tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-237651722024-03-16T02:12:28.474+01:00Soul VlogA Video Blog that Takes the Real Out of RealityJames Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.comBlogger1558125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-87582352256895510702024-03-13T08:53:00.004+01:002024-03-13T08:53:53.544+01:00Citizen Smith<center><iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/S01E00pilot" width="740" height="580" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
Citizen Smith is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980.<p>
It starred Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist "urban guerrilla" in Tooting, south London, who is attempting to emulate his hero Che Guevara. Wolfie is a reference to the Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone, who used the pseudonym "Citizen Smith" in order to evade capture by the British. Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the revolutionary Tooting Popular Front (the TPF, merely a small bunch of his friends), the goals of which are "Power to the People" and "Freedom for Tooting".<p>
Wolfie dresses in a stereotypical fashion for rebellious students of the period: logoed T-shirt, denim jeans, Afghan coat and black beret. He supports Fulham F. C. and occasionally wears a Fulham scarf. He rides a scooter and spends most of the time at his girlfriend's house, which means he constantly clashes with her parents.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-2232009197607373462024-03-06T23:57:00.005+01:002024-03-06T23:59:54.881+01:00Anchoress (1993)<center><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x1ytfre?autoplay=1" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" allow="autoplay"> </iframe> </div></center>
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In the 14th-century, a visionary girl is to become an Anchoress, a walled-in recluse, so that she can live in the Virgin's house forever. Over time she awakens to her own sensuality and explores her own female, earth-based spirituality.<p>
The screenplay is partly based on accounts of an historical female anchorite, Christine Carpenter, who was walled into her anchorhold in a village church in Shere, Surrey, in southern England, in 1329. The story revolves around the girl's mystical visions of the Virgin Mary, the local reeve who wants to marry her, and the priest who walls her into his village church and his dislike of her mother, a midwife whom he regards as a witch.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-86603195872929481622024-02-26T19:08:00.003+01:002024-02-26T19:08:20.155+01:00Vali: The Witch Of Positano (1967)<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8SP_zofsze8?si=2ReRcSB991TIodr5" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
A psychedelic documentary portrait shot in Positano, Italy in 1965 about Australian artist and occultist Vali Myers.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-50334550660988255592024-02-16T22:49:00.008+01:002024-02-16T22:49:44.561+01:00Punk 76: The Birth of Anarchy<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xYQ7lLk20Ps?si=JbW7B-bsH_GEQTa2" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
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Punk 76: The Birth Of Anarchy (2013) is one of the best docu/films about the Punk Rock explosion circa 76. Too many productions of this type fail to acknowledge and interview many of the big players outside of the usual suspects (Clash/Pistols), but this gets it right.
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Outsiders - Freaks - Runts.
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Enter a roll call featuring Gene October, Steve Severin, Tony James, Marco Pironi, Viv Albertine, Rat Scabies, Jah Wobble and Charlie Harper. While the literary aspects are covered by luminaries such as Caroline Coon and John Savage.
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We are taken through the journey via the fashion side of things - from the safety pin/bondage era - to the leather jackets and the shock tactics involved. The social period is captured, with caustic asides to the music of the time and thus why these punkers felt a change was needed.
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"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers" (Voltaire)
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Of course much of the thrill for old punks and prospective newbies, comes with the live clips we get. Always great to see the likes of Chelsea, The Lurkers, Subway Sect and The Adverts get an airing, while there's a lovely bonus that sees The Electric Chairs as well. While naturally the big players are of course featured prominently.
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There's something of a hard sell going on as regards The Great Rock "N" Roll Swindle, which annoys since it's awful and full of untruths. While more time could have been afforded the rivalry with the Teddy Boys and the future influences of Punk. But this film gets pretty much most things right.
