Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

“It is never too late to give up our prejudices.”
    Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
    U.S. Author

[Read more →]

About four years ago, my friend Vangie was telling me about how her husband did NOT like the term “African American” used to describe him. Born in New Orleans, Tommy’s family was from Jamaica. He said he preferred black since he was certainly not “African” American. Always ahead of the times, I’ll have to point Vangie to today’s NY Times article about African-American vs. “Other” Blacks. It seems that Tommy was ahead of the crowd on this one.

The Telluride Film Festival is next weekend. Gawd, I wish I were going. It’s so cool and beautiful. The films are mesmerizing. Maybe next year. I’ll be watching for reviews of the breakout films and post next week.

The Sundance Submission Deadline for short is also here. The features have a few more weeks. It’s time to gear up and get ready.

Speaking of In My Tribe, one of my favorite musical artists is on tour. According to her publicist, Natalie Merchant is on tour and has released a new CD. They also say “The House Carpenter’s Daughter sounds unlike anything Merchant has released before, the album consists of material that has always inspired and shaped her own music. Like Merchant’s most beloved songs, her version of The Horseflies’ haunting “Sally Ann” is emotionally and musically dynamic, and Merchant’s sparse rendition of the old American spiritual “Weeping Pilgrim” is laced with soft harmonies and slow fingerstyle guitar. The album even includes a light-hearted, fun version of the Carter Family classic “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow.” — You’ll have to check it out for yourself.

[Read more →]

“Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts.”
    Nikki Giovanni (1943 - )
    U.S. Poet

[Read more →]

If you follow this blog at all, you know I was born in Wisconsin and moved to Arizona when I was in my late 20’s. Growing up in the midwest was great. It was a rural existence that harkened back to a simpler, earlier time. When I go back to visit, however, I feel out of touch with contemporary America. As Andreas Horvath discovered during the making of his documentary, the rural “Heartland” remains provincial.

This Ain’t No Heartland won the Grand Prix at this year’s Chicago Documentary Film Festival. He travelled the midwest and recorded conversations about contemporary issues. Some of the comments he records are about terrorism, the Iraq war, and the overall fabric of contemporary life. What emerges most strongly, though, is a staggering degree of ignorance among everyday Americans about the basic meanings of democracy, liberty, and national security. This film is an urgent and alarming wake-up call. The NY Times review offers more details.

The best thing about the 2004 Election (Kerry vs. Bush) is that people are getting involved and becoming more politically aware. There are two AMAZING articles in Vanity Fair this month about politics and the economy. Unfortunately, they don’t put anything online so you’ll have to buy it if you want to read it.

[Read more →]

“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”
    Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919)
    Canadian Physician

[Read more →]

Kohl Glass has the site and trailer up for Der Ostwind, the animated film he and Jake Parker started talking about and working on while they were still students at Mesa Community College. (I had them both in my Photoshop class and Kohl in Premiere.) It’s really neat to see how it has changed over time. You can see the very early Concept Art & Animatics on an old Geocities site. Der Ostwind is being produced at BYU (where they seem to have a pretty dang good film program … ever heard of a little film called Napoleon Dynamite?) That’s also where Kohl made his short film The Promethean. I anticipate seeing this short on the festival circuit soon. One of the BEST things about being a teacher is that it’s exciting to watch students’ careers unfold.

[Read more →]

“The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.”
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
    German Philosopher

“Nietzsche is dead.”
    God (infinity - infinity)
    Supreme Being

[Read more →]

FOR JOHN KERRY: Since he responded to the question about the sexiest actress ever and indicated his yen for Charlize Theron, no doubt he’ll be eager to see her new film, Heads in the Clouds. Might be a big hit, she plays one member of a threesome.

NOT SO EAGER FOR TED: Holy bovine … Ted Griffin Fired as director of his original story inspired by The Graduate (starring Jennifer Aniston). According to the also released Tony Bill, “If there’s a conflict between the director and an actor, the big dog wins in our business. That dog is the star. Every movie is a shotgun wedding between director and actors. It doesn’t always work out.” Et tu, Jennifer?

END OF HIS DAYS: Director Daniel Petrie, creator of one of my favorite films of all time, Resurrection (starring Ellen Burstyn and Sam Shephard) has died. He was 83.

EAGER FOR INDEPENDENTS: Watch for rabidly independent Ross McElwee’s film, Bright Leaves.

[Read more →]

“It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.”
    H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
    U.S. Editor

[Read more →]

“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”
    Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
    Greek Philosopher

[Read more →]

“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
    Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
    U.S. Statesman & Inventor

[Read more →]

Certainly one of the BEST 3D sites on the web is Eterea Online. Cristobal Vila’s futuristic Shark Car design is pictured. The site is a wealth of links and tutorials. It is also visually stunning.

A while back, I mentioned a fabulous short film I saw at Sundance. Dry Mount offered a candid glimpse of the gaping emptiness that can follow some human hook-ups. You can watch that film and others at Nichol Simmons site.

Film Movement is a publication and organization committed to distributing the Best of Cannes and Sundance. Many of the best independent films surface through these two venues.

Speaking of festivals, Media Attorney Mark Litwak has a pretty impressive Film Festival List online.

[Read more →]

John Cameron Mitchell (of Hedwig & The Angry Inch fame) is trying to raise money for a new film with a lot of sex in it. Real sex, not simulated “movie sex.” Mitchell is also trying to render an adult sexual relationship that is NOT pornographic. As you might imagine, he’s encountering a lot of resistance because while everyone knows sex sells, it has to be stylized, glamorized, sanitized, lobotomized and sublimated. (e.g. watch any contemporary music video)

I loathe pornography as much for how it diminishes the film industry as I do for how it demeans sex but think that Mitchell is on to something interesting here. We watch brutal murders on CSI (in plain, Miami and New York flavors). Cameras glide over rigid corpses, slow-motion bullets erotically pierce tender flesh and investigators attend crime scenes with a passion rarely seen in relationships. Where is passion in prime time?

As a screenwriter, one is always admonished to make a “life and death conflict” to make it interesting for the viewer. Why is violence (death) so acceptable in the visual arts and human sexual connection (life) taboo? Why can politicians debate and wage war (death) but collapse politically if they stumble into the same-sex marriage (sex) discussion? Sex may sell but war pays. Ask the fellows at Halliburton.

[Read more →]

“Es tan corto el amor, y tan largo el olvido.
(Love is so short, and forgetting is so long.)”
    Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973)
    Chilean Poet

[Read more →]

There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. Beauty of CSS is a site that allows you to view dozens and dozens of style sheets on the same content. It’s simply amazing.

In keeping with the “Anything But Bush” fever sweeping (or is it seeping) across the country, John Kerry Sucks Less is a site devoted to the political lesser of two evils (his opinion). I love the satire section.

Neal Fredericks, the cinematographer of the low-budget but successful horror film The Blair Witch Project, was killed in a plane crash while filming a movie over the Dry Tortugas, his agent said.

Death in the Grand Canyon On July 8, 2004, Margaret L. Bradley (a 24 year old runner from Chicago and first year medical student) and a companion began a “day run” from the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park at the Grandview Trailhead with the intention of arriving at Phantom Ranch that same evening. She left the trail and her companion continued on without her. She was found two days later in a dry drainage known as Cremation. An avid runner, Bradley had successfully run the Boston Marathon earlier in the year. Somehow, I missed that story this summer and a friend was telling me about it today. The desert is harsh and unforgiving.

[Read more →]