"WISH YOU WERE HERE", well, sort of, it's fine if you stay away....

 

This morning I awoke to another lovely gift from Aeon

It's a very fishy story about a shop in London which sells little fishies for the aquariums of its slightly eccentric customers.

This short film has a most appropriate title...

"Bubble"

Director: Eleanor Mortimer  

 

30 August 2021

 

Sadly I can't download the whole film but you can see it by hitting this link:

https://aeon.co/videos/what-do-tropical-fish-make-of-the-strange-creatures-who-love-them-so?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=98c2400055-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_08_29_11_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-98c2400055-69414985

For some reason it brought back the Pink Floyd song

"Wish you were here"

I guess that was because of these lines:

"We're just two lost souls

Swimming in a fish bowl

Year after year"

There's also a trailer available on Youtube or Vimeo but what's the point of viewing a trailer when the film is only 14 minutes long?

Hope you like,

pt

"Debris", another take on SPACE JUNK, by Wheeler Winston Dixon.

David King sent me this response to "Pigs  May Fly" which I posted earlier today.

"Following Peter's post on space junk orbiting the planet, I thought of Wheeler Winston Dixon's work "Debris" which takes the idea of junk orbiting the planet to a whole new level." 

"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We may not have some of this stuff orbiting the planet...yet. But just wait."

Debris from Wheeler Winston Dixon on Vimeo.

David introduced me to Wheeler's work about a year and a half back. For those who are interested to know more about Wheeler and his life work:

 

The James Ryan Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Wheeler Winston Dixon is a teacher, filmmaker, the author of more than thirty books, and over a hundred articles.

As a film and video artist, Dixon's works have been screened at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Anthology Film Archives, The Museum of Modern Art, The BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, LA Filmforum, The Microscope Gallery, The British Film Institute, Studio 44, OT301, Filmhuis Cavia, The Jewish Museum, The Millennium Film Workshop, The San Francisco Cinématheque, The New Arts Lab, The Collective for Living Cinema, The Kitchen Center for Experimental Art, The Filmmakers Cinématheque, The Amos Eno Gallery, Sla307 Art Space, The Oberhausen Film Festival and at numerous universities and film societies throughout the world.

In 2003, Dixon was honored with a retrospective of his films at The Museum of Modern Art, and his films were acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum, in both print and original format. Since 2015, Dixon has been working in HD video. In 2019, his new video work - more than 500 videos in all - was collected in the UCLA Film Archive in Los Angeles.

I'm so pleased that David has introduced me to Wheeler and his work. I posted another of Wheeler's fine pieces on our blog in March this year:

I Am Lost to the World

I Am Lost to the World from Wheeler Winston Dixon on Vimeo.

Wheeler, I hope to include more of your fine work in future.

Many thanks David.

pt

PIGS MIGHT FLY

 PIGS MIGHT FLY

Saturn has its rings and we now have a ring of our own flying at 28,000 km/h around the Earth, a relatively orderly procession of space things, most of it is debris, but as yet no flying pigs.

An artist's illustration of humanity’s space junk ringing the Earth 

Many scientists around the world have turned their attention to reducing the growing mass of space junk in orbit. This image was created by artists at MIT to demonstrate what sort of items are included in that ring around our planet.  

In this article posted in the Smithsonian Magazine recently some experiemental effotts are being tested designed to capture and remove some of these objects which are collectively known as "space junk".

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-worlds-first-space-sweeper-make-dent-orbiting-debris-180978515/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210825-daily-responsive&spMailingID=45517378&spUserID=ODExMTAyNDM4MTIyS0&spJobID=2066211174&spReportId=MjA2NjIxMTE3NAS2

"Astroscale’s efforts are one of the first, tiny steps towards cleaning up debris. Its flagship mission is ELSA, short for “end-of-life services by Astroscale.” ELSA will drag satellites that are no longer operating down from high altitudes to the planet’s natural incinerator: the oxygen-rich atmosphere at lower Earth orbits. Both the space-cleaner and satellite will burn up here before they hit the surface of the Earth." 

