Just thumbtacking this onto the National Society of Film Critics awards announcement below: The director of the Best Experimental Film winner, "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," is our man John Gianvito, assistant professor on the Visual and Media Arts faculty at Emerson College. Here's his Emerson page -- it's not too late to sign up for his spring courses, boys and girls -- and here's Mark Feeney's appreciative take on "PMATWW," plus a brief Phoenix review. Also, a funny, insightful blog entry from a Syracuse student who got sucked into liking avant-garde film by the movie.
Congratulations, Professor Gianvito. Any plans to put it out on DVD?
About them Golden Globes: Too bad about the party we'll be missing, and I guess Dad finally realizes Mom's serious about the trial separation. But what about us children? We always suffer the most.
Whether this bodes ill for the Oscars is anyone's guess -- I'm betting the Academy dog-and-Jack Nicholson show either gets severely downsized or cancelled altogether -- but these developments pose an interesting thesis: What would the pop culture calendar look like without the Oscars? What would Hollywood do without the impetus to matter? Would the end-of-the-year slate become unmoored; would tony British adaptations start popping up in March? (Lord knows we could use them then.) Or would the studios stop releasing the artsy stuff entirely and devolve into all Spidey sequels all the time? We may have the chance to find out.
