http://www.mediarights.org/news/ en cmarquez@apalc.org Copyright 2010 2010-03-08T18:09:06+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/Win_3000_helping_Asian_and_Pacific_Islanders_get_Counted_in_Census_2010/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/Win_3000_helping_Asian_and_Pacific_Islanders_get_Counted_in_Census_2010/#When:18:09:06Z Economic Justice, Economic Development, Family & Society, Media, Digital Media, Fair Representation, Racial Justice, Asian-American, Indigenous Peoples, Youth, Call for Entries / Submissions 2010-03-08T18:09:06+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/Master_Class_Cliff_Charles_The_Peoples_DP/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/Master_Class_Cliff_Charles_The_Peoples_DP/#When:13:29:21Z Media, Event / Call to Action 2010-03-08T13:29:21+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/Sound_Recording_Tips_for_Better_Results,_and_a_Look_at_New_Gear_with_JT_Tak/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/Sound_Recording_Tips_for_Better_Results,_and_a_Look_at_New_Gear_with_JT_Tak/#When:13:27:57Z Media, Event / Call to Action 2010-03-08T13:27:57+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/FreeNetWorld_FIRST_CALL_for_ENTRIES/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/FreeNetWorld_FIRST_CALL_for_ENTRIES/#When:11:13:26Z Economic Justice, Environment, Family & Society, Gay/Lesbian, Gender/Women, Health/Health Advocacy, Human Rights, Immigration, International, Media, Racial Justice, Religious Freedom, Youth, Call for Entries / Submissions 2010-03-01T11:13:26+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/Media_That_Matters_in_Waterbury,_Vermont,_on_March_8,_2010/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/Media_That_Matters_in_Waterbury,_Vermont,_on_March_8,_2010/#When:10:26:41Z Economic Justice, Economic Development, Housing and Homelessness, Poverty, Environment, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Environmental Justice, Sustainable Agriculture, Family & Society, Gay/Lesbian, Gay/Lesbian Discrimination, Gay/Lesbian Health, Gender/Women, Body Image, Sexual Harrassment, Health/Health Advocacy, Human Rights, International, Africa, Asia, Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific, Canada, Central America, Europe, U.S./Foreign Relations, Media, Racial Justice, Asian-American, Indigenous Peoples, Latino, Youth, Identity, Film / Screening 2010-02-23T10:26:41+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/learning_the_language_of_the_rock_poster_underground/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/learning_the_language_of_the_rock_poster_underground/#When:16:51:12Z By Stacey Brook The world of rock concert poster art has its own definitive language, silent and spoken, written and unwritten, overt and implied. Like with many other microcultures, knowing this community’s unusual codes, insider terminology and culturally specific social etiquette is the difference between surface appreciation and full understanding. The masters of poster art twist pop culture imagery, repurpose age-old Americana icons and ink out slick illustrations in the name of ephemeral, music-related events. Using techniques and equipment that in the age of computers is all-but antiquated, they construct limited edition, handmade artifacts that not only mark a single day in history, but are reflective of the cultural surroundings at large. The community that produces these vibrant runs of ink on paper is insular and eccentric, full of brilliant, quirky, often introverted personalities, whose bombastic mode of expression is balanced by the under-the-radar status of their craft. American Artifact poster,by Hatch Show Print After years of existing away from the scrutiny and examination of outsiders, not one, but two filmmakers crafted documentaries about this underground coalition of ink on paper; Eileen Yaghoobian, with her punk-rock pastiche, Died Young, Stayed Pretty, and Merle Becker with her historical examination of the artform, American Artifact. Each filmmaker’s choice of location, interview subjects, tone and editing are deliberate attempts to impart this new language of poster art to an audience that hasn’t been exposed—for a lifetime, a decade, or even the few years it took to weave together each of these films—to the nuances and iconography of this cloistered culture. Both directors furnish the viewer with tools to process this foreign dialect, and the questions their films answer directly parallel the inquiries innate to the understanding and acquisition of a second language. What is the terminology people use here? How is it applied? What are the cultural references necessary to establish real connections with the material? What words and concepts don’t translate to the language I already know? In a total immersion method of foreign language instruction, a student receives all of his/her instruction in the target language, without explanation or bridges to a first, native language for guidance. In order to learn French, for example, one would be placed in an environment in which everything heard and spoken was only in French. This is the same principle by which Died Young, Stayed Pretty exposes the viewer to the world of underground poster art. Yaghoobian’s gritty homage plunges its audience into the solitary, culture of imagery/imagery of culture world inhabited by modern poster artists. The film is shot, produced, directed and edited by the first-time filmmaker from Vancouver, who discovered rock posters through the modern archival website and forum, Gigposters.com. A photographer with her MFA, Yaghoobian found herself impacted by the artwork on a visceral level, and approached the filmmaking process with a keen eye and a fine-artists’ appreciation for the mechanics of the