micro cinema

one of the blowhards takes on the problem of distribution and short cinema recently. He writes ambivalently about Amazon.com's new series of short films, and asks:

Amazon: the new Paramount?

He's kidding -- but the question feels like a good one to me. Robert Rodriguez issued a challenge to BIG filmmakers in the Utne Reader a while ago -- make small movies to democratize (again) the access to storytelling machinery in our culture...

I think these films on amazon (at least the two that are up there) are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of short films. They're both hackneyed hollywood myths in the barest bones telling. The shorts at triggerstreet (the finalists) are much better quality. Sometimes you'll find good ones at IFILM.

do you know about microcinema already? It's an occasional theme of mine -- maybe something i'll actually open one sometime later. You should, though, if you're interested in alternative modes of storytelling, check out some of the links in my alt.story section way down on the right hand side....