williamaveryhudson

Hollinghurst S, Sharp D, Ballard K, et al. Randomised controlled trial of Alexander technique lessons, exercise, and massage (ATEAM) for chronic and recurrent back pain: economic evaluation. BMJ. 2008 Dec 11;337. PMID: 19074232

Researchers at the University of Bristol led this economic evaluation of therapeutic massage, exercise, and lessons in the Alexander technique for treating persistent back pain. They found that six lessons in the Alexander technique combined with an exercise prescription was the most cost-effective option for patients in Britain’s National Health Service.

From the discussion:

“Our associated clinical paper showed that an exercise prescription alone had only a moderate effect on disability scores and that massage was unlikely to provide a sustained improvement, whereas lessons in the Alexander technique were effective in the longer term over a range of outcomes. Considering the level of uncertainty around the effectiveness of normal care plus exercise, and taking account of all evidence, we conclude that a series of six lessons in Alexander technique combined with an exercise prescription seems the most effective and cost effective option for
the treatment of back pain in primary care.”

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

technorati tags: complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine alexander technique

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Background for the 2009 Forum (Internationales Forum des Jungen Films), the Berlin Film Festival showcase for independent cinema. Eleven films are debuts, 25 are world premieres, and 12 are international premieres.

My practice is to share my notes as I build an article. Watch for original essays beginning 5 February.

DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Araya (Margot Benacerraf, Venezuela/France) (WP of the restored print - special screening)
From IMDb: "’Araya’ is an old natural salt mine located in a peninsula in northeastern Venezuela which was still, by 1959, being exploited manually five hundred years after its discovery by the Spanish. Margot Benacerraf captures in images, the life of the "salineros" and their archaic methods of work before their definite disappearance with the arrival of the industrial exploitation. "

Hashmatsa / Defamation (Yoav Shamir, Denmark, Austria, Israel, US) (WP)
From the press release: "Shamir’s research surrounding the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) put him on the trail of quite a different phenomenon—the delicate matter of confronting the aura of the perpetual victim."

Letters to the President (Petr Lom, Canada/Iran) (WP)
From the press release: "…The subject is the letters that millions of Iranians, encouraged by state propaganda, write to their president."

Material (Thomas Heise, Germany) (WP, special screening)
From Kulturstiftung des Bundes: "Thomas Heise was born in East Berlin in 1955 and grew up in the former GDR. His experiences under the communist regime strongly influenced his view of German history, which will be the theme of an installation titled Material. In a montage of photos and audio materials, collected over the past thirty years, Heise creates an installation that portrays a uniquely personal, historic panorama that starkly contrasts official versions of recent German history…."

Ne me libérez pas, je m’en charge / My Greatest Escape (Fabienne Godet, France) (WP)

Rachel (Simone Bitton, France/Belgium) (WP)
From the press release: "Takes up the case of American peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip."

Sweetgrass (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA) (WP)
From Harvard VES: "a long-form work depicting the annual transhumance of a band of sheep and their herders with the last grazing permit in the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains."

Die wundersame Welt der Waschkraft / The Wondrous World of Laundry (Die wundersame Welt der Waschkraft / The Wondrous World of Laundry">Hans-Christian Schmid, Germany) (WP, special screening)

Zum Vergleich / By Comparison (Harun Farocki, Germany/Austria) (WP)

D’Arusha à Arusha / From Arusha to Arusha (Christophe Gargot, France/Canada/Ruanda) (IP)
From the press release: "Documentary concerned with the longterm effects of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which close to a million people were killed. His fascinating and illuminating film contrasts the prosecution of the crimes by the international tribunal in Arusha with the struggle to cope with the trauma on an individual and interpersonal level."

L’encerclement / Encirclement: Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy (Richard Brouillette, Canada) (IP)
From the film website: "Drawing upon the thinking and analyses of renowned intellectuals, this documentary sketches a portrait of neo-liberal ideology and examines the various mechanisms used to impose its dictates throughout the world."

H:r Landshövding / Mr Governor (Måns Månsson, Sweden) (IP)
With Anders Björck.
From stockholmfilmfestival.se: "Over a year, we follow the former Swedish Minister of Defense, Anders Björck, in his work as governor of Uppsala County. The official position is almost 400 years old, and the job consists of sitting at a big desk, having lunch meetings with other governors, cutting ribbons at opening ceremonies, holding speeches and eating dinner with the King and Queen of Sweden. It is hard work, but someone has to do it. Björck gives the viewer full access, making this personal portrait both humorous and very, very serious."

