The Independent Film Channel!
http://www.ifctv.com
Fuck you, lame-ass HBO playing Starsky and Hutch seven hundred times a day! This channel lives and breathes cinema and me just visiting the website this evening shows just how much love this channel has for its namesake genre. Not only does the channel itself keep the fans in the know and up-to-date with a blog on the site, the fucking GM of IFC has a blog. This is from his May 19th post...
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Now, unable in a 24/7 digital word to rest on our laurels, we ask ourselves, "What's next?" For the IFC team it's our next big on-air festival, PULP MONTH, coming June 1.
We’ve got a great Pulp title filled with blood, guts, and sex every damn night in June – all shown uncensored, unedited and uncut. We’ve got the network premieres of Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and Blade Runner. We’ve got a Pulp-homage starring Greg the Bunny and Warren the Ape – “Fur on the Asphalt.” We worked our collective asses off putting this fest together, so (as Mr. Blonde might say) circle your friggin’ calendars and stay tuned to this site for more about Pulp Month.
But, here’s the thing: Every exhibitor worth a sh*t needs to hear from their customers. We already know what we like, but what do YOU wanna see? We get phone/email requests all the time for specific film titles. But we’re looking for the next big, on-air film-cult-fest to end all fests.
Here are a few fests we’ve got in the works:
GOD SAVE IFC: July 9. A night of Punk film, featuring SLC Punk, The Filth and Fury and Punk Attitude - our new doc from Don Letts. Also, the world-premiere of “Jesus of Suburbia” – the IFC mini-movie based on the nine-minute Green Day song.
SPAGHETTI WESTERN MONTH: September. It’s got a world premier documentary, “The Spaghetti West,” and four Spaghetti Western classics.
INDIE SCREAMS: Every Halloween. Self explanatory, no?
INDIE ROCKS: Traditionally in November. Last year, we featured a Spinal Tap Marathon.
QUEER CINEMA: 2006. Self explanatory, no?
We’ve got some more brewing, but our PR group tells me to save some news for the press. Besides, a little mystery is a good thing, right?
So, all you armchair programmers out there, I’ve shown you mine – now show me yours. What do YOU want to see? Tell me what you’d put on if you had the proverbial keys, and maybe – just maybe – we can make it happen.
Three rules (the same rules apply for our staff):
Be as vociferous as you feel fit – but don’t sh*t on someone else’s idea.
Think big, and then be realistic – we cannot DO EVERYTHING. Believe it or not, we do have budget restraints.
This is a brainstorm – we are inviting you in to our process. These ideas may be used, they may not – either way, no crying!
Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
e
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By the way, Rainbow Media also owns IFC. Now then...anyone that still wants to tell me that a channel can't remain devoted to what it was created for can officially kiss my ass.
Would Bravo play Dogtown and Z-Boys, The Vanishing (1988), Love Liza, and Cherish?
Can one turn on TNT and watch the 1953 French film The Wages of Fear (remade, of course, in 1977 by William Friedkin as Sorcerer) or Roman Polanski's 1962 directorial debut Knife In The Water?
And all of these films...every single last one....is commercial-free and unedited. That's IFC for you. They don't fuck around, hence their slogan: IFC - tv. uncut.
I'm most eager to see Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession. It's about a pay cable channel that existed in L.A. in the late '70s/early-mid '80s that basically was like The Criterion Collection on television. Want to watch an awesome three-hour French New Waves film at 3AM? Feel like discovering a movie to fall in love with? That's what that channel was like, apparently. It folded after the station manager killed his wife and committed suicide. But one of legendary director John Cassavetes daughters, Xan, has made this documentary. In its own way, I like to think IFC is carrying on what Z Channel was, albeit in a much larger scale.
Also, we'll be getting Boomerang. It's Cartoon Network's home for all of the cartoon classics and some forgotten gems. Here's their site...
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/boomerang
On the Netflix queue...
* Infection - creepy Japanese horror movie set in a hospital
* A Tale of Two Sisters - allegedly really scary Korean horror film
* Persona - an Ingmar Bergman film. One of his best, I hear. I can't wait to find out.
It's time for bed. I just hope I can use my lovely, beautiful TiVo with DIRECTV and that when I come home at 6 tomorrow, it's all installed and ready and raring to go. One can hope, anyway...
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