Blogs Crosscuts

Spencer Nakasako honored in San Francisco

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Former Walker Artist in Residence Spencer Nakasako was honored at the The 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival with a program that had him onstage in conversation with filmmaker Justin Lin. We’ve been working with him here at the Walker for many years, and we’re always happy to see Spencer get some recognition [...]

Former Walker Artist in Residence Spencer Nakasako was honored at the The 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival with a program that had him onstage in conversation with filmmaker Justin Lin. We’ve been working with him here at the Walker for many years, and we’re always happy to see Spencer get some recognition for his work. Congratulations.

Also to mark the occasion, SF360 published a new interview with Spencer about his past work and his unintentional development of the first-person camcorder documentary genre.

Shorts 2.8

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R.I.P. Freddie Francis – Mr. Francis was a cinematographer responsible for some of the most beautiful work in Cinema. A viewing of The Elephant Man, Cape Fear (1991), or his last film, The Straight Story would make for a fitting tribute. Reported by Reverse Shot. Niki Caro (Her first two films, Whale Rider and North [...]

R.I.P. Freddie Francis – Mr. Francis was a cinematographer responsible for some of the most beautiful work in Cinema. A viewing of The Elephant Man, Cape Fear (1991), or his last film, The Straight Story would make for a fitting tribute. Reported by Reverse Shot.

Niki Caro (Her first two films, Whale Rider and North Country were both presented at the Walker.) is now slated to direct The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. IMDb reports.

PingMag offers a new interview with Michel Gondry on the eve of The Science of Sleep‘s opening in Japan.

Shorts 2.8

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R.I.P. Freddie Francis – Mr. Francis was a cinematographer responsible for some of the most beautiful work in Cinema. A viewing of The Elephant Man, Cape Fear (1991), or his last film, The Straight Story would make for a fitting tribute. Reported by Reverse Shot. Niki Caro (Her first two films, Whale Rider and North [...]

R.I.P. Freddie Francis – Mr. Francis was a cinematographer responsible for some of the most beautiful work in Cinema. A viewing of The Elephant Man, Cape Fear (1991), or his last film, The Straight Story would make for a fitting tribute. Reported by Reverse Shot.

Niki Caro (Her first two films, Whale Rider and North Country were both presented at the Walker.) is now slated to direct The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. IMDb reports.

PingMag offers a new interview with Michel Gondry on the eve of The Science of Sleep‘s opening in Japan.

The Week in Asian Film – March 20th, 2007

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Ghibli World delivers what is likely to be one of the biggest scoops of the year, the announcement of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature! Entitled Gake no ue no Ponyo (roughly, “Ponyo On A Cliff“), the film came about after Miyazaki seriously reflected on his relationship with his son, film director Goro Miyazaki. The main character, [...]

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  • Ghibli World delivers what is likely to be one of the biggest scoops of the year, the announcement of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature! Entitled Gake no ue no Ponyo (roughly, “Ponyo On A Cliff“), the film came about after Miyazaki seriously reflected on his relationship with his son, film director Goro Miyazaki. The main character, 5-year old Sosuke, is modelled after Goro.
  • Speaking of animation, some of you may (or may not) remember My Life as McDull, a rare animated feature from Hong Kong that did big box office in 2001. Now word comes via Twitch that writer Brian Tse is helming another animated feature, rejecting Miyazakian themes of feminism, environmentalism and family in favor of… poo. Tse’s next project will be the 3-D animated (!) Wee-Wee the Poop, a film title so utterly fantastic that I am going to stop typing right now before I spoil the moment.
  • The 1st Annual Asian Film Awards, previously reported on in this column, came to a close yesterday, with Bong Joon-Ho‘s inescapable The Host taking top honors. A full list of winners is posted at MonkeyPeaches.
  • On a sad note, famed Japanese actor Eiji Funakoshi passed away yesterday – it was his 84th birthday. Funakoshi may be best remembered for his performance as Dr. Hidaka in the original Gamera, but his greatest role was undoubtedly that of Tamura in Fires on the Plains, released on DVD by Criterion just last week. He also starred opposite novelist Yukio Mishima in 1960′s Afraid to Die, and is absolutely brilliant as the titular sadist in the exploitation classic Blind Beast. There is an excellent obituary and career retrospective posted at SciFi Japan.

Our Daily Bread

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Our Daily Bread, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s incredible poetic documentary about the largely unseen world of food production will play at the Walker Cinema this weekend. “ The film’s formal elegance, moral underpinning, and intellectually stimulating point of view also make it essential. Takes us inside worlds of wonder and terror.”–New York Times [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBLMOvU3WQ[/youtube]

Our Daily Bread, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s incredible poetic documentary about the largely unseen world of food production will play at the Walker Cinema this weekend.

“ The film’s formal elegance, moral underpinning, and intellectually stimulating point of view also make it essential. Takes us inside worlds of wonder and terror.”–New York Times

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBLMOvU3WQ[/youtube]

Our Daily Bread

By

Our Daily Bread, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s incredible poetic documentary about the largely unseen world of food production will play at the Walker Cinema this weekend. “ The film’s formal elegance, moral underpinning, and intellectually stimulating point of view also make it essential. Takes us inside worlds of wonder and terror.”–New York Times [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBLMOvU3WQ[/youtube]

Our Daily Bread, Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s incredible poetic documentary about the largely unseen world of food production will play at the Walker Cinema this weekend.

