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Watch This: Filmmaker Kevin Smith's Varied Tastes

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 20 September 2012 | 05.17

Kevin Smith has served as a writer, actor and director for films such as Clerks.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Kevin Smith has served as a writer, actor and director for films such as Clerks.

Kevin Smith — comic-book guru, writer-director of Clerks and Chasing Amy — shares some of his must-see movie and TV recommendations with NPR's Steve Inskeep. Smith is the latest guest in Morning Edition's series Watch This.


The Comeback

The show, a mockumentary in the style of The Office, follows a once-famous actress who has the chance to regain relevance and popularity on a new sitcom while simultaneously starring on a reality TV show.

Despite only running for one season, the HBO comedy, starring Lisa Kudrow, earned the actress an Emmy nomination — and critical acclaim — after her long-running hit Friends went off the air.

"It is, like, pitch perfect Hollywood satire" Smith says. "It's hysterically funny. In places really touching and heartbreaking, but it was a really clever and well done idea that didn't really get enough attention or exposure."


The Bad News Bears

This 1976 film stars Walter Matthau as the coach of a terrible little league baseball team. "People go, 'Oh, I've seen that story before.' And then you go, 'Well, yes, but this was the first time," Smith says. And that's what makes this film one of his picks.

Smith not only appreciated the originality of the film when he first saw it, but also admired its heart.

"It had incredible honesty, authenticity and edge. Nobody seems like they're acting."

Where the film really shines, according to Smith, is in its frank characterizations of children in the 1970s. "The kids are cursing, dropping racial epithets. The kids are bullying one another," Smith says. "It was literally a movie you'd watch and say, 'This doesn't even feel like a movie. This feels like my little league team.'"


Snapped

"This, to me, is a show that every man who's married needs to watch," Smith says. Now in its 7th season on the Oxygen network, Snapped features the stories of real women who have been accused of murder.

Smith admits that he uses the show for research.

"I sit there and watch it with my wife. I constantly look over at her to see if she's taking down notes," Smith says.

"It's crazy how many of these chicks break out the antifreeze," Smith says. "Because — and this is something I learned from Snapped — it's sweet," he adds as a caution.

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.
Enlarge Gene Page/AMC

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.

Gene Page/AMC

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.


The Walking Dead

Talking Dead

The Walking Dead, based on the graphic-novel series of the same name, follows a group of zombie apocalypse survivors. Smith believes the AMC drama is best enjoyed with its talk-show counterpart, Talking Dead.

"The beauty of The Walking Dead is that they take their time telling the story. It's literally like a soap opera," Smith says. He compares his attitude toward The Walking Dead to his grandmother's love of The Young and the Restless.

The appeal of the companion show, Talking Dead, in Smith's opinion is in its similarity to sports commentary.

"For years, whenever you watched sports, man, there's like, an hour of the game and two hours of people pontificating about the game. Now, with Talking Dead, you've got a program that's kind of the same thing."


Hockey: A People's History

The CBC's 10-episode documentary series, produced in 2006, traces hockey's history through reenactments, archival footage and interviews with some of the game's greats.

"It's a really wonderful telling of the story of not just the game that Canada created, but the land that spawned it and the people that populate it."

Smith is not Canadian, but is a self-proclaimed "Canadaphile."

In the series, hockey is serious business.

"They show you just how important that game is to that country, and how it actually helped create a national identity," Smith says. "I've not seen a miniseries that engaged me so thoroughly."

20 Sep, 2012


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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/20/161428962/watch-this-filmmaker-kevin-smiths-varied-tastes?ft=1&f=1045
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Watch This: Filmmaker Kevin Smith's Varied Tastes

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET

September 20, 2012

Kevin Smith has served as a writer, actor and director for films such as Clerks.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Kevin Smith has served as a writer, actor and director for films such as Clerks.

Kevin Smith — comic-book guru, writer-director of Clerks and Chasing Amy — shares some of his must-see movie and TV recommendations with NPR's Steve Inskeep. Smith is the latest guest in Morning Edition's series Watch This.


The Comeback

The show, a mockumentary in the style of The Office, follows a once-famous actress who has the chance to regain relevance and popularity on a new sitcom while simultaneously starring on a reality TV show.

Despite only running for one season, the HBO comedy, starring Lisa Kudrow, earned the actress an Emmy nomination — and critical acclaim — after her long-running hit Friends went off the air.

"It is, like, pitch perfect Hollywood satire" Smith says. "It's hysterically funny. In places really touching and heartbreaking, but it was a really clever and well done idea that didn't really get enough attention or exposure."


The Bad News Bears

This 1976 film stars Walter Matthau as the coach of a terrible little league baseball team. "People go, 'Oh, I've seen that story before.' And then you go, 'Well, yes, but this was the first time," Smith says. And that's what makes this film one of his picks.

Smith not only appreciated the originality of the film when he first saw it, but also admired its heart.

"It had incredible honesty, authenticity and edge. Nobody seems like they're acting."

Where the film really shines, according to Smith, is in its frank characterizations of children in the 1970s. "The kids are cursing, dropping racial epithets. The kids are bullying one another," Smith says. "It was literally a movie you'd watch and say, 'This doesn't even feel like a movie. This feels like my little league team.'"


Snapped

"This, to me, is a show that every man who's married needs to watch," Smith says. Now in its 7th season on the Oxygen network, Snapped features the stories of real women who have been accused of murder.

Smith admits that he uses the show for research.

"I sit there and watch it with my wife. I constantly look over at her to see if she's taking down notes," Smith says.

"It's crazy how many of these chicks break out the antifreeze," Smith says. "Because — and this is something I learned from Snapped — it's sweet," he adds as a caution.

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.
Enlarge Gene Page/AMC

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.

Gene Page/AMC

A group of humans struggles to survive a zombie apocalypse in AMC's The Walking Dead.


The Walking Dead

Talking Dead

The Walking Dead, based on the graphic-novel series of the same name, follows a group of zombie apocalypse survivors. Smith believes the AMC drama is best enjoyed with its talk-show counterpart, Talking Dead.

