Baraka

Baraka is a 1992 non-narrative documentary film directed by Ron Fricke. The title Baraka means blessing in a multitude of languages, deriving from the Arabic بركة, descending from a common Semitic ancestor and cognate to the Hebrew Berakhah.

The film is often compared to Koyaanisqatsi, the first of the Qatsi films by Godfrey Reggio for which Fricke was cinematographer. Baraka was the first film in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format, and the first film ever to be restored and scanned at 8K resolution.

Demeure du Chaos

Demeure du Chaos
An artist has turned a coaching inn near Lyon into a warzone - all in the name of art.

French artist Thierry Ehrmann has turned a 17th century coaching inn in near Lyon into a warzone.

The outside walls are daubed with portraits of Osama bin Laden and Iran's president, while the swimming pool inside is filled with fake blood.

Hunter S. Thompson: 1978 BBC Documentary 'Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision'

Hunter S. Thompson: 1978 BBC Documentary 'Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision'.

When I was 19 I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I loved it.

Nimbin Dreaming

I first tracked to Nimbin when I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, with my family. By that time in my life I was used to bearded men smoking big cigarettes and women who smelt of patchouli. Nimbin is situated in northern NSW, Australia and today is internationally famous as alternative lifestyle center and hang out for Euro backpackers seeking exotic times. Nimbin Heads was shot between 8.30 in the morning and 8.30 at night in one day. I recognise a couple of characters in this film,

Dreamscapes

Dreamscapes: Visions of the Australian bush.

Building

Construction and deconstruction of surfaces.

Video: Endre Tveitan
Audio: Lars Lervik

Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman

Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman (Russian: Григорий Яковлевич Перельман), born 13 June 1966 in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia), sometimes known as Grisha Perelman, is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. In particular, it appears that he has proven Thurston's geometrization conjecture. If so, this solves in the affirmative the famous Poincaré conjecture, posed in 1904 and regarded as one of the most important and difficult open problems in mathematics. In August 2006, Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal, which is widely considered to be the top honor a mathematician can receive. However, he declined to accept the award or appear at the congress. What is he doing now? Apparently living with his mother and playing video games.

Society of the Spectacle (La Société du spectacle)

The 1973 film by French Situationist Guy Debord, based on the 1967 book of the same title, shows the dominating oppression of modernization of both the private and public spheres of everyday life by economic forces. The hegemonic mass media operates as a propaganda machine in both communist and capitalist nations and creates commodity fetishism in the minds of the masses.

The Goodies

From the age about 8 (1977) I watched The Goodies religiously. I like to think it had a profound effect on me:

Ah Pook is here

When I become Death, Death is the seed from which I grow...

Itzama, spirit of early mist and showers.
Ixtaub, goddess of ropes and snares.
Ixchel, the spider web, catcher of morning dew.
Zooheekock, virgin fire patroness of infants.
Adziz, the master of cold.
Kockupocket, who works in fire.
Ixtahdoom, she who spits out precious stones.
Ixchunchan, the dangerous one.
Ah Pook, the destroyer.

An Animation directed by Phillip Hunt
Narrated by William Burroughs.