Category: media

“The BBC played it safe by appointing a corporation veteran of 34 years’ experience to the coveted role of controller of Radio 4”: Gwyneth Williams, who had been the director of Enlish-language programming for the BBC World Service. “The appointment of someone with vast radio production experience will please Radio 4’s core audience who are famously resistant to change.”

That was one Indian critic’s reaction to Dibakar Banerjee’s new film Love, Sex Aur Dhokha (“Love, Sex And Betrayal”), part of “an important new wave in mainstream Indian film-making … [whose] preferred subjects are sex and relationships, communal and caste turmoil, and the increasing divide between a thriving consumer class and the traditional rural poor – topics that rarely, if ever, feature in Bollywood.”

“Pakistan has banned an Indian-made comedy film about Osama bin Laden for fear it could spark terrorist attacks, officials said Wednesday. The film, Tere Bin Laden, is about a Pakistani journalist desperate to get a visa to the U.S. who pretends to score an interview with the elusive al-Qaida chief after finding a look-alike.”

“[A]n ongoing gender-bias class-action suit against Wal-Mart alleges that, among other things, only 33 percent of the company’s management is female…. The percentage that helped launch a lawsuit from Wal-Mart employees would represent an improvement for women in the entertainment industry.”

“Emerging Pictures and Opus Arte have announced a partnership that will bring Opus Arte’s events programming into cinemas. The deal will bring live footage from the opera and ballet at London’s Royal Opera House and Shakespeare performances from the Globe Theatre. This year’s season starts September 10.”

“‘Schools have historically been reluctant to make themselves available, but now they’re falling over themselves,’ said Scott Graham, leasing director for the sprawling 1,000-school Los Angeles Unified School District.” There’s been “a flurry of inquiries from cash-strapped districts in recent months asking how they can market themselves to production companies.”

“Victoriana and vulgarity. Deco and decay. Such are the ways that the cinematic mythology of Baltimore infiltrates the imaginations and daily lives of the people who live here, creating a uniquely enchanted experience of the city, even at its grittiest and, sometimes, most hopeless.”

“A film can take a long time to finance so we had this crowd-funding idea. We went to David Lynch for his seal of approval and he was up for it. He ended up making an abstract self-portrait and we’re going to give an original print of it to anyone who chooses to donate $50 towards the film, or a T-shirt featuring the print.”

“Will the inevitable expansion of the Canadian specialty TV template enrich us, or will it simply contribute to low-budget, small-idea amusements that have diverted advertising dollars away from the production of quality programs?”

“I don’t think we should mistake that for a sign that cinema-going in Britain is in a uniquely healthy state. Apart from the huge audiences for a handful of blockbusters, it’s a hard case to prove.”