Filmmakers Against Racism (special screening)
Affectionately Known as Alex (Danny Turken, South Africa) (EP)
Angels on our Shoulders (Andy Spitz, South Africa) (EP)
Baraka / The Blessing (Omelga Mthiyane, Riaan Hendricks, Marianne Gysae, South Africa) (EP)
The Burning Man (Adze Ugah, South Africa) (EP)

Ma dai fu de zhen suo / Doctor Ma’s Country Clinic (Cong Feng, People’s Republic of China) (EP)
From ccdworkstation.com: "In this narrow and small clinic, when people wait for seeing doctor or making up prescription, they usually chat with each others about their lives, local conditions, or the experience of people they know."

Polamuang Juling / Citizen Juling (Kraisak Choonhavan, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Ing K, Thailand) (EP)
From the press release: "After a fanatical mob brutally attacked two school teachers in the spring of 2006, filmmaker Ing K and politician and human rights activist Kraisak Choonhavan set out on a journey across Thailand, a country divided by violence and prejudice."

Seishin / Mental (Soda Kazuhiro, Japan) (EP)
From Japan Today: "A chronicle of lives focusing on a small outpatient mental clinic in Okayama City, the 135-minute film makes the viewer feel as if he or she is making a personal visit to the clinic, questioning what it means to be ‘‘sane’’ and ‘‘insane’’ along the way."
From IMDb: "MENTAL is a feature-length documentary that observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers, in cinema-verite style. The film breaks a major taboo against discussing mental illness prevalent in Japanese society, and captures the candid lives of people coping with suicidal tendencies, poverty, a sense of shame, apprehension, and fear of society.  Written by Kazuhiro Soda."

Semaan Bilda’ia / The One Man Village (Simon El Habre, Lebanon) (EP)
From the press release: "A portrait of his uncle Semaan, the sole inhabitant of a mountain village turned into a ghost town by the Lebanese civil war. Despite its sadness, this wonderfully photographed film is also a story about the joy of a life lived in peace."

Soul Power (Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, USA) (EP, special screening)

When it was Blue (Jennifer Reeves, USA/Iceland) (EP, special screening)

FICTIONAL FILMS
Aguas Verdes / Green Waters (Mariano De Rosa, Argentina) (WP)
With Alejandro Fiore, Milagros Gallo, Maximiliano Gigli, Julieta Mora, Efrat Wolns, Jorgelina Amedolara, Diego Cremonesi
From IMDb: "Juan is a family man; he feels at ease with his life and his work, and with his wife and two children. Everything seems to indicate that the summer holidays in Aguas Verdes are going to be a pleasant time. An unexpected element, however, triggers Juan’s mental imbalance."

Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski, US) (WP)
With Tilly Hatcher, Maggie Hatcher, Alex Karpovsky, Katy O’Connor, David Zellner, Kyle Henry, Anne Dodge, Betty Blackwell, and others.
From the press release: "Using the gestures, manner of speaking, and props of everyday life, Bujalski discovers small dramatic episodes of an astonishing cinematographic quality. His laconicism and intimacy can be considered the marks of a trend; a special genre term has, in fact, already been coined to reflect the way the actors, mostly non-professionals, speak in his films: ‘mumblecore’. This term can also be seen as an indication that the mumbling of everyday life all too often transmits the clearest signs of life."

Cea mai fericită fată din lume / The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude, Romania/The Netherlands) (WP)
With Andi Vasluianu, Serban Pavlu, Luminita Stoianovici, Vasile Muraru, Diana Gheorghian, Alexandru Georgescu, Bogdan Marhodin, Doru Catanescu, and others.
From the press release: "Tells the story of Delia, a teenager who feels like she’s entered another world after winning a car. When she is expected to play the ‘happiest girl in the world’ in a TV advertisement in return, the shoot quickly becomes a crash course on growing up in this painfully telling film, a comment as relentless as it is comic on the situation in post-Communist Romania."

Un chat un chat / Pardon my French (Sophie Fillières, France) (WP)
With Chiara Mastroianni, Sophie Guillemin, Malik Zidi, Agathe Bonitzer, Dominique Valadié, Christine Honrado.

Eoddeon gaien nal / The Day After (Lee Suk-Gyung, Republic of Korea) (WP)

The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray, US) (WP)
With Mark Rendall, Zoe Kazan, Maryann Urbano, and Hunter Canning.     
From the press release: "During their summer vacation, Ivy and Al discover that a shift from “best friends” to lovers may be on the cards. It is, however, precisely their familiarity that now represents a barrier between them."

