UMX | El Machete » Filmmakers http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete Where Manifest Destiny Goes to Die Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:41:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 2006-2007 nlxj@theunapologeticmexican.org (UMX | El Machete) nlxj@theunapologeticmexican.org (UMX | El Machete) http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg UMX | El Machete http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete 144 144 somos la gente UMX | El Machete UMX | El Machete nlxj@theunapologeticmexican.org no no Made in L.A. (Hecho en Los Angeles) http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/04/25/made-in-la-hecho-en-los-angeles/ http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/04/25/made-in-la-hecho-en-los-angeles/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:36:40 +0000 nezua http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/?p=2756 MADE IN L.A. IS AN EMMY-WINNING DOCUMENTARY about three Latina immigrant mujeres who organize and fight for labor protections in the US. I've reviewed the film and provided information here to help you spread the word about the May Day screenings, if you care to.]]>

I PROMISED YOU a film review yesterday and you can now find it here, at the XOLAGRAFIK Theater.

The still below is an image from that same film, Made in L.A. (Hecho en Los Angeles). I’d love it if you could check out that trailer and review before you read the press release below, which asks for your help in a little organizing that is going on between The Media Consortium and the makers of this film to spread the word about the film for the May Day screenings that are planned.

Full disclosure: I blog for the Media Consortium on Thursdays and I, too, was Made in L.A..

The Media Consortium and  the Emmy-winning documentary Made in L.A. have an exciting new partnership in the form of a very cool new widget with up to the minute news on immigration and grassroots events.

For those that haven’t heard about Made in L.A. , the movie tells the story of three Latina immigrants finding their way in the U.S. It’s a very personal, human story that puts a face on the immigrant experience and draws parallels between today’s immigrants and those whose families came to the U.S. generations ago. We just kicked-off a  grassroots community screening campaign in honor of May Day using the film’s content and web videos as tools to educate and build support for humane immigration reform. You can check-out these efforts here:http://www.madeinla.com/mayday – and Rep Luis Gutierrez’ recommendation of the film here.

To help get the word out, we’re partnering with The Media Consortium’s MediaWires project. Made in LA is co-sponsoring an immigration headline widget, [You can see this in my sidebar to the right --Nezua] which features top immigration-related content produced by Media Consortium members along with information about the May Day screenings. You can see the widget here: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-latest-news-on-immigration-policy-us-immig

The Immigration Wire (immigration.newsladder.net) is a one-stop shop for the best independent reporting about immigration rights and policy reform. We believe that the more people have access to strong, independent reporting, the more we can positively impact the public and political dialogue. This project is highly beneficial to organizations looking to inform, engage and activate their constituencies.

Using the stories posted to Immigration.Newsladder.net, we’ve created a series of new media tools to help get the word out about this critical issue, listed below. Contact Erin Polgreen, erin@themediaconsortium.com to learn how you can become a part of this dynamic project.

  • Widgets: Our simple headline widgets allow you carry up-to-the minute news about immigration on your website. These widgets are very easy to install (only copy/paste the code) and update 24/7. To see the Made in LA widget, visit: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-latest-news-on-immigration-policy-us-immig
  • Blogs: Every Thursday, The Media Consortium publishes a free, open source blog reviewing the week’s top news about immigration. It’s a great way to help inform and engage your audience! These blogs are free for anyone to repost on their own sites–we’ll even email them to you fully coded, so that all you have to do is copy/paste. Click here for samples: http://www.themediaconsortium.org/author/nezua/
  • Twitter: Follow ImmigrationLadr on Twitter to get the latest headlines as they are submitted to the Immigration Wire.

If you are interested in hosting an immigration widget on your site, I’ve included the HTML coding below.

JAVASCRIPT:

FLASH:

May Day is the perfect time to provide your audience with more information about immigration reform and to think about sharing . All you have to do is copy/paste the below HTML wherever you’d like to place the widget on your site. This widget is a great way to push independent reporting to new audiences–and by hosting it, you are also supporting the work of your fellow Media Consortium members. You can also click here to see the widget and get coding to place it in a blog or on a Facebook page. Please contact Erin Polgreen,erin@themediaconsortium.com, with any tech-related questions.

