Rhetorical Dimensions of Native American Documentary

Since the advent of more affordable video technology in the late seventies and early eighties, various indigenous groups have recognized the potential of video for intragroup communication and as a means of gaining cultural and political recognition in the wider society. Video and film productions are used to "rethink history," even to address "the ignorance of the dominant culture" about past history and contemporary culture. In the United States, Native Americans have been actively making videos based on an initial focus of "helping to enhance the survival of their own communities," in their own production facilities and through coproduction arrangements with non-Native videographers and filmmakers (Weatherford 1990, 59).

Similar developments in indigenous video production have occurred in Canada, South America, and Australia, and alternative video has grown as a communication tool for political movements throughout the world. Video's d... more

Poem : Spirit Enlightened

origins of ʻitʼ seen, in zone beyond the known,

the story of spirit -
in evolution, in enlightenment, in experience,
continues. ... more

“Reception in a state of distraction”: Mindfulness and Media.

 
 

 

What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.                 - Susan Sontag

... more

Theory and Practice of the Peruvian Grupo Chaski

The Peruvian cinema collective Grupo Chaski was formed in 1982 by María Barea, Fernando Barreto, Fernando Espinoza, Stefan Kaspar, and Alejandro Legaspi. Growing to over sixty members by the late 1980s, the group joins a long history of collective filmmaking in Latin America. Beginning with the work of the Argentine Fernando Birri who founded the Santa Fe documentary school in the 1950s and who made a number of socially significant documentaries that traced the lives of the lower classes, the Latin American practice of collective filmmaking incorporates two main features: a commitment to making films with and for a marginalized community and a desire to alter mainstream commercial filmmaking practices. Such a concept of the collective, then, meant that these filmmakers wanted to collaborate with the communities they were filming, asking for their input and avoiding as much as possible the imposition of their ideas on the subjects of their films. Similarly, these film collectives wer... more

Creating New Spaces in Third Cinema: Trinh T. Minh-Ha Rewrites the Narrative of Nationalism With Love

What interests me is not the love story – which I differentiate from the story of love – but the state of being in love: a state in which our perception of the world around us radically changes. Love can awaken our senses in an intense and unpredicted manner. It can open the door to an other world never experienced before, while literally blinding us to the familiar world of reason, of common logic and of everyday practicalities. (Trinh 1999, 253)
 
Unlike hierarchal and linear histories of nationalism, there is no plan of linearity within Trinh Minh-Ha’s film A Tale of Love. The shifts in narra... more

The Good, The Bad, and the Documentary: On Deontology of Representation and Ethics of Interpretation

In The Five Obstructions (Denmark, 2003) Lars von Trier is asking Jørgen Leth to remake his own 1967 short film The Perfect Human. Not once, but five times, and each time following von Trier’s bizarre obstructions. It should be considered a crime to ask a director to make a remake of his own film, but Leth accepts to play the game. The Perfect Human is a stylish but ironic, poetic film about human behavior, inspired by the world of advertising. When Leth returns from his first assignment – with the obstruction not to use more than 12 frames per shot – von Trier’s disappointment is visible: despite the outrageous obstruction, and having lengthy shots as one of the characteristics of his film style, Leth has succeeded in delivering a beautiful film. As a revenge von Trier is going to put Leth’s ethics to the test by imposing him the following obstructions: to film in “the most miserable place of the world” (to which Leth is quite used…), but not to show it; ... more

Natural Seeds and Land Reform: A Look at the Film Ciclovida in Context

Lands once barren
Swallow seeds of revolution
Help my children grow

Balance on two wheels
Earth feels more like home
We've travelled far and wide,
To heal the wounds of time

When I die of exhaustion
Bury me without my tools
Without wasted land

Monsanto killed my countryside
My village was poisoned with lies
Flood the land with farmers
To heal the wounds of time

I stumbled upon the film, Ciclovida (in English, Lifecycle) by chance. Recently I decided to go read and write at my local alternative library, The Flying Brick. Quite often The Flying Brick will host speakers and screen films. This particular Thursday I was pleasantly surprised to walk-in on the beginning of Ciclovida, an independent film about two Brazilians, Inacio do Nacimento... more

