My dad actually texted me. He said, “apparently you’re having a renaissance at 29!” Fantastic! I mean, yeah, sure, I’ll take it. I didn’t realize I’d gone away, though. I didn’t realize I needed a renaissance. Fuck! Nobody told me.
Keira Knightley, my love, loved you then, love you now, love you always. It's a pleasure, always a pleasure to see you in anything, acting, being in the screen, it is worth every second.
America (as in US), do you want a Hero? As you love Heros so much - give an (the) Oscar to this woman called Ava DuVernay. In this case, it is a Heroine, crucial difference, obviously.
Clearly, it will already be a huge deal (and in itself a huge film) IF she gets that Oscar nomination for Best Director for her film Selma. Let alone win the award. A woman, a black woman, between directors - as in a men's world for decades and decades. To remember that only three women were nominated for Best Director, I think, and only one won...over quite the unsettlling controversy, and the fact that they pretty much wanted to get away with the "give it to her so that the Women's barrier is broken". Because the women's state stayed the same.
Sometimes I get amazed how broken the country of United States of America is. So full of unsettling battles for equality, deep ignorance from gender to health to human rights, abuse of power, abuse of money, unrationally and hateful appropriation of the American people, when all at the same time it ends up being this fascinating country so rich in unlikely possiblities. So, as you might accept, dichotomies, or you know, binary approches aren't that healthy, the black and white is a tricky situation to be in.
For me, Ava DuVernay already is a Heroine. She's the example of a wonderful inspiring role model, she's a forward thinking woman, and it is the kind of example that even if she wasn't outspoken, her actions are everything. The right kind of 'show it, don't tell.'
Not only she tells, she shows it with great effect.
So there you go.
It is a beautiful inspiring trailer, it looks so good.
And now premiering at AFI Fest with a wonderful reception, the hopes are high.
Read Sasha Stone's essay here.
Shadow and Act reviews here.
I look at the
release of this Writers Roundtable as unexpected, because I don’t even realize
that it is November, and in no time Awards and nominations and critics choices
will begin hitting the season hard. I know it already started but this year, I
come in a different state. I still follow the season, but not as thoroughly as
I used to over the past few years and so when I suddenly see these Oscar
Roundtables I’m hit with the season’s choices…But the truth is that some things
never change, and in this case, another solo woman between dudes.
Gillian owning it
between the dudes.
I find this
Roundtable a little bit uninspiring, personally, because they start to ramble a
little too much about insecurities, and being in the business, the Hollywood business,
and maybe a little too much men’s egos and insecurities involved and at the
same time I can understand the truth and honest in it and I get that politics
and money issues and how hard it is to make a film wherever you are in the
world, but also I’m not really into the Nolan’s insights about “Oh, I didn’t
choose to be a writer’ blahblahblah, I’m a Nolan, I’m a white dude so I do
whatever the fuck I want…and I can hear Gillian not giving a fuck about what
these guys are saying sometimes…
“It’s paralyzingly
difficult. It’s one of the things, you know, there are writers who like writing
and there are writers who don’t, I fucking hate writing but I haven’t came up
with anything else to do for a living.” – This is the uninspiring part of Nolan
talking but then this is good – “I find it difficult because I’m always aware
when it is not good and most of it is not good and then you keep working and
you keep working, you know, your work day is six hours, everyone’s process is a
little different but you know five and half of it is garbage and you have to go
back and do it all over again…”
I liked the part
about a film not being perfect and the unhappy endings.
"I love unhappy endings.
I’m all about the unhappy ending, like I will not give you what you want. It's
not the most satisfying, it's the most correct and true. I remember being 5
years old, seeing that movie in theaters and first they lose, and you think,
'What's happening now? They lost.' And then the team comes over and apologizes,
and you expect the Bad News Bears to gracefully accept their apology, and
instead the kid's like, 'Take your trophy and stick it up your ass!' And I was
like, 'This movie is great!'”.
There’s always
things you can take from these roundtables, even though they’re not ‘inspiring’.
Always. Keira Knightley, the all around down to earth awesome conscious and unpretentious that just won't take any bullshit Keira Kngithely. As she always was.
"I've
had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons,
whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters…That [shoot] was one
of the ones where I said: 'OK, I'm fine doing the topless shot so long as you
don't make them any bigger or retouch. Because it does feel important to say it
really doesn't matter what shape you are. I think women's bodies are a battleground
and photography is partly to blame. Our society is so photographic now, it
becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape."
Also, she took her best friend Emily to prom, and the director or professor didn't liked it.
“We both turned up an hour late, and I’d been filming Bend It Like Beckham, and I turned up in leather pants and a crop top, and she was a model for a while, and she’d been in Paris shooting something, and she turned up as the boy, so she had a black tie with ripped jeans on, and everybody else was completely dressed up, obviously, in that kind of finery, and then we had our picture taken underneath the thing, and she’s kissing me, and we were told that that was disgusting.
“And one of the teachers took us both aside and said we were never going to come to anything if we didn’t know how to dress appropriately for events like that. So that was my prom. We had a great time!”
It was what I was
hoping to be. I appreciate this documentary tremendously because through the
journey of this singular young woman, a fifteen year old Dutch traveler, the
youngest person to sail around the world alone in two years, called Laura
Dekker, tells us a lot about ourselves, about our society, it tells a lot about
me and you.
Maidentrip takes
us through her journey, through her young life, from being born in New Zealand,
when their parents were on a seven year trip, and later on, after the divorce
of her parents, the media and political situation that she went through because
of her age and the traveling consent and so on and then finally the trip itself
and her facing her obstacles both in the sea but also in the heart.
It is revealing of
many things and I like that. The way she rebels against her parents, the way
she gets annoyed, like all teenagers do, when parents are around, of even being
a little ungrateful about some things in life. But as the time passes, and all
the time she spends by herself, she starts paying more attention and being more
grateful about her journey, her life. With this film, we watch a young woman
growing up, maturing, and facing her identity issues. We all go through what we
see here, except we are not in the sea, by ourselves, at night, with huge waves
to face!
Overall, through
Laura Dekker’s journey, we can see all these things we take for granted, things
we share in common, no matter where we are in the world, as well as the
circumstances…and also shows us that a teenager will always be a teenager!
