Making Little Movies Great Again, The Indie Gathering in Hudson August 10-13

Let us now examine some of the bloated cinematic corpses from the movie year of 2017. Nobody much wanted to see the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL. Or Universal Picture's second (count 'em) reboot of THE MUMMY, as a Tom Cruise actionfest. The once-unsinkable PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN sequels stumbled with number five, and movie spoofs of BAYWATCH and CHiPS saw quick cancellation!

Finally...THE EMOJI MOVIE. Bob Ignizio actually saw that one and didn't even bother to review it. There can be no lower praise.

With all that waste of millions in resources, time and talent, how about a film festival that really celebrates the struggling indies of the world, bravely getting entertainment done on a shoestring budget.

The Indie Gathering, held annually in the late summer at the Clarion Inn of Hudson, upholds local/international `microcinema' – shorts and features done by independent filmmakers, today most often working (and working wonders sometimes) in digital video.

Get more for less at the Indie Gathering, August 15-18 in Hudson

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

The latest estimates on the money lost by Disney's summer-epic-franchise-launch-that-nobody-really-wanted-to-see-that-wasn't-JOHN CARTER, alias THE LONE RANGER, is said to be in the neighborhood of $190 million. Wow, and that doesn't even count the cost of the on-set heroin addiction by the animal actors who played Silver the Wonder Horse (in other words...horses on horse). Nearly $200 mil down the drain. Why, for that kind of money, you could save several Cleveland homes from foreclosure. Delay it, anyhow. Don't worry, Disney will just get it out of petty cash from ABC. Or take a government corporate bailout, whichever is less effort.