Author and journalist Dave Cullen, who has written articles for the NY Times, Slate and Salon, has recently organized a campaign to raise funds to run a full-page advertisement in Daily Variety, praising and thanking the creators of “Brokeback Mountain” for their work. Cullen and his organizers raised over $15,000, more than enough to run the initial ad, and so there’s been talk they may run another.

I’m sick and tired of America’s obsession with defining winning or losing as the only two dimensions on which a person’s self-worth can exist… How perverse is it that we live in a society where audiences care about the gross receipts of a film, or how many awards it has won? These are trinkets of greatest use to those whose salaries are affected by them…

I first read Annie Proulx’s short story, “Brokeback Mountain,” more than a year ago. Her prose was stark, simple and raw like its two protagonists, and infused with a loneliness and tragedy so profound, that it haunted me for days afterwards. It left me like an open wound; seeping with not only sadness, but anger against a world that would deny two souls the right to love each other. The constraints…

It appears that “The Libertine” has been moved indefinitely.
Because I saw a press screening and I cannot be sure whether the studio intends to re-cut the film before releasing it in Minneapolis and other markets, I’ve removed the review from the main page.
I will post the review, same or revised—depending on whether or not […]

Someone on IMDB’s message boards had posted a topic about “Annoying Film Effects”. Here are a few that come to mind:
Diffuse Glow -or- “I Can’t See Shit Cuz My Retinas Are Burning With All This Intense White Light Everywhere” - See any Spielberg from “A.I.” onwards. Though I felt it worked for “A.I.” I […]

The following is a correspondence with Alison Weir, director of If Americans Knew, concerning an article she wrote today in reference to comments made by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show…

For those who don’t have iTunes installed, and just want to read the list (relating to the previous post), here it is:
 
Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78: V. Death to the Blasphemer! (Peregrinus expectavi) - Evgenia Gorohovskaya, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra & Yuri Temirkanov
Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78: XII. The Battle on the Ice - The Duel with […]

Recently, poking around the iTunes Music Store, I decided to put together an iMix compilation, titled “Greatest Film Scores,” covering the best cinematic scores from 1938 to 2005.
The list is in no particular order of preference, but I did try to arrange it chronologically. I began with Sergei Prokofiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” for a couple […]

It’s been an insanely long road. Ultimately everything worked out in what I would consider the best-case scenario, so the wait was worth it. Back in 2000, when I gave up the rights to the script, and as a result gave up my guarantee of being the director, I felt like a sell-out. But who cares now? Not I. I mean, I got all the money for “selling out” and I still ended up being the director. And yes, you are not the first to point out how aptly titled the movie is to the…

Recently I had an opportunity to speak with a young film maker, Darren Thomas Martinez, about an upcoming project. He is directing and producing a documentary about homeless youths. I will have more information about this production as it progresses. However, right now I’d like to just point everyone’s attention to the […]