Antonioni

Eli Wong has done a great job in acknowledgement of Antonioni's passing, with some must see clips to boot. See here.

EMERGENCES AND EMERGENCIES: NEW SOUTH ASIAN FILM-MAKING FROM BRITAIN

If you are in New York City this weekend (20/4/7-22/4/7) you can go see this 'must see' collection of films. If you are not able to attend, the texts are worth reading - collected below. Excellent.

Emergences & Emergencies
New British Asian Films
Curated by Sukhdev Sandhu


From the companion catalogue:
1. Sukhdev Sandhu on "India Calling" (Sonali Fernando, 2002)
2. Michael Vazquez on "Otolith" (The Otolith Group, 2003)
3. Naeem Mohaiemen on "Bradford Riots" (Neil Biswas, 2006)
4. Jon Caramanica on "Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music" (V.Bald, 2001)
5. Vijay Prashad on "The Road To Guantanamo" (Winterbottom 2006)
6. James Brooke-Smith on "England Expects" (Tony Smith 2004)
7. Karen Shimakawa on "Skin Deep" (Yousaf Ali Khan: 2001)
8. Kamila Shamsie on "A Love Supreme" (Nilesh Patel, 2001)
9. Mohsin Hamid on "My Son The Fanatic" (Udayan Prasad, 1997)
10. Bharat Tandon on "The Warrior" (Asif Kapadia, 2001):
11. Gautam Malkani on "Young, Angry and Muslim" (Julian Hendy, 2005)

Thanks to Naeem Mohaiemen for the collection of texts - visit Shobakorg.
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Iwo Jima outrage

In respect of the white-washed sands of Iwo Jima (suburb of Hollywood, made by Clint into a fantasy space where all American heros are John Wayne clones, an ideological confit that is ever so totally unrealated to Vietnam/Iraq type losses and the national trauma that arises therefrom). That historical cliches can be reworked with white actors only (director says 'its true to the book' - which makes us wonder about the director not just the book, right?). Anyway, its an outrage, but angular as ever, this post from Shashwati makes some really good connections:


Unknown Soldiers
I have been on the National Archives web page for the last couple of days, researching films and photos. While looking around, I found this photo:



“Rickshaws are almost as common in India as they are in China. Some of the…troops are on their way to see `Tarzan’s New York Adventure’—in India…”
African American soldiers going to see a Tarzan film in Calcutta. What can you say about that? It was interesting to find this in conjunction with the rumbles about the new Clint Eastwood film about the battle for Iwo Jima, where the absence of Black soldiers has been noticed by those who took part in it, like Sgt. McPhatter:

…almost 900 African-American troops took part in the battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter…..”Of all the movies that have been made of Iwo Jima, you never see a black face,” said Mr McPhatter. “This is the last straw. I feel like I’ve been denied, I’ve been insulted, I’ve been mistreated. But what can you do? We still have a strong underlying force in my country of rabid racism.”

And here is a tidbit about the newsreel footage from that time, from auhor Melton McLaurin:

“One of the marines I interviewed said that the people who were filming newsreel footage on Iwo Jima deliberately turned their cameras away when black folks came
by….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 1:10 am

News from the makers of 'Injustice'

News from the makers of 'Injustice' - the radical feature length documentary film about the struggles for justice by the families of people that have been killed by the police in the UK. www.injusticefilm.co.uk

1. 'INJUSTICE' CD - now available!
The INJUSTICE music CD was launched successfully in London and Birmingham recently (a report of the event will be up on http://www.4wardever.org/ soon!). The final line-up includes shortMAN, Princess Emmanuelle, Hillz Yungsterz , Aricka Douglas & Dub Judah , Yaz Alexander, Jimmy Chiozo, Ebele, WattsRiot feat. Scalper & Mr. Sparkes , Dee, Warhouse, The Tribunes feat. Judy Green & Poetic Justic, Lowkey and Sebastian Jamison. The CD will help raise the profile of the family campaigns for justice, after its launch there will be a touring 'Injustice Roadshow' with the Injustice film, family campaign speakers and live performances from the artists. The aim of the tour is to organise, raise awareness and raise funds to support the different family campaigns.

The CD includes some radical rap, hip-hop, roots, spoken word, r&b and much more! If you can help with distribution of the CD or want to host the road show then contact: info@injusticefilm.co.uk The CD is available through our website at http://www.injusticefilm.co.uk/ as well as in record shops in Birmingham, London and beyond.


2. Special screenings of 'Injustice'Its now five and a half years since Injustice was launched and the film continues to be screened on a regular basis and continues to ahve an impact! In this month alone there are six screenings planned. Details of all public screenings are on the website www.injusticefilm.co.uk

Every year we screen the film to school children as part of National Schools Film Week.
If you know of any schools in the South London area they can see the film free as follows:
17th October 2006 Ritzy Cinema, Coldharbour Lane, LONDON, SW2
10.00am schools only screening followed by Q&A with families & film maker.

Please note this screening is for National Schools Film Week and is not open to the public.
Schools wanting bookings please call: 020 7439 4880 www.nsfw.org
A big thanks to Film Education who organise NSFW for their continuing support.


