doc it out » Other Than Film

Imagination Recovery Project

Agnes Varnum — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:47:15 +0000

I’m not sure why, but I’m having a hard time writing about my newest adventure. It’s not totally coherent yet, but I think now is the time to identify it. It started with the realization that I watch way too much television. Within the past year or so, I’ve come to see that my creative impulses, motivation for hobbies and tackling new projects dialed down to next to nothing. As I thought about why, I kept coming back to hours and hours spent watching repeat after repeat on the TV. There are a lot of factors but at the end of the day, those factors amount to excuses for not being the person that I want to be.

We didn’t have a television when I was really young, and as I got older, we might have had a TV but never cable or much in the way of movies. I have a suspicion that the feeling of “lack” when I was young might have fueled a reaction to over-indulge as an adult, but it could just be that the physical act of watching a cathode ray tube has effected my brain the way it has so many others. I feel powerless to change my behavior–my apartment building has free cable so simply unplugging the box isn’t enough of a barrier to keep me from watching.

To break the cycle, modify my behavior and hopefully recover pieces of myself I’ve misplaced, I’m getting rid of my television entirely. Yesterday, I completely moved all of my furniture around so that the arrangement of my apartment is no longer centered around a television and the box itself is moving on to a new owner. The funny thing is that right away, I felt a difference! There was a quietness in my place as my mind had to adjust to the silence, the new arrangement of the furniture and the excitement of embarking on a new journey. I made myself a lovely lentil dal and found a KGSR Broadcast Volume to listen to. It was kind of heavenly for a couple of hours.

Anyways, I share this because I have a feeling it is going to greatly influence my blog. I’m going to watch movies at the theater and perhaps on my laptop in a pinch. Since there is plenty of TV programs available online, we’ll see if I start to do more internet viewing. Which of my hobbies will I resurrect? We shall see. My list is long, I wonder how much I can get accomplished in a day if the day isn’t broken up by several hours of television.

Can we start criticizing Google yet?

Agnes Varnum — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:04:56 +0000

I have to admit to still being in love with Google, for the most part. Gmail and Maps are staples of my life. But Search is starting to piss me off. Today, I need to find some web icons for email, the web, etc. so I type it in to Google. What do I get back? A bunch of spammy sites trying to download spyware (if I had a PC, I would have been worried about that). Anyways, eventually I found some usable icons but I wasn’t totally happy with them and I’m thinking I might need to find something better when I have more time to search. Sigh. That was the feeling we had before Google –when it came along, it helped us find what we were looking for quickly and easily on the net.

But as it has tried to become all things to all people on the enormous web, it has become the dumping ground for all of the garbage as well as the stuff we want to see, and like MySpace, now gunky.

I find myself wanting to surf the web and sitting on a blank Google page wondering what to search for (yes, I know, hot nights at my house). But I’m interested in too many different things so I don’t know where to start. I need my trusted friends, so I go to sites I know of, but I was looking for something new, not the same sites I go to all the time. Grrr, the scene repeats over and over…

Tonight I found an article totally worth reading–alternate search engines and what are the innovative things going on in search software? It never occurred to me that anything innovative might be going on at Microsoft, but this article cleared up what that annoying banner on NY Times is–Bing, a Microsoft search engine masquerading as the new thing in search. No, I need my internet reality to be really different again and that never came from MS. I’m getting bored!

Want to see a concert to celebrate your new job? Pick up a ticket using meta-search eninges FanSnap.com or ZebraTickets.com.

Some search innovators are tackling interface design to help take some of the guesswork out of search links. If you’re looking for something visual — say Michael Jackson moon walking — try Searchme.com, which shows entire web pages in its results as if they were album art in iTunes.

For music, try Fizy.com or head to video search engine Blinkx.com to navigate your way to streaming songs you can’t find anywhere else. Read the whole article >>

Oh, and that is just one option out of many creative and dang useful-sounding search engines. I’m going to start experimenting again. Thanks Wired, I should have known to come ot you for a good idea.

Goran Bregovic, Weddings, Funerals

Agnes Varnum — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:31:47 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending a Goran Bregovic concert this past week. It was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while! The music is so freakin’ happy, you can’t help but dance. The slower, poignant songs allowed us a moment to catch our breaths. From the Bass Concert Hall website description of the concert:

Balkan music icon and acclaimed film composer Goran Bregovic celebrates the music of Europe’s Gypsy tradition. Goran brings his 20-piece Wedding and Funeral Orchestra to the Bass Concert Hall stage on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 for one of a handful of concerts in the United States this year. This spectacular Orchestra includes a Serbian brass band, string ensemble, and choir. This is certain to be one of the most talked about world music events for years to come!

