Saturday, October 22, 2011

Films for Change

Affluenza – On the ‘ailment’ of consumerism

Baraka – Montage of unforgettable images; a collage of life in all its beauty and brutality

Bag It – “Is your life too plastic?”

Big River – A 30-minute documentary about the ecological consequences of industrial agriculture, by the makers of King Corn

Cannibal Tours – “Affords a glimpse at the real (mostly unconsidered or misunderstood) reasons why 'civilised' people wish to encounter the 'primitive' … where much of what passes for values in western culture is exposed in stark relief as banal and fake.”

Captialism: A Love Story – Michael Moore’s latest feature takes a piercing look at the ‘mother of all problems’

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia – Find out the toxic reality of where your old electronics go after you take them for 'recycling' or throw them out

Fed Up! – An entertaining and informative overview of our current food production system from the Green Revolution to the Biotech Revolution and what we can do about it

Food, Inc. – Exposes America's industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers' rights. “You’ll never look at dinner the same way”

Fowl Play – On the industrial egg industry and the suffering it entails; a parable of how society has become disconnected from what we eat

Fourth World War – A story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated by globalization

Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home – A typical Canadian family agrees to keep its garbage at home rather than export it 'out of sight, out of mind'. Shows the true hidden costs of the consumer class lifestyle

Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage - Shows how today's waste crisis is intrinsic to capitalism, and how anti-litter campaigns were devised by corporations to disarm restrictions on disposable packaging

Harsud: Making of a Ghost Town – The socio-cultural costs paid by local communities in Maharashtra, India, in the name of “development”

Home – Spectacular aerial footage of the Earth shot in fifty countries by Yann Arthus- Bertrand; a clarion call for humanity to become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth and change its patterns of consumption

In the Forest Stands a Bridge – A beautiful record of the dying art of bamboo bridge making in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and the tribal community that makes it possible

Iskay Yachay: Two Kinds of Knowledge; Loving Teacher; Being a Wawa in the Andes; other films by PRATEC (Andean Project of Peasant Technologies)

John and Jane – Unsettling look at the reality of call centers – and cultural imperialism – in India, and modernity’s profound loneliness and confusion (www.john-and-jane.com)

King Corn – About two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives the U.S. fast-food nation. Raises troubling questions about how we eat – and how we farm

Let’s Make Money – Eerie truths about the casino called the international financial system (www.letsmakemoney.at)

Life and Debt – A story of some of the impacts on Jamaica of international financial institutions, structural adjustment and free trade policies, and mass tourism

Manufactured Landscapes – A stunning look at the ‘monstrosity of globalized commerce’ focussing on China

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media – Unforgettable look at the information propaganda machine and its complicity in wars and other disasters, by the same people who later made The Corporation

Mother Earth – The amazing work of P.V. Sateesh and the Deccan Development Society to revive traditional agro-ecological knowledge, seeds and practices in Andhra Pradesh (no website information available)

No Impact Man – A New York City-based family resolve to live for a year with the minimum environmental impact

1000 Days and a Dream – A multi-year struggle by villagers against a coca cola factory in Kerala) (http://thirdeyefilms.org/)

Our Daily Bread – A montage of unforgettable, disturbing images of the inner workings of the industrial food system

Our Synthetic Sea – The health and environmental crisis of plastics, saturating the oceans, sea life, and ultimately, us

Pig Business – The true cost behind the factory-farmed pork in supermarkets, who’s behind it, and what you can do about it

Schooling the World – Beautifully shot on location in Ladakh, looks at the impact of Western-style schooling on indigenous cultures

Surplus – The emptiness of consumerism in the rich world juxtaposed with the suffering to create it in the poor

The Age of Stupid – An old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?

