Category: TV & Movies

LIFE ITSELF will be screened at the Tenth Annual Traverse City, Film Festival, co-founded by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. The festival, which runs from Tuesday, July 29th through Sunday, August 3rd, has scheduled several screenings of “Life Itself,” Steve James’ acclaimed documentary about Roger Ebert. Moviegoers had the opportunity to view the film on the big screen Thursday, July 31st, at 3:15pm. And after the noon screening on Sunday, August 3rd, Michael Moore will do a Q&A with Chaz Ebert.

“I have been looking forward to visiting the Traverse City Film Festival because I have heard so many good things about it,” said Chaz Ebert. “My only regret is that Roger won’t be there with me. I still remember when Roger reviewed Michael Moore’s first movie, ‘Roger & Me,’ at the Telluride Film Festival and what a breakthrough that was in documentary film history.”

Chaz continues: “This movie has been so cathartic for me and my family and we are happy to share it with Traverse City. My daughter Sonia and my granddaughter Raven have been pillars of strength for me. I am so happy that Michael Moore invited it to his festival. I am also looking forward to the other films at the festival.”

Other notable films at this year’s festival include Kat Candler’s “Hellion,” Ryan Murdock’s “Bronx Obama,” Todd Douglas Miller’s “Dinosaur 13,” Lucia Puenzo’s “The German Doctor,” and Andrew Rossi’s “Ivory Tower.”

For the full festival lineup and to purchase tickets to “Life Itself,” visit the official festival site.

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/life-itself/life-itself-to-screen-at-traverse-city-film-festival

    

This week’s guide to the best of what to watch at home when you get back from checking out “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Calvary” in theaters is taking a bit of a left turn. This guide started life a few months back as the “Streaming Consumer Guide,” focusing primarily on what’s new on Netflix, with links back to our staff reviews of the films, most of them written by Roger. Netflix was leading the way, and they have a horrendous interface in which it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s new. People told me all the time they couldn’t even find new releases. So we helped. And then there were more On Demand releases of note, including films like “Blue Ruin,” “Snowpiercer,” and “Life Itself” being available in homes before Blu-ray. So we picked out the three most interesting VOD releases of the last two weeks and offered previews. And then we recently added Blu-ray and DVD releases of note.

What’s different this week? You can hear tumbleweeds blowing through the streaming service known as Netflix. The big problem is merely a calendar-based one. This piece runs every other Thursday and tomorrow is the 1st of the new month, the day on which Netflix does most of its library upheaval. So, the last two weeks have been dry. Check out “It Felt Like Love.” But we’re going to open with Blu-ray this week.

NOTABLE NEW BLU-RAY RELEASES

The most interesting on-disc releases this week are massive box sets that we’ll cover independently, including “Herzog: The Collection,” “Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery,” and Criterion’s box set devoted to Jacques Demy.

While those are the sets to add to your holiday season wish list if you can’t afford them now, they’re far from alone in terms of interesting product on the market. And it comes at us from various genres, companies, countries and eras of filmmaking. Here are five releases worth a look since we last spoke with links back to our original reviews and a way to buy them.

“Blue Ruin”

Jeremy Saulnier’s intense thriller drew deserved comparisons to the Coens’ “Blood Simple” when it was first screened at Cannes last year before running the festival gauntlet to everything from Chicago to Sundance. It’s a taut, spectacular debut about the ripple effect of violence and vengeance. One act driven by revenge leads to another. And another. With a spectacular performance by Macon Blair, “Blue Ruin” is precisely the kind of film that will continue to grow an audience through word of mouth and I suspect we haven’t heard the last of Mr. Saulnier. Jump on this bandwagon before someone is comparing a future work to “Blue Ruin.” Click here to buy it.

Special Features:
Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier and Macon Blair
No Regrets: The Making of “Blue Ruin”
Deleted Scenes
Camera Test

“Insomnia” (Criterion)

More film goers may be familiar with the underrated remake by Christopher Nolan that starred Al Pacino and Robin Williams before both actors arguably gave up on interesting character work but the original, recently given the Criterion upgrade from their standard DVD release a few years back, offers must-see viewing on its own. One, it features one of Stellan Skarsgard’s best performances, one which you can learn more about through a new conversation between the international arthouse star and the film’s director. Two, it is an excellent example of how to use setting in a police procedural. The fog, the tension of the landscape, “Insomnia” is a fantastic noir before the mystery had become such a common genre again in the ’00s and ’10s. You may see movies like “Insomnia” a lot now but you didn’t in the ’90s. Finally, Nolan’s work has been so dissected that it can only help you to go to the source and see what the famous director took and discarded. As usual, this is a great Criterion release, including a pair of great short films. Click here to buy it.

