NEOFASCISM ON THE RISE. KIDS SLAUGHTERED IN SARKOZY'S "DEMOCRATIC" FRANCE...

Yesterday's murder of a father and two of his children along with the daughter of the principal of the Jewish day school in Toulouse, France was the worst anti-Semitic attack in France in the last 30 years. "The brutality of this attack in broad daylight indicates the murderers' deep hatred for Jews. This is a wake-up call, not only for the Jews of France, but for Jews everywhere to be vigilant. The Simon Wiesenthal Center joins with the House of Israel and people of consciousness everywhere in condemning this horrific act of inhumanity," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC Dean and Founder.

GREECE IS NOT SAVED...

...I am  fed up with local journos and TV hacks reporting that my homecountry, of Greece, is saved. Albeit theoretically. A staggering 21% of the population is officially-read again... officially, actual numbers are higher- unemployed, that passes a staggering 50%  in ages under 25, rising crime rate, real money deficit 14%-15%, money deficit in statistics numbers-by the bureaucrats of EUROSTAT-10%, a country in default).

THE GRAND TOTAL OF 130 BILLIONS IN SWAP BONDS (WITH A HAIRCUT OF 53.5%):

(1) 30 BILLIONS GO TO THE OLD BONDHOLDERS.
(2) 35 BILLIONS ΓΟ TO THE BANKRUPT GREEK BANKS IN EXCHANGE FOR GOVERNMENT-OWNED STOCK.
(3) 5 BILLIONS IN INTEREST.
(4) 60 BILLIONS TO RE-FINANCE DEBT, OLD LOANS-NOT STATE DEFICIT, UNTIL 2020 because nobody is going to give you (GREECE) a loan, since you are in DEFAULT.

THE PSI DOES NOT COVER THE GREEK STATE DEFICIT, ONLY RE-FINANCES OLD LOANS. 

GREEK STATE DEFICIT IS GOING TO REACH THE 330-340 BILLIONS BY THE END OF 2012. WHO THE HECK IS GOING TO FINANCE THE STATE DEFICIT ? THE BANKRUPT GREEK BANKS ? OF COURSE NOT. THE EUROPEAN UNION ? Certainly not. Greece, very possibly, is going to experience either a revolution in May, “a May spring”, or default and return to old drachma, change currency, by the end of June, with devastating consequences.

ATHENS IS BURNING FEB 12, 2012....

...While Athens is burning the corrupt politicos who siphoned and embezzled the European Union subsidies are drinking latte and watching football on TV... (second photo from top)....

GREECE BURNS FOR ALL OF US...

...Police violence. Interpersonal relationships’ violence. A looted country in despair. Seven characters trapped in an arthouse movie theater. A countdown to extinction...Three years before the movement of the “indignados” and OCCUPY WALL STREET there were “December Riots”.

«DECEMBER RIOTS», is a feature length film written, produced and directed by Dimitri Vorris, was in post-production, while a new wave of riots swept Greece on June 29th, 2011. The film's epicenter is the cold-blooded execution of 15 year-old student Alexander Gregoropoulos by two policemen in a downtown Athens café on December 6, 2008. "December Riots," a film about the Gregoropoulos killing, an incident that sparked riots in over seventy cities and twenty-two countries aound the world including the US, is produced, and directed by Greek-born Dimitri Vorris. The filmmaker acquired exclusive access to many never-before-seen court documents and evidence from the trial that followed Gregoropoulos’s killing.

Based on a real incident -the director himself was trapped on December 8, 2008 in a downtown arthouse movie theater during the 2008 riots-the independently financed, claustrophobic thriller, that was filmed entirely on location in Athens, Greece, focuses on a group of seven characters, Europeans and Americans, trapped in an art-house movie theater during the 2008 riots. 23 year-old newcomer British actress Lucy Lemos, Duncan Skinner, Fanis Katechos (“El Greco”), prolific actor Avraam Papadopoulos, popular comedian-director Nikos Giannikas anchor a youthful and talented supporting cast that includes Vivian Ioannou, Aris Athan, Nasos Pappas, Michael Angels, Louise Rheas, Aris Pappas, Maria Floratou, , Kostas Antalopoulos, Christina Mani (narrator).

Additional footage was filmed in late June 2011, while the film was being edited, when violence again erupted in Constitution Square. A new sequence with haunting and shocking images of Greek riots has been added.

