Puntzi Lake and the Martyrdom of “The Chilcotin Chiefs”
In October 1864 the Colony of British Columbia martyred five “Chilcotin Chiefs.” One hour before sunrise on Oct. 26, with a crowd of 250 gathered to pay witness, the Crown hung these defenders of the Indigenous laws on a scaffold provocatively placed in a native graveyard. This event remains one of the most dramatic moments in the history of Canada’s relationship with the Indigenous Peoples. Oct. 26 is now a national day of remembrance for the Tsilhqot’in People. This year’s formal ceremony will be held at Puntzi Lake, near a key site in the events leading toward the martyrdom. How is Puntzi Lake connected to the eventual hanging of “The Chilcotin Chiefs?”
The Shining: One of many reasons why this Stanley Kubrick movie is more interesting than you may think.
Stanley Kubrick ends “The Shining” with a puzzle. After Jack Torrance, its central character, dies, the audience sees a photograph of him at the Overlook Hotel in 1921. This photograph is impossible: for, in 1921, Jack was not yet born. Why is Jack in the photograph? And why is the date important?
The Lingering Moral Taint in Canada’s Claim to Sovereignty and Licensing the Prosperity Mine.
Since the Tsilhqot’in People have never surrendered their sovereign control to Canada through some constitutional means, Canada can again only pretend to the necessary moral authority to license the mine. Anyone who asserts otherwise must show the process of constitutional change that gave Canada its supposed legitimate sovereign authority. Can any social entity gain legitimate authority over another through ethnic cleansing or genocide? Canadians would no more accept a new regime as a legitimate authority if it were to overthrow the Canadian constitution in the same manner as the Tsilhqot’in regime was displaced.
Five things “The Lone Ranger” can teach us.
Great movies deal with great themes. Audiences instinctively expect the greater theme to have the greatest dramatic weight. When the greater theme is not given its due, then the whole project seems disproportioned. And that seems to be what happens here. Since Tonto is the true protagonist, the audience naturally expects his story as the primary theme. That story is about the clash of civilizations.
3 things that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” teaches us.
By an overwhelming margin, professional movie critics love “The Master.” Yet a Rotten Tomatoes sample of 41,000 fans is only lukewarm. Why this disconnect? Great movies frequently enjoy a strong critical following. They also often enjoy an enthusiastic broad fan base. “The Master” clearly is not that kind of movie. Yet you will want to see it more than once. This is one of those movies that cannot be appreciated without first knowing how it ends.
Does “The Great Gatsby” teach us anything?
However the many critics might try to dress up their varying proclamations of distaste for Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”, what may be going on here, underneath, is that they are shooting the messenger.
The Bechdel Test for Evaluating the Use of Women Characters in Movies
The Bechdel Test evaluates a filmmaker’s use of female characters in a movie. To pass, the movie must satisfy these criteria: 1) Are there at least two women characters with names? 2) Do they talk to each other? 3) Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? The video below revelas just how many movies fail the test.
The average shot length of 7 famous directors
The average shot length (ASL) of a director is an interesting way to compare filmmaking styles. Below are two charts from Vashi Nedomansky’s filmmaking blog. The first compares the ASL of six famous directors. The second compares the ASL of eight Stanley Kubrick movies.
A symbol for restoring balance and justice in indigenous/settler relations.
The reclamation of PKOLS to replace the colonial name Mount Douglas recognizes the nation-to-nation agreements negotiated here and supports ongoing efforts of indigenous and settler people to restore balanced relationships to the lands they call home.
“The Master” crew discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s working method.
Production Designer Jack Fisk has described Paul Thomas Anderson as a “jazz musician who plays characters.” But what is it like to work with a modern jazz filmmaker? Below is a nice interview with several key collaborators from “The Master.” Listen to Jack Fisk (Production Designer), David Crank (Production Designer), Leslie Jones (Editor) and Mark Bridges (Costume Designer) compare notes on what is required to play in PTA’s band.