Coolidge After Midnite Honors ADRIENNE BARBEAU December 2nd, 2017 at Coolidge Corner Theatre
Watch this celebratory video of actress ADRIENNE BARBEAU at Coolidge Corner Theatre’s popular night-owl movie program—Coolidge After Midnight.
Coolidge After Midnight honors actress, singer, and author ADRIENNE BARBEAU at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. The Boston audience was treated to a 35mm film screening of THE FOG (1979), followed by a special award ceremony and Q&A with Ms. Barbeau.
Hosted by Mark E. Anastasio
December 2nd, 2017
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Filmed and edited by Michael McVey.
Video runtime: 39 minutes.
Copyright © 2017 by Michael McVey. All rights reserved.
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The Complete STANLEY KUBRICK Exhibit at LACMA – Skiffleboom.com
By Michael McVey, Skiffleboom
In March of 2013, I won a film competition in Boston and flew out to Hollywood, California to see my film screen at the Chinese Theatre. During my stay, I visited the Stanley Kubrick Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA. As a filmmaker and a film enthusiast, I was completely awestruck.
From November 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013, LACMA visitors got a glimpse at the genius responsible for some of the finest films ever made. I documented the extraordinary collection of all things Kubrick. I transcribed the exhibit in its entirety, word for word. It was an illuminating process.
Now that the exhibit is closed, I am posting my efforts here to share with those of you who could not make the trip. While there is no experience akin to seeing it in person, I hope these photographs and transcriptions further the educational goals of this exhibit: film can be great art. Studying the masters helps us discover new ways to understand, new possibilities to explore.
This exhibition is organized by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Christiane Kubrick and The Stanley Kubrick Archive at University of the Arts London, with the support of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony-Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc., Universal Studios Inc., and SK Film Archives LLC.
In Los Angeles, Stanley Kubrick is co-presented by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has been generously supported by Steve Tisch. Additional funding has been provided by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Violet Spitzer-Lucas and the Spitzer Family Foundation. Image: Stanley Kubrick in the interior of the space ship “Discovery”, 2001: A Space Odyssey (2001: A Space Odyssey, GB/United States 1965-68) © Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine. San Francisco, 1906 [Skiffleboom.com]
By Michael McVey, Skiffleboom.com
Market Street, San Francisco. Filmed just four days before the Great Earthquake leveled the city in 1906. Music by Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine Michael McVey Skiffleboom.com
My Favorite Non-Sequitur Musical Moments in Classic Movie Comedies
My Favorite Non-Sequitur Musical Moments in Classic Movie Comedies
By Michael McVey, Skiffleboom.com
“The Birth of a Nation” – Racism in Early American Film, from Skiffleboom.com
Michael McVey
History of the Moving Image- VMA 115
Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown, MA
The Birth of a Nation Response – February 25, 2010
The Birth of a Nation:
Describe a scene you find disturbing. What specifically makes it disturbing? Think in terms not only of the characters, but also of the specific shot sequence and the relationship the image creates.
Election Day and Results Sequence: 1:48 – 1:53
The election sequence from “The Birth of a Nation” is an incendiary account of shifting social and political power during Southern Reconstruction. The sequence narrowly characterizes class and race relationships with broad stereotypes. Griffith portrays historical events with one-dimensional characters. These characters disturbingly polarize the conflict’s complexities into simple good and evil. We begin with the title card:
“Election day. All blacks are given the ballot, while the leading whites are disfranchised.”
Both black and white voters line up to vote. A white man, presumably a carpetbagger, takes ballots from black voters. Black soldiers flank the man, keeping the crowd orderly. When white voters attempt to vote, they are denied. Soldiers aggressively shove these men out of line with their rifles. We cut to Dr. Cameron and his son Ben leaving their Piedmont home to vote. We cut to black and fade in on Dr. Cameron attempting to vote. He is denied and aggressively ejected. From this short scene, we infer that all Southern white voters were denied their rights from Unionists and Carpetbaggers, backed with military muscle. The use of these broad, unnamed characters and actions nurture resentment in the viewer towards the blacks. The use of these broad stereotypes is propaganda, influencing the audience to feel that blacks with power are unjust and malevolent.
“Receiving the returns. The negroes and carpetbaggers sweep the state.”
