iron crows
I want to see Iron Crows, it looks rather depressing but I really like seeing depressing documentaries and watching them makes me feel a connection with the subjects, those people that I most likely will never interact with in my lifetime. Watching a film like Iron Crows does tend to make me feel that I have a greater understanding of the poverty-stricken & downtrodden (those who are so often portrayed in these social documentaries) even though I know that I will never truly understand what these peoples lives are like. These filmic experiences make me try to think of ways to help to make the world a better place, seeing other people’s awful circumstances makes me try harder to complain less, try not to be a baby (even though things are not 100% perfect here we have it a bit easier than these men do, surely), & be more compassionate towards my fellow man.
“Belal’s sorrow is hard to watch, and his insistence on remaining hopeful in spite of everything is heartbreaking.”
– From a NY Times review, full review here.
“…Perhaps the most important achievement of this powerful film is the courage, dignity and humility of our heroes trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of crushing poverty. This film is a tour de force!”
– IDFA 2009 Jury’s comment
IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival) synopsis of the film here.
Playing at Film Forum through August 30th, get your tickets here.
Or save it in your Netflix queue here.
Pulp documentary!
I was having a crappy week and now I am EXCITED!
The Beat Is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People
Glastonbury Festival, 1995. The Stone Roses pull out of their headline set after a mountain bike accident and Rod Stewart is unavailable. Last minute replacements Pulp take to the stage to face 80,000 people. They deliver a set “regarded as one of the best in the festival’s history”, climaxing with the era-defining song “Common People”, and in the process catapult themselves to the forefront of the Britpop movement — an achievement that 10 years earlier seemed like an impossible dream. Made with the full cooperation of Pulp, The Beat is The Law – Fanfare For The Common People brings together original interviews, performances, promos, newly unearthed live footage and home videos to tell the story of Pulp and their contemporaries’ journey from the darkest industrial depths of Sheffield to the pinnacle of pop via the consciousness-raising techno/house of Warp Records. Featuring original interviews with Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Candida Doyle and Nick Banks — plus Richard Hawley (Longpigs), Mark Brydon (Chakk/FON/Moloko), Rob Gordon (FON/Warp), Adi Newton (Clock DVA) and many more!
Directed by Eve Wood, 2010, 90 min.
Film website here.
Taryn Simon at the Tate Modern
The Taryn Simon show at the Tate Modern was also great. But after seeing Photography: New Documentary Forms plus another documentary photography show (entitled Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan), A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters was hard to digest.
All of the exhibits up at the Tate were pretty heavy and definitely caused some introspection. These 3 shows, seen all in one afternoon, left my friend and I feeling completely mentally drained. After we finished going through the Simon exhibit, we sat out by the Thames and contemplated the world and it’s fuckedupedness. It is a pretty crazy place where we live and reading through Simon’s texts about these different families, from all over the world, is certainly proof of this. My life is relatively easy compared to the struggle most humans must endure to get by on this planet and I am thankful that I have it so easy. After seeing a show like Simon’s I am reminded that I should not complain about anything and I should be MORE thankful for all that I do have. I would love to see this exhibit again.
From the Tate website:
Tate Modern premieres an important new body of work by the American artist Taryn Simon. A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters was produced over a four-year period (2008-11), during which Simon travelled around the world researching and recording bloodlines and their related stories. In each of the eighteen ‘chapters’ that make up the work, the external forces of territory, power, circumstance or religion collide with the internal forces of psychological and physical inheritance. The subjects documented by Simon include feuding families in Brazil, victims of genocide in Bosnia, the body double of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, and the living dead in India. Her collection is at once cohesive and arbitrary, mapping the relationships among chance, blood, and other components of fate.
Guardian interview with Taryn here.
Wallpaper write up and slideshow here.
