Dilip's Cultural Event Blog

Film Paris, I Love You (Paris, je t'aime; Various Directors, 2006)

2007-06-18T23:49:00.001-07:00

I saw the film Paris, je t’aime at nearby Galaxy Theatre tonight and hope to be writing a review for Saathee Magazine in the next day or so. If I do, I will fill more details in here. For now, you can see the trailer:

American Dance Festival: Martha Clarke's

2007-06-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

We had a great time enjoying the first 2007 performer at the American Dance Festival, Martha Clarke's Garden of Earthly Delights. Many are familiar with Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) and his The Garden of Earthly Delights, depicting the descent of mankind after creation into temptation and destruction. Using a remarkably integrated cast of dancers, many of whom doubled as musicians and all of whom were stage hands hoisting each other on aerial scaffolding, Martha Clarke shared an interpretation of the painting. The near-transparent costumery, powerful emotion, and tremendous aerial aspects made for a powerful performance. We picked tonight because it featured a post-performance discussion; many of us, including me, were fortunate to be able to get our questions answered (I asked about how difficult it was to dance while "flying", and how the aerial wiring could have been less noisy).

Day 4 of 4 of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

2007-04-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sadly, Full Frame is over! It was an excellent Festival with many touching and important films.
We started the day with Nobody, a film about a free-spirited man who decides to leave any responsiblities behind (including his job, which he had left some time ago) and meander through Memphis and then on to New Orleans from his home in Indiana via canoe.

We had a friend visiting from Virginia so that he could attend yesterday, stay overnight with us, and see more films today, so he saw Run Granny Run in the same time slot. I included a short recommendation for this excellent film in my current magazine review, and we were excited to meet 97-year-old Doris ("Granny D") Haddock, her son, and producer and director Marlo Poras.

My wife went on to see a film about Ariel Dorfman's life, A Promise to the Dead, that she said was inspiring. I attended a panel discussion, Reaching out on Global Warming, and interjected my frustration that though it is well documented that the biggest impact we make on the environment is eating a non-plant based diet, few in the environmental movement even mention moving away from meat and dairy as something we can try doing. That generated some exciting discussion amongst others in the audience afterwards, including a writer and film maker/professor, who think that a story featuring our Thanksgiving (the country's largest vegetarian Thanksgiving) would be a good one to put together!

There was a long break, during which the awards were announced. We missed it and I hope to post all the winners, but we had an opportunity to see some of the winning films in the afternoon. I first attended Prisoner or; How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, a shocking but calmly related story of a man in Baghdad who was, by all counts groundlessly, arrested on a house raid by the U.S. Army on suspicion that he was plotting to kill Tony Blair. Even when no evidence was found, he was kept in jail, ending up in Abu Garaib, and subject to cruel treatment.

That put me more than an hour into War / Dance, one of the winning films (really, all of them are winners!). It was very moving, about war-torn Northern Kenya, describing war crimes against rural people (difficult to see), interwoven with the promising story of children, some of whom had endured terrible losses to their families and all of whom had to flea their village, practicing for a national music and dance competition.

The last film that we saw was the winner Monastery. It was a unique and delightful film about a fascinating older Danish gentleman with many peculiarities (I only noticed one time when he isn't frowning) who decides to donate use of his country estate to a Russian monastery.

Day 3 of 4 of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

2007-04-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Full Frame is winding down quickly - it goes by too fast! We started off today with a 9:15-11a film, The Ants, about Japan's imperial past. It is a documentary about a man who served as a 20-year-old in Japan's WWII army in China. The Japanese were brutal warriors, and he relates awful things he had to do, like practice bayoneting on innocent peasants. His country didn't have some of their China-based forces stop fighting even after the war's end and he didn't return to Japan till, as I recall, 1953; this shows his attempts to use the Japanese courts to get his country to acknowledge the sacrifice and apologize. It was well presented and powerful.

I saw Revolution '67 preceded by the short Conjure Bearden next. The short was a lovely 17-minute retrospective of the photography of an African-American and African-American neighborhoods near Charlotte, NC from 1938-1941. The main film was a shocking narrative of the Newark, NJ riots and how injustice, lack of opportunity, corruption, and lack of concern grew into the calamity and continues in many ways.

Power of Ten: A Conversation had the ten curators, including Michael Moore and Mira Nair, of this special series in a panel moderated by an NPR radio figure dicussing their work, documentary film, and their films they were screening. It was a good and lively discussion.

I watched the first 45 minutes of In the Shadow of the Moon, a film with Apollo astronauts talking about their experiences in space flight and lunar landings. The clips, including President Kennedy's inspiring moon speech and fabulous rocket film, were great to see again; hearing the astronauts thinking back to what they were feeling at the time helped to personalize it.

As good as that film was, I left to see the unique Helvetica. It was all about typefaces, focusing on the Helvetica font. Many typographers and designers were interviewed in a lively paced and fun film, with a delightful soundtrack, that makes one more aware of the fonts used all around us; many said that Helvetica is the face we see most often and is timeless in its beauty, but some argued for more unconventional fonts. The film was just completed, as I recall from the Q&A session afterwards with the filmmaker, 3 weeks ago and has already been shown in 7 countries; it is apparently the only film about typography and is going to be shown at design conferences, museums, other film festivals, ... - there are something like 45 screenings in the near future lined up.

I saw another film about Japan, but on a diametrically opposite theme, next - The Great Happiness Space. This fascinating and enjoyable peek is into the life of a club that has men who cater to clients in Osaka as in-house companions. They give company, express (lying) confessions of love, and sometimes have sex with the lonely women who come at something like $100 an hour - and when the women order champagne, that adds another $200, 500, or even $1000+ to the tab. It was sad to see how the men string the women on to keep them coming, though they have no intention of marriage or proper dating with these clients.

My wife and I both ended up at Blockade, a striking almost-silent, black and white documentary about the Siege of Leningrad taken from the Soviet side. Seeing the depravations and dead bodies was quite sobering.

Day 2 of 4 of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

2007-04-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a long day with the first film at Full Frame that we attended starting at 9a and my last film ending around 1a! In the first slot of films, we saw the short Metacarpus about human hands. The led to Nömadak Tx, a film that I previewed and wrote a review about that is running in the current issue of the magazine that I write for (and is included below). I love this film and the only thing more exciting than seeing it on the large screen was meeting the three filmmakers, with whom I've been emailing since I saw their film. We're supposed to all get together for dinner after the Festival ends on Sunday and they may jam (they played their txalaparta just after the film ended today!) with my wife, who is a sitarist.

My wife saw Angels in the Dust, a sad story about an orphanage in HIV-ravaged Johannesburg. I saw Leila Khaled: Hijacker and Promised Paradise. The first film is a documentary about the first woman to hijack a plane, which she did for Palestinian demands. It was very interesting to see her now, decades after two hijackings, as well as to see interviews with staff from the two hijacked planes. The second film was about a famous pupeteer in Indonesia who uses his performance art to question why people commit acts of terrorism, even confronting the Bali nightclub bomber in his jail cell; it was also well worth seeing.

We caught the beginning of The Last Days of Yasser Arafat, about an Australian reporter's attempts to interview Yasser Arafat before he died. We left to see Everything's Cool, a film that we loved about global warming and what the U.S. and its citizens could do about it. (One thing that frustrates me, however, about many environmental films and other material is that they usually seem to miss the elephant in the room - not eating a plant-based diet creates a bigger impact on our planet than automobile driving.)

I was disappointed that I was unable to interview Mira Nair, who was attending today and tomorrow; I had contacted her several months ago and the kind folks at the Festival were trying to arrange it, but she was just too busy. It would have been an excellent article for the magazine that I write for and I think would have helped the Festival draw more folks next year. We did attend her introduction to The Battle of Algiers, one of the most influential films on her craft (ten filmmakers are screening films of importance to them), and watched for about a half hour, but have recently seen the film (on the large screen, as well), so left to eat.

My wife went home but I came back and caught portions of Vietnam Romance, an animated film of video game clips about war in Vietnam that didn't appeal to me; films of Jen Cohen; and about a half hour of Larry Flynt: The Right to be Left Alone, an interesting look into the life of this very controversial man. I watched another film in the curated series, Do the Right Thing, this one introduced by St. Clair Bourne. It's a film that has been widely distributed, but one that I had never seen. It is, as expected from the director, Spike Lee, a hard-hitting social commentary on race.

My April 2007 review in Saathee Magazine of Nömadak Tx follows.

I sat down to see Nömadak Tx on DVD with little expectation, only knowing that it was a film about traveling percussionists. Music and travel – my interest was piqued. It is a road movie documentary of Igor Otxoa and Harkaitz Mtnez. de San Vicente of the Basque Country of northeastern Spain who take their ancient txalaparta percussion instrument to India, the Arctic Circle, Mongolia, Algeria, and the Saharan Desert, looking for native peoples in remote areas with whom they could integrate their talents through music, building bridges and relationships.

The txalaparta is a traditional wooden or stone percussive instrument said to be up to six thousand years old. Deeply resonant, it was used millenia ago as a means for villagers to communicate events into the countryside. Long boards are beat using sticks (makilak) by two performers (txalapartaris), one of whom maintains a fixed binary rhythm representing balance, while the other tries to break that balance with zero, one, or two beats in between. Reminiscent to me of the classical Indian sawal-jawab question-answer dialogue between tabla players, there is often some friendly competition with increasingly fast rhythms in an improvised musical encounter.

Txalapartaris were becoming increasingly rare with only a tiny number of peasants maintaining the tradition by the 1950s, before a resurgence of interest by folklorists in the 1960s. Contemporary musicians such as Otxoa and de San Vicente started experimenting with materials besides wood and stone, such as metal or even blocks of ice.

The film’s title, I learned from correspondence with one of the musicians, is simply a combination of the word meaning “nomadic” or “nomads” in the Basque language, along with the first two letters in the name of the instrument. And so we have a journey of this fascinating instrument, or at least its concept for it to be constructed anew onsite. During the opening credits, an interesting quote is presented that playing this instrument “and travelling are very similar. You do not know what will happen in either case.”

The film moves fast and keeps your attention right from the opening credits with dramatic photography. Interspersed with the credits we see the musicians creating a txalaparta, with closeups of saws cutting, sawdust flying. Throughout the film we hear txalaparta sounds.
As soon as the credits end, the film abruptly switches to Mumbai, the first stop on the road trip. As in each stop, we experience visuals and sounds of the local scene.

That the instrument is played by two is not incidental – it is an inherent part of the sense of “encounter” in the project that the film is part of, that of traveling as nomads with their traditional instrument in order to share, build bridges spanning communities, and form a meaningful cultural exchange, as well as experiment with new materials for the instrument. The whole is greater than the parts and, it is posited, one plus one ends up being greater than two, but the actual value cannot be predetermined. Adding to that mixture, the intent was to collaborate with traditional local artists, learning from each other in the genesis of compositions.

After working with Mumbai musicians and giving a concert, off the musicians go to the tribal lands of the Adivasis. The film lingers briefly when it needs to, but keeps on its nomadic quest. The editing reflects this combination of positive restlessness and purposeful striving – from a scene of traditional Adivasi music accompanied by singing of their cosmological ideas, we cut right to the nighttime catching of a train and then immediately to the bright daytime snowscape of the musicians on skis, creating music out of ice and performing for the Sámi (Laplander)
people of northern Scandinavia.

If nothing else, the film is an exciting travelogue accompanied by the unique rhythms of the txalaparta. It’s “cool” to see them clowning around in the Arctic and jumping into near freezing water after partaking of a sauna, as well as to watch them cutting ice blocks and shaving them just so in order to tune them. In the Sahara, it’s amazing to see them make their music out of desert stone.

Whether on the Mongol steppe, driving through Algeria, in the Arctic, or in urban or tribal India, seeing the musicians engineer versions of their instrument out of local natural materials and hearing the magnificently resonant sounds from it all is a feast of the senses. The musicians have a lot of fun on their travel and bring smiles to their coopted performers, their audiences, themselves, and, no doubt, their film viewers.

But the film is more than a travel film. We hear notes that strike both our ears and our hearts – there is an ancient wisdom that is being transmitted. One could argue that it is a gently meandering film of peace, an exercise reminding us that we have so much in common and yet so much to learn from each other.

The sharp editing cuts; mixture of human activity with that which is in nature; everyday sounds as well as those, sometimes haunting and primordial, that we hear from the txalaparta; and subtlety through which the film gently presents itself, all effectively further the goals of the work. In less talented hands, such artistry can actually backfire and result in a trivialized production with techniques being exposed for the sake of themselves and not to further a story or feeling, but it works superbly here.

I fully enjoyed this unique documentary film and am delighted that I had the opportunity to see it. Nömadak Tx is a joyful ride showing how music is universal and brings happiness and shared understanding. As enchanting as it was to see, I look forward to experiencing it on the large screen when it is shown at the Full Frame Festival in mid-April 2007 (I have another article on the Festival in this issue).

8 stars out of 10
Note: all pictures are from the filmmakers, who took them, and are used with their permission.

Day 1 of 4 of Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

2007-04-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

We love attending Full Frame, the country's largest documentary film festival. I'll copy below the review of the Festival that I published in the current issue of Saathee Magazine, for which I am the film reviewer.

Today we were at the Festival from its first film at 10a through one of the last, ending at almost midnight. Robert, Mary and Katrina was a film my wife and I both liked that had no action but was an interview with an elderly couple who survived Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; their story and how they talk, one's thoughts intertwined with the other, makes for a good story. Radiphobia was shown immediately after and was a chilling and beautifully made film about the aftermath of the Chernoybl nuclear powerplant disaster.

Our favorite films were For the Bible Told Me So, which looked at contemporary Christianity and its varied views on homosexuality, and The Rape of Europa, a film 7+ years in the making that comprehensively covers the Nazi targeted wholesale theft of artwork as well as their goals of destroying Slavic culture. A short film, Rückenlage, dreamily describes Rudolf Hess' solo 1941 flight to Scotland to offer peace to England.

The opening night film, Castells, was somewhat disappointing. Indeed, it was an interesting story about a Spanish team of human pyramid builders; they carefully craft building towers of themselves. But the approximately 2-hour film could have been, my wife and I both think, much more effective at keeping the viewer's interest if it were much shorter.

In the approximately 10p-midnight slot after the opening night party, there was a short that I didn't much like about indoor motorcycle acrobatics called Motodrom. But the film Comrades in Dreams was quite good, portraying folks in Maharashtra India, Burkino Faso, North Korea, and Wyoming, each of whom had a love for film and showed enthusiastic audiences films. One thing that was particularly interesting and quite humorous about the North Korean story was the strong indoctrination seeming implicit in so much of the daily life, including praise for North Korean culture, to the point of a woman's not responding to a man's photograph in an attempted arranged marriage was seen not just as an affront to him, a kim chi reseacher (!), but to kim chi itself!! (Indeed, never fear, she atones!)

My review in the April 2007 Saathee Magazine, which is oriented toward a South Asian readership follows.

April showers may bring May flowers, but April also brings the country’s leading documentary film festival, Full Frame, to Durham, North Carolina. Saathee readers in the Carolinas are lucky to have so nearby this Festival, which attracts an international audience to well-attended screenings. Many of these films premiere at the Festival and filmmakers are usually present to take questions immediately after the screening of their films.

At the Festival, you can select sometimes from seven well-made and interesting films playing at the same time, meet people like Mira Nair or Ken Burns and ask them a burning question that you’ve always had about one of their films, be moved by brand new films never before screened and meet their directors, attend parties, rubbing shoulders with industry executives and filmmakers, participate in discussions, and much more.

The Festival is a great venue for dispelling any notions that documentary films may be dull. At this year’s Full Frame Festival, for example, one can experience stories masterfully told about topics such as a Catalonian 400-person human pyramid building team who engineer human towers more than 30 feet tall in their travels; an unconventional British gangster; a 91-year-old violinist’s trip, fulfilling a decades-long desire, with his grandson; global warming; seeking reconciliation in Greensboro, NC; Iraq; Nazi plundering of art; the first woman to hijack an airplane; the last absolute monarchy in the world, a country with the highest HIV infection rate and lowest (under 33 years) life expectancy (Swaziland); “Nollywood”, the new Nigerian film industry; 20 years worth of answering machine greetings; an Indonesian pupeteer and performance artist; a humorous look at human hands; and the Helvetica font.

I had reported, in the May 2006 issue of Saathee, that at the 2006 Festival there seemed to be more films about India than any other country except the United States and Iraq. This year the statement may stand if expanded to South Asia. Nömadak Tx (Raúl De la Fuente, 2006, 89 minutes), reviewed in detail in this issue, is a not-to-be-missed film with the opening scene in Mumbai and about a fifth of the film taking place in India.

Shame (Mohammed Naqvi, 2006, 110 minutes) is about Mukhtaran Mai and her shocking story that ends with much promise. In 2002, the 30-year-old woman from Meerwala, a remote Pakistani village, was sentenced by the tribal council to be raped by a group of men in retaliation for an alleged crime that her brother had committed. With no police presence in the village and with the feudal precedent of self-victimization or suicide, she musters the courage to travel to town to file a police case, in spite of death threats. Her case attracts governmental and then international press and human rights attention, and results in her being praised with awards for bravery and travel abroad to speak, as well as being given a handsome amount of money with which she builds the village’s first school. I recommend this film not just for its sensitive treatment of the matter and the inspiring story of Mukhtaran Mai, but also because of the beautiful cinematography that paints, at times, a welcome and almost surrealistically dreamy veneer on a chilling episode.

The Begum family of Bangladeshi origin living in London have taken Simon Chambers under their wing, partially out of concern for his remaining a bachelor. As he witnesses the remarkable pressure to get their London-raised daughters married off, preferably to men in Bangladesh from respectable families, he gets their permission to film them and directs and produces Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears (2006, 61 minutes). The characters are interesting – an overbearing eldest married sister, foul-mouthed sister Shahanara whose father had exorcised her from the family because of her Western demeanor, and religious sister Hushnara who is engaged (in periods when she doesn’t change her mind) to marry a man in Bangladesh and leave England.

Match Made (Mirabelle Ang, 2006, 48 minutes), though not about the subcontinent, is about a Singaporean matchmaking agency. Apparently, there is an industry of searching for attractive young women in impoverished rural Vietnam and bringing them to homes in Ho Chi Minh City. There, the women bide their time doing chores until a client appears to evaluate them. Three at a time and often giggling in embarassment, they are brought in for an immediate assessment (on no meaningful criteria that I could discern). Within minutes, perhaps a dozen or more women are considered and, as in this case, one may be selected. Seventy-two hours later they have married, after a “medical check” for “purity”, and the client is driven to the airport to return to Singapore, the bride’s immigration matters pending. What kind of marriage do the couple in the film have and how do they communicate as they speak different languages? A documentary worth seeing, I felt that the bride selection process was not only demeaning to the women, but also insulting to their sense of pride in their country and culture.

There are many other excellent films at Full Frame. In a real sense, each film has earned its place; 82 films in competition eligible for awards were selected out of over 1000 submissions.
A film that I highly recommend is Run Granny Run (Marlo Poras, 2007) about legendary activist Doris “Granny D” Haddock. At age 90, she had walked 3200 miles across the length of the United States, including climbing the Appalachian Mountains in a blizzard and skiing in to Washington, D.C. to draw attention to campaign finance reform. This film picks up in 1994 when “Granny D” at age 94 jumps in to run for the Senate when one candidate unexpectedly drops out with just four months before Election Day. How does she proceed, refusing money from special interests while running against a well-funded incumbent? Seeing democracy in action through the campaign of this lovable, persistent, and principled woman is a story that is heart-warming, inspiring, and downright fun.

A total of over 100 films will be shown. In addition to the films in competition, there are other curated films, films in the Southern Sidebar Series about the American South, and special films, including the new <frameset>, featuring short videos that premiered online. There are also panel discussions, workshops about filmmaking, and parties. This year, there will be a curated series of ten important filmmakers, including Mira Nair, Michael Moore, and Martin Scorsese, each showing a film important to their own growth as an artist. For example, Mira Nair will be screening The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri; Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966), a powerful neorealistic film shot in documentary style about the savagery of urban warfare in the context of the Algerian struggle against French colonial rule.

The festival runs from Thursday through Sunday. The days are quite full from 9a or 10a till past midnight, with multiple concurrent venues. There’s a lot to choose from! I recommend taking Thursday and Friday off or at least attending those evenings, and spending the entire weekend at the Festival in downtown Durham. The best way to experience the Festival is to purchase a pass (if still available; they sometimes sell out), but you can also purchase tickets to particular screenings or events.

