Category: media

Susan Sontag recently claimed that cinephilia is dead. With a mass culture awash in moving images, what happened to the ideal of cinema as Art? Jean Douchet’s sumptuous book about the French New Wave recalls the days of art.  National Post

No going out in the rain, no late charges…movies on your computer are the Next Big Thing at what’s being billed as the ”world’s first virtual video store.” You can keep it, says Patti Hartigan, struggling to decide which of the 67 movies available she wants to see.  Boston Globe

Thousands of old movies are deteriorating in their cans, and only a few people are making efforts to save our moving picture legacy.  NPR [Real Audio clip]

Seattle arts organizations confront local stations to demand answers.  Seattle Times

Nickelodeon is opening a new $10 million digital animation studio and development laboratory in Manhattan. The studio will produce new animated series.  Backstage

A new report challenges idea that network television is doing a poor job of representing blacks in primetime and suggests that things have gotten better, not worse, over the past 20 years. CBS and ABC, the report says, actually feature more black actors in leading roles on their primetime series than the 11.8% of the US population that is African-American. Variety

Not so scuzzy as trying to make them, though. Here’s an inside account of the inner turmoils of a TV talk show. Salon

The networks have conceded there aren’t enough minority roles in their programming – they’re writing some in. New York Times
     PREVIOUSLY: Threat of a network boycott by a coalition of Latino groups has broadcasters scrambling to compile lists of their Hispanic talent. Okay, they’re using short pieces of paper, but “we’re trying” they say.
Dallas Morning News 9/12/99

Trashes Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful.” Elton’s new movie (he produced) was a hit at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.
Toronto Globe and Mail

– “Cosby” came along. This time feels different, one critic says. The sitcom is ailing. Atlanta Journal-Constitution