CRASH COURSE LINK & EXAM

HERE IS THE LINK for the background crash course you should look at before the final screenings of The Mosquito Coast and the Exam. I'd say try to get to about clip 14 or go all the way to 20.

http://www.chrismartenson.com Exam Date is Tuesday December 16 from 1-3 in GBTC 114

SAVE THE DATE

Monday December 1

6-9pm Alumni Auditorium

filmmakers Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson present a

free screening of their film

What a Way to Go (life at the end of empire)

http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/

A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the American Lifestyle.

 

 

You are invited to this special

screening and dialogue with the filmmakers!

 

What a Way to Go:  Life at the End of Empire, a feature-length documentary by Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson, will screen at:

Champlain College's Alumni Auditorium

Monday December first 6-9 pm 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!

 

This is what reviewers are saying:

 

“Nothing less than a 123-minute cat scan of the planet and its twenty-first century human and non-human condition.”

Carolyn Baker, www.carolynbaker.org

 

 “Perhaps the most important media message of our time.”

Jan Lundberg at CultureChange.org

 

“Hundreds of my readers have told me that my novel Ishmael should be read in every high school classroom in the world. Naturally I’d be delighted to see this happen, but I really think it would be more to the point to have What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire seen in every high school classroom in the world! The two hours of this documentary are two hours that bring hope for the future of humanity by awakening and informing in the most profound yet lucid way imaginable.”

Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael and Tales of Adam

 

What a Way to Go, features interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Richard Heinberg, William Catton, Paul Roberts, Chellis Glendinning, Thomas Berry, Richard Manning and Ran Prieur. 

 

Contact (insert local contact name and info here) for more information about the screening.

 

For more information about What a Way to Go,

or to contact the producers, visit their website at www.whatawaytogomovie.com or email producer@whatawaytogomovie.com.

Week 15 Contemporary Issues (who has seen?....)

Who has seen-

American Beauty (1999) Alan Ball

American Psycho (2000) Mary Harron

V for Vendetta (2005) James McTeigue

Week 14 Subverting the Dominant Paridigm

The Mosquito Coast (1986) Peter Weir

Week 13 Colonialism-Undermining Cultural Norms (consumerism)

In Lumet's Network (1976)-

do you think Beale is right? have we run out of bullshit?

How do you think 1976 network news and television culture plays against where we have arrived and where we may be going. How was it prescient?

In light of the guest filmmakers' presentation of What a Way to Go,

what do you think is still worth saying in film.

Week 13 Geoff Klane's Presentation

Week 13 Matt Nurre's Presentation

Matt. great clip for Storm Over Asia. Apt commentary, I like how you did sort of a play by play while the clip was playing. Would be good to sharpen the differences between Pudovkin and Eisenstein (linkage vs. collision montage) and even contrast that with the Patriot clip. At one point you said, "Kuleshov was more conservative" and I meant to ask you what you meant by that...

if you'd care to elaborate....

well done.

Week 12 Nick Wright's Presentation

Week 12 Matt Milewski's Presentation

Week 12 Jack Nichols' Presentation

Week 12 Garrett Burns' Presentation

Week 11 Reid Byers' Presentation

Week 11 Will Derwin's Presentation

Week 11 Political Films (who has seen?...) TV Culture / Selling Sex & Violence

taking a poll,

who has seen Network? (Lumet 1976)

who has seen A Clockwork Orange? (Kubrick 1971)

Week 11 Scott Miley's Presentation

Week 11 New Wave

What do you think Godard is trying to say with Week End (1967)?

be specific, give examples.

Tournees Festival Nov. 7,8,9.

glover went to this screening saturday afternoon. 

Any other attendees encouraged to blog / review other screenings here.

Saturday, November 8, 2008, 3:00 P.M.

L'Origine de la Tendresse and Other Tales

A Program of Short Films

(France 2008, 97 min.)

A program of six notable French short films, featuring a broad  

range of styles and genres, from animation to fiction to  

documentary, reflecting the diversity of both the visions of  

contemporary French filmmakers and the people of France.

1-"Gratte-papier"? (Pen-Pusher) by Guillaume Martinez;

--This was probably my favorite, the first one screened. Two strangers seated next to each other on a subway have a silent intellectually flirtatious conversation by underlining passages in the books they are reading and stealing inconspicuous glances at each others' lap texts. Simple concept, very well executed. Life-like, elegant, urgent, intimate.

2-"Ma mere: Histoire? d'une immigration" (My Mother: Story of an  

Immigration) by Felipe 

--Interesting biographical journal from a daughter's POV about her family's immigration to France, the shaping forces on her family dynamics and specifically her mother.

3-?"Je suis une voix" (One Voice, One Vote) by Jeanne Paturle and  

Cécile Rousset;

--Rotoscoped animation with interview voice over. Content was loosely organized, entire effect was kind of unfocused, although there were moments of clever imagery.. burried knots sprouting trees, figures building with blocks and tumbling down, text flashes, and photo traces- ending with beautiful cutout collages depicting housing in Caracas Venezuela. Artistic and visually satisfying, but again, could have been more focused. 

4-"La dernière journée" (The Last Day) by Olivier Bourbeillon;

Documentary journal of 3 guys in a blacksmith shop the last day in operation before closing down. Poignant and detailed snapshot of a moment in time. Evocative, end of an era piece. Historical, ephemeral.