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Because Gene October and the gang here are correct, Punk never went away, you see it every day, coloured hair, piercings and studs were once not the norm, and this film shows how that wave in 76 is still being felt today. 9/10James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-61643913113063114892024-02-13T09:40:00.009+01:002024-02-13T09:45:08.406+01:00The Tudor Farm SeriesTudor Monastery Farm is a British factual television series, first broadcast on BBC Two on 13 November 2013. The series, the fifth in the historic farm series, following the original, Tales from the Green Valley, stars archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold, and historian Ruth Goodman. The team discover what farming was like during the Tudor period at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. The program also recurringly features other historians, such as Colin Richards (an expert on rural crafts), and Professor Ronald Hutton (who specializes in folklore and religious beliefs).
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18n007" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>The team move in, coppice hazel, build a pig enclosure, commission a guild, plough using oxen, make rushlights, make wattle-and-daub barriers, sow peas and barley using broadcasting, and celebrate religious festivals. They take custody of some Tamworth pigs. They hire workmen to scribe and illuminate documents as well as turn wooden bowls and plates.<br>
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18n1pp" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>
The team work with sheep: driving, milking and shearing them; make cheese from the milk; sort, grade, card and spin wool. Additional they produce a period cold treatment from herbs, steam-bend wood, and celebrate Whitsun. They take custody of geese and drive them to market. They observe the smelting of iron as well as the weaving and fulling of cloth.<br>
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18o00s" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>The team wean piglets, cultivate wild yeast, malt barley, make ale and bread, harvest honey and beeswax, dip candles, shave their sheep's hooves, demonstrate period hair care methods, roast lamb, and celebrate both a mass and the midsummer festival. They take custody of a boar to service their sows. They observe the shaping, moulding, and pouring of a bell, learn about period clock mechanisms and observe a wind-powered grain mill.<br>
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18o0te" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>The team mine, smelt and cast ingots of lead; plait eel baskets and harvest eels; shape stained glass; patronize a pub; pasture their piglets in the forest; paint cloth and manage their garden. Tom sits for a camera obscura portrait.<br>
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18o1fq" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>The team launder bed linen, serve as cooks and stewards, calcine and slake lime, build a lime-ash floor, churn, press, and salt butter; sanitize the dairy, plait rushes for floormats, lay and press rag paper; prepare lye from ash; harvest tree hay for the animals; harvest and thresh their pea crop, cook a feast and make brandy. They observe period typesetting, printing and bookbinding.<br>
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x18o25g" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div><br>The team harvest and stook and store their barley; extract salt from brine, celebrate Michaelmas, carve decorative stone, form and decorate floor tiles, produce blackpowder for Roman candle fireworks, a Damson and Bullace Melomel beverage, and perform a mystery play.
The Christmas Special
On 25 November 2013, the BBC announced that Tudor Monastery Farm would have a Christmas special which explored the festive season as part of BBC Two's Christmas scheduling. The episode was broadcast on 31 December 2013 and overnight figures showed that it attracted 1.57 million viewers (8.06% of the viewing audience). Official figures raised the number of viewers to 1.76 million.
<div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x197awp" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div>
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-434149197282972932024-02-11T15:36:00.003+01:002024-02-11T15:36:11.809+01:00Isabelle Eberhardt (1991)<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NNP4yl0Mm3Q?si=F2LzKRHUtgpdDy_K" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
Isabelle Eberhardt is a 1991 Australian-French biographical drama film directed by Ian Pringle. The film follows the adult life of Isabelle Eberhardt and was filmed in Algiers, Paris and Geneva. It stars Mathilda May as Eberhardt and Peter O'Toole as Hubert Lyautey. It received financial backing from the Film Finance Corporation Australia and was nominated for three awards at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards.<p>
Isabelle Eberhardt was screened at the 1991 Melbourne International Film Festival and was also released in cinemas in Australia, though did not have a home media release. The film received generally negative reviews.
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-41874711810442012412024-02-01T09:54:00.000+01:002024-02-01T09:54:06.642+01:00Desperate Teenage Lovedolls<p> </p>
<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NEnNMYtLvL4?si=u_51dh8sbwzRFO8L" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><p>
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls was received as an instant cult classic when first self released within the Los Angeles punk underground in 1984. Since then, the no budget Super-8 film has gained international and above ground praise. Bunny, Kitty and Patch (Hilary Rubens, Jennifer Schwartz and Janet Housden) are three teenage runaways who form the hottest all-girl band of all-time, The Lovedolls. Their meteoric rise to the top comes not without a price, thanks to sleazy rock manager, Johnny Tremaine (Steve McDonald). Rival all-girl gang The She Devils and their leader Tanya Hearst (Tracy Lea) have it in for our heroes, as do annoying mothers and psyche ward doctors. The film also features Jeff McDonald, Phil Newman, Kim Pilkington, Vicki Peterson, Annette Zilinskas and Dez Cadena. Directed by David Markey.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-56017161654053369762024-01-31T22:39:00.010+01:002024-02-02T07:30:34.134+01:00"Good Morning Mr Hitler"<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jXc7Ww8qsRM?si=Ljoj0YvgzMxRDSuF" title="YouTube video player" width="760"></iframe>"The people were so enthusiastic. They were completely taken in by all the pomp and grandure"</center><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>
Recently-discovered color footage tells the story of an extraordinary Munich weekend when Adolf Hitler and nearly the entire Nazi leadership attended a three-day national cultural festival - including concerts, dancing, exhibitions and a five-mile-long parade - titled "2,000 Years of German Culture".<p>
The film was shot in July 1939, just six weeks before the Second World War began, by an amateur film buff who wangled a special pass to shoot the event in close-up on color 16-millimeter Kodachrome. It was first shown only to the film maker's family, then hidden in the family cellar, where it lay for many years before one of his sons retrieved it. English film makers Luke Holland and Paul Yule assembled an audience of elderly Germans, framing them watching themselves in the 1939 footage and reminiscing about their experiences. Among them were sons of the unofficial cameraman who shot the 16-millimeter film and the daughter of the publisher of Hitler's Mein Kampf, who in deference to Hitler's wish for "privacy" on frequent visits to the publisher's home never said "Heil, Mein Führer", but always "Good Morning, Mr. Hitler."</p><p>
The remarkable color footage presents a rarely-seen view of Adolf Hitler and of the Munich crowds (cast not in the role of anonymous adoring masses, as in Third Reich propaganda films, but as complicit participants, sharing with their leader the excitement of the parade).<p>
The film provides a clear and chilling account of how culture, and in particular art is used to manipulate public opinion and national self-image. Numerous interviewees speak about their pride and joy in how Nazi art was "upliftning" and provided them with strength and happiness through a sense of "order". As the 93 year old artist Günter Grausmann (born 1900) says, artists subordinated themselves to ideology because they believed they would become great because they thought (or were told/ordered) that the ideology was great. But what they produced was actually 'non-art'. They have nothing to do with art. If someone gives you a commission, you must not subordinate yourself to the ideas of the commission. That is not art. That is prostitution.<p>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/01/laurie-anderson-ends-german-professorship-pro-palestine-letter">A contemporary example of an artist resisting ideology</a> in their professional work is Laurie Anderson withdrawing from a guest professor appointment at Essen’s Folkwang University in Germany in 2024.<p>
<blockquote>Late last week the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen said it had “engaged in talks” with Anderson – whose works include the 1981 single O Superman and the 2015 film Heart of a Dog, dedicated to her late husband, Lou Reed – after her name surfaced among the thousands of artists who had backed the open letter, which called for “an immediate and unconditional cessation of Israeli violence against Palestinians”.<p>
The university said it believed that art, culture and science are places “where contentious issues are kept in check”.<p>
Its statement continued: “It has now become apparent that, in 2021, Laurie Anderson publicly supported the Palestinian artists’ <a href="https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2020/10/29/palestinian-artists-cultural-organisations-call-on-internationals-to-cancel-engagements-in-israel/">‘Letter Against Apartheid’ appeal</a>, which, among other things, takes up calls for boycotts by the anti-Israel BDS movement,” it said. “In light of the now public question regarding her political stance, Laurie Anderson has decided to withdraw from the professorship.”</blockquote><p>
The idea "that art, culture and science are places 'where contentious issues are kept in check'" belies a denial of history and the continuation of culture in the service of power.
