Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Resources for April 1, 2015

"Movies on Trial: Black Swan." Reel Fanataics (March 10, 2015)





Raia, Courtenay. "History 2D: Science, Magic, and Religion." (UCLA course: 2009)

Nastasi, Alison. "50 Essential Feminist Films." Flavorwire (July 18, 2014)

Lustgarten, Abby. "10 Things I Learned: Persona." The Current (March 31, 2014)

Lopate, Phillip. "The Great Beauty: Dancing in Place." Current (March 24, 2014)

The Great Beauty (Italy/France: Paolo Sorrentino, 2013) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Bradshaw, Peter. "Top 50 Films of the Demi-Decade." The Guardian (January 5, 2015)






Mumia Abu-Jamal (Journalist/Prisoner)

Archives/Biographies/Websites:

Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Wikipedia: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Abu-Jamal News: Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal

Prison Radio

The New York Times: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Democracy Now: Mumia Abu-Jamal

Resources by/about Mumia Abu-Jamal:

Abu-Jamal, Mumia. "Empire of Fear." (Audio posted on YouTube: May 9, 2006)

---. "Martin: In Memory and In Life." Huffington Post (April 8, 2013)

---. "The Occupation." Prison Radio (October 27, 2011)

---. "Racism Without Racists." Prison Radio (March 5, 2012)

---. "The United States Is Fast Becoming One of the Biggest Open-Air Prisons on Earth" Democracy Now (February 1, 2013)

---. "What Do They Want." Prison Radio (November 11, 2011)

Abu-Jamal, Mumia and Michael Parenti. "Created Unequal (Law, Money and Mumia Abu-Jamal)." Unwelcome Guests #6 (April 12, 2000)

Fernández, Johanna and Dave Lindorff. "As Competing Films Offer Differing Views on Faulkner Killing, New Evidence Suggests Key Witnesses Lied at Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Trial." Democracy Now (September 22, 2010)

Hanrahan, Noelle and Stephen Vittoria. "Long Distance Revolutionary: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Journey from Black Panthers to Prison Journalist." Democracy Now (February 1, 2013)

Hedges, Chris. "The Unsilenced Voice of a ‘Long-Distance Revolutionary’." TruthDig (December 9, 2012)

In Prison My Whole Life (UK/USA: Marc Evans, 2007: 90 mins)

Taylor, Mark Lewis. "Why Freedom for Abu-Jamal Makes Even More Sense Now." Philadelphia Inquirer (Originally published in December 11,2011; reposted on his website on February 20, 2013)

Vittoria, Stephen. "Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal." Law and Disorder Radio (February 18, 2013)

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Resources for March 26, 2015

"The History and Science of Color Temperature." Filmmaker IQ (May 2013)





Newton, Michael. "Tears in rain? Why Blade Runner is timeless." The Guardian (March 14, 2015)

Pulver, Andrew. "Films that pass the Bechdel test plummet in 2014." The Guardian (March 24, 2015) ["The number of films featuring positive depictions of women has dropped significantly, according to new research."]

Glovin, David. "Fraternities Lobby Against Campus Rape Investigations." Bloomberg (March 24, 2015)





Chemaly, Soraya. "10 Words Every Girl Should Learn." Films for Action (March 24, 2015)








Dogtooth (Greece: Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Force Majeure (Sweden/France/Denmark/Norway: Ruben Östlund, 2014)




Force Majeure (Sweden/France/Denmark/Norway: Ruben Östlund, 2014: 118 mins)


Benton, Michael Dean. "Force Majeure." Letterboxd (March 24, 2015)

Cheshire, Gregory. "Force Majeure." Roger Ebert (October 24, 2014)

"Force Majeure." Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)

Galibert-Laîné, Chloé. "Why Framing Matters in Movies." Keyframe (January 1, 2016)

Hudson, David. "In Case of No Emergency: The Films of Ruben Östlund.” Keyframe (January 14, 2015)

---. "Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure: “It’s Michael Haneke meets Scenes From a Marriage.” Keyframe (May 19, 2014)

Romney, Jonathan. "Film of the Week: Force Majeure." Film Comment (October 17, 2014)

Stevens, Dana. "Force Majeure: Watch this brilliant and pitiless critique of marriage and masculinity with someone you love." Slate (October 24, 2014)

Tobias, Scott. "Force Majeure." The Dissolve (October 21, 2014)




















Monday, March 23, 2015

Resources for March 23, 2015

Ballhaus, Michael and Darren J. N. Middleton. "The Last Temptation of Christ." The Projection Booth #107 (March 26, 2013)

Frank, Alison. "Heavenly Creatures." Electric Sheep Magazine (September 13, 2011)

Perez, Rodrigo. "The 20 Best Films of 2009." The Playlist (January 30, 2015)

Critchley, Simon, Brooke Gladstone and Eugene Thacker. "In the Dust of this Planet." Radio Lab (September 8, 2014)

Flynn, Nick, Rick Marinick and Anna Mundow. "Boston Noir." Radio Open Source (December 8, 2014)

Stewart-Ahn, Aaron. "How Adam Curtis' film Bitter Lake will change everything you believe about news." Boing Boing (March 19, 2015)

Adam Curtis (Filmmaker/Journalist) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Sutton, Douglas Allen. "Only the Wind Will Know. (Spring 2015 ENG 102 Essay)" Dialogic Cinephilia (March 23, 2015)

James Bamford: Author/Journalist/History of NSA Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Security/Security Agencies/Surveillance Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Framing/Discourse/Propaganda/Narratives Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

James Bamford: Author/Journalist (Ongoing Archive)

