The One Day on Earth Project [art]

The One Day on Earth Project is one of the most comprehensive and coolest global crowdsourcing projects ever, and I am excited to participate. True to my form, I recorded a video log to commemorate the day.



More YouTube videos here.


via PBS.com:

Friday is 11/11/11, and the minds behind the documentary and online video archive known as "One Day on Earth" are hoping thousands of people around the world will film a moment in their lives this day.

Other filmmakers have used crowd-sourced footage to recreate life in a day, but what sets "One Day on Earth" apart is the online community that has grown around it since its experimental launch around the date 10/10/10, said founder and director Kyle Ruddick, who conceptualized and started the project in 2008 by reaching out to people from his home laptop.

The project's participants have since grown to 20,000, and they not only can submit their own video but can draw on the website's archive to create their own masterpieces.

One Day on Earth on the Web:

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Bullitt & The Greatest Car Chase Scenes of All Time [film]

Bullitt (Yates, 1968) is often said to feature the greatest car chase scene in cinematic history.

Here are the top ten car chase scenes according to CNN.

Marijuana Inc.: Inside America's Pot Industry [film]

I came across this documentary on the medical marijuana industry in my reader today, and it is worth checking out.

Head over to Top Documentary Films for more free documentaries online. They have thousands of documentaries on countless subjects including drugs, sexuality, history, society, nature, technology, health, etc.

The Perfect Storm & Linda Greenlaw [books, film]

This afternoon I finished reading The Perfect Storm.

Saw the film years ago, and it's not one of the those films where after you've read the book you necessarily feel disappointed – they are two completely separate entities.

The film focuses on the drama of the rescue; the book is more dry and gets into weather patterns, ocean currents, maritime history, and various oceanic and meteorological nightmares as well as the story of the doomed Andrea Gail.

Definitely worth the read, even if a bit dry, especially for the discovery of an awesome, powerful woman – ship captain and author Linda Greenlaw. Linda is one of the few female ship captains on the East Coast, but undeniably one of the best.

She survived the infamous Halloween Gale that the Andrea Gail unfortunately did not. Linda lives in Portland, Maine, still fishes, and has written several books – including the wildly popular Lobster Chronicles and several cookbooks.

Is Eliza Dushku in a Toilet Paper Commercial?

Is Eliza Dushku (yes, the one in Wrong Turn and Tru Calling) in a Quilted Northern commercial?

Perhaps horror and TV aren't her true calling after all.

Teeth & Vagina Dentata [film, phenomenons, cake]

I watched Teeth (2008) last night with my girlfriend. Yes, that whole movie about a girl with teeth in her vagina doing (horrid!) damage to the males she encounters. Basically, a man's worst nightmare.

While we were watching it, we were actually surprised. The film was done a lot better than either of us thought it would be and we actually enjoyed it (even me, the penis-possessor of the pair!); the film wasn't just a vagina-chewing-penis horror flick that most seem to expect in line with the Scream-born modern era horrorgore without a story line, and wasn't pornographic or overly gory as I thought it might be.

I admit I don't have much faith in modern horror.

M. commented on the cinematography and the well-thought out shots (as opposed to most modern horror films, people!) and I enjoyed the purposeful pacing and the fact that they actually explored the real cultural phenomenon of vagina dentata without being exploitative in any way.

Note: this film could be triggering to some, watch with caution.



"Vagina dentata" is a male cross-cultural myth seen in numerous cultures around the world (Native American, Greek, African, Egyptian, etc.) in which the man is afraid of inserting his penis into a woman's vagina for fear of his penis being injured by the supposed toothed vagina.

From The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara Walker:

"Toothed vagina," the classic symbol of men's fear of sex, expressing the unconscious belief that a woman may eat or castrate her partner during intercourse. Frued said, "Probably no male human being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration at the sight of female genitals." But he had the reason wrong. The real reason for this "terrifying shock" is a mouth-symbolism, now recognized universally in myth and fantasy: "It is well-known in psychiatry that both males and females fantasize as a mouth the female's entranceway to the vagina."

When I did a Google image search for "vagina dentata," the only blog-appropriate images were cakes. Yes, cakes inspired by the film.

If you'd like to see a more "adult" photo, click here.

Vagina Dentata cake via Cakes and Comics and Cartwheels.

Another vagina dentata cake via Miss Cakehead's Flickr stream:

Cakes are not the only culinary items adorning the vagina these days; click here for an earlier post with a recipe for Vagina Muff-ins.

Even if you are not a baker, at least click to see what a muff-in looks like!

