COWS WEARING GLASSES

'Cows wearing glasses'....yup you read correctly, that's the title..interesting choice don't you think?
The title instantly attracted my curiosity! Urging me to see what this film is all about. 

This 2014 comedy-drama was directed by Alex Santiago Pérez and is set in the region of Puerto Rico. The film is 93 minutes in length; the actors all speak in spanish but there is english subtitles. 

Marcelino, the protagonist of the film, is a bitter, eccentric old man, who teaches a Human Figure Class and is constantly seen as being insultive and brutally honest with his students; what you see is what you get with him. Marcelino refers to himself as a master painter and a line from the film which he said, that really stayed with me was, "in order to be an artist, you have to risk being honest at all times." Truthfulness is something that Marcelino strongly believes in and stands by.  

Finding out from multiple doctors that he's on the brink of losing his sight, Marcelino knows that he must get his affairs in order, mostly importantly his relationship with his daughter, Isabel. Isabel, a writer of self-help books wants absolutely nothing to do with her father and blames him for abandoning her as a child, for his drunken behaviour instilling so much fear in her as a little girl, and for beating her mother and being a horrible husband, all of which disrupted her life profoundly. 

Marcelino tries and tries to obtain forgiveness from his daughter, but to no avail. This film is a man's emotional journey to correct his many wrongs before the inevitable happens. 


I truly enjoyed the intimate story that this film shared with audiences. Overall the film seems to have been received very well here in Trinidad; I asked a couple people who saw the film to comment on whether they liked or disliked the film and nearly all the reviews were positive, applauding the director for a job well done, for a story that's so raw and realistic and last but not least for the actors who played their roles beautifully. 

Some of the comments given on the film were, 
"Oh man, this film was beautiful, sad but beautiful."

"The ending really got me! Such a tragic story."

"The actor who played the role of Marcelino did an exceptional job."

"My first Puerto Rican film and I loved it!"

"I feel the same way that the actor does about pigeons."
(For those of you who have not yet seen the film, Marcelino hated pigeons, considered them to be one of God's seven mistakes.

THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM

This 96 minutes long narrative feature was directed by Andrew Mudge and is set in Lesotho, South Africa and the USA. 

The film opens with a beautiful scenic view of mountainous terrains set against an even more captivating and enchanting sky. The scenery then changes to a busy city; loud, dirty, anything but peaceful and here is where we are introduced to the character of Joseph. Joseph is an angry young man who hangs with the wrong crowd; smoking, drinking, partying and making mischief. Joseph barely goes to visit his old, sick father and when he finally does, he discovers that his father has died while he's been away. We learn that Joseph is actually his christian name, the name that is used from here onwards in the film is Atang, his African name. On learning of the death of his father and his father's wishes of being buried in his ancestral village of Lesotho, Atang reluctantly embarks on a journey that would change his life.

When Atang arrives at his homeland, he meets his childhood friend, Dineo, who is now a lovely, radiant school teacher. Atang falls in love with Dineo, and she becomes central to Atang's journey because through her, Atang takes notice of the true beauty and splendor of Lesotho, the people living, who have all known him when he was just a little boy, to the land he put behind him so long ago and to coming to terms with himself. Atang's journey is one of redemption and transforms him from an angry boy making trouble in the city, to a man of substance. 

I must say, this story was beautifully written and the cinematography was excellently done. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end, never was there a dull moment. Not only was the story well written, the actors all gave very convincing performances, portraying their roles exceptionally well.  In the film, Atang develops a special friendship with a young orphan boy and this relationship between Atang and this child really stood out to me. I believe that the role this child played in the film significantly added to the strong impact that the film had on audiences. This child's performance was fascinating, deservable of the highest praise. The film explores the people, their culture and the folklore of Lesotho, a place that is not widely known; pretty much forgotten, but without a doubt, deserves to be recognised and appreciated! There is an undeniable mystical quality about this place; the shots of the country's vast natural beauty captivate audiences, leaving everyone spellbound. I can tell that this film was given a lot of thought, it was genuinely touching and left viewers with a lot of positive life lessons. It's definitely a great family movie and I would advise anyone to see it. 

See the trailer for the film below :

SOMETHING DIFFERENT : The Great Gatsby Film Review (Collab with Chrissie Dalkan)

Hey everyone!

