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The 30 Best Films of 2013

Anyone who tells you that 2013 wasn't a spectacular year for movies is either lying through their teeth or is someone who spent most of the year cooped up in their apartment watching episodic television on Netflix. Here go the 30 best films of the year. 30. Fruitvale Station - Directed by Ryan Coogler 29. Post Tenebras Lux - Directed by Carlos Reygadas 28. Side Effects - Directed by Steven Soderbergh 27. Room 237 - Directed by Rodney Ascher 26. Before Midnight - Directed by Richard Linklater 25. Lenny Cooke - Directed by Joshua and Ben Safdie 24. The Place Beyond The Pines - Directed by Derek Cianfrance 23. Blue Jasmine - Directed by Woody Allen 22. Nebraska - Directed by Alexander Payne 21. Mud - Directed by Jeff Nichols 20. Gravity - Directed Alfonso Cuarón 19. The End of Love - Directed by Mark Webber 18. American Hustle - Directed by David O. Russell 17. Inside Llewyn Davis - Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen 16. Her - Directed by Spike J

"Digital New Wave: Creating and Curating" at 2013 Oceanside International Film Festival

August 24, 2013 - Oceanside, California  " Digital New Wave: Creating and Curating workshop by Nelson Carvajal & Amir George. This demonstrative, informational, and interactive workshop will highlight the new wave of digital filmmaking that has revolutionized both the online and offline world of independent cinema. The presenters will tell about new channels and unconventional ways of film exhibition (“alternative distribution”) for independent digital filmmakers to reach out to wider audiences in the industry, which is over-saturation of content. Through examining case studies and video illustrations, the workshop will offer an explanation of on marketing and gaining exposure for one’s film works specifically in the current digital age, in which advertisements printed on paper and physical DVDs may eventually be “things of the past”. It will explain the creative and practical ways to benefit from the digital age as well the problems associated with it.

Press Play "Pacino: Full Roar" Video Essay Highlighted on TV's ReelzChannel

My Press Play video essay for indieWIRE , titled Pacino: Full Roar , went viral and was even highlighted on television's ReelzChannel . Check out the clip below from the The Reelz Show program.

Jean-Luc Godard: "Every Edit Is A Lie"

Radical French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard is still one of the leading figures in the movement to challenge and transform traditional forms of so-called Hollywood filmmaking. Last year, as an exercise in two parts, I created these two video mash ups (essays?) on Godard's own work. [Beneath each video is the original description that was published on its Vimeo page.] SOURCE: Pierrot Le Fou dist. Pathé Contemporary Films MUSIC: "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye (MAKING MIRRORS Album)   Unquestionably one of the most audacious and simultaneously problematic tracking shots in cinematic history, this sequence from Jean-Luc Godard's Week End (1967) succeeds in visually demonstrating a chaotic cross section of human existence. The downside is that we have to (annoyingly) hear cars honking on the soundtrack for nearly eight minutes. In reaction to this, I have manipulated this portion of the film by way of arranging the visuals to