I've been getting up at weird hourse lately and have ended up watching a bunch of movies lately...
1. Apocalypse Now... I hadn't seen this one in 15 years and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the storyline, the descent into madness and the mythical elements of Willard's journey. It reminded me of some work I did in the McGregor Mtns and again in Northern Alberta, walking into a sort of jungle or sorts and feeling crazy from the dense brush and mosquitoes and my own thoughts. If I've ever wanted to copy a narrative technique, this has to be it -- the descent into chaos/intimacy/self represented by a physical journey.
2. The Corporation... very insightful and depressing look at corporate culture and globalization. I found it gave me new purpose as a Social Studies teacher but I also lost some hope that the future will learn from the past. We live in a world of greedy people with ugly Walmart tattoos on their souls, people who would sell their own children. The ugliest part of humanity is that we reward these greedy maggots by electing them to power and allowing them to convince us to buy their crap.
3. Hotel Rwanda... this ended up being the motivation behind some research into Rwanda's problems in the 1990s. A very powerful story although one is left with desperate thoughts. I am curious to know what Jared Diamond's Collapse has to say about Rwanda (I take it he fits the racial strife into a resource/environmental context).
4. Amelie... this to counter the depression from #2 & 3. Really really really good.
