ARTHOUSE FILM NEWS - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene at Facets, Chicago 11/29/23

At Hammer to Nail . - Sujewa

What? US schools beat their students as a part of their disciplining process? Are we all of a sudden in like the 1830's? Did the country go through a time machine without me noticing it? Read the messed up news at Human Rights Watch . From the HRW article: "The report found that in the 13 southern states where corporal punishment is most prevalent, African-American students are punished at 1.4 times the rate that would be expected given their numbers in the student population, and African-American girls are 2.1 times more likely to be paddled than might be expected. There is no evidence that these students commit disciplinary infractions at disproportionate rates." And: "The report documents several cases in which children were beaten to the point of serious injury. Since educators who beat children have immunity under law from assault proceedings, parents who try to pursue justice for injured children encounter resistance from police, district attorneys, and

Or rather The Reeler Stu VanAirsdale trying to work on a recent weekday morning in Manhattan while I am taking photos of him & asking him questions for the blogger doc . Thanks for the patience Stu. - Sujewa

That's Indie Film Blogger Road Trip doc subject Anthony Kaufman hanging out at his balcony; with Manhattan in the background & Brooklyn below. - Sujewa

Interesting interview with author Richard Rodriguez at Scott London's site . From the interview: " London: Do you consider yourself more Mexican or more American? Rodriguez: In some ways I consider myself more Chinese, because I live in San Francisco, which is becoming a predominantly Asian city. I avoid falling into the black-and-white dialectic in which most of America still seems trapped. I have always recognized that, as an American, I am in relationship with other parts of the world; that I have to measure myself against the Pacific, against Asia. Having to think of myself in relationship to that horizon has liberated me from the black-and-white checkerboard. London: Do you think of yourself as an Indian? Rodriguez: Yes, although it was something I did not know about as a child. I had an Indian face, but I never saw it as Indian, in part because in America the Indian was dead. The Indian had been killed in cowboy movies, or was playing bingo in Oklahoma. Also, in my

What is the immobile video camera trying to tell me? Horrible cover, but funny video overall. Andy Warhol might have enjoyed this.

From Racialicious (thanks Stuff White People Do for the link): "I grew up trying to spot the otherness in whites—such as Janet on “Three’s Company” or the star of “Wonder Woman,” who, it turns out, is half-Mexican—because I was hungry to see myself represented in a medium in which my kind was mostly invisible. But that’s not the only reason I make such connections. On a subconscious level, I believe that I respond to white society’s rejection of blackness by projecting blackness onto whites. The rationale is that, if whites are part-black themselves, their racism doesn’t just amount to hatred of people of color but to a sort of self-hatred. In this way, it is easy to see how racism isn’t just damaging to its so-called targets but to society collectively." Read the rest here , interesting stuff. - Sujewa