Too bad the critical symposium in the new, Winter 2012 issue of Cineaste isn't online. Participants evidently include Gianni Amelio, Olivier Assayas, Costa-Gavras, Robert Greenwald, and Sally Potter, "among others," but until we get our hands on the print edition, we'll have to make do with what is online, which, after all, is plenty: Patrick Z McGavin on Dave Kehr's When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade, Richard James Havis on Kyung Hyun Kim's Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era, Andrew Horton on New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History and Henry K Miller on Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema and The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe. And that's just the book reviews.
Besides the interviews with Mona Achache and Charlotte Rampling and festival reports (Locarno, Toronto and Montreal), the 15 reviews include David Sterritt on Kubrick's The Killing (1956), Joseph Luzzi on Raffaello Matarazzo,...
Besides the interviews with Mona Achache and Charlotte Rampling and festival reports (Locarno, Toronto and Montreal), the 15 reviews include David Sterritt on Kubrick's The Killing (1956), Joseph Luzzi on Raffaello Matarazzo,...
- 12/13/2011
- MUBI
Miranda July is either the most irritating film-maker on the planet, or a visionary with something quirky to say
There are some film-makers who are infuriated by the Teflon sensibility of modern cinema audiences and go all out for something that will stick, or get a reaction: astonishment, outrage, a seat-bang, a walkout, anything. Gaspar Noé described how, in his legendary shocker Irréversible, he deliberately used a droning frequency that causes nausea for background white noise. Artist-turned-film-maker Miranda July, renowned for her fey and quirky style, may be part of this tradition, simply by being 20 times more irritating than any normal person can stand.
There is an extraordinary fingernails-down-the-blackboard-up-to-11 quality here, especially in the massively cutesy opening moments of her new film, The Future. But I admit to seeing a deliberate point to it: partly satirical, partly an exercise in pop art amplification. What Jeff Koons does to banal objects,...
There are some film-makers who are infuriated by the Teflon sensibility of modern cinema audiences and go all out for something that will stick, or get a reaction: astonishment, outrage, a seat-bang, a walkout, anything. Gaspar Noé described how, in his legendary shocker Irréversible, he deliberately used a droning frequency that causes nausea for background white noise. Artist-turned-film-maker Miranda July, renowned for her fey and quirky style, may be part of this tradition, simply by being 20 times more irritating than any normal person can stand.
There is an extraordinary fingernails-down-the-blackboard-up-to-11 quality here, especially in the massively cutesy opening moments of her new film, The Future. But I admit to seeing a deliberate point to it: partly satirical, partly an exercise in pop art amplification. What Jeff Koons does to banal objects,...
- 11/3/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
With Tsr Buzz, you’ll find links to articles, videos and other random things that will help you waste your time just a little bit more.
This weekend, Joss Whedon surprised pretty much everyone by announcing principal photography was completed on his version of Much Ado About Nothing. That it stars Firefly vets like Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher just sweetens the deal. Take a look at the press release. Have you heard about Apple’s new voice activated personal assistant, Siri? Like he did with the new Final Cut, Conan cuts right to the chase.
The Elephant in the Living Room looks at people who keep exotic animals as pets. After the massacre in Ohio last week, where officials killed dozens of exotic animals after their owner committed suicide and set them free, it sounds like this may be a movie who’s time has come.
www.youtube.com/watch?...
This weekend, Joss Whedon surprised pretty much everyone by announcing principal photography was completed on his version of Much Ado About Nothing. That it stars Firefly vets like Nathan Fillion and Sean Maher just sweetens the deal. Take a look at the press release. Have you heard about Apple’s new voice activated personal assistant, Siri? Like he did with the new Final Cut, Conan cuts right to the chase.
The Elephant in the Living Room looks at people who keep exotic animals as pets. After the massacre in Ohio last week, where officials killed dozens of exotic animals after their owner committed suicide and set them free, it sounds like this may be a movie who’s time has come.
www.youtube.com/watch?...
- 10/27/2011
- by Megan Lehar
- The Scorecard Review
The Elephant in the Living Room begins with its heroic subject Tim Harrison, a police officer turned animal expert in Ohio, cruising in his patrol car, rattling off his accomplishments and experiences in dealing with exotic animals on the loose in America to a passenger seat cam, intercut with local news reports of these crazy animal attacks. At that stage, it’s hard to know what’s special about this feature documentary on exotic animal ownership in the Us that sets it apart from an Animal Planet program (which Tim Harrison has been on before—not to mention Discovery, National geographic, etc.). Several scenes in, we find out.
Read more...
