Stay Free! Daily

Harry Potter fans documentary: We Are Wizards

We were psyched to receive a screening copy of We Are Wizards, a documentary about Harry Potter-inspired pop music, websites, and other fan creations. (View trailer here.)

The movie will make its NYC debut at the New York Underground Film Festival: Sat., April 5 and Tuesday, April 8th... and will appear at the Sarasota Film Festival in Florida on Sat. April 12 and Sun. April 13.

In the film, kiddies gather in libraries and auditoriums to hear fellow 7-year-olds and their elders sing songs from the perspective of characters from the Potter pantheon: Harry and the Potters (natch), Draco and the Malfoys, the Whomping Willows. Who knew that "Wizard rock" constituted an entire genre? We also get to see Brad Neely, creator of our beloved Wizard People, Dear Reader discuss his version of the first Harry Potter movie. And a young activist who led a charge against HP merchandise after Warner Brothers started threatening fans with lawsuits.

Granted, the movie isn't perfect. It's poorly edited, lacks a story arc or coherent thesis, and leans too heavily on visual effects and background music to give it an air of self-importance. To the extent that there is a story arc, it is that Warner Brothers has come around to the idea that fan art is a good thing, but if that is the case, the filmmakers lose major points for their cowardly failure to include Harry Potter movie excerpts or imagery. How can directory Josh Koury spend so much time on Brad Neely's Potter commentary without actually showing the work in question? Perhaps if he had consulted the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use or one of the recent documentaries about copyright, he'd realize how much he's gutting his own movie.

Nonetheless, We Are Wizards is entertaining and eye-opening. It's one thing to read about Harry Potter devotees, and another thing entirely to see all these kids in action. In the end, the movie is a handy record that documents how works of popular culture frequently inspire others to create.

The libertarian response to Sicko

I'm on an email list devoted on iatrogensis—medical problems created by medical treatments—that has a strong libertarian contingent, so I've had a chance to read several right-wing critiques of Michael Moore's new movie, Sicko.

I agree with one popular criticism: Moore should have acknowledged that Cuba is a hell hole. But I've yet to find any serious argument debunking the main point: that American health care is seriously screwed. In fact, the critiques all follow pretty much the same formula. Most cite inconsequential anecdotes of bad health care experiences in Canada, England, and the other countries Moore visited. The more substantial criticisms point out that people in, say, Canada and England may face long waits for medical care, that hospital infection rates are high, and that some people may be denied care if that care is deemed "experimental."

...and so?  I'm still waiting for a problem that's not also common in America. Canada has long waits in emergency rooms? Been to an American E.R. lately? England has high rates of hospital-induced infections? America's private market hasn't solved that problem yet either. (The iatrogensis email list was created to respond to the problem of hospital-borne disease in the US!) Experimental treatments are explicitly excluded from all American health care plans—and the insurers get to decide what counts as "experimental," even if a treatment plan has evidence of past success.

The one thing Canada, England, and the other countries don't have in common with the US is 47 million people who are uninsured. That feat is America's alone. For many of those people, that means no medical care at all. Somehow America has managed to have the worst of both worlds—we have all of the disadvantages of the other healthcare systems without the advantages: 47 million uninsured, relatively low life expectancy, high infant mortality, and low overall health compared to other industrialized nations. (See This New Yorker story.)

The only complaint that makes sense applies only to those Canadians, Europeans, and Cubans who have so much money that they can afford whatever health care they want, when they want it. Okay, you win: if you're super rich, America is the place to be. But Sicko wasn't created for the super rich; it was created for the rest of us.

Czech Dream

A while back, I posted about the documentary Czech Dream, about a couple of artists who create a marketing campaign for a nonexistant bigbox store in Prague. Anyway, I just noticed that it's playing in New York this week (through Friday) at the IFC. Those of you who aren't in New York can probably find it on your favorite P2P network. (It's on mine....)

Purely Coincidental

This cautionary film was made in the late 1970s for food manufacturers (human and pet). It lays on the heavy melodrama to make its point about the food safety. Guilt, assembly lines of food products and a dramatic soundtrack make this a favorite from the A/V Geeks archive.

