SIFF 2013 Top Film Picks

African Films

The African Cypher (South Africa) * TOP PICK *
Dancing is an integral part of many societies, but in South Africa, it becomes a fashion, a status symbol, and a set of morals to guide by and a way of life. Bryan Little does a fantastic job of letting the story tell itself as he follows and interviews various dancers throughout South African townships as they eventually end up at the “Big Dance Competition”. Featuring breathtaking dance sequences, it is clear that in South Africa, dancing is less of a social experience and more a form of personal expression. - PETER WOODBURN
May 18, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 19, 2013 – 1:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Horses of God – Les Chevaux de Dieu (Morocco)
On May 16, 2003, a total of 45 people died in Casablanca, Morocco in what is the country’s worst terrorist attack in history. Horses of God follows the trials and tribulations of the youths living in the shanty towns of Sidi Moumen, where eventually all of the suicide bombers would hail from. Horses of God is wide in its scope, following the kids from childhood to adulthood as they become disenfranchised from the richer Moroccan sector and find their solace in extremist Islamic views. - PETER WOODBURN
June 7, 2013 – 6:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 8, 2013 – 6:00 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

East Asian & Southeast Asian Films

The Act of Killing (Denmark / Indonesia) * TOP PICK *
Harrowing and bizarre in almost every way imagined by humanity, The Act of Killing follows perpetrators of 1960s death squad genocides as they recreate the historical events, scaring babies, relishing in hypothetical murder, and stirring up horrific memories and sights along the way. This film feels like something that truly needs to be seen to be believed. Documentary master Werner Herzog describes the film, saying, “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade… it is unprecedented in the history of cinema.” - Vivian Hua
May 18, 2013 – 4:00 PM Harvard Exit
May 22, 2013 – 9:30 PM Harvard Exit

The Guillotines – 血滴子 (China / Hong Kong)
Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) makes an ode to Fatal Flying Guillotine that looks kind of like a Transformers movie. I’ve had pretty good luck with big dumb wuxia epics at SIFF before, so why not try my luck again? - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
June 1, 2013 – 11:55 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Pieta – 피에타 (South Korea) * TOP PICK *
I haven’t seen a Kim Ki-Duk movie since 2006′s Time, at which point I got fairly sick of the director’s predictable formula and aesthetic tics. But there’s always been something fascinating about his absurdist morality plays (3-Iron being the best execution of this), and since the waning of the Korean Film Wave, it’d be nice to get reacquainted with Kim’s style. A little research says he’s been through a lot of personal shit lately, culminating in the documentary Arirang. It’ll be interesting to see whether his meditations on death and loss and tragedy actually lead to a revised outlook on life. - Allen Huang
May 17, 2013 – 10:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 19, 2013 – 9:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

A River Changes Course (Cambodia) * TOP PICK *
The things which move me with burning desire to see this film lies in the spaces beyond words or even location. Arresting cinematography turn everything in this documentary focus on Cambodia – from the country’s most rural to its most industrial centers – into splendid, arresting works of moving art. Vivian Hua
May 26, 2013 – 5:30 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 12:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown

The Rocket (Australia / Laos)
October Sky but in Laos, and instead of Chris Cooper, a dude named Uncle Purple. I liked October Sky, but it definitely needed more lush jungle scenes and a James Brown impersonator. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
May 22, 2013 – 4:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 24, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Wolf Children – Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Japan) * TOP PICK *
When people talk about who will take up Hayao Miyazaki‘s mantle as the king of Japanese animated film, two names come up time and time again. One, Makoto Shinkai, whose last film Children Who Chase Lost Voices took those comparisons very seriously, and two, Mamoru Hosoda, whose last three films have won a plethora of awards, including the Japan Academy Animation of the Year for all three films. Hosoda shares many of Miyazaki’s traits: fascination with young women as protagonists, bright color schemes, and a firm grasp of character development. But while his last two films were sci-fi in nature, Wolf Children is pure fantasy that doesn’t hesitate to deal with some very real themes. - Allen Huang
June 1, 2013 – 11:00 AM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 3, 2013 – 7:00 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Eastern European & Western European Films

Celestial Wives of Meadow Mari – Nebesnye Ženy Lugovykh Mari (Russia)
Folkloric and full of whimsy, this film by Aleksey Fedorchenko, the director of Silent Souls, is deeply embedded in nature and sunshine as it bizarrely and playfully links together the stories of twenty-two women whose names all begin with the letter O. Magic, strange creatures, and beautiful women abound, and it seems like anything goes. - Vivian Hua
VIEW TRAILER
June 6, 2013 – 8:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center
June 8, 2013 – 9:30 PM Harvard Exit
June 9, 2013 – 4:00 PM Harvard Exit

Cockneys vs. Zombies (United Kingdom)
Lazy comparisons will label this film the East London version of Shaun of the Dead; and while it lacks the insatiable wit and satire the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg masterpiece had, Cockneys vs. Zombies has plenty of odes to the working class section of London, plenty of blood to satisfy the zombie craving, and enough Cockney accents to make this a borderline foreign film. It is a tribute to the less glamorous side of London in the best way possible. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
June 8, 2013 – 11:55 PM – Egyptian Theatre
June 9, 2013 – 8:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

Harmony Lessons – Uroki Garmonii (Kazakhstan) * TOP PICK *
The work of Kazakh director Emir Baigazin, Harmony Lessons takes a look at the rarely-represented Eurasian country through the eyes of young boys, as they bully and are bullied, abuse and are abused. The interactions between characters are raw, often feeling unrefined in their simplicity – but it is this sense of raw honesty that makes the moments captivating, as well as made it a main contender of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. - Vivian Hua
June 4, 2013 – 8:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 6, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Hunt – Jagten (Denmark) * TOP PICK *
Thomas Vinterburg is the other guy when it comes to Dogma 95. Less prolific, less incendiary but no less talented than Von Trier, Vinterburg weaves similarly intricate character studies, all without dooming the entirety of humanity time and time again. The Hunt, his first film since 2010′s Submarino, won best actor at Cannes for Mads Mikkelsen, whose best known in America for playing the main antagonist in Casino Royale. A desperate, pained character study about a man wrongfully accused of being a child molester, the visual tone alone make it look worthwhile. - Allen Huang
June 4, 2013 – 7:00 PM Harvard Exit
June 6, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Paradise: Love – Paradies: Liebe (Austria)
Paradise: Faith – Paradies: Glaube (Austria)
Paradise: Hope – Paradies: Hoffnung (Austria)
The Paradise Trilogy by Ulrich Siedl might be grouped as such, but each chapter of the series explores a facet of humanity in a vastly different way, as it follows an overweight 50-year-old Caucasian woman as she explores Kenya’s sex tourism scene (Love), a religious self-flagellating missionary (Faith), and a 13-year-old as she experiences the highs and lows of weight-loss camp (Hope). - Vivian Hua
Paradise: Love – VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 8:30 PM Harvard Exit
Paradise: Faith – VIEW TRAILER
May 22, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 12:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
Paradise: Hope – VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 3:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Yesterday Never Ends – Ayer no termina nunca (Spain)
In this age, the near future might be more compelling than the distant beyond. To formulate what the world might be like in the next five, ten years is in many ways much more difficult than imagining a distant utopia/dystopia. Spanish Director Isabel Coixet takes a stab at it, framing a love story with a world where financial ruin is the norm and not the fear. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
June 1, 2013 – 5:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 2, 2013 – 12:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Middle Eastern Films

A World Not Ours – Alam laysa lana (Lebanon)
It’s a rare occasion that I enjoy a purposely awkward film, but A World Is Not Ours is not awkward because it is channeling Napoleon Dynamite hipness – but because it is a home video surrounding topics which one might never expect to see via home videos. This is awkwardness on screen that feels its way into your bones, as you realize, while watching videos of small children posing jokingly with guns or grown men filmed on cellphones while commenting on how trapped they feel in society, that you’re damned fortunate for being in a movie theatre, or in your home, or wherever, being given the luxury of watching a film from the other side of the world, while some people might never be able to even imagine what that would be like. Not that the film is necessarily purposely trying to be a bummer or anything, necessarily – there certainly seem to be funny casual moments from time-to-time – but often, even those are rooted in scenarios we might consider way too discomforting in their “realness”.
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27, 2013 – 8:30 PM Harvard Exit

