Documentary Film Review: Aquarela

 

There is a terrific truth about nature that only real nature lovers, I suppose, are aware of: its blind strength. If one ever witnessed a tornado or a storm for instance would thereafter rarely depict nature in the pastel glamorous colours that may happen to be used from a completely outsider viewpoint. After surviving an episode of nature outrage, no one will think about nature other than with contempted fear. 

In this vein, Aquarela, a 2018 documentary film by the Russian film director Viktor Kossakovsky ís a one hour and a half sequence of episodes potraying the presence of water in the life of humans, mostly in its overwhelming power-driven aspect. The images are from all over the world and we rarely acknowledge the geographical location - some English words over there, some Cyrillic-written words on the working overall there - which is largely irrelevant. The camera is moving slowly, always passive observer of the unchained forces of nature. 

Underwater there is a silence that you can hear. Outside, the waves are brought by the wind out of the sea, breaking out trees and splashing the human houses. Even as an outside watcher, a nature voyeurist, one will acknowledge how insignificant humans can be facing the force of nature. 

As a frequent nature lover and photographer - especially in my pre-Covid19 life, I appreciated the silent discourse of the images and the techniques which are outstanding. Kossakovsky authored other documentary movies, one in which he is quietly observing the passers-by in Sankt Petersburg. I would definitely love to know more about the specific techniques used in filming Aquarela. 

The musical background is matching often the images when it does not outline directly specific water-related contexts. 

Indeed, this film is first and foremost about water. Not necessarily in the everyday life interpretation - which is so important for the humans, as a source of life - but equally as an autonomous source of destruction, as a terrifying poetry of natural freedom. 

Aquarela is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again without ever getting bored - which is a high occurrence when it comes to reading a book or watching a movie twice. Its beauty is so natural and unassuming that I will hardly be sure that I really understand everything even after at least ten more watchings. 

Rating: 5 stars

And Zarathustra Kept Silent...

 Contrary to the general - philosophical - assumption, this time Zarathustra remained silent...

Nicolas Wild is well-known in the world of serious graphic novels lovers by his series of Kaboul Disco, a visual account of his time spent in Afghanistan, where he was invited to draw an adaptation of the new Constitution. His portfolio is widely inspired by his direct contacts with the humans he encountered during his travels and works from all over the world, from Nepal to Ukraine and Lebanon: the opium smokers, the migrants, the students or the vegetable sellers, among many others.

Ainsi se Tut Zarathoustra - an ironic change from the Nitzschean Thus Spoke Zarathustra - outcome all my expectations from the point of view of both the story and the illustrations. It has so many details by creating a realistic story, while at the same time offering an extensive nonfictional background.

The illustrated story is a mixture between history of Iran, religious information, political thriller, socio-political history and travel blogging. Meeting through a game of random circumstances the daugher of a murdered Zoroastrian expert, the author is getting to know a group of Iranian-born Zoroastrians and the everyday life struggle and the intellectual underground in the Islamic Iran. 

There are so many characters to meet along the journey, from curious Europeans visiting Iran, to Revolutionary Guards, crocked politicians, Afghan refugees in Iran and Europe, and fine exiled intellectuals. Set in Iran, Paris and Switzerland, this book is a an intellectually rich journey which is interesting not only for the detailed information and the story in itself - an investigation into the murder of Cyrus Yazdi, an activist on behalf of the Zoroastrians - an ancient religious group based mostly in Iran where it counts around 26,000 members and India, where they contributed to the creation of the city of Mumbay, among others - but as well for the illustrations, that reminded me - in terms of style and black-and-white touch, of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.  

I was really impressed about how smart the relatively modest resources of the graphic novels can be used. Wisely employed, all those information and points of view were brought together through words and images creating a story like no other.

Rating: 5 stars - but most likely a generous 10

Book Review: The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya

 

I can count on the fingers on one hand the number of books featuring musician characters I´ve read. The latest I can surely remember is The Ensemble by Aja Gabel. The Subtweet, the latest book by the Canadian multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya is a story with a more complex context.

