Editor’s note: Christine Phang, the author of this article, has also responded to attacks on the film by BBC critic Nick Fraser. Indonesia’s history as an independent state has been a relatively short one. The authoritarian issues the country has faced, however, have played a large role in affecting several
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Art Threat: Mars at Sunrise is a Cinematic Tone Poem
In times of stress we turn to torn fragments of ourselves and worship them as if they were whole nations (From Mars at Sunrise). Mars at Sunrise (2014) is director Jessica Habie’s first feature. Billed as “A story of a war waged on imagination,” the film tells the story of Khaled,
Continue readingArt Threat: The Act of Killing: Liberal Porn or Daring Activism?
The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn, 2013) is a documentary about Indonesia’s anti-communist purges of 1965 that thankfully abandons the traditional interview format in favour of something daring and controversial. As requested by victims’ families, Oppenheimer — who has been working inside Indonesia making social justice-related media for over a
Continue readingArt Threat: Gender Mender: XXY is a cinematic exploration of intersexuality
From a purely organizational standpoint, there are plenty of reasons for the gender binary. The system delineates male and female characteristics as separate and static, ostensibly facilitating a natural and sustainable social order. It readily assigns roles and packages gender identity. It is convenient – when it works. The problem
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: Countering Colonization (and other great books)
So University of California Press has just made 700 of its books available for online reading (to read on a tablet you have to copy paste into some other program and do some conversions). One of these titles, which i can’t recommend highly enough, is Carol Devens’s Countering Colonization: Native
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Shadows: a Blog Tour
Recently, I heard about Tundra Books doing a blog tour for Paula Weston’s “Shadows”. I have done a blog tour for Tundra Books before, and it was a great experience. So I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t familiar with Paula Weston before becoming part of the tour. This is
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Engineering an obesity epidemic
How would you react if I told you it wasn’t your fault you’re fat? Not entirely, anyway. Not the way that the medical profession or society at large would have you believe. At least part of your spare tire — … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Amazing Stories Blog Tour
As part of the Amazing Stories Blog Team, I have completed a book review for a blog tour. The review was published today. I’d like to point out that the first story in the collection I reviewed (called Tomorrow: Apocalyptic Short Stories from Australian publisher Kayelle Press) was penned by
Continue readingArt Threat: Hungry Planet pictures what we eat around the world
Whenever I shop for groceries, I’m reminded of our collective obsession with processed and packaged foods. As someone who makes an reasonable effort to make decisions that are good for both my health and that of the planet, my shopping cart is largely filled with whole foods. I’m certainly no
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Why Internet make you dumb
Much of this video’s content is covered in Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows, What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, in detail. Here’s my review of the book: The irony is a spongy wad, so thick the fine edge … Continue reading →
Continue readingArt Threat: Temps Libre: an album filled with hope, inspired by the printemps érable
Something happened last spring: a whole generation of Montrealers was mobilized, politicized, made aware that they had a voice. Finally opening their windows onto spring mornings as the snow melted into the grass, people converged outside, en masse, where the air was filled with promise. They filled their lungs with
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Harper government misled Canadians on environmental assessment “delays”: Study
New study confirms government misled public on Environmental Assessment ‘delays’ By: Sierra Club Canada | Press Release: OTTAWA – A study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences found environmental assessments triggered by the Fisheries Act prior to the 2012 omnibus bill were NOT taking too long to
Continue readingArt Threat: The Ghosts in Our Machine defends the animals on our screen
Over the last decade of programming political documentary for Cinema Politica I can say with confidence that there are two subjects that have always been decidedly divisive and caused the most vociferous backlash from audience members. One of those subjects is the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine and the other
Continue readingArt Threat: Bowling for Columbine turns ten
Editor’s note: Art Threat has launched a cultural archaeological project that involves digging up previously published but now inaccessible film reviews and cultural musings from Montreal-based writer and teacher Matthew Hays. We’re calling it The Hays Files, and to get things rolling, we’re republishing a review Hays wrote of Bowling
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Midwest Book Review: The Fridgularity is “highly recommended”
Woo, great review news — the Midwest Book Review, which is one of the few well-respected review outfits used by librarians and archivists that still reviews independent and small press books — has given The Fridgularity a glowing review: “The … Continue reading →
Continue readingArt Threat: Weiwei-isms: the Coles Notes of an infamous Chinese dissident
A magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook through Wenchuan County in Sichuan province of the People’s Republic of China on May 12, 2008. Official figures listed 69,197 dead, including 5,335 children, mostly killed as a result of shoddy school construction — a horrible tragedy, particularly due to China’s one-child policy, that caught
Continue readingArt Threat: Blown Up: Gaming and War
Let’s face it: shooting stuff is fun – in video, that is; but it can also be ethically complicated. Gallery 101’s current exhibition Blown Up: Gaming and War, brings to the conventions of video gaming the complexities of art, activism and critical commentary. I am not exactly a typical gamer
Continue readingArt Threat: London Triptych traces queer desire across the centuries
Owing in large part to Hollywood’s discovery of its infinite star vehicle potential, the “intersecting lives” narrative has become, in recent years, something of a cop out. When the A-story isn’t strong enough, simply prop it up with parallel stories B through F and have them all fatefully (and conveniently)
Continue readingArt Threat: Art at War surveys creativity under Nazi occupation, from Picasso to Dubuffet
“History isn’t the lies of the victors … I know that now. It’s more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated.” – The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes On the last Sunday in the year, the Parisian bourgeoisie were out in force.
Continue readingArt Threat: On efficacy and ideology: Zero Dark Thirty and the ethical justification of torture
“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule.” -Walter Benjamin Kathryn Bigelow’s film Zero Dark Thirty was met with both large audiences and waves of criticism for how the film depicted, and seemingly endorsed, the
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