Film: War Photographer

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." -- Robert Napa

I posted earlier about the movie "Born Into Brothels" here. In response to that, someone recommened the movie "War Photographer." Coincidentally, around the same time I saw the trailer for War Photographer in another DVD and so I got hold of the movie right away. (I have been focusing mainly on documentaries this year, and I expect that I will posting about more documentaries in the coming months.)

The protagonist, photojournalist James Nachtwey is a very intriguing character, and his inner strength comes through. (You can certainly make the case that this is a "zen" movie, in its own way.) For two years, Christian Frei followed Jim with a micro-cam, recording the photographer traveling all over the world, in Kosovo, in Gaza and in Indonesia.

The adjective I can readily apply to this one is "powerful." War Photographer is a powerful movie, and exactly the kind of movie that all of us must see because it is so easy to forget (or not even know) that such things are going on in the world. It brings home more vividly the events that we skim past in newspapers in our hurry to get to the sports and cartoons sections.

Below are three of Nachtwey's photos that resonated with me the most.

As the vanquished Hutus fled into Tanzania, they had to leave at the border the weapons with which they had committed genocide.
(I found this photo more telling than any of maimed bodies)


Sudan, 1993 - Famine victim in a feeding center. Nachtwey's focus on poverty and famine is as compelling as his work on war and genocide. (The famine and lack of food has withered their bodies to mere skeletons and Jim reminds us that these people are actually in the feeding centers being helped.)

A lot of viewers are sure to like the positive aspects in the tragic story of Sumarno, an Indonesian father, who lost an arm and a leg when a train ran over him. His whole family continues to live in between two actively used railways tracks, with Sumarno is doing his best to take care of his family.

Jim's credo really cause me to pause and reflect. Don't miss his website, and if an exhibition of his work comes to your town, absolutely don't miss it.

Nachtwey's Credo: The worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone else's tragedy. This idea haunts me. It is something I have to reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allow genuine compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition I will have sold my soul. (Read Full credo)

Category: Documentary, Oscar nominee, Photography

A Song By Yesudas -- Patchai Kiligal (Tamil)

(This post is meant as a nod to those who enjoy songs from Indian films. If songs in Indian regional languages are not for you, just scroll down to the next post.)

I was on a trans-Atlantic flight this past December, flipping through the audio channels. In a channel titled "Rhythms of World" I was jolted out of the stupor that long flights induce, because the song that had just started was in Tamil, my native language. (This was a US carrier, and we weren't even flying to Asia.) I had never heard the song before, and it was an incredibly melodious one. I pulled open the audio guide and saw that the song was "Patchai Kiligal" (Green parrots) by K J Yesudas. The word "Indian" was in parenthesis. Partly because of stumbling upon it so unexpectedly, I found everything about the song applealing. The melody, the unintrusive music and certainly the lyrics. (Does anyone know where to find the English translation for the lyrics?)

Much later, I learned that the song was actually from a movie -- "Indian" and that AR Rahman was the music director.

If this link works, you can listen to it here, by selecting the song.

Charles Bukowski -- Come on in!

I think good poetry should startle, shatter and,
yes, entertain while getting as close to the truth as
possible.
I can get all the comfort I need from a good
cigar.
from on the sunny banks of the university

Charles Bukowski, taking a jab at those teaching English Lit whose writing is getting ever more "comfortable."


I hope I don't lose any readers by including Bukowski in my "most enjoyed" list. But the truth is that I really like the earthiness in his poems, and I would not be true to myself if I left him out because (quite) a few people are offended by him.

I am no poetry buff. To illustrate: Two weeks ago, I borrowed a book from my library with a title that was something like "The Best American Poetry of 2005," and I had to return it unread because even though I looked and looked and I couldn't find a single poem that I understood.

Like I said I am really not much of a poetry kind of guy. I read maybe 1 or 2 books of poetry a year. Though not a hardcore Bukowski addict, whenever I see a new book by Bukowski, I usually pick it up. The guy died in 1994, and so I am always excited to be reading new poems by him in 2006.

Charles Bukowski, for those who haven't read him or heard of him (and I really think everyone should read at least one book of his and decide for themselves if they like him or not) has the reputation as the Big Bad Boy of Poetry. And many will say the reputation is well deserved. (Bukowski is to poetry what George Carlin is to stand-up.) There is also the widely held belief that his poems are misogynistic, and perhaps even misanthropic. I will leave all those labels and discussions to the erudite Lit critics.

I basically like him mainly because his poems are so readable! I love his no-pretensions no-gimmicks approach (though that might in itself be one neat gimmick.) I am drawn to his topics -- hard-living, hard drinking, all sorts of women, horse racing and gambling -- because they are a world removed from my own rather subdued, suburban life. There is a lot of humor in his poems, and I enjoy the way he uses the device of self-reference in so many of his poems.

I love the way he demystifies poems and his irreverence towards other poets and critics.

from
I have continued regardless
[...]
let them all rail:
if it wasn't me,
it would just be someone
else.

these gossips and complainers,
what have they accomplished
anyway?

never having risen
they
can neither
slip nor
fall.

And I especially love the fact that his poems (all of them without exception) are so wholesome. They have great endings and there is a sense of completeness to each poem, which is such a rarity in today's poems.