The Last Taboo on Television

Virtually every forbidden topic imaginable has been covered on television, except for one. The last taboo on television is television itself -- and how it is profoundly biased toward high consumption lifestyles that the earth cannot sustain. In the U.S. the average person sees more than 25,000 commercials a year on TV. Commercials represent far more than a pitch for a particular product; they are also advertisements for the attitudes, values and lifestyles that surround the consumption of that product. Mass entertainment is being used to capture a mass audience that is then appealed to by mass advertising to promote mass consumption that, in turn, is devastating the Earth's biosphere. By programming television for commercial success, the television industry is also programming the mindset of civilizations for ecological failure. ... more

Transforming the Script

Reframing — an important tool for nonviolent change

Image Courtesy : B.S.Wise(above left), www.ecopolis.org (above right)

Imagine we are sitting in a theater watching William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  After the lights go down — and the Danish Prince first meets his father’s regal but forlorn ghost on the grounds of Elsinore — the rest of the world gradually and imperceptibly begins to fade away.  For the moment, we forget the hassles at work,... more

Terrible Beauty

I grew up by the sea, so close I could taste the salt of her sweat in every breath. The Pacific coast cradled my childhood and early adolescence, easing many moments of melancholy. I learned early to respect her like a good mother. She can carry life and take it away in a single wave. Her storms make a Florida hurricane look like a baby shower.  From her I glimpsed God’s nature: awesome power with depths beyond our knowing. The mightiest of men are but grains of sand in comparison. At least with God, all things work together for good to them that love Him.  With the sea, there is no such thing as mercy. I learned her tendency for indiscriminate ruin while walking along the beach: rusted ship beams, massive trees, trunks stripped down to their rings. At the age of nine, I discovered a dead body. A man, topless, pants tattered, lips blue, flies crawling in the corner of his mouth. His lifeless body marked my memory, affirming the number one rule all children from my coasta... more

Roses, too

“We want bread, but we want roses, too!," their signs read.

The march was made mostly of women, who had organized the strike and asked for decorous salaries, but wanted poetry, too.

It was 1912 and a three-month textile strike was taking place in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with dozens of immigrant communities demonstrating to obtain decent wages, shorter working hours, freedom of strike.

The slogan was borrowed from James Oppenheim’s poem, “Bread and Roses," written a year before.

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be ... more

Lost in the Metropolis: City Culture in American Life

He could probably afford to live in the sprawling suburbs of Washington, D.C., but James rejected that idea a long time ago. Although it might sound attractive to many Americans, James doesn’t want to live in newly constructed apartment building, in a neighborhood made up of identical brick and aluminum siding, with people just like him living next door. He didn’t want to be conveniently located in a shopping center, or ideally located 15 minutes outside of the richest city in America. James wants to live in the city.

Image Courtesy : Thomas Hawk�... more

Rituals for Lover Earth

The medicine man enters the outer vestibule of the sacred healing chamber. He dons the ceremonial vestments and performs the ritual ablutions, purifying himself for the healing ritual that is about to commence. Putting on identical masks, he and his acolytes enter the chamber, to which all others are forbidden entrance. The man they are healing is ready, having been ushered into a deep trance by another shaman using a magical elixir. Within the chamber are the ritual implements, which have themselves been purified, and which none but the initiated are allowed to touch. The medicine man calls for each implement in turn, handed to him by an acolyte. He uses these in a ritual scarification procedure that removes a small part of the ill man's body. When he awakens from the trance, the man is magically healed, though some further ceremonies are required before he is able to leave the grounds of the temple of healing.

To even be allowed to perform this complex healing ritual, ... more

The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies

Let's begin with beer. Every day I drive past a billboard for Coors Light with the slogan, "Coors rocks Harrisburg." Now, does anybody actually believe that Coors does in fact "rock Harrisburg"? No. Does the Coors corporation itself believe it? No. Does anyone believe that Coors believes it? No. It is a lie, everyone knows it is a lie, and no one cares. Everyone automatically writes it off as an ad slogan, an image campaign.