"The beauty of The Walking Dead is that they take their time telling the story. It's literally like a soap opera," Smith says. He compares his attitude toward The Walking Dead to his grandmother's love of The Young and the Restless.

The appeal of the companion show, Talking Dead, in Smith's opinion is in its similarity to sports commentary.

"For years, whenever you watched sports, man, there's like, an hour of the game and two hours of people pontificating about the game. Now, with Talking Dead, you've got a program that's kind of the same thing."


Hockey: A People's History

The CBC's 10-episode documentary series, produced in 2006, traces hockey's history through reenactments, archival footage and interviews with some of the game's greats.

"It's a really wonderful telling of the story of not just the game that Canada created, but the land that spawned it and the people that populate it."

Smith is not Canadian, but is a self-proclaimed "Canadaphile."

In the series, hockey is serious business.

"They show you just how important that game is to that country, and how it actually helped create a national identity," Smith says. "I've not seen a miniseries that engaged me so thoroughly."

20 Sep, 2012


-
Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161428962/watch-this-filmmaker-kevin-smiths-varied-tastes?ft=1&f=1045
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The Elusive, Endangered 'Knuckleball'

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 19 September 2012 | 14.20

Tim Wakefield, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, was the oldest active player in the majors before retiring in 2011. For years he was the only pitcher throwing a knuckleball.
Break Thru Films

Tim Wakefield, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, was the oldest active player in the majors before retiring in 2011. For years he was the only pitcher throwing a knuckleball.

Knuckleball!

  • Directors: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Running Time: 90 minutes

Not rated

There are essentially two things that can happen with a knuckleball. It can float toward the plate without spin, jerk around like boozy relatives at a wedding hall and make the world's best hitters look like hapless Looney Tunes characters. Or it can float toward the plate with spin, lope with a steady trajectory at 65 mph and give the world's best hitters the juiciest slab of red meat this side of Sizzler. When a knuckleball specialist is on, he's a magician, conjuring the dark and mysterious forces of the universe; when he's off, he's the pot-bellied assistant manager throwing batting practice.

Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's documentary Knuckleball! — the curious exclamation mark suggests the biggest flop in Broadway history — considers one of baseball's greatest quirks with good humor and a glancing touch. Last seen following Joan Rivers around for the affectionate profile Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Stern and Sundberg view the small fraternity of knuckleball pitchers as outsiders in their own right. Just as Rivers was pegged as a groundbreaking female comedian, brash and vulgar in forbidding times, knuckleballers are cast as pariahs and freaks, a carnival act breezing through town. In other words, they're not real baseball players because real baseball players don't get laid up by a chipped fingernail.

Throughout the history of Major League Baseball, only one or two knuckleball pitchers have tended to play at any one time, which keeps the pitch on the endangered species list. Stern and Sundberg have done well to round up all the living knuckleballers for interviews, including old-timers like Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough and Jim Bouton, whose classic book Ball Four details his efforts to develop the knuckler when his other pitches faltered.

Knuckleball! also features the only other active knuckleball pitcher during the 2011 season: R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets.
Enlarge Break Thru Films

Knuckleball! also features the only other active knuckleball pitcher during the 2011 season: R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets.

Break Thru Films

Knuckleball! also features the only other active knuckleball pitcher during the 2011 season: R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets.

Other than Niekro, nobody enters the league as a knuckleballer; the common denominator is desperation, a last-ditch effort to stay in the majors when all else has failed.

Stern and Sundberg focus on Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, the only two active knuckleball pitchers during the 2011 season. The two men are on opposing career paths: Wakefield, still well-preserved after 19 years and two championships with the Boston Red Sox, intends to retire at the end of the season, which he hopes will include his 200th victory. Dickey, a journeyman pitcher who was kicked around to dozens of major and minor league squads, had refined the knuckler to devastating effect for the New York Mets and was expected to be the staff ace — if, of course, the pitch didn't betray him.

Wakefield and Dickey are great stories and endearing subjects, and their meetings with Niekro and Hough reveal a secret society of pitchers who openly trade bits of wisdom and commiserate over the times when the breakers didn't break. For managers, having a knuckleball pitcher on staff is an ulcerous condition: Even when the pitch works, the catcher can't always catch it, there are many passed balls and walks, and base-stealers have an extra step toward second. For this exclusive fraternity, winning the faith of managers, teammates and fans was and is a near-constant battle, requiring patience and indulgence in the worst of times.

Knuckleball! looks and feels like a standard ESPN documentary, slickly packaged and a little bloodless, and Stern and Sundberg lean a little heavily on music to goose up the excitement. It's better when they simply follow Wakefield's and Dickey's dramatic and circuitous paths to glory — and best when Niekro and Hough stop by to tell stories and pore over the mechanics of arm motion and grip. Together, they're stewards of a junk pitch, masters of a sandlot special, and they don't want its glorious mysteries to die with them.

20 Sep, 2012


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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161266664/the-elusive-endangered-knuckleball?ft=1&f=1045
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The Sophistication Problem: James Bond, Gene Kelly, And The Limbs We Live On

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 18 September 2012 | 08.28

A film projected on a traditional projector.

iStockphoto.com

In an excellent piece at the Press Play blog at Indiewire, Matt Zoller Seitz writes of a screening of From Russia With Love, where he found that much of the audience was too busy guffawing at the elements it found dated to engage the film on its own terms. While he writes eloquently and angrily about the phenomenon of ironic distance, the killer line is this one: "It's up to the individual viewer to decide to connect or not connect with a creative work. By 'connect,' I mean connect emotionally and imaginatively — giving yourself to the movie for as long as you can, and trying to see the world through its eyes and feel things on its wavelength."

As someone who prizes the opportunity to attend screenings of old movies myself from time to time, I've certainly felt this frustration acutely. The universe of work that can only be enjoyed ironically seems to be growing, past what was always camp to what was never good to what was never great, and has now swallowed what is of its time and what is simply unfamiliar. There is, to be sure, a brand of filmgoer whose internal programming says, "If you don't recognize it, it's weird, and if it's weird, it's funny, and if it's funny, your reactions should be at it and not to it."

