People Before Profit blog

‘Fringe’ episode confirms it’s the best show on TV

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:04:00 +0000

After the first episode of its fifth season, Fringe proved itself, once and for all, as the best show on TV.

I only learned about the show two years ago and, being a little compulsive, sat with my friend through showings of every single episode, starting with the first chapter of season one.

In the shocking conclusion of the first season, the attractive blonde FBI agent Olivia (Anna Torv) came face to face suddenly with the controlling William Bell (Leonard Nimoy), in a World Trade Center office in a reality where the buildings had not been destroyed by terrorists.

From there, in the comfort of my living room sofa, as the episodes rolled on, I journeyed through alternate universes, met shape shifters and double agents, watched horrific genetic experiments on children and rocketed through worlds of new, often unexplained phenomena.

You can always tell when a show doesn't sell you out for the sake of sponsors. The sellout shows are the ones you can catch anytime, not worrying about how many episodes you've missed. Since they don't tell you new stories each week anyway, it really doesn't matter how many installments you miss.

Not so with Fringe. The people putting on this show refuse to dumb it down and refuse to cut back for the sake of ratings or sucking in some more viewers. The endless variety of new material, new stories, new twists and turns is what they promised and this is what they give. This refusal to sell out, more than anything else, is why the show doesn't have the ratings of - let's say - The Walking Dead or Supernatural.

During the first four years, strange, bald, hat-wearing men have been watching Olivia, her lover Peter (Joshua Jackson), and his father Walter (John Noble). Sometimes they do more than just watch. They intervene, and since they are time-travellers, this can cause real problems.

To our characters, the pale visitors, called Observers, appear to be nothing but other- worldly record keepers who have no interest in impacting human history. At the end of last year we realized, however, they were indeed interested in changing human history and not at all in changing it to the benefit of humanity.

Season five features the war between the Observers who come full force to earth, and the ordinary people living on the planet.

Fringe explores the concept that we, the people, don't always act in our own self interest and that, in fact, we often act to do ourselves in. Unlike most other science fiction ivolving invaders from space, Fringe doesn't blame the so-called invaders for all of humanity's troubles. It blames those among us who get too carried away with ourselves. Science run amok. Technology controlled by a greedy few in order to suppress the majority. Capitalism. They are the real enemies we must worry about.

Walter shows how we as people, in the process of learning and seeking truth, are capable of causing or allowing great harm. When Walter tried to save his son from a killer disease, he opened a rift between the dimensions, the alternate universes. In trying to unleash the potential of the human brain and thought, he created a whole race of dangerous superhumans.

Walter shows how even the best of instincts can be perverted and corrupted if we ignore the 'morality' of what we do; if we ignore who is in control of the things we discover, and if we ignore what they will do with it.

John Noble has had to play the many and totally different sides of Walter, a man, just like all of us, too often turned against himself. Noble, as far as I am concerned, should have a pile of awards and recognitions for his superior performances in all of his 'Walter'roles.

I can tell from watching the first episode of the fifth season that it will be as good, if not better, than the four that have gone before it.

Physicist Michio Kaku said the science behind much of what we saw in the first four years was complicated, but theoretically sound. In the first episode of the current season there was again no sign of any dumbing down. There was no sign of selling out to gain more sponsors or viewers. There was only the uncompromising high-quality stuff that makes this the best show on TV, even if this is, as the advertisers and the network have decided, the last season of a show made for all seasons.

Photo: Fringe official site

“The Master” is a deep one

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:43:00 +0000

There are a lot of good reasons to see "The Master," but none of them have to do with diversion or entertainment. It's a strong art experience that folds acting, cinematography, and music together skillfully to explore human phenomena as only good film can.

The anti-hero (Joaquin Phoenix) is a mental casualty of World War II who drinks anything with alcohol content, including paint thinner, to quell his demons. As many do after such trauma, he falls into a cult. One might get very interested in this particular cult because of its close association with Scientology, a religion founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard during the same postwar period. But there are much broader applications. The Master tells his disciple, "You go out and find a way to live without serving some master, then come back and tell the rest of us!" In his view, in other words, all of us are fatally attracted to supernatural beliefs and dominating personalities. Is it so?