5-L'Origine de la Tendresse

Weird color balance, overexposed at times. made me wonder if it was on purpose or just ad-hoc production value or an attempt at style. Not entirely unpleasant, but gave it a dated or otherworldly feel that felt not rooted in the ordinary-ness of the narrative. A semi-voyeuristic peek into an unglamorous single woman's life.

6-Kitchen" by Alice Winocour;?

funny  little portrait of a pretty housewife troubled by preparing a lobster. Like a drawn out one liner. Intensified the effect of the whole festival which made me want to clean up my space and go to IKEA to euro-fy my domicile. Ended with the Madeline Peroux version of Elliott Smith's 'Between the Bars' which is an incredible song (Smiths) made me want to resubmerge myself in Elliot Smith music as the protagonist departs her apartment and is seen puffing cold breaths down an appealing French city street.

Passport is in order.

week 10- Genre films / Science Fiction / Forbidden Planet

Please make a note of this revised student presentation schedule

mon 11/10 Miley

thurs 11/13 Derwin, Byers (screening Week End)

mon 11/17 Burns, Nichols

thurs 11/20, Milewski, Wright (screening Clockwork Orange or Network-poll?)

mon 11/24 Nurre, Klane

thurs 27 Thanksgiving

What do you think Forbidden Planet says about the culture and memes of its time? (1956)

Does it carry any new weight in 2008? Elaborate on what you think it says to a contemporary viewer. Any comparisons? What is the film's technological, social, political, scientific, artistic, significance? Remind you of anything?

for some more insight, read this 

article click here

week 9 Post-war / Auteur Theory / Rashomon

Week 8 Italian Neo-Realism

Lecture will outline history and context leading up to Italian Neo-Realism screening of Bicycle Thieves thursday. Please journal this week about your understanding of these terms as they may be defined or relate to Italian Neo-Realism. (look them up if you're not sure)

Fascism, Marxism, & Humanism.

week 7

supporting clips for Citizen Kane and Hays code discussion.

Week 6 Hollywood Propaganda

After screening Triumph of the Will last week, this week i'm showing some of Capra's American propaganda, and tracing the development and evolution of cultural mythos, ideologies and memes as transmitted and disseminated through cinema. (both through overt propaganda, and also through 'mainstream' populist consumer entertainment fare as we will see in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on Thursday)  

Look at the links below, and in your comments, address this question:

What do you see as propaganda today?  In your answer, address-

What memes are there that you feel are cultivated and fed using media as propaganda right now?  Dig deep. Be fearless.

if you are at a loss about memes, and their infectious operations, see again the links for week 1.

Week 5 dada, surrealism, sound, crash, depression, rise of Hitler.

This week we have a bullet list, compressing a lot of intense involved history into a very cursory sweep. Nonetheless, I'd like you to consider the massive cultural changes on each others' heels that were occurring in the relatively brief historical period covering the repercussions of WWI through the 20's and 30's and into WWII. Relating all of this to film history, and how all these events and movements shaped cinema, and its use as a new media, a vector of memes, be it Nazi propaganda, American Imperialism, entertainment, education or social activism.

I'll be posting links and youtube playlist here to illustrate.

week 4 Soviet Montage

During Monday's lecture class, we discussed the development of montage, specifically by the Soviets,

Kuleshov, Pudovkin and Eisenstein. I'm Including a youtube widget here with the clips, and am trying to see if I can also

bring in slides from the lecture to accompany it.

If you mouse over the widget you should get little pop-up thumbnails of all the clips. Navigate through them with the 

little arrows to find all of them.

Week 3 Silent Era

This week we discussed among other things, WWI's influence on world film markets, the development of the Hollywood studio system, and smaller international cinematic movements of the time. Emphasis on the industrialization of the medium, and the framing of cinema as product were stressed. Also outlined French Impressionism and German Expressionism, and Surrealism showing slides and referencing examples. Recommended further viewing would be The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and all of Andalusian Dog (Un Chien Andalou)

Thursday's screening is scheduled to be Murnau's 'Sunrise' 1927, but I may instead show Lang's Metropolis 1927, and show only some excerpts from Sunrise.

Looking forward to insightful new posts after reading and viewing that synthesize new and original information, thoughts, reflections and reactions.

Week 2 Early Cinema: Edison, Melies,Porter, Griffith, Leonard, Memes,and more...

This week we screened Edison, Melies, Porter, Griffith, and Leonard.

I asked you to try to get your head into what life must have been like during the late 1800's, and imagine how the dawn of cinema began to evolve and emerge.

I continue to urge you to keep one eye on the present and future as we trace this evolution-

and try to synthesize the readings, screenings and discussions into an appreciation of the cultural power of moving images. once again- here are the links from the syllabus to read, as well as the link to my youtube favorites where some of the clips we've seen can be found. Please read the essays attached to the links and reflect on them in your responses to the screenings.

Richard Dawkins (1976)

excerpt from The Selfish Gene  Memes, the new replicators.

http://www.rubinghscience.org/memetics/dawkinsmemes.html

Walter Benjamin (1936)

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

 

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944)

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm

Douglas Davis (1995)

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction 

http://cristine.org/borders/Davis_Essay.html

http://www.storyofstuff.com 

also clips here 

http://www.youtube.com/gordonglover (favorites)

journal

 Journal: Students must post an entry following each weekly screening. Entries should be more than opinion based reactions and must include reflection based on historical and cultural analysis from the text, assigned readings or other sources. Specific references, quotes, and notes to support positions are expected.