Co-Founder of APML.org, DataPortability.org, SynapticWeb.org and others. Currently VP Strategy AboutEcho.com
In my last few posts I’ve used the word ‘Love’ a lot. I thought I would try to describe what that word means to me.
From the bible (though I am not a big fan of that book)
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I would add…
Love is truth. Love it is openness. Love is loyalty. Love is nostalgia.
Love survives time, and space. Love survives moods.
Love is vulnerability. Love is drawing power from partnership.
Love is making yours mine. Love is making mine, yours. Love is making you, us. Love is making us, me.
Love is based on trust and friendship. A friendship that could never be abandoned. Love is not being alone.
Love is the thing that survives long after the lust has burned away, the words have evaporated and the disappointments have sunk in.
Love is scary as hell.
The feeling of love peaks and troughs. Love takes faith.
Love is not playing games. Not manipulating. Not having an agenda.
Love begins with loving yourself. It ends with loving everyone and everything.
Love is often confused with fear.
Love is often confused with lust.
Love is infrequent.
Love is evolution.
Love is God.
You can’t convince someone to feel it. You can’t convince yourself to stop.
Love is nearly impossible.
Most people can’t even imagine it.
My last post was about personal behavior. This one is about personal and business relationships.
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Above all else, you must have a great relationship with yourself. Without that strong foundation, you can not have a strong relationship with another person or organization.
There’s no such thing as normal. We all have our biases and neurosis.
We obsess over ritual, process, dogma and fear. Did he do the right thing on date number 3? Did she file form number 5? Did they come through the right door?
Our egos, pride and fear get in the way of real connections and meaningful leaps of faith. We classify ‘ideal’ as unattainable ‘fantasy’ instead of a worthy goal. We semi-commit, leverage, tell half truths, white lies or outright betrayals. What if your business model matched your vision? What if your words matched your thoughts. What if your thoughts matched your highest ideals – ideals based on love and openness.
We play power games, instead of realizing partnership affords us the greatest power of all. Saying “I need you” or “I need help” is a critical kind of power.
We think we must choose between love, work or self. We are all selfish. But we don’t realize that definition of love is broadening your definition of self to include another person. We don’t realize that success without love is like a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear – it happens but it doesn’t matter. No one gives a shit.
We think we must choose between one person or another. The truth is we are all nodes on a network. We need different types of signals from different kinds of people.
We try to ‘find ourselves’ not realizing that our everyday actions define us. Did you say that kind word to that stranger? Then you are kind. Were you loyal to a friend? Then you are loyal. Did you avoid that confrontation? Then you are someone who avoids confrontation. Did you tell your complete personal truth? Then you are honest.
We look for the next best thing instead of recognizing that truly getting on the same page with someone is the best possibility of all. Achieving that kind of collaboration – even for a moment – should be cherished in the moment and for a lifetime. Sometimes it happens like a lightning strike. Most times it takes hard work, communication and trust.
We forget that the best relationships are about resonating with something or someone. About helping each other evolve by creating safe harbors, new opportunities and covering each other’s blind spots.
We grow complacent and content in our relationships. They require constant work. Each participant must grow, evolve and contribute to the whole.
There are so many stories of people breaking up because they were ‘too young’ and now, years later, they long for that lost connection. “We’re different now. They have a girlfriend now. They are happy without me.” Why did you give it up in the first place? Why not try again? Are grand gestures only for the movies?
There are so many stories of high-school sweethearts that wake up one day resenting each other. Do they resent each other, or do they resent missed opportunities. Being trapped. Missed freedoms. Did they communicate? Did they give each other freedom? Did they create opportunities for each other? Did they leave when the relationship finally no longer served their evolution?
Maybe most relationships are temporary – a day, a week, a year, a decade. We try to have ‘clean’ breakups. Contracts. Lawyers. Relationships are not clean. They are messy. Love is messy. Life is work. Work is life. A relationship is not defined by what you think it should be or what the contract says it will be – it’s defined by every day. Every hiccup. Every earnest effort to do the right thing for the other person.