“The fact that we’re having riots again now in Greece proves that people have not forgotten about Alexander or his senseless killing. There is still fury and rage that needs to be purged and there are still questions that need to be answered. While one film can’t answer the myriad of questions and dilemmas, ’December Riots’ honors Alexander’s memory and I do hope filmgoers worldwide are going to see through the film a new perspective on the systemic corruption and the looting of Greece,” said Vorris, a few months ago. "What's happening in Greece, is happening, or is about to happen everywhere else; Greece is just the canary in the mineshaft!."

PROTO THEMA ARTICLE ON DECEMBER RIOTS...

PROTO THEMA, the leading Sunday newspaper in Greece with a readership of close to 500.000 made a second piece on DECEMBER RIOTS on December 4, 2011 (the first was in late 2010). It was written (for the second time in a row) by reporter Dimitra Aiginiti. Thank you, Dimitra and PROTO THEMA. 

DECEMBER RIOTS TO BE CONTINUED...Ι

(Aπό κείμενο που δημοσιεύεται στο φόρουμ της εφημερίδας ΕΘΝΟΣ σήμερα...) 

...H ΕΞΕΓΕΡΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΕΚΕΜΒΡΗ του 2008, άρχισε με την έκρηξη της  συσωρευμένης οργής του κόσμου. Λίγα λεπτά μετά την εν ψυχρώ δολοφονία ενός αθώου 15χρονου μαθητή. Του Αλέξανδρου Γρηγορόπουλου.

...Ο Αλέξανδρος, που δολοφονήθηκε στις εννιά παρά δυο λεπτά το βράδυ του Σαββάτου 6 Δεκεμβρίου 2008, με μια σφαίρα στην καρδιά, έγινε μάρτυρας, και σύμβολο, για μια γενιά που έβλεπε ότι δεν υπήρχε μέλλον στα όνειρα της. Mπροστά της είχε να αντιμετωπίσει μια ανίκανη κυβέρνηση, την ασυδοσία μιάς μερίδας επίορκων αστυνομικών, τη φαυλότητα των Μέσων Μαζικής Εξαπάτησης, τη διαφθορά μερίδας της δικαιοσύνης... Τους σκότωσαν τον αυτοσεβασμό, τους κακοποίησαν την προσωπικότητα, τους πέταξαν δακρυγόνα και ληγμένα χημικά στα όνειρα τους. Από τα υποτιθέμενα «ελίτ» σχολεία των Β.Π. μέχρι το indymedia, και από τους αναρχικούς μέχρι τις τέως εργατούπολεις του Περάματος και του Πειραιά όλοι έχουν πια το ίδιο πρόβλημα. Οι φούσκες του μικρόκοσμων τους έσκασαν με ένα πελώριο ΠΑΦ! Η πραγματικότητα δείχνει το πανάσχημο, παρακμιακό πρόσωπο της. Αν δεν υπάρχει μέλλον για σένα, δεν υπάρχει και για μένα, είναι το συμπέρασμα. Η εξέγερση ήταν, και παραμένει,  η μόνη λύση...

“Θα υπάρχει Ελλάδα όταν θα μεγαλώσω;” με ρώτησε ο 10χρονος ανηψιός μου. “Aν δεν καταντήσετε σαν τη γενιά του Πολυτεχνείου, σίγουρα”, του απάντησα. “Γιατί να καταντήσουμε; Θα τα φτιάξουμε όλα από την αρχή”.

Οι λέξεις που μπορούσα να γράψω για τo forum τελείωσαν. H Eξέγερση του Δεκέμβρη όμως δεν τελειώνει εδώ. Θα έχει και συνέχεια. Kαι όχι μόνον στις σκοτεινές αίθουσες της ΄Εβδομης Τέχνης...!

H EΞΕΓΕΡΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΕΚΕΜΒΡΗ....

H 6^η Δεκεμβρίου είναι η μέρα της «μαύρης» επετείου της άνανδρης δολοφονίας του 15χρονου μαθητή Αλέξανδρου Γρηγορόπουλου. Ενός αθώου και ανυπεράσπιστου παιδιού. Τρία ολόκληρα χρόνια έχουν περάσει από εκείνη την μοιραία νύχτα της 6^ης Δεκεμβρίου 2008.