Lifetime Movies: The Craiglist Killer & Amanda Knox [crime, movies]

I am just finishing up "The Craigslist Killer," the Lifetime movie portraying the story of Philip Markoff, the med student convicted of robbing and killing a young woman he met off of Craigslist in Boston.

In a completely self-centered act Markoff committed suicide in jail before standing trial, leaving the family of his victim in the dark about the last minutes' of their loved one's life. As if the suicide wasn't enough, Markoff went so far as to write his ex-fiance's name in his own blood on the wall of his cell where he killed himself, leaving behind a gruesome shrine with numerous pictures of his ex.
Next up is the controversial world premiere of Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, chronicling the story of American former University of Washington student Amanda Knox accused of sexually assaulting and killing her roommate while studying abroad in Italy. The film is supposedly going to air without a controversial graphic scene depicting the murder.

Amanda's family wanted Hayden Panettierre (who portrays Amanda in the film), to meet Amanda before filming but their multiple requests were never acknowledged by Lifetime. It has been reported that Amanda herself "was shocked and hyperventilating when she saw a TV newscast in her Italian prison cell this weekend about Hayden Panettierre playing her in the Lifetime movie."

I also eventually read the book written about this story, "Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox."

Lifetime Movie Network: My Neighbor's Secret [movies]

One of my indulgences is the Lifetime Movie Network. I am taking advantage of the rainy day to watch "My Neighbor's Secret," starring Nicholas Brendon, whose career was pretty much over after his run on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, save a few episodes of Criminal Minds and Private Practice as well as some minor film roles here and there.

He still has that slight lisp, too.
Up next is the much-anticipated "And Baby Will Fall," based on the novel by Hallie Ephron, and starring Clea Duvall. Yes, Clea Duvall.

No, I don't know why she is doing Lifetime movies either.

Green Documentaries [documentary]

No Impact Man

Read Colin Beavan's No Impact Man blog here.

Garbage Warrior

Earth 2100: The Final Century of Civilization?

Oil, Smoke, & Mirrors - official site

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Space Docs [documentaries]

Since I am particularly fond of documentary film, I am going to try to make a weekly post in which I feature free documentary films available online; usually they will all have a theme or some common subject about them, but I am known to be random.

This week's post features space/astronomy-themed docs. Enjoy!



From Top Documentary Films.com:

Space Race is a BBC docudrama series first shown in Britain on BBC2 in 2005, chronicling the major events and characters in the American – Soviet space race up to the first landing of a man on the moon.
It focuses on Sergei Korolev, the Soviet chief rocket designer, and Wernher von Braun, his American counterpart.
The series was a joint effort between British, German, American and Russian production teams.



Living on Mars

On the surface, the red planet’s freeze-dried world of rocks, ice, and dust looks like an unlikely place to plant a garden.
But rocks and minerals found by the Mars rovers show it must once have had warmer, habitable living conditions.
Now, using photo-realistic CGI visualizations, we’ll make a science fiction dream of Mars – a world of trees, rivers, and blue skies – a plausible future, bringing it to life after three-and-a-half billion years in a deep freeze.



Secrets of the Star Disc

When grave robbers ransacked a Bronze Age burial in Germany, they had no idea that they had unearthed the find of a lifetime.
The disc they found combines an advanced understanding of the stars with some of the most sophisticated religious imagery of the age.In intellectual achievement and also age, it surpasses anything yet found in Egypt or Greece. It seems that civilization had already dawned in North Central Europe.

Justin Bieber is Taking Over the World [justin bieber]

It's official: Justin Bieber is getting his own movie.




Justin also recently has surpassed Lady GaGa's Bad Romance as the most-viewed YouTube video of all time, and Twitter now dedicates 3% of their servers to his Twitter traffic.

He also has a book out.

The SF Symphony Does Hitchcock [psycho!].

The San Francisco Symphony is performing a live orchestral accompaniment to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) on July 17th.

via the SF Symphony & SF Weekly:

Treat yourself to a night at the movies-with a live symphony orchestra! Bernard Herrmann revolutionized the art of film music with his hair-raising soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. On July 17 the San Francisco Symphony performs the score live alongside Hitchcock’s iconic film that changed the silver screen and shocked audiences 50 years ago. Don't miss this opportunity to experience a cinematic classic as you've never seen (or heard) it before!

Arrive one hour prior to the concert for music and dancing with the Martini Brothers, plus desserts and specialty drinks.

Concert includes intermission.

Recommended for ages 18 and older. Groups of ten or more save 20%. Side and Center Terrace seats are not available for this performance.

