Chinese Week At UAA - Food, Movies, And Other Treats

The Confucius Institute at UAA is sponsoring a Chinese culture week.  There's food, movies, and other activities. 

This is a heads up for next week.  It looks like everything is free.  I'll have to check if they have free parking passes for events too. 

I'll try to find out more about the movies - there are three short films - the poster they sent me is a little hard to read.  

Click to enlarge and focus

The Confucius Institute is the Chinese version of things like the American Libraries abroad or the German Goethe Institute, used to spread Chinese culture around the world.  The Confucius Institutes are connected with universities.  There have been some reports that they are part of the Chinese espionage system.  Whether that's true or not, these events are available and past events that I've attended were pretty good to excellent. 


I'm at LAX waiting for my plane out of the heat and back to decent weather. 

The Bergdahl Rorhschach Test

[Lots of  people leave a movie before the credits are over.  And sometimes the director saves some great stuff for the end of the credits.  This is a post that has some related, but only in a very tangential way, content at the end.  But I think it's worth waiting for.]

[UPDATE June 9, 2014 Anchorage Daily News reporter Rich Mauer offers more detail to the Bergdahl Rohrschach with his interview with four Anchorage soldier's in Bergdahl's unit today.]

Original Rohrschach image from here, but see notes below*

The commentary on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl reminds me a lot of a Rohrshach test.  In a Rorschach:

[t]he underlying assumption is that an individual will class external stimuli based on person-specific perceptual sets, and including needs, base motives, conflicts, and that this clustering process is representative of the process used in real-life situations.^[33] [From Wikipedia]

And we see all sorts of folks 'seeing' in Bergdahl (the external stimulus) radically different things, based, I'm assuming, on those  "person-specific perceptual sets, and including needs, base motives, conflicts."


Some of the things people see in the Bergdahl Rohrschach:

• Traitor
• Confused Young Man
• Sane Young Man Who Reacted To The Insanity Of War
• Means To Trash The President
• Republicans Acting Bad Once More
• Chance To Empty Guantanamo
• US Commitment To Recover all POWs
• Negotiating With Terrorists
• Innocent Until Proven Guilty
• All Our Soldiers Are Hereos

The traditional Rohrschach Test has very specific techniques for interpreting people's responses.  There are different methods:  The Exner method and the Rohrschach Performance Assessment System seem to be the two major ones.   Wikipedia goes through the basic inkblots and standard interpretations.  And there's even a section on conflicts among the testers over interpretation.

Frustrated with people's seemingly mindless interpretation of current events?  Think of the current event as a sort of Rohrschach test. 

In looking at Rohrschahs,  psychologists looks at more than just what the testers 'see' in the inkblots.  They also look at how they approach the task - for instance, do they take it as given to them or do they ask if they can turn the cards around?  They listen to how the person forms the interpretation.

And we should do the same too.

Everyone's response will be a combination of the respondent's preconceived notions of how the world works and the evidence presented.  The less connected to the facts of the case, the more the response tells us about the respondent than about the case, the more the respondents are projecting their world views, their values, their biases onto the case. 

But none of this is new to most of you reading this. Perhaps for some it's a different metaphor for thinking about this.

The real questions we have to find ways to answer are:

1.   How do we form our 'judgment habits'?  (Yes, they're habits.)  How do we learn to go from evidence to conclusion?   To what extent is this affected by genetics and to what extent by environment? 
2.  How do we learn to balance feelings and rational thinking to improve the likelihood of coming to more accurate assessments?
3.  What causes some of us to short circuit and shut down one side or the other - rationality without any feeling or feeling without any rationality?

I know you can all think of examples of people rationally going through the evidence before they make their conclusions known.   And you know people whose instant conclusion pops out of their mouths as soon as the first tiny bit of (possibly false) evidence is presented.

But sometimes the people that mouth off quickly, loudly, and arrogantly without waiting for all the evidence are right.  And the people who deliberately exam every detail sometimes turn out to be wrong.  A lot goes into 'getting it right' than just these two dimensions. 

There are lots of directions this post could go.  I really wanted to just raise the idea of current events being like Rohrschach inkblots, we learn more about the people talking than about the issue. 

But as I did that, I also started thinking about the wide array of factors that affect good and bad interpretations.  And after barely touching that, I'm already thinking about how we deal with people who aren't rational or who ignore feelings.   But I'm not ready to put all those ingredients together into a satisfying post yet. 
 
So let me conclude this post with a little seriousness and a little silliness.

*Images (the serious part)

I spent a more time on the images (there's one below too) than I did on actually writing.  Like the two here, most images I use here are originals I create.  But if I use someone else's images (even if I alter them as in this post), I like to give credit.  I found the Rohrschach image using google image search.  But my source clearly wasn't the original, but that site didn't cite its source.  Google reverse image search gave me over 500 locations for the image.  I passed on finding the real original site. I  really don't want to link to a site that used an image without giving credit - and I'm not that impressed with the post the image was in. 

Hermann Rohrshach (the silly part) 

When I was looking up the Rohrschach test, I found a picture of Hermann Rohrschach on Wikipedia.  I was surprised at how young and contemporary - and cool - he looked.  According to Wikipedia,

  "in 1921 he wrote his book Psychodiagnostik, which was to form the basis of the inkblot test."

He was was born in November 1888, so he was probably 38 when the book came out.  In April 1922, again according to Wikipedia:

"he died of  peritonitis, probably resulting from a ruptured appendix.^[9]"

He left a wife and two children, ages five and three.  Below is his picture and the actor it made me think (another Rohrschach like test?) should play him in the movie of his life.

Hermann and Matt

Hermann's picture is the way I found it.  It took a little time to find a picture of Matt Damon in a reasonably similar pose.  Then I changed it to black and white, got rid of the background, shrank it, and added the mustache.   I think they'd seem more alike  if you didn't see the pictures side-by-side.  As I look at the two now, I know that readers will think of other actors who look much more like Hermann. 