In the movie, almost all the characters cling to the cult and their Master. They turn over their money, their energy, their time and any semblance of free will, happily, to the Master. The few who don't are likely to get beaten up. Is it all that exceptional? Aren't all Americans supposed to be churchgoers? Aren't some people rioting across the world because they think their Prophet is maligned in a video? Doesn't a candidate for president of the United States possibly wear sacred underwear and believe that he will get his own planet sometime after his death? Don't many union meetings and others begin with a spoken prayer to some amorphous alien being?

The movie makes it clear that the idea of cults and religion, whether "artificial" or old-time, needs investigating and serious thought. In that way, director Anderson does us a service.

Another good reason to see "The Master" is for the against-type acting. Joaquin Phoenix doesn't play a sensitive hero, Philip Seymour Hoffman, in the title role, doesn't play a flabby loser. Best of all, Amy Adams doesn't play Little Miss Bright and Gay! All of them have unusual and extremely challenging roles that are brilliantly done. The visuals and the music, most of which is original stuff from Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, combine into a totally engrossing experience worth seeing more than once, just to reflect on how the director put it all together.

"The Master" is a deep and enlightening experience, not a fun one.

Movie information:
"The Master"
Written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons
Rated R, 137 min.

From Detroit to Congo, films about politics, women, humanity

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Part 3 of a series. See part 1 and part 2.

Here are a few more of the host of socially conscious films featured at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Look for them in your area or on DVD.

As strongly as We Are Wisconsin is relevant to the upcoming presidential elections, Janeanne from Des Moines, a new political mockumentary that goes one step further, is also an effective piece of agit-prop. Docudramas usually have reenactments with actors interspersed with documentary footage, but this film actually mixes the two at the same time. Janeane, the conservative Midwest housewife is played by Jane Edith Wilson, a liberal. The real Jane, however, is experiencing many of the same life challenges as the character she's playing.

The actress attends candidate forums during the presidential primaries in Des Moines, Iowa. While pretending to seek advice from her conservative "heroes" like Mitt Romney, much is revealed about the true platform and personalities of the candidates. The character is never broken: everyone around actually believes she is an emotionally distraught conservative supporter who is facing the loss of her home, job and health insurance and wants to know what the candidates would do about health care. The real Jane is also facing these realities and one could ask if she is really acting. It's a tactic that could have backfired, but here, there is a sincerity in the quest for truth, and director Grace Lee has created a challenging variation on the docudrama.

Another winner comes from the embattled city of Detroit, with the Arab American production Detroit Unleaded. This charming film handles the harsh realities of an Arab-owned Detroit inner city gas station, in a loving manner. Trapped behind a bullet-proof shield, in a station where his father was killed, young Sammy finds a way to make his job enjoyable, sparring with his co-partner cousin on how to run the station, balancing a burgeoning love affair with a beautiful Arab girl who lives under the watchful eye of her overly protective brother, and handling all the crazy characters that come in and out of the station at regular intervals.

Detroit is mostly African American, and most of the gas stations are run by Arabs or Chaldeans. There has been a long history of distrust and resentment between the races, but this beautiful film finds the humanity in every person who comes on screen, young or old, black or white or Arab, smart or mentally challenged. Director Rola Nashef, a Detroit resident as are many of the actors, has created one of the most positive films about Arab Americans and the Detroit experience.

At least three films at this year's festival examine the lives of women struggling in war-torn countries. After the 1975 liberation of Mozambique, the rebels rounded up all the town's prostitutes and force them into a re-education camp deep in the jungle. Virgin Margarida examines the various forms of resistance the women give to this forced existence. One is strong and refuses the demands of the young woman captain, many are simply compliant, learning how to build straw shacks, pump well water and cook for large groups of women. One of the women is actually a virgin who was mistakenly gathered up with the rest, and becomes the symbol of hope of escape for the rest of the women. The militant female captain spouts all the familiar revolutionary platitudes but holds no sympathy for any of the women, until her own male superior is caught in a compromising situation and the captain begins to bond with the women. It's a lesson about the early years of struggle to overwrite the wrongs of the oppressor. We can all learn from each other.

