I not only had the cool opportunity to attend the Babelgum Online Film Festival Awards where Brooklyn’s own Christina Voros won the Spike Lee Award for her documentary short The Ladies, I also got an awesome chance to have a Q and A session with her. She discusses her start in film, how hard it is to become an established female filmmaker, and the film’s two stars and sisters, Vali and Mimi (pictured below).

Q: I understand you’re from Brooklyn; did you always live there?

A: No, though I’m not leaving anytime soon! I’m a New York transplant, via Boston, Budapest and Nantucket. I live in Bed-Stuy now and it’s absolutely home.

Q: Where did your desire for filmmaking start?

A: My background was in theatre (and bartending). I was applying to theatre grad programs and a friend mentioned that I should look at film school. Which I thought was crazy at the time; always figured you had to actually know how to do something already before you could get into grad school for it. But I’ve always been a storyteller at heart, and had been a painter and writer my entire life, so I applied to film school with a writing sample and my artist’s portfolio. I never imagined I’d ever get in.

When I did it came as a total shock and changed the direction of my life completely. I feel so lucky to be working in film, specifically in documentaries where you get to travel into worlds you’ve never known and get to know people so intimately, so quickly. It’s a perpetual education and every day is different from the next. It’s a pretty amazing way to spend your life.

Q: How did it start? Where did you go to film school?

A: I was given a fellowship to go to NYU and it was the greatest gift. The program does a remarkable job of assembling a wildly diverse group of voices in each year, so you end up learning as much about style and craft from each other as you do from the faculty. Oddly it was cinematography, a skill I knew nothing about when I started, that really captured my heart. It was an organic progression that evolved out of personal collaborations; so much of filmmaking is based on personal relationships and shared ideas. I never set out to become a filmmaker, I was just lucky enough to be surrounded by really talented people whose company I enjoyed and we’ve sort of carried each other along.

Q: I attended the Babelgum Online Film Festival Awards a couple of months ago where you were awarded the Spike Lee Award in the Documentary Category for The Ladies. How did that feel?

A: Crazy really. It was my first documentary. It’s such a small, intimate film. It still amazes me that it resonates so strongly with people. The characters are family, and its hard to know sometimes if things are interesting to you as a filmmaker because of what you already know about your characters, or if that truth actually comes through the screen to strangers watching it with no preconceptions or background information. Vali and Mimi are exceptionally brave and creative women; they are remarkable role models and its really a beautiful coincidence that I chose them as the subject of my first film as their support was integral to my choosing to pursue an artists life, first as an actor and painter, and now as a director and cinematographer. But winning Babelgum was pretty amazing; Vali and Mimi were hysterical about it actually; they were like ‘Spike Lee knows who we are! He’s seen our kitchen!’

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Sometimes there really isn’t a good way to start this other than to just jump in with the meat of the story, so that’s what I’m going to do.
There is a young woman in this world with a Paula Deen tattoo.
Lindsey Mitchell was apparently so enamored of the southern cook that she got a tat of a stick of butter with the words ‘’butter, y’all.'’
I’m not going to judge anyone for their ink choices. This isn’t even the craziest idea I’ve seen (the same site has a post about a woman with Rachael Ray’s face on her back - that might take the poorly-made, 30-minute cake if you ask me). But I do have to wonder how Lindsey is going to feel about this down the road.
I hope she abides by my personal ink theory - that even if you are no longer interested in whatever it is you had inked on your body, at one time it was important enough to you to do that, so you should see it as a representation of that chapter in your life.
If you’re wondering what the lady herself thought about it, there’s a video after the cut of her talking about how great it is.
So, are there any BUSTies out there with crazy ink? Something other people might scoff at? Something everyone swears you are going to regret? Let’s hear all about them! -Liza

(photo via foodnetworkhumor.com) Read the rest of this entry »

 Nerve.com has gone where no Top 20 list has gone before. The editors have recently compiled a list of ‘The Twenty Sexiest Ugly People’ they could conjure up from their collective pop culture memories. Are you thinking who they’re thinking?

Marilyn Manson? Woody Allen? Courtney Love? Who would you add to the list and who’s misunderstood?

Okay, you’re thinking ‘this is just mean,’ but trust us, the list is more honest and funny than critical. Tell me if you disagree. If Tilda Swinton’s face appeared at your bedroom window one night, wouldn’t you scream?  ~Hannah

P.S. Anyone think Robert Pattinson should be on the list?

Photo courtesy of rottentomatoes.com

If you’re like me, the ringtones that are available from your phone provider never include any songs that you actually like. So you’re stuck with the lousy free sounds or paying way too much for songs that you only have lukewarm feelings for.
Sound editing software is expensive, so cutting your own songs on your computer probably isn’t an option.
This is why I was so happy when I found a website that will do it for you. All you do at the Make Your Own Ringtone site is upload an mp3 (if your iTunes is still set to a different format you’ll have to do some converting, but that’s not hard), trim it and send it to your phone. Voila! Custom ringers.
OK, sometimes it’s a little more complicated than that. You have to make sure you are trimming to the right length (most ringtones are 30 seconds or so). You also have to figure out what output format will work on your phone, plus what is the best way to send it. And don’t forget that you’ll have to listen, so if you’re doing this while you’re goofing off at work, make sure to use headphones. But you can customize the difficulty on the page, so if you’re a total n00b you should still be able to figure it out, but if you’re really tech savvy you can play around with it to make it perfect.
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When it comes to your wedding, there are a lot of things to worry about: the dress, the weather, the food, whether or not you’ll fall on your face during the first dance. But one problem that never occurred to me to worry about is whether or not my side of the aisle will be as full as my husband’s. Thankfully, the Japanese company, Office Agents, has prepared for this just in case.