Capturing El Chapo

The LA Times had a front page story today about the capture of Mexican [I'm paused here trying to think of a word other than 'drug lord' or 'drug kingpin'] pharmaceutical company CEO, Joaquin Guzman.   OK, I know that's a bit of a stretch, but drug companies in the US have a huge amount of sway over the government here, just as Mr. Guzman did in Mexico.  And they've got lots of people on lifetime commitments to their products.  They just do it in a more civilized manner and with incorporation papers and appropriate laws that make most of what they do legal.  And their compensation isn't that far behind Guzman's and they have a lot more respectability. 

For the record, here are two men from the top paid US CEO's from a 2011 Daily Mail article:

"The top spot is held by John Hammergren, 52, the CEO of pharmaceutical company McKesson who earned a salary of $131.2million and a net total income, which includes bonuses and profits from stock earnings, of $1.2billion. And that's not all: Mr Hammergren's company stands to expand if President Obama's health care program is enacted due to increased contracts. . .

Number 8: Stephen Hemsley

CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Health care
Compensation: $48.8million
Net Income: $4.93billion"

Whoa!  Where did that come from?  All I intended here was to point folks to a documentary about Guzman that I posted Feb. 14.  I was giving an example of what you could find on Documentary Heaven, and it was the only one I had actually watched. 

It will fill in a lot more details of this person's life, the incredible wealth (they found $200 million in cash when they raided his palace), and how he ruled with a mix of carrot and stick.  And, most certainly, his organization uses the same methods here in the US.  If you were a judge and you were offered to have your debts taken care of for your help and this offer also included pictures of your kids and grand kids if you don't help, you surely would pause before making a decision.

Anyway, I thought I'd redirect folks to the video, now that his name is back on the front pages. 

The LA Times article both says the arrest is significant and that it will have no affect on the operations of the Sinaloa drug cartel. 

Narco Bling and Doumentary Heaven Trove of Docs

Documentary Heaven  is a website I ran into that has hundreds of documentaries you can watch.  Actually I didn't count them and there could be over a thousand. 

Here's the loooong  list of all the documentaries.  I suspect you could find everything just trolling YouTube, but this makes it a lot easier. 

Here are several titles that were being highlighted.

Amish: A Secret Life

An intimate portrait of Amish family life and faith, this film opens up a world usually kept private. Miriam and David are Old Order Amish and photography is not permitted under the strict rules of the Amish church. So when they agree to open their home and their lives to the cameras, they embark on a journey which is not without risk. As the film unfolds, we learn exactly what is at stake for this family and why they wanted to share their lives and risk all.

The Wall Street Code 

A thrilling documentary about a genius algorithm builder who dared to stand up against Wall Street. Haim Bodek, aka The Algo Arms Dealer. 

From the makers of the much-praised Quants:  the Alchemists of Wall Street and Money & Speed: Inside the Black Box.  Now the long-awaited final episode of a trilogy in search of the winners and losers of the tech revolution on Wall Street.  Could mankind lose control of this increasingly complex system?

 I haven't seen the first two, but I did watch this one:

 Narco Bling

Mexico is at war, a war for control of its own country against a rich and powerful enemy the Mexican drug cartel. These narco traffickers live in a world of astonishing wealth and extravagance, this being said however they live in even more spectacular cruelty and violence. This film is about the criminal gangs that are earning billions from a seemingly endless flow of illegal drugs, most of which seem to end up in the United States. National Geographic explore this dark world, where of the the most wanted fugitives is also one of the most powerful people in the region. 

It's not something I didn't already know, but the details are staggering.  The amounts of money, how things work, the impact on the US.   I couldn't help thinking:  Why are are fighting in the Middle East, when a much bigger threat is along our border? 

In the movie there's a scene in prison (it's shown with cartoon drawings) where a drug lord is imprisoned.  It shows how all the prison guards are bribed with offers of money and a laptop showing pictures of their families. It seems no one says no.  And you know that we must be losing the war on drugs because enough people on our side of the border are also being bribed.

Watch for yourself;  it's only 44 minutes. It was shown in England in 2010 on National Geographic television.

[UPDATE  Feb 23:  Less than two weeks after I post this documentary on Joaquin Guzman, he's captured.  If I used the kind of logic of some blogs and cable news shows, I could claim credit for his capture.  You can read the update post on this with links to the LA Times article on the capture.]

Gonna Be Hard Going Home - The Beach, Then Spanish Lessons [UPDATE: Fire and Film]

LA weather isn't helping me prepare to go back to Anchorage.  The picture is from yesterday afternoon at Venice Beach.  The temperature was back in the low 80s again.  The air was clear.  And on Monday, the beach wasn't too crowded.  The surf was much lower than it was Saturday when I biked with B. 

It was a good chance for J and me to relax a bit and catch up after her quick trip to Seattle to see our daughter and Z and the others.

On the way home we stopped at La Fiesta Brava to pick up some Mexican food for

Spanish Teacher and Chef

dinner.  The chef wouldn't let me speak English.  And forced me to dredge up my 50 year old junior high school Spanish.  I could tell him that "Mi Español es muy malo" and I could understand most of what he said, but the one saving grace of Thai and Chinese is that you don't conjugate the verbs.  I couldn't remember how to do past tense or future at all.  Another employee there said that the customers who come every day have learned to speak enough Spanish to do all their ordering and chit chat in Spanish.  I believe it.  As bad as I was, I still am surprised at what still lives in my brain.

As I juggled the bags of take out on the bike ride home, more words began to emerge - things I could have said.

Here's the card - for good food with free Spanish lessons.  