That he really cares about poems comes through in many of his poems about poems.

from
a note upon modern poesy
[...]
poetry is still moving slowly forward, I guess.
and when your average garage mechanics
start bringing books of poesy to read
on their lunch breaks
then we'll know for sure we're moving in
the right
direction
[...]

Until I did some research I hadn't realized that there were so many books about Bukowski. May be I will get the time to read some of them, someday. Perhaps someone reading this knows if Bukowski edited his poems. He probably did, and I must be naive to imagine that poems just flowed out of his pen -- wonderful and whole -- every few minutes. That's way it seems to me whenever I read him.

If you are new to Bukowski, check out "Come On In" or any of his other books of poems. And do let me know whether or not you liked them by leaving a comment here.

I can't think of another poet who makes people as
angry as I do.
I enjoy it

from the x-bum

Category: Books, Poetry. Links: Bukowski: Born into This;orange county register

Movie: Born into Brothels

Movie: Born into Brothels

I imagine that having the word 'brothel' in a title will elicit one of two reactions. Some will be intrigued and will therefore seek out the movie. Others will decide that it is not "family friendly" or G-rated, and might choose to skip it.

To all those in the latter category, I urge that they reconsider. By skipping this documentary because of a mere word, you will be missing out of something important and essential. I am even willing to go as far as dubbing this as "seminal", for those of us who have any ties with India. In this movie, the brothels serve mainly to provide a background, the mileu for the stories and lives of these lively children.

After watching the movie, I couldn't think of any group of people that won't like the movie. But when I browsed the Web for reactions, I did find critics and they had two main objections.

Quite a few people felt that the movie/documentary, which rotates through the stories of 8-10 children, doesn't allow us to get close to any of them. I understand the objection, but feel that this arrangement might be by design. This is not a story with that plotline. It is more about how the photography classes (which is something so outside of norm for these kids) enters and impacts these young lives.

The other objection was that this movie was more of a self-promotion by the photographer/teacher, Zana Brisky. I cannot really side with this objection. While the rest of us are living lives of luxury (reading, writing and commenting on blogs) Ms. Brisky went off to live in Calcutta and chose to spend her time making the world aware of female infanticide. That fact alone should give her the license to tell her stories in any way she wishes to.

If you haven't already seen the movie, you will almost surely see it in DVD. After watching the movie, absolutely don't miss the part (in the extras section of the DVD) where we get to see the reactions of these same kids getting to see the movie in which they are featured for the very first time. Three years have elapsed since the original footage was shot, and we can visibly see that the kids have grown up a bit. Their reactions (laughter and sadness) are honest and I found this segment quite amazing. Again, don't miss this part in the DVD.

Born Into Brothels was lucky, in that got nominated and went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary, and consequently got worldwide publicity. That was the main reason I got to hear about it and ended up watching it. What I feel bad about is that there must be so many more wonderful documentaries out there, that don't get nominated, and don't get the publicity and so we all end up missing them. If you know of other documentaries that you'd like to recommend, please leave a comment for the other visitors.

(If you wish to recommend this movie to someone, you can use the "letter" icon below to forward this post to them via email.)

Two Quick Quotes on Philanthropy

A couple of quick quotes that I found and liked in the December 26, 2005 issue of Time, in which they named Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono as the PERSONS OF THE YEAR.

The man who dies rich dies disgraced -- ANDREW CARNEGIE

"From those to whom much is given, much is expected" -- Mary Gates (Bill Gates' mother) in a letter to her then future daughter-in-law Melinda Gates.

Beautiful Minds: Capture the spirit of Nobel achievement

British Library -- Temporary Exhibit
One day last week, I found myself in London with nothing to do on a late afternoon. Armed with an all-day Underground pass, I was looking for some place to get to. It was cold, and it was too late to get into any museums. I had left my gloves back in Chicago (foolishness, rather than hardiness) and so I couldn't wander the cold streets for too long.

Then, in a map of Central London that I'd picked up at the Heathrow Underground station, I noticed the British Library marked next to King's Cross station.

Being a big fan of libraries everywhere, I decided to check out the library and see their collection of books. As it turned out, I never got to see their rooms of books. They wanted me to apply for a "reader pass" and then I was told that it was too late in the evening to get one that day.

But I was in for a very pleasant surprise. The library had many special exhibits and to me, those were fascinating. In the John Ritblat Gallery they're showcasing the "Treasures of the British Library." The features of this room include the actual notebooks and manuscripts used by Da Vinci, Newton, Mozart's and Beethoven's musical notations, as well as some of the notebooks used by the Beatles.

I was fortunate in that there was a special exhibition on Nobel laureates on display at the time I visited. I spent over 2 hours on just that one. The overall topic was whether or not the "mileu" (the place where the Nobel laureates worked) had a huge influence on their creativity. (For example, why does Cambridge produce so many more Nobel laureates than Oxford?)

There is a room where they are showing 7 documentaries, running continuous ly, projected on 3 large screens. To me, these were the highlight of the exhibition and I recommend those films highly. It was especially great to watch the one on Tagore's Shantiniketan. (I believe those documentaries were made by an organization called NobelMuseet.) There were tons of sound recordings by the Nobel winners, but I was short of time.

(It was interesting to listen to Hemingway stiffly apologizing to the people of Scandinavia on being unable to come in person to accept his award due to his bad health.)

Anyway, if any of you reading this live in or near London, I recommend dropping and checking it out. (The special exhibition runs until March 15th, 2006.)

Category: Museums/Libraries