books, movies, Uncategorized

1608 – District 9 (2009)

timespace coordinates: The film is partially presented in a found footage format by featuring fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras. The story, which explores themes of humanityxenophobia and social segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien spaceship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered on the ship, the South African government confines them to an internment camp called District 9. Twenty years later, during the government’s relocation of the aliens to another camp, one of the confined aliens named Christopher Johnson, who is about to try to escape from Earth with his son and return home, crosses paths with a bureaucrat leading the relocation named Wikus van der Merwe. The title and premise of District 9 were inspired by events in Cape Town‘s District Six, during the apartheid era.

District 9_6District 9 is a 2009 science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut. It is a co-production of New Zealand, the United States and South Africa. The film stars Sharlto CopleyJason Cope, and David James, and was adapted from Blomkamp’s 2006 short film Alive in Joburg. (wiki)

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imdb  /   rt   /  Future   /  the-art-of-district-9


Alive in Joburg (2005)

timespace coordinates: In 1990, Johannesburg is home to a number of extraterrestrial refugees, whose large spaceships (estimated to be nearly one kilometre in length) can be seen hovering above the city. When the visitors first arrived, the human population was enamored with, among other aspects, the aliens’ advanced “bio-suits”, and welcomed them with open arms. However, the aliens later began moving into other areas of the city, committing crimes in order to survive and frequently clashing with police. Playing as a documentary, the film continues with interviews and footage taken from handheld cameras, which highlight the growing tension between Earth’s civilian population and the extraterrestrial visitors.

According to individuals “interviewed” in the film, the aliens were captive labour (slaves or indentured servants), forced to live in “conditions that were not good” and had escaped to Earth. Because the film takes place in 1990, while apartheid was still in effect in South Africa, the aliens were forced to live amongst the already-oppressed black population, causing conflict with them as well as the non-white and white populations.

All of the interview statements which do not explicitly mention extraterrestrials were taken from authentic interviews with many South Africans who had been asked their opinions of Zimbabwean refugees. (wiki)

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quotes, theory, Uncategorized

1596

Teenage bloodbath: the 2010s in review

by Sam Kriss

Reviewed:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (film, JJ Abrams, 2019)
The Irishman (film, Martin Scorsese, 2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (film, Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
‘ok boomer’ (meme, the New York Times, 2019)
The death of Jeffrey Epstein (hyperobject, Bill and Hillary Clinton, 2019)
YA fiction (genre, JK Rowling et al., 1997)
The 2010s (decade, Time, 2010)
Industrial capitalism (mode of production, the World-Spirit, 1760)
The Earth (planet, God, 4,543,000,000 BC)
Myself (imbecile, God, 1990)


“George Lucas was the Albert Speer of cinema. Everything he built had extraordinary ruin value; all those spaceships work far better as enormous wrecks than as active fantasies. They were destroyed from the very beginning.”

“Youth, in our era of exhaustion, is a phantom. It’s something dreamed up by old people; it belongs to them, and they’ll control it until they die; maybe afterwards.”

movies, Uncategorized

1581 – Project Power (2020)

spacetime coordinates: near-future New Orleans

Project Power is a 2020 American superhero film directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. It stars Jamie FoxxJoseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback, alongside Colson BakerRodrigo SantoroAmy Landecker and Allen Maldonado, and follows a drug dealer, a police officer, and a former soldier who team up to stop the distribution of a pill that gives the user superpowers for five minutes. (wiki)

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movies

1577 – The Rental (2020)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s oceanside house in Oregon

The Rental is a 2020 American horror-thriller film directed by Dave Franco, in his directorial debut. It stars Dan StevensAlison BrieSheila VandJeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss. (wiki)

‘Had the writing been deft enough to properly germinate them, there are seeds of ideas about the toxicity of aspirational real estate and those that indifferently own it that could have possibly have flowered into something worth exploring. “We are hoping to one day get a second home we never use,” says Charlie in one of the film’s very few memorable lines.’ review by Oliver Jones

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movies

1567 – Archive (2020)

spacetime coordinates: 2038.  halfway up a snow-capped mountain near Kyoto at a secret facility codenamed ‘The Garden’

MV5BMzFkNTRiMzYtODM2MS00YWQ2LThkNTUtMDE1Y2E2YjAwYTUxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzQwMTY2Nzk@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,674,1000_AL_Archive is a 2020 British science fiction film written and directed by Gavin Rothery, in his directorial debut. It stars Theo JamesStacy MartinRhona MitraPeter Ferdinando and Toby Jones. Set in the dystopian future of 2038, the film follows a scientist who is trying to advance artificial intelligence a step further than human-beings all while bringing his wife back from the dead. (wiki)

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movies

1566 – Species (1995)

spacetime coordinates: 1990’s  Los AngelesCalifornia

Species is a 1995 American science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson and written by Dennis Feldman. It stars Natasha Henstridge (in her film debut role), Ben KingsleyMichael MadsenAlfred MolinaForest Whitaker and Marg Helgenberger. The film’s plot concerns a motley crew of scientists and government agents who try to track down Sil (Henstridge), a seductive extraterrestrial-human hybrid, before she successfully mates with a human male.

The extraterrestrial aspect of Sil’s character was created by H. R. Giger, who was also responsible for the beings from the Alien franchise. The effects combined practical models designed by Giger collaborator Steve Johnson and XFX, with computer-generated imagery done by Richard Edlund‘s Boss Film Studios. (wiki)

Influence and themes   /   imdb