I don’t even think this video does them justice. If you see the concert near you, GO! You will have a fantastic time!

Blog Update

Agnes Varnum — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:21:56 +0000

Dear Readers, I’d like to share an update on where I have been and what’s going on in my blog life. As many of you know, I moved to Austin hoping to find a better work/life balance. I’m happy to report that I’ve been successful in that search, but it has meant not too much posting here. Without traveling to festivals regularly, I haven’t had as much to report on or documentaries to discuss. I’m feeling good about the new balance but wondering where that leaves this blog. Most probably, it will evolve to something not specifically focused on documentaries, but we’ll see. Lest you think I’m just being lazy, I’d like to bring your attention to the other online projects I’m working on…

The Austin Film Society has a great journal called Persistence of Vision. I’ve been working on taking the journal online into blog format. The journal has two print editions annually but now exists online with regular updates. The focus of the blog is the Austin film scene with a bend toward AFS and its members, but I’ll be expanding it in time to hopefully include Texas film. If indeed Austin is the third coast of filmmaking, I hope to make this new blog a one-stop-shop for news on film in the area. It’s a work in progress, but bookmark it now. There is an amazing creative community here and my aim is to promote the people and work that make this an amazing place to live and work. If you are in Austin, feel free to send on your film-related news to afs-communications@austinfilm.org.

The other project I’m working on is the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program website, DocSource. Also a work-in-progress, the idea there is to create a space for program fellows to connect with one another and to share more in-depth information about the projects that are part of DFP’s various programs. Some of the best documentaries go through Sundance so keep your eye there for news. Especially exciting are the projects from the Skoll Foundation partnership, Stories of Change. The docs are focused on social entrepreneurs–people who are using grassroots support and ingenuity to make an impact on some of the most serious issues facing humanity–and include filmmakers such as Annie Sundberg, Jonathan Stack, Tracy Strain and Peter Friedman. The films are still in production so you can watch the evolution of those films.

Thanks so much for all of your support in my various endeavors!

My 2-Year Meme: Once

Agnes Varnum — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:11:07 +0000

I haven’t had many great loves in my life but I have had a few minor loves. And while usually I don’t talk much about my personal life here, as seems to happen for those of us who watch movies for a living, my life has crossed into the world of fiction through a story called Once by John Carney.

You might know it from the Academy Award-winning song, Falling Slowly, from the tiny Irish movie in 2008. It was recommended to me through my 2-year meme project (which has dragged on into year 3 because I’m blog-lazy, as AJ pointed out) by fellow film blogger Chuck Tryon. But the idea that prompted that post was transcendent media—a movie or song or book that transcends its genre to be something of universal truth, or something that moves one outside of a comfort zone to connect with others. Whatever. It doesn’t matter what it transcends so long as it makes a difference to you. I wanted to see if any of the things that move my blog readers would move me, and that was happily the case with Once.

Which is what brings me back to the minor loves of my life. They have converged on me this very month! The third anniversary of my blog, also incidentally seems to be the Bermuda triangle of exes. Without bothering to go into the details, I’ve managed to keep the door just open enough with too many half-wits who decided now was a good time to get in touch with me. They were wrong. I’m tired of that crap. I need a new ex, at least.

And then I watch Once. A guitar player on the sidewalk plays his songs and a woman who really enjoys his music pushes him to open up about the source behind it. It turns out that lost love fuels his music, and the young woman who is so interested in the music also has an interesting love history. She is separated from her husband and living with her mother and toddler in a new city.

When our scrubby Irish musician delves a bit into her life, he finds out that she plays piano and sings in perfect harmony with him. The music is wonderful and romantic; the filmmaking is assured and seamless. They fall in love over their failed loves and through their connection in music. My emotions were so easily led through the story. They shared a wonderful moment in time, but their lives are complicated and the moment can’t last.

I guess that is a spoiler to the emotion of the film if not the plot. But it really doesn’t matter because if you are ready to be lead on a journey of love, this is a movie well worth the cost to rent or buy for when you need some genuine romance. It reminded me that minor loves are minor for just this reason. Their moment in our lives can’t compare to major love. Of that, I’ve only experienced it once, and maybe if the title of the movie is true, it won’t ever come again. But I’m not that cynical and I’m also no longer brainwashed enough to believe that an amazing moment between two people constitutes love.

