Tag: 05.25.00

DOME DEFENSE

Despite public outcry, shoddy attendance, and the dissenting opinions of 64 MPs, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has defended the UK government’s decision to pump £29m into the Millennium Dome. – BBC

DESIGN FOR LIVING

Israel’s architecture exhibit at the upcoming Venice Biennale attempts to answer the beguiling question: What, exactly, is a city? “In curator Hillel Schocken’s view, modern urban planning has been an utter failure; not one successful city was created in the 20th century. He proposes a new definition of the city, one that fulfills the idea of intimate anonymity.” – Haaretz (Israel)

CHAOS AT OHIO BALLET

Only three of Ohio Ballet’s 19 dancers have signed contracts for next season, and dancers are protesting their rookie artistic director’s handling of the company. “All the dancers of Ohio Ballet made a pact to walk out if Jeffrey Graham Hughes continued as artistic director. None of the dancers signed their contracts for next season in hopes that the board would have the best interest of the company in mind.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION?

Hispanics make up 11.5 percent of the US population but “rarely occupy more than 2 percent of the available jobs in the film and television industry,” according to a study by the Screen Actors Guild. Minorities have tried to make their case to Hollywood as a social cause. “Studio executives will lend half an ear to a social case, but the bottom line is that the corporate suites are running a business, and business is about profits or potential profits. Develop a business case, and you will bring about change.” – Dallas Morning News (AP) 05/25/00

A MATTER OF ATTITUDE?

  • “What has hurt Latino and black efforts to pressure the industry is that these minority organizations have lost credibility. We hear about [television viewer] boycotts, and these boycotts aren’t even conducted during [ratings] sweeps week. Or we hear about a press conference where Latinos are going to boycott a show, and the Nielsen ratings don’t reflect a drop in viewership.” – Los Angeles Times 05/25/00

AND AUTORI

Italian film lovers are bemoaning the fact that not a single Italian film was selected in the main competition at Cannes this year – reflecting the absence of a new generation of filmmakers to rival the postwar greats Fellini, De Sica, and Passolini. “Italians are talking again, as they have been off and on for 30 years, about the “crisis” of cinema, a word usually reserved for falling governments and train strikes.” – New York Times 05/25/00 

FILM CPR

Several directors earned notice at Cannes this year for taking their work in altogether new directions – like Lars Von Trier, Wong Kar-wei, and Joel and Ethan Coen, all of whom played with reviving the musical. “The festival was proof that a director’s vision can resuscitate any genre. Already the buzz is that westerns will be the next to be rescued.” – New York Times 05/25/00 

SUBVERSIVE SCOTS

Scottish filmmaking is enjoying a renaissance, with more than 5 films by Scots to be released in the next 5 weeks – many linked by unconventional plots and narratives. “Ultimately, it is this subversive streak that unites so many Scottish film directors, whether they are making films about oil magnates, public schoolboys, London gangsters, or Hebridean islanders determined to outwit the English Home Guard captain and make off with the whisky.” – The Herald (Scotland) 05/25/00

BY THE SKIN OF HIS BOOK

A Canadian author has found a bizarre way to put his all into his latest book. Portions of Kenneth J. Harvey’s flesh, containing his DNA, will be embedded in small, pink swatches of paper stitched on to the cover of an abridged edition of his 11th book, “Skin Hound (There Are No Words)”, a book whose protagonist is a serial-killing English professor with a penchant for cutting away his victim’s skin. – National Post (Canada)