#south african film festival

[wfcn-co]

Short film submission platforms creating a place in South Africa

The South African film industry has been steadily growing, with a thriving independent film scene that showcases the country's diverse talent and stories. In recent years, several short film submission platforms have emerged, providing filmmakers with opportunities to showcase their work and connect with the broader film community, and most important is the film festival.

One of the most prominent platforms is the South African Independent Film Festival (SAIFF) . Established in 2017, SAIFF is South Africa's biggest independent film festival, featuring events across the country's major cities. The film festival celebrates local and international short-form cinema, including short films, animations, documentaries, and music videos. In 2021, the film festival's prestigious jury included acclaimed professionals such as Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Natasha Thahane, and Academy Award nominee Peter Baynham, among others. The film festival aims to celebrate the highs, lows, hard work, and creativity of independent filmmaking, providing a platform for filmmakers to showcase their work and connect with film industry professionals.

Another notable platform is the South African HORRORFEST, an international horror film festival that has been running since 2005. The film festival accepts submissions for both feature films and short films, with the highest-quality movies being acknowledged with award certificates. The film festival's physical location is in Cape Town, but it accepts submissions from filmmakers around the world, providing a global stage for South African horror and sci-fi filmmakers.

Beyond these established film festivals, platforms like Unekha and the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival also offer opportunities for South African filmmakers to submit their short films. Unekha is a platform that showcases non-exclusive short films, allowing filmmakers to have their work featured alongside other platforms. The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, one of the most prestigious short film festivals in the world, also accepts submissions from South African filmmakers, providing them with the chance to have their films screened on an international stage.

The emergence of these short film submission platforms has been a boon for the South African film industry, creating a space for filmmakers to showcase their work and connect with the broader film community. These platforms not only provide opportunities for recognition and awards but also serve as a hub for networking, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas.

As the South African film industry continues to grow, these short film submission platforms will play a crucial role in nurturing and supporting the next generation of filmmakers. By offering a platform for their work to be seen and celebrated, these platforms are helping to elevate the profile of South African cinema on the global stage and fostering a thriving and vibrant film community within

[seafarrwide]

the South African Film Festival (SAFF)

Seconds From 02 to 30 May 2024, the South African Film Festival (SAFF) will once again bring the very best of contemporary South African film to Australian and New Zealand audiences, both in-cinema and online. Go to this link on Weekend Notes for more detailed information.

[justforbooks]

James Earl Jones

American actor hailed for his many classical roles whose voice became known to millions as that of Darth Vader in Star Wars

During the run of the 2011 revival of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy in London, with Vanessa Redgrave, the actor James Earl Jones, who has died aged 93, was presented with an honorary Oscar by Ben Kingsley, with a link from the Wyndham’s theatre to the awards ceremony in Hollywood.

Glenn Close in Los Angeles said that Jones represented the “essence of truly great acting” and Kingsley spoke of his imposing physical presence, his 1,000-kilowatt smile, his basso profundo voice and his great stillness. Jones’s voice was known to millions as that of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars film trilogy and Mufasa in the 1994 Disney animation The Lion King, as well as being the signature sound of US TV news (“This is CNN”) for many years.

His status as the leading black actor of his generation was established with the Tony award he won in 1969 for his performance as the boxer Jack Jefferson (a fictional version of Jack Johnson) in Howard Sackler’s The Great White Hope on Broadway, a role he repeated in Martin Ritt’s 1970 film, and which earned him an Oscar nomination.

On screen, Jones – as the fictional Douglass Dilman – played the first African-American president, in Joseph Sargent’s 1972 movie The Man, based on an Irving Wallace novel. His stage career was notable for encompassing great roles in the classical repertoire, such as King Lear, Othello, Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh and Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

He was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, the son of Robert Earl Jones, a minor actor, boxer, butler and chauffeur, and his wife Ruth (nee Connolly), a teacher, and was proud of claiming African and Irish ancestry. His father left home soon after he was born, and he was raised on a farm in Jackson, Michigan, by his maternal grandparents, John and Maggie Connolly. He spoke with a stutter, a problem he dealt with at Brown’s school in Brethren, Michigan, by reading poetry aloud.

On graduating from the University of Michigan, he served as a US Army Ranger in the Korean war. He began working as an actor and stage manager at the Ramsdell theatre in Manistee, Michigan, where he played his first Othello in 1955, an indication perhaps of his early power and presence.

The family had moved from the deep south to Michigan to find work, and now Jones went to New York to join his father in the theatre and to study at the American Theatre Wing with Lee Strasberg. He made his Broadway debut at the Cort theatre in 1958 in Dory Schary’s Sunrise at Campobello, a play about Franklin D Roosevelt.

He was soon a cornerstone of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare festival in Central Park, playing Caliban in The Tempest, Macduff in Macbeth and another Othello in the 1964 season. He also established a foothold in films, as Lt Lothar Zogg in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove (1963), a cold war satire in which Peter Sellers shone with brilliance in three separate roles.

The Great White Hope came to the Alvin theatre in New York from the Arena Stage in Washington, where Jones first unleashed his shattering, shaven-headed performance – he was described as chuckling like thunder, beating his chest and rolling his eyes – in a production by Edwin Sherin that exposed racism in the fight game at the very time of Muhammad Ali’s suspension from the ring on the grounds of his refusal to sign up for military service in the Vietnam war.

Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs (1970) was a response to Jean Genet’s The Blacks, in which Jones, who remained much more of an off-Broadway fixture than a Broadway star in this period, despite his eminence, played a westernised urban African man returning to his village for his father’s funeral. With Papp’s Public theatre, he featured in an all-black version of The Cherry Orchard in 1972, following with John Steinbeck’s Lennie in Of Mice and Men on Broadway and returning to Central Park as a stately King Lear in 1974.

When he played Paul Robeson on Broadway in the 1977-78 season, there was a kerfuffle over alleged misrepresentations in Robeson’s life, but Jones was supported in a letter to the newspapers signed by Edward Albee, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman and Richard Rodgers. He played his final Othello on Broadway in 1982, partnered by Christopher Plummer as Iago, and appeared in the same year in Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard, a white South African playwright he often championed in New York.

