Deja_Vu

A few suggestions for pre-election viewing:

If you're feeling cynical . . .
Election: ( V 2049). Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, about a high school election gone very ugly.
Wag the Dog: (V 1864). A Presidential sex scandal . . . a Hollywood-produced war . . . Your worst fears about the election process played out in hilarious fashion . . .

But if you're not feeling cynical, but on the contrary, a little excited about watching our political process unfold . . .
Check out War Room (DVD 622). Pennebaker/Hegedus documentary on Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign, focusing on James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. Whatever you think of their politics, you will come away convinced that they have underlying principles, and admiring their stamina! Now . . . all you have to do is vote!

For the Media Librarian, a Bob Dylan concert is like a visit from an old, but always fascinating, friend. Lucky enough to be in the audience for Saturday's show at the Agganis Arena, she was delighted with the set list, which included favorites like "Maggie's Farm" and "She Belongs to Me" as well as new numbers like "Spirit on the Water." If you missed Dylan this weekend, check out our Dylan films:

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 1973, V 2210. Sam Peckinpah's western, featuring Dylan's soundtrack. Supposedly Peckinpah was so impressed by "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", that he cast Dylan in a role in the film.
The Last Waltz, 1978, DVD 303. One of the greatest concert films ever. Dylan, and many other music luminaries, backing up The Band, in their last concert appearance. Directed by Martin Scorsese, who also directed
No Direction Home, 2005, DVD 922, which documents Dylan's early life and work.
Don't Look Back, 1967, V 3432, is Pennebaker's documentary on Dylan's tumultous tour of England in 1965, during which he endured the jeers of folk fans who hated his new electric sound.

For a good review of Saturday's show, and for info on and insight into new films and media, check out Ed Symkus's blog:
http://news.bostonherald.com/blogs/edSymkus

The National Film Board of Canada, sponsor of many admired animated films, now has titles online: http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/

Have fun!

Jonathan from TRF told us the news this morning, that film director Robert Altman, had died last night, at 81--he then borrowed two of our Altman titles, The Long Goodbye and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

We have many others, and this is a good time to look back at this influential figure of contemporary cinema. His career had highs and lows--certainly during the seventies his work was incredibly original--from M.A.S.H. to Brewster McCloud to California Split to Nashville . . .
His style was distinctive (and was hilariously parodied by Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin at the 2006 Academy Awards, before Altman received his Lifetime Achievement Oscar)--big, ensemble casts, long tracking shots that followed one character, then another . . . and brilliant overlapping, seemingly improvised, dialogue. Can you tell the Media Librarian is a fan?

If you go to the Media Services website, click on Nonprint Web Catalog, and search under "altman" as a keyword, you'll find a list of our Altman films, and our Criterion edition of Rashomon, for which Altman did an introduction.

And for post-turkey dinner viewing, you could do worse than renting a copy of Altman's latest, "A Prairie Home Companion."

The U.S. Copyright Office has heard the muttered curses of film and media faculty juggling DVDs as they search for relevant clips, and has decreed that media studies professors may, under certain conditions, be exempted from the restrictions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--which make it illegal to reproduce copyrighted material from DVDs.

Yes, even short excerpts for use in classes. What's that? You had no idea taking clips from DVDs was illegal?????

Well, now it is officially ok, thanks to three professors from the University of Pennsylvania who asked for an academic exemption to the law. Thanks, guys

This article, "Professors and Librarians Win Narrow
Exemptions to Rules in Digital Copyright Act" is available
online at this address, but only for a few more days, so read fast!
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=ndCDhkKSRPQvYZh6GpnYZmqMSG2gMZyq