movement. She documents how posters of the punk rock era are reflected in the posters of today, focusing her attention more on the current expression of the culture and its visual expression than its historical roots. “It’s about the dialogue that happens in the posters and the community that exists,” she says. As far as location and process, Yaghoobian had a distinct vision going in. She didn’t want to shoot artists, as she says, “pimping their artwork.” She wanted to capture them in their natural environs. Her filming process involved staying with her subjects for weeks, sleeping on couches and always keeping the camera rolling. She captures the routines that reveal a person’s character, catching her artists in off-guard moments that show the true nature/color of their personalities. Interview subjects are chosen for their conversational fluency and hometown environmental intrigue, not their individual impact on the scene. Rob Jones, in Died Young, Stayed Pretty Yaghoobian encourages extended musing from her subjects. She wrenches politically incorrect admissions from them. Most of the men (there is only one female poster maker in the whole film—a pretty accurate representation on gender breakdown in the field) on the scene are huge culture, science and history geeks, and Yaghoobian lets them ramble, exposing their roots. Like Rob Jones, expert illustrator of the perverse, who recounts the paranoid legend of the death of Elvis’ secret twin on-screen for a full five minutes. The story he tells has nothing to do with posters, really. It doesn’t even have a lot to do with rock music. But it does give the audience majestic insight into the workings of a mind that spews out hilarious, warped images of famous figures, like Mick Jagger wielding an eel stemming from his crotch; or Teddy Roosevelt, fang-bearing and vampiric; or a homoerotic, gun-slinging Elvis (of course), pinching his own nipple. It is these deliberate tangential indulgences of character through conversation that create the immersive experience. In a movie about a microculture, Yaghoobian understands that to know a foreign place, you must be allowed to converse with its people about the things they love. Yaghoobian’s portrait of the modern community is further fleshed out by the frenetic paces of her cuts from poster imagery to interview tidbits from artists who are identified only for flashes of a second. She arranges her interviews in a non-linear fashion overlapping patches of related musings, so they feel almost wheatpasted together. Yaghoobian’s film is intentionally plotless and dizzying. “Punk is anti-narrative,” she says. “Of course I’m going to a make a film that’s anti-narrative, because I’m going to serve the form. Yaghoobian also illuminates subjects that are actually of issue if you participate in the community. She juxtaposes footage of designers and illustrators expressing their fervent opinions on design—contradicting each other in ways that mimic the activity on poster message boards and in chat rooms. One minute you see a design-centric artist is claiming he’d be bored to pieces illustrating posters, and the next minute the screen flashes to an illustrator complaining about the lack of imagination in recycling found imagery. The values and perspectives of artists are both represented and respected, but never fully explained. The audience is left with the feeling that it is impossible to label an opinion in this universe as right or wrong, but that all is permissible when expressing opinions about music or pop culture or aesthetics or politics through your artwork. As the frantic conversational wave crashes down, the lesson is imparted. Creativity is god. Art is the only truth. Died Young, Stayed Pretty requires fortitude; and likely you have to be a native speaker to understand what Yaghoobain is saying. Even with thousands of hours of trolling Gigposters.com under my belt and a flat file of collected screenprints under my bed I understood Died Young, Stayed Pretty better after my second viewing. But as Yaghoobian says, “It’s punk rock. It’s messy.” That first viewing still awoke something visceral within me—something tied to the excitement of secrecy and rebellion. The film forces you to commit or perhaps more accurately, submit to powerful sensory provocation. Like a non-Spanish speaker feeling inspired enough by the Cathedral of Seville to utter her first “muy gracias,” one simply has to let the immersion work its wonder. Yaghoobian says, “When you’re making a movie about community, the individual dissipates.” And in the case of Died Young, Stayed Pretty, this principle includes the audience/viewer as an absorbed individual, too. Immersion is a proven effective method of language learning, but it certainly isn’t the only way to impart a language unknown. The Language As Subject (LAS) system of language learning, for example, is a traditional way of teaching language in which it is treated as the object of instruction. In LAS, the teacher is responsible for explanation, and deciding what will be learned and how to exchange that knowledge. In her film American Artifact, Merle Becker aims to translate the language of the poster underground into relatable terms for her audience, ordering an examination of poster art from its rock and roll and psychedelic roots through the present. Becker introduces the audience to the scene’s key players through the ages. She uses clear points of organization, the innate visual appeal of the scene’s artwork, and a literal approach to context and setting to engage and anchor the viewers. The film even kicks off with Becker as the narrator, a device used intermittently throughout the film, making Becker, quite literally, our guide. “I definitely wanted people to walk away from the film feeling like they learned something, and