Special Features:
New Conversation Between Director Erik Skjoldbaerg and Actor Stellan Skarsgard
Two Short Films by Skjoldbaerg: “Near Winter” (1993) and “Close to Home” (1994)
PLUS: A Booklet Featuring an Essay by Critic Jonathan Romney

“Noah”

The critical and commercial consensus on “Noah” remains one of the most divisive of 2014. I imagine that description will hold for the rest of the year as well. Me, I firmly come down on the “thumbs up” side of the debate, seeing how some purists may have been offended by the liberties taken in storytelling they deemed sacred but blown away by the creativity and commitment displayed by Darren Aronofsky throughout this production. Having said that, I wish the Paramount Blu-ray release was a bit more extensive. “Noah” was a notoriously tumultuous production and I would have liked to see a bit more of the behind the scenes drama in more detailed special features. As for the film itself, it looks and sound great, as do most Paramount theatrical releases. You may have heard people mock “Noah.” Give it a shot and decide for yourself. Click here to buy it.

Special Features:
Iceland: Extreme Beauty
The Ark Exterior: A Battle for 300 Cubits
The Ark Exterior: Animal Two by Two

“Scanners” (Criterion)

I love David Cronenberg. The Criterion Blu-ray edition of “Videodrome” is a must-own. I’ll defend everything from “Shivers” to “A History of Violence” and many films in between. And I can’t wait to see “Map to the Stars” at TIFF. And yet I’ve never been a huge fan of “Scanners.” I was excited that Criterion chose it just for the chance to revisit it and reappraise it. My feelings haven’t changed dramatically. I still like it but see it as more mainstream and shallow than the best of Cronenberg’s works. Give me “The Fly” or “Dead Ringers” any day of the week. However, minor Cronenberg is still major filmmaking, and so film lovers will be happy to include “Scanners” in their collection, and the Criterion release is typically strong although Cronenberg himself is conspicuously absent. The special features focus heavily on the technical aspects of the production, although do feature a new interview with Michael Ironside. Most interesting is the new documentary on special effects, especially the way the legendary head-sploding scene was pulled off. Hint: It involved old burgers and a shotgun. Click here to buy it.

Special Features:
The “Scanners” Way
“Mental Saboteur,” A New Interview with Michael Ironside
“The Ephemoral Diaries,” A 2012 Interview with Stephen Lack
Excerpt from a 1981 Interview with Cronenberg on the CBC’s “The Bob McLean Show”
“Stereo” (1969), Cronenberg’s First Feature Film
Trailer and Radio Spots
PLUS: A Booklet Featuring an Essay by Critic Kim Newman

NEW TO ON DEMAND

The best releases for films still in theaters or not yet released on Blu-ray are still “Life Itself,” “Snowpiercer,” and “The Congress” but there are a few that you can order On Demand now that aren’t in theaters yet. Check out previews below:

“4 Minute Mile”

“About Alex”

“Life After Beth” (playing exclusive On Demand through DirecTV)

BEST OF THE REST

There’s almost nothing new in the world of Amazon Prime but you can use the service to catch up on “The Expendables 2” before the new one comes out if you want to do such a thing. You really should continue to work through the great HBO classics added to Amazon. As for Hulu, it’s similarly quiet on the digital front. Use the downtime to check out their amazing Criterion collection.

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/demanders/home-entertainment-consumer-guide-july-31-2014

    

1.

“Dick Smith (1922-2014): The master of movie makeup”: At The Dissolve, Matt Singer pens a terrific, video-stuffed obit to the masterful movie makeup artist, who passed away today at 92. Related: Mike Barnes of The Hollywood Reporter reflects on Smith’s extraordinary career. See also: Roger Ebert’s four-star review of William Friedkin’s 1973 classic, “The Exorcist,” featuring some of Smith’s most iconic work.