Read more...
- 10/20/2011
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? The Legend Of The Mighty Soap Trailer When I was a kid I watched HBO relentlessly. Whenever there wasn't reairings of Fraggle Rock, Braingames, Heartbeeps,...
- 5/6/2011
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
In one sad moment among many in Michael Webber’s The Elephant In The Living Room, exotic-animal rescuer/advocate Tim Harrison comes to a realization that nearly makes him weep: “If you think about it, I don’t have any happy endings.” And he really doesn’t: Harrison’s job entails wrangling exotic pets—huge pythons, jungle cats, alligators—that have gotten loose, mostly abandoned by people who couldn’t take care of them properly. Sometimes he’s able to place them with zoos or shelters; more often, they end up being “put down,” to use the euphemism most common ...
- 4/14/2011
- avclub.com
Chicago – You will not soon forget Lambert the lion. His story is as tragic to this viewer as any seen in documentary filmmaking in recent years for he never should have been in the situation chronicled in the excellent “The Elephant in the Living Room,” opening this Saturday at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago and playing in other major markets already. This fascinating documentary shines a light into an underreported corner of America, the backyards and living rooms that currently house deadly exotic animals that, in this critic’s opinion, should never have found themselves in captivity at all, much less as pets.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is only my interpretation, but what I take away from “The Elephant in the Living Room” is a story about two things – one man’s mental illness and how it manifested itself in a tragic story of man controlling nature and the general story...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is only my interpretation, but what I take away from “The Elephant in the Living Room” is a story about two things – one man’s mental illness and how it manifested itself in a tragic story of man controlling nature and the general story...
- 4/13/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Produced and directed by filmmaker Michael Webber, The Elephant In The Living Room documents a hard and sometimes disturbing look at what happens when people decide it’s a good idea to keep wild, “exotic” animals as pets.
Centered around the efforts of one Ohio Public Safety Officer, Tim Harrison, the film explores his life’s mission to not only remove such animals from private owners, but to rehabilitate these animals back to being with others of their kind in a safe and healthy environment, such as a sanctuary.
One such owner is Terry Brumfield, a man who after surviving a truck accident takes refuge from his depression by hand raising 2 African lion cubs – which, by the way, are perfectly legal to own in Ohio and 30 other states in the Us.
Terry, like so many others, starts out raising the lions with the best of intentions and has a deep love for his “pets,...
Centered around the efforts of one Ohio Public Safety Officer, Tim Harrison, the film explores his life’s mission to not only remove such animals from private owners, but to rehabilitate these animals back to being with others of their kind in a safe and healthy environment, such as a sanctuary.
One such owner is Terry Brumfield, a man who after surviving a truck accident takes refuge from his depression by hand raising 2 African lion cubs – which, by the way, are perfectly legal to own in Ohio and 30 other states in the Us.
Terry, like so many others, starts out raising the lions with the best of intentions and has a deep love for his “pets,...
- 4/8/2011
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Elephant in the Living Room is now making its rounds in the theaters. Being one of the first ones to see this award winning documentary over a month ago I must say it's one of the best I've seen and all exotic or domestic animal owners/lovers should take notice!
Director Michael Webber shot this following around Tim Harrison who goes all over the country rescuing animals and helping out of control situations concerning the naimlas nad their owners. You see what a "day in the life" is like for Harrison as we get to witness first hand, the good and the bad that goes along owning these pets.
We get to watch Harrison deal with gators, lots of snakes (I don't like snakes!) and an African lion and its owner, Terry Brumfield, who is dealing with the reality that he might have to give his exotic pets up.
Director Michael Webber shot this following around Tim Harrison who goes all over the country rescuing animals and helping out of control situations concerning the naimlas nad their owners. You see what a "day in the life" is like for Harrison as we get to witness first hand, the good and the bad that goes along owning these pets.
We get to watch Harrison deal with gators, lots of snakes (I don't like snakes!) and an African lion and its owner, Terry Brumfield, who is dealing with the reality that he might have to give his exotic pets up.
- 4/3/2011
- by brians
- GeekTyrant
The Elephant in the Living Room begins with its heroic subject Tim Harrison, a police officer turned animal expert in Ohio, cruising in his patrol car, rattling off his accomplishments and experiences in dealing with exotic animals on the loose in America to a passenger seat cam, intercut with local news reports of these crazy animal attacks. At that stage, it’s hard to know what’s special about this feature documentary on exotic animal ownership in the Us that sets it apart from an Animal Planet program (which Tim Harrison has been on before—not to mention Discovery, National geographic, etc.). Several scenes in, we find out.