The main topic of the book is the exploration of the relationship between a couple of brown Indie musicians in the digital age. Neela´s songs are discovered by the Internet artist RUK-MINI with whom a friendship is born. Until a subtweet created an online storm that disrupted not only the relationship between the two, but also raised important questions about the position of brown musicians in the white world. How exactly they are supposed to create music? And for whom? Is the white praise important for the success? Should it be requested, after all?

Altough the story in itself is relatively simple the dynamics between the characters and particularly their different identities they are becoming aware of during the enfolding story are very complex. The approach of race and identity and the creative act is not necessarily new but outlines aspects that are less outlined by both writers and musicians themselves. By introducing the social media pressure that is so genuine nowadays to all the creative streams of life - what happens when someone stops tagging you, what is your ´Likes´ count situation from a day to another, how to create and attract an audience through social media targets - Shraya is exposing the everyday struggle of an artist. For female brown artists though, it´s just one part of the general complicated story.

I had access to the book in the audio version, read by the multidisciplinar human Nisha Ahuja. The Subtweet was a finalist of several international literary competitions, such as 2021 Dublin Literary Award, Toronto Book Award or Lambda Literary Awards For Transgender Fiction.

A short praise is deserved for the cover, which convenes the Indie spirit of the book in a very inspired way.

Although music-related topics are not necessarily my area of interest right now, The Subtweet helped me to understand the complex relationships that do cross in the music creative acts. Hopefully in the next weeks and months I would be able to read more in this area and expand a bit my relatively limited knowledge in this respect.

Rating: 3 stars

´Forget Me Not´

 ´Too late´ are sooner than we think.

A grand-daughter is taking (literally kidnapping) her granny out of her nursing home to a journey to her childhood home. Clémence, the daughter of a single mother, is reconnecting through her Alzheimer-suffering grandmother not only to a past which remains at certain extents hidden, but with emotions and the family beyond the everyday dry family conventions.

I´ve read Ne m´Oublie Pas/Forget Me Not, a graphic novel recently published by Europe Comics, authored - both in writing and illustrations - by the Belgium artist Alix Garin in just one sitting. The content story and the way of expressing it is highly emotional. There are so many topics that are covered graciously in this novel, mostly as a gentle conflict between values and their social reason to be followed. 

The 85 years old grandmother suffering of Alzheimer may be stuck in a very distant past, and overwhelmed by the present realities, but is the bureaucracy of the medical system entitled to treat her as a body that rather should be controlled - through heavy medication - instead of being allowed to further enjoy a dignified life?

How the relatives of a person affected by this terrible disease may behave when they realize they are just obliterated from the sick person´s memory?

What is really worth in a family life? Connecting with your close relatives - parents, grandparents - in the spot of the moment, and considering fully the uniqueness of every second shared together?

What is life in general worth, after all?

Happily, this comic books is not a (boring and senseless) soliloquy about the meaning(less) of life, but a story where there is a bit of funny action taking place too - as granma haven´t forgotten to roll the dice though. 

The graphic is quality too, with pastel backgrounds and effable silhouettes. 

There is something I keep asking myself after reading this book. Indeed, I was emotionally involved in the book and was scribbling my own impressions, but I became aware that those impressions, in fact, were mostly connected with my own experience - extremely limited although - in dealing with coming to old age. I haven´t know any grandparents and my parents died fast. I did not grow up watching someone close to me losing their senses and being alienated from and expelled from their memory. Thus, my thoughts were in fact my effort - through reason and feelings - to understand what does it mean to be in such a situation and I bet it´s rather a kind of figurative set-up. The world of literature has this power that I am grateful to be part thereof.

I had access to the English translation of the book (originally published in French).

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Everyday Bookish Problems

A gift might come with a curse. 