Wikipedia: James Bamford

@WashAuthor


Bamford, James. "After Words with James Bamford." C-SPAN (October 15, 2008)

---. "Big Brother Doesn’t Have to Be a Bully: How Washington can use surveillance to save lives — not target them." Foreign Policy (January 29, 2015)

---. "The Most Man in the World." Wired (August 2014)

---. "The New Thought Police." NOVA (January 1, 2009)

---. "The NSA and Me." The Intercept (October 2, 2014)

---. "The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)." Wired (March 15, 2012)

---. "The NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program, the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies including the Israeli companies involved in intercepting highly sensitive communications for the U.S. government, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the relevant information blackout by the 9/11 Commission, the US mainstream media, President Obama’s ‘no change’ so far, and more." Boiling Frogs (July 21, 2009)

---. "The Shadow Factory -- The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America." Democracy Now (October 14, 2008)

---. "They Know Much More Than You Think." The New York Review of Books (August 15, 2013)

Binney, William. "National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance." Democracy Now (April 20, 2012)

Nazaryan, James. "The N.S.A.’s Chief Chronicler." The New Yorker (June 10, 2013)

Douglas Allen Sutton -- Only the Wind Will Know (Spring 2015: ENG 102 Essay)

Douglas Allen Sutton
English 102
Professor: Michael Benton

Only The Wind Will Know

America as a nation has expanded from the 1600’s when the first European Colonists from England arrived on the shores of the east coast and continued their expansion toward the west coast. The American Revolution that broke with England helped shape our country to its democratic form by forcing our founding fathers to examine their way of thinking, and to create laws that might be fairer for the new America. Our founding fathers recognized the unfair rule of England and wished to be free from those intrusions. They claimed to create laws that represented the people, not the government, and afforded protections to all. Were those laws representative of both the settlers and Native Americans, or did those laws help clear a path for the systematic genocide of a population of people that inhabited the Americas long before the first settlers? Did the American colonists attempt to militarily integrate a weaker Native American society, or did they view them as obstacles to exploit or eliminate?

I recall from my history classes, stories that told about the epic struggles of the Native American tribes and the hardships they endured during the Western Expansion of the American settlers. We must examine the cost in terms of culture, life, and legacy of the Native American tribes because of the massive population flood of American settlers into native lands. Further explanation is required to measure the benefits and sacrifices for both settlers and Native Americans. I will argue that many laws were passed by the American government that was based more on prejudice and greed than on mutual protection of all parties. I will assess how religious leaders attempted to impose an assimilation doctrine upon the Native Americans and examine how industrial America and the cattle barons exploited the settlers as well as the Native Americans, and lastly how the expansion of the 1800’s has had a lasting effect on the Native American population of present day America.

Few films capture the plight of the Native American tribes like the movie Dances with Wolves (1990). The director Kevin Costner was able to capture many minute details of family structure and the bond developed by a people that understood the fine balance between nature and life. Costner takes us on a journey through the prairies and highlands of the Great Sioux Nation during the mid to late 1800’s as an observer, letting us be a part of a culture that may greatly resemble our own. Costner lets us travel and live as one with the people through his interpretation, allowing us some visual insight and to experience the joys and hardships that will cause us to develop an emotional investment in the characters and the stories they tell. The film follows one particular tribe called the Sioux. This remarkable tribe lived on the plains and through their actions can effectively demonstrate the struggles this tribe faced together and how they interacted with each other to survive. Costner portrayed the Sioux as a people with courage, love, and a strong since of pride. According to the movie Dances with Wolves, the Sioux developed life-long family bonds. This particular tribe believed in hard work and viewed giving away or trading their wealth as noble.

The American expansion into the Native American lands became progressively intrusive once the American settlers began to parcel out portions of land for farming. Vast numbers of settlers trying to strike it rich flocked west of the Mississippi River, passing through or claiming land within occupied Native American lands. Initial contact between settlers and Native Americans was usually peaceful, and many cultural exchanges were made for food, medicine, tools, weapons, and clothing, but shortly after those exchanges, relationships between both parties would often result in conflict over land (Allen 403). The settlers became in direct competition with the Native Americans for the resources to survive. Many of the tribes viewed this intrusion as an act of war, attacking the settlers. Costner depicted one of these intrusions in his movie, showing the Pawnee attacking a family of settlers, killing everyone but a young white female who was able to escape by fleeing the area. The scene showed the hostile intent and distrust between the settlers and the Pawnee and demonstrated a war like battle that left a young girl alone and scared on the prairie, only to be rescued and raised by a Sioux holy man. This little girl would grow up to give voice to this tribe, allowing Costner to give insight to a tribe that the American Government considered savages. Once the news of those attacks was brought to the attention of the American politicians, laws were enacted to allow for conflict resolution between settlers and Native Americans. These laws could be viewed as one sided, such as the Indian Removal Act of the 1830’s, which allowed for the forcible removal or relocation of the Native Americans to lands designated by the Federal Government and enforced by the United States Military (“Century”). Political figures within the federal government such as President Grover Cleveland viewed the government as guardians for wards of the states, and the Indians were considered wards of the states (Allen 411).