Σχεδόν τρία χρόνια έχουν περάσει από τότε που αποφάσισα να δημιουργήσω μια ταινία για την εξέγερση του 2008. Μετά από πολλές περιπέτειες κατορθώσαμε να ολοκληρώσουμε εγώ κι οι συνεργάτες μου την ΕΞΕΓΕΡΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΕΚΕΜΒΡΗ (“DECEMBER RIOTS”). Σκοπός μας ήταν και είναι να διασωθεί η μνήμη, μια και «...οι άνθρωποι που ξεχνούν το παρελθόν τους είναι καταραμένοι να το επαναλάβουν» ,και να αρχίσει μια διεργασία και ανταλλαγή απόψεων  γύρω από την εξέγερση του 2008. Τα καταφέραμε μόνοι και ανεξάρτητοι, χωρίς καμμιά κρατική, ή παρα-κρατική βοήθεια. Το ταξίδι συνεχίζεται. Με τις επόμενες ταινίες μας.

Θέλω να ευχαριστήσω, όσους στάθηκαν στο πλευρό μας, σε αυτό τον αιματηρό, πολύχρονο αγώνα. Ο περισσότερος κόσμος δεν γνωρίζει ότι οι ανεξάρτητες ταινίες δεν γίνονται με λεφτά, αλλά με αίμα....Τους έχουμε θυμηθεί, και ευχαριστήσει όλους, αναλυτικά, στους τίτλους τέλους της ταινίας. Και είναι πολλοί, πάνω από εκατό άτομα....Ευχαριστώ.... 

GREECE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, ITS POLITICIANS AREN'T...

21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS....

TED HOPE ON INDIE FILM FINANCE.....

IndieFilmFinanceModelV2011.1 : The Ten Factors

film financing, financing

Yesterday I went into some of the factors determining how the Model for IndieFilmFinanceV2011.1 may be set.  If you were taking notes you probably recognized that these are the factors, but I thought it was worth jotting them down for our cheat sheets:

1. Price point / negative cost below $5M;
2. “Estimated” Foreign Value at 80% or higher  of negative costs;
3. Track record of collaborators in US Acquisition market to project 25% of negative costs;
4. Utilization of Soft Money/Tax Benefits as revenue — not enhancement;
5. Manufacture desire: inject freshness & an ability to cut through the noise;
6. Predetermined & Accessible Audience;
7. Aura Of Inevitability= Polished Script+Show Reel or Look Book + _________?
8. Urgency of the deal;
9. Something old (proven genre)
10. Something new (fresh scent).

What does this all add up to?  Is there a formula we can 

DECEMBER RIOTS SHORT VERSION TRAILER

DECEMBER RIOTS TRAILER LONG VERSION

35 DEAD: A HUGE PRICE TO PAY FOR DEMOCRACY IN EGYPT....

…While Greeks are slowly disintegrating as a nation in the state of misery and catatonic apathy, Egyptians decided to take their destiny in their own hands and do something to reclaim their country back. The Tahrir Square revolution had a Part B, a sequel, as Egyptians were tired to wait the military regime to decide for election day and took over the streets. In response as you can see from the shocking FLICKR photos they were riddled with bullets in their heads.

It is ironic that in Greece, the country where democracy was invented, more than 25 centuries ago, nobody is protesting while the majority of the population can’t afford to pay for basic needs and things like decent food and medicine. While in Egypt, long associated in our minds, as a lesser democratic country the youth revolted and swarmed the bloody streets of Cairo.

While select mass media owned by a mafia that includes chronic tax evaders, middle men, blackmailers, and kleptocrats, in Athens, are doing their best to terrorize the public and keep under control the population, in Cairo, social media like Twitter and Facebook are helping the population to break free from the military regime. The world is changing at the blink of an eye. We don’t….

  

DECEMBER RIOTS NEW SHORT-VERSION TRAILER...

THE POOR POLITICIANS IN GREECE....

The Vice President of the self-called socialist government of Greece owns 57 houses and apartments. Again 57!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO. He's no Tyler Perry. He ain't no Spielberg. He "inherited" them.Guess how? He never worked other job in his life than being a politico.
The other VP of the government, and Minister of Financing, and the Economy, in general has 3 MILLION EUROS (4.2 MILLION DOLLARS) in his personal savings account, presumably for shopping groceries and chinese take out. He never worked in his life. He claims that the money belong to his wife, who's from a rich Thessaloniki family, in Northern Greece.
Do you buy their crap? Personally, I don't.

"Padrone, our austerity measures in Greece failed".

"Ask Lovero to put a contract on the taxpayers and announce 

to our protegees a contribution to the special fund".

THE FASCIST REGIME OF IRAN UPHELDS FILM DIRECTOR'S CONVICTION FOR DARING TO MAKE MOVIES....

