0825 – The Forgotten Space (2010)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Netherlands / United States / Belgium / China / Spain

The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, 2010) follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China, whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. And in Bilbao, we discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, is somehow obsolete.

A range of materials is used: descriptive documentary, interviews, archive stills and footage, clips from old movies. The result is an essayistic, visual documentary about one of the most important processes that affects us today. The Forgotten Space is based on Sekula’s Fish Story, seeking to understand and describe the contemporary maritime world in relation to the complex symbolic legacy of the sea.

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The sea is forgotten until disaster strikes. But perhaps the biggest seagoing disaster is the global supply chain, which – maybe in a more fundamental way than financial speculation – leads the world economy to the abyss. (http://www.theforgottenspace.net/)

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imdb

0823 – Crash (2004)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Los Angeles

Crash is a 2004 American drama film produced, directed, and co-written by Paul Haggis. The film features racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described “passion piece” for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real-life incident, in which his Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard.  (read more: wiki)

[first lines]
Graham: It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

imdb   /   365-magnolia-1999/

0822 – Tuntematon sotilas (2017)

timespace coordinates: the Karelian front from mobilisation in 1941 to armistice in 1944 (the homefront / the Karelian Isthmus / East Karelia / The Soviet Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive)

The Unknown Soldier (Finnish: Tuntematon sotilas, Swedish: Okänd soldat) is a 2017 Finnish war drama independent film and the third adaption of the 1954 bestselling Finnish classic novel of the same name by Väinö Linna, a book considered part of national legacy. Directed by Aku Louhimies, it is the first one based on the novel’s manuscript version, Sotaromaani (“the war novel”). The previous two film adaptations were released in 1955 and 1985. The World War II film follows a machine gun company (Finnish: konekiväärikomppania) of the Finnish Army from a frog perspective during the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. It was the most expensive Finnish motion picture at its release with a budget of 7 million euros. (wiki)

themes / imdb

821 – Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2029 South Korea

Illang: The Wolf Brigade (Hangul: 인랑; Hanja: 人狼; RR: Illang; lit. Werewolf; also known as Inrang) is a 2018 South Korean science fiction action film directed by Kim Jee-woon and starring Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo, Jung Woo-sung and Kim Mu-yeol. It is a live-action adaptation of the Japanese animated film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999). (This is not a direct remake of Jin Roh:Wolf Birgade which is set in an alternate reality of 1950’s Japan, this remake sets the action in Korea and places the story in the future.)

Set in 2029 where South and North Korea get ready for a unified government after years of preparation. South Korean police launches a special unit, known as “Illang” (The Wolf Brigade), to stop an anti-reunification terrorist group called “The Sect” (wiki)

imdb

0818 – Push (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s  Hong Kong

Push is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Paul McGuigan and written by David Bourla. Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, and Djimon Hounsou, the film centers on a group of people born with various superhuman abilities who band together in order to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in hopes of creating an army of super soldiers.

imdb

0815 – Errementari (2017)

timespace coordinates: 1843, Basque Country

Based on a Basque folk tale, ”Patxi herrementaria,” collected by priest, archaeologist and anthropologist José Migel de Barandiarán, the story is set in the Basque region, in a universe inhabited by mythological diabolic creatures, battling to capture the souls of the unwitting.

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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First Carlist War

807 – Mercury 13 (2018 documentary)

Mercury 13 is a remarkable story of the women who were tested for spaceflight in 1961 before their dreams were dashed in being the first to make the trip beyond Earth. NASA’s ‘man in space’ program, dubbed ‘Project Mercury‘ began in 1958. The men chosen – all military test pilots – became known as The Mercury 7. But away from the glare of the media, behind firmly closed doors, female pilots were also screened. Thirteen of them passed and, in some cases, performed better than the men. They were called the Mercury 13 and had the ‘right stuff’ but were, unfortunately, the wrong gender. Underneath the obsession of the space race that gripped America, the women were aviation pioneers who emerged thirsty for a new frontier, but whose time would have to wait. The film tells the definitive story of thirteen truly remarkable women who reached for the stars but were ahead of their time. A Netflix original documentary directed by David Sington and Heather Walsh. (rottentomatoes)

https://www.netflix.com/ro-en/title/80174436