All Posts Tagged With: "blogging"
They Like Me!
My wonderful friend Wendy Cohen, who worked with Arts Engine, The Huggington Post and founded Screening Liberally, is now with Participant Productions. She alerted me to a new project of Participant called TakePart, where it turns out Gina Telaroli (of Meerkat fame) has named me one of her Top 10 Film Blogs. Wow! She writes, “Into documentaries? You should definitely be visiting Agnes Varnum’s blog about them! She visits lots of fests and always has an interesting perspective on what’s happening in all aspects of documentary.”
Thanks Gina and Wendy for your kind words and support. Looking forward to seeing TakePart shapes up…
POV Blog, WGA and The Camden 28
Thanks to AJ for pointing out the POV blog; I remember some staffers telling me they were going to implement one, but sadly I never got an email about the launch. Some of my favorite doc folks are posting, including Simon Kilmurry. He posted a great response to David Poland who writes on The Hot Blog, about the WGA nominations for best documentary writing, “has anyone outside of the WGA seen the top doc vote-getter, The Camden 28?”Kilmurry’s response:
What Poland’s post raises, I believe, is the more problematic issue of equating box office success with the importance of a documentary—a crude measurement. Let’s get real here, the vast majority of docs have a very limited box office appeal. I can’t believe that other WGA nominees made millions at the box office—despite how much I might admire The Rape of Europa and the excellent No End In Sight. Most of them make little or no money. (As far as I’m aware, the WGA does not take box office in account in their awards, God bless them.) Read the whole article
I’ve been slow in reading and posting lately and part of that is being busy but part of it is also boredom with what people are writing about film. Awards are great because they raise awareness among new audiences about great films that they may not have seen - The Camden 28 is a great example of that. It’s a wonderful movie. It revisits a 1960s act of civil disobedience and asks the participants to relay those events, which they do. The film is conventional in style but it is so inspiring to see the story of people who were willing risk their own liberty to send a message to the government, as that doesn’t seem to be happening now, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the actions of our government… but I digress. The issue is that so many writing about film are only focusing on box office, and seemingly ignoring anything film-related that doesn’t have to do with theatrical release.
New Blog Design
If you are reading this in a feed reader, you can’t see all the work I’ve been doing on my blog! I’d like to invite you to stop by as I’ve implemented an exciting new theme “WP Magazine” (or at least I think so!). It was designed by Michael Pollock of Solostream, and it has a lot of cool details. Michael hasn’t had a chance to put together much documentation, so I’ve done many small mods to make it look the way I want but it’s still a bit wonky. I’ve also implemented a bunch of new plug-ins to improve the site. Though they are too many to mention now, my thanks goes out to all the open source developers who make this site and so many others “go.” I guess only folks who do this type of thing understand how easy it is to blow whole days on all this, which is what happened to me. I hope you like it; still some small tweaks to come, but let me know what you think. Happy New Year!
Facebook Ads
Today I was shocked to see my blogger buddy Karina Longworth’s face hawking Jackass 2.5 for Blockbuster. Upon closer inspection, it looks like she probably that added an application to her profile (Movie Clique) that somehow granted permission for this. Karina, did you see this? Thoughts? (I edited my applications out of the image but the ad is unaltered.)
A Single Girl in Tuscany
If you haven’t met Katie Brown, producer of The Trials of Darryl Hunt, well, that’s sad for you. She is a bright, warm young woman who consistantly astonishes me with her wisdom. I guess it’s a quarter-life crisis that prompted her to take a break from the grind of the indie film world to seek out new experiences in Italy, olive-picking to be exact. If you saw her during the summer in New York, her tales of the filmmakers-turned-Tuscan farmers, Barbara & Ugo, who were just waiting for her to arrive in the fall, I’m sure like me, you wanted to hear all about it. I guess others told her that as well, so she started a blog which she has been updating regularly.
She spent her first 3 weeks in Italy at a language school before moving on to the farm, where she is now. It’s a true-life adventure and Katie’s writing is the kind that wonderful travel memoirs are made of… The Single Girls Guide to Olive Picking:
Strange, sad, and exciting that it is my last day in Firenze. It’s been a perfect 3-week package. A veritable pu-pu platter of life. Ups, downs, the unexpected, and the routine. An opportunity to carve out an everyday role amidst exquisite beauty and sheer indulgence. Most importantly, a new take on the same 24 hours that make up all of our days.
Tonight is a full moon, and the reflection in the Arno has created a true illusion. All of the buildings that parallel the Arno are reflected in the water so clearly that you can not tell that they don’t actually exist in double. None of it seems real.
I'm really looking forward to this one and was excited to see the trailer posted, but it looks like the ...
Thanks for the feedback Mark, I'll keep that in mind :) 
Wow, that does look great!
More video, Agnes! I love when you post cool stuff like this! 
Right on! I thought the exact same thing when I read the times article. I think its also ...