In another African country, 12-year-old Komona lives in a small village attacked by a violent rebel group. Most all the villagers are killed but Komona is captured and forced to shoot her parents dead in order to win her life as a rebel in the group. Rebelle (War Witch) is Canada's entry in this year's best foreign-language Oscar race. It was filmed in the Congo and follows Komona's tragic life as she is raped by the rebel group leader, becomes pregnant, escapes with one of the young soldiers, tries to find solace and is captured again. The unbearably tragic existence of a girl who lost her youth to violence is brilliantly played by Rachel Mwanza who won Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

And finally, in a small village decimated by constant war, a young Muslim woman lives to protect her comatose husband, victim of a shot in the throat. With two young children, she is constantly dodging bullets in a dwelling where she feeds her husband water through a tube in his mouth. The Patience Stone, based on the best-selling novel by Afghani Atiq Rahimi, refers to a legendary stone that people can talk to to free themselves from inner fears and tension. When they are eventually free of all pent up emotions, the stone is shattered and their lives are free.

After weeks of keeping her husband alive by the fragile tube, the young wife begins to express her fears and concerns. Gradually telling her secrets and dreams to her non-responsive husband who had never let her talk, restricted her life and essentially forced her to be his slave, she gains a newfound feeling for life and expression, while bombs are dropping all around her building and she is even raped by a young local soldier. She learns about true love and relates war to the horrors of male domination, concluding, "Those who don't know how to make love, make war." The cleverly written story about an oppressed woman gaining freedom through expression comes to a shocking conclusion, and is one of the greatest cinematic statements on true liberation of women in society.

For more information about the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival see the festival website.

Photo: Still from Detroit Unleaded.

Toronto film highlight: “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Certainly one of the stars at this year's Toronto International Film Festival was legendary activist/educator and communist Angela Davis. But unlike many of the others, this unassuming activist resisted stardom, rather drawing attention to the struggles that still continue. She emphasized collective action, as in the exemplary worldwide Free Angela Davis campaign that was responsible for her release from prison.

Director Shola Lynch has made two feature documentaries in her career, both about famous strong Black women, the first being Chisholm '72 - Unbought and Unbosssed. Now she offers a thrilling political courtroom drama, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. (It was Angela who was responsible for adding "And All Political Prisoners" to the film title)

The importance of this project was noted by the fact that it was the first non-music documentary screened as a Gala film at the Toronto festival. A sold-out audience in the large theater gave it a rousing standing ovation as Davis, Lynch and Jada Pinkett Smith (who helped fund the film) appeared on stage. Many faces familiar to activists appear in the film, from Bettina Aptheker, sister Fania Davis, and Gus Hall, to Kendra Alexander and Jarvis Tyner. Angela's niece (Angela) Eisa Davis, closely resembling her aunt, plays her at times in the movie where archival footage was not available.

The film starts with a brief history of Angela's schooling and politicization overseas, as she returns to America with her degree in philosophy to teach Marxism at UCLA. Her first lecture drew 2,000 students. Angela immediately became active with the Black Panthers and then helped form the Che-Lumumba Club of the Communist Party USA. A strong relationship developed with George Jackson, a young man charged with armed robbery of $70, imprisoned at San Quentin where he was killed 10 years later. Jackson and others became known as the Soledad Brothers because of their outspoken radical politics. Angela was subsequently fired from her teaching job for being a communist.

The film focuses on Angela's flight from charges of conspiracy, kidnapping and first degree murder, (she was put on J. Edgar Hoover's Top 10 Most Wanted list), her capture two months later and the eventual trial where she was charged with supplying weapons for the courtroom murders of six people including a judge. In fact it was George Jackson's 17-year-old brother Jonathan, who was Angela's bodyguard, who had masterminded the plan to free the Soledad Brothers, which ended disastrously in the courtroom slayings.

Amazing interviews with key figures in Angela's trial, including the judge, her defense attorneys and close friends in the Free Angela movement, add immediacy and intrigue to the tightly edited and researched story. Lynch's interviews with the FBI reveal how they eventually were able to capture Angela in a Howard Johnson hotel in New York City. Angela revealed at her press screening that she learned about how they found her for the first time as she watched the movie.

Angela Davis's life went on from her triumphant court victory to a committed life of continued activism. The exciting film with an upbeat ending roused the entire audience and should have the same effect on anyone committed to justice and the struggle for a better world.