The Century of the Self; The Power of Nightmares; The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom? – A riveting series of films exposing, among many other things, the power of media and propaganda to manipulate

The Coconut Revolution – When the islanders of Bouganville kick out a multinational mining company, they undertake to rediscover their traditions and regenerate their local economy

The Corporation – An unflinching anatomy of the most powerful institution of our time; essential viewing

The End of Poverty? – “The first film to succinctly explain how our economic system has created poverty and why it is the foundation for the current financial crisis”

The Future of Food – On the perils of industrial food system generally, but especially about genetically mutilated foods

The 11th Hour – Industrial capitalism has brought every life-support system on Earth to the brink of collapse. A broad-ranging examination of this, the most pressing crisis of our times

The End of Suburbia – On the ‘peak oil’ phenomenon and all its implications to survival of oil dependent industrial ‘civilization’

The Global Banquet – Exposes globalization’s profoundly damaging effect on our food system in easily understandable terms

The New Rulers of the World – Renowned journalist John Pilger explores the connection between oppressive regimes and corporate globalization in Indonesia

The Planet – A powerful portrait of the devastating effects of the global economy on the environment worldwide

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil – An inspiring and solutions- oriented film that’s especially good to show after End of Suburbia

The Slow Poisoning of India – On the devastating health effects of pesticides in India

The Story of Stuff – Simple and short – but powerful – animated explanation of the problems of globalization and consumerism, and a call for a radically different path

The Take – Workers in Argentina dispossessed by the vicissitudes of 'structural adjustment' decide to 'take' back their workplaces, minus bosses and hierarchy

The War on Democracy – John Pilger's look at the movements for genuine democracy in Latin America, and the imperial forces that oppose them

The World According to Monsanto - Investigative expose of the notorious chemical- biotech company

The Yes Men, and sequel, The Yes Men Fix the World – Hilarious yet serious pranksterism against corporate power run amok

Toxic Sludge is Good for You: The Public Relations Industry Unspun

We Feed the World – Traces the sources of some of the industrial food system in Europe, making the links to environmental destruction and injustice ‘somewhere else’ along the way

What a Way to Go – “A middle class white guy comes to grips with peak oil, climate change, mass extinction, population overshoot and the demise of the American lifestyle”

What Would Jesus Buy? – Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping take on America's suicidal consumer binge during the Christmas holiday 'shopping season'

What's the Economy For, Anyway? – “A humorous monologue about the American economy today, challenging the ways we measure economic success – especially the Gross Domestic Product”

Yap: How Did They Know We’d Like TV? – “A witty and disturbing view of cultural imperialism at its most cynical and blatant”

http://www.localfutures.org/get-involved/2-raise-awareness/films-for-change

Sunday, August 21, 2011

nhân vật điển hình

Yamada - Ninja loạn thị
Snape - Harry Potter

Yamada: 45 tuổi, giáo viên dạy môn kĩ thuật Ninja. Nhìn bề ngoài có vẻ dữ dằn, nhưng kỳ thực lại là người rất tình cảm.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Cảm ơn mày đã chia sẻ chân thành những gì mày đang suy nghĩ!

Cảm ơn mày đã chia sẻ chân thành những gì mày đang suy nghĩ! Đầu tiên lấy tư cách chỗ bạn bè, thứ hai là người đã học qua 4 năm nghệ thuật thực hành và chuyên ngành là vẽ, in ấn bằng tay ( tất cả đều là làm thủ công bằng tay hết!), thứ ba là người đã có thời gian tiếp xúc trao đổi với mày dù không nhiều thời gian nhưng tao nghĩ đủ tự tin để đánh giá khả năng của mày!

Dĩ nhiên khả năng còn có thể thông qua luyện tập mà thành, và thực tế việc luyện tập đấy vô cùng mất thời gian và đòi hỏi độ kiên trì cao~ thử làm phép so sánh là bây giờ mày đã 23 tuổi và bây giờ mới bắt đầu học vẽ, đấy thực sự là cả một sự nỗ lực rất lớn, mặc dù như mày nói thì mày có vẻ nghiêng nhiều về design nhưng thực sự những người học thiết kế cũng có vốn vẽ tay rất khá mới có thể thành công được, không thì họ sẽ nghiêng về bên máy móc, dựa nhiều vào công nghệ ~ suy cho cùng mày vẫn phải động chạm đến máy vi tính, đến các visual effects như mày nói! Và mặc dù nói là các hiệu quả thị giác về lý thuyết là dễ học, dễ làm nhưng cứ thử so sánh sao người ta lại làm được phim 2D và 3D đỉnh cao còn Việt Nam thì chưa làm được, như vậy cơ hội của mày là rất nhiều ~ tất cả là do mày lựa chọn!

