Down under, there has been a growing voice towards the basic request to change the date of Australia/Invasion/Survival Day (which happens every January 26th) so as to not associate it with the arrival of the first fleet of white supremacists to the east coast - the same white supremacists who were intent on pushing out … Continue reading Survival Day: Reflections on Aboriginal Australia in Film
Month: January 2017
Dreams and Madness: 6 Great Documentaries about Making Film
Burden of Dreams (1982 Les Blank) 'If I abandon this project, I would be a man without dreams and I don't want to live like that' - Werner Herzog I did speak at length about Herzog and his films last week but regardless, a list of documentaries concerning the making of films could not conscientiously … Continue reading Dreams and Madness: 6 Great Documentaries about Making Film
Werner Herzog: The Mind of a Visionary Genius
In 1980, Munich-born filmmaker Werner Herzog ate parts of his own shoe. Why then, you may ask, may one proclaim this man as a visionary genius? Surely he is crazy in the coconut!! Well, see the shoe thing was actually part of a promise he made to the documentarian Errol Morris a few years earlier … Continue reading Werner Herzog: The Mind of a Visionary Genius
The European Masterpieces Part 1: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources
It was in the wee hours of St Stephen’s Day (the day after Christmas) about 12 years ago that I first watched Claude Berri’s 1986 film Jean de Florette. I remember it was really flipping cold outside and some snow, I think, may have fallen that day. So suffice to say that watching a sun-drenched … Continue reading The European Masterpieces Part 1: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources