Written & Directed by Ari Libsker
Stalags is named for the German prison camps in which they were set, the "stalags" were soft-core s&m porn in which downed U.S. or British pilots were abused by lustful, bodacious "female SS brutes," ultimately repaying their tormentors in kind.
There is a great deal to be said about War, and Sex and S&M, even in this country of the free and the beautiful but I want to focus attention on the artistic nature of this documentary.
Kara Walker caused an overwhelming artistic success with her work My complement, My enemy, My oppressor. My Love which took up the space of an entire floor of the Whitney Museum last October.
It was an artist rendering through silhouette type figures of explicit sexual acts that occurred throughout the South before Slavery was abolished.
The emotional impact seemed to be heightened by the black and white artist work rather than diminished because it was not true to life human forms.
The documentary Statags, shows the art work of a a Jewish woman who scandalized the religious and political isreal/jewish community in the 1960’s. she used the same silhoutte method to depict violence done to women. This is not to say, either Kara Walker or Rachel Frank’s work is less than magnificent as much as to point out the past neglect of women’s art because women do not live in the same world experientially as their male counterpart. And it is the men who determine whose art is brought to the fore and whose art stays in the “Funeral Home’ of one’s personal space.,
It is not true(as stated in the documentary) that men have taken up where Rachel Frank left off. Kara Walker has, without mentioning Rachel Frank by name. She has, taken up the mantel of showing the women’s explicit sexual physical and psychological world.
While seeing this documentary one cannot help but be impressed with how different the world is for woman than for men.
Another example of pain in art is that of Freda Kalo who seemed physically and visibly linked to her husband Diego Rivera, as she watched him be the famous, the renowned artist while she quietly conveyed through art the incredibly painful world in which she lived.
It is difficult to separate out the rejection of these women’s artist achievements because Sex and women seem to be so entwined that the explicitness of the sexual images seem to dictate the public reaction to the work. Take this review from the New York Times on Kara Walker.
Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love
on view October 11, 2007-February 3, 2008
"Ms. Walker's style is magnetic...Brilliant is the word for it, and the brilliance grows over the survey's decade-plus span. And then there is the theme: race. It dominates everything, yet within it Ms. Walker finds a chaos of contradictory ideas and emotions." - The New York Times
The word Sex is not used and yet it is the explicit sexual images that stay with me even now, well after the exhibit has left the Whitney Museum The same is true in this documentary, it is the sexual images that you will never forget.
’
I recommend Stalags for its beautiful artistic images and for its statement on art and sex from a women’s perceptive. and to applaud Ari Libsker, a man, for bringing the details of this post war scandal into the light o four every day knowledge.
Linda Z
WBAI Women’s Collective
DVD
ISRAEL • 2007 • 63 MINUTES • IN HEBREW WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
AGORA: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.
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5/31/08
Vanaja Movie Review: Is The US Really More Sexually Enlightened Than India?
Filmed in rural India with nonactors by first time director and Columbia University graduate Rajnesh Domalpalli, who counts both countries as his home, Vanaja is immersed in elemental, vivacious Indian cultural textures, music and flavor. In contrast, the drama feels sketchy and contrived, without a clear sense of character beyond conceptualized stick figures.
Vanaja (Mamatha Bhukya) is an outspoken and ambitious fourteen year old born into poverty and living with her widowed alcoholic father. To make ends meet and also learn traditional Kuchipudi dance, Vanaja seeks work as a servant at the home of a crabby wealthy landowner. There she attracts the attention and desire of the woman's handsome aspiring politician adult son Shekhar (Karan Singh), who rapes her.
After hiding Vanaja in a neighbor's house until the child is born when Vanaja refuses an abortion, the father and daughter arrange to sell the infant boy back to the landowner. But Vanaja begins to miss her son, and returns to the estate so she can be near him. And though this despicable male with pedophilia tendencies continues to behave abusively and with intimidation towards Vanaja, she demands that her rapist marry her.
