Fuck the Mainstream

Act-Out

A great episode of Act Out!, a videocast produced by Occupy.com, takes on mainstream media lies of omission. I prefer to use the term corporate media because views and opinions they propagate are in many cases not representative of the mainstream (though they’d like us to believe they are). Other than that, I wholeheartedly agree with host Eleanor Goldfield’s cathartic and on-point rant.

For more, check out their video page at http://www.occupy.com/categories/act-out or YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKFyxRML4e78QPlFxOEYOIg

Saturday Matinee: Charly

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“Charly” (1968) is a film adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ classic novel “Flowers for Algernon” directed by Ralph Nelson and starring Cliff Robertson. Though stylistically dated at times, it remains relevant for it’s enduring philosophical issues such as the relationship between intellect and emotion, science and ethics, and the treatment of those who are cognitively different. The story arc of the film’s protagonist (depicted with heartbreaking realism by Cliff Robertson) also serves as a parable for the human condition.

Saturday Matinee: Slacker

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Synopsis by Criterion Collection:

Slacker, directed by Richard Linklater, presents a day in the life of a loose-knit Austin, Texas, subculture populated by eccentric and overeducated young people. Shooting on 16 mm for a mere $3,000, writer-producer-director Linklater and his crew of friends threw out any idea of a traditional plot, choosing instead to create a tapestry of over a hundred characters, each as compelling as the last. Slacker is a prescient look at an emerging generation of aggressive nonparticipants, and one of the key films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s.

Saturday Matinee: Step Across the Border

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Synopsis from CineNomad:

In “Step Across the Border” two forms of artistic expression, improvised music and cinema direct, are interrelated. In both forms it is the moment that counts, the intuitive sense for what is happening in a space. Music and film come into existence out of an intense perception of the moment, not from the transformation of a preordained plan. In improvisation the plan is revealed only at the end. One finds it. The other connection concerns the work method: the film team as band. Much as musicians communicate via the music, our work, too, was realized within a very small and flexible team of equals. What mattered was exchange. And movement. Sometimes we started filming in the middle of the night, responding to a new idea that had arisen only minutes before. We had a fundamental feeling for what we wanted to do, for what kind of film this should be. And we followed that feeling. It was all very instinctive…


Do you know a white rabbit who, playing trumpet, circles the world on his flying carpet?
May be you have met him somewhere already, in Zurich, London, Leipzig, Tokyo or New York. That at least was about the route we took and what resulted from it was the black-and-white wink of an eye at the symphonic connection between subways, storms and electric guitars.
An American critic wrote: ‘Fred Frith’s music makes your jaw drop, your feet dance, and your neighbours move.’
Also starring: several telephones, puddles, scarecrows, saxophones, orchestrated cities and motors.
A music film.