Check it out! Because…
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Acting, directing, producing… gaffing? Do gaffers gaffe? I have no clue.
But you know how you can find out? Check this book we just added: Careers in Media and Film: The Essential Guide by Georgina Gregory and friends. This book aims to expose readers to all of the different film and media occupations out there, and how to prep yourself to get into these often competitive roles. A well-rounded resource for all aspiring for jobs in the entertainment field, and also available for check out.
But certainly there’s a career for you if this guy gets work:
I mean, seriously.
Yes!
I repeat: Yes!
We’ve got some updates coming to our DVD department, including some of the best movies about music ever made. My personal favorite also happens to be one of the first Jamaican flicks created, The Harder They Come. If you liked The Departed, The Godfather, Scarface, or any story that follows a rags to riches to corruption theme, then this will be of interest.
The lead character is played by Jimmy Cliff, one of the most influential men in reggae not named Marley, and the soundtrack is hot stuff. It also highlights some issues within Jamaica’s economic structure during the 70s, with your rich neighborhoods and tourist attractions next to the poor shantytowns struggling with crime and violence. It is a good look into the frequently ignored parts of the country, and the parts which the tourist commercials conveniently don’t mention.
But hey, while the movie may not be a feel-good picture, the soundtrack will lift you right back up!
While living in Illinois, I’d hoped that Fred Phelps was a myth and that I’d never actually see him. When I moved to Kansas, I first saw the Westboro Baptist Church in action in downtown Kansas City. They were across the street from an Obama rally, children and offensive signs in hand. I’ve now seen them protesting twice. [If you’ve somehow been lucky enough to not know who he is, I am warning you: This is his site, its URL is offensive, and its content is extremely offensive.]
So anyway, I just didn’t know how someone could lead a congregation around so much hate. I also don’t understand the train of thought one would take to follow the ill-conceived logic. Not to mention, Phelps, the leader of the church, had previously won awards from the NAACP for excellence in defending Civil Rights of minorities! What an unfortunate turn-around.
So some KU students made Fall From Grace, a documentary about Phelps and his church, and its won some awards. Its a fairly neutral approach, but it is hard to not have a bias against such a negative attitude and public campaign (unless of course, you were for it, in which case it would still be hard not to have a bias). Its worth checking out if you can find the stomach for it. Its heartbreaking to know such hatred exists, but it is something very present in the area, so it is best to be informed.
Japanese film directors: who do you think of? Akira Kurosawa? Quite a good guess, but not today. Takashi Miike? Another good guess, and Audition is one of my favorite films, but…
We’ll need to go back, like 1960s back, to another phenomenal director. An Autumn Afternoon is the last film directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Here’s a little backstory on Ozu. He spent his life making films beginning in the 1930s. While critics liked them, he was not successful enough to get a pass when the country went to war, and was then drafted into infantry. It is said that during WWII, he was asked to make propaganda films, and spent most of his time watching confiscated American flicks, holding a particular favoritism for Citizen Kane.
When the wars were resolved, he went back to making the kind of films that would define him: family centered narratives typically involving the relationship between parents and their children, often with the overcoming of an absence. An Autumn Afternoon is no exception, focusing on a widowed father planning his daughter’s wedding in 1960s Japan. Ozu died in 1963, only a year after this film’s completion.
An Autumn Afternoon was added to the Criterion Collection this year.