Angela described her response to being asked to appear in a movie about her life: "I've always been a reluctant public person. But I found the documentary might be important to speak to young people in the 21st century about movements that were powerful and victorious. Forty years ago no one could imagine that despite the fact I was innocent that I would be able to stand up to the power of the state. But that campaign that developed all over the world, literally on every continent, made it possible for us to experience that victory. And so I thought it might be important for young people today to get a sense of what it might be to feel collectively powerful and capable of changing the world. We need a LOT of that today."

Director Lynch has honed her skills at creating moving stories about people committed to social change. As for gathering information, she states, "I wanted to find whatever truth, facts I could find. FBI files are a wonderful resource. I was mindful of two audiences, those who lived through it and the younger audience who were learning for the first time."

Asked if they anticipate any opposition to this film, Angela replied, "Oh, yes, we will experience some of that anti-communism. But I think it's important to point out that the anti-communism of the past is not the same as we experience today. Young people are much more open and especially because of the Occupy movement, there is an ability to be critical of capitalism, there is an anti-capitalism that hasn't been around since the '20s and '30s when the Communist Party was responsible in the U.S. for developing such things as Social Security and unemployment insurance and so on."

Angela modestly ends the film by drawing attention away from herself and towards the collective approach, making the point once again that change is possible when determined people work together.

Hiding in caves and high-rise steelworkers: Toronto Film Festival 2012

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:44:00 +0000

TORONTO, Canada - After 10 days of global time travelling at the Toronto International Film Festival -- visiting Palestinian refugee camps in 1948 and 1967, living with Ukrainian Jews hiding in a cave for 511 days in 1942-43, and feeling dizzy sitting on an iron beam with steelworkers 57 stories above ground level in 1932 -- it's finally time to come down and write about these amazing experiences. Film, like no other art, can display the riches of humanity, the beauty of integrated disciplines, tell grand stories and involve you in a world of ideas and experiences by throwing light on a wall.

It's impossible to see all the great films that were shown at the festival this year. Choosing from over 350 films is a daunting task. But of the 50 or so on the top of the list, many stand out.

The latest installment of political philosopher Slavoj Zizek's series by filmmaker Sophie Fiennes takes a psychoanalytical look at ideology, following his highly successful take on cinema. In the amusingly titled Perverts' Guide to Ideology, he scours the world's cinema looking for hidden messages in pop culture, films like the futuristic They Live, which he considers one of the most overlooked films of the left. He analyzes a wide array of films, such as Frankenheimer's Seconds and the forgotten Soviet classic Fall of Berlin, to offer a rich and thought provoking film that needs to be seen several times to capture the essence of the nonstop verbal gymnastics flowing from the creative mind of Zizek. You'll have a totally different understanding of Beethoven's 9^th Symphony also.

Viewers were able to see the first of certainly many to come films about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Underground is a thrilling and informative Australian production that focuses on Assange's early years developing hacking skills while helping to protect his mother and brother from The Family, a religious cult that kidnaps blond kids, which his estranged father had joined. But his ability to publicize hacks into U.S. military files to discover shocking information about its involvement in Iraq is what planted the seed for further activism.

Probably one of the most seductively titled films, How to Make Money Selling Drugs, ends up being a mock infomercial that exposes the American failed "war on drugs" and the dangers of smoking. Step-by-step instructions are offered for those interested in making money quick, at several levels, from $50 a day to $5 million a month. But eventually ... there's a price to pay. 50 Cent, Woody Harrelson and other dignitaries join real drug lords and con artists who bare their souls (and tricks) to expose the real reasons we have drug problems in America.

One of the most famous photographs in American history portrays 11 workers casually eating lunch while sitting precariously on an iron beam 800 feet (57 stories) above ground in 1932. (Article continues after trailer.)

Men at Lunch tells the history of the photo and the men who were captured in this most famous pose. What attracts many to this photo is how these ordinary workers, Irish immigrants, were elevated to the height of giants by photographic grandeur. They were the men who built New York but were usually forgotten and expendable. Four in 100 of these superhero iron workers died or were maimed yearly. It was the Great Depression. These immigrants who helped build America came through Ellis Island just slightly before the famous picture was taken. This movie of a photo of workers is a joyous testament to cinema, photography and the dignity of labor.

