Also need 15 absurd/quirky warm up questions
Pronouncer Information 1. Read carefully the Judges, Recorders, Spellers and Audiences information that is included in the Scripps pronouncers’ guide. 2. Familiarize yourself with all words on the confidential word list. Pronunciation is important. A meeting with the judges to insure pronunciation of words and procedures will be scheduled prior to the Bee beginning. 3. Speak clearly for contestants, judges and audience alike. Grant all requests to repeat a word until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. You may request the speller to speak more clearly or louder. 4. “Pace” yourself. You need time to focus attention on the pronunciation of the new word and the judges need a few moments between each contestant to do their tasks.
Speller’s Information 1. Each speller needs to focus on the Pronouncer, to aid his or her hearing and understanding of the context of the word. A speller may ask for the word to be repeated, for its use in a sentence, for a definition, for the part of speech, and for the language of origin. 2. Each speller should pronounce the word before and after spelling it. If the speller fails to pronounce the word after spelling it, the judge may ask if they are finished. If they say yes, the judge will remind the speller to remember to repeat the word the next time. (No speller will be eliminated for failing to pronounce a word.) 3. When a speller is at the podium spelling, the next speller should be standing at a marked location ready to proceed to the podium.
452) pseudonym
453) titillation
454) beleaguered
455) fulcrum
456) decoupage
457) canorous
458) vitiate
459) vengeance
460) logorrhoea
461) mettle
462) courageous
463) audacious
464) syllogism
465) intransigence
466) epistemology
467)
Slurring bee #2: 64
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Dialogic Cinephilia - January 11, 2019
If we think the "crisis at the border" is the lack of a sure-to-be ineffective $5 billion wall and not the fact that we are currently caging and abusing (and losing track of) 14,000+ children (unnecessarily ripped from their parents) in for-profit prisons then I think as a nation, and as individual citizens, we need to ask ourselves, WTF do we care about... -- MB
Arkin, William. "On Homeland Security’s Creeping Fascism and Why the CIA & FBI Won’t Save Us from Trump." Democracy Now (January 9, 2019) [An extremely lucid and cogent critique of "the mainstream media for encouraging perpetual warfare and bolstering the national security state." Ask yourself, how many countries did we bomb the past year? How many countries are we currently fighting in militarily (directly and indirectly)? What is the role and function of the many arms of homeland security? Should we, as citizens of a democracy, have at least a cursory knowledge (and interest/concern) about these things? Also: "Longtime Reporter Leaves NBC Saying Media Is “Trump Circus” That Encourages Perpetual War."]
"Developing A Media Education Language: From Persuasive Techniques to Analytical Tools." ACME (ND)
Elizabeth S. Anderson: Philosophy/Women's Studies Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Hochschild, Arlie. "Anger and Mourning on the American Right." Conversations with History (October 5, 2017) ["Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Arlie Hochschild for a discussion of her book "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right." Hochschild discusses formative influences shaping her intellectual journey, describes her pioneering work on the sociology of emotions, and traces the evolution of her methodology. She then explains the decision to pursue her study of the American right in Louisiana beginning in 2011; how she undertook an empathetic engagement with citizens devastated by pollution but committed to the oil and gas industry; and how she developed a deep story to explain the emotions motivating her subjects to support right wing perspectives despite the devastation of the environment which they appreciated and loved. She also discusses their attraction to the Trump phenomena. She concludes with the lessons learned and their implications for mending the divide that is tearing the country apart."]
Kaba, Mariame. "There Are Thousands of Cyntoia Browns: Mariame Kaba on Criminalization of Sexual Violence Survivors." Democracy Now (January 10, 2019) ["Cyntoia Brown was granted full clemency by Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam on Monday after serving 15 years in prison. The decision follows months of intense public pressure and outrage over her case. Brown was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for shooting her rapist as a teenager. She had been sexually trafficked and repeatedly abused and drugged. The shooting happened when Brown was just 16 years old, but she was tried as an adult. We speak with Mariame Kaba, organizer and educator who has worked on anti-domestic violence programs, anti-incarceration and racial justice programs since the late 1980s. Kaba is the co-founder of Survived and Punished, an organization that supports survivors of violence who have been criminalized for defending themselves. She’s also a board member of Critical Resistance."]
Melville, David. "A Ferocious Modesty: Benoît Jacquot’s The Wings of the Dove." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
Arkin, William. "On Homeland Security’s Creeping Fascism and Why the CIA & FBI Won’t Save Us from Trump." Democracy Now (January 9, 2019) [An extremely lucid and cogent critique of "the mainstream media for encouraging perpetual warfare and bolstering the national security state." Ask yourself, how many countries did we bomb the past year? How many countries are we currently fighting in militarily (directly and indirectly)? What is the role and function of the many arms of homeland security? Should we, as citizens of a democracy, have at least a cursory knowledge (and interest/concern) about these things? Also: "Longtime Reporter Leaves NBC Saying Media Is “Trump Circus” That Encourages Perpetual War."]
"Developing A Media Education Language: From Persuasive Techniques to Analytical Tools." ACME (ND)
Elizabeth S. Anderson: Philosophy/Women's Studies Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Hochschild, Arlie. "Anger and Mourning on the American Right." Conversations with History (October 5, 2017) ["Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Arlie Hochschild for a discussion of her book "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right." Hochschild discusses formative influences shaping her intellectual journey, describes her pioneering work on the sociology of emotions, and traces the evolution of her methodology. She then explains the decision to pursue her study of the American right in Louisiana beginning in 2011; how she undertook an empathetic engagement with citizens devastated by pollution but committed to the oil and gas industry; and how she developed a deep story to explain the emotions motivating her subjects to support right wing perspectives despite the devastation of the environment which they appreciated and loved. She also discusses their attraction to the Trump phenomena. She concludes with the lessons learned and their implications for mending the divide that is tearing the country apart."]
Kaba, Mariame. "There Are Thousands of Cyntoia Browns: Mariame Kaba on Criminalization of Sexual Violence Survivors." Democracy Now (January 10, 2019) ["Cyntoia Brown was granted full clemency by Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam on Monday after serving 15 years in prison. The decision follows months of intense public pressure and outrage over her case. Brown was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for shooting her rapist as a teenager. She had been sexually trafficked and repeatedly abused and drugged. The shooting happened when Brown was just 16 years old, but she was tried as an adult. We speak with Mariame Kaba, organizer and educator who has worked on anti-domestic violence programs, anti-incarceration and racial justice programs since the late 1980s. Kaba is the co-founder of Survived and Punished, an organization that supports survivors of violence who have been criminalized for defending themselves. She’s also a board member of Critical Resistance."]
Melville, David. "A Ferocious Modesty: Benoît Jacquot’s The Wings of the Dove." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Dialogic Cinephilia - January 9, 2019
"The 100 Greatest Achievements in Cinematography in the 20th Century, According to American Society of Cinematographers." The Film Stage (January 9, 2019)
Abdurraqib, Hanif. "Blackklansman and the Art of Code Switching." Pacific Standard (August 20, 2018) ["Beyond tics in dialect, code-switching often requires a shift in ideology."]
Bitel, Anton. "Anticipating Asian Cinema in 2019." Scene 360* (January 7, 2019)
Cummings, Janae and Jon Vickers. "Boots Riley Interview." Profiles (December 23, 2018) ["Mobilizer, instigator, and artist Boots Riley is a prolific poet, singer, songwriter, producer, humorist, and screenwriter. He is a director of films, music videos, and television. He is also a community organizer and public speaker who weaves his social activism and engagement into all of his creative work. Never afraid to speak his mind, or even to challenge his heroes, Boots Riley found politics and activism at the age of fourteen. He is heavily involved in the Occupy Oakland movement, and is one of the leaders of the activist group, The Young Comrades. His directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2018, and opened in theaters nationwide in July. Boots Riley has also been recording hip-hop and funk music for over 25 years as the songwriter and lead singer of the bands The Coup, and Street Sweeper Social Club. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed collection of his writings and lyrics, called Tell Homeland Security-We Are the Bomb."]
Gerwig, Greta and Luca Guadagnino. "Oscar Contenders at NYFF." The Close-Up (January 25, 2018) ["...we’re looking back to the New York premieres of two films in the running: Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name. Both films premiered here in the 55th New York Film Festival last October, and the directors answered questions from critics and members of the press before their public screenings. Greta Gerwig joined NYFF Director Kent Jones, and Luca Guadagnino joined the Film Society’s Director of Programming Dennis Lim."]
Heller, Nathan. "The Philosopher Redefining Equality." The New Yorker (January 7, 2019) ["Elizabeth Anderson thinks we’ve misunderstood the basis of a free and fair society."]
Iordanova, Dina. "Letter Never Sent: Refining Fire." The Current (March 21, 2012)
Abdurraqib, Hanif. "Blackklansman and the Art of Code Switching." Pacific Standard (August 20, 2018) ["Beyond tics in dialect, code-switching often requires a shift in ideology."]