Seitz goes on to tell a story from a film class he took in college in which the professor showed Singin' In The Rain, which a good part of the class chuckled at, finding it corny and unbelievable. After delivering a lecture on the importance of deciding to engage with a film as it is, the professor in the story delivered the admonition that offered Seitz his headline: "This movie is not unsophisticated. You are."

It should alarm no one if beginning film students were unsophisticated in their approach; after all, they were beginning film students. If we truly believe that film is art that can be studied like anything else, then we can't be surprised that everyone doesn't waltz into an introductory class with a sophisticated understanding of the material; they're there to be educated. They're there to develop a nuanced approach.

But a nuanced approach is a tricky thing. Ironic distancing from the unfamiliar is certainly fatal to any effort to learn anything at all; if you considered every equation you'd never seen before to be strange-funny rather than strange-new, you wouldn't learn any math, either.

On the other hand, just as a nuanced approach to film might require you to engage the film, perhaps it also requires us to engage the disengagement and wonder why it's there. Perhaps it's just laziness, but what if it's not? Why are some old movies that bear the stamps of their eras chuckled at and others aren't? I suspect that if you showed many of those James Bond chucklers and Gene Kelly snorters Bonnie And Clyde or The French Connection, they would probably know they weren't supposed to laugh at what was dated or melodramatic.

James Bond pictures have something in common with Singin' In The Rain, after all: their pleasures are sensual and accessible, rather than intellectual. When Seitz talks about From Russia With Love, he acknowledges its appeal is not as a piece of art, but as a "cheeky erotic daydream." Similarly — and ironically, really — it requires no particular sophistication at all to enjoy Singin' In The Rain other than avoiding a specifically unsophisticated mindset that makes you reject it. (I fell in love with it as a 15-year-old high school girl whose other favorite movie was The Sure Thing. Sophistication had nothing to do with it.)

We tend to associate sophistication with the ability to think in an advanced, critical, analytical way, but in fact, in both of these cases, what seems to be missing from the ironically detached is the sophistication to allow themselves sensory pleasure, not cerebral enrichment, from film. Singin' In The Rain is a glorious accomplishment, brilliant and beautiful and perfect in my big beating heart, but it is nothing as much as it is distilled joy.

Similarly, a James Bond film — and not being a James Bond person, I might perhaps substitute something like Die Hard on a similar principle, admittedly with less eroticism and less indelible iconography — may be artfully done (the Die Hard DVD commentary is one of my favorites ever, revealing as it does the amount of creative care that went into such a populist piece), but mostly wants to be a pleasure delivery vehicle.

What is actually unsophisticated in the approach of the perpetually distanced viewer is precisely the effort to be theoretically sophisticated: to appreciate only what is serious and important and canonical, to favor anything dark over anything light because that's what makes you smart. These are often the mental workings of people who mistake reflexive skepticism for discernment, which it isn't — it is definitionally no more discerning than reflexive boosterism.

What is also problematic is the influence of the crowd. I suspect that few of those chucklers are in it alone; most are very conscious of the people around them. Particularly in a film class, I suspect they're very conscious of how their reactions will be perceived in terms of defining their scholarship and placing them on an emerging map of who is serious and who is not. What's crippling them isn't just a shortage of sophistication but an abundance of cultural orthodoxy.

Cultural orthodoxy for a mainstream audience might mean embracing superhero movies or feel-good dramas, but when you're a beginning film student and your peers are your point of reference, it might well consist of aggressive disdain itself, of thinking everything is crap except maybe the French New Wave, Quentin Tarantino, and a few obscure horror movies everybody else probably hasn't heard of. Disdain is easier than enthusiasm because you can do it with a hand wave, and quite unfairly, it has a better intellectual reputation.

The great risk, though, is that if you grasp a person by the shoulders and tell him he's unsophisticated for his response — as the film teacher did at the closing of the Singin' In The Rain showing — he won't learn the lesson you mean to teach. He won't learn that he needs to think in a nuanced way about the pleasure and the art and the cultural commentary of film. What he will learn is, "Don't react incorrectly, or people will ridicule you."

That's the mindset I actually fear more than ironic distancing: the refusal to react at all until you know how your reaction will be received. That goes hand in hand with the insidious practice of using what you like and dislike to define not just your taste but your place. It's a quieter, less conspicuous, but just as destructive failure to engage. It's how people learn to substitute what they should think for what they actually think, to the point where they don't trust their own reactions. (Thus the exploding popularity of the term "guilty pleasure," which is designed to allow you to acknowledge what you actually like without making it appear that you don't know what it's correct to like.)

When I was at the Toronto International Film Festival last week, one of the things that struck me was the hesitation to react that I heard over and over in overheard conversations. I heard so much "Weeeeell, it was okay," and so much "Weeeeell, I didn't like it and I didn't hate it," and so much "Weeeeeell, I thought, you know, it was fine," that I began to realize that while some of those reactions grew out of legitimate ambivalence, some of them came from a desire to figure out which way the wind was blowing before they bent in any direction. It's a cautious reaction, but not a particularly nuanced one. In its way, it works: they may not have learned to be unsophisticated, but they have learned how not to be called unsophisticated.

That's why critics, I think, have to be mindful of the role we play in creating not just the notion of sophistication that says only the sad and serious can be good and meaningful and can deserve your buy-in, but also the notion of sophistication that says there is only one right answer, and your sophistication depends on your ability to reach that single answer. The film-student orthodoxy of James Bond Is Silly And Old Stuff Isn't Cool is one problem, but so are the self-sealing orthodoxies of If You Didn't Like It, You Didn't Get It and I Guess It's Okay If You Have Low Standards. We are sometimes careful to couch these things in different terms — the review that diplomatically starts out, "This film isn't for everyone," only to later slip in a comment suggesting that those the film is not "for" are those whose powers of perception are lacking, or the review that explains a film's potential appeal by explaining away its audience.