Generasi biru / The Blue Generation (Garin Nugroho, John De Rantau, Dosy Omar, Indonesia) (WP, special screening)

A History of Israeli Cinema (Raphaël Nadjari, France/Israel) (WP, special screening)

Die koreanische Hochzeitstruhe / The Korean Wedding Chest (Ulrike Ottinger, Germany) (WP)
With Kim KeumHwa, Boseong, Kim Minja, Ahn Baekseung, Yun Minkyung, Yoo Heejong, Lee Hyaekyoung, Yang Gilseung, and others.
From ulrikeottinger.com: "When I opened a Korean email in fall 2007 I didn’t imagine that I would soon be opening a well-stocked miracle box, the inspiring contents of which would become a film: THE KOREAN WEDDING CHEST. Even though (or especially because) this carefully packed, filled, and tied-up wooden chest was assembled according to the rules of an honored tradition, it offers a remarkable insight into and overview of modern Korean society. I was inspired to look more closely at the old and new rituals to determine what is old in the new and new in the old. A modern fairytale about the amazing phenomenon of new mega cities emerging everywhere and their contradictory societies caught in the balancing act. Bon voyage into the present!"

Man tänker sitt / Burrowing (Fredrik Wenzel, Henrik Hellström, Sweden) (WP)
With Sebastian Eklund, Jörgen Svensson, Hannes Sandahl, Marek Kosterzewski, Bodil Wessberg, Silas Franceen.
From Swedish Film Institute: "Sebastian lives at home with his mother. He is eleven years old. From an elevated spot in the playground, he surveys his neighbourhood."

Marin Blue (Matthew Hysell, US) (WP)
With Cory Knauf, Najarra Townsend, Elliott Ehlers, Josh Cobb, Trista Robinson, Tanya F. Yarbrough, Sean Guse, Kate Melia and others.
From the press release: "In the perplexing void of Los Angeles ’s suburban architecture, the ruins of real estate speculation, they seek out temporary housing, and wait for their memories to return."
From the film website: "Marin and Jim are two outsiders, drawn together by a shared history unknown even to them. Marin spends her days at a youth mental facility singing over a loudspeaker to patients. Jim, recently committed, only knows her through her voice."

Mitte Ende August / Sometime in August (Sebastian Schipper, Germany) (WP)
With Marie Bäumer, Anna Brüggemann, André Hennicke, Milan Peschel

La sirena y el buzo / The Mermaid and the Diver (Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez, Mexico/Nicaragua/Spain) (WP)

Sumashedshaya pomosh / Help Gone Mad (Boris Khlebnikov, Russia) (WP)
From Russia Info-Centre: "…Adventures of a Byelorussian migrant worker Mad Help (Sumashedshaya Pomosh)…. The main character Yevgeny (Evgenii Sytyi), a lazy, jovial and kind-hearted chap from a Byelorussian village comes to Moscow in search of a living. A criminal incident suddenly separates him from his fellows; he is left alone without money and documents. Yet, a generous Muscovite, a former engineer (Sergei Dreiden) gives him shelter. Together they plunge into adventures and struggle with the district militia officer (Aleksandr Yatsenko) for what they think to be a righteous cause."

Wu Sheng Feng Ling / Soundless Wind Chime (Kit Hung, Hong Kong/Switzerland) (WP)
From IMDb: ‘’Ricky leaves Hong Kong for Switzerland to look for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover, Pascal. Ricky struggles with the confusion of memories, reality and illusion."

Yanaka boshoku / Deep in the Valley  (Funahashi Atsushi, Japan) (WP)

Ai no mukidashi / Love Exposure (Sono Sion, Japan) (IP)
With Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Makiko Watanabe, Atsuro Watabe, Sakura Ando, Yûko Genkaku, Itsuji Itao, Mitsuru Kuramoto, and others.
From Quiet Earth: "This looks like what Woody Allen would do if he were Japanese: some perversion, religious symbolism, and a sprinkling of martial arts. ‘Forced to confess his sins by his priest father, Yu devotes himself to wrongdoing and becomes a legend of sneak photography. Then he meets Yoko, and becomes involved with a mysterious religious cult… NISHIJIMA Takahiro, MITSUSHIMA Hikari and ANDO Sakura make a splendid ensemble in this epic love story.’"

