So Barrack Obama has talked about the end of red states and blue states. A united America, briefly putting asides its partisan splits so that it could face the huge challenges its confronted with right now – in foreign affairs, the economy, the environment and the global position in the world, which has been severely damaged. Four years of such a combo could be what is needed for the world to learn to trust America again, while the political bickering which blights such an often amazing country from doing the things which even the Chinese can offer the citizens – free healthcare and education for all – would briefly stop as the right and the left realise there is a rather large common ground.

Seriously tho, talk of obliteration of an entire country (the oldest civilisation on the planet, at that) belongs in the bar and not in the seat of power. It is easy to assume - I've often fallen into the trap - that because someone is a woman they will be honest, wise and fair – more so, even, than a man. Power corrupts equally, and some of the most ruthless, heartless and even chauvanist people I’ve met in the world of business have been women. 

I woke this morning, at the godawful hour needed for my slow and pricey train ride to Hull , from a dream where I was a kid once more, back in my school hall at St Aidan's again. We'd just finished a double filmmaking lesson (probably inspired by watching M.Dot.Strange's awesome film skool on Ytube till the early hours) and were putting the chairs back to the sides with the teenage tedium of those times. I was muttering to my friend about picking up a copy of the Independent as they had a big feature on the film industry. And I realised suddenly that I would not have been the punk cinema kid at school.

Had we been lucky enough to have filmmaking lessons, I would have been the nerdy, geeky square one reading up on the film industry and tax breaks. 'Oh God' I cried, 'Why did you have to make me so Jewish'? I implore the heavens, my arms outstretched in a kind of permanent throbbing shrug, my mouth downturned and eyebrows twisted in incredulity, my hands bouncing as if tied to elastic, a Jewish movement I've decided must be genetic, as I don't think I even really met a  proper Jew til I was an adult. *(see below)

Which is a digression, really, from the reason I sat up in bed to scribe this, rather than steal an extra 30 minutes sleep before I set off to Hull, with my Sid Vicious cutout, for a follow up to a panel that first took place in November 2004. Devised by the unhinged genius of Mr Laurence Boyce, we asked back then if cheap digital technology, coupled with access to online distribution was about to herald a PUNK CINEMA REVOLUTION with people making films and distributing them without any industry interference, much like pioneers of punk and the original garage bands. We questioned the idea and created a seven point manifesto (point 1 - question everything, point 2 - take risks, point 3 - focus on live experiences, point 4 - share your experiences, point 5 - use famous people, point 6 - give your work away free, point 7 - be constantly honest and challenging)

Of course, barely three  months later, Chad and Steve set up YouTube, and the rest is kind of history. The majority of films watched online are created by the likes of you and me, with no industry interference whassover, according to Screen Digest. We Are The Strange and Four Eyed Monsters, and the rest of the crew, show the new punks distributing their own films not just online - for free - but on DVD and in cinemas too. I'm still a little confused by point 5, however, tho all should hopefully be resolved at today's panel - Never Mind the Celluloid 2, Hull Screen, Sunday afternoon, 2.30 - 4.30. 

Red Bull's Flug Tag is back on the 7th June 2008, and they have kindly given E4 an offcial entry birth. The idea is to make your own flying machine, and well basically fly into the seprentine.

 Now E4 want their own fans to represent them at the Flugtag. One lucky team consisting of four fans will be E4's offcial team at the big day. They will design, build and pilot the craft 

All you have to do is get creative with your flying machine, make sure it fits the E4 brand and can fly a bit!

All info here: http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/A/advertorial/flugtag/index.html

 As well as representing E4, you will be in with the chance of winning some cracking prizes...

1st Prize: Flying Lessons or some trips in aerobatic planes, or just take the money and run, to the tune of £5,000

2nd Prize: A day to remember in an  aircraft of your choice, or just take £2,000 

3rd Prize: Tandem parchute from 15,000 feet, or £1,000

The beaches of Goa are a bit like the United Nations, so many pepople from around the world, so many ambassadors of peace. They mostly seem lovely wise souls who will probably one day run companies and countries.

Meanwhile in the US a very real battle continues, the ultimate in a way, between a woman and a black man.

And it is a battle which - if the Clintons push it too hard, could perhaps split the Democratic party in two.

Obama brings with him links with the black world, with the Islamic world, and the Arab world, who generally prefer to deal with men, with Kenya and Africa, with American hard working Christians and young people. He served his community as a lawyer while Hillary sat on the board of Walmart. People of all ages and backgrounds can relate to him. He bridges all of these groups, and the British, the Indians - in fact everyone I speak to seems to like him too.

He reminds me of that old notion of the Southern Gentleman - the best kind of American - refined and in control of all their faculties, and able to use them to create and sustain peace - I cannot imagine him acting in a manner which was not courteus. This seems vital at a time where American diplomacy is so low the country is close to being ignored from the world stage as all but a big and rich consumer market.

Hilary, on the other hand brings a bridge with, erm, Bill Clinton.

