It drives Susan to distraction that I love B-flicks. She squirms and fidgets if I put one into the DVD player and can seldom sit through an entire movie. They get cut off mid-film, and saved for me some time … Continue reading →
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Openly gay South Korean film director Kim Jho Gwang-soo announced he will symbolically marry his partner in a ceremony designed to both celebrate their love and make a statement on LGBTQ rights in the conservative country. “We wanted to convey the message that all sexual minorities should be given rights equally in a beautiful way,” Kim told a news conference in Seoul. Very few Korean celebrities are openly gay. Actor Hong Seok-cheon was the first to come out in 2000, and found that his work quickly dried up. Another actor, Kim Ji-hoo, announced he was gay in 2008 on (Read more…) Thanks to a wave of online backlash, Disney is withdrawing its application to trademark the term Dia de los Muertos — otherwise known as the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead holiday. The trademark filing was done in advance of an upcoming animated film release by Disney-owned Pixar based on the cultural celebration in which people gather to remember and honour their ancestors. Dia de los Muertos is a national holiday in Mexico and is also observed in other parts of Latin America and by Mexican communities around the world. Disney apparently sought ownership over the phrase for merchandising purposes. (Read more…) Take one part Brothers Grimm and one part Malory’s Morte d’Artur, add a dash of Tolkein, a pinch of Joan of Arc, a sprinkling of Robin Hood and a sprig of English folklore; mix it in a bowl with copious … Continue reading → Harmony Korine has been making headlines for his new pop-culture romp, Spring Breakers, with the usual fanfare and some reviewers decidedly giddy with the possibility of maybe “getting it” or maybe not. The film is apparently non-stop debauch and at least one critic has pointed out the work’s contribution to rape culture in the US, on the heels of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. Love him, leave him or hate him, Korine has sparked controversy and inspired debate in film and culture circles (and of course with audiences) since he wrote the racy script for Kids (directed by (Read more…) Today is WORLD WATER DAY and I’m honouring it by launching my next media campaign http://coastaltarsands.ca There’s very little time left before the Harper government plans to approve the Enbridge Corporation’s Northern Gateway Pipeline Project in early 2014. This plan includes hundreds of supertankers navigating through the inside passage along the central coast of British Columbia, loaded with millions of barrels of Alberta Tarsands Bitumen for export to China. This is one of the most pressing environmental issue of our time. These coastal waters are intense, the shorelines extremely rugged, and the environment extremely diverse. Before deciding its future . . . → Read More: Walking Turcot Yards: CoastalTarSands.ca Launching Today I like Chinese films, particularly the epic wuxia films. They are often a refreshing change from the effects-driven/CGI monstrosities pumped out by Hollywood. Subtitles don’t bother me (better them than dubbed). They remind me of the westerns of the 1950s, … Continue reading → National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; © 1953, 2012 Allen Ginsberg LLC. All rights reserved.William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, photographed by Allen Ginsberg in his East Village living room, 1953; from ‘Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg,’ an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art and on view at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery until April 6, 2013. The catalog includes an essay by Sarah Greenough and is published by the National Gallery and DelMonico Books/Prestel. On The Road influenced my life like no other book when I first read it in the early 70′s. . . . → Read More: Walking Turcot Yards: Jack Kerouac’s On The Road In Film How ironically fitting that Michelle Obama announced the Oscar for the winning picture. Argo is a putative “true” story from the not too distant U.S. past – a past to which American viewers can easily relate – a feel good story of American perseverance, ingenuity, courage, an inspiring version of U. S. exceptionalism resulting in a bloodless American victory with only, according to the script but not Ken Taylor, a smidgen of help from Canadians. Such an uplifting image was far more appealing to mean-age 63 Academy voters. Does Argo deserve the Oscar? Depends on what “deserves” means. For (Read more…) . . . → Read More: Politics and Entertainment: Why a completely unremarkable film called Argo won the Oscar Spoiler alert: The U.S. Navy SEALS murder Osama Bin Laden and several others in his Pakistani compound without mercy and with vengeful malice. Most of the controversy swirling round the film revolves around whether the filmmaker, Kathryn Bigelow – positioned as auteur by most commentators – endorses torture or whether the film’s narrative raises the moral issue of torture for contemplation. There is, in my reading, no overt moral position offered by the film on torture or even the morality of CIA procedures in general. Many commentators have unwittingly bemoaned this absence or taken it as a tacit moral endorsement of torture (Read more…) Occasionally films come out in the mainstream that give a glimpse of hope that perhaps the world of film is changing and becoming more adept at telling stories that don’t rely on sexist stereotypes – last summer the Hunger Games gave a promise of a heroine who could fend for herself, or Brave, which managed to not only establish that women can be self sufficient, but also built on a storyline of mother-daughter relationships and avoiding romance all together (bravo!) . But there’s more than a long way to go, particularly if you submit most films to the Bechdel test. (Read more…) by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb 1, 2013: This is the trailer of Fractured Land a film that tells the story of Caleb Behn, a young Dene warrior from northeastern British Columbia, “taking on Big Oil and Gas to protect his ancestral land and people from the ravages of neocolonialism.” I met Behn late last year when he READ MORE by Guest Blogger | Jan 27, 2013: Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney discusses his new