News

Thursday have announced a 2024 US tour celebrating their seminal 2003 album War All the Time, which will be played in its entirety each night.

Rival Schools and ex-Every Time I Die singer Keith Buckley’s new band Many Eyes are set to support the outing, which kicks off January 25th in Buffalo, New York, and runs through February 24th in New York City.

A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for select dates begins Tuesday (October 10th) at noon Et via Ticketmaster using the code Vocals. General ticket sales begin Friday (October 13th) at 10 a.m. local time. Fans can also look for deals or get tickets to sold-out dates via StubHub, where your purchase is 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s Fan Protect program.

Thursday shared the following message on Facebook:

“We played three very special shows to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of War All the Time in New Jersey last month. Two...

Aphex Twin headlined Field Day 2023 in London earlier this month, and for those who weren’t lucky enough to make it out to Victoria Park, the full set is now available to stream.

The show was filmed in 360 degrees, meaning you can watch all the wacky stage designs from the comfort of your own home. It also uses stereo audio, so it feels pretty realistic on a good pair of headphones. The 90-minute set comprised over 40 tracks, including plenty of covers and remixes, as well as new tracks from Aphex Twin’s July EP Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760.

Watch Aphex Twin’s entire Field Day 2023 set below.

Earlier this summer, two tracks were uploaded to a Soundcloud account that’s widely believed to belong to Aphex Twin. Before his most recent EP, his latest release was Collapse in 2018.

Aphex Twin’s Entire Field Day 2023 Set Available...

Aphex Twin has revealed a new EP, his first release of new music in five years.

The four-song EP is called Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760. It arrives today, July 28th, via Warp Records.

The EP marks Aphex Twin’s first release since Collapse in 2018.

Prior to today’s release, Aphex Twin uploaded two archival tracks to a Soundcloud account.

Throughout the summer, Aphex Twin is playing a series of festivals across the UK and Europe, including London’s Field Day.

Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760 EP Artwork:

Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760 EP Tracklist:

01. Blackbox Life Recorder 21f

02. zin2 test5

03. in a room7 F760

04. Blackbox Life Recorder 22 [Parallax Mix]

Aphex Twin Unveils New EP: Stream

Scoop Harrison...

Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos of the alt-rock outfit Y La Bamba starts out talking about rain. “I feel like I’ve been going through my Saturn return for ten years,” they confide early in our conversation. “I’m in the eye of the storm.”

In some ways, it’s the perfect place to begin: Storms and rains are central to Lucha, Y La Bamba’s sumptuous seventh album. The disarmingly gentle opening track “Eight” invokes light summer showers. Shortly thereafter, “La Lluvi de Guadalajara” plays out like an interlude with ambient rainfall in the background.

Julie James, Wales’ new Minister of Climate Change, has an extensive political resume, including stints as an environmental and constitutional lawyer, an appointment as Wales’ Deputy Minister for Skills and Technology and also the Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee’s Common Fisheries Policy Task and Finish Group. However, the Welsh politician has another claim to fame: Sister of the extremely private electronic music legend Aphex Twin.

Early in an interview with BBC’s Walescast, the question about James’ siblings came up, with the Minister for Climate Change admitting...

Today, 4,000 people were supposed to descend on Willie Nelson’s Texas ranch for the Luck Reunion, one of the most intimate and thrilling music festivals of the year. That plan had be put on hold due to the coronavirus, but instead performers — including Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Jewel, Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, Margo Price, and others — will be performing via livestream.

Micah Nelson, who performs as Particle Kid, will also perform. Micah has put out a series of loose, wild psychedelic albums in the past few years that includes the excellent just-released ‘Live!

The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.

Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”

Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.

1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...

The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.

Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”

Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.

1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...

The life and final days of Michael C. Ruppert — author, 9/11 Truther, podcaster and prophet of economic collapse — are chronicled by The Verge’s Mat Stroud in a fascinating, quite sad story. Filmmaker readers will remember Ruppert from Chris Smith’s 2009 documentary, Collapse, in which the author discussed his theories of societal collapse in the decades following “peak oil” — the moment in which there is less oil in the ground than has been used by mankind. For Smith, however, the documentary was as much about Ruppert the man as his work. In an interview with Brandon Harris, Smith […]...

