Category: media

After violent clashes with Hindu nationalists last month, Indian director Deepa Mehta has given up all hope of shooting her new film “Water” anywhere in India this year. The new film highlights the plight of Indian widows and was denounced by angry protesters for “denigrating the image of India.” – Times of India 04/06/00

New Zealand requires that 10 percent of the music played on the country’s radio stations be homegrown. Now a proposal to increase the percentage to 20 percent. But that would be very difficult say radio execs. “Increasing local content on classic hits-type stations would be the hardest because of a lack of Kiwi music from the 1960s and ’70s.” Maybe Australian could be considered homegrown? – New Zealand Herald 04/05/00 

“The Catholic Church in Mexico has attacked last week’s Academy Award ceremony in Hollywood for promoting homosexuality, promiscuity and abortion.” – BBC 04/05/00 

• The Israeli parliament has passed new laws mandating a minimum number of hours of Israeli-produced programming that must be carried by the country’s third channel TV network. Still, Israeli filmmakers, who had lobbied hard for content laws, are disappointed. – Jerusalem Post 04/04/00

— hundreds of management jobs to find £100 million extra a year for making programs. – BBC 04/03/00

When a member of the Academy Awards suggested they devote a segment of the ceremony to the blacklist, he was told in concise terms: “‘The Academy’s policy is to remain totally non-political and…any mention of the motion picture industry cooperation with the House Unamerican Activities Committee constitutes a political statement.'” Political or not, history is inescapable and a part of the present. Shouldn’t the Academy “pass a simple resolution honoring the anonymous blacklistees, those who were denied work and recognition at the time? The question is not whether such a resolution may constitute a political statement. It’s the decent thing to do.” – The Nation 04/03/00

“The latest Nielsen demographic ratings reveal a stunning racial chasm: Seven of the 10 TV shows most watched by blacks are also the seven programs that come in dead last among whites.” Should we be trying to get together? – Philadelphia Inquirer 04/02/00

Why has TV been so bad about featuring the arts? Who knows, but the TV arts landscape is beginning to thaw somewhat with a couple of new productions. – Boston Globe 04/02/00

A new freeware closed-captioning program for for video on the web has been released at Boston public station WGBH. “Before MAGpie, if you wanted to add captions, you had to type in formatting codes and timecodes. To caption a 10-minute clip, it took two to three hours. With MAGpie’s automation, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes.” – Wired 03/31/00

• Much of the art on the web is, well, rather lacking in imagination. Etoy is trying to change that. Fresh from battles over the use of their name, the artist group is forging ahead. “Created in 1994 by seven original founders who describe themselves as ‘sound-producers, artists, designers, lawyers, PR and CI experts [public relations and corporate identity]’ etoy’s first project was to merge their individual identities into one digital identity and produce, ‘the first dot.com brand in the art world.’” – The Art Newspaper 03/31/00