A Few of My Favourite Things in 2021
It’s hard for me not to constantly feel dismayed and angry at the current state of world, but there are days when I feel happy, even delighted, when I listen/read/watch things by people making work that feels meaningful. It helps clear the dark clouds in my head.
Here are some of the things I read, watched, listened to online that inspired me, guided me, made me feel a bit hopeful, at times a bit joyful, and less alone.
Listening to Audrey Flack on Hyperallergic’s podcast, an artist I wasn’t aware of, talk about her career, museums as corporations, feminism, the New York art scene was both amusing and educational. Flack is 90 years old, and boy does she have receipts on many people in the art world.
From Audrey Flack’s website:
I believe in art.
I do not believe in the “Art World” as it is today.
I do not believe in art as a commodity.Great art is in exquisite balance.
It is Restorative.I believe in the Energy of art,
and through the the use of that energy,
the artists ability to transform his or her life,
and by example, the lives of others.I believe that through our art,
and through the projection
of transcended imagery,
we can mend and heal the planet.- From Commencement address at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, May 1974
Additionally, Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic’s editor-in-chief and co-founder has also been hosting interesting discussions on Twitter’s Spaces that are worth checking out. They normally happen every Thursday at midday (EST). You can follow him at @hragv. Hyperallergic’s Twitter Space
A.S. Hamrah starting with “I’m sick of America. I want out.” on Film Comment’s podcast titled Happy Birthday, America! about “the varied, colorful, and often bleak visions of America on the screen” to mark America’s 4th of July holiday.
Also, read A.S. Hamrah’s amusing interview with Abel Ferrara, “I don't own a power drill.”.
The Summer 2021 Rep Report on Film Comment’s podcast with Abby Sun and Steve Macfarlane had frank discussion about the repertory landscape in America and “where things might be headed in the near future”, especially with the rise of virtual repertory programming. Whilst we are nowhere near having a repertory cinema landscape here in the UAE, it was good to know there are still efforts to find and show old films, be it through institutions or independent/collective efforts, the challenges and attempts at finding new models to show these films.
Additionally, Abby Sun’s essay Giving Time: Amos Vogel and the Legacy of Cinema 16 is an impressive and pertinent reflection about subversive film programming and its purpose, autonomous institutions vs established institutions, collaboration and partnership, complicity, the (unpaid) labour behind these efforts, new models of film production and distribution. “To keep film culture alive, sometimes we must be willing to dismantle, pause, or end our own work.”
I’ve been thinking a lot over the past year about the challenges (and the possibilities) of functioning autonomously - whether collectively or independently in a cultural eco-system that is very much tied to the government, and Abby Sun’s essay gave me a lot of food for thought.
Another Screen, a free streaming project by Another Gaze is a wonderful example of working outside the framework on established institutions, “to foreground rare film work…worthy of feminist interrogation, across geographies and modes of production, featuring guest programmers and collaborators”. The care and details put into the design of the website, the selection of films and accompanying text (many of which are translated into English) is very impressive. The labour that goes into putting all of this together relies on donations from viewers and supporters. I am a happy donor and hope I can encourage you to do the same.
Jemma Desai’s thoughts and questions about established systems and hierarchies in the film industry and culture sector have helped me articulate a lot of similar issues I see here in the UAE.
It started last year with This Work Isn’t For Us and since then she’s published more pieces and has been interviewed about it.
Her interview on Best Girl Grip podcast is well worth a listen, about Desai’s “role as programmer and her ambivalence around that label, community, colonialism, the need to redefine or abolish the idea of linear progression, what leadership means to her, and why she hopes it will be dismantled, the issues at the heart of campaigns like #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite, how to structurally enable care, out of office emails, embracing possibility and joy and much much more.”
I really appreciated Jemma Desai’s openness and sharing how she is processing everything, what she’s learned and continues to learn along the way.
Michael Pattison’s piece about “curation, care and community” made me lament the work ethics by some curators and art institutions in the UAE, especially “community” projects by tourist artists that do not properly involve the community concerned, institutions that promptly ask artists to sign NDAs, but stall contractual agreements whilst the work is still expected to be be completed and delivered (with no time or opportunity to discuss or negotiate).
Alchemy’s Culture Collective programme expands and extends the community resilience work we’ve been building and delivering over the past three years, connecting artists and communities to challenge the myth upheld by older vanguards that good artistic work must be produced away from and at the expense of community involvement.
Assume nothing of an artist’s comfort zones; ditto a community’s. Normalise pronouns, do plant-based catering for public events, signal values and draft policies in the positive rather than negative, be there for introductory meetings, important shoots, communicate clearly what the terms of participation are; ensure withdrawal of consent is an uncomplicated option. Do the work so others needn’t. From and within the space generated through these measures, good artistic work emerges.
Michael Pattison is co-director of Alchemy Film and Arts, and this year’s edition of the film festival included two online keynote lectures by Vijay Prashad titled Variants of Inhumanity, “…exploring repetitions, cycles and crises…How might we make sense of history’s repetitions? How might we break free of them: its emergencies and catastrophes, its growing disparities and endless loops?” They aren’t available online currently, but I hope they appear online in the near future.
I first heard about Apology podcast from A.S. Hamrah when he was a guest on it and since then I’ve been listening to it and catching up on older episodes.
I find the discussions between Jesse Pearson, founder of Apology magazine and podcast, and his guests of writers very enriching. I strongly recommend you subscribe too.
Ethan Hawke is always so warm and articulate, and this talk between him and film critic and film curator/programmer Neil Young at Karlovy Vary Film Festival this summer about acting, collaborating, mentoring and the creative process is lovely. His interview with Debbie Millman on Design Matters is another one I enjoyed listening to.
Pamela Hutchinson’s Philip French Memorial Lecture repositioning old cinema as “young” cinema and contemporary/new cinema as “old” should be taught in schools. It brings attention to early cinema that was experimental and new compared to current cinema that is actually old. More young people need to hear this, to understand the value of cinema and get a better sense of cinema history.
Kevin B. Lee’s Mourning with Minari is a moving video essay reflecting on the aftermath of the Atlanta spa shootings and representation of Asian Americans in media, through the film Minari. The video premiered on Hyperallergic in April.
In March 15, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari earned six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture — an unprecedented feat for a film featuring an Asian American story, cast, and director.
The next day, eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent, were murdered by a mass shooter in three Atlanta-area spas.
The proximity of these events starkly sets the poles of the Asian American experience, between exalted model minorities and dehumanized figures toiling at the margins of society. Those two archetypes have stood throughout the complex history of Asians in America.
My attempts to reflect on these extremes, and how they inform each other, led to the making of this video essay, “Mourning with Minari.”
Other podcasts I’ve been listening to frequently this year:
You Must Remember This latest season Sammy and Dino, - Karina Longworth’s Hollywood history should be essential listening for anyone studying film, media, journalism.
Everything Is Fine, a podcast for women over 40. Kim France and Jennifer Romolini and their guests feel like my women over 40 buddies that I don’t have in real life.
The Last Thing I Saw hosted by Nicolas Rapold which usually has a good selection of guests talking about films.
Lastly, Keanu Reeves laughing at NFTs, saying “…they’ve got the data on you with your arousal metrics. Oh my gosh!” about VR porn, and that there’s nothing shallow about “the idea of aesthetics and beauty”.
