights to her very soul…

Happy Halloween

With only days left until the Presidential election, street artist Shepard Fairey and director Melissa Balin have teamed up to try and create their own grass-roots movement in support og the Obama campaign by launching the Vote for Change Video Postcards. Truth be told, though, it’s less a grass-roots movement and more a series of sixty second celebrity endorsements, but some of them are pretty good and worth watching.

So here’s John C. Reilly on being white…

… and there are many more on the Vote for Change website.

Set in the 2056, Repo! The Genetic Opera tells the story of an epidemic of organ failures that devastates the planet, killing tens of millions. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants… for a price.

It’s a film that seemed destined to become a cult hit, with curiosity and fan interest running high pretty much from day one. Unfortunately, the film fell victim to a change of management at Lionsgate and – as is often the case – the new guy tries to make himself look good by under-marketing the previous incumbents projects.

In the case of Lionsgate, this has let to a pitiful opening for Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train and JT Petty’s The Burrowers is receiving practically no marketing at all. Similarly, Repo! Has received a whole lot of nothing in terms of marketing but – in this case – director Darren Lynn Bousman is not prepared to see his film sink without trace and has been doggedly mounting his own campaign which has so far seen him release the soundtrack and pound the festival circuit for all it’s worth.

And now Twitch has managed to score a full musical number that captures the unique aesthetic of this odd little film. Watch it, watch the trailer, demand the DVD.

If, like me, you have been following James Gunn’s MySpace Blog, you will be aware that he has been getting rather excited recently about the idea of making PG Porn. The first episode is out so, without further ado here’s Nathan Fillion Nailing Your Wife.

Geoff J Henley has a point:

My goal is to integrate skepticism into popular culture. When we watch commercial TV, read newspapers, attend weddings and sporting events or drive through our neighbourhoods at Easter, religion all gets a free plug. But to find something about scepticism, you have to go look for it on the Internet or at a bookstore.

And here’s what he came up with:

Via the New Humanist