Most theatrical releases around the holidays follow the patented Hollywood formula of kid-friendly, family-oriented themes and pat?Ǭ†everything-works-out-in-the-end?Ǭ†finales (think dancing penguins, people) Director Eric Steel’s documentary The Bridge is definitely a film that goes against this holiday film?Ǭ†status quo.?Ǭ†?Ǭ†The Bridge opened to select theaters at the end of October to both acclaim and controversy.?Ǭ† Every day?Ǭ†of 2004,?Ǭ†Steel trained two cameras on?Ǭ†the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to capture jumpers (the bridge being?Ǭ†a popular suicide spot)?Ǭ†on film as they attempted to end their lives.?Ǭ† Interviews with?Ǭ†friends and?Ǭ†family members reveal the troubled lives of the deceased and the devestation and far-reaching emotional havoc that a suicide can cause. Not the cheeriest of films to catch with your loved ones, but it will definitely make you appreciate them. Watch the trailer on-line here or visit the official movie website.

The Sundance Institute has announced the line-up of the 64 films selected for the Independent Film and World Cinema Competitions for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The Documentary Competition of the renowned film festival presents 16 films, many of which are world premieres. The Festival opens on January 18 in Park City with the world premiere of the documentary CHICAGO 10, written and directed by Brett Morgen. CHICAGO 10 is an innovative documentary that combines historical storytelling, archival footage, animation and music to tell the story about the 1968 anti-war protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that resulted in the famous Chicago Conspiracy Trial in 1969.

Since the inaugural Independent Film Competition in 1985, documentary films have been given the same profile at the festival as fiction films, with the Documentary Competition becoming a focal point of the festival. This year?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s 16 films were selected from 856 submissions by American filmmakers. Each film is a world premiere. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìIn this year?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s program, filmmakers are exploring different narrative techniques and devices, pushing the documentary form to new limits, and embracing a global perspective in filmmaking,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù said John Cooper, Director of Programming. The festival runs January 18-28, 2007 this year. The complete list of films is available at www.sundance.org. (more…)

It was brought to my attention yesterday that Walmart will soon be offering Movies for download. Now i’m a self confessed On Demand junkie and equally addicted to downloading television episodes off of iTunes, but I’ve yet to make the jump to downloading movies. This may possibly be because as of yet there is no site I can go to with the types of films i’m actually interested in downloading available. But in the mean time, call me old fashioned, but I still think there is something to be said for visiting your local video/record store and I a sucker for some good liner notes or shiny, attractive packaging (ooooh shiny). I also just caught wind of Vongo.com which is PC only currently (booo! Viva La Mac) but could soon be giving the folks at Netflix a run for their membership fees. Meanwhile the HD-DVD format is just getting off the ground leaving some of us a bit perplexed as to which format band-wagon to jump on. Until Vongo or Itunes can give me a pristine download of Jodorowsky’s “Holy Mountain” or Blu-Ray drops down to a price level that’s a bit more reasonable I may just stand my ground but still I can’t help but shudder a bit and for some reason the title of that Dead Kennedy’s record “Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death” keeps popping into my head. Let the technology wars rage on. As for me, I’ll be in my underground bunker clutching my iPod for dear life.