Photography: New Documentary Forms
The Photography: New Documentary Forms show at the Tate Modern was excellent. The show included work by Boris Mikhailov, Mitch Epstein, Luc Delahaye, Guy Tillim, and Akram Zaatari.
what today will be like tomorrow
Another aging gentleman that I would like to hug, Jacque Fresco.
Excited for this film! Maybe I should have become an architect/engineer,
it is too bad that my brain hates Math!
I wonder if he had anything to do with Archigram?
More info on Future by Design film here.
From Netflix:
Oscar-nominated filmmaker William Gazecki directs this thought-provoking documentary chronicling the life and work of self-taught futurist Jacque Fresco, a Florida-based engineer, designer and inventor who’s built his life around forward thinking. Moving away from present-day concepts of commercialism and militarism, Fresco promotes an array of fresh, sustainable alternatives that are viable — and far from fantastical.
thanks robotowitz for this amazing link!
light industry
OK, so Greenpoint is pretty much already the greatest place to live in NYC and today I learned that Light Industry is moving to my fair neighborhood. I am VERY excited about this and if I were rich I would donate gobs of money to make sure that they took up residence on Freeman St., since I am not nouveau riche (or any type of rich, unfortunately) perhaps you can send them gobs and gobs of YOUR money… I promise to be forever ecstatic if Light Industry is only a stumble away! And everyone wants a happy Violet, yes?
Here is their Kickstarter campaign. CHECK IT OUT.
Le Tigre movie
I like Kathleen Hanna, CNN interview here.
Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour
Dir Kerthy Fix, 2010, 72 min.
Tuesday, June 7th, at the Maysles Institute, 7:30 PM.
Who Took the Bomp? follows electronic feminist icons Le Tigre on the This Island tour across four continents and ten countries. Supported by a community of devoted fans and led by outspoken Riot Grrrl pioneer Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill), Le Tigre confronts sexism and homophobia in the music industry while tearing up the stage via performance art poetics, no-holds-barred lyrics, punk rock ethos, and whip-smart wit in this edgy and entertaining documentary. Who Took the Bomp? features never before seen live performances, archival interviews, and revealing backstage footage with these trail-blazing artists. “Hysterically funny, shamelessly political and musically intense” says Rolling Stone.
Post-screening Q&A with: Director Kerthy Fix and Le Tigre members Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman.
About the Speakers:
Kerthy Fix’s credits include Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman with director Jennifer Fox, Hotel Gramercy Park with filmmaker Douglas Keeve, and Who Does She Think She Is?, airing on PBS this year. She also directed and produced Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields.
Kathleen Hanna is best known for her groundbreaking performances as a member of the seminal 90′s punk band, Bikini Kill, and her more recent multimedia group, Le Tigre. She is currently making art, giving lectures and writing a new album with her band The Julie Ruin.
Johanna Fateman, a Harlem resident and “zine queen,” is best known for her work with Le Tigre. She produces the band Men, is a frequent art and pop culture contributing writer at ArtForum and co-owns Manhattan’s Seagull salon.
things to look forward to
I really do love documentaries and there are quite a few good ones in theaters at the moment. Very exciting indeed!
Bill Cunningham New York
Now playing, schedule here.
Review here.
My Perestroika
Film website here.
Now playing, film schedule here.
Blank City
Film Website here.
Opens Wednesday, April 6, film schedule here.
Marc Séguin documentary
Bull’s Eye: A Painter on the Watch will be presented by Mike Weiss Gallery and the Québec Government Office in New York at Anthology Film Archives on April 20 at 7 pm.
More information on the artist here.
Film website here.
vic muniz – wasteland
If you are a photographer or an artist you should really watch* this documentary.
It is amazing.
Wasteland trailer
Vik Muniz, Mother and Children (Suellen), from the series Pictures of Garbage, 2008
Vik Muniz, from the series Pictures of Garbage, 2008
Vik Muniz, from the series Pictures of Garbage, 2008
Wall Street Journal article here.
New York Times article here.
*Netflix this shit.
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