SXSW continues to promote original voices in film

South by Southwest , a cultural festival held every March in Austin, may have grabbed headlines this year for its keynote speech from whistleblower Edward Snowden. But SXSW is much more than a soapbox. Each year, the SXSW Film Festival hosts upcoming independent talent, debuting feature films and documentaries from newcomers in the industry. Not all of the highlighted filmmakers go on to big careers and future successes, but the talent is always worth checking out.

It's far too early to say whether any this year's films are the next big thing, but SXSW has a good track record. Many successful movies, including the first work by Girls creator Lena Dunham, debuted at SXSW. Many of the selections, like Best Worst Movie and Winnebago Man, err on the edgy, unusual side that SXSW specializes in. But if that means that this festival has become a haven for new, alternative voices in film, all the better.

The AU Library's film collection includes a number of notable world debuts from SXSW, from war crimes documentary War Don Don to nerd anathema outlet The People vs. George Lucas. Come check them out before SXSW ends this Sunday!

Brooklyn Castle – HU DVD 2826
Beware of Mr. Baker – HU DVD 4400
Kumaré – HU DVD 6716
Garbage Dreams – DVD 7149
I Love You, Man – HU DVD 7778*
 Best Worst Movie – HU DVD 7880
Marwencol – DVD 8347
Barbershop Punk – HU DVD 9245
Tiny Furniture – HU DVD 9713
War Don Don – DVD 10095
The People vs. George Lucas – HU DVD 10241
The Cabin in the Woods – HU DVD 10724
Where Soldiers Come From – DVD 10604
Winnebago Man – HU DVD 11171
Short Term 12 – HU DVD 11178
Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies – Streaming video

12 Years a Slave now available

A quick FYI: newly minted Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave is now available in Media Serviecs in the AU Library. The DVD for this film was just released yesterday, and given its current critical acclaim, we've made a point of getting this item onto the shelf as quickly as possible. It is available under the call number HU DVD 11176.

Expect it to be checked out almost immediately, but know that we do have a copy available.

The film event of the year: We update our Best Pictures Pinterest!

Tonight, nine films will battle for the ultimate honor in cinema: a place on our Best Picture Winners Pinterest board.* This esteemed list contains 83 of the greatest films of all time, as voted on each year by the film community. From modern successes like No Country for Old Men to classics like Gone of the Wind and Ben-Hur, this highly prestigious Pinterest board is a Who's Who of a century of quality films. Controversy abounds in this list, such as the decision to pin How Green Was My Valley in 1941 over Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon, but this Pinterest board is still widely regarded as the standard-bearer for film acclamation.

Each films on this list of available for checkout in the AU Library. Follow the links on each pin to see whether it's available.

*Additionally, movies added to this Pinterest board are also presented with an Academy Award.

On The Road With Lynda

Lynda.com has many courses about using your new skills in the real world. These are all taught by professionals in field - like professional photographer and author Ben Long. One of Lynda's newest courses is Travel Photography: Geologging and Journaling on the Road. Ben Long gives you tips on journaling while you are traveling - including shooting to document your trip, importing GPS data, workflow and tagging. Lynda.com has some other great courses in this series, all produced out in the real world. Travel Photography: Desert Road Trip, Travel Photography: Seaside Road Trip, and Shooting on the Road from Gear to Workflow.

As a current AU student, faculty or staff, you have access to all of Lynda.com's tutorials and resources. First, go to www.american.edu/lynda and log in with your AU credentials. Enjoy.

What you won't see at the Oscars this Sunday

We love the Oscars, but we admit that they're imperfect. With the ceremony only three days away, it's time to be a little critical. The Academy frequently overlooks specific types of films that, in retrospect, we often consider to be some of the greatest.

Comedies, for the most part, are rarely nominated and win even less frequently. There are countless articles belaboring this point, but we'll let this summary from The Atlantic do the talking. With the exception of the occasional quirky dramedy, comedy films almost never receive nods for the top awards. Of the nine films nominated for Best Picture this year, only American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street could be considered comedies – and that's pushing the definition. While we would never expect something like The Hangover to go home with Oscar gold, classic comedies including Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, and This is Spinal Tap have all left the Oscars without any recognition. This is arguably the Academy Awards' greatest repeated oversight.

Relatedly, the Academy also has a habit of overlooking films about youth. This year's acting snub for Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha is part of a long tradition of ignoring coming-of-age stories. Outside of perhaps The Graduate and American Graffiti, it is difficult to find a single film about young people that the Academy loved; now-legendary director John Hughes was never once nominated for his filmography that includes The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Truffaut's groundbreaking The 400 Blows was not nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film award. Considering how often the Academy tips its hat to out-of-the-way gems like Nebraska, the repeated omission of youth stories is conspicuous.

These are perhaps another indication that the Oscars are never a good indicator of long-term acclaim. Or maybe it's just easy to be bitter that Mel Brooks only won a single Academy Award.

