"... for Human Reason by itself cannot cope with the essence of Evil."

In Dante's 14th Century The Inferno, the poet recounts his tour through hell led by Virgil.  At that time there was a political divide between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.  From Cliff Notes:

"The cause of this struggle was the papal claim that it also had authority over temporal matters, that is, the ruling of the government and other secular matters. In contrast, the HRE maintained that the papacy had claim only to religious matters, not to temporal matters.

In Dante's time, there were two major political factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Originally, the Ghibellines represented the medieval aristocracy, which wished to retain the power of the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy, as well as in other parts of Europe. The Ghibellines fought hard in this struggle for the nobility to retain its feudal powers over the land and the peopleIn contrast, the Guelphs, of which Dante was a member, were mainly supported by the rising middle class, represented by rich merchants, bankers, and new landowners.0 They supported the cause of the papacy in opposition to the Holy Roman Emperor."

It's much more complicated. You can go to the link to read more.  

But these are human beings struggling over power.  As the then 'people of today' [Is there a better way to say this?  The people on the border of the future perhaps?] and in one of the world's then power centers, it's clear they probably saw themselves as smarter than people in the past and in other parts of the world.  Part of the illusion 'people of today" have is that they 'knew' about things people before them didn't know about. And as humans, their thoughts are relevant to us still today.  

We in the US are in a similar situation.  We are at the cutting edge of technology and tend to believe we're smarter than people in the past.  And many, if not most, US folks feel superior to the rest of the world.  

This is, of course, a gross simplification, and I confess my ignorance of Dante's times.  But I do know that the human capacity for thought and emotion hasn't changed much in the last thousand years.  There were brilliant people a thousand years ago as well as people obsessed by power and other human needs.  Evolution hasn't made humans smarter in the last few millennia.  And we deceive ourselves when we think we are smarter.  We may know more, simply because we know of things that happened after our ancestors died, but that doesn't make us smarter or wiser than they were.  

Back to The Inferno

I haven't read this book for almost 60 years when I read it in such detail for class, that I got past the modern belief that old poetry is hard and found the beauty and brilliance of it.  The short part that I wanted to quote that is in the title of this post, as I read carefully, is from what now appears to me to be a summary of the poetry to come.  It appears, though I'm not certain, that the translator has written a brief description of the content before he presents the poetry itself.  I'd note that the translator is John Ciardi, who readers may remember used to do short commentaries on NPR.  

As I looked online, I also found a copy of The Inferno, but it has been completely rendered in prose. But that may help the reader.  

So instead of just citing the one line I'd originally intended, I'm going to give you all of Canto VIII.  First I'll give you the online version, which is more like a Cliff Notes rendition.  I'll do this in sections.  

Then I'll give you John Ciardi's description (I think that's what it is).  And finally I'll give you the poetry itself, which by then, should make sense.   I think you'll find the verse itself much easier to follow this way, though in fact, it isn't all that difficult. We're doing all of Canto VIII.

Ciardi:

"The Poets stand at the edge of the swamp, and a mysterious signal flames from the great tower.   It is answered from the darkness of the other side, and almost immediately the Poets see PHYLEGYAS, the Boatman of Styx, racing toward them across the water, fast as a flying arrow.  He comes avidly, thinking to find new souls for torment, and he howls with rage when he discovers the Poets.  Once again however, Virgil conquers wrath with a ward and Phlegyas reluctantly gives them passage." 

From the online version:  [I'd note this is available for public use]

Inferno Canto VIII:1-30 The Fifth Circle: Phlegyas: The Wrathful

I say, pursuing my theme, that, long before we reached the base of the high tower, our eyes looked upwards to its summit, because we saw two beacon-flames set there, and another, from so far away that the eye could scarcely see it, gave a signal in return. And I turned to the fount of all knowledge, and asked: ‘What does it say? And what does the other light reply? And who has made the signal?’ And he to me: ‘Already you can see, what is expected, coming over the foul waters, if the marsh vapours do not hide it from you.’

No bowstring ever shot an arrow that flew through the air so quickly, as the little boat, that I saw coming towards us, through the waves, under the control of a single steersman, who cried: ‘Are you here, now, fierce spirit?’ My Master said: ‘Phlegyas, Phlegyas, this time you cry in vain: you shall not keep us longer than it takes us to pass the marsh.’

Phlegyas in his growing anger, was like someone who listens to some great wrong done him, and then fills with resentment. My guide climbed down into the boat, and then made me board after him, and it only sank in the water when I was in. As soon as my guide and I were in the craft, its prow went forward, ploughing deeper through the water than it does carrying others.

And now for our first taste of Ciardi's rendition of the poetry into English:

[Other than taking a picture of the pages in the book, this use of bullets was the easiest way I could render the structure of the verses, but rest assured, the original doesn't have the bullets, just the form of one main line and two sub-lines.]

• Returning to my theme, I saw we came
• to the foot of a Seat Tower;  but long before
• we reached it through the marsh, two horns of flame
• flared from the summit, one from either side, 
• and then, far off, so far we scarce could see it
• across the mist, another flame replied
• I turned to that see of all intelligence
• saying: "What is this signal and counter-signal?
• Who is it speaks with fire across this distance?
• And he then:  "Look across the filthy slew:
• you may already see the one they summon,
• if the swamp vapors do not hide him from you."
• Now twanging boxspring ever shot an arrow
• that bored the air it rode dead to the mark
• more swiftly than the fling skiff whose prow
• shot toward us over the polluted channel
• with a signle steersman at the helm who called:
• "So, do i have you at last, you whelp of hell?"
• "Phlegyas, Phlegyas," said my Lord and Guide,
• "this time you waste your breath:  you have us only
• for the time it takes to cross to the other side."
• Phlegyas, the madman, blue his rage among
• those muddy marshes like a cheat deceived,
• or like a fool at some imagined wrong.
• My Guide, whom all the fiend's noise could not nettle,
• boarded the skiff, motioning me to follow;
• and not till I stepped aboard did it seem to settle
• Into the water.  At once we left the shore,
• that ancient hull riding more heavily
• than it had ridden in all of time before.

Did you notice the rhyme scheme.  In the book's intro Ciardi explains that he decided NOT to use the original's triple rhyming in the English.

Now back to John Ciardi's description as we move along

"As they are crossing, a muddy soul rises before them, it is FILIPPO ARGENTI, one of the Wrathful.  Dante recognizes him despite the filth with which he is covered, and he berates him soundly, even wishing to see him tormented further.  Virgil approves Dante's disdain and, as if in answer to Dante's wrath, Argenti is suddenly set upon by all the other sinners present, who fall upon him  and rip him to pieces."

