Friday, January 30, 2015

Michael Benton (writing available online)

As citizens of a globalized world it is imperative that we begin to develop a broader awareness of the interconnected cultures and societies that influence and shape world events. Anyone remotely aware of the American social/cultural landscape must recognize that many of our citizens are unaware of the broader relations and connections of the world in which they live in. Many Americans tend to have a narrow understanding of world history, educated through ethnocentric American textbooks and informed through mediatized narratives filtered through the lenses of the dominant center, both of these effectively ignore the realities of the margins (culturally, economically and socially). Many concerned citizens struggle to carve out meaning in the contemporary data stream and suffer the neglect of a mainstream media that limits itself to predigested dualistic positions. In this simplified media environment, vast regions of the world are presumed to be unable to speak for themselves and rarely, in the mainstream corporate media that serves as the news for a majority of American citizens, do we receive sustained and in-depth critical analysis of issues through the voices and experiences of multiple interested parties.  --Michael Benton, August 9,  2016



Benton, Michael Dean. "American Sniper." Letterboxd (January 28, 2015)

---. "A Nation Starts to Mobilize: Something's Happening Here." North of Center (October 12, 2011)

---. "The Anti-50 Shades of Grey: The Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending." Letterboxd (February 7, 2015)

---. "A Quick Game of Blog Tag." Dialogic (March 12, 2007)

---. "Astroturf and Front Group Research: The Center for Union Facts." Dialogic Cinephilia (January 20, 2014)

---. "Astroturf Organizations Spreading Propaganda: 'Don't Make Us Pay.'" Dialogic Cinephilia (March 3, 2011)

---. "'Be Me, for Awhile': Ideological Becoming and Future Objectivity in Let the Right One In." Dialogic Cinephilia (September 12, 2014)

---. "Bluegrass Film Society 2006/2007: 24 Films, From 24 Countries, in 24 Weeks." Dialogic (July 30, 2006)

---. "City of God, Schindler's List and Contextual Viewings." Dialogic (September 5, 2008)

---. "Decoding the Success of The Matrix: A Contextual Analysis of the Influences of Postmodern Theory and Underground Cultures." (English Department, Illinois State University: 2000). [Professor has copies]

---. "Defining Community; Conceptual Awareness; Textual Positions; H.L. Goodall." Dialogic (November 16, 2004)

---. "Dialogic Cinephilia 5.0" Dialogic Cinephilia (March 6, 2014)

---. "Easy Ammo and Evil Acts: Comments on the aftermath of the Aurora shooting." North of Center (August 2, 2012)

---. "Exploring the Nature and Causes of Violence in Films." Uprooting Criminology (February 10, 2014)

---. "Fragile Victory in Egypt: Will U.S. foreign aid impede the will of the Egyptian people?" North of Center (February 16, 2011)

---. "Gender and Sexuality at Carnegie Center." North of Center (January 29, 2010)

---. "Getting Off on John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus North of Center (March 30, 2011)

---. "'he could resist': The Lexington Tattoo Project and A Noosed Life." North of Center (February 3, 2013)

---. "Here There Be Monsters: A Response to the Public Outcry Surrounding the San Diego High School Shootings." Dialogic (August 20, 2007)

---. "If a Tree Falls: Enforcing the Green Scare." North of Center (September 28, 2011)

---. "Initial Thoughts on the Aftermath of the Verdict in the Trial of George Zimmerman." Dialogic Cinephilia (July 16, 2013)

---. "Introductiuon and Discussion of The Battle of Algiers." Dialogic Cinephilia (February 20, 2014)

---. "James Allen: Without Sanctuary; The Debate Over the Hanging of a Barack Obama Effigy on the University of Kentucky Campus; The History of Lynching in America." Dialogic (November 3, 2008)

---. "Learning From El Mexterminator and Cyber Vato: Social Anxiety as a Performative Pedagogy." Reconstruction 2.4 (Fall 2002)

---. "The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic" Politics and Culture #3 (August 10, 2010)

---. "Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story." The Smirking Chimp (Nove,ber 3, 2009)

---. "Monsanto (Multinational Agricultural Biotechnology Corporation)." Dialogic Cinephilia (November 24, 2014)

--- "My Understanding of Anarchism 5.0" Dialogic Cinephilia (March 17, 2017)

---. "Notes on Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophernia." Dialogic (February 20, 2014)

---. "Occupy: One Year Later." North of Center (September 5, 2012)

---. "On Anarchism." Dialogic (June 10, 2010)

---. "On Feminism." Dialogic (August 31, 2007)

---. "Pantheist Anarchists -- Should We Fear Them?" Dialogic (February 23, 2009)

---. "The Politics of Meat 3.0" Dialogic (March 9, 2009)

---. "Quentin Tarantino, King of the Mooks - One Basterd’s Inglourious Response." North of Center (August 30, 2009)

---. "Response to Jarhead." Bluegrass Film Society (November 6, 2005)

---. "Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop." North of Center (March 2, 2011)

---. "Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." North of Center (January 9, 2010)

---. "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Researching the Issues." Dialogic (January 21, 2009)

---. "Selma" Letterboxd (January 18, 2015)

---. "'The Stars are Projectors': A Modest Appreciation of Modest Mouse." (October 24, 2006)

---. "Steve McQueen’s Hunger (2008): A Powerful Exploration of Political Resistance and Retributive Justice." Uprooting Criminology (December 2, 2013)

---. "Thanksgiving." Dialogic (November 25, 2006)

---. "Thoughts on Blogging by a Poorly Masked Academic." Reconstruction 6.4 (2006)

---. "Top Films From 1930 to the Present." Dialogic Cinema (Ongoing Archives)

---. "Violence in Films." North of Center (Novemver 9, 2011)

---. "What Does Our Nation Value: Examining Two Cases of Student Demonstrations and Police Responses (or non-responses)." Dialogic (November 10, 2011)

---. "What I Learned in Pittsburgh: The 2009 G20 Summit and Protests (Part 1)." North of Center (October 7, 2009): 1, 3.

