Camera Obscura: My Zombie Brother; Obama Auteurs; Hulu; Giant Bunnies

My brother's zombie movie premiered at the SXSW festival in Austin and the reviews have been just fantastic. Okay, so my brother is only a zombie in the movie "Dance of the Dead", so it isn't really his movie ... but it is in my mind - and his.

The point is the movie, about a zombie horde attacking a high school prom (such fun to write that!!) is a hit with audiences and critics, like Scott Weinberg, and raves from Ain't It Cool News, and here's a choice write-up from Cinematical:

"The zombies rocket-launched out of their graves are only the beginning. That's part of an early, truly impressive sequence where the dead begin rising to life in a graveyard lying in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. It looks like dozens, if not hundreds of zombies start bursting forth, shambling around, crying out for "Brains!" (only one of many, many movie shout-outs). It's an iconic sequence, a turning point in the narrative, and a test for the filmmakers. If they failed to execute it properly, it would derail the entire movie. Director Bishop and his talented team hit the bull's eye with funny, horrific variations on what you might expect, and from there the game is on."

No, they did not mention my brother by name, but they did give a massive approval for the movie and it's zombies and that's close enough. As soon as I get word of the distributor for the flick, I'll post it here.

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It really isn't to far to travel from zombie movies to politics.

Courtesy of this announcement from Knoxville Films blog (and MoveOn.org) you can try your skills out as a would-be filmmaker by cutting a 30-second promo commercial for the Obama For President campaign.

Folks like Oliver Stone, Matt Damon, Eddie Vedder and Naomi Wolf will decide the winner, whose spot will then go on national TV. Entries are due by April 1. Of course, if Obama loses the nomination or the election then you could be the one to blame ... just sayin'.

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The online video service Hulu has just launched so you can view a vast assortment for TV shows and specials, from "Airwolf" to "Buffy", "Ironside" to the "Simpsons" and "Cleopatra 2525" to "Friday Night Lights". They even had one called "My Bare Lady", an awful reality show that ran for 4 episodes on FOX. Also football and the Westminster Kennel shows are available too.

They've also got a big assortment of movies to view too, with promises of much more to come.

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Cinema history indicates there is only one Giant Killer Bunnies movie - "Night of the Lepus" - which airs on Turner Classic Movies at 2:15 a.m. tonite (or is that tomorrow??). I admit, there is a goofy joy to watching this movie. And it offers the tagline "...now from behind the shroud of night they come, a scuttling, shambling horde of creatures destroying all in their path." Ooooohh, scary boys and girls!! Well, not that scary.

Far more scary is another offering from cinema history on Sunday on TCM, the 1943 film "Titanic", a Nazi-propaganda version of the story with a very tragic history. TCM notes:

"In fact, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels grew so disgruntled with original director Herbert Selpin's political opinions, he had him arrested and murdered during filming ...

"Even the ship that was used during the filming of Titanic ended up in a hellish tragedy. Called the Cap Arcona, the vessel was commissioned to transport liberated prisoners from the brutal Nazi camp, Neuengamme. During what should have been a voyage to freedom, Allied forces accidentally fired at the Cap Arcona and sank it. The vast majority of the prisoners who didn't die as it went under were shot and killed by nearby Nazi forces. Such horror casts a sinister shadow across what little dramatic impact the film itself generates."


Strange cinema history awaits on Sunday.