I'm hoping we can find a little more time at the beach this afternoon, though  so far I'm inside prepping for class on Friday in Anchorage - my first for credit UAA class since I retired.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's the capstone class, so it only meets six or seven times over the semester, but there is lots of consultation with the students.  In the past I've always known the students, but not this time.  There will be other faculty helping.  We also have some errands to run before we leave tomorrow.  But it's too nice a day not to hit the beach once more, even if just for an hour. 


UPDATE Tuesday 5:30pm (PT)  - After doing our errands, we biked back to the beach about 4pm today in time to see smoke billowing up somewhere north of the Santa Monica pier.  Two planes were bombing it with water then turning around and going out to sea to get more water.  We never saw them getting the sea water - they disappeared at a certain point - but from maybe two miles away we could see the water being dumped.

The fire was to the right of the photo from yesterday.  The plane disappeared from our sight against the mountains where they start to go down to the lest.

Right near us on the beach was a film crew.  A guy was standing in trunks with a gal in front of him.  She'd put out her arms and move like she was falling.  I couldn't figure it out as they did it a couple of times.  But then the last time someone threw a bucket of water on the woman as she was 'falling.'  That's when I saw they were standing on a surf board on the sand.  I'm assuming they were getting them and the sand in the background.

I forgot my camera at home so my fire shot - below - is from Santa Monica Patch which seems to have gotten it from KCAL - 9.  The report says it was just a brush fire, but if they hadn't been bombing it every three or four minutes, it would have been more.  From our vantage point much further away, there was lots of brown smoke that was blowing out to the ocean.  The temps were in the 80s today and the humidity down below 10 percent - with red flag fire warning for all around the LA area. 


Tomorrow we visit an old friend in Portland for a few hours before continuing on back home.

Christie's Great Performance

I missed the news yesterday so I knew nothing about the emails from Chris Christie's deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly.  They indicate that the traffic study that jammed the nation's busiest bridge for a week and clogged the streets of Fort Lee, New Jersey was not the reason of the jam.

Instead it was done intentionally to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee who did not endorse Republican Chris Christie for governor.

I didn't know any of that when I got up this morning and my mom had on Chris Christie's news conference on CNN.

I haven't watched Christie closely.  I live in Alaska.  New Jersey's far away.  But my superficial knowledge was that he was the sensible Republican among those being mentioned as potential presidential candidates.  He worked with President Obama and praised his hurricane Sandy response just before the 2012 election causing other Republicans explode.  He seems to be able to work with Democrats and won reelection as governor by a wide margin in a Democratic state.  He was, I understood, the most likely Republican to be able to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, but the question was whether he could survive the Republican primaries.

So that was the background I watched the news conference with.

I was impressed.  He sounded sincere.  He didn't seem to be using any notes.  He said the right things about his responsibility - he didn't know anything until yesterday, but he's the governor so he's responsible - and he'd fired the Kelly as soon as he learned about the incriminating emails.

He went on and on - almost two hours.  It was riveting television.  He was good.  He's obviously both intelligent and experienced.  In response to a question about why he didn't ask Kelly about what actually happened before firing her, he said he fired her for lying to him, not for what she did.  Since there were state and federal investigations already announced, if he questioned her it actually might be seen as inappropriate.  He mentioned his own experience as a prosecutor.

He expressed his sadness and disappointment with a close associate he trusted who lied to him.  

But we saw the Wolf of Wall Street the other night. Leonardo DiCaprio as Wall Street huckster Jordan Belfort makes me pause in my judgement.   Belfort could sell anyone anything.  There's a scene that everyone should see.  Belfort is starting his own brokerage firm and he's teaching his crew how to make cold calls to sell penny stocks - ones where the broker gets 50% commission - that are worth basically nothing.  He's got a client on the speaker phone and smoothly tells him the thickest lies about about the potential of the stock, while his body language to his employees tells the story about reeling in the fish and then screwing him.

Everyone should see this scene and have it implanted in their brain so that it rises to one's consciousness every time a car salesman, a cable tv or phone salesman or a stockbroker opens his mouth.  People should see DiCaprio thrusting his pelvis for his salesmen while he so sincerely assures the client that nothing could go wrong. 

I walked out of the three hour movie telling my wife that as skeptical as I already am, this movie makes it hard to trust any one.

And so that's what I brought to this news conference with Christie.  Christie's performance was perfect.  But I also wondered if he were thrusting his pelvis in his head.  There are so many questions.


Was Kelly the culprit or the scapegoat? 

How could he have a staff person he worked closely with for so many years who would lie to him like this?

How did he misjudge who she was so enormously?

Why would they jam up the 'busiest bridge in the world?' to punish a political opponent who, according to Christie, wasn't even on his radar?   This reeks of the kind of dirty tricks that, while both parties commit them, have become more associated with Republicans since Watergate and then the rise of Karl Rove.  

Politics attracts people who need or want power, power over others.  People who need power, I suspect, feel some inferiority, some lack, that this power will help them overcome, that will show others that they are somebody.  And such people seem particularly vulnerable to using their power inappropriately.  This was truly a petty act of retribution.  Petty only in the sense of inappropriately demonstrating one's ability to take revenge for some assumed slight.  But the impact on people was hardly petty.  I saw petty people like this with giant chips on their shoulders in 2011 when I blogged the state legislature in Juneau. 

Was this even a plot by the more conservative wing of the party to derail Christie's presidential campaign?  Or less likely, but plausible, a Clinton plot?

The biggest question outstanding seems to be whether Christie's performance today was genuine or whether he actually knew about this.  If he knew, and today's news conference was just a giant lie, I don't see how he can recover as a presidential candidate.  I don't see how he could stay in office in New Jersey for four more years.

If follow up investigations support his claims of innocence, I'd say today's performance shows him as a very competent leader.  People will still attack him for letting Kelly into his inner circle.  But lots of people have secrets that they hide from those around them and other politicians have had close aides resign because of scandals.