Time is not running out. We overestimate what can be done in a day and underestimate what can be done in a decade. Breathe. Take your time. Pay attention. Keep perspective.
Is there always imbalance in a relationship? Does one always need the other more. Love the other more? Is that ok? How does one measure the delta. What is the threshold for when the delta becomes too great? When does the relationship no longer serve your evolution and the evolution of your partner?
These are some of the open questions about a partnership that remain for me.
I know, though, you can’t hold on too tight or you will strangle each other.
These things are only cliches because they are true.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what compels people to behave a certain way. In business. In personal relationships. In life.
I’m certain there are countless books espousing countless metaphors for thinking about the issue. For me it comes down to some common themes.
Perspective
Perspective is perhaps one of the most important human traits. Along with tool building and self-awareness, it’s one of the core things that separate us from the animals. It allows us to switch angles, points of view, lenses, frames of reference or ways of thinking in order to evaluate an idea or circumstance in multiple ways.
Often times when you’re feeling down, confused or looking for a better option, simply try changing your perspective and your attitude or feeling can change almost instantly.
Priorities
Our priorities can affect our actions in fundamental ways. In fact just re-ordering a few subconscious priorities can dramatically change our behavior, loyalties and outcomes.
When you hear someone say “they’ve changed” it’s likely that the person in question has changed their priorities or their perspective because the rest of the items on this list are pretty hard to change without a lot of conscious thought and self-evaluation.
Patterns
Patterns are about what a person has seen in his or her past and is either repeating or trying to break away from. You might also see patterns from your peers or they might even imprint them on you directly with advice. In the worst cases this is peer pressure.
Perhaps it’s their parents. Perhaps it’s a previous business failure. Whatever the case, human beings are pattern recognition (and repeating) machines. We are doing it all the time. It’s very, very easy to fall into them and almost impossible to change them – particularly the fundamental ones.
Patterns are not just about behaviors. They are also about subconscious ways of thinking and the way we might emotionally identify with situations.
In many cases our behaviors change, but the underlaying emotional pattern is the same. Some patterns are probably fairly immutable without a LOT of pain and conscious thought.
Predispositions
There are certain temperaments and personality traits we’re born with. Some babies are irritable, some sleep through the whole night. This isn’t learned behavior, it’s genetic. Our chemical make ups have a profound impact on our patience, personality and actions.
Sure you can take pills to help with depression or anxiety. Ideally, though, you use exercise or other meditation techniques to adjust your brain chemistry but the core genetics are obviously locked in stone.
Pride
Pride is a powerful force. It can stop us from reaching out, reaching in or just fundamentally seeing the truth. Pride often times leads us to our worst fears and can block us from getting what we want. It’s like a poison that can fundamentally break our lives in ways we can’t understand and may never be able to repair. It’s based on fear (detailed next) but it’s so specific that I thought it deserved it’s own section.
Fear
Fear is an overriding motivating factor. Fight or flight can shut down all other factors listed here and drive us to do crazy things. When we think our person, personality or future is at risk, we can lash out, cut off and fly away from situations or people faster than you can say ‘hey relax, you’re no longer fighting for your life out in the prehistoric caves’.
Love
Living in Love is the highest form of decision making. Highest form of living in general really. Making decisions based on your highest hopes and grandest version of yourself is hard to do because everything in your brain and body tells you to run like hell. When your perspective is wrong, or your priorities are shifting or your patterns are locked in or your predisposition is messing up your clarity or your fear is shutting down your brain and forcing you to simply react, or your pride is getting in the way – finding your love, much less acting on it, is near impossible.
Find it you must, though.
[Update] Love also has another effect. When you truly love someone else, they become part of you. Part of your definition of self. The way you treat/behave towards yourself is vastly different than the way you would treat anyone else. This can dictate your behavior in ways that even supersede fear.
[Update] Purpose
[Editors Note] I left this out when originally publishing the post but a couple of hours after writing it I attended an inspiring dinner where it was clear many people were trying to use this factor to drive their behavior - it was an oversight not to include it in the first place.
