1362 – Our Planet (TV Mini-Series 2019)

Our Planet is a British nature documentary series made for Netflix. The series is narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, led by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, who also created BBC documentary series Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and The Blue Planet, in collaboration with the conservation charity World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The series addresses issues of conservation while featuring these disparate animals in their respective home regions, and has been noted for its greater focus on humans’ impact on the environment than traditional nature documentaries; centering around how climate change impacts all living creatures. It marked the first nature documentary Netflix has ever made. All episodes were released on 5 April 2019. A behind the scenes documentary was released onto Netflix on 2 August 2019.

imdb

1324 – Strange Days (1995)

timespace coordinates: 1999, turn of the century (near-future) Los Angeles (racial war zone / New Year’s Eve party) 

Strange Days is a 1995 American science fiction thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, and produced by Cameron and Steven-Charles Jaffe. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. Set in the last two days of 1999, the film follows the story of a black marketeer of SQUID discs, recordings that allow a user to experience the recorder’s memories and physical sensations, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the murder of a prostitute.

Blending science fiction with film noir conventions, Strange Days explores themes such as racism, abuse of power, rape, and voyeurism. Although the story was conceived by Cameron around 1986, Bigelow found inspiration after incidents such as the Lorena Bobbitt trial and the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

Strange Days was a commercial failure and almost derailed Bigelow’s career (…) Nevertheless, the film’s critical standing has improved over the years, with many fans feeling that the film has been overlooked by a casual mass audience and misguided critics.

The scene where the crowd celebrates the turn of the new century at the end of the film was shot at the corner of the 5th and Flower streets, between the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Los Angeles Public Library. Over 50 off-duty police officers were hired to control an assembled crowd of 10,000 people, who had to pay $10 in advance to attend the event. The film-makers also hired rave promoters Moss Jacobs and Philip Blaine to produce performances featuring Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite, as well as “all the cyber-techno bands they could garner”.

In 2015, The Washington Post editor Sonny Bunch felt that Strange Days was still relevant, comparing the imagery captured by the SQUID units to that of first-person shooters or cellphone videos on YouTube. He added that events such as Jeriko One’s murder and the subsequent coverup of the crime contribute to activist movements like Black Lives Matter, and that their media documentation amplifies their reception and consequences. (read more: Themes)

wiki   /   imdb

1322 – Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

timespace coordinates: East Berlin, from October 1989 to just after German reunification a year later (Most scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbauten near Alexanderplatz.)

Good Bye Lenin! is a 2003 German tragicomedy film, directed by Wolfgang Becker. The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Chulpan Khamatova, and Maria Simon. The story follows a family in East Germany; the mother (Saß) is dedicated to the socialist cause and falls into a coma in October 1989, shortly before the November revolution. When she awakens eight months later in June 1990, her son (Brühl) attempts to protect her from a fatal shock by concealing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism.

Ostalgie is a neologism for the nostalgia for a communist past which is a common theme in Good Bye, Lenin! (read more) 

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wiki   /   imdb   /   rottentomatoes   /   Sandmann Lied (sandmännchen – kosmonaut)

1256 – Hail Satan? (2019 documentary)

Hail Satan? is a 2019 American documentary film about The Satanic Temple, including its origins and grassroots political activism. Directed by Penny Lane, the film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film shows Satanists working to preserve the separation of church and state against the perceived privilege of the Christian right. (wiki)

imdb   /   satanic panic

1248 – Dumbo (2019)

timespace coordinates: 1919  Joplin, Missouri / Dreamland in New York City

the first of five live-action or photo-realistically computer-generated remakes of prior traditionally-animated films that Disney has slated for release in 2019, along with Aladdin, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and Lady and the Tramp. (wiki)

imdb   /   rt

1242 -Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000 documentary)

The Gleaners and I (French: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse; “The gleaners and the female gleaner”, a reference to the director herself) is a 2000 French documentary film by Agnès Varda that features various kinds of gleaning. It was entered into competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival (“Official Selection 2000”), and later went on to win awards around the world. In a 2014 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted The Gleaners and I the eighth best documentary film of all time. In 2016, the film appeared at No. 99 on BBC’s list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century.   /   Cinematic significance   (wiki)

imdb: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)   /   Les glaneurs et la glaneuse… deux ans après (2002)

