721 – Thelma & Louise (1991)

timespace coordinates: 1991, a fictional route between Arkansas and the Grand Canyon

Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American neo-feminist road film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. It stars Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise, two friends who embark on a road trip with unforeseen consequences. The supporting cast include Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and Brad Pitt, whose career was launched by the film.At its release, the film stirred controversy. At the intersection of several genres, it is now considered a classic. It influenced other films and artistic works and became a landmark of feminist film. In 2016, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. (wiki)

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678 – Blood Tea and Red String (2006)

Blood Tea and Red String is a stop-motion-animated feature film, directed by Christiane Cegavske. It was released on February 2, 2006 after a production time of 13 years, having been filmed in various places in the West Coast and in two studios. The musical score was composed and performed by Mark Growden. Cegavske says in the audio commentary to the DVD for this film that it is to be the first in a trilogy.

“A handmade stop-motion fairy tale for adults that tells the tale of the struggle between the aristocratic White Mice and the rustic Oak Dwellers over the doll of their heart’s desire.” imdb

650 – Guest of Cindy Sherman (2008)

Cindy Sherman von Philipp Kaiser

Analyzing his relationship with the reclusive artist Cindy Sherman leads filmmaker Paul H-O (Hasegawa-Overacker) to confront his own identity in this personal and unexpectedly humorous documentary. Paul H-O became a fixture of the New York art scene in the 1990s with his public access show “GalleryBeat.” Armed with a video camera, he attended art gallery openings, intriguing many with his candid, witty assessments of the work and winning fans in the process. Among the latter was Cindy Sherman, the press-shy art superstar, who invited Paul to her studio for a series of exclusive filmed interviews. In these sessions, he gains insight into her artistic process and a romantic relationship blossoms as they fall in love. Their initial bliss takes a turn when Paul gets caught up in the aura of Cindy’s celebrity and he is subordinated to a role as Cindy’s guest at the star-studded openings and dinners she regularly attends. Spanning over 15 years and with unprecedented access to the great artist, including interviews with a veritable who’s who of the art and entertainment world, the film paints a vivid picture of the contemporary art scene and provides a witty, illuminating look at celebrity, anxiety, and art. (rottentomatoes)

Cindy was initially supportive, but later opposed the project.

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638 – The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya’s Women-Only Village (2015 video)

Where the foothills of Mount Kenya merge into the desert, the people of Samburu have maintained a strict patriarchy for over 500 years in northern Kenya. That is, until 25 years ago, when Rebecca Lolosoli founded Umoja village as a safe haven for the region’s women. Umoja, which means “unity” in Swahili, is quite literally a no man’s land, and the matriarchal refuge is now home to the Samburu women who no longer want to suffer abuses, like genital mutilation and forced marriages, at the hands of men. Throughout the years, it has also empowered other women in the districts surrounding Samburu to start their own men-excluding villages. Broadly visited Umoja and the villages it inspired to meet with the women who were fed up with living in a violent patriarchy.

605 – The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is a 2015 American documentary film directed and written by Stanley Nelson Jr. The film combines archival footage and interviews with surviving Panthers and FBI agents to tell the story of the revolutionary black organization Black Panther Party. It is Nelson Jr.’s eighth film to premiere at Sundance. The film is the first of a three-part series of documentary films about African-American history America Revisited. It will be followed by Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and The Slave Trade: Creating a New World.

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0582 – Agora (2009)

spacetime coordinates: Alexandria, Egypt. 391 – 415 A.D.

Agora (Spanish: Ágora) is a 2009 Spanish English-language historical drama film directed by Alejandro Amenábar and written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil. The biopic stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in late 4th-century Roman Egypt, The story uses historical fiction to highlight the relationship between religion and science at the time amidst the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism and the Christianization of the Roman Empire.

The set used in the film is meticulously historically authentic, showing a blend of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian architectural styles that would have been fitting to the time period,  but the costumes are anachronistic. Hypatia’s age in the film is also inaccurate; most scholars believe she would have been in her 50s or 60s at the time of her death, but the film portrays her as a young woman. Irene A. Artemi, a doctor of theology at Athens University, states that “The movie—albeit seemingly not turning against the Christian religion—is in fact portraying the Christians as fundamentalist, obscurantist, ignorant and fanatic”. Similarly, the atheist historian Tim O’Neil remarks: “Over and over again, elements are added to the story that are not in the source material: the destruction of the library, the stoning of the Jews in the theatre, Cyril condemning Hypatia’s teaching because she is a woman, the heliocentric “breakthrough” and Hypatia’s supposed irreligiosity.” (read more: Historical accuracy)

Cyril of Alexandria

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0578 – The Alienist (2018 TV series)

spacetime coordinates: 1896 New York City

The Alienist in an American period drama television series based on The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The ten-episode limited series stars Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning as an ad hoc team assembled in mid-1890s New York City to investigate a serial killer who is murdering street children.

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