The tragedy was in plain sight, but nobody thought it would hit this hard. As word spread today that Warner Bros. planned to close its specialty divisions Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, shifting all projects currently in development to the larger studio and its recently absorbed subdivision New Line, a mournful tone took hold of the independent film industry. "It is a sad day when any film company, large or small, bites the dust," said President of THINKfilm Mark Urman. "One had heard and one had even considered that this was a possible scenario. It's still surprising when you see it in print."

The announcement reverberated throughout the day, as it became clear that all Picturehouse and Warner Independent employees -- seventy-four combined -- just lost their jobs. "This was a strategic decision that came after a lot of careful consideration," said Alan Horn, Warner Bros.' president and CEO, in an e-mail to indieWIRE. "We have been thinking about this for a couple of months, since Time Warner put New Line under our company." Following in step with a statement he issued earlier in the day, Horn argued that the decision resulted from a need to consolidate their interests. "To have three theatrical development, marketing, production and distribution arms, essentially serving the same function and even competing with one another on various levels does not make economic sense," Horn said. "That's a bottom line reality."

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ERROL MORRIS AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDEFor close to thirty years, Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris has consistently churned out some of the most provocative inspections of the American psyche ever put on film. His work is always profound, whether it's existential, political or personal: He uses animal death to explore the transience of all life in Heaven's Gate, explores the psychology of working in Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, and launches straight into the concept of war criminality with The Fog of War, which finally won him an Oscar.

Now, he's back in the ring of topicality with Standard Operation Procedure, an in-depth study of the 2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal with testimonies from practically all the soldiers featured in the infamously photographs. A highly stylized work of forensic cinema, with a haunting score by Danny Elfman, Standard Operating Procedure (which opens on Friday) gets a special screening tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Morris will attend and take questions. I caught up with him at a Manhattan hotel yesterday for a pointed discussion about the way new technology has affected his work.

Read the rest of the interview in Stream...

COEN COUNTRY

No Country for Old Men

The summative superlatives being aimed at No Country for Old Men belie the film's individual significance. An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of twisted thievery and murder in a decaying corner of West Texas in 1980, the movie only shares superficial qualities with the previous work of filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. As a result, the stream of hyperbole declaring No Country to be the Coen brothers’ finest accomplishment -- accolades (including my own) that have enshrouded its reputation since it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year -- don't do justice either to the film or its creators' oeuvre.

Read the rest of the review in The Reeler...