Who was Oscar? The story of Emilio Fernández

Once again, as the Academy Awards are less than a week away, Oscar fever is reaching a frenzy. This time, we turn our attention to the statuettes themselves. Who was Oscar? Why is he naked and holding a sword?

Pop culture radio website Studio 360 recently unearthed the story of the man on which the award is based. His name was Emilio Fernández, and he was a notable Mexican actor whose tumultuous life led him from rebellion during the Mexican Revolution to directing the Cannes-winning María Candelaria. His close work with film star Delores del Río put him in contact with Cedric Gibbons, the artist who designed the Oscar. Fernández modeled for the award, and after the design was sculpted by George Stanley, Fernández's contribution was largely forgotten.

This doesn't explain the name Oscar or the sword-wielding nudity, but it is a fascinating story that's well worth a listen. We look forward to watching the Fernándezes this Sunday!

Harold Ramis: The defining comic voice of the 80s

Harold Ramis unexpectedly and heartbreakingly died this morning at age 69. Though best known as the awkward and orderly Dr. Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis is one of the unheralded contributors to some of the most successful and acclaimed comedies of the 1980s.

As a writer and director, Harold Ramis played a critical role in the production of Stripes, Meatballs, National Lampoon's Vacation, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, and Animal House. His films essentially invented the slob-vs.-snob genre, a comedy staple throughout the decade and beyond. Even through the the 90s and 2000s, Harold Ramis helmed famous comedies including Analyse This, The Ice Harvest, and even highly acclaimed episodes of the American version of The Office.

Harold Ramis's death is more than just a sad note for Ghostbusters fans. It marks the loss of one of the pioneering voices of comedy in modern film. In commemoration of Harold Ramis's career, we encourage you to check out his greatest films from the library.

Groundhog Day – HU DVD 2325
National Lampoon's Animal House – HU DVD 4913
Caddyshack – HU DVD 5038
Analyze This / Analyze That – HU DVD 8019
The Ice Harvest – HU DVD 8509
Ghostbusters – HU DVD 8591
Bedazzled – HU DVD 8692

Jason Bateman fan? See Bad Words early this Thursday!

Is February already ending? That was fast. We still have about six days left until March, so there's plenty of time for exciting events before we close the book on the second month of the year.

This week, we have advance passes to see Bad Words, the directorial debut of Arrested Development star Jason Bateman. In this very R-rated comedy, Bateman plays a school dropout to takes advantage of a loophole to participate in a middle school spelling. Fittingly, the event it sponsored by Urban Dictionary, everyone's favorite web dictionary of words that we probably should not repeat here.

The screening goes down this Thursday, February 27th, at 7:30pm at the AMC Loews 14 in Georgetown. As with all advance screenings, passes are not guarantees for screening; you are advised to show up early to ensure that you get a seat. Come to Media Services to get your pass!

(This screening had been previously scheduled for two weeks ago but was delayed because of the snow. If you picked up a pass then and did not attend, you have another chance!)

UPDATE: To clarify, passes are only being handed out in-person at the Media Services desk in the AU Library. We're unfortunately unable to offer digital passes for this event.

Today's Tom Sawyer Is Learning Online

This is one of the more unusual selections from Lynda.com. Learn sound engineering through a backstage look at the most recent Rush tour. Live Sound Engineering Techniques: On Tour with Rush with Brent Carpenter. I have to believe that there are few audio tasks more challenging than putting on a concert tour with the monsters of prog rock. Lynda.com has dozens of training courses like this, taught by professionals in the field.

As a current AU student, faculty or staff, you have access to all of Lynda.com's tutorials and resources. First, go to www.american.edu/lynda and log in with your AU credentials. Enjoy.

We'd like to thank the Academy for this infographic

The Oscars are almost upon us, and with only a little over one week to go (!), the floodgates have opened on Oscar trivia. Every year we find a new batch of unusual award-related studies, like last year's breakdown of trailer lengths.

This year, Slate has analyzed twelve years of actors' and actresses' Academy Awards acceptance speeches and determined who gets thanked the most. Industry organizations, companies, and agents received the most praise, though most nominees immediately thanked the Academy upon receiving their statue. A decent number of winners thanked their role's namesake, but only one (Javier Bardem) thanked a specific country. It's a fun breakdown to see who appears most in the Oscar spotlight.

And yes, as the article title mentions, Meryl Streep has been thanked more times than all religious entities. This is what happens when you get nominated every year.

Worried about a snowy Valentine's Day? Browser our Romance Pinterest!

If you're paying attention to the local news, you are no doubt aware that a big snowstorm is bearing down on DC, comparable to the last one that hit us. We've been burned too many times in the last year to expect this storm to have too significant of an impact, but there's a chance that you might have a reason to stay in and drink hot chocolate this weekend.

