Mellifluous Senses

Happy Chinese New Year

lltheportmanteau:

May the river of time roar.

Tet. The year of the dragon. Thank you Miyazaki!!!! 

(Source: substantialityou, via stitchingmywingson)

Miyazaki’s The Borrower Arrietty

Director : Hiromasa Yonebayashi 

Country of Origin: Japan

Language: Japanese with English subtitles

Miyazaki’s latest film art Arrietty is another fine collection to his previous works such Ponyo , My neighbour Totoro and of course Spirited Away. What makes Miyazaki’s films so appealing to people of any age? For me his films are daringly imaginative  and mature.

Arrietty is no short of imagination or maturity. The film is strikingly notable for its collage of sounds , animated images and conversations to form an appreciation of life. Personally, one of the most memorable features of Arrietty is its soundscape. The film places us in a position where we hear and see from the perspective of a Borrower. The drop of sugar cube, the ticking of grandfather clock and the tugging of a tissue from its box.  To us, the sound of these incidents are usually innaccessable to the human ear. This may be reasoned physically, but it can also be explained by our consciousness of our surroundings. It is possibly our choice in what we hear and what we don’t hear. Hence, sometimes these ‘minor’ sounds become forgotten or irrelevant.  Yet the beauty of the film Arrietty is that every scale of life is observed and appreciated.   

For me the most heartful part of the film is when Sho has a confronting and uncomfortable conversation with Arrietty. His harsh comments towards Arrietty is an act of displacing his callousness in the face of his looming death.  However, through a conversation with Arrietty a moment of consciousness arises that evokes him to feel compassionate about life and living.    

Life is indeed an intricate collage of sounds, images and conversations. As we see through Arrietty, simply being observant can give you a fonder heart for life.  

*Now screening in Cinemas! Check it out at the Nova Cinema in Melbourne. 

Growing Change documentary

Last night Simon Cunich’s documentary Growing Change premiered in Melbourne. The documentary was featured as apart of Beyond Zero Emission’s monthly film night at Kindness House. I was super excited to hear that Simon’s documentary was fully ripened and ready for people to taste and experience.  I was incredibly anxious yet thrilled that I would finally get to see and experience the documentary. What would everyone experience? What would I experience? Would I experience a déjà vu? Why a déjà vu? Well it’s because one year ago I joined Simon as well as a group of other extraordinary, inspiring and passionate people to Venezuela. It was a non-organisationally aligned ‘tour of Food Sovereignty in Venezuela’.   

 

What is food sovereignty you may ask? Personally, to understand food sovereignty I needed to move beyond thinking about it as a ‘concept’. Instead I was fortunate enough to go to Venezuela to see, feel and experience how food sovereignty is being manifested. Thus it is difficult to summarise food sovereignty in words. So for those who are unable to be in Venezuela, Growing Change is a compelling documentary where you can start to visualise and listen to those who are growing the seeds of a sustainable and fair food system.

 

The documentary traces the Sydney filmmaker, Simon Cunich, on his journey to understand the failures of current food systems as well as the potential of a more fair and sustainable food system. For me the film appeared to unfold in two parts. The first part of the film Simon sets the context for the growing issues of food security. He begins the story from the 2008 world food crisis. The filmmaker samples old video footage and interweaves them with interviews and contemporary footage that resembles Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. These stylistic & editing features of the film change when the film considers Venezuela as a case study for food sovereignty. What the documentary then lacked was coherency in terms of editing between the first and second part of the film.  Even though the story may have been broken up into two chapters, more attention needed to be given to the final touches. Hence, a consistency in style and editing would have benefited the visual side of watching the film.

 

Yet in making this criticism I hope not to deter one from watching this documentary, because I feel that it is important and relevant film. Whilst food sovereignty is painted in the context of Venezuela, the concept can be applicable elsewhere around the world.  In Venezuela the realisation and growth of food sovereignty has entailed the growth of agro-ecological farming as well as the growth of social cooperatives.  What we see happening in Venezuela cannot be 100% replicable to Australia but it does inspire thought on why food sovereignty is needed in our societies. What Growing Change does is provoked us to feel hungry, hungry for change.  Through the documentary we learn how Venezuela is a colourful place of change. It is a place where we can begin to visualise the processes and outcomes of a collective strive towards food sovereignty.  

 

 Next Melbourne screening :

28th Nov @ Port Phillip Ecohouse Centre, St Kilda 7pm

more details:  growingchange.com.au 

 

 

 

                                                      

The Beautiful Boxer

Director: Ekachai Uekrongtham

Language: Siamese/Thai

Everyone should watch The Beautiful Boxer if you are interested in…

films from Thailand

transgender issues

Thai boxing culture!!! ( huge in Thailand!!!!! )

Thai theatre - likay.

stories

watching really really perplexing and stimulating films!

I must let you know that The Beautiful Boxer is based on a true story. In fact it is based on Nong Toom’s life :) 

Nim Chimpsky

PROJECT NIM

Director: James Marsh

Language: English and sign language

At the recent Melbourne International Film Festival I was on my way to watch Project Nim and my boyfriend that could not make the session cried, “I want to watch monkeys!” (He actually meant chimps) 

In the light of Project Nim, this comment continues to seem so pertinent in our attitudes towards other species. As we believe, especially in the discipline of science, that we can objectively observe and not subjectively engage with our subjects. Yet in James Marsh’s Project Nim, the documentary is more than an observation and commentary on chimpanzees. It is a perplexing story of a Chimp’s life and those who loved and loathed him.

James Marsh is the director behind the documentary Project Nim. He is also well recognized for his 2008 capture of the “Man on Wire” which won several acclaimed awards including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Whilst the idea of communicating with chimpanzees was not new prior to the 1970’s, the experiment Project Nim attracted widespread attention because it had the potential to destabilize the popular belief that only humans could understand and generate meaning through language.

Yet from the moment the experiment takes place, we understand that this is a not a simple objective pursuit, at least not by Nim’s first few caretakers who learn to love him more than they expected as they embed him into their human life. In his time with his first family, they literally cloth him with woolen jumpers, pass him a joint, and feed him yoghurt.  Yet throughout most of his life he is treated as not completely human nor completely chimp. Thus, what we see unfolding is a personality that is both familiar and unfamiliar to us as humans. 

At first we witness the sweetness of Nim’s infancy and the human qualities that his families project onto him seem at first, innocent. Yet as he grows up, we see the disturbing implications of treating him as a quasi-human. Yet the disturbance that the audience feels isn’t just about Nim’s intrinsic Chimpanzee nature, it is also our very own human nature that discomforts us in our seats.

This documentary is not merely an objective observation of a Chimp’s life, but rather a personal inquiry into our own human nature and relationships. For whilst we initially attend the film screening to watch ‘monkeys’ or chimps, we end up with a reflection of our human selves that is projected through Nim Chimpsky’s eyes.

Screening at the Nova Cinema from 29^th September!

BYEBYE MIFF 2011

BYE BYE & thankyou MIFF2011.

Here’s a personal rough ranking of the films that i saw! 

1# SILENT SOULS 

2# The Blackpower Mixtape - Project NIM  ( equally great documentaries!!!!)

3# ATTENBERG

4# THE MATCHMAKER

5# ETERNITY

6# GREY MATTER

7# FINISTERRAE

8# TOMBOY

9# THE FUTURE

10# GOODBYE

11# BI, DON’T BE AFRAID