Speak an Arabic language on UN Arabic Language Day

“The first section's dead. There's no one left. We lost contact with the second. The third is reorganizing. All that's left is the fourth. It's enough to start over with.”

It's the U.S. National Guard Birthday (USA) and the National Guard shows up.

 

A European camera crew follows a diverse group of American minor dissidents – pacifists, feminists, communists – who are given the choice to spend decades in federal prison, or three days in Bear Mountain Punishment Park, chased by National Guardsmen and law enforcement officers. If they manage to capture the American flag, they're free to go.

“America is as psychotic as it is powerful and violence is the only goddamn thing that will command your attention.”

– Defendant Lee Robert Brown

While the washed-out 16mm footage and references to #Nixon may tell you otherwise, Punishment Park remains a gut-punching portrait of a timeless America.

Someone shaves on Safety Razor Day (USA)

 

Accompanied by the sweet tunes of Bunny Berigan and Ira Gershwin's I Can't Get Started, a young man shaves his face. The Big Shave is a short commissioned film which contains many of the hallmarks of Martin Scorsese's later, more accessible work.

“I've been consulted by Franklin D., Gretta Garbo has had me to tea, Still I'm broken hearted, Cause I can't get it started, With you”

–Ira Gershwin, I Can't Get Started (1936)

There's also the obvious influence of #KennethAnger to be found, in nostalgic show tunes, the fetishisation of chrome and clean lines, followed by lustful, by ways erotic, violence. #Scorsese theme here is not homoeroticism, not on the surface at least, but the carnage laid upon so many young men sent off to the smouldering battlefields of #Vietnam. There'd be another six years of that. And meanwhile, some young men came back. And some picked up a job, driving a cab.

War crimes on the Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare

 

Operation Linebacker II, sometimes euphemistically referred to as the #Christmas bombings, was the outcome of a 1972 agreement between US war criminal and future Nobel Prize winner Henry #Kissinger and Vietnamese general Lê Đức Thọ. During an 11 day period, a staggering 20000 tons of shells were dropped on the cities of Hà Nội [#Hanoi] and Hải Phòng [#Haiphong], killing at least 1624 civilians.

“Peace is at hand.”

– Kissinger in 1972, commenting on Operation Linebacker II

Film as you may know it approaches the #Vietnam war from one of two perspectives. There is your heroic propaganda, reducing the Vietnamese to cruel vermin to be rooted out by brave Americans. That list is endless and I'm tired. Then on the other hand there's levity, song and dance and a swish of sentiment with Hair and the unforgivable Good Morning, Vietnam; the, see it wasn't too bad we brought “them” rock 'n' roll and bubblegum-approach. And only once upon a time there was The Deer Hunter. However none of these see the Vietnamese, regardless of North or South, as people. A backdrop perhaps, as exotic as foliage.

 

Showing what happened on the ground, other than the faith of Phan Thị Kim Phúc or Nguyễn Văn Lém, something beyond the fetishisation of helpless victimhood, is essential to put a face on things. And a voice in people's mouths.

 

Today, I use my voice to proclaim my wordless joy for the end of an era. And will spare it for the harrowing future to come.

“Thus, I do not see what use there is in those mills of the gods said to grind so late as to render punishment hard to be recognized, and to make wickedness fearless”

– Plutarch, Moralia (1 A.D.)

One day, in a quiet village, a traveling movie theatre appears. The proprietor has no words for the miracle he brings in on the reels. When it's finally time, and the whole town is crammed into the crumbling impromptu playhouse, and the lights are dimmed, a word of warning. This is the story of Dr. #Frankenstein, it starts.

“Just close your eyes and call him… It's me, Ana… It's me Ana…”

– Teresa

The old folk in the audience remember their first brush with cinema, and life, and death. For sisters Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Tellería) it may be their first, and it may as well be real. The creature, Isabel assures her younger sister, is not dead. He's a spirit and you can call for him.

 

When you're little, everything is a miracle. Milagros is the name the maid answers too. And so does the landscape, the mushrooms, the heart, and the magic of cinema.

It's August 30, #Frankenstein​day.

“If you're not sure a mushroom's good, don't pick it. Because if it's bad, and you eat it, it's your last mushroom and your last everything too.”

Norman McLaren's low-budget pixelation (animation created with live action footage) was groundbreaking in many aspects; even the soundtrack was painted directly onto the film stock.

“Love your neighbour”

– title card

Read more about its fascinating backstory and watch the short animation over at the National Film Board of Canada's website.