What has to be preserved in film aficionados and film students and film critics is not just the ability to appreciate James Bond or Singin' In The Rain. What has to be preserved is the ability to show a kind of open-minded assertiveness, where what you learn and what you hear informs your reaction but doesn't define it.

I'm happy to smack the back of the head of anyone who — as Seitz's friend puts it — comes to a movie just to "feel superior to it." But it's possible that someone might sit through Singin' In The Rain with an open mind and still find it corny, or that the eroticism that so entices Seitz in the title sequence of From Russia With Love might play to someone else as an unpleasant reduction of women to disembodied parts. (And I don't think he'd disagree that that reaction would be valid.) What matters is that a reaction to a piece of art — or even just entertainment — be considered, not that it reach a final conclusion that is correct. It really is the journey, not the destination. It really is about how much you can show your work.

No one owes it to anyone else, or to the abstract art of film, to like The Master or Citizen Kane just because of the lists they appear on or the awards they win. But we do perhaps owe it to a film to, as Seitz says, try to "connect emotionally and imaginatively."

Sometimes, make no mistake, you'll do that and someone will take you by the shoulders and tell you you're unsophisticated anyway. The challenge isn't to avoid that admonition, because even if you revert to strict obedience to what everybody supposedly knows, you can't. The challenge is to rigorously interrogate your own responses again and again, whether you're reacting to James Bond or Terrence Malick, and live comfortably in whatever critical space that leaves for you.

18 Sep, 2012


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Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/09/18/161341698/the-sophistication-problem-james-bond-gene-kelly-and-the-limbs-we-live-on?ft=1&f=1045
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Toronto Looks East With Asian Film Summit

Written By Unknown on Senin, 17 September 2012 | 02.13

Luminaries including Mira Nair, Guneet Monga, Shailja Gupta, Nina Lath Gupta and Dibakar Banerjee attended TIFF's Asian Film Summit Banquet to discuss the growth of a new, realist South Asian cinema.
Enlarge Peter Bregg/Getty Images

Luminaries including Mira Nair, Guneet Monga, Shailja Gupta, Nina Lath Gupta and Dibakar Banerjee attended TIFF's Asian Film Summit Banquet to discuss the growth of a new, realist South Asian cinema.

Peter Bregg/Getty Images

Luminaries including Mira Nair, Guneet Monga, Shailja Gupta, Nina Lath Gupta and Dibakar Banerjee attended TIFF's Asian Film Summit Banquet to discuss the growth of a new, realist South Asian cinema.

On Sunday, Sept. 15, the annual Toronto International Film Festival came to a close after 11 days of screenings, meetings and, of course, parties. It's become an extremely important place to kick off the fall film season. But this year, the festival wasn't only looking west to Hollywood — it was also sharpening its focus on the East, and the rise of new cinema from India in particular.

One of the films at this year's Toronto festival was called Shanghai; it comes from Mumbai, and was directed by Dibakar Banerjee.

"One often-repeated refrain that you hear in India is that this city is going to be like Shanghai, and that city is going to be like Singapore, and that city is going to be like London," says Banerjee. "And it's usually a promise made by a politician who is holding up the carrot of progress to his constituency."

Banerjee's film is a searing portrait of both benefactors and victims of the economic boom in India.

"When everything is about more buildings, more factories, more companies, more MBAs and all that, a lot of vulnerable lifestyles get broken down, and there's resentment building up because everybody wanted a share of the pie, but only a few got it," he explains. "And those who haven't got it are watching, and they're not happy."

Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai is part of a gritty new wave of Indian film.
Enlarge TIFF

Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai is part of a gritty new wave of Indian film.

TIFF

Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai is part of a gritty new wave of Indian film.

For Banerjee, those social tensions are the stuff of important stories to tell, and his film is the standard-bearer for a recent wave of gritty, realistic films from India — movies that are very different from the exotic song-and-dance landscapes of Bollywood.

"It's really just dynamic right now," says Cameron Bailey, the Toronto film festival's artistic director. "There's so much great work going on. I feel like international festivals like ours should be paying — all of us should be paying more attention to what's happening in Asia."

He says in addition to showing the human side of the massive social and economic shifts in South Asia, these films are also creating a new kind of globalized aesthetic that's a good fit for Toronto.

"This is the city that discovered Slumdog Millionaire — the film was premiered here first — and that's, I think, a good example. It's a film by a British director, set in India, in English and Hindi. That's a completely normal Toronto film."

Toronto is itself a product of globalization. It's home to huge immigrant communities from India and China. Almost half of Torontonians are not white. Multiculturalism is the official government position. This all adds up to sold-out screenings of Indian films at the Festival.

Walking past the red carpet, for instance, you might hear a gaggle of young women trying to catch the attention of South Indian superstar Siddharth, on hand for the premiere of Midnight's Children. The adaptation of Salman Rushdie's lush magic-realist novel screened as a gala presentation along with Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Nair's film, set in five countries, follows a young man with loyalties divided between East and West. For the director, Toronto was the natural venue to introduce the film to North America.

"Toronto is a very multi-ethnic joint," she says. "People are here from all over the world, people have moved here as well from all over the world, so there's a greater worldly curiosity."

Nair made her name in 1989 with Salaam Bombay, a film about street children that was eventually nominated for an Oscar. She went on to direct Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake. When it comes to hyphenated, global storytelling with Indian roots, Nair paved the way.

Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist was filmed in five countries, with editing and post-production done entirely in India.
Enlarge TIFF

Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist was filmed in five countries, with editing and post-production done entirely in India.

TIFF

Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist was filmed in five countries, with editing and post-production done entirely in India.

"The other day someone referred to me as the Dadi — the grandmother — of all this cinema, and I said, well, that's a little ageist, but I'm going for the Dadi syndrome, no problem." Nair says. "I feel very proud of the great vigor I see in Indian cinema now."

Nair, normally based in New York, took a different route with The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

"The difference for me in this film was that the post-production was done entirely in India, which is a very exciting thing to do because I realized that I can do it — I can make an international film of the highest of quality in Bombay. That's a lovely, empowering feeling."

