The first feature film to ever be screened at Number 10, in an event set-up by Sarah Brown on Aung San Suu's birthday, and the first feature from the Co-Op Group's new partnership with distributor DogWoof - Burma VJ is a guerilla documnetary made up of footage smuggled out of Myanmar (Burma) by video journalists in the country (and is a great example of open video's relationship with traditional…

The importance of open video and free media has been established beyond doubt this last week following the events in Iran. Ten key videos, including the heart-stopping 'Poem from the rooftops of Iran' (below) have been compiled by Ben Parr @ Mashable.com, [via Xeni @ BoingBoing, via Raymond Leon Roker)]. The one that really made me shivver when I first saw it has now received almost half a millio…

"We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch and not their terror." Angelo, Measure for Measure Because I don't read the papers everyday any more, I missed this story of the wonderwoman researcher/writer with dual US/UK citizenship, Heather Brooke, who battled for years to get hold of, through the…

 The US Department of Justice has declared themselves against Network Neutrality. The background of this issue is  that ISPs and internet providers earn £15 and upwards a month for providing access to the Internet. But unlike similar subscription services such as Sky Movies and Virgin cable, they don't pay for the content on the Internet. They don't even cover the costs…

Project Censored - an organisation dedicated to tracking unreported news stories - has put together a startling list of 25 stories that the mainstream media has largely ignored in the last year. It makes depressing, but important reading. Especially to anyone working in news or documentary looking for a documentary subject worth sinking some teeth into. #1 Future of Internet Debate Ig…

India's Department of Telecomunications has begun to block dozens of websites, including any site from Blogger, TypePad and Geocities. Working from a '22-page list', ISPs in India have been instructed to prevent access to all listed websites. More information available from WithinAndWithout, SeaCrow and BoingBoing From BoingBoing: An Indian political blog is reporting…

  Screen Scrutineers To Quiz Audiences For the First Time The British Board of Film Classification has commissioned a team from Aberystwyth University is to research how audiences react to sexual violence in movies. Researchers will now begin to quiz cinema-goers about some of the big screen's most controversial moments, in the first survey of its type commissioned by the U…

"At the same time, 50 other people are currently in prison in China for writing about ‘subversive’ subjects online,” Chinese blogger and documentary filmmaker Hao Wu has been released by the Chinese authorities after nearly five months in detention. His release was announced on her blog by his sister, Na (Nina) Wu on Tuesday. Nina has been steadily campaigning - alo…

The Tamil Nadu Government in India told the Madras High Court on Thursday that it had powers under the Cinematography Act, to stop the screening of the Da Vinci Code, even though it had previously been approved. "A ban was necessary to maintain even tempo of life and it is a bonafide exercise in the interest of maintaining peace", the government claimed.