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Today is the International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Meet some of the world’s last living Auschwitz survivors in NUMBERED, the new documentary by Dana Doron and Uriel Sinai, produced by Know Productions.
Auschwitz prisoners, both Jewish or non-Jewish, were tattooed with serial numbers, first on their chests and then their left arms. An estimated 400,000 numbers were tattooed in Auschwitz and its sub-camps; only some several thousand survivors are still alive today. NUMBERED is an explosive, highly visual, and emotionally cinematic journey, guided by testimonies and portraits of these survivors. The film documents the dark time and setting during which these tattoos were assigned as well as the meaning they took on in the years following the war. In fact, the film’s protagonist is the number itself, as it evolves and becomes both a personal and collective symbol from 1940 to today. These scars, paradoxically unanimous and anonymous, reveal themselves to be diverse, enlightening, and full of life.
The film will screen in LA, NY, London and Tel Aviv today (links below).
LA – Museum of Tolerance
LONDON – Tricycle Theatre
TEL AVIV – Cinematheque
NEW YORK – Jan 29th – JCC MANHATTAN
Do you know that the US accounts for 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the global prison population? According to wikipedia over 7.2 million adults were under correctional supervision (probation, jail or prison) in the US in 2010.
Eugene Jarecki’s latest film on America’s failed War on Drugs is now out! Over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war, offering a definitive portrait and revealing its profound human rights implications.
Beyond simple misguided policy, The House I Live In examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for forty years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures. The New York Times calls the film “fearless! a model of the ambitious, vitalizing activist work that exists to stir the sleeping to wake”. To prove that is the case and share the story with a wide audience the film was launched at the Shiloh baptist church in Washington DC yesterday, screened to over 2000 people and streamed live to over 100 churches across the US. According to Jarecki (who also directed Academy award-winning Why We Fight) "America's for-profit system of industrialized mass incarceration, which I examine in my film, is just one example - though perhaps the most strident example - of our terribly misguided national tendency to put profit before people and principle."
The House I Live In is now the #1 Documentary and Independent Film on iTunes! You have 3 more days to rent it only for 99 cents there or on Amazon! For more updates follow the film on FaceBook and #EndWarOnDrugs on Tweeter.
Fingers crossed this campaign leads to significant political change!
The Documentary Oscar nominations are now final: 5 Broken Cameras, The Gatekeepers, How to Survive a Plague, The Invisible War and Searching for Sugar Man. Everyone says the Academy Award will go to Sugar Man but I think 5 Broken Cameras deserves just as much attention. A film about a Palestinian villager filming his daily life while living in the occupied territories, right next to the separation barrier. An exceptional first-hand account of non-violent resistance, the film is often called cinematic political activism. The two directors who shaped the story using Emad Burnat’s hundreds of hours of footage are the Palestinian Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, an Israeli filmmaker born in Jaffa.
Here is a short piece of their directors’ statement: “We hope that people come to see the film with open minds and without foregone conclusions. When watching a film that deals with such a painful controversy, we know that people tend to shut down. Most of us divide the world into right and wrong, good and bad, Palestinian and Israeli. We immediately take a side that corresponds to our identity, life experience, or ideology, even though these loyalties prevent us from fully experiencing the world. Reality is wonderfully complex, and we become frustrated when people fight to look at it with only one or two filters.”
I found the film to be deeply emotional and sincere. It is one of the most personal film stories I have seen on this conflict (another one I really liked is called To Die in Jerusalem by Hilla Medalia) so if you ever get the chance to see it - don’t miss it!
One of my favorite graffiti artists - BLU - completed a new mural in Rome near Ponte Marconi at the end of 2012. And as the saying goes "when in Rome, do as the Romans do": discuss the Pope, the institution of the Catholic church, its dodgy investments in not so holly businesses and more. See some close ups of the street mural here.
For a full update of BLU’s sketches, walls and videos go to www.blublu.org (he’s also selling a DVD but that has been sold out!)
If you have missed to see MUTO: the incredible stop motion graffiti film by BLU from 2008 viewed by over 10 million people and awarded by just about any big festival (but only after its creative commons online splash), here is one more chance:
Here is my last documentary suggestion for 2012: Craigslist Joe.
When a friend told me about it, I must admit my first skeptical reaction was ‘one more social experiment documentary following Supersize Me, Superhigh me, the list goes on’. The synopsis read: one guy left everything behind to see if he could survive solely on the support and goodwill of the 21st century's new town square: Craigslist. Directed by Joe Garner and surprisingly produced by Zach Galifianakis (see how he presents the film).
Maybe it’s the holiday spirit that blurred my mind but I would like to believe this is an optimistic and realistic snapshot of America. I can only say that from my short experience here and seeing people’s reactions around hurricane Sandy I am a believer that social media can be used not to alienate but to connect.
So watch the film, get to meet Craig - the actual creator of the legendary web community - who's idea was to launch an online flee market. Here is something he says in the film: “based on my interaction with millions of strangers I believe that people are overwhelmingly trust worthy and generous”. I leave you with this sugar-coated wish for 2013! Stay warm :))
Maria
Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by!
Stay tuned for more fatal documentary/street art posts in 2013!
X-mas image by Charlie Harper
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN - another one of this year's Oscar contestants - tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest ’70s rock icon who never was. Discovered in a Detroit bar in the late ’60s after recording his first two well received but non-selling albums, he disappeared. Over three centuries later two South African fans set out to discover what happened to their musical hero.
A great story, produced by the creators of Man on Wire and Project Nim and animated by the incredible Passion Pictures (authors of the Gorillaz videos, Belly and tons of other great stuff). I only wish there was a bit more of that animation!
Check out this short collage of French street artist JR's projects with a phone call voice over by himself. JR is a TED Prize winner (watch his awarded presentation).
If you like what he does check out his latest project www.isideoutproject.net where you can actually take part in person. He calls it the "biggest global art participatory project in the world" with over 100 000 posters already printed and sent out to people! See some examples of how people have used the campaign in various places.
Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation sequel WALK AWAY RENEE follows the filmmaker and his mentally ill mother, Renee Le Blanc, on a road trip from Texas to New York. Unlike its title the film is much about Jonathan facing his mother’s mental illness and gives an insight into this extraordinary relationship.
One problem for me was that the film was too rooted into to the back story and the introduction, practically a Tarnation summary, takes a big chunk of time. As part of the road trip movie there is an added dramatic story line - Rene loosing her medication and Jonathan having to deal with it on the road - which feels a bit artificial. Apart from that the use of montage and psychedelic sequences are very powerful and the film is a provokingly honest personal documentary, definitely worth seeing!
Could not help but write this smug post: a film I supported on Kickstarter has made it to the Oscar shortlist! I saw the Waiting Room, a fly-on-the-wall style docu, at an outdoor IFC screening and remember thinking "if only everyone could watch this film and see the shocking poverty levels in this wealthy country". Later on I liked their storytelling project engaging even more patients into the campaign so I donated a very small amount for the support of the film's theatrical release. A few months down the road they've got an impressive list of awards and are running for the Oscar!
Here's a list of all the shortlisted Oscar documentaries this year, starting with my top favs (note: I have not seen them all yet):
- "5 Broken Cameras," Guy DVD Films
- "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," Jigsaw Productions
- "The Waiting Room," Open’hood, Inc.
- "The House I Live In," Charlotte Street Films, LLC
- "Detropia," Loki Films
- "Searching for Sugar Man," Red Box Films
- "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," Never Sorry LLC
- "The Imposter," Imposter Pictures Ltd.
- "Chasing Ice," Exposure
- "Ethel," Moxie Firecracker Films
- "The Gatekeepers," Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil
- "Bully," The Bully Project LLC
- "How to Survive a Plague," How to Survive a Plague LLC
- "The Invisible War," Chain Camera Pictures
- "This Is Not a Film," Wide Management
A pretty impressive list judging from the ones I've seen.
The 5 finalists to be announced on 5 Jan!