“I had a feeling that things were about to happen. They were so tense, they were so agitated, in a revolting state of mind. I wanted to use the film to scream against the situation, scream like all the members of the bands I worked with. I wanted to scream along with them, making this film as a statement against the brutal situation we were all under.” -Bahman Ghobadi on young people in Tehran, June, 2009

The script for filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows about Persian Cats was rejected by the Iranian Ministry for Islamic Culture and Guidance for three years before Ghobadi took a risk: making an unlicensed film.  Shot in just 17 days with a digital S12K camera (all 35mm equipment is owned by the state), Cats is a faux-documentary following two young indie rock musicians (real life band Take It Easy Hospital) around Tehran, fusing humor with the reality of life as an underground musician in Iran.

Here’s a clip from the film, Take It Easy Hospital playing “Human Jungle”:

Although I have yet to see No One Knows about Persian Cats (US release set for April 16!), I find Ghobadi’s statement against censorship and cultural repression (of both music and film) particularly interesting when examined contextually.  The film was co-written by Hossein Abkenar and Ghobadi’s fiancée, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.  Saberi was arrested in Iran in January, 2009 and held for months on charges of espionage, initially facing an eight year prison sentence.  During her imprisonment, Ghobadi published a letter regarding Saberi’s situation which you can read here.

She was released just as Cats was about to premiere in Cannes, where the film received the Un Certain Regard prize, a grant to aid distribution in France for an innovative and daring work.  Upon returning to Iran from Cannes, Ghobadi was arrested and held for seven days, accused of “severe criticism” of the Iranian Government during the film festival.  Ghobadi was even offered between $1-2 million in exchange for all the material and rights to the film.  He refused, and was ordered to leave the country.

For more on the film’s plot, I suggest this New Internationalist article.  The Village Voice interviewed Ghobadi eight days after his release from prison, four days after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.  In the interview Ghobadi says, “The youth have seen how they can hurt the government. This three or four days has shown them that they can rush out to the streets and say what they want and take it all in their own hands. And if the government is not going to listen to them, it is going to be a bloody future. The government cannot control the people any longer..and this was the last big lie. The people were ready to erupt.”

And in case you were what the film title means, it refers to an Iranian law that bans cats and dogs from being outdoors.

One of my favorite artistic movements is Czech New Wave cinema.  The movement was deeply embedded in Czechoslovak politics of the period, particularly De-Stalinization which permitted political and cultural reforms such as state support for the film industry and increased artistic freedom generally.  The filmmakers objective was “to make the Czech people collectively aware that they were participants in a system of oppression and incompetence which had brutalized them all.”

Perhaps the international success of such films was due to Cold War curiosity about Central and Eastern Europe and these films offered the outer world a rare look at art from a communist country with relatively little censorship.  Two New Wave films received Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, The Shop on Main Street in 1965 and Closely Watched Trains in 1967.

New Wave films are characterized by dark humor, unscripted dialogue and often center around misguided youth.  My favorite is Vera Chytilová’s Sedmikrásky (Daisies, 1966), perhaps the movement’s most radical and surreal film.  The two main characters, both named Marie, realize that the world they live in is corrupt and decide to go corrupt themselves.  The narrative follows Marie I and Marie II as they justify their ‘bad’ behavior because ‘the world has gone bad.’  While Marie I and Marie II destroy social norms, Chytilová’s approach to cinematic form destroys conventions, reinforcing the audience’s shock.

Some argued Daisies is apolitical and void of substance (Jean-Luc Godard did), but I believe that any film from this era defying socialist realist aesthetics is inherently political.  Chytilová is clearly working in response to the political reality of Czechoslovakia; exploring morality, anarchy, gender roles and automatism.  I could go on and on, but I hope you’ll judge for yourself.

Avatar has made more dollars in the last month than there are people in China, but not all of its fans left the theater feeling happy. Psychology Today reports that some experienced depression and even suicidal thoughts after seeing Avatar. Here’s an example of the post-movie melancholia an Avatar fan felt:

“Ever since I went to see ‘Avatar’ I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it. I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in ‘Avatar.’

No, it’s not because Avatar has a silly script or condescendingly simplifies the complex historical narratives of native peoples. The reason is that some Avatar fans can’t handle being thrust back into the bleak reality of early 21st century Earth, a dying planet whose quickly decaying beauty can’t match the shimmering, bioluminescent landscapes of Pandora (the planet where Avatar is set). Finding the IMdB discussions full of “trolls and 12 year old deconstructors”  (according to one Avatar enthusiast) the blockbuster film’s fans have created their own online forum communities, one of which includes a thread entitled ‘Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible’ And an antidote is indeed desperately needed.

