Links for the week

7th October 2012

Being in Pordenone (see my initial post here) inevitably means that I am thinking a lot about moving image archives – but there is more to my current focus of interest than that. This feels like a moment when the tectonic plates of the archive world are starting to shift, and while I do not have the time to explore that idea here I will most definitely be returning to it in the coming weeks. To get you thinking, can I recommend Changing channels, a blog post by Luke McKernan, and a related post, also by Luke, about new access services available at The British Library. Take a look too at Mark Brown’s recent Guardian piece about the BFI’s plans, BFI to launch online player with 10,000 films from its archives. Interesting times, my friends. Meanwhile, across the jump is the start of a list of links to other pieces that have caught my eye in recent days.

• Activist archivists and digital preservation: in the same arena as the links above, this is a fascinating piece by Mike Ashenfelder for The Signal, the Library of Congress’ digital preservation blog.

• Youtube to serve niche tastes by adding channels:… and while we’re on the archives theme, this New York Times article by Claire Cain Miller is a useful pointer to what Youtube is up to.

• Whatever happened to movies for grown ups: yeah, I know, it’s another one of those where-did-it-all-go-wrong in lala land, but David Denby’s short piece for The New Yorker makes some good points.

• Why time travel stories are messy: seen Looper? (It’s good but not as great as my current fave, Killing Them Softly.) Anyway, if you enjoyed Looper, you’ll like Charlie Jane Anders’ engaging article for io9.

• Stretching the shot: it wouldn’t be ‘Links for the week’ with a David Bordwell piece, and here’s the master’s latest – about unusually sustained shots, most especially in contemporary Asian cinema.

• Die Niebelungen: now this is how you review a new Blu-ray, in this case the Masters of Cinema imminent release of Fritz Lang’s 1924 masterpiece – Gary W. Tooze does the honours for DVD Beaver.

• Do we need professional critics?: The New York Times section Room for Debate has some fresh thoughts aplenty on what is in these days of near-ubiquitous social media a perennial question.

• Here and gone – the strange relationship of Lionel Messi and hi shome town in Argentina: I do not tend to offer many football links here, but this is an exceptional essay (that is also exceptionally well presented online) by Wright Thompson for ESPN Outside the Lines.