“A study of apes watching videos suggests human social bonding may have deeper evolutionary roots than previously thought. … Researchers said they found that the animals approached their partner faster, or spent more time in their company, [after watching a video together] than when they had attended to something different.” – Yahoo! (Press Association UK)
Category: media
An Improbable Film Industry Grows In Deepest Siberia
In the Russian Federation’s Sakha Republic — whose capital, Yakutsk, is considered the coldest big city on Earth — locally-made movies, many in the local Yakut language, often outsell international blockbusters. In an article titled “Arctic zombie apocalypse,” a correspondent looks at the challenge of making films in Sakha, from harrowing temperatures (down to 50 below) to horrifying mosquitoes (“When one buzzes in front of the lens, it looks like a horse is galloping across the frame”). – The Economist
Hollywood Is Making Fewer Comedies. Should We Care?
Call-out and outrage culture make it harder for comedies to pass muster with the vigilantes of social media. – Philadelphia Inquirer
PBS Launches Native Alaskan Kids Show
The show that the producers dreamed up, called “Molly of Denali,” ended up becoming a PBS cartoon about a 10-year-old Athabascan girl with a video blog about life in rural Alaska. PBS says it is the first nationally distributed children’s series with a Native American lead. – The New York Times
National Film Board Of Canada Delays Strategic Plan As Critics Look For More Oversight
Critics have alleged the film board’s production funding has decreased since 2002, and that spending on non-filmmaker salaries and institutional, legal and human resources services has increased. – Toronto Star
Winners And Losers In This Year’s Emmy Nominations
It looks like HBO’s back, piling up a whopping 137 nominations to Netflix’s 117, with Game of Thrones, Chernobyl and Barry among the big leaders (but with Veep rather far down the list with only nine nominations, including comedy series). – Hollywood Reporter
Sony Picks Up Respected Book-To-Film Unit That Disney Shut Down
“Sony and HarperCollins Publishers said on Monday that they would finance a yet-to-be-named venture run by the executive, Elizabeth Gabler, who is considered Hollywood’s foremost bridge to the New York publishing world. Ms. Gabler, 63, was previously president of Fox 2000, a division of 20th Century Fox, which Disney absorbed in March as part of a $71.3 billion deal with Rupert Murdoch.” – The New York Times
Terry Gross Talks To Emily Nussbaum About TV
“Let a hundred flowers bloom. Everything is valuable in its own way and they don’t need to be in tension with one another. You can love novels and love TV shows and not feel like they have to be placed in some sort of hierarchy.” – NPR
The Family Lie That Turned Into This Summer’s Breakout Indie Film
Lulu Wang’s family didn’t want to tell its matriarch that she was dying of cancer – and the resulting efforts to get everyone to say their goodbyes, without letting her in on the reason, turned into The Farewell, an indie movie starring Crazy Rich Asians‘ Awkwafina that, over its opening weekend, did the best per-screen business of any 2019 film (and that’s with the Manhattan blackout that took one of its few screens dark). – The Atlantic
Apparently, Netflix’s Lobby (The Physical, Architectural Kind) Is Pretty Cool
Hmmm: “Every era in Hollywood has a symbolic epicenter, a place that sums up everything, especially power and sometimes absurdity.” Apparently, that’s now Netflix. “An 80-foot by 12-foot video screen makes visitors feel like they are inside Netflix shows — visiting the Narcos cocaine lab, for instance, or sitting on the Blue Cat Lodge boat dock from Ozark. Another wall is covered by at least 3,500 plants, a living mural that includes red Flamingo Lilies, known for their big pistils.” – The New York Times