After the Battle – Baad el Mawkeaa (France / Egypt)
This drama is based on the true story of the horsemen President Mubarak hired to stifle the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The horsemen, many of whom were caught between personal poverty and political turmoil during the Arab Spring, were widely condemned by fellow Egyptians following the event. Yousry Nasrallah paints a delicate picture of these horsemen, vilified throughout the country for good reason, but also widely misunderstood for their actions as well. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 6:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
May 25, 2013 – 2:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

North American Films

A Band Called Death (United States)
When people throw around the names of bands that birthed punk rock, the Motown-based trio Death are often left off the list. This is quite understandable, as the three brothers from a working-class black neighborhood never saw the success that their peers in The Ramones and The Sex Pistols did at the time, and it wasn’t until much later in life that anyone actually heard of the band. Jeff Howlett and Mark Convino craft an interesting documentary in A Band Called Death, doing the most punk rock thing possible — being a punk band without even realizing it. - PETER WOODBURN
May 18, 2013 – 3:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 28, 2013 – 9:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Blackbird (Canada)
Sean Randall is a social outcast in high school and makes threats online, which, after the terrors of the Newtown shootings, land him in the hands of the police and eventually in jail. Toeing the fine line that of what constitutes enough action to be guilty of jail time, Randall’s experience in Waterville, one of the country’s toughest youth prisons, forces him to realize that although he may have changed, public and media perceptions of the non-teen killer only drive him further down the spiral of depression. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 31, 2013 – 8:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 2, 2013 – 11:00 AM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Bling Ring (United States)
Perfect companion piece to Spring Breakers? I’ve never been thrilled by a Sofia Coppola film but I wasn’t a big Korine fan either, and his film blew me away. Here’s hoping that these teenage criminals aren’t given some reductivist morally-redemptive ending and the film stays meta. - ALLEN HUANG
VIEW TRAILER
June 9, 2013 – 6:30 PM Cinerama (Closing Night Gala)

I Declare War (United States)
A group of kids gathered with arms and sticks head off into the woods to play a game of Capture the Flag. On this day, the two sides find out the treacheries of war as their fake weapons turn into real instruments of death in a homage to Stand By Me and Lord of the Flies. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 20, 2013 – 7:00 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11
May 21, 2013 – 4:30 PM – AMC Pacific Place 11

Muscle Shoals (United States)
I’m a huge fan of the Numero Group’s archivist efforts, and especially the amount of context they provide with their releases. They’ve devoted chapter after chapter to the musically rich legacy of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and I’m going to eat up every second of this documentary because of that. - Allen Huang
VIEW TRAILER
May 29, 2013 – 7:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 30, 2013 – 4:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Somm (United States)
The Master Sommelier exam is one of the hardest exams in the world, with one of the lowest passing rates across the globe. Jason Wise follows four individuals attempting to pass the Master Sommelier exam, something less than 200 people have ever done, also granting humorous insights into the bizarre and glamorous world of high-priced wine. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
June 2, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 4, 2013 – 7:30 PM – Kirkland Performance Center

The Way, Way Back (United States) * TOP PICK *
14-year-old Duncan is forced to spend the summer at his mother’s new boyfriend’s house in this coming-of-age story rife with dysfunction. This is worth seeing just for the directorial debut of Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, who won Oscars for writing The Descendants. Featuring Steve Carrell and Sam Rockwell. - PETER WOODBURN
May 25, 2013 – 6:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 26, 2013 – 4:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre

Yellow (United States)
Mary Holmes mental breakdowns force wild hallucinations and daddy dreams as a substitute teacher flees to her Oklahoman upbringing to try and get some peace and quiet. Instead of solace, she finds drama in the family that was never resolved when she left home in the first place. Yellow a visually stunning, excessively colorful film showcasing what happens when people truly hit rock bottom. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 23, 2013 – 7:00 PM – Egyptian Theatre
May 24, 2013 – 4:30 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 25, 2013 – 6:00 PM – Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center

South American Films

7 Boxes – 7 Cajas (Paraguay)
This low -budget action film from Paraguay proves you don’t need big Hollywood bucks to keep the chase scenes interesting. 17-year-old Victor is offered $100 dollars to deliver the contents of seven boxes across town, and of course, little does he know the boxes contain something from some sinister plot. Soon, he is being chased by both the police and others who want those boxes at a breakneck, foot-racing speed throughout town. - PETER WOODBURN
VIEW TRAILER
May 29, 2013 – 6:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 30, 2013 – 4:00 PM – SIFF Cinema Uptown

Éden (Brazil)
What can I say? I love me a good cult film – in the literal, religious dysfunction sense of the term. Éden, which tells the story of a pregnant woman who finds a charismatic evangelist and his strange Church of Éden after her husband is murdered, certainly fits the bill with paranoid tension and visually-striking imagery. - Vivian Hua
VIEW TRAILER
June 7, 2013 – 10:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown
June 8, 2013 – 2:00 PM - SIFF Cinema Uptown Uptown

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY TANYA TRABOULSI

Sonic City 2012 – Jerusalem in my heart from De Kreun on Vimeo.

Multidisciplinary Relevance

Furthermore, Jerusalem In My Heart do not perform in bars, but prefer artistic spaces that are well-acquainted with installation art and the benefits of transforming space over an extended period of time. All 16mm images created, filmed, and edited by Salazar are made to bounce off of walls in a way that highlights, in Moumneh’s words, the fact that they “use the wallspace itself as part of the visuals.”

Moumneh goes on to describe the aesthetic, saying, “It is this super fragmented, cut-up visual where you are not really looking at one flat surface, because it’s multi-dimensional. There is no one spot to stand and look; it sort of forces you to use all of your senses to understand the environment you are in.”

This spatially-shapeshifting approach naturally creates a ever-evolving project. Some nights, the trio uses eight screens; some nights, adaptation dictates that only two projectors are appropriate for the venue. Nonetheless, the music always stays more or less the same. Although the composed pieces see slight improvisation, they generally stay faithful to the recordings on Mo7it Al-Mo7it.

“It is very much the same music, but in presenting it with the visuals, it becomes very different because the two are so married,” Moumneh explains. “It is not like visuals that accompany music or music that accompanies visuals. It is co-composed together, or co-created together.”

Up until recently, JIMH have primarily performed in their hometown of Montreal, Quebec. But when touring finally became a legitimate reality, their dedication to performance spaces took on a whole new meaning and set of challenges. At home, JIMH often had the better part of the day to configure and arrange their equipment. On tour, they discovered they needed to figure out how to setup quickly while still maintaining the spirit of the project.

“You quickly realize that if you are given the time to think about something, you will think about it,” Moumneh says. “If you are given four days, then you will use four days. But if you are given four hours, you will use four hours and still come up with something.”

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Leven Signs
Hemp Is Here
Digitalis (2013 Reissue; 1985)

Some records are made before their time.

Many things have changed in the 28 years since Hemp Is Here was first released – but even now, with an additional 3 decades of ethnomusicology under our belts, its thrift store Hindustani vibrations still sound freaky. This must’ve been entirely far out when it was first transmitted. You can hear strains of what would become hypnagogic pop, like James Ferraro’s funny globe-trotting uncle returning from Marrakesh with a stack of weird, sun-warped cassette tapes. Perhaps the finally time is right for Digitalis to rescue this one from the dustheap of history.

Hemp Is Here was initially archived on the popular pirate Mutant Sounds blog, which exposed millions of listeners to post-punk exotica from all over the globe, spanning the entirety of the recorded era. At Mutant Sounds, it would not be uncommon to find Aboriginal pygmy chanting next to a grindcore album, just down the hall from some French musique concrèt. In this way, Mutant Sounds was a microcosm of what it’s like to be a music devotee in 2013. Musical globe-hopping, and the emergence of the experimental underground, have paved the way and prepared our ears to appreciate the clockwork perfection presented on Hemp Is Here.

Presented here by the pairing of Peter Karkut and Maggie Turner, is a tapestry of Arabic percussion, cheap synthesizers, murmured vocals. It’s expertly sequenced, and this was during the analog era, when it was REALLY hard to multi-track. It’s clear that Leven Signs knew what they were going for, with a reckless mixture of confidence and exploration. What we’re left with is a party record from the interzone – a Moroccan bazaar leading up to a Byzantine cathedral, where an ancient ritual is about to commence.