We cut to the interior of Silas Lynch’s Piedmont headquarters. Lynch is the mulatto protégé of Reconstruction authority Austin Stoneman. Lynch’s mixed-race staff rushes election results into the office. The title card declares, “Silas Lynch is elected Lieut. Governor.” Stoneman is elated when Lynch presents him with the news, and Stoneman’s daughter Elsie joins them. She is fancily dressed.
The title card reads, “Celebrating their victory in the polls.” We cut to an exterior shot of an all-black Unionist army marching through Piedmont, joyously greeted by an all-black crowd. We cut back to the interior of Lynch’s headquarters. While Austin Stoneman speaks of the election, we cut to a medium close-up of Lynch staring lustfully. We cut to a medium shot of Elsie as she sorts white paperwork. We cut back to Lynch. He covers his genitals with a black hat as he stares. We cut once more to Elsie. It is clear that the newly elected Lynch has designs on Stoneman’s daughter. Stoneman seems oblivious to this aside.
Lynch walks outside, and is immediately embraced by the all-black crowd. He is hoisted onto their shoulders and paraded about. We cut to Stoneman observing from inside, pleased with the victory. We then cut to Elsie, who stands alone in the room, looking exposed. We infer from this scene that the newly elected Lynch is a devious character. Lynch’s leering is juxtaposed against a marching army of black soldiers, eliciting fear of a black takeover of traditionally white properties. For Stoneman, the mulatto character of Lynch represents a bridge for race relations, but Griffith suggests his (and possibly all mulattos) motivations are animalistic and devious. In the wake of Lynch’s sexual intonations, Elsie’s delicacy is amplified through the lingering shot.
“’The little Colonel’ relates a series of outrages that have occurred.”
Ben Cameron sits in his home with his father and friends. A candle burns in the foreground, representing the smoldering hatred of the White southerner during Reconstruction.
The title card reads “The case was tried before a negro magistrate and the verdict rendered against the whites by the negro jury.” A crowded courtroom scene establishes the shift in power. An all-black jury and a black magistrate free a black man accused of a crime – the white victim’s family looks despondent. The camera iris focuses on the magistrate, yelling fervently. The ‘not guilty’ verdict polarizes the courtroom. The whites and the ‘faithful’ blacks are outraged by the verdict. The black defendant shakes hands with the jury. The scene exudes collusion and injustice.
We cut back to the Ben Cameron relating the story. We cut to the exterior of the courthouse, where black soldiers treat the white victim’s family with hostility. We cut to a shot of soldiers brutalizing an old man. These black soldiers are clearly villainous.
The title card reads, “Even while he talks, their own faithful family servant is punished for not voting with the Union League and Carpetbaggers.” The “faithful” family servant’s only discernable characteristic is his steadfast loyalty to the Cameron’s. Having voted against the Unionists, two deceitfully friendly blacks lure the servant to the woods. Several black soldiers ambush the servant. The soldiers bind him to a tree and lash him for his faithfulness. We fade out.
We cut to the servant’s quarters, where an elderly black man searches for his friend. When the elderly man stumbles upon the black soldiers beating the servant, he intervenes. A soldier murders the old man in cold blood. The soldiers all run away in cowardice. We cut back to Ben Cameron relating his stories. We see clearly from these cuts that Griffith is employing parallel editing. The iris closes in on Cameron, who dramatically stands, as though he has reached his breaking point. The camera cuts to the servant, beaten and bewildered, he runs from frame. We cut back to the Cameron’s. The stories deeply move the group, and they stand together, unified by their disgust.
The title card reads, “The faithful soul enlists Dr. Cameron’s sympathy.” We cut to Dr. Cameron, Ben’s father finding the servant in the woods. We cut back to the Cameron home. The servant relays the events to Ben Cameron, who looks furious. The candles blaze in the foreground.
These scenes shockingly suggest that blacks are incapable of dispensing justice properly. The black magistrate, while only briefly portrayed, comes across as a zealot. All the black Union soldiers are portrayed as cowardly, vicious torturers. We infer that blacks are duplicitous from the way the servant was lured into an ambush. Though Griffith doesn’t cast the servant under the same evil light as the other blacks, his is still one-dimensional. His defining characteristic seems to be an acceptance of his place in the old Southern hierarchy.
