Category: media

“It is the question hovering over the weeklong festival that opened on Saturday in the ancient walled city of Pingyao: Can you create and showcase independent films in a country that frowns on independence, much less dissent?”

“Kim Jong Un’s iron grip on the North Korean people is weakening, and an information campaign rooted in soap operas and dramas could help advance a civilian uprising, a prominent defector told a congressional panel Wednesday.”

“Vachon, now 55, has either launched or been instrumental in developing the careers of such idiosyncratic talents as Todd Solondz (Happiness), Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol), and John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)” – not to mention Todd Haynes, from Poison to Velvet Goldmine to Far From Heaven to Carol. “She has an instinct for which voices are best suited to tell which stories, and which audiences will turn out to see them. She likes working with first-time directors ‘because they are often telling a story they’ve waited their whole lives to tell.'” A Q&A with Dana Stevens.

“The commercial arm of the BBC has shifted its strategy from ordering factual entertainment series such as Fishing Impossible and Stupid Man Smart Phone for its BBC Earth and BBC Brit channels. Last year, the two channels aired over 50 hours of originally commissioned content. These channels will now concentrate on airing a mixture of existing BBC Worldwide-distributed series … and more local formats.”

“NPR’s senior management was aware of multiple harassment complaints by women against its top newsroom executive during the past two years but took no action to remove him from his job until news reports about his conduct appeared on Tuesday. … Oreskes’s behavior, and the organization’s response to it, has stirred a virtual rebellion in NPR’s newsroom, particularly among female employees.”

“‘This morning I asked Mike Oreskes for his resignation because of inappropriate behavior,’ NPR CEO Jarl Mohn wrote in an email to NPR staff on Wednesday. ‘I have received his resignation, effective immediately.'”

“Today, Polley is an auteur whose movies – Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and the autobiographical Stories We Tell – form a sort of three-part meditation on female restlessness, the complexity of long-term relationships, and the slipperiness of memory and truth. But back when she first tried to option the rights to Alias Grace at age 18 – as a well-regarded young actress with no filmmaking experience – Atwood turned her down. “

“NPR has placed its senior vice president for news, Michael Oreskes, on leave after fielding accusations that he sexually harassed two women seeking career opportunities nearly two decades ago, when he worked at The New York Times. … Meanwhile, a current NPR employee is going public with her account of filing a formal complaint with the network’s human resources division in October 2015.”

“Production on the final season of House of Cards was suspended Tuesday, two days after its star, Kevin Spacey, was accused of having made an unwanted sexual advance toward a 14-year-old boy [actor Anthony Rapp] in the 1980s.”