#Crowley is a conspiracy theorist in this scene | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thesherrinfordfacility · 8 months

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LWA: Just some random stuff on a Sunday morning!

Missing scenes: Furfur's book of angels includes "bishop" as one of Aziraphale's jobs, and as we've already seen all the others on the list, even if only in deleted lines (the music tutor was originally in the Rome scene), I would guess we'd see that one as well. Not necessarily a good fit for 1650, though, although since Gaiman has done things like have the Bastille still standing in 1793, anything's possible.

Assumptions about character progression: I think there's a tendency to assume that Crowley and Aziraphale develop or ought to develop towards something "better" as the series progresses, but that's not quite right. They become more /complicated/, which is a neutral--dare I say grey?--concept. The novel and series both deny that good and evil are steady-state aspects of character: you /aren't/ good or evil (or something in-between), you /do/ good or evil (or something in-between). S1 Crowley, as both Gaiman and Tennant have said, has no real character arc, but one of the reasons I think the fandom needs to pay attention to my favorite bugbear, the child murder manipulation subplot, is that it is also about moral complexity. Flood-era Crowley offers the moral absolute "you can't kill kids." Armageddon-era Crowley runs Aziraphale over with a trolley problem in order to duck the more unpleasant reality that if you're fine with someone killing a kid for you, you're fine with killing kids. (I have to say that the sentimental "Crowley wuvs Warlock" headcanon is one of those instances where supposedly-positive fanon constitutes outright character assassination, right up there with "Aziraphale had an affair with Oscar Wilde" [oh, do /not/ get me started on why that's horrifying].) The series is on the side of Flood-era Crowley and Madame Tracy, not the "developed" Crowley. Meanwhile, Aziraphale learns how to lie, which is a skill that can be put to different moral purposes in different contexts. Sometimes it's unambiguously good, like saving Job's children; sometimes it's ambiguous-to-evil, like concealing the Antichrist's whereabouts from Crowley (revealing this knowledge to Crowley would mean more pressure to murder the child, but his rehearsed speech suggests that he's willing to let Heaven handle it, perhaps, which is not a viable moral alternative).

AWCW and being "impressionable": one of the funniest things about Crowley is that in some respects, he's every bit as conformist as Aziraphale is, and sometimes more so. His unreliable narration about the Fall hints very strongly that, as you say, he just went along with the "cool kids"--which, despite his protestations to the contrary, /is/ a moral failure on the terms set out by the novel and series. Even later, both Crowley and Aziraphale rebel in ways that maintain the fiction of the overarching system (the Arrangement) rather than dismantling it entirely. Crowley also enjoys his job, especially in the novel. Which, to be clear, is also a moral failure: slacking off is, hilariously, the most moral choice he and Aziraphale can make. FWIW, for me, neither the novel nor the series are "burn it all down" narratives, in part because they both advance a theory of humanity that suggests burning it all down just gets you the same thing from a different direction. The most radical political ideas are given to a conspiracy theorist and to children, and the Antichrist concludes by rejecting all of them and hitting a literal reset button. Pratchett may have co-written the book from a place of "anger," but anger can lead to a lot of different political practices. Obviously, YMMV.

LWA✨ woke up today and chose analytical violence, what a legend

1. see, i feel like 1650 could work for aziraphale's bishop occupation, even if only mentioned retrospectively. theoretically, he could well have been a bishop before the abolishment in 1646, and exploring the episcopalian polity vs presbyterianism argument of the time could be really interesting narratively (especially if handled somewhat like the resurrectionist episode)... but detail aside, even if by the time we see him in 1650 it's only mentioned casually that he was a bishop "a few years back", i don't think it would be entirely out of field. we don't necessarily need to have everything played out on screen!

2. okay, a lot to unpack here, but essentially i agree. the issue it seems to me is to posit moral absolutes in the first place; there will almost always be a contextual 'except'/'but' clause that comes along with it that turns it on its head.

it's bad to kill children, except when they are the antichrist and could bring about the apocalypse.

it's bad to lie, except when it would prevent unimaginable cruelty and grief being wrought on those that don't objectively deserve it.

it's bad to manipulate and brainwash a group of people, except when there's no lasting harm done, and you were only trying to demonstrate to someone that you love them.

it's good to try to further human medicine and prevent needless suffering, except when doing so puts the desperate as the first to fall in the figurative battlefield.

it's good to forgive a huge debt when you don't have any necessity of it being paid, except when it's primarily borne out of materialistic selfishness.

neither character does anything so completely reprehensible, or alternatively so inarguably irreproachable, that someone, somewhere, can't or won't argue a justification for their actions. we individually, according to our own moral compasses borne of our experiences, may justify or condemn what they've done in the narrative - objectively, the morality behind their actions as we've seen them so far is never absolute.

eg. for me, crowley's plan on killing the antichrist, a child, in the specific context of GO is not the condemnable action here; its the manipulation of getting aziraphale to do it because he, personally, will not do it himself. i understand why, but the thing that i personally consider to be unambiguously bad is not killing the antichrist itself, but instead the fact that crowley considers that the only solution to the hellhound being named - ignoring the 'running away' that crops up later, for a moment - is to underhandedly manipulate someone he cares about into doing it instead of him. however, others may see it differently.

who is to say what is 'better', anyway? what even is 'better'? is 'better' to do things only when it's for the benefit of other people? is doing 'better' for your own self not also worthy of consideration? is 'better' wholly only when doing something that is kind or generous to others, rather than being kind or generous to yourself?

whilst crowley hits certain moral epiphanal milestones before aziraphale does, neither have the full right of it - aziraphale should not hold morality to being plainly black or white, dictated to by a set of absolutes that are so basic and lacking in complexity that they are by all accounts redundant. and crowley should not dismiss alternative choices or solutions just because they do not fit his perspective or reasoning, nor hold that his understanding of morality is the only viable one or is the only one with any weight or validity. ep6 imo succinctly demonstrated this.

both of them are still so young at the flood. aziraphale holds that whatever has been decreed by the source 'of all that is good' must therefore be good (and choosing to not see beyond it) and crowley acts so incredulous that something he sees as being absolutely bad would ever be entertained (despite, you know, having been cast out of heaven for 'just asking questions'....). both of them by the time of job have had a pretty seismic shift in that respective naivety - aziraphale begins to question what god actually intends, and crowley acts stoutly bitter and unsurprised by the assignment. neither reactions are compatible still, they constantly circle each other, and literally indicate that some level of understanding (of god, of her will, of morality 'in the real world' itself - take your pick) is still lacking.

re: Oscar Wilde and warlock hcs (i couldn't let these stroll by without comment)... god, where to start. re: warlock, i never begrudge any hc where it's borne out of a developed fanon background. that's arguably one of the main benefits of having the fanon side of things: to develop a point/event/gap in the story for yours and others' amusement - that's cool! for this example, any fic that gives more insight into their years in warlock's life, and therefore gives legitimacy to crowley having a fondness for warlock - yep, i like that! that's awesome, i could see it as an unrealised narrative, but that's where it firmly stays, for me - in fanon.

but i do get frustrated when certain narrative points are pointedly ignored in order to establish a character trait that would otherwise not exist. crowley in canon does not - to me - demonstrate any fondness towards warlock. he literally proposes the option of his murder! i don't think him refusing to entertain killing warlock himself indicates any sentimentality towards the kid - thats a bit of a stretch, imo - but instead it reflects on his character being, put reductively, a bit of a knob sometimes.

as for aziraphale and oscar wilde... yeeaaah. i think anyone that holds that hc seriously needs to reevaluate the implications of it, and whether or not beyond professional (?) respect for his work aziraphale would willingly want to associate with him... ultimately, i refer back to my above point about "...anything so completely reprehensible...". and, respectfully, perhaps there needs to be a little more separation between michael sheen's filmography and aziraphale's narrative - whether in hc or canon.

3. right, AWCW time. i agree re: his conformity to the 'cool kid group' being something that is deserving of scrutiny on his own morality, but i feel like this only is viable once that association goes beyond a certain point (and an arguably arbitrary one at that). essentially, i think it's possible to still see AWCW's decision to associate with the group as understandable and empathetic. we know from the narrative that a) AWCW starts hanging out with them at some point, and b) that lucifer et al. are in the end considered bad people. but were they actually bad at the time that AWCW comes across them? if they were, did AWCW himself know? we don't really have enough narrative to reliably confirm this.

but we do know that AWCW fell, and it's therefore rather likely that he continued associating with them past a point where he would have known that they were Bad News Bears. in the beginning, he may have just been glad that these people seemed to listen to him and make him feel valid for having questions - that's understandable. but as time goes on, as lucifer etc. hypothetically get more and more questionable in their actions and beliefs, AWCW presumably choosing to stick with them, possibly even defending them, confers the deserving of negative judgement onto AWCW in turn (presuming there's no element of coercion or blackmail involved, mind you).

i like the point you raise of aziraphale and crowley respectively not conforming to their inherent purposes (being an angel or demon respectively) when it benefits them personally, being an almost accidental 'good thing', especially when the story puts forward that, however you look at it (ie. whether bc they are lazy, or it poses more excuses to see each other - immaterial), the arrangement is entirely self-serving. 10/10 narrative irony. but this is kinda going back to one of our first asks, LWA - it is for me once again the key difference between rebellion, and revolution:

(never been more grateful for making the LWA masterpost, thank you past-me)

so whilst i agree to a certain point that the 'burn it all down' narrative may not be a viable option, or is at the very least a reductive one, i think that the question is what it is replaced with, if at all. adam hit the reset button and put earth back to how it was, because what humanity and earth was - by my interpretation - was just fine as it is. it's not perfect, but not worthy of being destroyed in totality.

so what can we say about heaven? is it a mirror to earth in this respect? i don't think it is. heaven may well have been intended originally as a neutral party with the best of intentions, and then pigeonholed into being the 'good side' following the fall, but it has been allowed to fester and corrupt. maybe we will see more in s3 that there are other angels that feel that heaven as a system is flawed (personally, i think we see this in saraqael's introduction to GO, but that's just my interpretation of the character so far), and maybe those angels will represent the part of heaven that is still redeemable.

so okay, yeah, maybe heaven shouldn't be completely gutted and dismantled, but it is not in the same place as earth is at the time of adam's reset. earth and humanity were arguably the innocent parties in their prospective destruction, whereas heaven has sown their own seeds for it. i don't think the two are entirely comparable. heaven does need a major realignment, and i personally don't think this can happen without some form of systematic reform, without revolution (especially if the wider fandom's evaluation of metatron is true come s3!). it needs reworking with an alternative system that works to be fairer, and removes any binary rhetoric of good vs. evil. don't ask me for the minutae of how this should happen, because i have zero idea (well, very little, anyhow), im not that clever.

but this is what i hope aziraphale will actually be successful in come s3. he can't just - in anger at the injustice of it all - set heaven on fire and walk away from the ashes; it will invite for the original regime to rebuild or something worse to take its place. that being said, it's not just him that needs to do it - to build an alternative to heaven in his own image is equally questionable. again, this is the suggestion that i liked in the armageddon 2.0 meeting in ep6; the idea of democracy in heaven, even if the current board is less than ideal (and the point could poetically hark back to the hypothetical 1650 flashback...?).

#“just random stuff” no you came for the throat LWA own it #i had written like another 4 paragraphs on the anger thing but it got personal really fast so i opted to delete it #youre welcome for being spared from it #once again never sure if ive ever made an Actual Point in my LWA responses but make of it what you will #good omens #ask #the fall/the great war spec #AWCW spec #heaven theory #s3 narrative spec #crowley meta #aziraphale meta

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azirapherale · 7 months

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Possible Signing in Good Omens 2 - Part 5

No no no no no, and his arm does something we can't see, possibly a go gesture

No no no no no

Me (Me (maybe, idk, normally that sign uses a forefinger to point, but they're having to be clever so…). a gesture like this with the palm facing out is "need", a 2 handed gesture with a fist on a palm coming towards youself is "help me"

?? as chekhov's gestures go this is a throw/lift, or that's how I'd read it. it's also similar to Nina's sign for "big"

Upstairs? (my initial impression was it was like if he was asking if they're listening). As a conspiracy theorist I took this usage of "nightingales" to be a code word for demons

body language looks like he's checking somehow if anyone upstairs is watching. prob got like a billion eyes some place

No (the head-shake), but I think he also answers verbally which IIRC is something like "I don't hear anything"

Understand/understood

Downstairs

but the rest of this exchange also seems to end up in the main text. It's the "(I don't think you) UNDERSTAND what I'm offering you? I UNDERSTAND (better than you do). I half wonder if what look like signs aren't somatic expressions that underline the important words. I can't decide if they think they are or are NOT being listened to, but I'm leaning towards are bc I feel like the kiss was magician's distraction flourish to the coin vanish

not a sign, but after the kiss Az (or his corporation anyway) turns away and he seems to wipe his eyes with his right hand, but I'm pretty sure his left hand moves too, possibly hiding something

more body language that seems to scream "did it work did it work did it work?" whatever it might've been and then another check out the window but i think he's looking at his One True Ally

? - the move in front of the window doesn't feel random, neither do the hand shapes made to be clearly visible to someone outside the window

over all impression

Aziraphale walked in and immediately communicated that something was wrong and Crowley immediately understood it and listened. Maybe they do talk past one another when they're free to take the piss, but but when it matters, they move in lock-step

i like the idea being floated of them sharing a corporation. it explains a lot of things: Crowley's slow driving, Aziraphale's weird smile in the lift, and Neil saying something about kissing not being romantic/intimate which really struck me bc, yes, it's the romance that's romantic. the kiss is just a symbol for the romance in quite the way all these words and signs are symbols for thoughts but never the un-abstracted thoughts in their fullness. Ceci n'est pas une pipe and all that (1)

i suppose one might debate the romance of a poetic tragedy, but no, kissing bloody well wouldn't be romantic after you lived two souls in one body blended. "Da mi basia mille, deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum" (2) writ into you soul so deeply that even the tenderest press of flesh must become prosaic

talk about the mortifying ordeal of being known

after they communicate there is a problem they make some kind of plan and then prob during the kiss enact that plan. I think there's an argument about the plan with both seeming to think the other's taking too much a risk

i one thing i can't reconcile is if they're sharing a corporation, why do i have the sensation that they think they said goodbye, bec the tragedy of the scene is that let's say they aren't fighting, they are on the same page, it looks like they're having to part anyway, and I can't think of anything worse than knowing my person was in grave danger and there's fuck all i can do about it

(1) i did i think warn everyone that i like languages a little too well, and well really it's not just languages, it's all symbolic communication, of which spoken or signed words are but a fraction (2) Catullus 5

#good omens #good omens 2 #sign language #maybe #bsl possibly #re-make of a broken post

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issela-santina · 7 months

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Aziraphale feeling a huge love aura in season 1 and then me realizing the horrors of the implications that for the Antichrist to even be of influence he's gotta be freakishly adored by the masses

Anathema turned Adam into a conspiracy theorist and by season 3 he might be on TikTok parroting those New Aquarian magazines to people who are lured by the powers of Hell itself into defending him

yikes

cut to a scene of Crowley in such a bad shape emotionally from hearing the song of a nightingale in Berkeley Square once that he literally and unintentionally destroys the world's Internet connection with a single tear

#good omens #good omens adam #anathema device

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cursed-byesexual · 3 years

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There has to be a Supernatural fic from the pov of a conspiracy theorist on the winchesters trail who is losing his mind about the amount of times those guys died and simply showed up again a few months later. Kinda like the Episode with FBI agent Hendriksen but diving deeper into what he thinks is going on.

Or one of Sams friends from Stanford who started following the mysterious case of the Winchester Brothers through online mags because he knows Sam and can hardly believe its the same person those people write about.

Or even just the poor FBI agent who got their case after Hendriksen and doesnt know anything. He is on and off their case every other month but it keeps coming back to hunt him, he stopped toasting to their death after the third time they died. Imagine the confusion.

Just as an example for one side of the case notes;

Cas is with the them all the time, only that authorities think its Jimmy Novak, the accountant gone rogue/ gay which is another conspiracy in itself. Jimmys old friends and collegues would think that too, and rumor has it that he killed his family since they vanished mysteriously. (Irl we know Claire is fine and his wife got kidnapped and killed by a monster but the police don't)

Also, apparently he is convinced to be doing Gods will while leaving bloody murder scenes in his wake. As far as anybody knows, the Winchesters aren't religious and its puzzling that they put up with him at first. After years of relying on no one but each other these psychopathic brothers who are supposed to be as calculating as they are brutal and hot-headed have just decided to adopt a random guy who happens to think he's an angel? (At least that bit gets solved when a security camera catches Cas and Dean kissing)

The FBI is freaked out by him because he is unpredictable, loves the Winchesters, and knows how to stay under the radar. They still haven't been able to figure out how he got from one end of the country to the other in a time frame of three hours max. That was one of the first cases that makes them consider him part of the Winchester case and he leaves quite the impression right away. Dozens of confused agents check airport footage from all over the country and find nothing. The files for that case take up three rooms and five agents have retired immediately after being assigned the case and walking in there once.

And most of that right here was just focusing on Cas, there is so much more to him alone but consider the involvement of others like Charlie and Kevin who just add to the confusion, or Crowley who legally doesn't exist. And thats without any of the actual monster stuff, witness reports that have everyone convinced the winchesters are drugging people left and right, and the stuff the leviathan dopplegangers pulled.

I really want to read about their lifes from that perspective, think about how batshit it all sounds from that angle.

Imagine the whole thing as a buzzfeed unsolved episode

(Ooop this turned longer than it was supposed to)

If anybody knows a fic like that or writes one please tag me or leave a comment, I need this in my life

#supernatural headcanon #supernatural #spn hcs #spn #spn fic #spn fic rec #destiel #destiel hc #dean winchester #castiel #sam winchester #deancas #dean x castiel #canon fic #outsider pov #fbi agent henriksen #victor henriksen #buzzfeed unsolved #mine

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monstermoviedean · 2 years

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okay let's do it. in chucknatural dean plays the chuck role, a self-described loser who lives with his successful sibling (sam) and his awesome girlfriend (eileen). both their parents (paranoid conspiracy theorist dad + ass-kicking milf mom) are long gone but they have each other. he and his nerdy best friend (charlie) work dead-end jobs at buy more with a wacky cast of coworkers. until one day dean gets an email from his ex-bff (crowley) who got him kicked out of school and stole his boyfriend (lee). dean opens the email and surprise! it's full of government secrets (your choice if they're ~supernatural~ secrets or not). the nsa sends their scariest bruiser (uriel) to track dean down, but there's already a cia agent on the scene. cas. cas becomes dean's handler, and dean teaches cas how to be a person and cas teaches dean how to be a spy. and they have to fake-date while developing very real feelings for each other.

#chucknatural #chuck #spn

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diminished-fish · 4 years

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References for “A Portrait in Synesthesia”

This fic is COMPLETE now, so anyone who might have been hesitant to follow a wip, here you go! The whole synesthetic package, wrapped up with a nice lil bow on top. :3

For those who might have missed the masterpost: the fic was my contribution to the good omens big bang and is a sweeping, canon-compliant romp through history, told in (almost) all original scenes, with lots of nature imagery and T.S. Eliot. Kind of my own cold open, but with way more feelings and flowers. Also the sea. And an emotionally significant comet.

I had the opportunity to throw all of myself at this project and really enjoyed making it an intense focus for a while. In a way, it was an experiment to see how much I was capable of, which as it turns out, is more than I thought! (there’s a lesson here, probably...). Going this deep with the research and worldbuilding is not something I will likely be doing often for fic writing, but since I did with this one, I figured I’d share a bit of the process.

Under the cut are major spoilers for the timeline, story, and historic events in my recent fic, A Portrait in Synesthesia. I had originally planned to post this information in the end notes of the fic, but at some point, the list got way too long and posting it here became the sensible choice. There is a link to this post in the end notes of the fic, so it will be easy to find your way back here if you get to the end and want to know a bit more about the writing and research process.

The Title:

Putting this bit at the top because I don’t know where else to put it: The working title for this fic throughout the entire writing process was “In Synesthesia.” I almost changed the final title in the eleventh hour to “The Still Point of the Turning World” because of what a prevalent theme Eliot became (that line was also slipped into the story three times at important moments — once for each POV character). I also briefly considered “Always, We Were Enough” as a title, since the conversation with Adrielle at the lighthouse kind of... accidentally became the thesis of the whole story, but that was a bit too sappy even for me, a Confirmed Sap.

And while I’ll be questioning my choice of title for the rest of forever (titling things is hard, y’all), I ultimately thought the more descriptive title was best, and wanted to keep the nod to the song that inspired it all.

Speaking of the song... have you listened to it yet?? It’s great, I promise!

youtube

Synesthesia:

This was my research starting point. Before I dug into any of the historical or astronomical research or even started any serious plotting, I started reading about synesthesia, or, as Psychology Today defines it: the neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision).

Full disclosure: I do not have synesthesia. I spent a LOT of time researching it for this fic and did my best to portray it accurately, in spite of the fantastical elements I added. If I’ve overstepped or gotten something wrong and there are any synesthetes out there who would like to talk about it, I am very open to those discussions. The AO3 comments are always open to that, or you can message me/send me an ask here if you would like a less public forum.

I probably read r/Synesthesia in its entirety, but this thread of first-hand accounts was one of the most interesting to me and provided a lot of the inspiration for how I used the emotional synesthesia imagery.

Besides everyone’s favorite research staring point of Wikipedia, this link is one I got from Boston University’s Synesthesia Project, and it is a pretty exhaustive list of research and books, as well as art and poetry about synesthesia. I have also been working my way through The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks which is the book that came most frequently recommended to me in my search. It’s an extremely approachable and interesting look at neurological conditions, synesthesia among them.

As it appears in the fic:

In a broad, generalized sense, Aziraphale and Crowley have a few types of synesthesia in this story. Obviously, I gave it a supernatural/celestial twist and a healthy glug of magical realism, but I did try to keep it firmly rooted in the actual condition. The types of synesthesia they have are:

Chromesthesia: they both have this. Sounds, specifically each other’s voices, have a color association

Lexical-gustatory synesthesia/emotion-flavor synesthesia: Aziraphale has this. Words (in this case, emotions, specifically Crowley’s emotional state) have a taste.

Odor-color synesthesia/emotion-odor synesthesia: Crowley has this. Words (again, emotions, specifically Aziraphale’s emotional state) have a smell.

One of the defining characteristics of synesthesia is that it is constant. If a synesthete connects the number 9 with the color blue, for example, then they will always connect them in this way. This was the major difference between real synesthesia and the fantasy synesthesia in this fic. The sensory/emotion connections for Aziraphale and Crowley changed in subtle ways as their relationship evolved through the ages.

The “binding thread” also had nothing to do with synesthesia. That was me wanting to make the spool analogy work for the body swap, baking it into the entire fic because I liked how the imagery fit with the synesthesia, and then leaning into the magic and the soul memory so hard that I fell flat on my face into magical realism. (A True Fact: I have spent a fair amount of time lying on the floor in the past 6 months, shaking my fist at the cute little plot bunny who grew fangs and claws and dragged me down a rabbit hole that ended up being 100k words deep).

Anyway! Research!

Before I get into space and history and flowers... Yes, I admit to absolutely making up some wacky shit about Europa for the sake of fun banter and making a metaphor work. All those pre-Fall scenes on abandoned Earths are 100% a fantasy setting and I exercised the super fun right of a fantasy writer and embraced the worldbuilding (moonbuilding?). I also just thought Crowley would have delighted in tying a moon’s guts in knots, and Aziraphale would have delighted in the idea of whimsy-for-whimsy’s-sake. Please don’t lose sleep over the scientific inaccuracies.

Halley’s comet:

I promise not to bog this down with a billion comet facts, but there were a few particular things about Halley’s comet that had me gasping dramatically about how it’s “A.J. Crowley, but a comet!!” Specifically, it’s orbit and it’s structure.

Halley’s retrograde orbit gives it one of the fastest velocities (relative to Earth) of any object in the solar system. I never explicitly worked the “you go too fast for me” line into the fic because I was trying to do original scenes (this particular story lived between the lines), but... just know that tidbit is there and join me in these emotional dire straits. If you like.

The comet’s structure is what is known as a “rubble pile”, meaning it’s made up of a bunch of smaller rocks held together by gravity (read: a hot god damn mess held together by stubbornness).

As it appears in the fic:

The nucleus of Halley’s comet is shaped like a weird lopsided peanut. In fact, one could almost look at it and say it resembles a contact binary star, if such a thing could be a shriveled, misshapen pile of rubble.

Officially, Halley’s comet might have been recorded as early as 467 BC (a comet was recorded in Greece that year— unclear if it was Halley’s, but the timing and the fact that it was visible to the naked eye suggests that it probably was). This was the year I had Aziraphale making the scroll that causes Crowley’s panic in Athens (390 BC). I like to think that some human, at some point, caught a glimpse of it and tried to bring it to light, only to be written off as a crazed conspiracy theorist.

The apocalyptic depiction of Halley’s comet in chapter 9 (Bithynia) is actually based in fact. The comet made its closest approach to Earth (in human memory) in 837 AD, passing within 5 million kilometers. Its tail stretched halfway across the sky and it appeared as bright as Venus to the naked eye.

1910 Halley’s Comet panic. Bonus: c o m e t p i l l s

Where 1910′s appearance was a spectacular sight and one of the closest approaches on record (coming within 22 million kilometers of Earth), 1986′s was the worst viewing conditions in 2,000 years. The comet passed within 63 million kilometers at its closest approach, and had the sun positioned between it and Earth, making it impossible to see from areas with any amount of light pollution, and almost invisible to all of the northern hemisphere.

Historic events and settings:

Chapter 6 (Ostia): This was one of the chapters that I did a bunch of arguably unnecessary research for, since the history and the meat of the setting faded into the backdrop as the scene itself focused on dialogue and train of thought. The port town of Ostia was incredibly engrossing to read about, and between wikipedia’s ever-branching paths, ostia-antica.org, and ancient history encyclopedia’s entry, it ended up being one of the deeper rabbit holes I went down. My original intent for Aziraphale being in town was as a response to pirates sacking Ostia in 68 BC. I had him stationed there to guard against further attacks as the town rebuilt, and had him lingering because he was swept away by the romanticism of the art and the sea and the constant ebb & flow of people. I never found a way to work this in that didn’t feel super awkward and expository since the chapter was Crowley POV, so it was just left it as background noise.

Chapter 6 (pyramid of Cestius): Beyond being a magistrate of one of the four great religious corporations in ancient Rome (the Septemviri Epulonum), little is known about who Gaius Cestius actually was. As the city expanded, his lavish tomb was absorbed into the city walls (circa 3rd century AD), where it remains what he is remembered for to this day. I took most of my information from here (cross referenced with our lord and savior, Wikipedia) and had a chuckle at this poem by Thomas Hardy.

Chapter 8 (Plague of Justinian): The Yersinia pestis bacterium leaves no indicator on skeletal remains, meaning we rely on written records to track its path through history. The 6th century plague pandemic is the first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague, and for the purpose of our story, a certain distraught chronicler was the one on site, writing that history.

A note/cw: I wrote chapters 8 and 12 in October and November, respectively, and did much of my research for them over the summer. I imagine, given the current covid-19 pandemic, these sources would be less fun to follow up on now. Please be aware that the podcast episodes linked here, and the book cited in the miscellaneous refs section, get into pretty grisly details about illness and pandemics.

Chapters 8 and 12 (bubonic plague/The Black Death): I took a fair amount of my notes on bubonic/pnuemonic plague, specifically it’s path of destruction through Europe in the 14th century, from the two plague episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You. It’s pretty fascinating stuff and the Erins are great hosts, so check it out if you’re into delightful nerds bantering about epidemiology!

Chapter 9 (the death of Peter of Atroa): Peter of Atroa was an abbot whose fame as a miracle-worker landed him in a scandal accusing him of exorcising demons by the power of Beelzebub, rather than God. Theodore the Studite’s letter cleared his name enough to avoid execution, but his reputation didn’t fully recover until after his death in 837 AD, when he was canonized as a saint. Peter and Theodore were tough to find extensive information on without passing through a paywall, so I took these scraps and ran a mile with them.

Chapter 13 (Tlatelolco, the Aztec Empire, the Feast of the Dead): I used this site as the source and starting point on much of my research on the Aztec Empire. And listen… I know it looks like a website for babies, and yes, I’m aware that a lot of the articles are literally written for a pre-teen audience, but it’s also one of the most concise, thorough, well-researched, and — perhaps most importantly — easily-searchable sources I found. Most of the pages cite papers and archaeological journals and I was able to jump to SO many other great sources of information. Mexicolore has my undying love and devotion for making my research process easy and fun and also having lots of pretty pictures.

Most of the physical descriptions for Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco (surrounding landscape, canals and causeways, chinampas, etc.) started here.

Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco were independent cities, but shared a border (kind of like a city and a suburb) and the small island on Lake Texcoco (located where present day Mexico City is). Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec Empire, and besides cross-referencing Mexicorlore, the link in the previous bullet point, and Wikipedia, I got a fair bit of information from these essays.

Tlatelolco’s market was the major hub of trade and commerce, and saw 20-40,000 people trading PER DAY. Research on the market started here.

Chapter 14 (Terschelling and the Brandaris lighthouse): While I strove for historical accuracy as much as possible in this fic, I did take some liberties— especially with the island of Terschelling and the Brandaris lighthouse (yes, it’s real!) circa 1350-1435.

The village of Brandarius is based on present day West Terschelling— a settlement founded as a direct result of the lighthouse. In the middle ages, both the village and the lighthouse were named after Saint Brandarius (or Brendan of Clonfert: ‘The Navigator’, ‘The Voyager’, ‘The Anchorite’, ‘The Bold’; patron saint of divers, mariners, and travellers). It’s still a relatively small village today, and it was a surprisingly difficult task to find historical records for Brandarius/West Terschelling dating back to the 14th century that say much beyond “it existed.” I loosely based the village off information found here, and named it “Brandarius” instead of “West Terschelling” based on the information found here.

The original lighthouse was built in 1323, destroyed by the sea in 1570, and rebuilt in 1594. Since there were no records (that I could find) of what the original lighthouse looked like, I loosely based the height and floor plan on the current tower, and made up everything everything else about the interior. The interior was based on information about other live-in lighthouses, specifically this one which is roughly the same height as the Brandaris.

The present day Brandaris lighthouse sits directly in the middle of West Terschelling. For the sake of that sweet Self-Imposed Exile + Cryptid Lighthouse Keeper drama, I took the liberty of making my fictional village of Brandarius teeny tiny and setting it slightly apart from the lighthouse.

Miscellaneous references:

In addition to the podcast, details about plague in chapters 8 and 12 were gleaned from the book The Great Mortality by John Kelly. It’s a cool read if you’re into nonfiction that reads like fiction, but does have some rather graphic passages so proceed with caution.

Yaretzi’s maquizcóatl/Aziraphale’s memento. To clarify, they were NOT the same item. I pictured Aziraphale cherishing the memory of the day by the lake with Yaretzi so much, that once he acquired the bookshop and had a place for all his kitsch, he hunted down a bad luck dragon of his own.

Here is the Aztec creation story about sun cycles and Earth’s rebirths that Yaretzi told Aziraphale. Another version of it.

In the scene in Mexico where Aziraphale briefly remembers, I used an analogy about a moment that hovers and flits away as “quick as a hummingbird.” Besides just liking the words, this was a nod to the legend of the cempasuchil flower. I originally had Yaretzi telling Aziraphale that story too, but the chapter was just way too long and something had to go.

In my very first outline, I had Aziraphale’s grief and personal growth chapter taking place at a Día de Muertos festival in Mexico. When the plot and the timeline finally got ironed out and I realized only half of that story was going to take place on Earth, I ended up focusing on Aziraphale’s brief relationship with Yaretzi instead of the festival itself (she was always the important bit). I also found myself married to the idea of that chapter happening in the 14th and 15th centuries, which meant the scenes in Mexico take place before Spain invaded and the festival was based solely on its Aztec roots. Because the plot shifted in this way, a lot of research went on behind the scenes that never made it into the fic, but for anyone interested in the Aztec Feast of the Dead, Mexicolore was my starting place again. From there, I found my way to reading about Mictecacíhuatl, the Aztec goddess of death, who was the main focus of the festival.

This isn’t research, but it might interest, like… three of you, so here you go. The scenes in Heaven (Aziraphale’s solo chapter in general tbh) were hard to write. One of those walls you hit with writing where you kick and punch and bang your head against it for months (literal months, I started wrestling with it in August and it didn’t come together until the end of January) but can’t seem to make any breakthroughs. Inspiration truly comes from unexpected places though, and when @gottagobuycheese sent me this Gregorian chant generator it actually… worked? I cranked that hum slider up to 100 and left it there for a few days (to the chagrin of my spouse) and lo— Zophiel.

There’s a cool legend about Saint Brendan of Clonfert’s sea-faring journey in search of the Garden of Eden that has nothing to do with this fic beyond being neat parallel. If that happens to be anyone’s cup of tea, the story is here. The tl;dr version is here. My original vision for the lighthouse included carved whales (St Brendan’s attribute) over the front door, and images from this story (the island of sheep, the Christmas island, the paradise island of birds) drawn on the walls of one of the bedrooms used by previous keepers’ children. Continuing the theme of “how stories echo” if you will. It felt really awkward and out of place once I wrote it in though, and that chapter was already so long once I got through all the plot bits I wanted, so it was left on the cutting room floor.

Speaking of taking liberties with the 14th century, I did fudge the timing a bit on the art created by Crowley and Adrielle. Drawings, especially pencil sketches, have their historical roots in the late 15th century, and I’m chalking this one up to the fantastical setting of the Good Omens universe. In a fantasy world where angels and demons walk among us and the earth is literally 6,000 years old, I feel like inventing pencils 100 years early is small potatoes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is the edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that Crowley nicked in Norwich. There are some really wonderful illustrations and scans of full pages under that link. I may or may not have lost a few hours down that research rabbit hole for a few throwaway lines (no regrets, I fall like Crowley).

One last rabbit hole...

I saved this bit for the end of the post since it’s not really research and I don’t know how interested people will be in this kind of thing. Also... this is a lot more emotional and personal than the historical aspects of the fic. This is just what I was feeling and thinking while I was writing, and this story is absolutely the kind of thing I expect everyone to take something different away from. If you read the fic, took your own meaning from it, and want to keep that meaning without me tarnishing it by babbling about symbolism (first of all, high five, I love you, thank you for hanging out with me and my stories), then feel free to skip the rest of this post. <3

But! For anyone who wants to know more about what I had in mind with the flowers and nature metaphors I worked into the story, read on!

The tag “it’s an OT3 where Earth is the third” is something I really worked to pull to center stage. In my mind, Earth was a fully formed character who also spent the pre-Fall storyline being jerked around by God and having its memory wiped. It experienced transformations, pain, heartbreak, joy, and love just like Aziraphale and Crowley did, and I wrote it as falling in love with the two of them over the course of the Earth Project, then remaining very much in love for the entirety of iteration 23 (the current iteration). “Memories that are buried in places deeper than the mind” referred to the soul imprints being formed, but also Earth’s buried memories— seeping through the cracks to connect them via synesthesia in emotionally charged moments, allowing them to find each other from orbit in iterations 20 and 21 (music and the sea), and pulling them together in moments of distress like Constantinople and Barcelona.

In the vein of “Earth as a character,” I used plants (mainly flowers), topography, and weather as Earth’s “voice” in the grief chapters when Crowley and Aziraphale were separated from each other and going through their individual arcs. I’m not sure it technically counts as flower language, since all the flowers featured in the fic were wild and growing in nature, but (almost) all of them served a metaphorical purpose.

Flowers:

Jasmine (for the moon): Aziraphale’s flower. Love, beauty, sensuality, good luck, purity. The rational hedonist.

Marigolds (for the sun): Crowley’s flower. Grief and remembrance of the dead, lost love, the fragility of life, creativity, winning the affections of someone through hard work. The fallen artist.

Purple Hyacinth: Earth’s flower. Regret, sorrow, a desire for forgiveness. The witness. These were the wildflowers that grew in the orchard/vineyard on the penultimate Earth, where Aziraphale and Crowley managed to work out the differences they couldn’t by the sea. Hyacinths are also the hazy images they would see in those moments of vulnerability, compassion, and compromise.

A fun aside! In very early drafts, the placeholder name I was using for angel Crowley was Jacinto, which is a Spanish/Portuguese name meaning “Hyacinth.” It was meant to be a reference to both the flower and the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinth, but my brain absolutely could not disconnect it from Manny Jacinto (and kept insisting on imagining Crowley calling Aziraphale homie and calling everything dope). Eventually I leaned into the Latin and landed on Joriel, then attached my banner to the Achilles and Patroclus myth instead of Apollo and Hyacinth, but the name Jacinto still makes me think of starmakers.

Honeysuckle & morning glory, climbing the oak tree: Aziraphale + Crowley + Earth. Seen in chapter 10, when Aziraphale and Crowley shake hands on the Arrangement. Two plants whose vines grow in opposing spirals. In nature, they have a symbiotic relationship, twining around each other in order to climb trees, walls, and fences, allowing both of them to grow higher than they could alone.

Or: local woman sees this tweet, hasn’t known peace since.

The deasilwise / widdershins (clockwise / anticlockwise) thing got sprinkled throughout the story, with deasilwise being the “angel direction” and widdershins being the “demon direction.” Halley’s comet, with its backwards orbit, orbits the sun deasilwise, even after Crowley becomes widdershins.

Amaranth: Immortality, unfading affection, finding beauty in inaccessible places.

The garden in the dunes and Petya’s travelling garden:

Where Aziraphale took a methodical, Kubler-Ross approach to dealing with loss, Crowley’s process was meandering and chaotic. The garden in the dunes was where it all came to a head— his way of throwing all of his emotions on the ground like a big jumbled pile of pick-up sticks, then slowly sorting through them and putting himself back together. There was a whole lot of Earth/flower speech going on in those scenes.

With the exception of zinnias, the garden was made up of perennials or self-sowing flowers. This happened “off-screen” as I could never find a decent way to work it in, but... the zinnias which Crowley bullied into being perennials returned to being annuals and died off after he left Terschelling and sometimes I still cry in the shower about it.

Zinnias: Adrielle’s flower. Endurance, lasting friendship (especially friendships lasting through absence), goodness, daily remembrance. This one is also a small self-indulgence on my part since Adrielle was something of a self-insert. My mother loves zinnias and, growing up, our house was absolutely surrounded by them in the summer. Anywhere there was a free patch of dirt, Mom planted zinnias. They’re a scrappy, weird looking flower that doesn’t have a smell and a lot of people find rather ugly... and I love them with my entire heart. There is no flower on this earth that fills me with more whimsy, nostalgia, or childlike contentment. Also butterflies love them.

Chamomile: Patience. Fresh chamomile flowers are very aromatic and smell like apples.

Daisies: Transformation. Also simplicity, loyalty, and new beginnings.

Poppies: Restful sleep or recovery, peace in death, remembrance.

Tulips: Each tulip color has its own meaning, but the most common thing they symbolize is deep love. That said, I mainly chose this one for their prevalence in the Netherlands, as well as being very colorful perennials.

Pansies: The love or admiration that one person holds for another, free thinking, remembrance.

Lily of the valley: Rebirth, the return of happiness. They also have a very strong, very sweet smell and can grow in cool climates. These were the main reasons I chose it, rather than any of the religious connotations.

Lavender: Silence, devotion, serenity, grace.

Orchids: There’s... actually no deep symbolism with this one. Nothing intended anyway. Orchids, lavender, and cranberries are the dominant native plants on the island of Terschelling. I thought they’d be pretty in the dunes.

I am also a music-must-be-playing-at-all-times kind of person and I came out the other end of this project with FIFTEEN (15) playlists. Some of them are all instrumental playlists that I used to set the mood while I wrote certain scenes/segments, others are lyrical and tell a story or helped me sort out the story, some chapters got entire playlists all to themselves (looking at you, 14th century). The main playlists are linked in the notes on AO3, but I may collect them all in a tumblr post at some point if there’s an interest.

This entire project was an enormous labor of love that took up pretty much all of my free time for six months. So, if you read this far... thank you for coming on such a long journey with me!! Truly, deeply, and from every corner of my heart, thank you for reading. <3

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g0dtier · 4 years

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But i did seriously think it was funny as hell. Crowley and aziraphale carried that shit at first. Like the arguments they had were hilarious and like an old married couple. The witch hunter's grumpy ass distaste for the medium was so fucking funny in an "ok grandpa lets get you to bed" way. The scene where hes in her bedroom and finds the whip killed me. The "if anyone wants to have a go at the whore of babylon" line destroyed me

Aziraphale saying fuck one (1) time left me howling too. Gabriels "im the archangel fucking gabriel" made me lose it. Idk why its so fucking funny to me. Im not even a big fan of comedy and i think if anyone else tried to write something like this itd just get me to roll my eyes because its SO CHEESY. Its like the most corny ass shit but its so masterfully done by the writers and actors. I just. Omg. Even the "you smell like poop" thing to Hastur cracked me up even though on paper its so unfunny.

Also. The gosh dang car thing. That was so fucking funny. I was rooting for that car

And the dog i LOVED the dog.

And i just kinda loooove that its basically like. 2 dipshits who cant do anything manage to fuck up so bad that the antichrist, who also turns into a conspiracy theorist at some point, just has to fix shit himself because said dipshits who basically become his adopted parents are too fucking dumb of ass. This 11yo boy flexes hard on millenium old spiritual beings because theyre too stupid. I love it

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learningrendezvous · 4 years

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Media Studies

FATTITUDE

By Lindsey Averill, Viridiana Lieberman

An eye-opening look at how popular media perpetuates fat hatred that results in cultural bias and discrimination.

FATTITUDE is an eye-opening look at how popular media perpetuates fat hatred that results in a cultural bias and a civil rights issue for people living in fat bodies.

Fat people are paid $1.25 less an hour than their thin counterparts and can still legally lose jobs just because they're fat. Additionally, 1 in 3 doctors associates fat bodies with hostility, dishonesty and poor hygiene. FATTITUDE looks at how this systemic cultural prejudice results in fat discrimination. Informed by a post-modern, post-colonial, feminist perspective, FATTITUDE also examines how fat-shaming crosses the lines of race, class, sexuality and gender. It features a diverse variety of voices such as academic scholars, activists, filmmakers, actors and psychologists, including Lindy West, Sonya Renee Taylor, Virgie Tovar, Ricki Lake, and more.

A body positive documentary intent on inspiring change, FATTITUDE offers alternative ideas that embrace body acceptance at all sizes, explores examples of fat positive representations being produced today by activists and the media, and focuses on real life solutions for moving forward and changing the national conversation about body image.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2019 / 88 minutes

TVTV: VIDEO REVOLUTIONARIES

Director: Paul Goldsmith

Featuring Bill Murray, Hunter Thompson, Steven Spielberg, Lynn Swan, Goldie Hawn, Abbie Hoffman, Lily Tomlin and more, "TVTV: Video Revolutionaries" is a documentary about Top Value Television (TVTV), a band of merry video makers who, from 1972 to 1977, took the then brand-new portable video camera and went out to document the world. In those days, there were only three TV networks, using giant studio cameras, and no one had ever seen a portable camera stuck in their face, let alone one held by what Newsweek called "braless, blue-jeaned video freaks." Because the technology was so new, there were no rules about how to use it or what to make. So the "freaks" used it to make format-bending satirical shows about whatever interested them - from the 1972 Republican Convention to an award-winning expose of a 15-year-old jet-set guru named Guru Maharaj Ji, called "Lord of the Universe" to capturing the Steelers and Cowboys partying hard the night before Super Bowl X.

Directed by TVTV alum Paul Goldsmith, the film is like opening a treasure chest into the 1970s, filled with cultural and political events hosted by now-famous characters who were then just beginning their climb to iconic.

DVD / 2018 / 82 minutes

ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM

Director: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard

If you were impoverished and politically voiceless, ACORN hoped to change your mind. For 40 years, the community-organizing group sought to empower marginalized communities. Its critics, though, believed ACORN exemplified everything wrong with liberal ideals.

Fueled by a YouTube video made by two young conservatives who posed as pimp and prostitute in a sting, ACORN's very existence would be challenged. ACORN and the Firestorm goes beyond the 24-hour news cycle and cuts to the heart of the great political divide.

DVD / 2017 / 84 minutes

GRAY STATE, A

Director: Erik Nelson

In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film Gray State. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film's crowd-funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists and members of the nascent alt-right.

In January 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause celebre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims.

A Gray State combs through Crowley's archive of 13,000 photographs, hundreds of hours of home video, and exhaustive behind-the-scenes footage of Crowley's work in progress to reveal what happens when a paranoid view of the government turns inward - blurring the lines of what is real and what people want to believe.

DVD / 2017 / 93 minutes

OBIT.

Directed by Vanessa Gould

At a time when the free press is under threat, OBIT. takes a rare look inside one of the United States' foremost journalistic institutions, The New York Times. The steadfast writers of the paper's Obituaries section approach their work with journalistic rigor and narrative flair, each day depositing the details of a handful of extraordinary lives into the cultural memory. Going beyond the byline and into the minds of those chronicling the recently deceased, OBIT. is ultimately a celebration of life that conveys the central role journalism plays in capturing and reporting vital pieces of our history.

DVD (Region 1, Color, Closed Captioned) / 2017 / 95 minutes

TRUMP: THE ART OF THE INSULT

By Joel Gilbert

Donald Trump used his special brand of the Art of the Insult to attack opponents and bash the media all the way to the White House in 2016. He continues to master the art with ongoing fine-tuning from the podium, his office and of course on Twitter.

While critics insisted "The Donald" was merely a chaotic sideshow, Trump continues to dominate the 24-hour news cycle with a master plan of political incorrectness. Hurling insults like Low-Energy Jeb, Lyin' Ted, Crooked Hillary, Little Marco, Pocahontas, and Fake News, Trump has emerged as an unstoppable political phenomenon who has transformed the Presidential voice into the greatest show on earth.

Trump: The Art of the Insult tells the story of Donald Trump's improbable journey from Trump Tower to rallies across America to the debate stage, where he reveled in mocking and taunting rivals with targeted insults and nicknames, leaving them gasping for air. As President of the US, he continues the trend.

In Trump: The Art of the Insult, the President is often sophomoric and sometimes brutal, yet America seems to always find him entertaining. Love or hate Donald Trump, you'll find yourself laughing along with the leader of the free world, and marveling at Trump.

Is "the Real Donald Trump" a marketing genius and accomplished performance artist or....?

DVD / 2017 / 95 minutes

ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE

Director: Fred Peabody

Independent journalists like Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Matt Taibbi are changing the face of journalism, providing investigative, adversarial alternatives to mainstream, corporate news outlets. Our cameras follow as they expose government and corporate deception - just as the ground-breaking independent journalist I.F. Stone did decades ago.

DVD / 2016 / 91 minutes

DEMOCRACY ROAD

By Turid Rogne

After more than 20 years in exile in Norway, the Burmese journalists of DVB are returning to their homeland to establish their independent news station there. Editor-in-chief Aye Chan Naing and reporter Than Win Htut have dreamt about this for years, but their struggle for freedom and democracy is not over yet.

DEMOCRACY ROAD is a road movie documentary following the journalists of DVB in Myanmar in a critical phase of the establishment of the newborn democracy. With their existence as an independent news channel and Myanmar's future as a democracy at stake, senior reporter Than Win Htut and his colleagues hit the road with their groundbreaking show "Our Nation, Our Land." Their goal is to investigate the living conditions of ordinary people off the beaten path in Myanmar, but the machinery of the old dictatorship is still running. Simultaneously, editor-in-chief, Aye Chan Naing, has to negotiate with DVB's former enemies in the infamous Ministry of Information. The road towards democracy has only just begun...

Director Turid Rogne has followed the journalists of DVB for more than 10 years. With both boldness and sensitivity, she tells the story of life in a former dictatorship through the people who try to influence history.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 60 minutes

KINGS OF THE PAGES: THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC STRIPS

Directed by Robert Lemieux

At the turn of the 20th century, two of the most powerful men in America were newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Noted mostly for their contentious rivalry and sensationalist news coverage, they were also responsible for cultivating some of the era's most recognizable celebrities-Nemo, Krazy, Happy Hooligan, George McManus, Ignatz, Mutt, Buster Brown, Hans and Fritz, and Offissa Pup, to name a few.

In their ongoing battle to attract newspaper readers, both Hearst and Pulitzer had discovered that comic strips were a strategic addition. Often raiding each other's staffs to acquire the best talent, both men recognized the potential. It wasn't until Hearst unveiled the first full color, 8-page comic supplement in 1896, that the potential was fully realized, prompting Hearst's now famous quote motto... "Eight Pages of Iridescent Polychromous Effulgence That Makes The Rainbow Look Like A Lead Pipe!"

Over the next fifty years, that polychromatic effulgence would usher in the Golden Age of the American comic strip. During that time span, more than 150 different strips made their way into America's living rooms. Every week the characters and their creators provided humorous entertainment and tickled many a funny bone. Reading the comics became a cultural phenomenon.

Only available in North America.

DVD / 2016 / 24 minutes

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER

By Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER is a forensic exploration of our cultural obsession with images of the dead woman on screen. Interspersing found footage from films and police procedural television shows and one actor's experience of playing the part of a corpse, the film offers a meditative critique on the trope of the dead female body.

The visual narrative of the genre, one reinforced through its intense and pervasive repetition, is revealed as a highly structured pageant. The experience of physical invasion and exploitation voiced by the actor pierce the fabric of the screened fantasy. The result is recurring and magnetic film cliche laid bare. Essential viewing for Pop Culture, Women's and Cinema Studies classes.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 15 minutes

1971

Director: Johanna Hamilton

On March 8, 1971, a group of citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, PA, took every file, and shared them with the public. Their actions exposed the FBI's illegal surveillance program of law-abiding Americans. Now, these previously anonymous Americans publicly share their story for the first time.

The FBI, established in 1908, was for 60 years held unaccountable and untouchable until 1971, when The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, as they called themselves, sent the stolen files to journalists at the Washington Post, which published them and shed light on the FBI's widespread abuse of power. These actions exposed COINTELPRO, the FBI's illegal surveillance program that involved the intimidation of law-abiding Americans, and helped lead to the country's first congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The activist-burglars then disappeared into anonymity for forty years. Until now. Never caught, these previously anonymous Americans parents, teachers and citizens publicly reveal themselves for the first time and share their story in the documentary 1971. Using a mix of dramatic re-enactments and candid interviews with all involved, the film vividly brings to life one of the more important, yet relatively unexplored, chapters in modern American history.

DVD / 2015 / 79 minutes

BAPTISM OF FIRE, A

By Jerome Clement-Wilz

"As it gets harder to sell pictures, we take greater and greater risks," explains Corentin Fohlen. A war correspondent still in his twenties, Fohlen is part of a new generation of freelance journalists who fly to war zones from Libya to Afghanistan on their own dime in the hope of selling images to news media outlets.

But the carefree attitude of youth can change when confronted with the harsh reality of life in wartime. When a colleague is killed in Syria, Fohlen's thirst for adventure turns into a deeper reflection on the meaning of work and life. Director Clement-Wilz followed Fohlen through shells and bullets for four years in order to create this riveting portrait of the life of a contemporary war correspondent.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 52 minutes

DREAMS REWIRED

Narrated by Tilda Swinton By Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart & Thomas Tode

Tilda Swinton's hypnotic voiceover and a treasure trove of rare archival footage culled from hundreds of films from the 1880s through the 1930s—much of it previously unseen—combine to trace the anxieties of today's hyper-connected world back a hundred years. Then, too, electric media sparked idealism in the public imagination—hailed as the beginning of an era of total communication, annihilation of distance and the end of war. But then, too, fears over the erosion of privacy, security, morality proved to be well-founded.

DREAMS REWIRED traces contemporary appetites and anxieties back to the birth of the telephone, television and cinema. At the time, early electric media were as revolutionary as social media are now. The technologies were expected to serve everyone, not just the elite classes. Human relationships would become stronger, efficiency would increase and the society would be revolutionized... But these initial promises were very different from what new media eventually brought to daily life.

Using excerpts from early dramatic films, slapstick comedies, political newsreels, advertisements and recordings of scientific experiments culled during years of research in film archives around the world, co-directors Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart and Thomas Tode unearth material that is by turns hilarious, revelatory, beautiful and prescient. The archival footage, combined with poetic narration and a virtuosic score by Siegfried Friedrich forges a cross-generational connection between contemporary viewers and their idealistic forbearers of a century ago.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 85 minutes

HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION

Director: Barbara Kopple

Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation is a vivid, inside look at America's oldest continuously published weekly magazine. Shot over three years in intimate, cinema verite style, the film captures the day-to-day pressures and challenges of publishing the progressive magazine as it follows reporters out into the field, the editors who shape their work, and the editor-in chief who tries to keep all of the plates spinning.

Writers are the heart and soul of the magazine, and the film follows them extensively. Sasha Abramsky travels to West Texas to report on the years-long drought that has gripped the region and the devastating economic impact on farmers and residents. John Nichols unpacks what's going on behind the effort to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Amy Wilentz visits the "temporary" tent camps of Haiti, three years after the earthquake, to shed light on the dire conditions and lackluster international response. And Dani McClain reports on the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina, and its dynamic leader Rev. William Barber, as they push back against an extreme right-wing takeover of the state legislature.

In all of the current-day reported stories, The Nation's incredible trove of archival articles - and roster of writers - acts as an historical touchstone and illuminates how the past continuously ripples through and shapes current events.

At a fascinating moment in American history - politically, socially and culturally - the media landscape is changing at breathtaking speed. The film charts the journey of The Nation - and the nation - evolving into the future, as it is guided by its remarkable past.

DVD / 2015 / 92 minutes

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Director: Jerry Rothwell

How to Change the World chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers - Canadian hippie journalists, photographers, musicians, scientists, and American draft dodgers - who set out to stop Richard Nixon's atomic bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement.

Greenpeace was founded on tight knit, passionate friendships forged in Vancouver in the early 1970s. Together they pioneered a template for environmental activism which mixed daring iconic feats and worldwide media: placing small rubber inflatables between harpooners and whales, blocking ice-breaking sealing ships with their bodies, spraying the pelts of baby seals with dye to make them valueless in the fur market. The group had a prescient understanding of the power of media, knowing that the advent of global mass communications meant that the image had become a more effective tool for change than the strike or the demonstration.

DVD (Region 1, Color) / 2015 / 109 minutes

SEX, LIES AND TABLOIDS!

By Jean-Baptiste Peretie

They're lurid, obnoxious, disdainful and explicit. And we love them - and love to hate them.

SEX, LIES AND TABLOIDS! charts the rise and fall of tabloid papers in the UK and US, including the New York Post, The Sun, and notorious supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer and The Star.

In the beginning, they were upstarts. Papers that shamelessly pandered with stories about sex scandals, and celebrities - often skirting ethical lines, and sometimes outright making things up ("Run it through the typewriter again," was one editor's mantra.) But by the 1980s and '90s they had become the media heavyweights. Left behind by the tabloids' coverage of Bill Clinton's sex life, Princess Diana and the OJ Simpson trial, the mainstream media started to adopt their techniques.

SEX, LIES AND TABLOIDS! Features extensive interviews with key tabloid players such as notorious editor Kelvin MacKenzie ("If you have no news... you get a picture of Diana and make it as big as possible"), journalist Paul McMullan ("People need to understand that privacy is an evil, bad concept"), and the late Vincent Musetto (famed for the headline "Headless body in topless bar"). The film provides an insider's account of the no-holds-barred mentality driving tabloid journalism while also using fun and campy footage mimicking the style of the tabloids themselves.

Eventually, the tabs would go too far. Briefly chastened by the death of Diana and shunned after the British phone hacking scandal, the papers would go into a downward spiral, with The News of the World even shutting down. But culture they spawned is stronger than ever. Sites like TMZ and The Smoking Gun and an omni-present gotcha culture have brought the spirit of the tabloids to the Internet. At the same time, the ubiquity of sharing means photos that would once have been prized by paparazzi (hello Kim Kardashian in a bikini) are posted by celebrities and would-be-celebs themselves. The tabloids may be gone, but the tabloid spirit is everywhere.

DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 52 minutes

WORLD ACCORDING TO RUSSIA TODAY, THE

By Misja Pekel

In 2014, Malaysian Airlines passenger flight 17 was shot down with a rocket intended for the private plane of Russian president Vladimir Putin... If, that is, a viewer is relying on the satellite TV network Russia Today as their source for news.

These claims were not the first time Russia Today drew attention for counter-factual reporting: during the 2008 war in Georgia, the network reported that South Ossetians were the victims of genocide at the hands of Georgians. In 2014, the channel was warned by the British TV agency for its biased and inaccurate reporting on the uprising on Maidan Square in Kiev. The list goes on and on.

Russia Today (now renamed just RT) was launched in 2005 to bring a Russian-centric perspective on current political events to a global audience. After a decade of generous Kremlin funding, 2015 found the 24-hour news channel the biggest media organization on YouTube with 2 billion viewers: more than CNN and the BBC combined.

The network claims only to offer an alternative perspective to the monolithic view presented by mainstream Western media. But what kind of "reporting" is Russia Today actually doing? What is it like to work for the channel? How much influence does the Kremlin really have there? Is it possible to differentiate between fact and opinion on a Russian channel when the Russian interests are at stake?

In Misja Pekel's disturbing documentary THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RUSSIA TODAY, former and current news anchors, editors and correspondents for the network-including William Dunbar, Sara Firth, Marc de Jersey, Afshin Rattansi and Liz Wahl-join journalists and media professionals Alexander Nekrassov, Peter Pomerantsev, Richard Sambrook, Daniel Sandford, Derk Sauer and more in a detailed dissection of the channel's modus operandi and the challenges and dangers of reporting and consuming news in a globalized world.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 40 minutes

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

In the new world of tweets, blogs, and citizen journalism, what is the outlook for true investigative reporting? This program highlights the ways investigative journalism is changing, particularly in the context of digital and online media. Social media and globalization have changed the ways reporters connect with their readers. What are the advantages and disadvantages of nearly instantaneous access to news as it unfolds? A panel of heavy hitters from the world of journalism weighs in on these and other issues, such as emerging financial models for (costly) investigative reporting as traditional news budgets shrink. Young reporters entering the field will be particularly encouraged by many of the exciting technologies and resources available for developing stories that are more in-depth, media-rich, and engaging. Investigative journalism is a fast-evolving field, and this program helps entry-level reporters as well as veterans to bear witness more effectively in the Internet era.

DVD / 2014 / 17 minutes

ADJUST YOUR TRACKING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE VHS COLLECTOR

It revolutionized the film business. The birth and life of VHS as a format brought films into the homes of millions around the world. And, it brought genre films to the forefront. Now, if you think VHS is dead, you're wrong!

Over 100 collectors, filmmakers, producers, and video store owners express how VHS changed their lives. Some see VHS as worthless plastic, but Adjust Your Tracking shows a vibrant world of collectors and movie fans who are keeping the format, and the movies, alive. Travel back to the days of video rental stores with those who still buy, sell, rent and trade the format that will not die-VHS.

DVD / 2013 / 84 minutes

CAPTIVATED: FINDING FREEDOM IN A MEDIA CAPTIVE CULTURE

This feature-length documentary is not anti-media or anti-technology, but it raises critical concerns about our culture's seemingly unchecked enthusiasm for media consumption. It highlights the overwhelming evidence of growing problems on multiple fronts, including the potential physical, psychological, moral, and spiritual impacts of media technology when used or consumed without discretion.

Features outstanding interviews with Ray Comfort, Bob Waliszewsi, Dr. Ted Baehr, Dr. Jeff Myers, Kerby Anderson, Kevin Swanson, Dr. David Walsh, Al Menconi, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, Dick Rolfe, Phil Chalmers, Professor Mark Bauerlein, Maggie Jackson, and more. .

DVD / 2013 / 107 minutes

INREALLIFE

Director: Beeban Kidron InRealLife asks what exactly is the internet and what is it doing to our children? Taking us on a journey from the bedrooms of teenagers to Silicon Valley, filmmaker Beeban Kidron suggests that rather than the promise of free and open connectivity, young people are increasingly ensnared in a commercial world. Beguiling and glittering on the outside, it can be alienating and addictive. Quietly building its case, Kidron's film asks if we can afford to stand by while our children, trapped in their 24/7 connectivity, are being outsourced to the net?

While newspapers alternately praise and panic about the glittering world of the Internet, there is a generation of children who have grown up with a smart phone in their hand, connected to the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Public discourse seems to revolve around privacy, an issue that embodies the fears and concerns of adults. What is less discussed is what it really means to always be online, never alone and increasingly bombarded by a world that has something to sell you and appears to know you better than yourself. A world that is so ubiquitous that it is the first thing you see as you wake up in the morning and the last thing you see before you go to sleep at night.

For adults there was a 'before' the net. But for the current generation, at the time of their most rapid development they have no other experience and few tools with which to negotiate the overwhelming parade of opportunity and cost that the internet delivers directly into their hands.

From the bedrooms of five disparate teenagers and then into the companies that profit from the internet, InRealLifetakes a closer look at some of the behavioral outcomes that come from living in a commercially driven, 'interruption' culture.

Following the physical journey of the internet, from fiber optic cables through sewers and under oceans, from London to NYC and finally to Silicon Valley, the film reveals that what is often thought of as an 'open, democratic and free' world is in fact dominated by a small group of powerful players. Meanwhile our kids - merely pawns in the game - are adapting to this new world - along with their expectation of friendship, their cognition and their sexuality.

DVD / 2013 / 90 minutes

SMILING THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE

Director: Tom Hayes

Esquire magazine was a galvanizing force in American culture from the early 1960s through the early '70s. Forging its pop-cultural capital on the basis of provocative cover art, intellectual audacity and riveting articles by the preeminent and cutting edge writers of the time, the magazine captured the zeitgeist of America in the crucible of the '60s.

The chief architect of this print revolution was Harold Hayes, a brilliant and tenacious editor who granted Esquire's contributors unprecedented journalistic freedom. Hayes' fearless instincts provided a haven for writers like Gore Vidal, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Nora Ephron, William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer, and nurtured the iconoclastic talents of art director George Lois. By making it possible for writers and artists to bring novelistic techniques into reportage Hayes fostered what became known as "New Journalism".

The indelible cultural contributions captured in this enthralling documentary by his son, Tom Hayes, provide a vivid context for nothing less than the rebirth of American aesthetics. Featuring interviews with Robert Benton, Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Brock Brower, Graydon Carter, Lee Eisenberg, Harlan Ellison, Nora Ephron, Robert Frank, Hugh Hefner, Tom Meehan, Frank Rich, Bob Rifkind, Gay Talese, Gore Vidal, Ed Wilson, Tom Wolfe and many others.

DVD / 2013 / 99 minutes

BATTLE FOR THE ARAB VIEWER, THE

By Nordin Lasfar

In early 2011, people around the world tuned into Al Jazeera to watch the Egyptian revolution in real time. Meanwhile, rival broadcaster Al Arabiya was also offering near continuous coverage, with cameras on a balcony overlooking the 6th October Bridge, where protesters and police clashed.

How was the content of those broadcasts - and the networks' subsequent coverage - influenced by their political allegiances?

Featuring interviews with current and former journalists from both networks, and analysis from independent pundits, The Battle for the Arab Viewer highlights the philosophical differences between the two pan-Arab networks.

Al Jazeera was created by the Emir of Qatar after he deposed his father in a coup. The station typically champions the poor and social movements - such as the Muslim Brotherhood - that are hostile to the Saudi regime. The station has grown highly influential. In the film, a passerby stops Al Jazeera's chief Cairo correspondent on the street to thank him and the government of Qatar for supporting the anti-Mubarak forces, saying the network is "90%" responsible for the revolution.

With Al Jazeera supporting elements hostile to Saudi Arabia, the Saudis set up their own network as a counterpoint: the more conservative Al Arabiya, owned by a close friend of the royal family.

While The Battle for the Arab Viewer offers insight and analysis, it also shows how the battle between the two networks plays out on the ground in Cairo. We go behind the scenes with Al Arabiya journalist Randa Abul Azm and Al Jazeera's Abdelfattah Fayed as they follow stories, break news, and cover events such as Hosni Mubarak's trial. (Azm is allowed into the courtroom, but Fayed is not.)

Azm and Fayed each mirror their networks' respective demographics. Al Arabiya appeals to well-off, middle-class viewers who value security and stability. Enter Amz, who lives in a building built by her engineer father, on a street named for her grandfather. Fayed, representing the network that purports to stand for the downtrodden, shows us a photo of his father, who worked in agriculture.

Both deny that their work is influenced by the political agendas of their networks' owners. But former employees of both networks tell a different story. Particularly striking is the case of Hafez al Mirazi, who was taken off Al Arabiya's airwaves after promising to put Saudi Arabia under the microscope on his show.

Media bias is nothing new - as Mirazi says, viewers of Fox News and MSNBC each know what they are going to get. What is different in the Arab world is that the networks are directly owned by states. He says, "They keep shifting according to the countries they are sponsored by, and that affects the stories their citizens get on a daily basis."

Ultimately, the problem may resolve itself. As democracy spreads through the region, will truly independent media follow?

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 48 minutes

WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

Director: Christian Frei

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." - Robert Capa

War photographer James Nachtwey has been close enough for twenty years. Over this time he hasn't missed a single war. And he probably has seen more suffering and dying than anyone else alive. For War Photographer, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Christian Frei followed Nachtwey for two years into the wars in Indonesia, Kosovo, and Palestine, as well as to other troubled areas around the world.

If we believe Hollywood pictures, war photographers are all hard-boiled and cynical old troopers. How can they think about 'exposure time' at the very moment of dread? But James Nachtwey is no rumbling swaggerer. He is an unobtrusive man, with grey hair and the deliberation of a professor of philosophy. A thoughtful, rather shy person - who many think of as the bravest and best war photographer ever.

Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Hans-Hermann Klare of Stern Magazine and many other friends and colleagues of Nachtwey talk about his photos, his relationship to his work, and the impact it has on his personal life. And many of his most powerful images are shown in the film.

Finally, and most amazingly, in War Photographer special video micro-cameras are attached to Nachtwey's still camera. We hear every breath of the photographer. We participate in the act of shooting war photos. And for the first time in the history of movies about photographers, this technique allows us the most intimate insight into the work of a concerned photojournalist.

DVD (English and German) / 2001 / 96 minutes

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Media_1911.html

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movietvtechgeeks · 6 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/top-5-supernatural-episodes-might-surprise-spnfamily/

Top 5 'Supernatural' episodes that might surprise SPNFamily

Socially, we’re conditioned to ask the basics when we meet people. You know, the small talk questions: Where are you from? What do you do? How many siblings do you have? Eventually, we progress into the hard-hitting ‘getting to know yous’ of relationships, even if it’s reading someone’s words. Favorite song? Favorite book? Favorite movie? The thing is, people sometimes lie. Whether they mean to or not. No one’s favorite book is Anna Karenina; it’s just not. You can respect the book, but it’s not your favorite; you don’t revisit it regularly, it’s not a comforting blanket you burrito yourself inside. For example, my favorite song, book, and movie, respectively, are: “Just What I Needed” by The Cars, “Death Comes as the End” by Agatha Christie, and “A Few Good Men.” Have I heard better songs? Sure, as one of my best friend’s husband once said: “‘Just What I Needed’ isn’t even Ric Ocasek’s favorite song.” Have I read better books? Absolutely. Are there better movies? No. And I will fight you. My point is: sometimes I think that society, or in this case fandom culture, makes us feel as though we should choose things that we may like a lot but also simultaneously live up to some arbitrary social standard or norm, as our favorite. In Supernatural fandom I often see the same few episodes held up as universal fan favorites; episodes like “Yellow Fever,” “Changing Channels,” “The French Mistake,” “Swan Song,” and “Baby.” Maybe these episodes are your faves, but they aren’t mine; not even close. I’m not even talking about the episodes I think are the all-around best or the most quintessential (we’ll get into that in another article). I mean these don’t even make my top ten, they aren’t my go-to episodes, the ones I’ve watched the most, the ones I’ll watch out of sequence just because I want to relive the entire thing on a random Tuesday afternoon. In fact, one of those example episodes is in my bottom ten. So, which out of over 265 episodes, are my favorites? I’ll tell you not because I’m telling you that I think these are the best episodes and that you should agree (again, that arrogance will come in another article), but because I think this is a fun introduction. A way for you all to get to know me. Sin City - I’ll admit that “Sin City” isn’t the best episode ever penned, the quips are heavy-handed, and the plot is simplistic. Honestly, it’s kinda middle of the road, but that’s what makes it re-watchable without the emotional hangover of “Mystery Spot” or “Fresh Blood” (Besides, we’ll get into those episodes in a later article. What “Sin City” does have is a great supporting cast: we get to see Katie Cassidy finally start to her get bearings playing Ruby 1.0, we get a great scene at the beginning where Sam and Dean are such bratty, yet lovable surrogate children to Bobby, we meet and mourn Richie, the perv with a heart of gold, (I mean, he’s basically Dean (Jensen Ackles) without the suave or skill), and we cozy up in a basement with Casey the bartender demon who is insightful, witty, and deadly, but her quid pro quo with Dean gives us a good dose of classic cocky Dean Winchester who is also a scared little boy underneath it all. Bonus, we also get the rare unicorn that is goofy, chagrinned Sammy as he backs his way out of Trotter’s office. And anyway, if you don’t catch yourself saying “I make a mean hurricane” every time you look at the Red Lobster drink menu you are living your life wrong. Ask Jeeves - now, I’m going to stop you before you tell me that Fan Fiction is the best episode of season 10, because it’s really, REALLY not. It’s arguably in the bottom three of the season. “Ask Jeeves,” however, was a perfect play on the movie that inspired it (which is one of the best movies of all time, again, I will fight you) and was another episode overflowing with a great supporting cast with fantastic comedic timing. For an episode that was primarily a loose tie-in to the release of the Supernatural Clue game it could have gone so wrong, but instead, it went so very right. The soundtrack is stellar, the jokes and pop culture references are on point without being concussion-inducing anvils, and the mystery itself is background to the story without being disappointing. “Ask Jeeves” is a comedic romp with a nice little hit of Winchester family feelings; it’s a bread and butter Supernatural episode. Besides, Dash hunts pheasants. He. Hunts. Pheasants. Caged Heat - This is an ensemble style episode done right. We get one of the best interactions between Sam/Dean and a demon to ever grace the show (props to character actor Conrad Coates for delivering, “I know you're speaking, I see your lips moving, but I can't understand what you're saying 'cause I don't speak little bitch,” because that line is a mouthful) and from that we slide seamlessly into Meg getting the drop on the boys and Sam turning it on her in the blink of an eye because he now understands her calculating nature so well. Speaking of calculating, Sam using the the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark to lure Castiel to him is a perfect segue into their mutually soulless tête-à-tête (full disclosure, season 6 Castiel is my favorite version of Castiel). We also get Meg taking on a pack of hellhounds, Dean threatening Samuel, Sam (Jared Padalecki) biting into his wrist to draw a Devil’s Trap with his own blood (that bloody grin is everything), Dean rescuing Meg from demon Christian. Then we get the brothers and Meg working in tandem against Crowley in perfect harmony, the fake-out Crowley death that we only later find out was all a set up between Crowley and Castiel (Misha Collins) who were working together all along. It’s an episode that works on your first watch, yet is even more brilliant in retrospect. Night Shifter - Okay, I’ll be up front, season 2 is not only my favorite season of Supernatural but one of my favorite seasons of television. Period. Even its weakest episode is still so damn good, but if I have to choose one to go on a list that is based on simple re-watchability, I have to hand it to this one. Meet conspiracy theorist Ronald Resnik; he’s that character that every procedural or genre show needs at least once a season; the one who is wholly unqualified, but still tries to be the hero. Not for the glory, but because lives are at stake and the right thing has to be done. We laugh at Ron and his mandroid ideas; Dean praises him, Sam shuts him down, both do it because he’s so close yet, oh, so far from the truth. And when Ronald gets shot (which while tragic, is gorgeously directed and edited) your heart breaks for both Dean and Ronald. You also get exactly that Sam wanted to keep him deep in the dark because the hunter life is nothing but pain and death. Speaking of impactful characters, we also meet Agent Henriksen in this episode, a character that is a perfect example of an outside POV of the Winchesters. His description of them being “dangerous, smart, and expertly trained” is so important because he doesn’t know what they really do, yet he understands who they are on a fundamental level, and while he wants to lock them up, he fully respects them as adversaries. This episode is cinematic; it literally feels like a complete movie. It’s beautifully shot, every actor brought their A-game (Dean’s little forehead punch when he hangs up with Henriksen is one of those tiny, silent details that makes a moment a moment). We get great dialogue (“I like him, he says okeydokey,” “its robot skin is so lifelike;’ Sam’s long-suffering “we’re not working for the mandroid!;’ Henriksen’s breakdown of the Winchester family that could have been clunky exposition but was instead just a smooth reminder of who they are with bonus (“yeah, I know about Sam, the Bonnie to your Clyde”). But if all that wasn’t enough, there’s also arguably the most iconic Supernatural moment and one of the top three musical cues of the show: Sam and Dean in stolen SWAT gear sneaking to the Impala while “Renegade” plays. I’ve seen this episode more times than I’m willing to admit, and I get chills at that moment every single time. Shadow - Yeah, I know, this is out of left field, but hear me out, because I think this episode is woefully underrated. First of all, we get a tiny peek into the Weechesters by way of Dean reminding Sam of his high school drama years. Not only did Dean remember Sam was in “Our Town,” he clearly went to the play to support his baby brother. We also get smart Sam AND Dean in this episode. Dean by way of visualizing the Daeva pattern in the victim’s blood and Sam using the flare against the Daeva shadow demons. Speaking of the brothers being brothers, there’s a lot to take in during this episode. Starting with them running into Meg and Dean being hurt by Sam telling her about their fight, but as soon as Sam reassures him that he’s with Dean by choice, not force, Dean slips right into teasing, wingman big bro mode. Add to that the subtle nod of trust we can infer by way of Sam taking Baby for his stakeout while Dean researches. This is an episode that on the surface is a basic hunt that ties into the now growing cohesive season throughline, but it’s actually all about family. There’s the brothers’ dynamic and the way their bond has solidified since “Scarecrow”, however, we also get to see Dean’s vulnerability when Sam naively thinks that this could be it, the end of it all, the catalyst back to “normal”, whereas Dean just wants his family together, hell or high water. There’s also the fact that no matter how you as a viewer personally feel about John Winchester, the demons know that he’s never far behind his boys; he’s always watching, always protecting them in his own way. And, of course, we get to see a full Winchester reunion complete with damp eyes, manly hugs and choked up voices. John Winchester saying, “hey boys”, the brothers saying “yes, sir” at the same time (this episode has two instances of Winsync Winspeak); John’s unspoken apologies; Dean’s face while Sam and John hug; Sam being the one who wants them all together, and Dean being the one to understand that they can’t stay with John. John mirroring Sam’s earlier words to Dean about letting go. All of this will always make me emotional. This episode also has one of my favorite horror tropes, one that Supernatural has unfortunately pulled away from in recent years: it’s creepier when you don’t see what’s after you, like the great Steven Spielberg once said about “Jaws,” what’s scariest is the “fear of the unknown.” The mechanical shark forced Spielberg’s hand, and a crazy tight budget forced Eric Kripke’s, but it worked; the shark is terrifying because you don’t see it until the end, it’s the anticipation. It’s the same with the Daeva being shadow demons and later in seasons 2 and 3 with the hellhounds. Unfortunately, in recent seasons we’ve now seen hellhounds, and, well, they were scarier when all we had were torsos shredded by invisible claws and our imaginations. And as much as this episode was packed to the brim with Winchester family fat to chew on, they aren’t the only family. We find out that Meg is doing what she does for family as well. The overarching theme of Supernatural takes form in this episode; human, demon, ghost, or ghoul, it’s always about family in some way. [caption id="attachment_52142" align="aligncenter" width="696"] Source: Home of the Nutty screencaps for all images[/caption] So, like I said when we started this, my intention isn’t to say these are the best episodes of Supernatural, merely that these are my top 5 comfortable sweatpants episodes. So, did any of your favorites make my list? Did I make you want to re-watch an episode you don’t think much about as much? Let me know.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Featured #Jared Padalecki #Jensen Ackles #Supernatural

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tea-and-skeletons · 7 years

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When the death of little-known conspiracy theorist Max Spiers began to make mainstream news broadcasts in 2016, he suddenly became one of the most talked-about people in his field. On July 16, he mysteriously died lying on a couch in Warsaw.

His death is shrouded in mystery, as are the events that appear to have taken place in the hours and days following his demise. Somewhere between the denials and the extreme, outrageous theories lies the truth as to what happened to the 39-year-old father of two. Until that truth surfaces, however, here are ten strange facts and conspiracies within conspiracies that make up one of the most interesting, if grim, accounts of recent times.

- When Spiers’s laptop computer was returned to his mother, Vanessa, several days following her son’s death, she discovered that every single file and folder had been deleted. What was essentially her son’s work for the better part of a decade had simply disappeared. The same was true for his mobile phone, which although intact and in working order, had the SIM card removed.This ultimately led Vanessa to speculate in the BBC documentary Fractured: The Death of Max Spiers that there was information on those devices that “someone doesn’t want anybody to see.” While by themselves, these facts are not proof of any kind of wrongdoing, they’re certainly a red flag to conspiracy theorists and researchers and are precisely the kind of incidents that fan the flames of such theories.

- Max Spiers had many bizarre claims and strange theories, one of which was that he was part of Project Mannequin, a top secret operation that works out of the United Kingdom but is ultimately run by the NSA.The project is said to target and kidnap people beginning at a very young age. Over time, by the use of trauma-based mind control, they break their minds and preprogram them to be unknowing assassins. Top secret remote viewing missions are also claimed to take place from the grounds of a secret base.The base is said to be underneath the small town of Peasemore, in Berkshire. The base, although it officially doesn’t exist, is known in military groups as “AL/499 Base,” at least according to those who subscribe to the claims.

-While attending to Spiers in the immediate hours before his death, it was noted by the doctor who tried to revive Max on-scene that he vomited “dark brown liquid.” When Spiers’s mother spoke to Monika Duval following his death, she was told that he had “vomited two liters of black fluid.”

As you might expect, theories as to what this substance might have been range from the probable to the outrageous. Some believe the dark fluid to be the result of poisoning, either intentional or accidental, which would also explain the intense fever Max suffered in his final 24 hours. Vanessa theorized that he was poisoned slowly over many days, which would explain the decline in his health in the days immediately leading up to his death.

Others believe that whatever it was that Max was investigating, he made certain people uncomfortable enough to take tragic and final action. The apparent lack of information from the Polish authorities plays into their hands in terms of backing up their claims. One of the most extreme theories is that the black vomit was the result of a satanic spell or ritual, which the satanic elite alien overlords carried out.

- When he spoke at a seminar in Warsaw in April 2016, Spiers made mention of being subject to astral attacks by people who wished to prevent him from traveling to the Polish capital and giving his speech.While giving what would prove to be his final interview in Poland in July 2016, Spiers claimed he was being attacked as he spoke to the presenter. He claimed that his face “felt like it was on fire” and that there was a “crushing” feeling around his throat. Those who are skeptical of his claims believe it wasn’t an astral attack that was responsible for Spiers’s strange behavior during that final interview. Rather, Spiers was clearly under the influence of drugs.Many other conspiracy theorists have spoken of such attacks, and even Aleister Crowley was said to dabble in such antics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people reject the reality of such notions.

-While many embraced Spiers as an authentic whistle-blower, putting his very life on the line to pass on information to the world, others, even some in his own field, were less convinced and did not regard him as credible. Adam Borowski told the BBC that Spiers merely “collects the research of other people and then presents it as his own.”Many of Spiers’s theories and ideas did echo other authors such as David Icke or whistle-blowers such as Corey Goode. Whether that makes his claims authentic or not is very much open to debate. What is for certain though, even after his death, is that Spiers remains a person who manages to cause a divide of sorts, even within his own field.

#max spiers #conspiracy #conspiracy theories

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crvwly · 4 years

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good omens? (have a good day fren

(thank u frien!!!)

my all-time ultimate fave character: crowley !!!!!!!!!! my softest, saddest son

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: all of the children. i have problems with children

a character I used to like but now don’t: can’t think of any!

a character I’m indifferent about: adam. boi’s the weirdest antichrist ever but he can chill

a character who deserved better: anathema deserved to be a lesbian can you believe they wrote a leftist conspiracy theorist cottagecore witch and had her fuck a man can you BELIEVE

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: beez/gabriel, mostly because gabriel is a tit and beez is awesome and i only want beez content lmao

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: ineffable idiots who have been in love for 6,000 years? sign me the FUCK up

a cute, low-key ship: uhhh aziraphale/oscar wilde? LMAO

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: can’t think of any

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: anathema/newt. why. why. why. wh

my favourite storyline/moment: ever since @columbiasgreatestminds pointed out the musical background in the bench scene at the end, i’ve been obsessed with it

a storyline that never should have been written: i genuinely could not care any less about shadwell and think everything involving him can be disposed of lmfao

my first thoughts on the show: excellent, i can finally enjoy one of my best friend’s favorite stories bc i couldn’t read the book for adhd reasons

my thoughts now: hyperfocus numero uno binch !!!!!!!!!!!!! i love these fucking idiots and the fact that the show is about incompetency and love because that’s all my life is about too babey idiot it up get me involved !!!!!!!!!!!!

send me a tv show and i’ll answer these questions about it!

#anonymous #asks

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learningrendezvous · 5 years

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Media Studies

TVTV: VIDEO REVOLUTIONARIES

Director: Paul Goldsmith

DVD / 2018 / 82 minutes

ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM

Director: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard

DVD / 2017 / 84 minutes

CELLING YOUR SOUL

Directed by Joni Siani

An examination of our love/hate relationships with our digital devices from the first digitally socialized generation, and what we can do about it.

In one short decade, we have totally changed the way we interact with one another. The millennial generation, the first to be socialized in a digital world, is now feeling the unintended consequences.

CELLING YOUR SOUL is a powerful and informative examination of how our young people actually feel about connecting in the digital world and their love/hate relationship with technology. It provides empowering strategies for more fulfilling, balanced, and authentic human interaction within the digital landscape.

The film reveals the effects of "digital socialization" by taking viewers on a personal journey with a group of high school and college students who through a digital cleanse discover the power of authentic human connectivity, and that there is "No App" or piece of technology that can ever replace the benefits of human connection.

DVD / 2017 / (Grades 6-12, College, Adult) / 48 minutes

GRAY STATE, A

Director: Erik Nelson

DVD / 2017 / 93 minutes

ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE

Director: Fred Peabody

DVD / 2016 / 91 minutes

HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION

Director: Barbara Kopple

DVD / 2015 / 92 minutes

PROJECT Z

Directed by Phillip Gara

An investigation into how war games, worst-case scenarios, complex systems, and networked media produce the very crises they seek to model, predict and report.

As the Cold War ends, a professor goes in search of an America without an enemy. Armed with a Hi8 video camera and inspired by the detective work of Walter Benjamin, he heads deep into the inner circles of the defense, entertainment and media industries, where he discovers a worst-case future being built from war games, video games, and language games.

Some thirty years later, a group of student filmmakers find the videotapes in a filing cabinet, along with a stack of old newspaper clippings, audio interviews and photographs. With the help of friends from the Global Media Project, the filmmaker produces an experimental documentary that goes back to the future, where they find the original maps for a new world order. An unexpected warning is found on the outermost edges of the maps: "Beware of Zombies!"

The result is PROJECT Z, a film that updates another warning, issued by President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address, about the emergence of a "military-industrial complex" and the consequences should "public policy be captured by a scientific and technological elite".

Combining rare footage from inside the war machine with corrosive commentary by leading critics of global violence, injustice, and inequality, the film challenges the living to write their own future before the walking dead conjure the final global event.

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 74 minutes

INREALLIFE

Director: Beeban Kidron

InRealLife asks what exactly is the internet and what is it doing to our children? Taking us on a journey from the bedrooms of teenagers to Silicon Valley, filmmaker Beeban Kidron suggests that rather than the promise of free and open connectivity, young people are increasingly ensnared in a commercial world. Beguiling and glittering on the outside, it can be alienating and addictive. Quietly building its case, Kidron's film asks if we can afford to stand by while our children, trapped in their 24/7 connectivity, are being outsourced to the net?

DVD / 2013 / 90 minutes

SMILING THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE

Director: Tom Hayes

DVD / 2013 / 99 minutes

By Daniel Moshel

Centered around two people homebound by their disabilities who have found community online, LOGIN 2 LIFE explores the growing number of people who spend much of their lives in online virtual worlds.

Elaborate digital platforms like Second Life and World of Warcraft offer novel opportunities for friendship, sex, employment, and aesthetic experience in virtual communities populated by cartoon-like avatars. While these simulated worlds are often treated with contempt by the general media, LOGIN 2 LIFE takes a more sympathetic approach, profiling seven people deeply immersed in these worlds, and attempting to understand what each gets from their virtual life.

Paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident, 27 year-old Corey spends most of his days playing World of Warcraft, exploring a virtual landscape with far greater ease than he can move through his physical one. Alice, 60, has limited mobility due to multiple sclerosis. In Second Life, she is able to draw on her skills as an educator and volunteer to run an in-game business that provides resources to other disabled people.

We also meet a diverse cast of characters from around the world, whose different online engagements illustrate the range of motivations for choosing a largely virtual existence. Kevin, a middle-aged family man in Florida, makes his living selling virtual sex devices within the Second Life universe. Philippe, in France, is an award-winning director of World of Warcraft machinima who has turned is hobby into a career. In China, a family of World of Warcraft "gold farmers" toil endlessly online, earning in-game currency that can be sold for real money.

LOGIN 2 LIFE reconsiders the demarcation usually drawn between physical and online worlds. The film asks us to consider whether the people we have met are exceptions, driven to digital immersion by particular needs, or if they are pioneers of a lifestyle that will soon become commonplace.

DVD (Color) / 2012 / 86 minutes

SHADOWS OF LIBERTY

Directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay

Uses shocking examples of cover-ups and censorship by the US media to show how a few mega corporations exercise control over the content of our news.

SHADOWS OF LIBERTY examines how the US media are controlled by a handful of corporations exercising extraordinary political, social, and economic power. Having always allowed broadcasting to be controlled by commercial interests, the loosening of media ownership regulations, that began under Reagan and continued under Clinton, has led to the current situation where five mega corporations control the vast majority of the media in the United States. These companies not only don't prioritize investigative journalism, but can and do clamp down on it when their interests are threatened.

The film begins with three journalists whose careers were destroyed because of the stories they broke: Roberta Baskin, whose scoop about Nike sweatshops didn't sit well with CBS when Nike became a co-sponsor of the Olympics; Kristina Borjesson, another CBS reporter, whose job lasted precisely one week after the network spiked her investigation into the TWA Flight 800 disaster in 1996; and Gary Webb, whose story linking US support for Nicaraguan Contras and the epidemic in crack cocaine was trashed by The New York Times and the Washington Post. (His story was true, but Webb lost his job and eventually killed himself.)

With the help of interviewees including Daniel Ellsburg, Dan Rather, Julian Assange, Chris Hedges, Dick Gregory, Robert McChesney, John Nichols and Amy Goodman, the film explores in depth the monopolies and vested interests that filter the dissemination of information thus damaging the democratic process. One notorious example, featured in the film, of the anti-democratic nexus between the military-industrial complex and the news media was the latter's unquestioning acceptance of the former's trumped up justification for the Iraq War.

With profits taking priority over the truth and the powerful being taken at their word rather than taken to task, the film asks whether the Internet can withstand corporate pressure and remain free, or will it too fall into the hands of monopolistic corporations.

Ultimately has our commercial world caused us to lose one of the most precious commodities of all--unbiased information?

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 93 minutes

BATTLE FOR THE ARAB VIEWER, THE

By Nordin Lasfar

How was the content of those broadcasts - and the networks' subsequent coverage - influenced by their political allegiances?

With Al Jazeera supporting elements hostile to Saudi Arabia, the Saudis set up their own network as a counterpoint: the more conservative Al Arabiya, owned by a close friend of the royal family.

Ultimately, the problem may resolve itself. As democracy spreads through the region, will truly independent media follow?

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 48 minutes

OUR NEWSPAPER

Directed by Eline Flipse

After journalist Andrey Schkolni leaves his job at The Leninist, the state-supported - and state-censored - regional paper in Uljanovsk, Russia, he and his wife, Marina, decide to start their own newspaper. The couple takes on local apathy, isolationism, criticism, and ridicule; they are determined to serve the local population, located over 550 miles from Moscow in a largely rural, often snowbound area. Week after week, everything from writing and researching the articles to designing the layout takes place in their small home. They even work to distribute the paper - which they name Our Newspaper - with their tiny family car.

Slowly Andrey's doggedly reported local news and Marina's horoscopes and home remedies begin to catch on. When Our Newspaper's circulation and size climbs to 7,000 weekly readers and eight pages, it begins to pose real competition to the four-page Leninist. Finally, the isolated population can read their own news: instead of "articles" about far-off cities, golden harvests, and unrealizable state projects, Our Newspaper reports on an impoverished village without running water for three months and profiles a courageous local doctor who makes house calls her bicycle despite freezing temperatures.

Andrey and Marina's light-hearted local news gathering quickly gathers gravity, however ... until it eventually puts its creators in danger. The issues facing the once prosperous but now economically depressed region are very serious. Despite his best efforts to protect himself and his wife, Andrey's reporting begins to implicate corrupt local corporations and political officials and raise thorny questions of journalistic and business ethics.

Juxtaposing small, personal stories against the background of contemporary Russian history, OUR NEWSPAPER creates a portrait of personal integrity and bravery under increasingly desperate circumstances. The award-winning Dutch director Eline Flipse (Broken Silence, Albanian Stories) paints subtle portraits of her film's powerful personalities with warmth, humor and complexity that will stay with you long after the film ends; it is an unforgettable illustration of modern Russia and the vital role of journalism in an emerging democracy.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 58 minutes

WAR YOU DON'T SEE, THE

Directed by John Pilger

John Pilger's powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war.

John Pilger's new film is a powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war. The War You Don't See traces the history of `embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War I to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan. As weapons and propaganda are ever more sophisticated, the very nature of war has developed into an `electronic battlefield'. But who is the real enemy today?

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 96 minutes

MADE OVER IN AMERICA

By Bernadette Wegenstein & Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

In the age of surgically enhanced beauty and reality television, how do we perceive body image? MADE OVER IN AMERICA combines the style of reality television with experimental film to weave together the voices of producers and consumers, surgeons and their patients, clinical psychologists, media theorists, and youth who are coming of age in a culture where bodies seem to be customizable. Together they form a picture of how the desire for a better self operates within consumer culture and how this desire is fed by media, the makeover industry and culture at large.

Among those in the film are Cindy, a San Diego housewife who felt ugly all her life until she was made over in the first season of FOX's show The Swan, a plastic surgery makeover show; The Swan producer Nely Galan, who says she invented the show to empower women; Cathy, a 21-year-old college student who dreams of carving her own belly into a six pack and her roommate's nose and bottom down to average size; Beverly Hills celebrity cosmetic surgeon and artist Dr. Randal Hayworth, who uses the metaphor of Michelangelo carving beauty from marble to describe his instinctual approach to surgery; and maxillo-facial surgeon and beauty expert Dr. Stephen Marquardt, who has become famous for analyzing beauty according to a mathematically proportionate grid to which all beautiful faces conform.

MADE OVER IN AMERICA includes archival material on child development, actual plastic surgery procedures, art video and collage montages showing popular imagery, combined with powerful stories of how far Americans will go to fit in, showing the power of media in shaping ideas of beauty.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / 65 minutes

MAGIC RADIO

By Stephanie Barbey & Luc Peter

In Niger, where more than 80% of the population is illiterate, radio is the main means of mass communication. Simple yet reliable, the radio is everywhere, in the streets, homes and the bush.

It entertains, educates, informs and helps provide a check on power. Today, through the radio waves, the citizens of Niger seize the microphone and taste democracy.

It's an FM revolution.

DVD (Color, With English Subtitles) / 2007 / 54 minutes

PAPER, THE

Directed by Aaron Matthews

By chronicling for a year the publication of Penn State University's Daily Collegian - one of the nation's leading student newspapers, with a 200-person staff and a circulation rivaling that of many small-town newspapers - this documentary reveals the many challenges and issues with which young journalists must contend.

These range from ethical considerations, sensitizing reporters and editors to diversity issues, and dealing with circulation woes, to struggling for access to news sources and, above all, trying to determine whether they should be informing or entertaining their readers. Utilizing a cinema-verite style, THE PAPER follows the editors and reporters of The Daily Collegian through their everyday routines, sits in on editorial meetings, follows reporters as they cover stories, attends classroom sessions where new reporters are trained, and interviews staff members about their particular frustrations and disappointments.

Interweaving the drama of pressure-cooker journalism with the energy and idealism of young people, THE PAPER explores the media from the fresh perspective of tomorrow's journalists. But the young reporters' dilemmas and decisions raise complicated questions about the role of the press in society. Do you lure readers by entertaining them or offering hard news? How can the media deliver the news when obstructed by wary public officials and misleading public relations campaigns? What is the media's responsibility to serve the public interest in all its diversity?

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / 78 minutes

DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE

By Calvin Skaggs

If, as the saying goes, information is power, then journalists can be seen as watchdogs of our government leaders and custodians of the public good, providing truthful information to help citizens build or preserve democratic societies. DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE is a comprehensive look at journalists worldwide, working in different media and various languages, as they attempt to speak truth to power.

Filmed in the United States and countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe and the Middle East, DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE profiles international journalists as they cover local and international events, and in the process enables them to discuss their sense of vocation, the need to defend journalistic principles against commercial pressures, how they deal with censorship or government constraints, as well as dangerous and even life-threatening conditions.

Among the many journalists featured are those at Radio SKY in Sierra Leone as they cover an election in a country where more people listen to radio than read newspapers; Moscow journalists (including Anna Politkovskaya, assassinated in October 2006) who discuss government control of the media and covering the Chechen War; the publisher, editors and journalists at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz who explain why they feel it is important, especially for a readership too often concerned only with its own agony, to document the violence directed against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank; and several U.S. journalists who discuss how the press failed in its reporting of the Bush Administration's misuse of intelligence on the lead-up to the Iraq War.

In an era when mainstream journalism, especially in the U.S., is being steadily eroded by political manipulation, commercial constraints, and circulation and ratings pressures, DEMOCRACY ON DEADLINE is an important reminder of the crucial political value of an independent news media in any democratic society.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2006 / 114 minutes

INDEPENDENT INTERVENTION: BREAKING SILENCE

Focuses on the human cost of the Iraq War to contrast corporate-controlled media coverage with independent media.

Independent Intervention is an award-winning documentary about United States media coverage of the conflict in Iraq. Focusing on the human costs of war, it contrasts corporate-controlled media coverage of the invasion of Iraq with independent media reports of the brutal realities on the ground.

Through discussions with media experts including Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Dahr Jamail, Danny Schechter, David Barsamian, Kalle Lasn, Norman Solomon, and James Zogby, the film investigates important issues and systems that govern today's information flow, and shows how these systems of control reveal themselves during times of political turmoil and war.

Independent Intervention also includes commentary by Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Bill Moyers, Michael Moore, and Jeremy Scahill.

DVD (Color) / 2006 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 75 minutes

PLAYING THE NEWS

y Jeff Plunkett & Jigar Mehta

In November 2004, media from around the world covered the U.S.-led attack on the Iraqi "terrorist stronghold" of Fallujah. So did the video game, Kuma War, whose realistic simulation of the event was designed as an "intense, boots-on-the-ground experience" for video gamers. Young people don't watch TV news or read newspapers, explains Kuma Reality Games CEO Keith Halper, but they play hour after hour of video games, so why not convey war reports to them through their recreational activities?

PLAYING THE NEWS profiles the first video game company to consider itself a legitimate news organization, taking us from the company's Manhattan offices, equipped with satellite technology, to the frontlines of the war in Iraq. The documentary features interviews with Kuma executives and designers, a media studies professor, a New Technology writer for The Economist, a war correspondent, and several video gamers, who download new episodes monthly and who can play separately or link up online with others to play as a squad.

Can such video games play a serious journalistic role or do they misconstrue the real nature of war for voyeuristic thrills? Do they represent the future of journalism or the dangerous blurring of news and entertainment? Can we look forward to an Abu Ghraib video game?

PLAYING THE NEWS is a provocative examination of whether video games are a revolutionary new way to engage young people in current events or an unethical marketing gimmick that merely seeks to exploit war.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2005 / 20 minutes

TALK MOGADISHU: MEDIA UNDER FIRE

The story of HornAfrik, the first community TV and radio station in Somalia.

A decade after the disastrous US humanitarian intervention in Somalia, HornAfrik, the first independent TV and radio station in war-ravaged Mogadishu, was established by three brave Somali- Canadians in the face of chaos and devastation. Their vision was to forge a path to peace through freedom of expression, impartial news, and debate. The station's talk shows have become incredibly popular, providing a unique way for Mogadishu's marginalized residents, including women's groups and human rights advocates, to speak out without being silenced.

It is a venture not without danger; HornAfrik has been attacked more than once by angry warlords displeased with the station's content. Despite the perils, the founders of HornAfrik continue their broadcasts, creating a blueprint for the role of the media in times of conflict.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2003 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 50 minutes

TOP HAT AND TALES: HAROLD ROSS AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW YORKER

Director: Adam Van Doren

Narrated by Stanley Tucci, Top Hat and Tales chronicles the first 25 years of The New Yorker magazine, from its creation by Harold Ross in 1925 to his death in 1951. Interviews with current Editor-in-Chief David Remnick, former Cartoon Editor Lee Lorenz, and Senior Editor Roger Angell will inform about how The New Yorker's signature style and content were shaped by its early contributors, including E.B White, James Thurber, J.D Salinger, and more. Film clips from the '20s and '30s, home movies, and images from the anthology of The New Yorker covers and cartoons illustrate this historical case study of one of journalism's most revered publication. Writers, artists and academics including John Updike, Charles Schulz, Stuart Hemple and Roy Blount Jr offer interviews and insight into The New Yorker's role in American cultural history.

DVD / 2001 / 47 minutes

TRIBE OF HIS OWN, A: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH

Indian journalist reminds us of the meaning of responsible journalism.

At a time when government propaganda and corporate spin are increasingly presented as fact, and a handful of corporations control the news, A TRIBE OF HIS OWN: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH reminds us what news media can be.

In India, nearly 400 million people live in poverty. Believing that responsible journalism can help to change things for the better, Palagummi Sainath wrote a series of 70 newspaper articles for The Times of India chronicling the living conditions in the ten poorest districts of the country. For two years Sainath lived in the communities he wrote about; he traveled across India, often on foot, in hill areas, drought-prone areas, and tribal areas to put the issue of poverty back on the national agenda.

After nearly a decade of work and dozens of awards, Sainath remains as passionately committed as ever. According to Sainath the shift from hard-hitting, truth-seeking journalism to innocuous, promotional stenography goes hand in hand with the increase of globalization. This, he believes, has also contributed to the 1990s becoming "the time of the most gross social inequality since the Second World War."

A TRIBE OF HIS OWN follows Sainath to the Indian villages he writes about and explores his contention that "journalism is for people, not shareholders."

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2001 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 50 minutes

TELEVISION UNDER THE SWASTIKA

Director: Michael Kloft

Legend has it that the triumphal march of television began in the United States in the 1950s but in reality its origins hark back much further. Nazi leaders, determined to beat Great Britain and the U.S. to be the world's first television broadcaster, began Greater German Television in March 1935. German viewers enjoyed their TV broadcasts until September 1944, as Allied troops closed in.

Making use of 285 reels of film discovered in the catacombs of the Berlin Federal Film Archive, TV UNDER THE SWASTIKA is a fascinating look at the world's first television broadcast network. It explores both the technology behind this new medium, and the programming the Nazis chose to put on it. Interviews with high-ranking Nazis as well as "ordinary" people on the street, cooking shows, sporting events, cabaret acts and teleplays are some of the stunning finds seen here - all of it propaganda, but some of it quite entertaining.

A rare and intriguing look into the Third Reich, TV UNDER THE SWASTIKA is required viewing for anyone interested in the history of television, the intersection of media and propaganda, and the inside story of Nazi Germany.

DVD (With English Subtitles) / 1999 / 52 minutes

http://www.learningemall.com/News/Media_1902.html

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learningrendezvous · 5 years

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Cinema Studies

AROUND INDIA WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

By Sandhyu Suri

Award-winning filmmaker Sandhya Suri (I for India) skillfully weaves together archival footage - including hand colored sequences - with a new score by composer Soumik Datta to create an emotionally resonant story about life across India from 1899 to 1947.

Drawn exclusively from the BFI National Archive, Around India features some of the earliest surviving film from India as well as gorgeous travelogues, intimate home movies and newsreels from British, French and Indian filmmakers. Taking in Maharajas and Viceroys, fakirs and farmhands and personalities such as Sabu and Gandhi, the film explores not only the people and places of over 70 years ago, but asks us to engage with broader themes of a shared history, shifting perspectives in the lead up to Indian independence and the ghosts of the past.

DVD (Color, Black and White, Closed Captioned) / 2018 / 72 minutes

GRAY STATE, A

Director: Erik Nelson

DVD / 2017 / 93 minutes

JEAN ROUCH, THE ADVENTUROUS FILMMAKER

By Laurent Vedrine

Jean Rouch first went to Niger in 1941 as a 24-year-old civil engineer, building roads in the French colony. But unlike other colonists, he came to see Nigeriens as equals, spending much of the next 60 years in West Africa.

Much has been written about how Rouch's films, blending fiction and documentary, road movie and ethnography, influenced the French Nouvelle Vague and the cinema verite movement. But JEAN ROUCH, THE ADVENTUROUS FILMMAKER is unique in its exploration of the less well-known role Rouch and his films played in developing cinema in Niger, from working with local crews, to featuring Nigeriens on camera, to a fascination with telling Nigerien stories that continue to resonate.

It was a meeting with 18-year-old fisherman Damoure Zika that would set Rouch on his future path. With Zika as intermediary, Rouch was allowed to film a ceremony with his grandmother, the conduit for a spirit that would possess her. This sparked his interest in ethnography, a practice he approached with openness and lack of judgment. In contrast with filmmakers of the era who set themselves apart from the "others" they were filming, Rouch collaborated with locals such as Zika - who both co-directs and appears in many films - and screened cuts with his subjects, encouraging them to offer input and make changes.

During the course of his career, Rouch made over 120 films. The excerpts in this documentary capture their astounding range - from the comedy of COCORICO! MONSIEUR POULET to the striking MOI, UN NOIR, which launched the career of great Nigerien director Oumarou Ganda, to the shocking and controversial THE MAD MASTERS, which captured a violent possession ritual that Rouch saw as offering an outlet for the traumas of colonialism. Rouch's work was not without controversy, especially when it comes to his shaping the realities he films, and the accusation that he sometimes sensationalizes through his outsider's gaze, concerns that are addressed here.

JEAN ROUCH, THE ADVENTUROUS FILMMAKER features archival interviews with Rouch, a wealth of excerpts from his films, and interviews with an array of West African commentators: Rouch's longtime collaborator and sound engineer Moussa Hamidou, filmmakers Sani Magori, Aicha Maky, and Abdoulaye Boka, ethnologist and filmmaker Mariama Hima, teacher and researcher Antoinette Tidjani Alou, and author and illustrator Sani Djibo.

DVD (French, Color, Black and White, With English Subtitles) / 2017 / 55 minutes

CINEMA NOVO

By Eryk Rocha

CINEMA NOVO is a film essay that poetically investigates the eponymous Brazilian film movement, the most prominent in Latin America in the past century, through the analysis of its main auteurs: Nelson Pereira do Santos, Glauber Rocha, Leon Hirszman, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Ruy Guerra, Caca Diegue, Walter Lima Jr, Paulo Cesar Saraceni, among others.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 90 minutes

SANDY DING - PSYCHOECHO

By Sandy Ding

Sandy Ding is an experimental filmmaker who lives and works in Beijing, China. He graduated from CalArts Film School USA in 2007 and started teaching in China Central Academy of Fine Arts since 2008. He produced several psycho-active films with the idea of combining ritual process in projection and sound. His work is energy patterns, telling mysteries with abstractions or powerful symbolic elements. He is equally interested in live performance of theater projections, untypical gallery projections, installations and live noise music to extend the idea of experimental film.

FILMS Mancoon 10 min, 16mm, silent, color, 2007 Water Spell 42min, 16mm, color, 2006-2007 Prisms 20 min, 16mm, color, 2012 Dream Enclosure 18 min, 16mm/Digital, b/w, 2011-2014 The Radio Wave Beneath the Dirt Ice and Flowers 10 min, 35mm, silent, b/w, 2006

BONUS River in the Castle 4 min, 16mm, silent, b/w, 2016 Original noise music: "Peacock and Ocean Erosion" by Liquid Palace 28 min, 2016.

DVD / 2016 / 132 minutes

STUDIO EEN: EXPERIMENTAL FILMS FROM THE LOWLANDS

a collection of 12 films from the Dutch film cooperative Studio Een

In 1990, as a student, Karel Doing decided to create Studio een. Many artistic, avant-garde, underground movements and counterculture movements seemed to be over. The rise of video and its academic use began to compete with Super8. To work against the decline of the Super 8 format and techniques, Karel Doing and two of his friends (Saskia Fransen and Djana Mileta) from the art school in Arnham, started to think about creating a new space and promoting the invention of DIY techniques for filming and processing Super8 films.

In this particular context, Studio een was launched. Conceived as a actual workspace, Karel Doing, Djana Mileta and Saskia Fransen, began by establishing it within a large network of festivals, galleries and other workspaces. They bought optical printers from a professional laboratory that was set to shut down and started to learn by themselves, out of necessity, how to process film. It wasn't long before Studio een became well-known in DIY film circles and began to host various artists who come to meet each other, not only to exchange ideas and work together on the use of Super8 or 16mm, but also to experiment with diverse narrative and sound forms. Some members, Joost Rekveld for example, chose to pursue a career as a musician as well as a filmmaker.

After 7 years in Arnhem, Studio een moved to Rotterdam where it continued to thrive. It became a model for many artists in creating their own laboratories, research centers and studios dedicated to experimental cinema.

Studio een no longer exists, but the laboratory itself continues in Rotterdam under the name of Filmwerkplaats by being involved in new experimentations in filmic creation while promoting the works of members and invited artists.

This DVD edition includes works of various Dutch artists who had a main role in the early years of Studio een, from 1992 to 1996.

DVD / 2016 / 114 minutes

DYING OF THE LIGHT, THE

Director: Peter Flynn

The Dying of the Light explores the history and craft of motion picture presentation through the lives and stories of the last generation of career projectionists. By turns humorous and melancholic, their candid reflections on life in the booth reveal a world that has largely gone unnoticed and is now at an end. The result is a loving tribute to the art and romance of the movies - and to the unseen people who brought the light to our screens.

DVD / 2015 / 94 minutes

I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE: THE CINEMA OF CHANTAL AKERMAN

By Marianne Lambert

I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE: THE CINEMA OF CHANTAL AKERMAN explores some of the Belgian filmmaker's 40 plus films, and from Brussels to Tel Aviv, from Paris to New York, it charts the sites of her peregrinations.

An experimental filmmaker, a nomad, Chantal Akerman shared with Marianne Lambert her cinematic trajectory, one that never ceased to interrogate the meaning of her existence. And with her editor and long-time collaborator, Claire Atherton, she examines the origins of her film language, and aesthetic stance.

I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE includes excerpts from many films made throughout Akerman's career, including JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975), NEWS FROM HOME (1976), THE RENDEZ-VOUS OF ANNA, JE, TU, IL, ELLE (1974), SOUTH (1998), FROM THE EAST (1993), FROM THE OTHER SIDE (2002), LA-BAS (2006), and, what would be Chantal Akerman's last film, NO HOME MOVIE (2015).

DVD (Color) / 2015 / 67 minutes

MY SEVEN PLACES

By Boris Lehman

My Seven places' starts at the moment I was evicted from several places which are dear to me. They served me well as homes, both as place for living and working. This was the start of my urban wandering, which would take me ten years - a journey of 300.000 kilometers - before returning just about to my starting point. The adventure was both physical and metaphysical. Fragments of documentary films, a personal diary, bedside-table notes, piece of fiction, 'My Seven places' is an essay about passing time, embellished by a jumble of reflections both light and serious; finally, it is an attempt to simply exist. The fourth episode of my autobiographical fiction, which started in 1983

2 DVDs (French, With English Subtitles) / 2015 / 323 minutes

SEASONS IN QUINCY, THE: FOUR PORTRAITS OF JOHN BERGER

With Tilda Swinton

Directed by Bartek Dziadosz, Colin MacCabe, Christopher Roth & Tilda Swinton

Prolific artist, philosopher, writer, storyteller and "radical humanist" John Berger is the focus of this vivid four-part cinematic portrait. In 1973, he moved from urban London to the tiny Alpine village of Quincy. THE SEASONS IN QUINCY: FOUR PORTRAITS OF JOHN BERGER examines different aspects of Berger's life in this remote village in the Alps. In four seasonal chapters, the film combines ideas and motifs from his work with the texture and history of his mountain home.

"Ways of Listening" (Directed by Colin MacCabe, 26 minutes) Tilda Swinton, a longtime friend and collaborator, joins Berger for a frank and revealing conversation.

"Spring" (Directed by Christopher Roth, 19 minutes) Berger's seminal writing on animals is illuminated by local farming practice and set alongside other philosophical approaches to animal consciousness. Directed by Christopher Roth.

"A Song for Politics" (Directed by Bartek Dziadosz and Colin MacCabe, 20 minutes) Berger is joined by writers Ben Lerner and Akshi Singh along with Colin MacCabe and Christopher Roth for a lively political discussion of our present moment and its relationship to the past.

"Harvest" (Directed by Tilda Swinton, 25 minutes) Berger's son and Swinton's children join their parents for a visually rich journey to Quincy from the Scottish highlands, seeing the countryside anew.

United by their central vision and an original score by by Simon Fisher Turner, the four short works that comprise THE SEASONS IN QUINCY beautifully combine to make a feature film.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 90 minutes

BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918

By Bill Morrison Music composed by Aleksandra Vrebalov and performed by Kronos Quartet

Given up as lost for generations, footage from World War I never before seen by modern audiences comes to thrilling new life in BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918. Auteur director Bill Morrison scoured film archives for rare 35mm nitrate footage shot during the Great War. Now, viewers can see an actual glimpse of a war fought in fields, in trenches, and in the air emerges for the first time.

Through a veil of physical degradation, unstable chemical elements and the bleeding of original film dye, viewers can see soldiers performing training exercises, parades and troop movements. While some of the battle footage was re-enacted for cameras, some is documentary footage of the war itself. All the footage was originally shot on film at the time of the conflict.

A prismatic and cinematic a message in a bottle from a century ago and accompanied by a magnificent score by Aleksandra Vrebalov performed by the Kronos Quartet, BEYOND ZERO: 1914-1918 is a powerful record of wartime past. Out on the same fields with the soldiers 100 years ago, the film is itself both collaborator and survivor.

DVD (Color) / 2014 / 40 minutes

MY CONVERSATIONS ON FILM: CHAPTERS 1-3

The film talks about movies, naturally, but mostly explores how the cinema of Boris Lehman builds and unfolds before our eyes. It is a raw and spontaneous work, seemingly a kind of first draft, because nothing is prepared, but rather, presents chance encounters and opportunities to film. Therefore, there are many hesitations, repetitions, moments that may appear boring, but which I did not wish to remove or "clean up", as they say in the jargon of cinema, because such moments are part of the work. The film is, as Patrick Leboutte once said, a thought in the middle of being formed.

Ultimately, this film is about the art of being together. It is a gallery of portraits interwoven with the watermark of the self-portrait.

My Conversations on Film are composed of three chapters. The first, from 1995, includes fifteen interviews and is accompanied with six movie clips. The second is composed of seventeen interviews conducted between 1995 and 1998 (+ seven extracts). The third covers from 1998 to 2010 and contains thirteen interviews (+ five extracts).

3 DVDs (French, English, With French, English, German Subtitles) / 2014 / 404 minutes

THANHOUSER STUDIO AND THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN CINEMA

The Thanhouser Company was a trail-blazing studio based in New Rochelle, New York. From 1910 to 1917 it released over 1,000 films that were seen by audiences around the globe.

This 53-minute documentary reconstructs the relatively unknown story of the studio and its founders, technicians, and stars as they entered the nascent motion picture industry to compete with Thomas Edison and the companies aligned with his Motion Pictures Patents Corporation (MPPC).

Ned Thanhouser, grandson of studio founders Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser, narrates this compelling tale, recounting a saga of bold entrepreneurship, financial successes, cinematic innovations, tragic events, the launching of Hollywood careers, and the transition of the movie industry from the East Coast to the West and Hollywood.

DVD / 2014 / 53 minutes

BILL MORRISON: COLLECTED WORKS (1996 - 2013)

16 films by Bill Morrison

This five-disc set comprises 16 works by filmmaker and multimedia artist Bill Morrison, called "one of the most adventurous American filmmakers" by Variety. Morrison's work is characterized by his sensitive approach to found, often decaying film footage, and his close collaboration with contemporary conmposers, including Vijay Iyer, Johann Johannsson and Bill Frisell. Among other shorts and features, this set includes his acclaimed DECASIA (2002), "the most widely acclaimed American avant-garde film of the fin-de-siecle." (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).

DISC 1: Blu-Ray (75 minutes) Decasia 67 minutes, 2002 Light is Calling 8 minutes, 2004

DISC 2: DVD (107 minutes) City Walk 6 minutes, 1999 Porch 8 minutes, 2005 Highwater Trilogy 31 minutes, 2006 Who by Water 18 minutes, 2007 Just Ancient Loops 26 minutes, 2012 Re-Awakenings 18 minutes, 2013

DISC 3: DVD (107 minutes) The Mesmerist 16 minutes, 2003 Ghost Trip 23 minutes, 2000 Spark of Being 68 minutes, 2010

DISC 4: DVD (86 minutes) The Miner's Hymns 52 minutes, 2011 Release 13 minutes, 2010 Outerborough 9 minutes, 2005 The Film of Her 12 minutes, 1996

DISC 5: DVD (80 minutes) The Great Flood 80 minutes, 2013

5 DVDs (Color, Black & White) / 2013 / 455 minutes

TO CHRIS MARKER, AN UNSENT LETTER

By Emiko Omori

TO CHRIS MARKER, AN UNSENT LETTER is a cinematic love letter to Chris Marker, the notoriously private filmmaker and artist--director of LA JETeE, SANS SOLEIL, LE JOLI MAI and many other films, and self-described "best known author of unknown works".

Directed by Emmy-award winning cinematographer and filmmaker Emiko Omori, whose credits include Marker's THE OWL'S LEGACY, the film is a contemplative essay whose form is inspired by Marker's signature style.

Alongside Omori's thoughts and recollections of the filmmaker, and her examinations of some of his key works, the film incorporates interviews with Marker associates and admirers including film critic David Thomson, film programmers Tom Luddy and Peter Scarlet, filmmakers Marina Goldovskaya and Michael H. Shamberg, 12 MOKNEYS screenwriters Janet and David Peoples, computer scientist Dirk Kuhlmann, and many others.

Their warm reflections join Omori's to examine the legacy of a filmmaker as beloved as he was enigmatic.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2013 / 78 minutes

CUBAN ANIMATIONS FROM THE YOUNG DIRECTORS FILM FESTIVAL

These eight short animations have been screened at the Muestra Joven (Young Directors) Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. The Festival began in 2001 and is recognized as the most important showcase for young cinematic talent in Cuba.

Cuban animation is world renown and even though many of these young animators don't have access to the latest technology they are still able to produce interesting, provocative and aesthetically beautiful works.

8 Formas de Enfermar / 8 Ways to Get Sick (Leandro de la Rosa), 4 min., 2009

Como Desaparecer completamente /How to Completely Disappear (Harold Rensoli), 3 min., 2009

El Traje / The Suit (Abdel and Adrian de la Campa), 5 min., 2010

La Revancha / The Revenge (Ivette Avila), 3 min, 2009

Tic Tac / Tick Tock (Alien Ma Alfonso), 6 min., 2008

Ninos imaginarios / Imaginary Boys (Alien Ma Alfonso), 4 min., 2010

La Costurera / The Seamstress (Ivette Avila), 6 min., 2010

Comunidades Modernas/Modern Communities (Lester Harbert Noguel), 3 min., 2008

DVD (Color) / 2012 / 35 minutes

FEMALE DIRECTORS (NU DAOYAN)

By Yang Mingming

Ah-Ming and Yueyue are two out-of-work film school grads living in Beijing who decide to turn the camera on each other and make a film about their lives.

On the surface, FEMALE DIRECTORS is the ultimate documentary for the age of oversharing. Two young women love the camera and record the minutiae of their lives: meals, nasty fights, phone calls. Soon after the camera starts rolling, they discover that both are seeing the same sugar daddy. Recriminations and profane accusations follow. Eventually, the pair, make up, break up with the man they call "short stuff" and go traveling together.

But there is much more to this film. Is it a documentary, mockumentary, or a sly piece of drama? Ah-Ming herself is a fiction-the on-screen persona of Yang Ming Ming, the film's actual director. Deliberately unpolished, FEMALE DIRECTORS highlights rather than obscures the presence of the the camera, as it is dropped on a bed, Ah-Ming and Yueyue jostle over it, or as one or the other implores her counterpart to turn it off.

While it purports to be the true story of two women filming themselves, FEMALE DIRECTORS constantly reminds us of the process that has gone into making it. It is a genre-bending, self-aware piece of experimental filmmaking that bears repeated viewing.

DVD (Color, Chinese with English subtitles) / 2012 / 43 minutes

JOURNAL DE FRANCE

By Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret

Travelling alone, internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon spent six years capturing his home country with a large format camera. This long, solitary road trip provided fertile ground for the creation, with his long-time partner and collaborator Claudine Nougaret, of a remarkable travel journal.

The journey returned Depardon to important places from his past as a reporter - Chad, Venice, Cannes - and to a wealth of previously unseen footage from his archive: an interview with Jean-Bedel Bokassa, film of Jean-Luc Godard, extraordinary glimpses of private and public life.

Intimate, compelling, revelatory, JOURNAL DE FRANCE offers a unique portrait of a country and its landscapes, an overview of a truly illustrious career and a fascinating resume of the development of the photographic art over the past half-century.

DVD (French With English Subtitles, Color) / 2012 / 100 minutes

BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN, A

Directed by Mac Dara O Curraidhin Written by Brian Winston

Robert Flaherty (1884-1951) was the man credited with being the father of the modern documentary film after he produced and directed "Nanook of the North" in 1922. Flaherty is one of the great name directors in the history of cinema and to this day films such as "Nanook of the North", "Moana", "Man of Aran" and "Louisiana Story" are widely regarded as classics and still regularly screened.

Flaherty is also a controversial figure in that he was also the first to show that filming the everyday life of real people could be molded into dramatic, entertaining narratives. The minute he chose to stage scenes in order to make a better film out of his seminal Inuit project "Nanook of the North", he was opening documentary's Pandora's Box. And with his later work in Samoa, the Aran Islands and Louisiana first raised such enduring topics of documentary ethics as ethnographic falsification, exploitation of one's subjects and the perils of corporate sponsorship.

But this entertaining portrait of Flaherty shrewdly looks beyond standard polemical positions to present a complex view of the man and his work (shown in vivid excerpts).

A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN includes testimony from Flaherty himself as well as contributions from amongst others, Richard Leacock - cameraman on "Louisiana Story" (1948) and father of the contemporary hand-held documentary style, Martha Flaherty - Flaherty's Inuit granddaughter, George Stoney - documentary filmmaker and professor at New York University, Sean Crosson - film scholar at the Huston School of Film, Jay Ruby - anthropologist and film scholar at Temple University, and Deirdre Ni Chonghaile - musician and folklorist from arainn, as well as telling interviews with the people whose parents and grandparents Flaherty put onto the cinema screens of the world: Inuit, Samoans and, of obvious personal interest to the Irish filmmakers, the 'wild men' of Aran

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 84 minutes

GOLDEN SLUMBERS

By Davy Chou

Between the early 1960s and 1975, Cambodia was home to a vibrant film industry that produced more than 400 features. When the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country, they halted production, demolishing the industry along most of the rest of the country's cultural life. Cinemas were closed, prints destroyed, and the filmmakers, actors, and screenwriters who were not able to flee the country were slaughtered.

Davy Chou's GOLDEN SLUMBERS resurrects this cinema's heyday. Though very few of the films from this period have remained intact, Chou uses the soundtracks, advertisements, posters and lobby cards to recreate his subjects' shared memories of a golden era.

The film contains interviews with the era's surviving artists, including directors Ly Bun Yim, Ly You Sreang, and Yvon Hem, and actor Dy Saveth. Two dedicated cinephiles-one of whom says he can remember the faces of film stars better than those of his brothers and sisters-recall plotlines and trade film trivia. Chou also takes us inside Phnom Penh's shuttered movie palaces, now transformed into karaoke bars, restaurants, and squats.

These reminiscences and recreations testify that while the most of the films of this era have vanished, their memory endures for an entire generation of Cambodians, leaving a complex legacy for today's youth to inherit.

DVD (Color, Black & White ) / 2011 / 96 minutes

WALKING DEAD GIRLS, THE

An intriguing rarity for those seeking to study and understand a sub-genre of horror filmmaking, The Walking Dead Girls! is a behind the scenes look into zombie culture in the United States and the obsession with sexy female zombies. What is it about zombie bimbos, or "zimbies", that are starting to gain the world's interest? Why are zombies now in mainstream culture and seen in advertising from JCPenney to Sears?

With interviews with zombie master maker George Romero, cult filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, scream queen Linnea Quigley and cult movie star Bruce Campbell.

Includes a rare look into the making of a zombie pinup calendar and behind the scenes of "Stripperland", The Walking Dead Girls! is a look into the zombie phenomenon created by Romero that is 40 years in the making.

DVD / 2011 / 90 minutes

CHANTAL AKERMAN, FROM HERE

By Gustavo Beck & Leonardo Luiz Ferreira

In CHANTAL AKERMAN, FROM HERE, the renowned Belgian filmmaker sits down for an hour-long conversation about her entire body of work.

Throughout, the camera holds steady from outside an open door. The long, unbroken shot, and the frame-within-a-frame pay homage to Akerman's own unmistakable style ("I need a corridor. I need doors. Otherwise, I can't work", she says). But by shooting her in profile, the filmmakers provide a contrast to the signature frontality of her compositions (one of the many subjects covered in the wide-ranging interview) - an acknowledgement of this portrait's contingency also underlined by the title.

Akerman describes her first experiences with avant-garde film in New York, and, in particular, the lessons she took from the work of Michael Snow. She answers questions about her approach to fiction, documentary, and literary adaptation, covering everything from the early short LA CHAMBRE (1972) to the recent feature LA-BAS (2006). She explains her preference for small budgets and small crews, and the paramount importance of instinct and improvisation in her directorial process.

She is nothing if not forthcoming, candidly assessing her successes and failures, including an aborted attempt at writing at Hollywood screenplay. An image emerges of a filmmaker as assured and idiosyncratic as the work suggests. We see that behind Akerman's cinematic innovations there is not only a remarkable intellectual clarity, but an ethical commitment to making films in which the viewer can "feel the time passing-by in your own body", because, she says, "that is the only thing you have: time."

DVD (Color) / 2010 / 62 minutes

ART OF FILMMAKING, THE

This box set features the following 5 documentaries about the art of filmmaking:

Tales From the Script Screenwriters ranging from newcomers to living legends share their triumphs and hardships in this probing, insightful, and often hilarious odyssey through the world of movie storytelling. By analyzing their triumphs and recalling their failures, the participants explain how successful writers develop the skills necessary for toughing out careers in Hollywood.

FEATURING: Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), David Hayter (X-Men), Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), Paul Schrader (Raging Bull & Taxi Driver), Ron Shelton (Bull Durham), David S. Ward (The Sting) and many more.

Directors: Life Behind the Camera Made in cooperation with the American Film Institute, this 4 hour interactive film features thirty-three legendary directors who reveal intimate and in-depth knowledge about the art of filmmaking and, as well, their own career in the movies.

FEATURING: Robert Altman, Robert Benton, Tim Burton, James Cameron, Chris Columbus, Wes Craven, Cameron Crowe, Frank Darabont, Jonathan Demme, Richard Donner, Clint Eastwood, Nora Ephron, William Friedkin, Terry Gilliam, Ron Howard, Lawrence Kasdan, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, George Lucas, David Lynch, Adrian Lyne, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Sydney Pollack, Rob Reiner, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Bryan Singer, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Robert Zemeckis & David Zucker.

Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary From cinema-verite pioneer Albert Maysles to mavericks like Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the world's best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre in this comprehensive film. Including interviews with 38 directors and film clips from classics such as Grey Gardens and The Thin Blue Line, this one-of-a-kind film explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films.

FEATURING: Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill, Patricio Guzman, Werner Herzog, Scott Hicks, Heddy Honigmann, Kim Longinotto, Kevin Macdonald, Albert Maysles, Errol Morris, Laura Poitras, and many more.

Light Keeps Me Company Twice an Oscar Winner and considered one of the foremost cinematographers of all time, Sven Nykvist shot some of the most important films in the history of cinema. Lovingly directed by his son, included are clips from his work, rare home movies, family photographs, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the legends who worked with him.

FEATURING: Woody Allen, Richard Attenborough, Ingmar Bergman, Roman Polanski, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Stellan Skarsgard, Vittorio Storaro, Liv Ullmann, Vilmos Zsigmond, and others.

Lavender Limelight: Lesbians in Film From Go Fish to Paris is Burning, this festival favorite goes behind the scenes to reveal seven successful lesbian directors. These talented movie-makers enlighten and entertain as they discuss topics including how they got their start, inspirations, filmmaking techniques, Hollywood vs. Indie, and breaking out of the "gay ghetto."

FEATURING: Cheryl Dunye, Su Friedrich, Jennie Livingston, Heather MacDonald, Maria Maggenti, Monika Treut, and Rose Troche.

6 DVDs / 2009 / 574 minutes

CAPTURING REALITY: THE ART OF DOCUMENTARY

Director: Pepita Ferrari

From cinema-verite pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick moviemakers like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, the world's best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre in this comprehensive and eye-opening two-disc box set.

Featuring interviews with 38 directors and 163 film clips from classics such as Grey Gardens and The Thin Blue Line, as well as recent work like Darwin's Nightmare and Touching the Void, Capturing Reality explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films. Deftly charting the documentarian's journey, it poses the question: can film capture reality?

DVD-R / 2009 / 98 minutes

FILMS OF MICHAEL SPORN, THE

Director: Michael Sporn

This Collector's Edition Box Set includes 12 films on 6 discs from the award-winning animator Michael Sporn, including: Whitewash; The Talking Eggs ; Champagne; The Hunting of the Snark; The Marzipan Pig; Jazztime Tale; Abel's Island; The Dancing Frog; The Red Shoes; The Little Match Girl ; The Emperor's New Clothes; Nightingale.

Based on stories from such acclaimed writers as William Steig (author of Shrek), Russell Hoban, Hans Christian Andersen, and Lewis Carroll, these widely acclaimed films feature a stunning array of voice talent, including James Earl Jones, Tim Curry, Danny Glover, Ruby Dee, Regis Philbin, and Linda Lavin.

When it's "time for a break from Disney" (Chicago Parent Magazine), put a Michael Sporn DVD on and enter the imaginative world of this "poet of animation" (Oscar-winning Animator John Canemaker).

DVD / 2008 / 360 minutes

OPERATION FILMMAKER

By Nina Davenport

In 2004, American actor Liev Schreiber saw an MTV segment on Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed, whose dreams of becoming a filmmaker had been thwarted by the bombing of his university during "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Schreiber, then preparing to film his directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated, in Prague, invited Muthana to work as a production assistant on the film.

Nina Davenport was hired to document Muthana's experience as an intern on the Hollywood movie. But Schreiber's well-intentioned gesture doesn't result in the inspiring story everyone had hoped for, as differing expectations and agendas clash. In particular, Muthana begrudgingly performs or shirks responsibility for the tasks assigned to him, repeatedly squandering a golden opportunity.

For OPERATION FILMMAKER, Davenport chronicled Muthana's story over a two-year period, from his work in Prague as a P.A. on Schreiber's Holocaust drama and later on Doom, a sci-fi film starring "The Rock," to a stint at a London film school, periodically contrasting his experiences abroad with scenes of Muthana's family and friends in wartorn Baghdad.

While documenting Muthana's relationships with the producers, crews and stars of both films-characterized by a psychologically fascinating stew of good intentions, bad faith, liberal guilt, and opportunism. Davenport herself eventually becomes embroiled in the young man's perennial financial difficulties and visa problems. In its continuing but futile search for a "happy ending," OPERATION FILMMAKER exposes the often mutually manipulative relationships between filmmakers and their subjects.

DVD (Color) / 2007 / 92 minutes

KUXA KANEMA: THE BIRTH OF CINEMA

By Margarida Cardoso

The first cultural act of the nascent Mozambique Government after independence in 1975 was to create the National Institute of Cinema (INC). The new president Samora Machel had a strong awareness of the power of the image, and understood he needed to use this power to build a socialist nation. INC's goal was to film the people, and to deliver these images back to the people.

Reflecting the country's commitment to independence and socialism, the history of the INC and the films it produced cannot be disassociated from the movement embodied by Samora Machel and FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front). Footage from the films - found by filmmaker Margarida Cardoso in an abandoned, burnt out building - show Mozambique's trajectory from great hope to great disillusionment. Weaving these images together with interviews of the people who produced them, KUXA KANEMA constructs a history of the birth and death of local cinema, and the birth and death of an ideology.

Directors, screenwriters, technicians return to the INC to view the footage, and discuss their industry as a unique testimonial to the country, its struggles and wars.

Today, the People's Republic of Mozambique is simply the Republic of Mozambique. Samora Machel's death marked the end of Mozambique's cinema (the current government prefers television). There is nothing left of the INC. The forgotten images that captured the first eleven years of independency - the years of the socialist revolution - are rotting, taking with them both the history of a period, and the history of hope.

DVD (Color / Black & White) / 2003 / 52 minutes

GAO RANG (GRILLED RICE)

By Claude Grunspan

The war in Vietnam was the most filmed conflict in world history. But, unlike the thousands of Western journalists, a small band of North Vietnamese and NLF cameramen has largely been forgotten, though they founded Vietnamese cinema.

GAO RANG (meaning grilled or burnt rice) tells the story of these cameramen/soldiers. In their own words, they describe their experiences filming in combat, first against the French and later the Americans.

Mai Loc and Khoung Me, two veterans from the French war, tell of acquiring the first cameras and instruction manuals. Mr. Xuong, a traveling projectionist during both wars, recalls projecting films along the 17th Parallel, and remembers how the public reacted to the films.

Tran Van Thuy (director of HOW TO BEHAVE) and Le Man Thich (Director at the Studio for Documentary Films in Hanoi) screen some of the material that they shot. They describe the hardship and fear they faced in combat and during American bombings. For all of them, "to make propaganda was obvious." But they also discuss their regrets. Thuy says "If we had had a more critical historical awareness, we could have left much better images." Their films give the impression that everything was easy. They didn't film enough of the hard daily life, and regret the many "heroic deaths that were not filmed." It would have been "useless," the footage would not have been used.

Today, much of the footage these cameramen and their comrades shot is disappearing. The cost of preserving and storing the film is too expensive. Their history (and part of ours) is being "recycled" for a few bits of silver.

DVD (Color / Black & White) / 2000 / 52 minutes

LEVEL FIVE

By Chris Marker With Catherine Belkhodja

A woman (Laura), a computer, an invisible interlocutor: such is the setup on which LEVEL FIVE is built. She "inherits" a task: to finish writing a video game centered on the Battle of Okinawa - a tragedy practically unknown in the West, but whose development played a decisive role in the way World War II ended, as well as in postwar times and even our present.

A strange game, in fact. Contrary to classical strategy games whose purpose is to turn back the tide of history, this one seems willing only to reproduce history as it happened. While working on Okinawa and meeting through a rather unusual network - parallel to Internet - informants and even eye-witnesses to the battle (including film director Nagisa Oshima), Laura gathers pieces of the tragedy, until they start to interfere with her own life.

As in any self-respecting video game, this one proceeds by "levels". Laura and her interlocutor, intoxicated by their enterprise, use this as a metaphor for life itself, and gladly attribute levels to everything around them. Will she attain LEVEL FIVE?

DVD (French With English Subtitles, Color) / 1996 / 106 minutes

FAR FROM VIETNAM

By Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais

Initiated and edited by Chris Marker, FAR FROM VIETNAM is an epic 1967 collaboration between cinema greats Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais in protest of American military involvement in Vietnam--made, per Marker's narration, "to affirm, by the exercise of their craft, their solidarity with the Vietnamese people in struggle against aggression."

A truly collaborative effort, the film brings together an array of stylistically disparate contributions, none individually credited, under a unified editorial vision. The elements span documentary footage shot in North and South Vietnam and at anti-war demonstrations in the United States; a fictional vignette and a monologue that dramatize the self-interrogation of European intellectuals; interviews with Fidel Castro and Anne Morrison, widow of Norman Morrison, the Quaker pacifist who burned himself alive in front of the Pentagon in 1965; an historical overview of the conflict; reflections from French journalist Michele Ray; and a range of repurposed media material.

Passionately critical and self-critical, and as bold in form as it is in rhetoric, FAR FROM VIETNAM is a milestone in political documentary and in the French cinema.

DVD (English, French With English Subtitles, Color) / 1967 / 115 minutes

LE JOLI MAI: THE LOVELY MONTH OF MAY

By Chris Marker & Pierre Lhomme Music: Michel Legrand Narration: Simone Signoret

"A far-reaching meditation on the relationship between individual and society" (Film Comment), LE JOLI MAI is a portrait of Paris and Parisians shot during May 1962.

It is a film with several thousand actors including a poet, a student, an owl, a housewife, a stockbroker, a competitive dancer, two lovers, General de Gaulle and several cats.

Filmed just after the March ceasefire between France and Algeria, LE JOLI MAI documents Paris during a turning point in French history: the first time since 1939 that France was not involved in any war.

Part I, "A Prayer from the Eiffel Tower," documents personal attitudes and feelings around Paris. A salesman feels free only when he is driving his car, and then only if there is not too much traffic. A working-class mother of eight has just gotten the larger apartment that she had been wanting for years. The space capsule of American astronaut John Glenn is examined by a group of admiring children. Two investors talk about their careers and adventures. A couple in love since their teens discuss the possibility of eternal happiness. At a middle class wedding banquet, the guests are raucous while the bride is quiet, dignified and reserved.

Part II, "The Return of Fantomas," is an investigation of the political and social life of the city. Marker and Lhomme alternate between public events and private discussions: the former focusing on the Algerian situation, such as a funeral for people killed in Paris street demonstrations after the Algerian settlement. Meanwhile, the latter includes a conversation with two girls about the state of France; a meeting with a pair of engineers who describe the potential of the current technological revolution; a n African student who discusses his own response to the French and the Parisians' reaction to his skin color; a worker-priest forced to choose between the Church and his fellow workers; and an Algerian worker describing conflict he has experienced with native Frenchmen.

The film ends with sweeping views of Paris, the facades of its prisons, and the faces of its people as they struggle to make sense of their moment in history.

DVD (English, French With English Subtitles, Black and White) / 1963 / 145 minutes

TRAVELS IN THE CONGO: VOYAGE AU CONGO

A report by Andre Gide and Marc Allegret A film by Marc Allegret With a new score by Mauro Coceano

In 1925, Marc Allegret accompanied Andre Gide on a journey to French Equatorial Africa, the Congo, as his secretary, and novice filmmaker. Filming throughout their 11-month travels, and only three years after Nanook of the North, Allegret's goal was to immerse viewers "as we ourselves had been, in the atmosphere of this mysterious country."

Unusual for its time Travels in the Congo (Voyage au Congo) is a largely observational documentary (with one dramatized sequence) showing aspects of the lives, culture, and built environments of diverse groups in the region, amongst them the Baya, Sara and Fula peoples, and without trying to shoehorn them into a dramatic narrative.

Travels in the Congo does, of course, retain a certain colonial gaze; in writing about the film, Allegret referred to its subjects as "a humanity without history." But overall it remains steadfast in its approach, presenting its subjects on their own terms.

After Travels in the Congo, Marc Allegret had a long career as a filmmaker and photographer. Andre Gide wrote two books about their time in Africa, Travels in the Congo and Return from Chad, and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Allegret and Gide carried out most of their journey on foot. Porters carried the film's negatives for months, through extreme heat and humidity. But the nitrate footage survived. In 2018, Travels in the Congo was restored and digitized by Les Films du Pantheon in collaboration with Les Films du Jeudi, with the support of CNC and the Cinematheque francaise, and the help of the British Film Institute. This restored version also includes a newly commissioned instrumental soundtrack.

DVD (French, With English Subtitles, Black and White) / 1927 / 117 minutes

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Cinema Studies

GRAY STATE, A

Director: Erik Nelson

DVD / 2017 / 93 minutes

GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY: THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN FILM AND OTHER WAR STORIES

By Karen Day

GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY is the untold story of the first female independent filmmaker and action-adventure heroine, Nell Shipman (1892-1970), who left Hollywood to make her films in Idaho. An unadulterated, undiscovered adventure tale of a pioneering woman who rewrote the rules of filmmaking, and, in so doing, paved the way for independent voices-especially prominent female voices in today's film industry. Her storylines of self-reliant women overcoming physical challenges in the wilderness and often, rescuing the male lead, shattered the predictable cinematic formulas of large studio productions. Featuring rare archival footage by early pioneers, including minority filmmakers, Zora Neale Hurston and Miriam Wong, the first Chinese-American filmmaker in 1914 and present day interviews with Geena Davis and the Director of Women in Film, GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY discuss how gender-inequities that Shipman and her counterparts faced perpetuate in today's film industry. Emblematic of an entire lost generation of female producers and directors in silent film, Nell Shipman's legacy has remained a buried treasure in film history for nearly 100 years.

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 66 minutes

NAPLES '44

Director: Francesco Patierno

Benedict Cumberbatch gives life to the words of British soldier Norman Lewis, whose remarkable memoir of post-World War II Naples form the basis for this haunting evocation of a ravaged land, and later a city of infinite charm. Lewis entered Naples as part of an invasion of Nazi-occupied Italy. His memories of a ravaged land and his return many years later are recalled with magnificent warmth and wit. Filmmaker Francesco Patierno combines riveting archival war footage with clips from movies set in Naples from the 1950s and 60s (featuring Marcello Mastroianni, Alan Arkin, Ernest Borgnine) to evoke a city that was as much a victim of the war as any individual, but that has come back to life with all the charisma of Vesuvius, its very own volcano.

DVD (English and Italian with English subtitles) / 2016 / 85 minutes

STEFAN ZWEIG: FAREWELL TO EUROPE

Director: Maria Schrader

The official Austrian entry for Foreign Language Feature at 2016 Oscars, Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe tells the story of the Austrian writer and his life in exile from 1936 to 1942. Zweig was one of the most famous writers of his time, but as a Jewish intellectual he struggled to find the right stance towards the events in Nazi Germany. Driven to emigrate to South America at the peak of his worldwide fame, Zweig fell into despair at the sight of Europe's downfall.

This visually stunning and emotionally powerful film explores what it means to be a refugee, and exposes the difficult decision to speak out or remain silent in the face of tyranny.

DVD (German, English, Portuguese, French & Spanish with English Subtitles) / 2016 / 106 minutes

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER

By Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 15 minutes

ALAIN DELON, A UNIQUE PORTRAIT

This fascinating portrait is for anyone who has ever been captivated by Alain Delon's dashing good looks, and for anyone who wants to know more about the man behind the mask. By the end of the film they will view this famous French icon in a totally different light.

A portrait of Alain Delon that sets out to remove the masks of this defence-ridden, international icon - for the very first time.The portrait focuses entirely on its main subject - it is "pure Delon", with no other interviewees. Via numerous film excerpts, it follows the actor's path right from the start. Delon speaks in a series of surprising interviews, spanning nearly 50 years. At the end of this breathtaking journey, a new vision emerges: Alain Delon, the man of 87 movies and the most handsome face in French cinema, remains a mystery.

DVD / 2015 / 52 minutes

CHET ZAR: I LIKE TO PAINT MONSTERS

Director: Mike Correll

Enter the dark and foreboding world of Chet Zar, where apocalyptic industrial landscapes are inhabited by disturbing yet beautiful monstrosities. Sometimes gruesome, periodically funny, but always thought-provoking, Zar's art is as enigmatic as it is frightening. But who is Chet Zar, and why does he like to paint monsters? These are the questions at the heart of Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters.

Zar is an influential figure in the Dark Art Movement, and, given his chosen moniker "Painter of Dark," this is no surprise. Born in 1967 in San Pedro, California, Zar was well known as the family prankster. With a passion for horror films, an innate urge to create bizarre artwork, and a superhuman work ethic, Zar seemed to be made for the special effects industry. During his time with the film industry, he designed and created creatures and make-up effects for such films as Darkman, The Ring, Hellboy I & II, and Planet of the Apes. Even more well-known is his work with the band Tool, contributing to both their music videos and their on-stage theatrical animations.

Despite his success in the film industry, Zar became disenchanted by the many artistic compromises required of him. With the support of his family and horror author Clive Barker, Zar decided in early 2000 to pursue his passion for monsters by painting them. In this new arena, he has flourished and found the much-needed freedom to explore his internal world and all of the oddities created by his brush strokes.

Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters is your opportunity to take a journey into the mind and life of Zar. Become acquainted with his thoughts, motivations, and reflections of the past as well as his projections of the future. Delve into his experiences in the film industry, his transition from early special effects into the world of computer animation, and, ultimately, his evolution into the distinctive artist he is today.

This unique opportunity will allow you unprecedented access into the Dark Art movement, including the studios where it is being forged and the galleries where this cataclysmic work is being shown. Take part in this dynamic endeavor to explore the life and work of Chet Zar, "Painter of Dark"!

DVD / 2015 / 80 minutes

DYING OF THE LIGHT, THE

Director: Peter Flynn

DVD / 2015 / 94 minutes

LAST CAB TO DARWIN

Director: Jeremy Sims

Rex is a cab driver who has never left the mining town of Broken Hill in his life. When he discovers he doesn't have long to live, he decides to drive through the heart of the country to Darwin, where he's heard he will be able to die on his own terms; but along the way he discovers that before you can end your life you've got to live it, and to live it you've got to learn to share it...

DVD / 2015 / 123 minutes

GOLDEN GATE GIRLS

By S. Louisa Wei

In GOLDEN GATE GIRLS author and professor S. Louisa Wei tells the story of filmmaker Esther Eng, the first woman to direct Chinese-language film in the US, and the most prominent woman director in Hong Kong in the 1930's. A San Francisco native and open lesbian, her contribution to film history is sadly overlooked - her 11 feature films mostly lost. After the retirement of director Dorothy Arzner in 1943 and before Ida Lupino began directing in 1949, Eng was the only woman directing feature length films in the US.

Wei's documentary paints a fascinating picture of how Eng's career in filmmaking broke through gender and racial boundaries in Hollywood and Hong Kong, at a time when opportunities for Chinese women in the industry were few and far between. With a captivating archive of newly discovered images and interviews with those who knew her, Wei uncovers a rich chapter of film history that challenges both gender hierarchies and national narratives. Essential viewing for Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies.

DVD (Chinese, Color) / 2014 / 90 minutes

ONE CUT, ONE LIFE

Director: Lucia Small and Ed Pincus

When seminal documentarian Ed Pincus, considered the father of first person non-fiction film, is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he and collaborator Lucia Small team up to make one last film, much to the chagrin of Jane, Ed's wife of 50 years. Told from two filmmakers' points of view, One Cut, One Life challenges the form of first person documentary. Ed and Lucia's unique approach to filming offers a vulnerability and intimacy rarely seen in non- fiction, questioning whether some things might be too private to be made public. The film is an intense, raw, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human condition which invites the viewer to contemplate for themselves what is important, not only at the end of life, but also during.

DVD / 2014 / 105 minutes

THANHOUSER STUDIO AND THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN CINEMA

The Thanhouser Company was a trail-blazing studio based in New Rochelle, New York. From 1910 to 1917 it released over 1,000 films that were seen by audiences around the globe.

DVD / 2014 / 53 minutes

TOKYO FIANCEE

Director: Stefan Liberski

Based on Amelie Nothomb's bestselling novel, Tokyo Fiancee is an entertaining romantic comedy that will appeal to fans of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.

The young, pixie-like Amelie is in love with all things Japanese, which prompts her to buy a one-way ticket to Tokyo in order to completely immerse herself in Japanese culture. She offers to work as a French tutor, and soon finds herself enjoying a passionate relationship with her only student, the charming Rinri. As the two explore the joys (and awkwardness) of their first real romance and the colorful city around them, many cultural barriers fall...but some still remain.

This utterly charming romantic comedy played in the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and seduced audiences in Europe with its whimsical style and its playful look at misunderstandings, complications and the problems that arise from cultural stereotypes. Pauline Etienne, as Amelie, is winsome and wonderful as the enthusiastic young woman on a cross-cultural adventure of the heart.

DVD (English, French and Japanese, with English subtitles) / 2014 / 100 minutes

BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD

Director: Rob Kuhns

In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed "Night of the Living Dead," a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day.

Birth of the Living Dead shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers - policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner - to shoot a revolutionary guerrilla style film that went on to become a cinematic landmark, offering a profound insight into how our society worked in a singular time in American history.

DVD / 2013 / 76 minutes

CASTING BY

Director: Tom Donahue

Casting By places the spotlight on one of filmmaking's unsung heroes - casting director Marion Dougherty - and takes us on a journey through 50 years of Hollywood history from an entirely new perspective. Relying of her exquisite taste and gut instincts, Dougherty helped usher in the 'New Hollywood' with movies like Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Bonnie and Clyde, and in the process launched the careers of iconic actors including James Dean, Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty, Christopher Plummer, Glenn Close, John Travolta, Jeff Bridges, Bette Midler and countless others. Breaking away from tradition studio typecasting, Dougherty started the first independent casting agency and quickly became a favorite for directors, producers, and studio chiefs. Over the next 35 years, Dougherty became an indispensable ally to some of the best filmmakers in Hollywood.

In Tom Donahue's entertaining and illuminated documentary, directors and actors including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Lane, Jon Voight, Bette Midler and John Travolta reveal insights into their early careers and share fond memories of Doughery, all interwoven with rarely seen clips as well as scenes from classic films The Sting, Goodfellas, Annie Hall, The Great Escape and West Side Story.

DVD / 2013 / 89 minutes

HANS RICHTER: EVERYTHING TURNS - EVERYTHING REVOLVES

Director: Dave Davidson

HANS RICHTER: Everything Turns - Everything Revolves celebrates the life of the Dadaist, abstract painter and experimental filmmaker who was a major force in redefining art in the 20th century. In collaboration with friends including Marcel Duchamp, Sergei Eisenstein, Tristan Tzara, Mies Van Der Rohe and Hans Arp, Richter was at the leading edge of the European Avant Garde. His 1920s experimental films "Rhythmus 21" and "Ghosts Before Breakfast" established film as a unique art form, liberated from the theatrical conventions of script and actors.

After being forced out of Europe by the Nazis in 1941, Richter escaped to the U.S. where he became a prophet of modernism for a generation of young American artist/filmmakers, who would galvanize into the New American Cinema movement.

DVD / 2013 / 57 minutes

THROUGH A LENS DARKLY

Director: Thomas Allen Harris

The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history by discovering images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost.

Bringing to light the hidden and unknown photos shot by both professional and vernacular African American photographers, the film opens a window into lives, experiences and perspectives of black families that is absent from the traditional historical canon. These images show a much more complex and nuanced view of American culture and society and its founding ideals.

Inspired by Deborah Willis's book Reflections in Black and featuring the works of Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Hank Willis Thomas, Coco Fusco, Clarissa Sligh and many others, Through a Lens Darkly introduces the viewer to a diverse yet focused community of storytellers who transform singular experiences into a communal journey of discovery - and a call to action.

DVD / 2013 / 92 minutes

WALKING DEAD GIRLS, THE

With interviews with zombie master maker George Romero, cult filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, scream queen Linnea Quigley and cult movie star Bruce Campbell.

DVD / 2011 / 90 minutes

SUFFRAGETTES IN THE SILENT CINEMA

By Kay Sloan

In the days before movies could talk, silent films spoke clearly of sexual politics, and in Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema, historian and writer Kay Sloan has assembled rare and wonderful footage that opens a historic window onto how women's suffrage was represented in early American cinema.

Taking advantage of the powerful new medium, early filmmakers on both sides of the contentious issue of suffrage used film to create powerful propaganda and images about women. Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema contains clips from many films from the era, including: A Lively Affair (1912); A Busy Day (1914), which stars a young Charlie Chaplin in drag portraying a suffragist; and the pro-suffragist film, What 80 Million Women Want (1913), which includes an eloquent speech from president of the Women's Political Union, Harriet Stanton Blatch.

Silent films may have passed into history, and their representations of feminists abandoning babies or stealing bicycles to attend suffragette meetings may now seem outrageous, but the struggle for gender equality and the issues surrounding representations of women in the media remain as fascinating, engaging, and relevant as ever.

DVD (Color, Black and White) / 2003 / 35 minutes

SISTERS OF THE SCREEN: AFRICAN WOMEN IN THE CINEMA

By Beti Ellerson

Exploring the extraordinary contributions of women filmmakers from Africa and the diaspora, Beti Ellerson's engaging debut intersperses interviews with such acclaimed women directors as Assia Djebar, Safi Faye, Sarah Maldoror, Anne Mungai, Fanta Regina Nacro and Ngozi Onwurah with footage from their seminal work. With power and nuance, Ellerson also confronts the thorny question of cultural authenticity by revisiting the legendary 1991 FESPACO (Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou), in which diasporian women were asked to leave a meeting intended for African woman only. This film is both a valuable anthology and a fitting homage to the pioneers and new talents of African cinema.

DVD (Color) / 2002 / 73 minutes

LOST GARDEN, THE: THE LIFE AND CINEMA OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE

By Marquise Lepage

THE LOST GARDEN looks at the life and times of Alice Guy-Blache (1873-1968), arguably, the first narrative filmmaker in the world. Creating her first motion picture in France in the 1890s, Alice Guy-Blache went on to found her own successful production company in the US. Producing and writing more than 700 films. Clips from her films, which were cleverly edited to illustrate events from her personal life, are intercut with revealing excerpts from TV interviews with Guy-Blache, photographs, reminiscences by family members, and interviews with film historians. A fitting tribute to one of cinema's most fearless pioneers.

DVD (Color) / 1995 / 53 minutes

CINEMAS DE TRAVERSE

Documentary about films and experimental practices in the world.

This journal was compiled between 2005 and 2009 on four continents. This is a subjective journey through the approaches and experimental procedures to show the magnitude of this research and to honor filmmakers who participate in the history of cinema: Jonas Mekas (USA), Peter Kubelka (Austria), Boris Lehman (Belgium), Joseph Morder (France), Peter Tscherkassky (Austria), Guy Sherwin (UK) among others. These byways lead us to the places of production and distribution networks created specifically for experimental films.

2 DVDs (French, English, With French, English Subtitles) / 182 minutes

DADA CINEMA

Rhythmus 21, Hans Richter Symphonie Diagonale, Viking Eggeling Le Retour a la Raison, Man Ray Entr'acte, Rene Clair & Francis Picabia Le Ballet Mecanique, Fernand Leger Filmstudie, Hans Richter Emak Bakia, Man Ray Vormittagsspuk, Hans Richter

"The cinematographic universe of Dada is a crossroads of iconographic subversion and abstraction, formal geometry and corporal eroticism, bathed in a general indifference to "making sense" - unless it is making sense of its own deconstruction." - Philippe-Alain Michaud

DVD

PAUL YEDERBECK ALIAS YEDERBECK - EXPANDED ANIMATION CINEMA

"I was a bourgeois painter, then a progressive painter, and then no longer a painter, but just a worker in the pictures." - Paul Yederbeck (1965-2001)

ALIAS YEDERBECK Virtual Panorama Installation 63' QUEST-CE QUE MONSIEUR TESTE? 26' ALIAS YEDERBECK DOCUMENTATION FOOTAGE 16'

DVD (German, With English Subtitles) / 105 minutes

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