Paints mundane family life really well; spends too long doing so. Works its predecessor in interestingly. Last twenty minutes turn out to be pretty scary.

John Woo’s directing is annoying for most of the film, but the last third’s pretty satisfying. Rarely original. yet works. Tony Leung’s still damn fine.

Sad that the show’s canceled, but this worked excellently as an unintentional series finale. Will gets answers, bad guy gets confronted, things change but don’t.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/10/17/rubicon-finale/

Last month, I posted about a vigil I attended, for an incredible young queer woman who was active with Picture the Homeless and many other organizations, who had taken her own life. Shortly after that vigil, I first saw her short film “Keisha Knows,” a truly amazing work that she co-produced and in which she played the lead role. Which just made me sadder, to think of what talent she had, what light she could have brought into this dark world. Produced with the amazing Global Action Project, who recently got an award from Ed Norton on behalf of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

This Saturday, PTH will be hosting a “Youth in the Struggle SPEAK OUT,” and we’ll be screening “Keisha Knows.” You can watch the film here, but it’ll be a great experience to see it on a big screen with a bunch of awesome youth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc0bX_xSIvo

Full details about the event are HERE, for Facebookers. And because I always forget that some folks aren’t into the Facebooks, it’s at the Rebel Diaz Art Collective, 478 Austin Place, Bronx, NY.

(Mosey is on the left, with PTH Youth Organizer Divad Durant at a “Youth in the Struggle” event that she MC’d in the South Bronx on September 18, 2010)

KEISHA KNOWS, 9 min, 2010
A SupaFriends Production
Produced by Global Action Project

Inspired by lesbian pulp fiction novels of the 1950s and the film noir genre, Keisha Knows addresses heteronormativity through not just any love story — but one that explores what is at stake when a community is divided.

The SupaFriends took a trip to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in the Spring and learned about lesbian pulp fictions novels, which inspired the group’s choice in film genre in the pre-production process. Learn more about the Lesbian Herstory Archives: lesbianherstoryarchives.org/

For more information about Global Action Project or to order a DVD copy of this film, please contact GAP: global-action.org

If you’ve enjoyed watching this film or would like to support our youth programs please consider making a secure online donation via Guidestar: partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateReport=1&partner=networkforgood&ein=11-3425000

Media Educators:
Jai Dulani
J. Macchiarelli

Still great, still compelling… but not doing as much fresh innovative stuff, and the characters - except his wife and his old partner - leave me meh.

Ab Fab might return.

Mary McDonnell is in the new Scream movie.

Grizzly bears chasing bison.

Giant otter emperors.

Documentary’s not great, but the subject matter is utterly fascinating. Iran is weirdly okay with transsexualism and trans surgery! Because the Koran doesn’t forbid it.

http://www.belikeothers.com/

When I learned last week that Caprica had been canceled, I thought to myself “Gee… that sucks… BUT it was pretty weak and slow and uncompelling, and I was getting very bored with those characters and their teeny-tiny ranges… now if it had only been more like Rubicon, where so much was at stake, where they didn’t hold back on the big beats, where the characters keep you guessing and keep surprising you in great ways… MAYBE it would have had a chance.”

And now I find out that Rubicon is canceled.

whatEVER. Just more confirmation that I know absolutely nothing about what audiences or executives value.

I realize now that it’s gone that I really did love this show. I mean, I knew I loved it before, but I was too caught up in nit-picking and the heat of the moment to realize just how unique it was among current television programs.

The silver lining is - that’s two more hours per week that I won’t be spending glued to the television, which might make me a little more able to keep my promise to blog and write more often. Maybe.

As I’ve blogged on more than one occasion, the film version of The Last Airbender was the most traumatic thing to happen to me in the summer of 2010 (which I suppose says something good about my life at that point). This horrific affront to one of the television shows that’s most dear to my heart spurred me and J. to watch the whole original series again, starting from the beginning. Pretty much every episode has some astonishing gem of  wisdom or aesthetic grace, and as they move me I’ll be blogging them.

Episode 18, Season 1: The Waterbending Master.

There’s a lot to love about this episode - all the lovely waterbending, the look and feel of the Northern Water Tribe stronghold, Sokka’s nascent love for Yue, Iroh singing, Iroh being sneaky, Zhao seeing Zuko’s broadswords and realizing he’s the Blue Spirit… but the most exciting thing about it for me was the gender politics.

In the Northern Water Tribe, women can’t learn water-bending. Master Pakku won’t teach Katara, and when Aang tries to pass his training on to her, Pakku flips out.

But it’s deeper than just bending. This is clearly a deeply patriarchal tribe, where women have no choice in matters of marriage - if they don’t want to marry the man their father picks out, they have to leave town altogether. Which is what Katara’s grandmother did.

At the end of the episode, Katara shames Master Pakku into fighting her. It’s a great fight, with both of them looking very beautiful and kick-ass all at the same time.

Now, the easy, simplified, crowd-pleaser resolution to this episode would be for Katara to dazzle Pakku with her incredible skills, and THAT would be enough to get him to change his mind. Mainstream Hollywood logic is funny that way - all it takes to change someone’s mind is to show them evidence that they’re wrong. But life doesn’t work like that. Anyone who’s ever argued with someone on a political issue (for example, global warming) knows that no matter how much evidence and information you provide, they’re not going to change their mind.

People change their mind when they see how an issue affects them. People let go of prejudices when they realize that their prejudices have harmed them - have ruined relationships, have caused them to make terrible mistakes, have crippled their ability to understand the world around them.

Master Pakku is impressed with Katara’s bending abilities, but that’s not what changes his mind about teaching women. But he finds Katara’s necklace, which was the betrothal necklace he had given to her grandmother so many years ago, and remembers how shocked he was that she refused to marry him, and left.

Katara connects the dots. “Your tribe’s stupid customs” are what made her grandmother flee. It’s why he’s spent his life alone. The discrimination that he accepted as normal, as positive - because it benefited him - has actually hurt him. Because it distorted his relationships with people. His whole life has been one of crankiness and anger, as a response to the pain of being abandoned by Kanna.

Buddha said “You will not be punished for your anger. You will be punished BY your anger.” That’s the hard challenging truth that Western civilization, with its centuries-long domination by Christianity - and then by Hollywood - has distorted. You shouldn’t be good to other people because it’ll get you into heaven. You should be good to other people because it’s the only way to live a truly happy life and to really truly be celebrated by other people. Because at the end of the day, that’s all you have.

This is the kind of brilliance that makes this show move me so profoundly, which might be easy to miss while we’re wowed by the great fight scenes, elegant animation, humor, etc.