0493 – The Shape of Water (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  Baltimore during the Cold War  in 1962

The Shape of Water is a 2017 American fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in Baltimore in 1962, the plot follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature.

the film was primarily inspired by del Toro’s childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon and wanting to see Gill-man and Kay Lawrence (played by Julie Adams) succeed in their romance.

In an interview with IndieWire about the film, del Toro said, “This movie is a healing movie for me. … For nine movies I rephrased the fears of my childhood, the dreams of my childhood, and this is the first time I speak as an adult, about something that worries me as an adult. I speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we’re going. These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/

492 – Salvador Dali / Walt Disney – Destino (1945 – 2003 short)

0479 – Human Flow (2017)

Human Flow is a 2017 German documentary film co-produced and directed by Ai Weiwei about the current global refugee crisis. Ai Weiwei also comes from a past of displacement; his entire family was exiled to an isolate village of Xinjiang in the Gobi desert due to his parents being writers in the midst of the Cultural Revolution in China.

Like Human Flow, Ai has created similar art installations such as the “Law of the Journey” that features a 200 foot inflatable boat carrying 258 refugee figures, “Laundromat” where he filled a New York City gallery with discarded clothing and personal notes left by refugees in a camp in Idomeni Greece, and the recreation of the captured image of Aylan Kurdi, the young Syrian who drowned off the coast of Turkey.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6573444/

https://www.humanflow.com/

474 – Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

 spacetime coordinates: 20th century // 2000/10’s Chicago,  the Alpine village of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur > street scenes in Chicago and New York during the 1950s and 1960sFinding Vivian Maier is a 2013 American documentary film about the photographer Vivian Maier  (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) written, directed, and produced by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, and executive produced by Jeff Garlin.

July 1957. Chicago Suburb, IL

Undated, Chicago

Undated, New York, NY

Maier was a French-American woman who worked most of her life as a nanny and housekeeper to a multitude of Chicago families. She carried a camera everywhere she went, but Maier’s photographic legacy was largely unknown during her lifetime. The film documents how Maloof discovered her work and, after her death, uncovered her life through interviews with people who knew her. Maloof had purchased a box of photo negatives at a 2007 Chicago auction, then scanned the images and put them on the Internet. News articles began to come out about Maier and a Kickstarter campaign for the documentary was soon underway.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2714900/

“the poor are too poor to die”

0457 – The Square (2017)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s  Stockholm

“The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.”

The Square is a 2017 Swedish satirical drama film written and directed by Ruben Östlund, and starring Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West and Terry Notary. The film is about publicity surrounding an art installation, and was partly inspired by an installation Östlund and producer Kalle Boman had made.

(development) Originally with the performance artist who entertains the affluent patrons, Östlund was considering modelling the character after G.G. Allin, but deciding that that would be too “extreme”, he fell back on his interest in animal imitations. In crafting the scene, his concept was: “this internationally recognized artist is pretending to be a wild beast. What happens when he enters a room full of people in tuxedos?” The scene was inspired by a real incident with the artist Oleg Kulik, who performs as a dog and had attacked people at a notorious event in Stockholm. Other artists parodied in the film include Julian Schnabel, Robert Smithson and Carl Hammoud.

Oleg Kulik “Reservoir Dog”  Zurich 1995

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4995790/

456 – Marwencol (2010)

Marwencol (also known as Village of the Dolls in the UK) is a 2010 American documentary film that explores the life and work of outsider artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director-editor Jeff Malmberg.

in popular culture

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391092/

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Welcome to Marwen –2018 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the experiences of Mark Hogancamp

0432 – Reckless Kelly (1993)

spacetime coordinates: 1990’s Australia // Hollywood  Los Angeles, California

Reckless

Kelly is a 1993 Australian screwball comedy film produced, written, directed and starring Yahoo Serious. It co-stars Melora Hardin, Alexei Sayle and Hugo Weaving. The story is a satirical take on a modern-day Ned Kelly, a famous Australian outlaw.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107930/

_____________”We lived in this wild pub. It was so old that no one was sure if it was actually built or just somehow grew out of the ground. Over the years, it has become home to every kind of wildlife you can imagine.”