feeling like it was an enlightening hour and a half,” she says. Becker serves up her content in linear, easily digestible chunks, and American Artifact has a clear beginning, middle and end. The film kicks off with a review of posters of the 50’s and 60’s, taking us on a quick tour the art’s birth in boxing poster form. We move on to the 60’s where the major signposts are hit. Bill Graham at The Fillmore? Check. Stanley Mouse, whose Grateful Dead posters eventually spawned the most recognizable band logo on the planet? Check. It is clear from the outset, that this is intended to be a historical journey through the art form. Becker’s artistic choices are a reflection of the intended audience. Where Yaghoobian samples current artists for their commitment to obscurity, Becker focuses heavily on the “Big Five” (Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, and Alton Kelley), and then moves on to sample an array of keystone artists from the 60’s and beyond. She uses two books—1949’s The Art of Rock, and 2003’s updated, The Art of Modern Rock—two 25-pound tomes—as her bibles, selecting the most pivotal and popular figures for probing and extolling. She takes us through time, and the country, to record what she—and some others in the film—seems to believe is a vanishing industry. Becker hails from the world of mass media, working for MTV in the former “corporate gig” she refers to in much of the film’s narration. More specifically, she worked for TRL, MTV’s gooey, pop sales vehicle, and her experience in making trends approachable for the masses clearly informs her storytelling approach. She squeezes more recognizable personalities into her film, executing their identification with clear labeling, giving prime screen time to people like Frank Kozik, known by many to be the godfather of modern poster art. Becker lets Kozik tell his story, the tale of how screenprinting was revived; of how in a time when the black and white flier was the default, he strived to make prints so large and so complex they would make people think, “How can that exist?” These are the pillars of the community. The figures worthy of flashcards. One by one, Becker isolates these personas that have defined the scene over time, asking you to commit them to memory. Art Chantry, in Died Young, Stayed Pretty Like Art Chantry, often known as the design yin to Kozik’s illustrative yang, who has the most compelling lines in the film. (Chantry is a major voice in DYSP as well.) Proving his worth as modern day poster art’s Confucius, he unintentionally synthesizes the intent of the entire film, while telling the story of his own work saying, “If you document, you create history.” While synthesizing the chain of events that brought poster art to its modern state, Becker makes use of archival footage (an old Bill Graham interview, for example), and places her new interview subjects in environments that are directly connected to their occupations, achievements and/or topic of conversation. Music writers talk in front of their libraries. Artists are interviewed in their studios. Her context is literal. The soundtrack is comprised of bands whose music has been represented in posters for decades. She provides her audience with the building blocks of understanding by presenting exactly what she wants you to absorb. Becker is also unafraid to explore the more commercial side of the poster world, a reality that Died Young, Stayed Pretty for the most part, leaves untouched. In the years since the golden age of poster art, the functionality of a five-color screenprinted poster has changed. For bands that are no longer making money off record sales, limited edition screenprints are expensive to produce, and not especially effective as a means of promotion now that shows are advertised on the internet. As Chantry brings up, maybe now more than ever, posters are artifacts. It’s important to Becker to give context for how poster art fits in the modern world. She knows in an audience of music lovers, people want to know where and how posters are used. She anticipates that in a crowd of rent and mortgage payers, people will be wondering, “How do these folks make a living?” Her inclination towards didacticism serves the audience’s curiosities regarding the practicality of a seemingly impractical artistic existence. The film is information-stuffed, thoughtfully organized, and imbued with the vibrant spirit of the scene it magnifies. After viewing American Artifact, you know the historical figures of importance. The generals of war. You have sampled the souvenirs and you can list the key facts. You could pass a test on the vocabulary and phrases. In Died Young, Stayed Pretty, you acquire your native accent. You may not have fully understood the dialogue, but you’re left with the feeling of having spent months in a far away place. You don’t remember the name of the wine you drank while you were there, but you remember what it tasted like. Some people want to live abroad. Others like the guided tour. How filmgoers respond to each film will ultimately depend on what kind of learners they are, and how they like to travel through worlds unknown. Died Young, Stayed Pretty will screen on March 3rd at the AIGA Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre, and at the SCAD Savannah College of Art & Design on March 4th. The DVD is now available for purchase online (for Canadian and UK residents only) at http://www.diedyoungstayedpretty.com/ where you can also purchase film posters by artists from the movie. American Artifact will be released as a double DVD set on March 27th, and continues to screen around the country with special appearances by world-famous poster artists. Next up is the Boston Premiere at Emerson College’s Bordy Theater on Feb 23rd. For a full national screening