Top 10: IONCINEMA.com’s Holiday Gift Guide

Every magazine you read has their own holiday gift guide, so we figured why not go with the non-original idea of publishing our own list. We could very easily numb your senses by listing a whole bunch of DVDs, instead we've limited the amount of home entertainment stocking stuffer options and have added some pro-active, take a stance and improve your existence on this planet before it goes to waste. For  as little as 25 dollars to a 35,000 dollar investment, below we've got 10 cool manners in which to plunk your savings into. Enjoy!

#1. Gift that keeps on giving: Kiva.org
Put your money where your mouth is, or where you feel more inclined to. As featured recently on Oprah's do-gooders show, Kiva.org is an organization that allows you to donate money to needy entrepreneurs from corners of the globe that house developing countries. Play the Las Vegas loan shark without ever having the need to break knee caps. If you like your movies with happy endings, this one is loaded with stories that deserve that same sort of conclusion. Click on the screen cap for more info…

#2. Coffee table book: Taschen's Cinema Now
I love the Taschen collection (they got some great architecture, art, and porno-related books, but my mini collection is mostly filled with the film stuff. Only to name a few, this volume puts the spotlight on everyone from Fatih Akin to Zhang Yimou. Click on the cover for more info…

#3. Another gift that keeps on giving: Criterion Collection's Days of Heaven
You could pretty much pull any title from the library of films they've put out this year: my favorite is Terrence Malick's 1974 classic. Click on the cover box for more info…

#4. Gifts that keep on giving: Warner Bros.' Stanley Kubrick set
They've cut down the originally released set down and not only repackaged but reworked each film. Each film is now crisper and better sounding and loaded with extra features. For those who've bought the previous edition, keep Barry, Lolita and Dr.Strangelove and dump the rest to the curb. Click on the image below for more info…

#5. Something worth 'preserving': BBC Videos: Atlas of the Natural World, Planet Earth and/or Blue Planet Seas of Life. There are two principle reasons to get your hands on either of or all of these great three box sets (timely released for the holidays): either you have a phat television set that merits the accompaniment or you need a reality check on what you are ruining for the future generations. I've been seeing this on many gift guide lists – and there is a reason for it: hundreds of photographers aimed their microscopic or telescopic lenses in places you'll never set foot. Hundreds of hours of recommended family viewing.

6. I'm a big fan of all of Maggie Gyllenhaal's work: including the work she does as a model for the Agent Provocateur line. Plus what The Gap celebrities promote is so boring. Endorsing the notion of naughty or nice? this Xmas is this knicker specialist. Click on the link below for either some nice eye candy or a future present well given and received.

 
7. Be the filmmaker: Red One HD Camera
The 17,500 camera is a god-send to indie filmmakers and the results will be seen soon enough in Steven Soderbergh's 2 biopics on Che. Thank you Jim Jannard (inventor and founder of Oakley sunglasses). Click on image below for all the cool info.  

8. A staple of my favorite mailbox visits: Filmmaker Magazine
The best film magazine money can buy not only has tons of familiar filmmaker names we adore, but also writers we adore as in IONCINEMA.com's Benjamin Crossley-Marra! Click on the last month's newsstand release for various subscription offers. 

9. Fight the Power: Adbusters Magazine!
Want to offer a gift to your anti-consumerist friend? No better way to say f-you to spending and aimless consumption by subscribing them to one of my favorite cover to cover reads.

10. Stockings stuffer: The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers
What kind of place would we have if Pedro, Haynes and Gus Van Sant didn't exist? Authored by Matthew Hayes, (one of this film school reject's favorite University mentors) this is packed with interviews with some of the more   pivotal and sometimes obscure filmmakers from the L&G club. Click the Amazon link for more info…