John Carpenter: Fear Is Just the Beginning
A documentary about John Carpenter is the only setting where Kurt Russell’s appearance on screen doesn’t have me reaching for the off button.
Image Entertainment 59 min 58 sec Dec 11, 2007
The Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2007 | Dr. J. Craig Venter
BBC 1 43 min 31 sec Dec 11, 2007
This year’s prestigious BBC lecture is given by the entrepreneur that puts founders of web 2.0 companies to shame – Craig Venter.
Clash of the Worlds: Mutiny
The first in a three part series (the others are in the sidebar after the link, although I haven’t watched them yet) which examines three clashes with the Muslim world during the British Empire: in Sudan, Palestine and India, in order to better understand what is happening now. Sadly, while there are excellent books written on this subject from an American perspective, such as Michael B.Oren’s ‘Power, Faith and Fantasy’, there are no documentaries of any substance.
BBC 2 58 min 14 sec Nov 25, 2007
Saudi Solutions
Documentary about a career woman in Saudi. An interesting peek behind the Iron veil, as it were.
Link
Atom – The Clash of the Titans – Part 1
This is the first part in a three part series (the others are available after the link) about what is claimed to be the most important discovery in the history of science – the atom. Its not a bad choice, that everything is provably made of exactly the same components is taken for granted but not obvious under scrutiny. For science fans this is a visual and intellectual feast. The fundamental nature of the premise creates an excuse for a sweeping tour through some of the most interesting co-ordinates in ‘ideaspace’. Some brain pie to gorge on this thanksgiving day.
The BBC 58 min 44 sec Nov 21, 2007
Pit Bull
I doubt there are many people who need to be convinced that dog fighting is barbaric, however this film gives a rare glimpse into how people can convince themselves that something so obviously cruel is acceptable.
We see a man from Tucson carefully rearing a Pit Bull puppy, chained next to an infant seat (i.e. he has a family) for it to be built up into a good fighter, a noble warrior. In other words, it is much more complicated than saying that he hates dogs and wants to torture them. He does not perceive his persona to be much different from someone who would have any other member of their family deliberately raised as a fighter. I suspect he fancies himself as a gladiatorial trainer, rather than a someone with a deep inferiority complex. And I would argue that this is exactly how the chain of torture does extend to humans.
The second issue is what is to be done about Pit Bulls. There is a cultural difference between the UK and the US here. In the UK all Pit Bulls were killed (rightly so, in my opinion), and yet in the US it would seem that the public outcry would prevent it. Pit Bulls are often owned by the same types of people that nurse spent Greyhounds, other poor animals, but ones that haven’t been known to eat your children (that’s what eventually provoked their slaughter in the UK). The argument is that even if Pit Bulls have been bred (or nurtured) to be monsters, they had no choice in the matter and therefore we should let the innocent live until found guilty.
The logic of this seems strange. When we raise and breed animals such as dogs, which are carnivores, many more animals will die to feed the dog. We are therefore prioritizing the monster over the cute, whether we like it or not.
50 min 53 sec Nov 16, 2007
Factory – From Joy Division To Happy Mondays.
A friend who was familiar with the post apocalyptic urban areas of the US, such as downtown Detroit, could not believe how bad Manchester looked, when he visited (for a NASA conference, of all things). He also could not believe it when I told him that some of the richest areas in Britain surrounded it, that it had some of the best examples of uniquely British architecture and that it did not have the kind of reputation for decay, these days, that Detroit does. Manchester is a complicated and important place.
What he did buy, was the fact that Manchester, like Detroit, is one of the world’s most important cities, musically and therefore artistically. A documentary about Factory Records, in memory of the late, great Tony Wilson is therefore a must see.
BBC Television
1 hr 29 min 27 sec Oct 13, 2007
F1 Chasing the Dream
I’m not interested in sports and in particular motor racing. But something wonderful is happening in the heroic combination of McLaren and Lewis Hamilton.
Nascar is a sport who single tactic seems to be ‘turn left’. Formula 1 allows you to turn right as well. But despite the similarity of the two sports, including, massive sponsorship by semi criminal organizations like cigarette firms and garnishings of spandex-clad, pneumatic, hyper-attractive women, they could not be more different.
Like the difference between Vegas and Monte Carlo, Nascar is Trailer Trash while Formula 1 is Euro Trash. The chairman of F1 is the son of the head of the British Fascist party, Oswald Moseley, and the early drivers were wealthy aristocrats who had nothing better to do than invent spectacular ways to kill themselves at high speed.