President Cleveland helped create the Dawes Severalty Act, and this Act reflected his ever-changing personal views of the Native Americans. President Cleveland’s views of the Native Americans would often swing drastically from the Indians being “lazy, vicious, and stupid” to “industrious, peaceful, and intelligent” (Allen 411). The Dawes Severalty Act allowed President Cleveland to assign 160 acres of land to individual Indians once they had legally severed ties to their tribe. These Individual Native Americans had to agree to allow the government to sell unassigned tribal lands, and in return, some of those funds would be set aside for Native American education. Those Native Americans could also petition the United States government for U.S. citizenship (Faragher: 347). Others saw the Native Americans as needing guidance but agreed that barbarism and civilization could not live together (Allen 411). This political stance was represented in Costner’s film by acts of aggression toward Lieutenant John Dunbar, a white civil war military hero that fellow soldiers considered a traitor because he had conspired with the Natives. The American military commanders believed Dunbar had turned Indian and offered to spare his life if he would assist them in hunting down the tribe he had befriended. The American Military displayed hatred toward this tribe by demonstrating they were willing to kill one of their own commanders because they believed he had become an Indian by association. I consider the political mind-set of that time to be one sided because it only addresses what the government considered to be the Indian problem. These laws appeared to remove the Native American’s legitimate right to the lands they occupied and assisted the settlers in gaining vast parcels of land with limited conflict. Some of the Native Americans were confused by the American government, according to a Sioux warrior named John (Fire) Lame Deer. He said, “The U.S. Government is a strange monster with many heads. One head doesn’t know what the others are up to” (gtd. in Erdoes 9). With so many political and military leaders making decisions and creating laws, there may have been ample opportunity for corruption and greed to enter the political process. Men who make the laws could be persuaded through ulterior motives, profit, or friendship to create laws that would violate the very principles our founding fathers developed for a young America. I believe if laws are created that allow for the extermination of a people and the acquisition of their lands, it is not only reprehensible, but shows a total lack of empathy for human life.

Even though the American political parties may have viewed the Native Americans as savages, those that claim God as the creator of all may have viewed the Native Americans worthy of redemption. I argue the actions of American religion could have been as detrimental to the Native Americans as the laws that regulated behavior, land ownership, and even their existence. According to Corinthians 15: 1-4 of the Bible, Christians believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of man, and who ever believes in this doctrine will have everlasting life in heaven. The believer’s soul will spend eternity in heaven with God the father and creator of man. This is in contrast to the beliefs of the Native Americans. The Sioux believed in a Great Spirit called tunka and according to Lame Deer, tunka is considered their oldest God. The Native Americans considered tunka to be like a rock, ageless, eternal. The Sioux also considered tunka as the Great Spirit, a spirit of stone that sometimes would reveal hidden messages or invisible writings to those that listened with their heart (qtd. in Erdoes 193). American settlers like Captain John Smith and his wife tried to develop schools to educate the Native Americans in English language, customs, and Christianity (Allen 17).

The rigid rules that accompanied some of the American religions were in direct contrast to the beliefs of the Native Americans. The Sioux, for instance, believe everything was connected to nature and the Great Spirit would guide and protect them. Christians believe in an entity that created all things, and this spirit would guide and protect those that believe. The Native Americans prayed too many spirits and the American settlers believed in only one God. This sharp contrast caused turmoil between the Natives and settlers. There were many variations throughout the different American religious sects, for instance Catholicism, Protestant, and Judaism but the basic premise remained the same, the belief in God, the creator and savior of the devout believer. With so many different religious belief structures, I subscribe to the notion that with so many religious variations this may have confused the Native Americans and may have been extremely detrimental to them because it attempted to assimilate the Native Americans into a culture outside their own without consideration for their current beliefs. This new religion may have removed their own beliefs and caused the Native Americans to accept American religion only to help them survive in an ever-growing intrusion of American settlers into their homelands. I could never be entirely sure of the overall effect that religion had upon the Native Americans, but I believe any religion that doesn’t respect a society for their current beliefs may not be living by the standards they so aggressively teach and defend. By reviewing the religions of both cultures, I can accept that many of the Native American beliefs are similar to those of the American settlers and may have very easily been incorporated into the mainstream beliefs of the settlers, but that may have required the settlers to practice a little more tolerance and compassion for others. I do believe there was an attempt by the early American settlers to use religion to control and assimilate the Native Americans into the White American culture. These attempts may not have been as nefarious as it appeared, because in my experience with religion, I often observed many displays of kindness and a genuine concern for a person’s well-being. I have found nothing in documentation that would lead me to believe that at least some of the religious community would have behaved in the same manner toward the Native Americans.

My final argument will demonstrate the efforts of industrial America to systematically exterminate the Native Americans and pillage the lands west of the Mississippi river of their natural resources. Through his movie, Costner gave us a tiny glimpse through his movie of the massive herds of buffalo, and how the Sioux tribe’s survival depended on hunting those buffalo. The Sioux in Costner’s movie Dances with Wolves appeared to be saddened when the tribe found scores of buffalo that had been killed by white hunters and were left lying on the prairie for nothing more than their fur. To a people that survived on the meat of the buffalo, this would have been a devastating sight and could have been viewed as an act of war. Military commanders encouraged their soldiers to practice their shooting skills by shooting buffalo with the new .50 caliber Sharps rifle (Faragher 332). The killing of the buffalo was not the only attacks the Native Americans had to endure the mining industry and prospectors moved into the Dakota Territory and began to corrupt officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, allowing the mining companies to divert funds for personal use and reduce food supplies to the Native Americans (Faragher 332). With so many different tribes assigned and living on the Dakota reservation, survival had become harder, and with the reduction of food supplies, skirmishes between tribes were ever increasing. American settlers continued to flock westward to find their fortunes, trying to find copper in Arizona or gold in California. There would always be some product or resource that would capture the imagination of the settlers and continue to push the Native Americans into an ever shrinking land that their society may not recover from. With the industrial age of America in its infancy, the Native Americans would not be the only people to fall victim to the rapid growth of the mining, cattle, and railroad industry. The poor settlers along with the Mexicans, Chinese, and an assortment of immigrants looking for fortune would find it hard to be successful or survive because of the lack of support by these wealthy business owners. Some farms would fail because of lack of water in the desert, while others fell to disease or harsh winters. The larger mining companies bought up the smaller individual claims and purchased state of the art mining equipment, leaving the individual miners who were unwilling to sell to the larger companies unable to compete financially (Faragher 335). The rapid growth of these industries was very progressive and an essential part of Americas growth, but came at a high cost for some.