Friday is also Valentine's Day. You might be left in the cold without anything for your mandatory romantic movie marathon. Take no chances!

For those looking for romance, we've assembled a Pinterest page of our best romantic films. Anyone wanting a good movie for this weekend might pursue the obvious choices – Pride and Prejudice, 500 Days of Summer, etc. – but our list contains over 190 films that might strike your interest and spark up the evening. Please be advised that this list also contains non-comedic films about romance: you are advised to read a description for each movie beforehand so you don't watch Blue Valentine expecting something quirky and zany.

Be sure to come by and pick up a few romantic movies for the weekend just in case you won't get a chance later.

For everyone else, the remake of RoboCop opens tonight.

Celebrate 50 years of The Beatles with a video retrospective

Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of The Beatles's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was a landmark moment in pop culture and arguably the start of The Beatles's legacy as one of the biggest musical acts in history. It would be silly to repeat their accomplishments here, but suffice to say, The Beatles had a large impact on global culture.

Though perhaps best known for their music, The Beatles achieved fame on the screen as well. Apart from the four feature films, The Beatles appeared repeatedly in televised performances and inspired documentaries, parodies, and dramatizations. We have a surprisingly large collection of Beatles films and video collections at the AU Library, including a lengthy retrospective of behind-the-scenes footage. It's all highly worth watching if you can't get enough of the recent Beatles commemorations.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon - HU DVD 3078
The Hours and Times - HU DVD 4360
The Beatles Anthology - HU DVD 4386
A Hard Day's Night - HU DVD 5740
Magical Mystery Tour - HU DVD 6663
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - HU DVD 6725
Backbeat - HU DVD 6733
The Ed Sullivan Show Featuring The Beatles and Various Other Artists - HU DVD 7339
Help! - HU DVD 8594
Yellow Submarine - HU DVD 8983
The Rutles - HU DVD 10187
George Harrison: Living in the Material World - HU DVD 11076

New Acquisitions - February 2014

It's been a while, hasn't it? After a relaxing winter break, we're back in at full steam with a bounty of great DVDs.

Looking for something critically acclaimed? Fruitvale Station, Behind the Candelabra, and Breaking Bad will itch that scratch. Mindless entertainment? Pacific Rim and Man of Steel. Need some AU pride? History professor Peter Kuznick's Oliver Stone-directed miniseries The Untold History of the United States is now available. Something off the beaten path? We have a documentary about the history and culture of the falafel. Really!

It's all at the AU Library. Read on for a full list...

Movie real estate does not come cheap, even in Lego form

The Lego Movie, hitting theaters this week, is no doubt the result of an elaborate product placement or marketing deal. Still, Legos are very fun, and we can't help but be excited whenever we have a chance to play with them. As someone who has been to a Lego retail store and played with the Back to the Future set, I can personally attest that few things are more fun than combining movies with Lego.

We tip our hat to real estate blog Movoto for having some fun with this idea. Using a handy algorithm and the work of some enthusiastic fans, Movoto estimated how many Legos it would take to build famous movie homes, including everything from the Beetlejuice house to Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Surprisingly, some buildings such as the palace from Aladdin and Howl's titular moving castle would cost more when made from Lego. But for the most part, Lego is a much cheaper way to build than brick and metal: you'd save almost $100 million building Hogwarts that way.

For the record, it would take 286,756,745 Lego bricks to build the American University Library. That's $28,675,675 of Legos!

See a future without books TODAY at library film screening

As a part of the library that frequently deals with streaming video, we understand hesitations about the transition to from physical to digital media. This is a concern that isn't just limited to films; the rise of tablets and e-readers has led libraries to also reconsider the acquisition of expensive and bulky books when their digital alternatives are available. This opens a whole mess of sticky issues, including preservation, digital rights management, and the like.

Today, we're tackling this challenge head on. The AU Library will be holding a screening for Out of Print, a documentary about the pros and cons of the transition away from hardcopies. Notable figures in the publishing world weigh in, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury. The filmmaker, Vivienne Roumani, will be in attendance and will hold a Q&A afterwards. This is a very exciting event that we're proud to sponsor.

The screening begins at 3pm in the Butler Board Room (sixth floor of the Butler Pavilion). No RSVP is required, and the event is free. We hope to see you there!

Become a Super Manager. Lynda will mentor you.

Many people know Lynda.com has hundreds of training videos for you to master the latest software. What is sometimes overlooked is that it is just as valuable a resource for sharpening your business skills. For example, Management Fundamentals with Britt Andreatta is a two hour course which covers all the essentials of good management - hiring, coaching, motivating and delegating. Lynda.com has dozens of training courses like this, taught by professionals in the field. 

As a current AU student, faculty or staff, you have access to all of Lynda.com's tutorials and resources. First, go to www.american.edu/lynda and log in with your AU credentials. It may be the first step on your remarkable business career.

