Let the Right One In is a film set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982. Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire. (IMBD)
It is more than a vampire movie, more than a coming of age tale and more than a love story. It is haunting, beautiful and emotional. Kåre Hedebrant is mesmorizing as a tortured boy who escapes from the world the only way he knows how. Lina Leandersson gives a heartbreaking performance as a lonely “adolescent” vampire. She reminds me of Judith Vittet, the young actress who played Miet in City of the Lost Children. Both of the young actors make their feature film debuts in this film.
Let the Right One In satisfied my vampire film fetish while authentically evoking the harsh realities of young love, growing up in a working class neighborhood and the universal pains of adolescence. This is something that Twilight will attempt to do tomorrow but judging by all of the script and dailies info online, I doubt it will come close to Let the Right One In.
This film is smart, nuanced, funny and heartbreaking. The locations and cinematography practically transport you back to those days when acceptance on the playground was more important than anything in your universe.
You can watch the entire movie in high quality here but be sure to see it in a theater as well. Who else in your neighborhood was smart enough to check this out? Maybe someone cute will be in the audience and you can talk about the film over coffee…It happens!
Hopefully there’s a ton of great extras on the DVD release!
Crowd sourcing online as a method for funding your film may seem unlikely but it actually happens.
Sites like aswarmofangels, artistsshare and indiegogo offer filmmakers the opportunity to pitch to potential angel investors who (after contributing) have a collective say in your film (with mixed results).
But this is new…
Collectively generating content online for a corporately funded film - with confirmed theatrical release - is a groundbreaking development that, coupled with lowering costs in prosumer technology and increasing bandwith, may change the way films are created in the future.
Supported by Intel, Mass Animation has created a crowd sourcing initiative on Facebook asking animators to contribute to a new computer-generated animated short slated for theatrical release. This collectively created film will be produced and directed by former Sony Pictures Digital President Yair Landau.
Hyperlocal election coverage and citizen journalism was at an all time high in the days leading up to and after this year’s historic presidential election. For many, this was an opportunity to document a part of history from their own perspective and to share it with the world through twitter feeds, blogs, and cellphone videos that were posted on the internet within minutes of the results.
Other citizen journalists had been preparing for the historic day and were anticipating the opportunity to put plans of content aggregation in action.
NYC Bridge Project co-founders Bashira Webb and Danny Peralta took their students to Harlem on November 4th to photograph local residents who were voting - many for the first time - and to record their stories for a multimedia project entitled “Election ‘08: Voices of Harlem” that will soon be available to view on Current TV.
Webb and Peralta’s work culminates a year of collaborative effort between themselves, their students, and the International Center of Photography (ICP) who awarded the grant in early 2007. These Bronx residents were committed to teaching photography skills and providing mentorship opportunities to local youth who are desire to document their world, through their eyes. Continue reading →
GARDENS OF THE NIGHT is about an eight-year-old girl named Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) who is abducted through trickery by an older man, Alex (Tom Arnold), and his young accomplice Frank (Kevin Zeegers). Leslie is held captive in their house but she is not alone, there is another captive with her, an eight-year-old black boy named Donnie (Scooter?), who believes his mentally unstable mother, sold him to Alex. This is their story, about the bond they create with each other as they suffer abuse at the hands of adults, how they manage to escape into a fantasy world they create in their room, and how Leslie’s perception of love is so severely mutated through her relationship with Alex. Nine years later Leslie and Donnie (Gillian Jacobs and Evan Ross) when they are seventeen years old and living on the street and struggling with how to cope with what they have suffered through, how it affects them differently and if they can not only survive this experience but be set free from it’s terrible shackles.
*You can access the director Damian Harris’ blog and ask him questions about the film.*
Damian’s last film was Mercy in 2000. His father is Richard Harris, a distinguished actor who is most recently known for playing Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise.
There’s a recent interview with Damian about the making of Gardens Of The Night on comingsoon.net.
Epic-Fu, one of my favorite web shows/original content-driven communities, recently announced that their web licensing partner Revision 3 would no longer be able keep them on as part of their network of shows. As a result, Smashface productions had to let go three of their Epic-Fu employees.
My instincts tell me they did this as an alternative to taking on sponsors who didn’t fit their message and would diminish their brand authenticity. They can afford to make this kind of choice because they are a small outfit and will be able to continue creating their content, even with less staff. Their current model works for them. This is one of the benefits of running your own company and controlling your message, but what happens when your growing company can’t find advertisers who support your content - and how do you allow this to inform what you are creating?
- YouTube star Fred creates episodes to promote the ZIPIT device
(More about the impact of sponsors on original content creators, after the jump!) Continue reading →
It is almost midnight and Times Square is on fire. From my view on the 29th floor I can see them below like ants - there is a huge crowd (bigger than in the photo I took a few minutes ago) cheering and all the taxis are honking like crazy! I can hear the roar of the crowd, even this high up. It’s amazing.
The sounds of the crowd and the horns are growing louder and louder with each passing moment, a cacophony of joy and excitement. It’s like New Years.
When the results came in, I was in the bathroom and heard the news through the door. I was so shocked and happy I dropped my cellphone in the toilet. Since I can’t call anyone right now, I am temporarily only able to share my experience through The Lair.
Sporting a do and fashion sense similar to former Skunk Anansie front woman Deborah Anne Dyer (Skin), 18 year old Valencia Burse aka Nikki Jane released her debut music video for “I Love You” last month, a single that is already building an impressive online following. Like Dyer, Nikki Jane proudly rocks non traditional beauty (shaved head, tattoos and andro-chic fashion sense) but unlike Dyer she creates music that is designed for the Top 40 - with a twist. Continue reading →
Meghan McCain was recently quoted by MTV News (my job) as saying that “the only way to be punk rock anymore is to be conservative”. Not only did she say this with a straight face, she said it while allowing herself to be interviewed at what has to be one of the most un punk establishments on earth - the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas.
I find Meghan’s statement to be grossly inaccurate and bollocks.
All jokes aside, before I challenge the concept of being a Punk Rock Republican, let’s start with one example of general un punk behavior - from Meghan herself:
HER BLOG DOESN’T ALLOW COMMENTS.
She can write whatever she wants and make associations to any identity she chooses - but she doesn’t have the guts to address public opinion, or at least allow people to leave their two cents? Obama’s blog even lets you comment. Why won’t she let people speak their mind on her blog?
Does condoning censorship sound like punk rock behavior to you?
I don’t remember where I first noticed this but wanted to share my delight in discovering that people will be campaigning for Obama no matter what - even through a pagan holiday.
(More Obama pumpkin photos + how you can make one, after the jump!) Continue reading →
I’ve been re-reading Borderlands: La Frontera this week and have been preoccupied with the passages describing the Shadow Beast. This morning I wondered why that was and then I realized that Halloween is coming up, a time when I tend to focus on the macabre.
Since I’ll probably seem more creepy if I do this another week, I figure a quick blurb on the art of Justin Aerni tonight is as appropriate as it’s going to get before Christmas.
Justin Aerni is a young artist living and working in Spokane, Washington. According to his bio, most of his art has been symbolic in dealing with what he (and other humans) fear most, Death. His work reflects the fragile human condition we are all held in. Most of it could be described as “Abstract Depressionism.” Yay!
Not to worry folks, he also creates non doll-that-will-haunt-your dreams work. Check out this cheery Obama piece on Justin’s flick. He was also featured in this week’s episode of Epic-Fu.
In honor of Justin’s assemblage of petrifying playthings, here’s some history about scary dolls in cinema + a list of scary doll movies:
