Movie review

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Women & World Religions comps booklist, take II

This has been a very strange semester so far, and I’m less than a week in. Amongst other things, my Women & World Religions comps essay prof did another review of my bibliography, and suggested some changes. I found this odd for two reasons: 1) I thought we’d agreed on the official booklist at the…

| | | | | | | | | | | |

The pain behind Fire Eyes

Trigger warning: this documentary review covers female genital mutilation. Don’t read further if you are easily squicked, please. ~ * ~ *~ *~ *~ * ~ We see activism as it happens in Soraya MirĂ©’s short 1994 documentary film Fire Eyes. As a victim of the practice who has chosen to become a survivor, her…

| | | | | | |

Coming down to the wire at a gallop…

On schoolwork Only two and a half weeks left in the semester, and my comprehensive essay is coming together nicely — thank goodness. I’ve got the Conclusion roughed out, the Introduction mostly done, and only four book reviews out of 36 left to write. Go, me! Considering that it’s getting a little frenetic here, though,…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 8

Alas, it gets worse. The narrator rambles on in the same demagogic vein about the “mutant albino” crocodiles, ending with a close-up shot of one of the small white reptiles staring bemusedly back at us from where it floats in the water, behind glass. Herzog continues with his inflammatory nonsense, wondering aloud: “When” the albinos…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 7

Closer in to the camera crew on the walkway we see swells of stone that half-shelter the pregnant mare’s niche. Painted on one is a herd of sturdy bison warily watching an even closer bulge of rock covered with a pride of lions. Interestingly, most of the animals painted are at side view, but there…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 6

It is at this point that the absurd scene (mentioned previously) with the spear thrower occurs. Interestingly, nothing at all is said about the greater importance of gathering or scavenging for the survival of our prehistoric ancestors; the narrator mentions only finding spearheads in the shoulder blades of horses and aurochs. The (highly faulty) impression…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 5

From the discussion of the little bone flute, we then shift to an outside shot with Wulf Hein, an “experimental archaeologist” who is wearing a fur suit of reindeer skin which he made himself, in order to try to experience how folks lived and used tools back then. I was a bit confused to see…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 4

Also shown during the tour was a wall with a series of red rhinos with, underneath them, “positive” handprints (i.e. you paint your palm, then press it to the wall, just like near the original cave opening) and a partial circle of nine red dots. There was a niche nearby with torch swipes on the…

| | | | | | |

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, pt. 3

When I say Herzog is excessively artsy in the film, I wish I were just joking. At one point in the film he’s standing there and talking about a silence in the cave which is so profound they can perhaps hear their hearts beat. He asks everyone to fall silent and simply listen. Initially it’s…