The Act of Killing

After the silliness from the last post, (which by the way got more visits than any of my text posts will ever get) I'm ready to write a rant about some serious stuff again.

Last saturday I read the news from my country to find out that a human body had been found in pieces in 25 bags across a road, a week before that, the news were that police had found 49 bodies without head and hands... and before that more killings, more bodies, more murders. In México this kind of thing happens frequently, in the city where I'm from, Chihuahua, I even dare to say that daily. I can't say I'm surprised anymore. Terrified, yes, and although we are now used to this, we can't stop wondering "what the heck do the people that are guilty of this have in their heads?"

Well, I found some answers in this Sunday's documentary: The Act of Killing.

Imagine that a group of gangsters who murdered hundreds in Indonesia are suddenly asked to make a film about their killings. Well, that's exactly what you get in The Act of Killing.
Superficially, there are a lot of differences between the background of the murders in Indonesia (which target were to finish with the communists) and the murders going in Mexico (which most of the time are about drugs wars), but I think that just as in any other war, the end is the same; what is wanted in all cases is money and power. 

It would be stupid to think that my conclusions about this people could be right after just watching a summary of 2 hours of their whole life... but oh God, how much did I hated them. Empty. That's the most suitable word I find for them. Empty of feelings, and empty in their heads, yearning to fill up their hands with money; proud to have Hollywood's gangster movies as an example and guide in their ways of killing; doing what they do just to buy fancy clothes, and although knowing they are wrong, forcing themselves to see what they do in a perspective where it's good.

I was looking for an insight, something that could help me understand them. I can't say I fully found it, because what they did is so brutal and just beyond my personal judgment. Yet, I have an interesting point in which I can elaborate: how movies influenced this assassins.  I often listen to men argue about how it's not true that watching violence can make someone violent; well after seeing this at such a scale I will have to disagree. Yes, maybe it might not be influential in someone who has a strong base and a personal idea on what's right and wrong; but for someone who doesn't it can be a total difference (now you go judge yourself at what age and situation someone is able to have a strong base). This is also something to reflect upon in a personal level. Maybe I was not willing to kill just because I watched Inglorious Basterds, but maybe I was hoping to find Mr. Right after watching a Jennifer Aniston romantic comedies.
I really, really, really am reluctant to believe that we can be as vulnerable to influence from media as these men... but I know I am just not willing to see (the mere existence of marketing proves me wrong).

So in the end, how much of the emptiness of these men do I feel? Maybe not enough to justify taking human lives in order to buy a car or clothes, but surely enough to believe in the illusion that movies provide, maybe to even want to follow their example, the desire to be the pretty lady who finds love, to be the successful movie director, the adventurous traveler to which interesting things happen to, or whatever. Is it bad to dream, to want something we see someone else has (even if it's someone imaginary)? I don't think so, that's not what I'm trying to say... there is a reason why I love movies, and it's because they give us the impossible, but we must be careful in what we believe or how we desire to live those illusions that are ours for as long as the movie lasts. Sure, we are meant to sympathize with the characters, to feel understood as we watch someone act the way we probably would... but is good understanding that there are things that just belong to the screen.

And this is how I come back to my original subject, how the Act of Killing is a very good documentary to watch, and I wish this was one of the situations that remains only in the screen... and that murders like this didn't happen in my country.

So I recommend it. It might not give you understanding of the "why's" of these people, but it will at least give you an idea of their mindset. Maybe.

Sparkly Water

Culture Slackers

Often we hear about how there is a nice event, a good conference that might actually leave us something to think about.... Then, we put the information on the back of our heads, keep on with our daily activities... and when we finally have free time we rather go to the cinema to watch (or stream online...) the latest, silliest Hollywood comedy instead of finding something better to do. And then, later we put even further in the back of our brains that we've done this, and we complain about how culture is fading away, people don't know what is good art anymore, etc...

Ok, I get it. You are tired from work, and all you want to do is to have a laugh, not think, so you pick to go watch this comedy... I guess we all have had days like this, but do we have to follow the same pattern always?

I'm talking from experience... I am doing it "wrong". Scratch those quotation marks... it's my blog and I'm allowed to say something is wrong if I want to, especially talking about myself. And I've been very, very wrong. Why?
Well, for starters, ever since I got to Budapest I have been complaining about how in Hungary all movies are dubbed... recently someone has managed to shut up the little ladies Miss Complaints and Miss "I speak before doing research" inside me by showing me a Francophone Film Festival, a film club with movies in Spanish and the latest one, a documentary film festival with loads of screenings in English. Same at my hometown... I was always complaining about how there is nothing cultural to do, and then boom! a friend starts to point out all the festivals, museums expositions, etc. that have been going on for ages and I have turned down for a reason or another.

