FILMS,DOCUMENTARIES…& DEBATE
Information can be taken from the English blog:
Follow the white rabbit (IES Pedro de Ursua web)
THEMES and TITLES:
1-SILENT FILM:
Short films:
a) the irresistable piano (4.50 minutes).
b) The glue (3.40)
c) Barney Oldfield´s race for a life (13.54)
Film:
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin) (first 8.30)
2-GENDER:
Film: A) Real Women Have Curves directed by P.Cardoso+(link IPES web)
………..B) Different clips about women in the cinema + Several Links
………..C) Italian Short film: What do we think about women?
………..D) Invisibles (2nd part) by Garcia Bernal.
………..E) Short films done by students 3ºESO,Plasencia
3. Human Rights:
A) Short Cut (Amnesty I. / Fragment from the film + This Land Is Mine by Jean Renour
B) Violence towards women …: Precious
4 Emigration/ Inmigration:
a)lecture by Chimamanda Adichie (Nigerian writer.TED TV).(18)
b) Short film: Said´s journey (9.36)
c) The Visitor
d) Welcome
e) Parts from :14 kilometres and Invisibles
5 Consumerism:
Documentary- Planned Obsolescence (40)
Short film: Remittance(Remesas)(3.30)
6 Racism:
Shorts/doc a) White Doll, Black doll(68)
(A conversation with children about race)
b) Strangers (7.11)
c) Afrikaner Blood (8.27)
7. Sciencie Fiction:
a)Trailers about different Science-Fiction films
b)Matrix
8. Dissability:
Film a)Blindness
b)Short: 3000 Obstacles
9.Sexual Orientation:
Film: Fucking Aamal
Short films:
a) I don´t want to go back alone (Brazil)
b) Different short films (Irish School…)
10. a)Work World:
Film: Devil wears Prada
Documentary about Vogue´s director
Advertisement about Loewe…
b)FOOD:clips from Babbete´s Feast, Estomago
C)SUSPENSE: Memento
d)ANTHROPOLOGY/MUSIC: The Crazy Stranger
11. A)ANIME CINEMA / ECOLOGY:
Film: The Princess Mononoke. +
SHORT FILMS (several from the blog)
12.:Other themes:
a) Slungdog Millionaire
b) Gran Torino
c) Fargo
d) Publicity: advertisements…
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime (US: pantomime) and title cards. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made practical in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the introduction of the Vitaphone system. After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, “talkies” became more and more commonplace. Within a decade, popular widespread production of silent films had ceased.
Short films:
1- the irresistable piano.(Alice Guy Blache).
2-<a href=”http://archive.org/details/LaGlu1907″ title=”The Glue”>The glue</a>.(Alice Guy Blache)
3- Barney Oldfield´s race for a life (Mack Sennett)
Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life (1913) is a silent comedy short, directed and produced by Mack Sennett and starring Sennett, Mabel Normand, and Barney Oldfield as himself. It is considered one of the earliest to create the common archetypal silent film plot of a villain tying a young damsel to the tracks of an oncoming locomotive.
[edit]Plot
Legend Barney Oldfield stars in this early Sennett comedy. He races a speeding locomotive to rescue Mabel Normand who plays a damsel in distress tied up on the tracks by evil villain Ford Sterling.
We will talk about all the above matters during the class. What do you think about all of them. For or Against original version…
As an example to talk about these points, here you can see a good example from the film Net Work directed by Sidney Lumet (1976)
1) Original vertion
2) Spanish version
Which version do your prefer and why?
What do you think about the translations and the dubbed version?
What do you think about the dubbing actor or voice over actor?
Would you like to know a bit more about this film after watching this clip?
3000 OBSTÁCULOS
28´34´´ Documental. 2011
Idioma Original: castellano/euskera
Subtítulos: Sí Director: ION ETXEZARRETA ESPARZA
Guión: ion etxezarreta esparza
Música Original: ernesto amondarain
retrato coral en el día a día de personas con minusvalías físicas:naiara,luisi,javier,entre la denuncia social y el afán de superación..
BLINDNESS (2008) Fernando Meirelles
Blindness
Runtime: 121 mins
Directors: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga..
