"Nothing So Strange" DVD

[elektro80]

+ THE BIG STORY: The DVD is now on sale
+ SCREENINGS: New York and Detroit
+ NSS IN THE NEWS: China grieves over Bill Gates' death
+ LATEST REVIEWS: "I can't recommend it highly enough"
+ NEW ONLINE: Online bonus materials for the DVD
+ OFF TOPIC: Brian Flemming's latest hoax



+ THE BIG STORY: The DVD is now on sale

Finally! There's not much more to say. There's a DVD. It's
awesome. We can ship it anywhere in the world you might
happen to be. You can buy it for only $14.99.

http://www.nothingsostrange.com/buy/dvd.html

It's a fully loaded DVD: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, slideshows
examining every facet of the Gates assassination, multi-angle
clips of the assassination, director's commentary, one hour of
deleted video and audio footage, the theatrical trailer and
more. If you use the DVD on a PC or a Mac, there are also lots
of links to NSS's rich Web universe built into the slide shows.

Oh, and director Brian Flemming, who created the DVD himself,
says there may be some of those hidden "Easter eggs" on it.
("Easter eggs" are special clips and other material that you
can only access by playing around with the navigation menus
in unusual ways. There's a whole cult of people devoted to
finding Easter eggs on DVDs.)

BUY THE DVD:
http://www.nothingsostrange.com/buy/dvd.html



+ SCREENINGS: New York and Detroit

The movie is currently playing is Detroit. See details below.

"Nothing So Strange" has also been named the best film of 2003
by VideoTheatreNYC, where the movie had its New York debut.
The theater is bringing back "Nothing So Strange" for a
special encore screening to celebrate the award.

The details:

Playing RIGHT NOW in DETROIT
Roseville Theatre
28325 Utica Rd
(586) 445-7810
Directions and parking:
http://www.rosevilletheatre.com/directions.php

Coming soon in NEW YORK
VideoTheatre NYC
85 East 4th St. (Between Bowery and Second Ave)
Special Encore Screening
February 24, 7:30 p.m.
Web:
http://www.videotheatrenyc.com/

=========================================================

+ NSS IN THE NEWS: China grieves over Bill Gates' death

Remember how we told you in the last newsletter that the South
Korean stock market took a dive when the media in South Korea
reported that Bill Gates had been assassinated?

Well, it happened again, kind of. This time in China.
Fortunately there was no stock market drop. But NPR reports:
"Who is China's favorite American businessman? Bill Gates.
Why? Some say it's because he has the biggest company in the
world and the most money... And a hoax about his demise caused
an outpouring of grief in the country's online chatrooms."

HEAR THE STORY:
http://www.marketplace.org/shows/2004/01/22_mpp.html

Earlier South Korean story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2916135.stm

(The makers of "Nothing So Strange" never position the film as
a hoax. When people are fooled, it's because of the work of an
unidentified hacker who took some pages from the "Nothing So
Strange" universe and altered them to look as if they are
current news reports whenever you visit them. Unsharp Mask,
LLC, the company that produced "Nothing So Strange" is fully
cooperating with the authorities investigating this hack.)

=========================================================

+ LATEST REVIEWS: "I can't recommend 'Nothing So Strange'
highly enough"

There have been lots of reviews of the movie lately. Here are
excerpts from a couple of them.

Metro Times Detroit:

"'Wait a minute, is Bill Gates dead?' barks my husband as I
watch a faux-documentary chronicling the search for facts in a
pretend Gates assassination, replete with repeating footage of
his shooting. Iím about halfway through and, for a moment, Iím
unsure...

"The cool thing about this flick is it plays with your mind.
Itís not a romping adventure or glamorous or sexy. But like
any great cinema, Nothing So Strange creates a parallel world
so real you live in it for 90 minutes. The acting is of such
high quality, so seamless, you easily believe you are watching
a roughly hewn documentary that follows a group of conspiracy
theorists who think the Los Angeles Police Department is lying
about the facts in the Gates assassination, and that the media
and public too easily believed that a dead black socialist man
looking for a class war is the killer. In fact, as my husband
left his work project to come check out this bizarre pretend
crime/media drama, we found ourselves completely wrapped up
in the case."

The Flick Philosopher:

"...But Nothing So Strange is also a portrait of obsession,
so that for every eerie piece of the puzzle of the 'official
version' unraveled by Citizens for Truth, there are
head-shaking moments in which you wonder if only people who
are a little crazy, people who are their own worst enemies,
can challenge the powerful. As the internal squabbles and
politics of Citizens for Truth, as well as the astonishingly
naive behavior of one of its members, threaten to take down
the group and invalidate all its work, you'll despair that
the truth will ever be uncovered.

"Except, of course, none of this is real. But it feels real,
and hauntingly so. Damned if this isn't one of the most
chillingly convincing bits of fiction I've ever seen, like
those moments you can't remember if you dreamed them or
actually experienced them. I can't recommend 'Nothing So
Strange' highly enough."

Metro Times Detroit:
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/review.asp?id=84607

The Flick Philosopher:
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/flickfilos/archive/2004/
nothingsostrange.shtml

READ STORIES, WATCH CLIPS:
http://www.nothingsostrange.com/press/press_list.html

=========================================================

+ NEW ONLINE: Online bonus materials for the DVD

The makers of "Nothing So Strange" have begun loading up
material for a unique experiment: A "2nd DVD" of bonus footage
in addition to that on the DVD itself. The online bonus
material includes some that couldn't make it onto the DVD
because the entire DVD is "within the world" of the movie --
i.e., it acts like a real documentary.

Right now up on the site is a complete alternate commentary
track by director Brian Flemming and actor/co-producer David
James, an e-book version of the Garcetti Report (which is a
major document in the world of NSS), music from the movie and
a compelling mini-documentary called "Anatomy of a Fake" that
explains how the filmmakers pulled off their Democratic
National Convention shoot, which resulted in one of the most
impressive scenes in the movie.

The bonus material is being sold a la carte via BitPass, a
micropayment system.

Please let us know what you think of this ongoing experiment.

DOWNLOAD ONLINE BONUS MATERIAL
http://www.nothingsostrange.com/dvd/

=========================================================

+ OFF TOPIC: Brian Flemming's latest hoax

Director Brian Flemming never intended "Nothing So Strange" to
be a hoax, but he DOES enjoy perpetrating other hoaxes. On his
popular weblog, Brian recently posted a graphic he created
that wondered "Did President Bush have a nose job?" The
graphic showed "before and after" pictures (undoctored) and
appeared to prove that Bush's nose has changed over time.

Within days the story about the "controversy" over Bush's
nose job was circulating wildly around the internet and even
reported by MSNBC.com. And just last night, David Letterman
closed his "Late Show" monologue with a joke about the
controversy.

SEE THE GRAPHIC:
http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/000631.html

HEAR DAVID LETTERMAN:
http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/000655.html

READ BRIAN'S WEBLOG:
http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/



Get the latest. Visit
http://www.nothingsostrange.com

Visit the Gates-assassination Web universe:
http://www.citizensfortruth.org
http://www.garcettireport.org
http://www.billgatesisdead.com

EMAIL FEEDBACK:
doc@nothingsostrange.com