Before going on, I'd note this context Dante's anger toward Filippo Argenti from Fandom:

"In history, Argenti gained the animosity of Dante Alighieri; the two were on opposite sides of the civil war between the Black Guelphs and White Guelphs. The most popular reason given for this mutual hatred is that Argenti opposed Dante's return to Florence, and while the poet was in exile, he took all of Dante's possessions for himself. As such, Dante writes of his enemy being placed the fifth circle of Hell among the Wrathful after death." 

And then back to the online version:

Inferno Canto VIII:31-63 They meet Filippo Argenti

While we were running through the dead channel, one rose up in front of me, covered with mud, and said: ‘Who are you, that come before your time?’ And I to him: ‘If I come, I do not stay here: but who are you, who are so mired?’ He answered: ‘You see that I am one who weeps.’ And I to him: ‘Cursed spirit, remain weeping and in sorrow! For I know you, muddy as you are.’

Then he stretched both hands out to the boat, at which the cautious Master pushed him off, saying: ‘Away, there, with the other dogs!’ Then he put his arms around my neck, kissed my face, and said: ‘Blessed be she who bore you, soul, who are rightly indignant. He was an arrogant spirit in your world: there is nothing good with which to adorn his memory: so, his furious shade is here. How many up there think themselves mighty kings, that will lie here like pigs in mire, leaving behind them dire condemnation!’

And I: ‘Master, I would be glad to see him doused in this swill before we quit the lake’. And he to me: ‘You will be satisfied, before the shore is visible to you: it is right that your wish should be gratified.’ Not long after this I saw the muddy people make such a rending of him, that I still give God thanks and praise for it. All shouted: ‘At Filippo Argenti!’ That fierce Florentine spirit turned his teeth in vengeance on himself. 

And now the verses themselves from Ciardi:

• And as we ran on that dead swamp, the slime
• rose before me, and from it a voice cried:
• "Who are you that come here before your time?"
• And I replied:  "If I come, I do not remain.  
• But you, who are you so fallen and so foul?"
• And he:  "I am one who weeps."  And I then:
• "May you weep and wail to all eternity,
• for I know you, hell-dog filthy as you are."
• Then he stretched both hands to the boat, but warily
• the Master shoved him back, crying, "Down! Down! 
• with the other dogs!" Then he embraced me saying:
• "Indignat spirit, I kiss you as you frown.
• Blessed be she who bore you.  In world and time
• this one was haughtier yet.  Not one unbending
• graces his memory.  Here he is shadow in slime.
• 
  
• How many living now, chancellors of wrath,
• shall come to lie here yet in this pigmire,
• leaving a curse to be their aftermath!"
• And I:  "Master, it would suit my whim 
• to see the wretch scrubbed down into swilll
• before we leave this stinking sink and him."
• And he to me:  "Before the other side
• shows through the mist, you shall have all you ask.  
• This is a wish that should be gratified."
• And shortly after, I saw the loathsome spirit
• so mangled by a swarm of muddy wraiths
• that to this day I praise and thank God for it.
• "After Filippo Argenti!" all cried together
• The maddog Florentine wheeled at their cry 
• and bit himself for rage.  I saw them gather.
• And there we left him.  And I say no more.
• But such a wailing beat upon my ears,
• I strained my eyes ahead to the far shore.

Now one final time back to Ciardi's description:

"The boat meanwhile has sped on, and before Argenti's screams have died away, Dante sees the flying red towers of Dis, the Capital of Hell.  The great walls of the iron city block the way to the Lower Hell.  Properly speaking, all the rest of Hell lies within the city walls, which separate the Upper and the Lower Hell.

Phlegyas deposits them at a great Iron Gate which they find to be guarded by the REBELLIOUS ANGELS.  These creatures of Ultimate Evil, rebels against God Himself, refuse to let the Lowest pass.  Even Virgil is powerless against them, for Human Reason by itself cannot cope with the essence of Evil.  Only Divine Aid can bring hope.  Virgil Accordingly sends up a prayer for assistance and waits anxiously for a Heavely Messenger to appear."

And as I get to this point, and look at the verse coming below, this language about human reasoning  being unable to persuade Evil, is missing, though the idea that God can open the gates is there.  

                                                                                                                                                       And now back to the online version

Inferno Canto VIII:64-81 They approach the city of Dis

We left him there, so that I can say no more of him, but a sound of wailing assailed my ears, so that I turned my gaze in front, intently. The kind Master said: ‘Now, my son, we approach the city they call Dis, with its grave citizens, a vast crowd.’ And I: ‘Master, I can already see its towers, clearly there in the valley, glowing red, as if they issued from the fire.’ And he to me: ‘The eternal fire, that burns them from within, makes them appear reddened, as you see, in this deep Hell.’

We now arrived in the steep ditch, that forms the moat to the joyless city: the walls seemed to me as if they were made of iron. Not until we had made a wide circuit, did we reach a place where the ferryman said to us: ‘Disembark: here is the entrance.'

                                                                                                                                                          Inferno Canto VIII:82-130 The fallen Angels obstruct them

I saw more than a thousand of those angels, that fell from Heaven like rain, above the gates, who cried angrily: ‘Who is this, that, without death goes through the kingdom of the dead?’ And my wise Master made a sign to them, of wishing to speak in private. Then they furled their great disdain, and said: ‘Come on, alone, and let him go, who enters this kingdom with such audacity. Let him return, alone, on his foolish road: see if he can: and you, remain, who have escorted him, through so dark a land.’

Think, Reader, whether I was not disheartened at the sound of those accursed words, not believing I could ever return here. I said: ‘O my dear guide, who has ensured my safety more than the seven times, and snatched me from certain danger that faced me, do not leave me, so helpless: and if we are prevented from going on, let us quickly retrace our steps.’ And that lord, who had led me there, said to me: ‘Have no fear: since no one can deny us passage: it was given us by so great an authority. But you, wait for me, and comfort and nourish your spirit with fresh hope, for I will not abandon you in the lower world.’

 

 

So the gentle father goes, and leaves me there, and I am left in doubt: since ‘yes’ and ‘no’ war inside my head. I could not hear what terms he offered them, but he had not been standing there long with them, when, each vying with the other, they rushed back. Our adversaries closed the gate in my lord’s face, leaving him outside, and he turned to me again with slow steps. His eyes were on the ground, and his expression devoid of all daring, and he said, sighing: ‘Who are these who deny me entrance to the house of pain?’ And to me he said: ‘Though I am angered, do not you be dismayed: I will win the trial, whatever obstacle those inside contrive. This insolence of theirs is nothing new, for they displayed it once before, at that less secret gate we passed, that has remained unbarred. Over it you saw the fatal writing, and already on this side of its entrance, one is coming, down the steep, passing the circles unescorted, one for whom the city shall open to us.’ 

