Archive for the ‘Film/DVD’ Category
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Robert Kenner’s Oscar-nominated Food Inc. is an eye-opening look at the industrial processes that get food to our grocery stores and ultimately our tables. There are inevitable and unsavory considerations of massive slaughterhouses (there are only 13 major slaughterhouses in the United States), but even the processes that harvest and deliver vegetables and produce have been greatly altered by companies looking to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The film also examines processed foods. For example, a typical supermarket has more than 45,000 products and corn syrup is in upward of 90 percent of them, Kenner says. Segments about organic growing and alternative methods of production explore what it would take to make higher-quality, fresher foods more affordable, ie. this isn’t a fantasy about shopping only at farmers markets or upscale groceries like Whole Foods. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum screens Food Inc. at Freeman Auditorium at Woldenberg Art Center at Tulane tonight at 6 p.m. Renowned chef Alice Waters (creator of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif.) will introduce the film. The screening is a benefit for a local chapter of her Edible Schoolyard program.
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Since 1962, Burma has been under the control of a military junta and has been one of the most isolated nations in the world. During an uprising in fall 2007, foreign press was expelled from the country. A group of ad hoc journalists filmed the turmoil and smuggled footage out of the country, some of it via the Internet and some of it over the border to Thailand. It was then transmitted to Norway and released to media outlets around the world. The riveting Oscar-nominated film Burma VJ follows the protests from the compiled footage of the group, known as Democratic Voice of Burma. Reporters caught with handcams were jailed as political instigators. But many continued to risk their lives (one Japanese photographer was shot by the Burmese military) and freedom. (A pro-democracy protest movement in 1988 was met with a violent crackdown, and government troops killed an estimated 3,000 demonstrators.) This film zeroes in on the decision of Burmese monks to take to the streets in peaceful protest. The government immediately deployed troops to stop the marches. The tension builds as the monks and the government each weigh how far they will push the other side. And the reporters weigh what risks they will take to film it. The film screens at Zeitgeist at 7 p.m. Tuesday as part of the Patois International Human Rights Film Fest.
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Those of us who have become used to the local comings and goings of the crews for Tremé might be surprised to know that even New Orleans can’t play New Orleans on film all the time. Courtesy of the blog NewYorkShitty comes this image of a flyer posted in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, advising residents that their neighborhood will be doubling as the Crescent City for some night shooting this Saturday evening.
This from the flyer, however, is cause for pause:
It is the heartwarming story of the residents of New Orleans Ninth Ward attempting to rebuild their lives after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Heartwarming? That’s Touched by an Angel stuff. We can hope that’s shorthand for “gritty drama, leavened with the weary, knowing sophistication and bawdy humor that so characterizes the Jewel of the South.”
But what of Greenpoint? Looking it up on a map, it’s scarily adjacent to Williamsburg, that district of Brooklyn where Hasidim and hipsters have been on a collision course lately. The Web site Not for Tourists characterizes Greenpoint as a Polish enclave being inevitably hipsterized, and adds:
One exciting aspect of Greenpoint (though not for locals with cars) is the frequent number of movie and television productions being filmed here at any given time. Again, because of its proximity to Manhattan and Long Island City (where a number of studios are based), Greenpoint serves as an ideal location for a production that is looking for a green, industrial, or cozy neighborhood setting.
Green? Industrial? Cozy? Our L9W???
We’ll see — obviously we have a lot of trust in David Simon, but some of us remember the disastrous results the last time a foreign location was used to represent the Big Easy.
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If you plan on joining any Oscar pools before or during the awards (March 7), don’t give away an easy pick on live-action shorts. The New Orleans Film Society screens the live action shorts today through Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Prytania Theatre. The five nominees come from India, Australia, Sweden, Ireland and the U.S. All are well-made, though I found Kavi (about poverty and child labor) predictable and Miracle Fish (about a bullied young boy) pointless. The Door (sort of about the degradation Russian people experienced at the hands of the Communist regime), from an Irish director but filmed in Russia, was exquisitely well done. I would bet the winner will come down to either the humorous Swedish film about a not-so-talented magician who lives with his parents and The New Tenants (above), a darkly comic, claustrophobic bit of pathos reminiscent of David Lynch’s best work. It alone makes the showcase well worth the ticket.
