Spittin' Change » Media and Activism

Sleep Dealer

Keeling — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:08:08 +0000

I’ve heard the buzz about Sleep Dealer, which is now out on video. I’m looking forward to seeing it sometime in the not too distant future.

Check out the other information about this film on the film’s web site.

John Greyson’s experimental documentary Fig Trees

Keeling — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:28:13 +0000

John Greyson’s opera documentary entitled Fig Trees screened at Outfest yesterday. Through experimentation with form, the documentary highlights the irrationality of profit-motive-as-rationale driving pharmaceutical companies’ approach to HIV/AIDS, and the complicated relationship between culture, capitalism, and movements for social and economic justice. A complex, and at times self indulgent film, Fig Trees sparks creative connections between queer culture, life/death, international race relations, new media, and capitalism. It is an innovative and exciting contribution to documentary filmmaking, and, in particular, to a body of filmmaking that seems ready to take an interest once again in experimenting with form in order to push the envelope on what constitutes queer filmmaking in terms of both form and content.

Here is an excerpt from Greyson’s Fig Trees:

4 Throats (from John Greyson’s Fig Trees) from Jared Raab on Vimeo.

Agnes Varda and The Black Panther Party

Keeling — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:56:06 +0000

Increasingly, I am interested in the relationship between French intellectuals and artists and black radicals in the United States during the 1960s. I read somewhere that Deleuze and Guattari visited the United States and met with black activists at some point. I would have to find the article to confirm that, but it is fun to think about nonetheless. Below is an example of one French filmmakers engagement with US Black radicalism during the 1960s. It is a documentary by Agnes Varda about the Black Panther party that focuses on the free Huey rally. There is more information about the documentary and about Agnes Varda’s films on ubuweb.com.

http://www.ubu.com/film/varda.html

City of Borders documentary

Keeling — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:49:42 +0000

I took the opportunity to screen the recently released documentary City of Borders at this year’s Los Angeles film Festival. Korean-American filmmaker Yun Suh delivers a compelling and provocative film. Though at times it privileges a narrative about queer people that presents lgbt people as somehow more capable of overcoming hatred and inequality, a stance that reifies a particular version of queer identity and thereby obscures the ways that queer people participate in oppressive and exploitative ideologies and situations, the documentary offers welcome insights into the complexity of the current socio- political situation in Jerusalem.

FESPACO

Keeling — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:47:48 +0000

IMAGINE FESPACO NEWSREEL 1
Uploaded by IMAGINEINSTITUTE

This is a video made by Gaston Kabore’s Imagine Institute about FESPACO. This is the first newsreel. There is a second one on the site to which this entry links.

Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival

Keeling — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:04:31 +0000

The Pan African Film Festival is going on in LA this week. It looks like an exciting line-up!

Battle In Seattle, the Movie

Keeling — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:15:11 +0000

Its been almost 10 years since the protests in Seattle against the WTO. I suppose it is not surprising that a dramatic film version of those events has been released. I took the opportunity to see the film last night and can recommend it enthusiastically (except, probably, to anarchists). The coincidence of its release with the current national conversation about a wall street financial crisis provides an opportunity to re-open a discussion about what kind of world we want to inhabit and how to distribute resources equitably within it. I am outraged about the Bush plan to privatize the public’s resources!

Check out the film Battle in Seattle. Here’s the trailer:

Border Radio on NPR

Keeling — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:21:01 +0000

I heard this segment on NPR about Border Radio recently. It conveys a fascinating piece of media history:

Picture New York

Keeling — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:04:25 +0000

The Mayorâ€™s Office of Theater, Film, and Broadcasting, which coordinates film and television production and issues permits around the five boroughs, is considering rules that could potentially severely restrict the ability of even amateur photographers and filmmakers to operate in New York City. The NY Times reports that the cityâ€™s tentative rules include requiring any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour (including setup and breakdown time) to get a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance. The regulation would also apply to any group of five or more people who would be using a tripod for more than ten minutes, including setup and breakdown time. -(Excerpted from the Gothamist)

For more information about the proposed rules and the outcry against them, following the link below to Pictureny.org.

UPDATE: New set of rules proposed on October 29th. For more information goto the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting.