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Showing posts from July, 2010

Twelve Aspects of Postfilm

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1. Postfilm is FREE. We are already bombarded by moving images, simulations and surveillance. We resist merely by volunteering our time and our dedication. We subscribe to Creative Commons. No restriction or ownership, please. 2. Postfilm is COMMUNITIES. Working with others we begin to disrupt a mono-cultural “Industry” that serves limited interests and false commercial tastes. By linking with other postfilm communities we combat shallow and deluded capitalist interest groups. 3. Postfilm is OPEN. We will not be asked to produce qualifications or college certificates; or guild, union, association, industry, or any other exclusive membership card. If you have one, throw it away. 4. Postfilm is a range of Co-OPPORTUNITIES for us to think outside the Box (Office) 5. Postfilm is an act of LOVE. We are enriched by a love for what we do and how we share it. 6. Postfilm welcomes MULTI-MEDIA, and TRANSMEDIA. We resist the strait-jackets of specialisation and creative alienation. We play, we

The Future of Film Debate: A Short Summary

Thanks to everyone who has taken part so far for a lively and informed debate. There are as many points of view as there are contributors, but perhaps some common themes are emerging For clarification, I'd offer several points: 'Future': are we thinking about what we will be seeing in 3 years' time or 5, or 10 ? What aspect of the future are we thinking about? The history of 'film' accommodates and demonstrates swift and revolutionary changes, e.g. technological such as sound and hand-held cameras, digital etc educational: skills and training (non-) commercial structures distribution systems and platforms creating new markets, niches, tastes, (sub)genres etc There is no reason to assume that the pace of change has stopped or is slowing, what will we see next? How are we defining 'film' ? Who will be making 'films' and what will they be making? What will 'making' mean? For instance, will the market in moving image be much more domina

Radical Origins of the 'Big Society' ?

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Saul Alinsky's 1971 book, Rules for Radicals has been cited recently as an influential source for David Cameron's campaign for a Big Society. The main themes are the importance of citizens as participants and opportunities for re-engagement and re-empowerment. If you're already questioning why the Conservative manifesto employed a guiding quotation from that book, you're not alone. One alarmed commentators was Gerald Warner, writing in the Daily Telegraph on April Fools' day 2010: "David Cameron's Big Society is a grotesque fantasy inspired by leftist subversive Saul Alinsky" "Yet the Conservative Party blurts out this admission in the launch document of Big Society. There is a pedantic debate over whether Alinsky was technically a Marxist, or by-passed Marx as old-hat. What is beyond question is his project to overthrow capitalist society and to do so through infiltration of political parties, institutions and, above all, by the use of “communi