Alternative programming: Football under scrutiny

February 2nd is upon us, and we're only 8 hours away from Super Bowl XLVIII kickoff. We're as excited as anyone, especially given the exciting match-up this year. That said, there is a dark side to the professional football as well. The continued threat of brain damage has plagued the NFL for years, and with recent strings of suicide and memory loss among former players, it is a more pertinent issue than ever.

As counter-programming to the Super Bowl, we strongly suggest watching League of Denial, a new Frontline documentary about the NFL's continued struggle with concussions and head trauma. The documentary made an enormous and controversial impact when it was released last October, in part because of its depiction of the NFL's repeated denials and evasions over the issue. It's becoming harder and harder to talk about the state football without touching on this issue; this documentary is perhaps the best gateway into that discussion.

Of course, it's possible to enjoy the Super Bowl at the same time. We'll be watching both.

League of Denial – HU DVD 6721

ALA names Notable Videos of 2013

Every year, our friends/overlords at the American Library Association release a list of Notable Videos for Adults featuring some of the most significant and interesting videos recently released. The ALA has just released their picks from 2013, and they're good ones. Most of these are in our collection, but since we trust the ALA, we're in the process of ordering the ones we don't have.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – HU DVD 10873
Brooklyn Castle – HU DVD 2826
The Central Park Five – HU DVD 6371
The Gatekeepers – HU DVD 2858
The House I Live In – HU DVD 5094
How to Survive a Plague – HU DVD 11006
The Imposter – HU DVD 10925
The Invisible War – HU DVD 10567
Jiro Dreams of Sushi – HU DVD 3005
Kumare – Coming soon!
Leviathan – Coming soon!
A Place at the Table – HU DVD 2859
Project Nim – HU DVD 9714
Soul Food Junkies – HU DVD 11017
Where Heaven Meets Hell – Coming soon!

Famed Simpsons artist shows off his old sketch archives

Matt Groening created The Simpsons, but animator David Silverman gave them their iconic look. For years, Silverman hand-animated characters from the show, establishing the rules for their appearance that all future animators and merchandisers would follow.

As it turns out, Silverman is active on Twitter, and he recently unearthed a whole slew of sketches he made while drawing some of the earliest Simpsons episodes and commercials. Some of them are rough storyboards or concept sketches for characters, while others are early versions of scenes that made the final cut. They're all quite neat and certain worth a look for Simpsons fans curious about how the sausage is made.

The Room director Tommy Wiseau comes to DC this weekend (What a story, Mark!)

If you're in certain film circles, you have likely heard of The Room, a notoriously bad 2003 movie about a sordid love triangle. The Room is remarkably horrible, failing on both technical and creative levels. It's filled with flubbed transitions, rampant misogyny, ungrammatical dialogue, and characters that are recast halfway into the movie. It is an un-masterpiece, one of the truly worst works of the last decade and a Rocky Horror-style classic for cult audiences. Against all odds, The Room is enduringly popular, selling out midnight shows around the country with call-and-response audience participation.

In one of the most exciting DC film events so far this year, writer-director-star Tommy Wiseau and co-star Greg Sestero will host three screenings of The Room this weekend at E Street Cinema, complete with Q&A and autographed posters. Wiseau makes occasional appearances around the year, but it is rare that Sestero shows up as well. Tickets are likely to sell out in advance, so get them now while you can.

It's guaranteed to be a raucous evening, one that newcomers and veterans alike will enjoy. If you've never gone before, you might want to bring a box of plastic spoons with you. ...you'll figure out why.

The Random Oscar Winner Generator is hilarious, necessary

We still have over a month to go before the Oscars, but we're already excited! Questions about their authority aside, the Academy Awards are a fun time to celebrate nearly a century of great films.

Let's be serious though: there's a lot of hot air involved too. With so many award contenders dealing with serious themes, sometimes it's necessary to make fun of the whole endeavour.

To this end, Time's excellent Random Oscar Winner Generator is a goldmine. Using keywords culled from IMDb for all previous Best Picture nominees, this web widget creates convincing-sounding descriptions for borderline-generic prestige movies. It's a highly entertaining way to look at the types of films that Hollywood likes to reward, many of which apparently feature gay piano players and orphans from Manhattan.

It's all in good fun of course, but it's also vaguely educational. Hopefully this takes some of the bluster out of the buildup to March 2nd.

Seasonal question: How are the Oscar nominees picked?

In case you missed it, the Oscar nominees came out this morning. By all accounts it's a pretty good list, featuring a wide cut of the most acclaimed films of the year. And Matthew McConaughey stands a chance to win his first Oscar!

The question, of course, is how these nominees were even selected. Is it a public vote? Is it a shadowy cabal? Is it just a computer? Realistically, it's a combination of all three.