In August Wilson’s Fences (1987), part of that writer’s cycle of the century “black experience” plays, he was described as an erupting volcano as a Pittsburgh garbage collector who had lost his dreams of a football career and was too old to play once the major leagues admitted black players. His character, Troy Maxson, is a classic of the modern repertoire, confined in a world of 1950s racism, and has since been played by Denzel Washington and Lenny Henry.

Jones’s film career was solid if not spectacular. Playing Sheikh Abdul, he joined a roll call of British comedy stars – Terry-Thomas, Irene Handl, Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan and Peter Ustinov – in Marty Feldman’s The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), in stark contrast to his (at first uncredited) Malcolm X in Ali’s own biopic, The Greatest (1977), with a screenplay by Ring Lardner. He also appeared in Peter Masterson’s Convicts (1991), a civil war drama; Jon Amiel’s Sommersby (1993), with Richard Gere and Jodie Foster; and Darrell Roodt’s Cry, the Beloved Country (1995), scripted by Ronald Harwood, in which he played a black South African pastor in conflict with his white landowning neighbour in the 40s.

In all these performances, Jones quietly carried his nation’s history on his shoulders. On stage, this sense could irradiate a performance such as that in his partnership with Leslie Uggams in the 2005 Broadway revival at the Cort of Ernest Thompson’s elegiac On Golden Pond; he and Uggams reinvented the film performances of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn as an old couple in a Maine summer house.

He brought his Broadway Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to London in 2009, playing an electrifying scene with Adrian Lester as his broken sports star son, Brick, at the Novello theatre. The coarse, cancer-ridden big plantation owner was transformed into a rumbling, bear-like figure with a totally unexpected streak of benignity perhaps not entirely suited to the character. But that old voice still rolled through the stalls like a mellow mist, rich as molasses.

That benign streak paid off handsomely, though, in the London reprise of a deeply sentimental Broadway comedy (and Hollywood movie), Driving Miss Daisy, in which his partnership as a chauffeur to Redgrave (unlikely casting as a wealthy southern US Jewish widow, though she got the scantiness down to a tee) was a delightful two-step around the evolving issues of racial tension between 1948 and 1973.

So deep was this bond with Redgrave that he returned to London for a third time in 2013 to play Benedick to her Beatrice in Mark Rylance’s controversial Old Vic production of Much Ado About Nothing, the middle-aged banter of the romantically at-odds couple transformed into wistful, nostalgia for seniors.

His last appearance on Broadway was in a 2015 revival of DL Coburn’s The Gin Game, opposite Cicely Tyson. He was given a lifetime achievement Tony award in 2017, and the Cort theatre was renamed the James Earl Jones theatre in 2022.

Jones’s first marriage, to Julienne Marie (1968-72), ended in divorce. In 1982 he married Cecilia Hart with whom he had a son, Flynn. She died in 2016. He is survived by Flynn, also an actor, and a brother, Matthew.

🔔 James Earl Jones, actor, born 17 January 1931; died 9 September 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[cartermagazine]

Today We Honor Celia Cruz…

Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born in 1925 in Barrio Santos Suarez in Havana, one of 4 children. In a career that spanned six decades, Celia became the “Queen of Salsa,” and was central to the genre’s rising popularity.

Celia was a true pioneer of AfroLatinidad, focusing on the African elements of her identity (music, lyrics and dress) at a time when it was not popular to do so. In 1974, Celia was one of a group of artists including B.B. King, James Brown, The Spinners, Bill Withers and Miriam Makeba that performed in Kinshasa, Zaire alongside top local groups.

The concert was part of a three day festival, “Zaire ’74,” the brainchild of South African trumpeter High Masekela. The performance was supposed to precede the famous boxing match “Rumble in the Jungle” between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali. Just before the concert was scheduled to begin, Foreman injured his eye. The bout was pushed back six weeks, but the Show went on – and was brilliantly documented in the powerful film, “Soul Power.”

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #celiacruz #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #staywoke #afrolatina

[the-monkey-ruler]

The Monkey, Monk, and Monsters go west (2010) 西游记

Director: Gong Binsi Screenwriter: Huang Weijian / Shao Haowen / Zheng Zhongtai Genre: Animation / Fantasy / Adventure Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Language: Mandarin Chinese Number of episodes: 104 Single episode length: 20 minutes Also known as: Journey to the West Type: Retelling

Summary:

The production cost of a single episode exceeds one million, making it a domestic animation blockbuster. At the Cannes TV Festival in France, it set a new record for an Asian cartoon with an episode price of US$100,000, successfully entering the mainstream European and American markets.

It won the gold medal at the South African International Film Festival, becoming the first Asian animation work to win an award at this festival. The whole play is humorous and full of imagination. Theme song: "AOAEO Departure" Singer: Li Yuchun

Journey to the West (more distinguishably referred to as: Monkey, Monk, and the Monsters Go West) is Chinese animated adaptation of the famous novel of the same name, which ran from June 2010 to 2015 with a total of 52 episodes by Jiangsu Ciwen Ziguang Digital TV Co., Ltd. This particular adaptation is rather parodic in nature, and borrows many design and animation influences from Japanese anime in an attempt to better appeal to children.

Source: https://movie.douban.com/subject/5975033/

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Enp6I2N0RQ&list=PLipQYcGwGGrQGHTCz6UQjGzEHNjlAeEzw&index=52&ab_channel=%E9%BA%A5%E5%AF%B6%E5%BC%B7

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Sao Paulo Industry Driver Spcine Builds Ties With Africa 

With the exception of Nigeria’s Nollywood, which produces an average of 2,500 films a year, Africa’s “potential as a film powerhouse remains largely untapped” despite great strides in production, according to a Unesco report.

Brazil’s Spcine, the city of São Paulo’s film-TV body, is hoping to change the status quo. Since it launched the country’s first international film incentive policy in 2019, Spcine has played a vital role in fostering the Brazilian audiovisual industry worldwide. In 2020, it spearheaded a strategy to strengthen ties with the African continent, particularly in markets with the strongest growth potential, led by Nigeria and South Africa. The move makes sense, given that Brazil is home to the largest black population outside of Africa and the third-largest in the world, with over 79 million Afro-descendants.

In 2022, Spcine participated in key audiovisual events in Africa, particularly the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso and in Nigeria where it took part in targeted meetings and visits, seeking to close business deals and strategic partnerships with distribution and production studios, training institutes, film schools and festival heads.