Once you get a taste for funky, obscure records like this, there’s no turning back. Once the ergot and wormwood rush of corroded tape hits your blood, with the thrill of exploring uncharted musical continents, it changes you, and the way that you listen to music. Things that once sounded weird and cheap now sound new and novel; exciting rather than annoying.

This is the legacy of the music blogs, and post-punk mystics like Leven Signs, and this legacy is being carried on by the recent rush of outstanding reissue labels. The entirety of recorded music is now at our fingertips, and it’s hard to know where to begin. Quality blogs and music labels guide us, and Digitalis are exceptional curators. They’re really on to something with Hemp Is Here, about to blow the mind of a whole new generation.

Fans of Ariel Pink; The Skaters or any of their offshoots; Ghost Box records; old documentary soundtracks, listen up! This is your new jam.

Ω

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Lansè Kòd (The Rope Throwers) 1996

Madanm Lasirèn (Madame Mermaid) 2003

Madanm Lasiren
Andre Ferner, 59 years

Lasiren is a spirit that lives under the sea and does mystical work there, she is a Vodou spirit, I dream of Lasiren all the time. That is the reason I do Lasiren for Mardi Gras. I chose Lasiren because my grandmother, father and mother all served the spirits, I love her & honour her. The baby that I carry in my arms is the child of Lasiren who is called Marie Rose. When I walk the streets I sing her song which goes ‘ I am Lasiren and I cry for Lasiren, when I work mystically in the night bad luck can come my way’.

I prepare for Lasiren by putting on a hat, a mask and carrying an umbrella. I put on a necklace and gloves. This necklace is called Mambo Welcome, it is a fetish. Because Lasiren is a fish she has to disguise herself as a woman to be at Mardi Gras. My mask and hat cover her fish’s head. And the dress she wears covers her fish’s tail. The chain I wear is a sacred chain. Each year I change the disguise and fashion a new baby. In order to get inspiration I go to the place where the big beasts live and they instruct me how to do Mardi Gras. I have been doing this for 18 years. Before that I did another Mardi Gras call Patoko. This was a group of men who were dressed as women, with a nice dresses and high heeled shoes. We did a marriage between men and woman on the street. After that we had a group called the duck who carried brushes in their hands wearing blue trousers, white t-shirts, new sandles and a scarf around our waists. We swept the streets of Jacmel. I have always found a way of doing a Mardi Gras.

(12 IMAGES TOTAL)

Esklav Yo (The Slaves) 2001

Jij (Judge) 1995

Gordon’s introduction to her series, Kanaval:

“Haiti seems to be on a fault line of history. Whilst much of the rest of the world seems to have efficiently papered over any cracks where history could accidentally seep, bubble or explode with a veneer of consumerism and wage slavery. Haitian culture is a potent vessel for this history, continually transmitting, telling, retelling and reinterpreting Haitian history. Though school fees are excessive for the majority of the Haitian people, and the education standards poor, you will be hard pushed to find a Haitian who doesn’t know the vast and intimate details of their own history.

Haiti’s history is not an easy one, but it is a significant and important one. It is the history of the decimation of the indigenous Taino Indians by the Spanish invaders. Subsequently it is the history of the most profitable, and correspondingly brutal, French colonial plantation system in the Caribbean, which was fuelled by the Transatlantic slave trade. The intensity of French barbarity in the pursuit of profit, coupled with whispers and rumours of the French Revolution in Europe, led to the Haitian revolution. This was an uprising of African and Creole ¹ slaves against the white plantation owners. By the late 18th century dissent was rife amongst the slave population. In 1791 the dissent came to a head and turned into a rebellion which led to a 13 year struggle for the freedom from slavery and finally independence.

Vodou was both the inspiration and precipitation of the long fight for Haiti’s independence. On 23rd August 1791 ², a Vodou priest called Boukman performed a ceremony at Bwa Kayman, in the north of Haiti. Slaves and maroons ³ gathered from all over the region. Boukman sacrificed a black pig for the African ancestors, and in its blood wrote the words ‘liberty or death’. Inspired and invigorated the slaves returned to their plantations and spread the message of rebellion. Within days the fertile plains of cash crops were burning with a passion for freedom that did not dampen until independence in 1804.

May 1803, former slave and rebel leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines dramatically created the flag of the black insurgents at the Congress of Arcahaie. He took the French tricolour of blue, white and red, and ripping the white out of it, declared he was ripping the white man out of the country. The red and blue were stitched together, the initials RF (Republique Française) were replaced by Liberté ou la Mort, ‘Liberty or Death’, and Haiti’s flag was born. Time was finally running out for the French rulers.

The diffusion and transmission of Haitian history uses the drums, songs, dances and possessive ritual of the Vodou religion. It uses the improvisational songs of Twobadou groups and the collective melodies and rhythms of Rara bands. Haitian history uses the words and poems of its great literary tradition and the unique visions of its painters, sculptors and flag makers. Haitian history, and not only the revolutionary history, is also replayed through the masks, costumes and narratives of the carnival in Jacmel.

Each year, Jacmel, a coastal town in Southern Haiti, holds pre-Lenten Mardi Gras festivities. Troupes of performers act out mythological and political tales in a whorish theatre of the absurd that courses the streets, rarely shackled by traditional parade. Whatever the carnival lacks in glitz and spectacle, it makes up for in home-grown surrealism and poetic metaphor. The characters and costume partially betray their roots in medieval European carnival, but the Jacmellien masquerades are also a fusion of clandestine Vodou, ancestral memory, political satire and personal revelation. The lives of the indigenous Taino Indians, the slave’s revolt and more recently state corruption, are all played out using drama and costume on Jacmel’s streets. There have been many times that the future of Jacmel’s carnival has appeared unstable, but it continues to struggle and survive. Haitian culture is tough and resilient, as it needs to be. It is a vibrant, living avatar for not only Haitian history, but for all our histories. Carnival is dead, long live Kanaval.

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

This introduction was written two weeks before the dreadful earthquake in Haiti. I have been haunted by the almost prophetic first line. I decided I didn’t want to change it. The suffering on the human level and devestation on the material level in Port au Prince is hard to contemplate. All the churches have fallen and all the morgues are still standing. Many of the houses have fallen but all the tombs in the cemetery are standing. It is as if Death has won its bet against Man and God. The beautiful old town of Jacmel, where all these photographs have been taken, has been decimated. As I numbly traipse along what remains of the historic Grand Rue in downtown Port au Prince I realise that architecture has always been another avatar for history. In Haiti the material was always transient and weak, and now feels almost none existent, but the imaginative and creative is fierce. If there is a positive side, perhaps it is this, that people will sit up finally and really take notice of Haiti’s creativity. Haiti has so much to give and we really should be grateful that such a genuinely unique place exists. Kanaval is not Dead. Long Live Kanaval

¹ Caribbean born of African descent.
² Named International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition by UNESCO.
³ Runaway slaves living in remote mountainous areas in close-knit communities.”

Kouvrefe (Curfew) 2009

Bounda Pa Bounda (Cheek by Arse) 2003

Chaloska (Charles Oscar) 1998

Chaloska (Charles Oscar)
Eugene Lamour a.k.a. Boss Cota, 61 years

The Chief Charles Oscar was a military commandant in charge of the police in Jacmel. He died here in 1912. He was tall and strong with big feet and teeth and feared by all. At a time when there was political instability in Port-au-Prince, when President Sam had just been assassinated, Charles Oscar took his chance to take 500 prisoners from the local jail and kill them all. There was so much blood it made a river of death. The population was so angry that that revolted and tore the police chief to pieces in the street and burned him down. He was killed in the same violent way that he had treated the people.

This story has always been very striking to me, and in 1962, I decided to create the character of Chaloska for Carnival. I designed the military uniform and made the big false teeth with bull’s teeth bought from the market. Each year I change the costume a little by designing a different hat for the group to wear.

