Gaming gets 'King'-sized treatment in DVD doc

Talk about chest beating. The recent announcement that video game sales in the U.S. more than doubled feature film box office receipts in 2007 sent a shockwave through the entertainment industry. The stereotype of the video games enthusiast, which is not too terribly different from that of the video games designer, may also be due for a comeuppance. Or not.

You know the image: nerdy loner lacking any social skills divorced from anything but online interaction, insular and sedentary, having barely a passing acquaintance with the opposite sex and so removed from the out of doors and real-world experience that he/she is condemned to perpetual teenager-of-the-mind status. In other words, a geek consumed with combat games, owning great manual dexterity but few other redeeming qualities and even less imagination.

Enter "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," an interesting little movie headed to video after a brief if critically successful run in theaters.

What makes Seth Gordon's documentary so intriguing is that it might be the first film to portray gamers as they see themselves: as people with flaws, of course, but also with an abiding passion to excel at something.

The story begins when a schoolteacher from Washington state, Steve Wiebe, decides he wants to set the world-record high score at "Donkey Kong," the 1980s' arcade game. This brings him into conflict with the current record holder, a Florida restaurateur named Billy Mitchell, as well as "a whole culture of devoted, grown-up gamers determined to see Mitchell's record stand."

As Wiebe practices for the final duel, you just may develop some grudging respect for, or at least understanding of, the committed gamer.

Indy Lens

Will Raul Castro be more tolerant of hip-hop than brother Fidel?

The 2007-08 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, hosted locally by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, continues Friday with an 8 p.m. screening of "Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro" in Room 309 of the Simons Center for the Arts at the College of Charleston.

Filmmakers Thomas Nybo and Simon Umlauf follow a quartet of hip-hop artists who faced threats of jail and censorship under Fidel yet fight to expose the limits on artistic expression in Cuba.

Nybo, an "embedded" war correspondent for CNN during the current war in Iraq, met Umlauf while both were at the network. In "Guerrilla Radio," Umlauf complements Nybo's international experience and ability to document socially and politically charged stories with his knowledge of the hip-hop culture and entertainment industry.

Following the screening of their film, Nybo and Umlauf will discuss their work as filmmakers.

The current tour concludes here at 8 p.m. April 11 with "Unoccupied Zone: The Impossible Life of Simone Weil" by Cathy Crane, described as a work of experimental fiction based on the philosopher, trade unionist and mystic in the years following the 1940 German occupation of Paris.

The 2007-08 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation (www.southarts.org). All events are free and open to the public.

For information, call 953-7891 or go online at www.halsey.cofc.edu.

Ryan's hope

After playing a memorably corrosive character in "Gone Baby Gone," and getting robbed of an Oscar for it, you might not even recognize Amy Ryan in her other film roles, as the sweet sister-in-law of Steve Carell's character in "Dan in Real Life" or the polished small-town society arbiter of "Capote."

Although Ryan invested two decades of work in New York theater, earning Tony Award nominations for her work in "Uncle Vanya" (2000) and "A Streetcar Named Desire" (2005), Hollywood pretty much turned a blind eye to her until Ben Affleck asked her to read for "GBG," knowing he had the absolutely right actress for the part.

Now, filmdom's gaze is trained squarely on her. Ryan's just finished shooting Clint Eastwood's "The Changeling," a 1920s mystery in which she co-stars with Angelina Jolie, and has returned for the fifth and final season of TV's "The Wire," the award-winning series set on the mean streets of Baltimore.

Clearly, the actress just wants to keep playing interesting characters, regardless of venue.

"People who battle uphill to make their lives better inspire me," the Queens, N.Y., native told a recent interviewer. "People who have it all and keep getting it all — that's really nice, too, but boring. I do find it extraordinary, the human spirit shining through the muck. I can lose myself in dark material because my life is happy. I have a really strong, close family and friends, and lots of laughs, so I feel that I can go to those places, no problem. It's safe."

Bits and Pieces

In addition to "The Dark Knight," Heath Ledger was working on Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" in London when he died. The fantasy, about pacts with the devil over immortality and youth, was scheduled for a 2009 release, but its fate is up in the air. ... Sir Roger Moore, 80, the British light leading man who succeeded Sean Connery and one-timer George Lazenby as James Bond, says he has a memoir coming out in the fall. "The time is right to tell my story," says Moore, whose book will be titled "My Word Is My Bond" (HarperCollins). Moore, whose blithe, debonair personality was better suited to the '60s TV version of "The Saint," not only will chronicle his work on the 007 films, but his friendships with fellow actors such as Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor and other stars. ... Oscar winners Robert De Niro and Al Pacino share the screen for the first time since their fleeting meeting in "Heat" with the upcoming "Righteous Kill." ... "Brothers Bloom" will star another pair of Oscar recipients, Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz. ... "The Informers" is director Gregor Jordan's movie adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' 1994 short-story collection.