Interview with Devyn Bisson, Director of The Wave I Ride (2015)
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Interviews with Students: History and Culture of Surfing
History and Culture of Surfing course interviews with students:
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
LIT4090: History and Culture of Surfing
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.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Sundance Film Festival 2020, Thurs.1/30 & Fri. 1/31
Park City, Sundance 2020
Thursday 1/30
Possessor (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 (link here) on my blog if you get the chance. Miss Juneteenth (Peoples, 2020) was fine and the Documentary Shorts Program 1 included an important doc on the 2019 Hong Kong protests: “Do Not Split” by Anderson Hammer.
Friday 1/31
Us Kids (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 Animation Spotlight was filled with humor and insanity, a nice reminder to stop trying to figure everything out. Loved “Sh_t Happens,” “Daytime Noir,” and “Eli.”
Friday, January 31, 2020
Possessor (Cronenberg, 2019): Sundance 2020
Sundance Film Festival promotional image for Possessor
Possosser (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.
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.
Possessor 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 Stranger Things 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.
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.
Possessor 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 Stranger Things 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.
Similarly, in Possessor 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.
I also found in Possessor perhaps the best filmic exploration of our current social experiment: social media.
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.
I also found in Possessor perhaps the best filmic exploration of our current social experiment: social media.
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.
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), Possessor focuses on the anger and rage this situation—constantly encountering multiple ideas that may appear at once threatening and equally viable—causes.
Moreover, these notions are not an abstract concepts in Possessor, 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.
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.
Moreover, these notions are not an abstract concepts in Possessor, 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.
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.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Sundance Film Festival 2020, Wednesday 1/29
Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story (Cicero, Easterwood, 2019) 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 BuzzFeed article by Ariane Lange “The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon” came out on March 29, 2018 which reveals sexual abuse allegations against Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi.
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.
BLAST BEAT (Arango, 2019) 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.
Sundance Film Festival 2020, Tuesday 1/28
Minari (Chung, 2020) 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.
Luxor (Durra, 2020) 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.
Star Wars films ranked 1-11 #fwiw
1. Empire
2. Last Jedi
3. Rogue
4. Solo
5. New Hope
6. Return of the Jedi
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Force Awakens
9. Rise of Skywalker
10. Attack of the Clones
11. Phantom
Monday, January 27, 2020
Sundance Film Festival 2020, Monday 1/27
Director Robert Machoian and cast of The Killing of Two Lovers
The Killing of Two Lovers (Machoian, 2019) is the version of Marriage Story (Baumbach, 2019) that I can get behind (in alignment with Chuck Klosterman's point of view on MS as stated on Bill Simmons's podcast). Killing 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.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
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