Michael Moore is back with the documentary film "Where to Invade Next" (2015), his first in six years. Can't wait to see this!

Taken from the review by Jon Schwarz, who worked for Moore for a number of years:

About halfway through Where to Invade Next, Moore visits an island prison in Norway that houses inmates who've committed violent crimes but are being rewarded for good behavior. It looks less like Oz and more like a frugal resort, with prisoners in regular clothes doing wheelies on bikes, fishing, and sunbathing.

In the prison's kitchen, Moore talks to Trond, a convicted murderer with a huge tattoo on his face. Looking past him, Moore says: "Uh, I can't help but notice that behind you are a whole bunch of very sharp knives." And in fact there are a dozen of them, including a gigantic cleaver.

There also appear to be zero guards. Trond explains how many guards are at the prison on weekends: four. That's for a prison population of 115. Plus, he says, the guards generally all stay in another building, leaving the prisoners to supervise themselves.

For most Americans, including me, this looks completely insane. But the prison warden, sitting at a park bench with birds chirping in the background, explains: "I don't understand why you think this is a strange idea. … The main idea is just to take away their freedom. That's the only punishment we are giving them. We are trying to help them back to society."

Tip: The documentary series "The Norden" gives you a good understanding of police and prison work in the Nordic countries.

Via Boing Boing.

During last year's Sundance Film Festival, photographer Victoria Will captured some of the visiting actors in a series of tintype portraits. This year, the portraits are animated.

For the past two years, Esquire has gone to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah to work with photographer Victoria Will, who created iconic and haunting tintype portraits of Hollywood stars. This year, we asked Will to collaborate with us and our good friends at Instagram on a new take on portraiture.

Spike Lee:

Allison Janney:

Image credit: PetaPixel

When filmmaker Kevin Smith worked in a convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey in the early 90s, listening to an interview on Howard Stern with director Robert Rodriguez and hear him talk about producing the film "El Mariachi" (1993), had an profound impact on Smith's life. As a direct result, Smith's first feature film "Clerks" (1994) took place at his current workplace and also got him out of there.

So I was sitting there in a convenience store listening to that, and I was like, "Wow, that's kind of tight — all you have to do if you want to make a movie, make a film, figure out a story nobody else has told but, like Robert Rodriguez said, work with what you got." I wasn't going to set something in outer space. So I looked around and thought, What do I got? Where can I shoot a movie? I've never seen a less likely location to shoot a movie. God, I hate this job. If only I could turn it into something better. It took me weeks to figure out — Oh, you could shoot a movie in a convenience store. Nobody's ever done that before.

With Malin Akerman and Paul Giamatti in the lead, not to mention the great actor Damian Lewis, I must start following the TV series "Billions" that apparently is the first one that gets Wall Street completely right according to trader James Altucher, who knows this place inside out.

Wall Street starts at Broadway and continues down to Water Street. Along the way, it gets crooked. Right around Broad Street it starts to curve. If you are standing at one end of Wall Street and try to look at the other end, you won’t see it. Because it's crooked

I lived on the street. And I worked on the street.

People walk back and forth daydreaming about getting rich. Others are crying because they couldn't make it. And if you can't make it there, as the song sort of goes, you can't make it anywhere.

Which is really true. Because "there" is where the money is. And people get desperate around money. So desperate they will do anything to get it.

At one point I invested in a dozen hedge funds. Eleven of them ended up being caught doing illegal activity. A few people are in jail.

Every night I was scared because I started to see what was going on until eventually I shut the whole thing down.

[…]

Billions, the new show on Showtime is the first show that accurately describes what is going on on this tiny street.

"The Sound of Film" is a lovely edit done by Robert Marshall, in which the sounds of working with analog photography is captured.

The intro for the critically acclaimed eight-episode German television series "Deutschland 83" (2015) is made up by many of the designs element that I appreciate. I have yet to see the complete series, but judging from the little I've seen, it all feels very authentic.

The short "The Knife Sharpener" is a beautiful portrait of Carmine Mainella, one of Rome's last knife sharpeners that still works in the trade.

Mr. Mainella is one of the last of a dying profession. Much of his old client base — corner butcher shops, delicatessens, mom-and-pop groceries — has been swallowed up by supermarket chains. Other clients in downtown neighborhoods here have capitulated to souvenir shops, victims of high rents and modern shopping habits.

"They've all gone," Mr. Mainella said. "Now I serve 5 shops, where before I served 10." Before the latest economic crisis sharply curtailed household spending, he was able to live on fewer commissions. When money went further, "you could survive sharpening 50 knives," he added. "Now, because you can't increase the price, you have to sharpen 500."

There is no fixed price for his labor. He takes what he gets — a euro here, a euro fifty there. "Still I get by," he said.

Via Tjock (SE).

I've been working as a chairlift and snow machine operator at a well-known ski resort in Sweden, so watching this short presented by Jungle in Paris about the only remaining single-chair lift in the United States at the mountain Mad River Glen in Fayston, Vermont, was a real treat for me.

It's a lovely thing to ride the lift everyday: overlooking the slopes, skiers and the beautiful nature. And one thing that I didn't fully appreciated while working as a lift operator, but do now, was the amount of fresh air I got.

So, if you or someone else you know are thinking about heading to a resort to work, go for it. You'll meet great friends, enjoy your working days in a serene environment, and you'll have something to do every day in the week with so much going on around you since a resort is a place for vacation and entertainment.

I felt strangely present when watching a lawn mower powered with a Chevrolet V8 engine being driven on the road in high speed. It's something with the roaring engine sound that struck a chord with me. Did I just say that!?

Via Holy Kaw.

With just two ingredients – table salt and white wine vinegar – you can clean your copper utensils in no time as shown by Dave Hax (YouTube channel). I just love these types of hacks that only make use of ingredients that are environmentally friendly.