More recently, Spcine sent a delegation to the Durban FilmMart in South Africa, held between July 20 and 30, 2023, which highlights the foundations of the African film industry.

Continue reading.

[uwmspeccoll]

Lunar New Year 2023

Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate! Lunar New Year is celebrated in countries all over the world, though it is largely celebrated in Asia and is sometimes called Chinese New Year or Korean New Year or Vietnamese New Year, etc. depending on which country’s celebrations one is referring to. In Chinese, it is most often called the Spring Festival. 

This lunar year is the year of the Rabbit (although in Vietnam is it the year of the Cat!), so we are sharing these stories of Brer Rabbit’s adventures as told by Ennis Rees and illustrated by Edward Gorey. More of Brer Rabbit’s Tricks was published in 1968 by Young Scott Books. 

Brer Rabbit stories originate in the African diaspora and were told widely among enslaved people in the American South. The stories were then co-opted by white American authors, for example in the “Uncle Remus” tales written by Joel Chandler Harris and Disney’s film Song of the South. The stories in More of Brer Rabbits Tricks were developed based on Harris’s tellings of the stories. 

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

[lboogie1906]

Michael Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist.

He was born in the village of Ajido in southwestern Nigeria. A member of the Ogu people, he was introduced to traditional African music at an early age. His name, Bàbátúndé, means ‘father has returned’, because he was born two months after his father, Zannu died, and he was considered to be a reincarnation. His father was a local fisherman who was about to rise to the rank of chieftain, and his mother was a potter who was a member of the Ogu people. He grew up speaking the Gun (Ogu/Egun) and Yoruba languages. He was groomed to take the position of chief.

When he was 12, he realized that he did not want to become a chieftain. He read in Reader’s Digest magazine about the Rotary International Foundation’s scholarship program and applied for it. His application was successful and he went to the US in 1950.

He received a Rotary scholarship in 1950 and was educated at Morehouse College. He was a good friend of Glee Club director Dr. Wendell P. Whalum and collaborated with him on a staple of the choir’s repertoire, “Betelehemu”. After graduating from Morehouse, he went on to New York University to study public administration. He started a small percussion group to earn money on the side while he continued his studies.

He composed music for the Broadway theatrical and the 1961 Hollywood film productions of Raisin in the Sun. He assisted Bill Lee with the music for She’s Gotta Have It.

He was known for making an impassioned speech for social justice before performing in front of a live audience. His progressive political beliefs are outlined in The Beat of My Drum: An Autobiography. He toured the South with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and joined King in the March on Washington.

He performed before the UN General Assembly. He was one of the first outside performers to perform in Prague. On July 21, 1979, he appeared at the Amandla Festival. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[brookston]

Holidays 10.26

Holidays

Accession Day (Jammu and Kashmir, India)

African-American Cotton Pickers Day

American Bar Association Giving Day

American Frog Day

Angam Day (a.k.a. Day of Fulfillment; Nauru)

Armed Forces Day (Benin)

Court Staff Day (Tajikistan)

Cox Plate Day (Australia)

Day of Mourning Day (Libya)

Day of the Deployed

Doonesbury Day

Dr. José Gregorio Hernández Day (Venezuela)

Goose Day (French Republic)

Hillary Clinton Day

Horseless Carriage Day

Howl at the Moon Day

International Red Cross Day

Intersex Awareness Day

Kojagrat Purnima (Nepal)

Mourning Day (Libya)

Mule Day

National Day of the Deployed

National Financial Crime Fighter Day

National Gospel Day (Cook Islands)

National Livestock Guardian Dog Appreciation & Awareness Day

National Mule Day

National Noah Day

National Ranboo Day

National Tennessee Day 

National Transgender Children Day

National Vivace Microneedling Day

Neutrality Day (Austria)

Peniamina Gospel Day (Niue)

Planet-Wide Moon Howl

Prixin (Star Trek)

Rugby Day

St. Elsewhere Day

Topin Wagglegammon

Workaholic Stop and Smell Something Day

World Amyloidosis Day

Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night

Food & Drink Celebrations

Chicken Fried Steak Day

Exaltation of the Shellfish (Spain)

International Mavrud Day (Bulgaria)

National Mincemeat Pie Day

National Pumpkin Day

Pretzel Day

Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day

Independence & Related Days

Austria (from Allies of WW2, 1955)

Foundation Day (Catanduanes, Philippines)

4th & Last Saturday in October

Children’s Day (Malaysia) [Last Saturday]

Hug A Sheep Day [Last Saturday]

Make a Difference Day [4th Saturday]

Mother-in-Law Day [4th Saturday]

Muddy Dog Day (UK) [Last Saturday]

National Erotic Humiliation Day [4th Saturday]

National Forgiveness Day [Last Saturday]

National One United Race Day [4th Saturday]

National Pit Bull Awareness Day [4th Saturday]

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day [4th Saturday]

National Snowmobile Day [Last Saturday]

National Take Back Day [Last Saturday]

National Trick or Treat Day [Last Saturday]

Neighbors Helping Neighbors Day [4th Saturday]

Salacious Saturday [4th Saturday of Each Month]

Sandwich Saturday [Every Saturday]

Sausage Saturday [4th Saturday of Each Month]

Sharing Economy Saturday (Canada) [Last Saturday]

Six For Saturday [Every Saturday]

Snowmobile Day (Sweden) [Last Saturday]

Spaghetti Saturday [Every Saturday]

Splurge Saturday [Last Saturday of Each Month]

Stir-Fry Saturday [Last Saturday of Each Month]

Universal Children’s Day (Australia) [4th Saturday]

William Penn Day (Delaware) [4th Saturday]

World Federation Day [Last Saturday]

World Swim Day [4th Saturday]

Yellow Saturday [Saturday of Last Full Week]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 26 (3rd Full Week of October)

Marmaris International Race Week (Marmaris, Turkey) [thru 11.1]

Festivals Beginning October 26, 2024

Alabama Wine Festival (Duck Springs, Attalla, Alabama)

Barbecue Festival (Lexington, North Carolina)

Beefsteak (Reno, Nevada)

Boo & Brews (Pennsville, New Jersey)

Central Florida Veg Fest (Orlando, Florida)

Charleston Beer Fest (Charleston, South Carolina)

Chili Cook-Off (Santa Cruz, California)

