Culture – Page 9 – Nicolas Demers

Northern Voice 2012, Part 1: The Future And How To Get There

Northern Voice, the blogging and social media conference which I’ve been attending for two years running, happened again. This time in June instead of May, and at SFU Woodward’s instead of UBC. It’s a great venue, and suited me better, commute-wise.

I had an amazing time again this year, and of course I’m going to recap the hell out of it. Some of the talks complemented each other nicely, so I’ve decided to cover them together. Let’s start with the two morning keynotes:

Reilly Yeo of Open Media kicked the conference off on Friday with her keynote Using the Internet to Save the Internet. From Slacktivism to Interactivism. Open Media has led a number of campaigns, including Stopthemeter.ca, fighting the push by telecom companies to implement metered net use. That petition got over 500,000 signatures, made national news, and the decision-makers responded. More recently, their campaign to stop Bill C-30, the online spying bill made more national news, exposed yet again the raving paranoia of the Harper government in general and Safety Minister Vic Toews in particular. Again, the government blinked.

The moral of these stories? Online petitions do work! Online activism can make a difference! The term “slacktivism” is easy to throw around; and signing online petitions is just about the least you can do to call yourself an activist, but there’s a lot more going on than that. First, half a million “slacktivists” can’t be dismissed so easily.

Second, don’t knock petitions. Darren Barefoot said so way back in Northern Voice 2010: there are many ways to do good online, simple and complex, and it’s important to have a low barrier of entry to do-gooding.

Third, they (well, some, at least) are not just putting in a token ten seconds of effort, they’re getting informed, getting connected with like-minded people, and coming up with hilarious memes. The decision-making process is suddenly a little more human, a little closer to home. Netizens move away from passive consumption of lolcats and Justin Bieber, and towards responsible, mindful involvement.

Not that there’s anything wrong with lolcats, of course. Lolcats are awesome. But lols mixed with politics? Well, that’s best of all.

Second moral, BTW: the Harper government, for all its majority, isn’t quite the juggernaut it would like to be.

So maybe, Yeo argues, “slacktivism” isn’t the right term after all. She suggests “interactivism”: a new kind of activism, highly connected and savvy, with massive potential, and open to anyone.

But what is interactivism saving the internet for, though? Let’s ask Blaine Cook. In his Saturday keynote, The Wild Future (not to be confused with The Future is Wild, which I have on DVD and is totally awesome), Cook argues for the preservation of a “wild” internet, a net free to evolve organically, where difference is a good thing, multiple cultures can arise, coexist and enrich each other.

Let’s talk about Babel for a moment. Cook introduced it as a metaphor for the frustration we feel that we can’t accomplish the things we want, because we can’t work on things together. That’s one interpretation I’ve never heard before! And it’s true, we get more done when we work together. But when we work as one, we get the same things done, over and over. We put up the same towers, over and over. But one size does not fit all.

Case in point: UBC’s Buchanan Building is a fine example of Brutalist architecture, apparently modeled on a building in San Diego. The windows in that building relied on being set deep enough that direct sunlight wasn’t a problem. Problem is, they transplanted the exact same design 2,000 km north, where the sun is much lower in the sky, and apparently the building is an oven.

Brutalism’s been around for a long time. Many cities have a few examples, as office buildings or low-income housing, like the UK housing estates. Some worked, some became slums and got torn down. The lesson is: attempting to design urban utopias with a single, narrow vision leads to monocultures. “Machines for living in” don’t inspire community or organic cultural growth.

Seguing into the online world, Blaine drew a parallel between, on one hand, Brutalist architecture and on the other, the iPhone and social networks like Facebook. The iPhone, you say? (or at least, I said) This pretty, pretty thing with all the wonderful software, how is it anything like those giant ugly-ass buildings? Well, it’s controlled from the top down by a single corporation, and has built-in pesticides to limit the diversity of its software ecosystem. By contrast, the Android system is a much wilder place. Facebook likewise is pretty bland, omnipresent, and controlled by a corporation who calls the shots on your privacy.

Mind you, Facebook did have Cow Clicker, so it wasn’t all bad.

And let’s face it, sometimes you want the bland and the safe. It’s a push-and-pull thing, I guess. Humans settle, we make the wild places not-wild. For comfort, for support, for community. That’s not a bad thing. Not everybody can be a pioneer. But we need to be able to fork cultures, we need the space to create new spaces and ways to express ourselves, and this is something the Web enables like nothing else. As long as it’s not bled dry by big telecoms, strangled or spied on by a paranoid government, censored by churches, or turned into bland consumer networks by greedy corporations.

That is our wild future. The future of collaborative writing using Git, of open source software like Drupal, Firefox and Linux, of a hundred phone OS’s and Pinterest clones, of freely shared knowledge thanks to Wikipedia and others.

The world is so malleable, and we get to find the answers together by building them.

George Takei’s happy dance and The Batman 1943 film serial

Behold the greatest thing ever:

Man, George has got some sweet moves! I’d never heard of this project before now, but I wish them all the luck in the world.

The timing’s interesting, though, because I just finished watching The Batman, a 15-part 1943 movie serial. It features the Dynamic Duo going up against Doctor Tito Daka, an evil Japanese-American spymaster and mad scientist out to sabotage the US war effort and bring this beacon of democracy under the heel of Emperor Hirohito.

Also it serves as a great showcase of WWII anti-Japanese hatred and paranoia. Let’s see how the narrator introduces Gotham City’s Little Tokyo:

This was part of a foreign land, transplanted bodily to America, and known as Little Tokyo. Since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed Japs it has become virtually a ghost street where only one business survives, eking out a precarious existence on the dimes of curiosity-seekers.

Emphasis mine. Yes, they really said that. Oh, and the business in question, the front for Daka’s sinister lair? A “Japanese Chamber of Horrors” where visitors can see what horrible people the Japanese are: exhibits include some Japanese soldiers, more Japanese soldiers menacing a helpless lily-white American lady, and yet more Japanese soldiers pointing their bayonets at an American soldier in a cage. Just so viewers don’t forget, this chamber of horrors is shown over and over at least every other chapter. Oy.

Aside from that, though, the serial wasn’t half bad. Horribly low-budget, of course, but pretty decent entertainment. It’s an interesting look at a very, very early Batman, probably before much of the mythology was fully developed. The serial makes no mention of the heroes’ tragic origins, instead just portraying them as costumed crimefighters who spend most of their time breaking up gangs and such, but occasionally take orders directly from Washington to handle matters of national security.

What’s also interesting is how thin the line is between Batman and Bruce Wayne. True, in public he behaves as a useless rich playboy, but he doesn’t even try to change his voice or mannerisms when in costume, and when in private or in their car will casually remove his cowl. Batman is very human, just doing the punchy-punchy thing with bad guys, no special bat-gadgets. Which I guess makes sense if “Batman” is just a costume to Wayne and not an identity—and of course could just be due to the low budget—but I wonder how true this was to the comics of the time?

A couple of other thoughts:

Daka is actually smarter and more restrained than I expected for an old-school serial villain. He’s very pragmatic about using his zombifying machine to get slaves and extract information, and only takes a few seconds to gloat in Chapter 14 before sending Batman into the pit. Of course it had to have a silly death trap, but there you go, sometimes you can’t buck tradition. No unnecessarily slow-moving death trap, no cliffhanger, am I right?
Damn, Edna Mode was right. In the fight scenes, Batman and Robin kept getting all tangled in their capes. Batman’s cowl almost came off accidentally a couple of times, too.
According to TVTropes, this serial created several elements of the Bat-universe we now take for granted, like the Batcave and Alfred’s usual appearance of a skinny British guy.

Next up: the 1949 Batman and Robin movie serial. Borrowed the DVD from a friend, this should be fun.

Mythbusters!

The Mythbusters were in town this Sunday! Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage took over the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for a couple of hours of fun and science. Though I’m a huge fan I hadn’t actually planning to go, since I’ve got volleyball on Sunday nights, and I didn’t think a live show would really add much to the experience—unlike, say, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, who graced the Vogue Theatre back in November.

But no, this was totally worth it. Adam and Jamie brought lots of audience members, kids and adults, to participate in SCIENCE or play with cool tech like one of their high-speed cameras (ever see someone blowing a raspberry in slo-mo? Fucking hilarious). No explosions, because they couldn’t afford the insurance, but they did have a medley of their best blowing-shit-up moments on a big screen. (including the cement truck. That never gets old).

One thing that struck me was the number of kids, even on a school night. It’s great that their parents are raising them to love science and technology, to question and explore the world around them.

