By Joe Bendel. In New York City, parents who want their children to receive a decent education have to rely on chance. For this sad state of affairs, they can thank the local teachers’ union, the UFT, which consistently places its own special interests above those of New York’s children at every opportunity. Indeed, one can draw no other conclusion after screening Madeleine Sackler’s documentary The Lottery (trailer above), opening today in the city perhaps most in need of its reformist message: New York.
Eva Moskowitz was one of the few relatively moderate Democrats in the New York City Council (and my local council person). After earning union enmity for holding hearings on the teachers’ contract, she was defeated by a vastly less talented candidate for the Manhattan Borough Presidency. Supporting her opponent might have been the union’s biggest mistake. After the election, she moved back up-town, where she opened the Harlem Success Academies, a series of public charter schools that dramatically out-perform the local zip-code schools. Much to the embarrassment of the union and local administrators, over five thousand parents attended the legally mandated lottery to enroll their children in Harlem Success. The Lottery tells their story.
There are many differences between the parents featured in Lottery. Some are single parents, some are immigrants, and some are union members themselves. However, they have two things in common: they all want their children to have greater opportunities in life than they did, but they do not think that is possible if their children attend their failing zip code-zoned public school. In order for their children to be successful, they will have to be lucky in the Harlem Success lottery.
As a charter school, Harlem Success cannot choose its students. There is no skimming cream off the top. By law, if total demand exceeds their total registration, they must hold a lottery for all new incoming students. Of course, that demand is enormous, overflowing the cavernous Harlem Armory Center.
None of this pleases the union, though they declined to explain why on-camera. The only interview participant willing to shill for the UFT is former New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, but she does not make a good spokesman for their interests. Appropriately, we also see the “community organizers” formerly known as ACORN show up to intimidate Harlem Success parents and staff at public hearings. (Karma seems to have caught up with them.) Continue reading Teacher Unions vs. Kids: The Lottery
By Jason Apuzzo. In June of 2009, at the height of last summer’s anti-government protests in Iran, an innocent bystander named Neda Agha-Soltan was shot by a Basij (government-backed) militiaman thug named Abbas Kargar Javid. Soltan died shortly thereafter, her death captured on video by several protesters armed with cell phones. The videos soon went viral, and aided by Twitter and other social media immediately became the source of a worldwide scandal that threatened to bring down the Iranian regime.
This evening HBO is presenting a documentary by Antony Thomas telling Neda’s story, which is perforce the story of the aborted revolution of last summer. The documentary is called For Neda, and HBO has wisely made it available on YouTube so that anyone can see it. We’ve embedded the English-language version of the documentary above, but it’s also available in Farsi and in Arabic.
Neda Agha-Soltan.
Many of you reading this site are probably already familiar with the circumstances of this story, which received massive worldwide attention last year. Suffice it to say that due to both her beauty – and what we now know to be her inner character, and force of conviction – Neda has become an extremely potent symbol for those who wish to bring down the awful regime that currently rules Iran. For Neda finally brings out the woman behind the symbol – feisty, independent and complex. It’s important that her full story be told. As an aside, it is certainly no consolation to her friends and family, but I hope it brings them some inner satisfaction that Neda continues to haunt the current regime – a regime bent on effacing the role of women in society and all that women represent: love, compassion, beauty, life itself.
It’s worth mentioning that Neda was a fledgling member of Iran’s burgeoning underground music scene – a world captured with poignancy and vitality in director Bahman Ghobadi’s recent film No One Knows About Persian Cats (see the LFM review here). For Neda makes clear, as Persian Cats did in its different way, that women like Neda Agha-Soltan are part of a younger generation that has mentally and emotionally checked-out of contemporary Iran, even while they’re still living there – a development that is both encouraging … and tragic.
The most compelling review that I’ve read of For Neda comes (not surprisingly) from The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, who writes:
“The power of Antony Thomas’s documentary has all to do with its focus: the rage of a modern people—educated, ambitious, accomplished and now consigned to life under a regime whose enforcement of Islamic law governs every aspect of life. Surrounding Neda’s story is that larger one, related with unforgettable eloquence …”
We hope you find the documentary rewarding, and we congratulate HBO for airing it. Let’s all hope for a better future for Iran, so that such tragic stories as Neda’s need never be repeated again.
By Jason Apuzzo. Just for fun on the weekend, we thought we’d post some 3D video. You will need an old-fashioned pair of anaglyphic (i.e., red-blue) 3D glasses in order to enjoy these videos to their fullest effect. If you don’t happen to have such glasses, you can get a free pair here, or you can even make your own. [Another thing you can do is buy a DVD for an anaglyphic 3D film like Robert Rodriguez’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl. Such DVDs always come with a few pairs of anaglyphic 3D glasses.]
• Up above, Andrew Murchie and the team at Enhanced Dimensions have retrofit the trailer for the classic 50’s sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet into anaglyphic 3D. Take a look at it … preferably at a distance of about 3-5 feet. It’s really fun.
• Ever imagine what Iron Man 2 might look like in 3D?
A company called 3DGuy converted one of the flashier scenes from Iron Man 2 into anaglyphic 3D, and you can check that out here.
Make sure to watch the Iron Man 2 video in the highest resolution possible for the best possible 3D effect.
• You can also check out a campy, eccentric little short film called “Glory to the Conquerors of Space in 3D,” from Atomic Cheesecake Productions. “Glory” is about a retro-style female Soviet cosmonaut who has a strange series of pseudo-erotic encounters on a planet full of blue people. [There’s no graphic imagery.] James Cameron might want to take a look at this one. The film played in Slamdance’s online competition in December.
[Editor’s note: “Glory to the Conquerors of Space in 3D” features some mature situations. Viewer discretion advised.]
