On one hand Nicky’s Family tells his story, with the help of lots of recollection of those children saved (now adults and often grandparents), with archival footage and pictures of the past, with footage from a trip these adults took on the same train they were saved 60+ years ago. There were also quite a few scenes of reenactments of Nicky’s actions. This was the only part of the movie I didn’t appreciate. The way they were done, made it even more explicit that the movie was directed to reach us on an emotional level too. It was designed to stir us up emotionally because through the reenactments we, the viewers could identify more with Nicky and the mothers who he helped by saving their children. This intention is perfectly understandable in a Shoah related documentary, but I prefer the “dryer” type, that is less personally attacking the viewer. I was a bit taken  aback by being sentimentally manipulated.

On the other hand the last third of the film talks about the effects of his “help others” principle. When Winston was finallybrought face to face with the people whom he saved and they asked “how we can  ever repay you for our lives” all he said, help others. S they and their kids and their grandchildren did. They come up with all sorts of ideas on how to help other less fortunate children of the world. Eventually a big gala was organized with all these helping kids and teens, which was yet another emotional high point of the movie. I was touched and inspired. And I also learned about another true hero, which si always worth my time.

Official site

Description from the distributor’s site:

Nicky’s Family tells the nearly forgotten story of Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 Czech and Slovak children just before the outbreak of World War II.

Winton, now 102 years old, did not speak about these events with anyone for more than half a century. His exploits would have probably been forgotten if his wife, fifty years later, hadn’t found a suitcase in the attic, full of documents and transport plans.

Today the story of this rescue is known all over the world. He was knighted by the Queen Elisabeth II and the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 583 recognizing his remarkable deed.

Winton’s story is a very emotional one, and thousands of children in many countries have decided to follow in his footsteps and do something important. They think up various charity projects and even help in the saving of lives of undernourished and sick children in Cambodia and Africa.

120,000 children in the Czech Republic signed a petition to award Nicholas Winton the Nobel Prize for Peace. Dozens of Winton’s “children” have been found and to this day his family has grown to almost 6,000 people, many of whom have gone on to achieve great things themselves.

It is incredible that all these people live due to the heroic deeds of one man – Sir Nicholas Winton. Producers Matej Minac and Patrik Pass set out to ensure these fascinating, little-known stories and precious facts about the rescue mission are not lost to time. They wanted also to show the unique phenomenon that has emerged from Winton’s story, how his courageous acts many years ago continue to influence people from all over the world and motivate them to do good.

Their film demonstrates that members of Nicky’s Family are not only the thousands of people who owe their lives to Sir Nicholas Winton, but also all those who want to do something positive for our world.

Trailer:

As a member of the Jewish Film Festival, organized by the Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County, I preview movies to help decide which ones to play at the Festival. I watched this movie as part of this volunteer effort.

As far as I know the Kalevet (Rabies) is the first “mainstream” Israeli horror movie. By main-stream I mean that it was done with some of the country’s best known actors. I wish they had chosen to spend a little more money to hire a better story and scriptwriter. This film is a predictable slasher, where almost everyone dies following overused formulas.

The most annoying aspect of the flick: the make-up special effects artist seems to be concerned only around the jaw/lower half of the face area. People kept popping up blood dripping only from that part of their body. This repetitiveness undermined the little credibility the story had.

Enough said.

Description from the distributor’s site:

Fresh from its successful run at Tribeca’s official Cinemania Competition and winning the Critic’s Award at the Fantasporto FF comes Rabies, Israel’s first-ever horror flick.

Shot in 19 days on a shoestring budget, this gruesome slasher pays homage to its American B-movie roots with a winking, camp-heavy script and an impressive A-list cast.

A brother and sister in their twenties, run away from home after their dark secret is discovered. They find temporary refuge in a deserted nature reserve. When the sister falls into a hunting trap, set by a psychotic killer, the brother sets out in a race against time to rescue her. A forest ranger and his old dog, two apathetic cops, four tennis players and a murderer will all be gradually drawn into a whirlwind of misunderstandings, fears and violence.

Trailer

As a member of the Jewish Film Festival, organized by the Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County, I preview movies to help decide which ones to play at the Festival. I watched this movie as part of this volunteer effort.

