Ploofle

Contrasting quite ouch-ily with March of the Penguins was Million Dollar Baby, which I just saw (thx netflix) last night. Very, *very* good movie. I’d say it was almost as scarring as Dancer in the Dark, except that the main character’s dream was much closer to being accomplished – you know, she got there, etc etc. So, super sad, but not as hairpullingly frustrating as Bjork.

It definitely made me think about family and relationships, and in some ways rather uncomfortably made me brood about the past, among other things. But it definitely encourages the effort for effort’s sake, which I’m rather a fan of anyway. Makes me want to go bitch out people even more than usual and feel more ok about it.

Speaking of family things, Bonnie accidentally had to talk to my mom yesterday (3m 43s). Apparently, it seemed like an eternity and she managed to pump out future information. Thus, the cat’s out of the bag about Seattle. Hmm. Maybe I should switch schools again

Oh, and the car’s fixed. So somewhat less bus-riding.

Tags: media

Saw March of the Penguins with Bonnie this weekend…I’m particularly proud of how we got there – by train and bus! And it wasn’t all that bad time-wise. What with the monthly pass Bonnie got for me, Marta’s been my friend lately.

According to several sites (including slashdot) apparently penguins are set to out-box office Fahrenheit 9/11. The cute fuzzies win again over doom and gloom.

As far as the movie itself, it wasn’t all that bad – though I thought it was a bit long. Lots of neat cute footage of penguins and Morgan Freeman describing their activities…the crowd was mostly senior citizens and parents with children. I’d say my favorite part was the closeups of penguinette storage and penguin feet. They look really neat; kinda what you’d imagine dragon’s feet to look like. That the underwater footage was pretty graceful – tho I wondered if it was possibly cgi rather than footage, as it was so quick.

On the other hand, while it’s going to be the top grossing whatever documentary blah blah, that top mark currently set is 21.6 million. For big-name movies, that’s maybe a weekend day’s earning. So fear not, the public is still not really making convulsive movements toward enlightened or educated movie-going. If you contest that, see exhibit A: Dukes of Hazzard.

Also also, my laptop is officially delivered home. I’m tempted to fall deathly ill and go home early, but am resisting said temptation.

Tags: media

Wanted to write a bit about this, but at work and will just sketch out ideas before I forget them later today.

…

I’ve recently watched two foreign films from Africa (which I understand
is like saying I watched two films from Asia and one’s a HK action
flick while the other’s a Japanese movie about death — which I will
write about later (Mr. Kore-Eda and his two movies (Afterlife and
Nobody Knows (Dare Mo Shiranai))), namely
Moolaadé and Hotel Rwanda. 
Both of these movies were profoundly moving, and in some ways have
similar themes about humanity, technology, and stigma in cultures,
though they take very different paths on this topic.

Moolaadé is a movie about a village in Burkina Faso, which I believe is a French-speaking North African country.  The director is male and from Senegal,
a nearby country.  Essentially, the movie is about some of the
women taking a stand against female circumcision by providing
protection (the Moolaadé) to the young girls who fled just prior to the
ceremony.  This provokes a chain of events that affect everything
from the ideas of religion and cleanliness to gender roles in the
community and the social structure of families.  There’s a
heartbreaking scene (to me) where a man is force to beat his favorite
wife because of her "willfulness" to essentially defend his manhood and
tears are streaming down his face.  Strong shit. 

Hotel Rwanda is about the 1994 genocide that lead to Tutsis being
slaughtered by the Hutus.  The main character is a Hutu man who
works in a hotel who decides to harbor Tutsi refugees as the violence
begins in the country.  He has to call in all sorts of favors and
make agonizing decisions – like discussing his wife must do if they are
overrun by Hutus – that almost come true again and again in the movie.

Moolaadé – Burkina Faso? Female circumcision, Radio

Hotel Rwanda – Rwanda, Radio

Roles of religion and stigma in both? How does modernization affect em in both? Portrayal of foreigners/caucasians?

Continue reading “‘Moolaad�’ versus ‘Hotel Rwanda’”

Tags: media, praxis