Category: media

The Bronx’s aptly named Ghetto Film School might seem like an experiment in art and populism, but for its young participants, who give up their summers and weekends to learn the craft of filmmaking from some of the biggest names in the business, it’s a lifeline. “The school is opening a spacious annex near its original location, financed by a $1.2 million grant from the city. Ghetto Film is also working with the Department of Education to develop a cinema-themed high school that would join the elite ranks of specialized schools like the La Guardia High School for the arts.”

“Now in its 32nd year, the [Toronto International Film Festival] has grown into an immense industrial happening, with 349 films from 55 countries… Because the Toronto is so large and functions both as a preview for the fall studio season and as an international bazaar, with goods from Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia, [TIFF] makes clear the divide between those movies that matter aesthetically and intellectually… and those movies that matter largely because of their awards potential and the presumed interest to what remains of the discriminating, adult audience.”

The acquisition and rights deals struck against the backdrop of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival are expected to surpass last year’s record of CAN$50m. “A small Canadian or foreign film sold to an international broadcaster may not seem like much of a headline grabber, but multiply that many times over and you get a sense of the volume of transactions.”

The board of the Toronto International Film Festival needs to step up the level of its donations, and convince more members of the community to join them. “TIFF certainly has an international cachet that makes Canada’s other arts institutions salivate with envy… [But] with a third of the $196-million fundraising target for the new festival headquarters outstanding, the pressure on board members to deliver has never been so intense.”

“The U.S. penalty on CBS for televising singer Janet Jackson’s breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show will effectively censor U.S. broadcasting if it is upheld, the network argued on Tuesday.”

“The five movies have taken $4.47bn (£2.2bn) around the world, surpassing the $4.44bn (£2.19bn) made by the spy franchise’s 22 outings to date. The six Star War films now sit in third place, with takings of $4.23bn (£2bn).”

“Queens prosecutors thought they needed specially trained sniffer dogs to root out stashes of pirated DVDs. All they really needed was an appetite. Inside many restaurants along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, roving vendors descending on diners offering pirated movies are becoming a common sight. Their wares range from films rated G through XXX, as well as compact discs of Mexican, Colombian and Caribbean musical stars.”

“Sixty years after a Congressional panel grilled 10 uncooperative writers, directors and producers about their supposed Communist connections, Hollywood still quarrels over the heroes and villains of its Red Scare. … But on Monday night in Toronto, one of the era’s acknowledged heroes, the jailed and blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, was expected to deliver some posthumous words that might finally put to rest the hunt for good guys and bad. The admonition occurs in the first few minutes of ‘Trumbo,’ a documentary….”

“The music industry and online broadcasters have been duking it out for months over the royalties that should be paid to record labels and artists, but there are signs that the logjam could break as early as this month.”

“Gays and the Bionic Woman? Love her! Gays and Isaiah Washington? Not so much. Thus you have one of the Great Pop Cultural Dilemmas of 2007: What’s a thoroughly postmodern gay to do when one of the iconic heroines of ’70s television is relaunched on a network that eagerly embraces an actor who gets dumped from his hit show on another network after proving himself all too comfortable with a certain homophobic slur?”