For instance, my much praised capacity of doing hundreds of things before breakfast: which includes, in a random order, preparing breakfast for the family, cleaning a bit the house, updating my social media accounts, answering various questions about the day before projects, reading a couple of pages, learning at least 10 words in a new language, communicating in a couple of languages, writing a small yet inspiring blog post. Sometimes I can do even more. Some days, like the days of this week, I am just foggy.

I´ve read yesterday - while on my way to a well deserved hairdressing day - a fantastic article about brain fog in times of isolation which at a certain extent is relevant for the times we are living but in my case may be not necessarily the case. Isolation is sometimes a lone dream as I am hardly on my own for more than 4 hours the day. Sometimes even less or never.

On a day by day basis I can properly operate within this frame of the controlled chaos - which includes also answering 100 5yo questions while trying to find the right word for a translation in an exotic language or keep a normal phone conversation. I can´t hardly remember my life being any different so I have no idea how it is to live completely alone day in day out. 

Until, like in the last days, I am simply losing any interest. My daily projects are just annoying - and most of them right now are, but business should go on because I have to do my bank account happy - none of the books - many of them - I am reading are not appealing enough to finish them at once, I have a long list of movies to watch but none sounds too exciting for my brain. For at least seven days, every single free time I spent playing with my Duolingo Yiddish course, which is far from perfect, but at least keeps my brain busy with some intellectual activity. (I hope to finish it soon and review it one day). At least once the day I am watching or taking part to some online discussion on my history and politics topics of interest. Meanwhile, my books for review are accumulated in my Kindle or on my writing desk, while I am fighting hard with my lack of concentration and writing laziness.

But despite my panic signals sent by my other part of the brain that I should really start being productive again - you see, I cannot be out of my capitalist paradigm, no matter what - I am perversely enjoying those confused moments. I don´t remember when I went through a similar situation the last time, but I suppose as we change along our life journey, the challanges and situations we cope with are changing too, therefore there is an uniqueness in our personal encounters. 

Many years ago, I was very impatient and frustrated that I simply could not pray at all. I was able to spent many many hours with the prayer book in the front of my, but I was lacking any interest, motivation and pleasure too in opening my mouth and saying the words. It was just a spiritually inert me with a heavy book in her hands that stayed most of the time closed. Then, I´ve read about how the Vilna Gaon used to say that even you don´t have the kavanah - the devotion - for praying, one must keep reading the words of the prayer, as an everyday practice, and the right feelings will come eventually. 

This is such a great advice, as it works - in my case, at least - with reading, writing and...workouts too. But all those activities do make good to both the brain and the soul. Therefore, from my bookish dry cave, I am forcing myself to read and write and do workouts, although right now, I can just spend time in the garden, listening to the birds and doing absolutely nothing. 

That´s all. That´s how life can be sometimes.

Jeune Fille en Dior

´C´est beau, l´après-guerre´.

I am fascinated about fashion history and histories, not only because I love high-fashion but because of the fantastic social and human stories they connect. As I´ve learned in my beloved history of mentalities originated by the Annales School of Historiography, fashion is part of a wider manifestation of the patterns of a long historical period. Together with manifestations of the material culture as well as spiritual achievements of all kinds - which includes randomly media, theatre, film, literature - fashion is one small yet important piece of the everyday social mirror of an era.

Jeune Fille en Dior by the late multi-awarded Annie Goetzinger with a foreword by Anna Gavalda accounts the post-war fashion environment in France, through a story of a fictional character Clara Nohant. A former journalist, she will become a model for the newly wordlwide successful Maison Dior. 