Bitel, Anton. "Anticipating Asian Cinema in 2019." Scene 360* (January 7, 2019)
Cummings, Janae and Jon Vickers. "Boots Riley Interview." Profiles (December 23, 2018) ["Mobilizer, instigator, and artist Boots Riley is a prolific poet, singer, songwriter, producer, humorist, and screenwriter. He is a director of films, music videos, and television. He is also a community organizer and public speaker who weaves his social activism and engagement into all of his creative work. Never afraid to speak his mind, or even to challenge his heroes, Boots Riley found politics and activism at the age of fourteen. He is heavily involved in the Occupy Oakland movement, and is one of the leaders of the activist group, The Young Comrades. His directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2018, and opened in theaters nationwide in July. Boots Riley has also been recording hip-hop and funk music for over 25 years as the songwriter and lead singer of the bands The Coup, and Street Sweeper Social Club. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed collection of his writings and lyrics, called Tell Homeland Security-We Are the Bomb."]
Gerwig, Greta and Luca Guadagnino. "Oscar Contenders at NYFF." The Close-Up (January 25, 2018) ["...we’re looking back to the New York premieres of two films in the running: Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name. Both films premiered here in the 55th New York Film Festival last October, and the directors answered questions from critics and members of the press before their public screenings. Greta Gerwig joined NYFF Director Kent Jones, and Luca Guadagnino joined the Film Society’s Director of Programming Dennis Lim."]
Iordanova, Dina. "Letter Never Sent: Refining Fire." The Current (March 21, 2012)
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Dialogic Cinephilia - January 8, 2019
Brody, Richard. "Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria Is the Cinematic Equivalent of a Designer Che T-Shirt." The New Yorker (October 30, 2018)
Fear, David. "Which Witch Is Which: In Praise of the Original Suspiria." Rolling Stone (October 30, 2018) ["As Luca Guadagnino’s remake goes into wide release, a look back at Dario Argento’s 1977 surreal Technicolor nightmare."]
Gee, Felicity. "Claire Denis." The Cinematologist #61 (April 19, 2018) ["The episode covers a range of topics including aesthetics and feminism, the canonisation of Beau Travail, as well as the new film and how it fits into her body of work. Music in the episode comes from some of the collaborations Denis has undertaken with the band Tindersticks."]
Lanthimos, Yorgos. "Watch Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz Spar in The Favourite." The New York Times (November 28, 2018)
Magalhães, Letícia. "#Crucial21DbW: The Second Mother / Que horas ela volta? directed by Anna Muylaert." Directed by Women (January 1, 2019)
Ng, Alan. "All is True." Film Threat (January 6, 2019)
"Philippe Garrel Talks Filmmaking at NYFF." The Close-Up (January 4, 2018)
Prendeville, David. "#Crucial21DbW: In My Skin/Dans Ma Peau directed by Marina de Van." Directed by Women (January 2, 2019)
Solomon, Stefan. "The Imitation Game: Jean Eustache’s My Little Loves." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
"Winners 2018." British Independent Film Awards (December 3, 2018)
Fear, David. "Which Witch Is Which: In Praise of the Original Suspiria." Rolling Stone (October 30, 2018) ["As Luca Guadagnino’s remake goes into wide release, a look back at Dario Argento’s 1977 surreal Technicolor nightmare."]
Gee, Felicity. "Claire Denis." The Cinematologist #61 (April 19, 2018) ["The episode covers a range of topics including aesthetics and feminism, the canonisation of Beau Travail, as well as the new film and how it fits into her body of work. Music in the episode comes from some of the collaborations Denis has undertaken with the band Tindersticks."]
Lanthimos, Yorgos. "Watch Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz Spar in The Favourite." The New York Times (November 28, 2018)
Magalhães, Letícia. "#Crucial21DbW: The Second Mother / Que horas ela volta? directed by Anna Muylaert." Directed by Women (January 1, 2019)
Ng, Alan. "All is True." Film Threat (January 6, 2019)
"Philippe Garrel Talks Filmmaking at NYFF." The Close-Up (January 4, 2018)
Prendeville, David. "#Crucial21DbW: In My Skin/Dans Ma Peau directed by Marina de Van." Directed by Women (January 2, 2019)
Solomon, Stefan. "The Imitation Game: Jean Eustache’s My Little Loves." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
"Winners 2018." British Independent Film Awards (December 3, 2018)
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Dialogic Cinephilia - January 6, 2019
"A Counterbalance to Canonization (The Political Life of George H.W. Bush)." Best of the Left #1235 (December 14, 2018) ["Today we take a look critically at the life and times of George H.W. Bush."]
Bombach, Alexandria. "On Her Shoulders: Stunning Film Follows Nobel Peace Winner Nadia Murad’s Fight to End Sexual Violence." Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["We look at the remarkable story of Nadia Murad, the Yazidi human rights activist from Iraq who was recently awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Murad was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 and repeatedly raped as she was held in captivity. After managing to escape, Murad fled Iraq and has dedicated her life to drawing international attention to the plight of the Yazidi people. The documentary “On Her Shoulders” follows Murad as she shares her story with the world. The documentary has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and recently received the Columbia Journalism duPont Award. We speak with the film’s award-winning director Alexandria Bombach."]
Cohen, Julie and Betsy West. "RBG: As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Recovers from Surgery, a Remarkable Film Charts Her Trajectory." Democracy Now (December 27, 2018) ["Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital following surgery that removed two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors called the surgery a success and said there’s no sign that Ginsburg’s cancer has spread. The health of the liberal 85-year-old justice—the oldest sitting justice on the Supreme Court bench—has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. In November, she was hospitalized after a fall that resulted in three fractured ribs. She previously fractured two ribs in 2012 and has twice survived cancer—pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Despite her illnesses, in her 25 years on the court Ginsburg has never missed a day of oral argument. We turn now to a remarkable award-winning documentary released earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It’s called ”RBG.”"]
Grossman, Julie. "In a Lonely Place." The Cinematologists #59 (March 12, 2018) ["The career of Nicolas Ray boasts many films that are part of the cinematic canon, but it was his 1950 Film Noir In a Lonely Place that cemented his directorial sensibility and his appreciation of the fragile human condition. Starring an ageing Humphrey Bogart, in one of his most complex roles, and Gloria Grahame, who perhaps even surpasses Bogey in a performance that has the wit of Bacall, the emotion of Bergman and the sexiness of Hayworth. Screened in front of a full house in Hastings' Electric Palace In a Lonely Place provokes many interesting questions around sexual politics, representation, the dark side of Hollywood and how we understand cinema through the problematic structure of genre. For this episode, Dario interviews Professor Julie Grossman, director of Film Studies at Le Moyne College, upstate New York. Prof Grossman's book Rethinking the Femme Fatale contests the critical discourses that simplistically posit the female icon of Noir as an object of male fantasy and anxiety."]
Lodge, Guy. "The horror? How Suspiria leads the way for arthouse scares." The Guardian (October 24, 2018) ["In Luca Guadagnino’s lavish remake of the giallo classic, genre formula is upended for something far more audacious. It’s the latest ‘art-horror’ to confuse audiences."]
Miéville, China. "A Strategy for Ruination." Boston Review (January 8, 2018) ["Writing about China Miéville in the Guardian, fantasy luminary Ursula K. Le Guin opined, “You can’t talk about Miéville without using the word ‘brilliant.’” Miéville is a rare sort of polyglot, an acclaimed novelist—he has won nearly every award for fantasy and science fiction that there is, often multiple times—who is equally comfortable in the worlds of politics and academia. Combining his skills as a storyteller and Marxist theorist, his most recent book, October, regales readers with the key events of the Russian Revolution. In this interview, Miéville discusses the intersections between his creative oeuvre and the political projects of utopia and dystopia."]
O'Leary, Barbara Ann. "Crucial 21st Century Cinema #DirectedbyWomen." #DirectedbyWomen (December 4, 2018)
Bombach, Alexandria. "On Her Shoulders: Stunning Film Follows Nobel Peace Winner Nadia Murad’s Fight to End Sexual Violence." Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["We look at the remarkable story of Nadia Murad, the Yazidi human rights activist from Iraq who was recently awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Murad was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 and repeatedly raped as she was held in captivity. After managing to escape, Murad fled Iraq and has dedicated her life to drawing international attention to the plight of the Yazidi people. The documentary “On Her Shoulders” follows Murad as she shares her story with the world. The documentary has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and recently received the Columbia Journalism duPont Award. We speak with the film’s award-winning director Alexandria Bombach."]
Cohen, Julie and Betsy West. "RBG: As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Recovers from Surgery, a Remarkable Film Charts Her Trajectory." Democracy Now (December 27, 2018) ["Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital following surgery that removed two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors called the surgery a success and said there’s no sign that Ginsburg’s cancer has spread. The health of the liberal 85-year-old justice—the oldest sitting justice on the Supreme Court bench—has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. In November, she was hospitalized after a fall that resulted in three fractured ribs. She previously fractured two ribs in 2012 and has twice survived cancer—pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Despite her illnesses, in her 25 years on the court Ginsburg has never missed a day of oral argument. We turn now to a remarkable award-winning documentary released earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It’s called ”RBG.”"]
Grossman, Julie. "In a Lonely Place." The Cinematologists #59 (March 12, 2018) ["The career of Nicolas Ray boasts many films that are part of the cinematic canon, but it was his 1950 Film Noir In a Lonely Place that cemented his directorial sensibility and his appreciation of the fragile human condition. Starring an ageing Humphrey Bogart, in one of his most complex roles, and Gloria Grahame, who perhaps even surpasses Bogey in a performance that has the wit of Bacall, the emotion of Bergman and the sexiness of Hayworth. Screened in front of a full house in Hastings' Electric Palace In a Lonely Place provokes many interesting questions around sexual politics, representation, the dark side of Hollywood and how we understand cinema through the problematic structure of genre. For this episode, Dario interviews Professor Julie Grossman, director of Film Studies at Le Moyne College, upstate New York. Prof Grossman's book Rethinking the Femme Fatale contests the critical discourses that simplistically posit the female icon of Noir as an object of male fantasy and anxiety."]