The life and final days of Michael C. Ruppert — author, 9/11 Truther, podcaster and prophet of economic collapse — are chronicled by The Verge’s Mat Stroud in a fascinating, quite sad story. Filmmaker readers will remember Ruppert from Chris Smith’s 2009 documentary, Collapse, in which the author discussed his theories of societal collapse in the decades following “peak oil” — the moment in which there is less oil in the ground than has been used by mankind. For Smith, however, the documentary was as much about Ruppert the man as his work. In an interview with Brandon Harris, Smith […]...

The Tumblr round-up is a compilation of images, links, posters, stories, videos and so on, taken from the Sound On Sight Tumblr account. We simply do not have the man power nor time to write articles on every interesting movie related goody we find, so this is our way of still promoting some of the stuff we love.

If you have any interesting items that you think we should plug, please email us at admin@soundonsight.org

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Noam Murro directed quite a few Super Bowl ads including the Pepsi “King’s Court” spot which featured X Factor 2011 winner Melanie Amaro and Elton John, as well as the Chevy Sonic “Stunt Anthem” as and the Kia “A Dream Car. For Real Life” commercial.

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Finally, Murro also directed the Chevy Silverado “End of the World” spot.

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This is amazing – A London-based film PR company recently held a screening of Lady And The Tramp for dogs,...

El Sicario: Room 164 is a one-man monologue of a documentary, 80-odd minutes spent in a crummy motel suite in the company of a guy with a black mesh cloth covering his head and obscuring his identity. A subject really has to have something to say to justify this kind of film treatment—Michael Ruppert’s hypnotic apocalyptic scenarios in Collapse come to mind—and the unnamed focus of Gianfranco Rosi’s feature has plenty. He’s a former “sicario,” a hit man and enforcer for a drug cartel in Ciudad Juárez who once kidnapped and tortured someone in ...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Shoulders & Giants is the third full-length album from German duo Collapse Under The Empire. Formed in 2007 Collapse Under The Empire, who I am told chose the name specifically so they could use C.U.T.E. as an acronym, is Martin Grimm (guitars, drums) and Chris Burda (keyboards, synthesiser, drums), originally from Hamburg, Germany. Instrumental Rock with elements of Electronica is how I have heard people describe the genres that Collapse Under The Empire blend. However if I am honest a fusion of these genres is something I would not usually be interested in exploring preferring my music to sit comfortably into one genre rather than a fusion of two. You see in my opinion when you have two or more genres mixed together it appears to make it all the more difficult to produce an originally creative piece of work but when it does happen...

I really want to love Up All Night. Unfortunately, I’m not there yet. But NBC is trying to make this relationship work. The network just gave the freshman comedy, starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph, a full season pickup. So, I’ll gladly use the extra episodes to see if I can fully commit. And by commit, I mean having my DVR record the series.

In last night’s “New Car,” Reagan and Chris attempted to pack their tiny convertible for a day at the beach. But when they forget to add the most important cargo (see: their baby,...

See the trailer and images from White Out, directed by Lawrie Brewster, starring Jon Finnegan, Mike McEvoy, Joleen Walton and Nancy Joy Page. Also in the cast of the apocalyptic disaster film are Dougie Clark, Gavin Hugh, Farooqi Muskwati and Leon Simmon. Sarah Daly wrote the script, inspired by Michael C. Ruppert and the documentary Collapse. While the world has escaped the forecast apocalypse of May 21st, a new Scottish feature would suggest that Armageddon is just around the corner. White Out - director Lawrie Brewster’s ambitious début feature - tracks the collapse of civilization in a dystopian near-future Scotland. Oil supplies are scarce, climate change wreaks havoc and the world teeters on the brink of economic meltdown. In the midst of all this, reluctant government volunteer...

See the trailer and images from White Out, directed by Lawrie Brewster, starring Jon Finnegan, Mike McEvoy, Joleen Walton and Nancy Joy Page. Also in the cast of the apocalyptic disaster film are Dougie Clark, Gavin Hugh, Farooqi Muskwati and Leon Simmon. Sarah Daly wrote the script, inspired by Michael C. Ruppert and the documentary Collapse. While the world has escaped the forecast apocalypse of May 21st, a new Scottish feature would suggest that Armageddon is just around the corner. White Out - director Lawrie Brewster’s ambitious début feature - tracks the collapse of civilization in a dystopian near-future Scotland. Oil supplies are scarce, climate change wreaks havoc and the world teeters on the brink of economic meltdown. In the midst of all this, reluctant government volunteer...

See the trailer and images from White Out, directed by Lawrie Brewster, starring Jon Finnegan, Mike McEvoy, Joleen Walton and Nancy Joy Page. Also in the cast of the apocalyptic disaster film are Dougie Clark, Gavin Hugh, Farooqi Muskwati and Leon Simmon. Sarah Daly wrote the script, inspired by Michael C. Ruppert and the documentary Collapse. While the world has escaped the forecast apocalypse of May 21st, a new Scottish feature would suggest that Armageddon is just around the corner. White Out - director Lawrie Brewster’s ambitious début feature - tracks the collapse of civilization in a dystopian near-future Scotland. Oil supplies are scarce, climate change wreaks havoc and the world teeters on the brink of economic meltdown. In the midst of all this, reluctant government volunteer...

Punkers Rise Against crash the boards at #2, while Travis Barker bows at #9.

By Gil Kaufman

Adele

Photo: Jon Furniss/ WireImage

Adele will retake the #1 position on the Billboard 200 next week after dropping down to the #2 slot last week. Sales of Adele's 21 album were down 26 percent, but it still manages to retake the top thanks to 98,000 units moved, pushing the British R&B smoothie over the 750,000 mark after four weeks, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

That was enough to keep veteran punks Rise Against down at #2 with the debut of their latest, Endgame, which sold 85,000 copies to edge out last week's #1, Lupe Fiasco's Lasers, which sits at #3 on sales of 47,000 as sales dropped by 77 percent. The only other debut in the top 10 comes from Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, whose all-solo bow, Give the Drummer Some, lands at #9 (28,000).

The rest of the top 10: Glee: The Music, Volume 5 (#4, 43,000), Mumford & Sons,...

Encino, CA - While Charles Nelson Reilly is beloved for his time on Match Game, there’s more to this actor than Dumb Dora answers. He was the toast of Broadway with roles in Hello Dolly and Bye, Bye, Birdie and won the Tony for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Later in life he directed several plays on the Great White Way. While many actors sum up their lives in thick tomes, Charles created a one-man show. He was a stage performer so this was the best way to distill his experiences for an audience. The Life of Reilly captures his final performance before his passing in 2007.

After playing the festival circuit and a limited theatrical release, Life of Reilly is finally out on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. You can take Charles every where. In edition to the feature film, there’s tons of bonus features including...

Documentaries became a box office factor with the rise of such films as "Hoop Dreams" and "Roger & Me." Before then, there were hit music documentaries like "Woodstock" but most other nonfiction films could expect short runs in few theaters before dutiful audiences. What a small but growing minority of Friday night moviegoers is beginning to discover is that there's a good chance the movie they might enjoy most at the multiplex is a doc.

In alphabetical order, these were the best documentaries I saw in 2010:

"45365" is the zip code of Sidney, Ohio. The brothers Bill and Turner Ross were born there perhaps 30 years ago. They knew everybody in town, and when they spent seven months of 2007 filming its daily life, their presence must have become commonplace. Their film evokes what Winesburg, Ohio might have looked like as a documentary.

The film is privileged. No one is filmed with a hidden camera.

Metropolis; Heartbreaker; Whatever Works; Collapse

"The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!" While the DVD market thrives on unnecessary recuts and extended editions (why make new movies when you can endlessly repackage and resell old ones?), the case for an entirely new version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927/2010, Eureka, PG) is stronger than most. Using 16mm materials recently discovered in a small museum in Buenos Aires, this "Masters of Cinema" rerelease reinstates key scenes excised by distributors against Lang's wishes after the film's initial German release, pushing the running time up to about 150 minutes, thereby "solving" many of the narrative ellipses that have troubled scholars and viewers for decades.

The result is a film that comes close to replicating Lang's original vision, although I must confess that the additions (although substantial) had less effect on the overall tone of the movie that I had expected. Maybe I...

