The good folks over at Spout have been nominated for a Webby, in the best podcast category. I heard about this and hoped over to cast my vote when I saw that they were up against another favorite of mine, the Onion. Ack! Decisions decisions!

The Webby's usually have interesting nominees, one or two end up in my favorites each year, or were already there, like when indieWIRE was nominated (and eventually won.)

if you're really into the awards thing, or just want to support a particular site, you can register in two minutes and then vote and comment yourself: http://pv.webbyawards.com

I found the podcasts in question at:

Websites > Connections > podcasts

Romping through indieWIRE this morning I see in indieLOOP a new group being promoted: "Promise to be Gentle" a group of first time filmmakers. The group is open to the public so if you're working on, or exhibiting, your first film, check them out, it's a good group of fellow filmmakers.

http://social.indiewire.com/group_features.php?gid=19ca14e7ea6328a42e0eb13d585e4c22

If you haven't seen indieLOOP yet, it's the new social network arm of indieWIRE. It's free with your indieWIRE account, which is also free. There are over a thousand people taking part in indieLOOP already but it's still a tight group of working filmmakers and film professionals, there is very little "noise" in the discussions taking place and the accounts come with an abundance of networking and announcement making tools.

You can find indieLOOP under the "community" button on the indieWIRE top navigation or at: http://social.indiewire.com/index.php

I know I am going to lose points with people for posting this but I can't help but chime in on the Sex Addict/Landmark issue. While I agree that such a last minute decision to pull the film is in poor taste and a one-time reversal for the opening would win Cuban and Landmark fans, I also find all the complaining a bit off-the-mark, so to speak.

The reasons to pull are clear and logical, Cuban is fighting to have HDnet included in a distribution chain he (and all the films that go with him) is currently locked out of. One could argue that bowing down to corporate monoliths, as is being widely encouraged, is anti-indie.

Here in Florida, our lottery "funds" education but in England, their national lottery funds all sorts of things, including film. The government has opened the table for discussion on funds distribution and London filmmakers, among other groups, I'm sure, are making a push for a bigger share. According to this article, Film London has already distributed lottery funds to over 40 films and a number of incubation efforts.

Although a lottery is a poor substitute for direct funding, as an additive, it's bonus money and a good use of those funds. Good luck with the lottery London filmmakers!

MTV has acquired iFILM in a $49 million deal, reports Abbey Klaassen. MTV will leave iFILM as is, leaving it to operate and grow as it has been doing. The network seems most interested in iFILM as a porfolio piece and as a hand in the user genrated content arena.

A clause buried in the Children's Safety Act of 2005, currently awaiting consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, is likely to wreck havoc on filmmakers and state based film commissions and could have more far reaching effects, reports Brooks Boliek. The clause, which is intended to curb child pornography, essentially, under certain interpretations, makes simulated sex scenes equivalent to actual sex scenes in the eyes of the law. This could mean that any film with a sex scene is considered pornography.

In a post-South Park world, it's hard to imagine being shocked by cartoon violence, especially if that violence occurs in the tame and eternally optimistic world of Smurfs. But an upcoming UNICEF campaign, meant to shock and engage the television viewing public by tapping into safe and warm childhood memories, features the unexpected bombing of a Smurf village.

David Rennie, in a piece for telegraph.co.uk, reports that "Belgian television viewers were given a preview of the 25-second film earlier this week, when it was shown on the main evening news. The reactions ranged from approval to shock and, in the case of small children who saw the episode by accident, wailing terror.

For those who, like myself, missed last month's inaugural Reel Women International Film Festival held in Los Angeles, you might want to bookmark a spot on your calendar for next year's event. The festival was established "...to honor and advance the careers of accomplished and emerging female filmmakers by providing a forum for them to showcase their work to industry decision makers, as well as Southern California's film going audience." With support from groups like AFI, Kodak and Women Make Movies, among many others (including indieWIRE) RWIFF is living up to it's lofty goals.

Perhaps some of this year's participants or attendees will chime in with their festival experiences. For now, I'll skip forward to samples from this years winner's list to give you a feel for the fare. Check out the festival website for more info and a complete winners list. With any luck, I will see you at the fest next year...

Best feature was awarded to Coming Up Easy written & directed by Rebecca Rodriguez

Best Documentary went to Gayle Ferraro who captured griping reality in Ganges River to Heaven

Best Short went to Within The Wall written & directed by Paula Newman

Best Animation winner was Gayatri Roa for the endearing story of Raju & I

Rae Shaw received a Kodak product grant for Best student film Soap & Roses

Looking to take advantage of the throngs of protestors outside the RNC, the crew of "This Revolution" filmed scenes with the crowds as background on Sunday. But nearby police did not approve when Rosario Dawson covered her face with a black bandana, which apparently violates a New York law prohibiting protestors from covering thier faces. She was arrested on the spot and when director Stephen Marshall showed police his filming permit, he was also handcuffed.

Kevin Smith reportedly has a script written for "Passion of the Clerks," a sequel to the original "low-budget, talky comedy" that launched his career. I wonder if this is a real project or simply promotion for the upcoming release of Clerks X DVD?

Variety reports that Maverick Films is producing a feature film based on a 1971 Stanford University psychology experiment. In the experiment, 18 students were placed in a prison setting, 9 as prisoners and 9 as guards. Within a few short days, the previously normal, healthy students playing guards began torturing the "inmates" and the students playing prisoners began to call themselves by their assigned number. One prisoner developed a psychosomatic body rash after having his parole denied, another 3 broke down emotionally and had to be released. A rebellion was hatched on the second day and subsequently quelled - in part by spraying inmates with a fire extinguisher (not a prop or intended tool of the experiment.) The two-week experiment was aborted after just six days because it had gotten out of control.

Scary stuff. The website for the experiment has a slide show that walks you through the entire study and contains numerous discussions on the various questions brought up by the experiment. Several adaptations and documentaries about the experiment have been made in the past but most, reportedly, have drifted from fact into over-the-top fiction. This version will attempt to be true to the source material, which seems plenty dramatic, and very telling, to me.

Last week was not the most rewarding week for me, I was bending over backwards for clients, running inumerable errands and basically giving all I had only to have people ask for more. So when I arrived in Silver Spring for the SILVERDOCS festival Friday evening, I was cranky, frustrated and not in the best of moods. Within hours, all that had melted away and was replaced with exhilaration and inspiration.

I wasn't able to complete my "to do" list at the fest, I missed "Seeds," "Dirty Work" and the entire conference. But I did catch several films, including the superb "Harlan County USA" as I'd hoped. There was a stirring tribute to Barbara Kopple that preceded the sold out screening and suffice it to say, this was indeed the perfect environment to see the film for the first time.

Barbara (pictured middle) and friends enjoying the post-tribute party

Films like Harlan County and Born Into Brothels, which also played the fest and packed houses, are what inspired me. Think of the guts it must have taken for a 20 year old Barbara Kopple to even attempt to film something as uncomfortable, challenging and down right dangerous as the coal miner's strike in Harlan County in '76. Or the nerve of Zana Briski to not just enter Calcutta's red light district with a camera but to arm the children living there with cameras of their own. I doubt very seriously that I could find the strength to do either of those things.

I'm heading out to SILVERDOCS on Friday, this will be my fourth festival this year and my first time attending an all doc fest.

I'm psyched, I've worked closely with the SILVERDOCS team for about a year now and they are some of the friendliest, liveliest and most dedicated people I've had the pleasure of working with. I know they are going to put on a great festival. My only concern about the trip is flying into D.C., my mother-in-law was trapped in a D.C. airport for three hours last week because one passenger didn't like the look of another passenger's powdered baby formula. Scary stuff that baby formula.

According to AP reports, Sci Fi Channel has had a falling out with acclaimed director M. Night Shyamalan and will soon air a documentary-turned-expose about the man entitled "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan."

Basically, the two parties had agreed to film a documentary on Shyamalan, with the director giving the documentarians unlimited access to his life. When the network started asking questions from friends and colleagues not on Shyamalan's sanctioned list of interviewees, the director cooled to the doc and eventually quit the project on camera. The doc makers did not like this one bit and now the once collaborative doc is being touted as revealing some hidden secret about the man. One network rep. implies, by my understanding of his comments, that they the network would re-work the doc if the filmmaker would grant them one more interview. No matter what the "buried secret" might be, no matter how crushing Shyamalan's quitting was to the project, this kind of strong arm tactic is dirty pool if you ask me. Then again, it's most probably all just hype for The Village and will end in group hugs and a trip to the bank.

CS Daily contianed a link today to an article on Kevin Smith over on Empire Online. The article revelas that Smith may not be direct the Green Hornet afterall, though he is still writing it.

Smith says he is more into directing films where people sit around and talk, not blow stuff up. I can respect that level of honesty and self-awareness. Nonetheless, when I think of someone else directing what will surely be his outstanding screenplay I have just one thing to say "Well fuck that!" Suck it up Kevin, it's our turn at the wheel, you want my $7.50? Get your ass in the director's chair and start rolling!

I spoke with a few filmmakers Tuesday night who are taking part in Tribeca's All Access program and according to the them, the program is a smash success. The filmmakers are getting serious meetings with numerous producers and are collaborating with each other to the extent that they are buzzing and beaming about it. I hope to hear more on the results of those meetings and collaborations and to see the program continue in the future.

In addition to the general audience that is showing up at Tribeca, the industry crowd is there too, seeing films and doing business. One place to find them is the swanky hospitality "tent." Over the course of three visits to the tent, I saw hip publicists touting their A list clients to journalists, acquisitions folks schmoozing filmmakers over the free chipotle steak wraps and wine, and film students grabbing a few minutes of wireless internet access to answer emails, all set to the beat of a live DJ. I am sure pulling off a top-shelf tent like that is mind-numbingly expensive but in terms of generating goodwill and facilitating natural networking, I'd say it is money well spent.

