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These are some of the sites and blogs I visit and read regularly:

• Shira Golding wrote a really fine piece this week called “Upstream: The Wide Wide World of Online Video Platforms” for MediaRights. The organization also brings news of filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim’s call for entries for Pangea Day, a landmark, one-day, global film event showcasing shorts from around the world.
• Over at Shooting People, Ingrid Kopp blogs on Shooting from the Hip about an interview with writer, Harlan Ellison, who rails against the propensity these days of someone offering an artist exactly zilch to use his or her work–a timely topic for the looming writers’ strike.
• For some mind-bending independent film distribution statistics, visit the blog Independent Films by the Numbers, where resident cruncher, Matt Syrett, weighs in on some solid strategies for marketing and exhibiting your film to its best advantage–impress your friends and neighbors by whipping out those bar charts.
• I always check in with the Cinephiliac to read a heartwarming yarn about Aaron Hillis’ latest adventures in film journalism-land.
• Also love visiting Blank Screen–check out their great interview with Cartune Xprez, a curatorial project for animated videos and multimedia performances.
• The latest Westchester-based Burns Film Center newsletter reports that Janet Maslin will be talking to artist and film director, Julian Schnabel, after a screening of his beautiful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on Thursday, November 29. Maslin will also host a chat with graphic novelist/filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, director of Persepolis, after it screens there on Thursday, December 13.
• And then there are my friends over at UnionDocs, hosts of the Documentary Bodega series. Their blog is maintained by program director, Christopher Allen and the eight resident curators and producers that use the large house on Union Avenue in Williamsburg as both living and work space for their film, photography, art, music and media projects. This is a unique arts collaborative where the visiting residents live and work for one year, usually while pursuing advanced degrees. Take a visit out there on a Sunday evening and get involved. One of the current residents, Hillevi Loven, an MFA candidate in Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College is working on a project on Christian hardcore/metal culture (hmm). She says that, “UDRP offers a growing community. I wanted to build a center for creative exchange and dialogue between media artists. I have always longed for a chance to create a presentation/exhibition space.” If you’re looking for a cool place to have a screening for your film, get in touch with the curators over there.

Paul Lovelace and Sam Wainwright Douglas’ new documentary, The Holy Modal Rounders. . .Bound to Lose, is opening in New York at the Anthology Film Archives down in the East Village for one week starting December 7. Each of the seven nights will bring a unique event with special guests and related films. The Holy Modal Rounders were a 1960s Greenwich Village psychedelic folk duo. Sounds interesting already, huh?

Featured in the film are Dennis Hopper, former Modals drummer, now famous playwright/director/writer/actor Sam Shepherd, Peter Tork of The Monkees (like most, I had the biggest crush on Davey, but always thought Peter was really cute), Wavy Gravy, The Fugs, Loudon Wainwright III and other various and sundry celebs, burnouts, music lovers and friends of fiddler, Peter Stampfel and guitarist Steve Weber (whose resemblance to a giant muppet is uncanny). In a lot of ways, it’s a familiar music story where we see the young, idealistic goof-offs get together when they’re in their 20s and full of beans and storytell about the trajectory of their careers (in this case, it’s usually straight ahead or torked a bit down most of the time; success eludes these men like the plague). And the reasons success eluded these men brings up the usual suspects of drugs, alcohol, and living a life of unrestricted mayhem 24/7 for years on end. The gray matter takes a beating.

The co-directors are going the self-distribution route (yay) and have booked week-long runs and one-off screenings across the country. Lots of work–let’s see if it pays off for them. This film is a bit of East Village, New York history and they gather some really striking, very gritty black and white archival footage of the city in the 60s and 70s, well before Times Square was Disney-fied and when you could still go home, after being in a bar all night, smelling like a cigarette butt.

As part of their “hey, we’re playing in your hometown soon!” approach, the myspace page is in place and a crack team of dedicated friends and supporters are on board the train. They are presenting each night as a special curated event with other films, musical guests and some really interesting moderator/special guests like Nick Tosches and Lenny Kaye introducing films. They are also showcasing the theatrical premiere run of their film here with Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, co-written by Sam Shepard while the band was recording its psychedelic landmark album The Holy Modal Rounders Eat the Moray Eels. Now that’s a fab film-geek factoid, ain’t it?

Contact Anthology Film Archives and get your tickets to one of these fun evenings. (Drugs not included.)

Yes, hello, I’m your stranger-than-fiction girl, so happy, and honored, really, to have been asked to guest-blog for the day for the downtime-deprived, hard working Karina Longworth. Hope you’re soaking in a big tub for two right now, dearest.

I am a documentary geek and I’m open about that. So, most of what I’ll be writing about today centers on the nonfiction world.?? If you’re not into docs, hopefully, you’ll find it all interesting and entertaining, anyway.

Stranger Than Fiction is also the name of Thom Powers‘ series, almost winding down, at the IFC Center. Tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m., there will be a screening of Jessica Yu’s powerful documentary, Protagonist, followed by a Q&A with the director and an after-party hosted by exec producer Greg Carr in a swanky penthouse. The last swanky penthouse to which I got to go had the most fabulous views of our fair city, so I highly recommend trying to get into one. All you have to do in this case is buy a ticket to the screening and it will be money well-spent, trust me. (more…)