It’s a really valuable lesson for me. Once by John Carney was a beautiful reminder of all that I have learned about love thus far with music I, dare I say it?, loved. That is pretty freaking awesome.

I wonder, Chuck, did you ever figure out what Once means to you? That’s not a challenge to write about it, I’m just curious if anything helped you close the loop to your thoughts since you posted about it.

A Geek’s Guide to SXSW Film

Agnes Varnum — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:10:12 +0000

There are many websites and blog posts out pre-SXSW to help you figure out the behemoth event, but since I have a panel on the subject, I want to add my own to the mix. Check out all of the geeky Film goodness – check back as updates are coming in all the time.

My panel is Getting the Most Out of SXSW Film at the Interactive conference. Some of you may know that I started this blog because I was hanging out with the fellas of Rain City Studios some years back and was really impressed by the work they were (and still are) doing. I could see how beneficial it was to be among folks who were not in the film world but were creating communities online, finding clients among the attendees of SXSW and in general, crossing the boundaries that tend to divide the Interactive, Film and Music programs of SXSW. I pitched new fest producer Janet Pierson (@JanetPierson – she’s still figuring Twitter out, so cut her some slack!) on finding more ways to create spaces within the fest environment where crossover between attendees could happen (as opposed to randomly meeting cool people while sharing a table). Long story short, Janet and her team have put together a steller line up of just such events, including the panel that I will be moderating.

Panelists include Kevin Kelly (@gadgetguy, Spout.com, Joystiq and former Austinite), Amy Dotson (@Adotson780, IFP New York and producer of Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo), PJ Raval (cinematographer of The 2 Bobs and Austin local), and Michael Lerman (The Film Sales Company and producer of SXSW ‘08 fave Natural Causes). The panel is on Friday, March 13 at 2 PM. Each of the panelists have been to SXSW many a time and will share their tips and tricks on how to navigate the Film fest to maximum advantage. Bottom line is that there are lots of ways Interactive and Film folks can and should connect and collaborate – we’ll have some ideas for you. Here are some links to get you going in your schedule planning.

Where to go & How to get there

Slackerwood’s SXSW 2009 Guide to Film Festival Venues
Austin local and movie blogger Jette Kernion has a guide to the movie theaters that are part of the fest, including when to arrive, whether they have beer or not and general tips like where to park. Also, new this year, shuttle buses to help you get to the far flung theaters.
SXSW Film FAQs
The folks at SXSW have put together FAQs about the Film Fest.
Film Parties & Lounges
I know, it’s tough to network at a party where you don’t know anyone, so I understand the difficulty in crossing into Film via parties and lounges, but some are totally geek-ready, like “Get in the Game” with Voodoo Cowboy (the last Voodoo Cowboy party I went to had a tattoo artist giving tats), PBS’ Interactive Social Media & Online Video Studio and new this year, the SXSW Block Party for Film and Interactive.
Happy Hour
In year’s past, we’ve gotten a drink card for a tent outside the Convention Center where between 4 and 6 PM or so each day, we could go grab a free beer or water. It’s laid back and can be a nice transition from a days worth of panels and screenings into an evening of BBQ, more screenings, parties and music. The card gets punched each day, so put it in your badge pouch and head on over to the watering hole.
A new party added: SXSW Interactive / Film Fusion Party Hosted by Whrrl and JavaFX – 8 pm – 10 pm, Red Eyed Fly (715 Red River) Whrrl and JavaFX invite you to join us for an evening of food, drinks and world-class entertainment at the official SXSW Film & Interactive “Fusion” party! Hosted bar and appetizers, the launch of Whrrl v2.0, and world premiere of Sparhusen, featuring actress Illeana Douglas.

While you are putting your sked together, here is an outline of some events that should be on there:

SXSW Interactive at the Movies

Don’t have a Gold badge? Want a taste of the SXSW Film Festival? Each year Interactive badgeholders can attend a few select SXSW Film screenings for FREE! Below is a generous list of geek-related films that will be open to all Interactive badgeholders. Please note that only the screenings listed below are free to SXSW Interactive badgeholders. In addition to upgrading your Interactive badge to Gold, individual tickets may be purchased for many films at the SXSW Film Festival (pending availability and theater capacity). Full festival schedule here.