 

Seems like a great idea, doesn't it?

But if you read the article carefully you will find the the little test machine Elsa has serious limitations: it's incredibly expensive and the number of such waste disposal machines required would be as great as the number of of pieces of junk in orbit.

I find this just so sad. Millions of pieces of space junk have been shot into Earth orbit and our efforts to reduce them are pitiful. It's very much like what happens with waste and junk on Earth, the same thing applies: efforts to reduce or rid the planet of our waste are always pitifully less than the continuing proliferation of waste.

That's why I say PIGS MAY FLY!

However we are a brave and ingenious species and this morning's ABC news contained an item I simply must share with you in case it passed you by:

This practice of covering of glaciers to prevent too much melting has been around for about 15 years now, so today's item on the ABC News was possibly just a top-up from last year's news.

Anyone for an exercise in futility?

pt

ps., 

During this year, 2022, I heard that the glaciers of Europe had lost 6% of their ice in just the last calendar year.

From my friend Tom Cowan: "Samskara"

Many years ago when I started making films, about 1962, I met Tom Cowan. We worked on each other's very early films... 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. We shared our experiences of the new movies we were discovering from all around the world. 

Tom got a job at the Comnmonwealth Film Unit in Sydney, I  also got a job there and stayed for about a year. Tom remained with the CFU for a few years and then moved on to travel widely and shoot films in the big wide world. 

The other day Tom sent me these notes about a film he shot in India:

When I was 26, I had an amazing adventure. It was the era of the hippie trail to the East. I arrived in India via Afghanistan and Pakistan and met Pattabhi Rama Reddy and shot a feature movie for him: 'Samskara'. 

Steve Carthew, a mate from our days at the Commonwealth Film Unit, was also in India at the time. He introduced me to some artists who lived in a sort of commune on the beach near Madras and I stayed there. One of those artists, Vasudev, was to be the film's art director. I became connected to the movie through Vasudev. Steve was engaged to edit the movie which he did beautifully.

Samskara was my first feature movie as Director of Photography. Fifty years ago there were no foreigners anywhere near the region Sringeri in Karnataka. Of my crew, only the sound recordist spoke some English. Some crew members initially thought my shooting method was crazy - but they accepted and even enjoyed it.

Samskara was based on a brilliant novel by Dr. U R Anantha Murthy. It was a trail-blazing work and very controversial, exposing some of the hypocrisy of the Brahmin caste.

Samskara created a sensation - and was banned, creating great hardship for Pattabhi. At this time I was working with Bernice Rubens who had won the Booker prize and she came with me to India and saw Samskara. Her review helped to overturn the ban.

In 1971 it was awarded Best Indian Movie and the Silver Lion at Locarno. It was also shown here at the Opera House. I won an award for "Best Cinematography" in Karnataka.

Vasudev is now a major artist in India. Girish Karnad who played the lead became a famous playwright and actor. Steve Carthew continued on to London afterwards and edited a couple of feature films there. We are still known in Southern India.

I am planning now to shoot another movie in the same forest when...

The movie "SAMSKARA" is on Youtube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtj5L_Mbcc

From Bernice Reubens Novelist (Booker Prize Winner), film critic

I saw a preview of Samskara while I was at Madras and I was deeply impressed by" its implications, not only as a work of art, but what seems to me to be a complete breakaway from the safe, conventional forms of Indian film-making. This is a film that will be seriously considered by all committed film-makers throughout the world and will be acknowledged as representing the best in Indian cinema. Samskara is a courageous film. It takes for its theme the concept of the brahmin elite and it dares to question it. But in doing so, it is careful never to demolish. Men, like great ideas, have weaknesses and it is the acknowledgement of man's fallibility that endows him with dignity and compassion. The brahmin concept is only the spring-board of the film. From it emerges a theme of utter universality, that of a man who comes to question his own motives, his own piety. It is the story of man's self-doubt and a nagging sense of responsibility. Samskara is a film that reaches out, that goes beyond the confines of its own particular theme, and its sensitive treatment forces an universal application. With all this, it is difficult to understand why the film was banned. By Western standards, there is nothing in the film that would possibly give offense; and if, by Indian standards, its ethics are questionable, then this is indeed a very sad reflection on Indian standards of morality. I can make no direct comparison in the English scene. The nearest similarity, I suppose, is our treatment of Churchill both in literature and film. It was only when the film-makers and the writers gently suggested that our idol had feet of clay that Churchill achieved that extra dimension of humanity.

If anything can give dignity to the Indian way of life and thought it is a film like Samskara. It is a film of which India should be very proud. It is without doubt a festival film and, as such, would contribute greatly to India's status in the film-making industry. India cannot afford to censor such a film. The backlash from the rest of the world, apart from its people, could be painful and humiliating. The Board of Censors, in passing such a film, would show the same quality of courage and imagination that the film makers have shown in making it.

- Bernice Reubens Here's a link to the documentary

"Revisiting Samskara"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqgJY...

About the career of  Girish Karnad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girish_Karnad

A letter to my sister...

 A letter to my sister... 

                                            which I have not sent to her.

My sister Chris sent me a link to a documentary series of a British journo travelling through Arabia.

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/arabia-with-levison-wood

I viewed the first 20 minutes of the first episode and I gave up in the ruins of Mosul.

https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryUK/videos/mosul-old-city-arabia-with-levison-wood/1195704027274361/

Then I wrote this to my sister Chris Tammer:


I tried to view it Chris.

 

I started with Ep 1. I got as far as the ruined city of Mosul, but I have reached my limit with "people"???

I can't take any more people. I am very lucky, most fortunate, to be here so far away from so many people.

Yes, there are a few to be concerned about, but hopefully I can remain safe from these vermin who destroy everything they see. 

These imbeciles with fixed ideas of what they call "right" and "good" which means destruction to everything else, and everyone else. 

I'm scared for what remains of humanity.

I'm scared for the Afghani women and children.

I'm scared for normal everyday Aussies who have to put up with those lovers of freedom who want to be free from restrictions which may prevent the spread of a most dangerous virus, these people who so desperately want to be free!

Like the song says: "I want to be free" 

I want to be free to hate everyone.

I want to be free to disobey all orders placed upon me by the elected government even when these orders are intended to protect people.

I want to be free to spit in the face of authority.

I want to be free to infect my neighbours, my friends and even my family and I want to be free to be infected by them too, if I so choose.

I want to be free to drive my car through every red stop light on the road even if it means I may kill someone or even kill myself, as long as I'm free.

I want to be free to drive my car into other people if I like and if I hit someone crossing a road I want to be free to leave them writhing and dying on the road, just so long as I am free.

Nothing matters to me more than my personal freedom to do whatever I wish to do, no matter what the consequences.

I must have my personal freedom above all restrictions and orders which seek to curtail my freedom.

I want to be free to believe whatever bullshit I like no matter how crazy it is, no matter how unsupported by evidence it might be, and no matter how dangerous it might be to the health and welfare of others.

So the fruit of the  American Revolution and the French Revolution has come down to us: we can be free of all "tyranny"! And now all democratically elected are "tyrannic" because they represent a majority attempting to curtail the freedom of a minority.  

Chris, the world is breaking up and winding down. 

Fires are raging across huge tracts of the northern hemisphere:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/siberian-wildfires-are-larger-globes-total-blazes-year-combined-180978433/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210816-daily-responsive&spMailingID=45468269&spUserID=ODExMTAyNDM4MTIyS0&spJobID=2063735153&spReportId=MjA2MzczNTE1MwS2

Huge fires such as we also have experienced in Australia, but so many people feel free to "believe" there is no such thing as global warming and climate crisis, just as there is no such thing as Covid 19 or the Delta strain, that these are merely inventions by the authorities everywhere, in all countries, invented for no other reason than to control people.

What hope is there? 

How can we have any hope?

Fortunately, for me, I am free to hide away from the rest of the the world.

But because my sister is fighting cancer I did not have the heart to send this to her.