I would note that CNN had a feeding frenzy over this story, repeating parts of the news conference over and over again.  


[UPDATE 9pm - whatever the outcome, this political cartoon by Bill Bramhall of the NY Daily News is priceless:

click image to go to the source:  Bill Bramhall/NY Daily News

Hong Kong Film Legend Run Run Shaw Dead at 106 or 107

My son sent this link to me.  When we lived in Hong Kong, Run Run Shaw's presence was everywhere.  Particularly close to home for us was the Run Run Shaw auditorium on the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus where we lived and I worked.  My son agreed to go see a traditional Chinese orchestra performance there if I would see the first Die Hard movie there with him. 

Run Run Shaw, Father Of The Kung Fu Movie, Dead At 107

AP Photo / Kin Cheung

KELVIN K. CHAN – January 7, 2014, 9:26 AM EST728

HONG KONG (AP) — Run Run Shaw built a Hong Kong movie and TV empire that nurtured rising talents like actor Chow Yun-fat and director John Woo, inspired Hollywood filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and produced the 1982 sci-fi classic "Blade Runner."

Shaw's prolific studio helped bring kung fu films to the world but he also passed on the chance to sign one of the biggest names in that genre: the young Bruce Lee.
The missed opportunity was a rare misstep for Shaw, who died Tuesday, according to a statement from Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), which he helped found in 1967. No cause of death was given.
His studio gave his age as 107, but his age according to the Western counting method may have been 106 because Chinese traditionally consider a child to be 1 at birth. TVB said he was born in 1907, but would not provide his birth date.
His Shaw Brothers Studios, once among the world's largest, churned out nearly 1,000 movies and gave young directors like Woo their start. He produced a handful of U.S. films that also included the 1979 disaster thriller "Meteor."

 The rest is at TPM.

AIFF 2013: Two Fine Films: De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) and Hank and Asha

This is a continuation of this post on "What Makes A Good Film?"


My 1's (movies that had me walking out of the theater going 'wow!'):

7 Cajas (7 Boxes)

Die Nieuwe Wereld (The New World)

Hank and Asha

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (明天記得愛上我)


All four of these movies pulled me in so completely that I wasn't watching the movie making - all the technical stuff worked to tell the story, not distracted from the story (either because it was bad or so spectacular that it distracted.)

All four, I left the theater with the feeling of having seen a really good film.

Of the four,  I probably was the least swept away at the moment by The New World.  But it wouldn't let go of me.  Scenes kept coming back to me.  When I saw Hank and Asha I walked out pumped.  What a great film.  But then, I wondered was there enough depth?  Was this just a well made, but light romantic comedy?  The New World seemed more important, but I didn't walk out with the same elation.  Was I just being shallow?

At this point, I think they are both very fine movies.  The New World told a complicated story deceptively simply.  It quietly took us on a tour of two people's broken hearts.  We slowly learn about Mirte and Luc and their similar losses that allowed her to reach out to help him. At the same time helping herself.  On the surface though, it almost seems like a documentary about life at the airport's detention area for asylum seekers waiting for the decision whether they can enter Holland or not.  It's so understated.  Even the colors are muted.  One audience member told me his initial reaction was negative because there was no humor.  But the humor was there.  It was just so quiet.  Like a little dab of yellow in a grey-brown world.  For example - people are coming in the door at the end of the hallway where she's just mopped the floor.  She waves her hands at them to stay on the side - these are immigrants who probably don't speak Dutch.  She makes 'chhhhhh...chhhhhh" sounds at them.  An African stares at her as he walks down the hall.  She again goes, "chhhhhhh. . .chhhhhhhhhh."  He smiles and goes, "chhhhhhh. . .chhhhhhhhhh" back to her as though he were learning to say 'hello' in her language.   It's such intimate cross cultural communications that make this movie so powerful.  Two low level people in a political no-man's land at the airport, but not technically in Holland. In another scene, she catches him staring at her and she waves him off and tells him not to look at her.  He comes up to her and in complete innocence says, "I've never seen a white cleaning woman before."

This is a movie where you have to look closely or you'll think nothing is happening, but it's just happening at a lower volume and slower pace than we're used to in US film.  Slight gestures fill the screen with meaning if you're attuned to them.  When they get to the scene where she's washing the glass wall and he dances on the other side along with her motions it's like an explosion in another movie.

We get glimpses behind the scene in this asylum center - the workers making bets on who's lying, the attorneys trying to find ways to mesh the clients' stories with the specifics of the law, the impossible responsibility of determining if someone is telling the truth.  We see the healing relationship between the mother and her young son.     There's the motor bicycle she rides everywhere.  There's so much.  I was only able to see this film once and I know that a second and third viewing would reveal so much more I didn't see.

Actors Bianca Krijgsman and Issaka Sawadogo were superb.   This was, for me, one of the gems of the festival.


And then I saw Hank and Asha.  This is a feel good movie.  It's a video romance between two strangers, played by actors (Mahira Kakkar and Andrew Pastides) loaded with charm.  It's all told in the videos they - two budding film makers - send back and forth to each other between New York and Prague.  There's no nudity, no sex, no violence, just two well adjusted 20 somethings falling into an unexpected friendship that gets to the edge of something more.  Everything worked for me as they shared their lives with each other via video.  There's nothing heavy here, no imminent deportations, though there is appropriate cultural and parental conflict.  The epistolary film, that uses an exchange of videos rather than letters, is itself a comment on what we have lost as we've moved to instant global communication.   Everything worked for me.  The story, the characters (I never thought of the actors as actors it was so real), the way it was all put together seemed so natural.  We were simply eavesdropping as two people opened their video mail from their new found friend across the Atlantic.

