SOPA/PIPA and Senator Feinstein's Letter

The Motion Picture Association of America is the villain in the SOPA story right now (it's also the org that rates movies (violence ok, sex not ok)) but I can't help but wonder about all the U.S. government agencies that were hammered by wikileaks and their stake in this. I wrote to Senator Feinstein a few weeks ago expressing my concern about SOPA and was disappointed to receive the following response:

I received your letter expressing opposition to the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act," commonly known as the "PROTECT IP Act." I appreciate knowing your views on this matter.

The "PROTECT IP Act" (S. 968) gives both copyright and trademark owners and the U.S. Department of Justice the authority to take action against websites that are "dedicated to infringing activities." These are websites that have "no significant use other than engaging in, enabling, or facilitating" copyright infringement, the sale of goods with a counterfeit trademark, or the evasion of technological measures designed to protect against copying.

The bill does not violate First Amendment rights to free speech because copyright piracy is not speech.

America's copyright industry is an important economic engine, and I believe copyright owners should be able to prevent their works from being illegally duplicated and stolen. The protection of intellectual property is particularly vital to California's thriving film, music, and high-technology industries.

I understand you have concerns about the "PROTECT IP Act." While I voted in favor of this bill when it was before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have also been working with California high-technology businesses to improve the bill and to address the concerns of high-tech businesses, public interest groups and others. I recognize the bill needs further changes to prevent it from imposing undue burdens on legitimate businesses and activities, and I will be working to make the improvements, either by working with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) or through amendments on the Senate floor.

On May 26, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the "PROTECT IP Act" for consideration by the full Senate. Please know I will keep your concerns and thoughts in mind should the Senate proceed to a vote on this legislation. As you may be aware, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) has introduced similar legislation, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (H.R. 3261), in the House of Representatives.

Once again, thank you for sharing your views. I hope you will continue to keep me informed on issues of importance to you. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841.

Wishing you a happy 2012.

Sincerely yours, Dianne Feinstein United States Senator

Medium Format

I was driving down 5th ave in San Diego a couple weeks ago and saw a pool of light in this parking lot and wondered if it would work for a portrait. That got me thinking about a portrait series here in SD and that got me thinking about photography in general. For the last year I've been experimenting almost non-stop with different camera systems just trying to get inside all of them to see what they do and how they work. I think I'm ready to quit doing that and start trying to tell stories instead. Sarah E at Night:

Large Format Test

Here are some test shots from my Crown Graphic - first time out with this beast of a camera and I have a new appreciation for the great photogs of yesteryear who hauled these things all over the planet.  

 

 

Holiday Spirit

If you're looking for a great Non-Profit to support this holiday season then please consider New Media Rights. These are very bright media attorneys who could be raking in big corporate salaries and lunching on AT&T expense accounts but instead they spend their days consulting regular people about their online/media rights FOR FREE. They have assisted hundreds of individuals and small businesses including myself. I made a contribution and if you appreciate my work in Iraq, I hope you will too - even if it's only a dollar. Films like INDENTURED cannot be made nor shared publicly without the critical support of organizations like NMR. http://youtu.be/4wZQ8JdgniE

Donate Here

 

 

Bush League screening at Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Bush League screened back at Rutgers University last Friday - what an honor! It was great to share the film with the students and faculty and also really nice to have Jake (the Peace Corps volunteer in the film) there to take questions.

Big thanks to Professor Frank Greenagel who put the event together. You can never anticipate what the tone or intensity of a Q&A will be and Rutgers did not dissappoint.  The students reflected some really amazing depth. Thanks Rutgers!

Here's some of the audience saying hello to the folks in the film. I want to take these video clips back Malawi to show the people in the film where their stories have gone.

http://vimeo.com/32413465

 

Diamond on Vinyl Teaser

Here's JR Hughto's first peek of his new fiction film Diamond on Vinyl - how's that for a great title. Congrats to JR and his crew, I can't wait to see the final product. http://vimeo.com/31115227

Homemade Cyanotype 4x5, The Kitchen

Here's my second try at exposing a homemade 4x5 cyanotype negative, this time looking into the kitchen. It's a seventy hour exposure, plus or minus, at 5.6 on 135mm lens. The blue one is the negative, the black and white is after it's been scanned, inverted, and flipped. It's surprising to see how much information is revealed in the positive image.