So I decided to do something a bit different with this post.
It's always good to mix things up a bit now and then...
I wanted to do a collab with one of my classmates Chrissie Dalkan, who's blog is based on books. 
For those of you who don't know, I'm a literature student, so Chrissie and I decided that I'll do a BOOK review for her blog on one of my favorites, The Great Gatsby, and that she would do a review on the FILM version of The Great Gatsby for my blog.

Here's Chrissie Dalkan's review..Enjoy!
Unlike a lot of movies made from books, The Great Gatsby movie is very similar to the original story, well at least this latest remake is. I would say this 2013 remake is the best of its six shabbiest on screen recreations. There are times when dialogue is taken directly from the book.

The Great Gatsby tells the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick Carraway. Nick relates his wild encounter with Gatsby in the 1920s. The entire movie is woven around what it takes to achieve the American dream The style of the movie is as classic as the book (although it includes the use of 3-D), however, it is a movie that can drown you or lose you along the way, mostly because of the director Luhrmann’s frenzied, elaborate technique. On the other hand, this style is probably what makes the movie vibrant and alive. 

The thing about this movie is that you’ll love it if you like Luhrmann’s style, but you’ll hate it if you hate his style. He turns the story into an epic melodrama of real and unreal. For me, the movie was bittersweet, because although the storyline remains true, the theatrics and music make no sense. In this movie, the era is quite important to the story – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby explores the Jazz Age or the 1920s, a time when jazz music represented a cultural movement. The era the story is set in is what influences the themes – decadence, resistance to change, social upheaval and rampant excess. It describes the ‘anything goes’ era that occurred in America after World War I. However, the Great Gatsby movie featured the sounds of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Fergie and Beyonce, amongst others. I heard pop and rap and a lot of other influences, when really, the entire story cannot be told properly without jazz! The entire story is written around the Jazz Era, without jazz, this story is nothing…for me, this was where it failed. 

What saved the movie for me is the superb casting; the actors/actresses, even those in the small roles, were perfect for their roles and really became the characters. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the role of Gatsby with such finesse as though he has indeed become the character. After seeing Di Caprio in this role, I can never imagine anyone else in this role. In the book, Gatsby is so mysterious, that you’d think it would be difficult to embody his character. But Di Caprio gets into Gatsby’s shoes and walks around in them – he makes Gatsby so comprehensible and real to me that although I prefer books to movies, I understood Gatsby’s character better from the movie than the book. Di Caprio shows that Gatsby is really acting the role of the man he wishes he was. We see the calculating gleam in his eyes, the deceptive nature and how pathetic he becomes when his dreams are shattered. Tobey Maguire’s impression of Nick Carraway is also very real – there is this deep melancholy that humanizes his character. Another perfect casting is Carrey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. Carrey becomes Daisy – she is exactly as I imagined Daisy. Daisy is supposed to have an enchanting charm that Carrey replicates it to its fullest potential. She is flirty, beautiful, and lets her men speak for her. Her entire life falls around her and she just lets it. Of course, you’ll hate Daisy – her character is foolish but at the same time you can’t help but admire how well Carrey Mulligan plays the role. 

Therefore, I’d say, what saves this movie is the impeccable casting. However, the soundtracks for this movie do not do the story justice and in my opinion, neither did the director. Including modern hip-hop into a movie that is set right in the center of the Jazz era just undermines the entire storyline. And Luhrmann (the director) tends to dwell too much on creating grandiose landscapes and settings, rather than focusing on the meat of the story. 

However, in all honesty, (as I said at the beginning of my critique) the movie has been made six times and Luhrmann’s remake is possibly the best. The thing about The Great Gatsby is that although it makes a classic book, it may not ever make a great movie – so maybe it’s not Luhrmann’s fault. The book lacks any character for you to feel deeply about; Gatsby is delusional, Nick is passive and Daisy is spoilt and rich. When reading the book, one might pretend to be Nick and be fascinated by Daisy’s glamour and Gatsby’s wealth but on screen, that may be difficult to pull off. So I’ll cut director Luhrmann some slack. 

But I must say, in my opinion, no one has managed to retell The Great Gatsby on screen successfully yet. Maybe it’s just a story that shouldn't be retold or retouched. 