This only proves how a little online research will show us how there is plenty to do, yes, some of these things cost money... artists and everyone involved in this kind of activities have to eat too, you know? But that's another story. Anyway, if we know where to look there is always a good offer as well as bad, but we are the ones who decide what to do with our time in the end.

I know, some places have more cultural offer than others. A quick search in the Museum's Guide of Budapest tells me that Budapest must have around 79 museums, while Chihuahua, my hometown, as far as I know only has 11... and yet other cities, like Berlin, have over 200. So, yes, the "physical" cultural offer might not be as great where you live... but there is always something going on, always. Either for the public, or something good that someone has shared on the internet and it's waiting for you to discover it, a good book, or even some good conversation with a friend... I'm sure each of us know where to find content to enrich us.

In the end, I would say that the phrase "we are what we eat" is wrong. We are mostly what we see, listen and read.

P.S. I have a confession to make. I happened to watch Ted on the weekend... and this is a self-portrait (doodle) of me right now:

In case you were wondering... no, I didn't like it.

Snails and astronauts

So yesterday I attended once more the Sunday Evening Documentary

This week's movie was :

Planet of Snail, by Seung-Jun

"If you want to be free from the eyes & ears... be an astronaut like me..."





What's it about? 

Planet of Snail is a movie about someone who has as little input of the worlds as you can imagine: someone who can't neither see or hear. About how someone for whom it is impossible to lead a live as we know it manages a beautiful day to day existence, with the care of her loved one and the aid of modern technology. He studies, he reads, he writes beautiful essays and above all, he is still able to sense life. 

My first and strongest impressions

Upon watching the movie there where three main things in my mind all the time.
First of all, it's impossible to miss the beauty of the movie itself. The way this movie was shot makes it a delight to watch, given the story, it becomes even more. Though at some point you do feel that this is somehow "dramatized", as a fellow watcher pointed out later.
The second, I felt that somehow this becomes an exploration in the co-dependency that a couple can acquire. And no, I'm not speaking of the disabled man who protagonizes the movie, but about the wife who is there at absolutely all times. Maybe it's a super great act of love, and as I can't understand it I categorize it as something I can... I don't know, but I still feel there is something more to this than just love for the other.
The third... is of course admiration, for both, this man who accepts and embraces life, as well as for his wife who not only manages to help him all the time, but at least in the movie... shows a kind of patience as such strong virtue that I'm sure only a few humans have.

In perspective...

Once again we held a small discussion afterwards, and as ever, this becomes as rich as watching the movie.
The thing that I pointed out first was the dependency I felt, and how I feel this can't be good. Some others in the group have agreed, some others not. The thing is that in the end, with their other statements they made me see how I was missing the whole picture. Being disables isn't easy, neither for the disabled one, nor for those ones around. And it requires a great deal of love and self sacrifice to manage, and yes, as I mentioned before, being honest is not something I could do by self choice. The guy doesn't have any... but the wife, she does and nevertheless decides to share her life this way, being the eyes and ears of her husband.
Also, it was pointed out that in every couple there are things that one does better than the other, and this is how they complement each other... being in this case greater the difference on each spouse's capabilities, the work needed to generate balance might be also greater, though in the end they are still a normal couple. So, I have to thank for this insight.
Other of the most valuable contributions that I need to point out is one that brought us to the ground. Having a disability is not comfortable. Yes, they become an example of life, but in the end they are human like everyone of us, even though they are living in extraordinary conditions.

This brings me to the next point I want to state. I saw on screen the fear that this people have of never finding love, of being alone, of not getting all that the world has to offer... and I could find similarities, those were thoughts that might not differ from my own, from my best friend's, or from those of the person standing nearby at the office. Once again: we are all human. We still set our own barriers, we also like diving alone in our own universe, but still have the opportunity to come back down and as Young-Chan says, enjoy the ride of life:

"The earth is a smooth train, I am riding. From morning to noon, from noon to night. I'm riding by earth lying still on my bed".

There was many other great input on the discussion... but that deserves a separate post I'll write some other time.

Movie Review: Upside Down

So I recently decided to watch Upside Down, a film written and directed by Juan Solanas, starring Jim Sturgess and Kristen Dunst.

To be honest, ever since his breakout in Across the Universe, I have been a Jim Sturgess fan, so I had been waiting for this movie to come out since I read about it more than a year ago... and here is what I thought of it after finally getting a chance to watch it. 

