Roger Ebert seems to think this documentary is authentic. Others are speculating that it could be a big artistic hoax, something similar to Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop documentary. But Casey Affleck says it’s all true (Time). Watch the trailers and visit the official website.
Abbey Lincoln, a singer whose dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 80 and lived on the Upper West Side.Her death was announced by her brother David Wooldridge. Ms. Lincoln’s career encompassed outspoken civil rights advocacy in the 1960s and fearless introspection in more recent years, and for a time in the 1960s she acted in films, including one with Sidney Poitier. (The New York Times: “Abbey Lincoln, Bold and Introspective Jazz Singer, Dies at 80” by Nate Chinen, August 14, 2010)
About photographer Roberto Polillo:
From 1962 (when I was 16) to 1974 I was lucky to photograph the most important jazz musicians of the time. These images have been almost hidden for many years, but recently I have made an outing… A selection of these images have been recently shown in personal exhibitions in Milano, Roma, Torino, Siena, Napoli, Genova, Verona and other places, and collected in a big photographic book, “Swing, Bop & Free” , which also cointains texts by my father Arrigo , who was a well known jazz critic and historician. (more)
About Elliot Landy:
Elliott Landy (born in 1942) is a photographer best known for his iconic photographs of rock musicians. A 1959 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, ten years later he was the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. His photographs have appeared on the covers of such magazines as Rolling Stone, LIFE, and The Saturday Evening Post. Landy’s portraits have also graced the covers of many of the best known albums of the era, including such classics as Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Van Morrison’s Moondance, and The Band’s second album, eponymously titled The Band. From 1967 to 1969, Landy travelled with and photographed Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. He has published several collections of his work. (wikipedia)
Check the same photo on his official website.
 | Unlike, say, her performance at the Grammys, which was a perfect fusion of spectacle (a nine-months-pregnant woman rapping in a see-through dress) with content (Maya’s fervor was linked to the music), the video for “Born Free” feels exploitative and hollow. Seemingly designed to be banned on YouTube, which it was instantly, the video is set in Los Angeles where a vague but apparently American militia forcibly search out red-headed men and one particularly beautiful red-headed child. The gingers, as Maya called them, using British slang, are taken to the desert, where they are beaten and killed. The first to die is the child, who is shot in the head. While “Born Free” is heard in the background throughout, the song is lost in the carnage. As a meditation on prejudice and senseless persecution, the video is, at best, politically naïve. “The video was more than fine with me,” Jimmy Iovine told me later that night. Despite Maya’s efforts, he had seen it. “I didn’t even have a blink.” A canny showman, Iovine knew that the video would get attention, that Maya would get her visa (which she did) and that all the noise was good for business. He has a long history of driving record sales with violent imagery: in the 1990s, Interscope was home to Death Row Records, where Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur made millions rapping about all things gangsta. Iovine also appreciates the outrageous: Interscope’s biggest artist is Lady Gaga, who has melded big-time theatricality with disco-based pop, a kind of love child of Elton John and Madonna. |
Excellent article by Lynn Hirschberg and a great follow up on the “Born Free” music video controversy.
[UPDATE - August 16th, 2010] Apparently, M.I.A. didn’t like the article by Lynn Hirschberg:
MIA is upset about a New York Times Magazine cover story about her, so she tweeted the phone number of the piece’s writer, Lynn Hirschberg.
“917.834.3158 CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches ;)” she wrote.
Because MIA presented the number as her own, Hirschberg has been deluged with calls from fans wanting to hook up with MIA. (The Huffington Post: “M.I.A. Freaks Out At ‘New York Times,’ Tweets Reporter’s Phone Number”, June 2, 2010)
“McGinley went on a two-year road trip, traveling to dozens of Morrissey concerts in the US, the UK, and Mexico. The resultant photos, many of which are densely saturated in the concerts’ colored lights, feature candid shots of fans, regularly zooming in for seductive close-ups of enamored youngsters—a celebration of the ecstatic cult of fame and its ardent enablers. A few oblique pics of Morrissey himself are scattered throughout the show, though the shots are careful to avoid the singer’s face.” (more)
About McGinley:
“Ryan McGinley (born October 17, 1977) is an American photographer living in New York City who began making photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 24, McGinley was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was also named Photographer of the Year in 2003 by American Photo Magazine. In 2007 McGinley was awarded the Young Photographer Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography.” (wikipedia)
“This is my everyday project for 2010. Taking one lyric from a song every day and creating art or taking a photo inspired from that lyric.”Luke Beard is a UK based graphic and web designer. Follow his “a lyric a day” project on Tumblr. Check his official website.
