“The China Independent Film Festival has held 14 editions and shown some 1,000 films since it was established in 2003 in Nanjing, the capital of coastal Jiangsu province. Many of the titles it highlighted touched on topics like homosexuality or political history deemed sensitive or inappropriate by the ruling Communist Party. Other films were effectively underground titles as they lacked the government ‘dragon seal’ of censorship approval required for public screening.” A statement by festival organizers said that “it has already become impossible to organize a film festival that truly has a purely independent spirit and is also effective.” – Variety
When Neurodiverse Actors Make A Play Better
“When it comes to acting, neurodiversity — a term embraced by many people with intellectual, social and other disabilities arising in the brain and nervous system — involves more barriers and engages more prejudice than even physical challenges do.” Jesse Green writes about one case where an actor changed his conception of autism (perhaps it’s a sort of dialect) and another where a performer with Tourette’s syndrome seems “an ideal interpreter” of one of Beckett’s most challenging scripts. – The New York Times
Jewels Stolen From Dresden’s Green Vault Are Turning Up On The Dark Web
“The thieves who stole priceless jewels from the Dresden Green Vault treasury at the end of last year are allegedly trying to sell some of the loot on the dark web. Investigators from an Israeli security company claim they made contact with the criminals online, but authorities in Germany say it has received no evidence of the ransom demand.” – artnet
‘Reality Is The Better Writer’: Why Gabriel García Márquez’s Journalism Is Even More Important Than His Fiction
“In fact, while his novels and stories may have won him global renown, journalism was his first calling. Not only was it foundational to his development as a writer, but it also remained integral to his work and public persona throughout his life, from his early days as a cub reporter in Colombia until his death in Mexico in 2014.” – The Nation
How Are We Deciding Which Movies Are Actually Any Good?
There’s always been a divide between what the critical culture celebrates and what audience members actually want to see. “This three-and-a-half-hour Turkish film about the struggle between a boy and his father is a heartrending exploration of generational divides among a swiftly changing world …” “I don’t know, does anything blow up?” But that divide seems to be growing, with almost no living critic able to wield the kind of power figures like Siskel and Ebert used to have to get butts in seats, even so-called difficult films or subtitled films or art films. – The Guardian
Nancy Lewis, Who Brought Monty Python To America, Dead At 76
After having worked as a publicist for some of rock’s all-time greats, she discovered two of the English comedy troupe’s LPs and began encouraging her contacts at FM radio stations to play the records. Then, once Monty Pyton developed an American fan base, she convinced a reluctant PBS to air their television series — and later encouraged them to bring a lawsuit against ABC that set a key precedent in copyright law. – The New York Times
Why Wasn’t ‘Goodnight Moon’ One Of The Ten Most Circulated Books At The New York Public Library? One Reason
“Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown, would have made the Top 10 list and might have topped it, the library notes, but for the fact that ‘influential New York Public Library children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore disliked the story so much when it was published in 1947 that the Library didn’t carry it … until 1972.’ Who was Anne Carroll Moore, and what was her problem with the great Goodnight Moon?” Dan Kois looks into the matter. – Slate
Regal, AMC Theatre Chains Say They Won’t Show Netflix Oscar-Nominated Movies
After Netflix received 24 Oscar nominations on Monday — the most of any studio and the highest level to date for the streaming giant — both chains said that they wouldn’t screen its movies. They’re protesting the streamer’s distribution policies. – Los Angeles Times
Netflix Isn’t Disrupting Diversity (Or Oscar)
Seriously, is this the brave new world of streaming? Where press releases go out daily about the wildly “diverse” television creators drafted by Netflix (and to a lesser extent Amazon) but the Oscar-nominated Netflix films come from Martin Scorsese and Noah Baumbach? – The Los Angeles Times
The Future Of Entertainment: 10-Minute Shows On Your Phone?