1168 – Starship Troopers

timespace coordinates: the 23rd century,  Buenos Aires / Terran Federation > Klendathu, the “Bugs’” home planet / Planet “P”/ remote outpost on a planet inhabited by Arachnids / agricultural planet Roku San / classified planet OM-1 /

Starship Troopers (1997)

Starship Troopers is a 1997 American satirical military science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier. It originally came from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine, but eventually licensed the name Starship Troopers from a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit. Rico’s military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an insectoid species known as “Arachnids”.

(Relationship to novel) Because the film originated from an unrelated script, with names and superficial details from the novel being added retroactively, there are many differences between the two. While the novel has been accused of promoting militarism, fascism, and military rule, the film satirizes these concepts by featuring bombastic displays of nationalism as well as news reports that are intensely fascistic, xenophobic, and propagandistic.  Verhoeven stated in 1997 that the first scene of the film—an advertisement for the Mobile Infantry—was adapted shot-for-shot from a scene in Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935), specifically an outdoor rally for the Reichsarbeitsdienst. Other references to Nazism in the movie include the Wehrmacht-inspired uniforms and insignia of field grade officers, M.I. working uniforms reminiscent of Mussolini’s Blackshirts, Albert Speer‘s style of architecture, and its propagandistic dialogue (“Violence is the supreme authority!”). 

In a 2014 interview on The Adam Carolla Show, the actor Michael Ironside, who read the novel as a youth, said that he asked Verhoeven, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, “Why are you doing a right-wing fascist movie?” Verhoeven replied, “If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn’t work, no one will listen to me. So I’m going to make a perfect fascist world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships, but it’s only good for killing fucking Bugs!” 

(Themes) … In his DVD commentary, Verhoeven stated his intentions clearly: the film’s message is that “War makes fascists of us all”. He evoked Nazi Germany’s fashion, iconography, and propaganda because he saw it as a natural evolution of the United States after World War II, and especially after the Korean War. “I’ve heard this film nicknamed All Quiet on the Final Frontier“, he said, “which is actually not far from the truth.” Edward Neumeier (who had previously worked with Verhoeven on RoboCop) broadly concurs, although he sees a satire on human history rather than solely the United States. Verhoeven says his satirical use of irony and hyperbole is “playing with fascism or fascist imagery to point out certain aspects of American society… of course, the movie is about ‘Let’s all go to war and let’s all die.'” (wiki)

imdb

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Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation is a 2004 military science-fiction action television film directed by Phil Tippett and starring Richard Burgi, Lawrence Monoson, and Colleen Porch. It is a sequel to Starship Troopers (1997) and the second installment of the Starship Troopers film series. (wiki)

Made for 5% of the cost of Starship Troopers (1997). (imdb)

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Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)

1146
01:33:47,715 –> 01:33:51,617
I got religion, Dix. I got it bad.

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder is a 2008 American military science fiction film written and directed by Edward Neumeier and starring Casper Van Dien who returned as Johnny Rico from the original film, along with Jolene Blalock and Boris Kodjoe. It is a sequel to Starship Troopers (1997) and Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004) (which were both written by Neumeier) and the third installment of the Starship Troopers film series. The film was released directly to DVD in the U.S. on August 5, 2008. (wiki)

Joe Leydon of Variety stated:

“Die-hard fans of Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s notorious 1997 cult-fave sci-fi spectacle, will be pleased to note that its second made-for-vid sequel gamely attempts to replicate the original pic’s over-the-top style and self-satirical tone. (…) the latest episode reprises Verhoeven’s love-it-or-hate-it mix of gruesome mayhem, overstated melodrama, peek-a-boo nudity and tongue-in-cheek fascist aesthetics.”

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Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012)

Starship Troopers: Invasion –imdb– (スターシップ・トゥルーパーズ インベイジョン) is a Japanese-American 2012 computer-animated military science fiction film directed by Shinji Aramaki. It is the fourth installment of the Starship Troopers film series.

The film was followed by

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Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017) 

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Starship Troopers (video game) 

Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy 

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Future