Filmmaker Kerry Candaele reports that his documentary about the modern-day impact of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Following the Ninth, is finally done and should be out later this year; moreover, he’s posted a couple of short clips from the film on the Kickstarter project site here and here. I can barely wait for this film to come out.

Previously: Following the Ninth; Two Short Beethoven E-Books.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is an astonishing and moving animated short film. It’s been nominated for an Oscar; I’m going to nominate it for a Hugo. You can watch it online at Vimeo (see above); it’s also available for sale on iTunes and as an iPad app.

I haven’t managed to see the new Muppet movie yet, which seems strange considering my often-reverential attitude toward all things Muppet. (I might get a chance to do so this weekend, though.)

Truth be told, I’ve long been ambivalent about the Muppets of the post-Henson era. That dates back to when Steve Whitmire, whose previous Muppet characters include Rizzo the Rat and Wembley Fraggle, was tapped as Jim Henson’s successor. It was hard for me to accept performances of Kermit with Whitmire’s voice; from my perspective, Kermit “died” when Jim Henson did.

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Jerry Gretzinger’s map began as a little doodle. Then it began to take on a life of its own. Jerry uses a deck of cards to determine how the map is revised, with near-mystical results. “Yes, it’s alive. It changes. My hand puts the paint on the paper and then I step back and say, ‘Wow, look at that,’ as though I was not the perpetrator. I’m just the observer.” I could see myself having this much fun. Via MetaFilter.

My issue with the movie Secretariat isn’t just that John Malkovich’s French accent isn’t even remotely Québécois, it’s that the story has very little dramatic interest or tension, even for a biopic whose outcome is not only known, but famous. Essentially, the movie shows Penny Chenery (played by Diane Lane) being proved right in all things; when the apotheosis of a story is “I told you so,” there’s a problem in storytelling. Secretariat may have been a better race horse than Seabiscuit, but Seabiscuit was the better movie.

Dear Internet,

We’ve had to put up with your demands for spoiler alerts, and your complaints when a detail of a movie or TV show you haven’t seen or (more rarely) a book you haven’t read is inadvertently divulged, for some time now.

I suppose we understand when a movie has a serious plot twist, like Witness for the Prosecution, The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense. Finding out about it before you get a chance to see it prevents you from enjoying the surprise.

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I’m about a week behind in telling you about First Orbit, a movie released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight — Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. The film merges Gagarin’s radio transmissions with new views from the International Space Station and a musical score by Philip Sheppard. You can watch the entire 99-minute film on YouTube; what’s embedded above is a short “making-of” feature. Via Universe Today.

What the hell? I didn’t know that Brad Denton’s comic science fiction novel, Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, was being made into a movie. (Distressingly, the novel is out of print, but available for free download.) Via Boing Boing.

(Can I just say that Denton’s story, “The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians,” is one of my all-time favourites?)

Filmmaker Stephen Van Vuuren is working on an IMAX project called Outside In: it uses still images from the Cassini mission to create an impressive fly-through of the Saturn system — without CGI. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that Cassini’s cameras aren’t all that high resolution by modern standards: 1024×1024 — one megapixel, which is certainly less than IMAX resolution. I can’t quibble with the end result: the full IMAX resolution test (at 0:56 of the clip above) literally choked me up. Via io9 and Universe Today.

No Dinosaurs in Heaven is a documentary that looks at “the hijacking of science education by religious fundamentalists” in the United States.

The documentary weaves together two strands: an examination of the problem posed by creationists who earn science education degrees only to advocate anti-scientific beliefs in the classroom; and a visually stunning raft trip down the Grand Canyon, led by Dr. Eugenie Scott, that debunks creationist explanations for its formation. These two strands expose the fallacies in the “debate,” manufactured by anti-science forces, that creationism is a valid scientific alternative to evolution.

No recent information on its release date or availability that I can find, but there’s a free screening in New York on March 15. Via @Laelaps (1, 2).

Nostalgia for the Light (Spanish title: Nostalgia de la Luz) is a documentary by Chilean director Patricio Guzmán that juxtaposes two searches for the past in Chile’s Atacama desert: the giant telescopes built there to take advantage of the dry air and high altitude, and a group of women who comb the desert searching for the remains of relatives murdered by the Pinochet regime. Trailer (see above). Via Universe Today, which has a review.