The 1955 bus boycott by black Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, ushered in the American civil rights movement and introduced us to its charismatic leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On February 24, HBO Films will present “Boycott,” with authentic and recreated documentary footage capturing the tension, energy and excitement of this important episode in American history.

You’ll need a TV to watch the movie, but the HBO website has behind-the-scenes interviews with the filmmakers and actors, who talk about the film and give their opinions about the impact the boycott had on American society.

Sister act Allison and Catherine Pierce have just released their debut album for Epic Records, “The Pierces,” which includes thirteen original compositions written by the women. Their featured single, “The Way,” combines acoustic and electronic instruments with the duo’s melodic vocals.

Tune in every two weeks to hear a new full-length cut from the album. And check out the website for interviews with Allison and Catherine, along with behind-the-scenes footage shot in the recording studio.

Watch a remarkable one-hour session from the TED conference by Raymond Kurzweil, winner of the National Medal of Technology. Kurzweil’s dramatic presentation (complete with singers and dancers) will premiere the first complete blurring and image transformation in a demo of the near future, using state-of-the-art digital avatar technology.

The TED conference, held since 1984, is an eclectic gathering held to discover new ways of seeing, learning, transforming information, and conveying ideas through the merging of technology, entertainment, and design.

Archived videos of this year’s sold-out TED conference will be posted to the web in the near future. We’ll be sure to let you know when they’re available for viewing.

The Mexican
Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) is a bumbling gangster who promises his girlfriend, Samantha (Julia Roberts), that he’ll change his criminal ways and go straight. Unfortunately, his boss has other ideas.

Before Welbach can do his own thing, the mobsters send him to Mexico to steal a priceless antique pistol known as “The Mexican,” which supposedly carries an ancient curse. The plot thickens when Samantha is held hostage by the thugs until Welbach returns with the gun.

“The Mexican” co-stars James Gandolfini and Gene Hackman. It opens in U.S. theaters on March 2.

Along Comes a Spider
While under the protection of the Secret Service, a congressman’s daughter is mysteriously kidnapped from a private school in Washington D.C., leading to speculation about an inside job. To find the girl and her kidnapper, authorities call in forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) who teams up with secret service agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter) after losing his partner. Before long, their clues point to Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott), a complex criminal who may be responsible for a tangled web of murders in the district.

“Along Came a Spider” is the second Dr. Alex Cross crime thriller starring Morgan Freeman. See it in U.S. theaters starting April 6.

Wouldn’t it be great to rotate an object in a photo to see what it looks like on all sides? Or take a 360-degree virtual tour of a single room, an entire building, or an outdoor landscape?

Apple’s exciting new cubic VR technology lets you do all of these things and more. And now you can find out how to create cubic VR panoramas in a free four-hour seminar led by Dennis Biela, a digital photographer who creates QTVR content for Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. government.

Biela will feature products from Apple, Adobe, Canon, Canto, Epson, Kaidan, Kodak, Nikon, Panoscan, Phase One, SmartDisk, VST, and VR ToolBox—all of which will explain what it takes to create exciting QuickTime VR content.

The seminar is free and will be held in cities across the United States and Canada from February 20 to May 1. Seating is limited, so reserve your space right away.

On March 9-18, 2001, more than 15,000 participants from the music, film, and Internet industries will meet in Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest, an annual confluence of festivals, conferences and trade shows dedicated to the creative side of the entertainment business.

QuickTime technology plays an enormous role at South by Southwest, not only in the presentation of creative works and conference sessions, but in showcasing the many innovative ways that artists are using QuickTime for producing, distributing, and adding interactivity to their projects.

Interested? Visit the South by Southwest website to learn more about the conference, to hear MP3s and watch interviews and video clips from previous years.