The Dungeon Masters
Director: Keven McAlester
11:30 AM – Monday, March 16 @ Austin Convention Ctr
Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game’s imaginary triumphs. (U.S. Premiere)

RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Director: Brett Gaylor
9:30 PM – Sunday, March 15 @ Austin Convention Ctr
A documentary feature exploring issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. (U.S. Premiere)

We Live in Public
Director: Ondi Timoner
2:30 PM – Tuesday, March 17 @ Austin Convention Ctr
The story of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of Internet pioneer and visionary, Josh Harris.

The 2 Bobs
Director/Writer: Tim McCanlies
6:45 PM – Friday, March 13 @ Austin Convention Ctr & 6:30 PM, Monday March 16th @ Paramount
Just as they finish their groundbreaking violent video-game masterpiece, the two gaming legends known as “The Two Bobs” discover that their precious game-software has been stolen… and with it, their livelihoods, genius reputations, everything they own. Cast: Tyler Francavilla, Devin Ratray, Mika Boorem, Cody Kasch, Leonardo Nam (World Premiere)

Objectified
Director: Gary Hustwit
5:00 PM – Saturday, March 14th @ Paramount
A glimpse into our relationship to manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. (World Premiere)

The Yes Men Fix the World
Director: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno and Kurt Engfehr
1:30 PM – Monday, March 16th @ Paramount
A pair of notorious troublemakers sneaks into corporate events disguised as captains of industry, then use their momentary authority to expose the biggest criminals on the planet. Cast: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno

Four Boxes
Director/Writer: Wyatt McDill
4:00 PM – Tuesday March 17th @ Paramount
A snarky social thriller about three suburban nobodies watching a creep named Havoc on a website called fourboxes.tv — Rear Window on the internet. Cast: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen (World Premiere)

SXSW Interactive/Film Panels
Each year, there are panels that both Interactive and Film badgeholders can attend (as well as Gold and Platinum badgeholders). Panels, more so than screenings, are a great spot to engage in conversation. Do you already know enough about the subject of the panel? Cool, but there are probably filmmakers there who could use your help. Clients, folks. Work the fest to generate new business. They might find you at the Trade Show, but why not be more proactive – go to a panel, make yourself known by making a comment or asking a question, or go up to folks who asked questions you can answer afterwards.

Here are a list of the panels (including mine!):

Get the Most out of SXSW Film Friday, March 13th 2:00 PM
IM Video Journalism Saturday, March 14th 10:00 AM
Crash the Server — How to Market your Movie by Achieving Webisode Awesomeness Saturday, March 14th 11:30 AM
Soapbox Spielbergs: Making Hollywood FX on Indie Budgets Saturday, March 14th 3:30 PM
Comedy on Television and the Web Saturday, March 14th 5:00 PM
No Budget to Low Budget Sunday, March 15th 10:00 AM
Branded Entertainment: Brands Driving Content Sunday, March 15th 11:30 AM
Marketing Meets New Media: Building Your Audience Online Sunday, March 15th 3:30 PM
We Have Been Objectified: Identity, Consumerism, and the Future of Designed Objects Sunday, March 15th 3:30 PM
“Hey – You Got Your p2 In My Redcode!” Monday, March 16th 10:00 AM
The Future of the DVD and Digital Distribution Monday, March 16th 11:30 AM
A Conversation with Col Needham (Founder of IMDB.com) Monday, March 16th 3:30 PM
You’re Living in Your Own Private Branded Entertainment Experience Monday, March 16th 5:00 PM
Smoke and Mirrors – The Art of Visual FX Tuesday, March 17th 10:00 AM
The Future of Visual Storytelling is Interactive — Or Is It? Tuesday, March 17th 11:30 AM
From HEROES to HELLBOY: Inside Transmedia Storytelling Tuesday, March 17th 3:30 PM
From Framing Shots to Pushing Pixels: Crossing Between Film and Video Games Tuesday, March 17th 5:00 PM

Film Folks on Twitter
Besides the Twitter accounts for the panelists and moi (@Aavarnum), there are also some other very cool film folks you might want to follow. If they are headed somewhere, it’s probably awesome. If you are a film geek that isn’t on this list but you should be, or an awesome geek who can show the film folks a thing or two, just leave your Twitter in comments.