In summary my arguments have demonstrated the United States government made unfair laws that assisted in the destruction of the Native American society and forced those remaining to live a very harsh life on lands that were not their own. The Native Americans were deceived into forfeiting their homelands and forced down a path that even in today’s Native American community’s leave many in the grip of poverty. I have successfully argued that religious leaders attempted to assimilate the Native Americans through education, religion, and separation from their tribes. Lastly, America’s industrial society, made up of mainly white, wealthy businessmen, politicians, and the financially elite, were able to lure vast numbers of settlers to the West with a promise of fortune and freedom, pushing the Native Americans out of their homelands and closer to their demise. I would like to think we as a people learned valuable lessons during America’s growth westward, but it appears to me those same tactics imposed on the Native Americans during the 1800s are still being used today by our present day politicians, corporations, and elitists, to control or push aside any whom they consider an obstacle. Laws are still smothering and controlling groups of people. Corporations like the oil tycoons control financial markets and lobby politicians to create laws that favor corporate interests over the smaller business owners. I wonder are we the current day Native Americans? Will our survival be challenged or pushed aside so the wealthy can become more powerful? Will corporations continue to claim their success is the success of the nation? I believe only the wind will know.


Works Cited:

Allen, Larry Schweikart and Michael. A Patriot's History of the United States. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

Deer, John (Fire) Lame, and Richard Erdoes. Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.

John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, et al. Out of Many: A History of the American People. Ed. Todd R.Armstrong. Upper saddle River: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

The Library of Congress. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. 28 May 1830. 01 May 2003. .

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Resources for March 18, 2015

"Mike Nichols." Moving Image Source (March 1, 1990) ["Mike Nichols took Broadway by storm in the early 1960s with his comedy partner Elaine May. He began his directing career with the stage production of Barefoot in the Park and became a film director with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, followed by his landmark film The Graduate. In this interview, just before he was honored with a gala Salute by the Museum of the Moving Image, Nichols talks about how the assured, controlled style of his early films evolved into a looser, more naturalistic approach, and about how, for him, directing actors is largely a matter of trust and letting go."]

"Patrizia von Brandenstein." Moving Image Sources (October 15, 1994) ["When we comment on the look of a movie, or on the beautiful cinematography, we are often commenting on what the production designer, working with the director and cinematographer, has put there to be photographed. Legendary designer Patrizia von Brandenstein has shown a remarkable range, from the period settings of Ragtime and Billy Bathgate to the swank Manhattan interiors of Six Degrees of Separation to the weather-beaten and far less sumptuous interiors of Leap of Faith and Silkwood. In this presentation, von Brandenstein leads the audience through sequences from her work, and lucidly defines the art of production design."]

"David Cronenberg." Moving Image Source (January 11, 1992) ["The Canadian director David Cronenberg has redefined the notion of what a horror film can be. While horror and science-fiction films traditionally have been about threats from the outside—monsters or alien forces—Cronenberg's films (including The Brood and The Fly) have been about threats that come from inside our own bodies, and our psyches. It was fitting, then, that Cronenberg should be the director to adapt William S. Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, with its grotesque and comical mix of the organic, the chemical, and the hallucinatory."]

Naked Lunch (Canada/UK/Japan: David Cronenberg, 1991) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

Klimkiw, Greg, Guy Maddin and Greg Toles. "Careful." The Projection Booth #103 (February 26, 2013)

Sammon, Paul M. "Blue Velvet." The Projection Booth #104 (March 5, 2013)

Goldberg, Michelle. "The Laura Kipnis Melodrama." The Nation (March 16, 2015)

O'Connell, Joe. "Crime and Consequences." The Austin Chronicle (February 27, 2015) ["American Crime creator John Ridley talks about shooting in Austin, faith, race, and Felicity Huffman'"]

"The 50 Best Films of the Decade so Far." The Playlist (February 25, 2015)



Thursday, March 12, 2015

Resources for March 11, 2015

Lee, Kevin B. "New Year’s Irresolutions and a Cinematic Cliff: Richard Linklater’s Slacker." Keyframe (January 4, 2013)

Dear White People (USA: Justin Simien, 2014: 108 mins) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)

O'Malley, Sheila. "Girlhood." Roger Ebert (January 30, 2015)





Soderbergh, Steven. "On King of the Hill." The Current (February 26, 2014)

Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. "Dreams and Visions: Ingmar Bergman’s Kvinnodröm (Dreams) (1955)." Bright Lights Film Journal (February 3, 2015)

Murray, Terri and Anja Steinbauer. "Feminist Film Theory." Philosophy Now #7 (September 13, 2011)

Cousins, Mark. "50 weeks to learn film." Sight and Sound (February 19, 2015)






Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Dear White People (USA: Justin Simien, 2014)




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

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

Marlin, Matt. "Dear White People as Black Countercinema." (Posted on Vimeo: February 2016)

Millhiser, Ian. "SAE Proudly Touts Association To The Confederacy On Its Website." Think Progress (March 9, 2015)

Newkirk, Pamela. "The Satiric Lesson of Dear White People." The Conversation (October 21, 2014)

Richardson, Marque and Justin Simien. "Dear White People: Film Tackles Racial Stereotypes on Campus & Being a 'Black Face in a White Space.'" Democracy Now (March 24, 2014)

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (USA: Thomas Allen Harris, 2014: 90 mins) ["A film that explores how African American communities have used the camera as a tool for social change from the invention of photography to the present. This epic tale poetically moves between the present and the past, through contemporary photographers and artists whose images and stories seek to reconcile."]



