Monday, August 9, 2010

A Review Of Countdown To Zero

By Elsa Deleon

The independent film circuit is a very rich and sometimes overlooked one each year. Sometimes the most popular and meaningful films that this circuit turns are the original documentaries. The indie documentary is thought by most as a great tool for looking into some revealing truth. We will take a look at one of the most popular indie documentaries from this year "Countdown to Zero".

The most popular documentaries all have a very eye catching and appealing theme behind theme. This film is no different as it deals with the possible threat of nuclear disaster. The film examines the theme that even though the cold war is over, we are always at some very real threat level when it comes to nuclear devastation. A lot of people are calling this film a wake up call.

The best indie documentary films will have a lot of footage that interviews very respected as well as prominent professionals, for a level of insight into various topics. This film does just that by providing plenty of quality interviews. Not only are we treated to the view point of world leaders like Tony Blair but we are also treated to extensive interviews between the film makers and security experts as well.

It is not unusual for a promising indie documentary to open at the Sundance film festival. This movie opened at the 2010 festival's events. Many theater patrons stand in long, snowy, park city Utah lines to buy a ticket or two that will allow them to be the first to see some of the indie world's finest offerings. Do not forget that some of the most prominent indie hits of our generation have opened at park city.

The opening reviews of this film could easily be considered as generally positive. A lot of the critics were able to point out the film's strong points to readers. The biggest and most notable one being the simple fact that while the film remains very informative it escapes the trap of becoming preachy. This prevented the picture from falling into some of the negative stigmas that are sometimes associated with documentary work.

This film had a very moderate art house theater run. An art house theater is the type of venue that allows theater goers to see festival material that they might not of otherwise had the proper chance to see on the big screen. The film was distributed to art house cinemas through the distributor magnolia pictures. This company's popularity seems to be ever growing among the art house community.

Some film goers might not take the time to consider the fact that so many art house films have went on to achieve great success. Some of theme achieved this by being picked up by major league studio distributors for a successful nation wide run. Others have done this by having quite the after life on cable television networks. Such things have happened time and time again.

After reading this film's review, you might be able to determine whether or not you want to invest an hour and a half in the movie "Countdown to Zero". Keep in mind that through the advent of internet and digital distribution, these smaller films are getting quite a large home video audience. These indie documentaries also carry a type of truth that is sometimes not present in more mainstream work.

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