blog

Shorts are Sweet

2011-02-27T18:36:19Z

Today we'd like to shine a spotlight on the excellent collection of shorts (5-8 minutes) we've discovered on the website, California is a Place: Stories from the Golden State. Not your usual travelogues, these little gems are what producers Drea Cooper and Zachary Canepari call a web-series: an emerging genre of online filmmaking, unrelated characters and stories that, when viewed together, tell the story of a place.

If you're one of those short filmmakers who submit their work to Sundance - along with 3000 others each year - you know how hard it is to get your short seen. Cooper and Canepari are figuring out a way. In their off-the-beaten-track road stories you'll meet a scraper bike team, locals disheartened by drug smugglers, a sex doll maker, a romantic mariachi player and an Alameda car salesman. Beautifully shot and edited, these are quirky and compelling vignettes, but not quite so nostalgic as the "On the Road" pieces produced by legendary journalist Charles Kurault in the 1970s. According to Cooper, "the films are really meant to be moments and slices of a person's life." An alternative to reality television programming, anyone?

Re-working Re-Creations

2011-01-25T20:08:42Z

Remember those nonfiction cable shows you used to watch featuring re-created scenes of badly-costumed pirates, peasants and yeomen? You know, those filler shots produced to cover long minutes of interviews or narration talk, talk, talk.

Girls at a Crossroads

2010-12-29T04:09:08Z

Many of you might have seen this video released earlier in the year, but we thought at the close of 2010, we'd like to take another look at it and, in our small way, contribute to spreading the word. A masterful piece, the charming animation serves as a sharp contrast to the compilation of shocking facts and statistics.

Dorothy Height Tribute

2010-12-04T18:25:31Z

Watch this wonderful tribute to civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, produced by LA-based Wednesdays in Mississippi, a documentary film-in-progress, and our friends Marlene McCurtis and Cathee Weiss.

Video Wall Alive with Motion

2010-09-25T20:53:51Z

For a look at an innovative blend of new media and techology, make a visit to our own Torrance Art Museum here in SoCal. Yorgo Alexopoulos has mounted "No Feeling is Final," a computer animated high definition video wall that explores transcendental sensibilities through a commanding array of imagery and motion.

Bill T. Jones, multimedia innovator

2010-09-10T00:47:00Z

We'd like to congratulate choreographer Bill T. Jones, honored as one of this year's five Kennedy Center awardees who will be feted in December by President and Mrs. Obama. The Tony award-winning Jones's work is inventive, thrilling and for those of us who embrace multimedia, yes, he's intensely collaborative.

Giving Made Easy

2010-08-26T15:34:39Z

We're hearing a lot about crowdsourcing lately, so we did a quick perusal of websites dedicated to this concept. One we liked is Crowdrise, merging volunteerism and social networking into a community "answering the call to service, raising money for charity and having the most fun in the world." It's also a nicely designed website with both style and purpose in mind.

Civil Rights Docs are Hot

2010-08-14T16:02:45Z

Showing up in theaters this week, two impressive documentary films on powerful chapters of the Civil Rights Movement. Are we seeing a resurgence of interest here? We hope so, since our own feature doc on Congressman John Lewis, goes into production this fall.

Shows That Got Away

2010-07-31T18:25:52Z

It's summer and time for some good, hearty laughs. That's why we're honoring Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) - a gem that almost got away. Released in 2009, this six-hour IFC docuseries reunites the legendary British comedy troupe and reminds us of how long it's been since we've enjoyed wickedly biting satire. Apparently a few other viewers agree, since it's up for for an Outstanding Nonfiction Series Emmy this year.

Alabama Homeboys

2010-07-19T19:01:08Z

Among the Emmy nominees in one of this year's new multimedia categories - New Approaches to News and Documentary Programming: Documentaries - is the LA Times interactive project, Alabama Homeboys.