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...recession - just as it was on the way up. "The last 10 years has been a renaissance period for independent filmmaking and there has been more money coming into production for films than in any other decade in the history of film," says Jonathan Wolf, managing director of the American Film Market, an annual event where filmmakers and studio executives converge to sign production and distribution deals. But since the economic downturn, many indie movie distributors, including New Line Cinema, Miramax, the Weinstein Company and Paramount Vantage, have either left the market or slashed their funding...
...Like Vuorensola, American animator Nina Paley ignored traditional distribution methods and released her film, Sita Sings the Blues, a comic adaptation of the Hindu epic, The Ramayana, directly online earlier this year. She first created a blog, www.ninapaley.com, to develop a community of supporters, and then posted the film on another site, www.sitasingstheblues.com, for free. It was an instant success. "I have my blog, but I essentially gave the film to the audience and they ran with it," Paley says. "It wasn't self-distribution, it was audience distribution." (See the best blogs of the year...
...besides being a wondrous entertainment, was a lightning bolt to other filmmakers. The movie told them they were interesting enough to be the subjects of their own pictures. Egotism could be the highest form of artistry. For a while, every ambitious American director wanted to do his own 8-1/2. That license may have been issued a bit cavalierly - self-referential cinema, as it was called, could easily turn self-reverential - but it spawned some fascinating films, including Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories and above all Bob Fosse's All That Jazz...
...Peter Bergen, an Al-Qaeda expert at the New American Foundation, says Awlaki was merely "important as an inciter to jihad, no more." Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University says it's unlikely Awlaki would have beeen involved in operational activities. "He was a cleric, not a field commander," he says. (See the effect of Al-Awlaki's sermons...
Whatever his position in the Al Qaeda hierarchy, Awlaki had emerged as a major headache for U.S. officials. American-born and educated, he had contact with at least two 9/11 hijackers before fleeing the US in late 2001. In Yemen, he became something of an e-imam, using the internet to preach fiery anti-American and anti-West sermons. He called upon believers to rise up against the U.S. Because his sermons were published in English, he became popular with radical American Muslims. "He understood American society and was able to tailor his message to American audiences," says Hoffman...