Pan Left Productions

On January 16 the masses gathered in Phoenix to march for human rights and demand action from the Obama administration to stop the abuses by Sheriff Joe Arpaio . The momentum towards change is getting stronger. Mi video is heavy on poetic aesthetic and light on news info., so if you need to get educated on the matter I suggest... http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arpaio • http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/ and info. on the movement is here... http://puenteaz.org/ and of course mas to come on my end soon, but until then Zack's palabras will do just fine for now. P@z.

Get on YouTube, rate it high, and leave some good comments (fight back the haters por favor). Also on Vimeo

Derechos Humanos made this video about the Panda Express 11 workers arrested in 2008 for fake ID's and were held in Pima County Jail without bail. For more info go to http://derechoshumanosaz.net/

So not to get all mushy here, but I HEART Pan Left. After going thru hours of editing recently and submitting a work-in-progress to Sundance, I have a whole new appreciation for this collective. If you're a member you may know, or you may not, but we have a wealth of knowledge, talent, and great minds available to us. It's something that many go off to far off places in film school to get, but we have it right here in our dusty little desert city. I was able to gather volunteers, advice, and dedicated pan lefties willing to spend late hours and early mornings with me on my recent journey, and they're still around to help. If you're new or old to us and working on a project-or not, reach out, help out, and do it some more. There's plenty of people in the collective that bring a lot of good things from our collaboration. As the saying goes, "el peublo unido, jamas sera vencido"- the people united will never be divided.

Also, there's been a great e-mail fundrasing campaign if you've been following, http://www.panleft.org/anniversary_day5.html
which reminds me- pitch in some money in the collection plates if you can. we need and deserve it.

Also, also, we got a new meeting coming up July 20th- the Development Meeting. Every 3rd Monday now. It's really important because that's where we'll decide how to keep the engines running and the doors open. Be there.

The Pan Left 15 year trailer is on YouTube and Vimeo now, so... u know what to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWgX9Tq2tWI
http://vimeo.com/5510960

ok documentary buffs and fellow panlefties/DIY filmmakahs. book mark this website now!
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/capturing-reality/

Pick your favorite doc. maker and get to know new ones. Time to get learned from this amazing catalog of experienced voices in documentaries. Take note Pan Left we could do this too, can u imagine all the collective and people we know doing a similar site? Imagine.

David Lynch has a new web series called Interview Project which are interviews (I assume video; see earlier Lynch charla) with "every day" people encountered on a cross country road trip. Sounds like familiar road trip genre stuff and Lynch always gathers the critic crowd, so debates will begin, but after watching the first two episodes and the trailer, they're interesting from a "get to know your neighbor" perspective. The cinematography looks great and I tend to take notice of the simple minimal stuff these days since I need some reprogramming from my MTV youth, so i'll keep tuning in. However...

not sure how the critics and bloggers will rate this new Lynch project, but i'm willing to bet he'll receive some acclaim for creating this kind of docu-web series. So it occurred to me that if you like this kind of approach there's another great docu-web series that's been around a while and has a similar style. The videos from Center for Creative Chaos has some excellent on-the-scene videos with homeless people in their web series, and although the theme might be different from Lynch's project; I felt a similar vibe to the connection being created with people on camera and so far I've found their stores more compelling. So I want to give a salud to, Ron Austin, the producer with the homeless documentary team at Center for Creative Chaos who creates media that doesn't get noticed like Lynch, but are no less important.

http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com/
http://community.centerforcreativechaos.com/

I've heard of this film critic favorite animated film Sita Sings the Blues but what seems even more fascinating to me is the distribution model that animator, Nina Paley, created for it. It has to do with showing it for free, and accepting personal donations to recover the production costs. I'd prefer you go to Nina's website and let her explain- http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/ This article too has some of the lowdown- http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/03/17/f-sita-sings-the-blues.html I'm sure Señor Hise is aware of the Sita craze and the copyright free/creative commons implications. Maybe he could add on the topic, and others of course. I'm thinking this distro. model could work for Pan Left? No se. We're still no Radiohead, but interesting times for sure. Thoughts? Or if you just want to watch crazy colors and animation that makes you go wowww, her ya go:

This is just mind blowing. I have to share it. SIt back and watch these vids from musician Kutiman. He re-mixed YouTube videos to make these music videos. It's in a category like no other. http://thru-you.com/

Get a taste right here:

Zack de la Rocha at Tonatierra from J.M. Aragón on Vimeo.

02.27.09- COMIN' BACK AROUND AGAIN! YEEAHHH!!! Zack de la Rocha speaks and performs at Tonatierra in Phoenix the night before the March to Stop Arpaio. Did that really happen? Was I really there? What a moment! Gracias, Zack. La lucha sigue, sigue!

...and for the YouTube fanz, here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kKfdp-ZXs

More information at:
http://ndlon.org/
http://tonatierra.org/
http://puenteaz.org/