The film should be a clever one, because from a first view it seems to be a new way of depicting what we know. There are two worlds that co-exist in a parallel line, facing each other, the one above is where all the reach people live, the one "down below" is where the poor ones live... and also where the people from above go get their oil. Rings a bell?

Well, so will the rest of the story. Here Solanas tried to make a new approach to the classic "we are from different worlds but we are in love... therefore defy the rules to be together" story. Could I say he achieves this? Yes. The situation he created is very creative and he made sure to point it out with the awesome visual effects and making a statement out of it with photography compositions you don't regularly see in a film. The thing is, that he caught up so much in explaining on-screen how this universe he created works that he kind of forgot that a good story needs to develop the characters emotionally too.

This ends up being a nice looking sci-fi film (yes, every second of it you will be reminded visually that this is a world that doesn't actually exist), where "down below" looks like a post-revolution eastern European country and the world "above" looks like your mental image of New York; and the love story? Well, it ends up being a complete cliche. No growth of the characters, nothing. Really, Kristen Dunst's character has about 20 lines... 18 in which you can predict the exact words she will say before they come out of her mouth (this is the level of cliche). 

So do I recommend it?

Well, unless you really are into especial effects this shouldn't be a top pick to be honest. Maybe the story can be more appealing for girls than for guys, because you end up getting your cheesiness fix and a fair dosis of "awwww"... plus, I have to say, Jim Sturgess is always nice to watch. As for gentlemen reading this... well, all the action scenes you can see are in the trailer, you get a cheesy and predictable love story, but you do get a nice look into Juan Solana's imagination...

So now you are free to go watch it and get your own opinion.

As a reference: if you've seen "Just in Time" and you've liked it, go for this one; I could make a HUGE statement about how this two movies are so alike. 

Bad Complimenter

I'm one of those people who brag about being super honest... and until recently I really thought I was, until I realized I was only honest about things that I don't like... while keeping to myself those that I do. Is this being dishonest? Maybe not. Is this bad? Yes.

I'll try to make my point with this little story about something that happened just an hour ago.

During two years and a half of my life I studied French. Today, I went for a second time to a french conversation group, but truth is that although I can understand I am aware that I look (and sound) like I'm slow when trying to speak. Well, anyway... the French organizer had a conversation with me about how he thinks I have very strong bases, even though now I am slow and how I shouldn't give up.
Even though he made a point of how bad I am, my happiness leveled up one step. My confidence leveled up two steps.
Then after the whole event, his girlfriend asked me with a huge smile in her face: "Are you coming next week?", then as she saw I hesitated a little she added "please, please do! It's very good to have you here!".
This people receive no monetary reward for this, and still they find nice words to say... sounding pretty authentic therefore, my happiness and sense of belonging leveled up about three steps.

 This made me think: why can't I be like this people, being honest about what I like and not only about what I think it's wrong? Why is my ego so big that I can't tell someone that I would like their company?

It's a huge problem. It comes from the same place where the "not telling someone your co-workers appreciate their work", "not telling your parents you love them", "not telling your friend how grateful you are" and other "not telling..." problems come from. This and many, many others I miss saying on a daily basis. And why should I?

First of all, I find that at least for me this is working in a self-destructive way. Maybe not admitting you like what everyone else is doing, not telling someone you enjoy their company... all these are, I believe, ways of trying to protect oneself, ways of protecting our pride and ego. If you don't expose the whole truth, you quit exposing yourself too.

But it's necessary to try to realize how it looks like from the other side.

Until this point, outside of movies I don't know about anyone who is able to read minds... so what happens when we don't tell someone we appreciate them or what they do? They will never know, and therefore assume that we don't or we simply don't care. We burn what could be, we destroy the possibility of growing closer to that person, at the same time that we lose an opportunity to make someone feel or even actually be better.

Truth is, what we say does influence what people feel. I wish I were able to say that what others think doesn't affect me, but the sad reality is that is does. So why can't we make someone feel better by being completely honest? Why do we only say the bad? Is this some sort of need need to see others diminished? Does that makes us bigger?

So the new purpose is to quit being only half-honest admitting only the wrong I find and try to be completely honest, saying out loud what I actually like... which (already) being honest, always is more than the bad.

Wow, you made it to the end of this long blog post written by a non-native english speaker... you must be a great reader. 

Let's level up those confidence/happiness lines around :)

I said it my Wei

Back to the Sunday Evening Documentary.

Yesterday, when I came home from the documentary screening I tweeted about how every time I come back from these events I feel like writing an essay. Boring? Maybe. Still, when a dear friend replied with a short "Blooooog!", I realized that the swirl of thoughts deserve to find some peace and order outside of my head, so here I am. Also, great part of the motivation came from the documentary itself.