An ER doctor, looking annoyed from having to save the lives of many dumb bastards who were nearly killed by their own dangerous pets over the years, preaches directly through the screen to the idle Americans who have had the wrong idea...
An ER doctor, looking annoyed from having to save the lives of many dumb bastards who were nearly killed by their own dangerous pets over the years, preaches directly through the screen to the idle Americans who have had the wrong idea...
- 4/2/2011
- by Arya Ponto
- JustPressPlay.net
Nothing makes a better documentary subject than crazy. Whether they're about socialite shut-ins or deranged cult leaders or just some guy who decides to eat nothing but fast food for a month, documentaries are a great home for the insane. Best of all is when a documentary invites us inside the madness to experience it for ourselves, then forces to reconsider whether that perspective is really all that crazy after all. "The Elephant in the Living Room," about the danger, and also the appeal, of keeping wild animals as pets, is such a documentary.
Generally, I'm of the opinion that anyone who willingly keeps a deadly animal in their home is kind of nuts. And if said animal escapes and kills them, that's not a tragedy; that's fodder for The Darwin Awards. But sometimes these animals get loose and harm others, and that is a tragedy, one that's happening with...
Generally, I'm of the opinion that anyone who willingly keeps a deadly animal in their home is kind of nuts. And if said animal escapes and kills them, that's not a tragedy; that's fodder for The Darwin Awards. But sometimes these animals get loose and harm others, and that is a tragedy, one that's happening with...
- 3/30/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
There are more tigers in Texas than there are in the wild in India. In 2005, there were more emergency calls for nuisance alligators in Ohio than most areas of Florida. In many parts of the country, the law requires a license to own a dog, but absolutely nothing to own a pet lion or tiger or venomous snake, and the owners of these baby animals, are soon trying to give them away free to the general public as full grown predators. Sightings of lions and primates and the most deadly reptiles in the world are reported everywhere. In recent years, the encounters have reached epidemic proportions as seen in the new documentary The Elephant In The Living Room.
WeAreMovieGeeks will be attending the premiere and a Q&A with filmmakers Michael Webber and Tim Harrison and we’ll bring you our review soon.
Visit the film’s official site Here...
WeAreMovieGeeks will be attending the premiere and a Q&A with filmmakers Michael Webber and Tim Harrison and we’ll bring you our review soon.
Visit the film’s official site Here...
- 3/30/2011
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Here are the new MPAA ratings from Bulletin No: 2165.
Bad Teacher Rated R For sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use. Release Date: June 17, 2011 Bloodrayne: The Third Reich Rated R For bloody violence, strong sexuality/nudity and language. The Elephant In The Living Room Rated PG For thematic material including some disturbing situations, mild language and smoking. Everything Must Go Rated R For language and some sexual content. Release Date: May 6, 2011 Ghost From The Machine Rated PG-13 For some violence and language. Go For It! Rated PG-13 For sexual content, language, brief violence and drug material. Just Like Us Rated R For language. Miss Minoes Rated PG For brief language, smoking and rude behavior. Monsterwolf Rated R For some bloody violence. Page One Rated R For language including some sexual references. Revenge Of The Electric Car Rated PG-13 For brief strong language. Sarah's Key Rated PG-13 For thematic material...
Bad Teacher Rated R For sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use. Release Date: June 17, 2011 Bloodrayne: The Third Reich Rated R For bloody violence, strong sexuality/nudity and language. The Elephant In The Living Room Rated PG For thematic material including some disturbing situations, mild language and smoking. Everything Must Go Rated R For language and some sexual content. Release Date: May 6, 2011 Ghost From The Machine Rated PG-13 For some violence and language. Go For It! Rated PG-13 For sexual content, language, brief violence and drug material. Just Like Us Rated R For language. Miss Minoes Rated PG For brief language, smoking and rude behavior. Monsterwolf Rated R For some bloody violence. Page One Rated R For language including some sexual references. Revenge Of The Electric Car Rated PG-13 For brief strong language. Sarah's Key Rated PG-13 For thematic material...
- 3/30/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Kristin Davis was awarded The Wyler Award, one of The Humane Society of the United States’ most prestigious honors, at the animal protection organization’s 25th Anniversary Genesis Awards on Saturday night.
Honoring outstanding reporting and creative portrayals of animal protection issues in the news and entertainment media, The 25th Anniversary Genesis Awards nominations spanned an eclectic array of works from film, TV and print.
