Mathilde’s Misses: A Story Of The World’s First Homeless Beauty Pageant – Free-To-Share On VODO

Director: Docwerkers
Year: 2012
Duration: 52 minutes
Language: French and Flemish with English subtitles

Free-to-Share Download / Support-and-Stream >>

In Belgium, Mathilde organizes the world’s very first beauty pageant… for homeless women.

Fifteen ladies compete for the main prize: one year rent-free housing. Pascale hopes to win the house, in order to regain the custody over her 7 year old daughter, but not all works out as she would have wanted it to.

Mathilde’s Misses is uses the controversy of the pageant to sketch a committed documentary portrait of women at the edge of society.

Humorous and acid at the same time, this film will not leave you untouched. Probably one of the best documentaries of 2012

Javier Tolentino, El Septimo Vicio, RTVE3 Radio

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

Docwerkers is a non-profit production house with a passion for creative documentary inspired on social themes and for free-to-share online distribution. Information on their upcoming project, a webseries on the euro-crisis called “Buy Buy Europe”, will be available in mid-June 2013 on docwerkers.be

AWARDS / SCREENINGS

Flemish Film Critics Society, 2012 Young Talent Award
Open Knowledge Festival, Helsinki
Incubate Festival, Netherlands
BCCN Barcelona
CC Cusco, Peru
Relics Kunstenfestival, Antwerp
Festival Audiovisual Medellin y Barranquilla, Colombia
7 Dagen Sociale Film Antwerpen
Seven Islands International Film Festival, Mumbai

LINKS

http://www.mathildesmisses.org/
docwerkers.be

SUPPORT-AND-STREAM

Mathilde’s Misses is available as a free-to-share download and also as a stream available in perpetuity in your VODO user library if you support the filmmaker with a payment.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

We’re doing something amazing… (or VODO is DOWN!)

If you’ve been checking back at VODO lately you might have gotten a bit bored with the same old film appearing on the front page (although we hope you’ve checked out Deadside by now) and it might have seemed like nothing much is going on. However, nothing can be further from the truth – in the last few months we’ve been working very hard behind the scenes and are almost ready to bring you the next iteration of VODO, version 3.0!

The VODO code base

We’ve basically been running VODO on the same TurboGears code base for the last 3 years. As the site has swelled and new functionality has been introduced it was pretty clear that we needed a fresh start. So VODO 3.0 is pretty much rewritten from scratch in Django, and we’re also employing some more modern frontend tools such as SASS and Sprockets.

Server backend

If you’ve been with us for a while you probably know that our server uptime hasn’t always been the best, especially when there has been any major release. For VODO 3.0 we have bought new machines and our new web server and tracker will be fully scalable and will handle whatever you guys can throw at them. Bring it on.

Submissions

Another big problem have been how we handle publisher accounts and submissions, and due to lacking tools and manual handling of requests the process of uploading a film to and distributing it through VODO has sometimes taken way too long. With VODO 3.0 we’re opening up the submission process to anyone and with a new transcoder and submission process in place things should be much quicker and provide much more tangible feedback to anyone who wants to distribute their work through us.

Business model

We like to try new things and have already tried a lot! While staying true to our free-to-share core, with VODO 3.0 we will soon be launching some very interesting new distribution models.

VODO Player

One of the problems with our free-to-share model has always been how newcomers struggle with the concept of torrent downloads and encoders such as h.264. To combat this problem, one of the most exciting things that will follow 3.0 is the launch of our very own VODO Player, a combined torrent client and video player that will enable anyone to download and watch our films on their desktop. Watch this space.

When?

3.0 should be live within a day or two and in the meantime we’re shutting down vodo.net so we can migrate all the data and user accounts (you will not have to register a new account and all your data and films will be carried over to the new server). Initially we’re launching with pretty much the same feature set we have today – but expect new things to appear on the site very soon. Film submissions will be put on hold for a while longer while we get the new upload process and transcoder online but we’ll keep everyone informed via email and here on the blog.

Bugs!

It is quite likely that things will be broken and/or a bit rough around the edges in the next couple of weeks. Sorry in advance about that. Publishers might be hit harder than normal users – rest assured it’s just temporary. If you find anything missing or broken please do get in touch at info@vodo.net and we’ll try and sort it out as soon as we can!

Cheers,
Nils
Development Leader
VODO

Warring Factions – A Story Of Breakdancing Across US/Iranian Divides, Free-To-Share On VODO

Director: Justin Mashouf
Year: 2010
Duration: 77 minutes
Language: English / Farsi with English subs

As forces in American government and media have fueled the perception of an unavoidable war with Iran, Warring Factions is a call to (dis)arms.

