A short film shot in Astoria, Queens during the blizzard is getting high praise from Roger Ebert, who says it deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject. The short, titled "Idiot With a Tripod," is an homage to the 1929 short "Man With a Movie Camera" (which you can see on Ebert's blog). Filmmaker Jamie Stuart emailed the video to Ebert on Monday by 4:18 p.m., and the critic says, "You can tell from the cinematography he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. He held the Vertov film in memory. Stuart must already been thinking of how he would do the edit and sound. Any professional will tell you the talent exhibited here is extraordinary." Take a look for yourself below (and Stuart has also offered up this Quicktime link): more ›

If you've ever stepped foot in the East Village, you've probably seen Jim Power's work. Bedazzled around lamp posts and trash cans, his art has been brightening up the neighborhood since Avenue A was adventurous, B was brave, C was crazy and D was deadly. Now Elvis Maynard, a film student at Hunter College, has made a documentary both honoring Jim's work and following the ever-controversial change that has come to the neighborhood in the past years. At his peak, Jim had over 65 lamp posts decorated in the city, though he never got funding for his work. He describes his trail of mosaics as "a nice thing people would enjoy and it would make people feel good." The film also has a chance to be aired on PBS on Saturday night, so go vote for it! [Via EV Grieve] more ›

Barack Obama's campaign organization is in hot water with Joel Klein, the NYC School's Chancellor, after it produced a short film (it runs about 13 minutes) starring Bronx public high school students and teachers discussing race issues and Obama's campaign. The video was distributed online to generate revenue for the candidate's campaign and the page where the video is located features a prominent "DONATE NOW" button. more ›