Within this mix of nasty sponsors and elitist society, is the perfect modern-day fairy tale, like a pauper winning a jousting contest on great horse. The McLaren team provided the great horse and Lewis Hamilton is its rider.
McLaren are not like any other provider of horse power. Their headquarters is a gleaming white, Norman Foster designed, high-tech clean space that is more futuristic than a NASA assembly room and their pit team are testing cooling suits developed by the European Space Agency and designed by Karada for Hugo Boss. Lewis is not like any other racing driver, in fact the closest person that comes to mind is Tiger Woods. Hamilton is the grandson of Grenadan immigrants, and called Lewis after Carl Lewis. He won a black belt in Karate when he was twelve, and won the British Go Karting Championship at age 10. The 10 year old approached McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis and told him, “Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars.” This year he very very nearly won the World Formula One Racing Championship in his debut season at the age of 22.
Thats what makes this rather ordinary sports program extraordinary.
47 min 51 sec Nov 7, 2007
Kick Ass Miracles – Mind and Body (yes that really is the title)
This is a another great example of FEBL media. Compulsive viewing: travelogue; mysticism; jazz beards; toothless 300 year old Thai shamen.
A Chip Shop owner from Birmingham, England, who has spent six years living with Kung Fu monks after seeing a Tarantino movie, guides you through the mysteries of the mystical Orient. The title alone, ‘Kick Ass Miracles’ is worthy of an entire social anthropology conference.
Suggested conference panel topics:
1. Kick Arse or Kick Ass, the use of contemporary American slang in British youth TV.
2. Exorcising Noddy Holder. How presenters hide Birmingham accents when presenting British youth TV while pretending to be hip to American jive and concealing salary handicapping regional dialects by reverting to mockney (fake Cockney).
3. An ornithology of miniature Jazz Beards, Soul Patches and facial hair amongst presenters of British youth TV.
4. The clash of civilizations. 2000 year old dangerously poisonous herbal remedies and skateboard culture as exemplified by British youth TV.
5. Where Ali G gets his material.
“So ere we ah in Souf Eeeeest Aishah, wheh we gunna check aht some KNARLY two fowsand yeea owd ‘erbuw remedy. Innit.”
Enjoy.
27 min 44 sec May 7, 2007
peety-passion.com
Zeitgeist – the greatest lie ever told
If you spend time poring through Google Video, as I do, you have to develop a filter for the endless sea of Religious, New Age or Conspiracy Theorist crap. Zeitgeist is the latest addition to this fecal tide, but I am linking to it because its an interesting example of a media phenomenon. A bad phenomenon but an interesting one.
There are a finite set of actors for conspiracy theory plots: Christians, Merovingians, the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jews, the Federal Reserve, and the most recent catastrophe that is closest to home (JFK assassination, 911 etc.). From the anti-semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci code, Alex Jones’ 911 rantings and now Zeitgeist. They are all part of the same genus – the Fucking Entertaining Big Lie (FEBL).
You can usually spot a FEBL film from the outset because they often use cheap graphic effects with bad rendering and metaphors. In Zeitgeist we have the earth surrounded by a pixelated metal cage. Zeitgeist comes in three parts and an Overture (and not much of a Coda). The Overture shows a series of powerful archive imagery of violent acts, historically relevant to an American audience. The images of violence are treated seriously, but they are basically entertainment.
Part 1. is a loosely plagiarized version of the God Who Wasn’t There, complete with much of the same archive footage. The premise is that Christianity is based upon previous religions. Fair enough, apart from the plagiarism. Part 2 and 3 show 911 and then talk about the Federal Reserve and how, you know, like everything is linked man. 911 seems to be used in the same way as the Overture – as violent pornography, a real life Die Hard, but under the guise of polemic. The argument about the Federal Reserve as a government conspiracy, begs the question – why would a conspiratorial public body setup a private central bank? In Zeitgeist, anti-Semitism has been replaced by jingoist libertarianism – somehow the idea of American income tax is un-American, and free trade within North America shows Lou Dobbs as a patriot fighting against dark forces, rather than an armchair racist.
Here is the problem, FEBL media usually means nothing and is patently false but incredibly seductive. It is the perfect scaffold to hang propaganda and acts like a bit-borne, pernicious narcotic. Although films like Zeitgeist are mildly entertaining, due to their unbelievable popularity (more than 5 Million people have watched it on YouTube), they must be taken seriously. I suspect they might actually be dangerous, and therefore, as someone who does not believe in censorship it is important to make fun of Zeitgeist as the tired piece of po-faced, visually illiterate, polemically challenged, pornographic bullshit that it is.
36 min 51 sec Nov 5, 2007 www.zeitgeistmovie.com