---. "A Different Hope: What I Learned in Pittsburgh (Part 2)." North of Center (October 21, 2009): 1, 3.

---. "Letter to the Editor." North of Center (November 4, 2009): 7.


Benton, Michael Dean and Michael Marchman. "So long—it’s been good to know ya: Remembering Howard Zinn." North of Center (February 13, 2010)

Benton, Michael Dean, et al. "ENG 282 1st Week: Responses to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012)." Dialogic Cinephilia (January 29, 2014)

---. "ENG 282 2nd Week: Code Unknown (France/Germany/Romania: Michael Haneke, 2000)." Dialogic Cinephilia (January 28, 2014)

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Resources for January 30, 2015




Lee, Kevin B. "Video Evidence: Who Should Win the Oscar for Best Lead Actor?" Keyframe (January 28, 2015)

Lee, Kevin B. "Video Evidence: Who Should Win the Oscar for Best Lead Actress?" Keyframe (January 29, 2015)





Lee, Kevin B. "Jem Cohen’s Ground-Level Artistry (Video Essay)." Keyframe (June 27, 2013) ["A look at two brilliantly genuine Jem Cohen bookends, the punk-rock loud INSTRUMENT and his gallery quiet MUSEUM HOURS."]

Dick, Kirby and Amy Ziering. ""The Hunting Ground": Film Exposes How Colleges Cover Up Sexual Assault and Fail to Protect Students." Democracy Now (January 28, 2015)

Lucca, Violet. "Robert Altman's Evolution, From Early TV Work to His Last Films (Video Essay)." Press Play (January 29, 2015)









Resources for January 29, 2015

Taibbi, Matt. "American Sniper Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize: Almost." Rolling Stone (January 21, 2015)

Rosenbaum, Ron. "Errol Morris: The Thinking Man's Detective." The Smithsonian (March 2012) ["The documentary filmmaker has become America's most surprising and provocative public intellectual."]

Davis, Ron, Lucia McBath and Marc Silver. "Black Lives Matter: New Film on Jordan Davis Captures Family’s Struggle to Convict White Vigilante." Democracy Now (January 26, 2015)





Geogaris, Bill. The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films They Shoot Pictures (Ongoing Archive)

DuVernay, Ava. "Selma Director Ava DuVernay on Hollywood’s Lack of Diversity, Oscar Snub and #OscarsSoWhite Hashtag." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

DuVernay, Ava. "'The Power of the People': Selma Director Ava DuVernay on Fight for Civil Rights, Voting Equality." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

DuVernay, Ava. "Selma Director Defends Film’s Portrayal of LBJ-MLK Dispute on Voting Rights Legislation." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

DuVernay, Ava. "'One Person Can Make a Difference': Ava DuVernay Remembers Film Critic Roger Ebert’s Early Support." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

Feld, Rob. "Errol Morris: Truth be Told." Directors Guild of America (Winter 2011)





Friday, January 23, 2015

ENG 282: Spring 2015 Letterboxd Profiles

At the bottom of this list I will start posting some responses that I believe provide unique insights to the films we are watching.

Develop a strong focus/theme for your response and stick to it. Form paragraphs (it helps you communicate clearly). Give your response a title (hint: should reflect your focus/theme)

Recommended Class Responses:


Zachary Johnson: "Hero or Terrorist: Che, Part Two

Zachary Johnson: "Dirty Wars: War's Whore, What's It Good For?"

Zachary Johnson: Citizenfour

Crystal Bradshaw: Selma

Crystal Bradshaw: Heartbeats

Kayla Pigg: Citizenfour

Kayla Pigg: Whip It

Kevin Vanhoose: "False Love: Heartbeats."

Kevin Vanhoose: Dogtooth

Ashley Rule: Appropriate Behavior

Ashley Rule: Dogtooth

Ashley Rule: Superbad

Jenine Tacket: "Moolaade: Women Control Their Bodies, Not You."

Jeremy Hay: "Hunger: Not a Light Romp."

Jeremy Hay: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

John Turner: Hunger

John Turner: Mooalaade

April Curtis: Hunger

Caitlin Terrell: Zodiac

Dustin Wallace: Pan's Labyrinth

Katrina Blankenship: Moolaade

Becki Tonges: Mooalaade

Becki Tonges: Oldboy

Ashleigh Yokeley: Oldboy

Kayla Pigg: Pan's Labyrinth

Kayla Pigg: The Story of Film, Pts 1-6

Ashley Rule - Warrior Colle:Moolaade

Nick Farler: Moolaade

Jeremy Hay: Moolaade

John Turner: Oldboy

John Turner: City of God

Ashley Rule: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Jenine Tackett: Monsoon Wedding

Becki Tonges: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Zachary Johnson: Selma


Course Profiles:


Michael Benton

Jenine Tackett (4/8 Some Like It Hot: 6 responses)

Ashley Rule (4/15 Appropriate Behavior: 8 responses)

Kevin Vanhoose (4/26 Cloud Atlas: 9 responses)

Brian Grindle (4/26 Citizenfour: 4 responses)

Raychell Estenson (4/26 City of God: 1 responses)

Kayla Pigg (4/26 Citizenfour: 12 responses

Crystal Bradshaw (5/4: 10 responses)

Zachary Johnson (4/26 Che Part Two: 9 responses)