If you have questions about the film, want to host an event or talk to me or the filmmakers, just let me know.

all best,
Tracy
–
Tracy Fleischman
(323) 424.3010 office
(310) 916.7977 cell
tfleisch@gmail.com

]]> http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/04/25/made-in-la-hecho-en-los-angeles/feed/ 0 Some Bruises Fade (Still Flowers Bloom) http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/01/26/some-bruises-fade-still-flowers-bloom/ http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/01/26/some-bruises-fade-still-flowers-bloom/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:49:10 +0000 nezua http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/?p=1782

day-3

SOMETIMES I SUFFER A SURREAL MOMENT of displacement or overlap and it’s as if the word TERRORISM which was used to bash our spiritual skulls in over almost the last decade has been replaced with OBAMA which is a shining, untouchable, golden grain of goodness that melts away all doubt or negativity! Oh, I’m not really complaining, dont throw things! Just marveling. I’ve been watching this thing unroll, glued to it, emotionally yanked ALL over about it, filmed it for MTV (ST08 represent, and such), written about it. So many times.

It’s really all just very amazing. In a few ways. As if Bush/Cheney didn’t just smack the hell out of us and eviscerate our sense of trust in government and like a suddenbadbeatdown without warning, reason or consequent justice, life goes on in a battered home and you just keep smiling. Man. My head is spinnin’. I laughed the other night with Sylvia as we talked on the fone and I hatched a skit that I’m going to shoot about the rollercoaster that has been this Obama experience for me (I didn’t know it was a skit until she told me, I was just adlibbing, being a nut). Whiplash to whiplash. That BushCheneyRummyCondi crew stacked up so many crimes, lies, and dirty moves that you didn’t even have time to finish being outraged before they were assaulting your sense of morality, decency, or humanity again it was all a blur of bile. I think somewhere after 9/11 and then getting jailed over FOR ONCE embodying and acting on my feelings about what the F was happening to my country and the world by the hands of my country, that protest march in 04 nYC RNC 1800 watching the cops stomp on the horns and instruments of the band i was marching behind, sick destructive joy and empty eyes behind the baton, shoving us into corners, that girl who was barely midteens freakin, jailed and screamin at three am into our cells, pure derision as they told us WE were the ones effing up society, that WE were the ones and this was my damn city but looked nothing like my country yeah i think it was shortly after that event that I sort of sailed far out into Bush Derangement Land, which of course, is a sacred and holy place. To be there means you have integrity in your heart and that you remain sane with some kind of compass that connects you to the magnetic clasp of humanity. But let me go on because then, as if it wasn’t enough to absolutely pillage and shred our sense of Right and trust and feelings of safety and awareness of truth these pendejo shmucks †» and their TV puppets and blogging bastard minions have the  nerve to insult us when we “froth at the mouth” over it. HOLEEE. Let me just tell you, classyboys. Keep your insane asses far out of my reach, out of my neighborhood, out of my yard. All of ya. Uppercrust thieves and killers like Bush and garden variety right wing self-loathers spewin fakery. Good lord after the last decade I’m ready to sink my hands into someone. They are, you realize, absolutely fucking mad and that’s why when they get control of the reins of power, they make the rest of the world just as crazy. 

ahellofhisownmakinglg

But my point was Obama’s got his hands full with them right now. The GOP and the NeoConduits, Billo, Rush et al. It’s like on the eve of Obama’s election the positivity was undeniable to even them, and you heard all the flippyflopperfollowingfools on the RIght begin to get weepy on TV and radio about the moment and the man and our new direction. “He should succeed! Hell, he’s a Conservative, really, when you think about it.” (Conservative means nothing deeper than “Cool Guy” to them, in case you haven’t sussed it out yet.) Even Dennis Miller began talking snazzy junk about Obama. But of course all that didn’t last. Now with their comments about him failing and such they are self-defined terrorists or at least treasonous, unless we are completely discarding the last eight years of defined terms and allowable political statements and actions…which…they are, of course. Which is why I call them crazy. They are. And you have to leave it at that. Because once you know that, you know that reasoning with or about their behavior is tantamount to signing on to a Shared Delusion. 

Still, as I wrote numerous times. It’s got to be the real thing. I believe now in Obama in the sense that I always have. He has a combination of personal power, “the right place at the right time”, history, the world’s wanting to hope and escape trauma and feel GOOD about the USA again. He has the potential to change things amazingly so. It is also true that he got set up real nice. The bar is oddly high and yet low, too. It’s high because someone who reaches into your heart seemingly, and gets attached to precious parts of yourself must rise to the occasion in your eyes, and in a way that you approve of. It’s low because is easy to make someone happy when they are crawling out of a bloody, charred ruins. “WHAT? YOU aren’t going to TORTURE me???! You are so Good. So Amazing. So Right.” This dynamic, or seeing it, doesn’t negate the amazing quality of the moment, the way it feels to see my blissed out African American friends, the way I feel seeing them in the White House, nor does it diminish Obama’s intellect and heart.