Elberta German Sausage Festival (Elberta, Alabama)

Essex ClamFest (Essex, Massachusetts)

Federweisser Festival at Winehaven (Chisago City, Minnesota) [thru 10.27]

Georgia Sweet Potato Festival (Ocilla, Georgia)

Gilfeather Turnip Festival & Contest (Wardsboro, Vermont)

Grand Prairie Rice Festival (Hazen, Arkansas)

Halloween Festival & Parade (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)

Hat Roberts Chili Cook Off (Tallapoosa, Georgia)

Kimmswick Apple Butter Festival (Kimmswick, Missouri) [thru 10.27]

Lake County Home Show (Grayslake, Illinois) [thru 10.27]

Marunada Chestnut Festival (Liganj, Croatia) [thru 10.27]

Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival (Kyiv, Ukraine) [thru 11.3]

National Championship Barbeque Cookoff (Meridian, Texas)

OysterFest (St. Michaels, Maryland)

Peanut Butter Festival (Brundidge, Alabama)

Pendleton Fall Harvest Festival (Pendleton, South Carolina)

Route 66 Pecan & Music Festival (Claremore, Oklahoma) [thru 10.27]

Sorghum Festival (Wewoka, Oklahoma)

Southern California Gourd Art Competition (Santa Ana, California)

Tailgating Cook-Off (Loreauville, Louisiana)

Toccoa Harvest Festival (Toccoa, Georgia) [thru 10.27]

West Fest (Cartersville, Georgia)

WhiskyFest (Hollywood, Florida)

World Champion Hopkins County Stew Contest (Sulphur Springs, Texas)

Feast Days

Albinus (Christian; Saint)

Alfred the Great (Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern Orthodox Church)

Amandus of Strasbourg (Christian; Saint)

Andrew Motion (Writerism)

Beóán (a..k.a. Bean) of Mortlach (Christian; Saint)

Casper, Big Bird’s Brother (Muppetism)

Cedd (Christian; Saint)

Celine Borzecka (Christian; Blessed)

Cuthbert of Canterbury (Christian; Saint)

Dante Quinterno (Artology)

Day of the Ancients (Asatru/Pagan Slavic)

Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Christian; Saint)

Eadfrith of Leominster (Christian; Saint)

Eata of Hexham (Christian; Saint)

Pope Evaristus (a.k.a. Aristus; Christian; Saint)

Fulk of Pavia (Roman Catholic Church)

Jack Morelli (Artology)

Jan Wolkers (Artology)

Julian Schnabel (Artology)

Lilith’s Day (Pagan)

Ludi Victoriae Sullanae begins (Old Rome; until November 1)

Makoshe’s Day (Honoring Mother Earth; Asatru/Pagan)

Montesquieu (Positivist; Saint)

Onan Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Onomatopoeias Day (Pastafarian)

Pat Conroy (Writerism)

Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann and Paul Gerhardt (Lutheran Church)

Quadragesimus (Christian; Saint)

Quodvultdeus (Christian; Saint)

Rusticus of Narbonne (Christian; Saint)

Shan Sa (Writerism)

Toping Wagglegammon (Shamanism)

Vasily Vereshchagin (Artology)

Witta (a.k.a. Albinus) of Büraburg (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Audrey the Rainmaker (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1951)

The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam (Political History; 1972)

Better Off Dead, 26th Jack Reacher book, by Lee Child (Novel; 2021)

Cello Concerto in E Minor, by Edward Eldar (Concerto; 1919)

Cloud Atlas (Film; 2012)

Cured Duck (Disney Cartoon; 1945)

Dan in Real Life (Film; 2007)

Donnie Darko (Film; 2001)

Down and Outing (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1961)

Firework, by Katy Perry (Song; 2010)

Gallopin’ Gals (MGM Cartoon; 1940)

The Great Santini (Film; 1979)

Head Hunters, by Herbie Hancock (Album; 1973)

Heartbreaker, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1979)

Henpecked Hoboes (MGM Cartoon; 1946)

Interstellar (Film; 2014)

Life as a House (Film; 2001)

Mourning Becomes Electra, by Eugene O'Neill (Play; 1931)

Quadrophenia, by The Who (Album; 1973)

Rock Meets Rock or Thud and Blunder (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 313; 1964)

San Andreas (Film; 2015)

The Spinach Roadster (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1936)

St. Elsewhere (TV Series; 1982)

Supergirl (TV Series; 2015)

The Terminator (Film; 1984)

That’s No Lady — That’s Notre Dame! (The Inspector Cartoon; 1966)

Three Orphan Kittens (Silly Symphony Disney Cartoon; 1935)

T.V. Fuddlehead (Modern Madcaps Cartoon; 1959)

The Two-Alarm Fire (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1934)

Under Pressure, by Queen & David Bowie (Song; 1981)

A Watery Grave or Drown Among the Sheltering Palms (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S6, Ep. 314; 1964)

Wonderland (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1931)

You’re the Top, recorded by Cole Porter (Song; 1934)

Your Song, by Elton John (Song; 1970)

Today’s Name Days

Albin, Amand, Wigand (Austria)

Dimitar, Dimitrina, Mitko (Bulgaria)

Amando, Demetrije, Dimitrije, Dmitar, Evarist, Lucijan, Mitar, Rogacijan, Zvonimir (Croatia)

Erik (Czech Republic)

Amandus (Denmark)

Aime, Aimi, Amanda, Ami, Manda (Estonia)

Amanda, Manta, Niina, Nina, Ninni (Finland)

Dimitri (France)

Albin, Amand, Anastacia, Josephine, Wieland (Germany)

Demetris, Dimitra, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Glykon, Leptinis (Greece)

Dömötör(Hungary)

Evaristo (Italy)

Amanda, Kaiva (Latvia)

Evaristas, Liaudginas, Mingintė (Lithuania)

Amanda, Amandus (Norway)

Dymitriusz, Ewaryst, Eweryst, Łucjan, Lucyna, Ludmiła, Lutosław (Poland)

Dimitrie (Romania)

Demeter (Slovakia)

Evaristo, Felicísimo, Luciano (Spain)

Amanda, Rasmus (Sweden)

Madden, Maddock, Maddox, Mahala, Mahalia, Makenna, Mckenna (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 300 of 2024; 66 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of Week 43 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 28 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 24 (Gui-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 24 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 22 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 30 Orange; Lastday [30 of 30]

Julian: 13 October 2024

Moon: 28%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 20 Descartes (11th Month) [Oken / Buffon]

Runic Half Month: Wyn (Joy) [Day 5 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 35 of 90)

Week: 3rd Full Week of October

Zodiac: Scorpio (Day 4 of 30)

[canmom]

Animationo Night 177 - Kizazi Moto + Fatenah

Hey everyone. It's Animation Night again. We aten'nt dead!!

