While we’re bitching and shivering at our late-December dip into mid-40s temps, it’s fun to remember that the folks up north are currently drooling over our five-day forecasts, fantasizing about strangling us with their tire chains. But if your hot-blooded South Texas ass has been bundled up indoors ever since the pools closed in late November, good news: First-run indie films are now screening on the web.
Along with the typical blogging and film trailers, local production company Machina Cinema (machinacinema.com) has posted its entire 48-minute short “Jacob” (check out “Say-Town Slugger,” September 3, 2008 for our take) on its website.
And national distribution company Gigantic (giganticdigital.com) has posted two recent releases (The Doorman and Year of the Fish) on its site. For fairly obvious reasons, you can’t download the film to your hard drive, but $2.99 gets you three days of unlimited streaming. Samples viewed on a broadband connection were decent quality with slightly pixilated edges in full-screen mode, but it’s a promising innovation for us indie fans living in a third-tier film market. The site also offers a few free-to-watch flicks, and invites filmmakers to submit their own works to be streamed from the site.