“He couldn’t find a job in Hollywood, so after he got out of school, Smith became the first staff makeup artist at NBC. After almost 15 years in television, Smith left the company and finally started making the transition to film. His first significant film work was making Anthony Quinn look like a punch-drunk prize fighter in 1962’s ‘Requiem For a Heavyweight.’ From there, he went on to spend almost three decades as one of the premier makeup men in Hollywood. He made Dustin Hoffman look like a 121-year-old man in ‘Little Big Man,’ and created Marlon Brando’s makeup in ‘The Godfather.’ Linda Blair’s outrageous look in ‘The Exorcist’ became a sensation, but some of Smith’s finest work was his least visible; for ‘Taxi Driver,’ for example, he designed the mohawk that Robert De Niro wore as Travis Bickle. To this day, few people realize De Niro didn’t actually shave his head for the role.”

2.

“History of Film: ‘Playtime'”: Andy Crump writes a great essay for Movie Mezzanine about Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece, with an illustration by RogerEbert.com‘s own Krishna Shenoi.

“‘Playtime’ invokes obvious caricature to make its point, so ultimately the resemblances between Tati’s presentation and reality are only found in passing. But in consideration of the film’s age, it’s remarkably prophetic even today, and has lost none of its comic potency. Even among the tragic erasure of every intangible quality and physical element that defines Paris, Tati finds humor, joy and even compassion; as the film winds down, following a lengthy second half spent in the confines of a high class pop up nightclub, it raises a nearly anarchic spirit of celebration as sophistication gives way to revelry and the casting down of Tativille’s artifice. We even catch a moment of kindness as Hulot and Barbara part ways with the exchange of an unexpected gift. Maybe the cities of tomorrow will lose all of the charm they bear today, but in the end, perhaps we won’t lose our humanity.”

3.

“Read Tom Hiddleston’s Emotional Letter to Joss Whedon Thanking Him for ‘The Avengers'”: Reposted by Carolyn Cox of The Mary Sue.

“I love how throughout you continue to put Loki on some kind of pedestal of regal magnificence and then consistently tear him down. He gets battered, punched, blasted, side-swiped, roared at, sent tumbling on his back, and every time he gets back up smiling, wickedly, never for a second losing his eloquence, style, wit, self-aggrandisement or grandeur, and you never send him up or deny him his real intelligence…. That he loves to make an entrance; that he has a taste for the grand gesture, the big speech, the spectacle. I might be biased, but I do feel as though you have written me the coolest part.”

4.

“The ‘Magic’ is Gone: The Lazy Nihilism of Woody Allen”: Justin Chang’s extremely well-written Variety essay analyzes Allen’s disappointing follow-up to his Oscar-winning gem, “Blue Jasmine.”

“In a world without God, only love — reckless, passionate and age-blind — gives us cause to indulge what the heart wants, regardless of what the mind knows. Any other attempt to find grace, transcendence or eternal assurance will ultimately prove empty and meaningless. To be similarly blunt: This is not a worldview that I find useful, thoughtful or, in any sense, truthful. But that’s beside the point. A great artist can either flatter or challenge our deepest-held convictions, and to rule out cynicism and misanthropy would mean dismissing some of our most vital filmmakers, from Billy Wilder and Luis Bunuel to the Coen brothers and Lars von Trier. And I would argue that the Woody Allen of yesteryear — the one who memorably asked ‘Why is life worth living?’ in ‘Manhattan’ and briefly contemplated suicide in ‘Hannah and Her Sisters,’ or who channeled his rage against humanity into the scabrous comedy of ‘Deconstructing Harry’ — surely belongs in their company. The Woody Allen who made ‘Magic in the Moonlight,’ alas, is another matter entirely. Beautifully shot and lethally inert, the movie doesn’t just feel old-hat or out of touch; it’s world-weary to the point of exhaustion.”

5.

“Fan Bingbing in Talks to Star in Anna May Wong Biopic”: An enticing news brief from WENN.com.

“The film will centre around Wong’s life as the first Chinese-American movie star, recalling her poverty-stricken upbringing in downtown Los Angeles and her rise to fame in Hollywood. Her breakout role came in 1924 when she played a Mongol slave opposite Douglas Fairbanks in ‘The Thief of Bagdad,’ but she was constantly offered roles to play negative stereotypes of Chinese females.”

Image of the Day

The Wall Street Journal‘s Ben Fritz reports on the campaign mounted by filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams that orders studios “to promise orders” of film from Kodak.

Video of the Day

Leigh Singer’s excellent video essay, “Slow Motion Movie Supercut,” gets a fine write-up from Max Winter at IndieWire.