schedule, visit http://www.americanartifactmovie.com/. Article 2010-02-22T16:51:12+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/the_betrayal/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/the_betrayal/#When:00:16:14Z Directed by Ellen Kuras and the film’s main subject Thavisouk Phrasavath, THE BETRAYAL spans 23 years following the Phrasavath family as they escape to America to avoid the possibility of imprisonment or execution during the Vietnam War. The use of images without dialogue has been utilized numerous times throughout the history of cinema. This 90-second clip that we have selected is no different in regards to this, but during our Arts Engine screening, some of us had a more profound reaction than others, since this scene brings us into a very personal and emotional space. Thavi reunites with his Laotian family after 23 years and his grandmother is so expressive that it’s uncomfortable to watch. It’s as if their personal space is being invaded. Yet, in stark contrast, his younger sister—who has no memory of him—is emotionless. ~ David Wright 90-Second Cinema 2010-02-21T00:16:14+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/john_lavalls_shortlist/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/john_lavalls_shortlist/#When:16:44:59Z The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders—leaders like John Lavall. We asked John to share his favorite films and his thoughts on the power of documentary to change the world. So what films make John Lavall’s Shortlist? Keep reading to find out. Who is John Lavall John Lavall John Lavall is an Emmy Award-winning producer and director from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. His work has been broadcast nationally, his films shown in festivals throughout the country. His company, Devlo Media, produces commercials, public service announcements, and documentary films. Recently Lavall produced and directed Home Across Lands, a documentary that explores how a small group of resettled Kunama refugees find support and reestablish their sense of community in a small New England state and now is in post-production with the documentary Leh Wi Tok (Let Us Talk) a film about the power of independent community radio in West Africa as a voice of the voiceless. John Lavall on the Power of Film I think that a well done documentary informs, enlightens, and spurs thought and conversation. My responsibility as a documentary filmmaker is to listen to both sides of a story, try to walk in someone else’s shoes and see the world through the lenses covering their eyes. We all have the same eyes—it’s sometimes the lenses that we wear that effects how we interpret that experience. So to me, the power of a documentary film has to always heed to the same warning Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben gave him, “...with great power comes great responsibility.” As much as we try to remain objective, the editorial choices we make have great impact and sometimes great consequence. The power of documentary to change the world starts with taking the time to listen to the world. John Lavall’s Picks Fog of War: The Errol Morris interview style, the use of archival material, the editing pace and the Philip Glass score. I love all of Errol Morris’s work this happens to be the last one I just watched. WAR/DANCE: Written and directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. Beautiful cinematography, great story, amazing compassionate and thoughtful director who, despite being unfairly accused of making it “too beautiful,” was paying great respect and honor to his subjects by doing what he does best. Spellbound: This documentary turns a national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C. into the Rocky of documentary films. The editing style and pace are fantastic.  Grizzly Man: Werner Herzog resurrects the obscure and solitary life of Timothy Treadwell through the hundreds of hours of footage that Treadwell left behind of his study of the grizzly bears. Amazing and unique story telling. Little Dieter Needs to Fly: My friend Bill Shuey suggested I watch this Werner Herzog film about Vietnam POW Dieter Dengler. The documentary tells Dengler’s story with stock footage and re-enactments, with Dengler portraying himself in the jungles of Laos, as he relives his harrowing story of survival and rescue. Startup.com: This documentary is the story of the .com bubble caught right before it bursts! Street Fight: They say “all politics are local,” well, this film shows just how ugly that it can get. Marshall Curry’s film follows the young political activist and mayoral candidate Cory Booker in a hard-fought primary against the seasoned and corrupt Mayor Sharpe James. Amazing! Article, Shortlist 2010-02-20T16:44:59+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/to_the_next_generation_of_rebel_voices/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/to_the_next_generation_of_rebel_voices/#When:22:27:45Z The late historian Howard Zinn brought a new approach to college history departments—and youth activism—around the country. By Michael Corcoran, CampusProgress.org Historian Howard Zinn, who died in February at the age of 87. Too often, the world seems impossible to change. The obstacles too grave, solutions too hard to come by, apathy and ignorance too prevalent. These moments of dejection have plagued progressives for generations. "I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy," said the iconic historian Howard Zinn in a 1970 speech. "[T]hat things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power." Surely, similar sentiments could be expressed by any progressive-minded individual at any time in recent history. Such is life in a world filled with injustice: prospects for healthcare reform dimming, the