Probably one of the most claustrophobic films ever released, and certainly a convincing moving document adding to the many testimonies of the suffering of Jews during World War II, No Place on Earth tells the story of 38 Ukrainian Jews forced to live in a cave for 511 days during the early 1940s. What makes the movie unique is the way New York cave explorer Chris Nicola discovers strange human artifacts in one of the world's largest caves in the Ukraine. In his determined investigation to find the source of these findings, he comes across the almost forgotten history of one of the most extreme survival stories to come out of World War II. The film juxtaposes documentary footage of his present day explorations with scenes of actors recreating the amazing stories from 1942, while at the same time interviewing some of the actual survivors of the forced cave existence, many of whom are now living in Canada. The touching films fails only on one count. The main reason they finally were able to leave the dark underground caves was because of the victorious Soviet Red Army that freed the land of Nazis. Shamefully, no credit was given to those heroes.

The absence of Cuban cinema in Toronto this year was noticed, and Ken Loach's newest Cannes Festival winner was not shown. Regularly featured films from the Italian left were also absent. But there were plenty others to consider, including a City to City Program that focused on Indian cinema from Mumbai (formerly Bombay), and a special new series about documentary filmmaking that included discussions with the likes of Ken Burns and Shola Lynch, who made the new Angela Davis film (see my next article). Stars were in abundance and filmgoers lined the streets waiting for tickets. There were films for everyone's tastes, and especially progressives.

For more information about the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival see the festival website.

Metal musicians talk community, politics, LGBT equality

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:28:00 +0000

With the critical 2012 presidential election coming up, the music genre of metal is getting political. Musicians like GWAR and Marilyn Manson have supported President Obama, while those on the other side of politics, like Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, have made a number of outrageous, right-wing comments. Sadly, it is the latter, not the former, that have been a big news item as of late. In response, musicians have reached out to declare that this music offers so much more than what is visible on the surface.

Artists have noted that metal provides a real community feeling. "There is a tribal spirit that comes with it," said Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor. "When I was growing up, I found people to whom it didn't matter who I was - just the fact that I was a metal fan. The thing about metal fans is we're all so opinionated and severe in our personalities," he admitted, but there's also a real form of acceptance and equality taking place within the fandom that should translate to other areas of life, as well.

"We're very accepting. Perfect example: We all knew that [Judas Priest singer] Rob Halford was gay for years." And it's funny, he says, "because metal is a genre" that was once accused of being homophobic, but now, that's not the case. "Stereotypes are ridiculous. Here's a man who comes out, and the band is bigger than ever."

The LGBT movement is an important talking point in metal as of late. Greg Puciato, frontman of The Dillinger Escape Plan, said, "Proper education and cultural exposure" were keys to overcoming prejudice toward gays and lesbians. "Understanding of homosexuality is one of the largest humanist issues of our time. Let me throw in how proud we are as a band that our fans are accepting, tolerant, and progressive." And speaking directly to the LGBT community, he remarked, "Feeling ostracized may sting at times, but the truth is, you're a forward person in a primitive time. Being ahead of the pack? That's called being a leader. Embrace it."

Otep Shamaya, poet and frontwoman of Otep, is a lesbian, and noted she was aggressive about getting the message of equality out into the world. Metal, she said, is a perfect forum for that. "I needed a sonic landscape that was just as aggressive as I am. Bands like Slayer and Slipknot, hearing those bands, there was something phenomenal about the way they communicated their messages."

And, she continued, "The more exposure people get to any community, I think that's good."

When it comes to pushing key issues, it also helps that metal has a number of high-profile fans, including comedian Brian Posehn, pop musician Lady Gaga, and actors like Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage, William Shatner, and Megan Fox.

In addition, music writer Todd Matthy underscored metal's relevance in the political world: "Do political messages have a place in metal?" he asked. "Absolutely. I think it's great that musicians share their stance on issues that are important to them with their fans. It humanizes them."

Taylor described how such a level of acceptance is the driving factor behind metal's appeal: "It's the last real rebellious spirit in music. People can talk about punk all they want, but after new wave put that down, metal became the [new] voice of the disenfranchised" who want to make a difference.

Photo: Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor (pictured) has noted that behind metal's image lies a real sense of community and equality. karri_wells/Flickr