247 – The Road (2009)

The Road is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic drama film directed by John Hillcoat from a screenplay written by Joe Penhall, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 novel of the same name by the American author Cormac McCarthy. Principal photography took place in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Oregon. The film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Hillcoat preferred to shoot in real locations, saying “We didn’t want to go the CGI world.” Pennsylvania, where most of the filming took place, was chosen for its tax breaks and its abundance of locations that looked abandoned or decayed: coalfields, dunes, and run-down parts of Pittsburgh and neighboring boroughs. Filming was also done at the 1892 amusement resort (Conneaut Lake Park) after one of the park’s buildings (the Dreamland Ballroom) was destroyed in a fire in February 2008. The beaches of Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania were also used. Hillcoat also said of using Pittsburgh as a practical location, “It’s a beautiful place in fall with the colors changing, but in winter, it can be very bleak. There are city blocks that are abandoned. The woods can be brutal.” Filmmakers also shot scenes in parts of New Orleans that had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and on Mount St. Helens in Washington. The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike, a stretch of abandoned roadway between Hustontown and Breezewood, Pennsylvania, was used for much of the production.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_(2009_film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/

246

“…Consider the Platonic distinction between body and soul. Consider Descartes’ implicit suggestion that other animals are furry robots. Consider what Dostoevsky saw when he visited Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace: he found in it a metaphor for western civilisation, an immune system that brought the world’s most diverting flora, fauna and industrial products under one roof, while whatever remained outside (war, genocide, slavery, unpleasant tropical diseases, human waste, expendable life forms) dwindled into irrelevance.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/23/humankind-solidarity-with-nonhuman-people-by-timothy-morton-review

241 – Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

spacetime coordinates: 2007 Antarctica

Encounters at the End of the World is a 2007 American documentary film by Werner Herzog. The film studies people and places in Antarctica.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093824/

240 – Ekspeditionen til verdens ende (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s North-East Greenland

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2530936/

235 – Fehérlófia (1981)

Son of the White Mare (Hungarian: Fehérlófia) is a 1981 Hungarian experimental, full-feature, pop-art/folk-art fairy-tale / animated adventure film directed by Marcell Jankovics  The story’s main character is Fehérlófia (Son of the White Mare), who is a man with superhuman power. Based on the work of László Arany and ancient Hunnic and Avaric legends, Fehérlófia is a tribute to the old steppe peoples. There are slight differences between Arany’s work and the movie – for example, in the movie, Fehérlófia (Son of the White Mare, protagonist) and Fanyűvő (Treetearer) are the same person. There are also references to ancient origin legends: Ősanya (Progenitrix), Ősapa (Forefather), and the Világfa (World tree).

The film was made from 1979 to 1981. It is the second animated feature-length film of Jankovics and Pannónia Filmmstúdió.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083931/

0225 – Kuky se vrací (2010)

Kooky (Czech: Kuky se vrací, literally “Kuky returns”, a pun on Lassie se vrací) is a 2010 Czech action comedy film directed by Jan Svěrák. The film combines techniques of puppet animation, stop motion and live action. It tells the story of a six-year-old asthmatic boy whose parents throw him away his favorite toy, an old teddy bear named Kooky. The boy, however, secretly sneaks out of the house at night to retrieve Kooky from the garbage can and bring him back home. Due to that, the boy gets ill. In his feverish dreams, Kooky comes to life in the landfill, escapes into a mysterious forest and begins its journey amongst the rough-and-ready creatures of the forest.

The film was inspired by the works of the Czech sculptor and painter František Skála, who refused to participate in the production. Svěrák offered collaboration on the technical development of puppets and visual effects to Jakub Dvorský from the video game company Amanita Design. The puppets in the film were manipulated by the members of the ensemble Buchty a loutky.  During the post-production process, Svěrák and his team concentrated on removing the strings and wires with the help of computer animation. Kooky is technically the most complicated film by Svěrák; it contains three times more visual effects than Dark Blue World, the most expensive Czech film up to that point.  In addition to fictional puppet figures, the film makes use of real animals (fox, butterfly, snail, frog etc.)

imdb   wiki

206 – Gomorra (2008)

spacetime coordinates: 2004 – 2005 southern Italy

Gomorrah (Italian: Gomorra) is a 2008 Neapolitan-language neo-realist Italian film directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviano, who also collaborated in the screenplay. It deals with the Casalesi clan, a crime syndicate within the Camorra — a traditional criminal organization based in Naples and Caserta, in the southern Italian region of Campania.

The film, following the book upon which it is based, portrays events identifiably similar to actual historical ones; for example, the Scampia feud. In the film’s credits, the filmmakers thank the districts of Scampia and Torre del Greco, as well as the Carabinieri of nearby Boscoreale: these three suburban areas around the Bay of Naples feature cityscapes appropriate for filming this story.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929425/