Page 141 – Establishing Shot

Watching Ramanujan: Insight and Passion

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Establishing Shot

Still image from The Man Who Knew Infinity — Still image from *The Man Who Knew Infinity*

Guest post by Steve Hussung.

The history of math, as often told, is very white. And this is not a true telling: there are stories of different kinds of people woven throughout the history of mathematics. For one (of many), algebra was invented in Asia, not in Europe.

Today the field is becoming more and more diverse, and perhaps the right way to think about this diversity is that cultures that have done mathematics are mixing and communicating. This is different from groups that have never done math becoming mathematicians—although they are a part of the story as well.

Matthew Brown’s film The Man Who Knew Infinity is a story of a spectacular mathematician: someone who brought beautiful results seemingly out of nowhere, someone who bridged between cultures, and an absolutely incredible mathematician, all else put aside. (more…)

Amadeus and the Binary of Genius

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Jesse Pasternack

There is a lot to like about the movie adaptation and the recent National Theatre Live production of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus. There is the the sumptuous production design, the fantastic acting from both casts, and of course the beautiful music. But one of my favorite things about Amadeus is its articulation of a cultural idea that has become quite popular to use for stories about geniuses.

I call this idea “the binary of genius.” You can state it in several ways, but I have my own personal definition. My definition is that for every genius in a story, there is a darker, more envious character that serves as the foil for that genius. That foil is oddly just as sympathetic, if not more, than the genius, and more often than not serves as the narrator of the story. (more…)

Patricio Guzmán: Cinema for the World

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Establishing Shot

Guest post by David Fresko.

Patricio Guzmán’s documentaries, above all his three-part epic The Battle of Chile (released between 1975 and 1979), have solidified his position as one of the great political filmmakers of his generation. Born in 1941, Guzmán was initially trained as a fiction filmmaker during the late 1960s in his home country of Chile as well as Spain. He turned to documentary filmmaking after encountering not only the energetic commingling of fact and fiction in the work of French New Wave filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Louis Malle, but also the real-life drama unfolding in Chile upon his return in 1971, when rightist forces inside and outside of the government were fighting President Salvador Allende’s democratically-elected socialist regime at the polls and in the streets. As Guzmán describes his cinematic transformation, “you would be sitting in a café, working on a script, and all of a sudden a group of picketing workers with red flags would pass by… How could you not film all that? Why distance oneself from that reality?” The resulting film, The Battle of Chile, was a “living” documentary of the tumultuous social and political upheaval tearing the nation apart, one born of Guzmán and his teams’ sympathies to the socialist cause and participation in the cataclysmic events as they unfolded. (more…)

A Conversation with Award Winning Documentarian Frederick Wiseman

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Nathaniel Sexton

Frederick Wiseman [Photo: Erik Madigan Heck]

Guest post by Nathaniel Sexton.

I recently had the opportunity of seeing Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 documentary High School for a second time, as part of IU Cinema’s ongoing Filmmaker to Filmmaker series. The last time I saw the film, over ten years ago, I was myself a student in a public high school. Indignation marked my first experience of the film–a frustration that connected with my own dissatisfaction with a public school system that, from my vantage point, appeared more interested in generating social conformity than in creating willfully curious and critical individuals. And while that critique felt just as present, and my cynicism for public education perhaps no less engaged, I found myself more interested, upon a second viewing, in Wiseman’s attention to detail in his subjects and the sense of ambiguity that arose in this attention. (more…)

Appreciating the Complexities of Life

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Katherine Johnson

Still from Philippe Falardeau’s *Monsieur Lazhar*

I can’t remember exactly when or where I first saw Monsieur Lazhar, but I know it couldn’t have been long after it was released. What I do remember, and quite vividly, is how moved I was by it. I can remember the complexity of feelings I felt for its characters: the sadness, the joy, the despair at times, and the passion and pride resulting from a powerful educational experience. The film touches on a number of sensitive issues pertinent to our situation today–particularly those regarding feelings and acts of alienation; and in my opinion, Monsieur Lazhar‘s ability to so fully express the complexity, and yet importance, of simply existing in this world is noteworthy. (more…)

Other Independent Japanese Animation

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Laura Ivins

*House of Flame* (1979, Kihachiro Kawamoto)

Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki have inspired delight in international audiences for decades. The enchanted worlds of Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001) transport us to worlds of complex ethics, captivating creatures, and a beautiful animation style.

However, the overwhelming popularity of Studio Ghibli’s films can overshadow the diversity of offerings coming from Miyazaki’s peers in independent Japanese animation. Less well known, but no less talented, are independent animators Kihachiro Kawamoto and Koji Yamamura, who both create short films in one-man operations or using small teams in an artisanal approach to animation. (more…)