Somehow this slipped past us this weekend, but Iran has taken another step toward silencing one of the country’s most important filmmakers after an appeals court upheld a six-year jail sentence on Jafar Panahi, according to various reports that included the government-run newspaper Iran. According to that newspaper: “The charges he was sentenced for are acting against national security and propaganda against the regime.” His colleague Mohammad Rasoulof also faced a six-year sentence, and that was knocked down to one year. Panahi’s sentence includes a 20-year ban on making films, and traveling abroad. The convictions against Panahi and Rasoulof prompted an outcry among filmmakers, Amnesty International and international film festivals this year. Panahi’s lawyers reportedly will appeal again, but things are looking dire for an award-winning filmmaker who publicly mourned the deaths of protesters in the presidential elections, and reports say he and Rasoulof reportedly made a film about the aftermath. This is the same government that barbarically sentenced actress Marzieh Vafamehr to 90 lashes and a year in prison for appearing in My Tehran For Sale, and which called out the Cannes Film Festival for “fascist behavior” when it banned director Lars von Trier for his dopey comments about Nazis made at a press conference for Melancholia. Panahi won the Camera d’Or at Cannes for the 1995 film The White Balloon, and the festival pointedly added films by Panahi and Rasoulof to its program in May.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/iranian-filmmaker-jafar-panahi-faces-six-year-stretch-after-sentence-upheld/

THE GAPZILLA....

...The colonial government of George A. Papandreou and its cabinet of incompetent, low class, inhuman like hell, ministers, are refusing to quit. Most of the day and nighttime are also hiding away from their voters, usually behind an "armored" all of policemen, secret agents, and riot police. It is a  surreal comedy that unfolds down there in Greece. Has incidents, gaffes,  moments and scenes that  remind  the Monty Python-esque absurd humor.
Why they refuse to listen to the public opinion through elections? After all Hellas, is the birthplace of democracy, the cradle of the Western civilization.
The answer is simple. There are tons of money still  to be made over Greece's dead body.
Islands, natural gas, gold, oil to sell. To auction. Sometimes to the lowest, and not the highest, bidder.

AVANTI POPOLO....

...OCCUPY WALL STREET marches a crowd of 20.000 in the heart of New York. All over Europe hundreds of thousands of "indignants" are protesting about the rapid rise of unemployment and the financial collapse of middle and working class....
In Athens's Constitution (Syntagma) Square, a large crowd, is expected today. A 48 hour general strike on October 19, and 20 from unions.

DECEMBER RIOTS ORIGINAL POSTER BY CINEMAD

MASSIVE PROTESTS ON OCTOBER 15TH IN ATHENS....

Top cartoonist Yiannis Ioannou dark and humorous drawing on European Union's and Greece's D-Day.
From middle class to the crematoriums of spreads and hedge funds....

MARIO BAVA'S LEGACY LIVES ON.... (PART 1)

BARBARA STEELE IN "BLACK SUNDAY".

 MARIO BAVA.

 
MARIO BAVA (right) WITH LUCIO FULCI  (pictured left).

Italian’s  master of horror Mario Bava’s legacy influenced from rock legends like Black Sabbath to “slasher” franchises like Friday the 13^th.

In 1960’s BLACK SUNDAY (LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO), a black-and-white gothic classic horror film influenced by the German Expressionism, Barbara Steele is starring as a resurrected witch who was burned to death in a small medieval town in Eastern Europe and now seeks revenge on her persecutors. The exquisitely realized expressionist images of cruelty and sexual suggestion shocked the public in the late fifties and ensured a long-standing ban from the hypocricy of the British censor. Also starring John Richardson and Ivo Carrani among others.

In 1971’s A BAY OF BLOOD (BAHIA DE SANGRE), young people in an isolated house near the water are killed one after the other. One of the most colorful horror movies of Mario Bava, who always performed cinematographer duties on his film, influenced Halloween and Friday the 13^th. The film was starring Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Volonte, Laura Betti. BAY OF BLOOD still remains banned in Germany.

Thanks to legendary American producer Samuel Z. Arkoff dubbing efforts, most of Bava’s films are dubbed in English. BLACK SUNDAY has various language versions (French etc.)

Mario Bava’s photos are from VIDEO WATCHDOG.

ΜΑRIO BAVA (at the left) pictured with BORIS KARLOFF.

OCCUPY WALL STREET GROWS STRONGER: THOUSANDS MARCH IN NYC

Middle class families, unions, students joined the "OCCUPY WALL STREET" movement in a peaceful march....This time the crowd was thousands... Finally New Yorkers woke up to claim the American Dream back...