When he refuses, Vanaja concocts other schemes, such as getting together with her father to write a threatening note to the landowner demanding they recognize Vanaja as the child's rightful mother (the landowner had claimed the mother was deceased) or else they'll expose Shekhar and ruin his political career as an opposition leader (and we never learn in opposition to what). And Shekhar in turn beats Vanaja's elderly father. Vanaja also attempts to goad the local postman in return for sex, into lying that he heard Shekhar admit to their parental relationship. But he soon retracts his accusation under pressure from the landowner.
Vanaja eventually gives up her personal hopes for a happy ending to her dire situation. And defeated but unbroken, she settles for a half-dream of a vague promise from the landowner that the child will be allowed to visit her when he's much older. She then rides off into the sunset, so to speak, with a girlfriend atop a pet elephant.
There's loads of atmosphere and charm to this tale, but little that feels compelling or heartfelt to the drama. Not to mention that this is the second movie this year, following The Other Boleyn Girl, where a female yearns to marry her rapist. And yet one more in a series of deplorable films in which women fall in love with their rapists and/or are more often than not happily subjected to mandatory motherhood.
The notion of limited options for females in India is certainly a valid theme. But a little ironic when considering that India has already long accepted women as leaders of their country, and relegated to the highest office of the land, while the presumably more enlightened and advanced United States has reacted to such an idea (at least the male half of this country), with the most despicable reactionary misogynist revulsion and ridicule more associated paradoxically, with an implicit homegrown sexual caste system.
Prairie Miller
Vanaja (Mamatha Bhukya) is an outspoken and ambitious fourteen year old born into poverty and living with her widowed alcoholic father. To make ends meet and also learn traditional Kuchipudi dance, Vanaja seeks work as a servant at the home of a crabby wealthy landowner. There she attracts the attention and desire of the woman's handsome aspiring politician adult son Shekhar (Karan Singh), who rapes her.
After hiding Vanaja in a neighbor's house until the child is born when Vanaja refuses an abortion, the father and daughter arrange to sell the infant boy back to the landowner. But Vanaja begins to miss her son, and returns to the estate so she can be near him. And though this despicable male with pedophilia tendencies continues to behave abusively and with intimidation towards Vanaja, she demands that her rapist marry her.
When he refuses, Vanaja concocts other schemes, such as getting together with her father to write a threatening note to the landowner demanding they recognize Vanaja as the child's rightful mother (the landowner had claimed the mother was deceased) or else they'll expose Shekhar and ruin his political career as an opposition leader (and we never learn in opposition to what). And Shekhar in turn beats Vanaja's elderly father. Vanaja also attempts to goad the local postman in return for sex, into lying that he heard Shekhar admit to their parental relationship. But he soon retracts his accusation under pressure from the landowner.
Vanaja eventually gives up her personal hopes for a happy ending to her dire situation. And defeated but unbroken, she settles for a half-dream of a vague promise from the landowner that the child will be allowed to visit her when he's much older. She then rides off into the sunset, so to speak, with a girlfriend atop a pet elephant.
There's loads of atmosphere and charm to this tale, but little that feels compelling or heartfelt to the drama. Not to mention that this is the second movie this year, following The Other Boleyn Girl, where a female yearns to marry her rapist. And yet one more in a series of deplorable films in which women fall in love with their rapists and/or are more often than not happily subjected to mandatory motherhood.
The notion of limited options for females in India is certainly a valid theme. But a little ironic when considering that India has already long accepted women as leaders of their country, and relegated to the highest office of the land, while the presumably more enlightened and advanced United States has reacted to such an idea (at least the male half of this country), with the most despicable reactionary misogynist revulsion and ridicule more associated paradoxically, with an implicit homegrown sexual caste system.
Prairie Miller
5/29/08
My Father My Lord;
My Father My Lord
David Volach
Plot: This film tells the story of an Orthodox Jewish family, with detailed depiction of the interrelationship amongst the Rabbi (Assi Dayan) his wife (Sharon Hacohen Bar) their only child Menachem(Elan Griff) and God.