Monday, March 9, 2015

Resources for March 10, 2015

THE WES ANDERSON COLLECTION CHAPTER 5: THE DARJEELING LIMITED from RogerEbert.com on Vimeo.







Lee, Kevin B. "Rohmer’s Guessing Gazes." Keyframe (March 8, 2015) ["Or: why Rohmer’s films get only better with repeat viewings, like playing back the memory of a strange encounter, wondering how it might have gone differently."]





Harris, Mark. "Hitchcock During Wartime." The Current (February 19, 2014)





Hudson, David. "India, China and Russia Clamp Down: Two banned films and one jailed filmmaker." Keyframe (March 9, 2015)

Faleiro, Sonia. "India's Daughter review – this film does what the politicians should be doing." The Guardian (March 5, 2015)


BBC Delhi Nirbhaya Documentary full BBC India's Daughter HD from Raghupati Yogesh on Vimeo.




Wong, Edward. "China Blocks Web Access to Under the Dome Documentary on Pollution." The New York Times (March 7, 2015)





Reichert, Jeff. "This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco, This Ain't No Foolin Around: 1941." Reverse Shot (June 16, 2013)





Stafford, Mark. "The Duke of Burgundy." Electric Sheep Magazine (October 9, 2014)

Resources for March 9, 2015

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





Film Essay- The Role of Landscape, Nature and Environment in War Films from Adam Laity on Vimeo.




"A pantheon of one’s own: 25 female film critics worth celebrating." Sight and Sound (March 8, 2015)

Trafton, John. "The End of History in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive." Bright Lights Film Journal (February 17, 2015)

Only Lovers Left Alive (UK/Germany/Greece: Jim Jarmusch, 2013: 123 mins) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)





Rich, B. Ruby. "Blue Is the Warmest Color: Feeling Blue." The Current (February 24, 2014)






Only Lovers Left Alive (UK/Germany/Greece: Jim Jarmusch, 2013)




Only Lovers Left Alive (UK/Germany/Greece: Jim Jarmusch, 2013: 123 mins)

Celluloid Liberation Front. "Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive." Notebook (April 12, 2014)

Dayoub, Tony. "The 51st New York Film Festival #3." The Cinephiliacs (October 13, 2013)

Ehrenstein, David. "Tilda Swinton, Timeless." Keyframe (April 11, 2014)

Only Lovers Left Alive Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)

Sachs, Ben. "Forces of the past in Only Lovers Left Alive and Pasolini's Trilogy of Life." The Chicago Reader (April 30, 2014)

Trafton, John. "The End of History in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive." Bright Lights Film Journal (February 17, 2015)















Sunday, March 8, 2015

Women and Cinema (Ongoing Archive)

An archive I'm building for my Fall 2015 ENG 281 course on this topic -- please share suggestions of resources and films in the comments. Barbara Anne O'Leary shares: "September 1 - 15, 2015... @DirectedbyWomen worldwide film viewing party." The archive also includes general analysis, critiques and examples of representations of women.





"50+ Films about Women That Will Change The Way You See The World." Films for Action (August 4, 2015)

Ackerman, Galia, et al. "My Body My Message: Women’s Bodies as Tools of Self-Empowerment." Making Contact (July 8, 2015) ["The female body as medium, and as message. How can a woman determine how she is perceived by the world, and even by herself? On this edition, we hear stories of women who are using their bodies for political protest, and as tools of self-empowerment…forcing everyone to reevaluate their perspectives on the female form."]

Adams, John Joseph, Tobias Buckell and Sam J. Miller. "Is Sense8 Too Radical for Critics?" Wired (July 6, 2015)

Ahmad, Aalya. "Feminist Spaces in Horrific Places: Teaching Gender and Horror Cinema." Offscreen 18.6/7 (July 2014)

"Andrea Štaka's Cure - The Life of Another." Notebook (august 4, 2015)

"A Pantheon of One’s Own: 25 Female Film Critics Worth Celebrating." Sight and Sound (March 8, 2015)

Ataide, Jesse. "Half the Sky: Women Auteurs I." Keyframe (March 23, 2012)

---. "Half the Sky: Women Auteurs II." Keyframe (March 30, 2012)

---. "Half the Sky: Women Auteurs III." Keyframe (April 6, 2012)

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

Barnes, Henry. "Cannes faces backlash after women reportedly barred from film screening for not wearing high heels." The Guardian (May 19, 2015)

Bechdel Test Fest

Benedict, Steven. "Mad Max: Fury Road." (Audio: May 16, 2015) [Highights the role of Eve Ensler in the development of the film]

Berman, Judy. "It’s Pointless to Argue Over Whether a Film — or Any Work of Art — Is Feminist." Flavorwire (November 14, 2013)

---. "What Dogme 95 Did for Women Directors." The Dissolve (April 22, 2015)

Bernstein, Paula. "Oscar Winner Laura Poitras on How Field of Vision Will Change Documentary Filmmaking." IndieWire (September 10, 2015)

Blue, Violet, et al. "Be an Expert." Popaganda (July 30, 2015) ["In all kinds of ways, race and gender impact the way we present ourselves as knowledgable. You see it everywhere: from the way boys are more likely to speak up in classrooms to the way men are way more likely to be quoted as “experts” in print media or asked to be voices of authority on TV. A recent analysis of Sunday morning TV news shows by Media Matters showed that 61 percent of expert guests were white men. So on today’s show, we have three stories about women who are screwing around with the idea of what’s an expert. The women on this show are all putting themselves forward as experts—sometimes requiring actual imposter situations. We talk with Laura Nix, the co-director of the new documentary The Yes Men Are Revolting about how she captures the activist group's media stunts on camera. Then, comedians Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin discuss being fake advice experts to dish out genuine comedy. The show ends with journalist Violet Blue, author of The Smart Girls' Guide to Privacy, about how to be an expert on your internet privacy."]

