So, here we are, back with you again. Yes by-gum, and yes by-golly... Well, if you can finish that sentence, you're a trivia expert and/or seriously dating yourself.* But, yes, here we are again, with another Dispatch, covering the latest tidings from the world of Video-on-Demand, DVD, and film in general. Thanks for making GreenCine's newsletter a part of your week. And before we continue, let's salute dear ol' dads everywhere for putting up with all of us. Happy Father's Day!

*"Kukla Fran and dear old Ollie."

Appropriate for Father's Day: Arianné Ulmer Cipes is the producer of a documentary called Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen, about her father, one of the finest low-budget directors ever and most famous for Detour and The Black Cat. Cipes and GreenCine's Jonathan Marlow discuss Ulmer and the experience of growing up with a director father in Arianné Ulmer Cipes: "Everything was exploding at the same time."

Expect more articles to appear in the days and weeks ahead, including an interview with filmmaker-artist-actress-writer (and a bunch of other hyphenates) Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) and a slasher movie primer just in time for summer camp! All this and more coming your way soon, right after this commercial message. [Just kidding.]

Even before summer officially starts, the GreenCine Daily happily wears shorts - that is, a non-stop barrage of tidbits from the world of film coverage, from magazines, newspaper, blogs, festivals, and the makers themselves, the Daily has 'em covered. Current: insight and commentary on Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, as well as a wrap-up of the just concluded Seattle International Film Festival.

Video-on-Demand: Il Mare (2000).

Now available via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service: the lovely Korean romance Il Mare. "Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Jung-Jae [both] put in subtle and understated performances that suit the film's tone and storyline perfectly," wrote DVDTimes (UK). "The film manages to be both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time and leaves the viewer with the same sorts of feelings as the Korean comedy, My Sassy Girl." "I loved this movie," remarked rmarkd, "a romance story with a 'touch of fantasy' that allows for some interesting situations." You can watch Il Mare now or anytime you wish via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service.

GreenCine Staff Pick of the Week: My Darling Clementine (1946).

One of my all-time favorite episodes of M*A*S*H is the one in which they get a print of John Ford's My Darling Clementine, only to suffer through a series of projector breakdowns and other delays. To pass the time, they do impressions of the indellible cast. That includes favorite, unimitable character actor Walter Brennan, Victor Mature - arguably his best performance - as Doc Holliday and of course, Henry Fonda in one of his most beloved roles as Wyatt Earp, who arrives in Tombstone ("Sure is a hard town to play a quiet game o' poker in") to raise cattle, only to find himself, and his brothers, grappling with cattle rustlers and fighting with Doc over the eponymous girl. After seeing Clementine, you can understand why the 4077th might have been so excited to get the film and why it remains one of the finest Westerns ever. It's Ford's telltale "asides" - the dance in the church, the colorful locals, Earp's haircut - that make the film such a delight, but even the asides have a greater purpose, and well before the famous end, in the unforgettable shootout at the OK Corral, you'll likely have been moved once or twice. The film was gently satirized itself, or at least referenced, in Burt Kennedy's comparably enjoyable Support Your Local Sheriff. The two would make a swell double-feature. -- Craig Phillips

We bring you forthwith highlights of week's new DVD releases, including a couple of sleepers, a couple of classics, and the most beautiful film about a donkey ever:

Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966). Criterion releases one helluva lot of great films, it goes without saying, but this one is surely one of the most highly anticipated. "To cut to the chase," wrote J. Hoberman in the Village Voice, "Robert Bresson's heart-breaking and magnificent Au Hasard Balthazar - the story of a donkey's life and death in rural France - is the supreme masterpiece by one of the greatest of 20th-century filmmakers. Bringing together all Bresson's highly developed ideas about acting, sound, and editing, as well as grace, redemption, and human nature, Balthazar is understated and majestic, sensuous and ascetic, ridiculous and sublime." Among the disc's special features: a video interview with Donald Richie and "Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson," a 1966 French TV program about the film featuring Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle and members of the cast and crew.

Rory O'Shea Was Here (2004). The story of two friends confined to wheelchairs is "funny, touching, affirmative," wrote Philip French in the Observer. "There are odd, slightly sticky moments, but [Damien] O'Donnell, his screenwriters Jeffrey Caine and Christian O'Reilly and his cast avoid the sentimentality and the triumphalism so often found in movies about the disabled."