The next sign advertises Miller Beer with the phrase, "Fresh beer tastes better." Does anyone actually think Miller is any fresher than Budweiser, Coors, or Pabst? No. Does anyone at Miller Brewing think that? No. It is another obvious and unremarkable lie, beneath the threshold of most people's awareness. But it contributes to a feeling of living in a phony world where words don't matter and nothing is real. ... more

Humanity Explored

the humanity,
seeing divinity in love, benevolence & truth
with beating beast beneath,
... more

Bearing Witness

A voice is a gift; it should be cherished and used… Powerlessness and silence go together; one of the first efforts made in any totalitarian takeover is to suppress the writers, the singers, the journalists, those who are the collective voice.   - Margaret Atwood

... more

The Wizard of Oz: The Man behind the American Dream

Enchanting, joyful and magical are the words that describe the film, the Wizard of Oz. After its release in 1939, it became a classic and one of America's most beloved films. Based on the 1900 novel by Lyman Frank Baum, in some ways it seemed to have shaped the cultural consciousness of America. It is now even more significant, not only for revealing the development of theatrical fantasy within American life, but also for shedding light on a hidden narrative behind major current events around the world.



The story starts with a nostalgic sepia-colored farmland in Kansas. A young girl named Dorothy played by Judy Garland wished to find a place where there is no trouble. One day, a tornado swooped down and transported her into the land of Oz. Dorothy embarked on a journey to meet the great Wizard of Oz with a hope that that he could help her find her way back home. Dorothy's journey can be seen as mirroring America's over the last century. ... more

Heima (Home)

Sing with me
My sister calls
Remember your roots
Learn the songs of days
Gone by

Make music with us
The mountains whisper
Let us inspire you
Strum beside our
Ancient peaks

Dance with me
The West wind blows
Chase my melodies
I will stop to listen
As you play

Sing with your family,
Make music with mountains,
Dance like the wind, yet
Never forget –
Your home

I choose a radio station, I pick a CD from the local store, I download a song from iTunes. My musical choices are my own. At least, that is what I thought until I watched a film that made me reconsider the meaning of choice, specifically musical choice. The film was 'Heima,' a documentary about indie band Sigur Ros who became famous in 2007 for rejecting the rules of the music industry. 'Heima' is one example of the power of independent music to reject and reimagine the possibilities of musi... more

Is Art Political?: Wafaa Bilal

During a recent speech at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, artist Wafaa Bilal stated “all art is political.” As an activist and amateur illustrator, I found this statement interesting, especially coming from one of the most controversial artists in America. Bilal’s speech recently made me reflect on the Iraq war, and the pain it has caused. I was moved by his art, words and commitment to the anti-war effort.

Countless numbers of people have debated the definition of art. Still, I ponder the question. What is art? A logical qualifier could be, “Art is the expression of the artist(s).” The artist’s expressions are able to draw deep emotions from viewers. Politics is convincing someone to act, or think differently. It is about the ability to control another person. It is about power and the body. I am a political being. My body is a part of the world and governments and laws manipulate that world. Art seems to be an expression of this intersection of politics... more

The Tone of Hearts

Of all the relationships we decide to enter into, only one is beyond our power to choose. Paradoxically, the one relationship we have no control of initiating has the greatest influence in our lives and can very often affect all other relationships we do choose to create. The depth of intimacy we have with others, the esteem we hold for ourselves, even the all important relationship we develop with God - all are rooted in and stem from the mother/daughter bond that was made outside the realm of our free will.  

This relationship’s power in our lives is like the heart in our bodies. If the heart is strong and healthy, it’s repeated and rhythmic patterns pump our life force into all other parts of the body. It’s make-up is comprised of cells interconnected by bridges and is responsible for the current that stimulates a single cell and all its neighboring cells. While reading the encyclopedic description of the heart, I was looking for words that related to the uni... more

Synergy: Going with God

“Vaya con dios,” said my husband’s manager, when we had decided to leave Los Angeles in 2003. And that’s what we’ve tried to do for the most part – if going with God means going with that, which is bigger than us. One of the crazy projects we’ve embarked on in recent times is a web soap opera aimed primarily at Iranian audiences, both within Iran and in the Diaspora. Being part Persian, the developments in Iran have been very close to our hearts and we’ve had a desire to contribute to more understanding between the various, incredibly diverse and rich cultural backgrounds that make up “Persianness”. It’s another one of those projects that yields no financial gain and is, for the most part, sapping our resources and time if you think of it from a purely commercial perspective. But that’s the price you pay, when you try to “vaya con the dios” in your life.