Lodge, Guy. "The horror? How Suspiria leads the way for arthouse scares." The Guardian (October 24, 2018) ["In Luca Guadagnino’s lavish remake of the giallo classic, genre formula is upended for something far more audacious. It’s the latest ‘art-horror’ to confuse audiences."]
Miéville, China. "A Strategy for Ruination." Boston Review (January 8, 2018) ["Writing about China Miéville in the Guardian, fantasy luminary Ursula K. Le Guin opined, “You can’t talk about Miéville without using the word ‘brilliant.’” Miéville is a rare sort of polyglot, an acclaimed novelist—he has won nearly every award for fantasy and science fiction that there is, often multiple times—who is equally comfortable in the worlds of politics and academia. Combining his skills as a storyteller and Marxist theorist, his most recent book, October, regales readers with the key events of the Russian Revolution. In this interview, Miéville discusses the intersections between his creative oeuvre and the political projects of utopia and dystopia."]
O'Leary, Barbara Ann. "Crucial 21st Century Cinema #DirectedbyWomen." #DirectedbyWomen (December 4, 2018)
Purnell, Derecka. "Radical Political Action." Boston Review (March 7, 2016) ["In the Black Study, Black Struggle forum, Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that. At Harvard Law School, a group called Reclaim Harvard Law has occupied one of the school's lounges and is holding weekly political education sessions there. Purnell shared with us her list of the texts that have been circulating in the group. It reveals an investment in liberation from not only racial oppression, but from all forms of oppression, including sexual and financial. This is informed by a commitment to "intersectionality," Kimberlé Crenshaw's insight that various forms of oppression are entangled and amplify one another, and thus must be fought in concert. We present this list, in the form it was presented to us, as the current pulse of the movement and a testament to its members' brilliance."]
"Understanding the Yellow Vests Protests." Best of the Left #1237 (December 21, 2018) ["Today we take a look at the Yellow Vests protest in France to understand what they are, how they started and what implications they have for the struggle between neoliberal, fascist and progressive politics worldwide."]
Friday, January 4, 2019
Dialogic Cinephilia - January 4, 2019
Becker, Richard. "How Four Roses Bourbon Strikers Fought Off Two-Tier." Labor Notes (January 3, 2019)
Crosbie, Jay. "The Truth Is A Word: The Films Of Margarethe Von Trotta." The Quietus (November 17, 2018)
Hathaway, Andrew and Courtney Small. "The Bigamist." Changing Reels (May 24, 2018) ["Ida Lupino was the first woman to direct a film noir, but her work behind the camera is not as well-known as her acting career in front of it. In this episode we talk post-war America, classic cinema and why a happily married man gets the itch for something more as we take in Lupino’s 1953 film The Bigamist. We also discuss our short film pick of the week Vows by Tal Zagreba."]
"Lucrecia Martel’s Zama Leads Film Comment’s Top 20 Films of 2018." Film Comment (December 12, 2018)
Michel, Brett and Stephen Slaughter Head. "Kaneto Shindô’s Kuroneko (1968)." Captive Eye #8 (April 2, 2012) ["Steve and Japanese film expert, Brett Michel, discuss Kaneto Shindô’s classic ghost story, KURONEKO (1968), the precursor to modern Japanese horror films like Ringu (1998) and Ju-on (2002)."]
Radsch, Courtney and Sarah Leah Whitson. "Netflix Censors Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia, Sparking Backlash over Khashoggi Killing, War in Yemen." Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["Netflix is under fire for pulling an episode of U.S. comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show “Patriot Act” from Saudi Arabia, after officials from the kingdom complained to the streaming company that it violated Saudi cybercrime laws. The episode was posted in late October, a few weeks after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Hasan Minhaj sharply criticized the Saudi royal family and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The censored episode has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube, where it remains available to viewers in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, Minhaj tweeted, “Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube. Let’s not forget that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen right now. Please donate: help.rescue.org/donate/yemen.” We speak with Courtney Radsch, advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division."]
Singer, Leigh. "Dogtooth Gives Off a Serious Bite." Fandor (November 26, 2018)
Swinney, Jacob T. "The Final Shot: Fading to White." Fandor (November 30, 2018)
Velde, Danica van de. "Erosion by Desire: Marguerite Duras’ Self-Adaptations." Senses of Cinema (October 2018)
Crosbie, Jay. "The Truth Is A Word: The Films Of Margarethe Von Trotta." The Quietus (November 17, 2018)
"Lucrecia Martel’s Zama Leads Film Comment’s Top 20 Films of 2018." Film Comment (December 12, 2018)
Michel, Brett and Stephen Slaughter Head. "Kaneto Shindô’s Kuroneko (1968)." Captive Eye #8 (April 2, 2012) ["Steve and Japanese film expert, Brett Michel, discuss Kaneto Shindô’s classic ghost story, KURONEKO (1968), the precursor to modern Japanese horror films like Ringu (1998) and Ju-on (2002)."]
Radsch, Courtney and Sarah Leah Whitson. "Netflix Censors Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia, Sparking Backlash over Khashoggi Killing, War in Yemen." Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["Netflix is under fire for pulling an episode of U.S. comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show “Patriot Act” from Saudi Arabia, after officials from the kingdom complained to the streaming company that it violated Saudi cybercrime laws. The episode was posted in late October, a few weeks after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Hasan Minhaj sharply criticized the Saudi royal family and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The censored episode has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube, where it remains available to viewers in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, Minhaj tweeted, “Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube. Let’s not forget that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen right now. Please donate: help.rescue.org/donate/yemen.” We speak with Courtney Radsch, advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division."]
Singer, Leigh. "Dogtooth Gives Off a Serious Bite." Fandor (November 26, 2018)
Swinney, Jacob T. "The Final Shot: Fading to White." Fandor (November 30, 2018)
Velde, Danica van de. "Erosion by Desire: Marguerite Duras’ Self-Adaptations." Senses of Cinema (October 2018)
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Bluegrass Film Society: Spring 2019 Schedule
1/14: Two Days, One Night (Belgium: Dardenne Brothers, 2014: 95 mins)
1/15: The Endless (USA: Justin Benson/Aaron Morehead, 2017: 111 mins)
1/22: Blindspotting (USA: Carlos López Estrada, 2018: 95 mins)
1/28: Three Outlaw Samurai (Japan: Hideo Gosha, 1964: 95 mins)
1/29: Leave No Trace (USA/Canada: Debra Granik, 2018: 109 mins)
2/4: Smithereens (USA: Susan Seidelman, 1982: 93 min)
2/5: Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (France: Bruno Dumont, 2017: 105 mins)
2/11: The Other Side of Hope (Finland: Aki Kaurismäki, 2017: 100 mins)
2/12: BlacKkKlansman (USA: Spike Lee, 2018: 135 mins)
2/19: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (UK/Ireland/USA: Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017: 121 mins)
2/25: Letter Never Sent (Soviet Union: Mikhail Kalatozov, 1959: 96 min)
2/26: Coherence (USA/UK: James Ward Byrkit, 2013: 89 mins)
3/4: Death by Hanging (Japan: Nagisa Oshima, 1968: 118 mins)
3/5: Paddington 2 (UK/France/USA: Paul King, 2017: 103 mins)
3/25: Dheepan (France: Jacques Audiard, 2015: 115 mins)
3/26: Won't You Be My Neighbor (USA: Morgan Neville, 2018: 94 mins)
4/1: I, Daniel Blake (UK/France/Belgium: Ken Loach, 2016: 100 mins)
4/2: Madeline's Madeline (USA: Josephine Decker, 2018: 93 mins)
4/8: Foxtrot (Israel: Samuel Maoz, 2017: 113 mins)
4/9: Burning (South Korea: Lee Chang-Dong, 2018: 148 mins)
4/15: Wildlife (USA: Paul Dano, 2018: 105 mins)
4/16: Lover for a Day (France: Philippe Garrel, 2017: 76 mins)
4/22: Graduation (Romania/France/Belgium: Cristian Mungiu, 2016: 128 mins)
4/23: Before We Vanish (Japan: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2018: 129 mins)
4/29: Cold Water (France: Olivier Assayas, 1994: 92 mins)
4/30: BPM - Beats Per Minute (France: Robin Campillo, 2017: 143 mins)
5/6: Border (Sweden/Denmark: Ali Abbasi, 2018: 110 mins)
5/7: The Ornithologist (Portugal/France/Brazil: João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016: 117 mins)
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 30, 2018
Anderson, Jake. "The Handmaiden." Letterboxd (December 29, 2018)
Carter, Erica. "Margarethe von Trotta: 'Becoming a director was always the real goal.'" Sight & Sound (November 23, 2018)
Davies, William (read by Andrew McGregor). "Why We Stopped Trusting Elites." Audio Long Reads (December 14, 2018)
McCann, Ruairí. "Ash is Purest White." Photogénie (October 19, 2018)
McGreal, Chris (read by Lucy Scott). "The Making of an Opioid Epidemic." Audio Long Reads (December 3, 2018) ["When high doses of painkillers led to widespread addiction, it was called one of the biggest mistakes in modern medicine. But this was no accident."]