Right now, we just want to feel the sun on our wrinkling, drowned fingertips. Don’t even talk to me about digging down in the Marianis Trench, kid! I’m there, too. I don’t even want to think about Cheney or draw anymore pictures of him. or of Bush and the Hell he hath unleashed in the Middle East. And I also agree with the thrust of one commenter I got yesterday: now is a fragile time, and as the sicko Rightwingers are so absolutely hypocritical and demented that they want to further the damage they’ve done (will it be foreign agents or the GOP who puts the final hole in the US’s hull? Either way, you know Mexicans will be blamed!)  they are all over the Democrats and Obama and I say, yes, let the man work. Let him put changes into motion. Let’s give things time to even out. 

But it’s a bad bad mistake to confuse our need to heal with a desire to overlook justice. The former will only be made possibly by the latter, that is to say there will be no healing without justice. There’s a reason I used the metaphor of a dysfunctional violent home for what just happened to us on a national level and the possibility of “letting bygones be bygones.” See, that’s sick. I know. This was a big part of my first leg of education, and job(s) for a time. Helping adolescents and families (usually mothers, the fathers never came) see when stuff was sick. It does nobody any good to “not talk about it.” It is part of the sickness to avoid accounting at all costs. It means only one thing. Someone wants to leave the door open for the scary face; a path is being left open to do it again. Just as was done for Bush Jr. by Clinton.

trash_tv_kenburnsIt’s got to be real bro. I can separate the amazing event and achievement and historical quality and beautiful experiences of my friends from my own investment in this administration. I can “compartmentalize” as some say. And yes, unlike Rush and the other crazed actors out there, I want the Democrats to succeed in what they are after. Of course I want Obama to succeed! I voted for him in the primaries as well as the national elections. And I also want him to be weathered and given even more wisdom soon, so that he stops consorting with sicko preachers like the homophobe who gave some kind of “prayer” at Obama’s inauguration. And Obama: You had KEN BURNS speak on race????????? WTF?

Dude, sometimes it’s like I don’t get you at all. Those utterly deadhanded spots freak me un poquito. This and the Rick Warren thing seem…actually hostile to certain groups in a sly way. Just this very weird perverse choice made me want to stop listening to your talks. Oh, but maybe I should believe in the power of asking people to represent causes that they have proven destructive toward or inexperienced and unqualified for. Yet…that sorta echoes a pattern I’ve seen too much of lately, if you know what I mean.

Eh. But yeah. Lt the man work. And let the Democrats get settled. But you don’t get my heart until I see how the first PIB (Men in Black aka Will Smith stylin in a suit joke, sorry bout that but once you’ve seen that pic of Obama in shades, it’s hard to shake…) is going to handle the rapidly caving action of the Mexican state. To see what he does with immigration reform, hate rising against gente. With ICE. To see Obama’s public stance on torture, etc. and bills passed on protecting our privacy. To see if we as US Citizens get our JUST DUE and accounting and prosecutions of the crimes committed in the White House and against the People’s trust. But you’re damn right I expect a lot from him! He IS the President. Not, as McCain tried to insist, a celebrity. Or rather, he is our first President Celebrity. But that’s not really his fault. However, he will have to own things pretty soon. Stuff like Pakistan and Palestinians and Afghanistan and our Imperial nature overall, as well as our very strange and unproductive, backward and basically neglected relationship with Mexico. It is, I’d agree, unfair to expect him to fix or handle everything immediately or without being made aware it is important to us. But it is not unfair to expect he should respond to the needs and wants of We the People over other alliances and allegiances if put on notice of what they are.

Remember: Obama is the one who wants us to believe in government again. I can understand why he’d want that. He’s the President. Without our millions of numbers, though, he’s but a man in a big stone house in a big yard. And many people may have been on the brink of completely giving up on even listening to our government anymore. And I’m certainly not against believing in the whole thing. Because at the core, we are trying to get at some righteous ideals. And if I get beat down, I will get up again. But as far as taking a hand from a corner previously hostile, I need to see what’s in that hand before I put my weight on it. Show us that you are the antithesis of Bush. Right now you are getting that benefit of the doubt. But we need to see you—a man who has studied law—combine your knowledge of that law, your sense of Right, our needs for justice and accounting and restored moral compass, PROSECUTE the Bush Administration for each and every crime. 