Borstein, Alex, et al. "Hollywood's Missing Directors." Popaganda (June 4, 2015) ["We start off this episode by talking with a lawyer from the ACLU (which recently issued a letter calling for government agencies to investigate Hollywood hiring practices) and talk with filmmaker Destri Martino, who launched The Director List—a brand-new database of hundreds of female directors. We hear from filmmaker Christina Choe about what it’s like to work on indie movies—including her current film Nancy—and from producer, writer, and actress Alex Borstein about her long career working within Hollywood writers' rooms. Plus: the best of Shit People Say to Women Directors."]

Brown, Adrienne Maree and Walida Amarisha. "Decolonizing the Mind." GRITtv (Posted on Youtube: April 21, 2015)

Buckley, Cara. "A.C.L.U., Citing Bias Against Women, Wants Inquiry Into Hollywood’s Hiring Practices." The New York Times (May 13, 2015)

Burchett, William, Brian Risselada and Josh Ryan. "Claire Denis." Syndrome and a Cinema #3 (October 17, 2011) ["On this episode we talk about Claire Denis, a highly-regarded contemporary French filmmaker who has made waves with films such as Beau travail and White Material. In particular we look at her films Chocolat (1988), Beau travail (1999) and Trouble Every Day (2001)."]

Burks, Raychell, et al. "Women of Science." Popaganda (May 8, 2015)

Chemaly, Soraya. "10 Words Every Girl Should Learn." Films for Action (March 24, 2015)

Child, Ben. "Maggie Gyllenhaal: At 37 I was 'too old' for role opposite 55-year-old man." The Guardian (May 21, 2015)

Claire Denis: The Art of Seduction Reverse Shot (June 26, 2009-July 16, 2009)

Colau, Ada. "From Occupying Banks to City Hall: Meet Barcelona’s New Mayor Ada Colau." Democracy Now (June 5, 2015)

Cotillard, Marion. "On Her career and Her Roles in Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Two Days One Night and James Gray's The Immigrant." The Close-Up #8 (December 2014)

Coyle, Jake. "Amid Male Landscape of 'Mad Max,' Charlize Theron Dominates." ABC (May 14, 2015)

Criado-Perez, Caroline. "Do it Like a Woman: Contemporary feminist activism and How You Can Change the World." London School of Economics and Political Science (June 3, 2015)

Cronin, Sarah. "Attenberg: Interview with Athina Rachel Tsangari." Electric Sheep (September 1, 2011)

Cronk, Jordan. "Kelly Reichardt: Genres, Geographies and the Evolution of a Filmmaker." Keyframe (March 4, 2014) ["Where Reichardt’s latest, an elaborate tale of radicalism, eco-terrorism, guilt and paranoia, fits."]

Davis, Peter. "When Hollywood Wasn’t So Male." The Nation (February 11, 2015)

Denis, Claire. "In Dialogue with Eric Hynes." (Posted on Youtube: July 15, 2013) ["Claire Denis joins writer/critic Eric Hynes in a discussion of her creative process, influences, and the films she's made over the course of some 25 years."]

Derr, Holly L. "What Really Makes a Film Feminist?" The Atlantic (November 13, 2013)

"Diminished Lives." Cineaste (Summer 2015)

Directed by Women (Website)

Dirik, Dilar, et al. "Stateless Democracy: The Revolution in Rojava Kurdistan." (New World Academy posted on Vimeo: October 21, 2014) ["The fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has often been portrayed as a fight between the West and its Arab allies against Islamic ultra-fundamentalists. Over the last several years, however, a progressive Kurdish-led resistance has been forming in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) amidst the Syrian Civil War. The resistance has successfully implemented new models of grassroots democracy, gender equality, and sustainable ecology, its members practicing a political project they refer to as Democratic Confederalism. Women and men stand side-by-side in its armed forces in the face of both ISIS and the Bashar al-Assad regime. Despite the resistance’s efforts, Rojava is currently threatened by a massacre, and the international community continues to stand by silently as tragedy unfolds."]

Dockterman, Eliana. "Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.’" Time (May 7, 2015)

Faleiro, Sonia. "India's Daughter review – this film does what the politicians should be doing." The Guardian (March 5, 2015)

Friedrichs, Ellen. "3 Well-Meaning Assumptions About Women You Never Realized Were Sexist." Everday Feminism (May 4, 2015)

Goldberg, Michelle. "The Laura Kipnis Melodrama." The Nation (March 16, 2015)

Grady, Pam. "French Touch: Mia Hansen-Løve and Eden." Keyframe (June 17, 2015)

Gravely, Brittany. "To the Beat of Shirley Clarke." Harvard Film Archive (March 2015)

Gross, Anisse. "Mary Harron [Screenwriter, Director]." The Believer (March/April 2014)

Harvey, Dennis. "DAISIES’ Chain: Czech New Wave High Points." Keyframe (June 7, 2012) ["A Pacific Film Archive series with two Věra Chytilová classics highlights an unforgettable era."]