Supreme Court handing democracy over to corporations, young people going bankrupt because they choose to go to college. But what made Howard Zinn—the famous historian and activist who died in February of a heart attack at age 87—so unique was his unceasing faith that regular people can and should strive to make the world a better place. "I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played," Zinn wrote in a 2004 essay, "The Optimism of Uncertainty." "The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world." Zinn's optimism touched people of many stripes, but his largest impact may well have been on college campuses, where his 1980 book, A People's History of the United States, along with his speeches and essays, motivated countless students to think critically and fight for a better society. Zinn recognized the importance of young people in building a better society, dedicating his 2005 book, Voices of a People's History of the United States, to "the rebel voices of a coming generation." "He changed the conscience of a generation," writes MIT professor Noam Chomsky, a friend of Zinn's, in an e-mail to Campus Progress. "It's hard even to imagine how many young people's lives were touched, and how deeply, by his achievements, which will leave a permanent stamp on how history is understood and how a decent life should be lived." Stephen Maher, a graduate student at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C., is one of the students whose life was changed by Zinn's work. "Zinn is one of a very small group of people that really opened my eyes, woke me up and convinced me that I had to act with all the force I could muster to promote justice, [and] end oppression and violence," says Maher, who studies U.S. foreign policy at AU's School of International Service. "[H]e remained someone who served as a guide through what are certainly some of the darkest times in US history and showed me that through my role as a scholar, intellectual, and academic, it is possible to make a difference and right wrongs." Zinn, who grew up during the Great Depression and served in the Air Force during World War II, not only preached action, but engaged in it—often at great risk to his own security and stature. He was dismissed from his first academic job at Spelman College in Atlanta in 1963, after seven years of engaging in civil disobedience in the civil rights struggle and challenging the college's leadership. At Boston University he often irked the university's president with his anti-war actions, even before he earned tenure. "His primary concern was the countless small actions of unknown people that lie at the roots of those great moments that enter the historical record," Chomsky writes, "a record that will be profoundly misleading and seriously disempowering if torn from its roots. His life had the same focus ... until the very end." After the Vietnam War ended, Zinn turned his focus from anti-war activism to writing A People's History, a transformative history of America told from the perspectives of slaves, Native Americans, woman and unionists, not presidents and generals. The book has since sold millions of copies and become required reading in many college history programs. Eric Foner, a history professor at Columbia University, reviewed A People's History for The New York Times when it first came out. He said that while Zinn's historical work warrants both praise and criticism ("we need to study presidents as well as regular people," he wrote), there is no doubt that it sparked in many nascent scholars an interest in history. "I find this very admirable, and a lot of these students have gone on to do important work," Foner says. "That, I think, is his lasting legacy." James Carroll, an author and scholar-in-residence at Suffolk University, first met Zinn more than 40 years ago, when he was a chaplain at Boston University, where Zinn taught history. He says Zinn 's appeal to young people was, in large part, a product of his humble demeanor and unique approach. "Most radicals attack the hierarchy of the class system, but they do it by affirming the hierarchy of morality—they put themselves at the top, and they put their antagonists at the bottom," says Carroll, who published a column about Zinn in The Boston Globe on Monday. "Howard Zinn was not interested in ranking people or in ranking himself—not socially, economically, or morally ... That is why he was so influential, especially with young people." It remains to be seen how much influence Zinn's message and work will have in the coming generations. But, as Zinn himself acknowledged, the fight for social change will continue to fall on the shoulders of young people. "I keep encountering people who, in spite of all the evidence of terrible things happening everywhere, give me hope," Zinn once wrote, "especially young people, in whom the future rests." Michael Corcoran is a correspondent for The Boston Globe's metro desk and graduated from Emerson College in 2007. Provided by CampusProgress.org. Through an online magazine and student publications, public events, multimedia projects, and grassroots issue campaigns, Campus Progress acts to empower new progressive leaders nationwide as they develop fresh ideas, communicate in new ways, push policy outcomes in a progressive direction, and build a strong progressive movement. Article 2010-02-19T22:27:45+00:00 http://www.mediarights.org/news/Tribeca_Cinemas_Presents_Doc_Series_2010/ http://www.mediarights.org/news/Tribeca_Cinemas_Presents_Doc_Series_2010/#When:11:09:11Z Criminal Justice, Prison Reform, Economic Justice, Housing and Homelessness, Environment, Family & Society, Gender/Women, Equal Opportunities, Human Rights, International, Media, Digital Media, Youth, Identity, Event / Call to Action 2010-02-19T11:09:11+00:00