 The company rents out fake friends to weddings so it looks like you have a lot more friends than you really do to impress your new family who obviously cares about things like this. They’ve also taken advantage of the recession by adding on services for fake bosses and colleagues to the unemployed who don’t want to be embarrassed at their wedding. The price starts at roughly $200 USD, but if you want them to give a heartwarming speech that’ll be an extra $130, and you’ll be coughing up $65 for a dance.

I really want to meet the person who cares about this, seriously. -Celeste

 Photo courtesy of Flickr

Beverly Hills podiatrist and fellow flip-flop lover Dr. Sylvie searched the world over to create the environmentally friendly yet still comfortable flip-flops sold in her company, Planet Flops. These flip-flops are made from the sap extracted from Brazilian Rubber Trees in Brazil. They come in an array of delicious colors and styles like Chocolate Strawberry, Licorice, and Plum.

Not only does Planet Flops keep the Earth a little greener, it also contributes to charities such as Soles4Souls, where they have donated over 9,000 pairs of sandals that went to orphanages in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Albania. Also, Dr. Sylvie and I share a name, so you know she’s legit. So check out Planet Flops’ flip-flops (say that three times fast) at their official site here.

-Sylvie

If you’ve ever felt the urge to flip through old newspapers (and if you never have, go watch Now and Then), then you might want to check out this blog, The Hope Chest. The site posts scanned clippings from old newspapers that are so bizarre and fascinating that I could probably read through it all day. For one thing, every other headline mentions an attack from a vampire. I love this clip from The New York Amsterdam News from 1925. -Celeste

It’s a ‘Hot Topic’ in the music biz right now: after nearly five years since their last album (and rumors of the band splitting up) ‘arty feminist electro-pop’ group Le Tigre is back, and they’re pairing up with Christina Aguilera on her next album. Well, this is just fantastic news on top of unexpected news, but we’re not hiding our anticipation.

This is the band that wrote a song about the importance of butch lesbian visibility and inspired the music of Kate White from the Ting Tings. This is the pop diva that has been a fixture on Top 20 charts for the past decade. Who knows where this will lead?

Riot grrrls will get dirrty when the album is scheduled to release this September. ~Hannah

Photo courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

It’s been a difficult few weeks for keeping up with current events. First, Dr. Tiller’s murder, then the shootings at the Holocaust Museum and now these two lovely bits  of news.

The first story is about a man who arranged the rape of his wife through Craigslist ads. Police responded to a call on Sunday of a man entering the couple’s home with a knife and raping the wife. During the interrogation, police became suspicious when they noticed no signs of forced entry. Later, they discovered that the husband had responded to a few ads on Craigslist, attempting to arrange for ’someone to come to his home and have sex with his wife using some type of scare tactic.’ They believe that his wife was unaware of this. The husband has been charged with first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual offense and one count of attempted first-degree sexual offense, but the article fails to mention any charges against the man who actually carried out the rape.

The story on Curvature linked to a report back in March of a twenty-year-old man from Arizona who drugged a girl he’d been seeing for two weeks, raped her, filmed it and streamed it live on an unidentified website. The video spread to a number of other sites. The girl was unaware that she’d been raped for more than a week, until one of her friends told her there was a video of her having sex online. Apparently the video shows the man raping her while she’s passed out on the bed, laughing and making comments to the camera. The man, of course, claimed that he didn’t rape her and that alcohol was to blame. He didn’t turn himself him for raping her until June 2nd.

 -Celeste

The ladies of Grey Gardens have had quite the resurgence in 2009. I have rediscovered my obsession with them ever since the HBO movie came out earlier this year (I walked around talking like Little Edie for a week after that, but is that so wrong?), so I couldn’t be happier to read that yet another Grey Gardens book is being released.

Grey Gardens , edited by Sarah and Rebekah Maysles, is a collection of photographs, illustrations, film stills and transcripts of the filmmakers’ conversations with the Beales. The full transcript of the film is included in the appendix. Its style cleverly mimics the original documentary’s approach to examining their lives by appearing rather cluttered, jam packed with mementos and ephemera. The book also comes with a CD containing conversations with the Beales and songs and poetry performed by both of them. For the first time, listeners can hear the Beales’ reactions during and after viewing the film.

This weekend there will also be a festival accompanying the release of the book called Staunch! The Ultimate Grey Gardens Festival, taking place at the Maysles Institute in Manhattan. The movie will be screened at various times throughout the weekend, as well as panels and performances by special guests connected to the documentary. Book signings will take place Saturday afternoon at 4. That night there will be a cabaret where guests can come perform or just sit back and enjoy.

Our editor, Laurie, will be there trying to catch a glimpse of Jerry (aka The Marble Faun),. Will you? -Celeste