Of Soul that is. The passing on Christmas day of James Brown brought to mind two 1970's experiences with "the hardest working man in show business" that I'm sure I'll carry with me forever. The first was actually a movie-going one, while the second was a live show.

I never knew about THE T.A.M.I. SHOW until I got to college in the mid-70's. Released by American Internatioonal Pictures in 1965, this b&w musical time capsule of 1964 is simply one of the greatest concert films ever made. The "Teenage Awards Music International" lineup, shot by TV cameras at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and kinescoped onto film by director Steve Binder, featured Glen Campbell as a guitarist in the house band, an uncredited Teri Garr and Toni Basil as two of the go-go dancers, and the following musical acts: The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye (w/ Martha & the Vandellas backing him up!) , Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Beach Boys (cut from the film for legal reasons or some B.S.), Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Ronettes, The Barbarians, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and...Mr. James Brown. As unbelievable as this lineup was for one concert, what I remember best is "Soul Brother No. 1" blowing the place apart with an amazing "Please, Please, Please" complete with electrifying footwork, multiple false endings, the whole breakdown and cape bit, and a raw energy that must have stunned all of those white teenagers.

Unfortunately, those 16mm prints from Kit Parker Films are long gone (as is the company), and THE T.A.M.I. SHOW remains without official distribution of any kind (theatrical, non-theatrical, home video, or dvd). What a shame--this quintissential 60's music film should be at the top of every "Why the hell isn't this out on DVD already?" list.

I was fortunate enough to see James Brown perform live around that same time in the mid-70's in NYC. He played the Lone Star Cafe (not a large place) and I just kept wondering how the hell all those musicians in his huge band were going to fit on the stage. Not only did they fit, but he even found room to work those magical dance moves and bring the whole place to a R & B, funk and soul frenzy. One of my fondest memories in nearly four decades of concert-going.

R.I.P. J.B.

--Matthew

Though the exclusive Orlando engagement of THE HISTORY BOYS remains the main present under Enzian's tree this holiday season (and a good thing too, for those of us who never made it to the play on Broadway), the week between Christmas and New Year's brings some other special treats for Central Florida filmgoers.

The festivities begin tonight (Tuesday) at 9:30 PM with the final Art House Project/Sundance Channel Film Series screening of the year, HIGH ART (1998). This highly acclaimed lesbian drama, set amongst a world of photography, artistic creation, and drug abuse, won a Special Jury Prize at Deauville, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance for writer/director Lisa Cholodenko, and earned an outstanding Ally Sheedy the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, and Best Actress from the Los Angeles Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics. Focus Features was kind enough to make a brand new 35mm print for the Art House Project bookings--bravo!

If you didn't get enough of Bob Clark's A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) yet (gee, it's only on 24 hours straight on TBS or something), Sanford's monthly "Cinema in the Park" series in Centennial Park will be presenting Jean Shepherd's holiday classic under the stars at 7:30 PM on Wednesday night the 27th. It's impossible to get tired of Ralphie and his Red Ryder BB Gun, the fishnet leg lamp, and the expressions on the faces of Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, and Melinda Dillon. This nostalgic comedy turned out to be the inspiration for TV's "The Wonder Years," and was nominated for nine Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars), winning two for Best Screenplay and Best Achievement in Direction (where it tied with David Cronenberg and VIDEODROME!)

Last but not least, Thursday night Florida Citrus Sports is presenting a special Popcorn Flick screening of David Aspaugh's RUDY (1993) in Central Park, downtown Winter Park, in honor of all the other College Bowl-related activities this week in Orlando. The director of HOOSIERS did it again with this inspirational story of the boy who was too small to play football for Notre Dame but overcame the odds. One of the classic underdog movies of recent years, the film stars Sean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty, Lily Taylor, and Charles S. Dutton, who gives one of the great speeches in sports cinema history.

So trade in those unwanted gifts, use up those gift certificates, and come out and join us for these "belated" cinematic offerings. Happy Holidays!

--Matthew

While it's always nice getting your voice heard, apologies must go out to all of the fine indies and the handful of exceptional studio releases that I've been unable to get to thus far this year. With Florida Film Festival final selections looming in early January, and over 1500 submissions under consideration, November and December are pretty much dead months to me as far as actually going out to the movies. So unless I caught it at Sundance or Toronto, or a film happened to open at Enzian, there's still a whole bunch of movies out there on my "to do" list. But here's what I've got so far:

Best Film: BABEL
Best Performance (gender neutral): (tie) Forest Whitaker, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND and Ryan Gosling, HALF NELSON
Best Supporting Performance (gender neutral): (tie) Jackie Earl Haley, LITTLE CHILDREN; Catherine O'Hara, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION; and James McAvoy, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, BABEL
Best Screenplay: TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (Frank Cottrell Boyce)
Best First Film: HALF NELSON, dir. by Ryan Fleck
Best Documentary: WORDPLAY, dir. by Patrick Creadon
Best Cinematography: PAN'S LABYRINTH (Guillermo Navarro)
Best Undistributed Film: Mike Akel's CHALK (narrative) and Shaun Conrad & David Raccuglia's PURVIS OF OVERTOWN (doc)

MC's 2006 Top 10 (as of 12/21, in alphabetical order):

BABEL
BORAT
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
LADY VENGEANCE
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
LITTLE CHILDREN
MONSTER HOUSE (in Digital 3-D)
PAN'S LABYRINTH
TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY
VOLVER

I reserve the right to make wholesale changes in the coming weeks. Let the arguments begin...

