festival

PARK CITY, Utah--As Hollywood stars drew crowds to the screening rooms here at the Sundance Film Festival, several Web media pioneers--celebrities in their own right-- also got the spotlight Saturday at a panel focused on the future of entertainment in the Digital Age.

Moderated by All Things D's Kara Swisher in her fourth such Sundance engagement, the panelists were Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings, YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley; and Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, which is NBC Universal and News Corp.'s joint online video venture.

Each had a somewhat different take on how they imagine … Read more

reporter's notebook PARK CITY, Utah--Maybe I'm just easily impressed or I need to get out of the newsroom more often, but I was pretty excited about getting some face-to-face time with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe Friday at the Sundance Film Festival here. After all, he's a relative celebrity in the technology realm, and I had tons of questions to ask him in the 20 minutes I was allotted.

Then, however, Christie Brinkley--following the launch of her third "Got Milk" ad campaign--walked by outside the MySpace Cafe where DeWolfe and I had been sitting. Brinkley, surrounded … Read more

PARK CITY, Utah--The Sundance Film Festival broke the mold--so to speak--when it kicked off Thursday night with a feature-length clay animation film, Mary and Max, which innovated on many levels.

Robert Redford's annual opening night speech, which preceded the screening, was the perfect prelude to the Australian-made film. After assuring the packed auditorium that "even when times are bad (economically and politically)...it can be good for artists," Redford assured the audience that Sundance would continue to be a showcase for work that's diverse, unique, and often full of "surprise."

And when it … Read more

Nevermind the Hollywood glitterati. Many of the films debuting at this year's Sundance Film Festival feature a more understated star known as Mother Earth, and she plays roles ranging from dramatic to mysterious to horrific.

With one film all about dirt, another about global overfishing, and another still about a family's attempt to live with no net impact on the earth, the environment is getting top billing this year at Robert Redford's indie film festival, which kicks off Thursday night in Park City, Utah, and runs through January 25.

Five out of the 32 documentaries competing at … Read more

The theme for this year's Sundance Film Festival kicking off this week is "Storytime," apropos considering stories are the heart of each and every film.

However, many of the stories at Robert Redford's 10-day indie film festival--which kicks of Thursday in Park City, Utah, and runs through January 25--are told outside the screening rooms. They're told at panels and forums, through art installations, and via online offerings--with technology often key to the plotline.

The bulk of the festival offerings for the digerati take place under New Frontier (PDF), which is a programming category featuring films … Read more

Just a quick heads-up--

Because of the current tough economic times, the non-profit Alameda County Computer Resource Center (ACCRC) is auctioning off its collection of vintage computers, video-game systems, calculators, and other collectible electronics to fund its other operations, which include job-training programs and refurbishing more modern PCs, which it donates to schools, other non-profits, and disadvantaged individuals.

The ACCRC auction is being managed by the Vintage Computer Festival organization in multiple rounds. The second set of systems being auctioned is online now, with a deadline of noon (PST) on Jan. 5; more will follow. VCF proprietor Sellam Ismail says … Read more

The Sundance Institute's decision to open its upcoming film festival with a clay animation flick shines a light on one of the oldest forms of filmmaking--molded with a modern day twist.

Robert Redford's film institute last week announced that the opening night film at its annual festival in January will be Mary and Max, a feature-length movie directed by Australian animator Adam Elliot and produced by Melanie Coombs of Melodrama Pictures. Elliot and Coombs' 2004 Sundance film, Harvie Krumpet, went on to win the Academy Award for best-animated short film.

Mary and Max, narrated by Barry Humphries, is … Read more

At the recent Dumbo Art Under The Bridge Festival in Brooklyn, N.Y., I heard two rather amazing sound installations.

OrganicInterfaces is a collective of artists, scientists, engineers, and musicians and their installation, Mocean was a truly enveloping sound experience. Their Web Site describes it this way, Mocean is a site-specific sculptural sound environment. It consists of a large water tank and a forest of antique organ pipes...digital technology translates the (water's) ripple patterns into sounds played by the repurposed organ pipes, establishing a relationship between water and sound. For the DUMBO Art Festival, we used a 12-foot diameter swimming pool and some new technologies, expanding the range of possible interactions and sculptural interventions..."

At the DUMBO show, Mocean was located in a small warehouse garage, open to the street. Flat stones were placed in the pool to serve as a path for people to walk over. The organ pipes hanging from the ceiling were tuned to different pitches and their sounds were complex and surprisingly musical. I listened for quite a while and found the sound absolutely mesmerizing.

Actually, the best part was watching how different people reacted to the sound as they walked over the stones. Some realized their movements changed the sound, and they "played" the organ pipes by swaying their arms and moving about. Little children were the best; they were totally uninhibited about making weird sounds.

Then there was Ted Southern's sidewalk sound show. … Read more

It's not easy being a bank employee these days. You don't know what your bank will be tomorrow. Perhaps it will be a different kind of bank. Or even a former bank.

So perhaps it is unsurprising that Geoff Harmer, an IT chap at Barclays Bank in Basingstoke, England (a little like the nice parts of New Jersey), decided to invest $90 and his artistic talent into making a Star Wars movie.

The opus is entitled Overtime and the action takes place around the bank cubicles, in an elevator (where the protagonists encounter a tall bald man who … Read more