tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35666494609849419902024-02-18T20:11:20.952-08:00Transnational / Cinema / Reflectionsjawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-58050422925257026312024-01-28T20:26:00.000-08:002024-01-28T22:58:01.257-08:00MIND-ALTERING SUNDANCE 2024<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">website: <a href="https://www.jamesawicks.com" target="_blank">https://www.jamesawicks.com</a> contact: <a href="mailto:jawicks75@gmail.com" target="_blank">jawicks75@gmail.com</a></span></p><p>Once again, in its continued tradition running 40 years strong now, Sundance films <i>exactly do not fit</i> into that tiny range of experience that capital seems to require of us to replicate itself. I'm probably off course by making this over-simplified conclusion at the outset of this post, yet do find that the requisite skills neoliberal culture seems to value above all others, including working overtime, war mongering, and stepping over others to get ahead, can be boiled down to the rather simplistic and leave us empty. No wonder people are unhappy even when they "make it": we're starving for more on spiritual, physical, and intellectual levels. </p><p>Sundance films explore the realms outside of our window of restricted vocations, interactions, and culture. The categories Sundance films explore aren't inherently complex, but since they're just a bit outside the norm, it's a breath of fresh air.</p><p><b>Monday Jan. 22, 2024</b></p><p><i>Malu</i> (2024) was delivered by Brazilian director Pedro Freire who explained before the screening I attended that back in the day, when he rented films from video stores, he grew to love Sundance films because the laurel stamped on each film's cover ensured that the story would at the least be well scripted and well acted--his two favorite things--and that he wept when he found that <i>Malu</i> was selected for the festival this year. The film traces the story of a woman pitted between her 20-something daughter and conservative aging mother. <i>Malu</i> lives straddled between the past (failed communist revolution) and the future (unrealized dream of creating a theater company) with neither emotional nor intellectual reserves to manage the present in spite of the charm and gravitational pull of her personality. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEC-krHkr__m7Gj4ImG5n0jn03QR67fE1IVPrI7u5vTCZCsuytgLZWQjo726-fHnTXv0IGdMPZIkfeTU2AIiNQPF-k6nwlx9hn1wgScCz1L7i9_JBHS7AJoxcI9TYNyb-X9irxNGzLMbr33bEnAbMlnXzIfaAD29voJs1XpHkwkD3m83gXGj3zknxjcsc/s4000/20240122_140338.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEC-krHkr__m7Gj4ImG5n0jn03QR67fE1IVPrI7u5vTCZCsuytgLZWQjo726-fHnTXv0IGdMPZIkfeTU2AIiNQPF-k6nwlx9hn1wgScCz1L7i9_JBHS7AJoxcI9TYNyb-X9irxNGzLMbr33bEnAbMlnXzIfaAD29voJs1XpHkwkD3m83gXGj3zknxjcsc/s320/20240122_140338.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Malu</i> director and cast, Sundance, 2024</span></b></p><p>In the evening I attended the <i>Midnight Short Film Program--</i>Sundance’s violent and un-categorizable fare--featuring 6 of the 53 short films submitted to Sundance out of 12,098 (including one of mine lol). The buzz of the crowd even before entering the theater was palpable. Once inside unfiltered anxiety, fear, and joy melded together throughout the welcome, screenings, and Q&A session. My favorite film of the fest--the singular "The Rainbow Bridge" (Simakis), which comically and nearly savagely presents a pet owner who discovers how to connect with her dying pet on a celestial plane so that she can say goodbye in a language they can both understand--typified the collection of films here with loglines that search engine algorithms can't quite quantify. </p><p>Sundance programming is at it’s best when the out of this world meets a community there for it. I left the theater after the <i>Midnight Shorts</i> wondering “do I know too little or do I know too much?” and before settling on “probably neither," the realization that followed on its heels was “anything is possible." It's a certainty the films revealed by pulling ideas out from under the rug where concepts of infinite possibility can unwittingly be swept.</p><p><b>Tuesday Jan. 23, 2024</b></p><p><i>Love Machina</i> (Sillen) documents the love story of Bina Rothblatt, currently in the process of downloading her memories into an AI system, and her partner Martine. The idea is that if we can create eternal versions of ourselves, then maybe we can love our partners forever. But part and parcel are questions surrounding consciousness, sentience, and immortality--not to mention the structural and systemic biases built into the foundation of systems and platforms from which AI is being built.</p><p><i>Winner</i> (Fogel), featuring the pitch-perfect performance of Emilia Jones (who plays Ruby in CODA), tells the story of Reality Winner, a woman who at great personal cost sent private NSA documents to mainstream journalists which proved Russia interfered with the United State's 2016 elections. The film shows important events that preceded and those that followed this explosive event covered in the press, based on a smart, well-paced script. </p><p><i>Presence</i> is Soderbergh’s horror-drama of a spirit which haunts a house from the perspective of the haunting presence. Once the idea that first-person point of view will be used exclusively to tell the story, and after a handful of lines fall flat in the first 20 minutes or so, the film is an intriguing whodunit and quite enjoyable. The music is what particularly stands out in a film which rewards patient attention.