Monday, 14 November 2005

Jarhead

I saw Jarhead over the weekend. It picks you up, drops you in the middle of the Iraqi desert at the start of the first Iraq War, and then makes you understand what all those kids who enlisted must have felt. All the good stuff and all the bad. The scenes after the Iraqi army lit the oil wells on fire were especially vivid.

An excellent movie. Go see it.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 14, 2005 at 03:44 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 12 April 2005

SmooveJ Productions Presents

The preview for my first feature film!!

On the eve of my departure from Australia, I figured it might be fitting to put some of the footage I shot while I was driving across the Nullarbor desert. As longtime readers will remember (all five of you), I spent three weeks in February driving from Melbourne to Perth with a couple of friends. I brought a video camera along and shot a bunch of wacky hijinks along the way.

I've spent the last couple of weeks editing the video, and I've gotten it down to a respectable one hour movie. Click here for an awe-inspiring two minute preview for "Crossing the Nullarbor".

If anybody wants to see the full thing, leave a comment or shoot me an email. If enough people express interest I'm sure I could figure out how to set something up to distribute some DVDs.


Posted by flow Frazao on April 12, 2005 at 07:53 AM in Australia, Film | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Monday, 07 March 2005

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like

Been a while since the last update. Sometimes I get sick of writing and I find that taking a break for a few days (or weeks) helps. After over 750 posts and God knows how many words, I'm surprised I'm not completely sick of this altogether. But when there's news like this everyday, how can I possibly stay away from the computer?

PITKIN COUNTY, CO - One person died Sunday when an avalanche swept through a group of people taking an avalanche awareness class.

It's like a landslide of macabre wrapped in an deluge of irony and presented with a gleefully dark bow.

But I digress. The point of this post is not to tickle you with horrible news of today, but rather to urge you to go remind yourself of the horrifyingly, um, horrifying news of yesterday.

A few days ago we saw Hotel Rwanda. You need to go watch this movie. It is incredible. It captures the slide of a civilized country into total anarchy better than any I've ever seen. Those of you who have seen The Killing Fields will remember the feeling of "Holy shit I know where this is going, and it's not gonna be pretty."

If you do decide to see it, may I suggest a little thought experiment? As you watch the film try to imagine that instead of "Tutsi" tribe and "Hutu" tribe imagine the characters are talking about "Janjaweed" and "Fur" tribes. Also, pretend it's not set in Rwanda, but rather a different African country called the Sudan. And finally, imagine it's not set in 1994. It's happening now. All over again:

Hawa says that when she reported that she and seven other women had been raped in Darfur by Arab militiamen, the police told her to forget it had happened.

"The police came at night and said, 'Do you want to make us like Iraq? Do you want to bring foreign troops here?' " she said in southern Darfur's Kalma camp, home to some of the estimated two million people displaced by two years of civil warfare in Darfur.

"The rapes never stop; sometimes there are more, sometimes less," she said, accusing militiamen known as the Janjaweed of the crime. "Now the Janjaweed babies are being born, and the girls are throwing them down latrines."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to take immediate steps to stop the Darfur war, which has killed at least 70,000 people since March 2004.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 7, 2005 at 04:37 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 09 September 2004

Some REAL Underground Cinema

This is pretty wild:

Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement.

Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries.

"We have no idea whatsoever," a police spokesman said.

"There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don't think it's extremists. Some sect or secret society, maybe. There are any number of possibilities."

[...]

A tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.

"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

Posted by flow Frazao on September 9, 2004 at 10:51 PM in Film, Random News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 01 July 2004

From Oakland, CA

Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 01:53 PM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

'Thin Blue Line' prisoner executed in Texas

For the Errol Morris fans.

Posted by flow Frazao on July 1, 2004 at 11:28 AM in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 29 June 2004

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Never Again

I've seen Fahrenheit 9/11 twice now, but I'm not going to subject you to any kind of review or anything. Plenty of people have already done that, and they've done a much better job than I could hope to.

Naturally, I recommend that you see the movie yourself instead of relying on somebody else for an opinion, but I digress...

It's been pointed out in numerous places that there is absolutely no way to predict what the impact will be on the election in November. Will it be a fatal blow to the Bush campaign? Or will it serve to mobilize the right wing? The movie is an unprecedented factor in this election so all anyone can do is guess, right?

Well, sort of. There might not be any way to foretell the movie's effect on the Presidential race, but the powers that be have found a way to ensure that this little inconvenience won't pop up again anytime soon:

"Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. has been sold for the second time in three years for close to $1.5 billion to a private equity group composed of Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group and Spectrum Equity Investors.

[...]

Loews is the third-largest movie theater chain in the world, with more than 220 theaters and 2,200 screens worldwide."


If you've already seen Fahrenheit 9/11 then you know all about the Carlyle Group. If you haven't, here's a little background (via Fortune Magazine):
"The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C., buyout firm, is one of the nation's largest defense contractors. It has billions of dollars at its disposal and employs a few important people. Maybe you've heard of them: former Secretary of State Jim Baker, former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, and former White House budget director Dick Darman. Wait, we're just getting warmed up. William Kennard, who recently headed the FCC, and Arthur Levitt, who just left the SEC, also work for Carlyle. As do former British Prime Minister John Major and former Philippines President Fidel Ramos. Let's see, are we forgetting anyone? Oh, right, former President George Herbert Walker Bush is on the payroll too.

The firm also has about a dozen investors from Saudi Arabia, including, until recently, the bin Laden family. Yes, those bin Ladens."


These guys now own the third largest cinema chain in the world. Something tells me the next Michael Moore movie won't enjoy a 900 screen opening weekend.

Of course, the Carlyle Group can't stop Loews from showing Fahrenheit 9/11. It's too late for that. What they're essentially doing is saying:

"Fool me once shame on...
Fool me, don't get fooled again."

Posted by flow Frazao on June 29, 2004 at 03:48 PM in Current Affairs, Film, US News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 24 June 2004

Michael & Me

Last night I went out to do the grocery shopping, and I walked right past a whole mess of tv cameras and red carpet style hubbub. Turns out it was the US Premiere of Fahrenheit 911.

This was all happening at the Uptown movie theatre - an old-school 1940's style movie house/Washington DC icon which just happens to be right across the street from our apartment.

I didn't get to see the movie, but Fiona and I did get to shake hands with Michael Moore. It was like shaking hands with a glove full of ground beef - meaty, yet surprisingly firm.

The next morning Fi woke up and went online to read the news. There was a Yahoo slideshow of the premiere, and guess who's photo got picked up by Reuters:



(Reuters)

We're just chillin, as you can plainly see. Here's how it went down:

Me: Mike, can you believe all this commotion? It's crazy.
MM: Yeah, this kinda blows.
Me: My pad's across the street. There's a Miller Lite there with your name on it.
MM: Are you my caucasian or what? Let's get outta here.

We spent the rest of the night drinking beers and watching Enter the Dragon.

Posted by SmooveJ Zao on June 24, 2004 at 10:32 AM in Current Affairs, Film | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack