Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Cautiva and Los Desaparecidos



Alex and I went to see Cautiva tonight, an Argentine film dealing with the children of people disappeared by Argentina's last dictatorship, notably American supported. The film starts off slowly and quickly becomes an examination of how identity can be erased and then revealed through historical examination. One of my favorite video collectives, Grupo Alavio has spent time making movies about the protests against those people complicit in the disappearances. According to Cautiva, over 30,000 people were disappeared by the US backed dictatorship. For those of you who speak Spanish, many of their videos can be found on the pan-Latin American radical Internet television station, AgoraTV.

spout.com

Charged in the Name of Terror





I want to bring your attention to a program of videos Video Artist/Activist Paul Chan curated for Sundance. Charged in the Name of Terror consists of Untitled Video on Lynne Stewart and Her Conviction, The Law and Poetry (2006) By Paul Chan | Running time 17:30, Steve Kurtz Waiting (2006) By Jim Fetterley and Angie Waller | Running Time 15:32, For the Least (2007) By Susan Youssef | Running Time 6:55, and Mohamed Yousry: A Life Stands Still (2006) By Mary Billyou and Annelisse Fifi | Running Time 20:00
spout.com

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Dead Prez and The Pirate Signal: Damn I'm Tired!



Tonight I finally got to see Dead Prez after many many many years of loving them. What a show. I'm so glad Kevin recorded M-1 when he spoke in Boulder. From what he says, it's going to be a great keynote on Free Speech TV! It's high time we had more hip hop on our network! I was also really into The Pirate Signal, a local act from denver. What a night!

Monday, February 26, 2007

Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority


Great news! Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland's anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority was just put out by AK Press. This incredible anthology addresses the relationship between aesthetics and politics in anti-authoritarian social movements. I'm really excited because they decided to publish my article "Beyond Authenticity: Aesthetic Strategies and Anarchist Media." This essay came out of a talk I gave at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference in 2006. The book also contains essays by some of my favorite people: Dara Greenwald, Brett Bloom, and Josh, Nato Thompson, Also articles by other people whose work I know an love! Alan Antliff, Erika Biddle, Cindy Milstein, and Nicholas Lampert! Happy Reading!

"A Convenient Oscar"




Dare I admit it, I'm irritated Al Gore's Power Point presentation, An Inconvenient Truth, won an Oscar last night. As informative as this movie is about Global Warming, the solutions it offers are ridiculous. A former Vice-President, who made neither a jot nor tiddle of difference in the second-highest ranking office in the country regarding global warming, has the audacity to argue that turning off your light bulbs and supporting "good willed" political candidates are adequate solutions. He fails to say "stop driving your goddamned murder machine fueled by the deaths of future generation" and instead says "drive less" and "drive hybrids." Was his limo a hybrid? Even so, how many fossil fuels did it take to build it? Why didn't he ride a bike instead? What coal-fired power plants were used to generate the electricity to run his nifty presentations?

The fact is, nothing short of industrial collapse can get us out of this capitalist mess. Even then, we're probably screwed. While Gore's movie fairly represents the horror we are facing, it fails to present valid solutions. It's just one more political tapdance as the earth implodes. As Gore drives around in a limo and flies on airplanes, wasting fossil fuels, we all get a sense of just how serious this rich, oil investor is about solving global warming through personal solutions. He'd be better off recommending that people take out the infrastructure that runs this ecologically genocidal industrial economy than being one more rich white guy telling average people that Global Warming is their fault.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Pandora: The Computer DJ


So yesterday at work I was struggling to get through a whole ot of data entry and decided I needed to listen to the radio. I spent a few minutes foibling through Live365 Stations trying to get them to work. My friend Madelaine was at the copy machine across the hall and I grumbled to her about my frustration. She said, "have you tried Pandora?" I hadn't. So she got me to go to pandora.com, a radio station created by the Music Genome Project. A group of musicians, musicologists, and music geeks got together and created aproximately 400+ attributes of various songs. At pandora.com, you enter a song or artist you like and it actually creates a radio station based on shared attributes. The service is free and paid for by advertising. It's totally worth checking out! I've been listening to a mix of The Coup, Against Me! and Scott Matthew attributed songs. It's bliss!