</p><p><b>Wednesday Jan. 24, 2024</b></p><p><i>Never Look Back</i> (Lawless) traces the radical life of the singular, remarkable camerawoman Margaret Moth, war correspondent extraordinaire. Extraordinaire in this case refers to a person instilled with a will to live with fearlessness which, while perhaps not replicable, does indeed provide a model of living to the fullest to inspire each individual within their own capacity. And Margaret Moth had the coolest 80s jet black punk hair, just saying. </p><p>I had tickets at the beginning of the festival to the <i>Napoleon Dynamite</i> 20th anniversary screening yet nearly thought of giving them away (because I've seen it so many times!). But as the date approached I kept thinking: what if the cast and crew are there? And they were! Director Jared Hess stated via a recorded message that at the film's first screening at Sundance 20 years ago there were no opening credits--the film just opened with Napoleon standing in front of his house. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA16F4atIzK6KVD5Ya8wtKgEQkY447ofrR2tN60Zts1fz1Xyuk9mgDssJal5vny6s62nBMisp5FfwfDRGKTk-YKBBcF4zCrn-xkw4zVqt00X83HTRCEQapyH0_d3w-XqQpNjmDKIbe6kyFPtwSGrv23td_B7o3YTZVQdlrb_68EdRKLj46jWM2AmfgplM/s4000/20240124_205759.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2252" data-original-width="4000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA16F4atIzK6KVD5Ya8wtKgEQkY447ofrR2tN60Zts1fz1Xyuk9mgDssJal5vny6s62nBMisp5FfwfDRGKTk-YKBBcF4zCrn-xkw4zVqt00X83HTRCEQapyH0_d3w-XqQpNjmDKIbe6kyFPtwSGrv23td_B7o3YTZVQdlrb_68EdRKLj46jWM2AmfgplM/s320/20240124_205759.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Napoleon Dynamite</i> cast, Sundance, 2024</span></b></div><p></p><p>It was so awesome to re-live the film with so many passionate fans. We clapped for each new character introduced and voiced multiple cheers for Napoleon's antics and groans for Uncle Rico's behavior. It was an unforgettable night for all. Even the principal and Trisha were there! I may or may not have cried during the screening. And after the screening I may or may not have been photographed with Lafawnduh (Shondrella Avery) kissing my cheek, but I’m not the kind of guy who gets kissed on the cheek after a film screening and then tells.</p><p><b>Thursday Jan. 25, 2024</b></p><p>Richard Linklater returned to Sundance with <i>Hit Man</i>, staring Glen Powell (<i>Top Gun: Maverick</i>) and Adria Arjona (<i>Andor</i>), which I think of as a modern-day <i>Fight Club</i> (Fincher, 1999) in terms of the way the main character lives two identities. In this case, and based on an actual story, a college professor spends his off hours (I’d like a professor gig that has enough time for a part-time job, just saying) as an undercover contract killer for his city’s police department. The false identity Glen Powell's character creates bleeds into his “real life”-- the result? He has to pay for the repercussions of his transgressions, or does he? </p><p>And so, are we re-entering an age of schizophrenic films just as we did at the end of the late 1990s, pre-9/11? At that time my supposition is that Generation X had endured sufficient time to take stock of the effects of global capital on the local psyche--and within this space for introspection filmmakers represented their meditations across cinematic genres. And Linklater was in the thick of it then, so maybe like those of us who experienced the late 90s he persists in producing what was then part of our daily lives: picking up the pieces of psyche’s fractured by the impact of living to make money in a society that, no matter how we went about doing so, we could not seem to escape the realization that we were contributing to structural and systemic inequality. </p><p>Does <i>Hit Man</i> reveal the return of the repressed or are we at a new juncture in time--that is to say, is 2024 a moment when we have had enough time (since the pandemic, since Black Lives Matter, since Me Too) to take stock of all that we've inherited and all that persists, or is this the 1990s returning in a new dress? (And just as with today's return of 1990s fashion, accompanied and intermixed with the 80s and 00s haphazardly?)</p><p><i>Little Death</i> (Begert) channels <i>Fight Club</i> directly during the first half--it's like watching <i>Fight Club</i> if it were written from a right rather than left-wing ethos and with the assistance of AI. The second half (thankfully) is something altogether different--the film radically changes course, as if two separate movies were crammed into one--which was <i>Little Death</i>'s best quality.</p><p>So when I say "mind-altering Sundance" films in this blog's title, it’s not that these films are beyond the possible range of human experience in terms of gender, race, and class; rather, our cultural range of experience is limited and Sundance proves that. Moreover, their films become the new normal during the time folks are in attendance. The window gets cracked open a bit wider.</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzR0ijKoZccv3cmuqh6Hd0iOi98zOd_pl2Q4_cVIZcBgX-Lrs8g6kywJcRLlSV32tfU6ezdC0SqFP8tfCcF5elsgNF55gD8vBf7t8Zmxrj4r7WUO-aIgTeKxHCXAJOnkP90j33vo8IFxwr7nTFsN4knM3JvOouXgu15Gvs8EVWTtchhyIOsowWWDwTkrk/s1078/IMG_20240128_192330.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="1078" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzR0ijKoZccv3cmuqh6Hd0iOi98zOd_pl2Q4_cVIZcBgX-Lrs8g6kywJcRLlSV32tfU6ezdC0SqFP8tfCcF5elsgNF55gD8vBf7t8Zmxrj4r7WUO-aIgTeKxHCXAJOnkP90j33vo8IFxwr7nTFsN4knM3JvOouXgu15Gvs8EVWTtchhyIOsowWWDwTkrk/s320/IMG_20240128_192330.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQe9alfCi9u9JpxU3i8ofJC7Y3kffP_qPZemIsd2LG_U0lA7R9Oi794zy0pW0XIN5p4tJ4_JR5zbv31mVZJyjerrCpezArox6GqKEpUB7gwU_wccJeIGV-2utBPtFrQexd8Sj85YDLgkzqbGtnjCaZ9tClAznKfTHodhkfgBwbAhCpAwOinajlmDDr858/s1074/IMG_20240128_192336.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="1074" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQe9alfCi9u9JpxU3i8ofJC7Y3kffP_qPZemIsd2LG_U0lA7R9Oi794zy0pW0XIN5p4tJ4_JR5zbv31mVZJyjerrCpezArox6GqKEpUB7gwU_wccJeIGV-2utBPtFrQexd8Sj85YDLgkzqbGtnjCaZ9tClAznKfTHodhkfgBwbAhCpAwOinajlmDDr858/s320/IMG_20240128_192336.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Park City photography</span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> © by James Wicks, 2024</b></span></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-40486831008634528562024-01-09T14:42:00.000-08:002024-01-09T14:43:43.675-08:00SISTER: a short film by James Wicks<p>"SISTER" is a short film that came about as a fever dream while playing the guitar music for it during the pandemic. If you get a sec, please check it out. </p><p>I submitted it to a handful of film festivals & none accepted it -- maybe when you watch it you'll agree and see why! 🤣 In any case, I'm super grateful to all who helped create it so that it can see the light of day.🙏</p><p><br /></p>