Will Ferrell's cop comedy is still on top but the Nigel Cole-directed equality drama had a disappointing first weekend, while Julia Roberts's journey of self-discovery slips down the charts

The winner

Over the summer, sunshine is the enemy of cinema box-office and rain its natural ally. Come autumn, heavy precipitation can drive away the crowds. With evil weather lashing Britain and both The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing reaching crucial phases on television there were plenty of reasons to stay in at the weekend – and, if cinema grosses are anything to go by, that's what the UK public evidently chose to do. For the first time since October 2008, no film took as much as £1m over the weekend period. Even the pathetically low-grossing weekend of June 18-20, blighted by summer sun and an England World Cup match, produced one £1m movie in the shape of an Ashton Kutcher action comedy,...

For most of Collapse the grey, balding, mustachioed Michael Ruppert sits before the camera in his shirtsleeves, smokes continuously and, eyeballing us like the Ancient Mariner, talks a streak. His theme is the imminent collapse of our world, of how he's been predicting it in his newsletter and blog, and how the world's ruling classes (assisted by the CIA, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other familiar suspects) have concealed the news from us. Through our reliance on oil we've put ourselves in a position from which there is no exit, but his acute analysis is more persuasive than his somewhat vague suggestions of how the world might evolve, one of the more concrete being that you start growing food in your garden or acquire an allotment. Ruppert, the son of two former CIA employees, is a 60-year-old political science graduate of UCLA, a former officer in the Lapd until he...

Made In Dagenham (15)

(Nigel Cole, 2010, UK) Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Geraldine James, Jaime Winstone, Miranda Richardson. 113 mins

From the maker of Calendar Girls, another feelgood tale of sisters pulling together for a cause, but this is at least a story worth telling: the 1968 strike by workers at Ford's factory that led to equal pay for women. You know where it's going and you can guess how it's going to get there, but with a best-of-British cast and some sense of purpose, it does the job. In car terms, it's a Mondeo, but with all the trimmings.

Buried (15)

(Rodrigo Cortés, 2010, Spa) Ryan Reynolds. 95 mins

Can Reynolds act his way out of a wooden box? This thriller sticks to its coffin location with admirable determination, heaping on enough scares, surprises and suspense to sustain the claustrophobic premise.

The Secret Of Kells (PG)

(Tomm Moore, 2009, Fra/Bel/Ire) Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson. 79 mins

Oscar-nominated Irish animation whose vibrant,...

Accent Film Entertainment provided copies of two of its releases: The Stoning of Soraya M and Collapse.

The Stoning of Soraya M is based on a 1994 book by the late French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, which introduces us to Zahra, a courageous who tells a passing journalist the shocking events that led to the ‘legalised’ murder of her niece, Soraya, falsely accused of adultery by a husband who wished to be rid of her in order to marry a 14 year-old girl.

Collapse is a documentary that has been described as “an intellectual horror movie”; a portrait of Us investigative journalist and former policeman Michael Ruppert.

To win, email miguel@focalattractions.com.au and tell us the name of three other films distributed by Accent Film Entertainment. Please specify if you would like a copy of The Stoning of Soraya M or Collapse.

Enter The Void (18)

(Gaspar Noé, 2009, Fra/Ger/Ita) Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy. 143 mins

Noé adjusts your set from the inside with a film so hallucinogenic you might need to check into rehab afterwards. Despite some of the furthest-out visuals ever seen, nobody could accuse him of glamorising drugs. Following an American loser through the sleazy side of Tokyo, mostly after his death, it's a long, miserable tale, but the execution is amazing.

The Town (15)

(Ben Affleck, 2010, Us) Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall. 125 mins

Affleck takes on a whole Boston district in this crime saga, which overextends him a little. It's a serious drama struggling to get out of a generic cops-and-robbers thriller.

Eat Pray Love (PG)

(Ryan Murphy, 2010, Us) Julia Roberts, James Franco, Javier Bardem. 140 mins

Roberts goes to Italy, India and Bali but she's never been to "me" in this emetic hymn to self-absorption.

World's Greatest Dad (15)

(Bobcat Goldthwait,...