</p><p></p><p></p>James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-77926637292096486102024-01-30T14:16:00.010+01:002024-01-30T14:16:51.791+01:00Massive Attack: The Documentaries<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c-kxNI4Jk5s?si=Wridw3llTR1DLQD3" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><p>
Massive Attack is an English musical group formed in 1988 in Bristol, consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Their debut album Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single "Unfinished Sympathy" reaching the charts and later being voted the 63rd greatest song of all time in a poll by NME 1998's Mezzanine, containing "Teardrop", and 2003's 100th Window charted in the UK at number 1.<p<
Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.<p>
The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Award—winning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards.They have released 5 studio albums that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide.<p>
DJs Daddy G and Andrew Vowles and graffiti artist-turned-rapper Robert Del Naja met as members of partying collective The Wild Bunch. One of the first homegrown soundsystems in the UK, The Wild Bunch became dominant on the Bristol club scene in the mid-1980s.<p>
Massive Attack started as a spin-off production trio in 1988, with the independently released song, "Any Love", sung by falsetto-voiced singer-songwriter Carlton McCarthy,and then, with considerable backing from Neneh Cherry, they signed to Circa Records in 1990 – committing to deliver six studio albums and a "best of" compilation. <p>
Circa became a subsidiary of, and was later subsumed into, Virgin Records, which in turn was acquired by EMI. Blue Lines (1991), was co-produced by Jonny Dollar and Cameron McVey, who also became their first manager.<p>
Geoff Barrow, who went on to form Portishead, was an intern and trainee tape operator at Bristol's Coach House studio when the album was recorded.<p>
McVey (credited at the time as 'Booga Bear') and his wife, Neneh Cherry provided crucial financial support and in-kind assistance to the early careers of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky during this period, even paying regular wages to them through their Cherry Bear Organisation. <p>
Massive Attack used guest vocalists, interspersed with Del Naja and Marshall's (initially Tricky's) own sprechgesang stylings, on top of what became regarded as an essentially British creative sampling production; a trademark sound that fused down-tempo hip hop, soul, reggae and other eclectic references, musical and lyrical.<p>
In the nineties, the trio became known for often not being able to easily get along with one another and working increasingly separately. <p>
Andy Vowles (Mushroom), who had once thought of himself as the trio's musical director, acrimoniously left Massive Attack in late 1999, after an ultimatum from the other two members to end the group immediately if he did not. Despite having taken Del Naja's side in the effective firing of Vowles and then participating in a show-of-unity webcast as a duo the following year, Grant Marshall (G) had also effectively left by 2001 in that he abandoned the studio altogether. Marshall returned to a studio role in 2005, having joined the touring line-up in 2003/4James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-42375422620485171012024-01-19T18:03:00.003+01:002024-01-19T18:03:39.057+01:00Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives<center><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/515341543?h=1018c8d8b7" width="640" height="350" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/515341543">Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/irenebeatriz">irenebeatriz</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></center><p>
Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.<p>
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thai: ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ; RTGS: Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat) is a 2010 Thai drama film written, produced, and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film, which explores themes of reincarnation, centers on the last days in the life of its title character, who is played by Thanapat Saisaymar. Together with his loved ones—including the spirit of his dead wife, Huay, and his lost son, Boonsong, who has returned in a non-human form—Boonmee explores his past lives as he contemplates the reasons for his illness.<p>
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was inspired by the 1983 book A Man Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Buddhist abbot Phra Sripariyattiweti. The film is the final installment in a multi-platform art project by Apichatpong Weerasethakul called "Primitive". It premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or, becoming the first Thai film to do so.
