In an unprecedented move, the entire Metro system is closed today. Whether or not this was the right choice, it means that DC is spending the day without its main form of public transit. There isn’t a documentary about the DC Metro (as far as we know) so we’ve gathered together three timely media items […]
Continue readingWatch these great new documentaries from Docuseek2
From Big Dream Our media librarian Chris Lewis once called streaming video website Docuseek2 “an embarrassment of riches” for fans of documentaries. We’re not gonna disagree: Docuseek2 lets you stream some incredibly high-quality documentary films, and this week, their collection got even larger. 43 new titles are now available via Docuseek2, including the comedic short […]
Continue readingParamount opens their vault to YouTube. Will other studios follow suit?
(embedded above: all of Masters of the Universe! For free!) Major movie studios are usually extremely protective of their copyrights and lead the charge against video piracy. So it comes as a surprise that Paramount Pictures has opened up a great deal of their film archive for consumption on YouTube. The Paramount Vault channel, which […]
Continue readingRocketJump Film School breaks down film cuts
Our staff will be out for a few days for a library conference, so we want to leave you with something substantive to chew on for the week. Enter RocketJump Film School, a film production education group that has been releasing dense, informative videos about specific aspects of filmmaking. It gets pretty wonky; see their […]
Continue readingSpotlight’s director talks about filmmaking failure
Tom McCarthy won deserved accolades for his directorial and screenwriting work on this year’s Best Picture winner, Spotlight. But only months before, McCarthy also wrote and directed The Cobbler, an Adam Sandler-starring dramedy about a shoemaker who learns life lessons by literally walking in others’ soles. The Cobbler was roundly considered one of the worst […]
Continue readingHear Betty Boop and Max Fleischer favorites performed live
Discussion about the early history of animation tends to focus on Walt Disney and Looney Tunes, ignoring good old Max Fleischer. Fleischer was the man behind Betty Boop, Popeye, and other Depression-era classics. We could talk about those for a week, especially the censorship of Betty Boop, but one of the most critical parts of […]
Continue readingAlternative programming: Vote if you can
Today is Super Tuesday, arguably the biggest day in the presidential primaries that could solidify each party’s candidates for November. Like everyone else, we’ll be watching the results as they trickle in tonight, and although we expect plenty of discussion about who did and didn’t drive the vote in each state, we probably won’t hear […]
Continue readingLive up the Oscars glitz right here in DC
We’ve been more mum about the Oscars this year than usual. Maybe the controversies soured us a little bit. Then again, hey, the Oscars are on Sunday! That was fast! Most people would be comfortable watching at home or catching up on the results the next morning, but a certain level of Hollywood nerd might […]
Continue readingSee Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie early and for free!
Sacha Baron Cohen rose to fame for his prank documentary characters like Ali G and Bruno, but in recent years, he’s chosen to hone his character-building in self-produced scripted movies like The Dictator. Cohen has been out of the limelight for about four years since The Dictator – the longest he’s gone without portraying one […]
Continue readingRIP Douglas Slocombe, prolific Indiana Jones cinematographer
Douglas Slocombe, one of the most adaptable cinematographers of the mid-20th century, died yesterday at 103. Unlike many cinematographers with a distinctive or showy style, Slocombe filmed his projects so closely to the vision of the material that his work was often almost invisible. His far-flung credits are a testament to how smoothly he fit […]
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