Kodak Portra Film + Canon AE-1

Link to buy 5 pack on Amazon

So I don't normally geek out about cameras, film, lenses, or any of that stuff on this blog.  I mostly stay focused on media consumption not production.  However, I wanted to do a post on Kodak Portra film because I have been using it lately with my mother's old Canon AE-1 with its 50 mm most likely stock lens and the results are just awesome.  I first received the camera from her to take with me to Paris for study abroad.  I didn't have a SLR camera of any kind and she had long since moved on to something better, so she lent me hers and she never got it back.  I love the ethereal quality of the images I get with it.  Even though I normally shoot on a DSLR now (film and developing are so expensive!), I bought a bunch of film in bulk on Amazon including some Ilford black and white film and this Kodak Portra 400 film.

As the name clearly indicates, it's meant for taking portraits because it has a fine grain and good skin tone reproduction, but I have found that the colors are gorgeous for landscapes, cityscapes, and just about anything.  Here's some of my results from some summer trips to Portland and Santa Barbara, straight from the film scan, no retouching.  I'll post more images from these trips in the coming weeks.

Collected Images: White

Jacob Sutton

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Antonio Carrillo López

NASA (public domain)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

 While I have not yet read Cloud Atlas or seen the film, I definitely want to do both (in that order), because I have read David Mitchell’s novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet a while ago and it was excellent.  It’s the story of Jacob, a young Dutch clerk who, engaged to be married and in search of fortune to support his future bride, sets sail in the year 1799 with the Dutch East India Company for the trading outpost in Dejima, Japan.  During the Edo Period, in an effort to avoid the incursion of Western culture into Japan, as was occurring in neighboring China, the Japanese government refused to allow any Europeans to actually set foot on the empire’s soil.  As a concession to trade, a man-made island in Nagasaki Bay, connected to the city by a bridge, served as the Dutch trading outpost.  It was the only European trading outpost in all of Japan and the Dutch were fortunate enough to be the only Europeans allowed access.  It is against this backdrop of rigid restrictions that Jacob finds himself falling in love with a Japanese midwife, Orito, one of the few Japanese allowed on the island of Dejima.  Mitchell’s novel is intricate and detailed historical fiction, but it’s far from dry; the details enliven the story and transplant you to a time and place little explored.  I think one of my favorite aspects of the book was that I knew so little about this encounter between the Dutch and the Japanese and everything about the relationship is so constrained, it’s like you are waiting for something to explode.  The plot weaves forbidden romance, ninjas, sieges, humor, prophecy, secret mountain monasteries...  Enough I feel like the Peter Falk in “The Princess Bride” trying to persuade Fred Savage to listen to the the story.  Just read it already!  You will not be able to put it down.

A Thanksgiving Book Review: The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

The Memory Palace: A Memoir

One summer evening on my drive home, I was tuned into Fresh Air and I heard Terry Gross interview the writer and artist Mira Bartok about her memoir called The Memory Palace. Mira’s mother had schizophrenia and eventually became homeless as Mira and her sister were unable to help her or care for her.  I promptly ordered the book and threw it into my beach bag for a nice day of laying out in the sun.  Sooo the wrong choice.  I mean it’s definitely not odd for me grab a book about mental illness or homelessness and think, “oh yeah, beach reading, that’ll be perfect.”  So it wasn’t really the topic, except that it was.  The Memory Palace is a really moving and personal account of Mira and her sister’s struggle to grow up with a mother with debilitating mental illness and the equally difficult process of dealing with the fact that they simply could not take care of her at risk of their own safety and sanity.  I was laying on my beach towel, tears streaming down my face reading this book.  It’s very well written and engaging, and while it is moving, it’s not saccharine or sentimental because it is Mira’s real experiences, not some imagined version of the story.  The memoir also delves into memory and how memories are formed, reconstructed and preserved as Mira experienced a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that severely damaged her short term memory.