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-50530095924661456202024-01-17T17:18:00.000+01:002024-01-17T17:18:07.794+01:00Cecil Taylor - All The Notes (2006) <center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Atu8dab3atc?si=BJvUjXr9VIR9xH_s" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
Cecil Taylor is the grand master of free jazz piano. All the Notes captures in breezy fashion the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, regarded one of the true giants of post-war music. Taylor is first seen musing over Santiago Calatrava's architecture; the pianist's famed eclectic interests extend from soloing, combo and small orchestra work to spoken word performance.<p>
''All the Notes'' captures in breezy fashion the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, regarded as one of the true giants of post-war music. Seated at his beloved and battered piano in his Brooklyn brownstone the maestro holds court with frequent stentorian pronouncements on life, art and music.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-54951026973269197222024-01-09T21:26:00.003+01:002024-01-09T21:26:39.993+01:00 Utøya: July 22 (Subtitles)<center><iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/utoya-july-22-english-subtitles" width="740" height="580" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
A teenage girl struggles to survive and to find her younger sister during the July 2011 terrorist mass murder at a political summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utøya.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-35848519265080765242024-01-08T15:28:00.006+01:002024-01-08T15:33:29.817+01:00Jesus is a Palestinian / Jezus is een Palestijn<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6o5RksTXyY?si=X62DqnH3Vc6FxyGY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
Jesus is a Palestinian (Dutch: Jezus is een Palestijn) is a 1999 Dutch comedy written and directed by Lodewijk Crijns (b.1970). The parody on religious fanaticism and millennialism, which involves the topics of self mutilation, incest, and euthanasia, is the director's first full-length movie.
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Ramses (Hans Teeuwen) is a dorky twenty-something who has been living in a commune in Limburg for eight years. Piercing from head to toe and dressed in a shapeless robe, he practices the teachings of Kahn-Guru. Just before his rather painful (genital) initiation, his sister Natasha (Van Kooten) appears on the scene with the message that their father (Mascini) is dying in Amsterdam. Together they go to the capital where Ramses is introduced to the female gender and to a Palestinian prophet in the Bijlmer who has decorated the roof of his apartment as a landing place for the Messiah.<p>
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-16004377171419718532024-01-07T13:47:00.001+01:002024-01-07T13:47:09.752+01:00Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X41Wkzr6fic?si=fwYs-WcmaRi0U7pW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Forty years ago two USF anthropologists George and Sharon Gmelch lived for one year in a barrel top wagon with travellers on a halting site in Dublin. Four decades later they have returned to Ireland with a huge archive of photographs to find the people they once knew to learn what has happened in their lives in the intervening years.
When the Gmelch's first came to Ireland in 1970 accommodation for travellers was a big issue. They were young anthropology students looking for an area of Irish culture to study. They became interested in travellers and soon they were living among them in order to study their culture close up. They carried out some of the first academic research into travellers and published a number of books including 'The Urbanisation of an Itinerant People', 'Tinkers and Travellers' and 'Nan-The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman'.
Now, in their mid 60's, the Gmelchs return to a very different Ireland to undertake their final 'field study' with Irish Travellers.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-2793838567151874442023-12-31T11:43:00.002+01:002023-12-31T11:43:27.307+01:00Captain Planet and the Planeteers<center><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/329613301?h=1001a8721f" width="740" height="624" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/329613301">A Hero For Earth / Season 1, Episode 1</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/captainplanetfdn">CPF</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></center>
Captain Planet and the Planeteers is an animated TV series broadcast on TBS and in syndication from September 15, 1990, to December 5, 1992.<p>
Gaia, the spirit of the planet, assembles a diverse team of "planeteers," who are able to combine their powers to summon an elemental warrior that takes on the appearance of superhero Captain Planet. He works with the planeteers to defend Earth from pollution caused by criminals and villains. As the show's theme song says, Captain Planet is "gonna take pollution down to zero" by defeating the villains, who include the likes of Hoggish Greedly, Dr. Blight and Looten Plunder. The animated series was co-created by media mogul Ted Turner, a noted environmentalist.<p>
In 1990, The Los Angeles Times described the show as having "not much originality", although also saying that "there's a passion behind this series, which adapts a conventional super-hero formula to an unconventional theme", also stating that the celebrities voicing the series "also sets the series apart". The newspaper also described the show as being part of "the increased awareness of Earth as endangered". L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist, accused the show of "seeking to scare children into political activism", along with accusing the show of having "leftist slants"; Barbara Pyle responded, saying "I don't think 'Captain Planet' is scary ... it shows kids that every action counts ... I consider [environmental issues] bipartisan."James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-20093241552959322402023-12-30T19:19:00.003+01:002023-12-30T19:19:13.000+01:00The Girl On a Motorcycle (1968)<center><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;"> <iframe style="width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;overflow:hidden" frameborder="0" type="text/html" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x5hnuom" width="100%" height="100%" allowfullscreen title="Dailymotion Video Player" > </iframe> </div></center><br>
The Girl on a Motorcycle (French title La Motocyclette) is a 1968 British-French erotic romantic drama film directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull. Released as Naked Under Leather it was the first film to receive an X rating in the United States, and edited by Warner Brothers for an "R" rating. It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival but the festival was cancelled due to the May 1968 events in France.
