Someone prepares something for the founding of the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910.

“His specs — use them as burning glasses!”

William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954)

The boys collectively gather firewood to light a beacon, then come up with the idea to light the fire with the help of one of the kid's glasses.

Books, or art, in commemoration of Savonarola's 1497 Florentine falò delle vanità (bonfire of the vanities).

“I used to spend afternoons reading in bed. Tommaso would call and find me there. He could have kissed me. I wouldn't have resisted, out of boredom. But he was satisfied to watch me as I read. All those purposeless books.”

– Lidia

A lavish #CocktailParty in celebration of the launch of a novel is bookended by tragedy, in the loss of a befriended writer and the unraveling of another writer and his wife's marriage.

A wedding on the day of Dorothea of Caesarea, patron saint of horticulture, brewers, brides, florists, gardeners, midwives, newlyweds, and love.

A film about New York to commemorate the incorporation of New Amsterdam. The official Bales' rule states the year 1624, but that is the year of settlement, and even that is one year off. To cut a long story short, New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.

“My name is Elia Kazan. I am a Greek by blood, a Turk by birth and an American because my uncle made a journey.”

– Elia Kazan, voice-over

America America tells the story of director Kazan's grandfather through the life of the Greek Stavros Topouzoglou (Stathis Giallelis), who was adamant to start anew, in New York.

A film about filmmaking, or Hollywood, to celebrate the opening of Edison's Black Maria in 1893.

“You and I are going to be filming the actors. The two of us, see, are going to be filming the actors – continuously – and you will be filming me and the actors. I'm going to be filming the actors and Terry is going to be in charge of filming the whole thing. You see?”

– William Greaves – Director

During a screentest for a documentary in a documentary in a film, director William Greaves attempts to cast the leads for his upcoming piece Over the Cliff, while a documentary crew records their progress.

Snakes (巳) in celebration of Lunar New Year.

 

Ormen is an adaptation of the first two chapters of the novel Berättelsen om Iréne (Stig Dagerman, 1945).

 

In an army barrack, a sergeant is bitten by a snake. A soldier hides the animal in his bag in order to blackmail his superior. Iréne – who works in the same barrack's mess and is the soldier's lover – pushes her mother off a train during a quarrel about the daughter's lack of morals.

 

Dagerman's novel is a metaphor of Sweden's uncomfortable position in a post-WW2 world (it had declared itself neutral, which by default made it complicit in helping the Nazis). Due to its violence and nudity, outside its homecountry the film adaptation mostly played porn theatres.

Turn on your television on the day* in 1926 John Logie Baird demonstrated the first working TV.

 

An unknown foreign agent manipulates Brazil's radio en television antennas to emit subliminal messages to the oblivious population. Slowly, society descends into violent chaos.

 

O 5º Poder precedes Ray Nelson's story Eight O'Clock in the Morning by one, and John Carpenter's adaptation They Live by 26 years. But what's much more fascinating is this film's place in Brazilian history: right between Professor Baskarán's – hypnotist Carlos Pedregal – televised mass hypnosis experiments from 1958, and the violent coup of 1964.

 

In how far was the population primed for this revolt? And how much, are you?

 

* In reality this was on January 26, 1926.

Poverty (National Poverty in America Awareness Month).

 

Macario, poor and hungry, wishes to eat a whole turkey all by himself on Día de los Muertos. When he finally has the opportunity, he is interrupted three times: by the Devil, by God, and by Death. With one of them, he shares his meal.

Roses for the end of the Wars of the Roses (note: January 18 is when Henry VII married Elizabeth of York in 1486; the wars would continue until June 16 the following year).

“All my life, hold me close to your heart But all else above Hold my love, darling, just hold my love”

– Ella Fitzgerald, All My Life (Sidney D. Mitchell & Sammy Stept), 1936

In one continuous shot, the camera tracks a fence and rose bushes while Ella Fitzgerald's 1936 debut song All My Life is playing.