In the Voice today, there are a couple of interesting articles about the (most recent) death knell of independent cinema (Universal's ringing up its purchase of Good Machine) and how there are no options left for emerging/just-starting-out directors. And how director/activist/archivist John Gianvito made his movie for $100,000. The film, "The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein, is a Gulf War epic which took two-plus years to produce. Read the Voice review here, where it's called "the valiant, battered embodiment of true independent American film."
Since I'd just been buoyed by Steven Soderbergh's comments on the Miramax site for Full Frontal, I try to refuse despairing as much as the Voice would like. That said, I certainly haven't cracked the code for making whatever film I want. There are degrees of blitheness between directors plotting to max out a deck of credit cards ("we dont have debtors prisons; I didn't really see the downside.") and those with Soderbergh's fallback ("I know I can always go raise a few hundred thousand dollars and make something on the cheap.") but the drive is still the same.
Apropos of none of that, I must link to this article by Jason Gay from the NY Observer about Maysles brothers disciple Barbara Kopple's The Hamptons Project. From this and other reviews, the show sounds eerily reminiscent of summer 1983's The Hamptons: The Nighttime Soap, inspired by the success of Dynasty-spinoff The Colbys (here's a fan link site.)
ANYWAY, the only reason I mention it because of this line, this new word, from Jason Gay's review: "Still, a lot of The Hamptons goes on and on and onóitís more of a collection of scenes than plot-driven entertainment, in its moodier parts, it feels like Hamptonisqatsi. [italics original]"
Who ever said weblogs shouldn't just talk about what's in the news today?
