), who've been filming Christo and Jean-Claude's work since in the '70s. They were there with their cameras in '79 when the artists first pitched their idea to the city of installing hundreds of orange gates throughout the park for two weeks in winter. To hear the nay sayers shooting the idea down originally and then to see footage of the rapturous crowds in 2005, is to understand just a little bit better Christo and Jean-Claude's tremendous artistic vision. Ultimately they insist they do their work for themselves alone, but to be reminded how public art enriches our city dwelling experience is really inspiring. We see the gates drawn on photographs, fabricated, constructed, unfurled and then enjoyed against the backdrop of a lush snow storm. Gates from up above, from far away and then from close up--this movie is a gates-gasm. While some of the extensive footage of the orange sails flapping in the winter winds does drag in spots, it's still some very lovely camera work. Maysles and his co-director Antonio Ferrara have done a wonderful job of documenting that particular moment in New York for posterity. more ›

characters. Franken had developed a very successful career making people laugh, but through the movie we see how his convictions wouldn't allow him to stay quiet about the direction he saw the country heading. He almost makes punditry look like a noble calling. Also good for a liberal chuckle is the footage of Franken going head to head with a very icy Ann Coulter. The fact that she doesn't lean over and pop him one in the nose shows remarkable restraint on her part. Rent this documentary and you'll walk away hoping that Franken's bid for a Senate seat turns out much more successfully than his career in talk radio. more ›

Gothamist has always wondered about the people who translate foreign films. The L.A. Times has a fantastic article which sheds light on this little known part of filmmaking, which is becoming more and more important with globalization etc., ad infinitum. The article profiles Tim Sexton, who translated Y Tu Mama Tambien, as well as offers interesting tidbits like Louis Malle deliberately kept the sentences short in Au Revoir Les Enfants to make subtitling easier. One of the bigger successes lately, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had an American screenwriter, but the writing had to translated to Chinese, then translated back again, to make sure things weren't lost (Interview with writer James Schamus). more ›