Visit Full Frame online at www.fullframefest.org for complete details. You can also reach them by phone at 919-687-4100.

Note: All pictures and Full Frame logo courtesy of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and used with their permission.

Film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

2007-03-31T00:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight we saw The Lives of Others; I had been looking forward to seeing this and fully expected to like it. Indeed, it was a film about the chilling era of the Stazi East German secret police, made unique in its understated style and lack of predictability. We really enjoyed it but are puzzled why it won the Oscar over Deepa Mehta's Water.

Full Frame Documentary Festival previewing

2007-03-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for the Full Frame Film Festival, the country's largest documentary film festival held here in Durham, NC and just a few weeks away, and have previewed a few films on DVD the last few days. Several nights ago I saw Every Good Marriage Begins with Tears (Simon Chambers, 62 minutes) about two young English sisters of traditional Bangladeshi backgrounds who struggle between two cultures in terms of their marriage choices.

Just before that, I saw Zo is dat (The Way It Is; Elizabeth Salgado, 2006, 31 minutes), a Dutch film about 73-year-old farmer Jan's daily routine in Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. The Full Frame site offers this description: "in this meditation on the intrigues of the everyday, a bachelor farmer eats breakfast, does chores, cooks dinner and every so often shaves and goes out for a drink."

Last night I saw an interesting but sad film, Match Made (Mirabelle Ang, 2006, 48 minutes), about a marriage agency that finds Vietnamese women for men from Singapore to marry, in spite of language and socioeconomic differences. It was difficult to see how the women, as well as the economically poor country they were from, are exploited.

Tonight I fully enjoyed the unique documentary Nömadak Tx, a joyful ride showing how music is a universal that brings happiness and shared understanding. Two musicians from Spain's Basque country, Igor Otxoa and Harkaitz Mtnez. de San Vicente, go on a road tour far afield with their Txalaparta traditional percussive musical instrument; it issaid to be up to six thousand years old. The instrument is traditionally made from wood and played by two musicians.

The two musicians travel the world looking for native peoples in remote areas with whom they can integrate the Txalaparta in fun musical jams, building bridges and relationships. They visit India and the Adivasi tribal people, the Sámi (Laplander) people of northern Scandinavia, inhabitants of the Sahara desert, and nomads on the Mongol steppe. Seeing them engineer versions of their instrument out of ice and desert stone and hearing the magnificently resonant sounds from it all is a feast of the senses. The musicians have a lot of fun on their travel and bring smiles to their coopted performers, their audiences, themselves, and, no doubt, their film viewers.

Film A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)

2007-02-24T00:57:00.000-08:00

As part of the NC Museum of Art winter film series, I saw A Face in the Crowd tonight. You can read my friend and curator "moviediva"'s notes; here is the description that she posted:

Directed by Elia Kazan. Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Lee Remick, Walter Matthau (127 min.)
Lonesone Rhodes, a country boy with the gift of gab, is discovered by an ambitious producer and catapulted into, and corrupted by, television fame. A Face in the Crowd was ahead of its time in anticipating mass media power; a cautionary tale that many 1950s reviewers viewed as both unrealistic and unpatriotic.

What an interesting and scary character that Andy Griffith plays!

Film The Namesake (Mira Nair, 2007)

2007-02-16T00:32:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Fox Searchlight and Faisal Irshad who successfully arranged with them to bring the film down to Raleigh-Durham, I was able to see The Namesake at a special pre-release showing at Galaxy Cinema (thanks to them, too!). I loved reading the book by Jhumpa Lahiri (you can read my description on my books page), and have been looking forward to seeing this film by Mira Nair, due to be released on March 9th. I am publishing a review in Saathee Magazine, to appear in their March issue. Below is a version of that review.

Back in 2003 days after its publication, I could hardly put down Pulitzer-winning Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake. Lahiri was born in London to Bengali immigrants, raised in Rhode Island, and now lives in Brooklyn. In both of her books (The Namesake and the 2000 collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, which won her the Pulitzer), she writes about the Bengali immigrant experience, particularly about families who have moved to Boston and New York.

I was therefore excited when I heard that Mira Nair would be directing a film based on the novel. Readers will probably be familiar with Nair’s films, including Monsoon Wedding (2001), Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), Mississippi Masala (1991), and Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay! (1988); she is also in pre-production on a crime drama due out next year called Shantaram.

Mumbai-based Sooni Taraporevala, a graduate of Harvard (where she met Mira Nair) wrote the screenplay, as she also did on Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay! (incidentally, I understand that she is directing her first film, based on her own screenplay, due to be released this spring). I don’t know why, but the setting of the film version is changed from Boston and its suburbs to the New York area and moved about a decade forward.

The story is that of the Gangulis - Ashoke (Irfan Khan) and his wife Ashima (Tabu, born Tabassum Hashmi and niece of social activist and actor Shabana Azmi), Kolkata (Calcutta) immigrants to the U.S. in the early 1960s (1970s in the film), their son Gogol (Kal Penn), and his younger sister Sonali or Sonia (Sahira Nair). As a bachelor in India, Ashoke suffers terribly from a train wreck, but his life is saved because, instead of sleeping on the nighttime journey, he had been reading “The Overcoat” by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.

When Ashoke and Ashima’s first child is born (in 1968 in the book), they are surprised that they cannot leave the hospital without naming him; they prefer to wait for the great-grandmother’s suggestion. The name of the Russian writer occurs to Ashoke, and he assigns “pet name” Gogol. The "good name" that the great-grandmother mailed never arrives, so the name Gogol sticks. As the boy grows, his name bothers him; it is neither Indian nor American, nor even a first name, and he doesn’t care to familiarize himself with anything beyond parroting that Nikolai Gogol is one of his father’s favorite authors. He legally changes his name at college to "Nikhil".

The story follows Gogol/Nikhil as he goes to Yale University, is inspired to be an architect on a family trip to India when they visit the Taj Mahal, goes to graduate school and on to a job in New York City, and experiences several romantic relationships. Wittingly or not, he follows the advice to “play the field” as much as he wishes, but to reserve marriage for a woman of Bengali origin.

How do the US-born children relate to India? Where is home for the parents and how do they stay in touch and perform their duties while geographically separated from their extended family? The Namesake is a story of the power of a name and of family; the immigrant experience; the search for love, context, and identity.

I enjoyed the film but, as often is the case, I found it to fall short of the book, whose power made me an instant fan of Lahiri’s (watch for a cameo appearance by her in the film as Aunt Jhumpa). Armchair criticism is easy, however, and perhaps more meaningful insight is gained by asking if the medium is effectively used to convey the ethos of the story.

The answer is a gentle “yes”. One of Lahiri’s strengths as a writer is an attention to detail revealed in a matter-of-fact style that doesn’t belabor the obvious. But of course the film cannot fairly be expected to reveal all of the original’s subplots, such as Gogol’s first relationship with his college sweetheart Ruth, or the myriad details beautifully presented in the book surrounding multicultural celebrations of birthdays, for example.

The film effectively contrasts the chaotic vibrancy of Kolkata with the much more restrained and anonymous big city life of the States through foundational scenes of bridges – the Howrah Bridge over the Hooghly River and Manhattan’s 59th Street Bridge. In New York, we can see the business of modern city life rendered mute through a small apartment’s glass windows; in India, no such respite from daily life is readily found. Another effective motif is the recurrence of the Travelogues exhibit at JFK Airport, reminding us through changing holographic images about the transition in space and culture that the Gangulis experience traveling between America and India.

There are some particularly well composed, emotive scenes, such as the timidly uncertain wave goodbye of Ashima to Ashoke on their first morning together in the New World when he leaves on dismal snowy streets for work. I wouldn’t, however, characterize the film as a whole as having consistently memorable cinematography, though it is rather effectively subtly understated and helps the story to progress.

The soundtrack could have been more appealing. Perhaps I was too focused on fidelity to the book which of course can simply be an irrelevant distraction, but I didn’t relate to the music of high school student Gogol as characteristic of either the late 1970s or late 1980s. Strictly speaking, the JFK exhibit was installed in 2000, which is inconsistent in fact and in technology with most of the trips that the Ganguli family makes through the airport starting in the 1970s.

All that said, Mira Nair has made a sensitive, touching, and very interesting film that triggers an authentic collection of emotions from joy to despair, with dashes of convincingly real everyday humor and chance. I was happy to see in the closing credits two of the three best known Bengali filmmakers mentioned, “For RITWIK GHATAK and SATYAJIT RAY, gurus of cinema with love and salaams”; only Mrinal Sen is missing.

I recommend both the film (expected to be theatrically released on March 9) and, especially, the book for first and second generation immigrants and their friends, as well as to anybody who has felt significant loss, detachment, or uncertain change in their life. It is a story that is remarkable in its subtle depiction of the flip sides of the coin of history and promise.

7 stars out of 10

Note: all pictures are copyright ©2006 by Twentieth Century Fox, and used with their permission. Photographs by Abbot Genser and Mira Nair.

References:

Wikipedia entry
Official film website
imdb page and my version of the review there
Blog by Kal Penn about the film

Film Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)

2007-02-09T22:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had hoped to make it to the art museum to see the 1957 Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? but were in Chapel Hill visiting with friends and their family who lost their 85-year-old father to burns resulting in a housefire. Tragic. Tomorrow we will attend the funeral.

We did go to see Volver, the first Almodóvar as well as Penélope Cruz film that I have seen. This was one of the first films that I have seen with my wife that she liked significantly more than I did. It was an interesting film about possible life after death, Spanish village superstitions, and poorly behaved husbands, but I just must not get it and certainly don't see why it received a nomination (for Cruz as leading actress) for an Oscar. You can see its trailer below.

Speaking of Oscars, I am rooting for a film few match in terms of acting, cinematography, or intensity, Deepa Mehta's Water, my fervent choice for winner of best foreign language film. I have not seen any of its competitors - the Danish Efter brylluppet, Algerian Indigènes, Mexican
El Laberinto del Fauno, or, a film that I am looking forward to seeing, the German
Das Leben der Anderen. I also hope that Forest Whitaker wins best leading actor (as Idi Amin) in The Last King of Scotland - what amazing acting.

Film Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari; Yasujiro Ozu, 1953); Glorydive (musical group) performance

2007-01-26T23:28:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned back when I saw it in July, Tokyo Story is one of my favorite films and is also often rated as one of the top fifty films of all times by film critics. I teach a course on the films of Yasujiro Ozu, the filmmaker (and Satyajit Ray, a Bengali filmmaker), and adore Ozu's style. Tonight, my friend "moviediva" showed this masterpiece as part of the art museum's winter film series, and, though I've seen the film almost a half dozen times, couldn't miss it. You can see moviediva's excellent comments about the film. I am including a clip that I found online here with the delightful actor Setsuko Hara, who often plays the dutiful, happy, and unselfish daughter (called Noriko in this and other films) showing just how unselfish she is near the end of the film.

My wife performed in 2005, and is scheduled to perform in the next event, delayed from the fall to early 2007, for A Night of Dreams, a charity event in downtown Raleigh. One of her sitar pieces introduced the group Glorydive (which was then called Taylor Roberts Music; check out their MySpace page). We enjoy their music, especially the masterful electric violinist Mark Nippert and quite enthusiastic hand drummer Brian Tavener, as well as guitarist and lead singer Taylor Roberts and bassist Alex McKinney. It had been a while since we had seen Glorydive, and they were performing in downtown Raleigh tonight at the Pour House Music Hall, so we went to see them.

Luckily, they only allow smoking on their second floor, but it still was a little smoky. They had a backup band, that we didn't much care for, with Glorydive coming on a little after midnight. We enjoyed them, as always - a rock band, they play mainly original compositions but also some covers (such as Bono and U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and Charlie Daniel's Band's The Devil Went Down to Georgia), but what makes them special is the violin and so-fun and energetic drumming. It was by no means the perfect combination - sentimental Ozu followed by rock music - but was a fun evening.

Film Solyaris (Солярис or Solaris; Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972); Magical Anjali British synthpop sitarist

2007-01-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an experience my wife and I had tonight seeing Solaris, based on a novel by one of my favorite science fiction writers, Stanislaw Lem (my favorite work of his is his humorous set of short stories, The Cyberiad, written in Polish in 1967 and translated into English in 1974 , about two inventors of robots, who themselves are robots). It was the first film in the They Came from Beyond international science fiction film series at the Duke Screen Society.

As we knew from reviews we had seen, it is a very long film at 165 minutes with many drawn-out but compelling scenes. Though it's a classic and has much to recommend it highly, I must admit that the first half I found a bit difficult to sit through - having just had a nice pasta dinner and some chocolate didn't help :-). It is such a complex film that it probably takes at least two or three viewings to feel that one has understood much of it.

The basic story is that a Russian spaceship in orbit around a planet has been sending back confusing status, and Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent to investigate. He finds out that the crew has been experimenting with sending pulses of radiation into the planet's vast ocean and are in turn manipulated by some sort of innate intelligence on the planet. "Guests" materialize on the ship, crafted from mental elements of the crews' minds.

The first night there, Kris himself wakes up to find his long-dead love Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk) by his side. The other two crewmates, scientists Dr. Snaut (Jüri Järvet) and Dr. Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) puncture any misconceptions that Kris may have by clarifying that "she" is not real, and invite Kris to try looking at a blood sample, which clearly is not human ("she" does "bleed" when hurt, but the "blood" can be easily wiped away). The scientists in fact want to experiment on sending an annihilation sacrificial pulse of radiation to the ocean below, and imply, it seems, an interest in using Hari for that purpose.

The film is unlike anything that I have seen before, and begs many philosophic questions about the nature of reality and existence, the meaning of love, time and timelessness, and much more. The sterile and very unnatural milieu of the spaceship, as well as the melancholic and minimalistic music and sound effects, make one despair for being in nature, and reflect on the early lakeside scenes. The ending (no spoilers here!) leaves room for interpretation and even understanding of just what happened. Hauntingly amazing.

On a more upbeat note, a friend sent a link to a UK commercial, below, with very nice music from a popular sitarist who goes by Magical Anjali (Anjali Bhatia). She is apparently planning a US album release. Check out her MySpace page; the song accompanying the commercial reminds me of Beat Generation 60s party music with beautiful sitar. Rock on!

Film The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald, 2006)

2007-01-20T23:50:00.000-08:00

My wife and I saw The Last King of Scotland tonight; it was a powerful piece of historical fiction with impeccable acting and cinematography that aptly captured the temperament of Idi Amin's reign. In addition to the imdb page, you can visit the official film website.

Charlie Rose - MacArthur Fellows including my wife's friend Dr. Atul Gawande

2007-01-18T23:52:00.000-08:00

I often watch Charlie Rose, a captivating, in-depth, interview show that comes on at night for one hour each weekday. Tonight as the show was starting, my wife mentioned that she knew Dr. Gawande who was on! His father and her father are particularly close friends. It's great that he is a 2006 MacArthur Fellow!

Segment 1: A discussion with four of the recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship: artist Anna Schuleit, author George Saunders, physician John Rich, and surgeon Atul Gawande.

Segment 2: Author Adam Gopnik talks about his latest book, "Through the Children's Gate".

Segment 3: Director Anthony Minghella and actress
Juliette Binoche talk about their new film, "Breaking and Entering".

Nine Short Films

2007-01-16T22:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight as part of the Duke Screen Society, nine short films were shown. I missed the first, but am copying here the description from the Screen Society about all nine, with my comments {in curly brackets}. I'm glad that school is back in session and the Duke films have begun!

Mt. Head/Atama Yama ( dir. Koji Yamamura, 2002, 10 min, Japan)A stingy man eats some cherry seeds, only to find that a cherry tree has grown from his head. Mt. Head was nominated for an Academy Award® for best animated short. {I'm sorry that I missed this - from what I heard, it sounds interesting with a recursive plot.}

Recycle (dir. Vasco Lucas Nunes & Ondi Timoner, 2004, 6 min, USA) Recycle is a portrait of a day in the life of Miguel Dias in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park. The homeless poet is recovering from substance abuse through the philosophy of recycling life. Diaz uses all the thrown away items he collects to make a community garden in the median of his street, while offering his insights on survival and nature. It has played at Sundance and Cannes and won the Sustainability Award at the Media That Matters Film Festival. {I did not find this to be particuarly interesting.}

The Box Man (dir. Nirvan Mullick, 2002, 5 min, USA) In a cold empty city, a man encounters a cardboard box. The box has a small rectangular slit that compels him to take a closer look inside. A tale of urban paranoia and the desire to remain hidden. The Box Man was Winner of the AFI Fest Audience Award and a Student Academy Award® Finalist. {It was somewhat interesting, but disturbing.}

Black Rider/Schwarzfahrer (dir. Pepe Danquar, 1993, 12 min, Germany) Pepe Danquart's Academy Award winning short film captures the dignity of a man confronted with a problem many of us may have faced in a foreign culture. And when dealing with ignorance and intolerance, nothing makes more of a statement than the power of humor. {Somewhat interesting but I didn't follow the importance of some seeming irrelevant quirks, such as time spent on a man whose motorbike wouldn't start - what role did they have especially in such a short film?}

Time Out (dir. Robbie Chafitz, 2003, 8 min, USA)In this dark comedy, which was originally performed live onstage, two hard-bitten kindergartners--played by adult actors--share a "time out" in a remote corner of the school playground. Together they enter a world of anxiety, despair, revenge and cooties. This film premiered at Sundance and was named Best Comedy Short at the New York International Film & Video Festival. {I quite enjoyed this unique film! It was quite funny!}

Birthday Boy (dir. Sejong Park, 2004, 10 min, Australia)The Korean War, 1951: it's little Manuk's birthday and he is playing on the streets of his village dreaming of life on the front lines where his father is a soldier. When Manuk returns home he opens a birthday present that will change his life. Birthday Boy was nominated for an Academy Award® for best animated short film. {I didn't quite appreciate the film's significance.}

Lick the Star (dir. Sofia Coppola, 1998, 14 min, USA)Sofia Coppola's directorial debut revisits adolescence and explores the politics of teenage girls during a pivotal time in their lives. Four middle school girls obsessed with the V.C. Andrews novel, Flowers in the Attic, plot to poison the school's boys. Their campaign: poison the boys in their school in a secret plan, codename: "Lick the Star." {I didn't enjoy the film or its unreal and cruel plot.}

Two Cars, One Night (dir. Taika Waititi, 2005, 11 min, New Zealand) Three children in two cars, wait for their parents one night outside a rural pub. A little love story. {Cute and fun.}

The Mantis Parable (dir. Josh Staub, 2005, 9 min, USA)Created in its entirety by first-time filmmaker, Josh Staub, The Mantis Parable is the tale of a humble caterpillar trapped in a bug collector's jar and in need of a helping hand. This film has won awards at over 10 film festivals, including the Seattle International Film Festival. {The best of the films shown tonight, the animation was phenomenal and the story engaging!}

Film The Painted Veil (John Curran, 2006)

2007-01-15T23:33:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I saw the film The Painted Veil, based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel. The story is of an independent-minded woman, Kitty (Naomi Watts), in mid-1920s England. Her family is anxious to marry her off, and she finds herself with Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton), M.D. and presumably Ph.D., researcher of infectious diseases. He takes her to Shanghai and then the remote village Mei-tan-fu in Guangxi in the interior of China, where he has volunteered to help, without even asking Kitty, to help combat a deadly cholera epidemic.

The story is one of marriage to a man so focused on his research that he only speaks when something needs to be said, a passionless relationship that almost formulaically leads to extra-marital passion. Almost as penance, Walter announces that they are going to a place that Kitty feels no (English) woman belongs, without, it seems, regard to Kitty's interests or well-being. The stark choice is to face shameful divorce or join in; when Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber) all too predictably declines to leave his wife and marry his love, Kitty, there seems to be no choice at all.

Despite strong performances, particularly by Naomi Watts, a pleasant appearance by Diana Rigg as a nun in charge of an orphanage, gorgeous scenery, and strong expectations to like what I thought would be a romantic period film like many films I have seen and enjoyed (such as Merchant Ivory Productions' 1992 Howards End or 1985 A Room with a View), I wasn't so enamored by The Painted Veil. I thought that the story was rather predictable.

Walter, I found, was unrealistically coldly detached, and Kitty bore the cross of her predicament in a manner that didn't seem consistent with her pre-marital characterization. Their relationship never made sense to me, though at the beginning I was able to see it as a pressure-imposed one. Dr. Fane's almost total self-absorption and lack of sensitivity (such as initially banning all of the villager's sources of water without considering how they would drink - not much of a boon to the community or a cogent public health approach) further hardened and distanced his characterization.

