kanopy: thoughtful entertainment. what are you watching now?

Pather Panchali

love in the afternoon

“Personal Problems”. Fascinating vhs shot African American ensemble drama from 1980. Often described as an “experimental soap opera”

Just about every Frederick Wiseman doc is on there. The most recent (Ex Libris: New York Public Library) is as good a place to start as any.

Originally got Kanopy for the Wiseman stuff because most of it was hard to see for so long. Very little of it seems bad and there’s a lot of it. Haven’t seen Ex Libras yet but would recommend any of his films that sounds like a world you’d be most interested in getting a window into. There’s poetry a can often function like time travel.

*and can often

I may do The Southerner next, the one Renoir on there that I haven't seen.

not entirely sure what all i've watched on this thing since it doesn't seem like there's any viewing history you can pull up... weird. i know *most* of my viewing has been criterion or criterion-esque classic works of cinema but i won't bother listing those...

i found THE FITS a little slow but it cast some kind of distinctive spell, just kinda hanging around the gym and taking in the teen girl culture amidst not entirely explained dark events.

ERNEST AND CELESTINE is a massively charming little animated odd-couple pairing of a musical bear and a painterly mouse, both misfits in their respective societies. we watched the english dub, which features an abundance of talent.

i need to finish WELCOME TO THE SPACE SHOW, a sort of flatly delivered but very bizarre stoner anime; when i left off, the group of kids who had been transported to the moon by a talking space dog were all stuck in red tape trying to get passports back home and were forced to take various odd jobs in moon society. promising.

caveat: different libraries/packages have different movies.

There is a viewing history, at least on the web interface. I can see many Criterions I watched or started watching summer of 2017 that have since gone missing, for instance The Silence and Vengeance is Mine.

you're right! man, they've really got to get things standardized between different interfaces. the android one is smooth as silk, maybe the most usable streaming service i've got on here, but also missing features like that. the web one is clunky but largely functional (setting aside the miserable pagination of the watchlist). the roku one was one of the jankiest things i've used in years and massively buggy (subtitles in particular were a nightmare).

ok so:

KEDI was a wonderful documentary for any cat-lover. humans and stray cats living lives side by side and supporting each other.

PATEMA INVERTED is a sci-fi anime that seemed like it'd be trippy and interesting with this world of inverted gravity and stuff, but it was actually a bog-standard little sci-fi adventure story with only a couple of cool parts and really flat characters. might have been more into it when i was 15 and indiscriminately consuming genre anime but...

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE has a great gruffy-guy sam neill performance and a sorta annoying/forced plot that depends on the kid saying the dumbest (and unfunnyest) stuff at key moments to keep them living on the run in the woods. wasn't into that side of it but the actual grump/kid bonding stuff was well-done.

You are correct about the interface standardization issue. One thing I couldn’t figure out about how to do on the webpage that I can do on the iPhone app is Add to Watchlist.

It's insane - you have to click through to the movie, past even confirming which subscription you're using (which makes it seem like you'd be using one of your credits, but that doesn't happen til you actually click on the video window to play) and THEN there's an add-to-list button.

Aha, you are correct, sir!

Btw, Doctor Casino, I have always admired your posts from afar, but since you arrived maybe a decade after my initial ILX heyday/honeymoon, I don't really know you that well, so very happy to have you here on this thread.

I see nine Claude Chabrol titles listed on here, mostly through the Cohen Film Collection, which seems to have pretty good stuff. I watched two of these recently, both of which I enjoyed. One was The Bridesmaid, the title character being convincing portrayed by the daughter of Nathalie Baye and Johnny Hallyday. The other was L'Enfer his version of the never-finished film that was the subject of Henri-George Clouzot's Inferno, which I also watched on Kanopy, although it has since gone away for me- but might have lived on for a while in my Viewing History, or at least my Watchlist, although now I don't see it in either. The Chabrol film is fine, but I highly recommend the documentary about (the) Clouzot, although I am partial to le film maudit.

Also this A24 that showed up in recent month seems to be a good addition. First Reformed is there as of recently, for example.

Hm, the stuff from my watchlist that is not available to me anymore is now gone.

It’s actually difficult to tell, for me at least, when you are clicking to start watching or when you are clicking to check availability and select your library. For instance, I just clicked through to Fists in the Pocket which I now am presumably watching but I thought I was only checking availability.

I am also presumably watching the remake of Marius and Fanny for the same reason. Although it doesn’t show any credits being used up for these two, perhaps there is a grace period of a few seconds.

Here’s another thing. Website will tell you that the film you started watching Expires in 2 days, whereas iPhone app does not. Wonder if it gives you in units of hours when it gets under one day, betting no, but who knows.

In other words, vis-à-vis the clicking, it only takes one click to start watching on the iPhone, whereas it seems to take several on the website.

