World Music Videos (Paul Simon…)

coursera programation
Learn the ideas and vocabulary for listening to world music, and examine the music of several world music cultures and how they have entered into mainstream popular culture.
Paul Simon – Graceland DVD / Homeless with Paul Simon interview (6.33)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRQb7iotZk[/youtube]
Graceland, Paul Simon’s “collaborative” album (with lyrics)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvliMzAFWHM&playnext=1&list=PL16820F3FEC9414EC&feature=results_main HOMELESS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg7IlKl-nkc[/youtube]
Homeless lyrics
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AFA9lRq8H8[/youtube]
Diamonds on the Soles Of Her Shoes (from Graceland)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmf9ZJ_Yn0A[/youtube]
Tuvan Throat Singing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w[/youtube]
See this short film about a trip along Mongolia where the throat singing is used
Transmongolian

Yothu Yindi – Timeless Land (Australia)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=O7TWJMO4k3k[/youtube]
Pygmy Pop Singing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5ZsIkV1n4[/youtube]
Kalahari Bushman with his bow and arrows. from minute 9.30
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPJE2rO9zbg[/youtube]
Buena Vista Social Club
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JEdf7XsV5g[/youtube]

Documentaries:Oscar & P de vista Awards: A world not ours/ 5 Broken Cameras, Sugar Man/ Fresh Guacamole, Adam & dog, Head over heels…etc/Bully,The Story of the weeping camel/ Goya best shortfilm: A Story for the Modlins

A World Not Ours . Punto de Vista Festival- audience award (about the life in a Palestinian refugees camp in Lebanon)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDIyM8XTWUo[/youtube]
Link to the interview with the director

Oscar Awards 2013

5 Broken Cameras (6`)

Directed by Paletinian Emad Burnat and the Israeli Guy Davidi
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu58ZHxHjtU[/youtub

Review:
An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, the footage was later given to Israeli co-director Guy Davidi to edit. Structured around the violent destruction of each one of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of village turmoil. Burnat watches from behind the lens as olive trees are bulldozed, protests intensify, and lives are lost. “I feel like the camera protects me,” he says, “but it’s an illusion.” — (C) Kino Lorber

The Gatekeepers
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdMjr8cuEy8[/youtube]
Sugar Man
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAYCxT418RA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WfEOfWEpxU[/youtube]
Two South African music lovers embark on a mission to uncover the fate of an obscure, 1970s-era U.S. rocker whose debut album became a surprise hit in their home country, and uncover a shocking secret along the way. Sixto Diaz Rodriguez had the kind of musical career that every aspiring rock star fears — lauded by critics but ignored by the public, he released two albums before unceremoniously disappearing from the spotlight. But while sales of Rodriguez’s debut CD Cold Fact fell flat in the U.S., overseas in Australia and South Africa, the fans couldn’t get enough. In apartheid-torn South Africa in particular, Cold Fact became something of an anti-establishment classic, eventually going platinum. Later, rumors began to swirl that Rodriguez had suffered a horrible death. When Rodriguez’s second album Coming From Reality makes it’s belated debut in South Africa, a pair of devoted fans take it upon themselves to uncover the facts surrounding the mysterious musician, and get the surprise of a lifetime while attempting to track the profits from his record sales.
The Invisible War
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpj9XoVFoI[/youtube]
*Babies
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwUZ-5tEs_U[/youtube]
As an introduction to The Story of the Weeping Camel, see this short film about Mongolia from the train:
Transmongolian
The Story of the weeping Camel(eng subtitles)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tpTq6gjHw[/youtube]
OSCARS To the best animated short films
Fresh Guacamole
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMO6vjmkyI[/youtube]
Adam and Dog
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV0PJKgFIUs[/youtube]
Paperman
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqmh1GoZjnw[/youtube]
Head Over Heels
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJxkgTYELAo[/youtube]
Bully (2012)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRCM5bRXl-k[/youtube]
“Serves as a call to action against abuse of students by their peers.” – Variety

With millions of kids every year suffering schoolyard persecution at the hands of their peers, bullying is the most prevalent form of violence young people experience. From teasing to cyberbullying to the persecution of GLBTI teens, bullying transcends geographic, racial, ethnic and economic boundaries.

Sundance award-winning director Lee Hirsch’s powerful, controversial documentary Bully captures the human face of this torment. Profiling five victims, the film is a confronting – and for many, all-too familiar – picture of a bullied child’s life. Hirsch, himself a former victim, aims to show this behaviour is not just ‘kids being kids’ but real abuse with real consequences.

Visually impressive and deeply compelling, Bully captures the silent terror of victims’ daily lives and demands that the issue is no longer dismissed as simply a part of growing up. Awarded a Special Jury Mention at Silverdocs Film Festival 2011, Bully deserves to be seen as widely as possible.
From Film Melbourne
GOYA AWARDS 2013
A Story for the Modlins (Sergio Oksman) Best non-fiction documentary
After appearing in the film Rosemary’s Baby, by Roman Polanski,
Elmer Modlin ran away with his wife Margaret and his son Nelson to a distant land.
They shut themselves inside a dark apartment, where Margaret devoted herself to painting the coming Apocalypse, using Nelson and Elmer as models.

Thirty years later, hundreds of the family’s intimate photographs and documents appeared on the sidewalk like a jigsaw puzzle, waiting for someone to come along and piece together “a story for the Modlins”.
After appearing in the film Rosemary’s Baby, by Roman Polanski, Elmer Modlin ran away with his family to a distant land, where they shut themselves inside a dark apartment for thirty years.
Director:Sergio Oksman (Brasil, 1970) studied Journalism in Sao Paulo and Film in New York. He is a film teacher in Madrid, and runs the production company Dok Films since 2000.

