Orson Welles the Genius

I feel compelled to blog about one of my favorite filmmakers of all time- the late Orson Welles.

Welles was extremely gifted in various areas of film production including acting, writing and filming. Because of this versatility, Welles was able to have almost complete control of his best production to date- Citizen Kane.

In the movie Citizen Kane, Welles portrays William Hearst, a newspaper owner with more money than God, and almost just as much power. It was an extremely bold move because Welles was taking on the media. And, we all know that's where the power lies.

Fortunately, Welles was able to make the movie and have it released, much to the chagrin of Hearst who offered RKO studios $800,000 to burn the film.

Overall, the entire story of Citizen Kane, off and on the screen, has inspired me a great deal in my evolution as a filmmaker.

Definitely blogworthy :)

Sad Day for Journalism

There were numerous job and program cuts to the CBC lately, forcing new and longtime employees to search for jobs elsewhere. 

If the CBC, the money giant of Canadian journalism, is making cuts, then things aren't looking well for smaller, less funded companies. 

But, I guess it's all a part of the recession! ;)

Or is it?

Perhaps the government is using the distraction of a recession to influence ($) the people in charge of the CBC to cut or reduce funding to programs that investigate or criticize government? Could be another way of censoring our media.

All we know is what we know- and if we don't know about it, we can't change it.