documentary

0534 – Machines (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Gujarat, India

machines poster

Director Rahul Jain presents an intimate, observantly portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of the enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a journey to a place of dehumanising physical labor and intense hardship, provoking cause for thought about persistent pre-industrial working conditions and the huge divide between first world and developing countries. Since the 1960s the area of Sachin in western India has undergone unprecedented, unregulated industrialisation, exemplified in its numerous textile factories. MACHINES portraits only one of these factories, while at the same time representing the thousands of labourers working, living and suffering in an environment they can’t escape. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality and oppression, humans and machines.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5690244/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/machines_2016/

movies

524 – Wonder Wheel (2017)

spacetime coordinates: Coney Island in the 1950’s

Wonder Wheel is a 2017 American period drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Jim BelushiKate WinsletJuno Temple, and Justin Timberlake. The film is set in the early 1950s at an amusement park on Coney Island, and named for the park’s Ferris wheel. The story follows the second wife and the estranged daughter of a carousel operator as they both pursue affairs with a life guard.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5825380/

movies

0522 – City of Ember (2008)

spacetime coordinates:  underground city Ember 241 years after an apocalyptic war

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City of Ember is a 2008 American science fiction film based on the 2003 novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. It was  directed by Gil Kenan,written by Caroline Thompson, and stars Saoirse RonanHarry TreadawayBill MurrayMackenzie CrookMartin LandauMary Kay PlaceToby Jones, and Tim Robbins.

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City of Ember belongs to one of the best and most enduring genres of children’s films, in which smart kids stand up against the ignorant and aloof adult world and have a big adventure in the process. It also throws in a fantastical city, replete with whiz-bang inventions and secret societies. (…) Ember itself is fascinating, an intricately detailed set that, like Diagon Alley or the Star Wars cantina, you’d like to take a few hours to wander around in.” Katey Rich   //   Irv Slifkin for Video Business wrote, “this lavishly designed adventure saga from director Gil Kenan… plays like Terry Gilliam‘s Brazil — for beginners”.    //    TV Guide  “A fun and moving family film with a subtly dark feel rarely seen in kids’ movies since the ’80s, City of Ember succeeds despite its shortcomings, not only because of its fun and inspiring story, but because most of its flaws are things kids won’t notice anyway… [T]he story spins into a classic fable; the ignorance that seemed so blissful shows it’s just one half of a coin, where the other side holds apathy and hopelessness. The moral might well be lost on kids, but for adults, it’s compelling — all the more so because we like the good people of this dying city”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970411/

animation, games, music

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music video directed by Dutch digital artist Han Hoogerbrugge. The website Stereogum described it as a “horizontally scrolling animated video [that] is part Sonic The Hedgehog (dated video game reference!) and part Pac Man (chomping down on hearts, shamrocks, and cash money), with a lineup of Chrisses, Neils, and others shouting, flexing, unmasking, and turning into draculas.”

Love Etc.


Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication [Official Music Video]


directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, takes the form of a fictional 3D video game from the third-person point of view of each of the band members, all on some sort of adventure; this varies with each band member. The video itself contains many homages to video games of its time, such as Crazy Taxi in Kiedis’s sequences and Kiedis’s swimming scenes, and SSX in Chad’s snowboarding scenes. The music video is similar to some games that were mostly sandbox/open-world-based gameplay. The music video for “Californication” is the group’s most watched on YouTube, with over 626 million views.

games

512 – Dishonored (2012 video game)

 spacetime coordinates: industrial city of Dunwall  modeled on London and Edinburgh between the late 1800s and the early 1900s

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Dishonored is a 2012 stealth action-adventure video game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, Dishonored follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. He is framed for her murder and forced to become an assassin, seeking revenge on those who conspired against him. Corvo is aided in his quest by the Loyalists—a resistance group fighting to reclaim Dunwall, and the Outsider—a powerful being who imbues Corvo with magical abilities. Several noted actors including Susan SarandonBrad DourifCarrie FisherMichael MadsenLena Headey and Chloë Grace Moretz provided voice work for the game.

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The game is played from a first-person perspective and allows the player to undertake a series of assassination missions in a variety of ways, with an emphasis on player choice. Missions can be completed through stealth, combat, or a combination of both. Exploring each level opens new paths and alternatives for accomplishing mission goals, and it is possible to complete all missions, eliminating all of Corvo’s targets, in a non-lethal manner. The story and missions are changed in response to the player’s violent actions or lack thereof. Magical abilities and equipment are designed to be combined to create new and varied effects.

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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 // Processor: 3.0 GHz dual core or better // Memory: 3 GB system RAM // Hard Disk Space: 9 GB // Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible with 512 MB video RAM or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850) // Sound: Windows compatible sound card


steam   wiki

“Dishonored”, HD walkthrough (Very Hard+Shadow+Ghost+All collectables)

animation

0510 – Rocks in My Pockets (2014)

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Rocks in My Pockets (Latvian: Akmeņi manās kabatās) is a 2014  2D / 3D animated film written, produced, directed and animated by Signe Baumane. It was originally created in English and a Latvian version was thereafter translated and produced. The film is based on true events about five women of the filmmaker’s family, including herself, and their battles with depression and suicide. For the entire film, approximately 30,000 drawings were created.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2961890/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_in_My_Pockets

movies

505 – Downsizing (2017)

spacetime coordinates: near future Norway / Nebraska2017-12-29-downsizingDownsizing is a 2017 american science fiction  / high-concept social satire / comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Payne and Jim Taylor and starring Matt DamonChristoph WaltzHong Chau, and Kristen Wiig. It tells the story of a couple who decide to undertake a newly-invented procedure to shrink their bodies so they can start a new life in an experimental community.

Starting with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, there exists a rich literature as well as many films dealing with mini-humans usually called dwarfs. The idea of shrinking human bodies in order to reduce the consumption of raw materials available on earth necessary for the life of mankind was presented for the first time in the novel Das Miniatom-Projekt (2006) by Richard M. Weiner. In the novel the miniaturization takes place at CERN by decreasing the sizes of atoms with the help of the world’s biggest particle accelerator, while in the Downsizing film the shrinkage is performed by bio-medical methods, by decreasing the sizes of cells.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389072/