Clearly there was Dr. Fane's attitude, but in general there was little plot development about anti-colonialistic resentment of the Chinese toward the English - precious little to appropriately set the stage for elements key to the story. More could have effectively been done, I think, without using up much time. Much as Kitty's character is developed reasonably well, with few exceptions (such as slightly eccentric neighbor Waddington played by Toby Jones), the other characters are relatively flat.

Though I was a little disappointed, the scenery and its portrayal was fabulous. Kitty's spirit and the scenes in the orphanage provided much needed respite from the stern, unsharing Walter. I am not at all averse, and in fact generally quite like, romantic period pieces (if this film can be called "romantic"), and, based on other reviews I had seen, quite expect many others to enjoy The Painted Veil more than I did. I do recommend for those that those who want to see it to see it while it's on the big screen; the impact of the mountains, rice fields, and landscapes in general needs to be appreciated in the large.

In addition to the imdb page on the film, you can visit the Warner Independent Pictures official film site. Also, the trailer follows below.

Exhibit Monet in Normandy

2007-01-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

We had the great fortune of getting tickets to the Monet in Normandy exhibition at the NC Museum of Art. I wish we had gone earlier; it opened October 15 and runs through this Sunday, January 14. We became members of the museum and took among the last tickets remaining for 4:30p today; they are going to be open 24 hours over the weekend and even those tickets are now sold out (the last to go were, I heard, for 3:30a Sunday morning entrance)!

Impressionistic painter Claude Monet (1840-1926), of course, is a great French painter whose painting Impression, Sunrise defined the term impressionism. He spent much of his life in Normandy painting outdoors en plein air. This amazing exhibit collects 50 of Monet's paintings from private and public collections, exploring his work while in Normandy (and Giverny, such as his famous waterlilies from his garden). The exhibit, I believe, is visiting San Francisco, Cleveland, and Raleigh only (last June 17-September 17 in San Francisco's Legion of Honor, and opening next month February 18-May 20 in the Cleveland Museum of Art).

Any one painting of Monet's is moving. But seeing fifty is an amazing treat. I particularly loved images of the Seine river (including one, The Seine at Giverny, Morning Mists (1897), that is in the permanent collection of the NC Museum of Art itself!); The Cliff Walk, Pourville (1882); The Path of La Cavée, Pourville (1882); Wheat Field (1881); and images of the huge arched Manneporte in Etretat. By the way, the local Raleigh News and Observer newspaper has a nice page online that includes multimedia, including a display of 23 of the paintings in the exhibition.

Film The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, 1962)

2007-01-07T23:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I saw The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino and featuring Will Smith as the protagonist Chris Gardner along with his real-life son Jaden Smith playing Chris Gardner's son Christopher. It was entertaining and interesting, a story of a man who struggles in 1980s America for making a living, though not particularly memorable.

By the way, a friend forwarded this amazing video of marionette-like puppetry; there's a little bit of French at the beginning and end, but it's worth watching the full 8+ minutes of this otherwise dialogue-less performance:

jerome murat
Uploaded by segalier

Film Army of Shadows (L' Armée des ombres; Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)

2007-01-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

The NC Museum of Art Winter Film series began today with the film Army of Shadows (French L' Armée des ombres) directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Though it is a film from 1969, apparently it was released in the States recently in 2006.

It is a difficult film to see about the French Resistance to Nazi occupation in WWII. It moves quietly and quickly through intrigue and, for me, difficult to see violence and assasinations for the larger cause. A well made film, it takes some strength to get through, especially for sensitive viewers, but is an unforgettable story of the dedication of an underground resistance and its will to use any means necessary to achieve its goals.

My friend "moviediva", the curator of the films, has always interesting notes about the films, which she uses for her introductions and posts a day or so after the screening. You can read her comments about Army of Shadows.

Dance/Music/Culture - Last day of the 21st annual KwanzaaFest, Durham, NC

2007-01-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed, as always, seeing "Baba" Chuck Davis and his African American Dance Ensemble last night at First Night. He mentioned that there is a Kwanzaa celebration underway and today would be the last day. I enjoyed attending much of the event; you can see a gallery of images and videos that I took.

Film Night at the Museum (Shawn Levy, 2006)

2006-12-29T23:57:00.000-08:00

I took two friends, ages twelve and almost thirteen, to the theatre today; they wanted to see Eragon, which seems to be an adventure story ala Lord of the Rings but which I found poor reviews of. Instead, we went to another film they wanted to see, Night at the Museum. It turned out to be a film that I liked much more than I had expected to - it was fun to see the animation and special effects of a museum coming to life at night, and to see such great actors as
Dick Van Dyke (Cecil), Mickey Rooney (Gus), and Bill Cobbs (Reginald) as the three retiring security guards.

In addition to its imdb page, you can visit:

the film's website,
its Wikipedia page (I didn't know that WikiPedia has pages on films!), and
its YouTube page (from which I got one of the trailers, below).

Film The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006)

2006-12-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

Today we met a friend to see The Queen, a film about the English monarchy's insistence on privacy upon Princess Diana's death. The public is anxious to have a chance to share their grief and hear some words of consolation from their Queen but family strains and the divorce of Diana from Charles, Prince of Wales (Alex Jennings), as well as their historic sense of public decorum, keeps them from reacting to the unprecedented outpouring of grief. Newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) is portrayed as helping to alert the Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (well played by Helen Mirren) to the terrible disservice he sees the monarchy doing to its own position in public opinion in her silence.

It was a good film that was enjoyable to see. I can't judge its authenticity, but presumably is based on fact. The music, particularly the last piece, added to the film's pulse and tone.

In addition to the film's official site, you can also see its imdb entry. The film's trailer appears below.

Film My Uncle (Mon Oncle; Jacques Tati, 1958)

2006-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

As part of the Masters of French Film series at the NC Museum of Art, we saw the delightful 1958 film, Mon Oncle. It was my first exposure to Jacques Tati's work; he directs this film and also stars as the rather clueless uncle M. Hulot to a bored child. The child's father is head of a factory and the mother keeps their satirically portrayed ultra-modern home, with unusual fish fountain turned on whenever somebody to be impressed ventures in, rather antiseptic.

The opening credits below give a sense to the lighthearted spirit of the film. I also found another clip, in French, which shows children teasing passersby with the hapless uncle taking unfair blame.

Film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Qian li zou dan qi; Yimou Zhang, 2005)

2006-12-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight, my wife and I very much enjoyed seeing Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles at a Chapel Hill, NC theatre. It was a beautiful film of a Japanese man, Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura) sadly estranged from his son, Ken-ichi. The daughter-in-law, Rie Takata played by Shinobu Terajima, ever hoping to bring the family together, calls to tell the father about Ken-ichi's sudden hospitalization with liver cancer. Takata-san rushes back to Tokyo, but the son won't see him, even though he has made a long journey to the hospital from a remote fishing village.

Trying to reconcile a non-communicative relationship, the father visits rural China to attempt to complete the filming that the son had begun of a Chinese opera, "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles". The film is the sometimes-funny, often poignant, and always scenic story of Takata-san's journey - a lead actor imprisoned, unable to perform as he weeps for his son whom he has never met; a Chinese guide who speaks only broken Japanese; villagers who roll out an amazingly long and warm welcome mat (literally covering what seems to be the main street with a linear banquet that goes as far as one can see) to introduce Takata-san to the actor's son; the actor's son who may not be ready to meet his unknown father; and Rie and her cell phone updates about Ken-ichi.

It's a beautiful film with just-enough sparse dialogue, spectacular mountain scenery, lovable and realistic characters, and a soul that speaks to family relations. You can visit both the film's website and its imdb entry for more information and images, including English language trailers.

25th Annual Seagrove Pottery Festival

2006-11-18T23:35:00.000-08:00

Along with two friends, one from China and one from Nepal, that we are privileged to be "hosting" (periodically meeting and making feel welcome) from the UNC International Friendship Program, we attended the 25th annual Seagrove Pottery Festival. Seagrove is a city about two hours away that is said, with 90 potteries within 20 miles, to be the biggest pottery area in the state. Founded before the Revolutionary War, the area has an interesting history based on the rich clay found there.

I've gone thrice in the past and purchased some beautiful pottery, but this year we only purchased a few items (a lovely hardwood cutting board and knife, a small ikebana cup). I want to get some nice plates and a pretty tea kettle - maybe next year we'll find some such pieces that we like.

Durham Art Walk; Film Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)

2006-11-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

Last year, we enjoyed attending the Durham Art Walk,
a free event downtown where almost 100 artists show and sell their work. It was fun, and today we got to attend it just for a few hours. There was some notable photography, mosaics, and painting that we enjoyed. We purchased a very affordable glass butterfly craft - or, rather, asked them to make such a butterfly in purple and expect it within a week. That butterfly is destined for our garden, perhaps hanging on to a camellia bush. Too bad that we didn't have more time to spend at the Walk this year!

On my own, in the evening I went to my first event of The Cinema, Inc., "Raleigh's oldest [since 1966 I think] ... nonprofit film society [which] offers classic feature presentations monthly at The Rialto Theatre". The film tonight was the French/Italian 1967 Belle de Jour starring Catherine Deneuve.

I didn't quite understand the film. A young wife, Séverine Serizy (Deneuve) loves her husband but has unusual fantasies about being with other men. This leads her to become a prostitute (taking the name Belle de Jour - beauty of the day?), always returning before her unsuspecting husband would get home each evening.

Shakespeare Play, Twelfth Night; Video 12 Days of Christmas by Boymongoose

2006-11-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

Along with two friends, my wife and I went to see Shakespeare's comic play, Twelfth Night, put on by students of UNC Chapel Hill's Department of Dramatic Art (Professional Actor Training Program). I wasn't familiar with this Shakespeare play and didn't heed reasonable advise about reading or otherwise becoming familiar with a play of his before seeing it. The language was characteristically rich and had a number of plays on words, many of which I, no doubt missed.

The comic love story about mistaken identity was a treat to see. The acting was good and sometimes excellent, particularly by D. Williams (playing the fool Feste) and Marla Yost (the twin Viola). I enjoyed the interesting decidedly anachronistic approach that the director, Charlie Steak, took, using period language but a mixture of period and contemporary costume and a delightful little rap interlude.

At UNC, they have an upcoming free performance that sounds interesting, Night Sky; here is the description from their website:

Night Sky
a drama by Susan Yankowitz
Directed by Barbara Harrison
November 17-21
Historic Playmakers Theatre
Internationally produced and acclaimed, it is the drama of a highly motivated female astronomy professor who is rendered aphasic after suffering a concussion in a car accident. The once articulate and abrasive professor must learn how to speak all over again. The play explores the relationship between the black holes in the cosmos and the black holes in the mind; the poetry of unconventional language; and the ways in which all of us struggle to communicate the thoughts and feelings locked within our most private selves. The play was first directed by Joseph Chaikin, himself aphasic. This beautiful and challenging work provides a thrilling venue for all actors and one of the most challenging and impressive roles for female actresses.

By the way, it's not a cultural event, but I can't resist sharing a well-made and funny video that a friend shared with me earlier in the week that parodies people from India. The Australian group Boymongoose and their 12 Days of Christmas!

Debate about Kashmir

2006-11-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

My friends Afroz Taj and John Caldwell helped to organize an interesting debate about the Kashmir conflict, sponsored by the UNC Sangam student organization as part of South Asian Awareness Week. Here is the description from their website:

Come attend a Political Debate on one of the major conflicts in South Asia, The Kashmir Conflict. The conflict goes back till 1947 and still continues. Come out to get view points from all the three sides India, Pakistan and Kashmir, and give your opinion. This will be a great debate! You will get to learn more about the intense topic of Kashmir. Come to see how the conflict will change since India and Pakistan have Nuclear weapons. We need people who are serious, concerned or interested in this issue. So please come only if you are interested.

My wife and I enjoyed attending this short evening event. There were about a dozen in attendance, mostly students. In thinking about the issue of Kashmir (should it be part of India, Pakistan, or be independent), one thought occurred to me, and that was federalism. I'm sure it's been thought of and seriously considered before, but my suggestion, that I shared (and which, it seemed, carried the day as perhaps the most feasible solution), was to use the European Union as a model. Just as the French maintain their culture and the neighboring Italians maintain theirs, there is an easy sharing over borders.

The thought I had is, based on economics and encouraging multi-culturalism, that the current states of India and Pakistan, as well as Kashmir, all become semi-autonomous units. Live in Calcutta and enjoy the Bengali culture? Fine - when you want to visit Kashmir or Mumbai or Delhi or Srinagar or Lahore, off you go with minimal fuss.

I enjoyed the discussion, but wish that there were more partisan opinions expressed, based on what we see in the real world. I would have enjoyed hearing a strong case for Pakistan; instead, based on the attitudes of those present, much of the discussion seemed Indo-centric. I like debates where a team or person strongly argues a case that is not the case they personally believe, and then others can chime in and all can have good discussion. Nevertheless, this was an interesting and educational event.

Map from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas, produced by the C.I.A.

Garden Lecture, "Fifty - but who's counting - Great Native Plants for the Southeast", Bill Cullina

2006-11-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

I was part of this well-attended (several hundred in the audience at least) talk by Bill Cullina, nursery manager for Garden-in-the-Woods in New England. I am a member of the NC Botanical Garden, which hosted the talk.

I enjoyed the light-hearted talk by this knowledgeable man. I was looking forward to finding his "list" on the NCBG website, but at least as of near Thanksgiving time, it hadn't been posted.

Film The U.S. vs. John Lennon (David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, 2006)

2006-11-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

Tonight, my wife and I saw The U.S. vs. John Lennon at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC. What a film! It is a documentary about the life of John Lennon and his leadership in the peace movement during the Vietnam War. The U.S. government tries to deport him and, finding that he had a small charge of marijuana possession filed back in England, uses that as a pretext to demand his departure. Eventually, Lennon's lawyer countersues and proves that the Nixon administration has conspired against him, with people from the very top of the government involved. It was a moving film where the pace was great to (re)learn important biographical and historical aspects of the man and times, and the songs rekindled fond memories for me. Well worth watching!

November 15: I found a nicely done video montage, below, of John Lennon set to his beautiful (it always moves me; they played this at the candelit vigil after his murder) song, Imagine, done in a pan and zoom Ken Burns style. A music video of the song is also available, and I also found a contemporary anti-war video montage based largely on Imagine by artist John Callaghan of Cal-TV (the video is set to Imagine This by WaxAudio; the video is decidedly political with some violent images and starts with some offensive language)

"Spooktacular" Third Annual Habitat for Humanity 50K Bicycle Ride

2006-10-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

I missed it last year, but two years ago, I attended the first of what has become an annual bicycle ride to raise funds for the local Durham Habitat for Humanity. The entry fee is $25 and one can ride 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) or twice that distance. Both times, I enjoyed the 50k ride.

I was originally planning on riding with four friends, but the forecast was for rain till 10a, and the ride was starting, rain or shine, at 9. All but one decided not to ride, and I was not expecting to ride, either. But the weather turned out to be sunny, though windy. I couldn't hook up with the one friend, so did this ride by myself, though I met some very nice folks. The weather proved to be lovely - in the 60s but with some wind toward the end (I must have pulled in around noon), at times reaching around 20mph!

The route was scenic and not very difficult, with just a few short hills. Next year, I hope that my wife (away at the moment) and I can do this ride on our tandem we hope to have before spring.

Play "Los empeños de una casa" ("House of Desires", Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1683)

2006-10-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was apparently a writer in Spain's "Golden Age" and I quite happened on this performance at Duke University of her play that literally translates to Trials of a Noble House. Somehow it was below my radar (but shouldn't have been!), but a friend had a ticket and invited me. Directed by Rafael Lopez-Barrantes (my friend's friend), Senior Lecturing Fellow in the Department of Theater Studies, the actors were all students. They did a superb job and I was very surprised in the post-performance discussion to hear how quickly they learned their parts - their performance seemed quite professional!

It was a delighful romp of a comedy that garnered a strong review by the local entertainment paper, The Independent Weekly. The inclined set design (credit to Amir Ofek) was amazing, with actors treading on what seemed like a big piece of parchment with "nonsense" words. The story itself was a romantic comedy of errors. One of the audience members turned out to be a local representative of the Mexican embassy, and she said in the post-performance discussion that the English translation and this production was surprisingly true to the original!

Film Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair, 1991)

2006-10-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

I saw Mississippi Masala when it first came out in 1991 and enjoyed this unique tale of a family of Indian background living in Uganda. Just back from a lovely short vacation in Italy last night, I found this film playing tonight as part of a Women in the Americas film series through Duke University's Screen Society.

In the film, the family is portrayed as having been in Uganda for decades and considering it home - many Indians had been brought by the British during colonial times. Their daughter, Meena (Sarita Choudhury), was born in Uganda. During Idi Amin's rule (1971-1979), "foreigners" were harrassed and, after a dream in which he claimed that God commanded him, on August 4, 1972 Amin ordered the tens of thousands of Asians in Uganda to leave within ninety days.

The film, comfortably paced, shows the family's leaving their beloved home and settling into hotel and alcohol businesses in small-town Greenwood, Mississippi. The father, Jay (Roshan Seth), is heart-broken and, a lawyer himself, obsessively writes to the Uganda government demanding restitution. Jay's wife Kinnu (Sharmila Tagore, along with other actors in the film having a long and well-established career, such as playing leading roles in Satyajit Ray films like Devi from 1960 and Apur Sansar from 1959) is shown with a calm and pragmatic disposition, urging Jay to make the best of their new life.

Meena literally runs into the handsome Demetrius Williams (a young Denzel Washington) in a minor car accident. On a second chance encouter, they begin to develop interests in each other. Their innocent attraction raises racial tensions, resulting in implications to Demetrius' heretofore successful rug-cleaning business and feelings of honor in both families.

Though I didn't enjoy seeing the film as much the second time around, it's a winner with a great cast. The music is good (I bought the soundtrack soon after seeing it the first time), with Indian, African, Blues, and early rap-oriented tunes. Mira Nair is a fabulous storyteller; though I didn't like her popular Monsoon Wedding (2001), her earlier Salaam Bombay! (1988) was an emotional (and often hard to see - I closed my eyes twice!) and powerful film, and I also enjoyed her Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996). One of my favorite novels is Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, and I'm delighted that Mira Nair has just released a film based on the novel (not yet generally released - can't wait!).

Sufi Festival: Concert by Hu Dost, Fire Zikr

2006-09-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

I love the Sufi Festival that is held in the area every year; this year, running Sept. 28-Oct. 1, is the ninth annual one. Though I only took a few shots at the nighttime zikr (see below), you can see pictures that I took at the 2004 and 2003 festivals (including the two here, dervish Aziz Abbatiello whirling and a poster of Rumi [Mevlana Jalal-e-Din Mevlavi Rumi]) that I took in 2003). I think I've been attending since 1999 or 2000.

Tonight was Rumi's birthday, and they had a very interesting band, Hu Dost, playing some more traditional Sufi music as well as some of their contemporary compositions. I loved the voice of the lead singer, Moksha Sommer - it reminded me of the voice of Natalie Merchant, a singer whose work with 10,000 Maniacs I relish. There was middle eastern drumming, an amazing flute player, and even a little bit of sitar. I liked the music so much that I bought their CD that was just released today, Seedling.

We heard that an unscheduled zikr, or prayers and group dancing of peace, was being held around a campfire afterwards, so we joined in for an hour or so till almost 1a. It was resonant, as zikrs are meant to be, and special for me by fireside. [We were planning on going to the festival's concluding zikr on Saturday night, but my wife ended up out of energy after our other events on Saturday - alas!]

Films This Moment(L.Pendharkar,2004),Library Manju(P.Angunawela,2005), We're Indian and African:Voices of the Sidis(B.Shroff,2005

2006-09-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the second of two nights in the Diaspora to Diaspora: African-American/South Asian Encounters film series at The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and my wife and I are planning on attending. They are scheduled to show three short films with post-film discussion moderated by Leena Pendharkar, who wrote and directed This Moment, the first film to be screened. The films that are being shown are:

This Moment. A 15-minute film story of an Indian-American woman Uma Balachandran in her twenties who is in love with African-American John Ray. How does a second generation immigrant reconcile her family's partiality to her marrying somebody from the old country with her own preferences? In addition to an imdb entry, this film has its own website on Leena's Spicy Mango Productions.
Library Majnu. The festival website describes this a modern Romeo-and-Juliet story with a Bollywood twist; I believe that this is a 2005 TV show directed by Paul Angunawela and written by Shehzad Chaudhary.
We're particularly looking forward to the documentary We're Indian and African: Voices of the Sidis. Beheroze Shroff of the UCSD Department of Literature has made this 22-minute film exploring the lives of the Afro-Indian Sidis of Bava Gor, a village in Gujarat. Also known as Sheedi (शीदि in Hindi), this Sufi community descended from Zanzibar slaves are followers of ancient saint Bava Gor. In the 12th century, they settled in India (Gujarat) and modern day Pakistan (Balochistan and Sindh) and have preserved their African musical roots in their devotion; the film depicts this, as well as their sacred Goma-Dhammal dance, and relationship of the Sidis to Parsis in Mumbai.