This article explains our work in designing an interface for a digital movie browsing system in the  specific application context of film studies. The development of  MOVIEBROWSER2  follows some  general design guidelines based on an earlier user study  with  film studies students at Dublin City University. These design guidelines have been used as an input to the MOVIEBROWSER2 system  design. The rationale for the interface design decisions has been elaborated. An experiment has been  carried out among film studies student, together with a one-semester trial deployment. The results show positive feedback and a better performance in the students’ essay outcome with higher perceived  satisfaction levels.

Description from the distributor’s site:

Ilan Ben Natan, a 58-year-old Astrophysics Professor, is obsessively in love with his young wife, Naomi. When Ilan discovers that his deepest fears have come true – Naomi has a lover – he is unable to control himself. He confronts the lover and commits a horrible act, the consequences of which will weigh heavily on his conscience.

Trailer:

As a member of the Jewish Film Festival, organized by the Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County, I preview movies to help decide which ones to play at the Festival. I watched this movie as part of this volunteer effort.

As I was looking at the picture I noticed that, there are combinations where I spend proportionately less time, than with others. E.g. Music and Sociology is something I didn’t study explicitly yet, although I could name 2-3 books I read on the topic. Soon after I noticed this I got an email alert pointing to PhD thesis bearing the title “Punk Rock Is My Religion“. That piqued my interest, so I opened it. Its subtitle was more explanatory, “An Exploration of Straight Edge punk as a Surrogate of Religion“. Right now anyone can download it from the website of University of Stirling. (5 MB, PDF) It was written by Francis Elizabeth Stewart and “submitted in fulfilment of the doctoral dissertation requirements of the School of Language, Culture and Religion.”

I was never straight edge, but liked the music and found the movement fascinating. Looking forward reading, although I don’t know when will I find the time though as it is 354 pages. Here is the abstract:

Using a distinctly and deliberately interdisciplinary approach to the subject of religion and spirituality as it presents itself within modern Western Societies today, this thesis argues that Straight Edge hardcore punk is a surrogate for religion. The term surrogate is used to denote the notion of a successor and a protector and provider of nourishment. It has been re-interpreted from Theodore Ziolkowski’s work on the same term in ‘Modes of Faith’, in which he examines surrogates for religion which emerged during the early part of the 20th century.

An in-depth study, both theoretical and ethnographic in nature and presentation, of Straight Edge hardcore punk is provided to demonstrate that traditionally held categories of religion, secular, sacred and profane are being dismantled and re-built around ideas of authenticity, community, integrity, d.i.y and spirituality. Through the syncretic practices of the Straight Edge adherents they are de-essentialising religion and thus enabling us to re-consider the question of what religion is or could be.

This thesis relies on theoretical ideas, interview quotes, informant quotes, researcher taken photographs, and interviewee created or utilised images, tattoos, graffiti and flyers. All of these are interspersed with song lyrics from various bands relevant to the time period under discussion and the themes being drawn out. Much like the adherents themselves, this thesis exists very much within the space of the ‘in-between’, which creates and reacts to necessary tensions throughout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzntGq-tpbg

Kiállítás

Fodor

Forgács

A relative of mine will dedicate his radio show to him and to Etta James, who also left s, tomorrow, between 5.30 and 7 PM PST on KZFR. Here is a Johnny Otis song for all of us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3VpH8XnA0w

Let me cut to the end and share the best solution I found. The WP Realtime Sitemap plugin does exactly what I wanted and much more. The key to make it work for the above scenario is to do the following on the plugin’s setting page (after installation and activation):

• Under the “Display Settings” header only the “Show Menu” option should be ON
• Under the “Order Settings” header the 1st order should be “Menu”

I need to mention two more links as they were part of my research.

• Last April Jean Galea wrote the “The Ultimate Guide to WordPress 3 Menus.” The “Building a Sitemap” section of the doc gives instruction exactly what the heading suggests.  He gave credit for the original developer of the idea, including the shortcode: CosmosLabs.
• I also found a code snippet from last May on Snipplr.com for the same purpose. I didn’t test it, but it looks functional.