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.
Russian Feature Animation: The Lost Letter
Here’s a 1945 Russian animated feature about a Cossack who is traveling to deliver a letter to the Tsarina in St. Petersburg. The letter is stolen by a devil and the Cossack goes into hell to retrieve it. It’s a dark and beautiful film with a good sense of humor and wonderful character animation. The backgrounds are mysterious and I have seldom seen nighttime so perfectly depicted. It’s based on a story by Nikolai Gogol and was directed by the Brumberg sisters and Lamis Bredis.
Click the Continue reading link for parts 2, 3, and 4.
I found this at Cartoon Brew
Storybook: Chubby’s Mommy
Short Story: In the Shade of the Allan Gardens Greenhouse
By Mike Sauve
In the Shade of the Allan Gardens Greenhouse
In the late 19th century George Street “caught the refined tone”* of Toronto’s noblest family mansions on neighboring Jarvis Street. Today it rots and rages with the bitter pulse of strong beer and crack cocaine. Inside Seton House, called Satan House by those in the know, live 600 homeless men. It’s an alternate universe created by the synthetic horror of cheap crack and all the foul additives irresponsibly mixed in. It’s the most dangerous street in Toronto according to police.
So many are high the air is charged with bizarre energy, almost always negative, excluding those heart-wrenching seconds after a crack-blast when euphoric peace blooms for a few seconds before vanishing like it was never there.
Audio Podcast Novel: Robinson Crusoe (Part 10)
DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 10
Our lone character, Robinson Crusoe, succeeds in raising his herd of goats and learns to use them for meat, milk and cheese. But his shocking discovery on a beach shakes his foundation and fills him with dread.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Read by Alessandro Cima
Illustration is by NC Wyeth (1920)
Crusoe makes a shocking discovery
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
Podcast Novel: Pirate Jack (Chapter 18)
This book contains pirate battles, violence and death. Please use your judgment before playing for very young children.
Here’s a free podcast of our fantastic pirate adventure novel written for young readers. It’s got hidden scrolls, time travel, ships, battles, navigation, gold, islands, jungles and helicopters in it.
You can purchase the paperback from Barnes & Noble (Price: $11.95)
You can also get it on Scribd.com as a download for just $1.99
Description:
Young Jack Spencer sees his father’s boat-building business destroyed by a powerful land developer. Then Jack unearths three ancient scrolls that propel him on a dangerous adventure through time in search of a pirate treasure.
When Jack finds himself aboard the pirate ship Revenge with Captain Jameson’s crew, he enters a life or death world of ship battles, jungle islands, prison escapes, gold, and treachery.
Set during the golden age of Caribbean piracy, Pirate Jack combines rollicking adventure with the moving story of a boy’s love for his father and a courageous effort to save a way of life.
Get all the chapters of the book podcast here.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
This book is read by the author.
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 8)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 8
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 7)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 7
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
1927 ‘Metropolis’ with 25 Minutes of Lost Footage
The TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles is hosting the North American premiere of Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction classic, Metropolis, with 25 minutes of newly discovered footage.
Metropolis is the story of a mechanized future city with rulers who live atop high towers and masses of slave workers that operate the giant machines below. A rebellion is incited when a robot version of a young woman who works to help the poor is set out to inflame the oppressed workers. The setting of the film is just astounding and has not been matched for beauty by any film since. This is one of the great classics of world cinema and finding 25 minutes of lost footage is incredible. Several years ago, I went to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to see a newly restored version that had still photos inserted where footage was missing. I suspect that many of those missing scenes are now included!
The film was discovered in a museum storage room in Argentina. So not only did Argentina hide escaped Nazis, but it has also been hiding a German science fiction treasure… unwittingly of course. And if you look at Metropolis carefully, you can see the Nazis coming. The film is permeated with it. If you don’t believe me, consider that the screenwriter, Thea von Harbou did in fact become a Nazi. Another Fritz Lang classic, Spies, is so riddled with antisemitism that it is almost impossible to watch. So there it is. Great classic yes, but also profoundly threatening.
Here’s the Los Angeles Times article about the restoration.
Here’s a link to the prior restoration: Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)
Film: Rockbois Documentary
Ryan Dooley, street artist, made this little documentary about his group of painter friends working in Italy. They are painters who paint on walls. They have nothing to do with what we know as ‘taggers,’ who are simply imbeciles who like to write their names on things. Painters are people who make art. This group seems to find walls in Italy that need some paint applied. It’s beautiful.
Newsreel Film From 1947: Making Books
“This man is an author. He writes stories. He has just finished writing a story. He thinks many people will like to read it.” So begins this 1947 Encyclopedia Britannica film about how books are printed and bound. Almost none of what you see in the film, with the possible exception of the book trimming blade, exists anymore. It’s fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Fascinating because we get to see the mysterious process of making a book. Horrifying because we see how machines dictate the movements of human beings in an assembly line environment. It’s so dreadful that I may never want to read an old book again. Perhaps e-books are some kind of salvation after all.
Are Children Philosophers?
The Philosophers’ Magazine has an interesting article about teaching philosophy to children. There is research that suggests teaching philosophy extends benefits across the primary school curriculum.
Philosophical intelligence is the capacity of the mind to solve the recurrent problems of human existence. Some of those problems stem from the activity of the mind contemplating its own existence, others stem from the challenges humans face living in the world. Philosophical intelligence is our ability to organise our ideas and concepts into mental maps and models of the world. It involves processing information and trying to find meaning at a conceptual level, for example, by asking questions such as What is love? What is truth? What is beauty? But can children engage in this kind of questioning?
I think it’s a natural fit for kids to think philosophically. They love asking big important questions that seemingly have no answer. It’s the best of all games to play with a kid. Big questions and even bigger answers!
Read the article: Can Children Philosophize: The Case For