Film Dreams and Passions (Sophia Kaushal, 2006)

2006-09-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I had the pleasure of attending the first of two nights of the Diaspora to Diaspora: African-American/South Asian Encounters film series at The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, a beautiful building erected with private funds on the UNC campus. The Norweigan film Dreams and Passions was shown, followed by a discussion led by director Sophia Kaushal and screenwriter Jon Poindexter. (The film isn't quite finished with the editing, but I believe a 2006 credit date is correct.)

The film is a simple love story between college students Indian-born (Punjabi?), Norweigan-raised Sara (played by Sophia), and Chicagoan African-American Danzel (not Denzel; played by Jon), who has just arrived in Norway to study in a foreign exchange program. Unlike a film like Mississippi Masala that explores minority-on-minority prejudice, this is a story of a father and brother who adopt double standards in violently opposing a growing daughter's exploration of dating and romance.

In the discussion that ensued, Sophia Kaushal described this difference between Norway and the US: the US is far ahead in terms of having vibrantly integrated races, but in Norway where minorities are comparatively scarce, those minorities that do exist relate better to each other with shared experiences. An African-American dating a Norweigan-Indian is viewed as just two non-majorities together.

I enjoyed talking with Sophia and Jon. Jon comes from a theater backround and also sings - and this talent is fairly clear in his acting and intonation. Sophia is directing a new film effort, reminiscent to me of Zana Briski's giving poor children still cameras in the documentary film Born into Brothels, but of giving children video cameras. They begin work in Chicago in the coming days, and also plan to work with children in India and perhaps Japan and elsewhere.

There's no imdb entry for the film yet (once it's done with editing, I may create an entry). You can read a short description of the film and Monday's films in this series in our local entertainment paper, The Independent.

Pictures used with permission and obtained from The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

Film Steamboy (Suchîmubôi; Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 2004)

2006-09-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight as part of the Duke University Screen Society (I'm glad that school is back in session and these film series are underway again!), I saw the Japanese anime film Steamboy (Suchîmubôi; directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 2004, 126 minutes). While the computer animation was impressive, the film's story didn't particularly interest me.

The film is about a family of English inventors in the 1860s. Just before the first World Expo, an enormously powerful "steam ball" comes from the grandfather in the United States. What ensues is a pitting of grandfather against father - one promoting the peaceful uses of the new technology, and the other exploiting it to gain supremacy through destruction of anything in his way - with the son (perhaps 12-14 years old) caught in the middle. Obviously a parable for nuclear power, I didn't find the film's plot to be innovative or exciting.

Puppet Theatre: Paperhand Puppet Intervention's As the Crow Flies: Tales from Four Directions

2006-09-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine and I went to see the last event of the RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence, a family-oriented outdoor performance by Paperhand Puppet Intervention called As the Crow Flies: Tales From Four Directions. The same friend, my Dad, and my wife, went to their production last year, Garden of the Wild. It consisted of fabulous puppetry in four stories:

"Man and Machine - The Story of John Henry". The legendary working class man from the late 1800s competes and soundly defeats machinery. "This tale of Man vs. Machine during the era of Industrialization is one that is still relevant ... story of people standing up against hardship ... imposed on them in the name of progress & profit". It was a delight to see, especially the industry of the large main puppet.
"King of Fools". "Every culture has ... tales of fools & tricksters." Inspired by English stories of "wise men of Gotham", Jewish Eastern European stories of "the people of Chelm", and Russian Pushkin's "The Golden Cockerel", this was fairly comical and probably my favorite piece.
"Seeing with New Eyes". A huge puppet of the historical Gautama Buddha witnesses monsters and temptations as he meditates on a river bank. Heart lit up to hilight his newly found enlightenment, he floats up the stone stairs of the outdoor theatre to applause, with a retinue of lovingly curious children following him. I love how Paperhand times their shows, if this and last year are indicative. Like last year, this piece ended around nightfall, maximizing the effect of the puppet's lit heart.
"The Librarian of Basra". This tells the true story, based on Jeannette Winter's book The Librarian of Basra, of Alia Muhammad Baker. As Head Librarian of Iraq's Central Library in Basra, he struggles to save the tens of thousands of books from impending war. Like last year, this piece was done as a shadowbox lit from behind.

Paperhand is a delight to see, and the setting lends itself well to enjoying while picnicking or just sitting under the open sky at the Forest Theatre. They tend to have a populist, progressive message that is entertaining for all ages and thought-provoking at different levels for different people. I enjoyed last year's Garden of the Wild even more than As the Crow Flies: Tales From Four Directions but would gladly see either again. What will they produce next year?!

RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence: Saturday Outdoors Performances

2006-09-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

We returned to see the free daytime puppet performances of the RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence. I took a few pictures and enjoyed the shows; they still had political overtones, but were more appropriate for families than the evening shows we had seen the previous night.

RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence: Cabaret Performance

2006-09-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

I read in the Independent Weekly about the RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence. Quoting from the RadiCackaLacky website, this is "a week-long celebration of radical puppetry -- theater that uses puppets and objects to tell stories of people's hopes, dreams, struggles and victories. ... Puppeteers from all over the U.S. and Canada are converging on Carrboro/Chapel Hill during the final weekend of Paperhand's annual Forest Theater show. There are several programs of puppetry at a number of venues throughout the week. ... We've got hand puppets from outer space, marionettes enacting Greek myths, biographical shadow puppet plays, cardboard cats who chase cardboard mice, and puppet videos about the Apocalypse -- plus live music, crazy costumes, and stuff made from trash! All the programs are cheap or free".

We went tonight to the 9p "latenight cabaret" which lasted past midnight. The published schedule indicates a line up of Jeff McCreight, Wandering Minstrel; Rebecca & Kate, HorseshoeBend; RPM Puppet Conspiracy, The Tiny Cat & The Tiny Mouse; Barbara Cox, WWF Avant Guard Juggling; Legends Walk The Streets, From My Porch; Daniel Lang, Gazelle/Habibi; and Maple Rabbit, "Apocalypse" and other songs. My wife was not crazy about tonight and said that it was unorganized (but enjoyed what we saw the next day), but I thought most of the performances were creative and interesting.

Neither of us liked a piece that a man from New York did (where was the puppetry??) with flash cards entering and being tossed out of a form while he recited a poem. One piece was too long and neither of us understood the point - a man donning different masks to describe a lesson on Chekov.

But we both liked the first piece (From My Porch ?) about reflections of racism in Philadelphia. There was a very clever skit with a woman opening up a number of white umbrellas to surround herself then shine a spotlight through the umbrellas. There was a performance about the environmental degradation that a gas leak caused to a river out west - it was particularly beautiful how the performers described the love story between a rock and the raging water over the years before the enviroment received such an insult.

The master of ceremonies also entertained us. His job was to keep us distracted while the stage was cleared and setup between acts. It was done in an ad hoc manner without closing of curtains; my wife had the impression that it was an "inside show" meant for the puppet troupes to entertain each other with. He put on a number of comical pieces about Frankenstein. As an example, he had somebody come to the stage and wear a Frankenstein mask while the MC narrated a scene in a coffee house. Nobody would serve or even look at the monster, even when he rang a bell to request service. I know that the retelling doesn't sound humorous, but the situational comedy was effective - the MC's narration guided the actions of the volunteer in this and other Frankenstein scenes.

It was a refreshing night - after a lot of hot weather in the high 90°Fs and even into the 100°s, it was a fall-like evening in the 60s and even little cooler. It was enjoyable not just walking to and from the event, but there was a large drum circle outside in the intermission.

Film Godzilla (Gojira; Ishiro Honda, 1954)

2006-08-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight the NC Museum of Art's summer lawn series featured the original Japanese Godzilla (Gojira; Ishiro Honda, 1954; not the 1956 American version with Raymond Burr). I enjoyed it ... more writeup coming soon ...

Film Who Killed the Electric Car? (Chris Paine, 2006)

2006-08-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

(I am documenting this after the fact and think we saw the film on August 24, but I may be wrong; it was the middle or end of August. This is the basis for my published review in the October 2006 issue of Saathee Magazine.)

In millions of barrels per day, total U.S. oil imports (crude and refined) in 1977: 8.8. In 2005: 13.5 . Maximum federal tax credit for electric vehicle (2002): $4000. For vehicles weighing 6000 pounds and greater (2003): $100,000.

I remember living through the oil crisis in the 1970s and having lines for rationed gas. President Carter in 1979 put measures in place to gradually improve fuel efficiency of vehicles, vowing to set the country on a course to reduce oil imports. Unfortunately, some later politicians seemed to forget that crisis and nullified many of the conservation measures, even removing solar panels that had been installed on the White House.

Jumping forward to 1990, California adopted a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, requiring auto makers to sell 10% of its cars having no emissions from fueling or operation. Cars could be recharged at home or at public recharging stations. In 1996, the mandate was made more flexible in the face of auto industry pressure and in 2003 California further weakened it, no longer requiring car manufacturers to produce any ZEVs.

General Motors (GM), which had developed the EV1 electric car for lease but not sale, almost immediately discontinued and recalled the leased vehicles. Contrary to company claims of recycling the car parts, GM was found trucking the clean functioning cars to Arizona and crushing them. Owners who have loved the experience and low cost of driving their cars protested and even Gandhian non-violent vigils and actions, as well as offers to buy the cars, are unable to stop the destruction.

Why such a history especially with rising gas prices and the backdrop of conflicts at least partially over access to oil? The documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car? attempts to give insight. A variety of "suspects" are examined. Are car companies guilty? The filmmakers think so and imply that they only half-heartedly worked to develop and market the cars. The EV1 had no internal combustion engine, oil, filters, or spark plugs, and a break system requiring minimal repair. That was good news for the people fortunate enough to have been able to lease the cars, but provided very little after-market profit. How about oil companies? Their lobbies strongly opposed the adoption of electric cars which, after all, would reduce their sales. Batteries? Surprisingly not guilty; GM purchased a majority interest in nickel-metal hydride battery technology but chose to deliver an under-performing product that provided half the driving range.

How about the U.S. government? Guilty as well, according to the film. Not only were earlier conservation measures stripped of their power, but in 2002 the current administration joined automakers and car dealers in a lawsuit against California's ZEV mandate. Instead of encouraging a proven and existing technology, it helped sign its death certificate and instead is gambling on hydrogen fuel cell technology. The film includes an interview with Joseph J. Romm, author of The Hype about Hydrogen, to make the point that hydrogen may be a long-term solution, but many impediments, including price (a vehicle currently costs $1 million and the fuel is very expensive and from non-renewable sources), creation of fueling infrastructure, and range (normal sized cars currently can't carry enough hydrogen to provide sufficient range) make it unlikely to be a solution for decades to come.

The Clinton administration as well did little to increase corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards If anything, the filmmakers imply, government has stifled cleaner electric technology; there were more electric cars on the road 100 years ago than gas cars.

The film features interviews with people such as Chelsea Sexton, who was an EV1 sales specialist married to an EV1 technician; consumer advocate Ralph Nader; S. David Freeman, former energy advisor to President Carter; R. James Woolsey, ex-CIA director; Phyllis Diller, a comedian who remembers early electric cars before 1920; and Iris and Stanford Ovshinsky, whose battery technology powered the EV1 and is used in many current hybrid vehicles. I found that the human interest was a welcome respite to a film that at times was too focused on pressing its case against the demise of the electric car.

Anybody interested in efficient and renewable energy, as well as public policy, should see this film. Who Killed the Electric Car? informs well, though I wish it presented a little more history of the electric car. Documentaries can and should be interesting and not just educational; by and large this is, though at times it is a little repetitive. That said, overall the film is thought-provoking, and the frustrating story of the electric car's demise ends with some optimism for the future.

7 stars out of 10

Film websites
- imdb entry including this review
- Official film website
Note: all pictures (inclusion forthcoming) are ©2006 by Sony Pictures Classics, and used with their permission.

Film Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)

2006-08-18T01:50:00.000-07:00

I had never seen the classic film Lawrence of Arabia but my wife and I had the good fortune of seeing it tonight outdoors at the NC Museum of Art's Summer Film series. It's an epic at 227 minutes (we had an intermission; the film was captivating enough that I didn't find the break necessary, and it sure didn't feel like it lasted almost 4 hours) with Peter O'Toole playing the role of T.E. Lawrence, conflicted English military friend of the Arabs during World War I.

Film Highway Courtesans (Mystelle Brabbée, 2004)

2006-08-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight I saw the documentary film Highway Courtesans, a Women Make Movies Release, on DVD. It is about the Bachara tribe in the western part of Madhya Pradesh in central India. This tribe is known for the tradition of child prostitution, with families making their first daughters, as children, into prostitutes to support the family. The tradition is centuries old and is still practiced today.

The film, directed by Mystelle Brabbée, follows six years in the life of Bacharan Guddi Chauhan from age 16 to 23. She has been a prostitute serving passing-by truckers and others I believe since age 11 or 12, but clearly is uneasy about this forced occupation. Along the way, she has garnered a boyfriend, Sagar, out of her clientèle. Sagar surprisingly seems not to mind her profession.

Guddi's misgivings lead her, against her family's wishes, to leave prostitution and learn enough to become a teacher in a village. How do her drunken do-nothing brother and tradition-bound father react to her independent streak? How does Guddi, as well as some of her peers in the community, Shana and Sungita, feel about the tradition and the role thrust upon them? Change is often a two-edged sword, and would fighting this tradition benefit these young ladies and girls? What other opportunities exist, where do they exist, and do ex-Bacharan prostitutes have hopes of marriage? Can they fulfill their desires to support their families? Why is Sagar vague about his plans to marry Guddi? We see Guddi's father sending her by bus to a larger town to get a proper education; will he support her and let her study?

This 71-minute film that took approximately ten years to produce gives insight into these questions. It is difficult to come to terms with forced child prostitution, especially in modern times, and a documentary on this topic could leave one numb. Instead, the film is crafted in an accessible and warm manner. The prostitutes are victims, but somehow Guddi, Shana, and Sungita, are surprisingly strong and confident.

I am impressed with the access that the filmmakers were able to get to the people in the Bacharan village, and to the villagers' willingness to frankly discuss matters. By clearly documenting this story, the producers have used film to possibly make a big difference in the lives of these highway courtesans. But will this age-old tradition become a thing of the past? And if it does, will reasonable opportunities for villagers be available? We can only hope.

Highway Courtesans has won a number of awards, such as best feature documentary at the 2005 Galway Film Fleadh and winner of the President's Jury Award at the 2005 Chicago International Documentary Festival. I understand that it is set for theatrical release this November at New York City's Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village. Established in 1972, Women Make Movies, the film's distributor, is a national non-profit media organization and the largest distributor of films made exclusively by and about women. WMM's collection of more than 500 films are used by thousands of educational, community and cultural organizations annually, exhibited at film festivals worldwide and broadcast on television and cable stations in the U.S. and abroad.

Links of interest:

Official film website
imdb entry including a version of this summary
wikipedia entry about the Bachara that I created; please edit it with additional information if you have more details

Photographs used with permission courtesy of Women Make Movies (www.wmm.com): Guddi as teacher, trucks on Ratlam Highway, view outside Guddi's home, Guddi with her boyfriend Sagar and director Mystelle Brabbée.

Concert: Jaafar Music

2006-08-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

I love Jaafar Music, led by my friend Troy Cole. The group describes itself on its website as:

"a middle eastern jazz Arabic funk fusion ensemble that originates from the Raleigh/Durham Triangle of NC. The instrumentation is usually bass, oud, keys, dumbek, drum set, sometime a double neck guitar is thrown into the mix. It is an awesome blend of western and eastern ideas fusing seamlessly through 'traditional' oriental themes, and western jazz/funk."

As always, I enjoyed seeing them perform tonight. As soon as I got home, I created a public gallery for the images and uploaded them, as well as .mpg videos.

Film Three Times (Zui hao de shi guang; Hsiao-hsien Hou, 2005)

2006-08-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight, with a friend (while my wife practiced - she's on stage tomorrow!), I saw the critically acclaimed Taiwanese film Three Times at our historic Carolina Theatre. The description that the theatre's site had posted is:

The film features three different stories of love and memory through three time periods, 1966, 1911 and 2005. The first, "A Time for Love," hinges on the meeting of soldier boy Chen with pool hall hostess May and his subsequent search for her. The second episode, "A Time for Freedom," deals with a courtesan tending to a Mr. Chang during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. And the third episode, "A Time for Youth," centers on epileptic singer Jing who casually takes up with photographer Zhen while increasingly ignoring her female lover.

Neither of us left the film understanding what the commotion could have been about. We both reasonably enjoyed the episode taking place in 1966 (from which the image below is taken) - it is sweet and innocent, and all the characters seemed happy. In the 1911 episode, the characters were all imprisoned by duty-bound roles, and happiness was not readily apparent. In the gritty modern 2005 final episode, all trace of innocence and happiness seemed to be whisked away in the detritus of the modern anonymous city.

The best scene for me was in the first part; in the sweet romance blooming between our two protagonists, Chen (played by Chen Chang) reaches his hand down slowly to clasp the hand of May (Qi Shu). But rather than enjoy many such touching scenes, I was left a bit puzzled by the dearth of interest, to me, in the rest of the film.

I had expected that Hsia-hsien Hou, cited as filming subtle scenes of beauty, would have cleverly used the three parallel histories, perhaps weaving them and interchanging them nonlinearly, or somehow related them. All I saw was the coincidental use of two characters in love stories of three different eras. The film was slow; if it were entirely to have taken place in the 1960s, I could have described "slow" with more positive phrases, such as, perhaps, "subtly engaging" or "innocently unwinding" or maybe even "softly touching". I would give the film 5 1/2 or 6 stars out of 10.

In addition to the imdb entry for the film, you can also visit its official website.

All pictures here ©2006 by The Independent Film Channel LLC and used with permission.

Film Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 1980)

2006-07-31T23:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last of three consecutive Mondays of a Japanese film series at Manbites Dog Theater. At 7p, they showed Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 1980), followed by Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000).

I enjoyed Kagemusha, though I thought that, at a minute shy of 3 hours duration, it could have been shorter. It takes place in feudal 16th century Japan, and I believe is based on a true story of Lord Shingen and the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. Shingen dies and his inner circle follows his deathwish of not letting his enemies know for three years. The advisors find a poor thief lookalike, who is able to fool spies and even Shingen's grandson.

This grandson, perhaps five years old, is to be the next leader; Shingen has skipped his son in the succession. In the epic story, we see large armies consolidating and enlarging their realms. Obvious misgivings and anger of the skipped son play out. Court intrigue and situations (including making a decision on going to war and entertaining mistresses) that could uncover the thief keep the film interesting.

I left early on in Battle Royale. Similar to Lord of the Flies, high school children are whisked away to brutality on a deserted island. They have the horrendous game of survival - they must kill or be killed. If, after three days, more than one person survives, they all will be killed. I don't have the constitution to see such violence, so didn't stick around past the first 20 or 30 minutes.

Richmond Vegetarian Festival

2006-07-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

I was a speaker at the fourth annual Richmond Vegetarian Festival in Richmond, VA, a little under 3 hours by car away. I gave my Why Vegetarian presentation and had a fairly full tent of good listeners and questioners. I was amazed at the size of this event - there were more than 3000 attendees and more vendor booths than we had a chance to visit! We discovered a new bagel company whose bagels we loved and purchased to bring home - Agnes' Very Very Bake'mmm organic vegan bagels. It was delightful to spend time and have dinner with another speaker, my friend Harold Brown from Farm Sanctuary, who gave the primary talk.

Concert: KC and the Sunshine Band / Tavares / Gloria Gaynor / Sister Sledge

2006-07-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 70s, I enjoyed a few songs by KC and the Sunshine Band - they have a good beat though they have fairly silly lyrics. Songs of theirs that I particularly like include Keep it Coming Love and Please Don't Go. KC coincidentally lives, I found out, nearby in Chapel Hill - he visited the Rice Diet Program in Durham some years ago and decided to stay in the area.

