Be Open To Seeing Things In A New Way

Published October 1, 2008 | By Barbara Weibel

This emotionally stirring film, Story of a Sign, by Alonso Alvarez Barreda was the winner of the fourth annual online competition of the 2008 Short Film Corner at Cannes. Its powerful message urges us to look at things from a new perspective.

Presented by the national Film Board of Canada, in collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival and YouTube, the competition attracted 650 filmmakers from 40 countries. The nine finalists’ films were posted online and the general public was invited to vote for their favorite.

This event is part of a growing trend where people are getting their entertainment from the Internet rather than from traditional TV. One of the more recent enterprises to capitalize upon this trend is Babelgum, a free internet TV platform that combines the full-screen video quality of traditional television with the interactive capabilities of the internet. What that means is that as long as I have a broadband Internet connection, I can get a huge amount of programming for free, since Babelgum’s content partners include the Associated Press, VBS, PBS, BBC, 3DD, Shine Limited, Gong Anime, IMG, Off the Fence and international film festivals such as Seattle, DC Independent and Encounters.

I checked out the offerings at Babelgum and found content from independent films from film festivals all over the world, hundreds of classic films, the Paranormal channel, the Lifestyle Channel, the History Channel….and I am naming just a few of the selections. I can choose what I want to view, hook my laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable, and watch for free, rather than paying for overpriced cable service.

Even better, just a few days ago I discovered that you can watch entire TV programs from the major networks online for free! That means I am no longer limited to watching my favorite programs only on the day and time they are broadcast; now I watch them whenever I want. Cool! I love this new age we live in.