photo series: “other” families are beautiful too, #2 – iranian family.
Category: projects
the witness palestine film series is coming up soon…
code pink in pakistan
my friend, judy, is going to pakistan with code pink, to protest drone attacks, alongside imran khan and other pakistanis. she made this wonderful banner on which i got to write in urdu: band karo, band karo! drone humlay band karo! (stop it, stop it! stop drone attacks!). even tho i won’t be able to join this historic political rally, i feel like a part of me will be there. go judy!
photo series: “other” families are beautiful too, #1 – afghan family
classical music for the partition film
just listened to 4 beautiful pieces of music by bach, chopin, grieg and schuman. performed by the incomparable ruth peck and recorded by the brilliant dave sluberski.
all for the partition film. what joy…
rochester teen film festival – screenings and awards
yesterday i presented the award for best conceptual film to my favorite movie at this year’s rochester teen film festival. “jet lag” is a film about modern-day disconnectedness, about the challenges of being mentally and emotionally anchored in an era when geographic, social and cultural context can change with ruthless frequency. an incredibly mature film, well put together by two teens – max mooney and matt holmes. here is “jet lag”…
Rochester Teen Film Festival
was a judge at the rochester teen film festival 2012 and saw some wonderful movies made by high school students. come and check out the 9 best films and attend the award ceremony on aug 1st at the little theater, at 5.30pm. more here.
interview with dr vicky farmer for “partition stories”
interviewed dr victoria farmer who teaches intl and comparative politics at suny geneseo, where she has developed a terrific course on the politics of south asia. vicky is a consultant on my documentary about partition and she’s brilliant. more about vicky here.
Transforming Media
terrific screening of “pakistan one on one” at the indymedia convergence, last night at 9pm. it’s going to be a great weekend – democracy now’s senior producer mike burke is in town. check out the schedule here.
Alain Badiou: a life in writing
Love, for Badiou, is what follows a deranging chance eruption in one’s life. He puts it philosophically: “The absolute contingency of the encounter takes on the appearance of destiny. The declaration of love marks the transition from chance to destiny and that’s why it is so perilous and so burdened with a kind of horrifying stage fright.” Love’s work consists in conquering that fright. Badiou cites Mallarmé, who saw poetry as “chance defeated word by word”. A loving relationship is similar. “In love, fidelity signifies this extended victory: the randomness of an encounter defeated day after day through the invention of what will endure,” writes Badiou.
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“Love and politics are the two great figures of social engagement. Politics is enthusiasm with a collective; with love, two people. So love is the minimal form of communism.” He defines his “real politics” in opposition to what he calls “parliamentary cretinism”. His politics starts with subjective experience, involves a truth procedure and ends, fingers crossed, in a communist society. Why? “It’s necessary to invent a politics that is not identical with power. Real politics is to engage to resolve problems within a collective with enthusiasm. It’s not simply to delegate problems to the professionals. Love is like politics in that it’s not a professional affair. There are no professionals in love, and none in real politics.” More here.
zizek conference at suny brockport (april 28-29, 2012)
stand against racism and the screening of “pakistan one on one”
with david tang and another member of the monroe county bar association’s diversity committee. i screened “pakistan one on one” for them on april 27th, the ywca’s stand against racism national day. more on events that took place on april 27, 2012, including my film screening here.
documentary panel at st john fisher’s college
on march 29, 2012, had a wonderful discussion with co-panelist and filmmaker linda moroney and film critic jack garner. tom proetti was the moderator and organizer of this terrific conversation about filmmaking at st john fisher’s college. such fun to talk about documentaries. tom asked us to come up with our ten favorite docs. here’s my list:
two screenings of “pakistan one on one” this sunday april 1, 2012
my film “pakistan one on one” will be screened on sunday april 1st at the third presbyterian church (on meigs st) at 9.30 am and later that evening at the flying squirrel community space (on clarissa st) at 7 pm. both screenings will be followed by discussions. hope u can join us. facebook event link here.
stand against racism PSAs
was filmed this morning for a public service announcement related to the ywca’s stand against racism. so important. was nervous about being in front of the camera, rather than behind it, but it all went v well. here’s more on the filming at rit: Film Students Shoot and Direct ‘Stand Against Racism’ PSAs Airing on Local TV.