American film distributors are eager to push into China, Russia and other largely untapped markets. But first the distributors want a better deal from studios. – Variety 03/07/00
Category: media
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOLLYWOOD
“Art takes its inspiration from two sources, religion and entertainment–the heavenly and the festive. But today, everything is conflated with entertainment as Hollywood conceives it. In 1999, U.S. movies earned about $29.8 billion out of a total global take of $33.4 billion. And that figure does not include income from video sales, merchandising, licensing, concessions, and other tie-ins.” Is Hollywood’s view of the world so compelling that it has to crush everything in its path? – Civilization 03/00
LATEST MERCHANT IVORY FILM —
— draws protests from Indian community for the movie’s depiction of an Anglo-Indian character. – BBC 03/07/00
SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME
Plan to auction independent films in the US fails as there’s little interest or bidders for the first 15 movies offered. – Times of India (AP) 03/06/00
TV MISCREANT
“I was busted by the TV police.” – The Idler 03/06/00
A MAN AND HIS (DREAM OF A) RADIO STATION
Denver man has a dream to own a radio station that would program positive messages – “a push-button sanctuary for the mind,” with upbeat music, good-news news and humor. He doesn’t have the $19 million it will take to buy a station and get on the air. So he’s running to raise money. Has he lost his mind? – Denver Post 03/06/00
A MATTER OF IDENTITY
This year’s Asian American Film Festival explores questions of who we are. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/05/00
AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL
The tiny African country of Burkina Faso is home to Africa’s biggest film festival. “Fespaco has also turned little Ouagadougou, with its red-earth streets, into a city of biennial movie maniacs, who flock to the screenings and discuss the candidates for the Stallion of Yennanga, the festival’s grand prize, with as much fervour as World Cup football matches. Meanwhile, the bars and terraces of the Hotel Indépendence seethe with film-makers from Algeria to Mozambique and TV production scouts from Europe.” – The Telegraph (UK) 03/04/00
WILL TIME-WARNER/AOL MERGER —
— put the squeeze on Disney? US Senate committee investigating the deal wants to know. The Mouseniks are keeping mum though. “Disney is concerned that Time Warner will retaliate against the company by relegating its cable webs to inferior positions on systems’ channel lineups or remove them from the systems completely.” – Variety 03/03/00
ONE HOT FORMAT
Classical music radio station KDFC is the leading music station of any format in the Bay Area. Now it’s got some competition from a new AM upstart. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/01/00