Qua tiếp xúc thì tao thấy mày có tính đứng núi này trông núi nọ, có nhiều ý tưởng nhưng chưa bao giờ đi hết ý tưởng của mình và chưa thực sự đào sâu để sáng tạo thêm cho nó! Hãy thử đi sâu vào chính những môn mày đang học thì sẽ thấy cái hay, và phát hiện ra mình say mê nó như thế nào! Tao có đọc qua blog mày viết về những khó khăn về thiết bị của mày! Nhưng có lẽ những từ những điều hạn chế như vậy mà mày làm ra những tác phẩm có giá trị thì mới là đáng quý!

Trong nhiếp ảnh có nhiều thứ để học mà sau này sẽ rất cần thiết cho mày như là mày thử học môn tráng rửa phim xem sao, học chụp bằng máy cơ xem sao? Mua lấy một cái máy cơ rẻ tiền, dùng phim thì sẽ cho hiệu quả giản dị nhưng thật sự truyền cảm lắm mày ah! Rồi những lúc mày tráng rửa một cuộn phim cũng thế, cũng đều là những cảm xúc thật tuyệt vời!

Sau này công việc của một phóng viên nhiếp ảnh, ghi lại những hình ảnh khó khăn của một khu dân cư nghèo, hay ghi lại những hiện trạng bất công trong xã hội hoặc những hình ảnh văn hóa nghệ thuật mang tính thời sự thì thật là hay, mày đã giúp cho rất nhiều người đấy, nếu như cần truyền bá văn hóa nghệ thuật Việt Nam thì thực sự là đang rất cần đến những con người như mày!

Làm phim cũng thế, nếu như mày không thích nhiều hiệu quả thị giác thì sao không thẳn thắng nói chuyện với giáo sư, về những ý tưởng để ông ý có thể định hướng cho mày được và sắp xếp cách học để mày có thể nghiên cứu chuyên sâu, và quan trọng hơn là có cảm hứng khi làm việc không bị tư tưởng chán nản như bây giờ! Phim tài liệu nào cũng thế thôi mày ah, mày vẫn phải quay vô cũng nhiều, sau đấy về cut và edit lại, không bao giờ có phim nào thành công ngay từ lần đầu tiên đâu!

Không có điều gì dễ dàng không học mà cũng làm được cả mày ah ~ cố gắng lên nhé! Điều còn lại là về lý thuyết, 4 năm tao không được học nhiều lý thuyết, tao thấy đấy là điều vô cùng đáng tiếc, nếu như giỏi tay nghề thì làm thợ được, nhưng có thêm lý thuyết thì còn đi xa hơn nữa được mày ah! Nên cái đấy quan trọng lắm!

Bên TQ chưa có trung tâm văn hóa Việt! Đang chờ những nhân tài có ý tưởng, có tài năng như mày đấy!

Best,
Vinh

--
Artist Nguyen Quang Vinh

Friday, July 15, 2011

it's complicated

is how my relationship with facebook is
on and off
i don't want to use it - it takes too much of my time

but it helps to connect with some friends sometimes

because they use it so much more 'effective' than other (should-be-better) forms of communication...

i'm too sensitive for facebook
often delete my status soon after i share it
if it's something personal
i don't feel comfortable having it hanging on my profile and about hundreds of people can see it - if they do...
i guess fb's too much exposure for me...

also any time i use it my head says you're wasting your real life!

with blogging it feels different...
it's good for writing
twitter is less 'too much' for status
tumblr is good for sharing photo related stuff
youtube is good for videos

fb is not specialised or professional
calling itself a 'social' network...
but for me it is plainly Ridiculous how people living in the same place/ city (!) communicate through fb - what is phone for?! and then why don't you just go out and meet up and talk?!
real interaction - please.
people spend hours on fb and using the internet
then saying they don't have time to go out
!

with a distance skype! talk and see each other at the same time :)

linkedin seems fine for professional network

i guess fb is not for busy 20s
it's like myspace a place for teenagers to play around after school