Huge apologies to European viewers that I couldn't stream this one earlier. Still, I'd like to get back into the swing of things, so we're back. (Bros. We're so back.)

So. tonight we're gonna be checking out Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. This is a collection of scifi films created by studios from five different countries across the length of Africa.

The impetus came from the South African studio Triggerfish - originally a stop motion studio, but they switched over to CG a few decades ago. We saw some of their work back on Animation Night 166 in Star Wars: Visions, which came close enough to the stop motion feel as to leave me in doubt. There's no question they have a ton of talent.

Like Visions, this short film collection has the financial backing of the Mouse; it also has another American, Spiderverse director Peter Ramsey, serving as executive producer. But there's no monolithic franchise involved this time - the individual directors and studios were given considerable creative freedom. Styles range from anime-esque to Hanna-barbera; stories span aliens in high speed races through near future dystopias to apocalyptic stories about gods.

The creators are a little hands off towards the term 'afrofuturism'; in an interview with Skwigly magazine, producer Tendayi Nyeke asks us to interpret it just as scifi more broadly:

We don’t use the word Afro-futurist! Part of that is we are seeing science fiction, but through the context of Africa, and trying to demystify Afrofuturism. It’s not a genre for us. Because, you start to raise questions like can a French person do an afro futurist movie? And what does that even mean? So it’s an African filmmaker using science fiction as a medium to communicate. Science fiction allows them to imagine big futures. I love when a lot of Western science fiction is looking at  a dystopian context, we’re looking at hope. It really comes from trauma in some ways, though we have a rich heritage prior to the trauma. And then we’re like, hey, technology is evolving. We’re evolving as human beings. If there was hope, what could that look like? Science fiction as a medium allows you to explore that just by its design.

Among the filmmakers, there is considerable ambition to change the general layout of the animation industry. Raymond Malinga, director of Herderboy, remarks:

But somehow, because of all these things like colonialism and everything, it’s almost like our creativity was stifled by that and we just keep on accepting the fact that we are supposed to tell mundane things, you know? Mundane. Normal. So with “Herderboy”, I just took one of the oldest professions of the whole continent. And I said if I can update that and Ugandans watch that, they can start saying, you know, if cattle herders can look cool, then what else can look cool?

It's a cool interview, he's very charmingly down to earth when he talks about how after working on the film for a year he has no idea what's funny or not. Isn't that a mood...

Of course, until fairly recently there were a lot more animated films about Africa, such as the French Kirikou series, than animated films created in Africa. Which is nuts when we're talking about an entire continent, right? Thanks, "legacy of colonial extractivism". But things are really moving now! African animation was the subject of Annecy 2021, and in the online version of the festival I got to see the impressively varied Mshini TV collection of the edgier end of the spectrum, which carried all sorts from Newgrounds-esque flashes to South Park-like comedy skits. And this year at Annecy 2023, I got to see the first feature-length animated film from Cameroon, The Sacred Cave. A bug is spreading!

With this field, Kizazi Moto stands out for its startlingly high level of technical polish. And of course, I just like scifi. From the Mouse's perspective, they have their eye on the long game - trying to capture an 'emerging market' and all that. But, I would far rather they spend their money this way than having animators add yet more weight to the sinking Star Wars boat, you know?

So let's go take a look at what they've put together! In total, Kizazi Moto comprises 10 films, typically about 10 minutes long each. You can get summaries here or just watch along tonight, and I'll be posting my thoughts on each one later~

And. For a dose of the heavy along with this fun stuff - the ongoing genocide has put Palestine and specifically the Gaza strip in the front of everyone's minds. While there have been a few animated films touching on the occupation from the Israeli side, like Waltz With Bashir, a celebrated psychological drama in a realist style in which a former Israeli soldier reflects on whether he did a warcrimes, and Seder-Masochism, in which Nina Paley attempts to lay out a story about how the patriarchical Abrahamic religions suppressed an ancient matriarchal religion (she is a terf, how did you guess!), which includes the undeniably conceptually effective but highly equivocating This Land Is Mine segment... there is less available from the Palestinian side for the obvious and sad economic reasons.

But, a couple of weeks ago, Animation Obsessive wrote an article to celebrate Fatenah (2009), a short film animated in the West Bank about a woman in Gaza struggling to get breast cancer treatment. It's available free on Vimeo:

It's directed by Ahmad Habash, a native of the West Bank who came to study animation here in the UK, and secured WHO funding after they saw his student film. But the film is not a one-note activist project, it's a careful character study trying to give a convincing portrait of the different facets of its title character's life. This film was completely new to me and I'm grateful to AniObsessive for highlighting some Palestinian art in my favourite medium. So I'd like to slot this into my little Twitch show as well!

I have a bunch of other short films I'm excited to show, between recent Gobelins works and another AniObsessive piece highlighting their favourite short films from the festival circuit which have become available online. But given the ludicrously late start, I don't want to pack too much in to this one. We'll save that for another week!

I know Animation Night has been very spotty recently. I've been going through it with the old brain a bit ('a bit' she says). I'm trying to get things back on track with sleep and stuff, thank you for all the kind things people have said, and for bearing with me.

So! Let's go! Animation Night 177 will be going live in just a moment in its usual home, https://twitch.tv/canmom!

[reasoningdaily]

Soul Power Kinshasa Zaire 1974 Muhammad Ali ,James Brown,Bill Withers, and a host of other international stars.

This is a historical document - because there will never be another Rumble in the Jungle.. especially with this type of stage presence.  Imagine, Zaire.. Man

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/12/soul-power-james-brown

Leon Gast's brilliant fly-on-the-wall film When We Were Kings won the Oscar for best documentary when it was released in 1997. It told the surreal story of the "rumble in the jungle", the extraordinary heavyweight fight in Zaire in 1974 when Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to win back his world title against the odds.

