Looking for a lift-me-up? This is the right one. Nora Ephron'sJulie & Julia (2009) is all you need if you're into cooking, blogging and inspirational role models.
In one movie you get the always amazing Meryl Streep being Julia Child and fighting with French cooks in 1950's Paris + an office clerk blogging away. We have to admit that the Julia Child part is much more delicious than the contemporary one, although both are based in real people finding their creative exit in cooking (making food can be liberating if that's your choice and resonates with your most authentic self, no doubt).
Can't help but love the way how her passion for food (not fat shaming to be found in her approach to munching!), her wish to do something instead of being an idle wife, her relationship with her husband are depicted... You end up believing and enjoying! Bon appétit!
"Briski, a documentary photographer,
went to Calcutta to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended
their children and offered to teach the children photography to
reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The children were
given cameras so they could learn photography
and possibly improve their lives. Much of their work was used in the
film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in
the red light district.
The children's work was exhibited, and one boy was even sent to a
photography conference in Amsterdam. Briski also recorded her efforts to
place the children in boarding schools." (Wiki says)
Nevertheless, the movie find its way into many of the debates that the SRHR/development communities usually have. What to do about the human miseries? How can one as an individual make a significant change? Can you, actually? What are the best interventions? Short-term? Long-term? Creative? Bringing discipline? How do you overcome bureaucratic obstacles? How do you change a culture opposed to (our, Occidental) notion of human wellbeing? What are the primary needs?
And all of that without even entering in the debate surrounding commercial sex work.
We are offering Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet) as a feel-good movie about weirdnesses. Not as a love story, or help-the-people story, or desperate-solitude story. While those are cute and legitimate ideas, what we want to celebrate is the right to indulge in small things that makes you happy and to be as different as you feel like. And to be happy embracing who you are (and being able but not forced to change it).
It's all about you. And we are all very weird. Welcome to the club!
Let's talk about artistic potential. Let's talk autonomy. Let's talk expression. Let's talk about Diane Arbus (1923-1971).
This weeks #inspirationalmovie is a speculation, a poem about how it might take just few steps to go from being an obedient and apparently perfect homemaker to becoming a world renowned artist (not that there's anything wrong with being a homemaker but it just might not be the optimal full-time work choice if you happen to have the vocation of an artist).
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006, Steven Shainberg)is exactly that, an imaginary portrait, a fantasy, a meditation about the impulses that may help release one's creative potential. And challenges that one may face while opening the box of creativity.
Beautifully shot (oh, the colors of this feature!) and with a healthy dose of suspense (yes, threading the unknown but promising grounds of the new can get scary), a very inspirational movie indeed.
Also, take a look at her ground-breaking work here.