The first gay-positive movie ever

I’d read a bit about the very early homosexual rights movements in Europe, about Magnus Hirschfeld and some of the organisations that operated in the 1910’s and 1920’s. But I didn’t know anything about what they published, or how they made their case to the general population. Well, now I know a little bit more, thanks to Anders als die Andem (Different from the Others), a German silent film released in 1919. Banned a year afterwards, most copies were destroyed when the Nazis took over. Only fragments of this fascinating piece of gay history exist.

What’s striking about this film is how modern its message and presentation are. The characters (including Hirschfeld, appearing as himself) argue for gay rights and dignity in a way that wouldn’t be too out of place in the 50’s or 60’s. Sure, Hirschfeld’s “third sex” scientific theories seem a bit silly now, but emotionally it wasn’t a bad narrative, and the bottom line—that we are all part of one big sexual continuum—is as true now as 100 years ago. It really makes you think: if Fascism hadn’t reared its ugly head then and set civil rights back a generation, how much further along would we be now?

The story revolves Paul Körner, a famous violinist who starts a relationship with Kurt, a student of his. It’s totally consensual and shown in a very positive light, but unfortunately Paul is also being blackmailed; if he doesn’t cough up money on a regular basis, his secret will come out—and in those days, that could mean jail time.

Finally Paul can’t take any more, and takes his blackmailer to court—hey, extortion is a crime too. Though the blackmailer is sentenced to jail, so is Paul. And after his very brief sentence is over, he finds his career is in shambles, his lover is gone, and his family won’t speak to him. Unable to take it anymore, Paul commits suicide.

And here again we see how Anders als die Andem is way ahead of its time, because unlike so many Hollywood films, it places the blame right where it belongs: senseless laws like Paragraph 175, a squeamish and bigoted society, heartless extortionists taking advantage of the system. And, it ends with a passionate call to action:

If you want to honor the memory of your friend, then you mustn’t take your own life, but instead keep on living to change the prejudices whose victim—one of countless many—this dead man has become.

This is the life task I assign to you. Just as Zola struggled on behalf of one man who innocently languished in prison, what matters now is to restore honor and justice to the many thousands before us, with us, and after us.

Through knowledge to justice!

—Magnus Hirschfeld to Kurt, Paul’s lover

Watch it here

(via Slap Upside the Head)

Movie Review: The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a gorgeous journey into the past, both inspirational and evocative. The film takes us on a tour of the Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc cave, filled with gorgeous neolithic cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. With the help of the researchers currently studying the cave, we attempt to understand the people who created and used these works of art, and the world they lived in.

Werner Herzog’s The Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a gorgeous journey into the past, both inspirational and evocative. The film takes us on a tour of the Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc cave, filled with gorgeous neolithic cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. With the help of the researchers currently studying the cave, we attempt to understand the people who created and used these works of art, and the world they lived in. A little over-the-top and fanciful in parts, it still weaves a fascinating and moving story.

Chauvet has been sealed off for at least 20,000 years, during which time all its treasures have remained pristine. And what treasures! The repeated ocher palm imprints in one alcove
(all done by the same person, as evidenced by the same small deformity of his/her pinky finger); the lion couple rubbing up against each other (solving an interesting mystery: namely, did male European lions have manes? The answer is no); the groups of horses and ibexes, suggesting swift flowing motion. These old humans may have been primitive but they were not stupid: they were keen observers of the world around them, and filled their art with precise and exquisite details.

But what were they for? Probably religious/spiritual ceremonies of some kind. It was pointed out that there were few paintings near the entrance of the cave, which would have been filled with sunlight back in the day. This shows at least a division of space, even if Cro-Magnons didn’t actually live in the cave they must have used it for shelter at least part-time. One scientist suggested that the paintings were parts of shadow plays. Why not? It’d be a visually striking way to interact with the animals on the walls.

The movie also took us into the wider culture in which these ancient artists lived. We looked at other artefacts from around that era, including a lovely leopard-man statuette and many, many Venuses similar to the Venus of Willendorf. The were made of different materials and varied in some details, but they all had the same basic design. Whatever they represented (fertility charms? prehistoric porn?) they were a common element of a very wide-ranging culture.

The leopard-man was interesting, too. It seemed to suggest a belief in the fluidity of life, that animals could transform into humans and vice-versa, and the walls between species were very thin. Makes sense, really: there are people today who believe this.