The fight was the main event, but a three-day music festival, called Zaire '74, also took place in Kinshasa, featuring some of the heavyweights of American soul, African pop and Latin-American jazz. It was headlined by the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown, who was brought to Africa, alongside the Detroit Spinners, Bill Withers and BB King, by the festival organisers, Stewart Levine and South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Also in town for the concert were Stokely Carmichael, the black power figurehead, and Don King, the motor-mouth boxing promoter.

Soul Power tells the story of the festival and its myriad characters in an impressionistic swirl of images and music. It begins with the organisers frantically trying to build a stage, install a PA and hold it all together as the musicians start arriving. When James Brown and Ali enter the same dressing room, there is barely enough oxygen left even for Don King. The jive talk is non-stop, but it's the music that mesmerises - and the audience's wild reaction to it. BB King wows the crowd with the restrained power of The Thrill is Gone, Bill Withers bravely slows things down with the brooding ballad Hope She'll be Happier, and Brown climaxes with - what else? - Say it Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud, which, had there been a roof on the stadium, would have taken it clean off.

The vibe is celebratory throughout despite the hassles, the various besuited business opportunists and the great big elephant in the room - President Mobutu and his years of corruption and misrule. Given that it is 35 years since the concert and fight took place, one might have hoped from some retrospective wisdom from some of the surviving performers. That one quibble aside, Soul Power is a riveting glimpse of another time and another place, when things were more radical and more gloriously ramshackle. Where was Fela Kuti, though?

[warningsine]

In September 2017, the Hollywood film industry was rocked by sexual abuse allegations against American film mogul Harvey Weinstein. It triggered the 'Me Too' movement, where women in many countries of the world used the hashtag #MeToo to highlight sexual abuse in the film industry, and elsewhere. 

In Africa, the Me Too movement failed to take off. But this doesn't mean that sexual abuse doesn't exist on the continent. It just isn't spoken about publicly, says Benin documentary filmmaker Giovannia Atodjinou-Zinsou (pictured above). 

"Even when you suffer, you suffer inside," Atodjinou-Zinsou told DW. "It's rare to see women who will go and say: 'Excuse me, I was raped'. Even the simple act of declaring it to the police, even when you know who your aggressor is, is already a problem because there’s a feeling of shame, of embarrassment."

Sexual abuse rife in Africa's film industry 

A report released by a South African group, Sisters Working in Film and Television, found that just under two-thirds of the South African women they surveyed had been non-consensually coerced or touched at work. 

Yolande Welimoum, a 27-year-old filmmaker from Cameroon, says she's regularly experienced unwanted advances from men when she's made films.  

There will always be one [man] on the prowl that will tell you: 'These are the conditions for this film,'" sighed Welimoum, speaking in Senegal where she was presenting her film, Heritage, at a festival devoted to women's topics, Films Femmes Afrique (Films Women Africa). 

"I've been approached by several directors who want to flirt with you, go out with you and when you refuse, you won't be part of their project," she said. 

Welimoum told DW that she wouldn't let this stop her from making films that she cares about because she knows her worth. "I studied cinematography and I know that, despite the obstacles, I will make it," she said.  

The obstacles are many. One common hurdle, says Atodjinou-Zinsou, the filmmaker from Benin, is the assumption that women have no place in Africa's film industry. 

"People say it's a man's job and that it's the men who can stay late on a film set, it's the guys who can travel to go shoot, it's the men who can stay and edit when it's too late," she said. "You're told that it's not a woman's job: women must do a job that allows them to go and take care of the home." 

Giving African women a voice 

Atodjinou-Zinsou added that there is simply too much silence surrounding many issues affecting African women, not just sexual abuse: "Women's expression hasn't taken the way it should. It still needs to take off." 

Her 13-minute documentary, La Maladie de la Honte, hopes to help change this. It's about obstetric fistulas – a medical condition where prolonged childbirth can rupture a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum which can cause a woman to leak urine or feces. The condition is so taboo that it's known as 'the illness of shame' – which is also the title of Atodjinou-Zinsou's film.

Yolande Welimoum's fictional drama, Heritage, is on another little-discussed topic: the ban on Cameroonian women inheriting the family property. 

Problematically, films on women's topics by female directors often face double prejudice – meaning that financing such projects is especially difficult. As a result, females in the film industry have to work harder to tell the stories they want, said Rwandan-born filmmaker Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo. 

"What men can do, you have to do but also add something more," she said. "In order for people to believe in you, you have to prove it, like twice!" 

Dusabejambo was at the festival presenting her 21-minute drama, A Place for Myself about a young albino girl and how she and her mother fight back against discrimination.

At least for the moment, Dusabejambo's hard work has paid off. The festival jury rewarded her with 1 million CFA franc prize ($1,890) for best film, to help her continue telling the stories that matter on the continent. 

[lgbtqiamuslimpedia]

A Jihad for Love (2008)

Director - Parvez Sharma

Producer - Sandi Simcha Dubowski

Cinematography - Parvez Sharma, Berke Baş,David W. Leitner

Writer - Javed Haider Zaidi

Cast - Imam Muhsin Hendricks,Arsham Parsi,Maryam,Abdellah,Mazen,Ferda,Qasim,Ahsan,Amir,Mojtaba,Kiymet,Sana,Maha,Pedram Abdi (Payam)

Languages - Arabic,Farsi,Urdu,Bengali, Hindi,English,French,German,English,Turkish,etc

Genre - •LGBTQ •Islam •Documentary

Year of Release - 21 May,2008

Box office - $105,651

Awards - •Best Documentary Award,MIX BRASIL •Best Documentary, Image+Nation Film Festival •Best Documentary,The Tri-Continental Film Festival,India • GLAAD Media Award •Teddy Award,etc

A Jihad for Love (preceded by a short film called In the Name of Allah) is an award-winning international documentary on Homosexuality & Islam.It took total six years to make this groundbreaking documentary.Parvez Sharma took the risk to film this documentary in most dangerous country (like Islamic Republic of Iran,Iraq, Saudi Arabia,Pakistan,Egypt).Homosexuality is a punishable crime in most Muslim World.

