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One of the things I love about my son is that when I propose watching old - 1925 - Soviet propaganda like The Battleship Potemkin, he's down. And not only that, he likes it.
How was it? Certainly groundbreaking cinema as advertised. It did linger too much on the visuals, especially of the commie modernity fetish sort, even if they were stunning and absolutely original. Surprisingly action packed, though, with a score cobbled together from several Shostakovich compositions. It's tragic to me that the optimism depicted in the film, the same optimism that produced it, was crushed just a few years later.
That choice of movie goes well, kind of, with Doug Jones' US Senate victory last night. It's more of a relief than a reason to celebrate, though. White people who don't suck, which is probably everyone reading this, usually have friends and family who do suck. We have to go after them, as uncomfortable as that will be for everyone. We have to make them ashamed and afraid to suck. It might help to explain to them why sucking sucks; it might not. A fellow Lambert House volunteer told me she had great success with Jon Stewart when it comes to such explanations.
What am I doing to that end? Well, I told my mom a few months ago in the context of violence by police, "You don't get to shoot unarmed people!" I know I have a cousin in the coal business who's a climate change denier, but he's a social media ghost.
How was it? Certainly groundbreaking cinema as advertised. It did linger too much on the visuals, especially of the commie modernity fetish sort, even if they were stunning and absolutely original. Surprisingly action packed, though, with a score cobbled together from several Shostakovich compositions. It's tragic to me that the optimism depicted in the film, the same optimism that produced it, was crushed just a few years later.
That choice of movie goes well, kind of, with Doug Jones' US Senate victory last night. It's more of a relief than a reason to celebrate, though. White people who don't suck, which is probably everyone reading this, usually have friends and family who do suck. We have to go after them, as uncomfortable as that will be for everyone. We have to make them ashamed and afraid to suck. It might help to explain to them why sucking sucks; it might not. A fellow Lambert House volunteer told me she had great success with Jon Stewart when it comes to such explanations.
What am I doing to that end? Well, I told my mom a few months ago in the context of violence by police, "You don't get to shoot unarmed people!" I know I have a cousin in the coal business who's a climate change denier, but he's a social media ghost.
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Date: 2017-12-15 11:48 am (UTC)From:This year is making me improve my skills at politely explaining wrong things. It works so much better than just telling people they are full of ****. :-)
And yes, The Battleship Potemkin has some unexpectedly cool imagery!