Movius, Geoffrey. "An Interview with Susan Sontag." Boston Review (June 1, 1975) [Photography, memory, history, identity (cultural & individual), and representation]
Ng, Alan. "Palacios." Film Threat (December 28, 2018)
"Revisiting The Dark Crystal." Breaking the Glass Slipper (August 23, 2018) ["If you haven’t seen this cult Henson classic, The Dark Crystal tells the story of Jen, the last – or so he believes – Gelfling, who is prophesied to bring about the fall of the evil Skesis and heal a powerful relic, the titular Dark Crystal. His story is modelled on the classic chosen one trope, where a young and inexperienced boy holds the fate of the world in his hands. This film was made in 1982, so how does it hold up? The advantage of fantasy is that it has the potential to avoid looking as dated as films like The Terminator or The Lost Boys. At the time it was made, TDC was hailed as the only live action film in which a human character makes no appearance. So is it the use of puppetry that keeps the years at bay? And can we forgive the film its stereotypes that – after 30 years of commercial fantasy – now make us cringe?"]
Wilson, Bee (read by Ruth Barnes). "Yes, Bacon Really is Killing Us." Audio Long Reads (December 25, 2018) ["Decades’ worth of research proves that chemicals used to make bacon do cause cancer. So how did the meat industry convince us it was safe?"]
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 13, 2018
Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations/Lobbying Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Ehrlich, David. "The 25 Best Movie Moments of 2018, According to IndieWire Critic David Ehrlich." IndieWire (December 3, 2018)
Graeber, David. "On Inequality and Human History." Against the Grain (November 21, 2018) ["Open any world history book and you’ll read that the Neolithic Revolution was the key turning point in human history, when hunter gatherers gave up roaming in small egalitarian tribes and settled down to farm. Out of that, civilization was born, with all the benefits and ills connected to it: the rise of cities, the emergence of the state, inequality, and class society. But, according to anthropologist David Graeber, that tale is not based on fact. Graeber interrogates this chronicle of paradise lost — and much more."]
Lepore, Jill. "On the Construction of American Citizenship." At Liberty #25 (December 6, 2018) ["Almost 250 years after the adoption of the Declaration of the Independence, debates about founding principles like equality, rights, and representation are as fraught as ever. Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor and New Yorker staff writer, discusses her latest book, “These Truths,” an ambitious exploration of the evolution of our nation from its earliest days."]
Merat, Arron. "Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK." The Guardian's Audio Long Reads (Read by Lucy Scott: November 30, 2018) ["They fought for the Iranian revolution – and then for Saddam Hussein. The US and UK once condemned them. But now their opposition to Tehran has made them favourites of Trump White House hardliners."]
Nicholson-Smith, Donald. "May 1968 and the Situationist International." Against the Grain (November 28, 2018) ["Half a century ago, revolt broke out around the world, making the year 1968 synonymous with left-wing rebellion. In France, students and workers paralyzed the country during a heady month of massive wildcat strikes and factory occupations, during which the government feared it would be toppled. Donald Nicholson-Smith discusses May ’68 and the Situationist ideas that helped fuel the upheaval."]
Petkova, Savina. "High Life." Photogénie (October 19, 2018)
Philip, Tom. "Cam is a New Kind of Horror Movie." GQ (November 23, 2018)
Strangio, Chase. "A Shifting Landscape for Transgender Rights." At Liberty #24 (November 29, 2018) ["The state of transgender equality is in rapid flux in state legislatures, in federal law, in the courts and at the ballot box. Progress is consistently met with backlash. In the past midterm election, Massachusetts voters staved off an effort to dismantle legal protection for trans individuals in public spaces. Yet the Supreme Court is poised to reconsider legal victories won by trans plaintiffs in the federal courts, and Trump's White House seeks to exclude trans people from the military and from federal anti-discrimination law. Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, discusses the current legal landscape."]
Wood, Sarah. "Imagine." Essays About Margarethe von Trotta (November 16, 2018)
Ehrlich, David. "The 25 Best Movie Moments of 2018, According to IndieWire Critic David Ehrlich." IndieWire (December 3, 2018)
Graeber, David. "On Inequality and Human History." Against the Grain (November 21, 2018) ["Open any world history book and you’ll read that the Neolithic Revolution was the key turning point in human history, when hunter gatherers gave up roaming in small egalitarian tribes and settled down to farm. Out of that, civilization was born, with all the benefits and ills connected to it: the rise of cities, the emergence of the state, inequality, and class society. But, according to anthropologist David Graeber, that tale is not based on fact. Graeber interrogates this chronicle of paradise lost — and much more."]
Lepore, Jill. "On the Construction of American Citizenship." At Liberty #25 (December 6, 2018) ["Almost 250 years after the adoption of the Declaration of the Independence, debates about founding principles like equality, rights, and representation are as fraught as ever. Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor and New Yorker staff writer, discusses her latest book, “These Truths,” an ambitious exploration of the evolution of our nation from its earliest days."]
Merat, Arron. "Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK." The Guardian's Audio Long Reads (Read by Lucy Scott: November 30, 2018) ["They fought for the Iranian revolution – and then for Saddam Hussein. The US and UK once condemned them. But now their opposition to Tehran has made them favourites of Trump White House hardliners."]
Nicholson-Smith, Donald. "May 1968 and the Situationist International." Against the Grain (November 28, 2018) ["Half a century ago, revolt broke out around the world, making the year 1968 synonymous with left-wing rebellion. In France, students and workers paralyzed the country during a heady month of massive wildcat strikes and factory occupations, during which the government feared it would be toppled. Donald Nicholson-Smith discusses May ’68 and the Situationist ideas that helped fuel the upheaval."]
Petkova, Savina. "High Life." Photogénie (October 19, 2018)
Philip, Tom. "Cam is a New Kind of Horror Movie." GQ (November 23, 2018)
Strangio, Chase. "A Shifting Landscape for Transgender Rights." At Liberty #24 (November 29, 2018) ["The state of transgender equality is in rapid flux in state legislatures, in federal law, in the courts and at the ballot box. Progress is consistently met with backlash. In the past midterm election, Massachusetts voters staved off an effort to dismantle legal protection for trans individuals in public spaces. Yet the Supreme Court is poised to reconsider legal victories won by trans plaintiffs in the federal courts, and Trump's White House seeks to exclude trans people from the military and from federal anti-discrimination law. Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, discusses the current legal landscape."]
Wood, Sarah. "Imagine." Essays About Margarethe von Trotta (November 16, 2018)
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 12, 2018
Blyth, Mark and Jim Green. "Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election: Part 1." Trending Globally: Politics and Policy (October 1, 2018)
---. "Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election: Part 2." Trending Globally: Politics and Policy (October 24, 2018)
---. "Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election: Part 3." Trending Globally: Politics and Policy (October 29, 2018)
Longworth, Katrina. "D.W. Griffith, The Gish Sisters and the Origin of Hollywood Babylon." You Must Remember This (July 2, 2018)
Nakahodo, Neil, Sarah Smith and Shelly Yang. "The Spirit of Fear." McClatchy (December 9, 2018) ["Hundreds of sex abuse allegations found in fundamental Baptist churches across U.S."]
Petkova, Savina. "Architecture of Desire: Lanthimos' The Favourite." Photogénie (November 23, 2018)
Preziosi, Patrick. "“Why Don’t You Ever Take Me In Your Arms”: Claire Denis’ Cinema of Intimacy." Photogénie (November 16, 2018)
Reitman, Jason. "The Front Runner." The Treatment (November 30, 2018) ["Director, Jason Reitman, has a knack for examining stories that show life's messiness with films life "Juno" and "Thank You For Smoking." He further breaks down life in the public eye as a politician in "The Front Runner," following the rise of 1988 Democratic Presidential Nominee front runner Gary Hart who unexpectedly fell from the race and limelight amid affair allegations. On The Treatment, Reitman shares his interest in bringing real life scenarios to the big screen and the reactions of the real life players in his film."]
---. "Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election: Part 2." Trending Globally: Politics and Policy (October 24, 2018)
---. "Making Sense of Brazil's 2018 Presidential Election: Part 3." Trending Globally: Politics and Policy (October 29, 2018)
Longworth, Katrina. "D.W. Griffith, The Gish Sisters and the Origin of Hollywood Babylon." You Must Remember This (July 2, 2018)
Petkova, Savina. "Architecture of Desire: Lanthimos' The Favourite." Photogénie (November 23, 2018)
Preziosi, Patrick. "“Why Don’t You Ever Take Me In Your Arms”: Claire Denis’ Cinema of Intimacy." Photogénie (November 16, 2018)
Reitman, Jason. "The Front Runner." The Treatment (November 30, 2018) ["Director, Jason Reitman, has a knack for examining stories that show life's messiness with films life "Juno" and "Thank You For Smoking." He further breaks down life in the public eye as a politician in "The Front Runner," following the rise of 1988 Democratic Presidential Nominee front runner Gary Hart who unexpectedly fell from the race and limelight amid affair allegations. On The Treatment, Reitman shares his interest in bringing real life scenarios to the big screen and the reactions of the real life players in his film."]
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Slurring Bee 18
Also need 15 absurd/quirky warm up questions
Pronouncer Information 1. Read carefully the Judges, Recorders, Spellers and Audiences information that is included in the Scripps pronouncers’ guide. 2. Familiarize yourself with all words on the confidential word list. Pronunciation is important. A meeting with the judges to insure pronunciation of words and procedures will be scheduled prior to the Bee beginning. 3. Speak clearly for contestants, judges and audience alike. Grant all requests to repeat a word until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. You may request the speller to speak more clearly or louder. 4. “Pace” yourself. You need time to focus attention on the pronunciation of the new word and the judges need a few moments between each contestant to do their tasks.