The good folks at mental_floss have explained in detail how a film goes from a submission to a nominee. The process is surprisingly complicated, involving voting blocs and formulas that set the threshold for potential nominee. This explains why some of the technical categories only get three or four nominees in some years.

If you were ever curious about what happens in this mysterious process [and why Inside Llewyn Davis was robbed! -ed.], give mental_floss's article a read for a clearer look. As for the final voting, that's an entirely different and much more political contest.

Are you gonna bark all day #littledoggie? Reservoir Dogs adapted into Twitter feed

In a bizarre and herculean effort, a fellow name Jorge Zacher has recreated Reservoir Dogs in its entirety in the form of a Twitter feed. Zacher created Twitter accounts for every speaking part in the movie and, with brief narration, reenacted the events of the film as a Twitter conversation. (From a logistical standpoint, this required him to tweet everything backwards to make it readable). It's surprisingly entertaining to read considering how much it reduces the film, which is a testament to Tarantino's screenplay. Yes, the raw visceralness of the ear scene is missing, but there's not a lot that can be done when working directly from the script.

Maybe this is an indication that social media can become a leverageable art form. At the very least, it's an entertainingly weird adaptation of a popular movie.

Footage surfaces from Jerry Lewis's disaster-piece The Day the Clown Cried

Perhaps the most notorious film in Hollywood lore is The Day the Clown Cried, the unreleased magnum opus of comedian-director Jerry Lewis. Intended as a moving drama about a clown living during the Holocaust, The Day the Clown Cried is by eyewitness accounts an unmitigated disaster. Harry Shearer, one of the few to see the final cut, described it as "drastically wrong." Lewis and the screenwriters were reportedly embarrassed by the film and barred its release; to this day, the 87-year-old Lewis refuses to discuss it in interviews.

Despite this, clips of the film have emerged on the Internet. A few months ago, footage from a television documentary about The Day the Clown Cried hit YouTube, containing at least several minutes of a rough cut from the movie. This week, even more footage hit the web, though this latest 15-minute batch consists primarily of behind-the-scenes segments. Still, it's fascinating that this footage somehow saw the light of the day considering Jerry Lewis's insistence that the film remains buried.

Perhaps one day we'll see the final product, but for now, we'll have to settle for this.

Run Run Shaw, godfather of Hong Kong film, dies at 106

Today, we lost Run Run Shaw, one of the most prolific film producers of all time and perhaps one the most influential figures in Asian cinema. Shaw's studio, Shaw Brothers Studio, produced nearly 1,000 films in his lifetime, particularly popular low-budget genre flicks. Among other achievements, Shaw is credited with inventing the kung fu film genre and co-producing the landmark film Blade Runner.

Though more of a keen producer than a creative type, Shaw's nine decades of work in the film industry undoubtedly changed the Asian film industry. Executives of the Shaw Brothers Studio went on to produce landmark action films, such as the Bruce Lee classics Enter the Dragon and Game of Death. Quentin Tarantino has also cited Run Run Shaw's films as a stylistic influence; many elements of Kill Bill are taken directly from Shaw's Five Fingers of Death.

Unlike many notables who have since retired, Shaw remained active in the industry up until his death, focusing on television production at his Hong Kong studio TVB. His lost is felt, and his presence will be missed.

If you are interested in learning more about Run Run Shaw's contributions to film, consider watching the documentary Chop Socky: Cinema Hong Kong (HU DVD 1207).

A peek at the massive tagging project behind Netflix

Those of you watching a lot of Netflix over winter break might have noticed some odd genre recommendations popping up. They aren't genres by the typical definition – Western, thriller, etc. – but weird amalgamations like "Immigrant-Life Deadpan Action Movies" or "Heartfelt Ghost-Story Mysteries." Those might seem too specific to be useful, but they're a byproduct of Netflix's big mission: the most thorough tagging of films and television ever attempted.

The sleuths at The Atlantic outlined the shockingly intricate system Netflix uses to categorize its 10,000+ film library. Each item in Netflix's collection has been marked with a series of keywords; by combining these, Netflix has produced at least 76,000 "genres" that it can recommend. Most fascinatingly, Netflix can adjust content based on audience expectations. If a lot of people are watching "Race Against Time Satires About Royalty," for instance, they might try to secure the rights to similar movies.

This dataset is of course inaccessible to the public, but it is by far one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted at this scale and accuracy. Netflix's usage of this data suggests a future where film tastes can be quantified and studied by studios at great levels of detail. Big data is already revolutionizing other industries; media will soon follow suit in unexpected ways.

Farewell, VHS shelves!

There is a time and a place for everything. Unfortunately, the bell has tolled for our old VHS shelves. As we continue to expand our DVD collection, we needed to install more practical and compact shelving, and our rolling VHS unit had to go. Our VHSes are still sticking around, but in the meantime, we had to clear everything off and, with the help of AU's wonderful facilities team, demolish what was left.

