Monday, December 13, 2010

The Refocus Holiday Gift Guide 2010

I have to admit that I kiiiiiiind of like reading holiday gift guides. I hate them when they're full of products that have clearly been sent to a website or magazine, and are full of Amazon affiliate links, but they're fun, so I thought I'd write a Refocus Holiday Gift Guide. I'm putting it all together now, so it's probably not going to be huge.

Fund a Film
Instead of giving your friends a DVD, why not make a donation on Kickstarter (or any of the other similar crowdfunding sites) to an independent film in your friend's name? Some filmmakers even offer a copy of their film or tickets to its premiere when it's completed, so it's almost like giving two gifts. Might I suggest donating to the new film by the Zellner Bros?

Support Filmmakers + Distributors Whose Films We've Screened
You could give the gift of Aaron Katz's QUIET CITY and DANCE PARTY, USA, Josh and Benny Safdie's THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED, Jody Lee Lipes' BROCK ENRIGHT: GOOD TIMES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. And did you know that Ronald Bronstein, the star of DADDY LONGLEGS, is a filmmaker, and made an incredible film called FROWNLAND? Oh, and if you can't make our screening of NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ on Wednesday, it's also available on DVD!! DOWN TERRACE was Ben Wheatley's first feature, so no previous films to buy from him... But Evokative Films, its distributor in Canada has a lot of great films available like ADRIFT IN TOKYO, HAZARD, DAYTIME DRINKING, and CRYING FIST.

I'll be honest with you guys... I'm already getting bored with creating this list. I doubt I'll suggest another two things before giving up and posting it.

ECLIPSE SERIES BOXSETS
The Criterion Collection has been putting out some great boxsets under their Eclipse label. The latest is a set of five films by Canadian documentary filmmaker extraordinaire, Allan King, called THE ACTUALITY DRAMAS OF ALLAN KING. It's a beaut! They've also put out some cool sets of Japanese films. I'm a big fan of the NIKKATSU NOIR set, and while I haven't watched all of the OSHIMA'S OUTLAW SIXTIES set yet, it's got JAPANESE SUMMER: DOUBLE SUICIDE in it, which made it a must have for me.

One more maybe? ...

INCITE!
All right! Now I'm SO glad that I did this stupid gift guide! Last year I purchased a print copy of "Incite!: The Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics"'s first issue, and loooooved it! I thought I would see if there were any copies of it left and if there were, I'd suggest it as the final item. Well not only are there still print copies of Issue One left (which is also available to read for free on their website), but a NEW ISSUE is now available for purchase. I just ordered mine. Can't wait!!!

So yeah... That was a feeble attempt at a Gift Guide, but what I wrote about is all pretty awesome stuff. What's on your wish list this year?

Hope to see you all at our screening on Wednesday!

Happy Holidays!
-Jeff