The film makers - James Duff and Julia Morrison - were at the festival and I was able to learn more about the film.  You can see my video with them in Anchorage discussing the film here.  Most surprising was that the two actors only met after the filming was done. In fact Mahira did all her video in ten days in Prague before any of Andrew's video was made.  This speaks well to the scripting, the acting, and the editing.

James and Julia said Hank and Asha will be available on Netflix in April and people should put it on their lists now.  This is the kind of film I feel pretty comfortable recommending - it's hard not to like.  We did see this one twice and it held up nicely the second time.  I saw lots of things I'd missed the first time.

Next, two films that were not in competition because they were special selections - invited films, not submissions.  

AIFF 2013: Tu Eres Un Homme - Best Of The Fest Encore Showing Tonight

I think we have to pick a winner, because we don't have time to simply compare movies without actually coming up with "the best."

Best of The Fest Tonight (Thursday) 6:30  Ak Exp Large 7:30 Ak Exp Small 8:30 Ak Exp Large

I liked this film and I don't have a problem with it being 'the best' but there were other films that shouldn't have been bumped.  But since this film plays again tonight at the Alaska Experience Theater, I'll write about it now in hopes people will make the effort to go see it at 6:30pm.

It's French.  It deals with a decent family that has been rendered dysfunctional because of an accident the young son had.  And probably the father had some control issues already.  But nothing that can't be worked out.  The characters are likeable and the audience is on their side.

At the center of the film is the relationship between the 20 year old babysitter and his ten year old kid he watches over - they become good friends that is unexpected given the age difference.  But they are both smart and both are outsiders - and the babysitter seems to understand his ward's needs.  It's a chaste, but loving relationship.  I told the director that I'm looking forward to the follow up when Leo is 20 and Theo is 30.

And that's one of the neat things about the festival - we got to talk to a lot of the film

Cohen and Prada Getting Best Feature Award

makers and Benoit Cohen and producer Matthieu Prada were very available and that allows me to say more about the film than I otherwise could.

The opening scene is extreme closeups of Leo.  Cohen said afterward that he wanted to show the intimacy with which a family member, probably a parent, can look at a child.  The original opening didn't quite work, he said, and this was added later.

When Theo comes into this family's life, he begins to interrupt the dysfunctions that arose after Leo's accident:  the overprotection of Leo, the withdrawal of the mother, the need for control of the father.

Cohen said it had a small release in France but it wasn't extreme enough for the French audience.  The hints of illicit relationships don't turn into adultery or pedophilia.  It has done much better in the US film festival circuit where it has won a number of awards, including Best Feature here in Anchorage. 

This Youtube is only in French, but the film tonight will have subtitles.  




Leo and his mother are Cohen's real life son and wife.  He wanted to capture his son just before he began to change into adolescence and that caused them to rush production a bit. He said there were some issues with working his son long hours for the film.  In the beach scene he got tired of running back and forth.  I suggested the scene where he was buried int he sand gave him some rest and Cohen raised his eyebrows and said he was buried for four hours.

This film raises for us what has been lost by society's paranoia about touching kids.  The fears of incest and pedophilia have resulted in widespread prohibitions against touching by professional adults working with children.  The film challenges that response and suggests that there is a need for more non-sexualized touching and non-sexual intimacy.

It plays tonight with the animated film winner Mr. Hublot which is incredibly richly and beautifully animated.  It's a Luxumbourg/French film.  As with other animated films in the festival, it seemed that all the film makers' energies went into the visual and little was left over for a story to match the imagery. 


7:30 - in the other theater - Documentary winner McConkey plays with Super Short winner Anatomy of Injury.  McConkey was an extreme skier and base jumper.  The film shows lots of his feats and does some exploration of why he was so driven to such extreme activities. 

8:30 - back in the big theater - Best Short Documentary The Guide along with Best Snowdance Film Mike’s Migration and Best Short Lambing Season

Lambing Season director Jeannie Donohoe (R) at Awards Ceremony

I liked The Guide.   Biologist E.O. Wilson visits Gorgongosa National Park in Mozambique.  The real focus is on the young local man whose dream has been to be a park guide, but he's now thinking about being a biologist.  I haven't seen the other two yet, but have heard very good things about Lambing Season. 

AIFF 2013: One.For.Ten - DNA, The Instant Replay For The Justice System

The highlight of the film festival for me so far was Thursday night at Loussac Library.

The showing was the most innovative and powerful I've seen.

The film maker, Will Francome (and his colleagues), as he explained it, determined to take a cross country trip in the US to interview people who had been exonerated of capital offenses and been released from death row.

But they jumped onto Facebook and Twitter to include their audience in developing questions for the people they were going to interview.  They made their film, edited it quickly, and put it online for their FB and Twitter team to see within 24 hours.

And the 'showing' Thursday included a panel of three local leaders in the fight for justice for innocent people convicted of crime.  There were ten short interviews.  One or two were shown.  Then the audience was invited to ask questions or comment.  The panel commented.  Then the next couple of films were shown.

WOW!  The audience was included in making the films and in the showing.  This takes AIFF into new film territory - making the audience participants, not simply passive viewers of the films.  I know people will immediately, and legitimately respond that the festival has had Q&A with film makers from the beginning.

But this was more than that.  At One.For.Ten  the audience was involved from the beginning.  Live audience reaction was part of the film experience.

And if all that weren't enough, the topic - innocent people on death row - is as powerful as you can get.

Most of you missed this.  I didn't know what I was going to experience before I went.  But, you can see the ten films and join into the social media discussions.  The films are at the One.For.Ten website.

These stories are so compelling because they challenge the very basis of our justice system.  I had so many thoughts jumping through my head.

Clearly DNA can change the court's call, just as instant replay can change a sports call.  But saving an innocent man or woman wrongly convicted is far more significant than changing a referee's call.  But like instant replay, it's the kind of objective evidence, that breaks through most human error. (And I'm sure there are ways to incorrectly collect, test, and interpret DNA evidence.)