An American-born Iranian breakdancer finds cultural awakening by exploring his multi-ethnic roots. Faced with dual nationality in two conflicting countries, he travels to Iran to examine the political issues first-hand while exploring his cultural identity with a group of Iranian b-boys.

By combining documentary and studio reenactments, Warring Factions looks at the blurring of world borders, and the looming threat of another war in the Middle East.

Thoughtful, imaginative and open, Justin Mashouf seems to represent the new generation of Muslims in the Middle East and U.S. that balance Islamic culture with hip, contemporary lifestyles.
Susanna Whitmore, Levantine Cultural Center

FESTIVALS / SCREENINGS

Filmstock Film Festival (Official Selection)
Salaam Film Festival (Official Selection)
NYU Shuruq Festival (Official Selection)
Noor Film Festival (Official Selection)
Muslimfest 2010 (Official Selection)
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Official Selection)
UNICEF Blue Week (Official Selection)

LINKS

http://mashouf.blogspot.ca/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2233734/
http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/news/justin-mashouf/
http://www.levantinecenter.org/levantine-review/critique/iranian-film-festival-los-angeles-takes-no-hostages

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE

Warring Factions is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. We’re sure you have friends who aren’t too familiar with downloading, so when you support the filmmaker with $3 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

The Harvest Project – A Surgical Thriller, Free-To-Share On VODO

FREE-TO-SHARE DOWNLOAD / SUPPORT-AND-SHARE STREAMING

Director: Darren Rozak
Year: 2008
Duration: 87m
Language: English (no subtitles)

Twisting its way through an ethical maze of shadowy bio-trading, backstreet operations and law enforcement, The Harvest Project is a tense feature-length thriller.

Personal anguish drives Professor Morteyz, a brilliant physician, into devising ‘The Harvest Project’– a sophisticated underground network of organ transplants. The ethics of the project are challenged when his young protégé falters and becomes involved in the lucrative but treacherous black market.

The university campus emerges as the perfect harvest ground for living ‘marks’. However, the project is compromised when the death of a mark attracts the attention of Detective Tzume.

When his undercover operation reveals those responsible, Detective Tzume is faced with a heart wrenching dilemma – should he bring the vigilantes to justice, or use the ‘project’ to save the life of his only daughter who is in desperate need of an organ transplant?

FOLLOW AND LIKE!

Follow @HPFilms and like The Harvest Project Facebook page–making sure to mention VODO–for mutual follows, likes, thanks, and to show support for the filmmaker’s competition bid to fundraise for his next movie project.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

A true independent artist trying to carve my own path in the production and distribution world, I am now building support for my next big movie project, The Harvest Project: Absolution, which I aim to shoot with state-of-the-art RED digital cameras.  I am in a competition taking place from March to June 2013 to create a large social media fanbase in order to receive funding for the film, so your follows and likes will be a massive help and hugely appreciated. Thank you for your interest and social media support!

Darren Rozak

LINKS

www.theharvestprojectmovie.com
www.imdb.com/title/tt1320264/
www.twitter.com/HPFilms
www.facebook.com/

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE

The Harvest Project is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. We’re sure you have friends who aren’t too familiar with downloading, so when you support the filmmaker with $3 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

Till You Get To Baraboo – An Indie Rom Com, Free-To-Share On VODO

FREE-TO-SHARE DOWNLOAD /
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Director: Emmet Loverde
Year: 2012
Duration: 79m
Language: English

It’s new territory for VODO in this Spotlight Valentine’s Day Special: indie Rom Com! 

It’s the eve of the Las Vegas wedding of his close friend Judy Claymore and Roland Hayes (Bill Mendieta) juggles a host of conflicting emotions while pacing in his hotel room. He is amazed by the arrival of the bride-to-be herself (Jennifer Siebel Newsom), but much unfinished business remains between them.

Their joyful reunion is interrupted by a gruff Delivery Man (Tom Schanley) bearing Roland’s order of Chinese food and a truckload of wry observations on women, relationships, and why a Sinatra ballad is ideal for disrupting a wedding ceremony.

Over the course of the weekend Roland is visited–’confronted’ is probably a better word–by all the special women from his past in a series of surreal and hilarious vignettes. Grappling with his reluctance to move beyond them and his fears about the future, will Roland able to let go of worn-out old dreams and make room for new ones?