The last movie I watched on Kanopy was The Great Silence (Corbucci, 1968), which was pretty sweet.

That one's great! So grim.

It's insane - you have to click through to the movie, past even confirming which subscription you're using (which makes it seem like you'd be using one of your credits, but that doesn't happen til you actually click on the video window to play) and THEN there's an add-to-list button.

maybe you guys are losing part of the interface to an ad blocker or something? i have been running safari on osx with no ad blocker for a while, just the built-in anti-tracking stuff, and i get an overlay with watch now / add to watchlist buttons (in the space where the title is) when i mouse over the art for a title in the front-page discovery interface.

in search results there's no equivalent (each item is less interactive in that way) but if you clock through to the result's page the add button is right there under the controller.

maybe having more than one subscription adds a complication that they didn't really integrate into their initial design scheme.

Okay, you are correct. Once it feels comfortable that it knows which library I am using, I can see the button + My List.

Also, now it says Expires in 23 hrs.

Ray, S. (Director). (1955). Pather Panchali [Video file]. Janus Films (The Criterion Collection). Retrieved December 26, 2018, from Kanopy.

Now playing with the Transcript feature, which is actually pretty nice.

awww, thanks, JRatB! I've been around since 2005 or 2006 but not on all the threads.

multi-subscription or ad-blocking issues both seem plausible.... oh well. guess I'll just do the browsing from android.

Here’s another glitch, which this time I’m seeing in the iPhone app. Sometimes it will just lose my Continue Watching list and My Watchlist will come up as
THE GENERAL
THE GREAT DICTATOR
MODERN TIMES
KEDI

But if I switch libraries, it gets fixed. It’s like there are some buggy servers out there with same bad databases.

Okay, was fixed for a while, now back to the state where I have to choose a library again. I think I have thoroughly limned this phenomenon for now.

forgot these were ones i watched on there:

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS: hot summer trash! feels like something chalamet filmed two years earlier and which was shelved because it wasn't very good, and was now getting pushed out cause he had the buzz. definitely not the fun coming-of-age drug-dealers-in-over-their-head movie it suggests, and all the lust-for-the-crush-object stuff feels just like a straight shitty 80s take rather than some kind of retro commentary on those 80s tropes. soundtrack is also very chronologically confused.

THE LITTLE HOURS: can't tell if this was bad or if we just weren't in the mood for what it was doing. raunchy medieval nun comedy where the gag is, medieval nuns are raunchy. there are a couple of big, funny bits but then there are more serious emotional things that wander their way through and leave no impact. feels like a funny sketch that didn't need to be a full movie but i could imagine it being funny if you were in the mood for it.

lol nuns

Watching a bit of
Pabst, G. (Director). (1929). Diary Of A Lost Girl [Video file]. Kino Lorber Edu. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from Kanopy.
before my credits reset.

Hm. There is a character named Meta in this. The only other such film character I am familiar with is in Out of the Past.

Of which I missed the 9PM showing at Lincoln Center this evening, I guess.

signing up for this

P great Tropicalia doc, compiled almost entirely from contemporaneous sources, it looks like

Been meaning to watch that one.

Looks like I will finally get to see Ace in the Hole

Cool.

anyone know a way around the library sign-in? i'm not a member of one that has a subscription :|

oh hold up my old university login worked. YAYYYYYY

yes! libraries are literally in the business of giving you access, I love that about them

Really going to rep for Astra Taylor’s “What Is Democracy?”, for the bits with Silvia Federici, Cornell West, and Angela Davis on top of everything else

Not two minutes ago I learned Kanopy pulled Girlhood as my students were writing papers about it (comparing it to The Rules of the Game no less).

Ugh.

I have never really understood the business reasons for why films come and go on streaming services

the streamer wants to pay less and the film rights owner wants to get more?

I have 183 films in my Kanopy queue, which at a 5-per-month limit even for two-minute-long shorts, would take three years to watch. If rights periods lapse, that just makes picking something easier.

I was pretty sure the third of Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy was available a year ago. when I went to watch it it was gone. The streamers vs film rights owners thing makes sense, but I didn't really think about it applying to a 60-year old film. I guess there's no reason why it shouldn't

I live just a few blocks from where they are located, I should stop in to chat, it would be interesting to know more about them

Cohen titles
Yes to these

otoh to learn that my library carried one of Bunuel's Mexican films on VHS in 1994 was a genuine thrill.

Maybe it’s time to remind myself of what Jerry Carlson is up to on the CUNY channel, which is where I first saw Mexican Bus Ride, amongst others.

Well, I've already resorted to p|r@(y as a media consumer. Looks like I'm going to have to come in on the supply side, as well.

so i binged a bunch of Chaplin, Melies and Griffith on the last weekend.

I assume you can get a New Jersey/Connecticut/etc library card and still use the service if New York PL is kaput.