3. INJUSTICE DVD - translation help needed.We are preparing a new DVD which will include 'Injustice' as well as extras covering reports on the film and the family campaigns. We are looking for people that can translate the film into German, Arabic and Farsi.
Get in touch if you can help info@injusticefilm.co.uk


4. United Families & Friends Campaign Annual ProcessionThe United Families & Friends Campaign invites all to this year's Remembrance Procession in memory of those who have died in police custody, in prison and in psychiatric care.

Saturday 28 October 2006
Rally at Trafalgar Square, Central London
€ Assemble at 1pm for a march to Downing Street.Nearest tube: Charing Cross
Further details: http://www.uffc.org/ or read the following article: www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=2296


5. United Families & Friends Campaign leaflet available
UFFC, with the support of the Churches Commission for Racial Justice, has recently launched a new leaflet about their struggles for justice. If you can help distribute these leaflets let us know and we can get the leaflets to you. info@injusticefilm.co.uk or call 07956 629 889

To read about other Migrant Media productions log onto http://www.injusticefilm.co.uk
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[pic is of Jasmine Elvie, mother of Brian Douglas]
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Attributed to Jean-Luc Godard:

"Tracking shots are a question of morality."

[on Los Angeles] "It's a big garage."

"There is no point in having sharp images when you've fuzzy ideas."

"Every edit is a lie."

"Up to now -- since shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution -- most movie makers have been assuming that they know how to make movies. Just like a bad writer doesn't ask himself if he's really capable of writing a novel -- he thinks he knows. If movie makers were building airplanes, there would be an accident every time one took off. But in the movies, these accidents are called Oscars."

"What I want above all is to destroy the idea of culture. Culture is an alibi of imperialism. There is a Ministry of War. There is a Ministry of Culture. Therefore, culture is war."

"In a house there is the top floor and there is the cellar. The underground filmmakers live in the same house as Hollywood, but they work in the cellar. It's up to them if they like to live in the dark. The Hollywood filmmakers are more intelligent, because they have that sunny top floor."

"All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun."

Speaking at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival about filmmaker Michael Moore: "Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary."

"It's over. There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed"

"In the beginning I believed in Cannes, but now it's just for publicity. People come to Cannes just to advertise their films, not with a particular message. But the advantage is that if you go to the festival, you get so much press coverage in three days that it advertises the film for the rest of the year"
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Perverted By Language

Piper got the blog back and the Brighton girl from Arkansas has her own now. Still mesmerised, as am I, by the lesser films of Bill Murray:

Perverted By Language: "Ghostbusters 2 is chock full of the past itself coming back to haunt the present. A train that crashed around the turn of the last century comes hurtling through a forgotten underground track. The Titanic finally docks at a city port, allowing its long-dead passengers to file into the city (and as Jeffery Sconce reminds us, the Titanic disaster occurred around the same time as supernatural-seeming devices like radios and telegraphs, were coming to the fore, and inspired a spate of tales of dead victims communicating from the dead through these 'new media'). The Statue of Liberty comes to life and walks from Ellis Island across the water to the promised land of Manhattan. "
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The Pirate Party

Check this out :

The Pirate Party "Because kidnapping and killing people on the high seas is exactly the same as sharing music with your friends!"

http://www.freeculture.org/pirates/

Music video contest!

For the Pirate Party, we want to show pirate-themed music videos while we dance. Thus, we are also holding a Pirate Video Remix Contest! The top three video remixes will each receive a snazzy FreeCulture.org t-shirt--a fine vestment for any pirate.

Rules:

The remixes/mash-ups should feature at least 10 seconds of recognizeable pirates (the traditional ARRR MATEY sea-going pirates). The entire video doesn't have to be pirates, but there should be a few clips to remind people that this is in fact a pirate party.
The music needs a beat that people can groove to. Extra points if the music is plunderphonics or otherwise exercises your fair use rights, but the primary requirement is that the music be danceable.
The music video should be placed somewhere online where we can download it, in a format that VLC can play. MP4 or MOV will work fine. Archive.org is an excellent place to host your video.
The deadline is April 21st, because the party itself is April 22nd and we need time to download the videos.


ta, bri
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Poco TV

Abhijit Roy writes:
> have you received the copies of the journal? they were
> posted more than a month back.

he's referring to the Kolkata based Journal of the Moving Image vol 4. The article is called something like 'Postcolonial Television'. ITs out, but I have not yet seen it. So this is to be updated I guess...
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Art Resistance TV
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EDITION EIGHT

Art Resistance Community TV Program 1 – 50 mins
JOURNALIST & WAR CORRESPONDENT
Robert Fisk: Public Meeting at Sydney University.

Robert Fisk has been the Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper in the UK since 1988. Dr Fisk spoke at Sydney University at the invitation of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He spoke mainly about the current situation in Iraq. He tells the story of the growing hatred of the West by millions of Muslims, the colonisation process that previously occurred in the Middle East by European powers and the uncanny resemblance between the British 1920’s occupation of Iraq and the current US occupation. Fisk also talks of the West’s continuing support for Israel ’s occupation of Palestinian land and its refusal to implement UN Resolutions.

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