The film “explains a story full of moral dilemmas, more than the novel, where things are presented more in black and white. I tried to add more grays to the tale”, Meirelles explained, and he added that “this is a story that will raise tons of questions, but that doesn’t give concrete answers”. Mierelles
Review:
The catastrophe begins with a terrified Japanese businessman (Yusuke Iseya) who goes blind at the wheel of his luxury car, seeing only a milky whiteness, and passes his condition to an opportunist thief (Don McKellar) who is pretending to help him; the businessman is taken by his wife to an eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) who is also treating a high-class prostitute (Alice Braga) who unwittingly passes the terrible plague to the barman (Gael García Bernal) at the hotel where she plies her trade – and so it goes on.
All these people, in this casual chain of human non-contact, are led like terrified animals into the sordid, hellish blindness camp: they neither knew nor much cared who they brushed up against in the teeming city, but now this sequence of indifference is transformed into a horribly important choreography of doom. The key fact is that one inmate, the doctor’s wife, played by Julianne Moore, can secretly see; she alone must bear the burden of observing how horrendous the world can become.
The world of the blindness camp is an unthinkable nightmare, but for all its horror and despair, it is not aimed at us with precisely the same realist stab as, say, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men. As in the book, none of the characters is named and the occasional musing voiceover and comic interlude indicate that the proceedings are to be taken seriously, but somehow not entirely literally. When I first saw this, it reminded me of both George Romero’s zombie movies and Peter Shaffer’s stage-play Black Comedy; on a second viewing, this latter, absurdist quality predominates, although with a darker hue: the white blindness as black tragedy. Cinema is a visual medium, so no film version of Blindness could entirely reproduce its buried literary conceit of the “blind” reader having to imagine what the narrator is describing, and yet this film is an intelligent, tightly constructed, supremely confident adaptation.
*Interview-<a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2008/nov/20/fernando-meirelles-on-blindness” title=”Interview”> In the director´s chair</a> (The Guardian)
What do you think about the way blind people are treated in this film. Do you agree with the following commentaries?
Activists plan protest of movie ‘Blindness’
From BBC, AP/MSNBC:
The National Federation of the Blind has announced plans to stage protests against the movie “Blindness” at 75 theaters across the country when it opens this weekend.
The NFB says the movie, a Miramax Films release starring Julianne Moore, reinforces inaccurate stereotypes by portraying blind people as helpless, perpetually disoriented and unable to care for themselves.
“We face a 70 percent unemployment rate and other social problems because people don’t think we can do anything, and this movie is not going to help – at all,” said Christopher Danielsen, a spokesman for the NFB.
Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, the film depicts a mysterious epidemic that causes residents of a town to go blind, resulting in a collapse of the social order. Blind people are portrayed as quarantined in a mental asylum, attacking each other, soiling themselves and trading sex for food.
“The movie portrays blind people as monsters, and I believe it to be a lie,” said Marc Maurer, president of the NFB. “Blindness doesn’t turn decent people into monsters.”
What do you think about this commentary once you have seen the video?
I am not against this video or ike but I do jus wanna say that ppl with downs and other disabilities rally to be treated fairly and like they are jus like everyone else and then exceptions like this are made…. mixed signal…. I think so. Either treat them like everyone else or treat them special. Either way go ike and to lakestevens good sportsmanship. I went to school in the area and they do have a fierce rivalry
trailer of the film BLINDSIGHT
Interview to the director of Blindsight (Lucy Walker)
808pimpcess hace 3 meses
Films about:
FOOD:
Estómago (by Marcos Jorge Brazil)
It describes the rise of an idiot with a talent for haute cuisine cooking, and in a very original touch it tells the same story twice with the same protagonist: once in prison and once as a flashback in the free world. It is an odd hybrid which can best be described as “Ratatouille” (yes, the Pixar movie) meets “Carandiru” (yes, the Brazilian prison drama).
This film is one of those happy discoveries you can only have at a film festival. A sexy mix of comedy, good food and violence, Marcos Jorge’s film actually made me hungry while watching it.
More after the break…
The Story:
Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel) is a country simpleton who arrives penniless in a big Brazilian city. Doing odd-jobs at a snack bar for food and lodging only, his future seems dire until he is allowed to assist with the food. Suddenly it turns out Raimundo is surprisingly talented, being able to work miracles with the simplest of ingredients. His cooking also wins him the affection of prostitute Íria, who is happy to share his bed on occasion in return for good food. When he quickly gets snatched up by the owner of a fancy restaurant it suddenly seems like the only way for Raimundo is up…
But alas, this is all a flashback, because the present is quite different:
Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel) is a simpleton who arrives in jail, banished to a cell he has to share with seven others. Beaten into the filthiest corner for being the new guy, his future seems dire until he lets slip of the fact that he can actually cook. His cellmates discover that Raimundo is surprisingly talented, being able to work miracles with the simplest of ingredients. His cooking also wins him a little respect from top-dog Bujiú, which increases his status. When Bujiú plans a feast to win the favor of feared imprisoned crime boss Etcetera it suddenly seems like the only way for Raimundo is up…
But how will his prison adventure end? And why did he have to go to prison in the first place?
