Category: Film

American Indian Poet, Actor, Activist John Trudell Passes On at 69

December 8, 2015

John Trudell, Santee Sioux, passed away this morning. He was 69. I have been a long time fan of John Trudell’s written and spoken word, as well as an admirer of the work he has done as an activist. I had the pleasure of meeting John a few times while living in Los Angeles and seeing him perform with his band, Bad Dog. I was deeply saddened to learn a few days ago that John had cancer and his time was limited here on our planet, the planet he advocated for in so many ways.

I am a better person for knowing John Trudell. He was a great man, a peaceful warrior, a stellar human being. His words will be with us forever…

“My ride showed up.””Celebrate Love. Celebrate Life.” John Trudell February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015

Posted by John Trudell on Tuesday, December 8, 2015

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Farm Fresh and Local In the Newburyport Area

July 10, 2015

As a child growing up in the rural area of Massachusetts’ Northshore, my family grew our own vegetables as so many rural families did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. There were also many small farm stands around the area, and by the time I was in high school in the early 1970’s a few of the local farms were starting to go by the wayside.

The farm policy had changed drastically during the Nixon administration thanks to Earl Butz, who was Nixon’s Secretary of the USDA. Many small farmers found it difficult to stay afloat without the subsidies they were accustomed to receiving from the federal government. The documentary King Corn, is a very informative film about how Butz’s policies shaped factory farming and growing corn as a the number one staple in processed food.

Very few working family farms remain in the Newburyport area that were working farms when I was a child. Most of the smaller farms of my childhood days are gone with the land being sold off for housing and commercial development. A few small farms continue to grow their own and sell their produce and meats at their farm-stand businesses. However, two newer, more enterprising larger farms in the area also carry other local and non-local produce and products as well as their own locally grown vegetables and fruits.

On a late spring afternoon in mid-June, I decided to take a drive along the backroads of the Newburyport area to take stock of the local farm stands and what they have to offer. Newburyport also has a vibrant Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings at the Tannery on Water Street, but locavores in the area also rely on local farm stands for fresh vegetables and fruits in season as well as grass fed meats and free-range poultry. (more…)

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Film Review: The Celluloid Closet

July 15, 2014

We tend to watch films without much thought about how politics effects film-making. The documentary The Celluloid Closet gives an insight into world of film-making, politics, censorship and equality.

The documentary film The Celluloid Closet is based on the groundbreaking 1981 book, The Celluloid Closet, by Vito Russo, about the history of the depiction of gays and lesbians in the movies. Through film clips, interviews and narration, The Celluloid Closet takes us on a captivating journey back in time to show the audience the various stereotyped roles gays and lesbians played in film and how Hollywood censorship played a part in film making.

Narrated by Lily Tomlin, in the opening scene of the movie, Tomlin tells the audience, “For 100 years, laugh at, pity or fear, Hollywood taught straight people what to think about gay people and what gay people should think about themselves.” Film critic, Susie Bright said, of the roles played by gays and lesbians if you were gay, “you felt invisible.” Hollywood relied on stock characters to portray gays and lesbians in film and those characters never showed realism. (more…)

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Inside Llewyn Davis on the Top of My Holiday Movie List

December 11, 2013

Inside Llweyn Davis, the new film by the Coen Brothers has been on the top of my must see movie list for a few weeks now. The radio station I listen to, WUMB, has been playing quite a few cuts from the soundtrack and the music has definitely sparked my interest in the film.

Apparently A.O. Scott of the NY Times feels Inside Llewyn Davis is also a must see movie for 2013:

The musical performances — especially from Oscar Isaac, who plays the title character — are hauntingly lovely, and they anchor Joel and Ethan Coen’s exploration, at once mordant and melancholy, of the early-’60s New York folk scene. A ballad of bad luck and squandered talent that already seems, like the music it celebrates, to have been around forever.

Inside Llewyn Davis is based on the Greenwich Village Folk scene of 1961 and loosely derived from Dave Van Ronk’s memiour: The Mayor of MacDougal Street. Read more about the film here.

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Nelson Mandela Dies at 95

December 5, 2013

The world lost a great citizen today… Nelson Mandela passed away today, he was 95. Mandela was a “freedom fighter, statesman, moral compass and South Africa’s symbol of the struggle against racial oppression,” who “emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid.”

U2 recently released this video for the film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”: