Culture/History: The Birth of a Nation

Last night I attended the Vancouver International Film Festival’s (VIFF) premiere of “The Birth of a Nation.”

birth1 Nate Parker, the films handsome lead actor who is also responsible for writing, producing and directing the cinematic drama about slave rebellion in the deep south was in attendance. He started off the evening by introducing the movie and saying that getting the script off the ground took several years and several dollars to complete but he’s very proud of the final outcome. As so he should be. This is an important historical film about a man who virtually got lost in the shuffle, his story being told for the very first time. It is a disturbing masterpiece!

The movie was filmed in Savannah, Georgia where a lot of the Atlantic slave trade originated. I visited a friend living in Savannah and was charmed by the beauty of the city but not by stories about the past. The movie struck a chord.

In short, Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher orchestrates an uprising as he witnesses countless cruelties against himself and his fellow slaves. This strong willed man decides enough is enough when he resolves to help lead his people to freedom.

Many of the scenes are not easy to witness and as a result there were not many dry eyes in the audience. Damn, I didn’t bring any tissues!

birth3

When I first heard about the subject matter I was not too interested especially after having seen twelve years a slave, the colour purple and many other slave related films. While the film is not without the expected appalling brutality and violence, this true story is different from the others. It is well worth seeing. And it makes you question how far we’ve really come in light of current issues evidenced with many recent black shootings. So maybe it has to be told time and time again….to get the point across…people are people and should be treated equally.

The film will be theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016 by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i18z1EQCoyg

Film Reviews

It’s ABOUT TIME

Timing is everything. I watched this movie entitled appropriately…..About Time.

It’s been out for a few years but that’s okay because a few years is nothing when it comes to time travel. It’s about going back in time to try and correct whatever you feel needs to be corrected. For some reason this movie struck a chord. Did you already guess that?

I mean who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity to right your wrongs (providing you have any) – or change the future as tempting as that sounds?

Anyway, I had a really ~~well deserved~~ lazy evening recently where I scrolled through a long list of movies and this light Rom-Com is the one that appealed to me. It was exactly what the evening called for.

So if you loved “The Notebook”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Notting Hill” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary” my guess is that you’ll love this too.

It’s about a 21 year old young man who finds out from his father that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. He can’t change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life-so he decides to make his world a better place…by getting a girlfriend. Sadly, that turns out not to be as easy as you might think.

Moving from the Cornwall coast to London to train as a lawyer, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) finally meets the beautiful but insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams). They fall in love, then an unfortunate time-travel incident means he’s never met her at all. So they meet for the first time again-and again-but finally, after a lot of cunning time-traveling, he wins her heart. Tim then uses his power to create the perfect romantic proposal, to save his wedding from the worst best-man speeches, to save his best friend from professional disaster and to get his pregnant wife to the hospital in time for the birth of their daughter, despite a nasty traffic jam outside Abbey Road. But as his unusual life progresses, Tim finds out that his unique gift can’t save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere. There are great limits to what time travel can achieve.

So is it best to leave everything up to fate..or tamper with it if you could? Hmmmm………

What do you think about that?

WATCH TRAILER:

Maybe I’ll watch it again….sometime

Film Reviews

Art/Film: VIFF

It’s that time of the year again….

Sandra Oh & Ann Marie Fleming – as it turned out needn’t have worried

On the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival which ended yesterday is the 35th Vancouver International Film Festival which starts on September 29^th to October 14th. I just picked up the festival guide and I can’t wait to see a ton of films of which I will report back to you my favourites.

In the meantime I want to give a SHOUT OUT to my friend Ann Marie Fleming who’s full length animated movie Window Horses (which I previously blogged about) premiered at TIFF to rave reviews.

This is a beautifully narrated and colourfully animated story of a young girl’s journey employing poetry, music and illustrations to celebrate the value of self-discovery. After being invited to a poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran, by a mysterious figure, Rosie Ming faces challenges that ultimately lead to her self-realization. The film’s superb voice cast includes festival veterans Sandra Oh, Don McKellar and Ellen Page.

From CTV News:

“The reason why I wanted to do this film and why I moved it to Iran and why I think it’s important to do now is I wanted to make a gesture of understanding, compassion and intolerance in this world of increasingly dark images and xenophobia and fear,” says Fleming.