Else, the yard may look placid for a while. But ware the feverish bloom of Spring.


Here is a curse-phrase that clearly gives away the two converging lines of my family ancestry! :)
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]]> http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2009/01/26/some-bruises-fade-still-flowers-bloom/feed/ 5 World Out of Balance http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/29/world-out-of-balance/ http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/29/world-out-of-balance/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:50:39 +0000 nezua http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/?p=1416

I FIRST WATCHED KOYAANISQATSI when I was 19, it was the end of the 80s and I was meeting new artist/musician friends. This was before I went to film school, before I studied cinema, and before I was exposed to a bunch of art and culture I’ve been lucky enough to trip upon since then. But just coming to this film with an open mind was enough. It was deep, and I felt it, and it rang out within me for a long time.

From the imdb.com summary [my emphasis]:

This movie was designed to have no plot. Meaning is to be created by the viewer, and only the viewer can give value to the images and music. That said, there is a central idea behind the movie, and according to the director it is this:

The greatest event in the history of mankind has occurred recently, and has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and every day crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: Humanity no longer exists in the natural world, we are no longer connected to it. It is not that we are now users of technology, but rather that we exist within technology, we are part of it and it is part of us. The natural world now exists only to support the artificial one in which we live.

—Adam on imdb.com

 

The way these fims use cinema is poetic, brilliant, and while it may at first test the average U.S. moviegoing mind (or be “slower” than one is used to absorbing and certainly less linear and less narrative than mainstream USA cinema) they really are worth gearing over to appreciate. They are profound—though not for the short attention span—and they tell a truth that commerce and capitalist societies like ours are not really allowed to teach because the message directly attacks commerce and the most voracious of capitalism’s benefactors. (Even the scientists, who are much more literal and authoritative than artists or filmmakers, were hushed from telling some of these truths in the past few years.)

Shot by Ron Fricke, scored by Philip Glass, and directed by Godfrey Reggio, this trilogy is essentially montages of music and imagery. They have no dialogue and so use form, sound, juxtaposition and music quite to tell a story and issue their warning. They are like…impressionist art that you can breathe in and hear making a sound as it wraps around your understanding. I mean that…if you haven’t peeped these yet, watch this clip as if you would take in a piece of abstract art. With patience and love. Wait for it to reveal itself to you, the light shimmering on the planes, the curvature of negative space, the clusters of color and tone, the human emotion given shape not by facial expression so much as the taut mounds of bodies, the slumped figure of a collapsed worker being hauled on someone’s back, the legs and legs and legs angling up, the mud-streaked muscles straining in a pack.

These films will speak to you in sometimes unexpected and deep ways. They just ask a little time and room.

 

This clip is introductory scene to Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation [Hopi: Way of living/life that consumes other life in order to advance its own], the second film in the trilogy that begins with Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance and ends with Naqoyqatsi.

UPDATE: Full film Koyaanisqatsi [gracias, smartypants].

And the trailer to Koyaanisqatsi:

]]> http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/29/world-out-of-balance/feed/ 1 El Buen Canario & the Bloody Cage http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/20/el-buen-canario-and-the-bloody-cage/ http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/20/el-buen-canario-and-the-bloody-cage/#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:59:29 +0000 nezua http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/?p=1347

I JUST WROTE RECENTLY that 2009 was going to be our year, as far as making progress on immigration—education, reform, and of course I dare to hope impact on actual lives and not just the spirits of a blogwriter. Well, the latest sign is one of my favorite actors plugging into the scene and not only recognizing good art, but seeing the truth in it and consequently helping to bring the reality of our broken economic/immigration systems to la gente:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — John Malkovich is so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he plans to make a documentary about it.

The actor and director says the documentary, which will be titled “Triple Crossing,” will seek to humanize the issue of illegal migration.
Malkovich said Wednesday the film will be produced by Canana Films, a production company owned by Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Malkovich, of “Burn After Reading,” is in Mexico directing the play “The Good Canary.”

