Movies

I did an email interview with “Detsembrikuumus” producer Artur Talvik. (I’ve slightly edited his answers for clarity.) What’s the source for the plot? Different history books are the source of our plot. The problem for the Reds was that all their brains had recently stopped. In the beginning of the film, the newspaper boy shouts the headlines of the so called Trial of 149. Soviet Russia published a handbook some years later (maybe 1934) called “How To Make Armed Coup”…

1)

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on movie theaters showing non-movies will be on All Things Considered today (September 8)! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 4 pm to 6:30 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 4 pm to 6 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm Pacific – KPCC –…

While I’m still waiting to see “The Singing Revolution,” it appears that there’s also a new great movie coming out from Latvia as well, “Defenders of Riga.” It tells the Latvian equivalent of the Revolutionary War. While it only came out several weeks ago, it’s the highest budget Latvian movie ever, at $4 mil USD, and has broken all Latvian box office records. As the YouTube entry describes: Story is about 11 november 1919. WWI was over but renegade german…

There’s a new documentary out called “The Singing Revolution” by a pair of American filmmakers, one of whom is of Estonian descent. You can watch the awe-inspiring trailer here.

Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I did a piece on MobMov, a “guerilla drive-in” last summer for The World. Today, the Chronicle decided to do a piece on it as well. I suppose I should have pitched it to the Chronicle myself. A year ago.

Wow, the world has just lost one of its premiere filmmakers, Senegal’s Ousmane Sembène. (Previously: here, and here) I had the pleasure of meeting him once in New York a couple of years ago, and am proud to say that I shook his hand, but the world has been diminished by the loss of this great man. Various obits: BBC, AP, Walf Fadjri (French), Le Soleil (French)

So Senegal just had its presidential elections this past Sunday, and the results are in today: Abdoulaye Wade has been re-elected. Ethan has a great roundup via Global Voices about what various Senegalese bloggers are saying about things. Not sure who’s who or what’s what? You’re in luck, because Ethan’s also found this fantastic three-part video series: Democracy in Dakar Project 2007.

Slate decided that four Borat-related articles wasn’t quite enough, so here’s (no joke), No. 5: “The Real Kazakhstan: What does Borat get right and wrong about his native land?” Best line? Borat claims that traditional Kazakh wine is made from fermented horse urine. I have tried Kazakh wine, and I can tell you it is definitely not made from fermented horse urine. It just tastes that way.

I love how Slate has not one, but FOUR articles about Borat up right now. “Borat Owes Me 97 Dollars: How Sacha Baron Cohen is Jewish vaudeville.” “Not Very Nice: The Borat movie: They botched the joke.” “America Undercover: Sacha Baron Cohen’s disturbing, ingenious Borat.” “Searching for Borat: Journalists descend upon Kazakhstan; hunt for mustaches, sexism.” Also, from the archives: “Borat Tricked Me! Can’t I sue him or something?” “Respek! How does Ali G keep conning famous guests?” “Cohen Brother:…