Now to the point:

Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry.

¿What's it about?

This short documentary is about the story of a man that in a country where there is no freedom of expression, China, has raised his voice through art and social media in a way that is so efficient, that even if he can be silenced, the echo of what he has done keeps on growing louder.

This film can be taken from a lot of points of view, the artist within the movie, the art as a form of expression, the political system in China, the motives of this man, I'm sure that even a social media strategist would find it VERY interesting... and related to this is what I'll talk about: the way in he uses social media to call action.

¿Why do I say that this particular point has caught my attention? Well, nowadays we all complain about how the media controls our lives... but the media now more than ever is controlled by the people. We can chose what to watch from millions and millions of options... but not only that, most importantly, we can chose what to create.

For me this is the most important thing that Ai Wei Wei teaches us. The power of action is in our hands. Yes, it's a scary road, it's true. But it's "doable".  The time when you had to keep your thoughts to ourselves is long gone. If you can tweet, or post an instagram picture of the not transcendental lunch you had... why not do the same with the transcendental ideas you may have? We might not all have the genius that this man has to communicate his ideas so effectively; or the charisma to bring such a crowds together, but come on people, I know we are better than just a bunch of dirty jokes and pictures about food.

Ok, Ai Wei Wei managed to get exhibitions in the Tate and many other important museums... but do we really have to make it at that scale to have something good to say?

I think not, and you?

Sunday Evening Documentary

Art is one of the finest ways to put an idea into the table... an idea, a concept, a story.

And what's better if we can share our personal insights after being exposed to a nice piece of art? 

The answer is simple... pretty much nothing. 

The good news is that since I found out about Budapest's Sunday Evening Documentary I can get my fix of social discussion every single week a perfect international environment. 

¿So what is this Sunday Evening Documentary? 

Pretty simple. People gather in a pub (Iskola), a documentary is played, a discussion is hold afterwards. Sometimes just by mere audience, sometimes someone related to the topic or someone related to the production is invited to spice things up. 

A couple of guys have been holding this film club for the past 7 years. I was told that before, the queue attending each event was formed with about only ten Hungarians. Well, now the crowd that gathers is conformed I could say, at least 40 people every week. 

What makes this documentary evenings so special is the discussion held afterwards. I honestly don't know why, but at least half of the attendants leave right after the film is finished... they don't even wait for the credits to end! (which I can't understand... there is for example, a Swedish guy who calls himself an actor... doesn't he understand that respect is shown towards the filmmakers by watching the credits?). But well, once all this people have left, the remaining of us gather around in the cozy pub and prepare ourselves for the discussion. Seriously... it can't get richer than this; every time you have at least 5 countries represented, and each opinion is of course influenced not only by personal views, but also by the different backgrounds. People, from all ranges of age (I've met a kid in high school... as well as a 70 years old there), people from all over the world, people from all different educational and occupational background, all there to discuss the same topic. Once or twice I have felt an urge to hit someone in the face... but overall I feel my understanding increases and I will never cease to learn from this people. 

I am still a student... but I have been away from the classroom for too long. At university I had classes such as sociology, semiotics, and ethics among others, those that trigger discussion about society, about the ways that we work, about how we relate, etc. Well, since I came as an intern 9 months ago, my life was pretty much lacking all this kind of conversations. I was not watching as much movies as I should, I was not thinking about topics that made part of my daily conversation at home, well thanks to this awesome guys all this has changed. 

This is an awesome initiative. It brings awareness to all kind of topics. It's really hard that by myself I decide to watch a documentary... I would never pick one over a fiction film to be honest. But in this way, I find is so enjoyable that I am loving and appreciating more this genre every week. The art that is held within it, as well as the power that it has to inform and to set a thirst of action in those who are watching. 

So if you happen to be in Budapest on a Sunday night, wanting a little escape from the regular party and in the mood for meeting interesting people and watching a little of one of the best forms of art... three words: Sunday Evening Documentary. 

About

Hello,

I hope mere curiosity brought you here. If so, you'll be ok with my following warning: in this blog I will write about my personal (I repeat: personal) views on different topics related to communications, art, society, maybe a little bit of marketing, cinema... traveling, plus those other that accumulate.

No data is important to understand me, I believe, but just in case I will provide some background to make us getting along easier:

- My name is Michelle.
- I am mexican.
- I was born in 1992.
- I am working to get a degree in communications and digital media.
- I've been working as a graphic designer for Quince for the past 9 months in Budapest.
- Within this months I have met A LOT of people from all over the world and have traveled to several countries, forcing me to open up a little my little box I call a mind.

That said, let's move on to the interesting stuff!