--Matthew

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I actually agree with what NY Knick coach Isiah Thomas did on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks were getting blown out by the Denver Nuggets with a minute and a half left in the game, and Denver's coach, George Karl, was rubbing their nose in it by still playing four of his starters (including Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby). Karl apparently hates Thomas' guts for the way Isiah treated his good friend and fellow North Carolina alum Larry Brown last year, canning him after perhaps one of the worst year-long coaching performances in league history. The fact that the Knicks beat Denver on their home floor in a weird game earlier this season didn't help matters.

Though he hasn't admitted it, and even thought he was caught on camera mouthing a warning to Carmelo to stay out of the lane, Isiah had obviously told his scrubs to foul anyone driving for a layup hard--really, really hard. Like a beanball coming after a previous batter had hit a monstrous home run or shown up the pitcher, the Denver players should have expected it given their coach's infantile behavior. But the fouled Nugget player took great offense to the (admittedly) ugly flagrant foul, got all up in the Knick player's face, and the full-scale brawl was on. And Carmelo, one of the NBA's bright (maybe not so) young superstars, decided to sucker punch a Knick player and then run away--real nice.

Seven players were supended for a total of 47 games, with Carmelo deservedly getting the biggest (15). Both clubs were fined an unprecedented half million apiece as well. Whether or not these stiff penalties help curb future melees who the hell knows. First Indiana and Detroit and now Denver and New York. Each coach may have acted in a manner to send their own message, but it's the immature players who lose their cool and control of their emotions, jeopardizing their team's chances of success and the NBA's image problem.

Isiah has been a horrible GM in his day, and whether or not he can coach his ragtag group of millionaire misfits to a respectable record remains to be seen. Ugliness aside from the aftermath of his actions, I respect his decision to protect his team's honor. Now let's see if George Karl can keep the ship afloat and figure out a way to create enough shots for both "The Answer--AI" (acquired today) and Carmelo when he returns in a month.

--Matthew

So I'm listening to Sports Talk Radio last week and some so-called expert is going on about the Orlando Magic, the City Beautiful's lone pro sports team (forget Arena Football) that had gotten off to a terrific start this year. Young and deep and playing with surprising confidence, they had amassed a 13-4 record for the best in the Eastern Conference, even going 4-2 on a brutal 6-game West Coast road trip. The opponent that night was the Detroit Pistons, and this idiot on the radio not only said the Magic should have no problem beating them, but also gave them the kiss of death by talking about their lack of injuries and excellent team health. If I could've reached my hand through the radio and planted it over this moron's piehole (think Clay and Kelly), I would've done so.

Since those fatal words were spewed over the airwaves, the team has lost 6 out of 8 games, played like crap, and sustained enough injuries to knock out 4 players (including 3 starters) from the regular rotation--Hedo Turkoglu (ankle), Keith Bogans (ankle), Jameer Nelson (groin), and (what-do-you-know) Grant Hill (knee). This is not good. And to add insult to injury, the Bobcats' Sean May--whom the Magic passed on in the draft two years ago to take Spaniard Fran Vazquez, the forward who changed his mind about playing in the NBA and stayed home instead--lit them up for a career-high 32 points in the Charlotte win. Ouch!

Let's hope Santa brings some clean bills of health soon (a smothering defense and some outside shooting would be nice too). Until these guys come back, it could be ugly for a while. A.I. anyone?

--Matthew

Matthew Curtis is a genius. I always tease him about watching credits on Festival submissions and saying, Hey! That key grip was a PA on that short I saw at Sundance five years ago called (insert random film name here) and knew that other guy who produced (insert other random film name here). But really that is why Matthew is a brilliant programmer. He cares...and he remembers. With the most incredible steel trap of a mind I have ever met, Matthew can name that movie with the most remote unintelligable reference.

Hey Matthew, you know that movie with that one guy?
Yeah, Badlands.
No, that other one.
Oh, you mean Catch 22.
Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, Matthew was recently asked to be a member of the national nominating committee for the Film and Video component of the Media Arts Fellowships by National Video Resources, a program established by the Rockefeller Foundation. Our friend Brian Newman at NVR knows Matthew's a genius too. Matthew put in his nominations but won't tell us who they are. The awards will be announced in April...stay tuned.

