Category: media

Films, Celebs, and General Bedlam

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of those cultural events that has risen beyond its stated purpose and become an excuse for a gigantic citywide party in Canada’s largest city. The films are the focus, of course, but the official TIFF-related parties alone could qualify as a whole seperate event. “From long days to even longer nights, it’s just a fact of festival life for the many people in the city that function within or around it. It is, of course, a vast economic boon to the city — $65 million in annual economic impact, according the festival itself, more than half of that in tourist dollars.”

‘GBH Cancels Arts Show

Boston’s public TV station WGBH has eliminated a monthly program focusing on the arts, citing a lack of funds to continue producing the show. “Arts Close Up was a revamped version of Greater Boston Arts, which had garnered a slew of awards, including 29 New England Emmys, since it began in 1995.” WGBH is PBS’s leading station in the production of programs for national distribution.

Mel’s Passion Trumps Jackson’s Rings

DVD and VHS sales of Mel Gibson’s ultraviolent religious paean, The Passion of the Christ, have gone through the roof, breaking the all-time record for U.S. sales of a live-action movie, which had been held by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Astonishingly, the DVD version of Passion contains none of the “extras” that filmbuyers usually crave. A massive e-mail and print marketing campaign appears to have helped sales: “More than six million Christian homes received e-mails about the DVD release of the controversial religious epic, and churches were also offered deals on bulk orders of the film.”

Movie Piracy’s Global Reach

Movie industry executives say that virtually any movie they produce is now pirated and distributed illegally within hours of its release. They paint “a sobering picture of how quickly piracy — aided by the latest technology — continues to escalate worldwide, whether it’s a vendor selling copies on a blanket from a street corner or a state-of-the-art online service.”

Montreal Film Fest Chief On His Way Out?

Is the longtime director of the Montreal Film Festival on his way out? “Commentators have been complaining for years about Serge Losique’s festival, founded in the mid-1970s, around the same time the Toronto International Film Festival began. For years, the competition was fierce and the two festivals were considered arch-rivals. But for more than a decade, it has been glaringly obvious that Montreal’s festival is not in the same class as TIFF, which has become the pre-eminent festival in North America.”

Electronica Linz

This year’s Ars Electronica Festival in the Austrian town of Linz transformed the city into a giant art installation. “Huge speakers lined the banks of the Danube River as well as the streets and rooftops of Linz. Music — classical, folk, cyberpunk and sounds that simply defied classification — were piped in through some speakers. Others produced interesting sound effects intended to enhance or alter a listener’s experience of a place — a loop of placid brook babble playing at a crowded bus stop, for example.”