The Art Of Making Art Involves Selling It, Too

Toronto isn't just a place to screen these kinds of films. It's a marketplace. In the industry lounge next door to the cinemas, directors meet producers meet distributors meet financiers — all on the hunt for new business.

"The market in Toronto is extremely well-developed," observes Guneet Monga, one of the most successful producers of independent films from India. She says just coming to Toronto opens doors.

"Once we're here, I don't have to explain that I make good content, I just have to walk in and say I have films in Toronto and it's a statement, and people take a meeting, and when I say that I have four films in Toronto, they're pleasantly surprised."

To spotlight producers like Monga, the festival hosted an all-day summit on Asian cinema this year. It brought Western investors and policymakers together with their Chinese and Indian counterparts to discuss everything from co-productions to censorship.

Artistic director Cameron Bailey was also behind the festival's focus on the East.

"I'm thinking back to what happened in the 1920s and '30s and '40s, when you saw so many Europeans come to Hollywood. They came for political reasons, often, just trying to escape pretty awful circumstances in some cases, in Europe, but they changed Hollywood. There was a new sophistication in the comedies, for instance — people like Ernst Lubitsch. There [were] just new kinds of stories that were being told. I think something similar will happen when we see Asia make its way into Western filmmaking in a stronger way. I think we're just at the beginning of that, and I wanted the Asian Film Summit to really help that conversation move forward."

Bailey says that for him, making Toronto a crossroads of cultures is also personal.

"My wife is Chinese-Canadian; we have a young son, he's 3 and a half years old, he's just started preschool, and I want him to grow up in city and in a world where all of his cultures are front and center, where he doesn't feel marginalized in any way, and so that's also part of why I'm doing this."

Toronto is a meeting point between East and West, but those encounters aren't just about multicultural warm-and-fuzzies — they're about a shared love for both the art and the dollars.

17 Sep, 2012


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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/17/161144119/toronto-looks-east-with-asian-film-summit?ft=1&f=1045
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Cara Kencan Para Putri

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 27 Maret 2012 | 00.41

Cara Kencan Para Putri Tidak sulit untuk mencari strategi kencan yang ideal. Majalah atau internet juga bisa dijadikan solusi, atau Anda juga dapat belajar dari sahabat terdekat. Tapi siapa sangka, kalau film kartun si kecil juga bisa jadi inspirasi.

Happily never after, hal inilah yang selalu ditampilkan di akhir film. Sang putri cantik hidup bahagia dengan pangeran. Taukah Anda bagaimana setiap putri dapat "merobek" hati seorang pangeran? Kecantikan saja tidak cukup, tetapi juga dibutuhkan sifat kepolosan yang penuh strategi, seperti yang dilansir All women stalk.

Tidak sulit untuk mencari strategi kencan yang ideal. Majalah atau internet juga bisa dijadikan solusi, atau Anda juga dapat belajar dari sahabat terdekat. Tapi siapa sangka, kalau film kartun si kecil juga bisa jadi inspirasi.

Happily never after, hal inilah yang selalu ditampilkan di akhir film. Sang putri cantik hidup bahagia dengan pangeran. Taukah Anda bagaimana setiap putri dapat "merobek" hati seorang pangeran? Kecantikan saja tidak cukup, tetapi juga dibutuhkan sifat kepolosan yang penuh strategi, seperti yang dilansir All women stalk.

Cinderella = Jadilah misterius
Pemilik sepatu kaca ini tahu kapan dia harus meninggalkan pangeran. Karena jika diam di tempat, kebenaran tentang jati diri akan terungkap dan menghilangkan rasa penasaran pangeran. Kemisteriusan akan membuat rasa rindu, hingga pangeran akan mencari tahu banyak tentang Cinderella. Anda dapat mengikuti kisah putri satu ini, dengan menjadi sosok yang misterius meski Anda mencintainya. Kaum pria sangat mencintai petualangan, sama dengan dunia percintaan.

Snow white = Dikelilingi teman pria
Dikelilingi 7 kurcaci menjadi keberhasilan putri salju menemukan pangeran. Dalam kehidupan nyata persaingan dan kecemburuan selalu hadir di awal hubungan. Ahli percintaan mengatakan, bahwa wanita yang memiliki banyak sahabat pria cenderung memiliki sikap sosial dan mampu mengatasi masalah pria-wanita, selain itu mereka juga mempunyai sifat setia pada pasangan, karena mampu menarik garis jelas antara hubungan cinta dan persahabatan. Di awalnya mungkin sang pangeran akan terancam dengan kehadiran sahabat pria Anda, tetapi di depannya mungkin ia juga akan berteman dengan mereka.

Little mermaid =  Menggunakan bahasa tubuh
Cerewet itu bukan suatu hal yang dapat memenangkan hati seprang pria. Lihatlah Ariel, ia tak bisa bicara tetapi dapat mengikat hati pangeran. Rahasianya adalah bahasa tubuh yang dimilikinya.Bahasa tubuh lebih bisa berbicara banyak daripada bahasa verbal. Cobalah untuk body language ketika marah ataupun merasa nyaman dengan pasangan karena hal ini bisa menjadi kunci keharmonisan bagi hubungan Anda

Jasmine = Cinta bebas prasangka
Setiap orang di dunia pantas dicintai dan memiliki. Hindari pemikiran " saya tidak sempurna" atau "dia teralu baik untuk saya". Anda tentunya akan bertemu dengan orang-orang yang tidak memiliki kesamaan dengan Anda. Seperti halnya Jasmine ketika jatuh cinta pada Aladin, apakah dia berpikir masa depannya akan suram karena jatuh cinta dengan kalangan bawah? Tidak, ia lebih memilih perasaan cintamya dibanding kemewahan yang ia miliki. Tapi untuk mengetahui cocok atau tidak, Anda harus mengenal mereka lebih dulu yang berarti Anda telah berada di satu langkah yang lebih maju.

Belle = Terima apa adanya
Meski berpenampilan cantik, Belle tetap menerima pangerannya yang buruk rupa. Kita memang selalu mengimpikan pangeran dengan wajah tampan dan fisik sempurna, tapi semua itu hanya ada di negeri dongeng. Jadi menerima pasangan apa adanya menjadi suatu kunci keharmonisan suatu hubungan.

Rapunzel = Pahlawan juga membutuhkan bantuan
Ia memayungi Anda saat hujan di luar, atau membukakan pintu untuk Anda. Seperti Rapunzel, pasangan Anda pun akan siap menjadi pahlawan ketika situasi buruk menghampiri, Namun adakalanya, sang pahlawan juga membutuhkan bantuan. Lihatlah putri satu ini, ia membatu pahlawannya meski tanpa diminta. Bantuan tidak hanya berupa fisik tetapi juga rasa pengertian saat sibuk.

Sleeping beauty = Biarkan ia menolong
Selain ciuman pangeran yang mampu membangunkan tidurnya, banyak hal menarik  strategi kencan di sini. Saat ini, banyak wanita modern yang mandiri. Hal ini terkadang membuat kaum pria takut mendekatinya. Biarkanlah mereka menolong Anda, dan biasakan ucapkan terima kasih dengan kata-kata manis atau kecupan. Mungkin kisah cinta Anda juga dapat berakhir bahagia seperti Sleeping beauty.
Pemilik sepatu kaca ini tahu kapan dia harus meninggalkan pangeran. Karena jika diam di tempat, kebenaran tentang jati diri akan terungkap dan menghilangkan rasa penasaran pangeran. Kemisteriusan akan membuat rasa rindu, hingga pangeran akan mencari tahu banyak tentang Cinderella. Anda dapat mengikuti kisah putri satu ini, dengan menjadi sosok yang misterius meski Anda mencintainya. Kaum pria sangat mencintai petualangan, sama dengan dunia percintaan.

Snow white = Dikelilingi teman pria
Dikelilingi 7 kurcaci menjadi keberhasilan putri salju menemukan pangeran. Dalam kehidupan nyata persaingan dan kecemburuan selalu hadir di awal hubungan. Ahli percintaan mengatakan, bahwa wanita yang memiliki banyak sahabat pria cenderung memiliki sikap sosial dan mampu mengatasi masalah pria-wanita, selain itu mereka juga mempunyai sifat setia pada pasangan, karena mampu menarik garis jelas antara hubungan cinta dan persahabatan. Di awalnya mungkin sang pangeran akan terancam dengan kehadiran sahabat pria Anda, tetapi di depannya mungkin ia juga akan berteman dengan mereka.

Little mermaid =  Menggunakan bahasa tubuh
Cerewet itu bukan suatu hal yang dapat memenangkan hati seprang pria. Lihatlah Ariel, ia tak bisa bicara tetapi dapat mengikat hati pangeran. Rahasianya adalah bahasa tubuh yang dimilikinya.Bahasa tubuh lebih bisa berbicara banyak daripada bahasa verbal. Cobalah untuk body language ketika marah ataupun merasa nyaman dengan pasangan karena hal ini bisa menjadi kunci keharmonisan bagi hubungan Anda

Jasmine = Cinta bebas prasangka
Setiap orang di dunia pantas dicintai dan memiliki. Hindari pemikiran " saya tidak sempurna" atau "dia teralu baik untuk saya". Anda tentunya akan bertemu dengan orang-orang yang tidak memiliki kesamaan dengan Anda. Seperti halnya Jasmine ketika jatuh cinta pada Aladin, apakah dia berpikir masa depannya akan suram karena jatuh cinta dengan kalangan bawah? Tidak, ia lebih memilih perasaan cintamya dibanding kemewahan yang ia miliki. Tapi untuk mengetahui cocok atau tidak, Anda harus mengenal mereka lebih dulu yang berarti Anda telah berada di satu langkah yang lebih maju.

Belle = Terima apa adanya

Meski berpenampilan cantik, Belle tetap menerima pangerannya yang buruk rupa. Kita memang selalu mengimpikan pangeran dengan wajah tampan dan fisik sempurna, tapi semua itu hanya ada di negeri dongeng. Jadi menerima pasangan apa adanya menjadi suatu kunci keharmonisan suatu hubungan.

Rapunzel = Pahlawan juga membutuhkan bantuan
Ia memayungi Anda saat hujan di luar, atau membukakan pintu untuk Anda. Seperti Rapunzel, pasangan Anda pun akan siap menjadi pahlawan ketika situasi buruk menghampiri, Namun adakalanya, sang pahlawan juga membutuhkan bantuan. Lihatlah putri satu ini, ia membatu pahlawannya meski tanpa diminta. Bantuan tidak hanya berupa fisik tetapi juga rasa pengertian saat sibuk.

Sleeping beauty = Biarkan ia menolong
Selain ciuman pangeran yang mampu membangunkan tidurnya, banyak hal menarik  strategi kencan di sini. Saat ini, banyak wanita modern yang mandiri. Hal ini terkadang membuat kaum pria takut mendekatinya. Biarkanlah mereka menolong Anda, dan biasakan ucapkan terima kasih dengan kata-kata manis atau kecupan. Mungkin kisah cinta Anda juga dapat berakhir bahagia seperti Sleeping beauty.
00.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesi

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 16 Maret 2012 | 05.06

Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia  Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia merupakan promosi Yang dilakukan Oleh Minimarket Lokal Terbesar dan Minimarket Pertama Terbaik Indonesia guna untuk menarik Simpati dan Perhatian lebih dari masyarakat untuk menjadi Member Alfamart dan khususnya pecinta Informasi internet dengan menyelenggarakan Promo Indonesia Kontes SEO Alfamart 2012.

Bagi anda yang suka berbelanja tentunya tidak asing lagi dengan minimarket yang satu ini. Sebagai Minimarket Pertama yang memiliki member terbanyak di Indonesia Alfamart memberikan banyak inovasi untuk memanjakan membernya. Salah satunya adalah dengan konsisten 2 minggu sekali  memberikan Promo khusus untuk member-membernya baik untuk berbelanja di Alfamart atau pun di merchant-merchant yang banyak bekerja sama dengan Alfamart untuk memberikan potongan harga atau harga spesial.

Alfamart Minimarket Pertama yang memiliki member terbanyak di Indonesia Alfamart Memberikan Motivasi dan Inspirasi serta Inovasi untuk memanjakan membernya. Salah satunya adalah dengan konsisten 2 minggu sekali  memberikan Promo Indonesia khusus untuk Member Alfamart baik untuk berbelanja di Alfamart Minimarket atau pun di merchant-merchant yang banyak bekerja sama dengan Alfamart Minimarket untuk memberikan potongan harga atau harga spesial.

Member Alfamart Adalah sebutan untuk para pelanggan setia Alfamart.Para member Alfamart akan mendapatkan berbagai macam keuntungan dan kejutan special dari Alfamart seperti: HematKu, Kalender Belanja, Specialku dan Hadiahku,serta program ekslusif lainnya. Member Alfamart adalah pelanggan yang memiliki dan bergabung dalam keanggotaan Kartu AKU, A Card Flazz atau Kartu AKU BNI Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia

KARTU AKU Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia

    Kartu Aku

Adalah kartu member yang pertama kali diluncurkan Alfamart pada tahun 2005. Dengan Kartu AKU, Member akan dapat memperoleh manfaat dan berbagai macam keuntungan serta Promo Indonesia menarik yang tidak dapat diikuti oleh pelanggan lain yang bukan merupakan member Kartu AKU. Kartu AKU berlaku Nasional di Alfamart seluruhIndonesia.

A CARD FINAL Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia
    A Card Flazz

Adalah Kartu Member Alfamart yang di luncurkan pada 15 Mei 2010 bekerja sama dengan Flazz BCA, yang selain berfungsi sebagai kartu member juga dapat digunakan sebagai alat pembayaran/transaksi karena A Card Flazz merupakan Kartu Prepaid (kartu non rekening yang dapat menyimpan uang untuk keperluan berbagai transaksi).

A Card Flazz dapat digunakan sebagai alat pembayaran tidak hanya diseluruh outlet Alfamart, Alfamidi ataupun Alfaexpress tetapi juga diseluruh merchant Flazz antara lain restoran, salon, toko buku, parkir, bioskop dan masih banyak lagi. Untuk sementara ini, A Card Flazz berlaku di Jabodetabek,Surabaya

KARTU AKU BNI Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia
    Kartu Aku BNI

Merupakan salah satu Kartu Member Alfamart yang di luncurkan pada 1 Januari 2010, merupakan kerjasama antara Alfamart dengan Bank BNI. Kartu AKU BNI merupakan kartu multifungsional, yang selain berfungsi sebagai kartu member, juga berfungsi sebagai alat pembayaran. Pengguna Kartu AKU BNI juga akan mendapatkan berbagai keuntungan dan kejutan spesial dari Alfamart serta tentunya dapat mengikuti program-program eksklusif khusus member di Alfamart. Untuk saat ini, Kartu AKU BNI berlaku di Alfamart Jabodetabek.
8 Keuntungan Member Alfamart

   1. Hematku dan Kalender Belanja
   2. Spesialku dan Hadiahku
   3. Special Big Program for "Member Alfamart"
   4. Redemption For "Member Alfamart"
   5. Member Alfamart" Thematic Promo
   6. Special Treatment for "Member Alfamart" Birthday
   7. Special Event/Activities For "Member Alfamart"
   8. Merchant For "Member Alfamart"

 

Demikianlah penjelasan singkat tentang  Promo Member Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia Semoga dapat bermanfaat dan memberikan pengetahuan Lebih kepada masyarakat agar dapat bergabung menjadi Member Alfamart dan pastikan anda mendapakan keuntungan dan manfaat lebih dari Alfamart Minimarket Lokal Terbaik Indonesia
05.06 | 0 komentar | Read More

Selalu Tampil Penuh Daya Pikat

Selalu Tampil Penuh Daya Pikat Ingin mendapatkan cinta baru di hari Valentine dalam hitungan hari? Jangan stres dulu memikirkan siapa yang akan Anda ajak pada perayaan kasih sayang. Anda hanya perlu melakukan jurus-jurus jitu agar tampil menarik.

Apa itu daya tarik? Daya tarik mungkin terkesan misterius dan sulit dimengerti, mengingat kita tidak akan pernah tahu apakah orang-orang yang didekati tertarik pada kita. Bagi para ilmuwan, daya tarik seperti reaksi kimia antara dopamin, serotonin, oksitoksin, dan adrenalin.

Namun, tak perlu susah-susah memikirkan apa daya tarik Anda. Mulailah hari ini dengan bertanya pada diri sendiri, 'Siapa Anda hari ini?' Lalu, lakukan beberapa jurus jitu berikut agar banyak orang yang melirik Anda, seperti dikutip dari Daily Mail.

Senyum

Agar orang-orang menyukai Anda, tunjukkan bahwa Anda menyukai mereka. Anda tidak akan tampil menarik tanpa senyum tersungging di bibir.

Warna pakaian

Para ahli menilai bahwa wanita menyukai pria dalam balutan pakaian berwarna biru yang menandakan kekuatan, keseriusan, dan dapat diandalkan. Sementara itu, pria lebih cenderung memilih wanita yang menggunakan pakaian berwarna pink atau peach yang berarti mudah untuk didekati.

Selalu positif

Baik wanita maupun pria akan tertarik pada orang-orang yang percaya diri, ramah, dan positif. Jadi, selalu ramah terhadap orang lain dan lihat apa yang akan terjadi.
03.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kesedihan Yang Mematikan

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 07 Maret 2012 | 05.40

Kesedihan Yang Mematikan Kesendirian tak hanya berbuah kesedihan. Hasil penelitian terbaru mengungkap bahwa kesendirian bisa memacu penyakit kronis hingga memicu kematian lebih cepat.