Chris Smith's documentary Collapse is as much a documentary about Michael Ruppert as it is Michael Ruppert's (conspiracy) theories. I've had occasion to to see several conspiracy theory documentaries over the years and one of the more interesting aspects that ties many of them together is that, in most instances, the conspiracy theorists would do better with a less is more approach. The less they speak, the more believable they are. If only these documentaries were 20 to 30 minutes long, instead of 80 to 90. (See also: Loose Change).

That's the case with Michael Ruppert, a former Lapd, an independent publisher, author, and former lecturer who, years ago, accurately predicted that we'd run into a financial crisis sparked by mortgage-backed securities. That's the sort of resume that gains your trust a little. And for the first half hour or so of Collapse, Ruppert spins an amazing -- and somewhat believable --...

It was not my intention to post on Bastille Day a column on films that will make you want to start a revolution. It did not even occur to me that by watching Chris Smith's Collapse, which has just arrived on DVD, that I might be inspired to then finally check out both Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and Philippe Diaz' The End of Poverty?, each of which I figured alone would make me angry about the state of the world and so had been avoiding for the betterment of my mental health.

In actuality, though, I have no greater desire to round up a rebel communist army now than ever, and in fact I am instead more aware that it would do no good. Thanks to Collapse I realize that we as a species are just completely doomed. There is nothing we can do about it.

I realized the other night that I had, one year earlier, posted my first review at Pajiba. Looking to celebrate the occasion in a unique way, I looked upon my DVD collection for a film to review. I had promised friends over the past couple months that I would review three films that I had somehow overlooked in my eight years as a Cinema and Media Studies student, specifically Rocky (1976), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), and the original Karate Kid (also 1984). However, to review those films didn't feel quite right for the anniversary. No, given the occasion, a review of one of my favorite films was in order and few get as great and, in this case, personal as Chris Smith's documentary American Movie (1999).

American Movie chronicles the life of a Milwaukee independent filmmaker by the name of Mark Borchardt. If you're familiar with his lanky figure,...

What’s more relaxing than sitting down at the end of a long hard day, with a buttery tub of popcorn and an ice-cold Coca Cola, and popping in a DVD to watch…a man speak for 80 minutes about – not necessarily an apocalypse of biblical proportions, but let’s call it – the end of the world as we know it. Welcome to the crushing blow that is Collapse. Michael Ruppert is a former Los Angeles police officer and “rogue” reporter. Some might say conspiracy theorist. He made his name as an officer by trying to call out the Central Intelligence Agency for allegedly selling narcotics in the United States. He made his name as a reporter by predicting a major financial crisis that has become all too true. Now, he has a prediction for humanity that is all doom and gloom for our current way of living. For 80 minutes, Collapse...

If you've ever been trapped in a conversation with someone who's clearly intelligent, but has an unnerving obsession with lecturing you about the end of the world, you'll get a familiar feeling from watching Collapse. The documentary directed by Chris Smith is 80 minutes of Michael Ruppert sitting in a chair, smoking cigarettes and talking about the economy, energy policy, corrupt government interests, the mainstream media and the imminent end of the world as we know it (this is not an exaggeration). Putting aside the content of what he's saying, this documentary is ultimately disappointing because it does little to differentiate itself from the experience of seeing Ruppert simply sitting and giving a lecture.

The film is shot in a basement, with Ruppert the only clear thing in darkness. As he chain smokes cigarettes and tells the camera about everything from peak oil to the how he predicted the current financial crisis,...

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Mystery Train (Criterion Collection) I already reviewed this latest Criterion release last week (read that here), but the short of it is to say that while I am not a fan of the Jim Jarmusch films I have seen, this one really captured my attention. I can't say it's one for everyone, but I would hope if you read my review you should get an idea if it is one for you and on Blu-ray it is a beautiful presentation for a slow-paced film you wouldn't traditionally think needs a high definition presentation, but the photography by Robby Muller is well worth it. The Book of Eli Here is a decent film and I've watched about half of the Blu-ray so far and can say it's a solid presentation though it is much darker than I remember. I think...

Chicago – Doomsday prophecies are a dime a dozen at the movies these days. We’ve become all too complacent in staring at visions of our planet’s fragility, and the preventable threats to our survival. Most apocalyptic thrillers are pitched at the level of B-movie fantasies that make credible issues like global warming seem as frighteningly real as Godzilla.

