Dialogic Cinephilia - February 20, 2018

My first time participating on a podcast episode ... it is great way to experience film/s through dialogic engagement (the four participants were in Australia, South Korea, UK and America). See Hear podcast is one of the best podcasts out there (their focus is music & film - the hosts are all experts on this subject) I highly recommend browsing their archives: See Hear Episode #49: Desperate Man Blues and Vinyl ["There are two sides to every story. We at See Hear HQ decide to look at both sides of the contentious question as to whether record collectors (and by extension, collectors of any physical item) are archivists or hoarders. Tim, Bernard and Maurice are joined by Professor Michael Benton from Bluegrass Community College in Lexington, Kentucky for episode 49 of See Hear to talk about two films that explore record collection from two very different angles. Australian filmmaker Edward Gillan’s documentary from 2003, “Desperate Man Blues” is a snapshot of the record collecting activities of Joe Bussard from Maryland. Bussard has been collecting old country, blues and jazz 78s from the 1920s through to the 1950s. At the time of filming, he had anything from 15000 to 20000 records. His knowledge of what we currently call Americana is unsurpassed. He has a genuine joy in listening to and sharing the music he has spent a lifetime collecting. On the other side of the coin, Toronto documentarian Alan Zweig’s first feature length film, Vinyl puts himself and many other record collectors under the spotlight to ask what prompts them to “accumulate” records. Zweig’s contention is that the music takes a backseat to the gathering of records – all for the sake of the hunt. He tells many of his interview subjects that they (including himself) cannot form meaningful relationships with others, and so record collecting manifests itself as a substitute for human interaction. Far from flattering. Is this film just cheap therapy for Zweig or is he just playing devil’s advocate to get discussion going? The crew discuss the different approach taken to the subject matter between the films, as well as how close to home these films (Vinyl in particular) may have hit. You may collect DVDs, model aeroplanes, matchboxes…….the ideals of historical preservation vs accumulation for its own sake still hold. Should we judge? Tune in for what we believe to be a fascinating and robust discussion."]


Berman, Judy. "Black Panther Movie: What You Should Read After Watching the Boundary-Breaking Film." The New York Times (February 20, 2018)






Bursztynski, Maurice, et al. "Mystery Train." See Hear #10 (October 20, 2014) ["This time around, Tim has picked Jim Jarmusch’s ensemble cast anthology film of 1989, Mystery Train including Steve Buscemi, Nicoletta Brasschi, and Screaming Jay Hawkins. Three stories, one hotel in the one and only Memphis. We discuss whether this actually qualifies as a music film, Memphis the iconic town versus the ordinary Memphis displayed in this film, Elvis versus Carl Perkins, and the nineties independent film movement."]

---. "Suburbia." See Hear #11 (November 18, 2014) ["This month, it’s Bernie’s pick for a film to discuss, and he’s gone for 1984 film, Suburbia directed by Penelope Spheeris and produced by Roger Corman. It’s a disaffected teenagers story, but rather than just being another tale of misunderstood youth versus adults who “just don’t understand us”, there are other layers to this. There’s even a case to state that PT Anderson may have been influenced by this for Boogie Nights. How so? Tune in and find out. What’s the music connection? The music and energy of punk."]

Hattingh, Shawn. "Not a Matter of If, but When. Monthly Review (February 13, 2018)





Head, Stephen Slaughter and David Kleiler. "The Night of the Hunter (1955)." Captive Eye #4 (December 3, 2011)

History  Dialogic Cinephilia  (Ongoing Archive)

Liu, Rebecca. "On Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless and the Casual Cruelty of Modern Love." Another Gaze (February 16, 2018)

"Parkland High School Shooting Survivor Emma Gonzalez’s Powerful Speech Demanding Gun Control." Democracy Now (February 19, 2018) ["In Florida, as funerals continue for the 17 people killed in at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, survivors of the school shooting have launched an unprecedented youth-led movement to demand gun control. At a rally on Saturday, survivors of the school shooting demanded politicians stop accepting money from the National Rifle Association. For more, we broadcast the full speech of Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School."]

Vaneigem, Raoul. "The Resistance to Christianity. The Heresies at the Origins of the 18th Century." (1993: archived on the Anarchist Library)

Oceanum pacificus meus et mater est & minorum omnium aqua rivi sunt siblings