--

oh right, google +

another facebook...a bit better well because it comes later and is trying to fix stuff that annoys people on fb ie. 'circles' instead of 'friends'

enough of these social networks

turn it off

go out and have even just one good laugh with your friends in real life

babies!



google+,

i had enough with facebook

you can't trick me into another 'it's complicated' relationship

i'm no longer 19

:)



but of course it's your own (literally) business to 'invite' people 'into' using it

i'm just not gonna post anything...that'll help...

just like closing the wall on facebook...



in my opinion though,

you'd be much better than facebook

if you get rid of the comment part - that takes too much of unnecessary time from people for tiny little comments, one after another, on one line status!

i've been there...

Friday, July 8, 2011

Identity

Identity

can be

just the outlook

the surface

Identity

is one’s true self

only when

they stay true to their inner self

with

their own original

feelings

and

thoughts

...

Saturday, June 25, 2011

lovely

saturday

marylebone high street

street coffee stores
blue sky white clouds
cool autumn wind, feel and smell

though it's summer :)

lovely flowers and fresh fruits
- i'll (almost) never buy fruits in supermarkets anymore :)


kids
dogs
parents
families
guys
girls
friends

marylebone open market :)
home-made organic cosmetic store :)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

cambridge, cambridge (again!)

(draft)

my most favourite town in england so far :)
love.

people
environment
colleges
bikes
road
shops
books
museums
libraries
trees
air
kids
families
market

my type.
lovely.
small.
for me.

:)

love love.
love love love.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



On the train to Cambridge
Sunday morning June 19th 2011

p.s. i've always been in love with windows and the sky and the clouds :)

Monday, June 20, 2011

Girls

Chi & sam


Nina & sam

London - Cambridge
May - June
2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Maybe I'm thinking too much about the future...

(quoted my email to my personal tutor - who is also the course leader of Contemporary Media Practice course)

...

I like photography as well. Is it possible to make a living from taking photos and what are the possible career paths for photography? Currently I'm only using Canon G7...I guess I should get myself a (D)SLR and I want to get a film camera too (Nikon is good?) This is another thing for taking media course, it costs (for me...)

One thing about English Language and Creative Writing course, besides the fact that I enjoy writing very much, is that I can teach English somewhere else in the future - that seems to be a stable job for me...(I have my mom to take care of :)

After all though, I know I wouldn't find myself happy if I do anything else but development projects and social works - given my background...We can't want to do everything and I'm sure by now that social work (to directly help disadvantaged people - arts don't reach to these and not all arts they can comprehend...) is my priority in life...

Maybe I'm thinking too much about the future...But it's true...I enjoy taking photos, filming but it's more like a hobby...I keep thinking how can this help the people who live on streets for example...Exhibitions are inside nice galleries - I've thought about it - it seems to me arts are for artists to look at each other...It's nice but it's not my world or it could be but I don't want to be in that world knowing that I want and can do something else in a more direct way to help the poor people out there...And that is through development studies I think...I need to learn more about that in order to work on that...

These are my thoughts about courses.

...

Monday, May 23, 2011

i am sam



Hanoi, Vietnam
March 2008






Harrow Hall of Residence
November - February 2011



Filming in Regent Park
May 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

[Video Installation] FLOW

My video installation for Experiemental Film & Video module in the fist year at university on May 18th 2011: The two big screens (projection screens) with sounds muted of Marylebone Road and Oxford Street were in V shape. The Waterfall video with sound on was at the corner point of the letter 'V'. (5m2 in space)

Two months before I knew I would go to London, a girl from my high school passed away in London when crossing the street. I used to think such unbelievable yet horrible accident would not happen in a developed country like England. I thought maybe the girl's family just used the car accident to cover some real reason behind her death...

Four months later I arrived in London. By the first time waiting for the light for pedestrians to turn green I had my first culture shock thanks to the cars' speed on Marylebone Road. The drivers must be stressed enough to drive that fast or driving at that speed, they should be stressed afterwards. Believe it or not, most of them don't look happy. The first morning after having arrived in London the night before that, after a while finding my way from Marylebone Road to Baker Street, I found myself walking much faster than usual as if unconsciously I was catching up with others' speed. And I slowed myself down.



