With Thanksgiving only a week away, we’re quickly approaching perhaps the single most gluttonous month of the year. We’ll take any opportunity to fill ourselves up with delicious food, but the stretch from now until to the end of the calendar year will be particularly hazardous for our health. We’re not explicitly going to recommend […]
Continue readingNew software quickly pieces together (ridiculous) movies
Given the immense volume of quickly-created content on the Internet – automatically generated music, 3D printed combs, etc. – it’s surprising that it took so long for someone to come up with a fast movie creator. Plotagon, currently in beta, is a new free service that allows users to assemble clips in a traditional screenplay […]
Continue readingWhat was the deal with Gettysburg? Watch this video for a refresher
Because of all the inevitable “fourscore” jokes today, you may be aware that November 19, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln’s address at the Gettysburg memorial at the height of the Civil War is among the most significant and quotable (and shortest) in American history. But despite its immense historical […]
Continue readingCoen brothers fan? See Inside Llewyn Davis THIS THURSDAY!
Whoa! We get a lot of movie passes, but this one is especially cool. Inside Llewyn Davis, the next film from the legendary Coen brothers, is playing this Thursday at 7pm in Friendship Heights, and we have passes! This is a big movie with high award prospects, and we’re excited that our friends and customers […]
Continue readingWe love our new equipment! (And it needs a name)
This might not be the most exciting news for people outside the library community, but it’s big for us: we’ve officially upgraded our checkout equipment! The guy pictured above is the Mediacheck Model 325. It’s faster and more reliable than the equipment we’ve previously used. It won’t make too much of a difference on the […]
Continue readingThe last DVD checked out from a Blockbuster is appropriate, sad
Last week, home video mainstay Blockbuster announced the closure of its last remaining stores, effectively ending what was only a decade earlier a vertiable empire of film distribution. This is no surprise, especially for those in the DC area (the closest Blockbuster is nearly 30 miles away). Decades later, no one will likely lament the […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – November 2013
Boy, has it been a busy month. We’re in the process of acquiring DVD copies of films only previously available as VHSes in our collection. While we probably won’t be buying Celebrity Deathmatch or Dance Workout with Barbie again, we’re hope you enjoy our expanding collection of old and forgotten gems. But we certaintly didn’t […]
Continue readingWhat a twist! M. Night Shyamalan is at Politics & Prose TONIGHT!
Drop your evening plans! Notable director M. Night Shyamalan will be visiting Politics & Prose tonight at 7pm! Though certainly a controversial and often derided figure in the film world, Shyamalan’s rise to fame is a fascinating tale; appropriately, he comes to Politics & Prose to discuss his experience in the education system and the […]
Continue readingIs it time to leave “cinematic” behind?
Film culture has created an aura around the term “cinematic.” A piece of media described as “cinematic” carries with it certain qualities – pace, staging, cinematography, and weight – that are typically seen as ideal or enviable. But as digital distribution democratizes film and television, should directors still chase the same feeling as the cinema? […]
Continue readingFilm Studies for Free explores fan culture, and so can you!
We love Film Studies for Free, a blog that curates links to openly accessible scholarly film resources. You might notice them in the blogroll on the right-hand side of this page (they’re a little below the Music Library… keep looking!) We wanted to highlight a particularly good recent posting from FSFF about researching fan culture. […]
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