I don’t really like Courtney Place after midnight on a Saturday, but worse is bumping into herds of young people on the outskirts\u00a0— without other mobs to moo at and posture towards, they try and amuse each other with whatever’s about, which generally means you. I mean, I’m sure most of them mean no harm — but how can you tell the difference between the group that tried shouting out random men’s names at me to get a reaction, and the one that beat up that couple some time ago near the Basin Reserve?<\/p>\n
I don’t begrudge the young and drunk taking over the town at night on the weekend; but I kind of wish that I didn’t have to run the gauntlet that they pose, either.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
As expected,\u00a0Animation For Kids<\/em><\/a> was much better than\u00a0Toons For Tots<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>— in fact, I’d say that the worst of them was nearly on par with the best of the latter. \u00a0It started with the music video Apache<\/a><\/em>, which I think I’d seen before, but was still pretty great. \u00a0Prince Ki-Ki-Do and the One Hundred Unhappy Mushrooms<\/em> was about a small yellow chick\u00a0with a crown, a spear, and two guardsmen tiger mosquitos (who we meet fencing each other) — they fly about righting wrongs. \u00a0It looks like a series, but I can’t find it online, which is a pity, since he had a great action pose. Ki-Ki-Do!<\/p>\n Snapshot<\/i> was an excellent short about not seeing animals when you’re more intent on hunting them out than patiently waiting and looking (another one that I wish I could link to), and\u00a0The Numberlys<\/em><\/a> actually thanked Fritz Lang for inspiring their visual style (link is just a promo, sadly).<\/p>\n There were some moments that were odd because I am an adult watching, not a child — for example, my previous narrative experience meant that\u00a0I immediately assumed\u00a0Borrowed Light<\/em><\/a>\u00a0was about an impending catastrophe, rather than a desire to share something beautiful. \u00a0And\u00a0Sausage<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(link to trailer) had the weird disconnect for me with linking “pure\/genuine” and “sausage”, where sausages are the meat products most likely to contain… just about anything other than meat, actually. \u00a0 And I was sad that the scientist in\u00a0The New Species<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Facebook page, best I could do) was dismissive, rather than, “I dunno, try this stuff.”<\/p>\n Anyway, don’t bother with\u00a0Pohyper<\/em>,\u00a0Portlandia: Zero Rats<\/em>\u00a0was funny enough but didn’t feel complete in itself, and\u00a05 Meters 80<\/em> was okay, but felt more like an animation demo than a story. \u00a0Snowflake<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reminded me of Charlie and Lola’s\u00a0Snow Is My Favorite And My Best,\u00a0<\/em>except wordless and in Africa (these are all good things), and\u00a0I wonder whether kids will pick up on the tics that the titular Mr Hublot<\/em><\/a> exhibits\u00a0(another good one).<\/p>\n So, a satisfying showing. \u00a0Maybe nibblings should go to this one next year.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Someone pointed out that the message of FEMEN, who are the subject of\u00a0Ukraine Is Not A Brothel<\/em><\/a>, is better summed up in the title of the film than by the film itself. \u00a0That’s kind of true, but the film isn’t trying to promote the organization; it is trying to understand it (or at least, how it was when the film was made). \u00a0How can you promote feminism and female empowerment by pushing out members not prepared to go topless, or who are not pretty enough; what does it mean when all your photographers are men, when the person running the organization is a man? \u00a0How do you reconcile protesting the exploitation of women with working in a nightclub as an “exotic dancer” to put bread on the table?<\/p>\n The women are serious, and committed, and took risks (sometimes foolish risks); but that doesn’t mean that people weren’t exploiting them. \u00a0There appeared to be a bunch of weird things going on in the Ukraine with attitudes to women, some of which were simply shown, rather than commented on. \u00a0For example, there was some old home-movie footage of the women in the movement, showing them as little girls; one clip was obviously of the family moving into a new house, with the father saying, “there’s the tv, there’s the wardrobe”. \u00a0And while his daughter is clamouring for him to film her box of toys, he casually pans over the pin-ups of bare-breasted women in cheesecake poses on the walls of their new home.<\/p>\n The filmmaker was asked what the people in the film thought of it. \u00a0She said that it wasn’t their favorite — that they preferred some of the more propaganda-oriented films — but that they understood that it was more of a history than a promotion tool.<\/p>\n I don’t know how I feel about organizations that are primarily about protest, about “getting the message out” over getting stuff done. \u00a0I mean, I see how it is important, but it feels like they are likely to attract people who are more interested in the noise than the solution… but how do you convince people of the need for a solution without noise?<\/p>\n The organization has since kicked out the Svengali-like “Victor”, and is mainly based in Paris. \u00a0I wish them luck, but I don’t think I’ll be donating money to them any time soon.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Apparently the booklet compares\u00a0In Order of Disappearance<\/em><\/a> to\u00a0Fargo<\/em>. \u00a0That seems a fair comparison — both are set in cold, polite, slightly parochial communities. \u00a0And there’s quite a bit of humour, and quite a bit of blood.<\/p>\n Basically, it’s a revenge thriller, and while it has some minor problems (why does the wife shut him out so quickly and irrevocably? \u00a0Why are the only three speaking female roles all wives?), it’s grim but good. \u00a0And I\u00a0think<\/em> I now know the symbol that you’d put on your gravestone if you were Norwegian and an atheist.<\/p>\n I might see if C wants to watch it.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n