I highly recommend it as an interesting read, and for another perspective on homelessness.  The travesty that is our mental health care system lets people slip through the cracks all the time.  The current presiding policy: Better to let ten mentally ill people became homeless (or worse, think Jared Lee Loughner or James Eagan Holmes) than take away the civil liberties of one person who is mentally competent.  The stigma that still overshadows all mental health care doesn’t help either.  However, all of this is somewhat besides the point this Thanksgiving Day. 

I know Thanksgiving is almost over and we (myself included) are about to go gorge ourselves again, this time our consumerist tendencies, but let's try to hang onto some of that Thanksgiving spirit as we arm wrestle over the last Tickle Me Elmo - oh wait that was 1996. Well, over whatever toy kids "have" to have this year.

Here's the parting thought from The Memory Palace to see you through Black Friday and through the holidays.  One thing Mira talks about in the book is that knowing her mother was out there on the street, but not knowing where she was, changed the way she viewed homeless people.  She found that she began to give some of the homeless people she encountered food or water, thinking, “I hope someone is doing this for my mother right now.”  That experience humanized the homeless for her.  A thought I have since tried to hang onto when I pass by a huddled figure on the sidewalk or in the park, though it is not easy and I still mostly fail.

Collected Images: Light

Sam Javanrouh

Jones Oliver

FFFF-ck ffffound!

I'm so tired of having to look at sexist, exploitative images on ffffound! Here's some inspiration images for you, from ffffound and elsewhere without the T and A and crotch shots.  Luckily, Pinterest is edging into the image collecting space, which obviously has a much different dynamic since it's so female dominated and doesn't allow nudity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against tasteful nudity or an honest exploration of the human body, but that's not what is on fffound and its always women who are spread eagle or rearing tits heaven/lens-ward, and very occasionally men. I think I can hear the diehard fffound devotees now scoffing into their hipster mustaches about how cheesy and commercial or just plain ditzy they find Pinterest.  Not for people who are "serious" about art. And that's fine. The what is art conversation is a whole different ball of wax.  I would agree that for a certain guy posting endless "artsy" pictures of naked women may not seem too different from some women posting endless images of shoes and chocolate.  But shoes and chocolate actually are objects... whereas the naked women aren't.

 

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito)

Antonio Banderas and co-star Elena Anaya

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar's 2011 film has been in my dvd queue for a while and we finally got a chance to watch it this weekend.  It's often described as psychological thriller, but I'm not sure I would agree.  It doesn't have a lot of the pace psychological thrillers often have, so I would almost call it a psychologically probing but relatively bloodless horror film.  I'm not particularly a fan of the horror genre, and I wasn't particularly a fan of the the movie experience of The Skin I Live In, but it does offer good food for thought.

The film is the story of famous and tortured Spanish plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas).  After his wife is burned to death in a car accident, he develops a replacement for human skin that is resistant to burns, insect bites, and injuries.  He conducts his experiments on a mysterious female patient that he holds prisoner in his private mansion/clinic with the help of his faithful servant Marilia.  The prisoner practices yoga, reads, and tears her clothing to shreds, but she does not seem likely to escape.  One day Marilia receives an unexpected visitor and events are set into motion that change the status quo.

I found this film highly repellent and the horror of it is still bouncing around in my brain.  My complaint is entirely with the content and not with Almodóvar's filmmaking, I think he delivered a good film for the most part.  There was one what I would call "convenient" moment towards the end that felt artificial, but for the most part, the script flows, the acting is excellent, the shots are beautiful and there is great attention to detail and visuals, from wardrobe to the paintings on the walls of the Dr. Ledgard's mansion.

