Pleasing Plastic

Continuation of pottery trade in Manipur is threatened by globalising forces. ;Achungmei, our CC from Manipur, is sad to observe the slow disappearance of some of the beautiful crafts produced in her community, such as the handmade clay pots she shows in her video today. Having grown up surrounded by these pots in her house, she calls attention not only to their replacement by cheaper and less aesthetically pleasing plastic products but also to the economic insecurity faced by the potters who make them.
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Rumbula's Echo WORK IN PROGRESS 33min. румбула

Breaking new ground, Rumbula's Echo is the first documentary about a large mass shooting of the Holocaust. Eyewitnesses tell how, in late 1941, 25,000 Jews were murdered in two days at Rumbula Forest -- the second largest such mass shooting of WWII. Set within the broader story of the Holocaust in Latvia, viewers see and hear how 98% of Latvian Jews trapped in the country were killed, and how 2% survived.
Amid horror and death, seven uplifting personal stories of survival, rescue and reunion emerge in Rumbula's Echo. These dramatically illuminate the power of individual decisions and, for the first time in film, introduce an overlooked cost of genocide to society.
For more information, visit the film's official website: www.rumbulasecho.org
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http://www.ein-hod.net/2010/02/k.html

«Мелодии Рижского гетто».

Potters Of Manipur Ursula Graham Bower (1939)

Culture and Crafts in Manipur, Northeast India
by Ursula Graham Bower (1939)
"Are wa ittai nan dai?" (What on earth is that?) cried a startled Japanese officer as a burst of elephant-gun fire whistled past his ears and a troop of half-naked Nagas leaped out of the bushes. He found out, but too late. He and his jungle patrol were wiped out. But last week other Japs who had survived the fight in northern Burma knew more about the Naga raiders and their leader. The half-naked tribesmen from northeastern India were directed by a white woman: pert, pretty Ursula Graham-Bower, 30, an archeology student who looks like a cinemactress.
In 1939 Miss Graham-Bower went out from England to India "to putter about with a few cameras and do a bit of medical work, maybe write a book." She disappeared into the Assam hills to study the Nagas. These lithe-limbed warriors live in fortified hilltop villages, lead a somewhat humdrum existence punctuated by occasional raids to cut off their neighbors' heads, which they carry about in wicker baskets.

Miss Graham-Bower managed to keep her own head on, and presently won the friendship of the Naga chieftains. Now then people in the outside world got letters from her, exulting over the pictures she was taking of primitive dances and ceremonies. Some of the more pretentious Nagas wore a little apron in front, but most just wore bracelets. They cultivated little patches of cleared jungle for rice, and, like the South American Indians, used drugs to catch fish. They begged Miss Graham-Bower to name their babies. She named most of them Victoria Elizabeth.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791824,00.html

Once upon time, Manipur was surrounded by seven hillocks and water every where. Seven suns burned day and night. Atiya Kuru Shidaba and Ima Leimaran decided to create a world thus descended from heaven. Atiya Kuru Shidaba drained out water through a hole with a trident. Once settled, they had a child to fulfill their wishes. A voice from the heaven announced- Dig out some clay and make a pitcher out of it and offer prayers for seven days then your wish will be fulfilled. After seven days of prayer, a male child of golden colour was found by the couple. The child was christened Sanamahi, he later shot down six extra suns by his arrows and created various creatures dwelling on water, air and earth. Finally he created human being. Atiya Kuru Shidaba and Ima Leimaran Shidabi disappeared after completing their task. Ima Leimaran took several incarnations to carry out seven different tasks.`Panthoibi or Leima Leinaotabi, was among them, who created the first earthen-pot. Therefore, in the creation myth of Manipur, the earthen pot becomes the metaphor for the womb.

Manipuri pottery is unique in style and technique. Unlike in other parts of India, the craft is practised both by men and women. The potters of this area do not use a wheel and, instead, use the coiled method of making pots. The pots are functional and, more often than not, black in colour, a result of the process followed and of the smoke stains while firing. Manipuri pottery is made with a mixture of clay and powdered stone. After a thorough kneading, a large slab is rolled out and shaped into a cylinder. The cylinder is placed on a circular board, which, in turn, is placed on a stool. The potter then actually moves around the clay himself, shaping and forming the pot. The pot is supported from the inside with a rounded stone and beaten to the desired shape and thickness. Great dexterity is required as the internal pressure and external movement must be well co-ordinated to produce a perfect pot. The pot is usually finished by rubbing the surface with the reddish-brown seed of a wild creeper and finally with bees wax.

Walt Disney, Syphilis and Gonorrhea

As VD Attack Plan begins, we hear an air raid siren and an explosion as the letters “VD” flash on the screen. The letters “Attack Plan” are spelled out with machine gun fire. A narrator announces: “This is a war story. It could be anywhere in the world.

