5 Videos You Won't See on YouTube

Tired of the YouTube scene? I am. It's a pain when the copyright-infringing video everyone's talking about disappears before you can catch it. And the site's 10-minute limit on videos doesn't do much for those of us with longer attention spans--or who don't like features with six intermissions. Though Rihanna music videos and Trinidad and Tobago Police Band performances are fun, wouldn't you rather watch something a little more...movielike? Well, fire up the popcorn, because I have five flicks you can legally download that YouTube won't have up anytime soon.

1. Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning

Science-fiction fans have been making amateur spoofs of their favorite movies and TV shows for decades, but few projects have been as ambitious as the 103-minute Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning. Seven years in the making, this incredibly goofy Finnish film features the power-mad Captain--sorry, Emperor--James P. Pirk (played by creator and cowriter Samuli Torssonen) leading a fleet of Federation ships through a wormhole into the Babylon 5 universe. Star Wreck's space-battle scenes are amazingly professional, but even more remarkable are the sets: As in 300 and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, almost everything is virtual, created on desktop 3D-animation software and added to the scenes later. Read the Web site's notes on the movie's production for a taste of guerilla filmmaking at its best.

2. The Power of Nightmares

If documentaries are more your speed, the Internet Archive has you covered. The Power of Nightmares is a three-part BBC documentary film that traces the twin histories of modern Islamic fundamentalism and American neoconservatism. The Power of Nightmares puts forward the notions that the two movements shared the same origin, and that, as the title suggests, the "nightmare" of a terrorist network like Al Qaeda is extremely powerful in the hands of neoconservative politicians who want to manipulate the public.

As you'd expect, the film has caused considerable controversy since its 2004 release, but aside from airings in the United Kingdom and Canada, it's been shown in the United States only at a handful of film festivals. Here's your chance to see the series and decide whether you agree with it or not.