News

Anil Malhotra. (Courtesy photo)

Anil Malhotra, the Chief Marketing Officer at subscription-focused tech firm Bango, will step down from the role and from the company’s Board of Directors at the end of the month, The Desk has learned.

The changes will occur after the annual general meeting of Bango’s Board of Directors, according to a notification filed with British securities regulators earlier this month.

Malhotra co-founded Bango in 1999 and served as its Vice President of Marketing and Alliances for several years. In 2014, he was elevated to the role of Chief Marketing Officer, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing efforts.

Since then, Bango has evolved into a powerhouse developer of technology that allows subscription-based services to effectuate consumer deals and novel bundles with each other. Verizon was one of the first telecommunications partners to utilize new technology called the Digital Vending Machine, which...

It was the kind of tragedy that happens all too often in a city of more than 8 million: a body found, beaten and bloodied, in the back of an ambulette in a far-flung corner of the Bronx. Skeletal branches created a cathedral over the lonely vehicle where the 64-year-old man had breathed his last, the winter-gray river placid in the background behind a ramble of fences. “It’s a nice place to do bad things,” an unidentified neighbor told the press.

When a reporter called Chiedza Makonnen, a designer in Ghana,...

So, remember Tom Shadyac? He's the guy who was at one time a box office comedy titan, thanks to "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "The Nutty Professor," "Liar Liar" and "Bruce Almighty." But then he decided after making millions upon millions of dollars that there was more to life and made a documentary. "I Am"was a lot of feel good, New Age-y mumbo jumbo, that found him talking with folks like David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch about like the world, man. That was a couple of years ago, and while he briefly popped up as a contender to direct a remake of Arthur Lubin's 1964 film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" that had Zach Galifianakis attached to star, it didn't happen. But now another remake might bring him back in the ring. Deadline reports that...

Tom Shadyac's documentary I Am to be released by PaladinI Am, the latest film by renowned director Tom Shadyac, will be released theatrically by Paladin, it was announced by the company's President and CEO, Mark Urman. A prismatic and probing exploration of our world, what's wrong with it, and what we can do to make it better, I Am represents Shadyac's first foray into non-fiction following a career as one of Hollywood's leading comedy practitioners, with such successful titles as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty to his credit. Paladin is planning a February, 2011 release for the film, and has already laid the groundwork for an intensive months-long screening program that includes major film festivals as well as a broad range of college and university campuses throughout the country. The film will next be seen at the Hamptons Film Festival later this week.

I Am recounts...

The only big film festival in my own backyard is back and it runs from November 12th through the 22nd. While it caters more to heavy run fest material and arthouse film, they do have some of the more interesting films playing this year:

Ryan Ward's excellent Son of the Sunshine which is one of my favorite films of the year. (review)

The weird, lengthy comedy The Revenant (review)

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

and much more. Program after the break!

In Competition

Children of Invention

Two first-generation Chinese kids in suburban Boston find themselves on their own after their desperate mother is unwittingly involved in a pyramid scheme and arrested. Older brother Raymond takes a page from her marketing seminars to start creating a life for himself and his sister - casting a strange, pint-sized reflection on the American Dream.

Footprints...