It could involve anyone. It could only take place within the human body.”
The next scene is of an animated germ wearing a spiked Kaiser helmet, the Sergeant (played by Keenan Wynn – perhaps best known for his role as Colonel ‘Bat’ Guano in Dr. Strangelove) briefing his troops of the Contagion Corps. The troops are syphilis and gonorrhea germs that wear berets with their initials on them (‘S’ and ‘G’).
via othercinema.com

נופים חרוכים : נחמה לבנדל

נופים חרוכים : נחמה לבנדל חוזרת אל השריפה בכרמל בתערוכה חדשה
 נופים חרוכים"- תערוכת ציורים חדשה של נחמה לבנדל, תושבת עין הוד, בעקבות השריפה הגדולה בכרמל, שנעצרה על
 סף ביתה

תערוכת עבודות של האמנית נחמה לבנדל תושבת עין הוד. בתערוכה מוצגות כ 15 עבודות שנעשו בעקבות שריפת הענק בכרמל. בימי השריפה,סרבו בני הזוג לבנדל – בלוך להתפנות מביתם, ומנעו מהלהבות להכנס לבית . האש פסחה על הבית, אך משמאלם ומימינם האש כילתה הכל .

בתקופה שלאחר מכן, שבתו מאמנות . לאחר כחודשיים, החלה נחמה לצייר בעקבות הארועים. נחמה לבנדל חיה עם בן זוגה, האמן נדב בלוך. יחד עבדו והציגו בארצות שונות כגון איטליה ספרד גרמניה מכסיקו סקוטלנד מונטנגרו מקדוניה קוסובו אלבניה ועוד
על העבודות: "החלתי לעבוד על סדרת נופים של הארץ אותה אני כל כך אוהבת ,תוך כדי העבודה פרצה השריפה. לאחר שניסינו להגן על הבית נאלצנו להתפנות אל מתחם הסטודיו , האש איימה על המקום ,לקחתי איתי את העבודות האחרונות שעבדתי עליהן ועזבתי.

כשהאש שכחה חזרתי אל הסטודיו ,האיזור כולו היה מכוסה עשן ואפר מחניק. מאוחר יותר,כשמצאתי את הכוחות לעבוד, ניסיתי לחזור לאותה נקודת מבט בה עזבתי, רציתי לשוב אל זכרון של נופים שידעתי ואהבתי.זכרון הטשטש ואת מקומו תפסה מציאות כהה ונופים חרוכים

בטכניקה המשלבת עבודת צבע,שעווה, שרידי עצים,חם ,אש ואלמנטים שונים מהשריפה על גבי ספרים משומשים המגוללים את סיפורי עם ישראל בארצו נרקמה סדרת נופים, ספק קיימים, ספק נמוגו, חצי שנה אחרי ממבט אישי אל הנוף הישראלי החרוך
 תערוכה חדשה בגלריה טובה אוסמן, רחוב בן יהודה 100, תל אביב
http://www.thepulse.co.il/index.php/201107177752/q-q.html

Lisa singing before The Fire in Ein Hod ... לפני השריפה בעין הוד

Niv Horovitz made this clip few weeks before his and our houses in Ein Hod burned in Carmel Fire
עין הוד לפני השריפה בעין הוד
ליסה ורכובסקי

Don Hollis from East Texas

Don Hollis is a potter in East Texas who uses techniques akin to those used by early Native Americans. He collects and processes his own clay, does not use a wheel, and his process is as green as possible..

The essence of Don Hollis' unique art pottery is the wild clay body made from local Eocene clays. He collects clay from a creek bank on his property or wherever it's found at the surface and offered. The clay is dried, screened, and prepared in small batches yielding enough for one or two pieces at a time. Don forms his pottery with hand building methods such as pinch, coil, and slab. During the drying stage, the pieces are burnished with a smooth flint stone to give the surface a distinctive shine. The pottery is pit fired using wood gathered from the woods around his studio. Dried native plants and select organics added for color, as well as the fire clouds added by Mother Nature during firing, give each piece its final unique character.

Ghost made in Japan ?

Remember the passionate pottery wheel scene between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the 1990 film Ghost. Now, 20 years later, Korean heartthrob Song Seung-heon and Japanese sweetheart Nanako Matsushima have reenacted the "Unchained Melody" moment.

"The remake reenacts some of the most touching scenes in the original, including the pottery-making scene. I hope viewers can feel a pang of nostalgia, thinking 'oh there was that kind of scene', while watching the movie", Song told reporters in Seoul, Tuesday, following a press preview.
The Korea-Japan-United States joint production",Ghost : In Your Arms Again", is about an undying love affair between a Korean pottery artist (Song) and Japanese businesswoman (Matsushima) ― even death does not come between the inseparable couple.
But a twist in the new film, directed by Tarô Ohtani, is that the heroine, rather than the hero, reappears before her lover as a ghost after an untimely death.
Link