Audiences now have the chance to see two additional figures of the new American art cinema; Lance Hammer, who directed the standout Sundance premiere "Ballast," which opens at the Film Forum on Wednesday (and which I reviewed for indieWIRE), and Antonio Campos, who made "Afterschool," a Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere that flew under the radar in France, but is now picking up steam due to its New York Film Festival selection (it shows next Monday--I inteviewed Campos for the Voice).

While completely different in style, tone, and theme, both films stand completely outside of the Sundance/Indiewood system, with associations and affiliations closer to European auteurs, whether the Dardennes, in the case of "Ballast," or Michael Haneke, in the case of "Afterschool." Don't get me wrong: these are not derivative films either. They are unique to their makers' visions. And they should give hope to cinephiles that American auteurs will keep on coming, no matter what shakedowns face the film industry, at large.

To sum up briefly, what's seemingly astonishing about VOD is Sehring's claim that the gross dollar revenue ratio from VOD to theatrical is 2 to 1. That means a film such as "This is England," for example, which made about $350,000 in theaters made another $700,000 on VOD. That's probably not the most accurate example--I'm only guessing on the numbers--but what I do know, according to one of the film's backers, is that the producers saw money back, which is a rare case for a Shane Meadows film. Another good example is HDNet/Magnolia Pictures' "Flawless," which grossed $1.2 million in theaters and probably another $2-3 million via VOD. That's a lot of extra clams. And it's success stories like these that have everyone buzzing.

Here's the downside: As Roadside Attractions's Howard Cohen told me "The lesson for us is if it has no life theatrically, then it has no life on VOD." With VOD releases, you still have to make a name for yourself some way, either through theatrical business, good reviews or racy subject matter. Sex sells, especially on VOD. (Catherine Breillat's "The Last Mistress" is turning out to be a huge IFC VOD winner.) But as more and more companies and titles fill up the VOD channels, that's more clutter and competition, further dividing the audience and making it harder for individual titles to push through. In the near future, one sales agent told me, more film titles will likely start with the letter "A" so they'll top the alphabetical list on VOD offerings.

So here's the rub. VOD may provide a huge new untapped revenue stream for distributors and filmmakers--in indieWIRE today, Rainbow Media chief Josh Sapan predicted that within five years VOD will be the primary revenue stream for films. But it's still not enough to offset the cost of making a movie. As Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, producer of Larry Fessenden's IFC title "The Last Winter" and director of the Toronto breakout doc "Soul Power," told me, "If you can make a movie for $200,000, then all of these things are very interesting. But if you make a movie for $2 million, then I don't think any of them are interesting."

It's pretty easy to transplant maverick, bomb-defusing renegade Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) for Patrick Swayze's maverick surfer criminal renegade Bodhi in "Point Break." He's the wild, charismatic lead, whose reckless behavior is the fascinating object of the audience and its surrogates, whether Keanu Reeve's FBI agent or, in "The Hurt Locker," Anthony Mackie's by-the-book Sgt. Sanborn. With Bigelow, you get to examine the possibly homoerotic and aggressive dimension of these competitive male relationships. But moreover, you get Excitement! Thrills! Explosions! I don't disparage Bigelow's filmmaking skills--she knows how to raise the tension and keep the viewer clenched--but I don't trust her politics, neither gender nor global.

If, like many war movies, "Hurt Locker" tries to leave the audience with a sense of the horrors of battle and how it can damage its participants, such insights are a mere band-aid over the film's overwhelming mission: To entertain the audience with scenes of suspense, one after another, with little plot development. I leave a discussion of the script construction to other critics.

But "The Hurt Locker" is most offensive in its depiction of Iraq itself and the Iraqi people. A strange foreign culture, with images of grotesque gutted pigs and screaming, hysterical women, Bigelow's Iraq is a Fox News Broadcast. Every five-o'-clock shadowed Arab is a potential threat and every cellphone is a ticking time bomb. The single sympathetic Iraqi in the entire film is a hustling kid; everyone else is treated as Al Qaeda. This might best mirror the protagonist's American tunnel-vision perspective, but it's also grossly xenophobic. I enjoyed "Point Break" as much as the next guy, but when it comes to a political statement, Bigelow should stick to those set in California.

I'm also enlisting the help of some real live documentary filmmakers to come in and offer advice. You can read about some of the 10 lessons that filmmaker-blogger Doug Block (The D-Word, "51 Birch Street") wrote about after he stopped by last year. I was quite proud of the distinguished nonfiction guests that stopped by last time out: Nanette Burstein even previewed a clip from "American Teen."