Lost by Alberto Dorado (3´)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLiarTbGLVA[/youtube]

Presentation sheet: Cinema,documentaries…& debate

Presentation sheet Academic year 2012-13

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…

13. TV Series

 

 

Silent Films

 

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)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGj5CnPJ3QA[/youtube]

2-<a href=”http://archive.org/details/LaGlu1907″ title=”The Glue”>The glue</a>.(Alice Guy Blache)

Who is <a href=”http://www.uhu.es/cine.educacion/cineyeducacion/figurasaliceguy.htm” title=”Alice Guy Blache”>Alice Guy Blache</a> ?
3- Barney Oldfield´s race for a life (Mack Sennett)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlxyiolQn8[/youtube]
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.
City Lights – review (7 minutes)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjHIWLuXHVM[/youtube]
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_W1tOngo-w[/youtube]

To Know a bit more about the actor Charlie Chaplin, you can read this short page in Cashiers du Cinema (one of the best magazines about cinema)
And if you still want to know more about the beginning of the Cinema world, learn a bit more about this woman:
Lotte Reiniger
(June 2, 1899 – June 19, 1981) was a German silhouette animator and film director

An example of a very good Norwegean film is “Markens Grode” by Gunnar Sommerfeldt (La bendición de la tierra). “Markens Grode” was based on a very successful book written by the Norwegian Nobel Prize writer Herr Knut Hamsun

Dubbed films/ Original version/ subtitles,translations, dubbing actors…debate

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
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08[/youtube]
2) Spanish version
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSEfhWfrrOQ&amp;feature=fvwrel[/youtube]

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?

Disability

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

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTivdzpDqP0[/youtube]

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.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb_4f5nXZdA[/youtube]

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
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMs97VVEvFs[/youtube]
Interview to the director of Blindsight (Lucy Walker)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY3Wv8NmMak[/youtube]
808pimpcess hace 3 meses

Food / Adventure Films

Films about:
FOOD:
Estómago (by Marcos Jorge Brazil)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBLYkB5M8xU [/youtube]
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
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hne7jqIzvXM[/youtube]

Science Fiction

Before starting with Matrix, we will talk a bit about Science-Fiction films such as:

1. The Shrinking man

&nbsp;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpT-n8la0dk[/youtube]

2. 2001 a Space Odyssey
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vahx4rAd0N0&amp;feature=fvwrel[/youtube]

3. Blade Runner
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5m0fstCTs[/youtube]

4. Metrópolis
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96e-l7qK3SQ[/youtube]

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?

 

Films about: Work world (Devil wears Prada);Food (Estómago, Babette´s Feast). Suspense; Memento.ANTHROPOLOGY/MUSIC The Crazy Stranger Adventure (Lost Horizon, The man who…)

 

…..

<a href=”http://multiblog.educacion.navarra.es/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://multiblog.educacion.navarra.es/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 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zicgut4gpwU[/youtube]
<div>
<h1>Plot Summary</h1>
<h1>The Devil Wears Prada</h1>
</div>
<div>
<div></div>
<div><a id=”ad_feedback_top_rhs” href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/plotsummary#”>ad feedback</a></div>
</div>
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&amp;view=simple&amp;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>

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEkmKyBzDOE[/youtube]

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.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWFWJ9fRoo[/youtube]

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) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBLYkB5M8xU [/youtube] 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.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arEPBvdZAnc[/youtube]

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
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNQgzueCzaU[/youtube]

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)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERxlo6F4sWo[/youtube]

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.

CINEMA ABOUT OTHER CONTINENTS:
INDIA
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE by Danny Boyle

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzbwV7on6Q[/youtube]

See about how to work about this film in the following<a href=”http://www.cineddhh.org/guias-didacticas/slumdog/i-introduccion/” title=”IPES page: Slumdog Millionaire”> IPES page: Slumdog Millionaire</a>

Compare the similarities of the opening scene with the one in
City of God and trainspotting . Can you find them?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd68fZq_af4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf_WiEb9Qs[/youtube]

<a href=”http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/movies/12slum.html?_r=0″ title=”Film review”>Film review</a>

CHINA:
China Blue (Chinesse documentary)English with Spanish subt(19 minutes)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLdqz0ooj_Y&amp;list=PLB2BD921D57B484B9[/youtube]

Full documentary with Portuguese subt
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5VG-pA8aE[/youtube]
Interview with the director (English)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGxbCnLvE6Y[/youtube]
<a href=”http://livingwage.cleanclothes.org/a-wage-you-can-live-from/?contact-form-id=widget-text-2&amp;contact-form-sent=13360&amp;_wpnonce=b077f08ffb#contact-form-widget-text-2″ title=”CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPEIGN”>CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPAIGN</a>
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTehggY29Xg[/youtube]
El precio de un vaquero blue jeans publicado por Otra tv es posible (in Spanish)85`
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GNRf4SQYyY[/youtube]

INDIA (documentary)
Documentary: Broken Tale: A tiger´s Last Journey
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGkrtP6B3BQ[/youtube]
ADVENTURE :<a title=”Lost Horizon” href=”http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500141h.html” target=”_blank”> Lost Horizon </a>by Frank Capra,1937 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hne7jqIzvXM[/youtube]

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Emigration/ Inmigration

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.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BpsnLw368M[/youtube]

[youtube]http://dotsub.com/view/63ef5d28-6607-4fec-b906-aaae6cff7dbe[/youtube]

Said´s journey (short cut)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGjjx3WMmSE[/youtube]

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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Questions (from Didactic Guide- IPES)
1.
2.

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14 kilómetros (dvd)

<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/invisiblesfilms”>Los Invisibles</a> (by Garcia Bernal in colaboration with Amnesty International)

14 KILOMETRES
Directed by Gerardo Olivares
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-7UTmDFms[/youtube]
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