Calimucho (Eugenie Jansen, The Netherlands) (IP)
With Evelyne Bougliogne, Tarek Hannoudi, Joshy Huppertz, Manfred Huppertz, Ralf Huppertz, Freddy Kenton, Dicky Kilian, Ana Muntean, and others.
From the press release: "For an entire season the director traveled with a circus through the small towns of the Dutch countryside, going on to stage a fictional story in which all the characters more or less play themselves in an atmosphere reminiscent of a fairy tale."
From IMDb: "Dicky bears the full weight of the small, financially unstable family circus on her shoulders."
From Variety.com: "A circus artiste tries to juggle love, desire and her dead sister’s job in Dutch verite-fiction hybrid ‘Calimucho’."

Ching yan / The Beast Stalker (Dante Lam, Hong Kong) (IP, special screening)
With Nicholas Tse, Jingchu Zhang, Nick Cheung, Kai Chi Liu, Sherman Chung, Philip Keung, Esther Kwan, Jing-hung Kwok and others.

Hayat var / My Only Sunshine (Reha Erdem, Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria) (IP)
With Elit İşcan, Erdal Beşikçioğlu, Levend Yılmaz
From 45th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival: "Hayat (14), her father and bedridden grandfather live in a riverside shack near the dangerously dark but breathtakingly beautiful waters of the Bosphorus. Hayat’s father owns a small boat that secures the family’s survival trough a miscellany of not always lawful ventures. Beyond the motion and romance of the water, Hayat’s life is harsh and unrelenting. But Hayat has an instinct for survival. Her capacity for courage, endurance and hope in the face of these trials suggest that there is Life despite the manifold injustice of an unjust world."

Heosuabideuleui ddang / Land of Scarecrows (Roh Gyeong-Tae, Republic of Korea/France) (IP)
With Kim Sun-young, Phuong Thi Bich, Jung Du-won, and Shin An-jin.
From VarietyAsiaOnline: "…three misfits living on the very outer fringes of society."

Jang-rae-sig-ui member / Members of the Funeral (Baek Seung-bin, Republic of Korea) (IP)
With Yoo Ha Bok, Park Myung-shin, Kim Byul, and Lee Ju-seung.
From VarietyAsiaOnline: "A dysfunctional family’s heart of darkness is laid bare in the grimly humorous and then just plain grim meller ‘Members of the Funeral’. Feature bow by Baek Seung-bin heralds a dark wit and sleek intelligence guided by a creatively secure humility."

Kan door huid heen / Can Go Through Skin (Esther Rots, The Netherlands) (IP)
With Rifka Lodeizen, Wim Opbrouck, and Chris Borowski.
From IMDb: "The silent aftermath of a young woman’s disaster is broken by her discovery of nature’s old rhythms."

멋진 하루 / Meotjin haru / My Dear Enemy (Lee Yoon-Ki, Republic of Korea) (IP)
With Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-woo Ha, Il-hwa Choi, Ju-bong Gi    , Hyo-ju Han    , So-yeon Jang, Si-nae Jo, Hye-ok Kim, and others.
From KMDb: "Jobless and single in her thirties, Hee-soo is miserable. On one fine day, she sets out to find Byoung-woon, her ex-boyfriend. It is not love that brings them together but $1,000 Hee-soo had lent to Byoung-woon a year ago. Byoung-woon is also penniless but surprisingly happy for he knows the girls who are willing to give him money. Afraid Byoung-woon may run off before clearing his debt, Hee-soo follows him as he visits many girls to borrow money, so the two ex-love birds set out on a one day journey to collect money, and memory."

Winterstilte / Winter Silence (Sonja Wyss, The Netherlands/Switzerland) (IP)
With Gerda Zangger, Sandra Utzinger, Brigitta Weber, Katalin Liptak, and Sarah Bühlmann.
From the press release: "An archaic story of sexual awakening and religious mysticism in the director’s Swiss homeland."
From the film website: "In a snowed-in log cabin, a widow lives with her four grown-up daughters, all with their own desires for love and intimacy. The strong Catholic faith and their mourning that has tormented them for years has condemned them to a life of chastity. Mysterious deer-men change their existence."

Mubōbi / Naked of Defenses(Ichii Masahide, Japan) (EP)
From Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow: "A woman working in a factory in rural Japan who grows jealous of her pregnant co-worker."

Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim, USA/Republic of Korea) (EP)
With Hee-yeon Kim, Mi-hyang Kim, Song-hee Kim, and Soo-ah Lee.        
From the press release: "The story of two sisters who, at a very early age, are confronted with a world that they do not understand and in which they are not welcome."
From Variety.com: "Two resilient little sisters bear up as best they can when their desperate mom dumps them with relatives."

Langsamer Sommer / Slow Summer (John Cook, Austria) (special screening)

Schwitzkasten / Clinch (John Cook, Austria) (special screening)

For more information, visit the Forum website.
 
Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

Technorati tags:
film festivals

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Sun 11 January 2009
GlobalFest 2009
Webster Hall, NYC

One of the best curated music festivals in New York. One night, three stages.

Brooklyn Qawwali Party (USA)
www.brooklynqawwaliparty.com
From the program: “Paying tribute to one of the world’s greatest vocalists, Brooklyn Qawwali Party was formed to honor the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The group reworks his thunderous songs for an electic 10-piece orchestra comprised of groundbreaking musicians.”

Calypso Rose (Trinidad & Tobago)
From the program: “In the man’s world of calypso, McCartha Lewis, known as Calypso Rose, had reigned as queen for the last forty years.”

Chicha Libre (USA)
www.myspace.com/chichalibre

Chicha Libre

From the program: “Led by French émigré Olivier Conan, owner of the influential nightclub Barbès, this New York sextet vamps on the distinctive Amazonian sound called chicha, in which the Peruvian love of cumbias mixed with rock organ, surf guitar, and Andean melodies in the free-wheeling late 1960s.”

Hot 8 Brass Band (USA)
www.hot8brassband.com
From the program: “Despite the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, the young New Orleans members of Hot 8 have become icons of the city’s unforgettable second line music, a street tradition linked to jazz funerals and the African-American societies that supported them in the 19th century. The musicians, who began playing together in high school, keep true to this spirit, while infusing their performance with youthful funk and fire.”

Kailash Kher’s Kailasa (India)
www.kailashkher.com

Kailash Kher’s Kailasa

From the program: “Beloved in Bollywood for his superb renditions of Sufi songs… Kher began studying Indian classical vocal music from the age of 12 with his father, and later broke into the limelight, thanks in part to the Mumbai-based ensemble Kailasa.”

L&O (France)
www.leolegroupe.com
From the program: “L&O is an intimate new direction for Olivier Slabiak, co-founder of France’s favorite klezmorim, Les Yeux Noirs…. He teams up with classically trained vocalist wife Laure for a light yet passionate project that explores French chansons and swing in arrangements featuring everything from glockenspiel to tuba.”

La Troba Kung-Fù (Spain)
www.latrobakungfu.net
From the program: “Catalan troubadours with serious attitude, La Troba takes rumba catalana to a whole other global dimension in a way that would make Manu Chao smile, mixing in cumbia, vallenato, salsa, dub, and rock. A project of vocalist and accordinist Joan Garriga with former bandmates from Dusminguet.”

Marcio Local (Brazil)
From the program: “A child of 1970s working-class Rio, Local returns to the music of Brazilian funk pioneers like Jorge Ben, musicians who boldly mixed soul and r&b with samba and bossa nova.”

Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (Ghana/USA)
www.occidentalbrothers.com
From the program: “Led by an indie-rock guitarist who lived in Ghana (Nathaniel Braddock) and a singer from one of Ghana’s hottest highlife bands (Kofi Cromwell of the Western Diamonds), this ensemble brings together the musical best of what West and Central Africa (highlife and rumba) and Chicago (avant-garde jazz, house, underground rock) have to offer.”

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble (Iran/France)

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble

From the program: “Multi-instrumentalist and dancer Saeid Shanbehzadeh and his son perform traditional music and dance from Bushehr in Southern Iran on the Persian Gulf. Their music and dance is an extraordinary amalgam of the Persian, Arab, African, and Indian influences of the region, and cultural crossroads for centuries.”

Tanya Tagaq (Canada)
www.tanyatagaq.com

Tanya Tagaq with cellist Cris Derksen

From the program: “As an art student far from her native Arctic home of Nunavut, Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq began perfecting her groundbreaking take on the complex traditional vocal games played between two female singers. Her otherworldly approach soon caught the ear of the Kronos Quartet, Björk (who invited Tagaq to join her for her Vespertine tour and sang on Tagaq’s first CD, Sinaa), Faith No More, and Mr. Bungle’s Mike Patton (who signed her onto his influential Ipecac Records).”

Watcha Clan (France)
www.watchaclan.com

Watcha Clan

From the program: “The French world-electronica group Watcha Clan evolved in the Mediterranean melting pot of Marseilles, where mixtures of Sephardic, Balkan, and North African sounds come naturally. Watcha, fronted by dread-shaking Jewish vocalist Sistah K, takes the sounds of its home port and adds hard-hitting global drum-and-bass and dub beats.”

See the webcast on wnyc.org.
Photos by William Avery Hudson. View the slideshow on Flickr.

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

Technorati tags:
performing arts music festivals world music

Comments and Links Appreciated!

A preliminary list of films to be screened in the 2009 Forum (Internationales Forum des Jungen Films), the Berlin Film Festival showcase for independent cinema:

Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski, US)
With Tilly Hatcher, Maggie Hatcher, Alex Karpovsky, Katy O’Connor, David Zellner, Kyle Henry, Anne Dodge, Betty Blackwell, and others.
From the press release: “Using the gestures, manner of speaking, and props of everyday life, Bujalski discovers small dramatic episodes of an astonishing cinematographic quality. His laconicism and intimacy can be considered the marks of a trend; a special genre term has, in fact, already been coined to reflect the way the actors, mostly non-professionals, speak in his films: ‘mumblecore’. This term can also be seen as an indication that the mumbling of everyday life all too often transmits the clearest signs of life.”

Calimucho (Eugenie Jansen, The Netherlands)
With Evelyne Bougliogne, Tarek Hannoudi, Joshy Huppertz, Manfred Huppertz, Ralf Huppertz, Freddy Kenton, Dicky Kilian, Ana Muntean, and others.
From the press release: “For an entire season the director traveled with a circus through the small towns of the Dutch countryside, going on to stage a fictional story in which all the characters more or less play themselves in an atmosphere reminiscent of a fairy tale.”
From IMDb: “Dicky bears the full weight of the small, financially unstable family circus on her shoulders.”
From Variety.com: “A circus artiste tries to juggle love, desire and her dead sister’s job in Dutch verite-fiction hybrid ‘Calimucho’.”

Cea mai fericita fata din lume / The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude, Romania/Holland)
With Andi Vasluianu, Serban Pavlu, Luminita Stoianovici, Vasile Muraru, Diana Gheorghian, Alexandru Georgescu, Bogdan Marhodin, Doru Catanescu, and others.
From the press release: “Tells the story of Delia, a teenager who feels like she’s entered another world after winning a car. When she is expected to play the ‘happiest girl in the world’ in a TV advertisement in return, the shoot quickly becomes a crash course on growing up in this painfully telling film, a comment as relentless as it is comic on the situation in post-Communist Romania.”

The Day After (Lee Suk-Gyung, South Korea)
World premiere.

The Exploding Girl (Bradley Rust Gray, US)
With Mark Rendall, Zoe Kazan, Maryann Urbano, and Hunter Canning.
From the press release: “During their summer vacation, Ivy and Al discover that a shift from “best friends” to lovers may be on the cards. It is, however, precisely their familiarity that now represents a barrier between them.”

Jang-rae-sig-ui member / Members of the Funeral (Baek Seung-bin, South Korea)
With Yoo Ha Bok, Park Myung-shin, Kim Byul, and Lee Ju-seung.
From VarietyAsiaOnline: “A dysfunctional family’s heart of darkness is laid bare in the grimly humorous and then just plain grim meller ‘Members of the Funeral’. Feature bow by Baek Seung-bin heralds a dark wit and sleek intelligence guided by a creatively secure humility.”

Kan door huid heen / Can Go Through Skin (Esther Rots, The Netherlands)
With Rifka Lodeizen, Wim Opbrouck, and Chris Borowski.
From IMDb: “The silent aftermath of a young woman’s disaster is broken by her discovery of nature’s old rhythms.”

Land of Scarecrows (Roh Gyeong-Tae, South Korea)
With Kim Sun-young, Phuong Thi Bich, Jung Du-won, and Shin An-jin.
From VarietyAsiaOnline: “…three misfits living on the very outer fringes of society.”

Marin Blue (Matthew Hysell, US)
With Cory Knauf, Najarra Townsend, Elliott Ehlers, Josh Cobb, Trista Robinson, Tanya F. Yarbrough, Sean Guse, Kate Melia and others.
From the press release: “In the perplexing void of Los Angeles ’s suburban architecture, the ruins of real estate speculation, they seek out temporary housing, and wait for their memories to return.”
From the film website: “Marin and Jim are two outsiders, drawn together by a shared history unknown even to them. Marin spends her days at a youth mental facility singing over a loudspeaker to patients. Jim, recently committed, only knows her through her voice.”

