Official website of Annakarinaland , broadcast on KXSF.fm San Francisco Community Radio Focus on Women and Film. Published reviews and scholarly writing of film critic Moira Jean Sullivan.
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World debut of 'Heart of a Dog' by Laurie Anderson
Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia
Heart of a Dog
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Performance artist and filmmaker Laurie Anderson was in San Francisco for a brief visit in conjunction with the theatrical release of her new film “Heart of a Dog” that opens in San Francisco November 13 at Landmark Theatres. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival September 9 and is a thought provoking film about love stories and ghost stories, and how stories are relayed in our personal lives through art and media. Anderson relates stories about dreams and the possibilities for new ways of storytelling with new media.
"Heart of a Dog" weaves story telling with films Anderson shot of her dog Lolabelle and 8mm films from her childhood. She uses iPhones, drone phones, and different textural backgrounds. She wrote the script and did the art work and composed the music. This kind of singular vision seems to be the hallmark of her work. Anderson usually travels to cities and does installations, creating image, word and musical journeys.
Anderson explores the synchronicity of what we do in life having its source in experiences from our childhood. She looks over her past as a pilgrimage. The talented artist even provides a description of death from the "Tibetan Book of the Dead". She explains that before going to another world the deceased experiences their present incarnation before finding a new form in a state called "Bardo". She calls the death ritual an automation of walking backwards in past lives. Even her film engages in this kind of backward sojourn. All of this is extremely thrilling and provocative for Anderson never ceases to engage with her creations, as she has always done through several decades of work. ' Heart of a Dog' is her newest edition, her latest work of art, which is truly inspirational.
Laurie Anderson recently collaborated with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm. Her film is dedicated to the late Lou Reed who she lived with for over 20 years.
As of September 19, the men's club at Wikipeida has eliminated a post on Freja Film, a women's screening forum in Stockholm Sweden from the 1980's. By trying to save this entry it is clear that decisions are made within a very select group of individuals, who are not only undemocratic but discriminatory towards women's culture. No amount of change to the article could save it. The young male wikepedians with a sense of white male under 30 smell insist on scholarly reports, quotes, cross references, statistics, search engines, metrics , in short "pulling a rabbit out of a hat" documents prior to the profuse public use of internet. This means that history can only be determined from this, since none of these individuals have gone to Sweden to research at "KvinnSam - Nationellt bibliotek för genusforskning" - the national library for gender studies. Kvinnobulletinen, a woman's magazine from 1971 to 1996 mentions "Freja Film" in several articles.
According to Seneca, 2000 years ago , "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." Yet Wikepedia uses this rule of thumb for subject validity. Since no one really takes Wikepedia serious except students who rely on it for plagiarized term papers , the omission of this article should be seen as a blessing. But it's a marvel to behold the process of getting an article into Wikipedia, dictated by a spider web of techno geeks who conjure up the anonymous faces of the Deep Web. If you have ever entered into discussions with wikipedians, the modern concept of fascism actually comes to mind, with this definition, from Wikipedia, as context:
the use of fascist as an epithet for authoritarian and intolerant power-holders has a distinct analytical basis, suggesting that fascism is a continuum or a social relation, rather than simply a political system, and that acts of repression are in some way homologous with fascist ideology.
When Wipedia asks for donations to continue its practice of selective entrees, remember who is really behind the decisions.
Before Wikipedia erases the history of women in film for being non-important, CineFemme will preserve this herstory of Freja Film, which has already spidered elsewhere out in the web,
Freja Film was a radical screening forum held at the "Stockholm Women's House
(Kvinnohuset)" in Stockholm, Sweden, during the 1980s.
The name Freja was
chosen for the group paying homage to the Nordic goddess who was the leader of
the Valkyrie.
Kvinnohuset was an important meeting place for women during the 1980's and
1990's in Stockholm. The space on Snickarbacken 10 was shared by different
women's organisations such as Freja Film , self defense groups, Kvinnobulletinen[1][2]Lesbiska Feminister, and
musicians in Spelhålen. [3][4][5][6][7]
The original core group was composed of Moira
Sullivan, Yvonne
Eriksson, and Anna
Kindgren. Guests to the women's house included filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Regular
screenings of films made by women were held with discussions afterwards. The
icon on the poster head for the monthly screenings was Dorothy Arzner, the only
woman working in Hollywood as a director during the 1930s. Freja Film was
modeled after the Amsterdam based feminist film and video distribution
collective Cinemien.[8] Freja
Film imported films with permission of filmmakers for special screenings. Some
of the films screened were Lizzie Borden's
"Born in
Flames" which won "prix du public" at Créteil
International Women's Film Festival in 1983 and Marleen Gorris' A Question of
Silence which won in 1982. Freja Film's activities and reports
from women's film festivals were published in Kvinnobulletinen, an
important journal for women in Sweden during the 1970's through 1990's. Among
the editors was Ebba
Witt-Brattström. Freja Film was the contact
organisation of women's film established during a special conference sponsored
by UNESCO in 1981 held
at the 1st
International Feminist Film and Video Conference in Amsterdam. At
the Amsterdam meeting all functioning women's festivals and women working in
film such as Frances Reid, Barbara Hammer, Michelle Citron presented
papers and strategized about reaching women in media around the globe. Also
present was the newly startedCréteil
International Women's Film Festival(1979), the longest surviving women's film organization in Europe. Freja Film worked
closely with Créteil
International Women's Film Festival as the Nordic contact
organisation.