Loverde has managed something I’ve never seen before, taking the pain and hurt of an ended relationship and making it tangible. As Roland is reminded and is confronted by old girlfriends, you can’t help but think back on your own past and wonder about the choices and mistakes you’ve made. It’s a wonderful movie that will have you sitting by the Kleenex…even if it’s only out of genuine self-pity!  Brian Moreton, roguecinema.com

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Till You Get To Baraboo is a feature film written and directed by Emmett Loverde that stars William Mendieta (Soldier of God, I Love Lucy–Live On Stage”); Tom Schanley (Get the Gringo); Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Director of Miss Representation); Genevieve Zweig (Magnolia); and Amanda Noret Reed (TV’s Veronica Mars). The film was produced by Emmett Loverde and Cindy Ware and features music by David Shepherd Grossman. 

LINKS
http://www.tillyougettobaraboo.com

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE
Til You Get To Baraboo is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. We’re sure you have friends who aren’t too familiar with downloading, so when you support the filmmaker with $3 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT
VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

Spotlight #16: Of Games & Escapes – A Feature-Length Drama Of Unravelling Normality, Free-To-Share On VODO

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SUPPORT-AND-SHARE STREAMING

Director: Bevan Klassen
Year: 2011
Duration: 77m
Language: English

Patrick wants to change the world. Environmentally conscious and creatively driven, he rides a scooter to his dead-end sales job and by night designs board-games with meaning.

Patrick appears to have a happy life outside of work but spirals into depression when his desires to do good fall short. Turning to the power of pharmaceuticals to boost his productivity, his way through the world goes radically off his aspirational map.

Of Games And Escapes charts Patrick’s mental journey in four chapters, presenting different frictions and opportunities that arise in his interaction with other characters and the mind-sets they represent. These form a carefully crafted structure inspired by the transformational theory of human psychological development call Spiral Dynamics, developed by psychologist Clare W Graves, who observed that through “the interaction of external conditions with internal neuronal systems, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve existential problems and cope with their worlds.”

Beneath the surface of its quiet concern with ordinary life, Of Games And Escapes is a compelling micro-budget drama, using HD video to deft effect in its sophisticated rendering of an everyman’s dark struggle to make sense of his place in the world.

…high compliments from the award-winning director [Guy Maddin] set the bar quite high for this debut feature, and audiences will not be disappointed with this story of struggle.
Kayleigh Ayre, uniter.ca

AWARDS AND SCREENINGS

Gimli Festival 2011

REVIEWS

http://ofgamesandescapes.com/reviews/

Spotlight #15: Spaceman – A Sci-Fi Micro-Epic, Free-To-Share On VODO

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A captain’s infatuation with his ship leaves his lieutenant pining for the planet they left behind. From writer/director Jono Schaferkotter comes a heart-wrenching look at love in outer space. This sci-fi epic is sure to surprise you as it explores a young woman’s relationship with an eccentric captain and his defective spaceship.

The latest short from local filmmaker Jono Schaferkotter is a 15-minute dream circling around the sun; an intimate, existential, space-romance drifting around weightlessly before plummeting into a dramatic crash landing right into the hearts of its spectators. Featuring Jennifer Allcott as the lovely lieutenant and Hamid Nayini as her not-quite-fearless captain, Spaceman reveals how each must struggle with reality and consequently live out a love affair with their head in the clouds. Accompanied by original music from Birds Fled From Me, and Tyler Parkford, this vague, private and lovely cinematic gem screens three nights in a row—all culminating in a full plug and party this Saturday night.
Brian Echon gtweekly.com

In local filmmaker Jono Schaferkotter’s Spaceman, time collapses and reality gets slippery, but one thing remains constant: the dedication to aesthetics. Beautiful shots are the hallmark of this 15-minute sci-fi film. The music, by Tyler Parkford and Rachel Williams, is first-rate.
Traci Hukill metrosantacruz.com

Spaceman is a fanciful vignette of a romantic encounter…  Actors Hamid Nayini and Jennifer Allcott make for an appealing couple, and with nicely understated special effects and original music by Tyler Packford and Rachel Williams, Schaferkotter has created a resonant metaphor for the difficulties of feeling out a relationship.
Wallace Baine santacruzsentinel.com

AWARDS

Best Internal Short 2010 at the Israel International Sci-Fi Festival

REVIEWS

www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_11745631?source=rss

LINKS

www.imdb.com/title/tt1381678/combined

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE

Spaceman is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. We’re sure you have friends who aren’t too familiar with downloading, so when you support the filmmaker with $3 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

Spotlight #14: War On Health – Exposing The Dark Side Of Pharmaceutical Regulation, Free-To-Share On VODO

FREE-TO-SHARE DOWNLOAD /
SUPPORT-AND-SHARE STREAMING

“In the near future, American medical practice may change dramatically for the worse.”

