New IVFF Schedule

Now that I've been working on the Instant View Film Festival for approaching two months, it's time to re-tool it a bit to work better for everyone, especially for you the reader.  I've been getting good feedback from everyone (thank you), but I've become a bit frustrated with the initial schedule that I designed to get the blog up to speed and maximize the number of posts through the week.  That initial schedule has served its purpose, namely to get an initial collection of films worth your attention and worth consulting when you are looking for something to watch.  My frustration has become that I have been less than satisfied with the writing in many daily entries because I was just keeping to the schedule.  I want the blog to evolve into not just a resource for titles (there are other resources available for that), but also something that I enjoy writing and you enjoy reading.


With that in mind, I will continue with the Quick Picks each day according to the topics I originally designated for this blog: international films, documentaries, animation, experimental films, popular genres, and American independent films.  On occasion these will be films I have added to my queue myself, so the entries will be shorter because I haven't seen them, but I will try to convey why I think we both should give them a look.  And often these entries will constitute a "mini-festival" of two or three films on a theme or a topic, such as a particular genre, national cinema, or filmmaker.  At the minimum, these entries may consist of a few sentences before the list of links.  But even in these cases, the entries will guide you to films worth watching.  Once again today I read Twitter entries like, "Good to see that the Netflix Watch Instantly selection is still a wasteland." and "Why is Saw 6 the only saw movie you can watch instantly on Netflix? Does it actually suck that bad?" Even the shortest Quick Pick entries will show that these sentiments are wrong. 

While the Quick Picks will be daily, I will post three Spotlight entries per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  These will not follow any particular theme, but I will try to focus on films that have been recently added to Netflix Watch Instantly, Hulu, or other streaming resources.  These Spotlight entries will most often be in the form of a review of an individual film, but sometimes they will be a short essay on a theme or topic relating a group of films together.  Sometimes the Spotlight entries will be more thought out, organized essays with historical or contextual information, other times they will be very informal, off-the-cuff responses or attempts to pick fights with other reviewers and bloggers.  This will also give me more flexibility in what I watch to prepare for these entries, making the viewing process more enjoyable rather than seeming like a chore to watch a particular film to prepare to write on a specific theme for a specific day. 

Opening up the format in this way will hopefully make visiting the blog on a regular basis more fun and engaging.  I would like to try to get more reader comments and discussion for each entry, but I realize that the initial format did not really encourage that, since most often there wasn't really something to respond to in each post. I now realize that this blog gets quite a bit of views from around the world (particularly Germany), and I would love to see this transform into more than just one-way communication. If I open the entries up to more opinion in addition to information, perhaps readers will want to respond more directly to the entries.


So here is the new schedule, with some recommendations thrown in so that this isn't just a meta-post, and you can follow up and watch some good stuff.

Mondays:  
International Quick Picks, short entry focusing foreign national cinemas and international filmmakers.

Example: White Material (Claire Denis, France, 2009, 105 minutes)

Monday Spotlight: Longer review of an individual film or short essay on a collection of films.

Tuesdays:
Documentary Quick Picks, short entry focusing on contemporary and classic documentary films.

Example: Restrepo (Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington, USA, 2010, 93 minutes)

Wednesdays:
Animation / Experimental Quick Picks, short entry focusing on animated features and short films, as well as experimental films and new media on the internet.

Example: Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2008, 103 minutes) 

Wednesday Spotlight: Longer review of an individual film or short essay on a collection of films.

Thursdays:
Popular Genres and Television Quick Picks: short entry focusing on popular genres of cinema and television, both classic (westerns, musicals) and contemporary (sci-fi, action).

Example: Monsters (Gareth Edwards, UK, 2010, 93 minutes)





  

Fridays:
American Independent Quick Picks: short entry focusing on classic and contemporary American independent feature films.

Example: Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani, USA, 2008, 91 minutes)


Friday Spotlight: Longer review of an individual film or short essay on a collection of films.

Quick Picks: New to Netflix Watch Instantly, 3/31/11

This week I will be in Madison, Wisconsin for the 2011 Wisconsin Film Festival, where I was invited to be a juror for the Wisconsin's Own competition (for filmmakers and films with ties to Wisconsin).  I will post Quick Picks this week, and upon my return I will resume the normal schedule.

Those of you in Madison who are new to this blog might be interested in some previous entries related to 2011 Festival films.  This year's festival includes a strong line up of Romanian films, including Aurora; If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle; Medal of Honor; and Tuesday, After Christmas. For those interested in following up after seeing these films, you can check my post about New Romanian Cinema titles currently available on Netflix Watch Instantly.

The Festival is also showing Lionel Rogosin's On the Bowery, which I mentioned as an important precedent to Kent MacKensie's The Exiles in my post about that film.

Finally, Netflix Watch Instantly has just added Jonathan Demme's film of Spalding Grey's one-man show, Swimming to Cambodia.  This year's Festival line up includes Steven Soderbergh's documentary about Grey, And Everything is Going Fine.


Now, before running off to tonight's line up of films (for me, that will include the experimental shorts screening The Future Past, the Hong Kong action film The Stool Pigeon, and Congolese adventure film Viva Riva!), here are some Quick Picks for Netflix Watch Instantly from its most recent additions.

Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, UK, 2004, 119 minutes)
Netflix: Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, who earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal) spends her days doting on her working-class family. But Vera also has a secret side: Her family and friends don't know that she visits women and helps them induce miscarriages for their unwanted pregnancies. When the authorities get wind of her activities -- then illegal in 1950s England -- Vera's world quickly falls apart, deeply affecting both her and her family. Netflix link.