Purpose is, in many ways, the easiest way to manipulate your own behavior. In fact In many ways it’s the only way to practically (in material ways) determine success because by clearly defining your purpose (and change the world or be important is not clear enough) you can carve a smooth trajectory for your life, make your actions more consistent and ultimately give you something to succeed at. After all, the definition of success is first stating a goal and then achieving it.
Having a grand purpose also helps inspire those around you to action as well. In many cases our purpose is defined by the factors listed above and just as often the factors above block us from achieving it.
Did I miss any?
Yesterday Robert Scoble once again declared that the Open Web was dead. His argument was that Apps and proprietary black holes like Facebook are absorbing all the light (read: users, attention, value, investment) and taking our beloved open platform right along with it. In his post, he kindly (but incorrectly) named me as the only person who really cares about the Open Web.
While that’s flattering, I think he’s wrong about me being the only one who cares.
But he is right about the Open Web. It’s in real danger. URLs are fading into the background, native Mobile apps are all the rage and Facebook threatens to engulf the web into a proprietary black hole.
But I think there’s a bigger problem going on right now. Not just with the web, but with silicon valley (as stewards of the web). We’ve lost sight of the things that matter. We’re obsessed with quick wins, easily digestible VC pitches, stock options and flipping for a Ferrari.
There’s more to this game than that. Let me touch on some of the things I see going on.
End of rant.
I was just watching a great TED video about the guy who runs ‘Improv Everywhere’. If you don’t know what that is I strongly suggest you google it and watch the video.
His TED talk had some great themes and some funny videos showing the result of their work, however my key takeaway was from a small innocuous line that he kept repeating as a one of his throw away comments… “and we didn’t even ask permission”.
His final summary in his talk speaks to our collective need to, as adults, remember to play and have fun. But I think that his statement about permission reveals what ‘Improve Everywhere’ is really doing. It’s showing people that it’s ok to impact the world… without asking permission.
Too many people assume that they need to ask permission to change the world.
“I’m studying to be a writer” basically suggests that you are waiting for someone to hand you a permission slip (A degree) which declares you an ‘English Major’. Then maybe you can call yourself a writer? Or maybe after you get your first writing job? Maybe after you publish your first book? Which of these permission slips allow you to declare yourself what you want to be – give you permission to change your little corner of the world?
This applies to everything we do. To be an entrepreneur, to love, to change the rules.
More people need to stop asking for permission – or worse, assuming they could never do something because it’s against the written or unwritten rules.
This theme was echoed by an old interview I recently watched featuring Steve Jobs. He said that the old electronics kits that he played with as a child showed him that ANYONE could build the things they saw around them. A radio, a TV, whatever – these were man made, understandable and attainable things to invent and build for yourself. He mused that these kits were one of the things in his early life that helped him understand that he could build anything he wanted and impact the environment of millions of people.
So for all of you out there waiting for permission to change your life, your career, your perspective or your world – stop waiting. Go do it. Be, Do, Act as my friend and colleague Philippe likes to say.
So at F8 last week Facebook announced Ticker, Timeline and extensions to the Open Graph API to allow for new verbs and nouns.
Here’s what really happened.
I continue to be in awe of Facebook’s scale, seriousness, ambition and momentum. There has never been anything like it before.
They have created an Attention Management Platform that rivals Google Search and easily out classes many of my best ideas about Attention Management and Personal Relevancy back when I was thinking about the problem.
It’s breathtaking.
And since it is all done with hard links to a single proprietary hub, it is eating the web like a cancer.
Before F8 it was clear that Google+ was a 1 or 2 years behind FB. Now they are 3 or 4.
Only time will tell who, how and why more open systems will begin to reassert themselves in the ecosystem. My bet is that it wont come from a b2c copy-cat, though. It will come from a well organized, commercially incentivized b2b play.
The part that still confuses me, though, is why ANY serious media company would want their news to load in a ‘FB canvas app’ instead of their own website. It makes zero sense. None of this changes the reality that you need to own your own data and your own point source. I made a little comparison table earlier in the week that explains why.
Today WSJ announced that it has built a news publishing platform that lives inside Facebook - effectively outsourcing their core website to the Social Networking Giant.