“ The film’s formal elegance, moral underpinning, and intellectually stimulating point of view also make it essential. Takes us inside worlds of wonder and terror.”–New York Times

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBLMOvU3WQ[/youtube]

Shorts 2.7

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Several of us here in Film/Video are fans of good design, especially when it pops on on film posters and DVD covers. If you are, too, I highly recommend checking out this post at On Five on the design process behind the covers for the Criterion Collection release of Jules Dassin’s Night and the City. [...]

Several of us here in Film/Video are fans of good design, especially when it pops on on film posters and DVD covers. If you are, too, I highly recommend checking out this post at On Five on the design process behind the covers for the Criterion Collection release of Jules Dassin’s Night and the City.

David Bordwell at the Hong Kong Film Festival. His first report is up on his blog, and more are promised. It’s always a fun read.

If you are anywhere in or near San Francisco tomorrow, I highly recommend taking in the San Francisco Film Society‘s Trapped in the Closet sing-a-long. The event promises to be “an exploration of R. Kelly’s artistic canon.” I wish I could be there.

Shorts 2.7

By

Several of us here in Film/Video are fans of good design, especially when it pops on on film posters and DVD covers. If you are, too, I highly recommend checking out this post at On Five on the design process behind the covers for the Criterion Collection release of Jules Dassin’s Night and the City. [...]

Several of us here in Film/Video are fans of good design, especially when it pops on on film posters and DVD covers. If you are, too, I highly recommend checking out this post at On Five on the design process behind the covers for the Criterion Collection release of Jules Dassin’s Night and the City.

David Bordwell at the Hong Kong Film Festival. His first report is up on his blog, and more are promised. It’s always a fun read.

If you are anywhere in or near San Francisco tomorrow, I highly recommend taking in the San Francisco Film Society‘s Trapped in the Closet sing-a-long. The event promises to be “an exploration of R. Kelly’s artistic canon.” I wish I could be there.

The Week in Asian Film – March 13th, 2007

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This week sees a flood of excellent DVD releases from throughout Asia, starting with the Criterion treatment for two of Kon Ichikawa‘s finest anti-war features, The Burmese Harp and Fires on the Plain (the latter based on one of my favorite novels, written by Shohei Ooka). IVL releases a comprehensive retrospective of the late great [...]

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  • This week sees a flood of excellent DVD releases from throughout Asia, starting with the Criterion treatment for two of Kon Ichikawa‘s finest anti-war features, The Burmese Harp and Fires on the Plain (the latter based on one of my favorite novels, written by Shohei Ooka). IVL releases a comprehensive retrospective of the late great Leslie Cheung‘s work with TV studio RTHK, an invaluable resource for fans of an actor more commonly associated with blockbuster films and rock and roll superstardom (for more info, check out the profile at The Asian DVD Guide). Rounding out the must-haves is another Jackie Chan remaster from Fortune Star: his sophomore directorial effort Dragon Lord – if you think you know Chan from his American slapstick roles, you owe it to yourself to watch the master in any of the early works Fortune Star has released thus far!
  • Rounding out the week are two articles from Twitch. First up, my jaw is still on the floor after discovering that The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai will see theatrical release in the US! Though not one of my favorite releases of 2006, its high-concept is beyond reproach: It’s a softcore porn film starring George W. Bush’s telepathic severed finger as the primary love interest. It’s sure to push a few buttons (zing!) on its April 13th release. On the extreme opposite end of the filmic spectrum we find an update on Taiwanese wunderkind Tsai Ming-Liang‘s first Malaysian film, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone. The Malaysian censorship board banned the film outright, and upon appeal has been persuaded to conditionally release the film if 5 more scenes are cut and the film doesn’t open wide. It’s a tough blow for Tsai, who is Malaysian by birth but has lived and worked in Taiwan for decades.

“Tresspassing as hobby”: Urban Explorers film premieres this week

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEjev-8e-yM[/youtube] Melody Gilbert has a way of tapping into the zeitgeist. Her film Whole (2003) came out two years before the New York Times reported on a psychological disorder in which people are obsessed with having limbs amputated. Her newest film, Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness, delves into a culture I began noticing relatively recently: [...]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEjev-8e-yM[/youtube]

Melody Gilbert has a way of tapping into the zeitgeist. Her film Whole (2003) came out two years before the New York Times reported on a psychological disorder in which people are obsessed with having limbs amputated. Her newest film, Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness, delves into a culture I began noticing relatively recently: the clandestine and usually illegal exploration of deteriorating or forgotten elements of urban history, from abandoned factories to underground sewer tunnels. Inspired by a 2003 news report about the arrest of six local people who were mistaken for terrorists because of their night-vision goggles, rappelling equipment, and gasmasks, she set out to document this largely hidden endeavor (what one critic calls “tresspassing as hobby”), travelling from Minneapolis to Paris and beyond. Since then UE has blossomed with countless videos, blogs, clubs, meetups, and webrings dedicated to it.

The film gets its world premiere here as part of Women With Vision (through March 17) Friday and Saturday. Director Melody Gilbert will introduce the screenings.

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