John Cacioppo dari University of Chicago melakukan penelitian tentang efek biologis kesendirian. Ia memaparkan hasil penelitiannya di ajang Social Psychology and Perception Meeting di San Diego, Februari lalu.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitiannya, Cacioppo mengungkapkan bahwa kesendirian bisa berdampak pada pengerasan arteri, memicu tekanan darah tinggi, pembengkakan tubuh dan masalah ingatan.

Cacioppo juga menganalisis perubahan sistem kekebalan tubuh pada orang yang diisolasi. Spesifiknya, peneliti meneliti ekspresi gen tertentu pada pribadi yang mengalami kesendirian.

Ilmuwan menemukan bahwa gen yang terkait pembengkakan dan aktivasi sistem kekebalan siekspresikan berlebihan. Sementara, gen lain yang terkait kkebalan virus dan produksi antibodi kurang diekspresikan.

Ditemukan pula bahwa sistem kekebalan tubuh pribadi yang mengalami kesendirian cenderung fokus menyerang bakteri. Akibatnya, pribadi ini lebih rentan pada serangan virus serta penyakit yang terkait.

Pada tingkat hormonal, kesendirian merangsang sekresi hormon kortisol, kesendiriang menimbulkan tekanan darah tinggi serta menyebabkan serangan jantung. Kesendirian juga mengurangi kualitas tidur.

"Kesendirian bisa menimbulkan hiperreaktifitas pada perilaku buruk orang lain, jadi orang yang kesepian melihat perlakuan itu lebih dalam. Ini membuatnya jatuh lebih dalam pada perasaan kesepian," kata Cacioppo seperti dikutip Livescience, Jumat (2/3/2012).

Pada pribadi yang mengalami kesendirian atau kesepian, Cacioppo mengatakan bahwa upaya terbaik adalah adalah melatih kemampuan sosial tertentu sehingga melihat dunia lebih positif serta memupuk kemauan untuk berbagi.
05.40 | 0 komentar | Read More

Layanan Tradisional di Rumah Sakit

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 06 Maret 2012 | 08.10

Layanan Tradisional di Rumah Sakit  Meskipun  55 persen penduduk Indonesia menggunakan ramuan tradisional  untuk memelihara kesehatannya, dan sebesar 96 persen mengakui ramuan tradisional yang digunakan sangat bermanfaat bagi kesehatan namun hingga saat ini baru sedikit rumah sakit atau dokter yang mau memadukan layanan herbal dengan kedokteran modern.

Padahal, amanat UU 36 tahun 2009 tentang kesehatan menyebutkan bahwa pelayanan tradisional masuk sebagai bahagian dari 17 pelayanan kesehatan.
"Memadukan pelayanan kesehatan yang konvensional dan tradisional di rumah sakit bukanlah perkara mudah," ucap Dr. Slamet Riyadi Yuwono, selaku Direktur Jenderal Bina Gizi dan Kesehatan Ibu dan Anak Kementerian Kesehatan, saat acara temu media, di Gedung Kementerian Kesehatan, Jumat (2/3/2012).

Slamet mengatakan, diperlukan sebuah diskusi yang panjang untuk dapat memadukan pelayanan kesehatan tradisional di dalam rumah sakit terutama kepada para guru besar dan dokter.  "Karena mereka sudah bertahun-tahun ilmunya diajari dengan evidence based, sehingga untuk menerimanya butuh upaya pembuktian ilmiah supaya bisa diterima oleh kaum ilmuwan," tambahnya.

Sementara itu Dr. Abidinsyah Siregar, Direktur Direktorat Bina Pelayanan Kesehatan Tradisional, Alternatif dan Komplementer Direktorat Jenderal Bina Gizi dan KIA mengungkapkan bahwa tidak sulit sebenarnya untuk mengintegrasikan pelayanan kesehatan tradisional di seluruh tingkat fasilitas layanan kesehatan.

"Kita cuma butuh waktu antara lain perlu sosialisasi dan penjelasan bahwa ini sudah diamanatkan Undang-undang. Kalau sudah diamanatkan Undang-undang kan berarti sudah permintaan masyarakat dan harus disediakan," jelasnya.

Integrasi pelayanan diartikan sebagai penggabungan sebagian atau seluruh aspek pengobatan tradisional yang akan memberikan manfaat atau khasiat pengobatan yang lebih baik (sebagai komplementar-alternatif) pada pelayanan kesehatan disemua tingkatan fasilitas kesehatan, termasuk aspek regulasi, pembiayaan, serta kebijakan mengenai penyelenggaraan pelayanan dan obat yang digunakan.

"Dalam rangka penyediaan layanan pengobatan tradisional di seluruh tingkatan fasilitas kesehatan kita harus mulai membangun manajemen, organisasi, melatih tenaga kesehatan, menyusun norma, standar, pedoman dan regulasi. Inilah yang memakan waktu," ungkapnya.

Abidinsyah melanjutkan, jika pelayanan kesehatan tradisional sudah dapat diintegrasikan ke seluruh tingkatan fasilitas layanan kesehatan (rumah sakit atau puskesmas), maka penegakkan diagnosa tetap harus dilakukan secara konvensional. Misalnya dengan pemeriksaan darah di laboratorium.

Tetapi perbedaannya, pilihan terapi yang diberikan dokter bisa beragam yakni dapat berupa konvensional saja, konvensional plus komplementer atau murni alternatif.

"Terapi dapat diberikan oleh dokter yang telah memiliki sertifikat kompetensi dan tenaga kesehatan yang mendapat pelatihan khusus di bidang tradisional komplementer," ucapnya.

Abidin menambahkan, meski kini pelajaran tentang herbal sudah di masukkan ke dalam kurikulum kedokteran, tetapi hal tersebut dianggapnya masih belum cukup. "Pengajaran di fakultas kedokteran tidak menjelaskan cukup banyak tentang herbal. Oleh karena itu kita berharap, para dekan di Indonesia mendorong supaya materi pengajaran soal herbal ditambah," tutupnya.
08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More
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