Enrollment is low at the moment, and time is running out! So if you're interested in the class or know someone who might be, please direct them to the link -- or we'll lose out on an opportunity to learn from the best. Classes run Sept. 17-Dec 10.

But will audiences come, especially those who have no knowledge of the Ken Jacobs legacy? It's always the question. If college-age and post-college kids get a hold of it, I think they'll find something in "Momma's Man" truly universal. Despite our great desire to escape from our parents (some of us crossing continents to get away from them), there is some small sliver of the self, some regressive always-infantile gene (in men, particularly?) that will always want to return to their mommy's womb.

As I've covered the film before in this Sundance wrap-up, reporting on its distribution situation, and in this Village Voice interview , I feel like I've spent a good deal of time thinking about the movie. And there was a lot of material that I wasn't able to publish. Maybe here's a good place for a few choice excerpts of dialogue with Azazel and Ken from my interview that didn't make it into the Voice:

Azazel: Nothing was so difficult and so draining as my first film. These first films you don't know how you're going to finish them or where you're heading. I wound up shooting hours of video. It was 5 years of writing, 2 years of shooting and editing. It really took everthing. All the heartbreak of knowing how much more you need to learn to start being precise about being what you want. By the end, we forgot what we loved about making films. We were both thinking we're not going to make a movie until we get an HMI.
Ken: What's an HMI?
Aza: It's like a big Hollywood light. We were AFI guys, shutting down the street. So we're sitting around waiting for an HMI and we're going to keep waiting. So we realized we had to do something to pull ourselves out. That's how we wound up making "The Goodtimeskid." I hope it's not a copy of Jarmusch or Kaursmaki, but we were watching those and my father's work, stuff that made us think that we don't need money and we can do just do this thing.
"Goodtimeskid," for me, was really about falling in love with film again. When we shot "Goodtimeskid," it was the first time you can go into a film picturing what this thing would be, instead of it being this dark tunnel.

****

Azazel: One of the earliest things that we got obsessed about early was Hellazappopin' . We had a print growing up and we'd watch it over and over. I think again that thing that this is a film that you're watching, and it's okay that it's a film. That's probably what wound up in "Kirk and Kerry," because I really like this idea. I feel like it's leveling with the audience. I felt like I was lied to all the time. Hopefully, that's there in "Momma's Man," too, especially with the stairs. I'm saying this is a movie. Maybe this is more honest because it's saying that this is a movie.

Ken: I think that's true. I think other things have helped. "Zazie on the Metro." I think Tati has helped you. The sense of open and closed at the same time, and there's something taking place in an open area – which is also happening in "Citizen Kane" – he really makes it clear that you're looking at a set. The same thing happens in Felinni.

***

Azazel: When I was little, I equated anger with being honest, and true.
Ken: Hmm. Now you tell us?
Azazel: Judging from The Clash and all that punk rock stuff, it seemed the more honest the more angry that you were.
Ken: Fucking pose.
Azazel: I realize that now, but at the time, I was convinced the angrier you were, the more true. I'm hoping I hang on to some of that. I don't want to leave those days behind. I don't want to be like I'm mature now. That would be terrible.
Ken: Oh god, maturity!

***
Ken: I admire Matt's acting, it's amazing to me. I think I see it the way people go to the movies; it touches me. I'm more forgiving of the character, Mikey, watching the movie than I was when we were shooting. He was an obdurate clod.
Anthony: Who are you playing?
Ken: Me. I couldn't play anything else.
Azazel: I think it's half-true. You speak a lot more in real life. All these quiet moments of silence… that's the whole issue. It's really hard to say what the reality is. This person is an only child. He's chosen a different thing than me. They don't have any real relationshop.
Ken: We talk.
Azazel: I think you're playing a version of yourself who could have had a son like this. I don't see our relationship in the film.
Ken: I wouldn't be surprised if some disdain for this character comes through.

***

Anthony: What are you working on now?
Ken: IIm back at "Tom Tom the Piper's Son". I've already made one entire 90 minute film that's going to open up at MoMA in October, called "Return to the Scene of the Crime." And now I'm working on Tom and the cast in complete 3-D. In 1975, I began moving into live performance and did a whole series of works based on that film. I have one wife and I have one film I keep going back to again and again. I'm fascinated with it. I love the people in it. Before they were part of this murky mess. Now they're brought forth, literally. It's so timely, I'm connecting to this social spasm in this interest in 3-D, so I'm bound to make a lot of money, right?

"Treeless Mountain" - New York filmmaker So Yong Kim's Korea-set follow-up to her Sundance award-winning "In Between Days" tells the intimate story of two little girls abandoned by their mother.

