Dialogic Cinephilia - February 6, 2020

Benton, Michael. "Marx's Theory of Exploitation." Dialogic Cinephilia (February 4, 2020)

Connor, Ashley, Eric Hynes and Nicolas Rapold. "Drone Cinema." Film Comment (July 11, 2018) ["“In just a few years’ time, they’ve become both requisite filmmaking tools and regrettable freighters of cliché. Drone shots are easily recognizable not because drone cameras have a single, easily definable use, but because nearly everyone’s using them the same way: god’s-eye view of a landscape, smooth gliding (heaven forbid there’s a jerk or rattle), low-grade wow factor, cut,” Eric Hynes writes in his essay about drones in the July/August issue of Film Comment. “Yet perhaps we shouldn’t blame the tool for how it’s being used, especially since we’re still in the early days, and since potential applications are still being explored within both documentary and fiction.” There’s great potential in drone photography, for sure, but how are filmmakers harnessing its power for good, and not just for awesome? In this week’s Film Comment Podcast, I discussed drones in cinema with Hynes, an FC columnist and Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image, and a bona fide cinematographer, Ashley Connor (Madeline’s Madeline), and hashed out the good, the bad, and the ugly of this curious airborne invention."]

Gurba, Myriam and Roberto Lovata. "Publisher Agrees to Boost Latinx Representation After Backlash to Whitewashed Novel American Dirt." Democracy Now (February 5, 2020) ["We look at the massive backlash and criticism against the novel “American Dirt” as a movement led by Latinx writers declares victory, demanding more representation in the publishing industry. Dignidad Literaria, or literary dignity, formed in response to the controversial immigration novel “American Dirt.” The author, Jeanine Cummins, who is not Mexican, received a seven-figure advance for the book, and it was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club. But its critics say “American Dirt” exploits and misrepresents Mexico and the experience of Mexican migrants. Critics also say the novel completely erases the voices of Central Americans. On Monday, the leaders of the literary dignity movement celebrated a successful meeting in New York City with the book’s publisher, Macmillan, the owner of Flatiron Books. The publisher agreed to expand Latinx representation in its staff and its publications. The campaign is also calling for an investigation into discriminatory practices in the publishing industry at large. We speak with two co-founders of Dignidad Literaria: in Los Angeles, Myriam Gurba, Chicana writer, podcaster and artist, who wrote the first viral review of “American Dirt” that ignited criticism of the book, and in New York City, Roberto Lovato, award-winning journalist and author of the forthcoming book “Unforgetting: A Memoir of Revolution and Redemption.”"]

Hemmer, Nicole. "The Summer of Hate." A12 (August 22, 2018) [“How the people of Charlottesville responded to months of white supremacist organizing and violence in the city."]

Hynes, Eric, Nicolas Rapold and Daniel Witkin. "The Russians." The Film Comment Podcast (July 26, 2018) ["As long as we are being inundated with worrisome news about Russian cyberwarfare and other attacks, the time seems ripe for taking a look at the motherland’s cinema. The summer series “Putin’s Russia: A 21st-Century Mosaic” at the Museum of the Moving Image provided a perfect opportunity for surveying key films in the country’s recent history, including award-winning auteurs like Andrei Zvyagintsev and lesser-known directors. For this discussion I was joined by the co-programmers of the series: Eric Hynes, curator of film at Museum of Moving Image and FC columnist, and writer/filmmaker Daniel Witkin."]

Moser, Bob. "Interference 2020: The Disinformation is Coming from Inside the Country." Columbia Review of Journalism (Fall 2019)

"Radio Evasión—dispatches from Chile Part 1." The Ex-Worker #70 (November 2019) ["Reports from fare-dodging to a week of full-blown revolt" Part Two: "neighborhood assemblies & daily rioting downtown" Part Three: "Narratives of daily conflict, Anarchist analysis" Part Four: "Mauricio Fredes—Prisoner support—Anarchist assemblies—Support our documentary."]

Rosenwald, Michael. "Top Secret." Columbia Review of Journalism (Fall 2019) [British and American origins of the contemporary information war "As the US press has covered Russia’s meddling in American politics, a counternarrative, about information warfare waged by our own government, has gone largely ignored. In fact, American reporters, if they wanted, could build a credible case that Putin’s disinformation efforts, which often use the media as an unknowing accomplice, simply carry on a tradition honed in this country, going back decades."]

VanderMeer, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. "Classic Fantasy, Fearsome Ducks, and Dead Astronauts." Fiction/Non/Fiction (December 5, 2019) ["... about editing The Big Book of Classic Fantasy anthology, historical understandings of fantasy, editing beyond Anglocentrism, and the significance of animals in fantasy compared to literary fiction. Jeff VanderMeer also talks about his newly launched novel Dead Astronauts, the future of genetic editing, and how to write about animals."]

Williams, Margot. "At Guantanamo Bay, Torture Apologists Take Refuge in Empty Code Words and Euphemisms." The Intercept (January 29, 2020)