Downloading Nancy : Self mutilation and more

Johan Renck: Director

Writer: Pamela Cuming, Lee Ross
Cast: Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewel, Amy Brenneman

This film is not for everyone. In all probability it will not make huge profit at the box office. However, it explores a subject of real dimension that promises to grow in proportion as the Internet continues to dominate our lives, our ability and means of interacting with one another.

This is a story told with exceptional acting and palatable insidious pain as the viewer is forced to see another way towards liberation from inner tormoil.
Nancy addresses her pyschological pain by inflicting physical pain of increasing intensity upon her body. She deems a sharp razor a requisite item to be thrown into her pocket book cosmetic bag when she leaves the house.

With grueling precision Downloading Nancy depicts Nancy's progress towards liberation in the execution of a plan established on the Internet with a man committed administering her pain and ultimate demise; this time without use of the computer. In the process they go beyond their 'plan' into the realm of 'normal' human interaction that we are all familiar with.

There is a pivotal moment captured in the image of the 'man in the bath tub'.

During the course of my viewing experience I have seen (as you probably have) well over one hundred scenes of an adult in a bathtub with or without benefit of bubble bath. But Christopher Doyle offers an aerial view of the man, the bathtub, the surrounding ceramic that takes the banal and elevates this familiar image into breathtaking visual moment.

For me this visual transformation captures the essence of the film: there is nothing shown that we do not know but to know this human process in search of easement of psychological pain through the eyes of Downloading Nancy's creators is an entirely new and awesome experience.

Downloading Nancy might be a first brutally honest film on self mutilation but I am confident it won't be the last.

Release Date: June 5, 2009 (Limited)

Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Colective

Jerichow: Black Cloud Rising

Director: Christian Petzold


Cast: Benno Fürmann ... Thomas
Nina Hoss ... Laura
Hilmi Sözer ... Ali Özkan


Although many Americans live with the guilt or jubilation from the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb that resulted in an en masse destruction of civilian life, Jerichow brings that event into clear focus with the use of three characters, (two men and a woman), moving slowly into the depth of their lives, fueled by the progressive almost predictable interactions.

At its core Jerichow is an achievement of the impossible: to bring world level events of War, of the ngredients of climate change into the human everyday experience of ordinary people. This film, like none I have ever seen, talks to me about the world of destruction, of the black cloud that is us and also hovers over us, whether we see it or not.

Jerichow isn't for everyone but everyone who sees it will applaud it as one of the great moments in film.

Opens May 15, 2009 in New York City: Fim Forum

German subtitles

Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective

Jane Harmen, follow-up on my April 23,2009 blogspot.

U.S. to Drop Spy Case Against Pro-Israel Lobbyists
A New York Times follow up on the Jane Harmen article posted earlier

Although it was my intention to bring to light the misuse of an attractive Caucasian woman in politics, this New York Times May 2, 2009 article points to a lot more going on than the undisclosed wiretapping (seemingly without provocation) of one California politician of note

(this is a snipit of the whole)

By NEIL A. LEWIS and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 1, 2009

WASHINGTON — A case that began four years ago with the tantalizing and volatile premise that officials of a major pro-Israel lobbying organization were illegally trafficking in sensitive national security information collapsed on Friday as prosecutors asked that all charges be withdrawn.

The investigation of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman also surfaced recently in news reports that Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat long involved in intelligence matters, was overheard on a government wiretap discussing the case. As reported by Congressional Quarterly, which covers Capitol Hill, and The New York Times, Ms. Harman was overheard agreeing with an Israeli intelligence operative to try to intercede with Bush administration officials to obtain leniency for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman in exchange for help in persuading Democratic leaders to make her chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Ms. Harman has denied interceding for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, and has expressed anger that she was wiretapped. She is to be among the featured speakers at the Aipac conference next week.

Over government objections, Judge Ellis had also ruled that the defense could call as witnesses several senior Bush administration foreign policy officials to demonstrate that what occurred was part of the continuing process of information trading and did not involve anything nefarious. The defense lawyers were planning to call as witnesses former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Stephen J. Hadley, the former national security adviser; and several others. Government policy makers indicated they were clearly uncomfortable with senior officials’ testifying in open court over policy deliberations.

The government’s motion to dismiss said the government was obliged take a final review of the case to consider “the likelihood that classified information will be revealed at trial, any damage to the national security that might result from a disclosure of classified information and the likelihood the government would prevail at trial.”