Homemade 4x5 Cyanotype Negative

This came out way better than I thought was possible. This is a forty hour exposure taken out my front window with a 4x5 Crown Graphic camera on a homemade cyanotype negative. The blue image is the cyanotype, it's a really old chemical photo process that you can mix by hand and spread on to a substrate - in this case card stock paper. I scanned the blue neg then desaturated and flipped to a positive in Photoshop and was shocked by how much detail it produced.

Oct/Nov Screenings

There's lots of good news coming in from Washington D.C. about the possibility of new legislation to address the status and living conditions of foreign laborers on US military bases abroad. Thanks to a connection from Sarah Stillman who wrote a great piece for the New Yorker magazine last summer INDENTURED is in the hands of a highly motivated attorney who's working hard to make things happen in Congress. Feels great to have finally broken through and found the right place, scratch that, person for the film. It looked bleak for a long stretch. In the meantime, I'm in touch with some workers in Afghanistan via facebook who are getting shafted by a Turkish company on a US war contract there. There aren't too many options but I'm trying to cook something up to help these guys out. On the other end, Bush League will screen at a special event at Rutgers University, New Brunswick campus Nov 17th at 7pm. This is a exciting opportunity to present the film to college students and faculty from several departments. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Bush League screening at Rutgers and INDENTURED news

Bush League will screen 7pm Friday October 14th at Rutger's, New Brunswick (Voorhees Hall #105) in the "Best of" section of the NJIFF Fall edition. NJ + Bush League forever. Heart heart heart. In other news, INDENTURED, my short film about labor abuse on US bases in Iraq screened last week at the US Pentagon during a workshop on human trafficking. Attorney Sam McCahon presented the film to Pentagon staff, which is amazing because this is truly who the film was made for - hence all the text in the film. I'm trying to guide them right to the bureaucratic waters though the problem is really one of human rights and decency.

Good Copy Bad Copy, free feature doc film

I just came across this Danish doc film about copyright, mashups, remix etc on blip TV and thought it was great. GirlTalk, Danger Mouse, Pirate Bay founders - they're all there but what I was really looking for was something about the Nigerian film industry and distribution. Their model seems to be becoming THE model in some respects, esp for us small fries. The movie is a feature length and it's free, the link: God Copy Bad Copy

Twitter feeds about Malawi in anticipation of Aug 17th protests

I'm re-posting from Dr. Kim Yi Dionne's blog: For those interested in following events in Malawi associated with demonstrations against government slated to begin on August 17, here is a list of Twitter feeds from Malawi and the abroad:

Malawi: Widespread Protests

Malawians took to the streets en masse this week to protest poor governance, I'm following Dr. Kim Yi Dionne's blog HERE for updates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wwLWithlFpI

INDENTURED is now on-line

I was prompted to go ahead and put INDENTURED online after reading Sarah Stillman's piece The Invisible Army in the New Yorker magazine. From the article (June 6, 2011 edition): The expansion of private-security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is well known. But armed security personnel account for only about sixteen per cent of the over-all contracting force. The vast majority—more than sixty per cent of the total in Iraq—aren’t hired guns but hired hands. These workers, primarily from South Asia and Africa, often live in barbed-wire compounds on U.S. bases, eat at meagre chow halls [...] A large number are employed by fly-by-night subcontractors who are financed by the American taxpayer but who often operate outside the law.

It's an important article that I hope you'll take a few minutes to read.

Below is the film that I made on the same subject and sent to my representation over eighteen months ago (Rep Davis, Senators Feinstein and Boxer). I'm still waiting for a reply - any reply - from all three offices. Might be time to write some more letters.

If you or anyone you know has any suggestions on who to send this film to, either as a link or a DVD please write to me at cysfilm@gmail.com. The on-line version is linkable and embeddable - please don't hesitate to share it, blog it or email it to your representation in D.C.

The film (10 min):

http://vimeo.com/13404671

 

Bush League wins Best Doc Feature at 2011 NJIFF

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the NJIFF in New Brunswick last week. What a great trip. The screening went great, and the movie won. How bout that!

Lads discuss cinema after the screening.

A New Yorker hugs the filmmaker. The filmmaker wears a hat.

A community screening at Mrs Riley's Public House in Califon NJ, first time anyone has eaten pop corn and watched a movie I made.

Irish Car Bombs were ordered after the screening. Followed by darts, slander and pork rolls.

We visited Jake's (guy in the movie) 4th grade class in Camden. Hans gave a lesson on the ocean.

And Paul taught them to play the guitar.

That was a fun one.

Bush League will screen next at the Columbia Gorge Film Fest in Vancouver, Washington in mid August. More news to come.