The Girl on a Motorcycle redefined the leather jacket for motorcyclists into a catsuit that Faithfull wore in the film.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSPrib3yFUNc3Bl3OyuDKLfVCFgXs8KZ3gtFbMi5yEVYLzI1kwrw_phoRNmhfrI_O5tdZ_OtzmiRoyGt48RWN6ZLzrh7NV7DUtCuT6PlBm8QQKztrck6uhfSSwZbRovPRwSs4XjgkypvYbrCfhjBYCGYFy8QilizJsLcNh49Ou5yMBwAaPeBNg/s870/Naked%20Under%20Leather.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="600" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSPrib3yFUNc3Bl3OyuDKLfVCFgXs8KZ3gtFbMi5yEVYLzI1kwrw_phoRNmhfrI_O5tdZ_OtzmiRoyGt48RWN6ZLzrh7NV7DUtCuT6PlBm8QQKztrck6uhfSSwZbRovPRwSs4XjgkypvYbrCfhjBYCGYFy8QilizJsLcNh49Ou5yMBwAaPeBNg/s600/Naked%20Under%20Leather.png"/></a></div>James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-28763096946126383992023-12-28T21:49:00.001+01:002023-12-28T21:49:07.863+01:00The Comic Strip Presents - War<p> </p>
<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JO6xqxkpVUE?si=_7APJ0TG0wqNE02g" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene.<p>
1985:- England has been invaded by the Warsaw Pact countries and middle-class couple Hermine and Godfrey retreat to their rural hide-away but after witnessing a bunch of incompetent commandos kill each other, they get separated.<p>
In keeping with the war theme of the episode, Hermine is reading a copy of The Sun from the time of the Falklands War. The headline "GOTCHA" was from 4 May 1982, about the sinking of the Argentine warship ARA General Belgrano.<p>
With - Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Daniel Peacock, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-7358826029397880572023-12-26T17:19:00.001+01:002023-12-26T17:19:08.931+01:00The Nature of Ayahuasca (2019)<center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6j0_glRnJxI?si=3wyuMsLV4MSIDKgM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
Ayahausca is a traditional plant medicine from the Amazon used to treat a variety of physical and psychology illnesses and conditions. This film explores the use of the Ayahausca as a holistic medicine, challenging stigmas around its use and helping people become more conscious and ethical consumers of the plant if that's the path they choose.