I was in New York for a couple of days this week and I tell ya', the Tribeca Film Festival really highlighted for me just how much love there is for indie film in NY. Of course, the indie film community as a whole has worked hard for years and years to develop that love. There are several other New York based festivals and events (along with a dozen or so key recurring sponsors) that deserve a good deal of credit for getting the NY audience where it is, but when that passionate community is given the resources of a Tribeca Film Festival and the support of the city and state of New York, the combined efforts pay off in an increased audience for indie film in general.

I was tagging along on an indieWIRE photo shoot of the "Poster Boy" team Tuesday night when I overheard two young kids, maybe 12 years old, talking about going to the festival, a few minutes later, I saw two rather hardened looking old women being taken to a screening in their complementary buggy (or whatever you call those carts that are towed by bicycle.) And when I passed the cinema on the way back from the shoot, the lines for tickets were 100's deep and I overheard a group of 20-somethings discussing the multiple films they had seen. From the looks on their faces and the tone of their voices, I really think these atypical fans have caught the bug and will keep turning out for indie films even after the free shuttles have stopped running and the celebrities have retreated to private screening rooms. Hats off to the entire indie film industry for that.

I know revenge stories have been around since humans first started telling tales, and they have always been popular, but this week's top 10 is down right creepy. 4 out of the top 10 films are revenge stories, with the ultra-violent anti-hero who does not forgive or forget and is not above torture, taking center stage.

A link to Digital Bits Editor Bill Hunt's blog, called "My Two Cents," came my way this morning. In this post, Bill blogs about a New York Times article in which a Miramax rep excitedly discusses the multiple incarnations of the Kill Bill DVDs. There are going to be a half-dozen or more versions of the DVDs released, something the rep called "...multiple bites at the apple."

Now how cool is this? Sony is releasing a new 25 gig, paper DVD! Promoted as easy to destroy for data security, the discs will also decrease the cost of high capacity storage and will be useable with HD TVs.

Bah! We may have some great weather here in Florida (right now it's 71 without a cloud in the sky) but we miss out on allot of good NY based events. For example, I wish I could take my wife, who is an accomplished artist and fan of most art films, to tonight's "Art on Film" event at the Anthology Film Archives and hosted by Reel Roundtable. Oh well, what she doesn't know about, she won't miss :-)

Details clipped from the RR newsletter:

A prolific evening of art on film...

DADA CHANGED MY LIFE is an experimental documentary about a group of artists and their efforts to save the legendary Cabaret Voltaire (the birthplace of one of the most influential movements in contemporary art history, DADA).

Directed and Produced by Olga Mazurkiewicz and Daniel Martinez
TRT: 29 minutes

INTERSECTIONS: NEW YORK documents contemporary culture and political movements, presenting artists who have inflamed debate and challenged political systems by influencing public policy on issues of expression.

Directed and Produced by Emmanuelle and Benedicte Gauthier
TRT: 26 minutes

here! TV announced today that they are taking their PPV service 24/7 in October with a full slate of programming, including original productions. The young company is quickly making a name for themselves and is demonstrating the power of niche programming.

here! TV is a gay and lesbian themed content provider that launched their service in 2003 on Direct TV, almost immediately finding a receptive audience eager for more programming. They have since added Dish Network to thier list of outlets and are currently available in over 22 million homes nationwide.

They have spent the last year acquiring films, producing a variety of material (features, series, docs) and licensing libraries in preparation for the new expanded service. here! also has a theatrical distribution division and has syndicated content to a variety of gay and lesbian media outlets.

According to Reuters, Wal-Mart is selling DVD players with built in ClearPlay filtering technology, despite being aware of pending litigation against the software behind the DVD players.

Long story short, ClearPlay watches films, flags scenes which it feels are offensive in some way, and creates a list of automated fast-forwards or skips. End users of the technology can pick and choose what types of scenes (violent, profane, etc.) are filtered out of a movie.

The problem is that the filmmaker, or studio, has no say in the process and their copyright protected films are effectively being altered for profit by a third party. A bunch of Hollywood type have already filed suit against the software but apparently that's not enough to discourage the good folks at Thomson Inc. (makers of the new DVD players) and Wal-Mart from backing the technology.

Now I'd be worried about contributory infringement if I were Wal-Mart, not to mention the perception of being unfriendly to artists, but I'm not the multi-national mega corp., so what do I know.

When a film promotes itself as being made for $200 total, can you acquire it for $400?

Cheers to the Tarnation crew, and to Wellspring, for bringing such a wonderfully (and painfully) original and unique film to audiences.

Goes to show ya', art comes from the artist, not their tools.