Last night, I had the most blessed opportunity to see a documentary, entitled The Most Hated Family in America. I’m speechless. How could I have had it so wrong? I’m forever changed.
Am I serious? “Not a chance, Poopy Pants…”
Category: Film
My Audacity of Hope
I had a chance to see the movie Blindness this past weekend. A film adapted from “1995 novel, of the same name, by José Saramago.”1 “… [A]bout a society suffering an epidemic of blindness.”2 A truly remarkable premise.
Frankly, it’s a dilemma which I don’t have a hard time envisioning really happening. Granted that exact “epidemic” may never happen. But I can very much see humankind having to deal with an affliction, (1) we have no idea what causes it, and/or (2) we can’t stop. And, as a result, act with total disdain and callousness toward each other.
Not at all my point, but chances are all but certain, when it comes to “fruition,” it will be a result of our own doing, too. Take Swine and Avian flu’s as perfect examples. Sure we know what causes them, they are a result of our intense farming (read: animal confinement) operations, or, more to my side note, they are, indeed, a direct result of our doing. I digress.
But what was so interesting about the movie, to me at least, was the aftermath. And, not at all, surprising was the “social breakdown” occurring soon after the “sickness” went rampant. Personal problems with the films story aside — and, of course, the fact that blindness was portrayed as a “sickness” –Â it was quite a compelling 115 minutes. The feature was 121 minutes in length, but the last 6 minutes, say, were a rather large let down…
Powerful and Recommended
I’ve had the opportunity — it would seem to have been awhile ago — to see the documentary Blinders: The Truth Behind the Tradition (YouTube link). And, today, I finally had the chance to listen to Donny Moss (the films “creator”) talking about his movie concerning “New York City’s horse-drawn carriage industry,” on Animal Voices (interview originally posted May 12th, 2009).
Which, subsequent to hearing the show, “inspired” me to watch it once again. It’s a very powerful and highly recommended film, I think, people need to see…
Feminist Horror
This morning, while — quite fittingly — being stuck with an abnormal amount of rather uncomfortable needles (that being more than the “not many,” say), I had the opportunity to catch the last third of The Current. Where Jan Wong spoke to a panel concerning “Women & Horror Flicks.” Sure, being a fan of the genre helped, not only to take my mind off of the discomfort I underwent while having my jaw “acupunctured” (it would seem that “acupunctured” isn’t a word), but to keep me quite engaged, otherwise. It was a very interesting, and still a brutally conducted, “interview.”
I can’t explain my fascination with horror movies, other than actually experiencing feeling some rather primal emotions while watching a movie, of course. But I honestly can’t say there is much more there. Especially given, not only the inherent violence such a movie must possess in order to classify as a “horror,” but where that violence is often directed. Being women and non-human animals, especially.
Sit down and watch yourselves some Cannibal Holocaust — which has an eerily similar premise to that of The Blair Witch Project, now that I read about it on Wikipedia — and tell me you don’t have issues with the film makers “inclusion of six genuine animal deaths.” It’s utterly repugnant…