You can’t get programs like ours on to official Iranian television, because the content would probably be deemed as anti-Isla... more

Big Brother’s Watching: When we become the narrative

These days everyone seems to be a film-maker. We have a lot of great technology that enables us to skip film school and delve right into our first movie. I have a friend who is a dentist by profession and makes movies as a hobby. His latest flick, “Mocha Frapuchino” just premiered at a Hungarian cinema and attracted an actual crowd and a fair bit of publicity from the local media. He shot it between dental appointments and edited it at home using mostly common sense and little bit of help. Yes, it’s made for a small audience with insider references and no proper micing, but hey it’s a genre of its own!

Even for those of us who’ve taken film-making on as a focused vocation, there are more possibilities for us today than ever before. Mostly because of the available technology – which keeps getting smaller. I’ve been writing and co-producing a no-budget soap opera for Persian television/web and I can’t tell you how unimpressive our tiny high-def handycam looked atop our massive... more

Embracing The Unknown

When good, films have a way resonating with universal truths within us. There seems to be a basic rhythm that is reflected in stories, which is deeply intrinsic and which you will find in nature or in music for example. In its simplest form, this rhythm usually begins with an initial condition or “direction”, a subsequent “crisis”, a “climax” of some sort and finally an ending or new beginning and direction.

A seed will be lying dormant until a crisis cracks open its shell in a powerful and tumultuous way that eventually brings about a flower, the blooming of which is the culmination of that seed’s life. But it doesn’t end there. That flower, sunning nonchalantly in the summer warmth will suddenly undergo a change in the form of autumn, which dries its leaves and robs it of its petals, only to reappear in brand new splendor the following spring.  Consider how brutish trimmed roses look in the winter. You’d think someone’s surely butchered them. But it isn’t until the garde... more

We Speak Here

hear now,

the voice of eros,

in cell, in organism named ‘I’,

in all that jazz playing ‘We’

today.

spoken here,

the language of love,

for life, from life,

deep within the form human.

expressions multicolored,

subconscious to conscious,

seen from the eye,

o... more

Stepping Out

His voice sounded like it came from the other end of a long, endless pipeline that was located in another universe – far, far away. He asked us whether we would film the community play at the local center. Cute, we thought. My husband was directing network TV shows and shadowing on Alias and CSI. We heard him out and then suggested he get one of the volunteer youth to do the filming. Anyone can operate a handy-cam these days.

We were filmmakers and this was Hollywood. In those days, before coming to South Africa, we were signed with big agencies that represented big names. We took meetings with big people and drank coffee from big cups at industry venues in town. We went to sleep to the image of our names on the silver screen and woke up with the hope of receiving that call or making that deal that would take things to the next level. A video at the local community center was not part of the picture.

And could you blame us? I have seen some of the most v... more

I, Too: Too Much, Too Soon

Having lived on the edge for most of my life, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I fell off the cliff. My family was alerted, friends tried to help, my ex-husband tried to check me into an asylum. In the end, it was only by the grace of God that I managed to return from the fall without any permanent damage to myself, and my relationships.  This “time away,” as I have come to call it, only lasted seven days, but it was the longest, most terrifying period of my life.  It was also the most transforming.  I have not been the same since, nor do I want to be. I have yet to write about it, mostly because I have no words to describe the experience, but also because I am afraid.  

Madness is liberating in that there are no confines to limit stretches of the imagination, but it is for this same reason that madness is so hazardous.  Extremes extend beyond ends, breach sensibilities. There is no balance, no logic, no order.  Chaos reigns a... more

Beyond Doublespeak: True Lies in the Battle for the Word

Since the dawn of history there have been wars. In the present the United States is involved in at least three: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan with military presence in many other countries. It seems that the patterns of violence and empires that rise and fall haven't changed much since before Roman times. Should this cycle of violence simply be accepted as the way of the world? Historian and activist Howard Zinn wrote:

In modern times, when social control rests on "the consent of the governed", force
is kept in abeyance for emergencies, and everyday control is exercised by a set of
rules, a fabric of values passed on from one negation to another by the priests and
teachers of the society. (1970, p.6)