When I created Chaloska I also wanted to create some other characters to go along with him. I created Master Richard and Doctor Calypso. Master Richard is a rich man with a big bag full of money and a huge fat stomach. He walks with the group of Chaloska buying justice and paying the judges. He represents the impunity and corruption that hides behind Chaloska and is the real chief of the city. Doctor Calypso is an old hunch back with a black suit and a stick in his hand. He works for Chaloska and checks on the health of the prisoners, always reporting that they are healthy when they are dying.

These characters are still here in Haitian society so it is good to parade them on the street. It is a message to all future Oscars that you will end up this way. The group goes to different places in town threatening the people. The boss Chaloska always finally dies, and the others call for mercy as they are cowards, but then another Chaloska immediately replaces him. This is to show the infinite replication of Chaloska which continue to produce the same system. There will be Chaloska until the end of the world. They started with the beginning and will not end until the end.

Pa Wowo (The Way of Wowo) 2004

Pa Wowo (The dance steps of Roro)
Edmond Paul, 30 years

Pa Wowo is a Mardi Gras that I’ve been doing for a long time. It is part playing around and part theatre on the streets of Jacmel. We try to create an ambiance of festivity. Pa Wowo has created a character, a role he plays scenes just like theatre, as it’s an ancient Mardi Gras. He has a pipe because in the past all peasants had pipes in their mouths. He has a skirt of leaves because it is part of his disguise. The skirt is a symbol and the skirt means everything. It is the best symbolic costume for the Pa Wowo because he doesn’t have any family, he doesn’t have any thing, no-one to help him, not even the possibility of his own clothes to wear. So Pa Wowo represents someone who has nothing, no-one, nowhere to stay and no money. Truly people understand my message, which is if you have something you must help those with nothing. I have done this Mardi Gras for 15 years. I decided to do it to give continuity when the last person that used to do it died. I’m not sure it will continue after I am gone but I am always fighting to do it whilst I still can. Over the years Mardi Gras has a lot of sections missing and I’m doing Pa Wowo to make sure that carnival has a good power and to make sure that Jacmel shows a good face to the world. Because firstly I am a Jacmellian. But you know exactly if we keep trying perhaps Jacmel carnival is the best in the world. We feel that carnival in Jacmel is important for the face of Haiti in the world but it is always a fight as the government never supports us.

Zèl Maturin (The Wings of Maturin) 1995

Zel Maturin (The Wings of Mathurin: character from the St. Michel Mardi Gras)
Ronald Bellevue, 40 years

We did not invent this story. It came from older people, but we are keeping the tradition going. As a child I was scared to death of the Zel Maturin but the very next thing I wanted to see was to see them again. My favorite Zel Maturin is the red devil as he is always the strongest, most resistant and goes on until the end of the play.

The play is a fight between good and evil. The first scene has people with suits, ties, tuille masks and bibles all kneeling and praying. In the second scene St Michel the Archangel come from heaven to give them protection. With him are other angels in pink satin dresses and a small angel in blue and white. Then the Zel Maturin arrive to steal the angels.

There is a long procession of Zel Maturin but St Michel kills them by using his mighty sword. The strongest devil, the red devil, myself, arrives. This devil fights much harder but after a long struggle he is finally killed. All the devils lie dead on the street conquered by St Michel the Archangel. But then the black devil arrives. He is bigger than the others and wearing chains. He is chained mystically because his mystic powers are so strong that he must be restrained. He carries a skull and presents it to the four cardinal points and hits the red devil three times. Once the red devil is revived all the other devils leap awake. The black devil is a Vodou devil whereas the other devils are just Christian devils. The Vodou devil has greater forces than the Christian devils. As you can see from the masks on the wall I am not exactly a bible person, well you don’t play the part if you don’t like the part.

Gason Bo Kote Lanmè-a (Boy by the Sea) 2000

Nèg ak Konk (Man with Conch Shell Horn) 2001

Fantonm (The Phantom) 2009

All photographs are shot on black and white film on a Roleiicord 2 ¼ sq camera and are 95cm sq Giclee Prints on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Paper mounted onto di-bond aluminium.

Gordon’s book, Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Ω

Related posts:

1. Ghosts Of Cité Soleil (2006) Film Review
2. Stefanie Fiore‘s A New Home Series
3. Molly Nilsson – History Album Review

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Leah Gordon’s Kanaval Takes A Photographic Look At Haiti’s Carnival Via Mythology, History & Oral Traditions

The Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) is upon us again, and we have whittled down their list of 100+ international shorts and full-length films to summarize the most interesting, socially-conscious, and boundary-pushing of the bunch.

This year’s festival runs from February 7th through the 23rd, beginning with an Opening Night celebration featuring Blancanieves, a silent Spanish reworking of Snow White. Purchase tickets and find out more.

Our festival preview begins below with this year’s top five picks, followed by the rest in alphabetical order.

Beyond The Hills
Directed by Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
Based on the novels of Tatiana Niculescu Bran, which are real-life documents of demonic possession, Beyond The Hills is a bleak and stark religious drama set an Orthodox monastery in Moldovia. Though Alina (Cirstina Flutur) heads to the monastery to convince her friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) to leave and return to Germany, Alina finds herself sucked more and more into the environment and its callings. Flutur and Stratan both shared the Best Actress Prize at Cannes Film Festival for these performances.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Hannah Arendt
Directed by Margarethe von Trotta (Germany)
Based on the life of German philosopher and writer Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt chronicles her writings for The New Yorker on the 1961 war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann covered a scenario that was not black and white but veiled in greys, causing great conflict and protest amongst an American public and the publication’s editing staff. Hannah Arendt is a drama about journalism, and the social duty of reporting as one sees as truthful, rather than as it is idealized or pressured to be.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Laurence Anyways
Directed by Xavier Dolan (Canada)
Despite being happy and in love, high school teacher Laurence finally reveals to his girlfriend Fred his long-standing desire to become a woman. Fred agrees to support him on his quest, though once the transformations begin, social complications begin to pressure, ostracize, and place fear into the hearts of the couple. Through it all, Laurence Anyways is a tale of love and the ability to weather storms for it.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 8 PM (Cinema 21)
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 7 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Leviathan
Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel (United States)
Leviathan presents experimental filmmaking at its finest or its worst, depending on your opinion of macro-view, immersive documentary art. The New York Film Festival describes Leviathan as “a hallucinatory sensory experience quite unlike any other”, and the trailer is seems to assert this with views of commercial fishing, as presented with only abstract sounds and imagery.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)

Lore
Directed by Cate Shortland (Australia)
After World War II and the death of Adolf Hitler, five young children are left to fend for themselves when their Nazi SS parents are captured. In an attempt to reach their grandparents in Hamburg, they traverse 500 miles of changing landscapes, meeting unfortunate families along the way and finding a savior in a young Jewish man whose kindness goes against all of their programmed teachings.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 5:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

After Lucia
Directed by Michel Franco (Mexico)
In this jarring Mexican drama about teenage cruelty, unfortunate circumstances become exponentially worse after bullying enters the equation. Alejandra is a young teen still dealing with the death of her mother, when she finds herself in a new town. One drunken mistake soon spins into a web of social abuse and bends stunted familial communication further beyond repair. After Lucia won the main prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival and is this year’s Mexican submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 2:15 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)

Alien Boy: The Death and Life of James Chasse
Directed by Brian Lindstrom (United States)
The ever-complex circumstances surrounding the United States’ mental health resources are examined in Alien Boy: The Death and Life of James Chasse, a documentary about a schizophrenic young man who was beaten to death by police officers in Portland, Oregon in 1996.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 7 PM (Cinema 21)

American Winter
Directed by Joe Gantz, Harry Gantz (United States)
Shot over the winter months of 2011 to 2012, American Winter is an intimate portrait that follows the lives of eight Portland households that find themselves falling into poverty for the first time. A reflection on the current economic crisis, these families are just a small cross-section of the larger trend, as American Winter navigates how families deal with new financial difficulties and the use of social services.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Cinemagic)

