The story I wrote about my time in Mozambique researching the National Institute of Cinema has now been published in n+1! It’s available for purchase online for $2 from Scribd or you can subscribe to the magazine here. (I highly recommend the latter.)
In other news, I’ve moved to England, and Hugo Chavez has started his own government-run film studio to promote national cinema, apparently known as Hugowood. Read this article from Newsweek.
Also, the New York Times has a decent article on the elections last week in Moz. Guebuza in a landslide, obviously, but it’s still interesting. The story of Daviz Simango is really, really interesting.
Finally, I saw the latest from Jihan El-Tahri last night, Behind The Rainbow, about Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. It was great.
I know Barry Bearak is a reporter we are all supposed to revere (Pulitzers, etc.) but did he really lead an article today about a coup in Madagascar with the following?
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — As of Saturday, this exotic island, home to 300 species of frogs, 75 species of chameleons and 3 dozen species of lemurs, also has two species of politicians claiming to run the country.
ANTANANARIVO, 30 January 2009 (IRIN) - After a week of rioting that has left over 80 people dead, Madagascar’s President, Marc Ravalomanana, and his rival, Andre Rajoelina, opposition leader and mayor of the capital, Antananarivo, are being urged to settle their differences face to face.
Michigan State University’s African Activist Archive has tons of interesting records about American solidarity movements to protest colonialism and apartheid. (Above, button featuring assassinated Frelimo president Eduardo Mondlane.) Here are some of my favorite buttons from their gallery — sorry if I’m partial to the PALOPs:
Just got the latest issue of The New Yorker and I’m so excited for Calvin Tomkins’ profile of Walton Ford (registration required for full text). Stephen and I saw his show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art a couple of years ago and we both decided it was the best art exhibit we had seen in years. It’s interesting — I finally got around to reading King Leopold’s Ghost this week and parts of it made me recall some of Ford’s paintings, which (in my mind at least) are about the twisted relationship between those who cataloged natural history and those who embarked on colonial conquest. Now I am actually going to go read the article.
Some photos from the inauguration day celebration at Columbia. Since Obama is an alum they put up a jumbotron and served hot chocolate and cider. It was sunny but cold!
A crowd gathered in the student center of the journalism school as well.
For more context, here’s a video some classmates of mine produced of the campus reaction on election night:
– An interesting link to a 1959 speech Martin Luther King gave on All India Radio.
– A book review by Anthony Lewis, who co-taught our law class at Columbia with Vincent Blasi. Lewis retired this year. On the day of their last lecture, which was also the Friday after Obama won the election, Blasi started talking about civil rights and retiring and ended up bursting into tears at the end of class. Everybody was sort of reduced to sniffles, and the girl next to me turned, red-eyed, and said, “I was so not prepared for this on a Friday morning.”Anthony Lewis, however, retained his normal twinkly demeanor.
From RTP Portugal comes Guerra Colonial, better-known in Mozambique as A Luta Armada (The Armed Struggle.) An interesting project, but I wish it had more video.