Marylebone Road with stores full of mass produced souvenir about London and Britain added up with numerous tourists from all over the world makes that part of London some what 'Americanised' to me. However, later on, it is Oxford Street that makes me feel disappointed about London for not being a classical cultural European place I expected. A whole long street of super big glossy stores of supposed to be famous brands of clothes and everything else that is called fashion. Messy, noisy and dusty streets of on-going constructions, cars, buses and pavements packed with people walking one after another with big fashion shopping bags. Trying to find a way out of Oxford street in the weekends feels like trying to find a way out of the flow of a society where people slave themselves for commercial products.



Knowing I am a full scholarship student, people who don't know me say I am lucky...If one is lucky to have a good enough life, one would not be qualified for this scholarship. Leaving all the dramas in Vietnam to start a new life in London, day after day, month by month I realise I haven't prepared myself enough for all these difficulties and stress when living in a whole new city of a whole new country doing a whole new course all by myself. Dragging myself through the gloomiest days of the winter and my mind with all problems here and home, past and present and worries about the future, I gradually find peaceful moments when being in the nature part of the city - the parks.

Recalling what I read in Thich Nhat Hanh's books about knowing your breath in each and every single second, I allowed myself to sit in the park for a long time just to look at trees, listen to the waterfall sounds, look at the water flow, breathing, thinking nothing - doing nothing but immersing myself in the nature surrounding.




References:
1.  Anger, The Art of Power - Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice Books by Thich Nhat Hanh.
2. Zen For Film (Nam June Paik, 1962-1964)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

flâner [flɑne]

1. (se promener) to stroll

flâner dans les rues/magasins = to stroll around the streets/shops (anglais britannique) ou; stores (anglais américain)

flâner sur les quais = to have a leisurely stroll along the embankment

ils sont en retard, ils ont dû flâner en route = they're late, they must have been dawdling

2. (paresser) to loaf○informal / familier around

il flâne toute la journée à la maison = he loafs○informal / familier around the house all day long

il ne faut pas flâner sinon le projet sera en retard = there must be no slacking (anglais britannique) ou idling (anglais américain) or we'll fall behind with the project


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Faces





Are we, too, faceless mannequins with clothes on?

ESPRIT Store
Oxford Street
London April 17th 2011

P.S. I am especially more concerned about those kid mannequins...Even though they are just mannequins, kid ones should have faces...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

UNDER the GROUND



Piccadilly Circus Underground Station
London March 2011

rOOmmates (1988-2011)

(1988 - September 2010)


(September - October 2010)


(October - November 2010)


(November 2010 - February 2011)


(February - April 2011)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Space/ Text: Context/ Place: Some (more) approaches to theorising interactive/ new media:

Ergodic (Aarseth)

Tmesis ('tmetic anxiety - Aarseth/ Peacock)

Cursality (Aarseth/ Peacock)

Database (Manovich)

Readerly/ Writerly texts (Barthes/ Landow)

Affordance (high/ low) and related terms: Deliberate/ Inadvertant Action

Redundancy/ Entropy (or hot/ cool) (Shannon & Weaver/ McLuhan)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

my time on earth



Khi ta ở chỉ là nơi đất ở
Khi ta đi đất bỗng hóa tâm hồn
('Tiếng hát con tàu' - Chế Lan Viên)

When I stayed the place was just a space
When I leave it grows into a soul
(Singing Ship - Che Lan Vien)


how long does it take me to feel belonged to Hanoi
21 years 11 months

how long have i been in London
5 months 1 day

--
i have been calling the place that should be home 'house'
in the late years
still i feel the most comfortable with its bathroom
its floor
that i sleep on
- when there's no fight between the people that live in the house -
because i'm used to it

it takes time to feel
close
comfortable
belonged

it takes time
for a space
to become
a place

it takes history
and
stories

it takes time
for someone like me
to have feeling for
a place
as i almost never move before
...

2b cont'd

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

space - history - place

Tracy Emin
Francesca Woodman
Jo Spence
Natalie Latham

--
Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin
Do not abadon me
Hauser & Wirth London, Old Bond Street
18/2 - 12/3