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-52822735686266759142023-12-26T17:17:00.003+01:002023-12-26T17:20:24.254+01:00HUMAN's Musics<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uog4eCZTUX4?si=tqOvVGaqVhg2sRSx" title="YouTube video player" width="760"></iframe></center><br />
HUMAN's Musics - A film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand / Composed by Armand Amar<div><br />
"I am deeply taken with traditional music, it moves me, it connects you to emotion.</div><div><br />
The idea with HUMAN was to create songs that would reflect the same emotion generated by the interviews. I wanted things to open up, to open up one’s heart, to let the sadness be without any restraint. HUMAN has been one of these rare moments in my life as a film composer during which I could express all these different cultures at the same time : either working on minimalist songs or meeting with these singers and musicians coming from all around the world. Which note did I first produce ? I had more like a global vision in mind, an atmosphere that would merge into the film and that would bring people together, this was my starting point. The part I created for the Mongolian sequence might be the best summary of the atmosphere I wanted the film to have.</div><div><br />
Yann has given me a particular role as a film composer that is very diffrent from the one other directors usually give me. There is a strong friendship between us, an intimate relationship. He’s generous. You follow him because of his fantastic instinct, I can advise on the artistic process being in a way the first audience."</div><div><br />
Armand Amard, composer of the HUMAN music.</div><div><br />
"Les musiques traditionnelles m’ont accaparé, elle me touchent, elles ont un rapport direct avec l’émotion. Pour HUMAN, mon idée était de construire une sorte de résonnance des interviews par un chant qui délivrerait la même émotion. J’avais envie que les choses s’ouvrent, que le cœur s’ouvre, que la tristesse s’ouvre, de ne pas avoir de retenue. HUMAN a été un des rares moments dans ma vie de compositeur de musiques de film, où j’ai pu exprimer toutes ces cultures différentes : être aussi bien dans des musiques minimalistes que dans des rencontres avec tous ces musiciens et chanteurs venus d’ailleurs. Quelle note m’est venue en premier ? C’était plus une vision globale, un univers en osmose avec le film, où il était question de partage et de rencontre, qui ont été mon point de départ. D’ailleurs, pour moi ma composition faite pour les images de la Mongolie résume particulièrement l’univers que j’ai voulu pour ce film.</div><div><br />
Avec Yann, j’ai une place particulière en tant que compositeur, différente de celle que me donnent les autres réalisateurs. Entre lui et moi, il y a une amitié profonde, nos échanges sont complices. C’est quelqu’un de généreux. Son instinct assez fantastique fait qu’on arrive à le suivre, je peux me permettre de donner mon avis dans la construction du film, parce que je suis dans le fond, le premier public."<br />
Armand Amar, compositeur de la musique de HUMAN.</div>James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-88571557472218805262023-12-26T17:14:00.004+01:002023-12-26T17:14:55.697+01:00Cigarettes & Coffee (1993)<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lfk1b65lb-M?si=jiv8XQyUn-hlgMv7" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
The basis for the feature film "Hard Eight". The short begins with an older man (Hall) giving a younger man (Baltz) advice over cigarettes and coffee. The younger man tells how he won around $8,000 gambling. At a nearby table, a newlywed couple argues over losing money in Vegas playing craps. The husband lights his last cigarette before rethinking his marriage. Then a hitman (Ferrer) enters to buy cigarettes and coffee before hitting the road.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-90876799725301648562023-12-23T09:45:00.002+01:002023-12-23T09:45:37.537+01:00Tricky, Naked and Famous<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CWnOIkDh0vU?si=4JUrceIb4xGEJBg0" title="YouTube video player" width="760"></iframe></center><br />“Naked and Famous” is a surprisingly intimate and revealing portrait of Bristol’s self-taught maverick and musical genius. Proud of his ‘mongrel’ family, Adrian Thaws (aka Tricky) tells the story of his creative journey from a world of part-gypsy entertainers and mixed-race gangsters in the working-class suburb of Knowle West to acclaim as one of the most original musicians of his generation. A film about passion, instinct and the courage to be different.<div><div><br /></div><div>Produced and directed by Mark Kidel</div><div><br /></div><div>Assistant producer and Production Manager: Sophie Weitzman</div><div><br /></div><div>Edited by Andrew Findlay</div><div><br /></div><div>Rosetta Films for Channel 4</div><div><br /></div><div>1997</div><div><br /></div><div>Running time: 52 mins </div></div>James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-59851336314463524402023-12-10T23:40:00.001+01:002023-12-10T23:40:04.452+01:00Nothing Can Turn Into A Void – An Art Apart: People Like Us<center><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/149002783?h=08ecb74108&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="740" height="460" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/149002783">Nothing Can Turn Into A Void – An Art Apart: People Like Us</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/peoplelikeus">Vicki WFMU</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p></center><br>