“The Colbert Report” won the Sid Caesar Comedy Award for satirizing bullfighters. “True Blood” picked up Outstanding Dramatic Series for a unique storyline about a shape-shifter abused through dogfighting. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” took the Outstanding Talk Show award for two animal-themed shows spotlighting Japan’s dolphin slaughter, elephant poaching for ivory, and pet overpopulation. “How To Train Your Dragon” received Outstanding Feature Film for its inspiring message about tolerance and respect for all living creatures. And the honors for Outstanding Feature Documentary went to...
Honoring outstanding reporting and creative portrayals of animal protection issues in the news and entertainment media, The 25th Anniversary Genesis Awards nominations spanned an eclectic array of works from film, TV and print.
“The Colbert Report” won the Sid Caesar Comedy Award for satirizing bullfighters. “True Blood” picked up Outstanding Dramatic Series for a unique storyline about a shape-shifter abused through dogfighting. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” took the Outstanding Talk Show award for two animal-themed shows spotlighting Japan’s dolphin slaughter, elephant poaching for ivory, and pet overpopulation. “How To Train Your Dragon” received Outstanding Feature Film for its inspiring message about tolerance and respect for all living creatures. And the honors for Outstanding Feature Documentary went to...
- 3/21/2011
- Look to the Stars
Here's an awards curveball for ya. We don't often hear about the Genesis Awards but this is their 25th year. They award media that promotes fair and kind treatment to animals. There are categories ranging from traditional news segments, to magazines articles, up to feature films and documentaries. Here are three major categories I thought might interest you, whether you're an animal lover, a committed vegan or just an awards junkie.
Feature Film
How To Train Your Dragon
The Switch
It's easy to see why Oscar nominee How To Train Your Dragon figured in as the whole plot revolves around learning to leave peacefully with another species. But the sperm donor comedy The Switch starring Jennifer Aniston? Is Jason Bateman turning into a wolf again? Goddamnit. I thought we were done with that in the 80s.
I guess you have to have seen that one to know why it's so honored.
Feature Film
How To Train Your Dragon
The Switch
It's easy to see why Oscar nominee How To Train Your Dragon figured in as the whole plot revolves around learning to leave peacefully with another species. But the sperm donor comedy The Switch starring Jennifer Aniston? Is Jason Bateman turning into a wolf again? Goddamnit. I thought we were done with that in the 80s.
I guess you have to have seen that one to know why it's so honored.
- 2/9/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Tonight marks the opening of the 2010 Burbank International Film Festival. The nine-day event is filled with shorts, features, music videos, and seminars by and for filmmakers from all over the world.
The festivities kick off at 5:30 Pm with a red carpet event and opening reception at the Burbank AMC 6 movie theater. Following the get-together is the first screening of the week, a feature length documentary called The Elephant in the Living Room by Michael Webber. The film dives into the world of exotic pets in the U.S. suburbs.
More screenings continue through the week at four locations. In addition to the AMC 6, films are scheduled to be shown at Video Symphony, Burbank High School, and Barney's Beanery.
During the week, seminars on sound, editing, stunts, music, and other topics of interest will be conducted by industry leaders. Among these are Tom Holman from LucasFilm, retired Paramount Studios sound director CeCe Hall,...
The festivities kick off at 5:30 Pm with a red carpet event and opening reception at the Burbank AMC 6 movie theater. Following the get-together is the first screening of the week, a feature length documentary called The Elephant in the Living Room by Michael Webber. The film dives into the world of exotic pets in the U.S. suburbs.
More screenings continue through the week at four locations. In addition to the AMC 6, films are scheduled to be shown at Video Symphony, Burbank High School, and Barney's Beanery.
During the week, seminars on sound, editing, stunts, music, and other topics of interest will be conducted by industry leaders. Among these are Tom Holman from LucasFilm, retired Paramount Studios sound director CeCe Hall,...
- 9/10/2010
- by Pop Culture Passionistas
- popculturepassionistas
At one point or another, we've probably all thought about the possibility of owning an exotic pet. How awesome would it be to terrorize your enemies with a 20-foot boa constrictor, or have a lion ready to back you up when a thief breaks in in the middle of the night? For most of us, those thoughts remain simply thoughts. But for thousands of Americans around the country, exotic pets are a frightening reality. Director Michael Webber's film, The Elephant in the Living Room, explores the implications of exotic pet ownership through the eyes of the man that pet owners call when things go wrong. It recently screened at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Hit the jump for my thoughts on his film, and my interview with Webber. When a puma shows up in your backyard while you're taking out the garbage, Tim Harrison is the man you...
- 5/2/2010
- by David Chen
- Slash Film
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