Back now to Ciarda's verse.  This is the last portion I'm going to do.

• "My son, the Master said, "the City called Dis
• lies just ahead, the heavy citizens,
• the swarming crowds of Hell's metropolis."
• And I then: "Master, I already see
• the glow of its red mosques, as if they came 
• hot from the forge to smolder in this valley."
• And my all-knowing Guide:  "They are eternal 
• flues to eternal fire that rages in them
• and makes them glow across this lower Hell."
• And as he spoke we entered the vast moat
• of the sepulchre.  Its wall seemed made of iron
• and towered above us in our little boat.
• We circled through what seemed an endless distance
• before the boatman ran his prow ashore
• crying:  "Out! Out! Get out! This is the entrance."
• Above the gates more than a thousand shades
• of spirits purged from Heaven for its glory 
• cried angrily:  "Who is it that invades
• Death's Kingdom in his life?"  My Lord and Guide
• advanced a step before me with a sign
• that he wished to speak to some of them aside.
• They quieted somewhat, and one called, "Come,
• but come alone.  And tell that other one,
• who thought to walk so blithely through death's kingdom,
• he may go back along the same fool's way
• he came by.  Let him try his living luck.
• You who are dead can come only to stay."
• "O my beloved Master, my Guide in peril, 
• who time and time again have seen me safely
• along this way, and turned the power of evil,
• stand by me now," I cried, "in my heart's fright.  
• And if the dead forbid our journey to them, 
• let us go back together toward the light."
• My Guide then, in the greatness of his spirit:
• "Take heart.  Nothing can take our passage from us
• when such a power has given warrant for it.
• Wait here and feed your soul while I am gone
• on comfort and good hope;  I will not leave you
• to wander in this underworld alone."
• So the sweet Guide and Father leaves me here,
• and I stay on in doubt with yes and no
• dividing all my heart to hope and fear.
• I could not hear my Lord's words, but the pack 
• that gathered round him suddenly broke away
• howling and jostling and went pouring back,
• slamming the towering gate hard in his face.
• That great Soul stood alone outside the wall.
• Then he came back;  his pain showed in his pace.
• His eyes were fixed upon the ground, his brow
• had sagged from its assurance.  He sighed aloud:
• "Who has forbidden me the halls of sorrow?"
• And to me he said: "You need not be cast down
• by my vexation, for whatever plot
• these fiends may lay against us, we will go on.
• This insolence of theirs is nothing new:
• they showed it once at a less secret gate
• that still stands open for all that they could do-
• the same gate where you read the dead inscription;
• and through it at this moment a Great One comes.
• Already he has passed it and moves down
• ledge by dark ledge.  He is one who needs no guide,
• and at his touch all gates must spring aside."

This paperback is so old and so cheaply made that the pages were falling out.  

Tonıght 7pm: ADN And Seattle Times Pair Up For Report on Sockeye Salmon And Crab Issues

Seems this would be interesting for many of you readers.   

Join a livestream of this event Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. Pacific time. Register here.

As the world warms, the Bering Sea tells a story of boom and bust. The sockeye salmon runs of Bristol Bay are to be marveled at. More than 78.3 million sockeye surged home last summer, filling nets and spawning grounds. The spectacular display came as Alaska salmon runs of chum and chinook once again imploded.

Meanwhile, Bering Sea crab populations have crashed. The snow crab harvest—for the first time ever — has been canceled, and the king crab season was shut down for the second year in a row.

Join Seattle Times reporter Hal Bernton, Anchorage Daily News photojournalist Loren Holmes and a panel of experts in a discussion of some of the effects of a warming climate on one of the planet’s most productive marine ecosystems.

AIFF2022: Audience And Critiques Award Winners

 Here's the official lift of winners.  My previous post had my favorites.  

There are two sets of awards:

Audience Awards - after each film audience members rate the film they saw.  So these tend to be crowd pleasers and in Alaska that often includes Alaska themes and adventure films.  

Jury Awards - given my the official jurors of the Festival, these tend to rate the overall quality of the film

I'd note that today I saw a few more of the shorts I hadn't seen and I agree strongly with The Record getting the best animated short.

The rest is from the AIFF Facebook Page.

THE WINNERS OF THE 22ND ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ARE ANNOUNCED!

Congratulations, everyone We have been so impressed by the work you have all done, it has been such a pleasure to watch all the films and see the amazing talent and the mind blowing stories. You all rock!

Thank you to our wonderful jury who have done an awesome job picking the winners, and thank you to our amazing audiences who have picked their favorites and to all the volunteers who have counted thousands of ballots You're all super stars!

AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO:

NARRATIVE FEATURE

WINNER: The Wind & The Reckoning by David L Cunningham • USA

RUNNER-UP: Dealing With Dad by Tom Huang • USA

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER: Pleistocene Park by Luke Griswold-Tergis • USA

RUNNER-UP: King of Kings : Chasing Edward Jones by Harriet Marin Jones • France

MADE IN ALASKA

WINNER: Safe Enough by Taliesin Black-Brown • USA

RUNNER-UP: Bad Bones by Scott Eggleston • USA

NARRATIVE SHORT

WINNER: Nakam by Andreas Kessler • Germany

RUNNER-UP: Burros by Jefferson Stein • USA

2nd RUNNER-UP: Anirudh by Raghav Puri • USA

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

WINNER: The Silent World of Barry Priori by Anne Tsoulis • Australia

RUNNER-UP: Queen Moorea by Christine Fugate • USA

ANIMATED SHORT

WINNER: Object of Life by Jack Parry • Australia

RUNNER-UP: The Social Chameleon by Alex Ross • USA

JURY AWARDS GO TO:

NARRATIVE FEATURE

WINNER: Where Life Begins by Stephane Freiss • Italy, France

WINNER: You Resemble Me by Dina Amer • USA

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER: Anonymous Sister by Jamie Boyle • USA

