A film by Peter Mack that tells the story of how the tears of a hippopotamus brought water to a village. It turns out to be an advertisement for a rolling water drum that actually looks like a brilliant invention. The girl’s English is some of the most beautifully spoken English I’ve ever heard. I think that the way she says ‘cry’ is particularly lovely.
Author Archives: Editor
Arizona State Government Starts Terror Campaign Against Non-Whites
Cancel your trip to the Grand Canyon. In fact, if you’re in Arizona right now, get the hell out as quickly as you can. The state of Arizona has passed a measure, signed into law by its governor, Jan Brewer, that requires police to determine the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally. All immigrants will be required to carry their proof of legal immigration on their person at all times. This means that a police officer standing on a street corner drinking a cup of coffee can spot a person across the street and decide, based on anything the officer chooses (skin tone, for example) that the person might be an illegal immigrant. The officer can then walk across the street, say he suspects the person of ‘loitering,’ and demand proof of their legal status in the United States. If that person cannot produce the paperwork, the officer can arrest them. The loitering thing is key because the Arizona law supposedly requires that the police be investigating some possible infraction before they can ask for proof of legal immigration. But a cop can find almost any reason to suspect almost anyone of some minor infraction like ‘loitering.’ I loiter all the time.
Arizona, by enacting such a law, has aligned itself with similar laws in Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union, apartheid South Africa, and the post-slavery American South which used ‘vagrancy’ laws to arrest black people who could not prove that they were employed. Apparently, the majority of residents in Arizona approve of the new law. By definition, Arizona becomes Bigot Land. One of the most important protections offered by a free democracy is the protection against unreasonable search and seizure. No police officer anywhere in the United States can simply demand that a person produce papers proving their legal status. But they can in Arizona as soon as this law goes into effect sometime in the next few months.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu says:
I am saddened today at the prospect of a young Hispanic immigrant in Arizona going to the grocery store and forgetting to bring her passport and immigration documents with her. I cannot be dispassionate about the fact that the very act of her being in the grocery store will soon be a crime in the state she lives in. Or that, should a policeman hear her accent and form a “reasonable suspicion” that she is an illegal immigrant, she can — and will — be taken into custody until someone sorts it out, while her children are at home waiting for their dinner.
Film: Subway Cosmos
Subway Cosmos is a film by Brad L. Cooper. It was shot in Tokyo. I like the way the filmmaker moves through the world observing things and filming what interests him. His shots of people through glass are fantastic. Here’s another film he did called Tsukiji about a fish market in Tokyo.
Russian Animation: Goodnight Children
This is the opening and closing animation for a children’s television show in Russia. It was made by Yuri Norstein who works primarily with pieces of painted paper that he moves to create stop-motion animations unlike any others in the world. This is a beautiful piece that captures the storybook imagination perfectly. It looks damned close to being 3-dimensional. But don’t be fooled – Pixar can’t do this. Only Norstein can. He does it with his fingers. Incredible and brilliant and exquisite.
Shakespeare Animated: The Winter’s Tale
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales was a BBC television series of the 1990s that produced 30-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays with animation done by well-known Russian animators at the Christmasfilms studio. This version of The Winter’s Tale is Shakespeare’s dark comedy about a king’s jealousy run wild. This little animated version is loaded with gorgeous wintry scenes.
Click the continue reading link for parts 2 and 3.
Shakespeare Animated: The Tempest
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales was a BBC television series of the 1990s that produced 30-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays with animation done by well-known Russian animators at the Christmasfilms studio. This version of The Tempest from 1992 is a masterpiece. It’s simply one of the best film adaptations of Shakespeare I’ve ever seen. The island setting is wonderfully romantic and diffused. The characters are unbelievably expressive in movement. The voice work is superb. Though the script is pared down to 30 minutes, it preserves the essential fun of Shakespeare’s magical work.
Click the continue reading link for parts 2 and 3.