Steven's Thoughts

Sebastian loves Rock - Care Bears on Fire

Sebastian has always loved music. Starting from being a big Bob Marley fan to just listening to the cars movie soundtrack. But now he has found a band where the members are close to his age.

Care Bears on Fire are three kids from Brooklyn and met in kindergarten. In 4th grade they began playing music together. Now Sophie, Izzy and Lucio are 11 and 12 years old and are becoming local celebrities and inspire kids of all ages. They where first featured in a New York Magazine article and last year the New York Times profiled them as an example of a larger burgeoning Brooklyn "kid-core" scene.

I hope that Care Bears on Fire will continue to make some catchy songs, because I can't take "Life is a Highway" from the cars soundtrack anymore.

Charlie Rose - Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, & Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

                 

An hour on film and friendship with three Mexican filmmakers who's films made my top list for 2006: Alfonso Cuaron, director of "Children of Men", Guillermo del Toro, director of "Pan's Labyrinth", and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of "Babel".

My Top Movies of 2006

1. Volver by Directed by Pedro Almodovar Staring Penelope Cruz

Brillant, one of my favorite Almodovar movies, close, but not as good as to Talk to Her.

2. The last King of Scotland

Directed by: Kevin MacDonald Starring: James McAvoy, Forest Whitaker

3. Casino Royal Directed by: Martin Campbell Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench 

Craig brings "cool" back to the Bond series -- relive the fantasy of your childhood hero

4. Children of Men Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore

Children of men is a technically great movie. Cuaron does not use close ups to capture the truthfulness of the moment. Great use of  "no cut" scenes. Very entertaining.   








5. Pan's Labyrinth Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro Starring: Sergi Lopez, Ariadna Gil

Del Toro is the new master of monsters and imagination.

6. The Road to Guantanamo Directed by: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross

The movie makes you ask who should be held responsible.

7. Babel Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Starring: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt,Gael Garcia Bernal, Mahima Chaudhry, Shilpa Shetty, Koji Yakusho

I love the way Inarritu uses a non linear time line. Each of the three vignettes has a distinct color and feel. He shot in 16 mm in Maroco, 35 mm in Mexico and with an anamorphic lens in Japan. Parents will feel for the characters. The circumstances are a little contrived. But the movie still touches a part of you that stirs up discomfort.      









8. Letters from Iwo Jima Directed by: Clint Eastwood Starring: Ken Watanabe, Shido Nakamura

Good depiction of the horrors of war. More soldiers got a medal of honor in the battle for Iwo Jima then any other battle during the II WW. It was supped to have been one of the hardest, but Eastwood makes it seem to easy for the Americans to conquer this little Island.






9. Borat  Directed by: Larry Charles Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela Anderson


Funny, made me laugh out loud.








10. An Inconvenient Truth Directed by Davis Guggenheim Starring: Al Gore 

Nothing new, but still extremely important.   








A movie I still want to see from 2006 that might make my list

The Departed Directed by: Martin Scorsese Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon

The Lives of Others  Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck  Starring: Martina Gedeck

 

 

KRS ONE and wholetrain

One of my friends from Munich is on tour with KRS ONE.

Florian's film "wholetrain", which I talked about earlier, is being shown in conjunction with the legendary KRS ONE at SOB's MONDAY DECEMBER 11.

For tickets click here

You can also  catch the film December 12 at 6:30 at:

THE IMAGINASIAN
239 East 59th Street
NY, NY 10022
212.371.6682

Der Unbekannte Soldat (The Unknown Soldier-What Did You Do in the War, Dad?)

Two weeks ago, I went to see the US premier of the "Unknown Soldier" at the MOMA. It's an important film by director Michael Verhoeven (best known for the film Das Schreckliche Maedchen/The Nasty Girl) about the role that the German Wehrmacht (army) played in the WWII in regards to the destruction of Jews. In the US it might not be as much of a shock as it was in Germany, because most Americans presume that all Germans were involved in the genocide. However, until recently the German public believed that the Wehrmacht was not involved, but that SS and the Nazi party where the main perpetrators. This movie was made after a shocking exhibit in Germany on the same topic.

Why is this movie so important? Because future generations have to know what really happened and hopefully will learn from these events. Specifically, as a German I can feel the importance of this film.

      

Ghosts of Rwanda and Darfur

I just watched the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda. It was one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. It is a two hour PBS Frontline program that documents the genocide that took place ten years ago. Hutu extremists killed over 800,000 Rwandans during the conflict. The movie provides firsthand accounts of the situation through interviews with officials, relief workers, U.N. peacekeepers, diplomats and survivors.

The sad thing is that the UN Security Council was created to ensure that genocide like this would not happen again.  But it did, and the world stood by and watched. Today 2.5 million people where chased from their homes in Darfur and face starvation, disease, and rape, while others who remain in their homes risk torture, and murder.

Yesterday finnally, the Security Council authorized a UN peacekeeping force to expand from Southern Sudan into Darfur, to replace the African Union peacekeepers who will leave at the end of this month. The resolution asks the government of Sudan to approve the expansion permission that, to date it has not been given. The next problem is going to be to find nations willing to supply troops.

I know there is no easy solution to this, but I also think it our responsibility to stay informed and try to do something.

Here is a clip from CNN where actor George Clooney and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel appared before the Security Council to make a plea for immediate UN intervention in Sudan's Darfur region.

8 bit - the movie

Marcin Ramocki, one of my dearest friends, has released his first feature film. 8-bit is a documentary exploring the history of artists and video games. The film should be interesting to most of my generation because it examines the early days of video games, how contemporary musicians, artists, and programmers are repurposing game hardware, modify existing games, and create original games.

The movie will premier at the Museum of Modern Art October 7, 8:00 p.m. and will show again October 11, 8:30 p.m.   Here is a the trailer: 8-bit 

Wholetrain

I just saw my friend Florian Gaag's new film "Wholetrain" at the Urbanworld Vibe film festival.  I was very impressed with the characters and the cinematography. The people  seem very real with a lot of faults just like all of us. But he also depicted group of graffiti artist very well. It is a fast paced film that does not forget to use dialogue to communicate the essence of the story. The visuals of the drawing and spraying of the trains in a very harsh, urban, European city came across very well. Also very impressive is the soundtrack that Florian produced and wrote featuring original tracks by KRS-One and Freddie Foxxx.    

 A description from the Urbanworld festival:

Florian Gaag’s debut feature takes a look at individual respect and recognition within a very special group. Made on a shoestring in order to capture the graffiti scene as authentically as possible, the film tells the story of a crew of four young graffitists dedicated to creating their own special values, rules and codes. A story about friendship and a passion that transcends all reason, it begins when another crew appears on the scene. Before long, a struggle for honor and style ensues that reaches the limit when David, Elyas and Achim decide to spray a ‘wholetrain’ – an entire city train. Their decision will change the lives of these four forever.

Writer-director Florian Gaag was himself a member of Munich’s graffiti scene for many years. He later took up studies at Tisch School of the Arts in New York, also contributing to the Hip Hop magazine, “Juice”. Gaag persuaded well-known international graffiti artists Won, Cemnoz, Pure, Ciel and Neon to create both the graffiti and graffiti pieces for his film. Filmed in Munich and Warsaw, most of the young cast and crew working either in front of the camera or behind it were doing so for the first time.

James Bond is back

Most boys want to be a doctor, firefighter or policeman when they grow up. I wanted to be James Bond.

There have been a number of bad ones in the recent past. Let's see what the new one will be like. One reason to watch it will be Eva Green.

007 Trailer