Alice is a 1988 dark fantasy film written and directed by Jan Švankmajer. Its original Czech title is Něco z Alenky, which means "Something from Alice". It is a loose adaptation of Lewis Carroll's first Alice book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), about a girl who follows a white rabbit into a bizarre fantasy land. Alice is played by Kristýna Kohoutová. The film combines live action with stop motion animation, and is distinguished by its dark and uncompromising production design.
For Švankmajer, a prolific director of short films for more than two decades, Alice became his first venture into feature-length filmmaking. The director had been disappointed by other adaptations of Carroll's book, which interpret it as a fairy tale. His aim was instead to make the story play out like an amoral dream. The film won the feature film award at the 1989 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Genesis P-Orridge died on March 14 in New York. Genesis led a life of spectacle, philosophy and professionally challenging the norms of middle class bourgeois culture. The work of Genesis represents an important bridge between the counter culture of the 1960s and the ubiquitous mediation of culture in the present day cyber society. The work of Genesis is almost a road map of the shift from counter culture to resistance, whereby the idea of 'alternative' was swept up by mass consumption and distribution models and made into a form of identity. This formation of identity according to the market is something that Genesis fell into, and seemed to be relying upon in the challenge to conservative definition of gender. The resistance to conservative gender norms shifted Genesis back towards the idea of marginal, counter or revolutionary.
In this film Genesis and his lover, Lady Jaye, express their deep bond by melding their identities through plastic surgery.
Inspired by new sounds, new technologies and the political events of the time, the early 90s sees the emergence of a scene that euphorically celebrates the dawning of a new era.
In Berlin, Frankfurt and many other German cities, activists tinker on a new music and club culture oriented around the coordinates Techno and House.
At Berlin's Love Parade in 1991, different local scenes congregate for the first time. The trend turns into a movement. A German Summer of Love, which changes whole lives overnight and kick-starts careers.
The basic principle of Techno stands for experimenting, crossing borders and DIY. Fans become DJs or party promoters. Labels are founded and record stores open up. The scene grows. An independent microcosm is created. Networks are formed away from established structures. For a moment everything seems possible…
WE CALL IT TECHNO! tells the story of a tempestuous phase in music history, the first time that pop culture was created significantly in Germany.
With exclusive interviews and comprehensive, mostly unreleased film and photo archive material from the years 1988-1994!
Incl. Statements from Ata, Cosmic Baby, Mijk van Dijk, Elsa for Toys, Hell, Mike Ink., Jürgen Laarmann, Mark Reeder, Tanith, Triple R, Upstart, Sven Väth, Wolle XDP and many more
“This music had such power that we left everything behind... We felt like a new age was starting and we were the first to notice.” (Upstart, Munich)
“It was like a dance on a vulcano. Like: technology brings us progress, but it’ll also destroy us. On the other hand: who gives a sh!t, first I’ll just dance.” (Wolle XDP, Berlin)
“We did a lot of space studies at the time. It all tended towards psycho-active stimulation with the aim of going up and it all never coming to an end. Actually, we tried the weirdest stuff. (Elsa For Toys, Berlin)
“1989, after the fall of the Wall, when the Techno movement in Berlin grew from one day to the next, we all felt like we could change the world.” (Cosmic Baby, Berlin)
“The Moment of unity was short, it lasted maybe one summer.” (Ralf Niemczyk, Cologne)
“It’s nice to see that many people in this context made it, that Techno and House isn’t just stupifying music connected to drugs.” (Frank Blümel, Berlin)
The full documentary for the band Can ,( 1h 27' 07'')
Compiled by Rudi Dolezl and Hannes Rossacher
Produced by DoRo Production , Vienna , Austria
Included ''Paperhouse'' ,''I want more'' , ''Dizzy Dizzy '' , ''Below this level '' and more ..
On the 13 February 1945 at 10:00pm 800 bombers of the British RAF bomb the German city of Dresden. A firestorm ensued. Oxygen was sucked out of the air. The slaughter was indiscriminate. Men, women, children, babies burned by phosphor. 35,000 people were killed, at a time when the war was already lost by Germany. The war would end three months after the destruction of the city.
This documentary traces the invention of aerial bombing as a weapon of war. From the bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the dreaded Condor Squadron, on loan from Nazi German to Franco to win the Spanish Civil War. From that point on one atrocity followed another. The culmination in World War Two was the bombing of Hamburg and Dresden by the British and United States air forces in World War Two and then the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA. This film ends with VE Day.
The destruction is brutal beyond imagination and stomach churning to watch.
On this day at this hour we should remember those millions who have died from the technologies of war, through no fault of their own and at the mercy of cruel and indiscriminate leaders. Those who flew the missions to deliver the bombs were often shocked to see the results of their work, as is expressed by the military survivors who took part in the raids in this film. Aerial bombing has rarely been found to be strategic from a military standpoint. A new survey on the use of aerial bombing during the Vietnam War has seemingly confirmed what many suspected: the massive and systematic bombing of South Vietnam detracted from, rather than furthered, U.S. war aims. The argument that the nuclear attacks on Japan shortened the war is not clearly established, and the attacks were rather a demonstration of destructive power by the USA was a statement to the USSR, which was about to launch attacks through Manchuria into the Korean peninsula when the war was about to end in the Pacific anyway.
The center of Bangkok is covered by thousands of mysterious graffiti. Our man will stay 5 days in the capital of Thailand and try to find the creator of those baffling pieces.
Pichai Rattanapornchai is a 58 year old homeless man who has lived his entire life in Bangkok. For an unknown number of years he has created intricate map-like drawings in public spaces of the city.
At first glance this documentary seems to be a non-Indigenous production, that recycles some of the myths held about the Indigenous people of Australia. However, it does touch on some good points and the cinema-photography is excellent.
The Men of the Fifth World is a documentary that shows us some of the history, culture and traditions of the Australian Aborigines. The old Garimala Yakar, tells firsthand how their world is accompanied by the sound of the didgeridoo, the beat of their tradition, which keeps them together and attached to the land. These tribes have had to defend their country from the impositions of the white man when he came to Australia for the first time. The aboriginal culture has faded over time but they never cease to tell their story to the youngest and keep the hope that someday find their truth.
In the Kakadu National Park lies Ubirrok, where the Rainbow Serpent stopped after creating the world and was painted on a rock so that people could see her. Over time our forefathers left on the rocks a complete collection of images which depict their way of life and their beliefs. On these ancient rocks they also drew figures of the men of that time, warriors and hunters, who used the same spears and harpoons as we do now.
We share our land with all types of animals, some of them as dangerous the kangaroo is the most characteristic animal of my country.
When we get together to dance around the fire, we sing the dreams of the animals, the stories of how they were created. Those that dance and sing paint their faces and bodies with kaolin, to look like the spirits which, according to our beliefs, are of a grey colour. The dance of the women is slower and more measured. They are normally in a state of trance, possessed by the spirits of the forest which protect them.
The didgeridoo It’s our sacred instrument. The men who know how to play it are very important in our culture. With the didgeridoo they communicate our wishes to the spirits. And they call on them to come to our aid when tragedy befalls us. This sacred instrument brings us closer to the world of our ancestors. It is difficult to play, because you have to blow constantly, using the technique of circular breathing.
The didgeridoos are made by the ants. Our land, here in northern Australia, is the kingdom of the ants.
Our people were nomads, always moving from one place to another, carrying their few belongings with them. That is why we know the forest so well. In the forest, we know how to get everything we need. The men have always hunted and fished, while our women are expert gatherers. They know where to find edible fruits and roots, and how to get honey. The women have always worked in the forest, carrying out these tasks. No one knows nature like they do. Their work is very dangerous. They often come across the king brown, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, its bite is always fatal.
Hunting and war have always been men’s work, and they have always made their own weapons. Without a doubt, the boomerang is the best known of these. They are pieces of wood carved with a slight curve, which makes them more accurate when they are thrown. In fact, the spear is our best weapon. We used them in our fight against the white men who invaded our country and drove us off the land that belonged to us. Our spears claim other victims. When the tide goes out, we fish for the dangerous sting rays. These are manta rays that hide in the sand, ready to plunge their enormous stings into anyone who dares disturb them.
Our coasts are full of animals, which traditionally provided us with food. When we have speared an animal, we throw a buoy into the water, with a long rope tied to harpoon. Whenever they catch a giant turtle, the fishermen arrange a feast, right there on the beach, to which all their relatives are invited.
“My people have always felt the need to express themselves through painting, now and since the beginning of time. Our art, now called aboriginal art by the white man’s tourist industry, is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land.
Near the city of Darwin, my people call to the spirit of the king of the crocodiles with piercing cries.
It is a dance of invocation. It is performed whenever someone has to travel to an area where the powerful sea crocodiles live. They ask for its permission and protection, but the great spirit is always asleep, and so they have to cry out to wake him, so that he knows that people have gathered together to dance in his honour.
When I was 16 Stop Making Sense came out. I had been a Talking Heads fan since I was 14 and had first heard Swamp (Thanks to Risky Business and the VHS rental store my friend's parents ran). I went to see Stop Making Sense at the local cinema in Toowoomba, a rural capital in Australia. I was the only person in the entire Strand theatre. I sat alone in a huge old theatre and was blown away.
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (German: Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage) is a 2005 German historical drama film directed by Marc Rothemund and written by Fred Breinersdorfer. It is about the last days in the life of Sophie Scholl, a 21-year-old member of the anti-Nazi non-violent student resistance group the White Rose, part of the German Resistance movement. She was found guilty of high treason by the People’s Court and executed the same day, 22 February 1943.
The film was presented at the 55th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2005 and won Silver Bear awards for Best Director and Best Actress (Julia Jentsch). It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The legend is well established. The paintings remain stunning. His youth makes it even more amazing and that he was not trained in any way, that he was black and of-the-street. A drug user, graffiti outlaw and irreverent itinerant. It all adds up to the G-E-N-I-U-S label.
But then there is the 'Art World'- he was literally taken up as soon as he started showing his paintings. He was managed, shown and sold.....for so much money by white people. Then when the raw flash of his work began to fade as taste took his product on board and he became part of something larger, he felt misunderstood, left behind and used. 'Andy Wahol'/'Art World' was not enough to maintain his shooting star shine. His inner core wanted to keep working, making and rocking the boat, but the return from those around him faded. So did he.
His sisters speak in this film and something that they say is really worth listening to. If you want to know Jean-Michel, look at his works. In his short career, Basquiat produced around 1500 drawings, as well as around 600 paintings and many sculpture and mixed media works.
Nearly 30 years after his death from a drug overdose in 1988, the legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has managed to take the world by storm yet again when one of his Skull paintings from 1982 sold recently at Sotheby's for a recorded breaking sum of over one hundred million dollars. The monetary value and art historical importance of work by this former Downtown NYC street graffiti artist is now considered on a par with such luninaries as Picasso, Pollock, and Francis Bacon.
This film features exclusive interviews with Basquiat's two sisters - Lisane and Jeanine Basquiat - who have never before talked about their brother and his art for a TV documentary. Other contributors include some of the most powerful and legendary art dealers in the world such as Bruno Bischofberger, Larry Gagosian, and Mary Boone. They helped fuel Basquiat as he rocketed to art world fame but whose own careers and fortunes may have benefited just as much and possibly more. With striking candor, Basquiat's art dealers as well as his most intimate friends, lovers, and fellow artists spill the beans on the cash, the drugs, and the pernicious racism which Basquiat encountered and fought against on a daily basis. And the main weapon which Basquiat used to fight this racism was his art.
The beating heart of this documentary is the actual art of Basquiat - and the substantive ways in which it embodied and reflected breakthroughs in music, poetry, and a new type of expressionism in modern art. But the story of his life is the raw material for countless legends!
The film reveals for the first time the truth of what actually happened at a swank NYC Soho restaurant - when Basquiat - still only a teenager - had his first legendary encounter with Andy Warhol while hawking his postcards for one dollar each. The film leaves a trail of surprise, joy, and laughter as Basquiat's sisters talk about the unforgettable night in Brooklyn when their brother brought an eccentric friend home for dinner - the eccentric friend was Andy Warhol.
In a 1983 campaign which long predates Black Lives Matter, Basquiat used his art as part of a protest movement following the beating to death by NYC transit cops of a friend of his - Michael Stewart. It was a protest movement joined by Basquiat's one time girlfriend - Madonna.
In this film, these are only some of the many stories that give shape and insight into a life which was constantly torn between public acclaim and personal pain, the bold confidence of has greatness as an artist and the secret fear he would be regarded a flash in the pan, between a deep desire for fame and money but an even deeper resentment that his work was being transformed into a commodity. Basquiat's relationship with drugs and the role they played in his life, work, stellar rise, and fatal crash - is sensitively and insigtfully explored.
