Slavoj Žižek’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in One Minute

What vintage film archives have to do with electro-shocking dogs and the global economic meltdown.

To celebrate the launch of Living in the End Times by Slavoj Žižek, commonly known as “the Elvis of cultural theory,” independent UK culture magazine Little White Lies launched a creative challenge inviting filmmakers to submit short films responding to Žižek’s theory of the end times, based on the “four horsemen of the apocalypse”: Ecology (impending ecological catastrophes), Economy (the global financial meltdown), Biology (the biogenetic revolution and its impact on human identity), and Society (social divisions leading to the explosion of protest and revolutions worldwide.)

This one-minute entry by filmmaker Temujin Doran (remember him?) uses archival footage from the Prelinger Archives, one of the finest repositories of public domain films, to deliver a condensed, powerful and unsettling account of the present and vision for the future, somewhere between Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect and Richard Horney’s A is for Armageddon: An Illustrated Catalogue of Disasters.

Now, quick, scramble for an antidote with An Optimist’s Tour of the Future.

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Molly Landreth’s Tender Vintage Portraits of Modern Queer Life

What Victorian photography has to do with a watershed moment for modern democracy and human rights.

Late last Friday, the New York State Senate passed a marriage equality act, making New York the sixth and largest state to legalize same-sex marriage — a momentous occasion Mayor Bloomberg called “a historic triumph for equality and freedom.” To celebrate the occasion — though it’s utterly embarrassing we’re just doing that in 2011 — here’s a look at the wonderful work of photographer Molly Landreth, profiled in Etsy’s lovely Handmade Portraits series.

For the past five years, Landreth has been documenting queer and transgendered life using a vintage 4×5 large-format camera. Her tender, poetic portraits aim to redefine what it means to be queer today, exposing her subjects’ most vulnerable and human sides.

Real strength and real tenderness at the same time, in one frame, is something that I go back to a lot. In queer relationships, there [are] so many times when it’s so tender and soft but, also, you have to have so much strength to show yourself and to be who you are.” ~ Molly Landreth

Cooper, Oakland, CA, 2009

Rory and His Uncles, Brighton England

Simon and West, 9am Seattle, WA. 2007

Jo and Joann, Seattle, WA. 2007

Ronni and Jo, Seattle, WA. 2005

Michelle and Janis, Bellingham, WA. 2007

Cubby, Portland, OR. 2009

EJ Scott, Brighton, England. 2010

Meg and Renee, Seattle, WA. 2007

You can find Molly’s beautiful prints on Etsy.

HT @kvox

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A World Without Moms

What going to school without underwear has to do with ruling the world.

A few months ago, our friends from Acumen Fund launched the Search for the Obvious initiative — a quest to find everyday objects and ideas that dramatically improve quality of life. In its latest iteration, SFTO challenged people to imagine a world without moms in an effort to raise awareness about the 7 million women who are injured and 350,000 women who die from complications due to childbirth every year — yet of the world’s 1,000 childbirth deaths per day, 800 are preventable by providing simple, basic maternal health care.

The challenge received dozens of submissions from all over the world across a variety of categories, from video to tweet to guerrilla. This poignant entry by the Jubilee Project, reminiscent of the beautiful Fifty People One Question, won the video category with its candid, deeply human journey into the richness and multiplicity of mothers’ impact on who we are and how we go through the world.

This video was inspired by our desire to help moms around the world because of the love and care we received from our own moms. We wanted to capture a genuine and raw spectrum of voices that spoke to just how much moms mean to all of us.”

See the other category winners and find out about ways to help save moms around the world on the official challenge page. For more on Acumen Fund’s work for maternity hospitals, don’t miss this excellent ABC News interview with founder Jacqueline Novogratz, whose TED talk on the life of immersion remains an all-time favorite.

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