As I was searching for photographs to illustrate my review, I was thinking how many strange and suggestive images I could include that might give hints as to the content of the film or entirely color someone's opinion about it.  The following things occur in the film and there are film stills of these moments floating around the internet: murder, rape, torture, plastic surgery, consentual sex, self-mutilation, and Carnivale.  While it includes all of these horrific things, it's not a flashy, gritty,  excessively violent, or highly experiential film.  There's not a lot of pounding music, it's a quiet, very well paced, and carefully plotted film.  The fact that Almodóvar really takes his time is probably what allows the horror of things to sneak up on and completely shock the viewer the most.

As I mentioned before, I do not like horror films particularly.  I think because this one succeeds very well at delicately exploring a horrifying subject matter, I simply did not enjoy watching it.  That does not mean that others should not watch it and it doesn't mean I'm not recommending you do.  If you enjoy psychological horror films, even without all the blood and guts, I think you would enjoy this film.  At the same time, if you want to be scared, this isn't really the film for you.  It's not frightening, things don't jump out at you.  It's just highly disturbing.  So proceed with caution is my advice.

Waiting for Lightning Official Trailer

I wanted to give an update for the feature documentary I produced Waiting for Lightning. 

Coming out in theaters December 7th! If you are in LA or NYC you can catch it December 6th. 

Check out the site for screening times: www.waitingforlightningthemovie.com

We Dream Together Teaser

See below for the teaser for our short film "We Dream Together," about a young woman who came to the United States as a child but has no legal immigration status. She is applying for the DACA, which would grant her regular status for two years, but the DREAM Act would offer a long term solution to young Americans like her. We are working hard to finish the film before the upcoming election.

We Dream Together 2013

This project is still in the works, but some of my friends and colleagues have banded together to help form the We Dream Together 2013 collective.  We are a group of Americans who want to do anything we can to help pass the Dream Act in the year 2013.  We are starting out with a campaign to help people understand the issue and to put them in the shoes of an undocumented young person trying to pursue an education and her American Dream.  We have launched our fledgling group with a Facebook page to help gather supporters and we posted our logo today, designed by Venti Hristova.  It's very exciting to be part of something that just spontaneously came together like this.  Can't wait to share our first clip with everyone.  Check out the page and our new logo: http://www.facebook.com/WeDreamTogether2013.

Shutter Island: Boston-related Film Review #2

Found this review in my drafts folder of my iPad and thought I'd add it to the collection.

It might be kind of a stretch, but I'm classing Shutter Island in my Boston film category because it takes place supposedly on an island in the Boston Harbor and because we recently received it on blu-ray from Netflix.  Location is the only thing it will have in common with the others which are mostly Affleck brothers creations.

Martin Scorsese's attempt to create a Kubrick-esque piece of mind-bending film fell a little flat for me.  In general, it was an entertaining film and I like the concept, but something wasn't quite right, despite an wonderful cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley.

The film begins with US Marshall Edward "Teddy" Daniels (DiCaprio) arriving on Shutter Island, a secure facility for the criminally insane, via ferry. His ostensible purpose, the investigation of the disappearance of a dangerous and delusional patient, but as he admits to his partner, he is really searching for his wife's killer, a man he believes to be interned on the island.  Even this mission begins to give way to a deeper search for the truth as reality begins to become a moving target.  He knows something is not right, but he can't quite figure out what it is.

If dead wife, Leo, and shifting reality ring bells for you, you are not alone.  The themes bear a strange similarity to those in Inception, though the two films are vastly different. Still if you only want to see one, I would highly recommend Inception; I found it far superior (I reviewed it here).

Shutter Island just didn't quite transcend the ordinary. Shutter Island wasn't a bad film, but you hope for better with a combination like Scorsese and DiCaprio.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

 

I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild the other night at The Landmark with some friends from work.  Feeling very "filmy" I have to say I really enjoyed the surrealist Sundance hit.  It's what I would call an intuitive movie; to verbalize much of what goes on in the world of young Hush Puppy, a six-year-old girl who lives with her father in the fictional New Orleans adjacent bayou called The Bathtub, is to trivialize much of what you experience through her eyes.  

The wide-eyed wonder blended with fierce determination and strength of will of young Quvenzhané Wallis is riveting as Hush Puppy and her father played by Dwight Henry, is more three dimensional than the standard tough-love daddy.  The story of the people of The Bathtub is told through the adventures of young Hush Puppy and her daddy, trying to weather a storm that submerges their world in brackish water.  

As we follow their desperate attempt to restore their home and the community of The Bathtub, we feel the obvious Katrina undertones, but nothing feels forced, the story remains foremost in our minds and any political commentary is achieved through the emotional reactions the story elicits.  I don't want to discuss too much of the plot as I feel this is simply a film to be experienced, not analyzed.  I will merely add that in addition to being an entertaining and well written film, it is well cast with unknowns who absolutely look the part, and some of the fanciful, surrealist moments boast beautiful cinematography.  All in all, a good film.  Check out their site for where to catch the film: http://www.beastsofthesouthernwild.com/screenings or wait to catch it on Netflix.

 

Weekend in ABQ

We spent the weekend in Albuquerque, NM with my family, meeting up between Texas and California as they were passing through to camp in Colorado.  We took in the sites, hiked Sandia Peak, and enjoyed some fantastic Mexican food.  It was scorching hot of course, but we had a good time anyway.  Favorite new discovery to beat the heat: Paleteria Michoacana de Paquime, a Mexican ice cream shop with two dozen Mexican flavors of candy-colored popsicles, among other treats.  Favorite view: top of Sandia Peak Tram as a thunderstorm moved in at sunset.
  

Sandia Peak Tram

Albuquerque Botanical Gardens

Amazing Local Bakery

Favorite Discovery: Paleteria Michoacana de Paquime

Marble Brewery: Round of Tasters of their local brews

Hugo: "Love letter to..."

For some reason, I find the phrase "love letter to..." (fill in the blank) highly annoying.  Perhaps because it has become overused.  In any case, I have heard Hugo described as Martin Scorsese's love letter to film.  Gag.  Just writing "love letter to film" sounds so pretentious.  However, I don't want to let that prejudice my opinion of the film, which I finally watched this week.  Despite Scorsese's obsession with Asa Butterfield's blue but not particularly magnetic eyes, and a propensity to shoot him peeking from behind clockwork machinery, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.  I thought it was beautiful and I found the story interesting and engaging, though somewhat hacky at moments.  To me it seemed Scorsese's aim was to convey the imagination and creativity that is poured into making films and to revere the audience who is filled with wonder and delight at their magic.  

Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is the story of a young orphan, who lives in a Paris train station, taking care of and winding all the clocks.  He observes the interactions of the shopkeepers and regulars in the train station, while stealing food and mechanical parts from them, to feed himself and to repair his precious automaton, a mechanical man who draws pictures, discovered by his late father in a museum basement.

He meets Isobelle (Chloë Mauretz) the god-daughter of a shopkeeper in the station who quickly becomes his friend an ally in his quest to repair the automaton.  Hoping to find a last message from his father, Hugo will stop at nothing to repair the automaton, even when he begins to butt heads with Isobelle's god-father Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley), who sells and repairs toys in his shop.  When Hugo and Isobelle discover an incredible secret about Georges' past, they decide to try to help him, to "fix" him as well as the automaton.

Hugo is certainly easily described by that also overused term "a visual feast."  Gorgeous set extension and visual effects add do the romantic and automatically beautiful location of a Paris train station.  Asa Butterfield's performance was satisfactory and Chloë Mauretz, who I usually like, was good as well, though her British accent was a bit annoying.  While it seems like much of the story might be over the heads of most children, I think there is enough slapstick comedy and spirit of adventure for the average 8-12 year old.  Adults may find parts of it cheesy, but some of the film history is very interesting and I found myself laughing out loud at some of the old silent films from very early days of moving pictures.  Overall, a fun family flick.  Not one of the best movies I've ever seen, but definitely above average.