The work that Sharma started with this film has become a staple in many books on Islam and at U.S. University libraries.The website Faith in Equality put it at number 9 in a list of LGBT films about faith.IMDb rates the film at 13 on its list of 58 titles under the category of "Best documentaries on religion, spirituality & cults".The film first premiered at the TIFF in 2007, and has been screened to great acclaim at several film festivals around the world.The film went on to win 15 other international awards.

Plot

At starting it shows a glimpse of Islam across the globe.The film first featured Hendrick Muhsin, a South African,Pakistani Gay & Muslim.He is also the first Out Gay Imam of Africa.Filmmaker Parvez got into the deep of Hendicks's personal life struggles,his understanding of Islam & reconciliation of intersecting identities.

Mazen, an Egyptian effeminate muslim was arrested in 2001, in a gay nightclub named Queen Boat.He was beaten,forced to stand trial twice on "debauchery" charges & sentenced to a total of 4 years in prison, where he was raped.He eventually moved to Paris.Mazen also has left his families & friends in Egypt.

Sana is a Black Lesbian refugee, & a victim of FGM.She has a deeper understanding of Islam & told Parvez that Queerness is not against Islam.Sana didn't have any kind of sexual relation with any women.But she had intimate loving relations with women.Like others, she came to France as a refugee.Sana befriend with Maryam & Mazen.

Maryam is Moroccan-born queer womxn who lives in Paris.Her girlfriend Maha lives in Egypt.Both lovers met each other on Bint-al Nas - a meeting site for Arab LBTQ womxn.Maryam still believes that she deserves punishment for her lesbian sexual relationship.Both have survived abusive marriages and can only share their love for each other in private.Maryam & Maha go on a shared journey of search and discovery of female homosexuality.In Al-Azhar, they discover an old bookstore where they find a copy of the Fiqh al-Sunnah(The Laws of the Prophet).In the heart of an ancient mosque in the Citadel,they discover beautiful Islamic calligraphy as they declare their impossible love for each other.

Amir, an Iranian gay shia who has respect for Imam Hosseini.He sacrificed his life for Allah & reconciling his muslim faith.While in Iran, he was persecuted under the charges of illicit sexual conduct,illicit mannerism & received 100 lashes.After being brutally beaten and tortured in the police custody.The judge also threatened Amir that he should be punished by stoning.However he was sentenced to flogging.He told Sharma that Allah helped him to escape this traumatic situation.He fled to Turkey as soon as well.There he met 3 gay refugees - Arsham,Payam,Mojtaba.Mojtaba, another (Persian) gay muslim who ran away from Iran,due to his same sex marriage ceremony in 2005.

Ferda & Kiymet are a happy couple in Turkiye.Kiymet belongs from a conservative family.In her early Kiymet's marriage was fixed with a man.Kiymet's marriage ended up at divorce.Then she found Ferda, her soulmate.Ferda's mom is very supportive & tolerant of sexuality.Ferda is a devout sufi queer muslim, who honors Rumi - a prominent sufi icon for both LGBTQ+ & Straight Muslims.

Ahsan & Qasim are queer platonic friends.Ahsan is a Sunni Muslim & Qasim is a Shia Muslim.Both men, belongs from poor backgrounds do not adopt the western peronae of ‘gay’ and instead rely on vernacular terms.Ahsan & Qasim are part of transvestite,transgender community called Zenana,Kothi in Northern India.Most of these community hide themselves from public.Ahsan,Qasim find a safe space in his community.While Qasim is struggling with his sexuality in heteronormative society.

The filmmaker also documented the diverse tolerance of sexuality in sufi traditions (Pakistan,India & Turkey).

Is it the first film on Islam & Homosexuality?

''A Jihad for Love'' is called world's 1st film on Islam & Homosexuality.A Jihad for Love would be an international feature documentary film rather than world's first film on LGBT muslims.However there are several films that focused on LGBTQ muslim or Queerness in Islam.For Example:

Road to Love (2001)

Act of Faith (2002)

Haremde dört kadin (1965)

Hammam al-Malatily (1973)

Köçek (1975)

Ihtiras Firtinasi (1984)

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Marcides (1993)

Istanbul Beneath My Wings (1996)

Hamam (1997)

Lola & Billy the Kid (1999)

Production

Bismillah (In the name of Allah) was considered as an early working title for this documentary.Among muslims,the word Bismillah is very auspicious & used before beginning actions,speech,writing.But the tittle was not considered as the final title of this film due to controversy.

A Jihad for Love is produced by Halal Films, in association with the Sundance Documentary Film Fund,Channel 4 (UK),ZDF (Germany),Arte (France-Germany),Logo (US) & SBS Australia.The director & producer Parvez Sharma & co-producer Sandi Dubowski raised more than a million dollars over a 6 years period to make the film.

In an interview with The NY Times,Parvez Sharma said that he "would shoot touristy footage on the first 15 minutes & the last 15 minutes of a tape", with interviews for documentary in between, to avoid having his footage seized at customs.He compiled 400 hours of footage from a dozen countries ranging from Iraq to Pakistan to the UK.The nature of the work placed him at considerable personal risk.He adopted hardcore guerrilla film-making tactics,pretending to be a tourist in one country,a worker for an AIDS charity in another country.Wherever he went,he asked his queer friends to keep copies of footage and destroy the tapes once he had successfully smuggled the masters out of the country.

During his filmmaking Parvez traveled several countries including Pakistan, Iraq, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, USA, UK, Turkey, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,[...].

Interviews

In an interview with NY Times magazine,Parvez Sharma said,"Being gay and Muslim myself,I knew that this film had to be about us all coming out— as Muslims. It's about claiming the Islam that has been denied to us." With a target audience of "faithful Muslims," he undertook a variety of outreach tactics, including leafleting mosques,blanketing MySpace,screening in Astoria for 15 key progressive Muslim leaders.In an interview to Der Spiegel, Sharma explained the significance of the title: "I'm not looking at jihad as battle.I'm looking at the greater jihad in Islam, which is the jihad as the struggle with the self.I also thought it was really compelling to take a word that only has one connotation for most -- to take that, reclaim it and put it in the same phrase as love,which is universal.I really think it explains it very well.

Film Screening

A Jihad for Love first premiered in Toronto International Film Festival(TIFF) in September 2007.At its premier,the director was given a security guard for safety reasons.After this film festival A Jihad for Love got huge applaud internationally.A Jihad for Love film premiered as the opening film of Panorama Documente of the Berlin Film Festival in February 2008.