documentary, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks” with Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now! The film examines the key players involved in the whistleblowing website’s release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The READ MORE I somehow missed this awesome ad for the 2012 Queer Lisboa 16 – Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival commercial created by the agency FUEL Lisbon. It hits one of the seminal aspects of my blog, which is to destroy gay stereotypes. Enjoy! December is always a good month for movie buffs, and for anyone who wants to buy TV series on DVD (no commercials!). Lots of places have before- and after-Xmas sales that make DVD shopping more interesting this month. In particular, … Continue reading → You really should watch this video. It explains in clear, simple terms the argument of the billionaires and the rest of us. I like it because – while it’s simplistic – it is succinct and presents its argument in a … Continue reading → Great opportunity to see this film and pick up some information about Projet Montreal. From the NFB page- Glide along the boulevards of St-Henri with the charming perpetual motion machines that are this district’s diverse denizens, from the taciturn milkman to resourceful Doris the gleaner to a group of fashion-forward Mohawk hipsters. This kaleidoscopic romp through a semi-industrial neighborhood pays homage to Hubert Aquin’s 1962 film of the same name by seamlessly drawing together the work of sixteen cinematographers to capture everyday life in a vibrant working-class community on a single summer day. A thoughtful spatial metaphor in which . . . → Read More: Walking Turcot Yards: À St-Henri, le 26 août – Screening Thursday Night Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman unpacks ”The Invisible War” a new documentary that examines the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military. She speaks to Trina McDonald and Kori Cioca, two subjects of the film, and the film’s Academy Award-nominated director, Kirby Dick. A recent military survey shows that “the number of reported violent [...] by Chanda Chevannes | Troy Media Last week I attended the Toronto theatrical premiere of Herman’s House, a thought-provoking documentary written and directed by Angad Singh Bhalla. This Canadian film tells the story of an artistic collaboration between Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace. Sumell is a multidisciplinary artist from New York. Wallace is a Black Panther [...] The Mouse That Roared is a documentary-in-the-making film by Judith Ehrlich, the award-winning director of “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”, which earned a Peabody, and was nominated for an Academy award for best documentary. The film centers around Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jónsdóttir’s efforts fights to make Iceland the free speech capital of the digital world. Jónsdóttir is also an activist, poet, Buddhist and single mom. Here’s an extended trailer of the ”Innocence Of Muslims”, the shitty anti-Islam movie that unleashed riots in the Muslim world, leading to the assassination of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens. Earlier today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton distance the U.S. government from the movie, and labeled it “disgusting and reprehensible”. Moonrise Kingdom is another one of those quirky Wes Anderson films with a characteristically wonderful production design and brilliant cinematography. I especially like the tableau-like shots with such rich, detailed mise-en-scene, including the outdoor scenes. The self-reflexive opening moving tableau sequence is notable, and of course one could linger on the mise-en-scene details of the St. Jack church sequences for at least an hour. (I’ll do just that once the blu-ray comes out.) If Anderson is anything, he is a consummate visual storyteller, maximizing film as film whenever he can. It is in this context that our primary engagement . . . → Read More: Politics and Entertainment: Moonrise Kingdom: Enjoy the Quirkiness Some filmmakers are channelling the world to find out what the meaning of life is. Their project has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund their project and they can use your help. The world we live in is extremely confusing and precarious. With economic meltdowns, global terrorism, ecological disasters, civil unrest, if we don’t find the answers now, there may soon be no life left to explore. Simultaneously, it is an extremely exciting time and we now have the technological tools to communicate and collaborate to find solutions that have eluded us for millenia. We are a group of award-winning . . . → Read More: Things Are Good: Crowdsourcing the Meaning of Life Barack Obama was still just a U.S. Senator in 2006, but he was already spooling up for his presidential run. Seizing on his rising visibility and popularity, Obama made a mostly-business trip to Africa. The unprecedented buzz surrounding a senatorial trip culminated in his arrival in Kenya, the birthplace of his grandmother. And, as one does in Nairobi, Obama delivered his top card speech in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum; he promised to combat AIDS, malnutrition and, of course, poverty. Then, as one does in Africa, he left. All that remained were his words, which for all their charm, fed . . . → Read More: Art Threat: Friday Film Pick: Togetherness Supreme Any Canadian citizen or resident who cares about gender-based violence, equality and women’s rights should condemn “An Officer and a Murderer”. The new TV movie dramatizing the real-life horror of the crimes of the former commander of CFB Trenton airs on the U.S. network Lifetime on July 21. I never imagined that the unspeakable acts of sexual perversion and murder committed by one of Canada’s highest ranking officers would so easily, so soon, turn into entertainment. And, oh, how the publicity glorifies the movie, starring Gary Cole (pictured) and Colonel Williams: “Brilliant at being stealth and obsessive in covering . . . → Read More: CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: No Place In Canada For Russell Williams TV Movie 
 ARTS & CULTURE, authority, Canada, Canadian citizen, CFB Trenton, Colonel Williams, commander of CFB, crime, Film, Gender and Sexuality, Gender Equality, Jane Doe, Lifetime, movies, murder, Murder Entertainment, News, Ontario Provincial Police, opinion., Russell Williams, Sciety, Sex Crimes, TV Movie, US, women's rights |
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