That’s why Chris Smith’s documentary, “Collapse,” is the perfect film at the perfect time. It awakens viewers from their impassive daze with a lightning bolt of clarity. There’s no flashy special effects or distracting camerawork. Just a man in a room speaking about the demon that haunts him: his conscience. The man, Michael Ruppert, spent thirty years as an investigative journalist. He trained himself to scan the media and connect the dots. He believes that the dots he’s connected have outlined nothing less than the imminent collapse of human industrial civilization.

Indie Roundup is your weekly guide to what's new and upcoming in the independent film world. Pictured above: Cooking With Stella, The Extra Man, Collapse.

Fest Scene. The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles will open with Cooking With Stella on Tuesday, April 20. The diplomatic comedy features Seema Biswas as a scheming personal chef; Lisa Ray and Don McKellar also star. Now in its eighth year, the festival has developed a good reputation as a showcase for the wide range of pictures emerging from India. The Waiting City, with star Radha Mitchell in attendance, will close the fest on April 25. Check the web site for trailers and more information.

A day later, Independent Film Festival Boston gets underway. The Extra Man, starring John C. Reilly, Katie Holmes, Kevin Kline, and Paul Dano, will be the opening night presentation. The film was recently acquired by Magnolia Pictures, as noted by our own Peter Hall.

Imagine the most sincerely encouraging, feel-good movie you've ever seen. Then imagine the 180-degree opposite -- the most sincerely helpless-making, devastating movie you could ever see. Then imagine not being able to look away. That's Collapse in a nutshell, director Chris Smith's one-man show featuring journalist, intellectual and former L.A. cop Michael Ruppert (pictured at right) holding forth about the surpluses, shortages, conspiracies and other looming crises that threaten the world as we know it. Filmed in an empty warehouse setting with its chain-smoking subject fielding the skeptical filmmaker's questions, Collapse is designed to let viewers draw their own conclusions while underscoring the consequences of those conclusions; Smith lets nobody off the hook. The doc's scope and power have demanded reckoning from the Toronto Film Festival (where it premiered last September) to the Berlinale (where it will screen next month) to theaters and even homes nationwide, where it's currently available on demand.

Cologne, Germany -- Following the success of Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc.", which opened the Berlin Film Festival's Culinary Cinema sidebar last year, Berlin has decided to load its plate with documentaries.

Seven of the 11 films screening as part of the 2010 Culinary Cinema lineup are non-fiction, including an inside look at a pastry competition in Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker's "Kings of Pastry" and "The Botany of Desire," Michael Schwarz's adaptation of the book on plant passion by "Food, Inc." author Michael Pollan.

Berlin is stretching the definition of food issues to fit in several docs that focus on ecological and social themes. These include Fredrik Gertten's "Bananas!" about the legal battle between Nicaraguan fruit pickers and Dole Food over the use of a banned pesticide; and Chris Smith's "Collapse" in which radical reporter Michael Ruppert apocalyptic vision of a world without crude oil.

Tilda Swinton,...

These intros to the news tidbits are always a bit dull, so let's cut to the chase and find out what's going on with Austin film news:

Over at Cinematical, Eric Snider profiled Sundance 2010 film Skateland. What he didn't mention -- and we found out from austin360movies -- is that Skateland director/co-writer Anthony Burns lives in Austin. Parts of the film were shot in Marshall, Texas.We're excited to hear (again through austin360movies, a new Twitter feed you might want to start following) that local writer Alison Macor's book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids will become available in March. If you didn't guess from the title, the book is a history of Austin filmmaking.The Austin Chronicle has an interview with local musician Ryan Bingham about his big-screen debut in the film Crazy Heart (Debbie's review).Just a reminder that Chris Smith's film Collapse is...

The Alamo Guide

for January 8th, 2010

Apologies for the late email this week. I was celebrating 2010 out of town, and then when I got home I was distracted by the intensity of the Texas vs. Alabama game. Bummerrrr. Oh well. We can all drown our sorrows in some Alamo fun this weekend! First of all, The Monster Squad screening was so popular that we added a second one later that night so there’s still a chance to see the Cast And Creators In Attendance! Youth In Revolt, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, and Crazy Heart all open up this weekend. Girlie Night presents Romy & Michele’S High School Reunion on Tuesday, so get your business women outfits ready (but please have your fake job description ready)! If you’re a foodie and love our Alamo feasts, The Alamo Iron Chef competition returns with a battle between Alamo kitchen and...

Short Version: Whether you accept them or not, it’s hard to walk away unaffected by the dire warnings of Collapse.

Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw Reviews Collapse

Collapse is the new documentary by Chris Smith, director of the 1999 documentary American Movie. The premise is simple: the movie is an eighty minute diatribe by Michael Ruppert, a former Lapd officer and longtime investigative journalist, who has been working for years stringing together what he believes is an imminent doomsday scenario for modern civilization.

The film consists of Smith sitting off camera, interviewing Ruppert in what looks to be a vacant warehouse, while Ruppert lays out his doomsday theory start to finish with archival news footage spliced in to evidence his claims. Along the way we learn about Ruppert himself, his personal history, belief systems etc. After painting a terrifying picture of the near future, Ruppert closes by offering us advice for navigating the coming disaster.

It's no secret that Film Junk has a few documentary fans on staff and every year we try and highlight some of the stand out non-fiction films. Although The Cove and Anvil! The Story of Anvil made some appearances on our year end lists -- along with a few others on our end of decade list -- we didn't really get a chance to write up any doc specific lists, so I figured I'd share some of the love The Documentary Blog has been spreading over the past week. Below you'll find my top 10 docs of 2009 followed by my top 50 documentaries of the decade. Also, I put together a collection of some acclaimed non-fiction filmmakers (including Joe Berlinger, Sarah Price and Jeff Feuerzeig among others) who have shared their picks for best of the decade as well! You can check that list out here [1]. Until then, have a look below...

Some of the best documentaries of 2009 hardly seemed to exist. "What's the matter with Kansas," based on a best-seller, is still awaiting its fifth vote at IMDb. "The Beaches of Agnes," a luminous film by the New Wave pioneer Agnes Varda, grossed $127,605. "Of Time and the City," by a great British director, grossed $32,000. "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," a hit in terms of buzz and critical reception, brought in $666,659. "Tyson," $827, 046.

Such figures come from IMDb, which may be wrong, but if it's $1 million off, we're still not talking big numbers. What we're really talking about is eyeballs, or, as old Jewish exhibitors used to ask, "how many toochis on the seats?" The audiences for these films were found first at film festivals, and will now be found on DVD and video on demand. None

of them played more than one theater in Chicago -- five of them at Facets. Yet...

Documentary filmmaker Chris Smith and investigative reporter Michael Ruppert have a story to tell.  The truth here is as far beyond inconvenient as a modern BMW is beyond the pony express.  If there is ever a film that makes you want to bunker down with gallons of fresh water and a million cans of baked beans it is not The Day After, or even The Day After Tomorrow, it is Collapse.

Taking a more than a cue from Errol Morris and his Robert McNamara doc, The Fog Of War, Smith plants Ruppert in a chair and has him draw out the map of the world going to hell in a hand basket over the next decade, give or take a few years.  His picture is not a pretty one.  But it is compelling due to Ruppert's level-headed fanaticism on the subject (some might call it passion).  Peak Oil, economic derivatives,...

I'm glad that the organization, (now in year three I believe?) has a set in stone manner in which to evaluate the best of the best in doc films, something in which the Oscars have proved to be inadequate in acknowledging. - Having never asked any filmmaker the question of how the Cinema Eye Honors are perceived within the documentary filmmaker community, I'd be willing to bet that its quickly become a welcomed, annual celebration of the form. I'm glad that the organization, (now in year three I believe?) has a set in stone manner in which to evaluate the best of the best in doc films, something in which the Oscars have proved to be inadequate in acknowledging. The cut-off point appears to be before this year's Tiff, which means a doc like Chris Smith's Collapse, which only receives its theatrical release in November, won't make the cut until next year,...