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/thumbnails/thumbnails-73114

    

This Friday sees the launch of the 20^th annual
Black Harvest Film Festival, which will run until August 28^th at the
Siskel Film Center in Chicago. The event kicks off with a ceremony celebrating
the life and work of Roger Ebert and Chaz Ebert. As Sergio Mims, Co-Programmer
and Consultant for Black Harvest told me, selecting Roger and Chaz for the
Deloris Jordan Award for Excellence in Community in Leadership was an easy
choice. As he says, they “were our only choices and so fitting for our 20^th
anniversary. Considering Roger’s enormous legacy in film criticism and the
extraordinary work that Chaz has been doing before and after Roger’s passing to
keep his legacy still alive and vibrant, who else could it have been?”

Chaz and Roger were supporters of Black Harvest for years
and black cinema in general and so it’s particularly appropriate that their
honoring comes at the beginning of the festival and not in a centerpiece or at
the end. It is the introduction to a strong slate of films from around the
world, including special guests like Danny Glover and Bill Duke, and some
special works from right here in Chicago or nearby Detroit. Mims says that “Our
aim was to make this the biggest festival ever and we’re showing 50 features,
shorts and documentaries—more films than we have ever shown before with wider
range and diversity than ever before.”

As more and more independent film pops up in specialty
festivals or online, we have to remember why it’s still so important for a
festival like Black Harvest to thrive. As Mims says, “The majority of black
films, as they have always been since the silent era, are made by independent filmmakers
completely outside the studio system. They don’t get the kind of attention they
deserve.” This year’s slate at Black Harvest includes more than a few films
that deserve our attention.

Starting at the very top, “Pelo Malo” (8/17 & 18) isn’t just the best film I saw in
advance of the Black Harvest Film Festival this year, it’s one of the best
films of the year, period. A gentle, fascinating character study about two
people—a mother and son—who struggle to get along in a world that doesn’t seem
to really support either of them, this is a beautiful film. It’s moving without
being manipulative. It’s genuine while also remaining artistic. The story of a
young man confused a bit about his place in society, as partially represented
by his kinky (or bad) hair and the single mother who seems to struggle at every
turn to take care of and understand him has the air of remarkable truth. It is
a great examination of how we struggle for identity and community often in the
same breath. We want to be ourselves but in the context of community whether
they be ethnic or familial. This is a must-see that I hope will have a strong
life outside of Black Harvest but that I worry won’t find the audience it
deserves. Help it along by seeing it here.

One of the most ambitious films of the 2014 Black Harvest
program is Daniel Nearing’s “Hogtown,”
(8/22 & 25) a work that may not exist were it not for the support given
its filmmaker by Roger Ebert, who named his previous work, “Chicago Heights,”
one of the best art films of 2010. “Hogtown” is a remarkably daring piece of
work conceptually as Nearing crafts a narrative around the 1919 race riots but
does so in a way that makes the entire experience feel like a dream. In our
memories or dreams of days gone by, we don’t necessarily get the period details
100% right and so Nearing sets his film in a 1919 that makes no attempt to hide
many of its anachronistic tendencies. The architecture often looks like today’s
much less a century ago but it creates a dream-like canvas on which Nearing
paints his picture. Reportedly also heavily inspired by the great Paul Auster
(which fans of the author will be able to see in the interconnecting and almost
poetic approach to city life Nearing depicts), “Hogtown” is the kind of
ambitious work for which festivals like Black Harvest were founded. It’s not a
piece that’s going to have an easy path to an audience and so festivals need to
support it.

From Caracas to 1919 Chicago to modern day Detroit in Hugh
Schulze’s memorable “Cass,” (8/17 &
18) which features about-to-breakout star David Dastmalchian (who you may
have seen the Chicago Critics Film Festival’s Closing Night film “Animals”) and
a fantastic performance from the remarkably natural and incredibly talented Rachel
Hilson as the title character, a young woman who forms a unique friendship with
the troubled artist who takes up residence in the abandoned home next door to
her family. Cass could easily be a stereotype or cliché but Hilson grounds her
in a believable, stellar performance. James McDaniel of “NYPD Blue” fame co-stars
as a single father trying to figure out how he lost his wife. The centerpiece
of “Cass” is a fantastic scene at the Diego Rivera mural at the Detroit
Institute of Arts. Dastmalchian explains how the detail of Rivera’s work
reflect the passion of the artist. Again, it’s a moment that feels like a
commentary on the festival, one populated by artists unwilling to compromise
their visions.

