Wholphin

YouTube launched their new high-quality, short content channel, The Screening Room, last week with four films, including Wholphin No. 1’s “Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?”

The launch party kicked off with an in-theatre screening of the first four films and a casual Q & A with the filmmakers, and then moved upstairs for a rooftop party where mash-up DJ Synchronize Live featured a sneak peak at the next four films playing in the Screening Room starting in July, including Wholphin No. 1’s “The Big Empty,” as well as our very talented animator friend, Josh Raskin’s, John Lennon-starring short film, “I Met the Walrus.”

Check back for new films in the Screening Room every two weeks.

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, filmmaker Rick Castaneda (The Golden Egg) and Wholphin’s Brent Hoff at the Screening Room launch.

In between the stellar shorts programs at this year’s Cinevegas Film Festival, we joined the former and new SXSW festival heads, Matt Dentler and Janet Pierson, respectively, at the blackjack table. Janet bet her husband that she wouldn’t gamble, but like a pro went on to rake in $200 in twenty minutes.

Cinevegas easily took home this year’s top festival schwag bag award with Nalgenes to keep us hydrated, hangover pills to keep us wide-eyed, and Grey Goose vodka which, unable to carry it on the airplane, we gave away to a nice cab driver on our way out of town.  

Thanks to festival programmers, Trevor Groth and Mike Plante who, as always, put on a fine show.

Wholphin’s Brent Hoff, SXSW’s Janet Pierson and Cinetic’s Matt Dentler at the blackjack table at the Palms.

For those of you in Austin on Sunday, May 18th, there’s going to be a special screening of Wholphin No 5 at the Alamo Ritz. Films will include the world-record setting, one-handed, blind-folded Rubik’s cube champions, drunk bees, an instructional video on how to perfect the ancient art of tree hanging, an animated short about a fake rock star taking on a heroin-addicted carnival monkey, giant paper airplanes, Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Spanish sci-fi and so much more.

Sunday, May 18th at 10PM
Alamo Ritz/Downtown
320 E 6th St. Austin, TX

More info here.

Join us for Wholphin’s return to the Silent Movie Theatre on Tuesday, April 29th. We will be screening a selection of films from the upcoming sixth issue of Wholphin, including a documentary about a class of Chinese third graders who hold a democratic election for classroom monitor and in the process end up hilariously, if unintentionally, mocking 300 years of American Politics; a beautifully black, comic exploration of 70s England that isn’t, but could easily be, the prequel to A Clockwork Orange; the winner of the Wholphin Award at this year’s SXSW, Benh Zeitlin’s Glory at Sea; an animated fake rock star taking on a heroin-addicted carnival monkey; drunk bees and more!

Tuesday, April 29th at 8PM
Silent Movie Theatre
611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles

Wholphin No 4 featured an excerpt from Lynn Hershman Leeson’s brilliant, hybrid documentary-film, Strange Culture, in which the FBI mistakenly accuses artist, Steve Kurtz, as a bioterrorist. Now, after four years of interrogations, lawyers fees and trials, the case has finally been thrown out.

The New York Times reported on April 21st: “A judge threw out charges Monday against a college art professor accused of improperly obtaining biological materials for an exhibit protesting U.S. government food policies.

U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was ”insufficient on its face.”

Kurtz is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble, which has used human DNA and other biological materials in works intended to draw attention to political and social issues. His arrest drew protests from artists in several countries who called the charges an intrusion on artistic freedom.

”Obviously this is a weight off his back, but he still had to suffer through this for four years,” said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria. ”The last thing this guy is is a bioterrorist.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo said it was considering an appeal but otherwise declined to discuss the ruling.

Kurtz was indicted in 2004 following what began as an anti-terrorism investigation after police saw lab equipment in Kurtz’s home while responding to the death of his wife, Hope.

Although investigators determined that lab equipment was part of his art work, he was indicted a month later. The charges carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Kurtz was accused of plotting with Robert Ferrell, former chairman of the University of Pittsburgh’s human genetics department, to improperly obtain potentially harmful organisms. Ferrell was fined $500 in February after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of mailing an injurious article to Kurtz.

See the article here.