I hope that you, my friends, forgive me for sharing it with you. 

The only reason I can share it is because I feel I am not entirely alone in these deadly days.

pt

Congratulations David, a very special event!

Our friend David King has just scored a most impressive first among all my fellow filmmakers.

All of David's experimental films are now playing on The Screening Room. 

They are available to view online at  Salto 1TV, The Netherlands via this link:

The Screening Room

As David mentioned on his Facebook page, it's quite rare that his films get an outing like this - a whole hour's program. The last time they were screened in toto was during the Screened exhibition at The Project Space gallery in Geelong. 

I would like to add to this: it is extremely rare in my own experience than any of my filmmaker friends score such an event showcasing many pieces of their work, let alone ALL of it.

Some these pieces may have been seen via Vimeo or You Tube but there may yet be a surprise or two in store. 

For example, David's award-winning long-form short experimental work EXIT  (27 minutes) is included in the programme and this work is not available online anywhere else. 

David wrote:

"This rare programme will still be available online on the Salto 1 website after it finishes its run on TV so people will be able to watch what they want when they want and not have to watch it all from start to finish.

The only funny thing about it was the photo of me at the start - taken in 1995 when I was working in Brisbane as a journalist. And also the double mention of my feature film PURGE which I'd prefer hadn't been mentioned since it was before I made up my mind to dump narrative filmmaking."

This is the order in which the curator Ronald Bijleveld has placed them:

1. Expunged from Collective Memory (02.58')   2017.

2. Imaginarium of the Unknown Traveller (04.18')  2020

3. Lost in a Borgesian Labyrinth (07.31')  2018.

4. To The End Of Time II (04.40')  2017 additional editing in 2019.

5. Infatuation (03.47')  footage taken from The Student (15.00') 1975.  Remade as Infatuation in 2012.

6. EXIT (27.01')  2016

7. Apocryphal Journey (01.56')  2017

8. What If You Woke One Day...? (1.09) footage taken from ENIGMA (15.00') 2000. Remade as WIYWOD...? in 2011.

9. Dystopic Overload (04.17)  2011 footage taken from PURGE (01:20.00')  2010. Remade as Dystopic Overload in 2011.

David adds:

"I hope that helps, Peter.  Although I knew in advance that this was going to happen, I'm astonished to see all my experimental work showcased on a tv program overseas. I hope some people like at least some of it! 

A very big thanks to curator Ronald Bijleveld for making this happen."

It's a huge breakthrough David.

Congratulations!

PT

"Effacement", a short film by Solrun Hoaas.

About forty years ago I was just starting out as a lecturer at the Swinburne Film and TV School. I was approached by Solrun Hoaas, one of the Post. Grad students I met there and she asked me if I would look at and comment on some films which she had made prior to enrolling.

“Effacement” is one of those short films.

It's a film which entranced me. What is it with words? I was fascinated by this minimal poetic film which was made by woman who considered herself to be a "beginner" who thought she needed to enrol in our film school to learn more about filmmaking.

Solrun died in 2009. She and I were friendly but we were never what you would call close friends. She had the most engaging gentle smile and a wonderful quiet repose. This very short film she made so long ago reflects all the qualities I found in her whenever we met.

At the time Solrun showed me this film I had very little experience of Japanese theatre traditions except through films I had seen at the Melbourne Film Festival or at the National Film Theatre screenings. One very fine film I had seen was Ichikawa’s “An Actor's Revenge”.  There were other wonderful Japanese films from that time such as “Rashomon”,  Woman of the Dunes”, "The Face of Another”, “Tokyo Story”... so many films which were a huge cultural blast for me.

Of course all the Japanese films I had seen until then were feature length films. I had not seen many short films from Japan. Then almost 20 years later Solrun showed me her beautiful contemplative film “Effacement” about a Japanese Noh mask maker, Taniguchi Akiko, at work on her masks in her Tokyo studio. 

She carves the mask, paints it and moves it in the pace of an actor's movements on the traditional Noh stage.

