Zeitgeist Films

Inspired by her *bewitching* twitter account, this week’s post, another Six Degrees of Separation (THEY’RE JUST SO FUN), begins with the Bronx-born wordsmith (and actor!) Ellen Barkin.

Take a moment, if you will, to pay homage to those sequins. Take a longer moment to appreciate the creative strap deployment on that dress. Now take as much time as you need to reap the sweet, sweet joy Barkin’s twitter provides:
- her first tweet, an early sign of greatness- a love for foreign tongues- concern for the welfare of our youth- commiserative frustration with the shortcomings of technology- familiarity with disaster capitalism, and- a healthy disregard for her public relations team’s advice (pictured below)

Okay, so Ellen is awesome. She was awesome in Drop Dead Gorgeous, and she was probably just as awesome in Happy Tears (we admit, we haven’t seen it - but it’s streaming on Netflix Instant!), an indie flick by Mitchell Lichtenstein (yes, son of Roy and director of Teeth). The film takes place in Pittsburgh (wooooooo n’at), following two sisters who are reunited by their increasingly unstable father (he’s old, obvi).


The movie also stars Rip Torn, Demi “yes I’ll date that bearded infant” Moore, and Indie Goddess Parker Posey. (Side note: If you haven’t seen this deleted scene from the flawless Waiting for Guffman, watch it RIGHT NOW).
You forgot we were even doing Six Degrees already, didn’t you? And we’re only in the first degree! So far: Ellen Barkin played the love interest of Parker Posey’s dad in Happy Tears.
On to the second…Parker Posey was also in Dazed and Confused,


directed by Richard Linklater, who also directed (degree three) Before Sunrise, starring the frequently-goateed Ethan Hawke.

(you didn’t believe us about the goatee thing at first, did you?)
(FOUR)
Ethan Hawke once told a story at The Moth Mainstage. The Moth is a thing that we can’t really tell if a ton of people know about or not. It’s great - a storytelling competition of the friendliest sort, for average people, above-average people, and probably also below-average people. Their mainstage program isn’t really a contest, more of a performance - but their StorySlams are held weekly all over the U.S. You should go! (Full disclosure: both bloggers used to intern for The Moth and found it to be a wildly beneficial experience involving really good stories and sometimes free booze).
(cinco)
Featured on one of The Moth’s recent podcasts was producer/director/editor Kimberly Reed, who told a beautiful story about… we actually don’t want to spoil it for you. Find the podcast on iTunes!
Aaaaaaand finally, Kim Reed (director of the documentary Prodigal Sons) edited and produced Jonathan Lee’s Paul Goodman Changed My Life, which opened this past Wednesday to a sold-out show at Film Forum in NYC and is now a New York Times critics’ pick!

Have a good weekend, Dollbabies (sorry Ellen, just this once)! Go see the movie!
- Rachel and Molly