Unfortunately, such consent of the govern... more

The Power of Belief

I believe in the power that comes 

From a world brought together as one
- Nikki Yanofsky, “I Believe”

I've always believed in the power of belief. There is a synchronicity, a connectivity to the universe we inhabit. A thread that pushes, pulls, sets us free, binds us. Motivational speakers call it positive thinking. Scientists have studied its effects for years. Theologians call it faith. However you describe it, whether spiritually or with cold hard scientific data, it is based on a simple premise: it is your chosen belief in a purpose, whatever it might be, that is the determining factor to whether (or not) you are able to accomplish it.

The Ripple Effect of Shared Belief: It's one thing to have a firmly rooted belief system in your personal life and to see its effects. It's quite another, however, to see it in action when a large group of people combi... more

Changing Places, Losing Time

The concept of time has always been relative. Whether you’re having the time of your life or bored to death, time can fly by or beg to be killed. Time is so fluid, it can be changed at whim, by any moron in power. The former Bush administration managed to get me up an hour earlier weeks in advance of when daylight savings was suppose to be, a time established back when American farmer’s planted crops in season. There are those who argue against the notion that there is a past or future time; there is only now. Differing philosophies aside, change (painfully slow or quite suddenly,) can only happen in time. Change is measured against the wheel of time, by comparing what was with what is. Yet, the essence of what matters – the nature of man – remains constant through time. There are no new stories, only new players acting out the same conflicts that have plagued humanity since before stories were told. 

Place, however, is precise. Our experience of a certain place may b... more

The Fallen Nature

There is a part of me that revels in stories about the fall of prideful men. It is no small consolation to witness the cocky jock humbly serving the geeky goof he used to torment. This smugness is not vindictive, rather mere appreciation for any account that righteously scores one for the underdog. Not often told, however, are tales of humble men who rise to power and are then challenged to remain true to their character. Such narratives are discomforting. On one hand, we want humble men in higher positions so that their righteousness might be wielded against corruption, and yet we are aware, whether consciously or instinctually, that no man is righteous; no, not one. The setup creates apprehension; we fear for the humble man, worry he will fall. Pride is a powerful adversary. In the film Takva: A Man’s Fear of God, I found myself grow increasingly concerned for Muharrem, a simple man called to face this tempting power. 

Muharrem is a devout Muslim, ... more

Sampat Pal Devi sings the blues

The only thing they seem to have in common is their look: long black hair and a bright pink dress.
And destiny, too: because, if Sita – the holy wife of Sri Rama – is undoubtedly a deity, Sampat Pal Devi (“goddess”)’s name imposes a sort of duty on her, too.

But if the former has always been a metaphor for womanly perfection, the latter could arouse some suspicions. Despite her pink sari, in fact, Sampat Pal is anything but docile.

The daughter of a shepherd, married off to an ice cream vendor at the age of eleven and mother of five, Sampat Pal Devi has never stopped fighting and is not used to defeats.

She started when she was a little girl: she wanted to go to school like her brothers and, since her family wouldn’t let her, she would teach herself how to read and write, gleaning information from the boys who attended school and practicing on her house’s walls and floor a... more

Vox Populi

“Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gun powder, treason, and plot.  I know of no reason the gun powder treason should ever be forgot.” The tag-line of V for Vendetta stirs the patriotism of the individual whose sense of duty, though not impenetrable to fear, remains rooted in the power of people united. Vendetta uses striking images and tightly knit dialogue to create a masterpiece for its viewers that not only draws you in, but conveys a intuitive parallel with our own political climate. 

V, a well-spoken masked vigilante, devises a year-long plot ... more

Sounds of Silence

The human ear can only hear a limited part of the sound spectrum. Above that range is ultrasound and below it is infrasound. Although largely unheard, vibrations in these ranges can still affect the human body in ways that are quite different from the informational aspect of simply listening. These higher and lower registers of sound frequencies are, today, the stuff of imaginative speculation. While the conspiracy watchers believe they are the basis of secret weapons research for covert operations, mind control and other conspiratorial uses, another, more idealistic, school associates them with meditative states and magical technology.