One of the researchers said that Cro-Magnons (and we as well) should not call ourselves Homo Sapiens, but Homo Spiritualis. There were some groans from my (skeptical & atheistic) friends at that point, but… y’know, he has a point. I’ve long believed that the revolution in art and technology starting 50,000 years ago or so must have been accompanied by religion (assuming that wasn’t around before). The ability to conceive and draw these gorgeous cave paintings goes hand-in-hand with the ability to tell stories about them, and I bet the first stories would have been about gods and spirits and whatnot.

Oh, and I finally learned how spear-throwers work!

Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2011: Final Thoughts

I wasn’t sure if I could do do the same festival marathon thing as last year; then, I was unemployed, so it was easy to see a couple movies, then blog about them the next day. But I have a day job now, and by the weekend I was getting seriously burned out. To the point that I hesitated to go to the closing gala film, after a whole afternoon playing volleyball in the hot sun. But I went, and I’m so glad I did. Next year I need to either pace myself better or take some time off.

I wasn’t sure if I could do the same festival marathon thing as last year; then, I was unemployed, so it was easy to see a couple movies, then blog about them the next day. But I have a day job now, and by the weekend I was getting seriously burned out. To the point that I hesitated to go to the closing gala film, after a whole afternoon playing volleyball in the hot sun. But I went, and I’m so glad I did. Next year I need to either pace myself better or take some time off.

By the time I got around to buying a pass they were already sold out, so I was forced to buy tickets. The solution is obvious: donate more over the next year. No, I’m not just looking for the convenience of a Super Pass, I’ll be supporting a great cause, too!

Now, let’s recap this festival:

Number of shows I saw: 15 (one more than last year! Woo!)

Number of days I did not see a show: 2 (Sunday the 14^th and Wednesday the 17^th)

Favourite Feature Film: The Wise Kids, hands down. Honourable mentions go to Grown Up Movie Star and Different From Whom? / Diverso da Chi?

Least Favourite Feature Film: You know what? I didn’t see any real duds this year. Even the movies I felt didn’t quite work (Going Down in LA-LA Land, Strapped) were very enjoyable.

Favourite Short Film: A three-way tie between A Dragged-Out Affair and Go-Go Reject (both part of Beautiful Rejects) and Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner.

Movies I would have liked to see but didn’t: Judas Kiss (though I have had one person describe it as “laughably bad”), Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, and The String / Le fil.

Here’s to next year!

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Different From Whom?

Different From Whom? / Diverso da Chi? is a wonderful Italian gay comedy, expertly mixing laughs with drama. With well-developed characters, beautiful scenery and an uplifting message, it is a fine conclusion to this year’s film festival.

Meet hunky Piero, openly gay city councilor in an unnamed northern Italian city. He runs for his party’s nomination for mayoral candidate and comes in a respectable second. But wait, the wildly popular winner falls dead from a heart attack during his acceptance speech! Guess who’s running for mayor now! Piero must deal with cynical staffers, homophobic attacks from his right-wing opponent, and a more conservative running mate. She, Piero and his equally hunky partner do eventually bond over shopping and food, but Piero starts an affair with her (to his massive confusion, since he had never been attracted to women before). The lies pile up as the two try to keep things hidden both from the public and Piero’s partner. Of course all the lies explode in the most dramatic and humorous ways possible but it all works out in the end. Piero and Remo break up but get back together, and the three of them raise Piero’s and Adele’s baby together.

There wasn’t anything terribly groundbreaking about this movie—the resolution, especially, dates at least from 1993’s The Wedding Banquet—but I believe it’s the execution that matters, and this movie had impeccable acting, writing and direction. Amidst the laughs, we were treated to dozens of political points both subtle and blatant, about prejudice, labels, idealism vs. cynicism, finding common ground, and the real meaning of family.

PS: What does “Centrist” mean in Italian politics, anyway? Adele “the Centrist Fury” opposed divorce and every second word out of her mouth was “family”. I’d hate to see what a real right-wing politician would promote!

PPS: the actress who plays Adele is a dead ringer for Claudia Christian, who played Cmdr. Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5. Until the closing credits I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t her. Hey, how do I know she doesn’t speak fluent Italian?

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Coast Is Queer

I had to cancel going to a barbecue for this, but fortunately The Coast Is Queer did not disappoint!

bend in the river (or falling in time)

Starring Nelson Wong, who appears in a number of these shorts. An obnoxious but cute ESL teacher gets to know his hot student, all the while trying to correct his grammar and pronunciation. The film ends just as they’re about to make out.

