Film Spotlight: BALIBO

The bleeding edge of journalism, or what 30 years of silence look like under the bright lights.

In 1975, as Indonesia prepares to invade the small nation of East Timor, five Australian journalists go missing. Four weeks later, a foreign correspondent by the name of Roger East arrives in the small country to investigate what happened. As political tensions intensify, he forms an unlikely friendship with the man who will soon be President, who grants him full access to the country in order to tell its story. But, for thirty years, the crimes remain covered and the story untold.

This summer, BALIBO, an ambitious political thriller from director Robert Connolly, starring Anthony LaPaglia and Oscar Isaac, brings the truth to light.

In this compelling Q&A on Australia’s ABC network, lead actor and executive producer Anthony LaPaglia delves into the deeper political context of the film and the relationship between fact and fiction in historical films.

BALIBO is based on Cover-up, a 2002 investigative novel by Jill Jolliffe who, working as a freelance correspondent for Reuters in 1975, witnessed the first incursions of Indonesian troops and reported the deaths of her five colleagues.

Thanks, Sarah

Street Art: From All Sides & Five Continents

The urban anthropology of creativity, or why copyright law is a sad case study in swimming against the cultural current.

In 2008, Beautiful Losers — a documentary about contemporary street art culture from director Aaron Rose — made serious waves at SXSW. This year, the film is finally making its full-blown national screening tour — and we think it’s a must-see.

Based on the eponymous and equally excellent book, the film explores the creative process and cultural influences of iconic artists like Barry McGee, Jo Jackson, Mike Mills, Brain Pickings darling Shepard Fairey, and many more.

The greatest cultural accomplishments in history have never been the result of the brainstorms of marketing men, corporate focus groups, or any homogenized methods; they have always happened organically. More often than not, these manifestations have been the result of a few like-minded people coming together to create something new and original for no other purpose than a common love of doing it.

We think Beautiful Losers is important for two reasons: For one, it’s a genuine piece of cultural anthropology that captures some of the rawest, most powerful creative genius of our time.

But, more importantly, it’s a brilliant testament to the importance of the cross-pollination of ideas — you begin to see the influences of various subcultures, from skateboarding to street fashion to graffiti to indie music, on these artists’ original creative output. And this matters, because it’s real-life proof for the power of remix culture — something essential to the ability to harness our collective creativity, yet unfortunately hindered by current copyright law.

For an even deeper perspective on the global, cross-cultural influences in street art, check out Street World: Urban Culture and Art from Five Continents — another excellent book, exploring the emergence of a new global creative culture driven by the advent of the Internet as a cross-pollination platform for wildly diverse subcultures and modes of self expression.

Thanks, Amy!

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Artist Spotlight: Volkan Ergen

Immersive urban avant-garde film, or what a tabby cat has to do with the Bosphorus at night.

Turkish filmmaker Volkan Ergen does what we like to call “immersive urban avant-garde cinematography” – film that fully submerges you into the aura of a city, from its sights and sounds, to its distinct color scheme, to its can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on feel.

In Two Wings, he explores the rich magnetism of a stroll down the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Shot in Ergen’s signature split screen, the film is all afternoon decadence of light and color, oozing the tangible and raw sounds of the city, embraced by a hypnotic music score

Expect captures the inner quietude of waiting amidst the loudness of one’s surroundings.

See more of Volkan’s work on Vimeo, or brave the language barrier by Google-Translating your way into his personal site.

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Spotlight Series: Gimme Moore

Why P2P file-sharing can spell the demise of the Bush administration and how not to let American Idol take over the White House.

MOORE VS. BUSH, ROUND 2

We’re doing something a little different today — because today is the day filmmaker-slash-activist Michael Moore’s latest movie, Slacker Uprising, comes out. (Plus, it’s a nice transition from last week’s themes of P2P revolutions and the current White House being easily mistaken for a potato.)

And just like us today, Moore is doing something different with this himself: He’s giving the movie away as a free download, making it the first major feature-length film to debut legally as a free internet download. In his typical convention-defying, sticking-it-to-the-man style, he’s offering not one but five ways to snag it — from iTunes and Amazon Digital downloads to a number of live streaming options.

He’s doing it for two reasons: To get the word out and thus further the film’s ultimate goal of getting more young voters out on November 4, and to thank all his supporters over the years with a free gift on the 20th anniversary of his first film, Roger & Me.

The film was shot over 42 days leading up to the 2004 election, when Moore toured 62 cities across America with the same mission: Turning out a record number of young voters, which he considers a success given young adults voted in greater numbers than they ever had historically, and the youth segment was the only demographic group Kerry won.

(We, on the other hand, are less generous with the acclaim for a year in which American Idol still received more votes than the presidential election — quite the eye-opener when the American public finds a marginally talented popster to be a better idol than the nation’s leader.)

So go download the movie or find a screening near you so you can rub elbows with like-minded potato-haters. (Heck, host one, even.)

And, um, go vote on November 4, mmmkay?