Sound is a waveform, with low infrasonic frequencies having a long wavelength that can cover great distances, and with high ultrasonic frequencies having a short wave length. The medical profession, chiefly for diagnostic imaging, employs ultrasound most usefully. Both ultrasound and infrasound are inaudible to humans but can, on occasion, be f... more

The Short and Sweet of Simple

Nowhere is it written that God must answer our questions, and yet any person who seeks to understand life must wonder, “Why does He make us feel the questions if He’s not going to give us any answers?” This may be the ultimate theological question, asked by Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor who is courageously trying to hold on to his sanity as God rips apart his 1960s Minnesota suburban life in the film A Serious Man. First, I must admit that this is not the type of film I usually pay to see. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man is one I might view by chance a year or two after its original release. It would be a pleasant discovery checked out at the library that avails a treasury of films from the odd and outrageous to the dark and daunting. Though often perplexing, I prefer the independent films, those that seem to intentionally end abruptly without any sense of closure or peace. I am not suggesting that I get some sadistic pleasure in witnessing u... more

The Stuff of Dreams

What is the stuff of dreams? Random flashes of subconscious bric-a-brac, discarded brain bits and pieces? Are they journeys to another plain of existence? Is it the brain’s way of sorting out problems — reaching deeper into our mental capacity to reason and create? The truth is: we really don’t know. How a person might answer any of these questions out of their own personal experience relies heavily on their cultural background and spiritual beliefs. Whether it’s a scientific or spiritual approach to these questions, there is a common thread of agreement: creativity and our dream life are often linked.

The Scientific Explanation: Most dreams take place ... more

Dancing with Dissonance

For years I have fantasized about living off the grid  like my Grandfather and his wife Sonja. The small plot of river rock and mountain terrain up the Rogue River in  Oregon was inherited by Grandpa from my great grandmother. When Grandpa married Sonja, the isolated haven was a small one-room cabin with a covered porch for sleeping and an outhouse. For decades after their union, the two kept each other company while building what is now a three-story estate, an ideal retreat from the world where one can comfortably hide away and disappear into God’s green earth. ... more

The Disaster Film: A Cultural Phenomenon

 Photo Courtesy: Paramount Pictures 

In 1938, film director, writer and producer, Orson Welles, aired his adaptation of the H.G. Welles’ novel, “War of the Worlds” for the radio program Mercury Theater on Air. The novel centered on an alien invasion that takes place in 19^th century England. The 60 minute program ran without commerci... more

Viewing the Foreign : A Spiritual Exercise

“Mommy, can we watch that movie again, with the bad boy and the baby?”

This will not look good on my mother-of-the-year application. Tsotsi, the 2005 international award-winning film directed by Gavin Hood, may not have been the best movie to expose to a four-year-old. She is at the age of critical development, learning from all of her senses, assimilating information at a rapid rate. What comes in will reflect what comes out. Accordingly, I have been exceedingly cautious about what she hears in music, and views in films and television programs. Though I cannot control the media ou... more

Film and the View from Power

The story is familiar. An old, hardened war veteran, Walt, lives a routine banal existence in a small middle-America town. He has no friends and no joy, and is destined to live out his days thus until something out of the ordinary happens.  New neighbors move in. Not only are they from out of town, but they are Hmong, of southeastern Asian descent. Walt takes an immediate dislike to the “gooks,” refusing their various friendly overtures. But when Thao, the shy teenage boy next door is pressured by a local gang into stealing the old man’s car and is caught, the family and the old man are forced into intimacy. Thao repays his crime by lending Walt his labor and the two develop a “tough love” for each other. Walt increasingly warms up to Thao and his Hmong family, assumes the role of vigilante by avenging the family against the local gang, and peaceably meets his end in martyrdom. ... more

The Return of Street Lit

"Reading literature is important because it expands one's vocabulary, perspective and intellectual capacity. And though some might argue that any reading is better than none, the reader ingests poison when metaphor and imagery are replaced with sex, violence and expletives." — Yolanda Young, USA Today

It’s been said that “reading is fundamental." But with the revival of “Street Lit,” or what some have dubbed “Gangster Lit” it has many people arguing that the books promote sex, drugs, crime and are fundamentally violent.