Yup. A startup called Quibi has raised $1 billion in investment capital from every major Hollywood studio and most of the major tech companies. It has corralled an A-list tsunami to make programs—Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Anna Kendrick, Zac Efron, Chrissy Teigen, Jennifer Lopez, Antoine Fuqua, Sam Raimi, Catherine Hardwicke, Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Lena Waithe, NBC News, ESPN, BBC. The whole thing launches in April with a year of advertisements already sold. – Wired
The Most Popular (And Powerful) Word In The English Language
‘The’ tops the league tables of most frequently used words in English, accounting for 5% of every 100 words used. “‘The’ really is miles above everything else,” says Jonathan Culpeper, professor of linguistics at Lancaster University. But why is this? – BBC
Reconsidering Cole Porter
Though he was born into genuine if provincial affluence, with second-tier European royalty filling out the family’s dance card on vacation, he chose to become a working stiff. Reversing the usual American ascent from labor to leisure makes for a more strenuous, and more moving, story. The labor produced a new kind of American lyric, and language. – The New Yorker
Could The Walls Of Notre-Dame Cathedral Really Collapse? Yes, It’s Quite Possible
Says the former master builder (i.e., chief preservation officer) of Cologne Cathedral, “The risk of further collapse is quite realistic. The vault is unlikely to collapse as a whole, but more parts could come down. What most people don’t realize is that heat can also damage stone. Intense heat dissolves — simply put — the structure of the stone.” What’s more, the scaffolding that was in use for a restoration project before last April’s catastrophic blaze “was completely welded into place by the intense heat generated by the fire” and the stone walls could be damaged further as that scaffolding is removed. – Deutsche Welle
Director Ousted At Erie Art Museum Following High-Profile Reports Of Sexual Harassment
Just one business day after articles were published detailing accusations that he propositioned subordinates in Erie, Pa. and in his previous post at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and after a petition demanding his ouster attracted hundreds of co-signers over the weekend, 31-year-old Joshua Helmer is “no longer employed at the Erie Art Museum,” according to a brief statement on the museum’s Facebook page. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
News Reports Of Joshua Helmer’s Behavior ‘Barely Scratched The Surface’, Say Philadelphia Museum Of Art Staffers
A statement signed by hundreds of current and former employees says that “the reporting in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer seems to barely scratch the surface of the abuses perpetrated by this man.” Helmer, who left the Philadelphia Museum abruptly in 2018 and was later banned from the building, has been ousted as director of the Erie (Pa.) Art Museum in the wake of those reports. – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Americans Spent $25 Billion On Home Entertainment Last Year
The key point: Home entertainment has evolved into a true multiplatform business. Universal found that consumers are using around three platforms on average, the most common bundle being disc purchase, disc rental and subscription streaming. – Variety
Is Our Theatre Training System Broken?
“If we don’t reinvent drama training to reflect the different needs of students from much more diverse backgrounds – and that includes those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds – it’s like holding the door open so that they can get in the room, then blaming them when they leave quickly because they feel uncomfortable or can’t afford to stay.” – The Stage
Critic Roger Scruton, 75
Scruton, who died after a short battle with cancer, was a controversial figure throughout his career as a right-wing philosopher. Author of The Aesthetics of Architecture and The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism, he delivered lectures and wrote extensively on his contempt for the work of modern architects and his passion for traditional architecture. – Dezeen
Is Fiction Lying?
Is fiction more like the covert violation of the liar, or like the overt violation of the ironical speaker? Unlike the liar, the fiction author doesn’t hide her untruthful intentions: they’re on the book’s cover, or announced by a library classification sticker. However, unlike in the case of irony, the fiction author’s words have their regular meaning. The apparent flouting doesn’t trigger the expected nonliteral reinterpretation of the author’s words in order to restore adherence to the maxims. – Aeon
China’s Movie Box Office Just Set New Records. But Things Are Cooling
Top-line figures obscure “hidden secrets” plaguing the film industry. Chief among these is the fact that the average occupancy rate of theaters across the country has hit a new five-year low, at a time when the movie-going of audiences in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities — previously hailed as the driving force of future box office growth — has stagnated. -Variety
A Story About Zoot And Hawk
Here’s an item purloined (with his permission) from bassist Bill Crow’s column “The Band Room” in Allegro, the publication of New York Local 802 of the American Federation Of Musicians. – Doug Ramsey
These Are The Ten Most-Borrowed Books At The New York Public Library
Perhaps not surprisingly, more than half are books for children or young readers. No. 1 is “The Snowy Day,” Ezra Jack Keats’s picture book that is one of the first to depict an African-American boy, which has been checked out 485,583 times. Next is Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat” (469,650). – The New York Times
This Year’s Oscar Nominees – What The List Looks Like
Despite a plethora of diverse films competing for Oscar love this year, the Academy largely maintained its traditional point of view, handing out the most nominations to four very male, very white films. The best-picture category can have as many as 10 or as few as five nominees, depending on how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spreads its support. This year there were nine. – The New York Times