It isn't often movie goers get a look into the fine details of a religious education. But with My Father My Lord a code of silent secrecy appears to have been broken and viewers are dealt an emotional blow as they watch the unfolding of this tragic hell, the Ultra Orthodox Judaic teachings.
Any religion that is extreme is, in a broad sense of the word, a cult, with rules and ideas far different from main stream community life. This film, My Father My Lord shows how the religious dictates triumph over the ordinary needs for the expression and nurturing of the young whom they cherish as the source of their immediate enjoyment of life and of their future: the continuance of their extreme understanding of God, of the Torah, of a way of life alien to rest of human kind.
The suffering of the Women in this religious sect, the way they are not allowed to have free access to their children, their secondary role in the Temple and in the intellectual rearing of their children is just a hint of what women in many cultures, and for thousands of years had have to endure.
The detail, the gentle yet persistent depiction of this way of life, where God triumphs over the human needs of the young and men rule is so compelling that this film My Father My God will stay with you long after you see it.
It is an experience well worth the price of the admission.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
David Volach
Plot: This film tells the story of an Orthodox Jewish family, with detailed depiction of the interrelationship amongst the Rabbi (Assi Dayan) his wife (Sharon Hacohen Bar) their only child Menachem(Elan Griff) and God.
It isn't often movie goers get a look into the fine details of a religious education. But with My Father My Lord a code of silent secrecy appears to have been broken and viewers are dealt an emotional blow as they watch the unfolding of this tragic hell, the Ultra Orthodox Judaic teachings.
Any religion that is extreme is, in a broad sense of the word, a cult, with rules and ideas far different from main stream community life. This film, My Father My Lord shows how the religious dictates triumph over the ordinary needs for the expression and nurturing of the young whom they cherish as the source of their immediate enjoyment of life and of their future: the continuance of their extreme understanding of God, of the Torah, of a way of life alien to rest of human kind.
The suffering of the Women in this religious sect, the way they are not allowed to have free access to their children, their secondary role in the Temple and in the intellectual rearing of their children is just a hint of what women in many cultures, and for thousands of years had have to endure.
The detail, the gentle yet persistent depiction of this way of life, where God triumphs over the human needs of the young and men rule is so compelling that this film My Father My God will stay with you long after you see it.
It is an experience well worth the price of the admission.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
5/28/08
Sex and The City: Before it opens in theaters, everywhere!
Michael Patrick King
The world could be on the verge of collapse, war proliferating at an accelerating pace, the price of oil, of food could sky racket out of control and with empty bellies and no where to go that isn't too expensive to the starving millions, we will go to great lengths to see, "Sex in the City" or at least that is what the film industry and Michael Patrick King are hoping for.
Who would have imagined the day when writing a film review did not need the release of the film or a preview look at its content to offer an analysis of the hype to the interested and uninterested parties of the theatrical event. Content be damn.
Here we are days before the film's release and Sex in the
City is everywhere:. the billboards, the prime time 11 p.m. "news" along with the regular costly publicity the studios purchase for our "edification".
What can be said? Many are hoping, with tangible uncertainty for the film's success. "I hope it is a good film" is not an uncommon comment to herald this "great" earth shaking event.
It is a feature length film about women, that uses the tantalizing word "sex' with the assurance that this word will bring millions of dollars to those who are involved in putting sex into our everyday lives and what better concept to unite with sex than the money hungry,center of the world, the city..
The city is, of course, New York.
What a combination New York City and Sex.
Interesting to note is the movement over time from the "Golden Girls" to the"Desperate Housewives" and now onto the real deal, women and sex.
Women read books and they like to look at other women. Women as the subject will soon be more lucrative than men in sports, men starring in violent action flicks, men in politics. Men in dark suits with a drip of color around the neck don't turn me on either.
So, here we are. Sex and women linked as the big attraction.
Even if I don't see this film I applaud it.