Perhaps the most disturbing element of this sequence is the technical craftsmanship. The innovative use of symbols to create subtext makes the film potent propaganda. Carefully staged scenes, clever set and costume design, and innovative editing techniques made the film’s simplistic views entertaining and digestible. “The Birth of a Nation” was a new form of entertainment propaganda in 1915. This is exceptionally disturbing, considering that these are not the film’s most cartoonish and unbelievably racist stereotypes. That award goes to the scene that caps the election sequences:
“The riot in the Master’s Hall. The negro party in control in the State House of Representatives, 101 blacks against 23 whites, session of 1871. An Historical Facsimile of the State House of Representatives of South Carolina as is was in 1870. After photograph by ‘The Columbia State.’”
Documentary Film and Fictional Technique from Michael McVey, Skiffleboom.com
Michael McVey
April 22, 2010 – Bunker Hill Community College
VMA 115 – History of the Moving Image – Professor Pastel
Writing Assignment #3 – Documentary
In a 2-3-page paper, address the following questions:
Use several specific examples from two of the following films to answer the questions below: Nanook of the North, Triumph of the Will, The Plow That Broke the Plains, Salesman, Don’t Look Back, High School, Our Daily Bread, Roger and Me:
1. Explain how a documentary film can use fictional techniques, yet claim to represent ‘reality.’
2. Identify some of those fictional techniques, using specific sequences from the film(s). That is, describe a particular sequence from a movie and explain how it uses fictional techniques to make its point.
3. Explain how a documentary film is different from a fictional narrative – i.e., why should we trust what that what it shows is “true” to reality as opposed to being merely “made up?”
The Lumière brothers’ earliest footage was captured on location using real people. This early film, "La Place des Cordeliers à Lyon," captured an unstaged street scene, and can be considered one of the earliest documentaries.
The documentary form has existed since the birth of the motion picture camera. The Lumière brothers’ early footage was captured on location using real people. Their early film La Place des Cordeliers à Lyon captured an unstaged street scene, and can be considered one of the first documentaries. Over the past century, attempts to document reality have changed radically. Advances in technology and technique have resulted in a variety of documentary styles, calling into question the definition of the word “documentary.”
Documentary films often employ fictional techniques. Manipulative editing, staged shots, manipulated audio, scripted narration, overlaid graphics and music – many of these techniques can be found in documentaries. How can fictional techniques be used in a documentary engaged with reality and truth?
Capturing reality is the conceit of documentary film. Since reality can never be truly replicated by film (or any medium), the term documentary can apply to approximations of reality. Both fictional and documentary films employ “lies” in order to tell “truth.” Raw footage and audio is edited into a watchable length, with emphasis on dramatic structure. Since people edit the footage, the editing choices have authors and points of view. So if a documentary cannot be reality, it certainly can represent reality. It can be representative of the filmmakers’ perspective.
Our Daily Bread presents reality with a distinct perspective. Shots of workers eating lunch punctuate a sequence of pigs being slaughtered, gutted, and cleaned. The filmmakers carefully chose this juxtaposition as a dramatic device. The viewer is given the imagery to contemplate. While the presentation of the imagery is crafted, the imagery itself captures actual events.
Nanook of the North - The filmmaker’s intended to accurately portray a vanishing lifestyle. But unwieldy technology and a hostile environment forced planning and staging.
Nanook of the North contains many staged events. Robert J. Flaherty accentuated the Inuit lifestyle’s romance and danger and presented in it as documentary. Staged events are a staple of narrative film. It was reported that Nanook was not the subject’s real name. Nyla was not Nanook’s real wife. Events were photographed with direction from Flaherty: Nanook was instructed to use traditional Intuit hunting weapons, as opposed to guns. His igloo was clearly constructed to accommodate film equipment. The filmmaker’s intended to accurately portray a vanishing lifestyle. But unwieldy technology and a hostile environment forced planning and staging. Many critics feel these staged scenes, presented as truth, disqualify the film from true documentary status.
Michael Moore’s Roger and Me unapologetically borrows many fictional techniques. Scripted voice over, the juxtaposition of soundtrack music over imagery, the inclusion of overlapping audio – these are just a few elements Moore borrows from narrative film. Yet the film is curiously considered a documentary over Nanook of the North. This can be attributed to the inclusion of Moore within his own film. Moore is very much a part of the story. Because of this, scenes that may otherwise appear staged are not; the stager is a part of the scene he is staging. Nanook’s Flaherty and the filmmakers hid their presence. As a result, their footage can be considered misleading.
