Blue Velvet: the dark underside of America's collective fantasies
"Blue Velvet begins with the lily-white small town of America's collective fantasies and shows us its dark underside: drugs, violence, sex, and particularly sexual perversion. Our hero, Jeffrey, hiding in the dark, peers through the slats of Dorothy Vallens' closet at Dorothy getting undressed and Frank's strange sadomasochistic sex with her. Jeffrey stands for all of us American filmgoers peering (voyeuristically!) at Evil in traditional American films. Lynch clues us as to how we should read his film when he shows us a cluster of ants under the Beaumonts' pretty lawn. This is Tennyson's nature red in tooth and claw-the underside of cutesy Lumberton with its free enterprise propensity for cutting down trees."
(Norman N. Holland)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Babakiueria: the colonialisation of European Australians by Indigenous Australians
"Presenter Duranga Manika (Michelle Torres) describes her fascination with white people and their customs and explains how she spent six months living with a 'typical white family' (Tony Barry, Cecily Polson, Kelan Angel, Margeurita Haynes). She also asks members of the general public for their opinions on white people and speaks to the Minister for White Affairs (Bob Maza).
[Geoffrey] Atherden's script takes stereotypes of Australian culture and, with tongue-in-cheek humour, views them as though for the first time, as mysterious, alien and strange. Here, the barbecue is singled out. Elsewhere Manika describes the football match as ritualised violence and betting at the TAB as a religion, while a police commissioner calls the Anzac Day March a ritual where white people 'honour their warrior ancestors' but wonders why it can't be done at home.
Presenter Duranga Manika's ethnographic study of white people simplifies, patronises and mystifies her subjects. Every mundane detail of this one family's everyday life is invested with serious cultural significance. Bob Maza's Minister for White Affairs compresses a history of government treatment of Indigenous Australians into one self-satisfied, authoritative figure. It is interesting that while these characters treat 'white' culture with such fascination, they treat 'black' culture as such a given that the audience does not find out much about it."
(Kate Matthews, Australian Screen)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Guardian rehires 'Skinhead' agency
"BMP [Boase Massimi Pollitt] was the Guardian's advertising agency in the mid-80s, when it created one of the most famous British adverts of all time for the newspaper.
The 1986 commercial featured a skinhead who appeared to be wrestling a man's briefcase from his hands. But the camera then cuts and viewers see that he is in fact trying to rescue the man from falling bricks.
'We had some inspirational pitches over the last few weeks but BMP's work really stood out,' said Marc Sands, Guardian Newspapers marketing director.
'Their intuitive understanding of our brands and the demands placed upon them was impressive. We look forward to some fantastic work springing from a genuine partnership.'
BMP will create advertising for the Guardian Unlimited websites as well as for the Guardian newspaper."
(Claire Cozens, 21 December 2000)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl
"On April 26th, 1986, reactor four at Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, sending an enormous radioactive cloud over Northern Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus. The danger is kept a secret from the rest of the world and the nearby population who go about their business as usual. May Day celebrations begin, children play and the residents of Pripyat marvel at the spectacular fire raging at the reactor. After three days, an area the size of England becomes contaminated with radioactive dust, creating a 'zone' of poisoned land.
Produced by Seventh Art Productions and based on Mario Petrucci's award-winning book-length poem, Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl tells the story of the people who dealt with the disaster at ground-level: the fire-fighters, the soldiers, the 'liquidators', and their families."
(Seventh Art Productions)
'Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl' (2007). Directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky, Poetry by Mario Petrucci, 52 minutes
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Andy Warhol: The thing that I like most about doing this kind of art on the Amiga is that it looks like my work
"'Long term Amiga users will remember the unveiling of the Commodore A1000 on July 23rd 1985 at the New York Lincoln Centre. As part of the demonstration of the Amigas ability Commodore invited Andy Warhol to create a portrait of Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie using Island Graphics Graphicraft. This was accompanied by a full score synthesised by Roger Powell and Mike Boom, author of Musicraft."
(Gareth Knight)
Fig.1,2 Amiga world premiere launch of Amiga 1000, July 23rd 1985 (including Andy Warhol painting Debbie Harry on an Amiga)
Fig.3-8,9 Guy Wright and Glenn Suokko, photography by Edward Judice. 'Andy Warhol: An Artist and His Amiga'. AmigaWorld Magazine, January/February 1986: p.16-21.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
