Martin Scorsese uses the new to show us the wonders of the old. Films restored by his World Cinema Foundation are now being promoted by the foundation widely through distribution to museums, colleges, festivals, film clubs, and ONLINE. You’ve got it digital copies are now available via the online movie theater, theauteurs. The even better news is that many of the restored films can be watched for free!
A lot of really old films are really great but I have to admit that I am one of those who find myself not giving most of them a chance. Scorsese knows this and that is why his foundation is working so hard to expose people to old masterpieces. As Scorsese said in a press con in France, “To be appreciated, they have to be seen. Now, they should be seen as they were intended to be seen, but audience awareness can build in surprising ways…The more audiences see these films, the more they want to see other films like them, then what happens is the audience changes, which means the movies that are being made change.”
Along with Martin Scorsese other celebrated directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, Stephen Frears, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, who all serve in the board of the World Cinema Foundation, are very much active in pushing for the preservation of old obscure films.
Slumdog Kids Lose Their Homes
Empty promises. That’s what the Slumdog kids got when their government promised to give them new homes in the suburbs. That was about three months ago and still no word from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority. What’s worse is that not only are they not getting the promised newer nicer houses but their old shanties have been torn down.
Last week it was Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail’s home that was demolished by the municipal crews. Early today it was Rubina Ali Qureshi’s house. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail played the young Salim while Rubina Ali Qureshi played the young Latika. In a very sad case of life imitates art Rubina tearfully told the Associated Press, “I’m feeling bad. My house had been demolished. I’m thinking about where to sleep.” So much for the applause what these kids is a clean safe home where they know they just won’t get evicted without being given notice, which is what happened according to Rubina’s stepmom Munni Qureshi. Qureshi says that the police did not give any notice before the demolition. In fact Rubina, who was in a nearby market when the demolition started, ran back as soon as she heard the news but returned only to find rubble. It’s not as if she could do anything about it and judging from the police’s heavy handed tactics, which lead to Rubina’s father getting beat for resisting,she was better off not being there during the whole process. Of course that doesn’t give any comfort when night falls and they end up huddled together under the stars with no roof over their heads…
Women refuge centers to accept men
Here’s interesting news from across the big pond. Telegraph.co.uk ran a story about new legislation in the UK regarding women refuge centers to offer help to male victims of domestic abuse. This new legislation aims at providing equal opportunity and rights to people irregardless of race and sex.
Services that these women refuge centers offer are varied but covers the basic necessities of living like food, clothing and shelter. Add counseling and health maintenance and see that it is indeed quite a huge help once deprived the male gender.
While noble in nature there are quite a few well-established charities that seem to oppose such move:
Women’s Aid, the domestic violence charity, believes its female-only services are necessary to give abused women the reassurance they need. Often the women and children they help will only feel comfortable without a male presence.
Still, I personally believe these charities should at least have options for men because, after all, men at times do get equally abused too.
Elementary Twittering
This came to me a little odd because did you know that in the United Kingdom there is a blueprint for a new primary curriculum – which was drawn up by former Ofsted chief Sir Jim Rose following a request from Children’s Secretary Ed Balls? You’d be equally surprised that under this new curriculum, British children are required to learn websites and online tools such as Wikipedia, Blogging and Twitter? 🙂 Further to this proposal “schools will be encouraged to put a big emphasis on internet skills, environmental education, healthy eating and well-being. ”
Serious.
‘English will cover ‘media texts’ and ‘social and collaborative forms of communication’ alongside traditional works of literature. This includes texting formats of sorts. It would seem that the educational system is being proposed to adapt and adopt current culture brought about by the radical shift of technology and how it affects everyday life.
Is this something good or bad for education? Pros and cons time… comments please!
Man fined £75 for harming a tree
This is a rather unusual effort to drive the “love for the environment” campaign by the Brighton and Hove City Council in the UK. While most campaigns would grow around information and pro-activity events, this council bears a little teeth by sending a memo to Artist Anton Cataldo for stapling a lot of “lost & found” posters all over what seems to be where he allegedly lost 2 prized paintings.
The fine was later withdrawn but the memo lives in “infamy”, well at least for Cataldo. ‘I found the council email quite patronising. I’m not an expert but I doubt very much that a staple could cause so much damage to a tree that it would actually die.’
He continued: ‘I’m quite a considerate person and I would never knowingly do anything to harm a tree. I didn’t realise there was a law about putting posters up, as you often see them around.
Mr Cataldo complained to the council about the fine, which has since been cancelled. A council spokesman said: ‘This was probably a case of an officer who was a little bit over-zealous.’