“Street Lit,” or what is commonly known in the publishing industry as Street Fiction, first received notoriety in the 1970’s with the emergence of works like, “Pimp: The Story of My Life” by Iceberg Pimp a.k.a. Robert Beck, and later with the works of author Donald Goines. Both writers used their personal experiences to inform and provide authenticity to their fictional tales of urban and street culture. Many were set in some of the Un... more

En Face De

Prologue :

" Mystics are not themselves
They do not exist in selves.
They move as they are moved,
talk as words come,
see with sight that enters their eyes.
I met a woman once and asked her where love had led her..."

-- Farid ud-Din Attar
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nine months.
The doctors gave me nine months, you say. You look at me. Almost accusingly.
What am I to do in the face of your despair?

9
In face of—to oppose, to set against, to stand before, to face. A face with openings for air, light and sound. A face with senses, which senses. A face that connotes seeing, a face which always has eyes. Life pours ... more

Maya Deren, Pioneer of the American Avant Garde Movement: A Profile of the Artist and Her Prominent Films

In 1943, Eleanora Deren changed her signature for the last time when she took on the name “Maya” - the Hindu Goddess of Illusion (Clark, Hodson & Neiman,1). Four of Deren’s best-known films were produced between 1942-47, marking her emergence on the American avant-garde scene as a hugely talented yet extremely controversial filmmaker. They reflected the radical inspired thinking and unfettered imagination that became the trademark of her creative expression. Deren’s emphasis was on creating states of consciousness that went beyond the normal waking experience (Clark, Hodson & Neiman, 1). In a masculinist avant-garde world, she was a relentless advocate of the woman filmmaker fighting against the dominant representations of women (Geller, 140). While many have described her work... more

A great true story, an ordinary fairytale

There is a whole story, behind Slumdog Millionaire, the greatest triumph of the last months. A UK-USA production that blinks at Bollywood tones and colours, Slumdog Millionaire is a modern times fairytale and contains all typical elements of this literary genre: a strongly typified setting, a poor but kind-hearted protagonist, who stops at nothing to find the love of his life; his brother, a co-protagonist hardened by poverty but capable of generosity, after all; a (quite helpless) beautiful girl, whom destiny has always been ungenerous to, and who will be freed by Prince Charming; some nasty antagonists, who do all they can to hinder the protagonist; dozens of difficulties and adventures, culminating in a shining happy ending.

Danny Boyle’s last movie is based on the best-selling novel Q&A, by Vikas Swarup. It shows the story of Jamal who, born and brought up in the backstreets of Mumbai, incredibly manages to arrive just one correct answer away from winning 20 million ru... more

What is Behind the Lens: Conversation with Two Project:Involve Filmmakers

American independent cinema of the late 80s and early 90s had a thriving yet cacophonous stronghold on the so called “identity film.” The children of film school and cheap independent cinema were born in this volatile and revolutionary changing of the guard and were often told in film school to start out by looking at their past and making a film about that. Filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jones, Ross Mcelwee and Gus Van Sant came from this school of thought and produced some of the most celebrated films of our times.

My home, Los Angeles, is a city with an identity crisis. The swirling, ever changing masses of creative minds moving in and out of the city may have something to do with it. Or, maybe it’s because it’s filled with people who are manifesting their identities through the strong medium of film. Media is what attracts most people to the city of angels and they all have to start somewhere. It seems that most start with where they came from, in essence, their... more

The Life of Others: Slumming for Thrills

A few years ago, City of God (Cidade de Deus) burst over the international filmscape with its portrayal of the feral – and undeniably vital - beats of Rio de Janeiro’s slum life. The lower depths, as it were, of Brazilian society, where survival politics is rendered in bloody hues. Hues that collaterally tinge urban society as a whole.  Life is cheap, arbitrary, a local saying goes. The unmitigated violence it presented to the world was nothing new in itself. Scorcese and Tarantino, for instance, had more than paved the way for ... more

The Paradox of Creative Choice

That each person is compelled, day by day and deed by deed, to choose his or her life; and that though this choice is by nature extremely personal and individual, it is nevertheless a choice not only for the person choosing, but for all mankind. - Milton Acorn¹

