I hope all of you enjoy this blog with two categories (Cinema and documentaries information and a second one with different tasks for English classes). You will be able to see interesting cinema reviews about films related to different topics, videos, documentaries,songs, texts…
What do you think about the images and the lyrics?
The last Living Rose
Goddam’ Europeans! Take me back to beautiful England
And the grey damp filthiness of ages and battered books
And fog rolling down behind the mountains
And on the graveyards and dead sea-captains
Let me walk through the stinking alleys
To the music of drunken beatings
Past the Thames River, glistening like gold
Hastily sold for nothing
Let me watch night fall on the river
The moon rise up and turn to silver
The sky move, the ocean shimmer
The hedge shake, the last living rose quiver
See some of the following posts in this section (especially the three first ones) to have examples of what you are supposed to look for in order to do your presentation (it will last about three minutes). You can choose some of the posts on this page or any other one you can find (send the information about them in advance to you teacher).
Read the definition of Flash Mob below and give your opinion about this kind of protest/ mobilization /performance…¿Do you think these kinds of actions are effective? ¿Why?. Talk and send your opinions about this matter.
A flash mob (or flashmob)[1] is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.[2][3] Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The term is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts, that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals.[6][10][11]
*Flashmob, translated as “multitud instantánea” (flash: destello, ráfaga; mob: multitud), is an organiced action.
Leave your commentaries about this picture and send any other pictures or news you find interesting from the internet to be commented by your partners.
You can read a bit more about this picture in the following lines.
*‘Fuck off Harrods’ done by a disgruntled employee, fired by Harrods from his job as the toy department’s Father Christmas, took revenge last night in spectacular style.
Gaining access to a maintenance control room, Lloyd Hudson, 35, from Ilford, Essex, was able to locate the chart and corresponding switches for Harrods’ 10,000 external lights.
Barracading himself in, Hudson disabled the correct lights until he could spell out his feelings to Harrods bosses and Christmas shoppers alike. He was removed by security guards after an hour-long stand-off, then handed over to police.
“He had drunk the best part of two bottles of whisky,” said a spokesperson for the iconic London store, “and it’s that kind of behaviour that got him the sack in the first place.” Hudson has since been released on police bail.
Knightsbridge visitors were stunned.
Many people are stunned by this guy's ability to put on different accents from all over the world while speaking the English language. The accents range from posh British to Chinese and are not meant to mock any cultures.
The guy's imitable of some accents are spot on, while others are a little more stereotypical and slightly overdone. But it is entertaining to see an Englishman attempt 24 international accents, especially the Asian ones. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/01/kid-demonstrates-eng.html
Try to read the curious lyrics of the songs as an example of what you will do later on: to work in groups and create your own lyrics in English for a future song.
THE COMPLAINTS CHOIR OF BIRMINGHAM
In May 2005 we invited people of Birmingham to complain about anything they want and sing their complaints out together with fellow complainers. The project was open to everybody – no singing skills required. Many people sent in their complaints – about Birmingham, about other people, about world issues and most of all: about themselves. Fifteen people finally signed up to the project, who had the courage to take responsibility for their complaints. The Participants transformed the complaints into an impressive choir song during a two-week complaints workshop with the help of local musician Mike Hurley.
The complaints collected to the song vary from small daily irritations to global issues. Anything that truly annoys people is useful material for the Complaints Choir. In Birmingham people complained for example about unfriendly bus drivers, dead bananas and slow computers.
You can find information about the rest of the chorus in :http://www.complaintschoir.org/choirs.html
Helsinki Complaints Chorus (lyrics)
You can’t get rich by working, and love doesn’t last forever. In the public sauna they never ask if it’s ok to throw water. Old forests are cut down and turned into toilet paper. And still all the toilets are always out of paper. Why products on sale drive the people crazy? In the middle of Helsinki they built another shopping hell. My neighbour spies on me through the peephole whenever I come home with guests, and he always arrives too early for his sauna turn.
We always lose to Sweden in hockey and Eurovision. Christmas season starts earlier every year. Why do people never agree with me? Jobs go to China, tramline 3 smells of pee.
It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair!
Why is the Metre Pizza only half a metre long? And why is the cord of the vacuum cleaner too short – just like the summer. Going to work every morning, then home at night, eventually you lose your mind. The battery on my mobile is always going flat, and all ring tones are just as irritating.