LA offers a $50 a year non-resident card but you have to pick it up in person; if any east coasters travel, that might be worth the trouble.
https://www.lapl.org/about-lapl/borrower-services

Another useful Kanopy import was/is Oscilloscope.

Are public libraries abandoning Kanopy en masse? I just figured out how to access it through Hennepin County Libraries and it's expiring today; I see that New York Public Libraries are ending their license, too, citing rising costs.

sf library has been expanding it, I hope it doesn't end

nypl dropped it ages ago tho.

My mistake — the article on NYPL dropping it was from late June 2019; I didn't look at the year.

I found out about the Hennepin access about a month before it went away, tried to make the most of it. So much stuff I'd been trying to see for ages (and so much that went still unwatched). From fave to slightly less fave:

Tongues Untied
Blue (Jarman) (audio was pretty bad, but was able to "sync" it with a bootleg youtube version)
The Harder They Come
Ganja & Hess
Born in Flames
The Bigamist
Wild Style
Sidewalk Stories
Yeelen
A Bucket of Blood
Illusions (Julie Dash short)
The Law (Ouédraogo)
Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock & Roll
The Queen of Spades (Dickinson)
Tomboy (Sciamma)
Wend Kuuni
Knife+Heart

I just saw that Kanopy now has Sátántangó. so fantastic!

I've been really loving trawling through all of the Frederick Wiseman documentaries

also see they have In Fabric, haven't watched it yet

yeah, that just missed the cut during my final day spree!

I hope that Kanopy doesn't go away for me

My city library talked about adding it but never did, the cost is prohibitive.

> Blue (Jarman)

I remember when this was on British TV and the TV station proudly announced that they were showing the widescreen version...

kind of weird and annoying when justwatch shows something as only streaming on kanopy.

how so?

Because most libraries dropped it long ago, at least of the ones that I have access to.

Still have it through Montgomery County, MD libraries.

Lucky you.

Complain to your local town board! It's a wonderful resource.

... whose business model turns out to be way too expensive for all the libraries who've terminated the relationship, sadly

Los Angeles County Library system still works with Kanopy. I think I'm watching more there than any other streaming service.

SF Library still has it too, and I've been working my way through Wiseman's films (so far 24/44). Most recently watched Rainer Sarnet's November

Atlanta/Fulton Co library system still offers it too. God, I'd pitch a fit if they ever dropped it.

I've been working my way through Wiseman's films (so far 24/44)

Probably seen 15 scattershot, but I wish I were disciplined enough to follow through on something like that.

Our Wiseman count is 39 rn.

Big recommendation for The Experimental City - newish doc from the director of Pruitt-Igoe Myth and the Jandek doc

watched Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds today, it's really interesting

the film was made in 1958 but takes place in 1945. Zbigniew Cybulski’s role as Maciek Chełmicki seems more modern than a character from 1945, in a good way.

Cybulski has been compared to James Dean. I think the film is another example of historical movie-making reflecting the era in which it was made

that's one of a trilogy with canal and a generation. i need to watch them again.

Polanski is in one of them, another has a tiny tank...

No streaming service has LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE...except Kanopy :(

Wonder what Projectr is about? Looks like docs, mostly.

Oh, fiction films too. Just got in with my library card.

Some good stuff. JustWatch doesn't even know about it.

Been around for three years, looks like: https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/grasshopper-film-streaming-virtual-cinema-platform-projectr-1202238474/

Turns out one of my library cards still gets me into Kanopy, seems to have a limited but still okay selection.

I have Kanopy up and running again, focussed on catching up with a few Wiseman films. Does anyone else find their streaming shaky? I was having persistent trouble with State Legislature last night--hiccups, buffering, etc.--then switched over to something on Criterion, and no trouble whatsoever. I've got a laptop hooked up to a TV.

When I first began using Kanopy a few years ago, films would take about 30-40 seconds to fully buffer or whatever and the picture would be pixelated until it wasn't. Haven't had the problem in a while, though, or any problems really.

I experience movies getting briefly fuzzy, first at the beginning, and at occasional odd spots afterwards, none lasting more than 10 seconds before clearing up. It is annoying.

But thems the breaks for a free service with no ads.

I was surprised Kanopy was on a list of KKR (private equity) properties (in the news they were buying Boiler Room). Doesn't seem like a huge growth opportunity.

Thanks. I'll probably end up watching it on the desktop--it's not like you watch a Wiseman film for visual splendour. It's more the sitting at a desk that bothers me.

I've seen a few social media posts about various library systems around the US dropping Hoopla and Kanopy thanks to funding cuts from you know who. Fingers crossed my system can hang on, because I use those services a lot.

My local library dropped it two years ago. I was able to...(low whisper)...reactivate an old library card I technically shouldn't have.

My town's library cancelled Hoopla access for patrons last week.