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The New Orleans Film Society was set to host weekend matinees of Jane Campion’s Bright Star. The 3:15 p.m. Saturday screening is still on. But the Sunday screening has been scrubbed so the Prytania Theatre can air the Saints game. But two screenings have been scheduled the following weekend: 2:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun., Jan. 30-31. A short preview of the film is here. Campion’s portrayal of the relationship between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne is very good (though the trailer above is dreadful and casts it as a romantic fairy tale).
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Thursday was Misunderstanding Day at the WWL-TV newsroom. First Misty Marshall and the Moonpie King performed, leading to this awkwardly revealing on-air exchange with Paulsen:
Eric: “Actually, Sally-Ann and I are former moonpie kings and queens …”
Band: “(Ba-dum-ch!) I never knew.”
Eric: “Settle down.”
Things only got worse when Paulsen and I were discussing the Over the Line Big Lebowski Party:
Me: “They’re having a dialogue contest, outfits, trivia, lots of Caucasians being drunk around the Rock ‘N’ Bowl …”
Eric: (Looking into camera and shaking head)
Only on Misunderstanding Day could “copious White Russians getting consumed” end up sounding like “a ton of boozed white folks acting the fool.” Although I’m sure the latter is also true.
MUSIC
FILM
STAGE
EVENTS
ART
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The day-to-day rituals of parents with autistic children might easily be mistaken for shamanic remedies. One scene of “The Horse Boy” captures the parents of nine-year-old Rowan grinding vitamins and herpes medication with a mortar and pestle to create a therapeutic cocktail for their autistic son. The family’s days are nonetheless plagued with Rowan’s incessant tantrums and incontinence; at five years old, the boy remains resistant to toilet training. Though journalist and human rights activist Rupert Isaacson, Rowan’s father and the film’s narrator, says the documentary is a story of a family that “did something crazy,” traveling to Mongolia to seek indigenous healing for Rowan doesn’t seem very crazy at all. For a family living with autism, difficult journeys are nothing new. “I’ve had harder rides to the grocery store,” Rupert remarks in a later scene.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Add “a—hole” and “vagina” as the newest entries in the WWL-TV Eyewitness Morning News lexicon. And to think I nixed a mention of the Butthole Surfers back in September. At this rate, we’ll be casually parsing the merits of a F—k Buttons/F—ked Up/Holy F—k triple bill in no time. You can’t FCC me, Paulsen!
MUSIC
Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? with Nana Grizol
10 p.m. Friday, AllWays Lounge
Gambit blog
Strange Bedfellows Series feat. Spickle, Giant Cloud, Metronome the City and White Colla Crimes
10 p.m. Saturday, One Eyed Jacks
Gambit feature
FILM
The Horse Boy
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center
The Breakfast Club
Midnight Friday-Saturday, Prytania Theatre
STAGE
Jewtopia
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday, Le Chat Noir
Gambit pick
The A—hole Monologues
8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday, Hi-Ho Lounge
Gambit preview
EVENTS
Louisiana Museum Foundation Gala
6:30 p.m. Friday, The Cabildo
Gambit pick
Righteous Fur Nutria Design Challenge Fashion Show
8 p.m. Friday, AllWays Lounge
Gambit preview
ART
“Revival: Historical Processes in Contemporary Photography,” group show
Closes Friday, Homespace Gallery
“Aquiferious,” works by Margaret Ross Tolbert
Opening reception 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, LeMieux Gallery
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…is an even worse crime against humanity than wearing white shoes before after Labor Day.
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I enjoyed this just for the absurdity of it. Apparently the force that drives markets is sort of like the “invisible hand” Adam Smith imagined. (Enron references anyone? 1, 2, 3) Thanks to Wonkette for spotting this, also. No word on when this group will be ringing the opening bell.
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