NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Since I've become more involved in film-making, I've been doing more to try to watch "good" movies and see what tips or tricks they might offer. I try to avoid Youtube videos that sort of lay it all out for me, although those can be tempting and intriguing. But I just see if I can sort of translate it or decipher it, given my own understanding of visual language and narrative structure. One thing I have found fascinating however is reading interviews with great directors, where they talk about their choices in film-making and also what films or other creators they look to and try to follow or emulate. Below is an interview with Alfred Hitchcock from 1964. ************************ Interview with Alfred Hitchcock Monitor, BBC July 5, 1964 The following interview, between Alfred Hitchcock and Huw Wheldon , was filmed for the BBC television programme "Monitor" and was first broadcast on 05/Jul/1964. It was repeated in May 1997 as part of the BBC2&#

Last year I got the chance to work with a great group of people on a film project. It is tentatively titled Lalahen Sinahi. I co-wrote the script with Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, and we made it almost entirely in Chamorro. We had an intense couple of weeks filming it, only to have some of the scenes disappear on us. Ken is currently off-island attending graduate school, but when he returns next month we'll need to figure out what to do next with the project, if we should shoot it again or try to salvage what we have.  As we were writing the screenplay, a specter who was always shadowing our discussions was Quentin Tarantino. His dialogue driven stories was something we both wanted to capture in small and large ways. Sometimes people can get irritated with that type of storytelling, but when it works, it is incredibly effective and ridiculously engrossing. The flavors that he infuses into the dialogue, the tension he builds can be amazing. I am hoping that in either this project or o

Isa, the kids and I watched Ben-Hur over the weekend. Isa and I had watched parts of it before, but never sat down to experiences its 200+ minutes of epic drama. The kids found it boring for the most part, but the scenes in the slave ship and of course the chariot race, got them very interested and excited. Akli'e' found it particularly difficult to follow, as so many scenes would feature dramatic music in the background and characters looking pained off into space. The tension and emotional complexity was completely lost on the poor boy. Sumahi tends to enjoy movies based on a formula that boils down to "How many animals are in this movie?" and the hope that there be more animals visible than humans in this film. For both Isa and I, we were watching the film with a variety of things in mind. We've been trying to watch more "great" films and then work to analyze the camerawork, the acting, the effects, the writing and other logistics that create a fant

Gof malago' yu' mohon na para u mafa'nu'i i nuebu na muben Michael Moore giya Guahan. I ma'pos na mubi-na siha, manmafa'nu'i guini. Lao, ti siguru yu' put este na mubi. Anai hu atan i listan i manindependente na mubi siha ni' manmachuchule' magi pa'go, puru ha' manconservative gi fina'tinas-niha. Taya' "progressive" pat "liberal" taiguihi i fina'tinas-na si Michael Moore. ***************** Where to Invade Next - Michael Moore Strikes a Melancholy Chord by Joseph A. Palermo Professor, Historian, Author Huffington Post 2/13/16 Where to Invade Next is Michael Moore's most disturbing film yet. Contrasting the progressive public policies practiced abroad with those here at home, Moore starkly drives home just how inhumane American society has truly become. The movie is a simple exercise in comparing and contrasting American public policies with those of other countries. It'

30 Things We Learned from the ‘Fight Club’ Commentary Commentary Commentary By Rob Hunter on July 10, 2014  http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/things-learned-fight-club-commentary.php#6MhJMlVVAQOTblUy.99 David Fincher ‘s Fight Club  wowed audiences with his typical technical brilliance and sharp use of CGI, but it remains an amazing piece of work fifteen years later for its narrative, social commentary and fantastic black humor. Misunderstood and under-appreciated by many upon its release, the film has gone on to earn legions of fans over the years, and listening to the commentary track featuring Fincher, Edward Norton , Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter (one of four commentaries on the disc) opens up an even more detailed appreciation of the film. It’s actually one of the very first commentary tracks (or “auxiliary tracks” as Fincher calls them) I ever listened to many years ago, and the discovery that we had yet to cover it here made it well

I just made a donation in support of the film " The Monique Baza Story ." It is an exciting upcoming film that tackles a serious issue on Guam, violence against women, in particular sexual violence, which according to the film's producers happens on Guam at a rate significantly higher per capita than a teeming metropolis like New York City. The film tells the story of Monique Baza who was kidnapped and raped in 2012 and after seeing the disastrous state of Guam's legal system and support system of victims, decided to speak out. Last year Chamorro Studies and Women and Gender Studies at UOG invited her along with several others to come and speak at a forum on sexual violence. Not all victims are able to respond the way she has, some find it too difficult and daunting to deal with the burden and society's inability sometimes to negotiate their emotion wounding or the social wound that their attack has revealed that few want to admit to or deal with. Here is a me