There Will Be Scream 4 [movies].

You thought the 1990's Scream-brand slasher films were over a decade ago, but Scream 4 has been cast! Before you start to get depressed, worry not because Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette will be back to star in the film; Adam Brody, Marley Shelton, and Erik Knudsen have also been cast.

Thanks Tobacco, You Killed My Mom. [educational documentary]

YouTube user sonicbondage writes:

April 13, 2007 — This video was created over a one-year period. At first, it was just random use of a video camera, plus a few pictures taken during a visit in September of 2006. Of course, this was before we knew that Mom had a collapsed lung. She went in for tests, and it was discovered that she had Stage IV Lung Cancer. As we learned of the cancer diagnosis in October of 2006, we tried to get Mom down to California (from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada). It was a race against logistics and paperwork (i.e. obtaining documentation in order to cross a border and travel), which we unfortunately lost.

Mom suffered a stroke, ironically on the same day as she received her birth certificate, which would have allowed her to travel to Southern California. The stroke left her left side completely paralyzed, and she was stuck in the hospital, no longer the independent woman she once was. We were summoned to fly up immediately, as we were told by her doctors that her death would not be far behind. Mom proved them all wrong, and lived for four more months. Of course, the quality of life was minimal at best. There was no treatment, since the cancer was discovered so late, and due to the stroke. We have since learned that often times, a biopsy can knock loose cancerous material within a tumor, which can cause a stroke.



It was extremely difficult to watch her suffering in a hospital bed, and wondering why her last months had to be made that much worse due to the stroke. So, Mom never did get to come see where we live in California. We continued to videotape the entire ordeal, so that family (who couldn't be with us at that time) could see everything. We ended up with approximately 90 minutes of raw footage, which has been edited down to the 10 minutes allowed here. First, we have done this to honor Mom's last wishes: tell people not to smoke. Second, we have completed this very emotional project to honor her memory, and to help us as we continue through the grieving process. Finally, we are aware that much of the anti-smoking media is not so real to life--it doesn't show the suffering, what the families go through, and the pain that cigarettes actually cause.

This documentary is "non-Hollywood". We have omitted certain things that one might find offensive, including her IV, vomiting, bodily functions, and her actual death itself, which was obviously painful. Instead, we have brought many different segments together, which still conveys our overall message: DON'T SMOKE!

In a letter dated September 24, 2006, from Mom:
"Try not to worry about my health. I go for a CAT-SCAN on October 4th. I should have the results about a week later. The appointments are taking a long time, so I must not be in such dire shape, or they would rush them. I'm glad you never really had the desire to smoke. What do your lungs look like after all of those years of second-hand smoke? I can't wait to see you and Patti more often. Gotta go for now. Love Forever, Mom"

To conclude, one can compare smoking cigarettes to a slow-motion car accident. At any time, you can get out of the car before it crashes. It is your choice. Furthermore, you may be driving your own car, but please remember that you take passengers along for the ride.

'Famous Babies' Film Debuts this Month.

The film 'Famous Babies' premiers this month. The film follows three babies from San Francisco, Tokyo, Namibia and Mongolia.

Kirsten Dunst is Made of Awesome.

I've had a life-long crush on Kirsten Dunst that started at 12; in essence it is she who can be credited with awakening my young sexuality. Anyways, a decade after the release of Jumanji, and she is still quite busy.

She is set to star in Lars von Triers' latest sci-fi thriller "Melancholia", which is set to film in southern Sweden July through September.

She also co-wrote and directed a short film, Bastard, which will premier at the Tribeca Film Fest and was just accepted into the prestigious Cannes film festival in France.

Go, Kirsten!

Kurt Cobain

I'm watching Kurt & Courtney right now. It definitely seems a little forced- the filmmaker, Nick Bloomfield, seems to have an agenda. Definitely interesting to watch, and get a glimpse of all the people "involved" in Kurt's life and the effect his celebrity and death have had on their "memories" of him.

The best documentary I've seen on Kurt Cobain is About a Son, which is in Kurt's own words. So beautiful.

blowjob [my namesake]

I haven't featured any Andy Warhol on my blog and I don't know why. Here is the last nine minutes of his 1964 film "Blowjob."

Oh, DeVeren Bookwalter is heavenly, don't you agree?

10 films you didn't know were directed by women

i have to admit, i was surprised by most, if not all of these films that had been directed by women. i would have never pinned american psycho, pet sematary, or billy madison to have been directed by a woman. especially billy madison.

read the full article here on film school rejects