Fan Cinema Today

5/25/77, the indie film based on the true story of a 1970s teenage fan filmmaker whose life was changed when he went behind the scenes on Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is still alive—and man, am I surprised. This movie must have more spare lives than a cat. Read the rest of this entry ?

Son of Rambow—the indie movie about two pre-teen boys making a Rambo fan film in 1980s England—has been covered quite a bit on this blog, and it’s brought in about $524,000 to date, according to Variety.

Well, $11.75 of that was my hard-earned money (yes, that’s what it costs to see a movie in New York City these days—and no movie is worth that much, period). My take on the film, now that I finally saw it? It was fun, but you won’t miss anything by putting it in your Netflix queue instead of hitting the theaters (and you’ll definitely save a few bucks if you live in NYC). Read the rest of this entry ?

It almost doesn’t qualify as a fan film, since its cast is comprised almost entirely of people who previously appeared in the various Star Trek movies and TV series. Nonetheless, it’s still big news when segments of Star Trek: Of Gods And Men come out, and now the third and final installment will be released next month on June 15 at 5PM EST.

Star Trek: Of Gods and Men stars Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura and Chekov from original Star Trek) along with Alan Ruck (Captain John Harriman of the seventh feature film, Star Trek Generations). Joining them are Grace Lee Whitney (original Star Trek ); Garrett Wang and Ethan Phillips (Voyager); Cirroc Lofton, Chase Masterson and JG Hertzler (Deep Space Nine), Gary Graham and Crystal Allen (Enterprise), Herb Jefferson (Battlestar Galactica) plus Tim Russ (Voyager), who also directed. Read the rest of this entry ?

So it was a big Indiana Jones weekend. They’re saying that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull raked in something like $151 million from Thursday through Monday, despite mixed reviews. Me? I went in with low expectations and had a good time, and would rank it as a tie for second-best Indy flick with Last Crusade.

But like I said the other day, to me, it was just as exciting that the long-awaited, epic fan film, Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Templars, was going to debut its first 12 minutes over the long Memorial Day weekend. What made it even better was that when that teaser was finally released, it turned out to be pretty good.

Read the rest of this entry ?

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Star Trek is all around us every day, from corny newspaper headlines that say something will “go where no [fill in the blank] has gone before” to Motorola Razr cell phones that bear a striking resemblance to Communicators.

As for me, if I stumble across the first two series on TV, I’ll usually wind up watching, and one of my best pals, Glenn Greenberg, is a Trek author of some repute, having written the comic book series, Star Trek: Untold Voyages, as well as two good novellas for the Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers ebook series (the second one, “The Art of the Comeback,” is better).

When it comes to Trek fan films, however, I tend to only follow the basics: New Voyages/Phase II, the late Hidden Frontier, Starship Farragut and, of course, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the “fan film” starring basically every ex-Trek regular who now makes more money from the convention circuit than from acting. As a result, when I need to keep track of all the amateur productions being made by enterprising fans (yes, “enterprising;” deal with it), I turn to the cleverly titled blog, Star Trek Fan Film News. You’ll never guess what its proprietor, Photons Be Free, writes about.

To her credit, PBF keeps up-to-date on all the latest fan-produced movies and audio dramas—and wow, there’s far more of each than you ever dreamed possible. Although the blog is still finding finding its feet, and there’s no real coverage of one-off productions like Of Gods and Men or the classic Redshirt Blues, otherwise, STFFN is a cool, emerging resource for fans infatuated with Star Trek.