News Roundup

July 8, 2024

For those of you who don’t follow us on our Facebook page or follow us on X, formerly Twitter, we’d certainly welcome your attention and readership! In addition to updating members and public followers about FC-specific news, we frequent share helpful and timely information about events (for members and non-members), independent film projects, and general interest film-and-media-centric articles and essays. We also share links to the latest Making Media Now podcast episode. 

Over the last month or so, our potpourri of updates and information included an NPR article about director David Lynch’s continual, life-long artist pursuits. At 78, he’s about to release his first collection of music. The article explained, “”….At 78, Lynch is still making art. He’s planning on releasing a new album with the artist Chrystabell in August. He told NPR the music began as a sound experiment he was working on. When he got Chrystabell to sing over the music, he found “she is perfect for this and in ways I can’t really explain.”

Meanwhile, over at Vox, writer Constance Grady wonders about whatever happened to the shared TV-viewing experience? Remember when folks would actually gather around the water cooler (or fax machine!) to talk about the previous night’s episode of “Lost” or “Friends”? Grady writes, “…In April, New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik labeled our current era of television “the golden age of Mid TV.” Mid TV, according to Poniewozik, is “what you get when you raise TV’s production values and lower its ambitions. It reminds you a little of something you once liked a lot. It substitutes great casting for great ideas.” 

Our friends at Variety remind us that the year is (gulp!) already half-way over. Which means it’s the perfect time to trot out a half-year best-of list! We particularly loved seeing that “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy” leads the show biz mainstay’s list of best-movies-of-’24 so far. Have you see it yet? Have you listened to our Making Media Now conversation with its director?

And most recently, as actor Alec Baldwin heads to trial for involuntary manslaughter in Santa Fe, The Hollywood Reporter published an article on two documentaries that examining the accidental shooting that took the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Per the article, “…Among the many people who will be closely watching Alec Baldwin‘s involuntary manslaughter trial when it begins in Santa Fe this week are two sets of documentarians covering parallel and potentially competing stories from the movie Rust.”