—John Malkovich to film documentary about migrants

Some haters cannot be reached. But I do think that is the aging fringe. Most people actually aren’t set against kindness and justice. Unfortunately, many can’t see the truth of the situation to even fairly rule on it. Too many here in the USA cannot help but be poisoned by our toxic MSM and its festering monologue. It is a media that cares not for humans most of the time, but instead, for profits and fitting in with the power flow. Like flunkies trailing a bully, the newspundits and anchorfaces ride in the wake of popular corporate opinion and directive. They love to speak of triple concrete fences and beefing up the prison apparatus. They do not like to speak so much about numbers like over 40,000 children. They prefer phrases like “Land of Liberty” and “Freedom on the March.” etc.

More than 40,000 Mexican minors are detained every year by immigration officials while trying to cross the border into the United States. Many of the unsuccessful children are taken to shelters such as the Casa YMCA de Menores Migrantes in Tijuana, where Matilde has worked for years.

“We feed them and offer them a place to sleep, but we also help them to recover their emotional stability and track their relatives,” says Matilde.

On average, 3,000 minors between 11 and 17 years old arrive at Casa YMCA every year. They can stay in the shelter for a maximum of 8 days or until their families are located.

Other teenagers are not so fortunate. In 2003, 11 children died while crossing the border. So far, in 2004, there are already 17 dead minors, according to the Casa YMCA’s coordinator, Uriel Gonzalez.

The most dangerous way to cross to the U.S. is through the desert. A lot of immigrants have died of dehydration or animal attacks. Other risks are assaults, robberies, and sexual assaults.

That’s why many families pay a coyote to cross their children. However, since the 1990s the price to cross with the help of a coyote has skyrocketed because of increased immigration enforcement at the San Diego border.

—Immigrant Children Face Trials and Heartbreak to Cross the Border

Please tell me what laser drones and more aggressive men with guns are going to do for hungry children? 40,000 of them? And that’s in 2004! Because we know that in the first seven months of this year, ICE has deported 90,000 children. And many of them are just dumped.

A new study finds that unaccompanied children are being abandoned on the Mexican side of the border at an alarming pace.

In the last seven months, U.S. authorities have deported at least 90,000 children to Mexico, according to a study by the Mexican Government’s Commission on Population, Border and Immigration Affairs.

At least 13,500 of these children ages 17 and under were deported to Mexican border states but never reconnected with their parents or legal guardians. Many of these children have resorted to begging with the hopes of crossing into the United States again to be reunited with family members, according to the study. Other abandoned children are being cared for by churches and non-governmental organizations.

Many of these children were caught while being smuggled into the United States. U.S. authorities typically funnel the children through an “expedited” deportation process — sending them back to Mexico in a matter of hours.

The study cites another disturbing statistic: for every three adults deported to Mexico, one child is left abandoned in the United States.—Deported Children Abandoned in Mexico

arte by XOLAGRAFIKIf not abandoned or dumped over the border, we shunt them into our growing private prison system and make about ten to fifteen THOUSAND dollars off of each kid. A month.

Humanity? Freedom? Liberty? National Pride? Change? Hope? Honestly? Fuck off with the pipe dream propagandic phraseology until we see some justice.

More like this, Diego. More like this, Irene. More like this, Señor Malkovich. More heart into the matter. More truth to the people. More info to the People. More power to the people. It’s not enough all by itself, but every hand helps, every heart helps, every big boca helps.

We’re getting there. I’m sure it’s not fast enough for those families living in detention centers or broken up and criminalized or for los niños perdidos wandering far from their familias. Nor for me. But we’re getting there.

]]> http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/11/20/el-buen-canario-and-the-bloody-cage/feed/ 2 Happy (2008) Halloween! http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/10/31/happy-2008-halloween/ http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/2008/10/31/happy-2008-halloween/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:10:24 +0000 nezua http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elmachete/?p=1090

PERHAPS LUIS BUNUEL’S MASTERPIECE, Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones) isn’t the typical stuff of Halloween, but for today I’m going back to it for this snippet above as it sets the tone perfectly. Ghosts, blood, surrealism…. Ah, how I do love the surrealists. Somehow, their visions always calm me. Blame it on this crazy culture that tries to hide behind a sane face, too hard, and without success.

On that angle, poverty and hunger (themes that the celebrated Mexican filmmaker based this film on) are very real horrors for many people, even today, even right now this moment. But hey. We’ll come back to that tomorrow. Because I don’t want to take away any of our glee as we stuff our faces with candy galore, by all means! After all, a revolution without candycorn and facepaint is a revolution not worth having! BOO! Happy Halloween!

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