Another forum member offered a rather comprehensive solution:

“Start living like Neytiri: in touch with nature, the environment, and not being greedy and wasteful. Pass on the burger, for something more healthy for you and less cruel to animals. Spend your time on this forum, or volunteering in your free time, instead of getting high or drinking, twiddling your thumbs, being apathetic and complaining about how bad the world is. Don’t get swept away by the wave of negativity, live your dream. Your life has only two switches, to shine or not to shine. There is no ‘apathy’ setting. If you’re on apathy setting you might as well sign your world away to destruction. When you get discouraged by everyone around you, be courageous like Jake, and jump on the leonopteryx. Be the change you want to see in your world. There are only so many people on this earth, the more of them that are doing positive things, the less of them that are out there doing negative things. It’s unfortunate that we live in a world where, just by pulling a trigger or making a corporate decision, one single greedy human being can wipe out the hard works of love of many people. But this is why we need to stop focusing on money and start focusing on our environment. Because we have the intelligence to kill ourselves, but not the wisdom to stop it. What will our money buy, when everything that is worth having is destroyed? The only way you can fill the emptiness you feel after this movie, is to jump on the leonopteryx.”

Speaking as someone who has seen this movie (in Copenhagen, actually, so the Danish subtitles sort of distorted some of the experience, since parts of the dialogue are in Na’vi, the lilting language of idyllic Pandora’s noble natives) I can tell you that it’s not worth getting this worked up about, just in case that wasn’t clear. It’s a great looking movie but it’s certainly not a great movie. Indeed, Jake Sully, the Na’vi’s human advocate (dressed up as an alien for diplomatic purposes (don’t worry, it’s  a long story)) fulfills the tired troupe of White Savior, like some sort of interstellar Lawrence of Arabia or Kevin Costner’s character in the eponymous Dances with Wolves. Don’t take my word for it though, this is Ezili Danto’s interpretation. Personally, I can’t find a reason to disagree with her. So maybe one way to beat those “Avatar blues” is to remember that, at the end of the day, two important facts a) the millions of dollars James Cameron spent making Avatar (and the subsequent cost of pricey tickets for 3-D showings) all could’ve gone to, I don’t know, cleaning up The Chesapeake Bay or subsidizing wind farm construction. At least something less vain, frivolous, and decadent  than a major motion picture.  And, of course, b) it’s just a movie. A great antidote to movies are books. I suggest Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece Blood Meridian, a novel depicting panoramas surpassing Pandora’s in primordial beauty.

In a hip hop and R’n’B world dominated by men and noted for misogyny, the unstoppable female lyricists of Say My Name speak candidly about class, race, and gender in pursuing their passions as female MCs. This worldwide documentary takes viewers on a vibrant tour of urban culture and musical movement: from hip hop’s birthplace in the Bronx, to game on London’s eastside.

Featuring interviews from a diverse cast of women including Remy Ma, Rah Digga, Jean Grae, Erykah Badu, Estelle and newcomers Chocolate Thai, Invincible and Miz Korona, this powerful documentary delves into the amazing personal stories of women balancing professional dreams with the stark realities of poor urban communities, race, sexism and motherhood. The more then 18 artists featured in Say My Name battle for a place in a society that creates few changes for women. From emerging artists filled with new creativity, to true pioneers like MC Lyte, Roxxanne Shante, and Monie Love, these are women turning adversity to art.

More here.

Showing 12:00 pm, Wednesday, November 29 at Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus, HC 122

One of the works shown this past weekend at the Creative Time Summit was Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), a film by Israeli artist Yael Bartana.  I had missed its debut at the Jewish Museum earlier this year but caught up with this amazing work at the Tirana Biennial last month.  The short film powerfully explores a complicated set of social and political relationships among Jews, Poles, and other Europeans in the age of globalization. Using the structure and sensibility of a World War II propaganda film, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) addresses contemporary anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Poland, the longing for the Jewish past among liberal Polish intellectuals, the desire among a new generation of Poles to be fully accepted as Europeans, and the Zionist dream of return to Israel.

More here.

Bijou Theater
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

October 25 – 7 pm
COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS
Directed by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McCleod

Produced by University of Iowa professorKembrew McCleod, Copyright Criminals is a documentary that poses the question: Can you own a sound? The film traces the history of sampling in the music industry and the increasing government regulation on the practice, featuring interviews from music legends like Chuck D, George Clinton, and Clyde Stubblefield.