And a campaign which seems from across the pond as being built on destorying the credibility of the most credible presidential candidate in memory. He may bring no experience, but is this not his greatest asset?. He understands the needs of the people who work hard each day. He does not know how to pull strings in the coridoors of power. He doesn't need to. He will be president.

Please Bill, encourage Hillary to drop out. Now is not her time. She will make a great president and a female president is a glorious goal, and worth fighting full power for when the time is right. But not against her own party. With the opposition, when her own party is unable to offer a more suitable candidate. In many ways, Obama, because of the peace he may be able to create with the Muslim, black and working class communities is already a good 30 years too late.

And besides, vice president would be a great way of ensuring there is no way the Republicans could beat the strong 'Ready from day one' position in 2012 or 2016. I don't think Obama's peace keeping and uniting abilities will be needed for long, and once things settle down a bit, someone with huge political know-how will be very useful to keep the peace. But right now the world not only wants, but needs, Hope.

And my impression from these multicultural souls in Goa, in spite of the drunks, and the loud mouths and the politically ignorant, is that there is a faint suspicion, a glimmer of hope. Not just of a new Black American president, but of ever growing peace.

If anyone is unsure - have a look at the extract from Obama's book Hope at Time.

It was pointed out to me by a decent enough man at the Scottish Screen event in Glasgow last week (main news: Creative Scotland will not arrive ‘til early 09, and prob be based in both Glasgow & Edinburgh), that my recent tirade against the UK Film Council now put me in the same category as all the other rejected whingers out there, who I've long been critical of.

"Their neglect and ignorance of the net could mean we are sleepwalking into a home entertainment future dominated by a single foreign technology corporation, when the UK could have been a world leader in the area."

I can see how it would certainly look that way, so I’ve decided it best to explain why our rejection for Publication Fund money would lead me to whine about it and bitch that John Woodward (whom a friend tells me is also very nice) earns more than the Prime Minister. Needless to say not everyone knows about the events surrounding the end of Netribution back in 2002, the 100 unanswered emails from our members to John, and so forth – and there’s nowhere on the web that documents it. So perhaps it is overdue.

I also realise that, unlike Leanne Smith, who has raised hundreds of thousands from public funders under his/her real name, then slags them off online under a pseudonym, I don’t have that luxury. In fact part of my business is publishing info about film funding, and in committing the cardinal sin of the whinger, risk being perceived as having lost impartiality, which a guide such as the Film Finance Handbook obviously needs to have. So the full sordid and sorry tale follows. 

"No-one from the label is saying, look man, we like what you do, but could you include some trumpets. Or how about some dancing girls?"

Right, so there's this guy, TayZonday, and he put his song up on YouTube and it's called Black Rain and it makes it to the front page, and millions of people are watching it. And tho it's really simple the melody is quite catchy and this guy has a real deep voice like old school soul. And now each of his songs are getting millions of views and four stars ratings, and he doesn't just sing for free on YouTube he also lets you download MP3s of his work for free, and download Acapellas and remix his work, and re-record his work and do all the sorts of things creative people like to have done with their work.

And he's famous. And he has an audience - 11 million views of one his songs on the tube . And he's in charge of his destiny as a musician.

The day Greg Dyke was pushed out of the BBC was a grave one for both the corporation and broadcasting in general, yet Mark 'the scissors' Thompson was reportedly seen that day skipping around the Channel 4 office where he had been Chief Executive for barely a probation period, gleeful in the news that the top job of broadcasting could finally be his.

And now, the Big Picture thinking of the man has arrived, to match his Big Picture thinking at C4 where the most memorable policy was making the entire building open plan, removing all the executives' and commissioners' offices (with no consultation, and widespread hostility). Mark's Big Idea for the BBC, with which it will rise to the challenge, responsibility and promise of a newly extended charter? Fewer programmes and widespread staff cuts. These cuts will drive Fewer, Bigger, Better - not a Daft Punk song, but his new policy, founded on the prehistoric belief that bigger is better, an idea that has long undone this country from the empire and Millennium Dome to Brian May's hair.

 Hallam Foe, Edinburgh 2000, Protagonist, Rataouille & Planet B-Boy

 I'm slammed head first into multiplex A&E. Pulse falling, blood pressure dropping fast. I don't believe in anything any more. A sugar rush of Butterkist popcorn barely gets me into the trailers.

And then suddenly a film arrives.

Let me take you, a director is saying to me, let me clutch your soul in my fingers for a while as I fly it across the rooftops of Edinburgh. Let me lift you out of your broken shell and drift, briefly into the shape of a fairer form than yours - say, Jamie Bell - as I show you enough that you recognise of yourself to believe that this is you, and enough that is alien to make you not sure what will happen next. And maybe, just maybe, if this is a good film, when you are thrown back to your all too human form at the end, you will feel better armed to tackle those woes and foes that have so broken you, and left you before this massive light show of make believe. Or at least leave you with the perspective that problems, like all good films, have beginnings, middles, and most importantly, ends.