<div style="padding:52.73% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/832707447?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="SISTER"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-42940004766043653462023-01-27T15:37:00.009-08:002023-01-28T18:44:30.285-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2023, Thursday 1/26: Fantastic Machine<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Fantastic Machine (Danielson & Van Aertryck, 2023)</b></p><p>One amazing thing you can do at Sundance is accidentally go to the wrong theater, have the wrong QR code scanned so you get in, be surprised that the film is starting later than you expected, and then be totally stunned when the Sundance programmer let's you know that you're about to see <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1fb977dd3de5a7806e75" target="_blank">Fantastic Machine</a></i> rather than <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1f6677dd3d8174806d1a" target="_blank">Mami Wata</a></i>.</p><p>Then, when you're just starting to roll with it, the delightful directors thank the audience for being so responsive and vocal in previous screenings and that each one of us in attendance is a member of "a generous people"--which you never expected to hear ever in your lifetime as a citizen of the United States--confirming that yes, you're gonna stay and see what the Fantastic Machine is.</p><p>It's a movie camera, of course! A history of it, by way of sick narration and the most iconic images ever recorded...that horse with all of its feet off of the ground, yes pictures of earth after the moon landing, yes the moment when BBC television was first broadcast. </p><p>At each evolution of the motion-picture camera--from nickelodeon to documentary war footage to television to news journalism to YouTube--there is a moment of optimism: more information, more education, more voices heard, the possibility for more harmony as we understand our neighbors across the globe. And at each evolution the reality that follows: media conglomerates, market capitalism, isolated voices in a sea of content, "fake news," and algorithms that dictate what we see online. It's a beautiful, tragic, compelling story. </p><p>And we're in it. In the end, we need communities that engage and discuss it, media literacy, and more community.</p><p>========</p><p>Also of note was <a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a173677dd3d7cd88053a2" target="_blank"><i>Shayda</i> (Noora Niasari, 2023)</a> a debut film by an Iranian filmmaker who depicts her experience as a child immigrant to Australian and her mother who moves them both to a women's shelter to escape an abusive relationship. The film allows each character to breathe: inhale...exhale. It allows us to access their space for a moment to experience both a mother-daughter relationship and a precarious journey.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvoZe2rcSl2_oTXXDM2eOeDlkyh5_wdSs3Jns5oBATq1dogmMeXWYGZqSCyD4JsXxFqi3w1QxA69F8Xk-lhqXKXrgD8k91bv9gKBIt7uKCn2XoW3Ky9CCLG_ozSR_XqWHfvJC94nKfDp6tCQkZ3fGsj5juoAxklDYoz5EHmJbNLUqikghdEg5qRsE/s4000/20230125_121354.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvoZe2rcSl2_oTXXDM2eOeDlkyh5_wdSs3Jns5oBATq1dogmMeXWYGZqSCyD4JsXxFqi3w1QxA69F8Xk-lhqXKXrgD8k91bv9gKBIt7uKCn2XoW3Ky9CCLG_ozSR_XqWHfvJC94nKfDp6tCQkZ3fGsj5juoAxklDYoz5EHmJbNLUqikghdEg5qRsE/s320/20230125_121354.jpg" width="320"></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Winter Day Outside of Park City, Utah</span></b></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-27402836690386185992023-01-25T21:50:00.006-08:002023-01-25T21:54:05.483-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2023, Wednesday 1/25: Rye Lane<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller, 2023)</b></p><p>It's time for rom-com best of all time list to make room for a new film. <i>Notting Hill</i>, <i>The Big Sick</i>, <i>Amelie</i>, <i>Crazy Rich Asians</i>, <i>Harold and Maude</i>, and <i>When Harry Met Sally</i>...enter <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1a4c77dd3d9aad805cc1" target="_blank">Rye Lane</a></i>. </p><p>Instantly rewatchable, <i>Rye Lane</i> depicts a day in the life (and more) of Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) who come together by chance after each of them experience breakups separately. It's fast and funny with scenes that you want to tell your friends about if they haven't seen it yet. And the script is top notch: why say you're ignoring something when you can say you're snoozing through your alarm clock--or something like that! I'm messing it up. It's so good. Go see it. </p><p style="text-align: center;">==========</p><p>And really briefly: the performance of Inez (Teyana Taylor) in <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a20cf77dd3d38f9807395" target="_blank">A Thousand and One</a></i> directed by A.V. Rockwell is jaw dropping; meanwhile, the kid-friendly <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a152777dd3d254d80511e" target="_blank">Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out</a></i> turns on every dime, just as you'd expect, with joy and ebullience. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ef1t9H9czklnxiaA0BFIeEUMQQBj6fmI9m2nMs-LB1vwTatShF6-YLU7JwcOY0gnW1mmtktr9GbtpjBrKZvtAx2hCZ0xBztXb-k2FAZBNyscf9eRhboOeX-4dF03JPmkqwnV9uFVs756wCuiZhUckzVUygWjAAtMKrbjGe2WagLzv2ZEbUbK_2Qi/s2463/20230124_204859.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2463" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ef1t9H9czklnxiaA0BFIeEUMQQBj6fmI9m2nMs-LB1vwTatShF6-YLU7JwcOY0gnW1mmtktr9GbtpjBrKZvtAx2hCZ0xBztXb-k2FAZBNyscf9eRhboOeX-4dF03JPmkqwnV9uFVs756wCuiZhUckzVUygWjAAtMKrbjGe2WagLzv2ZEbUbK_2Qi/s320/20230124_204859.