Patrick Maloney (4/29 Dirty Wars: 9 responses)

Ashleigh Yokeley(4/29 Cloud Atlas: 10 responses)

Becki Tonges (3/11 Moolaade: 4 responses)

Katrina Blankenship (3/11 Moolaade: 2 responses)

William Hunter (3/11 Moolaade: 4 responses)

Dustin Wallace (3/11 Pan's Labyrinth: 1 responses)

Jarrett O'Hearn (3/11: 0 responses)

Caitlin Terrell (3/11 Zodiac: 6 responses)

April Curtis (4/5 Heartbeats: 8 responses)

Aaron Washing (4/5 Moolaade: 5 responses)

Tori Hutchinson (4/5 Monsoon Wedding: 1 responses)

Austin Miller (4/5 Dogtooth: 6 responses)

John Turner (4/5 Hunger: 6 responses)

Jaelyn Coles (4/8 Superbad: 0 responses)

Jeremy Hay (4/8 Heartbeats: 9 responses)

Nick Farler (4/8 Moolaade: 4 responses)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Resources for January 22, 2015




Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.




Hudson, David. "Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper: 'Infuses an ostensibly gung-ho and patriotic story with an underlying pain and melancholy.'” Keyframe (November 12, 2014; updated through January 19, 2015)

"Film Script: Network (1976)." Cutting on the Action (February 16, 2014)

Bordwell, David. "The Viewer’s Share: Models of Mind in Explaining Film." (Personal website: May 2012)

"Film Analysis 2.0." Yale Film Studies (No Date)

O'Hehir, Andrew. American Sniper and the culture wars: Why the movie’s not what you think it is." Salon (January 21, 2015)

"Miriam Bale (Johnny Guitar)." The Cinephiliacs #16 (April 21, 2013)

American Sniper (USA: Clint Eastwood, 2014) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Sabo, Lee Weston. "Radio Raheem Is a Broken Record: Lessons from Do the Right Thing on Its 25th Anniversary." Bright Lights Film Journal (December 12, 2014)

Dirk, Tim. "Film Genres." Film Site (Ongoing Archives)

American Sniper (USA: Clint Eastwood, 2014)




American Sniper (USA: Clint Eastwood, 2014: 132 mins)

American Sniper." Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)

Benton, Michael Dean. "American Sniper." Letterboxd (January 28, 2015)

Brody, Richard. "American Sniper Takes Apart the Myth of the American Warrior." The New Yorker (December 24, 2014)

Cavanaugh, Jeffrey. "American Sniper: Clint Eastwood’s American Horror Story." Mint Press (January 23, 2015)

"Diminished Lives." Cineaste (Summer 2015)

Ehrenstein, David. "Oscars 2015: Based on a ‘Truthiness’ Story." Keyframe (January 16, 2015) ["Dramatizing history, taking heat this Oscar season: SELMA, FOXCATCHER, THE IMITATION GAME and AMERICAN SNIPER wrangle with the truth."]

Gibson, S.M. "The Real American Sniper: A Response to the Critics." The Anti-Media (January 22, 2015)

Heath, Glenn, Jr. "On Tour: Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys and American Sniper." Notebook (December 23, 2014)

Hedges, Chris. "The Myth of War." POV (July 6, 2004)

---. "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." Wake Up? (January 23, 2007) [Excerpts from the book of the same name and other texts]

Hoberman, J. "The Great American Shooter." The New York Review of Books (February 13, 2015)

Hudson, David. "Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper: 'Infuses an ostensibly gung-ho and patriotic story with an underlying pain and melancholy.'” Keyframe (November 12, 2014; updated through January 19, 2015)

Kinder, Bill. "When Soldiers Come Home in the Movies: The post-war experience as told in tropes." Keyframe (November 11, 2015)

Klawans, Stuart. "American Shooter: Clint Eastwood’s shoot ’em up is remorseless, racist fantasy." The Nation (February 10, 2015)

Larimer, Sarah. "A guide to the American Sniper culture wars controversy." Washington Post (January 26, 2015)

Loewen, James W. "Handicapped by History: The Process of Hero-making." Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. The New Press, 2008.

Maass, Peter. "Oscars Make History, So Hollywood's War Stories Need to Be True." The Intercept (February 13, 2015)

Maher, Stephen. "Hollywood at War." Jacobin (February 21, 2015)

McCoy, Terrence. "The ‘unverifiable’ legacy of Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in American history." The Washington Post (July 30, 2014)

Norris, Chris. "Review: American Sniper." Film Comment (January/February 2015)

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Houghton-Mifflin, 1990.

O'Hehir, Andrew. American Sniper and the culture wars: Why the movie’s not what you think it is." Salon (January 21, 2015)

Schmidle, Nicholas. "Caught in the Crosshairs." The New Yorker (June 3, 2013)

Schwartz, Niles. "Evil Against Evil: The Fascinating Incoherence of American Sniper." Balder and Dash (February 23, 2015)

Taibbi, Matt. "American Sniper Is Almost Too Dumb to Criticize: Almost." Rolling Stone (January 21, 2015)

Taub, Amanda. "Every movie rewrites history. What American Sniper did is much, much worse." Vox (January 22, 2015)

"Top 15 messages in Clint Eastwood's anti-war masterpiece American Sniper." libcom (January 22, 2015)

Turner, Brian. "I Served in Iraq, and American Sniper Gets It Right. But It’s Still Not the War Film We Need." Vulture (January 22, 2015)

Vern. "American Sniper." Vern's Reviews on the Films of Cinema (January 26, 2015)

Wisniewski, Chris. "American Sniper." Reverse Shot (January 26, 2015)






Framing the Picture: Perspectives on Islamophobia in American Sniper and The Reluctant Fundamentalist from Matt Marlin on Vimeo.











Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Resources for January 21, 2015

Parkinson, David. "A Crash Course In... Sapphic Cinema." Movie Mail (January 19, 2015)




Churner, Leah. "One Through the Heart: What happened to the Hollywood musical?" Moving Image Source (June 20, 2011)

Heath, Glenn, Jr. "On Tour: Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys and American Sniper." Notebook (December 23, 2014)

Finke, Christopher Zumski. "Harry Potter fans – and J.K. Rowling – win a deal to get child labor out of chocolate." Christian Science Monitor (January 20, 2015)





Directors: Chantal Ackerman They Shoot Pictures Don't They (Ongoing Archive)

D'Angelo, Mike. "The highs and lows of High And Low." The Dissolve (February 20, 2014)

Arthuso, Raul and Victor Guimarães. "Each Film is a Laboratory: A conversation with Nicole Brenez." CINÉTICA (February 20, 2014)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day

pandiculation \pan-dik-yuh-LAY-shun\

noun : a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep)

Examples

"He was coming on to yawn. His breath sucked in the draught from the window. His shoulders hunched, his legs stretched to their toes, he made claws of his fingers in his hands—a fierce pandiculation of his limbs." — Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, 2001

"Carefully orchestrated pandiculations follow a routine: Lips part, the tongue hunkers down, and muscles in the face, mouth and diaphragm engage as the head tilts back." — Laura Sanders, Science News, May 7, 2011

Cat and dog owners who witness daily their pets' methodical body stretching upon awakening might wonder if there is a word to describe their routine—and there is: pandiculation. Pandiculation (which applies to humans too) is the medical term for the stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, often accompanied by yawning, to arouse the body when fatigued or drowsy. The word comes from Latin pandiculatus, the past participle of pandiculari ("to stretch oneself"), and is ultimately derived from pandere, meaning "to spread." Pandere is also the source of expand.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Resources for January 19, 2015

Aradillas, Aaron, Steven Santos and Matt Zoller Sietz. "Motion Studies #11 - Razzle Dazzle Part 6: The Takeaway." Press Play (April 4, 2012) ["A stunning montage that tunnels through the media distortion field as depicted in dozens of movie and video clips."]

Ehrenstein, David. "Oscars 2015: Based on a ‘Truthiness’ Story." Keyframe (January 16, 2015) ["Dramatizing history, taking heat this Oscar season: SELMA, FOXCATCHER, THE IMITATION GAME and AMERICAN SNIPER wrangle with the truth."]





Selma (USA: Ava DuVernay, 2014) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)





Kayyali, Nadia. "The History of Surveillance and the Black Community." Electronic Frontier Foundation (February 13, 2014)

Hendricks, Obery M. "The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr." The Huffington Post (January 20, 2014)

Mirzoeff, Nicholas. "No Justice in Ferguson: A Checklist of Physical Evidence Mistakes." After Occupy (January 19, 2015)

Totaro, Donato. "The Beyond: Lucio Fulci's Zombie Masterpiece." Offscreen 1.2 (July 1997)

Axmaker, Sean. "The New Wave Wonders of Tinto Brass." Keyframe (February 20, 2014) ["Tinto Brass’s exuberant experiments stir the French New Wave and the sexual revolution into a swirl of sixties free-form madness."]

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Selma (UK/USA: Ava DuVernay, 2014)




Selma (UK/USA: Ava DuVernay, 2014: 122 mins)

Abdelmahmoud, Elamin. "2014: the year that black cinema bounced back in America." The Guardian (December 25, 2014)

Badejo, Anita. "Modern Marvel." Buzz Feed (July 20, 2016) [On actress Tessa Thompson]

Benton, Michael. "Selma." Letterboxd (January 18, 2015)

Civil Rights Movement Veterans (Website/Archive)

Cooper, Brittney. "A racial state of emergency: How we prepare for devastation in Ferguson." Salon (November 19, 2014)

Davidson, Amy. "Why Selma Is More Than Fair to L.B.J." The New Yorker (January 22, 2015)

Digital SNCC Gateway [Archive of resources: "The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was the only national civil rights organization led by young people. Organized in 1960 and mentored by the legendary black organizer, Ella Baker, SNCC activists became full-time organizers, working with community leaders to build local grassroots organizations in the Deep South."]

"Diminished Lives." Cineaste (Summer 2015)

Dreyfuss, Ben. "'Selma Is Now': John Legend and Common Just Gave An Amazing Oscar Speech." Mother Jones (February 22, 2015)

DuVernay, Ava. "'One Person Can Make a Difference': Ava DuVernay Remembers Film Critic Roger Ebert’s Early Support." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

---. "'The Power of the People': Selma Director Ava DuVernay on Fight for Civil Rights, Voting Equality." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

---. "Selma Director Ava DuVernay on Hollywood’s Lack of Diversity, Oscar Snub and #OscarsSoWhite Hashtag." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

---. "Selma Director Defends Film’s Portrayal of LBJ-MLK Dispute on Voting Rights Legislation." Democracy Now (January 27, 2015)

Ehrenstein, David. "Oscars 2015: Based on a ‘Truthiness’ Story." Keyframe (January 16, 2015) ["Dramatizing history, taking heat this Oscar season: SELMA, FOXCATCHER, THE IMITATION GAME and AMERICAN SNIPER wrangle with the truth."]

