Of some 10-billion videos watched on line annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video. With such easy and instant access to them, these increasingly popular cinematic morsels are being devoured by moviegoers–and served up with serious consideration by the industry that sometimes spends sums equivalent to a third world country’s annual budget to concoct them.
Timed to coincide with the Ninth Annual Golden Trailer Awards’ ceremony on May 8, AWFJ releases the results of our “All About Trailers Opinion Poll,” surveying AWJF members for their takes on the aesthetics, ethics and impact of trailers: Do we consider trailers to be an art expression or marketing ploy? Can clever trailers catapult indie films into the mainstream? Should theaters charge studios to screen trailers? Would we miss trailers if they were withdrawn? Read more »

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women Read more »

The Museum of Modern Art is presenting a retrospective of the films of Alanis Obomsawin, the renown Canadian documentarian who has chronicled the history and struggles of the First Nations of Canada. The filmmaker will introduce and discuss her films from May 14 through 18. Read more>>

Isild Le Besco’s second feature film, “Charly,” made its U.S. premiere at Tribeca Film Festival. While known primarily as an actress (”A Tout De Suite,” “The Untouchable”), Le Besco wrote and directed her first feature, “Demi-tarif,” when she was only nineteen. Read more>>.

The Sundance Channel will air Jennifer Fox’s remarkable six-hour documentary, “Flying: Confessions of a Free Women” on May 5, 12 and 19. Read more »

If the idea of watching six hours of a privileged young woman pondering whether or not she should have a child makes you nervous, this extraordinary documentary will prove all the more surprising. Because Jennifer Fox’s epic, intimate film manages to look at not just one version of sex in the city, but amazingly, an entire world of women and their own questions of identity. Read more »

Using her personal quest for a meaningful relationship and a family as an ongoing point of reference, Jennifer Fox delves into the complex subject of what women around the world want from their lives and loves. Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman is her six-hour documentary comprised of six hour-long segments. Read more>>

I watched the six episodes two at a time, three nights running. (I had admired Fox’s 80s doc Beirut: The Last Home Movie.) I was fascinated. Fox took five years of her own life and turned it into the narrative through-line for a survey of women and their life choices in different cultures. Read more>>

This action special effecter seems to have all the right stuff: so how come it isn’t more fun? Read more »

What happens when a hip, new superhero appears? He attacks corporate amorality, skewering the military/industrial complex, and changes the geo-political landscape. Too bad he can’t run for President. Read more »