I asked about the reactions of prosecutors, and, unfortunately, the answers suggested they react badly.  They deny they were wrong.  And, as the blogger at What Do I Know?, I'm fascinated by how people 'know' what they 'know'.  And how they simply cannot see 'truths' that conflict with their own well being.  I know that prosecutors dismiss the claims of innocence of inmates.  Every inmate has found a way to believe he's innocent.  (And I believe that many extremely guilty folks believe they're innocent, making it harder for people who really are innocent.)  The irony is that while prosecutors can see these people deceive themselves, apparently they can't see it when they themselves fall for the same delusion.

So much to think about.  They discussed about ten different reasons/causes for people to be falsely convicted and each of the ten films is supposed to highlight one.  (Though most involve several.)  Some were;

• wrong eyewitnesses
• snitch testimony -  informants lying for their own benefit
• wrong expert witnesses
• racism
• prosecutorial misconduct
• perjury and false testimony
• false confession

It seems to me, short of banning the death sentence, anyone convicted without concrete evidence based on things like eyewitness testimony or snitch testimony and probably other conditions, should not be sentenced to anything more than life.

By the way, one for ten refers to stats that there is one exonerated convict for every ten executed.  

Did I tell you I liked this session? 

AIFF 2013: Picks for Wednesday [Thrusday]

[UPDATE:  Dec. 12, 12:30am:  I originally posted this, by mistake, for Wednesday.  I fixed the title and now I've edited this to call more attention to The Animal Project playing at 8:30pm at the museum.]

My thoughts on Thursday.  Full schedule below.  

Juventad (Youth) is, I'm told, the pick for Thursday, 8pm at the Bear Tooth.  This is an autobiographical film by a well known Mexican director who will be at the screening.  Wikipedia says:

Jaime Humberto Hermosillo (born 22 January 1942) is a Mexican film director, often compared to Spain's Pedro Almodóvar.  Born in Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, in center Mexico, Hermosillo's films often explore the hypocrisy of middle-class Mexican values.

He's worked with Gabriel García Marquez, the Nobel Prize winner for literature and author of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

But there are lots of other interesting choices. 

I had a chance to talk to Ingrid Veninger about her film The Animal Project which is NOT

Ingrid Veninger saying "Mask"

about rescuing animals (see Lion Ark for that over the weekend).  This is about an acting instructor, his relationship with his son, and the use of animal costumes to teach acting.  I haven't seen this one, but it sounds like Ingrid is doing something unique here.  And it's already won awards in other festivals.   Ingrid told me this is her fourth feature in five years.  I've decided I'm going to this one at 8:30 in the Museum.  And she'll be there to talk afterward. 

But watch the video of Ingrid Veninger here. 

The two mountain climbing docs are worth seeing.  The first repeats a 1963 climb of Everest and the second recreates a legendary mountain rescue in the Tetons.  In both films the original participants are interviewed to give their stories about the original events. 

The Iranian film, Everything is Fine Here, is an interesting film, not only because it's from Iran today, but also because of its look and feel.  The film was not approved for filming in Iran - it's about a rape and the effect on the woman and those around her.  It moves at a slower pace than American movies, so be ready for that.  The film makers were there Saturday and are schedule to still be in Anchorage so I'd guess they'll be there for this showing.  Anchorage is the US premiere of this film.

I'm going to see 7 Cajas on Saturday at 11:30 am.  Here's a link to a Huff Post description. It's apparently the biggest Paraguayan movie ever.  And you can see this Paraguyan film Saturday.

I'll go see the beginning of One for Ten at Loussac at 7pm

"Since [the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976], for every ten people that have been executed, one person has been exonerated and released from death row after spending an average of ten years in isolation."

And then to the Museum to see The Animal Project.  I have a hunch about this one. Ingrid is a good salesperson.  Again, check the video here.

Antarctica is supposed to be good.  I'll try to see it on the weekend.
9 Full Moons is a movie that reminds us how hard it is to pull off a good movie.  I saw it over the weekend.  There are interesting characters and some good scenes - I liked the interactions with the country western singer a lot - but it is long.  The movie has heart.  The film maker is scheduled to be there.  

And there's the Animal Project which I'm told is good and what I've read is intriguing.  And I've got a couple of free passes for it so email me if any one wants to go at 8:30pm at the Museum. Their press kit includes this short description:

"An unorthodox acting teacher (Aaron Poole) attempts to push a group of eager young performers out of their comfort zones, while struggling with his own ability to live an authentic and fulfilling life with his teenage son."

The Schedule:

• > print my schedule
• > print full schedule
• > print full schedule with synopses
• > print filtered schedule
• help me with this tool

Thursday, December 12th
5:30 PM		Everything Is Fine Here pourya azarbayjani 2012 | Feature | 75 min.	Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater
5:45 PM		Mountain Climbing Docs Documentary Program | 96 min. The Grand Rescue | Jenny Wilson, Meredith Lavitt, William A. Kerig 2013 High and Hallowed: Everest 1963 | David Morton, Jake Norton, Jim Aikman 2013	Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
6:30 PM		9 Full Moons Tomer Almagor | Feature | 103 min. ** Note: Filmmaker attending	Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
7:00 PM		One for Ten Documentary Program | 120 min.	Wilda Marston Theatre at Z. J. Loussac Public Library
7:45 PM		Antarctica: A Year on Ice Anthony Powell 2013 | Documentary | 92 min.	Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater
8:00 PM		Juventud (Youth) Jaime Humberto Hermosillo 2010 | Feature | 115 min.	Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
8:00 PM		7 Cajas Juan Carlos Maneglia | Feature | 100 min.	Bear Tooth Theatre
8:30 PM		The Animal Project Ingrid Veninger | Feature | 77 min.	Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center

AIFF2013: De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) Very Satisfying

This was the first feature I saw and it was satisfying on all levels - good story, nice film making, sensitive human relationships.

