Ross McElwee directs this autobiographical documentary about his family's roots in the tobacco business in North Carolina. Taking a sabbatical from his home in Boston, he offers a culturally interesting history of the South as viewed through the biggest, wealthiest tobacco enterprises. Meanwhile, he examines a Hollywood movie that was based on the same topic, BRIGHT LEAF, the 1950 film set in 1894's tobacco-ruled South, which stars Gary Cooper and Lauren Bacall and was directed by Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA). Though McElwee doesn't have firm proof, he speculates that the film is actually based on his great grandfather's rise and fall in the tobacco industry, and he splices in segments of that film to illustrate some of his historical points. It goes without saying that BRIGHT LEAVES' dominant purpose, and strongest message, is anti-smoking, and in its grimmer moments the film shows hospitalized victims of smoking-related illnesses, and conducts interviews with those who have lost dear ones to lung cancer. Packaged as an exploratory and educational dabble into McElwee's past, this documentary is enjoyable and enlightening.

What I found mesmerizing is how personal Bright Leaves is. It is as much a documentary about tobacco as it is about his family, from his great grand father and forward to his son, and how it is tied to tobacco.

That aside, it was an interesting thought that the great grandfather left the family little money, but rather, a "trust fund" of a cancer-ridden culture for his grandfather, father, and brother (all doctors who treat cancer patients).

on the website to find out where the film will be shown

in its entirety in a town near you.

By Amy Sondova Little known fact--I am really into documentaries, nature shows, and reading memoirs. I love to learn about the rich history of the planet, the intricacies of our world, and the stories of other humans.

So I decided to rent a documentary called Paper Clips from Blockbuster. It's a story about a Holocaust project put together by middle school kids in Tennessee. After the Whitwell Middle School's assistant principal went to a conference about diversity, he and some others realized that the kids in this white bread small town had no clue what the rest of the world was like--that they had no idea what diversity really meant and how intolerance can cause people to do crazy things. Therefore, they started teaching their students about the horrors of the Holocaust (read Wikipedia entry).

Through research, the students learned that paper clips were invented by a Norwegian Jew named Johan Vaaler. Furthermore, it was discovered that Norwegians wore paper clips on their lapels during WWII as a sign of protect against Nazism and Hitler. The students decided to try to collect six million paper clips to commemorate the six million Jews that were killed during the Holocaust. Eventually, they managed to bring in over 30 million paper clips. Not bad for a bunch of middle schoolers.

They went on to house 11 million (six million for the Jews and five million for the other Holocaust victims like gypsies, gays, clergy, opposition) paper clips in an authentic German rail car--one that was used to transports thousands of Jews and other victims to death camps (history of Children's Holocaust Memorial Rail Car). Now a memorial stands at Whitwell Middle School, built not only by the children, but by the hands of many in the small town of 1600 citizens. Although the way, the people of Whitwell met Holocaust survivors and others who shared their stories with the students, and in turn, the students shared their stories with the world. In addition to the paper clips, the student who worked on The Holocaust Project received over 25,000 pieces of mail, including a suitcase full of notes written to Anne Frank from a German who deeply regretted his or her role in the Holocaust.

While the documentary is slow-moving at times and the music can be a little hooky, it was a good and interesting flick. Plus, I realized the power that teenagers have to change the status quo, especially when they have adults who are willing to encourage, equip, and help them accomplish their dreams, even when they're as silly as collecting paper clips. What these students managed to do not only impacted their lives, but the lives of those in their community, and in turn, the world. Pretty awesome for a bunch of middle schoolers.

Here are a few things I learned...

1. Adults need to make the effort to educate teens and go along with their idealistic ideas. True, the Holocaust Project was started by adults, but it's the students who researched and developed the paper clip idea. By allowing teens to take ownership of a project, they come up with great ideas that are generally outside the box. Life happens outside the box, so let's give teens leadership and allow them to be creative.

2. Teens do care and want to make a difference; they often don't know where to start. If it hadn't been for a couple of caring adults, this project would have never happened. They were dissatisfied with the lives they saw their students leading, so they developed a project that allowed the kids to discover life outside their comfort zones. Once they saw the needs, the teens stepped in and saw they could do something that was important. They were playing the part in a very important story.

3. By engaging in a big project, a teen can look back and see a success story. Whether it's a summer missions trip, collecting paper clips, or a painting the walls in the youth room, students lives can be changed. They can look back when times get rough and say, "I did that once and maybe I can do it again."