British artist Vicki Bennett takes you on a roller coaster-ride with her art project People Like Us. In performances, videos, collages and music, her amazing editing techniques and sense of humor leave you flabbergasted and enthusiastic at the same time. People Like Us is like free-zone where appropriation meets alchemy, humor meets social critique and the boundless imagination meets reality (so called).James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-37733258318938678232023-12-09T11:38:00.004+01:002023-12-09T11:39:03.496+01:00Blonde Cobra (Ken Jacobs, 1963)<p> </p><center><iframe width="760" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nQqcTHs5mFQ?si=IglR_BOiAwE0JnNV" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center><br>
Blonde Cobra is a 1963 short film directed by experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Footage for the unique and at the time controversial film was shot by Bob Flieshner. Marc Siegel states that the 33-minute film is "generally considered to be one of the masterpieces of the New York underground film scene", and that it is a "fascinating audio-visual testament to the tragicomic performance of the inimitable Jack Smith", who was a photographer and filmmaker and "queer muse" in New York avant-garde art in the 1960s and 1970s.<p>
The film captures Smith wearing dresses and makeup, playing with dolls, and smoking marijuana. Paul Arthur writes that the film contains "dizzying quasi-autobiographical rants" which spin on sadism, and that like Jacobs' Little Stabs at Happiness, it contains "languid improvisations studded with the bare bones of narrative incident or, more accurately, its collapse". The film contains Smith droning and singing and wildly cooing and cackling in parts of the film. The "lonely little boy" episode about a little boy living in a large house with 10 rooms has been cited as being "potentially repugnant to many viewers" because of its exploration of sadism against children and childhood sexuality. In this episode the narrator confesses to have "blown up the penis" of a 7-year-old boy with a match. The film contains numerous other elements which were shocking at the time of release such as references to necrophilia, the use of the word "cunt", the confession of a nun (impersonated in a posh high-pitched voice by Smith) to lesbianism, the holding of a giant would-be dildo, and a portrayal of transvestites. The film features quotes such as "Why shave when I can't think of a reason for living" and "life is a sad business", quoting Greta Garbo. "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" is then played, described as a "burlesque rendering" of Robert Siodmak's 1944 film Cobra Woman. The last scene captures Smith stabbing a man in the chest. Hilary Radner and Moya Luckett consider the film to be a camp portrayal of Rose Hobart.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-88794979214272113592023-12-08T10:07:00.007+01:002023-12-08T11:25:05.547+01:00They Live<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/04LX3N0Ag54?si=bV8flF_WxZIy6F_x" title="YouTube video player" width="760"></iframe></center><div><br /></div>
This movie will change your life.
<center><br /></center><center>"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
- George Nada</center>
<div><br /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live">They Live</a> is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the film follows an unnamed drifter who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass media.
The 2012 documentary film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, presented by the Slovene philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, begins with an analysis of They Live. Žižek uses the film's concept of wearing special sunglasses that reveal truth to explain his definition of ideology. Žižek states:
<blockquote>They Live is definitely one of the forgotten masterpieces of the Hollywood Left. … The sunglasses function like a critique of ideology. They allow you to see the real message beneath all the propaganda, glitz, posters and so on. … When you put the sunglasses on, you see the dictatorship in democracy, the invisible order which sustains your apparent freedom.</blockquote>
James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23765172.post-51203067415744713132023-12-02T22:47:00.002+01:002023-12-02T22:47:22.823+01:00Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior<p> </p>
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Mad Max 2 (released as The Road Warrior in the United States) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the Mad Max franchise, with Mel Gibson reprising his role as "Mad" Max Rockatansky. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical "Western" frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man whose decision to assist the settlers helps him rediscover his humanity. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.<p>
The film was released on 24 December 1981 to widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Gibson's performance, the musical score, cinematography, action sequences, costume design and sparing use of dialogue. It was also a box office success, and the film's post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics helped popularise the genre in film and fiction writing. At the 10th Saturn Awards, the film won Best International Film and was nominated for five more awards: Best Director, Best Actor for Gibson, Best Supporting Actor for Bruce Spence, Best Writing, and Best Costumes for Norma Moriceau. Mad Max 2 is widely hailed as both one of the greatest action movies of all time and one of the greatest sequels ever made, and fan clubs for the film and "road warrior"-themed activities continue into the 21st century.<p>
Preceded by Mad Max in 1979, the film was followed by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 and Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015.James Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18305652557419755386noreply@blogger.com0