“Amy” which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May is an extraordinary exposé of the life of the late Amy Winehouse. There is virtually little relief knowing Winehouse’s short life cyle in the public eye was due to substance addiction, but this documentary reminds us how her career was built on the joy and enchantment of her artistry. British filmmaker Asif Aspadia’s “Amy” was nominated for a Golden Eye Award for best documentary as well as a Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival and showcases previously unseen footage of this phenomenal artist.
The documentary starts out like probably many music videologs that trace the career of an emerging artist. It is impossible to see Amy Winehouse as anything but an extremely talented jazz vocalist who was born with talent not luck. She felt best playing in intimate jazz clubs with good musicians. She loved to write songs and was clearly one of the best singer/songwriter jazz vocalists of this century. Her exquisite voice, vocal range and phrasing hit notes with spot on accuracy and emotionally wrenching language, framing familiar episodes in life with an exactitude inspiring international introspection.
Winehouse’s new fans proclaimed their infatuation with that voice and those incredible lyrics. This is the same public that booed her off the stage at the end of her career for failing to sing and who even demanded their money back. It was pay back time for the public that felt they made her. Her refusal to perform in Belgrade can only be seen as an act of defiance and strength for no one listened to her when she said she didn't want to go. "Amy" updates the media picture of this outstanding vocalist and shows how she stood her ground and said no to a large concert she could no longer tolerate as a serious artist.
Amy Winehouse stands her ground and refuses to perform at Belgrade
Tony Bennett confirmed this when he said that Amy Winehouse was one of the great jazz musicians of our time on the order of Elsa Fitzgerald. Shown in the documentary is a beautiful and touching collaboration of Winehouse and Bennett.
Given substantial room is Amy Winehouse's relationship with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil , a relationship characterized in the documentary as all consuming, temptuous and painful. Fielder-Civil introduced her to heroin and crack and Amy could not be separated from him until he was forcefully incarcerated and later divorced her. According to Fielder-Civil, she did not want the divorce and her signature was forged. By Amy's own admission the relationship was a drug.
Also given ample space is Winehouse's eclectic vintage fashion sense, heavy eyeliner, and her hairstyle inspired by a fusion of the 60's pop group "The Ronette's" and Brigitte Bardot.
At first we love our artists for the accord that they strike in our experience but as they become successful within the industry model, they become our slaves and wind up dolls. “Amy” well illustrates the modern myth of god/goddess destruction. The artist pulls the strings of our hearts and we become fickle and restless and lose interest waiting for the next sensation. The industry has of course created this fickleness, this throwaway artist society with mythological heroes and heroines, even when they are banished or doomed.
“Amy” makes one wonder how extraordinary it must be for any megastar to not succumb to drugs and alcohol. “Amy” indeed presents a horrifying picture of what success actually looks like, mirrored in the fearful faces of Amy Winehouse as she walks to fame and out of it in her short life. At first stunned at the ignorant questions she is asked as an artist she is later repulsed by the invasion of her privacy by the media.
Almost everyone is a player in this mediated gimmicry—even her father who brings photographers to St Lucia where she becomes drug free and chastises her when two "harmless" tourists asks for a photo with her and she is less than overjoyed. That one simple photo to her is equal to all the excesses she has suffered since she began winning awards and recognition. Jay Leno and David Lettermen ridicule her drug habit on national television but if they did that to someone with an illness other than addiction they would be shut down. Both are finally going anyway as spent fuel.
We wonder why someone so incredibly talented, such a beautiful unique creative and illuminating young woman can die before our eyes after an inevitable failed comeback as painful as the one planned by Michael Jackson. But the answers are all there in “Amy” of how this could be.
There are no particular culprits, since success is a cunning foe that is propelled by faceless greed and commerce. Artists whose careers are intertwined with commerce pay a heavy price. There is also the truth that Amy Winehouse even before she became famous was a substance abuser with food and alcohol. Her parents, in the documentary, seem clueless that alcoholism was just as important to tackle (though they disagree with how they are presented). Going to rehab, or not going to rehab as the song goes that became her signature song did not seem to sink below the goal just being clean and tackle the underlying issues behind her relapses.
Amy Winehouse was a beautiful soul and there are ample pictures in this brilliant documentary of her upbringing, her first songs with enchanting poetic images in her ever enlarging career prompted by public demand for more of her. And as the public demanded more of Amy, she began to disappear with increasing regularity. However, it is clear that it was not only a public sacrifice but her support system and her own ignorance of addiction that took her life, despite doctor's warnings. All this is evident in this powerful documentary.
“Amy” shows how the success pendulum cares not for beautiful souls but is a cunning predator that kills with animal instinct the wondrous artists of our world who exist only to enlighten us and ease our every day lives. Thank Amy Winehouse for her gifts, and see in Amy Winehouse a vulnerability that was not strong enough to stand up to the gimmicry and was left unprotected by family, husband, fans and promoters. Amy Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning in July 2011 at the age of 27. Asif Aspadia dignifies Amy Winehouse who was always worthy of our love.
