On the latest POLIWOOD, Lionel and I interview Thor Halvorssen who, through his website and company Motion Picture Institute, is starting to distribute films – documentaries and narrative features – online. Is this the wave of the future? Well, probably in some way or other. It’s hard to tell which direction things are going, but, as I indicate on the show, as of now, chances are you follow this guy. He’s the Francis Ford Coppola of our times, even though he doesn’t make up stories.

But speaking of Coppola, he inspired us to do this episode when he made certain statements about the state of the industry at the Beirut Film Festival: “It’s a period of incredible change,” says the director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now.” “We used to think of six, seven big film companies. Every one of them is under great stress now. Probably two or three will go out of business and the others will just make certain kind of films like ‘Harry Potter’ — basically trying to make ‘Star Wars’ over and over again, because it’s a business.”

Watch this all on Poliwood here. Catch up on the “brilliance” (oh, shut up) you may have missed here.