*Photos from  GOTHAMIST, AP.

NEW POLICE VIOLENCE OUTBREAK IN ATHENS' CONSTITUTION SQUARE....

Swat tean man breaks the teeth of female AFP photojournalist capturing beating of a protester fallen on the sidewalk by 15 SWAT men...

R.I. P. VISIONARY AND INNOVATOR STEVE JOBS

American visionary and innovator Steve Jobs (Mac, Pixar, i-pad, i-pod,i-phone) who changed the globe in the  way we communicate, being entertained, take and deliver information, died at 56 from pancreatic cancer. There are many obituaries around the web about Steve Jobs but the quote that epitomizes this great man's modus vivendi:

'Remembering That You Are Going To Die Is The Best Way I Know To Avoid The Trap Of Thinking You Have Something To Lose'. 

Steve Jobs

AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR-SCREENWRITER PAVLOS TASIOS DEAD AT 69....

Award-winning screenwiter-director Pavlos Tasios died today from cancer. Pavlos was a very dear friend and a top director of his generation. Actually in the top-3 along with Nikos Nikolaidis, and twice-nominated for Best Foreign Picture Oscar Vassilis Georgiadis.

 

....Pavlos wrote and directed many hits including "PARANGELIA" ("REQUEST FOR A SONG", 1980), about a night club slaughterfest-made it look and feel chilling like a Greek tragedy, that grossed 5 million euros in its first month of release (gross adjusted for inflation), starring his ex-wife poet-actress Kaerina Gogou, "VARY PEPONI" ("ΗEAVY MELON", 1977), "STIGMA" (1982) about a single mother with an autistic child and countless others. 

He wrote, produce and directed close to twenty feature films and countless TV series.

He was married twice. Survived by three children (one daughter and two boys) and his second wife Kaiti.

"OCCUPY WALL STREET" HAS ITS OWN NEWSPAPER...

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/occupy_wall_str_8.php#more

Occupy Wall Street is starting to look less like an extended camping trip (kind of): It now has a mailing address, an info line, and it will soon have its own newspaper. The Occupy Wall Street Journal has surpassed its $12,000 fundraising goal on Kickstarterand looks like it might actually be a reality. Now, the protesters will have basically everything they need apart from, like, houses. The project's description:

We want to be the people's media. Our first project is The Occupy Wall Street Journal, a four-page broadsheet newspaper with an ambitious print run of 50,000. It's aimed at the general public. The idea is to explain what the protest is about and profile different people who have joined and why they joined. We will explain the issues involved and how the general assembly process operates at Liberty Plaza. It will also offer resources and ways to join. The emphasis will be on quality content, design, photography and artwork that uses incisive humor to make it a lively read.

Most people are reporting that this is the work of the Yes Men, but a Yes Men rep told us that "we are not behind it, but we are 'backing' it on our Kickstarter channel."

Jed Brandt, a communist writer, is credited on the Kickstarter as head of the Journal. We haven't yet been able to reach him for comment.

Now that the project has raised over $18,000, it looks like at least the first two issues will run. That is, if Mayor Bloomberg allows the occupation to continue.

[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

Go to Runnin' Scared for more Voice news coverage.

"OCCUPY WALL STREET" MOVEMENT SPREADS, BLOCKS BROOKLYN BRIDGE, NYPD ARRESTS HUNDREDS....

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/30/occupy-wall-street-protests-new-york_n_989221.html

...Hundreds of people protesting Wall Street abuses were penned in and arrested by police Saturday, two weeks into an ongoing demonstration that has become known on Twitter as #OccupyWallStreet.

Centered at Zuccotti Park since September 17, the gathering that began as a call to arms from anti-consumerist magazine AdBusters has shown no sign of a slowdown.

The movement aims to "express a feeling of mass injustice," according to the group’s declaration for the occupation of New York City released Friday. The injustices include the foreclosure crisis, work place discrimination and student loan debt, among a list of others.

As HuffPost reported recently, the movement is less about specific policy demands and more about an expression of opposition to ever yawning economic inequality driven by Wall Street and its allies in Washington.

Calling themselves an American revolution, the protesters say they plan to stay in the park indefinitely.

George Basta, an official with New York Communities for Change, said that the organizers were encouraged by police to march on the street area of the Brooklyn Bridge, instead of the walkway, then subsequently arrested them for marching in traffic. Two lead organizers, Jonathan Westin and Pete Nagy, were penned in by police. Westin managed to exit the police pen, but Nagy is missing and presumed detained by police, Basta told HuffPost(....)