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Director Roger Ross Williams introducing <i>Cassandro</i> at Sundance</span></b></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-34820656884503479432023-01-25T21:50:00.005-08:002023-01-25T21:53:38.996-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2023, Tuesday 1/24: Cassandro<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Cassandro (Roger Ross Williams, 2023)</b></p><p><i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1965d406b23531f2d0df" target="_blank">Cassandro</a></i> is cinema. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9u-QIRenC2jCGEhNGU2o2v9GhtzSbJumg_9RJraiJzljYa_1tM0tDmYPGGUQiZ8ojnWwku0UChRF3UfiqISpA4uaaMjol-RAQfPR-X68sZsNZxKhAs7teHBkPTD-druKVBwc7FC0eoJv9l7WcqfgmoYs2AmYSsG8nK6Sb0IiPedmlLLL3qwkunjA/s4000/20230124_224112.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9u-QIRenC2jCGEhNGU2o2v9GhtzSbJumg_9RJraiJzljYa_1tM0tDmYPGGUQiZ8ojnWwku0UChRF3UfiqISpA4uaaMjol-RAQfPR-X68sZsNZxKhAs7teHBkPTD-druKVBwc7FC0eoJv9l7WcqfgmoYs2AmYSsG8nK6Sb0IiPedmlLLL3qwkunjA/s320/20230124_224112.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Cassandro</i> post-screening Q&A with Roger Ross Williams center and co-writer David Teague speaking</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;">==================</p><p style="text-align: left;">Also of note was <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a189677dd3dd429805822" target="_blank">The Eternal Memory</a></i> (Maite Alberdi) which documents a famous Chilean couple dealing with Alzheimer's. And not to be missed: </p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1569d406b2dedff2c440" target="_blank">AUM: The Cult at the End of the World</a></i> (Ben Braun & Chiaki Yanagimoto) which uncovers in detail the insane history of the Aum Shinrikyo cult which carried out sarin attacks on Tokyo's subway system in 1995. The latter's sprawling geographical setting, historical contextualization, and transnational relevance today in an era of fake news is sensational.</p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-1874750940878736002023-01-23T21:20:00.042-08:002023-01-23T21:43:44.094-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2023, Monday 1/23: Victim/Suspect<p>I remember remarking at my first Sundance: "this year's Sundance is so amazing" and the person I was with said "it's like this every year"--and they were right.</p><p>Thanks be to Sundance...another year--this is my fifth time to attend, the first being in 2013 when Ryan Coogler's <i>Fruitvale</i> was the standout film--and as always it blows me out of the water.</p><p>Today I watched <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1ac6d406b278caf2d67c" target="_blank">A Little Prayer</a></i> (Angus MacLachlan) starring Jane Levy, who delivers an Oscar-worthy performance, and David Strathairn. I also experienced the poetic and experimental film about rocks entitled <i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a17cdd406b26c46f2cca2" target="_blank">Last Things</a></i> by director Deborah Stratman at The Egyptian Theater. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8zwC2AsqWhafI-j3yMosAgD3aw1DUg-oEIswnFzhSLmFKhTCrRTSpwrSiJrQ6_zMiNgQX5L5Ak4b8hUtZ70Ttr5v0wMSQPNnxbuPaPGqzaycgmRqezu4DG9l0ndkMZpEJ63HM6D_nIWRqUn1NubyUnWs78POxDsep3hUK_-PHS9ZGxnAb1dmULTs/s3756/20230123_143449.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2664" data-original-width="3756" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8zwC2AsqWhafI-j3yMosAgD3aw1DUg-oEIswnFzhSLmFKhTCrRTSpwrSiJrQ6_zMiNgQX5L5Ak4b8hUtZ70Ttr5v0wMSQPNnxbuPaPGqzaycgmRqezu4DG9l0ndkMZpEJ63HM6D_nIWRqUn1NubyUnWs78POxDsep3hUK_-PHS9ZGxnAb1dmULTs/s320/20230123_143449.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Director Deborah Stratman takes a picture of the audience at The Egyptian Theater</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Victim/Suspect </i>(Schwartzman, 2023)</b></p><p>But today's film that will stay with me for a long time is Netflix's <b><i><a href="https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a210777dd3d11a380744b" target="_blank">Victim/Suspect</a></i></b> by director Nancy Schwartzman. This documentary exposes systemic bias against victims of sexual assault in the United States who are not only disbelieved when they report their stories at local police precincts but are in turn accused of filing false reports which results in punishments including their imprisonment. </p><p>The story centers around the investigative reporting of Rae de Leon (who works at the Center for Investigative Reporting) whose inquiry into one case leads to encountering over 200 cases nationally in which the victim becomes the suspect due to unfair police interview tactics and structural discrimination. In terms of presentation, a kind of love letter to the power of journalism, the doc itself feels like an investigation in the style of the reporters the director deeply admires while highlighting the brave women who are featured in the film and who were in attendance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlQiWTE4d71tAdpUYrRKDHQpuGgf1lsVBjnjtWeA_BGMvompDgFbU8q_PJoDpW08UlTyUdIby8r9oHUPdHg3TwtGsY5eUnu0Pk-fqcxfvHwLvLP7fFI6ZbFr_SJcjmR2CXOgZWrHymkzU0Hy2RB99SDXG8p7vva2JL5NNkgK24X0LS_DLeQan3vX-/s2223/20230123_133729.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2223" data-original-width="1964" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivlQiWTE4d71tAdpUYrRKDHQpuGgf1lsVBjnjtWeA_BGMvompDgFbU8q_PJoDpW08UlTyUdIby8r9oHUPdHg3TwtGsY5eUnu0Pk-fqcxfvHwLvLP7fFI6ZbFr_SJcjmR2CXOgZWrHymkzU0Hy2RB99SDXG8p7vva2JL5NNkgK24X0LS_DLeQan3vX-/s320/20230123_133729.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Victim/Suspect</i> post-screening Q&A</span></b></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-91029835766499786172023-01-23T20:19:00.005-08:002023-01-24T10:50:12.721-08:00"Street Legacy" Documentary, Broll Cinematographer<p>During the summer of 2022 I had the opportunity to work with fantastic up-and-coming film director Hunter Gregory Scheidt on the project "Street Legacy" as a b-roll contributor. I had my hands in some of the pre-production too!