BRAVO OSCARS!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got it right!

I am thrilled that Kathryn Bigelow got the much deserved Best Director's award and that The Hurt Locker was awarded Best Picture. Many props to Mo'Nique on her win and especially for her acceptance speech, which made clear her priorities and celebrated her husband's wisdom. He's got to feel like the fiercest man on the block. A big shout out to Geoffrey Fletcher, the brother who won for adapting Sapphire's Push to the screen. While it would have been extraordinary for the Gabby to win best actress, it was nonetheless wonderful that Sandra Bullock received the honor.

All in all it was a great evening in spite of it being haunted by the spirit Kanye West.

Cheers

LAFF

Go, Bigelow, Go!

If you long for the days of real emotionally gut wrenching movie-making then Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is the film to see. In it we are taken behind the scenes to follows a bomb disposal unit stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. These are the soldiers who seek and disarm road side bombs. With great sensitively the film captures the chaos and hopelessness of war as well as the madness of adrenaline addiction.

I loath war and haven't watched a war movie since my dad took our family to see The Guns of Navarone years ago. I walked out fifteen minutes into the screening. Even as a kid war images weirded me out. So what drew me to The Hurt Locker? First I was intrigued by the idea of a woman doing a war film and also that she is James Cameron's former wife and they are going head-to-head for Best Director and Best Film (okay, I confess, I can be as shallow as the next person). She did not disappoint.

I believe a film should haunt, linger in the heart and mind for a time and, at its most excellent, expand your world view. For my money, this year The Hurt Locker is that movie. Since seeing it, the mere mention of a 'bomb squad' causes its truth to flood my mind. I see the images and am once again reminded that as a species we must find another way to resolve conflicts, one that doesn't require bombs and guns and killing.

James Cameron spent $400 million to make a 3-D spectacle that has changed the movie-making game and will continue to generate a lot of loot in the industry (with that over the top budget this is the very least we should expect). But Kathryn Bigelow has accomplished something much deeper. With The Hurt Locker she reminds us of the painful complexity of war and how it destroys the human spirit. With poignant storytelling, she and script writer Mark Boal asks us to call forth our better selves and re-think the sacrifice we all suffer through war. There are no winners.

Kathryn Bigelow has more cojones than a football field full of guy movie executives and I applaud her for being so bold, so true and so gentle. I am greatly anticipating her acceptance speech for best director.

The Dinka's Avatar

Well, it's been a long while since I have written but I am back in time for Oscar Season! I've seen a number of them but have missed many. Besides Precious, the most intriguing film story is the directorial face-off between Avatar and The Hurt Locker by ex-spouses James Cameron and Katherine Bigelow,respectively.

Hands down, Avatar is the technical marvel of the season. Like everyone else I left the theater awed by its 3-D brilliance and wanting to see it again (I never did). But the brilliance of Avatar rapidly dimmed. It has been ultimately replaced by general irritation every time I hear Cameron's stoic pontifications about having to wait 30 years for technology to catch up to his vision and the film's political implications that we as a species must be mindful of the environment....blah, blah, blah.

What Cameron hasn't shared publicly is that he had no problem finding tons of creative inspiration for his story about the rescue of the environmentally and spiritually conscious Navi people by the white guy who "went native." This character, of course, ends up with the biggest, baddest flying animal. He defends the Navi and their nature/spirit-based world from the military industrial complex that wants their land for its own selfish economic purposes. Okay, we get it. We've lived it a million times over. It's the same story of victimization that every group of indigenous people on this planet can tell and here in the 21st century in this country we are still told that these people can only be saved by a courageously transformed member of an enemy clan. It's so exhausting.

These Dinka women of southern Sudan in this photograph by Angela Fisher wear beaded collars identical to that worn by Moat, the high priestess character. Adornment on the male characters can also be traced to the Dinka people. While more difficult to prove, I suspect the physical characteristics of the Navi were also inspired by the Dinka who tend to be extremely tall, lean and muscular. At 7'7", NBA star Manute Bol is a classic example of a Dinka man. Add dread locks and tails (I can't even deal with the tail thing) and you have the Navi. I wonder how much of the mega-millions that Cameron, et al., are making off of this film will go to hellp the people that so inspired his vision?

Presently hundreds of thousands of Dinka people are war refugees and have been flung as far and wide as Canada and the United States (see film Lost Boys of Sudan.) Human trafficking and slave trade continue to plague those who remain in Southern Sudan. Supermodel Alex Wek hails from the Dinka people. You can find segment of a BBC special about her return to her home at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Wo-bo9DE&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=3FFF38F321F9B023

What a little Avatar cash money could do to assist the Dinkas' plight.

I doubt that my cultural concerns matter much to James Cameron or The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when it comes to awarding or receiving an Oscar. I have found numerous film reviews that take Cameron to task about the predictable, shallow content of Avatar but none that specifically deal with his co-opting the Dinka's aesthetic. What would compel him to do so? I would anticipate a dismissive response claiming that all artists get their inspiration from somewhere. True, but the difference in this particular instance is that there is such a tremendous need. The film-going public certainly won't care. And who would tell them? Only a trained eye could recognize Dinka beadwork. Plus, we are notorious for the "entertain me" syndrome. Authenticity, cultural context, paying respects for origins of film image, thinking about the images that fill the screen before them...ah, not so much. What a sadly missed opportunity.

Happy Oscars

LAFF

Photo of Dinka man by Angela Fisher

Next: The Hurt Locker