The highlight for me was when the main character Mirte, a cleaning woman at a Dutch immigration detention center at the airport - not quite in Dutch territory - is cleaning a

Window Cleaning scene from De Nieuwe Wereld trailer

glass wall.  On the other side, an African detainee that she has found a connection to through their common loss of a spouse, mimics her cleaning motions with his head and body in a beautiful playful dance. [Dec 8: found it on the trailer, added screenshot]

But there were many other parts that were so well done.  The slow and painful opening of Mirte, whose son is living with his aunt and uncle and we someone have to figure out that Mirte has recently lost her husband.

There is the inside view of the detention center. Another review called it a "reception centre for asylum seekers,"  but it looked more prison - even if clean and modern - where people wait for the Dutch to decide if they meet the guidelines for getting asylum.  We see the difficult job of questioning the asylum seekers, interactions among the staff, and the pain of sending people back.

But we also see Mirte's struggle to take her son back in and their easing of tension.

And there's her motorbike which probably has some symbolism, but I haven't had time to think that through.

Very satisfying film.   It will show again Wednesday 7pm at Alaska Exp Theater.

It turns out it was scheduled three times at the festival - two showings is normal - so Mine Games, which was only scheduled once, will take The New World's spot Sunday, Dec. 9[8], at 5:30pm at Alaska Experience Small Theater.

AIFF 2013: Travel The World Through Film 2: From India to USA

The film festival gives us a great chance to meet people from around the world, in their own worlds.    The previous post went from Afganistan to Germany.  Here's the rest of the alphabet. 

Below you can see what's offered by film makers from other countries.  The links will take you to the Festival Genius page with a description of the page and when and where it will be shown. 
√ = film in competition    *= film maker scheduled to be there
I don't claim to have gotten every non-US film or gotten all the films in competition or all the film maker talks. 

You don't need a passport to travel this week. 


India
Delinquent Dancers (feature)
Butterfly Dreams (short narrative fiction)


Iran
Everything Is Fine Here (feature) *film maker coming from Iran

Luxembourg
Mr. Hublot  (animated short √) (also France)

Martinique
Maybe Another Time (very short narrative fiction)


Mexico (Sponsored by the Mexican Consul General)
Shorts Program: 

• El Rey de Otra Pelicula
• Enraizado | Steve Granados
• En un Minuto
• La Noria | Karla Castañeda 2012
• La Tiricia | Ángeles Cruz
• Solda

Juventud (Youth) (feature)

Vuelve A La Vida (Back To Life)  (Feature)

Mozambique
The Guide (documentary √)

 Netherlands
The New World (feature)


New Zealand
Stalled (short narrative fiction) also New Zealand and Switzerland
Antarctica (doc)  with Antarctica

Paraguay
7 Cajas (Seven Boxes) (feature)



Russia
Jonah (short narrative fiction √)
http://anchorage.festivalgenius.com/2013/films/film_kirillmodylevskiy_anchorage2013


South Korea
Ahco on the Road (animated short)

Sweden
Coffee Time  (short doc)


Switzerland 
Collectors  (animated  super short)
Stalled (short narrative fiction) also New Zealand and Canada


Taiwan
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?    (feature)

The No Name Painting Association (short doc)  (China)


USA
All the rest of the films (except for the oces I''ve missed.

UK
Reel Life (short narrative fiction √)  *

Tomás' Video

My friend Tomás, is a very talented cartoonist who lives in Spain.  When he sent me a link earlier this year to a music video he'd done the visual for, I was impressed.  Very original and imaginative.  I told him to submit it to the Anchorage International Film Festival.  He did.  But it didn't get accepted.  Perhaps they don't like music videos, but I don't think their rules say that.  I still think it's very original, well drawn, and very evocative.  (Whatever that means.)  You can see a snippet of it yourself.   And, of course, I'm looking forward to see all the animation at the festival that is better than this. 





Note: I'm not complaining that it didn't get in. Just stating facts. Each person has his own aesthetic preferences and the people who decided on the animated films made choices that were right for them. And I haven't yet seen the others. Tomás wrote recently that the trailer can now be posted. 

AIFF 2013: Shorts In Competition - Irish Lambs, Danish Street Kids, Alaska Dream, Pregnant On A Hot Day, Fantasy v. Real Life

Short Narrative Fiction (10 min to 54min 49 secs) seems to be films made by film students and/or as way to show what you can do, or to get started on a feature film.  The AIFF saw, for example, Dear Lemon Lima first as a short and then as a feature a couple years later.

This looks like an interesting group of films - all quite different.  All the films have a √ because that's how the Festival identifies those films in each category that are 'in competition' - that is, in contention for an award.

I'm organizing the films here by the group of short films they are showing with.
 
Group 1:  Real/Reel Life 
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater



Fucking Tøs (Damn Girl*)
Kira Richards Hansen
Denmark 
13m √

Den tolvårige drengepige Alex har svært ved at forholde sig til at være pige. Hun har opbygget sit eget drengeunivers, hvor hun maler grafitti og strejfer rundt med sine venner. Aggressivt kæmper hun for at holde sine følelser og sin spirende seksualitet fra livet. (From Ekkofilms)

 Don't read Danish?  Try this from the Danish Film Institute:

A coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old girl who has a hard time dealing with being female. She has built her own boyish universe in which she paints graffiti and roams around with her male friends. Aggressively she struggles to keep her emotions and her budding sexuality at a distance. Her best friend challenges her and that makes her go to even further extremes to keep her emotions at bay. She fights hard to sustain her position in the hierarchy amongst her homies. The accompanying music video "A Long Time Ago" with music by Malk de Koijn won awards in Honolulu and Vancouver.

