Starring Rockin 1000, Foo Fighters
Published May 07, 2021
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Some people devote their lives to science, pioneering the sustainable energy sources that could allow humanity to alter the disastrous trajectory of global warming. Others are passionate about humanitarian aid, putting their own lives at risk in order to provide assistance to those who need it most. Or, in the case of
We Are the Thousand, some people spend an entire year forming a 1,000-person band in order to cover Learn to Fly as a way to convince Foo Fighters to play a concert in the small Italian city of Cesena.
There s something wonderfully frivolous about Rockin 1000, an Italian mega-group founded by Fabio Zaffagnini as a way to get Dave Grohl s attention and get the Foos to play a show in his hometown. It s like the ultimate extension of all those people who type come to Brazil in comments sections.
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Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson could easily be dry. This is, after all, a music producer making a show about music production, and he talks shop on topics like autotune, drum machines, reverb and distortion. But rather than coming off as a boring-but-useful YouTube tutorial,
Watch the Sound remains engaging and approachable, even when it gets technical.
From the very first moments,
Watch the Sound is entertaining without shying away from the nitty gritty of music production. It begins with host Mark Ronson describing how he owns negative 25 percent of his hit Ooh Wee ; because of having to pay for the prominent samples of Boney M s Sunny and Dennis Coffey s Scopio, he actually loses money every time it s played. It s a funny story that the dry, deadpan Ronson delivers in his usual straightforward manner. He doesn t exactly ooze charisma, but he s got the knowledge and the star power to serve as an engaging host.
Hot Docs Review: Set! Makes Competitive Table Setting Actually Seem Interesting Directed by Scott Gawlik
Published May 03, 2021
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You ve been setting your dinner table wrong this entire time. That much is clear after Scott Gawlik s
Set!, a superb dive into California s competitive tablescaping scene.
The film follows participants in the six month lead-up to the Orange County tablescaping fair, which they prepare for with the same intensity and determination that one imagines Tom Brady might for the Superbowl. Forks have to be placed just so, fingerprints on the glass won t do, and if your menu makes reference to soup but you ve got a consommé bowl on the table, you re as good as toast.
Starring Stevie Wonder, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chris Rock, Mavis Staples, Al Sharpton
Published Apr 30, 2021
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In the summer of 1969, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in New York for a celebration of love, music and countercultural activism. The whole thing was captured on film, capturing the spirit of the late 60s along with some of its most beloved music stars.
Yes, I m talking about Woodstock, but I m also talking about the Harlem Cultural Festival a series of concerts that ran between June and August in NYC s Mount Morris Park. The two events took place concurrently, just a couple hours drive away.
Hot Docs Review: A.rtificial I.mmortality Is a Less Sinister Take on the Usual AI Narrative Directed by Ann Shin
Published Apr 29, 2021
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Autonomous artificial lifeforms are an inevitability. In some ways, sufficiently intelligent androids already exist in our timeline. But the questions that technology has yet to answer in any meaningful way remain: Can AI lifeforms adequately replicate a soul? When they arrive in their final form, will they be alive? Will they be conscious? Will human mortality one day become obsolete?
Toronto filmmaker Ann Shin attempts to address these questions and explores ideas related to the future of AI, while immersing herself in the possibility of endless human consciousness in her new film A.rtificial I.mmortality. Concerned about her ailing father who suffers from dementia, Shin maps out a digital avatar of her own body and mind with the help of a Ryerson University research team. Hoping to bank her memories and consciousness for her own children,