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I watched Sacha Gervasi's wonderful documentary Anvil!: The Story of Anvil one afternoon and was overcome with a warm and fuzzy feeling I had never felt when consuming anything to do with heavy metal music. In fact, I realized while watching his film that I have always judged the hairy meathead metal dudes that tend to populate this genre of music as sweaty, smelly and, most probably, angry, not-nice guys. But by five minutes into my Anvil adventure, I wanted to hug these metal monsters! They were actually more considerate and responsible than most people I know with short hair. I love that
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Austin-based festival strengthens its stature on the circuit.
'Waltz' Takes Four, 'Man on Wire,' Three
Following a breakout hit like In Search of Mozart was never going to be an easy task, even if you have been making documentaries for 25 years. But Phil Grabsky's latest feature, Escape from Luanda, a touching portrait of Angola's one and only music school, more than lives up to his reputation. Having premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in September 2007, the documentary then opened in the UK with a special screening for members of the Houses of Parliament. Despite the difficulties of getting cinemas to screen another film about music in Africa, Escape from Luanda played to sell-out
The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary Edited by Thomas W. Benson and Brian J. Snee Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 2008 226 pages $35.00 In one sense, the title says it all. The Rhetoric of the New Political Documentary is a classic university press publication, in this case written by scholars who are based in the discipline of rhetorical inquiry. None of the 11 contributors are best known for their work in cinema studies, despite the complimentary back cover blurb by documentary academic extraordinaire Michael Renov. Another tip-off to its raison d'être is its $35.00
Filmmaker Paul Devlin hates fundraising. He would never solicit donations in a newsletter to friends and fans; he considers it an improper imposition. And don't get him started on fundraising parties. "I don't have the personality to do that," he says. "The whole idea turns me off entirely. That wasn't an option for me." So Devlin had high hopes that when he signed up as the first filmmaker to raise money on the website ArtistShare.com--which, since 2003, has helped musicians fund albums by allowing their fans to pay to participate in, or have access to, the artists and their creative