[The Atlantic]

…  This intensified, late-stage competition between film and digital is the subject of the extraordinary new documentary Side By Side. Produced and narrated by Keanu Reeves and directed by Chris Kenneally, it recently debuted at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival and will be released in select theaters nationwide and on-demand on August 21st. A sophisticated and even-handed take on what remains a controversial subject in movie circles, Side By Side looks at how digital technology has emerged over the past decade to challenge photochemical filmmaking. With almost 70 interviews featuring such directors as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and James Cameron—along with an impressive array of leading cinematographers, editors, producers, and technical innovators—it seems destined to be the authoritative documentary on this subject for years to come. And if you’re curious, Side by Side was shot digitally. …

Film’s advocates continue to lose vital ground. For example, most of the world’s camera companies having already stopped production on celluloid-based motion picture cameras altogether. What’s more, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit—set for release this December—is poised to abandon not only film, but the traditional film frame rate of 24 frames-per-second. The Hobbit is currently being shot at 48 frames-per-second (see Jackson’s official statement about that here), for Jackson’s stated purpose of removing the cinema’s traditional stroboscopic “flicker” effect and also to ease eye strain sometimes caused by 3D. Jackson’s decision has already provoked much controversy.  …

Read the full, lengthy article, and watch a video, here: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/at-the-summer-box-office-a-battle-between-two-ways-of-filming/257057/