The number of reasons this is a bad idea is staggering. I’ve tried to summarize them in a spreadsheet comparing a FB approach verses an Open Web approach.
Please feel free to contribute
There’s a lot of fury on the web right now about ‘Real Names’. FB is trying to use it as a unique feature of their comments system claiming it reduces trolling and low value comments.
Of course that isn’t really true. For one, any commenting system could force FB login. Two, users will troll with or without their name attached and, worse yet, many legitimate users won’t participate for any number of reasons if they can’t use a pseudonym. There are plenty of better ways to increase quality in your comments including participation from the content creators, game mechanics, community moderation and more.
The real debate, however, is about G+ trying to copy FB’s stance on Real Names. They are insisting all user accounts use them and are actively shutting down accounts that violate the policy. They are being so heavy handed about that even people who ARE using their real name are getting notices of violation – most notable Violet Blue.
I’m not really an expert on pseudonyms, shared contexts and anonymity so I’m going to stay out of this debate.
The real question for me, however, is what is Google’s strategic business reason for this policy. There must be a long term plan/reason for it otherwise they wouldn’t be insisting so hard.
My assumption is that it’s related to their intention to become a canonical people directory and identity provider on the internet to compete with FB in this space.
FB, after all, does not just get it’s power from news feeds and photo apps – it gets it from the deep roots it has laid down into the DNA of the internet as the provider of 1st class identity infrastructure and identity information.
In this sense, FB’s social contract has served them very well, and Google’s attempt to copy it is a hint that they understand FB is not just a .com feature set, but a powerful identity utility. They must (and in some cases seem to be) understand that strategy and it’s aggressiveness if they are to properly compete with the monopoly. My only hope, however, is that they are coming up with their own inspired counter strategy rather than just copying the moves they see on the surface – because that’s doomed to fail.
First, to define ‘Real-time’
Real-time is no CDN or Cache latency. When there is new data in the database, it’s available to the end-user.
Real-time is not needing to hit the refresh button to see new information. It’s when information folds into the page while you’re reading it.
Real-time is a new volume and velocity of data. A lot of web data used to consist of ‘Blog Posts’ or ‘News Articles’. Documents. Real-time web data is about activities. Granular, human readable micro-stories about the activities that users make.
“I read this”, “I rated this”, “I commented on this”, “I shared this”, “I edited this” and so on. Why? Because capturing, surfacing and socializing real-time activity data is part of the core essence of the social web. The ability to see not just the result of actions by users, but the play-by-play stream of those actions along side faces, names and time/date stamps takes an experience from a static ‘snapshot’ into a living, breathing stream. Further, by enabling users to like, reply, flag, share and otherwise interact with these activities, sites are creating new opportunities for engagement, conversation and conversion.
Real-time is a presentation metaphor. It often (but not always) takes the form of a reverse chronological stream with nested comments and likes. It helps users understand the order of things and mixes content with conversation in a way that drives engagement and return visits.
Real-time means filters instead of facts. Let the user decide what they want to see – to craft an experience that makes sense for them, and their friends.
Now, what is ‘Real-time as a Service’?
If all the things above are true, then it changes everything we used to know about web infrastructure, databases, user interfaces and tools for moderation or curation.
APIs can no longer be request-response. Databases must now store far more data at far faster rates. User interfaces need to factor in names, faces and actions. Moderation and curation tools must leverage algorithms, crowd sourcing and real-time flows.
Real-time as a service, then, is cloud infrastructure that helps make this transition easier.
It is a database that can handle new magnitudes of scale – handling hundreds or thousands of write events per section. Not just to a flat table, but to a hierarchical tree of arbitrary activities.
Site -> Section -> Article -> Rating -> Comment -> Reply -> Like.
It’s a database that can store all items permanently so that users can visit old streams at any time. Permanent storage that can also handle localized annotations. Localized annotations are the ability to modify the metadata of an activity – say a Tweet (Promote it, tag it, retarget it in the tree etc) – in such a way that that your view of a tweet is different from another customer’s view.
It’s a database that enables not just the ability to perform an SQL-like search query, but also continuously updates you when the data changes – so that you can modify the UI on the fly.