Former SXSW producer Matt Dentler @MattSXSW
Rooftop Films programmer & blogger Mark Elijah Rosenberg @markelijah
Filmmaker Garret Savage @GarretSavage
SXSW Film Fest coordinator Claudette Godfrey @claudasaur
SXSW staffer Stephanie Noone @stefunnynoone
SXSW Film Press liaison Rebecca Feferman @rebfef
SXSW Conference Producer and taco expert Jarod Neece @jneece
Author of Film Festival Secrets Christopher Holland @stomptokyo
Filmmaker and blogger David Lowery @davidlowery
Austin Film Festival programmer Kelly Williams @KellyWilliams
Austin American-Statesman Social Columnist Michael Barnes @outandabout
Game developer and Austinite Rodney Gibbs @rgibbs
Slackerwood author and Austinite Jette Kernion @jettek
Shooting People and part of the totally fun British contingent Ingrid Kopp @fromthehip
The Rabbi Report’s Mark Rabinowitz @RabbiReport
Spout.com’s unstoppable Karina Longworth @KarinaLongworth
Official SXSW Twitter @sxsw

Do you have a suggestion for more SXSW geek fabulous-ness? Leave it in the comments. I’m going to display this page at our panel, so get your submissions in by Friday, March 13. See you in Austin!

TFI’s Resources

Agnes Varnum — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:27:57 +0000

Don’t worry, I don’t expect the same kind of shock that I’m sure is reverberating around the indie film world this morning with the announcements that Peter Scarlet is leaving the Tribeca Film Festival, but I am leaving my post as blogger-in-chief of Resources. I started the project a little over 2 years ago now and have been feeling like I did what I set out to do, and I don’t have the time or inclination to take it in a new direction. So, expect some new blood there soon, and in the meantime, my au revoir post:

It’s with mixed feelings that I tell you this will be my last post here at Resources for the time being. I had a great time doing this blog. Reading other people’s thoughts and ideas and putting my own spin on it, alerting folks to new grants, programs and studies they may not have heard of, and on occasion, thinking about the art of filmmaking, are all pursuits I enjoy. But it was also a frustrating experience because talking about policy and technology issues to filmmakers is a little like banging one’s head against a wall. It was Ted Hope’s rant about NY film credits that reminded me of my frustration and why closing my chapter on this blog has been bitter sweet. Read the rest>>

Thanks to all who supported my endeavor there, and especially Brian Newman for giving me the platform to do something I love to do!

Obama on the Recovery Plan

Agnes Varnum — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:09:33 +0000

I know this isn’t a documentary I’m posting; it’s a piece of political media, but I think it is really important so I’m posting it here. If you watched I.O.U.S.A. or An Inconvenient Truth or any other myriad of works created in the past few years, you know we are in deep shit. We came together to elect Obama because we believed that he would assemble the right people and get us on a course to changing our tides. He’s trying but I have to admit to having dropped the ball. The election and inauguration were such high moments, it was a long pendulum swing back into “real” life. That’s the thing though, our “real” lives are in jeopardy.

Ray Pride had a video project at Sundance were he was asking people to share a hopeful, truthful moment with him/everyone. My outlook is bleak so I told him I wasn’t sure if I could come up with anything to share for the project. I did come up with something but he never asked me again to do it, so hey, blog fodder, right? Well, you’ll notice that I even forgot to make my post about it post-Sundance.(Ray, help me out with a link if you read this – I can’t find it.)

My hope came in the form of Over the Hills and Far Away by Michel Scott Orion, an Austin filmmaker whose film premiered at Sundance and in full disclosure, the Austin Film Society funded through its grant program. My experience with the film, which follows Rupert and Kristin Isaacson as they trek through Mongolia with their autistic son in search of a “cure” for him, was one of a life affirming nature. I use the quote not because it was said, but because it is a catch-all word for emotions, hopes, and dreams of the family and the filmmakers though they never put it into those simplistic terms.

It’s easy to get tied up in family and nature, riding horses or taking care of pets, traveling or being in the tub together. Whatever it is that you want for yourself and your family is in jeopardy and we aren’t even paying attention even though life is something we value.

Obama’s recovery plan sounded over-bloated and like another bad bailout nightmare the way it has been insufficiently covered by the press. It may very well be bloated, I don’t know the details. I do believe that what he lays out here in this video is nothing short of the New New Deal. It’s that bad folks. We’ve got to get back in the game and keep going. If you haven’t stopped, you are awesome. If you have, I don’t know, donate some money or something. Or pass along a YouTube video. Whatever you can do. Something is better than nothing! And see Over the Hills and Far Away at SXSW! I promise, I won’t steer you wrong on docs.

[youtube]3HvC0IqNoBg[/youtube]

P.S. Hey Obaminators, “the Recovery Plan” is your first mistake. You needa sexier title for it. I mean, “The New Deal.” Come on, of course we want a new deal. You came up with “Yes We Can,” give us something to sink our teeth into now.

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Imagination Recovery Project

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