Cover the Ears of Sensitive Young Stay-Free Blog Readers

Wait, "reblogging" is an accepted verb? Whew, good. I was afraid I'd be accused of stealing or being too lazy to think of my own stuff. Anyhoo: This clip—further evidence of why David Lynch is one of the greatest humans of our lifetime—comes to us via worldofwonder.net, who were tipped off by "Chris," who I am guessing is the videographer, which I believe is a modern, gender-neutral term meaning "cameraman" (oh, you kids and your new words!), and for the love of Pete won't you give us the link already!

Adam Curtis on Archive.org

Word has spread slowly about Adam Curtis' BBC documentaries. The films, Century of the Self and the Power of Nightmares, have only been released at festivals in the US.  Because both films make extensive (and brilliant) use of archival and found footage, Curtis has said clearing the rights for DVD release would be "prohibitively costly and a nightmare - no pun intended."

Fortunately, your friends at Stay Free! and the folks at the Internet Archive were able to team up and make the films available.  The Century of the Self (all four parts) and all 3 parts of the Power of Nightmares are now both available.  It's a bit of a time commitment to watch them all, but they're absolutely worth it.

Stay Free Blog Post: The Special Edition

Recently, I've been inundated with advertisements for the Wedding Crashers: Uncorked Edition DVD. A few weeks back, it was the same deal for Office Space: The Special Edition With Flair. I think naming these things might be something I might excel at. So with no further ado, I offer for your consideration…

PROPOSED SPECIAL-EDITION DVD NAMES FOR LAST WEEK'S TOP-10 FILMS

1. The Chronicles of Narnia—The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
The Even Narnier Edition

2. King Kong: Absolutely Bananas Edition

3. Fun with Dick and Jane: Huh-Huh-Huh We Said "Dick" Edition

4. Cheaper by the Dozen 2: Same Price No Matter How Many You Buy Edition

5. Rumor Has It...: Box Is Empty Because Movie Is So Heinously Bad Edition

6. The Family Stone: We Tell You Right on the Cover That the Diane Keaton
Character Dies of Breast Cancer Edition

7. Memoirs of a Geisha: Five Discs of Rambling Incoherent Stories From Real-Life Senior-Citizen Former Geishas Edition

8. The Ringer: Edition That Tricks You Into Thinking You Bought The Ring Special Edition Edition

9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Quidditch Overtime Edition, And Oh Yeah,
Also, Harry and Ron "Get Busy" Like Those Gay Cowboys

10. Munich: Deleted Scenes of Rocketships, Lasers, and Homesick Aliens Edition

Documentary films and fair use

If you read our interview with the Mad Hot Ballroom producer last summer, you already know the kinds of things documentary filmmakers have to deal with to clear the copyrighted works in their films. With the movie industry refusing to acknowledge the role fair use can and should play in filmmaking, the situation has been looking pretty grim. Fortunately, the Center for Social Media has stepped up to help right this wrong by releasing the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement on Best Practices in Fair Use - a simple, straightforward guide for filmmakers.

The Return of Intelligent Design

The Kansas Board of Education voted (6 to 4) to include "intelligent design" in the science curriculum in Kansas schools. Yes, I'm outraged, too, but in actuality "intelligent design" has been taught in schools across the country since the late 1940s - courtesy of the Moody Institute of Science (division of the Moody Bible Institute) who had been releasing such science films to schools. One such film is "Carnivorous Plants." On the surface, this film may seem like an average biology film, but like most of films from the Moody Institute of Science, there is an ulterior motive. While revealing the complexity of nature, their films would end with the film saying that this complexity was part of God's plan rather than evolution. Originally, these films were made to use the wonders of science (described as the wonders of God's creation) to attract people to Christianity, but the discounting of evolution sowed the seeds for the modern "intelligent design" movement.

Streaming file of "Carnivorous Plants" (courtesy of Internet Archive and AV Geeks)

Shiny happy people

If you see one fake movie trailer this year, make it this remix of The Shining.

Everything in this is copyrighted, but it should fall under fair use (except, perhaps, the music). It is both a satire (of movie trailers) and a parody (of the original movie). It is brilliant because it shows how selected clips from a movie can tell any story the editor wants to tell. It is important because it provides an example of how art can be transformed into new original works. Mostly, though, it is just hilarious. Enjoy.

(Via Andrew Hearst)