Shining. [via]
Update: NYT piece on Robert Ryang, the genius behind this gem.

I am extremely, severely, and morbidly sad to say that the one-and-only, great, and magnanimous Michael Lucas, founder of 301 Films, left town today for the farthest reaches of the known universe, a.k.a. Austin, Texas, to be with his fiancé Liz (usurper! Just kidding). I’m not sure what the fate of 301 Films will be now that Mike is gone. Cameron and I have the short movie Not If I See You First, featuring the notorious Liz, in the can to be edited, but after that I don’t know what is next on the drawing board for our dwindling crew. Maybe we’ll finally get around to my artist-fakes-his-own-death-to-become-famous movie. Or maybe we will just flounder into oblivion. Either way, I will miss Mike and his wonderful puppy-dog, Sister Sunny Love.

DJ Spooky (aka Paul Miller aka That Subliminal Kid) will be performing his remix of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation at UNC’s Memorial Hall this Friday night. Once considered the greatest film ever made (indeed, it gave rise to the modern feature film as we know it), the film was–and still is–visually spectacular. It’s also spectacularly racist, quagmired in Antebellum romanticism and Griffith’s idealistic superficiality. From what I’ve read about Rebirth, Miller explores these themes by exploding them, filtering and manipulating the moving images through ahistoricism and hip hop. If that sounds a bit too high-fallutin’ for you hoopleheads, you can certainly count on an evening of unparalelled aural and visual entertainment. Single ticket prices range from $15 to $35; $10 each for Carolina students.

B-movie reviews
Darkstrider: Eastern European stop animation
The Freesound Project
Deathmonkey Armourers
The Superficial
Guardian interview with Donald Sutherland
Man sneaks up on celebrity dog wedding via ocean on inflatable turtle with key-tar
Boing Boing: Hollywood trailer voices
DTV Beta
Pleix films
64 Second Film Contest
The End of Suburbia
Film history of the 1920s
DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation (see next post) [.mov]
Singing in the Rain Toyota ad [.mov]
George II
rubber johnny

One of my favorite movies in high school was the 1991 Wim Wenders travelogue Until the End of the World. I saw it at the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill with my sister when it was first released here in the states. I picked up the soundtrack before even seeing the movie after reading a review in Rolling Stone magazine. Some of my favorite bands from the ’80’s and early ’90’s contributed to it, including R.E.M., U2, Elvis Costello, Neneh Cherry, Lou Reed, Depeche Mode, etc. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the movie since it was released in the theaters. One reason may be due to the strange case of Until the End of the World. There are versions of the movie floating around on VHS and laserdisc, the American versions being 158 minutes long and the Japanese versions being 181 minutes, but apparently there is a 280 minute, 3 DVD, Italian director’s cut of the movie floating around out there somewhere. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere (O.K., so I found it, big deal, you want to fight about it?), nor would I want to watch a nearly five hour long version of the movie; I just want to find a copy of it on DVD that is approximately what I saw all those years ago in the theater. Unfortunately, due to licensing issues with Anchor Bay Entertainment, there is no telling when an American version will be released on DVD.