Speller’s Information 1. Each speller needs to focus on the Pronouncer, to aid his or her hearing and understanding of the context of the word. A speller may ask for the word to be repeated, for its use in a sentence, for a definition, for the part of speech, and for the language of origin. 2. Each speller should pronounce the word before and after spelling it. If the speller fails to pronounce the word after spelling it, the judge may ask if they are finished. If they say yes, the judge will remind the speller to remember to repeat the word the next time. (No speller will be eliminated for failing to pronounce a word.) 3. When a speller is at the podium spelling, the next speller should be standing at a marked location ready to proceed to the podium.
445) recalcitrant
446) obstreperous
447) truculent
448) pugnacious
449) internecine
450) susurrus
451) polygyny
Slurring bee #2: 64
Pronouncer Information 1. Read carefully the Judges, Recorders, Spellers and Audiences information that is included in the Scripps pronouncers’ guide. 2. Familiarize yourself with all words on the confidential word list. Pronunciation is important. A meeting with the judges to insure pronunciation of words and procedures will be scheduled prior to the Bee beginning. 3. Speak clearly for contestants, judges and audience alike. Grant all requests to repeat a word until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. You may request the speller to speak more clearly or louder. 4. “Pace” yourself. You need time to focus attention on the pronunciation of the new word and the judges need a few moments between each contestant to do their tasks.
Speller’s Information 1. Each speller needs to focus on the Pronouncer, to aid his or her hearing and understanding of the context of the word. A speller may ask for the word to be repeated, for its use in a sentence, for a definition, for the part of speech, and for the language of origin. 2. Each speller should pronounce the word before and after spelling it. If the speller fails to pronounce the word after spelling it, the judge may ask if they are finished. If they say yes, the judge will remind the speller to remember to repeat the word the next time. (No speller will be eliminated for failing to pronounce a word.) 3. When a speller is at the podium spelling, the next speller should be standing at a marked location ready to proceed to the podium.
445) recalcitrant
446) obstreperous
447) truculent
448) pugnacious
449) internecine
450) susurrus
451) polygyny
Slurring bee #2: 64
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 9, 2018
Andrew, Geoff. "The Magician: Through a Glass Drolly." The Current (October 12, 2010)
Danton, Eric R. "Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Upends the Rock-Star Memoir with Let’s Go." Los Angeles Review of Books (December 8, 2018)
Ebiri, Bilge. "Mothra, Jigoku, Godzilla: A Postwar Japanese Horror Primer." Vulture (October 29, 2018)
Eggert, Brian. "Suspiria." Deep Focus Review (October 26, 2018)
Heller-Nicholas, Alexander. "Three Mothers Redux: Kathy Acker, Pina Bausch, Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
Ivins, Laura. "Robert Bresson's Surrealist Affinities." A Place for Cinema (November 15, 2018)
Jordan, Michael B. "Creed II." The Treatment (November 23, 2018) ["Playing prideful characters coming into their own is something you see regularly in actor Michael B. Jordan's career with films like "Black Panther" and "Creed". Reprising his role alongside Sylvester Stallone, Jordan continues the emotionally charged journey of Adonis Creed in the sequel "Creed II". Today on The Treatment, Jordan joins Elvis in a discussion in choosing the film roles he does and his collaborations with longtime friend and filmmaker Ryan Coogler."]
McCann, Ruairí. "Zhangke Going Home: Retrospection in the Cinema of Jia Zhangke." Photogénie (December 3, 2018)
Reznor, Trent and Atticus Ross. "Variety's 2018 Music for Screens Summit." The Treatment (November 9, 2018) ["Before Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won an Oscar for their score of "The Social Network", they were and continue to be part of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Elvis recently sat down with them at Variety Magazine's Music for Screens Summit to discuss their careers, industry expectations of music accompaniment in film and their most recent work scoring Jonah Hill's directorial debut film "MID90s"."]
Danton, Eric R. "Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Upends the Rock-Star Memoir with Let’s Go." Los Angeles Review of Books (December 8, 2018)
Ebiri, Bilge. "Mothra, Jigoku, Godzilla: A Postwar Japanese Horror Primer." Vulture (October 29, 2018)
Eggert, Brian. "Suspiria." Deep Focus Review (October 26, 2018)
Heller-Nicholas, Alexander. "Three Mothers Redux: Kathy Acker, Pina Bausch, Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
Ivins, Laura. "Robert Bresson's Surrealist Affinities." A Place for Cinema (November 15, 2018)
Jordan, Michael B. "Creed II." The Treatment (November 23, 2018) ["Playing prideful characters coming into their own is something you see regularly in actor Michael B. Jordan's career with films like "Black Panther" and "Creed". Reprising his role alongside Sylvester Stallone, Jordan continues the emotionally charged journey of Adonis Creed in the sequel "Creed II". Today on The Treatment, Jordan joins Elvis in a discussion in choosing the film roles he does and his collaborations with longtime friend and filmmaker Ryan Coogler."]
McCann, Ruairí. "Zhangke Going Home: Retrospection in the Cinema of Jia Zhangke." Photogénie (December 3, 2018)
Reznor, Trent and Atticus Ross. "Variety's 2018 Music for Screens Summit." The Treatment (November 9, 2018) ["Before Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won an Oscar for their score of "The Social Network", they were and continue to be part of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Elvis recently sat down with them at Variety Magazine's Music for Screens Summit to discuss their careers, industry expectations of music accompaniment in film and their most recent work scoring Jonah Hill's directorial debut film "MID90s"."]
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 8, 2018
Assayas, Olivier. "A Portrait of the Artist: Bergman's The Magician." The Current (October 12, 2010)
The Brussels Business (Belgium/Austria/USA/France/Switzerland/Indonesia/UK: Matthieu Lietaert and Friedrich Moser, 2012: 85 mins) ["Brussels, the capital and largest city of Belgium, has a long history of hosting the institutions of the European Union within its European Quarter; while the Union itself claims it has no capital and no plans to declare one—despite the fact that Brussels hosts the official seats of the European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as a seat of the European Parliament. In any event, it is here—in this centre of smoke and mirrors—that exists one of the largest concentrations of lobbyist power in the world. The Brussels Business scratches the surface of this extensive world hidden-from-view by looking at the direct influence of lobbyists and the complete lack of transparency in the decision-making processes. Speaking with lobbyists and activists themselves, The Brussels Business reveals the beginnings of a vast landscape of PR conglomerates, front companies, think-tanks and their closely-interlinking networks of power and ties to political and economic elites. The questions then become: Who actually runs the European Union? How? And why?]
Potter, Will. "The Secret U.S. Prisons You've Never Heard of Before." TED Talks (August 2015) ["Investigative journalist Will Potter is the only reporter who has been inside a Communications Management Unit, or CMU, within a US prison. These units were opened secretly, and radically alter how prisoners are treated -- even preventing them from hugging their children. Potter, a TED Fellow, shows us who is imprisoned here, and how the government is trying to keep them hidden. "The message was clear," he says. "Don't talk about this place.""]
Shambu, Girish. "The Other Side of Hope: No-Home Movie." The Current (May 14, 2018)
Steal This Film (UK/Germany/Sweden: The League of Noble Peers, 2006: 32 minutes) ["Presenting accounts from prominent players such as The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån, and the Pirate Party in the Swedish piracy culture, Steal This Film documents the movement against intellectual property. In particular, the film provides critical analysis of the alleged regulatory capture attempt performed by the Hollywood film lobby to leverage economic sanctions by the United States government on Sweden through the WTO…"]
Stevenson, Bryan. "On Challenging the Legacy of Racial Inequality in America: the Work of the Equal Justice Initiative." Slavery and Its Legacies (February 6, 2017) ["Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults. Mr. Stevenson has successfully argued several cases in the United States Supreme Court and recently won an historic ruling that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are unconstitutional. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief or release for over 115 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge the legacy of racial inequality in America, including major projects to educate communities about slavery, lynching and racial segregation. Mr. Stevenson is also a Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law."]
This Is What Democracy Looks Like (USA: Jill Friedberg and Rick Rowley, 2000: 72 mins) ["Recorded by over 100 media activists, this film tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organisation summit. Vowing to oppose—among other faults—the WTO’s power to arbitrarily overrule nations’ environmental, social and labour policies in favour of unbridled corporate greed, thousands of people from all around the United States came out in force to stop the summit. Against them was a brutal police force and a hostile media. This Is What Democracy Looks Like documents the struggle, as well as providing a narrative to the history of success and failure of modern political resistance movements."]
