The cut-throat world of East Coast / West Coast Street Fighter IV warfare is exposed in this gripping documentary by first-time filmmaker Ian Cofino. The testosterone-fuelled hooligeekism (you heard it HERE first!) of head-to-head fighter gaming is as competitive and ruthless as any team sport you care to mention.
Eternal youth! War-mongering wizards! Sexual potency at the click of a mouse! We’re talking about virtual worlds. You know, Second Life, World of Warcraft, Sally’s Spa? Over 70 million people now spend time in a virtual world each and every day. 70 million! would rather hang out with avatars in a darkened room, than with … Continued
Long-time music video darling of the Extra Cool club (Björk, White Stripes, Daft Punk, Radiohead to name but a few), pioneer of the Bullet Time technique and director of some very good movies, Michel Gondry recently premiered a new documentary L’Epine dans le Coeur (The Thorn in the Heart to you mono-linguists). Following up from … Continued
This no–frills production presents DJ Derek, a character so loveable that you just can’t stop watching. A white gentleman, now in his 60s, he found his calling as a bringer of good vibes in the form of rocksteady, ska and roots music. The trans-cultural ex-accountant grew who up in poverty-stricken post-war Bristol (UK), found solace … Continued
Exceptional photography and compelling mini-narratives make this web documentary about the everyday hardships of life in rural Iowa, a very special treat of the brain-candy kind. As agriculture collapses, and drink and drugs battle Christian fundamentalism for the souls of bored youngsters, photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier weaves together a variety of poignant tales in monochrome … Continued
This bytesized web documentary tells the tale of a group of hardware-hacker-hippies running their drop-in tech commune out of fair Montreal. In the spirit of grass-roots empowerment which seems to be sweeping across the globe they pooled their collective resources to open Foulab, where bearded wonders like XC3N (that’s robo-speak for Francis), can make bleepy … Continued
Since 1979, renegade photographer Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to capturing the mutating subcultures of New York’s Lower East Side. Recently released documentary Captured, weaves together his unique footage – from the gangster kids who brought us graffiti, to CBGBs, the legendary home of punk, to the Starbucks and Ed Hardy homogeny that now … Continued
Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator is a documentary shot entirely in Second Life. After a viral start on the net, the American network HBO acquired the TV rights for the US for this SubmarineChannel production. It is amazing to see how a story about a California guy named Molotov Alva, who leaves … Continued
One of the surprises at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2006 was a documentary that explored the many different styles of global graffiti-based visual art called “NEXT, a Primer on Urban Painting”. The director, Pablo Aravena, spent several years travelling to all the hotspots of the world where this subculture is thriving, filming the artists on … Continued
Daniel Rabinowitz was one of the first filmmakers to come up with an authentic, personal vision of documentary storytelling for the web. His project is Neighborhoodfilms.com and it works like this: filmmakers from all over the world are invited to give the internet viewer an intimate look at their neighborhoods and the stories of the … Continued
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