LindaZ
WBAI Women's Collective
The world could be on the verge of collapse, war proliferating at an accelerating pace, the price of oil, of food could sky racket out of control and with empty bellies and no where to go that isn't too expensive to the starving millions, we will go to great lengths to see, "Sex in the City" or at least that is what the film industry and Michael Patrick King are hoping for.
Who would have imagined the day when writing a film review did not need the release of the film or a preview look at its content to offer an analysis of the hype to the interested and uninterested parties of the theatrical event. Content be damn.
Here we are days before the film's release and Sex in the
City is everywhere:. the billboards, the prime time 11 p.m. "news" along with the regular costly publicity the studios purchase for our "edification".
What can be said? Many are hoping, with tangible uncertainty for the film's success. "I hope it is a good film" is not an uncommon comment to herald this "great" earth shaking event.
It is a feature length film about women, that uses the tantalizing word "sex' with the assurance that this word will bring millions of dollars to those who are involved in putting sex into our everyday lives and what better concept to unite with sex than the money hungry,center of the world, the city..
The city is, of course, New York.
What a combination New York City and Sex.
Interesting to note is the movement over time from the "Golden Girls" to the"Desperate Housewives" and now onto the real deal, women and sex.
Women read books and they like to look at other women. Women as the subject will soon be more lucrative than men in sports, men starring in violent action flicks, men in politics. Men in dark suits with a drip of color around the neck don't turn me on either.
So, here we are. Sex and women linked as the big attraction.
Even if I don't see this film I applaud it.
LindaZ
WBAI Women's Collective
5/20/08
The Mother of Tears: Dario Argento
Plot: An Urn uncovered after centuries of being buried, contains the tunic and artifacts( of three figures (in reference to the Trinity) that set the chase between the adolescent acting daughter of the Good White Witch, Sarah (Asia Argebnto) and the beautiful mature, enticing and evil Mother Of Tears (Moran Atias).
If you like thrillers, if you like blood and horror, if you like reality interspersed with fantasy, if you enjoy the subtlety of the Trinity transposed into three witches and chase scenes with screaming women running endlessly away from the very horror of which they are the creators.
If you enjoy seeing skin peeled off the human body, our organs gushing forth in vivid depiction accompanied by powerful, creative musical scores that are meant to augment but become center stage.
If you enjoy seeing eyes repeatedly pierced and an up front detailed view of what an eye looks like, as an isolated entity enlarged like the face of an actor filling an over large screen,
If you like to see good mother and bad mother portrayed and women treated not with dignity but with the raw ingredients that make for our machismo society, then this film The Mother of Tears is for you.
In Rome this is a sought after experience, with the impact of centuries of religion and civilizations under the very ground upon which the City is built giving extra everyday experiential meaning to the script. But in America I think the significance of this reality is not even a subliminal connection.
If you are brave and a little desperate, see the film and laugh or be "grossed out" by this creative, comedic triller/horror film.
Linda Z
WBAI women’s Collective
If you like thrillers, if you like blood and horror, if you like reality interspersed with fantasy, if you enjoy the subtlety of the Trinity transposed into three witches and chase scenes with screaming women running endlessly away from the very horror of which they are the creators.
If you enjoy seeing skin peeled off the human body, our organs gushing forth in vivid depiction accompanied by powerful, creative musical scores that are meant to augment but become center stage.
If you enjoy seeing eyes repeatedly pierced and an up front detailed view of what an eye looks like, as an isolated entity enlarged like the face of an actor filling an over large screen,
If you like to see good mother and bad mother portrayed and women treated not with dignity but with the raw ingredients that make for our machismo society, then this film The Mother of Tears is for you.
In Rome this is a sought after experience, with the impact of centuries of religion and civilizations under the very ground upon which the City is built giving extra everyday experiential meaning to the script. But in America I think the significance of this reality is not even a subliminal connection.
If you are brave and a little desperate, see the film and laugh or be "grossed out" by this creative, comedic triller/horror film.
Linda Z
WBAI women’s Collective
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