Friday, February 23, 2007

Suheir Hammad: Poetry and Revolution


Last night KGNU and the Pan-African Arts Society brought Suheir Hammad, Brooklyn-based, Palestenian poet to the Ashbury Events Center here in Denver. Prior to reading her poems, we were graced by the presence of spoken word artist Rodzilla, who devestated the audience spitting out words and associations that blew us all way. Crysta Bell, Seattle based artist, was equally rivetting, giving a breakdown of how women should love their kootchies. Finally Hammad got up to speak and used words to find beauty in unrecognizably painful experiences. Her words incited a revolution of the soul, a desire to make change, and to settle for nothing less than peace, love, and compassion. Not in some hippy-dippy sense. In a revolutionary way. Her words gave me hope that revolution was not lost, that possibility exists, that love can transcend the body, the mind, the soul. Tears streamed down my face as she pronounced her love of criminals, demonstrating through her poetry that they were of the highest order of humanity. Hammad has a new book called Zaatar Diva, that is apparently sold out. It's a shame, cause I want to read her lines over and over and let them shake me up and wreck me.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Cafe Nuba and Just Media Present: Podslam



This morning I had a great coffee meeting with my friend Kevin who has been working on the TV show SourceCode. He brought my attention to a project that Cafe Nuba and Just Media have been collaborating on with videomakers and poets called Podslam--a virtual community where spoken word artists can come together to share their skills and visions without the limitations of a performance space. Check out some of the incredible poets on this online video slam world!

12 and Holding and An Unreasonable Man





12 and Holding is a horrifying coming of age story, ripe with stereotypes, yet rich in drama. The protagonist, Jacob, plays a sympathetic, vengeful 12 year old with a disfigured face and a hockey-mask to boot. He is a sympathetic figure with strong ties to Friday the 13th's antagonist, Jason. Zoe Weizenbaum plays a young woman attempts to fill her father's absence with a bold, awkward crush on an older depressive ex-firefighter undergoing therapy. Jesse Comacho plays Leonard, an overweight boy who goes to sadistic ends to turn his mother into a healthy eater. The film is over the top melodramatic, literary sap. Nonetheless, the supurb acting, directing, and cinematography rescuse the often trite script. If you're looking for a moody, painful, pubescent drama, it's worth checking out this Independent Film Channel Films production.

IFC Films has been doing incredible work, including releasing An Unreasonable Man, the documentary about Ralph Nader's legacy featured by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Ma Vie En Rose



So I've finally seen "Ma Vie En Rose." What a beautiful heartwarmingbreaking film, with such incredible colors. It strikes me that Ludvic is the natural predecessor to Ugly Betty's little brother, Jason! Two wonderful girlish boy characters!!! It reminds me of being that age, skipping around in my living room dancing to "West Side Story" and "Pippin." Alas! To movies about the girly boys in us all!

FEED: My NAMAC Article


A few months ago I wrote a little article about my erratic web response to the death of Independent Media journalist Brad Will. The article got published in The National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture magazine. I thought it might make sense to share it here sense I just wrote about Flux's response (in video terms, much better than mine!)

Speaking of NAMAC, their conference is coming up October 17-20th, 2007 in Austin Texas. Be there or be square.

Flux Rostrum Kicks Ass!!!


A great deal of the video footage from recent protests and post-Katrina New Orleans has been made available on Fluxview.com , the video website of Internet activist videomaker extraordinaire, Flux Rostrum. Perhaps one of Flux's most popular videos is Get That Camera. This documentary short tells the story of how he got his camera stolen at a protest against the Mexican Consulate for their implication and failure to address the murder of New York Indymedia journalist Brad Will.

Alive In Baghdad


Brian Conley has set up an incredible site, Alive in Baghdad, where people from Iraq speak about there lives. What I love about this project is that instead of getting into the broad abstractions corporate media thrives on, the user simply encounters people trying to live their lives in a time of war. This project is an incredible example of the power of Video Blogging.

Prometheus Radio Project




Prometheus Radio Project is an incredible organization that helps communities around the world erect their own radio towers and get their own radio projects off the ground. They are currently working on a project to apply to the FCC for full time FM Radio Stations. Whether they are working in Latin America, Africa, or here in the U.S., there work is both radical, practical, and representationally savvy. If you're into radio, you should consider getting involved!!!

Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Spring 07 Edition


The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest has a new edition! Yeah! Great essays are promised!!!

Fourth World War



For those of you who have never seen it, "Fourth World War" is playing on Free Speech TV's website. This is Big Noise Media's incredible film about people struggling not to be destroyed in the U.S. war against the world.

Other Cinema Schedule Released



For all you Bay Area fans of edgy cinema, Craig Baldwin's Other Cinema has released it's schedule between February 24th and May 26th. Other Cinema takes place at Artists Television Access, at 992 Valencia, on Saturdays, at 8:30pm, and costs a mere $5. Scrolling down the schedule there are some real highlights. Jem Cohen, Bill Brown, Ben Russell, Frederique Moffet's Jean Genet in Chicago," Jill Friedberg's "Grain of Sand," and the new works by Martha Colburn, Jeanne Liotta, Matt McCormik, and Lynn Sachs. Craig has done it again! What a schedule!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Valentines Day: "HAIR HIGH"


So for Valentines day, I had a planning meeting at work for election covereage and the DNC and then spent the rest of the day watching documentaries about hip hop and prison boxing. Great flicks whose names escape me right now.

My friend Alex and I drove home together and he toook me to see Biill Plympton's "Hair High." It was a funny cartoon in Plympton's characteristic, morphing body style. It was bit long in some stretches but certainly worth the dryer moments.

Watching Hair High took me back to my days teaching History of Animation at Columbia College. Now spending all my time watching depressing documentaries, I do value the pleasure of watching cartoons and discussing their often radical history. I'm not sure I would characterize "Hair High" as radical. It did a good job, perhaps appropriately for a hetero-holiday like V-Day, valorizing straight romance. Despite the anxiety of morphing, monsterous bodies turned inside out, the movie pretty much reminded everybody that love prevails in the end. A sweet but stupid moral.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

William E. Jones


I am falling for the labor/porn mashup videos of William E. Jones. Tonight I watched "More British Sounds" and was fascinated by the combination of vintage gay porn, Godardian critiques of sound image/image image relationships, and the sounds of British men talking about class politics and their hatred of the rabble. Check out Jones' website!

Queers on "Ugly Betty" and "Men in Trees"


One of my corporate media secrets is that I am a fan of ABC's dramas--particularly "Ugly Betty," "Desparate Housewives," and I'm taking a liking to "Men in Trees." This weeks episodes of "Ugly Betty" featured a new transsexual character and entered into the same old same jokes about pronouns, stereotypes about cunning, and media hype about trans issues. I wonder when corporate TV will be ready to deal with trans issues without villanizing trans characteres? It's interesting to watch corporate TV deal with queer issues in a more sophisticated way, while maintaing some of the old heteronormative shit.

For Life, Against the War...Again, a collective outcry


Artist and curator Lynne Sachs has put together what looks like an incredible program of artist-made films responding to the war.


WED FEB 21 2007
7:30 For Life, Against the War . . . Again, a collective outcry
Curated by Lynne Sachs (U.S., 2006)

Artists in Person

In 1967, with the Vietnam War escalating wildly, an invitation was issued to filmmakers to create works running under three minutes in protest against the accumulating carnage. The original organizers chose the rubric For Life, Against the War, and eventually compiled sixty films from the likes of Robert Breer, Shirley Clarke, Storm De Hirsch, Ken Jacobs, Larry Jordan, Stan Vanderbeek, and many others. Now, decades later, an invitation to protest yet another war seemed sadly urgent, inspiring Lynne Sachs, the Brooklyn-based filmmaker and curator, to ring the clarion once “. . . Again.” The response was overwhelming, with submissions from several generations of artists unified by a singular disgust for the war in Iraq and the foreign policy that perpetuates it. Compiled with works from the overtly angry to the formally forceful, For Life, Against the War boldly announces that artists can take a stand, again and again.

—Steve Seid

• The artists are: Aylon Ben Ami, Kevin Barry, Bosko Blagojevic, Elle Burchill, Jim Costanzo, Bradley Eros, Jeanne Finley and John Muse, Martha Gorzycki, Alfred Guzetti, Barbara Hammer, Ken Jacobs, Douglas Katelus, Lynn Marie Kirby, Les Leveque, Cynthia Madansky, Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe, Sherry Millner and Ernie Larsen, Bill Morrison, Martha Rosler, Lynne Sachs, MM Serra, Jeff Silva, Jeffrey Skoller, Mark Street, Grahame Weinbren, Cara Weiner, Lili White, Artemis Willis.