Q&A session with producer Kembrew McCleod following the free screening.
Also showing in DC at the JCC.  More here.

[text from Bijou mailing. Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

The Yes Men

The Yes Men Fix The World

[graphic from Yes Men electronic mass mailing. Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]

On Belonging is a screening of short films in conjunction with Floating Lab Collective’s current exhibition, Res Publica des Usonia: Space as Essay. Using this exhibition as a conceptual basis, filmmaker Michael H. Shamberg has curated six films that explore belonging.  Shamberg will be present, along with three other filmmakers to discuss their films following their screening.

NYC Weights and Measures by Jem Cohen (6 minutes – 2006)
“While shooting from a train window in 2005, my film was confiscated and turned over to the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the F.B.I. This piece, which once might have been seen as strictly “lyrical,” is now also a reflection on these issues.” – Jem Cohen

The Dog Poem by Sue Wrbican (6 minutes – 1999)
A canine “voice” mines deeper psychological concerns around the decision between breaking away from a destructive cycle of horrific dependence, by weighing it against the unpredictable search for something better within utter loss of hope.

Bab Touma – Gate of Thomas Damascus by Nelly Sarkissian (7 minutes – 2009)
Against the backdrop of Old Damascus, through the Gate of Thomas (Bab Touma as it was once called during the Holy Roman Empire), and within the confines of the Christian quarter, seven years of unpaid rent underscores the story of three women’s struggle: to preserve the family treasure that is their old grandmother’s villa.

Aliens Among Us by Martina Radwan (24 minutes – 2009)
Of the several hysterical responses our government made to the horrible attacks of 9/11, one was Attorney General John Ashcroft’s decision to register all people from 25 Middle Eastern countries, without any individual risk assessment. By following a handful of the thousands of people whose lives were disrupted by the Special Registration campaign, Radwan shines a fascinating light on a dark spot in our history. (Jed Dietz)

Flamingo by Robert Frank (7 minutes – 1997)
Frank’s poetic diary (with voiceover narration) recording the construction of a new foundation for his house in a remote area of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; it silently describes the need to keep working in the face of nature and time.

p.s. beirut, chapter one by Michael H Shamberg (7-minutes – 2008)
a bricolage of scars, traces of repair iconic meditations on the other side of war.

Thursday, October 8, 4-6pm, Cafritz Foundation Art Center, Montgomery College, Silver Spring Campus.

More here.

This Saturday starting at 2:30, the National Gallery is hosting an afternoon with distinguished documentary filmmaker George C. Stoney, including screenings and a dialogue with Patricia Aufderheide, professor at American University’s Center for Social Media. Stoney is also known as the progenitor of community access television.

Fifth Street School Auditorium
401 South 4th Street
Las Vegas, NV 89101

Friday, September 4 , 2009 @ 7:00 PM
Artist’s Lecture and Screening:

Christoph Draeger – Last Chance

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1965, Christoph Draeger is known for investigating the events and sites of disaster and, more recently, the utopian thought and culture of the late 1960s.

The evening’s program includes opening remarks by curator, Alise Upitis, followed by a screening and remarks by the artist. The screening includes:

Bunkerball,the tale of a man who believes himself the last surviving human. He passes his time by playing a one-person game of soccer in a fallout shelter, although he is all the while haunted by memories of the past. Pastoral images of Bavarian home life are inter-cut with the flashes of horror that may explain his lone status, such as masses of chickens infected with bird flu, chainsaw-wielding monsters, and scenes of both government and terrorist sponsored executions. It serves as a reflection on the hyper-media status of professional sports and the extreme disjunction produced by contemporary media practices.

Three other films will be screened.

Co-Sponsored by The City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas, and the Swiss Arts Council

[text from City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs press release. Graphic from artist's website. Caption: "Still from Hippie Movie, 2008. Hippie Movie, shot in HD video and Super-8, is a funny, post-romantic documentary about a Hippie movement named Tropolicalia, which was founded by Christoph Draeger in Warsaw as an ironic remake of San Francisco's Summer of Love 1967. In the light of rising social injustice, an unpopular war in Iraq, ecological concerns and a new cold war looming, the film is a meditation on political, social and cultural behavior first coined in the 1960's by the Hippies, who protested and contested many issues that seem to make a comeback today. It is also a celebration of the inventions of 1960's rock music, and last but not least, a hallucinatory, post-psychedelic visual trip." Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]