Category: media

The Senate Commerce Committee’s overturning of new FCC media ownership rules might not hold up in the full Senate. So what does the committee vote mean? “It is no overstatement to say that the committee’s vote was a victory, or at least a step on the road to victory, for the American people. To put it another way: If Frank Capra’s idealistic Sen. Jefferson Smith, from the film ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ really existed, he would be jumping for joy right now.”

Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol is one of Thailand’s best filmmakers. He’s also royalty. “A link between moviemaking and royalty isn’t a novelty in Thailand, it’s a tradition. Prince Chatri’s father, Prince Anusorn Mongkolgala, was a Thai cinema pioneer who apprenticed under ‘King Kong’ directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack when they filmed the silent docudrama ‘Chang’ in Thailand in 1927. His son studied geology and film at UCLA in the 1960s, and became friendly with classmate Francis Ford Coppola. Almost 40 years later, Coppola’s company, American Zoetrope, is presenting Chatri’s lavish battle epic to U.S. moviegoers.”

In Canada, a stringent government policy has governed film and TV productions for 30 years, aimed at making sure that Canadian culture is not overwhelmed by the American entertainment juggernaut. But CanCon, as it is known, has come under fire in recent years as being counterproductive, out of date, and too focused on the commercial benefits of cultural industries. A new report commissioned by the federal government recommends sweeping changes, including “the adoption of a new system that would be based on the costs associated with the more creative elements of the production. The model would require that the three top creative jobs — writer, director and lead performer — in any domestic production be filled by Canadians.”

“The upcoming 27th annual instalment of Montreal’s World Film Festival could be its most interesting yet — but less for what’s on its screens than the circumstances under which it will be occurring. For the first time in its tumultuous history, the festival will be unspooling without its A-list or “category one” status as North America’s only “non-specialized competitive festival.” Moreover, the festival admitted recently that it has yet to pay out $50,000 in prize money to the directors of two films honoured at last year’s festival.”

Hollywood’s two biggest actors unions are discussing a merger – the Screen Actors Guild’s 117,000-member union with the 80,000-member American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, known as Aftra, which also represents actors. “A merger has been discussed since the 1940’s, but it came up for a vote only once, in 1999, when the proposal fell far short of the 60 percent needed to pass. Now its proponents, including the officers of both unions, argue that while Hollywood studios and television networks are consolidating into bigger and bigger global conglomerates, the best way for performers to magnify their clout is similarly to band together.”

PBS and NPR are cratering, and unless a new model of funding emerges, public broadcasting as we know it will die. No more Barney. No more American Experience. No more sensible, well-reasoned, soft-spoken discussions headed by Jim Lehrer. The regional and local flavor that member stations represent more so than local broadcast affiliates of the private networks will evaporate. Reality television and its spawn will not. The FCC can prevent that from happening by negotiating a better deal for the public with the global media giants.”

Big media companies control radio and TV. Could they also control the internet? Some critics warn that they could. “The Internet could become like cable television, a pay-as-you-go service with price tags for premium channels, Cooper says. The content and service provider would favor its own content and shut out nonprofit groups and start-up sites. For example, an ISP/content provider’s search engine would display its own products first–or exclusively. Media companies clearly have their eyes on “convergence,” blending distribution across print, broadcast, and digital devices. Critics fear this means big media will silence smaller players online as well.”

In March 2000, 55 Oscar statues were stolen in Los Angeles. Though 52 were eventually recovered, three have been on the loose ever since. Now FBI agents on a drug bust in Florida has found one of the golden guys.

There is a disturbing trend at film festivals such as Cannes, writes Kenneth Turan. Hollywood movies, even first-rate films get discounted just because they’re the product of Hollywood. “Films produced in the maw of the studio system couldn’t possibly be art, and even if they were, they surely didn’t require the kind of help or recognition a major film festival award can provide.” Is this really fair?