Going at a Crawl: BEETLE QUEEN director Jessica Oreck & friend.

What changed my mind about BEETLE QUEEN was debuting director Jessica Oreck’s approach to the subject of Japan’s seemingly nationwide fascination for insects. Oreck, who’s also an animal keeper and docent at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, lays the motivations out neatly — turns out much of Japanese culture is rooted historically in the observation and appreciation of creepy, crawly things — and examines how that veneration plays out in contemporary society through a healthy collector’s subculture; commercially marketed supplies for both the support and preservation of pet bugs; and vending machines that dispense live creatures into the eager clutches of the nation’s children (Japan, remember?). But then she takes it further, absorbing the animistic outlook of Shinto and such concepts as mono no aware and using them to model the film as a meta-presentation of the philosophies that drive the country’s appreciation of the natural world. More than just simple nature film or an anthropological examination, BEETLE QUEEN becomes the attitude itself, and a fascinating immersion into another society’s vision of the world.

Somebody Said There was Milk Around Here: Mongolian baby at home on the range in BABIES.

Director Thomas Balmès has a much simpler mission in BABIES, but with a somewhat similar goal: Travel the world, capture on film the first year-or-so of four babies from markedly different corners of the world, and let the viewer examine what in those initial months are universal, and what is markedly different. The four societies Balmès selects — a tribal group in Namibia; a farming family in Mongolia; and parents in urbane San Francisco and two-minutes-into-the-future Tokyo (again) — all form distinctive incubators for their newest residents. Yet for all that the environments leave their marks on these kids (in one particularly indelible moment, the overstimulated Japanese baby suffers a grand mal meltdown within a nest of playthings), what stands out most is how closely the recently arrived experience their entry into the world. That may not be a revolutionary concept, but it does make for a viewing experience that extends beyond just the obligatory, “Awwwwww.” (But you will probably go, “Awwwwww,” at least once.)

Click on the player to hear the interviews with Oreck and Balmès.

This Episode is Brought to You by
HALO: REACH – Autumn, 2010

BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO

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BABIES

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Less Friendly Bugs

The Whale Hunters Hunted: Sea Shepherd challenges a Japanese whaling vessel

Paul Watson dropped out of Greenpeace because he felt they weren’t doing enough to protect whales from fleets hunting in supposedly protected seas. He founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and over the years has become the bane of whalers — Japanese in particular — by employing confrontational tactics that start at stink bombs (did somebody have a bad experience in high school?), run through fouling props, and don’ t rule out rammings, if necessary. Are they controversial? Well, Greenpeace doesn’t like dealing with them. Does it make for a riveting documentary? Yup, no question.

In AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, director Dan Stone (exec producer of Animal Planet’s WHALE WARS, which also focuses on Sea Shepherd) follows Watson and forty-six volunteers as they track down and challenge a fleet of Japanese whalers hunting in the protected waters of the Antarctic — the “edge of the world” mentioned in the title. With two ships, one built to handle the treacherous, icy waters but not capable of much speed, the other fast enough but lacking the ruggedness; a bunch of amateurs for a crew; and tracking equipment that’s largely a notch up from a game of Marco Polo, Watson dares to take on ships larger and more formidable, and Stone has found the material for a dramatic, beautifully photographed demonstration of how some people are willing to risk their lives to protect an endangered species.

I was able to talk to Stone and his cinematographer, James Joyner. They were willing to clue me in on why one shouldn’t necessarily trust a Japanese vessel labeled “Research,” and how there are few safe ports in the world for those who would entertain extreme measures to come to the aid of the dwindling whale population.

Click on the player above to hear the interview.

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Sea Shepherd on TV

The Killing Waters: Looking down on THE COVE

Who the hell didn’t love FLIPPER? Cute ‘n’ cuddly (and how many sea creatures do you know get to claim those adjectives?), the titular bottle-nose dolphin of the classic sixties TV show was a real Up with People kinda mammal. You may not remember any of the specific episodes (didn’t most of them have to do with Bud and Sandy being held hostage by bank robbers?), but the image of fun-loving Flipper gliding through the water, dancing on the surface, and just plain grooving on life was indelibly printed on many a child’s memory (mine included).

Flash forward forty-plus years. In Taiji, Japan, dolphins are herded into an isolated cove.  The best get sold to sea parks and aquariums, the rest are killed for their meat, while Ric O’Barry, the man who captured and trained the original Flippers (there were five of them), resolves to expose the atrocity to the world. THE COVE — directed by photographer, environmental activist, and Oceanic Preservation Society co-founder Louie Psihoyos — tells the tale of O’Barry’s quest to get the goods on the Taiji fishermen, a quest that takes an unexpectedly global turn when it’s discovered that dolphin meat, including that  coming from the cove, is tainted with lethal levels of mercury.

Psihoyos knows how to build a story, and the film — as most of the publicity points out — plays like a real-life OCEAN’S ELEVEN. He’s also passionate about his environmental cause, and our conversation as a result was an interesting mix that covered the film itself and its underlying issues. Click on the player above to hear the interview.

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Wanted for Excessive Adorableness!

]]> http://mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/2009/07/31/louie-psihoyos-on-the-cove/feed/ 0 Activism,Al Gore,An Inconvenient Truth,Controversy,Death,Documentary,Drama,Earth,Environment,Indie Who the hell didn't love FLIPPER? Cute 'n' cuddly (and how many sea creatures do you know get to claim those adjectives?), the titular bottle-nose dolphin of the classic sixties TV show was a real Up with People kinda mammal. Who the hell didn't love FLIPPER? Cute 'n' cuddly (and how many sea creatures do you know get to claim those adjectives?), the titular bottle-nose dolphin of the classic sixties TV show was a real Up with People kinda mammal. You may not remember any of the specific episodes (didn't most of them have to do with Bud and Sandy being held hostage by bank robbers?), but the image of fun-loving Flipper gliding through the water, dancing on the surface, and just plain grooving on life was indelibly printed on many a child's memory (mine included). Flash forward forty-plus years. In Taiji, Japan, dolphins are herded into an isolated cove.  The best get sold to sea parks and aquariums, the rest are killed for their meat, while Ric O'Barry, the man who captured and trained the original Flippers (there were five of them), resolves to expose the atrocity to the world. THE COVE -- directed by photographer, environmental activist, and Oceanic Preservation Society co-founder Louie Psihoyos -- tells the tale of O'Barry's quest to get the goods on the Taiji fishermen, a quest that takes an unexpectedly global turn when it's discovered that dolphin meat, including that  coming from the cove, is tainted with lethal levels of mercury. Psihoyos knows how to build a story, and the film -- as most of the publicity points out -- plays like a real-life OCEAN'S ELEVEN. He's also passionate about his environmental cause, and our conversation as a result was an interesting mix that covered the film itself and its underlying issues. Click on the player above to hear the interview. Trailer [youtube pS5BIFTamvI nolink] www.thecovemovie.com IMDB Listing Subscribe to MMP on iTunes Sign Up for E-Mail Updates [amazonify]B00000F61N[/amazonify] Wanted for Excessive Adorableness! Dan Persons no http://mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/2009/03/24/episode-00-a-sea-change-an-interview-with-filmmakers-barbara-ettinger-sven-huseby/ http://mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/2009/03/24/episode-00-a-sea-change-an-interview-with-filmmakers-barbara-ettinger-sven-huseby/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:11:43 +0000 Dan Persons http://mightymoviepodcast.com/blog/?p=17 Okay, this may just be a test run to see if the entire podcast mechanism is up & running, but don’t say we don’t deliver value even then! In this, essentially our pilot episode, we feature an interesting few minutes with Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby, environmental activists and filmmakers whose documentary about the threat of oceanic acidification, A Sea Change, recently opened.

As a bonus, here’s the Air America interview with Ettinger and Huseby:

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Coming up, first week of April: The official, debut episode of Mighty Movie Podcast. Subscribe now and receive news of the Big Premiere! (Well… It’s big to me.)

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