One problem with the word “shaman,” which traces its origins to the Siberian steppe, is that it is popularly employed by people more interested in fantasizing about some alternate reality than squaring their shoulders to bear the mundane burdens of this one. However, in cultures where such an office exists, the job of the shaman is primarily to foster the interrelation of two groups or positions that have hardened into such stubborn opposition that the survival of the society is at risk. For life to go on, the two camps must overcome their polemic, and the shaman acts by throwing himself into the fray—mentally, bodily, and emotionally, sometimes at personal risk. The result of his labors typically constitutes a paradigm shift rather than a compromise: the rules, though not necessarily undone, are re-contextualized and the system changes, including the position of the shaman himself.
--Matt Kirby, "I Heart Huckabees Premodern Help for Postmodern Times." (2004)
Authors and artists, like doctors and clinicians, can themselves be seen as profound symptomoligists, ... 'physicians of culture' for whom phenomena are signs or symptoms that reflect a certain state of forces. -- Daniel W. Smith, "'A Life of Pure Immanence'" (1998)
Allred, Gloria. "Women’s Rights Attorney Gloria Allred on Suing Donald Trump over Sexual Assault: 'Truth Matters.'" Democracy Now (January 26, 2018) ["We are broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which has been surging with energy from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. It was at Sundance two decades ago that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly assaulted actress Rose McGowan. McGowan told The New York Times in October that Weinstein offered her $1 million in a hush money payment if she signed a nondisclosure agreement to not come forward with her charges that he raped her in a hotel room during the 1997 festival. We speak with longtime women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who represents one of the women who have accused President Trump of sexual assault, and feature an excerpt from a new documentary on her life and path-breaking legal career, called “Seeing Allred.”"]
Branch, Taylor, Trey Ellis and Peter Kunhardt. "MLK’s Radical Final Years: Civil Rights Leader Was Isolated After Taking On Capitalism & Vietnam War." Democracy Now (January 25, 2018) ["Fifty years ago this April, Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. Today we look back at the last three years of King’s life, beginning after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite passage of the monumental legislation, King set his eyes on new battles by launching a Poor People’s Campaign and campaigning to stop the Vietnam War. King’s decision to publicly oppose the war isolated him from many of his closest supporters. We feature clips from a new HBO documentary about King’s last years, titled “King in the Wilderness,” and speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch, who wrote the “America in the King Years” trilogy and is featured in the film, as well as the film’s director Peter Kunhardt and writer Trey Ellis."]
Brubaker, Philip. "Death is a Beautiful Woman: All That Jazz, 8 1/2, and a Different Kind of Femme Fatale." Fandor (January 9, 2018)
"ENG 281/282: Thinking about/with Films &Filmmaking." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)
Gerwig, Greta, et al. "63 Minute Directors Roundtable Talk." The Hollywood Reporter (Posted on Playlist: January 22, 2018) ["Angelina Jolie (“First They Killed My Father”), Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Joe Wright (“Darkest Hour”), Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”), and Denis Villeneuve (“Blade Runner 2049”)."]
Hart-Landsberg, Marty. "Taxes, Inequality and Class Power." Economic Front (December 22, 2017)
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