actually, this is about movies
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50books_pocMods, please let me know if you'd like me to move this post off-comm.
So I was looking back at my movie log the other day, and I thought to myself, wow, this is a list of stuff by and about white people if I've ever seen one. I tend to watch geek movies (of the comic book/sff novel adaptation persuasion), musicals, artsy independent films, and animation, and the vast majority of the films in these genres that turn up in theatres around here, that I put in my Netflix queue, that I check out of the library-- very, very white. White directors, white writers, mostly white actors. (Except the animation, because I watch a ridiculous quantity of anime.)
This is not how I would like my viewing habits to work in a world in which I know damn well there is a long history of cinema coming out of India, Brazil, Senegal, and Korea, to name only areas about whose film industries I have already heard some things.
I like the model of this comm as a way of changing habits: numbering the books one reads so as to have an accurate measurement of what is going on as far as proportion of works read by POC, and having a time frame so as to help with not putting things off (with the understanding that different people have different amounts of time, read at different rates, etc.). I think that this model would also transfer well to movies.
Now, as far as I personally am concerned, I am not talking about a fifty-film project, because that would take-- well, a friend and I gave one another lists in 2005 of the top twenty movies we'd each like the other to see, and I still have four to go on that list. I watch a lot of TV-format anime. I rewatch comfort films from when I was younger. New movies take a lot of mental energy for me, a lot of emotional investment.
However, I think I could manage twelve films in a year. One a month. Films by and concerning POC. I will not be counting anime in this because the point is to change my viewing habits, not to finish in two months, the same reason I'm not counting manga for this comm.
Now, given that a great many people are involved in the making of a film, it can be harder to tell what one means by saying a film is 'by' anybody, especially since I personally am rather ambivalent about the auteur theory. However, I think the simplest way to do it is going to be to look at the director and/or the writer: I will watch films for this that are directed and/or written by POC. There are also films that are neither that I suspect might be reasonable to watch for this, such as Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, but in general those are the criteria I'm going to use.
And I'll blog them. Here, if people think that's an idea; my own journal, in addition to or instead of here. If other people also wanted to do this and blog about it, maybe a sister comm to this one. ETA: If you would be interested in participating in a sister comm to this one, please let me know in the comments.
And-- please, please, I want recommendations! I have a preliminary list, but the films I've heard about that fit this challenge tend to be 'issue' or 'message' movies, with a side order of depressing, and I know I won't be able to manage twelve of those, though I'm sure I'll watch some. I want to watch films from everywhere. I want to watch comedies, romances, children's movies, slices of life, animation, documentaries, musicals, dramas. I would also love recs for books about international film and film by POC.
So I was looking back at my movie log the other day, and I thought to myself, wow, this is a list of stuff by and about white people if I've ever seen one. I tend to watch geek movies (of the comic book/sff novel adaptation persuasion), musicals, artsy independent films, and animation, and the vast majority of the films in these genres that turn up in theatres around here, that I put in my Netflix queue, that I check out of the library-- very, very white. White directors, white writers, mostly white actors. (Except the animation, because I watch a ridiculous quantity of anime.)
This is not how I would like my viewing habits to work in a world in which I know damn well there is a long history of cinema coming out of India, Brazil, Senegal, and Korea, to name only areas about whose film industries I have already heard some things.
I like the model of this comm as a way of changing habits: numbering the books one reads so as to have an accurate measurement of what is going on as far as proportion of works read by POC, and having a time frame so as to help with not putting things off (with the understanding that different people have different amounts of time, read at different rates, etc.). I think that this model would also transfer well to movies.
Now, as far as I personally am concerned, I am not talking about a fifty-film project, because that would take-- well, a friend and I gave one another lists in 2005 of the top twenty movies we'd each like the other to see, and I still have four to go on that list. I watch a lot of TV-format anime. I rewatch comfort films from when I was younger. New movies take a lot of mental energy for me, a lot of emotional investment.
However, I think I could manage twelve films in a year. One a month. Films by and concerning POC. I will not be counting anime in this because the point is to change my viewing habits, not to finish in two months, the same reason I'm not counting manga for this comm.
Now, given that a great many people are involved in the making of a film, it can be harder to tell what one means by saying a film is 'by' anybody, especially since I personally am rather ambivalent about the auteur theory. However, I think the simplest way to do it is going to be to look at the director and/or the writer: I will watch films for this that are directed and/or written by POC. There are also films that are neither that I suspect might be reasonable to watch for this, such as Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, but in general those are the criteria I'm going to use.
And I'll blog them. Here, if people think that's an idea; my own journal, in addition to or instead of here. If other people also wanted to do this and blog about it, maybe a sister comm to this one. ETA: If you would be interested in participating in a sister comm to this one, please let me know in the comments.
And-- please, please, I want recommendations! I have a preliminary list, but the films I've heard about that fit this challenge tend to be 'issue' or 'message' movies, with a side order of depressing, and I know I won't be able to manage twelve of those, though I'm sure I'll watch some. I want to watch films from everywhere. I want to watch comedies, romances, children's movies, slices of life, animation, documentaries, musicals, dramas. I would also love recs for books about international film and film by POC.
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Date: 2009-03-12 01:24 am (UTC)Peking Opera Blues is a Hong Kong action film with crossdressing both ways, a bit of history, and a lot of fun. I picked it up while I was taking a class on the subject and it's one of my favorites. A lot of my movies are "issue" movies, no matter who creates it, but this one is just sheer fun, if you can get it.
Sankofa written and directed by Haile Gerima reminds one of Kindred, if you've read it, only the protagonist, a self-absorbed model, is transported into the deep south and experiences slavery there as though she's a part of the setting, not a person from the future gasping at being in the past. It's really an excellent film. It's pretty heavy, but worth it.
Native American:
Powwow Highway is a barrel-load of fun and meaning (Written by David Seals and directed by Jonathan Wack). It's been years since I watched this one, but it is essentially a buddy-film that puts a post AIM-type with his more easygoing friend together on a road trip to release the former's sister.
The Business of Fancydancing is another favorite (written and directed by Sherman Alexie, which explains it). It may make you cry, however. It's about a NA openly gay author who has had some success as a poet and feels conflict between his identity at the Rez and the persona he puts out for his readers. After a friend commits suicide, he has to return home.
Keep in mind that both deal with 'issues,' but it isn't all depressing. In BoF, I both cried and burst out laughing. There are "slice of life" vignettes. I wish I owned these two so I could read them continuously. I'd recommend Alexie as an author overall, but I liked what he did here. He allowed a lot of freedom with his actors, and I wish he could have done more movies, gotten a budge, evolved as an author and director, etc.