See below for the trailer for the film :

So hope you all enjoyed Chrissie's post,
Click here to see my review of the book version of The Great Gatsby on Chrissie's blog.
Also, click here to see more from Chrissie Dalkan.

FILMS DEALING WITH ISSUES ON SINGLE PARENTING #2 : PELO MALO

Hello again. 
So as promised, I will be continuing from my last post, reviewing films from the film festival that deals with single parenting and children from broken homes.

Hope you all read my last blog post on Behaviour by guest blogger Olivia Andrews.
If not, click here to go to post.

Now moving on, the next movie that I’ll be looking at is Pelo Malo.
I loved this movie, it raised so many issues on parenting, it was definitely worth watching. 

This 93 minute Narrative Feature was directed by Mariana Rondón. The film is a Venezuelan film and is in Spanish with English Subtitles.

The films tells the story of a young boy by the name of Junior, who lives in a small, old apartment with his mother, Marta. Fired from her job as a security guard, Marta becomes desperate and is seen everyday trying to meet her boss to get back her work. Junior, meanwhile, is obsessed with straightening his curly hair. Junior's fascination with straight hair irks his mother, where she begins to think that her son may be gay and even goes as far as taking her son to a doctor in a wave of homophobic panic. Junior's constant need to have straight hair strains the already fragile relationship between mother and son.

Like all children, Junior just wants love, attention and approval from his mother and well to have straight hair. I don't think the child is gay, he's just fascinated with having straight hair, that's all. He looks on at a good looking older boy in the neighbourhood and while Junior's mother and grandmother thinks it's because Junior is attracted to the boy, I believe Junior just wants to look and be like the boy. I can understand that the mother is frustrated as she leads a very hard life, one which single parents know all too well. But Marta goes about this whole parenting thing the wrong way, when she thinks she's helping Junior, she's actually doing more harm than good...and trust me she does a lot of harm to that child, not physically but mentally and emotionally.

As part of a collab with Olivia Andrews, and wanting to know first hand what single parents out there thought about this film and the issues that it raised, I conducted an interview with a single mother who saw this particular film. 
Here is the interview :
Questions asked:
1. How long have you been a single parent?
2. How many kids do you have?
3. Do you work? If yes, part time or full time?
4. Do you get help from anyone to take care of you child/children?
5. Which film from the trinidad+tobago film festival that pertains to single parenting did you see?
6. What were your views on the film?
7. What in the film stood out to you as a single parent?
8. What did you like about the film the most?
9. What did you dislike about the film the most?
10. Does the film relate to your own life as a single parent in any way? If so, how?
11. After looking at the film, together with your own experience as a single parent, what advice would you offer to other single parents out there?

Answers received :
1. 5 years
2. 2 kids
3. Yes I do, full time.
4. Yes my mother.
5. Pelo Malo
6. It was a really good film, glad that I got to see it, it raised a lot of issues on parenting and what children from broken homes go through.
7. What stood out to me the most in this film would have to be the way the mother in the film treated her son. As children normally do, they like to play with their mom’s hair and stuff like that, my son does it, in the movie, when the child tried to be close to his mother in any way, she would just push the child away, as if his touch burnt her or something. It was disgusting the way she treated that poor boy, all he wanted was her love and acceptance, but she deprived him of such, which led to him acting the way he did.
8. I loved how the film showed the mother’s struggle to find work and the things that she had to do to get a job, it’s a very real situation that women face on a daily basis, struggling to get a job to make ends meet.
9. Actually I didn't dislike anything, loved the entire film, very well done.
10. Yes it relates to my life in multiple way, firstly with the struggle for single moms to find and keep jobs while trying to raise their kids at the same time. Also it’s very difficult to see about two children and work full-time, I don't want to work full time because I wish I had more time with the kids but it’s not an option for me. I have to do what I’ve got to do because I have two growing kids to raise, so I often depend on my mother to help me take care of them. Sometimes I think, without her help, I really don’t know how I would cope. Single parenting is really not an easy task.
11. The advice that I would offer to single parents is that all children need is love, don’t substitute love with anything else, nothing will ever do the job as love would. I know it’s hard to find time in such a busy schedule but you have to make time for the kids, show them that you're there, even if they may not see you for most of the day, make some time, somewhere in the day to show them that you are there for them, there to listen about how their day was, what they liked, what they disliked, things like that. It’s really important that you do as it affects the child more than you could possibly imagine.


