Once again, it's the inadequate broadband in rural areas that disappoints. Mine can just about cope with YouTube, barely with BBC iPlayer and 4oD but rarely with anything else. Ok, we're lucky to have it at all; there are parts of Herefordshire/Worcestershire, I believe, where dial-up is still the only option.
But there's so much promise out there now. Since the summer I've become aware of at least two websites other than The Auteurs that offer quality films that are out of the ordinary to view online. There's Babelgum which has a film and four other channels (including an Our Earth one that's currently covering the Copenhagen summit).
Babelgum recently featured Sally Potter's new film Rage, the first to be released simultaneously in the cinema, on DVD, online and for mobile phone download. Rage can be viewed on Babelgum here.Now comes Indiemoviesonline.com a new, fully licensed and legal video on demand site that specialises in independent films - Lars Von Trier, Roman Polanski and Claude Chabrol among less familiar names - that would otherwise only reach a tiny specialist cinema audience. All these point to radical changes in the way films are being distributed.
Explore and, if you get on better than I did, have a nibble.
