The Hunt for Gollum is a 40-minute fan-made film that will be available for free downloading on May 3, 2009. The film was made through open collaboration of enthusiastic fans working under the leadership of director Chris Bouchard. The all-volunteer production looks so much like a Peter Jackson LOTR movie that it’s almost scary. One wonders why all the big budget money was spent if the films could have been produced by this crew of hard-working talented volunteers! This film looks like it’s going to be a serious lot of fun and will be a great addition to the LOTR world for its fans.
Category Archives: Film Comment
Tesfaye: A Film About Reforesting Ethiopia
Tesfaye is a film by Brent Gudgel, made for Eden Reforestation Projects. It’s the story of an Ethiopian man who blames himself for helping to destroy the trees of his country. Now he wants to help fix the problem. It’s a beautiful film told with great simplicity and seriousness. It is the clear and direct communication from the man in the film that makes it so effective.
Moon: A Science Fiction Film Trailer
Moon is a new science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones. It stars Sam Rockwell as a man administering a lonely moon base for a shift that lasts several years. The trailer looks pretty good, but I’m not sold on it. I do like to see a serious science fiction film getting projected in theaters after the horrific damage that’s been done to the genre by clever little men like George Lucas. In fact, I blame Lucas more than Tolkien for the fact that every bookstore loads its science fiction shelves with sword fantasy books. As soon as the idiotic Obi Wan Kenobi pulled out a lightsaber, the sci-fi film genre was doomed. But this thing looks from its trailer to be a mashup of homages to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running and Solaris. I just don’t get into ‘homage’ movies. A little subtle homage is fine. But this trailer is just packed to the gills with barely altered rips right out of these classic films. No serious science fiction director makes a movie that’s an homage to other movies. Stanley Kubrick would have choked on a chess piece if someone had suggested such a thing to him. So, I’m sure I’ll give this movie a chance and go see it, but I fear that it will be exactly the movie it appears to be in its trailer. The effects do have that wonderful super-reality quality to them that 2001 and television show Space 1999 had.
It is Repose in the Light: A Film by Jennifer MacMillan
It is repose in the light, neither fever nor languor,
on a bed or on a meadow.It is the friend neither violent nor weak. The friend.
It is the beloved neither tormenting nor tormented. The beloved.
Air and the world not sought. Life.
— Rimbaud, “Vigils”
This film is by Jennifer MacMillan who runs the Invisible Cinema blog where she posts about experimental film and her own poetic interests and observations. She makes many wonderful short films that are the highlight of her blog. She made this one to accompany a poem by Arthur Rimbaud. Beautiful and thought-provoking.
Thru-You: Funky Musical Video Mashup
Kutiman posts video mashups on YouTube that make brand new music. He takes video clips that other people have uploaded and he cuts pieces out of the people playing their instruments and then edits them all together with just the right timing and layering to create a whole new musical mix. This one’s a nice little funk number and the filmmaker/musician creates a lively atmosphere out of his found musical clips.
Film Taken From Streetcar in 1908 Barcelona
Here’s an absolutely fascinating film shot from the front of a streetcar in Barcelona, Spain. Look at the way the people in the city of 1908 run along with the streetcar trying to see and be seen by the camera. They seem to be full of joy and excitement. They run along and ride bikes and wave. Can you imagine people acting this openly today? There’s something profound in this little film. It just goes on along the tracks and through the crowds of happy onlookers without trying to make a point of any kind, but it makes a strong impression. Wonderful film. Watch it through to the end. It will make you feel inexplicably happy.