RUNNER-UP: Big Crow by Kris Kaczor • USA

MADE IN ALASKA

WINNER: Bering, Family Reunion by Lourdes Grobet • Mexico

RUNNER-UP: Safe Enough by Taliesin Black-Brown • USA

RUNNER-UP: Sheri by Page Buono, Tom Attwatter, James 'Q' Martin • USA

NARRATIVE SHORT

WINNER: Burros by Jefferson Stein • USA

RUNNER-UP: Too Rough by Sean Lìonadh • UK

2nd RUNNER-UP: No Ghost in the Morgue by Marilyn Cooke • Canada

2nd RUNNER-UP: An Encounter by Kelly Campbell • Ireland

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

WINNER: Never Again Para Nadie by Justin Reifert, Dan Frank, Anna Feder • USA

RUNNER-UP: Yours to Keep by Una S. Golmen • Norway

ANIMATED SHORT

WINNER: The Record by Jonathan Laskar • Switzerland

RUNNER-UP: Peanut Factory by Seongmin Kim South • Korea

FEATURE SCREENPLAYS:

- WINNER: "Eskimonaes" by Stephen C Settle

- RUNNER-UP: "Too Many Wades" by Stirling J McLaughlin, Wilder Konschak

- 2nd RUNNER UP: "Polar" by Christopher Kearney

SHORT SCREENPLAYS:

- WINNER: "In the Serge and the Broad Arrow" by Bobby Moloney

- RUNNER-UP: "Kim-Ly and the Bottled Up Emotions" by Anh Le

- 2nd RUNNER-UP: "Mousse" by Dean Friske

SPECIAL HONOR:

This year we had three special awards where the local community came together with the festival to pick three films and filmmakers they wish to honor:

Mother of Invention Feature, honoring a filmmaker who creates new genres:

- Quantum Cowboys, by Geoff Marslett

Mother of Invention Short, honoring a filmmaker who is telling important local stories as they happen:

- Purpose of Song, by Brad Hillwig

Mother of Cultural Exchange, honoring afilmmaker for creating communication between cultures around the world who try to preserve traditional ways:

- Last Birds of Passage, by Eren Danışman Boz

AIFF2022: While Awards Party On At Bear Paw, I'll Make My Own Awards Suggestions [UPDATED]

[December 10, 2022, 10:45pm: The Updates are bracketed and in red so you can see them easier]

[UPDATE Dec 11, 2022 4pm - Turns out the two features being shown today are the audience awards, not the AIFF awards.  Not sure what that means about the shorts.  I did see the two shorts programs and caught up on films I hadn't seen.  

Sheri is the story of the woman who made the first pacrrafts, and it makes sense this would have been an audience choice - lots of outdoor adventure with an amazing woman.  

The Record had incredible animation and told the story of a record that played the music you didn't remember.  

The Silent World of Barry Priori - The story of a deaf man in Australia who as a child at first was being forced to speak, but then found deaf friends and eventually became a teacher of Australian sign language.]

I was planning to go to the awards party, but I just don't have the energy tonight.  I've been thinking about making my 'best film' nominations here instead and the actual winners should be posted tonight because tomorrow they will show the award winners at the museum, starting with 

12pm Made In Alaska [Shorts Program 1 - Mixes Documentary, Animated, and Made in Alaska

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough]

2pm Short Films [2 - mixes Narrative shorts and Animation

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough

4pm Narrative Features [The Wind And The Reckoning]

6pm Documentary Features [Pleistocene Park]

Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.  Blogging the festival over the years has forced me to think about and articulate different standards for best.  I wrote something on that the other day, but I'll reiterate here:

1.  Quality of the film making - Cinematography, sound, acting, editing are some of the factors here.  Ideally there won't be any flaws.  At best there will be some pushing of the envelope, using film to tell the story or make the point using new techniques or old techniques in new ways.  

2.  Quality of the story/message - Was it engaging?  Was it an important message?  Original?  Able to convey ideas or insights in new ways that might capture people who didn't know or resisted these ideas?

3.  Overall, what was the impact of the film on you?  Some films overcome flaws, or even their flaws add to the impact, to blow you away.  This is the most personal of the criteria.  It depends on you life experiences and whether the film comes to you at a time when you are receptive to it.  

That said, here are my picks:

Made in Alaska - I'm afraid I didn't see enough of these to pick a 'winner.'  Of the films I saw:

• Kakiñiit
• Sabor Ártico 
• Safe Enough

Of these three, I would go with Kakiñiit.  This was a short film in several 'chapters' about Inupiaq tattoos.  I liked how he connected the segments with a pause, showing a finely designed title like page.  It was unique and the first time it caught the audience off guard as we thought it was the end of the film.  

I also like Safe Enough, a story about an arts camp in Sitka where different students are featured explaining what the camp meant to them.  Mostly they said it allowed them to be themselves for the first time, and that the felt really good.  

Shorts -  I saw a fair number of shorts, both narrative and documentary, but there are still a lot more I missed.  

[The shorts winners are not clear.  There are two programs offered tomorrow with five shorts in each program.  I assume they are doing it this way to have a full program.  However it's not clear which films were the winners.  The films in the Narrative program tomorrow are:  Object of Life* • The Record* • Anirudh • The Silent World of Barry Priori • Nakam • Too Rough - *Animated]

Naratrive Shorts I saw: 

• Anirudh
• Brasier
• Burros
• Customs
• Dotting The 'i'
• Duet
• Honeymoon at Cold Hollow
• If You Were Me
• Jelly Bean
• Late Bloomer
• Lead/Follow
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Synthbabe
• The Things That Keep Us Apart
• To Be Honest
• Too Rough

I guess I saw more than I realized.  Ones that stand out:

• Anirudh
• Dotting the 'i'
• Late Bloomer
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Too Rough

My Choice is Nakam.  Second:  No Ghost in the Morgue;  Third:  Late Bloomer  

I really liked was Anirudh.  It's hard to choose.  

Nakam is a short story that took place in a small, German occupied  town in Ukraine during WWII.  Key German officers are going to have a dinner in a small in and request the piano player and the boy who accompanies him on the violin be there to make cheerful music for them.  The color and look of the film were beautiful.  

Documentary Shorts  The ones I saw were:

Abortion:  Add to the Cart

Gina

Herd

Never Again Para Nadie

Queen Moorea

The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

[The shorts in the second program winners program are:

Peanut Factory* • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri** • Safe Enough**   - *indicates animated and **Made In Alaska]]

Winner:  Queen Moorea - And I'm guessing this one has a good chance of winning with the judges. It's the story of a girl with a disability I didn't quite understand who becomes the homecoming queen at her high school.  That happens pretty much at the beginning.  Then the rest tells us the back story.  

Second:  Never Again Para Nadie - This is probably due to the story that was told - how the Jewish community got together to protest with the Latino community of their town in Rhode Island that had a prison that was used to hold undocumented immigrants.  