A Dirty Shame (2004). The incomparable Tracey Ullman is the driving, thrusting, sweaty life force propelling John Waters's almost nostalgic return to his trashy roots.

ABC Africa (2001). "The richness and emotional impact of ABC Africa comes partly from the balance it achieves between the director's personality... and his vast, terrible subject," wrote A.O. Scott of Abbas Kiarostami's documentary in the New York Times. "He never pretends to have mastered the subject - the film's title suggests the elementary state of his knowledge - or to be able to solve Uganda's problems by observing them. But you come away from his film overwhelmed, hopeful and... illuminated." See also: Our Iranian New Wave primer.

Edward II (1992). In his re-imagining of Christopher Marlowe's 16th century play, Derek Jarman "has taken all the latent homosexual subtext in Marlowe's original and brought it front and center - and then some," wrote Marjorie Baumgarten in the Austin Chronicle. "Settings go back and forth between sparsely decorated medieval castles and present-day Outrage demonstrations.... Then there are these transfixing moments and compelling images, like when Edward and Gaveston dance a last dance while songstress Annie Lennox sings Cole Porter's 'Every Time We Say Goodbye' video-style in the background, a moment rich with resonance and acute awareness."

The First Amendment Project (2004). This fast-paced doc follows the case with comedy built into it right from the start, the one Fox brought against Al Franken for using their slogan in the title of his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

Heaven Can Wait (1943). We should first make clear that this is not the movie Warren Beatty remade in 1978; his Heaven Can Wait is actually a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). No, this comic gem from Ernst Lubitsch, his first in color, is "his spiritual autobiography," as the British Film Institute puts it. "In order to determine his posthumous destination, Henry Van Cleve tells the story of his life to the Devil in alternately comic and poignant episodes." This Criterion release features a conversation with critics Molly Haskell and Andrew Sarris, a 30-minute portrait of screenwriter Samson Raphaelson and more extras.

The Star (1952). Bette Davis used to refer to the 1950s as her "ten black years," and in this 1952 low-budget Hollywood drama about an aging actress desperately trying to stage a comeback, she seems to be screaming out all her frustrations. Not only at her own fate but at her arch-nemesis as well, Joan Crawford (the screenwriters knew Crawford well). The salt in the wound: Davis would be nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal here, but would lose to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba, a role originally offered to Davis.

Stellvia. Volume 5: Foundation V. (2005). For the Anime News Network, this is one of those few series that actually improves as it moves along. It was there that Carlo Santos wrote most recently, "Few people would think of turning to a high-spirited sci-fi series for romance, but Volume 4 of Stellvia proves that it can hold its own against any other girl-meets-boy anime out there.... Our little meatball-headed space cadet is truly coming of age, and yes, this series is getting better." Let's hope the trend holds up for Volume 5.

To make your queue work for yueue, fill it up. Your queue works best when filled with a minimum of ten times the number of slots you have, i.e., forty if you're on the four-out plan. If you're having trouble thinking of titles to rent, here are a few ideas: check out member lists (which you can look at chronologically, alphabetically or by average rating) and editorial top lists, browse through primers and our active discussion boards, look at our lists of titles coming soon, among other ideas. So queue away! And if you need to watch something right now, take a gander at our rapidly expanding Video-on-Demand offerings. And for ease of browsing, you can look at our currently available VOD titles by genre; go to the main page for a list of all genres.

There's still time to check out the finalists in the GreenCine Online Film Festival, presented by DivX. All ten docs and narrative features will remain available for download in secure DivX format through June 26. Watch. Rate. Repeat. Spread the word. We also recommend reading our DivX FAQ.

Congratulations to the winners of GreenCine's recent The Tomorrow People contest: beckricci and badfish. Meanwhile, our next trivia contest giveaway will appear on the home page on Friday: Paul McCartney in Red Square, in which we'll not only be giving away DVDs but rare LPs, posters and pins! Say "bring it on home to me" and enter!

GreenCine's next Yerba Buena Center screening will be on July 6, when we present the Documentary Grand Prize winner of the GreenCine Online Film Festival. More details to come!