Babette´s Feast (Academy Award in 1986 for Best Foreign Film).
“Babette’s Feast,” is about edible art — Art with a capital A — a precise and elegant piece, is adapted from Isak Dinesen’s short story by director Gabriel Axel. Axel is uniquely suited to this story of a culinary genius who spends 14 years in Jutland smoking cod. And then one day she stuns the taciturn Jutlanders by preparing a mighty feast.
…from an interesting book by Jean Renoir where you can read ” Is the cinema an art?
I answer:”It doesn´t matter” one can make films or just work in gardening. Both jobs are art in the same way a Verlaine´s poem or a Delacroix´ picture are art. If the films are good, or the garden is being taken care of properly, one is practising the art of gardening or the art of film making. The authors of both activities are artists. The cook who makes a good meal is an artist…
We will mainly focus on the last part of the film (after doing a short introduction of the plot) to see the main character, the cook, doing her job and going over her background.
Background information about some themes which are important to understand the film:
<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune”>The COMMUNE</a>
The cook flew from Paris as she belonged to this French movement
<a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/babettesfeastnrkempley_a0ca1c.htm”>Review </a>of the film
<a href=”http://www.fuhem.es/cip-ecosocial/dossier-intercultural/contenido/Cine.pdf”>Didactic Unit </a>about Babette´s Feast and Bagdad´s Café
ADVENTURE
:<a href=”http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500141h.html” title=”Lost Horizon” target=”_blank”> Lost Horizon </a>by Frank Capra,1937
Before starting with Matrix, we will talk a bit about Science-Fiction films such as:
1. The Shrinking man
2. 2001 a Space Odyssey
3. Blade Runner
4. Metrópolis
MATRIX
REVIEW
“No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” says Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), the earnest, elegant John the Baptist figure in the Wachowski brothers’ allegorical science fiction masterpiece. Well, we’ll give it a shot.
He’s talking to Neo (Keanu Reeves), a blank-faced computer whizz who’s about to go through the looking glass – out of the late 20th century world as he knows it, into the real, post-apocalyptic “desert of the real”.
It’s a reality where robots rule the planet and keep humans plugged into a virtual reality matrix, living in a dream world, while their energy fuels the machines.
Morpheus thinks Neo is The One, the messiah figure who will destroy the Matrix and resurrect humanity. Fellow freedom fighter Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is convinced too. But Neo isn’t certain, and will have to face the pernicious, powerful, Matrix meanie Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) to find out.
At first viewing, the action sequences stun, but there’s more to this than the groundbreaking “bullet time” photography, or the adolescent allure of flash, black clothes and big, black guns.
Sure, “The Matrix” is almost untenably cool, but beneath the sheen there’s substance. The story’s a potent mix of buddhism, Greek mythology, and – predominantly – the Christian gospel.
The image of a superficial existence, where ignorant people thrive by blocking out a troublesome reality, is potent for a Western society drowning in wealth while the rest of the world suffers.
The performances, too, wow. Admittedly Reeves is gifted the perfect role – he has to look good while hitting things – but Moss is charismatic, clever and sexy, while Fishburne is monumental.
Nestling next to “The Terminator” and “Metropolis”, this is one the finest sci-fi flicks ever made.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (146 minutes)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence focuses on one aspect of the human condition: love. The film poses the question, what is the true essence of love? And if man is capable of defining what love is, what would happen if you were then able to program a robot with the feeling?
