BUSINESS BUZZ – SnagFilms offers free streaming and viral sharing of documentary films. Recently launched in beta form, the service circumvents traditional film distribution avenues by providing indie filmmakers a web-based, democratic forum for sharing their stuff. You can watch, embed, and share any and all of the films for a nominal fee of zero dollars.

The Best Links:

1. SnagFilms Homepage
2. SnagFilms Press Release
3. SnagFilms BusinessWire

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – New film exposes a fake Iraq in the Mojave Desert where real solders practice killing fake terrorists. That means the movie is a real documentary on a fictional reality — kinda like The Hills but with more killing.

Watch the Video »

MOVIE BUZZ – A peek inside the varied world of people who love making balloons into something more. Sort of like a Wordplay for the ballon-twister set, the documentary takes you to “Twist and Shout,” a balloon twisting convention, and the lives of eight twisters. It’ll be playing at select theaters across the country this summer.

The Best Links:

1. A New Twist on Balloon Sculpture
2. Twisted - A Balloonamentary
3. Official TWISTED: A Balloonamentary Trailer
4. The Balloonamentary Blog

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – The documentary (produced by Graydon Carter, Editor In Chief of Vanity Fair) chronicles the life of Doc Paskowitz, a Jewish surfer who raised nine children with his second wife in a tiny RV (only after having graduated from Stanford, practiced medicine, and raising two daughters with his first wife). For the record, the Paskowitz kids were raised intentionally poor, prohibited from attending school, and forced to bear witness to their parents’ healthy sexual activities night after night. And yet some might argue that he leaves the film unscathed. In other words, this is no Point Break.

The Best Links:

1. Watch The Trailer
2. Doc Paskowitz: An O.G. Self-Help Guru
3. An Interview With Director Doug Pray and The Paskowitz Family
4. Surfwise: The Official Site
5. PopMatters Approves Of “Surfwise”
6. “If You’ve Ever Dreamed of Taking Your Family, Your Life, Way Off the Grid, Here’s the Ultimate Example. “
7. “Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz Was a Completely Self-centered Man Who Confused Hedonism With Enlightenment and Whose Pathalogical Need to Be “different” Rendered Him Incapable of Being Free. Now, Enjoy Your Surf Movie! Hippies in a Bus = Good Times!”
8. Visit “The Doc’s” Website (And Buy His Book If You So Please)
9. “Watching This Movie Will Make You Want to Sell All Your Worldly Possessions and Buy an RV, Convert It to Run On Waste Vegetable Oil and Travel the Country, Living from Whim to Whim.”

View the Buzz »

SCIENCE BUZZ – This online video - also available for download (beware: it’s 50mb!) - tackles the consequences of American hyper-consumption in a refreshingly irreverent manner. Seriously, shut down your computer, unplug your iPod, turn off your PDA, cap your water bottle, take off your sunglasses, and learn how to make a difference. Don’t worry - it’s only 20 minutes long, so you can get back to texting shortly.

The Best Links:

1. Watch “The Story of Stuff”
2. Al Gore 2.0?
3. “A Fairly Horrific Look at How We’re Winding Down Our Time On Planet Earth”
4. “The Story of Stuff” Blog
5. “It’s Persuasive But Not a Sermon. It’s Sophisticated But Not Esoteric. Its Tone is Light But Its Content is Serious.”
6. Find 20 Minutes to Possibly Change Your Life

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – Two documentaries about Harry Potter-inspired pop music, websites, and other fan creations have surfaced in the past month. If you’re in the Boston area, you can even catch Harry and the Potters performing the screening for We Are Wizards. If there ever were a BuzzFeed cute band alert, Harry and the Potters would undoubtedly be one of them.

The Best Links:

1. Watch the Trailer for “We Are Wizards”
2. One of the Funnest Documentaries I’ve Ever Seen
3. OMG I’m In This Movie!!
4. Movie Reminds Us That Pop Culture Can Be Inspirational
5. I am so obsessed with Harry and the Potters
6. “I guess by liking the film, I’m technically fan of the fans of the fans.”
7. The Official Website for “The Wizard Rockumentary”
8. Reviewer Gives “We Are Wizards” a 7.5/10
9. Story About Makers of “The Wizard Rockumentary” from Their Hometown Newspaper

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – A fascinating documentary by Ari Libsker about Nazi porn opens this week. Nazi pr0n! Even if you don’t get to see the movie, the backstory is pretty riveting.

The Best Links:

1. A Brief History of the Unexpected Way Stalag Books Came About
2. Crams a Lot of Fascinating Stuff Into 63 Minutes
3. “The Pornographic Juxtaposition of Horniness and Horror”
4. Lengthy Movie Review Calls It “Engrossing”
5. Ari Libsker Explores a Phenomenon that Many Never Knew Existed
6. A Compilation of Various Movie Reviews
7. Stalags Playing at Film Forum
8. Remember This Scandal? F1A Boss Max Mosley Caught With Five Hookers In Nazi Orgy Video Scandal
9. Stalag on Wikipedia
10. Porn: Holocaust Porn! (And Other Taboos)

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – A documentary about the circumstances that led the director of Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown to flee the U.S. in 1978, after pleading guilty to illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl, has been released very quietly. In an odd reverse marketing scheme, the film - which has already been purchased by HBO Entertainment but is obligated to hold screenings in New York and L.A. to qualify for Oscar nominations - is holding very quiet showings at inconvenient times and locations and minimal publicity to ensure the film still has an eager audience when it airs on HBO in June.

The Best Links:

1. “The Judge, the Director and the Vagaries of Justice” The NYT Review
2. Roman Polanski Banging A 13-Year-Old Or Hollywood Blindly Embracing Him Despite It All?
3. Polanski Doc Opens In NY With No Publicity
4. Roman Polanski Doc and its Stupid Theatrical Release
5. “HBO’s Polanski Doc Has an Error”
6. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)
7. “Pondering Polanski in New Doc (Not Coming to a Theater Near You)”
8. Outlandish Oscar Rules Force Film Arguing For Polanski’s Exoneration To Wait for Cable TV [Buried Alive]
9. Polanski plays Washington Heights
10. More on the Polanski Thing
11. Manohla Calls HBOs Bluff and Reviews POLANSKI

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – The classic documentary about Judas Priest fans in parking lots outside concerts. It’s been available on DVD for a few years, but has had VHS-trading cult status since it originally debuted in 1986 and is now enjoying sudden buzz online.

The Best Links:

1. “It blowed mah mahnd” - Xeni Jardin
2. Official Trailer for the DVD
3. Hopefully, the Quality on This is Better Than Your Average Redubbed VHS
4. Get Heavy Metal Parking Lot on DVD
5. The Sordid History of Heavy Metal Parking Lot in Popular Culture

View the Buzz »

MOVIE BUZZ – A life-affirming documentary about a rock n’ roll camp for young girls opens this weekend, March 7th. We wonder if we would have turned out any differently if we had grown up with Kathleen Hanna as our role model instead of Madonna. In an alternate universe documented by this movie, 10-year-old girls are already way hipper and cooler than you are.

The Best Links:

1. 17-Year-Old Dude Reviews Movie, Calls It an “Eye-Opener”
2. I Can’t Wait to See this Movie! If not just for the Beth Ditto and Carrie Brownstein Appearances
3. Girls Rock! The Movie - The Official Website
4. YouTube - Girls Rock Trailer
5. Interview: “Girls Rock!” Filmmakers Arne Johnson and Shane King
6. QA with GIRLS ROCK! director Arne Johnson
7. Wow - a World Where Kathleen Hanna Is Your Typical Role Model?

View the Buzz »