Chinese Take-Out (Un Cuento Chino)
Directed by Sebastián Borensztein (Argentina)
South America is surprisingly prevalent with Chinese immigrants, and this multicultural comedy takes a close look at the life of Roberto, a routine-oriented owner of a hardware store in Buenos Aires, after a Chinese immigrant named Jun begins living in his home. Listed as Chinese Take-Out at PIFF, this film is more often listed as Chinese Take-Away.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 2:30 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 3 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Coming of Age (Anfang 80)
Directed by Sabine Hiebler, Gerhard Ertl (Austria)
Almost everyone fears to grow old and to die alone, or to never truly fall in love. Bruno and Rosa meet when Rosa only has six months left to live – but despite internal and external opposition, the two seniors decide to choose a life of mortality and happiness rather than its dreary opposite. The description “cute old people” seems to sum up Coming of Age fairly accurately.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)
         Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 6:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Comrade Kim Goes Flying
Directed by Anja Daelemans, Nicholas Bonner, Kim Gwang Hun (North Korea)
There’ve been times when I have mentioned Korea’s music or art scene and been met with the question, “North or South?” To these people, I’ve often scoffed, relaying that nothing comes out of North Korea, for its dictatorship is in full reign and its free speech mostly suppressed. Yet now, with Comrade Kim Goes Flying, my less politically-savvy friends can finally rest assured that their inquiries are in part valid, for North Korea is now sending films to the global marketplace. The calisthenics-participating ways of gymnast and coal miner Kim Yong-mi may lead one to believe romance is alive and well in North Korea, in a film that is visually and musically reminiscent of grainy old-school films from mainland China. The trailer may not reveal much – and seems not to give one any sense of the “comedy” that is supposedly inherent in this “romantic comedy” — but on the basis of seeing a different side of North Korea that is not Vice Magazine’s expository fright-fest, one might take interest in Comrade Kim Goes Flying.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 6:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

The End of Time
Directed by Peter Mettler (Canada)
How, oh how, do we as mere humans, with our three-dimensional knowledge of the world, learn to wrap our heads around Father Time? Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler apparently wondered the same when he set out around the globe to explore the past and the present, with modern and primitive cultures, to document and research how they relate to and philosophize about time. The film seems to bring up a series of rhetorical questions set against pleasant imagery — and it seems unclear whether the film actually brings one any closer to understanding the nature of time… but it seems that Mettler is at least trying.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

The Gatekeepers
Directed by Dror Moreh (Israel)
A film with great explosive and divisive potential, The Gatekeepers gives an inside look at the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as pieced together via interviews from intelligence officers and former directors of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 5:15 PM (Cinema 21)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)

A Hijacking (Kapringen)
Directed by Tobias Lindholm (Denmark)
Possibilities are bound and sea-stranded in this tense drama about a cargo ship that is hijacked by Somali pirates, who take all of the crew members hostage. Ransom and negotiations are far from smooth as the company’s alpha male president decides to take matters into his own hands, at the risk of sacrificing the life of his workers.
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)

The Hunt (Jagten)
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
A small community becomes a dangerous breeding ground of misunderstanding and suspicion as Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is charged with child molestation. Though the charge is overturned, the outcome remains unchanged in the eyes of the community, as Lucas feels first-hand the cruelty of former friends and neighbors who wish to exact vengeance.
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Whitsell Auditorium)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10

Just The Wind (Csak a Szél)
Directed by Benedek Fliegauf (Hungary)
Simply watching the trailer for Just The Wind will give one a sense of the film’s near-documentary style of capturing mundane oddities in backwoods Hungary. All things said, the destination seems almost as important as the filmmaking vehicle. This year’s Hungarian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 6:15 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Keep Smiling (Gaigimet)
Directed by Rusudan Chkonia (Georgia)
A roving eye captures the drama between ten housewives shallowly hoping to win a beauty competition open only to mothers with three or more children. Soon it becomes apparent that the competition is all a fraud, and things begin to fall apart even further, unraveling in true tragicomic fashion.
         Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus
Directed by Mark Kendall (United States)
Decommissioned school busses leave the United States daily to become transformed into community vehicles for Guatemalans. La Camioneta: The Journey of the American School Bus, follows one repurposed vehicle on its pilgrimage towards a more useful and colorful life, wherein five Guatemalans impacted by the bus reveal their stories.
         Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Reality
Directed by Matteo Garrone (Italy)
Reality is a color explosion that pokes fun at Italian high society and its population’s shallow desires for fame! Part fantastical and part realistic, this film light-heartedly portrays reality as it sometimes really exists – in ways stranger and more whimsical than fiction.
         Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 5:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)

Nairobi Half Life
Directed by David Tosh Gitonga (Kenya)
19-year-old Mwas leaves his village life to pursue his dreams in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi — but his starry-eyed view of the world is soon shattered. As he falls into a life of crime and violence, Mwas struggles with holding onto glimpses of his former dreams. This is Kenya’s second film ever to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
         Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 6 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 10)

Our Children (À Perdre La Raison)
Directed by Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
Based on the story of Genevieve Lhermitte, Our Children tells of Murielle (Émilie Dequenne), who can’t seem to escape a nightmarish marriage full of financial struggle and suffocating interpersonal relationships, as she is surrounded by a demanding husband and a domineering father-in-law.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Regal Lloyd Center 4)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Regal Fox Tower 6)

Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe)
Directed by Ulrich Seidl (Austria)
The first in director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, Paradise: Love is about the collision of Christian virtues with secular life. Middle-aged Teresa visits a sex tourism destination in Kenya, where what she wants and the rigid rules she believes in become ever more obscured and foreign.
         Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinemagic)
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (Cinemagic)

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology
Directed by Sophie Fiennes (Great Britain)
2006′s The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (see our review HERE) gets a follow-up, as Slovenian philosopher and film theoretician Slavoj Žižek once again waxes poetic — this time, on how films are representations of collective fantasies. A hodge-podge of films are included in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, including Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music, John Carpenter’s They Live, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 12 PM (Cinema 21)
         Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 8:30 PM (Cinema 21)

Polluting Paradise (Der Müll im Garten Eden)
Directed by Fatih Akin (Germany)
In the 2000s, the Turkish village of Çamburnu was accidentally turned into a garbage landfill when a nearby site began to pollute the village’s air and groundwater. From 2006 to 2011, director Fatih Akin returned to Turkey numerous times to chronicle the ever-growing problem and government neglect of Çamburnu’s environmental woes.
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 12:45 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Post Tenebras Lux
Directed by Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
Post Tenebras Lux is a film that could most certainly fall flat on its face or be a work of genius, but the words of the Stockholm Film Festival make it sound eerily enticing: “In this expressionistic Mexican film, magnificent dreamlike exteriors together with memories and dream sequences tell the story of one man’s ability to resist temptation and stop himself from sinning. The story is at times told from the perspective of Satan, showing us the world through the Devil’s ambivalent eyes. The use of a nonlinear storyline gives way for emotions, hopes, and dreams of a family looking for redemption and the meaning of life.”
         Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinema 21)
         Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 6 PM (Cinema 21)

Sleep Tight (Mientras Duermes)
Directed by Jaume Balagueró (Spain)
A film that grows ever more sinister as it develops, Sleep Tight follows César, the doorman of a Barcelona apartment building, and his ever-growing distaste for one of the building’s residents, Clara. In unpredictable fashion, César becomes increasingly obsessed with the woman – not as a person in love, but as one who aims to ruin her life as completely as possible.
         Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 8:45 PM (World Trade Center Theater)
         Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:30 PM (Cinema 21)
         Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 6 PM (World Trade Center Theater)

Film times and schedules are subject to change.
Please consult the PIFF website for up-to-date details.