I also really liked the visuals in The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

Animated Shorts - I saw:

• Birthday Wish
• Footprints in the Forest
• Object of Life
• Peanut Factory
• Rain
• Santa Doesn't Need Your Help
• Snowflakes
• Star-Crossed
• The Social Chameleon

I wasn't that excited.  I can only pick one:

Winner:  Rain - This story about a girl out with her family in the rain and who runs away to play in the rain had exquisite visual images of rain, splashes, and the general scene.  

Narrative Features  - This is hard.  All the films I saw:

Dealing With Dad

The Last Birds of Passage

The Wind And The Reckoning

You Resemble Me

were very good films.  This turns out to be all the Narrative Features listed. 

 [The Wind and the Reckoning]

Winner:  The Last Birds of Passage   Told the story of a family of Turkish nomads who every year drive their sheep 500 kilometers across parts of Turkey to the upper pastures.  But age and increasing regulations put this year's trip in doubt.  Lots of little touches as we learn about each of the key characters.  

But I would be fine with any of the others winning.  I'm guessing it will go to The Wind and The Reckoning.  

Documentary Features   [Festival Winner:  Pleistocene Park  the one I hadn't seen, so I can see it tomorrow evening]

• Big Crow
• Crows Are White
• Exposure
• King of Kings:  Chasing Edward Jones

My winner is Crows Are White.  I wrote at greater length about this film here. Also wrote about Big Crow there.  Crows Are White - got into my head.  The film itself embodied all the contradictions and conflicts that the film depicted.  Lots of angst and lots of humor.  This was the most honest and subtle film.  Probably the best film of the festival.  

King of Kings would be my second choice.  A fascinating family story that also tells us a piece of Chicago history as the film maker investigates her grandfather who turns out to be an incredible person.  

The others are good as well, telling compelling stories, but the film making doesn't reach the same levels.  

Now I'll check the AIFF website and FB page to see who actually won.  I'll add that on here or possibly make a new page

AIFF2022: Saw Two Excellent Films - The Wind And The Reckoning and The King Of Kings

 There were film festivals in the past when I was up until 3am writing about that night's films.  But the Festival is reduced this year after two years of mostly virtual festival and my coverage is also reduced.  So tonight I'm just going to give brief comments on the two films we saw.  They deserve more, but this will have to do.   

The Wind and Reckoning featured gun battles with Hawaiian backdrop.  It's Native Hawaiian actors spoke to each other in Hawaiian on screen in this adaptation of a book written in Hawaiian by one of the characters in the story, that was only recently translated into English and then more time to be able to make the film.  Essentially we see what I took as civil war veterans rounding up Native Hawaiians suspected to having leprosy to be sent to the leper colony on Molokai.  The film focuses on one family whose home is invaded in the middle of the night and how they fought back.  It was a narrative based on the written account.  

The picture above was before the film when some of the cast members did an opening chant.  Aaron Leggett, President and Chair of the Eklutna Tribal Council (with the beaded sash) was there as was Mayor Dave Bronson, who said a few words about the importance of the values shown in the film.  I'm not sure who wrote that for him, but he left shortly after the film began.  That's a pity because he might have learned a lot from both the film and the discussion afterward.  The man in the middle is Leo and he's working on making Hawaii an independent nation as it was before the US took over by force in 1893. He handed out these flyers for people who want more information.

Ko'olau, if you haven't guessed, is the hero in the film along with his wife.  

The second film The King of Kings was a documentary by Harriet Marin Jones who first learned about her grandfather, Edward Jones when she was 17 on the way to university in the United States.  And what an amazing story it is.  Edward Jones' father was a well-to-do Black Baptist preacher in Mississippi who moved his family to Chicago in 1919 after the KKK showed up at his house.  There he had some odd jobs while going to Northwestern University, but transferred to Howard University to avoid the discrimination he felt at Northwestern.  When he returned to Chicago and got into the numbers business - what was called "Policy."  For a nickel people in the poor Black community could buy the hope of money for a decent dinner and for a few even getting rich.  Jones got rich and stayed pretty much off the radar of the white mob because his money business was in the Black community.  Again, to avoid discrimination, he moved his family to Paris, but then back to Chicago as WW II begins.  He moved the family again, this time to Mexico.  

Marin's family history becomes a wild tale about the richest Black man in the US, and one of the richest men in the US.  Essentially, his illegal business - running a numbers game = became legal much later when the State took it over and called it a lottery.  

Marin came to the festival from France and answered questions after the film.  Aside from the incredible story, I was also taken by how she put the film together - particularly the use of animation of photos.  Not animating the people, but how the pictures were animated in relation to each other - almost like a moving collage.  It was unique and added greatly to the telling of the story.  Here's more on Jones and the film maker from the Block Club Chicago.

There was one more film staring at 9pm - well later because the discussions after the first two films went way over time (and it was worth it) - but as much as I'd have liked to stay, I needed to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.  

Both films tonight continue a theme of bringing stories of outsiders as told by the outsiders themselves.  

AIFF2022: The Film Makers Went To Chena While It Snows Big In Anchorage - Thursday Schedule

There are fewer films being shown overall this year.  I asked whether this was in part due to the pandemic - there aren't as many films getting made.  John Gamache, the festival co-director wasn't sure how much the pandemic affecting things, but the quality wasn't as high.  But they'd also mentioned the other night that a number of big name festivals hadn't survived the pandemic.  But Anchorage keeps chugging along.  They also decided in this first year getting everyone back together in person it would be better to keep the audience together so the films got more eyeballs and the audience could reconnect for some and just meet new folks for others.  And that's been happening.  Though there are some overlapping films coming up starting Thursday.  Some at the Anchorage Museum and some at the E Street theater.  

So they also scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday film free and instead are taking the film makers to Chena Hot Springs. (The schedule for Thursday is below.)  They hadn't counted on the heavy snow we've gotten.  Aside from hot tubbing in Chena, they're going to have plenty of time to get to know each other on the looooong bus ride, which has gotten longer with all the snow.  It will be one of those adventures that will become more and more fun the longer it is in the past.  It was also mentioned that the Anchorage International Film Festival was name among the best for new film makers.  I've heard that from film makers over the years - how welcoming Anchorage folks are and how they get a chance to meet lots of other film makers.  And how it is a much lower pressure festival - more cooperative than competitive.  So this adventure fits in.  

Meanwhile I got my workout shoveling the driveway.  There's a bit over a foot of snow.  Not that much for some places, but a good amount for Anchorage.  Enough to cancel school today.  Here was my first pathway down to the mailbox.  