The film was screened in The Rio Film Festival,Brazil on September 2007,Morelia Film Festival,Mexico, on October 2007,The Sheffield DocFest on November 2007,London Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on March 2008,Melbourne International Film Festival on July 2008,Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival on March 2008,etc.A Jihad for Love's first premier in African continent was The Out in Africa Film Festival in Johannesburg and Cape Town,November 2007. On April,2008 A Jihad for Love film was successfully screened at Istanbul International Film Festival.It was the first time that the film allowed to screen in a muslim-majority country.Film also screened in Q! Film Festival of Indonesia.Although singapore banned the film from festival in 2008 due to its sensitive subject.

Popularity

A Jihad for Love film's sale and broadcast on NDTV, South Asia's largest network in 2008 would have a "remarkable" impact on this LGBTQ cause. "NDTV's broadcast has in effect made the film available to over one billion viewers in India,Bangladesh,Pakistan, & large portions of the Middle East and Africa.The various distributors and their Total Rating Points in European television, the Indian/South-Asian sale with its claimed footprint of 15 billion viewers, the theatrical release & the purportedly large numbers of Netflix viewers made the filmmakers and the TRP experts arrive at a number of 8 million total viewers calculated over a period of four years for this documentary.

International Muslim Dialogue Project

Immediately after the film's theatrical launch around the USA,Parvez & Sandi launched the International Muslim Dialogue Project on 2008.The aim of the project was to organize screenings of the film in Muslim Capitals.Sharma called it the "Underground Network Model" of film distribution.He invented this model sending unmarked DVD's of the film with friends & colleagues to Muslim capitals across the world with full permission to sell pirated copies.Some of the boldest were Beirut,Cairo,Karachi,eight cities in Indonesia & Kuala Lumpur

The film was screened privately screened in Iran,Palestine,Bangladesh and Somalia.

[merelygifted]

Searching for Sugar Man singer Rodriguez dies at 81 | Searching for Sugar Man | The Guardian

Rodriguez, the singer-songwriter whose unlikely career was the subject of Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, has died at 81.

The news was announced on his official site with his cause of death unknown. “It is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce that Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away earlier today,” the official statement read. “We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters – Sandra, Eva and Regan – and to all his family. Rodriguez was 81 years old. May His Dear Soul Rest In Peace.”

The Michigan-born musician had struggled to sell many copies of his first two albums in the US in the 1970s and so quit to take on manual work. But his music gained popularity elsewhere in places such as Botswana, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

His cult popularity in Australia led to a 1979 tour of the continent while in South Africa, a compilation album went platinum as a rumour started that he had killed himself.

It wasn’t until 1997 that he discovered his fame in South Africa after his daughter found information online. He then went on tour in the country. Further fame followed when his song Sugar Man was covered by Paolo Nutini and South African band Just Jinger. The original song was also sampled by Nas.

His life became the subject of the 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man, which premiered at the Sundance film festival to acclaim. It won the Oscar for best documentary in the following year.

Directed by Swedish film-maker Malik Bendjelloul, it charts his life and the search for him. After its success, Rodriguez’s albums entered the US charts for the first time.

“It’s been a great odyssey,” Rodriguez said in a 2008 interview with the Detroit News. “All those years, you know, I always considered myself a musician. But, reality happened.”

[terranautica]

welcome!

this blog loves planet earth and the people in it.

some notes:

I generally try to identify places + groups

I try to make conscious decisions about tags that respect cultural identities, consider historical context and reject imperialism. I realize this is impossible and messy and doomed to be inconsistent. choices I've made include one Korea, one Ireland, and multiple tags for separatist states, i.e. Scotland, Catalan Countries.

I am currently unsure when or if it makes sense to tag the "bigger" nation in a post about an autonomous region, ex. China and Tibet, Faroe Islands and Denmark. I want to respect widespread independence movements, but also not become bloated with regional tags. Tibet deserves to be free of China but I have to laugh at modern Texas separatism.

Israel does not get a tag. Jewish diaspora, Free Palestine, genocide, USA, or anti imperialism are used.

I am not always sure when to use the indigenous peoples tag. if I am unsure I will probably leave it out.

except the history and prehistory tag, I currently am not tagging things that no longer exist, ex. Soviet Union, Roman Empire. I may instead tag with related tags, ex. Russia, Greece

Tags like EU, UK, Africa, Asia, Latin American, Polynesian, etc. are used in posts that refer to many places/groups collectively ex. Lunar New Year in Asia

I try to tag the country/group that an artist/writer/creator belongs to, ex. a post featuring Baldwin tagged with USA, literature, black diaspora

tags are ever-evolving!

country/place tags:

Africa, Albania, Angolia, Argentina, Armenia, Asia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Catalan Countries, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Emirates, Estonia, Ethiopia, EU, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hawai'i, Hungary, Iberia, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, free Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, free Tibet, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Wales, West Papau, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

diaspora + ethnic group + cultural group tags:

Ainu, Apache, Bahá'í, Basque, Black diaspora, Chechen, Choctaw, Chulym, Dakota, Dharumbal, Dolgan, Galician, Gavião, Guarani-Kaiowá, Hui, Igbo, immigrants, Ingorot, Inuit, Ixil, Jewish diaspora, Karakalpak, Kashmir, Kazakh, Ket, Khakas, Lakota, Latin American, Lezgin, Mah Meri, Maka, Makonda, Mari, Mohegan, Ojibwe, Pataxo, Polynesian, Pueblo peoples, Purepecha, Q'eqchi', Rapa Nui, Rohingya, Romani, Rukai, Ryukyuan, Sakapultek, Samburu, Sámi, Selkup, Sioux, Tamil, Tatar, Tigray, Tlingit, Tokalau, Uyghur, Yazidi

culture + other tags:

agriculture, airports, animals and wildlife, architecture, art, children, clothing and textiles, dance, ecology and environmentalism, festivals and holidays, film and tv, food, geopolitics, history, infrastructure, language, literature, maps, music, myth and legend, my posts, nature, prehistory, postcards and stamps, public transportation, religions and belief systems, solidarity, sports and games, traditions and customs, true spirit of the blog, urban landscape, water and boats, women

ugly tags:

acab, anti capitalism, anti imperialism, anti misogyny, anti xenophobia, genocide