Related posts:

1. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Documentary Film Preview Guide
2. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Festival Preview Guide, Part Two
3. Portland International Film Festival 2012: Festival Preview Guide, Part One

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Portland International Festival 2013: Festival Preview & Picks

Stream Mixtape

Download Mixtape (93.1 MB)

1. Jay Park – “Come On Over” // 박재범 – 놀러와

    

    

   Turn off your phone, girl. Listen up. It’s Jay Park. Think of him as a 25-year-old Korean evocation of Usher, if you like, or even the solution to Frank Ocean’s inability to read Hangul. Ultimately, there’s little need to situate him, though; Park is truly a singular talent. He actually writes the bulk of his own material, and in the context of K-Pop, that rather lends him the carriage of a polar bear walking through a tropical rainforest. He’s also American, hailing from Seattle. Allen Huang of SSG Music and JKPOP! told me he was a childhood friend. One day his mother asked, “Whatever happened to your friend Jay?” He’d skipped town and become a star.
   
   www.jaypark.com + www.instagram.com/jparkitrighthere

    

2. Jay Park – “Turn Off Your Phone” // 박재범 – 전화기를 꺼놔
   

    

3. BigBang – “Bad Boy” / 빅뱅 – “Bad Boy”

    

    

    

   Naughty or nice, five-guy supergroup BigBang have certainly been the K-Boys of the year. The NYTimes called them the “true wild heart of K-Pop,” and Alive made it on fuse’s top 40 albums of 2012. “Bad Boy” is a masterpiece. Sure, “Fantastic Baby” will keep folks on the floor, and it’s perfect for rudely awaking your roomies, but it can be a bit much in your headphones. “Bad Boy” is truly a jam for all seasons. The MV is already a classic. It finds the boys in Williamsburg trying to kick it, albeit to no avail, with what looks like a choice selection of Russian supermodels. (Really, it’s only one instance of this hyper-urban-industrial MV style that YG Entertainment has been harping on lately. The “Blue” MV, for instance, is essentially the same idea. No sense in arguing over which is better. Your choice. Drop it on me.)
   
   ygfamily.com

    

4. EXO – “What Is Love”

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

   EXO is S.M. Entertainment‘s newest project, a prototype pitch at taking Chairman Lee Soo-man‘s theory of ,cultural technology’ to the next level. EXO actually conssts of two distinct detachments: EXO-K, which is the Korean contingent, and EXO-M, which is the Mandarin export, each made up of a specific set of six members. This shotgun method enables SM to tailor the same material to linguistically disparate markets with the utmost precision. It’s a novel strategy, even brilliant. (It’s also all you need to take your table tennis game to the next level, btw: a Chinese offense and a Korean defense.) That isn’t to say, however, that both versions of this track are equally successful; I do think the song works much better in Korean. The two iterations intimate something of the substantive phonetic unity of music and language. Just as in poetry, the identity of any lyrical-melodic idea in vocal music is inextricable from the language in which it is articulated: the phoneme, well before the word itself, is as much a part of the thought as its pitch and rhythmic placement. I suspect that this song was written first in Korean and later translated, which might be why the Mandarin sounds rather forced at times. That said, you gotta love the wushu-style moves in the Chinese edition of the video. For me it’s really been a toss-up between this and “Bad Boy,” and I’m leaning towards EXO.
   
   exo-k.smtown.com + exo-m.smtown.com

    

5. TVXQ! – “Destiny” // 동방신기 – “Destiny”

    

    

   Since their debut circa 2004, TVXQ (aka DongBangShinGi or “Rising Gods of the East”) have proven to be one of SM’s soundest investments. “Destiny” is one of the under-plugged standouts on their latest full-length Catch Me, and not least because of that kick and snare. It straddles the line between a true jam and pure balladry, weaving seamlessly from one idiom to the other. To be honest, when I put on Catch Me, I generally skip the title track/single and head straight for this and the other chiller (filler) spots on the record. It gives me the feeling that Chairman Lee hasn’t been playing his best mens’ strongest hand, though “Humanoids” might be enough to shut me up on that score.
   
   tvxq.smtown.com + dbskconfessions.tumblr.com

    

6. BtoB – “U&I” // 비투비 – “U&I”

   BtoB (Born to Beat) are Cube Entertainment‘s latest offering, “U&I” being one of my favorites off their second mini-album Press Play. K-Pop has managed to safeguard the delectable kind of acoustic guitar stylings that flourished in the peak years of ’90s pop and R&B, which have lamentably fallen into disuse. Wonder Girls’ “Girlfriend” (below) is another great example.
   
   btobofficial.com

    

7. Super Junior – “From U” // 슈퍼주니어 – “너로부터”

    

   I caught my first glimpse of K-Pop unwittingly, on a billboard in Seoul. It was an epic hi-def composite of a troop of model-level dudes with unrealistically well-did hair, accompanied by the moniker ‘Super Junior’ (a lot like this only bigger, better, and not a desktop wallpaper made by a Filipina Fangirl). I hadn’t the slightest idea what it referred to: a fashion label? a hair salon? a lifestyle? The answer came later while I was flipping channels at my hotel and stumbled upon a music network. There it was again. (If memory serves, it was “Mr. Simple” video. I was glued to the tube for at least two hours thereafter, and I’ve been addicted to the stuff ever since.)
   
   superjunior.smtown.com

    

8. Girls’ Generation – “Love Sick” // 소녀시대 – “Love Sick”

   I initially conceived this as an all-K-Boy mix, but those hits at 1:08 virtually kicked the wind out of my musical chauvinism — with heels. I can’t get over those greasy gospel guitar gestures à la maniere d’Angelo. Girls’ Generation (aka SNSD) are bonafide K-Girl royalty. They figure heavily in The New Yorker’s article on K-Pop by John Seabrook.
   
   www.girlsgenerationusa.com

    
9. Ailee – “My Love” (Feat. Swings) // 에일리 – “My Love” (feat. 스윙스)”

   While rookie of the year Ailee’s debut single “Heaven” sounded something like K-Perry/K-Clarkson, “My Love” is a hidden gem that takes K-Girl R&B nearly to the point of period accuracy (i.e. Aileeyah) without sounding too ‘dated.’ The synth-bass and e-piano on this track are almost too good to be heard, Swings featured verse is right in the pocket, and Ailee’s delivery is absolutely exquisite. This is pure K–R&B gold.
   
   www.facebook.com + www.ymcent.com

    
10. G.NA – “(Drop It (Cut It Off))” // 최지나 – “때려 쳐”

     

    If I didn’t know any better I’d think this was Jay Park before the vocals came in. (The opener on Bloom does feature Jay, after all, so I suppose I wouldn’t be too off base.) G.NA is effectively his female counterpart, being Canadian-born–raised just across the border in Vancouver, BC — and those common roots show. Both betray a palpably new-world sensibility in their work. I wonder if they’d ever date (publicly). The global netizenry would soil itself.
    
    www.playgna.com

     

11. Wonder Girls – “Girlfriend” // 원더걸스 – “Girlfriend”]

     

    Perhaps no other K-Pop group has been as fiercely marketed in the States as Park Jin-young‘s flagship Wonder Girls. His dreams of crossover success have seen them on tour with the Jonas Bros, on a bill with Bieber, starring in Disney made-for-TV movie, and featuring Akon on a recent single (right). “Girlfriend” is one of the big hooks on their latest release Wonder Party, the smoother correlate to the dance-ready single “Like This”. The Girls are currently on an extended hiatus. Perhaps they’ll be back Stateside after the dust has settled from the BigBang (but by then things might look a whole lot different around here).
    
    www.wondergirlsworld.com

     
12. miss A – “If I Were a Boy” // 미쓰에이 – “남자 없이 잘 살아”

    “If I were a boy it wouldn’t be this hard / If I’m over you I’d laugh after remembering nothing.” Hey girl, That’s sexist. Don’t sell yourself short. If you were a boy you’d be a shy girl, and I really mean that as a compliment. Besides, you’re an independent lady: you don’t need a man. All the same I’ve been thinking… Coffee some time? Also, are you really into Beyonce?
    
    www.missaworld.com

     

1. Religious Girls – “Oscar Grant” Into The Woods Live Video
2. Parenthetical Girls – “The Pornographer” Music Video
3. Girls Names – “Bury Me” Music Video

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Shy Boys Fly Girls K-Pop Mixtape (#24) + “Fantastic Baby”, A Music Video Screening and Panel Discussion

JAPANESE TO ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS BY MORGAN HARKNESS

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
Our aim was to perfectly match the world of Sun Airway’s music and take that world of sound and enlarge its image visually. I believe that the music and the cover visuals that go with the creation of an album have an extremely intimate relationship. Music and visuals have the power to overcome country and language to convey a message. Creating something so intimate between the US and Japan was an incredible experience, and most of all it was fun! We would like to take this opportunity to extend our appreciation to Jon Barthmus for inviting us to this wonderful project.

