News Briefs

In December 2009, the critically acclaimed Arthouse Films documentary Herb & Dorothy (LJ 1/10), which tells of how postal clerk Herb Vogel and his librarian wife, Dorothy, built one of the world's most important contemporary art collections, was released on DVD. Currently, some 2500 artworks from the Vogels' collection are being exhibited nationwide, as part of a gift program the couple launched in concert with the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Watch the Herb & Dorothy trailer and learn more about Herb & Dorothy 50 × 50, the follow-up film currently in production, at www.herbanddorothy.com.

In a watershed deal, New Video and Zipline Entertainment will release a feature-length film as early as one day after its world premiere. Beginning February 1, Linas Phillips's Bass Ackwards, a 2010 Sundance Film Festival selection about a man's cross-country trip following a disastrous affair, will be available for purchase and download via major digital retailers and cable video and DVD on demand. A retail DVD release in the spring will include bonus material documenting the unique distribution strategy. More info at www.bassackwardsfilm.com.

Music Box Films has launched a new home entertainment division through which it plans to distribute up to a dozen independent and foreign films on DVD and Blu-ray throughout 2010. Among the titles to release under the Music Box Films Home Entertainment rubric—beginning in February—are Martin Provost's Séraphine (French; see Trailers, p. 46), Andreas Dresen's Cloud 9 (German), and Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish), based on Stieg Larsson's best-selling "Millennium" trilogy. More info at www.musicboxfilms.com.

Infobase imprint Facts On File, in conjunction with Films for the Humanities & Sciences, has launched a new Curriculum Video On Demand subscription service offering unlimited access to more than 5000 streaming educational programs for the high school curriculum, with new titles added monthly. Special features include the integration of videos and playlists into online card catalogs and distance learning systems, search tools, and usage tracking. For a free trial, visit www.factsonfile.com/trial.