멋진 하루 / Meotjin haru / My Dear Enemy (Lee Yoon-Ki, South Korea)
With Do-yeon Jeon, Jung-woo Ha, Il-hwa Choi, Ju-bong Gi , Hyo-ju Han , So-yeon Jang, Si-nae Jo, Hye-ok Kim, and others.
From KMDb: “Jobless and single in her thirties, Hee-soo is miserable. On one fine day, she sets out to find Byoung-woon, her ex-boyfriend. It is not love that brings them together but $1,000 Hee-soo had lent to Byoung-woon a year ago. Byoung-woon is also penniless but surprisingly happy for he knows the girls who are willing to give him money. Afraid Byoung-woon may run off before clearing his debt, Hee-soo follows him as he visits many girls to borrow money, so the two ex-love birds set out on a one day journey to collect money, and memory.”

Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim, South Korea)
With Hee-yeon Kim, Mi-hyang Kim, Song-hee Kim, and Soo-ah Lee.
From the press release: “The story of two sisters who, at a very early age, are confronted with a world that they do not understand and in which they are not welcome.”
From Variety.com: “Two resilient little sisters bear up as best they can when their desperate mom dumps them with relatives.”

Winterstilte / Winter Silence (Sonja Wyss, The Netherlands)
With Gerda Zangger, Sandra Utzinger, Brigitta Weber, Katalin Liptak, and Sarah Bühlmann.
From the press release: “An archaic story of sexual awakening and religious mysticism in the director’s Swiss homeland.”
From the film website: “In a snowed-in log cabin, a widow lives with her four grown-up daughters, all with their own desires for love and intimacy. The strong Catholic faith and their mourning that has tormented them for years has condemned them to a life of chastity. Mysterious deer-men change their existence.”

The complete schedule will be released shortly. For more information, visit the Forum website.

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

Technorati tags:
film festivals

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Panorama films have been announced - eleven are world premieres; five are directorial debuts:

Absolute Evil by Ulli Lommel , USA (world premiere)
With David Carradine, Carolyn Neff, Ulli Lommel, Chris Kiesa

Ander by Roberto Castón, Spain (directorial debut and world premiere)
With Josean Bengoetxea, Cristhian Esquivel, Mamen Rivera, Pilar Rodríguez, Leire Ucha

At Stake by Iwan Setiawan, Muhammad Ichsan, Lucky Kuswandi, Ucu Agustin, Ani Ema Susanti, Indonesia
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE

Coyote by Chema Rodríguez, Spain (world premiere)
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE

Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) by Wolfgang Murnberger, Austria (world premiere)
With Josef Hader, Josef Bierbichler, Birgit Minichmayr, Simon Schwarz, Christoph Luser, Stipe Erceg

Fig Trees by John Greyson, Canada (world premiere)
With Van Abrahams, David Wall, Alexander Chapman

Fucking Different Tel Aviv by Yair Hochner, Avital Barak, Stephanie Abramovic, Elad Zakai, Eran Koblik Kedar, Ricardo Rojstaczer, Nir Ne’Eman, Hila Ben Baruch, Yossi Brauman, Sivan Levy, Eyal Bromberg, Anat Salomon, Sie Gal, November Wanderin, Yasmin Max, Germany/Israel

Garapa by José Padilha , Brazil (world premiere)
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE

Ghosted by Monika Treut, Germany/Taiwan (world premiere)
With Inga Busch, Huan-Ru Ke, Ting-Ting Hu, Jack Kao, Marek Harloff

Gururi No Koto (All Around Us) by Hashigushi Ryosuke, Japan
With Kimura Tae, Lily Franky, Baisyo Mitsuko

High Life by Gary Yates, Canada (world premiere)
With Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Joe Anderson, Rossif Sutherland

Human Zoo by Rie Rasmussen , France (directorial debut and world premiere)
With Rie Rasmussen, Nikola Djuricko, Nick Corey, Vojin Cetkovic, Hiam Abbass, Said Amadis

La journee de la jupe (Skirt Day) by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, France/Belgium
With Isabelle Adjani, Denis Podalydes, Yann Collette

Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Troops) by Riri Riza , Indonesia
With Cut Mini, Zulfani, Ferdian, Veris Yamarno, Ikranagara

Pedro by Nick Oceano, USA (directorial debut)
With Alex Loynaz,Justina Machado, Hale Appleman, DaJuan Johnson