“No longer will maximal dose natural supplements and vitamins, natural compounds, and scientifically proven medicinal herbs be available over the counter in local health and grocery stores. Holistic practice, which relies upon non-prescription natural treatments instead of Big Pharma drugs prescribed life-long, will diminish. American healthcare will be imprisoned, patients will be forced to abide by a single medical paradigm defined by corporate drug and food executives and dictated by a government enforcement agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is the bleak scenario if the FDA succeeds in limiting Americans’ options to prevent and treat diseases.”

“War on Health is the first documentary detailing and challenging the FDA agenda and its allegiance with the international Codex Alimentarius, which hopes to establish a monolithic food and health regime. Betraying its founding mandate to assure drug, food and chemical safety in the interests of public health, the FDA today is a repressive bureaucracy serving pharmaceutical and agricultural greed and profits. Vaccines, medical devices, prescription drugs are fast tracked at alarming rates through the FDA at the expense of scientific oversight to assure their efficacy and safety. The result is hundreds of thousands premature deaths annually from pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines and medical devices and an epidemic of medical incompetence and fraud sanctioned by federal health officials.”

“Featuring many pioneering American and European attorneys, physicians, medical researchers and advocates of health freedom, War on Health lifts the veil on FDA’s militaristic operations against organic food providers and alternative physicians. The film’s conclusion is perfectly clear: the FDA is a tyrannical cult founded upon the denial of sound medical science with little intention to improve the nation’s health and prevent disease.”

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE

War on Health is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. When you support the filmmaker with $2 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, political, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and, where available, to pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.

Sick or Treat Halloween Special: Horror Streaming-Bundles From $1

Sick or treat, sick or treat, watch these films and wet your sheets!

To celebrate this Halloween we’ve put together a great triple-feature bundle of horrific delights to indulge your uneasy desire for dark curiosities.

As usual, all films are available as Free-To-Share downloads but we are offering HD streaming bundles of the full collection from $1. Up your game to $3 or $5 and get bonus bundles to gift to friends for a perfect sick Halloween treat.

Films include The Manifesto (released in our Spotlight programme today), The Tunnel and Rising Tide.

THE MANIFESTO
A lone, masked figure enacts brutal violence on a group of unwitting individuals. Familiar horror story? Think again. Politics meets Torture-Porn in this horribly illuminating lesson in Capitalism and power.

THE TUNNEL
In 2008, hunting a connection between urban legend and rumours of a government cover-up, investigative journalist Natasha Warner led a crew of four into the labyrinth of disused tunnels beneath Sydney. They went down looking for a story – until the story found them.

RISING TIDE
A coming-of-age film with more than a touch of darkness, Rising Tide takes the simmering desires and uncertainties of teen experience and twists them into a tale of paranoia, loss and revenge.

Indie Film: Love it? Share it!
Sweet dreams!
VODO

Spotlight #13: The Manifesto – Politics Meets Torture-Porn, Free-To-Share On VODO

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A lone, masked male enacts brutal violence on a group of  unwitting individuals. Familiar horror story? Think again.

This film is a document of a manifesto in action. It is both a political call-to-arms against the twisted operations of capitalist power that suppresses the many in service of the few, and a disturbing portrait of a serial killer urged to action by global injustice. Politics meets Torture-Porn in a horribly illuminating lesson on globalisation ethics.

The Manifesto began as the work of a nameless, faceless man who published a site called called globalistagenda.com. He used this site to rant about his anti-globalist views all prior to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which later popularized the same opinions.

Fearing that his message would not be heard the man withdrew from his rants and his blog, but not before vowing to start the last great American revolution. Then he vanished from sight. He is anonymous. Mr Nobody. He could be anyone of us. He is most definitely at large.

WARNING: This film contains disturbing images and dangerous ideas.

SUPPORT-AND-SHARE

The Manifesto is available as a free-to-share download, and also in a variety of support-and-share streaming options. When you support the filmmaker with $2 or more, VODO provides you with direct streaming links that enable you to distribute the film among friends in a quick and accessible way.

SPOTLIGHT

VODO Spotlight is an initiative promoting specially selected works from the VODO free-to-share film catalogue, celebrating the spectrum of compelling, weird, wonderful, stark, humorous and innovative talents behind them. Spotlight releases provide the same kind of support opportunities as headline releases, offering viewers the chance to share private streaming tokens as gifts and pick up great production memorabilia while supporting independent film and the free-to-share ethos.