Kevin Lee and Matt Seitz to Screen Films in Germany.

Above: My favorite of the prolific Kevin Lee's highly innovative movie clip essays.

With many people discussing the prospects of distributing movies over the Internet, it's nice to see someone go the other direction by transplanting online videos from the web to the big screen. That's the plan at Berlin's Arsenal-Cinema on April 17th, when the meticulously edited movie clip deconstructions by Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz will screen as part of a "movies commenting on movies" series.

Kevin, whose name recently made the rounds in the blogosphere after a nasty copyright misunderstanding left him with a suspended YouTube account, dominates the program with nine videos. These include an analysis of E.A. Dupont’s Variety by Kristin Thompson and a Clint Eastwood appraisal assembled from a recent Lincoln Center discussion. Matt has two videos in the series: A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez and »berkeley(esque)«.

I think the premise of this series shows you that we're already in a new era of online video, where capable artists have found ways to utilize the free distribution at their disposal to explore new forms of cinematic expression. At the same time, it's very clear that this type of retrospective is in its infancy, since the programmers have mixed in the comparatively facile Shining spoof, as if all online mash-ups belong in the same category (while they're at it, why not throw in Chocolate Cake City's Brokeback to the Future?).

One step at a time, I guess.

Here's the full program:

A - program

- Kristin Thompson und Kevin B. Lee: "Shooting Down Pictures video essay on E.A. Dupont’s Variety" (USA 2009, 5 min 51 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Tov1vgoVI&feature=channel_page

- Christianne Benedikt und Kevin B. Lee: "Shooting Down Pictures video essay on George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp" (USA 2009, 6 min 32 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzDReYKwe5k&feature=channel_page

- The Film Society of Lincoln Center: "Clint Eastwood – A Critics' Roundtable. Part Two: Gran Torino" (USA 2009, 7 min 20 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWun9zSQYvg&feature=channel_page

- Jonathan Rosenbaum und Kevin B. Lee: "Shooting Down Pictures video essay on John Ford's The Sun Shines Bright and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud" (USA 2008, 15 min 17 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1lfa-Xr9zI&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhrmdvKhdTo&feature=channel_page

- Kevin B. Lee: "Shooting Down Pictures video essay on George Sluizer's Spoorlos and David Fincher's Zodiac" (USA 2007, 6 min 24 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FvMYxJwDio&feature=channel_page

- Kevin B. Lee: "Shooting Down Pictures video essay on Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II" (USA 2007, 4 min 51 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqZ7buQi_6Y&feature=channel_page

- Matt Zoller Seitz: "A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez" (USA 2008, 9 min 31 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wvsiE6RJA

B - discussion

Matt Zoller-Seitz »berkeley(esque)«
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZseB5T2jb8s

The Shining Spoof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf7h6o3I8yw

Kristin Thompshon on »La roue«
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O58GMFjwqd4&feature=channel_page

Nicole Brenez on »By the Bluest of Seas«
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7ghMxw548w&feature=channel_page

Girish Shambu on »The Woman in the Window«
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELiU7F_ThdU&feature=channel_page