Hill, Erin and Brian Hu. "In Response to the AFI: Top 100 American Films by Women Directors." Mediascape (Spring 2007)

hooks, bell. "The Oppositional Gaze." Black Looks: Race and Representation South End Press, 1992: 115-131.

Hrapkowicz, Błażej. "Kelly Reichardt: Ambiguities." Ketframe (March 5, 2014) ["On bad dreams, political predicaments and fine lines: a master filmmaker speaks on her new project."]

Hudson, David. “Agnès Varda in California.” Keyframe (August 17, 2015)

---. "Věra Chytilová, 1929 – 2014." Keyframe (March 12, 2014) ["Best known for DAISIES (1966), Chytilová was a major figure in Czech cinema."]

India's Daughter (UK/India: Leslee Udwin, 2014: 64 mins)

Jaising, Shakti. "Cinema and Neoliberalism: Network Form and the Politics of Connection in Icíar Bollaín’s Even the Rain." Jump Cut #56 (Winter 2014/2015)

Jelincic, Stela. "Celebrating the Six Percent: Women Filmmakers." Keyframe (March 2, 2015)

Kent, Jennifer. "Babadook." Final Cut (January 1, 2015)

Kolb, Leigh. "Advantageous Is a Dystopian Sci-Fi About All-Too-Real Beauty Standards." Bitch (July 9, 2015)

Langill, Molly. "‘Mad Women’ in Robert Altman’s 3 Women and Images." Offscreen 18.8 (August 2014)

"Laura Poitras." Close Up #2 (October 2014) ["Laura Poitras talks CITIZENFOUR, Edward Snowden, the NSA, and surveilance, at one of our HBO Directors Dialogues during the 52nd New York Film Festival."]

LaVelle, Ciara, et al. "Mad Men and the Advertising Age." Popaganda (April 23, 2015)

Lee, Kevin B. "Essential Viewing: Claire Denis on 35 Shots of Rum." Keyframe (August 9, 2011)

Leigh, Jennifer Jason. "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle." Pinewood Dialogues (November 23, 1994) ["Jennifer Jason Leigh is remarkable for her chameleon-like ability to transform herself, physically and psychologically, for each of her roles. Her ability to inhabit her characters comes from an intensive process of preparation and research, and from a fearlessness that allows her to abandon her reflective personality and become another person onscreen. Leigh has consistently sought out risky, interesting roles, working for such directors as Robert Altman, David Cronenberg, and Alan Rudolph. She spoke at the Museum on the day she received rave reviews for her dazzling portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle."]

Lenten, Jessica. "Phenomenology and the films of Andrea Arnold." Real/Reel (August 1, 2012)

Littman, Sam. "Great Directors: Kelly Reichardt." Senses of Cinema (June 2014)

Longworth, Karina. "Veronica Lake (Dead Blondes Episode 4)." You Must Remember This (February 20, 2017) ["Veronica Lake had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life -- so how did she end up dead at 50?"]

López, Cristina Álvarez. "Ratcatcher: Tell Me Where It Hurts." Keyframe (April 7, 2015)

Lowin, Rebekah. "Mom's powerful photos of her daughters show 'Strong is the New Pretty.'" Today (April 7, 2015)

MacLean, Nancy. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000 MacMillan, 2009. [Professor has a copy]

May, Elaine and Mike Nichols. "Mike Nichols, Part 1." Close Up #6a (December 2014) ["In this special two-part episode of The Close-Up, we pay tribute to the late Mike Nichols. For Part 1, we present a conversation between Mike Nichols and Elaine May after a screening of May's "Ishtar" here at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2006."]

Mayer, Sophie. "'She's getting back in the frame': Interview with Céline Sciamma." The F Word (May 5, 2015)

McCahill, Mike. "21st Century Directors You Need to Know About: Andrea Arnold." Movie Mail (February 27, 2014)

Mesle, Sarah. "'High Sparrow': Cersei Lannister’s Last F–ckable Day." LA Review of Books (April 26, 2015)

Mirk, Sarah. "Female Film Directors Put Together a List of Must-See Movies Made By Women." Bitch (July 8, 2015)

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Feminist Film Theory ed. Sue Thornham. NYU Press, 1999: 58-69.

---. ""Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Feminist Film Theory ed. Sue Thronham. New York University Press, 1999: 122–30.

Murray, Terri and Anja Steinbauer. "Feminist Film Theory." Philosophy Now #7 (September 13, 2011)

"My Reaction to Mad Max: Fury Road and the Utter Perfection that is Imperator Furiosa." NOSPOCKDASGAY@TUMBLR.COM (May 19, 2015)

Nastasi, Alison. "50 Essential Feminist Films." Flavorwire (July 18, 2014)

---. "50 Groundbreaking Female Film Artists We’re Thankful For." Flavorwire (November 25, 2014)

Nehme, Farran Smith. "Three Strangers." The Cinephiliacs #^ (October 21, 2012)

Panda, Robo. "Men’s Rights Activist Site Calls For A Boycott Of Mad Max: Fury Road." Uproxx (May 13, 2015)

Pate, SooJin. "More Than Words: Microaggressions." Sociological Cinema (March 2, 2014)

"Patrizia von Brandenstein." Moving Image Sources (October 15, 1994) ["When we comment on the look of a movie, or on the beautiful cinematography, we are often commenting on what the production designer, working with the director and cinematographer, has put there to be photographed. Legendary designer Patrizia von Brandenstein has shown a remarkable range, from the period settings of Ragtime and Billy Bathgate to the swank Manhattan interiors of Six Degrees of Separation to the weather-beaten and far less sumptuous interiors of Leap of Faith and Silkwood. In this presentation, von Brandenstein leads the audience through sequences from her work, and lucidly defines the art of production design."]

Pinn, Marcus, Brian Risselda and Josh Ryan. "Kelly Reichardt." Syndrome and a Cinema #11 (June 28, 2014)

Pulver, Andrew. "Films that pass the Bechdel test plummet in 2014." The Guardian (March 24, 2015) ["The number of films featuring positive depictions of women has dropped significantly, according to new research."]

Rahbar, Jean. "U.S. ambivalence about torture: an analysis of post-9/11 films." Jump Cut #56 (Winter 2014/2015)

Rapold, Nicholas. "An Audience for Free Spirits in a Closed Society." The New York Times (July 1, 2012)

---."Chantal Akerman Takes Emotional Path in Film About 'Maman'." The New York Times (August 6, 2015)

Rhodes, John David. "Great Directors: Peggy Ahwesh." Senses of Cinema (December 2003)

Richter, Nicole. "Filming the Impossible: An Interview with Catherine Breillat." Reverse Shot (May 19, 2015)

Risselada, Brian and Josh Ryan. "Larissa Sheptiko." Syndromes and Cinema #8 (March 29, 2014) ["On this episode we talk about the films of Ukrainian born director Larisa Shepitko. In particular we look at her films Homeland of Electricity which is half of the film The Onset Of An Unknown Age (1967), You and Me (1971) and The Ascent (1977)."]

Rirch, Katey. "Take This Waltz." The Cinephiliacs (December 16, 2012)

Rogers, Nathaniel. "Women's Pictures - Agnes Varda's Le Bonheur." The Film Experience (June 19, 2015)

Romney, Jonathan. "Away from the picture: Mica Levi on her Under the Skin soundtrack." Sight and Sound (November 28, 2014)

---. "The stars of Girlhood: ‘Our poster is all over Paris, with four black faces on it…’" The Guardian (March 4, 2014)

Selby, Jenn. "Mad Max heroine Charlize Theron on female roles in Hollywood: 'You're either a really good mother, or a really good hooker.'" The Independent (May 15, 2015)

Silverstein, Melissa. "Infographic: Cannes Women Filmmakers By the Numbers 2005-2015 #SeeHerNow." Women and Hollywood (May 6, 2015)

---. "Statistics on the State of Women and Hollywood." Women and Hollywood (February 23, 2014)

Smith, Valerie. "Reconstituting the Image: The Emergent Black Woman Director." Callaloo 37 (Autumn 1988): 709-719.

Tatarska, Anna. "The Making of Vilva 3.0." Keyframe (July 14, 2015) ["Ulrike Zimmerman: ‘People are afraid of female sexuality. Everyone. Even the women themselves.’"]

Taubin, Amy. "Like a Hurricane: The Diary of a Teenage Girl boldly goes where no American coming-of-age movie has gone before." Film Comment (July/August 2015)

Taylor, Astra. "On the Unschooled Life." Walker Art Center (Posted on Youtube: November 4, 2009) ["Raised by independent-thinking bohemian parents, Taylor was unschooled until age 13. Join the filmmaker as she shares her personal experiences of growing up home-schooled without a curriculum or schedule, and how it has shaped her educational philosophy and development as an artist."]

Taylor, Ella. "Blow-Up: Bechdel Testing …. 1, 2." Keyframe (May 26, 2015) ["The larger question is, should we be trying to influence or legislate how many or what kind of women characters go into a movie?"]

Telaroli, Gina. "Brigadoon." The Cinephiliacs #23 (July 28, 2013)

Temple, Emily. "15 Essays by Female Writers That Everyone Should Read." Flavorwire (February 11, 2013)

Townes, Carimah. "Why Netflix Shouldn’t Care If White Men Watch Its Newest Sci-Fi Series." Think Progress (July 8, 2015)

Vasseur, Flore. "The Woman Who Hacked Hollywood." Backchannel (March 2015) ["Laura Poitras’ name was once on terror watch lists. Now it’s on an Oscar. Here’s her personal journey."]

Warne, Jude. "Ben Kingsley and Company on Learning to Drive." Film International (September 6, 2015)

Watercutter, Angela. "Ex Machina has a Serious Fembot Problem." Wired (April 9, 2015)

Wilde, Olivia. "Social Justice and the Portrayal of Women in the Media." (GRITtv posted on Youtube: February 12, 2015)

Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess." Film Quarterly 44.4 (Summer, 1991): 2-13.

Women and Gender Studies Open Education Consortium (Archive of courses available online with resources)

!Women Art Revolution (USA: Lynn Hershman-Leeson, 2010: 83 mins)

"The Women of the Avant-Garde: An Introduction Featuring Audio by Gertrude Stein, Kathy Acker, Patti Smith & More." Open Culture (August 5, 2015)

Yue, Genvieve. "The 17th Geneviève McMillan - Reba Stewart Fellow: Mati Diop." Harvard Film Archive (February 2015)























“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” -- Frida Kahlo
















Thursday, March 5, 2015

Resources for March 6, 2015

Davis, Peter. "When Hollywood Wasn’t So Male." The Nation (February 11, 2015)

Gonzalez, Rene. " The Race and Class Politics of Gentrification." The Sociological Cinema (January 8, 2015)

Cohen, Josh. "The Imitation Game and the complicated byproducts of adaptation." Melville House (February 25, 2015)











Tracy, Andrew. "Up and Away: On The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp." Reverse Shot (July 15, 2006)

Austerlitz, Saul. "The Hard Word: Spellbound." Reverse Shot (APril 27, 2003)

Bouvé, Andrew. "The Many Voices of Meryl Streep." Slate (February 28, 2014)