3D can be a lot of fun, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on 3D projects large and small here at LFM …
By Jason Apuzzo. Later today we’ll be posting a review of Sony’s Karate Kid remake. The Karate Kid, as everybody knows, is about a young kid who trains himself in the martial arts in order to protect himself from bullying and to rebuild his self-esteem.
The Karate Kid reminded me of a nice little short that I caught recently called, “The Young Marines.” “The Young Marines” is about the Young Marine program, that serves a similar function for young people – and also puts them on a path to serving their country. Enjoy.
Footnote: unlike with The Karate Kid, the Chinese government did not have editorial oversight of this short.
LFM’s Steve Greaves reviews the award-winning web series satire about the fictional, 70’s progressive rock band, “Gemini Rising.”
By Steve Greaves. Before there were hair bands, there were hairy bands. Yes, the heather was high and across the mythic plains there were hairy, sensitive barbarians in hordes of typically five, but growing in might at times to numbers almost unimaginable. Few live to bear witness. Quite often the drummer would don an afro though he be of the Celtic dynasty.
There are niches within niches, and Koldcast.com’s web TV series Gemini Rising picks up the musk of a very specific kind of band at a very specific juncture in popular (or not) music culture. For a while in the early 70’s, after the Summer of Love sounds had burned out and UK and NY punk were not yet kicking, there was a lot of soul-searching and cosmic exploration informing the kinds of themes and approaches to being a “rock” band. Much of what emerged at that time was amorphous, exploratory, meandering, melodramatic and self-indulgent schlock. It is to rock what “fusion” is to jazz – i.e., technically impressive, but virtually hook-free and generally leaves you in a worse mood than before.
The term coined was Progressive Rock, and while there are many, many great songs and bands in the genre when it began through today, one has to laugh at the inherent ridiculousness of the original trappings: grown men in tights and scarves singing operatically and emoting in a quasi-Shakespearian manner about wizards and astrology. It was one big hairy Renaissance Pleasure Faire and an aural gateway to the ages for those willing to explore the far edge of listenability.
Before there were hair bands, there were hairy bands.
Allrighty then Shackleton, let’s talk bands. Experience the nerdy wrath of names like Uriah Heep, Marillion, Pendragon, Hawkwind, Elf and Rainbow (Ronnie James Dio is a movement unto himself too vast to explore here, all you need to know is he’s slain many a hydraulic dragon in as many middle-earthly bands, and is a powerful elvine singer who also fronted Black Sabbath post-Ozzy Ozbourne).
The common thing about bands amid this subterranean niche in “hardish” rock is not so much what they are but that what they’re not: not hard enough to be metal. Not catchy enough to be pop. Not light enough to be jazz. Too noisy to be opera. These are broad strokes to draw admittedly, but this is the kaleidoscopic point of entry into fully grasping the modest genius of Gemini Rising.
While there is a surprising amount of variety among episodes in the series, what holds it all together is the lack of anything much ever really happening. Like their own music and that of their “contemporaries” cited previously, the act never really lands because the band itself is never grounded and always in juvenile crisis. As a caricature, Gemini Rising is the spawn of other “rock mockumentary” bands that are perpetually stuck in a rut even when opportunities to show off their cosmosonic magic arise … anywhere from within recording studios, to the Gong Show-styled Larry LaMay variety hour – and all guaranteed to bring a yellow and orange glow to your 14-inch Zenith.
Comparisons to This is Spinal Tap and Bad News are a given anytime a hard “rock mock” shows up, but the idea is again fresh and the large, funny and clearly dedicated cast and varied settings put an original and enthusiastic spin on the typical flailing band situations. The genius is in being so confidently loose within a sub-genre that can only be recreated through the pains of extreme specificity. The look and feel of the people, the places and the music videos and media within the environment are spot on. Lead singer Robert Mckenzie is perfectly cast in east coast actor and Syrrah vocalist Righteous Jolly, who sounds not unlike the formidable Geoff Tate of neo-prog metal icon, Queensryche.
The sheer dumpiness of the era and the fringes of the midwest and rustbelt provide plenty of deadpan juxtapositions, as well as a textural approach to the film that flatters its efforts – nay, its quest to be vintage ’74 in flavor. Fake hairs on the projector, low lighting, and other distressed effects add to the smutty visual character of the series. Clever use of graphics and exacting font choices complete the whole wood-paneled non-spectacle. You’ll be craving a Tab and a stick of Big Red in no time.
Shot on a shoestring or merely made to look that way, the expansive cast and at times spacious outdoor locations (“We’re going to bring birds into the studio?” “That goose is an artist!”) go a long way to make this production feel bigger than it is. Part of the charm of this effort is that the “young underdog band” is mirrored to an extent by the obvious “let’s put on a show” ethic of everyone involved, a sort of lo-fi equilibrium between the filmmakers and the subject matter that allows for enough discipline to stage something inventive and funny without taking itself too seriously in the process. Overthinking this material would suck the spontaneous life right out of it. All in all this is a great example of the kind of fun, affordable, collaborative art filmmakers can actually create and get seen today with little more than talent and imagination.
Highlights include the extra episode “Amphibian Liberation Army” (the star of whom is an activist who goes by the handle “Che Johnson”) and song performances including “Lady of the Lake” and “Star Child.” A good place to start your zodiacal rock odyssey is the Gemini Rising trailer above.
There are many differences between the parents featured in Lottery. Some are single parents, some are immigrants, and some are union members themselves. However, they have two things in common: they all want their children to have greater opportunities in life than they did, but they do not think that is possible if their children attend their failing zip code-zoned public school. In order for their children to be successful, they will have to be lucky in the Harlem Success lottery.