The film emphasises the relationship between the mask maker and her mask. It experiments with the visual and dramatic potential in Noh and in the mask, moving toward abstraction as the mask appears and reappears in the reflection of a tree, its original substance.

The soundtrack is filled with wood sounds - tools against wood, and the percussion of wooden clappers.

If you would like to know more about Solrun and her films, Bill Mousoulis has a detailed entry on her life and work here:

http://www.innersense.com.au/mif/hoaas.html

My friend Andrew Pike who runs Ronin Films has all of Solrun’s filmwork in his extensive collection:

https://www.roninfilms.com.au/aboutus.html

You can also find Solrun's life story on Ronin's biographical page:

https://www.roninfilms.com.au/person/350/solrun-hoaas.html

PT 

Afghanistan and the US and us!

Afghanistan and the US and us!

What a terrible mess the mighty US, assisted by our various lapdog governments, have landed us in with the Afghan situation.

I'm not normally given to making political statements on this site... I avoid it like the plague, like Covid, like racism, like anything too contentious.

One reason for my stance is that I wanted this blog to be dedicated to issues of creativity rather than news, current affairs and politics.

But today is somewhat special. 

Here we are after 20 years of warfare in a foreign country, all for the very best of reasons, 41 of our soldiers died there, many more were wounded, many atrocities were committed "in our name", after all most Afghans would see us as invaders of their homeland, and countless soldiers have suffered deep emotional wounds which will be with them for the rest of their days... some have already taken their own lives... and we walk out on it ? We did exactly what was set up by the Trump administration, now followed by the Biden administration.. no it's not "abandonment" which is what one US official said on TV the other day, not a re-run of the fall of Saigon... no it is "an orderly wirthdrawal"... ha ha, please excuse me, this is not at all funny... "Blind Freddie" could have seen this coming, but not our politicians.

In this case I align myself with Blind Freddie.. I could see it coming from before Trump was in power and I'm no political genius. All the signs over the last 10 years were that the US and other Western nations would eventually pull out and that they would suffer the very same fate as the Russians did in Afghanistan, just as the US did in Vietnam, a most terrible humiliation! 

All those military experts in the Pentagon and in our own armed forces, all the fucking idiots who gave their "expert opinions" and their "waterclad assessments" of the situation to their political bosses, figureheads who as usual passed them onto to their civilians despite all the questions raised by the media over so many years... they said it would be an orderly withdrawal and that the nightmare of Saigon would not be repeated... but it is being repeated on a grand scale.

Blind Freddie and I could both see this coming and I'm sure most of my friends would agree with me on this.

But there is worse!

What have we actually done? I mean us and the mighty US, of course.

 

What we have done is to arm and train up an army in Afghanistan, a very large force, extremely well trained in the use of the most modern weapons, all of which we have just handed over to the Taliban. Twenty years of deep training in modern weaponry goes to the Taliban for free as a parting gift.

Despite about $89 billion budgeted for training the Afghan army, it took the Taliban little more than a month to brush it aside. 

Now to the "abandonment" which has not occurred!

No, we and the mighty US have not abandoned our former allies, nor have we abandoned the interpreters who worked with our soldiers, and nor have we abandoned all the innocent people of Afghanistan, especially the women and girls, who just wanted to become "a modern nation" like us... to crawl up from the medievel slime and become a modern nation where women and girls can be eductated, become doctors, lawyers, journos, architects, business women who could lead modern corporations just as women are now able to do in the US and here in Australia...

no we have not "abandoned" them, we have just left them in the lurch... I hesitate to use a good old Anglo word, in the shit!

We have consigned all those women and young girls to a medieval nighmare where they will once more become the chattels of their fathers and husbands, husbands who are often forced upon them, not chosen by them, and not permitted to become properly functioning adult civilians. 

Yet all this was the result of us trying to give them the "rights" we say belong to all human beings in every nation, even though these rights seem to be missing in so many nations. 

So dear friends, please forgive me this diatribe. This is a terrible situation, truly a nightmare. You have all seen the many images which have hit the news in the last two days.

I leave you with just this one:

THIS IS NOT SAIGON

pt