Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
For at least 1,500 years, two giant Buddha statues existed at Bamyan, Afghanistan northwest of Kabul. In 2001, Islamic clerics urged the Taliban to blow the statues up, declaring them to be idolatrous. The Taliban obliged, destroying the centrepieces of this UNESCO world heritage site. People still live in the cliffs, and one of them [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Film, Main Page » Comments Off
The Islamist terror organization that the U.S. set out to smash after 9/11 seems to be alive and well and changing tactics, relying more on home-grown terror operatives and become more media-active. From the BBC feature: For al-Qaeda, using “home-grown” suspects is far easier in terms of having them return to their country of origin [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
At TIFF, there are — at a minimum – hundreds of fans with cellphone and regular digital cameras, and they're ready and willing to feed gossip websites with snapshots. This is making it tougher for real paparazzi to make a living. From The Globe and Mail: Photographs of Jake Gyllenhaal arriving at Pearson International Airport were [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Main Page, Media » 2 Comments
From the Sept. 10 NYT: In the race to become a major supplier of original video programming to the Web, Warner Brothers has decided to reverse its direction. The studio, part of Time Warner, plans today to introduce 24 Web productions in a range of formats including minimovies, games and episodic television shows. But for [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
In the Second World War, Klaus Barbie developed a reputation as a ruthless, efficient – even sadistic — interrogator and counter-terrorism officer for the SS in Lyon, France. He earned the nickname “The Butcher of Lyon.” So when the war ended, what do you do with a guy like that? Well, for one thing, you don't [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Film, Main Page » Comments Off
I’m always a sucker for films about the tortured history of modern Algeria. I own the Criterion DVD of The Battle of Algiers, and went to see Oct. 17, 1961 at TIFF a few years ago. So I put down Algeria: Untold Stories (Algérie, histoires à ne pas dire) as one of my secondary picks [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Film, Main Page » Comments Off
Overheard in a TIFF line-up: A TIFF volunteer is explaining what's going in terms of the line-ups for screenings of two films. When she asked if everyone got it, some woman with a Midwestern accent said: “That was good. You were really clear.” And then added, in a voice about 15 decibels lower: “… for [...]
Tue, September 11 2007 » Film, Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off