<br></p><p>Presented by Bar Seven Seven productions, Hunter's film outlines the "Street Legacy" street art exhibition at the Escondido Arts Center, curated by Tribal Streetwear's very own Bobby Ruiz and art professor and critic Jim Daichendt. Check out the doc, below:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9arf6T5Lge8" width="320" youtube-src-id="9arf6T5Lge8"></iframe></div><p>And more info. is available <a href="https://viewpoint.pointloma.edu/hunter-scheidt-on-creating-short-film-tribal-legacy-and-finding-inspiration-in-collaboration/" target="_blank">here</a> in this article by Toby Franklin.</p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-78864751458460124412023-01-23T19:57:00.000-08:002023-01-23T19:57:00.236-08:00Podcast: Robbie and James Talk Music, Episode 1<p>I'm really pleased to announce that writing professor and colleague Robbie Maakestad and I started a podcast in which we chat about the music we enjoy listening to. It's something we always do casually since we enjoy sharing music and playlists, so it felt natural to document and share it in this way! </p><p>And since I was pre-school age I always wanted to be a DJ, so this is a fun outlet for that old ambition.</p><p>In this first episode (part 1 of 2), we chat about our musical influences. Thanks for checking it out!</p><p>link: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0eVN9k1YAmZvAaV8owACLo">https://open.spotify.com/episode/0eVN9k1YAmZvAaV8owACLo</a></p><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0eVN9k1YAmZvAaV8owACLo"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtuavwWotlhe9-nVeOm1c3wcn5lMGmbORex-vcbUide_y4O6E6dlR2gMg8Ao3A4b7EWMxlvw4mll1nOnrQWQKoIER1SZv-JI5LkWV4l6kfdNFfxRaEGXv_tVaH1vR3Oe7GS9BQCYcDQh5caxecfpqfFEXC-twa88a04YCwAf6704mWSeDlR9Xh3_1P/s800/robbie_and_james_talk_music_square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtuavwWotlhe9-nVeOm1c3wcn5lMGmbORex-vcbUide_y4O6E6dlR2gMg8Ao3A4b7EWMxlvw4mll1nOnrQWQKoIER1SZv-JI5LkWV4l6kfdNFfxRaEGXv_tVaH1vR3Oe7GS9BQCYcDQh5caxecfpqfFEXC-twa88a04YCwAf6704mWSeDlR9Xh3_1P/s320/robbie_and_james_talk_music_square.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-75827307671156846202022-01-10T12:20:00.001-08:002022-01-10T12:24:03.612-08:00"'In the Dark Places, Getting Burned': Portrayals of Street Culture in Taiwan Cinema Today"<p>It is a pleasure to share this recent publication:</p><p><a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0022/html">https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0022/html</a></p><p><b>Abstract</b></p><p>Street culture is represented in two mid-2010 Taiwan films, <i>The Kids </i>小孩 (Xiaohai, 2015) and <i>Thanatos, Drunk</i> 醉.生夢死 (Zui sheng meng shi 2015), in such stunning and beautiful ways that this essay sets out to etch each of them not only into the annals of Taiwan’s most memorable urban films ever made, but also position them as essential texts within the emergent field of street culture more broadly. Both movies depict physical and ideological boundaries that separate urban spaces from Taiwanese culture at large, and reveal the extent to which their young protagonists are perceived as “abnormal” even as they use street literacy in sophisticated ways to interact with formal actors (such as school teachers and the police) and informal actors (such as hooligans and petty criminals). These two films arguably present the best vantage point to understand the peripheral status of Taiwan’s urban young people who do not conform to hegemonic norms.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJurPArSHN6CTnWAKa1uS8xguDlUTeFgGCkiV6xklIx38Wl6NusN94X7HYXELnnqJDaINidgrMfAp60-j1lIcJVK9gZV2ZptBIE2FEE0TOpyTa7aII-ZmMWN3lWsXGq3jNS9HWc3ajBxR0lxuMeRow1wBgt6-z8Z6Rw_Z558FgSCtA29yUIXUanMLm=s382" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJurPArSHN6CTnWAKa1uS8xguDlUTeFgGCkiV6xklIx38Wl6NusN94X7HYXELnnqJDaINidgrMfAp60-j1lIcJVK9gZV2ZptBIE2FEE0TOpyTa7aII-ZmMWN3lWsXGq3jNS9HWc3ajBxR0lxuMeRow1wBgt6-z8Z6Rw_Z558FgSCtA29yUIXUanMLm=s320" width="224" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Thanatos, Drunk</i> 醉.生夢死 movie poster.</span></b></p>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-52562954269114429302020-11-19T15:34:00.003-08:002020-12-01T18:12:33.431-08:00Interview with Devyn Bisson, Director of The Wave I Ride (2015)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KmAsvlYYtKE" width="320" youtube-src-id="KmAsvlYYtKE"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Interview with Devyn Bisson, Director of The Wave I Ride (2015)</b></div>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-78330632257555178802020-11-19T15:33:00.004-08:002021-09-08T23:04:25.343-07:00Interviews with Students: History and Culture of Surfing<p>History and Culture of Surfing course interviews with students: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pHjbgbn9pwg" width="320" youtube-src-id="pHjbgbn9pwg"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yRN_fqTk7pU" width="320" youtube-src-id="yRN_fqTk7pU"></iframe></div>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-42096987273299500622020-09-23T09:20:00.001-07:002020-09-23T09:20:11.679-07:00LIT4090: History and Culture of Surfing<p>This semester (Fall 2020) I am pleased to have the opportunity to teach a special topics class alongside colleague Dr. Ben Cater on the history and culture of surfing. My section of the course will focus on surf cinema which is a passion of mine as well as a topic I've written about previously on this blog. I look forward to updating this blog with updates, reviews, and interviews throughout the semester.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWm4GdEwN-SYP8ESYVhnVOYPsoMpJi6yc8eM4FRfe9iahCfm2snCD48nR0DD-WpUdSz5PDzkHDWfMw4iPXY_Rk41w8JXKWimW2msuE4CFJqxrLQVaW790Wc1mkZn0Tviow3frrSp5q2Bk/s719/surf_class_fall_2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="597" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWm4GdEwN-SYP8ESYVhnVOYPsoMpJi6yc8eM4FRfe9iahCfm2snCD48nR0DD-WpUdSz5PDzkHDWfMw4iPXY_Rk41w8JXKWimW2msuE4CFJqxrLQVaW790Wc1mkZn0Tviow3frrSp5q2Bk/s320/surf_class_fall_2020.jpg" /></a></div>jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-23944436519958546782020-02-01T12:46:00.000-08:002020-02-02T20:13:26.375-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2020, Thurs.1/30 & Fri. 1/31<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Park City, Sundance 2020</span></b></div>