Rückenwind (Light Gradient) by Jan Krüger, Germany (world premiere)
With Sebastian Schlecht, Eric Golub, Iris Minich, Denis Avevi

Sólo quiero caminar (Just Walking) by Augustin Diaz Yanes, Spain/Mexico
With Diego Luna , Victoria Abril, Ariadna Gil, Pilar López de Ayala, Elena Anaya

The Countess by Julie Delpy, Germany/France (world premiere)
With Julie Delpy, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl

Unmistaken Child by Nati Baratz , Israel (directorial debut)
With Tenzin Zopa
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE

When You’re Strange by Tom DiCillo, USA
With Kevin Krasny
PANORAMA DOKUMENTE

White Lightnin’ by Dominic Murphy, Great Britain/USA (directorial debut)
With Edward Hogg, Carrie Fisher, Muse Watson

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

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film festivals

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Wednesday, 7 January, 6:15pm
Ballerina, Bertrand Norman, France 2007
Dance on Camera Festival
Walter Reade Theatre, NYC

Incredibly beautiful and deeply interesting. Ballet is ready for reappraisal as 21st Century performance art, and this film is a good place to begin.

Kirov (Mariinsky) ballerinas Alina Somova, Svetlana Zakharova, Evgenia Obraztsova, Diana Vishneva, and Ulyana Lopatkina share their knowledge and hard-won progress toward transcendent performances, with thoughtful contributions from mentors and peers.

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

Technorati tags:
performing arts dance ballet film festivals

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McConnell P, Dash RC, Chilukuri R, et al. The Cancer Translational Research Informatics Platform. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2008 Dec 24;8(1):60. PMID: 19108734

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and SemanticBits (Herndon, Virginia) describe a new outcomes analysis tool that allows oncologists to query clinical data from geographically dispersed patients with similar characteristics to find treatments that were administered with success. The Cancer Translational Research Informatics Platform (caTRIP, https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/tools/caTRIP) facilitates the aggregation of clinical and molecular cancer data which can then be exchanged across institutions.

The authors detail the objectives, overall software architecture, security, implementation, usability, and future development plans for caTRIP. From the paper:

“A motivating use case for the development of caTRIP is one of outcomes analysis, whereby a clinician can query data from a cohort of preexisting patients to help guide treatment of another patient. An oncologist can ask “What are the treatments and outcomes of other patients that have similar characteristics to my patient?” caTRIP makes this possible on multiple levels: local, institutional, regional, national, and beyond by leveraging grid infrastructure to scale beyond traditional query systems.”

The tool has the potential to effectively broaden institutional experience with highly atypical cancers:

“The fact of the matter is that even a large tertiary care facility will rarely come across such tumors. caTRIP provides a mechanism to examine all those patients who have been seen at any institution where caTRIP has been deployed and identify the cohort of patients that matches the specified criteria. It is a matter of a few minutes, at most, to construct a query that narrows the cohort to patients that have lobular tumors of the breast, are ER negative, PR negative, and Her-2/neu overexpressed. Furthermore, the type of treatment employed and the time to recurrence or death are easily captured as part of the result set by drawing upon the Tumor Registry as an additional data source. This permits a level of decision in the clinic - heretofore impossible with prior technologies.”

caTRIP is available on the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s caBIG™ Community Website.

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

technorati tags: oncology

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Lewis MT. Faith, heresy and the cancer stem cell hypothesis. Future Oncol. 2008 Oct;4(5):585-9. PMID: 18922113

Baylor professor Michael Lewis reviews current theory about cancer stem cells, starting from arguments for their existence:

“Arguments for the existence of tumor-initiating ‘cancer stem cells’ are rooted ultimately in cell theory. A central tenet of cell theory states that, other than the first cell, all cells arise from pre-existing cells. Since all cancers are composed of cells, and have, in most cases, been demonstrated to be clonally derived, most cancers must arise from a single, pre-existing cell – a ‘tumor-initiating cell’. The cancer stem cell hypothesis proposes that tumor-initiating ‘cancer stem cells’ arise from cells that either innately possess or acquire the ability to self-renew (reproduce a new tumor-initiating cell) and serve as a precursor cell able to generate all other cell types characteristic of a given tumor. Thus, the term ‘stem cell’ in the ‘cancer stem cell hypothesis’ refers to a defining set of cellular behaviors responsible for tumor formation, and not necessarily to the identity of the cell of origin.”

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

technorati tags: oncology

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