Friday, December 7, 2018
David Cromwell & David Edwards: Journalist/Editor of Media Lens
---. "‘How Dare You!’ The Climate Crisis And The Public Demand For Real Action." Media Lens (September 30, 2019)
Cromwell, David and David Edwards. "Assange Arrest - Part 1: 'So Now He's Our Property.'" Media Lens (April 16, 2019)
---. "Assange Arrest – Part 2: ‘A Definite Creep, A Probable Rapist.'" Media Lens (April 18, 2019)
---. "Snowden, Surveillance And The Secret State." Media Lens (June 28, 2013)
---. "‘A Suffocating Groupthink’: Sampling The Corporate Media On Israel, Iran, Syria And Russia." Media Lens (May 16, 2018)
---. "'Sworn Enemies'? A Response To George Monbiot." Media Lens (November 6, 2012)
Edwards, David. "Fake News about 'Fake News': The Media Performance Pyramid." Media Lens (December 5, 2016)
---. "The Filter Bubble - Owen Jones And Con Coughlin." Media Lens (November 14, 2018) ["In a dream, the common sense rules and rationality of everyday life are, of course, suspended – we float to the top of the stairs, a cat smiles, a person is beheaded at the dinner table and the vegetables are served. In similar vein, Iraq was destroyed in a nakedly illegal oil grab, more than one million human beings were killed, and the 'mainstream' continued to treat the criminals responsible as respectable statespeople, and to take seriously their subsequent calls for 'humanitarian intervention' in oil-rich Libya. With Libya reduced to ruins, the same journalists dreamed on, treating the same criminals with the same respect as they sought yet one more regime change in Syria. This nightmare version of 'news' is maintained by a corporate 'filter bubble' that blocks facts, ideas and sources that challenge state-corporate control of politics, economics and culture. It is maintained by a mixture of ruthless high-level control and middle- and lower-level compromise, conformity and self-serving blindness."]
---. "Filtering the Election." Media Lens (November 18, 2016)
---. "The Shaving Kit - Manufacturing The Julian Assange Witch-Hunt." Media Lens (June 20, 2019)
---. "The Shaving Kit - Manufacturing The Julian Assange Witch-Hunt." Media Lens (June 20, 2019)
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 7, 2018
Felber, Garrett. "The Missing Malcolm X." Boston Review (November 28, 2018) ["Our understanding of Malcolm X is inextricably linked to his autobiography, but newly discovered materials force us to reexamine his legacy. "]
Hamilton, Anne. "The Others." Switchblade Sisters #5 (December 7, 2017) ["Things get spooky as April talks to director Anne Hamilton about the 2001 gothic horror film, The Others. They discuss Nicole Kidman's casting in the film, the director Alejandro Amenábar's rejection of Catholicism, and how films like these just don't exist anymore. Plus, Anne discusses what she would have done differently had she directed The Others, and what is was like working on her own gothic film, American Fable."]
Kumar, Chaitanya. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." This Movie Changed Me (March 6, 2018) ["If you could, would you erase memories of past lovers? This idea is at the heart of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Chaitanya Kumar says he wouldn't. Still, the movie made him rethink the way we experience and remember love."]
Preempting Dissent (Canada: Greg Elmer and Andy Opel, 2014: 42 mins) ["The legacy of the Bush administration and the so-called “War on Terror” includes a new logic that stretches well beyond the realm of overzealous security agencies, airport security and international relations, and into suppressing public protest; expanded surveillance aimed at entire populations, but especially activists; and mobilising fear for social control. Special police techniques have even been developed and applied in order to specifically suppress dissent and manage protests, especially in the wake of the rising anti-globalisation movements towards the turn of the millennium. Preempting Dissentprovides a quick overview of how some of this logic developed, as well as a glimpse of how political protest in the West has been shaped and controlled in the “post-9/11″ years, up to and including the so-called Occupy movement. By provoking a reflection of the implications of the logic of the “War on Terror” and how its applied to stifle political protest, Preempting Dissent aims to lay some of the groundwork to develop more effective resistance tactics."]
Sterritt, David. "Rocco and His Brothers." Cineaste (Winter 2018)
Hamilton, Anne. "The Others." Switchblade Sisters #5 (December 7, 2017) ["Things get spooky as April talks to director Anne Hamilton about the 2001 gothic horror film, The Others. They discuss Nicole Kidman's casting in the film, the director Alejandro Amenábar's rejection of Catholicism, and how films like these just don't exist anymore. Plus, Anne discusses what she would have done differently had she directed The Others, and what is was like working on her own gothic film, American Fable."]
Kumar, Chaitanya. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." This Movie Changed Me (March 6, 2018) ["If you could, would you erase memories of past lovers? This idea is at the heart of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Chaitanya Kumar says he wouldn't. Still, the movie made him rethink the way we experience and remember love."]
Preempting Dissent (Canada: Greg Elmer and Andy Opel, 2014: 42 mins) ["The legacy of the Bush administration and the so-called “War on Terror” includes a new logic that stretches well beyond the realm of overzealous security agencies, airport security and international relations, and into suppressing public protest; expanded surveillance aimed at entire populations, but especially activists; and mobilising fear for social control. Special police techniques have even been developed and applied in order to specifically suppress dissent and manage protests, especially in the wake of the rising anti-globalisation movements towards the turn of the millennium. Preempting Dissentprovides a quick overview of how some of this logic developed, as well as a glimpse of how political protest in the West has been shaped and controlled in the “post-9/11″ years, up to and including the so-called Occupy movement. By provoking a reflection of the implications of the logic of the “War on Terror” and how its applied to stifle political protest, Preempting Dissent aims to lay some of the groundwork to develop more effective resistance tactics."]
Sterritt, David. "Rocco and His Brothers." Cineaste (Winter 2018)
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 6, 2018
Attree, Lizzy. "Reclaiming Africa’s Stolen Histories Through Fiction." Los Angeles Review of Books (July 11, 2018)
Bengal, Rebecca. "Smithereens: Breakfast at the Peppermint Lounge." The Current (August 20, 2018)
Benton, Michael. Recommended Films of 2015 Letterboxd (Ongoing Archive)
Boekhout, Kelly Van, Katherine Epps and Elisha Huntoon. "Top Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #12 ICE Intends to Destroy Records of Inhumane Treatment of Immigrants." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Ford, Ashley C. "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Movies That Changed Me (February 6, 2018) ["The Nightmare Before Christmas helped writer Ashley C. Ford accept life’s imperfections. As a kid, the movie taught her that it was okay to be different and to embrace the weird and the creepy."]
Goldstein, Dana. "Nation’s First Teachers’ Strike at Charter Network Begins in Chicago." The New York Times (December 4, 2018) ["Charters are funded by taxpayers but independently managed by nonprofit organizations, like Acero, or by for-profit companies. Educators at Acero earn up to $13,000 less than their counterparts at traditional public schools in Chicago and cannot afford to live comfortably in an increasingly expensive city, according to the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents the striking workers. The chief executive of Acero, Richard L. Rodriguez, earns about $260,000 annually to manage 15 schools, a similar salary to that of Janice K. Jackson, the chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools system, which includes over 500 schools. In addition to higher pay for teachers and support staff, the union is asking that more money be spent on special education services for students and on a program that allows classroom assistants to continue their education and become lead teachers. The union also argues that Acero’s class sizes — up to 32 students at every grade level — are too high."]
Larsen, Josh. "Roma." Larsen on Film (ND)Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 5, 2018
Ebiri, Bilge. "Three Outlaw Samurai: The Disloyal Bunch." The Current (February 14, 2012)
Hugo, Kristin. "Indigenous people want to make Amazon rainforest world's biggest protected area." The Independent (November 21, 2018)
López, Issa. "Pan's Labyrinth." Switchblade Sisters #4 (November 30, 2017) ["This week is a fantastical episode of Switchblade Sisters where April sits down with director Issa Lopez to discuss the influential Guillermo Del Toro film, Pan's Labyrinth. Issa opens up about her lonesome adolescence, the death of her mother, and how these events influenced her work. She tells April about the emotional process of working with children on her most recent film, the fantasy-horror Tigers Are Not Afraid. And she also discusses the culture of witchcraft and magic in Mexico and how that pervades many Mexican artist's work."]
Mazhukhina, Karina. "Washington to implement best paid family & medical leave in America in 2019." KATU2 (November 30, 2018)
Shambu, Girish. "Two Days, One Night." The Current (August 25, 2015) ["Since the financial crisis, we have increasingly seen a critique of capitalism—even if often only a cautious one—in mainstream media and culture. But usually the underlying assumption in these discussions is that capitalism is a monolithic entity—one that has stood, intact and still, in the same form, for a couple of centuries. The history of economics tells us otherwise. There have in fact been many capitalisms over the years. For example, the Keynesian “controlled capitalism” that took hold in the years of the New Deal, to help relieve national economic suffering in the U.S. during the Great Depression, was quite different from the more rapacious, unregulated capitalism that had reigned a few decades earlier. Since around 1980, we have been witnessing the rise of a new breed of capitalism, neoliberalism, which is achieving global domination with the unwavering agenda of reducing taxes on corporations and the rich, massively deregulating industries, slashing public spending on social programs, and “liberalizing” labor markets (code for giving companies free rein in their hiring and firing decisions). This model of capitalism, after steady escalation over three decades, has now become firmly entrenched in our lives, workplaces, and cultures. And it is on the social and economic repercussions arising from it that the Dardennes have been turning their camera. Their belief is clear: by creating new and indelible images of this virulent model, we can fight it, laying the ground from which a newer, more just social-economic form can grow."]
Solis, Jose. "Never Look Away." The Film Stage (December 3, 2018)
Sterritt, David. "Sweet Movie: Wake Up!" The Current (June 18, 2007) ["Whatever you’ve heard about Sweet Movie, the audacious and outrageous political comedy by Yugoslav filmmaker Dušan Makavejev, there’s a good chance it’s wrong. Ever since this mischievous masterpiece had its Cannes premiere, in 1974, ill-advised pundits have been calling it uncouth, uncivilized, and offensive. Offensiveness is one of its great strategies, to be sure, but critics who call it a nonstop orgy of odious acts couldn’t have looked very closely at what’s actually on the screen. Far from gratuitous, Sweet Movie is an artistically earnest, politically savvy film that uses every means at its disposal—deadly serious one moment, wildly hilarious the next—to jolt viewers out of lazy, hazy mind-sets that stifle freedom, creativity, and bliss."]
Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Yang, Amber. "The Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #13 The Limits of Negative News and Importance of Constructive Media." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Hugo, Kristin. "Indigenous people want to make Amazon rainforest world's biggest protected area." The Independent (November 21, 2018)
López, Issa. "Pan's Labyrinth." Switchblade Sisters #4 (November 30, 2017) ["This week is a fantastical episode of Switchblade Sisters where April sits down with director Issa Lopez to discuss the influential Guillermo Del Toro film, Pan's Labyrinth. Issa opens up about her lonesome adolescence, the death of her mother, and how these events influenced her work. She tells April about the emotional process of working with children on her most recent film, the fantasy-horror Tigers Are Not Afraid. And she also discusses the culture of witchcraft and magic in Mexico and how that pervades many Mexican artist's work."]
Mazhukhina, Karina. "Washington to implement best paid family & medical leave in America in 2019." KATU2 (November 30, 2018)
Shambu, Girish. "Two Days, One Night." The Current (August 25, 2015) ["Since the financial crisis, we have increasingly seen a critique of capitalism—even if often only a cautious one—in mainstream media and culture. But usually the underlying assumption in these discussions is that capitalism is a monolithic entity—one that has stood, intact and still, in the same form, for a couple of centuries. The history of economics tells us otherwise. There have in fact been many capitalisms over the years. For example, the Keynesian “controlled capitalism” that took hold in the years of the New Deal, to help relieve national economic suffering in the U.S. during the Great Depression, was quite different from the more rapacious, unregulated capitalism that had reigned a few decades earlier. Since around 1980, we have been witnessing the rise of a new breed of capitalism, neoliberalism, which is achieving global domination with the unwavering agenda of reducing taxes on corporations and the rich, massively deregulating industries, slashing public spending on social programs, and “liberalizing” labor markets (code for giving companies free rein in their hiring and firing decisions). This model of capitalism, after steady escalation over three decades, has now become firmly entrenched in our lives, workplaces, and cultures. And it is on the social and economic repercussions arising from it that the Dardennes have been turning their camera. Their belief is clear: by creating new and indelible images of this virulent model, we can fight it, laying the ground from which a newer, more just social-economic form can grow."]
Solis, Jose. "Never Look Away." The Film Stage (December 3, 2018)
Sterritt, David. "Sweet Movie: Wake Up!" The Current (June 18, 2007) ["Whatever you’ve heard about Sweet Movie, the audacious and outrageous political comedy by Yugoslav filmmaker Dušan Makavejev, there’s a good chance it’s wrong. Ever since this mischievous masterpiece had its Cannes premiere, in 1974, ill-advised pundits have been calling it uncouth, uncivilized, and offensive. Offensiveness is one of its great strategies, to be sure, but critics who call it a nonstop orgy of odious acts couldn’t have looked very closely at what’s actually on the screen. Far from gratuitous, Sweet Movie is an artistically earnest, politically savvy film that uses every means at its disposal—deadly serious one moment, wildly hilarious the next—to jolt viewers out of lazy, hazy mind-sets that stifle freedom, creativity, and bliss."]
Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Yang, Amber. "The Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #13 The Limits of Negative News and Importance of Constructive Media." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974)
Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974: 98 mins)
Arf, Michelle. "Sweet Movie and the Body as Politics." PopOptiq (ND)
Barker, Jennifer Lynne. The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection. Routledge, 2013.
Mortimer, Lorraine. "Something Against Nature: Sweet Movie, 4, and Disgust."Senses of Cinema #59 (2011)
---. Terror and Joy: The Films of Dušan Makavejev. University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Owen, Jonathan. "Dusan Makavejev obituary: The revolutionary ringmaster of Yugoslav film." Sight and Sound (February 2, 2019)
Monday, December 3, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 3, 2018
"25 Underrated Horror Films for Halloween." Roger Ebert (October 29, 2018)
Jenkins, David. "RIP Nicolas Roeg: A career interview with the late British filmmaker." Little White Lies (November 27, 2018)
---. "Roma." Little White Lies (November 30, 2018)
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Six Ghost Stories." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 10, 2017) ["Human superstition provides us with an overwhelming wealth of ghost stories, each an unreal creation that reveals something crucial about culture, history and psychology. In this episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, Robert and Christian explore six ghost stories from around the world and discuss what they reveal about the (living) human experience."]
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "The Science of It: Deadlights and Derry." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 5, 2017) ["If you’ve read Stephen King’s “It” or recoiled in fear from the 2017 film and the 1990 miniseries, then perhaps you’ve wondered what science can reveal about Pennywise the Dancing Clown and the horrors of Derry, Maine. Join Robert and Christian as they consider the monster science of the creature itself and various, real world explanations that grown-ups might turn to for a town gone bad."]
Nochimson, Martha P. "New York Film Festival Review: The Favorite." Eye on Media (September 30, 2018)
Rodorff, Matthias. "Antislavery Sentiments and Experiences of African-Canadians During the Civil War Era." Slavery and Its Legacies (January 30, 2017) ["In this episode Thomas Thurston spoke with Mathias Rodorff, a PhD candidate at the University of Munich and a visiting fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Center, about his current work, which investigates why Nova Scotian newspapers paid such close attention to the contest in the United States over issues of slavery, emancipation, and equality while never considering how these issues might have played out in their province. Rodorff considers this in the context of other domestic events, like the heated debates over Nova Scotia’s role in the Canadian Confederation."]
Jenkins, David. "RIP Nicolas Roeg: A career interview with the late British filmmaker." Little White Lies (November 27, 2018)
---. "Roma." Little White Lies (November 30, 2018)
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "Six Ghost Stories." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 10, 2017) ["Human superstition provides us with an overwhelming wealth of ghost stories, each an unreal creation that reveals something crucial about culture, history and psychology. In this episode of the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, Robert and Christian explore six ghost stories from around the world and discuss what they reveal about the (living) human experience."]
Lamb, Robert and Christian Sager. "The Science of It: Deadlights and Derry." Stuff to Blow Your Mind (October 5, 2017) ["If you’ve read Stephen King’s “It” or recoiled in fear from the 2017 film and the 1990 miniseries, then perhaps you’ve wondered what science can reveal about Pennywise the Dancing Clown and the horrors of Derry, Maine. Join Robert and Christian as they consider the monster science of the creature itself and various, real world explanations that grown-ups might turn to for a town gone bad."]
Nochimson, Martha P. "New York Film Festival Review: The Favorite." Eye on Media (September 30, 2018)
Rodorff, Matthias. "Antislavery Sentiments and Experiences of African-Canadians During the Civil War Era." Slavery and Its Legacies (January 30, 2017) ["In this episode Thomas Thurston spoke with Mathias Rodorff, a PhD candidate at the University of Munich and a visiting fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Center, about his current work, which investigates why Nova Scotian newspapers paid such close attention to the contest in the United States over issues of slavery, emancipation, and equality while never considering how these issues might have played out in their province. Rodorff considers this in the context of other domestic events, like the heated debates over Nova Scotia’s role in the Canadian Confederation."]
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 2, 2018
Boccanfuso, Dominique. "Top 25 Censored News Stories 2017 - 2018: #14 FBI Paid Geek Squad Employees as 'Confidential Human Source' Informants." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Brones, Anne and Cheryl Strayed. "Sharing Wisdom." She Explores #78 (ND) ["Cheryl Strayed never planned on giving advice professionally and doesn’t love a guru, but she agrees with Anna Brones that everyone has wisdom to bestow upon others. The key is to seek as much as you share."]
Ehrlich, David. "30 Terrifyingly Under-Appreciated Horror Movies — IndieWire Critics Survey." IndieWire (October 29, 2018)
Fales, Adam. "Horror in Revision: On the Contemporary Gothic." Los Angeles Review of Books (January 23, 2018)
Nochimson, Martha P. "The Square: Conflicts Between Civilization and Chaos." Eye on Media (January 25, 2018)
Raup, Jordan. "Annihilation." The Film Stage (February 21, 2018) ["More terrifying than any creature Hollywood could dream up is the unraveling of one’s mind—the steady loss of a consciousness as defined by the memories, motivations, and knowledge built up from decades of experience and reflection. With Annihilation, Alex Garland’s beautiful, frightening follow-up to Ex Machina, he portrays this paralyzing sensation with a sense of vivid imagination, and also delivers a cadre of horrifying creatures to boot."]
---. "John Waters’ Top 10 Films of 2018 Includes Jeannette, Blindspotting, and Custody." The Film Stage (December 1, 2018)
Yang, Amber. "The Top Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #15 Digital Justice: Internet Co-ops Resist Net Neutrality Rollbacks." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Brones, Anne and Cheryl Strayed. "Sharing Wisdom." She Explores #78 (ND) ["Cheryl Strayed never planned on giving advice professionally and doesn’t love a guru, but she agrees with Anna Brones that everyone has wisdom to bestow upon others. The key is to seek as much as you share."]