In other good on me news, I have received a scholarship to complete the Crummer Management Program at Rollins College. I was one of only two nonprofit managers in the area chosen and will start the 18-week, mini-MBA in January. Yeah!
Shannon

Prince, the 48-year-old, diminutive purple one himself, is hired to be the halftime entertainment at this year's Super Bowl. After the infamous Janet wardrobe malfunction freak-out three years ago, when millions of viewers got a glimpse of her boob (and that metal contraption over her nipple), the networks were supposedly playing it safe. So McCartney and the Stones got the gig the last couple of years, proving that the retirement age is fluid in the minds of these classic British rockers (even if Mick's arms have gotten a bit saggy). Needless to say, tape delay wasn't necessary.

Now I know that the brilliant Minneapolis composer and musician has found religion in recent years, but it's hard to forget that this was one of the most sexually-charged, bad-boy pop geniuses in contemporary music for a couple of decades. Perhaps his thong-wearing, stage-humping, scantily clad band member days are over, and I'm sure we'll be treated to some grotesque medley of a few of his dozens of greatest hits. But don't expect to hear "Dirty Mind," "Erotic City," "Sexy M.F.", "Darling Nikki," or a host of others--would be kind of fun though. Guess we'll just have to tune in to find out un-controversial his set can be.

--Matthew

I found out this morning that Stephen Haywood, one of the subjects of the 2006 FFF documentary So Much So Fast, passed away on November 26 after a long battle with Lou Gherig's disease. From the West City Films site:
"The last scenes in the film were filmed in July 2004. Since then, Stephen finished a beautiful renovation of the carriage house seen in the film. He took part in an experimental program using sensors implanted in his brain to control a computer cursor with his thoughts. He made significant contributions to the development of this remarkable technology, which may someday provide patients with degenerative diseases unprecedented ability to interact with the world."

Stephen's respirator detached accidentally in the night. After fighting to live that beautiful life, it is excruciating to me that he died from a mechanical malfunction. This was the second time this week I heard of such a tragic loss.

On Wednesday I found out that a dear friend of my ex-husband's died in Germany on Tuesday from wounds suffered in Iraq. He was in a Humvee patrolling the outskirts of Baghdad. His truck was hit by a morter and he got schrapnel in his brain. He fought in the first Iraq conflict and rejoined the military to go back. He was 36.

I hate to sound preachy or cliched, but hearing things like this at this time of year make me so. It's the holidays. Say I love you to your family and friends. Send a soldier a card or care package (no matter how you feel about the war). Donate to medical research and hunger relief. And remember that life is precious.

Just because Brouhaha has come and gone does not mean that Florida student and indie shorts have to wait until March to get back on screen at Enzian--in case you missed it, the theater recently announced the rebirth of FilmSlam. Originally a project of the University of Central Florida’s Downtown Media Arts Center, the last FilmSlam was held there in late Spring prior to the venue closing in the Summer. The local filmmaking community and FilmSlam organizers Brian Feldman and John Thiesen came to Enzian with a request to continue the monthly screenings of local filmmakers’ projects. As a result, Enzian will host FilmSlam on the second Sunday of each month in 2007 starting on January 14. There is no entry fee, and preview screeners must be received by the 1st of the month to be eligible for exhibition.

“We are thrilled to see the spirit and heart of the local film scene continue to have an outlet through the FilmSlam. I think Enzian’s the right home for it,” said former dMAC executive director Rich Grula. Audience favorites will be chosen each month and asked back for the GrandSlam in December 2007 during the next edition of the Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase. More information about FilmSlam and how to submit a film can be found at Enzian.org.

--Matthew

This past weekend Enzian played host to 32 short films, a couple of hundred spectators, and a dozen filmmakers at the 15th annual Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase. The two programs of Florida films were judged by a local industry jury made up of Orlando Weekly Music/Film EditorJason Ferguson, Florida Film Monthly Publisher/Editor Michael McNamara, and Enzian/Florida Film Festival Director of Marketing and Development Shannon Lacek. Their responsibility was to select the best works from Brouhaha, which will then be featured in the 2007 Florida Film Festival this March in an "Emerging Filmmakers Showcase."

The following films were selected as representing the best of Brouhaha: from the University of Central Florida, Chris Shields' SEX MACHINE 2025, Aaron Brownlee's AMERICAN DELUXE, and Tiina Treasure's THE WORLD, NAKED AS A JAYBIRD; from Florida State University, Alex Durham's WOLF and Demetrius Wren and Wilson G. Tang's OF MY GOD; from Full Sail Real World Education, Gail Grate, Kevin Hirsch, Sandy Mehlman, and Nicholas Roselius' AMATEUR; from University of Miami, Kirsten Strom's LES VWA; from Ringling School of Art & Design, Guillermo Careaga's SUGAR RUSH, Kevin Andrus' CORNER OF LOVE & HEARTBREAK, Fernanda Santiago's OUR SPECIAL DAY!, HanJin Song's THE FLY, and Lindsay VanderGalien's MOE & LES; and independent submissions BLINK, by Maia Monasterios, and HARD, by Wayne Leman.

Congratulations to all of the winners--we'll see you in March at the FFF!

--Matthew