See below for the trailer for the film Pelo Malo :

FILMS DEALING WITH ISSUES ON SINGLE PARENTING #1: BEHAVIOR (Collab with Olivia Andrews)

Hey all! Today’s blog will be about films from the film festival that were based on single parenting and children from broken homes. 

One of the movies that were shown at the festival that dealt with single parenting was Behavior. For this, I asked fellow blogger Olivia Andrews, who’s blog is focused on single parenting, to review this particular movie for me from the perspective of a single parent herself.

Read Olivia's review below :
I love going to the movies, it is now something that I have passed on to my little girl, as she is quite the film bug who loves comedies and remembers very well. I loved the movies so much that when I was younger I decided to work for a while in the industry. I worked at MovieTowne for two years and would have seen the advent of the film festival.

Back then the movies were much cheaper, I would look at a film each day and was quite intrigued by them. I laughed when they laughed and cried when they did. My favorite film was one called “Rain”. In recent times and last year’s favorite “God loves the fighter” another one that I enjoyed from a while back was “Beast of the southern wilds” I love films where there is victory over the obstacles that we face, tales of struggles.

This year my favorite was of course the one that came out victorious, “Behavior.” This film told the story of a young man who lived with his mother who was a single parent and was on drugs. They shared a small two bedroom which they made work, He had to get a job as a dog walker and caretaker for a man who is suspected of being his father.

Sometimes all we need in life is a chance a to be who we are and really shine through. As parents we have to strive as hard as we can to provide for our children all of their needs, it is sad when children become the care takers of their parents because they do not have a chance to live their lives and be kids. Fortunately for this young man, the teacher saw potential in him no matter how much he messed up she was always there for him and in the end this is all he wanted; someone to be there for him.
The show was filled with single parents roughing it somehow in a new place. They all had to adjust, there was a man that was raising his daughter on his own and because they were from Palestine, they were often picked on, the teacher was also a single parent who had a daughter.

In the end what I learnt from this film is that only when you give up on a child is when they give up on themselves, sometimes the road is long and wary but we have to try and leap those hurdles. Of course there are going to be times when we may trip and fall but we must complete the race.

So readers, hope you enjoyed what Olivia had to say. I sure did, quite interesting and I would just like to thank Oliva Andrews for taking the time to do this review for me. 
If you would like to read more inspiring posts about coping as a single parents, click here to go to Olivia's blog!

Also, see below for the trailer for Behavior

Stay tuned for my next post discussing another film based on children and single parenting. 

Thanks for reading! 

CRITIQUE OF THE PAINTING THAT INSPIRED THE FILM "BELLE" (Collab with Donna Clark)

Hello everyone! =)

As mentioned before, I have been mandated by my lecturer to do collaborations with some of my fellow classmates.

Today I will be doing a collab with Donna Clark. Donna's blog captures her thoughts on creativity in and around us.

In this post, Donna will be using her excellent visual skills to critically analyze the painting which inspired the film BELLE, one of my favorite films at this year's T+T film festival.

For those of you who have not yet read my post on BELLE, click here to be directed to the post.

So with all of that said, here's Donna's critique..Enjoy!

The painting featured in the film “Belle” is very typical of the 18th century portraiture style where the landscape is featured in the background and the subjects are richly attired. The landscape in this instance is that of the Georgian city scape with the silhouette of St. Paul’s church.  The two women are the mixed race Dido and her cousin Elizabeth, the camaraderie between the two women is evident which was unusual for that time period since slavery was a part of the society.
The painting shows effective use of the complementary colours of red and green which helps to establish Elizabeth as the focal point due to the red hue of her dress. However the artist cleverly used the extended hand of Elizabeth to guide the viewer to Dido who is very animated in gesture and expression. The successful use of contrasting values helps to create balance in this composition since one can see the lighted Elizabeth against the dark background as compared to the dark skinned Dido silhouetted against a lighter background.
The technique of chiaroscuro is evident in the subtle value tones used in the background landscape and the skin of the women. The Baroque style lighting is seen in the highlighted areas of the rich silk of the women’s dresses. This style was very similar to the German Neoclassical painter, Johann Zoffany who was also a mastermind at creating conversational pieces since his subject matter was somewhat controversial, which is the case in this piece since it was unacceptable for the two women to be on equal footing in society. This painting however similar to Zoffany was not painted by him and the artist remains anonymous.
This painting like many of the 18th century paintings of Netherlands and France has hidden meanings that are symbolic of undercurrents in society such as the hint that slavery should end. It is in fact Dido’s great Uncle, Lord Mansfield, who as a Lord Chief Justice in 1772 gave a decision in favor of a slave. This case heralded the beginning of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. The old saying of an image speaks a thousand words is well suited to apply to this painting of Belle and the conversation that the painting would cause is the script of the film entitled “Belle”.