Most of us, throughout our lifespan, acquire a collection of identifying labels based on the choices we make. There is the role we take on in our chosen career: leader, teacher, tradesperson—a choice often driven by a need to provide for a family or loved ones. There is the position we assume within that family group: parent, caregiver, provider. There is the role we perform within a community: mentor, spokesperson, listener. And there is the greater calling that we are compelled to follow whether it be creative or spiritual (if it is possible to separate the two). It is a paradox, especially in North American culture, that the choices and subsequent roles that bring us the most personal and spiritual satisfa... more

An Experimental Portrayal of Personal Evolution

The term “autobiographical animation” seems almost contradictory, yet two recent films “Persepolis” (2007) and “Waltz with Bashir” (2008) use this form to capture psychological, emotional and personal stories in a way that live action could not possibly.                                 
The films use Middle Eastern cultural identity as an entry point into discussing both the larger socio-political landscape, the characters’ own internal conflict and ultimately their growth. The animation, rather than being gimmicky or tacked on, allows for the characters to safely explore painful experiences, share fragmented dreams and tell past stories. Furthermore, it provides the audience with the chance to visually experience internalized emotions, distant memories and living through a time and place that they may never have understood before. Ultimately, both films use animation to portray global, local a... more

Transgressing Culture

Filmmakers use film as a medium of expression, to document a culture in which they live or one that they imagine. Film is a form of visual expression, layers of imagery and sound. It is telling stories with pictures—moving pictures. In fact, screens are everywhere and on everything. I can watch a film on the two-inch screen of my Blackberry. In fact, I can film action on my Blackberry, sit down at my computer and with some accessible and affordable software create a movie. Technology is making it possible for film and video to transform the way we view story.

Contemporary visual artists use films as an element of their work. American pop artist Andy Warhol was one of the first artists to make films. Today, contemporary artists are using film to transgress culture. Consider video artists Mika Rottenberg (born in Argentina) and Omer Fast (born in Israel), both featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial exhibition of American con... more

Film and Culture

Individuals who put a lot of their time and effort into a craft often find asking themselves: why? Why tell stories in a visual way? Why imagine or recreate something from the real world, where objectivity is inherent, and craft it into a story with a camera or a computer?

The answer best explains itself in negative form. Without the potential to see life on a screen, we only have real life as it is. We see people walking and scratching their heads and living and dying and turning against one another. In the objective real world, people from around the world remain in their separate bins, isolated from the other flavors of man-kind and labeled appropriately. The objective outside world is what it is.

Any film, documentary or fiction, scoops reality out of its earthly dish and gently dumps it onto a nice neat screen. It shapes it with narrative form, a form which through its mere structure parallels the loss of Eden, the loss of iden... more

On my very first viewing of the film Mulholland Drive (2001) I experienced an acute sense of discomfort, akin to that I had felt, when I had seen films like Run Lola Run (1998), Memento (2000), Amores Perros (2000) and more recently 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). All uniquely brilliant films in their own right, the one factor that runs common through them is a deviation from the standard form of feature filmmaking –or the classical narrative structure as it is referred to. Multiple viewings and a couple of classes on film theory later, I understood that my discomfort arose from a sense of trying to fit that which I could not understand within the compartmental confines of that which I am accustomed to. In other words, a restructuring of the narrative paradigm I was used to viewing Hollywood films which created a distinctive ‘break’ in the viewing experience for me. Narrative analysis¹ is concerned with this very observation; it studies the ext... more

Cultural Influences on Narrative Structures in Popular Cinemas

On my very first viewing of the film Mulholland Drive (2001) I experienced an acute sense of discomfort, akin to that I had felt, when I had seen films like Run Lola Run (1998), Memento (2000), Amores Perros (2000) and more recently 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). All uniquely brilliant films in their own right, the one factor that runs common through them is a deviation from the standard form of feature filmmaking –or the classical narrative structure as it is referred to. Multiple viewings and a couple of classes on film theory later, I understood that my discomfort arose from a sense of trying to fit that which I could not understand within the compartmental confines of that which I am accustomed to. In other words, a restructuring of the narrative paradigm I was used to viewing Hollywood films which created a distinctive ‘break’ in the viewing experience for me. Narrative analysis¹ is concerned with this very observation; it studies the ext... more