4. Connecting with each other, loving adults, the community, and others is a great way for teens to learn about ministry. Get serious about making a difference in the world by getting out in your community, hanging with the seniors at church, and finding ways to honor those who live around you. Don't be so insulated with your kids. Let them explore the richness of the world that God created. What's the point in hiding your light under a bushel?

5. It all starts with a crazy idea from a dreamer just like you. Adults play a key role in this whole thing. Yes, you will be met with opposition and it won't be easy. Some days you'll wonder why you started this thing at all. Remember that the outcome is beautiful, and it will glorify God, change lives, and maybe even change you.

One student said, "We'll never look at a paper clip the same way again." After seeing this moving documentary, neither will I.

Print copy of scribble.

Check out the links below for more information.

The Paper Clip movie trailer from Lion's Gate Films...

The Story of the Holocaust Project Continues

Get a glofish for your desk.

Like much of his more recent bioart, Kac's earlier forays into telepresence art embrace emerging anxieties around the power of current technology to restructure life. As with Alba, the once mystifying quickly becomes the mundane. Here Kac is concerned with how communication technologies are rearranging dominant conceptions of time and space, where distance is temporally instead of spatially determined in a superconnected universe.

The image has taken a new form, distinct from other more inflexible representational means of architecture, painting, photography and film. We now see a representation as it exists in time rather than space per se. It's a contentious notion, because surely space is not going anywhere, but Kac is a provocateur worth engaging with.

I think the difference here is a matter of "flow." Whereas the first and second kind of image logic required a sense of finalized production, the third type of image logic is one constantly in flux in that we are seeing an evolving flow of information and not necessarily the discrete instances within that flow. We are seeing something perpetually in process, forever in the midst of becoming itself.

So how does this concept of "flow" impact documentary?

Documentary becomes a process instead of a product. It becomes something perpetually occurring instead of something looking to be resolved. We still collect information and documents from reality in an effort to gain understanding and communicate, but we're talking more about how the world unfolds "right now" and less about how it used to seem "back then" when that document (be it photographic, filmic, textual, etc.) was generated.

It's the difference between having done and doing, being and becoming. And maybe that's a fine line.

Location: Valley Library Quad

Feeling: Confident

Nick and I agreed to meet up a the library to shoot some reactions and environment shots of an Iraq war death toll display where small flags represented a certain amount of deaths in Iraq.  The flags were spread out all over the quad, and the display definitely made you think. BUT, what do you know, the display had been taken down earlier that morning. Total bummer.  Well, Nick and I printed out a few of the surveys we made up to hand out to students, went over again our other sources and content and tried to think of some alternatives to fill in for the flag display.  We thought of talking to the protesters that demonstrate outside of the court house regularly.  I think their ideas will contrast compellingly to the interviews we get with recruiters and military personnel, and of course the everyday student perspective.  All is not a lost, I feel we've got enough content ideas to put together a nice piece. 

Location: In the classroom

Feeling: Enticed 

We finally got to speak together as a group, and I think we've got a great project on our hands.  We're going to put together a documentary about student reactions to the war in Iraq.  We've got some good ideas for interviews, like current students that already have done a tour in Iraq, or that will be re-enlisting after school (we're lucky to have Nick on our team who is actually involved with the military so he can help us get an inside perspective).  Also we'll be talking to students on campus about what they think of the war and if they've considered the age similarity between their peers and soldiers, if they know anyone in the military and why they think someone their age might join the military.  Jenna has got a great lead for a profile about a girl who's fiance will be going to Iraq, so I think we've got some good material. I'll be putting my video skills to work and Nick is skilled as well in those matters, Jenna is eager to learn, I'd say we're going to make a nice documentary.

This has me delighted, as it's my first successful foodie introduction. I had raved to Nancy about George Motz’ new festival, and during a lunch meeting with George last year, told him about Nancy. Looking forward to catalyzing many more symbiotic relationships throughout my just budding food career.

If you cannot wait until summer to see The Mighty Humble Blueberry at Water Taxi Beach, it is currently screening online, free through June 30th at Independent Features. It’s listed under the documentary category.

Read more about the project at Nancy’s blog About Blueberries.

Folks, the weather in California couldn’t be perfect-er. It’s been hot and sweaty up and down the coast. But this isn’t the first time I’ve brought the sun when I’ve arrived here. Thanks aren’t necessary. Sharing is caring as we well know.

Buen provecho amis du soliel..

Ni hao, ni hao. "I had been walking along a street in Brazzaville only 10 minutes when a merry band of Congolese kids interrupted their ballplaying to greet me. In Africa, white visitors usually hear greetings like “hello, mista” or “hey, whitey,” but these smiling kids lined along the street have expanded their repertoire. They yell “hello” in Chinese, and then they start up their game again. To them, all foreigners are Chinese." Serge Michel comments in FP.

images via Paolo Woods website

Theyyam at Kottayampovil !, originally uploaded by ezee as hell... way behind on commenting...

Larger here.

Cap:

Theyyam is an art form practiced only in Kerala and that too in a select part of its Northern Districts of Kannur, Kasragode and Calicut.

It is an ancient dance form and a precursor to the more stylised and less vigorous Kathakali. Steeped in ancient history it is a wonderful mix of the ethnographic influences in the state of Kerala.

Threads of Wrath: Stirring the Fibres of Fairness, is a documentary on different conceptions of fairness in the cotton trade in Burkina Faso, a small French speaking country of West-Africa. It focuses on the daily interaction between cotton producers and the SOFITEX, a large state company with a regional buying monopoly, and puts it side by side with different Western conceptions of trade justice. Come out to learn how 6-month payment delays and quality control corruption in the fields relate to the growing and popular Fair Trade movement!

There will be THREE screenings of the film:

 - May 16th from 7-9pm

 - May 17th from 7-9pm

 - May 25th from 4-6pm

 at the Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Road (just south of Dundas), in the Alterna Room on the 4th floor. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Émanuèle Lapierre-Fortin, a recent U of T graduate who spent 10 months working in Community Economic Development in Burkina Faso and wrote her honours thesis on Fair Trade Cotton. Freshly roasted fair trade coffee (the best you'd ever have!) and samosas will also be served!

 This event is a fundraiser to support the efforts of the Trade Justice Education Network, which engages high school students and community groups in issues of trade justice and encourages them to take meaningful action. The suggested donation is 10-20$.

 Feel free to invite your friends!

DVD Review

According to Acharya Nagarjuna in the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, "Among all negative karma, that of killing is the heaviest. Among all positive karma, that for releasing life is the highest." And in the Avatamsaka Sutra, it was taught that "All beings treasure their lives the most. All Buddhas treasure all beings the most. If one saves other beings' lives, one fulfills the wishes of all Buddhas."

As such, animal liberation is an important and treasured practice in Buddhism. Recently however, due to much publicity of cases of animals liberated into inappropriate environments, the practice of animal liberation on the whole has been severely criticised. Since true animal liberation is always a practice of compassion and wisdom, proper animal liberation can be done. How to do so is very subject of this documentary.

Beyond sparing animals from the knife, Buddhist animal liberation is not just the gift of fearlessness. It is also the gift of spiritual life, as Buddhists attempt to create positive imprints on the animals' minds, to connect them to the Triple Gem. With this karmic affinity, it is sincerely wished that they become free from lower rebirths, have stronger links with the Dharma, and thus advance towards true and total liberation.

Contrary to popular belief, animal liberation is practised not just in the Mahayana tradition, but in the Theravada and Vajrayana traditions too - in many creative ways too! Capturing scenes from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore, not only does the documentary presents balanced and comprehensive views on animal liberation, it also demonstrates how it is interconnected with vegetarianism and environmentalism.

Realising that even tiny insects fear death and crave for life, the practice of animal liberation helps to nurture our sense of unconditional compassion and equanimity for all. Along with English, Chinese, Indonesian, Hokkien and Cantonese audio tracks, interviews of lay practitioners of animal liberation and masters from all three traditions who encourage it are featured. Included is His Holiness the 17th Karmapa's advice.

The Avatamsaka Sutra also states that compassion is the root of the path to Buddhahood. If so, animal liberation is a natural part of the Bodhisattva path. Thus, even if we are not eager to practise it yet, understanding this practice is important. 

- Ashen

As this DVD was created to share the Buddha’s teachings, please share it with your family and friends after viewing. May your kindness create affinity with Buddhism for many.

As this DVD was created to share the Buddha’s teachings, please share it with your family and friends after viewing. May your kindness create affinity with Buddhism for many.