Foundas, Scott. "Selma." Variety (November 12, 2014)

Fox, Margalit. "Amelia Boynton Robinson, a Pivotal Figure at the Selma March, Dies at 104." The New York Times (August 27, 2015)

"From Selma to Snowden, Oscar Speeches Invoke Activism & Calls for Social Justice." Democracy Now (February 23, 2015)

Gino, Francesca. "You 2.0: Rebel with a Cause." Hidden Brain (August 9, 2019) ["This week, we'll follow Gino on her mission to understand the minds of successful rule breakers. What are their secrets? And how can we discover our own rebel talent? "I think we really need to shift our thinking," says Gino. "Rebels are people who break rules that should be broken. They break rules that hold them and others back, and their way of rule breaking is constructive rather than destructive. It creates positive change.""]

Hawks, Julie. "Why the Vote Wasn't Enough for Selma: A New Book on Economic Justice." Black Perspectives (October 17, 2017)

Hendricks, Obery M. "The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr." The Huffington Post (January 20, 2014)

Holloway, Jonathan. "AFAM 162 - African American History: From Emancipation to the Present." Open Yale Courses (Spring 2010) ["The purpose of this course is to examine the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present. Prominent themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction; African Americans’ urbanization experiences; the development of the modern civil rights movement and its aftermath; and the thought and leadership of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X."]

Hudson, David. "Ava DuVernay’s Selma: 'One of the best American films of the year.'” Keyframe (November 25, 2014)

Joseph, Peniel. "Selma Backlash Misses The Point." Codeswitch (January 10, 2015)

Kayyali, Nadia. "The History of Surveillance and the Black Community." Electronic Frontier Foundation (February 13, 2014)

Lewis, John. "The Art & Discipline of Nonviolence." On Being (January 15, 2015) ["We take in the extraordinary wisdom of Congressman John Lewis, on what happened in Selma on Bloody Sunday and beyond — and how it might inform our common life today. A rare look inside the civil rights leaders’ spiritual confrontation with themselves — and their intricate art of nonviolence."]

Maass, Peter. "Oscars Make History, So Hollywood's War Stories Need to Be True." The Intercept (February 13, 2015)

Menand, Louis. "The Color of Law: Voting rights and the Southern way of life." The New Yorker (July 8, 2013)

Patton, Stacey. "Take Two Seats: What’s Really Behind Jewish Anger Over Selma?” Tim Wise (February 7, 2015)
Sahani, Alakha. "Hollywood wants me to make a certain kind of movie: Ava DuVernay." Indian Express (November 9, 2015)

Young, Bradford. "The Philosophy of Cinematography." The Film Stage (November 5, 2015) [Cinematographer for the films Selma (2014); A Most Violent Year (2014); Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013); Middle of Nowhere (2012); Pariah (2011)]






































Resources for January 18, 2015




North, James and Philip Weiss. "The New York Time's double standard on westerners who go off to fight in Middle East conflicts." Mondoweiss (January 17, 2015)

Eddington, Patrick G. "The New Imitation Game." The Cato Institute (January 8, 2015)

Tiflati, Hicham. "Why Charlie Hebdo Offends Me." Mondoweiss (January 16, 2015)

Kluger, Jeffrey. "A Bad Day for Climate Change Deniers … And the Planet." Time (January 16, 2015)

"Kevin B. Lee (Slacker)." Cinephiliacs #12 (January 27, 2013)

Radisic, Danica. "The Journalistic Purgatory of Eastern Europe." Global Voices (February 19, 2014)

Hunte, Matthew. "Photos: Humans of the Caribbean." Global Voices (February 21, 2014)

Bloom, Paul, et al. "Brand Over Brain." TED Radio Hour (January 16, 2015) ["Brands help us assign value to almost everything we buy. But is there a way to know the difference between real and created value?"]

Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day

gratuitous \gruh-TOO-uh-tuss\

adjective 1 : done or provided without recompense : free 2 : not called for by the circumstances : unwarranted

Examples

John seems incapable of talking about anything he owns without a gratuitous reference to the amount of money he spent on it.

"Each gratuitous 'Mr.,' 'Mrs.,' 'Miss,' or 'Ms.' appeared not so much respectful as nostalgic, a yearning for a return to the days when all but the closest acquaintances addressed one another with titles and surnames." — Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2014

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Resources for January 17, 2015

Hoh, Matthew. "I Stand With Charlie Hebdo, But I Also Stand With the Victims of Our Bombs." Veterans for Peace (January 14, 2015)

"Why Privacy Matters." The Best of the Left #890 (January 14, 2015) ["Today we take a look at how over-policing and the threat of constant surveillance chips away at freedom in direct and indirect ways and why you should be concerned (if it weren’t already obvious)."]

Ford, Glen and Tim Wise. "The State, Racism & Matters of Black Life." Building Bridges (January 6, 2015)





Aronowitz, Stanley. "Rejuvenating the Workers’ Movement – The Road Forward." Building Bridges (January 13, 2015)





Parks, Tim. "The Limits of Satire." The New York Review of Books (January 16, 2015)





Lee, Kevin B. "Experimental Fireworks in the Land of Free Radicals: ‘Independent’ is not so much a genre as a state of mind." Keyframe (July 2, 2013)

Brothers, J. Roger. "Evidence for Geomagnetic Imprinting and Magnetic Navigation in the Natal Homing of Sea Turtles." Current Biology (January 15, 2015)

Friday, January 16, 2015

Resources for January 16, 2015

Hanks, Tom. "I Owe It All to Community College: Tom Hanks on His Two Years at Chabot College." The New York Times (January 14, 2015)





Greenwald, Glenn. "With Calls to Spare Petraeus, Feinstein Plea Shows that Not All Leaks are Equal." Democracy Now (January 13, 2015)

Marlow, Jonathan. "Indelible Images - Before the forgetting sets in: a last look at the best of 2014." Keyframe (January 14, 2015)

"Charlie Hebdo and the War for Civilisation." Media Lens (January 15, 2015)

"The Continuing March Toward Reform (Money in Politics)." Best of the Left #888 (January 6, 2015)

Canova, Timothy A. and Bernie Sanders. "Congress Lets Big Banks Resume Risky Trades Rolling Back Financial Reforms Enacted To Prevent Another Financial Crisis ." Building Bridges (December 31, 2014)

Knegt, Peter. "The 10 Biggest Surprises of the 2015 Oscars Nominations." Indiewire (January 15, 2015)

"The system is built to fail (Injustice System)." The Best of the Left #889 (January 9, 2015) ["Today we look at the interplay between a system of structural racism and our (in)justice system and beg the question: is the system broken or is it working just as intended?"]



Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Resources for January 14, 2015

Greenwald, Glenn, Luc Mathieu and Lisa Stampnitzky. "On How to Be a Terror "Expert": Ignore Facts, Blame Muslims, Trumpet U.S. Propaganda." Democracy Now (January 13, 2015)

Zadrozny, Brandy. "Open Carry Crowd Makes ‘Ghost Guns’ For Texas Lawmakers." The Daily Beast (January 13, 2015)





Wark, McKenzie. "The Weird Global Media Event." Public Seminar (January 11, 2015)

Fanning, Rory. "An Open Letter to a Young Army Ranger, From an Old One: Why the War On Terror Isn’t Your Battle." In These Times (January 13, 2015)

Beyerstein, Lindsay. "Slacking Workers of the World Unite: We’ve made an art of wasting time at work. But to what end?" In These Times (January 1, 2015)

Anderson, Paul Thomas. "On His Filmmaking and Films." WTF #565 (January 5, 2015)

Holloway, Jonathan. "AFAM 162 - African American History: From Emancipation to the Present." Open Yale Courses (Spring 2010) ["The purpose of this course is to examine the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present. Prominent themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction; African Americans’ urbanization experiences; the development of the modern civil rights movement and its aftermath; and the thought and leadership of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X."]


The Spielberg Face from Fandor Keyframe on Vimeo.




A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (USA: Steven Spielberg, 2001) Dialogic Cinephilia (January 13, 2015)


The Career of Paul Thomas Anderson in Five Shots from Kevin B. Lee on Vimeo.




Krimsky, Sheldon. "The GMO Deception": Sheldon Krimsky on How BigAg & the Government Is Putting Your Food at Risk." Democracy Now (October 31, 2014)


Beyond Bechdel: Testing Feminism in Film from Fandor Keyframe on Vimeo.




Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (USA: Steven Spielberg, 2001)




A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (USA: Steven Spielberg, 2001: 146 mins)

"Artificial Intelligence (2001)." Philosophical Films (ND)

Ayers, Drew R. "Vernacular Posthumanism: Visual Culture and Material Imagination." Department of Communication Dissertation,  Georgia State University, 2012.

Benedict, Steven. "The Techniques and Themes of Steven Spielberg." Vimeo (August 8, 2012)

Booker, M. Keith. "A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (2001, Directed by Steven Spielberg)." Comments on Culture (ND)

Haskell, Molly, Michael Koresky and Violet Lucca. "Steven Spielberg." Film Comment Podcast (October 3, 2017) ["Looking ahead to the New York Film Festival premiere of Susan Lacy’s documentary Spielberg, this week’s Film Comment podcast considers the household-name auteur: the architect of the modern blockbuster, and a surviving (and thriving) master of the Classical Hollywood vernacular. Molly Haskell is on hand to impart wisdom from her most recent book Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, which came out in the spring, as well as firsthand recollections of writing about Spielberg in the age of second-wave feminism. She joins Film Society of Lincoln Center Editorial Director Michael Koresky, who edited the Reverse Shot book Steven Spielberg: Nostalgia and the Light, published with Museum of the Moving Image this summer, and FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca for a discussion spanning Spielberg’s big marquee titles and his less appreciated works."]

Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Bye, Robot Pt. 1 — A.I. Artificial Intelligence." The Next Picture Show #320 (March 15, 2022) ["Kogonada’s new science-fiction film AFTER YANG wrestles with the humanity of artificial beings, and their relationship to humanity, in a way that feels distinctly reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s 2001 feature A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Both films are highly sympathetic toward the android companions on which they center, but Spielberg’s film, which began life as a Stanley Kubrick endeavor, has a more sour view of humanity… or does it? That’s one of the main questions up for discussion this week as we delve into the complexities and contradictions of A.I., a film with no shortage of discussion points, many of which coalesce around the film’s still-divisive ending."]

---. "Bye, Robot Pt. 2 — After Yang." The Next Picture Show #321 (March 22, 2022) ["Kogonada’s new AFTER YANG plays in many ways like a mirror to Steven Spielberg’s misunderstood android epic A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE as it explores ideas about human nature through the experiences of an artificial being. It’s also an unusually warm, thematically rich science-fiction film that opens up countless avenues of discussion, a few of which we travel down before bringing AFTER YANG into conversation with Spielberg’s earlier model to consider these stories’ shared features: a disrupted family unit, a journey of discovery, adoption ethics, and rumination on what it means to be human."]