Then I decided to make a maze since I was only able to get one shovel full at a time because it was so deep.  (Usually I can push the snow down the hill or across the driveway before tossing it.)  Not particularly efficient, but more fun.  Then the second round it was much easier to get the driveway clear.  

This is a big file so you can click it to enlarge it and read it easier.

AIFF2022: Dealing With Dad and Bering Family Reunion

 Watching movies from noon until 8pm leaves me a little spacey.  The wifi was working today in the auditorium at the museum, but there just wasn't much time between events.  There were lots of short films during the day. Please excuse mistakes, it's late but I want to get this up already.

I'm finding I am mentally resurrecting an old evaluation standard for films:  

1. There are films that are technically well made 
2. There are films that have something important to say or to contribute
3. Films that do both 1 and 2 well
4. Films that do neither
5. And most films fall somewhere in the continuum of both those factors

Dealing With Dad did both 1 and 2 well.  The film is technically good enough to easily fit in on Netflix or another streaming channel.  The acting and pacing are all high quality. Yet it's much more than a slick formula film. It's a poignant story told with love and humor. 

What does it contribute? The director Tom Huang said after the film that the story is adapted from his own family experience with a domineering immigrant father who works hard so his kids can have a better life.   After Dad gets laid off and goes into a deep depression, the two older kids fly home to try to deal with this only to find that Mom and the 30 year old younger brother still living at home find life much easier now that Dad just stays in bed all day watching television.  The family reunion reveals old tensions among the siblings.  The younger brothers accuse the older sister of being a lot like Dad.  The younger brother has a long time crush on a high school friend who just returned from the Peace Corps, but is afraid to ask her out until the older sister older sisters him into asking her out. (That was the one part that didn't ring true to me - she had been in three or four different countries.  And while a volunteer can sign up for a second tour of duty after completing one, it's not common, and the way it was described in the film, she seemed to move around from country to country as part of her assignment.) The mother has already set up the middle son, who's having marital problems, with a date.  While there are dynamics that may be more common in a Chinese American family, the story is really a universal one.  It moved along quickly moving from heavy drama to humor and back seamlessly.  The humor wasn't added on, it was just part of the relationship.  Often it was funny to the audience, but often not to the characters themselves.  I think it was easier to watch than The Last Birds of Passage, but Birds, probably had a much weightier story to tell.  

The other full length film was the documentary Bering, Family Reunion.  Bering followed Etta Tall, an Inupiaq woman from Little Diomede as she searched for her relatives from Big Diomede.  These are two islands a few miles apart, Little D in Alaska and Big D in Russia.  Before WWII people from the two islands visited each other frequently and there were many family relations across the two islands.  The Soviet Union, at the beginning of WW II removed the islanders to the mainland and maid Bid D into a military base.  When Gorbachev and Reagan opened the border between Alaska and the Soviet Union, some of the first to travel across the border were Inupiats going to visit their relatives they hadn't seen in many years.  We see how the plans were made, how a family company that arranges arctic travel got asked to look for relatives when in Russia, and slowly how the reunion eventually comes to be.  This film involves families who were cut off from each other by war and geopolitics.  It considers culture, language, and people's undying compulsion to find their families.  A little slow at points, the film nevertheless has very high significance, documenting this story, a story that has been repeated around the world as national governments ignore indigenous and minority people's needs.  

The first question in my mind was "How did a Mexican film maker come to make this story?"  It just seemed odd.  And it was the first question asked of the woman who'd carried a list of names to Russia with her when she went to the Russian far-east, who answered questions after the film. She was a friend of the film director Lourdes Grobet (who passed away in July 2022) who wanted to make this film.  You can learn more about her at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia site where the film was show in October.

There were lots of shorts.  Some were well made.  Some told important stories. Some did both.  Some left me scratching my head.  I'll note a few that I reacted to most.

Queen Moorea had to be the most compelling, and one of the longest.  It told the story of a high school homecoming queen who was born with a genetic condition that made her different.  It wasn't clear to me exactly what her disability was (it was mentioned briefly I didn't catch it.)  The film was another with the theme of people who don't fit in.  Another audience member after the film said that people tend to categorize people with disabilities by the disability and that often keeps them from reaching their full potential.  This film portrayed Moorea was living up to her potential.  

Never Again Para Nadia - shows how the Jewish community in a Rhode Island prison town team up with the local Latino community to protest against immigrants being housed in a local prison.  To be clear, they are protesting that the prison is nearby, but that immigrants are being put into this private prisons for the financial gain of the prison owners and their shareholders.  The film documents the protest, a car driving through some protestors whose driver eventually gets acquitted.  It's an important record as far as it goes, but more statistics on the private prison and its profits and the numbers of immigrants housed in the prison.  

I liked Sunday With Monica - an interesting short story of a movie that left this viewer wanting to know more about.  I'm guessing this could be an early version of a future feature film.  The divorced father picks up his daughters from his ultra-orthodox Jewish ex-wife and takes them to meet his non-Jewish girlfriend who has horses and a riding rink.  One daughter is drawn to the horses and the other is thinking how Mom wouldn't approve.  

Gina is a brief portrait of a homeless woman in LA. We get to know this woman a little beyond what we might imagine of her if we just saw her on the street.  The Pastor who befriended Gina while handing out food to the homeless and eventually is impressed with Gina again reminds us not to judge people through our stereotypes, but to get to know them as people.  

Rain was a beautiful chocolate of a film - lots of beautiful animated images of rain and a little girl who plows through the puddles.  

And then there was Snowflakes another light animated film made for the Make A Wish Foundation, about a little girl with cancer just admitted into the hospital.  Another girl invites her to play but she's not in the mood, but does eventually get enticed.  It was all pretty innocuous, but I couldn't help being struck by the perfect faces - pretty lips, big eyes, and what appeared to me as lots of make-up. Someone connected to the film was there and answered questions.  My wife discouraged me from asking whether these perfect, make-upped images of very young little girls didn't perhaps send the wrong message.  So I didn't.  But someone else asked less directly about how the images of the little girls came about and we were told the animator determined that.  To be clear, their heads were shaved, but they were still model quality.  

AIFF2022 - Saturday Review - Big Crow and White Crows and More

[After sleeping on this, I've added a few thoughts on Crows are White.  They are [bracketed]].