1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761 - 1804) and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray (1760 -1825) that inspired the film BELLE.

To read more from Donna Clark, click here to go to Donna's blog.

Thanks for reading! 

DIFRET (Collab with Yolanda Pesnell)

Hello Readers! I'm back and with something new!

My fellow classmate, Yolanda Pesnell and I have been mandated to collaborate on our blogs. So we joined forces and decided to swap and issue a blog on each other's topic. 

Yolanda's blog is based on Literature and exploring the world through text, so to switch things up a bit, she decided that she would watch a narrative feature from the 2014 trinidad+tobgao film festival and post a review, thereby exploring the world through film!

The film that Yolanda chose to watch was Diffret, below is her review. Enjoy!

FILM: DIFRET 

Type: Narrative Feature

Director: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

Region: Ethiopia

Year: 2014

Time: 99 Minutes

Language: Amharic, English Subtitles

Rating: 14+

About difret :

This film is a true story about the abduction and rape of a 14 year old girl in a rural area in Southern Ethiopia. The story spans two years from 1996 to 1998 and documents the trial or as BBC News puts it the “Revenge of the abducted bride,” starring Aberash Bekele as Hirut in the film.

The Story :

Hirut was snatched by a group of men on her way home from school, beaten, taken to a deserted Hut and, later that evening, rapped by one of her abductors. The very next morning she was awakened by her abductor/rapist who entered the Hut and gave her a cup of coffee. After he left the barn, Hirut noticed a riffle in the corner of the Hut and saw an opportunity to escape. She took the riffle and quietly slipped out of the barn and began running. One of the men saw her and raised an alarm and they all chased and cornered her. She threatened to shoot if they came any closer. Her rapist disobeyed and she shot and killed him. The men were about to kill her when a passerby intervened and stopped them. She was taken to the police station where she was denied her right to medical attention. 

The men of the village met with the Elders to determine Hirut’s fate. In this meeting it was revealed that abduction was the traditional way of getting a Bride in that village when the father refuses to give consent. Those for Hirut’s abductor/rapist, Gemechu Kebede, believed that Hirut lacked respect for their tradition and believed that she should have been killed and buried alongside her abductor/rapist. However, the Elders decided that since Hirut was in police custody, judgment was out of their hands and instead exiled Hirut from the village. Her abductor’s father therefore vowed to avenge his son’s death. 

Hirut’s case attracted the attention of a women’s advocate lawyer, Meaza Ashinafi, who persevered in spite of meeting many stumbling blocks, the most persistent of which was the traditional practice of marriage by abduction. Hirut was eventually acquitted in 1998 on the grounds of self-defense, but felt hopeless for fear that her little sister, two years her junior who was pulled out of school for fear that she too would be abducted and suffer the same fate.

Comments on Cinematography :

The story was a traditional one and the images reflected just that. The lighting was or looked natural and the houses, offices, buildings and the standard of living and dress styles of the actors sold the image of a rural community. So for me this was great! There was no question, no confusion as to whether the film reflected Hollywood or a rural area in Ethiopia. To add to this, the positioning, colour and size of the subtitles were perfect, making it quite easy to follow the speech of the actors. One thumbs down for me, was the movement of the camera whenever there were running scenes or fast paced movement in the film. But given all my likes, I’m sure that I have already convinced you that overall this film was great!

There is so much to learn from Literature, whether it’s a book, a film or even music, there is always something else to explore and share. 

This was an awesome experience! 

So I hope you all enjoyed Yolanda's review, I surely did. 

I just want to thank Yolanda for taking the time to go see one of the films at the festival and providing for us readers, an excellent review!

To see more from Yolanda Pesnell, click here  to check out her blog. You'll love it!

TRAILER FOR DIFRET