It’s a database that returns not just flat query results, but a hierarchical tree – allowing you to present the activity in context.
It’s a database that handles not just a few hundred users requesting (reading) data, but a few million users swarming to see the latest action in a sports game or a concert.
It’s a database that organically makes connections between items by understanding the relationships of URLs and #tags to make implicit links in the graph where and when they’re needed. For example a tweet mentioning acme.com should be attached to Acme.com in the tree.
And most importantly, it’s a database company that understands that the opportunity of the Real-time, Social Web is far too big and moves far too quickly to possibly be built by a single vendor. A company that, as a result of this understanding, chooses open standards over proprietary formats; Partnership with best-of-breed partners over trying to build mediocre versions of everything by itself.
Polls, Ratings, Comments, Live Blogging, Forums, Data Bridging, Data Enriching, Visualization, Moderation, Curation, Analytics Game Mechanics, Authentication… the list is endless. They are all transformed by the Real-time web. They must all be part of Real-time as a Service.
And finally, Real-time as a Service is about service. Enterprise grade support. Best in class uptime. White label.
That’s Real-time as a Service.
Further Reading
It’s certainly very slick, but it’s a few years behind FB.
I mean that not just in timing and network effects, but in the much more strategic sense of platform ambition. FB.com was the FB strategy 4 years ago. FB is now going for the rest of the web. It’s reach and role as an identity provider and social infrastructure player makes it much more important (and harder to beat) than launching a cool new service. So hopefully the Google+ team is thinking WAY beyond this as a destination site when they are thinking Google Social Strategy.
So far the broad ranging announcements from the +1 button to Google Analytics adding Social bode well for this being a company wide, product wide refresh. The key to success will be in thinking about the need to compete with FB beyond the walls and products of Google.
The key to that, of course, will be to get deep adoption by major sites.
Update: Upon thinking about it a little more. Google has once again missed an opportunity to play to their strengths. With the document web they played the role of aggregator and algorithmic signal detection system. With the social web, their ideal strategy would be to build the ultimate social inbox. A place where I can navigate, consume AND interact with Facebook + Twitter + Foursquare + Quora +++ in one place.
Instead they created yet another content source.
Yesterday, Echo CEO Khris Loux participated on a panel at Deloitte Industry Week about the Postdigital enterprise. The event was held at Deloitte University, a leadership center in West Lake, TX, and drew an audience of senior partners from around the country for a three day learning and development session.
Here is a picture of the panel in action:
Moderator:
Chris Heur – Social Business Specialist, Deloitte and Postdigital Architect
Panelists:
Khris Loux – CEO, Echo
Peter Wilson – Director of Engineering, Facebook
James Veall – SVP, Global Business Operations, Viacom
What is the Postdigital Enterprise? Chris Heur, social business specialist for Deloitte and founder of the Social Media Club, first conceived the concept. The term addresses the historic shift that’s underway as we move from the disruptive era of social media into real-time engagement, big data and beyond.
Real-time is a critical link in this this evolution, signaling a shift towards transparency and openness. This shift has significant implications for how businesses should engage with their customers.
In Loux’s opinion, corporations can no longer view themselves as a dot com and need to start viewing themselves as a platform. He recommends that enterprises build a self-service API for their content and inspire people to start building interesting applications around it.
This will require a different enterprise structure that addresses legal control over content and how to monetize it, but the ability of an enterprise to capitalize on this shift will have far-reaching implications on it’s ability to succeed in the Postdigital world.
To learn more about Khris Loux’s theories on digital evolution, read this post about The Synaptic Web.
To coincide with StreamServer’s launch in the AWS Marketplace, Echo is also announcing an exclusive new program for developers who are looking to build the next hot real-time application.
Qualified developers who are accepted into the program will receive one million free real-time streams per month to be used in a production environment, along with product marketing, customer support and sales support for their applications.
Here’s how it works:
Through this exclusive program, you can focus on building the best real-time application possible, while we accelerate your time-to-market. Sound like a dream come true? Then we want to talk to you. Contact us today to see if you qualify.
