A character who is happy on the National Day of Joy (USA)

“Grünes Licht für ehrgeizige, strebsame und arbeitswillige junge Menschen.”

Georg Hauser's life is a drag. He gets up to drive his car to the same office to do the same thing surrounded by the same people everyday, just to make money to do the same thing all over again. Then, his glasses break and the new pair makes him see things a bit differently.

A character who is swimming on Swim a Lap Day (USA)

 

A group of friends go swimming to celebrate the start of summer vacation, and relish those final moments before adult responsibly begins. It is only much later when they realise that one of them is missing.

A character wearing pink on National Pink Day (USA), not to be confused with the much more poignant International Day of Pink

“Paris, Paris, Paris C'est sur la Terre un coin de paradis Paris, Paris, Paris, De mes amours c′est lui le favori Mais oui, mais oui, pardi Ce que j'en dis on vous l′a déjà dit Et c'est Paris, qui fait la parisienne Qu′importe, qu'elle vienne du nord ou bien du midi Et c'est aussi le charme et l′élégance Et l′âme de la France Tout cela, mais c'est Paris”

Joséphine Baker, Paris, Paris (Georges Zacharie Tabet)

Cowherd Mory and student Anta journey from Dakar to their new destination, the city of Paris.

A [favourite] movie kiss for National Kissing Day (USA*), not to be confused with International Kissing Day aka World Kiss Day which falls on July 6.

“I don’t have the inhibitions that a practicing Catholic would in that I’m not paralysed by the sacredness of the text, nor do I have the inhibitions of a lapsed Catholic who would view approaching the story of Jesus as compromising his Marxist beliefs, of sinking back into conformity.”

– PPP, via

An neorealist, straightforward adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew, populated by non-actors (“Jesus” is a 19-year Catalan trade unionist picked for his resemblance to El Greco's Christ), intellectuals, and anachronistic characters based on biblical art through the ages.

 

According to said Gospel, apostle Judas kissed prophet Jesus to signal to the police who of the 13 men present was the one to arrest.

 

Interestingly, the word Matthew chose to describe the kiss is καταφιλέω, the same word used by philosopher Plutarch to describe the kiss between Alexander the Great and his eunuch Bagoas

 

* no one wants to kiss you anymore, America

Someone surfing or skateboarding for either International Surfing Day or Go Skateboarding Day

 

José Mojica Marins' protégé Ivan Cardoso dabbled in short form horror movies. This one features a young hippie vampire who, after being defeated in beachy black-and-white Prague, hikes a ride to Super 8 Brazil. Can't help but notice a bit of (Charlie) Mansonsploitation going on, but that may be just me.

A character who is always on the GO [sic] for World Productivity Day

“I am the great traitor. There must be no other. Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble. But whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches. But whoever deserts…””

– Don Lope de Aguirre

Conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre drives his men deep into the Peruvian jungle, to El Dorado

A scene with a cat for Garfield the Cat Day (USA)

 

A mother and daughter who are raped and murdered by a rogue samurai, return as cat-shaped onryō, vengeful spirits.

A character in panic mode on International Panic Day

“Have you seen Mr Tavernier tonight?”

Julien Tavernier has a plan about how to run off with his boss' wife. There's just this one snag. No time to panic, c'est cool c'est cool.

A [favourite] child character for Youth Day (ZA)

“Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again.”

– narrator, after A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad

A group of children plays. It's sunny and lovely in the Forest of Dean, a day to remember for as long as one lives. The war, the second one, is one of the adults' plays and far away from the children's much simpler life. It seeps through, though. You may run around, imagining being a fighter bomber, putt-putt-putting while you do so. And your uncle, your uncle!, is a parachutist! And maybe your dad is missing and your mum is doing something that involves bed sheets, and the other kids are mean about that. That too. That too is the cruelty of blue remembered hills.

A musician in a film role for O'Shea Jackson Sr. aka Ice Cube's birthday (1969).

“Janitor of lunacy Paralyze my infancy Petrify the empty cradle Bring hope to them and me

Janitor of tyranny Testify my vanity Mortalize my memory Deceive the devil's deed”

– Nico, Janitor of Lunacy (Desertshore, 1970)

Accompanied and inspired by Nico's Desertshore, the musician tracks the barren landscapes of Iceland, Egypt's Sinai, and Death Valley with her son Christian (Ari) in tow.