Joking Around with Jesus

A pair of large hand-painted inscriptions in the windows of Jesus4Less, a brand new Christian bookstore located at 906 Broadway in Tacoma, WA, urge shoppers not to get crucified by high prices and remind them that 'Christ Died 4 Your Savings.' But despite the obvious sight-gag nature of these exhortations and the items on the shelves, a number of real walk-in customers have been reluctant to accept the idea that the retail space is a testament to cinematic artifice.

From Donuts to Dirt

A robust sense of humor courses through the short films made by Belleville, IL resident Jim Klenn, from his documentary about the 2005 edition of a wacky annual upside-down summer biathlon event in nearby Staunton to his most recent fictional effort Free Dirt, the tale of a beleaguered husband dealing with a giant hole in his backyard. That same rosy outlook extends to the way the 52-year-old Klenn has dealt with the travails of being a low-rent, Midwestern artiste.

Bringing Grace to Ground Zero

As another September 11th anniversary inexorably approaches, few people are in a better position to gauge the lingering maelstrom of conflicting emotions and beliefs than Australian documentary filmmaker Simon Dikkenberg. Currently in New York City with his brother-law Daniel Rodriguez, the former NYPD officer who enthralled the nation in the wake of the devastating attacks with renditions of "God Bless Ameria" and the national anthem, Dikkenberg has chosen to improvise a new course of distribution for their collaborative feature-length project Amazing Grace Experience.

A Green Screen in the Garage

Although Minneapolis-to-Boston transplant Chip Perro has had the basic idea for his superhero movie Mission Park since he was eight-years-old, it wasn't until the summer of 2009 that he was able to finally bring it to fruition with generous co-financing from executive producer mom Debbie and co-director dad Rick. Ahead of a sold-out world premiere on Wednesday, August 25th at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, the film has managed to generate a lot of buzz about its unique comic book-inspired look, which traces an ever-present stencil outline around each on-screen character.

Documenting a Twitter Road Trip

While Twitter has just launched a new ongoing series of user profiles called "Twitter Tales" with a look at a trio of selected tweeters, Singapore based filmmaker Tan Siok Siok is currently putting the finishing touches on a more ambitious chronicle of dozens of Twitter Nation members. Made in partnership with New York City artist and photographer Geo Geller, the documentary Twittamentary will no doubt attract a lot of attention when it sneak peaks for New York City Twitterati in early October.