*I'd note that when I put "Fucking Tøs" into Bing Translator, the English came out a lot rougher than "Damn Girl."

Part of Real/Reel Life Group that plays:
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater

***********************************************************

Reel Life
Laurence Relton
United Kingdom

Adam Sinclair Reel Life Screenshot from Twitter

13m    ✓



Anchorage will be only the second showing of this film which just premiered here in LA on Nov. 14.  After AIFF it will go to the London Short Film Festival.  So despite being a far off northern outpost, Anchorage audiences will see this film before anyone except the LA audience, even before this UK film plays in UK. 

Don't read anything about this film!  Just see it.  Trust me, it's beautifully made and the concept is good and well executed. It's a great spoof of film making.  I think it will be  more fun to watch it with no prior knowledge of what you're going to see.  Discover it as it happens. But I can give you this short quote from the director's statement that is relevant but not a spoiler.

"Which leaves the fundamental question for Maddy and the viewer: is the fantasy world we are presented with at our local multiplexes better than real life?" 

I had the whole description up for this film from the LA Comedy Fest, where Reel Life won the best actor award and tied for the audience award.  I contacted the film crew and got to talk to the producer Oliver Dennis who sent me a link to preview the movie.  After seeing it, I took down the description.   I haven't seen any of the other shorts, and they look interesting too.  But I know this one is well worth watching.  I suspect people involved in film will especially like it, bu it's definitely accessible to anyone who watches a lot of movies. It's the kind of movie that makes you think about stuff you take for granted - a perfect fit for what I try to do on this blog.

The time gap between the LA Festival and Anchorage is just too long to stick around here - Oliver said they all have young kids at home - but they really want to come to Anchorage and I encouraged them to do so.

This film is so new that the website is just getting developed.  Here's what's up so far.

I'd note that another British film - the documentary Lion Ark - also just showed in LA but the directors are flying back and forth to a couple other festivals before going to Anchorage.  But they have all their warm weather clothes back in England. 

Part of Real/Reel Life Group that plays:
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater

*****************************************************

Group 2:  Global Village
Saturday Dec. 7 at 2:30 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater 
Saturday Dec. 7 at 1:30 pm at Alaska Exp Small Theater


Jonah
Kirill Modylevsky
Russian Federation 
25m    ✓

I'm having trouble tracking down information on this film, but I'm working on it.  Here's what I've found so far about the  director Kirill Modylevsky:

Born in 1963 in Irkutsk. In 1985- 1988 worked at the “East Siberian” newsreel. In 1985-1990 years studied at department of economy of the VGIK. He is currently a student of the department of additional professional education “Cinema drama” of the VGIK (workshop of D.Rodimin). (From Kinoglaz)

Part of Global Village Group that plays:
Saturday Dec. 7 at 2:30 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 7 at 1:30 pm at Alaska Exp Small Theater

**************************************************

Group 3:  Destination Unknown
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater


Lambing Season
Jeannie Donahue

Not a Video - Screenshot from Kickstarter video

USA
15m    ✓

From her Kickstarter page:

Lambing Season is the offbeat tale of Bridget, an Irish-American woman who travels to rural Ireland with her husband in order to track down the father she's never met.  She poses as a stranger in order to conceal her identity, but when things don't go according to her convoluted plan, it's clear that Bridget and her father have more in common than anyone guessed.
My inspirations for the film range from my personal experiences in Ireland: meeting a distant family member, seeing newborn lambs join the flock... to Jay-Z's potent lyrics about family and identity: "Damn that man's face is just like my face."

Of course, this description would have been before the movie was made, but I like the idea of comparing the original concept to the finished film.

Part of Destination Unknown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

************************************************


Pyro and Klepto
Justin Chandra
USA
26m    ✓

Screen shot from Pyro and Klepto trailer

"When Wyatt James, a lonely kleptomaniac, meets Mindy Michaels, a troubled and outspoken, pyromaniac, they begin an adventure of stealing and burning in pursuit of her dream of going to Alaska. However, when Mindy's antic's escalate to the point of recklessness, and their relationship is called into question, will they be able to look within themselves and their past, for answers?" (emphasis added)

This was a thesis for the American Film Institute.   Here are Justin and editor Kyla talking about the film with Asians on Film.

 

Part of Destination Unknown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

**************************************************


The River
Sam Handel
USA
12m    ✓

From a mostly not there website (but the home page is a good start):

  FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT The River was an idea initially hatched upon learning of my wife's pregnancy and realizing she would be ridiculously pregnant during the summer months. With The River, I wanted to simplify everything and create a strong lead character with a clear, easily understandable, and completely relatable goal. In order to capture the sense of place that is so important to the film, I shot The River with a heavily local crew, many of whom had little or no experience in filmmaking. The talent that everyone involved brought to the set was humbling and the experience of making the film reinforced my love of our little mountain town. 

I also found this short trailer for The River at Lauren Ambrose's Tumblr page.  Lauren Ambrose, the star, from what I can tell, was Claire Fischer, the daughter in Six Feet Under




Part of Destination Unkown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

***********************************************


Remember these are just the shorts in competition. There are other shorts and I'm sure everyone will find some not-in-competition that they think are better. The advantage of the shorts is that they play in a groups, so you can see films not in competition too.

The scheduling for these is going to make planning necessary to see all those in competition because they are spread out over three different programs:  Real/Reel Life; Global Village;  and Destination Unknown.

Here's the first week schedule link. (Sat. Dec. 7 and Sunday Dec. 8)
And the second week schedule.  (Sat. Dec. 14)

There's one more shorts program - Horror Program - that doesn't have any of the 'in competition' films.

And don't get confused with documentary shorts or animated shorts or even boxer shorts.