We’re excited to say that Season 2 is now underway. If you have a fantastic true story you want to tell on camera, please email us at mrandmrshahn [at] gmail [dot] com.

Season 2 (2011/2012)

‘Marcos’ Impromptu Surgery’ (Marcos Lutyens, Feb. 2012, TRT 7 min)
‘Felicity’s Act of Charity’ (Felicity Wilson-Brown, Jan. 2012, TRT 4 min)
‘Micah’s Type’ (Micah Hahn, Dec. 2011, TRT 8.5 min)

You can watch all of Season 1 (and what we have so far for Season 2) here on the Vimeo channel.

Amazing, polyphonic stuff. They say that if the pygmies find a new item (a pipe, a bottle, a shoe), they will find a way to turn it into an instrument. Also, their word for music is the same of their word for dance, and they do not differentiate between the two.

Hunting Song (Music of the Rain Forest Pygmies)

Season 1 (2010/2011)

‘Leonardo’s Game of Chess’ (Dec. 2011, TRT 7 min)
‘Norwood Gets Back to His Me’ (Nov. 2011, TRT 9.5 min)
‘Anthony & Johnny’ (Oct. 2011, TRT 5.5 min)
‘Sarah’s First Day of High School’ (Jul. 2011, TRT 6.5 min)
‘Austin Changes his Name‘ (Jun. 2011, TRT 8.5 min)
‘Michael’s Roach Problem‘ (Apr. 2011, TRT 6.5 min)
‘Heather Gets Hit’ (Mar. 2011, TRT 5.5 min)
‘Harry Tells a Lie’ (Feb. 2011, TRT 4 min)
‘Felicity Is Ejected From Egypt‘ (Feb. 2011, TRT 5 min)
‘Davide’s Wet Dream’ (Nov. 2010, TRT 2 min)
‘Ralph & the Cat’ (Oct. 2010, TRT 2.75 min)
‘Patricia’s Nickel’ (Oct. 2010, TRT 2.5 min)

Please drop me a line at saskia [at] saskiawilsonbrown [dot] com with any suggestions, or hit me up on Twitter @saskiawb.

Más info:

There’s no ‘there’, there: L.A. films L.A.


Big City Forum presents a film screening curated by Saskia Wilson-Brown, Founder and co-director of Cinema Speakeasy. The evening will feature short films that examine what Los Angeles means to those that inhabit it, in a program and discussion about our public urban identity. We will be screening pieces that capture the complexity and reality of living in our de-centralized, mythologized city.


L.A. is a constantly shifting metropolis, often seemingly constructed for mass consumption by fantastical and fevered minds – with nary a glance at the rich complexity roiling beneath its shimmering skin. From gritty downtown cop dramas to technicolor Hollywood fantasies, it has been omnipresent in American celluloid, but rarely truly captured in all its complexity. It is, in short, the most filmed yet least understood megalopolis in modern American history.

Filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening discussion about their sense of place, moderated by Saskia Wilson-Brown and Big City Forum.

Wed, Nov. 16th

Goethe Institut LA

7 – 9 pm



Still from Maya Newell's 'Two'

Seven Nine (!) filmmakers I am way excited about right now.

Michael Medaglia: Because he is about to release his short thriller Kitty Kitty on VODO (look for it on June 10th) and because he has a script he’s shopping around right now that is OFF THE HOOK good.

Maya Newell: Because this Australian filmmaker made the secret and very odd world of adult babies seem so accessible, funny and sweet with her short doc Two.

Douglas Burgdorff: Because he is so f*cking twisted it literally hurts to watch his stuff, but in the most beautiful way possible. NSFW, to the max, but watch it anyways.

Anthony Ferraro: Because he made this, this and this, and because he operates in the realm between film and art and we need more filmmakers like him.

Kaz Phillips Safer: Because she is radness incarnate, and because she made MEGAFAUNA.

Vessal Safaei, William Head, James Arneman and Katie Mitchell: Because these Aussie filmmakers are thinking beyond the obvious and delving deep into the interconnected world. Look out for ‘The Decade Project’ and their collective ‘Don’t You Have Headphones‘.

And now for something even more awesome: ‘Los Angeles: A Love Poem‘, by Dylan King (featuring a poem by Sandra Beasley)

2010: COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING

• Review the list of all completed projects
• What was your biggest triumph in 2010?
• What was the smartest decision you made in 2010?
• What one word best sums up and describes your 2010 experience?
• What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2010?
• What was the most loving service you performed in 2010?
• What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2010?
• What are you most happy about completing in 2010?
• Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2010?
• What was the biggest risk you took in 2010?
• What was the biggest surprise in 2010?
• What important relationship improved the most in 2010?
• What compliment would you liked to have received in 2010?
• What compliment would you liked to have given in 2010?
• What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2010?

2011: CREATING THE NEW YEAR

• What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2011?
• What advice would you like to give yourself in 2011?
• What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2011?
• What would you be most happy about completing in 2011?
• What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2011?
• What would you most like to change about yourself in 2011?
• What are you looking forward to learning in 2011?
• What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2011?
• What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2011?
• What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2011?
• What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2011?
• Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2011?
• What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2011?

Sources:
a. http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL272/8157143/15269508/231094190.jpg
b. http://www.flickr.com/photos/80643375@N00/356743212
c. http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HCcB7IDJQ6Q/0.jpg

Visual Editions, started in 2009 in London,  publishes books that are very aware of their materiality. As they put it “books should be as visually interesting as the stories they tell”.

On Nov 15th they will publish their second book, Tree of Codes by acclaimed author Jonathan Safran Foer. This book was generated not from the singular vision of an author in his garrett, but rather from a shared fascination with die-cutting paper. From their site:

Our early conversations with Jonathan Safran Foer about Tree of Codes started when Jonathan said he was curious to explore and experiment with the die-cut technique. With that as our mutual starting point, we spent many months of emails and phone calls, exploring the idea of the pages’ physical relationship to one another and how this could somehow be developed to work with a meaningful narrative. This led to Jonathan deciding to use an existing piece of text and cut a new story out of it. Having considered working with various texts, Jonathan decided to cut into and out of what he calls his “favourite book”: The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz.

Pre-order it here or check out their existing publications here.