David Lynch's objections aside, movies will continue to be made on, and viewed with, any number of new technologies, including iPods, laptops, and cell phones. And for the past few years, the Portable Film Festival -- not an annual event, but a constantly updated website specializing in user-created videos made with such unconventional film technologies -- has provided the world with some of the more interesting short films made in such ways, from silly little bits of improv comedy to seriously challenging experimental art.
One of our favorite recent entries at the PFF is this one: "People in Order" by Lenka Clayton and James Price. It's a simple yet undeniably compelling piece of formalism: two British filmmakers travel the country, handing a snare drum to 100 people ranging in age and in order from one year old to a hundred. They are asked, simply, to state their age and bang on the drum. The result is as uncomplicated as it is uncanny, an amazingly diverse cross-section of humanity and a charming -- and sobering -- look at the life cycle of a human being ca. the early days of the 21st century.