"Goodbye Solo" - Ramin Bahrani ("Man Push Cart," "Chop Shop") follows the relationship between a Senagelese taxi driver and an older suicidal man in North Carolina. Also at Venice.

"The Dungeon Master" - Keven McAlester's latest doc focuses on three adults deeply involved with Dungeons & Dragons and explores how the game affects their lives and relationships, with cinematography by Lee Daniel (known for his work with Richard Linklater) and a score by Blonde Redhead.

"Me and Orson Welles" - Richard Linklater's latest stars Zac Efron, Claire Danes, and Christian Mckay as Orson Welles.

"Lovely Still" – 24-year-old wunderkind Nik Fackler directs this unconventional love story starring Ellen Burstyn, Martin Landau and Elizabeth Banks, from producers of "Old Joy" and "Wild Tigers I Have Known."

"Genova" – I'll see anything directed by Michael Winterbottom, set in Italy, stars Colin Firth, Catherine Keener and Hope Davis, sounds like a psychological portrait of loss about a widower and his two daughters.

"Two Legged Horse" - Samira Makhmalbaf's latest about a boy who carries a disabled boy on his back every day to and fro school.

"A Time to Stir" - British doc director Paul Cronin's epic four-hour work looks at the tumultuous events of the Columbia University student strike in 1968 that ended in police violence and signaled a dramatic political shift between old left and new left.

"Uncertainty" -- You have to wonder what Scott McGehee and David Siegel are up to with this bifurcated narrative about the same young couple in love who find out that they are pregnant and are not sure what to do. The man flips a coin and there follows two versions of what happens next. Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins.

"The Wrestler - Word on the street is that Darren Aronofsky's professional wrestler portrait, starring Mickey Rourke, is a low-budget comeback of sorts following the director's "Fountain" setback. It actually premieres in Venice two days earlier, but you can bet most of the press corps will catch it in Canada.

According to Variety, the story is based on an 8th century legend about a girl who was kidnapped by nuns and later in life used illusion and martial arts skills to challenge the male world. "Crouching Tiger" comparisons may be inevitable, but there's few filmmakers as distinctive and glacial as Hou. Don't expect the quick cuts of early wuxia flicks; you have to wonder: What does an action sequence directed by Hou look like?

While Variety bills the film as a "psychological thriller that evolves into a horror film," I'd use the term "horror" loosely if you've seen the way Von Trier employs horror conventions in films such as "Epidemic" or "The Kingdom" series. We're talking strange, supernatural, metaphysical shivers--more "Rosemary's Baby" or Dreyer's "Vampyr" than "Friday the 13th."

Oh, and I don't think Dafoe will be reprising or subverting the role he made famous in "Last Temptation Of..." If I know the Danish troublemaker, I'll bet the film's title is far more ambiguous. The $11 million production begins this month in Germany. Can't wait to see it.

Unlike Jaman, which solely provides high-quality rentals, iArtHouse's main business seems to be sales. Streaming movies are available -- how excited I was to see that Fritz Lang's masterpiece "M" is available for free viewing! -- but I quickly discovered the films don't stream at a level of high resolution that discerning art-house viewers would expect. DVD downloads, I imagine, are much better quality. Still, you've got to hand it to the programmers: In addition to the aforementioned, iArtHouse has a rich selection, from "The Third Man" to "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" to "The Man with the Golden Arm."

I presume The Auteurs, which I've been told will launch in November, will similarly make hard-to-find foreign titles available for an online audiience. But with Jaman and now iArtHouse in the mix, what will The Auteurs do to set themselves apart? But hey, how can you complain about increasing ways to find classic art cinema?

I'm no expert on the reasons why (maybe somebody else out there can elucidate, Matt Dentler, perhaps?), but I suppose like everything else it has to do with money. Revenue share with indies probably won't produce as much cash for iTunes--who needs the small fry when you've got "Batman"? Just take a trip to iTunes' Movie page and you'll see the 8 new releases highlighted on the main page consist of studio titles, past and present (from "Superman" and "Tin Cup" to "Chariots of Fire" and "The Right Stuff"). At least, short films have some traction on the site, but American and foreign indies are nowhere to be seen. (Indie music, however, has its own section, so why can't films?)

With Netflix also abandoning independent acquistions, instead favoring a similar model of purchasing from existing distributors, that leaves the film festival indie with few established places to showcase online. Of course, there's IndiePix, IndieFlix, SnagFilms, Jaman, and myriad other web distributors cropping up that are happy to take truly indie content, but if the big Internet players are bypassing daring alternative cinema then we could be right back where we started in the current theatrical market, with the majors pushing out the indies.

But it wasn't until recently that I finally watched "The GoodTimesKId" along with some other films by Azazel Jacobs in preperation for this Village Voice interview (in conjunction with next week's BAM series and the Aug. 22nd release of his Sundance critics favorite "Momma's Man.")

I sat down with Azazel and his father Ken Jacobs, the avant-garde luminary and celebrated film teacher, for a congenial conversation that traversed several topics, including Azazel's work in relation to his father's and his penchant for self-reflexivity (derived, in part, from a frequently watched print of "Hellzapoppin," the 1941 madcap comedy, that was lying around the Jacobs loft when he was a kid).

I liked "GoodTimesKid" as much as I hoped, with its mix of dry minimalist humor and hopelessness, and was pleasantly surprised by Azazel's subversive Slamdance-winning short "Kirk and Kerry" (available to watch here), which shows a dysfunctional Cassavetes-like couple falling apart, all the while blurring the distinction between character and actor. Admittedly, I never did get through his debut feature "Nobody Needs to Know" (available here), but I still don't have the patience for watching anything feature-length on my computer, so it's not the film's fault. I've written fondly about "Momma's Man" elsewhere on this blog here.

From what I've seen, Jacobs is distinct from the boatloads of no-budget filmmakers in that he successfully manages a near impossible balance of indie quirk and sophisticated sentiment--finding its most mature evocation in "Momma's Man."

Alternative cinema has no shortage of confused, mired young depressos, but Azazel's work comes from an authentic, rebellious spirt that feels authentic, or at least, transparent. If many of the mumblecore films feel too insular or adolescent or if other more stylized indies can often alienate their audience, Azazel often hits that ineffable sweet spot, where constructed oddities and emotional truths miraculously work together.

After two weeks of major marketing spend by Paramount Vantage, "American Teen" has grossed about a quarter of million dollars in 39 theaters. Back in January, if you remember, "Teen" was the buzzed-about picture at Sundance, with rumored bids skyrocketing to $2.5 million. (According to Variety, Vantage scored the film for $1 million, plus significant P&A committment.) As last year's releases of "There Will Be Blood" and "Into the Wild" proved, Vantage sure can burn through the marketing dollars. But will it be worth it? After seeing the film recently, I must admit I got all caught up in the various teenage melodramas (charismatic alt-teen Hannah Bailey deserves her own show, or movie, or whatever she wants). But will American consumers buy it? The film's $4,500 per-venue average suggests the hype may have subsided since Park City, but Vantage isn't going to give up anytime soon, going out to 50 markets in the coming weeks.

Magnolia Pictures' releases of "Gonzo," the Hunter S. Thompson doc, and "Man on Wire," the '70s World Trade Center tightrope chronicle, are also doing well, but while "Gonzo" is safely set to cross the $1 million mark, the true test of "Man on Wire"'s success will be when the distributor expands the film outside of New York this weekend. In its second run in New York, the film remained consistently strong (with another $48,477 in the bank), but outside of the film's Gotham location, will the story have as much resonance?

One last thought: "Encounters at the End of the World" is Werner Herzog's second-best documentary grosser behind "Grizzly Man": Though it probably won't crack $1 million, it's still impressive numbers for a fascinating film about man and nature's limits, and the disconsolate madness of a wayward penguin. For my money, Herzog's penguin scene -- subversive and devastating -- is the nonfiction moment of the year.

While other online exhibition sites require unique video players, which however simple, keep viewers away, Snag -- like Hulu.com or even YouTube -- understands that online consumers don't like to download programs and want to watch content in their browsers. Who knows if the advertising model is there? Or whether there are enough viewers interested in nonfiction to drive consistent traffic to the site? Or whether filmmakers have enough financial incentive to take part? But for now, there's both a quality of programming and exhibition that should serve them well.

I'm not privy to all the proposed buyouts of indieWIRE over the years (for that, you'd have to ask fearless iW leader Eugene Hernadez), but I think the reason this one worked unlike all the others is that indieWIRE's freedom to be what it is, I hope, will be maintained, along with perhaps some little improvements. (Man, would I like a copyeditor.) When we contract published IFC RANT, a print magazine for the Independent Film Channel, it was fun and certainly helped with much needed cash, but sometimes I felt like we were betraying our fiercely independent spirit. In today's cash-strapped times, beggers can't be choosers. But I'd like to think this is one financial buyout that doesn't mean a loss of self-respect or any conflicts of interest, and maybe even some paid vacation time and a decent healthcare package for indieWIRE's 3-person staff.