Italian filmmaker, Luca Gennari made this beautiful and gently moving piece about her grandmother. The rural setting is a classic part of Italy. The slaughter and skinning of the rabbit is something that I have seen several times in the northern villages of Italy. Italian filmmakers seem to me to be developing a magnificent new cinema of memory with the new accessible tools of film and video making. But it is the Italian filmmakers that I see most delicately capturing the operations of memory today.
Category Archives: Film
Saint Sebastien: A Short Film by Jerome Paressant
A French film by Jerome Paressant. A woman who spends a lot of time next to roads and seems not quite a part of the world.
Charlie Is My Darling: 1965 Documentary Film About The Rolling Stones
This is a 1965 film by Peter Whitehead that follows the young Rolling Stones around on a tour of Ireland. The film is ragged and jittery, catching odd moments on trains, in rehearsal rooms, in cars and on stage. There’s a fascinating bit where Brian Jones talks about wanting to make a surreal film about love. The general sense I get from watching this is of these magnificently talented young guys becoming aware of what they actually are. They are awakening to the fact of what they are doing and they are working out all the little moves. Jagger looks in every scene to be crafting in masterful detail exactly how Mick Jagger will move and talk. It’s a fascinating glimpse at artists creating the very personas they will present to the world.
Idiot With a Tripod: A Short Film by Jamie Stuart
Here’s a short film about the snow in New York City by Jamie Stuart.
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Mature Content
This is a 2007 documentary film by Julien Temple about legendary British punk rock musician Joe Strummer. The film conveys the messy aggressive work required if you want to really do what you really want to do.
Here’s the film’s official website where you can order the DVD.
Part 2:
Parts 3 – 11 after the jump
Diary (2010): A Film by Tim Hetherington
Mature Content and War Footage:
This is a film by Tim Hetherington, the photojournalist who was killed yesterday in Libya. This film is his personal statement on being immersed in violence and trying to make some sense of it through the lens of journalism.
The Heart of the World: A Film by Guy Maddin
The Echo Park Film Center tipped me off to this amazing short film by Guy Maddin. He made it in 2000 for the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s got the frenetic, montage energy of Sergei Eisenstein mixed with some of the fantastic elements of George Melies. Just beautiful and wild.
The Discipline of DE: Short Film by Gus Van Sant
Here’s a 1982 16mm film by Gus Van Sant that’s based on a William S. Burroughs short story from his collection, ‘Exterminator!’ The film perfectly captures the dry Burroughs humor that’s actually dead serious. There’s no advice in this film that one shouldn’t take. Thanks to Marc Campbell at Dangerous Minds for posting this. You can read more about the film there.
100 Year Old Little Nemo Animation by Winsor McCay
The Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex blog has a post about Winsor McCay’s early animation efforts from 100 years ago. This is a film that features the cartoonist impressing his skeptical artist friends with moving characters from his great comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland.
The actual Nemo animation starts at the 8:15 mark. Enjoy!
Thanks to Short of the Week for the tip.
TED Film From Arrested Chinese Artist
This is a film presented at the TED conference from the famous Chinese artist who was recently kidnapped by Chinese authorities. He has completely vanished along with thousands of other artists, journalists, writers, intellectuals and human rights workers who have been taken in the past several months. This artist speaks very simply and clearly about the situation in his country where his government watches him all day long and sees nothing wrong with bulldozing his studio to the ground because he expresses some criticism of what he sees around him.
What I do not respect about this video is the simpering nitwit from TED who introduces the film by stating that the TED conference takes no position on China. He then goes on to bend over for China and mentions how many people have been lifted from poverty in China. How far up China’s ass can this guy fit his head, I wonder? How can any organization not take a position on China? I’m sure if Hitler were around today and rambling across the land on an extermination campaign, this bunch from TED would take no position on that.