My friend Peter Taussig is making short films about "interesting people/ artists", and he asked if he could film me... his video about me is now posted on UTUBE ~ THE ART ANGEL

TRY THIS LINK:

www.youtube.com/TheArtAngel

I would post it here... but I'm a Neanderthal with computers & don't know how!!

Hey everyone, so one of my favourite movies of all time coming out with a sequel this June!!!!!!  I am of course talking about Sam Dunn's Head-banger's Journey series and this time it's wide spread, GLOBAL F*&%ING METAL!!!  They go Brazil, China, Japan, India, Iraq, Israel, Iran and Indonesia.  I am sup er stoked for this because Toronto and Vancouver are gonna get hit with it first!  You can watch the trailer at http://www.globalmetalfilm.com/03/GM_03.html don't dissuaded because Lars (the biggest douche in metal) is in it.  This movie is gonna be is going to be sick and the trailer alone has earned a metal quote of the day.

Peace!!!

In the endless list of documentaries about the US-war in Iraq, the documentary "No End In Sight" by Charles Ferguson appears as "one of the best documentaries about the war in Iraq" up to date, to cite "The New York Times" . "No End in Sight" focuses on serious and fatal mistakes made by the Bush administration in the two year period following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The film portrays these errors as the cause of ensuing problems in Iraq, such as the rise of the insurgency, a lack of security and basic utilities for many Iraqis, sectarian violence and, at one point, the risk of complete civil war.

Watch the documentary online or use one of the links below to download a high quality version.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.554644&w=425&h=350&fv=docId%3D6182969183854471645%26playerMode%3Dsimple%26hl%3Den]

Download the documentary (alternative torrent here or here for the DVD version)

Official movie page

"No End In Sight" @ IMDb

"No End In Sight" @ Wikipedia

On another note, I've bought a new backpack for traveling! It cost me as much as the flight tickets to London did (10-18 of June), but it's so worth it; it has special compartments for both my laptop AND my DSLR (and some more stuff besides that). I felt I needed it, because there's no chance in hell I'm going to chose between sending either my camera or my laptop with checked-in bagage when flying (and none of my previous backpacks/bags were suitable for carrying both). I may have been sold by the product video that the maker had on it's web page (it has a really neat way of accessing your camera), but I'm fine with that.

And if anyone hasn't seen the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy (or, as a (fully legal) torrent), then do so! It's really interesting and adds some very valid points and insights to the copyright debate. So watch it or be... uhm.. an uninformed geometrical shape?
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Song of the day: Massive Attack - Teardrop
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Ducks! Ehr... I mean, geese. And ridiculously cute fluffy little things.

[Click to see in high resolution]

The director Peter Geyer was at the cinema for a Q&A after the film. He was almost as strange as Kinski himself. He had a lot of anecdotes about Kinski, his family and life itself and was happy to talk for hours. Apparently he randomly got the old film reels at an auction and spent the last nine years of his life editing it (among doing lots of other things).

It's good fun to watch some interviews with Kinski on youtube. They are hilarious. A talk masters nightmare!

Every now and then, if we look carefully, we get a glimpse into a different level of "how things are".  often this is later, after events are slipping into history.  Who would have believed, back in the early 60s, that the President of the US was sleeping with the same woman who was sleeping with the head of the Mafia?  That Churchill knew the holocaust camps were killing numbers of civilians yet would not order daylight raids to destroy the camp fences?  That the UK's much praised National Health Service only came about because the troops were too unhealthy to fight properly in World War 1 ?  The link below goes to a series of documentary tv programmes that offer deeper insights than usual, especially the first one.  Recommended viewing indeed . . . .

 http://www.archive.org/details/AdaCurtisCenturyoftheSelf_0

.

Director: Liyo Thaddeus
Producer: Suresh Kumar
Cinematography: Manoj Pillai
Screenplay: Liyo Thaddeus
Story Writer: Liyo Thaddeus

http://www.simplymalayalees.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=475&PID=1107#1107

It almost seems unfitting that everything should be coming to life again just as we depart.

It's hardly the end, maybe not even a beginning, but there is a shift.  We go home or move into new houses changed.  Maybe not as much as we expected, maybe more.  You can't help but change.

The last anti-climactic change I remember was the shift from private school to homeschool after 7th grade.  I wonder when I developed such an aversion to it.  I want to hold all my experiences in cupped hands and carry them everywhere I go.

I save magazines, stuffed animals, receipts, school work, friends, and memories.
Maybe it's not change I am afraid of so much as it is loss.