“This is not a political film in any way, but the gesture is political. I just wanted to make some lightness, to be able to see people for what we have in common and how poetry — poetry! — is actually the glue that’s put us all together through all these millennia.”

The Canadian Press recently spoke with Fleming about the film, which she wrote, directed and produced (in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada). It’s slated to hit theatres in spring 2017.

You can VOTE for this film for MUST-SEE BC Movies (until September 29^th) and help support Canadian Art at:

http://mustseebc.viff.org/

Film Reviews

ART/Culture/FILM – Window Horses

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” – Edgar Allan Poe

Everyone knows that Poe is a Poet but we all have different viewpoints of another person’s image. That is called perception. What happens when someone doesn’t fit into the “usual” image we form for something they represent?

What is Window Horses?

Window Horses is a new Animated, Multi-Cultural, Unusual, Smart Feature Film with a Message. I find it inspiring. It is written, directed and produced by someone I know, Ann Marie Fleming, who has been making award winning films for over 25 years. Because she is such an unusual & inspiring person herself I knew that at the very least it would be interesting and worth checking out. So….

Rosie Ming is a mixed-race, 20-something, introverted, closet poet who dreams of going to Paris. She doesn’t know a thing about her parents. Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, etc…) is Rosie. Her work is about transformation!

Taken from the Website:

This film is our small effort to try and add a little more peace, love and understanding to our increasingly complex and conflicted world through art, poetry, history and culture. Heady stuff!

Not to give too much away but….

It’s about love (it’s always about love…) – love of family, poetry, history, culture. Here’s the story: Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. It’s about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious. Staying open. And finding your own voice through the magic of poetry.

Rosie goes on an unwitting journey of forgiveness, reconciliation, and perhaps above all, understanding, through learning about her father’s past, her own cultural identity, and her responsibility to it.

WATCH the Trailer:

“Window Horses hits all the things that are important to me: it’s pro-girl, pro-tolerance, pro-diversity and PRO-ART!! My nieces are mixed race and it’s very important to me that they see themselves represented in this society.” – Sandra Oh

Heady Stuff Indeed!

Window Horses will be playing during VIFF (September 29 – October 14, 2016). For program & tickets please visit:

https://www.viff.org

Film Reviews

Art/Culture: Dressing Downton

For those few who are completely oblivious to the popular series Downton Abbey®….~~and who are these pour souls?~~ Downton has nothing to do with Downtown.This is one series that I admit to have binge watched. Aside from the exquisite costumes (imagine getting dressed up like that everyday?), I wasn’t even expecting to like it all that much. I’m pretty particular about what I watch in general, but the quality of the overall show, scenery, characters and let’s face it the clothing had me hooked. And Maggie Smith alone is mesmerizing. I also loved Shirley Maclaine’s cameo.

Guess I have an addictive personality when it comes to drama, intrigue, history, fashion, romance, power and politics. And everything sounds much more enticing with a British accent. So I joined the masses and ended up binge-watching season six on Netflix. Apparently it was one of the most widely watched television dramas in the world. At least I wasn’t alone.

Which brings me to the very point of this blog post – Dressing Downton; a traveling exhibit that showcases nearly 40 period costumes and jewelry from the hit series!

Changing Fashion for Changing Times

Set in the early twentieth century, Dressing Downton traces the events that uprooted British society on the eve of World War I and ushered in the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age and a new way of life.

“Dressing Downton highlights a time in British history when industry, fashion, and politics were changing drastically,” expressed Amy Noble Seitz, Founder & CEO of EDG. “This exhibition quickly filled its three-year tour which says something about our obsession with all things British and our thirst for Fashion.”

About the Exhibit:

This exhibit started off appropriately at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and will go on to tour other North American cities including Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville & various cities in California and Florida through 2017.

The exhibition is designed and produced by *Exhibits Development Group (EDG – see below) in collaboration with award winning costumier, Cosprop Ltd; London, Museum of London, NBCUniversal International Television Production and Carnival Films, PBS Masterpieces.

How many of you have watched this series?

For more information on exhibit tour and dates please visit: www.dressingdownton.com

New on Netflix: Janis: Little Girl Blue

Never a voice like this. Watch this fascinating documentary on the life and career of super singer-songwriter Janis Joplin. See archival footage and interviews with Janis, her family, friends and fellow musicians that highlight her rise to fame in the 60’s. Aside from her unfortunate battle with alcohol and heroin addiction I found a whole new appreciation for Janis Joplin.

