Seems like everyone is buzzing like bees over Canon DSLRs these days, us included. It is as if some sort of new technological renaissance has begun, with Canon seemingly merging two technically separate worlds and uniting them in the same fashion they’ve always existed in artistically. The still, motion pictures’ roots and video, where motion picture has been ever evolving, have made many leaps and bounds in the last year alone with advancements in mobility, portability and ease of use, while also raising the bar in what consumers, prosumers and professionals want out of an image.

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New “Close.” Trailer from Tahir Jetter on Vimeo.

This seems to be becoming a series. Tahir Jetter is a buddy of mine. Perhaps the most prolific tweeter on Twitter with 20,000 updates. Anyway, this is another story of a young NYU hustler who once worked for me, then with me, and is now forging ahead making waves. I think I had something to do with him appreciating Jigga more than he used to too. He’s a funny dude too as we had many a laugh in South Africa on a project for Ubuntu Education Fund. Check out the trailer above for his short film “Close.” which will be premiering at the Urbanworld Film Festival in a few weeks.

It was my pleasure to see this project come together from the sidelines.

Over the years I’ve become a fan of Clooney. Great choices in roles and stories. Always pushing the envelope, then doing something like Oceans, LOL. Anyway, this looks pretty good. Who’s gonna see it?

Be sure to support Hill’s latest book, THE CONVERSATION, in stores September 7th! And become a fan of The Double Down Film Show HERE!

Summer break is over, the leaves are turning and the buzz of a new school year is in the air, which can only mean one thing…Time for the new season of The Double Down Film Show! On Wednesday, September 15th @ 9pm we’re gonna kick off the 4th season with an uplifting conversation about acting and managing a career in the industry with actor/author Hill Harper (CSI:NY, Premium, Lackawanna Blues,etc.). Hill took a most unusual route to acting, first earning a law degree from Harvard and a Masters from The Kennedy School of Government, before leaving it all behind and gambling on his newfound passion – acting. It turned out to be a good bet that paid off with roles in many tv shows, plays, indie and studio features. Today Hill is reprising his starring role as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes for the sixth year on CSI:NY and just completed his third book, The Conversation.

· Why did he pursue acting despite having a Harvard Law degree?

· What do great actors do that others don’t?

· Why does the best actor not necessarily get the job?

· What’s the most important thing you can do to last in Hollywood?

· What do you do if you don’t have access to great roles?

All this and more will be revealed on the 4th Season premiere of Double Down Film Show with CSI New York’s, Hill Harper.

Confronting Doctor Death from Field Agent C on Vimeo.

“Marchands d’anthrax” (“Anthrax War”) directed by Bob Coen is a feature documentary about bio-warfare that I’ve shot over a year long across the USA, the UK, Europe, Russia, Siberia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, and South Africa. It will be on ARTE September 7. Please check the ARTE website; we’ll be releasing one new video a day – things that did not make it in the movie.

http://www.arte.tv/fr/3090730.html
Watch more clips on Vimeo!

This is reportedly a scene from a film, “Magadheera,” that cost $7 Million, the most any Tollywood film has ever cost. It’s extremely awesome.

(Via TDW)

The feature documentary “Destiny Hills” by my friend Leeor Kaufman produced for Channel 8. A great example of what a one man crew can do.

http://leeorkaufman.com/

I recently watched Standard Operating Procedures on DVD. The documentary is about the military scandal at Abu Ghraib. Director Errol Morris uses interviews, re-enactments and of course photographs to effectively tell the story. It’s informative, shocking, appalling and definitely worth seeing. I also checked out the DVD extras (I love extras). They included a deleted scene with one particular soldier who, when watching the documentary, I thought he was a bit arrogant and unremorseful. However, after watching this deleted scene I totally changed my opinion. He now seemed sympathetic. This got me thinking about Truth in documentaries. As fair and unbiased as the director may try to be, his/her choices (which take, what questions to ask, who to include etc, etc) ultimately shape the tone/truth of the documentary. I don’t know why Errol Morris choose not to use this clip, maybe he didn’t deem it important to the story or maybe the lighting was just bad – either way, for me it illustrates the power of perception and the awesome responsibility to truth that documentarians (should) bear. Ah, but whose version of truth?

Here’s a link to Errol Morris discussing the doc, truth and storytelling recovering_reality.php

Tierra madre from Dylan Verrechia on Vimeo.

The Oldenburg Film Festival in Germany just invited me to present “Tierra Madre” from the 15-19 of September. This feature film is based on the true story of a woman determined to raise her children with her female partner in Tijuana, Mexico. Since its completion in March, it was an official selection to sixteen film festivals, has won four awards, and is now nominated for the Diversity Award at the Barcelona Film Festival. Not bad for a film shot in Spanish with a one man crew and $2,000… Note to self: – Don’t wait for it to happen, keep shooting, and telling stories about real characters.

http://tierramadrefilm.com/

I saw a Swedish film 2 months ago called “Let The Right One In” and I’ve barely been able to stop talking about it – it was one of those movie experiences that had me telling everyone to watch it asap – I mean it’s on Netflix Instant, you’ve got no excuses. It won best foreign language film at a number of festivals in 2008 when it came out but commercially wasn’t nearly as successful as it should’ve been. This was of course for one reason; it was minimally distributed because it was an Independent foreign-language film. This is not a genre notorious for killing at the box office in this country; who wants to have to read subtitles?

When I went to Inception for the second time (yes, I sweat Christopher Nolan), there was an instantly recognizable preview – an American remake called “Let Me In” directed by Matt Reeves of “Cloverfield” being released in theaters October 8th. An English version has the potential to be more commercially viable, but remakes of foreign films in general rarely live up to the originals. Yes, the production values will often be better and unknown foreign film actors will be replaced by recognizable American stars, but the remake rarely captures the soul the original. In this case even though the remake attempts to maintain an Indy movie aesthetic with a relatively low budget and no ‘name’ actors I’m still skeptical.

Check out the trailer of the original below and then do yourself a favor and watch it before you even consider the remake.