Got to the museum a little late (gave up trying for the 10am Children's program) and there was nothing showing in the auditorium.  They'd had a glitch and so we got to see most of Big Crow.  A lot of amateur footage, but it was edited together to tell a powerful story about a young woman who took her Pine Ridge reservation team to win the state championship.  Her death soon after brough lots of folks together and inspired lots of improvements for the reservation and relations off reservation.  Sad but inspiring.  

I was going to post a few short posts, but then the wifi no longer worked.  (Later I found out I could get it in the museum, but it was spotty in the auditorium.  

And I got hijacked by Crows Are White and I want to focus on that movie, but first a quick overview of the rest of the day, which all took place in the museum. 

The woman collecting the audience ratings of the films said that the morning kids program, really was very dark and the only thing kid about it, possibly, was that it was animated shorts.  

Big Crow I wrote about above.  I liked it.  

Then came three shorts made in Alaska.  The first Sabor Artico: Latinos en Alaska was about Latinos in Alaska.  Interesting, but not exceptional film making.  

Safe Enough  was a about the Sitka summer arts camp and highlighted a number of the young artists attending.  The theme seemed to be that this was a safe space where these artistic teens could actually be themselves and explore who they were.  It was safe, unlike the world they binomially live in.  It was uplifting, except that this escape only lasted two weeks.  I couldn't help thinking that it shouldn't be so hard to envision communities where people who had unique talents could feel comfortable.  And then I thought about how most people are just better able to conform, but that they too are denying who they really are to fit in.  A film that stimulates you to move your understanding of things further is, in my book, a good film.

And the third short in this program, Kakińiik was by Patrick Hoffman whom I spoke to and whose video I put up before I went to bed last night.  It's always tricky when you interview someone before you see their film.  Sometimes the film doesn't work for you and you have this connection, albeit short, with the film maker.  But that wasn't a problem in this case.  This was a beautiful film, made up of a series of talks by women getting traditional Inupiat tattoos and how the tattoos connect them to their ancestors and their culture.  There are also a couple of vignettes by the tattoo artist - talking about the styles of tattoos, traditional food and its relation to doing tattoos, and her own thigh tattoos.  Each vignette is preceded by a stylized screen, which confused some of us in the audience the first time who weren't sure if this was the end.  It wasn't.  And we weren't fooled the next time either.  It was like a book with several chapters separated by this artful page.  

Then we got to Crows are White, which swept me away.  Spoiler Alert:  I'm going to write about the film in ways that assume the reader has either seen it or won't be able to see it.  But in another way, it's the film itself that is what is so enjoyable and thought provoking and what I write shouldn't change that experience.

This was a film done in the style of a This American Life piece, with a narrator outlining the project and how things proceed throughout.   The filmmaker, Ahsen Nadeem, narrates in a voice and tone not unlike Ira Glass, but the story he's pursuing, turns out to be his own. There are so many aspects of this film that are both amazing and bizarre.  People who are noble and flawed.  The photography was exquisite as was the music. 

Crows AreWhite refers to a story someone tells about a monk who tells his disciples that crows are white, and while they all know this isn't true, they cannot contradict the monk.  They must say, yes, crows are white.  

My take is that the film is about people being forced to deal with contradictions to their understanding of how the world works.  Ahsen's basic contradiction is that he's fallen in love with a non-Muslim and he knows his parents will disown him if he marries her.  But we don't know this until after we've been set up to believe there are more general spiritual issues he's pursuing rather than answers to his very personal dilemma.  [A film version of the guy climbing the rocky mountain to ask the monk on top the meaning of life.]

Another contradiction is that as a Muslim, he searches for answers from a Buddhist monk.  But he learns that the head monk, Kamahori, he wants to pose his questions to has taken a vow of silence.  And these monks are the ultramarathoners of Buddhist monks.  They take a vow to walk a certain distance every day (something like 20 kilometers) and they have to do this until they've walked the equivalent of walking the circumference of the world.  And part of the vow is that if they miss a day, they have to commit suicide. 

Ahsen himself comes across as sincere and disarming not unlike ira Glass. But when you think about it, he's also so full of himself that he thinks he has the right to interrupt the lives of monks in this Japanese monastery with his film crew and persistence in trying to meet with the head monk.  He gets kicked out when his cell phone rings during a secret ceremony they've allowed him to film. [But you can also ask why did the monks give him permission to film them in the first place?  They are supposed to be focused on enlightenment and to not care about what others think. To indulge him?  To spread Buddhist wisdom? To get publicity for the monastery? To increase their income?]

That's when he meets Ryushin, a monk assigned to greet visitors and answer questions in the monastery gift shop.  Ryushin is probably the most honest and likable character in the movie.  And his life dilemma is not unlike Ahsen's.  His father and grandfather had been important monks at this monastery, but he really would rather be a sheep farmer in New Zealand, he thinks.  But while he professes to be unhappy, he doesn't obsess on the contradictions.  Yes, he's a monk, but he takes a drink now and then, loves ice cream, and goes to heavy metal concerts.  

Another character who is relatively normal is Ahsen's girlfriend and later wife.  I particularly cheered when she questioned Ahsen's taking cameras in to film his parents when he tells them he's been married to a non-Muslim for three years.  Seems crass to her. But she understands that this is necessary to complete the film he's spent so much time on.  

This could have been a mockumentary - a fictional documentary spoofing documentaries.  [Part of me was wondering if it was while I was watching and hoping it was.] But all the contradictions and conflicts between what people ought to do and what they really do and how they reconcile it is what makes this such a good movie.  And, of course the beautiful cinematography and the unexpected but perfect music. 

Everything together works to make this an outstanding film. 

And up through this point of the festival, all the films were about people who didn't quite fit in the societies they lived in - the nomads in Friday nights Last Birds of Passage, the Lakota reservation girls gaining self confidence and pride through basketball, the Latinos in Alaska, the campers in Sitka, and the Inupiat women regaining their heritage through traditional tattoos.

A Body Is a House of Familiar Rooms

The afternoon shorts program didn't impress me.  The one film that stood out - The Body Is A House Of Familiar Rooms  - did so because of the colors and patterns that were so striking. 

Also the paper programs are now available.  Here's the Sunday schedule.

And finally, there's You Resemble Me which rounded out the night and I'm still processing that one.  My biggest difficulty was subtitles when they weren't on dark backgrounds.  A truly heartbreaking film of Arab refugee sisters put into foster homes with a disastrous result in one case.  

AIFF2022: Busy Saturday Starts With Kids Program, Ends With Recommended French Film - All at Museum

I started thinking about the Anchorage International Film Festival late this year, so I'm not as organized as I have been in past years.  