These shelves have been a mainstay of our department since the 1980s,  so it's sad to see them go. On the bright side, dismantling them helped us find two long-missing DVDs!

We documented the takedown in excessive detail, so we've uploaded our photo gallery to Facebook. Check out our page to see all 50+ photos which get progressively nastier-looking as more layers are taken off the floor.

Help fund an AU Library film series!

We've reported frequently this year about interesting film festivals and screenings happening around town. In the next year, the AU Library could hold a free film series of our own! But we need your help.

In the last week or two, American University launched UFUND, a Kickstarter-style crowdfunding site that solicits donations for specific campus causes. Our potential "Movies in the Mudbox" series is one of those causes. The rights to hold a public film screening are pricey, and to keep it free, the library needs some extra money.

This is a somewhat shameless plea, but please consider donating a dollar or two to this fund! Every penny helps us get a little closer to being able to pull off a film series. This is something that we know people have been requesting for a while now, and we're very excited about the possibility of making it happen!

Peter O'Toole dies at 81

Image credit: IWDRM

One of the all-time saddest Oscar narratives is the continued empty-handedness of legendary stage and screen actor Peter O'Toole. O'Toole died yesterday at age 81, and although he never won one of the eight competitive Academy Awards for which he was nominated, he will surely go down as one of the acting greats of his generation. Peter O'Toole leaves behind a rich filmography of some of the greatest films of the 20th century, from his star turn as T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia to his timeless Henry II in The Lion in Winter to – oddly enough – a small part in Ratatouille. Though he formally retired from the public eye several years ago, his loss is strongly felt.

Many people have seen Lawrence of Arabia, but his filmography is highly worth watching. We realize that finals are still going on, but if you have a few hours, do yourself a favor and come watch one of the many memorable performances from a film great.

Stardust – HU DVD 3598
Ratatouille – HU DVD 3814
Lawrence of Arabia – HU DVD 3935
The Last Emperor – HU DVD 4098
The Lion in Winter – HU DVD 5348
Becket – HU DVD 5396
Troy – HU DVD 6200
Venus – HU DVD 6308
Masada – HU DVD 8620
Lord Jim – HU DVD 10385

AU Library OPEN today, but limited

Because of the inclement weather, American University is closed today. The library will operate at limited capacity, so there'll still be room to study, but service desks will be either closed or minimally staffed. The exact hours of Media Services and the New Media Center for the day are TBA.

This is perhaps the most inconvenient time for a snow day; the AU Library is committed to making sure you have a place to work!

Need a study break? See Grudge Match tomorrow!

In spite our commitment to enabling academic success, we continue to offer ways for you to escape or to ignore the stress of finals season. This time, we have passes to see the upcoming Grudge Match, a comedy-sports movie that inevitably unites boxing movie legends Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro for one last round of old-person jokes. We're not expecting Citizen Kane, so we're okay with an hour-and-a-half of Rocky jokes.

As with our previous passes, our passes for Grudge Match are available exclusively online. Visit this website to redeem your pass now. The film will screen at 7pm tomorrow, December 10th, in Friendship Heights. As always, show up early to ensure that you get a seat!

Deep breaths! 8 videos to fight finals stress

So it has come to this: AU's final exam period officially begins tomorrow. For those who don't take summer classes, it's been a good seven months since you've had to think about finals, but there's no avoiding or delaying it anymore. We've seen plenty of signs of the finals crunch in the library, and although we're getting worked up, we realize that the heaviest toll is probably being taken on student stress levels. So we'll do what we can to help.

As part of our streaming media collection, we have access to a number of psychology collections that include instructional and educational videos about stress management. We can't promise that these will be effective for you, but they're all relatively short (in the 30 minute range) and might be worth a try. We recognize that this is a particularly difficult week, especially for new students, so we'll be glad if these help even a little bit.

15 Ways to Handle Today's Stress
6 Ways to Manage Overload
Am I Stressed?
Avoiding Burnout
Coping with Stress
Handling Stress
Help! I'm Stressed
Stress Management

Yikes: 75 percent of all silent films are lost

We love lost and orphaned films, like an early Orson Welles picture that was recently uncovered, but this isn't something we should have to get excited about. Films are important cultural objects, and it's a shame if they go missing or are destroyed.

Unfortunately, the prospects for early film preservation appear grimmer than expected. A new report from the Library of Congress estimates that 10,919 silent films were released by major studios, but only one in every four of those films still exists in any format. Even accounting for reprints and rediscovered foreign releases, these are cataclysmic numbers. Over 7,000 feature films – again, whole films – have been likely permanently lost to the ravages of time or neglect. As the Library of Congress points out, the audio limitations of silent films make them nearly a separate form of expression from current movies. It's hard to comprehend that nearly an entire art form has been lost, but it greatly increases the cultural value of the ones that are left.