Roger and Me - During the climactic speech by Roger Smith, the film cuts between footage of Sheriff Fred Ross evicting a family on Christmas Eve. Used to illustrate hypocrisy, this ironic intercutting leads the viewer to believe these events happen simultaneously.
Roger and Me follows a three-act structure, which is commonly found in fictional narrative. During the climactic speech by Roger Smith, the film cuts between footage of Sheriff Fred Ross evicting a family on Christmas Eve. Used to illustrate hypocrisy, this ironic intercutting leads the viewer to believe these events happen simultaneously. Narrative film often stitches together shots taken at two different times. In The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Sam and Frodo rest on their journey to Mordor. This scene contains a two-shot of the characters talking. The shots were taken two years apart from each other, but are edited together seamlessly. Both documentary and narrative film can structure time and continuity, regardless of reality.
The Maysles Brothers’ Salesman is a documentary in the style of direct cinema. The film contains no omniscient narrator, but contains a scene in which Paul’s monologue is used as narration. Paul drives through Miami, talking about his fellow salesmen, while the scene cuts to each of the men he describes. This editing clarifies and describes each of these men from Paul’s point of view. This technique borrows from fictional narrative while sustaining its “truth,” or exclusive use of shot footage.
Earlier documentaries, such as The Plow That Broke the Plains, use narrators to tell their stories. Narrated documentaries can be accepted as “true,” as they deal with facts and true events. But such films contain staged footage, and while their content may be taken from actuality, the film itself is not true. It is illusion that deals in truth.
The Maysles Brothers’ "Salesman" is a documentary in the style of direct cinema. The film contains no omniscient narrator, but contains a scene in which Paul’s monologue is used as narration. Paul drives through Miami, talking about his fellow salesmen, while the scene cuts to each of the men he describes.
Salesman contains a flashback device: Paul sits on a train, heading back from a sales conference. The film overlaps audio, cutting to the actual sales event. This flashback is fictional narrative a device. It also reveals the filmmaker’s intention to present reality subjectively. There is no way to know what Paul was thinking about during that moment. But the filmmakers suggest he thought about his conference. They use images of Paul to smoothly transition through time. The filmmakers suggest that Paul probably thought back on the conference during his trip home. Since the assertion seems likely, the many viewers may accept this editing manipulation. Some viewers adhere to strict definitions, such as cinéma vérité purists, and do not consider this technique valid when portraying “reality.”
In Salesman, the Maysles Brothers goal is to represent reality truthfully. The film is shot as objectively as possible. The brothers acknowledge that the camera’s presence affects behavior, but they keep interference to a minimum, photographing subjects just as they are. In editing, the presentation of their material is highly crafted. The Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin elected Paul’s salesman character as the film’s through-line. Focusing on Paul gave the movie conflict – his failure to sell reveals his humanity, and sets him apart from the others.
Reality is filtered by the filmmakers’ involvement. The documentary film cannot capture objective reality, but it can represent the subjective reality of the filmmakers. The Maysles Brothers do not equate truth with rigid accuracy in their films. There are frequent breaks from actuality in The Plow That Broke the Plains. The film was designed as propaganda, and does not capture objective reality. It portrays actual events and issues through the filmmakers’ subjective crafting. The audience determines the truthfulness of the film.
When viewing documentaries, audiences should not accept that what they see as entirely true. Documentaries deal with the topic of truth and reality, but they themselves cannot be objective. Footage can be staged. Audio can be dubbed. Time and space can be manipulated and presented as truth. It is critical for viewers to gain awareness of documentary technique while absorbing content. Without this awareness, viewers may be easily manipulated.
This is a major difference between fictional narrative and documentary: Fictional narrative does not claim to be true. It is deliberately manipulative, which is part of the unspoken agreement between audiences and filmmakers. Most sane people watch fictional works with the knowledge that they are not real. There is vast diversity among documentary styles, but documentary generally attempts to portray real life events in a dramatic context. Documentary can strive for objectivity in presenting truth and reality, but is ultimately subjective, like narrative film.