私達が今回目指したのはSun Airwayの音楽の世界と完全にマッチし、さらに音の世界をビジュアルによってイメージの視覚的拡大をする事でした。アルバム制作における音楽とカバービジュアルは本来とても密接な関係性をもっているものだと思います。音楽やビジュアルは言語や国境を超えて伝達していく力があり、今回、日本とアメリカの間で密な相互関係をもって制作が行われた事は、私達にとって大変良い経験で、なによりも楽しかった！このような素敵なプロジェクトに私達を誘ってくれたJon Barthmusさんに、この場をお借りして感謝をしたいと思います。

Sun Airway – Soft Fall Album Cover “Making Of”

Jon Barthmus of Sun Airway wrote you because he was inspired by “Panic Room” and wanted to recreate it for the cover of Soft Fall.¹ In this version, the scene is much softer, with flowers and delicate furniture. How closely did you collaborate on deciding upon the items and visual style?

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
At the early stage Jon gave us the keyword for the album, “vegetation”. The “vegetation” motif holds together the whole fantastique ambience that makes up this project’s visuals. We assembled the visuals of a world with that word as the foundation.

My first idea was that instead of using natural light as we did in our previous work, it would be better to create an even more realistic visual. I thought it would be interesting to organize a scene with a picturesque arrangement of vegetation, tableware, and glassware. Similar to how Millais depicted Ophelia¹… We also added just a little erotic element as a sort of secret ingredient. I thought these things would bring some depth to the fantasy-like world we were creating.

For the most part, Jon gave us an incredible amount of freedom with the details. After we sent him the finished visuals, he contacted us to let us know that he had decided on the title Soft Fall after seeing them.

¹ Panic Room was one of NAM’s earliest pieces in this series of work.

² Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. Ophelia is a character from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, who is depicted here singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark.

The process took thirty minutes, which seems extremely short. How much was the composition mapped out beforehand? How much was improvised?

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
Well actually the time we took to set up — it wasn’t 30 minutes; it was 30 hours. We worked through the night. It’s very difficult work. Even so, this was on the compact side of our usual set up time. For more delicate and large-scale sets, we can use around ten people and take four to five days.

For the remake, we already had the big composition ready for creating a world that had been knocked over. To assemble the scene, we arranged the props by improvising with gravity in mind, directing them in ways the objects would fall and float in the pull of gravity if the world was turned upside down. By actually moving them with our hands we would be inspired with interesting configurations and direction. By being flexible and taking in those ideas, it was easier for me to attain a delicate scene with both complexity and movement than deciding it in advance.

We came up with many different candidates for the studio and model selection, and chose one from that list. For the collection of the props, we individually selected each object one by one to fit our made up world. This kind of pre-production decides the appearance of the world we create, so we take considerable time and discretion to carry it out.

In this version, the scene is much softer, with flowers and delicate furniture. How closely did you and NAM work together on deciding upon the items and visual style?

Jon Barthmus (Sun Airway): Well as much as I loved that image and whole series of images, there was still a lot about it that I didn’t think worked exactly with the music. These were all a little too dark in tone. When I initially approached NAM, I mentioned that my dream would be to create this type of situation in a brightly lit palace type setting. Unfortunately locations like that are pretty hard to come by in Japan and were completely out of any budget we might be working with. But in the end I think the simple setting that was created was pretty perfect for the music.

There was a problem with the flowers wilting too quickly in the humidity of the room. How did you fix this problem, and what were some of the other challenges?

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
We took different counter-measures such as wrapping the stems in wet tissue paper with aluminum foil, and ended up throwing the ones away that continued to wilt and replacing them. If you look at the picture, there are some that are a little weak looking [laughs]. This was our first time suspending living objects. Flowers are extremely delicate so we had some trouble. As for the leaves, we researched and arranged in advance for ones that don’t wilt easily.

There weren’t any big problems when we started shooting, but I myself was a bit troubled over when to stop adding more props to the frame. I always agonize over this part. To be honest, we tried adding many more flowers to the floor and ceiling, but when we saw what it looked like with the model in the set we ended up taking some out. It was impressive and beautiful, but it was a little overboard and the scene became too fantastical, taking away from the realistic feeling. During set up we had the afternoon light, and it was a very quiet. This left an impression on me. It had the feeling of being inside a dream.

When did NAM begin work on their series of carefully measured and strung scenes of chaos and movement? How did the idea first develop, and how has it grown from its beginning to the end?

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
It started in 2006 with the idea to merge the point of view of graphic design and photography, and the photographer Hiroshi Manaka and I began working together ever since. We have many different styles, and one of them is to take everyday objects and hang them.

At first it was born from a kind of reaction to the heavy use of CG for expression. As we were creating, we became interested in the relationship between the real and the fake in visual expression. Reconstructing weightlessness by hand with nylon thread, we were able to increase scope and complexity by setting up a fantastical world that fit without creating a feeling of discomfort for the observer. Even though it’s a fantastic and strange world, there is actually realism to it and that has a simple but strong persuasive power. I’m often asked, “Why do you do so much with people and objects floating?”, but I really don’t even know myself. When I am inside that kind of world, I feel like I might be a little more free. I also feel there is still a lot of room to create different worlds with this technique.

During your creation process, does your music take on a visual relationship? Can you tell us a little bit about what that’s like?

Jon Barthmus (Sun Airway): I’ve always been very influenced by the visual. Lyrically, I try to paint something that the listener can actually see and feel. I relate it to looking at a giant Rothko piece where you walk into the room and the weight of it just hits you. You’re immediately immersed in this thing/feeling. Lyrically, I’m always most influenced by films and visual art, in addition to being a graphic designer and artist myself.

Sun Airway – “Close” Music Video

Produced and directed by Ewan MacLeod, the music video for Sun Airway’s “Close” crosses terrains far and wide to end in foggy and inexplicable elation. Again, like the album cover and the music, everything is beautiful upfront, but the mystery lies deeper than surface level.

There is a close relationship here between the ethereal nature of the music and the visuals. There are a series of words on the back cover of Soft Fall. Who were these created by? Before or after the installation project?

Takayuki Nakazawa (NAM):
That was written by Jon Barthmus. It’s a lovely composition that swells with the power of imagination. On top of the music and visuals, there is a relationship with the text that pierces through the entire vision, and this reaffirmed to me what a special album Soft Fall is. By the way, Jon Barthmus is also responsible for the graphic design for the album. This was also a very beautiful finish.

Sun Airway Sound Gallery

Directed by Ricardo Rivera.

NAM Art Gallery

www.sunairway.com
www.n-a-m.org

Ω

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Soft Fall Album Cover: The Music of Sun Airway & The Art of Japan’s NAM

Thee Oh Sees – “Lupine Dominus” Music Video

Kasper Bjørke – “Bohemian Soul” Music Video

Thee Oh Sees – “Lupine Dominus” Music Video

Earlier this year, Thee Oh Sees returned with a new record, Putrifiers II, and album single “Flood’s New Light” seemed to indicate a mellower Thee Oh Sees on the horizon. But with their latest music video for “Lupine Dominus”, which director John Strong sums up with the words, “A young man enters a strip club with different intentions…” it seems the band’s grittiness is still present.

Thee Oh Sees’ last music video for “Chem-Farmer” involved Bavarian-style costumes, silly dance parties, and convenience store snacks galore, but in “Lupine Dominus”, the band decides to take a less playful approach (or at least “playful” in a wholly different way).

Putrifiers II was released September 11th, 2012 on the band’s longstanding label, In The Red Recordings.

Thee Oh Sees – “Flood’s New Light” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Kasper Bjørke – Bohemian Soul

Halfway across the world, Thai ladyboys become the main subject in Kasper Bjorke’s music video for “Bohemian Soul”, which takes an intimate look backstage in dressing rooms and onstage during performances. This video presents a much larger emotional spectrum than “Lupine Dominus”, and as such, feels more like a glimpse into daily lives rather than exceptional one-off circumstance. The Copenhagen-based producer’s album, Fool, was released on April Fool’s Day, 2012, via hfn music.