Theramin: An Electronic Odyssey (Steven M. Martin, USA, 1993, 83 minutes)
Netflix: After escaping Russia's communist revolution, Leon Theremin travels to New York, where he pioneers the field of electronic music with his synthesizer. But at the height of his popularity, Soviet agents kidnap and force him to develop spy technology. Steven M. Martin writes and directs this intriguing documentary about a man's "strange" music and his very interesting life as an inventor and influential musician. Netflix link.

Forbidden Games (Rene Clement, France, 1952, 85 minutes)
Netflix: Director René Clément's bittersweet drama depicts the ravages of war on its youngest victims. After being orphaned when a Nazi strafing kills her parents and her dog, 5-year-old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) is taken in by farm boy Michel Dolles (Georges Poujouly) and his family. While his parents are busy feuding with their neighbors, the youngsters cope with the death surrounding them by creating a cemetery for animals killed in the fighting. Netflix link.

Quick Picks: The Legacy of Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song

Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Badasss Song was an important turning point in American independent and African American cinema.  The immediate consequence of its success was Hollywood's response of the so-called blaxpoitation genre (although there is a debate as to whether Sweet Sweetback's itself should be considered an exploitation film).  The longer legacy of the film was its influence on subsequent African American independent filmmakers.  As Spike Lee stated, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song gave us all the answers we needed. This was an example of how to make a film (a real movie), distribute it yourself, and most important, get paid. Without Sweetback who knows if there could have been a. . . She's Gotta Have It, Hollywood Shuffle, or House Party?"

In addition to the film itself, Netflix Watch Instantly is also streaming two documentaries featuring Melvin Van Peebles that should help put Sweet Sweetback's in context. Not currently streaming, but also worth looking at on DVD, is Mario Van Peebles's tribute to his father's film, Baadasssss! from 2003.

Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, USA, 1971, 97 minutes)
Netflix: Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) is an apolitical African American sex performer who becomes a reluctant hero when he kills the white policemen who brutalized a young prisoner for racist reasons. On the run to Mexico, he encounters numerous interesting characters. Putting black cinema on the map and ushering in the 1970s blaxploitation genre, Van Peebles's thrilling work is also a historically and ideologically significant essay on race relations. Netflix link.

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (Joe Angio, USA, 2007, 84 minutes)
Netflix: Joe Angio's award-winning documentary chronicles the remarkable career of influential African-American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. Through archival footage and interviews, the film traces Van Peebles's life as a director, Air Force pilot, actor, musician, novelist and stock trader. Spike Lee, Gil Scott-Heron, Gordon Parks and son Mario Van Peebles are among the admirers who discuss the artist's contributions to film and other areas. Netflix link.

Classified X (Mark Daniels, USA, 1998, 52 minutes)
Netflix: Actor and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) explores the depiction of African-Americans in film in this incisive documentary. Starting with some of the first silent films, Van Peebles uses clips and stills from more than 70 movies to explore racism and stereotyping in Hollywood and independent cinema. Cinephiles as well as anyone interested in social history will find much to think about here. Netflix link.




Below is one of the original trailers for Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song.  I look forward to your reactions and feedback in the comments section.  --JLK

Quick Picks: Fritz Lang's Metropolis (Restored)

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927, 148 minutes)
Netflix: In the year 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live underground and the wealthy, who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor, a man from the upper class abandons his privileged life to join oppressed workers in a revolt. Perhaps the most famous & influential of all silent films, German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece has now been magnificently restored to include the original 1927 orchestral score. This version includes 25 minutes of additional footage. Netflix link.

If you think you've seen this German silent classic, think again.  Ignore the Netflix user reviews that congratulate the editors of the shorter versions (?!). I had a chance to see the 2002 restoration, which fleshed out several subplots but explained still missing footage with intertitles.  In 2008 more material was found, and this most recent restoration that emerged from that discovery debuted at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.  A good analysis of the most recent restoration can be found on David Bordwell's blog.  They truly do not make them like this any more.

Netflix Watch Instantly also has some other Lang silents, Spiders (1919), Destiny (1921), Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922), as well as his early sound classics, M (1931) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933).

Let me know what you think about these or other silent titles on Netflix Watch Instantly, or other streamng sources.  --JLK

Quick Picks: Putney Swope

In addition to the regular longer entries, I will occasionally send out Quick Picks with just the titles, descriptions and links.

Putney Swope (Robert Downey, Sr., USA, 1969, 85 minutes)
Netflix: Robert Downey Sr. directs this whip-smart satire of race relations and corporate culture in 1960s America that explores what happens when the sole black executive at a major New York City advertising firm (Arnold Johnson) finds himself in charge. In addition to replacing his all-white board with an all-black slate of new members, he also changes the firm's name to the more descriptive Truth and Soul Inc. Netflix link.

Downey emerged from the New York underground (harder films to find include the very funny Chafed Elbows) and scored a crossover hit with this outrageous satire.  At least one technique was a carryover from his underground days: Downey himself dubbed the voice of the lead character when the lead actor (Arnold Johnson) couldn't seem to remember his lines.

As it turns out, Netflix Watch Instantly also has Downey's far less renowned film, Up the Academy. Mad Magazine publisher William Gaines paid 30,000 to take Mad's name off of after the initial theatrical release was titled Mad Magazine Presents: Up the Academy.  (The Mad references were reinstated after Gaines's and Time Warner's purchase of Mad.)