There are a few other films this year that either weren’t
available in advance or I couldn’t get to but have been recommended by many,
including Mr. Mims, so you may want to take a closer look at “Jayhawkers” (8/3 & 4), “Unsound” (8/12
& 13), “That Daughter’s Crazy” (8/15 & 16), “The Bicycle” (8/19 &
20), and “The Forgotten Kingdom”
(8/26 & 27) and don’t miss a workshop led by Mims himself on August 10^th
at 1pm called “The Realities of
Screenwriting.”

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/festivals-and-awards/2014-black-harvest-film-festival-preview

    

You wouldn’t know it to look at me now, but there was once a
time when I had quite a bit of expertise in the Marvel Universe. I came as
close to tearing up while reading a comic book as I’ll ever do when the Scarlet
Witch finally married The Vision­—as eloquent an argument for marriage equality
as genre fiction has ever essayed, by the way. I did, I must admit, check out
well before the entity called The Guardians of the Galaxy turned up in said
universe. I bring this up because there are some MU characters in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” that I did recognize—super-evil demigod Thanos, Drax
The Destroyer, and one or two others I guess—but I ultimately found that it was
that particular continuity, the need to tie this movie’s adventures into
something larger, that made the movie lag a bit.

In many respects, “Guardians,” directed and co-written by
indie wit James Gunn, and starring buffed-up former schlub Chris Pratt and
Really Big Sci-Fi Blockbuster vet Zoe Saldana (here dyed green as opposed to
her “Avatar” blue), is a fun and relatively fresh space Western. Think “Firefly” pitched at 15-year-olds, with a lot of overt “Star Wars” nods. And super-“irreverent”
dialogue that is, more often than not, genuinely funny. The wisecracking by the
characters played by Pratt (a kind of junior Han Solo) and voiced by Bradley
Cooper (whose Rocket Raccoon, who is, yes, a genetically altered raccoon) is so
incessant viewers of a certain age might wonder whether this movie has been put
through the “What’s Up Tiger Lily” dialogue-replacement treatment before
release.

Pratt’s self-styled “Starlord” and Rocket are not the strangest of
initially inadvertent teammates in this intergalactic posse. Saldana’s Gamora
is a stealthy warrior princess who’s been lying low in an evil family before
revealing her good intentions; wrestling star Dave Bautista’s Drax is a
vengeance-driven behemoth whose florid language only briefly masks his
inability to take anything other than literally; and Rocky’s “muscle,” Groot, is a walking,
minimally talking tree. These guys are entertainingly motley, which makes the
fact that their mission, to save the universe from a mass-murdering
megalomaniac who seeks an item which will grant him unimaginable mass-murdering
power (yes, more mass-murdering power than he ever had before), is generic in a
way that’s pretty consistent with movies of this sort.

You may have noticed, incidentally, that a lot of film
critics tend to get kind of defensive when reviewing movies based on comic
books. Like, you probably noticed that up top I tried to claim some comic
book-respecting bonafides. I’ve done this thing before when reviewing
comic-book movies. Some day, I may have to actually bring out the big guns,
like the fact that I used to be palsy with Mike Kaluta, or that I once went to
a Halloween party at Berni Wrightson’s house. I don’t do this because I’m afraid
of getting death threats from easily irritated comic book fans (which hasn’t
happened to me, and thanks). I do it because as someone who got a lot out of
comics growing up, and still has a healthy respect for the graphic form, I find
comic book movies kind of frustrating, and am bent out of shape by having my
frustration chalked up to a lack of understanding of the form.

What does this
have to do with “Guardians?” It ties into what I mentioned before. While this
movie is pretty lively in a lot of its particulars, the stilted portent with
which its villains—the bumpy-jawed Thanos (Josh Brolin, not that you can tell)
and the megalomaniacal Ronan (Lee Pace)—make themselves felt is pretty tired.
The “funny animal” tribute/homages of “Guardians” bump up uncomfortably against
the faux-majesty of the bad guys in a way that the actual comic-book form is
malleable enough to at least sidestep. I think Gunn knows it, too: one of the
movie’s only genuinely subversive jokes sees one of the heroes actually yawning
in the pro-forma slow-motion “walk to destiny” shot that heralds the movie’s
climax. Which climax is, as is also pro forma, big and loud and filled with
indiscriminate destruction and slaughter of sentient beings. But as it takes
place on a planet other than the one the audience is on and so doesn’t involve
the razing of a recognizable city, it’s a little less troubling than it might
have been.