Today in "Is this the future of film?": Is Making a Scene the future of film?

If we need more evidence that digital distribution is changing the way we make and consume films, look no further than Making a Scene. It's unusual short film series released by, of all publications, The New York Times. Each film in the series, directed by Oscar-winner Janusz Kamiński, lasts less than a minute and features a performance by a notable celebrity including Robert Redford or Cate Blanchett.

It's an odd choice for a film project, but it's the sort of experimental format that would only really make sense online. The phrase "independent film" tends to evoke a certain type of art house material, but increasingly, projects like Making a Scene are redefining what to expect as we continue into a bold new era of filmmaking.

Welcome back! Who wants to see Saving Mr. Banks?

Now that all the turkey (or tempura, if that's your style) has been digested, we're entering the home stretch for the semester. Things have gotten noticeably busier in the library since everyone's attention is understandably shifting towards exams and final projects.

But let's forget about that for just a second. You know what everyone could use right now? A Disney story.

We're lucky enough to have passes to give away to Saving Mr. Banks, the upcoming Tom Hanks film about the making of Mary Poppins. The screening is taking place this Thursday, December 5th, at 7pm in Friendship Heights. Unlike other screening passes we distribute, you can only access these online. Go to this webpage on SeeItFirst to redeem your passes. The same caveats apply as always: show up early, because your pass does not guarantee that you'll get in!

We hope to see you there! (If you aren't working in the New Media Center, that is.)

The Maltese Falcon sells at auction; dreams made of $4 million

Dorothy's red slippers. Rosebud. The One Ring. Wilson. Certain film props have become so iconic that they are beyond any sensible or estimable value. These objects have become part of our cultural history. How much worth can you assign to something as storied as the wood chipper from Fargo or Butch's gold watch in Pulp Fiction?

As it ends up, you can assign a lot of value to these things. The eponymous Maltese Falcon from The Maltese Falcon was auctioned for a whopping $4 million yesterday, making it perhaps the most expensive non-automotive item of film memorabilia ever sold. It's a shocking number, but it shows the weight and meaning that we attach to films. Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre have long been dead, but the Maltese Falcon will live on as a physical attachment to an indelible cultural work.

Would you pay $4 million for a connection to a great classic film?

If you don't feel like dropping that much on the statue, you can always just borrow our copy of the movie from the AU Library (HU DVD 130) .

This Thanksgiving, avoid these insane television recipes

With Thanksgiving only a week away, we're quickly approaching perhaps the single most gluttonous  month of the year. We'll take any opportunity to fill ourselves up with delicious food, but the stretch from now until to the end of the calendar year will be particularly hazardous for our health.

We're not explicitly going to recommend that you eat anything too unhealthy, but if you do, you might consider taking a page from the amazing TV Gourmet series from Uproxx. The brave and entrepreneurial souls behind TV Gourmet have committed to creating and ingesting some of the most unusual and disgusting foods ever portrayed in media, from Milk Steak (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and the Mayonegg (Arrested Development) to the disgusting slurry Bill drinks on Freaks and Geeks. Some are simply endurance tests, like Homer Simpson's midnight snack of 64 slices of American cheese.

These are really not quality foods, but you have to admire the tenacity of the writers. I can't say anyone on this staff would ever try Cheesy Blasters, but we can eat vicariously through Uproxx's apparently cast-iron stomachs.

New software quickly pieces together (ridiculous) movies

Given the immense volume of quickly-created content on the Internet – automatically generated music, 3D printed combs, etc. – it's surprising that it took so long for someone to come up with a fast movie creator. Plotagon, currently in beta, is a new free service that allows users to assemble clips in a traditional screenplay format. Just specific the scene, characters, and their actions, and the program will produce an adequately-directed short film. It's reminiscent of XtraNormal, the skit-creating software that was discontinued in October, but its option to export movies in screenplay format is decidedly film-focused.

It's... not great right now. Everything is really stilted and there's only a small selection of content to choose from. It's like watching an old Nintendo 64 game. In any event, there's something fun about making a slapdash film in 30 seconds. This isn't the future of filmmaking, but it's an interesting starting point for rapidly prototyping movies. The company promises continued support for the software, including future content packs that you can purchase for $10 a piece.

Included below is a sample movie. It's pretty heinous, but you get the idea.

What was the deal with Gettysburg? Watch this video for a refresher

Because of all the inevitable "fourscore" jokes today, you may be aware that November 19, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Abraham Lincoln's address at the Gettysburg memorial at the height of the Civil War is among the most significant and quotable (and shortest) in American history. But despite its immense historical significance, it can often be easy to forget the context of the speech and the reasons why Lincoln's words continue to resonate.

To this end, we humbly offer access to Lincoln and Gettysburg, a documentary about the history of Gettysburg and the historical situation in which Lincoln delivers his memorializing speech. At 48 minutes, it's a breezy watch that anyone forgetting the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg would do well to watch.