Lee, Kevin B. "The Spielberg Face." (Posted on Vimeo: 2012)

Sampson, Benjamin. "A.I. Artificial Intelligence – A Visual Study." Press Play (May 10, 2012)








Resources for January 13, 2015

Lee, Kevin B. "What Are the Best Films of the Decade So Far? Nearly 300 Critics Picked These." Slate (January 8, 2015)




López, Cristina Álvarez and Adrian Martin. " All Tomorrow's Parties." Notebook (January 20, 2014)

American Hustle (USA: David O' Russell, 2013) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)





Hopper, Jessica. "A Certain Rebellion." Pitchfork (January 12, 2015)

Dowd, A.A. "Why was The Babadook’s Essie Davis never a viable Best Actress candidate?" A.V. Club (January 13, 2015)

Baye, Rachel. "Shumlin re-elected as Vermont governor: Democrat's belated win reinforces trend of TV ad war victors taking governors' mansions." The Center for Public Integrity (January 8, 2015)





"Je suis Charlie." Reuters (January 13, 2015) [Photos from the march in Paris, France.]

Monday, January 12, 2015

American Hustle (USA: David O. Russell, 2013)




American Hustle (USA: David O. Russell, 2013: 138 mins)

Ashenmiller, Josh. "White Privilege? It’s in the Fine Print (Django UnchainedAmerican Hustle99 Homes)." Bright Lights Film Journal (September 22, 2017)

DiSalvo, David. "The Lessons American Hustle Teaches About The Irresistible Chaos Of Desire." Forbes (December 23, 2013)

Johnson, Mackenzie. "What Makes David O. Russell so David O. Russell." Film Stage (October 17, 2016)

O. Russell, David. "American Hustle." Film Comment (February 14, 2014)

Wheeler, Otie. "You’re Nothing to Me Until You’re Everything: Romance & Enchantment in American Hustle." Vulgar Cinema (January 1, 2014)



Spring 2015 ENG 102 Resources/Assignments

Ethics and politics look at both how we should regard and accomodate each other and what kind of things make it possible to, for example, treat each other with respect and what kinds of things don't. That I might view you as "weird" or even "inhuman" (politics) may very much dictate how I then treat you (ethics). When we examine more closely how we think about the world, it turns out that ethics and politics are inseperable. (21) -- Veronique Pin-Fat "How Do We Begin to Think About the World?" (2014)



Video Essays Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "The danger of a single story." TED Talks (July 2009)

Bluegrass Film Society and Extra Credit Opportunities and #eng282 resources

Homework due 1/14 and 1/15 classes: Read pages 61-72 in Sensing, Moving, Thinking & Writing


Homework due 1/20 and 1/21 classes: Read Pages 73-89 in Sensing, Moving, Thinking & Writing

ENG 281/282 Film Studies Resources

Homework due 1/22 and 1/26: Proposal of 2 ideas for your first argument paper/essay - 300 words minimum and typed. Read: Yale Film Studies: Film Analysis Web Site 2.0

Homework due 1/27 and 1/28: Extended proposal for 1st Major essay -- 300 words minimum and typed, at least 2 in-depth sources - fully cite them at the end of the proposal.

What ENG 102 students are writing on for their first essay:
Dances with Wolves; Whiplash; Mad Men; Monk; 3 Idiots; Mr. Brooks; Harry Potter; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Gray's Anatomy; October 1; American Sniper; A Bronx Tale; Shawshank Redemption;

Resources for January 12, 2015

Sacco, Joe. "On Satire – a response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks." The Guardian (January 9, 2015)




Wolf, Sherry. "Who Needs Gender?: A Marxist Analysis." We Are Many (June 26, 2014)

Bernstein, Arielle and Nelson Carvajal. "The Inherent Vice in Paul Thomas Anderson's Films: A Video Essay." Press Play (January 2, 2015)

Donelan, Loretta. "New Inherent Vice Trailer Is Painfully ‘70s, But How Does It Stack Up to Other Trailers From That Decade? — VIDEO." Bustle (January 9, 2015)

Johnson, Ragina. "From Fish-ins to Sit-ins: Native Resistance in the ‘50s and ‘60s." We Are Many (June 26, 2014)

Guo, Jeff. "The protesters who are trying to upend the ‘fantasy world’ of economics: At a gathering of America's top economists, a small group of students is battling for the soul of economics." The Washington Post (January 5, 2015)

Lando, Barry. "Fanning the Flames of Fear: Fractured France." The Smirking Chimp (January 11, 2015)

Inherent Vice (USA: Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)


claque \KLAK\

noun 1 : a group hired to applaud at a performance; 2 : a group of sycophants

The senator seems to have a claque of influential supporters in the media who are willing to endorse his every move.

"But the program has gone by the boards now, the victim of an activist federal judge and a claque of feckless politicians." — Bob McManus, The New York Post, July 1, 2014

The word claque might call to mind the sound of a clap, and that's no accident. Claque is a French borrowing that descends from the verb claquer, meaning "to clap," and the noun claque, meaning "a clap." Those French words in turn originated in imitation of the sound associated with them. English speakers borrowed claque in the 19th century. At that time, the practice of infiltrating audiences with hired members was very common to French theater culture. Claque members received money and free tickets to laugh, cry, shout—and of course clap—in just the right spots, hopefully influencing the rest of the audience to do the same.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Resources for January 7, 2015

Scott, James C. "Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play." Princeton University Press, 2012.





Schehl, Matthew. "VIDEO: The Devastating Legacy Of Unexploded US Ordnance In Iraq." Mint Press News (January 2, 2015)





"Queensland environmental policy developed by QCoal worker, says report: Activists say the Queensland government was giving ‘keys to the blood bank to Dracula’." The Guardian (May 6, 2014)

Germanos, Andrea. "Protests Stop Drilling & Pipeline In Pennsylvania." Popular Resistance (January 6, 2015)

"Citizenfour producers sued for 'aiding' Edward Snowden: Suit charges Laura Poitras, Weinstein Company 'on behalf of American public.'" Vancouver Observer (December 23, 2014)

"Paris Office Attack: What We Know So Far." Sky News (January 7, 2015)

Lewis, Jeff. "Alberta oil firms keep pumping as prices collapse." The Globbe and Mail (January 6, 2015)

Powless, Irving, Jr. "Who Are These People? (The Onondaga Nation Encounters European Settlers)." Unwelcome Guests #302 (April 16, 2006) ["he collaborative educational project, sponsored by the Onandagas, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, and Syracuse University, is bringing together Ononadaga and other Haudenosaunee speakers, academics and community members to understand the history, culture and role that the six nations of Haudensaunee, also known as the Iroquois confederacy, have had on the US, and the effect of the US on the Haudenosaunee and other indigenous nations. This history has been taught to generations of school children in a heavily biased way - unquestioned were the rights of the so-called founding fathers, pilgrims, colonists, pioneers to what they did - wage a genocidal land grab perpetrated against innocent people. Manifest destiny, the doctrine used to justify this, was presented, during my education at least, as a positive development leading to American greatness."

Taibbi, Matt. "Police Now Citing 'Feelings' as Reason for Slowdown: The NYPD work stoppage dives deeper down the political rabbit-hole." Rolling Stone (January 6, 2015)

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Resources for January 6, 2015

“To be frank, I think his world had vanished long before he even entered it. But I must say, he maintained the illusion with grace.” -- Zero about Gustave H.


Gerhard, Susan. "Frame by Frame 2014." Keyframe (January 1, 2015) ["A survey of critics’ memorable moments and trends of 2014 reveals a love of the doppelgänger, an attachment to INHERENT VICE and a plea to film journalists to get real."]

Horton, Scott. "From Drone Strikes to Black Sites, How U.S. Foreign Policy Runs Under a Cloak of Secrecy." Democracy Now (January 5, 2015)





Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)

Johnson, Chalmers. "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic." Democracy Now (February 27, 2007)


Alper, Loretta, et al. "Stupefying the Group Mind (Managing the Class War with PR and TV)." Unwelcome Guests #301 (April 8, 2006)

"Hip-Hop course violates Arizona school district's ethnic studies ban." Mashable (January 2, 2015)

Fitzgerald, Colleen. "Language Revitalization in Oklahoma and Texas: 2014 Year in Review." Global Voices (January 5, 2015)

"Mexico/US: Obama Should Press Peña Nieto on Justice." Human Rights Watch (January 5, 2015)

Human Rights in Mexico Human Rights Watch (Ongoing Archive)

Brunsting, Joshua. "Bruno Dumont's Li'l Quinquin [Theatrical Review]." Criterion Cast (January 6, 2015)

Monday, January 5, 2015

Spring 2015 Bluegrass Film Society

1/3: The Babadook (Australia: Jennifer Kent, 2014: 93 mins) [Midnight movie at The Kentucky Theater]

1/10: Inherent Vice (USA: Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014: 148 mins) [12:50PM at Fayette Cinemark Theater]

1/12: Kin-dza-dza (Soviet Union: Georgiy Daneliya, 1986: 135 mins)

1/18: Selma (UK/USA: Ava DuVernay, 2014: 128 mins) (11:50am at Movie Tavern)

1/26: Wake in Fright (Australia: Ted Kotcheff, 1971: 114 mins)

1/27: Proud Citizen (USA/Bulgaria: Thom Southerland, 2014: 89 mins) [7pm at the Kentucky Theater]

1/28: American Sniper (USA: Clint Eastwood, 2014: 132 mins) [Movie Tavern 6:50PM]

1/31 or 2/1: 2001: A Space Odyssey w/ Live Orchestra (USA/UK: Stanley Kubrick, 1968: 160 mins) [The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, in the University of Kentucky Singletary Center Concert Hall.]

2/2: The Shooting (USA: Monte Hellman, 1966: 82 mins)

2/9: Dear White People (USA: Justin Simien, 2014: 108 mins)

2/14: The Great Beauty (Italy/France: Paolo Sorrentino, 2013: 142 mins) [One World Film Festival - The Kentucky Theater: 10am]

2/23: The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan (Japan: Masahiro Shinoda, 1970: 104 mins)

2/27: Maps to the Stars (Canada/USA/Germany/France: David Cronenberg, 2014: 111 mins) [The Kentucky Theater]

3/2: The Dance of Reality (Chile/France: Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013: 130 mins)

3/8: Mr. Turner (UK/France/Germany: Mike Leigh, 2014: 150 mins) [The Kentucky Theater: 1 PM]

3/9: Force Majeure (Sweden/France/Norway: Ruben Östlund, 2014: 120 mins)

3/16: Hard to Be a God (Russia: Aleksey German, 2013: 170 mins) [7pm at the IU Cinema]

3/23: The Music Room (India: Satyajit Ray, 1958: 95 mins)

3/26: Blade Runner (USA/Hong Kong/UK: Ridley Scott, 1982: 117 mins) [Worsham Theater: 10 PM]

3/28: Leviathan (Russia: Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014: 140 mins) [The Kentucky Theater]

3/30: It's Such a Beautiful Day (USA: Don Hertzfeldt, 2012: 62 mins)

4/3: It Follows (USA: David Robert Mitchell, 2014: 100 mins) [The Kentucky Theater 7:30 PM]

4/6: Citizenfour (USA/Germany/UK: Laura Poitras, 2014: 114 mins)

4/7: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Japan: Isao Takahata, 2013: 137 mins) [The Kentucky Theater]

4/13: Appropriate Behavior (UK: Desiree Akhavan, 2014: 86 mins)

4/20: The Wall (Austria/Germany: Julian Pölsler, 2012: 108 mins)

4/27: Turn Me On, Dammit (Norway: Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, 2011: 76 mins)

5/4: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (USA: Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014: 99 mins)