The fashion is becoming the new war, with dramatic inter-continental frictions and internal ironies and inimities within the French front. Actually, it´s mostly French the language the fashion is speaking at the time. Dior himself is the product of those years. Born in a middle-class family, he graduated Political Science (SciPo) and was expected to be a diplomat. However, he turned his career towards the arts and after the military service he is back in Paris working hard, among other fashion icons of the time like Nina Ricci or Coco Chanel, to design dresses for Nazi wives accompanying their husbands in the occupied Paris. Meanwhile, one of his sisters - who inspired his first Miss Dior - was part of the Resistance movement and will be liberated from Ravensbrück concentration camp at the very end of the war. With his beautiful - as a Greek perfect ratio of proportions - elegant dresses made of fine fabrics and shaped expansively for thin yet normally formed bodies, Dior was the hero of an era looking for his new system of values. In the year of his death - 1957, of a heart attack while playing cards while vacationing in Italy - he appeared on the cover of Time, that in 1938 had on its Man of the Year Edition the criminal Hitler (may his name be erased).

Jeune Fille en Dior is first and foremost a pleasure for the eyes. The illustrations are in full sync with the style and class of fashion illustrations. The story is clear and although focused on the fictional character it connects smoothly to the larger story which, at a general extent, belongs to the European history in itself. The author´s approach both in terms of text and visual makes it a perfect and informative take on the topic. My only objection was the style of the lettering which was a bit annoying for the eyes, my eyes, at least.

I was fascinated by this short lecture as I realized how limited is my knowledge of the details in the field of fashion history in France and elsewhere - besides being able to recognize some top brands. Thus, I am trying to correct this mistake this year, and my next installment of the educational program is a movie about YSL. To be reviewed soon, on a blog near you!

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

I am easily convinced to read a book because of its popularity. I am experienced enough to know that there is always a risk to be just the victim of wise PR and communications campaigns, but no matter what, my curiosity is always stronger than any kind of reasonable explanations. You have me always at books´ buzz...

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a YA novel with a multicultural background by Laura Taylor Namey, is my latest disappointment. Read it over the long Eastern weekend, it first caught my attention for the beautiful cover. Also the lettering choice is inspiring for the topic and age range it aims at.

Lila Reyes is 17, an active baker of Cuban origin in Miami. In just a couple of month, she experienced the sudden death of her dear abuela - grandmother, in Spanish - the break-up of her 3-year boyfriend (who needs a break to find himself) and the separation from her best friend, Stephanie. Worried, her parents are sending her on the other side of the pond, to join her aunt, living in the medievalesque city of Winchester. There, she will fell in love with a local guy named Orion and will decide to follow her destiny in the footpath of her sweet abuela. 

At the first sight, it sounds as a very cozy YA, the kind you may want to read in one sitting while sipping a cuppa or a coffee. But I may have a couple of observations and criticism on the book in its entirety.

Let´s start with the good things: I was really impressed by the way in which mental health issues were addressed in the book. Her triple incidents were a risk for her mental wellbeing, therefore the prompt decision of her parents to buy her a one-way ticket and sent her away from the causes of her heartbreak. It´s a topic less approached - if ever - in YA therefore it is worth outlining the approach in this case.

Another aspect that I appreciated is the fact that the Spanish words are scattered into the conversation. It makes the dialogues so authentic and creates the proper ambiance of a multicultural novel. From the same category, I loved the references to Cuban food, a chapter my information is very precarious. I love guavas and the thought of guava filled pastry has an instant mouthwatering effect. Hope to have the chance soon to try some Cuban delicacies.

But there are so many flaws into this story. For instance, most young characters are under 18 yo. Lila and Orion and her sister and Orion´s sister - which is only 15 - are assigned voices that are so serious and mature that one may think they are at least 30. Their drinking tastes are also so casual and mature as they started to drink alcohol mixed with their mother´s milk. 

Another weakness: the so-called love story between Lila and Orion is so awkward. Not because it is not romantic at all, but it starts as his invitation to keep her busy and bring her to events. Kind of charity companionship. Again, it does not suit the age expectations and the way of life in general.

A Cuban Girl´s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow started for me on a very optimistic note, but 80 pages into the book I got first annoyed and kept being more and disappointed every couple of pages. Reading the book was for me an exercise in literary analysis and criticism but wish it was more than that...

Rating: 2.5 stars