The just-released trailer for Eileen Yaghoobians’ new documentary introduces us to the parallel universe of American indie rock poster design. Chopping up the paradoxes of Western civilization, and gluing, Xeroxing and silk-screening them into eye-popping graphic posters for the likes of Sonic Youth and Arcade Fire, the pioneers of underground poster production (including SubmarineChannel fave … Continued
Did you know that the most memorable scene from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, in which Travolta injects adrenaline into the heart of a woman who overdosed, is based on a true story? It happened to Steven Prince. In ’78, Martin Scorsese made a movie about his friend, Prince, whose life was more fascinating than what any … Continued
Who knew that Nigeria’s film industry is the world’s third largest after (positions disputable) Bollywood and Hollywood? A Sundance highlight this year was documentary Nollywood Babylon, which celebrates the heady blend of Pentecostalism and voodoo unique to a wildly popular, straight-to-video B-movie genre that is taking Nigeria by storm. Set to a score of 70s … Continued
Ever wondered where Mr President finds the time to write all those hair-raising speeches? A new documentary by Kasper Verkaik (director of our Minimovie Dear Oprah fame) for Dutch broadcaster VPRO’s Backlight series, investigates the role of Jon Favreau, the baby-faced wordsmith hand-picked by Obama to translate the contents of his mind into mass-mobilizing prose. … Continued
Hailed as the Inconvenient Truth for the U.S economy, I.O.U.S.A is a doom-ridden documentary about the rather unsettling $10 trillion national debt that is the result of decades of spending borrowed money by the federal government and its people. Dazzling infographics by Brian Oakes succeed in making this usually yawn-worthy topic quite gripping – but … Continued
From the director of seminal geek culture documentary Helvetica (which we showed in 07 at our festival “Short Ride”), Objectified introduces us to the machinations of the oft-ignored backend of industrial design and production. Influential names like Marc Newson and Karim Rashid are set against the humble backdrop of toothbrushes, door-knobs, and other daily trifles, … Continued
Several things about the story of travelling salesman-turned-record archivist Paul Mawhinney are remarkable. Firstly, this charismatic Pittsburgh protagonist is in possession of the world’s largest record collection, with over a million albums and over 1.5 million singles. Secondly, 83% of his inventory is unavailable to the public. Thirdly, and heart-breakingly, absolutely nobody seems to care.
SHOWstudio updates (well, sort of) Submarine Channel’s 2005 documentary and website “Viktor & Rolf: “Because We’re Worth It” with a website where you can watch a series of videos captured during the festival week of the duo’s past Summer show at London’s Barbican Art Gallery. There’s an interview with the two designers and videos of … Continued
House Industries is making a film about 102 years old Ed Rondthaler, founder of Photo-Lettering, former president of the American Literacy Council and author of The Dictionary of Simplified American Spelling. They already put a fragment online on their website. Rondthaler illustrates the ambiguities between spoken and written English. It’s really, really sweet. (Thanks to … Continued
We recently saw an episode from the BBC documentary series The Thirties in Colour. It showed amazing, extremely rare footage from Nazi-Germany in colour. The material was shot by amateurs just before World War II which made it a very eerie experience: scenes of German civilians going about their lives in streets filled with swastikas.
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