Viral

When her girlfriend puts up cute videos of her chubby cat on YouTube, an aspiring actress has to deal with jealousy and the cat stealing all her parts. Wouldn’t you hate it if your cat became more famous than you?

Cure(d)

A funny little short about a teen who comes out to his parents, and accepts the pill they give him to make him not gay. Turns out the pills were a placebo, and he ends up making out with his cute math tutor.

The Gesture

An elderly mother visits the lesbian daughter she once cut off. But her daughter’s out, so she spends the film awkwardly talking to her partner. Mother and daughter only meet at the very end, and we’re left wondering if this simple gesture will be the start of a true reconciliation.

Random Acts of Queerness

A brief look back at the Pride in Art / Queer Arts Festival. I was especially moved by the story of the teenagers who learned not to laugh at the gay-bashing exhibit.

Laid To Rest

A simple, moving spoken / poetry piece by a transsexual former prostitute, about her life and the lives of her sisters in the trade.

B.A.B.S.

Turns out putting together an all-butch Barbra Streisand tribute band is hard. Who knew? Also: it was kind of odd and beautiful to listen to a butch dyke sing Streisand songs. With an amazing voice, I might add.

I’ve Got You Under My Spell

A fun little karaoke number of a sexy love spell. Catchy, but not really that special otherwise.

Coffee Club

This is my second time seeing this film, the first being at the premiere of The Beast of Bottomless Lake a few weeks ago. Sorry to say, it still doesn’t work for me. I totally get what David C Jones was going for—a satirical look at self-righteous gays who fly their victim flag high—but, no. Joking about gay-bashing is not okay.

Seminal

I’d heard the old wives’ tale that having an orgasm when you get impregnated helps you conceive. (I think it’s that the muscular contractions push the sperm further into the uterus so they don’t have so far to swim). So have you ever wanted to see that in action? Well, personally I didn’t, but I got to see everything last night. Seriously. Everything. It was sweet, really, but way TMI.

Lord Cockworthy

And so we end the evening with another piece by Clark Nicolai (the same guy responsible for Galactic Docking). In this silent-film piece, Lord Cedric Cockworthy is out with his chums enjoying the countryside, when he gets assaulted by a satyr. Silly and naughty, and extra points for an original format.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Porn Start

Not a whole lot to say about this movie, really. It was goofy, silly, sexy fun. I’m only surprised nobody’s come up with a Twilight-themed gay porn before!

(Whoops, spoke too soon. And here’s another one.)

I loved everyone’s performance in this, especially (of course) Mark Kenneth Wood’s so-bad-it’s-good acting as the airheaded Pepe. Speaking of whom, I’m catching up on old episodes of Designer Gays on Mark Kenneth Woods’ site. I’d seen the preview on Vancouver Visionaries this Tuesday, I didn’t know there was more!

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Going Down in LA-LA Land

Casper Andreas’ critique of the Hollywood culture has a higher drama-to-comedy ratio than last year’s Violet Tendencies; it’s far more ambitious, with a more complex plot and message and stabs at character arcs. As a comedy, Going Down is excellent, with the same snappy lines and silly situations I’ve come to expect from Andreas. As a drama, though… not so much.

First, the movie was crammed full of the same old Hollywood clichés: everybody is bitchy and/or fake, drugs are everywhere, it’s a scary and corrupt town that’ll chew up and spit out an innocent boy like Adam unless he toughens up and plays the game. Maybe all those clichés really are true, but that didn’t make the film any more original.

Speaking of original, Adam’s story is also very predictable and by-the-numbers. I honestly don’t think I was surprised by any of plot points, except maybe by how fast Nick and his career crashed after Adam left him. The “How we got here” intro seems to imply that Adam’s affair with John ended in tears, but did anyone doubt they’d ride off into the sunset together?

Actually, I do have one question: who really sold Adam and John out? Was it Matthew (or Michael? or Mark? I forget his name) Adam’s old boss who saw them in the restaurant and put 2 and 2 together? Was it John’s evil washed-up beard? Or was it Candy? Matthew was my vote originally, simply because he’s a spiteful bitch and the beard (whose name I forget) had more to lose. But Candy had been getting increasingly desperate about money… then again, John was feeling depressed and paranoid, so it’s understandable he’d suspect her.

Still, I enjoyed the movie. It was sweet, it had hot bodies, it made me laugh, and sometimes that’s all you want, y’know?