Lincoln and Gettysburg is available to watch online via the AU Library. To view this video, you will need to log in using your WRLC Account.

Coen brothers fan? See Inside Llewyn Davis THIS THURSDAY!

Whoa! We get a lot of movie passes, but this one is especially cool. Inside Llewyn Davis, the next film from the legendary Coen brothers, is playing this Thursday at 7pm in Friendship Heights, and we have passes! This is a big movie with high award prospects, and we're excited that our friends and customers will have a chance to see the film weeks before it formally hits theaters.

This time around, we're able to distribute these passes online! Visit this website to claim and print your passes for the movie.

As with all advance screenings, a pass does not guarantee that you'll get in. You'll still have to show up early and wait in line to ensure that you get a seat.

If you aren't able to print out a pass, we still have plenty that you can pick up in-person too.

We're very excited about this one! The Coen brothers have a great track record, and we can't wait to see if this movie lives up to the hype. See you Thursday!

UPDATE: Looks like we're out of online passes. You can still claim them in person!

We love our new equipment! (And it needs a name)

This might not be the most exciting news for people outside the library community, but it's big for us: we've officially upgraded our checkout equipment!

The guy pictured above is the Mediacheck Model 325. It's faster and more reliable than the equipment we've previously used. It won't make too much of a difference on the user's end, but it's a big step up for us.

If you can think of a great name for these things, please let us know! One member of our staff suggests Domokun, and that's a hard one to beat.

The last DVD checked out from a Blockbuster is appropriate, sad

Last week, home video mainstay Blockbuster announced the closure of its last remaining stores, effectively ending what was only a decade earlier a vertiable empire of film distribution. This is no surprise, especially for those in the DC area (the closest Blockbuster is nearly 30 miles away). Decades later, no one will likely lament the death of Blockbuster at the hands of Internet services, but it's nonetheless a little sad for old-timers to see this era coming to an end. Where else will we get the personal, possibly-substance-enhanced movie recommendations from the guy at the checkout?

As a fitting end to the Blockbuster retail dynasty, the company announced that their final DVD rental was a copy of This is the End. Hold back your tears, folks. After years of accidentally renting Transmorphers from the store shelves and kindly rewinding VHS tapes, this seems like an appropriate send-off.

This isn't to suggest that DVDs and Blu-rays are going anywhere in the long-term. In any event, take a moment to remember the first time you stepped foot in a rental store and how far technology has come since then

New Acquisitions - November 2013

Boy, has it been a busy month. We're in the process of acquiring DVD copies of films only previously available as VHSes in our collection. While we probably won't be buying Celebrity Deathmatch or Dance Workout with Barbie again, we're hope you enjoy our expanding collection of old and forgotten gems.

But we certaintly didn't forget to get new titles either! Our most recent additions include Academy-Award nominees Wreck-It Ralph and The Impossible, crowdpleaser Star Trek Into Darkness, conspiracy documentary Room 237, new films from notable directors like Joss Whedon and Steven Soderbergh, and acclaimed television shows like Luck and The Thick of It. We love it. We love it more than sharks love blood.

Read on for a full list...

What a twist! M. Night Shyamalan is at Politics & Prose TONIGHT!

Drop your evening plans! Notable director M. Night Shyamalan will be visiting Politics & Prose tonight at 7pm! Though certainly a controversial and often derided figure in the film world, Shyamalan's rise to fame is a fascinating tale; appropriately, he comes to Politics & Prose to discuss his experience in the education system and the achievement gap with political commentator Chris Matthews.

M. Night Shayamalan will be autographing copies of his book that are purchased at the store. Various other stipulations about the visit (photographs, etc.) are included on the website.

Living in DC leads to all sorts of exciting encounters with political notables, but rarely Hollywood types too! What a twist!

Is it time to leave "cinematic" behind?

Film culture has created an aura around the term "cinematic." A piece of media described as "cinematic" carries with it certain qualities – pace, staging, cinematography, and weight – that are typically seen as ideal or enviable. But as digital distribution democratizes film and television, should directors still chase the same feeling as the cinema?

Ben Sachs of Chicago Reader offers an alternative: maybe television shouldn't strive to be "cinematic." Though admittedly not a big fan of television, Sachs finds shows like Breaking Bad closer to a novel than a film. Television shows, he says, offer a more cerebral, slow-burn format that is friendlier to consumption on tablets and phones. Sachs argues that without the need for home-theater-ready image and sound mixing, television shows can develop their own feel independent of traditionally "cinematic" style.

It's not difficult to imagine that the explosion of quality television will eventually result in creative types abandoning the pursuit of a "cinematic" ideal in search of something new. As digital media opens new platforms of creative expression, it will be harder to uphold any stylistic mode as the best.