Ehrlich, David. "30 Terrifyingly Under-Appreciated Horror Movies — IndieWire Critics Survey." IndieWire (October 29, 2018)
Fales, Adam. "Horror in Revision: On the Contemporary Gothic." Los Angeles Review of Books (January 23, 2018)
Nochimson, Martha P. "The Square: Conflicts Between Civilization and Chaos." Eye on Media (January 25, 2018)
Raup, Jordan. "Annihilation." The Film Stage (February 21, 2018) ["More terrifying than any creature Hollywood could dream up is the unraveling of one’s mind—the steady loss of a consciousness as defined by the memories, motivations, and knowledge built up from decades of experience and reflection. With Annihilation, Alex Garland’s beautiful, frightening follow-up to Ex Machina, he portrays this paralyzing sensation with a sense of vivid imagination, and also delivers a cadre of horrifying creatures to boot."]
---. "John Waters’ Top 10 Films of 2018 Includes Jeannette, Blindspotting, and Custody." The Film Stage (December 1, 2018)
Yang, Amber. "The Top Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #15 Digital Justice: Internet Co-ops Resist Net Neutrality Rollbacks." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Dialogic Cinephilia - December 1, 2018
"The 100 Greatest Horror Films of All Time." Slant (October 22, 2018)
Beardsmore, Jo, Kelly Coogan-Gehr and Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini. "Medicare for All: As Healthcare Costs Soar, Momentum Grows to Guarantee Healthcare for All Americans." Democracy Now (November 30, 2018) ["As Democrats prepare to take control of the House, pressure is growing on the Democratic leadership to embrace Medicare for All. Nearly 50 newly Democratic members of Congress campaigned for Medicare for All. In the last year, 123 incumbent House Democrats also co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation, double the number who supported a Medicare for All bill in the previous legislative session. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical, insurance and hospital companies are paying close attention. As the Intercept’s Lee Fang reports, over the summer the groups formed a partnership to fight the growing support for expanding Medicare. We speak to three proponents of Medicare for All who have assembled in Burlington, Vermont, for a gathering of the Sanders Institute: Kelly Coogan-Gehr of National Nurses United, British anesthesiologist Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and organizer Jo Beardsmore."]
Bennett, Michael Ivan and Gregory Claeys. "Dystopia." Radio West (April 23, 2018) ["Monday, we’re talking about dystopias. Which means we’re also talking about utopias. You can’t have one without the other. Whether political, environmental, or technological, literary or historical, dystopias are what you get when our ideas of societal perfection run up against the hard truths of reality and the flaws of human nature. We’ll discuss where the idea of dystopia comes from, what dystopian worlds look like, and what they say about who we are, what we hope for, and what we fear."]
Benton, Michael Dean. "Thinking." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
"Blues Harp." See Hear #53 (June 26, 2018) ["The film tells the story of two young men, each with very different goals in life. One is a member of a Yakuza clan who has dreams of heading becoming boss, the other just wants to cruise by life and take pleasure at playing his harmonica. After Chuji helps Kenji out one night, Kenji feels honour bound to protect his new friend from dangers that lie ahead as he gets drawn into a plot of deceit and backstabbing. When people think Miike, they typically think of his confronting films like Audition, Visitor Q, or Ichi The Killer. Films like The Happiness of the Katakuris, The Bird People in China, Zebraman and Blues Harp show there's a diversity not always discussed. Blues Harp may not be well known, but it is a film of incredible maturity. Miike uses every technique in his storytelling arsenal to build on what is essentially a character study and make his audience care about his characters' fates. Tim, Bernie, and Maurice discuss Miike's career, as well as oral hygiene, the lengths some people will go to get to the top, confidence (there's a connection) and Little Walter."]
Edwards, David. "The Filter Bubble - Owen Jones And Con Coughlin." Media Lens (November 14, 2018) ["In a dream, the common sense rules and rationality of everyday life are, of course, suspended – we float to the top of the stairs, a cat smiles, a person is beheaded at the dinner table and the vegetables are served. In similar vein, Iraq was destroyed in a nakedly illegal oil grab, more than one million human beings were killed, and the 'mainstream' continued to treat the criminals responsible as respectable statespeople, and to take seriously their subsequent calls for 'humanitarian intervention' in oil-rich Libya. With Libya reduced to ruins, the same journalists dreamed on, treating the same criminals with the same respect as they sought yet one more regime change in Syria. This nightmare version of 'news' is maintained by a corporate 'filter bubble' that blocks facts, ideas and sources that challenge state-corporate control of politics, economics and culture. It is maintained by a mixture of ruthless high-level control and middle- and lower-level compromise, conformity and self-serving blindness."]
Fekete, Andrea. "The Top Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: # 16 $21 Trillion in Unaccounted-for Government Spending from 1998 to 2015." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Manning, Zander, Jessica Picard, and Jared Yellin. "The Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #17 “Model” Mississippi Curriculum Omits Civil Rights Movement from School Textbooks." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Youth Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Klymkiw, Greg, Paul Talbot and Mike White. "Mandingo (1975)." The Projection Booth #375 (March 14, 2018) ["We're heading to Falconhurst and looking at the unlikely hit film Mandingo (1975), the book series that informed it and its sequel, and the knock-offs in its wake. Richard Fleischer's film stars Ken Norton as Mede, the titular Mandingo, while James Mason and Perry King are the father and son who run Falconhurst, a slave-breeding plantation."]
Beardsmore, Jo, Kelly Coogan-Gehr and Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini. "Medicare for All: As Healthcare Costs Soar, Momentum Grows to Guarantee Healthcare for All Americans." Democracy Now (November 30, 2018) ["As Democrats prepare to take control of the House, pressure is growing on the Democratic leadership to embrace Medicare for All. Nearly 50 newly Democratic members of Congress campaigned for Medicare for All. In the last year, 123 incumbent House Democrats also co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation, double the number who supported a Medicare for All bill in the previous legislative session. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical, insurance and hospital companies are paying close attention. As the Intercept’s Lee Fang reports, over the summer the groups formed a partnership to fight the growing support for expanding Medicare. We speak to three proponents of Medicare for All who have assembled in Burlington, Vermont, for a gathering of the Sanders Institute: Kelly Coogan-Gehr of National Nurses United, British anesthesiologist Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and organizer Jo Beardsmore."]
Bennett, Michael Ivan and Gregory Claeys. "Dystopia." Radio West (April 23, 2018) ["Monday, we’re talking about dystopias. Which means we’re also talking about utopias. You can’t have one without the other. Whether political, environmental, or technological, literary or historical, dystopias are what you get when our ideas of societal perfection run up against the hard truths of reality and the flaws of human nature. We’ll discuss where the idea of dystopia comes from, what dystopian worlds look like, and what they say about who we are, what we hope for, and what we fear."]
Benton, Michael Dean. "Thinking." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
"Blues Harp." See Hear #53 (June 26, 2018) ["The film tells the story of two young men, each with very different goals in life. One is a member of a Yakuza clan who has dreams of heading becoming boss, the other just wants to cruise by life and take pleasure at playing his harmonica. After Chuji helps Kenji out one night, Kenji feels honour bound to protect his new friend from dangers that lie ahead as he gets drawn into a plot of deceit and backstabbing. When people think Miike, they typically think of his confronting films like Audition, Visitor Q, or Ichi The Killer. Films like The Happiness of the Katakuris, The Bird People in China, Zebraman and Blues Harp show there's a diversity not always discussed. Blues Harp may not be well known, but it is a film of incredible maturity. Miike uses every technique in his storytelling arsenal to build on what is essentially a character study and make his audience care about his characters' fates. Tim, Bernie, and Maurice discuss Miike's career, as well as oral hygiene, the lengths some people will go to get to the top, confidence (there's a connection) and Little Walter."]
Edwards, David. "The Filter Bubble - Owen Jones And Con Coughlin." Media Lens (November 14, 2018) ["In a dream, the common sense rules and rationality of everyday life are, of course, suspended – we float to the top of the stairs, a cat smiles, a person is beheaded at the dinner table and the vegetables are served. In similar vein, Iraq was destroyed in a nakedly illegal oil grab, more than one million human beings were killed, and the 'mainstream' continued to treat the criminals responsible as respectable statespeople, and to take seriously their subsequent calls for 'humanitarian intervention' in oil-rich Libya. With Libya reduced to ruins, the same journalists dreamed on, treating the same criminals with the same respect as they sought yet one more regime change in Syria. This nightmare version of 'news' is maintained by a corporate 'filter bubble' that blocks facts, ideas and sources that challenge state-corporate control of politics, economics and culture. It is maintained by a mixture of ruthless high-level control and middle- and lower-level compromise, conformity and self-serving blindness."]
Fekete, Andrea. "The Top Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: # 16 $21 Trillion in Unaccounted-for Government Spending from 1998 to 2015." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Manning, Zander, Jessica Picard, and Jared Yellin. "The Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2017 - 2018: #17 “Model” Mississippi Curriculum Omits Civil Rights Movement from School Textbooks." Project Censored (October 2, 2018)
Youth Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Klymkiw, Greg, Paul Talbot and Mike White. "Mandingo (1975)." The Projection Booth #375 (March 14, 2018) ["We're heading to Falconhurst and looking at the unlikely hit film Mandingo (1975), the book series that informed it and its sequel, and the knock-offs in its wake. Richard Fleischer's film stars Ken Norton as Mede, the titular Mandingo, while James Mason and Perry King are the father and son who run Falconhurst, a slave-breeding plantation."]
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