Interview: Irena Salina of ‘FLOW’

Posted on September 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Director Irena Salina talked to me about her new documentary, “FLOW: For Love of Water,” about the problems of contamination and scarcity in water systems throughout the world.
What kind of water do you drink?
Tap water! We need to get back to fall in love with tap water. If you’re concerned about chemicals, until we put state of the art filtration in place, look at the “get the tap back” information at Food and Water Watch.
What led you to this project?
My first film was “Ghost Bird: The Life and Art of Judith Deim.” She was a painter who lived in a remote village in Mexico and had known John Steinbeck when he was young and lived with gypsies in Spain. She was an inspiration to her daughters and granddaughters. I had been collecting articles about this issue. I heard Robert Kennedy, Jr. speak with Riverkeepers about fighting companies dumping chemicals in the Hudson. I responded to this like a mother, the idea of those chemicals coming into our bodies.
Then I saw an article in The Nation: “Who Owns Water?” by Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow. They asked, “Is water going to be the oil of the 21st century — could it become a monopoly?” Within the article was a small story about New Orleans, the biggest privatization project in the US and I decided to cover it. US Filter and United Water, Mayor Nagan, ACORN, a labor guy — every civil society representative was there. I brought a good friend with a camera. I covered the whole story interviewed everyone — it will be on the DVD extras. I contacted Steven Starr in LA and said, “I want to make a documentary about water.” He immediately believed in it. Then off I was going to Japan and the World Water Council, meeting all the players and the people, doing the sound, camera, everything. Next, Steven was giving me his mileage to go to Bolivia. Five years, on and off, and now it is here.
How do you convey the seriousness of the issue without leaving people in despair?
What was really, really important was to have some characters who really moved me. I thought, “Wow, this man has such an effect on me, what he is doing for the poorest of the poor, maybe there’s a chance he will go through the guts of people.” Scientists talking, I was yawning! If “An Inconvenient Truth” didn’t have Al Gore but some professor, it would not have worked. I tried to find people to be inspired by. Not just boring talking heads, yes this is a serious subject, there are young activists who scream but what I loved about Maude Barlow was she could be your aunt, a middle class grandmother could relate to her. She was very passionate about what she does. We had tears in our eyes listening to Ashok Gadgil.
What resources are you making available to people who want to know/do more?
We are working on our website. We will have maps of the US. And people can also go to Food and Water Watch for more information.
What do you most want people to get from this film?
I love what Peter Gleick from the Pacific Institute says about how the World Bank knows how to spend $100 million but it does not know how to spend $1000 a million times. For me, that is the essence of the problem. That could not describe better what I’ve seen around the world.
What is the best advice you ever got?
Plant the seed little by little, one step at a time, with simplicity but at the same time reaching slowly from one place to another.
What inspires you?
Anything that gets me, deep, on a heart level, on a gut level, whether it’s a little woman who inspired me in Mexico, the story of water, equality, people, justice. My grandfather was in the resistance from Nice. He has an avenue under his name. He was always for the people. He view was: You had to be there, to do it, you did not even ask.
My next project is something that sort of grew on me over the last two years, planted its roots and not letting me cut it, the story of the farmers in India who are in desperate circumstances due to pesticides. I will treat it as a fiction film but explore as a documentary. I don’t know if I was Indian in a past life but there is a connection with the earth. It is not an expose but a love story. It is not “we hate Monsanto” but the story of a grandmother conserving the seeds for the next year and the next generation.

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Documentary Interview

Rolling Stone on the State of Comedy

Posted on September 16, 2008 at 8:00 am

The cover of the comedy issue of Rolling Stone has David Letterman, Tina Fey, and Chris Rock and the stories inside include raucous recollections of “notes,” the edits and suggestions from studio and network executives. My favorite is Mel Brooks’ description of carefully writing down all the things that had to be taken out of “Blazing Saddles” and then, after the meeting was over, crumpling it up and throwing it away. Top comedians and comedy writers share their favorite funny movies, their biggest breakthroughs, and their biggest flops. Letterman’s interview has some thoughtful and touching comments on Warren Zevon’s last appearance on the show and his relationships with everyone from Madonna to Johnny Carson and the girls from “The Hills.” rolling stonejpg
Be sure to check out the online extras, including video clips from five comics to watch and nine comedy all-stars have a blast at the photo shoot.

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Comedy Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Look Who’s Playing Video Games

Posted on September 15, 2008 at 3:00 pm

NintendoWii.preview.jpgThe Washington Post has a great photo of my friend Ally Burguieres playing video games with her mother and sister. The article says:
Women and girls make up 40 percent of the gamer population, according to the Entertainment Software Association, the video game industry’s trade group. And with game software sales at $9.5 billion last year, companies are paying closer attention to the titles women seek out…
For years, the video game industry spent its marketing dollars on trying to get guys excited about the latest sports or shoot-’em-up title. It was generally assumed that women and girls weren’t interested.
But that started to change in 2004, says industry analyst Michael Pachter, when Nintendo launched its DS portable game system, named for its dual screens. Its features stretched the notion of what a video game is — and who might want to play.Rock_band_cover.jpg
Women gamers even have their own website. And this is a delightful Amazon list of games for “women with lives.” It wasn’t that long ago that it was assumed that women would not be interested in games. Sheri Graner Ray, who says she got into the game industry in the first place “Because it was the only industry where I could list 15 years of running “Dungeons and Dragons” games on my resume as valid job experience!” She wrote a book about “gender inclusive game design.” Microsoft’s xBox brochure tells its buyers “Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does.” Maybe with the next upgrade they will remember that women like Ally Burguieres, currently studying for her PhD in linguistics, don’t need anyone to explain it to them. Women are not just playing, they are entering tournaments.
Late last year, Nancy Davies, an 84-year-old woman living in a retirement community, defeated a real-life bowling champion in a Wii Sports tournament. She had been playing for only one year.

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Internet, Gaming, Podcasts, and Apps Understanding Media and Pop Culture

What Makes a Cult Movie?

Posted on September 13, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Desson Thomson has a great interview with Scott Simon on NPR about cult movies — what (and who) defines them and what is appealing about them. What do the Coen brothers have in common with “The Wizard of Oz” and “Blade Runner?” Listen to Thomson and find out.

Entertainment Weekly has a list of the all-time top cult classics, though I’d argue that some of them, like “Blade Runner,” “Spinal Tap,” and “Willie Wonka” are now so firmly and widely established they are canonical. The A.V. Club has an edgier list and I like the way they helpfully point out the movies influenced by their choices and give their honest view of how well the films on the list hold up.

I don’t think a movie has to be a horror film or low-budget to be a cult classic. It just has to have a small but passionate audience. The best cult films gradually find a broader fan base — or maybe it just takes a while to find its audience — or for the audience to catch up to it. My favorite cult classics include Office Space and The Big Lebowski, a movie which is now so beloved it has annual gatherings of its fans.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture
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