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<b><i>Possessor</i></b> (Cronenberg, 2019) was the most thought-provoking film of the festival for me this year, and I wrote a bit about it yesterday—please check it out (<a href="https://jawicks75.blogspot.com/2020/01/possessor-cronenberg-2019-sundance-2020.html" target="_blank">link here</a>) on my blog if you get the chance. <b><i>Miss Juneteenth</i></b> (Peoples, 2020) was fine and the <b><i>Documentary Shorts Program 1 </i></b>included an important doc on the 2019 Hong Kong protests: “Do Not Split” by Anderson Hammer. </div>
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<b><i>Us Kids</i></b> (Snyder, 2020) powerfully documents the aftermath of the Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Finished up the festival with a bit of levity—the <b><i>Animation Spotlight</i></b> was filled with humor and insanity, a nice reminder to stop trying to figure everything out. Loved “Sh_t Happens,” “Daytime Noir,” and “Eli.”<!--/data/user/0/com.samsung.android.app.notes/files/share/clipdata_200201_134107_577.sdoc--></div>
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jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-18656374149068004602020-01-31T13:31:00.000-08:002020-02-02T20:09:18.781-08:00Possessor (Cronenberg, 2019): Sundance 2020 <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Possosser</i> (Cronenberg, 2019) was described by the delightful Sundance programmer at my screening yesterday as the biggest mindf*** of the festival, and next she informed us that since the director was not present “none of our questions would be answered.” Both proved to be true.<br />
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The film details the life of an assassin (Andrea Riseborough) who works for a firm (its head portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh) that links its assassins via a mind-meld machine into an unsuspecting individual who carries out the murder assignment and then commits suicide so that the corporation might get away scot-free. By portraying a hit carried out relatively smoothly within the first five minutes, the story-tellers implant (pun intended) a template of the film’s notion of normalcy before the second hit goes horribly wrong.<br />
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<i>Possessor</i> fits into a recent iteration of film that takes a spiritual notion, both in terms of theology and film tradition, and strips away all of the platonic notions of forms/ideas and focuses on the material alone. For example, the shape of the S<i>tranger Things</i> narrative revolves around the idea that an ominous, powerful force can be explained via scientific calculations, even while conveying its story via stylistic techniques that historically were used to evoke the demonic or satanic as representative of dark, evil properties—a haunting score, distorted unintelligible voices, and the like. </div>
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Similarly, in <i>Possessor</i> the notion of a spiritual entity inhabiting a human body is represented as an entirely scientific, rational achievement. Meanwhile, the soundscape alludes to horror films which intentionally set out to portray spiritual phenomena. What fascinates me is the way the absence of a spiritual realm within the scientific, existentialist worlds of these films successfully reproduces the very sense of spiritual darkness that previous filmmakers conveyed by accentuating its existence.<br />
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I also found in <i>Possessor</i> perhaps the best filmic exploration of our current social experiment: social media.<br />
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Painting with very (extremely) wide brush strokes for a moment, people once lived in relatively isolated communities in which fireside narratives were retold in ways that sustained belief systems that clashed with the point of view of others upon intersection. True, entirely simplistic, but I mention this only to contrast it with the present in which the most entrenched views (hi there, Twitter) are seemingly in constant, persistent, continual contact with alternate points of view. </div>
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The trial for many these days is the struggle to maintain a sense of identity within certain communities that attempt to pass down their own stories, but at the same time continually and inevitably encounter compelling counter-narratives. While I personally remain hopeful for a future in which this trial results in a solution and the arrival at perhaps a new home (following Campbell’s heroic journey model), <i>Possessor</i> focuses on the anger and rage this situation—constantly encountering multiple ideas that may appear at once threatening and equally viable—causes.<br />
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Moreover, these notions are not an abstract concepts in <i>Possessor</i>, but actual, lived experience. By portraying an individual placed into the body of another gender, ethnicity, and class, the film viscerally represents what it is like to embody an entirely different perspective. It is no wonder that the protagonist tends to avoid firearms when her/his bloody rampage commences, for pulling a trigger seems incapable of the type of catharsis repeated hacking gestures (with a knife or some other bludgeoning weapon—you have to see it) provides.<br />
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If the film is any indication, our social experiment has a few rough patches to undergo before the majority become used to encountering the other. After all, we’re physically linked.<!--/data/user/0/com.samsung.android.app.notes/files/share/clipdata_200131_132726_300.sdoc--></div>
jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-33381772510096128792020-01-29T20:20:00.000-08:002020-02-02T21:37:15.831-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2020, Wednesday 1/29<div>
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<b><i>Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story</i> (Cicero, Easterwood, 2019)</b> is a documentary about the record-breaking animated show from the early 1990s. The directors had finished the documentary only a few days before the important <i>BuzzFeed</i> article by Ariane Lange “The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon” came out on March 29, 2018 which reveals sexual abuse allegations against <i>Ren & Stimpy</i> creator John Kricfalusi.<br />
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Needless to say, the entire documentary was reconstructed in light of this important story that rightfully recasts the story in a new light. A corollary unresolved site of tension which remains as well is the fact that the animated show was condemned by conservatives in the early 1990s by using the argument that this type of art and its creators live destructive lives, a conclusion they may argue is borne out by the claims made against Kricfalusi. So perhaps Robyn Byrd (see Lange's article) states it best in the documentary when she says, and here I paraphrase, that creators of works of art that push boundaries do not need to individually inflict pain on others.<br />
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BLAST BEAT</i> (Arango, 2019) </b>captures the lives of two teenage brothers from Columbia who emigrate to the United States during the late 1990s years of political turmoil. One dreams of a bright future one day in the aerospace industry in the U.S. while the other longs to return to Columbia. Both places are home, depending on their point of view. Along the way they face all of the typical highs and lows one might expect of U.S. high school coming of age films, which makes for a perfect story. Fueled by metal and hip-hop soundtracks respectively, each brother avoids tragedy but not pain.<!--/data/user/0/com.samsung.android.app.notes/files/share/clipdata_200129_211604_452.sdoc--></div>
jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-67368295544401008442020-01-29T07:58:00.001-08:002020-02-02T21:37:37.224-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2020, Tuesday 1/28<div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Director of <i>Minari</i> Lee Isaac Chung at Eccles Theater</span></b></div>
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<b><i>Minari </i>(Chung, 2020)</b> depicts a Korean-American family pursuing the American Dream, which is a statement which already defeats my purpose of describing this film because "pursuing the American Dream" is a trope and this is a film that seems to defy tired tropes. It is immune to cliche. Instead, by showing the way family relationships might be contingent as much on circumstance as any desire for unity, and trials are a facet of work and life without adding cataclysm, the film beautifully reveals what is under the surface of a first-generation immigrant experience.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Luxor</i> director Zeina Durra and crew.</span></b></div>
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<b><i>Luxor</i> (Durra, 2020)</b> is a film about perspective and space. It follows Hana (Andrea Riseborough), a doctor on leave who is at once dealing with wartime trauma in the present while rekindling a past relationship. The simplicity of the film is achieved via complex technique and restraint. As Hana wanders through ancient corridors and views the painting of stars on the ceilings of old tombs, the at-times imperceptible realization that the present is slipping away is clear.</div>
jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-5016414109008594652020-01-29T06:29:00.002-08:002021-08-19T19:03:36.923-07:00Star Wars films ranked 1-11 #fwiw<div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">1. Empire</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">2. Last Jedi</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">3. Rogue </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">4. Solo</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">5. New Hope</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">6. Return of the Jedi</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">7. </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Revenge of the Sith</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">8. </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Force Awakens</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">9. </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Rise of Skywalker</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">10. Attack of the Clones</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;">11. Phantom</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Director of <i style="font-style: italic;">Time</i> Garrett Bradley & the Richardson family</span></b></div>
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<b><i>Time</i> (Bradley, 2019) </b>was once again the first Sundance film of the week that just wrecked me, but in a good way. The story portrays the resilience and odyssey of Sibil Fox Richardson as she advocates and waits for her husband Robert to be released from our dehumanizing prison system in the United States. By focusing on perseverance at incredible duration, it is impossible to not feel moved to make a difference.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Director Robert Machoian and cast of <i>The Killing of Two Lovers</i></span></b></div>
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<b><i>The Killing of Two Lovers </i>(Machoian, 2019)</b> is the version of <i>Marriage Story</i> (Baumbach, 2019) that I can get behind (in alignment with Chuck Klosterman's point of view on <i>MS </i>as stated on Bill Simmons's podcast). <i>Killing </i>begins with a longtake of the protagonist running along a rural street, the image split in half--dark road below, bleak white sky and snow-capped mountains above. Our runner, in drab dark clothing, matches the lower half of the screen but contrasts with the white. He may or may not have just committed a murder, and the stunning soundscape during the sequence is of little help--gunshots reverberate throughout the film but if they're interior or exterior sounds remains to be seen. The whole film is fantastic and I'm at a loss for words besides describing the opening...still recovering and still grateful to have seen it.</div>
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jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-9554026790346245292020-01-19T21:44:00.000-08:002020-01-19T21:48:34.803-08:00Fiction Project: iForce vs. Red X StorylinesSetting: The City<br />
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jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-84643009062175236632020-01-19T21:42:00.004-08:002020-01-19T21:42:42.298-08:00Fiction Project: iForcejawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-25971539456668969542020-01-19T21:42:00.002-08:002020-01-19T21:42:32.238-08:00Fiction Project: Red Xjawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-30222373447874497822020-01-19T21:41:00.002-08:002020-01-19T21:41:27.013-08:00Fiction Project: Rogue Assassinsjawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-7113093316895245102020-01-19T21:40:00.000-08:002020-01-19T21:40:45.769-08:00Fiction Project: The Independentsjawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-20183353575530493882019-09-02T17:32:00.002-07:002019-09-02T17:55:56.509-07:00"Clarifying Street Culture: Integrating a Diversity of Opinions and Voices"It was a pleasure to work alongside G. James Daichendt, Sebastian Kurtenbach, Paul Gilchrist, and Monique Charles and to be invited by Criminologist Jeffrey Ian Ross (follow his work on <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreyianross" target="_blank">Twitter @jeffreyianross</a>) to co-author the article: "Clarifying Street Culture: Integrating a Diversity of Opinions and Voices," published in <i>Urban Research & Practice</i> (22 June 2019).<br />
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As presented in the abstract: "This article synthesizes current ideas about the study of street culture by examining six major questions that street culture researchers currently grapple with. The article outlines suggestions for improving scholarship in this field," for "despite the frequency of its usage in the social sciences, urban planning, and selected areas of the visual arts, rarely is the term street culture defined and when it is, the definitions are often conceptually lacking."<br />
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Interestingly, this collaborative project began as a Twitter chat with #streetculture on Sept. 8, 2018--each participant responded to questions about the way "street culture" is defined within their respective academic field of study. The resulting article is available <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17535069.2019.1630673?tokenDomain=eprints&tokenAccess=zZaWgQ74RRGtuuG3wK7E&forwardService=showFullText&target=10.1080%2F17535069.2019.1630673&doi=10.1080%2F17535069.2019.1630673&doi=10.1080%2F17535069.2019.1630673&doi=10.1080%2F17535069.2019.1630673&journalCode=rurp20" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
My new article, “Clarifying street culture: integrating a diversity of opinions and voices,” co-authored with <a href="https://twitter.com/Daichendt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Daichendt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/skurtenbach?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@skurtenbach</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/paulgilchrist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@paulgilchrist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Neake81?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Neake81</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jawicks75?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jawicks75</a> appearing in URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE <a href="https://t.co/ENYUzEQ7s7">https://t.co/ENYUzEQ7s7</a> <a href="https://t.co/NxrR2IdJE3">pic.twitter.com/NxrR2IdJE3</a></div>
— Jeffrey Ian Ross (@jeffreyianross) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreyianross/status/1142784625896493056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3566649460984941990.post-40805888027266153682019-02-01T09:24:00.000-08:002019-02-01T12:26:09.948-08:00Sundance Film Festival 2019, Thursday 1/31<b><i>Hala</i> (Minhal Baig, 2019)</b><br />
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Minhal Baig's film <i>Hala</i> depicts the experiences of a young woman during her senior year of high school in the U.S. Hala is a bright thinker and student, a skater, and a good friend whose day to day decisions are shaped by the framework of her family's Pakistani American experience. Director Baig mentioned at the screening that film is an empathy machine, and indeed numerous scenes are coupled with dramatic soundscapes that heighten the all-or-nothing importance high school experiences are imbued with. Just as an action film goes all in on explosions, or a romcom goes all in on scenes on top of famous landmarks, this film shows how riding the bus on the way to school can be filled with the entire sum total of a high school student's existence. And why not? It's worthwhile to feel the emotions Hala undergoes and witness the way she navigates her life's predicaments while she learns new insights along the way.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by James Wicks, 2019.</span></b></div>
jawicks75http://www.blogger.com/profile/08353613054521517105noreply@blogger.com1