Anyway, KC is on this "KC's Boogie Blast" tour, and we went with a few friends to see it at Raleigh's Alltel Pavillion. I don't like KC enough to see him on his own, but he is touring with a group I like much more, Tavares, especially their songs Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel, their (and the Bee Gees' as well) version of More than a Woman, and It Only Takes a Minute (To Fall in Love). A few years ago, I bought one of their greatest hits compilations, and came to enjoy a number of their other songs, such as Don't Take Away the Music and Whodunit.

Gloria Gaynor, famous for Never Can Say Good-Bye, Last Night, and I Will Survive, is part of the tour, and also Sister Sledge, with really just the one hit We Are Family. So the night promised a fun harkening back to the disco era with dancing. We had a fun time, though I wish that Tavares had more time to play. The concert was orchestrated by KC, and the bands each played a few songs at a time.

Film Wordplay (Patrick Creadon, 2006)

2006-07-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight my wife and I saw Wordplay, a documentary about crossword puzzles, focusing on Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times' crossword and NPR's puzzle master. It was about an hour and a half long, and describes puzzle creators who submit their puzzles to Will. He could create the puzzles in each day's New York Times, but enjoys receiving a diversity of contributions which he selects and edits, for example to conform to the paper's style and difficulty by day (a "Monday" puzzle is the easiest and each day thereafter gets more difficult, I believe). He also creates, as I recall, about half of the crosswords published.

The film has discussions with a number of celebrities about their interest, skill, and habit of doing crosswords. President Bill Clinton, television humorist Jon Stewart, master documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, baseball player Mike Mussina, retired Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, and singers Indigo Girls all appear in interesting discussions several times in the film.

One particularly interesting story that both Bob Dole and Bill Clinton told was the Times puzzle, on the eve of the 1996 presidential election which pitted them against each other. That puzzle included a 2-word horizontal solution to something like "tomorrow's headline" - and the puzzle worked with phrases like either "BOBDOLEWINS" or "CLINTONWINS" - with all intersecting vertical words having solutions with corresponding letters from either choice! (I found a site where you can read more about this and which allows you to do the puzzle after installing some software.)

The hilight of the film is the annual March Crossword Tournament held in Stamford, Connecticut, where a few hundreds compete every year. Several are interviewed, and we witness the weekend long results as they unfold. It's amazing to see how fast these experts are at solving the puzzles, and finding some words I have not heard of!

I have never been good at crosswords, though I think I am reasonably literate and at problem solving. Visiting online crosswords at USA Today (which gives immediate feedback when an incorrect letter is typed) and thinks.com tonight after the film confirmed my poor skills. I also found an amateurish crossword maker.

The film was well made and fun to watch. In addition to reading about the film on imdb, one can also visit the official film website.

Film Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

2006-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

I returned to Manbites Dog Theater tonight for the second night of the Japanese film festival after seeing one of my favorite films, Tokyo Story, at the first night of the festival. I saw Ugetsu monogatari at 7:30p; it was a film about two couples who fought for their survival during wartime in feudal Japan. One of the husbands has his heart set at becoming a samurai at almost any cost, and the other, a potter (and farmer, as I recall) seems to lose his sense of balance in life and care for his family in a sudden material interest in making and selling as much pottery as possible. The story is a morality tale with obvious messages, but presented in an unpredictable story.

We were next to see Azumi (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2003) around 9:30, a modern Japanese film in which "a female assassin is charged with bringing peace to war-torn Japan". The film ended up not being available, so Versus (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000) was shown. I suspected I wouldn't like this film with zombies and underworld figures duking it out, in spite of its being supposedly comic and intentionally unrealistic - and I was right. I can't stomach such violence so left about half an hour into the film.

American Dance Festival: Noche Flamenca & Soledad Barrio

2006-07-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

It's sad to think that tonight was the last night of ADF this season! It seemed to go by way too fast. I was privileged to see every performer, from Paul Taylor on the 2nd day of ADF through Spanish flamenco (alternatively spelled flamenca, I believe) tonight, with the exception of Emanuel Gat Dance (which again used ADF to premiere a work, this time K626 ["10 women, 45 minutes of music, 20 minutes of silence, 65 minutes of dance"] and last year Rite of Spring), Shen Wei Dance Arts, and Doug Varone & Dancers (whom I've never seen), all of which I had to miss due to being out-of-town.

We felt fortunate to see the strong dancers, singers, and musicians of Noche Flamenca & Soledad Barrio from Spain tonight. We also briefly met several of them outside after the performance. According to their website, Noche Flamenca was formed in 1993 by artistic director Martín Santangelo and his wife Soledad Barrio.

My wife, an aficionado of good vocals, shared my admiration for the amazing impassioned voices that reminded us both of qawaali music, with, at least to us, similar arm and hand gestures and style of singing - though neither of us know Spanish and couldn't understand the words. The music itself was traditional Spanish flamenca guitar (toque), along with hand clapping and feet stomping.

The dance seemed to me to be traditional in the Spanish flamenca style. I'm not sure why traditional dance was included in ADF, but I'm certainly not complaining - and since I know next to nothing about flamenca, for all I know there may have been modern interpretations presented tonight.

Sometimes the dancer would be Soledad Barrio solo, sometimes one of two men solo, and sometimes some combination thereof. Most of the performers were dressed primarily in black with a black backdrop, but Soledad had a beautiful red dress on. Except for a few years ago at the first "Festival of the Feet" at ADF, I don't think I've ever seen flamenca dancing, but what I saw tonight was powerful, skillfully fast, and beautiful to see. The News & Observer's ADF blog refers to a glossary of terms that could be shouted out to show appreciation, and I did often hear Olé! ring out - which I echo! I can't wait for ADF's return next June and July.

Postscript: There is a strong review of the performance in the July 26 issue of The Independent. Also, the pieces that were peformed, according to the program, were "La Plaza", "Tangos", "Solo de Guitar", "'Maria' -- Alegrias", all before the intermission. The second half consisted of "Solea por Bulerias", "Solo de Cante y Martinete", "Siguiriya", and "Esta noche no es mi día".

All pictures from the company's website gallery, © Noche Flamenca.

Film: Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme, 2006); Beloved Binge CD Release Party

2006-07-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I attended the summer concert/film series at the NC Museum of Art to see Neil Young: Heart of Gold . I have enjoyed the music of Neil Young (remember songs like "Helpless", "Old Man", "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)", "Harvest Moon", and "Cinnamon Girl"?), as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (with great songs like "Ohio", "Love the One You're With" "Teach Your Children", and "Our House") for as long as I have been listening to radio growing up. The film was concert footage of Neil performing in Nashville. It was particularly enjoyable to see outdoors!

Our friends Eleni (aka Binge Cafe) and Rob (Sloping Band House) of Beloved Binge have recently released their new CD Other Places, described by the duo as "Rubble pop rooted in punk pot infused with a hint of old Greek mountain village uprising", and tonight they played at a CD release party at Joe & Jo's Downtown casual club in Durham. We had never heard them before; their music seems to be an interesting mixture inspired by hardcore and punk with a dose of 80s sensibilities. Isn't their album cover attractive?! The base photograph is Rob visiting a Greek village with an ancient tree.

Our friends loudly proclaim their animal rights philosophy, such as in the song "Why Vegan". It's probably my own lack of exposure to much hardcore, but I had difficulty understanding most of the lyrics. We were impressed with some of the neat back-and-forths that the two did with their voices. They switched several times during the show with Rob on guitar and lead vocals and Eleni on drums, and vice-versa. My wife liked Rob on vocals better, and I had the opposite preference. We're proud of them and bought (well, we tried - Eleni just wouldn't take our money!) a t-shirt for my wife to happily wear!

American Dance Festival: International Choreographers Commissioning Program

2006-07-19T23:02:00.000-07:00

We couldn't make the Tuesday night (I was teaching) ADF show with the post-performance discussion, but did get to see the three international choreographer commissioned pieces tonight, the last of its three night run. It was an interesting evening filled with quite contemporary dance theatre that makes me continue to think about how to best define the term "dance".

My favorite piece was the Japanese Butoh-style one, choreographed and performed by Takuya Muramatsu, entitled Taiyo no kokuin (Mark of the Sun). The picture here, captured from the ADF website, gives a glimpse into what the dance was like. Moody ambient techno music provided the backdrop to a slowly revealed dance that was a bit scary, with starkly original costumes and characteristically Butoh white makeup.

Tatiana Baganova, whom I saw on June 27 as part of the Russian Provincial Dances Theatre, choreographed Post Engagement, the closing performance, and my second favorite. It also had interesting costumes and abstract theatre.

I didn't much enjoy Argentinian Luis Garay's 12, which opened the night. It featured a Chinese woman in a red dress and heels who was searching for something (as revealed in supertitles) and who would occasionally yell, evidently causing the other dancers to fall to the ground, motionless. There is a disturbing end - but if I better understood the dance, perhaps the end would have not been so incongruous and shocking? My wife had an interesting theory; the red colors were perhaps symbolic of Red China, and authoritarianism. For a long time it all seemed to work, but at the end it fell apart and became clear that people couldn't be controlled. Hmm... it sounded convicing to me! One nice twist to this piece: I saw my friend Derrick Acker in the lobby after the show, and he asked if I had seen his name - he was featured in distorted silhouette playing one of his guitar compositions!

By the way, there is a good description with many pictures of the performance at the News & Observer ADF blog. That blog includes reviews of each of the shows this season. The July 19th issue of the New York Times has a review about this performance.

Pictures from the ADF website.

Film Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari; Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

2006-07-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Downtown at the funky Manbites Dog Theater, tonight was the first of three consecutive Mondays of showing Japanese film, juxtaposing an old classic with a new film. I teach a course on the films of Yasujiro Ozu (and Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray), and enjoyed visiting Japan last year; I specifically went almost in the shadow of Ozu to the Ozu Museum and sites around Kamakura where he shot many of his films, and I even found his bit-difficult-to-find grave (and the grave of Chishu Ryu, who often played a quiet and admirable father).

I couldn't miss an opportunity to see Ozu on a big screen so, in spite of time challenges, caught the last hour and a quarter or so of the classic Tokyo Story. This film appears on many critics' all-time best films, and is certainly one of my favorites, a sentimental and characteristically Ozu understated film about the dissolution of family in post-war (WWII) Japan. What a masterpiece, and what a delight to see it again.

I didn't stay for the second film, which sounded violent. I hope to make the next two Mondays in their entirety. I am quoting the email from their film coordinator, David Fellerath, below.

David Fellerath wrote:
For the next three Mondays in July, Movies @ Manbites will present Japan Then and Now, a series that pairs a classic Japanese film with a recent pop hit.

The most jarring juxtaposition will happen this Monday, July 17, when we’ll show Ozu’s TOKYO STORY at 7:30 p.m., which will be followed at 9:45 by Miike’s ICHI THE KILLER.

If you’re unfamiliar with some of the titles, let me recommend two in particular: UGETSU is one of our all time favorite movies, and we also love the 2000 instant classic BATTLE ROYALE. (The latter film, according to recent reports, is now headed for the dreaded Hollywood remake.)

Here’s the full lineup:

Monday, July 17:
7:30: TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) – A nearly unbearably moving tale of an elderly couple that travels to see their children. Perhaps the most lauded Japanese film ever.
9:45: ICHI THE KILLER (Takashi Miike, 2001) – Depending on your point of view, this is one of the most notorious or celebrated yakuza movies of the last decade, from Japan’s prolific gore-teur.

Monday, July 24:
7:30: UGETSU (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) – An unforgettable epic of the divergent fortunes of two couples during wartime.
9:30: AZUMI (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2003) – A female assassin is charged with bringing peace to war-torn Japan.

Monday, July 31:
7:30: KAGEMUSHA (Akira Kurosawa, 1980) – A poor thief is hired to pose as a dead warlord and becomes The Shadow Warrior!
10:45: BATTLE ROYALE (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) – A brutal allegory: Most Dangerous Game meets Lord of the Flies. Not to be missed!

$5 for the double feature. Movies @ Manbites is located at Manbites Dog Theater, 703 Foster St., Durham. In addition to our usual popcorn, soda, beer and wine, we’ll be serving edamame!

Pictures show Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama as Mr. and Mrs. Hirayama; and Setsuko Hara as Noriko with her father-in-law played by Chishu Ryu.

Film Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)

2006-07-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight the NC Museum of Art's summer lawn series showed Brokeback Mountain, which won three Oscar awards this year and a film for which I had heard nothing but strong praise. Perhaps it will grow on me, but I found the film to be almost oppressively sad and stagnant. I particularly found it very difficult to relate to one of the two main characters, Ennis Del Mar, played by Heath Ledger, a person truly of few words and a lawless temper. The scenery was beautiful and the story, of two cowboys who develop forbidden feelings of both love and lust for each other, not at all formulaic.

Film Mad Hot Ballroom (Marilyn Agrelo, 2005)

2006-07-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Finally I made it this summer to a film at the NC Museum of Art's summer lawn series! I have wanted to see Mad Hot Ballroom since it came out last year, and tonight was my chance! It is a documentary about New York City students in the (I believe) fifth grade who learn ballroom dance and compete in a city-wide competition, going from quarter-finals through the finals. I loved the dance and music (if only my wife and I could learn swing!), but mostly relished seeing how the children approached their task at hand. They were, for example, coached that demeanor counts and to smile - this at an age where children often shun those of the opposite gender.

American Dance Festival: Keigwin + Company

2006-07-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went on my own to ADF to see Keigwin + Company, a group I enjoyed seeing last year. Their pieces were motivated, we learned later during a Q&A session, by one of troupe leader Larry Keigwin's mission statements of having fun. Some of the dances were quite clever, especially the opener Orbit (a world premiere) and interesting to see, but I found a few to be somewhat dull, such as the short dances following Orbit and preceding intermission, Self Portrait #1, Love Songs, Couple One, Couple Two, and Couple Three .

I really enjoyed their last piece, A Modern Line, where they had more than 40 local folks (mostly ADF students, but they've done this piece elsewhere without the luxury of a colocated dance school) whom they had trained over a few days. They enacted a funny piece about dancers auditioning for a show. The remaining dance, just after intermission, Urban Birds, was fun to watch dancers somewhat impersonating caged birds. I was in the front row at or near the very center for this performance!

Pictures sent by Larry Keigwin and used here with his permission. I believe they were both taken by Tom Caravaglia.

American Dance Festival: Faculty Concert

2006-07-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

Long ago, I came up with a fairly general and abstract definition of art that is relative to the observer and the time of observation - simply something that causes a person to make some interpretation such as triggering an associational memory or to be emotionally moved as a direct result of observing the artifact (I added the emotion part just now). Perhaps a guard working at a museum may be stationed in front of a Picasso, but is daydreaming; that Picasso, by my definition, ceases to be art in that context to that observer. On the other hand, perhaps a person stumbles upon some garbage strewn in the street, and in so doing his mind creates a pattern out of the hodgepodge that reminds him of a visit to a friend's home several years ago, or maybe an abstract philosophical concept. I would, by this definition, call the strewn garbage art.

Dear reader, do take this all with a big grain of salt, as I am not an art theorist. But I bring this up because I wonder if I can come up with a definition of dance. My initial thoughts are that two aspects ought to be covered:

Dance as an activity of entertainment, such as when we dance to music that we like
Dance as a form of expression, often by athletic individuals, that may or may not be synchronized to music or sound at all, and that may or may not be conveying a message

It's a definition of aspect (2) that I would like to come up with. Does it have to be pleasant? I didn't much like several aspects of the ADF Private Parts show a few weeks back, but it was, at least by ADF, called "dance". Also, one person's pleasure may be another's pain, so that's out of the definition. Does it have to involve movement? Probably, though it can include periods of rest.

Anyway, let me motivate where this rambling is going. My wife didn't much enjoy tonight's performance; I thought it was worth attending, but I think the intent was for faculty of ADF to present short pieces, and not collaborate to present any unifying theme. Some of the pieces may stretch individual definitions of dance, hence my wondering.

American Dance Festival: Provincial Dances Theater, Wings at Tea (2001)

2006-06-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed seeing this Russian troupe, Provincial Dances Theater, a year or two ago at ADF, and remember the extended performance that they gave that was set in a forest in the Russian countryside. Tonight's performance, Wings at Tea, was consistent with the style I had seen earlier - music and mood reminiscent of rural Chekov-era Russia with quirky dance seeming almost anachronistically contemporary, yet working to create a harmonious affect.

A flying pig kept hanging over the stage; in Q&A afterwards, the choreographer Tatiana Baganova explained that she saw this toy in a Paris store and that led her to ideas that formed the basis of Wings at Tea. Dancers interacted in a comical storybook-like manner. I found it very interesting how a large spring-like form served as a cocoon a few times during the performance; three dancers would slowly make their way into the spring and rest there. Near the end, several male dancers each had a bucket of water; each of their female partners would put her long hair into the bucket and throw her head back, projecting water and hair in an interesting curvilinear throw.

Subtly off-beat, the performance grows on you as you almost forget that the stylized theatre is rather unusual - even the flying pig becomes norm. It was an interesting show, and I look forward to seeing what Tatiana does in a month for her commissioned piece for International Choreographers.

Note: I believe that the dance Wings at Tea was created in 2001, but the printed program lists it with a date of 2002.

Film An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006), Brazilian Noite de São João celebration

2006-06-24T03:00:00.001-07:00

Back in April, we enjoyed going to the Carrboro Century Center for their film showing, $4 including popcorn and drinks. They continue tonight with a double billing of Sacagawea (Rolf Forsberg, 2003; "explore the life of a brave Indian woman who guided Lewis & Clark through the American frontier wilderness. Her legend will captivate you with its adventure and multicultural point of view. 60 minutes") and Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun (Ben Stassen, 1997; "computers take us on the Wild Side. Filmed for IMAX, this is a wide screen experience about dreamers who think up these rides and engineers who build them. This movie will entertain and thrill you. 40 minutes"), which we're thinking of going to.

We haven't yet this year been to the NC Museum of Art summer films on the lawn, due to conflicts with other events, but I do have Mad Hot Ballroom (July 14) and Neil Young: Heart of Gold (July 21) on my calendar for next month. Another good choice for tonight would have been the free 7p modern ("company premieres its site-specific work, which explores the elements of air, water, and earth and incorporates the outdoor art installation Picture This) at the art museum; it is followed by a (not free) film, Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, that I am not particularly interested in.

Also today, we're hoping on going to attend my friend Glenn's private "Goatstock" party. He is a drummer and has been hosting an annual get-together in horse farm country of North Raleigh on the property of his ex-landlady's, and asks musicians to bring their instruments; my wife may play sitar. However, I'm wondering if he'll have to postpone or cancel if we get the thunderstorms that may come through.

We ended up having an even richer day than we had planned, though we sacrificed seeing the two documentary films - and instead saw a current documentary film I've been anxious to see. We did make it to "Goatstock", but the turnout was very low and we could only stay an hour or so; music hadn't yet begun, but we enjoyed seeing the peacocks, goats, and horses there.

We have a good Brazilian friend who invited us to an annual celebration of St. John's Festival (Noite de São João, celebrated at night with fireworks with people dressed to joke about how "country bumpkins" look) at Duke University's International House, which we enjoyed in the early evening. There was good traditional food, lots of great company exhibiting the kind and fun demeanor I saw practically everywhere on my visit to Brazil in 2004, and fun dancing and games.

We went to the 9:30p showing of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006). I will probably write a more in-depth review, but here are a few quick points where o precedes a general point and a + or - a, respectively, positive or negative point:

+ I knew I had to see the film - and especially hope that many others not part of the environmental movement will, as well. I went into the film expecting it to be important to see, but rather dull, watching Al Gore give a slide show. I was wrong! I found the film moved right along, and the presentation materials did a great job explaining Al's points.

- We have to be careful, regardless of where our politics and views lie, in accepting blindly what politicians tell us. I am certainly sympathetic to the message, but would prefer to have information well referenced. Obviously the film can't include footnotes, but I didn't see such references in the companion website, climatecrisis.net. Hopefully, his book of the same title has good backup of his claims.

- To Al Gore's credit, he mentions in interviews that there is bipartisan support for doing something about global warming. However, if he mentioned it in the film, I missed it. He does say that the issue is non-partisan; I think his case could be more strongly received if he made the bipartisan support clear and tipped his hat to people of different philosophies and political parties making good change happen.

