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We wrote previously on Lars von Trier‘s latest project – a crowdsourced challenge to filmmakers to reinterpret 6 great works of art called Gesamt – but the film now has a trailer that’s exactly as enigmatic as we could have hoped for. Director Justin D. Hilliard of Striped Socks Productions contacted us, letting us know that his is one of the few American projects to be chosen for the installation, which is built from 142 pieces sent in from around the world. The movie will premiere at the Copenhagen Art Festival. Creators were prompted to re-interpret James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” August Strindberg’s “The father,” the Zeppelinfield in Nuremberg, Paul Gauguin’s “Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?,” the collected improvisations of Cesar Franck and the collected music of Sammy Davis, Jr. The pieces were to be used as inspiration, but couldn’t be directly in the 5 minutes of footage sent in. It...

Filmmaker Justin D. Hilliard is one of Texas' best kept secrets. Three years ago, his film The Other Side Of Paradise made its world premiere at the AFI Dallas Film Festival. Fast forward those three years, and I've suddenly given myself a palm-sized bruise on my forehead for not catching this in theaters when I had the chance. I rarely watch screeners and I only own about 10 DVDs (it's crucial to note Universal Soldier is one) and Blu-rays together. I'm the guy who likes seeing things on the silver screen - it's all about the experience.

Read more on Indie Spotlight: The Other Side Of Paradise co-writer/director Justin D. Hilliard...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Love Life Trailer A few weeks ago I talked about a trailer called New Kids Turbo. I received a good amount of e-mail letting me...

Just as I’m about to move off to Austin for a new chapter in my life, I found out this: Frank Mosley (Hold) and Justin D. Hilliard (The Other Side Of Paradise) are teaming up to make a new web series called Komodo, which you can file under “dark” and “funny.” If you’ve seen Hold and Paradise, then you know the aforementioned adjectives come easy for them. I’ve seen almost everything Mosley has done and spoke with him a few times about this project and I’m confident this will take off; these gents take filmmaking very serious and have stamped a name for themselves in the Dfw area.

Read more on Exclusive: Dallas filmmakers team up to make web series…...

Wow, how time flies. Gatw was just taking baby steps in the movie blogging world when we met writer/director/actor/do-it-all Frank Mosley, who had just made a short film called Little Boy. Some time later, Frank went on to co-star in Justin D. Hilliard’s The Other Side Of Paradise which premiered at last year’s AFI Dallas Film Festival (now Diff). Frank has a new film under his belt, Hold, and since he’s based in the same wonderful town Gatw was started in — Dallas, TX — it’s only right that we kick off our Diff preview coverage with Hold.

Read more on Diff 2010 Preview: Frank Mosley’s Hold…...

This week we can immerse ourselves in tales of American sentiment, French fantasy, English history, Italian romance and alien invasion.

"Avatar"

After more than a decade on hiatus, James Cameron returns from his days as "King of the World" with a mind on conquering a few new ones in this sci-fi epic that the director maintains will alter the face of moviemaking forever. (Early reviews seem to agree.) A galaxy away from Cameron's days as a miniature maker on Roger Corman's "Battle Beyond the Stars," "Avatar" blends performance capture technology with real world photography to create Pandora, where a troubled U.S. marine (Sam Worthington) is tasked with infiltrating the Na'vi, a tribe of primitive but proud aliens, via a genetically created body, though he finds his loyalties torn when he falls in love with one of their own (Zoe Saldana). The film's reported $300 million price tag is surely...