Look at this little notice on TED’s YouTube page where the film is hosted:
TED is a non-partisan, nonpolitical organization and we understand the Chinese authorities concern at anything which might provoke social unrest. But for anyone who believes in the power of ideas, of human imagination, it is heartbreaking to see one of the world’s great artists shackled in this way. We will be tracking developments carefully. Here is the film.
TED ‘understands the Chinese authorities concern at anything which might provoke social unrest!’
Oh my god! Yes indeed. They understand this concern of a totalitarian murdering government that is more than happy to make people vanish into prison because they want to complain about being beaten by a policeman.
Hey TED, here I come with my ticket! Gosh, I wouldn’t want you to be concerned that I might boo one of your presentations. Wouldn’t want that, would we?
Lifting people out of poverty in China is not what we need to be doing. We need to be shutting these people out entirely. We need companies that do not fill their computers with Chinese parts. We need toys that do not come painted with Chinese lead poison. We need to treat this totalitarian country the way it deserves to be treated. A rich China doing business with every company on the planet is not going to advance freedom for anyone. China needs to be pushed into abject and brutal poverty. Only then will the conditions exist for a revolution.
I opened up my Dell computer the other day to blow some dust out. The first things I saw were multiple ‘Made in China’ stickers on various components. Screw Dell. Screw every Western company that buys a single circuit board from China. Screw China.
Woodpecker: A Film by Rouzbeh Rashidi
Rouzbeh Rashidi is an Iranian filmmaker living in Dublin, Ireland. This film is a portrait of a day in the life of a man who works at a convenience store. Rashidi doesn’t want to show you the things you might want to see in a person’s normal day. He is interested in minute and detailed impressions. He focuses closely on things and lets them speak for themselves. The film conveys an unsettling mystery through its calm observation and beautiful black and white photography. One of the most interesting things about this film for me is simply how happy the film’s subject looks while he is working.
The filmmaker has a website.
Dreams Ripple ~ Here Now – Japanese Animation by Akinori Okada
What the heck is this? I have no idea. But I like it. It looks like nothing I’ve seen so far. Seems to have something to do with a magic box of dreams maybe. Dream characters dance about and frolic with strange projections and shadows. There’s an element of old Japanese folktales with tiny toys or figures coming to life at night. Very strange.
The film was made by Akinori Okada in 2009.
Snow – 1963 Short Film by Geoffrey Jones
This 1963 film was nominated for an Oscar. Director Geoffrey Jones captured the shovel work being done to keep British rail lines open during the winter. It’s an elegant and beautifully edited short film. You can read more about its origin and rhythmic beat editing at the BFI site.
Made available by the British Film Institute.
The Animated Films of Painter György Kovásznai
While visiting Your Daily Cartoon, I watched an animated film by Hungarian painter György Kovásznai. I liked the calm mishmash of drawing styles and quiet humor. The 1965 film is called Mesék a m?veszet világából (Tales From the World of Art). It has no subtitles but is pretty easy to follow, taking a bemused look at several kinds of art. The first part is an action movie, the second is a theatrical piece, the third is a piano recital.
This one is called Várakozni jó (Waiting for Good). It’s about a traffic jam with a truck that suddenly opens its back doors and explodes into a 1969 rock & roll jam. The wild sketchy ever-changing animation style is more psychedelic than most commercialized sixties psychedelia could ever be.
This one is Gitáros fiú a régi képtárban (Boy Guitarist of the Old Hits) from 1964. It’s simply a guitarist playing and dancing his way through artworks by old masters presented in a very avant-garde fashion. Understanding the art is one thing, but the person who can truly enjoy it is far ahead in the game.
28 Seconds Later – A Horror Film Shot On the Set of 28 Weeks Later During Downtime
MATURE CONTENT AND VIOLENCE:
Ok, so get this! A filmmaker, Damien Joseph Wasylki, worked on 28 Weeks Later and during the downtime snuck around with a camera, borrowed all the great costumes, props and makeup and just made his own horror film! How about that? That’s some real guerrilla filmmaking if I ever saw it. It’s got that nice jittery hardcore infected look with lots of blood and twitchy bodies.