“WHEN HISTORY ATTACKS!” is a series of short mashup films Jeff Burns and I have been working on since the summer of 2008. In them, we take a look at some of the biggest crises facing America today – remixing old industry infomercials, educational films, and U.S. government propaganda – all in the public domain [...]
Of Sleuths and Starships: Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica
My newest column on 3QuarksDaily.com, “Of Sleuths and Starships,” focuses on the remarkable new artistic genre I’m calling VidLit, and two of its most thematically ambitious representatives: “Veronica Mars” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
In the essay, I observe the way in which “Veronica Mars” provides a superb socioeconomic portrait of America; but my main focus is on [...]
Crisis! The Trilogy – Part I: “When Midnight Comes”
A bit of background:
In the summer of 2008, New York filmmaker Jeff Burns and I took a look around. It didn’t look too good. Obviously, Schoolhouse Rock’s charms had faded; old Bill up on Capitol Hill looked even glummer than usual. And what’s worse, backhoes were carving up Washington Square Park.
So we set out to [...]
The Odyssey, a Film by Jeff Burns
“The Odyssey” was a submission to the 2008 Chicago Film Festival by New York filmmaker Jeff Burns. Below are CD-packet liner notes by David Schneider. See related content, “When Midnight Comes,” here.
THE ODYSSEY
A film by Jeff Burns
Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey more than 2,800 years ago. Now, that DWEM must have had somethin’ [...]
A New Consideration of Time (February 25, 2003)
I have come to understand age, and ageing, no more as a function of furrowed brows or crows’ eyes, liver spots or wheezed breath. No; age is marked by the time it takes a work of art — film, in particular — to become irrelevant, or meaningless. For example: we can no longer laugh — [...]
Bend it Like Beckham (March 11, 2003)
“Bend It Like Beckham” last night. Simply wonderful. It’s a bloody rockin’ feel-good comedy that doesn’t, as all American movies do, make you feel guilty for being manipulated into feeling good. Over a curry at Standard India afterwards (where, as per my lamentations above, I desperately need to break beyond their sag paneer and imitation [...]
What the mower looks like, from the perspective of the grass. (February 25, 2003)
As my first preparation for Holland, watched “A Bridge Too Far” last night. It is a terribly great film, utterly depressing, and rather frighteningly apropos. A warning to anyone who thinks that idealistic visions necessarily equal idealistic outcomes, and that swiftness and audacity can triumph without the reinforcement and follow-up. A brutal, brutal film. A [...]
Unreading “Reloaded”
Unreading “Reloaded”
I’ve been told that coffee grounds, packed on top of cocaine, throw off the drug dogs. It’s only the clever sleuth who, combining intellect with instinct, can pick out the real Colombian Supremo from the wan commercial stuff brewed and filtered for general consumption.
The adage is, of course, as true for the critic as [...]