I first discovered Luke Beard’s work via Troubled By Insects
Director : Romain Gavras
Director of Photography : André Chemetoff
Producer : Mourad Belkeddar
Production company : elnino.tv
Executive Production : Gaetan Rousseau / Paradoxal
Special thanks to Lana & Melissa from The Director’s Bureau. (more)
Romain Gravas is Costa Gravas’ son. He is represented by the production company SOIZAN7E QUIN5E.
UPDATE : “M.I.A. Video for ‘Born Free’ Is Pulled From YouTube” (via The New York Times, April 27, 2010).
We don’t know yet about the intentions behind this music video : it’s a music video, so it’s supposed to be something in between art and entertainment. Since “Representatives for M.I.A. and her label, XL Recordings, did not immediately reply to requests for comment” (according to The New York Times) we can’t know for sure if it’s a political statement and, if so, what’s the statement about. M.I.A. is a self-proclaimed political activist (as well as many other things). She once said that “You can’t separate the world into two parts like that, good and evil.” (Wikipedia) which is interesting in regard to this music video. For all I know, there are much more violent films out there. And I think it’s really hard to evaluate the efficiency of political statements carried by artistic representations (for that instance, I think Costa Gravas’ adaptation of Vassilis Vassilikos’ novel Z is much more interesting, but I have to admit there’s a difference between a full feature film and a music video). The song’s lyrics are easy to find on the Internet. But what’s in them : she got something to say / she was born free. I rather listen to Boris Vian’ The Deserter (give it a try, read the lyrics).
[UPDATE: May 25th, 2010] I wonder how much of this video is ripped from the excellent film by Peter Watkins Punishment Park (1971).
Learn more about GY!BE : MySpace, Wikipedia and official website. An interesting article offers a good introduction to GY!BE history, along with a wrong prediction (and funny timing to do it) :
“I’m sure many have heard of Godspeed You! Black Emperor before, but only a handful have actually taken the time to sit down and experience them. Some know of them from the opening sequence in 28 Days Later or from the quick yet quite comical reference to the band in Pineapple Express. But for many post-rock connoisseurs, “GY!BE” is one band who defined a genre and maybe even, for some, a lifetime. They are a very influential and eclectic bunch, but the band announced a hiatus in 2003 and no news on future endeavors has surfaced since. Being 2010, seven years later, the Godspeed enthusiasts are beginning to worry.” (more)
About Diabologum:
“Diabologum is a french band from the 90’s, they released 3 LP’s and several Ep’s between 1993 and 1998. Their 3 albums were radically different, the first one was an arty lofi collage of sounds and songs, the second was a collection of Rock-pop song, the third was their manifesto: noise rock and cold hip hop. The band split in 1998, the last show was in NY Knitting factory. Today the members have other musical projects : Experience, Programme, Nonstop, Panti will, the Overnight Project, Kapla…”
The photo was probably taken for the LIFE magazine issue of November 21, 1969. See it’s cover – also by Rougier – here. More pictures by Michael Rougier over at LIFE photo archive hosted by Gogle
Mondorama 2000 is a blog featuring a “sélection d’illustrations épatantes et en couleur tirées d’encyclopédie pour la jeunesse des Trente Glorieuses (1945-1975)”
More about this film : IMDb, Wikipedia, Apple trailers (HD), Daniel Johnston official site.
The song playing is titled “True Love Will Find You In The End” from the album 1990. Lyrics here.