My sense, from reading the online program, was that there are a lot fewer films, turned out to be correct.  Just 75.  But the positive spin is that none are shown in conflict, so you can see them all.  

Friday night's Turkish film The Last Birds of Passage, was a poignant narrative feature on a Turkish minority group that travels 400 kilometers with its goats and camels to the summer grazing grounds and 400 back.  The migration in the film is faced with lots of obstacles - from within the family and from changes in the landscape they have to cross.  The filmmaker was there for a charming Q&A by Zoom after the film and is scheduled to be in Anchorage Wednesday.

I haven't figured out how to find a page on the website that shows all the films for one day AND when they are playing.  So I've tried to  put that altogether here.  

But here's the Saturday lineup - all at the Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Saturday

10am  Shorts - Kids A Bonanza

Birthday Wish • 

Footprints in the Forest • 

Rain • 

Santa Doesn''t Need Your Help • 

Snowflakes • 

SPIRIT: A Martian Story • 

The Social Chameleon

12pm  Big Crow  -  

"Born in 1974 on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SuAnne had become one of the state’s best basketball players by age 14. By the time of her tragic death in a car accident at age 17, her wisdom, leadership, and determination had made her a household name across the Great Plains. 27 years later, SuAnne’s legacy has proven legendary - everyone you meet on “the Rez” has a story about how SuAnne’s spirit continues to galvanize the Lakota in their fight to reclaim their language and save their culture, embracing what Su called “a better way”. From AIFF website

2pm  Shorts - Made in Alaska

Kakiñiit •  I talked to the director Patrick Hoffman at the opening.  His film is about traditional Alaska Native tattooing.

Sabor Ártico: Latinos En Alaska (Arctic Flavor: Latinos in Alaska) • 

Safe Enough

4pm  Crows are White - Museum

"For over a thousand years, a secretive Buddhist sect has lived in an isolated monastery in Japan performing acts of extreme physical endurance in their pursuit of enlightenment. In CROWS ARE WHITE, filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem is struggling to reconcile his desires with his faith and sets off to the strict monastery in search of answers. Ahsen is not immediately welcomed and the only monk who will speak with him is an outcast who prefers ice cream and Slayer to meditation. Together they forge an unlikely friendship that leads them to higher truths and occasionally, a little trouble. Shot over five years on three continents, CROWS ARE WHITE is an exploration of truth, faith and love, from the top of a mountain to the bottom of a sundae." From AIFF2022 site.

6pm - SHORTS: Different Kind of Love Stories

Burros • 

Honeymoon at Cold Hollow • 

Jelly Bean • 

Lead/Follow • 

Peanut Factory • 

Star-Crossed • 

The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms • T

oo Rough

8pm  You Resemble Me - Museum - This one got strong reviews from people I spoke to.

"Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Director Dina Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging."  From AIFF website.

Blogger Put Warning On 2009 Post Here

I got this message Wednesday morning: 

Your post titled "Sullivan's Unity Speaker Swann Paid Enough for One Muni Job" has been put behind a warning for readers

Inbox

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I've been blogging here since 2006. That's 16 years.  I have never gotten such a warning before.  

My posts are by internet standards high in accuracy, with lots of clarification and qualification and understatement.  

I can think of three possibilities here:

1. Blogger has changed its policies and now is monitoring content more than before
2. They've been doing this all along but the low key and carefully couched way I write has never been a problem
3. There's a new vigilance and strategy by the Right to go after what they perceive as enemies.

If I had to guess, I'd pick numbers 2 and 3.  

Why?  The coiners of the term 'cancel culture' have been particularly unhappy about clampdowns on racist, sexist, and other discriminatory posts as well as the spreading of outright lies.

 (I object to indiscriminate use of the term 'conspiracy theory' because conspiracies do exist - when people work together behind the scenes to commit crimes.  Using the term 'conspiracy theory' to mean crazy makes people exposing actually conspiracies seem crazy too.)

This has become more of an issue since Trump was banned from Twitter.  And as Twitter's new owner is releasing bans on racist language and outright lies and intentional misinformation, I've also been seeing Tweets by reasonable, truth seeking progressive Tweeters who are being cancelled by Twitter.  Going back and looking for those examples is too time consuming, but here's a thread from progressive blogger Seth Abramson on how progressive bloggers are seeing huge drops in followers while misleading COVID and racist and Nazi accounts are being reinstated.

I've generally flown under the radar here.  The one time I was told to take down a post, it was from an attorney for the so called Alaska International Film Festival (mimicking the legit Anchorage International Film Festival) saying I was slandering his client.  My attorney's reply quickly ended that threat.  That was in 2010.  

Recently I - not the blog - got noticed by Right wing hyperbolizers when I sent an email to the Anchorage Assembly and it was pretty much posted verbatim on Must Read Alaska.

I went to the post and now it had a door, so to speak, that warned readers and required them to click the box that said they wanted to proceed.  

I'm guessing this could be part of the Right's cancelling efforts which flagged the 2009 post questioning how much Lynn Swann was paid by Anchorage Mayor (then) Dan Sullivan to speak here. Or it could Lynn Swann's booking company finding it on Google and protesting.  Or it could be someone who just found this old post and thought the title was misleading.

When I got the notice I carefully reread the post and couldn't figure out how Blogger could consider it a violation of their standards.  OK, the title of the post is misleading, but the body of the post explains why I titled it that and the first paragraph updates things to explain that a commenter added new information which made the title moot.  Did they really want me to change the title?  In this day when people post totally false stories that endanger the public and our democracy?  

Maybe someone flagged it and no one at Blogger actually read it.  So I reread the email to figure out how to communicate with them.  My only option seemed to be to click on an appeal link, which I did.  No way to actually add my thoughts.

Then later yesterday I got a new email saying the post had been reinstated.

Your post titled "Sullivan's Unity Speaker Swann Paid Enough for One Muni Job" has been reinstated

Hello,

     We have re-evaluated the post titled "Sullivan's Unity Speaker Swann  

Paid Enough for One Muni Job" against Community Guidelines  

https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy. Upon review, the post has been  

reinstated. You may access the post at  

http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2009/09/sullivans-unity-speaker-swan-paid.html.

     Sincerely,

     The Blogger Team

I guess someone at Blogger actually read it and realized it was as offensive as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which, if it falls open face down on the rug could be a problem. 

This was a 2009 post that really has no great relevance at all today, except maybe that it refers to a Black ex-football player and failed Republican political candidate.

In any case I want to note it here now.  The GOP has taught us well that we should not ignore the early warning signs.  I hope this is a one time exception to things.