High Resolution Revolution

Last night a friend brought me a DVD that I had given to another friend to check out almost a year ago. After the first friend's dog ate the DVD case, that friend gave the disc to yet another friend who then kept the disc for 8 months. The last friend in the chain finally went over to the second friend's house, picked up the DVD and brought it back to me, chewed-up case in all.

I had actually never watched the DVD. I had watched episodes of the TV show that were on the DVD, but I'd never actually seen the content of that disc, which contained the first 3 episodes of a TV show called Travel the Road. Today after work I watched the first episode. I was blown away. It is the best program on television. It is the best program on television. Find out where and when Travel the Road plays in your area (on my cable system it comes on a crazy religious network at 1am), if you have Tivo, Tivo it, if you can stay up, watch it. This show is amazing for so many reasons, the story, the photography, the adventure, the passion behind it all, and the message.

Travel the Road is the product of these two men (among others):

Timothy Scott:

And William Decker:

After a month and a half of editing, and losing weight and procrastination...the video still isn't done. But it's getting close! So far I have cut 10 sequences, all ranging from three minutes to about six minutes. I think their will be two more, which I should finish the rough cuts of today.

I saw three minutes of this film the other night on PBS, the last three minutes, and I said to myself, "yeah, I like that."

There are certain concert films that capture the emotion of the performers in a way that television has completely forgotten, call it the MTV generation. Even my beloved Conan O'brien falls into this trap to some degree. There is something about a close up, unfaltering on a vocalist's face as they sing a song that moves us more than a million crane-shots and fast cuts and inserts of fingers on instruments. If you know what I'm talking about than you've probably seen Martin Scorceses "The Last Waltz," his film of The Band's farewell concert in the late 70's. It is an amazing film, and I highly reccomend it.


Which brings me to this:

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, which will soon hit select theatres is another amazing concert film and documentary in the same vein. Even if you have no idea who Leonard Cohen is, and even if you have no idea who the performers who play his song are in the film, you will enjoy this movie. And chances are, you will fall in love with Leonard Cohen.

There is a new show on Animal Planet called Caught In The Moment, and it is fantastic. It hearkens back to the days of classic National Geographic nature documentaries, or the sort that were mastered in the 1980s and have since fallen by the wayside in favor of assembly line homogenous garbage with "Extreme!" in the title. The difference in this particular show is that it is a behind the scenes look at the "making of" process of classic nature-doc filmmaking.

The two hosts are Tristan Bayer and Vanessa Garnick, both gorgeous, environmentally conscious "Green" travelers and filmmakers. What's funny is that these young filmmakers are of my generation (early 80's babies) and thus they talk and act and think in a similar way to my own MTV generation. They say "like" a little too much, and use "awesome" as their adjective of choice, but they don't shy away from genuine emotional outpouring at the majesty of natural creation. I've only seen one episode, but the show holds great promise as a refuge from the current trend of mindless fodder disguised as "nature-loving" entertainment.
If it takes gorgeous people to get a new generation to be passionate about conservation, then that's what it takes, but these two are the real deal.

I saw a good movie tonight. It shook me. On a scale of cinematic quality I give it a 5 out of 10, I mean it's Al Gore giving a PowerPoint presentation.But on a scale of cinematic and pragmatic importance I give it a 10 out of 10. This, along with a film called The Corporation, may be the most important movies you will ever see, at least on a worldwide scale. They offer no easy solutions, but they may well motivate you to take on the small changes in your life that will secure the possibility of a future for your children.