- I think it undermines his message a little in referencing the controversial Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 film. I enjoyed that film and hope that Moore's claim to back every fact up is not just arm waving. But it's clearly easy to perceive that film as having a political agenda. I think that the filmmakers of An Inconvenient Truth used footage from the inauguration of George W. Bush from Fahrenheit 9/11; if I'm correct, surely they could have found many other sources.

+ (and this is a key point and the biggest plus) Al Gore tells a very important story that we all need to know about. It's amazing to see the magnitude and speed of havoc being caused by global warming, even to see some glaciers melting measurably over the course of days.

+/- Al Gore does a great job communicating in clear language. His slides are great, assuming they are factual. But he should make it clear that he is a mouthpiece and that the technical work is being done by well-trained scientists.

- I have heard some criticism that there is a strong message that things are not going well, but not enough is said about what we can do and how we can have hope for the future. Having seen the film, I don't think the criticism is fully justified, as Al does briefly go through a list of things that we as individuals can do. It's all very quick, but one thing that did stand out was his showing the impact a few key items (vaguely described, granted) could have on the CO2 buildup. He also refers folks to the film's website, climatecrisis.net. However, this material is presented almost as an afterthought and could definitely be better developed.

- He doesn't once mention vegetarianism; choosing a plant- over a meat-based diet is one of the single biggest ways that we can positively impact the environment.

o There was a group, Clean Energy Durham, there handing out flyers about what we can do. Hurrah! I hope to network with them and see if we can share some energy between the Triangle Vegetarian Society that I lead and them. We should probably be handing out material at the film showings as well, such as my flyer on environmental justice.

o It's difficult to rate this film on a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (excellent). Using the (obviously subjective) metric of how much I enjoyed the film and based on my imdb site, I would probably give it a 7.5 rating.

American Dance Festival: Pilobolus

2006-06-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

One of my annual summer hilights is seeing Pilobolus at the American Dance Festival. Of all the modern dance troupes I've seen over the years at ADF and other venues including Jacob's Pillow and college campuses, I am struck by the sheer joy and unbelievable contortions that Pilobolus dancers exhibit, all the while seemingly effortlessly using their strength to amaze audiences with what the human body is capable of. Their dances often are humorous and always full of the most uncommon creativity.

Tonight was another excellent performance. I went with a friend and my wife. Pilobolus opened with Prism, a new piece they created this year, and probably my second favorite of the evening.
They ended with the dance I relished the most, Day Two (1980), which included their typically impossible acrobatics. They also did a short humorous Solo from the Empty Suitor (1980) which had one of their dancers negotiating rollers on the floor, and Gnomen (1997) and Shizen (1978).

What fabulous dancers with such talent and finesse! There was a Q&A afterwards; the dancers were good spokespeople for modern dance and their decades-old troupe, and I particularly enjoyed hearing about their rigorous full-time passion. Their schedule has them touring for, as I recall, 8 or 9 months each year, with the rest of the time, except for only two weeks off, focused on creating two new dances.

Their website gives insight into their name and their origin:

Pilobolus (crystallinus) is a phototropic zygomycete - a sun-loving fungus that grows in barnyards and pastures. It grows on a stalk as a small bladder, pressurized by cell sap and topped with a tiny black cap filled with spores.
When time and Pilobolus are ripe, this entire sporangium is blasted off with incredible force and the little spore bags can shoot over a cow like clowns out of a cannon. It's reported that the acceleration - from 0-45 mph in the first mm of flight - is the second fastest in nature.
Pilobolus, the arts organism, germinated in the fertile soil of a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What emerged was a collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to partnering that gave the young company a non-traditional but powerful new set of skills with which to make dances. The group was immediately acclaimed for its startling mix of humor and invention and Pilobolus soon became a self-sufficient organization, its members choreographing, dancing, managing, and publicizing their own programs.

Images 'trevi fountain' and 'scorpion close-up_1' sent by Pilobolus and used with their permission for use on this blog. Photos by John Kane, courtesy of the Joyce Theater.

American Dance Festival: The Musicians' Concert

2006-06-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight my wife and I attended a lovely somewhat informal concert put on by the musicians of the six-week Dance Festival school. It was introduced by the Director of the ADF Musicians, my friend Natalie Gilbert. I enjoyed the many pieces that were played, which were:

Gift, Jim Roberts: he used interesting percussion and song in a story-telling mode
Resonance, Natalie Gilbert: a beautiful piano solo
Sans Souci, Dave Willey: a fun accordian piece
Fury's Lullaby, Claudia Howard Queen: Claudia told an engaging story of her as a starving Chicago artist who, she modestly claimed, didn't know much about the piano, but who suddenly got a break playing piano to accompany dancers in an opera school. This beautiful piano solo was inspired by the woman who gave her that break, whose first name was Fury.
Off the Top of Our Heads, Michael Wall (piano), John Hanks (drums), Ken Ray Wilemon (percussion): a lively experimental jazz number
Blackbird, Jeffrey Dalby (piano), Ken Ray Wilemon (percussion): a nice instrumental rendition of the famous Paul McCartney song
La Jengla, Vladimir Espinosa: good Cuban drumming
Doundounba in the key of 'D' major, arranged and directed by Khalid Saleem: there was a powerhouse of perhaps ten Afro-cuban drummers on stage - how did all the dance students stay in their seats?! I like the quote referenced in the program here - "The Bend in the Road is not the end of the Road unless you fail to make the turn."
John and Jefferson Rock Out!, Jefferson Dalby (keyboard), John Hanks (drums), Willie Painter (guitar), and Craig Dittmar (bass): great 70s and late 60s pop music that got all of us, including my wife and me, up and dancing!!

By the way, I discovered that the local Raleigh News & Observer newspaper has a blog about the festival.

American Dance Festival: Private Parts (Solo Works by Sara Juli & Miguel Gutierrez)

2006-06-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

I went on my own to see Sara Juli and Miguel Gutierrez at ADF tonight. I will start my comments with the caveat that I have no formal background in theory of dance; I greatly respect ADF and trust that any talent that they bring will be world class; and art, great or not, is not always pleasant or enjoyable. That said, for what it's worth, I am entitled to my opinion; I've been coming to ADF since the mid-1990s and haven't been to any performance that I enjoyed less than tonight's. Both artists struck me as self-obsessed and trying to stretch the definition of dance - but to what purpose?

Sara started the evening by sauntering down through the audience and essentially having a dialogue about gossip. She told bawdy, clearly fabricated, tales about ADF faculty and administrators, and asked our opinion about the role of gossip. She would occasionally take a drink from a water cooler and strike a few poses. She must be a talented dancer, but I was ill-equipped to discern that.

After the intermission, Miguel began his performance, naked but for a pair of sneakers and socks. He placed objects such as a television, video player, CD boombox, and a mirror, about the equally naked stage, all curtains pulled back. He donned a t-shirt and training pants for most of the performance, which more obviously showed off his dance talent. I was quite disturbed by a piece where he suspends himself above a candle that he lights, singing while (hopefully) hoping he wouldn't be singed in his bare upper thighs or buttocks. Over time, folks came on stage and added books beneath the candle, raising the stakes. What was the point? One thing that I did like about his show was a clever interaction with a video of his taking questions during an outdoor performance that he did, and his further recursive interaction with himself filmed earlier but dressed in the same clothes.

I'll chalk this one up to my missing key points. I look forward to the Musician's Concert tomorrow night and very much anticipate Friday's Pilobolus performance - their annual ADF show is almost always my favorite of the season.

From the ADF site:

Deep Throat (2006 world premiere)
Liar. Gossip. Hypocrite. Sara Juli reveals insider information about the administration of the arts in her “latest permutation of words caught in her throat” (Gay City News) and the movement that follows. Deep Throat reveals the gossip behind the girl. Juli, a light of the downtown dance and theatre scene” (New Yorker), will perform the world premiere of her solo Deep Throat fusing movement, text and song to expose the humor and danger in leaking information to others.

Retrospective Exhibitionist (2005)
In Retrospective Exhibitionist, Miguel Gutierrez shuttles through his own real and imagined performance history, discovering the vulnerability that comes with being watched by others. “Reckless, smart and passionate” (Village Voice), Gutierrez uses a tv/vcr, boom box, video camera and other props to look at the merciless
unraveling of time and its impact on live performance and the life on the
stage.

American Dance Festival: Rhythm Suites: Kathak & Tap Dance

2006-06-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight my wife and I going with my parents and two friends to the third performance coming to the American Dance Festival, Rhythm Suites: Kathak & Tap Dance featuring Pandit Chitresh Das and Jason Samuels Smith. We went to the first Festival of the Feet in 2004 (it was one of the very first ADF performances for my wife) and were amazed at how Tap, Flamenco, and Kathak dancers performed separately and then together. The finale had dancers performing to permutations of musicians from the other styles, and it gave to me a strong message of understanding, peace, and bridge building. Last year's Festival of the Feet II was good but not as inspiring. We're excited about seeing what's in store for us this year!

From the ADF site:

After meeting during the ADF’s 2004 Festival of the Feet program, Kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das and Emmy Award-winning Tap dance star Jason Samuels Smith have joined together to explore the complex rhythms and movement between North Indian classical Kathak and American Tap dance. “It all works because the dance forms share two things: a history of improvisation and a veneration for past masters” (San Francisco Chronicle). Featuring North Indian classical and American jazz musicians, the piece is an exploration of movement, rhythms and music between two dynamic artists of diverse cultures.

No surprise, we enjoyed ourselves! We were happy that my parents had a good experience, as well, at this, their first ADF show.

I do think that the very first Festival of the Feet was the best, but seeing Chitresh Das and Jason Samuels ply their talents separately and together is thrilling. We were amazed to hear that Chitresh Das is, I believe, in his 60s - he certainly looks younger. We enjoyed the post-performance discussion and in particular hearing Chitresh describe how both the artists' work was delving deep into their respective traditions and not simply creating a passing moment of fusion.

Ninth Annual Hi Mom! Film Festival

2006-06-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

After a class that I taught in Carrboro tonight, my wife and I walked to a nearby bar where the first night of the ninth annual Hi Mom! Film Festival was underway. It is a festival of short films, some only a minute or two or even less in length, submitted by international entrants competing for prizes.

Thankfully the first night was free - we didn't like the smoky too-small bar that afforded poor viewing of the screen, and didn't much enjoy the films that we saw. I did like the last film shown,
Westbound/Eastbound (director Rohan Bader from Toronto, made in 2005, 5 minutes), a pleasant music video focused on inclusivity and togetherness, shot on a Toronto subway platform.

American Dance Festival: David Dorfman Dance

2006-06-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went solo to see David Dorfman Dance perform their 50-minute piece Underground which opened last night in its world premiere. There were 35-40 dancers on stage; I believe the group is about 12-20 strong and they ask for volunteers to train in each locale.

During the Full Frame Film Festival in April, I enjoyed the 2002 documentary film by Sam Green and Bill Siegel about the Weather Underground (imdb has more information). I believe it was this film that inspired David - in comments after the performance, he said that the story of the group that used destructive means to voice opposition to the Vietnam War, as retold in the film, was a story he couldn't get out of his mind.

I didn't initially enjoy the piece, but quickly found it to be rather compelling. Beyond the choreographic scope of dozens of strong dancers, what made the piece especially interesting to me was the multimedia screens behind them. I noted (and received a strong confirmation when I asked in the post-performance discussion) a strong diagonal element to the graphics that implied a separation of generations, protestors vs. convention followers, activity vs. passivity, and Vietnam and Iraq wars.

It added quite a spark near the end when dancers aimed "LED blinkies" (flashing light emitting diodes that they had attached to magnets which could then stick to the metalic screen) at the large hand on the screen and flung them, leaving a hand with lovely colored lights. In the post-performance discussion, David talked a little about these lights - they have recently been used in places like San Francisco by folks wanting to make a statement but without permanently defacing buildings with grafitti. I'm glad that I saw this show!

On the troupe's website, David has this to say about Underground:

Although I was only 13 during the Days of Rage in 1969, too young to be protesting in the Chicago streets, I remember being awed by the audacity of the Weathermen. Now I am interested in the legacy of the Weather Underground's principles, and also in its foibles and its regrets. Looking back at the 60s and how it was the core of my emotional and artistic formation will be my entry point into this exploration-in essence, a return to my own ‘movement’ roots." “underground” will explore the inside world of political activism, asking the questions: when can activism become terrorism, or vice versa, and is condoned or endorsed killing/destruction ever justified?

Postscript: You can read reviews of this and the Paul Taylor performances in the June 14 Independent.

Image by Derek Anderson, Staff Photographer, The Independent Weekly, and used with permission.

Film Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (Adam Shankman, 2005)

2006-06-10T23:42:00.000-07:00

After having seen it, I'm embarrased to report that I saw Cheaper by the Dozen 2. I wasn't particularly looking for this film, but we didn't have any plans for tonight, and it was playing outdoors in Chapel Hill's Southern Village.

The setting was great and the weather perfectly comfortable for an outdoor film. But I guess it's been a long time since I've seen a film like this, not particularly thought-provoking. I actually acted in Cheaper by the Dozen (with Meg Ryan!) in high school, but the story in the film tonight had nothing to do with the classic story.

American Dance Festival: Paul Taylor Dance Company

2006-06-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was opening night of the American Dance Festival, the country's biggest contemporary dance festival and one I always look forward to! We try to attend to see all or mostly all of the performers, and this year we will only miss a few. I taught last night, so we went to the second night performance by the first troupe, Paul Taylor Dance Company, which has been around for more than fifty years.

We enjoyed the four dances presented, particularly one entitled Banquet of Vultures, a hard-hitting dance that rails against civilian leaders who wage war, cynically shown as not caring for the deaths of people including soldiers or for liberty. The other dances were Aureole, Troilus and Cressida (reduced), and Cascade. They were all good - Troilus and Cressida (reduced) was funny, but we found the first (Aureole) and last (Cascade) to seem less contemporary.

We picked tonight, and most of the other nights, as the night that the performers stayed after to take questions and have a little discussion. I asked two questions - did they intend the civilian in Banquet of Vultures to be the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (no - it was meant to be a general statement against war); and how did the dancers find balance in their lives with so much focus required on their art and did criticism they might read affect them. We felt privileged to get a chance after it all broke up to speak one-on-one to a few of the dancers, Parisa Khobdeh and Orion Duckstein.

We also bought tickets to the Tuesday June 13th performance by David Dorfman Dance, Friday 16th Rhythm Suites: Kathak & Tap Dance, Tuesday 20th Private Parts, Wednesday 21st ADF Musicians Concert, Friday 23rd Pilobolus (a favorite! should we attend their Saturday show, too?!), Tuesday 27th Provinicial Dances Theatre, [having it seems to skip Emanuel Gat Dance and Shen Wei Dance Arts and possibly Doug Varone and Dancers], Sunday July 9th ADF Faculty Concert, Tuesday 11th Keigwin and Company, [missing Ronald K. Brown/Evidence], Wednesday 19th International Choreographers, and the closing night, Saturday July 22 Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca. I'm so excited that ADF has begun!

Oh, we also saw Art in Motion again today. They performed at Weaver Street Market at 6p; we bought dinner there and saw them perform till we had to leave around 7:15 for ADF. We're so glad that we saw them last week in an ideal setting; tonight's wasn't ideal with people not focused on the performance and many distractions - it was difficult to see and appreciate the performance.

For reference, this week's Independent has a surprisingly positive (it tends to be very tough on ADF for some reason) review of this year's festival, including a PDF-format table that can be downloaded. And of course there is the official ADF website which includes a PDF-format season brochure.

Multimedia performance Dance in Motion

2006-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

I had read about Art in Motion in the May 24 issue of The Independent, and hoped to see their performance last Sunday, May 28, but couldn't get there - we went immediately after the show and could see that the outdoor dance/painting group of artists from Italy must have put on a unique show. Thankfully, they also performed today at Southern Village in Chapel Hill, where we saw them, and are performing this Friday (at 6p) at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, where we may venture out to see them again.

Quoting from the May 24 Independent:

The Goathouse Gallery--Looking for a few new names in modern dance? It's two weeks until American Dance Festival reconvenes, but Italian sculptor and Chatham County transplant Siglinda Scarpa has invited dancers/choreographers Cinzia Fiaschi and Cristina Mazzoni and musician Dario Arcidiacono from the old country to fuse disciplines in an outdoor performance at Scarpa's studio at 680 Alton Alston Road, today at 2 p.m. and tomorrow at 11 a.m. Sounds like an excursion to remember. Pay what you will.

What an interesting contemporary, abstract performance it was tonight! Two dancers, initially cocooned within a white gauze, slowly (over maybe half an hour or more) emerged to naturalistic spoken word/atmospheric music. A third dancer painted bold strokes of color onto portions of the gauze, and later painted upon a canvas.

The performance was right in tune with the lovely outdoor setting where films are shown in the spring and summer. The weather was ideal - pleasantly cool and overcast. And the timing was perfect; within a minute or two of the end, it started to rain.

It's difficult to believe that the American Dance Festival is about to begin! Last year I think that I saw each artist who came, and hope to make most of them again this year.

Film Water (Deepa Mehta, 2005) again

2006-06-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

I loved the film Water that I had seen on local opening night, and wanted to watch it again. My parents and several friends hadn't seen it, so we went as a group of six to the Galaxy Cinema in Cary. I enjoyed it even more on the second go-round, and in fact wouldn't mind, after some time passes, seeing it again.

Film The Notorious Bettie Page (Mary Harron, 2005)

2006-05-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight a friend and I saw The Notorious Bettie Page at Galaxy Cinema in Cary. Bettie Page was a famous "pinup queen" of prurient yet conservative 1950s United States. The story, based on her life, portrays her as a smart and kind woman who was the victim of abusive relationships. In New York, she becomes a well-loved model, and, at least as portrayed in the film, innocently gets into "bondage" modeling. She has a religious awakening and gives up her modeling days; Bettie Page is still alive and I believe knew about but didn't actively participate in the making of this film.

The film featured good acting by Gretchen Mol who played the lead role. But it was a missable film, probably not worth the money to see on the large screen. I'd give it 5 stars out of 10.

Rose show is two days away - roses and arrangements are coming together

2006-05-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

(This is a continuation of my description in my garden blog - but for some technical reason, that blog is not for a few days taking picture uploads.)

The roses are looking okay, though (it always works this way!) I would have had many more to show if the competition were held last weekend. We had very warm weather (it hit 90°F !) but while it was a little cooler, I risked the 40% chance of thundershowers and sprayed my roses for that last extra boost of disease prevention and foliar fertilization (I used all-season oil, copper, baking soda, and kelp). It ended up raining some hours later in the early evening - which was okay, as we do need the water.

I picked and refrigerated a Double Delight (the first of the season) that could work in my large arrangement if I use three different varieties; two Chrysler Imperials (they're so open that they probably won't last - but I can try, and they have two big buds, so this could work if I use three different cycles of bloom), and two Veteran's Honor - there's one more that should be ready by Saturday, but the leaves have a touch of blackspot. I still hope that I can use the blooms of Big Purple in my refrigerator.

My wife and I worked on finalizing the two arrangements tonight, and we're basically there. The miniature looks very good and is so easy to do! We simply cinched the plastic grid closed with a black twist tie. I had earlier in the day painted two reservoirs black, and we put wet oasis foam in both. A spray of Gourmet Popcorn fit into the slightly leaning "skyscraper" and the reservoir didn't have to be hot glued in place - it fits in nicely and is self-supporting! And the single (here a single and a bud) rose at the base of course is easy. So this arrangement is quite easy to put together and cost only 39¢ (or was it 59¢) for a sheet of plastic, not counting the fabric I already had - and will take literally a few moments to place at the show and should take no more than 15 minutes including choosing the flowers and getting them in place. I think it is elegant, simple, and has the potential to garner a 1st or 2nd place - provided I have good specimens of Gourmet Popcorn (I think I will).

As to the large arrangement, we tried gluing three vials with water and blooms (I used a few English David Austin roses that do shatter easily, as well as an old Melody Parfumee bloom) - and the sculpture held up fine! I didn't take a picture then but here you can see Sangeeta holding one of the vials in place and placing the others so that they stay by themselves. I had painted (but didn't use here in our trial) vials black, and want to hot glue them behind the sculpture so they're not much visible.

One issue remains with the arrangement - the cinching belt loose end shows up at the base. We're going to try putting electrical tape around the base tomorrow. Also, we tried extending the sculpture a bit, but it settles back down. We need to fill the niche and don't want to get points taken away for not doing that. I think this arrangement could do well, but will depend on the roses, of course, and the "performance" of the sculpture, which I think will be fine.

Film Water (Deepa Mehta, 2005)

2006-05-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the local opening night of the third in Deepa Mehta's element trilogy, Water (Fire and Earth were the first two). What a moving and well-made film! I enjoyed seeing it and hope to post a review soon [May 21: see review below].

Links of interest:

My review to be published in the June issue of Saathee magazine

Film review by Dilip Barman, ©Dilip Barman, 2006
Film: Water
Director, year: Deepa Mehta, 2005
Length: 117 minutes
Date: May 20, 2006
For publication: Saathee Magazine, June 2006

I saw Deepa Mehta’s long awaited conclusion to her elements trilogy on local opening night, May 19, 2006. This historical fiction is set in 1938 colonial India in ancient Benares, the world’s oldest continually inhabited city. Child marriage was common and often young women or even girls were widowed. Social mores forbade remarriage and family economic circumstances often exiled the widows with money trumping love, respect, or duty.

The film opens with Chuyia (played by an actor credited as Sarala), an 8-year-old child bride, being told that her adult husband has died. She barely remembers the wedding but is taken to the funeral pyre and her hair is shorn. She is soon abandoned in a widow’s ashram to live out her life dressed in white and shunned by society, as if she had done something wrong.

Chuyia of course wants to return home but eventually settles in to the ashram, developing friendships with the other women there, such as 80-year-old Patiraji (Vidula Javalgekar) who still fantasizes about the wedding sweets that she enjoyed as a child before her husband passed away, devout cook Shakuntala (Seema Biswas, who played the title role in the 1994 film Bandit Queen), and especially the beautiful Kalyani (Lisa Ray). Madhumati (Manorama) is the stern matron of the house, giving the “ashram” a Dickensian feel. In fact, it’s not much of an ashram that she runs, but an institution that keeps her plump by assigning some of the others to demeaning “relationships” to bring money in.

However, times were changing, and Gandhi’s non-violent resistance to British rule was only part of his efforts to help all of India’s people and fight repressive social customs like treatment of widows. Raja Ram Mohun Roy had already in the nineteenth century founded the Brahmo Samaj reform movement, helping in theory to allow remarriage of widows and ban sati, the ghastly self-immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre.

Into the story comes the idealistic Gandhian student , Narayana (John Abraham). After a chance encounter with Chuyia and Kalyani, Narayana maintains contact with Kalyani. She is charmed by him and he helps validate her feelings of self-worth and question a system that so punishes her and other widows. To Madhumati’s disgust, Kalyani does the unthinkable and considers remarrying as Narayana courts her.

The film goes on to dramatize the trajectories of these characters. What kind of life will Chuyia have when her natural inquisitiveness and vibrancy clash with the imposed guilt and segregation she faces from the culture and in the ashram? Where will the taboo love of Kalyani and Narayana go in a society which forbids even touching the shadow of a widow? Will there be an answer to Chuyia’s question about where equivalent homes exist for men who have lost their wives? Will Shakuntala be able to resolve her piety and religious studies with the expectations that society places on her? And how does a short stop of the Mahatma in town and his ongoing social reform efforts affect the status of widows such as Kalyani, Chuyia, Shakuntala, and the others?

Water plays a role throughout the film. Water absolves sins and purifies the dirty. It can flow dynamically and joyously, giving continuity over time and space, or it can stagnate and decay, not keeping up with changing times.We see the Mother Ganges River escorting away the ashes of widows who have died, finally after their austere penance hopefully en route to a promised rewarding afterlife.

In India, the story was controversially seen by some as critical of Hindu culture. Initially, the government approved the script and stood behind the production, but came to ban the film in the interests of public safety after the film set was destroyed. Filming moved to Sri Lanka (my companion noted some coconut trees in at least one scene that was to have been on the Ganges River). My view is that no system or society, regardless of inherent maturity and philosophical beauty, should so ossify as to not be willing to shine flames of truth on itself in reflective consideration.

Film notes, echoed by a cursory review on the web, indicate that India today has about thirty-three million widows, the highest of any country. Though sati has long been outlawed, many widows, especially in rural areas, “still find themselves ritually humiliated, ostracized by their families and leading lives of intense poverty on the outskirts of society, often as beggars or prostitutes”, according to the film’s production notes.

All that said, I wish that Deepa Mehta had given some context to her film. I’m afraid that those not familiar with Hindu culture may see the film and dismiss the entire philosophical tradition as blindingly misogynistic. Clearly there are very significant issues, but there is also arguably a case to be made for ancient India as perhaps the fountainhead for egalitarian feminist thought and action. Ancient Hindu thought extolling the strength and wisdom of, and respect due, women (in fact, all creatures in the ahimsa religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism) is reflected in many aspects, including the notion of Bhudevi as Mother Earth and the Vedic notion of feminine Shakti, coming from the Sanskrit “shak”, meaning “to act” or “to be able”, which empowers women as the holders of power.

I have enjoyed all of the films in Deepa Mehta’s trilogy. I hold at the pinnacle of the three Earth, portraying the unusual perspective of Parsis caught in the uproar of the 1947 Partition, and find Water a close second. I also enjoyed Fire, which I feel was misinterpreted as another “taboo” exposition, rather than being seen as stinging social commentary against patriarchy.

I highly recommend Water. The story is (unfortunately) heartbreakingly based on historically true practices that, to some extent, continue, and the film and the issues it raises deserve wide exposure and discussion. It is moving, emotionally strong and thought provoking, and ultimately hopeful. As a photographer, I marveled throughout the film at the powerful visual compositions, stunning lighting, and sheer beauty of Water. The acting is convincing and quite strong, though Lisa Ray’s portrayal of the illiterate Kalyani was perhaps a bit too refined for what might be expected. The traditional classical and semi-classical musical compositions with A.R. Rahman’s touch formed a soothing accompaniment.

If you can, do see Water on the big screen. A DVD is also available which I might recommend for a second viewing.

9 stars out of 10

Play My Name is Rachel Corrie

2006-05-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

Controversy surrounds the death of a peace activist in Israel's Palestinian occupied terratories, Rachel Corrie. She was an American who sympathized with Palestinians and spent time living with them. While staying with a Palestinian family, she was killed when an Israeli bulldozer came at night to destroy property. Was Rachel a hero of the oppressed or was she a thorn in the side of justice is how the debate seems to have taken form.

Tonight, Durham's Manbites Dog Theater showed a free quickly put together performance of My Name is Rachel Corrie. It had run in England and was coming to New York, but shortly before its first performance was cancelled due to its controversial story. The feedback was strong, and the Theater will consider if they can produce this play next year.

Here is the description that I received via email from the NC Society for Ethical Culture:

On March 16th 2003 Rachel Corrie was tragically killed by an Israeli military bulldozer while defending a Palestinian home from illegal demolition in Rafah, Gaza. On Tuesday, May 9 a reading of the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie will be held at the Manbites Dog Theater in Durham. ... The play is currently enjoying a successful run in London, unfortunately an anticipated opening in New York was recently canceled due to political pressure. The presentation will be directed by Jay O'Berski and feature Dana Marks. Jay is very interested in doing a full production and a good audience at the reading will certainly encourage what could be an important theater event as well as a strong statement against censorship.

Film Baraka (Ron Fricke, 1992)

2006-04-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight we saw Baraka, one of my all-time favorite films, as part of the Documentary Film Series at the Carrboro Century Center (where some classes that I teach are held). The unique film is a documentary with no dialogue but with stunning photography of how people around the world spend their time, focusing on cultural traditions.

The photography is stunning! This is the third time that I've seen the film, and each time on the big screen. I definitely want to continue to see it and be inspired by its amazing images!

The film is probably technically superior to the earlier (1983, directed by Godfrey Reggio) Koyaanisqatsi, another dialogue-less film that comes from a Hopi Indian word for "Life out of Balance", but Koyaanisqatsi gets the credit in my book for pioneering such a style of film, and remains, as well, one of my favorite films. It's part of a trilogy by Godfrey Reggio - I would love to see, on the big screen, the remaining two films, Powaqqatsi ("Life in Transformation", 1988) and Naqoyqatsi ("Life as War", 2002). Wikipedia has an interesting discussion of Koyaanisqatsi as well as of Baraka.

Film Darwin's Nightmare (Hubert Sauper, 2004)

2006-04-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight I attended a popular showing, followed by a panel discussion, of Darwin's Nightmare that was shown as part of the Duke University Screen Society. It was a sobering film, worth seeing though it seemed it could have benefited from a little bit of editing down, that portrayed a rather hopeless situation for sub-Saharan Africa - in this case, Tanzania. From the Screen Society website:

Some time in the 1960's, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are today exported all around the world. Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch in exchange for their southbound cargo and Kalashnikovs and ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent. This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world's biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.

4th and last day of Full Frame Film Festival

2006-04-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

First some exciting news - in the early afternoon today, awards were announced and my favorite film (Smiling in a War Zone) won the Full Frame Women in Leadership Award! My second or third favorite film, I for India, won the Charles Guggenheim Emergine Artist Award. (I wish that The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela would have also won an award.)

I also very much liked two films about Iraq, especially My Country, My Country, and it won the Full Frame Inspiration Award for the film that "best exemplifies the value and relevance of world religions and spirituality"); Iraq in Fragments won the big Grand Jury Award. Now the bad news - the festival is over!

Today we started with the second half or so of Time Piece, a commissioned work by the Full Frame Institute. Six U.S. and six Turkish filmmakers put together this collaborative effort, with each responsible for a short film on a particular time (early morning, morning, etc.) of the day. The last film on New York City food pushcarts and a film about an autistic child were my hilights.

I enjoyed the tangible realism and perspective in My Country, My Country, about the 2005 elections in Iraq, the first since Saddam Hussein's overthrow. It focuses on a doctor in Baghdad who decides to run, and his feelings about the state of occupied Iraq. It was well shot and included home, doctor's office, street, and Abu Garaib settings.

We saw Last Pullman Car, a film about the closing of the Pullman railcar factory. Interesting issues of labor vs. management were raised.

In the afternoon after awards were announced, several of the winning films were shown. 26-minute long No Umbrella Election Day in the City won the Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short, and I am glad that I got to see it since I missed it on Friday morning. It portrays difficulties that an African-American precinct in Cleveland experienced on election day in November 2004.

I didn't much enjoy Intimacy of Strangers, which won the Full Frame President's Award. It featured the private cell conversations of people in public places in London. I would have enjoyed talking with the filmmakers about how they were able to capture the audio from the phones and how they filmed unobtrusively.

Finally, I ended the Festival with Iraq in Fragments, which I could not get into for lack of seats on Friday. It was a three-part film, the first featuring 11-year-old Sunni Muslim Mohammed Haithem in Baghdad who had failed first grade several times and was working as a mechanic for his uncle. In the second section focusing on Shia Muslims in their stronghold of Naseriyah south of Baghdad, remarkable footage is shot of a kidnapping. I enjoyed the third part the best about the Kurdish north, photographed in a visually poetic manner. Unlike those in the first two parts, the family of focus seemed to be happy with the U.S. intervention in Iraq.

Other films that I would have enjoyed also seeing today include one about the New York Times crossworld puzzle, Wordplay. We missed all the Katrina films in the Festival, alas. We saw the first few minutes of Terry Sanford and the New South about legendary NC politician Terry Sanford, before we had to go to another film.

Day 3 of 4 of Full Frame Film Festival

2006-04-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

It's too bad that Full Frame is almost over! Today was the best day for me.

We saw a great film and met its two Danish filmmakers, Smiling in a War Zone Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar (and their cute infant!). Danish press report on a 16-year-old Afghan girl named Farial who dreams of being a fighter pilot. Artist Simone who has been trained to fly, read about this and decides to help make a dream come true; stretching what she can afford, she buys a small Piper-Colt plane made out of canvas, and flies 6000km to Kabul, along with her (slightly) more practical boyfriend Magnus to take Farial up and let her try flying. The film relates the bureacratic hoops they have to jump through to make this humanitarian mission happen (including getting visas and even flying illegally into American-controlled Afghan airspace), and the joy they bring to an Afghan teen. It was presented in a light and funny fashion, and was the first film I've attended this Festival this year to get a standing ovation. We need more Magnus and Simones in this world! I was so happy to have some time to chat with both of them after the screening. I am hoping that this film will win one of the Festival awards tomorrow.

I had wanted to see A Stravinsky Portrait, a tribute to filmmaker Richard Leacock, but seats weren't available. I went to see a film that I hadn't planned on, Thin. I'm glad I saw this well-made film, as it gave me an education about people with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa. It followed a group of girls and women who have checked themselves into the Renfrew Center's Eating Disorders clinic in South Florida (Coconut Creek). In a surprisingly open and unjudgemental verité style, the filmmaker reveals the serious issues these patients face as they are filmed in private as well as in therapy and group sessions.

I had known a little about the revolutionary 1960s and 1970s Weather Underground who reacted to the Vietnam War and social injustice with violence and an avowed desire to overthrow the U.S. government, and learned much more by seeing The Weather Underground film. This wasn't a film in competition, but was chosen in the curated series on Class in America. It was a powerful film that, to me, reinforces the value of non-violent struggle for social change.

I saw Hammer and Flame, a short film about where ships past their useful life go in the Gujarat state of India to be disassembled. Only 10 minutes long and with no dialogue, the images of hard working folks often dressed in sandals, as well as repetitive hammering sounds, will stay with me for some time. Along with it was shown the feature-length Matthew Barney: No Restraint, a film about avant-garde performance artist Matthew Barney and his recent project he created on a Japanese whaling ship with Björk (who formed the Sugarcubes back in the 80s); the film was fine, but the art was a little beyond me.

I also saw the last half hour or so of The Chances of the World Changing, about an admirable man who has dedicated years of his life to helping endangered species in improving their chances of survival. There were several other films I would have liked to have seen, including Mr. Conservative about Barry Goldwater, the father of the contemporary conservative movement in the U.S.; Sir! No Sir! about soldiers who opposed the Vietnam War; the 20-minute The Intimacy of Strangers that let us drop in on cell phone romances; the almost 3-hour The Drug Years (sold out); and several New Orleans films; but a festival like this often requires tough choices to be made amongst up to six films being screened concurrently!

Day 2 of 4 of Full Frame Film Festival

2006-04-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

We had wanted to see No Umbrella but had to miss it. We were delighted to see the almost 3 hour work-in-progress by Ken Burns, The War, about WWII told from the personal perspective of folks from four towns in the U.S. I believe what he showed us was episode 5 out of around 8 episodes. As always, his films are fabulous and the bottoms-up approach of relating personal episodes nicely illuminate his subjects. I saw most of The Angelmakers, about women in a number of villages in eastern Europe who had poisoned their husbands (in the 1920s?) when that seemed their only out since divorce was taboo.

I found the story of The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover fascinating. It is about the black and white photographer of night-lit steam trains, Winston O. Link (in whose honor there is the only museum dedicated to one photographer in the U.S.), and his marriage to Conchita. Conchita has an affair and leaves Winston. Did she steal from his stock of valuable pictures? It was a documentary of a very interesting crime investigation.

I had wanted to see Iraq in Fragments, but couldn't get in to the sold-out showing. My wife saw it and spoke with the director; she said it was a very well made film. Instead, I caught the last hour or so of What Remains, a peek into the life of fine art photographer Sally Mann and her most recent work, a study of "what remains" after death.

My wife and I loved Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandella, Thomas Allen Harris' biography of his stepfather, who was part of a group of 12 who went into exile to fight for South African freedom. It was also great talking with Thomas afterwards and building a connection with him.

Links of interest:

Obituary of Winston O. Link
A BBC news story about the Hungarian husband murders

Opening day of Full Frame Festival

2006-04-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

We had an unchangeable important appointment about 2.5 hours away in Charlotte, so only had time to get our registration materials and see the first 30 or 35 minutes of Stranger with a Camera - what we saw was an intriguing story about Hugh O'Connor, a filmmaker in 1967 filming poverty in Eastern Kentucky, who was shot by a man, Hobart Ison. We got back in time to see some evening films, but the first we wanted to see (Workingman's Death) was sold out. We did see Sweet Monster and Wide Awake in the last film slot; I particularly enjoyed the former, a short film about a family trying to sleep with their child repeatedly coming to complain of monsters in his room.

By the way, enroute back to the festival, we discovered a great find, an all (or almost-all) volunteer run cafeteria (with significant and labeled vegan selections) in Winston-Salem with all profits going to charity, California Fresh Buffet. The food was good, the staff acted professionally, and the restaurant was one of the very cleanest I've eaten at!

Full Frame Festival is tomorrow through Sunday!

2006-04-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

I have been active doing outreach for Full Frame. We're very lucky to have this world-class film festival in the town I live in, Durham, NC. It's the country's largest documentary film festival and this year features over 100 films. More than 1000 were submitted for films-in-competition; there are also several curated film series and workshops and parties, including films about Hurricane Katrina. The festival begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday - I'm going to try to catch as many films as possible.

To help me with outreach, I've been able to privately preview several films. I already wrote about I is for India, which I loved (and am considering purchasing the DVD, if it's available). Last night, I enjoyed the unbelievable-if-it-were-fiction, sad but true Freedom Summer, about the civil rights struggle in the 1960s and the violence and intolerance it faced. I also "relished" a few nights ago seeing Asparagus! A Stalk-umentary about the asparagus industry in Oceana County, Michigan. North Korea: A Day in the Life was a privileged view into a very closed society. Finally, I previewed John and Jane Toll Free, about Indian call centers.

I will make some comments here, but possibly not until after the festival is over. I also hope to write some reviews and publish them on the Internet Movie Database.

Musical Patience: Or Bunthorne's Bride

2006-04-01T23:57:00.000-08:00

My good friend Chris Newlon has played leading roles in performances of the Durham Savoyards; I normally don't like musicals, but his involvement brings me to see the Gilbert & Sullivan performances he is part of. Tonight was the penultimate night of a few-night run of this season's fun and interesting story updated to the 1960s - it was fun with witty and fast-paced dialogue and interesting historical allusions to the 1960s. The libretto is available in the group's library.

Film Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004)

2006-03-31T23:37:00.000-08:00

A friend had highly recommended Crash and after dinner, my wife and I spontaneously swung by the Chelsea Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC and, because it won Academy Awards in March, this film was playing. It was a difficult and uncomfortable film to watch; I think that it overstated racial problems, but it was worth watching.

Film I for India (Sandhya Suri, 2005)

2006-03-27T23:49:00.000-08:00

I am involved with outreach for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and tonight had the fortune of privately previewing Sandhya Suri's I for India documentary on DVD, which will be shown here at the Festival in a few weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed her film, a story of her parents' leaving their home in India in 1965. Her father, Yash Pal Suri, had finished medical school and, part of India's "brain drain", he leaves for England with his wife Sheel and (I believe) daughter Neeraj to practice medicine in the town of Darlington.

One of the first things that Yash does to stay in touch with his family back in Meerut India is to purchase two Super 8 film cameras, two projectors, and two tape recorders. One set he sends to India and the other he uses to document their life in England; each side periodically mails their multimedia journal to the other as an extended postcard/letter.

This film presents a poignant and beautifully made film by his mid-1970s (and youngest?) born daughter, Sandhya. In it, she edits down to 70 minutes her father's 40 years of film and audio journals that chronicle the birth of two more children including Sandhya and Vanita, the pain of the separation from extended family back home, and of the immigrant experience, including excerpts from English news programs about the onslaught of "colored" immigrants.

The film had special significance to me, as my parents also immigrated from India. That said, I think that this film would appeal to anybody interested in bittersweet consequences of families moving ahead due to circumstance while being forced to leave behind some family and tradition.

The story itself is captivating, all the more so since it is made from actual historical footage. Where is home? How should the Suri family respond to urgent appeals to reunify and return to India? Is there opportunity for Yash back in India after some years of building a strong reputation for himself in England? Would the girls prefer to grow up surrounded by people who might look more like them? Does the independence and relative loneliness of English life suit Sheel better than the vibrant chaos of extended family life in India? How does Vanita's interest in settling in Australia impact the already once painfully transplanted family? Voice-over, sounds of old film and tape mechanisms running, and cuts between England and India journals all contribute to the narration. The pathos of the family's being aware of the aging of their parents and other relatives back home but their inability to be there to comfort and assist them is heartfelt in the journal archives. Perhaps the most emotive element is Sandhya's use of contemporary voice-over near the end with film footage from the family's original departure from India being shown.

Coming from a mathematics and German background (uncannily, just as I have), Sandhya built on a shorter family documentary, Safar, to create this film, her first feature-length one. I for India has already won her a number of awards. It is well worth seeing, beautifully made and sentimental but not at all maudlin, a documentary by nature realistically, but also poetically, presented. It's difficult to believe that this is a first feature-length effort; I anxiously await the unfolding of Sandhya Suri's hopefully long film career.

8 1/2 stars out of 10

Links of interest:

Film site
My review (essentially copied here) on imdb (Internet Movie Database)
Full Frame Festival, the country's largest documentary film festival

K. Sridhar Sarod concert, Cookie Music Group live band

2006-03-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed a classical Indian concert of sarod music by K. Sridhar at Duke University. He is living locally for a few months in Chapel Hill, NC, and gave a very nice concert today with touches of fusion in his strings toward the end. He was accompanied on tabla by Anil Datar from the Chicago area and a disciple of Anindo Chatterjee.

From the Duke University Performances website: K. Sridhar, Indian sarod master $20 General Admission, $5 Duke students. The two great music traditions of India, that of the North (Hindustani) and that of the South (Carnatic) share the same basic systems but differ in instruments used, the Ragas played and the concept of musical expression. K. Sridhar is an artist who has been able to master both traditions. One of the finest living exponents of the sarod, an instrument of great complexity, Sridhar was, at age 12, the youngest member of Ravi Shankar’s orchestra. He began touring independently in 1981 and has since traveled the world as a solo artist. Cosponsored by Eight Gates Music. More at www.sridhar.org.

Afterwards, I went out for a late night at Tony's Bourbon Street Oyster Bar in Cary, NC, to see Cookie Music Group managed and fronted by Roy Daye out of Charlotte, NC. I loved their 70s music covers, though I thought that their vocals didn't do justice to Marvin Gaye tunes. Otherwise, they were fun to listen and dance to, and even had horns to play tunes by groups like KC and the Sunshine Band as well as Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Film The Governor's New Clothes (Mweze Ngangura, 2004)

2006-03-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight Congolese filmmaker Mweze Ngangura presented at the Duke University Screen Society his The Governor's New Clothes (Les Habits Neufs du Gouverneur). His film spoofs the corruption of petty dictators and is based on Hans Christian Andersen's famous 1835 story The Emperor's New Clothes about a king who thinks he is wearing a glorious outfit, while it is only an imaginary one; do any of his subjects dare reveal the truth of his lack of clothes?

The director chose a musical style, which, in the discussion, he revealed was from the influence of Indian "Bollywood" films. A man is chosen by chance to be the new leader of his African country, causing him embarrassment because he is married to a woman and has a son with her - but they are of rival ethnic background. How does he reconcile his thirst for power with his duty to his family?

I didn't appreciate the film as much as I had expected, and found the music repetitive, simplistic, and even contrived and corny, featuring an ancestor who appears time-to-time singing from within a moon. The story was relatively predictable and didn't keep my interest. But I wouldn't discourage others from seeing it; I may have had cultural blinders on that kept me from seeing more merit in the film.

I posted a review on imdb.com extracted from here. From the Screen Society web page:

The Governor's New Clothes (Les Habits Neufs Du Gouverneur)(dir. Mweze Ngangura, 2004, 87 min, Democratic Republic of Congo, in French with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
Not your usual film about African politics, corruption, and vanity -- The Governor's New Clothes is a musical comedy which parodies the trappings of power and African leaders.Mweze Ngangura, the distinguished filmmaker whose work, Pieces d'Identites won the most prestigious award in Africa, the Etalon de Yennega, in 1999, will share his latest feature, The Governor's New Clothes, with the Duke community on Wednesday, March 22, 2006.
Adapted from the Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Emperor's New Clothes" (1835), this remarkably perceptive film is a parable about power and vanity.
Mweze Ngangura on his film The Governor's New Clothes: "[Hans Christian] Andersen exposes the rulers' vanity and mean flattery. What strikes me first in this story is its universal value, more particularly its applicability to the vast majority of African political regimes. …I wanted to situate the action in the political and cultural context of the 'murderous reality' of present day Africa. The film evolves against a background of war between two ethnic groups, the Zerbos and the Krowas. Tabou, the main character (the Governor), is a Zerbo who personally feels the dilemma of being married to a Krowa (Mopaya), with whom he has a son, Little Prince. The choice of names for the ethnic groups - 'Zerbo' and 'Krowa' -corruption of 'Serbo' and 'Croat' - indicates my clear reference to the fact that ethnic conflicts are not an African monopoly. At the same time, the film wants to maintain the universal nature of the fairy-tale. The Emperor's New Clothes is a musical comedy on the theme of abuse of power, with as a main story line the history of a family on the verge of collapse."

Dancing to Zydeco band Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys

2006-03-19T22:53:00.000-08:00

My wife and I attended a Zydeco dance at the First Durham Music and Dance Festival. I loved my first exposure to Zydeco music on April 25, 1997 at the fabulous annual (pre-Hurricane Katrina) New Orleans Jazz Festival. We went early for Zydeco lessons and then enjoyed dancing to the music of Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys, as well as watching the musicians. I'm not good at learning dance steps, but we had a very nice time. I found, by the way, a good Zydeco and Cajun site from my alma mater, including online dance steps.

Morris Ledet, Rosie's husband, was on bass; Lanice Ledet was on rubboard; Kent August played guitar (or was it another guitarist?); and a young man, perhaps Morris and Rosie's son, Lukey Ledet played drums. From the Festival web site:

MARY ROSEZLA BELLARD LEDET, born in rural Church Point, Louisiana, learned to play the accordion by watching her husband play and then practiced on his accordion while he worked during the day.

Since rising to the front of her husband's Zydeco band, Rosie has been performing steadily throughout the Louisiana-Texas Zydeco circuit, as well as playing from one coast to the other. Last year she appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, St Louis Blues Festival, Frog Island Festival and others across the country.

Rosie plays more of the traditional style Cajun and Zydeco music, and she composes her own songs. It's been said that Zydeco is 'blues with an accent', and Rosie adds a touch of blues and Creole French to her songs. Rosie and her band have quickly become the act to watch on the zydeco circuit. She scored the #1 song on KVOL with I'm Gonna Take Care Of Your Dog, and won three Best Of The Best awards from Offbeat Magazine, including Best Zydeco Band or Performer, Best New Zydeco Group or Performer, and Best Vocalist.

One of a small handful of women in Zydeco, Rosie has been enjoying year after year of success. Her warm stage presence combined with the infectious Zydeco beat, makes her irresistible to audiences. She also is one of the few younger Zydeco players who still writes and sings some of her own material in Creole French.

Play The Trip to Bountiful

2006-03-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

My friend Claire Newlon played the lead role in the Young People's Performing Company production of the Oscar-winning 1985 The Trip to Bountiful, and I had the delight to see her tonight! It was a touching story of Carrie Watts, played very well by Claire, a retiree living in Houston in the 1940s with her son Ludie and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae. Mrs. Watts longs to return to Bountiful, a tiny Texas town that she grew up in, but Ludie is too busy to make what he feels is an unnecessary trip to a town long forgotten by progress. Jessie Mae is unrespectful and demanding.

All the teenagers did laudable jobs! I was surprised how effectively they were able to tell this emotive and mature story. I look forward to attending a future performance by YPPC!

Film His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940); Bands Jaafar Music and Toubab Krewe

2006-03-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

I saw His Girl Friday tonight at the North Carolina Museum of Art's Winter 2006 Film Series. What a fun and fast-paced film with dialogue at times flying too fast to catch all of it! It was originally a play named The Front Page featuring I believe two lead male actors, instead of one female and one male, as in the film. From the film series website:

The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, a hard-boiled comedy about Chicago cops, corruption and the newspaper business, gets a gender reversal overhaul, outing the workplace romance of Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson. ... Never released on home video—rare print!

My friend Troy who fronts the band Jaafar Music (which just won for the second year running an award from the local Independent newspaper as best local band playing international music) was playing in downtown Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre. After the film, I caught about half of Jaafar Music's 1-hour set - talented and intricate music, always a pleasure to see their brand of fusion jazz with Middle Eastern and some Indian influence.

I stayed on to see Toubab Krewe, and they turned out to be great! This Asheville, NC-based band influenced by West African music has been together about a year and already have attracted the attention of several music festivals they've played at (they're getting ready to leave for Colorado, California, and other places in the West) and several newspapers even including the New York Times. The five musicians made many extended visits to Africa, Mali in particular, and played fabulous music, with tremendous percussion and very interesting stringed instruments, including one instrument that looked a little like a sitar. What a fun evening!

Film Guardian of the Frontier (Varuh meje; Maya Weiss, 2002)

2006-03-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

I was disappointed with Guardian of the Frontier that was shown tonight by the Duke University Screen Society. It promised to be a contemporary Eastern European version of the classic 1972 adventure film Deliverance, about three young college women taking a river canoe journey. I found it unconvincing and flat, and was surprised to see that it has won some awards - maybe I missed some cultural context that would have made this more appealing. You can read my more detailed imdb review.

Film Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933)

2006-03-03T23:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, I saw as part of the Winter 2006 Film Series the 1933 Baby Face. What was shown was a new 35mm print of the uncensored original, preserved and released on January 24, 2005 by the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry.

This early "talkie" film addresses what must have been a risque subject for 1933, that of a strong woman (Lily Powers, played admirably by Barbara Stanwyck) who, rather than sitting back and becoming a victim of circumstances, uses her charm to gain wealth in New York City. It had a number of funny moments and features Barbara Stanwyck's acting, though most of the other characters are not deeply developed.

From the film series website:

Sultry Lily, pimped by her degenerate father, breaks free and sleeps her way to the top of an Art Deco skyscraper with no regrets. Baby Face was one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code era, and is often cited as one of the causes of film censorship being imposed in mid-1934. The heroine, Lily, uses her sexuality both for empowerment and well as social mobility, and thrives with her sinful lifestyle. Certainly, there are plenty of men willing to participate in her horizontal negotiations. The censors felt the film was “glorifying vice” and ordered it edited to show “morally compensating values.” Library of Congress Film Curator Mike Mashon recently discovered an unedited negative from which this new 35mm print is restored. Plus the musical short, Don Redman and his Orchestra. New 35mm print.

Film 27 Missing Kisses (Nana Djordjadze, 2000)

2006-03-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

The Duke University Screen Society showed 27 Missing Kisses tonight. It is a film from Georgia in the previous Soviet Union. The main character, Sibylla played by Nutsa Kukhianidze, is a free-spirited tomboy who enlivens a small town where she is visiting her aunt. I found the film to be edgy, zany with nonsequiturs, and interesting though perhaps self-referentially absorbed. I probably missed key cultural context, though the film's narrative style did remind me a bit of Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. The setting and photography were quite appealing.

From the official film website:

A hot Summer. A Broken Promise. A tragic comic Love Story.

It was a Summer unlike any other. Sybille promised Mickey one hundred kisses before the Autumn. But he only got 73.

This is the story of a beautiful, romantic and very upsetting Summer, somewhere in the East. The Summer of the Eclipse. Fourteen year-old Sybille arrives in this sleepy little town to spend her vacation with Aunt Martha. By the time she leaves, nothing will be the same.

On day one she falls in love like never before: With Alexander, the astronomer who looks after the old observatory and who is a somewhat lonely widower. He is forty-one and thinks Sybille is too young for love.

Equally fast, Alexander's son Mickey, also fourteen, falls for Sybille. He knows she must belong to him - at all cost - but she doesn´t take him seriously. And Alexander pretends not to see what is happening.

Sybille is not to be underestimated. It is as if she has electrified the small town. Everyone feels a mad yearning for love. Illiopolous, the schoolteacher, has a heart-attack whilst with his mistress. And Pjotr, the night-watchman, has a most unfortunate encounter with a weapons-grade steel ring.

The arrival of a French Captain in search of the Sea, and the secret screening of an old Emmanuelle film at the local armaments factory bring things to a head.....

Tragi-Comedy
96', 35mm, DolbySR

Links of interest:

imdb (Internet Movie Database) film entry
Official film website

Film Centre Stage (Yuen Ling-yuk; Stanley Kwan, 1992)

2006-02-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight I saw a "biopic" (biographical film), shown by the Duke University Screen Society as part of their Cine-East 7: New East Asian Cinema and Documentary tracks.

You can read my imdb review, which I'll also copy here:

Summary: Period piece of 1930s Shanghai depicting the life of famous silent actor Ruan Ling-yu and her untimely end; slow beginning but worth seeing and relishing

I saw Stanley Kwan's "Centre Stage" ("Yuen Ling-yuk") at a university series "New East Asian Cinema" on February 27, 2006. The film is a biography of Ruan Ling-yu (1910-1935), a silent film star of Chinese silent films.

The film describes the life and meteoric rise to fame of young Shanghai actor Ruan Ling-yu (played well by Maggie Cheung), who from the age of 16 till her death at age 24, was featured, often in a lead role, in over a dozen films. She was involved in extramarital affairs with two men and eventually the double standards that women suffer by catch up with her (but not with the married suitors), and dogged media slander her reputation. With her honor at stake, she sees no recourse but to commit suicide, and does so with an overdose of barbiturates. According to the wikipedia entry about her (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruan_Ling_Yu), "her funeral procession was reportedly three miles long, with three women committing suicide during it."

The film cleverly goes back and forth in time, and includes excellent interludes from some of Ruan Ling-yu's films. These snippets, as well as the local color we see in 1930s Shanghai, reveal a vivacious setting in Chinese history that I would enjoy learning more about, including seeing some of the period cinema.

Not previously knowing anything about Ruan Ling-yu, I of course cannot vouch for the realism of the portrayal, but the acting of Maggie Cheung revealed a strong, magnetic, kind, talented, determined, and yet slightly aloof woman who enjoys many admirers. The other characters were not nearly as well developed, but that is understandable with the focus being on Ruan Ling-yu.

I wonder if Kwan could have set the stage, so to speak, a bit more economically, and found the first half to two thirds rather slow. But, without giving anything away, the ending (of course we know that suicide is the true history) is calmly dramatic and captivating. The manner in which Cheung shows the actor saying goodbye to her close friends, who don't know that this is in fact her farewell, is touching - I wonder if this is how it happened. A film worth watching and which I would like to see again - 7.5 stars out of 10.

--Dilip Feb. 27, 2006

From the Screen Society website:

Centre Stage is an ambitiously unorthodox biopic from director Stanley Kwan about Chinese silent film star Ruan Ling-yu. Despite her humble origins, Ling-yu ended up as one of the most famous stars of Shanghai cinema during the 30s, specializing in tragic female roles in the likes of The Goddess and New Woman. Yet having completed some 29 films by the age of just 25, she committed suicide after being villified in the tabloid press for her affair with a married man, Chang Ta-min. Maggie Cheung (so memorable in Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love) provides a superlative central performance, winning her the Best Actress Silver Bear Prize at Berlin in 1992.

Focusing only on the years leading up to Ruan's untimely death, Centre Stage doesn't pursue a simple linear path. Shifting backwards and forwards in time, it consists of colour reconstructions of events in its protagonist's life, black and white footage from her films, as well as monochrome interviews with surviving veterans and with Kwan and his cast members, who ponder their own feeling towards their subject. ("Isn't she just a replica of me?", laughs Cheung.) One of the cumulative effects of this mixing of formats and styles is that the film moves away from the idea of a definitive truth about Ruan, and instead allows a range of perspectives on her experiences. -- Tom Dawson, BBC

Links of interest:

imdb (Internet Movie Database) film entry, including my review
Wikipedia entry for Ruan Ling-yu

Play A Map of the World (David Hare, 1983; produced by Burning Coal Theatre Company)

2006-02-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

I was late and missed much of the first half, but otherwise reasonably enjoyed David Hare's A Map of the World that Burning Coal Theatre Company put on at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, NC, directed by Roger Smart. The play included a Hamlet-like play (well, in this case, film) within a play. The acting was strong and, though I couldn't follow all of the complexities, the story was interesting.

From the theatre's website:

When Indian-born, internationally acclaimed novelist Victor Mehta is invited to speak at a UNESCO-style conference on world hunger in 1977, all hell breaks loose! Many of those in attendance don't want the conservative novelist to speak. Into this mix walks a young, wet-behind-the-ears British journalist and a rising Hollywood starlet. Each will play a decisive role in Mehta's final decision.

Reviews

February 15 Independent Weekly by Byron Woods
February 27 by Adam Sobsey in the Raleigh News & Observer newspaper
Review I heard by Mike Munger of WUNC Radio's The State of Things program on February 22

Picture from theatre's website of Gabrieal Griego as Peggy Whitton and Neil Shah as Victor Mehta

Film Dust in the Wind (Lianlian fengchen; Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1986)

2006-02-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I saw the Taiwanese film, Dust in the Wind, shown by the Duke University Screen Society. I teach a course on the films of the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, and was interested in seeing this film as I had read that it is reminiscent of the understated style of Ozu's.

I found Dust in the Wind to be somewhat slow, detached, and not as emotionally powerful as Ozu's films, but worth watching as a glimpse of local color into (I think) 1950s or early 1960s rural Taiwanese culture. The character development was somewhat shallow, I didn't understand how some of the scenes contributed, but I found the scenery, cinematography, and editing appealing.

From the Screen Society website:

Combining the neorealism of Vittorio de Sica and the simple, contemplative style of Yasujiro Ozu, this quiet, unsentimental film realistically portrays a country and people in transition. Filled with grace, beauty, bittersweet humor, and strong performances from unprofessional actors, it is an engaging exploration of love, innocence, and the harsh realities of modern life.
Wan and Huen are a teenaged couple who quit their jobs in their small mining town and move to Taipei to find work. Wan becomes a delivery boy while Huen assists a seamstress. The two seem ill at ease with their new surroundings, and in an overcrowded city where people outnumber available jobs, they find that city life is bleak, especially for people who are uneducated and inexperienced. Dust in the Wind is filled with vignettes depicting the struggles as well as the savored moments of everyday life in Taiwan. The film never romanticizes though it is filled with beauty, even of the ugly sort.

UNC International Friendship Program event at Ackland Art Museum

2006-02-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

For years, I have been a host with The University of North Carolina Office of International Student and Scholar Services's International Friendship Program. It allows me the privilege to get to know scholars from many countries, such as Korea, Japan, India, China, Hungary, Australia, and Thailand. They don't stay at my home, but I try to meet them as often as possible to have a meal or go out for some fun event.

Today the Program organized a Treasures from Around the World event at the Ackland Art Museum. After picking up a very nice Chinese couple that I have been hosting since the fall, Zheng and Xiaofang, we enjoyed some refreshments and a talk about the collection, then got to see the museum on our own.

I took a number of pictures which I hope to post soon. It is a small but nice museum with a focus on European, Chinese, and Indian art.

My winning picture in an exhibit at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

2006-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

I was delighted that of three pictures that I submitted last year to an annual photo contest that Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine runs, I was told on November 16 that I won second prize in one of the eight categories! There were over 3300 entries and more than 600 photographers entered the contest. The Peaks, Valleys, & Plains category in which I won had 544 entries. You can see all of the 2005 winners; look a little over halfway down to see my shot. (You can also see the pictures as laid out for the January issue of the magazine.)

The picture was taken on a warm Sunday afternoon, October 24, 2004 (4:09pm) at Price Lake off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, NC. I hope that viewers will initially think that it is a shot looking straight out toward a mountain. In fact, I was standing on a large rock, and took the shot looking straight down at the rock and the lovely reflection I saw of the sky in the lake.

All of the thirty-one winning pictures are on display through March 31 at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. I went today to see the exhibit. After this stay in Raleigh, the display will travel to other state museums through the rest of the year.

Film The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri; Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)

2006-02-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

As part of the Winter 2006 Film Series at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, I saw a new 35mm print of the classic The Battle of Algiers. It is a film I've been wanting to see and this was my first opportunity. This neorealistic film is shot in documentary style with mostly everyday people instead of actors, and depicts the decade leading up to Algeria's independence from France after more than 130 years.

The film is a powerful portrayal of the savagery of urban warfare and the means, including torture and bombing of civilian establishments, that colonialists as well as those seeking their independence use to achieve what each is convinced is justified for their ends. The scenes of the narrow streets of the Kasbah and the determination of both sides kept the film interesting, made all the more so because it is a dramatized documentary.

The film revealed my ignorance about Algerian history, and I left wondering what kind of government the country now has. I did a little bit of research and found that its post-colonial history is not a happy one, marked by the mass exodus of over a million people during a civil war and the establishment of military rule.

Links of interest:

imdb (Internet Movie Database) film entry
Film notes from my friend and Film Curator "moviediva"
Wikipedia entry about the history of Algeria