<a href=”http://irati.pnte.cfnavarra.es/multiblog/msantosd/2011/11/08/films-about-food-babette%c2%b4s-feast-adventure-the-man-who-would-be-king-by-john-huston1975-lost-horizon-by-frank-capra1937/devil-wears-prada/” rel=”attachment wp-att-207″><img class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-207″ src=”http://irati.pnte.cfnavarra.es/multiblog/msantosd/files/2011/11/Devil-Wears-Prada-300×281.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”281″ /></a>Films about: WORK WORLD -Film: DEVIL WEARS PRADA A naive young woman comes to New York and scores a job as the assistant to one of the city’s biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly. Director: David Frankel Writers: Aline Brosh McKenna (screenplay), Lauren Weisberger (novel) Stars: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep and Adrian Grenie
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<h1>Plot Summary</h1>
<h1>The Devil Wears Prada</h1>
</div>
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The story tells the professional adventure of Andrea, whose greatest dream is to become a journalist. Andrea gets a job in the fashion industry through Runway magazine, the most famous of its type, to make ends meet. But Andrea won’t develop her writing skills in the magazine, but her talents as the editor in chief’s assistant, Miranda. The problem is that Miranda is a merciless, posh and cruel woman, making the experience a living hell for the girl. The environment in the place will be cold and extremely critical with the physical appearance. The girl will have to change her simple and plain style, for a more trendy and elegant one, in order to gain the acceptance of her ruthless boss and colleagues, specially Emily, her unpleasant workmate. Despite everything against Andrea in the office, she will consider the experience as a challenge, drastically changing her clothes and self-image, with the help of Nigel, the magazine’s art director. Nevertheless, the job becomes extremely demanding, because of Miranda’s tough work rhythm and nearly impossible tasks, leaving Andrea without a private life with her boyfriend, family and friends. Maybe the old Andrea has gone, now more preoccupied about her image and her future in the magazine. <em> Written by <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/search/title?plot_author=Alejandro%20Frias&view=simple&sort=alpha”>Alejandro Frias</a> </em>
<span style=”font-size: small”><span style=”line-height: 24px”>Listen to Anne Wintour, director of VOGUE magazine USA. Miranda´s character was inspired in her.</span></span><span style=”line-height: 24px;font-size: medium”>What similarities and differences can you see between them?</span>
What do you think about this Loewe ad? I really hope ALL of you have something to say about it to have an interesting debate.
You can see on the internet some of the “parody ads” many people have made(althoug the original ad is probably “the best”). We will talk about them later on.
FOOD:
Estómago (by Marcos Jorge Brazil) It describes the rise of an idiot with a talent for haute cuisine cooking, and in a very original touch it tells the same story twice with the same protagonist: once in prison and once as a flashback in the free world. It is an odd hybrid which can best be described as “Ratatouille” (yes, the Pixar movie) meets “Carandiru” (yes, the Brazilian prison drama). This film is one of those happy discoveries you can only have at a film festival. A sexy mix of comedy, good food and violence, Marcos Jorge’s film actually made me hungry while watching it. More after the break… The Story: Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel) is a country simpleton who arrives penniless in a big Brazilian city. Doing odd-jobs at a snack bar for food and lodging only, his future seems dire until he is allowed to assist with the food. Suddenly it turns out Raimundo is surprisingly talented, being able to work miracles with the simplest of ingredients. His cooking also wins him the affection of prostitute Íria, who is happy to share his bed on occasion in return for good food. When he quickly gets snatched up by the owner of a fancy restaurant it suddenly seems like the only way for Raimundo is up… But alas, this is all a flashback, because the present is quite different: Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel) is a simpleton who arrives in jail, banished to a cell he has to share with seven others. Beaten into the filthiest corner for being the new guy, his future seems dire until he lets slip of the fact that he can actually cook. His cellmates discover that Raimundo is surprisingly talented, being able to work miracles with the simplest of ingredients. His cooking also wins him a little respect from top-dog Bujiú, which increases his status. When Bujiú plans a feast to win the favor of feared imprisoned crime boss Etcetera it suddenly seems like the only way for Raimundo is up… But how will his prison adventure end? And why did he have to go to prison in the first place? Babette´s Feast (Academy Award in 1986 for Best Foreign Film). “Babette’s Feast,” is about edible art — Art with a capital A — a precise and elegant piece, is adapted from Isak Dinesen’s short story by director Gabriel Axel. Axel is uniquely suited to this story of a culinary genius who spends 14 years in Jutland smoking cod. And then one day she stuns the taciturn Jutlanders by preparing a mighty feast. …from an interesting book by Jean Renoir where you can read ” Is the cinema an art? I answer:”It doesn´t matter” one can make films or just work in gardening. Both jobs are art in the same way a Verlaine´s poem or a Delacroix´ picture are art. If the films are good, or the garden is being taken care of properly, one is practising the art of gardening or the art of film making. The authors of both activities are artists. The cook who makes a good meal is an artist… We will mainly focus on the last part of the film (after doing a short introduction of the plot) to see the main character, the cook, doing her job and going over her background.