Conception & Direction: Karim Huu Do
Editor: Karim Huu Do
Producer: Lamar Hawkins, Pumpkin Film AG , Zürich
Colorist: Adriel Pfister, Online Video, Zürich, Switzerland
Sound design: Fadel Gomari
Production assistants: Djamel Merzkani & Alessandra Dolci

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Diplo – “Set It Off” Music Video
(Director Ryan Staake & Producers Talk “Infinite Stripper Pole”)

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Sexual Deviance in Music Video: Thee Oh Sees – Lupine Dominus & Kasper Bjørke – Bohemian Soul

Karen Knorr

In Karen Knorr’s India Song series, she digitally inserts rare and wild animals, from cranes and tigers to elephants, in ornate north Indian buildings.

Where Yun-Fei Tou’s appeal to human nature is more obvious (below), Knorr’s is more veiled and steeped in cultural knowledge. According to her website, “The photographic series considers men’s space (mardana) and women’s space (zanana) in Mughal and Rajput palace architecture, havelis and mausoleums through large format digital photography.”

Yun-Fei Tou

For his Memento Mori series, Taiwanese photographer Yun-Fei Tou has taken over 40,000 portraits of dogs just hours away from euthanization. By seating the dogs in upright, human-like positions, they become almost human-like, giving viewers more to relate to.

“I believe something should not be told but should be felt,” says Tou, in an interview with Huffington Post. “And I hope these images will arouse the viewers to contemplate and feel for these unfortunate lives, and understand the inhumanity we the society are putting them through.”

Tou’s statement on the Memento Mori is the following:

Utilizing the classic portrait style that originated in the early 19th century with the birth of photography as an art form, these photographs offer the viewer a chance to look attentively into a bleak future. These dogs are essentially dead and their souls are hours or minutes away from non-existence. These portraits reflect a formal construct or platform through which the viewer and the dog communicate, using exchanged gazes to create a forced contemplation.

Photographic images allow us to contemplate. Through contemplation, we gain an understanding of the uniqueness and nobility of life. Through contemplation, we understand how chaotic and disordered the world has become.

The moment when a photographer chooses to release the shutter during a shooting session, or when carefully selecting an image from a body of work about the same subject matter, these acts, the releasing of the shutter and the editing of a selection, lead to subjective choices and reveal a bias. In the same token, every viewer has an inborn nature that is unique and possesses personal experiences that also reflect different values. Therefore, when different viewers face the same image, it is inevitable that they produce wide ranges of responses from the minute to radical to drastic differences in sentiment, interpretation, meaning and/or intent.

However, from the point of view of the subject portrayed in a photograph, these biases, prejudices, and even different sentiments can be perceived as a form of manipulation. It is often times these distortions and/or misinterpretations that offer richness in the various degrees of reality. The photographic image is merely a vehicle of communication that can lead to a better understanding of a situation, an event, of ourselves and of the world around us.

In viewing these specific images, one looks directly into the eyes of the dog and the dog looks back. These images reflect the last opportunity to look. This is a final and decisive moment. Death is eminent and all that is asked of the viewer is to engage, to recognize the common bonds and to honor the resemblances between our lives.

Knorr’s statement on the series is as follows:

Karen Knorr’s past work from the 1980’s onwards took as its theme the ideas of power that underlie cultural heritage, playfully challenging the underlying assumptions of fine art collections in academies and museums in Europe through photography and video. Since 2008 her work has taken a new turn and focused its gaze on the upper caste culture of the Rajput in India and its relationship to the “other” through the use of photography, video and performance. The photographic series considers men’s space (mardana) and women’s space (zanana) in Mughal and Rajput palace architecture, havelis and mausoleums through large format digital photography.

Karen Knorr celebrates the rich visual culture, the foundation myths and stories of northern India, focusing on Rajasthan and using sacred and secular sites to consider caste, femininity and its relationship to the animal world. Interiors are painstakingly photographed with a large format Sinar P3 analogue camera and scanned to very high resolution. Live animals are inserted into the architectural sites, fusing high resolution digital with analogue photography. Animals photographed in sanctuaries, zoos and cities inhabit palaces, mausoleums , temples and holy sites, interrogating Indian cultural heritage and rigid hierarchies. Cranes, zebus, langurs, tigers and elephants mutate from princely pets to avatars of past feminine historic characters, blurring boundaries between reality and illusion and reinventing the Panchatantra for the 21st century.

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Yun-Fei Tou & Karen Knorr: Assessing Humanity Through Animal Photography

Attending Culture Collide is the easiest and cheapest way to feel like you have been around the world in just four days. When you watch two US bands open a show where groups from Singapore, Argentina and the Netherlands are also on the bill, you start to feel like the most worldly person on the planet. And night after night, numerous different countries were represented under one roof, giving people the opportunity to discover bands that maybe otherwise they would have not come across. Culture Collide deserves praise for making diversity the rule and not the exception. But if I had one suggestion for this young festival, it is to go beyond the comforts of the indie rock and electronic genres a bit. With bands flying in from countries like Peru and Estonia, it’d be nice to take the cultural schooling up a notch and invite bands who are giving new life to traditional sounds from their native countries. It didn’t take long for American rock n’ roll to start influencing music in other countries, but hopefully a festival like this will help more international sounds infiltrate the US.

SEE FULL FESTIVAL RECAP

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jasmine Safaeian, FILTER

Poolside

When Brazil’s Bonde do Rolê had to cancel because of visa issues, Los Angeles’ Poolside stepped in to provide some tropical tunes and funky beats. While not as wild as Bonde do Rolê, Poolside were a pleasant addition to the outdoor portion of the festival. With the sun shining, the duo was accompanied by a drummer and second keyboardist, and provided a nice warm up for a full night of dancing. The main stage would later see Niki & The Dove and of Montreal. Instead of taking an aggressive approach to dance music, Poolside provided a relaxed atmosphere with mid-tempo melodies and calming synth lines. Still, you couldn’t help but feel like you were whisked away to some exotic island.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

While most bands use reverb to create dark and heavy moods, UMO crafted the opposite effect during their closing set at the Taix Champagne Room on Friday night. While the band seemed a bit stand-offish to start, it didn’t take long for the crowd to warm up to them and vice versa. Playing songs off their self-titled album, the trio left a joyful and luminous impression. Songs like “Ffunny Ffriends” and “Thought Ballune” were intricate but bundled with fun melodies that made them easy to digest.

On many occasions, vocalist Ruban Nielson thanked the crowd for being there, which made the band even more likable. Besides the music carrying a positive tone, the band members did not hold back when playing their instruments, proving that they are a solid band all around.

Niki & The Dove

Although I saw Niki & The Dove perform on both Saturday and Sunday, I still didn’t feel like it was enough. One of the downfalls of festivals are the short 20-30 minute sets. However, the Swedish duo made the best of their time and on both days had the crowds wrapped around their fingers. The electro beats were irresistible and had everyone dancing from start to finish while asking for more at the end. From the hair to the high energy, vocalist Malin Dahlström brought to mind ’80s icons like Deborah Harry of Blondie. Additionally, what made Niki & The Dove’s set outstanding is that they went beyond the recorded music that can be heard on their album Instinct. On songs like “The Drummer” and “Somebody”, there were small surprise adornments, and at times it even seemed like the songs went into remix mode, making the live performance sound unique.

Admiral Fallow

Admiral Fallow were a charming bunch from Glasgow that got better and better as the night progressed. In addition to interchanging male and female vocals and the usual guitar, bass, drums, piano setup, the group also threw in some clarinet and flute, which made it difficult for one to not smile during their set. From their latest release, Tree Bursts in Snow, Admiral Fallow played the songs “Isn’t This World Enough” and “Brother”, showing that music can be both delicate and grandiose at the same time.

Of Montreal

If there was a way to entertain all five senses with a live show, I’m sure that of Montreal would be the first to do it. But for now, they just keep fascinating crowds through audio and visuals. Between hearing fan favorites like “Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider” and “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games”, the Culture Collide crowd witnessed a group of characters running around the stage. At one point there were three people draped with white sheets and releasing a bundle of balloons into the crowd. One minute later, they were dressed up as wrestlers and knocking each other down on stage. During all the commotion, of Montreal didn’t miss a beat once. Kevin Barnes and his bandmates were dressed in ’60s garb and playing as if there was no spectacle behind them. Though some may have thought that the visual performances were distracting, they were all part of the zany art form that made of Montreal so great. And to show that anything can happen at of Montreal show, the night ended with two Spidermen crowdsurfing.

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Culture Collide 2012: Festival Review & Recap