Ring tones are all irritating. Ring tones are all irritating. Ring tones are all irritating. Ring tones…(Sorry, I’m in a bad spot. Call me later.)
When you buy furniture, all you get is a pile of boards. Tissues are too rough and I can never find them when I need to snueeze. My tights slip when I’m walking. There is alway a tall man in front of me. At work they pat me on the shoulder, then stab me in the back.
My dreams are boring. Reference numbers are too long.Women are still paid less than men. Bullshitters get on too well in life. The daily paper is too thick. Why always me?
It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair!
The queue for the dentist is over six months long, after waiting for so long the whole tooth must be pulled out. Nice shirts get discoloured in the wash, but ugly shirts never do. People have no time for Fair Trade goods, but still rush to where they grow. I can’t escape the headlines of the tabloids. The weather’s always foul. I don’t get laid enough…(And this is Finnish language is bloody difficult to learn.
We always lose to Sweden in hockey and Eurovision. Christmas season starts earlier every year. Why do people never agree with me? Jobs go to China, tramline 3 smells of pee.
My flat is tiny yet it eats all my money. So I’m left nothing to save the world with. People only take a stand in sms-forums. Idiots don’t know which side to stand on the escalator. My husband snores too loud and he walks too slowly, and only washes his hockey-shirts – And my wife always complains!
It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair!
Evenings wasted hiding from the TV license inspector because I don’t want to pay for sports and reality tv. The employment agency only needs Java programmers. Old people are fed with tranquilisers so they won’t complain. My friend likes his mobile phone more than he likes me. Our ancestors could have picked a sunnier place to be.
My dreams are boring. Reference numbers are too long.Women are still paid less than men. Bullshitters get on too well in life. The daily paper is too thick. Why always me?
It’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s not fair – it’s not fair!
Documentaries:
China Blue
A clandestinely shot, deep-access account of how the clothes we buy are actually made.
88 minutes
Directed by Micha X. Peled
Produced by Teddy Bear Films
English with portuguese subt (possibility of using English subt) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5VG-pA8aE CHINA BLUES:
Like no other film before, China Blue is a powerful and poignant journey into the harsh world of sweatshop workers. Shot clandestinely, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retailers don’t want us to see: how the clothes we buy are actually made.
Following a pair of denim jeans from birth to sale, China Blue links the power of the U.S. consumer market to the daily lives of a Chinese factory owner and two teenaged female factory workers. Filmed both in the factory and in the workers’ faraway village, this documentary provides a rare, human glimpse at China’s rapid transformation into a free market society.
China Blue is the second film in Micha X. Peled’s Globalization Trilogy. Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town focuses on consumption in the U.S., and China Blue investigates the manufacturing of the clothes we all consume. Bitter Seeds looks at the raw materials. It goes to India and follows the farmers growing the cotton exported to China’s garment factories to be used for the clothes sold in the West. Each film explores a deeper layer of the production-consumption chain.
* Planned obsolescence
Sometimes marketers deliberately introduce obsolescence into their product strategy, with the objective of generating long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases. One example might be producing an appliance which is deliberately designed to wear out within five years of its purchase, pushing consumers to replace it within five years.
After watching this documentary (in several languages and with subtitles in Spanish ),we will start a debate about the different matters you can find in it.
The Stuff Story (with English and Chinesse subtitles)
CHINA BLUE (Documentary)
CHINA BLUE, a fascinating investigation of the denim industry in China that puts a very human face on globalization. [Director Micha X.] Peled introduces us to both the staff and the boss at the Lifeng Clothes Co. Ltd. where workers take the wage cuts so name brands can buy cheap (Source: Whyte 2005 np link). http://www.followthethings.com/chinablue.shtml
Kenneth Bancroft Clark (July 14, 1914 – May 1, 2005) and Mamie Phipps Clark (October 18, 1917 – August 11, 1983)[1] were African-American psychologists who as a married team conducted important research among children and were active in the Civil Rights Movement. They founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem . Kenneth Clark also was an educator and first Black president of the American Psychological Association. They were known for their 1940s experiments using dolls to study children’s attitudes about race. The Clarks testified as expert witnesses in Briggs v. Elliott, one of the cases rolled into Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Clarks’ work contributed to the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in which it determined that de jure racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the Brown v. Board opinion, “To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone”. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Kenneth Clark on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
Source: Wikipedia
A conversation about race
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Hello! I hope this time you enjoy the video Strangers. We will work on it during our lessons this week. I hope you think and reflect about it.
Multimedia production by journalist/videographer Elles van Gelder & photojournalist Ilvy Njiokiktjien about the right-wing organization Kommandokorps in South Africa. White South African teens wrestle with an uncertain identity. An extreme right-wing group is teaching young Afrikaners to eschew Nelson Mandela’s vision of a multicultural rainbow nation. The fringe group Kommandokorps, led by old-apartheid leader Franz Jooste, organizes camps in school holidays where Afrikaner teenagers learn to defend themselves against crime in South Africa. But that’s not all. They learn they are their own people – not South Africans but Afrikaners – that shouldn’t integrate in the new democratic South Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSLyEPeWjNk One of the songs sung by Senead O’connor (the song belongs to Bob Marley,WAR) is also about racism. What do you think about these ways of fighting against racism? What happens at the end of Senead’s concert?. In the song war you can follow the subtitles in Spanish. She changes some of the words for the sentece “child abuse”. What do you think about this way of criticism?
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early-to-mid 19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.[2] The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives.[3] Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas.[4] An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763–83), existed from the late 17th century until Florida became a United States territory in 1821 (and ending the safe haven for escaped slaves was the main reason it changed nationality).[5] However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s, and reached its height between 1850 and 1860.[6] One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the “Railroad”.[6]
British North America (present-day Canada), where slavery was prohibited, was a popular destination, as its long border gave many points of access. Most former slaves settled in Ontario. More than 30,000 people were said to have escaped there via the network during its 20-year peak period,[7] although U.S. Census figures account for only 6,000.[8] Numerous fugitives’ stories are documented in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, an abolitionist who then headed the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.[9] RIDING the Railroad lyrics song Follow the Drinking Gourd
Journey To Freedom (documentary about …two slavery stories from this century sXXI) Journey to Freedom is a documentary that brings to life the startling similarities between historic slavery and human trafficking, inspiring today’s freedom fighters. Produced by the National Underground Freedom Center, with support from US State Dept and Google
Eye-Opening Documentaries about Human Trafficking Call+Response (film)(for adults) I’m not usually one for hyperbole, but I’m sure the 27 million people living in slavery right now might forgive a little drama. Call+Response is a wonderfully entertaining and enlightening film about the plight of modern-day slaves, from child soldiers in Uganda to child sex workers here in the U.S. It includes musical performances by Moby, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Switchfoot, Rocco DeLuca, Justin Dillon, Talib Kweli, Emmanuel Jal and Five for Fighting—and Dr. Cornal West steals the show. —Josh Jackson
Bangkok-based Patima Tungpuchayakul has committed her life to rescuing and returning home men from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian nations who have been sold to Thai fishing companies by human traffickers. Once at sea, these captive men go months, even years, without setting foot on land, earning little to no pay, trapped in a modern form of slavery on the boats and forced to endure horrific and often deadly conditions. Patima and her small team of activists risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find these men, fight for their emancipation and seek justice for them. In the face of illness, death threats, corruption, and complacency, Patima’s fearless determination reveals stories of criminal conspiracy at the heart of the global seafood industry, as she calls on her nation and the world to wake up and take action.
“You and I have to work together to tell this story. If this is going to change, it’s going to take all of us.” – Patima Tungpuchayakul, film subject, Ghost Fleet
Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn’t belong to her. She is a female orang-utan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. …
Questions to think about the film:
1.Do you agree in doing something to: a) save the orangutan and other wild life
b) save more paper / wood / and food or cosmetics which use palm oil
If your answer is yes. Why would you do it?
3.Do you know anything about the investments many banks make in industries which give a big profit such us the ones you have read about in the official page of the film (greenthefilm.com ), and about the “banca ética”
4.How could you, your class or the school colaborate with this “enviromental matters”?
HOME (in English)
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SHOCK DOCTRINE (a really interesting talk about environment …)
It will be used the VD we have with subtitles as it is not possible to find it in Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
