trailer trash

I became a fan of Chris Atkin after watching his Blair-biting Bafta nominated film Taking Liberties. Now he’s back and as bad as ever. I had the pleasure of seeing his much awaited Starsuckers at London Film Festival last week. A gritty feature-length documentary, Starsuckers sets out to expose the media and PR industries obsession with celebrity culture.

With an unprecedented response at the BFI this documentary has already caused a stir in the press, making front page headlines in BBC and the Guardian last week.

The magic hands of the media

The feature length documentary follows day-to-day encounters of Atkins and team in ‘the cell’  a studio flat come office off Brick Lane. Here they scour tabloid pages and showbiz columns, finding stories they believe to be fabricated. Following this, the team go about setting up a series of hoaxes based upon these ‘fake tales’. What transpires is worrying… as other publications are duped into printing these stories further. With headlines as ridiculous as ‘Winehouses hair set on fire in touching homage to Michael Jackson‘. Starsuckers is a testament to the fact that the some media organisations are not to be trusted.

The film will hit cinemas screens next week and joiningthedocs.tv are particulary excited about Atkins’ newest project.

Although, I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking Aktins’ exposure is merely evidence to things unseen in this tabloid underworld.

It seems that an An Inconvenient Truth created a mould for the eco-documenatries to follow. Today’s much anticipated release of The Cove, Sundance’s hottest film, could well and truly open the floodgates for this genre.

Traditionally the eco-doc has been a labour of love, usually self-funded effort spanning years of production. Whilst eco-docs have never been championed by mutiplex cinemas, both big theatrical releases and smaller budget ones have represented the tip of a very large iceberg, reflecting environmentalism on a mass - scale.

Al Gore : the ultimate eco - king?

Many of these post-Inconvenient Truth eco-docs have produced rich and diverse material, and like many, my concern is that with this sudden surge – Hollywood eco-docs with meticulous post production – there could be danger of the genre cancelling itself completely.

Across the pond, The Cove has had an unprecedented reception, tipped for a family of Oscars. I just hope that on the other fold the genre doesn’t become endangered itself.

Watch our latest environmental title, About Water People and Yellow Cans.

Yep, its official, Morgan Spurlock is set to release his latest feature-length documentary film, an adaptation of the best selling book  Freakonomics. Apparently the most talked about film in Cannes this year,  Freakonomics is a collaboration with other noted American filmmakers – Alex Gibney and Oscar nominees Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing has signed to direct segments based upon chapters of Steven Livett’s and Stephen Dubner’s best selling book.

For those who haven’t read it, Freakonomics explores the hidden depths of economics. Each chapter looks at a variety of economic stories in modern culture, such as the inner workings of a crack gang, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan and the myths of corporate finance. Like the book, the film is set to be a fun eye opener onto the world of economics. We are very interested in this upcoming feature documentary and seeing this translation from best-selling book to feature-length documentary.

Animation at Sweden's Web Film Festival

In film speak, Danish and Finnish Cinema has traditionally ploughed ahead of its Swedish counterpart.  Still, what Sweden has lacked in film it definitely made up for in furniture.

With the recent announcement of Sweden’s Web Film Festival this could be shifting. A selection of 300 short films: documentary, animation, experiential and broadcast will stream over the web free of charge. The festival is first child of  Uppalsa International Short Film Festival and Sweden’s official tourist site Sweden.se.

It’s good to see Sweden hosting a new dimension of film festivals, opening up the film festival to new audiences. Sweden’s Web Film Festival will stream from the 19th until the 25th of October, catch it online at Sweden.se.

I have always wondered what the seemingly morbid fascination with batty ladies and cats has been about. Probably the greatest manifestation of this obsession is mirrored in the 1976 documentary Grey Gardens voted number nine amongst the best documentaries of all time by the The International Documentary Association.

Grey Gardens, by brothers David and Albert Maysles, follows Big Edie and Little Edie, otherwise known as The Beales – mother and daughter and aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Onassis. Textbook eccentrics, this is a window onto life in an overgrown crumbling East Hampton mansion, shared with an assortment of fleas, cats and racoons…nice. In recent years the documentary has become a snappy cultural point of reference, with a Rufus Wainwright song and an HBO film.

Big Edie and Little Edie...fashion icons or batty catty hags?

The Beales proved that crazy cat ladies makes good cinema and a recent documentary simply named Cat Ladies capitalizes upon this cultural interest. The hour long documentary follows… well,  women with tons of felines! The film is a portrait of how for some women emotions of sensitivity and esteem have become inextricably linked to these cats.  Cat Ladies will be available to watch soon!

Leopard print shirt anyone?

This week we were left agasp at the ‘controversial’ giving of  The Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. Obama and French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy were amongst a record of 205 nominations in last Friday’s annual prize giving in Oslo last week, praised by the committee for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy.

The Nobel Peace Prize was established in 1895 by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. Obama now joins some heavy weight winners - Kofi Annan, Al Gore, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela…I would feel pretty intimidated. Mandela had a long, laborous and albeit in parts contentious career before recieving the prize in 1993, which included leader of the African National Congress and twenty seven years imprisoned on Robin Island, seems pretty incomparable to a mild ten months in office. For a solid look into Mandela’s life then watch Madiba:The Life and Times of Nelsom Mandela .

Jamie Oliver famously took disadvantaged ‘youths’ from some of the countrys  most deprived areas to the kitchen of his hip London eatery, giving lessons in gastronomy and life. In spite of critics Jamie’s intentions were there … recognition in achievement and triumph for those who hadn’t been exposed to such ideas.

Take this idea, undress it a bit , put it in running shoes and you could be beating around the same track as Justine Jacob’s and Alex de Silva’s Runners High.

Runners High follows five teens from Oakland, California who have signed up to run The Los Angeles marathon as part Students Run Oakland, a charitable organization that trains high school students to run the Los Angeles Marathon.

A winning documentray:'Runners High'

We watch as Fred, Ebony, Marvyn, Edgar and Sergio embark on what is to become their biggest life lesson yet. Whilst some relish in the power of commitment, others have difficulty in accepting responsibility in achievement.

So far the film has received much critical acclaim winning best movie at Milan International Film Festival.

Runners High is a truly inspirational and unpatronising feature, a testament to the rewards of personal ambition and aspiration of which all can relate.