*Exhibits Development Group (EDG) is dedicated to the development, production, marketing and distribution of traveling museum exhibitions and cultural projects. EDG also serves as a partner to other exhibition organizers, museums, foundations and collection owners in the U.S. and abroad, in the care and stewardship of their exhibitions and collections. EDG’s mission is to initiate and promote international cultural and intellectual exchange by bringing high-quality traveling exhibitions of art, science and history to broad and diverse audiences. For more information, please visit www.exhibitsdevelopment.com.

Film Reviews

Art/Film – By, For and About Women!

I love the idea behind LUNAFEST, a traveling film festival of award-winning short films that are by, for and about women.

The one in Palm Springs just ended with a series of six films filled with stories of reflection, hope and humour and held at the Camelot theatre. I’m really sorry to have missed it but I was heading back to Vancouver. The $15 tickets included a petit dejeuner of coffee, pastries and Luna bars since the fest was established by them in 2000. Thought you’d like to know about it since it will travel to over 175 cities and be screened in front of 25,000 people, mostly women I’m certain and hopefully teenage girls as well.

Celebrating Women at LunaFest not only connects women through film but raises funds for local non profits and their main beneficiary – Breast Cancer Fund.

The inspirational nationwide festival accepts short films, 20 minutes or less, in a variety of genres and subjects ranging from transgender issues and body image to motherhood, aging and cultural barriers and breakthroughs.

Finally a film fest that’s fun, enlightening and benefits a good cause. Spread the word!

Watch the Trailer (for those following by e-mail please click on the blue title at the top & scroll down):

http://www.lunafest.org/our-story

ALSO…..

February 1^st 2016 – HAPPY 6^th BIRTHDAY JACK!

Little Boy Blue Photo: d. king — **Little Boy Blue**
Photo: d. king

You’re a real treat with a super sense of humour. Yes, didn’t you know that some dogs have humour? it’s true.

Jack should start a short film festival By, For and About DOGS lasting no more than 2 minutes each.

DogFest anyone?

Refreshments will include HotDogs

Hmmmmm……

titles to consider:

The Dogfather, Dogs Gone Wild, No Country for Old Dogs, Dog Day Afternoon (oh; it’s taken), Dog Day All Day, Crazy Canines, etc. Doggonnit we’re good!

Seeking warmth and wondering wtf happened to Palm Springs & wine country.
Photo: d. king

Film Reviews

Eye in the Sky – “the spys are among us”

IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A BUG, IT’S A PLANE, it’s a drone…all super drones

all part of a new military spy thriller (and at times, a black comedy) called “Eye in the Sky” starring three of my favourites, Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul (of breaking bad fame). I decided that even if the movie wasn’t up to par I would still enjoy watching these superb actors in their respective roles. But the movie was more than up to par – it was thought provoking and provocative. It is the ounce of truth.

This film, which was featured the other night as part of the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) brings to the forefront what is now part of and becoming more a part of our culture, good and bad. It’s a fictional movie based on fact. In short it’s about a military officer (played by Mirren) in command of a drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. The mission escalates from “capture” to “kill” but when a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone, the priority becomes clouded.

The movie is also a conversation starter.

Director Gavin Hood who was on hand for questions and answers at the end of the screening intended it to be that way.

It’s kind of complicated. It really makes you think about the decisions that go into a “kill” operation on all levels. It emphasizes the buck passing on who takes responsibility for the final decision and the consequences that arise out of that. Frightening, sad, heroic and timely.

Google “the trolley experiment” to go more in depth about this subject (which Hood spoke about) to find out about the ethical and philosophical values of “making a big decision”. A “what would you do?” in that situation. Interesting when the tables are turned….sometimes you just don’t know what you are capable of. I find it fascinating and scary.

The drone part is something we’ll have to get used to. You can now be the literal “fly on the wall.” It made me want a personal one of my own (to use only when necessary). They’re sold online but the problem is the authenticity. I would want one that resembles a real fly. Just kidding (sort of).

The movie is due out in theatres in March.

WATCH the trailer:

Hood co-wrote and directed a movie I loved and which has resonated with me since having seen it called “Tsotsie” – about a young small-time street thug from South Africa during the turbulent years before and after the fall of apartheid. Things turn around when he steals a car and finds a baby in the back seat. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. It was an outstanding film. One I highly recommend watching.

Trailer for “Tsotsi”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468565/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk3

Film Reviews

Contemplating what’s Real

“No chaos, damn it.” – Jackson Pollock.Hey, you never know…

Netflix: When trailer park resident Teri Horton bought a painting for five bucks that she was unable to fit through the doorway of her friends home, she tries to sell it in a garage sale. Little did she know it could be a genuine Jackson Pollock worth millions.

To get an idea of the art world’s opinion of Teri’s painting, the filmmakers showed it to Thomas Hoving, the legendary former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This film documents her dealings with the art world’s elitist establishment to authenticate the piece. Throughout the brash woman’s 15-year endeavor to validate the painting, the clash between stuffy art dealers and the cussin’, beer-drinkin’ Horton is funny, eye-opening and utterly unforgettable.

quotes by JP

Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was. – Jackson Pollock

It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. – Jackson Pollock

He had a lot to say

Film Reviews, STYLE

Style/Art: Dior and I

As Valentino said, “I love beauty, it’s not my fault.”

That’s why I went to see the stunning documentary “Dior and I” For the love of beautiful, well made clothes and because twice in my lifetime (so far) I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the Dior design house in Paris. Unfortunately it was not to be measured for haute couture, but like a fairytale to imagine myself wearing it, and to admire everything in sight.The documentary which is part of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), does an excellent job of bringing the viewer inside the storied world of the Christian Dior fashion house with a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Raf Simons’ first haute couture collection as its new artistic director.

Before being appointed to this position, Belgium born Raf Simons was best known within the industry for designing tailored menswear, and in 2005 was appointed creative director of Jil Sander – a role in which he flourished. It was all ready-to-wear, so was he ready for Dior?Those familiar with the Jil Sander minimalistic label were waiting with bated breath to see how Raf would cast his ideas onto the Dior label especially having never worked in haute couture. In the cutthroat fashion world you wonder if they were hoping he’d succeed or fail.

For fashion fanatics there’s plenty of eye candy. There’s also humour, and tensions that arise in a high strung fashion climate with only weeks to spare before the big show and not everything is ready. Also, Raf wants to make a name for himself and do something completely different which the house has never done before. He’s a fan of art and wants to incorporate ideas from artist Sterling Ruby, whose work he admires (paintings that look like they were spray painted onto canvases) onto fabric for dresses and jackets for the new collection. It is something the atelier is not used to and not sure they can pull off.

The final scene is the big fashion show with plenty of stars, other well known designers like Donna Karan and Donatella Versace and fashion editors like Vogue’s Anna Wintour. The grand finale takes place in a grand Paris apartment where the walls have been entirely cloaked with a million flowers. Pretty heady. Hope no one had allergies.There’s a lesson learned here. People get typecast – not just in movies but in real life too. What did they call you Raf? A minimalist I believe. Looking at these photos goes to prove…

Minimalist no more!

Photos: google images

Film Reviews, STYLE

STYLE in Film – with IRIS

GLAMOUR is IRIS APFEL

I am so going to see this documentary! I’m sure it will be rated right up there with other favourite arty ones I really enjoyed like Herb and Dorothy, Searching for Sugarman and Valentino: The Last Emperor.

With more than a dash of eccentricity and over 75 years in fashion and interior design, Iris Apfel is an inspiring life force well into her ninth decade. She’s strong, quick-witted and always flamboyantly dressed. Iris retains her enthusiasm for life in fashion, art and people. What I admire about her is that she’s completely unique – true to herself with good values and work ethic. Sadly there are not enough women like her.

Iris says:

About her style: “I like to improvise”

“Someone told me you’re not pretty, you’ll never be pretty but it doesn’t matter, you have something much better – you have STYLE!” I couldn’t agree more.

“It’s better to be happy than well dressed”

“I feel lucky to be working. If you’re lucky enough to do something you love, everything else follows.”

“A woman is as old as she looks, but a man is never old until he stops looking”

Watch the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo8jwJ_2l0c and if you’re the least bit into style (of course you are, you’re reading this) then GO SEE IT! I know I can’t wait to.

From the Director of Grey Gardens (I thought it was excellent) and Gimme Shelter – Albert Maysles

Two years ago I posted about Iris:https://girlwhowouldbeking.com/2013/03/26/style-substance-according-to-a-chic-91-year-old/