It seems as if I’m listing a lot of not-fun things in what I’ve
called a fun movie, but again, I’m just voicing some frustration because, in my
puny mind—which can only imagine the extent to which Gunn and his team had to
fight for every bit of creative license they were allowed—the not-fun parts
seemed entirely avoidable. What will win the day among those not given to overthinking
will be the charm of the cast—which also includes Benicio Del Toro in a bit
role that allows him to exercise a generous amount of his legendary performing
eccentricity, and Michael Rooker in a gruff part that would have gone to Ron
Perlman had Guillermo Del Toro directed the movie—the sunniness of its eventual
optimism, and the infectiousness of its vintage-Earth-pop soundtrack. A
soundtrack the film’s characters appreciate as much as the audience will, which
is part of the whole point.

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/guardians-of-the-galaxy-2014

    

You’ve probably heard about the event when a small wish made by a five-year-old leukemia survivor blossomed into a social media feel-good event of the year. Panels in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con may have been packed with lines that started the day before the panels, but the panel for the crowdsourcing campaign for “Batkid Begins” represented a moment in time when the hearts of 25,000 people in San Francisco and 2 billion people worldwide through social media were captivated by Batkid.

Last year, on November 15, San Francisco was turned into Gotham City for one of the most elaborate Make-A-Wish projects. The San Francisco Chronicle published a “Gotham City Chronicle,” the real police chief recorded special messages to call for Batman (Eric Johnston) with his trusty sidekick Batkid to save the day. Originally, Miles was told he was venturing away from his hometown of Tule Lake, CA to pick up a Batman costume in San Francisco. At the hotel, a local TV news broadcast was interrupted with an emergency call for help from police chief Greg Suhr.

When Patricia Wilson of Make-A-Wish Foundation in San Francisco began planning an event for Miles Scott, they hoped for a crowd of 200. And she told the SDCC crowd, “I don’t care what the police chief says, I only asked for 2 cops.” In the end. Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King”) wrote a personalized Batcall for Batkid, 18 Lamborghinis were offered, Apple and Twitter offered to help with the media and Batkid was congratulated by President Obama on Twitter.

The teaser shown to the SDCC crowd left more than a few audience members sniffling. For the panel, Mashable’s deputy editor Chris Taylor acted as emcee introducing the Emmy Award-winning director Dana Nachman (“Witch Hunt,” “Love Hate Love” and “The Human Experiment”), Make-A-Wish director Wilson, Batkid’s Batman (inventor and software engineer Eric Johnston) and the damsel saved from a Riddler’s fiendish bomb (Sue Graham Johnston, Eric’s wife) and Batkid’s Penguin (Lucasfilm software engineer Mike Jutan).

Jutan described how the Penguin waddle evolved and why the Penguin was chosen over, say the Joker. “Caesar Romero’s Joker was too scary for a five-year-old. The Penguin, he’s a silly, waddley guy.” Then there was getting the mascot of the San Francisco Giants, Lou Seal, to AT&T Park so that Batkid could save Lou Seal from the Penguin.

The day overwhelmed the small cast of volunteers and crashed the Make-A-Wish website. Sue Graham Johnston had no idea so many people would surround her, pushing microphones into her face as she waited to be rescued by Batkid. That proved more frightening than the neon green bomb.

Batkid Day may be over, but this team hopes to finish this documentary. There’s more than enough photos and video to use, but the “Batkid Begins” Indiegogo campaign is currently at 48 percent ($47,850 out of the goal of $100,000). The campaign started mid-July, runs until August 19. Perks include Batkid T-shirts and baseball hats.

There’s already a 10-minute video “Batkid: The Official Make-A-Wish Story” produced by John Crane Films and directed by John Crane, but “Batkid Begin” would be more detailed look into the events, including background material about Miles’ parents, Nick and Natalie.

Some superheroes need super powers. Some superheroes have no problem getting their movies made about fictional feats of dare-doing. Some superheroes need a large cast and crew and a big budget. Not this one. Batkid brought together one city with a simple and naïve wish.

Holy social media, Batman. Sometimes the Internet and social media can help fight the forces of evil, and bring a city together, united against a common enemy (cancer), if you have just the right kind of super hero. For San Francisco in November 2013, that hero was Batkid.

Source: http://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/comic-con-2014-the-saga-of-batkid-begins