Learn More About the Program
Request an API Key for Echo StreamServer
Today, Echo announced that our flagship product, Echo StreamServer, is available in AWS Marketplace, an online store that makes it easy for customers to find, compare, and immediately start using the software and services they need to build products and run their businesses. Through this new distribution, Echo is making our real-time database available to hundreds of thousands of Amazon Web Services customers who can use Echo StreamServer to develop highly scalable, real-time social applications.
Echo StreamServer allows developers to submit large volumes of Activity Stream formatted items at rapid rates and store them permanently. Those items can then be retrieved using the Echo Query Language (EQL), which returns a customizable stream of search results that updates in real-time. The platform can process thousands of real-time activities per second from any data source or real-time feed and relies on two years of hardening and development to support its massive scale.
By focusing on the application layer, developers can go to market with their applications in a matter of days… all while relying on a stable, hardened platform that’s serving over 1 billion real-time streams per month for the world’s leading media companies. We invite you to try it today!
| The Way - Trailer "The Way" is an inspirational story about family, friends, and the challenges of navigating a complicated world. Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to France to collect the remains of his adult son (played by Emilio Estevez), who died while walking the Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. Embarking on the historical pilgrimage to honor his son�s memory, Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world: a Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen), a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irishman (James Nesbitt). Eventually, Tom discovers the difference between "the life we live and the life we choose." THE WAY, written and directed by Emilio Estevez, was filmed along the actual Camino de Santiago. Directed by: Emilio Estevez Starring: Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Deborah Kara Unger |
| Where Soldiers Come From - Trailer From a snowy small town in Northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan and back, WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM follows the four-year journey of childhood friends, forever changed by a faraway war. A documentary about growing up, WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM, is an intimate look at the young men who fight our wars and the families and town they come from. Returning to her hometown, Director Heather Courtney gains extraordinary access following these young men as they grow and change from teenagers stuck in their town, to 23-year-old veterans facing the struggles of returning home. Directed by: Heather Courtney Starring: Dominic Fredianelli, Cole Smith, Matt “Bodi” Beaudoin |
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| The Double - Trailer 1 In THE DOUBLE, the mysterious murder of a US senator bearing the distinctive trademark of the legendary Soviet assassin "Cassius," forces Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere), a retired CIA operative, to team with rookie FBI agent, Ben Geary (Topher Grace), to solve the crime. Having spent his career chasing Cassius, Shepherdson is convinced his nemesis is long dead, but is pushed to take on the case by his former supervisor, Tom Highland (Martin Sheen). Meanwhile, Agent Geary, who wrote his Master's thesis on Shepherdson's pursuit of the Soviet killer, is certain that Cassius has resurfaced. As Shepherdson and Geary work their way through crimes both past and present, they discover that Cassius may not be the person they always thought him to be, forcing both to re-examine everything and everyone around them. Directed by: Michael Brandt Starring: Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Stana Katic, Stephen Moyer, Martin Sheen, Odette Annable |
| Margaret - Trailer MARGARET centers on a 17-year-old New York City high-school student who feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman's life. In her attempts to set things right she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world. Directed by: Kenneth Lonergan Starring: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron, Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno |
| Puncture - Clip Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) is a talented young Houston lawyer and a functioning drug addict. Paul Danziger (co-director Mark Kassen), his longtime friend and partner, is the straightlaced and responsible yin to Mike's yang. Their mom-and-pop personal-injury law firm is getting by, but things really get interesting when they decide to take on a case involving Vicky (Vinessa Shaw), a local ER nurse, who is pricked by a contaminated needle on the job. As Weiss and Danziger dig deeper into the case, a health care and pharmaceutical conspiracy teeters on exposure and heavyweight attorneys move in on the defense. Out of their league but invested in their own principles, the mounting pressure of the case pushes the two underdog lawyers and their business to the breaking point. Brothers and directors Mark and Adam Kassen bring this real-life story to the screen with all the urgency and passion of the subjects themselves. The result is an effective issue-driven drama that finds its footing in a contemporary David and Goliath story. Produced and co-directed by Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen, PUNCTURE stars Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Brett Cullen, Marshall Bell, Michael Biehn, Jesse L. Martin, Roxanna Hope, Tess Parker, Kate Burton and Vinessa Shaw. The film was written by Chris Lopata from story by Ela Thier and Paul Danziger and was executive-produced by Jeffrey Gou and Joan Huang, Paul Danziger and Rod de Llano and Craig Cohen. Directed by: Adam Kassen, Mark Kassen Starring: Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Brett Cullen, Marshall Bell, Michael Biehn, Jesse L. Martin, Roxanna Hope, Tess Parker, Kate Burton, Vinessa Shaw |
Filed under: TV Previews
What happens when a Time Lord meets a reviled dictator? Viewers will have to wait until Aug. 27 when the eagerly anticipated 'Doctor Who' episode 'Let's Kill Hitler' airs.