Have Joel and Ethan Coen followed up No Country for Old Men with another Oscar winner? A clear favorite (I've got my hand up) among the film critics and bloggers polled by IndieWIRE, A Serious Man might have a big and bright future ahead of it and as Eugene points out, "the Coens latest took top honors as Toronto’s best narrative film, finding a place on nearly every single ballot. - Have Joel and Ethan Coen followed up No Country for Old Men with another Oscar winner? A clear favorite (I've got my hand up) among the film critics and bloggers polled by IndieWIRE, A Serious Man might have a big and bright future ahead of it and as Eugene points out, "the Coens latest took top honors as Toronto’s best narrative film, finding a place on nearly every single ballot. Other category winners include: Erik Gandini...

Dec 10, 2009

The theme of cinema in 2009 has clearly been that we're all in some deep sh*t and it's only getting deeper. Zombieland, The Road, 2012 – so much of our entertainment has been about the imminent downfall of humanity that it's somewhat surprising that the post-apocalyptic viewpoint hasn't extended as much to non-fiction filmmaking. Enter Collapse, a highly buzzed documentary that basically introduces the audience to the prophet of death. In the style of the great Errol Morris, director Chris Smith (American Movie) sat down for a conversation ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...

It's been a holiday season absolutely jammed with unbelievably depressing films. "The Road." "A Single Man." "Precious." But the tiny little documentary "Collapse" is pretty much the most depressing of them all. Because unlike those other movies, which document the terrible suffering of fictional individuals, "Collapse" is about the real things in the real world. You know, the stuff we go to the movies to to avoid. Chris Smith's film is an extended interview with Michael Ruppert, the former Lapd detective who has been an investigative journalist and muckraker for three decades. His now-defunct newsletter, "From the Wilderness," was hailed equally by free-thinkers and conspiracy-theorists as often being miles ahead of mainstream media. Sure, Ruppert's out there, but he's also a very smart guy, and his deep-seated paranoia has led him, over the years, to examine the fabric of our society more closely than most of us. Point being,...

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Canadian film distributors Kinosmith are offering the following DVD titles of note from their extensive film collection :

"The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins" follows Vanessa Beecroft’s intentions to adopt orphaned twins, and how it affects her art and personal life.

"...Pop star of the art world, Vanessa Beecroft is determined to adopt orphaned twins, an intention that bleeds into her art and reveals her volatile relationship with her husband. Alongside the adoption process Vanessa photographs herself breast feeding the twins, creating her own artwork. Like Angelina and Madonna, Vanessa is a white westerner intent on rescuing third world babies. But at what cost to her personal life?..."

In "Ghosts", a 17 year-old girl left on her own, creates an intriguing journey to meet a new companion and reunite with her mother.

"...Nina (Julia Hummer) is a vulnerable 17-year old, alone in the world except...

Canadian-based film distributors Kinosmith, in association with DVD partner Project X Distribution have announced new DVD titles to their extensive film collection. The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins follows Vanessa Beecroft.s intentions to adopt orphaned twins, and how it affects her art and personal life. "...Pop star of the art world, Vanessa Beecroft is determined to adopt orphaned twins, an intention that bleeds into her art and reveals her volatile relationship with her husband. Alongside the adoption process Vanessa photographs herself breast feeding the twins, creating her own artwork. Like Angelina and Madonna, Vanessa is a white westerner intent on rescuing third world babies. But at what cost to her personal life?..." In Ghosts, a 17 year-old girl left on her own, creates an intriguing journey to meet a new companion and reunite with her mother. "...Nina (Julia Hummer) is a vulnerable 17-year old, alone in the world except...

Chris Smith’s “Collapse” is a feature-length interview with conspiracy theorist Michael Ruppert, a man whose ideas are often as scary as they are true. For many, Ruppert is saying what the rest of us are too afraid to think about. From the financial crisis, to international politics and global warming, Ruppert is candid about his apocalyptic view on humanity and the world. The film became an instant water cooler hit at …...

Chris Smith’s “Collapse” is a feature-length interview with conspiracy theorist Michael Ruppert, a man whose ideas are often as scary as they are true. For many, Ruppert is saying what the rest of us are too afraid to think about. From the financial crisis, to international politics and global warming, Ruppert is candid about his apocalyptic view on humanity and the world. The film became an instant water cooler hit at …...