Background information about some themes which are important to understand the film: <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune”>The COMMUNE</a> The cook flew from Paris as she belonged to this French movement <a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/babettesfeastnrkempley_a0ca1c.htm”>Review </a>of the film <a href=”http://www.fuhem.es/cip-ecosocial/dossier-intercultural/contenido/Cine.pdf”>Didactic Unit </a>about Babette´s Feast and Bagdad´s Café
SUSPENSE: MEMENTO
2000, USA, Cert 15, 113 mins, Thriller, Dir: Christopher NolanWith: Carrie-Anne Moss, Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano
A man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime, in this offbeat thriller. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But Leonard’s problems are different from those of most people in his situation; he was beaten severely by the same man who killed his wife. The most significant manifestation of Leonard’s injuries is that his short-term memory has been destroyed; he is incapable of retaining any new information, and must resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day (he’s even tattooed himself with a few crucial bits of information he can’t get along without). Leonard retains awareness that his wife was brutally murdered, however, and he’s convinced that the culprit still walks the streets. Leonard is obsessed with the notion of taking revenge against the man who has ruined his life, and he sets out to find him, getting help from Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), who appears to be a sympathetic barmaid, and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), who claims to be Leonard’s friend, even though Leonard senses that he cannot be trusted. Writer/director Christopher Nolan adapted Memento from a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
R, 1 hr. 56 min.
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
ANTHROPOLOGY/MUSIC…Gadjo Dilo (The Crazy Stranger)
Directed by Tony Gatlif
Romania / France 1997
Endearingly shaggy comedy-drama, improvised around the thinnest wisp of plot: genial, wild-haired young Frenchman Stephane (Romain Duris) arrives in a remote Romanian village in search of Nora Luca, a Gypsy singer much loved by his late father. The local Roma community is initially hostile, but gradually accept Stephane after he first befriends blustery oldster Izidor (Izidor Serban), and then local ‘bad girl’ Sabina (Rona Hartner).
But this narrative is really just an arbitrary framework on which Algerian-Gypsy Gatlif strings colorful vignettes illustrating the richness of Roma life. He’s out to celebrate a remarkable culture that survives in Europe’s hidden corners, one whose Eastern roots are clearly exposed in the frequent bouts of singing and dancing.
Gadjo Dilo is much more successful in terms of anthropology and good-time atmosphere than as a feature-film drama.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
See about how to work about this film in the following IPES BLOG link
After having seen The Visitor, Welcome a part of 14 Kilometres, and some shorcuts about racism, debate in groups about some of the following points:
1.What do you think about the reasons to emigrate of the different characters from the films?(political reasons, gender and violence matters,love reasons, economical reasons…to reach a dream -become a football player-)
2. After talking to your parents, grandparents…could you talk about people from your country who emigrated? Why did they go to America, other European countries? Do you know something about this matter?
3.Game.
a)”Ponerse en el lugar del otro” What would you do if you were in his/her place?(chose any of the characters from the films).
b)What would you do in five or six years time,time to look for a job, if the unemployment situation continues?.
Video related to the two topics we have seen up till now.
Follow part of this lecture or talk by <a href=”http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/eng//id/652″ target=”_blank”>CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE</a> (a Nigerian writer)to be discussed in class.
In the link you can choose English or Spanish subtitles.
In Youtube you can see the first part with Spanish subtitles.
Said´s journey (short cut)
THE VISITOR 1.45″ -2008/
by Thomas McCarthy (director of THE STATION AGENT 2003 a very good film)
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After watching the film, read the following questions and work in class with your partners to talk about them.
1.- Find out the meaning of the following legal terms:
asylum, bag and baggage letter, deportation, detention, removal proceeding or deportation proceeding, due process, green card.
2- Which of the characters in the film did you relate to most? Why?
3-Why do you think Walter decides to let Tarek and Zainab stay at his apartment even though he knows nothing about them?
4-In your opinion, who is “the visitor”? In what way is each character “visiting”?
5- What was the most memorable moment in the film? Why?
6-Think of someone in your life who immigrated to your country. Why did they come here? What hardships has s/he faced as an immigrant?
7-What was your impression of the detention center? What did you notice? Is this different from what you expected?
8-What do we as global/American citizens have to gain or lose by providing immigrants and refugees with the right to due process?
9-What are arguments for and against detaining immigrants and refugees in prison-like conditions?
10-Can you think of alternative ways the U.S. government could handle cases like Tarek’s?
11-How do you think Tarek’s deportation will affect each character’s view of the world?
12-Is there any situation in the film you could consider racist?
These questions are taken from “The Visitor” Discussion Guide.
Read part of one of the reviews. Do you agree with the last paragraph? Do you have anything to add?
Review:
…a mellow, laid-back, and entirely satisfying little “people” movie, one that finds the beauty in the small gestures of genorisity: McCarthy finds a lot of beauty in the strangest friendships, and as The Visitor moves into more political areas (Tarek gets tossed into jail for no good reason), the director is careful to let the characters take precedence over the “issues.” Obviously the film has a lot to say about the Arab experience in America today, but The Visitor is much more interested in its interpersonal relationships than it is in climbing a soapbox and preaching to the choir. (Icing on the cake: In addition to Jenkins’ fantastic performance, newcomer Haaz Sleiman (as Tarek) is really quite excellent.)
The result is a movie with a message, sure, but it works even better as a touching look at a lonely man who finds some warmth, friendship and affection in the most unexpected of places: His own forgotten apartment.
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WELCOME – Movie Trailer
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<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/invisiblesfilms”>Los Invisibles</a> (by Garcia Bernal in colaboration with Amnesty International)
14 KILOMETRES
Directed by Gerardo Olivares
REVIEW
by Felipe Gómez Isa
Fourteen kilometers is the geographical distance between the African continent and the South of Europe. It is, however, more than that. It also serves as the insurmountable obstacle that negates the dreams of millions of African teenagers who see the Western world as their only hope to escape from hunger, misery, and despair. 14 Kilometres,a road movie, wisely combines fiction and documentary to explore the human dimensions (and, unfortunately, inhuman dimensions) of the dramatic adventure of Sub-Saharan African migration to Europe. This journey can last months or even years, and all too often the final destiny is death—either in the sands of the desert or in the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
The film 14 Kilometres is based on the story of Violeta Sunny, Buba Kanou, and Mukela Kanou, who represent an entire generation of African young people whose only desire is to migrate to Europe. Violeta escapes from a forced marriage with a much older man of her village and his repeated sexual abuse; Buba wants to be a football (soccer) star for one of the leading European teams, and he travels the entire way with a t-shirt of Real Madrid and a foot ball; and the third traveller is Mukela, Buba’s brother, who is responsible for convincing his brother to leave his village and make the journey but who ultimately dies in the harsh desert.
The three initiate their odyssey in Niger, crossing the Tenere and the Saharan deserts until they reach the Moroccan coast, where only two of them finally make it to their imagined “promised land.” In the course of their trip they face police corruption, the severity and cruelty of the desert, and unscrupulous human traffickers. However, they also experience the solidarity of the peoples of the desert, the Touareg. One of the culminating moments of the film is when a Touareg leader addresses Violeta and Buba with these words: “the future is here, in Africa.” This is one of the subliminal messages that the author wants to convey: migration is not the solution to the collective tragedy that the African continent is suffering. There are a number of remarkable aspects of this film. One is the stunning beauty of the cruel desert itself. Another is the film’s commitment to human beings and its capacity to illustrate the human suffering involved in the hard and extenuating migration process, a perspective that has not received much attention so far. As the Spanish writer Rosa Montero declares in the final scene of the movie: “They will keep coming and will keep dying, since history shows that there is no wall with the capacity to stop dreams.”
As a postscript, at the time of writing, May 2008, more than 1,200 Sub-Saharan migrants, including little children, are living in the surroundings of the Moroccan city of Oujda, fifteen kilometers away from the Algerian border, waiting for their opportunity to start their hazardous sojourn once again. They face extreme conditions, and survival depends on mutual solidarity and the support of NGOs. But, as a woman from Nigeria says, “I will try it again.” Highly recommended
Other films:SHORT FILMS, ANIMATION “anime” Cinema Princess Mononoke…
PRINCESS MONONOKE (directed by Hayao Miyazaki )
<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ws5-a2HOic”>Review</a>
<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ws5-a2HOic”>SEE THE VIDEO about the review!!!</a>.
PRINCESS MONONOKE (directed by Hayao Miyazaki )
Plot:
Princess Mononoke combines high-quality animation with a mythology-based tale of morals and environmental crisis. Ashitaka defends his village from a giant boar that has become a demon but in the process acquires its curse. He sets off to cure himself and discovers Irontown, where the inhabitants have learned to forge iron, make weapons and are working to clear the forest and subdue the animals. The animals have become angered at this invasion and are actively working to defend their land. Ashitaka hopes the humans and the animals can live together in peace, which puts him in great danger.
Review
BY Roger Ebert
Running Time: 133 Minutes. Dubbed Into English
I go to the movies for many reasons. Here is one of them. I want to see wonderful sights not available in the real world, in stories where myth and dreams are set free to play. Animation opens that possibility, because it is freed from gravity and the chains of the possible. Realistic films show the physical world; animation shows its essence. Animated films are not copies of “real movies,” are not shadows of reality, but create a new existence in their own right. True, a lot of animation is insipid, and insulting even to the children it is made for. But great animation can make the mind sing.
Hayao Miyazaki is a great animator, and his “Princess Mononoke” is a great film. It tells an epic story set in medieval Japan, at the dawn of the Iron Age, when some men still lived in harmony with nature and others were trying to tame and defeat it. It is not a simplistic tale of good and evil, but the story of how humans, forest animals and nature gods all fight for their share of the new emerging order. It is one of the most visually inventive films I have ever seen.
The movie opens with a watchtower guard spotting “something wrong in the forest.” There is a disturbance of nature, and out of it leaps a remarkable creature, a kind of boar-monster with flesh made of writhing snakes. It attacks villagers, and to the defense comes Ashitaka, the young prince of his isolated people. He is finally able to slay the beast, but his own arm has been wrapped by the snakes and is horribly scarred.
A wise woman is able to explain what has happened. The monster was a boar god, until a bullet buried itself in its flesh and drove it mad. And where did the bullet come from? “It is time,” says the woman, “for our last prince to cut his hair and leave us.” And so Ashitaka sets off on a long journey to the lands of the West, to find out why nature is out of joint, and whether the curse on his arm can be lifted. He rides Yakkuru, a beast that seems part horse, part antelope, part mountain goat.
There are strange sights and adventures along the way, and we are able to appreciate the quality of Miyazaki’s artistry. The drawing is not simplistic, but has some of the same “clear line” complexity used by the Japanese graphic artists of two centuries ago, who inspired such modern works as Herge’s Tintin books. Nature is rendered majestically (Miyazaki’s art directors journeyed to ancient forests to make their master drawings) and fancifully (as with the round little forest sprites). There are also brief, mysterious appearances of the spirit of the forest, who by day seems to be a noble beast, and at night a glowing light.
Ashitaka eventually arrives in an area that is prowled by Moro, a wolf god, and sees for the first time the young woman named San. She is also known as “Princess Mononoke,” but that’s more a description than a name; a mononoke is the spirit of a beast. San was a human child, raised as a wolf by Moro; she rides bareback on the swift white spirit-wolves and helps the pack in their battle against the encroachments of Lady Eboshi, a strong ruler whose village is developing ironworking skills and manufactures weapons using gunpowder.
As Lady Eboshi’s people gain one kind of knowledge, they lose another, and the day is fading when men, animals and the forest gods all speak the same language. The lush green forests through which Ashitaka traveled west have been replaced here by a wasteland; trees have been stripped to feed the smelting furnaces, and on their skeletons, yellow-eyed beasts squat ominously. Slaves work the bellows of the forges, and lepers make the weapons.
But all is not black and white. The lepers are grateful that Eboshi accepts them. Her people enjoy her protection. Even Jigo, a scheming agent of the emperor, has motives that sometimes make a certain amount of sense. When a nearby samurai enclave wants to take over the village and its technology, there is a battle with more than one side and more than one motive. This is more like mythical history than action melodrama.
The artistry in “Princess Mononoke” is masterful. The writhing skin of the boar-monster is an extraordinary sight, one that would be impossible to create in any live-action film. The great white wolves are drawn with grace, and not sentimentalized; when they bare their fangs, you can see that they are not friendly comic pals, but animals who can and will kill.
The movie does not dwell on violence, which makes some of its moments even more shocking, as when Ashitaka finds that his scarred arm has developed such strength that his arrow decapitates an enemy.
The drama is underlaid with Miyazaki’s deep humanism, which avoids easy moral simplifications. There is a remarkable scene where San and Ashitaka, who have fallen in love, agree that neither can really lead the life of the other, and so they must grant each other freedom, and only meet occasionally. You won’t find many Hollywood love stories (animated or otherwise) so philosophical. “Princess Mononoke” is a great achievement and a wonderful experience, and one of the best films of the year.
2. MOVIE INFORMATION
This $20 million animated adventure/fantasy quickly became the highest grossing Japanese film in Japanese film history (making $150 million in Japan during its first seven months). Set in the 14th century, the ecology-themed epic was directed by Hayao Miyazaki whose previous films were acquired by Disney for U.S. distribution plus other territories. Princess Mononoke depicts a mystical battle between Animal Gods of the forest and humans during Japan’s Muromachi Period. Young Ashitaka receives a fatal infection after a demonic wild boar attacks his northern village. Seeking a cure, he sets out to locate the deer-like god Shishigami. Along the way, he sees the rape of the Earth by a mining village. The constant plundering by the village has brought the wrath of the Wolf God, Moro, who attacks the village along with San, a human who was raised by the wolf god. She communicates with the nature spirits — which is why she is called Princess Mononoke (“spirits of things”). Ashitaka wants these opposing forces to co-exist, and he hopes to bring peace between San and the ironworks owner, Lady Eboshi. However, he is thwarted as higher powers, intent on killing the Shishigama, intrude, and a battle erupts over the future of all nature. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
SHORT FILMS:
SHORT FILMS, A SUBJECT TO LEARN
El cortometraje es un vehículo idóneo para la sensibilización y la educación de la imagen. La brevedad de su discurso, la libertad de su narratividad, sus variaciones formales, su creatividad y el riesgo de algunas de sus propuestas, entre otras virtudes, lo convierten en un medio particularmente propicio para el aprendizaje y la educación en la imagen. Los cortos son una herramienta educativa propicia para esta labor. Afortunadamente, los cortos están adquiriendo más protagonismo en las aulas, tanto de primaria como de secundaria.
Para los estudiantes y para quienes quieren iniciarse en el mundo cinematográfico, los cortometrajes son uno de los recursos principales en su formación. Deberían ser algo más que un campo de pruebas que en el que, después de su visionado, se mostraran diversas opiniones.
Docentes y estudiantes debería aprovecharse de este recurso acercándose a los componentes de los procesos creativos y de géneros para contribuir en la formación del gusto, sensibilidad, curiosidad y espíritu crítico, además de su desarrollo cultural.
From:El cortometraje, asignatura para el aprendizaje from tv programme SOMOS CORTOS RTVE2
1- FOR THE BIRDS (PIXAR)
2-OKTAPODI (2007 Oscar winner to the best animation short film
13- El Columpio
14 – Pescados (Lucrecia Martell)
15 – Drugs throug a boy who is 11 years old
*- White rabbit (song by Jefferson Airplane)
Lyrics White Rabbit
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ‘em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small
When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the doormouse said;
“Feed YOUR HEAD…
Feed your head”
Introduction (4 minutes video)
This Land Is Mine by Jean Renoir (5.35)
Situation of H.R in Tibet/ Nomads (Parts Videos “Leaving Fear Behind” and “The Story of the Weeping Camel” (parts 3 to 9).This film is related to the Environment- Ecology section.
Read the interview to Salil Shetty (president of Amnesty International on WIRE megazine,pages 13,14).
2.MIGRATION :
Films:
-The Visitor
- Welcome
- 14 Kilometros
- <a href=”http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/amnesty-international-and-gael-garc%C3%AD-bernal-launch-films-migrants-mexico-2010-11-08″>Los Invisibles</a> (English version) by García Bernal (you can see this film in <a href=”http://www.youtube.com/invisiblesfilms”>Spanish or English)</a>
3.RACISM
-Strangers (14 minutes)
-Several videos Research about racism. Short film, “Black doll White doll, two songs…
4.ENVIRONMENT- ECOLOGY
- Green the film + Official page greenthefilm.com
- Tierra (English with Spanish subtitles)
- Home (English with subtitles)
- Wall-e (only some fragments)
5. GENDER
Films: -Real Women Have Curves
- Telma & Louis
-Antonia’s Line (fragments)
- Los Invisibles ( English subt-part two: Six out of ten)By Gael García Bernal
-Remesas, Short film (English subt)
6.CONSUMERISM
Documentary about “Absolescencia programada” (English, Spanish, French ,Catalan)
” or Short film: STUFF.
7. SEXUAL ORIENTATION
- Different ads and Short films (Brasilian…)
-Fucking Amal
- Didactic Guide (Amnesty International.Sexual Minorities)
8 . Other themes
-Anime Cinema: The Princess Minonoke
- Short films (short cuts)