| The Hedgehog - Trailer Inspired by the beloved New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, THE HEDGEHOG is the timely story of Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) a young girl bent on ending it all on her upcoming twelfth birthday. Using her father's old camcorder to chronicle the hypocrisy she sees in adults, Paloma begins to learn about life from the grumpy building concierge, Renee Michel (FRENCH TWIST's Josiane Balasko). When Paloma's camera reveals the extensive secret library in Renee's back room, and that the often gruff matron reads Tolstoy to her cat, Paloma begins to understand that there are allies to be found beneath the prickliest of exteriors. As the unlikely friendship deepens, Paloma's own coming of age becomes a much less pessimistic prospect. Directed by: Mona Achache Starring: Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic, Togo Igawa, Anne Brochet |
| Vigilante Vigilante - Trailer A new breed of crime-fighter now stalks the urban landscape: the anti-graffiti vigilante. These dedicated blight warriors stop at nothing to rid their neighborhoods and cities of street art, stickers, tags, and posters. Yet several of these vigilantes have become the very menace they set out to eliminate. In their relentless attempt to stamp out graffiti, they have turned to illegally and destructively painting other people's property. VIGILANTE VIGILANTE is the story of two filmmakers who set out to expose these mysterious characters and discover a battle of expression that stretches from the streets to academia. Directed by: Max Good Starring: |
| I Don't Know How She Does It - Trailer Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Munn, and Christina Hendricks star in I Don't Know How She Does It, a comedy from director Douglas McGrath (Emma, Infamous) and producer Donna Gigliotti (The Reader, Let Me In). Based on the critically acclaimed bestseller by Allison Pearson, I Don't Know How She Does It follows a Boston-based working mother trying desperately to juggle marriage, children, and a high-stress job. Kate Reddy (Parker) devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard (Kinnear) and their two young children. It's a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate's acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison (Christina Hendricks) performs on a daily basis, and that Kate's super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo (Olivia Munn) fully intends to avoid. When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he's been hoping for--and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate's charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Brosnan), who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation. Directed by: Douglas McGrath Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Munn, Seth Meyers, Kelsey Grammer, Christina Hendricks, Jane Curtin |
| Love Crime - Film Clip When Christine, a powerful executive (Scott Thomas), brings on a naive young ingenue, Isabelle (Sagnier), as her assistant, she delights in toying with her naivete and teaching her hard lessons in a ruthless professional philosophy. But when the protege's ideas become tempting enough for Christine to pass one as her own, she underestimates Isabelle's ambition and cunning-- and the ground is set for all out war. In this devilish, propulsive thriller, Corneau sets up a the scenery expertly and his actors devour it. Directed by: Alain Corneau Starring: Ludivigne Sagnier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patrick Mille |
| Like Crazy - Featurette A love story is both a physical and emotional tale, one that can be deeply personal and heartbreaking for an audience to experience. Director Drake Doremus' film Like Crazy beautifully illustrates how your first real love is as thrilling and blissful as it is devastating. When a British college student (Felicity Jones) falls for her American classmate (Anton Yelchin) they embark on a passionate and life-changing journey only to be separated when she violates the terms of her visa.Like Crazy explores how a couple faces the real challenges of being together and of being apart. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and of the Special Jury Prize for Best Actress for Felicity Jones, Like Crazydepicts both the hopefulness and the heartbreak of love. Directed by: Drake Doremus Starring: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley |
| The Dark Knight Rises - Trailer 2 Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' "The Dark Knight Rises" is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar(R) winner Christian Bale ("The Fighter") again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar(R) winner Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose"), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake. Returning to the main cast, Oscar(R) winner Michael Caine ("The Cider House Rules") plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar(R) winner Morgan Freeman ("Million Dollar Baby") reprises the role of Lucius Fox. The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on "Batman Begins" and the record-breaking blockbuster "The Dark Knight." The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane. Directed by: Christopher Nolan Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman |
| Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life - Clip Taking the best from LA VIE EN ROSE and AMELIE, renowned comic book artist Joann Sfar's GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE is a completely original take on one of France's greatest mavericks, the illustrious and infamous Jewish singer-songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino). Born Lucien Ginsburg to Russian-Jewish parents, Sfar follows him from his precocious childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, to his beginnings as small time jazz musician and finally pop superstar. Along the way he romances many of the era's most beautiful women, including Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Employing a witty surrealistic style and a soundtrack that includes many of the musician's greatest hits, GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE is a quintessential time capsule to '60's Paris. Directed by: Joann Sfar Starring: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Sara Forestier |
| Blue Eyes - Trailer Before his compulsory retirement, a JFK airport's chief Immigration officer, detains a group of Latin Americans and expose them to a series of humiliating situations. Directed by: José Joffily Starring: David Rasche, Erica Gimpel, Frank Grillo, Irandhir Santos |
| Sympathy for Delicious - Trailer Sympathy for Delicious marks acclaimed actor Mark Ruffalo's first foray into directing. This inspired and unusual film tells the story of Dean O'Dwyer (Christopher Thornton), also known as "Delicious D," an up-and-coming DJ on the underground music scene in Los Angeles. When a motorcycle accident leaves Dean paralyzed, he abandons his turntables for a wheelchair as his once promising career disappears before his eyes. Forced to live out of his car on skid row, Dean begins his descent into depression when he meets Father Joe Roselli (Mark Ruffalo), a passionate young priest. Father Joe introduces Dean to the world of faith-healing, an unlikely way for him to begin his quest to walk again. He soon discovers that he possesses the otherworldly power to heal people, but in an odd twist of fate, he is utterly unable to heal himself. Despite Father Joe's warnings, Dean angrily decides to use his newfound gift for fame and fortune. He joins a rock band led by charismatic front man The Stain (Orlando Bloom) with bassist Ariel (Juliette Lewis), and manager Nina Hogue (Laura Linney). But his newfound notoriety is unable to cure the hurt that encompasses his life. To find true healing, Dean must ultimately confront his worst demons and come to terms with his own humanity. Directed by: Mark Ruffalo Starring: Christopher Thornton, Mark Ruffalo, Juliet Lewis, Orlando Bloom, Laura Linney |
| Resurrect Dead - Trailer Strangeness is afoot. Most people don't notice the hundreds of cryptic tiled messages about resurrecting the dead that have been appearing in city streets over the past three decades. But Justin Duerr does. For years, finding an answer to this long-standing urban mystery has been his obsession. He has been collecting clues that the tiler has embedded in the streets of major cities across the U.S. and South America. But as Justin starts piecing together key events of the past he finds a story that is more surreal than he imagined, and one that hits disturbingly close to home. Directed by: Jon Foy Starring: |
| Tucker and Dale vs Evil - Featurette TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count. TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL has been a hit on the festival circuit, debuting at Sundance, and winning the Midnight Audience Award at SXSW, the Jury Prize for First Feature at Fantasia, the Best Director award at Fantaspoa, and the Best Motion Picture Award at Sitges. Directed by: Eli Craig Starring: Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, Katrina Bowden |
| The Darkest Hour - Trailer 2 The DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects. Directed by: Chris Gorak Starring: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor |
| The Ides of March - Clip - Make It Mandatory The Ides of March takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate's shot at the presidency. Directed by: George Clooney Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood |