Foxing Fox With Fair Use

When guerilla documentary filmmaking meets the Internet and political activism, sparks are sure to fly, and Robert Greenwald is certainly causing alot of those sparks with his new documentary about Fox News' republican bias, "Out Foxed". Fox News (the people famous for suing Al Franken for trademark infringement for his book title) is now hinting they might sue the filmmaker (or are they?), bringing an added focus to the issue of "fair use" in modern copyright law. Some of the expected copyfight pundits are weighing in, but this is something that filmmakers (especially documentarians) should be paying close attention to -- issues like the broadcast flag treaty and the INDUCE act from Senator Hatch are eroding the important "fair use" provisions that make media activism and social critique as vibrant as it is.



Harry Potter Producer Condemns Hollywood Films

Over the last couple of years, I've taken to reading Aljazerra.net as a broadening of the news coverage I consume. Imagine my surprise to find it writing about about Hollywood films. Mexican producer Alfonso Cuaron, no stranger to the indie scene, uses his Harry Potter soapbox to level some charges at Hollywood. When accused of being part of the Hollywood system he was criticizing, Cuaron replied: "That distinction is as offensive and sad as saying that the (US) Drug Enforcement Administration certifies other countries for their cooperation against trafficking, when we are really talking about the number-one producer (of drugs) in the world."



More on Moore's Timing

An article in the Independent reports that Moore admitted in a CNN interview that "he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing" his new film Fahrenheit 911, offering that the admission has "undermined Moore's claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit 911 just days before its world premiere at the Cannes film festival." The story also raises questions about whether or not Miramax "signed a contract to distribute this [film]" (Moore's quote from CNN), with the Independent offering up "a source close to Miramax" as reporting the deal was for financing, not distribution. Brilliant viral marketing (heck, when you get the New York Times to run a front-page story, your viral marketing efforts have succeeded) to create buzz for the film release.



Dependence 411

Ah, nothing like regretting your dependency and blaming it on censorship to get the old press machine rolling for Michael Moore (way enough press coverage from us already here) -- the news is interesting, and Michael has weighed in as well. Far be it from me to criticize a filmmaker for making the promotional best of controversy, but I fear that Michael has forgotten what it means to be independent (or how easy it is now to avoid being in a position where Disney can influence what you can and can't do with your film.) But Michael lost that option when he took $6M from Miramax.

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Eenie, Meenie, Minie ... Indie!

Ah, day one of the blogs being live, and we have our first indieWIRE blog cat-fight between Anthony and Eugene ... and, of course, on the "what is indie?" question as it relates to "The Passion of the Christ". The debate over that film's inclusion in our box office continues on as our definition of what indie is comes into contrast with the scope and muscle of that film.

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