• (75 mins, Color, BetaSP, From Filmmakers' Coop)

The Patriarchs: Drunk and Productive



Several of the people I wanted to see tonight stood me up so I was VERY productive. I've spent my night editing on "The Patriarchs." This movie is going to be HOT. Gabriel Cyr has been working on the music. Cutting to something rythmic feels SO FUCKING GOOD! The way he plays with emotion with simple chords and noise is amazing. I can't wait to get more of his soundtrack to continue to kick some ass on this thing! If you look at this picture of the character, "Luther," it's a bit how I feel about The Patriarchs

In other news, I'm really excited about Denver and all the possibility here with the Democratic National Convention coming up! We're gonna have some fun!!!!

Also, met a really kick ass musician last night into making docs! I hope she kicks some ass.

Ok, i'm tired and a bit drunk so please forgive me but I'm off to visit the dream of the rarebit fiend's creator, winsor mccay, i fucking love him.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Brave New Theatres



Robert Greenwald nails it again! Brave New Theatres is a brilliant move in D.I.Y Distribution. It's a plug and play activist microcinema kit.

"Brave New Theaters provides world changers like you with films and organizing tools to bring attention to, raise money for, and take action around the issues you care deeply about."http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

I came across it when I realized The Battle for the Klamath, a Free Speech TV Doc, was being advertised there.

Flaherty Film Seminar Announced


What a day! First thing this morning, I found spiders next to my winter biking clothes. I think I'll take it as good luck!

4 one hour meetings in a row and a morning of prep! New shows, new projects, outreach strategies, and a search for a new executive director. Things are really exciting at Free Speech TV.

I read the announcement for the Flaherty Film Seminar and I'm really hoping to go this year. I went several years back and it was a transformative experience. Going again will be a blast. Below is the description from the Flaherty Website.

"This Year's Seminar - South of the Other: Chronicles of anti-colonial guerilla uprisings, contemporary telenovelas, popular dramas and traditional fables share startling commonalities: all reveal, reshape, and unsettle global cultural identities. Shifting southward to Asia, Latin America, and Africa, the 53rd Robert Flaherty Filml Seminar will probe how myriad world cinemas over the past forty years have expolded, invented and reconceived the Other. Co-curators Mahen Bonetti and Carlos GutiƩrrez will present diverse works exploring migration, homelands, Third Cinema, and the popular. Invited artists include Abderrahmane Sissako, Ximena Cuevas, Khalo Matabane, Theo Eshetu, and Kalup Linzy."

"The Independent" Will Be Relaunched


According to my NAMAC Bulletin, the defunct organization, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers is transitioning ownership of The Independent to new owners, Independent Media Publications.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Pledge Drive, Flat Tire, Chats With New Yorkers


So we are in the middle of our Winter Pledge Drive and I had the horror of watching myself on TV today trying to pitch a couple movies about media and raise funds to keep Free Speech TV afloat. It's true what they say, my head does bobble up and down and the way I raise it makes me look like a snob. Throughout the day, I worked on figuring out strategies for the Democratic National Convention and ways Free Speech TV can engage in innovative coverage. Also watching a movie about homeless veterans, one in particular. A gritty, grim film about resistance, organizing and the government's inability to take care of it's people

I spoke with my friends Flux, Gabe, and Chris, all in New York, all complaining about the bitter cold there. Everyone I know who has been in New York has been cold and miserable. Denver has warmed up and I've been riding my bike, happy not to deal with the ice and snow. I got a flat tire and ended up shutting down the office after I fixed it.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth



On top of the pile of socially concious, ill-conceived documentaries I've been overloaded with, I had a chance to watch Pan's Labyrinth this week. Amazing and disturbing film that left me sleepless. Two facts irritate me about the movie. 1) Why does the girl end up in a monarchy; 2) Why does the resistance win when in real life the fascists would prevail.

heartbreaking, beautiful, sophisticated film. Check it out.