Anatomy of the Finger....point

This war is about Oil and it’s the media's fault. Section 1.

That could be the title of the class I am now enrolled in courtesy my fellow students.

It is your average run of the mill NYU course. Except, these are not your average run of the mill NYU students. We had a few state department employees, a few people from the UN, some investors (you can probably guess why they are there), a couple marines, a DOD backgrounds inspector, a refugee humanitarian and that is just to name a few.

The real title is "Iraq: Anatomy of a conflict." Section 1.

Tonight was class one. It was our job as a student body to come up with a boilerplate as to what we wanted to discuss this semester. A boilerplate it was. A heated emotional and utterly confused boilerplate.. You can imagine the cross firing slodgefest that erupted.

Within two hours the media had been attacked seven times, Bush four, The UN three, Congress three and Saddam a disappointing two.

Oil was mentioned five times, Electricity eight times, Iraq’s admiring neighbors four times and WMD’s zero.

Our instructor, whether he wanted to or not, mediated a two-hour random and often times directionless spattering of Iraq debate. He proved his point at the end.

“What drives our assumptions about Iraq? What fuels the fire? What do we really know?”

Nothing.

At least, I said nothing. I have nothing to say. The only thing I can remember about the Gulf War is sitting on my couch in front of our then projection screen TV. It is the one with the three primary colored bulbs disguised inside a table. There was a large map on the screen and a voice over. It was a map of Iraq and the voice of Tom Brokaw. Something had happened. I didn’t know what but I didn’t really care. I interrupted Tom to exclaim something to my dad. But my dad did care. It was met with a loud authoritative shushing.

I’ll never forget that shush. It was serious. It was ominous. It meant something. So much so that it has stuck with me to this day.

This conflict has struck a chord with the American people. Even in my small survey class of 15. I see confusion and a whole lot of finger- pointing but no clarity.

Iraq won’t be solved this semester and probably not next semester. But the least we can do is graduate to a level of understanding. Understanding a conflict that could define our generation.

In the meantime Let’s all just shhhhhh and listen. We may learn something.

No Country For Any Shorts

One of the joys of living in the West Village is the various art houses, cinemas, jazz clubs and comedy clubs within a stones throw.

I was heading home on Friday and I stopped in at our local IFC center on our block. I was checking the listings to find anything good for the weekend. I noticed opening tonight was the Academy Award Animated and Live Action Shorts for 2008. It was starting in five minutes. I bought one ticket and headed in.

I have never actually seen Shorts listed at theaters, although I am a big fan. My question is who actually ever sees these things besides the Academy?? This was the first year the Academy paired with Target and Magnolia productions issued a somewhat wide release of these films.

I sat through the entire thing with my eyes glued to the screen. I was amazed. They were all truly unbelievable and all… foreign. Not one of the 10 nominated shorts this year is from America. There is even a live action short about a Tonto women that is Canadian! They were quirky, funny, ingenious and uniquely un-American.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Animated:
“My Love” A Russian short by Aleksandr Petrov. It’s a hand-drawn pastel animation depicting 19th century Russia. It was wildly imaginative and told a beautiful story of a Boy that is love torn. The picture moved as is you were watching a painting come to life. By color and hard strokes you literally felt every emotion that the hormonal boy passed through. It was a journey that made me actually sway in my seat at times. This is the winner if my vote counted.

“Madame Tutli Putli,” This was a stop motion animated film from Canada. It was about a hellish night one middle-aged woman spent on a train. It was sarcastic, quirky and over the top. The characters were all a bit disturbing but that could be attributed to my genuine fear of moving dolls. I didn’t exactly understand the storyline at the end but I could relate to the overall drudgery of travel, which was uniquely represented. No Disney story here.

“Even Pigeons Go to Heaven” An animated short from France about a priest that tries to talk a dying man into buying a machine that will take him to heaven. The digital animation was unbelievable. It was very fun to watch and you couldn’t help but fall in love with the old man who has his own interpretation of heaven.

And my honorable mentions go to “I Met the Walrus”, a Canadian animated illustration about a brief interview with John Lennon on Peace. It was a neat short on a topic that still feels politically fueled today. And last and probably least was “Peter and the Wolf.” The stop animation was great. I thought it was a bit long in spots.

I wasn’t over the top excited about all the Live Actions shorts so much so that I am only going to mention two here.

The one worth the almost 42 minutes to tell the story is the Danish (not so) short, “At Night” about three young women dealing with cancer. Bring the tissues. It is a tearjerker. A heavy topic covered very eloquently by Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth. I think this one may be favored at the awards due to its compelling nature.

If it was left up to me I would pick the loveable Belgian “Tanghi Argentini.” It was short and sweet. It did exactly what I want a short to do. Make me laugh. I loved it. It was about internet dating. It was very well written and it speaks volumes that I would probably youtube this right now. Right now. Unless of course you are finding someone to tango with right now.