Michael reviews a film exploring the last years of a Japanese American grandfather’s life, filmed by his own granddaughter, which he only agreed to allow her to publish at the end of his life.
Read MoreLots of happenings for you today in the news post, including a major event at PAFA from the Philadelphia arts and culture community. April is National Poetry Month, so celebrate with Yolanda Wisher at the Outbound Poetry Festival and the Sanctuary Poetry series at the Asian Arts Initiative. Also, performances by Wilmer Wilson IV, a talk by Artblog favorite Willie Cole, a new documentary about the seminal 1972 DNC, and RIP Pop art pioneer James Rosenquist.
Read MoreSpain is not a country that I immediately associate with either historical or avant-garde animation, so I was curious–what is Spanish animation, and what makes it distinctly Spanish? Will these films be interesting for normal people who aren’t obsessed with Spain like I am, or will my boyfriend resent me for dragging him out to see obscure Spanish short animations on a Friday night?
Read MoreJulie Dash’s The Great Migration observes the closing of one chapter of history for many African Americans–life in the unforgiving South–and the beginning of another–an arduous journey North towards an uncertain future. The opening scene of the film, a beach at first light shot in soft muted color, is a fitting metaphor for this transition. A solitary suitcase sits on the sand, a totem for countless histories both individual and communal. At this point of departure where land ends and sea begins, the memories of these emigrants bridge all physical borders, and as the sole remaining traveler, the suitcase is our window into a narrative whose roots run deep and whose branches continue to grow.
Read MoreAnd perhaps this last is one of the most significant points the exhibition makes: despite an international interest in the commercial vernacular and the visual impact of the media, the works in the exhibition can only be truly understood within the cultures that produced them. This leaves serious viewers with the realization that the information in many of the introductory labels is insufficient background for a real understanding of the art and how it functioned in its native territory.
Read MoreViewed post-Paris, post 9/11, “White Homeland Commando,” for all its formal wizardry, seems both too long and almost offensively cool.
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