Category: media

With their eyes on China’s potentially massive market for entertainment exports, Hollywood cheered the US House of Representatives’ Wednesday vote to grant China permanent normal trade relations status. – Variety 05/25/00

Hispanics make up 11.5 percent of the US population but “rarely occupy more than 2 percent of the available jobs in the film and television industry,” according to a study by the Screen Actors Guild. Minorities have tried to make their case to Hollywood as a social cause. “Studio executives will lend half an ear to a social case, but the bottom line is that the corporate suites are running a business, and business is about profits or potential profits. Develop a business case, and you will bring about change.” – Dallas Morning News (AP) 05/25/00

• “What has hurt Latino and black efforts to pressure the industry is that these minority organizations have lost credibility. We hear about [television viewer] boycotts, and these boycotts aren’t even conducted during [ratings] sweeps week. Or we hear about a press conference where Latinos are going to boycott a show, and the Nielsen ratings don’t reflect a drop in viewership.” – Los Angeles Times 05/25/00

Italian film lovers are bemoaning the fact that not a single Italian film was selected in the main competition at Cannes this year – reflecting the absence of a new generation of filmmakers to rival the postwar greats Fellini, De Sica, and Passolini. “Italians are talking again, as they have been off and on for 30 years, about the “crisis” of cinema, a word usually reserved for falling governments and train strikes.” – New York Times 05/25/00 

Scottish filmmaking is enjoying a renaissance, with more than 5 films by Scots to be released in the next 5 weeks – many linked by unconventional plots and narratives. “Ultimately, it is this subversive streak that unites so many Scottish film directors, whether they are making films about oil magnates, public schoolboys, London gangsters, or Hebridean islanders determined to outwit the English Home Guard captain and make off with the whisky.” – The Herald (Scotland) 05/25/00

Several directors earned notice at Cannes this year for taking their work in altogether new directions – like Lars Von Trier, Wong Kar-wei, and Joel and Ethan Coen, all of whom played with reviving the musical. “The festival was proof that a director’s vision can resuscitate any genre. Already the buzz is that westerns will be the next to be rescued.” – New York Times 05/25/00 

Speaking to a graduating class of media students in Liverpool, Steven Spielberg said the British film industry is in need of a “great leader” to revive the art form to the greatness it achieved in the ‘40s and ‘50s. – BBC 05/24/00

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act – which restricts sex-oriented programming on cable TV – may be overly restrictive and threaten first amendment rights. The CDA, “introduced after complaints from church groups and conservative family lobbies, restricts sex-oriented channels to operating at night unless they “scramble” their signal.” – The Age (Melbourne) 05/24/00

The Chinese film “Guizi Lai Le” (Devils on the Doorstep) was well-received at Cannes. But rather than trumpeting its success at the prestigious festival, the Chinese government hasn’t yet even granted permission for the movie to be shown at home. – China Times 05/24/00

• Despite recent media reports that he wants to spend the rest of his life as a shoemaker in Italy, Daniel Day-Lewis has signed on to star in Martin Scorcese’s $100 million historical gangster epic, “Gangs of New York” which begins filming in August in Rome. Day-Lewis hasn’t acted since he appeared in “The Boxer” three years ago. – Irish Times 05/24/00